If you knew that in just a few short hours you would be arrested, tried, and executed, what would you do? That’s the position we find Jesus in in John 13-17.
He knew what Judas was about to do, and knew what the outcome of that betrayal would be. Of course, Jesus had always known where His mission would take Him.
He came to show us the Father, and to take our sins onto Himself to make us right with God.

Over the years that He had spent with His apprentices, Jesus had taught them all about God’s right-side-up kingdom, and had spoken about how he would die to rescue us.
But the time now was short. On the night of His betrayal, Jesus spent some time instructing His friends on who He really is and what it means to follow Him.
He promised the coming of the Holy Spirit, and reminded them of how God our Father loves us dearly because we love Jesus and believe that He came from God.

And Jesus prayed.

He spoke to His Father about what was happening, what He had done, and what He was asking for. He asked our Father to protect His apprentices; to keep them safe from the evil one.
While Jesus was with them in person, He had done exactly that. Now that He would soon be returning to the Father, He entrusted them to the Father’s care.

But Jesus didn’t just pray for His apprentices back then. He also prayed “for all who will ever believe in me through their message.”
That’s you and I! Jesus’ prayer: that we would be one, just like the Father and the Son are one. More than that: that we would be united with both each other and with God!

Why is our being united such a big deal? Because if we are one with each other and with God, then the world will believe that Jesus was sent by the Father!
Our unity is a sign to the world of who Jesus really is! It arises out of God’s glory; it is the witness of God’s love at work in us and through us.
What unites us is our knowing the Father – the Fathers love for the Son in us; Christ living in us.

Unity isn’t an optional extra for Christians; it’s key to our identity!

Prisencolinensinainciusol is a 1972 song by Italian singer Adriano Celentano. The name of the song – and the lyrics within it – are pure gibberish. There is absolutely no substance to the song – except for the fact that it sounds like American English sounds to those who don’t understand English! Celentano said, “I thought that I would write a song which would only have as its theme the inability to communicate. And to do this, I had to write a song where the lyrics didn’t mean anything.”

Celentano also took inspiration from the story of the tower of Babel.

In 1 Corinthians 12-14, Paul is addressing a question from the Corinthians about the special abilities that the Spirit gives. The Spirit gives all sorts of gifts to people in the church.

But it was the more “impressive” gifts that the Corinthians were interested in – the gifts that seemed most “spiritual”. In particular, it seems that there was an emphasis on the gift of speaking in unknown languages. That is a gift from God to the church, and one that God still gives.

But Paul encourages the church to seek after the most useful gifts – the gifts that will help the church body he most. He wishes that everyone could speak in tongues – but wishes even more that everyone have the gift of prophecy. Because, says Paul, prophecy is a greater gift than speaking in tongues, unless someone interprets what is being said so that the whole church is strengthened.

Are the gifts that God gives for our own edification alone, or given for the edification and encouragement of the whole community of God?

What, Paul also asks, will be helpful in seeing non-believers coming to realise that God is truly among us?

What about our life together here at Golden Bay Baptist? What gifts has God given to us? What gifts do we desire? Which gifts would be the most beneficial for the church community, and in reaching to our lost community?

Where should our focus be?

Today’s text: 1 CORINTHIANS 14

Should Christians go to restaurants like that? Isn’t food food? Aren’t idols simply lifeless amalgams of wood, stone and/or metal?

There aren’t many times here in WA that we encounter occassions where food is offered to idols. It was, however, a much bigger deal in the ancient world, including the world of the early Corinthian Christians. Many of them had turned from paganism to follow Jesus. They had grown up attending temple feasts, and sacrifices made to idols. Deeply ingrained was a connection between the food they ate and the false gods they used to worship.

A lot of the meat available to purchase would also have been a by-product of sacrifices: sacrifices create a lot of food!

Some Corinthian Christians were more than happy to eat whatever wherever. For others, their consciences just didn’t sit well with eating food that had been sacrificed to idols.

Says Paul: flee idolatry. Christians can’t partake in idols. But food sold in a secular setting isn’t tainted. It’s just food! But there’s more at play than our freedom to eat… there’s also our love for one another, and whether our actions are glorifying God.

This isn’t just about food…

Today’s text: 1 CORINTHIANS 10:14-11:1

Have you ever doubted God? I only know of one person who never did so: Jesus. He trusted His Father absolutely – even to the point of taking our sins and dying for us. He has always been in a relationship of mutual love and trust with the Father and Spirit. But we humans are a different story. We are finite, created beings. And we live in a world tarnished and tainted by sin. Sin is about falling short of God’s standards, but so often it finds it’s origin in doubt. When the serpent tempted Eve to rebel against God, he did so by inviting her to doubt God and God’s good intentions.

short of God’s standards, but so often it finds it’s origin in doubt. When the serpent tempted Eve to rebel against God, he did so by inviting her to doubt God and God’s good intentions.

“A lot of folks in our churches,” says philosopher theologian Dallas Willard, “have not been taught to question; they’ve been taught that doubt is a bad thing. Some people believe that if you doubt, God will maybe drop you from the subscription. But doubt is a good thing when it keeps you thinking about who God really is.”

The real question is how we deal with our doubts. Do we take them to God, or do we hide them away from Him and others? Do we look for answers, or do we assume that there will never be any answers? Do we, as Willard suggests, doubt our doubts as well as doubting our beliefs?Are we willing to risk talking about our questions and our doubts? Ignoring or suppressing them isn’t a sign of faith: it’s evidence of a lack of faith!

Imagine doubting that a spouse or friend actually cares for you. You might choose to pretend that you don’t doubt it – but won’t it subconsciously affect your relationship? Won’t it colour every interaction you have with them? What if, instead, you shared your doubts with them? What if you tested if the relationship was strong enough to bear the weight of your doubt?

Abraham is known as a man of great faith. But he and Sarah were also big doubters. They thought they could hide it – but God called them out. Will we let him do the same for us?

Today’s text: Genesis 17

The Father of Herod Antipas’ former wife waged war on Herod – a war which did not go well for Herod Antipas. Later, Herodias’ jealousy of her brother Agrippa being given the title king, got Herod Antipas to ask the emperor Caligula for the same title. But when evidence came that Antipas had a stockpile sufficient to arm 70,000 men, Antipas and Herodias were instead exiled to Gaul. Oh, and before that, Antipas killed John the Baptist and became friends with Pilate over the killing of Jesus.

It reads like a soap opera, doesn’t it? And this re-telling leaves out half the details! Suffice to say, Herod Antipas was someone who wanted power – who was used to getting what he wanted. And Herodias seems to have been even more ambitious.

And then there was John the Baptist, the prophet calling people to repentance, who wouldn’t stop saying that marrying your brother’s wife wasn’t lawful! Herodias wanted John dead, but Herod had a morbid fascination with him. He would listen to John, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man. But he wasn’t going to change because of John, or even God. Eventually, Herodias got her way, and John the Baptist was executed, in a most gruesome scene.

John was rejected by those in power. And Mark tells his story in the context of Jesus’ being rejected by the people of Nazareth, his home town. But despite the various rejections, God’s kingdom was taking ground. Wherever it was welcomed, amazing things were happening. There was evidence of God’s goodness. Yes, there were places that rejected the good news – but that didn’t mean the program was failing. Despite the rejection, God’s kingdom was taking ground. And those who didn’t come on board – they were the ones missing out.

Why might people choose to reject the good news of God?

This weekend is palm Sunday, when we remember Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem – shortly to be followed by the rejection of the crowds. But did the success of Jesus’ mission depend on their continued acceptance?

Today’s text: Mark 6:1-30

Taryn looked at me, quietly, as the snake continued minding its own business in the opposite direction. “I don’t think you handled that very well,” she said. Said I, “But it was a snake!!!”

Fear does funny things to us, doesn’t it? When we’re afraid, we’ll often have one of four instinctive responses: fawning, freezing in place, getting ready to fight, or – like I did with the snake – trying to run away. Fawning aside, those aren’t necessarily bad things to do – they are, frequently, exactly the right way to react to fear.

But how do we react to Jesus?

Today’s passage is all about fear. It starts with Jesus and His apprentices travelling on a boat across a lake. A great storm comes up, and the apprentices find themselves utterly terrified.

Then, arriving at shore, they encounter a terrified, terrifying man – host to a huge number of demons. Jesus sends the demons away, but the people of the region are so terrified that they beg Jesus to leave.

Back on the Jewish side of the lake, Jesus is met by a terrified man, whose daughter is about to die. His fear drives him to ask Jesus for help.

And while Jesus is on the way to help, we meet a terrified woman, who tries to sneak healing from Jesus, and is terrified when she can’t hide away.

Just who is Jesus? Is He someone to be feared, or someone to bring our fears to? How should we respond to Him?

Today’s passage: Mark 4:35-5:43

“What happened to turning the other cheek?” the reporter asked.

Replied the leader: “You know, you only have two cheeks.” What if Jesus was serious about calling on Christians to turn the other cheek, though? What if He were serious about calling on us to take up our crosses and to follow Him? Does Jesus really know the best way to live? Does He really understand what it means to live in this world of ours? Does He get the complexity of our lives?

It’s so easy to say we follow Jesus, but to reject His instructions when following them aren’t easy, or when they make our lives more difficult.

In today’s passage, we encounter a few different responses to Jesus. Some respond positively, but two groups that you might expect to be on board with Him respond very negatively. The family Jesus grew up in thought Jesus had lost the plot. And the scribes from Jerusalem – learned in the Scriptures – alleged that Jesus was in league with the devil.

Rejecting the work of the Spirit can have serious ramifications, though. Do we stand against Jesus – or are we members of the new people, the new family, brought together in His name?

Today’s text: Mark 3:7:35

To discuss: What does it look like in practice to be part of Jesus’ family?

Fortunately, it wasn’t long until I realised how ridiculous my position was. She was celebrating God; I was setting up my own rules about what made someone right or wrong in God’s sight.

As I write this, I have my headphones on, and am bobbing along to some fantastic Christian songs. The real issue was never about the music, but about my own heart. It was about me trying to put up boundary markers for what a real Christian should be like.

I suspect the temptation to do that is one that many of us know well. And often the things we set up as boundary markers are good things. It is a good thing to attend church on a weekly basis. It’s a good thing to have your theology right (although we tend to argue about who is actually right!) It’s a good thing to listen to Christian music. It’s a good thing to set aside a day of the week to rest with God.

But how easy it is for these good things to become ultimate things.  How easy to make them ends, rather than means. What if we so starch the collar of Christianity that we become unwilling to bend when God does something new?

Are we so caught up in the rules, our rules more often than not, that we lose sight of the fact that Jesus is King?

What if God is more concerned with seeing people come to know and enjoy Him than with them fitting into our neat and tidy boxes?

Today’s text: Mark 2:23-3:6

Who are you?

I don’t think it’s a question that can be answered apart form some sort of relational or social context. Even if we say, “I’m a loner”, we’re defining ourselves in terms of other people!

Who are they?

That’s a different question, isn’t it? All of a sudden, we’re not asking about someone’s self-assessment, but that of those around them. We want others to think well of us. That’s why we spend so much time cultivating our friendships and our facebook statuses. That’s why we make sure we use the best filters on our instagram, and project the right image of ourselves in our TikTok shares. It’s why we choose who we hang out with.

It’s all about image management and self-improvement.

Who are you?

And who is Jesus?

This week, we’re starting a new series in Marks’ gospel – all about  the good news of God. Mark wants us to realise who Jesus is – and to realise what that means for us.

Today’s text:  Mark 1:1-13

God takes injustice very seriously. Egypt was punished for the unjust way that they treated Israel. The Assyrians and Babylonians, who took Israel and Judah into exile, were likewise punished. Yes, there were opportunities for people to call on God for mercy – like we saw in the story of Jonah’s experience at the capital city of Assyria, Ninevah. But God will not allow injustice to stand. How could He do so, since God is love?

God’s people are meant to be justice-people. Israel’s society was meant to promote social justice. God made provisions for things like a year of Jubilee – a time when debts were forgiven and properties returned to their owners. Israel was meant to treat foreigners in the land well, remembering their own time in Egypt. They were meant to show the world a truly just society. A community where people treated one another rightly, in the knowledge that we are all made in the image of God.

But it often didn’t work that way.

What about the church today? How important is it for us to value and seek justice? Do we live in a just community? What should we do about it? Are we a just community, and how can we make justice as precious to us as it is to Him?

Today’s text: Amos 5

These days, I find myself speaking to Daniel about how we do or don’t do things in our family, saying things like, “In our family, we try and be kind.” If we belong to Jesus, we have been adopted into the family of God! And right now, we are learning the sorts of things that we do or don’t do as part of His family. Those are based on who God is, and what His character is like. Over time, we’re picking up the family traits of being part of God’s people, as God transforms us to be more and more like Jesus.

For the next few weeks, we’re going to be looking at the ways that God describes Himself in Exodus 34:6-7, and seeing how these traits can be expressed by you and I. This weekend, we’re looking at what it means for Yahweh to be “the God of compassion and mercy!” What does it mean for God to show mercy, and who should be the recipients of that?

And who should we, as God’s children, shown mercy to? Or is it the “sin of empathy,” as one supposedly Christian commentator put it last week, to show mercy to others?

Today’s text: Jonah 3-4

This weekend, we’re looking with Luke at the time, immediately following Jesus’ baptism, when the Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness. Jesus spent 40 days there, fasting; at the start of His public ministry, Jesus spent time focusing on His Father. And it was while there that the devil came and tempted Jesus.

What sorts of things tempted Jesus? For starters, bread. Jesus was hungry, and the desire for a nice, fresh loaf of bread must have been intense. Then there was the temptation to reclaim the world there and then, instead of having to go through with the Father’s plan. And then there was the temptation to prove that the Father would actually look out for Jesus.

If you think about it, the fact that we know what happens means that Jesus must have told His apprentices about it. He didn’t, as we might be tempted to do, pretend that He was immune to temptation. No, as Hebrews 4:15 points out, “This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin.”

We can certainly learn from Jesus how we should respond to temptation. But is that the main reason why Luke tells us about it? And why, if it occurred immediately following Jesus’ baptism, does Luke interrupt the flow with a genealogy?

Today’s text: Luke 4:1-13

To discuss:

• Why does Luke tell us about Jesus’ temptation after giving us His genealogy?
• Was Jesus actually tempted by this stuff? Why didn’t He give in to temptation?

We are shaped by our ancestors. Growing up and experiencing your parents divorcing will have an affect on you. Growing up in a family where the last 3 generations have all experienced divorce will affect you even more. Growing up in a nuclear family will have an effect on you. Growing up in a family that fights all the time will have an effect on you. Growing up in a family that has lots of money will have an effect on you. Growing up in a family that never has enough will have an effect on you. And these effects compound through the years. In America, after world war II, a GI Bill was introduced, insuring mortgages for returned soldiers in return for their service. Most black soldiers missed out on this. Black people weren’t allowed into the suburbs; and as a result didn’t accrue the generational wealth of their white brothers-in-arms. Real estate prices rise; but you don’t benefit from that if you aren’t allowed to own a house! Here in Australia, we also have some people that have reaped the benefits of generational wealth, and others who have been denied the opportunity.

But the one thing that is the same in all of our histories and genealogies is the presence of sin. All of us were raised by sinners, and are ourselves sinners. That’s part of why things like the racism described above occur so often. And, as sinners, all of us fall short of the glory of God. As sinners, we cannot please Him.

But is there perhaps one who has a better lineage than we do? And what does that mean for us today?

Today’s text: Luke 3:21-38

Unfortunately, there is no audio recording for today’s message. Please find some notes attached below!

Introduction: Who is Jesus?

• Did you know: ~ 1 in 12 men on the Asian continent are related to Genghis Khan
  • we know this based on a unique Y-chromosome – so don’t know about women
• It can be really interesting find out where you come from – what your heritage is
  • the things that formed your ancestors, and brought you to where you are today

• Ancestry was very important to Jewish people in biblical times
  • after all… God had made promises to Abraham and his family
    • promises that they had clung to through wars, exile, attempted genocides etc.
  • to know your ancestry was to know that you belonged to the people of God!
    • It speaks to your heritage, and your culture, and the cultural approach to life
  • Neh 7:64 – returning from exile, some priests couldn’t prove their ancestry
    • because only people from Levi’s tribe were allowed to serve as priests
      • there had to be a whole process for determining if they were really eligible!
• Last week, we heard John say someone greater than Him was coming: the Messiah
  • but what makes one eligible to be the Messiah?

God’s Testimony (21-22)

• One day, while John was baptising people, Jesus came to be baptised too
  • we’re not given much detail by Luke – and might wonder why Jesus did this!
    • Jesus didn’t have any sins – and didn’t need to turn back to God
    • perhaps it was about Jesus identifying with those He came to save
    • perhaps it was about publicly identifying as someone who puts God first
• when Jesus gets baptised, something happens that hasn’t happened with anyone else
  • while Jesus was praying, the heavens opened, and the Father spoke over Jesus
    • “You are my dearly loved Son, and you bring me great joy.”
    • God the Father is saying Jesus is His Son – and that He is well pleased with Him
      • There’s nothing to forgive with Jesus; Jesus lives a life that pleases His Father
    • and the Holy Spirit, in the shape of a dove, came and settled on Jesus
      • people, I think, would have seen something like a dove settling on Jesus
    • I think this is a sign to everyone there that the Spirit is with Jesus – He’s different
• Here is someone who pleases God absolutely, and on whom the Spirit rests
  • And then Luke gives us a long list of names!?!

Luke’s genealogy (23)

• Bible scholars spend a lot of time debating the genealogies given for Jesus
  • Luke’s genealogy is quite different at places to that given by Matthew
  • People have come up with different explanations for that – good, and less so
    • Personally, I think the idea of adoption/levirate marriage makes a lot of sense
    • Family trees are complicated things – with all sorts of twists and turns in them!
• But let us not get so caught up looking at the trees that we miss the forest!
  • Luke is a very clever man, weaving together the story of Jesus for us
    • Why has he chosen to include a genealogy for us – and why put it here​?
      • Rather than somewhere in relation to Jesus’ birth or naming?
• Luke starts by telling us that Jesus was thought to be the son of Joseph
  • Joseph is Jesus’ legal, adoptive father – the one who would raise & train Him
  • from a legal perspective, Jesus belongs to Joseph’s family – though He isn’t his kid
• Luke tracks back from Joseph through to King David: Jesus is the son of David; royalty
  • God had promised David that one of His descendants would rule forever
    • and Jesus, legally, is part of David’s family line
  • the Messiah has to be from David’s family; Israel’s King has to be David’s heir
• Luke tracks back further, going to Abraham
  • Jesus belongs to Abraham’s family – He is one of the people of God
    • The promises that God made to Abraham are for Jesus
      • in fact, Jesus is the fulfilment of those promises
        • the one who will accomplish and experience all God promised Abraham
• Luke tracks even further back – beyond Abraham all the way back to Adam
• in Hebrew the words son & father can mean descendant & ancestor
  • we shouldn’t necessarily be trying to use genealogies like today’s to date creation
    • that’s not why Luke is giving us this genealogy – Luke has a better reason
• Jesus is fully human – he tracks His humanity, his heritage back to creation
  • He wasn’t some half-god, half-man demigod; cf Greek and Roman stories
  • He is eligible to be the Messiah, because He really is one of us; He really is human

What’s the point? (22,38)

• But Luke takes Jesus’ genealogy back one extra step – past Abraham to God
  • The Father described Jesus as His Son – and Luke’s genealogy says, Yes, He is!
• We’re told in Genesis that when God created humanity, He made them in His image
  • Adam was God’s son in the sense that He came from God, and represented Him
  • Humanity was meant to represent God to the rest of creation – to be His icon
    • and they did a great job of that… until the fall
• Jesus doesn’t just sort of reflect who God is – He does it perfectly – better than Adam
  • 1 Cor 15, Paul calls Jesus the second Adam – a fresh start for humanity
• And yet Jesus is also God with us – the eternal, everlasting Son of God!
  • Jesus is a son of God by right of being human; but He is so much more than that!
    • Adam was created by God; Jesus is God’s eternal Son; un-created and eternal
• Luke has just finished telling us about the virgin birth – he isn’t talking biology
  • what he’s doing is making a theological point: Jesus is God’s Son
    • He is the one uniquely qualified to be the Messiah – He is our rescuer

Our heritage

• And you and I – we too can become sons and daughters of God
  • adopted by Jesus, and brought into His lineage – the only genealogy that matters

It’s not good being caught unprepared – especially if you’ve been warned to be ready.

Jesus once told a story about 10 bridesmaids, who took their lamps and went out to await the arrival of the bridegroom. He was delayed, and they all got tired and fell asleep. But then, at midnight, the news came that he was on his way! They woke up, and got their lamps ready… but half of them realised that they were low on lamp-oil. They had no choice but to go and try and buy some… at midnight! While they were gone, the bridegroom arrived, and everyone present went in, and the door was locked behind them. By the time the five arrived back, it was too late. They called to be let in, but the bridegroom refused, telling them that he didn’t know them. “So you, too,” Jesus concluded, “must keep watch! For you do not know the day or hour of my return.” (Matthew 25)

In today’s text, Luke tells us about the work of John the Baptist. John warned people that God was coming, urging them to be ready for His arrival by repenting and turning to God for forgiveness. Should they be found not ready when God arrives, it wouldn’t end well for them. But they could, here and now, change direction and turn to Him for grace.

But that was all a long time ago… Does John’s message still hold any value for us today?

Today’s text: Luke 3:1-20

To discuss:

• What does it look like to be ready for Jesus’ return?
• Was John warning people about Jesus’ first or second coming?
• What hope is there for us?

In the second half of Luke 2, we meet two people who were, it seems, well practised at waiting. Both Simeon and Anna were eagerly waiting for God to come and rescue His people. They had, I suspect, been waiting and longing for God to save for a very long time. But their waiting wasn’t passive. Waiting on God, for both of them, was an active pursuit. Why did they do it? What was it that drove them?

And then, on that wonderful day, they found themselves in the temple as Jesus was being brought in. Simeon, prompted by the Spirit, took the child, Jesus, into His arms, and praised God! He blessed Mary and Joseph, and prophesied to them how Jesus would cause many in Israel to fall – and many to rise. He spoke of how Jesus had been sent as a sign from God, and of how many would oppose Him. He spoke of Mary’s own soul being pierced by a sword.

Anna, passing by as Simeon spoke, joined in the praise. And she spoke about the child to all who had been eagerly waiting for God to rescue Jerusalem. The wait had been long – but now the time had finally come!!

What about you and I? What are we waiting for – and how will it affect how we live today, in 2024, and for the rest of our lives?

Today’s text: Luke 2:21-40

When the temple was dedicated, Gods glory filled it. The people knew that God was in their midst.

By the time of Haggai, a lot of time had passed since Solomon had built the temple. About 70 years before Haggai started speaking, the king of Babylon had attacked Jerusalem and utterly destroyed the temple. People were led away into exile. None of which, let it be said, should have been unexpected. God had long warned His people about the consequences of their refusal to follow Him. The exile was a time of discipline, and God had always intended to bring a remnant back to the promised land. His plan to save and restore and bless the whole world was still on track.

Upon their return, the exiled remnant started rebuilding the temple. But there was plenty of opposition, and for 20 years, the job languished. Then, as we saw last week, God raised up prophets, like Haggai, to call His people to start putting Him first, and to rebuild the temple. Which they did. Their enthusiasm was sparked, and work commenced.

But, as we shall see in this weeks passage, it wasn’t long until a sense of disillusionment started to settle over the people like a fog. They were rebuilding the temple of God but it seemed so unimpressive. Perhaps there were one or two older people there who had seen the original before its destruction. They would all, at least, have heard the stories about its grandeur.

How, they must have wondered, could they compete with that? They were starting to lose their courage. Why bother making something when it wasn’t good
enough? But God’s people had forgotten two very important things: this
wasn’t just a human endeavour, and they weren’t alone. God was with them, and God had big plans, and the capacity to see them fulfilled.

But what does this passage have to say to us today? Can we also get disillusioned in regards to the things we are doing with God? Why do we get like that, and
what is the solution?

Today’s text: Haggai 2:1-9
To discuss: Have you ever felt like your work, or the church, just isn’t good enough for God? Why? What difference does looking forward with God make?

Over the last little while, we’ve been working our way through Jesus’ appearance at the feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem. Jesus offered Himself as living water, and as light for those in darkness. He explained who He was, and some of those there decided to believe in Him. But, unfortunately, Jesus didn’t fit neatly into the way that they viewed the world. They thought they had everything figured out. They thought that they were God’s people by right of being Israelites. So when Jesus told them that through apprenticeship to Him they would know the truth, and that the truth would set them
free, they got upset with Him. They didn’t like being told that they were slaves. They were, after all, God’s people, weren’t they?

Jesus told them that anyone who sins is a slave to sin. He also claimed to be without sin, challenging the people there to truthfully convict Him of sin. Rather than being a slave, Jesus is the Father’s beloved Son. And when He sets slaves free, they are truly free; they are adopted into the family of God.

The people Jesus spoke to thought they were part of the family of God. But their actions
proved otherwise. They, like all people, were slaves to sin; children of the devil. Like us all, were in need of emancipation. But they couldn’t, or perhaps wouldn’t, see it.

The offer of freedom from sin is still there, for apprentices who, as Jesus said, “remain faithful to my teachings.” Such people live like Jesus in this world; they discover the Truth, and are free to live for God. Who they are is seen in what they do; the Father’s love is seen through them.

What about us? What do our actions say about who we are and who we follow?

Today’s text: John 8:30-59

To discuss: Is doing the right stuff, including coming to church, proof that we belong to God? How is believing in Jesus linked to our actions?

Many Christians have been taught that the Bible rejects the idea of a woman having authority over a man. But is this actually what the Bible teaches? Jesus taught us to pray to our Father that His kingdom would come and that His will would be done here on earth as it is in heaven. But what is God’s will in this matter? Is it theological faithfulness to not allow women to teach men? Is allowing that a sign of the world’s ways of thinking creeping into our churches? Or is refusing women the right to teach or lead a sign that the world’s way of thinking has infected our churches? Is it theologically faithful to allow all Christians, regardless of their gender, to use their spiritual gifts to build and encourage the church?

This weekend, we’re going to be spending some time looking at one of the most important passages on this subject – 1 Corinthians 14. As we do so, we’ll discover the importance of working hard to discover exactly what the Bible says and means. The Bible was written for our benefit, but it wasn’t written to us. It was written to people in a different culture, with a different language, and a different shared social history to ours. As such, we have to translate not just the literal words, but also the cultural assumptions and ideas that are relied upon.

One of the benefits of looking at difficult passages such us this, is that we learn how to read the Bible better, so that we can discern God’s will and, with His help, seek to live according to it.

Today’s text:
1 Corinthians 14:26-40

So far, we have looked at the story of Abel, and seen how trust treasures and glories in God rather than ourselves. This weekend, we jump forward to the story of Abram (later known as Abraham). Abraham is well known as a man of faith; Romans 4 even describes him as the father of those who believe. But what does that look like?

Genesis 1-11 is the introduction to the story of God and His creation. It sets the scene for our problems: sin leading to death, and a failure to know God. With Genesis 12, we see the start of God’s plan to set things right. Firstly by making Himself known, and secondly by defeating sin and death in the person of the Son.

And God chooses to use Abraham and his family to put this plan into effect. Abraham was nobody special; just another man from a pagan family chasing after false gods. But God reaches out to Abraham, commanding him to leave everything he had and to go to a new land that God would show him. God makes incredible promises to Abraham – enticing, and seemingly impossible.

It has been said that every story is like no other story, like some other stories and like every other story. Our lives are totally unlike Abraham’s. Abraham lived in an era where people had all but forgotten what God is like. We, meanwhile, have thousands of years of God’s revealing His character to His people – and have the ultimate Revelation of God: Jesus. But on another level, Abraham’s story is our story. The same God who dealt with Abraham deals with us. God still calls us to put our trust in Him. And although details might differ, the way we respond to God in faith will in some ways be similar to the way Abraham did.

So, as we explore some of Abraham’s story, let us think about how we might respond to God in our own lives.

Today’s texts: Hebrews 11:8-10, Genesis 12:1-9

Zsolt and Geza Peladi had a difficult life. These brothers found themselves living in a cave outside Budapest. They were poor, surviving by selling junk that they scavenged off the streets. I’m not sure exactly how their lives ended up this way; I don’t know the whole backstory. But I can only imagine that there is a story that led them there. I do know that their mother came from a wealthy family… but she had severed ties with the family many years before. And her sons have told how she abandoned them too.

They were living in their cave when some charity workers approached them with news. Their maternal grandmother had died, and had left them, in today’s Australian money, something like $12billion. There was an incredible gift waiting for them.

This weekend, we’re looking at one of the gospel stories that John alone tells us about: the story of the woman at the well. This is a woman who, like the brothers above, had a difficult life. We meet her coming to fetch water in the heat of the middle of the day. As the conversation between her and Jesus progresses, we find out that she has been married, and divorced, five times. At the time she met Jesus, she was living with a man who wasn’t her husband. Possibly he was single; possibly he was someone else’s husband.

Why was it that she had had so many husbands? Was she a difficult woman? Or had she been hurt to the point where staying in a healthy marriage was incredibly difficult for her? Was she living with this latest man just to survive – being known as “that woman” must have made her life a social misery back in those days. Even to have had that many husbands would have got the tongues wagging. Everyone in town probably knew of her. Maybe she was physically very attractive. Maybe the women of the town would talk about her behind her back; warning each other to keep their husbands away from her.

We don’t know any of that. But you get the impression that she wasn’t living the life of Riley. She strikes me as someone who has had a difficult life – and who would love to set it all behind her, but knows that that is just impossible.

And then she meets Jesus. Actually, maybe we’re meant to see that Jesus went to meet her! There was another, less Samaritan!, route between Judea and Galilee. But Jesus had to go through Samaria.

And the very first thing Jesus did was to ask her for a drink of water. Even that was an act of kindness – treating her as a human, and not just the sum of her past. Jesus knew, even then, all about her. But He also knew that if only she asked, He would give her what she needed most in the world. He would give her living water, bubbling up to eternal life. She was a woman isolated and enslaved by her circumstances and past; if only she knew the gift of God, and who it was that was speaking with her!

The conversation continued. Gentle truth from Jesus, blocking defensiveness from the woman. But just try parrying with Jesus! Eventually this woman all but scores an own-goal: “One day the Messiah will explain it all to us.”

If only she knew…

“I AM the Messiah.”

I love the way Jesus interacts with this woman. It’s the way He interacts with us. Gentle. Leaving no doubt about His power. Walking us into the place where we have to face the fact that He is God. Offering us what we really need; an escape from our guilt and our shame and our hiding. Offering us living water; offering us life.

If only we knew. If only our loved ones knew.

But when we are confronted with that knowledge – what will we do then? When we encounter the living God in Jesus will we run away from Him, or towards Him?

Today’s passage is strange. It tells the story of John the Baptist’s disciples getting into an argument with some random guy about ceremonial washing – probably about baptism. And somehow, they leave the argument upset at Jesus! They arrive at John the Baptist complaining that the one that he had identified as the Messiah was taking all of their baptising business away from them!

They were angry.

I suspect that they felt threatened by Jesus.

I don’t know what they expected from John. He was their leader. His was an important ministry – calling Israel to repentance. His ministry was their ministry. This was what they had invested their lives into. Something had to be done so that John didn’t just quietly fade into obscurity.

Obscurity wasn’t something John the Baptist was good at. Verse 24 hints at a story that’s only told to us in the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke). John the Baptist dared to challenge Herod for marrying his brother’s wife. And he was eventually thrown in jail – where he would have his head chopped off. John the Baptist wasn’t afraid to do what God had called him to do: to call people to repentance; and to prepare the way for the Messiah.

But John’s disciples weren’t happy that Jesus was getting more attention than John. Yes, their master had identified Jesus as the Messiah. But did that give Him the right to baptise people?

It’s interesting that this story is put in the immediate aftermath of Nicodemus’ story. There we heard of a man who seemed to have it all together before God, but who didn’t believe in Jesus. Here we hear of John’s disciples – people who were all about repentance and turning back to God – but people who also didn’t accept that Jesus was the Messiah. Both Nicodemus and John’s disciples were men who were seeking to be right with God – and both missed the bus.

John the Baptist was glad that Jesus was increasing. Why weren’t his followers?

And what about us? Is it possible for us to be so caught up in being “right” – like Nicodemus – that we miss the simplicity of God’s call for us to trust in Jesus. Or is it possible for us to be so caught up in doing God’s work that we actually miss God at work?

John the Baptist’s work was important and God-given. But he knew something that his angry followers didn’t: God’s plan revolves around Jesus, and not us. God’s plan revolves around Jesus, and not the ways that we have always served Him. God’s plan revolves around Jesus, and not our traditions. God’s plan revolves around Jesus, and not our good works.

How sad to be caught doing good things for God, and yet not knowing Him.

So where do we fit into this story?

This weekend, we’re looking at a part of the Bible that includes possibly the most famous verse in the Bible: John 3:16 – “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.” It’s an amazing verse that sums up in so few words so much of the good news of God. But there’s one word in there which we often don’t focus on: for. John 3:16 is explaining something, giving a commentary on what has come before.

What comes before is an amazing discussion between Jesus and a Pharisee named Nicodemus, who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. Nicodemus was a big-shot. As a Pharisee, he was probably devoted to ensuring that he understood and obeyed all the regulations required of God’s people. He was probably, like Paul, a very devout, religious man.

We meet this man, this religious man committed to being right before God, in the dark of night as he goes to meet with Jesus. He’d probably seen the amazing, miraculous, signs that Jesus had done in Jerusalem. And he was convinced that Jesus had been sent from God; he was convinced that Jesus had been sent as a teacher from God.

But why would Israel’s teacher (see verse 10) want to meet with Jesus? Why would an expert in the law want to hear new teaching from Jesus?

And what teaching. I get the impression that Nicodemus was confused by it all. Certainly, John records Jesus saying that Nicodemus hadn’t believed what Jesus had told him. What Jesus had said was just too much for Nicodemus. Talk of needing to be born again to see the Kingdom of God probably didn’t fit very well into his understanding of how God works.

The thing is, what Jesus was saying wasn’t even all that new. As an expert in the Scriptures, Nicodemus should have got it. But he didn’t. Perhaps because getting it wasn’t about what he knew, but about how he lived. Jesus wasn’t calling Nicodemus to a deeper knowledge – he was calling him to throw himself on the mercy of God.

And that’s where John 3:16 comes in: it’s about what God has done for those who will look to him for life.

Nicodemus was impressive – but there were shadows in his life that Jesus’ light would illuminate. You might look impressive; like you’ve got everything sorted. But we all have shadows that we are ashamed of. Things we like to hide so that we can present a good face. We can often fool each other, at least for a while. But it is harder (aka impossible) to fool God.

The good news, however, is that we don’t have to fool God. Because God loves us. Because being right with him isn’t about us: it’s about Him. That’s what Nicodemus had to learn. It’s what you and I need to learn!

God offers more than new teaching: he offers us new life; a fresh start with Him, and the promise of our transformation into the likeness of the most impressive person ever: Jesus our Christ.

Today’s message is brought to us by Chad Power.

