Established and Anchored Christianity

Good afternoon, everyone. I almost tripped. That step was so big, I wasn't expecting it.

Sorry, I just had to say that.

I hope everyone had a good week. I did. It's nice to have the warming weather and see the trees budding and everything getting green and the springtime weather. I often have the chance to talk, whether it's at work or in other situations, with young adults. I always enjoy doing that.

One of the phrases that we hear a lot when talking with young people is about them establishing themselves. We talk often about the importance of education, about determining a career, and setting a direction in life, marriage, all the other things that come along with it, like home ownership. In fact, there are studies out there, even statistically, that will say that you can tell the trajectory of a person's life based on some of the life choices that they make in their 20s, the order in which they do things, whether they get their education before they get married, whether they get married and have their education before they have children, all of these pieces of getting established in life.

Stability is actually a pretty common figure of speech that we use in talking as well, don't we? Would you rather deal with the guy who does a song and dance or the one who's a steady hand?

We talk about young men getting serious about life and settling down, and we talk about all the things that are good about being solid, stable, and established, and we also have an immediate connotation if I tell you that somebody is shifty. Today I want to talk about being established as Christians, and that's the title of this message, simply established Christians. The Bible uses similar metaphors talking about being established, many of which also include contrasts about what the difference is between somebody who is and is not established in a certain way, and so I've picked three of those I'd like to talk about today.

Not surprisingly, they all point back to Jesus Christ, and to tell you the truth, what caused me more than a little bit of agitation as I was preparing this message was, at first, it's all kind of the same, and at one point I sat back and said, you know, I think I'm just saying the same thing over and over again three times as I go through this message, so if that's the case, just come and hit me in the shoulder after we're done today and let me know I did that.

But as I reflected about it more, thought about it, prayed about it a bit, I think these contrasts actually build very nicely on each other, and carrying on a theme, really, that Mr. Thomas set for us in the last couple of weeks, I think give us a very useful progression of walking from Passover through to Pentecost, and they cover, first of all, our individual walk with God, secondly, the body that he's building, his church, and then lastly, a common hope or thread that runs through from us as individuals through the church, the body of Christ, and outward into the world.

So with that preamble, I'd like to go through and let's talk about a few of these contrasts that are set up in the Bible that point to the need to be established. The first one is all about trees, healthy trees and unhealthy trees. Now I didn't take the time to count or do an internet search and figure it out, but trees are probably one of the most common analogies in the Bible, all the way through from the Old Testament to the New Testament.

I don't know how many of you have focused on that before. If we have any tree lovers here, I enjoy trees. I don't know much about them other than the fact that they grow and they have leaves and they get pretty big sometimes, and occasionally when it's windy they fall. But let's turn to Jeremiah 17, and we'll see a first, not necessarily the first mention of trees in the Bible, of course, but the first example that we'll use here today where God talks about trees and uses them as an analogy of being established, being firm, being rooted in God.

Jeremiah 17. We'll read verses 5 through 8. Jeremiah 17, starting in verse 5, Thus says the Lord, Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the Lord. For he shall be like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see when good comes, but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, and assault land which is not inhabited. Kind of grim. Verse 7, Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is in the Lord. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes.

But its leaf will be green, and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit. So we see immediately this contrast that's set up.

The difference, you can almost picture a shrub out in the desert. We'll see stories sometimes about droughts. There are huge droughts going on in parts of the world. Australia's been suffering with drought for a number of years, and sometimes we'll see these pictures. You'll see cattle wandering around trying to find something to drink, and you'll see a tree that just kind of looks like a stick that's stuck in this dried out land. And that's what it talks about here in Jeremiah. The man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, rather than God, is like that tree that's sitting out just in barren land. It talks about salty land, where it's difficult for things to grow, and very much contrasted to the one who trusts in God. We've probably seen trees that are planted by water. We've got some marshy area by our house, and there are these huge trees that grow, especially close to the marsh area, because they set those roots down deep. They get all of that nourishment, all of that water, and they leaf out green, and they grow big and tall.

