Sermon preached by Dr. John A. Huffman, Jr.
March 23, 2008
Copyright© 2008, John A. Huffman, Jr.
All rights reserved.

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. (John 10:10)

I'm convinced that every single one of us has a deep desire to live life to the fullest.

That's a pretty strong statement, isn't it?

Through the years, I've schooled myself to avoid making one hundred percent statements. The problem with them is that one can usually find an exception. A bit more caution is in order.

But, on this one, I'll stand my ground. I'm convinced that every one of us shares that deep desire to know how to live life to the very fullest. Some of us are a long ways away from this reality. Others of us are closer to it.

Take a look inside yourself. Be honest. Isn't there a deep inner aspiration that life is more than accomplishing all the goals that we set up for ourselves. None of us achieves all these goals. This doesn't mean that some of them aren't very important. But, intuitively, don't we know that life is more than being "successful"? Having money? Owning a nice home? Raising happy children? Being physically well? Having a lot of friends? Being married? Or being unmarried? Having power?

In a way, isn't that why you are here today? There are many reasons we come to church on Easter. It's a tradition. There's family pressure to do it. We intuitively know it's a good place to be.

At a deeper level, isn't there a yearning for something more? Whether you are a professing believer in Jesus Christ or simply a person open to truth wherever it is to be found--you and I dream of something that goes beyond our society's brainwashing us as to what is most important.

Today, we're going to look at two questions.

Question One is, "What is life lived to the fullest?"

Question Two is, "How can we actually live life to the fullest?"

So let's look at these two questions and be as honest as possible in our answers.

I.

Question One: What is life lived to the fullest?

Answer: Life in its fullness is becoming the fully human person God created you to be.

I'm not here to convince you that you should give up a lot of what you have and value most to live a negative, legalistic, unhappy, joyless but religious life. No! Far from this.

I'm inviting you to affirm the greatest adventure you'll ever have. It's the adventure of being fully human--to live in touch with your deepest aspirations.

If you have not already begun this pilgrimage in living life to the fullest, I am inviting you to begin it today. If you are already on this journey, I invite you to celebrate the fact that you are in the process of becoming the person God created you to be. Take joy in this aspiration. It is not yours by accident. It is planted within you by the very God of the universe.

One of the greatest preachers in American history was Phillips Brooks, who, for many years in the late 1800s, was the rector of Trinity Episcopal Church in Boston. In his classic sermon titled, "The Christ in Whom Christians Believe," Brooks makes this insightful comment. Don't be put off by his sexist language. He stated this over a hundred years ago, when man meant person and mankind meant humankind.

When we remember that truth, when we recognize that no man is ever to be saved except by the fulfillment of his own nature, and not by the restraint of his nature, when we recognize that no man, no person, individual man, is ever to be ransomed from his sins except by having opened to him a larger and fuller life into which he has entered, we seem to have displayed to us a large region, into which we are tempted to enter, and which is so rich and inviting to us that we immediately begin to ask ourselves if it is possible that there should be such a region.

Brooks went on to raise the possibility that perhaps this aspiration is a dream. If it is a dream, isn't it amazing that every single person who has walked the face of this earth has had this dream of living life to the fullest that goes beyond contemporary success standards?

Men and women have never been able to give up this hope and dream. Jesus declared emphatically that His purpose in coming was to enable you and me to discover that this is not just a dream. This is a God-implanted aspiration that He has come to fulfill. He put it in these blunt terms. "I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly" (John 10:10).

The context for this gargantuan statement was when Jesus referred to himself as being the Good Shepherd. He noted how sheep know the voice of their shepherd. They will never answer to a stranger. There was something very special about this relationship. Flocks of sheep become intermingled. A shepherd can call out. His sheep will hear his voice. One by one, they will single themselves out from the rest of the sheep, moving in his direction, having learned to trust his care.

In recent weeks, I've been reading devotionally a brand-new book written by Timothy S. Laniak titled, While Shepherds Watch Their Flocks: Reflections on Biblical Leadership. Dr. Laniak, a professor at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, Charlotte, North Carolina, recently spent a sabbatical living in the Middle East studying the life of shepherds. He tells about his friend, Mrs. Aref, who lives in the village of Karak in Jordan. Herding had been the family business for generations. In more recent history, the men had taken government jobs, and Mrs. Aref now cared for the family's manageable flock of 45 sheep. The family joked that she brought in more income from the animal products than they did at their office jobs. She made wool-stuffed pillows and mattresses, dried cheeses, laven (clarified butter), and labnah (a cultured yogurt). Another family joke was that Mrs. Aref loved her animals as much as, maybe more than, her children. She knew the animals quite intimately and was greatly affected by their needs. Dr. Laniak tells about eating one of her sumptuous meals and then how her family told a personal story about their mother and her favored animals.

