SPECIAL DAY: Communion Sunday

May 7, 2000 - LESSONS: 1 John 3:1-7; Luke 24:36-48, NRSV

SERMON TITLE: Opening Minds

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INTRODUCTION:

  1. A fourth-grade teacher gave each child in her-class the first half of a well-known proverb, and asked them to complete the proverb. Here are some of the answers:(1)
    1. "It's always darkest before...Daylight Savings Time." (Before the storm)
    2. "An idle mind is...the best way to relax." (The devil's workshop)
    3. "Better to be safe than...punch a 6th-grader." (sorry)
    4. "If you lie down with dogs...you'll stink in the morning." (you'll rise with fleas.)
    5. "Laugh and the whole world laughs with you, cry and...you have to blow your nose." (you cry alone)
      1. We chuckle at the conclusions of the children.
      2. How easy it is to misunderstand.
      3. How easy it is to come to erronious conclusions.

MAIN BODY:

  1. While walking around the lake at the NACCC Minister's Convocation, I observed a woman carrying some fish in a mesh basket.
    1. I was curious to see what kind of fish were being caught, so I asked her.
      1. She did not speak English
      2. The woman pointed to the woman who was behind us.
    2. As I approached her, she wanted to know what I had said.
      1. I told here that I was asking what kind of fish were being caught.
      2. She dies not understand English, she is Polish.

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    1. You could see the anxiety in her eyes.
      1. Did you see the license?, as she pointed to the car.
      2. It's in the front windshield of the car.
    2. I began to understand that she thought that I might be a game warden.
    3. It was important for me to help her understand that I was not the game warden, only an individual who was curious as to what kind of fish ere being caught.
    4. They had 2 carp in the basket.
    5. It was necessary to help open her mind to other alternatives.
  1. This is also true of God's people.
    1. We are exhorted to under-go a renewal of mind, heart, spirit.
    2. Romans 12.2: "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God--what is good and acceptable and perfect."
      1. Or as J. B. Philips put it, "Don't let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold, but let God remold your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all his demands and moves toward the goal of true maturity," (Romans 12.2, J. B. Philips).

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  1. God is in the business of opening minds.
    1. Transforming minds
    2. Remolding minds.
      1. We are encourage to set our affection, our mind on
      2. The word is phroneo, (fron-eh'-o); to exercise the mind, i.e. entertain or have a sentiment or opinion; by impl. to be (mentally) disposed (more or less earnestly in a certain direction); intens. to interest oneself in (with concern or obedience):--set the affection on, (be) care (-ful), (be like-, + be of one, + be of the same, + let this) mind (-ed, regard, savour, think.
      3. (Colossians 3:1-2 NRSV) So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth,
      4. (Philippians 2:5 NRSV) Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,
      5. (Matthew 6:19-21 NRSV) "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; [20] but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. [21] For where your treasure (your minds) is, there your heart will be also.
  1. An illustration of the hardening and the results of the hardening of one's heart is found in the story of the exodus..
    1. Pharaoh's hardening of heart in regard to the potential freedom for the Hebrews.
      1. (Exodus 7:13-14 NRSV) Still Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the LORD had said.
      2. [14] Then the LORD said to Moses, "Pharaoh's heart is hardened; he refuses to let the people go.

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    1. The hardening of Pharaoh's heart is mentioned 13 times.
    2. We know the biblical conclusion of the result of the hardening of one's heart.
      1. Pharaoh suffered the grief of the lost of his first born.
      2. Ultimately he lost his life in the Red Sea flood.
  1. The same process was very evident in the days of Jesus ministry.
    1. You can see it in the different circumstances.
      1. The disciples were rowing in the midst of storm.
        1. Making little progress
        2. Jesus came walking on the water and the disciples thought it was a ghost.
        3. (Mark 6:52 NRSV) for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened.
      2. (Mark 8:14-17 NRSV) Now the disciples had forgotten to bring any bread; and they had only one loaf with them in the boat.
        1. [15] And he cautioned them, saying, "Watch out--beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod."
        2. [16] They said to one another, "It is because we have no bread."
        3. [17] And becoming aware of it, Jesus said to them, "Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened?
      3. During the Festival In Jerusalem (John 12:37-40 NRSV)
        1. Jesus performed many signs in their presence, they did not believe in him.
        2. He said [38] This was to fulfill the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah: "Lord, who has believed our message, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?"
        3. [39] And so they could not believe, because Isaiah also said,
          1. [40] "He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, so that they might not look with their eyes, and understand with their heart and turn-- and I would heal them."

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      1. In (Romans 11:7 NRSV), Paul is speaking of the people of Israel.
        1. He speaks of those who rejected Jesus.
        2. He reminds the reader that a remnant will be saved.
        3. Then he writes: "What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened,"
      2. He writes to the people of Corinth and expresses the same thought.
        1. (2 Corinthians 3:14 NRSV) But their minds were hardened.
        2. Indeed, to this very day, when they hear the reading of the old covenant, that same veil is still there, since only in Christ is it set aside.
      3. In (Hebrews 3:12 NRSV) He exhorts us "Take care, brothers and sisters, that none of you may have an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God."
        1. (Hebrews 3:13 NRSV) But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called "today,"
        2. so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
  1. What might have happened is the resurrected Jesus had not appeared to the disciples?
    1. Would the disciples have remained as they were?
    2. Would there be a Christianity as we know it.
      1. Well, not perhaps as we know it.
      2. Would it be as Christ intended it?

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  1. He does appear to open the minds of the disciples not only to his presence, but for their future.
    1. (Luke 24:36-48, NRSV): While they were talking about this,
      1. Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, "Peace be with you."
      2. They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost.
      3. He said to them, "Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?
        1. Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself.
        2. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have."
      4. And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.
        1. While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, "Have you anything here to eat?"
        2. They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate in their presence.
      5. Then he said to them, "These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you--that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled."
      6. Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them,
        1. "Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
        2. You are witnesses of these things.
    2. John writing in his first Epistle proclaims (1 John 3:1-7, NRSV):
      1. This is his witness to what he has seen and heard and touch and handled of the Word of life.
      2. See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are.
      3. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
      4. Beloved, we are God's children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed.
      5. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.
      6. And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.
      7. Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.
      8. You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.
      9. No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him.
      10. Little children, let no one deceive you. Everyone who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.
    3. And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.
      1. All who have this hope in him set their affections on things that are above.
      2. This has an incredible impact which influences what is seen and heard and experienced.

CONCLUSION:

  1. Here we are!
    1. Are we like the woman who misunderstood who I was?
    2. Correction is needed.
    3. God is in the business of correcting misguided opinions and conclusions.

1. via Mrs. Harriet M. Adams, Morton, PA., The Joyful Noiseletter, May 2000, page 2

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