Tawa Baptist

Worship at home service – 31 May 2020

Welcome and Opening Prayer

Good morning and welcome everyone.

You may like to light a candle as a reminder that Christ is present.

Today is Pentecost Sunday, when we celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit and the birthday of the church. We read about this event in Acts chapter 2. Centuries before this though (in the time of the Old Testament) the prophet Joel predicted the day when God would pour out his Spirit. From Joel chapter 2 we read…

17 ‘This is what I will do in the last days, God says:
    I will pour out my Spirit on everyone.
Your sons and daughters will proclaim my message;
    your young men will see visions,
    and your old men will have dreams.
18 Yes, even on my servants, both men and women,
    I will pour out my Spirit in those days,
    and they will proclaim my message.

May the Lord bless the reading of his word.

Prayer

We thank you Father God for the work of your Holy Spirit who draws us to you and makes Jesus real in our daily lives. Bless this service of worship we pray. Amen.  

Sung Worship

Listen and/or sing along to the following songs – on YouTube or Spotify.

  • Be still for the presence of the Lord, the Holy One is here
  • There’s nothing worth more (Holy Spirit)

Prayer of Thankfulness

When we pray it is important to acknowledge what is true. Part of acknowledging the truth is thanking God for the good things. Following is a prayer of thankfulness. Some of these things may or may not be true for you. In any case, use the words to inspire your own prayer of thankfulness to God. Let us pray…

Living God, thank you for the little things which open a window on your goodness and love.

Thank you for freshly baked bread, the smell, taste and texture of it.

Thank you for cold blue sky days and rainbows on grey drizzly days.

Thank you for the right word in season offered unconsciously.    

Thank you for the big things that remind us you are in control.

Thank you that the earthquakes earlier in the week did not wreak destruction.

Thank you for limiting the spread of Covid-19 in NZ through wise government and a responsible public.

Thank you for rain in those parts of the country which have suffered drought.

But Lord, not everything in this past week has been welcome or pleasant. Some things have hurt us. Some things we regret. Some things have made us sad, other things have made us angry. Yet, when bad things happen it makes us want your goodness, your will, your kingdom to come even more.

So we thank you God for your wisdom and power to bring good out of any situation.

We thank you for not wasting anything; for redeeming your creation.

We thank you for your Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus, who intercedes for us with groans and sighs too deep for words and who helps us to glorify you and enjoy you forever. Amen.

More Sung Worship

Listen and/or sing along to the following songs on YouTube or download on Spotify.

  • Great are you Lord (You give life…)
  • When I look into your holiness (I worship you)
  • This is the air I breathe

Sermon

You can either read the sermon notes on the ‘Sermons’ page of this website. Or, listen to an audio recording of the sermon via the following link:

Prayer

Let us pray. (You could pray this prayer responsively if you like.)

Lord Jesus, you are generous. Help us to enjoy your kindness and pay it forward.

Gracious Spirit, dwell with me.

Lord Jesus, you are wise. Help us to be honest with ourselves and to listen.

Truthful Spirit, dwell with me.

Lord Jesus, you are gentle. Help us to guard our hearts and let you in.

Tender Spirit, dwell with me.

Lord Jesus, you are courageous. Help us to harness hope and go the distance.

Mighty Spirit, dwell with me.

Lord Jesus, you are enough. Help us to serve your purpose in the present moment, with love.

Holy Spirit, dwell with me. Amen.

Song – Gracious Spirit, dwell with me

Listen and/or sing along to the song ‘Gracious Spirit, dwell with me’, on YouTube or Spotify.

Benediction / Blessing

Proclaim the following blessing…

‘The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance on you and give you his peace. Amen.’

Tawa Baptist

Gracious Spirit

Scriptures: John 1:17, John 8:1-11, Proverbs 4:23, Luke 9:51-56, John 16:5-16, 1st Peter 1:13-15

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Grace & truth
  • Tenderness & Might
  • Holiness & sanctification
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

Some of you may have paddled kayaks or gone rafting on rivers. You will know how powerful a river is. A river is life giving, flexible and patient. Water always finds a way.  

In years gone by rivers were a means of transport, a highway of sorts. Boats would travel from place to place up and down rivers because the forest was too thick or the terrain was too rugged. When you travel on a river you need to respect the current; to cooperate with the flow of it. If you just drift and let the river take you, it won’t be long before you find yourself in trouble.

In some ways the Holy Spirit is a bit like a river. He is both powerful and life giving. Just as a river can carry us along to our destination, so too the Holy Spirit helps us in our journey of faith. However, we can’t afford to simply drift and let the river do all the work. We have to cooperate with the Spirit by reading the changing eddy lines and putting in some effort to guide our soul in the right direction.

Today we continue our ‘Anthems’ series. In this series we are looking at the lyrics of one hymn or Christian worship song each week to see how that song informs our thinking about God and how it connects with Scripture and the heritage of our faith.

This morning, because it is Pentecost Sunday, we are looking at the song Gracious Spirit, dwell with me. As the name suggests, Gracious Spirit is a song about the Holy Spirit. In particular, it is a prayer about cooperating with the ebb and flow of the Holy Spirit in the journey of becoming more like Christ.

Gracious Spirit, dwell with me was written by Thomas Lynch, a Nineteenth Century London church minister. Although Thomas’ congregations were relatively small his reach was larger. The quality of his preaching attracted theological students and thoughtful people who had an influence on others.

He died in 1871 at the age of 52. His last words were: “Now I am going to begin to live.”   

There are 5 verses to Thomas Lynch’s song, each of which focus on a different facet of the Holy Spirit’s character. Verse 1 focuses on grace, verse 2 on truth, verse 3 on tenderness, verse 4 on might and verse 5 on holiness. (Verse 3 is not included in the Baptist Hymnal, so you may not be familiar with that one.)

These five facets are not the only characteristics of the Spirit; they are simply the ones Thomas Lynch thought were appropriate for the people of his day. All five facets align with the character of Christ.

What we notice is that the first two verses, about grace & truth, form a natural pair as do the second two verses, about tenderness and might. While the last verse, about holiness, offers a kind of summary or conclusion. 

Grace & truth:

In the opening chapter of his gospel, John writes: For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

This tells us the Spirit of Jesus is a Spirit of grace and truth, in contrast to the law of Moses which has to do with obligation and guilt.

Grace, as we know, means gift. To receive grace is to be given something good, something beautiful that we don’t deserve. Grace is unmerited favour. Truth is the natural companion of grace. We tend to think of truth as the correct or right information and, while it is that, it’s more than that. Truth is lasting or eternal. Truth is a power, something that sets people free. Truth is also a person. Jesus said, “I am the way the truth and the life.” Jesus, in himself, embodies grace and truth together. He doesn’t separate them.        

The truth & grace of Jesus is like a surgeon’s scalpel. A scalpel may hurt but it also heals at the same time. All truth and no grace is like a hammer; it causes pain without healing. Likewise, all grace and no truth is like putting a band aid on an infected wound. It may be well intentioned but it doesn’t actually deal with the cause of the problem.

Everything Jesus did combined grace and truth. The grace & truth of Jesus, in contrast to the obligation & guilt of the law of Moses, is seen clearly in John chapter 8.

One morning, around dawn, Jesus was teaching in the temple courts. People were gathered around him listening when the teachers of the law and the Pharisees presented a woman caught in adultery. Straight away we wonder where the man is? According to the law of Moses he had to face up to what he had done as well. Sadly, the religious leaders’ intention was not gracious or true. Their purpose was to try and trap Jesus.

They made the woman stand before everyone and said to Jesus, ‘The law of Moses commanded us to stone such women. What do you say?’

They think they have Jesus between a rock and a hard place. If Jesus says, “stone her”, then he would be in trouble with the Romans because Jews had to submit Roman law. But if he says, “don’t stone her”, he would lose face with the people for contradicting the law of Moses.

Jesus doesn’t answer straight away. He bends down and starts writing on the ground with his finger. We are not sure exactly why Jesus did this. Perhaps he was being kind and giving his enemies a chance to walk away; de-escalating the situation in other words. But it’s also an act of grace for the woman. By writing on the ground he was drawing attention away from the woman and onto himself. I imagine the woman felt overwhelming shame and the last thing she wanted was a lot of men looking at her.

The experts in the law don’t take the hint. They keep questioning Jesus. So Jesus straightens up and says to them, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”

This sentence embodies both grace and truth. Jesus had the power to expose the secret sins of his enemies – that is to major on truth without grace – but he doesn’t. Instead Jesus makes a skilful incision with his scalpel of grace and truth to release the infection and cleanse the wound.

One by one the truth dawns on each person there – the truth about themselves. As they remember their own sins, their conscience is moved. They drop their stones and walk away.

Eventually it’s just Jesus and the woman left standing there. Once again Jesus speaks words of grace and truth saying to the woman,

“Where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

“No one, sir” she said.

“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go and leave your life of sin.”  

Grace and truth you see. Jesus does not condemn the woman. He gives her a second chance. But nor does he condone her sin. He puts her on the right path.

Verse 1 of the song reads…

Gracious Spirit, dwell with me: I myself would gracious be;
And, with words that help and heal, would Thy life in mine reveal;
And, with actions bold and meek, would for Christ my Saviour speak.

Meek is a word which describes strength with gentleness. Meekness is not weakness. Meekness is great power under control. Jesus demonstrated meekness in his handling of the crowd who wanted to stone the woman. He could have smashed his enemies but he doesn’t. Instead he does the more difficult thing of respecting his enemies and helping them from within. 

Verse 2 of the song, the companion to verse 1, reads…

Truthful Spirit, dwell with me: I myself would truthful be;
And with wisdom kind and clear let Thy life in mine appear;
And with actions brotherly speak my Lord’s sincerity.

Again we see the kind and clear wisdom of Jesus in his response to the woman in John 8. I am in awe of Jesus’ grace and truth. His calmness in highly pressured situations. His ability to know clearly what to do and the courage to carry it through without doing violence. We need the help of the Spirit to be like Jesus. Thomas Lynch’s song repeatedly asks the Spirit to dwell with us so that we would think and act in Christ-like ways. 

We started this message by comparing the Holy Spirit to a river. The Spirit is also like the wind.

As Christians we are on a journey – it is the journey of becoming more like Christ. This journey is epic, like travelling from one continent to another. It is too far to swim. We need help. If faith in Jesus is the boat for getting us to the land of Jesus, then the Holy Spirit is the wind in our sails. But we have to cooperate with the Spirit. We have to pay attention to the way the wind is blowing and trim our sails to catch it. While the journey to becoming more like Christ doesn’t depend on us entirely there is some concentration and effort required on our part.

Tenderness & might:

Just as verses 1 & 2 of the song are companion verses, so too verses 3 & 4 go together. The Spirit of Jesus is both tender and mighty. Tenderness and might don’t look like they fit at first glance but, in Jesus, these qualities are a perfect match.  

Verse 3 reads…

Tender Spirit, dwell with me! I myself would tender be;
Shut my heart up like a flower at temptation’s darksome hour,
Open it when shines the sun, and his love by fragrance own.

This verse of the song reminds us that the way to be tender and gentle is to guard our heart. Proverbs 4:23 reads,

“Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the well spring of life.”

We guard our hearts by keeping temptation out and letting the light of God’s goodness and love in.

The importance of the human heart is found throughout Scripture. The prophets warned against having a hard heart and looked forward to the time when God would give people a heart transplant: removing their heart of stone and replacing it with a heart of flesh, a soft and tender heart toward him. It is the Spirit of Jesus who softens our heart. It is grace & truth that makes us tender on the inside, at our core.

If you burn your dinner while cooking it, you might end up with some crusty stubborn charred food stuck to the bottom of the pot. You can try and clean this quickly with steel wool and harsh scrubbing. Or you can let the pot soak in water and detergent overnight. It takes longer soaking it but the hard stuck on food softens in the process and comes off easier. God’s Spirit is tender, not rough. He often takes the slow, gentle approach with us, letting us soak for a while to soften up our burnt crusty stubborn bits. 

A tender heart is a necessary companion to mightiness and power.

Verse 4 of the song reads…

Mighty Spirit, dwell with me! I myself would mighty be,
Mighty so as to prevail where unaided man must fail,
Ever by a mighty hope pressing on and bearing up.

The Spirit of Jesus is tender and gentle but tenderness should not be mistaken for timidity or lack of courage. The might of Jesus redefines strength and courage. We’ve already heard about Jesus’ courage in facing an angry crowd in John 8 but there were many other times when Jesus’ might prevailed in non-violent ways. The might (or power) of Jesus is the strength to love one’s enemies and the grace to forgive. In Luke 9 we read… 

51 As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. 52 And he sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him; 53 but the people there did not welcome him, because he was heading for Jerusalem. 54 When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?” 55 But Jesus turned and rebuked them. 56 Then he and his disciples went to another village.

This story shows us Jesus’ might in keeping a tender heart. The Samaritans and Jews were arch enemies. Generally speaking, they hated each other. But that did not stop Jesus from reaching out to them. Jesus’ heart was tender toward them.

On this particular occasion one Samaritan village refused hospitality to Jesus and his disciples. Not all Samaritan villages treated Jesus in this way. Some welcomed Jesus.[1] The wonderful thing about Jesus is that he didn’t let rejection harden his heart. Jesus could have reacted in anger and called down fire from heaven to destroy them but he doesn’t. Instead he guards his heart, keeping it tender. That village rejected Jesus in ignorance and Jesus graciously moved on to the next village, without making a fuss. Can you see how Jesus’ might and tenderness go together? It requires real strength to be gentle and not take revenge.

Returning to verse 4 of the song, we see another aspect of might – the might of hope. The last line reads: Ever by a mighty hope pressing on and bearing up.

The idea here is that of patient endurance and tenacity. As I said before, it is a long road to become like Christ. It is the Spirit who inspires the hope we need to go the distance and not give up.  

The Biblical images for the Holy Spirit, of wind and water, are helpful but they only give us pieces of the picture. Wind and water are powerful but they are not personal. We need to remember the Holy Spirit is a person. Wind and water cannot inspire hope in quite the same way a person can.

In John 16, the night before he died, Jesus explained to his disciples how the Holy Spirit would come to help them. Jesus described the Holy Spirit in personal terms as a Counsellor or an Advocate. The Greek word used here to describe the Holy Spirit is ‘paraclete’, which literally means ‘one who comes alongside’. Verse 13 of John 16 reads: “But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth… and he will tell you what is to come.”

I find it helpful to think of the Holy Spirit as a coach. If you’ve ever been part of a sports team you probably had a coach. A good coach comes alongside the players to inspire hope. A good coach gives the players a picture of future success. A good coach encourages and guides the players by speaking the truth to them in a way they can accept. A good coach listens and understands and motivates and gets the best out of their team by helping them to work together.

If we think of the church as a sports team, then the Holy Spirit is the coach. He comes alongside us to help us become more like Jesus.          

Holiness & sanctification:

And so we come to the last verse of the song…

Holy Spirit, dwell with me: I myself would holy be;
Separate from sin, I would choose and cherish all things good;
And whatever I can be, give to Him who gave me Thee.

To be holy primarily means to be set apart for a special purpose. You might have a tea set or silverware that you set apart for special occasions. You don’t use it every day. That is holy in a sense.

The defibrillator on the wall outside the church office is holy – it is set apart for a special purpose but at the same time it is accessible to the community.

A surgeon’s scalpel is holy – it is sterilised and set apart for one purpose only, operating on people.

Your dinner table is holy – it is set apart for serving food. You don’t sit on a table because bottoms shouldn’t go where food goes.

Likewise, your toothbrush is holy. You don’t use your toothbrush for cleaning the toilet. Your toothbrush is set apart for cleaning your teeth.    

Holiness also has to do with wholeness and integrity and good morality. As followers of Jesus we are set apart for God’s special purpose. That includes being set apart from sin but not set apart from the world. We are in the world to point people to Jesus and indeed to reveal Jesus.

In 1st Peter, chapter 1 we read…

13 Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. 14 As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. 15 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do;16 for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”

The process of becoming holy, like Jesus, is called sanctification. The task of the Holy Spirit is to effect in us what God commands. [2] Our task is to cooperate with the Holy Spirit in the process of becoming holy.

So how do we become holy? How are we sanctified? The French Jesuit priest, Jean-Pierre de Caussade has some helpful things to say in this regard. [3] Jean-Pierre lived during the 17th & 18th Centuries. He basically said we are sanctified by doing the will of God, that is, by obedience to the Spirit of Jesus. This does not mean blindly following a set program of spiritual exercises. Rather it means being sensitive to the promptings of the Spirit and doing what the Spirit directs us to do in the present moment. Much like cooperating with the current of a river or trimming our sails to catch the shifting wind or taking the specific advice of a sports coach.   

For example, if the Spirit is prompting us to be still in silence, then sanctification (being made holy) happens as we do that. If we try to read Scripture or pray out loud when the Spirit is telling us to meditate quietly, then our soul will emerge troubled. There is nothing wrong with reading Scripture and praying out loud of course. At certain times (when the Spirit directs) this is what we need to do. But it is not always the right thing to do. “All we need to know is how to recognise his will in the present moment.” [4]

And I guess that’s where it gets tricky. It takes time and experience to learn sensitivity to the Spirit. Sensing the Spirit’s movement is like communication in marriage. The longer you are married the better able you are to sense what your husband or wife is thinking. Or it’s like batting in cricket. You need to give yourself a few overs to get your eye in and feel how the pitch is playing.

The point is we are sanctified, we are made holy like Jesus, as we cooperate with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit knows us intimately and he knows what is best for us. We need to trust him and flow with him.

Conclusion:

Not sure about you but it often feels like I have a long way to go to become like Jesus. Progress seems incrementally slow. It doesn’t help to think too much about the gap. It is helpful to remember that sanctification is a process and it doesn’t depend entirely on us. We don’t need to worry about our past mistakes or the distance yet to travel. The past and the future are in God’s hands.

Our part is to obey the Spirit in the present moment. So ask yourself: what is the Holy Spirit wanting me to do right now?

Is it to sit still and rest?

Is it to pour out your heart in words and tears before the Lord?

Is it to take a walk outside?

Is it to ring someone who needs to hear a friendly voice?

Is it to listen to your husband or wife?

Or is it something else?

Let us pray. (You could pray this prayer responsively if you like)

Lord Jesus, you are generous. Help us to enjoy your kindness and pay it forward.

Gracious Spirit, dwell with me.

Lord Jesus, you are wise. Help us to be honest with ourselves and to listen.

Truthful Spirit, dwell with me.

Lord Jesus, you are gentle. Help us to guard our hearts and let you in.

Tender Spirit, dwell with me.

Lord Jesus, you are courageous. Help us to harness hope and go the distance.

Mighty Spirit, dwell with me.

Lord Jesus, you are enough. Help us to serve your purpose in the present moment, with love.

Holy Spirit, dwell with me. Amen.

Let’s stand and sing, Gracious Spirit, dwell with me. Make this your prayer…  

1. GRACIOUS Spirit, dwell with me:
I myself would gracious be;
And, with words that help and heal,
Would Thy life in mine reveal;
And, with actions bold and meek,
Would for Christ my Saviour speak.

2. Truthful Spirit, dwell with me:
I myself would truthful be;
And with wisdom kind and clear
Let Thy life in mine appear;
And with actions brotherly
Speak my Lord’s sincerity.

3. Tender Spirit, dwell with me!
I myself would tender be;
Shut my heart up like a flower
At temptation’s darksome hour,
Open it when shines the sun,
And his love by fragrance own.

4. Mighty Spirit, dwell with me!
I myself would mighty be,
Mighty so as to prevail
Where unaided man must fail,
Ever by a mighty hope
Pressing on and bearing up.

5. Holy Spirit, dwell with me:
I myself would holy be;
Separate from sin, I would
Choose and cherish all things good;
And whatever I can be,
Give to Him who gave me Thee.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

Listen to the song ‘Gracious Spirit, dwell with me’.  What are you in touch with as you listen to this song? (What connections, memories or feelings does the song evoke for you?) 

Have you ever gone swimming or kayaking or rafting on a river? What do you remember about your experience of the river? In what ways is the Holy Spirit like a river?

How is the grace & truth of Jesus evident in John 8:1-11? Can you think of any other gospel stories that show Jesus’ grace & truth working together? 

Have you ever been sailing or flown a kite? What do you remember about your experience of the wind? In what ways is the Holy Spirit like the wind?

Why is it important to guard your heart? How might we guard our heart from evil, while still allowing the goodness and love of God in?

How do Jesus’ tenderness and might combine in Luke 9:51-55?  Can you think of any other gospel stories that show Jesus’ tenderness & might working together?

Have you ever had a sports coach? What does a good coach do? In what ways is the Holy Spirit like a good coach?

What is sanctification? How did Jean-Pierre de Caussade believe we are made holy? How might we recognize the will of God’s Spirit in the present moment?

Take some time each day this week to ask yourself: ‘What is the Spirit wanting me to do right now?’

[1] See for example John 4.

[2] Refer Stanley Grenz, ‘Theology for the Community of God’, page 442.

[3] Refer ‘Devotional Classics’, edited by R.J. Foster & J.B. Smith, page 230-233.

[4] Ibid, page 231.

Tawa Baptist

Worship at home service – 24 May 2020

Welcome and Opening Prayer

Good morning and welcome everyone.

You may like to light a candle as a reminder that Christ is present.

Last Thursday was Ascension day, so this morning (Sunday 24 May 2020) we celebrate the Ascension of Jesus to heaven. Following his resurrection Jesus appeared to his disciples on a number of occasions before being taken up to heaven where he sits at the right hand of God the Father, interceding (praying) for us.

From Acts 1:6-11 we read an account of Jesus’ ascension:

6 Then the disciples gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

9 After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.

10 They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11 “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”

May the Lord bless the reading of his word.

Sung Worship

Ascension Sunday is about recognising and celebrating the exaltation of Jesus. Exaltation is word which basically means ‘lifted up’ or ‘promoted’. Jesus has been exalted to the highest place. Listen and/or sing along to the following songs – on YouTube or Spotify.

  • He exalted, the King is exalted on high…
  • Jesus, God’s righteousness revealed

Prayer of Adoration

Jesus, we adore you. Your goodness undoes our pride. You know us. You listen to us. You understand us. You walk with us. You want what is best for us. You do not indulge us, nor do you condemn us. You are kind. You challenge us when that is what we need. You do not hurry us, you are patient. You encourage us, correct us, lead us and love us. You are both highly exalted and down to earth. You are God and you are human. Jesus, you are our shepherd and we adore you. Be real for us in this service of worship we pray. Amen.   

More Sung Worship

Listen and/or sing along to the following songs on YouTube or download on Spotify.

  • Your grace is enough (This is our God)
  • Falling on my knees in worship (Came to my rescue)

Intercessory Prayer

In 1st Timothy 2 we read: I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people— 2 for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. 3 This is good, and pleases God our Saviour, 4 who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.

With this in mind let us pray…

Saving God, we think of the world you love. We pray for the people of West Bengal and Bangladesh who are affected by Cyclone Amphan. Millions of people have been displaced from their homes. We ask for your hand of protection over the people of West Bengal. Thank you that the damage in Bangladesh was not as bad as feared. May you strengthen local churches at this time and give them wisdom to know how best to serve their communities.

Sovereign God, we ask for your blessing on the Muslim community who are completing Ramadan and celebrating Eid this weekend. We pray for those who have lost loved ones in the plane crash in Pakistan. Magnify your goodness in their hour of need.  

Wise God, we pray too for our government in NZ. May you guide our leaders as they seek the well-being of this country. We thank you for limiting the negative impacts of Covid-19 here in NZ and ask your special mercy and grace for those parts of the world who are most vulnerable to the spread of this disease.

Compassionate God, we pray for all who are unwell or in hospital. May they receive the treatment they need in a timely way. Thank you for the high standard of medical care we enjoy in NZ. Bless our medical workers who serve as your hands and feet. 

Suffering God, we pray for the persecuted church overseas. Give our brothers and sisters in Christ the grace, strength and wisdom they need to stand firm in the faith. Bless them with all they need and protect them body and soul. Bless your church in NZ too we ask. Keep us close to you Lord Jesus.

[Take some time now to pray specifically for those people and situations that are close to your heart.]

We thank you Father God for your Son Jesus and for your Spirit who intercede for us. May your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Amen. 

General Offering

As you make your offering sing: ‘Jesus, name above all names’ (on YouTube or Spotify)

Pray: ‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, you are our Saviour. You have come to make all things new, to restore creation, to restore us in the image of God. Thank you for your generous provision and care. Amen.’

Sermon

You can either read the sermon notes attached to this email. Or, listen to an audio recording of the sermon & intercessory prayer via the following link:

Song – He Must Be God

Listen and/or sing along to ‘He Must Be God’ (first line: ‘Jesus healed a paralysed man…’) Google the song on YouTube or Spotify.

Benediction / Blessing

Proclaim the following blessing…

‘The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance on you and give you his peace. Amen.’

Tawa Baptist

He Must Be God

Scripture: Mark 2:1-12, Mark 4:35-41, Mark 6:30-44, Ezekiel 34:11-15

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Mark 2:1-12 – Saviour (Christology from below & above)
  • Mark 4:35-41 – Creator (A pathway to faith in Christ)  
  • Mark 6:30-44 – Shepherd (Functionally and ontologically divine)
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

There is a phrase used in law known as prima facie. It means ‘at first sight’ or ‘on the face of it’. Sometimes things seem quite simple and straight forward, based on first appearances, but when we dig a little deeper and look beneath the surface we find there is more to the picture than meets the eye.    

Today we continue our ‘Anthems’ series. In this series we are looking at the lyrics of one hymn or Christian worship song each week to see how that song informs our thinking about God and how it connects with Scripture and the heritage of our faith.

The song we are looking at this morning is called He Must Be God. Many of you will recognise this song by the chorus, where we sing ‘How cool is that’. The lyrics were written by Bryson Smith, while Philip Percival wrote the music. It was published by Emu Music Australia in 2003.

I’ve chosen He Must Be God for this week’s message because it is Ascension Sunday, a day in the church calendar when we give special attention to Jesus’ exaltation (his ascension) to heaven. Prima facie, or at first sight, He Must Be God seems like a simple kids’ song. But, when we dig a little deeper, we find there’s quite a bit going on beneath the surface.

He Must Be God presents three stories about Jesus from the gospel of Mark and uses these to make the case that Jesus wasn’t just a man, he was also God.  

Mark 2:1-12 – Salvation

The song’s first verse and chorus reads…

Jesus healed a paralysed man who was brought to him.
Jesus healed him, so he could show: He forgives our sin.
How cool is that! How cool is that! He told the man to pick up his mat. 
He must be God ‘cause he did that, How cool is that!

This recalls Mark 2, verses 1-12, where Jesus heals a man who was paralysed. This man was carried to Jesus, on a mat, by his friends. When they arrived at the house where Jesus was staying they couldn’t get in because of the crowd. So they climbed on the roof, dug a hole and lowered their friend down to Jesus.

The friends wanted Jesus to heal the man, so he could walk again but Jesus had a broader more comprehensive plan of salvation in mind. Jesus wants to heal the whole person, body & soul. From verse 5 of Mark 2 we read…

5 Seeing how much faith they had, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, “My son, your sins are forgiven.”

6 Some teachers of the Law who were sitting there thought to themselves, 7 “How does he dare talk like this? This is blasphemy! God is the only one who can forgive sins!”

8 At once Jesus knew what they were thinking, so he said to them, “Why do you think such things? 9 Is it easier to say to this paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, pick up your mat, and walk’? 10 I will prove to you, then, that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the paralyzed man, 11 “I tell you, get up, pick up your mat, and go home!”

12 While they all watched, the man got up, picked up his mat, and hurried away. They were all completely amazed and praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us.

What we notice in this passage is that Jesus does some things that only God can do and each of these things is an act of salvation.