One day, to her great distress, Mrs. Aref lost track of one of her ewes. Because sheep regularly mingle with other flocks at common pastures during the day, she checked with her neighbors that night to see if the ewe had gone home with someone else. But no one had seen the missing creature. She inquired among more distant neighbors over the next week, but no one had noticed a stray or found unidentified remains. Weeks turned into months without a sign of the missing ewe. Then, one day two months later, a large flock came through the village led by a hired shepherd. As was still her habit, Mrs. Aref asked the young man if he had come across the lost sheep. As the words passed her lips, one of the ewes in the solid pack of passing sheep lifted her head, immediately recognizing the sound of her owner's voice. Mrs. Aref screamed with delight and rushed through the startled mass to embrace her lost sheep. It didn't take long before the whole village heard the commotion and shared in the reunion. Her flock was now complete again.

A typical middle eastern sheepfold was an open space with a circular stone wall with one small opening. The door was the shepherd himself. He would lead his sheep into the fold and then, at night, lie down across the opening. No sheep could get in or out except over his body. A thief would have to climb over the wall. Jesus referred to himself at being the door. He said, "'Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture'" (John 10:9). He went on to say, "'I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep'" (John 10:11). He described hirelings who don't really care for the sheep. They lack the love dimension. They do not have an overall sense of care.

Do you aspire to live life to the very fullest? I know you do! Then let me introduce, or reintroduce, you to the One who makes this possible--the crucified and risen Christ, the One who did lay down His life for you.

Skeptics have belittled the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Those outside the church have scoffed at the very notion of the Deity of Jesus. They have laughed at the idea that this first-century carpenter from Nazareth was God become man. They see Him as a somewhat naive, good but demented first-century martyr.

Others, who still want to wear the label Christian, play around with the language. Professor John Hick, in 1977, edited a book titled, The Myth of God Incarnate. In it, he argued against the idea of a supernatural Bible. Then, he declared that the time had finally come to be honest about the last myth, that of the incarnation. He and his colleagues argued for a resurrection principle that gives hope and encouragement to human existence. But liberal Protestant theology like his denies the incarnation, that God actually became a man in the person of Jesus Christ. Some liberal Protestant theology denies Christ's atoning work on the cross. Some liberal Protestant theology denies His physical resurrection, His ascension into heaven and His second coming.

Frankly, this is why I believe American Protestant liberal churches are shrinking in size. Why? Many deny the very essence of the Christian faith. That supernatural intervention of God into human history is the hallmark of our faith.

Some go to an atheistic extreme in scoffing at the viability of historic Christianity. One of the most recent of these is Richard Dawkins, the author of The God Delusion. He and colleagues of his, such as Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens, represent the most prominent of the current crop of zealous atheists, who belittle the possibility for there even being a God. They laugh at the claims of historic Christianity. To them, this day called Easter is nonsense.

Yet, the sophisticated writer, John Updike, who you would not think as being a major defender of the historic faith, has, in his own way, seen through this verbal smokescreen of skepticism. Not particularly noted for his piety but certainly one of the more perceptive observers of life today, he wrote in his Seven Stanzas at Easter, these words.

Make no mistake, if He rose at all it was as His body;
if the cells' dissolution did not reverse, the molecules reknit, the amino
acids rekindle
the Church will fall. . .
It was not as the flowers,
each soft Spring recurrent;
it was not as His Spirit in the mouths and fuddled eyes of the eleven
apostles;
it was as His flesh; ours.
The same hinged thumbs and toes,
the same valved heart
that--pierced--dies, withered, decayed
and then regathered out of His Father's might,
new strength to enclose.
Let us not mock God with metaphor,
analogy, sidestepping transcendence;
making of the event a parable, a sign painted in the faded credulity
of earlier ages; let us walk through the door.
The stone is rolled back, not papier-mache,
not a stone in a story,
but the vast rock of materiality that in the slow grinding of time will
eclipse for each of us the wide light of day.

Martin Luther said it so succinctly.

He who would preach the gospel must go directly to preaching the resurrection of Christ. He who does not preach the resurrection is no apostle, for this is the chief part of our faith. . . .Everything depends on our retaining a firm hold on this article (of faith) in particular; for if this one totters and no longer counts, all the others will lose their value and validity.

The Apostle Paul said it bluntly.

