Developing a World-View - Jesus Christ, God's Only Son

PASTOR BURCHAM'S SERMON

Sunday, April 17, 2005

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

A county prosecutor, who was the Assistant Chief of the Sex Crimes Division, was fired. He was fired because he sent a romantic e-mail to a 16-year-old girl. Jay Meisehelder, 53, admitted that he used poor judgment but he hadn't broken any laws.

This past week in Hawaii , on the state's web site, they posted a confidential report, a confidential report that cataloged all the different ways terrorists could attack the United States . The Homeland Security Secretary, Michael Chertoff, said on Wednesday that it was a mistake.

Poor judgment. Mistakes. An error. A miscalculation. I lost my thinking for a short amount of time. The circumstances surrounding me influenced me. We'll come up with any number of ways to explain away or to soften the blow whenever we do something wrong. In fact, in our country, it seems, in our society, we will do anything we can so we don't have to admit what we've actually done is wrong and, certainly, we don't want to use that negative term called sin. Because most of society and most of the world doesn't believe in the whole concept of sin and sinfulness. No, it's poor judgment. It's mistakes. It's an error. It's a miscalculation. It's something that maybe shouldn't have happened. But to call it what it is, to call it something so harsh as to say that it's a sin, well, no, we don't want to do that.

As Christians then, we stand apart. Because, as Christians, we look at our world differently and we look at ourselves differently. It's part of our biblical world view, and our biblical world view sees a world that is full of sinfulness and we see ourselves as sinful human beings. But we also know that sin is a reality, that sin is serious, but that God sent someone to save us from that sin. And we believe and we confess that there is just one Savior, just one person who can redeem us from sin.

Sin is a reality. And if that is our belief, if that is our assertion, that has some implications to it. Sin is a reality, and sin is serious business. Billy Graham said this in a book he wrote called The Secret of Happiness , “Now the bible teaches that our souls have a disease. It's worse than the dreaded cancer, polio, or heart disease. It's the plague that causes all the troubles and difficulties in the world. It causes all the troubles, confusions, and disillusionment in your own life. The name of the disease? It's an ugly word. We don't like to use it. In our desire to be modern, we've almost forgotten about it. It's sin.” It's an ugly word. It has bad connotations to it. We don't want to make people feel guilty about things. Maybe it seems like it's an antiquated word to talk about sin. And yet sin is at the root and the cause of all the pain and all the trouble of this world, because sin is the opposite of God. God is holy. God has no sin, and God is perfect. So, therefore, sin causes trouble, pain, and heartache. It may cause a momentary happiness, maybe even momentary pleasure, but sin corrupts and it's the single cause, as Billy Graham said, of the difficulties, the troubles, the confusion, and the disillusionment we have in our life. Because it's the opposite of God, and it's the opposite of how God designed us and how God created our world.

If sin is a reality and sin is serious, it only gets worse from there. Jesus said, in the gospel reading for today, “Everyone who sins or everyone who commits a sin is a slave to sin.” That's pretty strong language. Everyone who commits a sin, just one, is a slave to sin. Elsewhere in scripture it says if you break just one commandment, you've broken all of the commandments. Is it any wonder then that those who are non-Christians look at us as being judgmental and harsh? “How can say that? You mean just one mess up and then the game is over? We've all lost it? Just one poor judgment? One mistake? One error? Game over? It's as if I committed all of them?” Maybe it's because we don't understand the concept of sin. What really is sin?

This past week, I was trying to think of a way we could illustrate that and understand it, and the best thing I could come up with was a light bulb. You might say I had an idea. And my wife said that wouldn't go over. (Congregation laughing.) Let's think about the light bulb for a moment. If you will, for the part of our illustration, let's say this light bulb is perfect. What I mean by that is it has to have a certain circumference here, diameter, so it's going to screw into a light fixture, okay? And it has to be an exact size. There has to be a vacuum inside the light bulb, and it has to have a filament in there. And if everything were working just right, if I were to put this in a lamp and put power to it, it would illuminate. And this light bulb does work, so this light bulb, if you will, is a perfect light bulb. There's nothing wrong with it. For safety's sake, let's just say I place it in the bag here. And let's say then I throw the light bulb into the world. Now you could say that, by accident, I came upon the light bulb and I accidentally stepped on it. Or you could say, even with malice and intent, I stepped on the light bulb. Now I only stepped on it once. It was poor judgment on my part, I have to agree, but it should still work, right? Wouldn't it be unfair to say just one little mistake and now, all of a sudden, there's no more light bulb, it doesn't work any more? I think that's a fair assumption that it doesn't work anymore.

My point is this: God created the perfect world, a world that had no sin, a world He made for human beings. And He put Adam and Eve into this world, and they were perfect as He was perfect. Just one sin. But just one sin meant that the world was no longer perfect. There are not degrees of perfection. There are not degrees of sin. Sin is the opposite of God. That light bulb could not be more broken than what it is right now. I could step on it 100 times. It would be no more broken than it is right now. You and I could not be more broken than we are right now. It's the reality that we are sinful. And sinful means we are not the holy perfect righteous beings God created. And there is no going back. You can't back step and say, “Well, it was only one mistake.” Because once imperfection comes, it can no longer be perfect any longer. As Christians then, that has implications for us. If we know and believe and admit we are sinful and we live in a sinful world, it's not God being harsh or judgmental. It's simply a reality. Imperfection has come. We are no longer perfect as God desires us to be.