Firstly, Jesus says to the man, ‘Your sins are forgiven.’ We don’t know what this man had done wrong. But we do know that any sin is an offence to God and only God can grant a pardon. As human beings we can forgive people. We can release them from a debt they may owe us. This means we stop reminding ourselves and them of what they have done wrong. But that is not the same thing as divine forgiveness. God’s forgiveness carries more weight, more authority, more mana. God forgives in the way a judge or a king pardons a criminal.

Imagine someone steals your car, takes it for a drunken joy ride and smashes it into a power pole, before getting caught. You can forgive them. You can say, I’m not going to hold this against you. I’m not going to require you to repay me for wreaking my car. But your forgiveness doesn’t erase their guilt under the law. They may still need to face a court hearing and possibly go to jail. In that situation only the judge can pardon them under the law.

When Jesus told the man his sins were forgiven he was doing something only God had the authority to do – he was pardoning the man, giving him a get out of jail free card. To the teachers of the law, who were essentially lawyers, it appeared (prima facie) that Jesus had overstepped his jurisdiction and they thought to themselves, 7 “How does he dare talk like this? This is blasphemy! God is the only one who can forgive sins!”

Blasphemy was a big deal for the Jews at that time in their history. Blasphemy means to show contempt or disrespect for God and was punishable by death.

Of course there have been many people in human history who thought they were God. So Jesus proved he had divine authority by healing the man, physically. When the man picked up his mat and walked off everyone praised God because they knew only God could pull off a miracle like that.              

I said before that the song, He Must Be God, appears quite simple, prima facie. But when we dig a little deeper we find there is more going on. The technical word, that experts use, to describe what this song is doing is Christology. Christology is the study of the identity and mission of Jesus Christ.

Throughout the past 2000 years there have been (broadly speaking) two main approaches to doing Christology. That is, ‘Christology from below’ and ‘Christology from above’. [1]

Christology from below has its basis in human history. It says that statements of faith about Jesus the Messiah find their proper foundation in actual events in history. In other words, if we want to know who Jesus is and what he came to do we have to start with the gospel accounts of Jesus’ life and work.   

The song He Must Be God clearly uses a Christology from below approach. It looks at three historical accounts from the gospels and works out who Jesus is from that. Jesus saved a man from both his sins and his paralysis. Only God could do that, therefore Jesus must be God.    

The other approach to understanding Jesus is Christology from above. This approach says that we know who Christ is by our personal experience of him now, in the present. For example, the Holy Spirit descends from above and causes us to realise the truth about Jesus.

Now it’s not a case of either/or. With Christ it is a case of both/and. We need both history and personal experience to know Jesus. If you can imagine your faith in Jesus as a sailing ship, then history is the hull and deck of the boat on which you stand and personal experience is the sail, which the wind of God’s Spirit fills. Without the deck of history your faith sinks. Without the sail of personal experience your faith is stagnant, going nowhere.

I like what Stanley Grenz says. “Unless it is true on historical grounds that Jesus came forth from the grave, we have no certainty that there is a living Christ who encounters us in the present.” [2]  In other words, the historical basis for Jesus’ identity is essential for a claim to experience the presence of Christ now.

Mark 4:35-41 – Creation

Returning to the song He Must Be God. The first verse presents Jesus as Saviour, while the second verse shows us Jesus in the role of Creator. Salvation and creation are God’s business. Verse 2 of the song reads…

Jesus calmed a terrible storm while he was at sea.
Jesus calmed it, so he could say “Fear not, trust in me.”
How cool is that! How cool is that! He spoke a word – the waves went dead flat 
He must be God ‘cause he did that, How cool is that!

This recalls Mark chapter 4, where Jesus tells his disciples to go across to the other side of the lake in a boat. In this passage we notice some signs of Jesus’ divinity.

From verse 37 of Mark 4 we read…

37 Suddenly a strong wind blew up, and the waves began to spill over into the boat, so that it was about to fill with water. 38 Jesus was in the back of the boat, sleeping with his head on a pillow. The disciples woke him up and said, “Teacher, don’t you care that we are about to die?”

39 Jesus stood up and commanded the wind, “Be quiet!” and he said to the waves, “Be still!” The wind died down, and there was a great calm. 40 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Why are you frightened? Do you still have no faith?” 41 But they were terribly afraid and began to say to one another, “Who is this man? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us.

Mark’s account of Jesus calming the waters reminds us of the creation account in Genesis 1, where God brings order to the chaos. In Genesis 1 God makes the world functional for human beings and other creatures simply by speaking. He utters the divine word and it is done. Let there be light. Let there be sky. Let there be land and so on. 

We see Jesus doing a similar thing in Mark 4 when he tells the wind to be quiet and the waves to be still. What we notice here is that Jesus speaks directly to the wind and waves as one who knew them personally. Jesus doesn’t ask God to calm the storm, rather Jesus rebukes the wind and waves and they obey him. This is something only God can do.

In Psalm 104 we read, “But at your rebuke [O Lord] the waters fled, at the sound of your thunder they took flight”.

And in Psalm 107, “The Lord stilled the storm to a whisper; the waves and the sea were hushed.”

Interestingly the disciples are more afraid after Jesus has calmed the storm. It is natural for human beings to be terrified in the presence of God. Jesus had just demonstrated divine power over the forces of nature and yet the disciples hadn’t quite made the connection, that Jesus is God. 

About 500 years ago the church went through a great reformation in thinking and practice. One of the ideas to come out of this Reformation was a threefold concept of faith. [3]

Faith begins with a knowledge of the history of Jesus – hearing the gospel in other words. That’s phase 1.

This historical knowledge then brings assent or agreement that Jesus is divine. That’s phase 2.

But knowledge and agreement must translate to practical trust in Jesus, otherwise what’s the point. Trust is phase 3.  

Implicit to all three phases is the work of the Holy Spirit. Faith is a gift of the Spirit. It is the Spirit who puts us in the right place at the right time to hear the gospel and receive the knowledge about Jesus. Likewise, it is the Spirit who helps us to make the logical connection from knowledge to agreement that Jesus is divine. And it is the Spirit who helps us to trust Jesus day by day.

While the Reformation’s three step process to faith in Jesus is helpful, it is not the only way to faith in Jesus. Not everyone comes to faith through the mind. The Holy Spirit is not limited to just one pathway to the human soul. The Holy Spirit can create faith in a variety of ways. So if your pathway to faith in Jesus looks different to the Reformation pathway then that’s okay. Whatever pathway the Spirit leads you on, the goal is to trust Jesus.

In verse 40 of Mark 4, after Jesus has calmed the storm, he says to his disciples, “Why are you frightened? Do you still have no faith?”

The disciples had knowledge about Jesus. They had seen many of the miraculous God stuff that Jesus had done but that knowledge had not yet translated to an agreement, in their minds, that Jesus is God.  

The risk with the Reformation’s three step process to faith through the mind is that people may think their faith is whole when in fact they have only completed one or two steps. As we read in the book of James chapter 2: What good is it if a person claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? …You believe there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that and shudder.  …As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.

The song He Must Be God describes the first two steps of faith through the pathway of the mind. That is, knowledge and agreement. Jesus calmed the storm therefore, based on that knowledge, we can agree he must be God. But the next step of trusting Jesus (which is normally the hardest part) has to be worked out when we are in the storms of daily life.  

Mark 6:30-44 – Shepherd

The first verse of the song He Must Be God presents Jesus as Saviour. The second verse reveals Jesus as Creator and the third verse shows us Jesus as the divine Shepherd. Verse 3 of the song reads…

Jesus fed a very big crowd who’d no food to eat.
Jesus fed them, so he could show He’s all that we need.
How cool is that! How cool is that! From all the bread you’d almost get fat. 
He must be God ‘cause he did that, How cool is that!

This verse of the song recalls Mark chapter 6 where Jesus multiples the loaves and fishes to feed more than 5,000 people in the wilderness. From Mark 6, verse 39 we read…

39 Jesus told his disciples to make all the people divide into groups and sit down on the green grass…  41 Then Jesus took the five loaves and the two fish, looked up to heaven, and gave thanks to God. He broke the loaves and gave them to his disciples to distribute to the people. He also divided the two fish among them all. 42 Everyone ate and had enough. 43 Then the disciples took up twelve baskets full of what was left of the bread and the fish. 44 The number of men who were fed was five thousand. 

In some ways this story reminds us of God feeding the people of Israel in the wilderness, with mana and quail from heaven. The key connection though, between the oneness of God and Jesus, is found in Mark 6, verse 34, where we read: When Jesus got out of the boat, he saw the large crowd and his heart was filled with compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began to teach them many things…

This verse sounds clear echoes of Ezekiel 34:11-15 where God says:

11 “I, the Sovereign Lord, tell you that I myself will look for my sheep and take care of them 12 in the same way as shepherds take care of their sheep that were scattered and are brought together again. … 14 I will let them graze in safety in the mountain meadows and the valleys and in all the green pastures of the land of Israel. 15 I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will find them a place to rest. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken.

By feeding the people in the wilderness, both with his teaching and with carbs and protein, Jesus was acting as the divine shepherd of Israel who has compassion on his people.

For about the first 300 years or so of church history, Christians wrestled with this idea of whether we could say that Jesus is in fact God and if so in what sense was he God. There were basically two approaches to this question, the functional approach and the ontological approach.

The functional approach said that Jesus was divine in the sense that he functioned in a divine manner. That is, Jesus did things that only God could do, therefore this proves he is God. Clearly, the song He Must Be God, uses a functional approach. As we’ve heard, Jesus saved people, he demonstrated power over creation and he shepherded people in a divine way.

But is this the only sense in which Jesus is divine? Can we say that Jesus is one with God ontologically speaking? Ontology is just a fancy word which means being or essence or substance. Function has to do with purpose whereas ontology has to do with identity, who you are on the inside.

To help understand the difference between the functional and ontological approaches I want you to think of a cake. Any kind of cake you like. The function (or purpose) of a cake is to feed people, to comfort people and to help people celebrate special occasions like birthdays. But the ontology of a cake (the substance of it) is flour, eggs, butter, sugar and things like that. In a word, we could say the essence of a cake is sweetness. If it’s not sweet, then to my mind, it doesn’t really have the ontology of a cake.

Or take a bag of chips as another example. The function of a bag of chips is to feed people but the ontology (the essence or substance) is potatoes and salt.  

While it is relatively easy to see from reading the gospels that Jesus is God in a functional sense, can we say he is God in an ontological sense? By way of metaphor, if God had DNA would Jesus’ DNA be the same as God’s DNA?

The matter came to a head in the Fourth Century AD/CE at the Council of Nicea. From this Council we got the Nicene Creed, part of which reads:

“We believe… in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of the Father as only begotten, that is, from the essence of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten not created, of the same essence as the Father.”

The Nicene Creed tells us, yes, Jesus does share the same essence as God.

Translating this to the image of Jesus as the good shepherd, Jesus fulfils both the function of a shepherd and the essence of a shepherd. The function of a shepherd is to protect and feed the sheep. The essence of a shepherd is comprised of things like presence, care, patience and compassion.

In the account of Jesus feeding the 5000 (from Mark 6) we notice at least two specific signs of God’s essence – namely the compassion Jesus had on the crowds (in verse 34) who were like sheep without a shepherd and also the abundance with which Jesus fed the crowds. Everyone had more than enough; there were 12 basketfuls left over. ‘From all the bread you’d almost get fat.’ Compassion and abundance are signs of God’s presence. The Lord doesn’t do things by halves. 

Thinking more broadly, the primary essence of God is love. Divine love is qualitatively different from human love. There are no words to do justice to God’s love. We see the quality of divine love in the way Jesus made a choice to go to the cross to die for us, while we were still sinners.

Jesus saw himself as one with God the Father, sharing the same essence. In John 14 Philip asks Jesus, “Lord, show us the Father; that is all we need.” And Jesus replies, “…Whoever has seen me has seen the Father… Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. If not, believe because of the things I do.” 

As I understand it, this is another way of Jesus saying he is both ontologically and functionally one with God and therefore he reveals God to us.

Jesus’ claim to be one with God was proved true when God raised Jesus from the dead on the third day.

Conclusion:

This morning we have heard how Jesus is Saviour, Creator and divine Shepherd. In these ways Jesus demonstrates he is God both in function and in essence. Jesus isn’t just God prima facie – Jesus is God through and through.

Where are you at in your journey of knowing, accepting and trusting Jesus? 

Let’s stand and sing, He Must Be God…

Jesus healed a paralysed man who was brought to him.
Jesus healed him, so he could show: He forgives our sin.
How cool is that! How cool is that! He told the man to pick up his mat. 
He must be God ‘cause he did that, How cool is that!

Jesus calmed a terrible storm while he was at sea.
Jesus calmed it, so he could say “Fear not, trust in me.”
How cool is that! How cool is that! He spoke a word – the waves went dead flat 
He must be God ‘cause he did that, How cool is that!

Jesus fed a very big crowd who’d no food to eat.
Jesus fed them, so he could show He’s all that we need.
How cool is that! How cool is that! From all the bread you’d almost get fat. 
He must be God ‘cause he did that, How cool is that!

CCLI No. PCL112980


Questions for discussion or reflection:

Listen to the song ‘He Must Be God’.  What was your prima facie impression of this song the first time you heard it?

In what ways does Mark 2:1-12 indicate that Jesus must be God?

How is divine forgiveness different from human forgiveness?

Why do we need both history and personal experience to know Jesus?

In what ways does Mark 4:35-41 indicate that Jesus must be God?

Where are you at on your journey of knowing, accepting and trusting Jesus? What is your pathway to faith in Jesus? 

In what ways does Mark 6:30-44 indicate that Jesus must be God?

What evidence do we find in the Scriptures that Jesus shares the same essence as God?

Outtakes

In verse 8 of Mark 2 we read: At once Jesus knew what they were thinking, so he said to them, “Why do you think such things? Only God can know what is in someone’s heart and mind. Jesus wasn’t showing off by telling the teachers of the law that he knew what they were thinking. He was acting to save them from committing blasphemy themselves. By disrespecting Jesus, the lawyers were in danger of disrespecting God (because Jesus is one with God).

__________________________

When we think about the apostles, they knew Jesus from below and above. They bore witness to both the historical reality of Jesus and their personal experience of God’s Spirit.

__________________________

Some of Jesus’ disciples were fishermen and were accustomed to a bit of rough weather. The Sea of Galilee was prone to sudden storms. But this particular storm must have been especially severe because these veteran fishermen were scared for their lives. In contrast, Jesus is so completely relaxed that he is asleep in the boat. Jesus is at home in the storm. He has no fear. Why is Jesus unafraid in the storm? Because he is more powerful than the storm. And what could be more powerful than the storm? Well, that would be God.

__________________________

God’s love reaches out to care for and save those who are different from him. The apostle Paul explains how the essence of God’s love and Jesus’ love is the same in Romans 5. From verse 8 we read…

8 But God has shown us how much he loves us—it was while we were still sinners that Christ died for us! 9 By his bloodwe are now put right with God; how much more, then, will we be saved by him from God’s anger! 10 We were God’s enemies, but he made us his friends through the death of his Son. Now that we are God’s friends, how much more will we be saved by Christ’s life!

[1] Refer Stanley Grenz’ book, ‘Theology for the Community of God’, pages 249-251.

[2] Grenz, page 261.

[3] Grenz, pages 261-262.

Tawa Baptist

Worship at home service – 17 May 2020

Welcome and Opening Prayer

Good morning and welcome everyone.

You may like to light a candle as a reminder that Christ is present.

From John 14:15-18 we read the words of Jesus: 15 “If you love me, you will obey what I command. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.

Sung Worship

Listen and/or sing along to the following songs – on YouTube or Spotify.

  • Praise the name of Jesus, He’s my rock…
  • Bless the Lord O my soul (10,000 Reasons)

Pray: ‘Loving Father, we come before you today, body and soul. Bless this time of worship we ask. May your love and faithfulness be large in our awareness and deep in our heart. Through Jesus we pray. Amen.’

Prayer for Tranzsend

Let us pray…

Sovereign God, you are at work right throughout this world, by your Spirit and through your people. We pray that your name and purpose would be exalted in all the earth.

We bring before you our Tranzsend Baptist missionaries serving in Asia. Bless them in the work they are doing. Encourage their hearts, protect their bodies from illness and lift their spirits to soar on wings like eagles.

We pray for R and C, along with their team, as they work on the e-school learning project. We ask for continued, steady progress with this project.

We thank you for the work of Freeset. Please continue to provide for their workers. Help them as they make 20,000 masks for the community and deliver 20,000 meals to people.

We ask your wisdom and strength for AJ, the new director of NZBMS. May you empower A with the wisdom and strength he needs in leading both NZBMS and SWBC through this time. 

We think too of the communities in which our missionaries work. We ask for your love and faithfulness to be evident in those communities. May Jesus be real in people’s homes and relationships. Raise up indigenous church leaders to speak your word to the people in their heart language.

Help us to be generous as you are generous Father. Multiply what is offered to the praise of your glory.

We pray these things in the name of Jesus. Amen.

More Sung Worship

Listen and/or sing along to the following songs on YouTube or download on Spotify. This next song, ‘Your love O Lord’, is based on Psalm 36.

  • Your love O Lord reaches to the heavens
  • Broken Vessels (Amazing Grace)

Bible Reading – 1st Samuel 24:1-17

David Spares Saul’s Life

24 After Saul returned from pursuing the Philistines, he was told, “David is in the Desert of En Gedi.” 2 So Saul took three thousand able young men from all Israel and set out to look for David and his men near the Crags of the Wild Goats.

3 He came to the sheep pens along the way; a cave was there, and Saul went in to relieve himself. David and his men were far back in the cave. 4 The men said, “This is the day the Lord spoke of when he saidto you, ‘I will give your enemy into your hands for you to deal with as you wish.’” Then David crept up unnoticed and cut off a corner of Saul’s robe.

5 Afterward, David was conscience-stricken for having cut off a corner of his robe. 6 He said to his men, “The Lord forbid that I should do such a thing to my master, the Lord’s anointed, or lay my hand on him; for he is the anointed of the Lord.” 7 With these words David sharply rebuked his men and did not allow them to attack Saul. And Saul left the cave and went his way.

8 Then David went out of the cave and called out to Saul, “My lord the king!” When Saul looked behind him, David bowed down and prostrated himself with his face to the ground. 9 He said to Saul, “Why do you listen when men say, ‘David is bent on harming you’? 10 This day you have seen with your own eyes how the Lord delivered you into my hands in the cave. Some urged me to kill you, but I spared you; I said, ‘I will not lay my hand on my lord, because he is the Lord’s anointed.’ 11 See, my father, look at this piece of your robe in my hand! I cut off the corner of your robe but did not kill you. See that there is nothing in my hand to indicate that I am guilty of wrongdoing or rebellion. I have not wronged you, but you are hunting me down to take my life. 12 May the Lord judge between you and me. And may the Lord avenge the wrongs you have done to me, but my hand will not touch you. 13 As the old saying goes, ‘From evildoers come evil deeds,’ so my hand will not touch you.

14 “Against whom has the king of Israel come out? Who are you pursuing? A dead dog? A flea? 15 May the Lord be our judge and decide between us. May he consider my cause and uphold it; may he vindicate me by delivering me from your hand.”

16 When David finished saying this, Saul asked, “Is that your voice, David my son?” And he wept aloud. 17 “You are more righteous than I,” he said. “You have treated me well, but I have treated you badly.

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us.

General Offering

As you make your monetary offering sing:

  • ‘Great is Thy Faithfulness’ (on YouTube or Spotify)

Pray: ‘Generous Father, we thank you for your provision through all the seasons of life. Give us eyes to see your goodness and ears to hear what your Spirit is saying, through Jesus we pray. Amen.’

Sermon

You can either read the sermon notes attached to this email. Or, listen to an audio recording of the sermon & intercessory prayer via the following link:

Intercessory Prayer

David’s prayer for God to be exalted is a universal prayer. It can be applied in so many different situations because it is essentially a prayer for God’s will to be done in the world. It is a prayer for God’s purpose (his justice & mercy) to be lifted up everywhere. With this in mind, following is a prayer of intercession with the response, “Be exalted, O God”.

Let us pray…

Lord Jesus, you were a teacher. We pray for students who are returning to school this week. Keep them safe. Help pupils, teachers and parents with this transition.

“Be exalted, O God”

Lord Jesus, you are the well of living water. We pray for those people and animals in the Hawke’s Bay, Auckland and Northland who are adversely affected by the drought. May you bring the rain they need. Restore the land we ask.

“Be exalted, O God”

Lord Jesus, you were a self-employed carpenter. We pray for business owners who have lost income and livelihoods. May you restore what the locusts have eaten.

“Be exalted, O God”

Lord Jesus, you are the corner stone of the church. We ask your blessing on the churches in Tawa. May you be present through the on-line Alpha course and touch the lives of each one who participates in this.

“Be exalted, O God”

Lord Jesus, you were beaten mocked and scorned. We ask your deliverance for those women and children who are trapped in abusive relationships. Set the captives free we pray.

“Be exalted, O God”

Lord Jesus, you are our King. We pray for wisdom for our government. May they act as your servants, promoting justice and compassion in our society.

“Be exalted, O God”

Lord Jesus, you have the power to heal: mind, body, soul and relationships. Make us whole and grant us your peace we pray.

“Be exalted, O God”

Lord Jesus, you are risen from the dead. May your resurrection be real in and through us. Strengthen our hope, renew our joy and keep us in God’s purpose we ask.

“Be exalted, O God”

Thank you Lord Jesus that you hear our prayer. Amen.  

Song – Be Exalted, O God

Listen and/or sing along to ‘Be Exalted, O God’ (I will give thanks to Thee). Google the song on YouTube or Spotify.

Benediction / Blessing

Proclaim the following blessing…

‘The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance on you and give you his peace. Amen.’

Tawa Baptist

Be Exalted, O God

Scriptures: 1st Samuel 24:1-22, Psalm 57

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • I will give thanks
  • Be exalted, O God
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

When I was a kid I was lucky enough to spend holidays at the beach. My Nan told me that if I held an empty shell to my ear I could hear the sea, even if I was hundreds of miles away from the ocean.

Of course, when I got older and stopped taking everything so literally, I learned that my Nan was speaking in metaphor. Scientists will tell you that when you listen to a shell, you’re not really hearing the sound of the ocean. The shell acts as a resonator for ambient sound. Normally our brains filter out background noises, like the wind and the sea and traffic and birds, but when you put a shell over your ear, some frequencies are amplified and others get suppressed. It sounds like the sea because the movement of the ocean is one of those background noises that your brain normally filters out.

Personally, I prefer my Nan’s explanation. The idea that an empty shell can pick up the sound of the sea from anywhere is way cooler.

Today we continue our ‘Anthems’ series. In this series we are looking at the lyrics of one hymn or Christian worship song each week to see how that song informs our thinking about God and how it connects with Scripture and the heritage of our faith.

The song we are looking at this morning is called Be Exalted, O God.

Be Exalted is one of those songs that sounds like the sea. On the one hand it is comforting and hopeful. But on the other hand it is at risk of being filtered out of by our brains as background noise, because the words sound so familiar.

The lyrics for Be Exalted were written thousands of years ago by king David. We find them in Psalm 57. But the tune we sing it to today was written by a New Zealander called Brent Chambers.

Brent was born in Napier in 1948. He became a Christian at a Youth for Christ meeting in 1966. In an interview with Lindsay Terry, Brent talks about his conversion. Brent says…

“I didn’t have a great deal of interest in the [YFC] meeting but decided to go along. The Lord spoke to me during that service, and I became a Christian that very night. A couple of years later, I realized that I was not including Jesus into my life’s activities. I somehow knew that I could not be an effective Christian unless he had my whole life. Consequently, I surrendered everything to Christ, and from that time, even as a new Christian, songs began to pour out of me.”

Brent has written over 500 songs during his lifetime, alongside making a living by painting houses. He wrote Be Exalted, O God in 1977.

You know sometimes we can sing worship songs that are familiar to us and not really engage with them. The words come out of our mouth but our mind is elsewhere. It’s the same with reading Scripture or listening to sermons. Sometimes the words just wash over us without really going in or being real and then, one-day, God gently cups a shell over the ear of our soul and we pick up what he’s saying. Brent describes his resonator moment when Be Exalted, O God became real for him…

“After hearing my song, David Garrett [one of the founders of Scripture in Song music] asked me, Brent, do you think maybe God is speaking to you through these words?’ Up until that moment it was just another song that I had written, but when he said those words, my song became the Word of God to me, and my life’s call – my heart’s desire. I suddenly wanted to give thanks among the people and to sing praises among the nations. By the grace of God, we’ve done just that in many places, singing Be Exalted, O God’ and other songs.”

To help us hear God’s word in this song let’s turn to Psalm 57 now. The title of Psalm 57 says that David wrote this when he had fled into a cave to get away from king Saul. We read about David’s experience in the cave earlier in today’s service, from 1st Samuel chapter 24. Let’s read the corresponding Psalm now…

1 Have mercy on me, my God, have mercy on me, for in you I take refuge.
I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed.     

2 I cry out to God Most High, to God, who vindicates me.
3 He sends from heaven and saves me, rebuking those who hotly pursue me – God sends forth his love and his faithfulness.

4 I am in the midst of lions; I am forced to dwell among ravenous beasts—
men whose teeth are spears and arrows, whose tongues are sharp swords.

5 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth.

6 They spread a net for my feet—I was bowed down in distress. They dug a pit in my path—but they have fallen into it themselves.

7 My heart, O God, is steadfast, my heart is steadfast; I will sing and make music. 8 Awake, my soul! Awake, harp and lyre! I will awaken the dawn.

9 I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the nations; I will sing praises to you among the peoples. 10 For your steadfast love reaches to the heavens; your faithfulness extends to the skies.

11 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth. 

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us. 

I will give thanks

Caves are like sea shells, they are resonators. Hollow spaces tend to increase resonance – they help us to hear more layers of sound. You notice this when you are in a cave. Small sounds that we might not ordinarily notice, like footsteps or breathing or water dripping are amplified in a cave – we hear them more fully, more clearly, than when we are outside in the open.

The psalms are like resonators. As we hold the psalms to our ear, they show us ourselves; all the different layers of being human. They help us to be honest in expressing both the good things and the bad and to move beyond what we feel to adoration of God. 

Brent Champers’ song begins with the line…

I will give thanks to Thee, O Lord, among the peoples.
I will sing praises to Thee among the nations.
These words come from verse 9 of Psalm 57; which is towards the end of the Psalm. While giving thanks to God is a good thing to do, it is not always the first thing to do. As human beings we need to give voice to the difficulties we are facing alongside the things we are thankful for.

With this in view, David does not begin with thanksgiving. David begins by asking God for mercy. Not the mercy of forgiveness (he hasn’t done anything wrong) but rather the mercy of God’s help and protection. David has been unfairly treated and he wants God to vindicate him.

Before launching into thanksgiving David acknowledges before the Lord the fear, stress, homelessness and injustice he has been living with. In verse 4 of Psalm 57 David describes in graphic terms the danger he is in…

4 I am in the midst of lions; I am forced to dwell among ravenous beasts—
men whose teeth are spears and arrows, whose tongues are sharp swords.

David is comparing the people who are after him (Saul and Co) as beasts hungry to kill him, not just physically but relationally as well. By spreading lies about David his enemies are alienating him, isolating him, from his community.

David has been under immense pressure and that pressure acts as a kind of emotional resonator. It makes David more aware of his need for God and consequently of God’s faithfulness in providing for him. To most people a cave is a dark spooky place to be avoided. But David’s vision of God’s goodness transforms the cave from a dingy hole in the ground to a refuge under the shadow of His wings.

This resonates with the story of Ruth, where Boaz says to Ruth, ‘May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.’ Ruth was, of course, one of David’s ancestors.

Despite the unfairness of his situation David (in verse 3) is able to see that God is on his side. The Lord has sent love and faithfulness from heaven to help him. David is not thankful for the stress of being on the run for his life and nor should he be. That wouldn’t be true or right. But David is thankful for God’s steadfast love and faithfulness. David is acutely aware of God’s reliability, when everything else around him is unreliable and uncertain.

