by Rev. Gina Johnson
I want to tell you all a story about these three sisters. They were 92, 94, and 96, and they all lived together. The 96-year-old sister, she was upstairs. And she was getting ready to get in the bath. But as she put her foot in the water, she paused and said, “Wait, was I getting in the bath or getting out of the bath?” Her 94-year-old sister downstairs rushed to go and help her out. And as she stepped on the bottom stair, she said, “Well, I'm not sure. Was I coming up the stairs or was I just coming down?” But thank goodness, their 92-year-old sister, who was sitting at the kitchen table drinking a cup of tea, she says, “I'm so glad I still have my memory, knock on wood. Girls, I'll be there as soon as I'm done getting the door.”
Isn't it amazing how they say, as you get older, as we progress in life, that we forget things. And we forget things more and more. And we have, they'd say, a harder time remembering.
Or maybe we choose to have a selective memory. It's hard to say. Is that the progression of life? Is that the busyness of life? Is it that we have lack of prioritizing? Or is it the myth of aging? We have gotten older, so now we have a free pass to forget more.
Whatever it is, people often will delight in sharing the things they can remember and experience frustration with the things that they cannot. And that just reminds me of how remembering is so essential to our spirit life.
In our congregation, we engage in particular traditions week after week and last week I helped out by bringing the communion into the sanctuary before worship, but I forgot to bring in the chalice and loaf. And I'm telling you, the spirit had totally woven everything together that day with the special music song, which spoke of God’s love even when we don’t feel we’re good enough, and with the forgetting of the elements on the table. Isn't it amazing how we do these things on a regular basis? And as I stood there, I was like, “Gina, you carried down the communion, but you didn't bring the cup and the bread.”
Well, I have news for you. I am not getting older, so just put that one out of your head. I'll go with prioritizing the busyness of running around and greeting people. Either way, we do these practices week after week, whether it's in our home, at our places of work, or in church. We come to table week after week and remember our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus. Even the Bible, it mentions the word “remember” about 166 times. There is great significance in the need to remember.
And why is that? Why is there something so significant about that? Perhaps it's because God knew in the greatness of God how easily we would forget. And not just forget little things like where we put our car keys, whether or not we were getting in the bath, what time was that appointment scheduled for but we forget those bigger things. We tend to forget the hundreds of promises that God has made us, especially when we're caught up in our trials.
We tend to forget the resurrection and all that it signifies for who we are as followers of Christ. There was a letter written to Timothy who was one of Paul's protégés. In fact, he wrote two letters.
The reason he wrote these letters is because Timothy was pastoring a church in Ephesus, and there was some commotion going on because there were people who were denying the divinity of Jesus. They were denying whether or not he was fully divine, whether he even died, and what exactly was the resurrection.
They were denying his teachings. And this started to cause Timothy some contraction in his ministry. He was feeling exhausted and tired, and he was not sure what to do. So Paul took to encouraging his protégé. As Timothy was feeling ready to give up, Paul writes these two marvelous letters. And he's telling Timothy to remain strong and to remain patient.
In these letters, he starts talking about soldiers and athletes, even farmers. And he's doing this so he can drive the message home, saying that you have to have hard work and dedication. You have to be willing to stand at your post. You have to be willing to deal with whatever seasons come before you, whatever they may bring. But Timothy, don't lose heart. So in a particular passage in the book of Timothy 2:8, we read this:
Fix this picture firmly in your mind: Jesus [Christ] descended from the line of David, raised from the dead. It's what you heard from me all along. (MSG)
Jesus raised from the dead and is descended from the line of David. Those are the things that I want you all to hear in this expression. Jesus was the Christ. Jesus was raised from the dead. Jesus was descended from David. And if you look closely, you will see that in this one passage of scripture, we are able to see who Jesus is and what Jesus has come to do. And when we're able to have that realization, then we can see who we are and what we are here to do.
It's amazing, with that first point, Jesus was the Christ. Jesus is the Christ. How can we forget that? How can we forget that Jesus is the Christ? Well, I'll tell you, it's easy.
You know, when you are in the middle of the busyness of life, and suddenly you are faced with adversity or a challenge, something unexpected, your mind is programmed to go right to that, right to what's in front of you. Perhaps you've lost your job. Perhaps you're in the middle of the move. Perhaps you were diagnosed with something unexpectedly. Perhaps you've had a falling out with your best friend. Whatever it is, all of a sudden, you get fixated on that challenge, and you forget that Jesus is the Christ.
It can happen so easily. Do you know that there are churches out there that gather on Sunday, and week after week, they barely even make mention of Jesus or the Holy Spirit? They only speak of the resurrection when it comes to Easter, and maybe at a random time in the year, a particular scripture brings it to light. But we can see that if you value Jesus as a master teacher, that if you value Jesus as the way-shower, then it's really important that you know the significance of who Jesus is as the Christ.
In order for any of us to truly understand Jesus as the Christ, we need to remember the resurrection. Christ is not his last name. Jesus, the Christ.
No, Christ has so much more meaning to it. When we hear the word Christ, we know that Christ means anointed. It means king. It means deliverer. It means chosen. So Christ Jesus is our anointed king, our deliverer, the chosen one who's come to save us, to show us the way, and be the master teacher.
In the early Testaments of the Bible, we read how the coming of Jesus was prophesied. And as we continue on, we know that the Jewish people, they waited for peace and prosperity that was gonna come from their anointed king. Paul wants Timothy to understand that.
You cannot lose sight of who Jesus is because in fully knowing that Jesus is the Christ, the anointed one, who has come to show you the way, who has come to teach you, then you too can take hold of understanding you are the Christ. As Jesus says, I am in the Father, and the Father is in me, and I am in you. So what does that tell you? Jesus, the Christ, is in you, and you too have been anointed. You too have been chosen. You too are able to deliver. You too are in prosperity and peace.
It's so important, Paul says to Timothy, remember, Jesus was the Christ, Jesus is the Christ, and that Christ lives in you. When you can remember that, you will always know that you can tap into Jesus as a power, as a source of strength that in any adversity you are facing, that the grace of Jesus will be there for you. In another place in scripture, it says, my grace is sufficient for you. My power is perfected in weakness. Boast gladly, therefore. And he's saying that in any trials, in any tribulations, in any adversities, challenges that come your way, you can boast because that power of Christ that is within you will only be magnified.
That power of Christ that is within you, when it is pushed to the test, have no fear because it will overcome the test. The power of Christ that is within you has been here yesterday, today, and forevermore. So, when you remember that Jesus is the Christ, which means you are there, you are with Christ Jesus, then everything that shall come your way in life does not stand a chance when you can take hold of that.
Anything that should come in your direction, if you can pause from the noise, if you can let go of the distractions, if you can truly turn inward and tap into the Christ Jesus that is living within you, how quickly things can change. And maybe the things in front of you are not changing as fast as you would like them to, but once you change your heart, and once you change your mind, then your words and your actions change with it, and you are the living Christ. You are the example; you are the declaration.
So hear Paul speak to you directly when he says, Jesus is the Christ, and so you too are the Christ. The next part of that scripture passage, Jesus was raised from the dead. So people then, wherever you wanna place then, we can go back in the Bible, we can go in the early development of church, we can go to just several years ago, because people then and people now still do not believe that Jesus was raised from the dead.
There are some who actually say that he passed out, and was later revived by his disciples. I think, how fascinating. So he was nailed to a cross, he was stabbed up through his side to his heart, he was in a blazing heat for over six hours, he was put into a tomb after being embalmed by his beloved, and in that tomb he sat for three days.
I think Jesus was dead. Yet, there are those people who still doubt it. There are those people that they doubt the death, they doubt the resurrection.
They say, “If he was dead, I don't believe he resurrected. I bet some of the disciples got in there and took the body and hid the body in order to give the religious authorities and the Roman government a hard time, in order to mess with them, in order to push forth what has been prophesied for all these years.”
Well, no, I don't know the exact facts and figures, but the stone that was put in front of that tomb, that cave, could not have been moved that easily. It was not something where like, hey, Travis, Pat, Phil, a couple other guys, let's go move this and smuggle this body out of there. As a matter of fact, even if that could happen, saying there were no religious authorities posted there, even if that could happen, the strength it would have taken to have done such a thing without drawing in attention is not likely, is not possible. And if you think about how scared Rome was, how shaken they were by this Jesus from Nazareth, they made sure that nothing could have taken place outside of their sight and knowing.
They had guards posted. They made sure to check that body and they made sure to enclose that tomb. So Jesus physically died.
And the death of Jesus is just the first part in the ultimate demonstration that tells us who we are, that gives us the power that we have as followers of Christ, because the second piece of that demonstration was and is the resurrection. That resurrection not only confirmed the divinity of Jesus, but it confirms our divinity. There's a passage in the Bible that says when you are buried in the baptism, you are raised in the resurrection of Christ.
Christ showed us all, death is an illusion. Death is not something that can overcome us, but we can overcome death. Jesus said what I can do, you can do even greater.
And that's really challenging. As some of us wake up with sore backs or sore shoulders, as some of us see things not sitting like they used to and our hair turning color and we're becoming able to have social security and we can't stay up as late and we can't eat the same things, we're like, “Gina, what do you mean death and aging is not a thing? You've gotta be kidding me.”
That's where I just want to challenge you to open your minds to what Jesus was saying, “I live forevermore and you too can live forevermore.” Whether or not you choose to embrace that in the body and live on like they did in the Bible into those later years is up to you.
I was visiting with an older member last week and he told me of a lady down the hall, I believe he told me she turned 104 and she is sharp and she is moving and she is a great gal, and I loved listening to him talk about that with this big smile on his face. And I said, “Bob, are you afraid of death?” And he said, “Nope, I'm 90 and I've lived a beautiful life and so I go on.” He said that with all the excitement.
Not a depressed, “I'm 90. I've lived a beautiful life and the time has come.” Not at all. It was like, “Hey, lady down the hall who's 104, I'm coming for you.” And it's beautiful because he said, you know, there's things that I can’t do like I used to. I think that can be true in many different ways but he knows that that energy, that vigor, that vitality comes from something beyond just whether or not he can move around like he used to. I could see it in his face, I could hear it in his voice and that's what we need to embrace. That like Jesus, we are fully human and we are fully divine.
So age and death and limitations only have to have as much hold over us as we allow them to have. If we can truly understand that Christ is within us and that Christ overcame death, that Christ not only lives on spiritually but he lives on physically, we too can live on that way. Jesus is here with us now and it's a beautiful thing for us to embrace and remember because it can give us the strength, the courage, the discernment and the know-how to move each and every day.
And that's another one of those places where you may say, well, how does he do that? It's in his word, it's in his teachers, it's in meditation, it's in our prayers but my favorite is it's in the spirit, the Holy Spirit that resides in each and every one of us, the spirit that guides us and gives us discernment, the spirit that is our advocate, our counselor, our healer, the spirit that is the authority that if we lean into it, we recognize we're not only hearing the voice of God, we're hearing the voice of ourselves and that true oneness with God. What a beautiful presence of Jesus within us through the Holy Spirit.
And that last place where it speaks of Jesus, it speaks of asking that question, do you remember his resurrection? Do you know the living Christ? As you go through your days and you face adversities and challenges, do you proudly sit as a student of Jesus wanting to know his word, wanting to know his ways, wanting to live on knowing that he did not die but he rose again? I want you to know that I have felt since a very young age such a pull towards Jesus, not even understanding at that point in my life what it meant.
But now here I am and I recognize that I will sit proudly by his side and at his feet, that I will be a follower, that I am a chosen disciple and through all that is given to me in the world, whether it's in the Bible, whether it's in an audio I hear, whether it's in spiritual time like this with you all, that I can continue to learn and embrace what it means to be a follower of the living Christ. And I wanna invite you all to join me in that. You can decide, are you a skeptic? Are you a lukewarm follower? Are you a believer or are you a knower? Because if you know, then you can embrace that and move on.
The last part of that scripture where it speaks of Jesus descended from David. Now, if you all remember, David was the shepherd boy who was anointed and became the king. And Jesus being from that line, what exactly does that tell us? What does that say to us about who we are and about who Jesus is?
Well, number one, it reminds us that Jesus was not just meant to be savior, but he is king. He is the complete ruler over all of heaven and earth, which become one and the same when you truly embrace the kingdom. Jesus has been doing his ministry, has been present throughout all of history in every religion, in every denomination, in every structure, in every system. When you look close enough, you will see Jesus's presence there, whether there's opposition to his presence or whether there's embracing of it, because he established a kingdom that could not be put to death.
We are part of that kingdom. We are part of that lineage. And it is our job to help people recognize that that kingdom is here and now, that kingdom is within, and it is our job as followers of Christ to bring that kingdom out, to tap within and to bring that kingdom forth for others to see.
As Jesus established his kingdom, he continues to remind us that we have had this all along. This is not an earthly kingdom. This is a kingdom without death, without end.
And since we are a significant part of that kingdom, I challenge you to ask yourself, what is my role in the kingdom work? If I am to turn inward and discover the Christ within me, then what? Am I supposed to just sit at home and read and meditate, show up here and there and just trust that I am with Christ, Christ is with me, and that's all I need to do? Or am I supposed to go out there and share the good news of the kingdom? If I'm not able to share it through evangelism because it's not my strong suit, am I supposed to go out there and share it with invitation, with generosity, with love and caring and grace and kindness?
Christ encouraged us to release all that is so that we can center on all that should be. And that is the knowing of Christ Jesus and the knowing of what he came here to do. So you might ask, how do I release these things? How do I release the noise and the distractions? How do I release the things that keep telling me that I'm not enough? How do I release the things that keep telling me that this is coming to an end, that this is no longer going to be? Well, one, you release them by releasing the how itself.
I think when something repeats in my life over and over again, when something repeats in my studying over and over again, then I know that it's something saying to me, “Gina, you're still not listening. So sit and listen and really take this message in.” So I want to encourage you to release the how.
When you focus on the what and the why, it changes everything. And the question for you is, do you know what? Do you know what God has promised you? If not, then I invite you, you can do a Google search or ask Siri, tell me some of the promises that God has made to me. You will be amazed at how many promises God has given us.
And if you truly know God as sovereign, as infinite, as divine, as the great physician, the great healer, as the one that could stand against all, the almighty, the father, mother, the creator of all that is and all that is good, then as you read those promises, you should have no fear. You should have no worry, you should have no doubt. Because how can you look at the father and know that you are his child and then disregard his promises? That's like my dad saying to me, “Gina, I love you and I will always be here for you,” and the moment adversity comes in my life, I say, “Oh, I can't call him. He won't listen, he won't be there for me.” I wouldn't deny my father the truth of the promises he's made me. Why would we deny our father who art in heaven the truth of the promises that he has made to us?
The next question is who? Do you know who Jesus is? And again, if you don't know, go to the internet, go to the Bible, go to a dear friend and say, who is Jesus? What was the life that Jesus lived? What was the message he came to teach? How does that message tell me who I am? Because when you know who Jesus is, you will know who you are.
And last but not least, do you know why you are here? Because I know some of us over time may forget our purpose, may forget why we are here. And really it rests upon the two greatest commandments and the great commission.
That is love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And number two, love your neighbor as yourself. You may ask which one is greater, but the truth is you cannot do one without the other. You cannot love your neighbor as yourself unless you are truly loving the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
And that great commission, the action that follows that form of doing, that form of believing, is go into the world and make disciples. That's not necessarily holding a Bible study or getting people to church. Sometimes it's simply pausing and listening to someone else, offering them what you can offer them, and making sure you seal that moment with truth and love. That's what we're here to do, to love the Lord, to love our neighbor, and to share this great truth in the making of disciples. I guarantee you when you know those things, your what, your who, and your why, the how will reveal itself.
Sometimes it reveals itself in the most miraculous way that we didn't even expect and all we can do is chuckle and say, “Why did I ever doubt you, Lord? Why did I ever question that the God who is forever would not show up this time?”
Please pray with me. Lord, we give you thanks for your word, your word that is spoken truth and love. Help us to receive the message that was intended for us through the Holy Spirit. Help us to release the distractions, the noise. Help us to lean into the pause and stand firmly where we always are in that beautiful space of consciousness, of stillness, of love and peace. Amen.
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