Understanding Life and Second Chances

econd Chances is something that is from the front cover of the Bible to the back but it’s common within the standard Fair of the world that we are in May West for example said concerning my former husbands I’ll give them a second chance with somebody else John Wayne was a little less cynical when he said everybody deserves a second chance but I’m going to keep an eye on him I like the one where someone says I like the second chance and it’s defined as tomorrow so

what we have as we move into this Christmas season is the reality that we are people who by grace are given Second Chances and in order to understand that we have to understand the pattern in the Bible and the god of the Bible different than the miscon conceptions that we might have for example when I talk about God the Father some of you may have kind of idealic Hollywood eyes view of a of a God that sits in his Heavens with a white beard kind of

doting along oh no that’s our president no wait that as kind of doting along and understanding very little of what’s going on that’s kind of a hollywoodized view of God or you could or you could see God as some God the father as someone like your father because we all have had human fathers more or less in our life some good some bad some ugly and that influences our view of God as well but the Bible kind of restructures us in terms of not only the

subject of Second Chances but of God the Father beginning In The Garden of paradise of what we call the Garden of Eden and we’re introduced soon into the Bible only three chapters into the Bible with something that is all through the Bible called rhetorical questions rhetorical questions are questions that you already know the answer to I always hated rhetorical questions as a kid because my mother would say when I got in trouble okay you did this didn’t you and I always resented that question question because

only about 90% of the CH time had I done the problem that was created and for the 10% I was feeling quite righteous about that but a rhetorical question is somebody you know the answer to you’re trained as a lawyer in cross-examination Rabbit Trail for a minute that you never ask a question cross-examination unless you already know the answer to it well when it comes to the Bible God asks rhetorical questions meaning he knows the answer ahead of time if he doesn’t we are in trouble

so in Genesis chter 3 with the creation of Adam and Eve made in the image and likeness of God Eve stamped as the very good provision to Adam for which Adam said I am man is I am man is Hebrew and you shall be known as woman Isha I h a you came from me but Paradise dwindles away real quickly with the rebellion of Genesis 3 and as you know first the serpent comes to the woman and says you know you can you can eat of

this tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil because it won’t do anything and besides it will make you wise and the woman took and she ate and she gave to her husband and he ate and then the rhetorical questions started in Genesis chapter 3 the text says but the Lord God Called to the man where are you now God knew where Adam and Eve were and he said I heard you but I was afraid because I was naked so I hid so he asked a

second question who said that you were naked what level of knowledge an embarrassment do you have that you didn’t have earlier in the garden and then he said did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from and first Adam and then Eve did the manly Thing by saying the woman gave it to me and the woman saying the serpent gave it to me and so with the rhetorical questions of Genesis 3 god Set Adam and Eve up for the consequences of

their behavior and the grace of Second Chances God could have said to these made in the image and likeness of God crash I’m done now he will later on in the Book of Genesis have that disposition in Genesis 6 with the Rebellion when the sons of man cohabited with the daughters of men and created the Nephilim and God said I’m done I’m done T but not in Genesis 3 he said to the woman pain you’ll have in childbirth and your husband will rule over you and

that was the first consequence to sin in the garden of daughters of Eve in that they will have marital conflict not intended initially but it would happen because of the struggle of man and woman over each other to the woman he saidy you’ll have pain in childbirth to Adam he saidy you’ll toil in the garden with a sweat of your brow and the serpent said you’re dead man walking and it’ll happen at the cross with the head wound and as if we didn’t understand the nature

of Second Chances and consequences that come with it we moveed to that remarkable passage in Genesis 4 where Eve had Adam excuse me had and Abel and there was for reasons that are not revealed in the text God approving of Abel’s sacrifice and not approving of canes and before anything happened before the murder of abble by Cain God said this then the Lord said to Cain why are you angry he knew that it’s a rhetorical question then he said why is your face downcast wake up

