Rev. David Holwick (outline and references follow the sermon)
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
October 8, 2000
START FRESH
Galatians 6:14-18
When you think about who you are, what is the one experience or the one quality that defines you? That one thing in your life that you will pin everything on - what would it be? Now of course you're in church and you are hearing a sermon and you know you are supposed to say, "It is my belief in God. That's what defines me." I am going to challenge you. Does that really define you? Or is that something you just say to make Sunday school teachers and pastor happy?
What really defines your life? And if you say that something does define your life, what is the evidence of it? Is it just words rolling off your lips? Or is there something in your character and your actions that people would say "Yes, that is what defines them"? To the apostle Paul there was no question about what he would see as his defining point and that was the cross of Jesus Christ. And if you think about it, it's a rather gruesome symbol. And not so much that it represents an execution as the theology that is behind it. To say that I stand for the cross is to say I believe I am a sinner. And I am such a sinner, that there is nothing that I can do about it. I need God to step in and take my place.
A lot of modern people have difficulty accepting this.
Paula Rinehart, a Christian writer, was settling into her seat on the airplane. It was taxing down the runway and she was getting ready to take a transatlantic flight, all the way over to Europe. She thought oh! now I can finally unwind. She had had so many things pile up on her she thought, "I am going to be able to rest for eight hours." As she was drifting into unconsciousness, her seatmate says, "So where are you from back in the United States?" Turns out it was a guy from New Zealand sitting right next to her. And this guy was really animated. I guess everyone in New Zealand is animated. He was real excited by having a conversation to someone who spoke English, even better yet with an American accent. So right away she knew she was not going to get her rest on her flight over to Europe. But this guy was so interesting that she didn't really mind.
So this guy kind of unfurled a whole thumbnail sketch of his life and she soon realized she was sitting next to who could be the posture child for the secular man. A modern person doesn't need God. He was very well educated, he had an excellent job, and he was pulling down big bucks. Utterly confident and serenely convinced that he knew where his life was going. And that it was going to go his way. Maybe you know someone like that? Maybe you are like that?
She got in a couple words about God and Jesus and all that. He said, "I want you to know I believe in God." But it was very obvious that he reserved the right to define what that belief in God was going to make him do. There were very tight parameters around that faith. The God who was an influence in his life was a very non-interfering God. And he was disconnected from anything that was associated with guilt or sin. God for him was somewhere kind of like between "The Force" of Star Wars and the Pillsbury doughboy who is nice and soft and cuddly and non-threatening.
Well, Paula suggested very tactfully that perhaps he picked up some of his theology through one too many of those self-esteem courses that his company out west had sent him to. And his eyebrows kind of knitted together a little and then he smiled. So she took off in a more deliberate direction. She said, "Remember how the actual story goes, you know the one in the Bible? About how God put his son on a cross between two criminals. How does all that fit in with your faith in God?" He admitted he had been kind of stumped by that part of the story, the cross part. He just couldn't see what God would mean by all that. Why would He do it that way? So Paula took his statement as her cue and she launched into a very detailed explanation of why Jesus had to die on the cross. She used the "S" word, SIN, that he didn't appreciate too much and she tried to come up with every poetic nuance on how to describe sin without saying sin. She talked about in how her relationship with God, apart from Christ, we are estranged, we are cut off, we are outside the loop, that one was a good one for someone like him. We are separated; in short we are lost.
Paula says she will never forget his response. This New Zealander said, "Well, I don't care how you put it, any notion of God being separated from me, I find totally repulsive. Telling me I am lost is an insult". Right there she thought she blew it, but you know it was a long flight and somewhere over the Atlantic he started about his first marriage which after fourteen years had failed. And even though he was in a new family and he was contented, there was something about him that had been revealed as incomplete. And he started opening up honestly about it to her. So she could say to him it is not just a doctrine in the Bible but it is describing life. There is something in us that is just not right. [1]
To the apostle Paul that something which is not right is in each and every person. And there is only one way we can deal with it. And that is through the cross. He says the cross is my only boast. And he says something more - that cross is my execution. It is not just something that happened to Jesus 2000 years ago, but it is something that happened to me. It's like I have made a death to this world. Now a lot of people realize there is something lacking in their life, but they think the solution is to do something themselves. Either to be religious and do good deeds or things like that. Or to go on the other side, and to punish themselves. Kind of like suffering for your own sins. And I have seen some people very good at it. You may feel maybe somewhere in your psyche, it makes you feel better to think, I am punishing myself, but it won't save you. Instead we need something else.
It is interesting that at the end in verse 17 Paul says, "I bear on my body the marks of Jesus". Do you ever wonder what that means? Down through history there have been people who had the marks of Jesus. What is called "stigmata" appears on them. Apart from anyone in the Bible, who was the first person in history to exhibit these stigmata? St. Frances of Assisi. His wounds were black and hard like nails and there was something like blood around the outside of it. And everyone was really awed by that. Since then there has been at least 131 people who have exhibited stigmata. Some would have it on their hands, some have been on the side, some on their feet, some have even had it around their forehead, like you see where the crown of thorns was. And people wonder if this is psychosomatic, or it is something they are actually producing themselves or if it is a miracle. No one knows. But you know, even if you have the marks of Jesus on you, that is not going to save you. The Apostle Paul is not thinking of stigmata like the crucifixion signs. He is referring to the fact that he was persecuted because of his faith, and he had the evidence of it. But that is not what saved him - the cross of Jesus is what has saved him. Only Jesus can atone for our sins. So in some way we have to make a dramatic break with the world. We have got to be crucified.
But death is not the last word. A new creation is. So look at verse 15: "Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision mean anything, what counts is a new creation." To many people the rituals of religion are kind of matter-of-fact. Some of you were brought up Catholic or maybe you have Catholic parents. The dilemma is when you have a child you decide to go the Protestant route and you don't baptize the baby right away, oh the horror of the family. What if something happens to that baby? Where will that baby go? You have got to have a ritual. But we Baptists look at it differently. God is looking at the heart. The rituals should be able to portray the inner heart, a way of dramatizing it, but the rituals don't save us. But to a lot of people down through the ages that is what people point to. Notice what it says there about circumcision or even uncircumcision. People in Paul's day were arguing that the church has got to do it this way or they are not going to heaven. And Paul says no, the way you do it doesn't matter. Something completely different matters ... you need a new creation.
A lot of people would like to be recreated. There is a woman who is mentioned in the book of world records. I think her name is Joy Wittenstein. This woman has had more plastic surgery than anyone on earth; it is something like 200 different procedures. There has been well over $100,000 that she has spent and she looks weird. Now I don't know what she looked like before but she does not look quite human now. But she certainly is different. She has changed but only externally; basically she is the same character inside. Some people even get transgendered, they want to be different, but inside we still stay the same.
What the Bible says we need is not a touch up, a surface thing. We need an inner transformation. Paul uses the word "creation," like God created the heavens and earth. He needs to re-create us. Now of course anyone who has been around Christian people for awhile realizes we make these claims about creation, they kind of look like the same old stuff to me, some of the old personality traits still carry over, and yet the Bible said we are a new creation. So therefore we need to open ourselves up more and letting this flow out of our lives, or maybe we have to question - Are we really in that category? See just to say I am a new creation doesn't make it so. Is it a reality?
It's interesting if you look at that verse 15: "Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision mean anything, what counts is a new creation." Now flip over to chapter 5, verse 6. He says, "For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value, the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love." See how it is almost exactly identical but look at the twist. Instead of a new creation, he said what counts is faith expressing itself through love. So what new creation means is I am living a repentant life in God. It is not just God does a miracle, but I respond to it and I allow God to work in me. . Has a real change of heart accompanied your faith? If you say, I have decided to follow Jesus, would anyone else be able to tell? A lot of people kind of want to make a religious statement but they really don't want to change that much. Being a Christian means you come to terms with reality.
Thirteen years ago James Courtier was convicted of murdering his stepmother and he was sent to a prison in Iowa. From the beginning and throughout Courtier insisted they had the wrong man. The entire family fervently believed that. Then James signed up for a special prison run by a Christian organization. It is actually Charles Colson's Prison Fellowship and the results have been so dramatic that 51 different inmates have gone through it and not a single one has ended up back to prison. Remarkable, because I think the federal rate for recidivism is 76%. The program was featured at the Republican convention in Philadelphia.
This prison run by Christians with permission by the government has an 18-month routine that they have to go through. They spend all day working, studying, or taking discipleship classes. They do this until 10 o'clock at night. There is no TV in this special prison.
In phase 2, they start moving outside. They do community service. They have to do restitution. If they have stolen from someone, they are going to pay it back based on the Biblical principle. And they are hooked up with a mentor, someone from the local church who watches over them, prays with them and challenges them and even follows up with them after they are released from prison so they can make that transition to a law-abiding life.
