CRCF””5/2/10
VIDEO Clip:
Revolution (The Beatles)
You say you want a revolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
Some of you know the debate that there”™s been about what John Lennon meant by the lyrics to that song””a song written while the Beatles were in India at a transcendental meditation retreat. It at least meant that, yes, he wanted the world of the Vietnam War to be different, but that he himself was confused about the best way to change the world.
Do you want to change your world?
I think Lennon was right””“we all want to change the world”!
The question is HOW? And there are all sorts of “revolutions” out there that we could sign up for””a multitude of approaches to righting all the wrongs in our world.
But there”™s only one revolution that will actually transform people from the inside out. And it”™s not the usual type of revolution. It”™s . . .
The Revolution of Grace
Luke 24:44-49; Matthew 28:18-20
You can be part of the revolution of God”™s grace in Jesus.
Let”™s check out what was foremost on Jesus”™ mind after He had convinced the disciples He was truly resurrected and alive, and just before He lifted off for Heaven!
A quick aside””what we”™re going to see this morning is the point of the whole Bible. If you could reduce all of Scripture down to one truth, this is it:
You can be part of the revolution of God”™s grace in Jesus.
Luke 24:44-49 (MSG)
44Then he said, “Everything I told you while I was with you comes to this: All the things written about me in the Law of Moses, in the Prophets, and in the Psalms have to be fulfilled.”
45-49He went on to open their understanding of the Word of God, showing them how to read their Bibles this way. He said, “You can see now how it is written that the Messiah suffers, rises from the dead on the third day, and then a total life-change through the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed in his name to all nations””starting from here, from Jerusalem! You’re the first to hear and see it. You’re the witnesses. What comes next is very important: I am sending what my Father promised to you, so stay here in the city until he arrives, until you’re equipped with power from on high.”
You can be part of the revolution of God”™s grace in Jesus.
It”™s a revolution . . .
1. That has ALWAYS been God”™s goal in the world.
Genesis 12:1-3 (The Message)
1 GOD told Abram: “Leave your country, your family, and your father’s home for a land that I will show you.
2-3 I’ll make you a great nation
and bless you.
I’ll make you famous;
you’ll be a blessing.
I’ll bless those who bless you;
those who curse you I’ll curse.
All the families of the Earth
will be blessed through you.”
Isaiah 53:10-12 (New Living Translation)
10 But it was the LORD”™s good plan to crush him
and cause him grief.
Yet when his life is made an offering for sin,
he will have many descendants.
He will enjoy a long life,
and the LORD”™s good plan will prosper in his hands.
11 When he sees all that is accomplished by his anguish,
he will be satisfied.
And because of his experience,
my righteous servant will make it possible
for many to be counted righteous,
for he will bear all their sins.
12 I will give him the honors of a victorious soldier,
because he exposed himself to death.
He was counted among the rebels.
He bore the sins of many and interceded for rebels.
Joel 2:28-32 (NLT)
28 “Then, after doing all those things,
I will pour out my Spirit upon all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy.
Your old men will dream dreams,
and your young men will see visions.
29 In those days I will pour out my Spirit
even on servants””men and women alike.
30 And I will cause wonders in the heavens and on the earth””
blood and fire and columns of smoke.
31 The sun will become dark,
and the moon will turn blood red
before that great and terrible day of the LORD arrives.
32 But everyone who calls on the name of the LORD
will be saved,
for some on Mount Zion in Jerusalem will escape,
just as the LORD has said.
These will be among the survivors
whom the LORD has called.
God giving us grace in Jesus wasn”™t an afterthought or a change in plan!
This revolution has always been God”™s goal in the world!
–Also, Psalm 22, Psalm 110, plus many more OT passages.
And in Ephesians 1, Paul tells us that grace in Jesus was God”™s goal before time began, before the world was ever made!
You can be part of the revolution of God”™s grace in Jesus that has always been God”™s goal in the world.
Here”™s the next part . . .
It”™s a revolution . . .
2. That is “a total life-change through the forgiveness of sins”””NOT a religion.
John 8:4-11 (The Message)
3-6The religion scholars and Pharisees led in a woman who had been caught in an act of adultery. They stood her in plain sight of everyone and said, “Teacher, this woman was caught red-handed in the act of adultery. Moses, in the Law, gives orders to stone such persons. What do you say?” They were trying to trap him into saying something incriminating so they could bring charges against him.
6-8Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger in the dirt. They kept at him, badgering him. He straightened up and said, “The sinless one among you, go first: Throw the stone.” Bending down again, he wrote some more in the dirt.
9-10Hearing that, they walked away, one after another, beginning with the oldest. The woman was left alone. Jesus stood up and spoke to her. “Woman, where are they? Does no one condemn you?”
11″No one, Master.”
“Neither do I,” said Jesus. “Go on your way. From now on, don’t sin.”
THAT”™s a revolution””“a total life-change through the forgiveness of sins”””NOT a religion!
Once the Devil was walking along with one of his cohorts. They saw a man ahead of them pick up something shiny. “What did he find?” asked the cohort. “A piece of the truth,” the Devil replied. “Doesn’t it bother you that he found a piece of the truth?” asked the cohort. “No,” said the Devil, “I will see to it that he makes a religion out of it.” Klyne Snodgrass, Between Two Truths – Living with Biblical Tensions, 1990, Zondervan Publishing House, p. 35.
The Devil loves religion and religious folks!
Ronnie McBrayer
Religion tricks us into putting confidence in ourselves and not God”™s grace. (Leaving Religion, 198)
God hates religion!
Karl Barth
Religion is an abyss; it is terror. Death is the meaning of religion.
Here”™s another example of the revolution of grace””of the “total life-change through the forgiveness of sins”!
Luke 7:36-50 (The Message)
36-39One of the Pharisees asked him over for a meal. He went to the Pharisee’s house and sat down at the dinner table. Just then a woman of the village, the town harlot, having learned that Jesus was a guest in the home of the Pharisee, came with a bottle of very expensive perfume and stood at his feet, weeping, raining tears on his feet. Letting down her hair, she dried his feet, kissed them, and anointed them with the perfume. When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man was the prophet I thought he was, he would have known what kind of woman this is who is falling all over him.”
40Jesus said to him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.”
“Oh? Tell me.”
41-42″Two men were in debt to a banker. One owed five hundred silver pieces, the other fifty. Neither of them could pay up, and so the banker canceled both debts. Which of the two would be more grateful?”
43-47Simon answered, “I suppose the one who was forgiven the most.”
“That’s right,” said Jesus. Then turning to the woman, but speaking to Simon, he said, “Do you see this woman? I came to your home; you provided no water for my feet, but she rained tears on my feet and dried them with her hair. You gave me no greeting, but from the time I arrived she hasn’t quit kissing my feet. You provided nothing for freshening up, but she has soothed my feet with perfume. Impressive, isn’t it? She was forgiven many, many sins, and so she is very, very grateful. If the forgiveness is minimal, the gratitude is minimal.”
48Then he spoke to her: “I forgive your sins.”
49That set the dinner guests talking behind his back: “Who does he think he is, forgiving sins!”
50He ignored them and said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.”
You can be part of the revolution of God”™s grace in Jesus, that is “a total life-change through the forgiveness of sins”””NOT a religion.
1 Peter 1:3-5 (NLT)
3 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation, 4 and we have a priceless inheritance””an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay. 5 And through your faith, God is protecting you by his power until you receive this salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see.
You can be part of the revolution of God”™s grace in Jesus, that is “a total life-change through the forgiveness of sins”””NOT a religion.
Ronnie McBrayer
If we embrace Jesus as less than the insurrectionist he was, then we are sliding down the slope into the religious graveyard. Jesus did not come to start a religion. He came to blow religion off the map . . . He came to show us who God really is. (Leaving Religion, 36)
You can be part of the revolution of God”™s grace in Jesus, that is “a total life-change through the forgiveness of sins”””NOT a religion.
