Pastor Stuart Olyott "The Apex of History: The Cross of Christ" 10/30/2022

The Church’s New Testament Reading from Philemon

And this morning for our New Testament reading, let's turn to the single chapter of Philemon in the New Testament. Pastor Jason will read and then pray for us.

Philemon, Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus, and Timothy, our brother. To Philemon, our beloved fellow worker, and to Thea, our sister, and Archippus, our fellow soldier, and the church in your house.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and for all the saints.

And I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ. For I have derived much joy and comfort from your love, my brother, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you.

Accordingly, though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do what is required, yet for love's sake I prefer to appeal to you. I, Paul, an old man and now a prisoner also for Christ Jesus, I appeal to you for my child, Onesimus, whose father I became in my imprisonment.

Formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful to you and to me. I am sending him back to you, sending my very heart. I would have been glad to keep him with me in order that he might serve me on your behalf during my imprisonment for the gospel.

But I prefer to do nothing without your consent in order that your goodness might not be by compulsion but of your own accord. For this perhaps is why he was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back forever, no longer as a bondservant but more than a bondservant as a beloved brother, especially to me.

But how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord? So if you consider me your partner, receive him as you would receive me. If he has wronged you at all or owes you anything, charge that to my account.

I, Paul, write this with my own hand. I will repay it, to say nothing of your owing me, even your own self. Yes, brother, I want some benefit from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in Christ. Confident of your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even more than I say.

At the same time, prepare a guest room for me, for I am hoping that through your prayers I will be graciously given to you. Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends greetings to you, and so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Let's pray. Gracious Father, it is a privilege to be gathered here together to worship you with one another. We thank you for the gift of the church.

We thank you how men and women often refresh one another and encourage one another. And we pray, Lord, that we would continue to do so. We pray that our love for one another would abound more and more.

We pray that you would unite us, that we would have one mind, that we would be one people as you are one with the Father. We pray, Lord, that you would give us understanding as we continue to open your word, as the word of God is preached.

We pray that you would line us up with your word. We pray, Lord, that we would be changed from a hearing of your word. So, Lord, we thank you. We thank you for this time. We thank you that we can gather here together.

We thank you for Jesus Christ, for the Spirit, and for your word. We ask now for grace. Thank you, Lord, in Jesus' name. Amen.

Introduction to John 3:16 as the Most Famous Sentence in the Bible

Okay, Brother Stewart, if you'll come on up, please. Well, it's our joy to introduce him to you. He's had a rich and long ministry. He was actually born in Pakistan. His dad was in the British military and lived in, was it India or Malaysia?

Yep. Malaysia as a youth, and he pastored in England, of course, and he pastored seven years, starting churches in nine years in Switzerland, in French-speaking churches, by the way, and he's been semi-retired now for, you tell me, seven years?

I don't know. He's been an interim pastor in a church in Wales since 2017, so that's a long interim position, but we were very pleased to be able to have him. Actually, a second time, the first time was in 2007, and we have those Bolton Conference six sessions, of course, online now due to Mark's technical skill, and they'll be there perpetuating, Lord willing, and we hope that if you were not able to be with us that you will watch them and maybe refer them to others as well.

So, God bless you, Stewart. Thank you. Well, I've had a welcome.

Almost everywhere I've been, so thank you once more for a welcome. Very pleased to be here, and I'm going to speak to you about the most famous sentence in the Bible. Do you know what the most famous sentence in the Bible is?

You're one of those congregations, are you? When nobody says anything. Okay, well, I was getting ready for the service not long ago, and there I was all on my own in what you call a sanctuary, and in came a man who'd never been in the church before.

So, I got talking to him, and he was a big, hefty man, and he looked quite rough and tough, and he said, I need to tell you I'm frightened. I said, why? He says, well, I used to go to church when I was a boy from time to time, but this is only the second time I've been in a church in the last 40 years, and I'm afraid that when you announce the Bible reading, I won't be able to find it.

The only thing I know, he says, is that there's a verse called John 3, 16, and that's all I know. I said, well, that's actually probably all you need to know right now. The most famous sentence in the Bible is John chapter 3, verse 16.

If you don't know it, by the way, you've got a Bible right in front of you, and it's got an index at the front, so you can always find the books, and there's a book called John, and if you find chapter 3, you'll find it's chopped into little bits called verses, and the 16th one is the one I'm talking about.

Can you understand my English? Is it too fast? No, okay, because I get excited sometimes. Yeah, yeah. For those of you who know John 3, 16, how many words are in it? Have a guess. All right, 25. If you're using the ESV, it's 24.

If you're using the NIV, it's 26, but if you're using the New King James version, or the old King James, you never knew there was an old king, but there we are, and it's 25 words, 25 words, and yet 159 years ago, almost, Abraham Lincoln gave his Gettysburg speech.

Some of you know it by heart, don't you? Well, maybe not. I've met lots and lots of folk from North America who know Abraham Lincoln's extraordinary speech at Gettysburg, and how many words is that? 272, and for the last 159 years, those 272 words have shaped and influenced every democracy on the planet, but that's nothing compared with John 3, 16.

25 words have influenced hundreds of millions of people in the last 20 centuries. So the verse says, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life, and if you're not familiar with this verse, I'll tell you what it's about.

For God, that's G, for God so loved the world that he gave his only, G, O, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, G, O, S, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish, G, O, S, P, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting, G, O, S, P, E, life, G, O, S, P, E, L, which spells?

Marvelous. Got a response at last. And what does gospel mean? Good news, yeah. Now sometimes we use the word gospel with a big G, and that means the book of Matthew, or the book of Mark, or the book of Luke, or the book of John.

We call that the gospel of Matthew, or so on. But usually we use the word gospel with a small G, and that means that message that runs all the way through the 1 ,000 pages of your Bible. There is a message which runs right from the first book, Genesis.

There it's in black and white, and now it's got a bit of color in it, and now it's in full-blooded technicolor before you get to the end of the Bible. It becomes clearer, and brighter, and prettier, and more wonderful.

Here it leaves you wondering, W-O-N-D, but here it leaves you dancing. Gospel, and the gospel is about everlasting life. And I asked them at Boston if I could shout, and they didn't seem to mind, so that's okay.

So I'm going to talk to you about everlasting life from John chapter 3, verse 16. First of all, the need for this life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish.

The Need for Everlasting Life and the Human Condition

Now a man recently in Britain was walking along the top of the cliffs, and there's a coastal path, and the idea is that as you walk along the top of the cliffs, you look out to the ocean. But actually he looked the other way, and he saw something extremely interesting.

So he left the path, and he walked across a very clumpy, rough field of bushes, and brambles, and long grass, and then he fell 30 feet into a well which nobody knew was there. If you were there, if that was you, what was the first thing you would do?

He fell into the soft sand at the bottom of a well, 30 feet down, a well that nobody knew was there. It's not on any map. If it was you, what would you do? Well, I know, usually the young people tell me if I ask them that question, I would see if I've got a signal on my phone.

And he hadn't. You can't climb up because it's completely smooth. What does he have to do to perish? Nothing. What do you have to do to perish? Nothing. God said, my universe, and especially this planet, is to be ruled by love.

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind. Do you? And you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I don't. I'm pretty sure you don't.

I'm one of those people, if I get a photograph of the school I went to, the first person I look for on the photograph is, guess who? And you're just the same, aren't you? Because actually, there's another person on this planet who loves the Lord their God with all their being, and loves their neighbor just like they love themselves.

And that's God's rule, and God is infinite, and God is eternal, and God is unchanging, and God is just, and therefore you're out of sorts with God. There's a controversy between you and God, and you are not right with God by nature, and nobody ever is when they're born into this world.

You've only got to stay as you are, just like you are, just doing the things you do to perish, because God will punish disobedience, and it will be an infinite punishment, because he's an infinite God, and it will be an unchanging punishment, because he's an unchanging God, and it'll be a just punishment, because you really should love him, because the breath you just breathed, and the heartbeat which you just felt or didn't feel, is God's personal gift to you.

He's been good to you from the moment you came out of the womb, and he was good to you before it, too. You need this message of everlasting life, that's the need for this message. Now the giver of this life is God, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

So we go into the yard, we call it in Britain the garden, and there's a little dog, a puppy, and it's been allowed out for the first time, and it's getting towards dark, and it's getting slowly darker, and as the puppy looks up at the sky, it sees a face.

What's that face doing in my garden? So the puppy barks, and barks, and barks. I don't think the neighbors would be very pleased. And the next night, the puppy's allowed in the garden, and it sees a face up in the sky.

What's that face doing in my garden? So it barks, and as the days go by, the face gets smaller, smaller, and it barks for two weeks, and the face goes away. Just like some of you. You know there is a God.

You know there is a God just in the same way as you know that you are you and not somebody else. It's written into you. The problem with many people is not that they don't believe in God. The problem is that they believe in God, but they don't like what they believe.

So they bark, and as they bark and object, little by little, the sense of God gets smaller and smaller until the thought of God doesn't trouble them anymore. So the puppy goes out into the garden, but after a few days, what's that there up in the sky?

It's like a little crescent. And the next night, it's bigger, and the barking doesn't seem to do anything now, because it's not long before the face is back there, just like some of you. You bark at God, you bark at God, and you bark at God, and the idea of God goes away, and then you wake up in the night, and you know that God exists.

It's that God I'm talking to you about from this most famous sentence in the Bible. Do you know somebody said to me, I think he's—not pointing at you, by the way—I think he's the most intelligent man I've ever met.

And then I'd be with somebody else, and they say, there he is, look, I think he's the most intelligent man I've ever met. And somebody else would say to me, have you ever met Jean-Marc Berthoud? I think he's the most intelligent man I've ever met.

And by the way, I'd like to tell you that as far as I can see, Jean-Marc Berthoud is the most intelligent man I've ever met. That was his reputation. He was a lecturer, a professor in the Sorbonne, which is the most prestigious university in the whole French-speaking world.

But he wasn't atheist. He lived with a woman who wasn't his wife. He loved her. And one day she had to go to the station to travel away to see members of her family, and he took her to the station. And as he said goodbye to her, as the train moved out and waved to her, he turned around and he says, I knew there was a God.

So he said to himself, don't be stupid. You've spent decades saying to other people that the whole idea of God is primitive and stupid. But so he said, I walked a few more yards, and I stopped, and I knew there was a God.

He said, this defies all explanation. This can't be right. It's not logical. It's not right. It doesn't fit in with anything I've ever taught. But he said, I knew. So this is what he did. He stood on the platform, and he said, God, right now, I don't believe you exist.

But if you do, you will have to find me, because I'll never be able to find you. Now, here's my challenge to you. If you're not a Christian, and you're not even someone who believes in God, I challenge you to pray that prayer, to stand under the open sky or in your own house and say, God, right now, I don't believe in you.

But if you are there, you will have to find me, because left to myself, I'll never find you. John Macbeth, who is now 84 years old, and he's one of the most outspoken and well-respected philosophers, historians, ethicists of the French-speaking world.

He's a lovely Christian with a lovely Christian wife, five children, all serving the Lord in different churches. And that's the God I'm speaking to you about. He unveils himself to people. He reveals to them that he is righteous and good and strict and tender and gentle and severe.

He reveals to people that he is a spirit without bodily parts, that he is everywhere present, that he knows everything, that he knows me. Yes, that he knows you. And he so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting, eternal life.

The Trinity and the Channel of Salvation Through Christ

So let's talk about the source of this love, the source of this life, shall I say, the source of this everlasting life. There's the need for the life. There's the giver of this life. What's the source?

God so loved. Yes, but somebody says, wait a minute, wait a minute, just now you were telling me God is strict and just and a judge and severe. Yes, but you mothers understand what I'm saying. You're down at the store, the big store.

We call it a supermarket. Do you use that word? Yeah. And there's your little toddler, your three-year-old, and he's doing what he's doing and you smack him one. And at that moment, you hate that child.

And then he runs to you for comfort and you hold him tight because you love that child and you hate that child and you love that child and you hate that child and you love that child and you're as confused as he is.

But God's not confused. I was troubled when I was young. I read in the Bible, God is love. But I thought when there were no angels around and no humans and no world and no universe and no galaxies and no atmospheres and no nothing, how could God be love?

Because there wasn't anyone to love. But then I found out that God is the father and he's the whole of God. And God is the son and he's the whole of God. And God is the spirit and he's the whole of God.

And yet the father is not the son and the son is not the spirit and the spirit is not the father. There are three who are God, but there are not three gods. And the father loves the son and the son loves the spirit and the spirit loves the father and the son, and they all love each other.

And there's a chemistry, an inward explosion, a current which is flowing within the being of God all the time, and it's almighty, everlasting, eternal, pure love. And the Bible teaches amazing truths.

And now I'm reading that love, that intimate love which is within the Godhead is extended out. And he so loves the world that he gives his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life, which is actually also the life of God.

Extraordinary verse, 25 words. The whole thing is mind-blowing. So let's talk about the channel of that love, that life. The need for the life is that we're perishing. The giver of this life is God. The source of this life is his love.

The channel of this life is his son. Now, if I say to you, you've got a horrible disease, and I tell you about it, and then I tell you, there's a cure, you know, but there's only one, you would say, that's good news.

But if I tell you that there's a God who is angry with the wicked every day, but there's a way to be right with him, but only one, people tell me that's prejudice. I can't understand that mentality. If you're dying of some terrible disease, and I tell you there's a cure, but there's only one, you say, thank God, that's wonderful.

And if I tell you that you're going to be lost just by staying as you are, but you can be saved and have everlasting life, but there's only one way to God, and it's through Jesus Christ, you say it's prejudice.

Well, prejudice or not, it's what the Bible teaches, and it's gospel, and it's good news. He gave his son. Now, you've got to come to Jesus. You've got to come to the eternal son of God, who became man, and so was and continues to be God and man in two distinct natures and one person forever.

You've got to come to Jesus. There's no other way to God except through Jesus. But he is the way, the truth, and the life, but no one comes to the Father except through him. The channel by which God's love brings you into everlasting life is Jesus.

God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. So the need for this life is that you're perishing, the source of this life is God, the giver of this life is God, the source of this life is his love, the channel of this life of his son, and the cost of this life is that God gave his son.

The Cost of Salvation in the Suffering and Death of Christ

Now, my telephone rang, and I mean my telephone. I don't mean my mobile, my cell phone, my real telephone. It never rings these days. There's yours, but I still have one. It's for decoration, probably, and there was a voice there, and I thought, that sounds familiar, and the voice told me his name.

I said, oh, Ian. He says, do you remember me? I said, yeah, of course. He says, well, I haven't seen you for 36 years. I said, well, some people are unforgettable. Would you agree with that? I used to teach him in school, because although I'm a pastor, I'm a qualified teacher, so I go into one of the state schools and teach them the Bible, but that's another story.

I used to teach him in school. He said, I'm 51 now, he said, and I live in New Zealand, and I'm back here to see my parents, and I'd like to come and see you. He said, come, come, come. So a few hours later, he arrives at my flat, and he has a wallet, which he brings out of his jacket, and he says, would you like to see a picture, because I'm 51 now, and I've just become a father for the first time, he said, and would you like to see a picture of my son?

And I said, I'd rather see a picture of your wife to begin with, and he produced one picture of his wife, she was pretty and pleasant, and then he produced all these pictures. This is Oliver, this is Oliver sitting, this is Oliver standing, this is Oliver playing, this is Oliver jumping, this is Oliver swimming, this is Oliver feeding.

We have a famous musical in Britain called Oliver, and I was about to sing the theme song, which is Oliver, Oliver. Do you know he loves that boy? He just loves him. What would he do if he had to give him up?

He was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and we hid, as it were, our eyes from him. He was despised and we did not esteem him. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted, but he was wounded for our transgressions.

He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

The Son of God loved me and gave himself for me. At the communion service we say his body, broken in my stead, is seen in this memorial bread, and thus my feeble love is fed until he comes. The drops of his dread agony we also mention.

He died for sinners. The terrible, terrible justice of God that should come upon sinners went upon his perfect, pure, and innocent Son. I am finite. If God pours his infinite justice on me, it will be an infinite punishment.

He is infinite. God poured out his infinite justice and wrath upon his Son one Friday afternoon as he hung on the cross for sinners, and all our salvation and our everlasting life comes about through his death.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. So you know about the need for this life, and the giver of it, and the source of it, and the channel of it, and the cost of it, and now we're going to talk about the beneficiaries of this life.

Who Receives Everlasting Life by Faith

Who actually receives everlasting life? For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever. Are you a man and you're 41? Would whoever fit you? Are you a girl and you're nine? Would whoever fit you?

Are you a lady and you're, well, you don't tell us your age, but I want to ask you this. Would whoever fit you? None of you can say here, I've been shut out because God promises whoever believes. All of you can say, I've heard the gospel today and I've been told it's for me, which it is.

God announces it as freely, as openly, as publicly, as unhesitatingly, and as sincerely as that. But there's a condition. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes on him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Now if I say do you believe in ghosts, I just mean do you in your head actually think they exist? That's not how the word believe is used in the Bible. In the Bible, believing is knowing, believing, and trusting.

So here's a married lady and she's been to the specialist and she's coming back now from the hospital with the worst possible news. There couldn't be worse news than this, but she's peaceful because she's married to a doctor who has spent 17 years researching this particular problem and has come up with a cure.

She knows that there's a cure. She believes that what's worked for others will work for her. So she commits herself into the care of the person she loves. That's how the Bible uses the word believe. I know that there's a cure for perishing sinners.

I believe that what's worked for millions of others will work for me and is offered to me and so I commit myself and entrust myself to Jesus Christ whom I really, really trust and now love. What's keeping you away from Christ?

He's kind. He's inviting. He's tender. He never did anything ever, ever, ever, ever except for other people. Isn't that a wonderful thing to say? It was all for the glory of God, but it was all for other people.

He lived entirely for the benefit of others. He died entirely for the benefit of others, and by the way, he rose from the dead entirely for the benefit of others. All for the glory of God, but for the benefit of others.

Why wouldn't you want to come to Christ? So I'll finish off by talking about the nature of everlasting life, and it's easy to explain and impossible to explain. When I was a boy, I was fascinated by eternity.

The Nature of Eternal Life and the Hope of Resurrection

I knew how to spell it. What is it? So I got on my bicycle. I cycled a few miles, I think about 11, but I can't be entirely sure, to where there was a great slab of rock, a few hundred yards long and a few hundred yards wide, and it seemed to rise up into the sky, at least to my boyish mind it did, and I climbed up onto the top of the rock and lay back on my back and looked up into the sky, and it was because I wanted to think about eternity.

Do you boys ever do that? I must have been odd, I think. And this is what I thought. I don't know how old I was, 12, 13, 14, I don't know, somewhere around there. I thought if I get in a spaceship now and go up and up and up, I'll go past the moon, I'll go past any other planets that are around, I'll go out of the galaxy and I'll go past the next galaxy and the next one and the next one and the last one, and then I'll be out into the open space, and then I go on and on and on and on and on, and if I hit something and come to the end, I'm going to ask what's on the other side.

And at that moment I suddenly found I was scared. Lying on the rock, I was on the edge of eternity. You go up and up and up and up and up and up. And there's no end. There's no end. By definition, there can't be an end, because if there is an end, you're going to ask the same question, what's on the other side?

That's eternity in space. The gospel is about eternity in time, everlasting life. So when the Christian dies, there's the separation of soul and body, the real you, that's still united to Christ and goes into the grave, the real you continues, and then when Christ comes, there's the resurrection, where the real you and the body are reunited and the body has new powers and faculties, and then we are welcomed into our eternal state, and the Bible says in simple, simple words, and so shall we be forever with the Lord, because we deserve to be, simply because God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes on him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Isn't that good news?