Message 08-26-07

 

Series:            The Marks of a Christian

Scripture:            Mark 1:21-31

 

Title:                                                    Talk of Heaven

 

I want to share with you today something of what I believe.

 

[Holding up the Bible] I believe in the Bible. I believe this is God’s word and that it is true. Some people explain their belief in the Bible by saying that it is “inerrant.” I don’t use that word because people mean too many different things when they use that word. Some people mean that there are no mistakes in it. But some people mean that the words that are printed on the pages of this book are the words that God dictated to someone who wrote them down like a secretary. Some people mean that God dictated the words that were written down in the original manuscripts when they were first copied by the people to whom God spoke. Some people when they say that the Bible is inerrant mean that everything they read in it happened just the way they imagine it.

 

So I can’t go with the word inerrant. You will hear me say that the Bible is true, and what I mean by that is that the Bible gives us God’s best words to describe the reality of life so we can understand it. The Bible is God’s best words to describe the reality of life so we can understand him.

 

Can you hear the difference there? You see when I read the story of creation what that says to me is that God created everything. Now, it doesn’t tell me how God went about creating everything, but it does tell me that he is responsible for it all. Now, if someone was to say to me that I had to understand that as saying that God created everything in 6 days – like Sunday through Friday – and then went on to describe how each piece went into place I’d be asking them how they know that. I’d ask because how I imagine God doing that may be a little different from the way you imagine God doing that. I heard of a church that split – a big, thriving congregation of believers broke apart over the argument of whether Adam and Eve had bellybuttons or not. You see, one group imagined that they had bellybuttons and the other group did not see that in their imaginations. What they split over was not what the Bible said, but how they imagined it.

 

Well, God doesn’t tell me that I need to believe in your imagination. Sometimes when I am in the middle of explaining something from Scripture here, I’ll stop and say, “Now this is just Kohler’s imagination.” Sometimes I’ve actually stopped and made you repeat the words, “This is just Kohler’s imagination.” And I know I’m supposed to say, “Pastor’s Geoff imagination”, but where I grew up I was called Kohler more than I was called Geoff and no one ever called me Pastor Geoff. In fact, as far as I can tell, when God speaks to me he calls me “Kohler” as well. But my point is that I don’t want you thinking that something happened in the Bible the way I imagine it just because I imagine it that way. God didn’t tell me and he didn’t tell you that we had to believe in each other’s imagination. He told us to believe him and to believe in him.

 

I trust this book. And what you’ll hear from me is that the Bible is true.

 

Because the Bible is true I want to talk about what it says. I want to talk about the claims of God I find here. I want to talk about how God works. I want to understand how to get close to God the way God says he got close to people. I want to pull apart the images, stories, poems and histories in this book so I can be close to God the way God says he’s been close to people throughout history. I expect to find God in this book but I expect this book to act only as a doorway. I expect that God will be leading me through the doorway when I read this book. This doorway leads me to know that God speaks to me. It leads me to know that God is right here next to me. It leads me to know that God has a view point on life that is different from human beings. It leads me to know that God has a way that he created everything to exist and that we’ve walked away from that and he is calling us back to it. He is patiently waiting for us to discover that we can be part of life’s real value and meaning. We can live the way God created human beings to live. It leads me to understand that God has created a means to bring us to him and to change our hearts and to lead us into relationship with him always. Beyond almost everything else it tells me that God created me and everyone else to be in fellowship with him.

 

I expect to find and to enter into the kingdom of heaven when I read this book. I expect to enter into fellowship with God as I see how that happened with people in the past.

 

Fellowship is one of the most important things to God. God desires fellowship more than almost anything else I can find. God created us to be in fellowship with him. He expects us to be in fellowship with each other. Jesus died so that we could be back in fellowship with God and with each other. Fellowship is one of the most important things to God.

 

That’s why it is important to understand that this is one of the things that Jesus included in his ministry. It’s important to see that we’re supposed to follow Jesus example into this. It’s important to understand what it is.

 

I find that sometimes when Christians talk about fellowship they mean church. Sometimes they mean a little gathering that includes chips and dip and someone playing a guitar. Sometimes, when Christians refer to fellowship they mean chatting with each other. But how did Jesus experience fellowship? It appears that when Jesus talked about fellowship he meant a meal. It appears that when fellowship takes place that we’re supposed to be getting together to eat together. It appears that when Jesus fellowship he expected it to give us a little taste of what heaven will be like.

