What does it mean to be a Christian?

Today Frode, Juliejean, (Hazel) and Robert are all choosing to be baptised. But what is it they are choosing? Well, they’re choosing to follow Jesus Christ. They are saying publicly I belong to Jesus.

But what does that mean? What does it mean to follow Christ? What does it mean to be a Christian?

I think if you ask most Norwegians today if they are Christian they would say yes. By which they mean they’re not Muslim or Hindu, they have some sense of a God, and they think church is a good idea and Jesus’ moral teachings were pretty good. But the Bible says that’s not a Christian. The devil believes those things!

It’s not just about going to church either. You can go to church for many years and still not be a Christian. You can say all the right things, do all the right things, be a good person – but still not be a Christian.

So, what is a Christian? What does it mean to be a Christian?
Well, being a Christian means, firstly

1. Being perfect, like Jesus – every day.
We cannot know God, unless we are perfect.
Oh. But I’m not.

2. Recognising my sin, so I need Jesus’ grace – every day.

Wow! Thank God for grace and forgiveness! Yes, but it’s not cheap grace. We are called to obey.

3. Fighting my sin, in Jesus’ power – every day.

1. A Christian is to be perfect, like Jesus, every day

Now you might think, hang on, isn’t Christianity about being a bit better, trying hard, being nice?
Unfortunately, many “churches” have ended up presenting a “Christianity” like that – even here in Norway.

But that’s not what the Bible says. Listen to Jesus’ words:

Mt 5:48 But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect. Let me read that again. Og på norsk: Vær da fullkomne, slik deres himmelske Far er fullkommen.
Seriously? Oh yes. This is in the middle of the sermon of the Mount, where Jesus commands his followers to love their enemies, to be faithful to your wife – even in your mind: a lustful thought is the same as adultery. Woah. He says you must never worry, because that means you’re not trusting God. Never break a promise. And on and on. Be perfect, like God Himself.

These aren’t suggestions! These are commands. This is what you must do to enter the kingdom of God.

So often we try to soften Jesus words - to make them reachable if we just make a big effort.
But that’s the point. We can’t do it. We have fallen short of God’s glorious standards. Even the best of us. Even in our best moments. We’re not perfect like God.
That’s the mistake the Pharisees made (the bad guys in the gospels - the religious leaders who ended up killing Jesus). They were trying to reach heaven by their own efforts. They thought “perfect” meant “good enough”. It doesn’t. It means perfect.

Leviticus (3. Mos) 19:2 The LORD … said to Moses, 2 “Give the following instructions to the entire community of Israel. You must be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy.

This is echoed again and again throughout the Law. And the apostle Peter picks this up in the New Testament:
1 Pe 1:14–16 So you must live as God’s obedient children. Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn’t know any better then. 15 But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. 16 For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.”

The Apostle Paul says the same thing in Rom 12:1 And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. In the original Greek the verse literally says being holy is the only sensible or smart thing to do. In other words, not being holy is DUMB!

Hopefully by this stage you’re thinking “Uh-oh, I’m in trouble”. Because that is exactly the response we’re supposed to have. Meeting God is not “Hey buddy, how’s it goin’”. It’s “oh my goodness I’m going to die”.
Remember the prophet Isaiah’s reaction when he saw God: Woe is me! I’m doomed. I’m finished. For I am a sinful man, and I have seen God.
And the Apostle Peter when he realised that Jesus was God said “Get away from me Lord, I am a sinful man.”

Perhaps if apostles and prophets are reacting like that... maybe we should too? Fall on our faces before God. Get away from me Lord. I’m not good enough.

God’s goodness is a fierce goodness. He’s described as an all-consuming fire. The Temple has layers upon layers around it – not to protect God from the people, but to protect people from God! To come to God imperfect is to die.

But hang on. Isaiah wasn’t perfect – but he wasn’t killed. His sin was wiped away and he served God. And Peter too. In fact, none of the so-called “heroes” of the Bible are perfect! Adam disobeyed, Noah got drunk, Abraham slept with his wife’s slave girl, David stole his friend’s wife and then arranged his murder to cover it up, Moses was a murderer – and said no to God! And the list goes on. Gideon was a coward, Samson was a sex maniac, Jacob was a cheat, Joseph was boastful and arrogant. So what’s going on? Is God telling lies? Does he actually just want us to try our best?

No. Judgement Day will not like school today where “everyone gets a prize”. Only the winners win. Only those who deserve.

As Romans 2 points out Ro 2:5–6 But because you are stubborn and refuse to turn from your sin, you are storing up terrible punishment for yourself. For a day of anger is coming, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed. 6 He will judge everyone according to what they have done.

