Zoe forever!
Let me start by wishing you all a very happy new tier! Yes, we are all in a new tier. What is it now? It’s like trying to keep up with iPhone releases.
We were all in Lockdown. Then none of us were. (Except Gary Linekar and the people of Leicester). Then some of us were in lockdown, but others weren’t. Then, in October, everyone got Lockdown 2.0 (which turned out to be LINO – lockdown in name only.) After that, in November, we in Birmingham got an upgrade to Tier 3. Then, in December, we got upgraded again to Tier 4 (which I don’t remember us asking for?) Now, we’re all in Lockdown 3.0. Is that Tier 5? 
Whatever, it’s unsettling. Our building is once again closed and, for now, there are no on-site services.
How do you keep your head?  What is getting you through?
News about Covid-19 can be scary. Three million of us have so far caught it so far. 32,000 are currently in hospital with it this weekend. Sadly, over 80,000 have so far died of it. On Friday just gone alone, there were over 1,300 deaths. Then there’s talk of new, mutating strands. It can all seem scary.
On the other hand, there are now 3 vaccines in use. And new treatments that are saving some lives. Over 1.5 million have so far had at least one jab. The race is on to vaccinate the rest of us.
To mask our fears, we sometimes use coded language to avoid saying it. Somehow, if we don’t actually say “it”, IT won’t feel so real. Instead of ‘dying’ and ‘death’, we talk about ‘going over the rainbow bridge’. We even talk about “passing away”.
As you might expect, I take a number of funerals. Earlier this week I stood outside the Crematorium chapel and listened to a Celebrant read out eloquent, sweet words about a tree, leaves falling to the ground, and sun rays beaning memories. Emotive stuff, helped by stirring music. 
But it had no, zero, nil, substance. It had nothing to say about what happens beyond the curtain. Is that it? Life over. Or, is there life beyond the grave? Life after death? It seemed so devoid of hope. I found it quite depressing. It seemed so far from the hope that God offers, that Jesus brings.
Whether we realise it or not, we are all caught up in a much bigger story; ar bigger than Covid, or furlough or failing health: life is not dependent on the strength of our human bodies, our shells. Even when our bodies, the casing packs in, there is life.
God is eternal – without beginning or end. Without source. In fact, God IS the source. Before any of “this”, God IS – always has been, still is, always will be.
And He made us to be in relationship with Him. That’s how you were wired. No wonder over the years, looking back, you’ve had God thoughts. We’re more alive, more fully human, when we embrace this.
How do we get a bit of that? God’s life in our lives? That was the question the expert in the Law, the Old Testament, asked Jesus:
“Just then a man came up to Jesus and asked, ‘Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?” Matthew 19:16 
He already had life. There was air in his lungs, a pulse in his body. But he instinctively knew there must be more to life than this. He had come to see that his physical life was temporary. He wanted ETERNAL life. He was full of religion, & yet this had passed him by.
It’s a question a lot of people are still asking. What good thing must I do to get eternal life?’
The answer is.. nothing! 
Life is not like a set a scales, in which you spend a lifetime striving/ stressing to ensure your ‘goodness’ outweighs your ‘badness’. As if, only when the scales tip in your favour will you then have earnt your reward – eternal life. That’s what religious people do. And it’s pointless. The grace of God is that it’s NOT about how good YOU are. It’s all about how good GOD is. It’s not what you try to load onto the scales, it’s what God has already done you. Even before you were born, God loaded things in your favour with Jesus. John says: 
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”  Jn 3:16
So what do you have to do? Simply accept what God says is true:
“Truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life. “ John 5:24
Is it time you crossed over from the physical to the spiritual? From death to life?
Imagine it’s cold. This week that’s been easy to imagine! When outside, you wear a coat. It feels normal. Your favourite coat. Some have better coats than others. When you cross the threshold and enter your home, you leave behind at the door your coat.  Inside you are warm, you no longer need your coat – that was what you needed, for then, when outside. 
Crossing over from this world to the next is like coming home. You no longer need your physical body so you leave it at the door, just like that familiar coat. 
This might sound trivial. Don’t you know how tough life is? Yes, that’s the point. At the time, it seems all-consuming. But when you cross over from death to life, things look/ feel so different. And when the truth of this really sinks in, it changes everything. The struggles – the very real struggles – we experience now, start to look very different in the light of eternity. That pain and suffering we sometimes experience, that seems so unbearable, even unfair, at the time, loses some of it’s power, when we view if from a heavenly, eternal life perspective. What’s the worst that could happen? I cross from this life physical to ETERNAL life, eternal peace with God.
Some people – even Christians – misunderstand this. They think Zoe, Eternal Life, is waiting for them in the future. But Zoe is here right now. Jesus says, this eternal life is not click & collect - ‘click now & collect later’ - till we leave this physical world, for when we die. It starts right here, right now. Why? How?  Because Jesus is the Way, the Trust and the LIFE. He is THE life. John says:
“The Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it.” (v.21) – everyone! 
Next verse: “The Father judges… NO-ONE but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, that ALL may honour the Son just as they honour the Father. 
What do you we need to do? Believe God – take Him at his word. Accept that this ETERNAL LIFE is what God wants for you. Accepting the truth of this is like coming home, crossing over from death to life.                  DannyBrierley@ChesterRoadBaptist.org.uk