Easter 2002
Tom Shrader addresses those who are skeptical of or unfamiliar with Christianity, arguing from Romans 3 that every person is separated from God by sin and that no amount of personal effort or religious activity can bridge that gap. Drawing on Romans 10:9 and John 14:6, he presents Jesus Christ as the only provision for sin and the only path to God. He closes by inviting listeners to speak with church representatives and pursue answers to their spiritual questions.
“The reason is, stuff isn't gonna get it. New clothes aren't gonna satisfy you. That's your problem. And you're saying, there's something missing and I know it.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Easter
Recorded: 2002 at East Valley Bible Church
Duration: 22 min
Themes: easter, resurrection, sin, salvation, skepticism, faith, forgiveness, hope, skeptic, seeking answers, not yet a christian, spiritually curious, nominal christian, feeling far from god, young adult, unchurched
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 15, Romans 3:10-12, Romans 3:23, Romans 6:23, Romans 10:9, John 14:6, John 3:3
Theological Themes: soteriology, salvation by grace, hamartiology, doctrine of sin, exclusivity of christ, justification, atonement, general revelation
Full Transcript
Welcome and Purpose
We have been spending the last three or four weeks in First Corinthians 15, which is the resurrection chapter. In God's divine providence, He has brought us right through the resurrection chapter just as we head into Easter. There are special times in the course of the year when we stop and acknowledge that a Sunday will be a little different. This Sunday is different primarily in that we see so many of you who come to join us on this day, and I want to say again — it is an honor and a privilege to have you with us.
I learned a long time ago that it is fine to have something to say, but it really does not matter if you do not understand who you are speaking to, what they are thinking, or who specifically you have in mind. I do today. I want to talk to those of you who, at least in your own estimation, would say you are not a Christian — or you would say you are a Christian, but not like us. You have your own brand of Christianity: a little bit of this, a dash of that, your own version. You would acknowledge that there is a God, but church and Bible do not mean much to you. You are the group I want to speak to. I want to direct my comments right to you and bottom-line it, net it out.
The Question on the Radio
I was listening to the radio last Thursday, and I happened to get in the car with it on KFYI, talk radio. The host was Bob Mohan, and he posed this question to his audience for the next hour: Why is church attendance at pre-September 11th levels?
That may not mean much to you, so let me explain what he was saying. After September 11th, there was a spike in church attendance. Churches were growing anywhere from twenty to thirty percent in a matter of a week — literally overnight. The Friday after September 11th, the president declared a national day of prayer and said we should pray at noon that day. We got calls from businesses all around us, calls from people everywhere asking if they could come to the church and pray. That Friday, this place was jammed. We have not seen them since.
Mohan spotted this and asked, as we come into Easter, what is the deal? What do you think happened? It did not take me long to come up with an answer, because I had thought about it as it was happening. If you remember, people were declaring it a time of revival. I said: a revival? What is astounding is that when Mohan gave his own answer, it was the same as mine.
We Don't Need God
Here is what I believe the answer is to that question: we do not need God. That is the explanation. We do not need God. But there are moments when we are not entirely certain about all the confidence we have placed in ourselves and our own theology — even if just for a moment. In a corporate moment like September 11th, or perhaps in an individual moment when the doctor calls and says there is a spot on the X-ray and they are not certain what it is, or when a spouse says they do not love you anymore, or when a job says you have been downsized — in moments like those, there can be a passing sense that I need something bigger than myself.
There was a bumper sticker about fifteen years ago that said this perfectly. You bought it in Christian bookstores, and if you went to churches you would see it all over the parking lots. I never understood why someone would want it on their car. Here is what it said: God is my co-pilot. Stop and think about that for just a second. If God is the co-pilot, who is flying the plane? Who is driving the car? Who is running the ship?
To me, that bumper sticker was the height of arrogance. Here is what it says: God, there are going to be times that are a little rough, and I will slide the controls over to You — but do not get used to it, because I am going to want them right back. I am the pilot. I am the captain of the ship. I am the master of my fate. And that is what most people have done.
The Question of Which God
When you start to look at the statistics, on the surface they do not make any sense. Ninety-four to ninety-six percent of the American public say they believe in God. If you are here today, in all likelihood you believe in God. The question is: what God? Which God? What does He look like? What are His attributes?
A great deal of how you think about God is going to influence how you see yourself. Here is the problem — you know it, you see it all the time, you hear it on talk radio: everybody is okay. I am okay, you are okay, we are okay. There might even be some annoying person in your office, and someone will say, "Deep down inside, he is a pretty good guy." Deep down inside. You have to go pretty deep sometimes — but the idea is that when you get down there, people are basically good. That is man's view of himself.
God's View of Mankind
Man's view of man is that everything is okay. There are a few rough edges, but the attitude is: I am all right. I am even religious. I have dealt with God. Don't bug me, I won't bug you, and if I need you, I'll let you know. That is exactly what this is all about.
If you want to know God, don't ask the guys in the office what He is like. Don't talk to the gals at the club. If you want to know what God is like, you have to come to this book right here. This is where you discover what God is like. When you discover God and what He is like, you are going to discover that He has a very different view of your life than you do.
Here is how God sees you: "There is none righteous, not even one. There is none who understands. There are none who seek for God. All have turned aside. Together, they have become useless. There is none who does good, not even one." When you hear that, you want to rebel against it. You say, no, no, no — I do good things and I know people who do good things.
How can you have two absolutely opposing views of mankind? How can you have the popular view that says I am okay and I do some pretty good stuff, while God says no one does anything good? The difference is this: God is measuring by a very different standard, and God looks at the heart. You and I are stuck with the externals — we can only look at the action. God looks at the heart of the actor.
God knows everything you have done, everything you have said, everything you have thought, and everything you intended to do. He not only knows what you have done — He knows why you have done it, what you have said and why you have said it, what you have thought and why you have thought it, what your plans were and what your real motives were. And God looks and He says no.
Turning Away from God
He says this: "You have turned aside." It is an interesting phrase. In the Greek, it means to lean in the wrong direction. It is a picture of a soldier running the wrong way, deserting. We run not to this God, but away from Him. If you are here today and you are not a Christian, you may be running to a God — listen closely — but it is a false god. It is a false god made in your own image. What is so fascinating is that you understand there is something missing.
Paul continues right after this in Romans chapter 3 and he says, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." I have never had anybody challenge that. There is the popular phrase: nobody's perfect. If nobody's perfect, then everyone is flawed, and what that flaw is, is sin. But we have a cavalier view of that — well, I didn't quite measure up, boys will be boys. God says sin is when we move contrary to His will, and there are consequences: "For the wages of sin is death."
The Sin Problem Beneath Every Longing
If you are here today, you are a sinner. That is your fundamental problem. I don't know you from a post, but I know your problem. It is not that you don't have more money, it is not that you don't have a nicer house, it is not that you don't have enough cars. Have you finally reached the point where you are ready to say enough is enough?
It starts when we are very little kids. From the time you were ten, you couldn't wait to be twelve. When I was thirteen — and this is really foolish — I would sit in the family car in the garage with no keys and pretend to be driving because I couldn't wait to turn sixteen. Now, when we are heading to the car, I throw the keys in the air and hope somebody grabs them to drive because I am sick of driving.
But isn't that the way we live? If I can just get her to go out with me, I've arrived. If I can get him to go steady, if I can get out of high school, if I can get to college, if I can get out of college, if I can get a job — not just any job, that job with that company, not just a position down here but management — then I'll be fulfilled. If I can get her to marry me, I'll be happy. If I can get her to divorce me, I'll be even more happy. And it just goes on and on.
You wonder why. Why is it this way? Why is enough never enough? Why am I never satisfied? Why am I happy, but happy for just a moment? Some of you have been at life long enough to realize that in the midst of success comes even greater despair, because now the dog has caught the car. You have achieved what you thought would make you happy, and you are just as miserable as you were before.
The reason is that the problem is not circumstantial — the problem is a sin problem. You have sinned against the one true God. Your problem is not material; it is spiritual.
The Wage of Sin and the Gift of Life
The wage of your sin is what you have earned. When you say you want God to give you what you deserve, He says: fine, here are your wages, here is what you have earned — death. Death means separation. Here is your problem today: you are separated from God, and nothing is going to fix that on your own. There is nothing you can do.
"The free gift of God is eternal life" — where? In Christ Jesus, and nowhere else. We have diagnosed the problem, and there is the antidote. If you do not know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you are dead. The good news is that God has raised Jesus up and He put an end to the agony of death — not the physical agony, but the spiritual agony.
The Reality of Death
There is an uncertainty that comes with death. Perhaps it has happened in your high school class — all of a sudden a kid is killed in some tragic way, most frequently a car wreck. That has a profound impact on that school for a moment. It stays with us through life. There are parents who die, friends who die. As you get older, you get closer and closer, and now you see friends at sixty, seventy, eighty years old dying, and pretty soon you come to the realization that you are next.
What Happens After Death?
We are not going to get out of this deal. The statistics on death are impressive: one out of one people die. There is no way around this. So what then? There are all sorts of theories, but at that moment, I am not looking for theory. I need fact. I do not care what you think at that moment. I do not even care what you feel at that moment. I need to know what is true.
As Paul unrolls for us mankind and our problem, he gives us the solution in Romans 10: "If we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in our heart that God raised Him from the dead, we will be saved." Even the word *saved* raises a question — saved from what? You do not even feel like you are in jeopardy. And that is what makes this so frightening.
You Already Know Something Is Wrong
That is why you come to church once in a while. That is why, in a moment of crisis, you will fire up a prayer to the big guy upstairs. That is why once in a while you will dust off a Bible, pick it up, read it, think it did not make any sense, and put it away. Because instinctively, you know there is something wrong.
Yesterday on television, they showed men in the Philippines walking barefoot on broken glass for three miles, whipping themselves as they walked. We see this every year around Easter and Good Friday. Their backs were bloody, and other men were using razor blades to cut one another's backs. The commentator said this: they are trying to find forgiveness for their sin. You see, you already know something is wrong. I am not telling you anything new.
You know something is missing. That is why there is the grab for more stuff. That is why you want the geographical cure — people who say, "If I can just move to Montana, I'll be happy." If I can get this job, if I can start this company, then I will be happy. You sense there is something wrong. And what is wrong is your sin.
The Rescue You Cannot Provide for Yourself
You need to be rescued. You need to be saved. You need to be saved from yourself, not by yourself. You need to be saved from your own solutions and your own religion. This is really serious business, and it is really narrow.
Jesus said it this way: "I am the way and the truth and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through Me." Does that sound narrow? He uses the definite article. He says, "I am the way, and there is no other. I am the truth, and there is no other. I am the life, and there is no other." Jesus says you must be born again — born again spiritually. That is the problem. You are dead spiritually, and you must be born again.
I used to look at that and say, that is narrow — how do I explain that to somebody? Then I thought about childbirth. Coming into this world was a little narrow myself, a little hard, a little exclusive. But we do not object to that. It is the same thing spiritually. I know how confrontational these words can be, and if they are, it is only because we love you. But hear this: if you are not a born-again evangelical Christian, you are not going to heaven. It is not me who says that — that is God. Your own devices will not get you there. Trying to be a good person will not get you there.
Why Someone Brought You Here Today
Someone invited you here today. They have been asking for a long time — maybe a neighbor who has been bringing you cookies, being kind to you, until finally they said, "Will you go to church with me?" And you said, "Will you leave me alone if I do?" I know the room is filled with all sorts of people with all sorts of different motives. Some of you are here because grandpa has his platinum card and you are headed to the Biltmore for brunch. Some of you are here because you are married to someone who comes every week, and you decided to throw them this bone.
Do you ever wonder why they keep asking you to come? I will tell you why: because they love you. They understand that this is true, and they understand that anything other than this, according to God Himself, does not work. That is why.
The Emptiness That Stuff Cannot Fill
Here is what I have learned over the years. In fifteen minutes I can raise a lot of questions, but I do not really get to answer many of them. I also know, having done this, that everything I have told you hit home. I know it does, because I know it is true.
You can come in on a day like today looking so good — some better than others, by the way. Maybe your friends have even said, "I don't know how you can't be happy. You've got everything." And you are driving home saying to yourself, "Then why am I so miserable?" The reason is that stuff is not going to get it. New clothes are not going to satisfy you. New houses are not going to do it. It is not going to work.
Sally Field, the actress, said this: "Ever since I was a little girl, there was something in my life — I'll call it a yearning." That is what God places in your life. You are empty apart from Him.
An Invitation to Keep Asking Questions
Like I said, we raise more questions than we answer in a time like this, and I know that. That is why, when we are done, there will be three or four men standing up here for one specific reason — not to pressure you today, but simply to exchange information, to get your name and address and give you some material, so they can set up a time to talk with you. You are asking all the right questions. To ask who am I, why am I here, and where am I going — those are great questions.
Closing Appeal
These are legitimate questions, and you deserve legitimate answers. The only place you will find them is in this Word. Apart from this, everything else is a guess. If it is different than this, it is wrong. This is the infallible Word of God.
These men are going to be here, and I know there is a lot of time pressure today. Take thirty seconds, sixty seconds, and come talk to them. Exchange some information. Others have been doing it throughout the day. Schedule a time when they can come and meet with you, or you can come and meet with them, or call us at the office. We exist partly to answer the questions you have.
We love you, and that is why we have invited you here today. We are glad you are here. We want to tell you the truth, and this is the truth.
Closing Prayer
Father, thank You for Jesus. Thank You for the solution You have provided for us — the solution for our sin. God, we admit that apart from You we are helpless and there is nothing we can do. In our sin and trespasses we are dead.
God, thank You that You loved us so much that You sent Your Son to die. When we say everybody's sin, every person here knows it rings true. What we ask is that Your Spirit would help us see the gravity of that sin and how desperately we need a Savior.
God, help us understand that there is one provision that is acceptable, and it is the provision of Christ and Christ alone. I pray especially for those here who are visitors, that You would make them uncomfortable until they go and get answers to these questions. Father, thank You for this truth. Thank You for this day. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.