Whose Life Is It, Anyway? (28/09/1997)

Let me read to you from one of the freshers' week student newspapers (The Courier). This is under the headline: 'Nothing ever lasts forever':

'Probably the worst thing about being a fresher is the despicably patronising lists that newspapers publish telling you exactly what you should and shouldn't do to enjoy University life. They are utter rubbish and should be ignored at all costs.' [Of course, logically, that means we ought to ignore the rest of his article, but then when was logic ever a requirement for writing for The Courier?]

[He goes on] 'The brilliance of University life is that you're given the freedom to do exactly what you want to, with loads of spare time, without the prying eyes of your parents. So [expletive] to anyone who lectures you on how to have a good time. Just go out and do it… because.. the worst thing about Uni is simple - how quickly it's over. Milk it dry.' (The Courier, 25/9/97)

And the three things he says about university life could be said about life in general. There are lots of people trying to tell us what we should and shouldn't do in order to enjoy it. The brilliance of it is the freedom we have to do what we want. And, as Diana has reminded us: the worst thing is: how quickly it's over. So, says the Courier, 'Just go out and do it.' The problem is: do what? What will actually deliver us the good life? It's all very well being told to ignore everyone giving us their advice. But we'd be pretty stupid if we didn't at least ask the question of ourselves. What will actually deliver me the good life? Back in the student newspaper there's a centre-spread on Freshers' Week, with interviews of some of the new arrivals:

'Name: James. Age: 19. Why did you choose Newcastle? Because they let me in. What do you hope to achieve in Newcastle? To get out alive. What's your philosophy of life? Have sex with the lot of them.' [Isn't it reassuring as a tax-payer to think that your money is being poured into the great minds of the future?]

Melissa and Clare were both interviewed too:

'What is your philosophy of life? Answer: Live life to the max while you can cos you might get run over by a bus or a sports car tomorrow.'

But they still haven't answered the question. The question still comes: how do you live life to the max? What exactly do you maximise to get the most out of life? Orgasms? Pleasure? New experiences? Friends? Achievements? Or, as you get on, money? Possessions? And what if we get the answer wrong? What if we set off in life before we've really worked out what life's all about, and we suddenly come up for air, age 25 or 35 or 45, and we have to admit we still don't know what life's all about. That's basically what happened to Eric Clapton. He said this in an interview: 'I had all those things: a beautiful wife, cars, home, money, friends. All the things that you think a man could need, and it didn't stop me drinking. Once you find out that money and fame and success doesn't do it, where do you go? That's the big dilemma.' 'The brilliance of University life is that you're given the freedom to do exactly what you want,' says the student newspaper. The big dilemma is: how do you use it? Because freedom's actually a scary thing. Because decisions are never neutral. You either win or lose, every time. So, how are you going to decide what is right and what is wrong? How are you going to decide what matters in life, what to aim for in life Not just questions for first years, are they? Who are we going to trust to answer those questions? We like to think we're rugged individualists, influenced by nothing and no-one. But Jesus is right. The fact is we're all sheep at heart. We're all followers. One of the youth group I know had a poster on his door for a heavy metal band called 'Corrosion of Conformity'. You can imagine what it's like at their gigs, can't you? Thousands of people turning up in identical tee-shirts saying 'Corrosion of Conformity'. Jesus is right. The fact is: we're sheep at heart, whether we're conformist sheep or non-conformist sheep. And we all have our shepherds in life. The people we allow to influence the way we live. Boyfriends or girlfriends. Peer-group leaders down our corridor or in our year at school or college. The TV. The media. Even the good old Courier. They all shepherd us. The question is: which shepherd do you trust? Which shepherd is worthy of your trust? Jesus put it like this. Picture a sheep-pen in which there's a flock. There's a gate you have to go through to get into this particular flock, and once through, you're in the hands of a good shepherd who will deliver you the good life for ever. But there are other shepherds - sheep-stealers - outside the pen, trying to persuade you not to go in, not to give up your freedom to this so-called good shepherd, trying to tell you there's much more fun to be had outside the pen. It's a picture of us, and of Jesus, and of all the other shepherds who are competing for us. And Jesus says this. John 10.7-11:

I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. I am the good shepherd...

That's a pretty big claim Jesus is making. Jesus is saying: 'Put your life in the hands of anyone else, and they will screw it up for you. They will steal and kill and destroy.' Jesus is saying, 'I'm the only one who can deliver you life as it was meant to be, life to the full. I'm the only trustworthy shepherd around. Follow anything or anyone else, and you'll be a loser.' And for the rest of our time I just want to ask and answer three questions: First, WHAT DO THE OTHERS OFFER? Secondly, WHAT DOES JESUS OFFER? Thirdly, HOW DO YOU RECEIVE WHAT JESUS HAS TO OFFER? First, WHAT DO THE OTHERS OFFER? All other shepherds but Jesus have one thing in common. They offer you life without God. Which is the same as saying, 'Life without Jesus,' who is God's Son and the only way to God. They don't put it like that in so many words, but that's really what they're offering. Life without the one, true God who made you and put you here. And the way they make that a selling-point is this. They give the impression that God is some kind of kill-joy, who having given us things like sex with the one hand effectively takes it away with the other by hedging it around with unnecessary and restrictive instructions. They paint a picture of God as the boring adult who's lost his sense of fun and doesn't really understand what it is to be human. Despite the fact that he has been, in Jesus. Despite the fact that he made us humans in his image. 'God is the great threat to enjoying your freedom to the full.' That's the message of the others. And if you're a student just arrived from, or just returned from, a Christian home, a Christian background, you'll be feeling the force of that message all over the campus. 'Hey, first year, now's the time to leave God behind and start making your own way in life.' 'With loads of spare time, and without the prying eyes of your parents,' just like The Courier says. Let me read something else. This time, it's from the Student Survival Guide that The Independent newspaper brought out for Freshers' Week two years ago. (I haven't managed to find any of this year's). Let me quote from one would-be shepherd. Decca Aitkenhead, a Manchester graduate, is writing about sex:

'There is no point in being coy about this. Nobody else has been. Your friends have savoured endless speculation on the subject. Your father has mumbled about condoms. Even you, dare I say it, have given it some thought. In the awe-struck words of your younger brother, 'Wow! You're going to have so much sex.' … What you do, how often you do it, and with whom is entirely your own affair… Your freshers' pack will probably include a free condom, but this is unlikely to last you for your entire university career, so it's wise to stock up…. Hopefully your little brother is right. It would be a shame not to sample all the opportunities of life at university - particularly those which present themselves between the sheets.'

Look back to what Jesus says about Decca Aitkenhead. It's there in John 10.10: 'The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.' Decca Aitkenhead comes only to steal your virginity, kill your relationships and destroy your integrity. But boy does she make life without God sound fun. And as she smiles out at you from her photo in the paper, you'd never guess the secret pains and doubts and guilt that I guarantee trouble her as a result of her own lifestyle. Let me tell you how Jesus describes life without God. He says: life without God is directionless. 'I am the light of the world,' said Jesus. 'Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but have the light of life.' (John 8.12) By implication, if you don't follow him, you're in the dark. Without God, we cannot know what's right and wrong. We can only live by trial and error - and getting hurt, and hurting others. Directionless. Then, life without God is morally powerless. Jesus, again talking about himself, said, 'This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.' (John 3.19) Without God we not only go wrong, we begin to like going wrong. We get addicted. We form habits and characters that we don't necessarily want, but we can't change. We can't even find the will to change. Directionless. Powerless. Then, life without God is unsatisfying. Jesus said, 'If anyone is thirsty [ie, if anyone has tried to find satisfaction outside God and found nothing], let him come to me and drink.' (John 7.37) Eric Clapton had it all. And he was honest enough to admit he had nothing. He was still thirsty for satisfaction and his alcoholism was an expression of that. Directionless. Powerless. Unsatisfying. Then life without God is full of guilt. Unless, of course, you really do disarm your conscience - which is possible. Jesus said, 'Whoever believes in [me] is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already.' (John 3.18) Our consciences are our 'sixth sense': our sense of God, our sense of being accountable to God. Even the atheist can't escape it. And our consciences are guilty. Directionless. Powerless. Unsatisfying. Guilty. That's how Jesus describes life without God, and the first thing that persuaded me that Christianity was true was that that summed up my life without God exactly. But we haven't got to the worst bit about life without God. The worst bit is that it carries on beyond the grave. Jesus said, 'Whoever acknowledges the Son of Man before men, I will also acknowledge him before the angels of God.' [ie, when he dies and faces God the Father and Jesus, Jesus will say, 'He's one of mine. Welcome. Come in.'] Jesus also said, 'He who disowns me before men will be disowned before the angels of God….I will say to them, 'I don't know you, or where you came from. Away from me, all you evildoers!'' (Luke 12.8-9, 13.27). If in this life we say to God, 'Keep out of my life so I can live it by myself', that is exactly what he will do. He will let us have what we asked for, both this side of death, and the other. The judgement of God gives us what we wanted. Life without God, forever. So add to directionless, powerless, unsatisfying, and guilty - fearful of death. Because in our heart of hearts we know that death will bring us face to face with the God who made us and put us here. And the biggest lie of the other shepherds is that the here-and-now is all there is in life. How do they know? Have they died and checked out that there's nothing the other side and come back? No. It's sheer bluff. But Jesus has died and come back to life. The dead are raised. There is a God. We will meet him. We will be judged by him. We will spend eternity in or out of his presence. Over the last month, millions have expressed their desire to believe in more than just the here-and-now. They want to believe that Diana still exists somewhere, and that they themselves will still exist somewhere. But the emotion will pass. And the millions will quietly go back to living as their shepherds have told them to: living as if there were no God and nothing beyond this life, living, as Melissa and Clare put it, 'to the max, cos you might get run over… tomorrow'. But we can't have it both ways. If we live without God now because we think that'll give us life to the max, we will live without God beyond the grave and have all the time in eternity to ponder our mistake. That's the life the others offer. Directionless. Powerless. Unsatisfying. Guilty. And fearful of death. It's not the most attractive package, when you think about it. And it makes me wonder why so many people buy it. My fear is that it's because so few people know there's an alternative.44. So: Secondly, WHAT DOES JESUS OFFER? John 10.9 [Jesus speaking]:

I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.

What does Jesus offer? He offers to save our lives. 'Saved' is one of those naff words, isn't it? It's a religious word, a fanatic word, a Billy Graham word… No, it's a Jesus word. And I guess we dislike the word 'saved' because it focusses the real issues. It reminds you there's something to be saved from. And it reminds you that you either are saved or you're not. The question is not, 'Are you from a Christian home?' or 'Have you joined the CU?'. The question is: have you been saved? To save someone simply means to rescue them - to get them out of a situation that's bad for them into a situation that's good for them. And if you're not persuaded that living without God is the worst possible situation you can find yourself in, you will see absolutely nothing in what Jesus has to offer. Because what Jesus offers is this: to save you from life without God, and to bring you into life with God. It's as simple as that. And in order to save you from life without God and into life with God, Jesus had to die for you. Verse 10, half way through:

I have come that they may have life and have it to the full. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

Yesterday was my birthday. I was 16. It was my spiritual birthday. I was saved, I trusted Jesus for myself, on 27th September 1981. I still remember the moment when it dawned on me during a talk a bit like this that I had lived in God's world for 15 years and ignored him completely. I still remember the churning of the stomach that accompanied that discovery. The thought of the scale of that offence. Accepting everything in life that God had given and then just ignoring him, as if he had no say in my life, no rights in it. And I remember thinking to myself, 'I hope this speaker is going to tell me if that can be forgiven.' And he did. He told me that Jesus - God's Son become man - was the only person who has ever lived faultlessly in God's sight. He was the only person never to have deserved the judgement of hearing God say, 'I don't know you. Away from me.' And yet the one perfect life in human history was ended in the most punishing death in human history, hanging on a cross. Why? I was, at times, a naughty 7-year-old and one day at school I placed a drawing pin, point-up on the chair of the boy next to me, Mark Smith. He sat on it. He went up to the front, to the teacher and informed her what had happened. She extracted the drawing pin. And she then asked who'd done it. I'd been in trouble with her more than I care to remember, and Neil Carter, the friend of mine on the other side of Mark Smith, knew I had. I don't know what thoughts of self-sacrifice go through the mind of a 7-year-old trying to save his mate, but Neil Carter put up his hand and said, 'I did it, Miss. I'm sorry.' I can't remember what the punishment was, but he took it. Scale up the offence from a drawing pin to telling God to keep out of your life. Scale up the punishment from being sent out of class to being shut out of heaven. And then you get some inkling of what Jesus took responsibility for, and faced judgement for, when he died on the cross When Jesus died on the cross, it was as if he was putting up his hand and taking responsibility for the sins of the whole world - for our ignoring God and all the evil done and good not done that falls out of that. On the cross, it's as though Jesus was putting his hand up and saying of every sin you and I will ever commit, 'Let's say I did it. I will take the judgement you deserve, so you can be forgiven it.' That's why he came. Not to teach or set an example or tell us to be good (the sort of watered down Christianity you may have been fed in a school chapel). But to die in our place so that judgement could be lifted from us, without any sin going unpunished. God in his justice had to see that justice was done on every sin. But in his love he was determined to make a way to forgive us. And that way was the cross. It shows what God ought to do to us. It shows what God took on himself so he could forgive us. 'I am the good shepherd,' said Jesus. 'The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.'79. The cross was no accident: it was what Jesus came to do. And he did it willingly, for our sake:

I lay down my life, only to take it up again [the resurrection]. No-one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again… (John 10.17-18)

