(Sermon by Pastor Michael D. Schultz 07/29/07)

INTRODUCTION:

From telephone texting your vote for your favorite American Idol (Seacrest – “America has voted”) to posting an internet video to ask questions of the Democratic candidates for president, the voice of the common man cries out to be heard.  In a perfect world, I suppose everyone would be able to have their say.  I don’t know where it would go if I started promoting a ten-sermon series on topics that you were able to submit, but this section from Paul’s letter to Christians in Colosse does answer the question…

What Should Preachers Preach?

Couldn’t it be this?... Shouldn’t it be that?... What would the survey say?  To that point Paul told his parishioners his hands were tied.  As a minister of the church, God set the agenda for his preaching, as if the Lord had told him, “It’s my house you’re managing.   It will be my message you’re sharing.”  That means that parts one and two of this message have been predetermined by God.

Part one has to do with a change of status.  Michael Vick’s status has changed lately, hasn’t it – from very gifted and fairly popular quarterback to indicted felon and target of animal lovers everywhere.  We’ll leave that one to the courts, but it does illustrate status change – in his case, pretty good to pretty awful.  In our case it was the other way around, utterly horrible to unspeakably wonderful.

Estranged and alienated from God isn’t something we like to hear.  Enemies in our attitude toward God may well be something with which we disagree.  But that’s what we were because that’s what it says.  To bear it out, all we have to do is examine  our behavior.  From selfish child all the way up to strong-willed adults, from yesterday’s overindulging to today’s underachieving (whatever it has been), crimes against God tag us as enemies of God.  That is not a status you want to stay in, but it is a status that all of us were stuck in.  What should preachers preach?  What only can preachers preach?  Christ died for you!

That’s what has changed your status with God.  Christmas is indispensable because it put the holy God into a human body.  The thirty-three years of Jesus’ life on earth are indispensable because they show that he remained holy.  Good Friday is indispensable because it shows the incomprehensible thing God did to declare you holy.  He made his holy Son’s life an offering for sin.  He made Jesus’ holy body and soul filthy with sin.  The nails were real.  The physical trauma of Jesus’ body being crucified was real – bruised black and blue and blood-stained red.  The torment of hell was real.  That Friday afternoon his Father who had once said, “This is my Son whom I love,” said, “This is not my Son.”

But when Jesus returned to life and God returned to being his Father again and Jesus was seated at God’s right hand, one more thing was very real – your changed status.  Holy in [God’s] sight, without blemish and free from accusation.  Those words describe you!  Jesus has changed your status from enemy of God to friend of God forever.  What should preachers preach?  Christ died for you!  That is the ground God has placed beneath your feet so that as you stand on it you can see all the way to heaven.  Christ died for me.  He’s made a friend of me.  Heaven is my home.

How far off is heaven – not in miles but in minutes?  When will Jesus take you by the hand and welcome you home?  I don’t know, but this is part two of God’s predetermined message.  The mystery of how much longer we’ll be in these bodies, sitting in these chairs, wearing our clothes, sleeping in our beds is one that only God knows.  There is, however, another mystery God has unraveled for us.  It’s the one he wants you to know and understand and believe so that your train ride from here to heaven is not derailed.  It’s something so glorious that nothing in your life and nothing in all the world can outshine it – Christ in you, the hope of glory.

I don’t like to talk in the first person because it’s not about me, but just for a second, listen to this.  I am not blowing my own horn and I am not complaining when I tell you that I have what I consider to be an enormous responsibility as a pastor.  Powered by Jesus himself, I have the responsibility of doing everything I can do and saying everything I can say so that all of you stand before the Lord one day, dressed only in the holiness of Christ.  Nothing about church life is more important to me than that.  But as a minister of Christ, I’ve been given something to share with you which gets that job done.  As people who believe that Jesus died for you, I am to tell you that Christ dwells in you right now. 

What does that mean for preaching, Bible classes, meetings, phone calls, hospital visits and counseling sessions?  There are voices all around you offering you the world if you’ll buy this or sell that, if you’ll do this or disregard that.  There are things that churches could be doing or maybe pastors could be starting or leading that would help you raise children or fix marriages or combat loneliness or cope with grief.  There are things that people could be doing or committees could be working on to raise more funds or have more fun or whatever, things that may be just fine. 

But there’s one thing more glorious than anything else and it’s right inside you.  He’s right inside you.  Jesus lives in you.  The Savior who died for you dwells inside you.  His shining glory is right in you; you just can’t see it.  Can you imagine having been in heaven for ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun, having no less days to sing God’s praise than when you’d first begun, and thinking, “What a fool I was during those days on earth when all I could think was poor, poor, pitiful me!  The glory of Christ that I have now I had back then.  I just couldn’t see it.”

I do not intend that truth to remain a mystery to you.  More importantly, God doesn’t.  Whether it’s preaching, Bible classes, meetings, phone calls, hospital visits or counseling sessions, I am going to struggle and strive with Christ’s energy to lead you to see the priceless treasure you have within you – Christ in you, the hope of glory, which is to say, “If my Savior himself and the dazzling glory of his grace and power and love are invisibly shining in me right now, it is only a matter of time before that glory breaks through this body and I am shining with and seeing the glory of Jesus in heaven.”

What should preachers preach?  Christ died for you.  Christ dwells in you.  I will see you there!

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