Sermon on Luke 15

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(The following is a text of a sermon I gave at Oasis Christian Fellowship in September 2017, largely inspired by two sermons given by Glen Scrivener at All Souls Eastbourne that summer).

1.          Losing something valuable

How often do you lose something?  Weekly?  …Daily? … And when was the last time you invited us all around to your place to rejoice when you’ve found it?!

Getting the neighbours round to celebrate is a very odd response to finding something you lost!  But Jesus, here, says:

·         “doesn’t he call his friends and neighbours together and say, ‘rejoice with me!’?”, and

·         “doesn’t she call her friends and neighbours together and say, ‘rejoice with me!’?”

“Doesn’t he…”; “doesn’t she…” – it’s as if his audience would totally accept this odd response as normal, so there must have been some common understanding about how incredibly valuable the sheep was to the shepherd, or the coin was to the woman.

2.          The Lost One

So, who or what do these incredibly valuable two lost items represent?

It’s really important to remember who Jesus is talking to at this point.  Verses 1-2 say He is with “tax collectors and sinners … Pharisees and the teachers of the law”.

Two key groups of very different types of people…:

- those who believe themselves to be:

- no good

- and reviled by society

- and those who believe themselves to be:

- very good

- and revered by society

The rebellious and the religious!

Jesus tells the first 2 of these parables to show both groups of people how they are both valuable, but both lost.

First, the sheep: a creature widely looked down upon as stupid, who has wilfully walked away from the shepherd.

Second, the coin: an inanimate object incapable of independent thought or action, and that can do nothing towards being found.

The sheep represents the tax collectors and sinners: thought of as having low worth in society, and therefore often separated from it.

The coin represents the Pharisees and teachers of the law: highly regarded in society, and therefore central to it.

Both groups of people, Jesus points out, are lost to Him - to Him, who is the good shepherd and the rightful owner of all creation.  But only one group seem to be aware that they are lost.  Look at verse 2, “the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, ‘This man welcomes sinners, and eats with them’” … as if only the Pharisees and teachers of the law were worthy dinner companions.

Jesus has responded to this exact same criticism by this exact same crowd once before, at a meal at Levi’s house (Luke 5:27-32):

“The Pharisees and teachers of the law… complained…: ‘why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?’

Jesus answered: ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

However, they still don’t seem to have identified with the sick, with their own need of healing.  So, this time, Jesus sets out to make it more clear to them, through the parable of the two sons.

3.          The prodigal son

So, first of all, we’re introduced to a father with two sons.

Under inheritance laws, each son would be given a share of the father’s property when the father died.  So, when the younger one demands his share of the estate before his father’s death, he is saying, unashamedly: “I wish you were dead.  You are dead to me.  Now give me what is yours”.  He doesn’t love his father, but lusts after what he can get out of him.

If you were a 1^st century lawyer or tax collector and heard this story, you might think the son deserves death.  Instead, in the parable, he is allowed to go off and see what life is really like without his father.  He finds out that, whilst it shimmers with enticing mystery from a distance, it is pig-swill close up, and he eventually reaches a point when he “comes to his senses”:

“‘When he came to his senses, he said, “How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death!  I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.  I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.”

Now, I have a question for you: is this repentance?  Is the younger son, here, repenting?

The son considers: his father’s provisions; his own needs; and what he would have to do in order to come back into his father’s house.  He realises that: there is no lack in his father’s household; that his own needs, if unsatisfied, will lead to death; and that he has given up his right to be his father’s son, so must return as a hired servant.

But so far, so self-serving!

Yet, he has, literally, turned around and walked back the other way, towards his father … isn’t that what we’re commonly told repentance means?

4.          Re-pent

I’d like to suggest a better definition for the word “repent”, and this is really important, and not just for this passage.

“To repent” is often defined as “to turn 180° around and start walking back the other way”.

I think there are three problems with this.

The first is that the biblical phrase “repent and turn” (Acts 3:19 … Acts 20:21 … Acts 26:20) would then mean “turn and turn”, which doesn’t make much sense!  (That said, the bible does repeat words for emphasis, so I wouldn’t seriously challenge this definition on that basis alone).

The second problem is that the Latin word for to “turn back” or to “turn around” translates to our English word “revert” - from “re”, meaning “back” or “again”, and “versare”, meaning “to turn”.  But the Latin word translated as “repent” comes from “pensare”, meaning “to weigh carefully”, “to think”, or “to realize”.  So, to “repent” actually means to “think again”, or to carefully weigh again our way of thinking.  (Getting right back to the original Greek word, “metanoia”, this also means “to change one’s thinking”).

Before we look at that any further, the third problem is the most important: how does this affect our understanding of God and the gospel?

Jesus tells us to “repent and believe” in order to be saved from God’s wrath on Judgement Day.  The apostle, Paul, later says this salvation comes through faith, “not by works, so that no one can boast”.  So, repenting and believing can’t involve anything we could take credit for – anything we could boast about.  But, if “repenting” meant “turning 180° around and walking back the other way”, we could boast that we were good enough to have chosen to do that.  So, this can’t be the right definition.