Ok, but how did David and Abraham and all the other imperfect people – how did they know God.

Here’s the magic. Here’s what makes Christianity unique amongst all religions and worldviews: grace. Grace. God’s undeserved favour. Nåde. Ufortjent velsignelser.

When we come to God, realising we fall short of his standard – he responds in mercy. That is why Jesus came. He swaps places with us. He gives us his perfection. He takes our imperfection, our sin.
Instead of being judged by what WE have done, we are judged by what CHRIST JESUS has done! It’s a swap. (Vi har byttet ut vår synd, vår gjerninger med Jesu gjerninger, Jesu godhet!)

That is how a Christian can be perfect. Not in myself. But in Christ.

A Christian is to be perfect, like Christ, every day.

And we do that by:

2. A Christian needs to remember he is a sinner, needing Jesus’ grace (forgiveness), every day.

This is the key. We do not come to God in our own strength. But we come in weakness. Help.

Jesus told a story to illustrate this. It’s found in Luke 18:10–14 if you want to follow along in your Bibles.
“Two men went to the Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee (the religious, good person, top of society), and the other was a despised tax collector (traitor, “Quisling”, bad person, bottom of society).
11 The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer: ‘I thank you, God, that I am not a sinner like everyone else. For I don’t cheat, I don’t sin, and I don’t commit adultery. I’m certainly not like that tax collector! 12 I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my income.’
13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, ‘O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.’
14 I tell you, this sinner, not the (good) Pharisee, returned home justified before God. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

The Pharisees eyes were on – himself. He trusted himself to save himself. Good luck.
But the tax collector, Oh he knew he had no chance! His eyes were on God. His trust was in God to save him. And the message of the gospel is that Jesus saves sinners who trust in him.

We come in weakness, we come in humility. This is the way of the Christian life. This is what following Jesus looks like.

I have been thinking recently about the weakness of Christianity. In many ways its stupid religion with stupid message. There’s a big holy God, and he going to strike us down – well we all feel guilt, so far so good. But because he loved us so much he came himself to die on a cross for us. What? And we don’t have to do stuff, offer sacrifices, etc. to earn our salvation. It’s all done. What? It’s just. Weird. It’s weak. Turn the other cheek. Love your enemies. Drop your sword. You can’t force people to become Christians because then it’s not real. And our God is hanging naked on a cross, broken, bloodied. It is a very weak message.

But it keeps spreading. Remarkable. Under terrible opposition. Over 60 million people have died rather than give up their Christian faith. 60 million martyrs. And that was 10 years ago. The number is higher now. They roll over and die. And yet this weak church is unstoppable. Unkillable.

I heard recently that the first missionaries arrived in Japan in 1549. Huge numbers turned to Christ. The Emperor got worried and banned Christianity under pain of death. Huge numbers killed because they refused to renounce Jesus. 300 years later missionaries are finally allowed back in. And they find… Christians. And now the church is growing. Slowly. But growing.
We were at a Christian convention this summer and at the prayer meeting a brother was going to share what God was doing in his country. Which country was that? North Korea.

Christians sin. The church gets corrupted, and makes a huge mess. Governments crush the church. Enemies inside and out. And yet it endures. It carries on. It grows. The church keeps growing. In the quiet, in the dark. Under pressure. Under threat, It GROWS. All over the world. Almost as if some unseen power is guiding it, protecting it, keeping it.

In its weakness the church is unstoppable. Because in our weakness we see the power of God.

There is no other explanation for the church, it is only God. I cannot explain why Frode, Juliejean, Hazel and Robert are standing here today. Except by the power of God. In their weakness, he has been strong, changing them to be more and more like Jesus. They are living miracles!

Christianity is not about huge monuments and displays of power and doing GREAT THINGS FOR GOD. It is coming before Him in humility each day, saying I can’t. I’m not strong enough – will you be my power, will you be my strength, will you be my righteousness today, Lord Jesus.

We come as we are. We start by admitting our sin, turning away from our sin (repentance), and turning to God. And we continue, by admitting our sin, repenting, and believing.

Every day we need to remember “I am a sinner before God” – and turn to Jesus in our weakness, saying forgive me. And then we remember that in Jesus we are declared perfect. We are given his perfection.

And because we belong to Christ, we want to obey him, we want to love him. And so we fight.

3. Fighting my sin, in Jesus’ power – every day.

Because we come as we are. But God does not leave us as we are. He changes us.

2 Co 5:17–18 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!

This is the work of regeneration: of changing a sinner into a righteous person. God declares us righteous and then starts making us righteous. It is a work that will only be completed after we die – when we see him face to face we will be transformed in the blink of an eye. But until then each day we become more like Jesus. (Sometimes one step forward, two steps back). But he is at work in us.