If you were setting out to point someone to the fact that Jesus is God our Rescuer, where would you start? I suspect many of us would want to tell some of the epic stories of what Jesus did. We might mention the calming of a storm. Or we might point to the feeding of the 5000 – and then of the 4000. Or we might talk about the different people that Jesus healed, the demons He cast out, or the dead people that He brought back to life. Stories like those are impressive; they amaze us, and speak to a power that is beyond us.

But the first incident of Jesus’ public ministry life that John tells us about seems, at first glance, less interesting. John tells us about Jesus turning water into wine at a wedding that had run dry. Some people might think turning water into ~450-680litres of wine is pretty epic. And I guess it is. But this wasn’t a public spectacle. Apart from Mary, the servants, and Jesus’ disciples, nobody even knew what had happened. It’s a miracle happening in the background of the party.

And yet John wants us to see this as a signpost to who Jesus is. Jesus revealed His glory, and it inspired His disciples to put their trust in Him.

The first 12 chapters of John’s gospel are all about signposts like this one. The signs John has collected in these chapters are meant to inspire us to do what the
disciples did: to put our trust in Jesus. We are meant to see that Jesus is God with us; that He is God’s King – the Sovereign over all that is. We are meant to be confronted with the glory of God in the person of Jesus.

Chapters 13-21 then tell us about the confrontation of this world with Jesus the King – and of His ultimate victory. They highlight the final sign: Jesus’ death and resurrection. Already here in chapter 2, John hints at this future – and beyond it.

But what is it in this incident that reveals Jesus’ glory? How does this story enable us to describe the glory of Jesus? That is, what sort of a person is He? How does this story back up John’s assertion that Jesus is God with us?

Why, in short, does John think that this is the best place to start introducing us to the person of who Jesus is? And what difference will this story make to our relationship with Him?

Last week, we started a new series in John’s gospel, with the aim of getting to know Jesus better and better. John wrote his gospel so that we might continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah – the Son of God. He wanted to introduce – or perhaps re-introduce us to Jesus our Lord and Rescuer.

The synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, have a lot of similarities. They build on each other, and probably share some of the same sources for their information about Jesus. They do, however, each bring their own flavour to their retelling of God’s story. Mark is short and full of action – he’s constantly moving us forward, “and then, and then, and then!” Matthew emphasises Jesus’ fulfilling the Old Testament. Luke deliberately sets out to give us an orderly account of everything that happened.

But when you read John, you get the feeling that this is written by someone who has spent a lot of time thinking about it all, and how it all works together and makes sense. John’s gospel is deep. John is known as the disciple who loved Jesus – and it shows. John wants us to love Jesus. He wants us to think deeply, and to put our trust in Jesus our Lord. By the end of the gospel, John wants us to be saying, “Yes. Yes. Jesus is the Son of God. Yes, He is the One in whom I trust. Yes, I want Jesus. I believe He is the Son of God.”

After John summarises the story of Jesus for us in John 1:1-18, he introduces us to John the Baptist. John the Baptist was famous for calling people to turn away from their sins, and back to God. He baptised people in water – as a symbol of their washing off their old way of life; of having a fresh start. People thought that John the Baptist might be someone important – perhaps even the Rescuer of Israel. But John would have none of that. His job was to get people ready for the coming of God’s Chosen One.

Like John the Apostle, John the Baptist was all about getting people to say “Yes! Jesus is the Christ; Jesus is the Rescuer!”

And so John’s gospel starts with someone saying exactly that. He tells us of John the Baptist testifying for all to hear that Jesus is God’s Chosen One! He tells us of John calling Jesus the Lamb of God, and of how John said that Jesus would baptise with the Spirit.

Why did John say what he said?

What was it that convinced him?

And why does John the gospel writer tell us all of this?

And what would both John the Baptist and John the Apostle have us do with it all?

Why would you want to write a book, or even a booklet, of 3000 to 30000 words? What would compel you to do this?

Well, John, a disciple and companion of Jesus, did want to write a book….in fact he wrote two books and three letters which now form part of the New Testament in the Holy Bible. And incredibly he did this when he was known as an “unschooled/uneducated” fisherman from the back blocks (Acts 4:13). And yet in his late life he took on the task of giving his own account of his three years with Jesus, and at the end of his gospel he tells us why.

John 20:31. “But these things are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name”

John did not set out to write a biography or a history (others did …Mark ,Matthew and Luke) but rather John wanted to put on record his amazing discovery, made while walking around Palestine with his Rabbi; and records his discovery in the words of Peter, with which he agrees:

John 6:68 “…you have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God”

John grew up in a society steeped in history. He knew of Israel’s and Judah’s failure to follow the Lord God which resulted in defeat and exile, and then the return (as we have just seen in Ezra and Nehemiah) and of the official determination that as a nation this must not be allowed happen again. He was surrounded by all the mechanisms his leaders could devise, the various groups as they struggled to help their population to comply with these rules (the Pharisees, the Saducees, the priests, the politicians) so as to never give God any possible reason to exile or destroy them again. But by doing this they added more and more rules and regulations of increasing severity and complexity (a result Jesus condemns in Matthew 23) and in effect condemned their disciples and their nation to see God as a harsh disciplinarian who could never be satisfied.

John discovers that God is not like he has been told but is a loving compassionate Father who loves His children and wants what is in their best interests; and then brings Himself into their world as a fellow member of the human race to show us this love.

In this guise, the Incarnate God-man, we will explore John’s descriptors and discoveries in the coming weeks as we unravel what John saw and heard and touched in his three years of immersive experience with Jesus (1 John 1:1-3).

It changed John; will you allow it to change you?…..so that you too can know God as your Lord, Saviour, Friends and Brother?

Last week, we saw how the exiles from Judah were allowed to return home to Jerusalem by King Cyrus to rebuild the temple. We saw them prioritising God in their lives, and celebrating His goodness to them as they laid the foundations for the temple. But there was a lot of opposition to rebuilding the temple – with it stopping and starting. But eventually, it was built.

At some point after this, an influential Jew working for the then king, Artaxerxes, asked some travellers about the condition of Jerusalem. Hearing about it’s broken walls and burnt gates, Nehemiah spent a week in prayer and fasting. Nehemiah recognised how he and his people had sinned against Yahweh – and how the exile had been God’s disciplining of them. But He also remembered God’s promise to re-gather His people if they returned to Him and obeyed His commands. Nehemiah knew that God had promised to bring His people back to the place that He had chosen as a dwelling for His name: the city of Jerusalem. But a broken city was not honourable enough for the God of all creation.

So Nehemiah risked his life and asked the king for permission to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. And God answered his prayers. Nehemiah was made governor, and set out on the long journey (something lie 1547.3km on today’s roads!) to Jerusalem.

And soon, work on the walls kicked off. But, like when the temple was being rebuilt, there was a lot of opposition. Including from people one might have expected to be for God. Judah’s enemies had friends/agents among the returned exiles. At one point, it looked like things would come to battle. Nehemiah prayed – and armed the workers. But they kept on working!

They worked until the wall and gates of Jerusalem were completed.

Completing that wall was a God thing. God was with His people. God had provided for them all along. He’d made King Artaxerxes well-disposed to do all that Nehemiah asked of Him. God had provided for them. God had kept them safe from their enemies. This wall was only built because God was on their side.

And Nehemiah: he was a man after God’s heart. He was constantly praying. He cared for the people of Judah. He says in chapter 5:14ff that:

…from the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, until his thirty-second year—twelve years—neither I nor my brothers ate the food allotted to the governor. But the earlier governors—those preceding me—placed a heavy burden on the people and took forty shekels of silver from them in addition to food and wine. Their assistants also lorded it over the people. But out of reverence for God I did not act like that. Instead, I devoted myself to the work on this wall. All my men were assembled there for the work; we did not acquire any land.

Furthermore, a hundred and fifty Jews and officials ate at my table, as well as those who came to us from the surrounding nations. Each day one ox, six choice sheep and some poultry were prepared for me, and every ten days an abundant supply of wine of all kinds. In spite of all this, I never demanded the food allotted to the governor, because the demands were heavy on these people.

As a leader, Nehemiah was an example to his people of someone who loved God, and whose love of God changed the way that he acted.

Given all that, I’m not surprised that a few days after the wall was finished, on the first day of the new year (the 7th month of the year!), a massive crowd gathered together. They had come because they wanted to hear God’s Word. They told Ezra the priest to read from the Book of the Law of Moses, which Yahweh had commanded for Israel. As Ezra praised God, they shouted “Amen! Amen!” This was right. This was so right: God was their God. He had rescued them. He had saved them from their exile. The temple was built because of Him. Jerusalem had a wall and gates because of Him. God was good! They fell down and worshipped him.

And then they listened. This was a church service that went for hours – probably about 6 hours! God’s Word was read and explained to all who could understand it.

And as they listened, they wept.

On this day of celebration, as they came together to get to know their God better for themselves… they wept. Why?

Surely it had something to do with hearing about God’s goodness towards them as Ezra read. And also to do with, as they listened, coming face to face with their own sin and rebelliousness. They realised how unfaithful they had been to God, despite all of His continued faithfulness and love. They were convicted. They were ashamed. The walls were rebuilt, but the people realised how broken they were.

But Nehemiah’s response that day might not be the one we would have expected. There was a need for confession. That would come in Nehemiah 9. But what this people needed to know first and foremost, was something of God’s joy.

Why God’s joy? And what makes God joyful? And what about us? Where does our story link in with the story of these Jews from so long ago?

Over the course of the last few months, we’ve set out to get a birds-eye view of the Old Testament story. We saw the start of all things in Genesis 1 and 2 – and it was good. But the world we live in is not good any more. It is broken, as are we. Genesis 1 to 11 introduces us to the two biggest issues in our world. Firstly, there is sin and death, and the alienation that this causes between both ourselves and God as well as ourselves and each other. Secondly, there is a lack of knowledge of God – we see humanity not knowing who the real God is or what He is like.

The Good News story of the Bible deals with setting those issues right. It’s the story of God reconciling the world to Himself. The sin issue is dealt with in the Old Testament, but only in a temporary manner. Old Testament sacrifices weren’t able to deal with sin – it would take God Himself to deal the death blow to sin and death. That’s why the Old Testament looks forward to the coming Messiah, Jesus.

The Old Testament deals a lot with our lack of knowledge about God. God chose to make Himself known to Abraham and his descendants. Israel was meant to be a holy nation, a kingdom of priests. And, at the best of times, they represented God to those around them.

Israel saw God do incredible things in their midst. But there was a constant temptation to abandon God in the lust after other things. Yet, despite their rebellion and unfaithfulness, God remained faithful to His people. He would discipline them, but He never backed away from the promises that He had made to them. That’s the sort of God He is: forever faithful.

Last week, we looked at one of the most dramatic times of discipline from God in Israelite history: the exile. So evil had Judah become that God used the Babylonians to disrupt their security. This wasn’t a snap decision; it came after God repeatedly sending messengers to call His people back to Himself. But His messengers were rebuffed and His grace was rejected. And so their society was upended, with most of the population taken away into exile far away.

But after 70 years, as He had promised, God acted to restore His people. A remnant returned to Jerusalem to live again as God’s people. Not all those who had left chose to return; some chose to remain in their new home. But those who returned chose to return to a life where seeking to do God’s will was to be the most important thing.

Those who returned chose to put first things first. Their priority was worshipping God. Their priority was on honouring God. They celebrated God’s giving His people a fresh start.

You and I haven’t been in exile. But we have also been given a fresh start. Jesus came to release us from the captivity of sin and death. The true King – God – has invited us to return to Him. As Christians, we have said, “Yes!” But what now? Where do we do now? What should our priorities be as people who have been saved?

This week, we’re continuing our journey through the Old Testament story of God and His people. Two weeks ago, we looked at 1 Samuel 8, where Israel went to the prophet Samuel demanding to have a king like all of the other nations around them. At first glance, it might have seemed sensible for them to want to have a king. But the problem was that Israel already had a king. They were God’s people; God Himself was their leader. What Israel was asking that day, effectively, was for someone other than God to be their ruler.

God gave Israel a king. But that didn’t mean that God abdicated from His rightful place as their King. Israel’s kings ruled under God – and were meant to rule in submission to Him. Good kings, like David or Josiah, led the nation in right worship of God. Good kings loved the Lord – and it showed.

Unfortunately, the trend among Israel’s kings was not towards loving God more. Many of those called to lead God’s people led them away from God and into idolatry and apostasy.

Soon after Solomon’s death, Israel’s kingdom was split into two, with the majority of the nation becoming part of the northern kingdom. This northern kingdom, (known, confusingly, as Israel,) was quick to embrace idol worship. And, as a result of their unfaithfulness to God, they were eventually exiled, never to return. The southern kingdom, (known as Judah,) would, unfortunately, follow them into exile for similar reasons some years later.

The history of God’s people during the time of their kings is long and varied. It’s worth reading about it in the books of Samuel-Kings and Chronicles. The two different books (Samuel-Kings and Chronicles) approach the topic from different perspectives. Chronicles has a strong focus on the temple and the right worship of God. Written after the exile, Chronicles seems to set out to encourage God’s people to not make the same mistake of rejecting God again.

Our passage this morning gives us an anatomy of rebellion. It is not, however, a determinately gloomy piece of scripture. There is judgement in it; that much is true. But it also speaks of God’s grace and patience. And it looks past judgement to the restoration that God promised.

Our circumstances as Australian, 21st century Christians are very different to those of the first readers of Chronicles. For one thing, we are ruled by the best King there ever could be; as Christians, we are ruled by the King of Kings – Jesus, our God. But this passage is one that we – and all in our generation – would do well to pay attention to. Because the events spoken of in this passage give us insight into these last days.

In the ancient world, there were two main ways to rise to become the leader of a nation. You either had to be born into the right family, or else you had to use violence. The history of Israel is full of both kinds of kings.

But the most famous dynasty was that of King David. In 1 Chronicles 17:11-14, we read of God’s promise to David. God said, “For when you die and join your ancestors, I will raise up one of your descendants, one of your sons, and I will make his kingdom strong. He is the one who will build a house—a temple—for me. And I will secure his throne forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son. I will never take my favour from him as I took it from the one who ruled before you. I will confirm him as king over my house and my kingdom for all time, and his throne will be secure forever.’”

To a degree, this promise was fulfilled when Solomon, David’s son, succeeded his father. But not completely. His throne was not secure forever – for Solomon also eventually died. In fact, although there continued to be Davidic kings for a long time, the nation was eventually sent into exile, and left without a king on the throne.

So did that mean that God’s promise had come unstuck? No. It meant that the promised Son who would rule over God’s kingdom had yet to come. Israel pinned their hopes on the coming of this king – the Anointed One, the Messiah. They awaited His arrival, looking forward to His setting all things right.

And then Jesus arrived. And it seemed like the long wait was finally over. Jesus had such authority. And then there were the things He did – and the claims that He made.

On the day when Jesus entered Jerusalem riding on a colt, many people were convinced. Matthew 21:9 tells us that the crowd shouted out things like:
“Hosanna to the Son of David!” and “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” and
“Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

They were convinced that Jesus was God’s promised King. And yet it wasn’t long until the crowds stopped crying out to glorify Jesus, and instead started crying out to have crucified.

Maybe they expected Jesus to get on with throwing out the Romans. Maybe they were waiting for Israel to take centre stage in the world. But Jesus wasn’t raising up armed fighters. He was a threat to the religious elite – but not a militant revolutionary.

Maybe he just wasn’t the sort of king they were expecting.

So His own people had him executed. It fell to Pilate to stand in judgement over Jesus. Pilate was concerned with eradicating potential rivals to the power of Rome. But Jesus wasn’t the kind of king that Pilate was expecting.

What kind of King willingly heads towards His own execution? What kind of King refuses to fight violence with violence? What kind of king was and is Jesus?

The kind of king who loves His Father and who loves His people.

The kind of king who would sacrifice Himself for us.

The kind of king whom death not hold.

In a word: a godly King – God.

In the ancient world, there were two main ways to rise to become the leader of a nation. You either had to be born into the right family, or else you had to use violence. The history of Israel is full of both kinds of kings.

But the most famous dynasty was that of King David. In 1 Chronicles 17:11-14, we read of God’s promise to David. God said, “For when you die and join your ancestors, I will raise up one of your descendants, one of your sons, and I will make his kingdom strong. He is the one who will build a house—a temple—for me. And I will secure his throne forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son. I will never take my favour from him as I took it from the one who ruled before you. I will confirm him as king over my house and my kingdom for all time, and his throne will be secure forever.’”

To a degree, this promise was fulfilled when Solomon, David’s son, succeeded his father. But not completely. His throne was not secure forever – for Solomon also eventually died. In fact, although there continued to be Davidic kings for a long time, the nation was eventually sent into exile, and left without a king on the throne.

So did that mean that God’s promise had come unstuck? No. It meant that the promised Son who would rule over God’s kingdom had yet to come. Israel pinned their hopes on the coming of this king – the Annointed One, the Messiah. They awaited His arrival, looking forward to His setting all things right.

And then Jesus arrived. And it seemed like the long wait was finally over. Jesus had such authority. And then there were the things He did – and the claims that He made.

On the day when Jesus entered Jerusalem riding on a colt, many people were convinced. Matthew 21:9 tells us that the crowd shouted out things like:
“Hosanna to the Son of David!” and “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” and
“Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

They were convinced that Jesus was God’s promised King. And yet it wasn’t long until the crowds stopped crying out to glorify Jesus, and instead started crying out to have crucified.

Maybe they expected Jesus to get on with throwing out the Romans. Maybe they were waiting for Israel to take centre stage in the world. But Jesus wasn’t raising up armed fighters. He was a threat to the religious elite – but not a militant revolutionary.

Maybe he just wasn’t the sort of king they were expecting.

So His own people had him executed. It fell to Pilate to stand in judgement over Jesus. Pilate was concerned with eradicating potential rivals to the power of Rome. But Jesus wasn’t the kind of king that Pilate was expecting.

What kind of King willingly heads towards His own execution? What kind of King refuses to fight violence with violence? What kind of king was and is Jesus?

The kind of king who loves His Father and who loves His people.

The kind of king who would sacrifice Himself for us.

The kind of king whom death not hold.

In a word: a godly King – God.

This week, we’re returning to our lighting journey through the story of the Old Testament. We spent a few weeks in the introduction to the Biblical story: Genesis 1-11. There we saw that the way the world now is is a result of human rebellion against God. We have a sin problem. We also saw that we have a knowledge problem: we don’t know who God is or what He is like. As a result, we end up with people treating God as if he were just another (more powerful) person.

The Old Testament story kicks off properly in Genesis 12 – with God calling Abram to follow Him. God’s plan was to use this man and his descendants to deal with these two big problems we have: being sinners, and not knowing God. Ultimately, God the Father would send His only Son – Jesus – to save us from our sins. Jesus would also fully and completely reveal who God is to the world. But prior to His coming, one of the big tasks of the Old Testament, and of Israel, was to make God known. God made Himself known to Abraham and his descendants. They in turn were to represent God to the world; to be a kingdom of priests.

Genesis tells of the patriarchs coming to know and trust Yahweh. And then Exodus tells of God rescuing them from slavery in Egypt. God formalised His relationship with them – and invited them to respond to His having saved them by dedicating themselves to being His people.

In Joshua, we read of God leading the people of Israel into the land that He had promised to give to Abraham and his heirs. We read of God proving His power and might and faithfulness time and time again. As Joshua comes to an end, it looks like everything is nicely wrapped up. Joshua 21 even notes that all of God’s promises had been fulfilled.

But then we turn the page to Judges – and find the next generation of Israelites refusing to know the Lord. We see God graciously saving them time after time – but Israel repeatedly abandoning Him to chase after the gods of the nations around them. Come the end of Judges, Israel is a shambles. God isn’t honoured as He should be, and the nation is rife with sin and surrounded by enemies.

At the time of today’s passage, Israel had a particularly good judge – the prophet Samuel. But the elders of Israel were worried about the future. Samuel was an old man, and his sons weren’t up to the task of picking up his mantle. They didn’t know what the future held. But what they did know is that they didn’t want things to carry on as they had done.

Israel was a nation in rebellion against God. They had enemies all around, and were often attacked. And God was allowing these attacks – and not fighting for Israel, since they had abandoned Him.

How could the nation of Israel secure their future? The solution was clear: turning their hearts to the Lord, and trusting in Him!

But that’s not the solution they came up with. Theirs was much earthier. Much more “like the nations around us” – he same nations whose gods they were serving rather than Yahweh! Having a king was the obvious solution to what ailed them, and so that’s the demand they took to the prophet Samuel: “Make us a king!”

But what was so wrong with that ask anyway? And how does their story speak to our story today?

Over the last few weeks, life has changed. Across almost all the world, humanity is struggling to deal with a virus too small for the naked eye to see. Hundreds of thousands of people are sick. As I write this, more than 26,000 people around the world have died as a result of contracting Covid-19.

People are scared. There have been fights over toilet paper. Tempers have been flaring – and the staff at our local shops have had to face the fearful anger of their customers. And then there are those who have lost their jobs because of the outbreak. Our government is doing all it can to flatten the spread of the virus – but the side-effect of saving lives is the undoing of the livelihoods of many. There are several people in our own congregation who have been directly affected like this.

As Christians, we aren’t immune to suffering. To the contrary, Christians are likely to suffer simply for being Christians. This world, and the ruler of this world, stand against God and His people. Christians have always faced hardship and persecution – sometimes to the point of death. We are fortunate that we have not yet had to suffer in this way in Australia.

But Christians are also not immune to the general suffering that comes from living in a broken world. I watched a terrible video this week of a pastor encouraging everyone in his (large) congregation to shake hands with each other. He said that the church was the safest place to be, suggesting that Christians don’t have to be afraid of catching covid-19. He couldn’t be more wrong. Christians get sick. Christians die.

But there is a difference between the Christian and the non-Christian in times of suffering. It’s a difference of perspective. It’s a difference born from our having the Spirit as the first-fruits of the new creation living in us. Everyone groans during suffering. But Christian groaning – like that of creation itself, and of the Spirit of God – is of a different sort to that of those who don’t acknowledge Jesus as Lord. Christian groaning looks beyond the present to the glorious future when Christ shall return.

As we groan, may we be reminded of the future God has in store for us. And may we, groaning with hope, encourage those around us to make their one foundation Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Also helpful to read: Judges 1-21

Over the last few weeks, we’ve slowly been making our way through the Old Testament, trying to get a birds-eye view of it’s story. It’s the story of God’s good creation, and of humanity’s rebellion against God. It’s the story of God acting to set things right. The main emphasis in the Old Testament is on God’s showing us who He is, in preparation for His arrival in Jesus to defeat sin and death on our behalf.

In order to make Himself known, God chose to work through one man and His family – Abraham. God made promises to him, including the promise to bless the whole world through Him. And Abraham’s trust in God grew. Eventually, his descendants were led out of Egypt by God’s mighty hand. Having saved them, God instructed them on how to live as His people – so that they would be a holy nation and a kingdom of priests. Israel was to be God’s ambassador to the world.

And when we came, last week, to the book of Joshua, it seemed like things were on track to meet this goal. God had given the victory, and had given them the land. The people were committed to serving the Lord alone. They recognised that everything they had they owed to His grace.

And then we come to Judges.

Things in the promised land started out so well. And they stayed that way – until the elders who had seen all the great things the Lord had done for Israel had all died. The next generation to grow up didn’t know the Lord or what He had done for Israel. They turned their backs on God, and started worshipping the gods of the people in the land. God gave them into the hands of raiders to discipline them. And in their great distress, He would raise up a judge, a leader, to rescue them. But it didn’t take long for them to sink back into their idol worship.

Everyone did what they thought was right. They refused to follow God, and there was no king.

At one point, Abimelek tried to be king – although he didn’t rule over all the tribes. So far from being a godly man, one of the first things Abimelek did was to kill 69 of his half brothers. God intervened, and Abimelek was killed. This was not the sort of ruler that God’s people needed.

This nation, that was meant to introduce the world to God and His goodness, became just like the peoples around them. They weren’t a holy nation. By Judges 19, Israel looks more like Sodom. And yet this is the nation through whom God had promised to bless the world! How would God do that?

As we look at the story of Israel’s descent into darkness, we might wonder what it means for us. How is our story similar to theirs? Is it possible that we too might forsake God for the sake of the idols of our day and age? And how can God save a world spiralling downwards in sin?

And why is simply being rescued not enough?

From this point on, the story of the Old Testament is the story of God’s revelation of who He is to humanity, especially through Abraham and his descendants. Ultimately, God Himself would become human; the Son of God, Jesus, would arrive in our midst, and definitively show us what the Father is like. Jesus was also the heir of Abraham through whom the whole world would be blessed – blessed with the offer of forgiveness of sins and life together with God.

We are privileged to be able to look back on all that God has done, and to see who He is displayed through history and our own lives. But it all starts back in Genesis 12. Abram trusted God, and did what God asked. But that trust had to grow and develop. In fact, I want to suggest that Genesis 12-50 is all about God’s chosen people learning to trust God and to rely on him. They fail and they succeed – but what remains steadfast throughout the story of Genesis is God’s faithfulness to His word.

Of all the stories in Genesis 12-50, the most famous are probably those of Abraham, Isaac, and Joseph. But this weekend, we’ll be focussing in on Jacob’s story. Jacob is the one who, with his mother’s help, tricked his blind father, seemingly at death’s door, into blessing him rather than his brother. He’s also the one who worked 7 years to marry his sweetheart – only to be tricked into marrying her sister first.

Jacob doubtlessly grew up hearing about the promises of God. But Jacob was a self-made man. He would reach out for what he wanted – doing whatever it took to get it. But he was on over-reacher, and was often scrambling to escape the consequences of his actions. And it was in those dark times when we hear of God speaking to Jacob. Jacob was the sort of person that had to learn how much he needed God. He had to learn to trust God completely. He had to learn that, despite his cleverness, he couldn’t save himself.

Jacob’s story is the story of God’s wrestling with sinful man. It’s the story of God bringing us to the end of the rope, breaking us even, until we realise how much we actually need Him. In The Screwtape Letters, C. S. Lewis says that, “When [God] talks of their losing themselves, He means only abandoning the clamour of self-will; once they have done that, He really gives them back all their personality, and boasts that when they are wholly His, they will be more themselves than ever.”

Jacob’s story is the story of how we have to lose in order for us to overcome. Because it’s only in surrender that we are “more than conquerors through Christ” (Romans 8:37).

Today’s passage: Genesis 12-50, with a particular focus on Genesis 25-33.

Have you ever bribed someone to do something for you? Every now and again, stories will come up about people or companies or countries trying to gain a competitive advantage over others by greasing a few palms. Mid 2018, an Australian company was found to have been bribing public officials in Vietnam in order to win work on aid projects in that country. There have been allegations made that people were bribed to vote for Qatar to win the right to host the soccer world cup in 2022. There are, of course, many other examples. Some of us will have lived in countries where it’s just normal.

Bribery is about making sure that things go your way; it’s about ensuring your thriving in this world. This weekend, we’re looking at an incident where a group of people were trying to do exactly that. These people wanted to make a name for themselves. And so they stood together and built for themselves a city and a tower.

It sounds innocuous enough, doesn’t it? But as we’ll see, it seems that this tower was probably more than just a status symbol. This tower was about control. This tower was probably pretty key to their plans to be the most famous, maybe most powerful, people around.

Our passage, Genesis 11, comes at the end of the first part of Genesis. It stands as a representative example of what happens when humanity loses touch with who God is. In the passage, we read of God scattering the people of Babel and confusing their language. But why would he do that? What was so very wrong there? Could we fall into the very same trap that they fell into? And what is God’s answer to the problem?

Today’s passage: Genesis 3

Have you ever had a sneaking suspicion that you were being hard done by? It hurts when when we are being slighted. But it can also be a problem when we act on an assumption of unfairness that turns out to not be true.

In the British sitcom “The IT Crowd,” there’s an episode where one of the main characters becomes convinced that she is being slighted. As the manager of the IT department, she was meant to attend management meetings. And yet the other managers were attending weekly meetings without her – and they were wearing bath-robes to these meetings! She becomes convinced that those who attended these meetings were all getting special treatment – perhaps having massages. Completely jealous, she puts a bathrobe over her business suit and sneaks in one week – only to find that she had just become part of an exercise group!

Genesis 1-2, we saw last week, shows us something of God’s heart for us. Creation was made to be “good” – it was meant to be a place where God’s will was done, and where we, humanity, could live with God and be His representatives. The Bible starts by telling us that the way the world is at the moment is not the way it is meant to be.

How does it come about that people who had a personal relationship with God would choose to do the one thing He had told them not to? Why do we do wrong things? What makes temptation so tempting for us? Genesis 3 starts to answer these questions for us.

Genesis 3 tells us about ourselves – but it also continues to tell us about our Father God. We’re introduced to sin and it’s consequences. But we are also reminded of a God who continues to be faithful and gracious. Genesis 3 tells of a terrible calamity – but also of a God whose love, although scorned, cannot be broken.

Unfortunately, these beautiful chapters can be the cause of much confusion and hurt among Christians. Those who think that Genesis 1 teaches a young, 6000 year old, earth find themselves at odds with those who think that Genesis 1 lines up with a far more ancient earth, in the order of millions, perhaps billions, of years.

But what if both groups have been misreading Genesis? What if Genesis 1-2 isn’t trying to teach us anything about the physical construction of material? What if the questions we bring to the text simply aren’t the questions Genesis wants to answer?

Imagine a learner driver going for their final driving test. They get in the car, greet the examiner, adjust their seatbelt, and start driving. Now imagine that the examiner starts quizzing the driver on the mechanics of the car. How was it constructed? Is it a radial engine? What, if it is a manual car, are the different linkages between the clutch pedal and the clutch assembly? Those are great questions to ask of a car mechanic – but a learner driver wouldn’t have come prepared to answer them. They’d have come prepared to drive.

As we approach the Bible, we need to do so on the basis not of what we think it should be saying, but on the basis of what it actually is saying. That sounds simple enough, but what complicates things a bit is the fact that the Bible wasn’t written to us. Although we are among those for whom it was written, we have to
remember that the first recipients were from a different time, and had a different language and culture to us. As the original recipients, the Bible
was written to them in their language, and referencing their cultural assumptions and beliefs. We have to translate not just from Hebrew, but also from the ancient culture they lived in. As a simple example, when the Bible describes Abram’s wife
Sarah as beautiful, we shouldn’t assume that their idea of beauty is necessarily the same as ours.

Coming from a culture where the how questions are most important, we might assume that Genesis will address them. But what if Genesis has something different, more important, to say to us? What did God want both ancient Israel and us to understand?

The first thing I found myself thinking of was a piece by Beethoven from Opus 130, something called the Cavatina Movement … When I [first] heard this piece of music … I thought … Beethoven, how can I ever repay you? What can I ever do for you that would be commensurate with what you’ve just given me? And so, as soon as [my colleague] said, “[This message is] going to last a thousand million years,” I thought of … this great, beautiful, sad piece of music, on which Beethoven had written in the margin … the word sehnsucht, which is German for “longing.” Part of what we wanted to capture in the Voyager message was this great longing we feel.

Longing. I think she was onto something there. Longing is so much of what it means to be human. We are creatures who yearn for more. We are creatures driven by our desires. Ideally, I believe that we were created with a hunger for God. Ecclesiastes 3:11 says that God “has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.” We were made to long for more than this world. We were made to long for God.

C. S. Lewis puts it so well:
If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing.

This weekend, we’re looking at Psalm 84, a beautiful song whose author(s) longed to be with God more than anything else in this world. Their hearts were set on that; being with God was the compass to their lives. Being near to God was their deepest affection.

Our affections are the deep longings of our hearts. They are what drive us. They are the source, ultimately, of what we think, say and do.

Psalm 84 is a beautiful song. And the idea of us being made to long after God is beautiful too. But we are sinners. Our hearts, so often, are not set on God. Our strongest desire – our deepest affection – is not to be with Him. So often, our minds are set on the things of this world. We believe the lie that what God offers us is not for our best. We’ve been doing that since the fall. Why did Eve eat from the tree of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil? Says Genesis 3, because she saw that it was good for food, and pleasing to the eye, and desirable for gaining wisdom (Gen 3:6). She became convinced that it, not God, would best provide for her.

We were made to long. We are always driven by our affections, our deep desires. If we want to be holy, then what we need is for our deepest desire to be for God.

The good news is that our hearts can be rewired. Our affections can be restored to Christ. Oh, that God would captivate us with His goodness – and that we would be transformed by His Spirit.

It seems like we’re getting more and more scam phone calls coming through in recent months. Often, these scammers try and convince us that we have a major problem, but that they can provide a solution for us very easily and very quickly, for just a small amount of money. They might claim to be from Telstra, the NBN, Microsoft or even the tax department. And they’re convincing. They keep doing it because they get enough people who pay them to solve their (actually non-existent) problems.

Writing to the Colossians, Paul was very aware that there are many “scam” worldviews and religions out there. One of Paul’s key messages to us is that Jesus Christ is supreme and central to everything. Everything was created through and for Him. He is the One who sustains everything. He is the head of His Church. He is the One who defeated death – the first among those who will rise from the dead. In everything and in every way, Jesus Christ is first. He is God incarnate – God become man. And He has acted to forgive us and reconcile us back to Himself – back to the Father. And He lives in us. Nobody would have guessed that God would deal with a rebellious creation like that!

But there are many worldviews – many philosophies and religions – that don’t put Jesus as central. We live in a secular country – where many people reject the idea of Jesus being God. Quite a few people think that there is nothing more to creation than the physical – that the supernatural is just a figment of human imagination. Several years back now, there was even a group who met to reconstruct the historical Jesus. They did this by stripping the gospels of anything supernatural, on the assumption that the supernatural doesn’t occur.

Everyone worships something – everyone has something or someone (or many things!) at the centre of their lives. For some, it’s religion. For some it’s a particular political persuasion. For some it’s economics. For some it’s power. For some it’s a relationship. We look to these things to give our life purpose and meaning and fulfilment.

But as Christians, we have come to see that Jesus is who He says He is. He is Lord of all. He is King of Kings. He is our Creator and Redeemer. And we recognise that He alone (who is central in everything) should be the centre of our lives.

But we are constantly being tempted to supplant Jesus with other ways of living and looking at the world. So Paul urges us to keep on following Christ – to keep on being built up in Him – and to be strengthened in our faith. In other words, Paul urges us to choose continually to follow Jesus and stay true to the One who alone is true. We need to be standing firm in the faith, not allowing ourselves to be deceived or taken captive by what might seem wise, but which ultimately is empty.

Jesus is God in the flesh. And if we are united with Him, then we have all that we need. Nothing else can make God love us more. Nothing else can bring us to God. Nothing else can provide meaning to our existence. So let’s keep our eyes on Jesus – and not fall prey to any scam that offers anything other than Him.

This weekend, we’re starting a new series through Paul’s letter to the church in Colosse. What’s interesting about this church is that it wasn’t one that Paul founded. It seems like Paul himself didn’t get to Colosse with the good news of God’s Kingdom made available to us through Jesus. A man named Epaphras was responsible for sharing the good news there. Maybe Epaphras had heard Paul speak in Ephesus, some 160km away. We’re not sure. What we do know is that he was a native of Colosse, and that he shared the good news with his fellow Colossians, and that Paul counted him as a fellow servant of Jesus Christ. Perhaps a few others, like Philemon (whose slave Onesimus ran away to Paul, resulting in the letter to Philemon) were also personally aquianted with Paul. But it seems that most of the Colossian church would only have heard about Paul.

As with every church in every age, there were those who were trying to undermine the Colossian Christians. Paul, commissioned by Jesus to be His witness, writes to them to encourage them to live lives worthy of their citizenship as God’s Holy people.

But this letter isn’t a “stern talking to” kind of letter. Paul’s dominant emotion, as he thinks about the Colossians, is one of gratitude to God. The thing that mattered most to Paul was that God’s good news was spreading throughout the world – taking root and producing the fruit of new life wherever it landed.

Wherever the good news goes, it brings the offer of hope to the hopeless. Hope is essential to human well-being. Psychologist Aaron Kheriaty, considering those in danger of suicide, notes that “over a 10 year span, it turns out that the one factor most strongly predictive of suicide is not how sick the person is, nor how many symptoms he exhibits, nor how much physical pain he is suffering, nor whether he is rich or poor. The most dangerous factor is a person’ sense of hopelessness. The man without hope is the likeliest candidate for suicide. …We cannot live without hope.”

There are many source of hope offered in the world today. The hope of politics. The hope of financial security. The hope of relationships. The hope of escape. The hope of progress. But what sets the hope of the gospel apart is that it is a hope that comes from beyond this sinful world and offers us life beyond the destruction of sin and death. What’s different about the hope of the gospel is that it is grounded in what Christ has done and empowered by His Spirit in the world today. What’s different about the hope of the gospel is that it doesn’t just promise us newness of life in the future – it actually sets about changing us today; growing the fruit of faith in Christ and love for all God’s people.

No wonder Paul thanked God that the Colossians trusted in Jesus Christ and loved His people. Because for Paul, that was evidence that their lives were oriented around the hope of the gospel.

Where do you and I find your hope today? And what difference, if it is in the good new of Jesus, does that make to us?

This Saturday just gone was Australia day. For some people, this day will be a painful reminder of the injustices of colonialism. For others, it will be a chance to have a good time with friends and family over food and drinks and perhaps to “ooh!” underneath fireworks. Just in time for Australia day, the government will also recognise the Australian of the year. Last year’s Australian of the year was a professor in quantum mechanics. This year, the West Australian of the year is Craig Challen, a cave diver who helped rescue a boy’s soccer team who were trapped in a cave in Thailand. Such Australians are meant to be people who epitomise what it means to be Australian. They represent the best of what Australia is, and what we want to be known as around the world.

Many of us at Golden Bay Baptist are proudly Australian. In the world of the New Testament, the Philippians were similarly proud of their citizenship. As a Roman colony, Philippian residents were Romans. (A modern parallel would be how those living in New Caledonia (16,000km away from France) are French citizens just like those living in Paris.) And being a Roman citizen gave you great privileges. Being from Philippi was a big deal. They were proud of it – just as we are proud to come from Australia.

But as much as we love our countries, we must remember that we are only strangers here. Our true citizenship belongs in Christ’s Kingdom. Christ has, in fact, claimed all creation as His own. One day, He will return, and then every knee will bow and every tongue declare Him to be King and Lord of all.

But as of now, we live in a world where God’s sovereignty isn’t recognised. As a result, Christians can find themselves at the receiving end of antagonism or violence or insults. But, Paul reminds us, we shouldn’t be intimidated. Rather, we should stand together, united in our commitment to Christ and His Kingdom.

The unity of a church committed to Christ’s Kingdom is a powerful sign to both us and the world around us about what God is doing and will do. Citizens of Heaven have nothing to fear from a defeated empire.

But as citizens of heaven, Paul continues to explain in Philippians 2, Christians should also be people who share a common mind and purpose and unity. We can’t just be united against the world, we also need to be united with each other. And to do that, we need to keep our gaze fixed on Christ. We may disagree on many things – but we can all agree that the most important thing is seeing God glorified and the good news about Jesus spread.

Because the Christian of the year – the one who represents what being a citizen of heaven really looks like – is Jesus the Christ.

Over the last three weeks, our morning service has been looking at God’s message through the prophet Hosea. Hosea tells of the greatest love story this universe has ever heard. It tells of God’s love for His people. It’s a story of God’s incredible faithfulness, contrasted with the unbelievable unfaithfulness of us – His people.

Our God is the God who does not easily give up on us. He is certainly the God of justice, but He is also love. Since before the world began, God knew that us humans would rebel against Him. Since before the world began, He planned His great rescue mission. And He put it into action. He chose one man – Abraham – to make Himself known to humanity. He promised that man that through His offspring, all the nations of the world would be blessed.

Later, God called Moses – a descendant of Abraham – to lead His people out of slavery in Egypt. Through Moses, God covenanted – contracted – Himself to His people: they would be His people, and He would be their God. They had the privilege of being His representatives to the world. They experienced God for themselves. But they, like all humans, were still rebels. And rather than representing God to the world, they brought His Name into disrepute among the nations.

But God’s plan was still in motion – because God is faithful to His promises, and because God loves us.

God became human. The One who made the universe stepped into it, born of the virgin Mary – a descendant of Abraham. Jesus announced the availability of the Kingdom of God. He forgave people their sins, and gave us glimpses of what life in God’s Kingdom is like.

And that promise to Abraham – it was being fulfilled.

John tells the story of Jesus – the light of the world – stepping into the darkness of our world. And throughout John’s good news about Jesus, John telegraphs that something big is going to happen. An hour was coming. Jesus’ time was coming.

And the hour starts here, in John 12. It starts with some Greeks arriving and asking to see Jesus. These may not have been literally people from Greece: Greeks could mean simply that they weren’t Jewish. I suspect that these were God-fearers: non-Jews who feared God, and devoted themelves to Him, but who weren’t willing to become Jewish. They were the religious hangers-on; people who saw that there was something real in Judaism, but who couldn’t bring themselves to commit completely. (And becoming Jewish wasn’t necessarily all that easy… it even involved surgery!)

It’s possible that these men had been around in the temple area when Jesus had cleared it. Mark 11:15-18 tells the story. One of the things Jesus highlighted at that time was how God’s Temple was to be called a house of prayer for all nations. Perhaps – and this is pure speculation – that had piqued the curiosity of these men. Certainly, the temple wasn’t a very inclusive space. Non-Jews could access the outer court of the Gentiles. But going past the little wall to the next courtyard – that was a capital offense.

They wanted to see Jesus. And for Jesus, that was the sign that the hour had come. The hour for Him to be lifted up, drawing all men to Himself. The hour for Him to cast out Satan – the prince of this world.

The hour for the dividing wall between humanity and God to be torn down by His sacrificial death. The hour for sin to be dealt with. The hour for God’s faithful love to pay the utmost price to win us back to Himself.

The hour when the dark struck at the light.

Not realising that The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it. (John 1:5) Jesus died – but death could not hold Him.

Hosea’s life isn’t, perhaps, typical of what you’d expect from a holy man. When he got married, he married not one of the nice girls in town, but one of the prostitutes. And although she stayed around for a bit, it wasn’t too long before she had walked out on him. She ended up with another man – perhaps a slave, or perhaps with debts to him that she couldn’t ever pay off. She was trapped.

And then God told Hosea to go and love her again.

Why on earth would Hosea take her back? This woman had hurt him. She had scorned him. She had, in all probability, embarrassed him. Sure, he would be telling everyone about how his family situation was meant to represent the situation between God and his people. But it still must have hurt – like it always does when someone treats your love as worthless.

If you were in Hosea’s shoes – with an adulterous spouse who has finally left us for another – what would you do? Some have, perhaps, experienced something similar. I recently heard someone say that if their spouse had an affair, that would be it; that there could be no forgiveness. I get that. It takes repeated decisions to love for a relationship to last. But when the relationship is broken by betrayal, the cost to restore it is huge. Many people think that they simply can’t afford the amount of love required – or don’t want to risk their love again.

But God told Hosea to love Gomer again. Hosea – like us – was called to live his life in imitation of God and His love for us, His people. Despite God’s faithful love for us, our love for him tends to be fickle and easily drawn away. Hosea 3:1 contrasts God’s love for His people to their love for… raisin cakes. The contrast isn’t even between God’s love and something amazing…. it’s between God’s amazing, unending love and a small, temporary pleasure. Why would God love such worthless lovers? Why wouldn’t He just give up on us and move on?

Because He loves us.

Because His love is grounded not in us, the object of His love, but in who He is. God is love.

And there is a cost. There always us.

And there is change. And there is a new start.

And there is hope for you and I.

In our Sunday morning service this weekend, we’re continuing our journey through the book of Hosea. Hosea is an interesting prophet; called by God to be a living demonstration to his people – and to us today – of the heart of God. As we saw last week in Hosea 1, God told the prophet to marry an adulterous woman, and to start a family with her. And Hosea did. He married Gomer – a woman as fickle and prone to wandering from Hosea as God’s people are fickle and prone to wander from Him. Each of the children she bore spoke of God’s judgement and pained love.

And yet the God that Hosea presents to us is more than an angry cuckold. God is the God who will have His bride. God is just, and doen’t tolerate unirgheousness. But God is also the God of grace and mercy – who acts to save a people who many would think aren’t worth saving. God does this simply because of His love and faithfulness.

Hosea 2 is a bit different to Hosea 1. This chapter lifts us from the family life of the prophet Hosea. It is a poem spoken by God to His people – both corporately and as individuals. Each of God’s people are challenged to rebuke their mother – to take a stand against a community that claims to be God’s, but is in fact practiced in unfaithfulness towards Him.

God’s charge against Israel was clear: they chased after other lovers, thinking that the reward for doing so was well worth it. In Hosea’s context, this involved chasing after the Baals – a Canaanite fertility god, whom they though would bring them agricultural – and thus economic – prosperity. In our context, there are many things that God’s people chase after, thinking that in so doing we will find life. The world bombards us with subtle (and not so subtle) messages on how to get the best out of life. We’re taught to think that a big house is a sign of success. We’re taught to live for the pleasures of food, drink, and sex. We’re taught to bow at the altar of materialism and success. We’re taught that unless one has a partner, one’s life is unfulfilled. And, just like the Israelites in Hosea’s day did, many of us in the church find ourselves drawn into assuming that what the world offers is real life.

The irony is that all good things come from God. In the Screwtape Letters, C. S. Lewis writes about how Satan cannot make any pleasures – pleasures are God’s domain. All that the enemy can do is twist pleasures by encouring them to be sought after in the wrong contexts. The formula of hell is every diminishing returns of pleasure for ever increasing investments.

In Hosea, we see, I think, the pain of people using God’s good gifts not in honour of Him and in relationship with Him, but in adoration of false gods. God is no weakling. And He isn’t into enabling our adultery. His aim is to win His bride, and to transform us, His people, into people who know and love Him. But why do people follow after idols? And what can God do to win people back?

This weekend, our morning service starts a new 4 week series looking at the book of Hosea. Hosea’s the first of the so-called Minor Prophets – the shorter prophetic books. He is, as one of the minor prophets, much less well known than prophets like Ezekiel, Jeremiah or Isaiah. Which is a great pity… because the message of Hosea is incredibly beautiful.

Hosea did more than speak God’s words. In a way, Hosea’s life came to express something of God’s life. Hosea isn’t just about facts and arguments. Hosea is a deeply personal, and deeply emotional insight into God’s heart.

The book of Hosea starts with God telling the prophet to take a wife. But not just any wife: Hosea was told to marry a prostitute. Hosea was a citizen of the northern kingdom of Israel, which was by this time quite pagan and opposed to God. Still, it can’t have been a comfortable thing for Hosea to do. Everyone would have known him as “the God man.” Why would a holy man marry a scarlet woman? And, as it turns out, a women who didn’t stay faithful to him.

For some of the impact, imagine being part of a church where the pastor arrived one day with a gaudily dressed woman named “Jewel” on his arm, saying that God had told him to marry her. Imagine also that some of the people sitting there would know exactly who and what she was. That’s the situation that God was putting Hosea into.

Why would God do that?

And then Hosea has a child – and God says to call him Jezreel. Which is like a German parent calling their child Auschwitz, or a caucasian Australian calling their child Pinjarra.

Why would God do that?

And then Gomer had two more children – and God calls them not loved and not my people.

Why would God do that?

And what was Hosea feeling through all this? And what does that teach us about God?

And is there any hope for this wayward, broken family?

(Hint: Yes! God is good!)

Have you ever had to literally turn a lover over to a mortal enemy to allow her to find out for herself what his intentions toward her really were? Have you ever had to lie in bed knowing she was believing his lies and [being intimate] with him every night? Have you ever sat helplessly by in a parking lot, while your enemy and his friends took turns [taking advantage of] your lover even as you sat nearby, unable to win her heart enough so she would trust you to rescue her? Have you ever called this one you had loved for so long … and asked her if she was ready to come back to you, only to have her say her heart was still captured by your enemy? Have you ever watched your lover’s beauty slowly diminish and fade in a haze of alcohol, drugs, occult practices, and infant sacrifice until she is no longer recognizable in body or soul? Have you ever loved one so much that you even send your only son to talk with her about your love for her, knowing that she will kill him?

All this and more God has endured because of his refusal to stop loving us.

Brent Curtis and John Eldredge, in The Sacred Romance.

This weekend, Mark will be looking at how we can be open to the Spirit. Quite often, our openness to the Spirit is more theoretical than practical. Perhaps we say that we are open to the Spirit… and yet at the same time refuse to relinquish control to Him. Perhaps we say we want to experience more of the Spirit’s power, and yet live assuming that we won’t.

This isn’t a new phenomenon. Acts 12 tells of a very similar attitude. The story opens with the news of the arrest by Herod of some who belonged to the church. Luke tells us that James, the brother of John, being put to death by the sword. This was quickly followed by the arrest of Peter, awaiting public “trial” after Passover.

Acts 12:5 summarises the situation well: “So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.” The situation for Peter was pretty hopeless; this wasn’t going to be a fair trial – in all probability, Peter was about to suffer the same fate as James. Peter was about to die. And the church, desperate, was earnestly praying to God for Him. We’re not told precisely what they were praying… but I must assume that at least some of them were praying for a miracle: for Peter to be set free.

And then, the night before His trial, God did do a miracle. An angel arrived in Peter’s cell – and struck him on the side to wake him. Following the angel’s instructions, Peter gets up, gets dressed, and walks out of the prison – the gates opening before him. Peter, it seems, was convinced that this was a vision… until the angel disappeared and left him alone in the cold street!

I love what happened next. Peter headed off to the house of Mary, the mother of John Mark, where many Christians were gathered to pray. He knocked at the door, and the servant girl – Rhoda – came to answer it. Recognising Peter’s voice, overjoyed, she ran back to the praying group announcing the good news of Peter’s having been released from prison. And get this… the Christians gathered in prayer for Peter told her she was nuts. And when she insisted, they told her “it must be his angel.” I’m not sure exactly what they meant… but I suspect they were saying: “he must be dead already!”

These people were earnestly praying for God to act… but they weren’t really open for Him to actually do so! When God did act, they were caught unprepared!

How easy it is to pray, and not expect God to actually answer. How easy it is for us to ask for a deeper experience of God, but to not really expect anything to change. How easy is it to say that God can change lives, but to live our lives assuming that people don’t actually change.

Perhaps we need a bigger view of God. Perhaps we need to live our lives assuming that God will act. Perhaps we need to assume that God actually is interested in us – like He says He is. Perhaps we need to assume that miracles can and do happen. Perhaps we need to assume that the Holy Spirit is still in the business of empowering the church of Christ, and that He is still busy creating the image of Christ in us.

How would our lives be different if we approached the Spirit with a default expectation that He is alive and active?

This Sunday morning, we’re continuing our mini-series looking at the person of the Holy Spirit. As we saw last week, our relationship with God is not meant to be one sided. God is for us, and cares about us. And God speaks. If God lives with us by His Spirit, then why would we expect God to do otherwise?

The Spirit of God who lives with us, however, is also the One who empowers us. Through the Spirit, the church is gifted with all that she needs to be God’s ambassador to the world. Our God is powerful. Nothing and nobody can stand between God and His purposes being fulfilled. Jesus once said that those who believed in Him would do even greater things than He had done. (John 14:12-14). Before ascending to the heavens, Jesus promised his followers that they would be clothed with power from on high (Luke 24:49). And on the day of Pentecost, this promise was fulfilled – the Spirit of God was poured out on God’s people.

By His Spirit and through His people, God has done and continues to do amazing things. The sick have been healed. Demons have been cast out. People have come to accept Jesus as Lord and Saviour. The book of Acts makes clear that the power of God’s Kingdom wasn’t stopped by Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension – it is still taking ground. As Paul wrote, the Kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power (1 Corithians 4:20).

And this is still the case today. So, we might ask, how do we obtain this power?

In Acts 8, we read of the Spirit’s moving with power among the Samaritans. Firstly through the work of Philip, and then through the arrival of Peter and John. And we meet a man from that area – Simon – who wanted exactly that: to obtain the power of God.

But is this actually the right question?

Have you ever heard God speaking to you? It’s a strange question to ask of a bunch of Christians, isn’t it? After all, we are those who claim to have a personal relationship with God. We often speak about how God is with us. We read through the Bible, and hear of God’s speaking with people time and time again. In the book of Acts, we read of Jesus speaking with Paul on the road to Damascus, and of Him later directing Paul’s journey. In giving their ruling that you don’t have to become a Jew to be a follower of Jesus, the apostles wrote that “it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us…” (Acts 15:28) That certainly sounds like they and the Holy Spirit had discussed the matter! God communicated with Abraham, Jacob, Hagar, Moses, Solomon, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Malachi, Zechariah (John the Baptist’s dad). If you read the Bible, you can only come to one conclusion: God is not silent.

But have you ever heard God speaking to you?

I’ve spoken with so many people who serve God faithfully and who love Him, but who don’t think that God has ever actually spoken with them. Which is sad. Can a relationship work if one of the parties is always giving the other the silent treatment? If I were to never speak to Taryn, what would that do to our marriage? Sure, she’d know I was there. She’d talk to me. Sometimes I would do what she asked me to, and she’d see the results. But the relationship would be stifled – because she wouldn’t be learning about my heart, about my dreams and desires and feelings.

Why would we be content to have that sort of relationship with God? Is it the case that God doesn’t want to talk to most of us? Does he only talk with a select few – are they the “favourites” of God, who actually get His attention?

As we start this series, I think it’s important to note that we need to have a humility when it comes to hearing from God. There’s a temptation for us to back up our own ideas by claiming that it’s actually God’s idea. The Bible is full of stories of people who did this – false prophets. In fact, in Jeremiah 23:34-36, God says that He’s had enough of it. If we claim that God has said something, we better be sure about it. And that, I think, usually involves a time of discernment that includes seeking out the input of others. If we are unsure whether God is saying something or not, we should be honest about it. We should say, I think God might be saying this. Too much damage has been done to God’s reputation – and to others – by people claiming God’s name for things that God would never say or do.

And yet we mustn’t try so hard to avoid that trap that we fall into the alternative trap, where we assume that God doesn’t actually talk with us.

I don’t believe we were meant to have a one-sided relationship with God. When Jesus returned to heaven, He promised to send His Holy Spirit. And He has – the Spirit is God’s gift to all of His children, living with us. John writes that God is love. If God loves us, surely He would want to talk with us? God longs for us be transformed into the likeness of Jesus. That means knowing who He is. How can we known how to live as Christ in the world – as His representatives – if we don’t actually know Him? And how can we know Him if we don’t actually have a relationship with Him? And how can we have a relationship with Him without 2-way communication?

For me, one of the most important verses for us is Galatians 5:16, where Paul urges us to let the Holy Spirit guide our lives. But if someone is to guide us, we have to hear them. And hearing God is about more than knowing the Bible. The Pharisees knew the Bible backwards – but they still rejected Jesus. Don’t hear me wrong – the Bible is vitally important for our hearing God. But the Spirit wants to guide us in every moment of every day, including in situations that aren’t specifically addressed in the Bible. The Bible isn’t a set of rules for life – it’s the history of God’s working to restore people to Himself. It’s the history of God’s guidance in this world. It’s the history of the relationship between Creator and His creatures.

So how do we hear God’s voice? In seeking an answer, we’ll be looking at the story of Samuel in 1 Samuel 3. And we’ll be thinking through some practical ways that we can learn to discern the voice of God when He speaks with us.

This Sunday, our society takes a moment to celebrate our fathers. Personally, I have been blessed with a wonderful, godly man as my father. He’s a gentle man who consistently encourages his children – to this day! – to be the best that we can be. I know without a shadow of doubt that my father loves me – and that will always be the case. He (along with my mother – mothers are great too!) will always celebrate my joys, and lament with me in my sorrows. If I am ever in need, I know that my father will do everything within his power to help me. He isn’t perfect, but then who of us is? But what matters is this: he is for me.

But I am also very aware that there are many in our society – and in our church – who have a very different history with their fathers. It’s a sad fact that for many families, fathers are absent for the majority of their children’s childhood. Many have had fathers who have been absent, hurtful, or even abusive.

I recall a very disturbing true story about a boy, struggling with his brother’s suicide, being given as a Christmas present from his parents the very gun that his brother had shot himself with. Not all fathers (or mothers) are positive role models for their children.

But, as Christians, we have a role model that the world doesn’t have. We are children of God. He is our Father; the One who goes out of His way to love and care and support us. He is for us and not against us. Ours is the Father who waits desperately for His wayward children to come home. And, when they return in shame and rags from a life of rebellion and pain, ours is the God who runs with arms open wide to welcome them home. Our heavenly Father is the One who longs for us to desire Him more than anything else; and who has established a program to see us, His adoptive children, shaped into His own image – into the likeness of His Own Divine, Eternal Son. Ours is the Father who loves us enough to endure the shame and pain of sending His Divine Son – Himself fully God – to die for us. Ours is the Father who is willing to spend the ultimate price for the sake of His children.

And ours is the Father who is able to do all that He desires. Ours is the Father whom not even death can vanquish, Ours is the Father who really is “the best” at everything.

In our morning service this weekend, as we look at Luke 11, Jesus encourages us to approach God as Father with unashamed boldness, knowing that He cares for us. Jesus wants us to know that we don’t have to do life alone. Our Heavenly Father is always there for us – and with us by His Spirit.

God is our Father. Let us celebrate that, and honour Him as such. And for the dads out there, let’s look to him for what being a dad is really all about…

The situation among the Christians in Galatia wasn’t good. They had put their trust in Jesus to save them. They’d heard the good news that God’s Kingdom was open and available to them through Jesus, who had dealt the death-blow to death and sin. They were a vibrant church, where there was plenty of evidence of God’s power in their midst. God’s Spirit was doing all sorts of miracles among them. God’s Spirit was living in and amongst them.

But then the new teachers had arrived in town, arguing that their relationship with God wasn’t all that it should be. These new teachers argued, no doubt, that the Galatians were being presumptuous to assume that they were right with God. How could that be the case, given the fact that they weren’t living the kind of life that God, they said, clearly expected them to live. Jesus was important… yes! But having dealt with your sins, you had to make sure that you ticked every other box required by God. Because you needed JesusPLUS
something else.

The situation among the Christians in Galatia wasn’t good. Had they misunderstood? Reading the Scriptures, wasn’t it true that God had chosen a people, and given them instructions about what sort of life He expected them to live? And if God had told them to live a certain way, wasn’t that proof that that was the kind of life that God wanted? Doesn’t it make sense to assume that if God demanded it, then if you don’t live that way, then you
can’t be right with God. That if you don’t live that way, God wouldn’t want to bless you, to give you life, to save you….

This has been the controversy that Paul has been answering in his letter to the Galatians. Without mincing any words, Paul calls out the JesusPLUS crew as talking nonsense. Already in Galatians 3, Paul has argued that the presence of the Spirit is proof that one is right with God.

In C. S. Lewis’ allegory of the gospel, “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”, the Creator Lion Aslan is slain by the white witch on a round table. And he dies. But He doesn’t stay dead. Aslan explains that the Witch’s knowledge of how the world worked was limited. Aslan says that, “though the Witch knew the Deep Magic, there is a magic deeper still which she did not know. Her knowledge goes back only to the dawn of time. But if she could have looked a little further back, into the stillness and the darkness before Time dawned, she
would have read there a different incantation…”

In a sense, the same could be said of the JesusPLUS crew that Paul was arguing against. They based their requirements for being right with God on the laws of Moses. Many today base their requirements for being right with God on moral codes or socially constructed norms.

But Paul’s argument is that we need to go deeper. If we are to understand what is required to be right with God, we need to go further back into history – back to Abraham, the man to whom God made incredible promises. As Paul has argued in Galatians 3:6-14, Abraham was declared to be right with God simply because he trusted God when God made promises to him.

It’s as we look at Abraham that we see what God requires of a person for them to be made right with Him. What came later can’t change that – any more than you can choose to amend the last will and testament of your great aunt Patricia. But if all that God requires of us is trust, then why did God give the law through Moses? Doesn’t a list of legal requirements stand in stark contrast to the idea that our right standing before God depends on what God does? There was a point to the law, writes Paul. But it was never meant to be the final solution to what ails us. It was temporary – until the time when all of God’s promises would be answered with a resounding “Yes!” in Christ Jesus… (2 Cor 1:20)

Passage for this session: Philippians 1:12ff

Slides for more details are available.

Slides for more details are available.

The questions addressed were:

1. How would you describe persecution?
2. Where do you know that persecution against the church exists today, and what form(s) does it take?
3. In countries where religious persecution takes place believers were aligned to a tribe or nationality, and when they become Christians it can be perceived as a fundamental rejection of those around them. How do you think they might be treated or responded to as a result of their new belief and community?
4. Consider one of these case studies:

1. To be Indian, or to be Nepalese, is to be Hindu. A man in India became a Christian: he and his family had to leave his village because no one would employ him.
2. There is a heartbreaking story of a little boy in a south central Asian country on his first day at school. His parents were florists and he arrived with a bucket of flowers for the teacher. The head called him to the front of the class and he thought he was going to be thanked for the flowers; instead the head tipped them out and stamped on them, saying: ‘This boy is a Christian; no one is to speak to him.’

Discuss one of the case studies as a group and share your response.
(Note: While its incidents of violence where Christians are injured or murdered that make the headlines, the lower-level discrimination Christians face daily can have severe consequences. There can be verbal abuse, lack of access to employment, or a Christian might lose out on promotion to a senior role. In rural settings access to the village well might be prohibited – and even to a graveyard, resulting in Christians having to carry their dead for miles before they can find a place to be buried).

5. Do you think persecution leads to a growth in the church? Do you think nominalism leads to a decline in the church? Please give a basis for your understanding?

Slides for more details are available.

There’s an exercise that one can do to try and come to a better understanding of who you are as a person. On a piece of paper, drawn a straight line, representing time. On the left hand side, mark a line for your birth. Above your straight line represents good, and below the line represents bad. The exercise is to think back over your entire life, and to graph your life. When things go really well, you’re graph will head way into the north. When things go really badly, it’ll dip into the chilly south. It’s an interesting exercise to do, not least in part because in drawing out our life, we don’t draw in every instance in our lives. We pick and choose the most important events; the events that have most shaped us. Some events mark dramatic shifts in our fortunes – the kind of event where we can say, “This is where everything changed…” whether for good or for bad.

If we were to do the same task again, but this time not for ourselves as individuals, but for humanity’s relationship with God, there would also be valleys and mountains in our graph. The incredible high at the start, as we enjoyed the garden and worked to spread it across the earth. Reaching even higher when God- God!!! – walked with us, smiling at all that we were doing. Then a huge dip, almost beyond the paper, when we were caught choosing to do the one thing God had told us not to. From there, the graph would quiver. Tumbling at babel. Climbing as God connected with Abram and made him promises. Rising as Israel is invited to stay in Babylon through drought. Tumbling as they suffer for 400 years. Rising with Moses’ leading the people out. Falling as the people kept forgetting God. Rising again with each new judge. Rising with King David’s arrival, and God’s promises to him. Falling as David has his moral failures. And so it continues. Rising and falling… but never reaching the heights of the start.

That collapse at the start was the turning point for humanity. It’s where everything changed.

And then Jesus was born. And the graph rises. And He preaches the nearness of God’s kingdom, demonstrating it with incredible power. And the graph rises. It looks like things are on the turn. At least some come to understand that He is God. God walking with us. The graph spikes upwards.

And then Easter happens. And everything turns.

Betrayal. Arrest. Trial. Execution. Darkness. Death. The lowest point in our relationship with God as human beings. Not just rebellion, but Regicide.

This is, surely, the turning point for humanity. From bad to worse.

This Friday, as we gather together, we focus on this turn for the worse. But we find that things aren’t exactly as we expect them to be. Jesus, God become man, isn’t surprised by the turn. In fact, He came with explicit authority to allow Himself to be turned against. He came with the authority to lay down His life. Easter Friday looks like it’s about robbing Jesus of His life. But it’s not. It’s about Jesus letting us take His life.

For those who loved Him, Easter Friday seemed like a turn for the worse. All their hopes of reconciliation with God were dashed. When things are dark, we struggle to see. All they saw was the dive into darkness. But Jesus had planned this dive. He’d long foretold it. But He’d also spoken of a dramatic turn in the other direction.

Sunday.

The day when everything changes. The day the graph doesn’t just inch up, but flies off the graph to the good. The day when Jesus rises from the dead; taking up His life again. Defeating death. Alive. Our hope for today and for tomorrow. Our sins dealt with, our rescuer forever standing before God’s throne speaking on our behalf. Our sins dealt with, our life His.

This is where everything changed…

And this is where it changes for us as individuals, too… if we let it; if we put our trust in Jesus. Sure, our personal timeline will still waver. But Jesus’ life – from God’s presence, down to the depths of hell, and back into God’s presence – is tethered to ours. And His draws ours ever closer to His; in preparation for the day of His return. His line becomes the line that ultimately determines ours.

Will we let this be where everything changes?

This weekend, we’re continuing our journey through Paul’s letter to the Galatians. As we saw last week, Paul wrote to the Galatians in response to some very disturbing news that had reached him: the Christians in Galatia were in the process of abandoning God! They were giving up on the good news that Paul had preached to them in favour of a new so-called “good news” that was anything but. We heard last week that there had arrived in their churches people who were arguing that while Jesus was well and good, one couldn’t really be acceptable to God unless one became part of the people that God had chosen. Which is fair enough. But what they said was that one became part of that people by submitting oneself to the Mosaic law, including the rule of circumcision for all men. Their “gospel” was one of JesusPLUS: JesusPLUS the law.

As we saw last week, there have been and are many JesusPLUS “gospels”. Many teachers who have said that in order to be acceptable to God, Jesus alone – grace alone, faith alone – isn’t enough.

Paul, on the other hand, taught exactly that: Jesus is enough. He taught that we are saved by grace alone. We are rescued by God. We are set free by God. And not because of anything that we have done; simply because of the kindness and mercy and compassion of our God. Paul’s argument is that if we add anything to Jesus, we don’t end up with a “more rounded” gospel. Rather, we end up with nothing. For if we insist on earning our acceptance with God, we reject God’s free gift. It’s an either/or: Either we are saved by God’s grace alone through Jesus, or we are not saved.

Abandoning Jesus for JesusPLUS is like having been rescued at sea, and then getting out of the lifeboat to swim to shore from where we are.

Reading between the lines, it seems like one of the ways that the JesusPLUS folk had managed to win people over to their side was by questioning Paul’s authority and motives for preaching as he did. Galatians 1:10 certainly reads as though Paul had been accused of tailoring his message so as to please people. I can well picture the JesusPLUS preachers saying that Paul had dumbed the good news down so that he could win more people to his preaching.

These JesusPLUS folks (and there’s a danger that we all have a tendency to JesusPLUS) have been consistently found to not be in line with the good news of God. But they raise an important question for us: why should pay any attention to Paul? Why not just focus on reading what Jesus said in the gospels. And maybe on reading what the apostles chosen by Jesus while he walked the earth wrote. Why should Paul’s presentation of God’s good news find equal footing on the theological table with that of Peter or John?

In fact, their question helps us approach an even bigger question: on what basis are we to know when someone is speaking on God’s behalf. God does still speak today. There are still gifts of prophecy and words of knowledge active in the church today. How do we know if people are speaking on God’s behalf?

It’s interesting that Paul doesn’t answer their challenge to his gospel’s authenticity with a series of proof texts. He could take the time and back up what he taught from the Old Testament. Paul was well trained in the Old Testament. But instead, he chooses to tell the Galatians a bit of his own history. And as he does, we can’t help but see how ridiculous the assertions of the JesusPLUS crowd against him were. His gospel was independent – a direct revelation of God. But it was also the same as that of the Jerusalem apostles. Paul never went to learn from them, but after years of preaching, they gave him the right hand of fellowship!

Independent but the same.

How does that help answer our questions about whether someone is speaking for God?

This weekend, we’re starting a new series going through Paul’s letter to the churches in Galatia. Like so much of the New Testament, the letter to the Galatians came about as a result of some serious issues in the Galatian churches. The Galatian Christians had accepted God’s rescue in the person of Jesus, quite probably as recorded in Acts 13ff. They had heard the good news that there is forgiveness of sins and the offer of life with God through Jesus. They had put their trust in Him. But then, some short time later, news came to Paul that these same Christians were abandoning the good news. They were deserting the God who had called them and shown them incredible mercy and grace. And they were switching allegiance to a new gospel.

There had come into their midst some people who twisted God’s good news into a dark imitation of good news. These people still claimed to be following Jesus; they still insisted that Jesus was necessary. But they also insisted that Jesus wasn’t enough. They taught that in order to be rescued from this present evil age, one needed more than trust in Jesus’ death and resurrection. Their “good news” was one of JesusPLUS. For those people, in particular, it seems to have been JesusPLUS Judaism; an insistence that for one to be truly right with God, one had to effectively become Jewish.

The gospel of God – taught by Jesus and all of his apostles, including Paul – is that the Kingdom of God is near. The gospel of God is that God has come to rescue us; that God sent His Son to die for us while we were still sinners; that God did what we cannot do because of the weakness of our sinful natures (Romans 8). The good news of God is that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8). As Jesus said on the cross, “It is finished!” And the gospel says that Jesus is all that we need.

So Paul wrote to the Galatians to address the terrible damage that the “twisters” of God’s gospel were doing. He writes not merely as a “concerned Christian”, but as an apostle – as Jesus’ messenger; as Jesus’ agent. Paul wasn’t just defending his interpretation of the good news: he was defending the good news that Jesus Christ and God the Father had entrusted to him to share. He wrote with the authority of God – and in the power of the Spirit. He was writing scripture, as the apostle Peter says in 2 Peter 3:16. And although he wasn’t commissioned by them, the believers with him fully endorsed his letter: the church stood behind the apostolic version of the gospel and against that of “those people” who had come and perverted the gospel in Galatia.

Paul was passionate about the gospel: simply summarising it in a few words as he does in verse 4 was enough to drive him to give glory to God. And God’s rescue is amazing. God has done it!

Which is perhaps why the idea that they would exchange God’s rescue for a JesusPLUS gospel was so shocking to Paul. And, sadly, they were doing so so soon after trusting in Jesus. In maths, anything TIMES nothing is nothing. Paul doesn’t mince his words; he makes it very clear that in the maths of the gospel, Jesus PLUS anything is nothing.

JesusPLUS being Jewish was the particular flavour of JesusPLUS Paul was confronting. But JesusPLUS is a heresy that comes in almost as many flavours as you can imagine. Not many of us today are being told that unless we convert to Judaism, our faith is useless. But are there still varieties of JesusPLUS vying for our allegiance? What is it about JesusPLUS that made it so alluring to the Galatians, and that continues to make it alluring to us today? And is it really as big a deal as Paul makes it out to be?

This weekend, Daniel Patterson is bringing us a message from John 8:2-11. The incident that John describes for us is particularly pertinent to the age in which we live. In your Bible, you might notice that this passage is in a section demarcated with a line about it not being in the earliest manuscripts. This is true. The evidence from the oldest manuscripts, together with a few other clues, is that this bit of John wasn’t originally written by John. But the incident describes fits perfectly with the character of who Jesus is, as described by John. And it’s quite possible that this was a well known bit of teaching handed down in the church and eventually inserted here. John himself notes at the end of his gospel that there were many things that Jesus did that he simply didn’t have space to include. This was quite possibly one of those!

But to the story as we have it recorded.

While teaching a crowd at the temple, some of the religious élite of the city approached Jesus with the sole intention of getting him to say something that they could use against Him. It seems to me that they were of the opinion that Jesus could either be gracious, or else He could be true to the will of God. They’d caught a woman in the act of adultery – and were dragging her before Jesus. The law, they knew, demanded that she be executed for her actions. But this Jesus was the kind who showed incredible love to sinners. The kind who showed incredible grace. If they could make Him act contrary to God’s will, they could (in their minds, at least!) unmask him as a fraud and imposter.

But, of course, Jesus doesn’t fall into their trap. He stooped down and wrote in the dust. What He wrote we’re not told. And then He spoke: Let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone. And then He went back to writing in the dust.

If we’re honest, none of us can stand up to that sort of scrutiny. And so all the religious élite slowly slipped away. Eventually, only Jesus and the woman were left. Looking up, Jesus saw that the accused stood there alone and asked, “Didn’t even one of them condemn you?” “No, Lord.” “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”

It’s a beautiful incident – showing us the heart of God.

But who is it that you and I most represent in the story? Some might think of themselves as the woman – thrown before the spotlight of public ridicule and hate for their choices and mistakes. But I suspect that us Christians – followers of this same Jesus! – are most in danger of being like the religious leaders of the day. We can get so caught up in being right, that we stop seeing people as people – but as mere means to an end. Nobody there was concerned about this woman’s spiritual, emotional or physical welfare. They were simply using her as a tool against Jesus.

And we can so easily become so self-righteous – caught up in identifying the sins and errors of others. But Jesus won’t let us get away with judging others when we ourselves are not perfectly above reproach.

And then there’s that other question this story raises… how is it that Jesus doesn’t condemn this woman? Isn’t his mercy contrary to God’s law? And since Jesus is our example of what the perfect human life is meant to be like, how are we to walk the line between grace and law?

“Oh, my dear, I would be very careful around that man. I believe he’s been in jail for stealing houseboats before…”

“I don’t really know, but I’ve been told that Mrs Jones… Of course I don’t believe it, but, as they say, ‘there’s no smoke without fire!’”

“In love, and just so that you know how to pray, have you heard the latest about Clarissa?”

Gossip. We hate it when we’re the target of gossip. And yet we love to catch up on the goss. We have magazines and websites dedicated to getting the most salacious, outrageous, or even libellous claims to us. We eat the stuff up. There’s something about hearing of other people’s misfortunes that makes our lives seem so much better. After all, if everyone is focusing on their issues, at least they aren’t focusing on mine!

Words are powerful things. Despite what we sang as children, words have an incredible capacity to harm us. An unkind word can sit with us for ages. When someone is rude to us, how often is our first response a desperate desire to figure out how we can show God’s love to them? Don’t we often find ourselves biting back our own hurtful rejoinders?

As Christians, we are called to a different kind of life. Jesus said that the way people would know that we were His followers was by our love for each other. But we have a problem. Because the evils of gossip, slander, hurtful speech, unkind words, harsh words – the evil of the human tongue – exists in the church just as it exists in the world around us. We might self-righteously not buy the gossip magazines, and yet happily gossip about people we know; sharing with others either what we suspect, or what was entrusted to us in private.

James, Jesus’ brother, has much to say about how we as Christians use our tongues. He goes as far as to say that if we were able to control our tongues, we’d be able to control every part of our lives. Anyone who is able to control their tongue, says James, would be perfect. Of course, some are better than others at controlling their words outright. But the fact is that we have to bite our lips, and the fact is that we are all prone to stumbling when it comes to what we say.

The problem, says James, is that we can’t actually control our tongues. And that’s a big deal – because our words are powerful. Just because they’re “only words” doesn’t diminish that. A tiny bit allows a horse to be utterly controlled. A tiny rudder, steered by a pilot, is able to direct the course of a huge ship. A tiny spark can set a forest ablaze. And our tongues, our words, have a similar ability to direct our lives.

And not just our lives. Words can be used to direct the lives of others for good or for evil. Hitler was a powerful orator, leading a blind nation astray and a world into war. Words of encouragement can see a child who has never succeeded flourish. Harsh words, repeatedly spoken to a child (or an adult) can cause them to wither and retreat defensively into their own cocoon.

With our words, we can use someone’s past to tear their future to shreds. Or we can speak God’s grace and love. With our words we can drive people away from God. Or we can encourage the weak and the downhearted. Loving words can help people know God’s great love for them.

But why can’t we fully tame our tongues? Why is it that words of scorn, or gossip, or anger, etc. want to flow from our mouths?

The issue with our tongues – with our words – is a spiritual issue. James says that our tongues are like a fire that has been set alight with the flames of hell. It’s so easy to speak of others as if they were less valuable than we are; as if they weren’t made in the image of God – precious to Him and very loved.

Jesus knew very well how precious people are to God. He – God became man – died for us all. And when he spoke, his words resonated with the love of God. True, he got angry with people who stood in the way of people coming to know God’s love. But even on the cross, He didn’t curse or lambaste those who had chosen to be His enemies. Instead, He asked that they be forgiven. How many of us, when injured or in great emotional turmoil, inadvertently let a swearword slip out? And yet, when Jesus was in agony on the cross, He looked at those who had put him there – and asked forgiveness for them.

There’s something different about the way Jesus spoke. There’s something… beautiful about it. As God become man, Jesus shows us what humanity was meant to be like. He shows us a tongue controlled not by the destructive fires of evil, but by the loving gracious heart of God.

James says that none of us can control our tongues. Which makes sense. What we say flows out of who we are – and we are sinners. But Jesus had perfect control of His tongue… And, as Galatians 2:20 reminds us, it’s no longer I that lives, but Christ that lives in me…

As early as 1961, Rudolph Bultmann, (a theologian who didn’t believe in the supernatural, or that the Jesus in the Bible was historically real,) wrote that, “It is impossible to use electric light and the wireless and to avail ourselves of modern medical and surgical discoveries, and at the same time believe in the New Testament world of spirits and miracles.”

Is this true? Has science done away with our need for God? Is the material world all that there is?
As Christians, our answer to this is a firm no. We believe that there is more to existence than the merely physical. We believe that behind everything stands the person of God. We believe that “by [Jesus] all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.” (Colossian 1:16-17)

There are certain things that science simply can’t address. Since it is incapable of measuring anything other the material, it is incapable of knowing the One behind the material! And without a Creator, science is left answering the “how” questions with no resource to answer “why?”

But what, then, are we to do with science? How are we to read the Bible when it seems like the Bible stands in direct contradiction to scientific evidence?

In answering these questions, we’ll consider an older problem, from several hundred years ago, where it seemed like what the Bible said was being contradicted by new advances in science. And we’ll see that perhaps the fault lies neither in the Bible nor in scientific endeavour, but in our interpretation of both.

As Romans 1:19-20 says, the things of creation give us insights into the person of the Creator. As such, we must learn to be careful exegetes of both the Word of God and the creation of God. That is, we must learn to be people who correctly interpret what God has said and the evidence of what God has done.
It is a travesty when we as Christians hold onto poor interpretations of what God has said despite the evidence of what God has done. This we have done as Christians in the past, and still do today; holding onto our sacred cows rather than seeking out God’s truth. Sadly, this can bring Jesus’ name into disrepute, and cause people to think that they must choose between the truth and the One who is the Truth. If God was to be proved a liar (which He isn’t!) on one point, we would be fools to trust Him with our lives. Yet I’m sure that the One who is True – Jesus, God – is not afraid of us seeking the truth out.

I believe firmly that there is no scientific evidence that denies the Word of God. I believe that God would have us go where the evidence leads. In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul goes to some lengths to provide evidences for the resurrection. And he recognises that if this evidence is false – if Jesus were not raised from the dead – then we Christians would be more to be pitied than anyone else. (1 Cor 5:19) Paul’s not raise such questions because he’s absolutely convinced that the evidence of what God has done is clear.

If this is true of so vital a thing as the resurrection of Christ, can we not be assured that God’s Word doesn’t stand in contradiction to the evidence of creation?

Grace is wonderful. God shows us such kindness and love and gentleness. Even though we don’t deserve it, God invites us into a relationship with himself. Having shown us mercy – taking the penalty of our sin onto Himself – God graciously invites us into his family, adopting us by the blood of Jesus through the Spirit of God.

I like the idea of grace. I love the fact that there are countless second chances. Every time I mess up, God’s grace is still there, telling me that my mistakes don’t define me – that God does, and that He is slowly transforming me into the likeness of His Son.

But if we’re honest, I wonder if we don’t in practice suspect that there are some people who are too far gone for grace. Oh, we might not say that. But we live on the assumption that leopards can’t change their spots.

In my research this week, I read a story by Matt Woodley, adapted from the CNN Religion Blog article, “South Korean pastor is also a trained killer,” from 2010-09-08. Matt writes:
Kim Shin Jo, a gentle pastor from South Korea, used to be a trained killer.
In January of 1968, Jo and a team of assassins descended from North Korean, slipping through the woods in a daring attempt to kill the president of South Korea. The team of 31 commandos made it to within a few hundred meters of the president’s residence before they were intercepted. A fierce battle ensued, killing 30 South Koreans. All of the North Korean soldiers were killed, except one who escaped and Kim Shin Jo, who was captured.

After months of interrogation, and through a surprising friendship with a South Korean army general, Kim Shin Jo’s hard heart started to soften. Later he would confess, “I tried to kill the president. I was the enemy. But the South Korean people showed me sympathy and forgiveness. I was touched and moved.”

The South Korean government eventually released Kim Shin Jo. Over the next three decades he worked for the military, became a citizen, and then married and raised a family. Finally, he became a church minister.

Today Jo’s life serves as a symbol of redemption for the entire country of South Korea. Reflecting on the day of his arrest, Kim Shin Jo commented, “On that day, Kim Shin Jo died. I was reborn. I got my second chance. And I’m thankful for that.”

Kim Shin Jo found a new birth and God’s grace through the power of Christ. But his encounter with Christ came through the unexpected, surprising love of other people. Despite his betrayals and sins, an army officer accepted him, befriended him, and believed in him. At one time he was the enemy of the South Korean people, but in the spirit of Jesus Christ, they surprised him with the startling gifts of belonging, forgiveness and even citizenship.

Matt concludes that,
In the same way, the church is called to extend the gift of acceptance so others will find Christ’s “second chance.” God unleashes tremendous power for good when his people surprise the world, especially unlovable people and even our enemies, with unconditional love, friendship and forgiveness.

This weekend, we’re looking at someone who made a trained assassin look tame. Saul – later to become Paul – had made a reputation for himself of destroying anyone who claimed that Jesus was the Christ, raised by God from the dead and exalted to the right hand of God. Saul’s whole life was predicated on the need to be good enough for God. He was a Pharisee, committed to making sure that he ticked all of God’s boxes. And he was good at it. According to Philippians 3, he could hold his head upright and declare that he was faultless before the law.

But why was Paul so zealous in ferociously fighting against Jesus and his church?

It’s possible to stay within the law and yet be totally outside of God’s will – as Saul soon found out. But – and here’s God’s grace – God doesn’t smite Saul for his actions. It’s not that God wasn’t affected by what Saul was doing – Jesus so identifies with his people that when they are persecuted, it is actually Him that is being persecuted. And yet, rather than knocking Saul flat, Jesus simply shows up and talks with him. Rather than returning an eye for an eye, Jesus offers the challenge of grace: ask yourself, Saul, Why are you persecuting me?

And Saul does. For three days he fasts and prays. He’s blind. He has proof that this encounter was more than just a psychological breakdown. He knows that God is powerful. And he reassesses his life. He’s been given a second chance – and he’s going to take it. The same zeal that drove him to destroy Jesus’ people, tamed now by God, would be used to invite others into the people of God.

But those who were already Christians took some convincing… Surely this man was too far gone for grace? And if so, who else do we think is too far gone? We like grace for ourselves – but who are we tempted to think God is powerless to change and bring into the family?

This weekend, as we continue our exploration of God’s grace, we’re doing something a little different. Rather than looking at a single passage, we’re looking at a story that covers at least 10 chapters! Our focus today will be on the story of God’s using Joseph, and what that story reveals about the grace of God.

To understand Genesis 37ff, we need to understand something of the family history. Joseph is a son of Israel (Jacob). His father – having stolen his brother’s inheritance – ran away and fell in love with the beautiful Rachel. But, having worked 7 years for her hand in marriage, Jacob was tricked into marrying Rachel’s older sister Leah instead. (How one can be tricked like this sort of beggars belief. One can only assume that the candles were very poor quality – or else that the wedding wine was of great quantity!)

These two sisters were constantly competing for Jacob’s affection. Leah bore him son after son – but Jacob’s heart was for Rachel. Both sisters got him to marry their servants in a kind of ancient surrogacy scheme. But still, Rachel was Jacob’s love. Eventually, Rachel gave birth to Joseph – the 11^th-born son – but clearly Jacob’s favourite. A little later, Rachel again gave birth to Benjamin, and died in the process. Jacob was gutted at the loss of his beloved. But one can’t help but wonder if his overt favouritism for Joseph increased to compensate for her loss.

It must have been hard for Joseph’s half-brothers to live with the knowledge that their father cared far less for them than for their younger half-brother. That much was clear to everyone. At age 17, Jacob (Israel) gave Joseph a special coat. Traditionally, we’ve spoken of a multi-coloured coat. This was quite possibly a sign of high office – a sign that Joseph was white collar to his brother’s blue-collars. Certainly, Genesis 37 speaks of his often tending his father’s flocks. And although he worked for his half-brothers, he is recorded as reporting back on them to his dad (Genesis 37:2). We also read of Jacob sending him out to do an inspection and report on the half-brothers and the flock. (Genesis 37:14)

But before this, Genesis 37 speaks of God giving a couple of dreams to Joseph… dreams where Joseph stands in authority over his entire family. Reading ahead, we know that this will be an act of grace – of God saving them. But the effect on the brothers wasn’t one of gratitude to God. Rather, their hatred for the boy increased.

Grace can be offensive to us – especially when we don’t understand what God is doing. We so easily assume that God must bless us according to our merit – or our own worth. But right from the start, grace insists on humbling us. God so often works through what the world considers weak. God so often first has to break our own sense of self-sufficiency before we’re ready to accept his grace in our lives.

Sometimes we think – in practice if not in theory – that if God is active and present in your life – if grace is abounding to you – then everything will go well for you. You will be financially secure. You will be without worry. You will have no need to fear. Your relationships will flourish. You will be well-thought of and highly esteemed by everyone. Whatever your heart desires, you will have.

That all sounds good – but I suspect that a lot of Christians might read a paragraph like that and come to one very obvious conclusion: In that case, God can’t be very active and present in my life. In that case, I must have a serious deficiency of grace. But does that paragraph represent the whole truth of what God’s grace in our lives looks like? Does grace mean an easy life?

Joseph’s experience – and that of his brothers and father – would say no – grace doesn’t guarantee an easy life. God’s grace doesn’t always shield us from life’s troubles. But grace can use those troubles – even the evil that we do and that is done to us. …God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. (Romans 8:28)

Which raises a question: why? Why would God’s grace not just override the evil and guarantee an easy life?

]]> https://www.goldenbaybaptist.church/sermons/getting-grace-joseph/feed/ 0 4580 church@goldenbaybaptist.church (GBBC)noPassages under consideration: Genesis 37-54 This weekend, as we continue our exploration of God’s grace, we’re doing something a little different. Rather than looking at a single passage, we’re looking at a story that covers at least 10 chapters! Our focus today will be on the story of God’s using Joseph, and what that story reveals about the grace of God. To understand Genesis 37ff, we need to understand something of the family history. Joseph is a son of Israel […]Passages under consideration: Genesis 37-54 This weekend, as we continue our exploration of God’s grace, we’re doing something a little different. Rather than looking at a single passage, we’re looking at a story that covers at least 10 chapters! Our focus today will be on the story of God’s using Joseph, and what that story reveals about the grace of God. To understand Genesis 37ff, we need to understand something of the family history. Joseph is a son of Israel […]Baptist,Christian,Sermon,Sermons,Audio,Christianity,Bible,Faith,Belief https://www.goldenbaybaptist.church/sermons/getting-grace-adam-eve/ https://www.goldenbaybaptist.church/sermons/getting-grace-adam-eve/#respond Sun, 14 Jan 2018 01:30:30 +0000 https://www.goldenbaybaptist.church/?post_type=ctc_sermon&p=4577 Grace is something that we cannot live without. Grace starts where mercy leaves off. It’s more than our not getting what we deserve. It’s our getting what we don’t deserve. Grace is, ultimately, God giving Himself to us. It’s by grace that we are saved. That is, we are saved not because we deserve to be with God, but simply because God chooses to save us. Grace is a gift.

Grace doesn’t dumb down the immensity of sin. Grace isn’t cheap. It doesn’t pretend that a blind eye can just be turned towards evil. But at the same time, grace can never be outsinned. At the start of humanity, there was only one prohibition from God: don’t eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, or else you will die. Later, as Paul writes in Romans 5:20, “God’s law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. But as people sinned more and more, God’s wonderful grace became more abundant.”

Sometimes, people assume that the God of the Old Testament is a very different God than that of the New Testament. By being selective in what we read from both testaments, we can build up a picture of an angry, vindictive, violent, genocidal God from the old and a peaceful, loving and gracious God from the new. But that would be to do a dis-service to the God of the Bible – old and new. Because it’s a misrepresentation of who God actually is.

For starters, the God of the Old Testament is full of grace; full of loving kindness. Listen to God’s description of Himself to Moses in Exodus 34:6-7: “Yahweh! The Lord! The God of compassion and mercy! I am slow to anger and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness. I lavish unfailing love to a thousand generations. I forgive iniquity, rebellion, and sin. But I do not excuse the guilty. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children and grandchildren; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations.”

One of the first things God says about himself is that he is filled with unfailing love and faithfulness. And it is out of this love and faithfulness that God’s grace flows even towards us.

God has always been gracious towards us. Even from the dawn of creation (yes, even before that!) God has been showing grace towards humanity. God’s grace echoes throughout the pages of His-story.

This weekend, we’re looking at the start of the story of grace. In other words, we’re looking at the start of history. We’re looking at creation and the fall of humanity. Yes – the fall! Because even when dealing with rebels, God’s grace is on display. As we’ll see, grace doesn’t mean that there aren’t consequences for our actions. But the consequences of our action, we’ll see, don’t nullify God’s graciousness towards us.

There was grace in the garden. And there is grace still for us today. Sin must make God so sad. But love makes God act to undo sin. And grace says: I still love you. Come to me. As Jesus – God become man, the Rescuer; our Christ, said, “…Anyone who is thirsty may come to me! Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.’” (When he said “living water,” he was speaking of the Spirit, who would be given to everyone believing in him. But the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet entered into his glory.) (John 7:37-39)

That’s grace. The same grace from the garden, from the same God.

This weekend, we’re starting a brand new series focusing on grace. Grace is one of those concepts that we speak about a lot as Christians. But it’s also something that we can find incredibly hard to get a handle on. In some ways, we just don’t get grace; it staggers our understanding!

Grace is God’s treating us with undeserved kindness. It’s God giving us what we don’t deserve. Mercy, on the other hand, is God’s not giving us what we do deserve. Mercy sees God taking our punishment for rebelling against Him in our place; grace is His then turning around and adopting us as His Sons.

Grace is a gift. If ever we can lay claim to something from God, it’s not about grace. If we earn something, it’s no longer undeserved. And that, I think, is why grace so often sits uncomfortably with us: we’d like to think that God has to at least give us some credit because of the good that we do.

Or, looking at the same concept from a different angle, perhaps grace sits uncomfortably with us because we feel that there is no way that God would ever want anything to do with us. Perhaps we think that we are too far gone to be recipients of grace; as if God has some sort of minimum entrance requirements before he can start doling it out.

But that’s not the grace of God. God’s grace reaches into the very depths of human depravity – there is no-one who can’t be a recipient of God’s grace; Jesus died for us all – if we look to him, there is grace even for us. And our good works? Listen to what Isaiah says in Isaiah 64:6: We are all infected and impure with sin. When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags. Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall, and our sins sweep us away like the wind.

And God’s reply? Read Isaiah 65!

Earning the right to stand before God. Nice idea – but one that is beyond us. As Paul writes in Romans 5:20-21, God’s law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. But as people sinned more and more, God’s wonderful grace became more abundant. So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God’s wonderful grace rules instead, giving us right
standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Over the next few weeks’ we’ll explore the stories of how people have come to grips with God’s grace in their own lives. We’ll consider today how grace got hold of Abraham. In the weeks that follow, we’ll see how grace has been resounding since creation, how grace got hold of Joseph and how God’s grace reached to, in and through Paul.

And as we do, we’ll see the subtext of grace that rings through history: this is God’s world. As He said to Moses, I will show mercy to anyone I choose, and I will show compassion to anyone I choose.

This weekend, we’re continuing our series looking at some of the “words of life” that are so important for us as followers of Jesus. Already, we have explored what grace is: God giving himself to us, even when we don’t deserve Him. And we’ve considered what exactly we mean when we talk of faith: putting our trust in God on the basis of who He is and what He has already done for us.

The word for this weekend flows naturally from faith. We put our faith in God is because we live in hopeful expectation of all of His promises coming true. Hope is what keeps our eyes set on the Kingdom of God coming; a kingdom where things are the way they should be. A kingdom where there is no sickness, sorrow or death. A kingdom where things are as God wants them to be – a place which is ideally suited for human thriving. And it is: we were made to live with God.

There are many people who are pessimistic about this world, thinking that it is on a downwards spiral. If this universe is merely an accident, without a Creator God, then it is by definition a closed system. And we know that closed systems are always prone to the law of entropy. Put simply – energy spreads out. A kettle’s worth of boiling water is hot; entropy’s result is like spreading that same water out over 1km² – there’s no risk of burning your hand  in that case. In a closed universe; there will come a time when everything dies a slow, cold death. Everything dies. There is no future – only darkness. There is no hope.

On a smaller scale, such pessimism would simply say that everyone dies. Without purpose, without hope

But we don’t live in a closed system. We believe that there is a Creator God who exists beyond His creation. And this same God tells us that there is hope for humanity – and for this world. Romans 8 speaks of creation groaning in anticipation of the son’s of God being revealed. The reason things are so hopeless in this world is because we have rejected God – the source of hope.

But God has given us the hope of inheriting eternal life. By grace, he has made us right in His sight. (Titus 3:7). God has made some pretty amazing promises to us: that He would be our God, and that we would be His people – adopted into the family of God through faith – just like Abraham was. God has promised that there will come a day when he re-makes things perfect. He has promised that there will come a day when he remakes us. As 1 John 3:1-3 reminds us that, since we are God’s children, we have the hope of being like Jesus and seeing Him as He really is.

Like faith, hope isn’t a religious version of whistling against the wind. Hope has a foundation that rests on the character of God. As the writer to the Hebrews puts it in Hebrews 6:18-20, “So God has given both his promise and his oath. These two things are unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie. Therefore, we who have fled to him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us. This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. It leads us through the curtain into God’s inner sanctuary. Jesus has already gone in there for us. He has become our eternal High Priest in the order of Melchizedek.”

But if our hope in God is an anchor, what do we do when hope seems to fail? How do we know if the things that we hope for are the right things?

As Cleopas and his companion (possibly the husband of one of the Marys at the cross, see John 19) false hopes, hopes that died, area bitter pill to swallow. But there is a hope that can be relied on. There is a person that can be relied on. There is a God, against whose promises not even death can hold sway. There is a God whose promises are worth putting our hope in.

This weekend, we’re continuing our series looking at some of the most important – and often misunderstood – words describing the life of one following Jesus. Last week, we grappled with the concept of grace, discovering how essential it is. Grace is God’s giving of Himself to us – even though we don’t deserve Him. This weekend, we’re considering what exactly faith means.

It might seem strange for me to include the word faith in a series on important and misunderstood words. But I want to suggest that this is a word that is often misunderstood, both by those outside the church, and also by those inside the church.

One of the issues is that we use the word faith to mean a couple of different things. It can simply be used as a kind of synonym for religion. That is, when we say the Christian faith we really mean Christianity; when we say the Mormon faith we really mean Mormonism. That is not the usage that will concern us this week.

Atheist evangelist Peter Bogosian defines faith as 1) pretending to know things one doesn’t know, 2) belief without evidence, and 3) an irrational leap over probabilities. Essentially, he is saying that faith is something illogical that goes against common sense or evidence. Many in our community, like him, would put faith in the category of fairy tales.

Unfortunately, us Christians can often use the word faith in exactly that way. Phil Vischer argues that we sometimes use “faith” as a fallback for when we don’t understand something, or haven’t taken the time to think through the effort. When challenged by things like the age of creation or contradictions in the Bible, it’s tempting to simply pass it off with, “I take it on faith.”

This weekend, I want to argue that biblical faith is stronger than that. Biblical faith isn’t blind belief. Biblical faith is able to wrestle with challenges to it. Biblical faith is more than mere belief; it is enacted trust in the person and promises of God. (James 2)

Biblical faith is based on evidence. Biblical faith rests on the proven historical revelation of a God who is trustworthy.

The writer to the Hebrews, in chapter 11 of his book, not only gives us a definition of faith, but also describes what faith actually looks like in practice. His aim, I believe, is that we emulate the heroes of the faith – those who put their confidence in God’s promises. Their faith has, over the course of history, proven to have been well placed. They trusted God, and found that he was trustworthy.

It’s famously said that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. May it also be said that we Christians can learn from those who have gone before us what a life of faith really looks like. They all trusted God – with their lives. Should we? Will we?

This weekend, we’re starting a brand new series exploring some of the important words that we use all the time as Christians: grace, faith, hope and love. These words represent key concepts for us in our lives as apprentices to Jesus. They’re also concepts that a lot of us Christians struggle with.

This week’s word, grace, is certainly one of those concepts that a lot of people struggle to get their heads around. What is grace? Why is it that so many of us claim it, and yet fail to show it? Why is it that so many of us long for grace, and yet struggle to believe that it could really be for us? And why, while we’re at it, is the prayer we say before eating called grace?

Simply put, grace is God treating us kindly, even though we don’t deserve it. It’s a bit different to mercy, which is God’s not treating us as we deserve. Mercy is God’s taking our punishment for our rebellion onto Himself; Grace is God being kind to us.

I suspect the reason why we call the prayer before eating grace is simply that we are recognising that our very food is a gift from God. We have food to eat because God has been kind to us.

But what is grace? Is it some sort of quantifiable thing that God has huge stockpiles of? Who is eligible for grace? Is there, as with credit cards, a limit to grace? Following from that, does grace operate on an interest free, grace now pay in eternity basis? Grace is, thankfully, far more incredible than that.

Part of the good news is that we are saved by grace — in His kindness, God wants us to share His eternal life. It isn’t by works that we are saved, meaning that none of us can boast (Ephesians 2:8-9.) But the gift of grace isn’t one that can simply be passively received. Grace has a purpose, and an impact on the lives of those who receive it. Grace can’t be taken for granted; grace, when we really understand it, has a habit of turning our lives upside down!

In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul writes to remind the Corinthian church about the basics of the good news on which they had taken their stand. Jesus died for our sins, was buried and rose from the dead on the third day. And He was seen: first by Peter, then to the 12 apostles, then to more than 500 believers at the same time, then to James, then to all the apostles. Finally, says Paul in verse 8, Jesus also appeared to Paul. On the road to Damascus, heading there to persecute the church, Jesus met Paul and turned his life right-side up.

Paul was under no allusions as to his worthiness to become an apostle. By all standards, he should have been disqualified at the starting post — the man who tried to destroy God’s church. But, instead, Paul became God’s apostle to the non-Jewish world… why? Grace!

In his introduction to his gospel, John says that grace and truth came with Jesus (John 1:16-17). I suspect that we can only stand the truth if we’re standing in grace. Paul recognised the truth about himself. Elsewhere, he calls himself the chief of sinners. But God’s grace changed his story around. Rather than smiting Paul (which he deserved!), God chose to invite him into His kingdom, and to use Paul to reach a world in desperate need of God’s offer of grace.

But, as Paul knew, grace is so much more than the initial saving of our souls to God. He says in 1 Corinthians 15:10 that God’s grace was not without effect. Quite the opposite: God’s grace towards Paul saw Paul working harder than all the other apostles. Why? Not because he felt that he had to catch up to the other apostles. I suspect it was because the enormity of what God had done for Paul simply blew him away. And notice also in verse 10 that Paul says that it wasn’t so much he who did the work as it was the grace of God that was with him. Grace, when we really get it, should change our lives. And grace gives us the capacity to serve God.

Grace is a gift that can’t be earned. But God’s grace certainly isn’t opposed to effort. If anything, God’s grace “teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope — the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.” (Titus 2:12-14)

This weekend, we come to the third and final chapter in the book of Habakkuk. The prophet Habakkuk lived in the time just before the Babylonians would come and all-but destroy Jerusalem and Judah. But Habakkuk’s vision, when his book started, wasn’t on the Babylonians. He was concerned with the state of his own people – with how wicked the so-called people of God had become. It seemed to him that things were going from bad to worse – and that God was AWOL. But God was anything but absent. His plan to deal with the situation in Judah was well underway. He was bringing in the Babylonians – a people who, to Habakkuk at least, seemed far more evil.

And yet that was God’s plan: to use the wickedness and violence of Babylon to deal with the wickedness and violence in Judah. Much of Habakkuk 1-2 deals with the prophet coming to grips with how God could possibly do anything like that.

Habakkuk is a prophet with whom many Christians can easily relate. Sometimes, life seems to go to the doghouse. Life can suck, and be unfair. Sometimes it seems like the forces of darkness mock the church and Christians. And sometimes, rather than getting better, things just seem to get worse.

Circumstances vary. Habakkuk was weighed down by the sight of violence. Others might be weighed down by broken relationships. Or by the weight of the evil or injustices committed against them. Or perhaps weighed down by ill-health, and the inability of our bodies to keep on going. Others find themselves worried about the future, and what it will hold. Perhaps the weight of your past seems to hold down any possibility of your future taking off.

How do you pray when you’re terrified about the future? Habakkuk was terrified. The Babylonians were a formidable, violent people. How would you pray knowing that the road that God leads us along isn’t always one of sunshine. Sometimes, he leads us through the valley of the shadow of death itself…

Habakkuk 3 teaches us how to pray in such times. His prayer is a song. Perhaps he ordered it into a song himself; perhaps that was done at a later stage. The point is that this prayer was one that was meant to be sung through the ages. It’s a prayer for those facing dark times. A song of encouragement when God’s ways seem impossible to understand. This is a song that’s meant to be passed down through the ages. Because Habakkuk’s experience wasn’t unique to him. His need to remember God when the future seemed bleak and God’s ways inscrutable is one that is shared by countless followers of God throughout the ages.

The chorus of Habakkuk’s song is found in verse 2. Like a good chorus should, it sums up Habakkuk’s prayer and song: Do it again, God. As Habakkuk prays, he remembers all that God has done in the past. He remembers vividly, poetically, how God came to His people in the past. He recalls God’s fury against the nations who stood against His people. He remembers how God came and rescued them. He remembers that God is our Saviour.

Yes, life was difficult for Habakkuk. Yes, he didn’t understand everything about God’s plan. Yes, it confused him how God could use the wicked Babylonians as an instrument of justice. And yes, the thought of God’s might was terrifying to Habakkuk. Thinking back to what he knew of God, Habakkuk realised that God wasn’t someone to be trifled with.

But he also realised that in the midst of wrath, God remembers mercy.

Us Christians can learn a lot from Habakkuk. Like him, we need to remember that God is the main character in history. We need to recall all that God has done, and live our lives on the basis of what that shows us about who God is. Unlike Habakkuk, we have far more awesome things to look back on. We have Jesus – God become man. We have evidences of God’s kingdom breaking into this dark world. We have the history of death being broken by the death of God on a cross. And like Habakkuk, our cry is simply this: Do it again, God. Finish it.

Maranatha! Come, Lord Jesus. Come to judge this world. And in your wrath… remember mercy.

Today we are looking at 1 Corinthians chapter 12. This chapter considers the Spiritual Gifts
that God gives to his people in the Church. Not everyone has the same Spiritual gift, nor the
same method for using that gift. Some are aware they have gifts and others are yet to experience or use their gifts.

As we are experiencing growth and changes in our Church we need to examine ourselves and ask: What is my spiritual gift? How do I use my spiritual gifts for God and the Church?
In this Chapter we also read that although we have different personalities, different backgrounds, different levels of faith we believe in the same God and must work together for the sake of the Kingdom. We need to be united in order for God to continue working through the Golden Bay Baptist Church.

Finally, we read that we all have a role in the Church and that we need to be united. How can we reach people in the community, if we are not united as a Church? It is up to each of us to decide what that role is. Big or small, God loves us all. Anyone who says small things don’t matter, has never slept in a tent at night with a mosquito!

We can pray to God for guidance and ask God: What can I do to show my Love for God? How can I be used by God to tell others about my God and Saviour?

Interestingly, Jesus also had a bad reputation. But it was the religious elite who despised Him… at least in part for speaking God’s love to those they thought beneath God’s love and care.

This morning, we’re considering what the Christian response – God’s response – is to people who identify as gay and to the question of gay marriage.

We’ll briefly ask what the Old Testament says about homosexuality, and then consider how it relates to the whole question of the wrath of God from Paul’s discussion in Romans 1:18ff. Is Paul actually saying that homosexuality is the worst of all sins imaginable, and a cause of God’s wrath, his holy anger, against humanity?

Continuing with Paul, we’ll explore whether heterosexually oriented people are better in God’s sight than homosexually oriented people.
There are many churches today who embrace the LGBT identity, and celebrate the gay lifestyle as a valid lifestyle under God. We’ll try and figure out how God actually feels about gay people, and ask whether it’s possible to be a gay Christian. And, if it is, what that looks that in practice?

Finally, we’ll spend just a few minutes considering the best way for us Christians to respond to the question of same-sex marriage. Should we be loudly protesting? Should we be seeking to enforce a Christian morality in our country? How would Jesus approach matters of Godliness in a society like ours?

This is at once a complex and a simple issue. But at the heart of the gospel – and our response to same-sex marriage and the LGBT community must surely be this: God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only Son, so that whoever believes in him may not perish, but have everlasting life.

The follow pastoral letter was written by my brother-in-law, David Wager, from Collie Baptist. With his permission, I think it’s helpful to share it with our church as well:

Dear friends, family and whoever this pops up on your newsfeed and takes the time to read it thank you.

Picture a couple of children sitting on a sofa fighting over an x-box remote. It’s a fierce, bitter battle with neither giving in. However, a bigger issue is the rapidly spreading fire in the kitchen. The game noise from the big screen TV has drowned out the smoke alarm and the kids are in grave danger. What is important in the end is not which child ends up with the remote but who exits the house alive.

This story is a parable with a hidden meaning. The current debate over SSM is like the two children fighting over the remote. The battle in many places is fierce and bitter however I am here to yell out over the whole argument, “FIRE!!!!” There is a bigger picture, there is a greater issue that will make SSM irrelevant in eternity.

The good news is that there is a door and a way out to safety. The bad news is that there is a “fire”. It is the reality that we all will die and give an account of our lives to God. The “fire” is the problem that while we think we are good based on our own standard of goodness, we have no idea of God’s standard of goodness. The greatest command with the corresponding greatest penalty for breaking is: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and all your mind and with all your strength.” Even Mother Theresa failed to do this every hour of every day that she lived. You may say, ‘how can I love someone I don’t know?’. Well, I’m glad you asked. Let me make the introduction.

God sent His Son Jesus to become fully human and be the perfect image and representation of the invisible God. In love and mercy, he healed the sick, opened the eyes of the blind, cleansed the lepers, reached out to the outcast, the lost, the poor, the lonely and the disenfranchised. He even calmed the storm and raised the dead. He went everywhere, showing through deeds and teaching that the Kingdom of God is a wonderful place without decay, where things work as they should, where there is healing, reconciliation, new life and of course love. He also shared many times that outside the Kingdom of God, outside the rightful rule and authority of God where He is acknowledged and respected as the rightful good

King there is a fire that never goes out, a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth, a place of torment. Everywhere He went he demonstrated the wonders of the Kingdom and finished with a declaration and a challenge. “The kingdom of God has come near to you. Repent and believe.”

The good news is that God has opened the way to Himself through Jesus. There is a way out of the fire by repenting and believing in Jesus. The most wonderful, best part is that Jesus, although innocent has paid the ultimate price to bring us back to God. He gave his life on a Roman cross, spilling his life blood to pay the penalty for all our crimes. He died and rose from the dead on the third day to signify the acceptance of His sacrifice. He lives forevermore and I can tell you that you can know Him personally. One of Jesus’s followers named Paul declares that “If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved”. I can tell you from experience that to know God is to love Him.

So what has this got to do with SSM? Well this is the bigger picture. The question is not what you will vote in the plebiscite, or whether SSM is ultimately inevitable, but do you know the way out of the fire to the door? This will influence your destiny much more in the long run. There is no point in winning a debate, organising life and society in a way that makes you comfortable and then finding you missed out on your path to safety.

And if, like me, you are a Jesus-follower, let’s remember to keep the main thing, the main thing.

Last week, we started looking at the book of Habakkuk. Habakkuk is one of the shorter Old Testament prophetic books, but what it lacks in length it certainly makes up for in punch! As we saw last week, Habakkuk found himself living in a land that seemed to have gone to hell in a hand-basket. Evil and violence were everywhere, and the law (which in Israel was meant to have as its basis the law of God!) was paralysed.

What really got at Habakkuk, though, was God’s seeming inaction in it all. Why didn’t God do something
about the state of his people’s nation?

In reply to Habakkuk’s complaint, God provided an answer that seemed almost unbelievable. He was already doing something – and that something involved sending in the Babylonians in judgement over the people of Judah. He was sending in the ultra-violent in response to the violence! We noted last week how God can use what seems to be evil to bring about His good. In particular, He used the cross – the emblem of suffering and shame – to bring about salvation for all who trust in Him.

God’s idea of bringing in the Babylonians certainly seemed incomprehensible to Habakkuk. Habakkuk knew God. He knew God as his God, his Holy One, his Rock. He knew the absolute holiness and purity of God. He couldn’t understand why God would tolerate the treacherous. He wonders, in effect, how it is that God could put up with such an evil people as the Babylonians. Yes, he’d been complaining about his own people in Judah. But they were surely better than the Babylonians.

In effect, from 1:12ff, Habakkuk seems to switch from, “when are you going to do something about the mess here God,” to “we’re not as bad as them, God” mode.

I wonder if we aren’t prone to do exactly the same thing. As much as we might lament the state of our own (perhaps our own selves, church, country, race), we are also often quick to decide that we aren’t as bad as that other (person, church, country, or race). We tend to operate on a scale system: assuming that God must be more displeased with some people than with others. And, even if we’re honest in recognising we need dealing with, we don’t like thinking of ourselves as being at the end of the scale!

But I don’t think that’s the way God views us. Yes, there are degrees of evil. But as far as God is concerned, there is no-one righteous… (Romans 3:10). Either we are righteous or we are not. Either we deserve judgement for rebelling against God, or we don’t.
Habakkuk takes his complaint to God – and waits for God’s answer.

And God’s answer is fantastic… Habakkuk 2:4 is one of those verse that stands out, and is used at least 3 times in the New Testament to describe life with God. God describes the outcomes of the two possible ways to live – the outcomes of those who are puffed up and of the righteous who live by faith. Although it might seem like the way of the “enemy” is the sensible way to live, God explains in no uncertain terms the futility of that sort of life.

But if there is no-one righteous, then are there really, practically, two possible ways to live? Yes – but only by the grace of God. What we need is a righteousness that isn’t our own. What we need is the gift of God. What we need is Jesus’ righteousness, ours when we put our faith in Jesus. Ours when we live our lives trusting him.

Without God, there is only futility. But, as God says, there will come a time when the knowledge of His glory will cover the earth. And the righteous – those who live trusting God – will see it. We are, in fact, chosen to share it (Romans 8:17)!

In the end, God doesn’t answer Habakkuk’s question about how he could use the “more” wicked to punish the “less”. Because ultimately, that’s the wrong question. A better question would be this: will I do whatever it takes, however bloody or ridiculous, to try and guarantee my security and safety – or will I trust God? Will I trust Jesus and His promises, even though they “linger” (Habakkuk 2:3)?

The song at the end during communion is Do it again by Elevation worship. Watch it here.

This weekend, we’re starting a new series looking at the Old Testament prophetic book of Habakkuk. Habakkuk is an incredibly short book, consisting of only a few chapters. In it, the prophet Habakkuk brings his complaint to God about the state of his world.

Although no definite information is given, it seems that Habakkuk lived in the era just before Jerusalem was conquered by the invading Babylonian forces. A few years previously, things had started looking up in the kingdom of Judah. During the reign of King Josiah, the book of the law – at least a part of the Old Testament – had been found in the temple of God.

Reading it, Josiah was broken by how far his nation had fallen away from all that God asked of them. He instituted some incredible reforms, and there was something of a mini revival in the worship and celebration of God in Judah and Jerusalem.

Unfortunately, Josiah’s sons were certainly not cut from the same cloth as him. Rather than worshipping God, they did what was evil in the Lord’s sight. (2 Kings 23:32). His heir, Jehoahaz was put in prsion by the king of Egypt, who installed another of Josiah’s sons as king of Judah, renaming him Jehoiakim. But he too did what was evil in the Lord’s sight. And so the sorry tale continued.

It was during the reign of Zedekiah, just a few kings removed from Josiah, that Jerusalem finally fell to the Babylonians, after a terrible, famine causing siege of the city. The temple was burned down, and the people of Judah were exiled from their land.

But even before the fall of Jerusalem – even before the siege ramps were laid, Habakkuk had grown tired of crying out to God. Everywhere he looked, it seemed like things were going from bad to worse. But what made Habakkuk most distressed was that it seemed as if God wasn’t doing anything about it. There was violence everywhere – and yet God did not come to save. Seemingly whenever he looked he saw evil deeds and misery and destruction and violence. And it haunted him. Everyone seemed to be interested in arguing and fighting – words that perhaps have a hint of people taking each other to court. But the justice system in the land was a joke. The law was a lame duck. God’s law, which was meant to be the law of Israel, wasn’t being obeyed or honoured at all. In fact, the wicked seemed to far outnumber the righteous, resulting in the perversion of justice. Those who wanted to do the right thing just didn’t have the social clout that was necessary.

Habakkuk lived in desperate times – and it seemed to him that God should be doing something about it. Everything he knew about God told him that God was a God of justice. He couldn’t fathom why God would allow things to get so incredibly bad – and not do something about it all.

His cry of “how long, O Lord?” is one that many followers of God have cried over the centuries since Habakkuk spoke. We too might look at our society and wonder why God allows things to get into the state that they are in. Why doesn’t God simply sort out the evil in our midst? Why doesn’t God do something about a world which rejects God’s will so blatantly?

God’s response to Habakkuk’s cries is, however, not exactly what the prophet was hoping for. Although God does recognise the terribleness of the situation, His solution to all seems almost too incredible to believe. God’s answer to the violence and evil among Judah was to raise up the even more violent and cruel people, the Babylonians, as an instrument of judgement against the evil in the land!

But all of this happened a very long time ago, in a very different context. We live among the gentiles, and not under the law of Moses. We certainly don’t have to fear the imminent arrival of a horde of Babylonian warriors! So what does all of this actually have to say for you and I living in our context today?

How people communicate can tell you a lot about the kind of relationship that they have with each other. If they barely talk, you know that something is wrong. The same is true if one only sees one party talking and not giving the other a chance to speak. During his sermon on the mount, in which Jesus was describing the life fully committed to God and His kingdom, Jesus spent a bit of time teaching his disciples what the prayer of a person fully committed to God while living in a broken world looks like.

Jesus taught us to pray to our Father who is ever near; to remember that our God isn’t just some distant, uncaring deity, but a loving and caring and good Father who cares deeply for us. As His adoptive children, it’s only right that we should long to see our Father-God revered and respected by everyone, and that we ask that His kingdom would come and His will be done. As we saw when we looked at those verses, it is impossible to ask for God’s kingdom to come and His will to be done without setting ourselves to live out God’s will for the sake of His kingdom. To refuse to follow God’s will and simultaneously ask for it to be done would be utterly incongruous.

Jesus taught us to pray first and foremost for God’s will to be done, and for God’s name to be famous. But He also taught us to bring our own needs to God. As our loving Father, God can be trusted to meet our needs for today. And as our gracious rescuer, he can be trusted to forgive us our sins. As with the rest of the prayer, these are truths that can’t be prayed honestly without challenging our own attitudes towards others.
And now, as we come to the very last line of Jesus’ model prayer, Jesus teaches us to ask our Father to lead us not into temptation, but to deliver us from the evil one.

Temptations. We all have them. Things that we know are wrong or are bad for us, but which still seem to have an incredible alluring power to them. Quite often, our temptations are things that we are ashamed to speak of, being sure that we are the only ones who would be tempted in that way. We keep quiet, being convinced that if others knew the things that secretly seduced our souls, they would reject us and ostracise us.

We can sometimes even wonder if God wouldn’t reject us if He knew the things that tempted us.

But here’s the thing: our Father does know what tempts us. He knows us better than we know ourselves – and He knows our weaknesses better than we know them ourselves. And knowing that, He still chose to send His Son – Jesus – to die for us and to invite us into His family.

And as for our peers. I am firmly convinced that when it comes to temptation, there’s not all that originality in the world. And besides, even if our temptations are different, we are all tempted to the same end: the dragging of our souls (mind, body and spirit) away from God’s will.

But why, if temptation’s aim is to destroy us, does Jesus tell us to ask our Father to not lead us into temptation. Pastor Brian Wilkerson likens this to asking a trail-guide to not lead us over the edge of a cliff. What is Jesus on about here? And what do we do about James 1:13, which unequivocally states that God never tempts anyone? Is it possible that what God intends as a test can simultaneously be abused by the evil one or our own sinful natures as a means of temptation?

Why does Jesus insist that we need to ask God not to lead us into testing/temptation? Is it possible for us to avoid temptations entirely in this life? Is the very fact of being tempted a black mark against our souls before God?

If the first half of the Lord’s prayer is focused on God’s character, might and rule, the last three seem to be focused on our absolute dependence on Him for everything: our basic essentials of life, our forgiveness and right standing before Him, and our capacity to survive in a world where we are prone to stumble and leave the God we love.

How good are you at coping with temptations in your own strength? Is it possible Jesus asks us to pray as He does because He knows how much we need God to guide and lead us through the dangers to safety?

I pity you. You’re pitiful. You’re so pitiable.

Stop for a few seconds and think about what those words make you feel. Chances are, you’re first reaction might not be positive. In our culture today, the idea of being pitied is one that isn’t much appreciated. We assume that for somebody to pity us, they must think of themselves as being superior to us. We can equate pitying someone with looking down on them in pride.

This weekend, I want to suggest that pity is an essential component for life in this broken world. I also want to suggest that far from being the outcome of pride, pity should be the antithesis – the enemy! – of pride.

To pity someone is to recognise their need. To be like God is to be moved by pity to forgive, even at great cost.

Over the last few weeks, we’ve been learning from Jesus how to pray. Pray, I think Jesus shows us, is more than just a duty where we speak to the Almighty God. It’s a conversation that we hold with our Father. The whole of Jesus’ model prayer rests on the knowledge that God is our Father who is near to us. He is a Father who loves us, and who is interested in us, and cares for us.

Jesus teaches this prayer in Matthew 6 in the broader context of describing what a life defined by God’s kingdom looks like here on this dark, rebellious earth. As children naturally should do, Jesus encourages us to ask for God’s name to be famous. If God and His Kingdom is everything to us, if God defines who we are, then wanting everyone to know how amazing He is would come naturally. And we’d long, as Jesus teaches us to pray, for His kingdom to come and His will to be done on earth as in heaven. As Christians, we are God’s children and citizens of His kingdom. And we know that we are strangers and aliens now in this world. We trust that God’s kingdom is so much better than the hodge-podge of human mess we find ourselves in. We long for there to be no more sin, or sickness or sorrow; we long for God’s will to be done.

Our Father cares for us; he knows that we are weak. Jesus teaches us to pray for our daily bread today. He wants us to set our reliance on God – like a child trusting their parents to provide for their needs. God actually does care about our needs!

And God pities us. As a matter of fact, God is superior to us. But His pity for us isn’t one of arrogant pride, but rather a pity infused with humble, sacrificial love. He is our creator, and is not willing that any should perish (2 Peter 3:9). He is the God who is so often moved with compassion for us.
When there’s an oil spill out at sea, the consequences are disastrous. Quite often, when such spills happen, there’ll be footage out showing the effect on wildlife – particularly birds. The oil can eventually kill them. But there are people who have pity on those birds. They are moved to spend long hours working to clean the birds and give them a new life.

That’s what God does for us… except the reason we’re oily is that we’ve rebelled against Him. God could let us die – that would only be just. But he has pity on us – and acts to forgive us. We can’t clean ourselves up, not with even the best of intentions. God’s pity for us led Him to send His eternal Son to rescue us from our own mess.

If God didn’t have pity on us, life with him would be impossible.

But since God does have pity on us, as Christians we now live in the atmosphere of pity. Can we endure giving or receiving pity if we are proud? Is it possible to accept pity enacted from God – forgiveness – and refuse to give it to each other? What are some of the reasons why we might not forgive each other? And why does Jesus teach us to ask God to forgive us like we forgive each other?

Ultimately, we have to decide what will be the best descriptor for our lives: pride or pity.

Father: forgive us our sins, as we forgive each other.

Prayer: it’s both the easiest thing in the world, and something so many Christians struggle with. Prayer is simple talking with God – both speaking to Him and listening to His voice. Just as all relationships require communication, so too does our relationship with our God. Why then do so many Christians fail to have a thriving prayer life? Perhaps it’s because we have yet to fully appreciate that God really does love us, and really does want to spend time with us. Perhaps also it’s because we don’t know how to pray.

Over the last few weeks, we’ve been delving into the model prayer that Jesus gave to his disciples as they sat around him on a hillside all those years ago. He taught them to pray as part of his describing what a life fully sold-out and committed to the kingdom of God would look like.

So often, our prayers are more like shopping lists taken to God. We think of Him in like caste as an attendant in Bunnings. “Excuse me, but I’m looking for X: could you help me?” Our prayers can easily consist entirely of our wants and needs. What we’ve seen in the first couple of verses of the Lord’s prayer, however, shows a very different way to approach prayer. Jesus taught us to address our prayers to our Father – the one who loves us and has done everything for us to be adopted as His children. When people fully driven by love for God approach God, the most important thing for them isn’t their own circumstances, but rather the prestige and plan of their Father. Which is why Jesus taught us to pray for His Kingdom to come and His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. The focus in our prayers should be firmly foremostly on God. He is, after all, God – and we are not. We need to recognise that our wills and our kingdoms are less important than God’s will and God’s kingdom.

And yet – this is incredible! – God invites us to bring our needs before Him. Jesus taught us to go from concentrating on the perfect kingdom and will of God being brought to fruition on earth to asking God for… bread.

Some of the early church fathers were shocked by this. They thought it totally inappropriate to bother God with talk of what we need. Surely, they thought, Jesus wouldn’t teach us to drag our prayers from the sublime heights of celebrating and seeking God to… what’s for lunch.

But that, it seems to me, is precisely what Jesus does. God isn’t just the Almighty God; He is also our loving Father. And like a Father, He is genuinely concerned with our needs.

Why, though, does Jesus teach us to ask our Father for our daily bread. Shouldn’t we be saving up and preparing for the future? Isn’t that the Christian thing to do? And while we’re at it – what does bread include? Sliced white? Brioche? Truffles? Warm clothing? The latest fashion jeans?

And does God always promise to give us what we need? What about those who struggle without the things they need to survive life?

Last week, we started looking at the model prayer given to us by Jesus as He taught the crowds around Him in Matthew 5-7. As in everything, there was something different about Jesus when it came to praying. He spent a lot of time praying. But I don’t think that prayer was ever a duty for Jesus, the way we sometimes think of it. When Jesus prayed, He was talking with His Father. He was speaking with the One with whom He had spoken throughout eternity.

Jesus is different from us. He is part of the Godhead, that mysterious three persons and yet one of the Trinity. He is the eternal, un-created Son of God. And yet he taught us to pray to God as our Father. Because, quite simply, He came to bring us back into a relationship with our Creator. Even more, He came so that we could be adopted into the family of God. At his resurrection, as recorded in John 20:17, Jesus told Mary Magdalene to “go find my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” By his death and resurrection, and through faith in Jesus our rescuer, the eternal God, our Creator, is our Father.

As we saw last week, if we would see and experience God as our Father, we would naturally want Him to be revered and held in high esteem by all those around us. We would long for God’s name to be seen as holy. Just as children often boast about their parents’ occupations or characters, so too God’s children should long to see everyone recognise how incredible God is. Of course, in order for us to want others to recognise that, we ourselves need to recognise and experience the goodness of God ourselves. We need to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, and to grow in our knowledge and love of God. We need to constantly be seeking for a deepening of our experience of and relationship with God from our side. From God’s side, the depths are already infinitely unplumb-able. As Paul wrote in Romans 8, God has already given us His own Son – Jesus. How much more will He give us everything else!

This week, we’re considering the second and third requests that Jesus taught us to take to God in prayer. Like the first, these two aren’t about our wants or needs or desires being met. They are all about God; His Kingdom and His will. If anything, before we get to speaking to God of our needs, Jesus teaches us to place the gratification of God’s will above the self-gratification of our own wills.

Behind this short verse stands the oft-told tale of two kingdoms. There’s the kingdom of God – eternal, unchanging, beautiful, powerful, loving, and good. And then there’s the kingdom of this world, with it’s local expression being our own individual fiefdoms. These two kingdoms, it seems, are at so many points in opposition to each other. So why would we ask that God would let His Kingdom come? And what exactly does that mean? Is it a prayer for something in the far distant future, when Jesus returns, or does it have implications for today? Who is responsible for making the kingdom of God come. We aren’t the King of God’s Kingdom – but does that mean that all we can do is to wait for God to do something?

The second half of our verse explores this whole question a bit more, with a request that God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Last week, we heard that we are to pray to our Father in the heavens (plural), meaning we are to pray to the God who is as close to us as the air around us. But now we hear of God’s will being done in heaven (singular) in a way that differs from how it is done on earth. Why the difference here?

Who, we must ask, is responsible for actually enacting God’s will? We are taught to ask that God let it be done… but can we pray such a prayer without intending that we actually submit to God’s will ourselves?

In Matthew 6:10, Jesus calls us to submit our own lives to the over-arching authority of God’s kingdom and His will. The integrity with which we can honestly pray these things – not just speaking the words, but letting them speak from within us and into us, says a lot about the reality and depth of our Christian passion. Perhaps as we pray this verse – as with the rest of the Lord’s model prayer – we should be asking God to form His heart in us, that we might pray to Him like this with greater honesty and increasing integrity. Ask yourself: do you really, in all things desire God’s kingdom to come and His will to be done? Why – or why not? May God increase our trust and love and longing for Him!

In our Sunday service this weekend, we’ll be looking at some more at the incredible 8th chapter of Paul’s letter to the Romans. A fortnight ago, looking at the first half of the chapter, we discovered the incredibly good news that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Jesus died and took our punishment, our condemnation, for us. If we belong to Jesus, we don’t have to fear God’s wrath any longer. What’s more, God has given us His own Spirit, who lives in us.

At present, as all Christians know, we have two natures at war within us. There’s our old sinful nature, which is hostile to God and wants nothing to do with Him. And then there’s the Spirit of God, whispering to us and giving us new desires and transforming us as he remakes us to be like Jesus. As those who have been set free from condemnation, we have no obligation, says Paul, to listen to our old sinful nature. To obey our old self leads us away from God and back into death and condemnation. But if, by the Spirit’s power, we put to death the sin that still lives in our bodies – our habits of thinking and action, our selfish and prideful perception of the world and our place in it – then, says Paul, we will live.

This side of eternity, these two forces are constantly at war within us (see Galatians 5:16ff). But, say verses 12-14, those who are led by the Spirit – who follow after Him – are the children of God.

It’s so important for us to understand who we really are. Satan loves to niggle away at us on this. He loves to tempt us to despair. He loves to leave us wondering if we really do belong to Jesus or not. Paul says that if you have the Spirit of God – the Spirit of Christ – then you belong to Jesus. Jesus also makes clear that all that God requires of us is to put our trust in Him. The Spirit is God’s gift to all those who put their trust in Jesus. He is God with us; the means by which Jesus lives in and through His people. He is the One who leads us. He is the One who enacts our adoption as children of God. He is the One who, in living within us, gives us glimpses – a foretaste – of the glory that we will one day share when Jesus returns and God’s adoptive children are finally and fully revealed to the universe.

The Spirit of God, given to and leading those who rely on Jesus to save them from sin and death, is the living proof that we are God’s children. The Spirit of God is the answer to Paul’s agony in Romans 7, where he does what he doesn’t want to do, and doesn’t do what he does want to do. And yet something of that quandary still exists. We still have to choose to let the Spirit guide us. Although we have been adopted by God, we are still waiting for God to give us our full rights as His children. We are still waiting for the Day when we will share in the glory of God. For now, until that day, we share in the sufferings of Christ.

When we think of the sufferings of Christ, we might tend to think of the terrible things that were done to Jesus: His being betrayed, mocked, tortured and executed. As followers of Jesus, we shouldn’t expect any better treatment than that which our Lord received. But, given the context in which Paul speaks of sharing in Jesus’ sufferings, is it possible that he has something more in mind? He has been speaking about living in the freedom of the Spirit – with a sinful nature that keeps trying to lay claim to our obedience. And he goes on to speak about the groaning of creation, frustrated by God’s curse and subject to death and decay. God’s children, as we know for ourselves, also groan; longing for our full adoption rights, including our new resurrection bodies. God’s own Spirit groans for us as well. There is a kind of suffering that stems from knowing that things aren’t what they are going to be; from knowing that things are not yet right.

This world is not yet what it is meant to be. We are not yet what we will be. There is a tension now between the victory won by Jesus and the presence of sin in our lives and this world. And so we groan. But not without hope. We groan because we have hope for the future. Sin doesn’t have the final word. Death doesn’t have the final word. Decay doesn’t have the final word. Our Father has the last word. Jesus said it: It is finished.

One day, very soon, Jesus will return. Creation will be set right. Our hope in Jesus will be vindicated. We will receive our full rights as sons of God. Sin and it’s curse will be no more. We will be made anew to be like Jesus. We will see the incredible glory of God… and share in it!

Groaning is never fun. Suffering is never fun. But we groan because we hope for that day. May God give us hearts that groan for Him! May he help us wait patiently and with endurance. That’s not always easy to do… but God – our Father – really is so worth it.

In his book on doubt, Os Guinness writes that “What is most dangerous to Christianity is not that Christians doubt, but that there seems to be so little open discussion and understanding of doubt. This must be changed.” This morning, we’re making a start on that sort of change.

Are you a Christian who struggles with doubts? It’s not the sort of thing we like to admit to each other. We like to give the impression that we are perfect Christians, who have such a strong relationship with God our Father that we trust Him completely in every moment of every day. But I sincerely doubt that anybody in the church can honestly claim to never have doubts run through their mind.

We need to remember, however, that doubt is not the same thing as unbelief. As Os Guinness goes on to say, to believe in something is to be of one mind that that it is true. To disbelieve is to be in one mind that it is untrue. To doubt is to waver between the two; it is to be in two minds as to what the truth is.

Unbelief is a wilful refusal to believe. It is a deliberate decision to choose not to trust God. Doubting can, if not handled in a wise and godly manner, gradually slip into unbelief. But on the other hand, our doubts can also be a great impetus to drive us into a deeper and stronger relationship with our Father. God is equal to any questions that we might have. I firmly believe that he is not frightened by our doubts. Perhaps the best thing we can do with our doubts is to seek to answer them, and to grow in our knowledge of God. Our doubts can help us clarify why it is that we are willing to trust God.

In our first reading this morning, we’ll be looking at the “walking on water” incident from Matthew 14. This is a story that is full of doubt and fear. Seeing Jesus walking towards them on the waves, through a storm, the disciples firmly doubt that this could actually be Jesus. Even Peter, who famously walked on the waves himself, was less than 100% convinced. And yet he got out of the boat. What was it that caused Peter, doubting if it was Jesus, to do such a thing?

As far as we are concerned, is it right for us to expect to be 100% convinced about the things of God before we act on them?

And why, when he is walking on the waves!, does Peter again succumb to doubt? Can’t doubt simply be eradicated from our lives in one fell swoop of decision?

We’ll also be looking at Matthew 28. We read there that the disciples who saw the risen Jesus worshipped Him, but that some doubted. How is it possible that Jesus would entrust the task of making disciples for Him to such a group as this? How could he possibly work with Christians today who at times doubt?

In this life, there will be times when we find ourselves having to deal with doubt. Ultimately, however, whether absolute certainty is possible or not, we will have to decide whether we will trust Jesus.
At the moment, we see as through a mirror – darkly. But one day, we will see our Father face to face. We will stand before our Father’s throne, and we will know for certain that God is for us, and that nothing can ever separate us from his love. That’s what God promises, and he has proven Himself to be true to His promises.

Until then, we have to trust Him, to choose whether we listen to the challenges our doubts throw up, or to the evidence for God’s goodness.

In our journey through Jesus’ sermon on the mount, the last few weeks have focused on Jesus’ warning that we not do our acts of righteousness in order to get human praise. If the good things we do are not done for God, then we shouldn’t expect God to stand in the way of what we really want: the praise of people. But if we do our good deeds in secret – so that they are for God’s eyes alone – we receive a great reward from God. And the natural reward for seeking to grow our relationship with God is a stronger relationship with God, and a closer matching of our lives to His.

In order to make His point clear, Jesus used three examples of “acts of righteousness”, giving to those in need, praying, and fasting. Of the three, I suspect that it is the last – fasting – that we most misunderstand and most shy away from. At the music practice this week, one of the ladies shared that she had never before heard a sermon on fasting. I suspect she’s not alone in this.
To fast from something is, quite simply, to go without it. For Christians, however, fasting is more than just going without something. It is the discipline of saying no to something that is good so that we can say yes to what is better.

Traditionally, the good thing that we forego is food. Food is good. It’s the normal means by which God keeps our bodies ticking over (though certainly not the only way that God can do that!) Perhaps you, or someone you know, has had to have an operation or a blood test where you weren’t allowed to eat in the hours leading up to the test. In such circumstances, one obviously gets hungry. But you don’t eat, because you recognise that what you’re doing it for is of greater value; it could, in fact, save your life. In the same way, to fast is to recognise that our relationship with God is of greater value than anything else, even food.

And if we can say no to something actually good, how much better equipped are we to say no to the temptations of sin and the cravings of our sinful nature. The person who is practiced in saying no to say yes to God is in a far more secure place than the person who has very little experience saying no to what seems good in order to say yes to what is better.

To fast – be that from food or anything else that is good and of value to us, tends to show us what it is that is of ultimate importance to us. As our security and comfort are shorn away, we are forced into confronting the persons that we really are; and having recognised that, we can spend the energy we would have in eating (or whatever it is we’re fasting from) discussing that with our Father.

As with giving to the poor and praying, Jesus assumes that His followers will fast. The temptation, as with anything good, is that we will make a fuss about fasting, so that others will recognise just what incredibly holy people we are. (The irony being, of course, that such fasting for people’s praise is of absolutely zero spiritual value!) God’s people, however, are to fast in secret. If nobody but God ever knows that we’ve been fasting, that’s no bad thing.

The main point of our passage this weekend is simple: our reward from fasting comes from the audience for whom we are fasting. The temptation is to fast for human praise; but the rewards of fasting for God are far superior. To fast for God is to train in godliness, and, from our side, strengthens our relationship with God.

This weekend, we’re asking just what fasting entails. We’ll consider in more detail why fasting in secret, so only God knows, actually is of spiritual value to our lives. We’ll ask just why fasting is something that God’s people should be doing, and explore some practical ideas for how we might actually get started in valuing God more in our lives – not just in theory, but in practice.

My hope is that we will all be encouraged to recognise the value in secret fasting – and to actually undertake it as a regular discipline; both fasting from food and fasting from other good things. I hope that as a result, we will find an increased awareness that God really is more to be valued than the very best this world has to offer.

Last week, we continued our exploration of Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount, considering what kind of person a “kingdom of God” person is. At the end of Matthew 5, Jesus said that we – his disciples – should be perfect as our Father in the heavens is perfect.

But immediately after urging perfection – for that is what a person wholly made like Jesus is like – Jesus saw fit to warn us to take heed for what motivates our actions. It is, sadly, quite possible for us to do good things for precisely the wrong reason. It’s possible for us to acts of righteousness not out of love for God or for the world around us, but merely for the love of the world around us. Jesus warns us, however, that if our lives are dominated by a desire for the applause of people, that applause is the only reward we should expect to receive.

In last week’s message, we saw how giving to those in need can be perverted in this way. Jesus spoke strongly against the hypocrites – actors, wearing a mask of piety – who would make their philanthropy obvious for all to see. Their reward: the respect and applause of the people around them.
But Jesus people aren’t like that. The only reward they look for is that from God. When they give, it’s without thought of what others will think. They give out of love for God, and for the one in need.

This weekend, we continue with Jesus’ second illustration of how kingdom people set out to seek God’s reward alone. The first illustration, giving to those in need, had to do with our relationships to those around us. The second illustration, praying, has to do with our relationship with God.

As with giving to those in need, Jesus assumes that His people will spend time praying to our Father. When we pray, we are communicating with God; sharing our lives together. We get to share in the life of God! He invites us to listen to Him, to partner with Him, and to just enjoy being with Him. And we get to share our lives with God: our joys, sorrows, needs, worries, pains, and triumphs. And God listens, and God acts!

You might say that prayer is one of the most “ultimate” things a human being can do: relating to the Lord and Creator of all that is, our Redeemer and adoptive Father. And yet so many of prayers fail to rise beyond the level of our own ego! So many of our prayers, although ostensibly addressed to God, aren’t actually intended for God at all!

Jesus warns against being hypocrites who pray to impress people. As with giving to impress, the impressed-ness of the crowds is the only reward we should expect to receive. And it’s a nice reward! It feels good to have everybody think how wonderfully one prays. It’s nice to have everyone assume that we are so much more spiritual than the average person on the street. It’s nice… as long as we don’t consider what a farce we are acting in!

Jesus is right, I think, to warn us to watch out. Have you ever noticed that you sound different when you pray? Do you worry about what people are thinking about you when you pray? Do you not pray in public because you’re worried about what people will think of you? Do you sometimes pray not so much to share life with God as to gossip about someone, or to make a point against someone else? Do you sometimes use prayer as a way of informing everyone else about something you think is important? I can certainly think of times when these have been true of me, and I suspect that I’m not alone in this.

Rather than praying for public applause, Jesus urges us to pray to God in private. But what exactly does that mean? And does that mean that we shouldn’t be praying when someone else is present?
Jesus also warns us against treating prayer as a means to impress God. Prayer isn’t meant to be about impressing anybody – it’s meant to be about sharing our lives with God, and sharing in His life. It’s about spending time, and sharing our hopes and concerns with our heavenly Father. But how easy is it not for our prayers to descend into rote repetitions, as if God can be forced to act by the mere force of the weight of our many words! But what does such an attitude say about how we really feel about God?

If our ego is our ambition in prayer, it alone will be our reward. God our Father loves us very, very much. And as we spend time with Him, we find that we come away changed. We tend to become like those we hang out with; and in prayer we get to hang out with God! This is one of the ways that God transforms us from the inside, making us like His Son, Jesus. Oh, that we would actually want to, and actually would hang out with God in prayer – not making him a third wheel or the spiritual version of a vending machine.

Imagine yourself with Jesus on the night of his betrayal. The evening starts in an odd way – with Jesus washing your feet. And then He speaks about one of you – one of the twelve – betraying Him. He speaks about it matter of factly, saying that He’s telling you about it beforehand, so that when it happens you’ll believe that He is the Messiah. A little while later, he’s telling you that the time has come for the Son of Man to enter into his glory, and that God would be glorified because of Him. He speaks about only being with you for a little longer, and that you can’t go where He is going.

And then Peter pipes up: “Lord, where are you going?”

And Jesus replies, “You can’t go with me now, but you will follow me later.”

You notice that Jesus didn’t answer Peter’s question of where. But He seems to know where Peter is coming from. You listen as Peter replies: “But why can’t I come now, Lord? I’m ready to die for you.”

There it is. Typical Peter.

“Die for me? I tell you the truth, Peter—before the rooster crows tomorrow morning, you will deny three times that you even know me.”

And that night, Jesus is arrested. And everyone – including Peter – runs away. But John has an in at the high-priest’s house, and gets Peter into the courtyard. But, with Jesus so close, Peter relentlessly pursues his own safety. Three times – three times! – he is identified as being one of Jesus’ followers. And three times he refuses to accept the accusation. The last time, he even calls down curses in an attempt to prove that he should just be left alone.

And the rooster crows. And Jesus looks at Peter. And Peter remembers what Jesus had said just a few hours before.

And he breaks down. And he leaves, weeping bitterly.

And then Jesus is executed. And Peter isn’t there. “I’d die with you” Peter isn’t there.

And then, three days later, the most amazing thing in all of history occurs: Jesus is resurrected. And Peter sees Him! And everyone’s caught up in the euphoria and the fear and the doubt and the questions and the delight. A few times, Peter sees Jesus alive.

But still there’s a cloud hanging over Peter. He failed Jesus. In Jesus’ darkest hour… he failed Him. Yes, Jesus was alive. But he had failed Jesus. And Jesus had expected him to fail. And Jesus knew that he had failed.

I wonder if Peter ever wondered why the angelic message to the first witnesses to the empty tomb was to tell the disciples and Peter that Jesus would meet them in Galilee. Why was Peter singled out?

This weekend, we’re looking at John 21, where we read of the meeting of Jesus and seven of his apostles in Galilee – actually on the shores of the lake. We read of these apostles heading out for a night’s fishing, only to be bitterly disappointed by a dearth of fish.

And we read of a man calling to them from the shore to throw their nets out once more on the right hand side of the boat. And we read of an incredible catch of fish.

And at that point, something clicks for John. Perhaps he was recalling a previous encounter that Peter (and possibly he himself too!) had had (Luke 5). He recognises that stranger on the beach. It’s Jesus!

And Peter the impetuous gets ready and jumps overboard to swim the 100m to the shore. He’s so excited. But I can’t help but wonder if it’s almost as if he’s got something to prove? And soon enough everyone’s around, eating the breakfast Jesus has already got prepared for them. It’s such an ordinary scene – and yet there’s something so extra-ordinary about it all.

What does Peter think as he sits and eats with Jesus and six of his friends? What’s the conversation like? Is there much conversation?

I wonder if Peter’s mind flashed back to the last meal he ate with Jesus. That one where he spoke so assertively. That meal where Jesus predicted his denial. Perhaps the smell of the charcoal fire takes him back to the charcoal fire he huddled over while swearing to not know Jesus.

Sometimes, we find ourselves being so sure that we have no right being around Jesus. We feel so guilty for what we have done. We remember how we have failed God. How we have denied God. How we have failed to live up to our own promises to be for Jesus. How we have failed to be the men and women that we’ve promised God we would be. We look at ourselves, and we can’t help but think….”Why is Jesus here with me now. Why hasn’t He spoken about what I’ve done. Why isn’t He angry. I wish He would just get on with it and tell me off for it. I know I’m not good enough to be here…. how much longer until Jesus kicks me out?”

Breakfast finishes. Things are cleared away. Everyone’s sitting around, chatting. It’s so… normal.

And then Jesus turns to Peter: “Simon, son of John… do you love me more than these?”

The whole formal name thing. What emotions Peter? None of that is recorded for us by John. But if you were Peter, what would you be feeling?

In a sense, you are Peter. Oh, we’re different. But we’ve failed Jesus in our own way, just like Peter did. Where does Jesus find you today? Wherever it is, He’s already there, wanting to share life with you. To look after you. And to have a talk…

But this isn’t a story of God’s wrath. That was poured out at the cross, and we’re now the other side of the resurrection. This is about the Lord and God of second chances, reaching out to Peter. Just like He still reaches out to us.

“<INSERT YOUR NAME>…. let’s talk…”

]]> https://www.goldenbaybaptist.church/sermons/peter/feed/ 0 3867 church@goldenbaybaptist.church (GBBC)noToday&#8217;s passage: John 21 Imagine yourself with Jesus on the night of his betrayal. The evening starts in an odd way &#8211; with Jesus washing your feet. And then He speaks about one of you &#8211; one of the twelve &#8211; betraying Him. He speaks about it matter of factly, saying that He’s telling you about it beforehand, so that when it happens you’ll believe that He is the Messiah. A little while later, he’s telling you that the time [&#8230;]Today&#8217;s passage: John 21 Imagine yourself with Jesus on the night of his betrayal. The evening starts in an odd way &#8211; with Jesus washing your feet. And then He speaks about one of you &#8211; one of the twelve &#8211; betraying Him. He speaks about it matter of factly, saying that He’s telling you about it beforehand, so that when it happens you’ll believe that He is the Messiah. A little while later, he’s telling you that the time [&#8230;]Baptist,Christian,Sermon,Sermons,Audio,Christianity,Bible,Faith,Belief https://www.goldenbaybaptist.church/sermons/good-friday-3/ https://www.goldenbaybaptist.church/sermons/good-friday-3/#respond Fri, 14 Apr 2017 08:37:44 +0000 https://www.goldenbaybaptist.church/?post_type=ctc_sermon&p=3864 Today’s passage: Luke 23

This morning, we’re continuing our Easter series, considering the good news that our lives aren’t defined by our failures. Instead, we find that God offers us the chance for new life in the midst of our brokenness.

In today’s passage, we get to look in on an encounter between Jesus and a Samaritan woman. For most of this incident, Jesus was alone with the unnamed woman; all the information that we have on this encounter must therefore have been passed on either by Jesus or the woman herself for John to be able to write it down. We’re not sure who the source was, but I’d like to think that it was the woman herself. Certainly, by the end of our reading, she wasn’t at all shy about telling anyone who would listen what had happened. And that’s a big thing. Because this was a woman who, it seems, was living in a desperate place of shame and guilt and social isolation when Jesus found her. Last week we saw how Zaccheus sought Jesus out, wanting to know who he was. The woman in today’s story wasn’t expecting to see Jesus – she was probably expecting to find the well blissfully unoccupied.

John tells us that Jesus had to go through Samaria on his way from Judea to Galilee. Not because that was the only route available to Him – it wasnt’. Not because that was the most time-effective route – He happily stayed two days extra in Samaria. Jesus had to go through Samaria, because the good news about God’s kingdom was good news for them as well. Jesus had to go there, we might even argue, because He needed to meet a desperately thirsty woman at a well.

The dregs of what had once been the northern kingdom of Israel, mixed with all sorts of other peoples and religions, the Samaritans were considered by religious Jews as outcasts – both racially and religiously. The two people groups were constantly at odds. For a Jew to speak with a Samaritan was almost unheard of – it wasn’t done. For some idea of what it must have felt like for Jesus to speak with this woman, consider a Jewish person asking a Palestinian for a drink of water today. All that racial enmity. And yet Jesus refused to be bound by cultural barriers. He reached out in love to this broken outcast.
Jesus was physically thirsty that day. But the thirst that this woman brought was much deeper.  She was a marked woman in her community. She had had five husbands (or men) in her life, and the husband (or man) she was living with at the time wasn’t her husband. As with Zaccheus last week, we’re not told the backstory of her life. We don’t know if she had been cast aside by several men, and wasn’t willing to risk the hurt of yet another divorce. Maybe she’d been hurt by men in the past, and so would rather push them away than risk being hurt again. Whatever it was, it seems that she just couldn’t find satisfaction. So many men in her life, and still she was alone. Isolated. An outcast in an outcast nation.

As you read through the passage, notice how the woman tries to push Jesus away at every step. She’s drawn to his offer of living water, but uncomfortable with revealing her need. Even when Jesus reveals that he knows the truth about her relationships, she doesn’t want to discuss it, but immediately tries to sidetrack Jesus with a question about right worship. Her relationships might be a mess, but who, she seems to imply, was this Jew to come and lecture her?

But Jesus won’t be pushed away. Instead, He uses her attempt to push Him away to pull her back into her need for the gift of God. The worship God desires is worship in spirit and truth.

Which brings us back to our initial question: who are you really?

All of us have dark corners in our lives, areas where guilt and shame drive us into isolation and desperation. We tend not to want to face that reality; we want to avoid the scorn of those around us, and to present ourselves as better than we really are. We don’t want to admit the whole truth about ourselves to ourselves – let alone to God.

But if we are to worship God, we must do so in truth – which includes the truth about who we are. As C.S. Lewis says, we must lay before God what is in us, not what ought to be in us.  God already knows it all – and still comes and offers us living water, if only we ask. God offers us Himself – his Holy Spirit – if only we ask Him, putting our trust in Him.

Jesus still offers the Gift of Himself, bubbling up to eternal life. (And “this,” said Jesus, “is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”) And God the Father still desires worship in spirit and truth.  As this woman found out, there is none too far gone for Jesus to reach.

God is King, and life in his kingdom is the best life there possibly can be. It’s a life that is perfectly in accordance with God’s will; in God’s kingdom, everything is exactly as God wants it to be. As creator of all that is, God is sovereign over all that is – he alone has the right (and the capacity!) to rule everything. The bad news of the Bible is that we humans reject God as King, and attempt to set up our own kingdoms. But our kingdoms, set against God, are ultimately just vassal states for the rule of the devil.

But the good news is that God’s kingdom doesn’t flee when opposed. And the excellent news is that rather than destroying all opposition immediately, God had a plan (before the creation of the world!) to restore humanity and this creation we broke into life with him – into life in his kingdom.

The gospel of Jesus is that this kingdom of the heavens is near – and that we simply need to repent and believe the good news. Because for those who come to Jesus, God’s kingdom turns the world right-side up. God’s blessing – his favour – rest on all who encounter the kingdom of God in the person of it’s king: Jesus.

Jesus, God’s Messiah – the anointed king and priest and rescuer of the world – brought the kingdom near and made it possible for us to enter it. But God didn’t just send Jesus without any warning. Jesus stands at the centre of God’s long-running plan to redeem the world. Before Jesus, God chose to work through a select group of people – Abraham, Isaac and ultimately the nation of Israel. He made himself known to them, showing them his might and power and character. And he made his people a holy nation – a nation of priests. God’s people were meant to be a light to the nations – they were meant to represent God to the world.

Did they do that perfectly? No. Certainly not. But God was working towards the right time, when he would send his One and only Son: Jesus.

But the religious elite of the day weren’t all that impressed with Jesus – nor Jesus with them. Rather than applauding the self-righteous, Jesus announced kingdom blessings over all impacted by the kingdom – regardless of how much they deserved them. He told the crowds surrounding him – most of whom would have been ordinary folk – that they were the salt and light of the world.

The Pharisees and teachers of the law were those who thought that if they only made sure they didn’t do the wrong thing, God would accept them. Jesus, on the other hand, didn’t play by their rules. He hung out with sinners. He touched the unclean, which they wouldn’t do for fear of ritual defilement. He healed on the Sabbath. He allowed his disciples to not fast. He called them out for their hypocrisy.

Was Jesus starting a new page in God’s plan for redeeming humanity. Had God finally decided that his experiment with Israel was a failure, and that it was necessary to start from scratch? Were the writings of God in the Old Testament – the law and prophets – not to be taken into account any more?

Did Jesus come to abolish of the Old Testament/Covenant, and replace it with a brand new one?

No.

Yes, there is a new covenant – but it has continuity with the Old. For the law and the prophets come from the same God who walked the earth as our Lord Jesus. Jesus didn’t undo the Old, he brought it into focus, fulfilling it’s requirements. The Old Testament gives us an insight into the character of someone living according to God’s will. But, because of the hardness of human hearts, it could only go so far. Jesus doesn’t annul the Old – he shows how a life lived in the kingdom goes beyond that.

The law and prophets called people to live under God’s will – and so does Jesus. But Jesus won’t let us get away with reducing the character of the kingdom to a list of do-s and don’t-s.

The greatest kingdom people practice do what God commands – and teach others to do the same. That’s what Jesus says. So why is it that we don’t obey all of the commands in the Old Testament? And does our failure to perfectly obey mean that we don’t have any chance of entry into the kingdom of the heavens? After all, Jesus did say that our righteousness had to exceed that of the religious elite of the day – the Pharisees and teachers of the law. If they, with all their fencing around possible transgressions, weren’t good enough to gain entry… what hope is there for us?

It all comes back to Jesus… what does he desire from us, and how on earth can he promise the kingdom of the heavens to those who are spiritually bankrupt?

But we live on the rebel world; the domain of Satan. We live in a kingdom set up against God’s kingdom; where people refuse God’s right to order the world, let alone our lives. The very first sin, we’re told, sprang at least in part from a desire to be like God. We think that we can run our lives and our world just fine without him.

The problem, of course, is that we can’t. Our world is a place of sin and violence and degradation and death. The good world that God made has been shattered by our rebellion against God.

But God is not just some uninterested third-party in all of this. God made us, and loves us, and longs for us to be in relationship with him. That, after all, is what we were created for – to know God and enjoy him forever. And so God acted – with a plan he had formulated from before the world began. This plan centres on Jesus – God’s own, eternal Son. Jesus, fully God, became fully human to rescue all those who put their trust in him.

His message was simple: God’s kingdom was near. Simply repent, turn back to God, and believe the good news. The perfect kingdom of God invaded this rebel world in the person of King Jesus. He taught the kingdom life. And he enacted the kingdom in this world. By casting out demons, healing the sick, and speaking life, Jesus was giving humanity a foretaste of what life in the kingdom come will actually be like.

And this perfect kingdom’s king would die and rise again to rescue all who put their trust in him. All who put their trust in him are transferred through and in him from the kingdom of this world to the kingdom of God. Last week, we saw in the beatitudes that God’s kingdom turns this upside-down world right-side-up. In God’s kingdom, all are blessed by God. The kingdom isn’t just for the spiritual elite, or the high and mighty of this world. It is for all.

The Bible teaches us that one day, when Jesus returns, the kingdom of God will finally be the only kingdom there is. Everything shall be shaken, and only that which is unshakable – God and that which is his – shall remain.

That day might come at any moment. But until then, how are Jesus’ followers to live their lives? Over the next few weeks, as we dig into the sermon on the mount, we’ll see exactly what Jesus says about living the kingdom life today. But before getting into the details, it’s important to understand that Jesus’ followers have an important role to play in this world as it is. We are, says Jesus, the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Notice that he doesn’t say we are to be/become salt and light. He says that we are that. When the kingdom of God becomes the domain under which we live our lives, being salt and light is just a matter of what we are.

But what does it mean to be a salty Christian? Why does the earth need salting? And what is Jesus talking about when he asks how salt that has lost its saltiness can be made salty again?

And what does it mean to be the light of the world? Can there be such a thing as a “secret” Christian? What exactly is this light – and why does God want it to shine in this dark world?

I love attending men’s breakfasts. True, when I’m waking up at some unearthly hour my first thought is not one of joy. Yet that tends not to last too long: it’s great hanging out with my brothers in Christ, discussing life together, praying together, and thinking through our devotion together. Oh, and the breakfast… that’s quite nice too! But a while back I did something rather silly: I rocked up at a men’s breakfast sans my wallet. My only option was to head off to find an ATM and draw some cardless cash.

But before I could leave, Mark intervened. He produced a Dome voucher and told me that it was his gift to me. And then Peter, I think, bought me something to drink.

And the thing is… they didn’t owe me anything. And that didn’t sit right with me. I think I tried to pay Mark back – which attempt he rebuffed.

Why didn’t it sit right with me? I think it might be because in our world, there’s no such thing as a free
lunch, or breakfast as the case may be! One gets what you deserve. As Christians, we base our lives on
grace and mercy – God showing kindness to us even though we’ve done nothing to deserve it. But so
often, we hold as a deeper, more fundamental, belief, that God must operate on the principle of
reciprocity. For instance, there is a sneaking suspicion that if God is to bless us, we have to somehow be “blessable”.

At the end of last week’s passage, Mathew summarised Jesus’ gospel: announcing that the kingdom of the heavens was near, and that we should repent and believe it! A person’s kingdom is that sphere of
influence where their will is done. We all have kingdoms, and together all human kingdoms form the
kingdom of this world. God too has a kingdom; where things are exactly as God wants them to be. His is a kingdom of love and joy and peace and patience and life! Our kingdoms are ours – but they are tainted by sin, and so belong to Satan. The kingdom(s) of this broken world result in tears and wars and messed-up lives and a messed-up world.

And Jesus, God’s king, came to announce that God’s kingdom was come near. And he didn’t just announce it – he brought it. Mathew wrote how Jesus taught and preached and healed the crowds who came in droves from all over to him.

This week’s passage continues from that point. Seeing the crowds, Jesus goes up a hill and starts teaching the famous “sermon on the mount”. But before addressing what a kingdom of the heavens life looks like, Jesus begins with a list of “blesseds.” To the crowd who have been experiencing the presence and power of the kingdom through him, the King amongst them, Jesus, speaks about who it is that is blessed in terms of the kingdom come. Jesus announces to them who the fortuuate ones are in light of the kingdom he announces and brings.

But are the beatitudes a list for us on how we should act if we want God to bless us? Is the most important thing, the headline of Jesus’ sermon, that if we expect God to bless us, we should be or act in certain ways? Does God’s kingdom operate on our logic – that you get what’s coming to you? If so, is it possible that Jesus is giving us a back-door into God’s kingdom here – one that doesn’t involve us having to rely on Jesus? Is it possible for us to gain the kingdom of the heavens merely as a result of our own virtue and effort?

Sadly, since that’s the way we think the world works, it’s also been how we’ve read the Beatitudes. But is it possible that Jesus was actually making a bigger, more subversive point? Is it possible that the kingdom of God doesn’t operate in a legalistic manner? Is it possible that even God’s blessing is all about God’s grace? In that case… just who are the blessed ones, in light of God’s kingdom come near?

Matthew 4:12-25
One of the things Taryn and I did on our recent holiday to New Zealand was to visit a weta cave in
Zealandia. The cave was actually an old mine tunnel, cut into a mountain. Taryn, her brother
Nathan and I slowly made our way into the tunnel, using the torches on our phones to try and
avoid the wetness in the middle of the tunnel floor. Coming from the brightness outside, the
tunnel was dark. Our torches didn’t illuminate everything. There were shadows aplenty. A short
way in we came to a locked gate. Nathan, at the front, saw through the gate in the torchlight,
some wetas on the the wall just beyond it. Wetas are very large insects – looking a little bit like
GIANT locusts.

And then, the torch light moved. And we saw that the wetas weren’t just in front of us. No. They
were all around us. The roof was covered with them! Without the torch, we would never have
known. Naturally, we were all somewhat worried…how many wetas were there climbing through
our hair, ready to chomp?

In Matthew 4:12ff, hearing of John the Baptist’s arrest, Jesus leaves the region around the Jordan,
and sets up a base of operations in Capernaum, on the shores of Lake Galilee. Galilee was a
beautiful, fertile part of the world. Added to that, it was on the trade route to the Mediterranean
Sea. But it was the kind of place “real” Jews loved to look down on, given how Gentile-ised it was,
surrounded by gentile nations on three sides, and having had a history of Gentile occupation and
rule. Other Jews might be quick to dismiss it as a “dark place” – a place where the light of God’s
presence was dimmed and in shadow.

But that’s where Jesus goes: into the shadow. He goes to the place where his light will shine most
brightly, preaching and teaching people to repent; to live knowing that God’s kingdom is hanging
just above their heads! (A scary thing if you’re not ready for it… amazing if you are!)

Even a small light can be seen over a long distance on a dark night; Jesus is the light of the world.
Was Galilee the only dark place in Israel? Why did Jesus set up base there? And what are the dark
places of our world where Jesus would have his light shine?

Where God’s light – Jesus – shines, a response is demanded. Will we follow him, and join him on
his mission? Andrew, Peter, John and James had to make a choice. But on what did they base that
choice? Why did they risk their livelihoods to follow Jesus? Will we answer when he calls our
name? Why – or why not? And where does obedience to Jesus’ call to follow him fit into the
economy of our lives. That is, what are we willing to risk for the sake of being with Jesus?

Andrew, Peter, James and John didn’t have a complete understanding of who Jesus was yet, but
they did understand that following him was the wisest, most sensible thing they could do. His
preaching, teaching and healing were evidence to them, and to those he encountered, that Jesus
was worth it all. In presenting the story of Jesus to us, I believe Matthew is forcing us to ask
ourselves that same question: will I follow Jesus too…

Do you ever find yourself tempted to do something which is wrong? What is it? Why is it tempting to
you? Is it wrong in and of itself, or would it only be wrong depending on specific circumstances? When
do you feel the lure of temptation the most? When are you most likely to give in to temptation?
How do you feel when you experience temptation? Temptations are only tempting because, at some
level, we think that they are good; we’re tempted because we suspect that what is offered will be to our
benefit. But what if we know better than that? What if we know that though it might be a delicacy, it is
laced with poison? What if we know that though our temptation might offer pleasure or life, it is actually a step on the road away from God – away from the source of true life, and the fountain of delight.

My biggest temptation might not be something that even crosses your mind. The temptation you
struggle with most might be one that I would never struggle with. Our temptations are, in some respect, tailor made for who we are. In today’s message, we’re looking at the first recorded temptations of Jesus.

Immediately following his baptism, the anointing of the Spirit and the joyous voice of the Father, Jesus is led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan.

How do you deal with it when you are tempted I suspect that a common response – certainly one that
I’m familiar with – is to feel ashamed and guilty for being tempted. Surely the fact that we can be
tempted is a sign of how unworthy we are. True, God cannot be tempted by evil. And yet Jesus, God
with us, was tempted. He is fully God, and yet also fully human.

And Jesus’ response to temptation wasn’t to wallow in guilt and shame. Because temptation in and of
itself is not sin. Temptation gives rise to sinful actions when we choose to give in to it. Jesus was
tempted, and Jesus never sinned.

I love that Jesus chose to share with his people the fact that he had experienced temptation. The
temptations thrown at him in Mathew 4 are uniquely his – an attempt by the devil to undermine him as our Saviour. But his temptations are also ours: he was tempted in every way, just like us, but did not sin.

It is not inevitable that temptations lead to sin. Every temptation, Jesus refused. Because he was more
enticed by what his Father wanted. He was more enthralled with pleasing his Father. Who would be enticed by a stale, 2 year old cookie when you’ve got your eyes fixed on a fresh chocolate
chip biscuit still steaming from the oven? It wasn’t that Jesus didn’t want what the devil was offering; it’s just that he wanted to please God more. He wanted God more.

Like Jesus, we don’t have to give in to temptation. We need to learn to identify the poison behind the
temptation; to resist the devil; and most importantly to fill our minds with the hope of glory. Only then will we become more aware of the hook of temptation as opposed to the bait.

God is the King of all that is, was and ever will be. The good news that Jesus came preaching was that God’s kingdom was near. He called us to repent and to believe that good news. He called us to become his disciples, to come to him: the way, the truth and the life; the only way to the Father.

The Bible teaches that God is the creator of all things, and that we were made to enjoy and glorify him. To live in God’s kingdom – with him as our king – is to live the best life that there is. It is to be connected to the one who is life and who is love; it is to be in a relationship with the one who is the fountain of delights.

So why is it that so many people don’t delight in God? Even God’s people find themselves drawn to put our hope for meaning and joy and satisfaction in things (even imaginary things) rather than in the one true God. We are, as the hymn writer put it, prone to stumble, prone to leave the God we love.

Over the last few weeks, as we’ve wended our way towards celebrating the King’s arrival, we’ve seen that all humans are by nature rebels. The first King of Israel, Saul, was an unrepentant rebel who thought “real life” – his own kingdom – more pressing than a life of seeking God’s kingdom first. The next king, David, stands as the exemplar king of the Old Testament. He was a man afer God’s own heart (Acts 13:22). Yet he too was a rebel, who thought he could get away with doing what God wouldn’t approve of. As we saw a couple of weeks ago, the difference between David and Saul was David’s recognition of his sinfulness – and his repentant heart. God loves us, and delights in it when we turn back to him, no matter how broken we are. That’s why he sent his son, Jesus the Messiah. (John 3:16!)

Israel’s experience of being ruled by kings started by them seeking a human king, such as the surrounding nations had, to rule them. Their seeking a king was, we saw, a rebelling against God as their king. God allowed kings, intending them to present his will to the people and to represent the people before God. Yet “The human heart is the most deceitul of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?” (Jeremiah 17:9). Even the people who had seen God’s power and character throughout their national history – Israel – grew further and further estranged from him, led by kings who by and large rejected God and his ways. Even a great reformer like king Josiah was unable to produce lasting change in his people. The brokenness of sinful humanity goes too deep.

At humanity’s worst, we refuse to delight in God, rejecting His ways to dig our own (leaky) wells of joy. At our best, we are people who desperately recognise our need for God’s grace and mercy. Even our best isn’t that great. What’s amazing is that God’s plan to rescue us back to himself is big enough to use us regardless of where on that spectrum we stand. What’s even more amazing is that God in mercy reaches to us. Oh, how much he loves us!

Some might think it strange that our Christmas series has so far focussed on the historical kings of Israel. And yet there’s something right in that. Because God sent his son as the fulfilment of a long history with his people. Jesus didn’t step into a cultural or theological vacuum. He stepped in as the answer to all of God’s promises to his people. He is the fulfilment, God’s YES! to his promises to Adam, Abraham and David, Israel and us.

Today, we’re looking at Matthew 1. We’ll see that Matthew is at pains to present Jesus as the pivotal point of history – the person to whom all of God’s promises were pointing. Starting a gospel with a long list of names might seem odd – but it serves Matthew’s purpose of showing Jesus as the culmination of all that God had been doing, ever since Abraham. (Luke’s genealogy takes it as far back as creation!)

But Matthew also wants us to know that Jesus is not just an ordinary man. He is, legally, the heir of David and Abraham. But he is, supernaturally, the child conceived in Mary by the Holy Spirit. He is God with us, the divine King: our rescuer.

Jesus is the one who can do what no other human ruler can do: be God with us, perfectly represent us before God, and perfectly rescue us from our sins. In him is history completed, and God and humanity united. In him is hope for humanity. He is the one King worth following. He alone lived a life fully delighting himself in the Lord, and in revealing God’s heart most fully invites us to do the same. He invites us back into the Kingdom of God, where we were made to be.

But that isn’t the way the world is. Rather than submitting to God, delighting in his will, we find that we are rebels against God. Sometimes, when driving in the country, I find myself frustrated being behind another car… even if it’s driving at the right speed. Why? Because I want to be in front. I don’t want to have to follow someone else. And I find that I, like us all, have a tendency to do the same when it comes to following God. As rebels against him, we’d rather be the one’s to run things for ourselves.

The problem is, I’m not God any more than you are. We mess up. God made us to be fully complete in relationship with him; to reject him is to find ourselves living lives that fail to satisfy. And to reject him is to reject life, since he is the source of life.

The good news that Jesus came preaching was that God’s kingdom was near. Although we are rebels against God’s rule, that doesn’t mean that God has stopped being ruler. In fact, God has been active since the fall to bring us back from our rebellion to himself. As part of that, he chose one nation out of all the peoples of the earth to be a nation of priests. Israel was meant to represent God to the world; to be a light to the nations.

And yet they, like us, are by nature rebels against God. Having experienced God’s might and power and presence in incredible ways, God’s people eventually decided that what they most needed to thrive and survive wasn’t merely faith in God, but a human king. Yet God’s plans for salvation were big enough to include even the rebellion of his people.

Israel’s kings were meant to rule God’s people under God, leading the people of God in the ways of God. But they too were rebel sinners. Saul, the first king, was unrepentantly so. David, the second king, was a different proposition. He also sinned greatly – but he was a repentant rebel: he threw himself on God’s mercy – and found that God “…will not reject a broken and repentant heart…” (Ps 51:17)

King Saul was the king of rebels and King David the king of forgiveness. Today’s king, Josiah, was the reformer king.

In the years after David, the trend in Israel wasn’t, however, a growing likeness to God. Rather, Israel tended to become less and less dedicated to God, and more and more a nation just like any other, rejecting God and worshipping what was created instead of the Creator. Israel split in two, with the northern kingdom of Israel setting up golden calves as an alternative to Yahweh. Eventually, the northern kingdom’s sin piled so high, that God caused them to be led away into exile, never to return as a kingdom. Things in the southern kingdom of Judah, ruled by David’s heirs, wasn’t all that much better. Over time, they became just as evil as their kin to the north. By the time of Josiah, the focus of today’s message, God was all but forgotten. Just note how excited the priest Hilkiah was to discover a copy of the book of God’s law! The temple had become a place for worshiping not just God, but any number of idols. Religious life included, it seems, sexual immorality and the sacrifice of children to gods. How it must have broken God’s heart to see his people – meant to represent his good and holy name – reject him like this.

Josiah, however, sought after God. And like David, he was moved by a realisation of his own rebelliousness, and God’s sovereignty. He was an incredible reformer, returning his kingdom back to one where God alone was worshiped, in keeping with God’s revealed will.

But history attests that his reforms didn’t survive him for very long. The rot at the core of our humanity will out. Enforced compliance to the will of God can change our behaviours, but not our hearts. Have you ever noticed how much better people drive when there’s a police car in the next lane? But it’s not that a police car changes our desires, making us want to be a better driver. Their presence simply makes us comply our external behaviour. Our desire to do wrong remains. Perhaps we even resent their presence, forcing us to do what is right. (See Jeremiah 44:15-19)

The Christmas king is also a king who calls us to live a life worthy of God’s kingdom. He is a reformer, just like Josiah. But his reforming is of a far better, more lasting sort….

One of the things I love about the Christian faith is that it is rooted in history. God has acted in history to bring people back into his kingdom. Israel, God’s chosen people, have a special part to play in this. Out of all the nations, God chose to work through them, to make them a holy nation, a kingdom of priests. They were the ones he chose to make himself known to, so that through them the peoples of the world might know him and be saved. He chose to be their God, and them to be his people. Old Testament Israel was established by God as a theocracy: they lived under God’s rule.

But as we saw last week, the people of Israel wanted better than God. They wanted to be like the nations around them. They wanted a human king. In effect, they rejected God as their king. And in his graciousness, God gave them what they thought they needed. God being God, he can use even our rebellion against him for his own glory and good. (Which isn’t, as Paul reminds us in Romans 6, a good enough reason to rebel against God!) God gave Israel a king. Yet he didn’t give up his own sovereignty over them any more than he has given him his authority over the rest of the universe. Israel’s king was chosen by God, not by either the people or Samuel the prophet. Furthermore, Israel’s King was to rule under God; he was responsible to God, and his reign was dependent upon God. He ruled, as it were, under God’s auspices. In many ways, one could consider him as the mediator between God’s people and God.

But here’s the problem: that first king, Saul, turned out to be a rebel. He thought himself above God. And so God rejected him as king, and chose a new king: David.

In many ways, David was a very different character to Saul. When Saul prophesied by God’s Spirit – everyone was surprised. It seems he hadn’t been known as someone particularly “into” following God. David, on the other hand, was a man after God’s own heart. The youngest of a large family, David had a relationship with God that shines out from his life and the songs that he wrote. Consider just two instances from his life. When confronting the gigantic Goliath, David went out to meet him unashamed, recognising that God was stronger than any mere man. Israel’s forces, meanwhile, had been cowering and hiding away from Goliath: they seemed to have expected defeat, not a great victory from God. Or consider how, after having been annointed as the next king, David was given opportunities, even incitement, to kill Saul and take his throne for himself. Yet he refused to do so, on the basis of Saul being God’s chosen king. He would not do evil by God.

But here’s the problem: just like Saul, David was a sinner and a rebel. The Bible doesn’t shy away from speaking about David’s failures. Many will be aware of the incident where he watched a woman bathing, lusted after her, got her pregnant and murdered her husband to cover it up. But that’s just one example of his rebellion against God’s ways. This weekend, we’ll be looking at perhaps a less well-known incident in his life: the taking of a census, as recorded in 1 Chronicles 21 and 2 Samuel 24. We’ll see how David, incited to sin, does exactly that – knowing full well that what he was doing wasn’t right. And we’ll also see that God cannot be mocked; that sin always has consequences.

But whereas Saul was rejected by God, David was forgiven. Both were rebels, but David was a rebel who repented. Proverbs 24:16 says that the righteous falls seven times and rises again… David was good at falling. But he also knew that when he fell, he should fall also onto the mercy of God, who alone can forgive us and set us on our feet again. We’ll see how David finds himself in the place where God’s justice and mercy intersect; we’ll see his encounter with the grace of God.

At Christmas, we recall how God became incarnate; the King became a man. Just like every king, every human, Jesus knew what it was like to be tempted. Like David, Jesus was tempted and incited to do  wrong. But unlike them, he refused to sin. And yet we find him also in the place where God’s justice and mercy intersect. More: we find him as that nexus point. And there, in him, we like David encounter the grace of God.

Over the last few weeks, we’ve been considering the good news that Jesus came preaching from God: that God’s kingdom had come near. God has always been king – and we have been living in rebellion against his claim over our world and lives. But the grace of God is much better than that of Synergy. God doesn’t offer us a payment plan to make things right with him; our sins are beyond our ability to pay. God’s grace comes to us and says, if you trust me, I will pay your debt with the life of my own beloved son. Won’t you trust that life with me is the best life possible. Won’t you submit your kingdom, you will, to mine? Can you live without my power? (Answer: ultimately, no.)

Jesus is more than just the messenger of God’s kingdom: he is also it’s king – seated at the right hand of God the Father. As Paul said, “…Christ must reign until he humbles all his enemies beneath his feet. And the last enemy to be destroyed is death. For the Scriptures say, “God has put all things under his authority.” (Of course, when it says “all things are under his authority,” that does not include God himself, who gave Christ his authority.) Then, when all things are under his authority, the Son will put himself under God’s authority, so that God, who gave his Son authority over all things, will be utterly supreme over everything everywhere.”

As Christians, we are those who recognise that God is utterly supreme, and that Jesus is his chosen king. And yet, as humans, we come from a long line of those who have rejected God as King. In 1 Samuel 8, we read of how Israel – God’s chosen people – weren’t content to live with God as their king. Until that point, God had raised up judges and prophets to lead Israel when necessary. But now they wanted better than how God had been leading them. They looked at the “successful” nations around them, and wanted to be like them. They wanted a flesh and blood person to be their king; to judge them and lead them into battle.

They weren’t content with God alone as their judge and leader. They thought that in order to flourish as a nation, what they needed most wasn’t God, but a dynamic leader like the nations had. They were, in essence, asking God to abdicate in their favour.

But God is more gracious than that. He is too good to abdicate for us. If God is perfect, then his will is perfect. His kingdom is the perfect place for his creation to live. He is the source of life. He alone is the only safe place of refuge. None can stand against him. And yet God gave them a king. Not a king to replace him, but a king to represent him to the people.

But would a king change the perpetual tendency of God’s people to rebel against him? A king or leader who reigned under God, leading the people in God’s ways, would indeed be a boon for their nation.

Saul, chosen by God as Israel’s first king, was given a chance to be exactly that. He had his heart touched by God in an amazing way. When he led as God’s king, he did an amazing job. And yet he was humble to a fault.

And yet, when push came to shove, he decided that what he needed most wasn’t to obey God, but to do “what had to be done.” He moved from “may your kingdom come, God” to “may my kingdom come – or at least survive!”

Ultimately, Saul was let down by his own sinful nature. His heart wasn’t totally God’s. And so he rebelled. And he rejected God as his king. And there were consequences, because God actually is supreme over everything everywhere.

What we need is a different kind of king to represent God to us. What we need is a king whose will is perfectly submitted to that of the Father. What we need is a king who will lead us to the Father.

What we need is the one who came one silent night…

Jesus offers life to the full; eternal life. But he defines eternal life as knowing the Father and the Son. That means that life to the full begins this side of the grave. Rather than worrying about surviving in this world, Jesus calls us to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Our Father in the heavens, said Jesus, loves us and knows all that we need.

If we once come to realise that life in God’s kingdom truly is the best life, the life we were made to live; if we come to realise even a fraction of how much God loves us, then seeking God’s kingdom and his righteousness first will make more and more sense. We’ll start to see how living in God’s kingdom gives us the fullest life possible.

