Northside Church - Sydney
HIStory Week 3: Jesus: The Lifeguard
You're listening to another great message from Northside Community Church. You probably wouldn't have noticed this week, but it's summertime, alright, it is summertime and whenever you go to summertime hits, we go to the beach, right? We are beaches people. I grew up in the Inchila, peninsula known as the Northern beaches and so I've seen my fair share of beaches and most of us will be heading there this Christmas and what is funny down at the beaches that even in the roughest of seas and the craziest of waves, there seems to be a whole body of swimmers that swim with absolutely no sense of anxiety or fear. But haven't you seen them around at the beach, they've got absolutely no idea and why? I think it's because of the lifeguards. Amongst the sea of people that will hit our beaches, there are these funny guys that sit in these big red tents and where these funny looking red and yellow hats if you've never seen a lifeguard before and zinc on their nose and I love lifeguards because they look they are a vision of capability, they are a vision of protection, they are a vision of abdominal perfection that I don't think I'm ever going to see this side of heaven, no dear brothers and sisters, I'm not all that I should be but nevertheless, lifeguards are so popular that even Nathan Grebbut is wearing a lifeguard uniform, stand up tonight, might have never seen someone dress up for the sermon before, never seen that before, lifeguards, I'm thinking what he's going to want to preach on next so I can dress up, where am I? Lifeguards are so popular that they've even made a reality TV show out of it, that's what you do these days, it's called Bondo Rescue, I don't know if you're a fan, you've watched Bondo Rescue but you get to follow these lifeguards all around the place and it's incredibly popular and why is that, why is the Charlotte that so popular, I think it's because it ties into the great themes of life right in pending danger, ignorant foreign tourist swimmers, that sense of anticipation of what will happen where there seems no possible way out the witness of a daring rescue by a saviour, all the girls are going tonight, oh, we love Bondo Rescue, look, surf is one thing but what about the rest of life, getting rescued from the surf is one thing but what about the greater challenges, what about the greater challenges of life, you know and then what happens when the issues and those challenges that are more real and confronting than a four and a half foot wave begin to take you down, where's the red and yellow cap in that situation and you see in the last couple of weeks we have been asking the most important question anyone can ask because we had the awards Christmas and that is who is Jesus Christ and you ask many people on the street and they'll say Jesus is a good teacher and that, look, that is true to some extent but when I am getting pulled down by the waves of life I can tell you the last person I want to see is someone with a calculator and a textbook, I want to see a red and yellow cap, I want to see someone as a vision of capability and of security and of rescue, I don't know about where you're at tonight as far as the waves of life are concerned but I've got good news because this passage teaches and yes it's in the Bible isn't amazing, that Jesus is the ultimate lifeguard, it will teach us tonight we will see that he rescues those in trouble, he resuscitates those with his new life, he reunites them, the rescued into his family and it all happens if you believe in him, if you trust him, so we're going to read from that tonight in John's Gospel, if you don't have a Bible with you then that's fine, it's up on the screens, if you've got it on electronic device just flick across from whatever you're looking at on safari at the time. The true light that gives light to every person was coming into the world, he was in the world and though the world was made through him the world did not recognise him, he came to that which was his own but his own did not receive him, yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name he gave the right to become children of God, children born not of natural descent nor of human decision or a husband's will but born of God. Have you ever been stuck in a rip, there can be a scary thing, a rip, for those of you that are from mainland Central America and there are a few of you here tonight, a rip is a very dangerous thing in the Australian surface, it's this almost invisible current of water that drifts people further and further away from shore and one of the most insidious things about a rip is you often can't see it, in fact you're oblivious to the fact that you're actually in one and you're drifting, now if you have grown up on the insular peninsula here in Sydney, do you ever remember surf safety 101 if you managed to drift outside of the red and yellow flags, what do you do, put your hand up, which I always saw was really interesting because I thought if I'm starting to drown the last thing I want to do is be putting my hand up above the water, I just want to be trying to swim, but the rule is you put your hand up, you ask for help and the lifeguards are always watching, look what we see here is that John is saying in this great intro that we're in trouble spiritually, that we're caught in a spiritual rip at one point or another in our lives before we've met God and sadly we're oblivious to it, we don't realise that we're drifting away from him, we don't realise that we're being caught up in a current away from him and we're in trouble, what sort of trouble, it's like this girl, J.C. Dugard, I was watching a documentary on Discovery Channel or one of those programs, J.C. was kidnapped at age 11, I think it was around about the Lake Tahoe type area, she was kidnapped at age 11 and she lived in captivity for 18 years in this guy's backyard and what was amazing throughout her story is that there had been all sorts of near brushes with rescue, in fact one person rang the police because they saw at one point they saw her as a young girl staring at a missing persons report of her at a service station and the police didn't pick it up. What was even more remarkable is that years and years down the track is that she even got interviewed by the police, this guy got taken into the police and they interviewed her and in a great paradox which is well known in psychological circles, she didn't cry out for help, in fact she began to even defend the position of her captor. They call it here Stockholm syndrome and it's where hostages express their empathy and have positive feelings towards their captors sometimes to the point of defending them, it's crazy. In verse 10, John says here, he was in the world and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognise him, he's talking about Jesus, he came to that which was his own but his own did not receive him. You see John is saying that at one stage all of us to some degree has developed some level of spiritual Stockholm syndrome, that we have become so accustomed to living a life away from our real father, away from our real family, that we even, one we don't understand the gravity of the situation but we even start defending them. We start defending the very things that keep us in captivity in our lives. You see the heart of the message of the Bible is this, it's hard to rescue someone if they think they're fine. It's hard to rescue someone if they're not putting their hand up, you just look at the stacks of tourists on Bondi Rescue, they just keep floating out the sea. Hey, do you know what a Christian is? A Christian is simply someone who has recognised that they're in trouble. A Christian is someone who's simply recognised, put their hand up and said, hey, I'm caught in a riptide here. I'm drifting away from God, Lord, I need you. And at one point they've found that and recognised that. And so the first thing we learn tonight is that Jesus rescues those who are in trouble. I've got to ask you, come on guys, life-saving one on one. This summer you need to put your hand up tonight. Now, if you recognise you're in trouble, one of the challenges that people have is when they hear these stories of the Bible, they go, yeah, well, where is God in all these sorts of situations? And the great news about this passage is that he was coming into the world. God was coming into all of these. He not only rescues those who are in trouble, but he resuscitates them with new life. We see that. We see Jesus is a giver of life. Listen to verse 13, he says, yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, have faith. He gave the right to become children of God. Children born not of natural descent nor of human decision or husband's will, but born of God. Look, as clearly as John is trying to say it here, because it was a weird sounding phrase, he is saying we're not talking about a physical birth here. This new life is not by a physical birth, it's by a spiritual birth here. And why a birth? Why is he talking about birth? Look, it's a confronting statement because what he's assuming here is he's saying that before you move into a relationship with God, it's a kin or it's similar to a death. Well, there's got to be a birth into this new type of life. One of the most confronting episodes of Bondi Rescue, I saw was when this young guy had gone out in the ocean, got caught in a rip and the lifeguard had dragged him back into shore. And there he was on the beach lifeless and blue and cold, totally incapable of receiving any outside stimulus. He was just there as a lump of nothing. Spiritually, it's the same. A spiritually dead person might like art and movies and all sorts of kind of books, but a spiritually dead person to the truths of the Bible, they might find it disgusting and uninteresting. They might even belive, but when they come up against the truths of the Bible, there's no sight, there's no hearing, there's no joy, there's no movement, there's no excitement because they simply don't respond. And so it's pretty confronting what John is saying to us tonight. Now, look, guys, I'm not trying to be abrupt or blunt here, but the reason you've got to hear it in these terms, and here's why it's so crucial, is that the people think Christianity is something that you just take up. I mean, they think here, this is how it is, the minute you begin the sense that you need God and that you're not totally in control of your life, then you do whatever your other situation in life suggests, you take something up. Look, you guys know what it's like. You're at Friday night drinks with all the guys or all the girls saying, "Oh my goodness, I'm not as flexible as I used to be." And they go, "Hey, take up yoga. You should do yoga. That's great. I'll take up yoga." And so you sort of stretch it out and you do yoga. Boys, I just don't get out anymore. I've got to see more of the air and that sort of stuff. I think I'm going to take up sailing. Yeah, I'm going to take up sailing. I'm going to do sailing. I've been sailing up for four and a half years, and I still haven't been out on a boat. Look, but don't you see, if you treat God this way, if you do that, you'll set Christianity up for yourself as his whole new little achievement, benchmark, standard of living. You know the great irony in that is that the reason you're even thinking that way is because those standards you have set for yourself in the past, you haven't met them. You realize that we've got our faults and our failures and you see, not only that, how can you take these spiritual things up when spiritually you're as blue and as cold as a kid with a lung full of water? Christianity is not something that you take up. Christianity takes you up. Jesus takes you up and excused the image, but you need the very lifeguard himself of life to come in and administer to you mouth to mouth. You need the very breath of God to come down into your life. That kid, when he was down on the beach, there was absolutely nothing that he could have possibly done. If the lifeguard hadn't have come in and breathed his own very breath into that young guy's body, and what John is saying to us tonight is that if you want any sort form of spiritual life, you need the ultimate lifeguard to breathe that breath into your body. It's biblical. It says it in Ezekiel. I looked it up. That's Old Testament if you haven't been there, but look, this is what God says through the prophet Ezekiel. A prophet was someone who spoke on behalf of God. He says, "I will make breath into you, and you will come to life. I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord." Jesus, the great lifeguard, resuscitates. Here's what you need to get about Jesus. Jesus didn't come to make good people better. He came to make dead people alive. He didn't come to make nasty people new. He came to make nasty people new. He came to make nice people new in the same sense, not nice people, not nicer. Here's why it doesn't work to take Christianity up, because later on in John's gospel, Jesus is talking to this learned teacher called Nicodemus. He was a great scholar of the Bible, and he says, "Nicodemus, you must be born from above." He's talking about this spiritual birth. You can imagine Nicodemus' mind. He's starting to think it all through, and he's going, "Jesus, this does not make sense, because if mum was still with me, her 101-year-old hips would not be up for the task." Jesus says, "No, no, you're going down the wrong track, Nicodemus." I'm not talking about natural birth, getting born again. Look, the profound thing that Jesus was saying is that there are different grades or levels of life. You're probably thinking, "Sam, you're getting all spiro on us here. What are you going on about?" It's true. You see, if you look at the difference between a carrot and a dog, both of them have life. But a carrot compared to a dog, it doesn't have anywhere near as good a life as a dog. A dog gets to run around and pant and multilove your carpet. But the life of a carrot to a dog is so inferior that you could pretty much say it was a different kind of life at all. Then, of course, a dog to a human, we run around and all sorts of crazy stuff as well, but there are complexities and nuances and different ways. We look at the world and reasoning and thought and emotions. Our life compared to a dog, we're both alive, but our life seems so much higher than the dog's life that it would be to say if a human were to live the life of a dog or a carrot for that matter, you might as well be dead. Jesus is saying there are all these different grades of life, and so what he's getting at is this new birth that he's talking about, this birth that's not of mother and father, but is from God is such a higher form of life that it's the same distance between the difference between human life and the life of a dog. It's saying you can't work your way up into that. You've got to be born into it, and so in that way, look, hear me tonight. Christianity is not an addition to your life. It's not something that you can just take up. You know, look, carrot doesn't say, oh, I'm on the way to becoming a dog or a dog doesn't say, rough, I'm on the way to becoming a human. It doesn't work that way. You have to be born into it, and so in that sense, the new birth is the action of God through Jesus Christ, the great life saver in which his spirit, his very breath is being poured into the very center of your soul. He resuscitates, and when he resuscitates, it's not just to give you your old life back, it's to take you into a new one into an eternal life called Zoe, the Greek is the translation there. C.S. Lewis puts it like this, he says, "The spiritual life which is in God from all eternity and which made the whole natural universe is Zoe. Bios, the biological or natural life, has to be sure a certain shadowy symbolic resemblance of Zoe, but the sort of resemblance there is between a photo and a place or a statue and a person. A person who has changed from having Bios to having Zoe would have gone through as bigger change as a statue which changed from being carved stone to being a real person. And that is precisely what Christianity is about. The world is a great sculptor's shop. We are the statues, and there's a rumor going around the shop that some of us are someday going to come to life. How do you know you got this life? How do you know you've been born again? How do you know that the great life saver is breathed breath into your life? There will be a difference in your life as radical as Pinocchio turning from blocks of wood into a living talking doll. You will see things spiritually and differently when you will see the Word of God more richly and you'll be just wrapped up in wanting to discover who this God is. That's how you know you can't just take it up, you've got to receive it. And so Jesus, he not only rescues those who are in trouble, but he resuscitates them into new life in a totally higher form of life. Lastly, reunites them. Jesus not only rescues, resuscitates, but he reunites them. I am such a junkie for Bondi Rescue that I've moved beyond the Australian version and into the American version, Beach Patrol. And I was watching that episode of Beach Patrol the other weekend and this mother had lost her down in Miami, Florida and she'd lost her little son Raoul. And so Raoul thought he was drowned and so the whole episode she is searching for Raoul desperately and she is in tears and she is nervous and she's absolutely beside herself. And then it flicks to the camera where after an entire day of searching one of the lifeguards actually finds Raoul safe and sound. And I'll never forget the scene because they're sitting there in the car and the lifeguard has to brief him and he says, "Now son, son, whatever you do, your mum's going to react in a funny sort of way, but whatever you do, can you make sure you look excited to see her when she comes around?" I'm thinking, what sort of briefing is that? But, fully enough, they flick to the great reunion and you can imagine their king's soundtracks of strings and all sorts of stuff for this reunion of this lovely Spanish mother and her son. And she called my baby, my baby, I don't speak Spanish, but if I did, that would mean I love you so much. My precious little thing and she squeezes his cheeks and the entire time he's just standing there like this. And you see a shot of him look at the camera sort of like, "Oh, come on, mum." And I'm thinking, what sort of reaction is that after all the searching that she has been doing for this little guy? "Come on, Raul." Guys, Jesus reunites the rescued with their new family. How, in verse 12, it says, "To all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God." Jesus has bought those that believe in him back into the arms of a father who was as desperate for you as a Spanish mother on Miami Beach. And what it means is the degree to which you understand the significance of your rescue. Raul didn't get it. The degree to which you understand the significance of your rescue is the degree to which you react to the father's searching efforts. I'd speak to the Christians tonight, guys, you can go one of two ways. You can be a Raul. You can be a kid who doesn't care less. Come on, Dad. Or you can get caught up in the passion and the emotion and the relief that was in his eyes, if God had eyes, when he finally was able to be united with you in that sense. And so the new birth reunites you with your family, with your real heavenly father. It plucks you out of that captivity. It's the same sort of reunion that J.C. Dugard would have had with her real mother, who had pretty much counted her for dead after 18 years and says, "Oh, my precious baby is alive again." God thinks exactly the same way about you when you believe in Jesus Christ and you receive his new life into the very heart of who you are. And so two things happen. You get certain privileges that come along with that. That's a good news because some of you thinking tonight, this is a bit of a downer, dude. You're talking about trouble and death and all that sort of stuff. Like I came here for a bit of inspiration. And look, here it is. You receive something that would absolutely blow your mind. You receive intimate access to the father, to the ultimate father, the father of the entire universe. The one who is the entire judge of the universe doesn't come looking at you, trying to smack you down and say, "Oh, why have you been walking up the beach or your life there? I was worried about sick about you." It doesn't come down upon you like that. He wraps you up in his arms, my precious, my precious one. But not only that, you're an heir to the inheritance of the father. You think, you know, if you thought it was a bit of a downer that we're in trouble, but look, here's the thing, when you wake up in that new life, it's sort of akin because we're adopted into God's family. It's like waking up and discovering that Lachlan and Sarah Murdoch are your new parents. And I think that is awesome because they're about the only one in that family who is not in trouble at the moment, but not only that, they're insanely rich. They are insanely rich. I mean, for your Melbourneites, it'd be like you coming out of the water and seeing Bryn and Jeff Edelston as your parents. Well, they're rich. You know, the interesting parents, that's for sure. But you get my point, look, the father that I'm talking about tonight, guys, if you believe in Jesus Christ makes those multi-millionaires look like they live in an attempt. And the truth of this word tonight says, when you step into this and place your faith in Jesus Christ, you have access to that. Of course, it's not monetary, but it is a riches that would blow your mind in that spiritual sense. And so, my question to the Christians and ideas, are you rejoicing in this? Do you set your mind upon this when you're going out to work of a morning? Are you reminding yourself of this when you're on the train? Are you preaching it to yourself time and time again? You see, Jesus is not only rescues, but he reunites you with a father who has desperately been searching for you guys this week. Don't be a raul. Rejoice in the way that the father has been desperately searching for you. Jesus rescues, he resuscitates his, he reunites, if and only if you believe in him. That's what this passage says to us tonight. They didn't recognize him, they didn't believe in him, but to all those that believe in him, he gives this life to, look, why do we love bond? I rescue it. Look, it's for the adventure, the action, the close calls with death, the, the, the savior that comes, comes in. And I remember on this episode with this young guy that was blue and lifeless and cold on the ground as the, as the cameras pan back, I saw something different in the background there. And, and there was the lifeguard after all had settled down in that sense, just sitting by himself and down the sides of his legs, just massive gashes of blood down the whole, whole side of him because in order to go in and rescue this kid, the guy had been washed up against the rocks and he was absolutely smashed and battered and bruised. Guys, you can see where this is going, isn't it? Look, this, this story is the unfolding of John's gospel. God in Jesus, God becoming man, jumping into the raging surf that is humanity into all those that are willing to put their hand up and say it, in trouble, he plucks them out of the surf. You know, Jesus is the one that has placed himself in the place of danger for you. Jesus is the one that, that, that, that went in and had himself bashed against the rock, not the, not against the rocks of North Bondi, but against the rocks of sin and of death. And yet unlike this lifeguard that was sitting there on this TV show, Jesus Christ went into that water, not as at the risk of his life, but at the cost of his life. Friend, this is, this is true of your life tonight. Look, are you willing to step back from the pandemonium that is life and all the sorts of questions that go around and see this and look to the ultimate lifeguard who is bruised and bleeding on the cross? Looks at some of you tonight. It's like you're watching from out the back in the surf and you are drifting further and further out the scene. You're wondering what all that commotion is down on the shore. You think, what is happening down there and you ask yourself, what the heck is going on? And all that is happening is that you are drifting further out the sea. I want to ask you, are you willing to put your hand up tonight and ask God for help by placing your faith in Jesus Christ? Will you just put your hand up? Come and chat to one of the team. And anyone who calls themselves a Christian, look, you're someone who has just woken up from excusing imagery again, but spiritual mouth to mouth. You've realized that the very life-breath of God himself has been placed in you and you're not just taking up more activities, but the color is coming back into your skin, the senses are coming back. You will be awoken to a whole new life ahead of you. Wrap your arms around the rescuer tonight and rejoice in the reunion. You're part of his family. All of us are coming out of the captivity, J.C. Dugan style. What does it mean to believe? Look, Christianity's, someone said is the faith of personal pronouns, the eyes. You see, if you say Jesus was born and he died and he was raised and he ascended and he's coming again, that doesn't make you a Christian. But if you say that Jesus was born for me, Jesus died for me. Jesus was raised for me. Jesus ascended for me. That is the essence of Christianity, God. That's how you just, that's how you believe. So Jesus, Jesus is the ultimate lifeguard. He rescues, he resuscitates, he reunites. Now, some of you are saying tonight, no, he's not the ultimate lifeguard. David Hasselhoff is. And I have to admit, the Hof comes pretty close, doesn't he? He had all the great characteristics of a lifeguard. But look, Hof's story, look, Hof's story is Jesus' story. Book of John is simply the gospel according to Baywatch and that great intro song. Some people stand in the darkness, afraid to step into the light. Some people need to help somebody on the edge of surrender inside, but don't you worry, it's going to be all right. Because I'm always ready and I won't let you out of my sight. I'll be ready. Yeah, I'll be ready. Whenever you fear, oh, don't you fear. I'll be ready forever and always. I'm always here. The gospel according to Baywatch. Guys, some people stand in the darkness tonight right now, afraid to step into the light. Is that you tonight? All you got to do is raise your hand and ask for some help from Jesus Christ. Christians, you're there to help somebody who is on the edge of surrender inside. I believe deep down. When we get those quiet moments, every person in this world knows those great themes that we are in trouble and we are desperately in need of rescue. Either way, God says to us tonight, don't worry. It's going to be all right because I'm always ready and I won't let you out of my sight. I'll be there forever and always. I'll be there. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for the incredible story of your son Jesus Christ who dove into that surf and plucked those of us that believe out of the very depths of the trouble that we found ourselves in. Lord, as we move out into this week, will you help us to develop upon the great inheritance, the great privileges that we have as your children? May we rejoice in that. May it help us keep our head above the waves. But for those Father tonight that are afraid to step out of the darkness and into the light, Lord, this is not some exercise of me trying to twist people's arms behind their back. We saw in your word tonight, nothing can happen spiritually in this place until you grab them Heavenly Father and breathe that life into them. Lord, I pray that you might be moving that way stirring in people's hearts, opening their eyes to the new life that is possible in you. We pray this now in Jesus' name. Amen.