But what about my proposed definition?  Couldn’t we also boast that we were good enough to change our thinking?

The apostle, Paul, wrote: “The god of this age (that is, Satan) has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:4).  Now, if we’re blind to the light of the gospel, then we can’t see it … and if we can’t see the light of the gospel, we can’t change our thinking in response to it.

So, who does take the credit for our change of thinking, our repentance?  Paul, again, wrote:

“What we have received is … the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us … The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, … they are discerned only through the Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 2:12)

So, without God’s Spirit, we are blind and consider the gospel foolishness, so need to repent, but cannot.  With God’s Spirit, we can see the light and discern the truth, and so – thanks to the Spirit - repent and believe.

5.          The Unrepentant Heart

So, back to the younger son – is his turning back from the pig-sty actually “repentance”?  What is his heart saying?

“How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death!  I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.  I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.”

His heart first says: “I want food, and I know where I can get it” – which is pretty much what his heart was saying when he demanded his inheritance: “I want something that will satisfy my lust for worldly pleasures, and I know how to get it”.

This is not repentance.

Then his heart says: “I need to get the one with food to give me the food – what can I say to him to make that happen?”

                “I have sinned against heaven and against you…”

In Exodus 10:16, the Pharaoh said to Moses and Aaron: “‘I have sinned against the Lord your God and against you” and said they could leave Egypt.  But it took fewer than 5 verses for him to change his mind again.

The parallel “I have sinned against heaven and against you” is not repentance either.

Finally, his heart says: “I don’t want to be his son, because I don’t love him”.  (The son didn’t love his father when he left; there’s no way he’s going to start genuinely loving him for who he is while they’re not in each other’s company).  He goes on: “But I don’t want to be his slave either, because I’ll still be beholden to him.  If I am a hired servant, I will get food, lodgings, and pay, and I can leave again when I want.”

This is not repentance either.

So, whilst he has turned around and gone back to his father’s house, he has not yet repented.  Let’s go back to the parable, and the son’s return.  What happened next must have thrown the son into some confusion.  He is prepared for, at best, a cold reception, an assigning to quarters, and a handing over to a manager to be given his orders.  Instead, and “while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms round him and kissed him.”

… Slightly disconcerting, given how the son had treated him; still, the boy had his speech ready, so he launches into it:

“Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.  I am no longer worthy to be called your son.”

But, before he can finish what he’d planned to say, his father has called his servants - not to give the son his marching orders, but…:

· to clothe him in his father’s “best robe”, covering his pig-sty stinking shame;
· to put his father’s “ring on his finger”, taking him back as his son;

· and to put “sandals on his feet”, distinguishing him from the hired servants.

He doesn’t stop there: kill the precious “fattened calf” - reserved for special, whole-village festivities - and we shall celebrate the return of the boy, and his restoration as son.

… This is where the son’s repentance truly begins, when he sees, hears, feels, and tastes his father’s love for him, even after a lifetime of his own cold-heartedness towards his father.

6.          Rejoicing

I wonder what those celebrations would have looked like?  Lots of people feasting on the fattened calf, certainly – but what else?

                                                                      

Back in verse 10, Jesus says: “I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.’”  Do you see who is rejoicing here?

“There is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God”.  Who are the “angels of God” in the presence of?

The angels of God … are in the presence of God!  It is God, himself, who is rejoicing!

What does that look like – God rejoicing?  Well, a glimpse has been given back in Zephaniah 3:17:

“The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves.  He will take great delight in you; in his love, he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.’”

This “Mighty Warrior” will open His mouth and throat and lungs and serenade us, His beloved.

When we lift our voices to sing praise and worship in honour of God, we are not doing a new thing, or an idea that we came up with – we are just responding to what God has been doing ever since He first saved us!

So, on that note (if you’ll pardon the pun), let’s sing a song to God now!  [Break to sing “There Is A New Song” or “Amazing Grace”]

7.          The Other Son

Now, remember, there were two sons, and there were two groups of people Jesus was talking to.  We’ve spent a lot of time on the younger son – the rebel who walked away from his family home, separating himself from his father.  But what about the elder son?

In the beginning of the story, both sons are given their share of the inheritance, revealing that the father is as good as dead to both of them.  But isn’t the elder son still dutifully serving his father?  He seems to think so: “Look!  All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders”  And yet this complaint also reveals something else about the elder sons actual, real relationship with his father – it is one of a slave, not a son.

He has not accepted all that he has been given by his father: “you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends”!  But, back in the beginning of this parable, the father “divided his property between them”.  All that was the father’s was divided between the sons.  When the younger son took off, all that was left behind belonged to the elder son … which included the fattened calf the younger son was, at that very moment, enjoying.

What’s more, the elder son had the added benefit of having all this and having his father still alive and well and living with him – a father who willingly gave his sons what they asked for despite the hatred he was shown, and the pain he must have felt as his younger son left home.  On top of all that, the father was still actively managing the estate, but now, of course, he was doing this for his elder son, as the estate was now in his name.

