The Difference Yes Makes

Last week we began a series of lessons based on Paul’s words to the

Corinthians, particularly Paul’s statement that Christ is God’s Yes to us. We focused on the difference between having a religion of “Nos” verses a relationship with the Divine Yes. I’d like to follow up this morning on the difference Yes makes in our life. I want to begin by telling you a tale of two serfs, William and Myles who worked daily alongside each other in their master’s fields. A serf, in case you don’t know, is a peasant farm worker under the old medieval feudal system in which laborers worked for the lords who owned the land. These workers had no property, hardly any legal rights; they did receive basic protection from their lords and some were given a portion of land to raise their own food. Serfs were the lowest rung in the social ladder and in some cases they did not even have a surname as families were often separated over time. These laborers had little hope that their plot in life was likely to ever change. William and Myles literally belonged to the land. If someone bought the land from their masters, they would get the workers along with it. Every day was the same monotonous routine, until one day.

That day the king of the land came by in his chariot and saw the men working hard. He stopped his chariot to get out and talk with them. “Men,”

1 he said, “I have much work to do in my kingdom. There is great division and strife in the land, much warring among landowners against each other as well as enemies to the kingdom. Many of the homes in my kingdom are filled with kinsmen who are angry with each other. Many of the merchants in my kingdom are dishonest and exploit the poor. There is corruption from the lowest slave to the wealthiest landowners, even among my highest officials. I want to change this and I want you to help me.

I need people to go to every city, every home, every person and take my message of justice and peace and love. Wherever people are at war, tell them their King wants peace. Where there is family strife and bitterness I want you to help people to reconcile. Where businesses are cheating, exploiting the poor I want you to tell them the King insists all people be treated fairly. And if anyone challenges your authority to speak for me, I give you this proclamation with my official seal upon it stating that what you are saying has my blessing and authority.

Further, I will send with you my official representative. Whatever counsel you need he can give. He knows my heart and my mind. And there will be many situations that you face that will require great wisdom to handle. More than that, whatever situation you face, no matter how trying, my representative will be with you to encourage you. And there will be

2 many situations that will be very trying. Whatever resources necessary to accomplish these tasks, I assure you my representative can provide. There is no limit to the resources I am willing to provide if they are truly needed.

I want you to give your lives to this work. Even as you now belong to this land and this lord, I want you now to belong to me and my mission.

And when you have finished your work you have my invitation to return to my palace to live in special accommodations I will provide. You will continue in my service, for I have other, even greater tasks I want to accomplish. You would not understand them now, but one day you will.”

Well as you might imagine the two serfs, William and Myles were quite amazed that the King would even notice them, much less stop and visit with them, much, much less make them such a life-changing offer. William was the first to respond and his response was short and to the point. “Your majesty, I am not worthy to be chosen for such a task but if you are asking me to do this service, I would be most honored to do it.”

Myles also had a response. It was not as certain as Williams and much longer. “Your majesty, I’ve been working these fields for a long time, all my life really. And to tell you the truth, I’ve kind of grown attached to them. Oh, it’s not a great life; it is very hard work; there are few benefits I am often mistreated, and no one has any real concern about me. But, well,

3 it's a living. I really do appreciate your invitation your majesty, but if it’s all the same to you, I think I’ll just stay here.”

Well, this is just a story I made up and it’s not even a very good story.

However, I made it up and I’m telling it to you for a very good reason. This is our story. It is the story of every man and woman who has been invited to follow Christ. We are the serfs. We are the peasants in the field, belonging to the land, slumped over from years of meaningless, burdensome labor. It is another way of saying what Paul is saying to the Corinthians. “Now it is

God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come” (2 Cor 1:18-22).

What Paul is telling us is that God is willing to change our posture in this world, change our status. He would very much like us not to be slumped over in meaningless, monotonous activity but rather to stand up tall and to stand firm doing the most important work for the most important person. And this is no empty offer, for the God who makes it is more than able to do it. Paul begins his correspondence to the Corinthians with these words. I always thank God for you because of his grace given you in Christ

Jesus. For in him you have been enriched in every way… you do not lack any spiritual gift… He will keep you strong to the end, (1 Cor 1:4-9).

4 Paul says very much the same thing when he writes to the Philippians.

I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus (Philippians

1:3-6). When Paul reaches the end of his life and he is writing to the young preacher he has entrusted so much of his work to, he gives this word of confidence. I am not ashamed [of the gospel] because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted you him for that day (2 Timothy 1:12).

Very simply Paul is telling us the difference God’s “Yes” can make in our life. We are invited to be ministers of the gospel, good news that can help wars to cease, make enemies become friends, help divided homes be reconciled, lead dishonest businessmen to give back to communities, change corrupt government officials into ministers of grace and mercy. We are invited to work with God to change our homes, our cities, our nation, our world and ourselves. If we’re not doing this we’re not doing our work. This is the work of the gospel and it is the noblest work anyone could be called to do in this world. This is what it means to work for the King. This is the difference God’s Yes can make in our lives. It can transform our lives into lives that make a profound difference in this world, lives that can stand firm, 5 tall, secure and confident. No matter what storms or controversies or troubles may come our way, God’s Yes makes us able to stand for at least three reasons.

First, God’s Yes gives us purpose and meaning. We become a people who have been anointed and given a mission from no less than God himself.

Listen as Paul continues his letter to the Corinthians. If anyone is in Crist, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation…And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.

We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us (2 Corinthians 5:16-20). What other purpose in life is more important, more fulfilling than to be ambassadors to the King of Kings?

Not only has God given us new purpose, he has given us new possession. Our lives no longer belong to this world; they belong to the

King. His seal of ownership is now on us. This is how he explains it to the

Ephesians. . Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession, to the praise of his glory

(Ephesians 1:11-14). In this world we are obsessed with the illusion of possessing, possessing things, possessing ourselves. But in the kingdom we are

6 liberated as we become the possession of the King, we serve him. Actually it is not so much that we become his possession as it is we come to understand and confess who is the true King, who rightly owns everything, including us.

Our question is not who will possess our lives but who will our lives serve.

Bob Dylan was right when he wrote, “You gotta serve somebody. It may be the devil, it may be the Lord but you have to serve somebody.”

Perhaps most important of all, the difference God’s Yes makes in our life is the new promise we are given. That seal of ownership that is stamped upon our lives is nothing less than the Holy Spirit that is promised to those who follow Christ. Most of us who grew up in Churches of Christ are familiar with the passage, Acts 2:38, Peter’s answer to those at Pentecost who asked what they needed to do to be saved. Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. It is a clear statement and over the years we have encouraged millions of people to do just that. Repent and be baptized. The problem is too often we stopped right there, but the verse goes on. Indeed the most important part of the verse is the very next sentence that talks not about what we must do, but the promise of what God does. And you will receive the gift of the

Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, for all whom the Lord our God will call (Acts 2:38-39).

7 God has made us his possession in this world to accomplish his purposes in this world that would be impossible for us to do if it were not for his power in us which he has made available through his promise, the Holy

Spirit. This is what Jesus told his disciples he would do. I will ask the

Father and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever, the

Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you (John 14:16-18).

Paul goes even further describing the kinds of resources the promised

Spirit of God is able to provide for us. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. …we have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:10-14,16).

The Greek word used in John 14 to describe the Spirit is Parakleton.

It is translated several ways, counselor, advocate, helper, comforter, strengthener, companion, Friend, someone to stand by you. It’s hard to choose just one word to describe all that the Spirit is given to do for us. If I were to pick one, it would be simply the Helper. The Spirit gives me

8 whatever I need to do whatever God wants me to do whether that is resources, abilities, gifts even supernatural gifts if they are needed.

This is what Christianity is, ordinary serfs being transformed into royal servants of King Jesus, equipped with a new posture, we stand tall and firm; a new purpose, we are anointed to be Christ’s ambassadors; a new possession, we no longer belong to ourselves, we are God’s own people; we are given a new promise assuring that what we have been postured, purposed and possessed to do God himself has promised to empower us with whatever we need to do it.

And then, when we come to the end of this chapter of our life, the

King invites us to live with him in his palace not to kick back and rest for all eternity but to transition to new jobs that await us in eternity. The portion of the spirit we receive now is only a deposit, guaranteeing more to come later as Paul tells the Corinthians “no eye has seen, no ear has hear, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him (1 Corinthians 2:9).

So, the question for us is which serf will we choose to be, William or

Myles. The King has noticed us; he has stopped his chariot and spoken to us; he has given us his divine Yes and invited us to be his ambassadors to this world, to bring his reconciling peace and love to a world torn apart by strife and anger and greed and hate. We will either say, like Myles, “I really

9 do appreciate your invitation your majesty, but if it’s all the same to you, I think I’ll just stay where I am.” Or we can say, like William, “Your majesty,

I am not worthy to be chosen for such a task, but if you are asking me to do this service, I would be most honored to do it.” William understood the difference Yes makes. Do we?