What is the very worst news that you could receive today? What news do you fear the most to hear?
The answer to this question will differ for each one of us here this morning.
What makes news bad or terrible, reveals a number of things. It reveals what is important to us, what we care about, what we have placed our security in, what we depend upon and what we love.
What is the very worst news for one person, may not be that bad for another. The fact that the stock market crashes may well be the very worst news for somebody. For me, it is not bad news – I do not own one stock. Maybe it’s that you have lost your job, or that your house will be repossessed
Or maybe the very worst news is the word that many of us may fear – cancer, or some other disease or dangerous health issue.
Maybe it is to hear that your spouse has been unfaithful; or that a parent has died, or that your child has died.
All these things can be news we fear.
But I would suggest to you that there is even worst news than any of these things. It is the news that Judah received in our Old Testament reading this morning. Well actually, our lectionary reading has left it out. Our reading is from Jeremiah 14:1-10, 19-22. But v11 says Then the Lord said to me “Do not pray for good to come to these people. Even if they fast, I will not hear their cries for help. Even if they offer burnt offerings and grain offerings I will not accept them. Instead I will kill them through wars, famines and plagues.”
And even worse than that appears in chp 15v1 – where God says Even if Moses and Samuel stood before me pleading for these people I would not feel pity for them, Get them away from me! Tell them to go away.
Judah, like Israel, had walked away from God – had lived their lives and done things totally contrary to God’s commands and now God gives them the news – the most tragic, horrendous news ever – that He is going to reject them. Just as Israel was over run in the north because of their rebellion so now Judah, including Jerusalem and the Temple, will be given over to Babylon, despite the pleas of the prophet Jeremiah.
Sadly, today, to be in rebellion against God is not regarded as bad news by many. In fact it is not regarded as news. Ask people on the streets how they feel about God rejecting them and they shrug their shoulders and say “I don’t care.” Or they may tell you that you are nuts and that God loves everyone. Or, for some extreme people, they say great, I want to go to hell because that is where the fun is.
For the majority of those in Judah including their leaders and religious leaders, their existence was now built on a lie – they were rebelling against God – ignoring him – and even their prophets were living a lie – v13 of chp 14 tells us that the prophets were saying “hey, everything’s going to be OK – God is not angry with you – you will not experience war or suffer famine. Everlasting peace and prosperity is coming to the land.”
Only Jeremiah was standing against the tide – standing up and saying, No – this is wrong – listen to God’s word – listen to me – you are is a very bad place – repent or you will go into exile.
The issue was not that the Jews were sinning – God knew Israel would sin, that is why he gave the law, the sacrificial law, to reveal to them their sin, and a way of living that enabled them to stay in relationship with God through the sacrifice of animals and the day of atonement. The issue was not they were sinning – but that they did not think that their sin, their actions was bad news. They did not acknowledge that their lives were far, far from God.
The very worst news for these Jews revolves not around the fact there was drought, or that they could not find water, or that the crops were not growing, but around the fact that their life was a lie – that they had listened to false things from those claiming religious leadership – that they had ignored God. And now, having sent his prophets to tell them they were heading down the wrong path, having tried desperately to warn them that they were heading for disaster, God was now going to exercise his judgment.
This is the very ‘worst’ news that we can receive. No other news comes close to being bad, than the realization That we are ignoring God – that we are listening to people who are not really God’s representatives because they are distorting what God has said to mean something which is not true and that our lives, all that we think is important, all that we think is real, is actually a lie because God is not at the center of it all.
Is this what you would regard as the worst news you could possibly receive? Do you regard the news that you are separated from God as worst news than a diagnosis of cancer, or that a parent or sibling, or spouse or child has died?
The Israelites in Jeremiah’s day needed to come to understand this bad news. They need to come to the place whereby they recognized that actually, the worst place in the whole universe to be is in a place without God – and so do we today.
Because it is only when we have reached that point that we can then accept and grasp onto the good news – that God has a rescue plan that has an answer and a solution to the bad news.
This good news is the what we call the gospel. The news that God has acted in such a way that we need never be in a place where we are separated from God – and that rescue plan is Jesus Christ. Let Jesus into your life – fall in love with Jesus and the very worst news is eradicated. You will NEVER, ever be separated from God again.
And then, all other news which the world may see as bad, is no longer bad news – it’s just news …even the news that you will die is no longer bad news when you have accepted the good news….
Jeremiah knew the good news. He had a glimpse into the promised new covenant of the hope to come. In Jeremiah 23:3-5 God reveals to Jeremiah his plan to gather a remnant and that from the house of David the righteous branch will be raised up – of course he means the Messiah. And then in jeremiah 31:31 we have that famous passage which says The days are surely coming says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. Jeremiah new the good news, which is why he was able to go through what he went through. He was a prophet hated by the Judah’s leaders. He was suffered continual rejection, imprisonment and physical abuse during life. But this was not bad news for him – bad news would be to reject his God. In the end, Jeremiah sees what was unthinkable for a jew to see – Judah defeated by gentiles and the temple desecrated. But he does so safe in the knowledge he is in God’s hands. We see this in Chp 39, v11-12 where King Nebuchadnezzar gave orders that Jeremiah was not to be harmed – and they allowed him to stay in Judah with the remnant that remained.
Knowing the good news does not keep us from going through tough times – but the good news should give us a perspective which is has an eternal focus – that being in Christ, with God we are in right place – the safe place – regardless of what we experience.
Paul exhibits this in the epistle reading. Again, not in our lectionary reading but just before our reading begins Paul, prepares Timothy – there is a time coming when people will not listen to sound teaching – they will ignore the truths in the Bible – they will listen to teachers who are not true – but is Paul worried about this? No. Timothy is there – he will carry on. Paul has mentored timothy and Timothy is to mentor others into leadership. Paul knows he is about to die. He is writing this from a Roman Prison. Is this bad news for him? No…. He trusts in only one piece of good news… the gospel…. And so even the bad news that he is about to die is not bad news. He tells Timothy in v5 to endure all hardship and do the work of an evangelist – in other words don’t worry about the tough times – that is not bad news – but tell everyone THE ONE PIECE OF GOOD NEWS THAT IS ETERNAL – that Jesus Christ died for you to pay for everything you ever done wrong and ever will do wrong and was raised to life that all who trust in Him will live for all eternity with God.
Can you not sense the joy in Paul’s words as he wrote about the fact he was about to die and what that mean’t? That he was going to receive the crown of righteousness which was waiting for him – as Paul says in Philippians – to die is gain, to live is Christ.
Paul knew that the only way to get the good news is to understand the bad news. That is what the tax collector had grasped… that is why he went home saved from the temple and not the Pharisee … he realized the bad news… he realized who he was without God.. and he approached God and looked to God for the good news.
The bad news in this life is not that we may lose our jobs… or have our house repossessed…. Or that we may be poor… or that we will lose family members… or that we may get a disease which will kill us…the bad news is are we living a life which is against God? Are we living a life which does not have God at the center? Have we asked God to come and take our lives, that we may live it for him, in the safety and knowledge that in Him we have the GOOD NEWS which eradicates all the bad news.
Just read the Psalm this morning – Psalm 84V1-6. This is what the good news should gives us – that our souls have a desire and longing for the courts of the Lord; that our hearts and bodies rejoice in the living God – that we are happy to be praising the Lord – that our strength is in Him and that we want, long to walk the way of Jesus, that even though we experience a desolate valley we will find it a place of springs.
Have we this good news? Do our hearts cry out – better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere – would we rather be a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord than to dwell in the world?
I pray that the gospel – the good news of Christ Jesus will so impact our lives that we will be able to say, will the Apostle Paul, The Lord will deliver me from every evil deed and will bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. AMEN
Many of you have heard me speak about the housing estate my wife and I lived on in London. It’s nickname was Alcatraz – it was a rough place to live and most of those who lived there were very poor. Our next door neighbor was a lady called Rita. She was a frightening looking lady – 6ft tall, skin covered in blotches and sores – blood shot eyes. She was an alcoholic, with a teenage son who was constantly in trouble with the police and a husband who had cancer. Her house stank – rancid from human and dog mess on the floor – sparsely furnished with old and flea ridden sofas.
She would regularly knock on my door when drunk to ask for some help – her husband would fall out of bed and she could not get him back in – or she would want to talk about something. I tried to give her the gospel. We even took her to church a number of times.
Looking back, I am ashamed to admit that while my Christian duty was to respond to her requests for help my heart was not right and I did the minimum necessary to make sure the interaction with her was over as quickly as I could politely make it happen.
Did I ever cook her meals to make sure her only diet was not beer? No. Did I ever go and clean her house so that she might not live in the filth she was in? No. Did I try and get her help for her addiction? No.
Most Bible studies and seminaries do not prepare you for this.
It is often our natural instinct to keep our interaction with poverty, real poverty at arms length.
If I were to ask this morning, “what is our attitude to the poor” I wonder what we would say? What is your attitude to the poor? Does it, somewhere, include love and compassion?
How we treat the poor, the weak, those who have nothing, matters. It matters because it matters to God.
We cannot call ourselves Christ centered and never get involved, hands on involved, with the poor. If our Bible studies and sermons and theology and reading of books never lead us to get out and leave our homes and churches to stand side by side with the poor then we have utterly lost sight of Christ.
How the nation of Israel dealt with the poor was one of the basis of God’s judgment on them. It was part of the judgment God pronounces in Amos – chapter two verse 7 God says that Israel has committed covenant transgressions; that is they had disobeyed God; one of which was trampling upon the poor and pushing the destitute away. And in our passage from Amos this morning we see the arrogant living in luxury without any concern for the state of the nation.
It matters what our attitude is to the poor; it matters how we treat the poor. We tend to have the same attitude that was around even in the first century – that prosperity was one of the marks of a good man blessed by God. The Pharisees believed this. The Jews believed this. Even the disciples believed this when they ask Jesus incredulously ‘who then can be saved if not the wealthy’. Wealth, prosperity is not necessarily a mark of a good man blessed by God. Quite the opposite may be true according to the Apostle Paul.
Our epistle reading begins in the middle of Paul’s exhortation to Timothy about godliness. In v6 of chapter 6 Paul encourages Timothy by saying that godliness with contentment is a great gain. Be content with what you have. Then in v9 he says that those who desire to be rich and pursue wealth puts you into spiritual danger and can even lead you to stray from faith. In fact, Paul says that to long for wealth and riches will lead people into temptation that will plunge them into ruin and destruction.
The Apostle Paul implores Timothy to pursue not wealth but godliness and faithfulness; to obey Christ’s commands because Christ is coming back – Christ is eternal – wealth is not. And finally Paul tells Timothy to encourage the rich to the do the same – pursue godliness and faithfulness and obey Christ’s commands.
An example of what happens to someone who pursues wealth is the Rich man in the gospel reading. The story makes no direct assertion about his, or for that matter Lazarus’ overall morality or faith.
The glaring, fundamental charge against this rich man is not that he is rich but that he ignores a man who is in desperate need. The bottom line is that the rich man is condemned for doing NOTHING to help the poor man on his own door step. Matthew Henry, the puritan Bible Scholar writes What was the attitude of the rich man towards Lazarus? We are not told that he abused him but it is implied that he slighted him. Here was a real object of charity and a very moving one, which spoke for itself: it was presented to him at his own gate. And that reveals something of the hardness of this rich man’s heart. He was not moved to give this beggar a meal from the abundance of his table – indeed he does not even give Lazarus the scraps that are reserved for the dogs.
Such behavior, by a Jew to another Jew, (for only a jew would say ‘father Abraham’ as the rich man does when he has died) is a covenant transgression. Of the many passages in the Old Testament which could be cited one is sufficient – Deut 15:7-9 says If a fellow Israelite from one of your villages in the land that the LORD your God is giving you should be poor, you must not harden your heart or be insensitive to his impoverished condition. Instead, you must be sure to open your hand to him and generously lend him whatever he needs. Be careful lest you entertain the wicked thought that the seventh year, the year of cancellation of debts, has almost arrived, and your attitude be wrong toward your impoverished fellow Israelite and you do not lend him anything; he will cry out to the LORD against you and you will be regarded as having sinned.
The rich man had indeed hardened his heart and his hardened heart continued into eternity for even there he saw Lazarus as simply a stooge to do his biddening.
Whether or not Edmund Burke truly said “For evil to triumph it is enough only that good men do nothing” we must realize that the option of doing NOTHING is not Biblical. We are not called to just have knowledge of Christ; or to Worship in a building once a week; we are called to LIVE OUT faith amongst our community BEING the Church, BEING Christ to those who need help.
Again, Matthew Henry writes Those who are not able to help the poor with their purses should help them with their difficulties. Those who cannot lend them a penny should lend them a hand.
The opportunity for the rich man to use what God had given him in a way that would please God ended when Lazarus dies. As the apostle Paul reminds us, we come into this world with nothing and we leave with nothing. Despite the vivid contrast between the rich man and Lazarus at the beginning of the story, the one who had everything compared to the one who had nothing, death brings us all onto one level and Divine, Heavenly wealth takes no notice of what kind of earthly wealth or social status you may have had.
In eternity it was the rich man outside the gate and Lazarus was on inside. And have you noticed that the rich mans tongue, the tongue that tasted all the fine and sumptuous food, is burning. As one commentator said, He who denied a crumb, is denied a drop of water.
The rich man realizes that he is separated from God and realizes that his family are in eternal danger and so he asks for a message to be sent to them. But this is denied him. Why? Because the issue is not one of knowing what to do, the rich man knew what he SHOULD DO. The family, the rich man knew the law of Moses and the prophets – they simply ignored it. If God’s prophetic word cannot convince and put a crack in a hard heart, neither will miracles!
The irony and joy of this story is that what is denied the rich man’s brothers; a word of warning from the grave, is given to the reader of the gospel. Do we hear the warning?
So my challenge to us as a Church and to each of us individually is what are we going to do? By that I don’t mean that that we should go and organize a trip to Hatti or the Dominon Republic – as wonderful as such trips are. What I mean is who are the poor that God has placed at our gate and what will we do about it? God was not asking the rich man to go FIND the poor to help. Just to help the poor at his own gate.
Who are the poor at your own gate? Maybe God has sent them to you and I so that we will help them. Or are our hearts so hardened that we can no longer even recognize the poor in front of our eyes? If so we must repent and plead that God would give us compassion and mercy for those around us who need our help.
This is not a call to social action so much as a call to live a Christ centered life. We are not to elevate feeding the poor to the ONLY action of Christianity but we are not, as some have, to minimize or relegate it to a secondary activity behind bible study and theology.
We are to do this because Christ commands us to and we should be utterly desirous to please Christ in every way we can. This is about living life as one who loves and knows the living, Trinitarian God. This is about living life to complete fullness, living life as it should be lived.
The call of one who has meet with and committed their life to Jesus Christ involves many things – prayer, studying scripture, fellowship and worshipping together, growing in godliness and faithfulness, proclaiming the Lordship of Christ and his grace to those around us, helping, loving and caring for the poor, the widows and the orphans, the rejected and the outcast.
Put simply, it’s about being a Christian. So, unlike the rich man, let use what we have been given by God in a way that is pleasing to God, pursuing godliness, faith, love, steadfastness and gentleness.
It matters what we do about the poor in our community. It matters what our attitude is. It matters because it matters to our Lord Jesus Christ.
A recent sermon of mine…
Listen here: Sunday Sermon 23 May 2010
Or read it below:
|Acts 2: 1 – 11||Psalm 33: 12 – 22|
|1 Corinthians 12: 4 – 13||John 20: 19 – 23|
Some people are fanatical about fitness and exercise. You can tell I am not one of them. But I do take comfort in the Apostles words to Timothy when he says: “physical exercise10 has some value, but godliness is valuable in every way”.
Exercise for some is simply about looks – it’s about having chiseled abbs and bulging muscles. However for the majority it’s about staying healthy. And we stay healthy so that we can live longer. In our minds Life and good health go together.
I am a big fan of the TV show “The Biggest Loser”. I don’t know if you have ever seen it, but they take people who are really over weight, move them into a special house and over six months train them until they become fit. All this is wrapped up as a game – at the end of the week, the two people who have lost the least amount of weight are put up for evicition and the rest of the house have to vote which one leaves.
The most recent season has had a guy on there who has lost, in six months, 204 Ibs – he has gone of over 508Lbs to 299LBs. He has gone from not being able to climb stairs to running a marathon in 6 hrs 28 mins. He and the other contestants have said over and over again, “I have my life back” – “I can live again” – “I am alive.”
But what is it that gives us life? What is it that makes us live? What do we mean when we say “I feel alive!” Ask a Doctor this question and you will get a lecture on the antomy and the fact that your heart is beating and your blood is flowing and there is oxygen in your body. Hence the emphasis on healthy living, diet and exercise.
But is this a good enough answer? Not from the Bible’s perspective.
This morning is Pentecost Sunday, and Pentecost gives us the answer to the question What is Life?
Life only comes through the Breathe of God – the Holy Spirit – the one who was at the beginning of creation; the one whom Jesus promised would come after his ascension.
Without the Holy Spirit we quite simply do not have life. We may be breathing oxygen – our lungs may be moving in and out, our heart may be beating but we do not have life because one day our lungs will give up, our heart will stop beating and we will die!! No diet, no amount of exercise will prevent this.
There are many, physically healthy people with sculptured abbs and bulging muscles who will not be in heaven.
Life – being alive – having life is more than just blood, bone and muscle and our bodies functioning well. In Genesis 2, God creates Adam from the dust of the ground. But Adam does not LIVE until God breathes his breath INTO Adam – The LORD God formed the man from the soil of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
We see something similar in the Ezek 37. Ezekiel is shown a valley of dry dead bones. And God says to Ezekiel “Prophesy over these bones, and tell them: ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. 5 This is what the sovereign LORD says to these bones: Look, I am about to infuse breath5 into you and you will live. 6 I will put tendons6 on you and muscles over you and will cover you with skin; I will put breath7 in you and you will live. Then you will know that I am the LORD.’”
God’s breath – his Spirit – the Holy Spirit – gives life.
In our Gospel reading we have Jesus appearing before the disciples after his resurrection. He greets them and then what does he do? He BREATHES on them.
The disciples are seeing Jesus Christ for the first time in His new status as the Son of God who is victorious over sin and death. Paul tell us that Jesus is the first fruits from the dead (1 Cor 15:20). This is the Post-resurrection Jesus. And the disciples have now transitioned from knowing Christ re-resurrection to now living in the aftermath of Christ’s sacrifice and victory. And so when Jesus breaths on the disciples he is symbolically imparting to them the post-resurrection life that He has now made available for all who trust in Him. For many in that upper room, their bodies will be tortured, beaten and killed for the sake of the Gospel – their bodies will physically decay BUT they will have LIFE because in Christ death has been defeated death and paid the price for sin. Therefore the disciples will share in the resurrection life, eternal life, of which Christ is the first fruits.
This is also the beginning of the disciples new life – a new ministry. Jesus says, “Just as the Father has sent me so I am sending YOU.” What did the Father send Christ to do? Jesus defines his mission in John 18:37 – I came into the world to bear witness to the truth. They are to go forward in the resurrection life of Christ that they have received to continue the work of Christ in the world – that is, bearing witness to the truth and leading people to faith in Him.
This is what it means to live – to have life. It is to have the resurrected life of Christ in us. When we accept Jesus Christ as the Lord and Savior of the Universe, we begin a new life – a life which is a LIVING life – a life which will last beyond this physically life into an eternal life with God in the new Creation.
But Jesus has not just given us LIFE – but he has also given us the POWER that comes with this life. Jesus inaugurates the mission of the disciples and then in Acts 2 they receive the POWER to go out and live this new life of being Christ’s witnesses to the whole world.
That this happens on Pentecost is not coincidental. Pentecost was the Jewish feast to celebrate the beginning of the harvest, which happened 50 days after Passover (Pentecost means fiftieth). How symbolic that Jesus, having breathed on them resurrection life now sends the disciples out into the world to begin the harvest of souls in the POWER of the Holy Spirit. The harvest has begun and the disciples are the first harvesters.
And we follow in their footsteps. As believers and as members of the Church, we too are sent out with the Life and Power of the Spirit to continue this work of declaring the Lordship of Jesus Christ and bearing witness to the truth of the teaching of scripture to a world separated from God.
We cannot harvest without the power of the Spirit, and we cannot have the power of the Spirit unless we have the resurrected life of Christ in us.
Only by having Christ do we have Life – apart from Christ there is no life.
John’s Gospel begins and ends with this these. John 1:4 says In Him (the Word, Christ) was life.
And Chapter 20:31 John says that the gospel was written so that people would believe and have life in his name.
Humanity was created for relationship with God. To NOT be in relationship with God is not to know what life is. To not be in relationship with God is to not know the true meaning of life. To live life without Christ is to be a square peg trying to fit into a round hole. It is to live a pointless life.
How do we receive this life and power? By asking Christ to come into our life; by confessing that we have lived in our own way instead of his way and that we are sorry; that we will trust in him, in his promises, in his commands and that we will join in the harvest. And as we do that, as our epistle shows us, the Spirit will impart to us various diverse gifts to each person so that we can become effective harvesters for Christ
So, this morning, do we have LIFE? Do we have Christ? Are we harvesters going out to work the fields? Or are we dead people walking? Are we LIFELESS?
There is no middle ground. There is no fence. There is either LIFE or DEATH and without Christ, without the Spirit we are DEAD and we will remain DEAD.
This morning we can ask God to send his Holy Spirit upon us. We can ask for this LIFE. If you know that you do not have Christ then this morning you can receive LIFE and you can LIVE, not just now, but for.
If you now that you do have Christ, then let as ask that the Holy Spirit who dwells is us will manifest himself through us – that He might speak to us, to give us a fresh blessing, a new gift, a powerful sense of his presence with us, a deeper desire to worship him and a renewed urgency to do the work we have been given to do.
This is what Pentecost is about. Each year we can come to our God and say – THANK YOU FOR LIFE – the life and power of your Spirit that is poured upon all who trust you in you that you may be glorified in our life and in the world.
Let me end with the words of an old hymn:
O Breath of God, breathe on us now
And move within us while we pray
The spring of our new life art thou
The very light of our new day.
A recent sermon of mine…
Listen here: Sunday Sermon 9 May 2010
Or read it below:
Acts 14: 8 – 18; Revelation 21: 22 – 22: 5; John 14: 23 – 29
I am not a fan of GPS Stat Nav’s. Too many times the pleasant, but annoyingly unflapable voice insists that you have arrived while you are either still on the free way or turning right into an abandoned lot, which clearly is not Uncle John’s mountain cabin.
Of course Map’s are not always clearer – nor are they always accurate. But the problem is that Stat Nav’s are breeding a generation of people who have become so reliant on the docile tones of a voice that says ‘please turn right in 50 yards’ that they have lost the ability to turn right unless directed to, as well as having lost the ability to read a map if the Stat Nav breaks down or does not work. To be totally reliant on a Stat Nav and unable to read a map, means that if the machine breaks down and you get lost, you are really lost.
Even today with the immense amount of technology available, good sailors, or good captains, alongside GPS and radar navigation, learn how to navigate the way centuries of sailors have navigated, using maps, compass and of course the North Star. For a good sailor, technology is wonderful, but it’s not everything.
The same principle is true with life. We are on a journey navigating through life and we begin to rely on things to help us reach various destinations. We go to school, get educated, decide about jobs, relationships, where we are going to live, how we are going to live, are we going to get married, have a family or not or stay single, buy a house, rent a house etc.
But what if I were to ask the question “What is the final destination of life – and what are we relying on to get there?” The where we live, what we do, with whom we shall live, what we own and what status we have in society are all well and good, but none of them are the final destination.
Some people say that death is the final destination. But the Bible disagrees. The Bible teaches us that our final destination lies beyond death. Our final destination for every human being who has ever lived is to stand before the throne of God on the last day. The large house, good education, nice family, religious practice, church attendance are all good things but will they be of any use before the throne of God on the last day? Do they help us get to the final destination?
In the midst of the every day activity of our life, we need to constantly think about the question “what are we relying on in order to get the to final destination.” We need to think about this question because it can be SO easy, so simple to end up relying on something or someone that does not help us get to the final destination.
Paul and Barnabas experience this is Lystra. They arrive in town and they are preaching when Paul notices a crippled man. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, Paul declares this man healed and he is healed. A wonderful miracle which authenticates Paul and Barnabas’ message about Christ.
And yet the people’s response is to put their trust in Paul and Barnabas declaring that the gods have come down to them. They acknowledge the miracle – they accept the miracle – they are a people open to spiritual things but they put their reliance upon Paul and Barnabas and not Christ and this is why Paul and Barnabas are upset. Putting your trust in people to get you to heaven does not work – even men as capable and godly as Paul and Barnabas.
We can elevate people onto pedestals, over0relying on pastors for spiritual input, even making them responsible for our spiritual growth. Pastors are not solely responsible for people’s spiritual growth! A pastors job is to declare the gospel of Christ, help nurture and encourage people in Christ so that members of the congregation can begin to take responsibility for their own spiritual life, having a living and active relationship with God.
Just as dangerous is that we might become over reliant on ourselves. We can place too much confidence in our own ability, or our own piety or moral achievements, thinking that we are doing a good job and that because we are nice, devout and full of good works we are on the right track.
Relying on other people, or on ourselves, goes not get us to the final destination. People, no matter how good they are, will let us down. And how often do WE let even ourselves down?
We are not even to rely on the Church, or on religious ceremonies to get us to our destination. Church is important. It is meant to be an encouragement, a blessing to us, a joy for us as we gather together for worship. But we must not RELY upon THE CHURCH to get us to our final destination.
This is why the image that John gives us in Revelation is remarkable. What John is seeing here is not in heaven but the new earth – it is a look into the city of God at the end of time when the heavens and the earth have been transformed. What we have here is a glimpse beyond death into the new creation.
And what we see would be utterly shocking to any Jew who read this. For in this city of God, in this new Jerusalem there was no temple. The very center and foundation of all Jewish life and faith – the very thing the Jews relied upon for their religious life and worship of Yahweh and what they believed was an indicator of the future messianic age is not in the city of God. There are no churches in the city of God. Why? They are NOT NECESSARY. Even the sun and moon, what we relied upon for warmth, and seasons, and tides are not necessary in the city of God.
There is only one thing that we are to rely upon. There is only one thing that can take us to the final destination. Jesus Christ – the Son of God, who died for us. He is the only thing which will get us to our destination because he IS the destination. Jesus Christ is all we need now, and Jesus Christ will be all that we need in the new transformed creation.
Everything else that we may thing is important today, will not be there. All those things which we may have relied upon on in this life will be gone. They are useless when it comes to eternity.
This is point of John chapter 14. The context to our reading this morning is eternity and the way we get to this final destination. John 14:1 begins with the words of Jesus Do not be troubled. Why? In my Fathers house there are many dwelling places. He then says in 14:6 I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the father except through me. Jesus is the way to eternity.
And then he reveals the very thing that will help us, guide us and get us to the final destination – the Holy Spirit – the presence of Christ dwelling in each of us. Jesus does not go back to the father without leaving us with the very thing we need to rely on for our journey. That is HOW we can rely on Christ – because we have a tangible relationship with Christ through the Spirit of God dwelling with us. It is through the Spirit that we love Christ by doing what he asks of us – it is by the Spirit that God can make his home with us – it is by his spirit that we can understand the Scriptures. And it is by the spirit that we must live our life day by day.
We are to be a people, a community who are completely reliant upon Jesus Christ in and through the Spirit of God that dwells in us.
And one of the most remarkable gifts that Jesus gives us through the Spirit is his peace. Jesus says “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you.” It is a spiritual peace that looks beyond what we can see physically. It is the same peace that took Jesus to and through the Cross. For the world, peace desires the absence of conflict and pain, and when there is conflict and pain on the journey of life we struggle to comprehend why. The peace of Christ is a peace that in spite of the pain and conflict we may experience, allows us not to be troubled, or afraid, because our trust, our reliance is not on what the world has, or on what we lack in the world, but because we know our ultimate destination and we know how to get there – Jesus Christ.
It is IN HIM that we must be reliant upon for our life, and for our future. All else may be tools, or luxuries on our journey, but ultimately Jesus has to be the one and only thing we rely on.
This morning, let us consider what it is that we really rely upon for our life. What do we think our true destination is? Do we rely on Christ and do we acknowledge and long for Christ as the ultimate destination? If everything were stripped away from us tonight, if we lost everything would people find us still clinging to Christ? Or would we be trying to cling to or rely on something else; something that will not last; something that cannot take us to the true destination of eternity?
For it is ONLY when in our hearts and minds we know that we ONLY need Jesus Christ, that we can live our life with the Peace that Christ has given us through the Spirit. Yes, we may enjoy and use many of the comforts and gifts of modern life but we do so knowing that we do not NEED them, and that nothing we have, or that we are, or that we can do takes us to the real destination of eternity with God – for that can only happen when we are reliant completely upon Jesus Christ, the Lord and perfecter of our faith.
A recent sermon of mine:
Listen here: Sunday Sermon 7 March 2010
Read it below:
3 Lent – Exodus 3:1-15, 1 Corithians 10:1-13 & Luke 13:1-9
Having small children can be challenging. Educating them about what is dangerous, what can hurt them and what they can and cannot touch is an art form, especially if you want to do it without just screaming at them.
For example, I was taught never to put a metal object into the plug socket. I have never actually seen with my own eyes what happens if you should do it, but I have been told that it may kill you or at least give you a very nasty shock. Electricity is dangerous. It can hurt or even kill you.
So whenever I see Jacob, my 3 year old son, near a plub socket I become alert and ready to intervene, with warnings and eventually action.
In the same way, there are times when pastors and preachers are confronted with passages that compel them to give a warning. Well, today, it’s the “you are going towards the plug socket with a stick” sermon!
This morning is such a time.
The message form our readings today is clear – messing with God is dangerous. What do I mean by messing with God? Not taking God seriously; picking and choosing what we believe and what we won’t believe of the Bible; deliberately breaking a command of God to satisfy our own passion or desires; ignoring his commands because we know it will mean we will HAVE to radically change our life style; not being sure if we really believe, but we love the tradition.
The message this morning is simple – let us get serious with God; we must give our life to him and commit our entire future into his hands, and commit to obey his every word, for if we are not doing that then we are playing with electricity – we are sticking metal objects into the plug sockets – and it eventually will hurt or kill us.
This was brought home to me in a powerful way recently. Many of us can so easily go about our lives ignoring God – ignoring the essence and reality of the Christian faith. But just image waking up to an ordinary day, going about your daily business when all of a sudden, at 7 mins to five, an earthquake hits your town and within seconds you find yourself thrust into eternity to face the living God. That is exactly what happened to thousands of Hatians in January. It has happened to hundreds of Chileans in February. Every day 150,835 people around the world die. Every day, 150,835 people suddenly discover themselves in front of their creator where nothing is hidden and your entire life, thoughts, actions and decisions are laid bare before you. Some are prepared, but many are not prepared to meet God. Are we prepared at this moment to meet God?
Our God is a Holy God. He tells Moses to take off his sandals for the very ground that is around the burning bush is holy. Such is the presence of God Moses cannot even look at God.
God is holy and righteous. A holy God cannot be near sin. Isaiah knew this. In Isaiah 6 he says “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”
Ezekiel experiences this when Like the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud on the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness all around. Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard the voice of one speaking.
Many of us took the 90 Day Bible challenge last year and in our groups we had much discussion on the wrath of God. People talked about how angry God seems in the Old Testament. And to some extent he is angry.
God’s wrath is very predictable. It is a part of his intense Holiness. A Holy and Righteous God MUST have wrath. Why? Because He is angry with sin. God will always be angry with sin. One theologian has said that God’s wrath is his personal, righteous, constant, hostility towards evil and his settled refusal to compromise with it and his resolve to condemn it.
We see the outworking of this in our reading from 1 Corinthians 10:1-13. Paul is reminding the readers of Corinth of some history. The Israelites who left Egypt saw miracles, and God’s power clearly. And yet they desired evil. Some of them were idolaters, they indulged in immorality – having claimed to be God’s people. They took God for granted. They believed God would always be on their side despite what they did. They had been playing with electricity. And God deals with the sin. It is a picture of how God will deal with all sin. Sin, rebellion against a holy, righteous and just God WILL be dealt with. They had been playing with electricity.
We must not take our spiritual walk for granted. We must not neglect our relationship with God.
This is about life and death, not just physically but spiritually; not just about the here and now, but for eternity. And it’s about the fact that eternity may begin for us at anytime, at any moment.
That is Jesus’ point in our Gospel reading. There was a belief that if a bad thing happened to you, or if you got a disease, or if you became disabled it was definitely because you were a particularly bad sinner and you were receiving your just deserts. Jesus says that this is not necessarily the case. You cannot attribute all disaster to God’s judgement on those people. Those Galileans, Jesus says, that Pilate just killed – and those 18 people on whom the tower of Siloam fell on killed, they were not worse sinners. It just happened. It is not necessarily an indication of a judgment upon someone.
But here is Jesus point – how should we respond to such tragic events – by REPENTING. Why? Because it may happen to YOU and it happen to me. The issue is not why such a thing happened, but what is the state of your relationship with God IF such a thing were to happen? Are we prepared to stand before our God at any moment! We will ALL come before God. It may be sooner or later. It is out of our control. It may be after living a long life and dying peacefully in our bed, or it may be because of a natural disaster which hits us unexpectedly or it may be because of a drunk driver who slams into our car.
OK. You have heard the warning. In order to truly appreciate the good news you need to know the extent of the bad news. But here is the good news. Here is the remarkable news.
God’s anger with sin is not incompatible with his love for us.
This is the other side of the coin in our passages.
In Exodus, God has told Moses he is on holy ground – Moses is unable to look upon the Lord – but just see what God tells Moses – I have seen the affliction of MY people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters; I know their sufferings and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians.
God says that HE HAS COME DOWN TO DELIVER. This holy, righteous God – the God whom Moses cannot bear to look at, has revealed himself in order to deliver his people from bondage.
In 1 Corinthians, having told the church about Israel’s history and that these events in scripture are a warning to us, given as examples of what happens when we drift away from the Lord, Paul gives a promise that God is FAITHFUL and such is his love and care for us he will not allow us to be tempted beyond what we can endure, and even more amazingly, for those who trust in Him, He will give us an escape route out of every temptation.
And, finally, in our Gospel reading, Jesus goes on to tell a parable of a man planting a fig tree that does not bear fruit for three years. He is ready to cut it down. But the vinedresser intercedes. Wait, he says. Let me work on the tree – let me try and make it bears some fruit.
What a wonderful picture. God the Father, whose holiness and righteousness and justice sees an unfruitful tree which is taking up space t be cut down. But the Son, Jesus Christ, intercedes and says wait, let me work on them, and see if they will produce some fruit. And then look at the work of Christ, who does everything to draw the tree into bearing fruit.
Jesus Christ has done EVERYTHING for us. He has died and risen again so that we may not be cut down, but that we might bear fruit and flourish in God’s kingdom.
God is patient. He is merciful. He has not cut down all the dead trees immediately, because of the work of Christ.
There is a day coming – God alone knows when that day will be – when the opportunity to be saved will be withdrawn. For each of us a day may be coming when that decision to get more serious about our faith, never comes because we will find our selves in God’s presence.
So my plea to us, and I am speaking to myself, is: Please, please, let us all quit playing a round when it comes to God. Today, let us get serious about Jesus. Let us give him permission to come and change our lives and our natures, and our marriages, and our personal lives and our habits and our home lives and our relationships with our kids and our relationships with each other – let us give him permission to become the sole and ultimate Lord, King and director our lives, let us say to him this morning we want to quit playing a round with our eternal destinies, we want to get rid of the sins we know we hold onto and enjoy and that today we will submit entirely to his will, his ways and his Word. That we will become students of his word, that we will commit to building our pray life, that we will set aside our own ambitions and desires and wants and be willing to glorify God alone; that our contentment will not b in stuff but in enjoying God alone; that we will be committed to building God’s kingdom here in this Church and in this community.
Will we accept that today? Will we put down the metal object and step away from the plug socket?
He is beckoning us. He has revealed to us how he feels about sin and he has revealed and demonstrated how much he has loved us and what he is willing to do for us to rescue us.
What are we waiting for?
Let us accept it today.
The audio here:
Complacency is a dangerous thing.
The dictionary defines Complacency as a feeling of uncritical satisfaction with oneself or one’s achievements 0r self-satisfaction especially when accompanied by unawareness of actual dangers or deficiencies
Being complacent means we stop being self aware – or generally aware. We stop looking. We stop learning. We stop being prepared.
One writer has said: Complacency is a blight that saps energy, dulls attitudes, and causes a drain on the brain. The first symptom is satisfaction with things as they are. The second is rejection of things as they might be. “Good enough” becomes today’s watchword and tomorrow’s standard.
A classic example of complacency is the Titanic. A ship built by man with the most up-to-date technology available and declared by man to be unsinkable. Such was the complacency of the ships invincibility they only had enough life boats for 33% of those on board – which happened to be enough all the first class passengers. Those in second, third or carriage class were not even told were the life boats were. Such complacency led to the loss of 1500 lives.
As Christians we are not to be complacent. We simply can’t.
Just look at ourselves. We know that if we are complacent with our flesh we will be in trouble. We know that when we relax, just for a moment, thing start to fall apart. We don’t go to church for a week or two, or perhaps take a short break from praying every day, or decide not to read the scriptures this week because we are busy and all of sudden a month, or two months or more go by where we have not been in church, or read scriptures or prayed.
Maybe there is a habit that we know we struggle with. And maybe one day we just stop battling it, or we give in just for one last time and all of a sudden we find ourselves immersed back in the habit fully and all the gains we might have made have been lost.
Each day we must make choices which are god centered, scripture centered and grounded in faith. If we think we are holy we will soon slip from that pedestal. Each day we must spend time with God – confessing our mistakes, seeking his Spirit to live in us so that we might walk in his ways.
And yet, many Christian’s I think have become complacent about the end times. I have often heard people say: “I can’t wait until the end of time”, or “I can’t wait for the Lord’s return.”
Really? Really? Are we really that ready to receive the arrival of the Lord of Glory who comes to judge the world, knowing our hearts and who will expose and lay bare publicly all that is in us! Are we ready for that?
The image of the end times in the Bible is not a pleasant one. The run up to, and the end times themselves do not involve a warm white light enveloping us in a sense of cosy security.
No. The scriptures tell us that the run up to the end times will be terrifying – to the point of social collapse.
Now before I go on, I need to clarify, what are the end times. Well, we are IN the last days now. The resurrection of Christ and his Ascension has happened. We are in the midst of the great commission to call the world to believe in Jesus. And we are 2000 years closer to that day when the Lord Jesus returns.
No-one knows WHEN the Lord will return. There is no date that can be discovered or worked out. Only the Father knows that time. But we are on the approach to those final days. As Paul said in his sermon two weeks ago, it may be 10 years, twenty years, 200 years in the future, or it could be this afternoon.
While we do not know the time when this will happen we are given instructions on what to look for and how we must act.
The apostle Paul gives us warnings about the last days in 2 Timothy 3. He says:
Understand this, that in the last days difficult times will come. 3:2 For people 2 will be lovers of themselves, 3 lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3:3 unloving, irreconcilable, slanderers, without self-control, savage, opposed to what is good, 3:4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, loving pleasure rather than loving God.
Are we still looking forward to the end times now?
As Christians we are told to be prepared, and to hold our nerve in the approach to the end times.
As Christians we are to be a people who UNDERSTAND what to expect as the last days grow nearer.
This is Jesus’ point in our Gospel reading this morning. We must understand the signs of the times, and we must respond rightly.
These end days will see people fainting from fear as society seems to collapse around them. The great cosmic battle which rages in the heavenly places out of sight for most of us now begin to break into view as the enemy’s last desperate stand against the inevitable defeat is about to take place.
But notice what Luke says our reaction should be: But when these things begin to happen standup and raise your heads because your redemption is drawing near.
We should not be the ones fainting from fear or cowering in a corner. No, we are to look up knowing that our redemption is coming near.
But in order for us to be able to do this we must be ready. We must know the signs of the times. We should be experts at discerning what is happening.
This means we should not be taken by surprise at the state of the world. We should not be shocked or alarmed as we see wars increase, or earthquakes and tsunamis and famines and plagues ravish the earth. As followers of the living God we have been told that this WILL happen – and that it is a sign of the end times. Yes we must be sad. Yes we must pray for those caught up in the tragic-ness of such events, but we must never be shocked. We know such things are coming. We know these are the signs of what is too come.
So what are we to do in the meantime?
If we were to read on just a little further in Luke we would read Jesus’ words:
But be on your guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day close down upon you suddenly like a trap. For it will overtake all who live on the face of the whole earth. But stay alert at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that must 85 happen, and to stand before the Son of Man.”
We are to be alert, active & praying. We must be preparing ourselves.
2 Peter 3 says this: But the day of the Lord will come like a thief; when it comes, 27 the heavens will disappear 28 with a horrific noise, 29 and the celestial bodies 30 will melt away 31 in a blaze, 32 and the earth and every deed done on it 33 will be laid bare. 34 3:11 Since all these things are to melt away 35 in this manner, 36 what sort of people must we 37 be, conducting our lives in holiness and godliness, 38 3:12 while waiting for and hastening 39 the coming of the day of God?
Along with being alert, active and praying we must be growing in our faith and in our walk with God. Conducting our lives in holiness and godliness. We must be so immersed in Jesus, so immersed in the Bible that we will not only be not deceived or become complacent, but that we will be able to look up and rejoice as we see our redemption draw near!
But just as important as being prepared ourselves, we must also be announcing this rescue to all people.
Surely we must be expending energy warning people of what is to come. We know the rescuer. Surely we MUST be telling people to trust in Jesus.
If we are truly aware of what is to come then that should spur within us a passion to bring as many people into the Kingdom of God as we can. We should be walking the decks of the sinking ship screaming for people to get into the life boats!
We know that not all people will accept the gospel – the road to destruction is wide and many follow it, Jesus says, but the road to eternal life is narrow and few find it. This tells us clearly that not all will accept the gospel. We must understand this. But yet our message must be constant to all – flee the judgment to come.
There is a very moving sermon on-line. It was preached the weekend after 9/11 by Carter Conlon a New York minister.
He recounts some of the stories of police men, firemen and others who were running towards the towers, running into the danger area, shouting to those in the streets to flee. Some of those police officers knew they might die but their sense of duty meant that they kept running towards the building shouting to people to run for their life.
Where is our sense of duty as believers as we look around at those who are oblivious of what is coming.
We know what is coming.
Are we running away from the conflict or are we running into the conflict shouting to people ‘run for your life – flee – run from the culture which ignores God – run from false gospels which ignore Jesus – run – run – run from ministers who glorify themselves and not Jesus Christ – run – run – run from practices or rituals which do not give the life of the spirit – run! Run from Churches that have no Bible or theology; that have no mention of sin, or the blood of Jesus, or repentence – run. Run for your life. Flee and run from all that is not of God.
Is this our message? Do WE NEED this message? Are we people who are running into the conflict knowing the signs of the times shouting to those in danger to flee to Jesus Christ? Surely if we truly understand what is to come, we CANNOT but be telling people to flee.
Let us not be complacent about the coming of the end of the age. Let us be active – let us be signs, mouthpieces, living examples of the gospel – that Jesus is calling all people to turn to him – to flee from the judgment to come, and run into Christ, where we will spend eternity.
LISTEN HERE Sermon Sunday 1 November 2009
Or read it below:
ALL SAINTS Revelation 7v1-17; Matthew 5v1-12
Christianity is about radical change. When we encounter the living God, we cannot but be changed and not just in our morals or in how we act but deep down inside of us – in our spirit – in our very character. But, it is a change we could never manufacturer ourselves. It is a change beyond our comprehension – it is truly a divine change.
What we are looking at today in our gospel reading is what people call the Sermon on the Mount –teaching which Jesus gave to his Disciples – those who were following Him – and we are Jesus’ disciples today and so this teaching is for us.
What Jesus talks about here are eight aspects of the character and conduct of a Christian? When we put our trust in God we become a citizen of heaven. And as a citizen we are called to put God first in our motives, actions, language, thoughts and priorities. These characteristics are not talking about different people, but about one person and how they are inter-connected.
ALL LIFE COMES UNDER JESUS’ ROYAL CONTROL. As a believer and follower of Jesus our Government, first and foremost, is the Government of Jesus Christ – that is what the kingdom of God means – the government of Jesus Christ, and that is the government we are to obey and follow first, above any other government.
Jesus is teaching our disciples on what we call the beatitudes.
The first three beatitudes speak of the Christian foundation of experience.
The first thing he says is blessed are the poor in Spirit.
What does the word blessed Mean?
It means, “Made happy by God”. Jesus is saying that life in the Kingdom of God with Him is a life of profound joy – a joy no circumstance or person can take away.
And that JOY should start now, here, on earth. Joy is not something that we get once we die and go to heaven – heaven begins on earth – and so joy begins here as well.
The first step in being happy is to acknowledge that we are spiritually poor – that we do not have in ourselves what it takes to be the person we were created to be.
Once we have realized that we are spiritually poor and that there is nothing we can do about it we are then to mourn.
The original word for mourn describes a mourning of the dead – to grieve with a grief which so takes possession of the whole being that it cannot be hid.
This is to be our response to knowing we are spiritually poor.
We come to the realization that we so desperately need God.
This will then lead us to become meek, or as some translations put it gentle. Meekness is not about being weak or spineless, but about free submission to Jesus and acknowledging him to be God over our whole life. To be meek is to know that we cannot claim any merit before God. We must stop trusting in ourselves, or in our abilities, or our skills. God is the one in whom we are trust explicitly and completely.
As we look back over these few verses, notice the promises that come with such characteristics.
Such Christians get the very best promises – the poor WILL inherit the Kingdom of Heaven – the mourners WILL be comforted – and the meek WILL inherit the earth. The world does not look at the poor in spirit, the mourning and the meek in this light. Indeed, they see poverty in spirit, mourning the lack of God in our lives and meekness as something to be despised. Riches, confidence in our own abilities and arrogance are seen as strengths in our world. But not so in the kingdom of God.
The person who has faced their poverty of spirit, who mourns that poverty, who submits themselves meekly to Jesus on earth discovers what life on earth is all about. They discover that all the riches of the Kingdom of Heaven are available to them
The next three beatitudes speak of the features of Christian Experience.
Who are the blessed?
Notice that it is not the righteous who are blessed but those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.
To hunger and thirst is to long for something that we do not yet have. The evidence of Jesus Christ in someone’s life is not that they are righteous, but that they hunger and thirst for it – that they have an appetite for it. DO WE HAVE AN APPETITIE FOR GOD – FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS? Appetite is not self-produced. You cannot will yourself to be hungry. They are symptoms. The source of this appetite is to acknowledge and mourn the poverty of our spirit, to be meek and submit to Jesus. Only then will this hunger and thirst for righteousness come.
And as we hunger and thirst for the righteousness of God we will begin to change in how we deal with people.
As we encounter the merciful heart of God and as God places his heart and his mercy in us we will then begin to extend mercy to those whom we encounter.
And this will lead to us to having a pure heart.
Now, the word pure here does not mean moral purity. It means unmixed. In other words our hearts would be unmixed, having a purity of purpose – one goal, one direction, one priority – Jesus Christ.
Not that one is not interested in anything else in life – just that Jesus comes the prism, the lens, the foundation from which everything else, our jobs, our vacations, our pursuits come from.
And when that happens we will SEE God – not necessarily physically but in all our circumstances – we will see his presence, his work, his guidance, his sovereignty, his protection, his love and his work in our lives.
The last two beatitudes speak of the fruit, or impact, of the Christian experience – what kind of impact is such a person going to make in the world?
The problems in the world stem from sin – greed, selfishness, anger, violence etc. Humanity – you and I are the problem. We have the ‘I’ disease – not the type that needs glasses – but the I of selfishness.
And the power and destructiveness of sin remains while humanity is alienated from God.
It is RECONCILIATION WITH GOD THAT BRINGS PEACE WITH GOD.
Paul says in COLOSSIANS 1:19-20:
For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him,
and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.
One of the biggest privileges of being reconciled to God, of becoming a Christian and coming to peace with God is that we can lead others to this peace. WE BECOME A PEACEMAKER – we actually SHARE in the ministry of Jesus Christ.
And when we do this there will be those who will accept the peace of God and there will be those who react and persecute us. Why would people persecute a peacemaker? Because a Christ centered peacemaker does not resolve conflicts it is to tell people to come to repent, to turn to their God and lead them to a relationship in Christ.
To be a Christian is to be a PEACEMAKER in the Kingdom sense that will mean we will be persecuted at some point and some time in our life – and if we are never persecuted for being a Christian it may be because we are not opening our mouth when we should be.
Persecution, is not something we should fear – we must never hold back in this process of becoming a such a Christian because we are afraid of persecution, for if we have not done this journey from recognizing our poverty of spirit, to being reconciled and finally to becoming a peacemaker, then we have not traveled the journey of becoming a believer, because we have not walked the path that the prophets and indeed, our Lord Jesus Christ walked.
To finish this morning I want to briefly take us to our New Testament reading from revelation because it is here that we can see the destination of this path from acknowledging our poverty of spirit to reconciliation with God and active service in his kingdom as a peacemaker.
Our reading from Chp 7 of revelation comes after the description of the judgment of God upon his enemies. Chp 7 tells us what happens to God’s people during this time.
For those who have walked the path of Matthew 5 – giving our selves to the Lord Jesus Christ – recognizing that we need him and him only, then, we will have our sins, our filthy rags, washed in the blood of Jesus’ sacrifice, making our robes white, clean, and where we will be overshadowed by his presence, sealed for eternity under his ownership and his protection, where the enemy satan can never snatch us out of his hand.
Revelation 7 shows us that when we undertake the journey of faith of Matthew 5 our eternal safety is guaranteed – to be among the multitude in heaven worshipping our God and as our passage says we will:
hunger no longer, nor thirst anymore; nor will the sun beat down on us, nor any heat; for the Lamb in the center of the throne will be our shepherd, and will guide us to springs of the water of life; and God will wipe every tear from our eyes.”
Have we made this journey yet? Have we acknowledged our desperate and utter need of God? Have we given up trusting in ourselves and long to trust in Christ alone- do we hunger and thirst after righteousness – do we want to receive mercy so that we can give mercy – do we long for unmixed motives, a purity of heart – do we desire to be reconciled to him – to become a peacemaker in the kingdom calling others to be reconciled to the God of the universe – do we want to rejoice and be glad – do we want to be sealed for eternity in the Lord Jesus Christ…
If we are here this morning knowing in your heart that we have not made this journey then do it today – ask God to come and meet with you – confess your need for him. Do it today. Do it now.
Do you & I feel that we have conquered the world? Each morning as we wake up do we look forward to our day knowing we have the victory over everything that could possibly be thrown at us? Do we as a people, as a church look like we have conquered the world?
Or is the opposite true. Do we wake up each day feeling that the world will conquer us? Does the church look like the world has had its way with us?
Too often the latter is true – we look like a people who have been conquered by the world, both in our personal lives and in the life of the church. And that, according to the writings of the apostle John, means we have lost confidence in the work and power of the Holy Spirit.
Our Epistle reading from 1 John 5 begins right in the middle of a developing argument from John.
In verses one through eight of chapter five he has been talking about talking about faith – that faith in Christ Jesus gives us the incredible status of being children of God. And this status – by having faith in Jesus Christ, means we have conquered the world – v4 says for whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith. Who is it that conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
So – as believers we MUST be conquers of the world because we have ALREADY conquered the word. Verses six to eight begin the explanation of HOW we have conquered the world – the one who came by water and blood – Jesus Christ – the one who was baptized, who lived and died for us and who has been testified to by God through the Holy Spirit. To believe in Jesus Christ – to accept the testimony of the Gospel means we have conquered the world.
We should be both as individuals and as a people of God radiating the victory of Christ in the world – unafraid of what the world can do to us as Christian’s – living life to the full in the commands of Jesus.
This is where we now begin our reading. V9 of 1 John 5 sees John beginning to explain more about the witness of Jesus Christ.
Of course, the witness of the apostles and others has testified to the fact that Jesus is the Son of God, who died for us, – and many have believed. But that is not the only testimony we have as Christians. In fact, it is not the primary testimony we have.
God HIMSELF testified to who Jesus was – and this is the greater testimony.
Many of us may have begun our journey’s to becoming believers because someone witnessed to us. We liked what a person said about Christianity and we became interested. We read some literature, or we went to church. But then we cannot remain believers through just the testimony of others We must move to accepting the GREATER testimony of God himself.
God testified to who Jesus was in scripture; At his baptism God speaks from heaven “This is my son with whom I am well pleased.” At the transfiguration God speaks from the cloud “This is my Son; with him I am well pleased – listen to him.” And Jesus himself says in john 15:26 When the advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, He will testify on my behalf.
It is when we accept the testimony of God that we are converted and receive the Holy Spirit. This is what John means by He who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself.
When we believe we no longer believe because of what others have told us – or because of what we see at church – we believe because the Holy Spirit IN us testifies to the truth of God’s own testimony – that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who died for us.
There is a wonderful illustration of this is John 4 and the story of the Samaritan woman at the well. Having spoken to Jesus she runs to her town telling the people that she may have found the Messiah. The town’s people go to Jesus. Then in v42 of John 4 they say to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”
It is that this point that we have conquered the world. At this point, through the Holy Spirit working in us – we should realize that whatever the world is going to do to us – whatever the enemy, satan, may try and do to us cannot succeed because when we are in Christ and we have the victory.