God’s love and faithfulness are continually poured out from heaven for us, but we don’t always notice it. Like background noise, our brain filters it out and we tend to take God’s goodness for granted. But when we find ourselves in extreme circumstances; when we are acutely aware of our need, this acts as a kind of resonator and we notice those little things that God does under the radar to help us.  

For the past six weeks or more, we have been in a cave of sorts. We have been forced (by Covid-19) to stay at home in lockdown, hiding from the virus. We are aware of the collateral damage Covid-19 has caused around the world. It has taken lives. It has cost people their jobs and their businesses. It has created pressure and strain in families. We need to acknowledge that this experience has been harder for some than others. At the same time, it has not been without collateral beauty.

Collateral beauty is the opposite of collateral damage. Collateral beauty is recognising and cherishing moments of light and goodness in the midst of dark and difficult circumstances. Collateral beauty is what we get when God sends his love and faithfulness from heaven. Collateral beauty transforms a cave into the shadow of God’s wings, a place of sanctuary and comfort.

I had a collateral beauty moment on the first Sunday we were in level 4. I was in the church carpark, by myself, and I noticed the stillness. The Main Rd of Tawa is normally very busy. But on this particular day, there were no cars or people or any sort of background noise. There was just the silence of the sunrise. It was beautiful. I stood still for a moment to simply experience it. Was this what it was like for Elijah as he stood at the entrance of the cave on Mount Carmel all those centuries ago? Was this what it was like for the disciples when Jesus calmed the storm on the sea of Galilee? The stillness was so rare, so precious. I’m not sure I would have known (or appreciated) that sort of profound stillness apart from lockdown and I’m not sure I’ll ever know it again, at least not in the church carpark.

That was one of my collateral beauty moments during level 4. What was your moment? In what ways have you noticed God sending his love and faithfulness? You might like to pause the audio recording at this point and share with others your collateral beauty moment.       

Be exalted

You know, my Nan was a clever lady. She didn’t say a lot but she knew the right thing to say and when to say it. She could have given me the scientific explanation of why empty shells always sound like the sea but she knew that science by itself is not enough for the human soul. She knew that during a cold foggy winter’s day in Hamilton, when I was back at school, holding a sea shell to my ear would act as a resonator of happy memories at the beach. More than that though, it would also make me look forward in hope to the next summer holidays. My Nan’s explanation exercised my imagination and it filled me with wonder.  

In Psalm 57 we find a David who is so confident, so full of hope. His back is against the wall (literally) but he doesn’t give up. Saul and 3,000 of Israel’s finest soldiers have David cornered in a cave. David is outnumbered with nowhere to run and yet he can still remember God’s love and faithfulness. Not only that but he can even imagine a good future for himself, one in which he is set free and vindicated by God.

Jesus had the same kind of confidence and hope in going to the cross. He knew that, even though he would die, God would not abandon him to the grave. Jesus knew God would set him free from death and raise him to eternal life and that’s exactly what God did.      

The chorus of Brent Chambers’ song is the same as David’s chorus in Psalm 57;

5 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth.

To be exalted is to be lifted up, to be promoted. This refrain (for God to be exalted) is repeated twice in Psalm 57, once in the middle (in verse 5) and then again at the end (in verse 11).

What we notice is that although the exact same words are used both times, they are given a different meaning by the context. In verse 5 be exalted, O God is really a prayer for God to save David from real and present danger. Whereas, in verse 11, it is an expression of thankfulness for God’s salvation.

In verse 4 of Psalm 57 David describes his enemies as ravenous beasts. So, when David says straight after this (in verse 5) 5 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; what he means is: ‘Use your power God to save me from my enemies.’ [1] You be in charge God and put evil in its place.

Be exalted O God, resonates with the Lord’s prayer where we say, ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.’ Hallowed be your name means may your name be lifted up and treated as sacred.

In the same vein, when David says, let your glory be over all the earth, he is really asking for God’s purpose to be achieved everywhere. “God’s glory” is the manifestation (the outworking) of his sovereign rule. [2] Or said another way, “God’s glory” is his justice and mercy at work in the world. To sing, let your glory be over all the earth is basically the same as saying, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”.

In verse 6 of Psalm 57 David describes the way in which God has exalted his justice and mercy in the cave…

6 They spread a net for my feet—I was bowed down in distress. They dug a pit in my path—but they have fallen into it themselves.

While Saul was out hunting for David, he felt the call of nature. (He needed to relieve himself.) So he goes into a cave for some privacy. We can imagine the sound resonating around the cave walls. Little does Saul know that this is the very same cave that David and his men are hiding in. Saul has fallen into the pit he dug for David. Saul had planned to trap David and kill him, but now it is Saul who is at David’s mercy.

David’s men see this as God’s providence for David. They encourage David to kill Saul. It is tempting. David creeps up behind Saul and cuts a piece off the corner of the king’s robe. But then David is conscience stricken. He returns to his men and rebukes them saying, ‘Lord forbid that I should do such a thing…’ David will not exalt himself. He will not promote himself at Saul’s expense. David wants God to be exalted and murder does not achieve that. 

David may be hiding in a hole but he has the moral high ground and this enables him to say, in verse 7, My heart, O God, is steadfast, my heart is steadfast;

To have a steadfast heart is to have courage and a clear conscience. To be resolute and unafraid. Why is David’s heart steadfast? Because he has done the right thing and he knows it.

We see something of David’s steadfastness of heart in the way he addresses Saul. After Saul has left the cave David says…

‘May the Lord be our judge and decide between us. May he consider my cause and uphold it; may he vindicate me by delivering me from your hand.’

This is another way of saying: Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth.

This shows us that God can be exalted by the choices we make. Yes, God exalts himself by saving his people through acts of justice and mercy. But we human beings also exalt God (we raise up and promote God’s purpose) when we obey him.

In verses 8 & 9 of Psalm 57 David says, Awake, my soul! Awake, harp and lyre! I will awaken the dawn. 9 I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the nations;

This demonstrates David’s confidence in God to save him.

‘To awaken the dawn’ with praise for God means getting up while it is still dark (before the sunrise) and singing worship songs to God. I understand the ‘dawn’ here to be a metaphor for God’s salvation. It’s a way of saying, ‘I will give thanks and praise to God while I’m still waiting in the dark, even before I have seen the light of his salvation.’ David is steadfastly confident that God will act to save him. He’s so confident in fact that he thanks God in advance, even before God has actually answered his prayer. It’s a bit like asking God to deliver us from Covid-19 and then thanking him for saving us even before a vaccine has been created. Or, it’s like holding a shell to your ear in the middle of winter and thanking God in advance for the summer holidays that are coming.    

The first time David sings be exalted, O God (in verse 5)it was said in the context of being afraid for his life and was meant as a prayer for the Lord to save him. The second time David sings be exalted, O God (in verse 11) it is with grateful love, as one who anticipates being saved and coming through the other side.

We know this because in verses 9 & 10 of Psalm 57 David says, 9 I will give thanks to you, O Lord…  10 For your steadfast love reaches to the heavens; your faithfulness extends to the skies.  This is a poetic way of saying, God’s love and faithfulness is everywhere all the time. God’s love and faithfulness is like the air we breathe; it is abundant and life giving and always present.

As I said before, the risk with God’s love and faithfulness being so plentiful is that it can become like background noise; something our brain filters out. Something we take for granted.

Prayer isn’t just about asking God for stuff. Prayer includes being aware of the oxygen of God’s love and faithfulness; putting a metaphorical shell (or resonator) to our spiritual ear; being intentional about noticing the many small things God does under the radar which support our life.      

The incident in the cave (in 1st Samuel 24) ended with king Saul admitting he was wrong and leaving David unharmed. We see God’s hand in this. David took a leap of faith in speaking his truth to Saul. Saul was prone to bouts of insanity. The tormented king was just as likely to turn on David in that moment, but he didn’t. God exalted himself by using David’s act of justice and mercy to soften Saul’s heart and turn away the king’s anger. So David was given some respite.

But this wasn’t the end of it. David knew better than to trust Saul. It would not be long before Saul’s paranoia got the better of him and he went in pursuit of David again.   

Conclusion

Last Thursday we transitioned to level 2, with a limit on gatherings of 10 people. We are thankful to be able to catch up with family and friends in small groups. But at the same time we are not quite out of the woods (or out of the cave) just yet.

Nevertheless, we can give thanks to God for his grace in bringing us this far and we can continue to pray that God’s purpose will be exalted in all the earth.

God exalted himself most significantly in raising Jesus from the dead. Because of Jesus’ resurrection we can be confident that the sun of God’s salvation will rise on the night time of whatever trials and difficulties we may face. 

Intercessory Prayer

In a moment I will lead us in an intercessory prayer. David’s prayer for God to be exalted is a universal prayer. It can be applied in so many different situations because it is essentially asking for God’s will to be done in the world. It is a prayer for God’s justice & mercy to be lifted up everywhere. With this in mind I will offer words of intercession for various people and situations and I invite you to respond by saying, “Be exalted, O God”. When I pause that is your cue to pray, “Be exalted, O God”.

Let us pray…

Lord Jesus, you were a teacher. We pray for students who are returning to school this week. Keep them safe. Help pupils, teachers and parents with this transition.

“Be exalted, O God”

Lord Jesus, you are the well of living water. We pray for those people and animals in the Hawke’s Bay, Auckland and Northland who are adversely affected by the drought. May you bring the rain they need. Restore the land we ask.

“Be exalted, O God”

Lord Jesus, you were a self-employed carpenter. We pray for business owners who have lost income and livelihoods. May you restore what the locusts have eaten.

“Be exalted, O God”

Lord Jesus, you are the corner stone of the church. We ask your blessing on the churches in Tawa. May you be present through the on-line Alpha course and touch the lives of each one who participates in this.

“Be exalted, O God”

Lord Jesus, you were beaten, mocked and scorned. We ask your deliverance for those women and children who are trapped in abusive relationships. Set the captives free we pray.

“Be exalted, O God”

Lord Jesus, you are our King. We pray for wisdom for our government. May they act as your servants, promoting justice and compassion in our society.

“Be exalted, O God”

Lord Jesus, you have the power to heal: mind, body, soul and relationships. Make us whole and grant us your peace we pray.

“Be exalted, O God”

Lord Jesus, you are risen from the dead. May your resurrection be real in and through us. Strengthen our hope, renew our joy and keep us in God’s purpose we ask.

“Be exalted, O God”

Thank you Lord Jesus that you hear our prayer. Amen.  

Let’s stand and sing Be exalted, O God…

I will give thanks to Thee, O Lord, among the peoples
I will sing praises to Thee among the nations
For Thy steadfast love is great, it is great to the heavens
And Thy faithfulness, Thy faithfulness to the clouds

Be exalted, O God, above the heavens
Let Thy glory be over all the earth (x2)

Questions for discussion or reflection:

Listen to the song ‘Be exalted, O God’.  What are you in touch with as you listen to this song? (What connections, memories or feelings does the song evoke for you?) 

How might the Psalms help us to be honest with ourselves and worship God?

Why do you think David saw the cave he was in as ‘a refuge under the shadow of God’s wings’?

What collateral damage have you experienced because of Covid-19? What collateral beauty have you experienced? 

What can we do to make/keep ourselves aware of the oxygen of God’s love & faithfulness?

Why did David pray ‘Be exalted, O God’ in verse 5 of Psalm 57? (What did he mean in that context?) And what did David mean when he said ‘Be exalted, O God’ in verse 11? How is the nuance different in each repetition of this refrain?

How can we exalt God? (How can we lift up his purpose in the world?)

Take some time this week to awaken the dawn with praise for God – that is, to thank God for his love and faithfulness.

[1] Refer James Mays’ commentary on the Psalms, page 210. 

[2] Ibid.

Tawa Baptist

Worship at home service – 10 May 2020

Welcome and Opening Prayer

Good morning and welcome everyone. Happy Mothers’ Day to all you mums. 

You may like to light a candle as a reminder that Christ is present.

From Psalm 139: “O Lord, you have searched me and you know me… For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made, I know that full well… How precious to me are your thoughts, O God, how vast the sum of them; were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake I am still with you.”   

Sung Worship

Most of today’s songs were chosen by Geraldine. 

Listen and/or sing along to the following songs – on YouTube or Spotify. 

  • Build My Life (Worthy of every song we could ever sing)
  • My God is So Big, So Strong, and So Mighty 

Pray: ‘Creator God, you are the ground of our being. Nothing is too difficult for you. Fill us with awe and wonder at your wisdom and goodness during this service of worship and throughout the week to come. Through Jesus we pray. Amen.’ 

Reading – Psalm 29

A psalm of David.

1 Ascribe to the Lord, you heavenly beings,
    ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.
2 Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;
    worship the Lord in the splendour of his holiness.

3 The voice of the Lord is over the waters;
    the God of glory thunders,
    the Lord thunders over the mighty waters.
4 The voice of the Lord is powerful;
    the voice of the Lord is majestic.
5 The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars;
    the Lord breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon.
6 He makes Lebanon leap like a calf,
    Sirion like a young wild ox.
7 The voice of the Lord strikes
    with flashes of lightning.
8 The voice of the Lord shakes the desert;
    the Lord shakes the Desert of Kadesh.
9 The voice of the Lord twists the oaks
    and strips the forests bare.
And in his temple all cry, “Glory!”

10 The Lord sits enthroned over the flood;
    the Lord is enthroned as King forever.
11 The Lord gives strength to his people;
    the Lord blesses his people with peace.

May the Lord bless the reading of his word. 

General Offering

As you make your offering sing…

  • ‘Turn your eyes upon Jesus’ (on YouTube or Spotify)

Pray: Thank you loving God for cherishing us. Amen.  

Intercessory Prayer

The following prayer was prepared by Geraldine.

[Note – to aid us in our prayers today, we will use our hands to help us, putting them into positions that will help us to engage our bodies with our prayers, and allowing our minds to focus. The directions are in square brackets] 

Let us pray.

Praying hands – [put your hands together in the traditional position of prayer – that is, with your palms together and your hands pointing upwards]

We come before you, Everlasting God, to pray and to listen. We stop our activities and quiet our minds. We bring You our prayers, gratitude, and concerns.  We remember Your promise to be near us, to listen to us, to care for us.

Loving God, we thank you for our mothers and those who act or acted like mothers for us – those who do or did nurture us, care for us, protect us, and guide us along good paths. Please give those women faith, inner strength, hope and wisdom, to share and to enjoy. We thank you for their selflessness and love, which reflects in some small way the immense love and sacrifice You have provided all of us. 

Wounded hands – [put the index finger (pointing finger) into the centre of your other palm, like a nail went through Jesus’ hand on the cross]

Jesus’ hand was pierced as he was crucified. He was wounded to restore our relationship with God. He suffered to bring reconciliation and justice to the world. 

Lord we bring to you now situations and places where reconciliation, justice and wholeness are needed, in our own lives, our relationships, in our communities and in the world

[Pause here to silently pray, or to offer spoken prayers]

Open hands – [hold your hands open in front of you and facing upwards]

We pray for those who have lost their mother or mother-figures. Please comfort them and give them joy in remembering the good memories. We pray also for those who have recently lost other family members and close friends, and pray they might know Your never-ending presence and comfort in their journey through grief.

Jehovah Jireh, our Provider, you know that we all have needs, physical, spiritual, and emotional. We pray for those who now find themselves with financial worries, unsure how they will feed or care for their families. We pray for those who have health problems, including COVID 19, but also other illnesses and injuries that prevent them from enjoying a full life. There are also those who are crushed by anxiety or despairing about the future. Please bring your healing and hope, and gentle presence.

Holding hands – [either hold your hands together, or hold hands with those in your bubble]

Lord Jesus, you embodied God’s compassion. You met with the suffering and the mourning, and offered Your healing, comfort and love. Help us to be Your hands to serve those around us or far away, whether they are known or unknown to us. Give us your love and care for all people and for creation.

Lord, we also pray you will help us acknowledge that we too are in need and broken. Forgive us, and help us to let others, including You, serve and love us too.

Please strengthen our bonds as families and friends and a church community, as we help each other through these times and the future to come. 

And lastly, we thank you, O Loving God, of Your promise in Psalm 121, that You will watch over our coming and going both now and forevermore.

Amen. 

More Sung Worship

Listen and/or sing along to the following songs on YouTube or download on Spotify

  • Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of creation
  • Holy Spirit welcome (Wairua Tapu)

Sermon

You can either read the sermon notes or, listen to an audio recording of the sermon via the following link:

Song – Oceans

Listen and/or sing along to ‘Oceans’. Google the song on YouTube or Spotify.

Benediction / Blessing

Proclaim the following blessing… 

‘The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance on you and give you his peace. Amen.’

Tawa Baptist

10 May 2020 – Oceans

Scripture: Matthew 14:22-33, Acts 10, Psalm 131:2, Song of Solomon 2:16

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Walking on water
  • I am yours and you are mine
  • Trust without borders
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone and happy Mothers’ day to all the mums out there. A special shout out to my own mum, who is listening to this in Hamilton. 

You may be familiar with the phrase, ‘Measure twice, cut once’. It’s a carpentry metaphor. When a builder is cutting a piece of wood he or she wants to make sure it is the right size to fit, before cutting, otherwise the wood is wasted. 

If making a decision is akin to cutting a piece of wood, then thinking things through and doing your due diligence first is akin to measuring twice.

There are two opposites to measuring twice and cutting once. At one extreme there are those who cut first and try to make it fit later. And, at the other extreme, there are those who are always measuring and never get around to cutting. They never commit to a decision. 

You may like to do a little exercise in your bubbles now. On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is equivalent to cutting first and making it fit later, and 5 is equivalent to measuring twice before cutting and 10 is equivalent to always measuring and never committing to a decision, what number would you give yourself? 

(You could pause the audio recording at this point and share your answer with those in your bubble. See if they agree with your self-assessment.) 

Hopefully this was a fun sharing time and you are still talking to each other. 

It is important to know there is no ideal number. It often depends on the circumstances. Some situations call for us to cut first, without measuring. In other situations, we do well to measure but not commit to a decision, perhaps because we don’t have enough information. Most of the time though, measuring twice and cutting once is our best option. Wisdom is the ability to discern which approach is best under the circumstances. 

Today we continue our ‘Anthems’ series. In this series we are looking at the lyrics of one hymn or Christian worship song each week to see how that song informs our thinking about God and how it connects with Scripture and the heritage of our faith. 

The song we are looking at this morning is called Oceans. 

Oceans was written by three blokes from Hillsong United in Australia; Matt Crocker, Joel Houston and Salomon Ligthelm. It was released in 2013 and has been very popular in church circles around the western world. 

Oceans is largely based on Matthew 14:22-33; the story of Peter getting out of the boat to walk on water toward Jesus.   

Joel Houston explains, “It’s really a song about stepping into the unknown, about faith and raw trust in God.”

Walking on water:

Since so much of the meaning of Oceans is found in Matthew 14, let’s revisit that story of Jesus & Peter walking on water now. From verse 22 we read… 

22 Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. 23 After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone, 24 and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.

25 Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. 26 When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.

27 But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

28 “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”

29 “Come,” he said.

Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”

31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”

32 And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. 33 Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us.  

The impression we get of Peter, in the gospels, is that he was naturally inclined to cut first and make it fit later. It appears that Peter didn’t really think things through when he said to Jesus, “Lord, if it’s you, tell me to come to you on the water.” What a strange and peculiar test. To be fair to Peter though, it had been a very long and exhausting day and it is difficult to think straight when you are under stress.  

The opening verse of the song Oceans begins…

You call me out upon the waters, the great unknown where feet may fail.

This line recalls Jesus telling Peter to get out of the boat and walk on the water towards him. It also recalls how the feet of Peter’s faith failed, and he began to sink, when he took his eyes off Jesus.   

Verse 1 of the song continues…

And there I find You in the mystery, in oceans deep my faith will stand.

This line rightly acknowledges the mystery of God. We can’t know God completely or understand all his ways. God reveals himself to us, in part, through creation, through the Bible and most notably through Jesus. But our minds are too small, too finite to fully grasp God, who is infinite. The things about God that remain inaccessible to us are in the realm of mystery. When it comes to the mystery of God we are not able to measure twice, nor do we have to commit to a firm position. We simply trust. 

Now it was fashionable for a while (during the 20th Century) to explain the miracle out of the account of Jesus walking on water. Some people postulated that Jesus was just walking on the beach beside the lake so it only appeared to the disciples that he was walking on water. Others came up with the theory that Jesus was walking on a sand bar. None of these natural explanations make sense though.

Matthew is very clear that Jesus miraculously walked on water. There was no trick of the light and no sand bar. Verse 24 of Matthew 14 tells us the boat was far out on the lake. There are no shallow spots far out on the Sea of Galilee and, from that distance (in the dark), the disciples wouldn’t be able to see Jesus until he got quite close to the boat. What’s more Jesus rescued Peter and got into the boat with the disciples, so he was definitely out in the deep part of the lake. 

A belief in the miraculous power of Jesus does not make our faith less credible. If anything it points to the greatness (or the mystery) of God. If we could explain everything about Jesus, he wouldn’t be the Son of God.   

The first half of the chorus of the song reads…

And I will call upon Your name and keep my eyes above the waves.
Again this connects with Peter’s experience in Matthew 14. When Peter started to sink he called out to Jesus to save him. I like the observation Neville made in his all-age activity earlier in today’s service. 

Neville said, ‘When Peter started sinking he did not call back to his friends to throw him a rope – he called to Jesus for help.’ 

Peter’s instinct was to rely on Jesus. 

The song Oceans encourages us to learn from Peter’s experience and keep our eyes above the waves – that is, keep our eyes focused on Jesus (As we sang earlier, Turn your eyes upon Jesus…) 

Verse 2 of the song continues the walking on water theme where we sing… 

Your grace abounds in deepest waters, Your sovereign hand will be my guide.
Peter experienced Jesus’ grace in deepest waters when Jesus held out his sovereign hand to rescue him. You might remember from last week that God’s sovereignty refers to his supreme power and ultimate authority in this world. God is free to do whatever he wants but he chooses to use his power for the well-being of his creation. Jesus, who is full of grace & truth, used his power to save Peter.   

But it wasn’t just Peter who experienced God’s grace out on the lake that night. The other disciples received the grace (or the gift) of seeing Jesus calm the waters when he got into the boat. This revealed to them that Jesus is in fact Sovereign over creation – even the wind and waves obey him.  

Verse 2 of the song also reminds us that even though the feet of our faith may fail and fear sometimes gets the better of us, Jesus will never fail us. Jesus’ faithfulness does not depend on us. Jesus is faithful because he is the Son of God and God is faithful. 

God’s grace and faithfulness is as deep and abundant as the water of the oceans. This means we are not condemned if our faith fails. It’s not the end of the world if we make a mistake. God is big enough to forgive and redeem our mistakes. Whether Peter should have got out of the boat on that occasion or not is beside the point. The fact is, he did get out and walk on water for a little bit. And although he took his eyes off Jesus and started to sink it wasn’t the end of his life, nor was it the end of his relationship with Jesus. God’s grace was sufficient for Peter and it is sufficient for you too. So if we fail, we don’t give up. We ask for Jesus’ help and we learn from the experience. 

I am yours and you are mine:

Returning to the chorus of today’s song. The second half reads…

When oceans rise, my soul will rest in Your embrace, for I am Yours and You are mine. 

Certainly Peter rested in Jesus’ embrace, when Jesus lifted him out of the water. 

But these lines make other connections as well. ‘When oceans rise’, makes us think of global warming and the way the world’s oceans are literally rising due to the melting of glaciers and ice shelfs. Our world is anxious about the ecological crisis we are facing. As Christians though we find our security in God. We do what we can to stem the tide and we trust ourselves to God.   

My soul will rest in Your embrace reminds me of Psalm 131:2 which reads, 

“But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; my soul is like the weaned child that is within me.” 

Just as a mother holds a child in her tender embrace, so too God holds our soul in his embrace. 

Twice, in Psalm 131, David says his soul is like a weaned child. To be weaned is to become accustomed to managing without something which we were previously dependent on. For example, the child stops drinking its mother’s milk and starts eating solid food. It’s not that milk is bad – it is good for a time – but as the child grows it needs more substantial nourishment. A baby cries when it is hungry so the mother will feed it. A weaned child does not cry though because a weaned child knows it will be fed and waits for mum to prepare the meal. 

How does God feed the human soul? God feeds our soul with meaning. When something is meaningful it is worthwhile – it has a point to it, a purpose that is satisfying. Meaning answers the ‘why’ questions of life & death. Ultimately God is the one who gives meaning to our lives. The thing is, we often have to wait, in quiet trust, for that meaning to be revealed.  

We quieten our soul by abandoning outcomes to God. By not seeking to manipulate the end result. Embracing the truth that we don’t have all the answers, let alone the resources to make things turn out right. How will God deliver the world from global warming and Covid-19 and any other threat we may be anxious about? I don’t know. What I believe is that God can deliver us. The fact that Jesus walked on water demonstrates that he is Lord of creation. Nothing is too difficult for him. He won’t let the storm or the waves get out of control. Ultimately God is in charge. 

The chorus of the song Oceans includes the line, For I am Yours and You are mine. This means we belong to God, exclusively. As I said a couple of weeks ago, God is jealous for us. He will not share us with anyone or anything else. 

For I am Yours and You are mine, reminds me of the Song of Solomon 2:16, which reads: My beloved is mine and I am his; he browses among the lilies.

On the face of it, the Song of Solomon is a love poem describing the experience of young love, falling in love, romantic love between a man and a woman.  

Some Christians throughout history have interpreted the Song of Solomon as an allegory or parable for the church’s relationship with Jesus; where the church is the woman and Jesus is the bridegroom.

My beloved is mine and I am his; This is talking about an exclusive, close personal relationship with Jesus.

And, He browses among the lilies, is a metaphor which basically means he admires my beauty. 

Perhaps you don’t feel all that beautiful at the moment. Perhaps you’ve done things that make you feel ugly or gross. Perhaps other people have said and done things to you that make you feel worth less. Let me say this; you are not defined by how you feel about yourself. You are not defined by your mistakes. Nor are you defined by other people’s actions toward you. You are defined by God and you belong to Jesus. You are his beloved. When Jesus looks at you he is browsing among the lilies – he is admiring your beauty, in other words. He sees you, the real you, and he loves you. 

It is the power of God’s love for us, in Christ, which makes us feel safe enough to get out of the boat. 

Trust without borders:

The bridge of the song Oceans is a brave prayer. It reads…

Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders,
Let me walk upon the waters wherever You would call me.
Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander
And my faith will be made stronger in the presence of my Saviour.

That phrase ‘trust without borders’ sounds like its borrowed from the organisation called Doctors Without Borders. As the name would suggest Doctors Without Borders is an international humanitarian agency that provides medical aid across national boundaries, irrespective of race or religion or political affiliation. It is a Non-Government Organisation (NGO) known for its work in conflict zones and other hard places that are not well resourced. 

Returning to the song. When we sing Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders, we are saying something like: Spirit lead me out of my comfort zone. Help me to trust God in those extreme circumstances where things are unfamiliar and I’m over my head; where material resources are scarce and my normal supports are taken away.

It needs to be said that these are the sort of words you might sing from a place of confidence; a place of wanting to be challenged and looking for an adventure. If you are already in a place of crisis and feeling stretched beyond your own capacity, then you probably won’t want to sing these lines, as catchy as the tune is.  

That phrase trust without borders brings to mind the life and work of Jackie Pullinger. Jackie was born in England in 1944. She went to church as a child and was quite serious about God but didn’t really like him all that much. Then she had a personal encounter of God’s love which changed her life. After that she just wanted to share God’s love with others. 

At the age of 22 Jackie had a dream and a vision in which she sensed God was calling her to overseas mission. She applied to various mission organisations but none of them would accept her. So Jackie went to ask a vicar what she should do. I suppose this was a case of measure twice, cut once. The vicar said, ‘Get on a boat and ask God to show you where to get off’. That’s a bit like saying, ‘Let the Spirit lead you where your trust is without borders’. So that’s what she did. 

