CHRIST CHANGES THINGS March 28, 1965 John 4:7=-15
1iCorinthians 5: ti--17

What are the motives that make men rel igious?| Why have you decided fo alll

yourself with the church of Jesus Christ?/Why, among all the other options open fo you,

have you made organized religion a part of your life?

Certainly a random sampling this

mornigg would regeal a wide variety of motives and reasons.| But behind them all, | am,

sure would be something about salvation.| As a matter of fact men have always searchdd

for solvation. \As soon as man began to think and reason, and to be conscious of himself
as a free agent alone in a sometimes hostile environment, he realized that there is

something more to life than what meets the eye.| From the beginning man hag not been

satisfied with life as it Is - and has expressed the unquenchable thirst in his heart

for something more. |The history of religions is the long story of man's search for that

something, and i would suggest that if continues right up to and including the present..

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In ouré own way each one of us searches for something in life he can lean on, something

that gives us a reason for living, something in which we can put our trust and our faith.
it is this search that has brought many of us to the locus of organized reli gion.\we

Rnow, as men have always known, that there is an incompleteness about life as it Is;

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an undefineable shallowness that prods us into a search \\We know, as men have always

known, that there is nothing ultimate about life as It Is: that even our greatest
achievements, even our homes and families, while giving us temporary satisfaction
and peace of mind, fade away and leave us st¢nding alone.

it is this searcht that | want to aalk about this morning:| the universal seeking
after a salvation that has been characteristic of man In every age.

From the very earliets times some men have searched forg their salvation apart from
the mainstream of 11 fe,| Extrene sufferring and hardship, | human cruelty and tecalcitrance

have led many men down through the centurles to the conviction that goodness and

meaning will never be found within the normal structures of communal life, but pnly

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in an intentional, deliberate negation of IIfe.\ Thus - the ancient ascetics torturing

the body in self inmotation:| the Hindu lying on a bed of nails staring into the sun,

senses completey dulled and cut away from ordinary feelings and experlencing:\ the

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the peopl e from the plight of a wandering band of homeless nomads when he made them a

nation and gave them the land of Cannaan. Unlike other religious books the 0.T. is nof

a literary prescrition for salvation: it does not attempt to describe the way a man

should go about providing his own salvation. \Rather it is an announcemtn— in the form of

a long and involoved dtory, that salvation has occiirred: a pronouncemt that God has

already provided for man's salvation: and a simple admonition to the people of Israel to

start acting like the saved nation of the Lord\ Notice that throughout the 0.T., Issael's

status as the elected people is never dependent on ethical goodness. |God Is faithfull

- a

inspite of Israel's unfaithfulness: salvation is an established fact thaz apart from

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any worthiness on Israel's part.

The New testament Is consistant with the Old in this motter.| he N.T. announces that

Gdd has dome somenting that firmly and finally establishes salvation within the

confines of ordinary Fe. \He has brought salvation to life by entering that life in the

person of Jesus christ.\ this is the burden of the N.T. Godpel:< that the saving work of

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God, that has been going on down through the centuries in the history of one nation has

now been fully accomplished. | In Jesus Christ God has brought the mystical reality of

his Kingdom to beer on the world of men) To participate in this kingdom is salvation: it

only
is a historical reality, not apart from life, not after iife, but now, In the very lifetime

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of fisherman, and tax collectors, soidiers and Pharisees.)

This Is whatbthe early Christians experienced \ Soemthing new had happened to them:

dimension to life that all men search for, and that it was a foretaste of the eternal Ife

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sd$amesas man had always hoped he wouéd achieve | For them, eternal life began now,

in the present.\This is the Good News that they abnounced In theor lives, and finally

_In the pages of the New Testament. |

What ever happened to that Good News? |Certainly “y don't hear much about [If today.

Certainly Presbyterians don't go around talking about the salvation they have found in

Jesus Christ.|eartotmty-selvetton, per—se,—is_not-one_of-the most_urgent—concerns_of-the

Chanch-of Jesus Clirbot,| It's not that people no longer need or want salvation. |

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age of church attenders throughout the nation? - again present company exciuded!| The
largest single group conspicuously absent from the ranks of organized religion are the
young adults: these who are not particularly thinking about dying at tbis point: \those

who have taken their search for salvation somewhere else. ,

The title of this sermon is Christ Changes Things: and if | leave no other thought

with you | hope fy is thiss| that Christ does change things: nome 1h the present: - not only

after we die, although he surely does this too, but now in the world of work, play

raising a family and findinf one's place in ite Charles Kingsley, a famous preacher of

the last century once cate ( If thou art not in heavien In this life , thou wilt never

be in heaven in the IIfe to come." This is the germinal Good News of Christianty that we

mast understand. \Salvation is now: the Kingdom of God has been established in our midst:

el |

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and to miss It now Is fo miss It altogether. |
: |

| wish to draw from two scriptural passages to pursure the meaning of salvation,

| __

although at this point you should be seeing that the bredfth of our topic is far toe great

to squeeze into the last part of one sermén.\ viri ting to the Corinthians the Apostle Paul

described the differenc eChrist makes, or salvation this voyi(* ,herefore, if anyone is

in Christ, he is a new creetion. The Old has passed away , | behold, the new has come." }
And from the incident at the well Involvéng the Samariatan women our Lord said;\ "Whoever
drinks of the water | shall give him will never thirst: the water | shall give him will
become In him a srping of water welling up to eternal Life." )

What does salvation meant It means Keni tee brief meats of Jesus Christ on the
vast stage of history something new was created: atpthat pointin history soemthing
new came into being that was not present before/ Paul Called it a "New Creation."
Jesus Christ he participated In it and experienced if as

am 1
if he had been created onew. | Jests told the Samar i tam woman that this new creation was

and when a man came fo know

like a spring of living water that wells up within a per@on to quench his deppest thirst.

a

_gestame nt proclaims that in Jesus Christ man's search for

soemthing more in life has concluded. \in him man can find that deeper significance and

In other words the New

meaningthat otherwise is but a fond hope.

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One final word,\ he Bible is a book about salvation. |e latter portion of that book
proclaims that Jesus Christ can change things for a man right now. But the Bible is

clear throughout, that man is a free agent, and that the final burden of responsibility

is niain.| Sad has provided: the church witnesses to that provision: but In every genration:

in every age, men must decide: (sha | cast my lot with Christ? — Shall | experience

God's new creation now?" }

This $s the great invitation of Christianity:| not that God coerces us into anything:

but that he loves us enought to provide for our deepest need, and to invite us to partisipats

in his new creation.

As we approach the cross of ,hrist, the event that cemented God's invitation In the

history of the human race — let us hear thet invigation again, rememebring the Apostie's

words" any man Ts In Christ he is a New Creation." )