030. Liberation

pp   picture of Margaret Acino   (ch)

This is a picture of Margaret Acino some years after her ears were cut off, her nose was cut off, her lips were cut off.  

In his book called The Hole in Our Gospel, Richard Stearns from World Vision told the remarkable story about this woman named Margaret Acino.  Margaret was caught in the incredible fighting in northern Uganda, fighting that was propagated by the Lord’s Resistance Army.

One day, Margaret, age 23, six months pregnant, was out in her garden working with several women from her village, when out of the bush appeared a small battalion of soldiers.  The group of soldiers was really a group of children led by an adult
commander. It’s common in some parts of Africa for children to be snatched away from their families to be brainwashed and then go on to commit unbelievable atrocities against other people. 

So Margaret and her friends found themselves face to face with this band of soldiers. The soldiers had come to the village to look for food and supplies, and as they weren’t satisfied with what they received, they began to unleash a massacre on Margaret’s friends. The child soldiers were killing these women with their machetes. When they turned toward Margaret, the commander told them to stop. He felt it would be bad luck on the troops to kill a pregnant woman. So instead, he gave a command for the children to cut off Margaret’s nose, ears, and lips. They did, and then they left her in the field to die, so the blood wouldn’t be on their hands they thought.

But Margaret was rescued. She was taken to a hospital where she went through multiple operations and was then taken to a rehab centre headed up by World Vision. The World Vision counselors began to deal with not just the physical trauma but the emotional, spiritual, and relational trauma that Margaret had undergone that day in the field. Her heart began to heal. She spent the next several months at the clinic and gave birth to a little
boy who she named James.

Imagine Margaret’s horror when one day at the rehab center—this place of safety—a group of counselors walked into the center courtyard with the commander of the group that had committed the atrocities against Margaret and her friends. This commander had been
captured and brought to the same place. The counselors didn’t realize the connection between him and Margaret; they were only hoping to offer him spiritual counseling to turn his life around. Imagine the extreme emotions that Margaret must have felt when she saw this man! The anxiety, the anger, the fear, the horror, and the revenge. There must have been a desire in her to run away as far as she could, and at the same time, a desire to kill him.

Stearns says that what happened next can only be understood through the miracle of God’s love, as a demonstration of the incredible power of the good news of the gospel to redeem even the darkest kinds of people. Counselors began to work with the commander. At first he denied any atrocities that he had committed during the war, but eventually his heart began to soften. The counselors also worked with Margaret, reminding her of the spiritual foundations she had from early childhood. Then, several months into all of this, a meeting was planned between Margaret and this commander from the LRA. 
Through tears and humility, the commander bowed his head and begged for Margaret to forgive him for what he had done. Margaret supernaturally found the means and the desire to do it. There is a picture that hangs in the rehab center now of the LRA commander sitting in the compound holding baby James. Standing right behind him is Margaret Acino, smiling without lips. What a story. What a demonstration of the incredible power of the gospel to redeem even the darkest evil.

 What I can be pretty sure of today is that there’s not a person in this room that gets Margaret’s story. It’s too traumatic. It’s too horrific. It’s too far outside of our box. We can’t really understand the trauma that she went through and the work that it took her to move toward reconciliation. But this I can be sure of: I can be sure that one hundred percent of you sitting here today have been cut deeply by someone in your life. I’m sure of it. You’ve been
cheated. You’ve been criticized. You’ve been abused. You’ve been abandoned. There are some of you who may have come through the door today, and your wounds are fresh and are overwhelming you. Others of you have scars from something that took place in your
childhood. It appears to have healed over time, but occasionally you’re reminded of the unbelievable trauma you faced. 

The conflict and trauma that we undergo in life disfigures us. It doesn’t often disfigure us physically, as it did to Margaret Acino, but it disfigures us emotionally and
spiritually. In the deep parts of our gut, it twists us and makes us unable to engage in relationships the way God intended for us to engage. We might be critical or cynical, vengeful or judgmental. This is in me, and my guess is it’s in you as well.