In 1966 Jackie left England and got as far as Hong Kong where she stepped out of the boat and into the unknown. She served the poor in miraculous ways, in what was once called ‘the walled city’. Gang members came to Christ and drug addicts were set free through the power of prayer. Jackie turns 76 this year and has never looked back. Her trust in Jesus is without borders. 

The Spirit of God also led the apostle Peter where his trust was without borders. After Jesus’ death and resurrection, Peter and the other disciples received the gift of the Holy Spirit. To receive the Holy Spirit is to be filled with the love and truth of God so that you can’t help but show and tell others about God’s love. 

In Acts 10 we read how the Spirit led Peter way outside his comfort zone. Peter had a vision in which God declared all kinds of animals and birds clean or kosher to eat. This vision was shocking to Peter. He was Jewish and the Law of Moses prohibited consumption of certain animals. At first Peter resisted the voice that was telling him to eat these forbidden foods. It seems he was measuring twice, or three times in fact, because he had the vision three times.  

God gave Peter this vision because he was preparing Peter to reach out beyond the borders of ethnic Israel to a Gentile by the name of Cornelius. The Jewish food laws had to be put aside if Jewish Christians were going to reach the Gentile world.   

As Peter was wondering what the vision meant, some men arrived. They came to invite Peter to Cornelius’ home. Normally Jews didn’t enter the house of Gentiles because it made them ceremonially unclean. But God had just shown Peter it was okay. So Peter stepped out of the boat of Jewish custom and went to Cornelius’ house. 

When Peter started telling Cornelius and his household about Jesus’ death and resurrection, …the Holy Spirit came down on all those who were listening to his message. 45 The Jewish believers who had come from Joppa with Peter were amazed that God had poured out his gift of the Holy Spirit on the Gentiles also. 46 For they heard them speaking in strange tongues and praising God’s greatness. Peter spoke up: 47 “These people have received the Holy Spirit, just as we also did. Can anyone, then, stop them from being baptized with water?” 48 So he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to stay with them for a few days.  

Peter learned from his experience of walking on water with Jesus. He didn’t let his failure in faith define him. He didn’t remain reckless in his approach to discerning God’s will. Nor did he become so cautious that he was always weighing things up and never committing to a decision. 

When we sing, Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders we are not throwing all caution to the wind. In my experience, if God is going to ask you to step out of the boat and into a difficult place, where you have no choice but to rely on him, he usually provides good confirmation. Peter and Jackie both measured twice and cut once. So if you sense God calling you into something unknown then please measure twice. Pray and talk with a Godly person who you can trust and keep your eyes on Jesus. 

Conclusion:

In an interview with Premiere Christianity Magazine, just last year, Jackie Pullinger was asked: “Is there a particular message that’s on your heart for Christians? 

And Jackie replied, “My message is always the same; it’s how to get us sure enough of God’s love, so we can go out and share it with the lost. …to me it’s quite simple. Having tasted of his love all I want to do is share it until I die.” 

Although Jackie’s interview had nothing to do with the song Oceans, I think her theology (at this point) sums up the song quite well. Oceans expresses a desire to be so close to Jesus, so sure of God’s love, that we will trust him to go out and share his love with those who don’t yet know him. 

Of course, you don’t need to go to the other side of the world to share God’s love. God might be calling you to share his love with someone a lot closer to home. 

Let us pray…  

Lord Jesus Christ, be real for us we ask. Make us so sure of God’s love that we can’t help but share it with others. May we each know deep down, through the work of your Spirit, that I am yours and you are mine. Amen.  

Oceans

Verse 1

You call me out upon the waters
The great unknown where feet may fail
And there I find You in the mystery
In oceans deep my faith will stand

Chorus

And I will call upon Your name
And keep my eyes above the waves
When oceans rise, my soul will rest in Your embrace
For I am Yours and You are mine

Verse 2

Your grace abounds in deepest waters
Your sovereign hand will be my guide
Where feet may fail and fear surrounds me
You’ve never failed and You won’t start now

Bridge

Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders
Let me walk upon the waters
Wherever You would call me
Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander
And my faith will be made stronger
In the presence of my Saviour

Questions for discussion or reflection

Listen to the song ‘Oceans’.  What are you in touch with as you listen to this song? (What connections, memories or feelings does the song evoke for you?)  

How do you prefer to make decisions? Where did you place yourself on the scale from 1 to 10? Did others in your bubble agree with your self-assessment? Did you agree with their self-assessment? 

Has there been a time in your life when you sensed Jesus calling you out of the boat (metaphorically speaking) and into the unknown? How did you respond?  What happened?

How might we keep our eyes above the waves and on Jesus? (What practical things can we do?) 

In what sense is God like a mother to us? How does God feed your soul? 

What does Song of Solomon 2:16 mean for us? That is, ‘My beloved is mine and I am his; he browses among the lilies’. 

What does it mean to sing, Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders? Why might we sing this? 

What is your experience of God’s love? Is there someone God is calling you to share his love with? How might you do this? 

Outtakes

Being filled with the Spirit is not something we just do once and that’s it. Being filled with the Spirit is something we need to go on doing, like drinking water.      

Tawa Baptist

Worship at home service – 3 May 2020

Welcome and Opening Prayer

Good morning and welcome everyone

You may like to light a candle as a reminder that Christ is present 

Sung Worship

In John 8:12, Jesus says, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will have the light of life and will never walk in darkness.”    

Let us worship Jesus now. 

(Listen and/or sing along to the following songs – on YouTube or Spotify.) 

  • Shine Jesus shine
  • You are the first and the last

Pray: ‘We thank you Jesus for the light you shed on God. We thank you too for the light you shed on being human, made in God’s image. Help us to walk in the light of your love and truth. Amen.’

Reading

As you make your offering, stand and read the following Scripture out loud…

Romans 11:33-12:1

33 Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
    How unsearchable his judgments,
    and his paths beyond tracing out!
34 “Who has known the mind of the Lord?
    Or who has been his counsellor?”

35 “Who has ever given to God,
    that God should repay them?”

36 For from him and through him and for him are all things.
    To him be the glory forever! Amen.

12 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.

Prayer

God, you are all knowing. Nothing is too difficult for you. We thank you for your provision, both the good we know of and the good that is hidden. Give us eyes to see your hand of providence and hearts to delight in you. Through Jesus we pray. Amen.    

More Sung Worship

Listen and/or sing along to the following songs on YouTube or Spotify…

  • Cornerstone (My hope is built on nothing less) 
  • Be still and know that I am God

Sermon

You can either read the sermon notes on the sermons page of this website. Or, listen to an audio recording of the sermon via the following link:

Song

Listen and/or sing along to ‘God Defend New Zealand’ – either on YouTube or Spotify.

E Ihowā Atua,
O ngā iwi mātou rā
Āta whakarangona;
Me aroha noa
Kia hua ko te pai;
Kia tau tō atawhai;
Manaakitia mai
Aotearoa

God of Nations at Thy feet,
In the bonds of love we meet,
Hear our voices, we entreat,
God defend our free land.
Guard Pacific’s triple star
From the shafts of strife and war,
Make her praises heard afar,
God defend New Zealand.

Men of every creed and race,
Gather here before Thy face,
Asking Thee to bless this place,
God defend our free land.
From dissension, envy, hate,
And corruption guard our state,
Make our country good and great,
God defend New Zealand.

Peace, not war, shall be our boast,
But, should foes assail our coast,
Make us then a mighty host,
God defend our free land.
Lord of battles in Thy might,
Put our enemies to flight,
Let our cause be just and right,
God defend New Zealand.

Let our love for Thee increase,
May Thy blessings never cease,
Give us plenty, give us peace,
God defend our free land.
From dishonour and from shame,
Guard our country’s spotless name,
Crown her with immortal fame,
God defend New Zealand.

May our mountains ever be
Freedom’s ramparts on the sea,
Make us faithful unto Thee,
God defend our free land.
Guide her in the nations’ van,
Preaching love and truth to man,
Working out Thy glorious plan,
God defend New Zealand.

Prayer to put on the Armour of God

God, you are wise. We pray that you would equip us with the helmet of salvation, to protect our mind 

  • Help us to think true and keep a right perspective 

God, you are just. We pray that you would equip us with the breastplate of righteousness to protect our heart 

  • Help us to love you and desire your will above all else 

God, you are one. We pray that you would equip us with the belt of truth to hold everything together 

  • Help us to live our lives with integrity

God, you are faithful. We pray that you would equip us with the shoes of peace to follow in the footsteps of Christ  

  • Help us on our journey through this life

God, you are merciful. We pray that you would equip us with the shield of faith to protect us from our inner critic 

  • Help us to walk in the confidence of knowing there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus    

God, you are careful. We pray that you would equip us with the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God

  • Help us to have the right word in season for those you put across our path

We pray these things in the strong name of Jesus, our Lord and friend. Amen. 

Communion

On the first Sunday of each month we normally share communion together. We celebrate communion to remember Jesus. We remember Jesus’ death, his resurrection and his presence with us now. We also remember that Jesus will return in glory one day. Communion reminds us we are not alone.   

At Tawa Baptist we wouldn’t normally serve communion to children under 12 years. If you have small children with you then I suggest either having communion later, when they are asleep, or let them watch you without partaking themselves. If they are going to watch you, then include them by explaining what you are doing and why. Instead of bread & juice, give the children with you a spoken blessing (with tender laying on of hands). 

Song

Listen and/or sing along to the following song as you prepare for communion 

  • How deep the Father’s love (on YouTube or Spotify)

Prayer

Get your church directory and pray for the people in two other households on the same page as you. Take a few moments to put yourself in their shoes, consider their needs and ask God’s blessing and provision for them. If you don’t have a directory, then you could pray for anyone else in your congregation or street who comes to mind.   

Prayer of Blessing for elements

Father God we thank you for your Son Jesus who we remember now in the breaking of the bread and sharing of the cup. May you bless these element, the bread and the wine/juice that all who receive them would be filled afresh with your Spirit of love and truth. We ask this is in the name of Jesus. Amen. 

Words of Institution 

On the night when he was betrayed the Lord Jesus took a piece of bread and broke it. After he had given thanks he gave it to his disciples and said, ‘Take. Eat. This is my body which given for you. Do this to remember me.’ 

Eat the bread.

In the same way the Lord Jesus took the cup after supper saying. ‘This cup is God’s new covenant, sealed with my blood, which is poured out for you.’ 

Drink some grape juice (or red wine).

To conclude someone might like to say: ‘The Lord is risen’ 

With the response: ‘He is risen indeed’.

Benediction / Blessing

Proclaim the following blessing… 

‘The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance on you and give you his peace. Amen.’

Tawa Baptist

God Defend New Zealand

Scripture: Psalm 47, 2nd Kings 18-19, Isaiah 32:16-18, Psalm 10:14-18, Psalm 68:4-6,

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • God’s sovereignty
  • God’s justice
  • God’s compassion
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

Last Sunday I asked a quiz question based on pop culture. Today I have a history question for you. And to make it easier, it’s multi-choice. 

In what year was the song ‘God Defend New Zealand’ first played at an Olympic Games? Was it…

  1.  1896
  2.  1920
  3.  1956, or
  4.  1972

I’ll give you a couple of seconds to choose your answer. [Wait]

The answer is D.) It was first played when the men’s rowing eight won gold at the 1972 Olympics in Germany.

Today we continue our ‘Anthems’ series. In this series we are looking at the lyrics of one hymn or Christian worship song each week to see how that song informs our thinking about God and how it connects with Scripture and the heritage of our faith.

The song we are looking at this morning is called God Defend New Zealand, one of the two official national anthems of our land. The other one being God Save the Queen.  

Now you might be wondering, why has Will chosen the national anthem to preach on? Well, two reasons. Firstly, there hasn’t been any sport on TV lately and some of you may be missing a bit of patriotism. Secondly, and more importantly, God Defend New Zealand is actually a prayer. When we sing our national anthem we are acknowledging God as our sovereign and asking for his help. 

The words for God Defend New Zealand were written by Thomas Bracken in the 1870’s. Bracken was born in Ireland and baptised a Catholic. His mother died when he just 6 years old and his father died when he was 11. Thomas was then sent to Australia at the age of 12. He held a number of jobs there and, in his spare time, wrote poetry. Thomas Bracken arrived in New Zealand in 1867. He was 22 years old by that stage.

Bracken settled in Dunedin and took a job as a journalist with the Otago Guardian. In 1875 he started his own newspaper called the Saturday Advertiser.

Then, on the 1st July 1876 he published the five stanzas of God Defend New Zealand under the title ‘National Hymn’ in his own newspaper. At the same time, he announced a competition to compose music to go with his poem.

Somewhat ironically, the competition was judged by three Germans living in Australia. The winner of the music competition was a New Zealander though; John Joseph Woods from Lawrence, in Otago. J.J. Woods was a school teacher and later became the town clerk of Lawrence.

Alison Crampton has a connection with J.J. Woods. Alison was born and raised in Lawrence. Her mother’s side of the family have been there since the gold rush days. Alison’s mum could remember J. J. Woods coming along to school and conducting the pupils when God Defend New Zealand was to be sung on special occasions.

Okay, time for another multi-choice quiz. When did God Defend New Zealand officially become one of the national anthems of NZ? Was it…

  1. 1876
  2. 1901
  3. 1972, or
  4. 1977

I’ll give you a moment to choose your answer. [Wait]

While God Defend New Zealand was well received by the general population, it didn’t officially become our national anthem until 1977. I know. Crazy aye. It took over a hundred years for Thomas Bracken’s hymn to be formally recognised by the government.

The more astute among you may be thinking, if this was the case then why was God Defend New Zealand played at the Olympic Games medal ceremony in 1972? Good question. Because, technically, they were supposed to play God Save the Queen. Well, no one really knows why they played God Defend New Zealand. It seems to have been a happy mistake. Certainly the men’s rowing eight were pleased to hear it. Many of them were moved to tears.   

God Defend New Zealand is essentially a prayer for God’s protection and peace for our nation. In particular, the song points to three things about God: his sovereignty, his justice and his compassion. First let us consider God’s sovereignty.

