All About What: Faith?

Freedom and Responsibility

2024-06-24T15:26:00.003+01:00

Reading

1 Corinthians 8

Introduction

It’s a bit of an understatement to say that life, at times, can be quite challenging. Particularly, perhaps, when we encounter change or something out of the ordinary.

A couple of weeks ago, my wife and I went to Bruges for a few days. It’s a beautiful place, and we really enjoyed our visit to a different country, but there were a few differences we had to contend with.

We were envious of the quality of European trains in comparison with ours: they were clean, spacious, comfortable, smooth, and on time.
The money’s different, so you’re never quite sure how much something really costs.
They drive on the wrong side of the road, so you have to take extra care when crossing over.
The whole place is overrun with bicycles, and cyclists think nothing of threading their way, at speed, through milling crowds. I even had to pull Hilary out of the way of one who bore down on us shouting, “Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!” through snarling teeth

We heard last week about marriage and singleness. Getting married is a bit like moving to a new country. There are lots of adjustments to make.

We knew a recently-married couple who had a disagreement about dirty washing. He was used to putting it in the washing machine; she wanted it in the laundry basket.
And then there’s the eternal problem of the position of the toilet seat.
As someone once said, ‘When you’re married you have someone who’ll stand by you through all the problems you wouldn’t have if you’d stayed single.’

Becoming a Christian is a huge change. You’re moving to a new world! You’ve been rescued from the dominion of darkness and brought into the kingdom of light.

It’s an exciting, challenging voyage of discovery as you learn what God is like, what pleases him, and realise that a whole lot of stuff from your old way of life has to change.

The believers in Corinth were encountering just this situation for themselves. Just as a reminder of their situation, Corinth was an important hub in the ancient world. It was:

a Roman colony and the administrative capital for the region it was in;
at the crossroad of important land and sea trade routes, which made it very prosperous but also a melting pot for all manner of pagan beliefs;
overshadowed by the temple of Aphrodite, the goddess of love, and the sexual promiscuity of the city was notorious, even by the standards of the day.

Despite all that, Paul, over a period of around 18 months, established a thriving church, made up of some Jewish converts but mainly former pagans.

Perhaps you can imagine the huge reorientation Christian converts were facing, given the society they were embedded in. They had problems and lots of questions. So, after Paul had left, they wrote to him about various issues, and much of 1 Corinthians is Paul’s response to their questions.

The Issue

Today, we’re looking at Paul’s response to their question about eating food sacrificed to idols.

Now, this would perhaps be an issue for us if we lived in India, but it doesn’t seem very relevant in the 21st century United Kingdom. The Corinthians were perhaps hoping for a yes or no answer, but Paul’s response embodies a principle that applies in all kinds of circumstances where individual freedoms and personal responsibilities come into conflict.

So, what gave rise to the question?

In Corinth, pagan people took animals to temples to be sacrificed in worship to their idols. The priests made the sacrifice and the meat was served to the worshippers. The temples were popular places to eat. If there was surplus meat, the priests sent it to be sold in the market, a place where Christians bought food.

Some Christian believers thought you should have absolutely nothing to do with such food; others thought it was OK as long as nothing identified it as having been sacrificed to an idol; some, who’d been used to eating in temples in their pagan past, would’ve been confused about what was right or wrong for them now.

Paul develops his response through a series of contrasts, the first of which gives us a hint of the direction He’s heading in.

1-3: Knowledge cf Love

Paul puts it like this:

‘We all possess knowledge.’ But knowledge puffs up… Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know.’

Knowledge is a wonderful thing that enriches life. I read Physics at university, so my head got stuffed with a whole pile of knowledge. Perhaps that seems impressive, but it doesn’t help you much (and I’ve forgotten most of it anyway!).

[Blow up balloon and hold it]

Here’s my head, stuffed with knowledge.

And, however much I may have studied, my knowledge is incomplete and faulty. There’s always more to learn, and things we’re certain of can turn out to be wrong. Around the start of the 20th century, much of physics was turned on its head by new and startling discoveries.

There’s every chance that could happen again!

[Release balloon]

So much for what I know!

[Hold up brick (which has the word LOVE embossed on it]

My good friend X has lent me one of his very precious bricks. It reminds me of you! We’re all bricks in God’s temple. Each of you is a brick with LOVE written on it.

Unlike the hot air in my balloon, this brick is solid, dependable, and durable.

... knowledge puffs up while love builds up.

With Love we can build. If I love my neighbour as I love myself, that’s good for my neighbour. It builds my neighbour up.

In his letter to the Galatians, who had their knowledge about law-keeping and circumcision in a mess, Paul wrote,

The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.

Knowledge alone isn’t enough – even perfect knowledge; love shows the better way.

[Put brick down with LOVE to front]

4-6: Idols cf God

Paul affirmed some of the knowledge the Corinthian believers held to:

… we know that ‘An idol is nothing at all in the world’ and that ‘There is no God but one.’

Much is said in the Old Testament about the futility of idols: they’re not real gods, they’re just fashioned lumps of wood or stone or metal—they can’t hear, they can’t see, they can’t do anything.

But Paul reminds the Corinthians and us that God the Father is the origin of everything, he made all this vast universe; he’s the one we live for, who gives us purpose.

And Jesus was the Father’s agent of creation, and the one who gives us life.

Every day, devout Jews would’ve recited the Hebrew Shema, which begins:

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength …

That phrase, ‘the LORD is one’ carries the sense that the LORD is the only God. I’m sure Paul taught that fundamental and foundational truth in Corinth. And here in the passage, the point is made:

Idols count for nothing and God is all-in-all.

7-8: Fact cf Conscience

These facts being the case, what difference does it make that a piece of meat has been offered to an inanimate object? In verse eight Paul makes it quite clear that eating or abstaining from food makes no difference to our relationship with God. He can’t love us more, and he won’t love us less!

So, the Corinthian Christian armed with this knowledge can eat with a clear conscience, whatever the source of the meat. And in chapter 10, where Paul revisits this issue from a different angle, he says:

Eat anything sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience, for, ‘The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.’

But not everyone was armed with that knowledge. For some, eating food sacrificed to idols was just plain wrong; the meat is tainted in some way.

Now, if you know something is sin, you know you shouldn’t do it.

If you believe something is sin (although, actually, it isn’t), then you also shouldn’t do that. If you act contrary to your conscience (even though it’s not actually wrong), your kind of saying, ‘I don’t really care what God thinks about this.’

When I became a Christian at the age of 17, I soon discovered a lot of unwritten rules about what Christians shouldn’t do: don’t drink, don’t smoke, don’t dance, don’t go to the cinema or theatre, etc.

When I went to university and mixed with Christians from different backgrounds, I was puzzled by behaviour of some of them. They did some of the things I believed were sinful.

Had I followed their example at the time, I probably would’ve had an almighty guilt trip. I’m very good at beating myself up.

Alternatively, having apparently got away with it, I may have found it easier to do something that actually is wrong. And once you’ve taken one step—who knows where it may end?

As it happens, the sin I fell into was not doing something I thought was wrong but passing judgement on the others!

As my faith and understanding grew, I learnt to recognise the rules that were just legalistic human rules: some of the knowledge I held was wrong!

In case you’re wondering, none of them was eating food sacrificed to idols, but the principle Paul sets out here applies more broadly than to just this one issue.

Doing a genuinely OK thing can create a stumbling block for someone else who thinks it’s wrong.

9-13: Rights cf Righteousness (Freedom cf Responsibility)

Imagine you’re a Corinthian. You know there’s nothing to an idol, and eating food that may have been sacrificed to it can’t harm you. So, you’re quite happy to eat it. In fact, you have a right to eat it if you want to.

And this is where knowledge puffs you up! You know your rights! But if you always insist on your rights there’s a real danger that you could harm someone else whose conscience you know is more easily bruised.

Paul uses a strong word:

So this weak brother or sister, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge.

If they know it’s sacrificial meat, and see you eating, and it’s a problem for them, they may think, ‘It’s OK. I can do this.’ So they eat it too, and then suffer the agony of a guilty conscience.

Or, being emboldened by their action, they may think it’s OK to eat at temple feasts, and they end up getting get entangled again with idol worship.

But in chapter 10, Paul makes clear that Christians cannot participate in worship at pagan temples because what the pagans were actually worshipping were the demonic powers behind the idols.

In the end, it would have been better for them, and you, if you’d abstained from eating. Paul says,

When you sin against them in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ.

Love, Paul tells us, builds up, and he ends the passage with,

Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother or sister to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause them to fall.

To be clear, Paul isn’t declaring himself a vegetarian. He’s saying:

Love doesn’t engage even in a legitimate action when offence is possible.
Love will lay down its rights rather than cause harm.
Because (1 Cor 13:7) ‘Love always protects.’

We are called to be Christ-like.

Who had more rights than Jesus?
Who could have called for 80,000 angels to save him from the cross?
Who laid down his very life for his friends?
Who bore our sins in his own body on the cross?
Who said, ‘Love one another as I have loved you’?

Apparently, Bob Dylan once said, "I think of a hero as someone who understands the degree of responsibility that comes with his freedom."

In Christ we have incredible freedom. But we are accountable for how we use our freedom.

Being right is never more important than doing right.

Summary

Knowledge alone isn’t enough; [pick up the brick] love shows the better way.
Idols count for nothing and God is all-in-all.
Doing a genuinely OK thing can create a stumbling block for someone else who thinks it’s wrong.
Being right is never more important than doing right.

The answer to the Corinthians’ question seems to be, In principle, it’s OK but whatever you feel at liberty to do, always consider the consequences for others. Let sacrificial love guide your actions.

In chapter 10, Paul puts it like this:

So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. Do not cause anyone to stumble …

And with the supreme example of Jesus in our minds, let’s end this sermon with prayer.

Offerings

2024-05-12T23:11:00.002+01:00

Reading

Leviticus 1:1-14, 6:8-13

Introduction: Questions

Children ask interesting questions, don’t they? The most frequent and most annoying one is: Why?

Adults often don’t know the right answer or choose not to give the right answer.

Where do babies come from? Apparently, I was found under a gooseberry bush!
Why are frogs green? Er… Ask your father.
Where does God live?

We might answer that one with, “God lives in Heaven.” But the Israelites had a different answer. They would say, he lives in that big tent, just over there.

Can I go and see him now? NOOoooo!!!!

As Luke so brilliantly illustrated for us last week, having God live next door is not without its problems. He’s not like us. We’re sinful and rebellious, he’s holy; so holy that no-one could look at him and live. Like CS Lewis’s Aslan in ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’, he isn’t safe—but he is good.

When we get older we have a different set of questions. What’s life all about? What am I here for? Is there any purpose or meaning?

The Westminster Shorter Catechism puts the question like this: What is the chief end of man?

The answer it gives is: Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.

The answer’s a general summary of this whole book. We were made by God and for God; he desires to live among us, and he wants us to live in joyful communion with him. But how is that possible?

Sacrifices and Offerings

As we’ve journeyed with the Israelites through Exodus, we’ve seen part of the unfolding story of God working to bring about the fulfilment of his great desires.

Leviticus starts as Exodus ended. The glory of the LORD has filled the tabernacle and Moses, who’s had many personal encounters with God—but has never seen his glory—dared not enter the tent. How can the Israelites enjoy the presence of God?

From inside the tent God explains to Moses how to overcome the obstacles. We’re introduced to the idea of sacrifices and offerings.

Some of the offerings strike our modern minds as strange if not downright horrible but these things weren’t alien to the people of the day. People sacrificed to their gods to induce favourable behaviour from them: ‘I’ve done this for you, now you do that for me.’ Their sacrifices were very much a transactional affair.

The five offerings introduced here are entirely relational in their purpose; none of them is an attempt to twist God’s arm.

God has already rescued his people.
He’s made himself known to them in spectacular ways.
He’s already committed to their well-being.
He’s made his dwelling among them.

These offerings show:

how the people can express their devotion to God,
how to put their relationship with God right when things go wrong,
and how they can enjoy his presence.

You’ll be relieved to hear that we won’t be looking at all the offerings in detail, or we’d be here for a very long time! We’ll look at just one of them and skim the rest.

We have:

The burnt or ascension offering was about giving your whole self to God and being accepted by him. We read instructions about this offering earlier.

The grain or tribute offering was firstly to acknowledge God’s sovereignty over all aspects of life, and secondly to express thanks for his gracious provision

There were no animals involved in this one. The main component was fine flour, which could be offered uncooked or baked in various forms along with oil, incense and salt, but never with yeast or honey.

Part was offered on the altar, along with the oil, salt and incense. The rest belonged to the priests.

The fellowship or well-being offering, could be used to express thankfulness, or to confirm a vow, or just because God is good and has blessed you.

This one did involve animal sacrifice, and there are specific instructions on what animals can be used, how the offering was to be handled, and what accompaniments were needed.

Specific parts of the animal were to be burnt on the altar; certain parts were to be given to the priest for food, and the rest was to be eaten and shared with people from the community, near the tent of meeting.

It was like sharing a celebratory meal with God.

All of these offerings could be brought by anyone and were entirely voluntary.

The last two are obligatory acts of atonement. There’s:

The guilt offering that dealt with serious violations of God’s holy things. It has a lot in common with the sin offering but also included an element of restitution for wrongs done to others.

The sin offering, which we’ll look at more closely.

The Sin Offering

Sin always causes a rift in our relationship with God. When we sin, we try to hide it from God and to hide it from others. The ultimate penalty for sin is death.

The sin offering provides atonement, a remedy for the offence, and removes the rift to restore the relationship.

(4:2) It’s for ‘When anyone sins unintentionally and does what is forbidden in any of the LORD’s commands – ’

To try and get a handle on what ‘unintentional’ means, Bible commentators look closely at the words used in the original language. They come up with a couple of ideas:

inadvertant sin

we can be in ignorance of the law
we can lack awareness of the offensive nature of sin

going astray, wandering

human weakness

I know this is wrong but…

human frailty

some trauma makes you take leave of your senses

The ritual of the sin offering is similar to what we read about the burnt offering. But there were some differences, depending on who was bringing the offering—the sin of some people has wider consequences.

Our sin affects not just us but also the person we’ve sinned against, and it can have a knock-effect to those closest to us, and those we have responsibility for.

For example, if a someone got caught in an act of gross misconduct at work, they’d lose their job, their livelihood, quite possibly their pension; they could even go to prison. Their family would suffer because of their sin.

And,

If you were a priest, your sin would be an offence to the holy places in the Tabernacle, and how could you then speak on God’s behalf to the people, or to God on behalf of the people.
If you were a leader in the community, your sin would’ve had consequences for the people you were responsible for. Just think of the notable Christian leaders in recent times whose sins have come to light, and the impact that’s had on their congregations.
If the whole community went astray, that’s clearly more serious than the sin of just one person.

In dealing with your sin, humility is needed. You’d have to recognise that you’ve broken God’s law and that you can’t live anywhere near the presence of God without a remedy. But God, who loves you, has graciously prescribed a remedy: the sin offering. Let’s see what that looks like.

The Ritual

First of all, there’s the selection of the animal to be sacrificed.

If you’re a priest, or the whole community has sinned, the victim must be a young bull.
If you’re a leader, a male goat.
If you’re an ordinary member of the community, either a female goat or a female lamb.

There are some exceptions. If you were poor and couldn’t afford a lamb, you could bring two young pigeons. The blood of one would be used as your sin offering and the other would be burnt on the altar.

And if you were so poor you couldn’t afford that, you could bring about 3.5 lb of finest flour.

No-one is excused the cost of the offering, but these exceptions mean that no-one is denied the opportunity for atonement and forgiveness.

You have to bring the best you can to God, so you carefully choose the appropriate animal, making sure it’s without blemish or defect.

You lead the animal to the tent of meeting. At the entrance, you put your hand on its head to signify that you’re presenting it to the LORD as your sin offering. In essence, you lay your sin on the head of the animal. If you won’t bring a sin offering—on your own head be it!

You might like to think that the priest would take over at this point, but no. Your next act is to take a knife and to slit its throat: it bears your sin and it’s life is given in place of yours.

It’s a horrible image, but it highlights the offensiveness of sin and the reality of its penalty.

Now the priest steps in and collects the gushing blood in a bowl and takes it into the tent.

If the priest were making this offering for his own sin or dealing with the collective sin of the people, he would first dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle it seven times on the curtain that separates the holy place where he’s standing from the holiest place where God lives.

Then he would dip his finger again and put blood on the four corners of the altar in the holy place where incense was burnt. He’s a priest. He has regular access to these holier places, and he has to preserve them against any desecration.

In all cases, he would dip his finger in the blood, and put some of it on each of the horns of the altar of burnt offerings just outside the tent. The rest, he pours out at the base of the altar.

The animal’s blood stands in for your blood; for the Hebrew, the life was in the blood.

Meanwhile, your next job is to butcher the animal. You have to remove all the visceral fat, the kidneys and the liver, the fat around the tail. You have to wash all this: you can’t offer God unclean things, and it reminds you that what God really wants from you is cleanness in your inner being.

The priest would then arrange these washed parts on the altar and make sure they’re burnt completely.

If you think back to our reading, you’ll recall that the fire on this altar was never to be allowed to go out. And that reminds you that God stands always ready to receive your offering as atonement and to forgive you. God doesn’t want to lose you!

The rest of the animal becomes food for the priests, so it’s not been just a wasteful exercise in blood-letting. The only exception to this is for bulls offered for the sin of a priest or the collective sin of the people: the remains of that animal are to be taken to a ceremonially clean place outside the camp and burnt in a wood fire on the ash heap. Why? Because nobody can expect to profit from their sin.

Your offering now complete, you’ll remember the LORD’s words of assurance repeated multiple times about this offering: “In this way the priest will make atonement for them for the sin they have committed, and they will be forgiven.”

Leviticus is the first time in scripture where it’s made explicit that your sin can be atoned for through the ritual sacrifice of an animal. The theological term is substitutional atonement.

A Better Sacrifice

What’s set down in Leviticus is important for the Israelites of the day but really these things are only pointers to a greater, better sacrifice that’s hinted at all through the Bible.

Imagine the edge of the platform is a timeline for the history of the world.

So this bit here might be the Garden of Eden, but this is not where the story begins.

[Leave the room.]

The story begins out here. You can’t see me because I’ve left the realm of time and space. I’m standing in Eternity.

Peter, writing in the New Testament, says,

“¹⁸For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, ¹⁹but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. ²⁰He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake.”

[Enter the room, stand at LHS.]

Before God created the world, he already knew we’d mess it up. Before any of us existed, before any of our sins had been committed, he chose his sacrificial lamb, God the Son, without blemish or defect, who would one day offer himself, his life for ours, his blood for ours.

And so God created the world. He created human beings in his own likeness. For a while, we don’t know how long, all was well. Adam and Eve enjoyed the presence of God who walked with them in the cool of the evening.

[Step right].

Then—disaster! Satan, allegorically called the serpent, tempted them and they disobeyed God.

They discovered they were naked.
They tried to hide from God but that didn’t work.
They tried to make coverings for themselves from leaves but that wasn’t good enough.
They were ejected from the presence of God before the damage got worse, they couldn’t remain in intimate contact with God.

But God made them coverings from animal skins to cover their nakedness. Blood was shed, pointing forward to the real sacrifice that would be made thousands of years later to cover our shame.

[Step right. 4 or 500 years]

God still wants to be with people. He calls Abraham, promises him the world, but Abraham has no heir. So God gives him a son, Isaac.

God tests Abraham’s devotion. ‘I want you to sacrifice your only son, Isaac, whom you love.’ Human sacrifice may not have been unheard of in Abraham’s time but he may have been surprised that his God asked for it!

Abraham and Isaac go of to make the sacrifice. Isaac, not knowing what’s going on, says, “We’ve got fire and wood but where’s the lamb?”

Abraham replies, “God himself will provide the lamb.”

Just as he’s about to kill Isaac, God stops him, and there in a thicket is a ram caught by its horns. Abraham offers that in place of Isaac, the ram’s life for his.

This points forward to the time when God’s only Son, whom he loves, would offer himself in the place of all of us.

[Step right. ~ 600 years]

We come to the Passover when God rescued Abraham’s descendants from Egypt. The Passover lamb died in place of the Israelite first-born sons.

This points forward to the time when God’s firstborn would die in our place to rescue us from the slavery of sin.

[Step right.]

In Leviticus, we have the sin offering we’ve thought about, pointing forward to the sacrifice of God’s chosen Lamb in a time yet to come.

[Step right. ~ 800 years.]

The Prophet Isaiah writes about a mysterious servant:

53 ⁵But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.

And

⁷... he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, …

Isaiah points forward to God’s lamb who would one day be slaughtered for the sins of his people, bearing their punishment.

[Step right. ~700 years]

Enter John the Baptist, who,

(John 1:29) … saw Jesus coming towards him and said, ‘Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!'

[Step right.]

A few short years pass and we come to Calvary. Jesus has been arrested, tried, beaten. A crown of vicious thorns has been smashed onto his head.

It makes me think of the hand being laid on the head of the animal in Leviticus. But for Jesus, it’s the hands and the sins of all who will come to him in faith. My hand. Your hand. My sins. Your sins. How could we do that to him?! And yet …

He’s nailed to a cross and left to die outside the city, his blood staining the wood.

He is not just our sacrificial lamb. He is also our high priest. He enters into the heavenly realms with his own blood, and remembering the words from Leviticus, “In this way [our high] priest [made] atonement for [us] for [every] sin [we’ve] committed [or ever will commit], and [we are] forgiven.”

[Step right.]

And that’s not the end of the story! Paul writes in 2 Cor. That “… God was reconciling himself to the world in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them.” God still wants to live with people.

Jesus rises from the dead—sin and death are defeated—and God sends his Holy Spirit to dwell in each and every believer as “a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance.”

[Step right.]

And the best is yet to come! “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.”

Beyond the wall there’s an eternal realm where we’ll fully realise our chief end: to glorify God and enjoy him forever.

[Centre stage]

The best is yet to come but we can begin getting to know God here and now. As Paul writes, “… Now [we] know in part; then [we] shall know fully, even as [we] are fully known.”

Meanwhile, our response to all he’s done for us, as Paul tells us, is to “offer [our] bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.”

This is our true worship – to live our lives in holiness because our God is holy, to find our true purpose in living for him.

I wonder,

is there someone here caught in a sin, feeling ashamed or unworthy?
or, you believe, but without assurance that your sins are really forgiven?

Charles Wesley expressed truth powerfully in his famous hymn, O for a thousand tongues to sing my great redeemer's praise:

[Jesus] breaks the power of cancelled sin,
He sets the prisoner free;
His blood can make the foulest clean,
His blood availed for me.

See all your sins on Jesus laid:
The Lamb of God was slain,
His soul was once an offering made
For every soul of man.

Just sit in quietness for a moment reflecting on what Jesus has done for us.

On top of the Mountain

2023-11-08T15:38:00.003+00:00

Reading

Exodus 19

Introduction

If someone had convinced you on Friday morning that God was going to show up today in awesome power and holiness, how would you have felt about that? How would you have prepared yourself to encounter God? Would you even be here, or would you have stayed away?

Have you ever wondered what your life is all about; what your life as a Christian is all about?

The passage we’ve just read gives some idea what such an encounter could be like and some answers to those questions about life.

Setting the Scene

A couple of months after leaving Egypt, the Israelites have set up camp in front of Mount Sinai. This was where God spoke to Moses from the burning bush and sent him to lead the Israelites out of Egypt.

Starting at chapter 18, we see the Israelites being transformed into a nation under God. In chapter 19, the people encounter God for themselves, and beginning in chapter 20, God tells his already redeemed people how he expects them to live.

Promises and Purpose

They’ve arrived, and they’ve set up camp. The next thing Moses does is to climb the mountain to meet with God.

On top of the mountain, God gives Moses a message for his people. First of all, God wants to remind them of all he’s done for them so far.

⁴“You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.

And God wants them to know the plans he has for them.

“⁵Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, ⁶you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”

There are wonderful promises here.

Do you have a treasured possession? Perhaps something left to you by a favourite aunt or uncle? Maybe your grandad’s war medals or your football trophies? Or, given the number of people here who engage in a particular form of exercise, your electric bike?

How do we treat our treasured possessions? We protect them, handle them carefully, we give them pride of place. We show them off, or maybe hide them away; we think about them, talk about them.

As Jesus said, “… where your treasure is, there shall your heart be also.” (Matt. 6:21) And God says to his people, “you will be my treasured possession.” Out of all the peoples on earth, they’ll be the people closest to his heart and foremost on his mind.

He says, “… ⁶you will be for me a kingdom of priests…” A priest stands as an intermediary representing God to the people and the people to God. And God’s plan is for his people to represent God before all the nations on earth, and to be instrumental in bringing the nations close to God.

He says, “… you will be for me … a holy nation.” There’s that word ‘holy’. I think it’s a word we struggle with because we can have all kinds of ideas about what it means. A definition I’ve found helpful is, “Not for ordinary use.”

When I was in the sixth form, my friend who led me to the LORD brought his guitar to school because we were leading school assembly that day. One of the lads picked it up and started singing a folk song that had fairly mild swear words in it. My friend took great offence and told him to stop because his guitar was for worship, not for that kind of music. It was not for ordinary use. For him, it was a holy thing.

The nation of Israel was not to be for ordinary use. Israel was to be set apart – another way of thinking of holiness – for the special purpose of making God and his ways known to the world.

These are wonderful promises, but for all this to happen there were conditions to comply with.

They were no longer to live life just as they saw fit. To show God to the world, they had to live God’s way. He needed their full obedience.

The measure of the obedience required was to be enshrined in the covenant he was about to make with them. They needed to commit to their part in keeping the covenant.

God is very good at keeping covenants. Back in Genesis, God made a covenant with Abraham. He promised to make him into a huge nation, to give him the land of Canaan as an everlasting possession, and that through him all the nations of the world would be blessed.

