Sunday Morning Service,
September 16, 2006
Sermon by Rev Elka...
“Fervor For Fullness”
Introduction
Fervor for fullness is a passion for Christ Himself! Jesus,
the incomparable Son of God, is the One through whom
the Father has manifest all His glory, fullness, purpose,
and power.
Let me illustrate it like this.
White light is not the absence of colour but actually the convergence of all colours. We’ve all seen what happens when a beam of light is split, passing through a prism—whether in the form of a raindrop, an angular piece of glass, a crystal jewel or morning dew on a blade of grass—light separates into its component colours, and there before us, in the splendor of the spectrum, is a manifold brilliance of the rainbow.
So with our Lord Jesus Christ—the Light of the World. Sent by the Father into our world in His unspoiled, white-light perfection, He is the composite of the spectrum of God’s fullness. Through Him every aspect of the Godhead has been unfolded to mankind.
Ours is to receive the full revelation of all His work and wonders. Ours is to be enfolded by the glorious spectrum of His manifestations. As Jesus Himself is the prism through Whom we have seen the glory of God, His full Person and works are the spread of divine colour, which is needed to brighten the world today.
1) The Fullness of God in Christ
“For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” Col. 2:9
All of God was in Christ’s human body, the totality of God with all His powers and attributes.
Paul makes a similar statement a few verses earlier in his letter, “For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, 20and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.” Col. 1:19-20
Christ was fully human; he was fully divine. Christ has always been God and always will be God. When we have Christ, we have all of God in human form. Our passion for all of Christ is anchored in “the blood of His cross”. This is the Tree of Life in the New Testament offered for our salvation. It is more than a piece of wood driven into a hill far away. “The blood of His cross”, is the fountain of fullness, from which any fervor for more of Him must begin.
Here is the place we find His love for us. Here is where we find His love for others. “The blood of His cross” is the prism from which the splendor of God breaks open into a wonderful rainbow of His glory for the entire world to see.
2) The Fullness of Christ in His Church
Oh, that we might all find a personal release—a fearlessness to welcome the full expression of the prism beam of Christ’s person to engulf us with all His splendor!
The New Testament reveals how the early church presented the fullness of their Saviour to a spiritually bankrupt society. The church unleashed the fullness of Christ at all dimensions, letting Him be God—to save, fill, heal, strengthen, teach, lead, speak, deliver, reveal. The fullness of Jesus who walked through Palestine was experienced walking in the person of those naming His name and expecting His fullness to manifest itself through them. Human need was fully met by heaven’s fullness fully visible in His followers.
Consider the two apostles who encountered the crippled man at the Beautiful Gate in Jerusalem. This man had been lame since birth. Daily, his friends would carry him to the temple gate so he could beg for money. Then here came Jesus all dressed up in Peter and John! “Peter and John looked at him intently, and Peter said, “Look at us!” 5 The lame man looked at them eagerly, expecting a gift. 6 But Peter said, “I don’t have any money for you. But I’ll give you what I have. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk!”
7 Then Peter took the lame man by the right hand and helped him up. And as he did, the man’s feet and anklebones were healed and strengthened. 8 He jumped up, stood on his feet, and began to walk! Then, walking, leaping, and praising God, he went into the Temple with them.
9 All the people saw him walking and heard him praising God. 10 When they realized he was the lame beggar they had seen so often at the Beautiful Gate, they were absolutely astounded! 11 They all rushed out to Solomon’s Colonnade, where he was holding tightly to Peter and John. Everyone stood there in awe of the wonderful thing that had happened.” (Acts 3:4-10 NLT) That’s it! The hurt and lost of our world long for people filled with Jesus. The cry is for more than doctrine or religion—people long for freedom and fulfilling contact!
That cry is not offensive to God’s ears. He isn’t irritated with the fumbling groping of blinded souls seeking a touch, a sense of warmth, a surge of power, an embrace of love.
As surely as He sent His Son to touch the seeking soul with love and life, His plan today is to continue the same offer of vital contact. Jesus still wants to touch people—through the hands of His body, His church.
“He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, 23which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.” Ephesians 1:22-23 (NKJV)
Just as the fullness of God was in Christ so the fullness of Christ is in us (the Church). We are now the prisms that disperse the full light and splendor of God to the world. Light that burns out sin, reveals Christ, enlightens minds, warms the emotions, heals the body and fills the soul. The answer to the world’s cry for a revelation of Christ’s fullness is found in His church by which He speaks and acts.
This fullness, filling the church as it fills each member, was the key to the early church’s life. By the Spirit’s power, they were being filled with Christ’s presence and purpose. He was the secret of their growth, ministry and love—the head and the heart of the body He was expanding, reaching through and perfecting.
Let’s look at each one of those areas.
a) Growth
“Till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13 NKJV)
This growth is in Christ-like character. As each member of the body of Christ becomes more like Jesus and operates within their giftedness and calling, we can express the fullness of Christ accomplishing more together than we would dream possible working by ourselves. Eugene Peterson puts it this way, “…Christians in skilled servant work, working within Christ’s body, the church, until we’re all moving rhythmically and easily with each other, efficient and graceful in response to God’s Son, fully mature adults, fully developed within and without, fully alive like Christ.”
Such growth in Christ-like character will no doubt result in numerical growth as well.
b) Ministry
“But I know that when I come to you, I shall come in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ.” Romans 15:29 NKJV
The apostle Paul was letting the church in Rome know that he was excited about coming to them because he came delivering the full blessing of the gospel of Christ. He was delivering an offering to the church in Jerusalem but let the church in Rome know Christ would also bless them fully. When we disperse Jesus to those around us they need to know they can be recipients of the fullness of His blessings. That somehow and in some way He will respond to their deepest needs and they too can know the blessed state of the redeemed.
c) Love
“(that you may) know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:19(NKJV)
The fervor for fullness is a passion fired by love. It is a passion God first places in our hearts Himself. We love Him because He first loved us. Love is ignited when we realize what Jesus did for us on Calvary’s cross. It is an unconditional love that knows no limits.
To know God’s love is indeed heaven on earth. This knowledge is to be an ordinary part of the Christian experience. Paul tells us in Romans 5:5, “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us”. ‘Shed abroad’ literally means ‘poured out’. It suggests a free flow and a large quantity. Living the full life is living in the enjoyment of a strong and abiding sense of God’s love for us. God’s love is an exercise of His goodness. He deals bountifully and kindly with us. His love is undeserved. It is staggering that God should love sinners but it is true. The love of God is free, spontaneous, unevoked, uncaused. God loves us because He has chosen to; it is His own good pleasure. We know that those who truly love are only happy when those whom they love are truly happy also. So it is with God. God’s joy will not be complete till all His beloved ones are out of trouble: “Till all the ransomed church of God be slaved to sin no more”.
The measure of love is how much it gives, and the measure of the love of God is the gift of His only Son to be made man, and to die for sins, and to become the One who can bring us to the Father. The NT writers constantly point to the cross of Christ as the crowning proof of the reality and boundlessness of God’s love. God’s love is a covenant love. A covenant relationship is one in which two parties are permanently pledged to each other in mutual service and dependence (example: marriage). God’s covenant love says, “My grace shall be yours to pardon you, and My power shall be yours to protect you, and My wisdom shall be yours to direct you, and My goodness shall be yours to relieve you, and My mercy shall be yours to supply you, and my glory shall be yours to crown you.” “(that you may) know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:19(NKJV)
This fullness of Christ also assured the Church He was the source of grace, power, and victory.
Grace: “And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. 17For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” John 1:16,17 (NKJV)
Power: “For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; 10and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.” Colossians 2:9-10 (NKJV)
Victory: “And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. 19For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell.” Colossians 1:18-19 (NKJV)
Fullness should excite our minds and ignite our ministry. It is not only a gift it is a task. This powerful truth must be actualized in our lives. Just as all of the Godhead has been focused in Christ, so all of Christ has now been focused in His Church. The saving plan which God the Father began by incarnating His fullness in the person of His Son, He has willed to be advanced throughout the earth by pouring that same fullness into the body of the Church. Just as Jesus was equipped to deliver the fullness of the Father’s love and life to anyone and everyone so is the Church. Jesus declared the Word and demonstrated it. So must we incarnate its truth in our lives, speaking its life with our tongues, extending its love with our arms touching mankind, in Jesus’ name and with His power.
The focus on fullness is to call us to completeness in our living and our witness. The world awaits a Body, which both completely knows and completely shows wholeness in the face of human brokenness.
July 16, 2006. "sermon in the park", Sunday Night
Public Gospel Concert, at Dresden's Jackson Park.
