Taking The church Back To Square One
Pastor Bill Oudemolen
August 6, 2006

Continuing our study in I Corinthians, we come to a chapter that almost seems out of place, or it doesn’t seem to flow from the rest of the argument that Paul presents.  Hopefully, we’ll make some sense of that.  Those of you, who know your Bibles very well, know that I Corinthians, chapter 15, is all about the resurrection.  Paul describes this as a doctrine of first importance.  I hope you hold that already and you’ll be fortified in that belief.  If you don’t, then maybe God will speak to you and you will become convinced today.

I Corinthians 15:1, “Now brothers, I want to remind you of the Gospel I preach to you which you received and on which you have taken your stand.”

 I love that phrase, “on which you have taken your stand.”  There are so few people in our culture today who seem to be willing to take a stand on anything.  We’ll talk more about that this morning.

I Corinthians 15:2  “By this Gospel, you are saved if you hold firmly to the word I preach to you.  Otherwise, you have believed in vain, for what I’ve received I’ve 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 according to the scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter and then to the twelve.  After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living though some have fallen asleep.”

By the way, some who had seen Jesus were still alive at that time.  Some people think that this turn-around, timewise, was twenty-five years or so.  Can you imagine it?  That there was someone among these witnesses who had actually seen the living Christ?  Look at verse 7. “Then He appeared to James…”  Most scholars agree that this is the brother of Jesus who eventually became the pillar and foundation of the Jerusalem Church. 

I Corinthians 15:7  “Then He appeared to James and then to all the apostles and, last of all, He appeared to me, also, as to one abnormally born.”

Paul gives us a real challenge here, because the word there is actually the word for “miscarriage.”  Paul was saying,

 “I was miscarried.  He appeared to me for whom my birth was not a normal thing.  For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God.  But, by the grace of God, I am what I am.” 

And that’s true for every one of us who are in Christ.

 “By the grace of God, I am what I am, and His grace to me was not without effect.  No, I worked harder than all of them, yet it was not I, but the grace of God that was with me.  Whether then it was I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.”

Father, as we contemplate this portion of scripture, thank you for your Word.  Thank you, Lord, that we don’t have to go on someone’s musings today, or someone’s topical theme, or come up with some positive thinking subject that will make everybody feel good.  Thank you so much for the power and authority and the clarity of your Word.  And thank you Father, that we can find a place to stand.  And thank you, Lord, for this church which has stood throughout several decades now with a passion to stand for the Word of God.  I pray, Lord, that it would never cease—that we would not only be Foothills Bible Church in name, but in the way that we live out our life in ministry on a daily basis.  Lord, we pray this today for your glory and we ask it in Jesus’ name.  Amen.

In his weekly standard column for July 26, 2006, Jim Tonkowich tells about attending two church conferences that summer.  One was the Presbyterian Church USA General Assembly, and the other was the Episcopalian Church General Convention.  Both had occurred this summer and both had produced some very controversial decisions.  You know about some of these because we’ve talked about them.  Here’s what he writes in his column:

“For those who are shocked by this crack-up of the Episcopalian Church, let me explain:  The answer was on a t-shirt I saw while traveling to the conventions, ‘I’m making it up as I go.’  In contrast to Christians through the ages, the denominational mainstream has substituted sentiments for facts, passions for authority, and subjectivity for reason.

“Samples of that: the left—also known as progressive or liberals—base their convictions on individualism, subjectivity, and majority vote with passing references to Scripture and creeds. The religious right—also known as traditionalists, conservatives, and evangelicals—insist on submission to the authority of the Bible and of historic confessions, regardless of contemporary preferences.”

He talks about the new head of the Episcopalian Church and the Presiding Bishop announcing, “Our Mother Jesus gives birth to a new creation, and we are his children.”  Just listen to that sentence:  “Our Mother Jesus gives birth to a new creation, and we are his children.”  No doubt many in attendance thought this was wonderfully profound.  Can you see them scratching their heads and saying, “Mmm, how profound!”  The conservatives, however, heard this as gibberish.