Cain turn it around turn it around before it’s too late and then in one of the most staggering warnings in the Bible God said if you do what’s right will you not be accept accepted but if you do not do what is right sin is crouching at your door its desire is to have you you must Master it now that word desire is the same word in Genesis 3 that was used of man Desiring and ruling over the wife and God said to Cain wake up

before it’s too late ignoring that sobering warning Cain slew his brother Abel God came back to him and said where’s your brother there’s another rhetorical question we are getting to John 21 we will get there he said where is your brother I don’t know am I My Brother’s Keeper the Lord said whatat have you done and as a consequence of that you’re going to wander in the land and obviously the implication is you’re going to be exposed to all the dangers that associate moving out of

my protective care Cain said that’s too much and within the second chance and consequences of Genesis 4 God said okay nobody lay your hand on him I’ll give him that and you go on and on through the Bible in Genesis 6 and Genesis 6 is so sobering we at least need to read the fact that with the rebellion in the human race that was really perating permeating the DNA essentially watering the daughters of the sons of Adam and daughters of Eve down to try and prevent

the head wound that would come to the serpent it is God that said in Genesis chapter six the Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become and that every inclination of his thoughts of his heart was only Evil all the time the Lord was grieved that he made man on the earth and his heart was filled with pain so the Lord said I’ll wipe mankind who I’ve created from the face of the Earth men and animals and creatures that move along the ground

and birds of the air for I am grieved that I have made them these made in the image of God I made in my image I’m done their history but Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord so with Noah standing in the breach on behalf of the human race God relented concerning the destruction of the human race because of sin and gave all of us a second chance A continuing Chance by the provisions of the flood and the Ark and the story goes on

and on and so you can’t open your Bible without understanding ing that we have a God who is the god of the Second Chances consequences come to conduct that is not appropriate or sinful but we’re given Second Chances we go to Job chapter 1 and I’m getting increasing encouragement from the body to go back and spend a number of weeks teaching in the Book of Job And I think I will I I think I’ll get through the face to face series first in in the gospels

but this is an amazing book and every time you open it you’re struck again in the land of us there lived a man whose name was job the man was blameless and upright he feared God and shunned evil and he went on to talk about having seven sons and three daughters so job illustrates the first of two trials that come in life for you and me troubles and trials can come in your life through no fault of your own mark it down the mistake that job’s

friends made and that job kind of got sucked into was you must have done something wrong for all of the losses to camels and sheep and ox and and servants and 10 sons and daughters and then the loss of his health leaving only his wife to say curse God and die but in that that book we learn that trials can come in life through no fault of your own mark it down do not let people tell you that if you’re struggling it’s because in fact you’ve

done something wrong The Book of Job says no there are two Alternatives and one of them is job was without sin but job got worn down and so God in a fashion of Second Chances said we’re going to we’re going to do some corrective instruction to you job and in Job chapter 38 and then Job chapter 40 twice that phrase comes out brace yourself like a man remember when we go in the original language we’re not changing the meaning don’t let people do that there used

to be when I was a new Young theologue in seminary there was some guy on the radio that said teaching in the Greek by a Greek I thought that’s kind of stupid as if you get a special message when you get to the original language you don’t you get color TV as opposed to black and white when it says brace you like a man it means that’s a term that’s a construction term it says I’m bracing up I’m Shoring up the walls I’m making situations stronger

and God said job brace yourself like a man where were you when I laid the foundations of the Earth where were you when I poured the Wonders that you see where were you when I was spreading the stars in the sky and in chapter 38 and chapter 40 job was getting the message by the end because in chapter 40 God said who’s that is trying to condemn me and correct me let him who accuses God answer him and joob had the wisdom to say I I’m

unworthy I won’t say a word and God said again brace yourself like a man man up really I I didn’t teach this in the Book of Job but it kind of is there it’s God not only saying to job man up it’s saying to job be careful here shut up it really is it’s saying there’s going to come things in your life that you do not understand you didn’t do anything wrong but it’s a proving process that God has in your life and when you complain

