Not My Life

Matthew 12:36-37

I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

Matthew 7:21-23

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

I’ve always wondered how that final judgement day meeting would go between myself and God. I’ve always wondered because I’ve always known in the back of my mind that I don’t live up to the standard that God desires. Matthew 7:21-23 is harsh and to the point; “I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness”.

I fear, at this very point in time, my judgement day meeting would go like this:

“Next!” God calls, looking at a book before him. He flips through the pages to find my name. “Mark?”

“Yes, that’s me,” I would say cautiously.

God reads through my entry in the book. “How do you think you went?”

“Badly, horribly,” I will say quite honestly, because there’s no point being anything but honest to the omniscient God.

“Yes, I know,” God will say. “Your track record with sin is shocking. You didn’t even make an effort.”

“I did try.”

“Were those times of sin worth anything now that eternity is on the line?”

“No, I know.”

God closes the book. “Look behind you at the line. Look at all those people waiting for judgement. Not a single one of them did any better than you at defeating sins. Yes, they all sinned in different ways; there’s a murderer next in line followed by a Pastor who believed he was bringing people the gospel out of his own strength, but until the moment they died, they weren’t worthy to enter heaven out of anything they did or didn’t do. It was only through my son dying on the cross that you even have any hope of entering into an eternal relationship with me, rather than the lake of fire. Your sin is covered. It’s what you did next that I’m more interested in.”

“I put my faith in Jesus, I believe he died for me.”

“That’s excellent.”

“I prayed almost daily; I did my daily bible reading and studying.”

“That almost makes it worse for you.”

“What do you mean?”

“Your first manager at your fast food job when you were 15. What was your manager’s name?”

“I don’t remember.”

“His name was Raj. Do you remember sharing the gospel with him?”

“No I don’t.”

“The first person you met at your second job, the retail store. Do you remember who that was?”

“Craig?”

“Yes. Craig. Do you remember sharing the gospel with him, or doing anything that could build a relationship with him?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“I didn’t think of it at the time.”

“Jesus told the disciples ‘Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation’. Paul said in his letter to the Romans: ‘How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?’ There are people who could be in heaven who are not because you saw things in the world as more important than the salvation of the people around you. It wasn’t your life, Mark. It was life I gifted to you for you to use for my glory.”

Matthew 13:18-23

“Hear then the parable of the sower: When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path. As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away. As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”

Jesus is at the beach, talking to a large crowd of people. He gives them one parable after another to help them understand and relate what he is saying to real life matters. It’s the classic illustrations that preachers continue to use today.

But the parable of the seeds has been very difficult for me to remember. There’s lots of seeds; I know that, and they get thrown in different places. And I remember the different places represent different types of people who hear the gospel (seed), and do with the gospel various things. Jesus spells out the parable quite clearly for us, in verses 18-23 of chapter 13.

There are four types of seeds:

1. Seeds that fell  the path (The birds ate the seeds)
2. Seeds that fell on the rocky ground (The lack of roots withered them away)
3. Seeds that fell among the thorns (The thorns choked the plants)
4. Seeds that fell on good soil (The seeds grew and were fruitful)

What do the seeds mean?

1. The gospel that falls where roots cannot grow (the path) is snatched away by sin too easily.
2. The gospel that falls where a little root can grow starts off well (the rocky ground), but as soon as hard times come, the person falls away.
3. The gospel that falls among thorns is where a person is choked out by the deceptions of the world being better than God’s desires.
4. The gospel that falls in a heart where roots can grow, grows and becomes fruitful.

What is the Application?

The great thing about what Jesus teached and preached was that the message wasn’t just for those in the crowd on the beach. His message has lasted the test of time and is applicable today as it was thousands of years ago. Not even instruction for how to get in contact with someone in the quickest manner 50 years ago is applicable to us today.

1. Many, many people hear the gospel. Many, many people hear really bad gospels, like the prosperity gospel, but still many, many people hear the good, true gospel that faith in Jesus’ saving grace is all you need to become a follower (that’s why ‘gospel’ means ‘good news’). But even still, people don’t understand the gospel. ‘Surely it’s not that easy?’ or ‘I just don’t believe it. It’s a fairy-tale’. Their hearts are hardened by the evil one working in their lives. Satan is like the plate compactor on their hearts, and it’s our job to pray that God will use us to break apart their hardness and soften their hearts, ready to received the seeds of Christ with good soil.
2. Some people that hear the gospel, hear the gospel. They may have been invited to church with a family member or were chatting to their friend about trials in their life that God was using to break open their hard heart; show them that they needed to turn their hard, dead heart into a living garden. They accept Jesus into their heart, but in the emotions of the moment, the roots don’t take hold, it’s just a really good feeling for the person. The tribulations may come days later, or even years, but when they come, it’s like nothing new ever happened. We can’t see the state of people’s hearts, and it’s not our place to judge others and make assumptions that their heart is rocky, not good soil. But it does go to show the importance of as soon as roots begin to form, we need to help the person learn how to get a handle on the rocks; show them how to grow the roots deeper and break the rocks down to dust and throw some good soil in there to really become a thriving, fruitful person.
3. Then comes the hardest area to grow seeds in; the thorny ground. Weeds are everywhere, and even soil that seemed once good soil can have weeds grow in it that takeover the person’s life. People that begin to see weeds growing in their lives, or where cares, addictions, selfish thoughts become more prevalent than God, need to go back to God and seek his de-weeding in their lives, before the weeds become to big they choke out the good plants and roots. When the plants are strong and healthy, a little root next to it is easy enough to handle, but for a new plant, weeds are threatening and hard to deal with. Just like the rocky ground new Christians (and long time Christians for that matter) need to learn to deal with their rocks, weeded Christians need to learn to deal with their weeds and learn that, although it’s harder, growing in God is ultimately much more fruitful than growing in thorny weeds.
4. Good soil and deep roots. Plenty of water, sunlight and fertilizer. Protection from pests. That’s what plants need. All of that care and love comes from God. Me, as a plant, even in Good soil, will die if I’m in a dark, dry caterpillar enclosure. We need to constantly seek out God for growth, and God will grow us. When the trials comes, we need to ask the gardener for help. We want to, I want to, get to the point where no matter what happens, even if the sun disappears and the water dries up, nothing’s going to destroy me, because my roots are so deep in the knowledge and love of God.