We’re looking at five marks of a Christian. What we’re looking at are the five things Jesus did as he began his ministry. The writer of the Gospel of Mark was very deliberate in the way he said things and in what he picked out to say. He had a lot of things he could have told us about Jesus, but he told us these things. As Jesus begins his ministry he does five particular things. I take those to be examples of the kinds of things that God expects to see in our life as we follow Jesus. The Bible says that the people of God will be conformed into the image of Jesus. We will be like Jesus. So it seems pretty clear that God will expect to see the actions and attitudes of Jesus in us, they will grow in us as God’s presence lives in us. That’s what we’re promised.

 

I look at fellowship then as good food and great conversation. Sometimes great food and good conversation, but I always expect that both will be there, food and conversation. Why do I think that? Because that’s the picture God gives us here. Jesus leaves the synagogue and immediately goes to the house of Peter and eats there.

 

Can you imagine the conversation at the table? Can you imagine the questions they were asking Jesus about his style of teaching, his ideas about “fishing for men”, what demons were like or what they were all about, or about healing and how did God work? Can you imagine Jesus looking up at Simon Peter’s mother in law and saying, “Hey, this bread is really good.”

 

Now that’s just imagination, but can you imagine that there wasn’t conversation around that table. Remember this was with Jesus, whose enemies accused him of being a glutton and a drunkard. Jesus didn’t mind being at a party. And if his enemies could accuse him of going to excess in eating and drinking, then there is every likelihood that people didn’t feel bad inviting Jesus over for the evening.

 

Is that the model of life you’re following? Are you fun at a party? Do you enjoy having people over to eat and drink? Now, if you’re thinking, but I’m an introvert.   I kind of sit in the corner at a party. Remember I didn’t say what kind of party. It doesn’t mean you can’t get together for quieter times. But can Jesus show up at the tailgate party as well as at the wine and cheese book reading group?

 

You know there are a lot of Christians out there working really hard to be serious about faith, but I have to ask if people who were sick in the house when you showed up and they felt better after you got there, do you think that seriousness would be the response? 

 

If you’ve ever seen the movie “Babette’s Feast” you’ve seen this idea. A group of Christians are a little concerned that they will lose their focus on faith if they enjoy a special meal that’s being prepared especially for them. So they decide that they will pretend that they have no sense of taste. But the meal is so exquisite that it leads one of the guests – a general who has not been informed of the decision to disregard the fabulous food – to share his own sense of God’s participation in the world and in that evening and around that table.

 

There is no requirement to be the life of a party just to bring life to a party and we are called to be like Jesus.

 

So what am I saying? I’m saying that one of the most important things we can do is to build fellowship into our lives. What does that look like? It’s looks like meals together. It looks like sharing time and food. And it sounds like talk of heaven.

Talk of heaven? What does that mean? Does it mean that you can’t talk about the game, you can’t talk about good books, you can’t talk about fun? Do you only get to talk about angels and white clouds and harps? First, if that’s you’re idea of heaven then I have to tell you, you’re pretty boring.

 

Do you think that the best the God of the Universe, the God who created a braided chain around Saturn, the God who created the speed of light, the God who created Galaxies that look like the insides of prism, the God who created rainbows… that the best God can do is angels with white clouds and harps? I’m betting that heaven is going to be the most interesting and exciting place we can’t even get close to imagining.

 

So, “talk of heaven”… Do you know what talk of heaven is? It’s talk that inspires friendship, loyalty, love and peace. It’s talk that leads people into the kingdom of heaven. It’s talk that gives people a taste of the presence of God and God’s heart. It’s simply talk that tells the truth to the people with whom you eat.

 

Listen to the things that the Bible gives us to do and talk about in fellowship:

Love one another, Receive one another, Greet one another, Have the same care toward each other, Forgive one another, Put up with one another, Submit to one another, Confess your sins to each other, Build up one another, Admonish one another, Speak to one another in psalms and Spiritual songs, Teach one another

Exhort one another, Be servants of one another, Bear one another’s burdens

Be king to one another, Pray for one another, Show hospitality to one another

 

Can you understand this? Let other parties run on small talk – at your parties and at your dinners, at the meals at which you get together with other people talk about the stuff of life that matters. That will move you toward the kingdom of heaven.

 

My friends we are called to be like Jesus. There is no requirement and in fact there is no reason that needs to be boring. In fact if it is boring, that’s a sin.