(Given on Father’s Day)

Today is a day our culture sets aside to honor fathers. All across this nation families will gather and do something special with or for Dad. This is right and good for Scriptures tells us that we ought to honor our parents.

Since this is a day to honor fathers perhaps it would be good to take a few moments and ask ourselves what the role of a father is. What are fathers supposed be? How are they supposed to interact with their children?

The Apostle Paul gives us some insight into a father’s role in one of his letters to the Christians at Thessalonica. He says, “For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children, encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory.” (1 Thessalonians 2:11-12 NIV)

The first role of fathers which Paul mentions is that of encouraging. There are times when a child’s self-confidence needs bolstering. There are times when a child feels timid and needs help facing his own fears. There are times when things look hopeless. A father is there to help his child overcome his doubts, his fears and disappointments.

Another role Paul mentions is giving comfort. The world can be cruel. There are times when we all suffer hurt. There are times of loss. A father is there to dry our tears, to give us the hug we need when we’re lonely.

A third role of a father is to urge his child to be godly. From time to time we all need someone in our lives who won’t settle for second best; to push us on to live up to our potential; to cheer us on when we’ve stumbled; to help us see what the Lord’s will is for us.

Perhaps you’re saying to yourself, “I never had a father like that who encouraged, comforted and spurred me on. Instead, he discouraged me and caused me pain. He surely didn’t urge me to live a godly life!” In fact, some of you may have grown up without a father figure in your life at all.

The good news is that whether we had a good or a bad father, or whether our father was totally absent, God wishes to become a father to us. For example, Psalm 68, verses 4 through 5 says, “Sing to God, sing praise to his name, extol him who rides on the clouds – his name is the LORD – and rejoice before him. A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling.” (NIV)

We won’t take the time to look them up, but the Scriptures confirm over and over that God encourages, He comforts and He urges us to live holy and righteous lives. He truly does act as a father to us.

There is also another role of fathers which Paul did not mention in the passage we read. And this attribute of fathers is the greatest and most important of all. A father loves his children. The Apostle John writes, “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!…” (1 John 3:1 NIV)

It’s trite to say that a father loves his children. The word ‘love’ is thrown about so often that it loses it’s meaning. What is love? What does love look like in action? How does a father show his children that he loves them?

The kind of love the Bible talks about is a love which gives. A father who loves his children does whatever is best for them regardless of the cost to himself. And this is exactly what God does for us. He shows His love by doing what is in our best interests. He loved us so much that He gave what was most precious to Him. At little further in the same letter John writes, “This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (1 John 4:9-10 NIV)

Paul wrote that one of the roles of a father is to urge his children to live godly lives. God did His utmost to make it possible for us to become godly. Our heavenly Father loved us so much that He gave us Jesus.

Every week we gather to remember the love our heavenly Father has for us. To put it another way, every Sunday is Father’s Day when we remember the atoning sacrifice He made for our sins.

The bread we eat reminds us of Jesus’ body, sacrificed for us. The juice we drink reminds us of Jesus’ blood which cleanses us from sin.

As we eat and drink let’s honor our heavenly Father for loving us so much. Those of us who are fathers, let’s determine to be more like our heavenly Father.

(Given on Easter Sunday)

He Is Risen! Today, all over the world, people are celebrating Christ’s resurrection from the grave. They are rejoicing because Jesus is alive. He lives forever. Even in places like Pakistan where radical Islam is on the rise, I find it interesting that a large segment of society acknowledges Easter.

But this raises a question. How do we know that Jesus rose from the grave? There are a lot of reasons to believe that Jesus rose. I’ll just briefly mention two proofs of the resurrection which the Apostle Paul gives in 1st Corinthians, chapter 15. He writes in verse 4 that the resurrection was “according to the scriptures.” What he means is that the resurrection is a fulfillment of prophecy. In the Old Testament there are promises that a Savior would come, He would suffer and die, and He would rise again. If the Bible really is God’s word, as it claims to be, then the resurrection had to take place because God does not lie.

The second proof of the resurrection Paul mentions is that of eyewitness testimony. Too many people saw Jesus after He rose for it to have been some sort of mistaken identity or a hoax. The Apostle John put it this way, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched – this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.” (1 John 1:1 NIV)

It is not my place to judge, but I find these and the other proofs of the resurrection so persuasive that I find myself questioning the honesty of those who question whether it happened. To my mind the real question is not whether the resurrection took place, but what the meaning of it is.