You can almost see them grow from year to year and see the difference in how they look.

Another very common verse is Psalm 1. Psalm 1 will read verses 1 through 6. Many of us will recognize this from the hymnal, not to pile on to Mike Rebar's theme of today, but I personally like him too better than I like him number one, but that's just me. Psalm 1 verses 1 through 6, Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither, and whatever he does shall prosper. The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore, the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish.

So again, we see the contrast set up here between those who are established, who are set, those who are with God and drinking in of God's word and his way, and they're likened to trees that set down these deep and solid roots. And we're not really used to chaff ourselves, because we're not out there harvesting, but chaff is all of the things that comes off of wheat or barley or other grains as you're sifting those, and often they'll throw that up in the air. Remember one summer when I was a college student, I spent a summer in the Middle East, we were in Syria, as the harvest was coming in, and we'd see, actually as it was there, the women would carry these huge sheaves of wheat in from the fields on their back all day long, and at night you'd see these lights burning and you'd see these folks and they'd be throwing these things up in the air, and when the breeze would come through it would blow all of this dust and this chaff, like all the husks and unproductive things that came off of the wheat, and it would simply blow away.

And that's the contrast that's shown here between people who are deeply rooted, focused on God and following Him, and those who are simply blown away because they have no moorings. They trust in something that actually has no anchor, no substance to it. So there's so much this analogy that we can think about, but let's just reflect on a few things. First of all, where a plant, where a tree is planted, makes a huge difference. Think back again to the passage that we read in Jeremiah, the difference between trying to plant a tree in the desert and trying to get it to grow there and all the tending that it would take versus planting it right next to a body of water, where it can drink in everything that it needs. And we can think of that as the individual spiritual nourishment that we need to take in. As spiritual organisms, as we're growing, as trees as it were, are we drinking in of that?

I think also of the seasons, and as a tree goes through the seasons. We've talked about this before.

You think about wintertime. You look outside at these trees. You can't really tell, at least to my amateur eye, which trees are alive and which are dead. Because in the wintertime, they all drop their leaves. They all kind of look like brown stalks. But once we get to this time of year, you can really see which trees are starting to bud, and you can tell which ones have died. And I think about the wintertime often as like those seasons of trials that we go through in our lives. And if we're planted next to the water, it doesn't mean that at every point in our life we're going to be leafy and growing, and everything's going to be great. We will go through those very difficult seasons.

But if we're planted there by the water, if we're drinking in of the nourishment that God provides us, even in those most difficult times of our lives, it might be below the surface. That life is coursing through us. In a tree, it's the sap. Just like for us, it's our blood. But that life, that spiritual life, continues to course through. And that tree, just like a tree can't help but come alive again in the springtime, if we're close to that source, if we're drinking in of God's Holy Spirit, as we go through those difficult times, we will come to spiritual life again and have that greenery and that fruit. I think of pruning as well. I don't know how many of you have ever pruned a tree. I've done enough of it to know I don't know what I'm doing. It's kind of fun to experiment with, but I have to know what my limits are, and that's definitely one of my limits.

When I've seen professional gardeners come in, it's amazing to me how skinny some of these trees look when they're done. In the amount that they'll take off of these trees, you look at it and you say, how in the world can this thing live? And you wait two or three months, and the tree is just absolutely flourishing. Why? Because the person pruning it knows exactly what they're doing.

They know which branches are going to harm the tree. Which growth is not natural growth.

What growth is a sucker that's just going to pull nourishment out of that tree for no productive use at all. And by knowing which branches to cut off, they actually give more strength to the tree.

And I know we think often about the fact we hear that pruning is what God does to us. Sometimes cutting off things that we think are necessary, that we think are real nice-looking branches, but in the end aren't so good for us. And of course there's the goal of productivity.

