Sermon – Reverend Jack Arnold - Time
and Action
Church of the Faithful Centurion
Descanso, California
Consider
these words from the Collect:
… thy Son,
our Saviour Jesus Christ, to take upon him our flesh, and to suffer death upon
the cross, that all mankind should follow the example of his great humility;
Mercifully grant, that we may both follow the example of his patience, and also
be made partakers of his resurrection…
In the
Collect, we acknowledge God sent His Son to be our Savior. Think about that, the Creator, Lord and
Master of the Universe sent His only Son to live amongst us and not just
provide us with instruction and leadership, but to give His earthly life as a
one time sacrifice for our sin that we might be accounted as perfect in our
final accounting, the resurrection. How
much did God value His Son? Consider
what Paul tells us - Wherefore God also
hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: that
at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in
earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Then,
consider how much God valued His Son and how much He values us that He sent His
Son here to teach us to guide us, to love us, and finally to give His Life for
us that we might be free from the bonds of sin and death. As Paul points out He humbled himself to a
commoner’s death, and not just that of any commoner, but that of a thief. He
effectively took our place physically on the cross, physically in the sense
that we are sinners, and as Paul points out in Romans, the wages for sin is
death. Jesus effectively replaced us and took the wages for sin on our behalf so
we might have everlasting life. Consider how much He valued us then, then
consider how much He loved us that He sent His Son to die that we might have
everlasting life.
With His
sacrifice and the help of the Holy Ghost being breathed into our hearts and
spirits, we too can be a part of His Resurrection. We will, in a way, be a part
of our own resurrection. Our old, selfish selves will die and be replaced by
our new better selves, following Paul’s New Man theory. To accomplish this, we have to stop our
sinful behavior and replace that behavior with more Godly behavior. In other
words, we need to act like God would like us to act and treat our fellow men
and women in accord with His Will.
Jesus has
set the ultimate standard for holding to God’s will. Through the entire Gospel
you see His entire ministry as actions. Not just nice words, but He actually
physically acted and lived up to the nice words He spoke. He expects us to
perform in the same manner, not just talking the talk, but walking the walk. It
is one thing to say you are going to do something, it is quite another thing to
actually perform those actions. Before
you perform any sort of action, take a moment and stop and think about it. Ask
if it is what God wants, if it lives up to something Jesus would do? If it isn’t, then don’t do it. If it is, then
do it. If we are certain in our beliefs
in the Gospel and know the concepts of the Gospel, we will translate that
certainty into our actions which will strengthen our faith.
Jesus knew
what was coming up and where, how and when He would die. He knew it was going
to be a physically and spiritually painful death, Yet, He also knew this was
God’s Will that we might live. If He did
this for you, how can you not follow Him wherever His Will takes you? And
remember His Example, that He knew there would be physically and spiritually
painful consequences yet acted anyway. He is the ultimate example for us to
follow in perilous situations.
Recall
Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem on this day so many years ago. Only Jesus knew of the upcoming crucifixion,
everyone else, including Jews, Romans and His followers, thought he was making
a triumphant entrance in to the city to take control of things and kick the
Roman occupation force out. It was almost a full moon, this was the year of the
Messiah according to Daniel. The natural
events were lining up as Scripture had predicted which preceded the arrival of
the Messiah. Jesus chose the route into
the city, through the King’s Gate. The
people saw Him coming and met him at the Mount of Olives. When He came in through the King’s Gate, the
people were expecting to see their future earthly king. However, they were
incorrect, who they were seeing was and is their heavenly king. Jesus had no
intentions of establishing a Kingdom of this World. He was looking for
followers for the Kingdom of the Next World, of Heaven.
Sunday
was a day of triumph and fulfilled the anticipation of the Jews of a day for
which they had waited four centuries.
The Messiah had finally come, at the time predicted by scripture. They were certain He would free them from the
burdensome and cruel yoke of Roman rule.
The Jews would finally be on top of the power pyramid. They would rule the world under Him! As the week went on, they found that was not
to be. He did not come to rule this
world, but to bring us to His World. He came to give them the key to eternal
salvation. This is a far more important gift than to have power temporarily and
for a short time. This is more precious than any earthly jewel, riches or
rainment one can ever find here on planet Earth. He came to take them from this
veil of tears to a state of perfect freedom.
They wanted someone to throw the Romans out and all God sent them was
the key to eternal life. What a
disappointment! But to us, it is not a
disappointment.
It
is a gift of great joy, the fact is we should be all rights dead and headed for
the pit, instead headed to a kingdom of joyfulness and laughter and all
pleasant things, and a world that will be far better than our pitiful
shadowland here. This is indeed the most valuable of all gifts we will ever
receive in our lifetime.
By the way,
the Chief Priests, who had so much invested in their 613 laws, likely searched
far and wide for the crowd to convict Jesus of the crimes they imagined against
their system. Their system, not
God’s. Remember, there are none so blind
as those who will not see. They would
not see because what was being shown to them was a new way that would interfere
with their comfortable way of living. A
new way that asked of them, no demanded of them, accountability unto God for
their actions. Know the crowd was not a self-forming group naturally set on
condemning Jesus, but a handpicked gang.
At the same time, many of those in the crowd who condemned Him the
morning of Good Friday were in the crowd that welcomed Him to Jerusalem on Palm
Sunday. What a difference five days can
make.
Make no
mistake, we are that crowd. And, like
Pilate, no matter what we say, we cannot wash our hands of the
responsibility. Thus, we must separate
ourselves from the crowd. Separate, that
is to make ourselves holy, set aside.
When the
time comes, how will you ACT?
It is by
our actions we are known.
Be of God - Live of God - Act of God
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