In contrast to Christians through the ages, the denominational left has substituted sentiments for facts, passions for authority, and subjectivity for reason.  Their belief seems to be that if they create space for dialogue, it will allow them to emote and vote with the result that a simple majority determines the new revised standard version of God’s truth and will.

The same confusion over truth is rapidly infecting the evangelical world as churches “drink the emerging church Kool-aid.”  Emerging or post-modern church leaders insist that truth is relational and must be experienced.  He said, “I agree.”  And I would add my words, “I agree.”  But to leave it there is to fall into the same subjectivist error in which the mainline denominations are mired.  The traditional understanding is that truth is true even if it is not experienced.  It is true objectively and absolutely.  This is an assertion for which modern people have very little patience.  Having abandoned Christian epistemology and thus Christian truth, the mainline denominations will continue their inexorable drift to the sidelines.  Left and right represent radically different understandings of faith and truth.  It’s the difference between, “Making it up as you go,” and “Thus saith the Lord.”

You cannot miss the fascinating shift of topic by Paul as we approach the end of this letter.  Many of you have been following along with us.  If you haven’t, let me just give you a brief overview.  All the way back to chapter one, the Apostle Paul confronts what was happening in the Corinthian Church—and let me just tell you, it was not a pretty picture.  It was a mess.  This church was guilty of divisions and factions, incest, and divorce, immorality and food fights.  (Should you eat meat offered to idols or not?)  It was guilty of disruption in public worship, and had rebellious church ladies.  (We don’t have any of those here, of course).  They had drunks at the Lord’s Table and spiritual gifts were gone wild.

So now, Paul in response to all of that, after fourteen chapters of saying, “Now concerning this that you wrote about, I say this…,” and “Now concerning this that you wrote about, I say this…” Now he says,

“I have a new subject.”  And this subject (his words, not mine) “is the most important thing I’ve talked about so far.  It is of first importance (his words, not mine) for what I received I passed on to you as of first importance.” 

I don’t know about you, but my guess is the Corinthian Church hearing this letter would have been saying up to this point, “He answered that in the letter,” and “Oh, he answered that in the letter,” and “Remember, we asked about that and he answered that.”  And then they would have been ambushed by chapter 15, because Paul now brings up a heavy and important theological doctrine and for people who were tearing the church apart, Paul decides to preach an Easter sermon.  Why?  I have a very important sentence I want you to hear today.  Because errant belief inevitably leads to inadmissible behavior.  Let me repeat it.  Because errant belief inevitably leads to inadmissible behavior.  The way I put it in the title of my sermon today is this: Paul takes the church back to square one.

Get this.  Christians who veer off course relationally invariably get there because they veered off course theologically.  Paul says it’s time to review the main thing.  Where do I get that?  From chapter 15, verse 3, as I’ve already said, “This is of first importance.”  I’m sure you’ve all heard this saying:  “The main thing is to keep the main thing, the main thing.”  Well, the Corinthians didn’t and look what happened to them.

You see, there are some people in this room who are probably thinking right now that doctrine is not all that important and, you know, doctrine divides and Jesus unites.  So let’s just talk about Jesus and that will make people happy and excited.  You know we can all be happy and love each other and pat each other on the back, so why bring up this doctrine stuff?  Because errant belief inevitably leads to inadmissible behavior, and if you don’t keep the main thing, the main thing, you are going to be a church in trouble.  And if you want evidence of that read the first fourteen chapters of I  Corinthians.  If you don’t keep the main thing, the main thing, you will get in trouble. 

As I contemplate the church scene in America it’s a frightening prospect, because it appears to me that we’re moving away from absolute truth and toward the ability to say, “This is true.” Or the ability to say, “This is what this text means, and this is what the author meant when he said this or wrote this.”  And it has one meaning and one meaning only.

There are people who have weaseled their way into the American church who are suggesting that it is more or less what the text means to you, and if it means something different to you than it means to me, it’s okay because the text will have many meanings.  Boy, that’s a frightening thing to say because what it means to me may not be what it means to you and then I can cut and paste and do whatever I want to with the Scripture.

Paul says, “I want to bring you guys back to square one.  We’ve got to build it on a solid foundation.  We’ve got to build it on doctrine and, if we don’t, we’re going to have all kinds of misbehavior and misconduct within the church.”  That is exactly what had happened there. 

Resurrection, which is the theme of this whole chapter, was a very controversial subject in the Corinthian Church because some of the Corinthian believers had been influenced by their culture.  That’s not an unusual thing.  We have people in our church today who have been impacted by our culture.  The reason that’s important, in this instance to understand this chapter, is because in Corinthian culture, they believed in an after-life.

Many of you know Greek mythology and the teachings of Plato and Aristotle.  You know there was a belief in existence that went beyond this life.  So that was not a problem.  However, the mainstream philosophers did not believe in bodily resurrection—that was all rooted in Platonic dualism.  I don’t mean to get philosophical on you, here, but you’ve got to have this to understand what is going on here.  That Platonic dualism basically says the body is irrelevant.  What happens with bodies is not the main thing because it’s all about the spirit.  There are two parts of a man; the material part and the immaterial part.  The Greek philosophers said that what happens with the body, the material part, doesn’t really matter and what happens with the immaterial part is really it.

So what happens when you die is that you finally shed this baggage you’ve been carrying around with you, this body, and you’re released to become this enlightened spirit.  Now, as a result of that, they developed a spectrum of philosophical perspectives. That went into the spectrum of ascetics where they beat their bodies, subjected their bodies, deprived their bodies, and fasted for unbelievable periods of time to basically say to their bodies, “You don’t matter; you don’t mean anything to me.  If you’re hungry, I’m not going to let you eat anything; and if you want this desire or lust, I’m not going to fulfill it.”

I don’t know about you, but if I were living in that time and was not a Christian, I would have chosen the other end of the spectrum.  Because at the other end of the spectrum was Epicureanism, hedonism, pleasure, leisure, luxury, sensuality and all those things.  So at this end of the spectrum, they were saying, “If this body is just baggage we carry around with us, why not get a little fun out of while you’re here and then, when you die, you get rid of it and that’s it.”

Let me tell you something—that is not the Christian message.  The Christian message is that Jesus was incarnated. 

In John, chapter one:
“The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”  Hmmm, that’s a body!  “And, after He was raised from the dead…” 

Isn’t it interesting that one of the things Jesus did with his disciples was that he said, “You guys got something to eat?”  Now, why in the world did he do that?  To make a point that He had a body and the body has been resurrected.  It is, at its best, a misunderstanding, and at its worst, perverted Platonic dualism, to suggest that the body doesn’t matter—that it is unimportant, or it is not going to be resurrected from the dead.  And, by the way, Paul says later on that if you believe that then Christ has not been raised, and our whole faith is a fraud and doesn’t matter for anything.

Well, how do we know that was going on? 

It’s in verse 12:
“How can some of you say there’s no resurrection of the dead?” 

My answer to that would be: that there were those in the culture who were buying in to the belief that there was no resurrection from the dead. 

Now, in a cultural context, closed to the possibility of a body coming back to life, Paul presents the hope of the church.  Man, this is so great!  Paul takes the Corinthian Church back to square one.  And, as I pondered the plight of the church in America and, particularly our church, this past month, I kept thinking we need to get back to square one.  And when you get back to square one, what do you see?  Well, let me propose a couple of things and then we’ll gather around the Lord’s Table.

First thing you see when you go back to square one, theologically and Biblically, is a place to stand. 

Look at it in verse 1: 

“Brothers, I want to remind you the gospel I preach to you, which you have received, and onwhich you have taken your stand…”

 I was thinking of a children’s song that we sang in Sunday school, and I think adults should keep singing it:  “The B-I-B-L-E, yes that’s the book for me.  I stand alone on the Word of God, the B-I-B-L-E.”

Paul says, “You guys, I was there.  I was there.  I preached the gospel to you and I saw what you did.  You took a stand.”  I love this.  We’re living in a “it’s-not-cool-to-take-a-stand” type of a culture.  We’re living in a wishy-washy, mealy-mouthed, anything-goes, whatever-you-want type of culture.  Where are the people who are saying, “Now, wait a minute.  I’m going to stand on this.”  Oh, we quote Martin Luther who said, “Here I stand, I can do no other,” when the protestant reformation was birthed in this man’s heart.  We quote it with great pride and sing the song, “I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back.”  That’s taking a stand. But how many Christians are willing to take a stand?  The answer to that is that it’s a shrinking number, and it’s frightening to me.

I think I know a couple of reasons why we’re less and less inclined to take a stand.  Number one is that we don’t want to offend anybody.  Boy, is that the culture we live in!?!  Elisabeth Elliot Gren has a great word on this.  She says:

“The current popular notion that judging others is, in itself, a sin leads to such inappropriate maxims as ‘I’m okay, you’re okay.’  It encourages a conspiracy of moral indifference which says, ‘If you never tell me that anything I’m doing is wrong, than I promise I’ll never tell you that anything you’re doing is wrong.”

She’s nailed it right there.  That’s the culture we live in today.  If you will never tell me that anything I’m doing is wrong, then I’ll never tell you that anything that you’re doing is wrong.

Look at verse 2: 
Paul says, “By this Gospel you’re saved if you hold firmly to the Word I preach to you.  Otherwise, you believe in vain.”

How do you read that verse?  Here’s how I read it.  The only way a person is saved is through believing the Gospel.  No discussion, no debate, no argument.  The only way a person is saved is by this Gospel and if you don’t believe this Gospel, then your belief is worthless.  The fire is raging in my soul today, because I believe there’s a movement in our culture—and it has seeped into the church—that is just cowardly and unwilling to stand up for the truth.  We teach our kids to sing, “I stand alone on the Word of God,” and then, as adults, we refuse to do it. 

If I named this guy, everyone in the room would know who it is.  He has a major television ministry, has written books and crowds are flocking.  He had an appearance last June on Larry King and I have the transcript here.  What’s interesting about an appearance on Larry King, is that Larry King knows what the Gospel is.  Now Larry King is not a professing believer, but Billy Graham has been on Larry King’s show so many times that he has heard the Gospel over and over again from Billy Graham.  So when we get a guest on, who professes to be a Christian, he tried to pin him down.  That was the case with this particular individual.

Larry starts out by asking, “Have you always believed?”  He responded, “I’ve always believed.  My parents were good Christian people.  They showed us love in the home.  My parents were the same in the pulpit as they were at home, but I’ve always believed.  I saw it through my parents.  I just grew up believing.”

Now, I’ve already got a theological problem with this guy because nobody always believes.  You come to a place from where you didn’t, and now you do.  You don’t always believe. 

The Bible says, “The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked.  Who can know it?  All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” 

You don’t always believe.  You have a time when you didn’t, and you have a time when you do.  So I already have a problem with it and it gets worse. 

Larry asks, “Don’t you think that if people don’t believe as you believe, they’re somehow condemned?”  (He’s cornering him.) 

He says, “You know I think that happens in our society, but I try not to do that.  I tell people all the time, preached a couple of Sundays about it, I’m for everybody.” (Oh, really?  You’re for everybody!?!)  “You may not agree with me, but it’s not my job to straighten everybody out.”

Then they go on and talk about Billy Graham and all this.  Then Larry King asks, “What if you’re Jewish or Muslim and you don’t accept Christ at all?”  (So Larry knows what he’s doing when he’s asking these questions.) 

And the guy says, “You know, I’m very careful about saying who would and who wouldn’t go to heaven.  I don’t know.”  (Really?) 

Larry King:  “If you believe that you have to believe in Christ, they’re wrong aren’t they?”  (He’s not letting this guy go.)

 “Well, I don’t know if I believe they’re wrong.  Here is what I believe the Bible teaches, and that’s what I believe, but I think that only God will judge a person.  I spent a lot of time in India with my father.  I don’t know all about their religion, but I know they love God, and I don’t know, I’ve seen their sincerity.  So, I don’t know.  I know for me, but I don’t know about them.”

That’s wrong.  That’s way, way, way wrong. 

A place to stand.  Well, we don’t want to offend anybody.  I think there is another side to the coin: We don’t want to be embarrassed.  Apparently, some of the Corinthians were saying, according to verse 12: “There is no resurrection of the dead.”  And can you just imagine they were saying it with great sophistication, and this kind of spirit of enlightenment. And, you know, these Christian preachers who have come to tell us these dead bodies will once again have life and rise.  Now, spirits…..that’s another thing, but bodies?  Who have you seen who has come back from the dead?

Can’t you just see their argumentation and their sophistication?  And can’t you just see Christians going around saying, “Well, they do have some pretty good arguments and I really don’t want to be known as one of those people….How about we do this:  I’ll just have my faith and keep it to myself and not be out there with it.”  Because when you’re out there with it, you have to stand up and say, “You’re wrong.  Jesus rose and you have to have faith in Him.”  And, oh man, I don’t want to be one of those people.  You know, next thing you know, they’ll be saying I live in a red state and I’m a redneck……”

That’s out there today, and you know it, as well as I do.  And you know, as well as I do, that kind of aversion you have to wanting people to look at you and say, “That guy I work with is like a Jesus freak, he goes to church, his Bible, etc……”  It has become more and more embarrassing to stand up for Jesus in post-modern America, and we all know it.

Hugh Hewitt—who is better known for his political activism in his blog and some books he has written—wrote a book back in 1998 entitled, The Embarrassed Believer, and the title says it all:

“Most Christians today can hardly make themselves say the “J” word.  You know, that’s an uncomfortable word for some people who profess to have faith.  They can hardly make themselves say the “J” word, or pray in a restaurant, or invite a colleague to church.  The reason?  America has become hostile to Christianity.”

He wrote that back in 1998.  Hewitt says, “This retreat of Christian witness has abandoned the field of the current tide of evil and allowed empty alternative religions to fill the void.”  He believes that ordinary lay people hold the key to turning the tide and reviving America’s latent Christian power.  He offers incredible incentive and encouragement for Christians to make a difference by becoming bold and vocal advocates for their highly rational and defensible faith.

You know, I thought about that quote and I was contemplating praying in a restaurant.  I don’t know how you were raised, but I was raised that you not only pray before meals at home and, in our case, we prayed after meals and Dad had a devotional time.  He would say, “Every head bowed and every eye closed,” and basically give a Gospel invitation and ask us if we were saved.  I mean Dad was constantly harassing us about, “Are you really a Christian?  I saw you last week.  Are you really a Christian?”  I had a lot of that, and what I retain from that is that Jan and I pray before we eat whether we’re at home or in a restaurant.

I don’t mean I walk in and say, “Excuse me, we just received our food and our practice, as Christians, is that we pray before we eat, so if you’d all be quiet for a moment.  Thank you.  There’s no smoking in here anymore and I’d also like there to be no talking as we now pray.  Thank you, Father……..” 

We just bow our heads and one of us prays.  We are sometimes in a situation where, if we prayed audibly, it might cause someone a problem or whatever, so we just pray silently before we eat.  I’m not trying to pat myself on the back for that.  That’s just what we do.  I don’t think I can just sit down and start digging in.  When I see others doing that I wonder, “Are you thankful for that?  Are you grateful for your daily bread?  Come on.  Stop and pray and say, “Thanks, Lord.”

I had someone tell me that when their food is brought to their table, they tell the waitress that they pray before eating and meal, and ask if there is anything the waitress would like prayer for.  I can’t let that go.  Do you feel that?  Do you feel the potential discomfort and embarrassment of that? But the possibilities in that?  What if God would open the door that way and give you the opportunity to impact someone like that?  There’s a part of that I kind of like.  I’m going to ask the Lord to give me an opportunity where that feels like a good thing to do, and to do it without being obnoxious.

A place to stand is the first thing you find at square one.  The second thing you find is a message to pass on.

In verse 3, Paul says, “For what I received, I passed on to you as of first importance.” 

Then he quantifies the Gospel.

By the way, if anybody wants a definition of the Gospel, take them to I  Corinthians 15, where it says,

 “Christ died for our sins according to the Scripture.  He was buried.  He was raised on the third day according to the Scripture.”

 That’s the Gospel right there.

So my question for you is, if Paul received it and he passed it on, and it is of first importance, then what are we supposed to do with it?  We are to pass it on to someone, who passes it on to someone, who passes it on to someone, who passes it on.  God has one plan that we pass the message on.

Eugene Peterson puts it this way in his book, Living the Resurrection: “My conclusion is that the church is the community that God has set at the center of the world to keep the world centered.”  And he asks this question, “What is the church leaving out?  The biggest part—the resurrection.”

Paul’s appeal in verses 3 and 4 is gripping.  Why?  Because Paul unequivocally asserts that the resurrection is Biblical and it is absolutely true.  And, further, that the Gospel is definable and our job, once we’ve received it, is to pass it on.  So, now you’re saying, “Okay, now here comes the conviction!”  I do want to ask you.  Are you passing it on?

 I know many of you are saying, “I’ve got it, man.  The Gospel has hit me hard.  I received Christ.  I’m standing on the solid rock of Jesus and I’ve got it!”  Okay, good.  Now what are you doing with it?  “Well, I like to come to church, and we all kind of warm our hands over the fire and say I’ve got the Gospel.  Then I kind of tuck it back in here and go out during the week and don’t do much with it.  Then I come back, and let’s worship, let’s praise.”  Oh, really?  So are you involved in passing it on at all?

One of the highlights for us last week was the missionaries that were at the Bible and Missionary Conference.  We alternated in speaking with some missionaries who were there with New Tribes Mission.  Many of you know New Tribes Mission, perhaps because of Gracia and Martin Burnham who were taken captive by the terrorists in the Phillipines, held captive for a year and then in that awful exchange of gunfire that was supposed to be a rescue, Martin is shot.  He survived for a whole year in the jungle and then he is shot and killed.  Gracia Burnham is now going across the country representing New Tribes Mission, and the truth that there are still people on our planet who have not heard the good news about Jesus Christ, who do not have a Bible that is in their native tongue, who do not have a local indigenous church to encourage them and help them to grow and accomplish the mission and the mandate.  Depending upon who you read, it is estimated that there are between 6,000 and 7,000 people groups that still do not have a viable Scripture in their own language and no one is focused on reaching them.

One of the nights we were there, one of the young missionary couples, Joan and Tim Carmichael, really made an impact on us.  They are a very passionate young couple.  They went through the boot camp training and were ready to go to Papua, New Guinea to reach a remote tribe that no one else has reached.  They had been working for a year to raise support and only have ten percent of it.  They were very discouraged.  We were able to spend some time with them and tried to encourage them a little bit.

One night, Tim said, “I brought with me my sad list.”  He had what looked like a scroll.  It was actually a very long computer-generated printout of all the unreached people groups.  He said when Gracia travels around the country, one of the things she has been saying for the past couple of years is that, for every one of those people groups there are 60 churches in America that could step up to share the mission to reach these people.  She said that after she finished speaking one night, someone came up to her afterwards and said her statistic about the 60 churches was not accurate, but was from something he had written, and the number was actually 600 churches. 

You know, I did have a lot of time to reflect during July and it was a very healthy process for me.  I found myself thinking that the devil has us so distracted by all that is going on in church life and church politics and all the other stuff that we don’t have a flaming passion to pass it on.

