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Sermon
of 05-18-02
Done While You Wait
by Dr. David A. Farmer, pastor
Scripture - 1 Corinthians 6:20; "For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's."
Last year while driving to the Upper New York Camp Meeting I saw a billboard that blew my mind. I wrote down what I read and placed it in my files of future sermon ideas and like so many of my sermon ideas - I forgot all about it. Then last Friday night I was listening to a sermon by Pastor Dwight Nelson of the Pioneer Memorial Church in Berrien Springs, MI. Apparently Dr. Nelson had also been driving down the same Interstate in Kentucky as I had because he saw the same sign. He mentioned it in his sermon and it reminded me of my note in my files that said the same thing.
What did the sign say? Well it was from an establishment called "Tattoo Charlie's". Their slogan on the billboard said; "Done While You Wait."
What? Done while you wait? What are you going to do, drop off and leave your arm or leg there and pick later? Come on! Done while you wait!
But oh, friends, if it was only billboards which gave mixed up and confusing messages. But their not. We Christians have been known to give mixed up and confusing messages a time or two. We have been guilty of taking perfectly good news and making it bad news. In fact I'm embarrassed at times when I hear Christians taking the Good News of the Gospel and making it sound terrible. That's why I pray this morning's topic will be perfectly clear. My message is this in a nutshell. Jesus loves you!
He loves you so much He gave His life and die on a Cross to prove it. And please let me use my title's jingle to prove it. You see that catchphrase; "Done While You Wait" made me think. It opened my eyes in a total new way. It lighted my path you might say. It renewed my idea of this thing we Christians call Salvation.
Isn't it done? Hasn't Jesus already bought our Salvation, our Eternal Life for us? Yet are we not still waiting to receive it.
Today we continue our look at Christ walk to Calvary. And please let me begin by asking you this question; when and where was our Salvation bought? But of course - at the Cross.
Have you noticed that the Cross is almost everywhere you look anymore? Just about everywhere we look, the Cross can be seen. On Churches roof's, around a persons neck. Graveyards, tattoos, earrings and the list goes on and on. But have you ever stopped to think what the Cross is all about?
Listen to Hebrews 12:2; "Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God."
1 Peter 1:18 says: "Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers;
V:19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:"
Some of you may remember my story I gave a couple years back about our 2nd trip to Russia in 1994. I had been invited over to the apartment of a crippled man. He wanted to ask me some questions about Religion. So through our translator he started asking me his inquiries. I'll never forget his 1st question. He asked me; Tell me, what does your church believe?
Well I thought - here's my chance to give this man a real good Bible Study! I remember opening my Bible and telling him about the Sabbath. Why is it we Adventist almost always start with the Sabbath?
Next I told him about what the Bible teaches on the State of the Dead and then about vegetarianism. Almost everything I would preach for the next 4 weeks I explained to him in 2 hours.
As we left he thanked us for coming over. I walked away feeling real good about myself. I just knew the Lord had placed a huge check mark on my witnessing record. It wasn't until sometime later that I realized I had forgotten to tell what I believe to be the most important part of our belief. A part I couldn't believe I had left out. I had failed to tell him about Jesus Christ and the Cross of Calvary.
Oh sure he could explain to his friends later what the Seventh-day Adventist believe about the Sabbath, State of the dead and so on. But what could he tell his neighbors we believe about Jesus? And suddenly I realized that that huge check mark next to my name meant nothing, if it even existed at all.
Before you judge me, let me ask you, what would you have said to this old Russian gentleman? Would you have told him about the evils of this world and how to avoid them? Or maybe you would have pointed out that the cigarettes in his pockets were going to kill him. Would you have explained Revelation 14 and the 3 Angels Message for these last days? Would you have described the soon coming of Jesus. Or would you quoted John 3:16 or 1 Cor. 13 to him? What would you have told this old - dying - crippled man? Do you even know what you would have said?
Since then I have asked myself many times; David, if you had that opportunity again, what would you say this time? After 8 years of asking myself that question, I believe I would tell him what I'm about to tell you.
I would tell him about Jesus and His Cross. I would explain that if we accept Jesus as our personal Savior while we waiting for His return our Salvation is sure. I would explain that the cross is where Christ bought us back. It was at the Cross-where Jesus won the right to forgive us our sins. I would tell him about Peter's sermon at Pentecost found in Acts 2. I would explain Paul's deep passion he had about Christ and His death on the Cross. Yea, that's what I would do, I would tell him about the Cross of Calvary.
I would tell him that long before any human wore it around their neck - Christ bore it. Before it was ever costume jewelry sold on the Home Shopping Network, that the true Pearl of Great Price was bought and paid for by the blood of the Son of God. I would tell him that long before rich athletes wore it in their ears while on national television explaining why they will not be in football camp and how many more millions it will take to get them there that Jesus wore it in front of the entire universe explaining for time and eternity what it would take to get us there. I would tell him that before it was painted into a picture and hung on a nail that Jesus hung by 3 rusty nails from it.
Before racist people burned it, before Hitler twisted it Jesus died on it. Long before it stood upright on top of churches, it stood erect on Calvary. Before it was graveyard memorials - it was a monument on Golgotha.
I would tell him that before the Cross was ever made out of 14 carrot gold, before it was ever made into some fashion statement that hung around ones neck that Jesus made it Salvations statement to hang our faith on. I would tell him that the Cross was never meant to be just another adornment or a trinket to catch our eyes, it was meant to be a gift to capture our hearts.
Did you know that the 1st sermon of the early Christian Church was about a bloody Cross. Peter's sermon in Acts 2 was about an empty
tomb. It was about human guilt and divine deliverance. With clearness and power Peter bares witness of the death - burial and resurrection of Christ.
Peter preached on the Cross before it was cool. Everyone there knew what the Cross was all about. It was only for the most sinister, vicious, and vile criminal. Peter preached on the Cross before it was the center piece of a church. Peter preached on the Cross when the blood was barely dry.
History has idolized it and despised it. History has Gold platted it and burned it. History has worn it and trashed it. History has done everything to it but ignore and destroy it.
Because that is something no human can do. No one can close their eyes to the power of the Cross! They may try but the power always comes through.
Go with me to Acts 2:22-24; "Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know: Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it."
After Peter took the people to the Cross-, they had to admit they couldn't ignore its power any longer. And that same Cross is where we must go for the same power, and strength today.
Listen to Christian Education Pg.82; "We can receive light only as we come to the cross and present ourselves at the altar of sacrifice. Here man's weakness is made manifest; here his strength is revealed. Here men see there is power in Christ to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him."
Friends I ask you, what would the Gospel be without the Cross? Without the Cross how can we sing about "A Hill Far Away?" Without the Cross what good comes from knowing a story about a Crown of Thorns or a Cup of Suffering? Without the Cross there would be no empty tomb. Without the Cross there wouldn't be any Christian Churches today. Without the Cross the Garden of Gethsemane doesn't matter. Without the Cross there would be no Salvation for any of us.
Pentecost fell on a Christ centered, Cross-anchored Church. And that is the only kind of Church the Latter Rain will fall on today.
I pray you or I never give a wrong idea about the Cross. I pray that we make the Cross Good News about Jesus Christ. I pray like Peter, that we too will point others to the Cross when asked what do we believe. That is the very foundation, very core of our faith. It is the hope of our Salvation.
Listen to Acts 2:33; "Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear."
Friends although the Bible says that Jesus died on the Cross, it also says that He is alive forever more. And He is coming soon for His children.
Not with a Cross but with a Crown. Not with sorrow and pain but with peace and happiness. Not with death but with life.
And while we wait for His return, remember our Salvation is done while we wait. And the Cross is solid proof of just that.
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