Made New

Prayer

Jesus’ Amazing Claim - I am making all things new

One of the most powerful movies I’ve ever watched is Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ. It’s a remarkable telling of the story of the last days of Jesus’ life - his last supper with his disciples, his arrest and trial, the scourgings - all ending in his crucifixion (and at the very end of the movie, sneak peek of the resurrection - which, by the way, Mel Gibson is apparently making a follow-up movie on the resurrection). And there’s a scene in the movie where Jesus has just been condemned to death by crucifixion, and the Roman soldiers are leading him through the streets of Jerusalem to the outskirts of the city while he carries the very instrument upon which he will be executed, a cross.

And Jesus is a wreck, he’s already endured the savage scourging - flogged 39 times, the soldiers have mocked him for his claim to be a king, placing a crown of thorns upon his head. He is covered in his own blood. Weak and wobbly, he falls to the ground while struggling under the terrible weight of the cross.

His mother, Mary, has been following along, but barely able to watch the terrible suffering her son is forced to endure. But here she can’ t help but respond to her fallen son. She slips past the Roman guards in a vain effort to help him. “I’m here, I’m here,” she tells him as she kneels beside him.

Jesus, responding to her act of care and comfort, begins to pull himself back up and taking a hold of the cross once more, looks at her and declares to her, “See, Mother, I make all things new.” With renewed conviction he makes his way toward his impending death.

On the one hand, it’s a touching scene demonstrating the love between a mother and her son. On the other hand, it almost seems a little ridiculous. At that moment Jesus is a convicted criminal, about to be executed. He’s beaten and bloodied, surrounded by a squad of Roman soldiers who will ensure that his sentence is going to be carried out. Even those in the crowd recognize his predicament - later they will mock him as the one who claimed he came to save them - heck, buddy, you need to save yourself first.

But they have no idea that what Jesus is doing, that what he’s enduring, this terrible suffering, this hideous death, is indeed for them and for their salvation. That if Jesus had chosen to save himself - and make no mistake, he had ample opportunity to get out of it - he knew Judas would betray him, he knew they were coming to arrest him, they really had no evidence against him in either the trial before the Sanhedrin, the ruling Jewish council, or in front of Pilate, the Roman governor.

But Jesus knew that if he chose to save himself, he could not save them. He could not save us. He could not do what this scene in the movie shows so dramatically, “make all things new.” And this brings us to what we are celebrating this morning, what Jesus did to defeat the old order of things, the things of sin and death: he rose again on the third day. Jesus came back from the dead. His rising to new life was just the beginning of making all things new.

Throughout the New Testament you’ll see this new-making over and over again.

From the passage we professed together earlier, Romans 6:4 - We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. One of the things Jesus is making new is us! We have the opportunity to live a new life.

1 Peter 1:3, Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. And again, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ we have a new birth. You may have heard it as being born again. It means we have the opportunity for a second chance, a complete do-over, new birth.

Years ago, I had the opportunity to do an internship at a church in Cincinnati. As part of that internship, I went to visit a ministry located in the heart of downtown Cincinnati, one of the roughest areas. Now, this was long enough ago that it was before cell phones were common - certainly not phones you could take pictures with. So I had a disposable film camera, the type you’d have to drop off the film cartridge to get developed.

So I’m taking a few pictures and a young woman who’d made quite a mess of her life was there. She’d had a history with drugs, had prostituted herself to support her drug habit, lost custody of her children. But here she was, at this ministry, trying to get her life back in order. She sees me taking pictures and asks if I would take a picture of her, I agreed to. Before I could take the picture, she grabbed a Bible and opened it up, looking for a particular verse.

When she found it, she stood there with the Bible open, her finger pointing to 2 Corinthians 5:17, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! Here was this woman who was trusting that Jesus can and will do what he came to do - make all things - including herself, new. The old gone, only the new. New birth, new life - all through the resurrection of Jesus.

Good News People - I have been made new

Throughout this seven weeks of Lent we’ve been asking the question, what is the gospel, what is the good news of Jesus (that’s what the word “gospel” means, good news)? And not just what is the good news, what does it mean for us to be good news people, people who heard the message of Jesus, believed it, and are now trying to live our lives based on the good news.

Now, perhaps you’re perfectly content with your life as it is, with the old, as it were. But if you’re anything like me, you’ve hit a point where you want, you long, for something new, something more.

But that wasn’t always the case for me, it took a while for me to realize it. Like a lot of people, I believed in Jesus on some level. If you’d asked me if I thought he was the Son of God, yes, I believe that. If you’d asked me about his dying on the cross, even his rising to new life, I’d have nodded my head, absolutely, I believe those are true. I even went church on a regular basis.

But here’s the thing, my belief was really just intellectual assent. I acknowledged it was true, but I didn’t want it for my life - or perhaps the better way to say it was I only wanted it on my terms. In other words, I didn’t want to give up what I was living for, what I thought was going to make me happy, give me a good life. So I resisted.

I did not embrace the good news of Jesus, because to embrace the good news, to receive it, is an invitation into a whole new life, a new life rooted in Jesus. Following him. That in order for Jesus to make all things new - including my life - means I needed to give up the old, give it all up. And I didn’t want to do that.

That is, until finally I did. Until one day someone asked me a question that somehow got through all my stubbornness. Someone asked me what the most important thing in my life was. For the first time I saw clearly that the most important thing in my life was...me. I was living a self-centered life, a life centered on me. That realization almost made me physically nauseous, that’s how small my life was, about me. I knew wanted more. I knew I wanted something real, something substantial, something new. I knew in that moment that it was only Jesus that could give me the life and love my heart longed for.

This is what the resurrection is all about. Jesus dying to sin - our sin (my self-centeredness), rising to new life - showing himself to have power over sin and death itself - inviting us to share in that new life as well.

I want to share a passage with you from the book of Revelation, because it offers us a vision of what the resurrection promises, what this newness that Jesus ushered in with his death and resurrection, Revelation 21:1-8 -

Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” 5 He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” 6 He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. 7 Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children. 8 But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”

There’s a couple of things I want to call to your attention here, some of which I hope you’ve already picked up on

First - New, new, new. This is the culmination of Jesus making all things new. What started in the resurrection will come to completion when he returns. The heavens - new. Earth - made new. The city of God, Jerusalem - new. Jesus on the throne, I am making everything new!

Second, the presence of God himself, with us. Notice it’s not about us going up to heaven, rather it’s God coming down to us, to dwell with us, as our God, and we as his people. It’s come full circle to the garden of Eden, just as it was when God first created the heavens and the earth, God dwelling with his people.

Then, this part I especially love, vs. 4, “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” That image of God, as a loving Father who comes to comfort his child, it’s all over, everything is going to be fine now. All of it - death, suffering, grieving, done away with. When I read that I wonder why I ever resisted, why I ever hung on to my old way of being (and why I still do at times). What Jesus promises here is almost unbelievable, almost in the “too-good-to-be-true” category.

And that’s why he assures us, These words are trustworthy and true. In other words, write it down, buddy, it’s a done deal - you can take that to the bank. Jesus knows, because it started with him, and he will bring it to completion - he is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End.

At the very end, Jesus finishes with that beautiful invitation - and the ominous warning. Warning is, you can stay in the old way of life, life on your own terms, life without me (that will lead to a life of cowardice, sexual immorality, of murder - hatred, idolatry - making anything more important than God). Or, Jesus says, you can receive the gift of new life I am offering. Invitation to just drink in that newness of life - at no cost.

Here’s my guess, that most - if not all - of you believe on some level. Like me, you would acknowledge that Jesus is the Son of God, that he died on the cross, what we’re celebrating here today, that he rose to new life. Perhaps at one point in time you received an invitation to be saved, you go to church on occasion - maybe even fairly regularly.

But here’s the invitation I really want you to hear this morning - what we believe the good news is all about: Jesus is inviting you and I into new life. Into a whole new way of living. A life that is centered in him. And I mean that literally - Jesus is the focus of your attention, your greatest treasure. Jesus’ invitation to us is, Come, follow me. Learn from me how to live - that’s what he means by saying that through him we are born again, we have a new birth. Means we’re learning to live a whole new way of life - that’s what Jesus wants to teach us (because the old didn’t work so well).

I was watching a YouTube video the other day by a guy, Glen Scrivener, he has a ministry called Speak Life. He was talking about comic book nerds (I can relate I was one of them - I’m sure you’re like, there’s a surprise!). He was talking about how comic book aficionados will debate about if two superheroes got into a fight, who would win- Superman vs. Batman, Captain America vs. Ironman, so on.

Then he posed the question about the great battle - our greatest enemy. It’s the same for all of us - death. Death has always won. Always. Everyone who has gone up against death has lost. That is, until death took on Jesus Christ. In that battle, Jesus won. That’s what we’re celebrating today.

And when we acknowledge that, what we’re really saying is that whatever battle you’re fighting - in Jesus, in this new life, with him, you can win. That’s what Jesus means when he says the old order is passing away (death, suffering, mourning). When he says, I am making all things new. Instead of fear, we can have freedom. Instead of worry, anxiety, we can know peace. Instead of guilt & shame - forgiveness. We can move out of anger, resentment into love. That’s the new life Jesus offers.

That’s Jesus’ invitation. In his name, I want to extend that invitation to you - to invite you to entrust your life to Jesus, and receive the new life that he wants to give you. And invite you to join with us in learning how to live this new life in Jesus. This is what we’re about as a church, learning together how to be with Jesus, in order to become like Jesus and to do the things he did. That’s what it means to be a follower of Jesus. We talk about this as part of our worship every Sunday, Spiritual Formation Group that meets on Wednesday evenings - it’s central to who we are as a church.

Here’s the thing. Following Jesus, moving into this new life, it doesn’t just happen. And it doesn’t happen alone. It’s a long, slow, gradual process to, as Paul writes in Ephesians, take off the old self and put on the new. It takes intentional effort and changing of habits, a lot of failure (thankfully, we live in grace), and a lot of support and encouragement (which is why we do it together). It does not come easily, and it doesn’t happen without our active participation. As someone much wiser than I wrought, Without Jesus, we can’t. But without us, he won’t.

But it can and does happen. You can experience new life in Jesus. You can learn to center your life in Jesus and his love. And we can help you to do just that. In fact we’d love to help you do just that. Because we’re convinced that there is no better life than life lived in and with Jesus. Nothing comes close to the new life he alone can give you.

Closing prayer - silent reflection