Community Covenant Church - Sermons

December 10. 2006

CCC Hopkinton Advent #2

Life Together

Philippians 1:3-11

Jenny Thompson is not a “name” many people recognize, but she is a person whose accomplishments illustrate life together in the church. For while her accomplishments illustrate excellence, they also illustrate the context of that excellence.

Despite her lower profile, Jenny Thompson is the most decorated American when it comes to Olympic competition. In fact, her twelve Olympic medals in swimming means that she has won more medals in swimming than any other Olympic athlete of any nation.

What makes her story most interesting to me is that eight of those twelve Olympic medals were gold, however, she didn't win any of those golds in individual events; rather, she won them in team events. And while some people have noted the fact that Jenny never experienced the joy of experiencing “individual gold”, one need only watch Olympic replay of Jenny’s team-wins to recognize the special nature of the joy she did experience.. a joy that is truly and completely shared with co-laborers.

In a world where even team sports like baseball and football, are filled with ego-driven athletes vying for individual spotlights and one-of-a-kind salaries, Jenny Thompson is a marvelous example of a person whose genuine success came in the context of team play.

And this is how the church is to work, as well. True joy occurs when we participate as part of a winning team, and because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, that is exactly what the Church is in this world, the winning team. Citation: Jon Mutchler, Ferndale, Washington, from AP reports (September 2000) (modified & updated 2006)

This morning as we note the joy we receive in Jesus coming, we recognize that this is a special joy we experience in the context of the Church community.

Listen to the feelings expressed by the Apostle Paul, even as he sat chained in prison writing to his fellow Christians in Philippi:

Philippians 1:3-11

I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart; for whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God's grace with me. God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.

And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.

We experience a special kind of joy in Christian community, for it is there that God’s power is most obviously at work.

Here are some observations about the joy that is ours because of Jesus:

1. It is a joy that begins with repentance. (Most people in our world would not think about repentance when searching for joy, much less begin there.)

As noted in our reading from Luke, John the Baptist came to prepare the way for God’s salvation in Jesus Christ. Luke noted that at a specific place and time in history...

Luke 3:2b-6

....the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the desert. 3He went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 4As is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet:
   "A voice of one calling in the desert,
   'Prepare the way for the Lord,
      make straight paths for him.
5Every valley shall be filled in,
      every mountain and hill made low.
   The crooked roads shall become straight,
      the rough ways smooth.
6And all mankind will see God's salvation.' "

As people around the world celebrate a cultural-kind of joy in Jesus’ birth, the joy Christians share begins as we prepare to receive Jesus through repentance, for it is only in that setting to we fully understand God’s gift to us in Jesus.

The other evening I had a “God moment”, a time when, for whatever reason, God chose me to participate in His great work of salvation. I was getting ready to leave on Friday when the phone rang. A young man, totally unknown to me, was crying out for help. He needed to talk, and from earlier conversations with Christians, he knew he needed to at last give His heart to Jesus.

Long-story short, we met in my office, and He prayed that Jesus would take control of his life. His personal sins had finally impacted his life in such a powerful way that he realized his inability to control his own life. And at that point of realization, this young man did what we must all do to enter into the joy of the Lord; he repented from his sinful ways; he repented from his false belief that he could control his own life and earn the “gold medal of life” all on his own.

A lot of people have that false belief... thinking they both know the right way to life and have the power to achieve all that life has in store for them. But these individuals are blinded to the reality of sin, and the effect their own sin has upon their lives. That is, until they are broken by their own sin: their greed, their lust, their addictions, their lies.....

A museum in Italy has on display four partially finished sculptures, unfinished works Michelangelo originally intended to use on the tomb of Pope Julius. Midway through the project he decided not to use them, so he ceased working on them. There is a hand protruding out of one granite block, a torso of a man emerging from another, a leg in a third, and part of a head on the fourth, but none are finished.

When you see these works, one senses the turmoil, the struggle embodied in these sculptures. It is as though they are crying to break free from the prison of the marble to become what they were fully intended to be.

Michelangelo called these unfinished works "The Captives" and he wrote, "When I looked at those partial figures, they stirred up in me a deep longing to be completed—an ache to be set free from that which distorts and disguises, imprisons and inhibits my humanness, my wholeness. But as with those statues, I cannot liberate myself. For that I need the hand of another."

John H. Stevens, "His Liberating Touch," Discipleship Journal (July/August 1984) modified

When we come to that recognition of how our sins have entombed our life, and cry out to God in repentance, then we invite our Creator to set us free, and it is in the setting of Christian community that His Spirit begins to chisels away. And both those whom God uses to chisel, and those who are being set free from their bondage to sin, experience that communal joy that begins with repentance.

Have you entered into that unique joy God offers to us, by giving him fully control of your life? Are you working with God to make necessary changes; to rid yourself from the evil that is within, and joyfully embrace all that is godly?

