The Greatest
Who is the best? We like the best; we want to be the best. If something is hard, we want to be tough enough to handle it. We dedicate significant time and resources to be the best at what we do. Take the Vasa for example. Never heard of it? I’m not surprised. In the early 1600’s Sweden entered into the Maritime Warship race, and was determined to make the biggest and nastiest warship to sail the oceans around Europe. It was all about their influence. She was constructed in the navy yard in Stockholm, and armed with 64 cannon spread across two full gun decks. Not a single expense was spared and she was richly ornate as a symbol of Sweden’s power and influence. In fact, the project had its own team of sculptors who worked two years on making the Vasa grand and intimidating. On the launching; dignitaries from other nations and many Swedes came out to see the grand sight. The Vasa was launched on August 10, 1628, sailed 1,400 yards before encountering the stiff wind of the open ocean and then turned on her side sank like a brick. She settled on the bottom 400 feet from shore. “The mightiest royal warship of her times”–her times being August 10, 1628, from 4:30 until 5 in the afternoon.
We go to great lengths to be the best. Sometimes in trying to prove how we are the best we fall upon our face. The hard truth is their can only be one “best”. Life looked at that way becomes a terrible game of “king of the hill” as we push and pull and scrap to stay on top.
Our sinful nature loves this.
Our new creation wants no part of it.
It is why God did not make our salvation something to be earned. Look at Ephesians 2:8
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
In this life there is no better or best Christian. There will not be a podium at the front gates, with the best Christian of each generation receiving Gold, Silver or Bronze medals. Much to my relief, no one will walk up and tell me I was the worst Christian. Jesus brought me God’s gift of grace. The Holy Spirit brings me faith through the Word of God. It’s that simple. It’s a simple question: do you believe Jesus Christ suffered and died for your sins, and rose again that your debt might be paid. Look at Romans 10
Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
No hoops to jump through, no chance of misspeaking. We can we can grow our faith, and that should be a desire of every Christian; but the strongest of us and the weakest of us are given the same gift of eternity. Because it’s not about how tough we are. It is about how tough Christ was.
This week remember this:
You, my friends, are heaven bound. Not because you are the greatest, but because Christ made himself the least. After all, look at what Paul says;
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
– Philippians 2
Stand Tall, God Chose You
-Pastor Dan