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Seventh Sunday After Pentecost
Light of Christ Anglican Church
The Rev. Mike Moffitt, July 11, 2021


Walking in the Way of Jesus


Text: John 14:1–12

Recently I told you that I had an unusual dream a few weeks ago and that I would share it with you. I don’t usually put much stock in dreams because they can be so bizarre at times. But when I’ve been earnestly seeking the Lord about something and I have a dream that seems to speak to what I have been praying about, well that’s different.

For quite a while I’ve been concerned about the lack of a powerful Christian to the systematic dismantling and destruction of our way of life in this country and Europe. Most of us have at least been observers of the moral and ethical decline of our culture that frankly has been going on for as long as most of us have been alive. It’s just recently (last 25 years?) that it has been so out in the open and I guess we could say in our faces.

It isn’t news that sinful behavior is a part of the human condition, the Bible tells us that we are born with a sinful nature and an inclination to rebel against God and his word. One of the things that has kept us in check is that we have had a standard of how we should live and enacted laws to enforce that standard. Long ago God gave his law to Israel so that they would be able to enjoy life with him and all that he had created for them. Those same laws have provided a framework for civilizations and have been passed down to societies outside of Israel for over 3,000 years, and that is certainly true of the foundation of our country.

Our forefathers saw the wisdom of laying a solid foundation for the new nation upon the laws of their creator. It was to be an experiment of freedom for all men and women to live according to what the Declaration of Independence called “the laws of nature and natures God.” But there would be no freedom without a common commitment to the standard of God’s law. History has shown that both living under tyranny or where every man did what was right in his own eyes were equally repugnant. It has always been that way and our forefathers knew that. The human condition was no less evident to them in the 18th century than it is for us today.

In the first century, the Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 1:18–20,

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

God placed within the hearts of everyone a knowledge of Himself, we have learned to call it the “God consciousness.” It enables us to have an innate knowledge of right and wrong and the God-given human emotions of honor and shame. In many cultures, to violate that standard is to bring dishonor and shame upon yourself and your family. In the time of Jesus a person’s disregard for the honorable could bring shame upon their community. I think it fair to say that this is still true in some cultures, but it seems less and less true in America.

It is also true that men and women have time and again rejected the laws of God in favor of their own demands to live how they see fit. Paul called it suppressing the truth in unrighteousness. Eventually, cultures that arrogantly turn away from their God consciousness cease to exist. Throughout the history of man this has always proven to be the case. I think we all have realized that it is happening again, and as I said earlier, it has happened on our watch.

We have watched as many in our country literally celebrate their depravity, calling it good and even insisting on their rights to do whatever they want. Last month was “gay pride” month and there were parades and festivities celebrating moral depravity and they have even taken the symbol of the rainbow as their own. It’s just like the evil one to take a symbol of God’s covenant faithfulness and use it as a mockery of God’s standard. You may have seen the Babylon Bee, a Christian satire publication that had the headline,

With Pride Month Ending, Nation Excited for Lust, Gluttony, Envy Months.

I laughed when I read it but somehow it felt possible.

The sexual revolution of the 1960s to the 1980s was a social movement that challenged the traditional beliefs on the standards governing human sexuality and interpersonal relationships, but frankly, that era seems tame in comparison to the level of human depravity that is on public display today. Once again, we are seeing an example of what happens when godly people within a culture do not speak out when things begin to turn away from a godly standard to pursue a godless one.

The top moral issues of our time include abortion—the right to murder the unborn child as a woman’s reproductive right, a means of contraception, or for convenience’s sake. We are being told we should reject the obvious truth that there are two genders, male and female, in favor of the right to be whatever people identify as, no matter how absurd. Everyone gets the right to choose their own pronoun to describe their gender. The last time I heard the list of possibilities it was over 200. Obviously, I could go on with the absurdities of our current culture, but I think you are already aware of this.

The question that reverberates throughout the minds of many Christians is what if anything can we do about this. Many that I know feel frustrated and wonder if things have simply gone too far down into godlessness for it to ever come back to normal, at least what we have learned to think of as normal. Some have suggested that God is bringing his judgment upon this country and others around the world. Either way, I suspect that the answer to this dilemma is tied up with the fact that God desires to use people—his ambassadors—to accomplish his will.

We know that God is able to do whatever he wants to do, but if he insists on using his ambassadors, then it seems clear that the ambassadors must change, as well as their understanding of what is normal in God’s plan.

Well, that brings me back to my dream, it is still very clear in my mind which is unusual for most dreams.

In my dream I was playing with an old pinball machine. I was surprised at how many flippers there were for keeping the ball in play. There must have been 8–10 in the machine. With that many flippers there was no reason that you couldn’t play the game indefinitely. The problem was that whenever I pressed the button on each side of the machine that would cause the flippers to strike the ball, they had hardly any power. The flippers should send the ball back up to strike different targets thereby scoring points. These flippers barely moved and had no power, but just weakly tapped the ball. The ball wouldn’t go back up but was merely redirected to another flipper that also had no real power.

