I like to write in public places--so my home has been the upper level coffee shop of the County Market! A few weeks ago, I noticed this ragged-looking sparrow flying around. He'd sit on the window ledge, pecking at the mysterious glass. Then he'd fly up under the steel trusses, then over to the back of a chair, or down to the hard tile floor.
On the floor, he'd peck at most anything resembling food. The other day he kept pecking at a tiny asphalt rock that probably got dislodged from someone's sneakers. From time to time, he'll sing out, hoping another bird would answer his call. But there aren't any sparrows to hear his sad song. A worker told me he's been living in the store for months!
What a confusing place, the County Market must be. The florescent lights kind of resemble the sun, but why are there so many? The windows seem like the sky, the steel trusses seem like trees, that asphalt pebble seemed like a seed. Left over containers of soda and coffee seem like water. The overhead music is quite foreign--it certainly doesn't sound like any melody a sparrow would ever sing.
Yet life goes on. The sparrow survives. But how many of you would say he fully alive? In a way, he's kind of dying a slow death. God created him to soar high in the sky, perch atop beautiful trees, and gorge on fresh food. But now he's sentenced to a kind of a hell on earth, a glass prison, where he lives on potato chips and gummy worms.
Now suppose we were to rescue the sparrow. First, we could CARE for his needs. People leave food for him. But really CARE is a stop-gap measure. No one expects the sparrow to be dependent on humans forever. No one wants the sparrow to become so comfortable, that he never rediscover the abundant life God created him to enjoy.
We could CONNECT relationally with that sparrow. But it's hard. We might as well be space aliens. He's bird; we're human. By nature, he's fearful and distrusting. At our slightest move, he darts into the trusses in sheer terror.
We could also CHALLENGE the sparrow. Maybe we could shout and scream at the sparrow to repent, and change his ways. Maybe we could exploit his fears, and scare him back out the way he came in. Some might suggest the sparrow be shot, because his presence is unsanitary, and he's pooping everywhere, and besides... he's "just a worthless dirty sparrow", and from a human vantage point, there's no hope for his escape anyway.
Something else is needed to save that sparrow. What if we could somehow retain our full humanity--with all the wisdom, knowledge, and perspective needed to guide sparrow to life... but could also become fully sparrow--so as to approach that sparrow, full of grace and truth, and speak his language, and answer his song, and lead him back to life, without terrifying him to death?
Now we're no longer talking about sparrows, but the mystery of the gospel, and the manner God chose to rescue us. We can't become fully sparrow. But God became fully human, to seek and to save those who were lost, to call us back home. God didn't just come near--He became one of us!
John 1:14 says, "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." John 1:3-5 says, "Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him [Jesus] was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it."
Friends, our job is to help people understand who God is, and what God has done for us all. In the outline, I want you to think how you would complete each of the four statements. If we're going to be serious about God's rescue mission, we have to resolve what we believe, and what others must believe, to enter eternal life.
Inevitably, we must resolve who "GOD IS..."
I think we always feel a certain pressure to prove or defend who God is. But where does God ever ask or expect us to do so? If God is the most ultimate reality, and he is. . . lets trust that the ultimate reality who GOD IS will ultimately give people the reality check they most need. The pressure is off of us to prove or defend anything.
Reality is persuasive enough to convince people of who God is. Romans 1:19-20 says, "what may be known about God is plain to people, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made so that people are without excuse." Psalm 19:1-2 says, "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge."
After nearly two decades of serving the Lord, I've helped hundreds of people know the Lord. All I've ever done, and you must do, is simply repeat what God has already said about himself :: He is the maker of heaven of earth. He's established his throne in heaven. He is the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end. He is holy, righteous and good. He's all-knowing, all-seeing, and all-powerful. He's the King of kings and Lord of lords. He's merciful. He's gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in love, and relents from sending calamity.
When Moses asked God who he should tell the Israelites, and who he should tell Pharoah who GOD IS... God told Moses, "I AM WHO I AM." It's not a proof for God, its a declaration that God is who he is. He is the most ultimate reality, upon whom we can stake everything. Nobody proved to me that 2+2=4. It just is. And that's enough. And 2+2 always equals four no matter who says otherwise.
So next, we must resolve what the "BIBLE IS..."
The Bible is one long, continuous story, not just about who God is, but how God's dealings with humankind have unfolded. Once again, we often feel this pressure to prove or defend our belief that the Bible is the true word of God. But once again, we need not defend the story of God, we only need to understand the story, share the story, and trust the story.
• So, here is the part where God created heavens/earth, and all humankind.
• Here is the part where humankind became corrupted by sin.
• Here is the part that details the catastrophic fallout of man's sin.
• Here is part where God began making covenants with men like Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua and Caleb. . .
• Here is the part where people fell into confusion and despair, as they rebelled against God, and rejected his holy commandments, and killed God's holy prophets, and turned to idols.
• Here is the part where Jesus became fully man, and called all men unto himself, and called us to the life that is truly life, and took up that cross, and died for our sin, and was raised on the third day, and then ascended right hand of God, where he reigns forever and ever.
• Here is the part where God establishes his Church to go on a rescue mission into all the nations of earth.
• Here is the part that describes the consummation of all things.
In Isaiah 55:11 God promised Isaiah, "so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it."
The ultimate reality of God is self-vindicating. The truthfulness of the Biblical story is self-vindicating. Nothing ever discredits the reality of God. Nothing ever discredits the story of God's dealing with men. People keep getting rescued and redeemed.
We must also resolve who Jesus IS. . .
So who is Jesus? During his life Jesus declared himself to be the Bread of Life, the Light of the World, the Gate, the Good Shepherd, the Resurrection and the Life, "The Way, the Truth, and the Life," the Vine, and the "Great I AM." Our job isn't to "convince" people who Jesus is, our job is to tell, share, declare, proclaim, preach Jesus to ever tribe, tongue, and nation and call upon people everywhere to obey the gospel.
Now the final part of this thing, is where we resolve who "I AM..."
Suppose you were a sparrow, trapped in a glass prison, isolated and alone, always looking out the window wondering what life could have been, should have been, but probably will never be. . .
But then one day God comes near. He takes on the life of a sparrow, and becomes just like you! As you sing your sad song, he calls out to you. You learn that God has plans to prosper you, not to harm you, to give you a future and true hope. You discover that God himself longs to be your shepherd. He's asking that you follow him, fully trusting him to be the way the truth and the life. If you would just trust him, he'd rescue you from death and bring you into the abundant life God planned for you from all creation.
So you do. You follow God, you trust in Jesus as the way, the truth, and the life, and he leads you from death into life. Soon you're soaring in the sky, perching high atop the trees, worshipping God in chorus with all creation. You're tasting the difference between living water and soda pop, the bread of life and stale leftovers. You now know the warmth of God's love. Whatever doubts and fears you once had have given way to the reality of WHO GOD IS. THE BIBLE IS no longer some ancient tale, but reflects the exact way God has now rescued you.
What God is asking is that we proclaim who we NOW ARE in Christ. We are children of God, chosen in Christ Jesus, dearly loved, not forsaken, saved, rescued, redeemed, forgiven, set free from our glass prison, sanctified, filled with the fruit of righteousness, blessed in the heavenly realm with every spiritual blessing in Christ, holy and blameless, healed, restored, raised up. . . all because we trusted Jesus.
The Bible says we are Christ's ambassadors, as though Christ were making his appeal "through us". I wonder. . . will you accept God's call not just to embrace his salvation.... But to proclaim his salvation to every creature on earth? Will you accept God's call to declare who HE IS, what BIBLE IS, who JESUS IS, and who you now ARE?