Well, James Courtier got into this program. After three months he found he could no longer live with himself. James Cowrey, the prison director, said, "James felt the Lord was telling him that if he were to stay in the program, he would have to stop living a lie. He had to tell his Dad that he did stab his stepmother to death. After thirteen years of lying that was not an easy step to take." So James asked his fellow inmates to pray with him, and then he went and told his dad the truth. Like he expected, his dad was shocked, but his dad said he still loved him and would still support him.
What an impact that confession had on the other inmates in the program! The director said these were men who wanted to change their lives through Christ but they had no idea what a life in Christ looked like. And here was a lifer showing dramatic proof of the reality of Jesus. Sometimes we need to see it like that. #16600
You know, I am sure James was probably like a lot of people. You are thinking you are in prison, you do not want to be in prison, so what do you do? You kind of go the religious route. You cry out to God. I am sure many people are sincere. Maybe if I do something then I will get out early. It is like a game we play. If you are going to play the Christian game, it is not a game. You have got to completely fess up before God. And you even have to be willing to fess up in front of people, which is not easy at all. I am sure if I did my baptisms a little differently I would have a lot more baptisms, because I make people stand in the water and say here's what Jesus means to me, here's how I came to believe in him. There is a lot of people who would rather die than say that in front of a crowd here because it is embarrassing and you might get emotional. And yet believing in Jesus is deeper than emotions, it goes to your soul.
Charles Colson says he has met hardened criminals, even a six-time loser, who have had their lives dramatically converted by Jesus Christ. Colson even knows people who have turned down parole to stay in the program and finish it. That is a sign of commitment. A lot of people believe, but how many change? The new creation that Paul is talking about here - have you experienced that? The Bible says it is the same thing as being born again. You either have it or you don't have it. If you have it, then that is what we call a genuine Christian. If you don't have it then you are not. You may be very religious and very sincere, very nice but you are not a saved person. And as a nice sinner you will stand before God naked and you are going to be very disappointed.
If you have professed faith in Jesus and there has not been a significant change in your life you need to ask yourself a very hard question: Is it real or am I playing a game? Am I living a lie? Transformation through Jesus always produces hard evidence and as it something you have to check every day. As it says in 2 Corinthians 4:16, "inwardly we are being renewed day by day." Where do you stand with Him today?
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Rev. David Holwick ZF Galatians sermon series
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
October 8, 2000
Galatians 6:14-18
START FRESH
I. The ultimate.
A. What one feature or experience defines you?
1) (You're in church so you're supposed to say,
"My relationship with God.")
2) Is it true?
B. How would anyone know? How are you sure YOU know?
II. The cross stands before us.
A. Rather grim symbol.
1) It confronts us with our guilt and sin.
2) The message is that you cannot save yourself. Only God can.
3) Many have a hard time swallowing this.
Paula Rinehart buckled her seat belt and breathed a sigh of
relief just as the plane prepared to taxi out of the gate.
Finally, a little peace and quiet.
In the middle of a long trip overseas, she was ready to
unwind.
"So where are you from, back in the United States?"
She turned to meet the man beside her, an animated New
Zealander looking for conversation with someone who spoke
English with an American accent.
In minutes he sketched out his life, and Paula forgot she
needed a nap.
She soon realized her seat mate could qualify as the poster
child of the secular man.
Well educated.
Great job.
Utterly confident.
Sincerely convinced he could do life his way.
He believed in God, he assured her, but he reserved the right
to define the parameters of that concept.
God was an influence in his life but a non-interfering one and
disconnected from anything associated with guilt or shame.
God was something of a cross between "The Force" and the
"Pillsbury Dough Boy."
Paula suggested tactfully that perhaps he'd picked up that last
part in one of those pop psychology seminars his company
sent him to on the West Coast.
His eyebrows furrowed, but he smiled.
She took off in a more deliberate direction.
"Remember how the actual story goes - I mean the one in the
Bible?
God allowed His Son to die on a cross between two thieves so
that He could bring you and me back into a relationship
with Him."
He admitted being stumped by that part of the story.
He just couldn't see the point.
In the cross, he meant.
Paula took his statement as her cue and launched into a fairly
elaborate explanation of how each of us needs Christ.
She used the "s" word-sin.
Then she came up with every poetic nuance for sin that she
knew.
Without Christ's death on the cross, she said, we are
estranged, cut off, alienated, outside the loop, separated.
We are, in short, lost.
Paula will never forget his response.
"I don't care how you put it.
Any notion of God being separate from me is pretty repulsive.
Telling me that I'm lost is an insult."
It was only later in the flight, in talking about his failed
first marriage, that the man could admit the incompleteness
of his life. [1]
B. The cross is all or nothing.
1) Without it, real Christianity collapses.
a) It is our boast.
b) It is our execution.
