Worship Service on Sunday, May 4, 2025
The message today is sanctification and God’s timing. Sanctification, the action of making or declaring something holy. The action or process of being freed from sin or purified. The action of causing something to be or seem morally right or acceptable. In biblical terms, sanctification refers to the process of being set apart and made holy both in a spiritual and practical sense. It involves being separated from sin and being much more like Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit and the practice of obedience to God’s word.
Thinking in the fact of Christ’s resurrection and looking forward to our own rising from the dead ought to stimulate us towards sanctification. When we look at the doctrine of resurrection and study it from an academic point of view, we get an understanding of the facts surrounding the resurrection. It can also give us an appreciation for how doctrine supports our faith.
The resurrection also teaches us what our conduct as Christians should be. The hope of the resurrection can give everyone an incentive to be saved and Christians an incentive for service. It should also give us motivation towards sanctification. The apostle Paul knew that those in the Corinthian church were being exposed to the heretical theology that there is no real resurrection from the dead.
This false teaching was having a bad influence on the Corinthians behavior. That’s why Paul tells them in what we read verse 33, “Do not be deceived. Bad company corrupts good morals.”
It is impossible to be around evil people and not be contaminated by both their ideas and their habits. It kind of reminds me of when I was a young girl and there were people I was hanging out with and my parents didn’t want me to hang out with them. I thought my parents were pretty stupid. Wow, these guys are great. I couldn’t understand it at the time when they told me that these people had a bad influence on me. Then I got older. We get a little wiser when we get older, of course, and had my own children. I totally understood what my parents were saying to me, just as Paul was saying to the Corinthians.
Paul goes on to urge those believers who hope in the resurrection to be a positive influence on others and lead them to the truth. This situation in Corinth proves that sound doctrine matters and does affect how people live. We see all around us today what results there are when there is no belief in a resurrection. People become shortsighted and live as they please because ultimately nothing keeps them accountable.
This gives us more reason to hold firm to the truth of the resurrection. Live in its hope and proclaim it to others. This is what Peter has to say. 1 Peter 1:13-16. And you know Peter, he was always making mistakes. “Therefore, prepare your minds for action. Keep sober in the spirit.
Fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. as obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lust which were yours in your ignorance. But like the holy one who called you, “Be holy yourselves in all your behavior because it is written, you shall be holy, for I am holy.”
Having sanctification leads to trusting God’s timing. Definition of timing is choice, judgment or control of when something should be done. A particular point or period of time when something happens. Just like an 85year-old couple having been You thought I forgot about the joke, didn’t you?
Just like an 85year-old couple having been married for 60 years died in a car accident.
They had been in good health for at least 10 years, mainly due to the wife’s interest in health food and exercise. When they reached the pearly gate, St. Peter took them to their mansion, which was decked out with a beautiful kitchen and a master bath suite and jacuzzi. As they ooed and awed, the old man asked Peter, “How much is all this going to cost?” “It’s free,” Peter replied.
“This is heaven.” Next, they went out back to survey the championship golf course that the home backed up to. They would have golfing privileges every day, and each week the course changed to a new one, representing the great golf courses on Earth. The old man asked again, “What are the green fees?” Peter replied, “This is heaven. You play for free.
” Next, they went to the clubhouse and saw the lavish buffet lunch with the cuisine of the whole world laid out. “How much to eat?” asked the old man. “Peter, don’t you understand yet? This is heaven. It’s free. Well, said the old man, “Where are the low fat and low cholesterol tables?” The old man asked a little timidly.
Peter says, “That’s the best part. You can eat as much as you like, whenever you like, and you never get fat, and you never get sick. This is heaven. It’s free.” With that, the old man went into a fit of anger, throwing down his hat, stomping on it, and shrieking wildly. Peter said, and the old man’s wife both tried to calm him down, asking him, “What’s wrong?” The old man looked at his wife and said, “This is all your fault. If it weren’t for your brand muffins, I could have been here 10 years earlier.
It’s all about timing. Jesus adhered perfectly to God’s timetable for his death, which was part of his father’s larger plan of redemption. The history of redemption most definitely centers on the cross of Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul was so convinced of the central importance of Christ’s death on the cross that he told the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 2:2, “For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.“
Paul knew that without the cross of Christ, there is no salvation, no true Christianity. Jesus himself knew the length of his death of his earthly life and it was determined by God’s timetable and that time of his death could not be altered concerning control over his life. Jesus declared John 10:18. We read this in our uh scripture lesson today.
“No one has taken away from me but I lay it down on my known initiative. I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I receive from my father.”
True, true obedience. As the son of God, Jesus was able to look forward to his death and even predict that it would be in Jerusalem and he would rise on the third day.
Matthew 16:21 – “From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised up on the third day”.
During Jesus’ ministry, people such as the Jewish leaders unknowingly threatened God’s timetable when they sought to kill him. But all premature attempts to murder Christ failed. Why? – because they did not fit into God’s plan for how, when, and why Jesus should die on the cross.
Acts 2:23-24. “This man delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God. You nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put him to death. But God raised him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it is impossible for him to be held in its power”.
Then Jesus’ words to his disciples, Matthew 26:2, “You know that after two days, the Passover is coming and the son of man is to be handed over for crucifixion.”
God’s plan for Jesus’ suffering and death was perfectly timed to coincide with Passover celebration. Passover was known by the Jews as the fa festival in which sacrificial lambs were slain. But now the death of the lamb of God would forever replace Passover’s importance. We can take great comfort in all of this, knowing Christ, our Passover, has been sanctified.
1 Corinthians 5:6-8. “Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavenvens the whole lump of dough? Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump. We need to be a new lump just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover, also has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us celebrate the feast not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the leaven bread of sincerity and truth”.
1 Peter 1:19-21. “but with precious blood as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. For he was forsaken before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God who raised him from the dead and gave him glory so that your faith and hope are in God”.
We need to recognize the fact that the Lord in his plan for Christ’s sacrificial death could not be changed by man’s will. How do we balance being sanctified and accepting of God’s timing? While keeping our actions on a holy and moral path, we can trust that God knows the best time for things to happen. That’s hard. More than likely, it will differ from our own timing. I had the experience this week with my goat. She was very sick. Called the vet, had another friend, Jason, come out and help me with her. I was worried. I couldn’t even hardly function. I forgot to trust, to pray, to ask God for his timing. I forgot that. And lo and behold, she’s doing better. She’s not out of the woods yet, but she’s doing better. Why? Because I stopped. I prayed. I trusted in God’s timing. He needed to kick me in the you know what to make me see that. But I trusted in his timing. At first I didn’t. But that’s just because we don’t. It comes down to surrendering our desires, my desires and plans to his wisdom, understanding that he is working all things together for our good. This requires faith, patience, and a willingness to wait on his perfect plan.
God’s timing is not based on our earthly calendar or desires, but on his eternal perspective and knowledge of our lives. We need to trust his wisdom, believing he knows what’s best for us. Even if it feels like we’re waiting too long, it can be challenging, especially when we are eager for a particular outcome. Pray that the Lord would increase our diligence and help us especially in this area of weakness.
A young man mockingly said to a preacher, “You say that unsaved people carry a great weight of sin.” “Frankly,” the young man said, “I feel nothing.” The young man asked, “How heavy is sin? 10 lb, 50 lb, 80 lb, 100 pounds?” The preacher thought for a moment and gently replied, “If you laid a 400 lb weight on a corpse, would it feel the load?” The young man was quick to say, “Of course not. It’s dead. “The preacher replied, “The person who doesn’t know Christ is equally dead. And though the load is great, he feels none of it.”
We don’t always have the right answers. Like the preacher answering the young man, but our job as Christians being sanctified and trusting God’s timing is to reach out to as many people like this young man, spreading the gospels, and then let the Holy Spirit work in them. Life is not about how you survive the storm. It’s about how you dance in the rain. Life is a beautiful gift. Treasure every moment. Embrace every season. And trust God’s timing. Amen.