In my dream I wanted the ball to just go down the middle so the game would end. The problem was that even when it went down the middle it would suddenly deviate back to another flipper that would weakly send it to another flipper. I wanted the game to be over, but the ball just kept coming and I couldn’t do anything but press the buttons and watch the flippers barely move, sending the ball to another flipper over and over. Even though I was asleep, I wanted to wake up and be done with the frustration that was building up in me. When I finally woke up it took a long time for the feeling of frustration and anxiety to fade away. I actually felt nauseated from the experience.

I lay there for a few minutes talking to God about the meaning of my dream, but to be truthful, I think I already knew it. In the pinball game I was playing as hard as I ever have, and I used to be very good at pinball. Truck stops made a fortune on pinball machines. The problem I was experiencing in my dream was that I was unable to score any points because there was not enough power getting to the flippers to send the ball upward. Scoring points is the reason for playing the games. There was no joy in this, just frustration. The fact that the flippers worked at all told me that the machine was plugged in, so the problem wasn’t the source of power but in my ability to utilize the power in the way it was intended. I’ve been thinking about that a lot recently.

In recent sermons we discussed the evidence within the scriptures that God is willing to manifest himself to those who follow after him. Also, we saw that God is our only true source of real, lasting joy. We have seen that we are made in the image of God and that Jesus came that we might be reconciled to God and have new life in him. We also said that the only way to be reconciled to God is to die with Christ, and those who have done so are a new creation and should model the example of Christ in how they live and what they reveal about God through their lives.

We are to be ambassadors of the God who was making an appeal for peace to those who had rejected his authority and dominance. Even though he is God who is unlimited in power, and doesn’t need anyone for anything, he has chosen to accomplish his mission through his children, his ambassadors.

The Son of God came down to us in human form to accomplish something for us that we could never accomplish on our own. He did so that we might be reconciled to God. In addition, we saw that Jesus promised that his followers would do greater things than he did while on earth. We saw that the “greater things” were not greater miracles or simply a greater quantity of miracles. When Jesus made the promise, he had yet to accomplish the greatest miracle of all. What was accomplished through Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension back to the Father was the sign that sin and death had been defeated. Satan no longer would be able to totally deceive the nations or accuse the people of God. God fulfilled his promise made to Adam and Eve in the Garden in Genesis 3:15. The seed of the woman (Jesus) had crushed the head of the serpent.

The Apostle Paul wrote in Colossians 2:13–15,

And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

So when Jesus and the Father sent back the Holy Spirit at Pentecost it was to equip the disciples to continue what Jesus had begun. They were set free to follow in the footsteps of their Master. Even Jesus in his humanity needed the help of the Father and the Holy Spirit to accomplish all that the Father sent him to do. It would be the same way for his disciples, and they would be equipped to move in the authority of the name of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit. The good news of the gospel was that those who would turn and embrace Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord would participate with him in his death and resurrection to new life.

The trademark of the followers of Jesus would be their dependence on and obedience to the will of the Father. This was how God’s love was to be expressed but how can we even hope to accomplish such a lofty goal? Jesus promised to send his disciples another helper. John 14: 17,

…even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

This would be the source of power needed to continue the work begun by Jesus, but the only way to access that power was to walk and live in the same way as Jesus, in dependence on the Father and the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

How do we access that power? Well, if you are a Christ follower the Holy Spirit already indwells you, but the power of the Spirit will be more readily seen when we are moving in obedience to the will of God in the same way as Jesus. The Spirit was sent to enable us to accomplish all that God has given us to do. Just like Jesus.

We will be focusing on the way of Jesus for the next few weeks, as we ask God to help us honestly consider two areas.

  1. Are we actually walking in the way of Jesus? In other words, are we seeking to live our lives in loving obedience to our Lord? Is that our passion? Are we seeing the results of transformed lives around us?
  2. How do we access the power that is ours if we are walking in the way of Jesus. I believe that it first requires us to assume that if we aren’t experiencing the power of God in our walk with Christ, we may not be following the way he is leading.

I had the dream, so the first assumption that I had to make is that I’m not doing so. So I’m asking myself the same questions that I recommend to you. I am convinced that the only way for this country to turn around is if God intervenes on our behalf. If he wants to use his ambassadors then we must be focused on what God is saying, not the talking heads within the media who would have us live in despair but what has God revealed through his word, and what is the Holy Spirit saying to us.

We got a glimpse of this “walking in the way” in each of our scripture readings this morning. Consider Isaiah 30:18, 20–21,

Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him…. 20And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. 21And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.

