161 Sermon Illustrations on Grace

“But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD” Gen 6:8

Biology class. 1972. Our school had just received a new binocular microscope. Each of us had the joy of looking into those twin eyepieces and seeing a slide specimen in “stereoscopic” brilliance. It was magnificent. I loved it. There wasn’t much we couldn’t look at under this scope. Slides — a piece of cake. Mold — a towering forest. Living bacteria — a squirming mass of life! These are things we couldn’t see under a normal scope. They only showed what light would shine through and only in one dimension. This was like being shrunk down so I could walk through the mold forest.

Noah was under a microscope — God’s microscope. The Father didn’t have to look too hard at all the other people living on earth at the time. They were selfish, sinful, godless people. Noah, on the other hand was something different. He was a righteous man. He still believed there was One God. He still lived for Him. He still preached the old time religion — though no one listened. Yes, Noah was under the microscope of God and was found faithful and he found grace in the eyes of the Lord. [This presumes that grace followed faith ... the context suggests the opposite! Cf., Hebrews 11:7]

It served Him well. He was rescued from God’s wrath. Oh, he underwent a few trials. It must have been hard building a boat where there was no water. I can hear it now as Noah enters the corner coffee shop. “Here comes ‘captain Noah’. I wonder what he’ll say today!” Noah sits down at the counter. “One coffee, cream and sugar, please Herb.” From a far corner a man stands “Whew, what’s that odor? It smells like tar in here. Hey Sam, if you are going to serve trash like that in here, I’m leaving.” The bully bumps into Noah sending him spinning on his stool. A raucous roar rises from the onlookers. Everyone leaves, some holding their noses in mocking disdain.

“Noah, I’m sorry, but I have to ask you to not return.” Herb says. “This is the third time this week that you have single handedly emptied my shop. I can’t afford it. Don’t get me wrong, Noah. I like you. I really do. It’s just that . . . well I just must make a little profit here or the bankers will shut me down. Know what I mean?” “Yeah, Herb. I know. It’s like that all over town. If these folks just knew what God was going to do . . . .” “Don’t get started,” Herb interrupts, his voice growing hard. “I don’t want to hear it. Now get out!”

But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Grace, favor, mercy. The boat in his backyard was God’s provision. It would be his deliverance from the wrath to come.

You are also under God’s microscope. What does He see? Undoubtedly there is sin there — He expects that. But does He see a life willing to serve Him. Does He find the Truth buried inside you? Does He find a liberal dousing of the Blood of Jesus? Does he find seeds of the heart of David taking sprout in you?

If He does, you have found favor in the eyes of the Lord — and that is a good thing.

We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works. –Ephesians 2:10

As the short line at the counter gradually morphed into a small mob, the would-be air travelers grew increasingly restless. I resigned myself to another long day in airports, followed by a long night chasing down a hotel room. Worse things have happened, I thought. Just as long as my bags don’t wind up in Kinshasa.

When I got to the counter, I learned my “reserved” seat was gone with the jet stream. I’d have to wait for the next steel tube south. But after everyone had boarded, the clerk called my name (mispronouncing it badly) and handed me a boarding pass. Wow! First class!

As I enjoyed my flight, with its improved food and increased leg room, I felt a sudden urge to revel in my meaningless first-class “status.” But I knew my position on that aircraft had nothing to do with my worth as a person, and even less with my ability to afford such a seat. I was a pretender, a fake–albeit a grateful one.

Sometimes my spiritual life seems like that. As a believer in Jesus Christ, I’m flying first-class. I get the wonderful privilege of serving the Creator of the cosmos. But I also sense that I’m completely unworthy of it. I know my tendencies, my selfishness, my pride. I know that everything I have was given to me. Essentially, God has said, “Here Tim, take this gift of eternal life and, oh, while you’re at it, I’d like you to do a few things for Me. And don’t forget, I’m always here for you.”

Wow! What did I do to deserve that? Well, nothing. That’s why I sometimes feel like a fraud. Deep down, I’m expecting someone to tap me on the shoulder and say, “Excuse me, but that’s not your seat.”