We really should be the happiest, the most peaceful, the most joyous, the most generous, most secure people on the face of the planet.
As believers we should have within us the daily testimony of the Holy Spirit confirming and encouraging in us the truth of Jesus Christ.
It is a spiritual work that we must have as Christians if our lives are going to be lived in the reality and truth of a world conquered by Jesus Christ. Without this spiritual work in our lives we will always feel conquered by the world.
Jesus knew that after his death and resurrection, despite the fact that he had conquered the enemy, the world who remained in rebellion against God – and satan, would turn on and try and destroy the disciples.
That’s why we have this remarkable prayer of Jesus in our Gospel reading. Chapter 17 is one prayer – with three parts. Firstly Jesus prays for himself – that he would glorify the Father and the Father glorify him. Then he prays for his disciples – which is our reading this morning – and then he prays for ALL who will believe in him in the future.
For his disciples – for those who followed, he prays for protection. He prays that they will remain in the world – in order to declare the gospel – and that the Father would PROTECT them from the evil one.
Jesus – the holy one – asks the Father to protect the Disciples from the evil one. He does not pray that the Father protect them from persecution – or bad days – or disease or even death – but he prays that the disciples would not fall back into the ways of the world and be destroyed by the evil one.
Jesus is entrusting his disciples to the Father. Jesus knows his disciples are at risk. The world who hates them will threaten them and abuse them. The disciples are being sent into this world and they need protecting. The disciples, because of Jesus, no longer belong to the world. In other words, this world is no longer the place or sphere that determines who they most truly are. What they need is help from being pulled back into the world.
While this prayer is for the disciples the same is true for all of Jesus’ followers.
When the world comes against you and I – we have as our shield firstly the intercession and prayer of Jesus Christ who has asked the Father to protect us. As believers we are no longer of the world – under it’s destiny or power – but instead we are under Christ. Secondly, we have the inward testimony of God himself through the Holy Spirit that the victory is won and that Christ has conquered the enemy. As Paul says in the book of Romans The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.
This is how we are to live daily.
The issue this morning for each one of us is does the Holy Spirit testify to our spirit that Jesus is the Christ – the son of God. Are we allowing the Holy Spirit within us to give us life and the power to conquer the world?
In order for this to happen we must learn to submit to God and his will. And it is a learning process; a daily process – as the Apostle Paul says, we need to take each thought captive for God in every area of our life – in every decision we make – in the very words we chose to speak, or write or email. In how we treat others. We will never be able to experience his victory, or the effects of his conquering of the world in our daily life if we are still holding onto things that we know we should not be doing. We cannot be doing things that are either dishonest, or ungodly in our daily life and expect to feel that the world has been conquered. We cannot receive from him if we know that each day, in one or more areas of our life, we are lying to God.
Jesus’ prayer of protection for the disciples was that they would not be drawn back into the way of the world – that they would not fall. It’s about living our life in honesty, transparency & truth; at home, at work & in our community. Not cheating or hiding or fiddling the figures, or telling white lies, or deceiving people, or putting on false fronts, or the happy face when your sad, or the sad face when your happy.
As believers, if we are feeling that the world is conquering us each day, if we do not have the testimony of God in us that says Jesus Christ is God and He has the victory and I fully believe this to be true; it’s not that we do not have the Holy Spirit – it is almost certainly that we need to let go of something which is preventing the Holy Spirit from doing his wonderful and powerful work in us.
It is when we have nothing to hide – nothing to fear – it’s when we are transparent before God that we can live fully in the victory of God – that we can live having conquered the world in faith instead of the world having conquered us.
So this morning, if there are things that we know should not be in our life – let us let them go – give them to God – ask God to come and release them from us. Say sorry to him for having held onto them. If necessary let’s ask someone from the church to pray with us.
And then, or if there is nothing that we are holding onto, ask God that, through the Holy Spirit which dwells in us, we might know the victory of God through faith – that from today our life will lived no longer as people who have been conquered by the world, but as people who have conquered the world in Jesus Christ.
I was tempted just to re-read Paul’s sermon from last week because it fits exactly with today’s readings – about love. But I thought I had better say something different!
God Loves me. God loves you. Familiar words. Comforting words. We use these words regularly as believers to encourage and comfort one another. We say this to unbelievers in our evangelism – God loves you, he wants you to come to him.
Yet I wonder if we have ever fully realized the immense and powerful consequences of these words.
The infinite God of the whole universe LOVES YOU AND HE LOVES ME.
Our Gospel reading begins with a stunning statement from Jesus – As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you.
Let these words echo in your spirit for a moment.
The way that Jesus loved his disciples was not LIKE, or a mirror of, or a sample of God the Father’s love – it was and is the SAME way that God loves Jesus – a love which comes from the eternal Trinity – a perfect, holy, complete love.
How does Jesus love his disciples as the Father loved him? Jesus holds NOTHING back in his love.
Our Epistle clearly lays out this principle. John asks “what is love?” And the response is “That God loved us by sending Jesus to die for us.” The template of love is the sacrificial love of the Father – the Father who sacrifices his Son for us and the Son who sacrifices his place in heaven to live on earth, to be separated from the father and to die for our sins.
While we may know people who seem to love much, often we give our love hesitantly, or falteringly, or fearfully, or half-heartedly or even with conditions, Jesus gives his love fully, completely, unconditionally, sacrificially and willingly to those who follow him. It is not a bit of his love, or a sample of his love, or a taste of his love – Jesus loves us COMPLETELY.
This is the template to which we are to hold up our own love FOR God – our love of our spouses, our love for our parents, our love for our children and even our love for our enemies. That’s the template. That’s the standard.
That is the incredible commitment of Jesus’ love and that is the love, he experienced from the father – nothing held back.
If Jesus’ love for us is complete and total – nothing held back – then we really cannot say we have received a bit of his love, or that we have some of his love.
The love of Jesus MUST transform us – if we say we have Jesus’ love – if we say God loves us – we are saying the complete, unconditional love of Jesus, of God has come upon us. If we cannot say that then we have not understood the love of God for us.
God’s love HAS to be transforming – to encounter the living God cannot leave us un-changed – it cannot. Giving our life to Jesus is not just a verbal transaction; “Lord forgive me, I believe in you and want to confess my sins to you.”
These words begin an eternal transaction where our acceptance of Jesus puts into motion a move in the spiritual realm whereby we are no longer under the sentence of death but have been given life; where it is declared to the principalities and powers that we are now children of the living God and our future is to be with him.
God’s love HAS to be transforming because how else will be we obey v12 of our Gospel reading – Love one another as I HAVE LOVED YOU. Or v11 of our epistle reading Beloved, if God loved us we also ought to love another.
Firstly we can only do this because of the Holy Spirit. As Paul said last week, God asks the impossible of us – if you love me you will obey my commandments. But the very next words from his mouth are “And I will send you the Holy Spirit.”
In order for us to love each other in the way that Jesus loves us and in the way the Father loves Jesus, requires New Birth. It requires us to start again.
We, the church, you and I are to Love one another in this complete, unconditional, self-sacrificial love that has no limits – even to the laying down of ones life – remember Jesus’ words love one another as I have loved you!
This is a COMMAND – not an option. You have no option as to whether you will love me to the point of laying down your life for me – and I am going hold you all to that!!
– and I don’t have an option in loving you. It is a command – a moral obligation as followers of Jesus. we are undeserved recipients of God’s love and we in turn are to love others whether we think they deserve it or not.
Augustine said it well when he wrote: love is so much the gift of God that it is called God!
This love that we are talking about – this Trinitarian love which stems from the Father is also meant to be the source of our unity as believers. Our unity is not in our styles of worship. Or in our theology. Or in whether we accept people. Our unity comes FROM a love that is ABIDING IN, REMAINING IN CHRIST.
This is what Jesus means by Love one another as I have loved you. Jesus loved us by doing only what the Father said. We are to love one another BY doing ONLY what Jesus says.
John emphasizes this in his epistle. God sent his only son into the world so that we might live THROUGH him. Remain In Him, Abide IN Him, live THROUGH him. For John unity is remaining in and living through Jesus – doing only what Jesus and his word says to do. To depart from that is to step outside of Christ – and any unity outside of Christ and his commands cannot be true or lasting unity. And to try and build unity on social issues, cultural norms or anything outside of Christ will fail.
The love that Jesus speaks of here is a love that is rooted in obedience to the ways of God. If you separate this love from the commands of the living God then it is no longer the love of God – but the love of man. If we decide to love others on our terms or on the cultures terms it is not the love found in scripture.
We are to love one another so completely that when we see one of us doing something which is not Christ like, or that goes against the teachings of Jesus then we are tell each other. We are to say, Jesus said we are not to do this – please stop it because by doing such a thing you are no longer abiding or remaining in Christ. The love that Jesus says we are to love one another with includes warning our brothers and sisters when they do what is not acceptable in the Bible. We warn not to condemn but because we love them as Christ loved us.
John Wesley’s love for others is evident when he said:
‘In plain terms, wherever I see one or a thousand men running into hell, be it in England, Ireland, or France, yea, in Europe, Asia, Africa, or America, I will stop them if I can: as a minister of Christ, I will beseech them, in his name, to turn back, and be reconciled to God. Were I to do otherwise, were I to let any soul drop into the pit, whom I might have saved from everlasting burnings, I am not satisfied that God would accept my plea, ‘Lord, he was not of my parish”.
Or Charles Spurgeon who said…
If people are determined to go to hell at least let them leap over our bodies to get there.
Of course, there are days when we do not love or show love. Our hearts are not completely redeemed – as Luther said we are both saints and sinners – we still sin. But when we fail to show love we are contradicting our new birth.
This is why we must take sin so seriously – it is not just ‘I’ve had a bad day today’ but ‘Today, by not loving, I have broken Jesus’ command to me – I have denied my new birth. The full weight of God’s anger should fall upon me.’ But the we say ‘praise God for Jesus Christ, my redeemer, my savior for I can confess to him that I have not loved and he will forgive me because he has taken the full weight of God’s anger against sin on my behalf.
Confession of our sins is so important – it sets us free – it reconciles us to God.
This type of Love – the love we are commanded to love each other with – a love which abides and remains in Christ will grow in us as we mature as believers and as we daily seek to put Jesus and his words into action in our lives. And as we seek to exercise this love as we seek to ask the Holy Spirit to increase this love is us we will begin to show signs of it’s effect in our life. We will have a spiritual security which will bring us peace because we will know that we did not chose God but that God has chosen us. We will begin to bear fruit in our lives. And this fruit is not just about bringing others to know Jesus, although that’s part of it – one writer has said that the person who is born of God is a window through which the love of God shines into the world. But it’s also a fruit in our everyday lives, fruit at home, at work, with family and friends, as a husband or wife, father, or mother, son or daughter, employee or employer. And this fruit we bear is not temporary but John says it will itself remain in Christ. Finally John says we will no longer have fear in our lives. Imagine living life without fear – even the fear of death will leave.
One, early church father said that because God is love the one who lives in Love reaps the fruit of life from God. While still in this world, he even now breathes the air of the resurrection.
So, Jesus’ command to us – Love one another as I have loved you…
Let’s do it.
I don’t know if you have ever watched any of the Star Trek series – Captain James T Kirk – did you know that the T stands for Tiberius? Or Captain Pickard from Star Trek Next Generation, or Captian Sisko from Star Trek Deep Space Nine, or Captain Janeway from Star Trek Voyager.
One of the things I have noticed watching Star Trek, and other Sci Fi shows is how they portray death and the after life. For them, the after life always involves the loss of the body. The transition into the spiritual is a transition, or a transformation, into a non-coporeal existence – into a gas or a cloud that has immense hidden knowledge and floats around for eternity.
It’s a common view held by many in our culture today – when we die our spirit is set free to roam the universe – bodiless!!
And you need to know that the Bible is SO against this view.
One of the things the Resurrection does is affirms and declares the physical-ness of heaven. Jesus is raised from the dead – and he is rasied in the same body he died in – that is why the tomb is empty. And he ascends IN his body which means right now there is a human body residing in heaven – Jesus Christ – at the right hand of the Father.
The heavenly reality of God is both a spiritual AND physical place – its not an either / or but a place where the spiritual and physical come together in a way that they were always meant to be – Adam walked in the Garden of Eden with God – heaven and earth were one before the fall – the garden was physical – Adam was physical and that is why we have a physical resurrection of Jesus Christ.
It is not incidental that Jesus rose physically from the dead – it is vital.
And it is for this reason, our Gospel reading this morning is meant to be a massive encouragement to us. There is so much in these verses that I can only focus on one thing this morning.
Here are the disciples scared and hiding – the doors are locked. They have gathered, probably, to talk about what has happened and what they should do next.
Then all of a sudden Jesus was standing there among them. I so want to see the replay of this event in heaven. Imagine the fear and the surprise and the shock – doors locked and yet BAM – here was another person in the room – instantaneously! The already freaked out, scared disciples, whose nerves were almost certainly frayed now have to cope with Jesus just supernaturally appearing in the middle of their room – no wonder Jesus says to them Peace be with you. They needed it.
However, he then shows them his wounds – his hands and side. Why? To show them he was physical. He is no ghost in the sense of how they would imagine a ghost – he is really, physically, with them in his physical body.
What is remarkable is that the disciples were now looking at the future of the universe.
Here was the risen Lord – the one who has defeated evil, sin and death – who will rule for eternity with the Father and the Spirit and who will judge all people – here is the Physical Jesus Christ who has conquered satan and will rule above all things.
This is who the disciples could handle and touch – the very source, center and sustainer of the entire universe – the second person of the Trinity – standing with these 10 men in a small room in the Palestine.
But not only were the disciples looking at the future of the universe – they were also looking at an image of THEIR future.
This would one day be them – physically resurrected – not dead but alive. Here is an image of what happens to those who are faithful in Christ – they are vindicated and raised from the grave.
This joy – this immortal life was waiting for them in the resurrection future.
Spirituality is not some distant, bodiless, floating cloud or gas – it is physical, real and touchable.
One of the saddest errors we can fall into as Christians is to think of heaven in this way. The Bible says that when Jesus returns the dead will be raised and we will be reunited with our bodies. 1 Thessalonians 4:16 talks us Jesus’ return – when the dead will rise first. Paul talks about the redemption not just of our spirits, but our bodies: Romans 8:23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
Heaven is not eternity on a cloud with a harp – it is physical, real and on a renewed earth – 2 Peter 3:13 says But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells – as it was with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden – heaven and earth joined together as we commune and worship God.
Jesus stood amongst his disciples as the example – the proof – the vindication of all that he had said to them and taught them. It was the proof of such passages as in the sermon on the mount: Luke 6:22-23 “Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.”
Here is the reward.
And just as Jesus had set his hope on this future joy – he stands before the disciples as a huge encouragement that its all true – and that they too can set their hope on this future joy.
And just as the disciples could set their hope in this future joy SO CAN WE.
Jesus’ obedience to the Father – which lead even to humiliation and death – also lead to the resurrection, life and joy.
Hence – the disciples can go forward with their mission, empowered by the spirit, to be obedient to God’s calling – a calling which will lead to many of them being persecuted and martyred but in the knowledge that the promise of the life to come is true, sure, real, transformed, physical and awaiting them.
What an encouragement. What a truth. What a promise.
The teaching of the Bible is that the resurrection that is promised is physical – yes our bodies are transformed into perfect bodies – but it’s also a physical reality.
This is what should encourage us as we get up to begun our week on Monday morning.
This is what should give us great hope as we go into our normal everyday lives. Whatever Jesus may ask of us – whatever work he has called us to – whatever Jesus may call us to give up or sacrifice, the resurrection future which is both promised and assured to us, surpasses any pain or loss suffered now.
The disciples lived their life, I believe, in the sure knowledge of this hope of the future resurrection – it was for them an assurance which meant they did not hold back in serving God to the fullest, even when they were also attacked, and many of them killed. They did not need vindication – because they knew that they would be resurrected with Christ – and that is far more vindication than they could ever ask for.
Jesus’ words to the disciples Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you includes not just the mission of evangelism, of witness, of loving God and others, of worship and of even being hated by the world, it includes the incredible promise of resurrection. The Father sent the Son to the cross knowing he would be raised. The Son sends us knowing that we too will be raised from the death.
As believers here today – as those who follow the living Christ – YOU WILL BE RESURRECTED – Your body will be made perfect – you will reside on a perfect earth that is joined and in union with heaven where God will dwell and we will worship him.
For just as the Father sent Jesus so he sends us.
Do we enter our week tomorrow with this assurance of the coming resurrection. May the Lord give us a revelation, through his spirit, to know and rejoice in the fact that we will be resurrected and may we walk each day in the confidence that we can live life in the fullest for Christ, in the confidence and trust that there is NOTHING the world can do to us – there is no situation, no economic disaster, no disease, that can remove the truth of the living Christ and hope of the resurrection to come.
MAUNDAY THURSDAY HOMILY
Do you have good motives? I think most of us would say at least we try and have good motives. Of course, we know that none of us have 100% pure motive – by that I mean that everything we do for others we do because of them, not because we feel we ought to, or because it is our duty, or for any reward, or enhancement to our reputations or because we might call a favor in one day.
I wonder whether we would we be as eager to help others if we knew that absolutely no-one would EVER find out – that every good thing we did in the community, for friends or family would never be credited to us personally? Imagine that you saved someone from a fire engulfed building. You went into the burning building before the firefighters got their – you drag out two people onto the lawn and then, as the firebrigade arrive, you leave. Imagine sitting in a restaurant on a large table of friends and acquaintances all talking about the heroic person that saved those two people and how wonderful they are. Would you be able to just eat your dinner silently without blurting out “It was me – I’m the hero.”
Why do we help others? What is our motive? Is our motive simply to see the joy in the faces of those we help; or is it to hear the praise that is given to us – or to hear how marvelous we are, or how kind we are. Of course it is not bad to receive thanks – but it is good sometimes to examine our motives.
As a minister and someone who has the privilege of speaking from this pulpit I must examine my motives – am I preaching to try and please you all, or God – am I enjoying the attention and the few accolades at the end of the service or am I more concerned with sharing with you what I think the Lord might be saying this evening.
Why does Jesus wash his disciples feet? What was his motive? Was it to prove how good he was – how humble he was? No. His motive was far greater than that.
His actions were certainly shocking to the disciples. Peter is so shocked by Jesus’ actions that he says “You shall never wash my feet.” What was so shocking?
Well, Jesus was adopting the stance of not just a servant, but a slave. And not just a slave, but a non-jewish slave. Foot washing was SO menial – so lowly that even Jewish slaves would not be expected to wash feet – only gentile – non-jewish slaves were seen to be lowly enough to do this.
Not in his wildest dreams would it have occurred to Peter that he, or any of the disciples, let alone Jesus, would wash feet.
What was Jesus’ motive?
His motive was to not to show off his humility but to challenge and to visually show the disciples something. He wanted to challenge and show them that they were not to embrace a Messiah who was powerful – but they had to embrace and follow a Messiah who served even in the most menial ways, not to make themselves great, but to glorify the Father.
Remember that this foot-washing happens in the shadow of the coming cross.
Peter is shocked at the humiliation Jesus is putting himself under and he refuses at first to accept it – but in a few short hours Jesus will again put himself under the intense, magnified, public humiliation of the Cross. If Peter rejects this, finding foot washing too humiliating to bear – he is not going to cope with the cross. If he rejects this, he rejects the Cross.
That is the point of Jesus’ response to Peter. If I do not wash you have no share in me. Salvation, the forgiveness of sin’s – relationship with the living God is all about embracing the humiliation of the Cross – embracing the Messiah who allowed himself to die in our place. Peter has yet to learn this. And Jesus is telling Peter that he has to not just accept that the Messiah would be completely humiliated for him – he has to accept it - embrace it and live it out.
Peter is not yet at this place and he does not understand. His overeagerness rises again, and he tells Jesus – wash my whole body then.
Jesus gently teaches him – Peter and the disciples have accepted and believed in Jesus – that faith, although it will be tested over the coming hours, will cleanse them – Jesus demonstrates physically with the disciples what he is about to do spiritually – to cleanse and wash them from their sins. After Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension, Jesus entire work of humiliation, which leads to his glorification will become clear to Peter and the disciples.
[The cross is a once for all event – it deals with the core issue of our sin – it is the fundamental cleansing that Christ provides – and while we still have to have our subsequent sins washed away through confession and forgiveness – the fact we CAN come to the Father and receive forgiveness through prayer and our confession is BECAUSE of the cross.]
So why is footwashing not a sacrament in the church today? Well, Jesus tells his disciples that he has given them an example.
It is not the act that is necessarily important – but the principal that underlays that action.
If the Lord of glory is willing to become as lowly as the lowliest of slaves and willing to do the lowliest of tasks to those who are below him, how much more are the disciples of Jeus to do the same.
But the example did not stop there in that upper room. The example continues to the cross – echoing Jesus’ words to the disciples “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”
The example of Jesus Christ is proclaimed so loudly in these verses.
We are charged by Jesus to do as he did. To serve selflessly – to serve lovingly and even to serve your enemy.
Is it not even more remarkable that Jesus not only adopts the position of a menial non-jewish slave and not only washes his friends feet – but that he washes his enemy’s feet too – the one who will betray Jesus.
In the midst of all this there is Judas. There he was reclining at the table and he too had his feet washed by Jesus. But Jesus says, “Not all of you are clean.” Jesus knew that despite this awesome sign of new birth which Jesus bestows on Judas, Judas in his heart utterly rejects the sign and the action.
This is a fearsome warning in the middle of this great teaching. It reminds us that we can receive the most wonderful tokens of Gospel reality – whether they be Communion, Baptism or Church Life – YET, we may still fundamentally reject all that the light of the world offers to us because we do not embrace the humiliation of the cross and the crucified messiah.
The church in the west has not always responded to the charge of embracing the humiliation of the cross as completely as it might. When non-believers, or even new believers look at the church do they see this example of Christ in action – enacting the principle that underlays the washing of the feet – the service, the willingness to be humiliated in the service and proclamation of Jesus Christ – the willingness to lay down our life.
Think about the Senate in Washington, or the State Senate of South Carolina. Why are they not debating
how to respond to the radical actions of the church in our society today as the Roman Government had to in the 2nd Century with the early church? What about the command of Jesus that “you should do JUST AS I HAVE DONE FOR YOU.”
As Christians, serving or service is not an action – it is an attitiude – it is a lifestyle – it is part of the gospel. But we serve not to just help people – but to draw them to Christ. We serve with one finger pointing to the Cross.
As we approach Good Friday and Easter Sunday, let us meditate on whether we have embraced the Christ of the Cross – have we embraced both the humiliation and service, as well as the resurrection and the glorification. Are we serving Jesus Christ in a way that is beyond our comfort zones – even serving those who reject us and are our enemies.
This has been Jesus’ challenge to us through 2000 years of the Church – the totality and utter commitment that Jesus calls us to in his service. That the question is not whether we will serve or go to Church or worship or give some time – but whether – in our embracing of Jesus Christ and his ways, how we can bring our entire lives and families under the all encompassing service of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Our reading from Hebrews 9 this morning gives us a glimpse into the eternal reality of heaven. In fact the whole of Hebrews does this.
It mirrors much of the Old Testament through the incarnation – the reality – of Jesus. The Old Testament tells us Aaron was High priest, but Jesus IS our ultimate High priest. The Old Testament had a tabernacle, a holy of holies – an alter where the sacrfice of animals took place and Hebrews tells us that Jesus entered the heavenly tabernacle – he went into the heavenly holy of holies – that HE was THE sacrifice – that the shedding of HIS blood is what redeems us.
All this makes us realize that what happened on earth – with the tabernacle, the temple, the ritual was simply a mirror, a reflection of heaven. That the sacrifices Israel were asked to perform was a mirror, a type – a representation of the ONE sacrifice that was to come in Christ Jesus.
Nothing is random. Nothing is new.
The Tabernacle was not just a good idea but had its foundation in heaven before the foundation of the world. Christ’s sacrifice has been known about within the trinity since before the beginning of creation.
Which means that salvation – the redemption of humanity – was not an after thought – or plan B – but one that was ready to be executed since before the Garden of Eden and before Adam and Eve. God was not caught off guard with the fall – he does not say “Oh Adam, what have you done – what am I going to do now?” Jesus’ incarnation, death, resurrection were all planned before creation – as was Jesus’ role in the heavenly places after his acsension.
V24 of our reading from Hebrews this morning is quite amazing, because we see some thing of the role of the glorified Christ. For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God – why? On our behalf!
Right now – this second (if you can use seconds in regard to heaven) Jesus is the holiest place in the universe – in the Father’s presence ON OUR BEHALF. He is the once for all sacrifice which allows us to approach the throne of grace, as Heb 4:16 says. He is also our High Priest.
He is interceding for those who trust in and have accepted him as savior – Heb 7:25 says: Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost  k those who draw near to God l through him, since he always lives m to make intercession for them.
Does that not excite you this morning? Does that not make your entire day, week, month, year, this morning? If we trust in him as our savior our names are being mentioned in the eternal presence of the trinity as Christ intercedes on our behalf.
Christ has bore our sins – that has been done and finished.
The next time he appears, the next time he comes it will, as the writer of Hebrews says, to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. Is that you and I?
Are we eagerly awaiting him – knowing our sins have been dealt with; knowing that Christ is for us and not against. Knowing that he is in the presence of the Father on our behalf.
With this knowledge, let our worship this easter exalt our Lord and King – Thanking him that his sacrifice and his love for us enables us to be reconciled to God the Father.
HOMILY FOR MONDAY OF HOLY WEEK
What image comes into your mind when you hear the word worship? Church? Kneeling? Singing? The English dictionary says worship is: the feeling or expression of reverence and adoration for God.
Not a bad definition. It’s one we are comfortable with. When we come to church to enter a service we want to express our reverence and adoration to God. But is worship simply expressing our reverence and adoration to God? And what does that look like?
The problem with the dictionary definition is that it is too weak – and it’s not the meaning of worship in the Bible.
The New Testament word for worship is: pros-koo-neh’-o.
It means: to kiss the hand to (towards) one in token of reverence.
That gets a little more serious doesn’t it. We come to church in order to ‘kiss the hand’ of God – or the priest!!! But there is more.
The word comes from a derivative meaning to kiss, like a dog licking his master’s hand.
Complete and total submission!
This is what Mary does in our Gospel reading to Jesus. Mary has been on an emotional rollercoaster. Firstly, she saw her brother get ill. Secondly, she and her sister Martha send for their friend Jesus – but he does not come straight away and her brother dies. She is in despair. But then Jesus arrives and she dares to hope – and then Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead – Mary sees the ultimate miracle – the giving back of life to one whom was irreversibly dead!!
And how does she respond? She responds, as she should – with complete and utter submission to Jesus Christ. She comes and gives EXTRAVAGANT worship.
And Judas knows its extravagant! Its almost a years salary being poured out on Jesus. She is wiping his feet with her hair. What opposites – here is Mary giving everything to Jesus and Judas, who is very detached, unimpressed and even critical of Mary’s actions is the one who takes away from Jesus.
Jesus is cutting with Judas – Leave her alone.
The contrast between the generosity of Mary and the selfishness of Judas is stinging. Judas does not recognize what worship is. He does not understand what it is to truly come close to kiss, like a dog licking its masters hand as Mary has done. He is calling true worship a waste. Here we have a glimpse into how far Judas’ heart is from the Lord. This extravagant action of love was something Judas could not comprehend.
But Mary does understand.
Mary pours her extravagant worship out upon Jesus. She has no care for what it looks like – she has no concern about what people are thinking. She has no care whether it is appropriate or not to let her hair down like a prostitute would in public, or a wife in the private intimacy of being with her husband.
She gives no concern at the cost – to her reputation or financially – at her worship.
Each one of us come to church every week as one who was irreversibly dead but who, by the word and power of Jesus Christ have been made alive.
What would happen if came to church ready to give God extravagant worship and praise? What would happen if we came to church not caring what our worship cost us – whether personally or financially – What would happen if we came to church like a dog ready to kiss our masters hand?
It would change us beyond recognition – it would transform us.
But we can only do this if we truly, and deeply know and receive what Jesus did for us on the cross. When we have reached the point of knowing the reality of what Jesus accomplished for US – then we will willingly, with joy, want to come and give him extravagant worship.
This sermon is half the normal length due to the fact that in the Episcopal Church the Passion is read in full on Palm Sunday.
Palm Sunday: Phil 2:5-11
On what basis should we honor people. People are honored for their bravery; for their achievements; for their generosity; for their great acts.
Yet for Jesus, our passage from Philippians clearly says that God honored and exalted Jesus BECAUSE, he humbly and obediently submitted to death.
Let us pause for a moment to consider the type of death Jesus dies. Jesus does not go down fighting – he does not make a last stand – a glorious battle in which Jesus is killed for his beliefs. That is not what happened. In fact it was almost embarrassingly easy for the guards to come and arrest Jesus. We are told that they came prepared for a tough fight with clubs and swords. This was probably a group of guards thinking they were only minutes from a violent encounter – their adrenaline was pumping. They were probably volatile and ready to pounce.
Yet Jesus does NOTHING and allows himself to be arrested.
To the world he had quite simply lost. Another religious fanatic destroyed.
And the delusion held by the Pharisees and the Romans was that Jesus had been killed at their hands – at their instigation. Yet Jesus himself tells us in John 10 – I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.
In another Gospel, we are told that Jesus says he would call down 12 legions of Angels to rescue him if he wanted.
Is this not incredible.
One who was so utterly more powerful, who had at the simple command of his word the angelic army of the living God at his disposal and command who could come and instantly destroy all in that Garden – this one submits to them and does nothing.
This is what Paul says our own attitude should be like – that of Jesus Christ.
Throughout the Bible we are given the commands and exhortation to lay down our lives for God – to give up everything for him – to take up our cross and follow – not to resist an evil man – if struck on one check, then turn to him the other.
This does not just apply to us when we are weak or oppressed; when we cannot fight back; when we have nothing to fight back with. This applies to us even when we are strong and powerful – successful and impressive – when we COULD fight back.
We are to submit in our lives, in our relationships and even to our enemies in the same way Jesus does in our passion.
There were no limits to the way in which Jesus gave himself for others. There was no line drawn in the sand. He did not say “I will give up my privileges but I will not give up my life.” He did not say “ I will leave behind the glories of heaven but I will not be rejected by my Father”
To be sure there is an area in which Christ cannot be our example – we cannot copy his redemptive acts – we cannot suffer and die for the sins of the world. But with the help of God who dwells in us we can and should copy the Spirit that was basic to these acts.
But what about justice you might say.
I struggle with this as much as anyone does.
But my question today on this Palm Sunday, having read the Passion is “Was Jesus treated with Justice?”
And the answer is no. Not only that, but Jesus willingly, unflinchingly and silently allowed injustice to be heaped upon him. And not just that – but we are told that if the Master is treated like this then his servant should expect to be treated the same – a servant is not greater than his master.
The example of how we deal with injustice in the world is modeled for us in Christ.
But notice, He does not submit to injustice. He submits to God’s will – and that is a huge difference. Often people say “So Christian’s are to be doormats – they just submit to people who are mean to them or want to harm them”.
No. We are called to submit to Christ – to God the Father – to the direction of the Spirit – we submit to HIS commands and his teaching and if that results in us, or our family dying – being killed by an enemy, so be it. But we did not submit to our enemy – we submitted to Christ.
We must begin to change our whole way of thinking on justice as Christians. We need to switch from thinking how we can obtain justice – to trusting that our God will administer Justice.
Shouldn’t Jesus obtain his justice – should the blasphemy of the world ignoring the Savior be dealt with? We learnt a few weeks ago that God is patient in his mercy. But there will be a day when God DOES demand the accounting of all people – there will be a judgment day.
And not one word, not one person, not one action will be left out at the day of judgment. Jesus will demand an accounting for every careless word and action which has not been confessed and placed under the blood of Christ
As Paul says in our Epistle reading and Isaiah in our OT reading, the day WILL come – it will come when “every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear that JESUS CHRIST IS LORD.”
That is our hope. That is our consolation. That is our justice. That is how as Spirit filled believers we CAN forgive, how we can humble ourselves; how we can be obedient to God’s word. We submit to HIM only, knowing that without exception, true justice will be perfectly administered by the living God at the day of judgment.
Do we trust the Father explicitly with ALL injustice that has happened against us? Do we submit to Him, as Christ submitted to the Father, knowing that vindication comes with the judgment of God, not of man. If we here today are followers of Jesus, forgiven by the blood of the lamb, and are bitter, or angry, or frustrated because we have had injustice against us, because we have been wronged, because we have been abused, because we have been attacked, because we have been taken advantage of, stop striving for earthly justice. Be set free today and pray that God would take your anger, bitterness, frustration, pain and hurt and give you peace knowing that true and perfect justice will be found in God.
What does Mercy look like to you. Do you have an image of what mercy entails? What do we mean and expect from God when we say in our Liturgy “Lord Have Mercy Upon Us?” How would you define mercy? The dictionary defines mercy as having compassion or forgiveness toward someone whom it is within one’s power to punish or harm.
The misconception is that to show mercy is passive only. That it is a THOUGHT – a mental ascent – I will forgive / have compassion on someone.
That is not a biblical understanding of mercy. Mercy is not about being passive. In fact, with God, it’s just the opposite – God’s mercy is about action – and sometimes intense action.
Our reading from 2 Chronicles is an example of this. Israel is God’s chosen people; the people through whom the promise of God will come to all humanity. Yet his people have walked away from the ways of God. Being God’s people is more than a status – it is more than just being THE PEOPLE – it requires obedience – an obedience to God’s ways, no more and no less. So God, in his mercy, sends messenger after messenger to his people – prophet after prophet – to tell the people to change - to turn back to him.
My first encouragement to you this morning is that God’s mercy is patient.
How patient is he with us? How patient is he with his church? Outrageously patient. Our reading from 2 Chronicles shows us how restrained God is. The religious leaders of Israel, the priests and the officers were unfaithful to God and this has meant that the people are also unfaithful. The nation from the top down had turned away from the creator God. They had not just turned away from God – they had begun to follow all the abominations of the nations.
How patient has God been with you and I – when we get it wrong when we ignore him, when we fail to do the things he has asked of us? Infinitely. He has not judged us as we deserve time and time again.
One of the prophets sent to tell the Israelites to return to God is Jeremiah. He becomes a lone voice – a minority against the huge majority who are defying God.
To be in the majority does not mean you are right your thinking or position – the majority can be wrong – just as being in a minority does not mean you are wrong or mis-guided. A minority in scripture often has another name – a remnant; God’s people who stood against the tide of unfaithfulness to him.
God is patient.
But God’s mercy does not remain patient.
The people do not listen. What a dangerous place to put oneself – ignoring the words, the commands, the pleading and the petition of the living God.
The consequence is that God sends Babylon against Israel. Jerusalem is destroyed and the people of God sent into exile for a generation – 70 years.
Has God’s mercy ended?
No. But how can sending an army to destroy the nation of Israel and send them into exile be merciful?
When we persistently ignore God he will get our attention – and that may sometimes require what we would consider extreme action. God’s judges Israel for it’s rebellion but his judgment is NEVER, NEVER devoid of mercy in scripture. Even in God’s judgment there is mercy and that is shown by the fact that Israel survives. Psalm 137 - By the rivers of Babylon
God’s mercy is active.
God actively gets Israel’s attention.
God’s active mercy is both physical and spiritual. We see in our Gospel reading physical mercy – the crowd is hungry and from the other gospels we know Jesus had compassion on them and he tells his disciples to feed them. The disciples see no way that they could feed a crowd this size, but Jesus takes what is available and miraculously feeds them all.
Jesus’ healing are physical acts of mercy.
Our Epistle reading shows us God’s active mercy spiritually. Paul says that God is rich in his mercy – and that is shown in the incredible verse that says even when we were dead in our trespasses made us alive together with Christ.
In other words God’s mercy takes the initiative. He makes it possible for us to be reconciled with him. And He does that through judgment – judging his son, Jesus Christ, in our place, that his mercy may be made available – and through the resurrection of Jesus Christ making us alive spiritually and physically.
So, God’s mercy is firstly patient and secondly it is active.
Thirdly, God’s mercy is also available – to absolutely anyone. Paul says that the life given through Christ happened while we were still dead in our sins.
This mercy has nothing to do with us – whether we are nice people, or whether we are from good homes or not, or whether we have tried to be moral or not – it has absolutely nothing to do with these things – it comes down to one thing – do you believe what God has said and done in and through Jesus Christ is absolutely true? If yes then the mercy of God is poured out upon you.
All that is required to receive God’s mercy is to ask him for it.
Psalm 31:22: I had said in my alarm, “I am cut off from your sight.” But you heard the voice of my pleas for mercy when I cried to you for help
Psalm 116:1 says I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy.
Proverbs 28:13 says Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper,
but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.
And finally just hear the words of Isaiah, 30:18 Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him
What a fantastic image – the Lord God – the creator of the universe waits to be gracious to US. He is waiting to show us mercy. He says this morning to each of us “I want to be gracious to you, I am available – come on Andy, come on Prince George, I am waiting.”
And his showing mercy to us glorifies his name. We should want him to show us mercy because it glorifies him – his name is made great when we come to him asking for his mercy.
God’s mercy is patient; God’s mercy is active; God’s mercy is available now, and finally God’s mercy is eternal.
Paul tells us a wonderful truth in our epistle reading – that when we come to know the living God – being saved by grace alone God raises us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places.
When we believe and accept Jesus as Lord and savior we enter into his death, resurrection AND ascension. Our place is with Jesus for eternity – that is assured – it is guaranteed to all who follow Christ. Of course we are not perfect yet – we struggle, we still do the things we do not want to do – we are not yet without our bad tempers, or bad thoughts, or bad words, or bad actions - but the right to receive it fully has been secured and the new life has already begun here on earth. We are being governed by heavenly standards and motivated by heavenly impulses. Its power, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, enables us to be more than conquerors.
In view of God’s mercy, his patient, active, available and eternal mercy, where are we with God this morning? Is God being patient with us right now? Are we separated from him, doing our own thing, ignoring the ‘prophets’ who are sent to us to say ‘come to God – give your life to him – he loves you and he wants you to be in his kingdom.’
Or maybe is he actively showing his mercy to some of us right now. Maybe things are tough in life – is God trying to get our attention? Is he beckoning us to come to him and allow him into our life? Maybe we are already walking in God’s mercy right now – is God’s name being glorified in our lives? Or do we need to hear this morning that God’s mercy is available – its available to you I regardless of what we have done, or where we have been in life – he is waiting to be gracious to you, he is waiting to pour his mercy on us and we have nothing to bring to God for this – just our yes Lord – we believe and we are yours forever. Or maybe some of us are praising God because we know this morning that the Mercy of God in our life is eternal – and we are rejoicing and glorifying his name – and so Sunday morning’s is about the joy of praising his name.
Wherever we are let us cry out to him this morning asking for his holy spirit to fill us. As we come forward to share communion together ask God to meet with you in a powerful way. If necessary ask someone to pray with you after the service – speak to someone if you need to speak with someone. But please do not delay – God’s mercy is available this morning – he is patient, he is active and it is eternal. Receive it – and receive it fully.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
If we were really honest with ourselves we would admit that we struggle when people tell us what to do. In fact, its very likely that we more than struggle – we may highly dislike or even HATE people telling us what to do.
If you are anything like me, you have had to, on more than one occasion, fight to suppress frustration, annoyance or indignation when someone has told us what to do.
However nine times out of ten we tolerate it. We put up with it. We learn to accept it in certain circumstances because the result out-weights the consequence – you keep your job by doing what your boss says – you stay in school by doing what your teacher says – you obey your parents (sometimes) because you will remain safe and more importantly, might get to watch cartoons on Saturday.
Our aversion to being told what to do feeds into our selfishness – into our fallen nature – into that part of us that wants to say and, once in a while, may even slip out of our mouths at the wrong time – “What right do YOU have to tell me what to do.”
