Nothing
I.
We Deserve Nothing
II.
We Do Nothing
III.
We Are Everything
Lent 2 2006
Rev. Steven D. Spencer
Romans 5:1-11 & Mark 8:31-38
Romans 5:1 Therefore,
since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our
Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this
grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. 3
Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that
suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character,
hope. 5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love
into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. 6 You see, at just
the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7
Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone
might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this:
While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since we have now been
justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath
through him! 10 For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him
through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we
be saved through his life! 11 Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God
through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received
reconciliation.
Mark 8:31 He then began to teach them that the Son of Man
must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers
of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. 32 He
spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33
But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. "Get
behind me, Satan!" he said. "You do not have in mind the things of
God, but the things of men." 34 Then he called the crowd to him along with
his disciples and said: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny
himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35 For whoever wants to save his
life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will
save it. 36 What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his
soul? 37 Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? 38 If anyone is
ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of
Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy
angels."
As
some of you know this last week I was in California performing a wedding for my
nephew. It was nice to be able to visit with family and friends. Many of whom I
have not seen for quite awhile. Including my three brothers. It brought back
some fond memories visiting with my brothers. I remember when they were younger
mom and dad use to pay them to be good. I wasn't like them, mom and dad never
had to pay me to be good. I was always good for nothing. Of course I'm kidding
my brothers never did get paid to be good but then neither did I.
I do have a
point in sharing that story. None of us want to think of ourselves as good for
nothing. As a matter of fact the idea of that is quite offensive to most of us.
In our society we pride ourselves on what we’ve accomplished. We want to make a
statement with our lives. After the wedding was the reception. And something rather
interesting happened. People I haven't seen in 20 or more years came up to me
and had to share all that has been going in their lives. I learned that two
separate groups represented in that reception hall. On one hand those
successful. And they wanted me to know how they had climbed the corporate
ladder, scaled the financial wall, become the envy of all the less talented and
determined, out there. On the other hand, were those afflicted with all sorts
of heartache! They wanted me to know how much life had dealt them. Oh they were
brave soldiers with aching backs, calloused boils, financial woes, and every
abomination known to man. From what I heard a team of doctors could have easily
retired having them alone as patients. But they were hanging on, rugged
individualist, bucking the system
One
thing both groups have in common, they have something that keeps them from
being nothing. Look at me I am successful; I’ve made my mark on society. Look
at me I am pitiful; Society has made it mark on me. It’s all about self. It’s
all about me. It’s all about focus, eyes turned inward. These were all people
well into their years but it hardly starts there.
In
2003 a study was done with 250,000 15 year old students from 41 different
countries. They were tested in math, reading and science. How do you think our
youth faired? How do you think they thought they did? They thought they finish
at the top. They did great they said, fantastic, and no doubt stellar. Here’s
how they did. In math the U.S. ranked 28th, in reading 23rd,
and in science 27th. The U.S. students fell consistently behind
several third world countries. The best countries in the testing were Finland
and South Korea. What was interesting if you didn’t connect it already is that
U.S. students had the highest self-esteem, thinking they were far better than
they truly were.
People
are fascinated with self-image. Maybe too much so! The corporate world
understands this. If you go into a bookstore usually a whole section is
dedicated to self-improvement. Let me give you some examples of what I'm
talking about.
1.
Self Improvement: The Top
101 Experts Who Help Us Improve Our Lives
2.
What You Can Change And
What You Can't: The Complete Guide to Successful Self-Improvement
3.
Guide to Self-Empowerment
4.
Creating the Work and Life
You Want!
5.
Astrology For Self
Empowerment
6.
Living Beyond Limits: The
Tao of Self-Empowerment
7.
Awaken the Giant Within:
How to Take Immediate Control of Your Mental, Emotional, Physical and Financial
Destiny
8.
Unlimited Power
9.
Waking the God Within
Everywhere
we turn we hear ways to improve ourselves. On T.V. or radio ads that guarantee
they will whiten our teeth, brighten our wash, lighten our weight, thicken our
hair, make us feel great and lengthen our lives. After all if it's meant to be it's up to me. And after we've used
all the creams and lotions and life enhancers we love to step back and look
into the mirror. Looks pretty good, I like what I see, I like what I did.
This problem
is not just in the secular places. It is alive and well in the church. People
in the church want to feel they are more important than others, more holy, more
righteous. Some look for the approval
in the eyes of men, rather than in the eyes of God. Several years ago I was at
a youth gathering with my church. I ran into an old classmate that I hadn’t
seen for 20 plus years. As we visited we began to share some of the more
embarrassing things that can happen to you in the ministry. Forgetting the words to the benediction, not
letting the choir sing, skipping the Lord’s prayer or completely using a wrong
name in a sermon, (raising hand) guilty as charged.