I am God’s plant, not my own plant. God has planted me on this earth to be fruitful and multiply. Am I doing that at the moment? Or am I more interested in letting the weeds grow around me, and not worrying about how deep my roots grow?

Let’s be planting seeds everywhere, but to do that we need to have strong enough roots to effectively bare fruit.

Ever since Sin was brought into this world, there has been sicknesses, diseases, heartbreak and all various kinds of discomforts. We are promised in the bible that all of that will end when we get to heaven, and we are also promised that trials and tribulations will be a staple of our earthly lives. Therefore, my question is; is it even worth praying for physical healing and physical comfort, given that physical comfort is only going to last until the point at which we die, while spiritual strength, which is not only a key comforter in this life, but also a upwards looking approach to life? Does God, being the smart God that he is, know that physical comfort generally makes us fall into complacency and takes away some urge to pursue God that we normally would need during trials?

Let’s look at some verses from the bible:

1 Peter 5:10

And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

The restoration, confirmation, strengthening and establishment here is referring to eternity.

2 Corinthians 12:9-10 ESV / 95 helpful votes

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

The letter to the Corinthians, from Paul, clearly shows that when Paul was in his hardest calamities, and he was in many calamities, is when he felt the power of Christ in his life and he felt strongest.

But we also have James:

James 5:14-15

Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven.

That pretty clearly says  “the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well;”, but I think that it’s still important to frame ‘prayer’ in it’s context. We are certainly told to prayer fervently, but we must not reduce God down to a servant, to expect him to do whatever we tell him to do. He is far greater and smarter than we could ever be, and everything his does has a purpose. Praying is our way of connecting with God; praying is letting God know our needs, but allowing him to work in his wonderful way. His wonderful way might not involving healing my ailments, as he sees more benefit in my strength being turned towards him, and becoming well spiritually rather than physically.

The cross has long being a symbol of Christianity, in the same way that a giant ‘M’ has being the symbol of burgers. But is this symbolism correct. I can recall very few churches I have visited or attended where there is not a giant wooden cross on the wall, or a wooden cross on stage. But my question here is whether the ‘cross’ symbol warrants all the attention that we give it. The obvious question is ‘no’; the attention should be on Christ who died on the cross; his method of death is irrelevant and merely a means to an end of dying for our sins so that we can undeservedly spend eternal life with God in glory. But what does the bible say about the cross and did its point get blown out of proportion. The first section that mentions the cross, in a symbolic sense, is in the gospels where Jesus says:

Matthew 16:24

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.

Here Jesus is saying that what we do is going to be painful, as painful as execution upon a cross. When he says this, Jesus is yet to die on the cross, and there’s nothing to indicate that he know that the cross is the method in which he will die. It was culturally relevant that the robbers and thieves and those condemned to die would be paraded through the streets, carrying the cross on their shoulders upon which they would hang. The modern equivalent would be a prisoner being paraded through the streets of the city, carrying the poison which would cause him to die by lethal injection. But the crosses were quite large pieces of wood. Irrelevant of their exact shape (whether a ‘t’ shape or just a single beam), they were not easy to carry. Jesus is saying that the cross is a burden that is not easy to carry, but is something that the disciples, and by extension us as Christians, will need to carry; heavy burdens and afflictions for the sake of the gospel.

The next instances of the cross being used symbolically come in Paul’s epistles. To the church in Corinthians he writes:

1 Corinthians 17-18

For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

Here is the first time in the bible that the crucifixion is referred to explicitly as the fulfillment of the gospel. The ‘message of the cross’ is the gospel; the Jesus came down the earth to die in place of our eternal death as a result of our sinful human nature. And so I would guess that this verse is what really cemented the symbol of the cross as the symbol of Christianity, as Christianity is built wholly and solely upon the idea of the gospel, and our need and desire to share the gospel to the ends of the earth. In almost all the contexts in which the ‘cross’ is mentioned in the epistles, it could be replaced with the word ‘gospel’ and have the exact same meaning.

To conclude then, the purpose of the symbol of the cross is to be a reminder of the gospel of Jesus and all he has done, but without this reminder, a cross is just two lines running perpendicular to each other.

It’s not about the cross; It’s not about the tree.
It’s not about the way he died but what he did for me.
It’s all about the cross! And that I’ve been set free!
Now I can live and tell the world; “In glory, I will be!”