A Cross Across the Wall

I Kings 19:9-14, Galatians 3:23-29, Luke 9:18-24                                        June 20, 2004

          Once when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them, "Who do the crowds say I am?"

          They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, that one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life."

          "But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?"

          Peter answered, "The Christ of God."

          Jesus strictly warned them not to tell this to anyone. And he said, "The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life."

          Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.”

CCI: “God calls us in ways we never expect to use us in ways we can not imagine.”

Intro: Throughout the ages, the Bible has spoken directly to individuals where they live. Men and women, young and old, people of all races and backgrounds, social and family settings, have found the words and teachings of the Bible to speak to their direct situations. I believe that is because the Spirit of God makes the Word alive for each of us. The scriptures we have read this morning were compiled over a period of 900 years, yet each of them address similar expectations and frustrations. If I could sum up the message of these passages, it would be “God calls us in ways we never expect to use us in ways we can not imagine.”

I. What we expect

          Last week I was in Washington with Norie, Sheryl and Steve. Late Sunday evening we went into the city to view the monuments and memorials at night. Now imagine if while we were walking through the beautiful WWII memorial, a man in a black suit came up to us and said, “Tomorrow afternoon, at 3:15, the President would like to meet with you. At that time he will tell you what he wants you to do.” How would that have felt? What would we expect? First, I would have thought it was either a joke or they had the wrong person. If it got to the point where it was time for us to go to the White House, I would expect there be a lot of ceremony, there would be servants waiting on us. There would probably be an announcement when we arrived and when the President arrived. I think it would be a big deal. And we would have all tried to impress the President.

          I believe that Elijah and the disciples and Paul had received just such an invitation. They were invited to appear before God and God would tell them what they were to do. And they expected the same thing we would have expected in an audience with the President.

          Elijah expected God to make his appearance in a very dramatic way. He was on Mount Sinai, the very mountain on which God had met Moses and given the Law. It is where Moses had encountered the Burning Bush. Let me remind you that Elijah was on the mountain because a few weeks before he had called fire down from heaven, killed the priests of Ba’al, seen the end of a 3 ½ year drought, and raced the king’s chariot through the rain back to the capital city. It had been a powerful day. However, after getting back to the city, he heard that the queen, Jezebel, had determined to kill him, and he went into a deep depression. We see his depression in Elijah’s words at both the beginning and end of this passage. Earlier in the passage, he wanted God to kill him, but here, he feels completely alone, though vindicated in his attitude. "I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too."

          Elijah wanted to meet God, he had earned it! And he wanted to meet God in a powerful way. An earthquake that would have shaken the foundations of the nation would have been good, a wind that would have blown all the waste and the chaff out of the nation, would have been a great thing. Perhaps a fire to purify the land would work. Yes, Elijah wanted to meet God and he expected God’s self revelation to come in a powerful way.

          The People of Jesus day were also ready to meet God in a might way. They had suffered under the Roman’s long enough, they were God’s people, it was time for God to act. Who is this Jesus? Perhaps he is Elijah come back, Maybe one of the other prophets, perhaps he is even John the Baptizer come back to life. The people wanted a powerful display, just like they had read about. They wanted God to act!

          And even the Galatians who Paul was writing to wanted in some way to impress God and be impressed by God. Paul had talked about all he had accomplished. He was of good lineage, he spent his entire life trying to keep the Law, there was nothing that anyone could accuse him of. Before he met Jesus on the road to Damascus, Paul’s desire was to see God on his own merit and in his way.

          And are we not the same? When we have labored for God, we want him to act in a powerful way. When we feel like we have been mistreated, we want the earth to shake, the winds to blow, fires to burn, the miracles of the past to recur and we want to be recognized for what we have done for God.

          However, God does not usually act that way. 

II. What God Provides

          In response to Elijah’s desire, God did meet him. Elijah went out of the cave where he hiding and suddenly the earth shook but God was not in the earthquake. As he watched the winds blew and tore the mountain apart, but God was not in the wind. Then there was a fire that was blown by the wind and left everything in it’s path ash, but God was not in the fire. Despite all his expectations, God did not appear in a spectacular way.

          Instead, we learn that after the fire Elijah heard a gentle whisper. The King James Version calls it a “still, small voice”. Another translation calls it a “gentle breeze.” And in that little breeze of a whisper Elijah recognized the voice of God. It was not what he expected, but it was exactly what he needed. That gentle breeze of a voice provided him with new direction and with a new purpose. You see, “God calls us in ways we never expect to use us in ways we can not imagine.”

          And so when the people around Jesus wanted Elijah, or a prophet or John, what Jesus offered was hard to accept. Instead of an impressive display of the power of God, Jesus invited them to pick up a cross and follow him. While the cross today is a symbol of our faith, in Jesus day it was not. Many of you have seen Mel Gibson’s “Passion of the Christ,” the image of Jesus beaten and battered being execute, is the image people of Jesus’ day brought to mind when they thought of a cross. Instead of displaying Elijah’s power, or the prophets anger, or John’s charisma, Jesus asked his followers to lay down their lives to follow him. In Jesus call to discipleship, they discovered that “God calls us in ways we never expect to use us in ways we can not imagine.”

          While we want to believe that our heritage, or our lifestyle, or our church membership, or our social class will make a difference, Paul tells us that the walls that have divided us for so long have fallen. Now there is no division, there are no levels, instead, in Christ we all stand before God on Level ground, whether male or female, Jew of Greek, Slave or free, we are all one in Christ.

          And so, . . .

III. Our Walls Must Fall

          Those walls begin with our Expectations. We think we know how God should work. Good people should succeed and bad people suffer. We think God should bless those who do things for Him and curse any who treat us badly. We expect the earthquake or the fire, we expect the powerful miracle or the supernatural healing. But God seldom acts as we expect. In fact, our expectations often are walls to seeing God at work, or responding to His call. We must release those expectations and be willing to take up our cross if we want to see God work.

          Our Accomplishments can also create walls that separate us from God and from one another. Elijah had done great things for God, but God was not impressed with his accomplishments, in fact, in his complaint, those very accomplishments separated him from the many others who had been faithful to God.

          When God calls us into a relationship with himself, we may think that it is because of something special we have done. Perhaps we think it is the education we have achieved or the Sunday school class we have taught or the church boards on which we have served that impress God, but all those things are nothing because we stand on level ground before God, and the cross of Christ reaches across the walls of accomplishment we build.

          Our Prejudices are also walls that divide. In this passage, Paul addressed the three most significant areas of prejudice of his day or of any day. He spoke of religious and racial division, social class division, and gender division. Then in one stroke of the pen eliminated them all by declaring we are all one in Christ. Yes, there are differences, but our differences do not affect our relationship with Christ, and our differences can not stand between us as followers of Christ. Just this week I learned of a Baptist church near my home town which is meeting today to put in place a rule that they will not participate with the Presbyterian church in anything any more. In addition they will not support or encourage home schooling for any member of their church and any pastor who is called to the church will not home school his children. Hand in hand with the world, we look for ways to build walls between people, however the cross of Christ reaches across our walls of prejudice and welcomes all who come seeking God. If we are to be Christ’s presence in our community, we must tear down the walls of prejudice.

          And finally, we because God calls us in ways we never expect to use us in ways we can not imagine our Failures no longer need to be walls that divide us and keep us from serving Christ. Have you ever thought that God could not use you because of something you had done? One of the most effective tools Sin has in our lives is our failures. The enemy enjoys reminding us of sins that continue to live in our lives. We are often tempted to wallow in the mud of failure and then use that mud to build walls. However, God used Moses after he murdered the Egyptian, and he used Abram after he gave his wife to a rival king, and he used Samson after he denied God and broke all the covenants and promises he had made, and he used David after the Bathsheba and Uriah incident, and he used Peter after he denied knowing Christ and he used Paul after he attacked Christians and put them to death, and so he can use you. Your failures, no matter how great they are, are not an impediment to what God wants to do in your life. Our failures as a church, no matter what they are, need not be a wall to growing in Christ.

          Let the walls come down, let the gentle whisper of God’s spirit grow in your heart until it becomes a resounding Cry of Victory. Take up your cross and follow Jesus, for God calls us in ways we never expect to use us in ways we can not imagine. Are you ready for the walls to fall? God has called us to this time and place in order to impact our world, we can not do that by continuing to build walls that shut out the world around us. Join me now in a time of silence as we listen for the whisper of God’s Spirit.