Eph 4:24 Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy.

1 Cor 1:2 I am writing to God’s church in Corinth, to you who have been called by God to be his own holy people.
He made you holy by means of Christ Jesus, just as he did for all people everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours.

We fight sin, we obey, we are regenerated, not by being strong. Not by trying really hard like some spiritual superman. No. We continue how we started. By admitting our sin. By admitting that we are weak. In humility. And by throwing yourself onto Jesus and his strength and his power. We are holy only through Jesus Christ. So every day we put on our new nature – we decide to act like children of God.

There’s an old Sunday school song which goes: Trust and obey, trust and obey, there’s no other way, to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.
Faith and repentance. It’s how we start. It’s how we continue. It’s how we end. And one day, we will see him face to face. One day his work in us will be finished, just as he promised. The last bits of the old sinful man will be burned away, and we will rise like a phoenix from the ashes – new, perfect, like Jesus.
As CS Lewis once said – if we could see ourselves as we will be – in all our glory - we would fall down in worship. That is what Christ has done for us. This is why we are being baptised. This is why we fight our sin. Because we are loved by Him. And we love Him in return. And we will be with Him. Perhaps today.

Are you ready?

Come as you are. And be transformed.

Big Question 4: How can I trust Christianity when the church has been so evil?

Isn’t Christianity evil?

It’s a good question.

Does it work? It’s the question of our age.
Like good, post-modern consumers we want to test the quality of the product or service we are about to commit to.

Does it work?

Does Christianity work?

The narrative in the world today is “no”. Christians are homophobic bigots, judgemental, obsessed with telling other people about sex, anti-science, and dangerous to society: after all, religion is the cause of most wars.

If we look around at our own town, and ask different non-Christians or even Christians about their experience of church and many have met exactly those attitudes. Many have been hurt by the church –judgmental or downright cruel people wearing a fake smile and a little halo while making them feel like dirt.

So that might be your experience. If it is, well done for being brave enough to come!

Now you’re may be expecting me to now go on and on about how the idea that Christians are evil is false, and spend ages trying to argue away the bad things that have been done in the name of Christianity and try and whitewash them so they are “good”.
If so, you’ll be surprised to hear that my first two points are

1. “Christians” are evil

2. Christians are evil

Great, sounds wonderful doesn’t it? Why be a Christian then? Because

3. Christians are forgiven

And finally we’ll stop looking at the evil things done by Christians, and look at the good things done by Christians.

4. Christians have been the biggest force for good in the world’s history

1. “Christians” are evil

You see, not everyone who calls themselves a Christian IS a Christian. Now this may be surprising. Surely if you say “I am a Christian”, then it’s true for you, and “who are you to say it’s not true?!”. But Jesus disagrees....

In Matthew 7:15 Jesus says “Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves. You can identify them by their fruit, that is, the way they act....On judgement day many will say to me “Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name”. But I will reply “I never knew you. Get away from me you evildoers”

You see being a Christian is not like being a Muslim or a Buddhist or a Crystal healer or a nihilist or even a Jehovah’s Witness. It’s not about subscribing to a philosophy of life, or doing certain religious rituals, or belonging to a certain group, or even “serving the Lord”. Surprisingly, as Jesus said, it’s not even about doing great miracles or casting out demons or prophesying. It is about KNOWING and BEING KNOWN BY God Himself.

We saw that last week, as Christian helped us answer the question “Why is Jesus the only way to God?”
Because, as Jesus said in John 14:6 “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me”
Jesus himself is the way, the truth and the life – he doesn’t just tell us “this is the way”, he IS the way. Jesus is the only way to God because he is God.

Because the only way to know God is to…know God. Just like the only way for me to know you is to know you. I could talk to your friends, read your Facebook statuses, look at pictures of you – but I would only know about you, I would not know you. WE would still be strangers, not friends. The only way to know God, is to know Jesus.

That’s why simply saying “I am a Christian” is meaningless without the reality of relationship with the Living God. Ticking a box on a census form no more makes you a Christian than walking into a garage makes you a car!
Going to church on a Sunday, even going regularly, doesn’t make you a Christian. Jesus didn’t say “I am a truth” or “I can explain the truth”. He said he is the Truth. He is the Ultimate Reality at the centre of all of life. Jesus isn’t in the “Sunday” box which you can pick up when you feel like it. Becoming a Christian is giving up your LIFE to Jesus. Wherever you go, I go. Whatever you tell me to do, I obey. Whatever you say, I trust. I am yours. I belong to you.

This is very different to most religions, so it’s easy to be confused. There are also plenty of people wearing white collars and fine robes and big silver crosses and big hats - or torn jeans and a guitar and a soul patch and Chinese “Jesus” tattoo and an iPad with a cross on it – or a white suit and a big leather-bound Bible to wave from the front and never open. Plenty of those people around who look the part, but are anything but.

The most effective lies are those that are 90% truth. And there is a lot of that type of “Christianity” in the world, and has been in the past, particularly as Christianity gained political power.

In the film the “Book of Eli”, Gary Oldman’s character, the “Mayor” of the town desperately wanted the book of Eli (the Bible) in order to manipulate people. He wanted to wield it like a weapon. And the Bible has been misused and abused throughout history to get people to do things in “God’s name” which have nothing to do with God and everything to do with me and what I want.

Like getting people to go to war. Right? “Religion is the cause of most wars”.
In the “Encyclopedia of Wars”, authors Philips and Axelrod chart the motivations for wars – among them religion.
Do you know how many wars were religiously motivated (where religion was used as the reason for war – and this is broadly interpreted): 123 wars.
That sounds like a lot. But there has been a total of 1763 wars! Meaning “religion”, even in its broadest interpretation, and that’s ALL religions, not just Christianity, is fairly insignificant as a cause of war (less than 7%). As the agnostic comedian David Mitchell said “People are just very good at finding reasons to kill each other, and I’m not convinced that removing one of the reasons (religion) will lead to any significant change”.

But there have been and are many things done in the name of the church or Christianity or “God” that are rightly condemned. The Spanish inquisition, burning “heretics” at the stake, indulgences, and so on and, of course, many of the wars in the name of God. These things are evil and opposed by Christians! And many evil things have been and are still done by people in the church hierarchy who by any stretch of the imagination could not be obeying Christ, and they should be exposed and punished. Think about the priests abusing children, and then the bishops covering it up. Think about the oily preacher in his white suit calling on people to “give generously so that God will bless you”. Evil men twisting the truth for their own gain. Their father is the devil, the father of lies.

“Christians”, the religious, churchians, or those simply using the name to achieve power – they are self-righteous, judgmental, evil people.
But so are real Christians. Because becoming a Christian doesn’t mean that all your selfish behaviours vanish. Oh no. Becoming a Christian means you start to realise how really sinful and selfish you actually are! It’s like when you’re up in the attic under the roof or something – it’s only when you come down into the light that you realise how filthy you are. That’s what it’s like becoming a Christian.

2. Christians are evil

The Bible’s pretty clear on this point. Christians are evil.
Eph 2:1-3 Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. 2 You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil...3 All of us used to live that way, following...our sinful nature. By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else.
Rom 3:10-12 As the Scriptures say, “No one is righteous— not even one. 11 No one is truly wise; no one is seeking God. 12 All have turned away; all have become useless. No one does good, not a single one.”
Gen 6:5 The LORD observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil.
Rom 7:18 And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t. 19 I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway…24 Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?

Christians do and say wrong things all the time, just like everybody else – and sometimes colossally wrong things. Christians can be liars, gossips, prejudiced, racist, bigoted, gossips, slanderers, evildoers, murderers, sexual sinners, and so on – just like everyone else in the world. We don’t magically transform immediately into Jesus. And so it’s not surprising that we manage to hurt outsiders and each other along the way.

The first step in becoming a Christian is admitting that you are a sinner, a rebel against God. And what we too often forget is that here is then no room for being judgemental (“den store pekefinger”) because we have been forgiven so much. Why should I look at the speck in YOUR eye when I have a LOG in my own? Particularly when we look at the lives of non-Christians.
Judgementalism, looking down on people, pretending we are better – that should have no place amongst God’s people.
So I want to apologise on behalf of the church for when we get it wrong, when I get it wrong. I apologise for when I have sinned, thinking myself better than you or you or you because I don’t do such and such a thing. I have forgotten that I am a sinner, saved by grace, and grace alone.

This means, brothers and sisters in Christ, that we need to work hard at loving each other and bearing with one another. This is a club for sinners, and we will sin against outsiders, and against each other – often without even realising it. Remember Eph 4:2–4 Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love. 3 Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace.

We are sinners, and so we will sin, and hurt each other. But let us then be quick to forgive, because, even though Christians are evil,

3. Christians are forgiven

Eph 2:4–5 We were dead in our sins...But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, 5 that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!)
Rom 3:21-22 No-one is righteous...But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him... 22 We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are.
Gen 6:8 Everything we thought or imagined was only evil...But Noah found favour with the LORD.
Ro 7:24–25 Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? 25 Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord.

God looked upon us in our filth – and He had compassion on us, loved us enough to become a baby and be born right into our filth. Not because we are loveable (or “worth it”) or our hearts reached out to him – we’re dead, whoever heard of dead people doing anything? - but because of His great love, of His great worth. Praise Jesus! We are sinners, yes, but we are forgiven sinners. What love!

Sin and forgiveness is a huge mindshift – and is often misinterpreted by non-Christians.

For example: homosexuality. Saying “Homosexuality is a sin” is not saying “we hate people who have same sex attraction”. In fact we love those with same sex attraction (we have to!) the same way we love those with opposite sex attraction (we have to!), while still saying that divorce is a sin, and sex before marriage is a sin, and sex with someone other than your spouse is a sin, oh, and by the way, lying is a sin and murder is a sin and gossip is a sin, and jealousy is a sin, and greed is a sin, and.... And all of us are welcome at the cross.

If you doubt what I say about the homosexuality thing, consider that the most conservative, fundamentalist wing of the church in England – has a gay man as the head of one of their most prominent organisations. And he’s been heavily involved in leadership there for 20-odd years. (livingout.org) Despite the media reports or the liberal smear campaign “Being gay” has never been an issue in the real church. Trying to twist God’s word so you can sin the way you want to – now that is an issue.
And if you are gay, you are most welcome here. You will be loved, you will be respected, you will be called upon to repent of all your sins, not just sexual ones, and salvation will be found in Christ, not in changing your orientation. We’ve definitely got it wrong when we end up preaching “be sexually attracted to women” as salvation instead of the glories of the cross!

This room is full of sinners. And praise God! The church is not a place for those who want to come and shine their halo, and have God bask in their glory – God coming down off his throne and saying oooh, well done. Many places are like that: get yourself cleaned up before you come to God. Do, do do. Jesus says “done”. “Come to me just as you are”, he says.

Christians are forgiven sinners.

Now, before we hit the last point let me sum up where we’ve got to: We know that being a Christian means knowing Jesus personally.
We know that many people have used the label “Christian” to do evil things, and many evil people have seen the church as a way to personal power and have abused that power.
We know that Christians have often messed up and sinned against those outside and inside the church – and will continue to do so. We’re not perfect! Yet!
And we know that Christians are forgiven by the mercy of God.

But, to come back to that quintessential post-modern question “does it work?” I want us to consider the impact of Christianity on our world today and throughout history.

4. Christians have been the biggest force for good in the world’s history

Imagine now a world without Christianity.

It would not be a world at peace since 93% of the world’s wars have had nothing to do with religion. In fact, since Christians are commanded to be peacemakers, there would probably be far more conflicts. Take South Africa, for example: Mandela’s presidency ushered in peace, reconciliation, deep sacrificial forgiveness. Why? 27 years in prison in which this firebrand founder and head of the military wing of the ANC, in his own words, “never missed a Bible study or a church service”. 27 years, week in, week out, seeing Jesus, being challenged by the One who said “Father, forgive them”

In a world without Christianity, much of the world would still be unknown to us. The maps would be dark, because many of the world’s great explorers were missionaries, seeking to obey Christ’s commission to take the gospel to the world. They recognised that people are people no matter how “savage” they may be.

There would be no universities – certainly not as we know them today. Aristotle taught that knowledge came through a deductive process of the mind, not through experimentation, and he supported a pantheistic world view—with gods controlling nature and the universe and fighting – so the universe was inconsistent and untestable. Christianity taught that there was one God, a rational being, who was consistent in the way he ran the world. He was knowable and his world was knowable.

Bishop Robert Grosseteste, first chancellor of Oxford University in the 13th century, proposed the scientific “experimental method”. 300 years later, the devout Christian Francis Bacon, began recording results of his experiments, and scientific methodology began to be more widely accepted. The underlying philosophy behind our modern science is Christianity! No Christianity, no science.

There would be no hospitals – certainly not public ones, and there would be no nurses. Florence Nightingale was an upper class lady of privilege moved to compassion by the plight of the soldiers in the Crimean War, and considered it her Christian duty to get in and serve these soldiers, commoners!, washing them, binding their wounds, caring for them. Nursing was founded.

There would be no orphanages. For what other world view could motivate men like George Muller, who single-handedly cared for over 10 000 orphans in order to demonstrate the love and power and compassion of God?

Prisons would be dungeons where people are sent to die.

There would be no justice system to speak of.

There would still be slavery: it was first banned by church council in 1157. The battle against slavery had to be refought in 1800s by William Wilberforce and other Christian parliamentarians. And indeed, today “human trafficking”, slavery, is raising its head again as a huge problem, and Christians are rallying together to fight it.

Polygamy (many wives, one husband) would be the norm.

