| What Story Are You Living By? |
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I. Oh, How We Love a Story There is something in all of us that loves a story; sitting around a campfire, or mesmerized by the images on a silver screen, or maybe just reading a novel. We are captivated by a good story. Why is that? Why do we love stories so? I think it’s because stories are real. Even when they’re bigger than life, even when they’re filled with fiction and fairy tale, they feel real. They feel real because they reflect our lives. We experience our lives as a story with a beginning, a middle and an end, with drama and suspense and a plot. We dream of falling in love and living happily ever after. We fight battles, if only on the ball field; we overcome obstacles. We want to be heroes, or at least part of some grand adventure. We love a good story because that’s the way our lives are shaped, or at least the way we wish they were. But there is another reason why we are drawn to stories, a deeper reason perhaps. It is this: Our stories give meaning and purpose, even value, to our lives. Think of the really big questions in life like, Who am I? Why am I here? Where am I going? What is really worth doing or experiencing or being a part of? How do you answer questions like these? I suggest that we answer these questions by the stories we believe. Everyone, everyone, believes in stories; everyone has stories they live by, stories that ultimately shape our lives. II. Everyone Has a Story Now as I say that, I can almost hear some of you saying, “No…Not everyone.” Certainly there are people who believe only what their eyes can see and their mind’s prove, people who live by the assured conclusions of modern science, and nothing else. Surely they don’t believe in stories. In fact, outgrowing the childlike stories of primitive faith is what the modern Atheist, for example, is all about and what he thinks the rest of us should be about as well. Really? Are you sure? Have you not heard? Have you not read Darwin’s Origin of the Species or the Ascent of Man? Evolutionary Naturalism, I suggest to you, is a story, a big story, a grand story, a story that can explain all of life’s big questions. The story of evolution can tell us where we come from, where everything comes from, in fact and it can do so without reference to God; without reference to anything outside the natural world and its closed system of causes and effects. That’s its power, that’s its purpose in the modern age. Now when I talk about Evolutionary Naturalism I am not talking about the fact that things evolve. Of course they do; all kinds of things evolve. No. What I am talking about is a theory that explains the origin and purpose of everything by means of mindless matter without reference to God. Make no mistake: that kind of naturalism is a story, a big story that is shaping our modern world; and it is a story with a strange hook at the end, or if you prefer, a big hole in the center. Because if everything everywhere is the result of the random interaction of mindless molecules, then guess what? There is no ultimate meaning, no final purpose; therefore, no abiding value in life. Just the survival of the fittest; just we human beings creating whatever meaning and truth we think we need. Perhaps that’s why young people today find it so hard to believe. This story has sunk down so deeply into our culture’s bones that we find it hard to believe much of anything. There’s your truth and my truth, his truth and her truth. But not final truth and no ultimate purpose in life. We’re just a generation of postmodern drifters, coming from nowhere special, going nowhere particularly important, and making it up as we go. So let’s eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die.. Evolutionary Naturalism is a story people live by and there are other stories. Stories that claim to tell us where we come from and where we’re going and what’s the point of it all, if there is a point. There’s the story of Western materialism and the story of Eastern mysticism. The stories of Freud and the stories of Marx. The stories that Muhammad told and the stories that Buddha told and the stories that Plato told. Then there are the stories that Jesus told. III. The Stories that Jesus Told Let me tell you something, those were quite the stories. They were the kind of stories, if you heard someone tell them today, you might think he was crazy. Stories about His person, for example. One day Jesus stood before a crowd of Jews and said these words: Before Abraham was, I AM. Not I was, which in and of itself would be quite a claim. But I AM. That’s God’s name. That’s how God identified himself to Moses from the midst of a burning bush just before the Exodus. That’s the name God said should be his memorial name among the Jews for all generations. Here is Jesus, a flesh and blood Jewish man, standing before his people and saying, Before Abraham was, I AM. No wonder the crowd picked up stones to stone him. Jesus was claiming to have existed before Abraham was ever born. He was claiming to have been present, as the eternal I AM before the foundation of the world. Now that’s quite a claim, quite a story, don’t you think? But Jesus didn’t just tell big stories about his person, he also made amazing claims about His Mission on earth. He said He was the Light of the World, that he had come to earth to reveal the truth of God to humankind. He said he was the Bread of Life and the Water of Life. That he could give eternal life to everyone who believed in him, not just believed what he said, but believed in him. Jesus also said he was the fulfillment of more than 2000 years of prophecy. That he was God’s Messiah who would bring God’s Kingdom to earth. He was the Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world. Wow. Jesus was quite the story teller, wasn’t he? There are people today who will tell us that Jesus was a good man. Not necessarily the son of God and savior of the world, but a good man nonetheless, a profound moral teacher, a great religious leader. But I don’t think that makes much sense. Anyone who could make the claims that Jesus made is not a good man. He is either a liar or a lunatic; either a deceiver or terribly self-deceived. Unless…unless, he happens to be who he claimed to be. There really are only three logical alternatives. As C.S. Lewis once put it, Jesus is either a liar, a lunatic or the Lord. But here’s the problem: How in the world does someone ever decide that this flesh and blood human being is Lord of heaven and earth? IV. The Grand Miracle Well, let me tell you what it took for the first disciples to come to that audacious conclusion. It took a miracle. I mean a literal, bona fide miracle. Many of them, actually. Certainly the teaching of Jesus is what first drew men and women to him. Never did a man speak like this man, they used to say. He has such wisdom, such insight. He paints such a compelling picture of His Father in heaven. But words alone were not enough. Words might be able to prove that Jesus was a prophet or profound teacher. But what could demonstrate that He was the son of God and savior of the world? So there had to be the miracles, the signs that Jesus really was sent from God, that he really could do what he said he could do. What’s more difficult, Jesus once asked a crowd of doubting Pharisees, to say your sins are forgiven or to say to a crippled man, arise, take up you mat and walk? Now, that’s what I call throwing down the gauntlet. Then Jesus turned to the crippled man in their midst, and said, Stand up, pick up you mat and walk out. Jesus did many other miraculous signs, as John called them. He fed five thousand people with five loaves of bread and two small fish. He calmed a raging storm on the Sea of Galilee with a word. He walked on water. He made the lame to walk and the blind to see. He even raised a man named Lazarus from the dead. Without the witness of these miracles the disciples would never have believed. For how else could they know that Jesus was more than a man? That he was God’s Messiah sent to bring God’s Kingdom to earth? But in the end of the day, even those miracles were not enough. Because when Jesus was nailed to the cross it was a brand new ball game. Jesus may have been winning in the early innings. He may have been impressing the crowds with his words, and proving his power over disease and death by his miraculous touch. But when he died on that cross, the game was over. He struck out. How can you claim to be God’s Messiah when you can’t keep yourself alive, when the powers of Rome can torture and humiliate and destroy you? How can you claim to be the bread of life when you die on a cross? That’s why doubting Thomas, said to his friends, after they claimed that Jesus was alive, Unless I can see the scars in his hands with my own eyes and put my finger in the wound in his side, I will not believe. Seven days later Jesus stood before Thomas, in the flesh, and said, Behold my hands; come and touch my side; stop doubting and believe. Thomas fell to his knees on the ground and said, My Lord and my God. It was the resurrection. It was the resurrection that finally enabled the disciples of Jesus to fully believe. It was the resurrection that demonstrated beyond the shadow of a doubt that Jesus Christ was who he claimed to be, in spite of the Cross, our Lord and our God. Then, and then it was the experience of the Holy Spirit. The story doesn’t end with Jesus defeating the power of death by coming to life. No. The story continues. It continues with His ascension to the right hand of God, the Father Almighty. It continues with the sending of His Spirit into the lives of those who believe. It continues as those who believe go out into the world to spread the message, the message that God’s savior has come, that your sins may be forgiven and that King Jesus is coming again to rule and reign. On that day every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord of heaven and earth, and he shall reign forever and ever and ever. Amen! V. What will it take for you? What did it take for the first disciples to believe in the story of Jesus? It took the experience of his person, the wisdom of his words and the power of his miraculous deeds. Then it took His resurrection from the dead, the undeniable demonstration of His power over life and death itself. Finally, it took the fulfillment of Jesus’ promise in the coming of His Holy Spirit to bring God’s life and God’s power to God’s people. That’s what it took for them to believe that Jesus was not a liar or a lunatic but our Lord of heaven and earth. So the question is: What will it take for you? You have the testimony of Jesus’ life. His words and deeds recorded for all to see by those who walked with him and witnessed his works. You also have their testimony to his resurrection. The words of Paul, for example, in the letter to Corinth, written in 57AD, a mere 25 years after the death of Christ. What I received, he said, I passed on to you as of first importance: That Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the twelve. After that, he appeared to more than 500 of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living…Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also… Sober words from eye witness testimonies, most of whom were still alive when that letter was written. Many of whom would die as martyrs for their faith. Please keep in mind that when these words were written Jesus’ tomb was empty. The tomb of Jesus is the other side of the resurrection appearances. Not everyone saw Jesus raised from the dead; he did not appear to everyone. But everyone had access to the empty tomb. Or to put it another way: if Jesus had not been raised from the dead anyone could have gone to his tomb, unearthed his body, and said, There is it! Now stop this foolish talk about a resurrected Lord and Savior. But that never happened, did it? The Roman authorities never produced the body when the Christian movement started creating problems for them. The Jewish Sanhedrin never produced the body when those Nazarenes began to turn their world upside down. Don’t you think they would have if they could have? Wouldn’t that have been a more effective method for stopping the spread of Christianity than putting the witnesses to death? Just produce the body. End of story. Oh, there was another story that circulated at the time. It was the story that Jesus’ disciples took the body. They took it from the tomb, hid it and then started proclaiming Jesus as the resurrected Messiah. But that’s not very believable, is it? Because the disciples didn’t just preach Jesus, they died for Jesus. You and I both know that people will die for what they believe and dying for what you believe does not make it true. But if the disciples stole the body and then gave their lives as witnesses for the resurrection, they were dying, not for what they believed to be true, but for what they knew to be false, a lie of their own fabrication. The truth is, or at least the truth as far as we can reasonably discern it, is that something happened. Something happened to transform a defeated band of Jesus followers into a force that changed their world. What they said happened is that they saw Jesus risen from the dead, they saw him over and over again, for a period of 40 days, until he ascended on high. Then, just as He promised, they experienced the indwelling presence of the Spirit of God and they went out preached and performed miracles in Jesus’ name. What will it take for you to believe? You have the testimony of the life of Jesus. You have the witness, the credible witness to his resurrection. You also have the invitation to believe and receive the power of His Holy Spirit. I can offer you nothing more. Except maybe a story. It’s a story Jesus used to tell about a Father and His son. Once upon a time, there was a father who had a son he loved very much. But the son didn’t seem to share that love. In fact, he couldn’t wait to grow up and leave home. He didn’t like all the father’s rules; he didn’t like the Father’s control; He didn’t think he needed the Father’s protection. But he did happen to like all the good things his father had so this young man hatched a plan. He went to his dad one day and said, “Dad, I want to get out on my own” so would you give me my inheritance now? Give me what you would give me if you were to die and I’ll go away. So the Father did, even though it broke it his heart. The son took his father’s money and headed off for a far country, a country far away from his father’s eyes, far away from his Father’s ears, far away from his Father’s voice. For a while, quite a while actually, the son lived it up in that far country. The father’s money bought him lots of good times and friends. But eventually, the money ran out, and the hard times came. Make no mistake: eventually the father’s money runs out and the hard times come in the far country. The fair-weather friends? Well, they were long gone. This poor, hungry young man was finally driven to a place of desperation. He hired on at a local farm and was given the lowly of job of feeding slop to pigs. One day he found himself so hungry that he was tempted to eat the slop he was throwing in the pen. Finally it dawned on him. He came to his senses, and realized, life is better, much better back in my Father’s house so the prodigal son decided he would return. He would go to his father and say, Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am not worthy to be called your son. But please, could I at least become one of your hired hands? Meanwhile, back at the farm, the Father was waiting. He was waiting like a man who loved his son with every fiber of his being, and a man who didn’t want his son to have to learn things the hard way. Every day this father would get up early in the morning and look to the horizon, in the direction where his son had gone. Every day at noon, when he stopped for lunch he would search the same horizon. Every night he would take a walk as the sun began to fall. He would walk and look in the direction of his long, lost son. Then one day, it happened. He saw him. The Father saw his son approaching on the horizon. He knew was his son. He could tell by the way he walked. So, this dad took off running. As soon as he reached his boy, his boy whose clothes were now tattered, whose body smelled of sweat and pig slop, as soon as he reached him, he threw his arms around him and began to kiss his neck. The boy could hardly finish his confession. Father I have sinned against you, I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Quickly, the dad shouts back toward the house. Get my son a new robe, new sandals for his feet, a family ring for his finger! Kill the fattened calf! Invite the neighbors. We’re throwing a party. For my son who was lost has been found. He was dead, but he is alive. There is more to this story than I can tell today but this much was written so that you might know how your father in heaven feels about you. If you have been in a far country, living off the Father’s good gifts, but not acknowledging him as your Father in heaven; If you have been running from him, hiding from him, rebelling against him, now is the time to come home because the person who told us this story is the light of the world. He is the revelation of the truth of God. He is the Savior of the World, the Resurrection and the Life, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. He says, You can come home. You can come home if you believe in me. |
| Last Updated on Wednesday, 27 April 2011 21:05 |
