On a Reconnection Mission | Sunday, April 25, 2021

Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned. (Romans 5:12)

But God, who is rich in mercy... even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. (Ephesians 2:4–5)

For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. (Luke 19:10)

We are born longing for God yet separated from Him by sin—so God launched a rescue and reconnection mission in Jesus Christ.

Born Believers

Last time I left you with a bit of a cliffhanger, hopefully more of a hook to get you to hang with us this week. I shared that we human beings are born believers. We know this is true because every human culture throughout all of known history has defaulted to religious expression in one form or another, and they still do today. Every culture you study has religious ritual and form that it falls into. Everybody does it.

We also know this is true because all of us are by nature religiously oriented. Modern social science validates this. Cognitive anthropologists and clinical psychologists have seen through their research that we are not, as many modern atheistic naturalists try to claim, merely socialized into religion. As much as modern atheists hoped that, post-Enlightenment, rationality and reason would lead to an increase in irreligious societies, the opposite has proven true.

Yes, there are people in modern Western culture who claim to be spiritual but not religious, or say they are religiously unaffiliated. But they are nonetheless religiously non-religious, and they are still groping for transcendence, just as the Scriptures say.

The Desire to Live Forever

People are not only groping for transcendence, trying to connect with something bigger than themselves and with the divine—they are also trying to connect with everlasting life. Billions of dollars are currently being spent by some of the most well-funded private equity firms on human life extension projects, literally tens of billions of dollars.

Some of the greatest minds in technology, pharmacology, biology, nanotechnology, genetics, gene editing, cybernetics, cryogenics, and other STEM fields are working on a cure or reversal for aging. And if they can't cure or reverse aging, they want to upload your consciousness into the cloud so you can live forever in some digital format. If this sounds like science fiction, it is—and it isn't.

Larry Ellison, founder of Oracle; Elon Musk, who helped found PayPal and founded SpaceX, Tesla, the Boring Company, and Neuralink; Peter Thiel, also part of the PayPal founding; and Larry Page, a founder at Google—these are just some of the notable billionaires investing in life extension and trying to cure aging. Why? Because we want to live forever. Human beings are born with a desire to live forever and a desire to connect with the divine. We are born believers. It has always been this way, and it will always be this way. To quote Lady Gaga, you're born this way.

Created for Connection, Separated by Sin

We were created by God to live life in connection with Him. God made us in His image, male and female, to experience perfect communion, community, and connection with Him and with one another. But Paul writes in Romans 5:12 that through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned. Our disobedience brought evil, brokenness, division, suffering, and death into the world.

We are born desiring connection with that which we cannot have because of the effects of indwelling sin—what Christians for centuries have called original sin. I know there are differing opinions: are we born innately fallen, or do we become fallen by our active participation in sin? Personally I think it's almost a moot point, because all of us will inevitably sin. And if you think children are born innately good, you have probably never spent much time with small children.

All of our religious expressions—even the non-sacred religious expressions of 21st-century Americans—are cheap and ineffective substitutes for true communion with God. They never fully cure, remedy, repair, or resolve the problem of sin. They don't take away its stain, remove its guilt and shame, or bring us back into harmony with God and one another.

We Cannot Repair the Breach

So we have this huge problem, and that's where I left you with a hook last time. We have a longing within us to connect with the divine, to transcend this world and connect with God, yet we are separated from Him. How can we repair the breach? If suffering, separation, and death are the result of sinful disobedience, how can we reverse it?

I hate to break it to you, but we can't. Not by our own efforts, not by our own good works, not even by our religious rituals or non-sacred practices. "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God," says Paul in Romans 3:23. By the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified. We cannot be made right with God by our own actions, though humanity has been trying to do so for millennia, ever since we were sent out of the garden of Eden.

In Ephesians 2:11–12 Paul says:

Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh... were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

Hopelessness is part of this story. It's not the whole story, but it's the bad news we all need to reckon with.

But God

Ephesians 2 begins by describing our hopeless condition:

And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world... among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh... and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.

That's our dead, sinful condition. But look at the next two words in verse 4: "But God." Those two words are our hope. In many ways the whole life-in-connection story hinges on them.

But the story actually began much earlier in the Bible—earlier than the Gospels, earlier than the prophets, earlier than David's promise that God would show us the path of life in Psalm 16:11. The beginning of this light of hope was given by God immediately after the fall in Genesis 3.

The First Glimpse of Hope

Right after Adam and Eve failed to obey God's command, they heard the sound of God walking in the garden and hid from Him. They had been connected with God before they sinned, but now, ashamed of their nakedness and vulnerability, they hid in guilt and shame.

Then the LORD God called to Adam and said to him, "Where are you?" (Genesis 3:9)

That's disconnection. Adam answers, "I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself." More proof of guilt, shame, and separation. When God asks if he ate from the tree, Adam blames the woman—and even God: "The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate." Throwing his wife under the bus and blaming God too—Adam keeps swinging at strikes.

