Sermon Notes

“The Miracle of Simplicity”

By Tom Hanson 

March 4^th, 2012

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The church is not a lounge for Christians; it’s a hospital for sinners.  Jesus’ last message was to go forth, and teach all nations, baptizing them…  Some of the same people who crucified Jesus were saved by Jesus. 

 2 Corinthians 11:3      …your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.

 This is scripture.  You notice that he didn’t say, “The complexity that is in Christ.”  Let’s go back in time, and revisit some of the great men of God.

 Genesis 4:4     …firstlings of his flock…

 Abel brought the first of his flock, while Cain just brought an offering.  God didn’t respect Cain’s offering, but He did respect Abel’s offering; as He will today, if we bring Him the first of what we have. 

Do you remember Ruth?  Ruth had a sister-in-law named Orpah, and when their husbands died, and the mother-in-law was going back to Israel, Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, and went back to her own people, but Ruth clave unto her.

Noah lived in a world filled with violence—a lot like today—but God called him to build an ark.  It took about a hundred years for Noah to build the ark, and just he, and his wife, and their three sons, and their wives were allowed in the ark.  Eight souls were saved by water (1 Peter 3:20-21).  God told Noah that He would give him a covenant.

 Genesis 9:9-17            …I establish my covenant…

 The word ‘covenant’ appears nine times in this passage…  God provided a visual reminder of His covenant: a rainbow.  The rainbow was only for one family, and one patriarch of this family.  People today still stop and comment on rainbows.

The miracle of simplicity is a big miracle.

Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness (Genesis 15:6).  In Noah’s day, all of the evil had been wiped off the earth, but, by Abraham’s day, the population had increased.  God gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision.  God separated Abraham and his child of promise, Isaac from all the people.

God gave Moses Ten Commandments, and much more.  This was more sophisticated, more complex, more detailed…  There were a lot of instructions.  It wasn’t God’s intention that it get this involved.  The performing of God’s instructions resulted in some of the greatest worship services ever recorded.  Israel had a tabernacle, and God filled the tabernacle.  Solomon built a Temple, and God filled the Temple.

The first computers were big, as big as a house.  What we take for granted today in our everyday technical world is a far cry from the first glorious appearance of the incredible computer.  We look back at it today, and it seems like a dinosaur of technology, but, if you think about it, when you go to the museum, do you go see the gecko?  Do you go see the rare butterfly from New Guinea?  No, you go to see Sue, the T-Rex. 

In a sense, so it is with salvation.  We’ve gone from the Old Testament, with all its complicated laws, to Jesus.  Peter was a fisherman, but he went on to walk on water (Matthew 14:29); his shadow healed people (Acts 5:15).  He was able to do this by God’s power, because Jesus was God manifest in the flesh (1 Timothy 3:16).  What at one time was a formidable collection of laws has, by the mercy of God, been given to us in the perfection of the simplicity that is Christ.

There was a man in the desert, and God sent Philip to go talk to him, and he was reading Isaiah, and Philip began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus (Acts 8:26-38), and his life was changed.  My life was changed, too; God took sin away from my life.  He told me to believe and to be baptized.  Baptism is the circumcision made without hands (Colossians 2:17).  We should be inspired by the simplicity.

What kind of people do we need to be?

 Micah 6:8        …what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy…

 Jesus said He would break a bruised reed (Matthew 12:20), but we walk around like bruisers…

 Matthew 11:28-30       …I am meek and lowly in heart…

 This is the kind of person that we need to be.  Jesus wasn’t bragging about what He had done, or what He could do…

 Isaiah 66:2      …to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit…

 Psalms 34:18  …a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.

 Psalms 51:17  …a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.

 Many are called, but few are chosen (Matthew 20:16).  Let’s be among the few that accept the miracle of simplicity.

                             Sermon notes by Pete Shepherd