We've just begun unpacking those things God is willing to do, and last week was all about God's ability and willingness to reward sacrifice. We showed how in our church's history, literally every time our church rolled up its sleeves and gave generously, God poured out His blessings upon us. What's true on a personal level is true on every level. God doesn't just reward sacrifice (i.e. 1+1=2), he multiplies his favor upon us (1+1=10, 100, 1000, etc.).
Do you know in 40+ years of church life I've never met a single person who regretted being a risk-taker, trusting God, tithing, serving, etc. But I've met hundreds who out of fear, never ventured (even a little) to trust God w/anything costly.
What's the expression? "Nothing ventured, nothing gained." I've always been challenged by King David who said, "I will not sacrifice to the Lord anything that cost me nothing." (2 Samuel 24:24). How can you say whether "God is/isn't willing", if you never get around to trusting him even a little? Get in the game!
Our faith grows stagnant when we don't risk anything... that's because without risk/faith there is nothing for God to bless. A church that doesn't risk is a dead church, a dying church. Risk livens things up!
I mentioned that I was inspired to do this series as I read the gospel of Matthew. The next topic in this series relates to life and death. And our concern about life is really two fold. We grieve that life that "once was." I feel sad when I look back through the years and think of all those dear friends, to whom I've had to say goodbye. Some lived a full life, but some died unexpectedly, some tragically.
We also grieve that life that "never was." There are so many lives that get snuffed out before they're ever given a chance to begin. I mentioned a few weeks ago how the founder of Facebook and his wife, had a series of miscarriages, and he blogged how traumatic it is for couples to experience such loss. Many folks simply cannot conceive a new life--it is has nothing to with desire, lack of faith, or lack of information.
And of course, there are a growing number of folks who refused to conceive for personal reasons, career reasons, lifestyle reasons, environmental reasons. Some never conceive because of sexual orientation, gender reassignment, or because of high risk choices. Some prevent conception from ever happening with birth control, or have cut off a life, right in the womb. Most in this second category suffer silently for decades.
It's just as hard to grieve a life that once was as a life that never was. It's just as hard to say "goodbye" as it is to never get the chance to say "hello" to love. Christians aren't exempt from grief. Maybe you're rattled because you're saying goodbye to someone you really love. Maybe your rattled because life has robbed you of the joy/opportunity to conceive new life. Whether you blame yourself, blame nature, blame others, or blame God Himself... the pain of loss can be overwhelmingly intense.
It's amazing, reading the Gospel of Matthew. God speaks to us. So there is this moment in Matthew 9, where people facing both kinds of pain collide together, and come face to face with Jesus.
We meet a man whose facing the pain of "saying goodbye" to his baby girl, his daughter, who has tragically died. He was a Jewish man, faithful, religious, devout, a true God-fearer. He was the leader of his Jewish Synagogue, no doubt esteemed for his faith and his family.
We meet a woman, who had been subject to humiliating bleeding for many years. Because of her condition, she could not have children. In her day, people would have been convinced she was defective, an outcast. She would have been considered unclean, and put out of Synagogue, where people went to worship.
There is a strong possibility they may have known each other. Maybe the man, being the leader of the Synagogue, had to remove her from worship because of her condition? It's not too hard to put yourself into these two people's shoes and imagine there being an Elder Brother--Prodigal Son dynamic going on in these people's lives.
The woman would have felt like a "Prodigal Son." Remember the story of the Prodigal Son? A young man rebels and heads off to a distant country? He lives self-absorbed life, high on pleasure, before he hits rock bottom. It's easy to judge Prodigals. But sometimes when life isn't working out, a person just kind of accelerates into a hell of their own making. Some people give up on the dream, and get bitter.
So many prodigals say, "I'll never be that person, that man or woman, that father or mother... that good person... I don't deserve anything good... God doesn't care about me, I'm damaged goods... I'm already going to hell, why not just get there little faster?"
The worse mistake a Prodigal can make is believing what people say about them, instead of trusting what God says. Maybe this woman was saying to herself, "My bleeding is a sign of God's curse on my life. I'll always be on the outside looking in...I'll never have a child, I'll never have family I want." Sometimes in grief, a person imagines God is against them.
And then there is the man, the Synagogue ruler, maybe he was like the Elder Brother. Remember how as the Prodigal Son destroyed his life, the Elder Brother stayed home, dutifully serving his Father? That's the Synagogue ruler. He'd been faithful to God. He'd served God all week, ever Sabbath. He'd loved his wife and family. He'd ministered to folks. He read and memorized Scripture. He was a tither, a giver, a law-keeper. He probably felt he'd earned and deserved God's favor. So how could this God he'd served, take his daughter after all he'd done for God?
So here is the moment when their lives collide, and they both come face-face with Jesus...
Matthew 9:18-26, "While [Jesus was talking], a synagogue leader came and knelt before him and said, "My daughter has just died. But come and put your hand on her, and she will live." Jesus got up and went with him, and so did his disciples.
20 Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak. 21 She said to herself, "If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed." 22 Jesus turned and saw her. "Take heart, daughter," he said, "your faith has healed you." And the woman was healed at that moment.
23 When Jesus entered the synagogue leader's house and saw the noisy crowd and people playing pipes, 24 he said, "Go away. The girl is not dead but asleep." But they laughed at him. 25 After the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took the girl by the hand, and she got up. 26 News of this spread through all that region."
What are we to understand about God from these stories? What is that person, grieving a life that once was... or a life that never was... to take from these verses?
[Symbol] Clearly, we see that nothing is too impossible for God. God has given Jesus the authority to walk into a funeral and raise a person from death to life. He has the authority to heal a woman in the deepest part of her body, that she might be able to conceive. God is the creator, the source, the wellspring of life. God is the giver/sustainer of life. God is powerful to resurrect life. His power trumps the power of sin and death.
We see repeatedly that Jesus is able to bring forth life, where life "is no more", or where life "never was". John 1:2-3 says of Jesus, "He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men." In John 5:26 Jesus explains to the Twelve, "For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself." In John 17:2-3 Jesus prays, "You granted the Son authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. And this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent."
Jesus unequivocally establishes that not only is he the Living God, come in the flesh. But that he has the authority to grant "eternal" life to whoever knows God. What both the man and woman have in common is that they were touched by the author and perfector of life. There was not a single other place they could turn to find life--no doctor, no priest, no king--until they turned to author of life, Jesus.
Friends, Jesus isn't a way "to life." No, He "is life himself." When you run toward God you are running toward life. He is the wellspring, the source, you're only hope. The woman touched source of life. The source of life took that girl by the hand.
[Symbol] But is Jesus willing to give us life? I think right now we need to do a gut check of our spiritual pride. Let me tell you what DOES NOT determine God's willingness to grant you eternal life. Your past, no matter how great, or how disastrous, has no bearing on God's willingness. You can be the most righteous, loyal, dutiful, faithful, religious, tithing, worshiping, Bible memorizing, law-abiding, super-duper-whatever and I tell you death does not discriminate nor does God discriminate on basis of your past.
This man in this story is just as impact by death as the woman. And you know what, he's just as impacted by life as the woman too. We really have no reason to believe the woman in this story has a sordid character or past. She is just bleeding. Her womb needs healing. We know nothing, we cannot make any assumptions about her. But over in John 4 we do meet a woman with a sordid past, whose had one failed relationship after another. She is promiscuous, she is actively sinning sexually at the time Jesus meets her. But her past, even her present, doesn't matter.
In John 4:10,13-14 Jesus tells the woman at the well, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water... whoever drinks this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
Years ago a lady I know received news she had cancer. She told me her first thought was judgement, that God was condemning her, that her cancer was God making a statement he disapproved of her life. In John 3:16-17 Jesus tells Nicodemus the opposite, "For God so loved the world he sent his one and only Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. He did not send his Son to condemn the world, but to save the world through him."
Friends, that's the condition! The condition isn't your past. The condition is "whosoever believes." Your past doesn't determine sway God from willing to unwilling nor more than it sways him from unwilling to willing. God's grace, his mercy, his love, your willingness to believe... that is the basis for receiving eternal life. Do you remember what Jesus told the woman who reached out and touched his cloak? "Take heart, daughter," he said, "your faith has healed you." And the woman was healed at that moment.
You better check your self-righteousness at the door. God is inviting you to come before him to receive. Jesus is saying to us today, "if you knew who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water... eternal life." The issue is (A) are we going directly to Jesus for life, and (B) are we by faith trusting God's willingness to give us life by virtue of our faith and his love, and not on the basis of our past and failures!!!
Friends, there is still another matter to discuss. We've said that God is able to give life. He is willing to give life. But just what kind of life is he willing to give? The reason I say this is because I've not seeing anyone raised from grave lately. So here it is:
[Symbol] Jesus is Willing to give eternal life.
When Jesus spoke to the women at the well he offered her a life spring that would "wells up to eternal life." That life spring is Jesus himself. Jesus doesn't grant life apart from himself, because life doesn't exist apart from God. God is life. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." But notice, Jesus' life "wells up" to eternal life. That seems to imply increase.
Let me throw a verse at you. In John 10:10 Jesus says, "I have come that you might have life and life more abundantly." Imagine Jesus is holding a garden hose, and he is the only one holding a garden hose and you are very thirsty. There is abundant water coming out of that hose. So what do you do? You go to Jesus with the biggest bucket you can find. You go to Jesus in faith, trusting his ability to quench your thirst, but also his willingness to do so. If you knew how overflowing with life God is you wouldn't hesitate to go to him; If you knew his love you'd run to him; You'd invite all your friends cus Jesus isn't running out of water. It's unending flow!
So you put your bucket before Jesus, to be filled. From the moment the first drop hits that bucket you're already beginning to receive life. But here is the deal. What you begin to experience NOW isn't the fullness of ALL God will give you. That father's daughter was raised. That woman was healed. Lazarus was raised after four days. But that wasn't the full gift. The full gift is "eternal life" and "unending life."
You know Jesus never promised we'd be spared of the experience of death. That man, his daughter, that woman, Lazarus, you know not even Jesus himself was spared the experience of death. The Christian hope is NOT to avoid the "experience of death." The Christian hope is that death won't be our FINAL experience. We get some life now, but we've not yet received the full measure! The people in this story, its awesome they tasted life. But you know they have it worse then us in some ways. You and I only have to experience death once. They had to do it twice. They died, were raised, but then died again, and then had to receive by faith God's ETERNAL gift. I'd happy experiencing death once how about you? I'm good. One is plenty, unless Lord comes on clouds first.
Let me end with this. In Matthew 10:28-29 Jesus says, "Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot destroy the soul... be afraid of the one who can destroy both!" Then he asks, "are not two sparrows sold for a penny?" Where is he going!! "Are not two sparrows sold for a penny, yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father's care."
Our hope isn't avoiding experience of death. Our gospel is that not a one of us will die apart from the Father's care. It's Psalm 23. God walks with us through the valley of the shadow of death. But make know mistake about it. We walk in God's care. And the valley of death isn't our final stop, we're just passing through.
Jesus told Lazarus' sister, "I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?" (John 11:25-26) So do you? You know Jesus wept at Lazarus's funeral? He wept at the funeral, but the funeral wasn't the final anything. For the Christian death is just a bad dream from which we wake to taste God's gift.