“Fallen, but Created . . . and Redeemed” Rom. 8.18–23 July ’23

 

1.                 Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. The message from God’s Word, as we continue our summer sermon series on, Defending the Christian Faith, is taken from Romans 8:18-23, it’s entitled, “Fallen, but Created…and Redeemed,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ. 

2.                It figures that a sermon series on defending the Christian faith would take up evolution. For over 150 years, Darwinian evolution has kept some people from even listening to the claims of Christ. It has also pulled some Christians away from their faith. So, today we turn to the subject of evolution. Charles Darwin had not been the first to propose a theory of evolution. What he did was propose a mechanism for evolution that people found believable. He claimed that biological differences arose accidentally between various humans, dogs, or horses or whatever other organisms. Certain characteristics gave the organisms possessing them a greater ability to survive than others. An organism survived because it had better equipment for survival. Survival of the fittest—all by chance. None of it required the intervention of God.

3.                People used to think that God must be behind the intricacies of nature, but Darwin assured them that no supernatural designer was necessary. Since his theory of natural selection could explain any life form, a Creator could be dispensed with. Many jumped on the bandwagon and said that the world—as they now saw it—was no longer big enough for God. It could get to be the way it was all by itself. People still think so. Evolution, someone once said, enables a person to be both intellectually fulfilled and an atheist at the same time.

4.                But, evolution is a religion, even when it’s embraced by atheists. Evolutionist Michael Ruse once debated creationist Duane Gish. He objected strongly when Gish said that evolution is a religion. But, upon later reflection, Ruse admitted that Gish had a point. At the end of his book Darwin’s God, Cornelius Hunter observes that evolution ultimately is about God. It’s about God’s presence or absence in the world. Darwin might even have been trying to do God a favor and forgive him for a cruel world where parasites feed on the bodies of other organisms and cats play with mice. Evolution is a religion. It’s about God, or the lack of God. This has given evolution enormous popularity, even among people who have no understanding of science. For suffering takes place in this world. The world is far from perfect, so they doubt that God could be in charge of all this.

5.                But, consider this. Would you look at a car that stands in need of repair—letting out smoke when it starts and conclude that this vehicle is so defective that it must have come about by accident? No, people would admit that someone designed and built the car. But now something seems to be wrong with it. That was the way John Henry Newman in the 1800s reacted to the suffering & evil in the world. As Darwinism was growing in popularity, Newman didn’t close his eyes to any signs of design and reject the thought of a Creator. Newman concluded from what he saw that some massive calamity must have put humanity out of joint with the Creator’s purposes. Evolution doesn’t see this. It takes all that is wrong in the world as part of the way things are. It regards death as natural. Not so! The universe was made by God. It is created, but fallen. The human race is fallen. Death isn’t natural. It is the wages of our sins (Rom 6:23). Evolution misses the point. The world is fallen. That’s the reason for suffering. But the world was still created by God. God doesn’t need anyone’s help to deal with suffering. This world is fallen, but created . . . and redeemed.

6.                The apostle Paul knew all too well about suffering in this world. He wrote in Romans 8:18-23, “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies” (Rom 8:18–23). Hinging on God’s redemption is everything that this world can be.

7.                It’s like a little boy who built himself a model sailboat. When his boat was finished, he tied a long string to it and carried it to the lake for its maiden voyage. He put his boat on the water and slowly let it out. Then the string broke. The boy watched as the waves began to take the boat away. He ran along the lake to try to get it, but he found himself helpless as his boat disappeared. He went home crying. The next day he saw in a store window . . . his boat. So, he hurried home, broke open his piggy bank, then ran back to the store. He wanted his boat. Emerging from the store after paying the price, he looked down at his boat and said, “Now you’re twice mine: once because I made you, and once because I bought you back.”

8.                The Lord who made the world is the Lord who bought it back at the highest of prices. Our Creator became our Redeemer in the person of Jesus Christ. He redeemed us not with gold or silver, but with his holy precious blood and his innocent suffering and death. Even the physical bodies of us Christians will be “redeemed” in the end because of the great redemption price that Jesus paid for us. And now our Redeemer lives. Risen from the dead, he promises the faithful, “Because I live, you also will live” (Jn 14:19). When God shows his children in glory at the Last Day, he will set creation free from its bondage to decay. Right now, something is wrong with the world. It is fallen. But it is redeemed. For the Lord redeems what he created. “His mercy is over all that he has made” (Ps 145:9). Evolution runs counter to all of this, counter to the Christian faith as God has revealed it.

9.                At the same time, evolution does not explain the world even in a scientific understanding, especially as science learns how complex things really are. This point can be made to people who aren’t Christians, as we seek to tell them the Good News about redemption in Christ. For example, consider two great scientific steps from the middle of the twentieth century. One is the development of information theory, and the other is the discovery of DNA.

10.             Information theory says that the universe contains matter, energy, and information. Information is information. It doesn’t arise spontaneously, no matter how much matter or energy there may be. Information has to be “built in” to begin with. And when information is transmitted, randomness never helps. Randomness always nibbles away at information. If information is sensible, it makes sense despite randomness, not because of it.

11.             Since the 1950s and the discovery of DNA, we now know that life rests on a vast information system. Cells store, process, and replicate enormous amounts of information. This information didn’t get there by itself. Toward the end of the twentieth century, the British scientist Sir Fred Hoyle made a memorable observation about organisms with the huge DNA information content that humans and higher mammals have. He said that for these organisms to have emerged through an evolutionary process would be about as likely as a tornado striking a junkyard, and the tornado winds picking up various raw materials lying around and putting a 747 jet together.

12.             Bear this in mind whenever anyone tries to tell you that organisms gradually got better by way of one favorable mutation after another. That’s not the way information works. Mistakes in the typing of the genetic code do not promise to make organisms better. In fact, as Allen Quist writes, the number of negative genetic mutations is so much higher than the number of positive mutations that it is clear human genes are becoming worse, not better. The human genome deteriorates, which is exactly what you would expect in a creation in bondage to decay. The existence of the genome information in the first place indicates design by our Creator, while the presence of deterioration reflects corruption. This world didn’t evolve, it was created. And although fallen, it’s redeemed. A scientific movement called Intelligent Design has called attention to the complexity of nature. This complexity shows more and more as instruments like microscopes and telescopes become increasingly sophisticated. It becomes more difficult all the time to regard this complexity as accidental. The greater the complexity, the more probable design becomes.

13.             Much of the complexity in the world is irreducible. For example, an eye is composed of many delicate parts such as a lens, a retina, and an optic nerve. For these components to have come about gradually would not have helped. Even with fully functioning eye lenses and retinas, a person or animal lacking operational optic nerves still could not see. Partially formed eyes would not have assisted survival at all. Darwin heard this objection in his day. It has even greater force in ours. If your eyes do not work as well as they might, you have no proof for absence of design. You have something that adds to the present groaning of creation.

14.             Rev. Dr. Harry Huth was a Lutheran Professor at Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, IN. Near the end of his life, Dr. Huth suffered a series of heart attacks. But during these years, he still served as a parish pastor and seminary professor. He continued his teaching up to the time of his death. In many ways, this turned out to be his most productive period. Dr Huth remained aware that he could pass into life with the Lord at any moment. He spoke openly about his death, not because he was resigned to it as natural but because he rejoiced over Christ and his defeat of death. He wanted to be with the Lord. Eagerly did he await the redemption of his body. He kept telling his students what a privilege he had in teaching them, although his students could tell on some days that the effort was quite a strain. Harry Huth knew how to look ahead with the eyes of faith. With the Holy Spirit, he lived by faith. He lived in hope, as a son of his heavenly Father, in a world that is fallen yet created and redeemed. Amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds, in Christ Jesus, until life everlasting. Amen.

“The Fact’s for You!!!” 1 Cor. 15.1–20, 7-16-23 sermon

1.                Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. The message from God’s Word as we continue our sermon series on Defending the Christian Faith is taken from 1 Cor. 15.1-20, it’s entitled, “The Fact’s for You!!!” Dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

2.                Before everyone had her or his own cell phone, people might answer a ringing telephone and discover that the caller wanted to speak with someone else in the family. Then you’d hand the receiver to the callee and say, “It’s for you.” The last couple of sermons in this series dwelt on the stubborn fact of Jesus’ resurrection. This fact’s for you. In fact, it’s of such large importance that it goes before you again in this sermon. This time we will approach Jesus’ resurrection by way of epistle testimony from St. Paul, who wrote to the Church at Corinth: “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared” (1 Cor. 15:3–5).

3.                Today, we’ll trace what’s been called a “minimal facts” case for Jesus’ resurrection. This approach restricts itself to a minimum set of undisputed facts, hence the name “minimal facts.” The minimal facts approach reaches the main point quickly. Critical scholars raise all sorts of questions about the Gospels, but they agree that there was an apostle Paul and that he wrote letters. They all accept as genuine 1 Corinthians, which includes our text, and Galatians, which will come into our view shortly. The minimal facts approach uses data that virtually everyone recognizes.

4.                Paul stands out as vital to the minimal facts approach. This scholar Paul, who wrote letters in the mid-first century, occupied the right place at the right time. Paul was a convert to Christianity after having been its bitter opponent, so he had a lot invested in these matters. He reported seeing the risen Christ for himself and he risked his life over the truth of this report. Also, he met and talked with others who’d seen Jesus alive after he had died. Paul’s position as an early witness is undisputed. If Jesus died and rose in about AD 30, then by the critics’ reckoning the Gospels were all written forty or more years later. But Paul wrote 1 Corinthians in about AD 55, which would have been just twenty-something years after Jesus died and rose. And in our text from this letter, Paul recalled what he had told the Corinthians in person. It was in about the year 51 that Paul was personally telling the Corinthians that Christ died according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he had been raised according to the Scriptures, and that the Lord then appeared to many people including Paul. So undisputedly, Paul gives us a very early witness testimony of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead.

5.                But look closely at the text, where Paul wrote in 1 Cor. 15:3: “I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received.” Paul had carefully handed on to the Corinthians a message that had previously been handed on to him. When had Paul received that message? To consider that, we now consult Paul’s Letter to the Galatians, in which he recounted that, three years after his conversion, he visited Peter in Jerusalem. During a 15 day stay, he was able to talk with Peter and James the Lord’s brother. Picture these three. How could they not talk about Jesus? Paul no doubt told Peter and James what he had seen Jesus on the Damascus road, and he had the opportunity to ask them about what they had seen of Jesus both before and after the resurrection. In Gal 1:18, Paul characterized his conversation with Peter using the Greek word from which we get our word “history.” That is, Paul made the sort of questions on which good history is based. This formed the opportunity for Peter and James to deliver to Paul what eventually appeared in 1 Corinthians 15.

6.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    If Paul’s conversion occurred in AD 34 or 35, then this conversation between Paul, Peter, and James took place three years later, in 37 or 38—just a very short few years after Jesus died and rose. That’s early testimony of Jesus’ resurrection! This is not the stuff of legend. This is characteristic of testimony involving facts. But we are not quite finished tracing back. 1 Cor. 15:3-5 says, “I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared.” If Paul had received these words from Peter and James in the year 37 or 38, the form of the words came from earlier still. Critics today affirm that this confession goes back to a year or two after Jesus died. Unquestionably, that constitutes early witness to the resurrection. As a result, scholars of all persuasions have been concluding that the risen Jesus really appeared, and appeared in a bodily way, to his followers.

7.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Saying just that much doesn’t yet proclaim the Gospel, though. The Gospel isn’t simply the fact that a dead man became alive. Rather, as the text says, the Gospel is that “Christ died for our sins” and “that he was raised on the third day” (1 Cor. 15:3, 4). The One who rose is the One who died for us. As one Lutheran scholar has said, “It’s one thing to believe that something happened, and quite another to believe that it happened for you.” With the Gospel, our text reminds us the fact of the resurrection is for you. Jesus’ resurrection can be shown with minimal facts,  Yet it remains a fact with maximum importance for you.

8.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    1 Corinthians 15:3-5 says, “Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures” (v 3), and “that he was buried” (v 4) and even “that he appeared” (v 5), the verb tense in the Greek denotes a completed action. But when it says that “he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures” (v 4), the verb indicates an action completed in the past, but with ongoing effects. The resurrection of Christ leaps off the page as an important fact.

9.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    The resurrection of Jesus shows that he is God. At times, it may seem that the Creator has left his human creatures to a doom of darkness and death and despair. But he decided to intervene personally for you. The Old Testament said, “He has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him” (Hos 6:1–2). When Jesus was asked to give a sign of his authority, he answered: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (Jn 2:19). This is God himself, the One who has life and gives life, stepping onto the stage to redeem and save his creation. When we tell people of Jesus’ resurrection, we can tell them what God himself did for them when he became flesh of their flesh and bone of their bone. That’s a matter of maximum importance.

10.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 The resurrection of Jesus shows that his teaching is the truth. It would have done us no good if God became man then merely observed our plight or perhaps stood to the side, silently shedding tears of sympathy. But he has not left us without his teaching. On another occasion, it was scribes and Pharisees who addressed Jesus as “Teacher” and said, “We wish to see a sign from you.” Jesus answered, “No sign will be given . . . except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Mt 12:38–40). And as Jonah came out after three days, so did Christ. Jesus was teaching the truth. The Old Testament had been telling the truth too. Our text reminds us that Jesus both died and rose “in accordance with the Scriptures” (1 Cor 15:3, 4).

11.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 When we tell people of Jesus’ resurrection, we are giving them the truth by which God saves people: “the gospel I preached to you . . . by which you are being saved” (1 Cor. 15:1–2), Paul says. With this message, God creates saving faith in the heart. Jesus’ resurrection shows that the Father accepted his sacrifice for the reconciliation of the world. The Good News of the God-man, Jesus Christ, who gave himself as the ultimate sacrifice for our sin! The resurrection brings this message full circle by assuring us that this sacrifice worked. It was accepted by God the Father.

12.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 When we tell people of Jesus’ resurrection, we can point out that if there were even only one sin in all the world for which he had not paid and paid in full Jesus would have remained in the tomb. But Christ is risen. 1 Cor. 15:17 says “if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins” (v 17), but Christ has been raised. Faith receives him and the freedom from sin that he brings. The resurrection of Jesus shows that all believers in Christ will rise to eternal life. When, by God-given faith, we are with the risen Christ, it just keeps getting better.

13.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 I have told my confirmation students over the years I have served as a Pastor that the most important thing the church had ever done for me was getting me ready to die. Sometimes my students have questioned that. Was that truly most important? Didn’t I want to single out something maybe more immediate? But I have always stood by my statement. Wonderful as it is to be God’s own people here and now, our text reminds us: “If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied” (1 Cor. 15:19). For this life is not all there is.

14.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 When we tell people of Jesus’ resurrection, we can emphasize that in the risen Christ, life keeps getting better: “In fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Cor. 15:20). Perishable bodies will put on the imperishable, mortal bodies will put on immortality. Because Jesus lived, died, and rose again, death itself will be swallowed up in victory: “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” (1 Cor. 15:55). The fact is, Jesus’ resurrection can be shown with minimal facts, but the fact of Jesus’ resurrection has maximum impact for you and those to whom you witness. This fact’s for you. Amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, until life everlasting. Amen.