But how do we actually go about seeking God’s kingdom? We suggested last weekend that it includes living moment by moment as Jesus would if he were us. How would Jesus live in complete compatibility with God’s will if he were in my circumstances?

We have to ask ourselves if we are willing to trust God enough to actually do what he says. Do I actually believe that it is better to give than to receive? Do I actually think forgiving someone 70 times 7 times is the right way to act? Do I actually love my enemies? Do I take Jesus seriously when he says that my holiness should surpass that of the Pharisees – some of the strictest legalists of Judaism back then? When my enemy curses me, do I bless them back? Do we bow to God’s will, or do we assume that what God says and Jesus taught is just a little bit out of teach with “reality”?

Seeking the kingdom of God means choosing to live in obedience to the king. I can hardly say that I am seeking the kingdom of God first if I refuse to obey the king when it doesn’t suit me. In that case, I would really be seeking my kingdom first, since my will would trump God’s will in certain conditions.

In Romans 7:21ff, Paul wrote that he had discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love God’s law with all my heart. [That is, I want to do what God wants.] But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?

Seeking the kingdom of God doesn’t come naturally to sinners. But there is hope. Paul continues: Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. Jesus sets us free to seek the kingdom of God. But we need to actually seek it. As a member of San Churros, I get something for free on my birthday. But I don’t think I’ve ever actually taken the offer up – which makes the offer all but meaningless in my life!

Taking up God’s offer means offering our bodies, which were in slavery to sin, to God. And it means allowing God to renew our minds, which continue to naturally want to follow the well-worn tracks of sin. If we, as citizens in and through Jesus, are to live lives worthy of God’s kingdom, we need to be trained in godliness. Just as one doesn’t drift into physical fitness, one doesn’t simply drif into spiritual maturity. One doesn’t wake up one morning and find that one naturally thinks and acts like Jesus. One has to work out to get fit, and one has to train to be godly. (And being godly doesn’t merely mean knowing the right thing to do. I usually know the right thing to do, and then don’t do it! It means doing it naturally, as a matter of instinct. And instinct is something that needs developing.)

The goal of being trained in righteousness is that we naturally do what is right. It’s one thing to trust that God loves us and wants what’s best for us. It’s another thing to actually choose to live that out. And it’s another thing to actually act to live that out. There are various means at our disposal to train us in godliness. But the best example of a godly lifestyle is found in the only One who trusted God perfectly, and actually acted on that trust: Jesus. If you want to learn how to play footie, don’t do what I do on the footie field. Copy the best player on the best team. If we want to be godly, the best example is the God who became one of us. In apprenticeship to him, we can learn the essential rhythms of a life that seeks God’s kingdom and his righteousness first.

Seeking the kingdom of God first does involve effort. But it isn’t an effort to enter the kingdom. It’s an effort to grow into the people that God has already declared us to be. And it’s an effort simply to let God work in me by his grace. I can’t cool my core body temperature – but I can go and stand under the air-conditioner. I can’t transform my mind, but I can let God transform it (Romans 12:1-2).

Last week, we discovered that the good news Jesus preached was bigger than simply “how to get into heaven when you die.” His news was that God’s kingdom is near.

One’s kingdom is the range within which what one wants or says goes. In God’s kingdom, everything exists in absolute harmony with what God wants. Made in God’s, we were made to have dominion over God’s creation. But we were also made to live as kings who are subject to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Sin means that we don’t want to bow to God, leaving us as enemies of God’s kingdom. But without God, things just don’t work out. It’s like trying to run the photosynthesis of the planet off a 12volt battery. My kingdom inevitably crumbles – perhaps spectacularly, perhaps with a whimper as death mockingly withdraws any illusion of control I might think I have.

Into this world of rebel kingdoms, God sent his Son. He came to announce that God’s kingdom – which he had never abdicated from! – was near, was open. He came to offer us entry back into the kingdom of God even now. By his death and his resurrection our rebellion is forgiven. But the kingdom he offers is more than a “pre-paid funeral” scheme. Jesus invites us into the kingdom of God – the life of God! – here and now.

So what does it mean to pray for God’s kingdom to come? The Contemporary English Version of the Lord’s prayer is quite helpful. It says, Come and set up your kingdom, so that everyone on earth will obey you, as you are obeyed in heaven. To ask God to make his kingdom come is to ask that this world in which we find ourselves – including our lives – will return to operating according to God’s wishes.

Last week, we finished with Jesus’ instruction to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Jesus said that if we did that, we wouldn’t have to worry – that God would take care of all of our needs. But what does it mean?

To seek God’s kingdom first is to pray the start of the Lord’s prayer and actually mean it! Not just in terms of assent, but deep down. So often, if we’re honest, we harbour enclaves where we reject God’s will for our sinful will.

We need to understand that the kingdom we are seeking wants to be found. In fact, the King comes seeking us. He comes offering us life to the full. He comes to call us. If God didn’t want to be found, there is no way that we could ever find him! We’d have hints from creation that he was there (Romans 1), but wouldn’t ever be able to know God as a person, or his character, or his love for us – nor how that shapes his will and reign.

The other day, some friends recommended a couple of shows they thought Taryn and I should watch on Netflix. But they didn’t just say, “watch this”. We spent a long time talking about why they loved those shows so much. They wanted to motivate us that watching the shows would be a good thing to do.

In the same way, if we are to seek God’s kingdom, we need to understand why it’s worth seeking. And to understand that, we need to understand who God is. We need to focus our attention, our gaze, our time, our energy on getting to know God. And he wants to be known. He has never abandoned creation. Ultimately, God sent Jesus to us, while we were still sinners. Seeking his kingdom means, necessarily, seeking Jesus – God’s King. In Jesus, we most clearly see who God is, and why we would ever want to seek his kingdom. Not only does he introduce us to the King who’s will it is we are to seek, he also shows us in his actions what that will looks like in practice. (The whole Bible, in fact, does this). The question is this: is the life that Jesus lived – the joy and love and passion that he showed, his heart for the broken – is this something intoxicating? We will never seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness first if we don’t first fall in love with Jesus – with God. We’ll never seek it if our hearts don’t yearn even a little bit for something of what Jesus shows and promises.

Seeking God’s kingdom starts with a growing vision of God. Oh, may we be ever wanting to know God better. But may we also go further. May we choose to live as if God is king. One of those shows our friends tried to encourage to watch. I don’t really want to watch it. I have no intent. I might understand how brilliant it is – but without an intent to actually switch it on, I never will watch it. We need to have the intention to trust Jesus – to trust God – with the moment-to-moment bits of our lives. To seek the kingdom first is to live like Jesus – trusting that God is for us at every moment. It’s deciding to do what he says. It’s deciding to follow him.

May a desire to seek God’s kingdom grow in us. May we choose, intend, to live according to the King’s wishes moment by moment. Do we do that perfectly? By no means, yet. Sin lurks in our bodies, in our minds, and in our wills. But God gives us the capacity to choose to want him. In fact, he is at work in us to will and to act according to his purposes. (Phil 2:13) But he does give us means by which we can seek to align our wills with his. What are some of the means by which we can become people who increasingly naturally seek the kingdom of God first?

But what is a kingdom? Dallas Willard helpfully defines a kingdom as the range where your will is effective. That is, your sphere of authority; the place where what you want to happen does happen. As God intended, having a “kingdom” comes naturally to us. Some of the first words we learn as children are “mine” and “no”. Those, as John Ortberg comments, are kingdom words. From a very early age, we want to assert our authority over our circumstances. One of the reasons we can get so upset when someone bullies us, or asserts their authority over us to our detriment, or perhaps belittles our personhood and ideas, is that our kingdom is being challenged. Most all of us go through a stage of life where we rebel against our parents – trying to assert our kingdom, our wishes, over theirs.

And herein lies the problem. God made us to be kingdom people. He gave humanity the right to rule. But we were meant to rule under his leadership. Sin has ruined that. Sin sees us wanting “my will be done” rather that “God’s will be done” in this world. Unfortunately, my sinful will is opposed to God’s will. And often opposed to the person next to me. So much of the hurt and grief in our world comes from different people insisting that they should be allowed to be in charge. The crisis in Syria is between “insurgents” and the Syrian regime. Our political parties here in Australia bicker and fight because “our way is better than your stupid way.” And I get irritated if I don’t get my way. From the large scale to the individual, we are all to varying degrees “the man who would be the King.”

Into this world, God – the King of kings and Lord of lords – came as a servant. Jesus came preaching a gospel – good news. But what was his gospel? What was the good news that Jesus preached?

This week, we’re starting a month-long series on marriage. For those in our congregation who are married, I hope that it will be a series that helps us to work through what it means to live as pprentices of Jesus in our marriages. For those who are not married, or who have been married in the ast, I hope that this series will help us understandthat we can live as apprentices of Jesus whatever our marital status.

We live in an era where one’s status can often be determined by your marital status. Consider, for example, how people often describe their “partner” as their “better half”. The implication is that a person is only completed when in a relationship with someone; that they are only half a person. (Perhaps some would debate the percentages!)

Life in this world of sin and selfishness, as anyone can attest, is complicated. Marriages are no exception to this. Consider, for instance the marriage of Jacob and Leah (oh, and Rachel too! See: complicated!) in Genesis 29. We have to ask ourselves if it is even possible for one mere human to ever fully satisfy another. If not, then how can we live “complete” lives?

Even in our churches, we often focus all of our energy and attention on those who are married. I can testify from my pre-married days of often feeling left out and less than those around me. Once, many years ago, I remember visiting a church which explicitly stated that only married couples were allowed to run bible study groups.

We live in a hyper-sexualised age. Much of our advertising relies on this. Many of the movies, books, and celebrities we fill our lives with suggest that an ultimate aim in life is to find the one that can fulfill you in all areas.Many people don’t get married these days, preferring instead to simply co-habit with someone. At first glance, this makes sense: they have found someone who loves them and who makes them feel special. But on deeper reflection, this represents an unwillingness to publicly and permanently throw one’s lot in with another. To co-habit with someone other than your spouse is to keep one’s options open into the future.

Lest those who are married get uppity, it must be said that sometimes, cohabiting partners could be seen as more honest than people who get married, only to later divorced. The difference between a divorce and a defacto relationship coming apart is simply that the married couple had publicly committed and bound themselves to their spouse. As far as God is concerned, any time a man and a woman come together, they become one flesh. (See 1 Cor 6:16).

But what, we have to ask ourselves, is God’s purpose and design for such a coming together? If God is King, then all of our lives should be centered on him – including our relationships and sexuality. If we think that God’s will should be done on earth as it is in heaven, then we should certainly be asking ourselves what God’s will is for marriage!

This week, our passage finds Jesus being approached by some religious experts trying to trap him with respect to his views on divorce. In that day, there were two main schools of Jewish thought on this. The first argued that a man could divorce his wife for whatever reason, even trivial ones. Taken to extremes, one could argue that simply being attracted to another woman was a good reason to divorce your current wife! The second main school of thought was much stricter, allowing divorce only in the case of infidelity.

In answering their question, Jesus takes us back to the origins of marriage: the stories of creation and the first couple. Drawing from God’s creative intent, Jesus argues that divorce is by nature contrary to God’s will. From that same source, we also learn about the God’s intended shape for marriage: a life-long commitment whereby a man and a woman are joined together by God into one flesh.

But how do we apply this ideal to the real world messiness of life and relationships today?

The good news of God is that through Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, we can have a relationship with Him. Unfortunately, the good news is often met with antagonism, perhaps because it insists that we are sinners who fall short of God’s glory, having no means of our own to set ourselves right. We simply don’t like being told that we are wrong – or that our way of thinking might not be right.

In Australia, we have yet to face harsh persecution for being Christians. But around the world, many of our brothers and sisters do. Recently, Russia sought to pass anti-terrorism laws that would radically curtain the ability of Christians to preach the gospel. In other countries, it’s illegal to convert from Islam. In many countries, missionary activities are strictly curtained. Such persecution has been going on ever since Jesus walked among us. In fact, you could argue that it’s been going on ever since God first started dealing with humanity – right back to Cain and Abel!

During the time of Cyprian, bishop of Carthage (North Africa), in about 250AD, there was a particularly severe persecution of the church. Roman officials insisted that people, especially bishops, sacrifice to their gods. Many signed statements saying that they had done exactly that. Those that didn’t faced continuing persecution and confiscation of their property. In a later persecution, 256-258, Cyprian himself was imprisoned and sentenced to die by the sword.

What would we do if we found ourselves in that situation? Would we go underground, or would we still seek to share the good news that Jesus is our only hope of life?

When Paul wrote to the Philippians, he was in jail for preaching the good news. There was a very real possibility that the officials would decide to have him executed. The Philippians were great supporters of Paul. They would have been incredibly worried about him. And Paul appreciated their concern, I’m sure. But in writing to them, he wanted to allay their fears for his mission: to see Jesus preached to the non-Jewish world. One might have expected his being jailed to have put an end to this task: not only was Paul “out of action”, but his imprisonment, one would think, would see other Christians pull their heads in a bit.

But nothing could have been further from the truth. If anything, Paul’s imprisonment had encouraged the other Christians in the city to be more bold in sharing the good news about Jesus. True, some of the Christians had a personal thing against Paul, and were preaching out of envy and jealousy. But regardless of that, they were telling others that all who come to Jesus would be saved. And Paul mentions how everyone here – including the whole palace guards – knew that he was in jail because of Jesus Christ. For all this, Paul rejoiced.

Paul rejoiced over the spread of the gospel, even while in jail for spreading it. He could rejoice because for him, Jesus’ kingdom meant everything. How would you and I react if we were in a similar situation? How often we find that we look for our joy in someone or something other than Jesus! But if we do that, how do we confront the realities of life?

Paul not only rejoiced for the gospel’s spread, but he intended to keep on rejoicing. But he wasn’t some spiritual powerhouse. Paul knew that he – just like us – needed sustenance. He needed the Philippians to pray for him, and he needed a special provision of the Spirit of his life. Paul knew that God finishes what he starts (1:6), but also knew that God listens to the prayers of others for our salvation, supplying his Spirit so that we will persevere in the faith through tough times as well as good.

Which raises some questions for us. Do I think that I can make it on my own? How often do I ask others to pray for my deliverance/salvation? How often do I pray that for others?

Paul wanted the Philippians to pray for his deliverance (salvation). But that didn’t mean that he was averse to being executed. Oh, I’m sure Paul wouldn’t have welcomed the experience. But Paul was convinced that to live was Christ, but to die gain. Gain because he would have a far closer relationship with Jesus – he would be with him.

In today’s passage, Paul says some stuff that sounds amazing. But it’s also a passage that challenges us, because very few of us can honestly say that we perfectly share Paul’s attitudes to life (and death). In practice, many of us tend to live out of a “to live is gain, and to die is Christ” mentality. How is it that Paul came to see things the other way round? And how might you and I come to that same position of joyful trust?

Often, our actions are a window into the desires of our hearts. True – we can put on a good show for others, but those who know us best often have an insight into what drives us. If we are desperate for power or insecure within ourselves, for example, we might be short-tempered at home. Truth will out. Our heart’s desire is to be important and in charge.

Sometimes, our heart’s desire is evidenced by what we’re willing to sacrifice for. Right or wrong, Eric Liddell was willing to give up his Olympic dream because he wanted to honour God more. I might think that fair-trade clothing is a good idea – but if I’m not willing to pay the extra price for it, you can be sure that my assertions on behalf of justice for the poor are empty.

Paul’s experience with the Philippians gave him an insight into what it was that was driving them; their actions were a clue as to what desires were uppermost in their hearts. As a church, the Philippians were incredible supporters of Paul and his ministry. In fact, Paul recognised them as being more than just supporters. They were his partners in the task of telling the world about Jesus. Partners through thick and thin. They weren’t a particularly wealthy church, but were known to be incredibly generous.

To them, Paul was more than just a random name on a missionary list, someone to whom they sent a bit of money when they could afford it. He was their man. His task was their task, his mission their desire. They went out of their way to support Paul in practical ways.
Paul’s mission to share Jesus with the world was one that had convinced and captivated them. Seeing others come to know Jesus was something they held to be of the utmost importance. And out of that desire, they acted.

Paul was, no doubt, grateful to them. But as he starts his letter, he writes that he was grateful to God for them. Because Paul recognised in their actions more than merely human behaviour. He recognised that God had started an incredible work in them; that God was changing their priorities to align with His. I think he recognised something of God’s nature in them.

What’s more, Paul was convinced that what God had started he would finish. I love Philippians 1:6. It reminds me that salvation is from start to finish a work of God’s grace. I can’t save myself, and I can’t change myself to be like Jesus. But God has saved me, and willed that I be like Jesus. And he will accomplish that.

But how did Paul know that God had started a good work in them? How can we be sure that God has started something in us that he will finish? And what, come to it, is that “good work” that Paul speaks of in verse 6?

And, if God is the initiator and finisher of the “good work” in his people, why does Paul make such a big deal about their partnering with him? And why does he pray for their love to overflow more and more? If God is going to finish what he started, why does Paul pray for the Philippians to grow in knowledge and understanding (discernment)? Why does Paul pray what he prays?

Our actions speak about our hearts. We always do what we want to do. Paul’s prayer for the
Philippians is one that we would do well to pray for each other: that our love would overflow – that our actions would bubble out of a growing love for God; a love that is based on an ever-deepening knowledge of God and his ways. May Paul’s prayer be answered in us. May we hunger to know God better. May we learn to desire him above all else. And may our actions betray our hearts for the glory of God. There’s sill much room for growth! May God finish what he started, and may we chase after that for which Jesus has already taken hold of us.

This morning, we’re staring a new series on Paul’s letter to the church that met in Philippi. Philippi
was the first place in Macedonia (modern Greece) where a Christian church was established. Read Acts
16 for the story of how the church was started! Paul wrote this letter while in jail – probably from Rome in the early 60s AD, although some think he might have written from another of his jail-cells elsewhere.

It’s important to remember that what Paul wrote to them was a letter, and not a textbook on
Christian doctrine. Paul was writing to a specific church, in a specific place at a specific time. Today, as we read it, we are like people listening in on a conversation. And a good thing too! Although we live in a
different place and a different time, with different challenges and circumstances, what Paul wrote to the
Philippians still applies to us and our situations today.

The first two verses of Philippians would be easy to skip over. But in them, Paul already hints at
how Jesus is to be the all-encompassing element of life as a Christian. Since he was writing a letter, Paul used the conventions of his day for letter writing. And yet even in the boilerplate, Paul managed to
highlight some of the big ideas that he was going to raise in the letter proper.

For instance, why does Paul identify himself and Timothy as slaves of Christ Jesus? Why doesn’t he
mention here, as he normally did in his letters, something about how he was an apostle of Jesus – a
special messenger, chosen by God to testify to the non-Jewish world that Jesus really is alive and that he is the Son of God, God’s chosen, eternal King?

And what does being a slave of Christ Jesus actually mean? Was Paul boasting about his special
status before God – saying something like: Like Moses, I am God’s chosen servant? What is it that makes someone a slave? How does it affect how they live their life?

Also, why didn’t Paul just say he was writing to the church in Philippi? Why does he insist on
calling them saints in Christ Jesus? Was this a particularly “good” bunch of Christians that he was writing to? What does being a saint actually mean – and how is it related to the fact that God is holy?

How does Paul’s own assertion that he wasn’t yet perfect (3:12f) fit into the fact that Christians are saints? Come to that, does a saint look any different to a non-saint? Should they look different?
And when Paul wrote, “May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace,”
was that intended to be as casual as a “God bless” at the end of a phone conversation? What exactly did
he mean when he asked God to give them grace and peace? Was he asking God to save them? Why
would saints need grace – undeserved kindness – in the first place? And what sort of a master is it who is interested in giving peace to his servants?

Amazingly, there are many questions raised in just two short verses! But for me, the thing that I
most want to remember is how these verses revolve around Jesus the Christ, and God our Father. Paul
and Timothy (like every other Christian) weren’t just slaves: they were slaves of Christ Jesus. The
Christians in Philippi, like all Christians, weren’t just saints: they were saints in Christ Jesus. Grace and
peace can only come to us from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything has to do with
Jesus. Sometimes, we can forget that and think that we can live a good, Christian life in our own strength and power. Paul would have none of that. Jesus is our example, our master, our righteousness and our hope. Without him, there’d be no way that we could honestly call ourselves saints, for we would sill be slaves of sin (Romans 6!)

The challenge of the gospel for us is to constantly put our focus back onto Jesus – and to allow all
that he is, as well as all that we are in and through and because of him to dictate how we live our lives.
That was true for Paul, Timothy and the Philippians. And it’s true for us sill.

Over the last few weeks, we’ve been a fly on the wall of Abraham’s life. In Genesis 12, we saw how God called Abraham and gave him incredible promises: promises of descendants and land, a promise that God would bless those who blessed Abram and curse those who cursed him, a promise that through Abraham the nations of the world would be blessed.

As we’ve explored Abraham’s journey with God, we’ve seen how those promises have seemed at times unobtainable. For one thing, Abraham and Sarah were unable to have children. And yet, despite their attempts to force God’s promises to come true by Abraham fathering a child through Sarah’s servant, God insisted that his promises would be fulfilled through Abraham and Sarah.

Only when both were old, and Sarah well past child-bearing age, did God miraculously enable them to have a son of their own: Isaac. After long years of triumphant faith and struggling doubt, it must have seemed like things were finally started to coming together. With Ishmael (the son born of the slave woman) out of the picture, it looked like God’s promises were settled and sure. In fact, in Genesis 21:33, we read that Abraham worshipped Yahweh, the Eternal God.

And then, several years later, that eternal, enduring God called on Abraham to do the unthinkable: to kill his only son. Abraham was faced with a dilemma: How could God’s promises – which seemed to be coming true in Isaac – possibly be fulfilled if Isaac was to die?

And yet Abraham had learnt to listen to God. And so he got up the next morning, and set out for the region of Moriah. But why? In 2 Chronicles 3:1, we’re told that the temple in Jerusalem was built on Mount Moriah. Not all theologians are convinced that the Moriah in Jerusalem is the same place as that of Genesis 22. If it is, there is perhaps a link to the temple where God accepted sacrifices for the sins of the people, and a link to the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus, God’s own Son. Regardless, it seems like there might be another reason Abraham is told to go to Moriah: it’s not nearby.

Why the long journey?

God called Abraham to give up everything he had in obedience to God. And Abraham decided to trust God. He decided to trust that God would provide; to trust that God would see to it that the apparent contradictions of his command and his promises were resolved.

In the end – but at the last moment! – God did intervene. Before Isaac was slaughtered, God’s angel called Abraham to stop. Abraham had shown that he truly feared God. Abraham had shown that he trusted God no mater what.

It’s easy to say that we trust God. It’s easy to say that we love God “more than life.” In practice though, more often than not it’s another story. There are countless good gifts from God that we so often allow to have ultimate importance in our lives. There are even evil desires that wage war against our very souls that we can be loath to give up. In Genesis 22, God was testing Abraham by asking him to make an ultimate decision: who or what was he living for? That’s a question that we should be asking ourselves every day.

The amazing thing, though, is that God doesn’t “test” Abraham before making his promises to him. God’s promises were made back in Genesis 12. God called Abraham “righteous” because of his faith in Genesis 15 – even though Abraham would continue to stumble and doubt. God wants us to have him as our ultimate desire. But his love for us doesn’t depend on that.

Putting God first might not come easily to us. I suspect it wasn’t easy for Abraham. But let us be encouraged that, God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. (1 John 4:9-10)

Even so, it is for those who trust God that God provides. God has provided a sacrifice for us – even Jesus his Son. One who knows what it is like to be human, who can sympathise with us in our weakness. (Hebrews 4:15) If we refuse to trust in him, then we are turning our backs on his promise of an abundant life with him forever. But if we trust him… he will save us. For on the mountain of the Lord, God has seen to it.

Let us choose to trust him.

Abraham is an interesting character. In a world where we think we can make a name for ourselves, God
promised to make a name for Abraham. He promised to bless him with land and descendants. He
promised to bless those who blessed Abraham and to curse those who treated him with contempt. He
promised that through Abraham, he would bless the world.

As Christians, we recognise that God’s greatest blessing through Abraham has come in the person of
Jesus. Humanly speaking, Jesus is the descendant of Abraham. In Jesus, we’re told, all of God’s
promise are answered with a resounding “Yes!” (2 Cor 1:20) Jesus came to save us to himself, the
triune God, from our sins and their penalty of death. But he also came to finally and comprehensively
show us who God is. To have seen Jesus is to have seen the Father (John 14:9).

If we are going to trust God as our Saviour, we need to know who he is and what it means to be in a
relationship with him. That is most clearly answered in Jesus – but it is a key theme of the whole Bible.
In Genesis 20, after the destruction of the cities of the plain, we read of Abraham and his family
moving to settle in the south of the promised land. Abraham was living in the promised land, and yet
he was doing so as a resident alien in the region controlled by Abimelech. Until God gave the land to
his descendants, and even afterwards, Abraham and his family was responsible for representing God
to the people of the land. In Jesus, God has promised those who trust him the world as an inheritance.
But until the day of Jesus’ return, we too are resident aliens, tasked with representing God, and being
“priests” to the world (1 Peter 2:4-12).

God always planned to send Jesus, humanly speaking, through the line of Abraham. But sometimes it
seems as if Abraham does all he can to upset God’s plan! Sometimes, Abraham is a man of
commendable faith; an example for us. Other times, like in Genesis 20, he is a description of us in our
moments of fear. So often we lose sight of the God we are serving in light of more immediate threats,
problems or dangers. The irony is that God is greater than any threat. But we forget that, and get
caught up in what we like to think of as “real life”. To save our own skin, we do unthinkable things.
How often do we not act because we don’t trust that God is able to take care of us? And sometimes,
we can do what we know to be wrong, and try and justify it in terms of our relative “better-ness” than
those around us.

Fortunately, Genesis 20 isn’t just a story of human fickleness and sinfulness. It’s part of the history of
God proving himself faithful and true. In it, we learn how God acts to fulfil his plans and purposes. And
we learn about the incredible grace of God, His undeserved kindness to those who should know
better… and to those who don’t. We learn that God is a God who desires justice, but who also gives
opportunities for repentance.

And we learn that God continues to use us despite our penchant for sin and failure. He wants better
for us, and very often disciplines us (sometimes through others). But when we fall, he doesn’t throw
us over for a better option. He picks us up and says, “I chose you. You are mine.”

Having in a moment thrown their attempts into confusion, God chose to do something about the
lack of knowledge about who he is. He chose to enter into a relationship with Abram, promising to
make Abram’s name great, to bless him, to give him land and descendants, and ultimately to bless
the whole world through him. We today recognise that this last promise has been (and is being!)
fulilled through the coming of Jesus, God-incarnate, born into the family line of Abraham. He died
and rose again, so that all those who trust in God can be forgiven of their sins, and be with God
forever.

But if we are to trust in Jesus, in our God, to be saved, we need to first understand who God is.
Through all of his ups and downs, Abram (Abraham) was learning more about who God is. He learnt
that God cannot be thwarted. He learnt that God is powerful. He learnt that God’s promises were
entirely of grace; that all he had to do was to trust God. He learnt that God is Almighty; that nothing
is impossible for him. He learnt that God wants his people to be set apart as his own, that he wants
us to identify ourselves as his.

This weekend’s passage focusses on God’s destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah for their sin. And
yet that incident is wrapped up in references to God talking with Abraham. God chose to let
Abraham in on his plan, because of the promises that he had made to Abraham. God wanted
Abraham to understand his way, so that Abraham and his descendants could themselves do what
is right and just.

In many ways, then, the story of Genesis 19 is a practical example of how God’s justice and mercy
work. It’s a demonstration of what it means to be righteous in a world that rejects God’s right to
judge.

The cities of the plain, where Lot lived, were a place where there was very little righteousness. Of
all those in Sodom, it seems that only one, Lot, was righteous. Not that he was perfect, but simply
that he trusted God. What was the sin that caused God to destroy them? Homosexuality was part of
it, but not all. This was a region where God was persona-non-grata, and where his right to judge
right from wrong was considered to be vulgar.

If one of the main concerns of Abraham’s story is his (and our!) discovering who God is, what does
this episode tell us about God, and what it means to follow him? Who do you most identify with?
The people of the plain? Lot? His wife? Abraham? What does it look like in practice to keep the way
of the Lord?Finally, how does this episode point us to Jesus?

Being religious is very hard work. As humans tainted by sin, we seem to have an inbuilt understanding that in order for us to have any significance in this life and success in the next, we have to be successful in the here and now. We assume that we have to prove our devotion to God in order for him to accept us. We know that God is holy and perfect, and we know that he requires that of us too. And so we put every effort into being perfect.

Of course, that’s not something that we’re very good at. None of us is perfect – none of us is righteous. There’s an old joke: if you and I are being chased by a lion, I don’t have to be faster than the lion. I just have to be faster than you. And that’s the same way people and religions tend to approach God. God is angry at our failure to be perfect. But as long as I am more perfect than you,
I’ll be fine.

The problem with this approach to God is that it does nothing to allay our fears. Always there’s a nagging question – if not a suppressed certainty – that I might not be good enough for God. Being religious is hard work.

But Christians were never meant to be religious. To those wearied and burdened down by the religious treadmill, Jesus offers his rest. Rest for those wearied, like Sisyphus, of the task of perpetually pushing a boulder (our lives) up a hill (perfection) only to have it roll down again (sin).

Instead of requiring us to be perfect – Jesus invites us to let him take the load, to be united with him, and to learn from him. His yoke, Jesus promises, “is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”

Today, our question is simply this: who is bearing the load in our lives?

The gospel of Jesus Christ is amazingly simple. Mostly, religion is about proving ourselves worthy of God. It’s about living an upright, moral life. It’s about attaining a standard of life that is superior to the majority of others. It’s about being able to say that we have harshly disciplined ourselves, and that we have attained a level of perfection that is “good enough” for God.

Many have assumed that Christianity falls into this same style of religiosity. We are saved by Jesus Christ, who forgives us our sins. But we must then maintain our salvation by being “good enough” Christians. We must be better than none Christians. We must be in God’s good books. But this is not what Christianity is all about.

Over the last few weeks, we’ve been following Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, where in ecstatic praise he worships God for all that God has done. Paul understood that true Christianity is less about us, and more about Christ. In Christ, he reminded us, we are perfect. In Christ we have been made into a new creation. In Christ, the old self – ruled by sin – was execute on the cross. In Christ, we have already been blessed with every spiritual blessing (so we don’t have to keep trying to earn God’s favour). In Christ, we have been exalted to the heavenlies, where we are now seated with the Father. In Christ, we are new. We are, as we saw last week, God’s masterpieces.

This week, Paul wants to remind us to remember who we are, so that we can fully “get” what it is that God has done for us in Christ. Sin divides, Christ unites. Jews used to look down their noses at  Gentiles – thinking that they alone had the right to consider themselves saved by God. It’s so tempting for us as Christians to assume the same of those in the world.

But Christ is in the business of breaking down walls of division. He is our peace. He brings people from all walks of life together. No matter our past, or our history, or heritage, or gender – if we put  our trust in Christ and entrust our lives to him – then we are one.

In Christ, together, this multi-faceted array of humanity becomes the temple of God. The place where God’s glory is revealed in saving and rescuing and uniting into a new people such a diverse array of people. Together in Christ, we are not only God’s family – but also the place where God dwells by his Spirit.

Now that is something worth remembering! Not how well we’ve done, but how good God has been to us!

This morning continues our journey through the opening chapters of Ephesians. Paul started by praising God for all that he has done for us (only everything – he’s blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus!) Last week, he continued by praying that God would reveal more of himself to his readers, that they might live out of what he has done for them. This week, Paul continues on from where he left off.

What defines a Christian, writes Paul, is that we are in Christ. In Ephesians 2:1-10, Paul looks at what God has done for Jesus (Ephesians 1:19-21) and notes that since that is true of Jesus, it is also true of us who are in Christ Jesus.

Which is an absolutely amazing thing to ponder. Especially if, as Paul does, one understands the position we found ourselves in when God rescued us. We were, quite literally, the living dead. We know what zombies are from horror movies. To quote the google dictionary, a zombie is “a person or reanimated corpse that has been turned into a creature capable of movement but not of rational thought, which feeds on human flesh.” And, strangely enough, Paul seems to say in verses 1-3 that our world is full of such creatures.

Apart from Christ Jesus, people are dead in trespasses and sins. As far as relationship with God goes, they are insensible. Although having a semblance of life, that life is fleeting. Unable to experience the true satisfaction of relating to God, such life is ruled by sinful desires that promise satisfaction but ultimately never deliver.

And God, who created us to be fully alive hates our zombie state.

The miracle of the gospel is that God acted to save us. By his grace, all those who put their trust (faith) in him are united to him. They die as zombies. But here’s where the gospel is better than any horror film. In the films, one goes from being alive to being a zombie. In Christ, one goes from being the living dead to being the once dead now alive! Christians are united with Christ, and so they died with him and they also were raised with him and are exalted with him. We right now are seated with God in the heavenlies in Christ.

All this not because we pleased God (we couldn’t even relate to him as dead people), but to show off how incredibly good and gracious God is.

So ask yourself… are you a zombie, or alive? And what difference does that make?

This weekend, we’re coninuing our journey through the first few chapters of Ephesians. Paul wrote to the Ephesian Christians to remind them of how amazingly wonderful the good news of God really is, and to encourage them in their living out of that. As we saw last week, what makes the good news of Jesus so incredible is that God has done it all! God chose us, rescued us and saved us. And what’s more we have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus. As those who trust in Jesus, we are new people – we have died to sin; we are completely forgiven for everything we have done and will do! And we are now co-heirs with Christ Jesus – who has been placed in a position of absolute authority over everything.

As Christians we are blessed in Christ Jesus with every spiritual blessing; with everything that we need to live an abundant life – to live in eternal relationship with God, enjoying him forever. But so often we don’t live out of that abundance. We struggle sill with the sin that lives within us (not now as a controlling force, but as a parasite.) We struggle with living in a world that sill bears the bleeding scars of rebellion against God. In fact, that rebellion becomes, if anything, more visible to us – perhaps even directed against us who put our trust in God. How are we as followers of Jesus to enjoy the “spiritual blessings” that are ours in Christ Jesus? Or are they just for eternity? Are we meant to just “muddle it out” here until either Jesus returns or we die?

Having praised God for his kindness in blessing us in Christ Jesus so richly, Paul goes on to pray for his readers that God’s Spirit would open the eyes of their hearts to a fuller knowledge of God. As the old saying says, “It’s not what you know; it’s who you know.” Paul wants us to grow in our knowledge of our loving God who has blessed us. Since we have now been given a share of his own divine nature(WOW! 2 Peter 1:4!), the more we know God, the more we start to know the person that God has made us, and that will be revealed on the day that Jesus returns. And as we grow in our knowledge of God, we also come to understand more of the hope to which we have been called. We also come to realise just how valuable God considers us: we are not only his heirs, but also his own inheritance!

As Paul prays, he asks God to enable us to know the incomparably great power of God that is ours in Christ Jesus. He reminds us that God has already proven his incredible power in the resurrection of Jesus. That same power established Jesus as head over all creation; right now, there is no power in all of creation that is greater than Jesus. And God did that for the sake of the church! Jesus is Lord of all for the sake of you and I!