2) We cannot atone for our own sins.
a) Some people punish themselves, suffering for their sins.
b) Note Paul's comment in verse 17 - "the marks of Jesus."
1> Often taken to mean stigmata.
A> St. Francis and others have had it.
2> Not stigmata, but marks of persecution.
c) Not the marks on Paul, but the grace of Jesus saves. v18
3) It some way we must make a drastic break with the world.
a) We have to die to it.
b) But death is not the last world.
III. The power of starting fresh.
A. Real religion is not rituals.
1) Circumcision or uncircumcision don't matter.
a) We have to be re-created.
b) Not rituals - only God alone can bring it about.
c) Instead of circumcision (baptism) we need
transformation.
B. People can be re-made.
1) Many wish it.
a) Plastic surgery. (Joy Wittenstein - world record book)
b) Some are even trans-gendered.
2) Can God do it?
a) New creation is a new existence, not a touch-up.
1> In Galatians 5:6, faith expressing itself in love.
2> In 1 Corinthians 7:19, obeying God's commands.
b) It is not merely an invisible spiritual promotion.
IV. Has a real change of heart accompanied your faith?
A. Coming to terms with reality.
Thirteen years ago, James Corder was convicted of murdering
his stepmother and was sent to prison in Iowa.
From the beginning, Corder insisted they had the wrong man
-- a claim his family fervently believed.
Then James signed up for a special prison run by Charles
Colson's Prison Fellowship.
(It was featured in prime time at the Republican National
Convention 2000 in Philadelphia.)
The 18-month regimen is far from easy.
Inmates spend all day working, studying, and attending
discipleship seminars.
Each day ends at 10:00 p.m. There is no TV, no wasted time.
During Phase 2 of the program, inmates perform community
service.
They are encouraged to repent and to make restitution to
their victims.
Prisoners are then matched with mentors from local churches.
Three months after James Corder signed up for the program
he found he could no longer live with himself.
Jack Cowley, the prison's director, said, "James felt the
Lord was telling him that if he was going to stay in
the program, he would have to stop living a lie.
He had to tell his father he DID stab his stepmother to
death."
That was not easy, for after 13 years of lying, James was
concerned about how his father would react.
He asked his fellow inmates to pray with him.
When he told his father the truth, he was indeed
shocked, as he expected.
But he told James they would continue to love and support
him.
That confession had a tremendous impact on his fellow
inmates.
Jack Cowley says, "These were men who wanted to change their
lives through Christ.
But had no idea what a life in Christ looked like.
And here's a lifer who showed a dramatic proof of the
reality of Christ."
Charles Colson has met hardened criminals, including some
six-time losers, who have been transformed totally.
He has met men who turned down parole so that they could
stay in the prison and complete the program.
#16600
[1] Colson's original article has "parents" but I thought
this might sound confusing so I replaced it with "father."
V. Many believe, but fewer change.
A. Have you experienced it?
B. If there has not been a significant change in your life,
are you really a Christian?
C. Inner change ALWAYS produces outward evidence.
1) The renewal is a day-by-day experience. 2 Cor 4:16
========================================================================
SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
[1] "Talking Foolishness," by Paula Rinehart, Discipleship Journal
#110, Mar-Apr 1999, page 68.
#16600 "Everyday Miracles: The Innerchange Program," by Charles Colson,
Breakpoint Commentary for August 1, 2000; copyright (c) 2000
Prison Fellowship Ministries.
These and 16,500 others are part of a database that can be downloaded,
absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
========================================================================
Other possible illustrations:
HOLWICK COMBINED COLLECTION Number: 725
SOURCE: Internet: Chicken Soup Of The Day
TITLE: Let's Start Over
AUTHOR: Richard Porter
DATE: 3/15/99
ILLUSTRATION:
Some time ago, I had a direct experience of what I describe as "High
Performance Customer Service." It occurred on a Saturday, on a cold
winter's day in Toronto.
The weekend began, as with many other second-family situations, with my
children visiting their mother. My wife, Kate, and I had a weekend
alone. Saturday was an exercise in leisure and tranquility. We got up
late, and everything in the day was a pleasurable three or four hours
late.
After browsing shops and galleries, we arrived at a prominent four-star
hotel at around four o'clock in the afternoon, ready for a late lunch.
The restaurant staff was most accommodating. Kate ordered a stir-fry of
some sort, and when it arrived, the real adventure began.
Nestled neatly in Kate's stir-fry was the tip of a finger from a latex
glove. I called the waitress. "What is this?" Kate inquired with an
appropriate level of indignation.
"I'm not sure," replied the waitress as she whisked the plate away to
the kitchen.
In less than a minute the waitress returned with the maitre d'.
"Madame, we have made a dreadful mistake and apologize sincerely." So
far so good. "Let us start over," the maitre d' continued. "Remove
everything from the table," he instructed the waitress. The waitress
proceeded to remove everything - the wine, the cutlery, my food, the
tablecloth - everything! "Let us erase the memory," said the maitre d'.
The table was reset, menus presented and new wine and food ordered. We
were on our way once again to a fantastic lunch.
The maitre d' took a bad service impression and replaced it with an
outstanding one. He did not deny the experience, but substituted a
higher, richer one in its place. The food was good, the service
superlative. This was theater.
And the meal was complimentary.
----------------------
By Richard Porter, from A 4th Course of Chicken Soup for the Soul,
Copyright 1997 by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Hanoch McCarty &
Meladee McCarty
#725
*
___________________________________________________
HOLWICK COMBINED COLLECTION Number: 1648
SOURCE: Internet: Chicken Soup Of The Day
TITLE: Start With Yourself
AUTHOR: Anonymous
DATE: 9/9/98
ILLUSTRATION: The following words were written on the tomb of an
Anglican bishop in the crypts of Westminister Abbey:
When I was young and free and my imagination had no limits, I dreamed of
changing the world. As I grew older and wiser, I discovered the world
would not change, so I shortened my sights somewhat and decided to
change only my country.
But it too seemed immovable.
As I grew into my twilight years, in one last desperate attempt, I
settled for changing only family, those closest to me, but alas, they
would have none of it.
And now as I lay on my deathbed, I suddenly realize: If I had only
changed myself first, then by example I would have changed my family.
From their inspiration and encouragement, I would then have been able to
better my country and, who knows, I may have even changed the world.
____________________
By Anonymous, from Condensed Chicken Soup for the Soul, Copyright 1996
by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen & Patty Hansen
#1648
*
___________________________________________________
HOLWICK COMBINED COLLECTION Number: 4539
SOURCE: Internet: Rev. Brett Blair's Illustrations By
Email,www.sermonillustrations.com
TITLE: Encountering The Crucified Risen Lord
AUTHOR: D. T. Niles, Preaching The Gospel Of The Resurrection
DATE: 4/7/99
ILLUSTRATION:
ENCOUNTERING THE CRUCIFIED RISEN LORD
In a Lecture Series given by D. T. Niles, he finished by saying, "Let me
conclude with a story told by a famous French bishop to his
congregation."
Three university students of Paris were walking along the road one Good
Friday afternoon. They noticed crowds of people going to the churches
to make their confession. The students began to discuss this custom of
the "unenlightened," and talked in rather cynical terms about the
survival of religion which they described as superstition. Suddenly two
of the students turned to the third, who was the leader among them, and
said to him, "Will you go into this church and tell the priest there
what we have been saying to each other?" "Sure, I will," he said, and
went in.
He stood in the same queue of those who were going to their confession,
and when his turn came, he looked at the priest and said, "Father, I
have come here merely to tell you that Christianity is a dying
institution and that religion is a superstition." The priest looked at
the young man keenly and said, "Why did you come here, my son, to tell
me this?" And the student told him of his conversation with his
friends.
The priest listened carefully and then said: "All right, I want you to
do one thing for me before you go. You accepted the challenge of your
friends and came here; now accept my challenge to you. Walk up to the
chancel and you will find there a large wooden cross and on it he figure
of Jesus crucified. I want you to stand before that cross and say these
words: "Jesus died for me and I don't care a damn."
The student looked diffident but, to save face, agreed. He went up and
stood before that cross and said it: "Jesus died for me and I don't care
a damn." He came back to he priest and said, "I have done it." "Do it
once more," said the priest; "after all, it means nothing to you."
The student went back and looked at the cross for some time and the
figure on it, and then he stammered it out: "Jesus died for me and I
don't care a damn." He returned to the priest and said, "I have done
it; I am going now."
The priest stopped him. "Once more," he said, just once more and you
can go." The young man walked up to the chancel and looked at that
cross again, and at the Crucified. He stood there for a long time.
Then he came back to the priest and said, "Father, can I make my
confession now?"
The bishop concluded the story with these words: "And, my dear people,
that young man was me."
________________________
D. T. Niles, Preaching the Gospel of the Resurrection.
Copyright © 2024 by Rev. David Holwick
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