If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have died in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died. For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being; for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ. (1 Corinthians 15:17-22)

Life lived to the fullest, therefore, is life lived in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

This life involves a radically different approach to life from that of people not in relationship with Jesus Christ. It involves a citizenship in the Kingdom of God as distinct from your citizenship in the various kingdoms of humankind here on this earth. Life lived to the fullest is a life of dual citizenship in which your citizenship in the Kingdom of God will demand your ultimate allegiance. It will revolutionize your priorities. It will help you see what is really important and what is not so important.

I remember 23 years ago, driving home from our Maundy Thursday communion service at St. Andrew's, clicking on the TV and settling into the comfort of my big easy chair, my feet propped up on the ottoman, holding in my arms my nine-year-old daughter Janet, as I watched one of those TV movies which showed Nero in the arena as he fed those first-century Christians to wild animals. He did it as a sport. I held my daughter oh-so-closely as I watched those little Christian children dressed up in sheepskins, led into the arena only to be attacked in their innocence by those wild animals, as the crowd cheered that bloody massacre. I thought then, and I've been thinking ever since, "Who would I have rather been back then?" Would I have rather been a Roman citizen living in opulent luxury, forced to take my cue from the emperor and the crowd, so as to maintain my security and posture of success? Or would I have rather been a Christian watching my child ravaged by the wild beasts, knowing that my turn also and that of my wife would soon come? Just who really was destroyed in that arena? The Christian mauled to death? Or the cheering Roman citizen? I'll let you answer that question. The fact is that "the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church." Men and women through history have found life lived to the very fullest making great personal sacrifice for their faith in Jesus.

True power, true success is that for which you, at the deepest level, aspire. It is not a false power. You see, false power can be ripped from you by brute force. Whereas, Kingdom power of being fully human as one in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ can't be taken from you, from anyone. Emperors become paranoid at the center of enormous power. They know they are as vulnerable as one dagger slipped into their heart by a disloyal bodyguard. Whereas, the Christian knows that nothing can separate us from the love of God. No tribulation, no distress, no persecution, no famine, no nakedness, no peril, no sword. As the Apostle Paul wrote, "No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:37-38).

Life lived to the fullest is the potential possession of someone who is rich or poor or somewhere in between. Life lived to the fullest is the possession of the person who is white-skinned, or black-skinned or some shade in between. Life lived to the fullest is the possession of male or female or even the one whose orientation, because of environmental influences, is confused and somewhere in between. Life lived to the fullest is the possession of the employer or employee or someone who is a little bit of both. Life lived to the fullest is the possession of the one who is honored or the one who is belittled or the one who is somewhere in between. Life lived to the very fullest is the possession of a person at the top or at the bottom or somewhere in between.

Life lived to the very fullest is the discovery that your life is designed by God to go somewhere. You weren't intended to live in a nihilistic vacuum. You are part of a great enterprise--God at work in eternity, eternity here on earth, an eternity that goes beyond your life here on earth.

Life lived to the very fullest is this eternal life, which the crucified and risen Jesus Christ came to offer you.

This brings us to Question Two.

II.

Question Two: How can I actually live life to the very fullest?

Answer: By receiving the risen Christ's gift and discovering this life to the fullest.

This is a gift that He offers you. He put it bluntly: "I came that they may have life and have it abundantly." Study these words in the Greek and discover that this abundant life literally means that you will live life with a surplus. It is a superabundance of life. When you walk with Jesus Christ, when you discover His presence in your life, you will discover that life is worth living.

Let me review with you several of the exciting discoveries you will make, or are now presently making, as you learn how to live life to the fullest.

One: You discover you have tremendous promise.

You are a human being created in the image of God. You are part of a great enterprise of God here at work on earth. He has chosen you, He has selected you to help Him in His work. You are no accident. From the very beginning of time, the Creator-Sustainer God knew you. You have been given particular gifts by Him that will help Him help others.

Bill and Gloria Gaither have put this truth to music in those words of the children's song, "I Am a Promise."

I am a promise, I am a possibility.
I am a promise with a capital P.
I am a great big bundle of potentiality.

I am learning to hear God's voice.
And I am trying to make the right choices.
I am a promise to be anything God wants me to be.

Two: You discover that you are not the only one who is not perfect.

That's a great relief, isn't it? I know that you don't want a preacher shouting at you that you are a sinner. It implies a degree of presumption on the part of that preacher that postures himself over you in a way that you know this isn't true.

But if I ask you, "Are you perfect?" you'll be quick to say, "No, I never claimed to be." The abundant life Jesus offers you understands that about you already. He knows you can't be perfect in your own strength and energy. He asked you to admit it. Quit pretending. Take a deep breath and admit to yourself, "I am not perfect." Admit to God, "I am not perfect." Admit to others, to your wife, to your husband, to your children, to your friends, to your employees, to your employer, "I'm not perfect."

That's what God means when He tells you, ". . .all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God . . ." (Romans 3:23). That's what God means when He says that there is "none righteous." That's what He means when He says, "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 6:23).

The good news is that God created you with tremendous potential. The good news is that you don't have to be perfect to realize that potential. Jesus Christ, in His death and resurrection, offers you a robe of "His righteousness" that clothes you in "His perfection" and enables you to stand before Him justified, not by your own perfection, but by His. He views you as perfect. His blood has washed you clean.

Three: You discover that God gives you a choice between being your own god or allowing Him to be the Lord of your life.

Life lived to the very fullest involves being in the center of God's will. It's not a flabby, sentimental, romantic life. It's one of rugged discipleship.

It involves receiving Jesus Christ as your Savior. I could go out and purchase you an elaborately expensive gift and wrap it up and offer it to you. You could very well refuse to accept it. It is possible to refuse this abundant life, which Jesus offers. It will reorganize your life. It will cause change. Any kind of change is threatening. You know that. I know that. We human beings are creatures of habit. We are resistant to change. There is a weird comfort in the status quo. You have to make a choice--an act of the will to receive Jesus Christ as your Savior, acknowledging your need, if you want to experience this abundant life.

And this also involves allowing Him to be the Lord of your life. This is one of the toughest decisions I ever made in my life. As a youngster, I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior. As a teenager, I struggled with whether or not I was going to allow Jesus Christ to be the Lord of my life. I had placed before Him my social life, my intellectual life, my future career. But I tried to skim the fringe benefits of salvation in the life to come. Was I really willing to experience His abundant life, obedience to His Word as revealed in the Scriptures, allowing Jesus Christ to be my Lord in this life? I'll never forget that time, as a 14-year-old, in which I wrestled late at night under the northern Illinois stars on that practice football field, finally saying, "Yes, I choose you to be my Lord, even if the points will go against my own natural desires." There have been many times since then that I've had to reactivate that choice, only to find that I'm not the loser. I'm the winner as His abundant life to the fullest, once again, becomes my experience.

Four: You discover that you can be forgiven and forgiving.

This is one of the most dramatic discoveries a person can make.

You don't have to live with guilt. You are a forgiven person.

You can spend a lot of money on psychiatrists, experiencing the catharsis which comes through the ventilation of the dark closeted side of your life. Please know, I believe in psychological therapy. My own wife is a psychoanalyst. Just remember this. Jesus Christ provides the ultimate therapy, as He says there's nothing you've done that is unforgivable, except your unwillingness to accept His forgiveness. His Word declares, "If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). You need a risen Savior! He's in the world today! He sets you free from guilt!

And you don't have to live with resentment. You can forgive another person. This risen Jesus Christ is a reconciler. Even when the other won't talk to you, you can still forgive in a way that does not demean that person. Remember that prayer of Jesus from the cross, "Father, forgiven them; for they know not what they do."

Five: You discover that you can live a life of fidelity to others.

How tragic it was to watch the public humiliation and self-destruction of Elliot Spitzer, the governor of New York. How pathetic it was to see a man brought down by the very narcissism, sexual addictions and criminal activities he had so attacked in others. Imagine the torture that he, his wife and three daughters are going through now.

Then, within hours of his resignation and that joyful cathartic inauguration of the new governor, we discover that this man, too, had his multiple affairs.

No wonder The Today Show, this week, had a whole section dedicated to the topic of sexual infidelity, raising the question as to whether males are simply biologically wired to promiscuity. But then it concluded that such unfaithfulness takes its toll. It takes years to restore trust, if it ever is restored.

If only people can come to realize that, yes, as human beings we all have those drives to take the gift of sexuality that God has given us and to narcissistically exploit it for our own immediate gratification to the detriment of those who should be able to trust us and find us trustworthy. There's something wrong with us if we are not tempted to evil. But if we recognize our dark side and stay close to the Lord, we can claim the promises of God's Word that we will not be tempted above what we are able and that God will enable us to live lives of fidelity, of trust, of faithfulness to Him and to each other.

Six: You discover that you can handle death.

This involves your own death. The fact of life is that every one of us in this sanctuary is terminally ill as far as this life is concerned. You and I are only mature beings when we come to grips with the inevitability of our own death.

This also involves handling the death of a loved one who loves Christ. Why? Because Jesus Christ has taken the sting out of death. Death's sting is not death. Death's sting is sin. The Apostle Paul wrote to the Church at Corinth that Jesus Christ took the sting out of death and rendered it harmless. Jesus told His disciples the night before He went to the cross that He was going to prepare a place for those of us who have put our trust is Him.

I love the way Tom Tewell, the former pastor of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City referred to it in the very title of an Easter sermon, "Don't Put a Period Where God Puts a Comma." You see, to the nonbeliever, death is followed by a period. The nonbeliever has no realistic hope beyond this life. The Bible refers to hell, eternal separation from God. Describe it in the most dramatic of literalistic terms or use those as symbols. The fact is that there is eternity separated from God, alienated from His presence. That, my friends, is hell, whether or not we enjoy thinking about it. Eternity in His presence is promised to you if you put your trust in Him. That's heaven.

Yes, we grieve. Death is an enemy. Jesus Christ, through His life, death and resurrection, has defeated both sin and death. And where there was at least a question mark and, in most cases, a period, death becomes simply a comma between this life and eternity in the presence of Jesus Christ, reunited with our loved ones who also have died in Christ.

This week, I will preside at the memorial service of Margaret Linden and will remind the family that she had received Jesus Christ as her Savior. So had her husband Milt. And now the two of them are reunited in heaven. They're in the very presence of Jesus Christ and the saints who have gone before.

That's the hope Anne and I have as, this week for the first time in seventeen years, we cleaned out our garage. We've done it before but only partially. There was that whole area, box after box, of our late daughter Suzanne's high school and college books and her Princeton trunk filled with framed pictures, diplomas and other poignant reminders of this one we loved so much in this life. She died in 1991 at age 23 of Hodgkin's Disease. As palpable as her loss continues to be, we know that we don't have to put a period where God puts a comma.

Seven: You discover that serving others is far better than being served.

Unfortunately, many of us forget that God has chosen to work through us. Some time ago, I came across this bit of whimsey that all too often describes what happens in this world when we expect someone else to do what needs to be done. It's titled, "What Went Wrong?"

This is the story of four people:

Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody.
There was an important job to be done and
Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it.
Anybody could have done it but Nobody did it.
Somebody got angry because it was Everybody's job.
Everybody thought that Somebody would do it.
But Nobody asked Anybody.
It ended up that the job wasn't done and Everybody blamed
Everybody, when actually Nobody asked Anybody.

This involves allowing your heart to be broken by the very things that break the heart of God. Some people live protected. They build shells around their hearts. Others live vulnerably. They are free to be honest. They are free to be hurt. They are free to help. They are free to be rejected. That's life lived to the fullest.

These are global Christians, serving a risen Savior whose name is Jesus Christ. Their view is that everything they have is given as a gift from God temporarily on loan--their money, their time, their abilities, their contacts. They turn around and give not just the ten percent back to Him, but everything, knowing that they're living on leased money, leased time, leased abilities and leased contacts.

Today in this sanctuary is seated Dr. Fritz Westerhout. He and his wife Elaine just returned from doing a several-week stint at Tenwek Hospital in Kenya, filling in for a missionary doctor on leave. Yesterday I received an e-mail from Jim Hamilton in Malawi, doing servant ministry with Opportunities International, which works with the poorest of the poor in the third world, opening up investment and banking opportunities. Fritz, a retired doctor, and Jim, a retired lawyer, could spend all their time playing golf and enjoying grandchildren. But, instead, they are investing their lives in servant ministry to others while, at the same time, enjoying some of these personal joys of retirement. Talk about living life to the fullest! I could tell you story after story of men and women here at St. Andrew's who are engaged in servant ministries, experiencing the joy of helping others. I dream of a day when all of us are engaged in servant ministry for others.

Eight: You discover that you and Jesus Christ can have a lifelong growing relationship.

Someone here today has been injured by a bad church experience. Perhaps someone hurt you, betrayed you, didn't care for you. Perhaps it was me or someone like me. I apologize.

But Jesus Christ never lets you down. He's a friend who walks with you. If you are a 10-year-old, He understands you as a ten-year-old. If you are an 18-year-old, He understands you as an 18-year-old. If you are a 30-year-old, He lives and breathes with you the fears and aspirations of that segment of your life. If you are 50 or 60 or 70 or 80 or 90, Jesus understands. No, it's not true that He changes as you change. It's that He understands. He's able to flex to your needs. He's a good Friend. And a good friend is a friend for life.

I invite you, this Easter morning 2008, to receive through faith the risen Jesus Christ in personal friendship. I invite you to reaffirm your friendship of Him, coming back to Him if you have wandered away. Or I invited you to simply celebrate your personal relationship with Him if you are now allowing Him to be your Savior and Lord.

Discover what it is to live life to the very fullest. Discover the paradox that, in losing yourself to His love and grace in the service of others,March 24, 2008 you will find yourself in the abundant life to the fullest you were created to live!