And having taken his life up again, when he was raised from the dead, Jesus is alive now. He can be known. If you are currently living without God, without Jesus as our Shepherd, you are, according to Jesus, directionless, powerless, unsatisfied, guilty, and with every reason to fear the judgement of God. But thanks to the cross, he can save you. The heart of it is that he can forgive you. You can come to him, whoever you are and whatever your moral track-record, and be forgiven back into relationship with God. And when that happens, your fear of God is taken away, because fear has to do with punishment. Your guilt is dealt with - not just covered over, but cleansed. You find a new power in your life because you can't accept love like Jesus showed you on the cross without it transforming you and giving you the desire to live for him. And you find direction and satisfaction. You discover what Jesus meant when he said, 'Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but have the light of life.' That's what Jesus offers. A new start, forgiven everything, and with him in his rightful place as Shepherd of your life. Which begs my third and last question: Thirdly, HOW DO YOU RECEIVE WHAT JESUS HAS TO OFFER? Plenty of people here this evening know that they've been saved: they've received forgiveness, and started life over again with Jesus as Shepherd of their lives. If that's you, especially if you're a first year student, I want to say: your life could not be in better hands. New surroundings may force you to ask yourslef, 'Why do I trust my life to Jesus?' My answer is this. I trust people with expertise in the area I need help. Like the doctor. And I trust people who have shown committed and costly care for me. Like my parents. Well I take it that Jesus is an expert in life, given that with his Father he had a hand in making us. And as for committed and costly care: I can't imagine how much time and money my parents have poured into me, from the first nappy, on. But they haven't died for me. Jesus has. Be assured: your life could not be in better hands. But what if your life is still in your own hands? There will be some people in that position who see no problem at all. You disagree with Jesus that your life, without him, is directionless, powerless, unsatisfying, guilty, and fearful of death. Well, this whole thing is between you and him. I'm just relaying what Jesus says. I take no responsibility for the content of what I've said tonight. And until Jesus brings it home to you in your own experience that life without him isn't worth living, you'll keep living it without him. But there may be some here who want to respond to Jesus tonight. I'm not going to tell you to respond. But I do want to tell you how to, so you can if it's appropriate. Let me read John 10.16. Jesus said:

I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.

It may be that like I did 16 years ago almost to the day, you've heard the voice of Jesus. Maybe you've been hearing it over the summer or during a 'Gap' year. You know this is all true. You know you're currently living without God. You know that what Jesus says about life without him is an exact description of where you are. And you know that Jesus is saying, 'I can save you. I can bring you out of life without me, forgive you, and become your Shepherd.' What do you have to do to respond? Well, let me put it as simply as I can with an 'A', a 'B' and a 'C'. A: you have to admit you're in the wrong with God - that he's your rightful shepherd in life and you've kept him out, which is a dreadful offence - and not one we can do anything to make up for. B: you have to believe that Jesus died to take upon himself the judgement you deserve for that offence. You simply have to receive forgiveness as an unearnt gift, paid for by Jesus on the cross. C: you have to come to him in prayer and say something like, 'I admit I am in the wrong with you. I believe you died for me. Please forgive me, have me back and take up your place as Shepherd of my life.' I'm going to end with exactly that prayer. It will not be appropriate for those who've already been saved. It won't be appropriate for people at the other end of the spectrum, who really aren't sure yet whether this is true. But it will be appropriate if you know Jesus has been speaking to you and you know enough to respond, and you want to get on and respond. Let me say: Jesus never called people to private discipleship. He called people to own him publicly as their Lord and to belong publicly to his 'flock'. So if you're not ready to do that, if you're not ready to say to someone you've done this, you're not ready to do this. I'm only encouraging you to pray this prayer if you're ready to say it to the Lord Jesus, and also ready to let others know that you are his. Here's the prayer again, so you can think about it:

'Lord Jesus Christ, I admit I am in the wrong with you. I believe you died for me. Please forgive me, have me back and take up your place as Shepherd of my life.'

Let's bow our heads… if you want to respond to him now, why not echo that prayer silently to him in your own mind. Elsewhere in John's gospel Jesus said, 'I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned. He has crossed over from death to life.' John 5.24) If you've heard and believed and expressed that trust by echoing that prayer, those words are true of you. You have begun a relationship with God which will last forever. He will never hold your sins, past or future against you, thanks to the cross. And you have just crossed over from life without God to life with God as your Father and Jesus as your Lord. You wouldn't thank me if I went on any longer now, but if you've just made that crossing, you'd benefit from a bit of help on how to get going as a Christian. I'm going to be around at the back of the building, and if you'd like to come and say, 'I prayed that prayer', I could give you something to read and let you know what we lay on at this church for helping people get going. [Internet users: the series of evening sermons after this one aims to cover the basics of Christian faith and living, and should provide some 'follow-on' to this talk.]

Whose Life Is It, Anyway?	28/09/1997 at 6.30pm
John 10	Jesmond Parish Church

A sermon preached by Ian Garrett
Let me read to you from one of the freshers' week student newspapers (The Courier). This is under the headline: 'Nothing ever lasts forever': 'Probably the worst thing about being a fresher is the despicably patronising lists that newspapers publish telling you exactly what you should and shouldn't do to enjoy University life. They are utter rubbish and should be ignored at all costs.' [Of course, logically, that means we ought to ignore the rest of his article, but then when was logic ever a requirement for writing for The Courier?] [He goes on] 'The brilliance of University life is that you're given the freedom to do exactly what you want to, with loads of spare time, without the prying eyes of your parents. So [expletive] to anyone who lectures you on how to have a good time. Just go out and do it… because.. the worst thing about Uni is simple - how quickly it's over. Milk it dry.' (The Courier, 25/9/97) And the three things he says about university life could be said about life in general. There are lots of people trying to tell us what we should and shouldn't do in order to enjoy it. The brilliance of it is the freedom we have to do what we want. And, as Diana has reminded us: the worst thing is: how quickly it's over. So, says the Courier, 'Just go out and do it.' The problem is: do what? What will actually deliver us the good life? It's all very well being told to ignore everyone giving us their advice. But we'd be pretty stupid if we didn't at least ask the question of ourselves. What will actually deliver me the good life? Back in the student newspaper there's a centre-spread on Freshers' Week, with interviews of some of the new arrivals: 'Name: James. Age: 19. Why did you choose Newcastle? Because they let me in. What do you hope to achieve in Newcastle? To get out alive. What's your philosophy of life? Have sex with the lot of them.' [Isn't it reassuring as a tax-payer to think that your money is being poured into the great minds of the future?] Melissa and Clare were both interviewed too: 'What is your philosophy of life? Answer: Live life to the max while you can cos you might get run over by a bus or a sports car tomorrow.' But they still haven't answered the question. The question still comes: how do you live life to the max? What exactly do you maximise to get the most out of life? Orgasms? Pleasure? New experiences? Friends? Achievements? Or, as you get on, money? Possessions? And what if we get the answer wrong? What if we set off in life before we've really worked out what life's all about, and we suddenly come up for air, age 25 or 35 or 45, and we have to admit we still don't know what life's all about. That's basically what happened to Eric Clapton. He said this in an interview: 'I had all those things: a beautiful wife, cars, home, money, friends. All the things that you think a man could need, and it didn't stop me drinking. Once you find out that money and fame and success doesn't do it, where do you go? That's the big dilemma.' 'The brilliance of University life is that you're given the freedom to do exactly what you want,' says the student newspaper. The big dilemma is: how do you use it? Because freedom's actually a scary thing. Because decisions are never neutral. You either win or lose, every time. So, how are you going to decide what is right and what is wrong? How are you going to decide what matters in life, what to aim for in life Not just questions for first years, are they? Who are we going to trust to answer those questions? We like to think we're rugged individualists, influenced by nothing and no-one. But Jesus is right. The fact is we're all sheep at heart. We're all followers. One of the youth group I know had a poster on his door for a heavy metal band called 'Corrosion of Conformity'. You can imagine what it's like at their gigs, can't you? Thousands of people turning up in identical tee-shirts saying 'Corrosion of Conformity'. Jesus is right. The fact is: we're sheep at heart, whether we're conformist sheep or non-conformist sheep. And we all have our shepherds in life. The people we allow to influence the way we live. Boyfriends or girlfriends. Peer-group leaders down our corridor or in our year at school or college. The TV. The media. Even the good old Courier. They all shepherd us. The question is: which shepherd do you trust? Which shepherd is worthy of your trust? Jesus put it like this. Picture a sheep-pen in which there's a flock. There's a gate you have to go through to get into this particular flock, and once through, you're in the hands of a good shepherd who will deliver you the good life for ever. But there are other shepherds - sheep-stealers - outside the pen, trying to persuade you not to go in, not to give up your freedom to this so-called good shepherd, trying to tell you there's much more fun to be had outside the pen. It's a picture of us, and of Jesus, and of all the other shepherds who are competing for us. And Jesus says this. John 10.7-11: I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. I am the good shepherd... That's a pretty big claim Jesus is making. Jesus is saying: 'Put your life in the hands of anyone else, and they will screw it up for you. They will steal and kill and destroy.' Jesus is saying, 'I'm the only one who can deliver you life as it was meant to be, life to the full. I'm the only trustworthy shepherd around. Follow anything or anyone else, and you'll be a loser.' And for the rest of our time I just want to ask and answer three questions: First, WHAT DO THE OTHERS OFFER? Secondly, WHAT DOES JESUS OFFER? Thirdly, HOW DO YOU RECEIVE WHAT JESUS HAS TO OFFER? First, WHAT DO THE OTHERS OFFER? All other shepherds but Jesus have one thing in common. They offer you life without God. Which is the same as saying, 'Life without Jesus,' who is God's Son and the only way to God. They don't put it like that in so many words, but that's really what they're offering. Life without the one, true God who made you and put you here. And the way they make that a selling-point is this. They give the impression that God is some kind of kill-joy, who having given us things like sex with the one hand effectively takes it away with the other by hedging it around with unnecessary and restrictive instructions. They paint a picture of God as the boring adult who's lost his sense of fun and doesn't really understand what it is to be human. Despite the fact that he has been, in Jesus. Despite the fact that he made us humans in his image. 'God is the great threat to enjoying your freedom to the full.' That's the message of the others. And if you're a student just arrived from, or just returned from, a Christian home, a Christian background, you'll be feeling the force of that message all over the campus. 'Hey, first year, now's the time to leave God behind and start making your own way in life.' 'With loads of spare time, and without the prying eyes of your parents,' just like The Courier says. Let me read something else. This time, it's from the Student Survival Guide that The Independent newspaper brought out for Freshers' Week two years ago. (I haven't managed to find any of this year's). Let me quote from one would-be shepherd. Decca Aitkenhead, a Manchester graduate, is writing about sex: 'There is no point in being coy about this. Nobody else has been. Your friends have savoured endless speculation on the subject. Your father has mumbled about condoms. Even you, dare I say it, have given it some thought. In the awe-struck words of your younger brother, 'Wow! You're going to have so much sex.' … What you do, how often you do it, and with whom is entirely your own affair… Your freshers' pack will probably include a free condom, but this is unlikely to last you for your entire university career, so it's wise to stock up…. Hopefully your little brother is right. It would be a shame not to sample all the opportunities of life at university - particularly those which present themselves between the sheets.' Look back to what Jesus says about Decca Aitkenhead. It's there in John 10.10: 'The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.' Decca Aitkenhead comes only to steal your virginity, kill your relationships and destroy your integrity. But boy does she make life without God sound fun. And as she smiles out at you from her photo in the paper, you'd never guess the secret pains and doubts and guilt that I guarantee trouble her as a result of her own lifestyle. Let me tell you how Jesus describes life without God. He says: life without God is directionless. 'I am the light of the world,' said Jesus. 'Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but have the light of life.' (John 8.12) By implication, if you don't follow him, you're in the dark. Without God, we cannot know what's right and wrong. We can only live by trial and error - and getting hurt, and hurting others. Directionless. Then, life without God is morally powerless. Jesus, again talking about himself, said, 'This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.' (John 3.19) Without God we not only go wrong, we begin to like going wrong. We get addicted. We form habits and characters that we don't necessarily want, but we can't change. We can't even find the will to change. Directionless. Powerless. Then, life without God is unsatisfying. Jesus said, 'If anyone is thirsty [ie, if anyone has tried to find satisfaction outside God and found nothing], let him come to me and drink.' (John 7.37) Eric Clapton had it all. And he was honest enough to admit he had nothing. He was still thirsty for satisfaction and his alcoholism was an expression of that. Directionless. Powerless. Unsatisfying. Then life without God is full of guilt. Unless, of course, you really do disarm your conscience - which is possible. Jesus said, 'Whoever believes in [me] is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already.' (John 3.18) Our consciences are our 'sixth sense': our sense of God, our sense of being accountable to God. Even the atheist can't escape it. And our consciences are guilty. Directionless. Powerless. Unsatisfying. Guilty. That's how Jesus describes life without God, and the first thing that persuaded me that Christianity was true was that that summed up my life without God exactly. But we haven't got to the worst bit about life without God. The worst bit is that it carries on beyond the grave. Jesus said, 'Whoever acknowledges the Son of Man before men, I will also acknowledge him before the angels of God.' [ie, when he dies and faces God the Father and Jesus, Jesus will say, 'He's one of mine. Welcome. Come in.'] Jesus also said, 'He who disowns me before men will be disowned before the angels of God….I will say to them, 'I don't know you, or where you came from. Away from me, all you evildoers!'' (Luke 12.8-9, 13.27). If in this life we say to God, 'Keep out of my life so I can live it by myself', that is exactly what he will do. He will let us have what we asked for, both this side of death, and the other. The judgement of God gives us what we wanted. Life without God, forever. So add to directionless, powerless, unsatisfying, and guilty - fearful of death. Because in our heart of hearts we know that death will bring us face to face with the God who made us and put us here. And the biggest lie of the other shepherds is that the here-and-now is all there is in life. How do they know? Have they died and checked out that there's nothing the other side and come back? No. It's sheer bluff. But Jesus has died and come back to life. The dead are raised. There is a God. We will meet him. We will be judged by him. We will spend eternity in or out of his presence. Over the last