Transforming Focus

John 17:20-26; Acts 16:16-34; Revelation 22:12-21

Central Baptist Church, Lowesville, VA

20 May 2007

Our stories of the American Dream are often about people with focus and purpose. They are our hero tales of those who beat the odds through dedicated effort to achieve their dream. We know of those whose focus is financial gain. We know others whose focus is a crusade of civil rights. We know of people focused on issues of power, pleasure, revenge, security, fame, popularity, justice, family, poverty, or hunger. As Christ Jesus calls us to unity with him, is our life focus in conflict with eternal unity with God? Does our focus need God’s transformation?

Last Sunday we read of Paul’s initial positive reception in Philippi. Lydia, a Gentile, accepted the good news of Christ and invited the apostles to stay at her home. All did not receive their message with the same openness, however. As Paul and Silas continued ministry in the city, a slave girl possessed by a demon began to follow, constantly proclaiming their identity as servants of God Most High and messengers of salvation. Annoyed after days of such, Paul cast the demon out of the girl. He did not anticipate the backlash of his action. While Paul was concerned with sharing the good news of redemption in Christ, the slave girl’s owners were concerned with making money at her expense. Under false charges, they were beaten and thrown in prison.

The ill-treatment did not alter their focus. Paul had once lived according to other ideals, but with the call of Christ, his life focus was transformed. He and Silas sat in their dungeon stocks, singing hymns to God. An earthquake set them free from their chains. The standard prisoner concerns did not draw their focus. They called out to the jailer to reassure him that all the prisoners were still accounted for. Having come to Philippi to proclaim God’s redemption, Paul proclaimed the same to the jailer who prepared to take his own life before the authorities killed him.

The jailer recognized the validity of Paul’s message in the character of his redemptive actions. Seeing that the prisoners had saved his own life by not escaping, he recognized his need for the same kind of redemptive focus. “What must I do to be saved?” Paul called upon him to trust Jesus Christ for the security and redemption he craved. How does the world perceive God’s love at work in our lives?

The jailer also understood his need to refocus his life. He grasped that night that his use of force in guarding those in his charge did not grant the security for his own future that he craved. He saw that Paul and Silas had a greater security that did not depend upon wielding power and human authority. He understood that he needed their confidence to sing amid the pain of their beating and imprisonment. He took them home to care for their wounds, feed them, and take this knew transforming focus on Christ Jesus for his own life and family. Do our lives show that we place all in submission to God’s will?

In the recent movie, a penguin Mumble Happy Feet takes the opportunity to transform the lives of his fellow penguins. Outcast from his society for being different, he embarks of a journey focused on determining why the fish they rely on for food are disappearing. As he discovers that humans are to blame, he lands in a zoo. As his distinctive foot-tapping makes news, he brings the human world’s attention to the plight of penguins in starvation. His focus on the plight of the penguin community brings transformation. Mumble sets aside his personal desires to focus his life on a higher calling. Are we as willing to allow the call of Christ to refocus our lives in God?

In closing the letter of Revelation, John shares the message of Jesus’ imminent return in glory. While he does not stipulate a time, he reminds us that Jesus’ return will be quick. It is similar to Jesus’ reminder elsewhere that his coming in glory will be unexpected and swift. More to the point, perhaps, John gives emphasis to the need for all to be prepared for the moment of Christ’s coming. Jesus speaks here in this final chapter of more than the fact of his eventual return, however. He reminds believers that he is the one charging the church to prepare themselves in focused service and dedication.

There is no other Messiah coming to champion the cause of believers. Jesus is the root and descendant of David. There is no other to await. The Lamb has full authority and has shown us the only way of redemption and victory. What matters now is that we live with transformed focus on serving this Lamb. Those who belong to him do more than await in confidence. They also call for his coming. As we await this coming, the water of life is available to all who would accept it. In the meantime, we are to live in dedicated transformation as servants of the only one worthy of our service. Are we willing to recognize the supreme importance of Christ Jesus as sufficient Lord?

For believers in John’s day, accepting Christ as Lord put one in a bind. One might be called out for failing to offer sacrifice to the emperor or the gods of Rome. Taking a stand for Christ Jesus before the Roman tribunal meant dying for one’s faith or denying the lordship of Christ by offering sacrifice before idols. John called believers to confidence that they could safely focus their lives on serving Jesus Christ despite any difficulties with Rome. The integrity of the Lamb, in word and deed, should be their own as they maintained focus on faithful service to Christ. Is there any aspect of life we are unwilling to submit to Christ Jesus, trusting the Lamb with our all?

On the final night Jesus spent with his disciples, he prayed as much as anything for unity. This was no simple unity to which he called them, however. Jesus prayed of a wholly different quality of unity than we understand. He spoke of the disciples being one. He spoke of his own oneness with the Father. He spoke of the disciples sharing the same bond of unity with one another and with himself that Jesus had with the Father. A prayer for such unity calls for a radical transformation in our lives.

It requires a transformation from concerns of self to concerns of the body and of Christ. It demands lives transformed from personal desires to serving God on the basis of God’s love and grace. Jesus did not expect us to share unity around a core of knowledge. He did not expect us to share unity around a core of deeds, rituals, or communal living. He desired that we might share a unity stemming from acceptance of God’s love, enabling us to witness in deed to God’s full provision. It is because of God’s prior love that we can be one with Christ. It is because of God’s love in us that we can be one with each other. This love must transform our lives if we are to become one according to Jesus’ prayer.

It has been interesting to watch my boys’ soccer team’s progress this semester. Yesterday’s game was very different from those in which there was little sense of cooperation. We saw children work together with united purpose. To get there, required transformation of focus off self to their team aims.

As the body of Christ, we also must set aside out personal drives, objectives, and goals to focus on the aims of Christ. It requires transformation of our very lives. It requires sacrificing personal ends to the supreme calling of Christ Jesus. To what extent are we willing to become one as the body of Christ? Are we willing to allow God to radically transform our lives that we might be one with Christ?

—©2007 Christopher B. Harbin

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