I had one personal thing I wanted to do when we were back in Michigan.  It was 2 years ago this month that we received a phone call while I was out in California conducting a funeral service for one of our former worship pastor’s wife, Terri Burns.  After the service, I had a message from my sister on my cell phone that said, “Mom’s had a stroke.  It’s very serious and she’s not good.  You need to get here as soon as you can.”  We were in California and needed to get back to Michigan.  I called airlines and got a flight out at four o’clock the next morning.  We took off, flew to Denver of all things, and then flew from here to Chicago.  We got stopped in Chicago and our flight was canceled because of weather.  We rented a car, threw our stuff in and drove through a huge midwestern rainstorm.  I didn’t care because I had to get there to see if mom was still alive.

We walked into the hospital room about midnight that night, and saw my mother in basically a vegetative state.  It was too late.  On a scale of one to ten: with ten being the stroke taking your life, she had a nine, her neurologist said.  So, for nine days we waited.  And on the ninth day, she died.  The last time I had been to the cemetery was when we had been there with other people gathered around, and the hole was in the ground, and that was it.  I had never seen her gravestone.

One of my goals was to go back to the cemetery to mom’s grave, because I hadn’t been there alone and I wanted to do that.  So one afternoon when we had some free time we drove down and pulled into Zeeland Cemetery and drove the car up there.  I know exactly where the site was because my dad is buried right next to her.  As I walked up to the grave, I hadn’t seen the stone yet.  Dad was a veteran so mom had a veteran’s spouse stone, and they’re right next to each other there.  Obviously, it was a very emotional moment for me and for Jan.  We stood there and wept, and she said, “You know, I think you need some time here by yourself, so I’m just going to wander off a little bit, and you can just be here alone.”

I know she wasn’t there physically, but I said, “Mom, I miss you.”  Some of you have been there, and done the same things, I know.  You’re not inclined to be jokey and, you know, happy in a cemetery.  It’s a sobering deal.   I’ve been in a lot of them, and this was no exception to the sobering spirit that was there.  I hadn’t been there for awhile, and there was this wave of “is this stuff I preach really true?”  It was not like life-altering, like I had now turned my back on the faith.  That wasn’t the result.  But it was like, is this really true that her body is here? (And I knew what I was going to be teaching on when I got back here.)  Is it really true that this body is going to be resurrected, and I’m going to see her again?

Now, you know what I would say to you, and I’ve said to you that I believe it is.  But it was one of those moments where it was like “this had better be true.”  Are you with me?  This had better be true, because if this life is all there is and our human experience is it, and this finite experience—starting point and stopping point—and that’s all there is, and when you die that’s it and it’s over…Let me just tell you, I don’t find life really all that worth living if there’s not a hope.  And I’m here today to tell you there is a hope, and that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. And the Lord says that one day the trumpet shall sound, and the dead in Christ will be raised first, and then we who are alive and remain will be called up together with Him in the clouds, and so shall we ever be with the Lord.  I believe that body is coming back to life again, and although I said, “Mom, I miss you;” The last thing I said was, “Mom, I’ll see you in heaven.”

Now that message is a message of hope.  And that is the message we’re supposed to be passing on…that through faith in the Savior, who died on the cross for our sins, we can have everlasting life and the hope not only of this life, but of the life that is to come.

I don’t know about you, but nothing else makes sense to me.  If it’s only in this life we have hope, we are of all people to be pitied.  What fools we are; what goofs we are; how idiotic we are.  No, no, there is a life that is to come and that life is based on faith in the true and the living God through Jesus Christ, who is our Lord.

When I left the cemetery that day I was saying that I want to spend the rest of my life telling people the message that there is hope.  No matter how miserable or desperate you may be, there is hope in Jesus.  “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.  I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus’ name.  On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.  All other ground is sinking sand.”

This stuff is true and when you get back to square one, you know what you see?  You see a place to stand but you also see a message to pass on.  And if you are not passing that message on, I want to invite you to reinvigorate your passion to say, “Whatever it takes, I am going to spend the rest of my life telling people the message that there’s hope no matter how miserable or desperate you may be.”  Every one of you can be involved in that enterprise.  By the way, I’ll add that every one of you, who are in Christ, ought to be involved in that enterprise. 

There’s not only a place to stand in square one and a message to pass on, but there is a motivation to work.  Notice that Paul says he worked harder than anyone else.  You say, he’s having a little digression there and going back to the James thing.  No, no, no.  You see, Paul says that he’s not working because of duty, obligation or guilt.  Why, then?  The answer is in verse 10, and it’s mentioned three times,…because of grace.

In the spring of 2002, Denise Vanderman, a college student, writes:

“I left work early, so I could have some uninterrupted study time before my final exam at the youth ministry class at the Hannibal LaGrange College in Missouri.  When I got to class, everyone was doing their last-minute studying and the teacher came in and said he’d review with us before the test and most of his review came out of our study guides—very familiar to us.

“But there were some things that he was reviewing I had never heard.  When questioned about it he said it was in the book and we were responsible for everything in the book.  Well, we couldn’t argue with him, so we started to take the test.  He told us to put our tests face down on the desk until everyone had one, and he told us to start.

“So our professor, Dr. Tom Huffty, put a test on every one of our desks, page down.  Finally, he said, ‘Okay, time to take the exam.’  We all turned our tests over and, to our astonishment every answer on the test was filled in.  My name was even written on the exam in red ink.

“At the bottom of the page, it said, ‘This is the end of the exam.  All the answers on the test are correct.  You will receive an A on the final exam.  The reason you passed the test is because the creator of the test took it for you.  All the work you did in preparation for this test did not help you get the A.  You have just experienced grace.’

“Dr. Huffty then went around the room and asked each student individually, ‘Where’s your grade?  Did you deserve the grade you’re receiving?  How much for all your studying for this exam help you to achieve your final grade?  Zero.’

“Then he said, ‘Some things you learn from lectures; some things you learn from research; but some things you can only learn from experience.  You have just experienced grace.  One hundred years from now, if you know Jesus Christ as your personal savior, your name will be written down in a book and you will have had nothing to do with writing it there.  That will be the ultimate grace experience.’ ”

When you go back to square one, here’s what you find:  A place to stand, a message to pass on, and a motivation for your work.  What could be better than that?

Let’s pray.  “Father, I want to pray for all my brothers and sisters in this room who have wandered away from square one.  They’ve left the matters of first importance.  They’ve gone on after other things, and Satan has successfully seduced them into other occupations with their time and they can’t remember the last time they passed on the message of Jesus.  They can’t remember the last time they’ve done anything that feels like they took a stand for Jesus and their service is not rooted in grace but in guilt, shame and manipulation.

Lord, thank you for the Word of God today, and thank you for reminding us that we all need to go back to square one, that we have a place to stand, a message to pass on and a powerful, powerful identity in the grace of God.

Lord, I join with Paul, and we all do, in saying I am what I am, by the grace of God.  We can’t come to this table, eat this bread and drink from these cups apart from your grace.  Lord, if anyone wanted to submit their work right now and say they’re qualified to come to that Table because of their works, there’s not one who would qualify apart from their righteousness in Jesus Christ.

Thank you for sending Jesus.  Thank you Lord, that the number one qualification we bring to this Table is faith in Him.  I pray for those today who may be struggling, those who may be hurting and those who may be wondering about their walk with you.  And I pray, Lord, that there will be crystal clarity for everyone who partakes of the bread and drinks from these cups.  If anyone has questions or is uncertain, I pray that they would just pass it by and know that they won’t be judged here, and it’s between them and you.

Lord, your Word says to let a man examine himself and so I pray that we would and that, as we do, we’ll come to the right conclusion and this will be a joyous step of worship.  Your Word says in I  Corinthians that when we do this we proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.  So, Lord, this is a step of taking our stand just by eating this and drinking this today.  We do it in remembrance of Jesus.  Amen.