Have YOU experienced this revolution? Have YOU personally experienced this “total life-change through the forgiveness of sins”?
[Gospel in Brief””Romans]
Ronnie McBrayer
“Luke lures us into tagging behind a Jesus who is the champion of sinners, outcasts, and the ethically questionable. Jesus brings to the table and restores to the family those excluded from the kingdom of God. However, the religious establishment greets Jesus”™ mercy toward outsiders as blasphemy. It causes the good church folk to squirm in their seats . . . This gypsy named Jesus is a rebel, a ”˜friend of sinners”™, and an irreligious radical . . . Jesus and institutional religion are on a collision course, and those who go with Jesus will find more adventure, freedom, and religion-bursting grace than they can stand, all the things that make traveling worth the effort . . . If we choose to follow this path, then all our previous understandings of God and religion, faith and spirituality, creed and Christ, might get torn down. Once these are ripped away, something better, larger, more gracious, and much more revolutionary than we ever imagined may replace them. Ultimately, this is what this Great Journey of Jesus is all about. It is a revolution. Jesus is changing the state of affairs in the world and in our hearts. As he moves toward Jerusalem, the ground beneath our feet begins to shiver and shake, and we are invited to join the world-shattering revolution of following him.” (Leaving Religion, 10-11)
You can be part of the revolution of God”™s grace in Jesus, that is “a total life-change through the forgiveness of sins”””NOT a religion.
Here”™s the last thing for the day . . .
This revolution . . .
3. Is to be OUR mission/goal in life!
It just stands to reason that if this revolution has always been God”™s goal in the world that it ought to be ours as well, right?
Luke 24:46-49 (MSG)
He said, “You can see now how it is written that the Messiah suffers, rises from the dead on the third day, and then a total life-change through the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed in his name to all nations””starting from here, from Jerusalem! You’re the first to hear and see it. You’re the witnesses. What comes next is very important: I am sending what my Father promised to you, so stay here in the city until he arrives, until you’re equipped with power from on high.”
You can be part of the revolution of God”™s grace in Jesus by making this revolution YOUR mission/goal in life!
In fact, if you”™re going to follow Jesus, it”™s not an option!
Matthew 28:18-20 (MSG)
18-20Jesus, undeterred, went right ahead and gave his charge: “God authorized and commanded me to commission you: Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the threefold name: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you. I’ll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age.”
It”™s about teaching others to follow Jesus””teaching them all the stuff He taught us! Now, that”™s a lot of stuff. But you know what? We can boil it down””actually JESUS boiled it down!
Matthew 22:34-40 (NLT)
34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees with his reply, they met together to question him again. 35 One of them, an expert in religious law, tried to trap him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?”
37 Jesus replied, “”˜You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.”™ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 A second is equally important: ”˜Love your neighbor as yourself.”™ 40 The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”
If we each get a hold of God”™s love personally and then share that love by serving others the way Jesus served us, then we”™ll become part of the revolution of God”™s grace.
We”™ll see lives totally changed through the forgiveness of sins in Jesus!
Shane Claiborne
(Message given at Biola University, “Another Way of Doing Life”)
“The Gospel spreads best, not by force, but by fascination.”
Are people around us fascinated by our love for God and for others?
It”™s an amazing thing to get to be part of the revolution of God”™s grace! But remember, it”™s only by His grace that we can live the revolution!
Shane Claiborne
Thinking about the donkey”™s colt that Jesus rode into Jerusalem: “We”™re just the jackasses that get to bring Jesus into our community.”
You can be part of the revolution of God”™s grace in Jesus by making this revolution YOUR mission/goal in life!
Conclusion””
You can be part of the revolution of God”™s grace in Jesus.
ARE you?
John Bryson: If Jesus answered all your prayers from the last 30 days, would anything change in THE World or just YOUR world?
Celebration of the Lord”™s Supper
When we partake of this table, we”™re renewing our commitment to the revolution of God”™s grace in Jesus!