A Life of Constant Change Isaiah 43:18-19
We’ve all heard “Nothing is certain except death and taxes.” Maybe, but I think this statement points to something else, “Nothing is certain except change.” Benjamin Franklin wrote, “Change is the only constant in life.” Our lives are governed by change. We’re born an infant, helpless and totally dependent on our parents. We grow, we learn, we mature; and eventually leaving childhood to carve out our own life. We make friends, create new families, become parents and grandparents; and eventually we face the greatest change of all, our transition from our earth bound life to our eternal life in either heaven or hell.
Our lives are governed by change. Scripture tells us in Hebrews 13:8, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” Jesus doesn’t change, however Jesus brought tremendous change to our lives and to the world.
People see Jesus as the historical founder of Christianity. This is true but unfortunately for many this is as far as it goes. Many don’t see the unsurpassed change that was brought into the world by the life, death and resurrection of Christ. Today I want us to see some of the ways Jesus changed our world. Let’s start with the church.
Jesus ushered in God the Father’s holy church on earth for all mankind. Matthew 16:18, “And I tell you, you are Peter and on this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
Now it doesn’t take an astute historian to see that the church hasn’t always adhered to Jesus teaching to the best of its ability. There were the Crusades and the Inquisition. The fifth century church in the Theodosia Code authorized torture as punishment for refusing to accept Christianity. Mankind may have advanced some but it wasn’t until John Paul II in the 1992 Catechism wrote that “(torture) to extract confessions, punish the guilty, frighten opponents or satisfy hatred is contrary to respect for the human person and for human dignity.” (CCC2297)
It is also true that the Christian church has had many positive impacts on the world. It transformed the Roman Empire. It was instrumental in helping to rescue advanced learning from the Dark Ages for many manuscripts of science, philosophy and literature would have been lost if Christian monks had not preserved them by meticulously hand copying the works multiple times.
The first universities in Paris and London were started by believers. The first 120 universities in America starting with Harvard were founded by believers. And Time magazine called the printing of the Gutenberg Bible the most important event in the past 500 years because it made God’s word available to the masses.
You are Peter and on this rock I will build my church. You are Jim, you are Carla, you are Mike, you are Thelma and on you I will build my church. God’s church is each of the people throughout time that believed in Christ. 1 Corinthians 13:27, “Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.”
And the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. As we are in Christ nothing can separate us from God. No matter what discomfort, no matter what pain, no matter what crisis Satan and hell put at our feet, nothing they do can come between you and Almighty God.
Another change from Jesus is, he made us the church through our individuality. Jesus mission on earth was to save the individual life of every person who believes on him. No longer does mankind have to follow a specific religion, one denomination is not more right than another. No longer do we have to follow and uphold specific laws of man’s idea of church and faith. We can worship here or in the park, we can be baptized here or in the Hudson River. No longer do we have to punish ourselves to earn God’s grace.
Your salvation is solely based on a relationship between you as an individual and the individual of Christ Jesus. And it is this relationship that joins the two individuals into one being; Galatians 2:20, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”
No one has changed the role of women more than Jesus. In the Old Testament women labored in subservient roles, second class citizens to men. By dealing directly and face to face with women like Martha and Mary, by interacting with the adulteress and the woman at the well Jesus reaffirms that from the time of creation men and women were to be equals. Genesis 2:24, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and they shall become one flesh.” I submit that two cannot become one if one is above the other.
Men and women were always equal in God’s eyes, he created us this way. By re-establishing this equality between men and women Jesus changed the dynamic of the family unit. Wives are not to be subservient, husbands will not be tyrannical. I know there are areas of our society where this equality is less than perfectly demonstrated but look to parts of the world where Christ is not accepted and you will see places where girls can’t even go to school.
Ephesians 6:4, “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger…” Jesus teachings put the Christian truths of equal value and sacrificial love square in the middle of the family unit. Jesus teaching gives strength and completeness to the most important relationship and institution in the world, t hat of the family.
Jesus changed the way our faith is expressed. Ephesians 3:17, “so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith…”
In Genesis Abraham had faith in the God given vision of a son and because of his great faith he is called the father of faith. Jesus lived a life of complete trust and faith in God the Father and he imparted these in his followers.
We do not just believe Jesus walked the earth and died on the cross. We have a deep trust and an unshakable faith in what his death and resurrection accomplished for us.
Over the past two centuries that faith has led his followers to aid the poor, care for the sick and infirm and minister to the world so that almost no one can say they haven’t heard the name of Jesus. This faith in Christ makes us better husbands and wives, better parents and care givers. This faith has rescued lives from Satan’s grasp.
I know there is a lot being said today about political conservatives and political progressives. I submit for your consideration that Christians are the true progressives. Christians see the challenges and pain of others in life. And it is those with faith that seize the opportunities to change lives for the better. I would not want to imagine what this world would be like without faith in God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
It is this faith in Christ that brings into being the next change Jesus brings; hope.
Faith based hope is not a wish, it’s a secure foundation in the future in heaven given to us by our faith in what Jesus accomplished by his death, resurrection and ascension. The rock of our faith is that there is life after death. That we will be resurrected as Jesus is. That Jesus will come to earth again to establish God’s perfect kingdom and we will have an eternity of love and blessing in God’s holy presence.
And it is this hope born out of faith that opens the way for Jesus greatest change in the world; love.
John 15:13, “Greater love has one than this that someone lay down his life for a friend.” Jesus showed this love to the greatest degree by his horrific suffering and crucifixion to take the punishment for all of mankind’s sins. Through the cross we are shown God loves each of us, loves each of us enough to provide and secure a way out of sin and into his holy presence.
For over 2000 years Christ’s followers have carried his love forward, hospitals, care centers and ministries to the poor and unreached have all been created in his name. When there is war or natural disasters people who understand and spread God’s love go into these areas to alleviate suffering and to love those afflicted. Can you imagine for a second what our world would look like without Christ’s love expressed through his people? 1 John 4:7, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.”
You’ve heard me mention my atheist friend before. He likes to tell me Jesus didn’t exist, he’s only mentioned in the Bible. I’m not going to list all the places Jesus is mentioned other than scripture. I know Jesus exists because of the changes in the world that can be traced directly back to him and the fact that 2000 plus years later these changes still transform lives. And it’s the scope of these changes and how they reach out from the tiny ancient nation of Israel to touch every corner of the globe that makes me believe everything Jesus said he is and did to be true beyond a shadow of a doubt.
Jesus lived, died and was resurrected and this changed the foundation of the world. Through Jesus you become the church. You are the foundation and rock of God’s church on earth; and no force can separate you from him.
Through Jesus our salvation is based on nothing more than a relationship between you as an individual and the individual of Jesus.
Through Jesus we see God created men and women to be equal and that is the strength and completeness of the family.
Jesus gave the world a faith of strength and this has enabled his followers to change the world.
Jesus showed us our hope for the future is found in his nail scarred hands and his empty tomb.
And the greatest change Jesus brought to mankind is love; God’s love for us manifested in our love and work for others. All other changes Jesus ushered into the world flow out of this greatest change.
Amen.