The elder son literally could not have been given anything more by his father.  And yet the elder son chose to see his father as a slave driver.  His mind had been blinded indeed.

8.          Two Sons

So, what about this elder son?  This is where it is helpful to remember to whom Jesus was telling these parables.

Remember?  “Tax collectors and sinners … Pharisees and the teachers of the law”?  He was addressing both.

The tax collectors and sinners were, collectively, the younger son.  They were the brash, rebellious types, who openly took the gifts of God and turned their backs on him, seeking to get as far away from him as possible.

But the Pharisees and teachers of the law were, collectively, the elder son.  They lived in the “house of God” but chose to see him as a slave-driver rather than a father, fostering a hatred for him in their hearts.

… And yet, how does the father respond to each of them?

To the younger son…:

· he “ran to his son, threw his arms round him and kissed him”;

· he put the best robe on him, a ring on his finger, and sandals on his feet;

· and he hosted a feast of his very best produce and celebrated.

To the elder son…:

· he “went out and pleaded with him”;

· then he reminded him of his own status as his son: “you are always with me, and everything I have is yours”;

· and finally – in contrast to the slave driver caricature - he revealed his fatherliness: “we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.”

9.          What then?

We are not told what happens next, but questions are left hanging.

Can you identify – in any parts of your life – with the younger son?  Are there parts of your life that you steal away from God?  Do you take his good gifts, and run away to squander them in the pig-sty?

And, do you think that He will not now take you back as His child?  Remember, He is filled with compassion for you; and He runs to you while you are still far off, thinking about what you might have to say to Him.

He has His own robe ready for you to wear before Him; for you - if on repenting you turn back to Him - are clothed in Christ.  There is no unclean stench of pig-sty shame to offend your Father.

What about with the elder son?  Can you identify – in any parts of your life – with him?  Are there parts of your life that you acknowledge are from God, but you take them grudgingly, carrying out tasks or jobs joylessly, and with no passion or interest – just doing them because you think you will get something from God in return?  Or do you strive to earn the love or respect of God – or others in the church – by your own merit?

Remember, He is your Father, who loves you like his Firstborn.  All He has is yours, and all He does is for you and on your account.  He is ready to feast with you any time you want.  And He longs to work side by side with you.  Don’t block Him out, and don’t think of Him as anything less than your father.

10.       The Morning After

Can you imagine the morning after this parable?

The repentant son gently wakes from the best sleep he’s had in months to the morning sun streaming through the curtains of his own bedroom, and the sound of his father, down in the kitchen, whistling some vaguely recognisable tune, slightly off key.

The smell of fresh coffee lures him out of bed and he realises he’s still in his father’s best robe.  He looks down at his finger, and sees his father’s ring at its base.

He goes downstairs and, seeing his father loading up a plate of eggs, he croaks: “Morning … Dad!”

His father turns to him and smiles: “Ah, there you are – just in time for brekkie!”  He puts the plate in front of his son: “I thought I’d let you sleep in a bit - last night was …”  He gets a little misty-eyed “…something else, wasn’t it?”

The son sits down: “Yes … I … Dad, I just want to say, again, that I’m really sorry for…” but his father interrupts him: “That is all in the past; there’s nothing more to be said - it’s a new day … now eat your eggs!”

After a little while of eating in silence together, the father says: “so, what do you want to do today?”

The son thinks for a while – about all that is now his, and about all the time he now has:

“I don’t know, Dad … what do you want to do today?”

…Let’s pray:  Our Father in heaven, help us to repent of our thinking of you as anything less than our Father – you, whose love we can only thinly imagine as we hear this parable.  Help us to live, today, in the knowledge that all that is yours is already ours, and that we have an eternity to enjoy your gifts with you.  My Father, what do you want to do today?  Amen.

Ten tens

Thanks to Pixabay

Is the number ten associated with the coming of Jesus and His salvation (and separation) of His people from their enemies?  ... Ten verses to ponder:

1.  Ten days into the month in which The Flood was to destroy his enemies, Noah entered the ark by which God saved him (Genesis 7:4-11)

2.  Ten generations on, Abraham was promised The Seed who would save, and his own sons manifest salvation and separation, with the banishing of Ishmael and blessing of Isaac (Genesis 17)

3.  Ten times faithless Israel “tempted” God in the wilderness, and died there, while Joshua and Caleb were invited into the promised land (Numbers 14:22)

4.  Ten “plagues” struck Egypt, the tenth being the death of the firstborn of God’s enemies, but life and freedom to the firstborn of God’s people (Exodus 11)

5.  Ten days into each new year, God’s people brought the Passover lamb into the home, remembering how the faithful were saved and the faithless were lost (Exodus 12)

6.  Ten days into each seventh month of the year, God’s people celebrated the Day of Atonement, when Jesus would die for the faithful and “cut off” the faithless (Leviticus 23:27-30)

7.  Ten commandments were given to “prove” Israel, and were placed in the ark under the mercy seat – the fearful “stood afar off”; the faithful “drew near … where God was” (Exodus 20 and 25)

8.  Ten days into the first month, God’s people entered the promised land, where the faithful would live and the faithless would be killed (Joshua 4:19)

9.  Ten virgins awaited The Bridegroom in Jesus’ parable, half of whom were welcomed, the other half shut out (Matthew 25)

10. Ten days of tribulation, symbolised by ten horns, will give way to Satan’s defeat and the ultimate separation of God’s people and their enemies (Daniel 7 and Revelation 2, 12, 13, 17)

It's about time...

