Tawa Baptist

God’s plan to preserve

Scripture: Genesis 6:9-22

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • God’s plan to preserve
  • Noah’s obedience of faith
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

Abraham Lincoln once said: “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four hours sharpening the axe.” 

I suppose the point is, work smarter, not harder. Plan ahead to give yourself the best chance of success.

Of course, those four hours of sharpening require quite a bit of patience. The temptation is to just crack on with the job using a blunt axe. But in those four hours, the wood cutter is also thinking: does this tree really need to come down? And if it does, what is the best way to bring it down safely? And once it is down, how will I use it?   

Today we continue our series on Noah and the great flood. Last week we heard about the grief God experiences as a consequence of his wayward creation. When God looked at the rudder of the human heart and saw it was set toward evil all the time his heart was filled with pain.

This morning we meet Noah and we learn what God plans to do about the mess the world is in. This is our third sermon into this series and we still haven’t got to the flood yet. In some ways it seems like God is spending a lot of time sharpening the axe. This shows the Lord (Yahweh) was not acting rashly or in the heat of the moment. He was acting carefully, with patience and control.

From Genesis 6, verses 9 to 22 we read…

9 This is the accountof Noah and his family.

Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God. 10 Noah had three sons: Shem,Ham and Japheth.

11 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. 12 God saw how corruptthe earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. 13 So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. 14 So make yourself an ark of cypress wood;make rooms in it and coat it with pitchinside and out. 15 This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high. 16 Make a roof for it, leaving below the roof an opening 18 incheshigh all around.Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks. 17 I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. 18 But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you. 19 You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. 20 Twoof every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kindof creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive. 21 You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them.”

22 Noah did everything just as God commanded him.       

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

There are two main ideas I want to highlight in this passage: God’s plan to preserve a remnant and Noah’s obedience of faith. First let’s consider God’s plan to preserve a remnant.

God’s plan to preserve:

To preserve something is to keep it safe from destruction or decay. For example, you might preserve meat by keeping it in a freezer. Or you might preserve peaches by putting them in a can. Or you might preserve bananas by slicing them up and dehydrating them into banana chips.

In Norway there is a global seed vault (in the Arctic circle) which stores hundreds of thousands of varieties of seeds. This seed vault is designed to ensure the preservation of seeds during large-scale regional or global crises.

Preserving food is one thing but people may also want to preserve their relationships. You preserve a relationship by staying in touch with that person, keeping the lines of communication open and maintaining a mutual commitment to one another’s well-being.

On the one hand, the flood story is about God’s judgment in destroying his creation because it had become corrupt and violent. But at the same time it is also about God’s very careful plan to preserve a remnant, in order to restart (or re-seed) a new creation. In fact, today’s text pays more attention to God’s plan of preservation than it does to the destruction caused by the flood. The focus is on the lengths God goes to, to save and renew his creation.

The idea of God preserving a faithful remnant is repeated throughout the Scriptures. For example, during the time of Elijah, when it seemed like the whole nation had turned its back on God, the Lord tells Elijah he has preserved 7000 people for himself who have not bowed their knee to Baal. God also preserved a faithful remnant through the Assyrian invasions of Israel and later through the Babylonian exile. [1]  

One thing we notice about God’s plan to preserve is the detail. We are told about the dimensions of the ark, the building materials, the sorts of animals that were to go into the ark, the kind of food they were to take with them and so forth. If we were to read further into Genesis chapter 7 we would come across quite a bit of repetition of this detail and we would notice some very precise dates and time frames.

All of this detail regarding God’s plan, to bring a flood and preserve a remnant, tells us a number of things about God himself:

For example, God is not in a hurry to bring judgement; he is patient and his actions are considered.

Also that God does not over react in the heat of the moment; his response is careful and measured.  

But most of all it shows God’s judgement is just and merciful.

Other ancient cultures also had a great flood as part of their collective memory. In at least one of those pagan versions of the flood story the gods (plural) brought the flood because of over population. There were too many people making too much noise and so the gods, who didn’t really care about human beings, became irritated and drowned them all. There was no justice or mercy involved in their decision. It was capricious and thoughtless. As is typical of a pagan theology, this leads one to the hopeless conclusion that life is completely random and unfair and meaningless.

The Hebrew flood story is quite different from the pagan flood stories though. The God of Israel wasn’t angry; he was grieved and in pain for his creation. The God of Israel didn’t bring the flood to control over population or to keep the noise down. God loves his creation and commanded people to be fruitful and multiply. The Lord God brought the flood to control the spread of violence. Israel’s flood story reveals a God who is different from the pagan gods of the nations. A Jewish / Christian theology leads one to the hopeful conclusion that while this life is not always fair, our God, who is just and merciful, slow to anger and full of compassion, is able to make all things new.

The other thing we notice about God’s plan to preserve a remnant is that it involves a human being. God does not act alone in preserving his creation. The Lord, who is relational, makes a covenant with Noah. In fact, God’s plan depends on Noah’s obedience of faith.

Noah’s obedience of faith:

Let me tell you a story. Once there was a wealthy business man who purchased a block of land and built a kiwi-fruit orchard on it. There was quite a bit involved in transforming the property. First he had to clear the ground of gorse and other weeds and level out the earth. Then he sowed grass seed, put in fences and shelter belts. Next came all the strainer posts and wires for training the kiwifruit vines and lastly he planted the vines themselves.

Building from scratch like that was an expensive investment. It took time and patience for the vines to grow and mature to the point they were able to bear fruit.

This business man had a good heart and wanted to run his orchard in a way that was kind to the environment, so he did it organically. Rather than chemical sprays he used companion planting and bio-diversity to control pests. And he wasn’t just a Queen Street farmer, doing all the calls and paper work from a distance. He lived in the community and walked through his orchard every day.     

Sadly, a virus got onto his property and infected one or two of the plants. Eventually almost all of the vines became infected. As the fruit matured it became evident that the plant was sick and when you tasted the fruit it was revolting. Once the virus got in there was no way to get rid of it.

The orchardist was deeply grieved over what had happened to his vines. It wasn’t so much the money he had lost. He was so rich the money didn’t matter to him. It was more the death of the dream. He had invested so much time and energy and love into it. What he had intended for good was actually doing harm. Reluctantly the owner of the orchard knew there was nothing for it – he would have to pull out all the vines and destroy them. He didn’t want to do this but what choice did he have.

As he was walking through the kiwifruit canopies thinking about this he came to a single plant. This particular vine looked different to the rest. It looked healthier somehow. Out of curiosity he tasted the fruit and it was good, like a kiwifruit is supposed to taste.

The orchardist decided then and there he would preserve a cutting from this healthy vine and use it to start a new orchard. Most men would have walked away and not bothered to risk it all again. But this man was not ready to abandon his dream.  

You can probably see the connections between my little allegory and the story of the flood. God is like the wealthy business man who builds the orchard. The orchard represents God’s creation and the vines are human beings. The diseased fruit represents the corruption and violence of human beings. While most of the vines bear bad fruit, Noah is the exception. Noah bears good fruit and so God decides to preserve Noah and his family in order to start again with a new orchard, a new creation. 

Genesis 6, verse 9, tells us that Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God. This is high praise indeed. The Bible doesn’t say this about many people.

To be righteous means to live in right relationship with those around you. A righteous person is fair and just. They have a good moral compass.

The word translated as ‘blameless’ literally means to be whole or complete. So the idea here is that Noah has a whole hearted commitment to righteousness. [2] This does not mean Noah was perfect. Later on (after the flood) Noah gets drunk, but that seems to be out of character for Noah. For the most part Noah did abstain from sin.

We are told Noah walked with God, like his great grandfather Enoch. The Bible only says that of two people. Noah was a rare individual indeed. As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, to walk with God means to stay close to him – near enough to have a personal conversation. Walking with God implies a relationship of intimacy and righteousness. It means following God, going where God leads, doing life God’s way.

The fact that Noah and Enoch both walked with God shows that God is not a Queen Street farmer. He is not running things remotely – he is on the earth, walking among the vines of his kiwifruit orchard.

To people of Jewish and Christian faith, Noah is a hero. But probably to the people of his own time Noah was a bit of an odd ball. A bit weird, a bit strange.[3]

Noah lived what it means to be salt & light in his world. He was distinctive, different, not bland. G.K. Chesterton makes this comment about people like Noah…

A man with a definite belief always appears bizarre, because he does not change with the world… Millions of mild black coated men call themselves sane and sensible merely because they always catch the fashionable insanity, because they are hurried into madness after madness by the maelstrom of the world.

Because Noah walked with God the Lord confided in him, telling Noah about his plan to preserve a remnant. God instructs Noah to build an ark. The Hebrew word translated as ark here is used seven times in the instructions to build the ark and seven times in the report of the subsiding waters (8:1-14). [4] This precise symmetry reveals something of the poetic artistry of the Genesis account of the flood. The only other time the same Hebrew word for ark is used in Scripture is in Exodus 2. The baby Moses was placed in a miniature ark in the river Nile.   

God tells Noah what kind of wood to use in making the ark. Older translations say it was gopher wood, but we don’t really know what gopher wood is so modern translation say it was cypress wood, which is an educated guess.

The wood is to be coated in pitch, which is a water proofing agent. God also gives Noah the dimensions for the ark: 137 metres long, 23 metres wide and 14 metres high. That’s an enormous vessel by the standards of Noah’s time. Interestingly, we still use similar dimensions for large ocean going ships today, so we know the ark would have been sea worthy.

You often see pictures of Noah’s ark with a nicely rounded keel and bow but it may have been more practical for Noah to simply make the ark in the shape of a rectangular box, sort of like a coffin.  

God does not give instructions for Noah to make a sail or a rudder, just a door in the side and some ventilation near the top. The ark is literally a container at the mercy of God and the flood waters. God is not asking Noah to be a sailor but he is asking Noah to be a carpenter and a zoo keeper.

In verse 18 God says to Noah, “…I will establish my covenant with you and you will enter the ark – you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you…”

This is the first time in the Bible that we find the word covenant. A covenant is a sacred agreement entered into by two parties who already know each other. A covenant is not supposed to be broken, ever, but if it is broken then certain negative consequences result.    

God made covenants with other people throughout history as well. He made a covenant with Abraham, with the people of Israel, with king David and, through Jesus, he makes a covenant with us. Whenever we share communion we remember our covenant with God. The rainbow in the sky is the sign of God’s covenant with humanity and the rest of creation, through Noah. Likewise, communion is the sign of God’s covenant with believers, through Christ.

In verses 19-21 of Genesis 6, Noah learns why he is to make such a large ark; it isn’t just for him and his family, it’s like a seed vault for two of every kind of bird and animal as well as every kind of food that is eaten.  

After God has spoken, we read in verse 22 of Genesis 6 that Noah did everything just as God commanded him. This phrase is repeated again a few verses later in chapter 7. The writer of the flood story wants to highlight Noah’s obedience of faith.

By obedience of faith I mean trust in God; taking God at his word and acting on that trust in real and practical ways.

One of the observations made by pretty much every commentator is that Noah is silent throughout the account of the flood. Noah doesn’t say anything the whole time until after the flood is finished.

Noah does not ask God any questions, nor does he intercede with God for the people around him. Apparently he agrees with God that things have got out of hand. Noah doesn’t complain while he is stuck on the smelly ark for over a year, nor does he offer any words of lament for the people who have died. He doesn’t even speak words of thanksgiving or praise when the ordeal is finally over. He simply sacrifices some animals to God without saying anything. 

The only time we hear Noah open his mouth is after he gets drunk and wakes up with a hangover in Genesis 9. Clearly, Noah’s actions speak louder than his words, such is the character of his faith.

In considering Noah’s obedience of faith we are mindful of the cost of that obedience. God did not build the ark for Noah. He told Noah to build it himself. We are not told how long it took, but it must have taken a sustained effort over many years. Noah would have had to cut down large trees, mill them, coat them in pitch, transport the timber to the building site and then construct the ark. Presumably he got his sons to help him, but even so, it is a lot of work by hand.

It’s not like Noah could drive down to Bunnings to buy a kitset and put it together with power tools. Nor is it like the film Evan Almighty where God delivers the building supplies to Evan’s house. Noah’s boat building was hard graft, just as our life of faith can be hard graft at times.

Noah reminds us of another carpenter, the carpenter of Nazareth.  In Matthew 13:44 Jesus tells a pithy little parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.”

Jesus’ parable here illustrates Noah’s obedience of faith. Noah risked everything on God’s word and it resulted in his salvation as well as the salvation of his family and the birds and animals.

Conclusion:

It’s interesting to me that God involved Noah the way he did. It shows that God works from the inside to renew his creation. He doesn’t fix things from the outside (like a mechanic working on a car). No, God gets small, he gets detailed, and works through a human being to preserve a remnant.      

By doing it this way, God was giving humanity a choice: whether to live or die. Noah chose life. What will we choose?

Let’s stand and sing Cornerstone as we prepare for communion.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?

  • If you have six hours to chop down a tree, why might you spend the first four hours sharpening the axe?
  • What are some practical things we can do to preserve our relationships with others? Is there any relationship in particular you think might benefit from a bit of preserving at the moment?
  • Why do you think the writer of the flood story in Genesis spends so much time focusing on God’s plan to preserve a remnant of his creation?
  • What might God’s detailed instructions to Noah show us about God?
  • What does it mean that Noah was righteous and blameless? How do you think Noah would have been perceived by the people of his day?
  • What do we mean by the term ‘obedience of faith’? How did Noah work out his obedience of faith? How is God calling you to work out your obedience of faith?

[1] Refer Bruce Waltke, Genesis, page 157.

[2] Refer Bruce Waltke, Genesis, page 133.

[3] Refer John Walton, NIVAC Genesis, page 332.

[4] Bruce Waltke, Genesis, page 135.

Tawa Baptist

Good Grief

Scripture: Genesis 6:1-8

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Genesis 6:1-4 – God’s limits
  • Genesis 6:5-8 – God’s grief
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

When you pour concrete you have a certain amount of time to spread and smooth the mix while it is still wet. But once it goes hard you can’t work the concrete anymore. It has gone past the point of no return.

It’s similar with clay. While the clay is wet and soft the potter can turn it and shape it on his wheel. If the clay doesn’t form the shape he wants at first, he can just add some more water and reshape it. But once the clay has set he can’t reform it anymore. It has gone past the point of no return.  

Today we continue our new sermon series on the story of Noah. Last week we heard about Noah’s genealogy. This week we learn a little more about the state of the world, and the state of God’s heart, shortly before the flood. People had become hardened in their evil ways – like concrete or clay they had gone past the point of no return. From Genesis 6:1-8 we read…

When human beings began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. 3 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.”

4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.

5 The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. 6 The Lord was grieved that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. 7 So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I am grieved that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favour in the eyes of the Lord.

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

God’s limits:

Have you ever tried to play a game of patience with some of the cards missing?

Have you ever tried to play a game of Scrabble with some of the letters missing?

Have you ever tried to finish a jigsaw with some of the pieces missing?

It’s frustrating isn’t it.

In some ways Genesis 6, verses 1-4 is like that. We don’t have all the pieces and so we can’t get the full picture. We are left guessing about the details.

For example, in verse 2 we read about the sons of God who married the daughters of men. Who were these ‘sons of God’?

The only other time that exact same phrase ‘sons of God’ is used in the Old Testament it refers to angels, heavenly creatures (in Job). Consequently, the early church fathers interpreted ‘sons of God’ to mean fallen angels.

We see this concept of fallen angels in the 1998 film, City of Angels, starring Nicolas Cage and Meg Ryan. In this film, an angel called Seth falls in love with a human woman and gives up his immortality as an angel in order to be with her. Sadly, the woman dies soon afterwards and Seth is stuck on earth.

The 2014 film version of Noah’s story, starring Russell Crowe, took a similar interpretation, portraying the ‘sons of God’ as fallen angels called ‘Watchers’ who roamed the earth looking for redemption and a return to heaven.

Most modern Biblical scholars don’t see it this way though. I suppose the idea of fallen angels mating with human women to produce some kind of half angel, half human hybrid[1] seems a bit far-fetched in a rigorous academic environment. So, as an alternative, the experts are more inclined to interpret the ‘sons of God’ as human rulers, sort of like kings or tyrants. They do this on the basis that kings and rulers in the ancient world were sometimes referred to as the ‘sons of God’. Not that people necessarily thought of human kings as divine. It was more a way of acknowledging their status and authority to rule.

Verse 4 tells us the Nephilim were on the earth in those days. The identity of the Nephilim is another puzzle to us modern readers. Apparently they were the offspring of the ‘sons of God’ and human women. In any case, the Nephilim were famous as mighty men and heroes of old. In the book of Numbers, they are associated with giants.

The ancient Jewish readers may well have known what was meant by the ‘sons of God’ and the ‘Nephilim’ but those pieces of the jigsaw are lost to us now, so we can’t say with any certainty who they were. 

What we do know is they were creatures of God; they were not divine nor even semi-divine. And God was not happy with them. If you take the view that the ‘sons of God’ were fallen angels, then these angels had crossed a boundary, between heaven and earth, that they shouldn’t have. And if you take the view that the ‘sons of God’ were human rulers, then these tyrants were oppressing people in an organised way. They were sort of like mafia bosses. God needed to put some limits in place for the well-being of his creation.

With this in mind, we read in verse 3 of Genesis 6 that God said: “My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.”

Reading this in most English translations it sounds like God is putting a limit on the human life span of 120 years. The problem with this interpretation is that some people born after the flood lived longer than 120 years. The Bible tells us, for example, that Abraham lived to be 175.

It could be that the 120 years is a general rule, for which God is free to make exceptions, as in the case of Abraham. Or, it could be the 120 years doesn’t refer to human life spans, but rather to the length of time God would wait before sending the flood. We do notice in other parts of the Bible that God gives people fair warning and an opportunity to change before executing his judgement.

Either way, God’s grace is evident in the limits that he sets. If we take the 120 years limit to refer to human life spans (allowing for the odd exception) then God is actually limiting the spread of evil. If the ‘sons of God’ are not allowed to live too long, then their evil regimes and oppression are also limited. Imagine the damage that would be done if Hitler or Stalin or some other fascist dictator was allowed to live for 900 years or more. It doesn’t bear thinking about. God’s judgment and his grace go together.

On the other hand, if we take the 120 years to refer to the time God planned to wait before sending the flood, then God’s grace is evident in the opportunity he gives for people to come to their senses and change their wicked ways.

Perhaps the more important thing to focus on here is that life is God’s to give and take as he thinks best. God says, “My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal;  

To be mortal means we die, we don’t live forever. The bodies we are given in this life wear out eventually.

The only reason we are alive is that God has breathed his Spirit into us. Our life is on loan from God. God is free to take back his Spirit (his breath of life) whenever he wants. When God takes a life it isn’t murder. He is not taking something that belongs to someone else. He is taking back what was always his in the first place.

The mistake we human beings always seem to make is thinking that our lives, our time, our bodies, our money, our everything else belongs to us and is ours to do with as we want. But your life is not your own; it belongs to God.

Imagine you are a high flying business executive and your boss gives you a credit card for your expenses. You can legitimately use this card to fill up the work car with petrol, to pay for your hotel room when you have to go on a business trip, to wine and dine clients and to pay for any other work related expenses.

Of course, your boss is the one paying the bill. So if he sees you have been using the credit card for things that are not work related, he has every right to cancel your credit and give you the sack.    

In giving us life, it’s like God has given each of us a credit card. We are free to use the card to buy almost anything we want but there is a limit on that card. We can’t go beyond the limit. God gets the credit card statements. He sees what we buy. He sees the way we spend our life. And if we spend ourselves in a way that is harmful and doesn’t serve his purpose then he is entitled to cut our credit.

Now God is generous and he doesn’t usually give people the sack the first time they mess up. But he is still our boss. He’s the one paying the bill, not us. We are here at God’s expense. We need to be careful to not take advantage of his goodness.

Human beings, in the days of Noah, were misappropriating the life God had given them. People generally were not spending their lives in service to God. They were using the credit card of their life to oppress and abuse others. God is generous and patient but, in his wisdom and grace, he imposes limits. There is a day of accounting with God.

Jesus made this very clear in a number of his parables – in particular the one in Matthew 25 about the Master who entrusted his three servants with large sums of silver. Two of the servants doubled what they had been given and were allowed to keep it when the master returned. The third servant buried his silver in the ground. The master was not happy with him and he lost it all.  

The silver in this parable represents the life and gifts God has given us. The point of the story is not to use our lives to make lots of money. The point is that we should use the life we have been entrusted with to serve and glorify God.

God’s grief:

Sometimes we read the Bible in the same way we might look into a mirror. We just see our own reflection. That’s not always a bad thing. In fact, looking into a mirror can be helpful if we are looking a bit scruffy and need to brush our hair or have a shave. Just as long as we look away when we’ve finished.

Other times though the Bible functions less like a mirror and more like a lens or a telescope that helps us to see God more clearly.

Genesis 6, verses 5-8, act like a mirror and a lens simultaneously. They reflect the human heart and they show us God’s heart at the same time.     

Verse 5 reads: The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.

The English language doesn’t really have a single word to do justice to the ancient Hebrew idea of the human heart. In English we think of the heart either literally (as a pump in our chest for circulating blood and keeping us alive) or we think of the heart metaphorically as the place where our emotions come from. We tend to associate the heart with tender or romantic feelings.

But to the ancient Hebrew mind the human heart isn’t just a container for emotions. The human heart is also where thoughts, and moral decisions come from. We could say the heart is the seat of the will. The heart is like the rudder or steering wheel of the soul. Our heart determines the direction we take in life, whether we are aware of it or not.

When we talk about giving our heart to Jesus, what we mean is letting Jesus be the pilot or driver of our life. Letting the hand of Christ take hold of the rudder of our soul to set our life in the right direction.

In Matthew 15:19 Jesus said, “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony and slander. These are what make a person ‘unclean’.”  

Returning to Genesis 6, when God saw the great wickedness of the human race; in other words, when he saw the injustice, the immorality, the murder, the oppression, the slander and so on, he traced all that bad behaviour to its source and it led him straight to the human heart.     

God saw that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. It is difficult to imagine a worse indictment.

If the human heart is like a rudder for our soul, then this means the human heart was continually in the grip of evil. It wasn’t like people only made bad choices half the time. They kept making bad choices all the time. The rudder of their heart was jammed toward violence and greed.

The comprehensive state of evil in Noah’s day foreshadows the Godlessness of society in the days leading up to Christ’s return.

In 2nd Timothy chapter 3, the apostle Paul writes…

But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money,boastful, proud, abusive,disobedient to their parents,ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous,rash, conceited,lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.

Returning to Genesis 6. Verse 6 tells us,The Lord was grieved that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain.

Wow. This is what we call the pathos of God. When I read this verse I feel like taking a moment’s silence.

Think about it. The Scripture does not say that God was angry because of the wickedness of the human race. No. It says he was grieved that he had made human beings. He was not enraged. He was filled with pain. The evil heart of humankind deeply affects the loving heart of God. As Walter Brueggemann observes, ‘What we find here is not an angry tyrant but a troubled parent who grieves over the alienation.’ [2]

God is our Father. He is our parent. His heart toward us is love. 

First the Lord saw. He saw the rudder of the human heart was constantly directed toward evil all the time.

Next the Lord felt. God did not just take a quick peek at the human heart. He took a good, long, hard look and in doing so he made himself vulnerable. He felt the grief and pain of human injustice.

Then, having seen and having felt, the Lord decided what he would do. From verse 7 we read: So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I am grieved that I have made them.”

Sometimes people say to me, ‘How could God do that? How could he kill all those people in the flood, not to mention the animals and birds as well?’

While I can understand why people might ask this question, it bypasses what the text is saying. It is not just the world that is in crisis here, it is the very heart of God. The Biblical narrative is more concerned with the deep grief within God.

The flood story is about the hurt God endures because of his wayward creation.

For the people who drowned their suffering was over. For God it continues. We see the suffering heart of God in the person of Jesus on the cross.

The flood story is not primarily about us – it’s about God.

God took no pleasure in the flood. God did not want to drown his creation. I expect he would have preferred to repair the situation if he could. Sadly, things had gone past the point of no return. Like concrete (or clay) humanity had gone hard and become set in its ways – people were no longer malleable. The Lord was left with little choice but to start again.

When an animal dies in a river its rotting carcass contaminates the water downstream. You can’t drink from the river without getting sick. So you have little choice but to remove the dead carcass; then the water can flow clean again.

If human history is like a river, then the wickedness of the human race in Noah’s time, was like a rotting carcass in the stream of human history. God had to remove the corruption and decay so that humanity down-stream wasn’t poisoned. I imagine if God had allowed things to carry on as they were the suffering would have been even greater.

Conclusion:

Our reading this morning finishes on a note of hope. In verse 8, after God has decided to wipe out his creation, we read…

But Noah found favour in the eyes of the Lord.

It seems Noah was the exception to the rule. Unlike his contemporaries Noah’s heart (the rudder of his soul) was not always directed toward evil. Noah allowed God to steer the course of his life.

Last Sunday we heard how Noah’s father, Lamech, said his son would bring them relief. Lamech may not have realised the full meaning of what he was saying. It’s not just us human beings who are pained by sin. Our sin causes God pain as well. As a righteous man Noah was able to offer some relief to God.  

The fact that God’s heart can be grieved by human behaviour also implies that we can bless God’s heart by the choices we make, we can bring joy to his heart.

What can you do this week to bless God’s heart?

Questions for discussion or reflection:

What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?

Who might the ‘sons of God’ refer to, in Genesis 6:2?  Why do you think the writer of Genesis mentions them?

Why did God set a limit of 120 years? In what ways do we see God’s grace in the limits he sets? 

Where does life come from and who does it belong to? How are you using the credit card (of life) that God has given you? 

What does the Bible mean by the human heart? How does the human heart affect God’s heart?

Why do you think God decided to bring a great flood on the earth?

In what way did Noah provide some relief for God? In what way might you be able to bless God’s heart this week?

[1] John Walton uses the term ‘hybrid’ in his NIVAC commentary on Genesis, although he doesn’t support the view that the ‘sons of God’ were fallen angels.

[2] Refer Walter Brueggemann’s commentary on Genesis, page 77.

Tawa Baptist

Noah’s Genealogy

Scripture: Genesis 5

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Noah’s genealogy
  • Enoch’s walk
  • Lamech’s hope
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

At some point every child wonders, ‘Where did I come from?’ This is a very good question. It has to do with identity and belonging. The thing is, a parent never knows when their child is going to ask this question.

If the child is quite young, then parents may feel a dilemma. Do I tell them the scientific facts, which could scare and confuse them, or do I make up a fanciful story like, ‘the stalk delivered you’? Unfortunately, neither of these options really addresses the underlying question of identity and belonging.    

Parents in the ancient world of the Bible had a better strategy. They wisely pointed to the family genealogy or whakapapa. By telling their children about their ancestors, parents gave their kids a sense of belonging and identity.

Today we begin a new sermon series on the life of Noah. Noah was the bloke who built the ark and saved the animals from the great flood. In Genesis chapter 5 we read about Noah’s genealogy. I imagine when Noah was old enough to ask, ‘Where did I come from?’, his father Lamech probably gave him this answer…    

This is the list of the descendants of Adam. When God created humankind,he made themin the likeness of God. 2 Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them “Humankind”when they were created.

3 When Adam had lived one hundred thirty years, he became the father of a son in his likeness, according to his image, and named him Seth. 4 The days of Adam after he became the father of Seth were eight hundred years; and he had other sons and daughters. 5 Thus all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred thirty years; and he died.

6 When Seth had lived one hundred five years, he became the father of Enosh. 7 Seth lived after the birth of Enosh eight hundred seven years, and had other sons and daughters. 8 Thus all the days of Seth were nine hundred twelve years; and he died.

9 When Enosh had lived ninety years, he became the father of Kenan. 10 Enosh lived after the birth of Kenan eight hundred fifteen years, and had other sons and daughters. 11 Thus all the days of Enosh were nine hundred five years; and he died.

12 When Kenan had lived seventy years, he became the father of Mahalalel. 13 Kenan lived after the birth of Mahalalel eight hundred and forty years, and had other sons and daughters. 14 Thus all the days of Kenan were nine hundred and ten years; and he died.

15 When Mahalalel had lived sixty-five years, he became the father of Jared. 16 Mahalalel lived after the birth of Jared eight hundred thirty years, and had other sons and daughters. 17 Thus all the days of Mahalalel were eight hundred ninety-five years; and he died.

18 When Jared had lived one hundred sixty-two years he became the father of Enoch. 19 Jared lived after the birth of Enoch eight hundred years, and had other sons and daughters. 20 Thus all the days of Jared were nine hundred sixty-two years; and he died.

21 When Enoch had lived sixty-five years, he became the father of Methuselah. 22 Enoch walked with God after the birth of Methuselah three hundred years, and had other sons and daughters. 23 Thus all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty-five years. 24 Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him.

25 When Methuselah had lived one hundred eighty-seven years, he became the father of Lamech. 26 Methuselah lived after the birth of Lamech seven hundred eighty-two years, and had other sons and daughters. 27 Thus all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty-nine years; and he died.

28 When Lamech had lived one hundred eighty-two years, he became the father of a son; 29 he named him Noah, saying, “Out of the ground that the Lord has cursed this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the toil of our hands.” 30 Lamech lived after the birth of Noah five hundred ninety-five years, and had other sons and daughters. 31 Thus all the days of Lamech were seven hundred seventy-seven years; and he died.

32 After Noah was five hundred years old, Noah became the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

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

Noah’s genealogy:

How well do you know your ancestry? How far back can you go? Can you name your grandparents, your great grandparents or even your great, great grandparents? I can’t go back any further than four generations. I know the names of my great grandfather and great grandmother on my mother’s side. Albert & Nellie were born towards the end of the 19th Century.

I imagine some of you can go back a lot further than that, while others may not know anything about your ancestors. Whether you know your family tree or not, the Bible tells us our identity and belonging (as human beings) is found in God. Verses 1 & 2 of Genesis 5 tell us…

When God created humankind,he made themin the likeness of God. 2 Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them “Humankind”when they were created.

This tells us that while men and women may be different in form and function and temperament, we are not different in status or worth or value. Women and men are of equal value and both are needed to represent God’s image.  

To be made in the likeness of God does not necessarily mean to look like God physically. To be made in the image of God is to be given noble status. We are supposed to act as regents who represent God (the King) in this world. We are God’s ambassadors and stewards on this planet. The way we relate with each other and the rest of creation is meant to reflect the character of God. 

For example, when we love our neighbour and care for the environment we are representing the likeness (or image) of God. But when we act in ways that are unloving or abusive, then we are not representing God’s likeness.

In some ways humanity is like the moon. Just as the moon reflects the light of the sun, so too human beings (together) reflect the glory of God. Sometimes the moon reflects the light of the sun fully (as when we see a full moon). Other times the moon only reflects the sun’s light partially, if at all. Sometimes we human beings reflect God’s image well. Other times we do a pretty poor job.

Either way, we are still God’s image bearers, reflectors of his glory. Sin and the fall of humankind does not stop us from being made in God’s image, although it does tarnish God’s image at times.

The book of Genesis names three of Adam and Eve’s children: Cain, Abel and Seth. Adam & Eve probably had other children too but we are only told about three of them. In Genesis chapter 4 we read how Cain killed Abel. Adam and Eve then had another son called Seth. Noah was descended from Seth.

If you think about it, you are lucky. You have won the lottery just by being born. If any one of the thousands of generations of your forebears had died before becoming a parent, you wouldn’t be here. Some of your ancestors have survived war, famine, the black plague and all sorts of other terrible tragedies, just so you could be born. So you, each one of you, has beaten the odds. Although it really had more to do with God. It is because of his great love and providence that you are here.   

The genealogy in Genesis 5 doesn’t just tell us about Noah and where he came from. It tells us about God as well. In particular Noah’s genealogy points to the faithfulness of God. Even though human beings rejected God. Even though Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, God still blessed humanity by supporting life through the generations.  

There are ten generations named from Adam to Noah. In the Bible ten is a number which symbolises wholeness or completeness or fullness. The list of Noah’s ancestors in Genesis 5 shows that God did not short change humanity. God is patient and faithful. God blessed human beings and gave them every opportunity to live full lives and make good.

We notice a repeating pattern with the way Noah’s genealogy is presented. With each generation we are told the name of the ancestor, how old they were when they had a son, how long they lived after the son was born and how many years they lived in total, before they died. This points to God’s personal care and concern. Each life is valued by him. Each person is remembered by name.

We are struck by the longevity of the people in this list. Most of Noah’s ancestors lived for over 900 years each. Different commentators have tried to explain these long life spans in all sorts of weird and wonderful ways, none of which are convincing. While God could easily support quality life for 900 plus years, if that served his purpose, humility requires us to admit the limits of our knowledge and not be too dogmatic with our interpretation.

A better question to ask might be what does it mean to live well? I don’t think life can be measured in years alone. Perhaps life is measured by the legacy we leave for others. Or perhaps the love we give is the best measure of life. Jesus only lived 33 years before he was killed and yet the legacy of love that he left has endured for more than 2000 years. Jesus had no biological children and yet he has literally millions of spiritual children.

It seems to me, the long life spans point to the idea that God is generous and wants to give abundant life. As Jesus said, I have come that you might have life in all its fullness.

Two individuals in Noah’s genealogy need special mention: Noah’s great grandfather Enoch and Noah’s dad, Lamech.

Enoch’s walk:

Robyn and I really enjoy walking together. One of the silver linings of lockdown was that we got to go for a walk around Tawa most days. The weather was pretty good in April. Walking is life-giving. It is good for you physically, of course, but it also opens windows in your mind and creates connections with people. Walking helps you to feel less alone.

Enoch was the seventh generation from Adam and he broke the mould. From verse 21 of Genesis 5 we read…

21 When Enoch had lived sixty-five years, he became the father of Methuselah. 22 Enoch walked with God after the birth of Methuselah three hundred years, and had other sons and daughters. 23 Thus all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty-five years. 24 Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him.

Twice in these verses we are told that Enoch ‘walked with God’. It doesn’t say what Enoch did for a job or what kind of camel he drove. It doesn’t tell us how much money he made – or what he built. It doesn’t list any of his achievements. It simply says he walked with God. Sadly, this expression is rare. Noah may be the only other person of whom it is said, he walked with God. [1]

What does it mean to walk with God?

When you walk with someone you stay close to them – near enough to have a personal conversation – you go where they go. To walk with God, therefore, implies a relationship of intimacy and righteousness. It means following God, going where God leads, doing life God’s way.

Jesus walked everywhere with his disciples. When Jesus called his disciples he said, come follow me. In other words, walk with me, be near to be me so we can have an on-going conversation. Learn from me.

Walking with God requires humility; you need to keep your feet on the ground. As the prophet Micah famously said, ‘What does the Lord require of you? To do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.’

Walking implies movement, transformation, change, going on a journey. But it is a journey that is unhurried – it’s walking, not running. There is a rhythm in walking with God, where we find ourselves in time with Him. 

Verse 24 of Genesis 5 tells us that after walking with God, Enoch was no more because God took him away. Enoch did not die – he was raptured by God. To be raptured is to be transported (sort of like ‘Beam me up Scotty’). When Jesus returns in glory we, who trust in him, will be raptured (or transported) to where he is. God took Enoch away. There is only one other person in the Hebrew Bible to be raptured like this (without dying) and that was the prophet Elijah. [2]

Enoch broke the mould. He did things differently from his ancestors and those around him. Jesus calls us to break the mould too. When Jesus said to his disciples, ‘You are the salt of the earth’ and ‘You are the light of the world’ and ‘Be holy as God is holy’, he was saying, ‘Be distinctive. Don’t blend in with the world around you. Break the mould. Be different in a good way.’ The only way we can do this is by ‘walking with God’.

Enoch’s life stands out as a beacon of hope. He demonstrates that sin and death do not always have the last word. Enoch points to Jesus who shows us how to walk with God. Jesus has defeated death.  

Lamech’s hope:

The other person to mention in Noah’s genealogy is his father, Lamech.

Now, to avoid confusion, we need to be clear about which Lamech we mean. We are not talking about the Lamech, in Genesis 4, who was descended from Cain. He was a nasty piece of work. Cain’s Lamech was hell-bent on seeking revenge and his revenge overstepped the mark.

The Lamech we are talking about was descended from Seth and, in contrast to his cousin, Seth’s Lamech expressed hope, not revenge. When Noah was born his father said of him…

“Out of the ground that the Lord has cursed this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the toil of our hands.”    

God had cursed the ground when Adam and Eve disobeyed him and ate the forbidden fruit. God did not curse people, he cursed the ground. This doesn’t mean that God put a hex or a magic spell on the ground. It simply means that God removed his protection and favour from the ground, with the consequence that humankind would have to work a lot harder to get the ground to yield food.

Lamech is tired of working the cursed ground. He longs for relief from the hard labour God has sentenced them to and he imagines his son, Noah, will be the one to bring that relief. The name ‘Noah’ sounds like the Hebrew word for ‘relief’ or ‘rest’. [3] It seems that Lamech did not fully realise what God was going to do through Noah.

Lamech’s hope, that Noah would bring relief, is thought to find its compliment in Genesis 8:21 when, after the flood, Noah offers a sacrifice to God and the Lord is pleased saying, “Never again will I curse the ground because of man.” [4]

When I was kid we watched a movie called The Fantastic Voyage. It was a science fiction story in which a submarine crew are shrunk to microscopic size and venture into the body of an injured scientist to repair damage to his brain. Cool aye. The surgeons can’t fix the problem from the outside, they have to get small and fix it from the inside. I won’t spoil the ending for you. They are probably due to do a remake sometime.

Walter Brueggemann makes the observation that Lamech’s prophetic hope hints at incarnational faith. “The affirmation that relief comes from cursed ground… runs toward crucifixion and resurrection… As help comes from the place of curse, so life comes from the reality of death.” [5]

In other words, God doesn’t fix the problem of sin from the outside, like a mechanic working on a car or a jeweller fixing a watch or a surgeon removing cancer. No, incarnation means God gets small and fixes the problem from the inside. In Genesis, God uses his creation to fix his creation. That is, God works through the flood waters and through Noah to renew his creation.  

Eventually though, God would embark on his own fantastic voyage. He would make himself small and become a human being (in the person of Jesus), in order to bring relief from the curse of sin and death, from the inside out.   

Conclusion:

You may wonder why I have chosen to start this sermon series with Noah’s genealogy? Well, mainly because that’s how the Bible starts it.

On its own, the account of the flood is a tragic story of judgement and death. But heard in its proper context, the flood story is redemptive. In Genesis 5 we read of the ten generations from Adam to Noah and in Genesis 10 we read of the generations born from Noah’s three sons, after the flood. By sandwiching the flood story between two genealogies we are reminded of the generous way God supports and continues and prospers life.

In Luke 10:20, Jesus refers to a different kind of genealogy – a spiritual genealogy. He says to his disciples, “…rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”  As Christians our identity and belonging are found in Christ. Jesus knows you by name. You belong to Christ and, when you put your trust in him, your name is written in the family tree of heaven.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?

How well do you know your ancestry? How far back can you go? As human beings, where does our sense of identity and belonging come from?

What does it mean to be made in the image (or likeness) of God?

What does Noah’s genealogy indicate about God? Similarly, what might the long life spans in Genesis 5 indicate about God?

Why is walking good for you? What does it mean that ‘Enoch walked with God’?

How might we break the mould? That is, how might we live in a way that is distinctive or different from the world around us?

How does God choose to redeem his creation?

[1] Genesis 6:9

[2] 2 Kings 2:11

[3] Refer Derek Kidner’s Tyndale commentary on Genesis, page 82.

[4] Refer John Walton’s (NIVAC) commentary on Genesis, page 280.

[5] Refer Walter Brueggemann’s Interpretation commentary on Genesis, page 69.

Tawa Baptist

Now Unto Him

Scripture: Jude 24-25

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Preventing a disaster
  • Keeping the end in sight
  • Giving God the glory
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Back in November last year we started our Anthems series with the song Build my Life. In this series we have looked 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.

In many ways this series has provided an opportunity to do some Biblical theology – that is, to reflect on some of the bigger ideas about God and our Christian faith. The way we perceive God is influenced quite a bit by the songs we sing in church.   

Today we conclude our Anthems series with the song Now unto Him. We sometimes sing Now unto Him at the end of church services and meetings as a way of concluding proceedings. The tune for Now unto Him was written in the early 1970’s by a New Zealand woman called Olive Wood. Olive originally called the song ‘Benediction’. Benediction simply means blessing. Technically it is really more of a doxology – a statement of praise to glorify God – but it serves just as well as a benediction.

Although I can’t tell you anything about Olive Wood’s life, we do know the words to this short hymn come from the closing verses of the New Testament book of Jude. The name Jude is short for Judah.

Most scholars think that Jude is probably one of the biological half-brothers of Jesus. So Jude would have grown up in the home of Joseph and Mary with Jesus as his older brother. As far as we know Jude didn’t hang out with Jesus and the other disciples during Jesus’ three years of earthly ministry. Apparently he became a believer after Jesus’ resurrection.

Preventing a disaster:

When I was kid we were told the story of the Dutch boy who stopped his town from being flooded by putting his finger in the dike. A dike is a massive sea wall for keeping water out. The story goes that as the boy was walking home one evening he noticed a steady flow of water coming from a small hole in the dike. The boy then had a dilemma. If he ran to get help the hole might become larger and break open the sea wall, flooding the town. But if he stayed to stop the flow he might be stuck there all night.       

Although it was tempting to ignore the problem and hope that someone else would see it before it got worse, the boy felt a sense of duty and put his finger in the hole to prevent a disaster and save his town. Despite the cold and dark, the boy stayed there all night until some adults found him the next morning and fixed the sea wall.

Jude had wanted to write to the churches about salvation but instead he felt compelled to write a letter of warning to prevent a flood of false teaching in the church.

“Apparently these false teachers were trying to convince believers that being saved by grace gave them license to sin, since their sins would no longer be held against them.” [1]

These false teachers were de-moralising the church. What they said sounded credible at first but really their ideas undermined people’s motivation to act in morally right and holy ways. They had created a little hole in the dike of the young church’s faith and Jude wanted to plug that hole with his letter before it got any worse and destroyed the church.

The apostle Paul faced the same kind of problem. In Romans 6 he says: What shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer.

In some ways Jude’s short letter is not pleasant or comfortable reading. He uses a series of tragic examples from the Old Testament and other Jewish apocryphal writings to make his point that we can’t take God’s forgiveness for granted. We can’t major on grace at the expense of truth. We can’t cast off God’s moral law; for that would be like throwing the baby out with the bath water. God’s redemption should make us more motivated to be holy. God’s grace is not a license to do whatever we want. God’s grace is meant to set us free to become more like Jesus.

I’m sure Jude would rather have written about God’s goodness and love but, like the boy who spent the night with his finger in the dike, Jude was trying to prevent a disaster.   

Keeping the end in sight:

The story of the Dutch boy who saved his town is fictional. It’s made up. But it does contain some truth and the simplicity of it opens a window on one’s imagination.

What would it be like to sit all night, alone in the dark and cold, with your finger in a sea wall. I imagine your finger would go numb. Your eyes would become heavy with sleep. There would be no one there to encourage you or support you. It would be easy to become de-moralised, to give up and let the town go under water. How would you make it through the night? I guess you would have to keep a picture in your mind of what you were aiming to achieve. You would need to keep the end in sight when the village was saved and you were home again tucking into a hot meal.  

We call this hope. Hope is the capacity to see a positive future; to keep the end in sight, to keep going.   

Do you remember those radio competitions where a dozen people would try to win a new car by keeping their hand on that car the longest? If you lost concentration and took your hand off, even for just a moment, you were out. The last person with their hand still on the car was the winner.

I think they may have stopped running competitions like that because it is considered too cruel, even abusive. People literally went on for days without sleep in the uncertain hope they might win. Sure they got to stop every few hours for a toilet break but can you imagine how devastating it would be to hang in there for 5 days only to be the runner up. There was no prize for second place, just the emptiness of regret and misplaced hope.

Even if you were the winner you would still feel pretty stink for the others who walked away with nothing. Not to mention the utter physical and emotional exhaustion of the experience. I’m pleased they don’t do competitions like that anymore. 

Returning to verse 24 of Jude’s letter. After having given the false teachers a serious serve, and putting the fear of hell into those who may be inclined to believe them, Jude inspires hope. Verse 24 reads: Now unto Him who is able to keep you from falling and present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.

The first thing we notice here is that God is able. God has skills and power and abilities. As we read in Romans 16:25, God is able to establish you by the gospel, the proclamation of Jesus Christ.

Or as Paul says in Ephesians 3:20, God is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.  

God is able. This means the journey of Christian faith is not like those hand on car competitions. We are not doing this alone, in our own strength. It does not depend entirely on us.

God is able to keep us from falling. We are reminded here, of the words of Psalm 121: 1 I lift up my eyes to the mountains—where does my help come from? 2 My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. 3 He will not let your foot slip…
    

In other words, God is present with us now, helping us to get to the end. God is our number one supporter. God is not looking for the first opportunity to exclude us. If we do slip up, if we do take our hand off the prize for a moment, we are not automatically out. We have a God who gives second, third and fourth chances. God prefers to redeem his children if they are willing. So when we make mistakes we can return to God, admit our wrong doing, ask his forgiveness and the strength to carry on.

God is able to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. Imagine that; being presented faultless before God. That is the Christian hope in a nut shell. No one really wants to stand before God with all their sins and faults exposed. That would be terrifying and humiliating. But to be presented faultless, perfect, whole, as one who is righteous and without blemish. That would be a beautiful thing indeed. 

How does God do that? Well, one way to understand this is that God makes us faultless in Christ. To be a Christian is to be in Christ.

To be in Christ is to enter a new spiritual realm, like being granted citizenship in a new country, the land of Jesus.

To be in Christ is to be a branch grafted into the vine of Jesus. Apart from Jesus we can do nothing but when we abide in Christ we become fruitful.

To be in Christ is to be given a new status, like being released from prison into society and having your criminal record expunged.

In fact, when we are baptised into Christ we put on his righteousness. If our thoughts, words and deeds are like dirty rags, then being in Christ is like taking those rags off, having a bath and putting on Jesus’ clean clothes.    

Now some of you may be thinking, ‘Okay, it’s one thing to be faultless in Christ, to put on his righteousness and all that, but isn’t that like cheating or pretending or something? Isn’t that like dressing up mutton and calling it lamb, because it’s Jesus’ faultlessness, not our own. Besides what has been done in the past can’t be undone. We can’t say the mistakes we have made didn’t happen.

Well, let me offer you another couple of ways of thinking about this. If you can imagine your soul is like a stream of water. Sin pollutes the water of our soul. Sin makes the stream of our soul unreliable, toxic even. Through Jesus and the Holy Spirit, God purifies the water of our soul so we are actually pure and faultless on the inside. It’s not that the history of our soul is faultless. It’s more that the future of our soul is faultless, because of the work of Christ in us.

Or to use another analogy. Imagine your heart is an engine. Over time an engine develops faults and problems. The spark plugs become worn, the alternator fails, the battery goes flat, a gasket blows and you find you are burning too much oil. Through Jesus and the Holy Spirit, God reconditions and fine tunes the engine of our heart so it runs smoothly and without fault. We don’t pretend we never had engine problems. Rather, we enjoy driving again with God beside us.      

But we shouldn’t just look at this in an individualistic way. While being in Christ is a personal thing, it is also a community thing. We aren’t in Christ by our self. We are in Christ as part of his body the church. So thinking collectively, to be presented faultless before God may also mean the church community is presented perfect and whole before God, without any missing limbs or organs.

With the Christian faith, it is not a case of the winner takes all (as it is with the hands on a car competition). We share the prize of God’s kingdom. What’s more, we share the prize with exceeding joy. That is, without regret. Without feeling stink that we have won at the exclusion of others.

When I first considered that phrase, with exceeding joy, I thought the joy belonged to God. In other words, God is full of joy to see us presented faultless, in Christ, before him. I read it this way because of what Jesus says in Luke 15 with his parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost sons. In all three stories the punch line seems to be that all heaven rejoices when lost sinners repent and are found.

But when I read what the experts had to say about this verse, they reckon the joy belongs to us. So we are the ones who experience the exceeding joy when presented faultless before God. I suppose it doesn’t have to be either / or. It can be both / and. Both you and God have exceeding joy in each other’s presence.

When we are in the thick of the battle, denying ourselves for Christ, carrying our cross and following Jesus, we do well to remember the end goal is not suffering and self-denial. The end goal is union with God through Christ and the overflow of our union with God is exceeding joy.

Giving God the glory:

Because of God’s ability to keep us from falling and present us faultless, Jude ends his letter with a doxology; an expression of praise for God’s glory. In verse 25 we read: To the only God our Saviour be glory and majesty, dominion and power, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore. Amen.

You need to be aware that the lyrics of the song are slightly different to the actual words of Scripture in Jude.

We sing, to the only wise God. Whereas Jude doesn’t have the word ‘wise’ in there. To the only wise God actually comes from Romans 16:27 where Paul writes, To the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ.

Really it doesn’t make a lot of difference. The point is, there is only one God and wisdom is found in him, through Jesus Christ. That is, we gain access to God’s wisdom through Jesus.

The other difference between the song lyrics and Jude’s words is that the song leaves out the phrase, through Jesus Christ our Lord. I’m not sure why Olive Wood left that out. It seems quite important. Probably it was something to do with the meter and phrasing of the song. It would be too much of a mouthful to sing all those words fluently. In any case, the Christian belief is that we come to the only true God through Jesus. Jesus is the bridge and passport to the kingdom of God.

Many of you will be familiar with the Star Wars saga. The Star Wars universe is based on the belief that there are two opposing powers at work in the galaxy; the light side of the force and the dark side. Jedi knights, like Yoda and Luke Skywalker, are practitioners of the light side of the force, while Sith lords, like Darth Vader, use the dark side of the force. The philosophy of Star Wars is known as dualism. Dual (as in two) forces of equal strength pitched against each other.    

Why am I talking about Star Wars you may wonder? Well, there was a belief system which started to develop late in the first century (around the time Jude wrote his letter) which was similar, in some ways, to the philosophy of the Star Wars universe.  This belief system eventually developed into what we call Gnosticism. Gnosticism is a dualistic belief, with two gods pitched against each other, sort of like the dark side of the force and light side. The experts reckon the false teachers probably preached an early form of Gnosticism. 

When Jude wrote, ‘To the only God our Saviour be glory, majesty, dominion and power…’ he was making the point that, contrary to what the false teachers were saying, there is only one God, not two. While there clearly is the presence of evil in this world, evil is no match for the one true living God, our Saviour.

God’s glory includes his splendour, beauty, magnificence, greatness and transcendence. God’s glory is a weighty thing, it has substance, mass, gravity. We revolve around God’s glory, even if we don’t know it.            

God’s majesty refers to his royalty or his sovereignty, his authority or right to rule.

Dominion is an old fashioned word having to do with domain or territory. God’s dominion is his turf, his kingdom, the area of his royal reach.

And power is God’s ability to do things, to make stuff happen. We have heard about God’s ability to redeem and restore, to make perfect and present us faultless.

When we sing ‘To the only God our Saviour be glory, majesty, dominion and power…’ we are agreeing with Jude and millions of other Christians throughout history that God is above all and totally beyond compare. We want his reign in this world and his will to be done in our lives.      

The last line of the song which reads, ‘both now and forever’, doesn’t quite capture the full scope of Jude’s words which read, ‘before all time, now and forever.’ The glory, majesty, dominion and power of God are not limited by time. They are before all time, that is before creation. They are now in the present time in history. And they are forevermore, beyond time into eternity.

Conclusion:

We may become de-moralised by the state of the world and by the state of ourselves at times. We may become frustrated with how faulty and dysfunctional things are. When life is hard and confusing, when the news is all bad, we need to keep the end goal in sight. This life is not all there is. We were made for more. Jesus came to make all things new.

Our God is able to finish what he started. Our God is infinite, eternal and inexhaustible. He is bigger, longer, older, wiser, deeper, kinder, fuller and more generous than we can imagine. There is no other and never has been any other and never will be any other like him.

Let’s stand and sing…

Now unto Him who is able to keep

Able to keep you from falling

And present you faultless before the presence of His glory

With exceeding joy

To the only wise God, our Saviour

Be glory and majesty, dominion and power

Both now and forever, Amen. 

Questions for discussion or reflection:

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

In what way was Jude like the boy who put his finger in the dike? Have you ever been in a similar/analogous situation? What happened?

How should we respond to God’s grace? What is Christian freedom for?

Why do we need to keep the end in sight? How can we keep the end in sight?

What does it mean to be presented faultless before God’s presence? 

How is the philosophy of Star Wars different from Christian belief?

Take some time this week to imagine the goal of your salvation; standing faultless before God and enjoying him forever.

[1] Refer to the NIV Study Bible, 1985, page 1919. 

Tawa Baptist

Worship at home service – 7 June 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 Trinity Sunday, when we celebrate the divine mystery of God the Father, God the Son & God the Holy Spirit. Jesus speaks about himself in relation to the Father and the Spirit in John 16:12-15…

12 “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. 13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. 14 He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. 15 All that belongs to the Father is mine…”

May the Lord bless the reading of his word.

Prayer (from the Lectionary)

Blessed Trinity, we know you as a community of love.
Grant us such worship of you that we are transformed after your likeness;
to be creative, caring, life enriching people.
For you reign in the glory of the power that is love.
This we ask through Christ our Mediator. Amen

Sung Worship

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

  • Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty 
  • The Splendour of the King (How great is our God)

Intercessory Prayer

The following prayer was sourced from Charles Hewlett, the national leader of the Baptist Union, (with a line added by me).

Lord, we pray for our world.
 
We pray for the horrific event in Minneapolis. Help us to be devoted to one another in love, honouring one another above ourselves (Rom 12:10).
 
We pray for the millions of children around the world who are exposed to preventable disease because of disruptions to vaccination programmes caused by coronavirus.  Help us to speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute (Proverbs 31:8).
 
We pray for Yemen, where scores of coronavirus cases have been recorded across the country in the grip of a civil war. Thank you for being close to the broken hearted and saving those who are crushed in spirit (Psalm 34:18).
 
We pray for the state of emergency after 20,000 tonnes of oil leaked into a river within the Arctic Circle. Thank you that you care for the land and water it; you enrich it abundantly (Psalm 65:9).
 
We pray for the leaders of our world. May they not only look out for their own interests, but take an interest in others, too (Phil 2:4). 

We pray for those we know who are sick or injured. We think especially of [name those on your heart] at this time. Help us to be ardent in spirit, to rejoice in hope, to be patient in suffering and to persevere in prayer. (Rom 12:11-12)

Through Jesus, our Lord and friend, we pray. Amen.  

More Sung Worship

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

  • Prodigal (A Father’s love in arms of graces…) by Edge Kingsland
  • Father I adore you, lay my life before you…

Sermon

You can either read the sermon notes found 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 ‘There is a Redeemer’. Google the song on YouTube or Spotify.

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.  

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).

The blessing could be something like:

“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the friendship of the Holy Spirit be with you now and always. Amen.”  

Prayer of confession

8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:8-9)

Take some time now to talk with God about the things that may be troubling your conscience. Perhaps it is something you regret doing. Or maybe some good that you failed to do. Ask for God’s mercy and grace and know that God is faithful and just and will forgive our sins. 

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 elements, the bread and the wine/juice that all who receive them would be filled afresh with your Spirit of love and truth. May we know your presence now and throughout the week. 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 is 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’.

Closing Song

Listen and/or sing along to ‘Jesus Christ, I think upon your sacrifice’ (Once Again). Google 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

There is a Redeemer

Scriptures: John 1:29, Deuteronomy 7:8, Luke 4:14-21, Genesis 50:19-21, Philippians 2:5-11, 1st Corinthians 13:8-12, Romans 8:22-24, Ephesians 1:14

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Jesus, our redeemer
  • Name above all names
  • Father, Son & Spirit
  • When I stand in glory
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

In the late 80’s I wrote an article for a Christian magazine. It was for a competition. I can’t remember exactly what the magazine was called now and I don’t remember the article either, but apparently not many people entered. They published the article and sent me two complimentary CD’s of Keith Green’s music.

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 Trinity Sunday and because we are having communion, we are looking at the song There is a Redeemer. For many years I thought this song was written by Keith Green, because I had listened to it on his CD collection and it was his voice singing the song. Only recently did I learn it was actually written in 1977 by Melody Green, Keith’s wife. Keith made the song famous and he added another verse.

Near the beginning of this Anthems series (in November last year) we heard about Keith Green’s conversion to Christianity, when we looked at the song Create in me a clean heart. Melody Green’s story is similar. Like Keith, Melody was born into a Jewish family. Her grandparents fled persecution in Russia and settled in America. Melody’s dad was a Navy Seal, who served in World War 2. On his return he worked in a factory. Her mother worked in an accounting firm and her grandfather was Jewish Rabbi.

During her teenage years Melody went searching for God and tried various Eastern religions and philosophies. Eventually, Melody met Keith and they both went to a Bible study where they became Christians.

Melody and Keith were not ones to do things by halves. They took the words of Jesus seriously and opened their home in radical hospitality to people in need, giving away most of the money they earned. They also wrote an evangelical magazine called Last Days. 

Sadly, in July 1982, just a few months before his 29th birthday, Keith died in a plane crash along with two of their children. Melody was nursing a baby at the time and was pregnant with their fourth child. She became a young widow and solo mum.

Although it was incredibly painful and difficult, Melody came through this tragedy with greater gratitude to God and more love for others. She says, “Today I have more faith in God’s goodness and ability to provide than ever before. Even when terrible things happen He can turn those things towards our good…  but only if we have the patience to wait while we are hurting.”

Melody carried on the work she and Keith had started, serving and loving and preaching and writing in the name of Jesus. She lives in California these days.

Although Melody wrote the song There is a Redeemer five years before Keith died, it speaks to that situation and others like it. There is a Redeemer is about the ability of our triune God (Father, Son & Spirit) to redeem terrible things and use them for good.

Jesus, our redeemer:

The song starts with the words…

There is a redeemer, Jesus, God’s own Son
Precious Lamb of God, Messiah, Holy One.

Right from the start the focus is very much on Jesus. The opening verse gives us five titles for Jesus.

Jesus’ name itself means ‘the Lord saves’.

Jesus is God’s own Son. This means he is divine. We heard about Jesus’ divinity a couple of weeks ago.

Messiah literally means ‘anointed one’. Jesus is the prophet, priest and King, chosen by God to save His people.

Holy One means Jesus is set apart for God’s special purpose. It also points to Jesus’ goodness, his purity and integrity.

And Lamb of God picks up the ancient Jewish idea of sacrifice to remove sins. In the gospel of John chapter 1, John the Baptist sees Jesus and says, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.”     

In the Bible, lambs were associated with innocence, gentleness and deliverance. 

When Abraham was about to sacrifice his son Isaac on the altar, God provided a lamb as a substitute, thus delivering Isaac and his descendants from certain death.

When the people of Israel were about to leave their slavery in Egypt, God instituted the Passover festival – where each family was to sacrifice a lamb and paint the blood over the door frame, so the angel of death would pass-over that house.

And, on a daily basis, lambs were sacrificed in the Jewish temple as a way of atoning for sin

Lamb sacrifices were reminders of God’s deliverance, his redemption from sin and death.

Which brings us to the leading title for Jesus in this song. Jesus is our redeemer. So what is redemption?

Redemption is essentially a two stage process (or transaction). The first stage involves release and the second stage involves restoration.  So redemption is about setting free and making right. It’s about putting things back in their proper place, where they belong.

Imagine you are at a picnic by a lake. It’s a lovely day. You are sitting on your rug, eating your sandwiches and feeding the ducks, when you hear the sound of a large splash. You look round to see your car has rolled into the water. Someone left the hand break off.

Fortunately, no one was in the car and no people or animals were harmed in the making of this story. But you still have a dilemma. Your car is stuck in the mud and half under water. It doesn’t belong there and you can’t get it out. So you ring your insurance company and they redeem things for you. They send a tow truck which comes and winches your car out of the lake. Once the tow truck driver has released your car, she then takes it to the garage where a mechanic restores the engine to get it working again.

A few days later your car is running fine and back with you, on dry land, where it belongs. That’s redemption: first release, then restoration. While it didn’t cost you much, it did cost the insurance company quite a bit. Redemption is usually an expensive exercise, at least for the redeemer.        

The idea of redemption is illustrated clearly in the law of Moses. For example, if an Israelite came upon hard times and was forced to sell their land, the land could be redeemed by a close relative (a kinsman redeemer). This means a price was paid for the land to be released and restored to the rightful owner.

Or, if an Israelite was forced to sell himself into slavery, a close relative (like a brother or a cousin) could pay for that person’s release, so they could be restored to the status of a free man.

Every 50 years the Law of Moses provided for a Jubilee, which was basically a year of redemption, when all land was returned to the families it belonged to and all slaves were set free and debts forgiven. In this way people were released and restored. It was a handy strategy for preventing a gap between rich and poor. (Although we can’t be sure that ancient Israel actually practiced it.)

In any case, Jesus is our redeemer. With Jesus there is Jubilee. This is what Jesus was saying when he stood up in the synagogue and read from the prophet Isaiah saying: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the captives and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”

The year of the Lord’s favour refers to the Jubilee year. The year of redemption. The year of release and restoration. Jesus is our redeemer. He makes Jubilee happen. 

The quintessential redemption story is the story of Ruth, Naomi and Boaz. But I’m always referring to Ruth so I’ll choose another story instead. Like when God redeemed the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt.

In Deuteronomy 7:8 we read: But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.  

The Israelites were under the power of a foreign dominion; they were oppressed in Egypt. God released his people from that land of slavery and (eventually) restored them to the Promised Land, the land of Canaan, flowing with milk and honey, where they belonged. That’s redemption on a national scale.

Jesus is our redeemer. He sets people free from the slavery of sin and death, restoring us to God’s kingdom, where we belong. Jesus’ redemption is international in its scope. He does it for all people and nations who put their faith in him.

One of my favourite redemption stories is the story of Joseph. Joseph was his father, Jacob’s, favourite and it made Joseph’s brothers envious. They sold him into slavery and faked his death. But God redeemed the situation. He used it for good. Through a series of fortunate and unfortunate events Joseph rose through the ranks from being a lowly slave to becoming the Prime Minister of Egypt. God used Joseph to interpret Pharaoh’s dream and deliver the nation from starvation when the seven years of famine came.

In the end God restored Joseph’s family to him also. In Genesis 50 we read how Joseph’s brothers were afraid because of the way they had treated Joseph but Joseph redeemed them saying: “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. So then, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your children.”

Joseph became a redeemer for all of Egypt and for his brothers. Joseph points to Jesus, our redeemer. In Jesus we find the release of forgiveness for our sins and restoration to right relationship with God the Father.

Name above all names:

The next verse of the song reads…

Jesus my redeemer, name above all names,
Precious Lamb of God, Messiah, oh, for sinners slain.

A person’s name is their reputation, their integrity and their honour. That phrase name above all names is saying that Jesus has the greatest name. His reputation, his personal integrity, his honour, is higher than any other. We are reminded of Philippians 2 where the apostle Paul writes…

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

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

This passage of Scripture tells us that Jesus is divine; he shares the very nature of God. It also speaks of Jesus’ sacrifice for sinners. Jesus is the precious sacrificial lamb of God.

One of the things about the sacrificial lamb in Jewish worship is that it had to be spotless, without blemish, perfect. God is infinitely worthy and so he deserves the very best we can offer. To say that Jesus is precious is to say that he is one of a kind. He is the only one good enough to serve as a sacrificial lamb in our place. No one else will do.

The song reminds us that Jesus was slain (or killed) for sinners. The word, sinners, does not refer to a particular class or category of people. Sinners refers to all human beings. We are all sinners and we are all sinned against. To be a sinner is to be alienated from God. That is, to be under the power of a foreign dominion. Sin is not where we belong.

As sinners we are like the car that rolled into the lake. We are in need of redemption. We have a choice. We can either stay in the lake or we can call on God for help. When we call on God he sends his Son, Jesus, to redeem us. Our redemption doesn’t cost us as much as it costs Jesus. He releases us from the lake and, as we cooperate with his Spirit, restores the engine of our heart so we are able to function in a right relationship with God again.       

Father, Son & Spirit:

The chorus of Melody’s song reads…          

Thank you, oh my Father for giving us Your Son
And leaving Your Spirit ’til the work on earth is done.

There is a clear reference of the work of the Trinity in this chorus. Jesus doesn’t do the work of redemption all on his own. Rather the redemption of creation is a team effort with each of the three members of the Trinity (Father, Son & Spirit) working together.

Broadly speaking, from a human perspective, redemption is the initiative of God the Father. God the Father comes up with the plan (I imagine in consultation with the Son & the Spirit) and then sends his Son Jesus and the Holy Spirit into the world to implement the plan. The plan is that Jesus will deliver humanity from sin and death by sacrificing himself on the cross. Jesus works in harmony with the Spirit and is obedient to God the Father in going to the cross. Then later, after Jesus’ resurrection, the Holy Spirit was given to complete (or bring to fruition) Jesus’ work of redemption in the lives of human beings. As I said last week, we are sanctified (or made holy) as we cooperate with the Holy Spirit.  

The point is, when it comes to our redemption, it is a team effort on God’s part.

Imagine your liver is failing. The whites of your eyes are turning yellow, you look jaundiced and you feel rotten. So you go to the doctor. This doctor is a liver specialist and a surgeon. The doctor examines you and sees that you need a liver transplant. He goes looking for a donor for you – someone who is healthy and well. As it happens the only donor who is a match for you is the surgeon’s own son. The surgeon’s son is precious for many reasons; especially as he is the only one who can save you.

Although the donor (the surgeon’s son) is a stranger to you, he loves his father and, after hearing about your situation, is willing to donate part of their liver. You only need a part of the liver. It will regenerate on its own once it is transplanted.

The whole situation humbles you. The doctor must really care about you; given he is willing to risk his only son’s life to save yours. But what can you do. You don’t have medical insurance and if you don’t accept the organ donation you will die. You gratefully accept the doctor’s surgery and trust the son’s sacrifice to redeem your life and health.

The surgery goes well and your body accepts the new liver. You begin to feel better and you realise you owe everything to this father and son. You ask what you can do to say ‘thank you’ and they reply, ‘Take care of your new liver.’ So that’s what you do. You lay off the alcohol and you go easy on sugar. You look after your body, inside and out, and you find ways to pay it forward.

In some ways, not in every way, but in some ways God the Father is a little bit like the surgeon and Jesus is a little bit like the son, who donated his liver, and the liver you received is a little bit like the Holy Spirit.

It’s not a perfect analogy, so don’t press it too far. I’m not suggesting the Holy Spirit is chopped liver. The Holy Spirit is a person in his own right. But he is like a vital organ to our life with God.

The point is, your redemption, my redemption, is a team effort on God’s part and it is costly. God’s only motivation was love. We owe God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) our very lives. How are we taking care of the new liver he has given us?

When I stand in glory:

The last verse of Melody’s song, which I think was added by Keith Green, reads…

When I stand in glory I will see His face
And there I’ll serve my King forever in that holy place.

‘Glory’, in this context, refers to the return of Jesus when God’s kingdom, the kingdom of heaven, is fully realised. So the line, when I stand in glory, looks forward to that time when we see Jesus face to face in all his heavenly glory. In 1st Corinthians 13 the apostle Paul writes about what it will be like when we stand in glory. From verse 8 we read…

But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

For many years (most of my life in fact) I had seen the Remarkables (a mountain range in Queenstown) on TV or in post cards and thought they look nice. It would be cool to go there one day. But when I actually did go to Queenstown and saw the Remarkables face to face I was blown away. I couldn’t stop looking at them. They really are remarkable.  

None of us have actually seen Jesus face to face, not yet anyway. We’ve seen his reflection in the Scriptures and perhaps in the church, that is, in the love we have known and shared with other believers. And while these reflections are beautiful in their own way, I expect they don’t really compare with the beauty of a face to face encounter with Christ in his glory. I imagine we will find it difficult to stop looking at Jesus.         

Our redemption is not complete. Full redemption is yet to be accomplished. In Romans 8 Paul puts into words our longing for full redemption where he writes, 22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved.

And in a similar vein Paul looks forward to the completion of our redemption in Ephesians. From chapter 1, verse 13 we read…

When you believed, you were marked in Christ with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.

When purchasing a house, the buyer normally puts down a deposit first, as a guarantee that they will go through with the agreement. The deposit seals the deal as it were. Then, when it is time to move in, the balance is paid and the keys are released to the new owner.

The Holy Spirit is the deposit on our soul guaranteeing our inheritance in God’s kingdom. We haven’t moved into God’s kingdom fully, not yet. We still live in this far from perfect world. But we won’t be slumming it forever. When Jesus returns we will be released from the power of this world and restored to God’s dominion.      

Conclusion:

Jesus is our redeemer. Jesus releases us from the power of sin and death and he restores us to God’s image and God’s kingdom. But he doesn’t do this on his own. No. Our redemption is a team effort between God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

While our redemption is guaranteed (from God’s end at least) it is not yet complete. In the meantime, we look forward in hope to that day when we can see Jesus face to face. 

I imagine when our redemption is fully realised we will be better able to worship God than we can now. 

Let’s stand and sing There is a redeemer as we prepare for communion…

There is a redeemer, Jesus God’s own Son

Precious Lamb of God, Messiah, Holy One.

Jesus my redeemer, name above all names
Precious Lamb of God, Messiah, oh, for sinners slain.

Thank you, oh my Father for giving us Your Son
And leaving Your Spirit ’til the work on earth is done.

When I stand in glory I will see His face
And there I’ll serve my King forever in that holy place.

Thank you, oh my father, for giving us Your Son
And leaving Your Spirit ’til the work on earth is done.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

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

What are the two parts / stages of redemption? Can you think of a time in your own life when you have experienced redemption in some way?

What examples of redemption do we find in the Old Testament? How do these redemption stories point to Jesus, our redeemer?

Discuss / reflect on the meaning of the phrase: ‘Jesus, precious Lamb of God’.

How do the Father, Son & Holy Spirit work together for our redemption?

Thinking of the liver transplant analogy above; how are you taking care of the new liver (new life) God has given you?

In what sense is our redemption incomplete? When will our redemption be fully realized? Take some time this week to reflect on what full redemption will be like. 

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.