The Power of the Cross
RUMC 4/12/15
Confirmation Sunday
(Confirmands), what
would you ask for if you found a genie-in-a-bottle and were granted three
wishes that were bound to come true? If you could have three wishes fulfilled,
what would you ask for?
Have you heard the
story of a young man who found a genie-in-a-bottle? This guy was walking down
the beach and came across an old bottle. He picked it up, pulled out the cork,
and out popped a genie.
The genie said,
"Thank you for freeing me from the bottle. In return I will grant you
three wishes."
• The man said, "Great! I’ve always
dreamed of this, and I know exactly what I want. First, I want one billion
dollars in a Swiss bank account." Poof! There was a flash of light and a
piece of paper with account numbers appeared in his hand.
• He continued, "Next, I want a brand
new red Ferrari right here." Poof! There was a flash of light and a bright
red brand-new Ferrari appeared right next to him.
• He continued, "Finally, I want to
be irresistible any women." Poof! There was a flash of light and he turned
into a box of chocolates.
As Christians, we know
that there are no genies to grant our wishes, and prayer doesn’t work like a
magic lamp.
I kind of wish (the
spiritual life) (Confirmation) was like a magic lamp, though.
• I want to be filled with the power of
the Holy Spirit. “Poof!” and I have my own little Pentecost, with the Holy
Spirit filling me full to overflowing.
• I want deep faith. “Poof!” I have the
faith of Abraham.
• I want spiritual courage. “Poof!” I have
the courage of St. Peter.
• I want spiritual understanding. “Poof!”
I have the understanding of the great Apostle Paul.
I wish it worked that
way, but it doesn’t.
In chapter 30 of THE
STORY, we read the story of the later part of Paul’s life. We read about his
second and third missionary journeys and we read from Ephesians, which is one
of the prison epistles, and I Timothy, a pastoral epistle.
You have to understand
a couple of things to understand chapter 30.
FIRST, you have to
understand that the beginning of the chapter is the lower story of Paul’s later
career. Paul grew up in Tarsus, 350 miles from Jerusalem. He was about 10 years
younger than Jesus was, so Paul was just coming into adulthood when Jesus was
killed. He was not a disciple or even a follower. Chances are that Paul never
met Jesus before the crucifixion. If he had, he would have been among those who
were arguing with him and looking for a way to destroy him. In fact, the first
we hear of Saul, soon to become Paul, was when he held the coats for the
stoning of the disciple Stephen. In Philippians, another prison epistle, Paul
writes, I was “circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel,
of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee;
as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law,
blameless.”
That is the lower
story. The upper story is that God was working in this Hebrew of Hebrews, the
Pharisee of Pharisees, and the persecutor of persecutors, to make his the
greatest evangelist of all time. You all know the story of Saul, which was
Paul’s birth name, being struck down blind on the road to Jerusalem and meeting
Jesus. Therefore, as we read about his life and ministry, the one who started
out persecuting Jesus became the greatest evangelist ever, certainly at least
on a par with Billy Graham. The upper story vision is one of Paul, traveling
across the entire known world proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ. Going
from region to region and preaching the good news of salvation.
This greatest
evangelist is the one who starts this Ephesians passage saying, “Although I am
the very least of all the saints.” // “Although I am the very least of all the
saints, this grace was given to me to bring to the Gentiles the news of the
boundless riches of Christ, and to make everyone see what is the plan of the
mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things” And that is how Paul
spent his life, bringing good news to the Gentiles- people like us who were not
of Hebrew descent.
The second thing you
have to understand is that Paul’s preaching got him in trouble. The story is
laid out clearly in Chapter 30 of THE STORY so I am not going to retell it in
detail, but, suffice it to say that the Jews and their leaders we very unhappy
with Paul’s preaching and church planting. They imprisoned him. They beat him.
They threatened him. They tried everything they could, but still Paul preached
the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ until he was arrested in Jerusalem.
The commotion caught the attention of the roman governor, who had power of life
and death, and sent him to Rome appeal to the Emperor himself. The amazing
story of the journey is found in chapter 30, but eventually we follow Paul to
Rome where he was under house arrest for 2 years and then beaded about 60 AD.
It is during this
imprisonment that Paul wrote the letter to the Ephesians that we have before us
today. That explains why Paul writes, “ I pray therefore that you may not lose
heart over my sufferings for you; they are your glory.” His suffering is his imprisonment for the
faith. Even though he was not in a prison cell, he was still chained with a
guard babysitting him 24 hours a day. He was still a prisoner, and he knew that
his day of execution would be coming sooner or later.
Those are the two
things you need to know to understand this beautiful passage.
• Paul was the Apostle to the Gentiles-
essentially to the entire world.
• Now he sits in prison awaiting
execution. When he writes these words.
“I pray that, according
to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your
inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your
hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that
you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth
and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses
knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
Along with Paul, this
is my prayer for all of us. (But especially those of you being confirmed
today.) “That you would be strengthened
in your inner being with the power of the Holy Spirit.”
I pray for your inner
being-- not just what we see on the outside. But that the power of the Holy
Spirit would grab hold of your innermost parts: your thinking and
decision-making; your inner will and your desires; your emotions both positive
and negative; your needs, your hopes, your dreams, and every single part of the
person you are. I pray that the sum total of everything that makes you who you
are, would find its strength in the power of the Holy Spirit, which is the
source of all life.
The Christian life is
more than belonging to a church or coming to church. Church membership or
attendance is just the entryway. Being an inactive member, is like saying you
live in a house, but never going any further than the foyer. It is like saying
you are an athlete because you attended a basketball game once. It is like
settling for the smell of the buffet and never taking a plate of food.
My first prayer for you
is that the Holy Spirit would grab hold you. Not just grab you by the collar,
but would reach into your life and grab hold of that which makes you, you!
When VICTOR
SERIBRIAKOFF was 15, his teacher told him he would never finish school and that
he should drop out and learn a trade. Victor took the advice and for the next
17 years, he made his living doing variety of odd jobs. He had been told he was
a ‘dunce’ and for 17 years, he acted like one.
When he was 32, an
amazing transformation took place. An evaluation revealed that he was actually
a genius with an IQ of 161. (Over 120 is a genius) Guess what? That’s right; he
started acting like a genius. Since that time, he has written books, secured a
number of patents, and become a successful businessman. Perhaps the most
significant event for the former drop out was his election as chairman of the
International Mensa Society. The Mensa society has only one membership
qualification - an IQ of over 140.
When he was in school,
that teacher grabbed hold of him and held him underwater, drowning him in
embarrassment and hopelessness. At the age of 32, something else grabbed him
and completely changed his life. It changed the way he acted, the way he
worked, the way he thought of himself, and the way others thought of him. He
was transformed from the inside out.
My first prayer for you
is “That you would be strengthened in your inner being with the power of the
Holy Spirit.”
Completely converted on
the inside, and transformed from the inside out. A new person in Jesus.
My second prayer for you is that “Christ may
dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in
love.”
This is different from
the first prayer because it is for the way we act. The first prayer is that you
would be different because of the power of the Holy Spirit; this one is that
you will act different because of the love of Jesus.
Being a member of the
church is not just about our insides, it is about what we do on the outside.
Tony Campolo, in his
book The Kingdom of God is a Party, told how, upon arrival in Honolulu, he
accidently found himself in a bad part of town at 3:30 in the morning. He went
in to a bar for a snack and found himself surrounded by eight or nine
prostitutes who had just gotten off work for the night. He heard one remark
that tomorrow was her birthday and learned that she had never had a birthday
party in her whole life.
Campolo’s heart was
touched. He decided to throw her a surprise party. The next night, he decorated
the bar with the help of the bartender, who happily chipped in the cake. The
next day, the stunned girl was deeply touched when the whole bar sang happy
birthday to her. Campolo offered to say a prayer for the woman before the
stunned crowd, and after the prayer, the bartender remarked, “Hey! You never
told me you were a preacher. What kind of church do you belong to?” Campolo
replied, “I belong to a church that throws birthday parties for prostitutes at
3:30 in the morning.” The bartender then sneered, “No you don’t. There’s no
church in the world like that. If there was, I would join it.”
My prayer is that you
would become the kind of church members that would throw a birthday party for a
prostitute at 3:30 in the morning.
My prayer is that you
love so much that you would make us become the kind of church that reaches out
to those who are least expecting it. My prayer is that Jesus would so fill your
hearts that you give a hand up to those whom we think might be least deserving.
My prayer is that you would love so deeply that you can’t walk by and leave a
child crying, or a teenager thinking of suicide, or anyone feeling unloved.
My second prayer for
you is that “Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being
rooted and grounded in love.”
Finally, I pray that you “have the power to
comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and
depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may
be filled with all the fullness of God.”
That you have the
power… this is not a power that comes from within you, but from the spirit of
God himself, to comprehend the vastness of God’s love. The immensity of God’s
love. The unimaginable greatness of God’s love.
Think about the
vastness of our universe. (Be careful not to blow you’re mind) Space is so
“hugantic” that light that left the farthest edges of the galaxy 14 trillion
years ago, has been traveling (well) at the speed of light all that time, and
still has not reached earth. And we don’t know how long it will take to get
here. It might only be 1/10th of the way!
Does that make you feel
small? It makes me feel tiny!
But think about this
God’s love is even greater than that.
My prayer for you is that you will have the
power to comprehend the heights of God’s great love in Jesus Christ. Higher
than the furthest reaches of our universe.
My prayer for you is that you will have the
opportunity to plumb the deepest depths of God’s great love. Deeper than the
deepest ocean.
My prayer for you is that you know the
breadth and the length of God’s love from the farthest reaches of the east to
the farthest reaches of the west.
Then and only then- when you begin to see the
breadth and length and height and depth, of God’s great love in Jesus Christ
will you begin to understand the power of the cross.
(Edie gave me this
cross a couple of years ago. It sits right next to my chair and often when I am
praying I pick it up as a reminder of what Jesus did for me. As a reminder of
the tremendous power of the cross. As a reminder of the breadth, and length,
and height, and depth, of God’s great love in Jesus Christ for me. This morning
I will be giving you a similar cross. Keep it close. Cling to it. Cradle it in
your hand, as a reminder of the Christ that lives in your heart.)
• We are people of the empty cross.
• Be changed by the power of the cross.
• Live by the power of the cross.
• Know the power of the cross.
• Cling to the cross and be “filled with
all the fullness of God.”
AMEN
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