The implications for that are this: We're going to take responsibility for our actions. Part of our biblical world view is we're not going to offer excuses. We're not going to talk about poor judgments. We're not going to talk about mistakes and errors. We're not going to talk about extenuating circumstances. We're going to stand up and say, “I was wrong and what I did was sinful.” And we're going to admit that sinfulness first and foremost to God. And then we're going to admit that sinfulness to one another. We're not going to dodge it in any way. We're going to take responsibility for the actions we've taken.

The second implication is this: We're going to expect and know the consequences of our sinfulness. Sinfulness has consequences associated with it. If you rob a bank, you're going to jail. That's the consequence of it. You can't get around that. You don't pay attention to your marriage, it's going to fall apart. That's a consequence to that. If you cheat on the test, you get caught. You will fail that test. That's a consequence to it. If you speed down the highway, you'll get a ticket. It's the consequence. We're going to accept those consequences and not try to dodge them either. It's part of taking responsibility and acknowledging that we are sinful people.

The third implication is the most important implication. The third implication is we need help. We need a Savior. You see, no matter how well intentioned I might be, no matter how much super glue I would go through, there is no way I can put this light bulb back together. It's impossible. No matter how many good thoughts I might have about that light bulb, no matter how bad I might feel that I stepped on it, no matter how many happy, bright, illuminating thoughts I might have in my head about that light bulb, nothing short of a miracle is going to restore it. And nothing short of a miracle is going to restore you. Nothing short of a miracle, divine intervention, is going to make you whole once again, is going to make you that holy, righteous being God originally designed and created you to be. The implication of knowing we are sinful and we live in a sinful world is we need a Savior.

And that leads us to our second assertion. We know who that Savior is. We're bold enough to profess each and every week that we know who that Savior is. “I believe in Jesus Christ, His Only Son, Our Lord. He was born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontias Pilate. He was crucified, died, and buried. He descended into hell but, on the third day, He rose again.” I know who the Savior is. We make the assertion that we know Jesus Christ is the only true God, that only through His name can we be saved. The apostles stood up for that. They had the Jewish synagogue looking down upon them. How did this man get healed? “By the name of Jesus Christ he got healed,” they said. And then they went on to say, “There is no other name given to men by which we must be saved.” No other name. Only through the name of Jesus. He is the Redeemer.

Each week we confess. We confess God sent His only Son into our world, that only by God's grace and God's love did Jesus come and live among us. And only by virtue of a miracle could we be made whole, and the miracle is this: Jesus, the Son of God, took on flesh and blood. He became a human being but, unlike you and me, He was without sin. And yet, He took all of your sin upon Himself. The curse of the law, scripture says, “He became that curse for us.” Elsewhere, it says, “He who knew no sin became sin for us.” In other words, Jesus took all of our sin, laid it upon Himself, and because of Him, now we are restored to the perfect, holy people God originally created. Through the blood of Jesus and through your faith in Jesus, when the Father looks at you, He sees the original creation. When the Father looks down at you, He doesn't see the sin anymore. He sees the perfect man or woman that God originally intended. Nothing short of a miracle could put us back together. And that's what God has done for us.

That's what we believe, and that has implications then. It has implications for how we interact with the rest of the world. It has implications for how we view the rest of the world. The number one implication is this and let's make sure we're clear on this: All roads do not lead to God. All religions are not the same. They are not just various paths that lead to the one true God. There is only one path because there is only one true God. I'm not being judgmental. I'm not being harsh. I'm not being closed-minded in my viewpoint. I'm stating the fact and the awesome news scripture reveals to us.

All religions are not the same. Every other religion besides Christianity says it's up to you to make up for the wrongs you've done. Everyone of them. Everyone of the world religions doesn't talk about a God who comes and freely redeems you and saves you, nothing on your part. Every other religion says it's up to you. Every other religion says, “Go ahead and take that light bulb and somehow, some way, put it back together. Maybe you have to have more positive karma than negative karma. Maybe one lifetime isn't enough so you have to be reincarnated, 4, 5, 100 times until you finally get it right. Maybe it means you have to punish yourself to kind of make up for the bad things you've done and then, somehow, pull yourself up by your bootstraps and lead that righteous and perfect life and then become acceptable to God.” That's what all the other religions say but not ours, because the one true God knows you can't do that. No matter how many lifetimes you may be given, no matter how much you might try, you'll never put your life back together. You can never make what is imperfect perfect. Only God can do that. And He did it through His Son, Jesus Christ.

When we give our witness to the world, we may be looked upon as being closed minded and judgmental but we are doing nothing of the sort. We're showing more compassion and love than we ever could. Because it's not being judgmental. It's not being closed minded. It's about keeping people out of the fires of hell and making sure they're in the glory of heaven. And that's what it comes down to: Making sure they're not lost, broken, and condemned but we can share with them the free gift God offers, that God wants to put you back together, and He wants to call you one of His redeemed children. That's what we mean when we say, “I believe in Jesus Christ, His Only Son, My Lord.” We're saying we believe in sin and we know sin is a reality and it's serious and it separates us from God. But it says we believe in a Savior and God is gracious enough to reveal that Savior to us and, through the blood of Jesus, we are forgiven and made whole. And it should be our prayer, our motivation, and our desire that every person we know could confess along with us, “I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord.” Amen.

Copyright 2005 Gloria Dei Lutheran Church