Jonathan Edwards, that celebrated New England revivalist of the 18th-century, was know for writing resolutions by which he would live his life. By his death, he had 70 resolutions... action items, if you will, describing ways to change his life for the better.

But unlike most of the resolutions people make and break shortly after New Years, Edwards had written at the top of his list of resolution the following: "Being sensible that I am unable to do anything without God's help, I do humbly entreat him by his grace to enable me to keep these resolutions.”

Edwards not only lead revival in New England, but recognized his need for repentance; to change the direction of elements in his life, and by regularly seeking God’s help and grace in the process.

Jan Brown, Christianity Online Connection (1-8-99) modified

The joy we have as Christians begins with repentance, and secondly:

2. It is a joy that grows as we experience grace together.

As the Apostle Paul wrote:

It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart; for whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God's grace with me. (Philippians 1:7)

How do we share in God’s grace”? Well, like our Lord we both welcome people just as they are, but we also offer ourselves for God to use in healing one another’s brokenness. In summary I’ve often described godly grace as:

- An open and transforming grace.

It is a grace that allows kids to be kids, youth to be youth and adults to be adults, but always holds up a higher godly goal for which to strive.

For a moment, take yourself out of the context of church and religion, and remember your school days. For in many ways teachers are asked to exercise an open and transforming grace as they welcome in students every fall with all their social and learning issues, and then push them toward personal maturity and a deeper understanding of their world.

My guess is that if you took time to remember your favorite teachers, he or she was a person who went out of their way to love you and accepted you, but also to challenge you to accomplish significant things in your time together. At the time, students don’t mind getting an “easy” teacher.... but in the end, those who are memorable are those who helped us to change for the better. Right?

Today I am afraid to say that many people are looking for “easy churches”... religious fellowships that may love you as you are, but do not hold out the transformation that is possible only through repentance and a gracious environment that pushes us to become more like Christ Jesus our Lord.

The joy we have in Jesus is a joy that grows as we experience grace together; an open and transforming grace, and also

- A grace that is committed for the long-haul

One way teachers are not like Christians, is that at the end of the year, they can say “goodbye” to their students with all of their social and learning challenges. But God, and therefore his children, are in it for the long-haul. And that long-haul gives us a unique perspective and an uncommon joy when we are able to see things changing for the better:

- when the long-time searcher at last steps out with faith

to believe,

- when struggling marriages become solid,

- when new Christians mature into church leaders

- when troubled children go into youth ministry,

- even, when a pastor’s office begins to look better organized.

>>. Sometimes there are changes you can only see and experience in the long-haul.... and those who become impatient and leave, miss out on the joy.

Theologians have a not-so-technical phrase for describing the status of Christians who at the same time have been redeemed by God’s grace, and yet are still being transformed day by day until they get to heaven. It’s called "The already and the not yet." And when a church family has the grace to live in “the already and the not yet”, we will have opportunity to experience the joy of God.

The Apostle Paul wrote in:

Philippians 1:9-10

And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ,

Finally, consider one final observation about the joy we have in Jesus. And that is:

3. It is a joy that allows God to accomplish His work in us.

Do you remember the questions from the Prophet Malachi?

Malachi 3:2-3a

But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner's fire or a launderer's soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; .....

These are powerful, even frightening words, describing God’s work of transformation in the lives of His children. Our youth should be very happy to hear that they are not the only ones changing day by day, but that we as adults are also being spiritually bent and twisted by God until the day we die. For as we all “fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23), everyday God is at work trying to make us more and more like Jesus. As Paul wrote to Titus:

Titus 2:11-14

For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.

And why is God’s work of purifying us so important? Let me come back to Michelangelo for a second:

The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel is one of his greatest artistic triumphs. For four year, from 1508 to 1512, Michelangelo lay on his back and painted. But his magnificent art started to fade almost immediately behind the soot of candles and chimneys. Within a century of completing his work, no one remembered what his original frescoes had really looked like.

Twenty-five years ago a scaffold was erected to clean those frescoes.. The result was stunning. No one had imagined that beneath centuries of grime lay such vibrant colors. For many people, Michelangelo was an artist known as a master of form, but now, as his work was fully released from being entombed by soot, the artist was revealed also as a master of color.

Al Janssen, The Marriage Masterpiece (Tyndale, 2001); submitted by Kevin Miller, vice president, Christianity Today International (modified)

As God completes His work in us, we in turn do what we were always created to do... to glorify God.... to reveal God as fully as we can in this world... When we allow God into our hearts... giving Him fully control, our continually-transforming lives will reveal a God of righteousness, a God of love, a God of grace, a God of unlimited power to offer abundant life to all. And as He does so, we experience the joy of our transformations together.

On this second Sunday of Advent, let us begin celebrating our joy in Jesus with repentant hearts and within a gracious church family defined by both openness and challenge. Let us allow God to work powerfully in this place, so that others will come to know Him and believe in His salvation. AMEN

Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION (r).