Women would have no rights – children even less. The concept of equal rights is found in Genesis 1 where male and female are created equal. Jesus treats women with great respect, and even includes them as part of his group of close followers – unheard of in those times. Even more scandalously, he allows children to come to him, and says that the disciples should be “like these children”.

Tragically, it would be a world without Manchester United, the world’s greatest football club! The clubs, United among them, started as a way to keep young men out of the pubs and doing something productive.

In our beautiful land, unwanted children would simply be abandoned in the forest to die – and that would be seen as perfectly normal. It was so normal that Olav the holy the first Christian King of Norway had to outlaw it on pain of confiscation of property – that is: if you kill your child, you will lose your farm. It stopped shortly after that. Without Christianity we would still be killing our children today – particularly those with defects or disabilities. Imagine that, just killing a child because he’s disabled.
Looks like we need another King Olav.

Music and the arts would be a shadow of themselves, Architecture would be stunted.

Leadership would be by might – the idea of servant leadership, of the leader who cares for his followers, started with Christ, and was ridiculed for hundreds of years. But now it’s part of our culture.

Most people would be illiterate, and most countries, tribes and people groups would not have a written language at all. Bible translators have had to create written languages from scratch on hundreds occasions – and the big push to educate people was so they could read the Bible. Those in power did not want to educate people – why give away power? The church disagreed.

Does Christianity work? Look at the track record (the whole track record). It works!

But more importantly than that: it’s true. It works because it is Truth. It works because Jesus is real, because he rose from the dead, because he is seated upon his throne. The church is not dead because he is alive and has a job for us to do as everything rushes toward the Day he returns, a Day of fire and judgement, terror and fear – and a Day of joy unimaginable for those forgiven sinners who bear his name: Christians.

Rejoice, Christian, for Jesus is Lord!

Genesis 4 and 5 Beyond redemption

Genesis 4

Short recap:

Genesis 1-2 God creates the world, He creates the fish in the sea, the birds in the air and the animal on the ground, and He saw that it was good. He created man and woman and saw that they were very good. Genesis 3. Mankind fell into sin, which separated them from God, and they were thrown out of paradise (the garden of Eden).

This is where they are at in the beginning of chapter 4.

We are going to look at today’s text under the following three points:

1.A fallen state: (From godly to devilish)

2.Born into sin:(Born this way; but not destined to be this way)

3.A hope restored:(the identity of the serpent crusher is made known)

A fallen state

Adam and Eve being husband and wife do what a husband and wife should do, they had lots of sex and babies! After giving birth to Cain Eve says ”With the Lord’s help, I have produced a man!”. Which might be interpreted in many ways, Eve is praising the Lord for helping her producing an offspring, and thinking maybe this is the serpent crusher the Lord has promised? However, more likely because of Eve’s fallen state that she was boasting about her creation. Notice that she isn’t saying “God gave me a son”, she says “With the Lords help, I have produced a man”. It almost sounds like what she is saying is: God helped me but I did all the work, with my own body, with my own effort, because I am brilliant and self-sufficient I managed to produce a man. Eve thinks she can fulfil God’s promise made in Genesis 3.15 herself “And I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel”

so as Eve pronounced the forbidden fruit good, she has now pronounced herself the “creator” of man, and reversed the good order God set up in Genesis 1 and 2. The order was: God, man, woman. God was the Lord of all and creator, man was set to rule the earth, and the woman God created as the man’s his helper. Man and woman were created as equals, but different. Here the woman tried to make herself the creator, and not the creation. Thereby reversing the good order of God, Eve wanted to be the creator, and self-sufficient.

Eve first gave birth to Cain, and then later she gave birth to Abel, you see, in spite of their sin, God allowed Adam and Eve to have children, although they had not kept their end of the deal, God will always keep His(It’s in His nature), praise the Lord for that! In spite of Adam and Eve’s sin life goes on.

Born into sin:

Cain and Abel were the first people born into our fallen world, as we heard Adam and Eve were thrown out of the garden of Eden. Then they had children, so Cain and Abel were born outside the garden of Eden after the their parents had fallen into sin. And as children of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel inherited their sin, and their knowledge of good and evil. They were not just born with the knowledge of good and evil but with the same choice and responsibility Adam and Eve had, they could choose to do what was good or evil in the eyes of God. The situation was completely new, suddenly there was deception, lies, jealousy and murder. Just like the “great” secular literary tragedies, this one ends with Death and misery. Spoiler alert! Cain murders Abel!