you say I’ve got a lock it in cause and effect somewhere the Bible says no you don’t just look around where were you when God laid the foundations of the earth what is the purpose that comes in the struggles in life that come without our fault is this that job said my ears have heard you but my now my eyes have seen you therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and Ashes I’ve made the jump I’ve enlarged my understanding of who you are as God

remember I said at the beginning of this the misconceptions of God the father either a bad father that I might have had or the Hollywood eyes of the father all that’s kind of put aunder in job 42 when job says God will bring hard times in your life to grow you up this is the old Old Testament version of James chapter 1 consider it Joy when you encounter various trials knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance let endurance have its perfect work that you

may be complete not lacking in anything that’s James 1 job 42 a little postcript and then we’ll get to John 21 certain critics of the Book of Job including really fine historians like Elie visel who was a advocate for the Jews said I I don’t understand job because at the end job gets everything back and he did he got 14,000 sheep he got 6,000 camels he got 1,000 ox and 1,000 th donkeys and he got all 10 children restored to him is that a message that

if we understand God’s purposes in her life We’re Off to the Races he’s going to restore us physically and in every way in this planet and the answer is no job came to his re his realization of God in verse six which said I Knew You by my eyes now I know you by my heart heart it is the understanding that comes regardless of the consequences and the future that comes in our life so the rhetorical questions of God stretch not only to the Old Testament

but to the new John chapter 21 and now you have your hand out John 21 addresses a common dialogue that Jesus had with Peter but it’s given at times short shrift when it comes to the full message reading in the handout in the bulletin after Jesus had died and risen from the dead and he was in the midst of his 40 days with the disciples Jesus when he’d finish eating came to Simon Peter and said Simon Son of God son son of John do you love

me more more than these yes Lord he said you know that I love you Jesus said feed my Lambs again Jesus said Simon son of John do you love me he answered yes Lord you know that I love you you know Jesus said take care of my sheep these rhetorical questions folding upon Peter the third time Jesus said to him Simon son of John do you love me pet was hurt because John Jesus had asked him the third time do you love me he said Lord

you know all things you know that I love you Jesus said feed my sheep that’s the first of this section of dialogue between Jesus and Peter it’s well known and it clearly was Jesus taking Peter past the Colossal failures of weeks before this is Peter who earlier on in Jesus Ministry Jesus said about him you are Petros and upon you I’ll build my church this is Peter who when they came to arrest Jesus grabbed a sword and whacked out at one of the soldiers and cut

off his ear this is Jesus who even when this is Peter even when Jesus predicted his denials and he said I’ll lay down my life for you Lord now this is Peter who in a colossal sense of failure not only denied the Lord three times when asked in the context of the crucifixion but he ran away he ran as far away from golgatha as he could get along with all the other disciples male disciples so Jesus came and in the three rhetorical questions certainly it pierced

Peter that Jesus asked three times but Jesus had a message for Peter but he wasn’t done because the second section of this verse continuing to read is very TR very truly I tell you Peter when you were younger you dressed yourself and where you wanted to go but when you’re old you’ll stretch out your hands and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death to which Peter would glorify God then

he said to him follow me now the stretching out your hands is a phrase that within the first and 2 Century after Christ began to be a traditional phrase to represent crucifixion stretch out your hands let your hands be tied with a rope clearly the context here was that Jesus was predicting that Peter would die for him at the end of his life when he had no ability to control the situation and in fact we know that in times of Nero in 70 AD they determined

to crucify Peter and he said upside down because my savior was crucified right side up so the second section of Jesus instruction is this not only Peter if you love me feed my sheep but but this time is short Peter time is rolling on and you have an opportunity now in your middle ages of which you don’t know but you have about 35 years left of life to minister in a way that grows the Church of which you are a rock you’re the foundation so the

second part of jesus’ message to Peter is don’t waste time the third part of Jesus’s message to Peter is the one which is least given least attention to Peter turned and saw that the disciple whom Jesus loved was following him this was the one who had leaned back against Jesus at the supper and said Lord who’s going to betray you so that was John so in this setting of Jesus instructing and inquiring of Jesus of Peter and asking the RoR rical questions apparently Jesus and Peter

turned to walk away together and Peter turned around and saw that John was following them when Peter saw him he said Lord what about him Jesus answered if I want him to remain alive until I return what is that to you is that part of your concept of God that he’ll reprimand you it’s a reprimand here what is that to you Peter it was a reprimand to job brace yourself like a man one of the functions that God in our has in our life Hebrews chapter

12 is the ones he loves he disciplines and so God is going to structure your life and mine to call out the stuff that’s buried in our life that’s preventing the kind of growth and maturity that God wants for us us he will do that for all of us because he loves us so apparently one of the things that drove Peter to distraction was how he stacked up in relation to the other disciples one of my five children was regularly struggling with it’s not fair and

we had to keep I had to keep reminding her it’s not fair but everybody gets things that are different but here Peter said to Jesus how do I stack up with John and Jesus turned to Peter and said really is that your business is that something you should be concerned about you follow me because of this the rumor spread among the Believers that the disciples would not die but Jesus did not say that he would not die he only said if I want him to remain

with me alive until I return what is that to you what Revelation from God you need to seek and believe to offer yourself the message to Peter was clear and it included if there’s stuff that you’re carrying in your life that trips you up deal with it today tomorrow let’s see if we can stretch that out I suggested to you in the homework in your Bulet that there are three questions that we ask and answer the first is what does the Second Chance say about me

well that’s fairly easy that’s fairly easy what it says about you and me is Romans 8 with the spirit of God in us we cry out Abba Father we are ones that the scriptures tell us if anyone believes in Christ he’s a new creation creation old things have gone away new things are here when you believe in Christ you are remade it’s that kind of thing that Rob’s been teaching Us in the Book of Romans that grip that the sin nature has on us where we

must follow it is broken now the sin nature continues to draw at us as redeemed New Creations but it starts with it starts with understanding that we are redeemed we’re born again so Apostle Paul said it’s a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance Christ Jesus came into the world to save Sinners but what else does it say about us well if we go back to the Book of James and we attempt to blame God for the wrong acts in your life and mine James said when someone

is tempted no one should say God’s tempting me for God can’t be tempted by evil nor does he tempt anyone’ each one is tempted when by his own evil desire he’s dragged away and enticed and after desire has conceived it gives birth to sin and sin when it’s fully grown gives birth to death mark it down it may not philosophically match with God creating a being who has the capacity to choose but when we choose wrong it’s on us not on God but the scriptures are

clear there it’s not laid at the feet of God it’s laid at our feet and if we didn’t understand that well enough then James chapter 3 and verse 2 says let not many of you become desire to become teachers for teachers incur a stricter judgment for we all stumble in many ways and if we need a Capstone on the nature of of man in the Book of James we come to James 4 and verse 18 when James says to him who knows the right thing to

do and doesn’t do it it’s sin no excuses no cater Walling no running away from responsibility when it comes to Second Chances you and I are New Creations but we have the task in front of us of owning and giving an account for the decisions of our life so the second question what does the Second Chance say about God I like this this is a better subject there was a Norwegian Fable in 1871 called Three Billy Goats Gruff and those three billy goats lived in a

meadow called Gruff I don’t know if you know that but that’s how the parable got it the the story got its name they lived in a meadow named Gruff and they needed to cross a bridge to get to the other side a younger a middle and an older and the problem was that the horrible troll was under the bridge and as the par as the story goes first the younger one talks the troll out of Smashing him then the middle one talks the troll out of