But
then he went on to tell me about his most embarrassing moment. He was just
ordained and felt wearing his collar was a badge of achievement, he wore it everywhere,
to the grocery store, washing the car, mowing the lawn, you get the picture. To
him it was something that said, I am well educated and most holy. When he
arrived at his new church he wanted to make sure everyone knew him. So he
decided to visit every Sunday school classroom. One particular Sunday he
visited the pre-school room. He sat down and introduced himself and began to
tell these young boys and girls who he was. One little girl kept staring at him
and motioned that she would like to sit on his knee. So he picked her up and
there she sat. But she kept staring at his collar. Finally she pointed to it
and said boo-boo? He chuckled knowing she thought it was a bandage. No, no he
exclaimed it’s a collar. Pulling off the clerical collar he showed it to her.
As he looked at it he noticed inside the collar were the directions for
cleaning it. She stared at the collar with intrigue. Finally he said; can you
read this? To his surprise she nodded her head. So he said; okay read this. She
looked at the collar, and looked at him, and looked at the collar and finally
said: “Kills fleas and ticks up to six months!” Talk about humbling.
We
are obsessed with who we are and what we've done. And that obsession has
entered even into the church. We would like to believe we'd never be like those
kids who had a false sense of accomplishment. But we just can't handle that we
deserve nothing.
I. We Deserve Nothing
Many believe they must try to figure
out what they need to do for salvation. If they are not busy trying to work on
their own salvation they are busy looking at others. Although we don’t mean to
create categories of Christians we do. Why she’s just a baby Christian. Or he’s
a backslidden Christian. Attendee,
non-attendee, oh I know them they’re just C & E (Christmas and Easter)
members. All these descriptions and titles are a futile attempt at bolstering
our worth in the eyes of man and of God.
Isaiah
reminds us chapter 64 verse 6: “For all of us have become like one who is
unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; And all of us
wither like a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.” Even
those things, which we think, are righteous deeds are like filthy rags.
Everything we think we do for credit, for God, for righteousness and for
salvation are nothing. We deserve nothing for our motives are impure and
tainted. We are totally corrupt. And what we think we do for our salvation is
nothing; it's filthy rags.
In our
Gospel lesson today do you think Peter thought he was going to do something
wrong when he approached Jesus and tried to reason with Him? “Lord you can’t do
that, go to Jerusalem to be killed.” Do you think maybe Peter was busy trying
to talk Jesus out of what appeared to be suicide? But Jesus knows Peter’s
motives. It may appear noble but Peter has the wrong motives. Jesus says: "Get
behind me, Satan!" You don’t have in mind the things of God, but the
things of men." Instead this is the attitude to have: "If
anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and
follow me. In other words count yourself as nothing. That’s what
denying yourself means. I am nothing! If you don’t do that here’s the result.
“For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life
for me and for the gospel will save it.”
II. We Do
Nothing
This why the
world hates the message of the Gospel! It requires not taking control of your
life, but relinquishing your life. The more we try to control our lives the
more out of control it gets. The more we try to save ourselves the farther from
God we get and the closer to self-deification we get. You see we deserve
nothing. And yet, according Romans 5 “we have been justified through
faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Notice
that word, through! Not by my works, not by what I do, but through Jesus
Christ. By what He did! And what did He
do, Verse 9: “Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much
more shall we be saved from God's wrath through Him!” What did He do?
Verse 10: “when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to Him through
the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved
through His life!” What did Jesus do? He died in our place! He died for
us! He died for me! We can do nothing for our salvation. We were enemies with
God. Jesus did it all. By His incarnation, baptism, fasting and temptation, by
His agony and bloody sweat, by His cross and precious death by His glorious
resurrection and ascension. Jesus did it all. We do nothing. Our salvation is
solely an act of God. We do nothing! God declares us righteous, just like a
judge declares a person innocent. It's God who takes the action not us. We
deserve nothing; we do nothing yet to God we are everything.
III. We are
everything
Romans 5:8
says: "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were
still sinners, Christ died for us." or "John 3:16 "For God so
loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in
Him should not perish but have everlasting life." We, who were nothing, have been reconciled
to God. We have been declared sons and daughter of God. Self-esteem, no! God
esteem yes! We who were nothing, will have no thing separate us from the love
of God through Christ Jesus. In the
words of the hymn we just sang, "Rock of Ages" For nothing in my hand
I bring, simply to the cross I cling. By His cross, by His blood we have become
children of God, for our sins are forgiven through the blood of Jesus. In the
Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen!