When the Battle is Over.

This sermon was delivered in St Oswald Church in Maybole, Scotland on the 11th April 2009; year C Easter 2.

“Father I ask that the words I speak are your words and not my words; that they speak for you, and glorify you. Amen."

This morning we are going to look at today’s readings in reverse order, starting with Revelations and ending up in the book of Exodus. You may think, you cannot do that, because everything works in chronological order, and you cannot start with the end before the beginning, but God can. God is omnipresent, and time means nothing to him as “He is the great alpha and omega; the first and last; the beginning and the end”; the great “I am”.

Rev 1 4:8
In revelations this morning, we heard the verse, “All praise to him who always loves us and who set us free from our sins by pouring out his lifeblood for us.” God, through Jesus has freed us from our sins; and I believe that is past, present and future sins, but today I want to talk about being free from our past sins; in the way God has promised us.

Acts 5: 27 32
In Acts this morning we read the apostles say “We are witnesses of these things, (that is the death and resurrection of Jesus), and so is the Holt Spirit, who is given by God to all; who obey him.” By taking communion we are obeying Gods command by becoming his body, by the eating of His flesh; and receiving his atonement, by drinking his precious blood of forgiveness; thereby we allow the Holy Spirit to enter and take control of our lives.

The disciples were boldly proclaiming in this verse that they witnessed the death and resurrection of Jesus, and by doing so, they could not help but preach the good news; that is the gospel of Jesus Christ to everyone, regardless of circumstances. They knew and felt the power of Jesus, and could do nothing to contain there excitement. Could you imagine how that felt, they were afraid of nothing, and busting with excitement. They just could not contain themselves, regardless of personal consequences.

Moving back further to John 10
“My sheep recognize my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life and they shall never perish. No one shall snatch them away from me, for my father has given them to me.”

In plain language, we belong to Jesus, and he is keeping us for himself, letting no one near us to snatch or take us away. I find this very comforting, as this verse is saying, we belong to Jesus, He is all powerful, and He is always looking after us.

I know it does not feel like it at times, but that is what the bible tells us, and we can be forgiven for thinking that the “biblical theory” and “life reality” are totally disjointed at times.

I do not know about you, but I certainly have had more that my share of problems this winter. So under these circumstances, how can I proclaim that God is looking after us, and is always with us?

Well to start with, I think we all agree that He is God and an all powerful God at that; otherwise he would not be God. If he was a God of hate and destruction, we would worship Him, but fortunately He is a God of love. In fact, God is Love, and we are His children.

Secondly we all acknowledge that we are His; we belong to him. Jesus paid the price for us at Calvary. If do not belong to God, why are we here this morning. We have given ourselves to Jesus Christ, and according to the bible, we belong to him. I think we can agree on that as well, but now here is where we can part company; why are bad things happening to us good people, and where is God while all this is happening.

Well the cop out for me this morning is that I cannot answer that fully, but I will give it a go. To start with, the bible tells us that God never leaves our side, because he loves us, because of Jesus, and that God is Omni present; God is everywhere, but importantly He is beside us, (or in us) in the form of the Holy Spirit. We do not feel his presence at all times because we have our own spirit, with our own agendas, and God does want us to have our own free spirit. In fact it says in Ecclesiasticus 15:14, “God made man from the beginning, and left him in the hand of his own counsel.”

But sometimes, well many times, these two spirits part company, and God has to bring them back together somehow.

Now, there are many many reasons why these two spirits part company, but one major reason they part company is over past sin, that is, what we did wrong in the past.

How many of us have been hindered by our past sins, how many of us are ashamed of them? How many of us are afraid that someday, somebody will point them out when we are at our least able to defend ourselves?

These past sins are therefore no good to God, and because of them, we cannot perform in ways God want us to perform; that is one reason he sent his son Jesus to pay the price of our sins, so we can be free to live as God has intended us to live. To live as God wants us to live. Are you with me now? Your past sin has been dealt with on the cross at Calvary 2000 years ago.

If it was not, is Jesus going to come back to earth, live and died again so that you maybe forgiven again. No. Your sins were dealt with 2000 years ago. Your shameful past with God has gone. God does not see it because of Jesus. Jesus took that sin away from us, even though we did not deserve it. And that is grace.

Now, we do not escape our past, but we escape the power of our past sins; or rather, we escape the power our past sins have over us.

This power must be broken; otherwise it will chase us for the rest of our lives. We cannot break it, only God can do it for us, and normally this is done through hard times of trials and tribulations, or as some people call it times of testing.

Zacharias 13:9
The trials and tribulations we Christians go through are extremely painful, and from where I have been, they seam to be far worse than anything my non Christian friends have endured. However, I am not them; but I am a completely different person from what I was because of such hard times, and knowing God was in control of my life. God moulds and re-moulds us through his fire as written in the book of Zacharias 13:9 “And I will refine them as silver is refined: and I will try them as gold as tried. They shall call on my name, and I will hear them. I will say: Thou art my people: and they shall say: The Lord is my God.”

We boldly say, the Lord Jesus Christ is our Lord. So far, we have all been tried, but to varying degrees, and so far we have come through. We are better for it, but I just wish this could be done less painfully.

Anyway, when you break free from something that keeps trying to recapture you, (like past sin), it's crucial to get victory over it, and away from it: otherwise we can not move forward and enjoy the blessing God has in mind for us.

Exodus 10
Let us now go all the way back now to Exodus 10 where Pharaoh chased the Israelites across the red sea. Remember, it was God who permitted Pharaoh to pursue the Israelites, because God could have stopped Pharaoh at any time. So why did he allow Pharaoh to chase them?

I can think of two reasons really: the first is given in Exodus 10:1 '...that I may show [you] these signs of Mine...’ God wants you to see that when you put your trust in Him, obstacles and opposition mean absolutely nothing to him. He wants this experience to be a 'landmark memory' or victory for you, so you can draw faith from, for when sadly; you face your next problem.

How many times have you said “how am I going to get through this”, then you add, “I did it before, but it was easier then”. You see you draw from your past experiences, (and faith), and you use that to defeat your present problems; which you will agree, are often much harder and more difficult, but necessary to strengthen your faith.

Basically God wants you to strengthen your faith, but He wants you to put your trust in him, and He wants to do the work for you. You must therefore let him do it for you, as you cannot do everything yourself.

The Second reason God permitted Pharaoh to pursue Israelites all the way to the Red Sea is as written in the next verse of Exodus '...that you may tell... [your children]... the mighty things I have done...'

You do not have to live under Pharaoh’s, (or Satan’s rule), any more. (Pharaoh is a term often interchanged for Satan). Like the Passover, when the blood of Jesus was applied by faith to the doorposts of your heart, your status changed. You're no longer a slave, but a child of God. The generational curse is broken, and your children can now grow up under God's blessings.

Abuse, alcoholism, ambition, anger, drugs, greed, sex, selfishness, spiritualism, violence and many other horrible vices as well, may have been your story of your past; but it's no longer the truth about your future. Is it?

God can solve your problems in different ways, but sometimes He takes you `through the Red Sea so that when you get to the other side you can look back and see Pharaoh and his armies 'dead on the seashore'. Then you know the battle is over, and you are truly free!

Amen.