The Gospel, Part II THIS Sunday

Do you remember that couple in Thomas Hardy’s novel? They had a daughter named Elizabeth, and Elizabeth died. And they agreed that if they had another child and it was a girl, they would name her Elizabeth, and maybe it would help. They had another child, and it was a girl, and they named her Elizabeth, and it didn’t help. They realized they could have had fifty daughters and named them Elizabeth - and they would still miss Elizabeth. Some things you don’t fix.

But the Gospel DOES fix things. John the baptizer said: "The Messiah is coming; get ready by repenting and confessing your sins." And low and behold, they heard John preach, they confessed their sins, were washed in the Jordan, and they were forgiven. They were... forgiven!

The power of the gospel is that it forgives sins. It fixes the greatest problem of the human race. Forgiveness. What is that like?

The Bible has so many images for forgiveness. One of my all-time favorite preachers is a man by the name of Fred Craddock. In one sermon I heard him preach, he said this forgiveness is a new creation (don’t let that slip past you). New creation? Morning has broken like the first morning? Yeah. Blackbird, like the first bird? Yeah. New creation, that is what the Bible calls it.

The Bible also calls it a new beginning. Picture a child, third grade, trying to do arithmetic, in a hurry...bell’s about to ring, teacher’s fussing, "Hurry up, children,"... tries to erase the mistake, tears the paper, makes a black smear, starts to cry, teacher comes by, "Oh my goodness," and slides a new, crisp, white sheet of paper there and says, "Why don’t you just start over then?"

The Bible calls it a new birth. You have been to that window, haven’t you? The maternity ward, the nursery, and all that stuff up there in that big window? And all the men outside trying to figure out which is the one? You know, "Julie is in there somewhere, and I know she’s the prettiest one", and you can’t read those little old bands, where the arm comes down and joins the hand, there’s a deep wrinkle and then there’s that hand, and it’s so small, and you say, "Well, I think that’s..." And the Bible says, that’s what it is, that’s it - new birth!

And John preached it and Jesus offers it to EVERYONE!

The Bible says it’s like a snowfall. You know, when the winter chill is in the air and the forecast calls for snow but you doubt it will happen. You get up in the morning early, look out and there is about four inches and not a single print in it yet. And you look across the alley, and what yesterday afternoon was the ugly garbage pile, is now a mound to the glory of God. That’s what the Bible calls it.

And John preached it and Jesus offers it to EVERYONE!

I hope you will join me again this Sunday. As you can tell, I can’t wait to paint the pictures of God’s grace-filled Gospel.

See you in the morning...