Smashing him and the older one comes and and disposes of the troll but you know the part of that story that I like is that some of us have a view of God that says this if I just can get through life without any major mistakes I’ll avoid the Wrath and discipline of God otherwise God’s like that troll underneath the bridge that if I misstep or if I make too much noise in that bridge he reaches over and smashes me that’s not who God is you

know in the middle of night last night as I thought through the final parts of preparing this message I thought how can I communicate to you the gentleness the sweetness the kindness the patience of who God is he didn’t wipe out Adam and Eve he didn’t leave Cain to his ultimate demise he didn’t wipe out the human race in Genesis 6 and while he reprimanded job he said brace yourself understand what’s going on your life and that’s who God is in the Sub sub in the

subject of Second Chances he’s a God who gives us chances he’s one who says second chance for you is defined as today and tomorrow and there are 200 Second Chances in front of you so if that’s who God is as the loving heavenly father who desires most from us that we love him the first and great commandment to love your father with all love your love God with all your heart and soul and mind and the second commandment to love your neighbor as yourself if that’s

who God is and that’s who he is he desires from you and me in this Christmas season your love your devotion and from that to reach out to those around you who may be a prodigal trying to come home maybe a Samaritan laying beside the road but he’s one who says forgive even as I have forgiven you you know forgiveness is defined as the surrendering of my right to hurt somebody else for hurting me that’s the way you can express your love to God by giving

up your right to hurt someone that hurt you you a father said in the New York Times editorial years ago to me we have killed the fatted calf four different times and what he was saying was that boy keeps messing up and I keep breaking out a new fatted calf for him every time you know the message of Jesus to Peter is threefold one if you love God take care of those around you two don’t waste any time there’s a legend out about Satan and his

minions who created a contest in hell and the contest was this Satan said what’s the best way we can disrupt disrupt this salvation message from God to the human race the first minions came to him and said well let’s convince people on the Earth there’s no heaven and Satan said that won’t work because God has taught there’s a heaven the second minion said I got it let’s convince people there’s no hell so said that won’t work because Jesus taught more about hell than he did Heaven

the third one said let’s tell them that there’s no hurry and Satan said got it don’t buy that as Ecclesiastes said live life with all of your energy and all your might taking every opportunity that you have to do something in a way that expresses your love for God by how you care for others I refer to this kind of description of the spiritual life as the culture of completion this is God’s process in you and me to make us complete and he’s not going to

give up you can give up you can bail out you can say I I continue to be troubled Jesus by John and you weren’t fair in how you treated him compared to me what would that mean that would mean that God did not accomplish in Peter’s life everything that he wanted that didn’t happen but we have second chances to do the kind of thing that says this honors God whether it’s in our Christmas season or another section of our life that says I’m drawing breath today

there are things I need to clean up I need to leave my gift at the altar and go and make it right with a brother who has something against me and you’ll notice in Matthew 5 Jesus didn’t say who you have something against he said who has something against you reconcile yourself to the brother and then come back with your gift at the altar today the day for your second chance today is the day when the Christian culture of completion keeps working in your life and

mind consider it pure joy when you encounter Trials of many kinds knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance and endurance must have its complete work that you’re lacking nothing Katherine wheeler wrote a poem that was intended initially to be given to her teacher is entitled beginning a new he came to my desk with quivering lips the lesson was done have you a new Leaf for me dear teacher I spoiled this one I took his Leaf all soiled and blotted and gave him a new

one all unspotted then into his tired heart I smiled do better now my son I went to the throne with trembling heart the day was done have you a new day for me dear master I have spoiled this one he took my day all soiled and blotted gave me a new one all unspotted then into my tired heart he smiled do better now my child let’s pray father we’re so grateful for your grace in our life we’re thankful that it means the patience that is your

fullness has been spread abroad by those who have brought us the gospel and in believing we believe that Jesus in fact has been died and born risen again for our sin and for making us a life of meaning and Counting for eternity so we pray Lord that during this Christmas season we’d be motivated even excited by the opportunities of Second Chances in Jesus name amen you came down from heaven through this Earth You formed wa

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