Welcome Service 2

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There are moments in life which ask us questions, and starting as a student is one of them. Eg, it asks the question, ‘Can you cook?’ I was talking to a first year a few weeks into his time here and I asked him how it was going. He said, ‘Well, actually it’s been a bit of a chequered week – I sent one of the Havelock kitchens up in flames and they had to call the fire brigade.’ I said, ‘What were you doing?’ And he said ‘Cooking pasta.’ So I said, ‘Don’t tell me – you went off to do something and let it boil dry?’ And he said, ‘No, I didn’t even realise you had to put water on it.’ How do you get 18 years through life without knowing that?

But the biggest question by far that starting as a student asks you is this: what are you going to do with Jesus? In a new place, and a new stage of life, what are you going to do with Jesus?

Now some of you who are new will be saying, ‘I want to carry on trusting him and living for him as I’ve already begun to.’ That’s what I was saying as I arrived at uni. And it is a unique opportunity to witness to Christ, and to get a foundation of Biblical teaching that’ll set you up for life.

But for others who are new, your honest answer to that question, ‘What are you going to do with Jesus?’ is: ‘I really don’t know. I haven’t made up my mind about this Christian stuff.’
It’s as if you’ve lived so far like a building surrounded by scaffolding – the scaffolding of Christian family, church youth group, Christian friends, school Christian Union. And all that scaffolding has now been taken away and you’ve been plunged into probably the most non-Christian environment of your life. And it asks the question: who are you without the scaffolding? Is your parents’ faith your own faith as well? Or are you going to walk away from Christ?

But there’ll be others who are new who have none of that Christian background. First week at uni has also been your first brush with Christians, and here you are tonight. It’s your first chance to find out about Jesus. Or forget about him.

What are you going to do with Jesus?

Well, what we’re going to do is to look at that bit of Mark’s Gospel we read earlier, where Jesus’ first followers reach a moment in life that asks them exactly that question. So would you turn in the Bibles to Mark 8. Mark is one of the four records in the Bible of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. And Mark got his facts from Peter – one of the eyewitnesses we’ll read about – and wrote this within 35 years of the events. Now, chapters 1 to 8 record how those first witnesses heard Jesus’ claim to be God-come-to-earth, and saw his miracles back up that claim. And Jesus then brings things to a head with a question. Look down to Mark 8, vv27-29:

27Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, "Who do people say I am?"28They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets."29"But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?

And that’s the question this moment of life may be asking you. Not, ‘What do other people say?’ – your parents, your older sister who’s already gone to uni and nailed her Christian colours to the mast – but what do you say?

Well, second half of v29:

Peter [for his part] answered, "You are the Christ." [Ie, the Son and King God sent to reclaim his rule over our lives.]

And that’s the simplest definition of a Christian – someone who’s saying to Jesus, ‘You are the rightful King of my life,’ – and not just saying it, but living it. Now, you may not yet be at that point. And it’s important to realise that getting there is a process – often a long one. Which is why Jesus did that strange, gradual healing of the blind man just before this. Just turn back over to Mark 8, v17. The disciples are thinking about their next meal, whereas Jesus wants them to be thinking about who he is. Look at v17:

Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked them: "Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand?’ [Ie, see who I am?]

And then look over to vv22-25:

22They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. 23He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spat on the man's eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, "Do you see anything?"24He looked up and said, "I see people; they look like trees walking around."25Once more Jesus put his hands on the man's eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.

Now why did Jesus heal him gradually instead of instantly? Well, I take it he was using this blind man as a visual aid of how people come to faith in him – ie, come to ‘see’ who he is, and respond. Because it’s almost never instantaneous – it’s a process. Take, eg, the apostle Peter. Look again at vv29-30:

29"But what about you?" [Jesus] asked. "Who do you say I am?"Peter answered, "You are the Christ." [So he’s begun to see – but only begun. Which is why, v30:]30Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him. [Because at this point they haven’t seen enough either to commit themselves properly to Christ, or to tell others how to.]

So Jesus is saying to them, ‘You’ve begun to see who I am, but you need to see more. You need to see: what I’ve come to do; what it will really mean to follow me; and why it’s ultimately worth it.’ Those are the three things Jesus talks about next, so they’re the three things I’m going to talk about for the rest of our time. And as you listen, will you ask yourself, ‘Do I see these things yet?’ Is this what I believe?’

And the first thing Jesus wants us to see is:


WHAT HE CAME TO DO (v31)

When we go door to door visiting here, I often ask people, ‘What do you think Jesus came to do?’ And the answer’s always the same and always wrong. It’s always, ‘Well, he came to show us how to live a good life, didn’t he?’ Well, no he didn’t. Look on to Mark 8, v31:

[Jesus] then began to teach them that the Son of Man [ie, himself] must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again.

Ie, he came to die on the cross. And if you haven’t understood that yet, you haven’t understood Christianity yet.

A friend of mine was brought up going to church and, Sunday by Sunday, he refused to listen to the sermon because he assumed it would just be telling him to be good – which his parents and teachers were doing anyway, and he didn’t want to be told again. So instead of listening, he counted bricks in the wall at the front. And during the average sermon he’d get up to about 1,000. And it was so boring that one Sunday he thought, ‘The sermon can’t be more boring, so I’ll give it a listen.’ And I remember him saying, ‘It was a shock: all those years I’d assumed they were telling me how to be good, so God would accept me. When in fact they were telling me what Jesus did to make me acceptable, because I’m not good enough and could never be.’ And what Jesus did to make us acceptable was: die on the cross.

Now you may think you’re acceptable to God as you are – or can be, if you try. But the Bible says none of us is, or can be. It says that although God is the rightful ruler of our lives, consciously or subconsciously we’ve each said, ‘No’ to him – ‘I don’t want you telling me how to live; I want to rule my own life.’ And that’s what’s so offensive to God, and makes us utterly unacceptable. And it means we deserve the judgement of him saying, ‘No’ to us – ‘You will not be part of my kingdom; you will be shut out.’

And on the cross, Jesus took that judgement instead of us – ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ (Mark 15.34) – so we might be forgiven, and start life over again with God in his rightful place.

And I wonder if you’ve come to see that? Because if not, you probably see Christianity as just a set of rules to keep in the hope that God will accept you. I still remember seeing Christianity like that – which made it an impossible burden and a guilt-trip. Because I knew I wasn’t good enough and couldn’t be. And maybe that’s how you’ve felt under all the Christian scaffolding of your life so far – and like it would be a relief to walk away from it. Well, if that’s you, can I say: don’t walk, because you’d be walking away from a caricature of Christianity. Because it’s not about a set of rules; it’s about a person. It’s about a God who sent his Son into this world for you – who, having come, then died for your forgiveness. But maybe you’ve been putting the ‘cart’ of trying to live God’s way before the ‘horse’ of being forgiven and accepted through the cross. Well, if that’s you, don’t walk away, but ‘put the horse first’. Come to Christ. Receive his forgiveness and acceptance. And living for him will then become something you want, instead of a burden you don’t

Then for others, the ‘horse’ and ‘cart’ are in the right order – you do believe Jesus died to forgive you, and that the Christian life starts there – but you’ve had a bad freshers’ week, or a bad summer, or a bad gap year, or a bad few years since whenever you wandered off course as a Christian. And you need to know tonight that you can be forgiven for everything up to the present moment, and draw a line under the past, and start again. Well, Jesus’ death for you says, ‘You can.’ Because on the cross he paid for as many new starts as you and I will ever need. Will you believe that freshly tonight and move on?

So that’s what he came to do. The second thing he wants us to see is:


WHAT IT REALLY MEANS TO FOLLOW HIM (vv32-34)

Look down to v32. Jesus has just said he must die, then vv32-34:

32He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. "Get behind me, Satan!" he said. "You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.

Now Peter’s problem was partly that he hadn’t got his mind round how badly he needed forgiving (as we all do), and that forgiveness had to be paid for at the cross. But it was partly that he had got his mind around the implication of what Jesus had just said. Because the implication of following a Master who suffers and is rejected, is that you are likely to suffer and be rejected, too. Which isn’t what Peter wants.

It’s like those sports lessons at school where the teacher would pick two captains and the captains would then pick teams. And sometimes the teacher would pick a captain you knew was a guaranteed loser – a lemon in the garden of captains. And you could feel everyone praying, ‘Please don’t pick me,’ and avoiding all eye-contact. And that’s what Peter’s thinking here about Jesus: ‘I don’t want to be on his side if it means suffering and rejection. I don’t want to be a loser.’ And we can identify with that, can’t we? Because we don’t want to lose out – that’s natural and right. And yet the world is saying, ‘If you’re a Christian, you are losing out.’ And maybe that’s your biggest issue when it comes to what you’re going to do with Jesus. Maybe the issue for you isn’t whether it’s true, but whether it’s really worth it.

Well, in the rest of this passage, Jesus says there is a cost, but it’s infinitely worth it; there are things you have to lose, but you won’t ultimately be the loser. So look on to v34:

Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

So for one thing, we have to accept the cost of repentance. That’s what he means when he says we must ‘deny self’. Now by nature we each want to rule our own lives – I want my self to be on the throne. And that’s how the world tells us to live: ‘If you want something, get it. If you have a desire, act on it. Because life’s all about expressing yourself.’

But that is in fact a recipe for damaging yourself, not to mention others. Whereas Jesus says, paradoxically, the key to life is actually to deny yourself – to say to self, ‘You are no longer going to be on the throne; Jesus is.’ And that’s what repentance means – changing from living how I want, to living how Jesus wants. Now from the world’s point of view, that’s too big a cost. But if Jesus has the wisdom of being God, and showed his commitment to your good by dying for you, how could you possibly be losing out by putting your life under his rule?

The other thing we have to accept is the cost of rejection. Look back at v34. Jesus says

If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

Now in Jesus’ day if you saw someone ‘take up his cross’, it meant they were on their way to be crucified, which was the Roman Empire’s way of getting rid of its worst criminals and enemies – the ultimate form of rejection. And when Jesus says we must take up our cross, he means we must be prepared to suffer rejection for being on his side.