Many trees, especially back in this time, were planted for fruit. And we see examples even in the Gospels about Jesus Christ talked about that. The fact that we have to bear fruit. And a tree that doesn't bear fruit, if you have an orchard full of apple trees and they don't end up bearing any apples, eventually you're not going to spend the money and the time trying to nourish and build those trees up. You want the fruit, that productivity out of it. And likewise, our spiritual lives, as we see in a lot of places in the Bible, are required to produce fruit.

And lastly, I think often about trees' branches and how far and wide they grow from their base.

So trees are deeply rooted at the base, aren't they? And the trunk, we see diagrams of how deep those roots go. On the other hand, the branches, once you've got a healthy tree, can grow out far and wide in all kinds of different directions. When I think about that, I often think about the impacts that we can and should have as Christians in the different parts of our lives.

As we grow, we have contact with a lot of different environments, a lot of different people that we come into contact with. And though we might be involved in doing a lot of different things out at the branches, we have to tend to our root system and make sure that at its core, everything that we do is rooted firmly in the Word of God and in His Spirit. Turn with me, if you will, to Colossians 2. We'll read verses 6 and 7. Colossians 2 verses 6 and 7.

Hear Paul writing to the Colossians. Says, As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving. So again, here talking about being established and tying it together to roots, talking about the fact that we have to be deeply rooted in our faith. It's something we have to tend to, just like somebody who would tend to an orchard, just like we might look after the trees that perhaps are in our yards. We have to really tend to that root system, make sure it's deep, and it ties it together here with the idea of faith and faith in Jesus Christ.

So as we wrap up this first contrast that we want to think about in terms of being spiritually established, to be established as individual Christians, we have to be deeply rooted in Jesus Christ. He gives us His Holy Spirit, we're to emulate Him, we're to learn more about Him, and this is really our departure point as we think about that walk from Passover to Pentecost. You might be thinking about that verse that we often read in John 15, which is part of the Passover service, right? I am the vine and you are the branches. And Jesus Christ talking with His disciples about the fact that they have to be attached, we have to be attached to Him.

Through that, we can bear much fruit. And that's really the departure point, is we as individual Christians have to be tied deeply and closely to Jesus Christ as the vine. We have to have that right nourishment, that spiritual nourishment, and have it frequently, just like a tree or any other plant has to drink in, have good soil, and have the nutrients and the water and the soil that it needs. So that's the first element as we're walking from Passover to Pentecost and really being established as Christians, is making sure, just like a strong and solid tree, that we've laid down a deep root system, that we're tied down to God, to Jesus Christ, to the Word, and through His Holy Spirit that we're growing. But I think we understand that there's also more to being established Christians than just our individual walk with God. There's more than just being individual Christians. So let's look in the second dimension at the idea of a stable versus an unstable foundation. A stable versus an unstable foundation. Let's turn to Isaiah 28. We'll read here in Isaiah 28 verses 16 and 17. I've chosen the new living translation for this passage.

Isaiah 28 verses 16 and 17. Therefore, this is what the sovereign Lord says, Look, I'm placing a foundation stone in Jerusalem, a firm and tested stone. It's a precious cornerstone that is safe to build on. Whoever believes need never be shaken. I will test you with the measuring line of justice and the plumb line of righteousness. Since your refuge is made of lies, a hailstorm will knock it down. Since it is made of deception, a flood will sweep it away. This is a messianic prophecy, and pretty much any commentator you'll read will point to the fact that this is a prophecy of Jesus Christ. We'll turn later to one of the scriptures where Jesus Christ is talked about in the New Testament by Paul as the chief cornerstone. But this is again contrasting as we look in verse 17, talking about refuges made of lies, hailstorms will knock it down. Again, it's contrasting building on the true cornerstone, which we know as Jesus Christ, versus building on a human foundation without Him. It's a very similar concept to what we see in Matthew 7. We won't turn to Matthew 7, 24 through 27, but if you want to look at it later, it's a very familiar parable that Jesus Christ gave about building your house on the rock. Remember, it talks about a wise man is the one who builds his house on the rock. When the storms come and the rains come, the floods come, it won't be washed away because it's built on the rock, and it contrasts that to the house that's built on sand.