In short, the importance of the resurrection is that Christ broke the power of death. Since Jesus rose, it gives us the assurance that death is not the end. There is life beyond the grave.

However, this morning I want to point out something obvious, but something we don’t give a whole lot of thought to: In order for there to be a resurrection, there first has to be a death. Jesus could not have risen from the dead without dying. Yes, we are here to celebrate the resurrection but our celebration implies that Jesus died. In fact, it is His death which Jesus asked us to remember. Why? Because it is Jesus’ death which paid our debt. It is His sacrifice which ushered in the New Covenant through which our relationship to God can be restored. It is by His suffering that we are healed.

There is another corollary to Christ rising from the dead. If we want to rise, we also must die. In Romans 6, starting in verse 4 Paul writes, “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin – because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.” (Romans 6:4-13 NIV)

In this passage Paul makes it very plain that our rising to live a new life is conditional upon our dying. If we haven’t died with Christ, we won’t live with Him either. If we want a new life in Christ, we have to die to the old one. We can’t have it both ways. We can’t have the new life Jesus offers us while still holding on to the sins which put Jesus on the cross. No, we must die to those things, we must crucify self, if we are going to rise with Christ. We will never be free from sins while we still hold on to them.

Jesus asked us to remember His death by eating bread which represents His body which He sacrificed for us. He asked us to drink of the cup which represents His blood which cleanses us from sin. Today as we eat and drink let’s ask ourselves the question, “Have I died with Christ, so that I might live with Him.? Have I died to sin so that I can be freed from it?”

(Written to go along with a sermon on Philippians 3:17-21)

Have you ever had the experience of not recognizing someone you know very well because you saw him in a place you didn’t expect to see him, or she had her hair styled differently or was dressed differently than normal? It can be embarrassing when you act toward someone as if he were a stranger only to discover that he’s a friend.

It can be even more embarrassing to mistake a stranger for someone you know. Our family once had a good laugh at my father. One Sunday he came into the church service a little late. He was concentrating on the speaker as he walked to a pew and sat down. Still looking at the preacher, he put his arm around the lady next to him and was startled by her reaction. From the back he had mistaken her for my mother. It took a while for him to live that one down!

Luke records perhaps one of the oddest cases of mistaken identity. In chapter 24, starting in verse 13 he writes, “Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; but they were kept from recognizing him.” (Luke 24:13-16 NIV)

I’ve often wondered what it was which kept these men from recognizing Jesus. No doubt, part of it was that they were not expecting Jesus to appear. They knew He’d been crucified. They knew He had died. They knew He’d been buried. You simply don’t expect a dead man to start walking down the road with you.

No doubt part of their confusion was that they didn’t know what to think. They’d heard the reports of the empty tomb but still hadn’t processed what that meant.

However, I think the main reason they didn’t recognize Jesus is that He was different. His post-resurrection body didn’t look the same. He had been transformed.

Why is that significant? Why is it important that Jesus was transformed? It’s important because just as Jesus was transformed, we who follow Him are also in the process of being transformed. We are becoming someone different than who we once were. In speaking about the difference between those under the Law of Moses and Christians, Paul writes, “Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” (2 Corinthians 3:15-18 NIV)

I think that all of us who have been Christians for a while recognize the truth of what Paul wrote. We aren’t the same as we used to be. The Spirit is in the process of transforming us to become like Christ.

The transformation that we’re going through is the first stage of another transformation we’re looking forward to. In 1st Corinthians 15, starting in verse 50, Paul writes, “I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed – in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”” (1 Corinthians 15:50-54 NIV)

Jesus gave us bread and wine to remember Him. Specifically, they represent His body and blood which He sacrificed on our behalf. However, the death of Christ is not some static event which took place in the distant past. No, the death, burial and resurrection are what make our spiritual transformation possible. Because Christ was transformed, we have a living hope that our bodies will one day be transformed as well.

Today, as we remember the cross, let’s give thanks not only for Jesus but, also, for our transformation.

(To go along with the concept Paul expresses in Philippians 4:17-18)

Without debt, society as we know it wouldn’t exist. For many of us debt is such a common part of our lives that we really don’t give it much thought. Almost all of us carry credit cards. In fact, many of us rarely use cash any more. Every time we use a credit card – we incur a debt. Very few of us paid cash for our houses. Our mortgages are simply another form of debt. Many have other forms of debt, also – such as car payments or student loans.

But what if you have more debt than you can pay? Whoever loaned you the money to purchase what you bought will repossess the goods, or take whatever you put up for collateral. A creditor might garnish your wages. If you can no longer afford the mortgage payments on your house, the bank will foreclose.

Usually, we don’t get ourselves so far into debt that there isn’t a reasonable possibility of paying it off in our lifetime. But it is possible – particularly when you get compound interest on the loan working against you. For example, earlier in our history people would buy things on credit for inflated prices at the company store. The interest on the loan would be so high that it was almost impossible to ever pay it off on the wages the company paid its workers. Lest you think that that sort of thing only happened in the dark past, today a lot of people are discovering that it is almost impossible to pay off their student loans.

Unscrupulous lenders are why we have such things as usury laws. They are on the books to prevent people from being victimized by predatory creditors who compound the debt until it is impossible to pay it off. It’s also why we have bankruptcy laws. If someone does get so hopelessly mired in debt that there is little chance of their being able to pay it off, the laws give them some protection from their creditors – except for student loans which are not erased by bankruptcy. In the old days there were things like debtor’s prisons. If you couldn’t pay you got thrown in the clink until you could pay. I’ve often wondered how you were supposed to earn the money you owed while you were behind bars – but that’s how it was. During certain periods of history in some countries, people who couldn’t pay would be sold as slaves to satisfy their debts.

But suppose that we didn’t have our bankruptcy laws, and imagine a debt so huge that there was absolutely no way you could ever pay it back no matter how hard you worked and no matter how large your income. You couldn’t get your creditors off your back by going to jail. Even being sold into slavery couldn’t satisfy the debt. It would be a hopeless situation.

Unfortunately, that’s exactly the situation we managed to get ourselves into with God. He is our Creator and we owe Him our service, our worship our loyalty – our very beings. Yet none of us has served God the way we ought. In fact, each of us has rebelled against Him. Even now, in spite of our best efforts, we still do not give God the glory that is rightfully His. We are in debt and there is no possible way we can ever pay. Since we are supposed to do good at all times, we can never do enough good to make up for the good we failed to do in the past.

In one place the Apostle Paul describes our condition as “without hope” (Ephesians 2:12).

But since we are totally incapable of paying our debt, God paid it for us. In Romans 5, verses 6 through 8, Paul writes, “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (NIV)

Paul expressed the same idea another way when he wrote to the Ephesians: “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:1-9 NIV)

Our word “mortgage” is made up of two other words. “Mort” means death, and “gage” means a pledge. Since there was absolutely no way we could pay what we owe, our life was forfeit. But since God did not want us to have to pay, God Himself paid the price. Through Jesus’ death God took our mortgage and stamped “Paid In Full” across the face of it.

Each week we gather to remember that our debt has been paid. We remember the price by eating a piece of bread which represents the payment of Jesus made of His own body instead of ours. We drink a cup of juice which represents His blood which wiped out our debt.

Today as we eat the bread and drink the cup, let’s remember the phrase, “Paid In Full.”

(Prepared for a sermon based on Philippians 2:1-4.)

In 2007 my father and I took a trip to India. One of the things we did was visit a church in the city of Amritsar. The people there loved the Lord. They were enthusiastic and sincere in their faith. Unfortunately, they weren’t very mature spiritually and their leadership was rather weak.

About 20 miles away is another congregation. The people in it also loved the Lord. They were more spiritually mature and they had better leadership. What would be more natural than to encourage the two congregations to have fellowship with each other? Both would benefit from interacting and learning from each other.

It was not to be. You see, between the two congregations there is an international border. High barbed-wire fences separate the two sides. There are machine-gun nests covering no-mans’-land and, most probably, fields of land-mines as well.

It’s even impossible for people on either side of the border to phone each other. The phone systems literally do not connect. Even a cell phone on one side can’t talk to a cell phone on the other.

In theory it is possible for a person on one side of the border to travel to the other side, but obtaining a visa to visit the other country is difficult, time-consuming and expensive. And regardless of which side of the border you’re on, drawing the attention of the authorities to your church is the last thing you want to do.

Only 20 miles! Yet, it might as well be 20 million miles. The people speak the same language, they have the same ethnic and cultural background. They look the same, they dress the same and they think alike. Some of them may even be related. Yet, they are kept apart by a barrier of hostility.

It reminds me of another barrier the Apostle Paul writes about in Ephesians, chapter 2. While addressing Gentile Christians he reminds them, “…at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.” (Ephesians 2:12-16 NIV)

In this passage, Paul talks about two kinds of division. One is between people. They are kept separate by mutual hostility. The other kind of division is between people and God. Both kinds of division have the same cause, and both have the same solution.

Unfortunately, we are incapable of resolving either of these divisions on our own. Because we are unable to break down the barriers, Christ did it for us. It is only through His death that the hostility between people can be removed and we can be reconciled to God. It is only in Christ that we can be at peace with each other and with God.

Though the two churches I mentioned are separated from each other by a physical barrier that neither one can cross, I was struck by the desire on both sides to have fellowship with the other group. What is it that made peace between them even though their respective countries hate each other with a passion? What brought them together in spirit even though they don’t know each other and they can’t meet in person? As Paul said, it is the cross of Christ. Through His death both have been brought into the same body. They might be on different sides of a hostile border, but both groups are one when they partake of the Lord’s Supper – the emblems which remind us of Christ’s cross. It is the cross which brings them into unity.

If we are Christians, we’re part of that same body. And when we eat the bread and drink the cup, they remind us that the cross tears down the spiritual barriers which separate us from other people and separate us and God. Though physical barriers may keep us apart from each other, in reality, we are one.

(Written to go along with a sermon on Philippians 1:1-8. The thought comes from verse 6.)

Do you sometimes find it difficult to finish or complete a project? I often find it hard to do so. For example, there’s a small sailboat propped up on sawhorses in my back yard that I’ve never quite gotten around to finishing.

You know how it goes: You get excited about an idea. You imagine how great it would be if only you did thus and so. You do some research and gather the necessary materials. You plunge into the project and, at first, it’s a lot of fun. You enjoy stretching your mind to figure out the best way to get it done. You enjoy learning the skills you need. But then, somewhere about half to three-quarters of the way through, the shine starts to wear off. You encounter a problem you hadn’t expected. Or you start to realize that there’s a lot more work and expense involved than you originally thought. Or you get bored with the project. Or something else comes along which grabs your attention. All of a sudden the project doesn’t seem nearly as important as it did at first. And, if you’re not careful – if you don’t deliberately make up your mind to see it through, the project just sort of dies. It remains uncompleted.

Scripture says that Jesus was tempted in every way, just as we are (Hebrews 4:15). That being so, there must have been times when He was tempted to give up and quit. He came to earth for the express purpose of saving us from our sins. Or, to put it another way, He came to reconcile us to God.

But though His purpose was noble, and His intentions were the best, actually completing the project wasn’t easy. It involved a lot of sacrifice and heartache. It’s true that for the first year or so of His ministry, Jesus was immensely popular. Yet even popularity has its drawbacks. Mark records that sometimes Jesus and His disciples didn’t even have the time to eat (Mark 3:20, 6:31).

In addition to physical discomforts Jesus must have been discouraged sometimes by His disciples’ inability to understand what He said to them. At other times, He was astonished by people’s lack of faith – even when they saw the miracles He performed.

Even worse was the hostility of the religious leaders – the very people who should have been His biggest supporters. Having to deal with their hypocrisy, trick questions designed to trap Him and the lies they told about Him, there must have been times when Jesus wondered whether it was worth it.

Sometimes the temptation to quit and do something else was more direct. John 12:20-36 records that some Greeks approached Jesus with a proposal. John doesn’t tell us what it was, but whatever it was, accepting it would have given Jesus a way to escape going to the cross. My personal opinion is that this was probably the biggest temptation Jesus ever had to face. Certainly it was the biggest after Satan tempted Him in the wilderness shortly after His baptism.

In spite of all the difficulties, hardships, opposition and the temptation to quit, Jesus stayed true to the mission. He didn’t give up. He went through with it, even though it meant facing an agonizing death on the cross. He let nothing faze Him. Luke writes, “As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem.” (Luke 9:51 NIV)

One of the greatest statements Jesus ever made was while He was on the cross. John 19:28-30 says, “Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.” (NIV)

I’m glad that Jesus resolutely completed the task God gave Him to do. Because He finished what he set out to do, we can be reconciled to God.

Each week we come together to remember what Jesus did. As we eat the bread which reminds us of His body and drink the juice which reminds us of His blood, let’s re-commit to finishing the task God has given us. Hebrews 12:2-3 says, “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” (NIV)

Let’s finish resolutely, just as He did!

(I wrote this meditation to go with a sermon titled “Christians Are The Body Of Christ”)

The church at Corinth had a problem. It was badly infected with the “Me First” virus. In 1st Corinthians chapters 1 through 3, Paul pointed out that the Christians were squabbling over whose conversion was the most valid or authentic. They were also fighting about who was the wisest.

In chapter 4 they were bragging about how superior they were to Paul.

In chapter 5 they were boasting about how progressive and tolerant they were about alternate lifestyles.

In chapter 6 they were fussing about rights. They were taking each other to court to get what they wanted.

Also in chapter six we see that some were putting a priority on pleasure and satisfying their own sexual desires.

Chapter 7 tells us they were having problems in regard to marriage. Again, their emphasis seemed to be on putting themselves, and what they wanted, first.

Chapter 8 deals with food. People at Corinth were going down to the pagan temples for dinner without thinking about what kind of example they were setting for their fellow believers.

In chapter 9 Paul explains how he set his own rights aside in order to better serve the people in the church.

In chapter 10 Paul returns to the subject of eating meat sacrificed to idols. However, this time he approaches it from a different angle. Apparently there were quite a few people in the church who liked to eat out. “Hey, the temple of Apollo serves a pretty mean steak! So, what if you have to give a little bow to the statue before the maitre d’ seats you?”

But Paul points out that this is not as harmless and innocent as people were trying to make it seem. In reality we are not merely individuals, free to do whatever we like. Though we are individuals, we are also a part of a greater whole. Paul makes his argument by referring to Communion. In doing so he introduces a new term, “the body of Christ.” In verses 15 through 17 he says, “I speak to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say. Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.” (1 Corinthians 10:15-17 NIV)

Now Paul had already used the term “body” in this letter. However, he used it to refer to an individual’s own physical body. Here, though, he uses the word to refer to the church as a whole. All of us who participate in the loaf and cup of Communion form one body. Even when we act as individuals we also, in a sense, represent the entire body – that is, the church. What we do is not just our own business – it affects the entire body.

Paul goes on to warn that the meat down at the temple has been sacrificed to demons. As part of the body of Christ, it’s totally inappropriate for us to also fellowship or participate with demons. The two communions are mutually exclusive.

Then, in verse 24 Paul lays down a principle which we should take into account in everything we do, “Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others.” (1 Corinthians 10:24 NIV) He expands the principle in verses 31 through 33, “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God – even as I try to please everybody in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved.” (1 Corinthians 10:31-33 NIV)

In the first part of chapter 11, Paul talks about authority. Unfortunately, when people read it they get so wrapped up arguing about head coverings that they miss the whole point – that is that we need to defer to one another within the authority structure which God has established. I shouldn’t insist on doing only what I want. Instead I need to realize that Christ is the head. It is He who should control the entire body.

Then, in the last part of chapter 11, Paul applies these concepts and principles to the church’s practice of taking the Lord’s Supper or Communion. To understand what he says, please realize that, in those days, the church took the Communion during an actual meal. Let’s read starting in verse 17.

“In the following directives I have no praise for you, for your meetings do more harm than good. In the first place, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you, and to some extent I believe it. No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God’s approval. When you come together, it is not the Lord’s Supper you eat, for as you eat, each of you goes ahead without waiting for anybody else. One remains hungry, another gets drunk. Don’t you have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you for this? Certainly not!” (1 Corinthians 11:17-22 NIV)

I said that the church at Corinth had a problem with “Me First!” Here we see a horrible example of it. When they came to the table it was “Me First, Me First!” As a result some took way too much and some didn’t get any food at all. Can you imagine someone actually getting drunk on the Communion wine during the church service? Well, they were doing it at Corinth and, in the process, were forgetting the whole purpose of their getting together. The meal was intended as a means to an end, not the end itself.

If the purpose isn’t to have a good feed, then what is the purpose of the Lord’s Supper? Paul already told us what one of the purposes is – it is to commune or share with one another and with Christ.

In verses 23 through 26 Paul tells us two more purposes for the Supper. It is to remember and to proclaim. By means of the meal we remember the covenant Christ has made with us, and we proclaim His death and second coming.

In verses 27 and following, Paul applies what he’s been saying to each one of us personally, “Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. But if we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment. When we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world. So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for each other.” (1 Corinthians 11:27-33 NIV)

I want to emphasize that phrase, “recognizing (or as your translation may say, discerning) the body of the Lord. Paul has already defined the “body of the Lord” as the church. In the context, to partake of the bread and cup in an unworthy manner is to think of ourselves first, without considering our fellow believers. Just how aware are we of each other – each other’s joys, sorrows, heartaches and blessings?

Today as we eat the bread and drink the cup let’s not be like the “Me First!” Corinthians and so bring judgment on ourselves. Instead, let’s learn to wait for one another, to put one another first, to seek what is good for the other members of Christ’s body.

(I gave this talk on a day the preacher spoke about Christians being brothers.)

In our culture there is a lot of emphasis on race and ethnic origins. Even when you fill out some form which is totally unrelated, they ask you what race you belong to. All too often people use the politics of race to divide and seek power for themselves. Instead of emphasizing what we all have in common, they use race to stir up division and dissension.

Others use the politics of envy to stir up ill-feeling. As a result, to paraphrase what the Apostle Paul wrote in Titus 3:3, people live in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.

All this is nothing new. No matter what time period you look at people have found reasons not to get along with others who are different than themselves. Fighting and war have been one of the constants of human history.

As bad as the divisions between people are, they are only a reflection of the far greater estrangement there is between mankind and God. Instead of doing what He asked, we insisted on doing things our own way. We thought we knew better than He. The end result is that we separated ourselves from our Holy God.

God could have left things that way. He could have said, “You made your bed, now you get to lie in it.” But He didn’t do that. He loves us and wants the estrangement to end.

Since we are incapable of making things right, God did for us what we can’t do for ourselves. One of the purposes of Jesus’ coming into our world was to pay our debt – the debt we owe God and can never repay.

But there was another reason for Jesus’ coming. It was not only to heal the estrangement between us and God, it was also to heal the estrangement between peoples and races. In Ephesians 2:13-19 the Apostle Paul wrote, “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household,” (NIV)

Throughout history there have been all kinds of peace conferences to try to resolve disputes. But it seems that no sooner than one conflict is resolved, another breaks out. As Scripture says, we don’t know the way of peace (see Romans 3:17).

The reason the peace conferences fail is that they are depending on the wrong things to bring peace about. Paul points out in the passage we read that it is only through Jesus’ blood that we can be reconciled to each other. While making it possible for us to become reconciled to God, Jesus also broke down the barriers which separate us from each other.

In Christ we all belong to God’s household. We are brothers instead of aliens and foreigners to each other. We are family.

Sometimes we forget who and what we are and need to be reminded of it. That’s one of the reasons we gather each week – to remember who we are, that we’re in the same family and that family sticks together. Family works problems out instead of letting problems divide and separate. We gather to remember that in Christ we are all one.

Each week we eat the bread to remind us that Christ’s body was broken to make us whole. We drink the juice to remind us that Jesus’ blood destroyed the things which separate us both from God and from one another.

(Prepared for a sermon on 1 Timothy 6:17-21)

At one time or another, just about everyone asks himself what life is all about. We’d like to think that we are here for some purpose. We want to know the meaning of life. There’s an emptiness within us which longs to be filled.

In the attempt to find purpose and meaning, people pursue all kinds of things. It turns out that there are only a limited number of things a person can try in the search for significance. Unfortunately, people throughout history have made the same experiments over and over again and keep coming up with the same result: Possessions, power and pleasure don’t satisfy our deepest needs and longings.

King Solomon tried it all. He pursued pleasure. He tried to find meaning in alcohol. He tried his hand at architecture, gardening, horticulture and animal husbandry. He studied nature. He amassed horses and chariots. He owned a trading fleet and was an international arms broker. He acquired slaves and musicians. He tried to find satisfaction in sex. He wrote songs and collected proverbs. He even had a career as a teacher. He accumulated more gold and silver than anybody could spend in a lifetime.

Looking back on it all Solomon concluded that there is some satisfaction in hard work and creating things. However, in the final analysis it is all meaningless. Nothing of eternal value is gained. All of our pursuits in trying to find the meaning of life are like chasing after the wind.

Why is it that way? It is because we cannot fill spiritual needs with material things. We are spiritual beings yet we focus on created things rather than the One who created them. As Solomon discovered, there’s no way that the grand house, the flashy wheels, the big bank account and painting the town red can fill the hole in our souls. No matter how much we do or how much we collect, we can’t earn or buy our way into heaven. Jesus put it this way, “What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26 NIV) We can’t take any of that stuff with us and we’ll look pretty silly trying to impress God, who owns the whole universe, with the size of our bank account.

If we can’t find true satisfaction in possessions, power and pleasure, then where can we find fulfillment? Where can we find meaning? Where can we find life that is truly life?

The answer to our deepest longings and aspirations is Jesus Christ. He said, “…I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6 NIV) He also said, “…I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10 NIV)

Yet life does not come without a cost. In the very next verse Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” (John 10:11 NIV) Jesus gave up His life so that we could have life. And apart from Jesus we cannot have life that is truly life.

That’s what we’re here to remember today. Jesus died so that our lives will have fulfillment and meaning. The bread we eat reminds us of His body which He sacrificed for us. The juice reminds us of His blood which covers our sins.

As we eat and drink this morning, let’s ask ourselves the question: “Am I still trying to find fulfillment in things? Am I still trying to find meaning in life by pursuing pleasure or power? Or, have I found the life which is truly life in Jesus Christ?”

(Prepared to go along with a sermon on 1 Timothy 5:17-22)

In his first letter to Timothy, the Apostle Paul devotes a lot of time to discussing church leaders. He talks about their character. He talks about their qualifications. He talks about about their work. As I read through the book one question which comes to my mind has to do with the motivation of church leaders. Why do people seek positions of leadership? What drives someone to become an evangelist or a deacon or an elder?

There’s no doubt that some seek to lead the church for selfish reasons. I’m sure that most of us have encountered or observed some church leaders who are in it for the money. In chapter 6, verse 5, Paul writes about people who think that godliness is a means to financial gain.

Others want a leading position in the church for the prestige or social status. They like the title. On several occasions Jesus had to rebuke the disciples for arguing about who was the greatest or most important.

However, the best and greatest church leaders are not in their positions because of selfish motives. In speaking about the religious leaders of His day, Jesus said to the disciples, “Everything they do is done for men to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long; they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; they love to be greeted in the marketplaces and to have men call them ‘Rabbi.’ But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have only one Master and you are all brothers. And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. Nor are you to be called ‘teacher,’ for you have one Teacher, the Christ. The greatest among you will be your servant.” (Matthew 23:5-11 NIV)

According to Jesus, it’s how much a leader serves others which determines his greatness. Service rather than using his position for personal advantage or to browbeat others into doing what he wants.

What motivates a leader to put the interests of others first? What motivates him to consider others better than himself? (See Philippians 2:3-4.) Certainly, one of the motivations is love – a genuine desire to do what is best for the other person. When we love someone, we will endure all kinds of hardship, inconvenience and expense for their sake. Good church leaders certainly do put up with a lot in order to help those in their care.

However, I think there’s something else which motivates good church leaders. It is joy. There really is joy in watching others make spiritual progress. The Apostle John writes, “It gave me great joy to have some brothers come and tell about your faithfulness to the truth and how you continue to walk in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.” (3 John 3-4 NIV)

Along the same lines, Hebrews 13:17 says, “Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you.” (NIV)

This brings us to Jesus and His motivation for enduring all that He went through. The writer of Hebrews puts it this way in chapter 12, verse 2, “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (NIV)

One of the reasons we’re gathered here this morning is to remember Jesus and His death on the cross. As we eat the break which represents His body, and as we drink the juice which represents His blood, I want us to ask ourselves a question: “Do I bring Him joy?”

If we’re a cause of sorrow, rather than joy, then as we take the emblems let’s commit to making the changes we need to make in order to be a source of joy to Christ.