God is in control
The text for my sermon is 1 Corinthians 1:25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.
Some people can question today if God is in control especially with the coronavirus pandemic? So let us look at God’s record.
As we look throughout history we can see the hand of God very much in action and in control. The timing of Jesus Christ coming into this world on his rescue mission of salvation was spot on and conditions were perfect for the spread of the Gospel.
The Roman State was near its maximum extent and a network of roads was built throughout the empire, all leading to Rome which would make it easy for the early missionaries to travel and spread the gospel far and wide. The roman navy had cleared the Mediterranean sea of pirates and there was the pax romana, the roman peace throughout the land. The empire was united by a common language greek, which occupied the position english has in the world today, so language was not a barrier to the spread of the gospel as the New Testament was written in greek.
It would seem from a human point of view that Jesus dying on the cross for our sins was a foolish way for God to bring salvation to the world. This would mean that Jesus would be crucified, which was the penalty reserved for there very worst of criminals and that Jesus would die in ignominy and shame, however let us remember our text 1 Corinthians 1:25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.
For many clever and intellectual people at the time of the first century this would not make any sense, however we have to look at God’s perspective and not any human point of view.
The problem with humanity was that sin had caused a barrier between God and mankind. Romans 3:23 says that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. For us to get to heaven, God’s standard of perfection is 100% which no human being has ever reached. The only way possible for us to be made 100% perfect in God’s eyes is for Jesus to pay the penalty for our sins on the cross. Jesus is the only person that could make this sacrifice, is that He is the only human being who lived a perfect life and never sinned, also Jesus is God as well.
So this is the way of salvation and the world needs to accept this by faith and have Him Lord, Saviour and master of their lives. The grace of God is a completely free gift that God offers to us and there is nothing we can do to earn our salvation.
The collapse of the Roman Empire with the fall of Rome was a major event. Barbarian tribes invaded the empire and christianity was wiped out in large areas of Europe. Here in Ireland the church thrived and Irish missionaries reintroduced christianity to much of Europe.
In the middle ages the church lost its way and lost sight of the gospel of grace in which God’s salvation in Christ is a completely free gift. The church sold indulgences where people paid money for their sins to be forgiven.
Martin Luther published his Ninety-five Theses of October 1517 and nailed them to the door of his church outlining the abuses of the indulgence system and reforms needed in the church. Little did he think that this would spark a mass movement for the reformation of the church. Printing had been invented and through the medium of print his ideas spread far and wide.
Our Protestant tradition encourages us to think for ourselves and ask questions about the faith and not to let the church do the thinking for us. 1 Peter 3:15 says “But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect”, The bible encourages us to work out for ourselves why we believe in Jesus as our saviour.
With the intellectual freedom of the reformation the modern scientific world came into being and was made possible.
Recently we celebrated victory in Europe day, the second world war has been the defining event of the 20th century. If Nazi Germany had won the world would be in a new dark age and freedom and democracy would have been lost to the world. God has been in control here as he has been throughout history. The second world war led to the formation of the state of Israel in fulfilment of biblical prophesy.
In the eighty’s there was the Chernobyl nuclear accident where radiation was spread throughout most of Europe. This was a disaster but things could have been much worse. The communist party tried initially to cover this up and the accident was partially caused by bad design of the nuclear reactor. The mishandling of all of this resulted in the collapse of the soviet union and the liberation of Eastern Europe from communism. God always brings the best out of a bad situation.
Today we are dealing with the coronavirus pandemic. How will God use this situation ? to bring the best out of it ? time will tell. Bad things happen in history but God always surprises us in how He works things out.
One positive development is that despite the virus shutting churches down the paradox is that the church now has more opportunity to present people with the gospel than before via online and social media. At time of writing there has been a spike in the number of visits to the parish website, up 331% in the last 4 weeks alone and most of this has been by mobile phone. The parish Facebook site is growing in numbers.
So God is in control, there has never been any doubt about this and God has shown his hand in history and throughout the salvation history of the Old Testament in the redemption of the people of Israel.
What is the most important of all of this?, It is at a personal level in our lives where we can see how God has been in control in our lives and all the personal crises He has brought us through, to God be the glory.
Finally see the amazing video on the link https://youtu.be/ZSs09SBCuy8 where a christian couple were on their way to the airport when they had a flat tyre and missed the flight. The flight in question turned out to be one of the planes that was highjacked in the 9/11 attack on the world trade centre in New York.