God was waiting to bless, but It would be when they followed after the way of the Lord that they would be led to throw away their carved idols and declare “Be gone!” The same is true for us in our time. Perhaps our idols are different but they’re there nonetheless.

Why would God’s people turn around and follow God when clearly he was going to bring adversity and affliction into their lives? Could it be that something was going to happen that changed their relationship with God, so that even in times of trouble they would stay the course?

When Jesus told Phillip in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” he was using a metaphor also found in Psalm 1 contrasting “the way of the righteous” with “the way of sinners”. The first brings life and blessing and the other brings death and difficulty.

There are only two options here: righteousness or unrighteousness. The phrase “the way of life” or “way of the Lord” is used over 100 times in the Psalms with the largest cluster in Psalm 119. In the scriptures, “the way of life” is always connected with rhythms and patterns of behavior that flow from God or bring us to God. The first Christians, using Jesus’ own phrase called themselves “The Way” which we read this morning in Paul’s defense before Felix the Roman governor in Acts 24.

The word “Way” simply means a road or a path leading to a specific destination, but we also use it to mean a manner or pattern of activity. When the early Christians used this phrase, they were showing that following Jesus was far more than a new way of understanding or a new way of worshipping, they were claiming a new way of life that meant they were following after Jesus’ own life.

Eugene Peterson in his book, The Jesus Way, wrote,

To follow Jesus implies that we enter into a way of life that is given character and shape and direction by the one who calls us. To follow Jesus means picking up rhythms and ways of doing things that are often unsaid but always derivative from Jesus, formed by the influence of Jesus. To follow Jesus means that we can't separate what Jesus is saying from what Jesus is doing and the way that he is doing it.

In other words, the life of Jesus as revealed in the Scriptures should serve as the model for our lives and activities. Even the name that we identify with, Christian, simply means “Christ Follower”.

Think for just a moment what you believe it means to be saved. When you hear the terms “salvation” or “redemption” or other New Testament terms used to explain God’s work in restoring the lives of men and women to the place that God originally intended in creation, what comes to your mind?

Often people believe that salvation has to do with the fact that Jesus Christ went to the cross to pay the price for our sins. So salvation has to do with having your sins forgiven and now you get to go to Heaven.

Now don’t misunderstand me, the work that Jesus accomplished upon the cross should not be downplayed one iota. But as wonderful as it is, it set in motion something far more wonderful and relevant for us as Christians seeking to build the kingdom of God here and now. The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 5:10,

For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

The message of Jesus and of his early disciples was not just about the forgiveness of sins but about the newness of life. He was not only saving us from death and judgment, but he also saved us to a new way of life. Paul wrote in Colossians 1:13, “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son.”

Those who come to Jesus Christ aren’t just delivered from the life of the unsaved, but they are to live in an entirely different world, the world of God’s kingdom. This applies to how we live now just as much as how we will live in the New Heavens and the New Earth.

This was the type of salvation to be accomplished by Jesus Christ through the resurrection—not by his death. This was the motivation of the early believers because the resurrected Messiah proved to them that the new life he had promised was revealed when it could not be quenched even though they had killed his body. The resurrection of Jesus Christ was a cosmic event that pointed to the reality and indestructibility of all that Jesus taught and modeled before his death. He had indeed ushered in the Kingdom of God and as Jesus told Peter in Matthew 16:18, “And the gates of Hell will not prevail against it.”

I hope you’re tracking with me here. We must understand that salvation is best described as “life” —not an escape from death. Jesus said in John 10:10, “I came that you might have life, and have it abundantly.”

Dallas Willard in his book, The Spirit of the Disciplines, wrote,

The idea that redemption as the impartation of life provides a totally different framework of understanding. God’s seminal redemptive act toward us is the communication of a new kind of life, as the seed—one of the Lord’s favorite symbols—carries new life into the enfolding soul. Turning from old ways with faith and hope in Christ stands forth as the natural first expression of the new life imparted. That life will be poised to become a life of the same quality as Christ’s because it indeed is Christ’s. He really does live on in us. The incarnation continues.

I love that way of seeing the incarnation. Jesus, God in human form, brought new life to us through the resurrection. It’s not just any life, but his own life that lives on in those who embrace his way of life.

If this is not what is happening in your life, then I encourage you to ask the Lord to open your heart to what he desires for you. If we are to be Christ followers, we must walk in the way of Christ. I think that’s where we start if we are to be his ambassadors.

In closing, I would like to read a short quote by Geoff Chapman in his study on how Christians walk with Jesus.

Simply stated, the gospel is the life of Jesus, who lived with us, died for us, was raised for us, is poured out upon us, and who goes out from us. The Gospel is Christ—with us and for us and upon us and through us!

Let’s pray.


©2021 Rev. Mike Moffitt

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