"Gods Master Plan Revealed"

9.30am Sunday 15 December 2002

Rev Des Botting

Drama by Jane Botting and Margaret van Gingel

Readings: Genesis 1:31a; 3:1-6, 14-15 Romans 16:25-27

Hi, Im Derek (and Im Ann) and were here to share a little bit of Christmas cheer with you all.

We were walking through St Lukes . . . .

(Tune: DECK THE HALLS)

Then we started shopping!

(Tune JINGLE BELLS)

Yes, Christmas truly is a joyous season. We almost heard the gentle strains of . . .

(Tune: O COME ALL YE FAITHFUL)

"Oh come all you buyers. How bout some radial tyres?

Or maybe some diamonds as a gift for your love?

Come, sign at the bottom, We dont need no cash, chum,

O come and let us tempt you, O come and let us fleece you,

O come and let us sue you-hoo, Christmas is here.

Were beginning to think maybe weve missed something . . . .

You know, Christmas really should be a time of giving and good cheer. Im not sure quite whats gone wrong. . .

Anyway, Im sure that youve all been wondering whats in all these big presents that are on the stage here.

Perhaps some of the younger members of the congregation would like to come and help me find out. Youll have to read the instructions carefully to see how they open up.

Thats odd isnt it? I wonder what it all means. . . maybe I should read this little instruction booklet.

Ahhh it looks like we may need lots of room so if you all go back to your seats now.

I need to wind up the toys . . . (wind imaginary parts) . . . then read this book.

You have just unwrapped the most special storybook. It has no pictures and no words but it holds the most marvellous secret ever heard . . . and the greatest Christmas gift.

(Green) Imagine that were back at the beginning of time. A long, long time ago. . . God has just created the earth and hes busy putting in the finishing touches: some stars up there, some pretty flowers to grow in spring, oh, what a lovely sound, that must be a waterfall. When God had made such an amazing place, he made some humans to live in it and to be his companions. Their names were Adam and Eve. God wanted the people as friends but he also gave them the ability to choose what they would do and think. He didnt want robots.

There was only one thing they werent to do in the whole garden and that was to eat the fruit of one tree the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

(Black) But one day they decided to disobey Gods one rule and a snake persuaded them that it would be quite okay to disobey God and eat the fruit.

Unfortunately, Gods orders had been for the humans own good, so the result of their disobedience was disastrous. It created a big barrier between them and God - they couldnt be His friends anymore. There was nothing they could do. God had given them a choice and they had made the wrong one. They werent able to stay in the garden with God anymore. Things were not good.

(Red) This was not good in Gods eyes either. He set about designing a plan (brings out map and studies it) to help the humans be his friends again. It was a plan which hurt him a lot: he sent his son, Jesus, as a tiny baby, but he wasnt born as a prince in a palace as you would expect. Instead he was born in a stable, probably surrounded by cows, donkeys and horses. This is what we remember at Christmas its his birthday!. He grew up and showed us by his perfect example how God wants us to live.

At the age of 33, he was arrested by jealous and evil men. Then people told lies about him, beat him, whipped him, spat on him and finally put him to death on a cross although hed done nothing wrong. This was the cruelest kind of death imaginable. And God allowed it to happen.

Jesus friends and followers thought this was the end but actually it was all part of Gods master plan. Jesus took the punishment we deserve for our sins. He went through all that suffering just because he loved us.

You know 3 days later, God raised Jesus to life a champion over death.

He appeared to many of his disciples, explaining that if they were sorry for the bad things they had done, asked God to forgive them and trusted in him to save them, he could help them live Gods way.

His death could break down the barrier between us and God and eventually push the evil out forever.

(White) Now we can be clean, if we want to be free from the dirty sin that disobedience to God brings and able to be his friends again. We can live our lives on earth becoming more and more the people that God intends for us to be. We can have the best friend ever the choice is totally up to you.

Aside: Hmmm . . ., that still leaves one page . . .

(Gold) Now, if weve accepted the gift God has given us, when our time on earth is over we can go and live with him forever in the most amazing place you can ever imagine plus a bit, a big bit.

