[Transcript of a midweek message published by Horley Baptist Church on YouTube[1], November 2020]
Although most people have rejoiced in the development of a COVID vaccine, not everyone has been as happy about it.
God has also provided a vaccine that prevents death! But the response to it has been mixed.
Last week I was celebrating along with the rest of the world, the discovery of a vaccine that can prevent us from catching COVID and also means that we can get back to some sense of normality, I guess, in our world. And this week the news has got even better, really, the vaccine is even more effective than they first thought, particularly in the more vulnerable people.
[00:47] So how have you responded to this great news? The response has been mixed. The vast majority of people are full of hope over the potential of these vaccines but other people are not quite so hopeful. I mean, there’s those people that distrust any form of vaccine, they see it as potentially harmful to our health and therefore they won’t be taking it if they can help it. You’ve got other people that are just going to be stubborn – if they are told that they’ve got to do it then they are not going to do it. You’ve got other people – those conspiracy theorists who, in their most extreme form, see it as Bill Gates injecting a micro-chip into our bodies but in its mildest form it is seen as a way of control.
[01:44] And then there’s those people that just don’t believe that COVID exists. This is a particular problem in Germany where their number of COVID deaths are a quarter of ours and some people just don’t believe it’s a problem or that it exists at all. In the States there are patients dying of COVID who still don’t believe it exists. We’ve been offered, we’ve been thrown a lifeline, we’ve been given a chance to halt this terrible disease, this terrible virus, and yet something within us, as human beings, seems to distrust any offer of help.
[02:41] In a previous midweek message – quite a while ago now – I talked about a prevailing virus which has 100% fatality. It’s a virus which has infected the entire human race, in fact it’s infected the entire entirety of creation. The Bible labels this virus, it gives it the name ‘sin’. It’s a virus that separates us from our spiritual Father and it separates from our spiritual home. The consequences of that is death.
[03:22] Sin affects every aspect of our lives. It affects our spirit, it affects our soul and, as I have said before, the heart of the human problem is the problem of the human heart. It is part of us, we can’t separate ourselves from it we cannot cure this disease. Paul wrote to the church, the Christians, the followers of Jesus in Rome; these words are found in Romans chapter 6 and verse 23:
“Sin pays off with death but God’s gift is eternal life given by Jesus Christ our Lord”
[04:10] See, there is a vaccine, 100% effective and, if you take it, if you accept Jesus into your heart then you will be cured of this terrible disease of sin because what happens is when you say ‘Yes’ to Jesus, God enters into you by His Holy Spirit, He fixes the problem, He separates sin from our DNA and He cleanses us from the inside out. But more than that, Jesus’s death on the cross has removed that death sentence that is hanging over us. It has removed that separation that’s between our heavenly Father and between our spiritual home, heaven the kingdom of God, and therefore made it possible that, instead of dying, we can live for ever.
[05:10] So, how has the world responded to this cure, this fix for the problem that pollutes the entirety of creation? Well, we should be responding with joy and thankfulness but instead humanity has responded with suspicion or even with disbelief.
How do you respond to this amazing gift from God?
[1] YouTube link: The Vaccine – How do you respond?
Bible references: Romans 6 verse 23
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Contributed by Martin Shorey; © the Author