But Abraham and Sarah had problems with infertility. They were childless, but God gave them a son, Isaac, and the vast number of people now gathered in Sinai, the descendants of Abraham, showed that God had kept the first part of his promise.

The new nation of Israel is about to begin the journey to fulfil the second part of God’s promise to Abraham: possessing the land.

The third part … we’ll come back to that later.

And now God is about to make another covenant with the whole nation. There are promises, and there are terms and conditions. It’s like God says, ‘Here’s the destination I’ve planned for you, but my way is the only road that will get you there.’

So Moses goes back down the mountain and tells the elders all that God has said to him. They like what they hear. Their response is, “⁸… ‘We will do everything the LORD has said.’”

So Moses goes back up the mountain and reports their response to God.

God wants the people to know that it’s not just Moses telling them how to live. They need to know that Moses is doing as God instructs him. He’ll come down to the mountain to make himself known. He’ll come shrouded in a dense cloud. God is so holy they could never look on him and live!
Prepare to meet your Maker

They’re given two days to prepare.

They have to prepare the venue. Wherever God is becomes holy! The mountain must be set apart as holy.

They have to put a boundary around it which they cross on pain of death. They can’t cross the boundary even to deal with trespassers or they’ll be trespassing too! They can only approach the mountain when they hear the sound of a ram’s horn.

They have to prepare themselves. They can’t be casual in coming into the presence of a holy God. Even those who’ve been acting as priests, and think of themselves as having right of access must also consecrate themselves. The traditional Jewish understanding here is that, in the time before the Levitical priesthood, the firstborn in households would have acted as priests.

They all have to be clean before this holy God, so they must wash their clothes and abstain from sexual relations.

They spend two days getting everything ready. How might you have spent the last two days if you knew God would turn up in power today? Our God is still, awesome, powerful and holy. We do well to remember that.

On the third day, God comes down.

I want to read verses 16 to 20 again, from a different translation (NLT) with a more expressive style. What I’m about to read sounds like a volcanic eruption, but Mount Sinai isn’t a volcano and never has been. There’s no natural explanation for what you’re about to hear. This is God!

¹⁶On the morning of the third day, thunder roared and lightning flashed, and a dense cloud came down on the mountain. There was a long, loud blast from a ram’s horn, and all the people trembled.

¹⁷Moses led them out from the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain.

¹⁸All of Mount Sinai was covered with smoke because the Lord had descended on it in the form of fire. The smoke billowed into the sky like smoke from a brick kiln, and the whole mountain shook violently.

¹⁹As the blast of the ram’s horn grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God thundered his reply.

²⁰The Lord came down on the top of Mount Sinai and called Moses to the top of the mountain. So Moses climbed the mountain.

Poor Moses! He’s just climbed the mountain again, but God is so concerned for the safety of his people that he tells him to go back down and warn them again to keep away. The manifest presence of God is dangerous for sinful people!

The next chapter begins, “And God spoke all these words:”. But we’ll hear more about that in a couple of weeks time.

The people’s response to what they’ve witnessed is recorded in later chapter 20:

¹⁸When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance ¹⁹and said to Moses, ‘Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not let God speak to us or we will die.’

²⁰Moses said to the people, ‘Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning.’

Reverence for God is a good thing to hold on to to keep you from sinning.

Now, to cut a long story short, the Israelites didn’t live up to God’s expectations. They didn’t really learn reverence for God to keep them from sinning.

They failed to keep God’s law and followed the ways of the nations around them; they gave themselves up for ordinary use rather than being God’s holy nation.

As for their priestly role, centuries later the prophet Isaiah wrote, “26:^18bWe have not brought salvation to the earth, and the people of the world have not come to life.”
A New Covenant

Another covenant was needed and God must visit the earth again. John writes in his gospel,

“3:¹⁶For 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. ¹⁷For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”

The Lord Jesus, the Son of God, came into the world and preached the message, “… The Kingdom of God has come near. Repent, and believe the good news. ” (Mark 1:15b)

The purposes of God always prevail.

Humanly speaking, Jesus was born a descendant of Abraham, and through Jesus, all the nations of the world have been blessed just as God promised Abraham. The church has spread throughout the earth.

The Lord’s sacrificial death and his resurrection have made it possible for anyone and everyone who will repent and trust in Jesus to know God for themselves.

Jesus is still building his Church. It’s true that the institutional ‘church’ has made many mistakes down the ages. But the true church, the Kingdom of God, has grown and grown as people have heard of Jesus, changed their thinking and reverently put their trust in him.

To God’s special people, the people of the Kingdom, Peter writes in his first letter:

⁹ … you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, (now, where have we heard that before?) that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. ¹⁰Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

People of the kingdom, gathered here in this place: this is what you are! Living this out, actively being God’s people is the best thing we can do as a church.

Remember that, as God’s treasured possession, we’re on display. Our priestly role includes being ambassadors and servants, showing God to the community, drawing others into the kingdom.

God is at work among us and is leading us forward. That should encourage us to forge ahead with the work that God gives us to do.

And together we’ve identified four areas of need we can get involved with to help us practically show the love of God. These were mentioned earlier in our service today

It would be good to get involved with these as much as you’re able, but, over and above all that, let’s be the holy people of God. Peter continues in his letter.

“¹¹Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. ¹²Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.”

Let’s not be for ordinary use. And remember that having a proper reverence for our holy God will help to keep you from sinning.

The New Testament writer of Hebrews refers back to the events in Exodus to tell us that we’re in a better position than the Israelites were. In chapter 12 he writes:

¹⁸You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm; ¹⁹to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them, …

²²But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, ²³to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, ²⁴to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

²⁵See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven?

Jesus, the one who speaks to us, is the only hope there is. But he is a sure and certain hope.

Summary

We’re not for ordinary use.

Together with believers throughout the world:

we are God’s chosen people,
we are a royal priesthood,
we are a holy nation, and
we have a purpose to fulfill.

Let’s remember to maintain a reverence for God and give him the obedience to is worthy of.

In closing, hear some further words from Hebrews 12:

²⁸Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, ²⁹for our ‘God is a consuming fire.’

The Exodus

2023-10-25T16:14:00.003+01:00

Reading

Exodus 12

Previously on “Exodus”

God’s people are under ruthless oppression:

Moses’ has brought the promise of deliverance to the Hebrew elders; at first, they believe Moses and worship the Lord who has heard their cry.
After Moses first confronts Pharaoh, the oppression gets worse, and the Hebrews make clear to Moses they are not impressed.
Encouraged by God, Moses and Aaron press on faithfully, forewarning Pharaoh about each plague coming to Egypt.
Plague after plague leaves Pharaoh remaining stubborn, and God reinforces his stubbornness.

In this week’s thrilling instalment –

Deliverance!

Now, Pharaoh may have remained unmoved despite all that was happening to his nation but others have noticed what’s going on.

When Moses announces the 8th plague (locusts), Pharaoh’s officials tell him, for goodness’ sake let them go! Can’t you see Egypt is ruined? Pharaoh tries to retain control with a compromise, but it’s less than God requires – and so the locusts arrive.

And the 9th plague (darkness) also fails to convince Pharaoh.
Somewhere along the way, the penny must have dropped for the Hebrews. They would have seen what was going on in Egypt but, miraculously, not where they were living; their animals didn’t die; they didn’t get hail; the darkness came nowhere near them.
By the time we get to the final plague, the people must have been ready to listen to Moses again. They’d begun to believe they really were leaving.
And so we come to the final plague. Back in chapter 4, where God has been explaining to Moses all that was going to happen, he finished with:

²²... say to Pharaoh, “This is what the Lord says: Israel is my firstborn son, ²³and I told you, ‘Let my son go, so that he may worship me.’ But you refused to let him go; so I will kill your firstborn son.” ’

In the cultures of the day, the firstborn son was special and precious. He was the sign of strength, the continuation of the family line. He enjoyed a highly privileged position within the family.

That’s how it was in Egypt, so Pharaoh should have understood from what Moses told him how important Israel was to God. But, despite all he’d seen, he hadn’t understood that God was able to do what he said – after all, it’s not so bad: nobody died!

The final, horrendous judgement against Egypt is already determined: the death of the firstborn sons from the highest in the land to the lowest, and even among the livestock.

From our modern perspective, this seems incredibly harsh.

But think about events that happened not so very long ago, a time when, once again, the Jews were in jeopardy.

The Nazis tried to eliminate them from Europe, rounding them up first into ghettos, then transporting them to concentration camps. There, if they were fit enough, they were worked to death, or, if they weren’t able to work through age or illness or just being a nursing mother and child, they were exterminated without a second thought.

The idea of hunting down and wiping out the Nazis seemed then like just retribution.

The sins of Egypt were not much better.

A previous Pharaoh had ordered the extermination of all Hebrew boys – as far as we know, that edict was ever rescinded.
The Hebrews were enslaved and put to harsh labour; we’re told in chapter one that ‘the Egyptians worked them ruthlessly’, since before Moses was born, and Moses is now 80.

We’ve been hearing how God is not like us; he’s holy, altogether different. He is also always totally just. He would never do anything unjust.

From God’s perspective, the just penalty for sin is death.

He could have justly wiped Egypt from the face of the earth – but, in this final plague, God limited his judgement.

Actually, the Hebrews are sinful too: we’ll see as their story unfolds that, like Pharaoh they’re, stubborn – they’re disobedient, rebellious, unbelieving.

Can a just God punish the sins of Egypt and ignore the sins of the Hebrews?

God provides a just way to protect his people from the judgement of the final plague. God gives the people instructions for this key phase of their deliverance from Egypt.

It’s the month of Aviv, in the springtime. On the 10th of Aviv, each household is to select a year old lamb or kid, a male, more costly than the female, one without defect, perfect, the best. They’re told, take care of it for 4 days. It’s precious: it will be food for the journey, and a sacrifice in the place of their firstborn sons.

They’re to slaughter the lamb at twilight on the 14th of Aviv, to roast it whole and eat as much as they possibly can. And because it’s a sacrifice, wholly given over to God, they’re to burn anything they’re unable to finish.

And they’re told, if your neighbour’s household is too small to cope with a whole lamb, invite them over to share in yours.

They’re to take some of the lamb’s blood and put it on the door frame as a sign to the Lord who said, “When I see the blood I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.”

The lifeblood of sacrificial lamb stands in place of the lifeblood of the firstborn son.

And they’re told to eat in haste and to be dressed for the journey, ready to leave in a hurry.
In springtime in Egypt, the sun sets at about 6pm.

Let’s imagine the scene at a Hebrew house near to where the Egyptians live. The sun sinks quickly below the horizon and in the twilight the men slaughter the lamb, do whatever preparation is necessary, then take it indoors for roasting.

The whole household, and perhaps their neighbours, crowd into the house. They’ve been told to stay inside the house.

The adults are quiet, anxious, exchanging glances and nervous smiles. They’re all on edge as they wait while the lamb cooks, and fat starts to drip and flare up on the fire.

The children are up past their bedtimes. The little ones pick up on the tension in the air. They’re over-tired, whingey and irritable. The older kids get bored and argumentative. One of them looks at the roasting lamb and says, ‘I don’t like meat, I want beans.’ They haven’t really grasped what’s going on.

But not the firstborn son. He tugs on his dad’s sleeve. ‘Dad? Did you do what Moses said you had to do with the blood?’

‘Of course I did, son. You’re my precious boy.’

The boy looks unconvinced, so dad picks up an oil lamp, takes him by the hand and leads him to the door. He opens the door and, being very careful to stay inside, he says, ‘There’s the blood, on the lintel, on the side-posts. That will keep you safe. God said so.’

The boy breathes a huge sigh of relief.

Apparently, it takes about five hours to roast a whole lamb, so by the time the meal’s cooked, it’s already approaching Midnight. The lamb is torn apart and handed around to everyone, with bitter herbs and bread without yeast. The hosts make sure everyone gets enough.

At this point, they’ve obeyed all that God told them to do. All they can do now is wait, and trust.
Perhaps even while they’re still eating, someone hears a noise, a scream. They look out the window, and in the Egyptian homes nearby, lamps are being lit. The sound of wailing, devastated parents grows louder, and louder, and louder.

God’s judgement has fallen, and there’s someone dead in every Egyptian house, including the palace. Finally, Pharaoh has learned the fear of the Lord:

³¹During the night Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, ‘Up! Leave my people, you and the Israelites! Go, worship the Lord as you have requested. ³²Take your flocks and herds, as you have said, and go. And also bless me.’

³³The Egyptians urged the people to hurry and leave the country. ‘For otherwise,’ they said, ‘we will all die!’ ³⁴So the people took their dough before the yeast was added, and carried it on their shoulders in kneading troughs wrapped in clothing. ³⁵The Israelites did as Moses instructed and asked the Egyptians for articles of silver and gold and for clothing. ³⁶The Lord had made the Egyptians favourably disposed towards the people, and they gave them what they asked for; so they plundered the Egyptians.

After 430 years, the Israelites escape bondage and leave Egypt laden with riches they didn’t earn.
We’re told there were 600K men, plus women and children, plus many other people. If you think it through, you can easily work the numbers up to something well in excess of 1.5m people on the move. With all their livestock. Imagine that scene.

Egypt is left devastated. On top of everything, they have no-one to do all the work!

Memorial

For the Hebrews however, this is a complete reset, a new beginning, a time worth remembering. They’ve been set free!

Memory is a funny thing. For some reason it can be easy to remember the things we want to forget and easy to forget the things we ought to remember.

I won’t ask for a show of hands, but I wonder how many men in here have ever forgotten their wedding anniversary? It doesn’t go down well, does it? You’ll only do it once!

God wants his people to remember their deliverance from slavery. Not a deliverance that they achieved but a deliverance that God provided for them with his outstretched arm and mighty hand.
This is never to be forgotten.

They’re given two ways to remember.

All their firstborn belong to God and they are to be redeemed by the sacrifice of a lamb. So this will be an ongoing reminder in family life.
They are to celebrate a feast every year on the anniversary of their liberation.

Twice God instructs Moses, and twice Moses instructs the people about the Festival of Unleavened Bread. So, Jews reading Torah later in their history get told four times to celebrate the Passover.
It’s really important they remember that their very existence as a people is entirely down to God’s intervention and to his glory.

Unleavened bread is basically bread made without yeast. At the time of the exodus, the people had prepared dough for their bread but hadn’t had the time to mix the yeast in.

In preparing for the memorial feast the people are to make sure there’s no leaven in the house. Later, leaven came to represent sin or evil, so clearing out the leaven becomes an act of purification.

There were times of neglect at various stages in their subsequent history when it seems that nothing God had commanded was observed, and then there were times of recovery when Passover was celebrated again.

A Loud Echo

The Exodus of long ago prefigures another, even greater rescue provided by God. 1400 years or so later, Passover is being celebrated annually, and Jesus is walking the earth.

There’s a greater tyrant abroad in the world than Pharaoh, a more insidious enslavement than Egypt.
By nature, we walk right into the trap. Isaiah tells us,

We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way. (Is. 53:6)
All the problems in the world today stem from that. We turn our backs on God. We turn our backs on our neighbour. We look out for number one.

Sin gets a grip and imprisons us under the tyranny of Satan who lurks in the shadows, tempting, corrupting, destroying. And we don’t even realise we’re in captivity.

We think we’re having a good time! Unless we’re on the receiving end of other people’s bad behaviour.

We can’t get ourselves out of the mess, and it’s our own fault we’re in it. And the just penalty for sin is still death!

John the Baptist said of Jesus, ‘Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.’
This time, the rescue is not only for the Israelites – it’s available to all the people in the world.
Jesus celebrated his final Passover with his disciples. He took bread and wine and said, ‘This is my body, this is my blood… Do this in remembrance of me.’

The disciples didn’t understand what he meant at the time. But Jesus is the Passover Lamb provided by God. He’s the costly, unblemished, one and only Son; God’s true ‘firstborn’.

He was about to be crucified. He became the perfect, once-for-all sacrifice that atones for the sins of the world, for any who recognise their desperate need and put their trust in him.

We’re told that many others left Egypt with the Hebrews, probably other slaves, maybe some Egyptians. They were given the opportunity to share in the blessings and celebrations of God’s people.
For them, the cost was to yield themselves to the covenant God had made with his people, surrendering their old ways.

If they did that, they were accepted as though they were native-born Hebrews.

As a result of what Jesus did, we can be adopted by God and enjoy the full blessing of his family. For us, the cost is to abandon our own, sinful ways and to draw near to God, relying entirely on the sacrifice made by Jesus on our behalf.

As the blood of the first Passover lamb stained the wooden door frame, so the blood of Jesus stained the wooden cross.

We deserve death; he died in our place.

The lifeblood of God’s one and only Son was offered in place of ours.

That was the enormous cost of our freedom.

2000 years later, as we share in communion, we remember his offering for us. Paul writes to the Colossian church, that

Col 1:13 – God ‘has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.’

The power of sin broken forever – ‘sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace’. (Romans 6:14)

The penalty of sin paid in full – ‘there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus’ (Romans 8:1); every shred of wrath fell on Jesus: as Isaiah said, ‘… the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.’

Invitation

Has anything this morning resonated with someone here? Have you recognised that you’re in a kind of captivity and you can’t get out of it?

Jesus is the Saviour. He can lead you out of the darkness, into the kingdom of light. He can set you free. He can forgive every sin you’ve ever committed.

That doesn’t mean that life will be easy, that there’ll be no struggles or difficulties. But you will have hope, God will be with you, and you’ll have the support of God’s family along the way.

Daniel 4

2023-05-31T22:53:00.006+01:00

Reading

Daniel 4

Introduction

Have you ever had a dream come true? There are dreams I’d rather not have come true! Now, I’ve no idea what I dreamt about last night, but I have in the past had a dream about standing at the front of church in my underwear—and I hope that’s one that never comes true!

Our dog dreams, and she sometimes lies there in her bed yapping and running, and I remember seeing online once a film of a dog doing this, and its dream came true, because it was so aggressive in its running that it actually got up and ran into the wall! So, dreams can come true.

And then we all have those classic anxiety dreams. We’re trying to get somewhere but whichever route we take, whatever bus we get on, it’s going the wrong way. We get off that, go somewhere else; and you get in your car and find you’re riding a bike, and all that kind of thing goes on. Dreams are weird, and who knows what dreams are about.

But sometimes dreams are amazing and this is a dream that we’ve read about today which, for this man Nebuchadnezzar, came true.We’ve arrived, today, at the end of the amazing story of God’s dealings with Nebuchadnezzar, the most powerful king on earth in his day.

He seems to combine into one the controlling, manipulative oppression of Vladimir Putin, the narcissistic arrogance of Donald Trump and the dark, brooding menace of Xi Jinping’s China!

It’s a story about God’s amazing grace.

You may remember from Daniel chapter one that the Israelites were in exile in Babylon, and Nebuchadnezzar tried to further subvert their identity by training important exiles to live like Babylonians.

With superb irony, the story ends with the whole scheme being turned on its head and Nebuchadnezzar becomes a worshipper of the Hebrew God.

In today’s chapter

we’ll learn that our God uses all manner of ways to make himself known
we’ll think about using our testimonies as a way for us to make God known
we’ll see that, in a world that’s gone bonkers, we can be assured that God really is in control
and we’ll learn that humility is something God values greatly.

Our God Makes Himself Known

God communicates with people in many different ways.

Nature itself speaks of God. As Psalm 19 tells us, ¹The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
He speaks through his written word, the Bible,
and supremely through his living word, Jesus himself.
God can speak through sermons—who’d have thought that?
And God can even speak through dreams!

The Bible has plenty of examples of God speaking through dreams: Jacob and his stairway to heaven; Joseph of techni-coloured dream-coat fame; and, in the New Testament, a different Joseph was told in a dream it was OK to marry Mary, and in another warned to get the infant Jesus away from the threat from Herod.

[name redacted], a professor of New Testament, wrote in Christianity magazine recently,

‘I became interested in … dreams … of Jesus after serving … in the Middle East as a missionary… I met Muslims from Syria, Turkey, Jordan, Gaza and Iraq who had converted to Christianity as a result of having dreams … about Jesus. … .’

Peter, preaching to the crowd on the day of Pentecost quotes from Joel,

“In the last days, God says,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your young men will see visions,
your old men will dream dreams.”

I can remember four dreams which were clearly God speaking to me. I must have been an old man way before my time!

But if you do have a dream you think may be from God, check it out: test it against scripture, talk to wise counsellors – like Nebuchadnezzar did.

Why would God speak in dreams? Maybe we’re so distracted sometimes it’s the only way he can get our attention!

Up to this point in Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar hasn’t learnt his lesson. He was impressed by Daniel’s handling of his earlier dream, which we heard about two weeks ago. In that dream, God dropped a huge hint to Nebuchadnezzar: Your kingdom won’t last forever, you know. But mine will! Then last week we heard how he’d witnessed God’s miraculous power in rescuing Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego from the blazing furnace.

Then Daniel interpreted this latest dream—which was bad news for Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel tells him (and I’m paraphrasing): I wish this wasn’t about you, but it is. You’re too big for your boots and God is going to take you down more than a peg or two. You’ll get it all back, but not until you’ve learnt your lesson. Stop being an evil tyrant. Perhaps it won’t happen.

But no. Nebuchadnezzar continues in his arrogant pride. In verse 30, ‘… he said,

‘Is not this the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence, by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty?’

And the threatened judgement is carried out. The dream came true! The man who “[had] become great and strong; [whose] greatness [had] grown until it [reached] the sky, and [whose] dominion [extended] to distant parts of the earth” is cut down. (v30)

For a time, he loses everything—including his mind. Somehow, in all his madness, he finally gets it! He “[acknowledges] that the Most High is sovereign over all kingdoms on earth and gives them to anyone he wishes.” (v25)

God graciously keeps his promise of restoration, and a much-improved Nebuchadnezzar becomes even greater than before.

God has spoken; finally, Nebuchadnezzar has heard.

God still speaks; are we listening?

The Value of Testimony

A couple of weeks ago I went to the North East Gospel Partnership meeting, as did many of us. It was a great meeting but the highlight for me was the testimony of a man who’d suffered PTSD during his service as a Royal Marine. As a result, his life had spiralled down into addiction and dissipation; then he found Jesus, and everything changed!

Daniel 4 is Nebuchadnezzar’s testimony. He’s encountered the Living God. He’s been deeply humiliated—you’d think he’d want to keep that quiet. But he’s also been shown incredible mercy by God.

The transformation he’s undergone is so complete that he wants everyone to know about it. He’s saying, “Don’t look at me, look at Him!”

Another way God speaks is through the testimony of his people—our lives and our testimonies point the people around us to God.

But sharing our stories with other people isn’t always the easiest thing to do.

We might feel that our story is too ordinary. It’s perhaps not as dramatic as Nebuchadnezzar’s, or the former Royal Marine’s. But that’s OK. Most of the people we meet are ordinary like us. Our ordinary stories are relevant.

Your seemingly ordinary testimony can be used powerfully by the Holy Spirit. Not everyone will be impressed with what you say. But my stumbling determination to follow Jesus began because a school friend spoke about his faith.

We might feel we don’t know the answers to all the questions we could be asked. And there are some big questions! But what you do know is how you came to know Jesus and the difference he’s made to you.

I can’t give anyone scientific proof of the existence of God, but I can share experiences that mean I can never doubt his existence or that he loves me!

We might feel we don’t know how to begin telling our story. It was easy for Nebuchadnezzar: I’m the king; you listen!

Peter writes in his first letter,

… Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, …

One way to be prepared is to get used to telling our stories. Perhaps we can begin among people we know well in our Connect groups. We can share there without fear or embarrassment.

We might not feel brave enough to tell our stories. Sometimes we just have to take the plunge! Daniel wasn’t too keen on having to speak up for God once he knew the interpretation of the dream. Verse 19 says, ‘Then Daniel … was greatly perplexed for a time, and his thoughts terrified him.’

Fortunately, Daniel had a good relationship with the king who encouraged him to spill the beans. Good relationships are always helpful.

God can speak to others through your testimony. When you do need courage to speak, remember that God is in control.

God is in Control

Verses 25 and 32 tell us the lesson that Nebuchadnezzar had to learn: ‘… the Most High is sovereign over all kingdoms on earth and gives them to anyone he wishes.’

God expects authority to be exercised justly and with humility, not with injustice and arrogant pride. But human beings abuse authority—Nebuchadnezzar is a prime example of that.

God used Babylon as an agent of judgement against Israel’s waywardness. The Israelites are taken into exile, but even there, God is in control of their destiny, protecting them and preserving them for the promised return to their own land.

But Babylon is a corrupt power and has incurred judgement for its own sin. Nebuchadnezzar has already been told his kingdom was temporary. God is in control.

We look at the world today. Tyrants are still at large. We could easily fall into fear and despair.
Our God is still in control. Surely judgement must come.

Thinking of an issue closer to home, we’ve had some disappointing news this week about our acquisition of this building. But I want to say to you: don’t lose hope; God is in control!

Remember that a blazing furnace was no problem for God; God was in control.
An arrogant, all-powerful king was no problem for God; God was in control.
Do you believe that what’s happening here is a work of God? He is still in control.
Even if we have to buy this building, God can provide; he is in control.
Even if God has something else in mind for us, he is still in control.

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him and he will make your paths straight. (Proverbs 3:5-6)

God is in control!

Humility

The chapter ends with Nebuchadnezzar saying about God, ‘… those who walk in pride he is able to humble.’

The root of his sinful behaviour was arrogant pride. His attitude was, “I can do what I want to whomever I want, however I want, whenever I want; and no-one can stop me!”

Scripture tells us that God requires us ‘to act justly and to love mercy, and walk to humbly with [our] God.’

Nebuchadnezzar got all of those requirements wrong. At least his humility issue got resolved! I hope that led him into just and merciful action for what remained of his reign.