And that is the greatest gift that has ever been given the gift of Jesus, whos knocked down the barrier so that we can be Gods friends again and, believe me, hes a friend worth having. Hes still offering this gift to you and to me , and its that gift that we celebrate at Christmas that massive, gigantic, superduper expression of Gods love. And thats the real meaning of Christmas.

How often have we heard the question, What can I give so-and-so this Christmas? When we buy a gift for someone we love, we want the gift to be something personal and appropriate, something special, and something that will be a blessing to them. Often we give considerable thought and time to choose the right gift.

God did this for us at the first Christmas. The Bible tells us that "Your Father knows what you need." When God gave His Christmas gift it was exactly all the above. It was personal in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ. It was special, as Jesus was His only unique Son. And it was something that has been the source of blessing to millions of people all over the world. It was appropriate because what the world needed above everything else was a Saviour.

Last week at Communion we noted three things that we can be thankful to God for when we share in the Communion meal. First, we can be thankful for the forgiveness He has made available to us through the Death of His Son. In the drama the person dressed in white represented how God can make us clean. Secondly, we can be thankful for the freedom from the power of evil in our lives. We saw this in the drama when Jesus, the person dressed in red, defeated the powers of sin and darkness through His death on the cross. We can now become more and more the people that God intends for us to be. Thirdly, we can be thankful for the wonderful future we have because Jesus rose from the grave victorious over death. The person dressed in gold speaks to us of the wonderful place God is preparing for those who love Him. But we dont have to wait untiol we get to heaven to experience the wonderful future we have in Christ. We begin to experience it from the moment we invite Jesus into our lives.

In the reading from Romans it says, "Praise God! He can make you strong by means of my good news, which the message about Jesus Christ. For ages and ages this message was kept secret, but now at last it has been told." This is the good news we celebrate at Christmas time. This passage then goes on to say, "The eternal God commanded his prophets to write about the good news, so that all nations would obey and have faith." This good news is for everyone on earth. God wants the peoples of every nations to be in His kingdom.

Why is this so? The Bible also tells us that God made human beings in His own image and likeness. Of no other creature to we read this. Just as God is eternal, so God has set eternity in the lives of human beings. Part of us lives on after our physical bodies die. It is very important that everyone knows about this. Let me illustrate this by telling you a story.

In the extraordinary opening ceremony to mark the opening of the 2000 Olympic Games one of the climaxes of the evening was to see that one word that hung suspended from the giant arch of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The word was "ETERNITY". It had also been hanging there on January 1 to greet the dawning of the year 2000.

Like a message from Heaven flashed across the world stage to billions of souls, it shone like a beacon, warning that time is swiftly passing and we are creatures of eternity. This was a sermon in a word, the magnitude of which can only be grasped as one understands the story behind it.

In downtown Sydney, set in the pavement at Sydney Square, is the same inescapable word, "Eternity", in the faultless copperplate writing. It was put there to perpetuate the memory of Sydneys unique citizen, Arthur Stace, otherwise known as Mr Eternity.

Arthur was a thin little man no more than 5 feet 3 inches in stature. He was uneducated and on his own testimony could barely write his name. His wife would read him his mail and he would tell her what to write in reply yet for 33 years this incredible man would rise at 5 oclock each morning to walk the streets of Sydney and its far-flung suburbs to write with chalk in flawless copperplate style on the pavements just one word, "Eternity". Day after day with a commitment and passion rarely equalled, he preached his sermon to the busy crowds of shoppers and workers. It is estimated that this simple, yet profound message, was repeated over 500,000 times.

In many ways the word was mysterious, for no one knew who was responsible for this elegant graffiti that adorned the pavement. Newspaper journalists wrote about it and people everywhere discussed it. It could be in the heart of the city one day, and in the suburbs the next. It even appeared in Melbourne, 1000 miles away. Journalists referred to its author as "Mr Eternity", and each day people would remark, "Mr Eternity has struck again!" Occasionally the message would change to "Obey God", but quickly reverted to the simple one-word sermon "Eternity". One day in 1956, after 24 years of mystery, Mr Thompson, Arthurs pastor, saw him writing the mysterious word on the pavement. "Are you Mr Eternity?" he asked. Back came the answer, "Guilty, you honour!"

Once Mr Eternitys identity was known interviews were arranged with the media, and the Daily Telegraph published a full report on 21 June 1956. In 1994 a TV documentary was produced on his life and shown across the nation. A Sydney poet has written his story in verse.

