What's On Your License? -- FPC sermon excerpt
Once upon a time, license plates simply contained a set of letters and numbers that helped to identify a vehicle. If police officers needed to know the identity of a car owner, they just radioed in the license number.
But there were a lot of people who weren’t satisfied with randomly generated letters and numbers on their plates. They started to request “vanity tags,” which gave them the opportunity to tell the world that they were 2FAST4U or EZ4U2NV.
Then came the specialty license plates. You can now pay extra for a plate that tells the world that you are an animal lover … or a fan of Virginia Tech.
Down in Florida, drivers can order more than 100 specialty license plates that celebrate everything from manatees to the Miami Heat. But last spring a new barrier was crossed: The legislature considered a specialty plate with a design that included a Christian cross, a stained-glass window, and the words “I Believe.”
The plate’s sponsor is a pastor named Edward Bullard, who told the Associated Press (April 24, 2008) that people who “believe in their college or university” or “believe in their football team” already have license plates they can buy. This new design is simply a chance for others to put a tag on their cars with “something they believe in,” he says.
Of course, such a plate runs the risk of blurring the boundary between church and state. One Catholic state representative said that the “I Believe” plate is inappropriate for the government to produce. “It’s not a road I want to go down,” she said, even though she is a regular church-goer. “I don’t want to see the Star of David [or] Torah next. None of that stuff is appropriate to me.”
In fact, the “I Believe” license plate failed to get the blessing of the Florida legislature in April, so you won’t be seeing Christian license plates any time soon. And that is probably just as well, since road rage is bad enough without throwing religious differences into the mix.
But this story does raise an important question: How do we show the world what we believe? How do we make it clear to others that we are followers of Jesus Christ?
The important question for us today is not really, “What’s on your license?” Most of us are happy to remain anonymous, behind random letters and numbers. Instead, the critical question is, “What do you do to show the world that you are follower of Christ?”
Our most convincing statement to others is probably not going to be delivered through a license plate.
In Ephesians 1, Paul begins his message with the words, “I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, and for this reason I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers” (1:15-16). Paul has heard that the Christians in Ephesus have been showing faith in Jesus and love toward each other, and for this reason alone, Paul is very thankful.
If the Ephesians drove cars, their vanity tags would probably read FTH N JC and LUV S8NTS.
But Paul is not content with the Ephesians having faith in Jesus and love toward one another, the saints of the church. He goes on to say, “I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power” (vv. 17-19).
That’s a complex and jam-packed sentence, but it is clear that Paul wants the Ephesians to continue to grow: Grow in wisdom, in enlightenment, in hope, in spiritual riches, and most of all … in power. This word “power” is used twice in verse 19, and then twice again in the remainder of the passage. This is power that comes to us from Jesus Christ, who has been seated at God’s right hand, “far above all rule and authority and power and dominion” (v. 21).
Paul wants us to know that Jesus Christ has ultimate power, and this is a power that is available to us who believe. God has put all things under Christ’s feet, “and has made him the head over all things for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all” (v. 22).
Jesus has power over all things, and he shares this power with us, the members of the church. With Jesus, we are never, ever powerless.
But there were a lot of people who weren’t satisfied with randomly generated letters and numbers on their plates. They started to request “vanity tags,” which gave them the opportunity to tell the world that they were 2FAST4U or EZ4U2NV.
Then came the specialty license plates. You can now pay extra for a plate that tells the world that you are an animal lover … or a fan of Virginia Tech.
Down in Florida, drivers can order more than 100 specialty license plates that celebrate everything from manatees to the Miami Heat. But last spring a new barrier was crossed: The legislature considered a specialty plate with a design that included a Christian cross, a stained-glass window, and the words “I Believe.”
The plate’s sponsor is a pastor named Edward Bullard, who told the Associated Press (April 24, 2008) that people who “believe in their college or university” or “believe in their football team” already have license plates they can buy. This new design is simply a chance for others to put a tag on their cars with “something they believe in,” he says.
Of course, such a plate runs the risk of blurring the boundary between church and state. One Catholic state representative said that the “I Believe” plate is inappropriate for the government to produce. “It’s not a road I want to go down,” she said, even though she is a regular church-goer. “I don’t want to see the Star of David [or] Torah next. None of that stuff is appropriate to me.”
In fact, the “I Believe” license plate failed to get the blessing of the Florida legislature in April, so you won’t be seeing Christian license plates any time soon. And that is probably just as well, since road rage is bad enough without throwing religious differences into the mix.
But this story does raise an important question: How do we show the world what we believe? How do we make it clear to others that we are followers of Jesus Christ?
The important question for us today is not really, “What’s on your license?” Most of us are happy to remain anonymous, behind random letters and numbers. Instead, the critical question is, “What do you do to show the world that you are follower of Christ?”
Our most convincing statement to others is probably not going to be delivered through a license plate.
In Ephesians 1, Paul begins his message with the words, “I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, and for this reason I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers” (1:15-16). Paul has heard that the Christians in Ephesus have been showing faith in Jesus and love toward each other, and for this reason alone, Paul is very thankful.
If the Ephesians drove cars, their vanity tags would probably read FTH N JC and LUV S8NTS.
But Paul is not content with the Ephesians having faith in Jesus and love toward one another, the saints of the church. He goes on to say, “I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power” (vv. 17-19).
That’s a complex and jam-packed sentence, but it is clear that Paul wants the Ephesians to continue to grow: Grow in wisdom, in enlightenment, in hope, in spiritual riches, and most of all … in power. This word “power” is used twice in verse 19, and then twice again in the remainder of the passage. This is power that comes to us from Jesus Christ, who has been seated at God’s right hand, “far above all rule and authority and power and dominion” (v. 21).
Paul wants us to know that Jesus Christ has ultimate power, and this is a power that is available to us who believe. God has put all things under Christ’s feet, “and has made him the head over all things for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all” (v. 22).
Jesus has power over all things, and he shares this power with us, the members of the church. With Jesus, we are never, ever powerless.
posted by Henry Brinton | 3:57 PM
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