Rescue
The Plan of Redemption
…Rescue on Our Dark Planet
By Pastor Dan Kennedy
© August 29, 2010
On August 5th there was a collapse in a deep copper and gold mine about 530 miles from Santiago, Chile. 33 miners were trapped in a mining cave some 2,300 feet – almost a half-mile underground. For seventeen days those searching for them drilled over half a dozen pilot holes hoping to identify the miner’s location. They were finally successful in finding the men’s underground cavern connected to a long tunnel shaft that had not been blocked.
It is estimated that they may be underground for four more months before a rescue shaft can be safely completed to draw them out one at a time in a one-person rescue capsule. The rescuers hope they can be out before Christmas.
What are the factors that should be priority for those above ground, in helping these miners to survive until they are rescued?
What would be the things that you would prioritize if you were in a position to help rescue these miners?
Having read and listened to several reports on the subject here are some of the observations that I have gleaned.
Primarily those responsible for the men’s rescue dealt with the issue of sanitation. The first concern was to keep the men away from the contamination of their own waste, with it properly contained, so they would not be subject to dysentery and death.
1. Physical Health
A. Maintaining Sanitary Conditions
o Trying to keep their enclosed space sanitary, and free from dysentery,
The rescuers asked the men to dig two latrines.
B. Nourishment
o Initially they ate two spoonfuls of tuna a biscuit and sip of milk, every other day, not knowing if or when they might be found.
o Many are somewhat emaciated now, for lack of hydration and food, because of lack of nourishment and the intense constant heat.
Their rescuers sent capsules of high protein food, water and other means of hydration and nourishment.
2. Mental Health
• Keeping hope that they might be rescued;
• Sustaining them, as much as possible, from the very real potential of depression and subsequent short-term or long-term emotional and/or physical destructive consequences.
Their rescuers sought to provide opportunity for the miners to have the realistic hope of their coming out alive and a subsequent healthy life.
A. Meaningful Interaction
o Interaction with each other;
o The opportunity to interact with those they love, by phone and video;
o The opportunity to be assured by leaders of the mine and country that everything possible is being done to get them out.
Their rescuers sent down literature and Bibles for them to read with games and activities for them to be involved in to meaningfully pass the time.
B. Enduring the Adversity
o The constant fear of dying and being entombed in the mine,
o Darkness,
o Internal loneliness,
o The potential of not being rescued, or of dying before being rescued,
o Constant discomfort of heat in the mid-90’s.
o Inability to trust those wanting to lead – that they are actually doing the right thing and making the right decisions.
o Reactions to others in the stress of the situation. The more the stress, the more the potential of harmful reactions to each other.
Their rescuers cannot change the circumstances of the miner’s adversity, but they are trying to provide nourishment, comfort and assurance through the decisions being made and things being sent, so the miners can endure as healthily as possible until they are rescued.
C. Meaningful Activities, Exercise and Faith
o They have a place to meet,
o A place to eat,
o A place to plan,
o A place to pray and worship God,
o A place to play games,
o A place to sleep.
The rescuers encourage a healthy routine for the miners and specific locations for them to accomplish meaningful and healthy activities.
D. Maintaining Hope
o Breaking the news to them slowly that they may have to be underground for a long time;
o Living with the fact that their rescue could be months off.
Hope is so critical for the miners that the rescuers have to limit any information given to the miners that would cause them to despair.
These are some of the things that are necessary for the miners can stay alive so they can be rescued.
Is our condition similar to theirs?
When Adam sinned, the whole world was plunged into total Spiritual Darkness.
• The Curse of Sin consumed the planet.
• The Veil of Death wrapped all the living inhabitants in its cold, harsh and unyielding cocoon.
• The master of deception, enemy of God and rebellious archangel with his myriads of fallen angels embedded himself as a tyrannical surrogate ruler, plunging the world into a kingdom of darkness, and making himself the prince of the power of the air.
• The world was now in a state of total spiritual collapse.
• All that could now be done was to send a spotless lamb as sacrifice into the world’s fetid conditions – to redeem and rescue its helpless inhabitants.
• This was a plan, by God, before the creation of the world.
What plan does God have for our rescue?
Where is the location of our existence?
• What is the “world” into which Jesus came?
• Was it considerably different from where Jesus had come?
• Why did He need to come to rescue us?
We are a in lone privileged planet, in a universe crowded with myriads of galaxies thousands of light years apart, each with myriads of stars hundreds of light years apart.
Our planet is located in a privileged place, with every life-sustaining benefit, but which is under the horrible deceptive veil of spiritual darkness and death.
•We are in a world that is under the domination of the God’s enemy, the prince of the power of the air.
•We are in a world that is under the curse of sin.
•We are in a world that is dominated by death – for every living thing and every human being.
Where is the place that Jesus came from? Where is His Home?
Philippians 2
5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
John 16
28 I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father.”
John 13
Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. 2 During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him, 3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, 4 rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. 5 Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
What is Jesus’ Home Like? He knows what He has prepared for us and He wants us to be with Him!
John 14
“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms (“a special place in which to live with Him for eternity, an abode, a mansion, our home” – the only other time this Greek word μονή (monay) is used is in John 14:23). If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.
23 Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
“Home” with Jesus is not only a place, but is also His Presence “with us” and us “with Him”!
What does the Bible say this place will be like for us?
Revelation 21
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
•It is a place of love and unity.
•It is a place of peace.
•It is a place without sorrow.
•It is a place of power.
•It is a place of forgiveness.
•It is a place where the terribleness of the past is gone.
•It is a place where the glory of the future is before us.
•It is a place without sin.
•It is a place of awe.
•It is a place of light.
•It is a place full of goodness.
•It is a place of worship.
•It is a place of prayer.
•It is a place of dynamic interaction with God.
•It is a place of amazing wonder.
•It is a place of awesome majesty.
•It is a place of indescribable heavenly creatures.
•It is a place where the Holiness of God is revered.
•It is a place of mystery.
•It is a place of beauty.
•It is a place we can call our final home.
•As God is in us now by His Spirit, so, in a much grander way, we will be with Him! As He makes His Home in our hearts now, so we will be completely at Home in Him.
•It is a place where we will have a new, glorious glorified body.
•It is a place of incorruption!
•As our earthly bodies are corruptible now, so our new spiritual bodies will be incorruptible then!
1 Corinthians 15
42 So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. 43 It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. 44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.
51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. 53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.
Philippians 3
20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.
How Has God Responded to a Lost and Dying World in His Plan for our Redemption?
As first priority, God deals with that which will kill us (that which emanated from our own person as “waste” - this is what we must separate ourselves from).
1. Spiritually/Mentally/Physically
A. Maintaining Sanitary Conditions – God provides Cleansing for sin
1) Positionally (our old sinful nature)
We come to Jesus Christ to be our Savior from sin – to give Him our life, and to ask Him to cleanse us from our sin; to become His Child (John 3:3,16; Rom. 10:9,10,13; Titus 3:5,6, etc.);
2) Practically (Daily)
o We confess our sins daily to the Lord and where appropriate, to each other (1 John 1:9);
o We choose to die to our passions, lusts and fears and seek to live daily as pleasing to God (Gal. 2:20);
o We choose, by the Power of the Spirit of God, to put off the “old man” and “put on Christ”, on a daily basis (Col. 3:5-17).
Once the deadly, sin “waste problem” is cared for, God reveals the continued provisions He has made for our other needs.
2. Spiritually/Mentally/Emotionally
A. God provides for us Spiritual Nourishment
o God gave us His Word, the Bible;
o God has given us His Holy Spirit.
We become spiritually emaciated from time to time because we do not use the opportunities that God has given us.
B. God provides for us Emotional Spiritual Health
o Hope of forgiveness, Salvation and redemption through Jesus Christ.
o Hope of Life beyond this life.
C. God provides for us Meaningful Interaction with those who will strengthen our Spiritual Person
o Fellowship with Believers in Jesus Christ – in the home, at church, in small groups.
o God, by His Spirit assures us that His Word is true and that He rewards those who diligently seek Him.
D. Enduring the Adversities of Life
o Although the world is veiled with the fear of dying, God gives us the Assurance of Redemption in Jesus Christ and the Hope of a resurrected Life;
o The world is blinded in Spiritual darkness, Jesus Christ is the Spiritual Light of the World;
o People languish in Internal loneliness, but God gives us the comfort of His Holy Spirit and the blessing of Spiritual fellowship;
o While those blinded in darkness have no eternal hope, God gives us the Hope of Eternal Life;
o Where there is pain in this world…in every living human being, God gives us the hope of wiping the tears from our eyes and taking away sorrow forever;
o Where the world has no assurance that its way is true, God gives us affirmation through many means, historically, factually, and spiritually, that His Word is true;
o God gives us the ability to love one another, forgive one another and support one another.
E. Meaningful Activities, Exercise and Faith
o We have a place to meet,
o We have places to fellowship,
o We have place to plan for the good of His Kingdom,
o We have a place to pray,
o We place to have wholesome fun and activities together,
o We have a place to rest in our salvation.
F. Maintaining Hope
o We Hope in the Coming of our Messiah…we do not know the day nor the hour, but we hope in His coming;
o We Hope in the resurrection of our corruptible bodies into that which is incorruptible!
o God has not told us everything that we are going to go through and how He is going to care for us. He gives us Hope for today and for eternity!
Conclusion
The Chilean Miners have endured a severe and life-changing experiencing. We should pray for their deliverance.
When Adam sinned, the whole world was plunged into a chasm of total Spiritual Darkness:
• The Curse of Sin consumed the planet.
• The Veil of Death wrapped all the living inhabitants in its cold, harsh and unyielding cocoon.
• The master of deception, enemy of God and rebellious archangel with his myriads of fallen angels embedded himself as a tyrannical surrogate ruler, plunging the world into a kingdom of darkness, and making himself the prince of the power of the air.
• The world was now in a state of total spiritual collapse.
• All that could now be done was to send a spotless lamb as sacrifice into the world’s fetid conditions – to redeem and rescue its helpless inhabitants.
• This was a plan, by God, before the creation of the world.
Do you and I realize that we are in the spiritual darkness of this world?
Do you and I understand the plan that God has for our rescue?
Are we willing to follow the lifelines that God has sent to us, so that we can survive in this spiritually hostile environment?
God has not left us bereft of Hope in this dark world. He has given us the Hope of Life in Himself, through His Son, Jesus Christ.
John 3
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. 21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”
“I am the light of the world.
Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness,
but will have the light of life.”
- Jesus
John 8:12