And when the floods come and the rain comes, it just washes that house away because it doesn't have solid moorings. I'd like to read... I'm not sure what I just did there. I wiped out all my notes for a moment. Lucky for me, they're back. I'm not sure if that's lucky for you, but we'll go with it.

An online commentary called GotQuestions.org talking about cornerstones. We don't really focus much on what a cornerstone is and what it might have meant in ancient time for building. They write, since ancient times, builders have used cornerstones in their construction projects.

You might have walked by old buildings. Sometimes I can remember schools. In fact, we've got at least a figure of cornerstone on this building as the year that the building was built, right? It's a grayish stone. It has the year etched in it, and that's not at all unusual for public buildings, for other large buildings, even nowadays, to have kind of a ceremonial cornerstone. It doesn't do anything structurally for the building, but we still sort of carry on that tradition. There's that one stone that kind of tells you a little bit about the story of the structure. But since ancient times, it says here, the builders have used cornerstones in their construction projects.

The cornerstone was the principal stone, usually placed at the corner of an edifice to guide the workers in their course. The cornerstone was usually one of the largest, the most solid, and the most carefully constructed of any in the edifice. Once the cornerstone was set, it became the basis for determining every measurement in the remaining construction. Everything was aligned to it. And like we read up here earlier in verse 17 of Isaiah 28, that's why it talks about the measuring line of justice and the plumb line of righteousness in talking about a cornerstone.

Because it was talking about the fact, again, looking forward to Jesus Christ, that he is the basis of measurement. Once he's been set in place there as the cornerstone, everything in terms of how that building is constructed, making sure things are kept plumb, making sure they're square, making sure they're not off kilters, all measured against Jesus Christ as that cornerstone. Not only the stabilizing factor, but also showing the direction in which to build and how to build.

Now, there's certainly applicability to us as individuals in that as Jesus Christ as the cornerstone of our life, but it's bigger than that. And what's made clear, especially as we look at it in the New Testament, is Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of a physical building that's being constructed. It's more than just with what's being built within us as individuals, but rather the entire spiritual organism that God is building, which is his church. Turn with me, if you will, to 1 Peter 2. 1 Peter 2, we'll start in verse 4. 1 Peter 2, verse 4.

Here Peter writes, coming to him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also as living stones are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Therefore, it is also contained in the Scripture, and you'll recognize, I hope, this quote, Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he who believes on him will by no means be put to shame. Therefore, you who believe he is precious, but to those who are disobedient, the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone, and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.

They stumble, being disobedient to the word to which they also were appointed. But in verse 9, you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light, who once were not a people, but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. Remember, I was talking about the walk from Passover to Pentecost, and what I find interesting here is we talk again about being established. In this case, we're talking about the church, this building that's being put together, because if we look back in this passage, especially in verse 9, what is it that's being used all through this passage?

It's the plural. It's not individuals. It's talking about groups of people, a chosen generation that's more than one person. A royal priesthood is plural, a holy nation, special people. And so we know that what God is building is not just individuals, but he's building a church, a body, a building, a spiritual temple, if you were. And what's usually talked about when we talk about Pentecost, often you'll read, it's talked about as the church age after the coming of the Holy Spirit. It's the age, the time after which God began working through the church, a spiritual body with his Holy Spirit, his called-out ones. And that's what we're to be established as. Not only as individuals planted as single trees out there, but as a building, a spiritual organism with Jesus Christ as the cornerstone, all measured by him with him as the foundation. Verse 10 is always interesting to me as well, who once were not a people, but are now the people of God. I think about the fact that the church really is a group of people who, in many cases, aren't that much alike. If you line us all up and look at our backgrounds and where we live and everything else, it's safe to say that many of us would probably never have met if it weren't for the fact that we came into the church. We come from different places, different walks of life, and that's exactly how it's meant to be. But we have something that binds us together as a single building, and that's God's Holy Spirit. As he lays down that cornerstone through Jesus Christ, brought his Holy Spirit at the time of Pentecost, and then began calling people out from all kinds of different places. If we read that account in Acts 2, you'll see a bunch of different nations, I think 15 or 16 different nations that are listed, just in that account of the first Pentecost, of all of these people that were called out from different places and knit together as a start of that spiritual body, that building, that spiritual temple by Jesus Christ. And our commonality of God's Holy Spirit and that common cornerstone is meant then to overcome all of the superficial human differences that we have as more and more we come together as a single body and as a single temple.

I also find it interesting as we think about Jesus Christ as the chief cornerstone that it's his foundational attitudes that make this all possible to happen. When we think about, first of all, his grace and the forgiveness that's given through it so that we can be sinless before him in the new life that then puts his way first, a commonality again that we have. But then all the elements of his nature that are required as we try to live together in peace and build unity as a spiritual temple, forgiving one another, serving one another, being humble, placing the needs of others first. All of those attributes that Jesus Christ had and exemplified in his life, again as that cornerstone, setting the tone, setting the measures and the dimensions for what that building is supposed to look like. You know, a few thoughts on foundations before we move on.

In our neighborhood where we live, when we moved in eight years ago, there were probably seven or eight empty lots and of course with the housing boom going on like it is right now, a few of them got built up over the last few years and then this past fall, I think three or four houses all at one time started being built. The interesting thing about foundations is you don't build a foundation and stop, do you? I mean, who goes, buys an expensive piece of land, lays a foundation, says that's a great foundation. Nice and solid, level, can support at least a three-story building.

We're done. Nobody in their right mind would do that, right? You build a foundation for a purpose, don't you? It's to build the building on top of it. I know I've lived in a few neighborhoods before and I would go on my commute. In fact, when we lived in Poland, I could still clearly remember this building and it was this concrete structure and only the shell of it was there. It had been put up maybe five years before the builder had run out of money. Great solid foundation, square walls, just a hulk of concrete four or five stories high. They'd use it to hang advertising on. I'd often think it's like the most expensive billboard that I've ever seen because they're just trying to make some money out of this building that they'd never finished off. So we know it's ridiculous. We don't build a foundation just to say we've got a nice foundation. We build so it will have something built on top of it. And so we think of Jesus Christ as the chief cornerstone. We think about that foundation that's built through him. There's a purpose to it. The purpose is growth. The purpose is building that spiritual temple on top of it and that's something that we have to be in the process of doing as we interact with each other, as we interact with others who come to us, who express an interest in God and his way of life. We have to be building actively developing that building through his power. Additionally, if a foundation is unsound, trying to fix any part of that building is futile, isn't it? We lived for a while in Colorado and when we were buying our first home in Colorado, we were warned by the real estate agent, you got to watch out because Colorado has a lot of expansive soils and never heard of expansive soil before. It turns out in Colorado, there's a lot of clay-based soil. When it gets wet, it expands and before builders really got more sophisticated in what they were doing, if they would build a simple slab, it would not be unusual as water came in and over time that soil would start to expand to see cracks come up in the foundations, to see basements that were noticeably not level when you walked into them or had cracks in them. In fact, I talked to one guy who was finishing his basement and he said, yeah, we don't take our studs and lay them on the ground on a concrete floor, we actually hang them from the ceiling and we leave at least an inch of space between the bottom of that and the floor because if the floor starts to raise and get uneven, if the two by fours are right down on the floor, it'll destroy the entire wall as it starts to shift. And what we learned as well is when these foundations would be built on newer houses, they wouldn't put in a concrete floor. They would actually drill holes down and put a couple of steel beams down into the ground and they would build a concrete outline above it, not a solid slab of a foundation, and then they would put floor joists across it so that you actually had a wooden floor in your basement and if you ever pulled up one of those floorboards in the basement, you'd have a cavity of anywhere from a foot to two feet underneath the basement floor. Specifically put there because if the ground started to expand, there was lots of room there to absorb that expansion without destroying the house. Because, again, if you compromise the foundation of the house, you can do whatever you want with patching and painting and everything else. It is not going to stand. Turn with me if you will to Ephesians 2. Good things to reflect on as we think of God's spiritual house that's being built with Jesus Christ as its cornerstone. What is the foundation that we're built on?

Are we building on the right foundation so that that spiritual temple comes together properly?

Ephesians 2 will start in verse 19. Now therefore you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. Having built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

So before we move on, as we reflect here on a stable versus an unstable foundation, God is in the business of building a building, a spiritual temple. And I know as humans it's easy for us to think about physical organizations and names that we put on buildings. God says that those who are called out by his Spirit are his people and he knows who they are. And it transcends where we put physical and nominal boundaries for church organizations. Being established in Jesus Christ includes being part of that spiritual temple, the church. Jesus Christ, the apostles and the prophets are the foundation of that and that's what we need to build upon as we go back constantly to the Bible, to the lead of the Holy Spirit, and to see what is laid out there. And as we read in Ephesians, the purpose is clearly to build a family of individuals, a group of people that are tightly knit together. A body is used as an example. We think about the ligaments that hold a body together. But again, in this case, as a building with a foundation coming together to build and achieve something that's much bigger than any one of us as individuals. And it's as we deal with those things, with the Spirit of Christ, with the mind of Jesus Christ as we work with one another, that that building comes together into everything that God is trying to achieve.

So we've seen through these two examples that there is both an individual and a group element to being established as Christians. So let's look at one more dimension that cuts across both our individual and our group identities. And this third element of being established I've simply called tossed and blown versus firmly anchored. Tossed and blown versus firmly anchored. Turn with me, if you will, to James 1. I think those of us who are familiar with the Scriptures will be able to think already of a few examples. Even we can't think of the verses where this type of verbiage is used. James 1 will start in verse 5. Here James writes, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. He is a double-minded man and unstable in all of his ways. So here we see a lack of faith, a doubting, and whether God can really accomplish his work as being like a wave of the sea driven and tossed like the wind. I'm sure we can imagine that. We think about sitting on a beach and how the waves just go back and forth. They're very turbulent. They're here and they're gone. There's nothing of substance to them in the end. They come and they go. They have a lot of power, at least to destroy, they can do some good, I suppose, by producing wave energy for those who like alternative energy.

But they're there and they're gone. They blow through. Ephesians 4 uses the same type of language. Ephesians 4, we're told in verse 14, as Paul writes to the Ephesians, that we should no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting. That's not much good. You can pull out of that verse, is there? All the things that are associated with being tossed to and fro. And this is a seafaring analogy. Has anyone ever looked at old maps from back in the days before when people thought you could actually fall off the edge of the earth?

I should be careful of saying that because there's a resurgence of people thinking that you can fall off the edge of the earth these days, but we're not going to go there. So what's on the edge of those maps? Usually there's water to start with, and often there's sea monsters, right? You see these like, snakey looking things, you kind of see a humpback coming up out of the water. So if you put yourself back in these days where maybe all you could build was a six, eight foot boat, maybe a dugout canoe. Water was the most inhospitable element that mankind came into contact with.

You know, I'll go down sometimes and look at Lake Erie. I can see it actually out of my office when I'm in my office. Now look out there. I can't see the edge of Lake Erie. And I put myself back in, you know, days, the 1700s or something, and think about back before there was much civilization around. You'd look across even Lake Erie, which is a lake, it's a large one, but it's a lake, and you'd look across that and it would be a scary thing. I mean, if you'd end up in Lake Erie, you have no idea what's in there, first of all, because you can't see it. You can understand why people would make up myths of sea monsters and everything else. Because it's the unknown. You don't know what's there. There's a lot to be afraid of. And there's nothing that can sustain your life.

You sink under those waters and you're done. You might be able to get away with a minute, maybe two minutes, underneath the water if somebody pulls you out. But in terms of an inhospitable space, something that was very difficult and dangerous to navigate, those were the waters. You know, we talked about these waters, these waves coming up. We're talking about things that actually held mortal danger for people at those times of life. We think about Jesus Christ when he was in the boat on the Sea of Galilee. The Sea of Galilee is not very big. You can see the shoreline from any place in the Sea of Galilee if it's a clear day. Of course, you know, if it gets stormy and there's low clouds, you might not see all of the shoreline. But it's not a big lake.

But still, when the disciples were there with Jesus in a boat and a storm came up, people would die in the Sea of Galilee when a storm came up. Because there wasn't a lot you could do. You couldn't call the coast guard. There's nobody jumping in to one of those big, you know, power boats that come out and throw a life ring out there and bring you in. Or the impressive helicopters that you see, you know, where the guys come rappelling down and pull you out of the water and drag you up into a helicopter. It was done. In fact, what we're talking about, let's go to Matthew 8. Because I think it's a really interesting approach when we think about the waves and all of these things. The danger that's there for those who are tossed about and blown and don't have any moorings. What did Jesus Christ show in this, not a parable, but actual account in his life with the disciples? Matthew 8 starting in verse 23. Jesus got into a boat in verse 23 and his disciples followed him. And suddenly a great tempest arose on the sea, so the boat was covered with waves.

But he was asleep. Now this would seem really unusual because these guys were truly afraid for their lives. People did die in the Sea of Galilee when these waves and these winds came up, even though it was not an incredibly large body of water. In verse 25, his disciples came to him and they woke him saying, Lord save us, we're perishing. But he said to them, Why are you fearful you of little faith? Then he arose and you rebuked the winds in the sea, and there was great calm. And actually one of my favorite phrases in the Bible, so the men marveled saying, Who can this be that even the winds and the sea obey him? And I don't think it's necessarily meant that way, but to me this is a really powerful verse in the context of these other verses that we read about not being tossed about in the waves and blown about by the wind. And what is it that Jesus is showing here?

He is the king of the wind and the waves. There is nothing that can come over our lives.

There's nothing that can happen that he cannot rule over. And figuratively, that's exactly what this event is showing. We're not to have doubt, we're not to lack faith, whereas individually, whether it's as an organization, there is nothing that can come across that God cannot solve and that God will not work out in his way to further his plan with people that he's called out.

So in contrast to being blown and tossed about, what is it that the Bible talks about?

What's the anchor that's talked about in the Bible? Let's turn to Hebrews 6.

Hebrews 6. There's a specific element, one of the big three that we don't really talk about all that often, faith, hope, and love, right? We read about in 1 Corinthians 13. Those three abide.

Think about love a lot. We talk about faith quite a bit. Hope doesn't really tend to come up quite as much, but it is one of those three things that, according to Paul and Corinthians, abide, all three of those. Hebrews 6 verse 18. That by two immutable things in which it's impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the presence behind the veil. So the anchor that we have, what it is that keeps us from being tossed about and blown every which way, that anchor is hope. You know, I often think about being at a stadium and watching a game. I don't know how many people have been to Brown Stadium or Progressive Field or somewhere like that. Have you ever seen like a plastic garbage bag blowing around in a stadium? It's really interesting to watch because a plastic, you know, one of those little plastic sacks is not really very aerodynamic. But I've actually seen whole groups of people watch and even cheer as a plastic bag gets blown around in the stadium because it's really amazing to watch. The way the wind swirls around in these stadiums, you never really know what's going to happen to that bag, do you? So it'll start to fall, it'll hit a downdraft and starts going down, and then suddenly it hits this crazy updraft or starts moving sideways and it might go 10, 20, 30 feet back up in the air for no discernible reason. And so you just see this bag floating around. I truly have watched whole groups of people who stop watching the game and watch a bag or a napkin floating around the stadium because it is really, it's kind of intriguing to watch to tell you the truth. So we've got the choice between that and the anchor, that anchor of hope, and if we're not firmly anchored to the hope that God's laid out for us, we can be like that. There are all kinds of drafts that come across in life. We have no idea where they're going to blow us, and we don't want to be that helpless grocery bag in the stadium blowing around. Let's turn to 1st Peter 1, which ties down this hope a little more specifically. And I think whenever we talk about hope, we have to realize in today's popular language there's not really much difference between hope and wish. In today's world, if we say the word hope, I hope this will happen. I hope I can go to Disneyland again, whatever it might be. We're not really talking about something that we expect to happen. We're talking about something that's kind of out there and we're fantasizing that wouldn't it be nice if, but we know it's probably not actually likely to happen. It's not what biblical hope is. That's not the way it's talked about. 1st Peter 1 verse 3.

