4-1-18 I can only imagine

Scripture:  Matthew 16:21-22

Movie trailer for “I can only Imagine”     https://youtu.be/OsMyv9Q4_OU

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 My father, Richard Cooper was born Aug 4, 1928, was divorced from my mother,  Phyllis Cooper Aug 4, 1962, and died exactly at the age of 77 Aug 4, 2005. He grew up in Toledo, Ohio. He had a sister named Shirley who died before he was born. His parents were divorced and his father was an alcoholic. He had no positive male role model in his home.

He was not a Christian while growing up in Toledo.

          He graduated from DeVilbus HS and attended but did not graduate from the University of Toledo.  He was a TV repair man, a magician, an inventor,   Gas Station Attendant, and a Rainbow sweeper salesman and regional supervisor. He was always selling. In later life he had at least 4 new multi-level companies per year that he was involved with (from solarium windows to Indian cigarettes, to a beverage that promised to rejuvenate your youth, to legal insurance, to zero turn lawn mowers). He was a gentle man – never loud or violent. He was also an extremely neglectful man, at least as a husband and father.

          I found out after his second divorce that he had never bought us a single Christmas or birthday gift, his wife JoAnn did all of that. He did not follow through with divorce financial obligations until forced to do so. He did not utter the words “I Love You” to his children. I don’t remember hugs. Abuse makes you wonder why you are hated. Neglect makes you wonder why you are not loved.

          I will come back later to my dad.

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 Let me tell you about a second Father/Son relationship.

At the beginning of the movie “I can only Imagine” Bart Millard was seated in a Nashville recording studio, grasping for words. He’s struggling to tell the story behind the song that would eventually top both Christian and mainstream charts, net over 2 million digital downloads, and go platinum…twice.

The movie, I Can Only Imagine, begins with a conversation between Bart and veteran Christian singer, Amy Grant. She wants to know how “Imagine” happened. What was Bart’s process? Where did he find inspiration? How much time had he spent crafting these lyrics?

“10 minutes.” Amy responds, “Bart, you’ve been writing this song your entire life.”

Bart Millard’s Story:

Bart was born in 1972 in Texas, primarily raised by his father, Arthur. Arthur had been a star football player at Southern Methodist University to which Bart felt he needed to live up to. Arthur married Bart’s mother, Adele and took a job with the department of transportation.

Several years later, Arthur was accidentally run down by a semi-truck. Miraculously, he didn’t break a single bone in his body. His brain, on the other hand, was irrevocably damaged, leaving him in a coma for eight weeks. When Arthur went home, Adele soon discovered how drastically he had changed. He would frequently break out in fits of rage, set off by the most insignificant things.

 

Though he never laid a finger on his wife, Arthur would intentionally break everything that ever meant anything to her. Eventually, Adele buckled under the weight of his verbal, emotional, and psychological abuse. As far as she could see, she had no choice. So, she left.

The Monster Only Bart Knew

When Bart’s mom left, he was only in the third grade. That is when the abuse began. Bart became the focal point of his father’s uncontrolled anger. Spankings gave way to full-on beatings.

Every time, Arthur’s rage would soon give way to despair as he’d call his son into the room and apologize profusely for what he had done. Still, Bart’s only hope was to get old enough to do what his mother did – leave.

Or, so he thought.

In 1986, When Bart was a freshman in HS Bart’s father got Pancreatic cancer—Staring down the face of terminal cancer, Arthur began to change…radically. He started going to church. He read his Bible regularly and talked about all that it meant. Through the walls, Bart would hear him pray late into the night for him and his brother.

 

The kindness and love of God appeared and transformed Arthur from the inside out. Bart couldn’t believe it. The doctors couldn’t explain it. But, the monster had gone, and all that was left was a person who Bart himself describes as “the godliest man he never knew.”

During the next 5 years, the two grew closer than Bart had ever imagined possible. This unforeseen bond made Arthur’s passing that much more devastating. Bart recalls standing by the gravesite with his grandmother, who turned to him and gently whispered, “I can only imagine what Bub’s seeing right now.” That idea lodged itself in Bart’s brain. To envision his father in the presence of Jesus became his chief source of hope. He proceeded to scribble ‘I can only imagine’ on anything he could find.

Fast forward to 1999, when the Christian singing group MercyMe was struggling to write one more song to complete their album. It was late one night; Bart found himself alone on the tour bus, rifling through his journal looking for a clean sheet to write on. But, he couldn’t find one. Every single page had the words “I Can Only Imagine” scribbled across them. Before long, he got the hint and put his pen to paper.

10 minutes later, he was finished, but God was only getting started.

 

In 2001 at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, TN. one of Bart’s childhood heroes—Amy Grant—invited him out on stage to perform I can only Imagine in front of a sell-out crowd.
 

In one of its final scenes, the movie shares the incredible power of this moment for Bart. There, we see Bart standing on the stage belting out the final chorus to “I can only Imagine.” Suddenly, everyone fades away, and he imagines himself singing for an audience of two: his Heavenly Father and his earthly dad.

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Before I share about the final father/son duo let me bring us back to my dad. In 2000 I just happened to decide to start a new church that put us in a house just minutes from my dad instead of an hour and a half. One night I got a call to come to the hospital and saw my dad pass by on a gurney as the doctor suggested there is not much hope. My dad had the worst dissected aorta the doctor had ever seen, He was in a coma for a few weeks after surgery and needed to go to a nursing home for months to recover and regain mobility. At this point my father was pretty much alone in the world after two divorces, other failed relationships, friends were only sales associates

 and he had neglected to cultivate a strong relationship with any of his 3 sons. So, there I was, a Christian and a pastor with a father I didn’t have great feelings for one way or the other, but had to be the one to provide some care for him.

 As we were starting this new church in our home, and he was able, my dad began attending. The night we considered merging with another church, I learned that my dad had promised Jesus he would help me with the church if God would bring him through the surgery. Eventually my dad accepted Christ and I had the privilege of baptizing him. Was his change as dramatic as Arthur’s? No, but it was no less real and I am thankful I had 4 more years after that with my dad who was very involved with and supportive of the church and learned to hug and say “I love you.”

Like Bart, I can only imagine what my dad must be a witness to in his new home in heaven before his savior Jesus.

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You might have guessed that the final Father/Son story is about Jesus and his Father in heaven. Like you, I don’t think God could ever abuse or neglect his one and only son Jesus.

You don’t think Jesus was abused and neglected?  When God looked at Jesus, He saw your sin and mine and the sins of the whole world all coming together into the body of Jesus and God had no choice but to unleash the full power of his wrath and hatred toward that sin which Jesus voluntarily took upon himself.  Matthew 27:26-66 says, Jesus was flogged, and handed him over to be crucified. Then the governor's soldiers took Jesus and gathered the whole company of soldiers around him. They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand and knelt in front of him and mocked him. "Hail, king of the Jews!" they said. They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again. After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to a place called the Skull. Above his head they placed the written charge against him: THIS IS JESUS, THE KING OF THE JEWS. He was crucified between to convicted thieves. Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, "You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!" In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. "He saved others, but he can't save himself! He's the King of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, 'I am the Son of God.'" In the same way the robbers who were crucified with him also heaped insults on him.

          From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land. About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?"-which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split. When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, "Surely he was the Son of God!"

          57 As evening approached, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who had himself become a disciple of Jesus. He took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away.

          Jesus, though he never deserved it, was the object of abuse and neglect like the world has never known. And because of that the penalty for all our sin had been met – the price had been paid. And the story could easily end there. But it doesn’t.

 EASTER:  Matthew 28:1-9

After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it.   His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men. The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: 'He has risen from the dead.” So, the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples.

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          Abused, neglected, or having had an amazing wonderful earthly father…none compare to the love your Heavenly Father showed by taking your punishment and crucifying it in the flesh of his only son Jesus. Having crucified your sin, He made it exist no more, he raised Jesus to a brand new eternal life – Behold, I am making all things new.

          God does not want you living with the guilt of your sin – he wants you to be free of that. He not only wants you to be free of the quilt of sin, but free of the sin as well so that you can walk in newness of life.  2 Cor 5:17-19

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.

          Because of Jesus death we are forgiven, because of his resurrection we can know for certain that eternal life is ours. Because of the empty tomb, we can begin to imagine what it will be like when those in Christ who have gone before, those of us who are in Christ and those who one day will put their trust in Christ can only imagine what our day of resurrection will be like as we see Jesus face to face for the very first time – we can only imagine…

SONG LYRICS: I CAN ONLY IMAGINE

I can only imagine what it will be like when I walk, by your side
I can only imagine what my eyes will see when you face is before me
I can only imagine, I can only imagine

Surrounded by You glory, what will my heart feel?
Will I dance for you Jesus, or in awe of You be still?
Will I stand in your presence, or to my knees will I fall?
Will I sing hallelujah? Will I be able to speak at all?
I can only imagine, I can only imagine

I can only imagine when that day comes, when I find myself standing in the Son.
I can only imagine when all I would do is forever, forever worship You!
I can only imagine, I can only imagine

Surrounded by You glory, what will my heart feel?
Will I dance for you Jesus, or in awe of You be still?
Will I stand in your presence, or to my knees will I fall?
Will I sing hallelujah? Will I be able to speak at all?
I can only imagine, I can only imagine

Repeat chorus

I can only imagine yeah yeah I can only imagine

I can only imagine yeah yeah I can only imagine

I can only imagine when all I will do, is forever, forever worship You
I can only imagine

Songwriter: Bart Marshall Millard