| “AMAZING GRACE” Rev. John Fowler July 6, 2003 II Corinthians 12:1-10 |
I want to share with you about God's amazing grace as the Apostle Paul writes about it in his second letter to the Corinthians in Chapter 12. As he has been defending his apostleship from those who attacked him, he writes this way: I must go on boasting. Although there is nothing to be gained, I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord. I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know--God knows. And I know that this man--whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows-- was caught up to paradise. He heard inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell. I will boast about a man like that, but I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses. Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say. To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. He wrote, “Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I'm found; was blind, but now I see.” John Newton was raised by a godly woman. She taught him the Christian faith and lived the Christian faith before him, but unfortunately, she died when he was only seven years old. He followed his father into the seas, as his father was a sea captain. Things went fine until war broke out, but being a teenager, he wasn't quite ready to give his life for his country. But he was caught. He was flogged at the mast, discharged, disgraced, humiliated. The only job he could find was on a slave trading ship. Imagine, this man spent years capturing human beings, putting them in ships like sardines, very inhumane behavior. And that was his livelihood. But that seed of faith had been planted in his life by his mother; he had actually read Thomas A. Kempis' The Imitation of Christ. He had a bad habit of drinking. In fact, one time he fell overboard in one of his drunken stupors, and the reason he had a limp for the rest of his life was because they used a harpoon to get him. They were a good aim, but he had a limp the rest of his life. But through all this, this man who called himself a wretch, was gloriously converted by Jesus Christ and his life was never the same. He went on to be a preacher, but he is best remembered as a hymn writer. And he kept going all of his life and, in fact, at eighty-two, when they said, “Isn't it about time to give up preaching?” he said, “No, as long as I have breath, I am still going to preach.” And he said, “I don't remember very much at this age, but I know two things: that I am a great sinner and Christ is a great Savior.” When he wrote “Amazing Grace” he knew from experience about God's amazing grace. Do you know about God's amazing grace today? Are you experiencing it? Would you like to? The Apostle Paul certainly did. He was a man who grew up very scholarly, very religious. He was a persecutor of the Christian faith. You find that he is there when Stephen, the Christian martyr, was killed. I have a magazine that comes about once a month about martyrs for Christ. I have to confess, that's not one I'm eager to open up and read - the stories of people who actually today are suffering imprisonment beatings for their Christian faith. That's what Paul did. Or Saul, as he was better known in those days. But on the road to Damascus as he was seeking to persecute more Christians, he met Jesus Christ. He was converted in a dramatic fashion, and he became one of the, if not the, greatest missionary of all time. He never forgot from wince he came. He knew about God's amazing grace and conversion, but he knew about God's sufficient grace, His amazing grace in dealing with adversity. And Paul had plenty of adversity and he mentions those here, when he talks about “a thorn in the flesh”-and for centuries people have tried to figure out what he means about “a thorn in the flesh”. John Calvin thought it was the spiritual temptations that he had. Martin Luther thought it was the spiritual combat warfare that he experienced in persecution. Many though believe-especially when you read the literal Greek, “a thorn”- that it is a physical malady, some kind of sickness, either epilepsy, recurring bouts of malaria, severe headaches-something that he kept praying to relieve. God's answer to him though was, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.” Haven't you done that? You have a problem. You have something that you just keep praying for God to “solve it. Let's come to closure on it. Let's finish.” And God's answer is, “No, not right now. We're going to give you more grace to learn to deal with it.” And good things may even come from it. The Apostle Paul certainly knew about God's amazing grace. If God's grace is so amazing, why don't we experience it? Well, two reasons: One, we make light of it. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a great German theologian who fought against Hitler's regime and ended up in prison and giving his life. That's why, when he wrote The Cost of Discipleship, he paid with his very life. But he talked about “cheap grace”. Now “cheap grace” is that which makes light of Jesus' death on the Cross. We want forgiveness, but we don't want repentance. We want eternal life, but we don't want to hear about a Cross. We just simply make light of what God has done for us. Do you do that? I do; I forget. I say, “Well, God, what have You done for me lately?” He's done a lot for me lately. He's done a lot to my life. We make light of His grace. But then, sometimes, we feel like we have to earn His grace-it's just too good to be true. Jesus had stories about grace. Several different parables about an invitation to a banquet, a wedding banquet, and just, “Everybody come.” And not everybody wanted to come. They wanted to give excuses. Philip Yancey, in his book, What's so Amazing about Grace, talks about a modern day version of this-pretty modern. Back in 1990 the Boston Globe reported that this bride and her fiancé went to pick out the china, getting ready for the big wedding banquet, and everything was just so. They had pretty expensive taste because even back in 1990, at the Hiatt Hotel, this was going to cost $13,000. But they went back and looked at wedding invitations. The only problem is, when it was time for the invitations to hit the mailbox, the groom got cold feet, said, “Honey, I want to think about this a little bit.” Well, she was mad. So she went back to the Hiatt to find out if she could get her money back and the lady said, “Honey, I'm sympathetic. The same thing happened to me, but the most you can get back is $1300.” They had already put down half, $6500 on this. The only option was to go on with the banquet or to lose the deposit. She thought about it a little bit and thought, “Why not?” So she just went ahead with the banquet, although it wasn't a wedding banquet this time; it was a big party for the homeless in Boston, because ten years before that, she had been in a homeless shelter for awhile, and God had amazingly brought her through that. And now she was doing very well and she wanted to just throw a party for the homeless in Boston. She sent out invitations to the homeless shelters, the soup kitchens, the rescue missions and for one night, these men and women who were used to eating leftover pizza from cardboard from the dumpsters, were treated to chocolate cake, boneless chicken-that was in honor of the groom; they changed the menu on that one. That was her touch to that. But they had a great meal. Did they earn it? No. She just wanted to do it because she was thankful for what God had done in her life. What happens when you experience this amazing grace? Two things I believe happen: One, you experience God's forgiveness in a great way. What a great gift it is. There was a Confederate soldier who was probably not a whole lot more than a boy. He deserted the Army and was going to be court-martialed, and worse, killed. His mother made a great plea to Abraham Lincoln for mercy. President Lincoln just simply took a piece of paper and wrote down, “Pardoned”. This young man went back into service and served two more years in the Civil War. He died, and when they found him, he had that note in his pocket- “Pardoned by Abraham Lincoln”. It is amazing what a difference God's forgiveness can make in our lives and in the lives of others. The other thing that happens, I believe, if we really live by amazing grace is that we are thankful people; we are grateful. We don't go through life focusing on what we don't have. We are just thankful and amazed at what God has done in our lives. Jesus one time healed up ten lepers. Leprosy is a terrible disease, not just physically, but emotionally, spiritually, all the way around, they were just gloriously healed-just like that. He was amazed that only one came back to thank Him. Do we not amaze Him today when we think of what He has done in our lives, when we fail to give Him thanks. But that's what happens when we live by this amazing grace. How does it happen in our life? When we allow Jesus Christ to come into our lives, it changes and sets us free. Let me close with Fred Craddock's story. He talks about a man who was taking a short cut and fell into a pit. I've heard variations on this story. The man fell into the pit. Preacher came by, told him, “You must have sinned quite a bit.”. He just went on; preached at him. IRS man came by, wanted to know if he wanted help with his taxes. Lawyer came by, asked if he wanted help with a law suit against someone for digging that hole. Optimist came by and said, “Things are going to get better.”- and just kept on going. Pessimist came by and said, “It's going to get worse. You need to worry.” A neurotic came by and said, “You think your pit's bad, you ought to see mine.”. But then, someone came by, reached down, grabbed him, pulled him out. That man was excited. He went into town and told everyone about it. He was asked, “Well, who was it?”. “Oh, it was Jesus.” “Well how do you know it was Jesus?” “Oh, well, all these other people came by and they really weren't very much help at all, but Jesus reached down, He grabbed my hands, and I noticed the nail-scarred hands. I know it was Jesus who reached down in that pit and saved me. When we come to Holy Communion that's what we remember. We remember that Jesus died for you and He died for me. It's amazing grace. He invites you to come. Let us pray. Oh Lord, we thank You for this holy time, this sacrament, this invitation for all to come. Lord we don't come because we are good enough. We come because we need to. We come because You invite us out of Your great love and amazing grace. Lord, we know that greater love hath no man than to lay down his life for his friends. So we thank You for the invitation to come, not only to receive this grace, but to extend it. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. |