"What About Hell?"July 16, 2006.
My topic tonight will not leave you feeling all warm and fuzzy. On the contrary it is very sobering. Twenty first century people often shy away from acknowledging the reality of Hell. In the West, belief in a literal Hell is at an all time low. A recent survey suggests that for every person who thinks he is going to Hell, there are 120 who believe they’re going to Heaven. This optimism stands in stark contrast to Christ’s words in Matthew 7:13-14: “You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose the easy way. 14 But the gateway to life is small, and the road is narrow, and only a few ever find it.”
What would keep us out of Heaven is universal: “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Sin separates us from a relationship with God. God is holy and cannot allow sin into His presence. Because we are sinners, we are not entitled to enter God’s presence. We cannot enter Heaven as we are no matter how good we think we might be.
Heaven is not our default destination. No one goes there automatically. Unless our sin problem is resolved, the only place we will go is our true default destination … Hell. The Bible teaches that both Heaven and Hell are very real places and that each of us will eventually spend eternity in one of them. We dare not “wait and see” when it comes to what’s on the other side of death. We shouldn’t cross our fingers and hope that our names are written in the Book of Life. We can know, we should know, before we die. And because we may die at any time, we need to know now—not next month or next year. It is of paramount importance to make sure you are going to Heaven.
Hell: Heaven’s Awful Alternative
Hell will be inhabited by people who haven’t received God’s gift of salvation in Christ. After Christ returns, there will be a resurrection of believers for eternal life in Heaven and a resurrection of unbelievers for eternal existence in Hell. Hell is described as a place of utter misery in the Scriptures, a place of conscious punishment for sins, with no hope of relief.
The reality of Hell should break our hearts and take us to our knees and to the doors of those without Christ. Today, however, Hell has become “the H word,” seldom named and rarely talked about. It’s common to deny or ignore the clear teaching of Scripture about Hell. However, Hell is real and we are not free to re-invent, revise or change biblical truths and Christian doctrines for mere accommodation. We must not evaluate truth based on what is popular, preferred or politically correct. We must evaluate truth based on God’s word. If we deny Hell because we find the notion unbearable and undesirable, then why not drop any other part of Christianity that’s unbearable or undesirable? Recognition of what the Bible teaches about Hell actually bespeaks a high view of Christ. Denial of Hell is, in a way, reflective of a low view of Christ’s death on Calvary’s cross. Charles Spurgeon said, “Think lightly of Hell, and you will think lightly of the cross. Think little of the sufferings of lost souls, and you will soon think little of the Saviour who delivers them.” Satan has obvious motives for fueling our denial of eternal punishment: He wants unbelievers to reject Christ without fear; he wants Christians to be unmotivated to share Christ; and he wants God to receive less glory for the radical nature of Christ’s work on the cross.
"What Did Jesus Say About Hell?"
Some consider Hell to be the invention of wild-eyed preachers obsessed with wrath. They argue that Christians should take the higher road of Christ’s love. Nevertheless, Jesus had more to say about Hell than anyone. He refers to it as a literal place and describes it in graphic terms—including raging fires and the worm that doesn’t die. Christ says the unsaved “will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth”. In His story of the rich man and Lazarus, Jesus taught that in Hell, the wicked suffer terribly, are fully conscious, retain their desires and memories and reasoning, long for relief, cannot be comforted, cannot leave their torment, and are without hope. The Saviour could not have painted a more bleak or graphic picture.
With regards to the duration of Hell Jesus said, “They will go away to eternal punishment but the righteous to eternal life. In the same sentence Jesus uses the same word to describe the duration of both Heaven and Hell, “eternal”.
Is It Unloving To Speak Of Hell?
The most basic truth is that there are only two possible destinations after death: Heaven and Hell. Each is just as real and just as eternal as the other. Unless and until we surrender our lives to Jesus Christ, we’re headed for Hell. The most loving thing we can do for our friends and our family is to warn them about the road that leads to destruction and to tell them about the road that leads to life.
It’s far too easy to go to Hell. It requires no change of course, no navigational adjustments. We were born with our autopilot set toward Hell. God loves us enough to tell us the truth—there are two eternal destinations, not one, and we must choose the right path if we are to go to Heaven. All roads do not lead to Heaven. Only one does: Jesus Christ. He said, “No one comes to the Father except through me”. All other roads lead to Hell.