Bless be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercies, begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Colossians 1 verse 27 likewise talks about Jesus Christ in you, the hope of glory.

And the example or the direction of hope is always towards Jesus Christ, towards the resurrection, towards the glorified bodies that we're going to receive, what we're going to inherit as Christians.

It's not something ethereal. It's not something vague. It's actually something very specific when it's talked about in the Bible. It always points to Jesus Christ. It always points to glory in him and the things that he will deliver to his people. And like I said, this has not only to do with us as individuals, it has to do with us as a body. It's something we together proclaim to the world, the hope that's there in Jesus Christ, the fact that this life is not the end of everything, that there is something else for people, that there's a greater purpose, that there's an opportunity for everyone to know God, that there's an opportunity for eternal life and a kingdom of God that's coming. That is the hope. We also use it with one another, don't we? We won't turn there right now. 1 Thessalonians 4, 18. If you want to look there later, 1 Thessalonians 4 talks about Jesus Christ coming. Those who are dead will be raised first. Others will come and meet the Lord in the air. And what else does it say as a punchline to that whole section? It says, comfort one another with these words. Comfort one another with these words. Talking about within the body as we're dealing with one another, as we see the time approaching, it's talked about in other places that we're encouraging one another. It's this hope, this very specific hope of the plan of God, evidence through Jesus Christ and his resurrection as the firstborn among many brethren. That's something we use to encourage one another, to focus our eyes on, and to talk about to the entire world. So hope is very specific. It's in Jesus Christ and his resurrection, and by extension the promise that we'll likewise be resurrected and made whole. So as established Christians, we're firmly anchored to the hope that's in Jesus Christ, the reward he has for us, and we strengthen one another in that hope. And keeping our eyes on the plan of God enables us as individuals and as a body from drifting and being blown about in controversy and false teachings and whatever else might come along in the world around us.

So those are three elements of being established, being established Christians. I hope that as we take this walk from Passover to Pentecost and consider our spiritual lives, consider what happened through Jesus Christ at Passover, what happened as the Holy Spirit came and established God's church, and how we need to act as Christians as a result. These things will provide some interesting food for thought and some things to look at further. The analogies we've explored speak to three dimensions again of being established Christians, all very relevant to us at this time.

First of all, an individual dimension. We're each individually planted in Jesus Christ, and we have to grow a strong root system not only to survive, but to survive as vibrant and healthy Christians. Secondly, a group dimension. We're part of a spiritual temple that God is building in Jesus Christ. We need to continue to look at Him as the cornerstone, the model of how we conduct ourselves in a way that strengthens and builds that spiritual temple of God. And then thirdly, there's the third dimension that transcends both organizational group and individual dimensions, and that is that we have this secure anchor of hope, promise of resurrection and being glorified as Jesus was, and that we have to remain tied as individuals, tied together, and use that hope to strengthen one another and encourage our brethren. As we go forward to Pentecost, may we all be deeply rooted, built on a solid foundation, and securely anchored.