My Stand Up Sermon

If ever I was asked, in an emergency, to lead a service in church I would not be lost for a sermon. Although I preach from a written sermon, and always have, there is one passage I could use for a sermon and I could preach without a verbatim document in front of me. It is the eleventh chapter of Hebrews in the New Testament. My text would be "Faith gives substance to our hopes and convinces us of realities we do not see."

This chapter from the Letter to the Hebrews is crammed full of instances from the Old Testament of people who had faith. "By faith Abel offered a greater sacrifice than Cain.....Enoch was taken up to another life without passing through death.....Noah took good heed of the divine warning about the unseen future.....Abraham obeyed the call to leave his home.....Sarah herself was enabled to conceive, though she was past the age.....Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau and spoke of things to come.....Joseph, at the end of his life, spoke of the departure of Israel from Egypt.....Moses.. refused to be called a son of Pharoah's daughter.....etc

I can wax poetic about what these people faced and still chose, by faith, to take the path preferred by God. They all saw what God had chosen them to do and obeyed him in faith. No matter what danger they faced, they knew God was calling and this was good enough for them. The last two verses of Chapter eleven says this, "All these won God's approval because of their faith; and yet they did not receive what was promised, because, with us in mind, God had made a better plan, that only with us should they reach perfection.

Now it has to be said, at this point, that without doubt there is no faith. Faith is not the valuable commodity we speak of unless it is something which overcomes doubt. So, even if you are a born again Christian, you will have doubts from time to time. If you find your life testing then your doubts will be more debilitating than if you have an event-free time. But in both cases there will be doubt. After years of solid belief there have been times when I have suddenly had doubts. What if I am wrong? On what am I basing my belief? Can I trust it? Is it safe to carry on like this? If I felt rock solid all the time people would worry about me. It is the basic feeling of doubt that is dealt with through faith.

If I am wrong then there will be absolutely nothing at the end of my days upon earth. If there is nothing then I have no need to worry. But I want more than this. I do not want to arrive at a blank wall and raealise it was a pointless existence. I want a vision of something extra special. I have not come this far to be knocked back by doubt. Where can I find something to give back my faith - to remind me what I always believed?

Look at the last book in the Bible. It is called The Revelation of St John. This book illuminates what is to come. Because it was written at a dangerous time when its author could have found himself arrested and put to death for his words it had to be written with a certain amount of code. The people for whom it was intended would be able to interpret the code. They would recognise certain numbers and words that were used to disguise who or what they were describing. It is this which makes it an extremely difficult book to understand for us today.

Without taking you through it, bit by bit, let me show you what is the ultimate promise to us at the end. The angel takes the dreamer, John, to the celestial city - the new Jerusalem. There is a description of its beauty and the priceless stones that are part of the place to give it its special status. Then John says, "I saw no temple in the city, for its temple was the sovereign Lord God and the Lamb. (God and Jesus) The city did not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gave it light, and its lamp was the Lamb. By its light shall the nations walk, and to it the kings of the earth shall bring their splendour. The gates of the city shall never be shut by day, nor will there be any night there. The splendour and wealth of the nations shall be brought into it, but nothing unclean shall enter, nor anyone whose ways are foul or false; only those shall enter whose names are inscribed in the Lamb's book of life."

Then we witness the most beautiful picture which must be impossible to paint. Listen to this description of what is there. "Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, sparkling like crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the city's street. On either side of the river stood a tree of life, which yields twelve crops of fruit, one for each month of the year. The leaves of the trees are for the healing of the nations. Every accursed thing shall disappear. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be there, and his servants shall worship him; they shall see him face to face and bear his name on their foreheads. There shall be no more night, nor will they need the light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will give them light; and they shall reign forever."

Occasionally I use this as the Bible reading at funeral services I take. I want the bereaved to know there is something beyond the horizon of death and that it is both good and of benefit. For committed Chritians there is even more comfort. When they have doubts they can read of this vision and see there is something beyond the horizon. Ultimately, when we have struggled to do what is right at all times we need something to inherit. If death is really the end then we have led a pointless existence. But if there is something as beautiful as the city described by John then we can look forward with joy to our eventual inheritance. We can, ecause God has promised it.