month, millions have expressed their desire to believe in more than just the here-and-now. They want to believe that Diana still exists somewhere, and that they themselves will still exist somewhere. But the emotion will pass. And the millions will quietly go back to living as their shepherds have told them to: living as if there were no God and nothing beyond this life, living, as Melissa and Clare put it, 'to the max, cos you might get run over… tomorrow'. But we can't have it both ways. If we live without God now because we think that'll give us life to the max, we will live without God beyond the grave and have all the time in eternity to ponder our mistake. That's the life the others offer. Directionless. Powerless. Unsatisfying. Guilty. And fearful of death. It's not the most attractive package, when you think about it. And it makes me wonder why so many people buy it. My fear is that it's because so few people know there's an alternative.44. So: Secondly, WHAT DOES JESUS OFFER? John 10.9 [Jesus speaking]: I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come that they may have life and have it to the full. What does Jesus offer? He offers to save our lives. 'Saved' is one of those naff words, isn't it? It's a religious word, a fanatic word, a Billy Graham word… No, it's a Jesus word. And I guess we dislike the word 'saved' because it focusses the real issues. It reminds you there's something to be saved from. And it reminds you that you either are saved or you're not. The question is not, 'Are you from a Christian home?' or 'Have you joined the CU?'. The question is: have you been saved? To save someone simply means to rescue them - to get them out of a situation that's bad for them into a situation that's good for them. And if you're not persuaded that living without God is the worst possible situation you can find yourself in, you will see absolutely nothing in what Jesus has to offer. Because what Jesus offers is this: to save you from life without God, and to bring you into life with God. It's as simple as that. And in order to save you from life without God and into life with God, Jesus had to die for you. Verse 10, half way through: I have come that they may have life and have it to the full. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. Yesterday was my birthday. I was 16. It was my spiritual birthday. I was saved, I trusted Jesus for myself, on 27th September 1981. I still remember the moment when it dawned on me during a talk a bit like this that I had lived in God's world for 15 years and ignored him completely. I still remember the churning of the stomach that accompanied that discovery. The thought of the scale of that offence. Accepting everything in life that God had given and then just ignoring him, as if he had no say in my life, no rights in it. And I remember thinking to myself, 'I hope this speaker is going to tell me if that can be forgiven.' And he did. He told me that Jesus - God's Son become man - was the only person who has ever lived faultlessly in God's sight. He was the only person never to have deserved the judgement of hearing God say, 'I don't know you. Away from me.' And yet the one perfect life in human history was ended in the most punishing death in human history, hanging on a cross. Why? I was, at times, a naughty 7-year-old and one day at school I placed a drawing pin, point-up on the chair of the boy next to me, Mark Smith. He sat on it. He went up to the front, to the teacher and informed her what had happened. She extracted the drawing pin. And she then asked who'd done it. I'd been in trouble with her more than I care to remember, and Neil Carter, the friend of mine on the other side of Mark Smith, knew I had. I don't know what thoughts of self-sacrifice go through the mind of a 7-year-old trying to save his mate, but Neil Carter put up his hand and said, 'I did it, Miss. I'm sorry.' I can't remember what the punishment was, but he took it. Scale up the offence from a drawing pin to telling God to keep out of your life. Scale up the punishment from being sent out of class to being shut out of heaven. And then you get some inkling of what Jesus took responsibility for, and faced judgement for, when he died on the cross When Jesus died on the cross, it was as if he was putting up his hand and taking responsibility for the sins of the whole world - for our ignoring God and all the evil done and good not done that falls out of that. On the cross, it's as though Jesus was putting his hand up and saying of every sin you and I will ever commit, 'Let's say I did it. I will take the judgement you deserve, so you can be forgiven it.' That's why he came. Not to teach or set an example or tell us to be good (the sort of watered down Christianity you may have been fed in a school chapel). But to die in our place so that judgement could be lifted from us, without any sin going unpunished. God in his justice had to see that justice was done on every sin. But in his love he was determined to make a way to forgive us. And that way was the cross. It shows what God ought to do to us. It shows what God took on himself so he could forgive us. 'I am the good shepherd,' said Jesus. 