"God's Greatest Promises--Eternal Life"

October 7, 2001 Rev. Gary LeTourneau

Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and anyone who comes to me I will never drive away; for I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. This is indeed the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life; and I will raise them up on the last day."

John 6:35-40

 

I was reading a web site devoted to cataloging the "unreached peoples" of the world--those who do not have an active witness for Jesus Christ in their country. There's an entry for Afghanistan, noting that Afghanistan is one of the least-reached lands in the world for Christianity. There are over 48,000 mosques in Afghanistan, but not a single church building. Nor is there a viable fellowship of believers in any but a very few of the indigenous peoples of Afghanistan. I believe there are 57 separate indigenous peoples that make up that country. I've been remembering, as Afghanistan has been much in the news, that that was not always so. One thousand years ago there were more Christians in Asia than in all of Europe and the Western world combined. They were Eastern Christians, and Western Christians wrote them off because of a very minor dispute over what it meant that Jesus was both human and divine. In Christian terms, the West won out. I'm told you can still find Afghan carpets with crosses woven into them dating from way back.

But that's really not what I think of when I think of the fact that there's not a single Christian church in Afghanistan today. I think of my professor from seminary, now gone to be with the Lord, Doctor J. Christie Wilson, a Presbyterian. Not by any means the most academically-challenging professor at the seminary. If you wanted to study high-level theology, you could find plenty of people who were very learned. Doctor Wilson's classes actually had the reputation for being kind of hard because for every single one of his three or four courses that he taught in the schedule, you had to memorize about 70 verses verbatim for the final--one a day for the ten weeks of the course. We seminary students would avoid a course like that like the plague because it was objective. You can bluff your way through an essay, but when you say I've been memorizing in the New International Version, which you stated, and then had to write that verse down, you either got it or you didn't get it. It was hard work, but we all loved to take classes from Doctor Wilson because from the year 1970 to 1973, Doctor Wilson was not only pastor of the Kabul Community Christian Church--they had a church building in Kabul, authorized by the government and with its permission. He was the only man I'd ever known who had built a Christian church in a country where it was illegal to convert to Christianity. We had the deepest respect for his love for the Lord and his love for the people of Afghanistan.

Well, I've been thinking a lot of Doctor Wilson. And as I preach today on God's greatest promises, I want to share with you how he opens his book entitled Afghanistan: The Hidden Harvest. It's an accounting of his ministry with the people of Afghanistan. He writes about the time when in 1955 it was 6 o'clock in the evening. He was on an airplane--an Iran Air DC-3--expecting to land in Afghanistan's capitol and largest city Kabul, when he looked out the windows of his plane and he says he looked down and noticed that there were forests underneath them. He became alarmed because he knew that there were no forests within a hundred miles of Kabul, and something was wrong. As he tells the story, it becomes very clear that the pilots were lost. The two pilots were Americans. One had never flown in Afghanistan before. The other had flown there once. He writes:

The more I thought, the more I realized the next few hours could very well be my last on earth. I knew there were no night-landing facilities in Afghanistan or anywhere else within range of our DC-3. I also knew that aviation fuel was not available in Afghanistan at the time, and the entire front cargo area of our plane was filled with four-gallon cans of aviation fuel. A crash would mean certain death in a blazing inferno.

[He writes] I sensed a deep spiritual responsibility to speak with individuals on the plane about their relationship to God. Most passengers I talked to were very receptive. One American, however, cut me short saying, "Don't talk to me about that. When my time comes, it comes--and that's all there is to it."

[He talks about starting a conversation with the Iranian steward.] He responded, "Well, I've been to Mecca [one of the six pillars of the faith of those who follow Islam]. Doesn't that make me all right?" [Doctor Wilson writes how he shared with him that now the issue was not where he'd been, but his relationship with God. He writes:] The steward seemed receptive to what I was saying.

A little later the steward gave me permission [says Doctor Wilson] to go into the cockpit. There I learned the only radio contact the pilots had was with Tehran, about 1,300 miles to the west, and with Pakistan, an equal distance to the south. The pilots had completed a 180-degree turn and were starting to follow their flight log in reverse. It was the only thing they knew how to do.

When I mentioned that I was a Christian minister, one of the two pilots glanced over his shoulder and said, "Use all the influence you've got!" Doctor Wilson replied, "I'm praying, and I know that God is in charge."

I returned to my vacant seat and began to pray and placed the 15 lives on the plane into God's hands. [Then he says he pulled out his Bible from his briefcase and wrote this note on the inside front cover:]

Dearest Betty [his wife], Nancy, Christie, and Martin [his children],

Our pilots have lost their way and it appears that we will crash. I'm writing this farewell message in case my Bible is found in the wreckage. I love you more than words can tell. Put Jesus first throughout your life and serve Him faithfully in every way you can. I look forward to seeing you again soon in heaven.

Your loving husband and dad,

Christie.

[Then he says] I had just finished signing the note when the corner of my eye caught a reflection off the left wing. We had finally come out of the clouds into clearer weather. A beautiful full moon had risen over the eastern horizon, illuminating the mountains. I went back to the cockpit and scouted the silver landscape below. The terrain looked familiar. I soon recognized the village I had driven through only ten days earlier--Kandahar, where I had gone to have the funeral for an American engineer.

