The Lutheran Hour
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"Great Escape? No, Great Rescue!"
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Text: 1 Corinthians 10:1-11
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Grace, mercy, and peace to you from Our Lord Jesus Christ, who made a way for us to live life fully in His Name, now and forever! Amen!
Have you read Lauren Hillenbrand’s book: “Unbroken?” It’s the story of Olympic athlete and World War II hero, Louis Zamperini. During the war, Zamperini’s plane was shot down over the Pacific Ocean. He and a fellow soldier survived for 47 days at sea. Trapped on a small life raft with no provisions, harassed by hungry sharks, shot at by enemy aircraft, the two wondered if they would ever make it out alive. Finally, they landed in the Marshall Islands, but were immediately captured. Louis spent the next three years as a prisoner of war. He was abused both physically and mentally. He wondered if he would ever make it out alive. He was trapped in a seemingly never-ending cycle of pain and letdowns.
But, finally, the Allies liberated the prisoners and he was on his way home to California. He met the love of his life and he settled down to what he hoped could be a normal life. But life wasn’t normal at all. The torment he experienced during the war would not leave him. Louis was plagued with nightmares. Louis tried to drown his pain in alcohol. He tried to fight his pain with outbursts of anger. One night, he had the nightmare that plagued him most. He was strangling the vicious guard who harassed him endlessly when he was a prisoner of war. But when he awakened that night, his hands gripped around the neck of his dear wife; this couldn’t go on. But Louis felt helpless. He felt trapped.
Have you ever felt trapped?
Ironically, in an age of wealth and technological advancement, many average Americans describe themselves as being trapped. In his article, “Imprisoned by Your Life,” William Berry writes in Psychology Today:
“Many people feel trapped by aspects of their life: trapped in an unhappy relationship, at an unfulfilling job, or generally unhappy with their life despite their basic needs being met. The quest for the American dream has left them wanting.”
Berry goes on to say:
“Other times they are unaware they have imprisoned themselves, and they can’t find escape. They then report being overwhelmed, stressed out, depressed, or anxious. They have accepted an incorrect formula for happiness, and often are admonishing themselves for not being happy despite all they have.”
That “incorrect formula for happiness,” you know, taking control of your own life on your own terms; well, more and more, that purely self-directed life is leaving people feeling trapped, imprisoned by the continual striving, the never-ending demands, and the fatigue of never getting there.Do you feel trapped? Do you feel imprisoned by any part of your life these days? Well, we all do at times. And, when the solutions are only in our feeble hands….there seems to be no “escape.”
Well friend, that’s why God’s Word through the Apostle Paul brings such hope and encouragement to all of us today. You see, happiness doesn’t come from mere personal success or achievement or the circumstances of life. Jesus spoke plainly about the key, not just to happiness, but to joy! He said, “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full” (John 15:11 ESV). Jesus was referring to a relationship with God and He’s the key to that, His Word unlocks that door. If you feel trapped, God’s Word brings very good news for you today. With it, He can break the chains that steal away your freedom. He alone can open the doors of faith that bring lasting hope and joy.
1 Corinthians 10, was written to a small band of believers in the urban center of ancient Corinth who were getting themselves trapped, trapped in arguments, immoral behavior, relationship struggles, and all kinds of personal sin. So, Paul reminds them of first things first!! He reminded them about how God had set them free, as He sets all people free. He said:
“I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:1-4 ESV).You might recognize the Bible history Paul was recounting. It was that time when the people of Israel were groaning in slavery for over four hundred years in Egypt. It was the time when God heard their cries and came down to rescue them. God called Moses to lead the people out of Egypt. Moses went to Pharaoh and he declared God’s command to, “Let My People Go!” But even when Pharaoh reluctantly set them free, He reneged on his promise and decided to chase them down with his armies and wipe them off the face of the earth.
With Pharaoh and his army charging, with hundreds of thousands of unarmed people trapped against the shores of the Red Sea, with no escape; that’s when God Himself acted on their behalf. Moses lifted his staff and God parted the waters of the Red Sea so His people could escape the danger. They walked through the sea on dry land. Each person was, as Paul said, “baptized into Moses.” When they couldn’t escape, God brought real rescue. And they too were made part of Moses’ freedom and his intimate walk with their Savior. That’s what life with God brings: real, lasting freedom.
That’s what Louis Zamperini discovered too. As his life crumbled, as his marriage was on the brink of divorce, when he could find no way out and he was losing hope, he heard a young preacher by the name of Billy Graham talking about freedom; the freedom that God brings. Louis heard about the forgiveness of sins through Jesus’ death on the cross and the resurrection from the grave. Louis heard that the blood of Jesus washed his past away and broke the power of everything that imprisoned him–his former captors, his nightmares, his drinking, his anger, his hopelessness. It was washed away. And, in Jesus Christ, he was a new creation. Louis tells of a miracle happening that day. The power of the Word of God changed him. He knew that, on his own, he was a prisoner, with his own pharaoh’s of judgment on his heels and the Red Sea waters of despair always in front of him. But in Christ Jesus, by His death and resurrection, he too was set free.
You see, that’s what God does. When you’re backed against the wall, even because of the foolish things that you have said and done. He alone can free you from the trap that you’re in. That’s why Jesus came. This is what life with God means. This is His Good News for all of us today.
But, isn’t it strange, with all of our personal, spiritual cell doors “wide open” because of the cross and resurrection of Jesus, we still drift toward imprisonment. Again, Ancient Israel is an example to us of what not to do. Can you imagine walking through the parted waters of the Red Sea and still saying, “That was then. I need something to make me feel better now. With what we face today, Moses, can we really trust God to help us, or should try something else instead.”?
Try something else indeed. They gave up on God almost immediately. Some even wanted to return to Egypt rather than live freely at the hands of their Redeemer. That’s why Paul says,
“Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. (1 Corinthians 10:5-6 ESV).God freed them from bondage. He gave them a new way of life. He spelled out how to live this life of grace for themselves as well as for others. But, instead, the people sought other gods of their own making to worship, they dishonored God’s Name, they ignored His Word, they committed adultery and sexual immorality, and they lived a life of grumbling dissatisfaction and ingratitude toward God. They rebuilt their spiritual jail cells. They jettisoned freedom for a life trapped in their rebellion, people despondent and hopeless.
When will we learn that God wants only our best in all things? When will we trust and entrust our lives to Him? His desire is to give us life and give it to us to the fullest, now and forever. Jesus said, “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36 ESV). Free at last from the things that really hold us in bondage; free from the guilt of our sin, free from the hopelessness of our ineptitude, free from the worries that plague our very lives, day by day. Why, because God has acted on our behalf. He took your sins, your guilt, your worry, your failure to the cross and literally died for it so that you might live again in the freedom of His forgiveness and grace.
But even with such grace, it is so easy to fall back into the very traps that seek to destroy us, isn’t it? Even good things can become traps if they direct us away from the God who loves us with an everlasting love. That’s what the ancient people of Israel continually forgot. Even something as beautiful as the gift of sexual intimacy when misused can become the trap of lust and disobedience. But it happens today too. God’s beautiful gift of sexual intimacy can became a prison. Television and movies make sex outside of marriage look easy and fun, but the pain and the emptiness and personal brokenness that result from removing that sexual relationship from the bond of marriage, from their relationship to God, they’re overwhelming. So we try to forget about it, to repress it, to deny it, and to cover it up, but we become trapped.
That’s not God’s doing, that’s ours! He designed such a gift to be shared by committed, loving, married people who would strive daily to serve each other and build each other up, so that real intimacy could not only be shared for a moment but for a lifetime. It’s not supposed to be a trap. It’s not supposed to empty you out or cause worry, shame, or fear. It is supposed to reflect the beautiful relationship of Christ to His bride, the Church.
But apart from God, even good things become prisons.
What happened to the people of Israel in the Bible can easily happen to us too. They put Christ to the test. They made Him an enemy instead of a friend. Dissatisfied, grumbling, negative, and ungrateful, such bitterness poisoned their relationships, it corrupted their worship, and it alienated them from God. They were indeed back in captivity.
So, with me, learn from this today, my friend. Such things can easily happen to you and me, too. Do you live in the pain of such pessimism, the prison of such despair?
Hear today that God created you and He redeemed you for something much better. He redeemed you so you could be a voice of hope in a hopeless world. He set you free from the yoke of sin and the dead-end of death so you can celebrate and share His faithfulness, today.
That’s where the Apostle Paul goes with all this. He said, “You know, as we get closer to the end of the age, to Christ’s return, it’s important that we learn from this tendency to drift toward imprisonment. It’s important that we watch out so we don’t fall into the traps that our forefathers did.” Paul wrote:
“Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Corinthians 10:11-12 ESV).Paul knows you and Paul knows me. He knows the power of temptation, the allure of sin, the destructive power of guilt. But he also knows the freedom that Christ brings even there. He knows the solution to the traps we’re in, especially when there is no hope for escape!!
During World War II, Allied prisoners in Germany decided to put an end to their imprisonment. They devised ingenious plans to tunnel out of the prison camp and make their way to freedom. Crews of men dug three tunnels, code-named “Tom,” “Dick,” and “Harry.” Dirt from the tunnels was hidden in secret pockets of the prisoners’ pants so that they could spread it unseen in the camp’s common areas. This daring work became the basis of the movie, “The Great Escape.”
But the true story had a sad ending. Of the nearly 100 men who tried to escape, most of them were killed or re-captured. The Great Escape did not result in the freedom that they had dreamed of.
That’s the sad truth about feeling trapped beyond our ability to escape. When you’re trapped like that, even trying harder, or developing more willpower, or finding distractions, or getting smarter doesn’t work. You need something better. You need real rescue.
Paul declares to them as to us, “God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it” (1 Corinthians 10:13b ESV).
God is faithful. The word for escape here is not something you do. It is what God provides, dare I say, “His rescue?” He handles the end result, the outcome. Paul is saying that God will give you a much better ending than you can give yourself. When it comes to temptation, even becoming trapped, God will pull you through to freedom.Earlier this year, a woman named Elisabeth Malloy was skiing in the beautiful mountains of Utah. She was with her boyfriend when they were swallowed up by a 700-foot wide avalanche. Both were engulfed in the wave of snow. Elisabeth was buried and lost consciousness. Her boyfriend, who was not trapped, began searching for her. Using an avalanche shovel and their rescue beacons, he located Elisabeth and dug through the snow to reach her. He freed her from her icy tomb and pulled her to the surface. She had stopped breathing by this time, so he began CPR. Finally, a rescue helicopter found them and brought them to safety. Elisabeth’s only injuries were from frostbite. Today, she’s okay. And she says she’ll even ski again.
Elisabeth didn’t escape from her avalanche prison. She was rescued. She was dead, not breathing, and buried. But rescue came, freed her, and breathed life into her again.
That’s a glimpse of God’s eternal message for you and me today. That is how you are freed: not with a great escape, but with His great rescue.
When you were dead and buried under the avalanche of sin, God sent His Son to dig into the mess of everything that took life out of you. Nailed to the cross, Jesus took your prison of death upon Himself. Then, rising from the grave, an utter miracle, He breathed life into you. He freed you from anything that would ever try to imprison you or drain you of hope. Today, right now, you can have that hope, dear friend. You are free in Jesus Christ. You are forgiven. Nothing in your life right now can steal away your hope in Jesus Christ your Savior. He is with you. You have been rescued.
You may feel trapped. You may think there is no way out of your pain, or grief, or shame, or addiction, or sadness, or depression, or sin. But what the world says, what you even think, ultimately doesn’t matter because Jesus has the last word in all of our lives.
With me today, surrender your hopelessness, bring it to the foot of the cross of Christ, and let the forgiving, loving arms of your eternal rescuer, Jesus, hold you now and forever by His grace! God grant you with such a life, such a joy, such a peace from the great rescue that is yours this very day by faith in Him. Amen.
LUTHERAN HOUR MAILBOX (Questions & Answers) for March 03, 2013
Topic: Does God Test Us?ANNOUNCER: Now, Pastor Gregory Seltz responds to questions from listeners. I’m Mark Eischer. Pastor, people say that God has tested them. Is that true? Does God test us? If so, what does that mean?
SELTZ: Well, first of all, people do go through some very difficult challenges, Mark. One question they have is: “Who’s at the bottom of this? Is it the devil tempting them or is God testing them?” So, the first thing we have to do to get some clarity about this from the Bible.
ANNOUNCER: And in the Bible we do read about God testing people; for example, Abraham was tested when God asked him to sacrifice his son, Isaac. Jesus tested Philip when the disciples were faced with the prospect of having to feed 5000 people with no resources. So it appears God does provide tests.
SELTZ: And Jesus clarifies this further when He teaches us to pray in the Lord’s Prayer, “lead us not into temptation.” Based on James 1, Martin Luther explains this petition in his Small Catechism saying: “God tempts no one. And we pray in this petition that God would guard and keep us so that the devil, the world, and our sinful nature may not deceive us or mislead us into false belief, despair, shame, or vice. “Although we are attacked by these things,” he said, “we pray that we may finally overcome them and win the victory.” So, Mark, we see two things happening. As you mentioned, we see God testing our faith. We also see the devil at work, trying to demoralize and weaken our faith.
ANNOUNCER: The tests from God have the purpose of bringing us closer to God while the temptations from our spiritual enemies are used to lure us away from God and His ways.
SELTZ: Exactly. It is important for our listeners to be reminded that a spiritual battle is raging. The devil wants to destroy our faith and pull us away from walking with God. Temptations are out there! On the other hand, God wants to develop and strengthen our faith. He may do this through testing. In the Bible, Peter said in his first letter to the Christians: “These [trials] come so that your faith-which is greater than gold-may be proved genuine and may result in praise, and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed” (1 Peter 1:7 NIV). Their faith was being refined by trial.
ANNOUNCER: How do you know if you’re experiencing a test from God or a temptation from the devil?
SELTZ: Well, a sure sign of temptation is when you are being led to do something expressly against the clear Word of God. That’s why it is so important to read and learn God’s Word, and to be led by His words and His ways.
ANNOUNCER: But the example of Job comes to mind. The devil asked God for permission to wreak havoc in Job’s life. Was that a test or a temptation?
SELTZ: That’s a great example. The account of Job shows an important aspect of God’s character. This episode was definitely a test of Job’s faith. But notice that God did not wreak the havoc. The devil caused the trial and the pain. Yes, God allowed it and He set boundaries to it, but He didn’t cause it. We don’t understand everything about our broken world, but we do know that God is good. He doesn’t play games with His people. His will is always good. The devil, the world, and our sinful flesh still get in the way of all that until Christ returns again, but God always has our good in mind–even when we are enduring difficulty and pain.
ANNOUNCER: And those tests can build our faith in God?
SELTZ: I think of the verses in Hebrews chapter twelve that talk about how God disciplines us. Verse seven begins: “Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?” And he says, “We have all have had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father our spirits and live! So, God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness” (Hebrews 12:7-10 NIV).
ANNOUNCER: So, temptations lure us away from God, but tests are intended to grow our faith and bring us closer to God. Could it be that we also experience temptations even in the middle of our tests?
SELTZ: It can get complicated, can’t it? I think you have a point here. Even Job was tempted toward despair as he was tested. That’s why it’s important to understand who God is and what He does. We are called to trust in His goodness. Remember, He sacrificed everything for us when He sent Jesus to the cross. God is with us to save us. He came to give us life. We need to trust Him when times are hard.
ANNOUNCER: Very good. And we also need to trust that God will provide the way out of temptation that we might be able to endure it as well. Thank you Pastor Seltz. This has been a presentation of Lutheran Hour Ministries.
Music Selections for this program:
“A Mighty Fortress” arranged by Chris Bergmann. Used by permission.
“Praise the One Who Breaks the Darkness” by Rusty Edwards, arr. Barry L. Bobb. From Hymns for All Saints: Psalms, Hymns, Spiritual Songs (© 2011 Concordia Publishing House) text © 1987 Hope Publishing Company
“Come to Calvary’s Holy Mountain” From The Concordia Organist (© 2009 Concordia Publishing House)
“Partita on ‘O Gott, du frommer Gott'” by J.S. Bach. From Orgelbüchlein & More Works by J.S. Bach by Robert Clark & John David Peterson (© 1997 Calcante Recordings, Ltd.)