God's Last Words

FAILURE IS THE ONLY OPTION

John 10: 11-18 NRSV

This God business is very serious, and I wouldn’t be worth my weight as a pastor if I didn’t preach His truth every time I come to this pulpit. “Joy” is mentioned 165 times in the Bible and “fun” 0 times. God will get serious with us at the last judgment and it is my task to try to prepare you for that while I am your pastor.  

Some of you may think I am too negative about we humans and too down on our own abilities to accomplish good. Well, you are right to a certain extent. That’s not really my job – God will be our ultimate judge.

Yet as someone who’s studied God’s Word I will tell you that human pride and dignity is a barrier between us and God. A barrier each of us needs to tear down.

I enjoy baseball and I remember my favorite Phillies teams weren’t so good back in the 60’s. I remember hearing a story that the late Gene Mauch, manager, once told:

A rookie pitcher, in his first big league game had just walked his 4th straight batter, and the manager went to the mound. “Son,” he said to the pitcher, “I think it’s time to replace you.”

”Don’t replace me now,” the pitcher protested, “last time this guy was up I struck him out.” “That’s true,” agreed the manager, “But we are still in the 1st inning!”

That pitcher was released and out of baseball, the next day.

Several years later he was on his way to becoming a good pitching coach only after he released how bad a pitcher he was. If only we could realize how good Christians we could become if we’d only realize what a failure as a human we are.

Failure, some people’s failures are seen by all, others by a few, and the effects of bad parenting or alcohol abuse, for example, aren’t seen for years.

Other notable failures in recent memory include New Coke, Betamax, the Edsel, the Spruce Goose, prohibition, the Hindenburg, the Titanic, Ask Jeeves, and lots of other failures we could think of.

The father of human failure was Adam, the first man, who had a son named Cain, who would go on to even greater failure. And frankly, where God is concerned, we’re still failing every day and at every opportunity.

No matter how hard we try, no matter how much we learn, no matter how “evolved” we humans think we are, we can’t remake ourselves and our world into that perfect place God created 6,000 plus years ago, by ourselves.

2 Timothy 3: 7 – “Ever learning and never able to come to the meaning of truth.”

Four engineers, a mechanical engineer, a chemical engineer, an electrical engineer, and a computer engineer, all working for the same major corporation, were travelling to an industrial convention when the car they were driving, broke down.

“Sounds to me as if the pistons have seized. We’ll have to strip down the engine before we can get the engine working again,” said the mechanical engineer.

“Well,” said the chemical engineer, “It sounded to me as if the fuel may have been contaminated. I think we should drain the gas tank and clean out the fuel system.”

“I thought it might be a grounding problem,” said the electrical engineer, “or maybe faulty spark plugs.”

They all turned to the computer engineer, who hadn’t said a thing, and asked, “Well, what do you think?” “Hmm, perhaps if we all get of the car for a moment, and then get back in again?”

None of these educated men could diagnose and accurately fix the car. They failed.

Back to Adam. The fall was a tremendous loss for humanity and each of us. We lost the perfection of creation and anything we do is soiled in sin. Since we can never recover that perfection or overcome that sin for ourselves God had a plan to help us do so.

Listen to the words of Jesus from the Gospel of John, chapter 10, verses 11-18:

"I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away--and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep.

I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep.

I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.

For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father."

Jesus is successful – He didn’t fail in anything He attempted. He fully satisfied and glorified the Father in all things.

When it comes to success on our behalf Jesus accomplishes, or is successful in at least 6 things. Now don’t be put off by the words I’m going to use – I assure you they are standard Christian terms the average believer should know, so I am not going to talk down to you.

Jesus accomplished our “ex-pi-ation.”Expiation means the removal of our sin and guilt. Christ’s death removes — expiates — our sin and guilt. The guilt of our sin was taken away from us and placed on Christ, who discharged it by his death.

In John 1:29, John the Baptist calls Jesus “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” Jesus takes away, that is, expiates, our sins. Likewise, Isaiah 53:6 says, “The Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him,” and Hebrews 9:26 says “He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.”

Jesus was successful at “pro-pi-ti-ation,” as well. Expiation refers to the removal of our sins, propitiation refers to the removal of God’s wrath.

By dying in our place for our sins, Christ removed the wrath of God that we justly deserved. In fact, it goes further: propitiation is not simply sacrifice that removes wrath, but a sacrifice that removes wrath and turns it into favor. 

Hebrews 2:17 says that Christ made “propitiation for the sins of the people,” and 1 John 4:10 says “in this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

A third thing Jesus accomplished was “reconciliation.” Expiation refers to the removal of our sins, propitiation refers to the removal of God’s wrath, and reconciliation refers to the removal of our separation from God. It gives us an opportunity to add success as an option in our life.

Because of our sins, we were separated — from God. Christ’s death removed this problem and reconciled us to God. We see this, for example, in Romans 5:10-11: “For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.”

The fourth success has three parts: redemption. Christ’s death accomplished redemption for us, delivered us from sin and freed us to God’s love.

There are three things we had to be released from: the curse of the law, the guilt of sin, and the power of sin. Christ redeemed us from each of these.

Jesus’ fifth success was the defeat of the Powers of Darkness.

Don’t ever forget that Christ’s death was a defeat of the power of Satan. Colossians 3: 15: “He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in Him.”

We sometimes forget that Satan’s only weapon that can hurt people is unconfessed/unforgiven sin. It’s why we continue to confess as believers as often as we can.

The sixth and final thing I think Jesus accomplished was being our substitute in death on the cross. The reality of substitution is at the heart of the atonement.

Christ accomplished everything we’ve talked about by dying in our place – that is, by dying instead of us. We deserved to die, because of our failure to use the gifts given to us by God the Father, our Creator.  Because we failed God gave us a sentence of death and kicked us out of the Garden of Eden.

Adam made failure the only potential outcome we had, but Jesus changed that when he took our sin upon himself. He became the Kinsman Redeemer of Israel, God’s chosen people, descended from Adam and Eve.

Isaiah says, “he was pierced through for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities . . . the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him” (Isaiah 53: 5-6).

Most of our world knows and thinks of Him as just a Shepherd but we know He is so much more.

A reporter once asked a very wealthy bank president what he attributed his success? "Two words" was the reply. "And, Sir, what are they?" "Right decisions."

The reporter followed up with another question, "And how do you make right decisions?" "One word." "And, sir, What is that?" "Experience."

"And how do you get Experience?" "Two words" "And, Sir, what are they?" "Wrong decisions"

Friends that how we become successful, not in the way the world judges success, but in God’s way: by knowing that as sinners all of our bad decisions  are rendered mute when we trust in Him as our Lord and Savior.

We become perfect in Christ. Amen.