Forget the Channel » Death

Is God Green Part 1: God, the World and Jesus

Lionel — Wed, 04 May 2011 09:00:06 +0000

I’ve preached this series a number of times over the years – here’s the latest edition (this time with a slightly croaky voice). Before you listen to the talk, you might find it helpful to read this introductory piece which contains the things I didn’t have time to include in the sermon.

Thanks to Sandy Grant for providing the idea for the title – and his encouragement for me to put this series together in the first place.

Talk Outline

The Broken Image of God (Genesis 3)
Jesus is The Man (Hebrews 2:6-10)
The true Image of God (Colossians 1:15-20)
The renewed Image of God (Colossians 3)

And while I’m at it – here’s another Easter sermon illustration

Lionel — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 12:55:20 +0000

To follow up from my previous post:

BBC News – World’s oldest man Walter Breuning dies in US aged 114.

The world’s certified oldest man, whose advice to others included the observation “you’re born to die”, has passed away aged 114 in the US.

Free Easter Day Sermon Illustration / Introduction

Lionel — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 17:36:57 +0000

I’m not preaching on Easter Day this year. But if I were, I’d be using this as my sermon illustration and/or introduction.

BBC News – ‘Oldest’ marathon runner Buster Martin dies

A London man who claimed to be the world’s oldest marathon runner has died.

…

He features in a film by American documentary-maker Mark Wexler being released in the US in May, called How to Live Forever.

…

A biography on the website for the film that features Mr Martin, described him as “Britain’s oldest working man” and said he enjoyed “a beer or two and 20 cigarettes daily”.

Since I can’t use it, this story is now going free to a good home. Enjoy!

Before you criticise any past writer, remember…

Lionel — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 14:13:39 +0000

The biggest difference between today’s writing and the writing of the past is that writers are no longer put to death. Writers nowadays could never dream of having to die for what they have written. Even if writerly execution was not always common, the possibility of death was implicit in every act of writing. The zone within which writers worked was marked out by this juridical possibility. But in the West today there is no writing for which a person could conceivably be executed. This alters the whole nature of scholarly inquiry. It is also partly responsible for the bloodless mediocrity of most contemporary writing.

Ben Myers. See the full post.

God, the universe and all that: Part 5

Lionel — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 12:54:44 +0000

From the Sola Panel

This is the fifth instalment of a five-part series (Read parts 1, 2, 3 and 4)

We’ve been looking at Psalm 8 and Hebrews 2, and have discovered that Jesus provides the solution to the puzzle of Psalm 8.

Where do we see Jesus? We see him in the Gospels, those records and witnesses to Jesus’ life, death on the cross and resurrection from the dead. The Gospels form the first four books of our New Testaments. And as we look at this man Jesus Christ in those Gospels, we see something very significant: we actually see (if we look at this testimony closely) that God himself became human: Jesus, the Son of God.

This is the reason that we are important to God. It’s because God actually became one of us. God, the creator and designer—the one who is far above and beyond even the 70 sextillion stars—the one whose hands hold the universe—the one for whom and by whom this same universe exists—became human. He became one of us—one of the specks of dust—one of the small, pitiful creatures. He became a baby and grew. And he did it “because of the suffering of death” (Heb 2:9b).

Just as our very existence and value in this universe is a real problem, so too is the fact that suffering and death is also a problem. The Bible doesn’t give us final and neat reasons for suffering and death—especially when it comes to individual cases. But it does tell us that suffering and death are all finally bound up with our rejection of God himself. The fact that we have abandoned our responsibility and ceased to live as God desires means that we are subject to death.

Death is not the way the world should be. It’s wrong. You will know this if you have ever experienced the death of a loved one, relative or friend, as well as thought about your own impending death. But the Bible says that death is all bound up with this terrible reality—the reality that we, as individuals and as a race, have taken our importance for granted and have used it to pretend that we are God, choosing to define our own lives. Death is, in the end, God’s judgement against our rejection of him—our abandonment of who we are, our ignoring of him and our playing God ourselves. Death now; death forever.

But what has Jesus done about death? Again, take a look at the same verse: “so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone” (Heb 2:9c). God’s Son became one of us because of God’s grace—his lavish, undeserved love for us. The reason you matter to the God who made the countless stars and supernovas is not because you’re big or good or important to the running of the universe; it’s simply because he decided to love you. And he showed his love in an incredible way: Jesus, in becoming one of us, tasted death for us. Although he was God himself, the perfect human being, he also suffered. He died. He died, in fact, an agonizing death on a Roman cross. And he did it for us, in our place.