I remember interviewing a medical student like we interviewed Ross earlier in the service tonight. He’d come to faith after a pretty alcohol-and-women-filled first few years. And the most memorable thing he said was this: ‘Living without Christ is like eating vegetarian food – however much of it you have, it never really fills you up.’ He then looked horrified as it dawned on him how many vegetarians he’d just offended. But with all due respect to vegetarians, we knew what he meant. Well his first few months of following Christ were very hard indeed, as his old drinking partners turned on him for packing in getting drunk. And he lost mates to gain Christ. And that’s what taking up your cross means: being prepared to suffer for being on Christ’s side.

So that’s what it really means to follow him. And we’ll only accept that cost – and keep accepting it – if we see the third thing Jesus says here, which is:


WHY IT’S ULTIMATELY WORTH IT (vv35-38)

Look on to v35. Jesus has just laid the cost clearly on the line. Which begs the question is it really worth it? And he answers that unspoken question with the reason why it is. Look at vv35-38:

35For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, [ie, whoever holds onto his life, to avoid the cost of following Jesus, will ultimately be the loser] but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it [ie, whoever gives over his life to living for Jesus and speaking for Jesus will ultimately be the winner]. 36For what good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? 37Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? [Ie, you could keep Christ out of your life, and in theory gain everything the world has to offer – and yet you would ultimately forfeit something infinitely more important. And that something is made clear in v38, where Jesus says to each one of us:] 38If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man [that is, Jesus] will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels.

So Jesus is saying: there will come a day when he will wrap up history and we will meet him. Which would be a ridiculous claim to make about any other figure of the dead past. But Jesus is the only one of them who didn’t stay dead. He rose from the dead and is alive. And if in this life, we’ve been ashamed of him, on that day, he’ll be ashamed of us. If in this life we’ve said, ‘No’ to him, ‘I won’t have you as my King,’ then on that day he’ll say, ‘No’ to us – ‘I won’t have you in my kingdom.’ Because you can’t be part of a kingdom if you won’t accept the King.

So we each have to decide what we ultimately want. The approval and acceptance of people around us now? Or the approval and acceptance of the Lord Jesus, throughout our lives and on that day? And if we see from this eternal perspective in v38, then following him is, clearly, ultimately worth it.

But is this saying it’s all cost now and only gain beyond this life? No. You also gain what’s really worthwhile now. Eg, I remember one student who belonged to this church – I’ll call him Dave. He shared a house with four or five other blokes who weren’t Christians. And he was often discouraged by their reaction to his faith. They gave him a lot of stick, and he often said to me it would easier not to be a Christian and just to go along with what they were up to. Then one Sunday, one of his housemates came along here, and I talked with him over student supper with Dave elsewhere. And I said, ‘So what do you think about Dave and him being a Christian?’ Do you know what he said? He said, ‘I respect him more than anyone else I know. We give him a hard time for it, but Dave has integrity, and the rest of us have none.’ Now by the way, that shows that how people react to our faith and what they really think about it are often very different. But it also shows that you do gain what’s really worthwhile now – not things like an easy ride, and everyone liking us. But far more precious things – like integrity.

So, what are you going to do with Jesus?

You may be far back in the process of coming to faith. And even from a Christian background you may be full of questions and doubts. Well, we aim to be a church where we don’t assume anything of you, and where you can ask whatever you need to, and get things sorted out. So if that’s you, do keep coming on Sunday nights – and give Christianity Explored a try.

On the other hand, you may be through the process of coming to faith. You do see these things. And if that’s you, be grateful that God’s opened your eyes, and make the most of the chance to build your life on Christ from early on. Because I remember interviewing another person like we interviewed Ross earlier, who’d only turned to Christ in his forties. And the most memorable thing he said was this: ‘My greatest regret, looking back, is not starting to live for Christ sooner.’

But there may be some of us here tonight who are right on the threshold of coming to faith. You know it’s true. But you haven’t yet turned to Christ and responded to his call to be forgiven, and then to get off the throne of your life and give it to him. Well, if that’s you, I’m going to end with a prayer that’s a way of responding to Christ’s call. Let me tell you what I’m going to pray so that you can decide if it’s appropriate for you to echo. I’ll pray:

Lord Jesus Christ,Please forgive me that I have lived my life as if I were the ruler, not you.Thank you for dying for me so I can be forgiven, now and whenever I need to be.Please come into my life by your Spirit and help me to live for you from now on.Amen.

You may be further back than that or further on. But if tonight you want to turn to Christ and start the Christian life with him, you could echo that prayer in your head as I say it now. Let’s bow our heads to pray:

Lord Jesus Christ…,

If you’ve just prayed that prayer and meant it, can I encourage you to trust that God has heard and answered it. And that will become clear in your experience as time goes by. For now, can I encourage you to do two things that would help you. One is to pick up a copy of this booklet Why Jesus? which goes over the step you’ve just taken and says a bit about first steps once you’ve turned to Christ. And the other thing is to tell someone you know who’s a Christian what you’ve done. And they can then suggest the kind of things here at church which would help you go on from here.

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