Renewal In Christ Mission - Breaking The Chain Of Death

BREAKING THE CHAIN OF DEATH

The Gospel reading for today contains one of the most well known and beloved Bible verses, which is John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life". If the entire Bible were to be summarized in one verse, this would be it.

In this verse three things immediately stand out: first, that God took the initiative to offer to us His most precious gift, His only begotten Son; second, that whoever accepts His Son by faith will receive eternal life; and third, that we are in the process of perishing, and without God's Son, we will be eternally lost.

In order to help bring out this important lesson and to drive the message home, I would like to tell the story of a soldier and his pet monkey. This story is related in a book, entitled GOD'S SMUGGLER, which is written by a man known as Brother Andrew.

Brother Andrew is a very courageous Christian who risked his life many times in order to smuggle Bibles into the countries formally known as the Soviet Union. In the opening chapter, he tells of his early life as a Dutch soldier stationed in the African Congo of Indonesia and fought against the Sukarno in the late 1940's. It was a most brutal time in his life, with much fighting and killing involved.

During that time, he bought a pet monkey, which liked him immediately. Andrew kept the monkey in his army barracks and became very fond of his pet. However, after a few weeks, he noticed that every time he touched his pet near the waist, it would seem to react in pain. So he examined the animal more closely and found a welt, that is, a scar around the waist of the monkey.

Andrew carefully laid the monkey down on his bed and gently pulled back the matted hair from the scarred area to see what was causing the problem. He discovered that when the monkey was a baby, someone evidently tied a wire around its waist and never took it off. As the monkey grew larger and larger, the wire became embedded in the flesh and was slowly and painfully killing the poor creature.

Later that day, Andrew began an operation on his pet. With his shaving razor, he shaves the hair around the monkey's waist and exposed the scarred area. While the other soldiers in the barracks looked on, he proceeded, in a most gentle way, to cut into the monkey's tender flesh so that the wire would be exposed.

His pet lay there with amazing patience, and with eyes that seemed to say, "I understand why you are doing this". Finally, Andrew was able to reach the wire and cut it, and he pulled it away. Instantly, as soon as the operation was over, the monkey jumped up in tremendous joy and relief, and did a cartwheel and danced on his owner's shoulders. He delighted everyone with his wild celebration of happiness.

From that dramatic experience, Andrew later reflected to himself and said, "After that, my monkey and I were inseparable. I think I identified with him as strongly as he identified with me. I think I saw in the wire that bound him, a kind of parallel to the chain of guilt still so tight around myself - and in his release, the thing I longed for".

Brother Andrew later found the release of his guilt and sins in the Person of Jesus Christ and dedicated his life for Him.

As we read in the 17th verse of today's passage, God does not desire anyone to perish, but that all may be saved through His Son.

A person without God is a dying person. Anyone who has not had a personal experience with Christ is bound with the deadly wire of sin which slowly chokes the life out of its victim. Sin is doing what we know to be wrong. Sin is knowing what is right and not doing it.

We see the sad results of sin all around us - we all know of broken homes in which life has become hell for the kids, sometimes jealousies break up family members, friends and church members. Without love and understanding, hurts and insults remain as deep wounds which never heal. ‘Sin always seeks to compromise evil and make it look good or even necessary, but the end result is always misery.

Only in Christ can there be the release from the bondage of sin, guilt and despair and the possibility of a new world order. As the prophet Isaiah wrote, He was scarred and bruised and killed for our sake. It is in the Blood and Body of Christ, as presented in the Holy Communion, that we see the LIFE, HOPE & RESURRECTION from this sinful world.

Unfortunately, too many people who call themselves Christians, Jesus Christ is little more than an idea, or at best an ideal - He is not a fact or a reality in their lives. So many professed believers talk as if Christ was real, but they live as if He were not.

I pray that we may respond wisely to the offer of God through His only begotten Son. I hope that we may have the good sense to accept Him as the greatest reality in our lives, knowing that without Him, we will face eternal death. May we all accept Him in faith and receive the precious gift of eternal life. Amen.