Humility is a quality that God values greatly. It isn’t about being a doormat for people to wipe their feet on. It’s not about having a dim view of ourselves. It’s about having a right view of ourselves, especially in relation to God and to others. It’s the attitude that I have no special importance that makes me better than anyone else.

The greatest example of humility I can think of is Jesus himself. Here’s a well-known New Testament passage: (Philippians 2)

⁵In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
⁶who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
⁷rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
⁸And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death –
even death on a cross!
⁹Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
¹⁰that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
¹¹and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

What a contrast with Nebuchadnezzar! The one who truly has all the power in the universe doesn’t use it to dominate and dictate like some cosmic bully.

Jesus had a right view of himself: he is God! Yet he sets it all aside to come and do something about our problem. We were lost, as good as dead because of our proud refusal to live God’s way.
We cannot find our own way back to God, so Jesus came and made a way for us.

We deserved death. He died in our place.

Now, Jesus is the King of God’s everlasting Kingdom, and anyone, even someone as bad as Nebuchadnezzar, can be rescued, forgiven, transformed and welcomed into God’s family.

Jesus himself is our only way back to God. He’s the one to follow!

Summary

So, winding all this up

Our Most High God speaks to people in many ways to make himself known.
Our stories, however spectacular, however ordinary, can encourage others to look for him.
Our God is fully in control of this world and all our circumstances.
He calls us to walk in humility in loving relationship with him and with each other, following the example of Jesus.

Longing for God

2021-07-13T12:19:00.002+01:00

Reading

Psalm 130

Introduction

This is a true story. A musician—I can’t remember who—has about 20 guitars in his music room. Someone asked him how many guitars would be enough. He answered, “One more…”

If there was one thing you could have more of, what would it be?

More money?
More health?
More friends?
More holidays?

All of these would be nice but do any of them really satisfy the deep needs of the human heart?

How about more of what church used to be like? Personally, I’d like more than church ever was. I want

more of God in our church,
more of God in my life.

I’d like people to have

more assurance that their sins are forgiven,
more awareness that God actually loves them,
more confidence in sharing their faith.

The psalm we’re looking at came to my attention as one of the lectionary readings for one of my preaching dates this year but didn’t seem to be the thing to preach on at the time. But something in it caught my eye and resonated with me. Verses 5 and 6 say,

⁵I wait for the LORD, my whole being waits,

and in his word I put my hope.

⁶I wait for the Lord

more than watchmen wait for the morning,

more than watchmen wait for the morning.

(NIV)

Something of the psalmist’s intense longing for God comes across. I wonder, do you and I ever experience this depth of yearning for the presence of God?

Now, it’s true that God is everywhere, and there is nowhere that we can flee from his presence, but there are times when the presence of God is a whole lot more than a notional concept; when we are a lot more aware of his presence; when God moves in powerful ways.

Have you ever been in church when the peace of God has descended on everyone present and you’ve not wanted to leave?

In the great revivals of the past, the tangible presence of God caused people to weep for their sins and cry out to God for mercy. Miraculous events happened, with healing, deliverance, and lives being changed.

If we’re to see the demise of our churches arrested and reversed, we certainly need something more than what we’ve had.

Jesus said, ‘… apart from me you can do nothing.’ One implication of this is that if we’re to be the church God wants us to be, Jesus must be the centre and focus of it, otherwise everything we do will amount to nothing. Another implication is that, even though God is everywhere, it is possible to be apart from him.

To move forward as a church, to be all that God intended us to be, we need God’s guidance, God’s presence.

Psalm 130

This psalm is charged with desperation and yet, ironically, is full of hope, and we can learn a few things about seeking God from it.

Verses 1 and 2. The psalmist is more than down in the dumps: ‘Out of the depths I cry to you, LORD’. Yet, even down that deep hole, he knows the LORD is the one with the answers.

Are you in a hole? Cry out to the LORD!

We need mercy from God to turn things around. Apart from him we can do nothing.

Cry out to the LORD!

Verses 3 and 4. The psalmist is only too aware of his own shortcomings and the failings of God’s people, and he knows that sin damages their relationship with God. Psalm 66:18 says, ‘If I had cherished sin in my heart, the LORD would not have listened’ (NIV) and Isaiah 59:1-2 tell us, ‘¹Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. ²But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you so that he will not hear.’ (NIV)

If we seek the face of God, we will need to take stock. There will be a necessity for repentance, both personal and corporate. And the psalmist has great words of encouragement here. ‘...with [God] there is forgiveness...”

And when God forgives, the record is cleared; he doesn’t treat us as our sins deserve! When we find that forgiveness, how thankful we are! It leads us to a deep reverence for God, and allows us to return to fruitful service.

‘⁴But with you there is forgiveness, so that we can, with reverence, serve you.’

Verse 5. How is the psalmist sure he can obtain forgiveness? Because God’s word says so. For example, Isaiah 55:6-7 tells us, ‘⁶Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near. ⁷Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.’ (NIV)

That’s Old Testament grace! We also have New Testament grace: 1 John 1:9 says, ‘⁹If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.’ (NIV)

Verses 5 and 6. Here we see someone who is determined to secure from God the relief that he needs. I think of Jacob who wrestled all night with God and said, ‘I will not let you go unless you bless me.’ (Gen. 32:26b, NIV) The psalmist is of the same mind! ‘I wait for the LORD…’ Twice he tells us that.

The first time he tells us that everything he is is focussed on seeking God, ‘my whole being waits…’ This matters more to him than anything else.

Then he tells us that he is more intent on looking for God’s response than watchmen looking for the morning.

I looked up ‘Watchman’ in my New Bible Dictionary. It told me the watchman’s job was to look out for hostile action against the city, and to tell the king of anyone approaching the city walls. Then it says, ‘In time of hostility the dangers of the night were especially feared and the watchmen eagerly looked forward to the break of day.’

We’ve probably all seen war films where commandos or the SAS are attacking an enemy location under cover of darkness. It’s always the guards on night watch who are first to meet their maker! No wonder they long for the night to be over!

The psalmist yearns for the LORD’s response more than they yearn for morning. Only the LORD’s response will meet his need. He waits for God’s merciful response which is as certain to come as the morning, which always comes. But, O that it might come quicker!

If we seek God, we will find him!

Verses 7 and 8. The psalmist encourages the LORD’s people to get on board with him. ‘...put your hope in the LORD,’ he tells them.

Now to hope, in Biblical terms, isn’t wishful thinking. It means to look forward with eager expectation. And God will surely answer with mercy and forgiveness. The morning will come!

We are the people of God, and so we are exhorted to put our hope in the LORD. God is the only one who can meet our need. And we’re given two reasons here for why we can count on him.

Firstly, he loves us more than we can imagine, with a never-failing love. Though we have been unfaithful, he never will be. He loves us with an eternal love.

Secondly, he has done everything necessary to save us. He has paid the full redemption price. In the light of the New Testament, these verses are amazing. They look forward to Jesus who, at the cross, paid the price to rescue us from darkness and from the penalty of our sins.

How to Wait

So, how can we wait on God? It’s not the passive waiting of the dentist’s waiting room. The psalmist is waiting very actively.

He’s acknowledging his utter dependence on God.
He’s crying out for mercy.
He’s reminding God of his forgiving nature.
He’s making God the focus of his life.
He’s trusting in the utter reliability of God.
He’s putting himself in a place where God can find him!
And he’s hanging in there for the answer!

What do we really want for our church, for ourselves? Same old same old? Or more of God?

How do we find the presence of God? How do we find God’s way forward? Well, here are some ideas.

First of all we have to recognise we need his guiding presence with us. No amount of planning or reorganisation will make any difference if he isn’t leading us.
We need to cry out to God for his help.
If there’s any repenting to be done, we should do it.
Let’s make the Lord Jesus the focus of our living.
Let’s understand that God is for us!
Let’s surround ourselves with the things of God. Actually read our Bibles. Worship and pray.
Let’s seek until we find.

Conclusion

If we are to grow again, we must have God at the centre of all we do. We must soak our on-going journey in prayer.

We must put our hope in the LORD. If we do that, the morning will surely come!

Where do we go from here?

2021-06-27T10:30:00.002+01:00

Readings

Proverbs 3:5-6; Mark 14:32-36

Introduction

Throughout the land, there are people waiting for pandemic restrictions to be lifted so they can get on with their lives; us included, no doubt! There’s talk about “building back better, greener.” The thirst for change has never seemed so prominent as it does now. Nor, perhaps, has the challenge of change ever seemed so scary.

There are probably some here who can’t wait for church to get back to what it was. But, along with others, I want to ask, is that really enough? Is there not something more than that? Are we really fulfilling Christ’s commission to his church?

There may be others among us who have a vision of the church of the future—a God-given vision, even—but who have no idea how to bring it into being.

Where do we go from here?

Today, in pondering that question, I want to talk about what may be the very first step in discovering the way ahead.

But this is not relevant only for people in leadership roles who may be saying, ‘There must be more to church than this.’ This is something for anyone and everyone who may be saying, ‘There must be more to life than this.’

Let’s unpack the two verses we heard from Proverbs 3.

Trust in the LORD with all your heart

Trust

What do we understand by, ‘trust’? When we say we trust someone—truly trust them—we’re saying they are someone we can rely on, someone who won’t let us down, someone whose word is their bond. We can count on them absolutely.

Trust in the LORD

We’re told here that the person we’re to put our trust in is the LORD. In the Hebrew, that’s YHWH, the eternal God who was, and is, and is to come; the one who created everything that was created, who designed and built the universe.

This is someone who really knows a thing or two!

Trust in the LORD with all your heart

To the Hebrew, the heart is not the seat only of the emotions. The word for ‘heart’ includes our mind and our thoughts as well as our emotions. The heart is the centre of all your inner life and being.

We’re told to trust God with everything we are, from the outside, right into the very core of our being. Don’t hedge you bets! Stake your all on God!

God knows what he’s doing. We can count on him absolutely.

Well, we kind-of trust God but we trust him warily. We hold back from giving our all. Why do we do that? Is it because we lean on our own understanding of how things should be? The Bible tells us not to do that.

Lean not on your own understanding

Now, God gave us minds and the ability to reason but, when it comes to God and what he might want us to do, our understanding is much less than perfect.

Our understanding can be flawed. For example, someone who grew up with a strict, overbearing or abusive father may have great difficulty in relating to ‘Our Father, who is in heaven.’

Our understanding can be incomplete. How long has God been around? How long, by comparison, have we been around? He knows a lot more than we do. And God often leads us only one step at a time. He rarely gives us the full picture all at once of everything that’s to happen.

There can be times when things don’t seem to be going the way we thought they should. The story of Job illustrates the point. Poor Job had no idea why his life was in such a sorry mess. The opening chapter tells us that there were things going on in the heavenly realms that he didn’t know about: his understanding was incomplete. But he maintained his trust in God: “Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him.” Job 13:15

Our understanding can be influenced or, worse, manipulated. We can’t be guided by cultural norms. Our society may hold one view, in another society a different view may be upheld. Which one do we trust? And who’s pulling the strings?

It’s absolutely true that God is in ultimate control, but here’s an interesting verse of scripture: 1 John 5:19 says, “We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.” (NIV) A direct translation might be, “secular systems rest passively in the evil one”.

Given that, do we really want to rely on secular cultural trends for guidance?

Depending on our faulty human understanding can be very foolish. Proverbs 14:12 says, "There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death." (NIV)

In looking for the way forward, we need to trust in the LORD with all our hearts and lean not on our own understanding.

To put that another way, trust God wholeheartedly; don’t try to work it all out for yourselves.

Moving on to verse 6, we read

In all your ways submit to him

The old Authorised Version express this as, in all thy ways, acknowledge him, which probably had a much stronger meaning in the 17th century. We could carelessly take that to mean giving a nod in God’s direction by going to church on Sunday. But it’s much more than that.

The latest edition of the NIV reinforces the meaning with the idea of submission to God. What does that mean? The NLT gives us the translation, “Seek his will in all you do” and I think these two translations together give us a clearer understanding.

In our acknowledgement of God, are our prayers along the lines of, “We’ve decided to do this, please bless it”? Would we do better to seek his will by praying instead, “Lord, please show us what you would have us do”?

A good way of discovering God’s will for your life is to read your Bible. You’ll get to know what God is like, his character, his nature. You’ll find out what pleases him, what grieves him, what makes him angry, what fills him with joy. You don’t need me to tell you which of those things to do!

But seeking and finding God’s will is only part of the recipe. There’s no point mixing the ingredients of a cake and then not putting it in the oven! And that’s where the submission comes in. Having discovered God’s will, we need to be obedient to it, even when it may, on occasion, be something we really don’t want to do.

The idea is shown clearly in our New Testament reading. Jesus is agonising in prayer, in the full knowledge of what lies before him. He knows what the Father’s will is, and he knows why it has to be that way, but, as a man, he draws back from the physical torment and the spiritual separation he must face. Yet he surrenders to the Father’s will.

So, in all your ways submit to him. Seek his will in all you do. And really, this is the essence of what it is to live as a Christian.

He will make your paths straight

Now we come to a very clear promise: God will make your paths straight! This doesn’t mean he’ll remove all difficulties. Other translations say, ‘he will direct your paths’, and ‘he will show you which path to take.’ He knows the way through or around the difficulties.

Now notice something else: this is a conditional promise. The promise is conditional on trust and obedience.

Wow! How does all that sit with our shaky trust and our choosy obedience?

I think of Abraham, who leant on his own understanding several times, with less than desirable outcomes. God still led him, and he seems to have learnt along the way.

I think of the man who once said to Jesus, ‘Lord, I do believe. Help me overcome my unbelief!’ I’m sure his faith was much stronger after Jesus there and then delivered his son from an unclean spirit.

And I’m sure that as we take our tentative steps of trust and obedience, our confidence in God will grow and lead us on to greater things. God is gracious! And we’re on a journey of discovery. Our paths can be twisty but God can straighten out the kinks.

There’s another promise for guidance in Psalm 32:8-9:

“⁸I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;

I will counsel you with my loving eye on you.

⁹Do not be like the horse or the mule,

which have no understanding

but must be controlled by bit and bridle

or they will not come to you.”(NIV)

God promises to guide, but he wants our trust, he wants our willingness to be led. And he loves us to bits!

He doesn’t give us a road map and leave us to get on with it. He leads us one step at a time, and he walks with us all the way.

Conclusion

As children of God, we have every right to hold him to his promises. And as our loving father, he has every right to expect our trust and obedience.

So, where do we go from here?

Well, the first step in the journey is to seek out God and ask him to show us the way. Now is the time to seek after God for his guidance. Now is the time to ask and go on asking, to seek and go on seeking, to knock and go on knocking

The step after that is to share together what we believe God has shown us, and then to obey what we recognise to be his leading.

He’s promised to guide. Let’s seek him for his will, and then trust him and obey.

⁵Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; ⁶in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. (NIV)

Good News!

2021-03-14T10:00:00.002+00:00

Reading

John 3:14-21

Introduction

The gospel passage we’ve just heard is probably very familiar to most of us, and contains quite possibly the most well-known verse in the Bible! Whilst I will of course refer to that verse, we’ll also be thinking about its immediate context, which gives us important understanding that we might otherwise overlook.

We’ve come in on the end of a conversation between the Lord Jesus and a man called Nicodemus who, presumably troubled in a good way by what he’d seen and heard, sought Jesus out in secret to try and find out more.

Nicodemus was a devout, morally upright Pharisee and a respected member of the Jewish ruling council in Jerusalem. He’s just learnt from Jesus that all these apparent advantages weren’t enough to get him into the kingdom of heaven; he couldn’t be saved by his own efforts, he needed to be born from above, born of the Spirit – born again!

He asks Jesus, ‘How can this be?’ (9) and, as part of his response, Jesus explains how his mission as Messiah will make salvation possible.

As I thought about the passage, I noticed how well Methodism’s ‘Four Alls’ served as a basis for understanding it:

All need to be saved
All can be saved
All can know they are saved
All can be saved to the uttermost

So let’s think about this passage in those terms.

All Need To Be Saved

All need to be saved. Why do we need to be saved? In verses 18 to 20, John tells us what our fundamental problem is; “… people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.”

In our natural state, we are sinners. We do wrong, we live for ourselves, we disregard God and do what we want. As Isaiah puts it, “We all, like sheep, have gone astray. Each of us has turned to our own way.” (Is. 53:6a)

In our natural state we are found wanting. Paul writes in Romans 3:23 that, “… all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…”

Our sin damages us, and separates us from the relationship with God that we were designed for. And we dare not get too close to God anyway, lest we are exposed for who we really are! So we hide in the darkness.

Yes, we try to do good things, even by attending church. Does it help? Do we find ourselves wondering if we’ve done enough, hoping that we have? Not even Nicodemus’s devout practice of religion was enough to save him. And neither is ours.

Paul writes in Romans 6:23 that, “… the wages of sin is death…” And, as John reminds us here, we stand condemned, unable to save ourselves.

All need to be saved!

All Can Be Saved

That was the bad news; now here’s the good news: all can be saved!
We can’t rely on our own efforts to save us. But we can be saved by relying entirely on what God himself has done for us.

Jesus reminds Nicodemus about an incident in the history of Israel when the people yet again grumbled against God and against Moses. We’re told that God sent venomous snakes among them in judgement. Many Israelites were bitten and died. The people repented of their grumbling and asked for mercy, so God told Moses to make a model snake and put it up on a pole and promised that “anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.” (Num 21:8.) And that’s what happened!

Imagine it! You’re bitten by a snake; you know you’re going to die. What do you do? Try your best to ignore the poison? Or look at the snake on the pole and rely on God’s sure promise?

Now, Jesus points out to Nicodemus that the snake on the pole is a figure of Messiah. Just as the snake was lifted up, so must Messiah be lifted up. Just as looking at the snake and relying on God’s promise saved the Israelites, so also those who look to Messiah and rely on God’s promise can be saved.

OK, let’s quote that famous verse: “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.”

But God didn’t just send Jesus to the world as a role model. John tells us that Jesus didn’t come to condemn us; he came to rescue us from condemnation. He came with a very particular purpose. When Jesus spoke about the Son of Man having to be lifted up he foretold his death on the cross and the necessity of it.

The cross of Christ brings the enormity of our sin and cancels it out by the immensity of God’s love; at the cross, Jesus took on himself God’s just penalty for our sin (“… the wages of sin is death…”) and opened the way for us to receive God’s compassionate mercy.

God wants all to be saved. He didn’t love merely a few: he loved the whole world. The offer of salvation is not just to a few: the offer is to “whoever”.

All can be saved, but not all will be saved. You see, there’s a condition: we must believe. To be healed from the snake bite the Israelites had to go a look at the model snake in reliance on God’s promise. To be saved from condemnation we have to recognise the futility of our own efforts and rely on Christ’s sacrifice at the cross as full payment for our rescue, forgiveness and redemption.

All can be saved!

All Can Know They Are Saved

All Can Know They Are Saved. Let me ask you, do you know you’re saved? Do know what it is to be born again, born of the Spirit? Do you have assurance of your salvation?

If you are relying on Jesus to save you, what can you bank on?

Verse 17: Jesus himself came for the very purpose of saving us. Jesus cried out on the cross, “It is finished.” The language there means, “It is accomplished.” Jesus succeeded in his mission. Our penalty was paid and our salvation secured.

The Hymn-writer Horatio Spafford expressed his assurance like this:

My sin – O the bliss of this glorious thought –
My sin – not in part but the whole –
Is nailed to his cross; and I bear it no more;
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul.
It is well with my soul…

Verse 18: Whoever believes in him is not condemned. Charles Wesley expressed his assurance like this:

No condemnation now I dread;
Jesus, and all in Him, is mine!
Alive in Him, my living Head,
and clothed in righteousness divine,
bold I approach the eternal throne,
and claim the crown, through Christ, my own.

Verse 16: those who believe shall not perish. Jesus didn’t fail! Salvation for those who rely on him is certain!

All Can Be Saved To The Uttermost

All can be saved to the uttermost. I’ve heard it said that “Jesus can save you from the gutter-most to the uttermost.”

We’ve probably all heard testimonies of people who were utterly destitute in body, mind and spirit meeting Jesus and being lifted out of their mess, being completely reoriented, and going on to live purposeful lives of Christian service. I came across an amazing story only this week.

Most of us have probably never been in such dire straights, but we all need picking up, turning around and being set on a new course.

In this life, here on earth, God begins the transformation of our living, renewing in us the image of his Son. But there’s more good news! This isn’t all there is!

Verses 15 and 16 talk about those who believe having eternal life. We have a solid hope of better things to come beyond our lives in this world.

This hope of eternal life can help us in the here-and-now too. Many of us – especially those of us who are older – may feel like the pandemic has robbed us of a year of our lives, and we might not have many left! I can understand that; it’s hardly been an unending round of pleasure. But I’m not letting myself be despondent about that: I have eternity in view!

I was once in a meeting where Richard Wurmbrand was being interviewed. He was a Romanian pastor who was tortured in a communist prison for 14 years because of his faith. He was asked if he felt bitter about the lost time. He said, “I’m not bitter. I have all of eternity ahead of me. What is 14 years?”

Now, we don’t know what eternal life will be like. It may be very like this world but without its problems. And it won’t be boring. It won’t be endless monotony stretched out forever ahead of us. God will be there! We will be with him! There’ll be a wedding feast! And that’s just the start of it!

Psalm 16 says, “You make known to me the path of life; you fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.”

There are no half-measures with God—he saves us to the uttermost!

Summary

All need to be saved. Have you recognised your need of a Saviour? Have you given up trying to save yourself?
All can be saved. God has given sure and certain promises that whoever relies on Jesus will be saved.
All can know they are saved. Do you have that assurance? What are you trusting in?
All can be saved to the uttermost. Allow God to renew his image in your life in this world, and fill you with joy for the hope that lies before you in eternity.

Amen!

Be Transformed!

2021-02-14T10:30:00.010+00:00

Reading

Romans 12:1-2

Introduction

I’ve been asked to consider the question How can we be discipled? using Romans 12:1-2 as the basis for my response. There’s so much in these two verses that it’s almost impossible to do them justice in the limited time available – but let’s see what we can do!

Responding to God’s Mercy

Paul makes an appeal to the Roman believers, and that same appeal comes down through the centuries to us here today. He urges them, and us, to live differently, with the only response that makes any sense in the light of what God has done for us.

Up to this point in Romans, Paul has been arguing that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” (3:23-24).

We all of us, when apart from Christ, stood condemned before God, without remedy. There was nothing we could do to save ourselves. Absolutely nothing! In Colossians 1:13, Paul writes of how God has, “rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

We couldn’t save ourselves; we needed to be rescued. God, through the Lord Jesus, did for us what we couldn’t do for ourselves. He paid the price of our redemption so that the darkness has no more right to hold dominion over us; he broke the power of sin. Through the once-for-all, final blood sacrifice of Jesus at the cross, he paid the penalty of our sins so that we could know forgiveness and freedom from guilt.

God loves us so much that he gave us Jesus so that, simply through faith, we could escape condemnation and inherit everlasting life. We deserved justice; God has shown us mercy!

Sacrificial Living

God’s mercy is the basis of Paul’s appeal. How should we live in response to God’s mercy? Paul writes, “offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God”.

Jesus offered himself in sacrifice for us and, as his disciples, we too are called to live sacrificially. We should live in such a way that our bodies are temples appropriate for the Holy Spirit to dwell in. We’re to live in holiness, in ways that please God, not pursuing personal gratification.

As a way of understanding what holiness means, one definition I came across tells us that holy things are “not for ordinary use.” We’re set apart especially for God.

Then Paul says of this kind of living, “this is your true and proper worship.” Worship, you see, isn’t just something we do on a Sunday. All of life is to be our expression of worship. Actually, I think the Authorised Version expresses the original Greek more directly. It says, “[this] is your reasonable service.” In the light of God’s mercy, there’s nothing unreasonable in how Paul is urging us to live.

How can we be discipled? Well, the first thing is to recognise that discipleship is not an optional extra for enthusiasts. All who call themselves Christians are to be disciples.

Transformed Living

So what does a disciple look like? Paul goes on with, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed…”

We live in challenging times. I’m not referring to the pandemic. Our society has largely abandoned Christian values. Anything goes. You can do what you like, and who is anyone else to tell you otherwise.

Remember that God has rescued us from the dominion of darkness. Our society remains under that dominion. We, as disciples, cannot blithely go along with everything that goes on in society. If we do that, we’re putting ourselves back under the dominion of darkness.

We are called to live counter-culturally. We’re in the world but we’re not to be of the world. We have to show the world what the kingdom of the Son is like. It’s easy to run with the crowd. It’s easy to swim with the current. But the crowd is stumbling in the darkness, and the current will wash you out to sea…

Two caterpillars were sitting on a leaf, and a butterfly flew past. One caterpillar said to the other, “You’ll never get me up in one of those things!” The caterpillar is, of course, the larval stage of a butterfly. The adult stage is the actual butterfly. Once the caterpillar’s eaten enough of your garden, it pupates and becomes dormant. Some time afterwards, the adult butterfly emerges.

The process inside the pupa is mysterious. The insect undergoes a complete structural reorganisation: caterpillar in, butterfly out! The scientific term for what goes on inside the pupa is the Greek word ‘metamorphosis’. We could express its literal meaning as to become a different form or shape.

Now, in the Greek, Paul uses the same word: ‘be metamorphosed.’ Paul wants his Roman readers to undergo a radical restructuring, a change in the shape of things.

Why do we need to be transformed? When we come to Christ, we come just as we are, bringing with us baggage from our old way of life; a way of life that held us in darkness.

As disciples, we have to unlearn sinful ways, things that have perhaps been infused into us throughout our lives. Then, instead of doing things our own way, or the world’s way, we have to learn to do things God’s way.

God’s aim for us, as Paul says in chapter 8:29, is that we “be conformed to the image of his Son…” He wants us to bear the family likeness. I want to be like Jesus! Do you?

How can we be discipled? The second thing is to recognise and accept that discipleship will mean personal and radical change.

Food for Thought

Now, I’ve talked of this transformation as a change of shape. After Christmas, some of us perhaps had a great desire to change our shape and set about the task by joining Weight Watchers (other dieting franchises are available). But we’re not talking here about diet . . . or are we?

Paul tells us that transformation comes about “by the renewing of your mind.” Our minds are important. What we think governs how we behave. There’s a saying that goes, “Sow a thought, reap an action; sow an action, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a lifestyle; sow a lifestyle, reap a destiny.”

The renewal process begins when we hear and respond to the gospel. It continues as we learn of Christ as his disciples. We need to feed the renewal process.

What are you exposing your mind to? What spiritual food are you eating? If you rely only on what you get on a Sunday in church, you’re on a starvation diet! If you relied on your Sunday lunch to get you through the whole week, what state would you be in by Wednesday? Just as you need physical food every day, so you need spiritual food each day!

As a preacher, I have a responsibility to provide spiritual food for you; to use scripture to teach, exhort, encourage, admonish and inspire you, but what you do with what you hear is your responsibility. Paul implies his readers must choose not to conform, and choose to be transformed, and choose the renewal of their thinking.

Make use of the means of grace that God has provided. Think about the things you hear on a Sunday. Read your Bible, Old as well as New Testament, follow a reading plan if that would help. Don’t just say prayers but learn to commune with God in prayer.

Another excellent way of being fed spiritually is to join a small group. From many years of involvement with home groups, I can say that small groups are a fantastic way of encouraging disciples. It’s been great seeing people grow in faith and knowledge of God. It’s kind-of how Jesus did it with his inner twelve. It’s how the Wesleys grew the Methodist movement in the first place! Churches that are growing tend to have small groups based on worship, bible study, prayer and the sharing of life.

How can we be discipled? The third thing is to follow a healthy, nutritious spiritual diet. Take responsibility for you own growth. Use the means of grace God gives; join a small group to worship, study, pray and share with other disciples.

Reap the Benefits

Now, metamorphosis may not always be pleasant but the outcome is glorious. There have been times in my journey when I’ve felt crushed as God has unearthed the next thing in my life he wants to sort out. But he only has in mind what’s best for me as he refines me, and I’m more like Jesus now than I was when I started. There’s still a lot of work to be done…

But Paul tells us that, along the way, we’ll learn what God is like and how to recognise his will for us, and that his will is the very best for our lives. He says, “Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

Summary

So, How can we be discipled?
    • Recognise that discipleship is for all Christians, not just the enthusiastic few.
    • Accept that discipleship will mean personal and radical change, for the good.
    • Learn to feed yourself daily with a nutritious spiritual diet.
    • Join a group that will support you in your discipleship.

Don’t stay as a caterpillar; become a beautiful butterfly!

Have Faith

2020-08-16T11:00:00.008+01:00

Reading

Matthew 15:21-28

Introduction

Jesus has withdrawn from Galilee, along with his disciples. He's gone northwards to the region of Tyre and Sidon, a place not generally popular with Jews, perhaps for that reason he may find some peace and quiet.

But someone there has heard about the prophet from Galilee. She has a problem, she believes Jesus can solve it. But there are huge obstacles for her to overcome. And the Lord's attitude towards her strikes us as strange, to say the least.

When we realise that throughout these chapters Jesus is training his disciples, and the encounter with this woman is an opportunity to teach them something, as well as test the reality of her faith, we can see it in a more positive light.

Faith is something that's really important to God. Hebrews 11:6 (NIV) says, "… without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him."

What can we learn from this woman's faith?

Faith Makes a Way for Anyone

First of all, faith makes a way for anyone. As I said, she had huge obstacles to overcome.

First of all, she was a woman and, in the society of the day, that made her a second class citizen. Many Jewish rabbis wouldn't even talk to their own wives in a public place, let alone speak to a foreign woman.

And there was her next problem: she was a Gentile. Gentiles were considered by many Jews as "dogs", slightly better than pigs but not by much.

And then, she was a Canaanite, descended from original inhabitants of the land before the time of Exodus.

And this story tells us that however far away we may be from God, however far we may think we are, whatever we may have done or been that we feel excludes us from coming to God, we learn that faith is the way back.

God is always looking for faith. And this faith is not just a vague belief in his existence but it's a faith that drives us to earnestly seek him.

Faith has an Object

We learn that faith has an object and, for this woman, the object of her faith is Jesus himself.

In verse 22 we see that she recognises who Jesus is. She calls him "Lord"; she addresses him as the "Son of David", which is a Messianic title. Isn't it amazing that this Canaanite woman recognised just who Jesus was?

Verse 25 tells us that she comes and kneels before him, and the New Living Translation expresses that in terms of worship.

Who or what do you put your faith in?

Faith has Vision

Next, we learn that faith has vision.

Hebrews 11:1 from the New Living Translation tells us that "Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see."

This woman has vision, she has a goal: with her eye of faith she sees her daughter made whole, set free.

Do you have a vision?

Faith is Tenacious

Next, we see that faith is tenacious. She asked for mercy, "but Jesus gave her no reply, not even a word," the Scripture tells us. But she is determined, she's persistent, she's committed to what she's doing, she's active in her faith. So much so that she annoys the disciples. They turn to Jesus and say, "Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us."

Jesus turns to her, and he says, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel." What would you have thought at that response? Is your faith easily discouraged by opposition? Would you have thought, "Well, that's it! I might as well give up now."? This woman didn't!

Faith is Audacious

We learn that faith is audacious. Apparently rebuffed, she comes and kneels right in front of Jesus. "Lord," she says, "help me!"

Does your faith lead you nearer to Jesus?

The dialogue that follows seems harsh but actually it's toned down by an element of playfulness in the words in the original language that Jesus uses. The word we see as "dogs" is actually a diminutive of that word. So it could be "little dogs" or "doggies".

Jesus says, "It's not right to throw the children's food to the doggies." And this woman is undiscouraged by that! In fact, she sees a chink of light! She's almost there! And, wisely and intelligently, she replies, "True, but even the doggies eat the crumbs under the table." I may be a dog, she says, but your crumbs are enough for me!

Does your faith punch a way through the obstacles?

Faith is Rewarded

Finally, we see that faith is rewarded! Jesus was very pleased with her faith: "Woman," he says, "you have great faith! Your request is granted." Her need was met, her daughter was healed.

And the disciples learnt a lesson or two:
    • Faith is more important to God than race.
    • Faith is more important to God than gender.
    • Faith is more important to God than history.

• Faith makes grace available to anyone!

How to Develop Great Faith

How do we develop great faith; faith that is not some easy believe-ism, but a faith that's intimate, living, and dynamic?

Faith is like a muscle – use it or lose it! Begin with whatever measure of faith you may have. Make Jesus the object of your faith. Identify your vision and take it to Jesus. Be tenacious in your trust of Jesus. Be audacious in the face of obstacles. Reap the reward of your earnest seeking.

Have Faith!

Courage, Confidence, Conflict and Cost

2020-06-21T11:00:00.001+01:00

Reading

Matthew 10:24-39

Introduction

We're continuing with the Lord's instructions to his twelve disciples as he prepared them for short- and long-term mission. It's a challenging passage but we must take it seriously, not least because these are words that Jesus spoke, and if we don't hear what he has to say we might have a wrong impression of what it means to be his followers.

The twelve were being sent on the same mission as Jesus; he told them, '… proclaim this message: "The kingdom of heaven has come near."' The mission of the church has been the same ever since, and by our very existence as disciples of Jesus, we proclaim that the kingdom of heaven is still near.

In the preceding verses, Jesus has told his disciples they were going out as sheep among wolves; they'll be opposed by religious and secular authorities, they'll be hated and persecuted on account of Jesus; they shouldn't expect any better treatment than he gets. The opposition called him the Prince of Demons, the disciples can expect to hear worse!

It's not the kind of pep-talk you might expect when you're being sent out with good news! More like a commanding officer, on the night before a crucial battle, telling his troops, "Some of you will not be coming back..."

In our free nation, it may seem that being a Christian is all sweetness and light. Jesus wanted the twelve to understand that wouldn't be the case, and down the centuries, believers have lived under terrible persecutions. There are signs of Christians being marginalised even in our land today. We've no guarantee it won't get worse!

Courage to Confront (26-28)

Jesus wants his disciples to have Courage to Confront the obstacles ahead of them.

He's not afraid of his enemies, and he wants them to overcome their fears too. There will be casualties, but the battle will be won, the truth will prevail, and they must proclaim the truth courageously.

Some will oppose them, but Jesus says in effect, "Seriously, what's the worst they can do? They can end your physical life but they can't touch your eternal destiny!"

Do we really believe that? Does it inspire us to be courageous in the face of confrontation?

Confidence in the One who Cares (28-31)

Jesus wants his disciples to have Confidence in the One who Cares.

He reminds them that, unlike the opposition, God does have power to destroy the soul as well as the body. (Just for clarity, you do not have a soul, you are a soul; your soul is you.) But he also reminds them that God is their Father, and they are in his unfailing care.

Sparrows were the cheapest thing sold in the market as food for the poor. Even though people thought sparrows pretty worthless, Jesus tells us that God cares about them. So how much more does he care for you? You're worth much more to your Father in heaven than a whole flock of sparrows! He's intimately concerned with the minutest details of your life: even the hairs on your head are numbered (not literally of course—don't get your magnifying glass out!).

Now, we have to remember that the sparrows still fell! God's intimate care doesn't mean we're immune to persecution or oppression, or even death! But, come what may, we can't be robbed of our eternal destiny!

Do we have confidence in the One who cares for us?

Conversion amid Conflict (32-36)

Jesus tells them they will be Conversions amid the Conflict.

Some who hear the message will welcome it. Others won't. Jesus tells us there's a difference between those who openly acknowledge him and those who don't. Those who acknowledge him before others will come to share in the eternal destiny that Christ has for us. But I think it has benefit for our relationship with God in this life too!

When I became a Christian, it was easy to tell Christian schoolfriends what I'd done. When the challenge came to tell some who weren't Christians, and I did it, even though they thought I was nuts, my faith blossomed! It was even more difficult telling my parents, but what a difference it made to me when I did, even though they told me just what they thought about it!

This illustrates what Jesus said: 'Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. … A man's enemies will be the members of his own household.'

But hold on a minute! When Jesus was born, didn't the angel say, 'Peace on earth'? Isn't Jesus the Prince of Peace?

God's means of making peace was truly on earth. When we turn from our old, rebellious, sinful ways, and put our trust in Jesus for redemption and reconciliation with God, he becomes our Prince of Peace. But from the world's perspective, we've taken sides with the enemy!

Our lives challenge the way of life of others, however graciously we express our faith. In a sense, when I became a Christian, it's as though I rejected the way my parents brought me up, and they didn't like that. We had good relationships when I was older and they realised I wasn't going through a phase. But they never really got it. There was still a division there.

My experiences are trivial. Think of the Muslim who converts to Christ. Blasphemy! Worthy of death! Think of Christians in communist lands, who were no threat to the regime, law-abiding people whose crime was to acknowledge a higher authority. Worthy of imprisonment, torture, execution!

The church in China grew like wildfire. Even though there was conflict, there were innumerable conversions as a result of the courage of the Lord's people.

Counting the Cost (36-39)

Jesus tells his disciples that for those who turn to him there's a Cost to be Counted.

He must be the most important person in our lives, and following him the most important thing.

Doesn't the Bible tell us to honour our parents? Yes, but we must love Jesus more.

Doesn't the Bible teach us to take great care of our children? Yes, but we must love Jesus more.

If we don't, he says we're not worthy of him.

He talks about taking up the cross. The disciples would have known what he meant; the Romans didn't crucify people in private. Jesus says, count yourselves dead; go out and die. Do that and you'll live forever. Choose not to, and you'll lose everything.

Closing Comments

This has not been an easy passage to preach on. You may think the Lord's words here the most discouraging words he uttered. But we can't just pick out the nice bits and ignore the rest.

We learn that if we call Jesus Lord, then he has first claim on our lives. We must be willing to bear his reproach.

We also learn about the Father's love, how precious we are to him, and our eternal security. And, yes, be encouraged by those things: that's why he told the twelve disciples about them.

Because of these things, let's be bold for Jesus. If God is for us, who can be against us?

Trusting and Knowing

2020-05-10T15:42:00.001+01:00

Reading

John 14:1-14

Trusting

The passage we're thinking about sits in the Lord's final teaching session with his disciples, on the evening of his arrest. Through chapters 13 to 17 we see Jesus building things into the lives of his disciples to prepare them for what's to come, and for the work that lies ahead of them.

The disciples had no real understanding that their whole world was about to be shattered: their hopes and expectations, from their perspective, were about to end in disaster. But Jesus knew what was about to happen.

The Lord knew he was about to be arrested, tried and crucified but his thoughts at this time are for his disciples. He's washed their feet, he's predicted his betrayal, he's predicted Peter's denial.

In our passage we see him encouraging them. He says, "Do not LET your hearts be troubled."

Jesus implies there's a choice to make when we face extreme circumstances which can cause worry and anxiety. Perhaps you're aware of people facing our current situation with fear. But Jesus says, "Do not LET your hearts be troubled."

Worry and anxiety are corrosive; they can undermine our confidence and make us unable to act. But Jesus says, "Do not LET your hearts be troubled."

It's a choice that we are able to make. We can choose how we allow external things to affect us internally: we can allow them to trouble our hearts, or we can use the FAITH that God has given us. If worry and anxiety is a poison, then faith is the antidote. I don't mean to imply that all this is easy. If these things have already got a grip on us, we may have a battle on our hands, and we need to take courage and fight with faith.

The Lord reminds them of their basis for faith. He says, "You believe in God; believe also in me." The New Living Translation expresses the Lord's words in a way that brings out the real meaning of this more clearly. It says, "Trust in God, and trust also in me."

Belief is much, much more than thinking there is a God somewhere. True belief says, "In these circumstances, I have my God to rely on, and he will see me through!"

Jesus goes on with words to the effect of, "You are secure. I am making sure of that. Come what may, you will always be with me!"

We have other promises in scripture that encourage us.

Psalm 55:22 "Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you." The circumstances may not change but God will see us through. He is our strong ally in the fight.

1 Peter 5:7 "Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you." We can tell him how we feel. He has broad shoulders. And he cares for YOU!

None of this means that we shouldn't plan or act to deal with our circumstances. Worry can stop us in our tracks; faith in the God who cares, who sustains, and who holds us securely frees us to do things we need to do.

Are you worrying, or trusting?

Knowing

The Lord has told his disciples that he'll make sure they finish up in the place where he is going. Then he tells them, "You know the way to the place where I am going."

What happens next shows that its only too possible to spend time around Jesus and still miss the point. Good old Thomas chimes in with, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?"

In the Greek, the Lord's response begins with two words where one would do: ego emai. It would have been enough to say, emai, which means "I am." By adding ego, Jesus makes an emphatic reference to himself: "I, I am the way and the truth and the life." (Did you get that, Thomas?)

There are many "I am" passages in John's gospel where Jesus uses the same emphasis. Some of them caused great offence to his opposers because, in speaking this way, Jesus took for himself the Old Testament name for God revealed to Moses, when God said: "… say to the Israelites, 'I Am has sent me to you.'"

This use of language and the words spoken by Jesus further on in our passage contribute to our understanding about the divinity of Christ and our belief in the Trinity, but we don't have time to explore that today.

But one thing we can take away from the Lord's words today is that our salvation is rooted in a person, not a system of belief, or the practice of religion.

We're not saved by going to church – which is a good thing in our present circumstances!
We're not saved by living good lives – although being saved should mean that we do!
We're not saved by our knowledge of theology and doctrine – although these things inform us what God is like and how best to serve and please him.

Our salvation is much more certain than that. We're saved by the Son of God himself. We're called to walk with him. We're called into relationship with him.

He, himself, is the way to our eternal destination.
He, himself, is the embodiment of truth about God.
He, himself, is the life we need.

John wrote in his first epistle, "However has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life." (1 John 5:12). It's having the Son, not just knowledge about him, that matters. Jesus said, "No-one comes to the Father except through me." He's the only way there is; but he's the certain way and he makes himself freely available to us.

Let me ask you, do you know Jesus?

If your answer to that question is, "Yes," then trust him, in whatever circumstances you face. Trust him with every fibre of your being. He will not fail you.

If your honest answer to that question is, "Well, no, not really," then let me encourage you to search for him with every fibre of your being. It's imperative that we know him for ourselves.

Let me finish by saying, if you go looking for Jesus you can be sure that he will find you!

What can we Learn from Nicodemus?

2020-03-12T00:43:00.000+00:00

Readings

John 3:1-21; Numbers 21:4-8; John 7:45-52; John 19:38-42

Introduction

This morning, we've heard everything the Bible has to say about a man called Nicodemus, and I'd like us to spend some time looking at what we learn about him and from his story.

John tells us that Nicodemus was a Pharisee and a member of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish ruling council. These two facts tell us something about his beliefs and lifestyle, and something about his significance in the society of the day.

The Pharisees were a minority Jewish sect concerned with rigorous keeping of the Torah and the rules placed around it to avoid accidental transgression. The apostle Paul was also a Pharisee and, when writing to the Philippians, he was able to say that as far as righteousness based on the law was concerned he was faultless. Such was the claim of a zealous Pharisee.
The Sanhedrin in Jerusalem had jurisdiction throughout the region of Judea. It had its own powers of arrest, and had authority in civil and criminal matters in all cases except where the penalty was death; they had to refer those cases to the Roman procurator to have the sentence confirmed – which is why they had to take Jesus to Pilate to have him executed.

So we can see that Nicodemus was a very religious and righteous man, and an important figure in the nation. He would seem to have a lot going for him. He also seems to have been different from other Pharisees who Jesus encountered, most of whom were intent on catching him out. Nicodemus seems to have been a genuine seeker, and perhaps he saw in Jesus something more than his devout law-keeping could give him.

His Encounter with Jesus

Nicodemus would have been well aware of the disquiet about Jesus among fellow Pharisees and in the Sanhedrin. If he'd been sent out with some of the other Pharisees to check up on Jesus, he would have seen him in action, would have heard him speaking. He may have heard reports of Jesus saying, "… unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees … you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 5:20)

Most Pharisees seemed to disapprove of Jesus for doing things like healing people on the sabbath but something didn't sit quite right with Nicodemus… How could a "sinner" do the things Jesus was doing? Surely God must be involved in this somehow? So he decided to find out for himself what was going on. He found out where Jesus was staying and went to visit him by night.

Why did he go by night? Well, it may be that during the day, with the other Pharisees around, he wouldn't dare to ask the questions on his heart. As our second reading from John shows, taking Jesus seriously wouldn't have put him in a good light among the ruling council. So he went secretly, under the cover of darkness, through the unlit streets to the place where Jesus was staying.

We can imagine Nicodemus being invited in and led into the room where Jesus was. They sit down together. I can imagine Jesus saying, "And how can I help you, Nicodemus," then waiting patiently for Nicodemus to gather his thoughts and frame his opening line – a bit like when you go to the doctor's with an embarrassing problem and don't know where to begin. Then it comes: "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him."

The last verse of chapter two tells us that Jesus knew what was in the hearts of people. Jesus can see into Nicodemus's heart. There were probably all sorts of questions about the expected kingdom of God and his place in it. Jesus can read the subtext in Nicodemus's whole demeanour: "I've done my best, but …" He looks intently at Nicodemus, and says lovingly, "Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again."

Throughout the world, there are people like Nicodemus sitting in church thinking, "I've tried to live a good life. I've always gone to church. I hope it's enough." Perhaps there are even some here today who feel that way. You've done all this stuff—but something is missing… And Jesus would say the same to you as he said to Nicodemus, "You must be born again."

We've possibly met, shall we say, "unhelpful" people who declare, "I'm a born-again Christian," and we may have thought, "Well, if that's what a born-again Christian is then I don't want to be one." But Jesus tells Nicodemus it's absolutely necessary to be born again or, as the footnote in my Bible explains, born from above.

You see, Jesus didn't come to start a new religion; he came to build a new family. The way into the family is not by the practice of religion; it's by New Birth.

Now, this whole idea was new to Nicodemus, and he found it confusing. "How can someone be born when they are old?" he asks. And Jesus explains that he's thinking about it wrongly. The kingdom of God isn't like worldly kingdoms and you don't get in by you own efforts. As well as his natural birth, he needs a spiritual birth. And it's the only way into God's kingdom. And it's not something he can do for himself: it depends on the action of the Holy Spirit, over whom he has no control.

How to be Born Again

So, how can someone be born again, or born from above? Well, there's no formula for it. There's no ritual, not even the act of Confirmation. It's not something you can do for yourself or that any other mere human being can do for you. But Jesus and the account of Nicodemus give us a few clues as to what God may be looking for.

The first clue is to be a seeker. God says, "'You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you', declares the LORD …" Jer. 29:13. Nicodemus was a true seeker. He took risks to seek out Jesus. He really wanted to know what Jesus was about! He went looking for his own personal encounter with Jesus. And that's what we all need, and what God wants for each one of us: it's personal!

The next clue is to follow the path that God prescribes. Jesus reminded Nicodemus about the story of Moses lifting up the snake in the wilderness. It would have been a familiar story to Nicodemus, and we've heard the account from Numbers this morning – so we also know what Jesus was talking about.

In the story, the people had been grumbling against Moses and, in judgement, venomous snakes were sent among them. Anyone bitten would die. The people repented and asked Moses for help. God told Moses to make a model of a snake and put it up on a pole where anyone could see it. People who were bitten had only to look at the bronze snake to save their lives. This was God's miraculous remedy.

If you were there and were bitten by a snake, what would you have done? Ignored the remedy? Looked for another way of surviving? Why, when God's remedy was a sure thing?

Now, Jesus often referred to himself as the Son of Man, and he told Nicodemus that he, Jesus, would be lifted up like the bronze snake was, and that whoever looked to Jesus would live.

Whether, at this point, Nicodemus understood the way that Jesus applied the story to himself, we don't know. With the benefit of hindsight, of course, we know that Jesus was referring to his being raised up on the cross and dying to pay the penalty that we all deserved for our own sin, and from which there was no other means of escape.

We've all been bitten by the snake of sin and are without remedy of our own making. Jesus is our only hope. He is God's miraculous remedy by which the penalty of our sin is paid on our behalf, and the grip that sin has on our lives is broken.

The next clue is an explanation of what it means to look to Jesus. Jesus said, "the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him." And, in the most famous Bible verse of all, we read, "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."

So how do we believe, or what does it mean to believe? It's a whole lot more than giving mental assent to the Gospel. Last time I was here, Ken gave us a great illustration of real belief, and it bears repeating.

I've been standing a long time. I could do with sitting down. There's a chair over there. It looks like a very good chair. From looking at its construction, I believe it is perfectly capable of taking my weight and giving me somewhere to find rest. I believe in that chair. This is mental assent, but it isn't really believing. If what you believe makes no difference to your behaviour, then you don't really believe it!

This is believing. I'm sitting on the chair, I've put my full weight on it. My feet are off the floor. I'm not relying any more on the effort of my own legs to keep me off the floor.

This chair was no use to me while I stood over there admiring its properties.
The bronze snake in the wilderness was no use to those who had been bitten unless they went and looked at it.
Jesus can only save us if we place our reliance fully on him.

John 3:18 tells us, "Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God's one and only Son."

We have to acknowledge our deep need of Jesus, and recognise that we can do nothing to save ourselves. If we could save ourselves, why would God send his Son to die for us? We have to give up on our own efforts, stop thinking we can make it on our own, otherwise we're believing in something else, relying on something other than God's remedy. That won't work, and our separation from God remains.

Hear these words from the old hymn, Rock of Ages, cleft for me:

Not the labours of my hands
can fulfil thy law's demands;
could my zeal no respite know,
could my tears for ever flow,
all for sin could not atone:
thou must save, and thou alone.

Nothing in my hand I bring,
simply to thy cross I cling;
naked, come to thee for dress;
helpless, look to thee for grace;
foul, I to the fountain fly;
wash me, Saviour, or I die.

When we come to God trusting in Jesus this way, the Holy Spirit stands ready to bring us into God's kingdom by new birth.

New Identity

Now, I hope that you're all born again and know that you are. But do you realise that when you are born again you have a brand new identity!

People are defined by all sorts of things. For some, it's their work that defines them, and they have problems when they retire. Only this week I watched a news item in which a soldier said that after he left the army he didn't know who he was any more. For some, it's family that defines them, or a particular relationship, and, when things go wrong, meaning and purpose can just evaporate.

John 1:12-13 tell us that "to all who [received Jesus], to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God – children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God."

When we're born of God we have an identity we can never lose! We are children of God by right; a right given to us by God himself! He sends his Holy Spirit into our hearts, bringing assurance of salvation, and the knowledge that God is our Father. We have our own personal relationship with God, we belong to his family, we're surrounded by brothers and sisters in Christ. Our future is no longer defined by our past; we have a whole new life to live!

Do you know who you are in Christ? Explore the New Testament to discover what it has to tell you about your God-given identity. Maybe I'll talk more about this next time I'm here.

Winding Up

So, what happened to Nicodemus? Was he ever born again? We see him trying to stand up for Jesus in the Sanhedrin, exposing himself to criticism in the process. And we see him helping Joseph of Arimathea bury the body of Jesus, and supplying a huge amount of anointing oil. Neither of these things are evidence in themselves of new birth but they do show his enormous respect for Jesus, even when everything he'd hoped for seemed forever lost …

The resurrection must have had a massive impact on a man who had put so much faith in Jesus. We hear nothing more of Nicodemus beyond what John records but John must have got his information about Nicodemus from somewhere; maybe from Nicodemus himself. I think that Nicodemus, like the apostle Paul, discounted all the perceived benefits of his culture and lifestyle, staked his all on Jesus, and discovered what it means to be born again.

