New Beginnings

High School Seniors you have come a long way. You have come a long way because you have spent more than 12 years preparing for this moment. You have spent more than 2000 days in a school or a learning environment. For some of you more than 15,000 hours in a classroom. Regardless of where you spent your time learning whether in a classroom or at home you have come a long way.

Remember back to those days when you entered the classroom for the first time. Do you remember how much you thought you knew but now looking back you realize how little you knew?

For the past 12 years your parents and teachers have been laying a foundation of knowledge for you to now, take and build upon. You may be sitting here tonight thankful that you are finished. But I know that you know that you are just beginning.

New Beginnings is nothing new. After all in the Beginning God created the Heavens and the earth and since that time we have experienced new beginnings all throughout history and our lives.

You experienced new beginnings when you began to talk and walk. When you began to read and write, when you began to drive and when you began to you fill in the blank.

But now you have just finished another milestone in your life, graduation. As with most milestones we may have the tendency to think of them as the end. I have completed that task I am finished. But if think about it, I would argue that with the completion of all milestones brings about new beginnings.

For our adults here tonight, you may think that retirement is the greatest milestone but even with that milestone completed it brings about new beginnings, right?

As I was thinking about our graduates, I couldn’t help but think about the similarities in two of the greatest milestones that every Christian accomplishes in life. Graduation from High School and the day they chose or will choose to obey the Gospel.

Now before you think I am crazy I want us to look at the life of the Apostle Paul to see how these two are similar.

Paul

What do we know about the Apostle Paul? In Phil 3:5-6 Paul tells us that he was from the tribe of Benjamin, he was of the people of Israel, He was a Hebrew of Hebrew, a Pharisee and when it came to the law he was well educated, faultless in fact.

Philippians 3:5–6 ESV

circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

I can only imagine that Paul thought his educational days were behind him since he had learned from the best. He was a graduate of Gamaliel Acts 22:3. We might say that Paul had his PhD in the law and scripture. What more could he possible learn.

Acts 22:3 ESV

“I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God as all of you are this day.

In Acts chapter 9 we learn about who kids read about Saul or Paul on the road to Damascus. In Acts 9 we learn that Paul quickly realized that his learning days were not over.

We learn that Jesus appears to him, blinds him and sends him to see a man named Ananias. Ananias then lays his hands on Saul to give him his sight back and the gift of the Holy Spirit. After regaining his sight he was baptized and it seems that he went on his way preaching and proclaiming Christ.

But in the book of Galatians we learn an important detail that was not recorded in the book of Acts. In Galatians 1:11-18 Paul says this.

Galatians 1:11–18 ESV

For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man’s gospel. For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers. But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone; nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia, and returned again to Damascus. Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him fifteen days.

Did you catch what Paul did immediately after beginning his new life in Christ? He went back to school. Paul says he went to Arabia for three years before beginning his ministry. This passage seems to indicate that Paul spent three years in Arabia being retaught the Law and scripture through study and through revelations of Jesus himself.

You see Paul just thought he knew everything pertaining to the Law, he just thought that he was finished learning after sitting at the feet of Gamaliel but instead he soon found out that he was just beginning. He was just beginning to understand what God desires not only for him but for all mankind. After his baptism Paul spent three years beginning to build upon the foundation of Jesus Christ.

If we had time we could look throughout all of Paul’s writings and see that he never stopped learning. He never stopped building upon the foundation that was laid for him by Christ.

So how does Paul’s life after baptism and our graduates life after graduation have any similarities?

Both of these events are two of the greatest milestones that they will achieve in their life. And with these milestones come with them New Beginnings. Yes, you can check off of your list that you have graduated but you know that the learning will always continue. You now must begin building upon the foundation that has been laid for you.

You see graduation is not an end but a beginning for you to build a life upon the foundation that has been laid.

But more importantly as we think of new beginnings the day you choose or have already chosen to follow Christ is in fact the greatest milestone and it too is a beginning point for you to build upon the foundation that has been laid for you. Not by your parents or teachers but by Jesus Christ.

You see I want to encourage our graduates and all of us to think of each day of our life as a new beginning. A new day to continue to learn and build upon the foundation of Jesus Christ.

Imagine if the Apostle Paul after his baptism decided that he wasn’t going to go to Arabia for three years and begin learning more about what God’s will was for him. After all there is probably not another person who knew more about God’s Law before being baptized than the Apostle Paul. Sure he had some major things wrong but I’m pretty sure all that was corrected on the road to Damascus and after he met with Ananias.

But thankfully as educated as Paul was he understood the importance of spending time with God each and every day of his life in order to continue to build upon the foundation that was laid for him.

Unfortunately far too often we think of Baptism as a box to be checked. Once I have been baptized or my kids have been baptized we are good. I can check that accomplishment off and move on to the next thing.

But you see just like in building a house the foundation is the first thing or the beginning phase. Paul in 1 Corinthians three tells us that Jesus laid the perfect foundation and in Jesus Sermon on the Mount Jesus tells us that we must be wise in how we build upon His foundation.

For those of us who have built or remodeled houses you know that most often than not that your job is never complete. There is always something more or better to do to the house. You always seem to be beginning a new project.

It’s kind of the same way for us as Christian. Jesus has laid the foundation (his Word) and now once we have been baptized it is up to use to wisely build our lives upon His perfect foundation.

So graduates you find yourself beginning a new chapter of your life. You will now begin to build upon the things that you have been taught throughout your education.

But may I encourage you to either take that first step and begin a new life by obeying Jesus Christ in baptism or for those that have may you never stop building upon the foundation of Jesus Christ. Don’t ever think of the day you were baptized as the end result but rather, the beginning. Think of each day as a beginning for you to continue building upon Christ Foundation.

May all of us 2021 graduates or not be like the Apostle Paul and be willing to continue learning and building upon the foundation of Jesus Christ each and every day of our life.

Yes you will go far with the foundation that your parents and teachers have laid for you but nothing will serve you more throughout your life and through eternity than the foundation of Jesus Christ.

Phil 3:8-11

Philippians 3:8–11 ESV

Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.