Timeless Faith

Christmas Day 2014 

We are going to play a little game.  Does anyone recall the TV The Crystal Maze, and at the end they go into a sphere hand have a limited amount of time to grab some silver/gold bits of paper - but only the gold mattered to get the prize?  We’re going to throw some paper off the balcony and I need two teams to grab as much as they can and put it in the buckets - pink on one side, blue on the other.  You’ll have a minute.  Go!

The only bit of paper that mattered was this gold one (which is hidden).  We might struggle for all sorts of things in life, jobs, status, even Christmas presents because we might think we have ‘earned’ them by being good.

The truth is we will never be good enough no matter how frantically we try. 

That’s why our faith in Jesus is so unique and so timeless:

Ephesians 2: 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.

You may be able to come up with the idea of God.  You would never come up with idea of Jesus!

John 1: 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

We Are Not Our Own Idea

You know we did not think God up!  He thought us up!   We are His idea:

Genesis 1:26a: Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness…

Our idea of how we came into being is limited until we understand that we were intentionally created:

nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. 

God willed us into being as humankind.  He also willed - decided upon - our salvation.  

We Are Not An Accident

No one stumbles into the Christian Kingdom.  We sometimes hear people talking about their children as accidents.  I know what that sounds like and it is painful.  

In our timeless faith we are chosen!  We are part of the Kingdom, which is what God intended:

John 15:16: You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. (cf. Ephesians 1:5).

This choosing is an adoption process.  We don’t feel chosen until we are in the Kingdom and then we realise we were chosen all the time.  

It is one of those moments when we don’t realise it until we experience it.

Psalm 34:8: Taste and see that the Lord is good…

Sometimes we will not get all the questions answered until we have tasted.  We can’t always reason our way to every answer.

Isaiah 1:18: Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the Lord, “Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool.

Our reasoning will always fall short of getting the freedom of forgiveness that is offered through Jesus Christ.

That’s why I love Christmas; for me it’s a cerebration of the freedom Jesus has given me!

We Have A New Obligation

I meet Christians all the time who are so focused on their rights as Christians.  After all we are told - he gave the right to become children of God.  They claim their rights of faith, and health, and sometimes prosperity and so on.  Which is OK on one level, for they are rights, right?  Sometimes though they forget with this Kingdom there is a new obligation!  

It is also more than our PM’s Christmas speech says it is, “Among the joyous celebrations we will reflect on those very Christian values of giving, sharing and taking care of others,” he said (Guardian).  

Thats all sounds lovely but it is not the core of our faith - we do those things because of our faith, but it is the result of faith not the reason for it.

Our greatest obligation this Christmas is to tell someone else about Jesus’ love - the real meaning of Christmas (Acts 1:8).  

We are all His witnesses - no matter our age.  At our Carol Service 11 people responded to the gospel for the first time.  I got to speak to most of these after words.  Without exception they had all been witnessed to by their family and friends.  All of them!  

There is power in your testimony because it is the Timeless Faith that is as fresh now as it has ever been!  

Merry Christmas!