What about you?
Are you a seeker?
Are you relying on your own efforts, or believing fully in Jesus?
Do you know what it is to be born from above?
Are you rejoicing in your new identity as a child of God?

Can there be anything more important than trusting fully in Jesus and becoming his follower?

Change, Faith and the Power of the Spirit

2019-11-04T14:07:00.000+00:00

Readings

2 Thessalonians 1:1-4, 11-12
Acts 1:4-8

Introduction

What would happen if you never changed your socks? They would get pretty smelly and, over time, probably rot away!

Our theme, this morning, is "Change, Faith and the Power of the Spirit." I want to talk a bit about change and how to embrace it – or, depending on your point of view, how to survive it!

It's been over five years since my last visit here and, just as Paul heard a good report of the Thessalonians from Timothy, I've heard good reports about you from [anonymised]. She told me something of the changes that are going on here, and I must say it was great to hear about what God is doing among you.

Some of us find change stimulating; its a land of new opportunities, flowing with milk and honey. Some of us perhaps find change a difficult thing to cope with; it takes us away from our place of comfort or threatens long-cherised traditions. And that can lead to tensions among us, with some striving to advance (as they see it) and others desperately digging trenches.

Almost the first thing Paul writes in his second letter to the Thessalonians is, "Grace and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ." As we think about change this morning, I want us to keep in mind that God comes among us with grace and peace. And that's how we should relate to one another as we move from where we are to where God may be leading us.

Change

Our first reading tells us there was a lot of change going on in the life of the Thessalonian church. Paul gives thanks to God for their burgeoning faith (which he says "is growing more and more") and for the love they have for one another in increasing measure.

Anything that's growing is changing and developing, and, in the Thessalonians case, the growth that was happening was helping them to persevere.

Paul's prayer for them is that they may undergo even more change! He prays that God will make them worthy of his calling. Now, he's not saying they are unworthy at the time of writing. Really, he's praying that they'll be able to endure the opposition they're encountering. In a sense, they are being refined through their struggles, and their faith is being proven. His prayer is that they will stand the test!

Being made worthy suggests they're on a journey; it implies there will be challenge, and change. And all of us who are born of God are on a journey that involves change. Paul writes elsewhere about our being "conformed to the image of [God's] Son," (Ro. 8:29) that we are being "transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory" (2 Cor. 3:18), and he exhorts us to be "transformed by the renewing of [our] mind" (Ro. 12:2). All this change is for the here-and-now, not just for the moment we step into heaven! And this change is essential!

Even in ordinary life, we undergo constant change. We're thrust into the world at birth, leaving behind the warmth and comfort of our mother's womb. Huge change! We develop and grow and learn.

One change in my life that I still remember clearly is my first day at school. I was allowed to go in my cowboy suit but the first thing the teacher did was take my guns off me! Then my mum abandoned me to total strangers! Huge change!

The next day, mum woke me with, "Come on, time for school!" Surprised at this news, I said, "Do I have to go again?" Bigger change than I'd been prepared for!

We continue to grow and develop, become adults, and have to make our own way in the world. Huge change! Get married – huge change! Raise children, who in turn grow up and leave home – huge changes! We retire – best change ever!

All of life is in change. Change is inevitable.

If we're not changing, we're dead!

Paul prays that God will make the Thessalonians fruitful in goodness and action. Even this idea expresses change. Think about fruit trees: to bear fruit they have to undergo change. New life surges in the spring and they put out buds, which become new growth, then leaves develop to capture the sun's energy, then blossom grows to be pollinated, and then the blossom blows away and the fruit grows.

In writing this, a thought occurred to me. We love the time of blossom, don't we? But we can't forever hold onto the blossom. For the fruit to come, the blossom must pass.

Then another thought occurred: after the fruit, the leaves fall off and the whole cycle goes round again. In the same way, the change we undergo doesn't necessarily bring us to an end point. Where we get to is just for a season. We need the constant renewal of change. Otherwise, like our socks, we get a bit stale! We have to be prepared to let go of the good that's gone before to obtain the good that's yet to come.

Obstacles to Change

For some people, of course, change is not a welcome thing. Some are reluctant to change, and others may fear what change could mean.

Reluctant people may say things like, "We've always done it this way." Actually, looking back over history, even Methodists haven't always done it this way, and the church of today would probably be unrecognisable to the early church.

We have to ask, is "the way we've always done it" working? In the light of dwindling churches of all denominations throughout our land, we'd have to conclude that it isn't. Albert Einstein once defined madness as doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results. I'm a firm believer in the saying, "If it ain't broken, don't fix it!" But if it is broken, it needs fixing!

Our society is different, and we have to find different ways to reach out to people. Otherwise, they may never grasp the unchanging message of God's love and salvation.

Things that are different will mean things we are less familiar with, and that will mean our comfort will be disturbed. We can't sit in church recognising the need for change but hope it happens after we die! People outside the kingdom of God need to see it in action now, before they die!

Paul gives a good reason for his prayer for the Thessalonians to have worthy and fruitful lives. He writes, "We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ."

One remedy for reluctance is to realise that we're not here for just ourselves: we're here for the glory of Jesus. We're here to make known the grace of God and the Lord Jesus Christ. We need to search out the best ways of doing that in our age. And glorifying him turns out to be good for us too!

I mentioned fear as another reason for avoiding change, and I'd like to illustrate this with some personal testimony.

Back in 1985, I was not in a good place.

I'd finished university and returned to the small church back home which hadn't really changed much while I was away, nor did the change in me really fit in there any more.

My parents had divorced and I continued living at home to support my dad for much longer than he needed or was good for me.

The job I had at the time was on the other side of Birmingham and was a mixed bag with parts I loved and parts that really dragged me down.

I actually wanted change. I wanted to get a home of my own but should it be near the job I no longer wanted to do or near the church I wasn't thriving in?

The obvious answer was to look for another job and move to wherever that took me but the problem was that I really believed that God wanted me in that church. I got an interview for a job in Leeds but so strong was my fear of stepping out of God's will that I deliberately sabotaged it so I wouldn't be offered the job.

Then a job in Newcastle came up. I got the application forms and filled them in. On the night before the last chance of posting them off in time, I spent ages pacing the floor of my bedroom, agonising about what to do. And then, a little question that was totally foreign to everything else going on inside me just popped into my head: "Why can't you just apply in faith?"

I know without a shadow of doubt that it was God who asked that question, and it really pulled me up short. I said, "What? You mean if I get the job it's your will, and if it isn't your will I won't get it? OK, I can live with that." All the fear was gone and I went straight to bed and straight to sleep.

The next day, I posted my application, which resulted in an interview. I travelled up to Newcastle the day before and stayed overnight at the parent's of a friend of a friend. When I woke up on the day of the interview, my reading just happened to be 2 Thessalonians chapter 1, in which I read, "With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that God may make you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may bring to fruition your every desire for goodness and your every deed prompted by faith."

I went to the interview knowing I would get the job!

God was very gracious to me because my faith wasn't really that impressive. But the lesson is that faith overcomes our fear. The writer to the Hebrews tells us that, "... faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see" (Heb 11:1).

Now, not every change will turn out to be positive; we're human beings and sometimes we get things wrong and head off in directions that are less than helpful. But as someone once said, "You can't steer a ship unless it's moving." If we're moving and our desire is to do good things, and we act in faith, we can rely on God to correct our course and to supply the power we need to be fruitful.

God wants to glorify Christ in us, and us in Christ. We're in all this with God!

The Spirit's Power

So, where do we get the power we need? Paul, in his prayer, implies that it's God's power that leads to fruitfulness. This is not something we're expected to do in our own strength.

The Greek word translated as 'power' in verse 11 is dunamis, and it's about ability or enabling. In our reading from Acts, Jesus says, "...you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses…"

Here's the same word, dunamis, again. Jesus tells the disciples that the Holy Spirit will enable them to be witnesses. We only have to read on into chapter two to find out what a difference the Holy Spirit made: disciples who met in fear behind locked doors are now out in the open preaching Christ to the crowd!

The same Holy Spirit is the source of our enabling. If you are born of God, you already have the Holy Spirit dwelling in you. You can't be born of God without the Spirit! But we can grieve him; we can resist him; we can suppress his working; to the extent that he is effectively dormant in our lives.

The Bible exhorts us to go on being filled with the Spirit! Let's welcome the Holy Spirit in and among us. Let's cooperate with the guidance he brings us. Let's allow his enabling dunamis power to lead us through change and to bring glory to Jesus.

Winding up

Change is inevitable. Change is essential. God's love motivates us, faith takes hold of the possibilities, and the enabling power of the Spirit makes it happen.

Here's some good news: God doesn't change! "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and for ever." (Heb 13:8) He will be with us before, during and after the changes. And the message doesn't change! God is still seeking reconciliation with people, looking to bring them to repentance and faith, to rescue them from judgement and to lavish his love on them.

And let's remember, as we wrestle with the implications of change, that God comes among us with grace and peace. Let's be like him as we work things out together.

Guard Your Heart

2019-08-12T16:48:00.000+01:00

Readings

Proverbs 4:20-27
Psalm 139:1-12, 23-24

Introduction

These days, we often hear the mantras "Follow your heart!" or "Do what's in your heart!" I wonder what people understand by the term "Heart" and whether this advice is wise. Especially as it seems to mean, "If it feels good, do it!"

Obviously, those handing out this advice are not referring to the pump in our chest. We sometimes think of the heart as the seat of the emotions – understandably, because when we see something that stirs our emotions we can be aware of our pulse racing, and feel our heart thumping in our chest. We talk about someone "wearing his heart on his sleeve", meaning he lets his emotions show easily.

Interestingly, in Biblical times, the bowels were considered the seat of the emotions – and we can understand that because we've probably all experienced "butterflies in our stomach."

Do any of you remember being told, "I love you with all my heart"? Perhaps you're glad you didn't live in Biblical times because you might have heard, "I love you with all my bowels!"

But, actually, when we say "I love you with all my heart" we're not just talking about emotions. We're really saying, "I love your from the very core of my being," and that's much more like what the Bible means when it talks about the heart; our heart is our inmost being.

The verse that was the starting point for this sermon is Proverbs 4:23:

"Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it."

The implication is that our outward behaviour has its origins in our inmost being. Also, our inmost being is mutable; it can change, it can be damaged – or why else would there be a need to guard it? And if our heart, our inmost being, is damaged, what will "following our heart" lead to?

What we are in our inmost being is what matters to God. 1 Samuel 16:7c tells us that,

"People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."

We all project an image of ourselves that we want others to see. That image is never quite the same as the person we really are inside. For instance, there are three people standing in this pulpit. There's the person you perceive, the person I'd like you to perceive, and the person that I really am. To some extent, we all wear masks to hide aspects of our real selves from others. Sometimes, and for some people, the external image can be very different from the internal reality.

God always sees the internal reality. Always.

Our personal integrity matters to God: "Above all else, guard your heart..."

Diagnosis

So, what does God have to say about our hearts? What's his diagnosis? Jeremiah writes in chapter 17:9ff

"The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind …"

Dare we be guided by our own hearts? If our hearts are deceitful, how can we understand what's right to do and what is not?

I was on a shopping trip in Newcastle one Saturday and stopped off for a coffee. I couldn't help but overhear what the young men on the next table were saying. I can't repeat what one of them said about his behaviour with a woman he met in a night club the day before. His mates, of course, approved. What he, and I presume the woman, had in mind felt good, so they did it …

If the only point of reference we have is what's in our own hearts, then it's no surprise the world is in a mess. As Jesus says in Mark 7:20ff,

"… 'What comes out of a person is what defiles them. For it is from within, out of a person's heart, that evil thoughts come – sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from the inside and defile a person.'"

God always sees the internal reality. Always.

Now, not everything in our hearts is bad. After all, human beings are made in the image of God. There are lots of good things done in this world, and these all flow from our hearts too. But we live in a fallen world and the image is broken and cracked, and, in some cases, completely shattered. Our hearts are mixed.

Our heart problem isn't just about bad behaviour. Following our heart is no guarantee of personal fulfilment. Philip Yancey, in his book, The Jesus I Never Knew, writes about how his career as a journalist gave him many opportunities to interview sports stars, movie actors, music performers, best-selling authors, politicians and TV personalities. He says that these people whom we idolise are,

"as miserable a group of people [he has] ever met. Most have troubled or broken marriages. Nearly all are incurably dependent on psychotherapy. In a heavy irony, these larger-than-life heroes seem tormented by self-doubt."

Our hearts are unreliable guides.

Looking back at my own life, I see things that I wish hadn't been in my life, things I've done or failed to do. I grew up with no guidance other than my own heart and the influence of other fallen, broken people. My behaviour was the consequence of what was inside me—of what I was; but it wasn't God who made me that way.

The good news is that God loved me regardless of what I was – but he had no interest in leaving like that! He didn't make me what I was, and, since he found me, he's worked unceasingly to make me more and more what he wants me to be.

My destiny, according to Romans 8:29, is to be like Jesus. God is working in me to that end. I only wish I'd been more cooperative, more compliant down the years.

God always sees our internal reality. Always. But he also sees our potential. He knows our hearts are faulty, and that the only remedy is to change them!

Remedy

God is the one who has the remedy. We need to go to the doctor and take the medicine.

God knows our hearts, and that may make us want to run away from him. But he wants us to run towards him and begin doing something about our problem. That's called repentance.

In James 4:8, we read,

"Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded."

But we come to him, with repentance, knowing that we cannot sort ourselves out. We need a radical change of heart. We need to ask for his help.

As we read in Psalm 86:11b

"… give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name."

And in Psalm 51:10

"Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me."

These are prayers that God is ready and willing to answer. He says through the prophet Ezekiel in chapter 36:2ff

"I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; … And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws."

Maintaining Good Health

So, how can we guard our hearts? How can we maintain the good health of the clean, new heart that God gives us?

• Well, first of all, we need a heavenly focus.

In Colossians 3:1, Paul tells us,

"Since then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things."

We know that this world will come to an end. We know that our lives here will come to an end. If we focus on earthly comforts, whatever we achieve or acquire we leave behind the second we die.

I had an uncle who was a self-made man. He came from a poor, working-class family and became a millionaire. When he drew in his last breath he was very wealthy. When his last breath left him, he had nothing!

But in Christ we have all eternity to look forward to. We need to focus on things with eternal value. This doesn't mean we are to become so heavenly-minded as to be of no earthly use. It means living in the light of our destiny; living by the values of the kingdom we now belong to. Jesus said, "… where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

And in Psalm 37:4 we read,

"Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart."

This verse isn't a guarantee that we'll get everything we ever wanted. I understand it as part of the renewal process going on in my life. The more I delight in God, the more I understand what's really important; the desires of my heart change. God gives me new desires for things that please him, and it's those desires that he's willing to fulfil.

• Next, in guarding our hearts, we need to avail ourselves of reliable guidance.

In Psalm 119:11 the psalmist writes,

"I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you."

If we know our Bible, we have something to judge the thoughts and intents of our hearts against. Last time I was here, I spoke about making the most of your Bible, so I won't labour the point today. But I have to say that I've discovered that, in general, Methodist people are not well grounded in scripture. I have to say that discovery saddens and bewilders me.

Proverbs 3:5-6 says,

"Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight."

In our walk with God, we will sometimes find ourselves moving in directions which don't sit comfortably with our hearts. We've probably all heard stories of people battling against God's calling on their lives, and after they've finally given in to him, discovering it was exactly the right thing for them. If they'd followed their hearts, they'd have gone in the wrong direction.

• Then, in guarding our hearts, we should depend on God's provision.

Philippians 4:6,7 says,

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

Anxious circumstances can tempt us to act rashly, undermining our integrity. Taking things to God in prayer gives us pause, reminds us whose we are and that he has things in hand. And the peace he gives us enables us to trust and act with integrity. I could give you a personal testimony of that if there were enough time. Ask me afterwards, if you like.

In John 7:38, Jesus says,

"Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them."

The Revised Standard Version expresses this as, "out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water."

John goes on to explain that "rivers of living water" refers to the Holy Spirit. God puts his own Holy Spirit right in the hearts of believers; the Holy Spirit who comes to strengthen, to guide, to comfort, to bring assurance of salvation, to empower, to produce fruit and gifts, and to bring spiritual wisdom and understanding. Rely on the Holy Spirit.

• Lastly, in guarding our hearts, we need to keep in view our great reward.

In Matthew 5:8, Jesus tells us,

"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God."

Here's a simple definition of the word pure. Pure means unmixed. At home, we have a bag of "Pure natural sugar." The bag contains nothing else, no impurities.

If our hearts are mixed, they are impure, and impurity creates a barrier between us and God. Keeping our hearts pure means the barrier can't exist and we will see God. This isn't just when we reach heaven; it's here and now too. Here and now we can see the evidence of God at work in our lives, we can experience what it is to live in relationship with our creator, our loving Father.

Summary

So, winding this all up,

    • God always sees our internal reality. Always.
    • He has the only remedy for our hearts.
    • He provides the means to keep our hearts safe.
    • What's the state of your heart?

"Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it."

Don't follow your heart – follow Jesus!

A Personal Growth Plan

2019-01-13T13:59:00.000+00:00

Introduction

On the Friday before Christmas, my wife and I were out walking the dog. Out of the blue, she said to me (my wife, not the dog), “Do you have any aspirations for 2019?” Well, the only thing that went through my mind was a huge ball of tumble weed. So I did the only thing I could and said, “Do you have any?”

Her response was multifaceted: to overhaul the dining room, to plan our big anniversary holiday, to have more of God in her life and more of God in our church. Of course, those last two items are things that should be in the minds of all of us.

Her question set us talking, and it set me thinking about growth plans, something that all our chapels have been talking about. Our circuit leadership team has given three things to think about:

vibrant worship
small groups, and
making new disciples.

These are things we've been working on at my church for quite some time, actually. While this is a positive thing, to be honest, I've found myself of late to be somewhat discouraged. Because we're never quite there, and it seems to have been such hard work to make little progress.

Our growth plans are not merely fine ideals. They'll not be effective just because we've written them down. If our churches are to grow, then we must be committed to growing, personally and corporately.

As it's still early in this new year, it seems a good time to think about aspirations, to consider how to discover more of God in our lives and, as a result, to have more vibrant worship, more effective discipleship, and stronger fellowships that people actually want to be part of.

Vibrant Worship

John 4:19-24

As far as vibrant worship in my church goes, we're blessed with musicians with a range of musical talent – some of it to an impressively high standard, some of it (like my guitar playing) of adequate mediocrity. We've been able to adapt our sung worship to incorporate different instruments and a more contemporary style, while keeping a good balance between traditional hymns and contemporary songs.

But I've concluded that the thing we need most for vibrant worship, the thing we need most to be, is vibrant worshippers.

Worship is something we give to God. It's not about whether the style of worship suits us, or whether we enjoy the hymns or other aspects of our services. Obviously, there's joy in meeting with our God, and as we worship we often find blessing. But our being blessed is not the primary purpose of worship.

In our first reading, Jesus tells us two things about God.

Firstly, that he is spirit, and,
secondly, that he seeks out those who will worship in spirit and in truth.

This is not about some almighty, transcendent being demanding that we bow and scrape before him. It's much more awe-inspiring than that. It's about intimacy; the essential nature of God seeking relationship with our essential nature; his spirit touching ours, and our spirit touching his.

The Samaritan woman pointed out a big division between Jews and Samaritans: they worshipped in different holy places. Worshipping in spirit means 'place' no longer matters. The NIV translates the relevant verses here as worshipping in the Spirit, not just in spirit. Although the definite article doesn't seem to be in the Greek, this reminds us that God indwells his people by the Holy Spirit, so wherever a true worshipper is becomes a holy place. God's kingdom is no longer confined to a temple or church building.

We have a saying, “I'm with you in spirit,” meaning (let's be honest) “You have my sympathy but not enough for me to actually go with you.” That's not what Jesus means when he says, “in spirit and in truth.” Genuine worshippers are truly engaged in worship, not merely appearing to be so by following outward ceremony.

The last time I went to the New Wine conference, one of the guest speakers was the principal of a Bible College serving black pentecostal churches. She was a fantastic speaker, and when she had finished speaking she led the congregation of around 3000 people into a time of worship. The people responded to her sensitive leading and they worshipped. God was there. The people responded to the presence of God and worshipped. God lavished his blessing on us. I've never known anything like it before or since.
The following night, the conference leaders tried unsuccessfully to make it happen again. The difference? Well, it may be about the difference between offering something to God and trying to get something for ourselves.

And worship doesn't have to be in large gatherings to be special. I worship a lot when I'm out with the dog on my own, and I've known the thrilling touch of his Spirit even in that context.

Now, I'm not saying that vibrant worship means that we should always be on some elevated plane of ecstasy.

In a church this size there may well be someone here facing deep problems, and just making the effort to be here to acknowledge that God is God is all the worship they can muster. Their act of worship is no less valid because they seem to go out as heavy as when they came in. If that's you, know this: God sees you—and loves you—and is holding on to you, even though you feel your grip on him is failing. Perhaps in hearing these words you might feel God's spirit touching yours.

Fundamentally, worship is our genuine response to who God is and what he's done for us in Christ; it's our essence reaching out to touch his essence, and his touching ours. How vibrant is that?!

Making Disciples

Matthew 28:18-20

Making new disciples is the most difficult aspect of the growth plan. In my church, we have some initiatives like Messy Church in place, and other things that bring us into contact with our community, but we haven't seen a great response yet, in terms of a clear commitment.

Here are a couple of things I believe about mission.

Mission involves all believers, not just the 'gifted' or the 'professionals'. We all represent Christ. We're all on display. We all need, as Peter puts it in his first letter, to '… be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope you have.' We may not all have the confidence to do that yet but sharing what we believe in the safe environment of a small group may help us build confidence.
To make disciples we must be disciples. I sat in church on many occasions before I met someone who lived what he believed. Guess what made the difference to me …

When Rev PD spoke about the 'Great Commission' at my church, he said that we're not to make merely church-goers, or believers, or even converts. We're to make disciples. He said lots of other things too but this is my sermon, not his!

So what is a disciple? The word that we translate as “disciple” means “learner” or “apprentice.” In Jewish tradition, a rabbi would call apprentices. His disciples aimed to become like their rabbi. Eventually, they would become competent enough to call and train their own disciples.

Jesus followed the same pattern. He called and made disciples. They were sent out to call and make disciples, and the church has propagated around the world and down the ages on this same model.

John Wesley's work was successful because of his emphasis on discipleship.

I said earlier that worship is our genuine response to who God is and what he's done for us in Christ. In a way, discipleship is exactly the same. We could even say it's the highest form of worship we can offer.

But who is God, and what has he done for us in Christ?

Discovering the Nature of God

1 John 4:16; Deuteronomy 5:8; Psalm 103:7-12

We've just heard read three passages about the nature of God. We're all familiar with the first one: 'God is love.' The second is a difficult one to understand, in some ways troubling—but it's God telling us something about himself. The third was just to remind us after hearing the second, that God is full of compassion.

I've said that worship is our response to who God is. But if all we know of the nature of God is 'God is love' then we don't have the full picture. In fact, it can be quite dangerous!

There is the danger of thinking, “'God is love' therefore love is God” but that's not true. If a man falls for someone else's wife and takes her from him we might be tempted to think God is in it because they love each other. We'd be wrong. It's called adultery, something God tells us not to do.

Another danger is to think that “'God is love' so he'll let everyone off in the end.” John 3:16 says, “… 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.” God, because he is love, holds out the offer of life and longs for us to accept it, but those who reject it have no remedy.

We have a distorted view of love, these days. The New Testament word translated as 'love' is agape, and it has a very particular meaning. We've no time to go into it today, but if you read 1 Corinthians 13 you'll find a very good explanation of it.

So, how do we discover the full picture of what God is like? John Wesley spoke of the Bible as a means of grace. Reading the Bible puts us in the place where God can speak to us and reveal himself to us. Methodists, of all people, should be Bible readers!

Small Groups

John 13:34-35

We live in a very individualistic age. It's all about 'Me', or, in your case, 'You.' But that's not how things work in the kingdom of God. Jesus commands us to 'love one another' (and there's that word agape again) but we can't really love one another from arm's length. We can't really do discipleship by ourselves. Being loving disciples together is important to Christ's growth plan: 'by this everyone will know that you are my disciples.'

Small groups give us the perfect opportunity to grow together in love. On our own, we can be neglectful of our spiritual well-being. Belonging to a group can keep us sharp. On our own, we can form weird ideas about what it means to be a Christian. Being in a group means we can test our ideas with more mature believers and stay on the right track.

Of course, being in a small group has risks. You might find it challenging! Especially if you struggle to be vulnerable. Living in close relationship can be difficult but if we keep in mind Christ's command to love one another, we can help each other gently through our difficulties, and bear with those who are not yet ready to receive help.

As for my church, we've had several small groups for a while now, meeting for worship, bible study, prayer and fellowship. In the group I attend, I've been encouraged to see people growing closer and engaging in lively discussion. I'm sure you'll have experienced the same in your groups here.

Small groups are also important for the growth of new disciples. When someone makes a commitment to Christ, we can't leave them to flounder. Zealous new converts often lose social links. They may find that as their tastes change they feel uncomfortable with their old friends, or their friends think they've gone nuts and start avoiding them.

New disciples need support; they too need to discover what God is like and what it means to follow Jesus. Established groups will have to adapt to the needs of new believers because the kingdom of God can seem like an alien world to begin with.

In the early days of Methodism, small study groups played a key role in establishing robust discipleship. They're just as valuable today. If you're not already in one, join one!

A Personal Growth Plan

So how does the plan work? We make new disciples, nurture them along with ourselves in our small groups where they can learn what God is like and what he's done for them in Christ, and so grow to become vibrant worshippers.

