July 31: Lesson: Matthew 20.17-19

Sermon Title: The Third Day

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INTRODUCTION

  1. Frank Sinatra once sang about life: "It was a very good year."

    1. It is a bit hedonistic

    2. It is a bit self-centered.

    3. It is not a song from which one might derive a constructive philosophy of life.

    4. The last verse highlights this conclusion.

But now the days grow short
I'm in the autumn of the year
And now I think of my life as vintage wine
from fine old kegs
from the brim to the dregs
And it poured sweet and clear
It was a very good year (1)

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MAIN BODY:

  1. There are years, and there are other years.

    1. 1978 was a very good year.

      1. That is the year that Helga and I met and married.

      2. I have often said that life began for me when I married Helga.

    2. There are mediocre years.

      1. Years when nothing much happens.

      2. Life goes on in its necessary rounds.

      3. This is not bad nor good it is not exciting, but satisfying.

    3. Then there are years that are memorable because they are learning years.

      1. This was 1984.

      2. You may recognize 1984 as the title of a book by George Orwell, written in 1949.

        1. There many quotations that have come from the book.

        2. The one that I remember and utilize is one that we have used before, but bears repeating, often.

"...if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed-if all records told the same tale-then the lie passed into history and became truth. 'Who controls the past,' ran the Party slogan, 'controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.' and yet the past, though of its nature unalterable, never had been altered. Whatever was true now was true from everlasting to everlasting. It was quite simple. All that was needed was an unending series of victories over your own memory. 'Reality control,' they called it; in Newsspeak, Doublethink.'" (2)

Who controls the past,
Controls the future.
Who controls the present,
Controls the past.

      1. This applies to my year of 1984..

        1. 1984 was my 50th year.

        2. I was haunted by thoughts of death and dying.

        3. Every headache was a stroke.

        4. Every bout of indigestion was a heart attack.

        5. I realized that I had lived a little over of my average male lifetime of 71.8 years.

        6. I was on the verge of becoming a hypochondriac.

        7. The words of Orwell were coming true in my own life, that is, until...

      2. Fortunately I was reading a book by Helmut Thielicke, Death to Life.

        1. There is a quotation that book that helped me immensely.

        2. I cannot recall it exactly, but it goes like this:

"We do not begin to live until we accept out dying."

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      1. Okay, how does one do this.

        1. It is not easy.

        2. We were discussing death and dying issues in an adult Bible study class.

          1. Call him, Obadiah, he left the class and would not return until we had completed the discussion.

          2. David Kratz, "Before God part 2: Living and dying," (3) observes:

"We talk some in the church about living and about dying. It's not a particularly popular topic in America; in fact, we are often confused by it, it seems like. This week from one of my e-mail buddies I received a thing called Smart Quotes, and it turns out that a couple of them were actually about death ...

"One of them is a question that was given to Miss Alabama some years ago. The question was, "If you could live forever would you and why?" And the answer was, "I would not live forever because we should not live forever because if we were supposed to live forever then we would live forever, but we cannot live forever which is why I would not live forever."

"Okay. Then there's this wonderful quote from Mariah Carey, a popular singer. She says, "Whenever I watch TV and see those poor starving kids all over the world I can't help but cry. I mean, I'd love to be that skinny. But not with all those flies and death and stuff."

"Well, you see, isn't that an interesting way to look at life and death. Then the last one is from Brooke Shields, who says -- she was being interviewed to be the spokesperson for an anti-smoking campaign, and she says, 'Smoking kills. If you're killed you've lost a very important part of your life.'"

  1. It may not be easy, but it is a doable necessity.

    1. First of all one needs a level of courage.

A well-known, though often misinterpreted, story comes from an essay by Erich Heller:

The late comedian Karl Vallentin once enacted the following scene: The curtain goes up and reveals darkness. In the darkness is a solitary circle of light thrown by a street lamp. Vallentin, with his long, drawn and worried face, walks around and around the circle of light, desperately looking for the key to his house. A policeman joins him in the search. They find nothing, and after a while the policeman inquires, Are you sure you lost it here? No, says Vallentin, pointing to a dark corner of the stage, Over there. Then why on earth are you looking for it here? the policeman asks. There is no light over there, says Vallentin.

We need the courage to look in the darkness and to seek beyond ourselves what we cannot derive from ourselves.

    1. Pope John Paul II helps us to look into the darkness.

      1. I was reading the latest edition of Homiletics Magazine and found this incredible contrast:

"Think back about seven months. You might remember some press reports about journalist Hunter S. Thompson's suicide. Suffering from cancer -- in fear and loathing -- he took a shotgun and went out in a blaze of glory. The press played it up. He came off as some sort of maverick hero.