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Time & History

Time, along with space, are as inherent to who God is as love, wisdom, joy, etc.

So, first, let's get some trivial philosophies out of the way:

1. God is not "outside time" (or space*), in the same way that He is not outside love, wisdom, joy, etc.  He does not need to go back and forth in time to check on things or change things.  His infinite power is such that what He says goes.


2. Regarding the idea that God is constrained by time, He is as constrained by His own time and space as He is by His own love, wisdom, joy, etc.**  For example, He was constrained by His love for the Jews (e.g. Hosea 11:7-9) and for the Gentiles (e.g. Ezekiel 20:21-22).
   

Hosea 11:7-9 - My people are determined to turn from me. Even though they call me God Most High, I will by no means exalt them. “How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? How can I treat you like Admah? How can I make you like Zeboyim? My heart is changed within me; all my compassion is aroused. I will not carry out my fierce anger, nor will I devastate Ephraim again. For I am God, and not a man — the Holy One among you. I will not come against their cities.

Ezekiel 20:21-23 - But the children rebelled against me: They did not follow my decrees, they were not careful to keep my laws, of which I said, “The person who obeys them will live by them,” and they desecrated my Sabbaths. So I said I would pour out my wrath on them and spend my anger against them in the wilderness. But I withheld my hand, and for the sake of my name I did what would keep it from being profaned in the eyes of the nations in whose sight I had brought them out.

So, that out of the way, let's get on with the fun stuff!


History In A Day

The overall history of the cosmos has been written into each day.  Not a day as defined by mankind, starting and finishing in the utter darkness of “midnight”, but rather by Genesis 1:

• Each day starts in the full light of the noon-day sun, representing the new creation before sin entered.

• When sin entered the world and Satan was given dominion over it, the light starts to be obscured through the afternoon and evening of the day, to the complete darkness of night.  As time passes, the memory of walking with God gradually diminishes, He is increasingly written out of history, science, etc. ... until we find ourselves in complete darkness.

• Complete darkness?  No, the moon reflects the light of the sun (giving enough light to actually see by, when not obscured by the world).  And the world was not left without witness, but has the church, whose light comes from the holy spirit.

• The darkness of night is progressively “conquered” by the dawning light of the morning, which continues to the end of the day, when it shines its brightest.  And Jesus will come again in glory, to save those being saved and banish to the outer darkness those who prefer the dark.  In the meantime, the gradual advance of the morning light mirrors the gradual (but inevitable) conformation of the church to the likeness of Jesus.

History In A Year

The overall history of the cosmos is also symbolised by one full year.  Again, not a year as defined by mankind, starting and finishing in the dark and cold of winter, but by Genesis 8 (and Psalm 74, etc.).

In Exodus 12, God defined “New Year”: "This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you." ... It was Spring - the season of new, resurrection life.

• The year starts in the bright, warm summer, with fully formed and flourishing life - as the plants, animals, and mankind were formed in the beginning;

• When sin entered the world, the light and warmth dimmed and cooled to the complete darkness and cold of winter.

• Complete darkness and cold?  No, short days in the otherwise long nights of winter give some light and warmth, and the hope of lengthening days to come.  And the world was not left without a witness... (see above).

• The darkness and cold of winter is progressively “conquered” by the approaching Spring, when plant shoots and baby animals appear – resurrection life – which continues to the height of summer again.

The Great Lights

This "solar year" is determined by the sun.  The sun, as the greater "Great Light" of Genesis 1, represents God as the source of light and, therefore, life.

At present, before Jesus comes again, we are in the night-time of the history of creation.  We see but dimly, depending on how much of the light of the moon is available to us.  The moon, as the lesser "Great Light" of Genesis 1, reflecting the light of the sun represents the church reflecting the glory of God.

The waxing and waning of the moon may be symbolic of the church's witness through history.  When not hidden by the Earth (the world), it fully reflects the sun's light; at other times, it is obscured by the very world it would otherwise enlighten.

So, the evening-and-morning of day and the 4 seasons of the year both tell the history of the cosmos, with the 7 days of the week focusing on the process of the creation, and the 12 months of the year on the activity of the church.

* By "space", I don't mean "Space" as in the parts of the cosmos outside of the Earth's atmosphere - I mean the concept of space.

** Note that this does not mean that He is constrained by mankind's concepts of time, space, love, wisdom, joy, etc.

What does "Praise" mean?

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 "Hallelujah!" ... "Praise God!" ... "Praise the Lord!" ... What are Christians talking about when they use the word 'praise'?

In Psalm 105 verses 1 and 2, the phrase "sing praise" is sandwiched in between "make known … what he has done" and "tell of … his wonderful acts" ... as if it's just part of a list of different ways of saying the same thing:

Give praise to the Lord, proclaim his name; make known among the nations what he has done.  Sing to him, sing praise to him; tell of all his wonderful acts!

The first couple of verses of the next Psalm imply that praise gives rise to thanks, as a consequence:

Praise the Lord.  Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures for ever.

Psalms 77-78 praise God and then explain that, in the praising, they are passing on the knowledge of, and faith in, God (Ps 77:13-20):

Your ways, God, are holy.

What god is as great as our God?

You are the God who performs miracles; you display your power among the peoples.

With your mighty arm you redeemed your people, the descendants of Jacob and Joseph. The waters saw you, God, the waters saw you and writhed; the very depths were convulsed. The clouds poured down water, the heavens resounded with thunder; your arrows flashed back and forth. Your thunder was heard in the whirlwind, your lightning lit up the world; the earth trembled and quaked. Your path led through the sea, your way through the mighty waters, though your footprints were not seen. You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

... in order that (Ps 78:6-8):

...the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children.  Then they would put their trust in God and would not forget his deeds but would keep his commands.  They would not be like their ancestors – a stubborn and rebellious generation, whose hearts were not loyal to God, whose spirits were not faithful to him

It seems that “praise” simply means ‘telling stories about’, and that for the purposes of creating thankful hearts and on-going legacies of knowing and trusting him.

So next time you're praising God to someone - telling them about some amazing thing God has done in your life - and they say "praise the Lord!" ... try to resist saying "I just did!"

Sermon on Luke 13

 

Reading: Luke 13 & Matthew 7:13-23

As D. L. Moody – the great 19th century preacher – has been quoted as saying: “If you have got a sermon that is good for anything at all, pass it around!”  I heard Glen Scrivener preach this recently and want to share it.

A church in Eastbourne recently did a survey of people’s objections to Christianity – some of these ran like this:

Christianity teaches us that eternal torment awaits those who question God's infinite love. This is so obviously paradoxical and hypocritical it's almost laughable. I would laugh but this pathetic nonsense is taught to innocent credulous children and poisons their mind. It's a form of child abuse, and it makes the world a worse place to live in.

What happens to people from all other religions if the only way to God is through Jesus? Eternal damnation? this does not seem to fit with the message of love and forgiveness that Jesus spoke of?

I have a strong feeling that there is one God and that all religions are ultimately worshipping different interpretations of that God. How can the only way to God be through JC and what happens to all those other Hindus/ Muslims/ Sikhs. Eternal damnation?

Over 4000 religions exist and most believers are not Christian. If all these people won't find a Christian God does God effectively condemn them all to hell in the vain hope they are converted by a Christian minority? Why are the Christians special? Or, if non-Christian believers can go to heaven then why the determination that we all be Christian?

 

Jesus spoke about hell quite a lot.  But, fascinatingly, the people Jesus challenges most with hell are the religious, the respectable, the insiders, those confident of their own righteousness.

To those who are outsiders, who don’t claim to be religious, who know that they have failure in their lives – Jesus’ message is overwhelmingly one of love, mercy and welcome.

It is a bit of a generalisation: Jesus does speak about hell to others too, but it is primarily to the strong and the self-confident, Jesus often speaks of hell.

That’s interesting isn’t it?  How did Jesus speak of hell?  Jesus insisted that we ALL face up to the reality of it.  But He didn’t use it to scare religion INTO people.  Most often He used it ON the religious to scare SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS out of them.  If you’re here this morning and you feel Christians have spoken of hell self-righteously and used it as a stick to beat you with, I’m sorry about that. I’m not trying to beat you with a stick this morning, Kew Baptist is not trying to beat you with a stick this morning.  Actually we’re ALL in this together.  Because we ALL know hell, actually.  We all know hell on earth, don’t we?

Every religion has this kind of category – a category for things that are not as they should be: there is relationship breakdown, financial breakdown, emotional breakdown, physical breakdown, spiritual breakdown and these can be enslaving realities we get stuck in.  We often speak of these things as hell, as torment, as a pit of despair.  The religions of the world have a category for this, but even if you’re not religious, you’ve got a category for this, don’t you?

As Glen queued at ASDA one day, he noticed how the front page of a popular women’s magazine.  Fascinating, glossy mag, beautiful people on the front, but the headlines read:

Hidden Torment … dressing my toddler as a hooker ruined our lives … fear keeps me slim … Danielle’s marriage crisis … Posh’s new heartache: “I can’t bear such distance between us” … I’ve not been happy for a while … Cheryl’s lonely despair: “I’m so tired of living like this.”

Torment, ruined lives, fear, marriage crisis, heartache, unhappiness, loneliness, despair - Dante himself could not have painted a clearer picture of the inferno!  And yet, the images – the photographs – adorning the front cover of the magazine were of beautiful people, beautiful skin, beautiful bodies, beautiful clothes.  Beauty on the outside, hidden torment on the inside.

What a picture of the world!

You might be religious, here this morning, so you’ll have a category for evil, for hell, for the pit, or you might not be religious at all this morning – you don’t really believe in cosmic good and evil and heaven and hell – but you’ve felt it, right?  Sometimes it’s a hell of a life; sometimes it’s hell on earth; sometimes it’s living hell.

And the Bible says “Yeah. Hell is not simply a time and a place – down there, later on. There is hell here and now and it needs sorting out here and now because everyone lives forever – that’s the assurance that Jesus’ resurrection gives us, everyone lives forever – therefore we all need this hell thing nipped in the bud before it grows into full flower and we’re stuck in full-blown, ongoing, never-get-out hell.

The good news of Jesus is – you don’t have to be stuck in it – nobody anywhere needs to be stuck in it.  He has come to get us out – to save the WORLD.

Here is the story according to the Bible:

In the beginning there was ONLY love, ONLY joy, ONLY goodness. In the beginning there was a Father loving His Son in the joy of the Holy Spirit.  The technical word is Trinity, but what it means is: God IS love.  A Father loving His Son (Jesus) in the joy of the Holy Spirit.  This God IS LOVE, this God IS LIGHT and in this God there is no darkness at all.  And from the overflow of love, this God creates and humanity is specially made FOR this God of love.

There’s no anger, no wrath, no torment, … no hell here.

But there came a time when humanity turned FROM the God of love. We were made FOR the light but instead we have turned FROM the light.  Christians call this the FALL.  There has been a fall from a great height.

If you’re worried about whether you’re going to fall into the pit, the Bible says – you’re too late.  A decisive fall has already happened.

You see we’ve turned from a great LIGHT and - by the nature of the case - that brings darkness into our lives.  It just does.  We’ve spurned a great LOVE and - by the nature of the case - that brings hatred (which we may euphemise as “disorder”) into our lives (broken relationships, heartache).  We’re cut off from the source of LIFE and - by the nature of the case - that brings death into our lives.  Our turn from God cannot fail to bring darkness, disorder and death into our lives, that’s the nature of our pit.

Now, as this happens, God is not dispassionate about it.  He doesn’t watch us do this in bemused detachment.  He is angry at us for thwarting, distorting and destroying His love.  The Bible speaks of the “wrath of God” against the world in its rebellion.

And at that point, our first objection comes up and says: God’s anger and God’s love are paradoxical, they don’t fit together.  But that’s not true is it?  Anger and love are not opposites are they?

Let’s do a thought experiment: think of the person you love the MOST in the world.

Now think of someone harming them.  If that doesn’t get you angry on some level, I begin to question your love.  Love and anger are not opposites.  Anger is the response OF LOVE to things that thwart and distort and destroy that love.  Love will lead to anger if that love is spurned.  I’m sure that if we asked for testimonies from parents right now about children going off the rails, we’d hear it loud and clear: I got mad as hell BECAUSE I loved them so much.

God is angry at a human race turned from Him – but NOT because He’s not loving, but because He IS loving and He wants something so much better for us all.  The anger is only there because there is a love that is even older and deeper and stronger.

But here we are, having turned from the light and love and life of God we are in a pit of darkness, disorder and death.  And we’re under condemnation – living out this disordered existence NOW.  John 3 and Romans 1 tell us that this hell of a life is upon us ALREADY.  This is the trailer for the full length feature film – a film that you don’t want to see – but it’s happening NOW.

In that sense hell is just another name for our disconnection from God - when Jesus described hell he spoke in terms of disconnection: it’s outer darkness; it’s being shut out of a great feast; it’s a place of weeping and wailing and the angry gnashing of teeth.  It’s the disconnection we all feel now … but if it's not sorted out it will continue unravelling forever because the Bible says we all go on forever.  You might want to research that for yourself in the Bible – this idea that we all go on forever – but it raises the stakes, doesn’t it.  Don’t you just want to nip this thing in the bud, before it flowers into an eternal thing?

And you sit there and think: that’s horrible; I hate the sound of that.  And I want to reassure you: God does too.  In a dozen different places in the Bible, God repeatedly insists that He doesn’t want anyone to go there.  That’s WHY Jesus enters into our pit.  John 3:16 says: "for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." – do you hear that ‘disconnection’ language: ‘shall not perish’.

The Son of God enters our hell, to give us His heaven for free.  At Christmas, the One eternally CONNECTED into God’s Life and Love gets connected to OUR LIFE.  On the cross, on Good Friday, He takes our HELL IN FULL.  Then on Easter Sunday He bursts through the Pit of Despair and out the other side.  And He says to the world – “Come to Me.  You don’t need to be disconnected any more.  GET CONNECTED TO ME.”  Because THAT’S what eternal life is.  Hell is disconnection, eternal life is RE-CONNECTION.

The night before Jesus dies, He says “This is eternal life: Knowing my Father through knowing Me.” (John 17:3).  Eternal life IS when the SON OF GOD connects you.

We don’t often think like that.  Often we think of Jesus and eternal life as very different things; we can often think of eternal life as some faraway paradise of spiritual novocaine, and of Jesus as just this first century inventor of a religion.

But if do we think like that, the Christian position is nuts.  What does little Jesus have to do with eternal life and paradise and God.  If Jesus is this narrow gateway to this other expansive thing called eternal life, it sounds crazy.

But Christians don’t think Jesus is narrow at all!  We don’t think He simply invented a religion, we think He invented the universe – of COURSE He’s the way to have true life.

If you're sitting there thinking Christianity is NARROW - I'd encourage you to consider: it's only as narrow as Jesus is.  And how narrow is Jesus?  I'd urge you to pick up a John's Gospel (the fourth biography of Jesus in the New Testament) and just see whether Christians are narrow or MAYBE whether Jesus is cosmic.  John begins by telling us Jesus created the universe, He is the true Light that gives Life to everyone, He is the true Light that enlightens everyone.  Jesus is cosmic.

Now if that's not true then you can dismiss the whole of Christianity, not just as narrow but as a pack of lies.

But if it is true then of course Jesus is the Source of True Life for the whole world.  But it all rests on the identity of Jesus.  Maybe Christianity isn't narrow. Maybe Jesus is Cosmic. Pick up a John's Gospel and ask yourself that question.

But, now you might be thinking: what about all the other religions?  Because other faiths do not have this view of Jesus, they don’t have this view of God and eternal life either.  What do we make of these other religions?

Well one popular way of thinking of them is as paths up a mountain.  On this view – the different religions are different approaches to God and eternal life, considered to be the “top” of the mountain, and each religion is a different path, with its own obstacles to get over, that ultimately gets to the top in its own different way.  Is that how to think about “other faiths”?

It’s a really popular understanding, but there are lots of reasons it can’t be right - here’s just one: there is no mountain.  There really isn’t!  World religions just DON’T share a basically similar understanding of the world, of the afterlife, of God.  No-one can even agree on what a religion IS.  Let me show you by doing some very basic comparative religion studies.

 

The Top 5 beliefs in the world are Christianity (with 2.1 billion adherents), Islam (1.6 billion), Secular/Nonreligious/Agnostic/Atheist – sometimes called “Unaffiliated” - (1.1 billion), Hinduism (1 billion), and Buddhism (500 million).  Together, this top 5 account for roughly 6.3 billion out of the world’s population of 7 billion.  90% of us fall into one of these categories.  So let’s ask how these top 5 think of God...

1. Christianity: A Father loving his Son in the unity of the Holy Spirit;

2. Islam: Every Muslim will tell you, Islam is utterly anti-trinitarian - “Say not Three” is a key verse in the Koran (for those who know their Koran, Sura 4:169). Allah is alone. He does not have children, nor is he a child. Islam is utterly anti-Trinitarian;

3. Unaffiliated: Don't believe in God;

4. Hinduism: isn’t actually strictly one unified faith; it embraces monotheism, polytheism, panentheism, pantheism and even atheism. Most say that Brahman is an impersonal deity who transcends the thousands of avatars and lesser deities beneath;

5. Buddhism: Buddhism is nontheistic - probably most adherents are atheists.

 

These are MASSIVELY different understandings of God.  They don’t even agree what religion is, let alone ‘god’.

These are not paths up the same mountain.  It’s like each one is its own mountain and, as you start to climb up one peak, you naturally move further away from all of the others. That's just the nature of the case. These visions of the world are very different and they cannot all be right.

Let's ask another question, let’s think about the future hope held out in these faiths: what is the good future we can hope for?

1. Christianity: This world – these heavens and this earth - renewed and put right;

2. Islam: An unearthly paradise;

3. Unaffiliated: DEATH - my death, the death of the sun, the heat death of the universe;

4. Hinduism:  Moksha: “Release” from the “samsara” - the endless cycle of birth and rebirth;

5. Buddhism: nirvana – a similar idea – “nirvana” means being blown out like a candle. At that point we achieve oneness with the cosmos, like a drop of water dissolving in the ocean.

 

How about: how do you get this future?

1. Christianity: The Son of God saves us purely because of His own kindness and mercy.  So, according to the Bible, "climbing up a mountain" is the most heretical picture of salvation: the Bible’s picture of salvation is Jesus DESCENDING into our dark valley.  That’s what it’s all about – HIM not us, and it’s utterly different to every other faith;

2. Islam: The good Muslim might be rewarded with Paradise.  5 Pillars: Confession of faith, Alms giving, Prayer, Fasting, Pilgrimage. There’s no category of “salvation” in Islam, they don’t think in those terms.  Allah doesn’t save sinners, he rewards good Muslims.  And that’s actually how every other man-made religion works;

3. Unaffiliated: It is irrelevant what you do - everyone perishes;

4. Hinduism: Karma  - your deeds. If you put good out, good will come back to you. If you put out bad, bad will come back to you. It’s down to you;

5. Buddhism: Karma.

 

Can you count on the mercy of your Judge?

1. Christianity: Yes – the Judge is one who was judged FOR YOU. And He has already taken everything coming to you. You can COUNT on the grace of the Judge. No-one else can say this.

2. Islam: No – you cannot COUNT on the mercy of Allah. You can hope against hope.  Allah will be fair, and occasionally there are stories in the Hadith of Allah showing mercy to the odd sinner or two, but you cannot bank on his mercy at all – that kind of confidence, to be able to rely on his mercy, is actually forbidden. No Muslim can ever be certain that they have eternal life. They cannot rely on God’s mercy.

3. Unaffiliated: No – death is the most merciless judge imaginable. There is no clemency AT ALL with death.

4. Hinduism: No  - it’s down to your karma

5. Buddhism: No  - it’s down to your karma

 

Friends, if you could elect a judge … wouldn’t you elect this judge?  There is no one else I would rather meet on the other side of death than Jesus Christ.  Here is the One who has gone to hell and back FOR US.  Here is the One who has bled His own hearts blood FOR each of us.  He’s the One I want to judge the world.

 

So often people want to ask about the specifics of judgement day: “What about people from other faiths who have never met this minority of Christians with our Christian message about Jesus, what will happen to them?”  The Bible isn’t written for people without the Bible – the Bible is written for people WITH the Bible.  In the Bible we are confronted with Jesus and urged to trust Him.  That’s the position of everyone in this room.  This morning we are confronted with Jesus and the question for US is, what will we – what will I – do with Jesus.

With those other people, I’m not in a position to decide those cases because I’m not the Judge.  But I know the One who IS, and I trust HIM.  

You see Jesus is the Judge who has climbed off the judgement seat, put Himself in the dock and, on the cross, taken the harshest sentence ever meted out, in order that no-one need ever go to hell.  He’s the Judge.  And that’s better news than any religion has ever dreamed of.  I trust HIM to do what is right on that day.

But what about us who HAVE heard?  You can sort out the hell problem this morning.  You can call out to Jesus and say “Jesus, I’m in a pit here, thank you for joining me in my darkness, I want a connection with you now and always.”  You can sort out hell this morning and cross over to eternal life right now.

Let me finish with the most famous story Jesus ever told – you might know it by the name of “The Prodigal Son”.  You can find it in Luke 15.

It’s a story about a Father with two sons – a bad son and a good son.  The father in the story represents how Jesus connects us to the love of God the Father – how the grace of God welcomes us in to the Father’s feast.

And there’s the two sons: the good boy and the bad boy.  In the story, the bad boy says to his father: “I want your money; I don’t want you”; and he runs off into the far country, seeking the beautiful faces, skin, bodies, and clothes, trying to get involved in everything, ultimately, to find life in all these.  He squanders it all and ends up flat on his face in ruin … and he thinks to himself: “maybe I can get some more out of the old man; maybe I can go back and get a job with this guy”.  So he goes back – still stinking of pig – and there’s this incredible welcome home from the father: “"But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him … the father said to his servants, 'Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.  Bring the fattened calf and kill it.  Let's have a feast and celebrate.  For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.'  So they began to celebrate.  It’s a picture of heaven – feasting, joy, light, life.  It’s a celebration of infinite grace and forgiveness.  That is the essence of heaven, forgiven failures coming home to a Father’s love – it doesn’t matter where you’ve gone or what you’ve done, you’re welcome.

But the story keeps going: Jesus follows this scene with a picture of hell.  The story continues with the other brother – the stay at home son, the good boy.  But this brother stands on his rights, against the infinite grace and forgiveness of the Father: "'Look! All these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders.  Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends.  But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!'" … and he is outside the feast, in the outer darkness, with the weeping and the wailing and the angry gnashing of teeth.  It’s hell for this boy – it’s hell for him - it’s every way Jesus ever described hell.  The good boy is in hell – a hell of torment, a hell of his own making because he stands against the infinite forgiveness and mercy of his Father.  But ask yourself the question: Why is he in hell?

Is it because he’s so bad?  No it’s because he’s so good.  He's too good for this mercy meal – too good to receive mercy and forgiveness.

Is he outside the feast because the father is so cruel?  No!  He stays outside because the Father is so kind.  He's too kind.  At the end of the story, the Father is begging him: “Please come inside!  Please come inside!  Please come inside!” – he loves both boys and wants them both in the feast.  But the older son stands against it and it’s torment for him.  Even if the Father reached out and hugged his furious son, how would the son react?  It would increase his torment.

Hell is torment, it is horrific but it is not opposed to the love of God at all.  WE are opposed to the love of God, and that is what makes hell HELL.

And you say “But who would ever stand against the infinite love and welcome of God?  Who wouldn’t join the feast??”  Well this guy didn’t.  And if you haven’t trusted Jesus, you haven’t either.

Today is the day to say yes to Jesus – and to come home. Talk to one of us about that at the end if you would like.