If you were to look at the night sky, much of it appears dark. Yet leave a camera on a long exposure, and you ind that far from the sky being mostly dark it is simply crammed with stars. What Paul prayed for – and what we need – is to know our Heavenly father more and more, so that we can live in this world out of his character and with his power. We truly are more than conquerors through Christ who gives us strength. As we grow closer to our Father, may that truth become more and more obvious to us

Today’s Passage: Joshua 8:1-29

It had been about 40 years since the people of Israel had been rescued from the land of Egypt – the land of slavery. The escape from Egypt had been incredible. There was no doubt in anybody’s mind that Israel’s escape was a “God-thing”. To experience not only the plagues (including the angel of death), but also the crossing on dry ground of the Red Sea could leave nobody in any doubt that the God of Israel was not like any other gods. This God was awesome in power and might. He could do the impossible. And he had decided to take his people and bring them into a land of their own. His big plan: to bring about through them the means to reconcile all people to himself.

But, despite the awesomeness of their escape, the people of Israel quickly forgot the might of God. The Red Sea was far behind them, the memorial that had been set up wasn’t one that they often passed by. Arriving at the borders of Canaan – the land of the promise – their fear of the future and the inhabitants of the land proved stronger than their trust in God’s strength. Of 12 spies that Moses sent into the land to report on conditions there, all but two told horrific tales of how impossible a task an invasion of that land would be. Only two of the spies, Joshua and Caleb, urged the people to recognise that if God was with them, there could be no doubt that the land would be taken easily. The people of Canaan, they said, had “no protection, but the Lord is with us! Don’t be afraid of them!” (Numbers 14:9)

Instead of entering the land at that time, the people’s lack of trust in God doomed them to 40 years of wandering in the desert. Finally, they find themselves once more on the edge of Canaan, with a new representative of God leading them. They camp at the edge of the Jordan river, the boundary of the land, a river swollen and overflowing with the excesses of snow-melt and spring rain.

Their challenge – to trust God, and to expect great things from him. The flooded Jordan river seemed an insurmountable obstacle to their taking the land. But I have no doubt that God specifically timed their arrival at the river at such an impossible time to cross. God wanted to show to that generation – and all that would follow – his awesome power. He was going to demonstrate to them that their task was one that could only be accomplished if they put their trust in him; that he was going ahead of them; that nothing is impossible for God.

The miracle at the Jordan was amazing. But it was for more than just that generation. What God did there was a demonstration of his power and love and presence for all future generations of God’s people. God specifically had Joshua set up memorials to keep the experience fresh in the nation’s national conscience.

What about us today? Do we expect great things from God when the path ahead seems blocked? Do we remember all the evidence that God has given us – as the church corporate and as individuals – of his presence and power and might? Do we trust that the future need hold no fear if God goes ahead of us? Do the memorials of God’s love – including communion and baptism – draw us back into the shared experience of God’s mighty acts? Where do the stones of our memorial to God’s might and goodness come from?

If you visit the old Fremantle prison, you might hear the story of serial escapee Moondyne Joe. He twice escaped prison in country WA, and twice more in Fremantle – one time almost under the noses of his guards! Although Moondyne Joe had a flair for escaping, the law would invariably catch up to him.

We are all a bit like Moondyne Joe. But our guilt is to a higher authority: God. But God loves us so much that he sent his Son to take our punishment for us. In trusting and following Jesus, God grants us an absolute pardon; more, we are adopted into his family. We are given the guarantee that when Jesus returns, we shall be remade to be like him – perfect and holy. And until the day when we see God face to face, God takes up residence in us by his Holy Spirit. Day by day, God by his Spirit seeks to guide us and lead us along the best path for us – his!

As Christians, we have been once and all set free from the guilt and sting of sin. But our freedom isn’t just something that starts at the end of our lives. The freedom won by Jesus on the cross is already ours. Over the last few weeks, we’ve been asking what that looks like in practice. We’ve considered how we can live in freedom from worry, guilt, shame, bitterness, loneliness and legalism.

This week, we’re taking a slightly different tack. Rather than exploring another “case study” in freedom, we’ll be looking at the key to living in the freedom that Jesus has bought for us. This key, writes Paul in Galatians 5, is letting the Spirit guide our lives.

As Christians, we are now people with two inclinations: our natural inclination that lives in sinful antagonism to God and his ways, and a new inclination that comes from the Spirit of God living in us. Although our old self and the Spirit of God within us desire opposite things, they both claim to be able to give us purpose, meaning and fulfilment in life. The difference is that our old, sinful nature which lives in antagonism to God, cannot live up to it’s promises. To allow it to rule over us is to choose to live in antagonism to God; it is to refuse to let the Spirit guide our lives; it is to reject the freedom which Christ Jesus offers us.

Freedom, however, comes not through fighting against our old self, but through surrendering to the Spirit of God. Freedom comes when we are convinced that God loves us and wants what is best for us. Freedom comes when we don’t buy the lie that something other than God can give our lives purpose and meaning. Freedom comes when we trust that God loves us just the way we are. Freedom comes when we are so captivated by the goodness of God that something of his character starts to be formed in us.

But if freedom comes through surrender, what do we have to do? And is that even the right question?

]]> https://www.goldenbaybaptist.church/sermons/freedom-to-live/feed/ 0 3587 church@goldenbaybaptist.church (GBBC)noBible Passage: Galatians 5:16-26 If you visit the old Fremantle prison, you might hear the story of serial escapee Moondyne Joe. He twice escaped prison in country WA, and twice more in Fremantle – one time almost under the noses of his guards! Although Moondyne Joe had a flair for escaping, the law would invariably catch up to him. We are all a bit like Moondyne Joe. But our guilt is to a higher authority: God. But God loves us [&#8230;]Bible Passage: Galatians 5:16-26 If you visit the old Fremantle prison, you might hear the story of serial escapee Moondyne Joe. He twice escaped prison in country WA, and twice more in Fremantle – one time almost under the noses of his guards! Although Moondyne Joe had a flair for escaping, the law would invariably catch up to him. We are all a bit like Moondyne Joe. But our guilt is to a higher authority: God. But God loves us [&#8230;]Baptist,Christian,Sermon,Sermons,Audio,Christianity,Bible,Faith,Belief https://www.goldenbaybaptist.church/sermons/freedom-from-legalism/ https://www.goldenbaybaptist.church/sermons/freedom-from-legalism/#respond Sun, 23 Aug 2015 03:12:20 +0000 http://www.goldenbaybaptist.church/?post_type=ctc_sermon&p=3585 Today’s passage: Galatians 4:8-5:16

This morning, we’re looking at how we can find freedom from legalism. Legalism stands at the core of all human religions, each of which presents a different set of tick-boxes that one has to sign-off on to be in good standing with God and avoid his wrath. Of course, when these different sets collide, conflict arises!

Unlike these religions, Christianity stridently says that you and I can never be good enough. Even if we manage to look impressively upright (at least from certain angles!), on the inside we’re a different story altogether. But the good news is that God loves us. He doesn’t rescue those who prove themselves worthy of being rescued; he rescues anyone who admits that they could never be worthy of him and who put their trust in him. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us: the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring us to God.

But there remains a temptation to go back into thinking in terms of proving ourselves good enough for God. Often in the New Testament, we read of Christians being told that simply trusting Jesus wasn’t enough for God to accept you and declare you “right” with himself. This teaching said that if one wanted to be in God’s good books – one had to prove your dedication, by following all God’s laws – including that of circumcision.

If you didn’t, God would drop you like a hot potatoe. This way of thinking still exists today, even if the details are slightly different. It’s tempting for us to insist that unless you take communion in the right way at the right time, led by the right person, you’re not saved. Or that you have to be baptised in the right way at the right time by the right person. Or that you must read the Bible and pray for an hour a day. Or any number of other little things.

If I’m honest, the temptation to legalism is still strong within me. I find it comforting to think that if I work hard enough, I’ll get a passing grade into eternity. I like feeling like I’m “better” than someone else. Except – and here’s the kicker – I know that I’m not. I know that my grade will never be a passing one. For all the good I do, there’s a whole slew of failures to live up to the tick-boxes that I’ve decided God expects me to fulfill. This is the road to Romans 7: “Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?”

The answer? Not me! Rather, there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.” (Rom 8:1) God doesn’t accept us because we’re good enough for him – he accepts us because he loves us. Yes, Christians are meant to live holy lives. But our holiness isn’t what saves us! That’s putting the cart
before the horse!

In Philippians 3, Paul writes how he had the whole legalistic, tick-box lifestyle down pat. He had all the right credentials. He was so convinced that his set of tick-boxes was the only way to be right with God that he went out of his way to try to force others (Christians!) to conform to them. And then he encountered the risen Jesus. And he realised just how worthless all of his “good” deeds were. You see, God doesn’t just want us to tick all the right boxes. He wants us to know him personally, to trust him, to love him – to have him as our dearest treasure.

In 1 Kings 18-19, we read of a showdown between the prophets of Baal and Elijah, God’s prophet. The showdown is a resounding display of God’s supremacy. But as Elijah comes into the
conflict he feels, I think, very lonely and overwhelmed. In 1 Kings 18:22, he tells the assembled people, “I am the only prophet of the Lord who is left, but Baal has 450 prophets.” Later, fleeing  for his life from the wrath of Queen Jezebel, Elijah’s depression deepens. Finally, in 1 Kings 19:12, on Mount Sinai, Elijah complains to God, “I have zealously served the Lord God Almighty. But  the people of Israel have broken their covenant with you, torn down your altars, and killed every one of your prophets. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me, too.” He  repeats this thought again in v14.

Elijah felt alone. Truth was, he wasn’t alone. In verse 18, God mentions in passing that there were at least 7,000 others in Israel who had never bowed down to Baal or kissed him. There were other godly people in the land – including Elijah’s replacement Elisha. But even if there hadn’t been, Elijah wouldn’t have been alone: God was with him. God had always been with him. More often than not, the almighty God’s presence is with a small, still voice – read 1 Kings 19:9-13. Elijah might have felt alone, but if God is with one, one can never truly be alone.

Everyone feels lonely at times. Moving to a new home can be a lonely time (which is one of the reasons we have our “Welcome to the Bay!” programme). Growing older can be a lonely time. Losing loved ones can be lonely. Being alone can be lonely, but one can also be lonely surrounded by others.

There was a time when there was no loneliness in this universe. Before the fall, Adam (and later Eve) had a perfect relationship with God and with each other. As the Triune God, God is relational in his very being. He is, as John puts it, love. And being made in God’s image, we humans are also made as relational beings. We were made to relate to God and with each other. Loneliness can only exist where relationships aren’t as God intends them to be – which is what sin introduced into the world.

That is the current state of this world. But there is good news! In Jesus, God has acted to reconcile us to himself, and through his Son to each other. When we become Christians, God takes up residence in our lives by His Spirit. And as Christians, with Christ living in us, we are being formed into the likeness of Jesus. We are being formed into the relational, loving beings we were always meant to be.

What is the cure for loneliness? Accepting Jesus’ offer of adoption and friendship and new life, his promise to never leave or forsake us. If God is with us, we will never be alone. (Even if, as Elijah, we might need reminding of that time and again!) Secondly, we as the Christian church should be the body of Christ here on earth. As Christ is formed in us, let us actively seek to  encourage each other. Let us share our lives with each other, because God has shared his life with us.

To read this week: 1 Kings 18-19, Psalm 142, 2 Timothy 4:6-11, John 16

What do you do with your guilt? Like all emotions, guilt is a gift from God – but one that so easily turns from gift to curse. Properly, guilt reminds us that we have failed to live up to some standard. It’s not meant to be pleasant. But it is meant to bring us to a place where we repent, seeking forgiveness and turning from what we were doing wrong.

But what about when we’ve done that, and we sill can’t shake the guilt? Perhaps we’ve confessed, and still struggle with some sin. Perhaps we struggle not only with guilt, but also shame. We are so convinced that we’ve let God and others down. But we are not that big, we cannot let God down because we’ve never held him up. He’s the one who holds us up. He’s the one who sent Jesus to die for us. He’s the one who gives us new life, new purpose.

When we really boil things down, I am convinced that overwhelming guilt and shame continue for two reasons. Firstly, because we don’t let go of it. We set our minds on our sins and faults, feeding them. Secondly, and this is the big one, because we don’t really believe God means it when he says that he forgives us. We think that whatever it is we’ve done is too big; we don’t believe Jesus when he says he died for all of our sins. We don’t believe him when he says he’s making us new. We don’t trust him.

As I was writing this, this song started playing:

How do we know we’ve been forgiven?
How do we know that we have been made clean?
How do we know we’ll go to heaven?
How do we know we’ve been redeemed?

You have been raised, the tomb has been opened.
Nothing can take away our hope in you.
You have been raised.
You have been raised, the work is completed.
Hell and its powers has been defeated.
You have been raised.

Now we are free from condemnation.
There is no judgement let for us to fear.
We don’t have to wonder if we’re welcome,
you’re the one who’s brought us near…

The price you paid for us has fully been accepted.
Because of your shed blood we cannot be rejected.
We cannot be rejected.

How do we deal with our guilt? Confess our sins, accept God’s forgiveness, and allow God – work with God – to change our hearts and mind to be more like his. In my reading this week I found the following acronym, which I find is worth spending some time thinking through. It’s taken from https://goo.gl/D5PVH5:

Find the source of your guilt.
Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place. (Psalm 51:6)

Own responsibility for your sin.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)

Realise God means it – believe!
Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him. (Romans 4:7–8)

Give up dwelling on the past.
Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! (Is 43:18-19)

Invest time renewing your mind.
You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put of your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds. (Ephesians 4:22–23)

Verify truth when Satan accuses.
No weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD. (Isaiah 54:17)

Exchange your life for the life of Christ.
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)

Notice that God brings your feelings in line with the facts when you obey Him.
You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. (Hebrews 10:36)

What do you do with your guilt? Try read Romans 8 today!

Jesus told a parable once about a farmer who went scattering good seed. Some seed fell on the footpath, and were eaten by birds. Some seed fell on shallow soil with underlying rock, and withered when things got hot. Other seed fell among thorns that grew up and choked out the tender plants. Sill other seed fell on fertile soil, producing an incredible crop. Jesus explained the meaning of these different soils (Mathew 13:18-23), saying that the seed that fell among the thorns represents those who hear God’s word, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the worries of this life and the lure of wealth, so no fruit is produced.

This week, we’re staring a brand new series called “Set Free!” In it, we’ll be looking at some of those weeds that threaten to crowd God’s word out of our lives. Worry, guilt, shame, bitterness, loneliness and a legalistic heart can cripple us. But the good news is that they don’t have to. This series is about how Jesus can release us from our bondage to such things. We’ll be asking how we can ensure that they don’t crowd God’s word out of our lives, so that the soil of our lives is transformed into good soil, where God’s word can grow deeply and vibrantly, producing much fruit.

If we’re honest, many of us struggle with thorns in our lives. The task of weeding can take time, and can be painful. But we don’t have to do it alone. God loves us so much that he sent his Son into the world to bring freedom. Quoting Isaiah’s prophecy, Jesus said that The Spirit of the LORD is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, and that the time of the LORD’s favor has come. (Luke 4:18-19).

It is my prayer that you and I, over the course of the next 6 weeks, will be challenged and encouraged to strip of every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne. Think of all the hostility he endured from sinful people; then you won’t become weary and give up. After all, you have not yet given your lives in your struggle against sin.(He 12:1-4)

This week’s thorn-bush is that of worry. We live in a world where worry is endemic. A 2012 survey by Macquire University found that Western Australia was second only to the Northern Territory in how much we worry. They found that the Australian women were most worried (in order) about their future career, the future in general, their weight, their achievements and what people thought of them. Men similarly were most worried about their future career, their achievements, the future in general, what people thought of them, and doing well at work or school.

I think Jesus suggests people worry because they’re afraid of losing their treasure; that which is most precious to them, around which everything revolves. Which, says Jesus, is futile – for earthly treasures fail. But if we store up treasure in heaven, it will never fail. And if we treasure and seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, Jesus promises that our loving Father will look after us even today. Everything we have – even our life – is a gift from God.

So should Christians worry, and how do we cope with it when we do?

The crux of our trust in Jesus is the resurrection. Without it, our faith is useless – and worse, we would be making liars out of God and still be guilty of all of our sins: we would still be lost!

In Jesus, the resurrection from the dead has begun. The very fabric of sin and death has been disturbed to death: all who belong to Christ will be raised when he comes back.

The resurrection is what moves us to follow Christ, to risk it all for his sake.

The whole meal is one of celebration for the man who had raised Lazarus from the dead – proof of his goodness. Mary thought him worthy. Martha served the food. (Her act of love?)

But the goodness of Jesus to Lazarus meant that the leading priests decided to kill him too – because of the draw he was for people believing in Jesus. Does following Jesus open us to the same antagonism as Jesus?

From Luke, we read that “Satan entered into Judas”, who discusses with the authorities the best way to betray Jesus. They “promised to give him money” – at least on some level, Judas seems to have been motivated by greed. Why would Judas betray someone as loving and gracious as Jesus?

Jesus disturbed the disciple’s ideas of what the Messiah would be like. They didn’t like the idea of a Messiah that would die.

Jesus disturbs all those who follow him: to do so means giving up our lives for his sake. What does that mean for us here in Golden Bay?

Jesus disturbs our idea of “comfortable religion” – but reminds us that it is better to be disturbed now than on the Day of judgement.

We will enter into communion as a reminder that Jesus’ kingdom has been inaugurated, and will soon come. (verse 28)

Why didn’t Jesus encourage his disciples to fast? By refusing to play by the rules of religion, Jesus shows us that what matters is not religious observance but relationship with him. He also shows us that dried-out legalism is like an old garment which will tear: his new kingdom comes with new expectations.

Why did Jesus allow his disciples to “work” on the Sabbath? By refusing to play by the religious rules, Jesus reminds us that as the “Son of Man” he is the Lord over everything – even over the Sabbath. It is even shown in the Scriptures that the law was made to meet the needs of the people – and not the other way round. The law was made for us; we weren’t made for the law.

Session 2

Sunday Session

• What does it mean to share in Jesus’ sufferings? Why do we gladly suffer?
• What is glory? How is it linked to suffering?

Groaning and Glory #1: Creation

• What is wrong with the universe?
• What does creation long for? Why?
• Why is it that creation groans?
• How does the state of creation speak to the human experience without God?
• What is it that brings meaning and purpose to both creation and people?

Groaning and Glory #2: Christians

• What do Christians recognise about the world that non-Christians can’t?
• Why is it that Christians groan?
• What keeps us going even though we endure and suffer?
• Explain the concept of eager patience.

Groaning and Glory #3: God!

• Why does the Spirit groan?
• How does the Spirit intercede for us?
• What is the will of God?
• What 5 vital reminders does 8:28 give to us this side of eternity?
• How is God’s love described in 8:29?
• What has gone chosen us for (29)
• Explore how God’s sovereignty and human responsibility are related.
• Theological argument aside: why does Paul write 26-30.
  

  Bringing it home

• What have I learnt about God?
• What have I learnt about myself/my world?
• What difference will this make in my life?

So let’s see what Mark has to tell us this morning. He begins his countdown to the resurrection 2 days, says verse 1, before Passover. Two days until that great and wonderful festival celebrating all that God had done for his people Israel. Two days until it was time to eat the Passover meal together. Two days away from re-living – symbolically – God’s setting his people free from the tyranny of slavery in Egypt. Less than a week away from the cross.

Passover back then meant so much. If you were a Jew and you could make it to Jerusalem to celebrate, that’s what you did. Most Jews would have done their best to come at least once in their lifetime. If you lived within a few days walk, you’d try and come as many years as you could. During Passover, the city of Jerusalem would be stocked to the gills with people. People remembering God’s setting them free. Which to me sounds like a perfect recipe to spark a mob against Roman rule. Because the Israelites weren’t free – the Romans were in charge. There’s actually historical evidence that there were riots agains Roman rule every now and again.

Which is perhaps one of the reasons the chief priests and teachers of the law weren’t too keen on grabbing Jesus in public. They didn’t want to risk sparking off the crowd. But notice, verse 1, that they weren’t discussing whether to kill Jesus or not. The decision to get rid of Jesus – so they thought – had been made a long time ago. But I suspect that things had come to a head for them just a few days ago – back in chapter 11, when Jesus had made his way into the city. When the crowds had gone wild for him. Calling out “Hosanna!”. Saying that Jesus was the promised Saviour. The Messiah.

And so the chief priests and the teachers of the law got together to try and figure out some sly way to grab and kill Jesus. And ironically, they decide, verse 2, not to kill Jesus during the feast. And yet that’s exactly when he is killed. He’s killed during Passover. The lamb of God. God’s one and only son being struck down to set you and I free. Just like many years ago the angel of the Lord had struck down the firstborn children of Egypt to set Israel free.

You know, one of the things which really astounds me about our Lord is that he knew exactly when and how he was going to be killed. I mean, that’s kind of obvious, I guess. He’s God, he knows everything. But here, chapter 14, Jesus knew what the next few days would involve. He knew that that very night one of his disciples would betray him. He knew what the chief priests were plotting. What would you or I have done if we’d known? What would you do if you knew that in just a few days time you would be betrayed, falsely accused, tortured and executed? I might run away. I don’t know.

But look at Jesus. Verse 3. Knowing full well that he was going to the cross, Jesus went to a party. Jesus went to a party. A dinner party at the house of Simon the Leper. Probably a Passover-eve get-together. Mark, doesn’t tell us anything about who Simon is. All we know is that at some stage he’d been a leper. Perhaps he was one of the lepers healed by Jesus. We just don’t know. But regardless, Simon put on a meal for Jesus. With Jesus as the honoured guest.

And into this scene steps a woman. Again, Mark doesn’t tell us who she is. I don’t think it matters who she is. What matters is what she does. What she does for Jesus. She’s got this jar of perfume with her. A beautiful Alabaster jar. Sealed closed, with the perfume gently swooshing around inside with each step she takes. The perfume itself, Mark tells us is Nard. For those of you who are gardeners, the perfume Nard is made from two plants: Spike and Nadala. And what’s really impressive about Nard – what makes it really so expensive – is the fact that it had to be imported from Nepal, or India at a pinch. We’re talking – according to Mark – something worth more than year’s wages.

This jar would have been worth everything the woman had. And yet look at what she does. She takes her jar and opens it. The perfume was sealed in there – the only way to open it was to break it open. And she pours it over Jesus head. Back in those days, if you really wanted to honour somebody, you’d sprinkle a few drops of nard on their head. But this woman, takes the jar and just upends it. Glug, glug, glug, glug. At the end, it’s not just on Jesus’ head. It covers him.

Have you ever wondered what was going on in that woman’s mind as she poured out this perfume over Jesus? Was she smiling as she did it? Was shy crying? I don’t know. Mark doesn’t tell us. But I have an idea that maybe she was crying. Because I think she had an inkling of understanding about what was about to happen with Jesus. I mean, if you go back and read the chapters before this, Jesus has been pretty clear about the fact that he was on his way to his death. Maybe this woman understood that.

What Mark does describe for us is the reaction the woman got from the people sitting around the table. Not everyone, but some of those there – verse 4 – began to complain to each other about what a waste it was. What a stupid thing the woman had done – throwing away a fortune worth of perfume. Money which could have been used for something useful – like supporting those who were poor, who actually needed it. Surely that would be better than pouring good, expensive perfume, down the drain? And, verse 5, they turned to the woman and rebuked her harshly. Which is putting it politely. Another way to put it is that they “snorted” at the woman. The word Mark uses is usually used to describe the snorting sound a horse makes. They were really having a go at her.

Can you imagine that woman there. She’s poured out all of her perfume over her Lord. And she looks up to meet angry faces, to hear people abusing her. Telling her how stupid she’d been. And I can almost picture her slowly – cautiously – look towards Jesus. Was he going to be upset as well, was his face going to be angry.

But instead of jumping down her throat, Jesus jumps to her defense. Verse 6: Leave her alone! Stop bothering her. What this woman did was beatiful. Was good. Was right. And as Jesus looks at his angry disciples he puts what this woman did into perspective. Tells them why what she did is so far away from being wrong.

Says Jesus, this woman has got the right idea. She poured perfume over me to prepare me for my burial. You say the money should have gone to the poor? I’ve got less than week till I’m killed. The poor you can help whenever you want. But you will not always have me.

Here in Simon’s house, this woman took the one chance she had to annoint Jesus before his burial. Because she loved him. Loved him so, so much. Loved him with an extravagant love. More than a years wages poured out in a few seconds. And people said what a waste. Next week, in verse 24 – at the last supper – Jesus speaks about how his blood was poured out for us. The woman’s perfume was pricey – but how much more costly the life of our Lord and king. Why waste such valuable perfume, asked the disciples? Why waste such valuable blood? Why “waste” Jesus on a cross?

Because of love. The woman’s love for Jesus, and Jesus’ love for us. Because of a love that is extravagant in the extreme. A love that is willing to spend it’s all. A love that says I want to save you. A love that says, I’ll do whatever it takes to set you free. A love that while we were still sinners died for us. I love how Stuart Townend puts it in that wonderful song “How deep the Father’s love for us, how vast beyond all measure. That he should give his only son, to make a wretch his treasure.”

Says Jesus. It’s no waste. It’s a recognition of what’s about to happen. Verse 8: She did what she could. Or to put it another way, “What she had, she did”. I suspect this jar of perfume must have broken the bank for this woman. And she poured it out like it was going out of fashion. Which begs a question of you and I… how much is “too much” love for Jesus. How much until our faith is just… over the top? Ridiculous? Stupid? When was the last time we were extravagant with God. You, I? I don’t doubt that we love Jesus. I know we do. And I know that the disciples loved Jesus. But let’s try and put ourselves in that dining room in Bethany. How would we react? Would we ever act the woman did?

Today – do we act the way the woman did? She was looking towards Jesus cross. We are looking back. What does that act of pure love by Jesus spark in us. A calm, measured appreciation. Well, yes. I hope so. But why not also a more excessive emotion. Which for the sake of Jesus makes me give up everything I have in the world.

Just as an aside, take a look at verse 9. This morning, we are remembering what this anonymous woman did for Jesus. But what I love about this verse is the note of good news that it throws into the whole story. Let’s be honest, this is a rather “heavy” passage we’re looking at today. Plotting against Jesus, Jesus being prepared for burial, Judas’ betrayal. It’s all focussed on the approaching cross. And yet here in verse 9, Jesus pointed his disciples – points us – beyond that cross. Beyond the grave. Because the gospel, said Jesus, would be preached. The good news was going to stretch out throughout the world.

Which brings us back to verse 10. Judas Iscariot running off to sell Jesus out to the chief priests and teachers of the law. I mean, what a comparison. On the one hand a woman who’s love is so extravagantly poured out for Jesus. On the other, a man whose love for money led him to betray Jesus. Mark doesn’t tell us much about Judas’ motives. I do reckon that this incident with the Nard was the final straw for him, though. What a waste of money. Money , money, money. The woman’s love costing her more than a year’s wages. Judas gaining just a fraction of that.

Such different reactions to Jesus; to Easter. What is my reaction? Your reaction?

]]> https://www.goldenbaybaptist.church/sermons/how-extravagant/feed/ 0 2835 church@goldenbaybaptist.church (GBBC)noThis morning, we&#8217;re starting our brand new series on Easter. Over the next six weeks or so, we&#8217;ll follow along with Mark as he takes us on a journey through the week of Jesus&#8217; life centered around his death. Easter is kind of like Christmas, I guess, in that many people here this morning will know the story very well. And yet, like the story of Christmas, we need to hear the old old story again and again and again. [&#8230;]This morning, we&#8217;re starting our brand new series on Easter. Over the next six weeks or so, we&#8217;ll follow along with Mark as he takes us on a journey through the week of Jesus&#8217; life centered around his death. Easter is kind of like Christmas, I guess, in that many people here this morning will know the story very well. And yet, like the story of Christmas, we need to hear the old old story again and again and again. [&#8230;]Baptist,Christian,Sermon,Sermons,Audio,Christianity,Bible,Faith,Belief https://www.goldenbaybaptist.church/sermons/no-detours/ https://www.goldenbaybaptist.church/sermons/no-detours/#respond Sun, 14 Feb 2010 01:30:00 +0000 http://www.goldenbaybaptist.church/sermons/no-detours/

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I never did do that, and I’m still not sure whether it would have actually been a good thing or not. But in today’s passage, we see how Paul and Barnabas find themselves in a slightly similar situation. Difference being that Paul and Barnabas were invited to speak at the church – not down at the local.

Over the last few weeks, we’ve been continuing our journey through the book of Acts. We’ve seen, with Peter, how the good news about Jesus is available to everybody – regardless of ancestry. We’ve seen how God answers prayer. And we’ve seen how God can use us as individuals and us as a church.

Last week, we left Paul and Barnabas on the Island of Cyprus. The place where Barnabas grew up. And this week, verse 13, they leave Cyprus for Pamphylia. Which is – roughly speaking – in the same neck of the woods as where Paul grew up – Tarsus. Doctor Luke – who’s writing all this down – tells us that they arrived in the town Perga where, much to Paul’s disgust – as chapter 15 tells us, John Mark leaves to go home to Jerusalem.

And it’s interesting that Luke doesn’t mention Paul and Barnabas doing any missionary work while they were in Perga. And I suspect the reason for that is that Paul wasn’t actually well enough to do any preaching or speaking. Apparently, that part of the world was known for a particularly nasty type of malaria. My Father had malaria as a young man, and even 10 years ago he would still have relapses every now and again. It’s a terrible disease. Your drained of energy. Apparently the type of malaria in Perga was so bad that your head felt like somebody was pushing a red-hot poker through it.

And yes, Luke doesn’t tell us in so many words that this is what Paul had. But we do know that the reason Paul actually went up to the Galatian plataue – which is where Psidian Antioch was – the reason Paul went to the Galatians was because he was sick. In his letter to the Galatians, chapter 4:13, Paul says “As you know, it was because of an illness that I first preached the gospel to you.” What an amazing God we serve! Paul gets sick, and goes up to the Galatians, and an incredible work of God takes place. Almost a whole town turns out to hear the word of God for themselves.

I can just picture Paul, slowly recovering from his illness. Probably being looked after by his mate Barnabas. And come the Sabbath, Paul feels well enough to go along and sit in on the synagogue service. Notice how, in verse 14, the two of them just go in and sit down. They’re there to listen. To hear God’s word. They sit through the service. Prayers, readings from the Law and from the Prophets. And it’s then that some of the synagogue leaders suggest that “if they’ve got a message of encouragement”, they should feel free to speak.

And you know, sick or not, for Paul that’s like waving a red flag at a bull. “If you’ve got a message of encouragement.” IF! That’s the whole reason why Paul and Barnabas are on this journey. Because they have the most amazing, most brilliant, most life-changing message of encouragement possible. If there’s only one message of encouragement you hear this year, make it this one!

So Paul gets up. Hushes the crowd. Pauses. And begins one of the most brilliant sermons ever. So much does God’s Word move the crowd that the next week it’s like the whole town turns out to hear Paul speak God’s word to them. There’s basically 4 parts to what Paul has to say. First off, he speaks about the good news in the Old Testament. Then he speaks about the good news of Jesus. Then he ties them together, showing how the two are actually one. And he finishes by challenging his audience – challenging us – to be followers of Jesus; to continue in the grace of God.

Remember, this is a mostly Jewish audience that Paul is speaking to. People who met weekly to study the Old Testament. People who prided themselves on being descendants of Abraham. People who called themselves the chosen ones of God. And Paul looks at them, verse 17, and he says, “Yes! Yes, God chose our fathers.” Yes – we have an incredible history of God dealing with us Jews as a people.

Yes: God has done amazing things for us. Verse 17, God chose our Fathers; he made the people prosper; he led them out of Egypt with his mighty power. Verse 18, God himself endured the Israelites’ hard hearts while they were in the desert. Verse 19, God himself overthrew all the nations that were in Canaan and gave the land of Israel to his people. Verse 20, God provided judges. Verse 21, God gave Israel a king when they asked for one. And verse 22, God removed Saul as king and replaced him with David.

Can you hear the thrust of what Paul is saying to them? God did this, God did that, God did that other thing, God did, God did, God did. Paul is looking back over the history of God’s dealing with Israel, and seeing time and again how God is in charge. This is the good news of the Old Testament: God deals with people. God is the one who acts to save his people. Time and again looks after his people. Provides all that they need. What a wonderful God we serve! God is the one with a plan, and Paul is showing how all of the Old Testament was God’s acting to bring about one person. Verse 23: Jesus Christ. The answer to the promises of God.

God has a plan. What a powerful message. Maybe something which we need to be reminded of today. It’s easy to get caught up in the moment. Or to worry about the future. And if God didn’t have a plan – if God hasn’t got a history of acting to save… then we should worry about the future. Because who knows what tomorrow will bring. At the moment, everybody seems to be worried that climate change is going to kill half of us off. And maybe it will – I’m no expert. But God does have a plan! Hallelujah, he does! We can look back through history and see all the times when God has acted to save us. And as we look back, like Paul does, our gaze will be drawn inexorably, relentlessly, to the center point of history: Jesus Christ himself!!

Says Paul, the gospel of the old Testament is all about the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Good news is Jesus. Verse 26: the message of salvation come to us. The message that Jesus came, verse 23, as promised. That he was wrongly tried and executed – as promised. Was buried. The message that though Jesus died God raised Jesus from the dead. As seen by a crowd of witnesses. This is the gospel of God. The Good news. The message of encouragement Paul has for us today just as he had for the crowd in Antioch.

That’s how Paul summarises it in verse 32: We tell you the good news: What God promised our fathers he has fulfilled for us, their children, by raising up Jesus. The Good news of Jesus is the good news that God has been leading history towards ever since creation.

And, says Paul, the evidence that Jesus is the answer is right there in the Old Testament. He takes 3 quotations from the Old Testament: Psalm 2, Isaiah 55, Psalm 16 – and he shows how everything applies t0 Jesus. The risen Lord – as promised long ago.

Paul’s looked back over history – and seen God’s hand at work. He’s show how it all leads to Jesus – how the Old Testament points to Jesus being God’s Messiah for us. A wonderful message of encouragement: God acts.

But it’s now that Paul opens the floodgates of encouragement, verse 38. He gets to the whole point of what he’s been saying. He zooms in from the big picture of history to a personal level. What does it all mean for us? What does all this “gospel” mean for me and for you. Verse 38: Therefore, my brothers, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Through him, everyone who believes is justified from everything you could not be justified from by the law of Moses.

I can speak for myself and say that I have an inbuilt tendency to drift towards law. Not that I’m always keeping the law. Quite the opposite. As Paul says over in Romans, the law makes me aware that I’m a lawbreaker. That I fail. That I don’t deserve God’s goodness. I’m sure I’m not alone in this. I’m sure the people in Paul’s crowd knew exactly what I’m talking about. They were Jews and God-fearers. People who dedicated their lives to following God’s laws. Some of them, at least, must have recognised their failing. Know that they didn’t keep God’s perfect law perfectly.

But this is the message of encouragement: through Jesus the forgiveness of sins. Through Jesus, those who believe in him are set right with God. Justified. Completely and absolutely. Justified. I’ve been a Christian my whole life, and I can still barely take it in! We have been set free. By faith and not by works. By believing in Jesus – trusting in Jesus. And yes – we are all rotters. But the good news of history for you and for me and for all who would hear and believe is that we can be forgiven.