'The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.'79. The cross was no accident: it was what Jesus came to do. And he did it willingly, for our sake: I lay down my life, only to take it up again [the resurrection]. No-one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again… (John 10.17-18) And having taken his life up again, when he was raised from the dead, Jesus is alive now. He can be known. If you are currently living without God, without Jesus as our Shepherd, you are, according to Jesus, directionless, powerless, unsatisfied, guilty, and with every reason to fear the judgement of God. But thanks to the cross, he can save you. The heart of it is that he can forgive you. You can come to him, whoever you are and whatever your moral track-record, and be forgiven back into relationship with God. And when that happens, your fear of God is taken away, because fear has to do with punishment. Your guilt is dealt with - not just covered over, but cleansed. You find a new power in your life because you can't accept love like Jesus showed you on the cross without it transforming you and giving you the desire to live for him. And you find direction and satisfaction. You discover what Jesus meant when he said, 'Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but have the light of life.' That's what Jesus offers. A new start, forgiven everything, and with him in his rightful place as Shepherd of your life. Which begs my third and last question: Thirdly, HOW DO YOU RECEIVE WHAT JESUS HAS TO OFFER? Plenty of people here this evening know that they've been saved: they've received forgiveness, and started life over again with Jesus as Shepherd of their lives. If that's you, especially if you're a first year student, I want to say: your life could not be in better hands. New surroundings may force you to ask yourslef, 'Why do I trust my life to Jesus?' My answer is this. I trust people with expertise in the area I need help. Like the doctor. And I trust people who have shown committed and costly care for me. Like my parents. Well I take it that Jesus is an expert in life, given that with his Father he had a hand in making us. And as for committed and costly care: I can't imagine how much time and money my parents have poured into me, from the first nappy, on. But they haven't died for me. Jesus has. Be assured: your life could not be in better hands. But what if your life is still in your own hands? There will be some people in that position who see no problem at all. You disagree with Jesus that your life, without him, is directionless, powerless, unsatisfying, guilty, and fearful of death. Well, this whole thing is between you and him. I'm just relaying what Jesus says. I take no responsibility for the content of what I've said tonight. And until Jesus brings it home to you in your own experience that life without him isn't worth living, you'll keep living it without him. But there may be some here who want to respond to Jesus tonight. I'm not going to tell you to respond. But I do want to tell you how to, so you can if it's appropriate. Let me read John 10.16. Jesus said: I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. It may be that like I did 16 years ago almost to the day, you've heard the voice of Jesus. Maybe you've been hearing it over the summer or during a 'Gap' year. You know this is all true. You know you're currently living without God. You know that what Jesus says about life without him is an exact description of where you are. And you know that Jesus is saying, 'I can save you. I can bring you out of life without me, forgive you, and become your Shepherd.' What do you have to do to respond? Well, let me put it as simply as I can with an 'A', a 'B' and a 'C'. A: you have to admit you're in the wrong with God - that he's your rightful shepherd in life and you've kept him out, which is a dreadful offence - and not one we can do anything to make up for. B: you have to believe that Jesus died to take upon himself the judgement you deserve for that offence. You simply have to receive forgiveness as an unearnt gift, paid for by Jesus on the cross. C: you have to come to him in prayer and say something like, 'I admit I am in the wrong with you. I believe you died for me. Please forgive me, have me back and take up your place as Shepherd of my life.' I'm going to end with exactly that prayer. It will not be appropriate for those who've already been saved. It won't be appropriate for people at the other end of the spectrum, who really aren't sure yet whether this is true. But it will be appropriate if you know Jesus has been speaking to you and you know enough to respond, and you want to get on and respond. Let me say: Jesus never called people to private discipleship. He called people to own him publicly as their Lord and to belong publicly to his 'flock'. So if you're not ready to do that, if you're not ready to say to someone you've done this, you're not ready to do this. I'm only encouraging you to pray this prayer if you're ready to say it to the Lord Jesus, and also ready to let others know that you are his. Here's the prayer again, so you can think about it: 'Lord Jesus Christ, I admit I am in the wrong with you. I believe you died for me. Please forgive me, have me back and take up your place as Shepherd of my life.' Let's bow our heads… if you want to respond to him now, why not echo that prayer silently to him in your own mind. Elsewhere in John's gospel Jesus said, 'I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned. He has crossed over from death to life.' John 5.24) If you've heard and believed and expressed that trust by echoing that prayer, those words are true of you. You have begun a relationship with God which will last forever. He will never hold your sins, past or future against you, thanks to the cross. And you have just crossed over from life without God to life with God as your Father and Jesus as your Lord. You wouldn't thank me if I went on any longer now, but if you've just made that crossing, you'd benefit from a bit of help on how to get going as a Christian. I'm going to be around at the back of the building, and if you'd like to come and say, 'I prayed that prayer', I could give you something to read and let you know what we lay on at this church for helping people get going. [Internet users: the series of evening sermons after this one aims to cover the basics of Christian faith and living, and should provide some 'follow-on' to this talk.]
For more sermon transcripts visit http://www.church.org.uk

Whose Life Is It, Anyway?

A sermon preached by Ian Garrett