Rev. David Holwick K
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
April 2, 2017
Hebrews 11:32 - 12:2
ARE YOU IN THE CLOUD?
I. A silver lining in the technology field.
A. Samsung's secret.
The Korean cell phone maker had a disaster last year with
the Note 7 tablet.
Tablets are somewhat larger than cell phones and have
larger batteries.
Samsung's Note 7 batteries blew up. A lot.
They caught fire in pockets and on planes.
Samsung had to withdraw all the Note 7-S, at a cost of
$5 billion.
Then one of their vice presidents was charged with
corruption and bribery, and arrested.
Many thought the company would be toast like their phones.
What happened to Samsung stock?
It has gone up 30%.
One reason is that phones are not their emphasis these days.
Instead, they are investing in cloud technology. [1]
B. What is the cloud?
1) It is not actually up in the air.
a) It is rooms of internet servers all over the world.
b) Data is stored and routed and used.
2) My daughter Rebecca just set up Quickbooks for her business.
a) I had it on my office computer, but now it is erased.
b) We will access Quickbooks only on the internet.
1> She is in Nevada and I am in New Jersey, but we
can both use it - from computers, phones,
tablets, almost anything electronic.
2> The cloud makes it available everywhere, all the
time.
3> The cloud can hold all your vacation photos - unless
you are stupid like I was.
C. The church has a cloud, too.
1) It is not technological but supernatural.
2) It is a cloud of witnesses, believers from past generations
looking down on us.
3) Someday, each of us may be in this cloud.
II. God's cloud is a metaphor.
A. The image of clouds is used often in the Bible.
1) When the Jews wandered in the Wilderness, they followed
a cloud by day - the Shekinah Glory of God.
a) The people could actually see it.
2) When Jesus is baptized, the voice of God comes from a
cloud.
3) At his transfiguration, he took key disciples on top
of a high mountain and a cloud enveloped them.
4) Jesus says he will come back to earth from the clouds, and
the book of Revelation describes him as sitting on one.
5) Those who are raptured will be caught up to meet Jesus in
the clouds in the sky. 1 Thess 4:17
B. How literally should we take it?
1) In many of these Bible episodes, literal clouds are in view.
2) I can see how some would imagine heaven as a place where you
bounce around on fluffy white stuff, strumming harps.
a) It would have great views but be a little chilly.
b) But it is more likely that the standard use of clouds
in the Bible is as a metaphor for heaven.
C. Clouds are used as a symbol of "up there."
1) It is where God is, beyond our normal life.
2) This is why Jesus is said to come on the clouds, and
deceased believers go there.
3) It is not meant to be a literal place in the atmosphere
but a hint of the supernatural dimension.
III. What God's cloud signifies.
A. We do not end at death.
1) When a loved one dies, we are confronted with this.
a) Almost everyone believes that life goes on somehow,
even if they are non-religious.
b) But we feel uncomfortable about it because it must be
something very different from our normal experience.
c) As a Christian, you might also wonder what these
ancient images mean for us today.
2) Even in the Bible period, some believers had doubts.
a) Sadducees and other Jews did not believe in resurrection.
1> Apparently they believed that dead people stayed
dead.
2> This life on earth was the only one you got.
b) Jesus disagreed.
1> He noted that when God revealed himself to Moses at
the burning bush, he said,
"I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the
God of Jacob."
Matthew 22:31-32 / Exodus 3:6
2> God used the present tense, "I am," so he is still
their God and they are still with him.
A> This world is not all we get.
B. Glory awaits us.
1) There are various possibilities for living eternally.
a) Even hell is said to be eternal, forever and ever.
2) Life in the clouds with God is going to be a good thing.
a) The images used for heaven in the Bible may seem
somewhat bizarre to us, but they signify something
that is peaceful, beautiful and joyous.
b) It will be an existence filled with wonder.
C. What we do for God now will last forever.
IV. Heroes and others.
A. Hebrews 11 is the great chapter on faith.
1) It begins with the classic definition:
"Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain
of what we do not see."
Heb 11:1
2) It then fleshes it out with real people.
a) The beginning focuses on people who had victorious
lives.
1> Enoch and Noah and Abraham inherit wealth and
power from God.
