Text: 1 Peter 4:12-17; 5:6-11 (Acts 1:1-14)                                                   U Exaudi (7^th Sunday of Easter)

Are We There Yet?

            In the name of our risen and ascended Lord Jesus, dear friends in Christ:  Have you ever noticed that there are certain mistaken ideas that just never go away. It doesn’t matter how many times they are conclusively proven to be utterly false, it will always be possible to find folks who sincerely believe in them.  I think the philosophy of Communism is a good example.  If the last century’s economic experiments proved nothing else, one thing shown with absolute certainty was that Communism simply doesn’t work.  In every place it was tried, rather than free the working masses from lives of meaningless toil and drudgery and provide them with a near paradise on earth as promised, it only inflicted more hardship and tightened the bonds of their oppression.  But despite this, there are still many dedicated communists in the world – and I don’t just mean in those places where its precepts were drilled into people’s heads as children; no, even in our own country where free enterprise capitalism has always been the way, we still manage to produce people who fall for communist philosophy hook, line, and sinker.  It’s an idea that just won’t die the death it so richly deserves.

There are, of course, many other such mistaken ideas that just won’t go away.  And in this morning’s first reading from the book of Acts we see one of the many that has plagued the church and led many of its members astray from the time of Apostles. You will recall that the Jewish people at the time of Christ had a number of false notions about the coming Messiah.  Based on several misunderstandings of the spiritual content of sacred Scripture, they imagined that the Messiah, when he came, would be a mighty king who would set up a glorious, never-ending, physical kingdom right here on the earth. They thought he would be a warrior and conqueror, who would throw off the shackles of the hated Romans, and indeed, supplant that empire with one of his own.  In this empire, the Jews would be on top and stay that way ruling over the other nations forever, and Jerusalem would be the capital.  This is what they were expecting – and it’s why even the disciples often had such a hard time understanding Jesus.  He didn’t meet their expectations of what the Jewish Messiah should be.  Oh, he fulfilled some of their expectations – even exceeding them when it came to the miracles he did – that’s how they knew for sure he was the Messiah; but still, they clung to their false ideas of what they thought he should be even though he kept telling them how wrong they were.

  They persisted in these errors right up until the end.  On Palm Sunday, when Jesus came into Jerusalem amid their shouts of triumph, they were all looking forward to the setting up of his earthly kingdom:  a restored and more glorious Israel.  Jesus, of course, had other plans:  his goals were much higher.  And a few days later on Good Friday, he laid the foundation of a kingdom even more glorious than the disciples could have imagined:  the eternal kingdom of heaven founded upon his body crucified and his blood shed to atone for the sins of the world.  There he proved himself not a conqueror of mere nations, but the conqueror of Satan, sin, and the curse of death – the real and most threatening enemies of mankind.

Now, in the forty days following his resurrection from the dead, Jesus explained all of this to his disciples.  We’re told that he “opened their minds to understand the Scriptures”.  They learned from the risen Lord how the whole story of the Bible was about God’s plan to send his Son to die as the sacrifice of atonement; and how faith in this message – this work of God – conveyed to anyone who believed it forgiveness, salvation, and eternal life in heaven with God our Father and all of his children – his children given birth through faith in his Word.  This is what the kingdom of God is:  those who believe in Jesus Christ as their Savior and who, through him, have passed from death to life in time and eternity.

And you can sort of visualize the disciples listening to Jesus explain all of this.  They’re all thinking, “Wow, this is great.  It’s so much bigger and grander than we thought – who could even have imagined that God would send his Son to die for the sinful world?”  But even as they’re digesting this vastly expanded vision Jesus is giving them, they’re still hanging on to all their former notions about the Messiah ushering in a new golden age for the nation of Israel on earth.  As terrific as these new concepts Jesus is talking about are, they don’t quite satisfy the deeply cherished hopes and dreams they’ve held for so long.  So by now the disciples are even getting a little antsy that in the forty days they’ve been together since the resurrection Jesus hasn’t mentioned anything about it. “All this spiritual talk of faith and forgiveness is great – really it is!  But when are we going to get to the good stuff?”  Finally, they can take the suspense no longer and they ask him, “Lord, are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel now?”

It’s a good thing that I’m not Jesus, because at this point I probably would have grabbed the speaker by the tunic and started shaking him violently while screaming in his face, “Have you understood nothing I’ve said?!”  The disciples’ question reminds me of the perpetual inquiry with which young children drive their parents crazy on extended road trips, “Are we there yet?”; but in this case the answer wouldn’t be just, “No”, it would be, “Not only are we not there, but the ‘there’ you’re thinking of isn’t even on the way!” 

Fortunately, however, for so many more reasons than just this, I am not Jesus; and he handles the question with the same long-suffering patience for which he is famous. “Let’s leave politics and world affairs in the Father’s hands,” Jesus tells them, “It’s he who appoints the times and seasons according to his good pleasure.  I want you to concentrate on a different mission.  When you have received the power of the Holy Spirit who will come upon you shortly, I want you to be my witnesses in the world.” Jesus told them to focus their attention on building the kingdom of God – a kingdom of faith and forgiveness for all people – not an earthly kingdom of might and glory.  We know that the disciples did just that.  Renouncing their notions of earthly glory, they spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  They were the Lord’s agents to bring people from darkness and death to light and life eternal.  And working and witnessing in this way, they helped to build and expand a kingdom of people’s hearts that transcended borders and cultures and languages.  They finally understood what Jesus meant when he said, “My kingdom is not of this world.”

But, as I said before, some bad ideas just never seem to die.  Throughout the whole history of the church in the two thousand years since our Lord’s ascension, and despite his disavowal of the idea of a glorious and happy earthly kingdom, there have always been those who continue to cling to the idea.  This is especially true today.  One very popular theory that appears in countless variations is that in the near future the Lord Jesus will return and rule as an earthly monarch over the whole world for a term of one thousand years.  His headquarters will be in Jerusalem, and he will literally govern from there:  issuing decrees, making laws, deciding cases, and so on.  He’ll have a home there, and ride to work each day in his own limousine – something not unlike the pope-mobile, I should guess.  We’ll be able to watch him make speeches on the evening news.  And things will be good for us then.  With Jesus around, wars will end, no one will get sick, families will live together happily … oh, it’ll be just terrific.  No, I’m not making this up:  literally millions of Christians in this country alone believe this stuff – I’m sure some of you have heard it.  And where these ideas are popular in the church, people spend countless hours in seemingly endless prattle about how things will be then and speculation about when exactly the whole thing will begin.  Now, make no mistake, for the post part those who hold these ideas are Christian people – they sincerely trust in the Lord Jesus for salvation; the main danger here lies in that so much of their focus and energy is diverted away from the true goals and purpose of the kingdom of heaven toward a “there” that will never exist.

But there is another form of this sort of thinking that is a lot more dangerous, in part because it is much more subtle, but even more so because it undermines the message of the Gospel itself.  What I’m referring to here is the idea that though Christ is not coming back to rule over the earth in a physical sense, there is a way that we can effectively make him our earthly ruler through our completely unswerving devotion and service to him.  And please don’t misunderstand me:  of course Christ is our Lord and we want to be devoted to him.  But what we must never do is forget that he is first, foremost, and always our Savior from sin; and that on this side of paradise, due to the weakness of our fallen flesh and our continuing failure to live as we ought, we must always approach God through Jesus’ blood and the forgiveness of our sins.

Perhaps the best way to explain what I mean is to give you an example of what I’m talking about.  And I’m sorry if this offends anyone, but I’m going to name names and give specifics, not because I’m trying to pick on certain people; but so that you will know precisely what to watch out for.  Okay, here goes:  Saddleback church is out in California.  It’s one of those big mega-churches that have over ten thousand members and a worship center that’s bigger than a shopping mall.  The head pastor is Rick Warren, the author of the enormously popular book Purpose Driven Life.  Three weeks ago, on April 17^th, they held a special 25^th anniversary worship service in Angel Stadium with 30,000 of their members in attendance.  And as part of this service, the members all stood and pledged themselves to what is now called The Angel Stadium Declaration, which I’d like to read to you now:

            “Today I am stepping across the line.  I’m tired of waffling, and I’m finished with wavering.  I’ve made my choice; the verdict is in; and my decision is irrevocable. I’m going God’s way.  There’s no turning back now!

            “I will live the rest of my life serving God’s purposes with God’s people on God’s planet for God’s glory.  I will use my life to celebrate his presence, cultivate his character, participate in his family, demonstrate his love, and communicate his Word.

            “Since my past has been forgiven, and I have a purpose for living and a home awaiting in heaven, I refuse to waste any more time on shallow living, petty thinking, trivial talking, thoughtless doing, useless regretting, hurtful resenting, or faithless worrying.  Instead I will magnify God, grow to maturity, serve in ministry, and fulfill my mission in the membership of his family.

            “Because this life is preparation for the next, I will value worship over wealth, “we” over “me”, character over comfort, service over status, and people over possessions, position, and pleasures.  I know what matters most and I’ll give it all I’ve got.  I’ll do the best I can with what I have for Jesus Christ today.

            “I won’t be captivated by culture, manipulated by critics, motivated by praise, frustrated by problems, debilitated by temptation, or intimidated by the devil.  I’ll keep running the race with my eyes toward the goal, not the sidelines or those running by me.  When times get tough and I get tired, I won’t back up, back off, back down, back out, or backslide.  I’ll just keep moving forward by God’s grace.  I’m Spirit-led, purpose-driven, and mission-focused, so I cannot be bought, I will not be compromised, and I shall not quit until I finish the race.

            “I am a trophy of God’s amazing grace so I will be gracious to everyone, grateful for every day, and generous with everything that God entrusts to me.

            “To my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, I say:  However, whenever, wherever, and whatever you ask me to do, my answer in advance is yes!  Wherever you lead and whatever the cost, I’m ready.  Anytime. Anywhere.  Any way.  Whatever it takes, Lord; whatever it takes!  I want to be used by you in such a way that on that final day I’ll hear you say, “Well done, thou good and faithful one. Come on in, and let the eternal party begin!”

            That was the statement that some 30,000 people raised their right hands and swore to before Almighty God.  And I will be the first to admit that it contains a number of admirable sentiments; but where, I ask, was there even the slightest hint of continued reliance solely on the mercy and forgiveness of God in Christ Jesus? The Gospel was mentioned, but only in the past tense.  It was, “I’ve been forgiven.  Who needs that anymore?”  The thought was that in a spiritual sense, “I’ve already arrived at the final goal. I’m not going to sin anymore.” The whole statement struck me as a lengthy elaboration of Peter’s cocky declaration, “Not me, Jesus, though everyone else abandon you, I will stick with you to the end.  You can count on me.”  But they didn’t have to wait until the cock crowed.  Everyone who made that declaration failed to live up to it within seconds of having said it.  Within a day or so, they would have violated every one of the promises it contained. Now, as a pastor, I don’t think it’s right to teach people to lie to Jesus.  That’s a horrible thing to do.  Even more frightful is the prospect that there are those who made that statement who believe that they are keeping it.  And then there are those who believe that they should be able to and find that they can’t.  These are led to the outward hypocrisy of pretending that they are, and the internal despair of knowing that they aren’t.

            And again, I mention all of this not to pick on them; but rather to alert you to the subtle, sweet-sounding dangers, and the many ways that the false notion that somehow we will experience the glorious fullness of the kingdom of God while we are yet in this life can lead us astray.  We aren’t there yet.  And in today’s Epistle reading, St. Peter gives us the accurate description of what we can expect while we are yet in this life.  He doesn’t speak of a thousand years of blissful peace and comfort under Christ’s rule, nor does he speak of Christians serving the Lord in their own sinless perfection.  Instead, he speaks of hardship, trials, and suffering:  some of which are internal, as we continue to struggle against our own sinful flesh, which needs to be put to death everyday through repentance and confession, and some of which are external – the rejection and insults we will receive at the hands of this world as we trust in Jesus our Savior.  These trials are necessary to purify us, to make us humble, and to make us rely that much more on the grace and strength of God. Peter also warns us of the devil’s prowling about.  He is seeking victims to devour – and I hasten to add that he devours them through deception:  by making what is false, unwholesome, and evil appear to be true, healthy, and good.  Peter tells us to resist him.  How? Well, not through empty promises of loyalty to the Lord; but by standing firm in the faith:  that means trusting in the Words of Jesus and relying on the forgiveness he earned for us when he suffered and died for our sin.  That is the only firm place to stand while we are yet on the journey here below:  faith in the Lord Jesus and what he has done for us.

            Because we aren’t there yet; but the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm, and steadfast. We have God’s promise on that.  To him be the power and glory forever and ever. Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria!