April 13, 2025 • 22 mins
Gardens hold a sacred place in our spiritual journey - they're where humanity first walked with God, where Jesus prayed before his sacrifice, and where Revelation promises we'll return to paradise. In this powerful culmination of our Les Miserables series, we explore how gardens serve as transformative spaces where divine encounters reshape human hearts.
Victor Hugo's masterpiece consistently returns to the garden as a place of healing and renewal. For Jean Valjean, working in the monastery garden provided essential restoration after years of imprisonment and hiding. This sacred space prepared him for his ultimate act of selfless love - sacrificing his happiness so Cosette and Marius could experience the gift of romantic love.
The final reprise of "Do You Hear the People Sing" takes on profound meaning when we recognize its transformation from a political battle cry to a celebration of love's victory. While the revolutionary cause appears defeated, something more significant has triumphed. Valjean, Fantine, and Eponine join this chorus as living examples of Christian love that transcends worldly power. Their witness changes Marius and Cosette - and us as audience members.
This Palm Sunday, the parallels between Jesus and Valjean remind us that apparent defeat often masks spiritual victory. Just as the Christian movement outlasted the Roman Empire, the kingdom of love, grace, and forgiveness continues transforming hearts today. When we embrace this truth - that "to love another person is to see the face of God" - we join a movement more powerful than any political force. Love is real, and love will win.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Pastor Darren (00:00):
Well, Palm Sunday has become kind of an
interesting adventure for thechurch leader these days.
You know, obviously we'relooking to create the capacity
for a meaningful experience onEaster morning, something where
(00:22):
new life, some transformation,might be yours, and for us as
pastors, such an important partof that is that you walk that
story with Jesus through thatweek, through the trials,
through the tribulations,understanding the depth of his
commitment to this love for usand to communicate God's love
(00:47):
for us.
But what we realize is peopleare so darn busy and I'm talking
about y'all we don't all walkthe whole Holy Week journey
right.
And so part of it, you think,Palm Sunday.
Well, this is the day where wecelebrate the type of leader
Jesus is going to be, and thenthrough the week we talk about
(01:08):
the passion, the depth of loveJesus has for us.
But if everybody's so busy theycan't do it all.
We're trying to do both here inone Sunday.
Do you feel it all bouncingaround in on you?
It's a wild day.
And then we had our greatjourney with Les Miserables, and
(01:29):
so we're trying to culminatewith Les Miserables too.
So this is a perfect storm of aSunday.
I hope you're feeling theexcitement of that and hoping
that we don't drown in our ship.
Amen, yeah, nobody want todrown, nobody want to drown.
(01:49):
And so we finish our materialwith Pastor Matt.
This chapter, the Blessed Garden.
This is the final chapter ofthe book we've been working
through and you'll notice thatthe garden, the garden in the
story, is quite significant.
You might remember that thegarden is where the priest, the
(02:14):
bishop, is often found livingout his Sabbath in his work week
.
You might also remember thatValjean escapes with Cosette to
the garden right, he's about tobe found out by Javert and he's
able to escape again, this timetaking Fantine's orphaned
(02:38):
daughter, Cosette.
And they go on.
They happen on this monasteryand they go on.
They happen on this monasteryand he looks out that the person
that they greet there is theman that Valjean saved lifting
the cart off of him.
The monastery take them in inexchange for Valjean's work in
the garden.
And for me, when I hear that, Ithink that garden must have just
(03:03):
been absolutely healing forValjean, when I think about his
story, at least the part of thestory that's in the book.
He spends 19 years in prisonfor a crime that he should have
maybe served, I don't know.
Unfair punishment.
Then the second part of thejourney he somehow, in a
(03:27):
different identity, being nothimself, is able to find a
certain amount of success.
But there's always that secrecy, that hiding, that is always
part of what he's doing.
So finally he gets to thisgarden, this place where he can
choose to be there and choosethe work that he's doing and be
(03:50):
amongst kind of the naturalworld, the way the world God
created.
I gotta believe that for himthat was a very, very healing
experience, so much so thatmaybe he doesn't reach that
transformation that he reachesby the end of the, that maybe he
doesn't reach thattransformation that he reaches
by the end of the book if hehadn't done that time working
(04:10):
that garden.
You might also remember thatit's in that garden that Marius
and Cosette meet and theirromance begins.
So you can see, the garden is areally significant place.
In fact, this specific gardenis a very significant place in
(04:30):
the story and hopefully you'rehearing too how meaningful that
space is in that love isdiscovered there, Love in all
its forms godly love, romanticlove, the love of God that comes
from a Sabbath, that is, inhealing and in growing.
(04:51):
It definitely is a place whereGod lives.
So our scriptures featuregardens as well.
Pastor Matt in the book wouldhave us notice, have us remember
that these are often placeswhere God is experienced in deep
(05:13):
, deep ways.
The beginning, the verybeginning of the story of our
people of faith.
Right In Eden, in the garden.
Adam and Eve, this perfectgarden, god's first attempt at
creating life for human beingsand creating good life for human
(05:35):
beings right, that's in thatgarden.
You probably also remember thatwe kind of blew it right With
the whole sinning thing.
We kind of blew it right withthe whole sinning thing, right.
You know, we had to eat thefruit tree of knowledge.
We have to leave that garden.
(05:58):
Another significant garden isthe Garden of Gethsemane, right
the garden where Jesus goesafter the Last Supper.
He goes with his disciples topray.
Where Jesus goes after the LastSupper, he goes with his
disciples to pray.
He knows what his next coupleof days are going to look like,
his next 24 hours.
He knows the weight that he'sgoing to have to bear, the pain
that he's going to have tosuffer A heavy, heavy night, and
(06:21):
it's a night in which he reallyis in deep conversation with
God.
Yet again, you're hearing theintimacy that we can have with
God in the garden, in gardens.
These are obviously placeswhere there is that real
(06:45):
intimacy, where we get to knowGod deeply.
There's also a garden in thefinal book of our Bible, in
Revelation.
How many of you are too scaredto read Revelation?
All right, a couple of you area little bit nervous.
How many people have no ideawhy anybody would be scared to
(07:06):
read a book of the Bible Anyone.
We'll just go for it.
Brenda Rogers, I said your namewrong.
I apologize, but she's one ofthose that's like why would we
be scared to read the Bible?
I don't understand that.
Well, yes, there is this garden,and in Revelation it is a
(07:28):
prophecy, it is a vision for afuture with God, a future in
which there's a lot of idealsthat come to pass, and there is
a garden in this vision, in thisfuture.
Right, and if you're like me,as you are hearing that
scripture, as you are reading it, you hear some of the
(07:49):
reflections of what was in thatGarden of Eden, that original
garden.
I'm talking about the river ofthe water of life, the tree of
life, full of fruit, maybe evenmost important for us, given the
story with Adam and Eve, andnothing cursed will be there
(08:12):
anymore.
You can hear that final book ofthe Bible kind of casting a
vision that we might get back tothat Eden or something just
like that Eden, maybe notstarting completely over, but
definitely back with God,definitely back in the garden,
(08:35):
back in that intimacy.
I hope you can feel that.
I hope you can feel that desireand maybe even have some of
that same longing for this newfuture with God, which kind of
brings us back to Les Miserables, which kind of brings us back
to Les Miserables, the storywe've been working through for
(08:59):
six weeks.
Today we're going to hear thesong.
Do you Hear the People Sing?
Now, what's interesting aboutthis song?
It was originally or earlier inthe book.
It is a call to arms againstthe.
Well, it's a call to arms intheir rebellion against the
(09:21):
monarchy.
Right, the republic wants tomove towards more representative
government, more democracy, andso they're fighting with the
monarchical forces, not only thekings but also the people who
support kings, and so they'reworking this rebellion, trying
(09:42):
to undermine this monarchy, andyou can hear the rebellion in
the lyrics.
Do you hear the people sing,singing a song of angry men?
It is the music of a people whowill not be slaves again.
Pretty clearly, rebellion rightA song.
Potentially our own Americanrevolutionaries might have sang
(10:06):
in their own fight against amonarchy and you can hear the
emotion, you can hear thefeelings about monarchy that
they held.
You can hear their call for thefreedom that they feel like is
going to come from that republic, come from that democracy, as
(10:28):
soon as they're not run by aking, not run by a king.
Here's what's interesting aboutthat song in this particular
show is that they return to thatsong at the end of the play, at
the end of the film.
They are singing that songagain, again.
(10:58):
What's interesting to me aboutit is, politically, in the story
, nothing has really changed yet, at least that's my
understanding.
They are still fighting thatfight.
Now.
The book, the play, the moviethese were all written
afterwards.
It would have been easy to havedrawn out the end of the story
(11:19):
to a point at which democracywas being adopted into France.
They knew enough to be able todo that and yet they didn't.
They didn't, which leaves thequestion.
All the more reason to askourselves why did they return to
this song, this call to arms,when you could argue at least
(11:43):
within the context of the story.
They kind of failed in theirrebellion.
So why do you hear the peoplesing?
Well, it didn't quite work.
Does it make you wonder whythey would return to that?
For me, it led me to ask myselfokay, so what has changed by
(12:08):
the end of the story and I wentto kind of the key change we can
argue that the main charactersthat are there at the end of the
story and I went to kind of thekey change we can argue that
the main characters that arethere at the end of the story
have changed.
Marius, Cosette.
They have this living exampleof selfless love from Jean
Valjean him saving Marius sothat Marius could be with
(12:33):
Cosette and letting them enjoythe godly gift of romantic love,
the godly gift of beingtogether.
And remember, valjean had toovercome a certain selfish
desire in the midst of that too.
He had to learn to love and tolove in this world, and his love
(12:55):
was for that adopted daughter,cassette.
So to give that away was aselfless act of saying no, I'm
going to put you together withMarius, I'm going to make sure
that he lives, but he learns.
Valjean does what many of usare trying to learn as
(13:19):
Christians.
We're trying to learn how toperfect this selfless, gracious
life of love.
We're trying to master that ina world that doesn't always
honor that.
And he passes that on to Mariusand Cosette, at least this
really strong, living example ofselfless love that he passes on
(13:41):
to Marius and Cosette.
I think this is why Valjeanappears.
He comes back in that final songwhen they are singing.
Do you hear the people sing?
He's in the middle of it, alongwith Fantine and, I think,
eponine Am I right?
Eponine and Fantine allcharacters who are kind of
(14:02):
models for a selflessness, whatwe might call Christian love.
They model that in this story.
I think that's why they comeback and are part of singing
this song and it becomes kind ofa song of victory, despite the
absence of that politicalvictory.
(14:23):
So we might ask ourselves whatis the victory?
Could it be the victory ofgracious love?
Could that be what they arecelebrating, Marius and Cosette?
They're like this metaphor forthe power of grace with people,
(14:47):
the power grace can have over us, transforming us, transforming
our hearts, transforming ourbehavior.
Maybe this is the victorythat's getting celebrated with
this final song.
The other people, the otherpeople who are changed by the
(15:09):
end of this song by the end ofthis story are us.
We're changed.
As much as Marius and Cosetteget this living example of
selfless love, so do we.
We've been witnesses to whatthis new kingdom can look like,
this new way of living, this wayof living that's grounded in
(15:32):
grace, that's grounded inforgiveness, that's grounded in
forgiveness, that's grounded inlove, in selflessness, you might
argue.
You know, does it feel likekind of a hollow victory for
Marius, cassette, valjean?
A little bit hollow.
The National Guard, themonarchy still in the context of
(15:54):
the story still wins.
No.
And yet a similar conflict wasexperienced some 2,000 years ago
with Jesus.
We had a national power.
With Rome we had local power,at least.
That Jesus had to deal withwith Pharisees, sadducees and
(16:17):
others, church leaders.
And Jesus stood in front of allof them and talked about a new
way of living, a different kindof kingdom, a new way to live, a
way of living that was based infaith in God, faith in God's
(16:39):
love for us, and it involvedforgiveness, it involved grace,
it involved selflessness.
And even then, 2,000 years ago,it appeared that he lost this
battle, did it not?
I mean, he was crucified, afterall.
(17:01):
You might think he lost thatbattle.
And yet, when I compare theChristian movement of today up
against the Roman presence oftoday, I might think the
Christian movement, the godlymovement, the gracious movement,
(17:22):
the love movement, has done allright, has maybe even had its
victory.
Maybe that's why those peoplewere so excited to support Jesus
even in those days, looking forthat new thing, that new thing
(17:43):
that made them feel respected,that made them feel their full
personhood, that made them feelloved, and they were anxious for
that new kingdom, that kingdombuilt on godly principles.
Maybe that movement has doneokay.
(18:05):
We are still here as aChristian movement, doing our
best to live out what Jesus gavehis life for, and maybe that's
why we can sing a song like doyou hear the people sing with
some triumphant confidence,confidence that our movement
(18:32):
still gets its victories, thatour movement is still here, that
our movement is still grabbinghearts and bringing them to God.
So we're going to hear.
Do you hear the people sing?
And I invite you to welcomeinto your heart the confidence
(18:53):
that can come from the realitythat love is real and that love
can win.
Nick Newkirk (19:21):
On this page I write my last confession.
Read it well, when I at last amsleeping, when I at last am
sleeping.
It's a story of those whoalways loved you.
(19:43):
Your mother gave her life foryou.
They gave me to my keeping.
Simone, Jean, and Nick (19:50):
Come with me when chains will never
bind you.
All your grief at last, at lastbehind you.
Nick Newkirk (20:07):
Lord in heaven, look down on him in mercy,
forgive me all my trespasses andtake me to your glory.
Simone, Jean, and Nick (20:20):
Take my hand and lead me to salvation.
Take my love, for love iseverlasting, and remember the
truth that once was spoken.
Nick Newkirk (20:43):
To love another person is to see the face of God
.
Choir (20:53):
Do you hear the people sing, lost in the valley of the
night?
It is the music of the peoplewho are climbing to the light.
For the wretched of the earth,there is a flame that never dies
.
Even the darkest night will endand the sun will rise.
(21:16):
They will live again in freedom, in the garden of the Lord.
They will walk behind theflower shed.
They will put away the sword,the chain will be broken and all
men will have their reward.
Will you join in our crusade?
(21:37):
Who will be strong and standwith me?
Somewhere beyond the barricade?
Is there a world you long tosee?
Do you hear the people say Say,do you hear the distant drums?
It is the future that theybring when tomorrow comes.
Will you join in our crusade?
(22:02):
Who will be strong and standwith me?
Somewhere beyond the barricades?
There a world you long to see.
Do you hear the people sing?
Say, do you hear the distantdrums?
It is the future that theybring when tomorrow comes.
(22:22):
Tomorrow comes.
Well, Palm Sunday has become kind of an
interesting adventure for thechurch leader these days.
You know, obviously we'relooking to create the capacity
for a meaningful experience onEaster morning, something where
(00:22):
new life, some transformation,might be yours, and for us as
pastors, such an important partof that is that you walk that
story with Jesus through thatweek, through the trials,
through the tribulations,understanding the depth of his
commitment to this love for usand to communicate God's love
(00:47):
for us.
But what we realize is peopleare so darn busy and I'm talking
about y'all we don't all walkthe whole Holy Week journey
right.
And so part of it, you think,Palm Sunday.
Well, this is the day where wecelebrate the type of leader
Jesus is going to be, and thenthrough the week we talk about
(01:08):
the passion, the depth of loveJesus has for us.
But if everybody's so busy theycan't do it all.
We're trying to do both here inone Sunday.
Do you feel it all bouncingaround in on you?
It's a wild day.
And then we had our greatjourney with Les Miserables, and
(01:29):
so we're trying to culminatewith Les Miserables too.
So this is a perfect storm of aSunday.
I hope you're feeling theexcitement of that and hoping
that we don't drown in our ship.
Amen, yeah, nobody want todrown, nobody want to drown.
(01:49):
And so we finish our materialwith Pastor Matt.
This chapter, the Blessed Garden.
This is the final chapter ofthe book we've been working
through and you'll notice thatthe garden, the garden in the
story, is quite significant.
You might remember that thegarden is where the priest, the
(02:14):
bishop, is often found livingout his Sabbath in his work week
.
You might also remember thatValjean escapes with Cosette to
the garden right, he's about tobe found out by Javert and he's
able to escape again, this timetaking Fantine's orphaned
(02:38):
daughter, Cosette.
And they go on.
They happen on this monasteryand they go on.
They happen on this monasteryand he looks out that the person
that they greet there is theman that Valjean saved lifting
the cart off of him.
The monastery take them in inexchange for Valjean's work in
the garden.
And for me, when I hear that, Ithink that garden must have just
(03:03):
been absolutely healing forValjean, when I think about his
story, at least the part of thestory that's in the book.
He spends 19 years in prisonfor a crime that he should have
maybe served, I don't know.
Unfair punishment.
Then the second part of thejourney he somehow, in a
(03:27):
different identity, being nothimself, is able to find a
certain amount of success.
But there's always that secrecy, that hiding, that is always
part of what he's doing.
So finally he gets to thisgarden, this place where he can
choose to be there and choosethe work that he's doing and be
(03:50):
amongst kind of the naturalworld, the way the world God
created.
I gotta believe that for himthat was a very, very healing
experience, so much so thatmaybe he doesn't reach that
transformation that he reachesby the end of the, that maybe he
doesn't reach thattransformation that he reaches
by the end of the book if hehadn't done that time working
(04:10):
that garden.
You might also remember thatit's in that garden that Marius
and Cosette meet and theirromance begins.
So you can see, the garden is areally significant place.
In fact, this specific gardenis a very significant place in
(04:30):
the story and hopefully you'rehearing too how meaningful that
space is in that love isdiscovered there, Love in all
its forms godly love, romanticlove, the love of God that comes
from a Sabbath, that is, inhealing and in growing.
(04:51):
It definitely is a place whereGod lives.
So our scriptures featuregardens as well.
Pastor Matt in the book wouldhave us notice, have us remember
that these are often placeswhere God is experienced in deep
(05:13):
, deep ways.
The beginning, the verybeginning of the story of our
people of faith.
Right In Eden, in the garden.
Adam and Eve, this perfectgarden, god's first attempt at
creating life for human beingsand creating good life for human
(05:35):
beings right, that's in thatgarden.
You probably also remember thatwe kind of blew it right With
the whole sinning thing.
We kind of blew it right withthe whole sinning thing, right.
You know, we had to eat thefruit tree of knowledge.
We have to leave that garden.
(05:58):
Another significant garden isthe Garden of Gethsemane, right
the garden where Jesus goesafter the Last Supper.
He goes with his disciples topray.
Where Jesus goes after the LastSupper, he goes with his
disciples to pray.
He knows what his next coupleof days are going to look like,
his next 24 hours.
He knows the weight that he'sgoing to have to bear, the pain
that he's going to have tosuffer A heavy, heavy night, and
(06:21):
it's a night in which he reallyis in deep conversation with
God.
Yet again, you're hearing theintimacy that we can have with
God in the garden, in gardens.
These are obviously placeswhere there is that real
(06:45):
intimacy, where we get to knowGod deeply.
There's also a garden in thefinal book of our Bible, in
Revelation.
How many of you are too scaredto read Revelation?
All right, a couple of you area little bit nervous.
How many people have no ideawhy anybody would be scared to
(07:06):
read a book of the Bible Anyone.
We'll just go for it.
Brenda Rogers, I said your namewrong.
I apologize, but she's one ofthose that's like why would we
be scared to read the Bible?
I don't understand that.
Well, yes, there is this garden,and in Revelation it is a
(07:28):
prophecy, it is a vision for afuture with God, a future in
which there's a lot of idealsthat come to pass, and there is
a garden in this vision, in thisfuture.
Right, and if you're like me,as you are hearing that
scripture, as you are reading it, you hear some of the
(07:49):
reflections of what was in thatGarden of Eden, that original
garden.
I'm talking about the river ofthe water of life, the tree of
life, full of fruit, maybe evenmost important for us, given the
story with Adam and Eve, andnothing cursed will be there
(08:12):
anymore.
You can hear that final book ofthe Bible kind of casting a
vision that we might get back tothat Eden or something just
like that Eden, maybe notstarting completely over, but
definitely back with God,definitely back in the garden,
(08:35):
back in that intimacy.
I hope you can feel that.
I hope you can feel that desireand maybe even have some of
that same longing for this newfuture with God, which kind of
brings us back to Les Miserables, which kind of brings us back
to Les Miserables, the storywe've been working through for
(08:59):
six weeks.
Today we're going to hear thesong.
Do you Hear the People Sing?
Now, what's interesting aboutthis song?
It was originally or earlier inthe book.
It is a call to arms againstthe.
Well, it's a call to arms intheir rebellion against the
(09:21):
monarchy.
Right, the republic wants tomove towards more representative
government, more democracy, andso they're fighting with the
monarchical forces, not only thekings but also the people who
support kings, and so they'reworking this rebellion, trying
(09:42):
to undermine this monarchy, andyou can hear the rebellion in
the lyrics.
Do you hear the people sing,singing a song of angry men?
It is the music of a people whowill not be slaves again.
Pretty clearly, rebellion rightA song.
Potentially our own Americanrevolutionaries might have sang
(10:06):
in their own fight against amonarchy and you can hear the
emotion, you can hear thefeelings about monarchy that
they held.
You can hear their call for thefreedom that they feel like is
going to come from that republic, come from that democracy, as
(10:28):
soon as they're not run by aking, not run by a king.
Here's what's interesting aboutthat song in this particular
show is that they return to thatsong at the end of the play, at
the end of the film.
They are singing that songagain, again.
(10:58):
What's interesting to me aboutit is, politically, in the story
, nothing has really changed yet, at least that's my
understanding.
They are still fighting thatfight.
Now.
The book, the play, the moviethese were all written
afterwards.
It would have been easy to havedrawn out the end of the story
(11:19):
to a point at which democracywas being adopted into France.
They knew enough to be able todo that and yet they didn't.
They didn't, which leaves thequestion.
All the more reason to askourselves why did they return to
this song, this call to arms,when you could argue at least
(11:43):
within the context of the story.
They kind of failed in theirrebellion.
So why do you hear the peoplesing?
Well, it didn't quite work.
Does it make you wonder whythey would return to that?
For me, it led me to ask myselfokay, so what has changed by
(12:08):
the end of the story and I wentto kind of the key change we can
argue that the main charactersthat are there at the end of the
story and I went to kind of thekey change we can argue that
the main characters that arethere at the end of the story
have changed.
Marius, Cosette.
They have this living exampleof selfless love from Jean
Valjean him saving Marius sothat Marius could be with
(12:33):
Cosette and letting them enjoythe godly gift of romantic love,
the godly gift of beingtogether.
And remember, valjean had toovercome a certain selfish
desire in the midst of that too.
He had to learn to love and tolove in this world, and his love
(12:55):
was for that adopted daughter,cassette.
So to give that away was aselfless act of saying no, I'm
going to put you together withMarius, I'm going to make sure
that he lives, but he learns.
Valjean does what many of usare trying to learn as
(13:19):
Christians.
We're trying to learn how toperfect this selfless, gracious
life of love.
We're trying to master that ina world that doesn't always
honor that.
And he passes that on to Mariusand Cosette, at least this
really strong, living example ofselfless love that he passes on
(13:41):
to Marius and Cosette.
I think this is why Valjeanappears.
He comes back in that final songwhen they are singing.
Do you hear the people sing?
He's in the middle of it, alongwith Fantine and, I think,
eponine Am I right?
Eponine and Fantine allcharacters who are kind of
(14:02):
models for a selflessness, whatwe might call Christian love.
They model that in this story.
I think that's why they comeback and are part of singing
this song and it becomes kind ofa song of victory, despite the
absence of that politicalvictory.
(14:23):
So we might ask ourselves whatis the victory?
Could it be the victory ofgracious love?
Could that be what they arecelebrating, Marius and Cosette?
They're like this metaphor forthe power of grace with people,
(14:47):
the power grace can have over us, transforming us, transforming
our hearts, transforming ourbehavior.
Maybe this is the victorythat's getting celebrated with
this final song.
The other people, the otherpeople who are changed by the
(15:09):
end of this song by the end ofthis story are us.
We're changed.
As much as Marius and Cosetteget this living example of
selfless love, so do we.
We've been witnesses to whatthis new kingdom can look like,
this new way of living, this wayof living that's grounded in
(15:32):
grace, that's grounded inforgiveness, that's grounded in
forgiveness, that's grounded inlove, in selflessness, you might
argue.
You know, does it feel likekind of a hollow victory for
Marius, cassette, valjean?
A little bit hollow.
The National Guard, themonarchy still in the context of
(15:54):
the story still wins.
No.
And yet a similar conflict wasexperienced some 2,000 years ago
with Jesus.
We had a national power.
With Rome we had local power,at least.
That Jesus had to deal withwith Pharisees, sadducees and
(16:17):
others, church leaders.
And Jesus stood in front of allof them and talked about a new
way of living, a different kindof kingdom, a new way to live, a
way of living that was based infaith in God, faith in God's
(16:39):
love for us, and it involvedforgiveness, it involved grace,
it involved selflessness.
And even then, 2,000 years ago,it appeared that he lost this
battle, did it not?
I mean, he was crucified, afterall.
(17:01):
You might think he lost thatbattle.
And yet, when I compare theChristian movement of today up
against the Roman presence oftoday, I might think the
Christian movement, the godlymovement, the gracious movement,
(17:22):
the love movement, has done allright, has maybe even had its
victory.
Maybe that's why those peoplewere so excited to support Jesus
even in those days, looking forthat new thing, that new thing
(17:43):
that made them feel respected,that made them feel their full
personhood, that made them feelloved, and they were anxious for
that new kingdom, that kingdombuilt on godly principles.
Maybe that movement has doneokay.
(18:05):
We are still here as aChristian movement, doing our
best to live out what Jesus gavehis life for, and maybe that's
why we can sing a song like doyou hear the people sing with
some triumphant confidence,confidence that our movement
(18:32):
still gets its victories, thatour movement is still here, that
our movement is still grabbinghearts and bringing them to God.
So we're going to hear.
Do you hear the people sing?
And I invite you to welcomeinto your heart the confidence
(18:53):
that can come from the realitythat love is real and that love
can win.
Nick Newkirk (19:21):
On this page I write my last confession.
Read it well, when I at last amsleeping, when I at last am
sleeping.
It's a story of those whoalways loved you.
(19:43):
Your mother gave her life foryou.
They gave me to my keeping.
Simone, Jean, and Nick (19:50):
Come with me when chains will never
bind you.
All your grief at last, at lastbehind you.
Nick Newkirk (20:07):
Lord in heaven, look down on him in mercy,
forgive me all my trespasses andtake me to your glory.
Simone, Jean, and Nick (20:20):
Take my hand and lead me to salvation.
Take my love, for love iseverlasting, and remember the
truth that once was spoken.
Nick Newkirk (20:43):
To love another person is to see the face of God
.
Choir (20:53):
Do you hear the people sing, lost in the valley of the
night?
It is the music of the peoplewho are climbing to the light.
For the wretched of the earth,there is a flame that never dies
.
Even the darkest night will endand the sun will rise.
(21:16):
They will live again in freedom, in the garden of the Lord.
They will walk behind theflower shed.
They will put away the sword,the chain will be broken and all
men will have their reward.
Will you join in our crusade?
(21:37):
Who will be strong and standwith me?
Somewhere beyond the barricade?
Is there a world you long tosee?
Do you hear the people say Say,do you hear the distant drums?
It is the future that theybring when tomorrow comes.
Will you join in our crusade?
(22:02):
Who will be strong and standwith me?
Somewhere beyond the barricades?
There a world you long to see.
Do you hear the people sing?
Say, do you hear the distantdrums?
It is the future that theybring when tomorrow comes.
(22:22):
Tomorrow comes.
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