"On the same front pages were articles about Pope John Paul II's ongoing struggle with Parkinson's. He had only weeks to live -- but he lived them.

"That's the difference between a spiritually challenged brain, and a spiritually enhanced brain. For the one, living was Self, and death was the easy way out. For the other, living was the Savior, and death was a hard way out, but a glorious way out when it came." (4)

      1. The Savior, here there is more than a clue, there is a way of thought and life.

        1. What we know, we could know with greater depth.

        2. What we understand we could understand with broader understanding.

        3. What we live could incorporate more of him and less of the world around us.

        4. What is appreciated may be profoundly and wisely held in higher esteem.

    1. What does Jesus have to say or do that is of infinite benefit to us?

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  1. Jesus, you see, is not having what one could call, a very good year.

    1. It is now late March or Early April, 31 C.E.

      1. This is just short time before the end of Jesus life on earth.

      2. He has not long to teach and preach, and witness to the power of the Gospel.

    2. Ever since the healing of the crippled man at the Pool of Bethsada, the Jews have been plotting his death.

      1. They have sought to entrap him in thief convoluted questions.

      2. They have set spies out to gather evidence against him.

      3. Jesus is deeply sensitive to their plots and we will meet more of them in the next few weeks.

    3. So Jesus takes the disciples aside.

      1. They gather off the road to Jerusalem, away from the crowds going up to the city.

      2. Now he tells them for the third time, in specific detail, of his death and resurrection.

        1. 17While Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside by themselves, and said to them on the way,

        2. 18"See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death;

        3. 19then they will hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified;

        4. and on the third day he will be raised." (Matthew 20:17-19, NRSVA).

      3. They still do not comprehend what he is telling them.

      4. It happened just the way he said it would happen.

        1. He was betrayed.

        2. He was condemned.

        3. He was crucified.

        4. He did rise again.

  2. Out of all of this, what does Jesus promise you and me.

    1. To Nicodemus Jesus said:

And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life."For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life, (John 3:14-16, NRSVA).

    1. The Apostle Paul, with solid assurance, knows what he is saying

7for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline. 8Do not be ashamed, then, of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel, relying on the power of God, 9who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace. This grace was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, 10but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. 11For this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher, 12and for this reason I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know the one in whom I have put my trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard until that day what I have entrusted to him, (2 Timothy 1:7-12, NRSVA).

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CONCLUSION:

  1. For me that settled the question.

    1. I love Jesus Christ.

    2. I offer myself to Jesus Christ.

    3. I invite Jesus Christ to live in me and help me accomplish what needs to be done to transform life into a life of love.

    4. There is much that I do not know.

    5. This is okay.

  2. Many years ago I heard Stuart Hamblin sing I Know Who Holds Tomorrow, (words and music by Ira Stanphill)

I don't know about tomorrow,
I just live from day to day.
I don't borrow from it's sunshine,
For it's skies may turn to gray.
I don't worry o'er the future,
For I know what Jesus said,
And today I'll walk beside Him,
For He knows what is ahead.

Refrain
Many things about tomorrow,
I don't seem to understand;
But I know Who holds tomorrow,
And I know Who holds my hand.

Ev'ry step is getting brighter,
As the golden stairs I climb;
Ev'ry burden's getting lighter;
Ev'ry cloud is silver lined.
There the sun is always shining,
There no tear will dim the eyes,
At the ending of the rainbow,
Where the mountains touch the sky.

Refrain
Many things about tomorrow,
I don't seem to understand;
But I know Who holds tomorrow,
And I know Who holds my hand.

I don't know about tomorrow,
It may bring me poverty;
But the One Who feeds the sparrow,
Is the One Who stands by me.
And the path that be my portion,
May be through the flame or flood,
But His presence goes before me,
And I'm covered with His blood.

Refrain
Many things about tomorrow,
I don't seem to understand;
But I know Who holds tomorrow,
And I know Who holds my hand.

  1. May I ask you one last question: "Who holds your hand this morning?"

Amen!

1. It Was A Very Good Year Written by Ervin Drake

2. Orwell, George, 1984 (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Publishers, 1949), p. 35

3. David Kratz, "Before God part 2: Living and dying," September 22, 2002, Fauntleroy Church Web Site, fauntleroyucc.org.

4. Taken from sermon, "Brain Collecting", Homiletics Magazine, 9/18/2005, © 2005 Communication Resources, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Used with Permission.

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