|
From the Pulpit
By Pastor Brent Cobb (lead pastor of Lewiston First Church)
Are you ashamed of Jesus Christ and His Cross? The night when religious leaders falsely accused Jesus, Peter cringed. He refused to be identified with Jesus and denied that he even knew who He was.
But after Jesus' death, resurrection, and ‘tough love' meeting with him Peter repented. Later, on the day of Pentecost, Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit and empowered to declare to thousands of people gathered in Jerusalem that Jesus was the crucified-and-risen Savior. "Salvation is found in no one else," he said, "for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12).
patio storage boxes
These words by an African martyr were found in his room after his death: "I am part of the fellowship of the unashamed. The die has been cast. I have stepped over the line. The decision has been made. I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. I won't look back, let up, slow down, back away, or be still. My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, and my future is secure. I'm finished and done with low living, sight-walking, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tame visions, mundane talking, cheap giving, and dwarfed goals. My pace is set, my gait is fast, my goal is heaven, my road is narrow, my way is rough, my companions few, my Guide reliable, my mission clear. I won't give up, back up, let up, or shut up until I've preached up, prayed up, paid up, stored up, and stayed up for the cause of Christ. I must go until He returns, give until I drop, preach until all know, and work until He comes. And when He comes, He will have no problem recognizing me. My colors will be clear. ‘For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ.'
Jesus says that if I am ashamed of Him and His words He will be ashamed of me (Mk 8:38; Lu 9:26). I want to be proud of Jesus, quick to identify myself with Him as His follower. Paul wrote, "I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes" (Rom 1:16).
Barclay translates Rom 1:16 to say, "I am proud of the Good News, for it is the power of God which produces salvation for everyone who believes." Here are three reasons to be proud of the Good News of Jesus Christ.
1st - The Good News of Jesus Christ ‘packs a punch' (has great power)
We like power and hate power shortages. We buy books and do seminars to gain personal power, yet our lives, relationships, and influence remain weak.
A woman living in a Third World country was going on a errand. She asked her new housekeeper to use the vacuum clearner on the floors. When she returned she saw the woman pushing, pulling, and straining with the heavy vacuum but not getting the floors clean. Why? She had no idea how a vacuum was supposed to work; she had not plugged in the cord and turned on the power.
We often fail to plug into the power we need for living. Jesus Christ, if we ask Him to, will help us clean up our own lives and be of service to others. He will help us connect to the Holy Spirit's power. Then we'll be able to say, "I can do everything through him who gives me strength" (Phil 4:13).
Jesus gives us power that works on multiple levels -
§ Overcoming-temptation power:
James 4:7-8a doesn't merely read: "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." It reads: "Submit yourselves ... to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you." Our submitting to God unleashes His power, and Satan runs away, powerless against God's power.
§ Doing-what-God-wants power:
"God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him" (Phil 2:13, NLT). "Fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it" (Rom 12:2, MSG).
§ Making-a-difference-in-other-people's-lives power:
This power comes from being like Christ. Jesus "emptied himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men" (Phil 2:7). People will listen to me if they know that when they need me, I'll be there for them, ready to empty out my life for them.
There's no more convincing way to put Christ's power on display than by our self-emptying love for others - in action.
2nd - The Good News of Jesus Christ partners with people's personalities
Some people fear that following Jesus will spoil their chances for happiness. Wrong! Jesus wants you to overflow with happiness. He'll partner with you, not to neutralize your personality or sabotage your potential, but to help you reach your fullest potential. After all, He ‘programmed' it into you.
Jesus will draw out from your past, your present, and your future possibilities those things that you and He together can make into something great for your world. This ‘partnering' is seen in Romans 8:28 that reads, "And we know that in all things God works together with those who love him to bring about what is good."
3rd - The Good News of Jesus Christ presents problems with solutions
Not pseudo-solutions. Jesus' power can change you and your circumstances. He can meet your life's deepest need and help you overcome your so-called impossibilities. He can help you make a difference in your world. What He's done for others, He'll do for you.
Solomon Ginsburg was a Polish ‘completed Jew,' a follower of Jesus the Messiah. In 1912, he was about to board a ship at Lisbon, Portugal to go to America by way of England. Weather reports warned about fierce storms. Friends advised him to delay his trip one week. He prayed about it, and the Lord assured him he should go now. He boarded the ship to London and arrived safely. There he boarded the Majestic for his trans-Atlantic voyage. After arriving in America he learned that if he'd delayed his departure from Lisbon, he would have arrived at London just in time to board the Titanic on its maiden voyage that met disaster that claimed the lives of 1,517 people.
Another example of Jesus presenting our impossibilities with possibilities and achieving His redemptive purposes in the process came on May Day in 1990 at Moscow's Red Square. "It is straight?" one Christian asked another, shifting the heavy eight-foot Cross on his shoulder. "Yes," said the other. "It is straight." Together the two of them, along with their fellow-believers holding ropes to steady the beams of the huge Cross, walked the parade route. Ahead of them had passed the might of the Soviet Union: a procession of missiles, tanks, troops, and salutes to the Communist party elite. Protesters had followed, shouting up at Mikhail Gorbachev: "Bread! Freedom! Truth!"
The Christians got directly in front of the Soviet leader and hoisted the heavy Cross toward the sky. In front of TV cameras the Cross obscured the giant poster faces of earlier Communist leaders. "Christ is risen!" shouted a Christian toward the Soviet leader. "Christ is risen!" all the Christians shouted.
Within a year after that May Day celebration, despite an attempt by Communist hardliners to gain control, the Soviet Union was officially dissolved. "Christ is risen indeed!" He is building His church, and the gates of hell cannot stop its advance.
On Aug. 19, 1991, Communist hardliners in Moscow seized control of the Soviet government while Gorbachev was away in Crimea. Parliament members were trapped in the parliament building. Tanks and troops ringed the building. Thousands of citizens formed a human barricade to protect them.
Moscow Bible Society leaders made a call outside Russia to ask Bible Societies around the world to pray. God gave the Moscow Bible Society leaders a plan. Just as the tanks and soldiers were ready to storm the parliament, Bible Society members arrived with a truckload of New Testaments. They began rushing from soldier to soldier and tank to tank handing them out.
Shirinai Dossova knocked loudly on the side of a tank, refusing to stop till the baffled tank driver opened the hatch and appeared. "It says in this Book you shouldn't kill," she said, thrusting a New Testament at him. He and most of the soldiers accepted New Testaments. Many of them begin reading them at once. They'd never seen a New Testament before, but they'd always wanted one. The coup collapsed and the Communist empire collapsed. Some historians still wonder why the expected attack on the parliament never happened.
Are all of the examples of Jesus "presenting problems with solutions" from long ago and far away? No way, in recent days local Christ-followers have told me about God's intervention in their lives to help them get a job. Others have told about God helping them get a car or needed housing. Others have told about God helping them to deal effectively with a relational challenge. Jesus Christ is alive and on the move where you live and face life's challenges.
Romans 1:16 in Today's English Version reads: "I have complete confidence in the gospel; it is God's power to save all who believe ..."
What breathtaking ‘Good News' we get to live out and tell others about! First and foremost, it is the Good News that Jesus died for sinners, and in Him are joy and meaning. In Him our future is filled with hope. In Him, our problems have solutions.
There's an old song, "Got Any Rivers," that goes like this:
Got any rivers, you think are uncrossable?
Got any mountains you can't tunnel through?
God specializes in thing thought impossible;
And He can do what no other power can do.
It's easy to say, "I'm not ashamed." What matters is that you and I live out before others and announce to them the life-changing Good News about Jesus.
|
Sermons 
