Two Choices: Self in Us or Christ in Us?

Luke 24

Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill

Israel virtually disappeared as a nation. Jews from then on [AD 70 when the Romans crushed the
Jewish rebellion and destroyed the temple in Jerusalem] have been scattered all around the world.
But of course we know this now because they are everywhere, even in Brooklyn. Wherever there are
people there seem to be Jews. So it is of course known as the Great Diaspora, the scattering of the
Jewish people in the world. It is kind of giving the game away to you, but I would say, Easter is
the Diaspora. Easter is the Diaspora. I hope you’ll see in a moment why I say that.

Genesis 1:1 is the beginning. It is right there really at the very start of everything. Really in
a way, certainly if not in verses 1 and 2, certainly in verse 3. “And God said, ‘Let there be
light’; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from
the darkness.” And then comes the great statement in verse 26, “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in
our image, after our likeness.” And immediately the question is, “To whom did he speak? To whom did
he turn around and say that?” Because it says, “Then God said, ‘Let ‘us’ make man.’ And of course it
is right there. He turned round to Jesus and he said, “Let us make man in our image, after our
likeness.” And so, we all know the teaching that Jesus was there at the very beginning, that Jesus
was there when we were created. And Jesus was there when the world was created.

That is stated very plainly, you remember if you flip over to John 1: 1. We know the words so well.
It is just a repetition of the same truth. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God.” And of course it is obvious that Jesus is the Word. “He was in the
beginning with God; all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was
made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men.” Of course that means that each of us
were in him. We were made in him. At the very beginning we were made through him. And of course
you know the other verse that is so plain to us in Ephesians 2:10. It is exactly the same. “For we
are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we
should walk in them.” That we were created through Jesus, by Jesus, and we were created in Jesus.

And he of course, himself personally puts it very clearly in his prayer to his Father in John 17:20,
“’I do not pray for these only, but also for those who believe in me through their word, that they
may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us, so that
the world may believe that thou hast sent me. The glory which thou hast given me I have given to
them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and thou in me, that they may become
perfectly one, so that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them even as thou
hast loved me. Father, I desire that they also, whom thou hast given me, may be with me where I am,
to behold my glory which thou hast given me in thy love for me before the foundation of the world.
O righteous Father, the world has not known thee, but I have known thee; and these know that thou
hast sent me. I made known to them thy name, and I will make it known, that the love with which
thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.’”

And of course the change that was wrought on Easter Sunday was the fulfillment of that. Jesus left
his own physical body, then appeared several times over those 30, 40 days. So that the apostles
felt, “Any minute he could appear.” And then he came back, and that was what it was to them. In the
upper room when the Holy Spirit came upon them, it was like him being among them, but dearer than

among them, because he was not only with them, but he was, as the promise was given, he was in them.
The Holy Spirit, who was just ‘with’ them in the physical body of Jesus, then was in them. And of
course that is why they say, “The Lord is the Spirit,” because for them the Spirit was the spirit of
Jesus himself was him himself inside them. And to them there was someone living in them, so that
for them it was no longer it was, “No longer I that live, but Christ lives within me.” That’s what
I mean by the Diaspora. The meaning of Easter Sunday is that Jesus himself was scattered! And you
are part of that scattering. And so am I.

But we’ve destroyed it, because we’ve watered it down. We’ve said, “Yes, yes. You need to let Jesus
come into your heart.” “Yes, I must let Jesus come into my heart.” But you are the body of Christ.
“Well, yes, yes. I know I’m part of the corpus. I’m kind of the part of the spiritual body of
Jesus. Yes I know.”

“You are the body of Christ and individually limbs of that body. You individually are Christ.”

“No, no. Not me. No, no, I’m too unworthy for that. No.”

But way in the back of the humble “no”, is a proud, “I am my own. I am my own. Yes, I respect him.
Yes, I love him. Yes I certainly want him to have something to do with my life, and I want him in
my life. But I am myself. I am a separate being. He has no right to assume that this is his life.
And I make that clear day after day, when I consult myself and ask, ‘Am I happy today? And do I
feel good today? Have I things the way I like them? As I look ahead to the next weeks are they
what I think I can handle myself?’”

I mean I am with any of you who do feel a real humility which at times we do feel as well as the
false kind. And I’m with you. I know how you feel, that you’re really a poor thing. But the truth
is, you are the only version that Christ has of you. Or rather, you’re the only version of him that
he has like you. And the truth is that Jesus parted from his own human body so that he would be able
to be his real self. And his real self is each one of us here. Each one of is him in a way that no
one else is. And here I’m saying it not to ennoble you or make you and me feel, Oh we’re really
something. We’re like a little god. But I say that to you from his angle, not from your angle, and
from his angle, not from my angle. This is his life. It’s not yours or it’s not mine. This is his
life.

And the disastrous fact is that it is not only the world that has got used to, “If it feels good, do
it.” It’s not only the world that judges a thing as right by what it feels like to it. But it is
us who regard ourselves as living to please God. We, ourselves so often, if not all the time,
think, “I have right to decide what happens to myself. I have a right to have temperature in the
house the way I want it. I have the right to have things this coming summer the way I want it.”

My mother used to say, Ernest – maybe we have the saying in America, when I was babbling away,
arguing with her, explaining something, she’d say, “Ernest, I can’t get a word in edgeways.” “I
can’t get a word in edgeways.” I suppose that was, you couldn’t get the book in that way, you tried
to get it in that way and you couldn’t even. There wasn’t room. There was no space, I was so busy
talking.

He doesn’t get a word in edgeways. He doesn’t get a word in edgeways, a lot of the time. Dare I
say, “Most of the time?” Really what I’m suggesting to you is, have we in fact not grasped how true
it is that you are here and I am here for Christ to live his life over again here on this earth for

the time we are here. Is that not why we are here? And have we not watered that down – as the word
is now – parsed it, have we not so parsed this that it has no become, you ought to try to be like
Jesus. We feel we’re a step further than, “What would Jesus do?” Because we have grasped the idea
that Jesus is alive, so it is not, “What ‘would’ he do?” But he is alive, so we’re a little further
than that. But we’re a little further than that, but we are not as far as, “I live, yet not I but
Christ lives within me.

We’re still very much people who from time to time consult him and try to be like him all the time,
but we very much are in charge of things. And we always think in terms of what we would like, and
what would make us comfortable and what would make us feel good. And it doesn’t really matter
[chuckles] whether it is the chocolate fudge Sunday, or the vanilla. It’s always, what would I like?
What would I like to do? What would make me feel better? It’s not, Lord Jesus, it’s yours. What
do you want to do?

And it seems to me that’s what the resurrection is about. It’s about the Diaspora. That’s why we
were created in the first place by Jesus. And that’s why we were created inside him, and we were
made part of him, because the wonder and the glory of our Father’s vision is that his Son would come
to earth and would develop the earth in the way that would please his father, and would fulfil his
wishes. And he did that initially through the men and women of the Old Testament, and then he did
it through the Holy Spirit. And now he is doing though us if we are willing.

So it is really a –of course it’s wonderful. If you step back from it, it is wonderful, because
gone is the question, “Why am I here?” or “Why isn’t somebody noticing me?” or “Is there anything
worth doing with my life?” that is all gone, because you are part of God; you are part of Christ.
He has things to do through you and he will lead you into them if you relax in him. So it’s a
wonderful liberation. It’s a wonderful deliverance. But it can only happen if we grasp that we are
not separate human beings who will try to work our lives into the plan that God has for us, or will
try to work with him to bring about something. We are Christ himself in the only form that exists
in the universe. Nowhere else has Christ a face and a body like Peggy Coleman’s. Nowhere else has
Christ a mind and attitude like Ernest O’Neill’s. Nowhere else has Christ hands and feet like
Colleen Donahue. Nowhere else! These are the only versions that exist in the universe. And it is
our privilege to live in that reality.

I just ask you to think about it, because it’s just very plain to me that we’ve really in a way
missed the whole point. And we’re still far too full of ourselves, far too full of ourselves, far
too preoccupied. We often excuse ourselves, because we say, “This is the ‘Me’ generation. The
society is terrible. They’re all concerned with themselves. Yes, but we’re in the same boat. We
do the same thing, just in a more refined way. But the most important thing is that we miss the
glorious person that we are. We miss the glorious person that thinks of us as an expression of
himself. So I’d ask you to think about it and to listen to him. I’m sure that if we did, our own
lives would be very different. And our whole inner life would be very different. And I think that
is what he is – That’s why he made us in the first place. That’s why he made us.

Little hymn that we worked the tune out for is saying that:

1 Ye faithful souls, who Jesus know,
If risen indeed with him ye are,
Superior to the joys below,
His resurrection’s power declare.

2 Your faith by holy tempers prove,
By actions show your sins forgiven,
And seek the glorious things above,
And follow Christ, your Head, to heaven.

3 There your exalted Savior see,
Seated at God’s right hand again,
In all his Father’s majesty,
In everlasting pomp to reign.

4 To him continually aspire,
Contending for your native place;
And emulate the angel-choir,
And only live to love and praise.

5 For who by faith your Lord receive,
Ye nothing seek or want beside;
Dead to the world and sin ye live,
Your creature-love is crucified.

6 Your real life, with Christ concealed,
Deep in the Father’s bosom lies;
And, glorious as your Head revealed,
Ye soon shall meet him in the skies.