Of course there is one person who has EVERY right to tell us what to do. He has the right not just to tell us what to do but to command us to do it.
There is an anonymous poem that says:
Where our Captain bids us go,
‘Tis not ours to murmur no;
He that gives the sword and shield
Chooses too the battlefield.
Where we are to fight the foe.
This morning I want to share with you about obedience – the necessity of the Christian life to learn to do what the Lord has commanded us to do in his word – but I want to add that to learn the gift of obedience is a blessing. [And today we have living example – we are obeying the command of baptism by baptizing little Stella Welch – and that is a blessing!]
As a Christian – as a follower of the creator God obedience is not, should not be a chore – something to be tolerated – it is meant to be a blessing – a joy an honor – something that will lead us closer to and into more intimacy with our God.
This morning I want us to understand three ingredients which can help us in our obedience to God: Firstly, we need the help and encouragement of others to remain obedient; Secondly we need self-discipline and thirdly we need to want to obey.
In our Old Testament reading this morning – Naaman is a commander of the Syrian army. He is a military man – mighty in deeds – greatly successful – he knew the importance of obedience – an army cannot run without it.
Yet Naaman was a leper.
But he wants to be healed and so he goes to a foreign nation – to a prophet called Elisha and he is healed. But look at how Naaman comes to go to Elisha. His servant / slave girl from Israel tells Naaman’s wife about Elisha. Why would a slave want to help her master? But she does. Because of this Naaman is encouraged to go to the King for permission to go to Israel. Then, when he reaches Elisha’s front door he becomes angry because firstly, Elisha does not even show Naaman the courtesy of greeting him himself – which is outrageously disrespectful! And secondly the instruction is so basic – go wash in the Jordon seven times.
Naaman’s natural reaction is “No – who do you think you are to tell me to do this minor, trivial thing – I am not going to listen to you.” Naaman’s pride is getting in the way.
It takes the encouragement of Naaman’s servants – his slaves – who give him wisdom – if the prophet told you to do some great thing you would have done it – the issue here is Obedience – do what the prophet says – and he is healed.
Sometimes we need that encouragement – we need the wisdom of others to help us be obedient – that is why we are part of a church. We cannot be Christians on our own – we cannot hope to survive the journey of faith by ourselves – we need others to help us and encourage us when we are thinking “I refuse to do this” or “I don’t NEED to do that” to show us “No, you should really be doing this.”
We need others in our Christian walk to help us and encourage us to be Obedient to the Lord and to his ways – we need other mature, biblically focused, Christ centered people.
Then we have Paul the Apostle. Our Epistle reading sounds like hard work doesn’t it. I get tired just reading it. But his point is crucial for us as believers – while we need others to help us on our Christian journey we also need to cultivate self-discipline.
But don’t misunderstand Paul here – he is not talking about self-discipline for the sake of self-discipline or even for ascetic purposes. To do so, Paul says would be pointless and aimless – it would like a runner running a race without a finish line or a boxer fighting nobody. Not even the athletes who competed in the ancient games thought this. Self discipline for the sake of self disciple is stupid. Athletes trained – and they would train hard – going away for up to six months to train for specific games – but they trained for a purpose – to win a race and a wreath – a wreath which was laid on a persons head at the end of the games and in a matter of days would have withered and died.
What Paul does is make a comparison of an athlete who was willing to spend years in training and six months in pre-game training camp in order to win a perishable wreath as a prize with a Christian. Why would he do that? What’s his point?
Paul’s point is that the Christian life of self-discipline has a goal – and that goal is a blessing – it is to receive that which is imperishable. This is about eternity – the goal is to live forever in the presence of the eternal God. The goal is the salvation of our soul – the goal is eternal peace. The goal will last forever and ever. Thus, how much MORE training should we be willing to put in for a prize that is eternal.
God should captivate our hearts so powerfully that, with the Holy Spirit, we work to bring our thoughts and actions under God’s will and commands. Paul says in 2 Cor – take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.
However, although we may have people who are willing to help us and encourage us and although we may have some self-discipline we do need a final ingredient. And I think it’s the most important ingredient. We need to have the desire to want to obey God.
Our Gospel reading is remarkable. A leper approaches Jesus – breaking all known protocols. If Jesus had been a good religious man he would have rebuked this leper and fled. The equation is fairly safe is it not – something unclean touching something clean = something unclean.
But not with Jesus. When Jesus touches something that is unclean the unclean becomes clean. Also, notice that the leper approaches Jesus without promising he will repent or that he would even become a disciple or even a follower of Jesus. The leper makes no concession. Yet Jesus, out of his love and compassion FREELY heals the leper but then places a demand upon him.
He tells him to go to the temple and to present his healing to the priests for verification. Why does Jesus do this? Well, I think for three reasons – firstly the priests would examine him and then declare him clean and admit him back into the worshipping community which he had been excluded from. Secondly this would be a testimony to Jesus’ power and authority – having priestly verification of this lepers healing, when the priests and the leaders find out who healed him they would have irrefutable evidence from their own law and eyes that Jesus had healed him.
Thirdly, and most importantly, Jesus gives the healed leper a test – will you now obey the one who has healed you and restored you into the worshipping community. Do you desire to do what I, the one who healed, says.
Sadly, the answer was no.
The leper is given ALL of this simply by approaching Jesus and asking was he willing to heal him – but the leper chooses not to obey Jesus’ command to him, which by the way was not optional.
The same is true with faith & salvation. Salvation is offered freely – it does not depend on what we have done we can do nothing to receive it – it is offered from God’s mercy and grace. It costs us nothing, except our complete and full obedience to him and his word.
There was a consequence to disobeying Jesus. There was an undoubted consequence to the leper, who, while we do not know what became of him, we do know that if he remained unwilling to obey Jesus would place him in eternal danger. There was also the consequence to jesus’ ministry – it stopped Jesus entering some towns to minister.
While Obedience to God is a blessing – disobedience has real and eternal consequences.
Jesus is our ultimate example as always. Jesus knew obedience as a blessing. He obeyed his father in heaven with joy knowing that it would lead to glory. Throughout the gospels Jesus says time after time that he did only what he saw the father do and said only what the father says. He gathers 12 men around him to share in his journey – he has self-discipline of prayer and intimacy with God not because it was a chore or requirement but because of the joy he knew he would receive from it and his desire was to obey the Father completely – even to the point of dying on a cross.
Hebrews 12:2 says that for the joy that was before Jesus he endured the cross. In the Gospel of John Jesus says “I know that His (the fathers) command is eternal life.”
For the joy of obeying his heavenly Father Jesus was willing to die – That too should be our joy – enduring what comes to us, with the help of others, with self-discipline and because we want to obey – knowing our prize is imperishable – spending eternity in the new heaven and new earth.
There is a battle going on in the west. It is a battle between culture and nature – between the world’s values and our inner values. The battle is between individualism and community.
Individualism is something that our culture bombards us with. To be an individual is a sign of growth and maturity. In the last 50 to 100 years the tradition of the father teaching his son his trade in order to pass has almost disappeared. Close-knit communities where everyone knew everyone else are coming to an end. For many our families are scattered around the country and even the world Our schools educate our children towards the goal of independence – helping decide what they want to do, what college they want to go to, and what career they want to pursue and helping them to become ‘individuals.’
All this fits nicely into the definition of Individualism that stresses independence and self-reliance and the promotion and exercise of ones goals and desires while opposing external interference upon ones choices.
Many would not have too much of a problem with this definition. Surely it’s grown up to be independent, self reliant, pursuing our own goals and desires for life.
But our hearts are different. There is something within us – deep down in our spirits – that longs to belong to something. To be part of a community – to have companionship – to love and be loved.
A passion Kitty and I have is reading about Tudor History, Henry VIII etc. Recently I bought the HBO version of Elizabeth I that stars Helen Mirrem and Jeremy Irons. It is a wonderful and mostly accurate account of the middle and latter years of Elizabeth.
One of the things that struck us as we watched was that Elizabeth would use the plural when referring to herself – “Please leave us now.” Or, “We loved England with our whole life.”
Why would she do this? Because for Elizabeth she was not a woman, an individual, who happened to be the Queen – she WAS the Queen of England – that was her identity – that was her purpose – that was her life – she was inseparable from England – England was Elizabeth and Elizabeth was England.
How often do we refer to our work as “we”. I remember coming home from my first day at Lloyds Bank in London and Kitty saying “How was your day dear” and I said “It was great, we doing this and that”. Even after a day I was associating myself with Lloyds – I had become a we.
So what about Christianity and individualism?
Surely Christianity has individualism in it – do we not have to come to Christ individually – don’t we have to make the commitment to follow Jesus ourselves?
Yes. Each of us has to make an individual response to the message of God – but what we tend to forget is that this response is into a corporate body – at conversion our individual confession leads us into being part of one body – the of Christ.
It is this tension that we sometimes lose in the church.
Individualistic language and thinking is in the church. Phrases like “My church” or “I give MY money to my church” – or “My theology” or “my Bible” can indicate our individualistic thinking about God. We might even champion own agendas when it comes to the church under the guise of change.
But here is the problem. Individualism is not biblical.
It’s not biblical because firstly God is not an individualist and secondly individualism cannot embrace the love which scripture calls us to practice.
Foundationally God cannot be an individualist because God himself is Trinitarian – he has spent eternity in relationship with the father, the son and the Holy Spirit. That is why he says to Adam in Gen 2 “It is not good for man to be alone.” To be created in God’s image is to be created to relational, not individualistic.
Jesus was not an individualist. One of the very first things he does at the beginning of his ministry is to draw and group around him. I am sure Jesus could have accomplished his mission more efficiently and faster if he had worked alone – imagine all the time and effort he would have saved not having to stop and explain everything he did or to correct his disciples.
Yet He teaches and lives with and nurtures this small group – even allowing them to see and experience the intimacy of his relationship with the father – inviting three disciples to be present during the transfiguration.
Everything Jesus said, taught and did through his miracles and signs all pointed to a corporate message.
Jesus’ miracles were not primarily about what Jesus has done for the individual – although that is part of it – primarily Jesus’ miracles show what he has come to do for the Israel and for the whole world. John 3:16, “For God loved the world in this way: He gave His •One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life”.
Paul was not an individualist either. Our reading this morning from 1 Corinthians 8 shows this. Some of the Corinthian Christians were living in a liberty and freedom that was damaging others. They had knowledge of God – they knew that idols were nothing but wood or metal that could not talk or do anything. So, eating meat offered to non-existent idols and even eating in these non-existent idols temples was fine because they knew it had no power.
And Paul does agree with them in theory. But as Paul points out to them – not every one in the church in Corinth had this ‘Knowledge’ – and that those who were saved out of idol worship – who still felt guilty eating any meat offered to idols (and getting hold of meat not offered to idols was tough to do) – these members would see the stronger ones eating in the temple and it would cause problems for the weaker believer. It would like having a permanent bar in the parish hall, with church members drinking alcohol while an AA meeting s happening in the panel room. Paul tells the Corinthians to exercise their knowledge with love – in other words exercise your knowledge UNDER the teachings of Jesus.
So the right response for the Corinthian believer who knows there are no idols is to think corporately about how his knowledge and actions will affect others in the body of Christ.
The Knowledge of God does not lead to individualistic freedom – it should lead to love – the love of God and of others and this love will lead us to coming UNDER Christ’s commands and living as Jesus would have us live. Not living as you or I see fit, but in the context Jesus’ teachings– Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.
The knowledge of God that leads to this type of love means we no longer set our own agenda.
We are called to live under the one, true, eternal agenda of the one, true, eternal God.
Our reading from Deuteronomy 18 this morning is a wonderful example. The people realize that for them to hear the voice of God or to see his fire puts them in extreme danger. A holy God reveals himself and all that is unholy will burn up in his presence. The people understand this. So God promises to provide a mediator – a prophet – one like Moses who will speak with God and mediate between God and his people. But just because they do not have direct communion with god does not let the people off the hook – it does not mean they can set their own agendas. God says that the people are to do what this mediator – this prophet – says. They are to obey him and any who do not obey him and do what he says; God will hold such a person to account. Of course, Jesus is the fulfiment of this prophet – the ultimate mediator between man and God.
The Knowledge of God leads us to the love of God and of others which in turn leads us to become part of the body which leads us…. to come UNDER Christ and to obey the teachings of the one to whom even the demons obey and flee at his word – the second person of the trinity – God incarnate.
This is wonderful news for us. Its wonderful because when we came to Christ – when we join the body of Christ and came under his Lordship, we are accepted . Regardless of what the world thought of us; whether we were successful or a failure, whether we were rich or poor, whether we were popular or unpopular, whether we were educated or uneducated, in Christ, we are loved and we are part of the body.
We will NEVER hear the words “We don’t need you.” All who accept Christ and come under his teaching have a role, a purpose, and a place, which is GIVEN to us by God. We will never be alone because Christ has promised never to forsake us.
Paul’s teachings else were confirms this – 1 Cor 12 is all about how each of us is part of one body – we were baptized into one body. Paul says, there are many parts but ONE body, so the eye cannot say to the hand “I don’t need you”. Paul says in 1 Cor 12 v18 but now God has placed the parts, each one of them, in the body JUST AS HE WANTED. And if they were all the same part, where would the body be? Now there are many parts, yet one body.
By obeying the teachings of the Lord of all Creation – the Messiah – Jesus Christ, we will find ourselves truly free – we will not need to be under the bondage of trying to be individuals, making our own decisions and messing up, but following the true, radical, powerful ways of our God who has placed us as part of his body – each with a role, each as important as the other, each working for the glory and worship of our God.