Then God speaks of the resulting curse, first addressing the serpent:

So the LORD God said to the serpent: "Because you have done this... I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel." (Genesis 3:14–15)

The interpretation is simple. The serpent, the personification of Satan, deceived Eve by twisting God's word. So God says there will be enmity between the serpent and the woman, between his seed and hers. A male child born of a woman will one day deliver a death blow to Satan, crushing his head, though He Himself will be superficially wounded in the heel. A crushed heel is a far smaller matter than a crushed head.

For you theology nerds, verse 15 is called the proto-evangelion, from the Greek protos (first) and euangelion (gospel)—the first mention of the good news of hope for hopeless humans like us. Life in connection with God was broken by sin, but God promised deliverance, salvation, and reconciliation.

A Rescue Mission

For that to happen, there first needs to be a rescue mission, because we cannot reach up to God or build our way to Him. A few weeks ago on Palm Sunday I gave a message from Luke 19 about a tax collector named Zacchaeus. Jesus called for him and dined with him, and the multitudes challenged Jesus for it. Tax collectors were synonymous with adulterers and extortioners; people hated them. So when Jesus went to be the guest of a sinner, the crowds complained.

Jesus explained His actions this way:

Today salvation has come to this house... for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. (Luke 19:9–10)

Jesus came to earth on a mission to rescue lost, sinful, hopeless humans, and it is His joy to do so. God is not in heaven doing a divine facepalm over our lost condition, frustrated at having to sort out our mess. That is not the picture Scripture gives.

The Heart of God in Luke 15

A few chapters earlier, in Luke 15, Jesus gave three stories that reveal the heart of God toward seeking lost things like you and me.

Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Him to hear Him. And the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, "This Man receives sinners and eats with them." (Luke 15:1–2)

This is amazing: sinful, lost people—or people who knew their lostness—drew near to Jesus. There was something about Him that attracted broken, sinful people. Hopefully there is something about His people, Christians, that does the same. Unfortunately that hasn't been our experience in American culture for a while, and that might tell us something about how we're perceived, and how we might need to change. Jesus was attractive to sinful people and repulsive to the most religious people.

So Jesus told them the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. Keep the context in mind: He is telling these stories to very religious people angry that He spent time with the lost.

What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine... and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? ...there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance. (Luke 15:4–7)

Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? ...there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents. (Luke 15:8–10)

Jesus came from heaven to earth on a mission to find and rescue lost, sinful, hopeless humans who were disconnected from God—to bring them back into the connection we were created for.

The Lost Son

The final story is a favorite of many:

A certain man had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, "Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me." ...he journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living. (Luke 15:11–13)

When a severe famine arose, the son hired himself out to feed swine and longed to eat the pods the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself, he resolved to return to his father and say, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son."

But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. ...the father said to his servants, "Bring out the best robe and put it on him... bring the fatted calf here and kill it... for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found." (Luke 15:20–24)

Many lost sons and daughters identify with this story. But the story keeps going, and storytellers never add a character for no reason. The older son was in the field, and when he heard the music and learned his brother had returned, he was angry and would not go in. His father pleaded with him, but he said, "These many years I have been serving you... yet you never gave me a young goat... but as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him."

Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours. It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found. (Luke 15:31–32)

On a Reconnection Mission

Remember the context: Jesus told these three stories to very religious people angry that He was spending time with lost people. Jesus came from heaven to earth on a mission to find and rescue lost, sinful, hopeless humans. Sometimes the really religious people forget this and get angry when lost people show up.

Jesus is on a mission to reconcile people to Himself. That was His purpose statement: "The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost." And He has a vision. In Revelation 5 and Revelation 7 He gives us a picture of multitudes of lost people reconciled to Himself. He calls us to the same mission—to live life in connection with God, one another, and the world through Jesus. That is why this is our mission and vision at Cross Connection Church.

Closing Prayer

Father God, I pray that You would cause this mission, this purpose, this vision to be in our hearts, and that You would stir us to follow You in this, to imitate You, and to reach out to the lost people of this world. Even the very religious people are often very lost. We live in a culture where people constantly try to better themselves through diet, exercise, meditation, and all kinds of things, but none of those will satisfy ultimately, overcome the stain and shame of sin, or restore us to You.

We are surrounded by people in desperate need of Your good news. Cause us, Your church, to be in some way more attractive to lost people, so they would be drawn to us and want to know the love, joy, peace, kindness, gentleness, and self-control that is the fruit of the Spirit. Do a work in us. As You came to this earth on a mission to seek and to save that which is lost, help us to be compelled to join You—to live life in connection with You, with one another, and to extend this abundant life that comes only through You to every person we meet. Every person longs for it. Stir us to share this gospel with others. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen.