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Sermons

"FALLING UP"
NEW TESTAMENT SCRIPTURE TEXT: ACTS 26:12-18

DAVE RING, PASTOR
LOS ALAMOS 1ST UNITED METHODIST CHURCH
SUNDAY MORNING, MAY 16, 2009

SCRIPTURE TEXT: 12"On one of these journeys I was going to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests. 13About noon, O king, as I was on the road, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, blazing around me and my companions. 14We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, 'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.' 15"Then I asked, 'Who are you, Lord?' " 'I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,' the Lord replied. 16'Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen of me and what I will show you. 17I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them 18to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.'

PRAYER: Father, may the words of my mouth, and the thoughts of every heart here present, be fitting and acceptable in Your sight at this time. Amen.

MESSAGE: Once upon a time, upon my arrival at home for lunch, I recall that Fran said to me, "I've got two things I need to tell you. One is good news and the other is bad news." I honestly don't remember, now, the content of either of the items, but I do remember that I said, "Tell me the bad news first. I want to get it out of the way so I can enjoy the good news."

Maybe I'm a bit strange in this regard, though, for as I read and study how to effectively present the gospel to others, I'm constantly reminded that one is supposed to present the good news first--and the bad news, if at all, last. According to what the church growth specialists regularly tell us preachers, people don't like to hear bad news when they come to church. Therefore, the recommended approach in contemporary preaching is to attract folks' attention with good news--positive, pleasant words, and then, if necessary, finish up with the negative. Otherwise, a congregation may be "turned off" and never listen to any of what you've got to say.

Today's sermon is intended, I hope, as a "back to basics" sort of message. Up front, pure and simple, I want to communicate to you the outline of God's plan of salvation for your life. And, in so doing, I'm going to take a risk. Even though it may "turn you off," I'm going to start with a note of bad news. Then, worse yet perhaps, I'm going to continue by speaking to you of false news. But finally, if you hang on long enough, I promise that there will be ample, overflowing good news in today's message. That's my plan--because, as I read the scriptures, that's the proper order by which God offers His plan of salvation to us. It may not tickle your ears, but it's the truth--God's truth.

To begin with, there is bad news to be heard--by you, by me, by every man or woman who draws breath upon the face of this earth. Aha, you may say, that's not news to me--the whole world is filled with bad news these days--and it's getting worse all the time. True--so we might really call this bad news "news analysis," for it's actually the bad news behind all the other bad news we hear daily on our radios and TV's and read on the internet. This bad news is simple and direct--it's represented by one little three-letter word. The word is sin. Sin is the single, direct cause of every other word of bad news ever heard in our land. Sin, since virtually the dawn of human existence, has been the ruling force of this world. It pervades human life--it even moves, like a fog, beyond humans alone, to cloud and corrupt animals, and plants, even inanimate objects--if you accept as true what the Bible says in the 8th chapter of Romans.

Sin--and its consequences--is the dominant bad news of our lives. You are a sinner--I am a sinner--every human who ever lived is a sinner. Check Paul's letter to the Roman church, chapter 3, verse 23, if you need a proof-text on that. The first human--the archetype representative of mankind--Adam--brought sin into God's otherwise perfect world. Adam fell down--away from God's grace--that's how sin got its start. And every man and woman since then has perpetuated and helped expand sin's hold upon this earth.

I may not be able to go head-to-head with you and explain sin`s influence by logical argument--but I really don't think I have to. Deep inside--if you're honest with yourself--you know I'm speaking truth. Sin isn't a fairy tale or a myth from times long ago. Sin is real--it's here--it's now--it's in your life and mine--and it hurts. All of the pain, all of the suffering, all of the senseless waste of human life and dignity we find ourselves caught up in every day of our lives are better witness than any intellectual argument I could possibly invent to the reality of sin. You're a sinner--I'm a sinner--our entire planet is enmeshed in sin. And that's very bad news.

If you haven`t tuned me out nor fallen asleep so far, you're probably saying, "OK, preacher, you`re right this far." You've diagnosed the ailment. We know our world is sick--and sin is probably the cause. Correct--but now tell us what to do about it!

Fair enough. And I will, I promise. But first, let me tell you what not to do about it. Before we consider the true and only true cure for bad news in our lives, I need to expose the wrong remedy--the supposed cure that millions upon millions of human try to find--and never once succeed at. I call this the false news. The false news, like the bad news, is compressible into one word. Sin--the bad news--is a three-letter word.

The false news is a four-letter word. The word is self. It is the flawed premise that somehow self can overcome the bad news of sin. It's the old, fiercely independent, "pull myself up by my bootstraps" theory of salvation. According to the false news, sin can be overcome by right living. Just try your best not to hurt anybody else intentionally, help those in need whenever you feel like it, and you're on the road to Heaven.

I'd have retired a rich preacher long ago if I had just 25 cents from every woman who has felt it necessary to describe her husband to me thus--"Now, Joe is really a very good man. He always tries to do what's right. He's just not much on religion." I almost believe a version of that statement should be written as a motto over the gates of hell--so millions of men and women who subscribed to it will feel at home when they arrive there. The "self-help school of salvation" has never yet had a graduate. It produces only flunkies.

Certainly, there have been many great and wonderful men and women who have done human works of charity that boggle the mind. There are thousands of exemplary persons in every land who follow the strictest kind of discipline with regard to honesty, purity, and morality. Right here in Los Alamos there are dozens of persons I know whose lives are far better examples of propriety and graciousness than mine. But--unless the inner motivation which drives such persons comes from beyond themselves alone--it is futile. It is sad but true that many persons who consider themselves upright--and even some who are sincerely trying to live righteous lives in a humanistic sense--will earn themselves only a place among the lost for eternity.

Self alone can never do enough to save a person from the awesome power of sin. The prophet Isaiah, chapter 64, verse 6, warns us that all attempts at saving ourselves are futile, doomed to failure from the beginning. Positive thinking, transcendental meditation, transactional analysis, yoga, World Gym and Fitness Center, Kahlil Gibran, Joel Osteen and Dale Carnegie may improve you immensely. Giving your entire fortune to help heal crippled children may make you feel warm and lovable inside, and will surely make your friends admire the daylights out of you. And I'm not saying you shouldn't do all of those things. But in the war with the bad news of this world--in the battle to overcome sin in your life--they aren't enough. Reliance on self--no matter how exemplary your self--may be--is false news.

Once again now, I want to check and see if you're still with me. If the lady next to you is snoring at this point, please tap her gently on the shoulder, because now--some of you may be thinking "it's about time"--I've got some truly good news for you. You've heard the bad news--sin. You've been warned against the false news--self. Now let's hear the good news.

The good news is a five letter word, and it starts with a capital J. The good news is Jesus. Jesus is the only ultimate good news--the sole cure for the bad news of sin which threatens, even now, to destroy all human life, good and bad alike.

Most of you have heard, I`m sure, a fair amount about Jesus during your lives. I also know that there are some of you here who have actually read part, or even all, of His book--the Holy Bible. And I'm sure all of you know some important facts about Jesus--His miraculous birth in Bethlehem, His wonderful teachings on subjects like love and mercy in the Sermon on the Mount, His miracle of walking on water, His healing of blind and sick people, His betrayal by Judas, His death on the cross, even His Resurrection.

All of this information which we gather about Jesus, considered together, leads to one conclusion. He is the Son of the Living God. And if He is the Son of God, that means that God is loose among us. God is in our world--alive, active, moving! God is here--available., reconciling, redeeming, saving. If God is in our world, then sin is a defeated foe. If God is among us, then we have no need to go it alone--to rely on self for keeping our lives on an even keel. "If God be for us, who can be against us?" say the Scriptures. Jesus is God--and He is with us. And that is very good news!

During the years immediately following the entry of Jesus into this world, there was a young man named Saul of Tarsus who lived in Jerusalem, an intense student of the subject of religion. This young man had heard of the power of sin--the bad news--he knew its influence firsthand as he and his nation struggled under the domination of cruel military regime centered in Rome. For years Saul had devoted himself to the living of a righteous life--through moral discipline, observance of tough dietary and health rules, acts of charity, and zealous punishment of those who failed to act likewise. As best he knew how, Saul attempted to combat the bad news of sin to save himself from its consequences. And then one day, on the road to Damascus, he fell...but not down. Saul fell up, into the arms of a loving Savior. And of that encounter was born Paul, apostle for Christ.

There is bad news aplenty in our world today. Sin is exacting a terrible price from men and women. There is false news as well. Countless influences in the modern world delude millions into adopting a "faith" of mere self-sufficiency, self-centeredness. But there is also good news. Jesus Christ is Lord of the earth, and His is the ultimate victory. I invite you to embrace His good news, and trust Him, and Him alone, for your eternal redemption.

The bad news--three letters--sin. The false news--four letters--self. The good news--five letters--Jesus. And the choice--that's six letters--is yours. Amen.

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