What does that mean for us? “For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering” (Heb 2:10). Jesus died to bring us back to God. Because Jesus has suffered the consequences of God’s judgement, we don’t need to face God’s final judgement against us. Because Jesus died, he has made us ‘sons’, which means heirs—children of God. Those who trust Jesus—those who belong to Jesus—will have ‘salvation’, which means escape from God’s judgement—escape, in the end, from death itself.

Jesus died to bring us to glory—to finally ‘crown us with glory and honour’, as the song goes (Ps 8:5). This means everlasting life in a new creation that God will make—a place where there is no suffering or death, where there is no judgement from him, where we live rightly as God’s children and where we will know him finally and perfectly.

Jesus, who has suffered and been made perfect, has risen from the dead and is now alive. He himself is crowned with glory and honour. One day those who trust in him and know him will see him as he is.

What is your response to this? Do you know Jesus? Do you trust Jesus? Do you believe that the riddle of our existence is actually found, not in yourself, but in him?

Comments on the Sola Panel

Be careful what you promise

Lionel — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 09:29:43 +0000

On the Sola Panel:

Do you know for sure that you are going to be with God in Heaven? If God were to ask you, “Why should I let you into My Heaven?” what would you say?

Have you ever used these questions (or a variation on them) to talk about the impact of the gospel of Jesus Christ with friends or strangers? They are the introductory questions in the well-known gospel explanation associated with Evangelism Explosion (EE). They’ve proved themselves to be a very popular way to start a serious discussion about our relationship with God. We assume that people in our world have given at least some thought to their own death and eternal destiny. These questions help us to show how the gospel, with its strong emphasis on assurance of future salvation through Jesus (e.g. 1 Thess 1:10, Heb 9:27-28, 1 Pet 1:3-5), provides a clear answer to important issues.

But, perhaps, not any more: XEE, the next generation version of Evangelism Explosion, starts with quite a different set of questions:

On a Scale of 1 to 10, how fulfilling would you say your life is?

What makes it an X? Would it change in either direction if God were in your life?

The key Bible verse for XEE is John 10:10: “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly”. The emerging generations, according to XEE, no longer think very much about death or the afterlife; people care more about the now-life. Futility or fulfilment today matters more than fear or hope for tomorrow. And so, if we want people to listen to our explanation of the gospel, we need to start with something that people today actually care about. You can have a fulfilling life, says XEE, by having a relationship with God through Jesus. XEE’s presentation does, of course, say that this “life to the full” is not just about our circumstances, feelings, or quality of life; it also says that it continues beyond the grave. Nevertheless, XEE’s overall emphasis is the fact that Jesus gives us fulfilment in life now.

The creators of XEE have made a serious effort to understand the real concerns of real people whom we want to hear the gospel, and we should applaud them for it. There is an advantage to beginning a gospel presentation by addressing a felt need in your hearer(s). It makes evangelism much easier because it means you can start up a genuine conversation quickly on a topic that matters to them. But I have a question for users of XEE. In fact, I have a question for anyone who has tried to use ‘fulfilment in life’ as a good way to begin a discussion about Jesus. That question is this: how do you deal with the fact that most people’s idea of ‘fulfilment’ is so utterly different to the kind of fulfilment Jesus talks about?

The idea of ‘fulfilment’ in today’s world is incredibly ambiguous. It is usually associated with careers, family, sexual relationships and education. If you ask somebody whether they’d like ‘fulfilment’, that’s the kind of thing they’re most likely to be thinking about initially. However, Jesus’ view of ‘abundant life’, or life ‘to the full’ (John 10:10), is very different. In John’s Gospel, ‘full’ or ‘abundant’ life is eternal life (John 3:15, 4:14, 4:36, 6:40, 6:68). Even though this abundant life is available now through Jesus’ word (John 5:24, 8:31-32, 14:23, 15:3-4) and Spirit (John 4:23, 7:38), it ultimately means life beyond death (John 5:21, 5:25). The ‘full’ life of John 10:10 is about being saved from God’s judgement for our sins (John 3:16-17, 3:36, 5:24, 5:29, 7:24, 10:9). Actually, people who came to Jesus expecting material benefits for their own daily life needed to be corrected (John 4:15, 6:27). Many of them turned away from him because he has disappointed them in this regard (John 6:66). Indeed, in the here and now, Jesus promises his disciples hardship, persecution and hatred by the world (John 15:18, 17:14), not just the benefits of a fulfilling relationship with God.

So if you begin your discussion about Jesus by asking people whether they feel fulfilled in life, and if you imply that the gospel is the answer to this need, you’re going to have a much harder job further down the track. You’ll have to show people that the Bible’s idea of a fulfilled life is completely different from what they first expected when you started talking to them about ‘fulfilment’. How do you avoid the confusion? Talking about ‘fulfilment in life’ might be more instantly accessible to post-Christian generations. And it clearly makes initial conversations easier. But is it, in the long run, going to cause more problems than it solves?

I’m not saying that we should only ever use the ‘classic’ EE questions about getting into heaven either. In fact, these questions have their own pitfalls. Because they begin with human concerns about the afterlife rather than with God himself, they run the risk (if not used properly) of marginalizing Jesus’ demand on our lives and making the gospel sound like a mere ‘free ticket to heaven’. Nevertheless, there are also great advantages to these classic questions. They are clear and direct. They imply that there is a personal God, that this God will judge us, and that there is an afterlife that really matters. This means that they can potentially generate discussion that quickly gets to the heart of some of these central biblical concerns. On the other hand, as the creators of XEE have realized, these questions assume too much in a post-Christian world. Can we really take for granted that our hearers have a clear view of God, judgement and heaven before we start to share the gospel with them?

Perhaps there are alternative questions we could use to start up a conversation—questions that make sense without being confused with promises that Jesus simply doesn’t make. Perhaps we could talk about people’s fear of death in general. (According to Hebrews 2:15, the fear of death itself is a basic feature of human existence, not just a generational thing. The fear of death is certainly a common theme in much contemporary fiction; just look at the Harry Potter series, which is all about the terror of death, from the first book to the last.) Or have you discovered other means to talk quickly and easily about the impact of the gospel in ways that make sense to our current generation?

Comments on the Sola Panel

Jesus and Cancer

Lionel — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 09:42:21 +0000

A talk given by Lionel Windsor at a Cancer Council Biggest Morning Tea on 31 May, 2007, at the home of Keith and Pam Gregory, of St Michael’s Anglican Cathedral, Wollongong.

Acknowledgements

I count it such a privilege to be able to take part in this morning tea. It is so impressive, this enormous effort being made by the Cancer Council to eradicate this horrible disease.

I’m sure each person in this room has been touched by cancer in one way or another. I can count at least 5 or 6 people I know who have suffered from cancer. A very good friend of mine who recovered from a cancer of the knee. My wife’s uncle is right now suffering from a brain tumour. And there are so many others.

There are many things we could say about cancer and sickness and suffering in general. But Pam has asked me to speak briefly this morning about Jesus and his own teaching and experience of disease and death recorded for us in the Bible. We’ll look at some of those experiences and teachings from Jesus. I hope you will agree that if there’s anybody who’s qualified to talk about sickness and death, it’s Jesus! For Jesus came into such close contact with so many suffering people, some of whom had those long-drawn out battles with sickness, perhaps even cancer (although the word itself doesn’t appear in the Bible). And of course, Jesus himself suffered. He himself went through the suffering of immense pain and death.

When it comes to suffering, Jesus is somebody who knows, who sympathises, who cares.

Jesus knows that sickness and death is dreadful

The first passage records the actions of Jesus, when he came to the tomb of his friend Lazarus, who had died of a terminal illness. Here we see how much Jesus knows that sickness and death is dreadful:

When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. “Where have you laid him?” he asked. “Come and see, Lord,” they replied. Jesus wept. Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”

Do you notice how Jesus reacts to the sickness and death of his friend here? He doesn’t avoid it, does he? He wanted to see where Lazarus was laid. He doesn’t try to minimize the enormity of it.

Why are you here at this morning tea? I suspect it’s because you know that cancer is dreadful. You know that to deal with it, we need to do more than just change the subject, or close our eyes, or escape into entertainment. You’re here because you want to help to face up to it, and deal with it. Well, Jesus faces up, fair and square, to the dreadfulness of disease and death. He doesn’t try to sweep it under the carpet. And he doesn’t offer empty words of comfort. No, he is deeply moved in spirit and troubled, he weeps. The words are even stronger in the original language: it’s not that Jesus just felt a bit disturbed and shed a little tear. He’s furious and stirred up! When asked to come and see the grave, he bursts into sobbing tears! Jesus knows that sickness and death, including cancer, is dreadful.

But why does he think it is so dreadful? Part of the answer comes in that last sentence:

‘See how he loved him!’

Jesus wept Because of his love for his friend Lazarus.

When we are touched by cancer and other drawn-out illnesses, it often clarifies and crystallises our priorities, doesn’t it? Cancer can give us the opportunity to ask ourselves what is truly important. Just recently, a colleague of mine called Byron Smith was writing about his own experience of cancer. He wrote of the shock, the sadness, the pain; but also those moments of insight, and joy at the love of family and friends. What makes life worthwhile? So often, the answer is love: relationships, friendships. They make life worthwhile. And when we realize that, it can really give us deep joy in relationships, as friends and family gather around and we express true care for each other. But sadly, it can also deepen the grief; as broken or neglected relationships in our lives make us sad beyond measure. And even more acutely, we face the possibility of our good relationships being broken by death. That’s why Jesus’ love caused him to burst into tears in the face of death.

Jesus says there is something even worse than sickness and death

And because Jesus knew that relationships are what makes life worthwhile, Jesus also taught that there is something even worse than sickness and death. Jesus says,

‘I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be, you will indeed die in your sins.’ (John 8:24)

Jesus spoke again and again about a problem that he called ‘sin’. ‘Sin’ means a broken relationship with God. And a broken relationship with God is even worse than sickness and death. The Bible teaches that sin is, in fact, the root cause of all our death and sickness. The reason we live in bodies that are subject to cancer (and so many other terrible diseases) actually stems from our broken relationship with God.

When I say the word ‘sin’, I’m not just talking about wrong actions I don’t mean just things like drinking too much or swearing or lying. I’m talking about a whole attitude of life. Our desire to live life our own way without God. Our uncaring lethargy towards our loving maker. Our betrayal of his goodness to us by using his world and other people for our own selfish purposes.

The reason our bodies are subject to sickness and death in the first place is because we are living in a world that has turned its back on God. Sin is like cancer, but far more pervading. It eats away at us from the inside, and spreads through our whole bodies. It affects each one of us in different ways. But sin is, in fact, the root cause of all our other problems. So when Jesus wept at death and sickness, his tears were not just because of the suffering he saw right in front of him. It’s because this particular death crystallized for him the underlying problem: people with a broken relationship with God. People trapped in sin. People ultimately facing God’s judgment for rejecting him.

Jesus says there is something far greater than just staying alive

If you have been touched by cancer, you yourself may have discovered afresh that relationships are what makes life worthwhile. If cancer has taught you to savour the joy of love and friendship, and to weep at the bitterness of broken relationships, then Jesus wants you to know how much more significant is a relationship with God. Because in knowing that, in facing up to that, there is the true hope of a solution, a cure. Jesus knows that there is something worse than sickness and death. But Jesus also says the there is something far greater than just staying alive. And that is the real possibility of a restored relationship with God. This is the thing that makes life truly worthwhile. Do you see these words of Jesus?

Jesus said to [Martha], “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” “Yes, Lord,” she told him, “I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world.” (John 11:25-27)

What did Jesus mean when he said, ‘I am the resurrection and the life’? That’s a strange thing to say, isn’t it? Resurrection means coming back to life from the dead. Life beyond death, beyond sickness, beyond suffering. Jesus is saying that in him is the cure, not only to sickness, but to the problem of death itself. To the problem of our broken relationship with God.

Mary and Martha and Lazarus and Jesus knew the pain of this world; the unfairness of death, the dreadfulness of disease. But Jesus is claiming to be the ultimate cure for all death and suffering. Jesus claims that his own death and resurrection means that he has dealt with sin once and for all. That he has brought forgiveness for us, and enabled us to be back in a relationship with God. Jesus’ own death and resurrection is a radical treatment for a radical problem.

And if you trust him, if you put your life into his hands, you can be forgiven, completely. And you can look forward to everlasting life! You can have a certain hope of life, truly free of sickness and pain. That is Jesus’ promise: an eternity with him, in a new creation, free of any disease and death. Yes, life is good, but there is something far better than just staying alive.

I would so love to see a cure for cancer, wouldn’t you? Wouldn’t it be wonderful? Let’s try to enable it to happen. But we actually need more than a cure for cancer, don’t we? We need a reason to live. Life is more than the absence of disease, isn’t it? It is the things that make life worthwhile: relationships with people, the joy of family and friends. And most of all, a relationship with God. The great news of the Bible, is that Jesus has actually given us the cure for the underlying cause of sickness and death. He has restored our relationship with God.

I don’t know exactly why you are facing your own personal struggles today. There are no promises in the Bible that you won’t be affected by cancer in this life. But there is a promise far more satisfying and profound for those who trust in Jesus. It’s called resurrection, life in new bodies, in a new and wonderful creation, living forever in a perfect relationship with God. And it’s a promise that gives meaning even to our suffering now. In fact, Jesus could have kept Lazarus from dying, just as Mary had said. But in this instance, Jesus even allowed Lazarus to die so he could demonstrate that there was something far better than even life in this world. He allowed Lazarus to suffer further pain and death, so that he could bring him back from the dead, and show everyone his power to do that for each one of us. Jesus did that, because he knew how important it was for people to see the cure he offers: forgiveness, a relationship with God, resurrection.

I myself first heard of the forgiveness that is available in Jesus through a lady called Reta Round. Reta just recently passed away at the age of 89 after a long battle with throat cancer. In the last stages of her life it was painful for her to speak. I attended the funeral, and let me say, though it was tinged with deep sadness, it was a funeral full of joy and hope. For I know Reta trusted in Jesus—it was obvious to all. Like Martha, she knew that Jesus was the Son of God, come into the world. She knew that her life here on this earth had its share of suffering. But she had that firm hope of forgiveness, of everlasting life, based securely on the man who died and was raised to life, to cure our sin, to give us perfect forgiveness, and to remove death and suffering forever. And we know that we will see her again at the resurrection – a relationship restored and made perfect forever. It gave her joy that outshone even her dreadful suffering. And I do pray that you know this certain hope as well.

Like to know more?

You can find the whole touching story of Jesus’ encounter with sickness and death in the Bible, in John 11.

The book, Making the Most of the Rest of Your Life, by John Chapman, will help you to think about important issues of life, death, and life after death (57 pages. Published 2007 by Matthias Media, Sydney).

If you have access to the Internet, look at Byron Smith’s website. A young Christian man who has suffered from a carcinoma in the chest, Byron has many helpful insights for those who are affected by cancer. For example:

there are things that are worse than death. There are things more important than simply staying alive. And so while I have always wanted to do things that help me survive, I don’t want that effort to dominate my life and thought.

Why do I think there are things worse than death, things better than life? Because Jesus seems to have thought so too. He loved life as God’s good gift, but for Jesus, trusting and obeying the giver came before preserving the gift. When faced with the choice of obedience or survival, he prayed ‘not my will but yours be done’. He could have run. He could have kept his head down. He didn’t have a death-wish – he knew that death sucks. But he also knew there was something worse than death: a life that failed to trust God.

Death is bad, but untrusting anxiety, apathetic lethargy, bitter regret, faithless betrayal: these are the real enemies of God and humanity. These will blunt and bleed the soul, poison the spirit, and stop the heart more surely and grievously than the cessation of brainwaves and breath.”

Thanks

Thank you to David Ould, Sarah Powell, Ben Gooley, Pete Greenwood, Dave Philpott, Anthony Douglas, Lillian McKeown, Dan King, Linden Fooks, Lewis Jones, Glenn Hohnberg, Cameron Blair, Mike Greenwood, Andrew Mahaffey and Lee Turnbull who all provided helpful input to this talk.

Funeral Message for Angela Janice Richards, aged 1½

Lionel — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 23:11:53 +0000

On Tuesday 14th July at 11am, I had the sad privilege of speaking the message at the funeral for my 1½-year old niece. The funeral was held at Kurrajong Anglican Church.

Angela (1 November, 2007 – 9 July, 2009) had been suffering from a serious chromosomal abnormality all her life. You can read some of her story here.

The Bible passage (John 14:1-7) was read by Dominic Steele, a Christian minister and family friend of my sister and brother-in-law, who baptised Angie in hospital a short time before the first of her many operations.

Edit 17/7/09: The first ~4 minutes of the MP3 is Dominic giving a brief introduction and reading the passage. My sermon begins at about 3 min, 50 sec.

A special thanks to David Ould who provided invaluable feedback in the drafting stage of the talk.