2> They didn't get everything they wanted, but they
got a lot.
b) Toward the end, some of those heroes got hardship
and pain and death. But they still had God.
1> The perfect stuff was still to come for them.
2> But they had overcome the world and God has now
glorified them.
3) All these heroes of faith together are called the cloud
of God's witnesses.
B. God still has heroes of faith like this today.
1) Some tradition limit them to "saints."
a) The original meaning of "saint" was a super-Christian
you knew was genuine, the real deal.
b) Often, they were killed because of the gospel.
c) As the doctrine of salvation by works became more
popular, saints were those who had enough good stuff
to share with the rest of us.
d) If you were not good enough to go to heaven, a saint
could give you some of their extra goodness.
e) Therefore people prayed to the saints and made promises
to them and built them chapels.
1> St. Patrick's Cathedral in NYC is filled with these
chapels.
2) The Bible's view of saints is much different.
a) ALL Christians are saints.
1> It is a normal name for an ordinary Christian.
A> In Romans 16, Paul ends his letter by greeting
numerous believers by name.
B> In verse 15 he gives four names and then says,
"and all the saints with them."
2> The deeper meaning of saint is someone who is
who is set apart for God's work.
b) If you are genuinely saved, you are a saint right now.
1> You may be very far from what people expect,
but that doesn't matter.
2> Only God's opinion counts.
c) The New Testament calls on saints to become what you
are supposed to be.
1> If you are not that set apart for God's work, do
something about it.
2> Give more of yourself to God.
3> Even if you are not as heroic as others, God still
has a place for you in his cloud.
V. Who is in the cloud now?
A. Over time, multitudes of believers have been forgotten.
1) I read an article this week on a neglected church in Naples,
Italy, that has a very weird basement.
2) It is actually a crypt where the wealthy church donors were
buried about 500 years ago.
3) No one knows who they are anymore, but their burial is
interesting.
a) The walls of the crypt are covered with fresco paintings
of skeletons.
b) And where the head is supposed to be, there is a hole
in the wall with a real head in it - the rich
person's head.
c) Originally the head was crudely mummified but most of
them have completely disintegrated.
B. Some, we very much want to remember.
1) Every person has loved ones we want to see again.
2) It might be a favorite grandparent, or a spouse.
3) For others, it is a child who died too young.
C. Our church has a many I believe are in the cloud.
1) Polly Wetzel, who served with Rev. Wetzel for 28 years
here, and died this week after a long illness.
a) Many of you will remember her from youth choir
when you were kids.
when you were kids.
2) Shirley Blewett, who was a Sunday School teach for
60 years.
3) Russell Wack, who took many pictures of our sanctuary
and Peach Festivals over the years.
4) Judy Waldron, who sat over there. [point to right side]
5) Trinka Osborne and her infectious faith and secret deeds
of kindness.
6) Goldy Weller - senior.
a) Probably the oldest person our church has seen.
b) But I remember her gentleness and smile, even when in
pain.
VI. Will YOU be in the cloud?
A. It is different from church membership.
1) It is even different from believing the right things about
Jesus.
2) You must know something about yourself, that you are
separated from God and need someone to bridge the gap.
3) That someone can only be Jesus.
a) You must admit your sin before him.
b) You must ask him to save you through Jesus.
B. God's cloud can never be hacked.
1) My dad never trusted putting his finances on the cloud.
2) But no one can wreck Jesus' decision to save you.
a) If you are in the cloud, you stay in the cloud.
b) Are you in?
=========================================================================
SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
1. “Samsung: Is Galaxy S8 the firm's most important phone yet?” by
Simon Atkinson and Andreas Illmer, BBC News, Singapore, March 29,
2017; <http://www.bbc.com/news/business-39418774>. Other articles
made the internet cloud connection.
This sermon was inspired by one by Rev. Ken Larsen called “Cloud Church,”
preached November 13, 2016. It is Kerux Sermon #65768 in the database.
These and 35,000 others are part of the Kerux database that can be
downloaded, absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
=========================================================================
Copyright © 2024 by Rev. David Holwick
Created with the Freeware Edition of HelpNDoc: Easy CHM and documentation editor