Arthur Stace was born in Sydney in 1854. His father was an alcoholic and his mother ran a brothel. He had two brothers, both of whom died of alcoholism. His two sisters ran a brothel.

During childhood, the five Stace children had to fend for themselves. It is said that the children frequently slept on hessian bags under the house to escape the wrath of a violent, drunken father. He stole to eat, and at the age of 12 was made a state ward. He received no education. When 14 years old he worked in a coal mine, and at 15 served his first jail sentence. He was by then a heavy drinker. He served in the War 1914-18 as a stretcher-bearer and drummer in France. In 1919 he returned to Sydney and was discharged suffering from shell shock, and alcoholism, which destroyed his father, soon controlled him. He wandered the streets feeding out of rubbish bins. Methylated spirits became a cheap escape.

In August 1930, during the Great Depression, Arthur Stace wandered into "A Meeting for Needy Men", where RBS Hammond, a strong evangelical, presented the Gospel of Jesus Christ and supplied each man with a cup of tea and a rock cake. After the meeting, Arthur made his way out of the hall, across Broadway in to Sydney University Park. There, under a big Morton Bay fig tree he fell on his knees to the ground and with tears of repentance streaming down his face cried out, "God be merciful to me a sinner!" That cry was the pivot on which Arthurs life turned. His was a genuine conversion to Christ, and for the next 37 years his life was a living testimony to Gods saving and keeping power. At that instant God heard his cry and he became a child of God. He could say as the hymn writer has put it, "My sins which were many are all washed away!" Later Arthur testified:

"I went in to get a cup of tea and a rock cake, but I met the Rock of Ages."

When Arthur Stace turned to God and found mercy he realized that every other person needed to do the same. That is why, for 33 years, he walked the streets from the early hours of the morning preaching his one-word sermon, "Eternity". "Eternity", to him was everlasting destiny of every soul to be spent in Heaven or Hell, and concern for his fellow man drove him on day after day. He knew the forgiveness of God in his own life and wanted others to have the same assurance.

In November 1932 an evangelist John G Ridley conducted evangelistic meetings, where Arthur was attending. The forceful preacher had for his text Isaiah 57:15, "Thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabits eternity". Stressing the word eternity, the preacher cried, "Eternity! Eternity! I wish I could sound or shout that word to everyone in the Streets of Sydney. Eternity! You have to meet it. Where will you spend eternity?"

Arthur Stace recalled that meeting. He said, "Eternity was ringing through my brain, and suddenly I began to cry and felt a powerful call from the Lord to write "Eternity". I had a piece of chalk in my pocket, and outside the meeting I bent down right there and wrote it The funny thing is, that before I wrote it I could hardly write my own name. I had no schooling and I couldnt have spelled "eternity" for a hundred quid. But it came smoothly, and in beautiful copperplate script. I couldnt understand it, and I still cant."

Now I understand why Sydneys New Millennium celebration had to be the best in the world. God had a Millennium message for all mankind, and the message is summed up in the Gospel of Christ. "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16).

Gods secret plan, revealed in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ, is to remind us of our destiny, and to prepare us for it. This is the greatest story ever told, by the greatest person who ever lived, and, as the drama told us, about the greatest gift that has been given the gift of Jesus, whos knocked down the barrier so that we can be Gods friends again and, believe me, hes a friend worth having. Hes still offering this gift to you and to me , and its that gift that we celebrate at Christmas that massive, gigantic, superduper expression of Gods love. And thats the real meaning of Christmas.

How can we receive this gift.

1. We must Admit we are sinners in need of Gods forgiveness. The Bible says, "If we confess our sins to God, he can always be trusted to forgive us and take our sins away."
2. We must Believe in Jesus, and that His death on the cross was to take away our sins. We believe in Him by receiving Him into our lives as our Saviour and Lord. The Bible says, "Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, to those he gave the right to become children of God."
3. We must Confess His as our Lord, the One who is in control of our lives. Again the Bible says, "You will be saved if you honestly say, Jesus is Lord, and if you believe with all your heart that God raised him from death. God will accept you and save you, if you truly believe this and tell it to others."

Allow God to bless you this Christmas by receiving His gift to you of a Saviour.