Where do we start? I believe it begins with our personal commitment to being disciples together, and so demonstrating God's love to the world; discovering together more of God and responding with vibrant worship; showing the world that the 'more to life' that they're looking for is found in Christ.

So, what of our aspirations for this new year? I want more of God in my life. I want more of God in my church. Do you?

It requires commitment but it's a good investment! Get into your Bible. Join a small group. Open your heart and mind to God so that he can inspire you with who he is and what he's done for you. And your living and your worship will be transformed!

The Season of Good Will

2018-12-26T12:31:00.000+00:00

Reading

Luke 2: 1-19

Talk

We've heard again the story of the angel telling the shepherds about the birth of Christ, and then a whole host of angels appearing, praising God and announcing awesome news. We're probably more familiar with the older translation of what they said, which goes, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”

The strange idea that has grown out of this text is that Christmas is the “Season of Good Will” as if this is the only time of year when we should be nice to each other! But actually, the angels were announcing something far more significant. To understand what they were saying, let's fill in a bit of background.

Human beings are designed to live in communion with God. But, almost from the start, we decided we would do things our way, independently of God. And, as a race, we still do that today. That results in two problems.

Firstly, we make a mess of the wonderful world that God put in our charge. You only have to watch the news to see how good we've become at making a mess, from the chaos last week at Gatwick airport to the horrors of the Syrian war.

Secondly, we set ourselves up as enemies of God, alienating ourselves from him, breaking away from the relationship he always intended us to have with him.

Try as we might, we can't sort out our own mess, and we can't, of ourselves, put an end to our conflict with God—we don't want to!

Fortunately for us, God loves people. The angels were really announcing that God's means of making peace for us has now come to earth, and the way is open for us to return to God, if we're willing to take it.

He sent Jesus to live among us as one of us. The first Christmas launched the mission to end our conflict with God and to bring in his kingdom, where our mess can be sorted out.

The Apostle Paul writes about God “[rescuing] us from the dominion of darkness and [bringing] us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

Thirty-three years after that first Christmas, Jesus achieved for us what we can't do for ourselves. We see him riding into Jerusalem on a donkey to shouts of praise and honour, and, within a week, being crucified, paying the penalty of our sins for us, all as foretold in scripture.

God gave us Christmas knowing there would be Easter. He did it willingly because he loves us so much. As the Apostle John wrote in his gospel, “… 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.”

This is why, as Christians, we celebrate Christmas: the time when Jesus came to live among us, so that through his death and rising again our living can be transformed by his power.

God offers us life through Jesus, whatever our sin, however dark and deep our shame.

Since that first Christmas, God's season of goodwill is every day, all year round. His offer of peace is always open to anyone who will turn back from their own ways and become a follower of Jesus.

Each new disciple is a new member of God's kingdom, which has been growing for over 2000 years.

And it all began with the wonder of a baby in a manger.

Mary

2018-12-22T19:10:00.001+00:00

Reading

Luke 1:39-56

Introduction

I've been asked to speak today about Mary, the mother of Jesus. As a Protestant who has worshipped in a variety of Protestant traditions, Mary has never had a high priority in my understanding of faith. Orthodox and Roman traditions have a very different view of Mary, venerating her almost (if not actually) above Jesus himself, calling her “The Mother of God” – which is something I can understand, within limits – or “The Queen of Heaven” – which is an idea I have no time for.

My wife and I went to Cyprus this year, and we visited some religious sites in the Troodos mountains. There are many small churches in that area with very ancient frescoes of religious scenes. We visited one of them and walked around, trying to understand what was depicted. One scene showed what seemed to be the visit of Gabriel to Mary, another the presentation of the infant Jesus at the temple. Then the guide joined us and put us straight: the images were not about Jesus, they were about Mary, the mother of Jesus. I discovered that there's a whole tradition about the birth, life, and death of Mary. Later research has shown that these traditions come from dubious post-New Testament apocryphal writings that reflect a growing veneration of Mary from the Second Century onwards.

Setting the Scene

Scripture itself says very little about Mary. In the old testament, she's an unidentified virgin who “shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel.” She has cameo roles in John's gospel and Acts. Matthew puts her in Joseph's shadow, and Mark doesn't mention her at all. Almost everything we can reliably know about Mary comes from Luke's gospel, and Jewish culture of the time fills in some of the background for us.

When we first encounter Mary in Luke's gospel, she's a young Jewish girl engaged to be married (by parental arrangement) to a decent Jewish boy with a reliable trade. So that makes her no older than 15 when the angel Gabriel appears.

As an ordinary Jewish girl, she'd have been well-versed in the Old Testament scriptures, and fully engaged in national and family festivals and celebrations and Sabbaths, and in synagogue worship. Family was important, and eastern cultures then, even as they do now, had a strong shame-and-honour basis.

Her parents had laid down a plan for Mary's life, and I'm sure she would have had hopes and dreams for what lay ahead of her with Joseph. Proverbs 19:21 says, “Many are the plans in a person's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails,” and Mary's plans were superseded when God's messenger, Gabriel, showed up. Mary's response to Gabriel—and all her responses in Luke's gospel—give us a clear example of the kind of response the Lord God Almighty expects from earth-bound believers.

She responds with:

questioning doubt, but then
simple acceptance, then
faith from the heart

Questioning Doubt

As far as I know, I've never met an angel. I imagine that meeting one could be quite a shock! That seems to have been Mary's reaction: she “was greatly troubled at his words.” What had the angel said? “Greetings, you who are highly favoured! The Lord is with you.”

I don't know about you, but if a messenger from God came and said that to me I'd be delighted! Isn't that what we all want to be sure of? That we are highly favoured? That the Lord is with us? But Mary was troubled by the angel's greeting, and wondered what it might mean. In Mary's culture, as a woman, and a young one at that, she was a second class citizen; men got all the attention.

The angel's next words to Mary were, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favour with God.” Again, words we all want to hear but, actually, words that are true of all of us who belong to Jesus. Isn't it good to know that God is for us, not against us? And actually, at the birth of Jesus, the angels announced that God's favour is offered to all mankind. Because of Jesus, it's possible for all and any of us to find God's favour and salvation.

Mary was an ordinary, faithful, observant, Jewish girl. She was in the right family line, betrothed to a young man also in the right family line, and it was time for Messiah to come. And that's what the angel explained to Mary.

She was going to have a baby. She was to call him Jesus. He would grow up to be great. He would be called the Son of the Most High. He would sit on David's throne. His kingdom would never end.

As a Jewish girl, Mary would know about the promises God made to king David centuries before. So she points out an obvious flaw in the plan. “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” Good point!

There's nothing wrong with having doubts, although doubts can be of two kinds.

The “I don't believe that!” kind are unhelpful; they're closed off and lead us away from faith. I heard a Jewish lecturer in Embryonics at Birmingham University say, “Parthenogenesis always gives rise to female offspring, so Mary wasn't a virgin.” (Parthenogenesis, by the way, is reproduction without the involvement of the male of the species, which some insects, fish, reptiles and birds can do—but not mammals.)
The “How can this be?” kind of doubt leads us to questioning exploration, a search for answers. And God says that if we seek him we will find him. We may not always get the answers to our questions but, if we find God in our seeking, we can learn to live with them.

Mary asked a reasonable, rational question and she was given an answer: God is going to act out of the ordinary. This child is special. As evidence that God can do this, he's also enabled your relative Elizabeth to become pregnant in her old age. (You'll realise I'm paraphrasing very loosely here.) Nothing is impossible with God!

Nothing is impossible with God! There's a point my lecturer failed to grasp…

Simple Acceptance

“'I am the Lord's servant,' Mary answered. 'May your word to me be fulfilled.'”

This is a young woman with a right perspective in life. She is the Lord's servant. She's raised her questions, had them answered, and accepted that this is what God wants: who is she to resist?

Just think about what's being set in motion here. She's been told that she's going to have a baby, something that would normally be thrilling news! But—she's not married. What will mum and dad think? What about the neighbours? How will mum and dad cope with the shame? What will Joseph do? How will I ever live this down?

“I am the Lord's servant,” and that's enough for Mary. She's not just having any baby; she's having the most important baby ever. Whether the immensity of that has sunk in at this point we don't know but Mary is the Lord's servant. May God's will be done.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if we were more like Mary? So often, when we get an inkling of God's will for our lives, our response can be quite different. “That's not what I had in mind. This will ruin my career. My reputation will be in tatters. This can't be right—think about the consequences. Lord, I think you've got this wrong! I'm not the right person. Can't you send someone else?”

Mary has a simple acceptance of God's will and a quiet confidence in God's plan. It may be problematic for her but God is in it. And what did the angel say? “… no word from God will ever fail.”

Do you have an inkling of God's will for your life? Have your been wrestling against it for a while? It's time to stop fighting and to go with God's plan.

Perhaps you're being called simply to follow Jesus, to become a disciple, a Christian. Today would be a good day to accept God's gift of salvation.

Faith from the Heart

In recent years, televised depictions of these events have made much of the shame that would have been laid on Mary for having become pregnant out of wedlock. But Mary was not universally rejected as a harlot, as our reading clearly shows.

Mary hurried off to see Elizabeth, who was six months pregnant by then. “When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.” And Mary's step of acceptance was rewarded with clear confirmation that she had it right.

The words Elizabeth spoke were a tremendous encouragement to Mary; affirming words in keeping with what the angel had said. Words that were spoken before Mary had any chance to explain her own encounter with the angel. She was convinced that God was in all that was about to happen to her. She knew she could count on Elizabeth's support.

She was so thrilled that she overflowed with joy! Here's my paraphrase of what she said:

I'm thrilled with God!
I'm a nobody but he's doing something with me that everyone forever will marvel at.
He's so good to everyone who trusts him, all through the ages.
He's done amazing things.
He's put those who think they're something back in their places.
And those who seem actually to be something, he's taken down a peg or two.
He's blessed the poor instead of letting the rich grab it all.
He's keeping his promises to his people.
He's blessing them just like he said he would,
all those years ago!

When we step out in simple faith to follow God's calling, confirmation of that calling will come, perhaps in unexpected ways. Faith pleases God; God responds to faith and encourages it.

By now, Mary's heart is full of faith; faith that will sustain her through the months and years to come.

And Mary has another quality: the ability to hold on to things God has said to her. We read about her treasuring up the things the shepherds told her, and pondering them in her heart (Lk 2:19); she marvelled at what was said about Jesus when they presented him at the temple for the first time (Lk 2:33); The things that the 12-year old Jesus said when they found him at the temple, she treasured in her heart (Lk 2:51).

Following through on my call to preach hasn't been easy. I almost gave up at one point. But I can recall words of prophecy and encouragement that have been spoken into my life down the years, words that even now help me to keep going. We have to remember the words God speaks purposefully into our lives. When the going gets tough, rely on God's promises.

Plain Sailing?

If God has a plan for our lives, shouldn't everything be plain sailing? When we hit obstacles, doesn't that show we made a mistake—that we heard God wrong?

At this point in her life, Mary knew about God's big picture but she had no detail about what was going to happen, and she didn't have an easy time of it.

Would Joseph still want her? Well God sorted that one out by sending Gabriel to have a word with Joseph.
Then they had to go on the run to Egypt to get away from king Herod, who was hell-bent on destroying any rival for his throne.
Once Herod was out of the way, they came back from Egypt to a remote existence in an unimpressive rural backwater known as Nazareth. “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” says Nathanael in John's gospel.
She and Joseph had more children, but then Joseph disappears from the record with the most likely reason being that he died. Mary had to face all the challenges of Jesus' public ministry and execution without support from Joseph.
She suffered the loss of Jesus himself and, as foretold, a sword of pain pierced her own soul. Perhaps only those among us who have lost children can imagine how painful it must have been for Mary to watch Jesus die on a Roman cross.

The last we read about Mary is in Acts, after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus. Luke records, “They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.”

Remember Mary's words: “I am the Lord's servant. … May your word to me be fulfilled.”

Mary had been God's choice. She had been the right choice.

Remember the angel's words: “… no word from God will ever fail.”

God's plan, and Mary's role in it, had been fully accomplished.
Challenge

Mary's story shows us that no one is too ordinary for God to use, even in extraordinary ways.

When God calls, let's be like Mary and respond in simple faith.

We may have reasonable doubts or questions, but let's not let them stop us moving forward.

Opposition doesn't mean we're wrong. It means we have to rely on God's promises.

Colossians Part VIII: Final Instructions

2018-12-14T14:23:00.000+00:00

Readings

Colossians 1:9-13, NIV
Colossians 4:2-18, NIV

Introduction

Well, we've come to the last part in our series on Colossians. Last time, we thought about what Paul had to say about various personal relationships, and we could think of what he said as balancing authority and responsibility, tempering both with an attitude of submission and humility. Today, we think of other relationships:

our relationship with God through prayer, and
our relationship with those outside the kingdom through our witness.

Prayer

I'm sure we've all heard many a sermon on prayer. It's something that puzzles us. Doesn't God know everything anyway? Can we really change his mind by praying? How does prayer work?

Now, I'm not the world's best pray-er. There are probably people here who know a lot more about it. But we don't have to be experts. It's just something we need to do, and the way we do it can be as individual as we are.

Prayer for me is about consciously acknowledging the presence of God, talking life and issues over with him, allowing him to influence me. It's about working with God to bring about change; God wants us to be involved in what he's doing. However strange it may seem, prayer is something that God wants us to do; it's something that Paul encourages us to do: “Devote yourselves to prayer.”

The translators have used this word devote to convey Paul's meaning to us. When we devote something, whether that be an object or time, we set it apart for a special purpose. When we devote ourselves to something, we sweep all else aside to make way for that thing. So Paul is telling us that prayer is really important—something we can't ignore.

The Greek word behind the translators' devote is proskartereo and its use in scripture suggests persistence, intent engagement, constant attention, perseverance. Prayer is not something we restrict to a specific time in our week—it's an ongoing occupation.

Prayer is much more than religiously 'saying prayers'. It's about a purposeful, expectant interaction with God. For example, just saying the Lord's prayer does absolutely nothing for us. That prayer was intended as a model, a shape for our praying. We need to get inside the Lord's prayer, to inhabit it, to understand that this is what God wants, and I want it too! We discover God's presence and purposes when we spend time in prayer!

Prayer can be dangerous! Sometimes God's answer can be, 'I want you to do something about this.'

Paul tells us in our praying to be watchful and thankful. We should keep an eye out for the needs around us, pray about them and look for the answers, then give thanks when the answers come, perhaps especially when we discover we are the answer!

Prayer can also be part of our involvement with the worldwide church. Paul says, “And pray for us, too...” A literal translation of the Greek here would be something like 'praying together also concerning us.' The word translated as together suggests we're not in intended to be doing this only as individuals. Whether what Paul wrote suggests corporate prayer in the Colossian church, or joining their prayers together with Paul's is perhaps arguable, but certainly we should be praying for those who are working to spread God's kingdom. Paul gives us some ideas of what to pray, and we'll think about that in a while.

Obviously, we are also going to pray for ourselves. What sort of things should we pray for? In Ephesians, Paul says, “pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.” I think that phrase “in the Spirit” re-emphasises the point about real engagement when we pray, not merely reciting prayers.

In praying for ourselves, we may pray, 'Please God, change this situation for me.' His answer may be, 'No, because I want to change you for the situation.' But pray about anything and everything. God cares for you!

There are some things we should be concerned about for ourselves, and that's why we read Paul's prayer for the Colossians again. I'm not going to preach on that passage again, but have another read of it when you get home. The things in that prayer are what Paul thought important for Christians, things that have never diminished in importance. We can, and should, pray that we might benefit from the same things today.

We also read what Epaphras prayed for the Colossians: that they “may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured.” So Paul and Epaphras are praying the same things really. Should we not want these things for ourselves, for each other?

Witness

What do you believe? Why do you believe it? What difference does it make to the way you live? If it makes no difference, you don't really believe it.

We are witnesses to the saving grace of God. We're living testimonies to the difference our God can bring to the needy, and to those who think they need nothing. If we are living out our faith, people will notice. Some of them will wonder why we're different. Some will ask what makes us different. We need to be ready to tell others our personal stories of our faith.

You don't need to have a deep understanding of theology. Your story doesn't have to be spectacular. You don't have to have answers to all the questions about suffering, wars, and why God allows bad things to happen. It's just your experience, what God means to you.

Is it important that others believe the gospel? Well, if it's only in Christ that people are rescued from the dominion of darkness, find entrance to the kingdom of his Son and forgiveness of sins, then it is important, and our witness is important. We need to be ready and willing to share.

So, how can we prepare ourselves? Paul suggests three things in this passage:

Our prayers
Our actions
Our words

Our Prayers

Given what we've already thought about prayer, it's no great surprise that prayer is an important part of being ready to share our stories. We really can't get by without it.

I wonder what we think of Paul. Do we imagine him to have been someone who had it all together, who fearlessly spread the gospel wherever he went? He was an ordinary human being just like us, and just like us he needed all the help God could give him. And so he asked the Colossians to pray for his ministry, specifically asking for two things.

Firstly, he wants a door to be opened for his message. He was in Rome under house arrest, so maybe he was asking the Colossians to pray for his release, or maybe he was asking for opportunities to come his way regardless of his circumstances—after all, he was allowed to receive visitors and was constantly watched over by Roman guards. Ironically, they would have been a captive audience!

Secondly, he wants to proclaim the mystery of Christ clearly. Paul was a scholar with encyclopaedic knowledge of scripture. If anyone knew how to present the gospel it was surely him. Yet he asks for the Colossians to pray for clarity, so that he might be effective in his presentation.

Now, if Paul asked for prayer for those things, these are good things to pray for our own witness: opportunities to share, and the ability to be clear in our sharing.

When we pray like this for ourselves, we're telling God we're available to be involved in his work of rescuing people.

Our Actions

Paul says, “Be wise in the way you act towards outsiders…” He isn't talking about us putting on a show. A literal translation here would be, “walk in wisdom toward the ones outside.” Our walk is our way of living, and our living should always be consistent with our faith. All those virtues we were told to clothe ourselves with earlier (compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forbearance, forgiveness) are not to be kept within the confines of our fellowship.

We're wise to remember that we're always on display. What image do we project? We're wise to show the same love to those outside our faith as we do to those on the inside. To the Jew of Paul's day, gentiles were considered worse than dogs—but Christ is for all, Jew and gentile alike. To the Islamist of today, unbelievers are scum to be used and abused and disposed of however they see fit. Hundreds of mass graves have been discovered in territories that were controlled by the so-called Islamic State. It's hardly the sort of behaviour that would attract me to join them.

Our wise conduct will show the love of God to those who have yet to discover Christ for themselves. Our wise conduct will be welcoming of those who are seeking, and generous towards the needy. Our wise conduct will show the clear difference that God has made to our living.

Our wise conduct will make people wonder why we're different and ask us. And Paul tells us to “… make the most of every opportunity.” If you're praying for opportunities, expect opportunities. Trust that the opportunities God gives you are within the grasp of your abilities. You can do it!

A friend told me about an experience he had as a young man when he started working for the Post Office. All the men made fun of his beliefs but he stuck at it. One day he announced he had tickets for a film featuring Billy Graham. All but one rubbished the idea. The most foul-mouthed villain of the lot agreed to go along—just for a laugh! He watched the film with tears running down his cheeks and was converted that very night! The other men back at the sorting office were amazed at the transformation.

We may not always be the last link in the chain that leads someone to salvation, but we never know what influence we may have. If my friend hadn't been open about his faith, who knows what would have happened to that man? And I am standing here today because a school friend was willing to stand up and be counted.

Our Words

Our words speak volumes about our character. When I was at university, there was a guy in the Christian Union who seemed incapable of speaking anything other than sarcasm. He was most offended when I told him I'd heard enough of it! We've probably all met people who are always grumpy, or bossy, or negative, or cynical, or divisive.

But Paul tells us, “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.”

Jesus said, “… the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.” (Luke 6:45). If we find it hard to be gracious in our speech, perhaps the problem lies in our hearts…

If we are Christians, then we're recipients of God's grace. That grace should be shown in our relationships and our speech. Even when we have good cause to tell someone off!

We all know how salt adds flavour to food. Paul tells us to add flavour to our speech! That doesn't mean we should embellish the truth. To the Jews of the day, salt was an idiom for wisdom. So as well as being wise in our conduct, we need to be wise in what we say and how we say it.

Peter writes in his first letter, “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.”

Paul implies in Colossians that the practice of gracious, wise conversation will mean that when anyone asks us about what we believe, we'll be better prepared to answer them.

We can help ourselves by talking to each other about faith, and listening to each other, and encouraging each other. What stops us doing that? Is it that we have nothing to say? Or are we just embarrassed? Is it British reserve? A fear that we might be seen as showing off? We need to develop the habit of sharing our faith and our experiences of God. If we can't talk to each other here we'll find it almost impossible anywhere else.

Conclusion

And so, today we've shared some thoughts about prayer and about sharing our faith with others, and we've come to the end of our series on Colossians. The remainder of the chapter consists of final greetings and refers to a number of people.

Paul's letter to Colossae addressed specific needs in a particular church, and imparted some general teaching to the people there. But, just as Paul thought it would be useful for the people in Laodicea to read the letter as well, it's also useful for us. We too face opposing influences in our society. Understanding who Christ is, what God has done for us in Christ, how God expects us to live, and the liberty God has given us to live that way, will help us resist the pressures that can undermine our trust, water down our message and divert us from the path to life.

As a preacher, I want my words to be interesting, certainly, perhaps educational. But above all, I want my words to be transformative, not merely informative. I hope that you'll think about what I've said, read for yourselves the scriptures I've been talking about. I hope you've heard the Holy Spirit speaking to you, not just me.

But, having heard, what will you do? To the Hebrew, to hear was more than just listening: to hear was to put into practice. Jesus said, “My mother and brothers are those who hear God's word and put it into practice.”

There are some serious challenges in Colossians, but there are also liberating truths. Read it again; read Ephesians too, and allow yourselves to be transformed by what you discover.

Colossians Part VII: Instructions for Christian Households

2018-10-27T14:01:00.003+01:00

Reading

Colossians 3:18-4:1

Introduction

Last time, we thought about our new status in God through Christ, and the new priorities we are called to: to love God with all our hearts, souls, minds and strength, and to love our neighbour as ourselves. Paul pointed out the horrible things that old way of life produced, and told us to put those things to death. He also told us about the new set of clothes that God has given us: patterns of living that flow from the love of God at work within us.

This time, Paul highlights specific relationships, and explains how they should be worked out. What he writes also shows us something of the nature of God.

When I was a younger man, when I wasn't married, was independent of my parents and had no children of my own, and, whilst I had a job and a boss but was neither a slave nor slave owner, our reading was a passage I used to skim through. That view changed one lunchtime at work when I sat at my desk and passed the time by reading through Colossians. Whilst the relationships addressed had no direct bearing on my life, I realised that these verses gave a wonderful picture of what God is like in my personal relationship with him.

My upbringing had a dose of the old maxim, “Do as I say, not as I do.” I realised that God isn't like that. He's very much a “Do as I do” kind of person.

Nowadays, a passage that begins with, “Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands,” is likely to be controversial. But, with proper understanding, I hope we can agree that what Paul writes here is actually liberating and life-affirming!

I'm going to cheat a little. Ephesians 5:21-6:9 gives us an exact parallel to our
passage from Colossians, and a few extra nuances. I'm not cheating very much. It's my job as a preacher to compare scripture and present a coherent understanding. Also, in Colossians 4:16, Paul tells the Colossians to make sure they read the letter he sent to Laodicea. I'm convinced that was a copy of his letter to Ephesus, which we now know was a circular passed around the churches in the area.

Ephesians has much in common with Colossians. They're like non-identical twins. Did Paul first write to address the issues in Colossae, and then pen his even more glorious Ephesian epistle? Or did he write Ephesians first and then re-cycle the material to give more targeted instruction to the Colossians? We'll never know, but reading and studying them together pays dividends.

So, we'll look at the relationships in the passage, and consider what they show us about the nature of God.

Relationships

We all live in relationships. Some of them, marred by the failings of our earthly nature, are dysfunctional. But relationships between believers should show the good things that grow out of the most important relationship of all: our relationship with God himself. Things like compassion, kindness, bearing with each other, forgiveness, love, peace, and thankfulness. We thought about these things last time. Now Paul writes about specific relationships, and there's a principle that lies behind all he says about them: the principle of mutual submission.

Submission

I quoted the beginning of verse 18 earlier (“Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands,”). The problem with this verse is not what Paul wrote but with the way it's been abused. We think of submission as subjection or, even worse, subjugation. But to understand the word that way is to take it right out of the whole context of the epistle.

In studying Colossians afresh for this series, I've become deeply aware of verse back in chapter one that underpins all that follows it: “[the Father] has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, ...”

Dominion, in the sense of domination and control, belongs to the realm of Satan. It's an expression of our sinful nature. It has no counterpart in the kingdom of the Son.

The Ephesians parallel passage begins with a telling statement: “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.” If you are a Christian and I am a Christian, then we both have Christ; we are both being renewed in the image of our Creator. Whatever our relative stations in life, we must regard each other with respect and dignity because Christ is in us and among us.

The same idea is expressed in Philippians 2:3, “… in humility value others above yourselves, ...” In Christ, submission is a mutual thing, and that idea is embodied in each of the pairs of instructions that Paul gives to wives and husbands, parents and children, slaves and masters.

Wives and Husbands

This section is the trickiest part to tackle—especially as I'm a man and most of you are women! And I would like to get out of here alive!

We have to consider cultural matters. Culture is sometimes a destructive influence on relationship. Undercurrents in our own culture still reinforce distorted stereotypes. It's been said that, “Woman's place is in the home.” One opposing view is that, “Man's place is in the wrong!” Notions like this do little to encourage domestic harmony…

My commentary tells me that in both Jewish and pagan cultures of Paul's time, wives had no rights. In a culture like that, we can imagine wives becoming resentful, perhaps even rebellious, and men responding harshly, perhaps using their masculine strength abusively to keep women under their control.

What Paul writes here actually elevates the status of wives and challenges the attitudes of husbands. There is nothing in his language to suggest the wife was inferior to the husband.

To wives, Paul says, “submit … to your husbands.” Borrowing the language from Philippians, we could express that as, “… in humility value [your husband] above yourself ...” This would be the wife's part of the mutual submission we're thinking about, and would remove any need for harsh treatment. It would also mean that the cultural norm isn't offended by Christian women. It might even make a good impression on non-Christian men!

Now, ladies, if you're beginning to seethe with rage at this point, wait till you hear what I have to say to the men!

To husbands, Paul says, “love your wives and do not be harsh with them.” The root of the Greek word for 'love' here is agape, the same root for the way that “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son.” Agape love is sacrificial love. If we look at the parallel passage in Ephesians, Paul writes, “… love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her ...” Then Paul explains that Christ's purpose in doing that was to enable the church to become everything that he intended for it.

Gentlemen, that's our part of the mutual submission we're thinking about. “… in humility value [your wife] above yourself ...” Our love is to be sacrificial. If we're to follow Christ's example, then we're to give ourselves up for them, and help them become all that God intends them to be.

Wouldn't that make for harmonious homes? What impression would that sort of behaviour make on the culture of the day? Or even of our day?

Paul draws a parallel for us. Just as the church submits to Christ, who gave himself for it, so the wife should respect the husband, who is to give himself for her. So, in the marriage relationship we're called to mutual love and respect.

One problem is that we all understand love in different ways.

My parents separated and divorced just after celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary. They each told me that they loved the other but, unfortunately, one of them wasn't getting the message.

For my dad, love was meals on the table, the home being managed, the children being cared for, all of which my mum did. Dad expressed love in the way he expected to receive it. He always worked, he made sure we had holidays, he maintained the car and did the DIY.

My mum wanted to know that she was valued, that what she did was appreciated. She wanted to be shown genuine affection, to be hugged and to hear the words, “I love you.” She left because she didn't get what she needed and felt she was just a slave, in effect.

If a man is to love his wife he has to learn what his wife recognises as love. And vice versa.

What can we learn about the nature of God? We, the church, are to submit to Christ as his bride—perhaps not the easiest concept to understand, especially for us men. This is in response to Christ who loves us and has already given himself for us, and who even now intercedes for us, cares for us, guides us.

Parents and Children

Paul's instruction to children is simple: do as you're told! That's how they should show their submission. Obedience doesn't just please parents, it also pleases the Lord.

As you might expect, greater responsibility is placed on the parents. Paul addresses “fathers” but we can justifiably think in terms of “parents.” Their submission is shown in the way they are to treat their children.

Putting Colossians and Ephesians together, parents are told not to embitter their children, not to exasperate them, not to provoke them to anger. Things that lead only to discouragement.

I remember interchanges in my childhood going like this:

“Don't do that!”
“But you do it!”
“Do as I say, not as I do.”
“That's not fair!”

The example of the parent is so important in the development of the child. What the parents say and what the parents do must be consistent.

Paul tells parents to bring children up in the training and instruction of the Lord. This responsibility lies primarily with parents, not the Sunday school. If we want our children to be disciples then we must ourselves be disciples. If we're not serious about our faith, we can't expect them to be.

Having said that, I was brought up in a non-Christian family, and here I am, standing in a pulpit! God is bigger than our upbringing!

I don't have children, so I hesitate to tell any parent what to do. But I've been a child, and I've seen other families with children, some getting it right, some getting it wrong. And what Paul writes seems to make sense to me.

What can we learn about the nature of God? As God's children, we are to obey our heavenly Father, because it pleases him (and he really does know best!). As our loving Father, he won't embitter or provoke or exasperate us. He doesn't want us to be discouraged; he wants us to grow up in the training and instruction of Christ.

If we find ourselves exasperated with God, perhaps the fault lies with our obedience…?

Slaves and Masters

Clearly, the Colossian church included some people who were slaves, and some who were slave owners. Earlier in the letter, Paul elevated the status of slaves: “Here there is no Gentile or Jew, … slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.” In Christ, slaves were equal with all other classes.

In the world, however, they remained slaves. Obviously, since they were in the church, they must have been allowed some free time but they had no rights and were not allowed to inherit anything, but in Christ they have an inheritance—something to look forward to.

The Roman world was powered by slaves. If Paul had said, let all your slaves go free, life would have fallen apart. And what would become of the slaves? They had no means of their own. And some of the slaves would have had non-Christian masters anyway.

So Paul advocates mutual submission. Slaves were to obey their owner, to show respect and reverence, to do their work wholeheartedly, as if for the Lord himself. Might they have been better treated as a result? Might their masters wonder what made their Christian slaves different?

In Ephesians, Paul tells Christian masters to treat their slaves “in the same way”: with respect and reverence. They are to give them what was right and fair. That was pretty radical. Might their slaves be influenced by the gospel?

These days, few of us even have paid servants, and none of us has been a slave. But I think we can borrow the ethic here and apply it to managers and work force: the way we go about our work, how we relate to our bosses, how we treat our subordinates. Whatever our station in life, we represent Christ; our conduct is always on display.

What can we learn about the nature of God? We're to obey our heavenly Master with respect and reverence, and work wholeheartedly for him, knowing that we have a reward for our labour and an inheritance to look forward to.

As our Master, God treats us with respect and reverence, not threateningly (we are precious to him!), and he'll provide us with what is right and fair. We have to remember that, as his servants, we may be called to suffer for his name, so we may not see all the benefits in this life. But serve we must, and the Master's good provision is assured.

Summary

So, we've learnt about the principle and practice of mutual submission. Paul has given some guidance on how to conduct our most important relationships, and we've learnt something about the nature of God and our relationship with him.

Colossians Part VI: Living as Those made Alive in Christ

2018-10-18T00:39:00.001+01:00

Readings

Mark 12:28-34
Colossians 3:1-17

Introduction

Last time we saw that extreme religious rules and regulations for bringing about righteous living were of no use to the believer. Nor were harsh regimes any good for controlling our passions. But if we thought that meant 'anything goes' we'd be mistaken. Christians are not to be lawless.

The problem at Colossae was the imposition of human rules and practices. God's law, however, is rooted in the nature of God and not in human ideas. Paul goes on in this next passage from Colossians to make clear what kind of behaviour is expected of Christ's followers.

In our first reading, we heard Jesus summing up the whole of Torah in the two great commandments:

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.
You shall love your neighbour as yourself.

Paul's discourse here reflects these commandments closely. Verses 1 to 4, 16 and 17 rest on the first of these, and the remainder of the passage rests on the second.

So let's think first about loving God, and then think about loving our neighbour.

Loving God

¹Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. ²Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. ³For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. ⁴When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Paul reminds the Colossians of the wonderful status God has conferred on them: they have been raised with Christ, and stand in a new relationship with God! He implies the freedom to choose what we do with our hearts and minds, and he exhorts them to make God the whole focus of their existence.

“Set your hearts on things above.” You know what it means to set your heart on something. All your hopes, all your dreams are channelled into that one thing. And that's how God wants us to be for the things above.

“Set your minds on things above.” Our minds our very important to us, because they govern the way we live. God expects us to use our minds in pursuit of the things above. He doesn't want us to fill them with worry, or with schemes for grasping the short-lived pleasures of this world.

But what are the things above? We've already seen some of them in chapter one: spiritual wisdom and understanding, knowledge of God’s will, knowledge of God himself, power and strength to endure, an inheritance to look forward to.

If we set our hearts and minds on things above we can be confident of receiving. Christ is at the right hand of God in the position of executive authority on our behalf! He wants us to have these things. And our only certain investment is in Christ. One day, he'll bring the kingdom of God fully into being, and we will have our part in it.

As Jesus told us, loving God is of first importance. In truly seeking after God we'll want to do the things that please him and so we'll want to know what's on his heart. And we'll discover that we on his heart. We are loved! I am loved, you are loved. And if God loves you, should I not do the same? Wouldn't that please him? So, our living becomes the outward expression of our inward realignment.

Loving Our Neighbour as Ourselves

Now, some of what follows could seem a pretty tall order. Paul tells us to put the wrong stuff in our lives to death, to take it off like a garment. And then he tells us to put on good stuff instead, like a new change of clothing. We have to keep in mind all that Paul has already told us about who Christ is and what God has done for us in Christ. That's what makes it all possible! Otherwise, we're just trying to do it in our own strength, and we'll fail.

Take off (as a garment)

⁵Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. ⁶Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. ⁷You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived …

Paul tells us to put to death expressions of our earthly nature. He gives us a list of what they are so we know what he's talking about. It's a list that's just as relevant today as it was for the Colossians. These days, we hear advice like be yourself! express yourself! follow your heart! But if the things in this list are the things in our hearts, is it any wonder that our society is in a mess?

If we are to love our neighbour as ourselves, then we can't do these things. People don't want to be treated in this way. I know I don't, and I'm pretty sure you don't either. These things are all self-gratifying at the expense of others. They lead to abuse and exploitation, not love. We hear about the results of these things in our news programmes, things like modern slavery where innocent girls are promised a better life in a different country and find themselves forced into prostitution or slave labour.

These things make God angry, because he loves the people he's made, and he hates to see them abused! And judgement is surely coming … !

⁷You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived … Well … looking around at you lot, I wouldn't think it of you! But who knows…?

I have a friend who surprised me many years ago. One day, he decided he needed to confess something. He was happily married, with children, but when he was away on business he struggled with pornography. That day, he brought his sin into the light. That day, the light banished the darkness: he put the thing to death. That day, he found forgiveness and freedom. From that day on he went from strength to strength and today is in full-time Christian service.

Here's another list …

⁸But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. ⁹Do not lie to each other, …

Now, there is such a thing as righteous anger—the gospels record times when Jesus was angry, and I've just said that there are things that make God angry. But the context sharpens the meaning for us. Paul is talking about a destructive, hateful anger. Jesus warns in the Sermon on the mount, ²¹‘You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, “You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgement.” ²²But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister [without cause] will be subject to judgement.' And John, in his first epistle tells us that “Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer.” (1 John 3:15a)

We can't go through the whole list in detail, so I'll just pick one more. Slander, speaking badly of others, is very easy to fall into. It's of no benefit to the person whose character is assassinated by it, it sows distrust in the minds of the hearers, and, personally, I want to keep away from people who bad-mouth others, so it leads to their isolation too.

Gossip is a close relative of slander …

If we are to love our neighbour as ourselves, then we can't do the things in this list either. People don't want to be treated in this way. I know I don't, and again I'm pretty sure you don't.

⁹Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices ¹⁰and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.

Paul writes that our new self “… is being renewed …” Our transformation is a process. We're learning more and more about what God is like, and we're in the process of becoming more and more like him. The image of God that's in all of us, the broken image, is being restored. This takes time.

For me, when I became a Christian, some things changed overnight—people noticed! Other things have taken ages to get sorted out. And that's been very frustrating, at times.

In my early years as a Christian, I thought everyone else was problem-free. All our songs were triumphant, our testimonies were triumphant. No-one else seemed to experience struggles with temptation and sin. I remember thinking, “I wish there was a Church for sinners.” … But, of course, there is! The church is for sinners. This church is for sinners! Sinners saved by grace, and in the process of being transformed by grace.

¹¹Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all. ¹²Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves …

The people who had been influencing the Colossian believers were pushing their party lines: you have to be like us and do what we do. But Paul says no to all that. Christ incorporates all from whatever background. Jews and gentiles alike are included equally in Christ. Foreigners, known as barbarians by the Greeks, or Scythians by the Romans, are included equally in Christ. (Scythians were considered a worse form of barbarian, and could also be slaves traded by barbarians.) All are included equally in Christ. And there's no class system in Christ; whether you were a slave or a free man or woman, you were included equally in Christ.

These were important words for the mixed population of Colossae. And they're important words for today's society. Whoever we are, whatever our background, if we are in Christ then we are all God's chosen people—we are special to him. We're made holy—set apart—for him. And we're dearly loved … wherever we are from!

Put On (as a garment)

¹²Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. ¹³Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. ¹⁴And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

Now we move from the negative to the positive. There's that word therefore again. Paul is telling the Colossians that because they're included in Christ regardless of their background, there's a new way to live!

Paul gives us another list here; a list of virtues. Some of them sound very like another list we know as the fruit of the Spirit. Being a Christian isn't all about giving things up. Yes, we have to put an end to the bad stuff. In my experience, giving something up leaves a hole in your life. Here are some things to fill that hole with! Look at the list. Isn't that how you want people to treat you? With compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience?

Knowing that you are not yet perfect—take my word for it!—don't you want other people to bear with you? To forgive you? To forgive you as the Lord forgives? Then, you do the same!

Paul tells the Colossians to clothe themselves with these things. These things are ours to choose; none of them is imposed on us. And all these things are bound together in love. They are expressions of love. Love your neighbour as yourself. We cooperate with the Spirit of God when we choose to act in these loving ways. Love is not about feeling. Love is about action. What will you choose to do?

¹⁵Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. ¹⁶Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. ¹⁷And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Some people think the peace of Christ ruling in the heart is about finding personal guidance—but it isn't! It's about unity and our lives together. And it's not about avoiding confrontation. Sometimes to restore real peace, we have to confront and resolve the grievances that disrupted it. And then we forgive, and bear with each other. It's not about putting someone in their place, it's about ensuring that Christ's peace can flow unhindered among us, so that when we get to that part of the communion service where we “share the sign of peace,” there's nothing rankling about it, but a genuine celebration of God's shalom between brothers and sisters in Christ. Isn't that something to be thankful for?

Paul writes about the message of Christ dwelling richly among us. He obviously expects the Colossians to talk to each other about their faith, their discoveries about God, their experiences of God; blessings they've received from a psalm or hymn, or words the Spirit has spoken into their lives. They all have something they can share!

We all have something to share. Some of us may feel we don't have much to share, but it's not insignificant, and the little we have can grow! Sometimes growth happens because you share things!

We're all at different stages of our pilgrimage but we can all encourage one another. What will you talk about over coffee? Take your courage in both hands and share something of your journey. Talk together about God. Don't be shy – we're disciples together! It's all part of expressing our love for God.

And coming right back to loving God, we're encouraged in the final verse to remember whose we are and whom we represent, and to do everything as a gift of service to him. That perhaps gives us pause for thought about the things we plan to do.

Summary

The lists that Paul has given us in our passage show that people of the Colossian world were not very different from our own. And we understand that God still looks for change now just as he did then—a putting off of things in the bad lists, and a putting on of the things in the virtuous list.

Is there anything we need to change? Let me make that personal: is there anything God is speaking to you about?

Can we change? Is it really possible?

Well, yes it is and yes we can, because we have been rescued from the dominion of darkness. We can still be tempted, but temptation isn't sin; it's more of an opportunity to choose. We are free to choose to put off our old ways and put on the new. We can support each other in putting off and putting on.

We can choose to pursue God for all we're worth—for all he's worth—and to reflect the love he lavishes on us by in turn lavishing that love on our neighbour.

Shall we do that?

Shall we do it together?

Colossians Part V: Freedom for Human Rules

2018-09-04T11:10:00.000+01:00

Readings

Colossians 2:16-23
Jeremiah 31:31-34

Introduction – an Aside on Theology

The passage we are looking at today begins, in the New International Version, with the word therefore. This implies that what Paul has told us before this point has bearing on what he is about to tell us. He's telling the Colossians, “In the light of everything I've just told you, take this stance; do these things.”

I've said before that Colossians has a strong theological content to begin with and goes on to provide strong practical application. I've also pointed out that Paul was writing to counter false teaching and practices that the Colossians were being subjected to. Paul did that by explaining what God has done for them through Christ, exactly who this Christ is, and what God wants them to experience. It's important for them to know these things in order to live right.

It's important for us to know those things too. If we don't know what's true, we could go off in any old direction, making it up as we go along, or being deflected by people who seem to have some impressive understanding of spiritual things.

So, when we encounter the word, therefore, as we do in verse 16, we should look back to see what we've learnt, and then look forward to see how to apply it.

So, what have we learnt so far?

We've learnt

that the gospel is producing fruit all over the world;
that we can know God's will so we can live to please him;
that God's sustaining power is available to help us persevere;
(and here's a key truth) that we've been rescued from the dominion of darkness and placed in a new kingdom under the reign and rule of Christ where we can know that we are redeemed and forgiven;
that Christ is absolutely supreme over all creation and over the new order that he's brought into being;
that we've been reconciled to God through Christ and his death for us;
that Christ is among us and within us, and he is our hope of glory;
that spiritual maturity is attainable for all of us;
that, in Christ, we have everything we need;
that our old selves have been cut away, and we have new lives, free from condemnation;
that the dark forces that held us captive have been defeated at the cross.

These are facts that form the basis for Christian living.

We finished last time with Paul's exhortation to live with Christ as Lord, to put down good roots in Christ, and to build strong foundations. I wonder if you've thought about these things … I wonder if you've done anything about them …

So, that's what lies before the therefore. Now we're starting into what lies after it. In our passage, we can see depictions of two ways of living:

The Human way
The Godly Way

The Human Way

It seems that the Colossian believers were being influenced by Jews who insisted that they adopt Jewish practices and customs. Paul mentions what we might understand as the kosher laws about food and drink, and festivals and Sabbaths. But he says these things are only shadows of things that were to come. He doesn't say that participation is wrong, only that they shouldn't listen to those who want to exclude them on the basis of non-participation.

Living in Shadows

Why did Paul describe these things as shadows? Almost all the Jewish festivals are commemorations of God stepping in to deliver their ancestors from evil rulers.

If we think about the Passover, that festival looks back to the time when Israel was oppressed and held captive by the Egyptian Pharaoh. God sent plagues to convince Pharaoh to let God's people go. The last plague was the visitation from the angel of death. The Israelites sacrificed a lamb and smeared its blood on the door posts and lintels of their homes to ward off the angel of death—a protection the Egyptians didn't have. In consequence, the Israelites were set free, but pursued by Pharaoh's army, and then saved through the parting of the Red Sea and the subsequent drowning of Pharaoh's army; then they set off for their promised land.

When we think of the Last Supper, we see Jesus refocussing his disciples' attention so they can understand what he was doing. “Do this in remembrance of me,” he said. He came to deliver his people from evil, to be their sacrifice, to rescue them from death and lead them into the kingdom of God. The Passover festival was a shadow of what was to come, Christ brought about the eternal reality.

Making a Show

Then there were those among the Colossians who seemed to be imposing rigid styles of worship on people and making a show of humility. As a modern example, I think of the “Heavy Shepherding” movement of the late 70s, where church leaders demanded and expected obedience from their flock.

Some of the people in Colossae may have come from religious backgrounds with tough, ascetic regimes. Mystery religions depicted matter as evil, so it's no surprise they should want to treat their bodies harshly. The kind of fasting they practised would have induced hallucinations, hence they could “go into great detail about what they [had] seen.”

Some Native-American tribes still send their young men who are coming of age on a vision quest. As part of that, they are sent alone to a sacred place in nature to fast completely for four days and nights, and to cry out to the Great Spirit for visions to guide them—and they see things!

All this harsh discipline looks very pious, but Paul says that people doing these things are not connected to Christ. And the things they do serve only to indulge their sinful nature—these things can't transform their living: only Christ can do that!

Abstinence

Then there were those who had rules about what the Colossians shouldn't be doing: “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!” We could think again about Jewish kosher rules, and all the rules the Jews had, and still have, that explained how to avoid breaking God's law.

As an example, when my father-in-law spent some time in hospital in Jerusalem, he discovered that taps were left running for the whole of the Sabbath so that people could get a drink of water without having to do the work of turning the tap on and off! How silly is that? Especially in a land where water is a precious commodity!

Imagine joining a church and then being told that you had to adopt all these life-limiting practices! In my early Christian days, there were unwritten rules I learnt to follow, very much of the “Do not touch!” variety. We didn't drink, didn't go to the cinema, didn't dance, to mention a few.

These were all human rules and expectations, as were the extra-biblical Jewish teachings. Paul mentions “the elemental spiritual forces of this world” which makes me wonder if he perceived something even more sinister behind these false teachers pushing ideas to keep people bound up in pointless and useless religion.

At least one commentator believes that all these pressures came from Jewish influencers, others say that some of Paul words would have resonated with people from pagan backgrounds. Whatever the source, they were pushing practices that were only than human rules.

All these rules were imposed from the outside to contain peoples' lives within “safe” boundaries (and perhaps to take power and control over them). As such, they had no real “value in restraining sensual indulgence,” as Paul puts it.

For example, think about your favourite snack. Now, try not eating it for a whole week, and see what your mind keeps turning to! Some of you may already have experienced this during Lent!

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus told the disciples and the crowd that was listening that, “unless [their] righteousness [surpassed] that of the Pharisees and teachers of the law, [they would] certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.” Why, and how? Because their righteousness was imposed from the outside but what God wants is transformation on the inside!

The Godly Way

Now, what we have here in today's passage is only the beginning of this, and our remaining studies in Colossians will continue to explore the Godly way.

Living with Reality

We thought earlier of how Christ brought reality to what was depicted in the Jewish Passover. Through Christ, “[God] has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

I hope all of us here know that we have been rescued, and know that we belong to God's kingdom, know that we are redeemed, and know that our sins are forgiven.

In the Jewish mind of Christ's time on earth, the kingdom of God was the temple, the place where heaven intersected with earth. Christ came and took the kingdom out to where the people were: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near,” was his message.

The kingdom of God is still at hand, because “Christ [is] in [us], the hope of glory.” Christ is among us and we are to show the kingdom of God to the world.
Christ has real power to change the course of our lives.

Dying with Christ

The change begins, intriguingly enough, with our death! I don't mean you have to wait until you leave this world and go to heaven. Paul writes, “Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world...”

In baptism, we are buried with Christ and raised to new life with him. On our declaration that Jesus is Lord we're included in Christ and his death becomes ours, and his life becomes ours. The evil powers behind this world of humanity lose their grip on us; we no longer have to follow their dictates because Christ sets us free to follow him.

To quote a Charles Wesley hymn,

Let nothing now my heart divide;
Since with thee I am crucified,
And live to God in thee.
Dead to the world and all its toys,
Its idle pomp, and fading joys,
Jesus, my glory be!

We become participants in God's new covenant. Remember our reading from Jeremiah? God puts his laws in our minds and writes them on our hearts so that we can live them out from within, not have them imposed from without.

Head and Body

In chapter one, Paul told us that “… [Christ] is the head of the body, the church,” (1:18) and in today's passage he emphasises that we are to take our instruction from Christ, our head.

Paul uses the body as a metaphor for the church. The body has ligaments and sinews that support and hold it together as it grows. Ligaments hold joints together and sinews attach muscle to bone. Following the instructions from Christ our Head will make our church grow with all the ministries we need to keep us in shape, to enable us to move and work, so we can be fruitful and effective—and not just a shapeless lump.

God wants the church to grow. The church is growing, even though we see churches in decline in our land. This is a challenge for us. Over recent years, we have shrunk, not grown. Some have died, some have left us completely, some have become only loosely attached. The remedy to this must begin with those of us who are still here living by the instructions from the church's Head.

Jesus told his disciples they needed to remain in him if they were to be fruitful. He said, “If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love,” (John 15). We must follow Christ and his way, even when it runs contrary to public opinion. If we are to grow as a church, we need to follow the teachings of Jesus—as real, everyday disciples.

Do we want to grow as God wants us to grow, or are we just waiting to go to heaven?

Summary

Introduction

We recapped what we've learnt so far

The Human Way

We've learnt that religious extremes are not required of us; these things can't do for us what Christ has already done; some practices can deceive us; some might even look impressive but can do nothing to change us on the inside.

The Godly Way

Reliance on what Christ has done for us is what counts; he's taken us out of the old life and brought us into the new; we need to live under Christ's direction if we are to grow.

The Colossian gentiles didn't come from a background that gave them any understanding of what YHWH is like or what he expects, and so Paul begins to give them instruction on how to live under this new covenant. We'll be looking at that from next time onwards, but we'll find it much clearer and much more straightforward than anything the Colossians were hearing from other quarters.

Colossians Part IV: Spiritual Fullness in Christ

2018-07-24T12:34:00.000+01:00

Reading

Luke 6:46-49
Colossians 2:6-15

Introduction

Kenneth E Bailey, in his excellent book, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes, writes 'It has been my privilege to teach short courses for the Lutheran Church of Latvia. While I was at the Luther Academy in Riga, I observed the interviewing of new students for the academy. I asked the interviewing committee what kind of questions they asked the applicants. They told me, “The most important question is, 'When were you baptised?'” And I asked, “Why is the date of baptism such an important question?” They answered, “If they were baptised during the period of Soviet rule, they risked their lives and compromised their futures by being baptised. But if they were baptised after liberation from the Soviets, we have many further questions to ask them about why they want to become pastors.”'

To be a disciple of Jesus under communist rule was a costly, even a dangerous, thing.

At the time of the early church, when new believers were baptised they declared Jesus as Lord. Under Roman rule, where Caesar alone was absolute Lord, such a statement was considered treasonous and could even result in your execution.

To be baptised was to proclaim Jesus as Lord and to take citizenship in a new kingdom that was not of this world.
To be baptised was to put away the old, self-gratifying, pleasure-seeking way of living, and to become a new creation set apart for the glory of God.
To be baptised was to recognise that, through the cross and resurrection of Christ, personal shame, guilt, and the sinful nature that leads to those things were dealt a fatal blow.

In the passage we are looking at today, Paul reminds the Colossians that they've received Christ as Lord, and he exhorts them to live out their lives with Christ as Lord. He counteracts the pressures of Jewish influencers who sought to impose Jewish practices on them.

I'm going to look at the text in a different order from what Paul wrote. I look at what he's written under three headings:

Christ is Enough
The Cross makes all the Difference, and
Jesus is Lord.

Christ is Enough 2:8-12

For the Jew, circumcision was symbolic of the covenant between God and Abraham and all who were descended from him. The law of Moses prescribed how to live, but then they also had the Talmud, a record of rabbinic traditions and interpretations of them, which effectively set up fences around the mosaic law to keep you far enough from the commandments to stop you breaking them.

It seems that Jewish influencers were trying to convince the Colossian converts who had been baptised that they needed something more: to be circumcised and to adopt Jewish customs.

But Paul says an emphatic “No!” He tells the Colossians that their baptism is far more effective than anything circumcision could achieve for the reasons I've already mentioned.

Paul, of course, had been a devout Jew. He was a Pharisee, well versed in Jewish tradition and law. But he'd discovered that none of that could bring him peace with God. In fact, in Philippians, he described it all as garbage, or dung, in comparison to what he'd found in Christ! The Colossians didn't need circumcision and weren't to be misled by anyone who tried to tell them otherwise.

Prior to this point, Paul has gone to great lengths to remind the Colossians just who Christ is and what he'd done for them and of all that was available to them in him. Everything they needed they already had in Christ.

If you've been baptised, I wonder what your baptism means to you? If you were baptised as an infant, it could be argued that the person you are now wasn't actually there at the time; you were unformed and unable to answer for yourself so others made promises on your behalf.

So what about your confirmation, the process by which you consciously ratified the promises made on your behalf? Was this for you a declaration that Jesus is your Lord, a recognition that in Christ you've put an end to the old ways of living and set your course to live out the new? As Paul expresses it here, by baptism we are cut off from our old nature by dying to it with Christ, and are resurrected with Christ to enjoy the life of a new nature in the kingdom of God. We were included in Christ when he died, and we were included in Christ when he rose from the dead!

Of course, the acts of baptism or confirmation in themselves don't make anyone a Christian. These are only outward signs of inward grace. It's possible to be a Christian without being baptised and its possible to be baptised without being a Christian. What makes us Christians is turning from our own ways, trusting in Christ for forgiveness and reconciliation, and setting out to follow Jesus as a life-long disciples. In fact, while God expects and looks for those things, we don't earn salvation by doing those them. Salvation is God's free gift of grace.

Having found Christ, Paul makes clear that we need nothing more: “For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority.” That being the case, what more could we possibly find elsewhere?

Christ is everything we need to make us right with God. Everything we need for meaning and purpose can be found in Christ.

The Cross makes all the Difference 2:13-15

All that Paul wrote to the Colossians about Christ and their relationship to God is just as true for us today. We gentiles were without hope, we had no relationship with God. We were as good as dead because of our sins. But Paul tells us that, even while we were in that state, God made us alive with Christ. There was nothing we could do, so God graciously forgave our sins.

Paul introduces a metaphor here. He talks in verse 14 about a written bond, which was a record of indebtedness, a kind of IOU. Our sinfulness resulted in our owing a great debt to God, which we couldn't afford to pay. Furthermore, this IOU was backed by the legal demands of God's law. Paul tells us that God has done away with the IOU, and therefore our debt, by nailing it to the cross. Christ's death was full and sufficient payment for all our sins.

In his gospel, John records the last words of Jesus from the cross as, “It is finished.” The Greek word behind that is tetelestai, which means, it is accomplished and will always remain accomplished. Christ achieved what he came to do, and what he achieved can never be undone.

Paul likes his metaphors! Now he introduces another one! When the Romans conquered anyone, they would have a procession into Rome, trailing their captives along to exhibit their triumph. At the cross, God disarmed and defeated his and our spiritual enemies, and made a public spectacle of them. Satan thought he had won at the crucifixion. In fact, Christ achieved everything he came to do! What Satan thought his final victory turned out to be his utter defeat! The cross portrays to the world God's triumph!

What does it mean for us? Well, do you remember that verse back in chapter one? “… he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son…” At the cross, the penalty of sin is paid, the power of sin is broken! Because of the cross, Satan has no grounds for accusation against us. We do not have to carry a burden of guilt! We do not have to be ruled by sinful behaviour!

If we have Christ, then we have everything we need. Nothing can be added to what he has done for us and nothing can ever be taken away. If we have Christ, then our sins are forgiven, and we have no charge to answer!

Jesus is Lord 2:6-7

“So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.”

Lordship is something of an alien concept to us in our culture, because we don't really have lords like those at the time of the early church. Lords today are people with land and money (although not enough to keep their stately homes from falling into disrepair) or they've been elevated to the peerage for political reasons. They attract little deference from the person in the street, many of whom think lords are a pointless anachronism. For the most part, they're of no consequence to us.

But back in the day, lords had real authority that commanded respect (or fear) and demanded allegiance and obedience. Jesus indicated something of the nature of his lordship in our first reading: “'Why do you call me, “Lord, Lord,” and do not do what I say?...'” (Luke 6:46-49).

The Colossian believers would have declared Christ as Lord at their baptism with full understanding of what a Lord was, and now Paul encourages them to live out their lives under the Lordship of Christ: they were his to command.

Apparently, to become one of the Knights Templar you had to be baptised as a Christian before you could go off to the crusades. They were baptised by full immersion but kept their sword hand and their sword above the water so that they could still use it as they saw fit in battle. Effectively, they were saying, “Jesus, I'm all yours—except for this …”

But if he isn't Lord of all is he truly Lord at all?

I wonder, what might you be holding above the water? What things do we refuse to relinquish to Jesus? Time? Money? Service? Obedience? This is not to say that there aren't struggles to face as we live out our lives with Jesus as Lord. We can find ourselves wrestling with God because something precious to us has come to be an issue in our relationship with him. It doesn't have to be something sinful; just something that we think more important to us than he is, something that challenges our commitment to him as Lord.

Paul gives the Colossians some pointers on how to live with Jesus as Lord.

In the New Living Translation, verse 7 is written as “Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.”

Paul drops in a couple of metaphors which he doesn't explore fully. He kind of leaves them for us to think about. So let's do that …

Imagine you are a tree. If you are to survive hot summers and cold winters and be fruitful, then you need good roots. Apparently, a tree has as many roots underground as it has branches above. That shows how significant roots are. A tree draws nourishment and water through its root system. Roots give the tree stability in the face of howling gales. Without good roots it withers and dies for lack of water, is puny and unfruitful for lack of nutrients, or is flattened by the storm.

Think of the parable of the sower. For the plant to grow and be fruitful, it needs to be rooted in good soil. If we are to be strong in the face of the pressures of this world and have fruitful lives then we need to put down roots into Jesus. All the fullness of the Deity lives in Jesus, and we can find in him all the sustenance we need to keep ourselves alive to God and strong in faith.

Think on about this when you get home: what kind of things can you do to put down roots into Jesus? You could read over Colossians again to get some ideas about that.

Now imagine you're a house. A house needs firm foundations if the building is to be well-established and strong against the elements. Jesus taught us that it was living out his teaching that made for good foundations and a robust building.

Paul has given us a strange collision of metaphors to think about here, but strong roots and firm foundations lead to strength of faith and thankfulness.

We can't be lackadaisical or willy-nilly about this. We need to put down roots. We need to make good foundations. Jesus must be Lord of our lives. It's his will we're here to do. But there's nothing tyrannical about the Lord Jesus. His instruction is for our good. He wants us to develop strong faith, and in following him there's plenty of cause for thankfulness.

Summary

So, today, we've considered

Christ is Enough

We've thought a bit about baptism, and what it implies, and that as Christians we need nothing and no one more than Christ to make us right with God.

The Cross makes all the Difference

We've thought about how Christ discharged our debt in full, and took away all grounds of accusation.

Jesus is Lord

We've pretended to be trees and houses, and thought about the significance of growing roots into Jesus and building our foundations on him so that we can go on living with him as Lord to become strong in faith and full of thankfulness.

Is Jesus you Lord? Do you know your sins are forgiven? Are you trusting in Christ alone for salvation?

Colossians Part III: Paul's Labour for the Church

2018-07-24T12:21:00.000+01:00

Reading

Colossians 1:24-2:5

Introduction

Let me ask you, why are you a Christian? Why do you come to church? Is it because of the warmth you feel in being surrounded by your brothers and sisters in Christ? Is it because of the security you feel in coming near to God? If you are not yet a Christian, is it these things that draw your interest in the Christian faith?

How would you feel if I told you that being a Christian is hard work; that sometimes it's a real struggle; that suffering for what you believe at some point in your life is guaranteed? Yes, there is the warmth, the love, the fellowship, the security, but there is also a lot of hard work to be done and total commitment is called for. The benefits are out of this world but the cost can be all-consuming!

In today's passage, Paul tells us just how hard he has to work in his ministry and leaves us with a lot of encouragement for those who fear to get involved because of the cost, or to those who are already involved and are finding the job to be tough.

In keeping with tradition, this three-point sermon has points that all begin with 'S’ — except for the first which begins with 'C' — and the third which begins with 'O'! We will look at

Paul's Commission
his Struggles, and
his Objectives.

Commission

Paul was a man who knew what he was about, and he wants the Colossians to understand why he's qualified to instruct them. He had very clearly in his mind what God expected of him, and twice in chapter one he refers to himself as a servant of the gospel. But it wasn't always like that…

We first meet Paul in the book of Acts consenting to the death of Stephen, the first Christian martyr, and we're told he “began to destroy the church.” Then we see him on the way to Damascus to imprison Christians but instead he encounters the Lord Jesus Christ for himself and discovers that what the Christians were preaching was all true!

Three days later in Damascus, a man called Ananias came to see him with a message from God. God told Ananias, “This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.”

God called the chief persecutor of the church to promote the gospel among the Gentiles. No-one is beyond God's usefulness. You may feel that you've been too big a sinner to be of any valuable service. But if God can use someone like Paul then he can use you just as easily.

We soon see Paul preaching Christ to the Jews in Damascus and immediately paying the price for it. He has to escape for his life by being lowered down the city walls in a basket. He experiences such opposition from the Jews that, before long, he is taking the gospel message to the Gentiles.

What a message he had! “… God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (verse 27).

As we know, Paul was a Jew, and he was writing to Gentiles. If Paul was writing to counter the arguments of Jewish opponents, his words here would have set the sparks flying: those who the Jews considered worse than dogs have a share in Messiah, without further qualification!

“Christ in you, the hope of glory” is a statement charged with life-transforming power.

Paul told us about Christ earlier in the letter. He's the one in whom we have redemption and forgiveness; he's the image of the invisible God, the creator of all things, the sustainer of all things; He's the one who rose from the dead and in whom God's fullness dwells. He's the one who reconciles us with God, and brings us peace.

This wonderful, supreme person is who Paul says is “in you.” He's not remote but made known personally to us. God’s mystery is revealed. Jesus is with us—here and now, and wherever we are!

It's significant that the word ‘you’ here is in the plural (Geordies would say, “Christ in yous,” and Southern Baptists would say, “Christ in yawl”. The presence of Christ isn't just for the individual but for the gathered church. We could read this as, “Christ among you.”

Some say you can be a Christian without going to church. It's true that we don't cease to be Christians away from church; and some Christians are physically unable to attend church. But people who say this usually mean that they don't need church. How wrong they are! Christians don't go to church. Christians gathered together are the church.

God’s plan is for a body of people who are united. Christ himself is the uniting bond between us. When we gather together, Christ is among us, enabling us to serve more powerfully than we could on our own, and to receive grace and help that we just can't find on our own.

We have a log-burner at home. I've noticed that if the logs are too far apart they cool off and go out. If they're too close together, not enough air gets in among them to feed the flames. It's important to get the logs in the right relationship to each other so they keep each other warm and get enough air to burn well.

Like my logs, we need each other. We need to relate together in community to encourage each other in our faith, and to allow space for the Holy Spirit to work so that we can truly discover and demonstrate Christ among us. Together, we can discover Christ in ways that may otherwise elude us.

Of course, Christ in us isn't only a collective thing. We are individually parts of the body of Christ. As the blood in our veins carries life to each part of our body, so the Spirit of God brings life to each of us individually. So we can each say, “Christ in me.”

Paul gives us further cause for rejoicing. The benefit of Christ is not only here and now. Paul wrote, “Christ in you, the hope of glory”. We've heard before that to hope is to look forward with eager expectation. If we have Christ, we have heaven!

Struggles

Paul's message was exciting but, for him, that wasn't the whole story. Paul was warned of suffering in his ministry. He's not been alone. The writer to the Hebrews reminds us of a great catalogue of saints who suffered hardship and torture for their faith. Many have suffered in modern times under communist rule, and some still do in China. Christian converts in Islamic states live in fear of their lives, and only recently we've seen news reports of churches in Indonesia being attacked by Islamic suicide bombers. Others endure hardship in their places of ministry, sharing the poverty of those they're seeking to win for Christ.

Suffering

Paul had some interesting things to say about the adversity he endured. He says, “Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ's afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church.”

Has Paul gone mad? Rejoicing in suffering? He's saying that all his suffering has been worth while because salvation has come to the Colossian believers through his ministry to the Gentiles. People have been rescued from the dominion of darkness, and the troubles he endures are nothing set against that. Besides, Christ is Paul’s hope of glory too, and he keeps his destiny in view.

Then there's the question of exactly who is suffering here, and why. His statement is quite puzzling, but Paul doesn't imply any lack in the redemptive work of Christ. He's really talking about the suffering he was warned would be a consequence of his work.

When Paul first encountered Christ he heard the Lord say, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” Paul was persecuting Christians. He discovered that to persecute a Christian is to persecute Christ. As long as Paul worked he would endure the afflictions of Christ. And Christ would be with him in and through it all.

Remember that this dark world has rejected the light of Christ. If we walk in the light of Christ, the world will reject us too. We will share Christ’s afflictions. Paul shows us that we don't suffer alone and that we can count on Christ and his strength being present with us.

Hard Work

As well as facing adversity, Paul had hard work to do! He tells the Colossians that he “strenuously contends” and that he wants them "to know how much [he was] contending for [them] … and for all who [had] not met [him] personally." Paul wants the Colossians to know how important they are to him.

Paul worked hard. He invested his energy and his time in the service of the gospel. He also found secular work to support himself so he wouldn't be a burden to the church. Any of us who works full time and has commitments to church life knows how challenging this can be.

We can imagine him wrestling in prayer against principalities and powers to win ground for the gospel, and I can't imagine that Paul would have sent Epaphras to Colossae and not supported him in fervent prayer. Whatever hardship Paul endured, it was for all the gentiles who had in some way been influenced, even indirectly, by his ministry.

Some hold back from involvement in church life; we're just too busy. But there's plenty of work to be done. We have to accept that sometimes it's going to be hard work, sometimes demanding, and sometimes downright discouraging. Serving Christ is no guarantee we'll avoid adversity or hard work. It may even lead us into persecution. If Christ suffered, so shall we. But that's only one side of the coin.

Supply

What kept Paul going? How did he cope with the load? Paul tells us what his source of strength was: "To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me," (1:29). God’s dynamo, which we considered on a previous occasion, was empowering Paul to do the job. He was equipped for his commission. We too can count on God's supply to do the work he calls us to.

The work that God gives us isn't always natural to us. It can make demands on us for which we have no natural resources. We have to rely on the strength he gives to get things done. There's no shortage of supply!

Objectives

Paul writes, "I have become [the church's] servant ... to present to you the word of God in its fullness..." (1:25). His first aim was to declare the whole Gospel, his second was to see God's people became all that they should be.

Paul's message was Christ. "He is the one we proclaim,” Paul writes, “admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ." (1:28)

The Greek here repeats “everyone”: admonishing everyone, teaching everyone, presenting everyone fully mature. Every believer is called to and is capable of Christian maturity.

To admonish someone means to put them in mind of something, and Paul's intent is to correct or prevent faulty thinking, such as the Colossians were being subjected to.

His teaching was to enable progress, growth and change. We need to learn in order to grow: Jesus says, in John's gospel, “… you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

The wisdom he's talking about is the wisdom that comes from the Spirit, which we heard about in chapter 1, not something based in human wisdom or thought.

Spiritual maturity has many benefits. Paul writes, “My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” (2:2-3)

It's in being united together in community that we find encouragement, discover together a greater understanding of all we have in Christ, and find a more intimate personal relationship with Christ who is among us.

The Colossians were being challenged about what they believed. Paul writes, "I tell you this that no-one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments," (2:4). Growing in maturity was the third remedy to that challenge.

In the age we live in, with all its distractions and contrary opinions of how we should behave, knowing what we believe and why we believe it is crucial for us. Everything we need to grow is available to us in the Christ who is among us.

Are we growing?

Summary

Commission

No-one is beyond God's usefulness.

Struggles

Adversity and hard work can be expected.
Christ is with us.
God's supply of energy is available to those he calls.

Objectives

Our maturity
That we should be encouraged in heart,
love one another, and
discover the fullness of Christ in us the hope of glory.

Colossians Part II:The Supremacy of the Son of God

2018-06-16T15:18:00.000+01:00

Reading

Colossians 1:15-23

Recap and Introduction

Last time, we introduced the letter to Colossae and Paul's reason for writing: the people were being influenced away from the gospel by notions from other religions and philosophies.

Paul's first remedy was to encourage the Colossians to seek the full knowledge of God's will through the wisdom and understanding brought by the Holy Spirit, so they could live as genuine, fruitful and determined disciples of Christ.

Paul's second remedy is for the Colossians to have a clear understanding of just who Jesus is and what he's done for them, and that's what we'll be considering today.

The Supreme Christ

There's no greater aspiration a preacher can have than to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Saviour of all mankind. The passage we now have before us is as good a starting point as there is. It tells us of

Christ's divinity,
Christ's pre-eminence over creation,
Christ's pre-eminence over the new creation, and
Christ's purpose in redemption.

Christ's Divinity

We heard last time how the Father rescued us from the dominion of darkness (the realm under Satan's control) and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves. We know that 'the Son' means Jesus, but the important thing to grasp here is that before Jesus was the Jesus we know, he was the Son. He has always been; he is co-eternal with the Father.

In a later, fully developed form of the religion known as gnosticism, Christ was seen as the last in a long line of intermediaries between God and the material world and who indwelt a man called Jesus but left him before the crucifixion. The intermediaries were necessary because the heavenly world was good and couldn't mix with the evil, material world.

If the mystery religions we suspect to have been at work in Colossae were pushing an early form of these ideas, then Paul refutes them emphatically by what he writes here. Christ had a physical body (v22), the Father was delighted to have all his fullness on display through Christ (v19), so much so that, if you want to know what the Father is like, you can look at the Son who 'is the image of the invisible God' (v15).

Just so we have it clear in our minds, let's remind ourselves of what John says at the beginning of his Gospel: 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.' Later in that chapter he writes, 'The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.' Here, 'the Word' again refers to Jesus, the Son, who is God.

There was nothing insignificant about the Jesus the Colossians had come to trust in; Paul wanted them to understand that. This is the same Jesus we trust in today.

What a Saviour: God, fully expressed in fully-human form.

Christ's Pre-eminence Over Creation

Paul goes on to describe the Son, the image of God, as 'the firstborn over all creation.' It's important to understand what this expression means.

The Jehovah's Witnesses, and other cults, take this term to mean that Christ was created, not eternal, but that's a misunderstanding and a misapplication of the term. And, as John has it in his gospel, 'Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.' So, logically, Christ must have existed before all created things because he couldn't have created himself!

So, what does firstborn mean? In middle-eastern cultures, the first-born son was the sign of paternal strength. He received a larger inheritance and a special blessing, he had a position of family leadership, and an honoured place at mealtimes. It's primarily about status.

Modern science provides us with a number of theories for how everything came to be, the big bang theory being one of them, but it has nothing to say about who initiated creation or what it's for.

Paul tells us all things were created in the Son, through him, and for him. He was the agent through whom the Father created everything, and he's the one it was all created for. That's why the Son is pre-eminent, the firstborn over all creation, the creation that he later entered to make himself known as Jesus.

What do people think of Jesus today?

Some doubt he ever existed. Wrong!
To some, he was just a man who taught some good ideas. Wrong!
To the Jew, he was a rabbi who went off the rails. Wrong!
To the Muslim, he's a very important prophet in a line ending with Mohamed. Wrong!
To the Hindu, he's another deity to put on the shelf with all the others. Wrong!
To the cults, he's a man who became a god. Wrong!

The Bible says, 'He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.' The Lord Jesus Christ existed as God before all things were created, and he is pre-eminent over all created things, and our continued existence depends totally on him.

Christ's Pre-eminence in the New Creation

Next, Paul tells us that the Son is pre-eminent in the new creation. We are told that, 'he is the head of the body, the church'. God's church is not a human institution or a building. All God's redeemed children make up the church universal, whatever tradition they they may follow.

Paul uses the metaphor of a human body to explain how we function: the church is the body, Christ is the head. Now, in a normal, healthy human being, the body acts out the instructions from the head. If my will is to move to the other side of the room, then my body moves to the other side of the room. Now I'm telling my body to move back again, because that's where my notes are!

In Ephesians, Paul writes that '… God … appointed [Christ] to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.' Christ is on hand so that we can become all he intends for us. Just as God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in Christ, so Christ is pleased to have all his fullness expressed through us. And, perhaps, there's something in this verse about Christ finding fulfilment through his church: we are a joy and a delight for him!

The Colossians had to understand that no one other than Christ could be their head, and that following other leads just doesn't work! The same is true for us.

Christ is our head, we are his body. Christ leads, we follow his will. We pray for God's kingdom to come so that his will may be done on earth, just as it is in heaven. We can discover '… his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives', as we heard last time.

Whilst we may be drawn from all walks of society, and may have many of the issues and hang-ups of our broken society, we're not here to be an expression of human society. Rather, we're here to demonstrate the kingdom of God. After all, we've been rescued from the dominion of darkness (which is where human society gets its problems) and brought into the kingdom of the Son.

If Christ is not our head, we are a lifeless corpse!
With Christ as our head we have the potential to change the world!

But we'll start here!

Paul tells the Colossians that Christ is the beginning of a whole new order. He's the firstborn from among the dead. He overcame death, and therefore has the highest honour in this new order. In Ephesians, Paul tells us we were dead in our transgressions but God has raised us up with Christ. We are members of God's new creation!

So Christ is supreme over the old creation, and he is supreme in the new.

And he is your Saviour!

Which brings us to:

Christ's Purpose in Redemption

If you look up the word alienation in the Shorter Oxford Dictionary you'll see that it means 'the state of estrangement' or 'the state of being owned by another' and Paul tells the Colossians that that was their problem before they found Christ. God's remedy was to reconcile all things to himself through Christ.

The same is true for us. Like the Colossians, we were estranged from God and we belonged to another; we needed to be rescued from the dominion of darkness.

Not only that, the Colossians were enemies of God in the way their minds worked. Again, the same is true for us. The footnote in my NIV gives a slightly different reading for verse 21: 'you … were enemies in your minds, as shown by your evil behaviour.' You don't need a Ph.D. in psychology to know that the way we think governs the way we behave. What weirdness goes on in the mind of Donald Trump, I wonder… I don't want to imagine what goes on in the minds of child-grooming gangs.

But the bottom line here is that if Satan has your mind, he has you; you belong to another. The good news is that if God has your mind, then you are very firmly and fully his. We can be transformed in our thinking, and our alienation can end. Our lives can be renewed, and the endlessly repeated patterns of wrong behaviour can be broken and replaced with good patterns and wholesome living. We'll return to this theme when we get to chapter three.

Working through Christ, God has brought an end to our alienation. He's reconciled us to himself. He made peace with us and for us; we couldn't do it ourselves. And he offers peace and reconciliation and transformation to all who will come to him.

But this came at great cost to him. It came through the shedding of Christ's blood on the cross. Christ's physical body went through death. As Charles Wesley put it:

O Love divine! What hast thou done?
Th'immortal God hath died for me!
The Father's co-eternal Son
Bore all my sins upon the tree;
Th'immortal God for me hath died;
My Lord, my Love is crucified.

Is crucified for me and you,
To bring us rebels back to God:
Believe, believe the record true,
Ye all are bought with Jesu's blood,
Pardon for all flows from his side:
My Lord, my Love is crucified.

Our salvation came at great cost to him and brings great benefit for us. Through Christ we are made holy and can stand before God without blemish and free from accusation.

I don't know if anyone else here is like me. There are things in my past that I'm ashamed of; patterns of behaviour that derived from the way I thought. Often, I remember these things and, until quite recently, that usually ended up in my beating myself up all over again, wondering yet again how I could dare to approach God, feeling alienated, asking for forgiveness yet again. But there's been a change! I still remember those things, and that I did them, but now I find myself full of thankfulness that God has redeemed me from those things, I'm forgiven, Christ has made me holy and without blemish as far as God is concerned, and no one can level accusations at me for those things. I have been rescued from the dominion of darkness! Finally, the truth of that has worked it's way from my head to my heart!

Our passage ends with a warning. Our destiny is ours only if we keep the faith. It's possible to begin well but still end up lost. Paul's implication is that if the Colossians take notice of outside influences and go off course to follow them then they'll lose out on all that God has for them.

Paul tells them and us how to avoid this happening. He tells them they need to be established and firm. These are construction terms. Established implies having well-prepared, solid foundations. Firm implies being carefully and strongly built. In terms of what we've learnt from the letter so far, these come from

finding and doing God's will, and
understanding just who Jesus is and that no one else can supplant him, and
trusting in what he alone can do for us.

If we are established and firm, nothing will be able to move us away from the truth of the gospel and the certain hope it holds for us.

Summary

There's no one like Jesus. There never has been and never will be anyone comparable with him.

He is God the eternal Son.
He is pre-eminent over all creation.
He is pre-eminent over the new creation and the head of the church.
He has done all that was necessary to reconcile us with God.

Why follow anyone else?

I wonder … do you know him?