God’s sovereignty:

To say that God is sovereign is to say that he is the supreme power, the ultimate authority in this world.

Thomas Bracken’s hymn begins with the words ‘God of nations’ and verse 2 starts with, ‘We of every creed and race’. This is an acknowledgement of God’s sovereignty. God isn’t just God of Israel or New Zealand, he is the God of all nations and cultures. In Psalm 47 we read…

1 Clap your hands, all you nations; shout to God with cries of joy. 2 For the Lord Most High is awesome, the great King over all the earth…
6 Sing praises to God… 7 For God is the King of all the earth; sing to him a psalm of praise. 8 God reigns over the nations; God is seated on his holy throne. 9 The nobles of the nations assemble… for the kingsof the earth belong to God; he is greatly exalted.  

At least ten times throughout the five verses of our national anthem we ask God to defend our country. What’s more, the first verse contains the line: Guard Pacific’s triple star from the shafts of strife and war. It is unclear what Thomas Bracken meant by the phrase, Pacific’s triple star. Some say this refers to the three main islands of NZ; the North Island, the South Island and Stewart Island (not the West Island). Others say it is a reference to the three stars on the flag of Te Kooti (a Māori political and religious leader of the 19th century). Whatever the case, we are asking God to defend our land.

One of the main jobs of a sovereign ruler is to defend their people. It is because God is the supreme power and authority in this world that we can have confidence in his ability to defend and protect our shores.

One story that comes to mind of God’s sovereignty over the nations is in 2nd Kings chapters 18-19, where the city of Jerusalem is surrounded by the might of the Assyrian army. At that time in history Assyria was the dominant world power. Hezekiah was one of the good kings of Judah. Under great pressure from a military powerhouse, Hezekiah prayed to God asking the Lord to defend the city saying, “O Lord, God of Israel…, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. Give ear, O Lord, and hear; open your eyes, O Lord, and see; listen to the words Sennacherib has sent to insult the living God… Now, O Lord our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all kingdoms on earth may know that you alone, O Lord, are God.

Then the Lord sent a message to king Hezekiah through the prophet Isaiah;

Therefore, this is what the Lord says concerning the king of Assyria: “He will not enter this city or shoot an arrow here. He will not come before it with shield or build a siege ramp against it. By the way he came he will return; he will not enter this city declares the Lord. I will defend this city and save it, for my sake and for the sake of David my servant.”     

The next day the king of Assyria withdrew and returned to Nineveh.

I wonder if Thomas Bracken had this story of Hezekiah in mind when we wrote verse 3 of his hymn: “…Lord of battles in Thy might, put our enemies to flight.”

Freedom gets mentioned a bit in our national anthem. ‘God defend our free land’ is repeated in the middle of each of the five verses. And the last verse begins with the line, “May our mountains ever be freedom’s ramparts on the sea.” Freedom is a value that is held dear by most New Zealanders. Freedom is also one of the values of the kingdom of God. Jesus came to set the captives free and in Christ we have freedom from sin and death; freedom to love. (In the bonds of love we meet.)

Freedom aligns closely with God’s sovereignty. Because God is the supreme power and authority in this world he is free to act as he sees best. He is not subject to anyone or anything. However, even though God is free to do what he wants, God chooses to listen to our point of view and limits his freedom. In fact, when God made human beings in his image and gave us free will he was effectively sharing his power and authority with us. God shows us how to exercise power by using his freedom for the well-being of his creation. God’s freedom is always tempered with listening and responsibility.      

What we need to remember is that our freedom is not a freedom to do whatever we want. Our freedom is a freedom to be faithful to God, to preach love and truth and to act with justice and compassion, in service to God’s purpose.    

So that’s the first main theme of the song, God’s sovereignty. Another major theme is God’s justice.

God’s justice:

New Zealanders have a strong sense of justice. We want things to be fair and equitable. One of the country’s longest running TV shows is called Fair Go. Justice is in our blood. Many of our Pakeha forebears came from places in Europe where things were not fair or just. The rich got richer and the poor got poorer. Last January I was reading a biography on the life of Bing & Joyce Lucas, written by Bruce Murray. Interwoven throughout the book are these snippets of history which give context to the Lucas’ story. In chapter 2 of Bruce’s book we read about some of the unjust conditions in England which drove people to come the other side of the world for a fairer deal in the 19th Century.

In 1881, some years after he wrote God Defend New Zealand, Thomas Bracken entered parliament as an MP for Dunedin central. He served for three years. Thomas had a strong sense of justice. (He was after all Irish by birth.) Thomas Bracken was particularly concerned to see justice for Maori, at a time when that was not fashionable. In his first speech in parliament (in 1882) Thomas forcefully criticised the government’s dealings with Maori at Parihaka. He also spoke out against the detention of Te Whiti and Tohu and what he saw as a dishonourable breach of the commitments of the Treaty of Waitangi.

We see Thomas Bracken’s passion for justice in some of the lines of our national anthem. For example, in verse 2 where we sing, ‘From dissension, envy, hate, and corruption guard our state’. Our enemies are not just external. We also need protection from internal threats, like corruption. Corruption is the opposite of justice. We are so blessed in this country not to have to pay bribes to get things done. I don’t mind paying taxes to the government. A good tax system saves us from corruption. If we don’t fund the civil service properly people will be forced to take bribes just to make a living. This happens overseas.

We also see the theme of justice in the third verse of the song: ‘Let our cause be just and right’ and then again in verse four which reads, ‘…may Thy blessings never cease, give us plenty, give us peace’. In the Christian way of thinking, peace corresponds directly to justice. Without justice there can be no real peace.

In Isaiah 32 the prophet speaks about the effect of justice & righteousness. From verse 16 of Isaiah 32 we read: 16 The Lord’s justice will dwell in the desert,his righteousness live in the fertile field. 17 The fruit of that righteousness will be peace;its effect will be quietness and confidence forever. 18 My people will live in peaceful dwelling places,in secure homes, in undisturbed places of rest.

King Solomon prayed for wisdom so that he could rule with justice, then the nation would be at peace.

When I as at primary school, in the late 1970’s, we sang God Defend New Zealand during assembly. But we always sang it in English. I don’t remember ever singing it in Maori. For many years I didn’t even know there was a Maori version of God Defend New Zealand. Probably most of us didn’t realise that until the late 1990’s when the nation started singing the first verse in Maori at test matches.

In actual fact all five verses of God Defend New Zealand were translated from English into Maori in 1878 by Thomas Henry Smith, who was a judge of the native land court. T.H. Smith’s Maori words are not a direct translation of Thomas Bracken’s original English version but the sentiment and themes are the same. In fact, the Maori version helps to shed light on the meaning of the English. They complement each other.

In the fourth verse of the Maori version we read, ‘Waiho i te rongo mau Aotearoa’ which translates as ‘Let peace reign over Aotearoa. A prayer for peace is a prayer for justice.

Then in the fifth verse of the Maori version we read, ‘Tōna pai me toitū
Tika rawa, pono pū; Tōna noho, tāna tū;’, which in English translates, ‘Let its good features endure, let righteousness and honesty prevail’. When righteousness and honesty prevail people live in peace and security, as Isaiah preached.

As well as pointing to the sovereignty and justice of God, our national anthem also points to the compassion of God.

God’s compassion:

God’s compassion is very closely connected to his justice – the two go hand in hand. In fact, we could say God’s justice is compassionate.

For about three and half years, while I was growing up, my mum and my sister and I lived on the DPB. Like I said before, I don’t mind paying my taxes. I am thankful for a compassionate welfare state. It meant I could stay in school and get an education, rather than leaving home at 13 to get a job, like my grandfather did.

As I said at the beginning of this message, Thomas Bracken lost his mother when he was only 6 and his father died when he was 11. So Thomas was an orphan. Yet, despite his loss and despite being sent to the other side of the world, Thomas Bracken became a leading citizen of New Zealand; a poet, a journalist, a business owner, an MP and eventually a husband and father also. How did this happen? By the compassion of God. I’d be willing to bet that God put people in Thomas Bracken’s life who had compassion on him and helped him along the way.

In Psalm 68 we read: Sing to God, sing in praise of his name, extol him who rides on the clouds; rejoice before him—his name is the Lord. 5 A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is [our] God…. 6 God sets the lonely in families, he leads out the prisoners with singing;

And then in Psalm 10 we read: 14 But you, God, see the trouble of the afflicted; you consider their grief and take it in hand. The victims commit themselves to you; you are the helper of the fatherless… 17 You, Lord, hear the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry, 18defending the fatherless and the oppressed, so that mere earthly mortals will never again strike terror.

I could go on but you get the picture, God is compassionate and he takes care of the little guy. As far as countries go New Zealand is one of the little guys. We are not large or strong or powerful. We are small and humble and vulnerable but God is our advocate and our defender. In the upside down kingdom of God, our weakness is a strength in God’s hand. As Paul writes in his letter to the Corinthians [1], God’s power is made perfect in our weakness.  God delights in taking the one no one expects and using them for his purpose.

There is a theme in Thomas Bracken’s song of asking God to use little New Zealand to bless the other nations of the world. In verse 5 for example where we sing, ‘Guide her in the nations’ van, preaching love and truth to man, working out Thy glorious plan’. The Maori translation of that verse helps to shed light on what this means where it says, ‘Let it [Aotearoa] never be ashamed, but rather, let its name be known, thereby becoming a model to emulate.’

This prayer, for our country to become a model to emulate, has been answered in many ways over the years. For example, we were the first country in the world to give women the vote. Almost every other country in world followed suit. We made a stand against nuclear testing in the Pacific. And we banned some types of firearms following the mosque shootings in Christchurch. I notice Canada is now following our example by banning automatic weapons.

Thinking about ways New Zealanders have preached love and truth to the rest of the world, and become a model to emulate, puts me in mind of some pretty remarkable people associated with Tawa Baptist. For example, Bing Lucas who did incredible pioneering work with National Parks and conservation, both in New Zealand and around the world, long before environmental issues became sexy.

Then there is David & Elaine Wilson. David has literally travelled the world preaching the gospel for 50 years. Also, Frank & Marjory Duncan who helped people in China through famines and revolutions. I’m mindful too of people like Steve Dowall who was involved with significant aid and development work in Asia and the Pacific. There are many other New Zealanders from this church as well who have shown practical compassion to the world in various ways.

The theme of God’s compassion is even more obvious in the Maori version of the hymn. Verse 1 in Maori contains the line: Me aroha noa, which is a prayer asking God to cherish us. That word ‘cherish’ is old school. It was once used in marriage vows. It means to treat with affection, to protect and to foster. Cherish is a word closely associated with compassion.

Verse 3 of the Maori version gets to the heart of God’s love and compassion where it says: May all our wrongs, we pray, be forgiven. Our country is a wonderful place to live in but we are not perfect. For example, we haven’t always been fair to Maori. And, in my lifetime, the gap between rich and poor has grown. Then there are our tragic rates of child abuse, suicide and abortion. We stand in need of God’s wisdom and grace.

Conclusion:

Thomas Bracken was well aware of the need for improvement in the New Zealand of his day. On his grave stone is written a quote from one of his poems. It reads…

“Oh God! That men would see a little clearer or judge less harshly where they cannot see. Oh God! That men would draw a little nearer to one another, they’d be nearer Thee and understood.”     

Let’s stand and sing God Defend New Zealand in our bubbles now. I encourage you to take the time to sing all the verses. God Defend New Zealand isn’t just a song we sing at rugby matches. It’s a prayer which acknowledges God’s sovereignty and seeks to integrate his justice and compassion into our nation’s culture.

E Ihowā Atua,
O ngā iwi mātou rā
Āta whakarangona;
Me aroha noa
Kia hua ko te pai;
Kia tau tō atawhai;
Manaakitia mai
Aotearoa

God of Nations at Thy feet,
In the bonds of love we meet,
Hear our voices, we entreat,
God defend our free land.
Guard Pacific’s triple star
From the shafts of strife and war,
Make her praises heard afar,
God defend New Zealand.

Men of every creed and race,
Gather here before Thy face,
Asking Thee to bless this place,
God defend our free land.
From dissension, envy, hate,
And corruption guard our state,
Make our country good and great,
God defend New Zealand.

Peace, not war, shall be our boast,
But, should foes assail our coast,
Make us then a mighty host,
God defend our free land.
Lord of battles in Thy might,
Put our enemies to flight,
Let our cause be just and right,
God defend New Zealand.

Let our love for Thee increase,
May Thy blessings never cease,
Give us plenty, give us peace,
God defend our free land.
From dishonour and from shame,
Guard our country’s spotless name,
Crown her with immortal fame,
God defend New Zealand.

May our mountains ever be
Freedom’s ramparts on the sea,
Make us faithful unto Thee,
God defend our free land.
Guide her in the nations’ van,
Preaching love and truth to man,
Working out Thy glorious plan,
God defend New Zealand.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

Listen to the song ‘God Defend New Zealand’.  What are you in touch with as you listen to this song? (What connections, memories or feelings does the song evoke for you?) 

What is God’s sovereignty? What are the implications of God’s sovereignty for us?

Can you think of times in New Zealand’s history when God has defended our country, whether from external threats or internal threats? Can you think of a time in your own life when God has protected you personally?

Discuss / reflect on the relationship between God’s sovereignty and freedom. How does God exercise his freedom? How should we exercise our freedom?

Discuss / reflect on the relationship between justice and peace. In what ways does a good tax system foster a just and compassionate society? (Think of practical examples.)

In what ways are you aware of God’s compassion in your life? Can you think of people God has put in your life to help you along the way? Give thanks to God for them.

In what ways is New Zealand an example to emulate? In what matters of justice and compassion have we failed? Thank God for the good things and ask his forgiveness where we have fallen short. 

Outtakes

There is a wonderful story of God’s sovereign protection in 2nd Kings chapter 6. The prophet Elisha and his servant were surrounded by an army of Arameans and Elisha’s servant asked, ‘What shall we do?’ Elisha replied, ‘Don’t be afraid. Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.’ And Elisha prayed, ‘O Lord, open his eyes so he may see.’ Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.  

The horses and chariots of fire were the Lord’s spiritual army, more powerful than any earthly army.

[1] 2nd Corinthians 12:9.