Earth: The In-Between World
Hell will be agonizingly dull, small, and insignificant, without company, purpose, or accomplishment. Hell and its occupants will exist in utter inactivity and insignificance, an eternal non-life of regret. Scripture says those who die without Jesus, “…will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of His power”. Hell will be the absence of all good, the absence of God. Hell will have no community, fellowship, or friendship.
Earth is an in-between world touched by both Heaven and Hell. Earth leads directly into Heaven or into Hell, affording a choice between the two. The best of life on Earth is a glimpse of Heaven; the worst of life is a glimpse of Hell. For Christians, this present life is the closest they will come to Hell. For unbelievers, it is the closest they will come to Heaven.
The reality of the choice that lies before us in this life is both wonderful and awful. Given the reality of our two possible destinations, shouldn’t we be willing to pay any price to avoid Hell and go to Heaven? And yet, the price has already been paid. “You were bought at a price”. The price paid was exorbitant—the shed blood of God’s Son, Jesus Christ.
Consider the wonder of it: God determined that He would rather go to Hell on our behalf than live in Heaven without us. He so much wants us not to go to Hell that He paid a horrible price on the cross so that we wouldn’t have to. As it stands, however, apart from Christ, our eternal future will be spent in Hell.
Jesus asks a haunting question in Mark 8:36-37: “What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?” The price has been paid. But, still, we must choose. Like any gift, forgiveness can be offered, but it isn’t ours until we choose to receive it. A convicted criminal can be offered a pardon, but if he or she rejects the pardon, it’s not valid. A pardon must be accepted. Similarly, Christ offers each of us the gift of forgiveness and eternal life—but just because the offer is made doesn’t make it ours. To have it, we must choose to accept it.
I close with this true story. A professional singer was asked to sing at the wedding of a wealthy man. The reception was to be held on the top two floors of Seattle’s Columbia Tower, the Northwest’s tallest skyscraper. She and her husband were excited about attending. At the reception, waiters in tuxedos offered luscious hors d’oeuvres and exotic beverages. The bride and groom approached a beautiful glass and brass staircase that led to the top floor. Someone ceremoniously cut a satin ribbon draped across the bottom of the stairs. They announced the wedding feast was about to begin. Bride and groom ascended the stairs, followed by their guests.
At the top of the stairs, a maitre d’ with a bound book greeted the guests outside the doors. “May I have your name please?” The singer and her husband complied only to find out their names were not on the list. “There must be some mistake, I’m the singer. I sang for this wedding!” she cried. The gentleman answered, “It doesn’t matter who you are or what you did. Without your name in the book you cannot attend the banquet. He motioned to the waiter and said, “Show these people to the service elevator, please.”
They followed the waiter past beautifully decorated tables laden with shrimp, whole smoked salmon, and magnificent carved ice sculptures. Adjacent to the banquet area, an orchestra was preparing to perform, the musicians all dressed in dazzling white tuxedos. The waiter led them to the service elevator, ushered them in, and pushed G for the parking garage. After locating their car and driving several miles in silence, the husband put his hand on his wife’s arm. “Sweetheart, what happened?” “When the invitation arrived, I was busy, I never bothered to RSVP. Besides, I was the singer. Surely I could go to the reception without returning the RSVP!”
She started to weep—not only because she had missed the most lavish banquet she’d ever been invited to, but also because she suddenly had a small taste of what it will be like someday for people as they stand before Christ and find their names not written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.
Throughout the ages, countless people have been too busy to respond to Christ’s invitation to His wedding banquet. Many assume that the good they’ve done—perhaps attending church, being baptized, singing in the choir, or helping the needy—will be enough to gain entry to Heaven. But people who do not respond to Christ’s invitation to forgive their sins are people whose names aren’t written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. To be denied entrance into Heaven’s wedding banquet will not just mean going down the service elevator to the garage. It will mean being cast outside into Hell, forever.
In that day, no explanation or excuse will count. All that will matter is whether our names are written in the book. If they’re not, we’ll be turned away. Have you said yes to Christ’s invitation to join Him at the wedding feast and spend eternity with Him in His house? If so, you have reason to rejoice—Heaven’s gates will be open to you. If you have been putting off your response, your RSVP, or if you presume that you can enter Heaven without responding to Christ’s invitation, one day you will deeply regret it.