The town down there is Kalat, I said to the pilots. I remembered that Kalat had a spring of water, and he could see it. From there we headed to Kandahar. As they approached, the pilot said, "We're going to have to get them to turn the lights on the runway." [Christie Wilson responded:] "There are no lighted runways in all of Afghanistan." This was 1955.

[They flew over an engineering camp that Christie Wilson knew was there. Three times they buzzed the airfield, and then began to see every jeep, car, and vehicle with headlights rushing to the airport where they lined the field and successfully landed the plane, against all odds.]

 

Did you notice Doctor Wilson's strong claiming of one of the greatest promises God gives us? "Dearest Betty and children, . . . I'll see you soon in heaven." Last week I preached on God's promise, "I will be with you"--His promise to be present with us. This week, closely following that promise, is God's promise of eternal life. Week one, "I'll be with you." This week Jesus says, "You will be with me."

What is eternal life that we Christians claim as God's gift to us? It's very simple: The promise is specifically two-fold. Eternal life means that you and I, who know and love the Lord Jesus Christ, when we die on earth will go to be with God forever in heaven. We will continue to live. We will continue to have our personalities and our souls, and that which makes us unique. Jesus said in John 14, "I go to prepare a place for you and I will bring you to myself." And we won't be there alone. With us will be all those who have gone to be with the Lord as well--our family, our friends, those we have lost.

A couple of years ago I was at a rotary meeting. As introductions were being made, the introducer asked the guests a question. It was simply this: "If you could be granted one wish in the world, what would it be?" Any wish you wanted. The genie came out of the bottle. I don't know what sort of answers we were all expecting, but I was staggered. The second guest said simply, "I lost my brother two years ago, and I'd have him back in a minute if I could." I thought in my heart, "O, Lord, that's your promise! That's your promise to us, that we will live forever with you in heaven." I've claimed that promise in my life. Many in this room have claimed that promise as we have lost loved ones in our families. That's one dimension of eternal life.

But there's a second dimension to eternal life as well. Eternal life is true after we die, but God also says you will have eternal life right now, on earth, as you continue to live with me and for me. Jesus says in our passage, "I am the bread of life. I give you that which you need to live." And when you and I feed on the Bread of Life, what we gain is, first of all, a life that is blessed by God. We know the God of the universe loves us and is smiling on us. We live a life which is energized by His Spirit. It becomes dynamite inside of us, to share that life with others. We have a life that is guided by God's wisdom. We live a life which is forgiven by His death on the cross. We live a life which is comforted by God's presence. And all of those wonderful blessings are only available to us in Jesus. They're the marks of someone who has eternal life.

Did you notice the beautiful way in which Doctor Wilson, when it became clear this life could be almost over, what was his first concern? For the passengers on the plane--that they, too, could have this wonderful gift of God. So he went to each one to speak with them about their relationship with God.

How do we gain eternal life? I want you to be very sure about this. I'd like to invite you to look in the Bible with me. Turn to 1 John 5, 11 and 12. It's on page 241 of the New Testament--almost at the very back, just the last few pages. Page 241, 1 John 5, 11 and 12. It's very clearly spelled out how it is that you and I can secure eternal life. 1 John 5, 11 and 12:

And this is the testimony [some translations say "the record." We'd say now, "and this is how it is:"] God gave us eternal life and this life is in His Son. Whoever has the Son has life. Whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

 

Could it be any clearer than that? How do you and I gain eternal life? First of all, by realizing it's a gift. It's something God gives to us. Unlike the theology of Islam, where you have to perform certain works, like going to Mecca to gain it, Jesus tells us it's a gift. It's a gift that's centered in Jesus. There is no other name in heaven or earth by which we may be saved. Jesus said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me." And it's a gift that has to be received, so that you can say you have it, that you've made it yours. You don't earn it. You just say, "Thank you," and receive it.

God says, "I will never leave you on earth, and you will be with me all through eternity." Those are great, life-changing promises.

About 60 years ago, C. S. Lewis was preaching in a college of Oxford University during the beginning stages of World War II. His sermon was entitled something like, "Lessons from Wartime." His lesson that he centered on, in a nutshell, is this: Most of us human beings, says Lewis, go through most of our lives ignoring the reality that one day on earth we will die. In war, even the dumbest and most stupid of us have been awakened to the reality that death is real.

We in America have been awakened to that reality as well. The question is what will we do knowing that? Jesus says, "I am the Bread of Life. Come to me. Even though you die, yet shall you live." That's His promise to us.

Let's pray together. Thank you, dear Lord. Thank you for the opportunity we have now to gather around your table. Thank you for your promise never to leave us, and your promise that one day we will be with you. I pray today that each one of us may claim anew that promise in their lives. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Rev. Gary LeTourneau

Senior Pastor

Faith Presbyterian Church

Minnetonka, Minnesota

[transcribed from an audiotape of the 9:00 a.m. worship service on October 7, 2001]