Well, I’ve got a great truth to tell you today—a truth I want you to hang your hat on: The gospel has the incredible power to redeem even the darkest kinds of evil of your life and mine. I’ll go further to say that only the gospel of Jesus Christ has the incredible power to redeem the darkest kinds of evil. That’s what Margaret Acino discovered. At the Cross of Jesus Christ, she discovered where she could be restored and reconciled and where she could forgive. It was at the Cross of Jesus where she could be healed.

I’m going to invite you to come with me on a journey to the Cross of Jesus Christ. We’re going to discover that the Cross of Jesus is the instrument—the hardware—of our restoration and our reconciliation with God, as well as what God uses to enable us to
overcome conflict and trauma and be reconciled to one another.
 
Firstly, let’s look at …
pp        Who we were

Please open your Bibles to Colossians 1. Page 1353    Colossians ch.1 on p1353.  

Today I want to answer the question Why?  Why in the world would Margaret Acino take steps towards reconciling with the man who wreaked such trauma in her life? Why in the world, having been abused by your parents or violated by your spouse or betrayed by your friends, would you take steps of reconciliation towards someone else? The answer is found in our Bible verses today. Let these words of God cover you and move your heart:  

By the way, this was written by the highly educated Paul in the Bible, so you’ll have to follow closely to get the gist of this passage.

Colossians 1:21-23
“And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight – if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.”

First, notice that these words are part of a larger message that Paul begins in verse 15 about the Person of Christ. This passage is fundamentally about our relationship and our reconciliation (or being made in harmony) with God.  Paul talks about what Jesus has done in order to reconcile us and bring us into a right relationship with God. The word reconcile means restoration of a
relationship, or a restoration of peace that has been disturbed. 

There was a relationship of peace that was intended between us and God, and along the way that relationship has become disturbed, seriously disturbed!   But God has chosen to reconcile that relationship. The reason there is a broken relationship is because of the problem of sin. Paul highlights this in verse 21. He tells us that at one time we were alienated from God. We were enemies in our minds, people who lived with evil behavior.

Paul describes the condition of every single person who has ever lived. In the first book of the Bible, in Genesis 1 and 2, the world was a perfect place, but in Genesis 3, sin entered the world through Adam and Eve, and their sin has been transmitted to every human being. You came into this world spiritually broken, self-centred, and separated from the living God. We all came into the world this way. We were sinners.

So every one of us needs to go on …

pp        A journey to the Cross

With that in your mind, I want you to take a trip with me for a few minutes. I want you to come to the Cross of Christ with me. As we walk to the Cross, we’re reminded of Isaiah 53:6 that says this: “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to our own way; and the Lord has laid on Him (that’s Jesus), the iniquity of us all.”  That sounds a lot like what Paul said, right? All of us were alienated, enemies in our minds, heading in our own downward direction.

But God sends His Son Jesus Christ into the world, and He takes this enmity, this bad feeling, this alienation, this evil behavior, this separation, this brokenness, and He lays it on His Son.  Paul said, “God made Him who knew no sin to become sin for us.”  And so we come to the Cross. 

If we dare, let’s keep our eyes and ears open as we stand at the foot of the cross. What do we see? We see where the crown of thorns was pounded into Christ’s scalp—an assault on His majesty. We see the wounds on His back where He was scourged just an inch from His life—an assault against His humanity. And we see the nakedness of Christ who hangs on the cross—an assault against his dignity. We see Christ, hands outstretched, his lungs pulling apart trying to catch as much breath as He can. His entire body is distended. 

We hear the taunts and jeers of people who have been following Jesus, doubtful of His mission. Even the thief that hangs next to Him accuses and mocks Him to the very end. We imagine hearing Jesus’s mother crying, and John trying to console her. We look over and see
the soldiers, who haven’t even waited for Him to die before dividing the few personal goods the
Saviour brings with Him—a robe that they’ve managed to keep for themselves. The sky turns dark, the earth quakes, and we stand there and watch the trauma of the Cross unfold. 

Do you understand what we’re looking at here? It’s not good.  You’re looking at me, and I’m looking at you, because all the ugliness and darkness and pain and misery and violence of the Cross is related to each one of us right here. It’s our stuff that put Him there. Christ took all of the world’s sin on Himself.  That’s us.  It’s important to stand at the foot of the cross and just be astounded at how ugly it is—a sobering reality.  --------

The next time you’re driving and somebody cuts you off, and you just can’t believe how terrible people are in the world, the next time somebody says a critical word about you, the next time somebody betrays your friendship or doesn’t keep a promise, before you get too
high and mighty, you might go and stand at the foot of the cross and remember that you and I are no different from those people.  Pride is often regarded as the first sin. Pride was in Adam and Eve and in each one of us who says to God, “I’m going to live my life my own way. I’m a big boy. I’m a big girl.  I can do whatever I want.”   Christ obliterates pride at the Cross. 

But there is a residue of pride that shows itself when we are offended by other people’s behavior. Our pride says, How dare you offend me? Do you know who I am? I can’t believe you would do such a terrible thing against me! In those moments, we’ve forgotten who we were.

Listen to this parable Jesus tells in Matthew 18 verses 21-35, page 1134. 

(Read it)

So in the middle of this story, a servant left his job one day, and as he was walking down the street, he came across another servant friend who owed him 20 dollars.
When the first servant sees his friend, he says, “Hey buddy, I need my 20 bucks back.” The guy says, “I don’t have it right now, but I get paid next Friday. I’ll give it to you then.” The first guy says, “No. Pay me back right now. You owe me.” The first servant puts his hands
around the other servant’s neck and begins to choke him, demanding that he be paid back, and ultimately throwing the friend into the debtors’ prison. There’s the story.

But Jesus doesn’t start the parable there, does He? That’s actually the middle of the story. If you rewind the parable to the beginning, what you hear is that this first servant worked in the king’s court. One day the king said to him, “Hey, listen. We’ve got a problem. You’ve got a debt with me.  You owe me 10,000 talents!” (today that would be millions of dollars) - something the servant could never repay. The servant replied, “King, there is just no way,” and the king threatened to have him thrown into the debtors’ prison. The servant fell humbly on his face saying, “Have mercy on me!” And the king did a most remarkable thing. In an act of grace, undeserved favour, the king forgave the poor guy, because he knew there was no way he could pay off his own debt. The king set the servant free. ----- The problem is that this same forgiven man then went out on the street and condemned his own fellow-worker for not being able to repay him a tiny amount of money he owed. 

You see, when we’re offended by other people, too often we begin to live in the middle of our story; we forget in the moment that every single person has a pre-story. At one time, all of us were sinners separated from God—aliens, enemies, outcasts. Sometimes we need to go and stand at the foot of the cross and be reminded of who we were. When we put that into
perspective—when we’re reminded of the grace, tenderness, and kindness of God towards us—other people’s offenses are put in a true light.

So that’s the way we were - millions of dollars over our head in debt!  An impossible debt to repay. 

Colossians 1:21 in another Bible version, says it more simply…

pp      Colossians 1:21   “Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behaviour.”  

 But Paul doesn’t stop there!  He goes on to say,  “But now”—(something is changing here).

Something that was one way is now going to become a different way. The condition is changing. “But now He …”  Notice that God is the initiator of restoration. We must understand that there’s nothing we can do to restore ourselves to God. Our debt is too big.  He is the one who restores. And God is the agent of reconciliation between us and other people as well. ----- How does He do all of this? --- The verse goes on to say “But now --- He has reconciled you in Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in His sight, without blemish, and free from accusation.”     Friends, through the death of Jesus on our behalf, God forgave our debt. ------
 
Paul wants us to come to the Cross—to realize that this whole work of peace and reconciliation comes from what happened on the cross through Christ’s physical body.   In the verse before, verse 20, Paul says that through Christ, God reconciled to Himself all things. He did this by making peace through Jesus’ blood shed on the cross. -----

God is the agent of reconciliation. Jesus’ death on the cross is the instrument of reconciliation. And this is the outcome of reconciliation: “Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation.”

I know who I was. But this is who I now am.  Don’t forget who you are now.   You are holy—set apart, special, sanctified, and useable for God’s purposes.  And He wants us to stay that way.  He doesn’t want us to go back to where we were.  

When I stand at the Cross of Jesus Christ and see the horror of it all, I am reminded that the death of Christ is followed by the Resurrection of Christ, and those two things together have made me brand new. I’m not the person who I was; I’m the person I am because of my relationship with God. 

Let me take you to a verse that I return to often when I’m wrestling with sin and with personal relationships.   First Corinthians 6 makes all the difference. Paul says, in 1 Corinthians 6:9,10 ….

pp      “Don’t you know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?  Do not be deceived.  Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, will inherit the kingdom of God.”    

Did any of you manage to not get on that list?   Paul basically says here that there is no hope for us—at least no hope for us as we were. But then, in words that sound a whole lot like
Colossians 1:22, Paul says, “And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”     Paul says: I know what you were, but let me tell you who you are.  At the foot of the cross, we realize that what Christ accomplished on the cross is for our sanctification, our washing, our justification, our change. We are not the people who we once were, because of Jesus Christ. 

So, we have ….
 
pp          A changed life

What is the evidence of this new life that Jesus wants us to have?     A changed life.  When Jesus starts to live inside me, He changes my attitudes, my motivations, my desires, and my actions.

With Jesus living in me, I have the actual power to be reconciled and restored not just to God, but to other people too.

Paul says that this is all true “if you continue in your faith”.   Paul is saying that if you’ve never
encountered the Cross of Christ, you’ve never been reconciled with God, you’ve never tasted forgiveness and grace, you’ve never tasted patience, you’ve never tasted
reconciliation.   As a result, it will be impossible for you to be truly restored in relationships with him and with other people. But the gospel has the incredible power to redeem even the darkest of sins, and when you come to the Cross of Jesus Christ and enter into a relationship with God, He doesn’t merely make reconciliation possible, He makes it probable.   He enacts true change in your life and gives you a new nature to overcome the bitterness, anger, fear, and pain in your life so that you’re able to move toward people in restoration. 

This is why Paul was able to say just a couple of chapters later in Colossians 3:13….

pp     Colossians 3:13   “Bear with one another and forgive whatever grievances you might have against each other. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.”  ------

That last sentence is important. He says that, because you have been forgiven, because you have personally experienced the forgiveness of Christ, your life has
been changed, and therefore you have the ability to be at peace with other people.
 
In conclusion….

pp    Conclusion

When I was kid, I had a problem called A.D.D. (attention deficit disorder).  I’ve still got it, but not as bad.  I was very impatient, couldn’t concentrate for long on the task at hand, wanted to get onto the next thing.  Couldn’t wait till tomorrow to do something – had to do it yesterday.  Always in trouble and got caned at school nearly every day.  It was tough on my Mum, on the teachers, and then on Delphine.  ------Today they put you on a drug called Ridalin for ADD but my mum had never heard of that.

I never had much peace and there wasn’t much peace for people around me.  I was always jumping around like a maggot on a hotplate.  ---

So why do I say all this?  Well it’s about this word called ‘peace’.  

Today I have peace.  Margaret Acino has peace.  The man who harmed her has peace. ------ 

I heard a story about a group of Bible translators who were working with a native tribe and they were trying to figure out how to translate a word for peace. They just couldn’t get their heads around it. Finally, there was a tribal chief who was wrestling with the same word, and he finally came up with a phrase he believed captured the heart of peace. It was this  ….

pp    Peace - A heart that sits down.

A heart that sits down.  What a great image. God sent his Son Jesus Christ to die on the cross, to take your sin and mine, to rise from the dead, and then to sit down at the right hand of God.

Because Christ completed His work, you and I may sit - down and be at peace with God the Father. And because we sit - down and are at peace with God the Father, He gives us the power through a changed life to be able to sit - down and be at peace with other people. We can go to the Cross and remember who we were, and then who we are. 

Stand and pray
 

 

 

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