ETE
….STA
“You
only go around once.
So get all the gusto you can.”
(TV
commercial)
In the popular
book LONG FO
Who knows what
lies on the other side of death? Let’s
figure out a way to extend life here.
Meanwhile,
people are still dying by the millions from pandemics, bullets and bombs.
So we have one group of scientists making
a good living researching ways to extend life, and another group of scientists
making a better living pursuing more efficient ways to destroy and kill.
And lurking in
the shadows of all these scientific projects is the specter of Death.
Our
bones are scattered at the graves mouth,
As
when one cutteth and cleaveth wood upon the earth.
Psalm
141
Maybe we don’t
think about it, even when we go to funerals, but deep within we know our day is
coming.
We’re going to
die.
So what are we going to do about it? Are we going to focus on seeing how long we
can hang on to life in this world?
Or
are we going to focus on Jesus’ offer of a life that overcomes death?
Seven men were
on retreat at a quiet lake in
Someone
wondered, if Jesus gives us new life, how come our lives are still so trivial
and dull.
Next thing you
know we were on our knees praying. I can
still remember, after all these years, how John, a no-nonsense marine architect,
suddenly began weeping.
We heard a
distant clap of thunder, although the sky was studded with stars. It seemed like the fear of God had taken hold
of us. Was the Holy Spirit paying us a
visit?
When it was
over, Harry stood by the mantle and matter-of-factly said, “Now I know that I’m
never going to die.”
What did he
mean? Did Harry believe he was never
going to leave this world? Not likely. Harry
has since died, yet Harry’s confidence that he would never die was valid.
Because that
night Harry began to live in a way he had never lived before. He was not suddenly sinless. But he was now inhabited by the Spirit, flooding
him with a life which would sustain him both in this world and the next.
“My
sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall
never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand.”
John
10
“I give them
eternal life.”
Jesus is
talking about something more than life that has no ending. He’s talking about life that is inhabited by
the Eternal. A life that knows God.
“This
is eternal life: that they know thee, the only true God and Jesus the Messiah
whom you have sent.”
John 17
Eternal life is
to know God.
Not
to know things about God.
Not
to have opinions about God.
But
to know God as our Father.
To
know Jesus as our Master, Lord, and Friend.
To be connected to him.
To breathe his life.
To know his voice.
To do his will.
To
be more certain of him than of anything else in all creation.
Eternal life, a
gift from the Lord Jesus, begins on this side of the grave. It’s a life we live here on this earth that
continues right on through the door of death into the world beyond.
When we receive
this gift, it’s like stepping out of a tomb into blazing daylight. This supernatural life consists of four
things:
The
Breath of the world to come filling our soul.
The
Truth of the world to come holding us to account.
Love
from the world to come, turning our heart from stone to flesh.
The
The proof that
we have received this life is not a fuzzy feeling, or chills running down our spine. The proof that this life has come to us is
that we can no longer trivialize God or the things of God without
consequences. Once we have this gift,
every time we get flippant with the things of God, we pay a price.
Yes, this new
life transforms our prayers, and gives courage to our
heart. It empowers us. It causes God’s love to burn like fire in our
soul, affecting the way we see people, the way we treat them.
But
the anchor that holds us close to the Lord Jesus is holiness, God’s blazing holiness.
Once we begin
to understand that God is holy, and everything connected with God is holy, our
hearts are ready to receive the four springs of eternal life.
First, God fills our
soul with the breath of the world to come.
The breath of
the world to come is not a feeling, not an ecstasy but a Person: the Holy Spirit.
“The
wind blows where it wills; and you can hear the sound of
it, but you cannot tell where it came from or where it’s going. So is everyone who is born of the
Spirit.”
John 3
Nicodemus
needed this gift. The woman at the well
needed this gift. You and I need
it. Jesus’ death and resurrection have
made it available to us. All we have to do is ask and receive----and obey the Spirit.
“If
you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more
will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.”
Luke
11
Being holy, the
Spirit never responds to our glib prayers or shallow devotions. But when our hearts are bowed before him, the
Holy Spirit begins to breathe into us his mysterious heavenly life.
Secondly, God causes the
truth of the world to come, to hold us to account.
Truth in this
world is under constant attack from the father of lies. Many a man or woman who starts out as a
champion of truth, ends up compromised by this world’s power. It happens, not only of politicians and
celebrity evangelists, but of ordinary folks like you and me.
The truth of
the world to come is incorruptible. We can’t twist it to suit our agendas. It stands over us like a plumb line from
heaven and holds us to account. Once we
begin walking in the Spirit, every time we deceive, or exaggerate, or
manipulate, we pay a price. Heaven’s
truth is teaching us that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. Now that we belong to God, we are required to
walk in the light and leave the darkness of deceit behind.
Thirdly, God’s Spirit causes love from the world to come, to turn our heart of
stone into a heart of flesh.
A
heart of stone is
stingy. A heart
of flesh is generous.
A
heart of stone is
always busy with itself. A heart of
flesh takes time to listen.
A heart of
stone manipulates people. A heart of
flesh serves people.
A heart of stone is always complaining. A heart of flesh is always giving thanks.
The hand of the
Lord Jesus reaches into this heart of stone, touches it, and slowly it begins
to soften. Then in his wisdom the Lord
places us together with a motley crew like your church or mine---to teach us
how to be patient, how to forgive and ask for forgiveness.
Gradually we
change as God’s love is shed abroad in our hearts.
Finally, the Lord Jesus
turns our weakness into the power of the world to come.
By this power
Jesus healed the sick and opened blind eyes.
By this power his words burned their way into
hearts and caused them to repent. By
this power he was raised from the dead, the Firstborn of the New Creation.
This power
seemed trivial to John the Baptist, as he sat in prison, waiting for Jesus to
do something “significant.”
To this day the
power of the world to come walks the earth in ragged clothes.
Nobody knows where he came
from, or where he lives. It’s hard to
remember what he looks like. He’s a nondescript
man like a thousand others. Yet this man
has a strange impact on your soul. You might find him sitting with a group in a
coffee shop, or chatting with an old woman at a bus
stop. Sometimes he appears in the park
pushing a child in a wheel chair.
“You wouldn’t believe it. A stranger
shook my hand at a bus stop and told me to go home and take a nap, ‘Jesus has a
surprise for you,’ he said. When I awoke from my nap, all pain was
gone. I feel fine. My doctor put me through a series of tests, and just shakes his head.”
Of course, we
do not control this power. It comes and
goes at God’s pleasure. It moves where
it will. But once we abandon ourselves
to the Crucified One, the power of the world to come makes its dwelling in us, flowing out of us where and when
it chooses. This power is simply the
life of God: Eternal Life.
“My
sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. And I give them eternal life.”
What waits for
us beyond the grave, what happens to us at the Lord’s glorious return, depends
on one simple question:
Will
we receive and live the Life which the Master offers?
Is
it in us now?
If
we have begun to breathe the breath of heaven,
If
heaven’s truth is holding us to account,
If
heaven’s love is burning in our hearts,
If
the power of the world to come has found a home in us,
then we have Eternal Life, and we are even
now walking this earth as Sons and Daughters of the World to Come.
Lord Jesus, may it be so
for every thirsty soul who reads these words!