When we read the story of Cain and Abel, it is very easy to get caught up in details that aren’t important. We ask ourselves, “Why didn’t God accept Cain’s offering, when he had worked so hard for it?” We heard last week how God cursed the ground, and how man with difficulty would cultivate it all of his days. Cain worked really hard for the ground to bear crops. Then we think we might have the answer, because Abel brought forward offerings from his livestock. We start thinking about the Laws of sacrifices given by God to the people of Israel, of course we think it’s because of the blood, there has to be blood. However, this was before any law had been passed. But these are the details that aren’t important, because if they were, there would be a section in the beginning of Genesis on what offerings God would accept.

I’m not sure how much we think about it, but we are born into sin, and into a fallen world. Although this is true, just like Adam and Eve we have been given a choice and responsibility. As was it with Cain and Abel, they had the freedom to do what was good, or to do what was evil in the eyes of God. So instead of stopping to meditate on God not accepting Cain’s offering we should press on, so that we get to the heart of the matter. Please follow in your bibles as I read verses 5 - 7.

“but he did not accept Cain and his gift. This made Cain very angry, and he looked dejected. “Why are you so angry?” the Lord asked Cain. “Why do you look so dejected? ⁷ You will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master.”

In verse 5 we read that God didn’t accept Cain and his gift, then we see Cain’s reaction to God not accepting him or his offering. He’s angry with God and jealous of Abel, does this seem like a man who’s heart was set on serving God? Or does it seem more like someone trying to justify himself? Cain is trying to be like God, and telling God what is acceptable and what isn’t. God not accepting Cain’s offering had nothing to do with what he was offering, but with the attitude of Cain’s heart towards God.

God tells Cain that if he does what is right he will be accepted. God also warns him that sin is crouching at his door, eager to control him . God challenges Cain to do better. With God’s help Cain can repent and turn back to Him, it’s not too late, Cain is not beyond redemption. Will Cain be able to succeed where his parents went wrong? However, to succeed in turning back to God, he must overcome the control sin has over him.

This is where mankind goes from bad to worse, and this is where we are shown that we can’t fulfil God’s promises, Only God can. While Eve is trying to get God’s blessing without God, we see that the nature of the man she has “produced” is revealed. The would-be saviour’s heart is filled with anger, jealousy and bitterness, and he becomes a murderer. Cain walks up to his brother the and says “let’s go into the fields”, they do and in the fields Cain attacks and kills his brother. The sin of rebelling against God, and eating the forbidden fruit has now escalated into premeditated murder. I am so glad God is the one who appoints the saviour and not us, we can’t fulfil his promises, Only God can.

What is sin ?

But what is sin, we speak of it a lot but we rarely try to define it.

To sin is to drive a wedge between us and God, the sin awakens His righteous anger, and fury. The sin hurts us, and those close to us. Some of us in this room might have been told when we were little that us being bad makes Jesus cry. But that’s not the case, but when we sin we push our almighty Father away saying

“ no daddy, you might be God, but I know best, now leave me to it”.

We awaken His righteous anger, but not just that, by sinning we hurt ourselves, and those who love us. We might think that sin is without consequence but it isn’t. A couple of weeks ago a 13 year old boy killed his 3 year old brother, and wounded his father outside of Bergen. How can we say that my sin has no consequence when, children murder children and brother kills brother. Sadly, as we could read and hear on the news, the story of Cain and Abel is not unique, nor is it a pointless cautionary tale.

It shows us how brutal sin can be. Sin is most of the time wrapped up in a nice package, it looks nice, it smells nice, it’s only logical. But here is the truth, sin is ugly, sin escalates, and without Jesus sin will kill us. As we can read in Romans 6:23

“ For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord”

And in Romans 3:23 we read “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.”

For some reason when I read this I identify myself with Abel, the innocent godly man who’s offerings and persona is always accepted by God. Not the bitter, jealous, murdering brother, who rebels against God. But that is who we are, not matter how little we like it, we are Cain. We are rebels and not the cool kind like in star wars, we are rebels against God. He says “left” but we say “right”, He says” forgiveness” but we cry out “revenge”

Last week Daniel talked about the world through the looking-glass (the mirror) where everything is opposite of what it was meant to be. I talked about how Eve wanted the blessing of God without God. Now we see that Cain has decided to rebel against God, and do what pleases him, and not God. He clearly chooses to sin, although he has been warned, does it sound familiar? And as we all hear and read this we’re thinking to ourselves. “Cain, Cain, Cain, you are one bad sinner, has there ever been a sinner like you.” It’s really easy to forget that we are Cain isn’t it. We think, if there ever was a man beyond redemption that would be Cain. He did not by far meet God’s standard, but scary part is that neither do we. We are all sinners, we are nowhere near God’s standards, and because of our sin we are going to DIE…

Wait there is more, but just like for Cain there isn’t more we can do. But if we read Romans 6:23 again we can see that is says that the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus, we can only turn to Him, only Jesus can save us. In verses 11- 12 God pronounces His judgement upon Cain; “Now you are cursed and banished from the ground, which has swallowed your brothers blood. No longer will the ground yield good crops for you, no matter how hard you work! From now you will be a homeless wanderer on the earth”

As for many others in the bible, God’s judgement becomes the turning point for Cain, Cain shows remorse when Judged by God. In verse 13 “My punishment is too great for me to bear! ¹⁴ You have banished me from the land and from your presence; you have made me a homeless wanderer. Anyone who finds me will kill me!”

But if you now look at the verse 13 in the bible at your table you’re going to see a little * (star) On the bottom of the page your you are going see that the word punishment can be switched out with, sin. I am going to disagree with the translators here and say that the alternate reading is the right one. The reason for this is God’s response to Cain, God responds to Cain as if he has repented. This is the reason God protects Cain and grants him life. Cain actually says to God,” my sin is too great to bear”. And by doing so he shows remorse, Cain is unable to bear his sin and punishment, and he knows that his punishment will kill him without the help of God. Cain’s remorse is why God forgives him, and gives him a sign and the promise that whoever kills him will receive a sevenfold punishment, to prevent anyone from doing so. The sign he is given is the city of refuge, a place where murderers could go to be pardoned or protected. In spite of Cain’s sin, life goes on and in spite of our sin life goes on, that is a real tangible l sign of Gods mercy.

Life went on in the City of refuge, the people there actually made lives for themselves, Cain got a wife and had Children. As you can see, Cain too were granted a normal life in spite of his sin, all through the grace of God. We can read from the text that God kept His promise to Cain since in verses 17-24 we can read about the first 5 generations of Cain.

When we get to Lamech, we again understand why God is the one who appoints the saviour and not us. Lamech lives in bigamy (bigamy means that a person has many wives), already here we see Lamech’s disregard for God’s good order of things (Genesis 2:24; a man shall have one wife) From bigamy we go directly to murder. He boasts to his wives of having killed a man for wounding or striking him. It does not appear to have been in self-defence according to the text. The Pentateuch (the first five books of the old testament) Insists on proportional punishment. That’s where we get the expression “an eye for an eye”. If you open your bibles in Exodus 21:23-25. Exodus 21:23-25 ^“23 But if there is further injury, the punishment must match the injury: a life for a life, ²⁴ an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, a foot for a foot, ²⁵ a burn for a burn, a wound for a wound, a bruise for a bruise.” But as I said about the offerings of Cain and Abel, this is before Israel had been given the Law. But killing someone for hurting you is in-proportional, and not a sign of a godlike character. He is boasting that his vengeful character makes him safer than Cain when he says “ If someone who kills Cain is punished seven times, then the one who kills me will be punished seventy-seven times ” Whether Lamech repented or not we don’t know. However, what we do know is that just like Cain, Lamech was not the serpent crusher. And we see how sin has escalated from disobeying a simple command, to spiralling into murder bigamy and a love for violence and revenge.

A hope restored:

Adam and Eve had another son, and this time Eve said “God has granted me another son in place of Abel, whom Cain killed.” What Eve is saying is clearly pointing back towards God’s promise in Genesis 3:15 about the serpent crusher. God is restoring the linage of Adam, Seth means “granted” or “appointed”. God grants Adam and Eve another son, so that the serpent crusher is of Adam’s linage. At that time people began to call upon the name of the Lord, they started to worship God by His name. Could Seth be the serpent-crusher? Well… no, Seth died.

Then we have the whole genealogy from Adam to Noah, people lived and died. Babies were born, and life kept on going spite of their sin. They were all waiting for the serpent-crusher, (spoiler alert) they were all waiting for our Lord Jesus Christ. He who was going to crush the serpent and shed his blood to cover our bloodguilt (our sin, which can only be washed away with the blood of Christ) The reason God forgave Cain his sins, and the reason God has forgiven the sins of those who are in Christ. Is that when Jesus died on the cross, He took all the sin that had ever been, and all the sin that was ever going to be with Him on the cross and died. That means that every sin you have done, and every sin you are going to do Jesus has already died for. This is why Cain was forgiven when he repented, and this is why we will be forgiven if we turn to Jesus and repent.

Just like Cain built a city where those guilty of murder could seek refuge, Jesus is our city of refuge, in Him no sin or the devil himself can reach us. With the mark of Christ we are safe, sin and the devil cannot touch us. We may get sick, we may lose people we love, we may even die, But in Christ we are safe! So seek refuge in Him, nothing else. We can’t fulfil God’s promises, only He can!