But it is my seat! It’s my seat because Jesus Himself shares it with me.

The apostle Paul wrote, “God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6). He also wrote, “God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions” (vv.4-5). Because of this infinitely gracious gift, we have the right to serve God. Verse 10 tells us, “We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

I have no right to boast in my status, but I don’t have to feel like a fake. Christ gives me all the reason I need to serve God (v.10). By His grace, I do belong. –TG

REFLECTION

• Why shouldn’t Christians look down on others? (Ephesians 2:8-9).

• Do I ever fail to serve God because I feel I’m not good enough? Why is this attitude wrong? What should I do about it?

Because of God’s grace, we are first-class citizens.

Illustration: It never failed but that our kids got thirsty the minute we were too far from the house to get them one. Problem: how do we get water to satisfy their thirst? Solution: take them to the source of water or build a conduit for water to flow from the source to them.

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Commentary: So too with God’s grace. It’s in heaven where we cannot go at the moment, far from the thirst of our hearts. However, God, who spoke the heavens and the earth in existence, has said faith is His conduit for His grace. What a conduit can be to our need for water, faith is to our need for God’s grace.

So it makes no sense to seek another solution … there’s only one link between heaven and earth and that link is faith in the Son of God.

Preaching at North Point Community Church, in a sermon series known as “Christian,” Andy Stanley preached a message titled “When Gracie Met Truthy” on April 15, 2012. With reference to John 1:14, Stanley described the challenge of affirming grace and truth in full measure. He spoke of grace and truth as a tension, warning that “if you resolve it, you give up something important.”

The message was insightful and winsome, and Andy Stanley is a master communicator. Early in the message he spoke of homosexuals in attendance, mentioning that some had shared with him that they had come to North Point because they were tired of messages in gay-affirming churches that did nothing but affirm homosexuality.

Then, in the most intense part of his message, Stanley told the congregation an account meant to illustrate his message. He told of a couple with a young daughter who divorced when the wife discovered that the husband was in a sexual relationship with another man. The woman then insisted that her former husband and his gay partner move to another congregation. They did move, but to another North Point location, where they volunteered together as part of a “host team.” The woman later told Andy Stanley that her former husband and his partner were now involved as volunteers in the other congregational location.

The story took a strange turn when Stanley then explained that he had learned that the former husband’s gay partner was still married. Stanley then explained that the partner was actually committing adultery, and that the adultery was incompatible with his service on a host team. Stanley told the two men that they could not serve on the host team so long as the one man was still married. He later told of the former wife’s decision not to live in bitterness, and of her initiative to bring the whole new family structure to a Christmas service. This included the woman, her daughter, her former husband, his gay partner, and his daughter. Stanley celebrated this new “modern family” as an expression of forgiveness.

He concluded by telling of Christ’s death for sinners and told the congregation that Jesus does not condemn them, even if they cannot or do not leave their life of sin.

Declaring the death of Christ as atonement for sin is orthodox Christianity and this declaration is essential to the Gospel of Christ. The problem was that Stanley never mentioned faith or repentance — which are equally essential to the Gospel. There is indeed no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, but this defines those who have acted in repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 20:21). As for those who are not in Christ, they stand condemned already (John 3:18).

The most puzzling and shocking part of the message was the illustration and the account of the homosexual couple, however. The inescapable impression left by the account was that the sin of concern was adultery, but not homosexuality. Stanley clearly and repeatedly stressed the sin of adultery, but then left the reality of the homosexual relationship between the two men unaddressed as sin. To the contrary, he seemed to normalize their relationship. They would be allowed to serve on the host team if both were divorced. The moral status of their relationship seemed to be questioned only in terms of adultery, with no moral judgment on their homosexuality.

Was this intended as a salvo of sorts? The story was so well told and the message so well constructed that there can be little doubt of its meaning. Does this signal the normalization of homosexuality at North Point Community Church? This hardly seems possible, but it appeared to be the implication of the message. Given the volatility of this issue, ambiguity will be replaced by clarity one way or the other, and likely sooner than later.

We can only hope that Andy Stanley and the church will clarify and affirm the biblical declaration of the sinfulness of homosexual behavior, even as he preaches the forgiveness of sin in any form through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. His affirmation of grace and truth in full measure is exactly right, but grace and truth are not actually in tension. The only tension is our finite ability to act in full faithfulness. The knowledge of our sin is, in truth, a gift of grace. And grace is only grace because of the truth of what God has done for us in Christ.

Forgiveness isn’t about the virtue of the other person’s actions. It’s about our response to that action.

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In March 2022, online magazine Vox ran a series of stories under the title “America’s Struggle for Forgiveness.” That’s not a typical topic for a thoroughly secular outlet like Vox, but, then again, Christians should be talking about forgiveness more than they are too.

“The state of modern outrage is a cycle,” writes contributor Aja Romano

“We wake up mad, we go to bed mad, and in between, the only thing that might change is what’s making us angry. The one gesture that could offer substantive change, or at least provide a way forward — forgiveness — seems perpetually beyond our reach.”

Each contributor to the Vox series was a committed progressive, and it showed when they discussed whom they considered most in need of forgiveness. Romano, for example, questioned how to forgive J.K. Rowling, for her repeated defenses of biological women against erasure. In even suggesting that what Rowling has done was so egregious, Vox only proved that the fantasy writer has a firmer grasp on reality than they do.

Still, Vox asked a question that is on point. What is the place of forgiveness in modern society? Consider, for example, how quickly celebrities are cancelled, for reasons ranging from the trivial to the serious. Ellen DeGeneres created a toxic workplace environment. Aaron Rodgers didn’t get vaccinated. Johnny Depp and Amber Heard engaged in domestic abuse. And, the jury is still out on Will Smith’s future.

The point here isn’t to equivocate every public fall from grace since, obviously, some are more deserved than others. What is missing in contemporary debate is any way forward. What’s missing in our culture is forgiveness.

After all, forgiveness doesn’t ask whether condemnation is deserved. It assumes it is. Forgiveness isn’t about the virtue of the other person’s actions. It’s about our response to that action.

In the Vox article, Romano quotes Elizabeth Bruenig, a writer at The Atlantic, who put it this way:

As a society we have absolutely no coherent story — none whatsoever — about how a person who’s done wrong can atone, make amends, and retain some continuity between their life/identity before and after the mistake.

She’s right, but clearly, we need something. Romano concludes her essay with a suggestion:

“Grace, the act of allowing people room to be human and make mistakes while still loving them and valuing them, might be the holiest, most precious concept of all in this conversation about right and wrong, penance and reform — but it’s the one that almost never gets discussed.”

Powerful words. It’s always fascinating when a culture has exhausted all the resources a secular worldview can offer, only to discover that Christianity always had the best option on the market.

Christianity offers the perspective on forgiveness that so many are desperate for. Because we’ve been forgiven, we can forgive others. Because we’ve been loved, even when unlovable, we can love even the unlovable.

But let’s be clear. There is no grace without God. Nobody likes thinking of the ways they have failed, and we avoid it at all costs. With God comes a moral law that we are responsible to. It may be that our world is short on forgiveness precisely because it has rejected God and His moral law.

That also will make it more difficult to extend forgiveness to others. In the words of C.S. Lewis, “Everyone thinks forgiveness is a lovely idea, until they have something to forgive.” In a fallen world, we are quick to forgive people we like ... for things we don’t see as particularly serious. But what if the wrong was serious? What if the person isn’t on my team? In those moments, only a transcendent perspective makes forgiveness a live option.

Like Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.” That’s every one of us. That’s why He later said so strongly, as recorded in Matthew’s Gospel: “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”

All of which makes me think, again, about Chuck Colson, whose unexpected redemption during Watergate led to an amazing amount of forgiveness between him and his political enemies. He was forgiven much by God, and by those who had been forgiven much by God, so he also extended forgiveness to others. In the end, that perspective grounded his whole understanding of criminal justice reform.

If the world indeed is looking for forgiveness, then once again, only Christians have what the world is looking for.

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Copyright (c) 2022 Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with permission. "BreakPoint" is a radio ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries.