Tawa Baptist

Abide with me

Scriptures: Luke 24:29, Matthew 9:10-13, Malachi 4:1-2, 1st Corinthians 15:55, John 14:1-4

Introduction:

Good morning everyone

From midnight last Wednesday we have all been in our self-isolation bubbles. But even before that we have been washing our hands more than usual. When you wash your hands you inevitably make lots of tiny bubbles with the water and soap.

Soap bubbles are wonderful really – although fragile and fleeting they are also beautiful, each one containing its own little rainbow. 

A single bubble naturally forms the shape of a sphere (as opposed to a square or a triangle) because that’s the smallest stable structure it can take.

While the life of a bubble is short the joy they inspire lasts a lot longer. Children never get tired of blowing bubbles.

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.

In some ways singing songs of worship is a bit like blowing bubbles. While the singing doesn’t last very long, the beauty and joy of it linger after the music has popped and we find ourselves coming back again and again to sing the same songs, like a child blowing bubbles over and over.

Origins:

The song we are looking at this morning is called Abide with me.

Abide with me is actually a prayer for Jesus to be close to us personally and yet it is one of those songs that people, who don’t usually go to church, keep coming back to

Those of you who are football fans will know that the crowd sing a couple of verses of Abide with me before the start of the FA Cup final. They have done this every year since 1927 as a matter of tradition. It was a favourite of King George the fifth who was present at the FA Cup final that year.

Abide with me was also sung by British soldiers in the trenches during World War 1 and it is often sung at ANZAC services in NZ & Australia.

On Sept 21, 2001 it was played at Ground Zero by a Salvation Army band during the commemoration of the September 11 attacks.

It also features on the soundtracks of several movies, like The Full Monty, 28 Days Later and A Bridge Too Far.

Abide with me was written by Henry Lyte. Henry was born in Scotland in 1793, educated in Ireland and then served as an Anglican priest for a number of years in England.

For much of his life Henry Lyte did not enjoy good health but he didn’t let that stop him serving the Lord. On more than one occasion he was heard to say rather jokingly, ‘it is better to wear out than to rust out’. These are the words of a man who knows his days are numbered and wants to make the most of them. They are not good advice for most of us though. The journey of faith is a marathon, not a sprint and we need to pace ourselves.

Henry Lyte died at the relatively young age of 54, from TB

It is uncertain when Henry Lyte wrote Abide with me. Some say it was around 1820, after visiting a friend on his death bed. Others say Henry wrote the song in 1847, just weeks before his own death. Whatever the case, Erik Routley was surely right when he said Abide with me is a hymn which, “looks death itself in the face”. It is a song which expresses our human desire for companionship when we are in extreme circumstances, which may be one reason why it is so popular outside of church walls.    

While Henry Lyte did write music to accompany his lyrics, the tune we sing it to these days was written by William Monk following the death of his daughter, Florence. William had been standing, hand in hand with his wife, at the window of their cottage, ‘silently watching the glory of the setting sun until the golden hue faded’, when suddenly the words of the hymn Abide with me came to his mind. He wasted no time in composing the music he called Eventide

Death and resurrection:

The opening verse of the hymn reads…

Abide with me; fast falls the eventide;
The darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide;
When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, oh, abide with me.

The word abide, in this context, means to ‘stay with’, to ‘reside’ or to ‘hang out’ together – for example, we abide with those in our bubble.

Abide can also mean to tolerate or put up with or obey, but that’s not the meaning here. In this song abide is about spending time together, enjoying each other’s presence, connecting with one another on the inside.

Eventide means the end of the day when the sun sets and night falls. It is a metaphor for the end of this life, when the sun sets on our mortal body and we are facing death. It could be our own mortality we are facing or the death of a loved one    

That phrase, the darkness deepens, is a poetic way of talking about the sadness, the loneliness and the powerlessness we feel in the face of death. When you are grieving, the things that once comforted you and helped you no longer hold any enjoyment. You might go off your food, for example, or you might find it hard to sleep. In that situation Jesus is the help of the helpless. Jesus comes to the aid of those who are powerless to help themselves.

Now some of you may be thinking, why is Will preaching on a song that reminds us about death and mortality – especially when the world is threatened by an epidemic?

Well, it’s not my job to distract people from reality. We have Netflix for that.

Part of my job involves helping people to face reality and the reality is, everyone dies eventually. But that is only a small part of our reality. The bigger part, the good news, is that Jesus has conquered death and so death does not have the last word. You see, facing our own mortality opens the door to thinking about resurrection.

Henry Lyte, who lived in the constant shadow of death, was very conscious of resurrection.  

The inspiration for verse 1 of Henry’s song comes from Luke 24:29. In Luke 24 two people are facing the deepening darkness of death. Just a couple of days before they had witnessed the murder of someone they loved dearly – they saw Jesus crucified. The bottom has fallen out of their world and the sun is setting on hope. As Cleopas and the other disciple are walking away from Jerusalem toward Emmaus, Jesus himself comes alongside them. They don’t recognise him at first. At that point their minds are closed to the possibility of resurrection. They can’t comprehend that Jesus has been raised to new life.

Jesus asks them what they are talking about and they are shocked that he hasn’t heard all that has happened over the weekend. It would be like someone not knowing we are at level 4 alert for Corona virus. After listening to them Jesus says…

26 “Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself. 28 As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if he were going further. 29 But they urged him strongly, “Stay with us [abide with us], for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them. 30 When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him…

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

What we notice here, in this eye witness account from Luke’s gospel, is that it is the risen Jesus who abides with his bewildered and grieving disciples. And somehow his presence is enough. Although he disappears from their sight, soon after their eyes were opened, he continues to abide in their hearts and minds. Because of his resurrection, they don’t feel alone or sad anymore. To the contrary, they feel connected and joyful – they run back to Jerusalem to tell the others the good news. 

The next verse of Henry Lyte’s song starts with the words…

Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day;
Earth’s joys grow dim, its glories pass away;

These lines are talking about how short life is.  

I remember sitting with my grandfather as he was dying. He said about his life, ‘It all went by so quickly’. He was 72. I was 24 and, at that age, you feel like you’ve got all the time in the world. But really, in the light of eternity, this life is like a soap bubble. It is fragile and fleeting but also quite beautiful in its own short way   

The second half of verse 2 finds a note of hope  

Change and decay in all around I see—
O Thou who changest not, abide with me.

In other words: Yes, life is short and constantly changing (how quickly things have changed in the last couple of weeks) but God does not change. God is stable and secure, faithful and reliable. The Lord is our rock, a firm foundation.

As we read in Hebrews 13:8, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.

Or as Yahweh says through the prophet Malachi, “I the Lord do not change. So you… are not destroyed.” (3:6)     

Or as we read in the Psalms, the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, His mercies never come to an end.

Fear not:

There are actually eight verses to the original version of Abide with me, but we normally only sing four. We don’t have time to examine every verse in detail but I would like to touch on one of the less well known verses, where we say to Jesus…

Come not in terror, as the King of kings,
But kind and good, with healing in Thy wings;

This line of the song recalls Malachi chapter 4 where we read about the day of the Lord’s return – the day of judgment…

“Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and the day that is coming will set them on fire,” says the Lord Almighty. “Not a root or a branch will be left to them. 2 But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and frolic like well-fed calves.  

The day of God’s judgement is frightening. Even though Malachi is using poetic language, the image of being burned up in a furnace is terrifying, especially when you consider that none of us are perfect. All of us have participated in some evil in our life.

But it’s not all bad news. Those who revere God’s name receive healing and are set free to frolic like well-fed calves. Clearly, we want to be on the side of those who revere God’s name. But what does that mean, to revere God’s name? Well, the next line in the song gives us a few clues…

Tears for all woes, a heart for every plea.
Come, Friend of sinners, thus abide with me.

Jesus is the picture of God’s compassion – he feels our pain and weeps with us for our woes. He has a heart that listens to and understands the cry of our heart. What’s more, Jesus is a friend of sinners, which comes as a great relief in light of Malachi’s furnace metaphor.

In singing the words, Come, Friend of sinners, thus abide with me, we are identifying ourselves as sinners, humbly calling on the compassion and mercy of Jesus, our friend.

In Matthew 9 the Pharisees saw Jesus abiding with disreputable people, people they considered to be evil doers, so they said to Jesus’ disciples, ‘Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?’ To which Jesus replied…

“It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice’. For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

You see, God doesn’t want to destroy people – he loves people and wants to save us – that’s why Jesus came, so that we might have abundant life. Those who revere God’s name are not perfect but they are not arrogant either – they are humble. True humility is about being honest with ourselves. Those who ‘revere the name of the Lord’ are under no illusion – they rely on Jesus’ mercy, not their own power.

The risk with living in a bubble is that people may become fearful and anxious. Consequently, there has been a lot of talk in the media about taking care of our mental health while we are in self-isolation. The pen-ultimate verse of Henry Lyte’s song addresses this very thing…

I fear no foe, with Thee at hand to bless;
Ills have no weight, and tears no bitterness;
Where is death’s sting? Where, grave, thy victory?
I triumph still, if Thou abide with me.

This verse implies that having Jesus abide with us does not mean nothing bad will ever happen to us. Jesus’ presence is not a bullet proof vest or Personal Protective Equipment. We may still suffer illness but the ills have no weight – they are lighter somehow when Jesus abides with us. Likewise, we may still suffer injustice & grief but our tears hold no bitterness – if anything the presence of Christ brings release. How is this possible? It is possible because when Jesus abides with us we know we are loved by God

I am mindful of several verses from the Bible which hold together the paradox of suffering with joy (and without fear). In particular…

Psalm 126:5, Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy.

And the beatitudes where Jesus says, Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted (Matthew 5:4)

Also Paul’s letter to the Romans (5:3-5), We rejoice in sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.  

And that’s the key right there isn’t it. When we have faith in Christ we are not afraid of illness and calamity because we know God loves us. Therefore, we know our suffering is not a punishment from God. We may get sick, we may even die, but we are not destined for the furnace. As the poet Robert Browning said, ‘The best is yet to be’.  

Where is death’s sting? Where, grave, thy victory? This is a quote from 1st Corinthians 15:55, where Paul is talking about the resurrection of Christ. When Paul wrote this he was making reference to the Old Testament prophet Hosea (13:14) where God says to the nation of Israel…

I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death. Where O death are your plagues? Where, O grave is your destruction?    

Henry Lyte could say, with a chuckle, ‘it is better to wear out than to rust out’, because (despite having TB) he believed God loved him and would raise him to new life. Henry was not afraid of dying. His last words were, “Peace! Joy!” He was looking forward to heaven

We don’t need to be afraid of this plague we are in either. We do need to be careful, but we don’t need to be anxious, for our God is greater than illness and death – we have resurrection to look forward to.

Conclusion:

Abide with me starts with the sun going down and the darkness of night deepening. In the final verse the darkness of night has past and we have the picture of light breaking at the dawn of a new day… 

Hold Thou Thy cross before my closing eyes;
Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies;
Heav’n’s morning breaks, and earth’s vain shadows flee;
In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.

The last verse looks beyond this life to the next. For those who trust in Christ, death is not the final reality. Yes, we all die but Jesus has transformed death from an ending to an open door. When the brief bubble of this life pops those who are in Christ are released from their self-isolation into a wonderfully spacious intimacy with God. And you will go out and frolic like well-fed calves.  

In John 14, the night before he died, Jesus said to his disciples…

Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.

That’s a verse about abiding with Jesus forever in the house of God  

The song Abide with me is a prayer for Jesus to stay close with us through life and death and resurrection. It is a prayer God is happy to answer.

Let’s sing now, in our bubbles, Abide with me. Make this your heartfelt prayer.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

Listen to the song, ‘Abide 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?) 

How are things going for you in your bubble? What rainbow moments have you had this past week?

Why do we need to face the reality of our own mortality? What is the bigger part of reality (the good news)?

What difference did it make to the disciples on the Road to Emmaus to learn that Jesus was alive? What difference does Jesus’ resurrection make for you, personally?

Why do we not need to be afraid? What basis do we have for facing suffering with joy?

What does it mean to revere God’s name?

How might you abide with Jesus while in self-isolation? Take some time this week to be with Jesus.    

Tawa Baptist

Online worship service for 22 March 2020

Hi Everyone

We hope your weekend is going well

As mentioned last Friday, there is no gathered worship service at Tawa Baptist this Sunday 22 March, due to the ban on gatherings over 100 people. We encourage you to have church at your place instead. Following is a suggested format for a ‘do it yourself’ worship service at home this Sunday 22 March. May we all be present to Christ among us.

Opening Prayer

You may like to light a candle as a reminder that Christ is present and say a prayer:

‘Loving God, we thank you for being with us always. May you be honoured in this time of worship today. And may we enjoy your closeness.’

Scripture Reading

Read aloud the following verses from Psalm 103:1-13

1 Praise the Lord, my soul;
    all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
2 Praise the Lord, my soul,
    and forget not all his benefits—
3 who forgives all your sins
    and heals all your diseases,
4 who redeems your life from the pit
    and crowns you with love and compassion,
5 who satisfies your desires with good things
    so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

6 The Lord works righteousness
    and justice for all the oppressed.

7 He made known his ways to Moses,
    his deeds to the people of Israel:
8 The Lord is compassionate and gracious,
    slow to anger, abounding in love.
9 He will not always accuse,
    nor will he harbour his anger forever;
10 he does not treat us as our sins deserve
    or repay us according to our iniquities.
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
    so great is his love for those who fear him;
12 as far as the east is from the west,
    so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

13 As a father has compassion on his children,
    so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him;

Sung Worship

Singing songs of praise to God has the power to transport us out of the hell of self-absorption and into the heaven of God’s goodness.  Listen and/or sing along to the following songs – just google them on YouTube or download on Spotify. (The songs for today’s service were chosen by Ang nearly a week ago.)

  • ‘All creation cries to you’ (God is great)
  • ‘Nothing can separate’ (Your love never fails) 
  • ‘How great the chasm’ (Living Hope)

Offering

If you have children with you, explain to them that worship of God isn’t just something we do on a Sunday – it is meant to include the whole of life. Worship can involve all sorts of things. For example, singing praise to God, using our time and abilities to help people, thinking about God and most importantly obeying God, doing what he asks of us. Worship also includes giving money to the church and to people in need. We don’t do this to make ourselves feel good (although it is okay if it does make you feel good). We give money to God to remind ourselves that God is more important than money and to say thank you to God for giving us all we need for life. 

Now explain to your children how you give money to God – whether by putting money in the offering bag or by internet banking. If you aren’t already giving by automatic payment you could take a few minutes now to deposit your offering in the church’s bank account: ‘Tawa Baptist Church’ – account number, 02-0552-0180302-00. (Let your children see you doing this so they learn what to do themselves.)  

You might like to pray the following offering prayer (or ask a child with you to read this prayer)

‘Father God, you are good to us. You know our needs and support our life. We thank you with our words and with our wallets. In Jesus name. Amen.’

Birthdays and anniversaries

If you have had a birthday or an anniversary or something we can celebrate let us know and we’ll try to get a chocolate fish into your letterbox.

Gospel Reading

Read aloud the following verses from Mark 2:1-12…

2 A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. 2 They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. 3 Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. 4 Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. 5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

6 Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, 7 “Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

8 Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, “Why are you thinking these things? 9 Which is easier: to say to this paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’? 10 But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the man, 11 “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” 12 He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!”

Intercessory Prayer

An intercessory prayer is a prayer for others. Intercession is the act of standing in the gap for someone else, bringing them before God. Ask those with you what they feel a need to pray about. Following are some people and situations to get you started with your prayer…

  • Healing for those you know are sick
  • Wisdom for our world leaders at this time
  • That God would bring good out of the COVID-19 situation
  • Any other community or world issues that are close to your heart

More Sung Worship

Listen and/or sing along to the following songs – just google them on YouTube or download on Spotify.

  • ‘When we turned away’ (He Tapu Te Ariki)
  • ‘It’s your blood that cleanses me’

Sermon

You can either read the sermon notes by going to the 2020 Sermons page on this website,

Or listen to an audio recording of the sermon via the following link:

Closing Song

Listen and/or sing along to the song, ‘The Lord is gracious and compassionate’ – just google it on YouTube or download on Spotify.

The Lord is gracious and compassionate
Slow to anger and rich in love
The Lord is gracious and compassionate
Slow to anger and rich in love
The Lord is good to all
He has compassion for all that He has made
As far as the east is from the west
That’s how far He has removed our transgressions from us

Praise the Lord, oh my soul
Praise the Lord
Praise the Lord, oh my soul
Praise the Lord.

Benediction

A benediction is just a fancy word for blessing. When we give a benediction we are giving a blessing. To bless someone is to ask good things for their well-being. You might like to give each other 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.’

Tea & coffee & prayer

Normally after a Sunday morning worship service we have a chat over a cup of tea or coffee and prayer is available for those who want it. As an alternative you may like to go through the church directory and find one other person to call on the phone. Just ring to check in and see how they are getting on.

And, if you would like someone to pray for you then reply to this email with your prayer request and I can either pass it on the prayer ministry team so they can pray for you or put your request on the church prayer chain or simply pray for you myself if you don’t want others knowing.    

God bless.    

Tawa Baptist

The Lord is gracious & compassionate

Scriptures: Psalm 145:8-9, Psalm 103:1-13, Exodus 22:16-27, Exodus 34:4-9

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • The Lord is gracious and compassionate
  • The Lord is slow to anger and rich in love
  • The Lord removes our transgressions
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Some of you may have been on the Inter-Islander ferry

  • The Inter-Islander is a relatively large boat that transports people and cars across Cook’s Straight, between the North and South Island
  • Sometimes, when there is a bit of a swell on the ocean, the boat heaves backward and forward like a see-saw
  • When that happens the best place to stand is in the middle of the boat
  • If you try to walk around it is hard to keep your footing – each step is uncertain
  • And if you are standing at either end of the ship you will feel the up and down motion of the swell a lot more
  • But when you are near the centre, holding on to something firm, it doesn’t feel so bad

The world is in a bit of turmoil at the moment with this COVID-19 virus

  • For some people it feels like being on a ship in a heavy swell.
  • People’s plans are being thrown out and shut down
  • The horizon is constantly changing and each step feels uncertain
  • Perhaps the best thing we can do is find a firm hand hold and centre ourselves, stand still for a while.     

For Christians, Jesus is our centre. He is the rock, the firm foundation on which we stand and find security in unsteady times.  

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 The Lord is gracious and compassionate

  • The words of this song come straight out of the Bible – they are woven throughout the Old Testament and find human form, in the person of Jesus Christ, in the New Testament.
  • These words reveal the heart of God and, consequently, are at the centre of Jewish and Christian faith
  • For centuries they have given millions of believers, stability and a firm handhold in unsteady times.

Although the lyrics to The Lord is gracious and compassionate have been around for literally thousands of years, the music is relatively new

  • Graham Ord recorded the song in 1998 with Vineyard music

Graham Ord was born on the 22nd March 1961 in the U.K. which means today is his birthday – he is turning 59. (Isn’t that a lovely piece of synchronicity)

  • Graham learned guitar when he was 15 and got heavily involved in the punk music scene during the 1970’s. He describes his conversion…

“I met a girl and she told me about the Lord and that was when I first got interested in Christianity. I never had any background of Christianity at all. I spent six weeks trying to find out if it was true, doing a lot of soul searching…

I thought about the Lord, and eventually I got on my knees in my bedroom and asked the Lord to come into my life. At that point I realised that was why I was born, to use the music that God gave me to communicate something about Him, His love and all that sort of stuff.

I gave up music for a while because before it had been like an idol, really. Then one day, about a year later, the pastor says to me, ‘Are you hiding your light under a bushel?’ I thought, ‘What the flippin’ heck is a bushel?’ I’d never heard of a bushel before… But he said, ‘I hear you used to play, in a band.’

I said, ‘Yeah’, and he said, ‘Well don’t you think it would be good to play your guitar in church?’ So I started playing in my punk style” [in church].

That was Graham Ord’s story of becoming a Christian

  • He didn’t end up playing all his music in church though – he also plays in pubs and bars, both covers of popular songs as well as Christian worship songs – so he’s not afraid to publicly express his love for Jesus.
  • There is an authenticity to his character and his faith

The Lord is gracious and compassionate:

A backbone gives strength and stability to the body

  • It runs through our centre (physically) and keeps us steady & flexible
  • Graham Ord’s song starts with the words, the Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love
  • This is a direct quote from Psalm 145, verse 8, in the NIV
  • These words provide a backbone for our faith

So let’s consider what each of the key words in this phrase mean    

  • ‘The Lord’ is the personal name of God Almighty – that is, Yahweh.
  • Yahweh revealed his name to Moses.
  • The name, Yahweh, cannot be contained by any definition we might try to give it. Yahweh may mean something like ‘I am who I am’, which is another way of God saying, ‘You don’t define me. I define myself.’   
  • And the backbone of the way God defines himself is, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love.

We heard last week about the graciousness of God when we took a closer look at the song Amazing Grace

  • Grace is a word which simply means ‘gift’
  • A gift is not something we earn like wages and it’s not something we deserve like justice, nor is it something we are entitled to by law
  • To receive grace is to be given something good that we haven’t earned, don’t deserve and are not entitled to 
  • God’s grace, his gift of unmerited favour, is multi-faceted
  • Sometimes God’s grace feels pleasant and other times it may feel painful but it is always good for us. 

The word compassion is also very rich in its meaning

  • Our English word for compassion comes from a Latin word
  • In Latin, ‘com’ means with and ‘passion’ means suffer – so to have compassion for someone means to suffer with that person
  • We might also call that empathy – putting ourselves in the other person’s shoes, feeling what the other person is feeling
  • Therefore, to say ‘the Lord is compassionate’ is to say that God suffers with us – he feels what we feel.
  • God is not aloof or unfeeling or disconnected from the suffering of his creation

But suffering with someone only goes so far. If you are going through difficult times you don’t just want God to empathise with you – you want God to be moved – to do something to help you      

  • Which is where the Greek word, splagchnizomai, comes in
  • Splagchnizomai is the New Testament word for compassion
  • Splagchnizomai means to be deeply moved in the depths of your being, in your guts, in your spleen.
  • For the people in the ancient world love and compassion didn’t come from your heart (like we might think of it) – love and compassion come from your bowels
  • So compassion is a gut wrenching feeling that moves you to action    
  • This was a revolutionary thought. The gods of the Romans and Greeks had no compassion for mortals – they were unmoved by our situation
  • The living God, Yahweh, is deeply moved by our predicament and will take action for humanity’s well-being.

But wait, there’s more. The Hebrew word for compassion, used in the Old Testament, is taken from the word rechem, which means ‘womb’

  • I like the connection Bonnie Wilks makes here when she talks about the womb of compassion…

To have compassion on someone means, symbolically, to carry them in your womb. In the womb of compassion, the suffering one is nurtured and protected and given what is good for them. They are carried until they are strong enough to come out of the womb.

Now when we think of God’s compassion as a womb, it makes us feel safe and close and connected to God with the deepest bond known in human experience 

  • Like a woman in labour God suffers with us to give us life
  • God’s compassion is a source of security for us

In Exodus 22, God gives some laws about social responsibility.

  • Things like, don’t take advantage of a widow or an orphan,
  • Don’t mistreat immigrants,
  • Don’t lend money at interest,
  • Don’t make life hard or uncomfortable for the poor, that sort of thing.
  • And in the same breath (in verse 27) God says: For I am compassionate.  
  • In other words, the widow, the orphan, the immigrant, the poor and the powerless are like a baby that I carry in the womb.
  • This means if we mistreat them, we are mistreating God and he will be moved to take action in their defence.

There is a line in Graham Ord’s version of the song which reads…

  • The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all that he has made
  • This is a quote from Psalm 145, verse 9
  • It basically refers to the universal scope of God’s goodness and compassion.

Jesus spoke of God’s goodness and compassion for all, in Matthew 5

  • Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

God’s love and compassion makes him vulnerable to rejection and abuse

  • We human beings sometimes take God’s goodness for granted.

Graham Ord was well aware of God’s vulnerability to rejection. He says,

“When I first got saved I wrote a tract, and I used to go out on the streets with a friend of mine and give this tract out to people…. So we started giving them round, we used to pray for people at bus stops, all sorts of things.

I gave one chap this tract, and he said, ‘I don’t want to know’.

  • So I said, ‘Well, Jesus loves you’.
  • And he said, ‘Well I don’t give two monkeys. So what?’
  • That really shocked me, because I thought everyone must be interested in Jesus; it was such a real thing to me.

So I went home and prayed saying, ‘Lord, how do you feel when people just completely reject you?’ The thought came to me,

  • ‘Well, I know all of that. I know that people turn their back on everything I’ve done for them. But just like a bird doesn’t need to try to fly, so I can’t do anything but love you. That’s the way it is… I don’t make up the love I have for people – I just feel love for people. That’s the way I am.'”

God shows goodness and compassion and love for people (whether they appreciate it or not) because that’s who he is – he’s simply being himself.

The Lord is slow to anger and rich in love:

As well as being gracious and compassionate, the Lord God also defines himself as slow to anger

Many of us don’t like this idea that God is capable of anger but actually anger is part and parcel of love and justice and compassion

  • My spiritual director said to me once, ‘If you cut yourself you bleed. If you experience injustice you feel angry’
  • And it’s true, if someone does something to harm a person you love then it cuts you and you naturally feel angry
  • Or if you yourself are treated unfairly you will inevitably feel angry
  • If God did not get angry over injustice then he would not be a loving and compassionate God, he would be an apathetic god
  • Apathy (not caring at all) is the opposite of love

Anger is essentially an emotional energy. Anger is not a sin in itself.

  • So it is okay to feel angry. The critical thing is what we do with the emotional energy of anger
  • Do we use that energy to destroy and take revenge?
  • Or do we use that energy to declare the truth and restore?    

It needs to be said that God’s anger is not the same as human anger

  • God is always in control of his anger. We human beings, on the other hand, are not always in control of our emotional energies
  • God’s anger is carefully measured. Our anger is often out of proportion.
  • God’s anger is provoked by injustice and untruth, whereas our anger may be fuelled by fear or selfishness rather than love or righteousness
  • To say that God is slow to anger is to say he has a long fuse – he is patient and fore-bearing
  • We human beings tend to have a lot shorter fuse
  • God’s anger is always righteous. Human anger is often unsteady.   

In thinking about the contrast between divine anger and human anger I’m reminded of the story of Jonah

  • Jonah was a Jewish prophet, in the Old Testament, who was told by God to preach a message of repentance to his enemies – the people of Nineveh
  • Jonah did not want to do this and ran away in the opposite direction
  • But God, who is gracious and compassionate and slow to anger, pursued Jonah with his love, turned him around and put him on the right path

Jonah went to Nineveh and told the people that God was going to destroy their city. The people repented and God relented

  • The people turned their lives around and God saved the city.
  • This made Jonah angry – he was furious with God and said…
  • “Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.
  • Don’t you love the irony – God’s grace and compassion and slowness to anger actually made Jonah angry. God listened to Jonah and then he said,
  • Have you any right to be angry, Jonah? Nineveh has more than 120,000 people who cannot tell their right hand from their left and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?  

There is a bit of Jonah in all of us I think. We want God to be patient and gracious with us but quick to anger with our enemies.

  • We can’t have it both ways.

The Lord God is slow to anger and rich in love.

  • What does it mean that the Lord is rich in love?
  • Well, the Hebrew word, translated as love here, is actually hesed.
  • I’ve spoken before about the meaning of hesed but for those who missed it, hesed refers to loyal love or steadfast (covenant) love
  • Depending on the context in which it is used, hesed can also be translated as mercy or kindness

There are three criteria to hesed in the Hebrew Bible:

  • First, an act of hesed is done for someone you know already
  • Second, the action is essential to the survival or basic well-being of the recipient (it is no small thing)
  • And thirdly, the needed action is one that only the person doing the act of hesed is in a position to provide [1] (no one else can do it)

When God gave Sarah & Abraham a son (Isaac), that was an act of hesed

When Joseph saved his family from starvation and forgave his brothers for selling him into slavery, that was an act of hesed

And, when God delivered the people of Israel out of slavery in Egypt that was an act of hesed.

  • There are many other examples of divine and human hesed in the Bible

To say ‘the Lord is rich in love’ is to say God is not mean or stingy with his hesed – his love for humanity is long and deep and generous.

The Lord has removed our transgressions:

The second verse of Graham Ord’s song reads…

  • As far as the east is from the west, that’s how far he has removed our transgressions from us

This line is a direct quote from Psalm 103, verse 12

  • It is basically talking about God’s forgiveness of Israel’s sin
  • Transgressions is a word which means breaking God’s law
  • The distance between the east and the west is an infinite distance
  • It is immeasurable – you can’t get further apart than the east and the west

Now we may be inclined to take a romantic view of God removing our transgressions from us

  • We might think it happens without any cost or inconvenience to us
  • But that is not always the case
  • For example, if you are a recovering alcoholic or a drug addict then having God remove that addiction from you is not usually an easy process. Withdrawal can be painful and requires your cooperation.
  • Or perhaps your sin is less obvious, more socially acceptable.
  • Maybe you love money or your reputation or your personal freedom or something else, more than you love God. We call this idolatry
  • If money is our idol, then having God remove our transgressions and sin means losing our excess wealth
  • Or if our reputation is more important to us than God, then having God remove our transgressions will probably involve some form of public humiliation 
  • And if personal freedom is what we worship, then the remedy will sound something like, ‘deny yourself, pick up your cross and follow me’.

God’s forgiveness may be free but it’s not cheap.

After God had done hesed for the Israelites, by rescuing them from slavery in Egypt, they did a terrible thing in the wilderness

  • They repaid Yahweh’s loyal love with betrayal and disloyalty
  • The people made a golden calf and bowed down to it in worship and then they had a big booze up
  • Moses was on the mountain at the time getting the ten commandments
  • When he came down and saw what was happening Moses was so angry with the people he broke the stone tablets on which the commandments were written and destroyed the golden calf
  • Then Moses interceded for the people, asking God to forgive them, and God listened to Moses. (A good use of angry energy one thinks)

Afterwards Moses went up the mountain again with new stone tablets for God to write on. Take two.

  • While he was up the mountain The Lord came down in a cloud and stood there with Moses and proclaimed his name, the Lord. He passed in front of Moses saying, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished…”
  • The Lord showed hesed (loyal love) to the nation of Israel by forgiving their sins and renewing his covenant with them
  • In that situation those who had sinned eventually died in the wilderness but the next generation were allowed to enter the Promised Land
  • In this way the Lord removed Israel’s transgressions as far as the east is from the west.  

God’s grace and compassion and love don’t always make us feel good but they are always good for us. 

Conclusion:

The song finishes with the opening and closing line of Psalm 103 where David says, Praise the Lord, O my soul;

  • In this context the soul refers to the individual person – in particular to a person’s inner self, their inmost being
  • David is intentional about worshipping God genuinely, from the inside out, in spirit and in truth; not just putting on appearances    

Graham Ord understood this when he chose these words from the Psalms

  • In an interview he talks about the need to be real in worship, saying…

“I’ve worked a lot in Eastern Europe in the past. I used to smuggle Bibles…

One thing I’ve learnt is that Christians out there [in Czechoslovakia] aren’t afraid of the pain as well as the joy when they worship. Like if you hear a Romanian choir they very rarely sing songs that are all happy-clappy. Their music is very mournful; minor key type songs, because they’re singing about things that are touching their hearts. Worship… is about expressing everything, every facet of human experience… It’s very, very important to be honest in worship.”

With many of the events that are unfolding in our world today it may feel difficult to ‘praise the Lord with our soul, our inmost being’

  • We don’t need to pretend. We have freedom to be honest with God
  • Honesty in worship ultimately enables us to take our eyes off the situation and leads us to praising God for who he is, not just what he can do for us
  • When we get to that place of praising God for who he is, our perspective and our peace are restored.

Let us pray…

  • Father God, we praise you, for you are bigger than Corona Virus or empty supermarket shelves or any other threat
  • Lord, we praise you, for you are gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love
  • You are able to bring good out of the current circumstances and make all things serve your purpose. Blessed be your name. Amen. 

Song Lyrics:

The Lord is gracious and compassionate
Slow to anger and rich in love
The Lord is gracious and compassionate
Slow to anger and rich in love
The Lord is good to all
He has compassion for all that He has made
As far as the east is from the west
That’s how far He has removed our transgressions from us

Praise the Lord, oh my soul
Praise the Lord
Praise the Lord, oh my soul
Praise the Lord.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

Listen to the song, ‘The Lord is gracious and compassionate’.  What are you in touch with as you listen to this song? (What connections, memories or feelings does the song evoke for you?) 

  • How are you feeling about recent events in the world? Why do you think you feel this way?  
  • What gives you strength and stability in times of uncertainty or change?
  • Discuss / reflect on the meaning of compassion.
    • What are some of the implications, for us, of God’s compassion? (E.g. Exodus 22.)
    • What are some of the implications for God in being compassionate?
  • Why is God’s anger inseparable from his love?
    • How is God’s anger different from human anger?  
  • What does it mean that God removes our transgressions from us? What are the implications of this for you personally?
  • What does it mean to praise the Lord with our soul, with our inmost being?
    • Why is honesty in worship so important? 

Take some time this week to remember God’s particular acts of hesed for you and give him praise.

[1] Katherine Doob Sakenfeld, Ruth, page 24.

Tawa Baptist

Amazing Grace

Scriptures: Romans 10:12-15, Luke 15:11-32, Acts 26:12-18, Psalm 66:8-12, Psalm 28:6-7, 2nd Peter 3:10, [Psalm 73:26]

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • The grace of forgiveness
  • The grace of fear
  • The grace of providence
  • The grace of heaven
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

I have here a pendulum

  • If I let the pendulum go from just a little height it won’t swing that far the other way
  • But if I let the pendulum go from a greater height it will swing further to the opposite extreme

People can be a bit like pendulums. Often the further we go to one extreme, the greater we are inclined to rebound to the opposite extreme

  • For example, if your mum made you vegemite sandwiches every day for your school lunch you may develop a life time aversion to vegemite
  • Or, if you grew up not having much and not knowing where your next meal was coming from you may (as an adult) be inclined to save aggressively to avoid ever going hungry again.

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 Amazing Grace. There are two versions of this song. We sang the newer more modern version last Sunday

  • Today we are looking at the older, more traditional version 
  • Amazing Grace was written by John Newton in 1772
  • John Newton was one individual in which the pendulum effect was certainly noticeable
  • As a young man he led a pretty immoral life but later went to the other extreme and became a church minister
  • Amazing Grace draws heavily on John Newton’s personal experience of God’s grace for him. 

There are a number of verses to the song, each of which focus on different aspects of grace. God’s grace is not one dimensional – it is multi-faceted

  • For example, there is the grace of forgiveness, the grace of fear, the grace of providence and the grace of heaven.

The grace of forgiveness:

The opening verse of the song reads…

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found; was blind, but now I see.

A wretch is a person who behaves badly

  • And grace is a word which simply means ‘gift’
  • A gift is not something we earn like wages and it’s not something we deserve like justice, nor is it something we are entitled to by law
  • To receive grace is to be given something good that we haven’t earned, don’t deserve and are not entitled to 
  • God’s grace, his gift of unmerited favour, is amazing both in its generosity and in its scope.

In the opening verse of his song John Newton describes grace as a sound that saved him. Perhaps he was thinking of the sound of the gospel of Jesus being preached. As we read in Paul’s letter to the Romans

God is the same Lord of all and richly blesses all who call to him. 13 As the scripture says, “Everyone who calls out to the Lord for help will be saved.” 14 But how can they call to him for help if they have not believed? And how can they believe if they have not heard the message? And how can they hear if the message is not proclaimed? 15 And how can the message be proclaimed if the messengers are not sent out? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

So the grace of God is a sweet sound – it is something which can be heard as the gospel is preached – it is the sound of Jesus saying, ‘Do not be afraid. Your faith has saved you.  Your sins are forgiven. Come follow me.’

I once was lost but now I’m found; was blind but now I see is probably a reference to the story of the lost sons, aka the parable of the prodigal son

  • In Luke 15 Jesus tells a parable about two sons. The younger son runs away from home and squanders his inheritance on wine, women and song
  • Eventually, when his cash runs out, he ends up feeding pigs
  • He is so hungry he could eat the slops being fed to the pigs
  • It is at that point, when he is at his lowest, that his eyes are opened and he comes to his senses.
  • He realises his father’s servants are treated better than this so he returns home with a plan to ask to work as a hired hand for his dad
  • In an extraordinary act of grace, the father generously welcomes his wayward son and throws a party to celebrate his return
  • The older brother is angry and refuses to join the party so the father says to him: we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost but now he is found.   

That’s a picture of God’s amazing grace in the form of forgiveness and salvation and it was John Newton’s experience too

The grace of fear:

Verse two of the song reads:

‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved;
How precious did that grace appear the hour I first believed.

Fear is one of those words which can take on a different nuance or meaning depending on the context

  • Fear can mean panic and terror, but it can also mean the deep calm of reverence and respect

We may think of grace as a lovely pleasant feeling – something nice that we enjoy or that makes us happy – and while it can be like that, grace can also be something painful, which we don’t enjoy and which makes us feel afraid

  • The hunger the prodigal son experienced was just as much a part of God’s grace as the warm welcome he received from his father
  • Without the hunger the young man would never have come to his senses and returned home.
  • God’s grace is multi-faceted – not only does it teach us to fear (in the sense of creating reverence and respect for God), it also relieves our fears, in the sense of removing panic and terror

I don’t know if there are any Johnny Cash fans here but if there are you may be familiar with his song ‘When the man comes around’

  • It’s a song which reminds us that Jesus will return one day and when he does, ‘will we be ready?’
  • Johnny Cash was a bit like Johnny Newton in that, as a young man, he led a pretty immoral life but later, by the gravity of God’s grace the pendulum swung the other way and Johnny turned his life around
  • Johnny Cash has a line in his song where he says, “It’s hard for thee to kick against the pricks”
  • A prick is a long pointed stick that was used in the old days to get a stubborn animal (like an ox) to move in the right direction, sort of like a cattle prod or a goad
  • A prick teaches the animal to fear or respect the farmer so they walk in the right path

“It’s hard for thee to kick against the pricks” is a quote from the Bible – from Acts 26, verse 14, where we read of the apostle Paul’s conversion

  • As Paul (or Saul as he was known then) was on his way to Damascus, hunting down Christians to persecute, he encountered the risen Lord Jesus in a flash of blinding light and he heard a voice say to him…
  • ‘Saul, Saul! Why are you persecuting me? You are hurting yourself by kicking against the pricks’
  • Naturally Paul was terrified and fell to the ground saying, ‘Who are you Lord?’
  • And the Lord replied, ‘I am Jesus whom you persecute.’

‘To kick against the pricks’ is to learn to fear God the hard way

  • Johnny Cash, Johnny Newton, the prodigal son and the apostle Paul all learned to fear God the hard way
  • God would rather not use the pricks on people but he will if he has to
  • Although not pleasant, the pricks are one of his instruments of grace

The grace of providence:

John Newton’s conversion wasn’t as quick as the apostle Paul’s – it actually took John Newton many years to learn the fear of the Lord, but all through those years God offered John the grace of providence

  • Providence is the protective care of God – it’s God giving us just what we need at the right time    

One of the verses of the song acknowledges God’s providence through the difficulties of this life

Through many dangers, toils and snares, I have already come;
’Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.

John Newton certainly knew about dangers, toils and snares

  • When he was just six years old John’s mother died of tuberculosis
  • His father was a shipping merchant and therefore was away a lot
  • John was sent to boarding school.
  • At age 11 he joined his father in the shipping trade   
  • As a teenager John’s faith was like a pendulum swinging wildly back and forth, from one extreme to the other.
  • He was in a pattern of behaving badly, then being corrected by the pricks, before falling back into bad habits again 
  • On one occasion John was talked out of his faith by a crew mate
  • Newton later wrote, “Like an unwary sailor who quits his port just before a rising storm, I renounced the hopes and comforts of the gospel at the very time when every other comfort was about to fail me.”

John’s behaviour became so bad he was made to join the Navy but, before long, he deserted in order to visit his sweet heart Mary Catlett.

  • The Navy couldn’t handle him so they traded John Newton to become a crew member on a slave ship, where John’s profanity became legendary
  • (Profanity is the opposite of holiness)
  • John created obscene poems and songs about the captain much to the delight of his fellow sailors.
  • Not only did he use the worst swear words you are ever likely to hear, he also created new ones – brains and vulgarity

As a consequence of his behaviour John Newton was punished severely

  • They withheld food from him, imprisoned him while at sea and chained him up like the slaves they carried.
  • Then he was made a slave himself and forced to work on a plantation in the British colony of Sierra Leone
  • After several months as a slave his father intervened and arranged for the rescue of his prodigal son

In 1748, while aboard a ship called the Greyhound in the North Atlantic, John Newton read a book called The Christian’s Pattern, which is a summary of Thomas a Kempis’ classic The Imitation of Christ

  • While on that same voyage a storm hit
  • It was so bad one of Newton’s crew members was swept overboard in the very place Newton had been standing
  • He and his crew mates fought for many hours to keep the ship afloat
  • During this time of fear and terror, Newton cried out in desperation ‘Lord, have mercy upon us’.  
  • God did indeed have mercy on John and the crew – two weeks later the battered ship limped into port on the coast of Ireland.

During those two weeks John kept thinking about the words he’d spoken “Lord, have mercy upon us”

  • He began to ask if he was worthy of God’s mercy after all he had done
  • He had turned his back on God, mocking those who believed and denouncing God as a myth and yet he could not deny the hand of God’s providence in his life 
  • As he contemplated this, the grace of God slowly went to work in John’s heart and mind.

John Newton’s conversion was not instant or quick (like the apostle Paul on the road to Damascus), rather it was more gradual

  • Despite his own experience of slavery John Newton did not quit the slave trade straight away
  • He continued in that line of work for several voyages and participated in many of the same activities he had before, except for his profanity   
  • The prick of a severe illness helped to remind John Newton of God’s grace for him and it strengthened his resolve to walk in God’s ways but he wasn’t yet ready to give up transporting slaves from Africa.
  • To be fair to Newton though, we need to remember that slavery was simply an accepted way of life at the time, sort of like we used to accept plastic bags or burning coal or CFC’s or drinking and driving
  • Those things are frowned upon now but they were considered normal in the 1970’s and 80’s 

Some things are deeply ingrained in us and don’t come out in the first wash

  • Sometimes we are slow to learn but the grace of God is patient, refining us like silver

In Psalm 66 we read…

Praise our God, all peoples, let the sound of his praise be heard; 9 he has preserved our lives and kept our feet from slipping. 10 For you, God, tested us;
you refined us like silver. 11 You brought us into prison and laid burdens on our backs. 12 You let people ride over our heads; we went through fire and water, but you brought us to a place of abundance.

Believe it or not, Psalm 66 is a song of thanksgiving, much like the song Amazing Grace. It recognises God’s hand of providence in painful events.

  • Verse 10 mentions the refining of silver.
  • Silver has antibacterial properties, which means germs can’t survive on it, which is one of the reasons it is used as a shared cup in communion – silver is a symbol of holiness and cleanliness.
  • The refining of silver in ancient times involved melting the metal so the dross rose to the top, then removing the dross
  • The writer of psalm 66 used this as a metaphor for the way God had tested and refined the Israelites
  • Although the process of being refined in a furnace is not pleasant at the time, the poet is able to look back and see God’s providence in it
  • Despite all they have suffered he is able to say, God preserved our lives and brought us to a place of abundance 
  • It seems John Newton was familiar with this refining process
  • And, despite the dangers, toils and snares he went through, God protected him and he was able to praise God for his multi-faceted grace.

There is another verse of the song which celebrates the grace of God’s providence. It reads…

The Lord has promised good to me, His Word my hope secures;
He will my Shield and Portion be, as long as life endures.

Our hope is based on God’s promises – God always keeps his word.   

  • To say that God is my portion is to say that God provides all I need
  • The image of a shield is a metaphor for God’s protection – we are reminded of Psalm 28…

Praise be to the Lord, for he has heard my cry for mercy. 7 The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and he helps me. My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise him.

This was certainly true for John Newton – the Lord did hear his cry for mercy and eventually John wrote many songs of praise to God.

The grace of heaven:

So far we have considered the grace of forgiveness, the grace of fear and the grace of providence. Now we turn our minds to the grace of heaven  

  • If the grace of fear is God’s stick, then the grace of heaven is God’s carrot

‘Kicking against the pricks’ only went so far in reforming John Newton’s behaviour. The thing that finally got him out of the slave trade and back on shore was his love for Mary Catlett – Mary was one of God’s carrots

  • John found it harder and harder to leave Mary as he went away on those long sea voyages, so around 1754 or 55 (about 10 years after his experience of God’s mercy during the storm at sea) he gave up his life as a ship’s captain and began studying Christian theology.
  • John was 30 at the time.
  • The Anglican church were reluctant to accept him at first, but in 1764 (10 years after he quit the sailor’s life) the Bishop relented and John Newton became the curate of Olney. (A curate is sort of like an apprentice priest.)
  • It was at Olney that John Newton met the poet William Cowper and they started writing Christian verse together
  • The transformation brought about by God’s grace is truly amazing
  • The young sailor who used to write obscene songs was now writing sacred hymns for the church.

God’s grace is multi-faceted – He uses the stick and the carrot. At least one of the verses of the song we sing alludes to the grace of heaven

When we’ve been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun,
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise than when we’d first begun.

This verse may not have been written by Newton himself – some say it was added later in the 19th Century as part of the African American gospel tradition.

  • On the mount of transfiguration Peter, James & John saw a vision of Jesus glorified, bright shining as the sun  
  • In these lines of the song John Newton imagines heaven as a place where the Christian believer is transformed into the likeness of Christ – so that we too share in Christ’s glory, ‘bright shining as the sun’.
  • Heaven is also pictured here as a place of singing praise to God tirelessly forever – which implies that the goodness of God’s grace will totally absorb us and sustain us, so we will be saved from ourselves.

Conclusion:

The original version of Amazing Grace finishes with the verse…

The earth shall soon dissolve like snow, the sun forbear to shine;
But God, who called me here below, will be forever mine.

For many years this verse was dropped and replaced by When we’ve been there ten thousand years…

  • Only recently was it restored by Chris Tomlin, who did a modern version of the song with the chorus My chains are gone…
  • The imagery in this verse is misleading if you don’t understand the context. It seems to suggest that God is going to destroy the universe  
  • And if you think that then you might end up thinking, we might as well trash the planet because it’s going to be burned up anyway
  • This is stinking thinking – it is not helpful
  • The bigger picture of Scripture indicates that God’s plan is to bring a new order to the earth – this new order is known as the kingdom of God
  • So we shouldn’t think this verse from Amazing Grace is talking about the physical destruction of the planet earth – that wouldn’t be grace
  • It’s using poetic language to talk about the destruction of the old order – the dissolving of evil power structures.

When John Newton wrote this verse of the song he may have had 2 Peter 3:10 in mind, which in the NRSV, reads…

  • But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and everything that is done on it will be disclosed. 

To disclose something is not the same as destroying it

  • 2nd Peter 3 is talking about the second coming of Jesus (or as Johnny Cash would say, ‘When the man comes around.’)
  • It is clearly poetic language not intended to be taken literally
  • When snow is on the ground you don’t know what’s underneath, whether it’s grass or mud or rocks. But when the snow melts all is revealed.
  • The main point is that when Jesus returns in glory the true state of things will be disclosed
  • In other words, the true character of our deeds will be revealed
  • The wheat will be separated from the chaff
  • The old world order, which is false and without substance, will be dissolved. While that which belongs to the new order, that which has been done in love and truth, will shine like purified silver
  • So, with this in mind, we need to make sure we are living truly holy lives, in line with the new order of God’s kingdom.

John Newton practiced what he preached, eventually.

  • From about the 1780’s onwards he joined William Wilberforce in the abolitionist movement speaking out against slavery
  • Once again we see God’s amazing grace. God did not destroy John Newton but rather transformed him from a human trafficker to an advocate for the poor and oppressed.

God’s grace is multifaceted.

  • It reaches out to us with forgiveness
  • It corrects us with Godly fear
  • It provides what we need and purifies us so we are prepared for God’s kingdom, the kingdom of heaven.  

Questions for discussion or reflection:

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

  • Is there a pendulum effect in your life? What caused the swing?
  • What is grace? (What is not grace?)
  • God’s grace is multi-faceted. John Newton’s song touches on at least four aspects of God’s grace – i.e. forgiveness, fear, providence and heaven.
    • Which of these aspects of God’s grace have you experienced? How?
    • What other aspects of God’s grace are you aware of?
  • Which verse of Amazing Grace do you most identify with? Why?
    • Which verse do you find most difficult? Why?  
  • How might God go about refining us (like silver)?
  • Consider the line, ‘The earth shall soon dissolve like snow, the sun forbear to shine;’
    • How are we to understand this line of the song in the light of the bigger picture of Scripture and in light of 2 Peter 3:10?

Outtakes:

Another of the song’s verses, which we don’t sing very often, also makes us think of heaven…  

Yea, when this flesh and heart shall fail, and mortal life shall cease,
I shall possess, within the veil, a life of joy and peace.

The veil here is a reference to death

  • The purpose of a veil is to hide something (like a curtain) – to prevent us from seeing what’s on the other side
  • In this life we can’t see what lies beyond the veil of death but for those, like John Newton, who place their trust in Christ, there is the hope of heaven – pictured here as a ‘life of joy and peace’.

This verse of the song may find its inspiration from Psalm 73 where the poet writes: My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

  • The idea here is that God sustains us with the grace (or gift) of himself not just in this life but even through death.  
Tawa Baptist

Seek Ye First

Scriptures: Matthew 6:25-34, Matthew 7:7-11, Matthew 4:1-4

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Seek ye first the kingdom of God
  • Ask and it shall be given unto you
  • We cannot live by bread alone
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

The order in which we do things matters

  • When you are packing your car to go away on holiday it’s a good idea to put the larger suitcases in first and then pack the smaller things around them
  • If you have a leak in your roof, then your priority is to fix the roof before you start painting and decorating inside the house
  • When you buy a flat pack of furniture, the first thing to do is read the instructions before you start assembling the product
  • Likewise, when you prepare a sermon or a Bible study you start by praying and reading the Scriptures, then you write down your thoughts
  • And, if your wife or husband or child is telling you something important, your priority is to listen to them, before attending to the dinner or your emails.  

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 Seek Ye First

  • The words for Seek Ye First come from the mouth of Jesus in the gospel of Matthew
  • Verse 1 of the song is a quote from Matthew 6:33, where Jesus is talking about the futility of worry
  • Verse 2 of the song comes from Matthew 4:4, where Jesus is responding to one of the temptations of Satan in the wilderness
  • And verse 3 is from Matthew 7:7, where Jesus is helping his listeners to understand that God is a loving Father who knows how to give good things to his children 
  • All three verses are about giving God priority – putting God first   

Seek ye first the kingdom of God

The music for Seek Ye First was written by a woman called Karen Lafferty in 1971. Karen was a worship leader for Calvary Chapel in California at the time

  • She was 23 years old, had graduated University with a degree in music and recently returned to the Lord and to church after some time away  
  • In an interview Karen Lafferty says this about the origin of Seek Ye First,

“I had quit my entertainment job and was trying to support myself with teaching guitar lessons. I had three students! When my savings were all gone and I had no money to make my car payments, I became very discouraged and confused.” One evening I went to a Bible study at church, and we talked about Matthew 6:33. [Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.]I was tremendously encouraged and challenged by the words about Christ’s kingdom. So I went home, wrote the tune, recorded it on a tape recorder, and then sang this little descant part.”

  • Karen taught the song in church the next week, and it caught on right away.

So what is Jesus saying in this verse from Matthew 6?

  • Well, to understand the meaning, we need to hear the verse in its context.
  • From Matthew 6:25-34 (in the NIV) we read…

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labour or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendour was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.   

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

The word ‘worry’ appears six times in this passage. Worry (or anxiety) is part of the human condition.

  • It doesn’t seem to matter what culture you come from or what time in history you live, we all have to deal with worry at some point in our lives

Jesus says we are not to worry and then he gives a number of reasons why we don’t need to worry. He effectively uses reason and logic to disarm worry.

  • Reason is to worry what waking up is to a bad dream – reason puts us back in touch with reality and restores our perspective
  • Reason is to worry what sunlight is to mould – reason dries out the dampness in our mind to prevent the mould of worry
  • Reason is to worry what companionship is to loneliness – reason is a friend who brings understanding and makes us feel connected

The first reason (or logical argument) Jesus gives for not worrying about food and clothes is that there is more to life than food and more to the body than clothes

  • While food and clothes are basic to human survival and we need to attend to them they are not the only needs we have in life and they are not the most important needs either – we must keep things in proportion
  • For example, other things needed to support human life include:
  • Right relationships and community,
  • Hope and a sense of purpose,
  • A rhythm of worshiping God, which gives us something positive to occupy our minds, something greater than ourselves.

Another reason Jesus gives for not worrying is that worry is pointless – like running on a treadmill it wears you out, it gets you nowhere.

Jesus also gives evidence from nature for not worrying

  • God feeds the birds of the air and we human beings are far more valuable to God than birds, so how much more will God feed us
  • And, following the same logic, God clothes the grass of the field with beautiful wild flowers which are here today and gone tomorrow, so how much more will he clothe us, for we last a lot longer than grass.

Now, at this point some of you may be thinking, ‘Okay, if it’s true that God feeds the birds, why are some species of birds going extinct? And more to the point, why do so many people in the world starve or walk around in rags?’

  • Well, some of the responsibility lies with human beings. While God provides what the world needs humanity doesn’t always manage God’s resources in a way that is fair or equitable
  • Having said that, humanity can’t bear the full responsibility – some things are not in our power to do anything about
  • The world we live in is not perfect or fair or safe – God’s will is not always done on earth as it is in heaven
  • Jesus’ teaching here seems to picture the world as it should be rather than as it is [1]     

This is not to imply that Jesus’ teaching is out of touch with our reality. Quite the opposite – Jesus’ teaching is very down to earth  

  • In verse 34 of Matthew 6, Jesus says, Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.  
  • Jesus acknowledges that the world isn’t perfect – each day has enough trouble of its own – it simply does no good to worry about what we can’t control and what might never happen in the first place.

The other thing we need to be aware of is that Jesus is not saying we shouldn’t make provision for the future – he’s simply saying don’t worry about the future

  • Making provision for the future is not the same thing as worrying about it
  • Jesus’ point is not that we should throw all caution to the wind, when it comes to financial matters
  • Jesus’ point is that we should not let fear and worry tie us up in knots or impede us in the present

Returning to verse 33 of Matthew 6, the focus of the opening verse of the song; Jesus gives us an alternative to worry – something far more meaningful and fruitful to spend our time and energy on

  • Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.

God’s kingdom and righteousness means God’s way of doing life

  • So, instead of worrying, we need to give top priority to living under God’s direction and governance – we need to obey God in faith that he will provide for our needs.  

Karen Lafferty, the author of Seek Ye First, went on to work for Youth with a Mission (YWAM). She said,

  • “The Lord really paved the way for me with that song. “Seek Ye First” has opened doors for me all over the world. And because it’s in so many hymnbooks, about 40 percent of my mission support comes from that song!”
  • As I mentioned earlier, Karen had been worrying about making ends meet and paying her bills
  • But when she went to the Bible study and spent time seeking God, the Lord sorted out her priorities, dispelled her fears and provided her with an income stream by giving her a tune to put to the words of Jesus.
  • And all these things shall be added unto you.

Sometimes the priority is not clear to us. Sometimes what we think is most important is actually not as important in hindsight

  • You may be in a hurry to get out the door for work or school drop off but you’ve lost your keys and you are starting to feel stressed
  • In the heat of the moment you might think, ‘okay I just have to look harder to find my keys’
  • But the faster you look the more flustered you become
  • In that moment the priority is not finding your keys but finding your calm
  • The best thing to do is stop, be still, let your brain stem settle and then retrace your steps to find your keys 
  • In the long run it won’t matter if you are a few minutes late
  • In fact, being still for a few moments may help you to find your keys quicker and it will also help you to drive safer.  

It is similar with seeking first the kingdom of God. Sometimes the priority (finding what God wants us to do) is not clear at first

  • Sometimes we can be in such a hurry doing the work of ministry or serving God that we miss the spirit in which God wants us to serve
  • In that moment the priority is not doing the work of ministry but finding God’s heartbeat, getting back in step with the Lord again.   

We cannot live by bread alone

Verse two of the song reads: We cannot live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

Again, these are the words of Jesus, this time from Matthew 4. To understand the meaning we need to read the verse in its context. From Matthew 4, verse 1, in the NIV…

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be temptedby the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

Satan then went on to try and tempt Jesus in other ways and each time Jesus resisted the devil with Scripture

The phrase, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God’, is a quote from Deuteronomy 8:3 where Moses is addressing the Israelites at the end of their 40 years in the wilderness

  • Moses is essentially saying to the people, ‘As a father disciplines his son, so the Lord your God disciplines you.’
  • That’s why you’ve spent all this time wandering around in the wilderness facing various deprivations – so you can learn to trust and obey God
  • Among the lessons you should have learned during these past 40 years is not to depend on bread alone but on God’s word
  • Not to put God to the test
  • And not to worship any other god – but rather to make the Lord God the exclusive object of your worship and obedience [2]

Jesus’ 40 days in the wilderness recalls Israel’s 40 years in the wilderness

  • Israel (the nation) was known as God’s son
  • So too Jesus is God’s son – he embodies the new Israel
  • Where the ancient Israelites failed, Jesus passes the test, doing for Israel what they were not able to do for themselves

For a long-time I was puzzled by the temptation to change stones into bread

  • I mean, what’s wrong with that? Everyone has to eat.
  • What’s more there were other occasions when Jesus multiplied the loaves and fishes in the wilderness to feed thousands – so what’s the problem?
  • Why was not okay on this occasion (for Jesus to use his power to make bread) but it was okay on a different occasion?  
  • Well, as Richard France explains, it is a question of obedience to God’s will in this particular situation…

Obedience to God’s will takes priority… Jesus understood his experience of hunger as God’s will for him at the time and therefore not to be evaded by a self-indulgent use of his power as the Son of God. To [turn the stones into bread] would be [to disobey God] to call into question God’s priorities and set himself at odds with his Father’s plan. [3]

Although Jesus understood his hunger to be God’s will for him at the time, this doesn’t mean that every occasion of hunger or deprivation is God’s will, but sometimes it is and when it is we must trust God to provide for us in his way and his time.

  • In Matthew 4, God sent angels to minister to Jesus’ needs after Satan had left him – Jesus passed the test where Israel had failed

You know, sometimes we go without things and we don’t like it

  • Perhaps we don’t go without food for 40 days like Jesus did but maybe we go without something else important, for a significant period of time
  • We might, for example, go without work for several months,
  • Or without our health for several weeks
  • Or without joy for several years,
  • Or without an answer to prayer, or something else
  • Those wilderness times of testing don’t necessarily mean God is angry with us or against us
  • To the contrary they show that we are God’s children because he is taking the time to teach us to rely on him – to trust and obey.
  • God disciplines those he loves

We are in the season of Lent at the moment – that 40 days (or so) before Easter

  • Traditionally many Christians give up something during Lent (maybe chocolate or swearing or justifying yourself or whatever)
  • The point of this self-imposed fast is to draw close in solidarity with Jesus – to remember his time of testing and to embrace our identity as children of God who rely on our heavenly father, not on ourselves    

Jesus’ words in Matthew 4, verse 4, about needing the word of God as much as we need bread, connect with his words in Matthew 6:33 about seeking first God’s kingdom

  • The word of God is actually more important than food, just as seeking the kingdom of God is more important than seeking money
  • Food and money are useful for this life but the word of God and the kingdom of God have value for eternal life.  

Ask and it shall be given to you

A couple of weeks ago Lotto jack potted to $50 million. When it gets that big someone has to win. Apparently the key is getting the Powerball

  • So even if you were to win first division, you don’t get the $50 million unless you also have the Powerball number
  • Of course it was a popular draw. At one point they were selling 2,000 tickets a minute
  • When you don’t have much and life is difficult winning Lotto seems like a silver bullet, something that will fix all your problems
  • But excess can be just as harmful as poverty – there is wisdom in moderation. Better a regular sized portion with peace, than a double portion with worry.
  • I imagine thousands of people prayed, asking to win the $50 million but, as it turned out, the grand prize was shared by only two families.

In Matthew 7 Jesus says…

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. 10“Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!

In the movie Bruce Almighty (starring Jim Carrey and Morgan Freeman), God gives Bruce the power to answer people’s prayers and so Bruce just says ‘yes’ to every request, with the result that almost everyone wins the lottery

  • Of course when $50 million is split equally between 2 million people the winners end up with only $25 each. People took to the streets in riot

When Jesus says, Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you, he doesn’t mean God is obligated to answer ‘yes’ to every prayer we pray

  • In the context he means God will give you what you need and what is good for you, which may not necessarily be what you want
  • As the little parable in verse 10 indicates, the son isn’t asking for a luxury, he’s asking for his basic needs; bread and fish (carbs & protein) 
  • So praying to win Lotto won’t help your chances but praying, give us this day our daily bread will help you.

Jesus’ point is that God is a loving Father who knows how to give good things to his children    

  • God Almighty is not like the pagan gods of the Greeks and Romans. We don’t have to sacrifice things to try and persuade God to provide for us
  • God is ready & willing to help us with genuine needs, we just have to ask
  • And even if we ask God for the wrong things he will still give us the right thing.
  • God won’t give us something useless (like a stone), nor will he give us something harmful (like a snake). God wants to do us good.

Jesus’ words about asking, seeking and knocking are supposed to cast out worry and inspire trust in God.

  • They invite us to explore the scope of God’s generosity

Having said that, Ask and it will be given to you; also needs to be understood in the context of God’s freedom

  • Sometimes our requests may be entirely reasonable and unselfish; maybe we are praying for healing for someone we care about or perhaps we are asking to be spared from some injustice and yet God is silent
  • The will of God is inscrutable at times.
  • Inscrutable simply means we can’t always understand God’s will and purpose. We can’t put God’s will under a microscope and scrutinize it

Oswald Chambers once said: “Whenever the insistence is on the point that God answers prayer, we are off the track. The meaning of prayer is that we get hold of God, not of the answer.”

God will always do his best for us but sometimes it’s not about us and sometimes the options available to God are limited

  • Jesus wrestled in anguish, as he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, asking God to spare him the ordeal of the cross
  • (Jesus didn’t want to be separated from his heavenly Father)
  • But, for whatever reason, God did not change his mind
  • While Jesus did not get the answer he wanted to his prayer, he did get hold of God and submitted himself in obedience to God’s will.    
  • For Jesus, seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness took priority.

Conclusion:

Each of the verses of the song Seek Ye First ends with the descant or chorus, Allelujah, which is a shortened form of the Hebrew word, Hallelujah

  • Allelujah simply means ‘praise the Lord’
  • The message is clear; giving priority to what God wants is the truest act of worship and praise we can offer the Lord.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

  1. Listen to the song, ‘Seek Ye First’.  What are you in touch with as you listen to this song? (What connections, memories or feelings does the song evoke for you?) 
  2. How do you begin each day? What’s the first thing you do?
  3. What sorts of things worry you? What reasons does Jesus give for not worrying? How do you deal with your worry?
  4. Why does Jesus tell his disciples to seek first God’s kingdom and his righteousness? How might we do this? (What does this look like specifically for you?)
  5. Discuss / reflect on the parallels between Jesus’ 40 days in the wilderness and the Israelites’ 40 years in the wilderness.
  6. Why did Jesus refuse to turn the stones into loaves of bread? (in Matthew 4) What have you had to go without for a significant period of time? What have you learned through this experience of deprivation?
  7. Take some time this week to reflect on how God has responded to your prayer requests over the years. For example, what things has God said ‘yes’ to? What things has he said ‘no’ to? And what prayers has he answered in a way you weren’t expecting?    

[1] R.T. France, NICNT, Matthew, page 266.

[2] Ibid, page 128.

[3] Ibid, page 131.

Tawa Baptist

A Prayer

Intercessory Prayer – 1 March 2020

Loving Father, we praise you for your goodness. You are our creator, the giver of life and meaning. In you we live and move and have our being. Without you all life comes undone.

Lord Jesus, we come to this Lenten season only partly conscious of the wrong we have committed and the good we have failed to do. We are often blind to ourselves and our neighbour. We need your help. Give us grace to face the truth so that we may receive your forgiveness and pass it on to others. Populate our thoughts with a vision of you.

Jesus you were tested in every way and did not fall short. Be with us when we are tested; feed us with the bread of your presence, make us servants to your purpose and release us to worship the one true God. Help us to draw near to you the living Christ.

Jesus, you are our healer. We think of J.E. who is recovering from knee surgery. Relieve her pain and grant her freedom of movement we ask. We think also of others we know personally who are injured or unwell. Touch the lives of each person here for we all carry hurts whether seen or unseen.

We thank you Lord for the work of the Leprosy Mission around the world. Thank you for being with E. and the other youth advocates this year as they travelled to Nepal. We ask your blessing on those living with leprosy and their families. Deliver them from the physical disease of leprosy and from the prejudice often attached to it. Bless the doctors and nurses providing care at Anandaban Hospital. May you provide all that is needed for new plumbing to pipe clean water to the hospital.

We think Lord of the world you love, a world in need. In some ways the global village is smaller now and our lives are more interconnected. We feel the butterfly effect – how a small virus in one part of the world can have a huge impact on people in another part. We ask your mercy at the sore points and the points of intersection. Save us from our fears. May your will be done and your kingdom come in all those situations which cause alarm: coronavirus, climate change, undercurrents of nationalism, riots, wars and the rumours of wars. We ask your blessing and provision for the millions of displaced people in this world.

God of infinite worth, children are a gift from you. Guide our political leaders with the upcoming conscience vote on abortion. We are ask for your blessing on all expectant mothers and unborn children. Give them health & peace and safe delivery. Help us all to remember that we are made in your image and to value life. 

Jesus, you were a carpenter. We ask your blessing and oversight on our builders and property team as they seek to strengthen the church buildings. We look to you for the next steps in the life of this congregation. Give us wisdom and faith to make decisions which will glorify you and be a blessing now and into the future.

Inscrutable God, your ways are not our ways. Sometimes following Jesus is confusing and difficult. We pray for the exiles – those who feel estranged from you or who are struggling in their journey of faith. Help us in times of disorientation to be honest with you, not to throw the baby out with the bath water but instead discern what is true and hold to Christ. Thank you God that you are big enough to handle our doubts and our anger. We praise you that you know us and care for us.

God of meaning, we find our purpose and hope in you. You have blessed us in this country with many good things and yet there is a spiritual poverty in this land. We pray for those who don’t yet know you. Find them we ask good shepherd. We pray for your blessing on the up-coming combined Tawa churches Alpha course. May you provide all that is needed for the successful running of Alpha. Lead us and guide us to those who you would have us invite to Alpha. May you be real for each one Lord Jesus.  

We pray all these things in the name of Jesus, our Saviour and friend. Amen.

Tawa Baptist

Highlands (Song of Ascent)

Scriptures: Psalm 139:7-12, Psalm 145:18, Luke 15, Luke 18:9-14, Psalm 23:4

Psalm 24:3-6, Matthew 17:20.

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • The hunger for God
  • The river of grace
  • The centrality of Christ
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Human development experts tell us there are different stages in the human life cycle and with each stage there is a particular task to attend to

For example, when we are very young we need to learn basic trust – without this foundation (or basis) of trust we can’t function or relate

Then in our teenage years we begin to discover our own identity – we learn to think for ourselves, figure out who we are and where we belong, where we fit

  • Identity formation continues beyond adolescence

In early adulthood the task is learning intimacy – how to be close to someone on the inside, without getting hurt.

  • You can’t really have intimacy without some sense of identity

By the time we reach our 40’s (or thereabouts) we begin to realise that we are not going to live forever and so we feel a need to use what time we have left to pursue the things that are most important to us

  • You sometimes hear the expression ‘mid-life crisis’
  • This is a phrase which can mean a variety of things but often it describes the feeling of frustration or confusion which comes when one is not free to do what they want to do but rather forced to do what they must
  • Maybe you want to travel the world on your motor bike but you can’t because you are still paying off the mortgage and supporting your family
  • So you make do by growing a beard (like a hipster) and riding your bike on the weekends, between the kids’ sports games and mowing the lawns
  • (Now just to be clear, people grow beards for all sorts of reasons. So we can’t assume that everyone with a beard is having a mid-life crisis.)

When you get to the end of your life you want to leave a legacy

  • You want to pass on something valuable to those you care about, maybe your wisdom, maybe your story, maybe your faith and hope.

Of course, we are speaking in general terms. Often the life cycle is more varied and complicated than the text books suggest, but the general pattern holds true for many

  • The point is, where we are at in life’s journey has some influence on the way we think, behave and relate with others, including God. 

In fact, some of this life cycle stuff finds parallels with our spiritual journey

  • We start our walk with God by learning basic trust – just learning to rely on God day by day.
  • Then as we grow in trust our identity is formed in Christ.
  • At some point in our journey of faith we may feel a deep longing for intimacy with God and so we search for ways to be close to God, maybe through theological study or going on spiritual retreats or spending time in nature or immersing ourselves in Christian music.

Inevitably there comes a time when the beliefs and doctrines and theoretical frameworks we have constructed around God are challenged and perhaps deconstructed

  • At that stage we have to decide what beliefs we will keep and what we will lay aside
  • We call this life long process, with all its highs and lows, ‘spiritual formation’.   

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 Highlands (Song of Ascent)

  • This song is about the journey of faith, both God’s journey to us and our journey with God through all the highs and lows (the mountains and valleys) of our spiritual formation. 
  • As Joel Houston (one of the authors of the song) says, ‘This faith of ours is a climb [an ascent] but we are not in it alone’. 

Highlands is a song which came out of Hillsong Church

  • Hillsong is a charismatic Christian church based in Sydney Australia, established by Brian & Bobbie Houston in 1983.
  • Hillsong United is the name of the worship band, formed in 1998, as part of Hillsong’s youth ministry.

The words and music for the song Highlands were written collaboratively by Joel Houston and Ben Hastings in 2018 

  • Joel Houston, who is now 40 years old, is Brian & Bobbie Houston’s son
  • And Ben Hastings, who is now 28, originally came from Northern Ireland

In an interview Joel and Ben talk about how the song Highlands came into being. Joel was actually in the Highlands of Scotland at the time

  • He had just finished a project and was facing what he describes (with a chuckle) as a bit of a mid-life crisis
  • He was taking stock, trying to figure out the next steps in his own life
  • This is understandable – Joel Houston is like a rock star in the world of Christian music
  • He has reached great heights – it is natural at this stage in his life that he should grow a beard and ask, ‘Okay God, what next?’   

The first line of the song and the chords came to him at 3 in the morning

  • He didn’t know what it meant at the time but, like I said a couple of weeks ago, often the meaning comes later
  • After Joel had talked about it with Ben for a couple of hours, Ben wrote the rest of the lyrics.

The hunger for God:

One of the themes of the song is our hunger for God


O how high would I climb mountains if the mountains were where You hide
O how far I’d scale the valleys if You graced the other side…
Cause in the highlands and the heartache You’re neither more or less inclined
I would search and stop at nothing, You’re just not that hard to find.

Some of you have two stomachs. A dinner stomach and a pudding stomach.

  • I’m like that. Even if my dinner stomach is full I still feel a bit empty if I haven’t had something sweet. I love a little bit of ice-cream to finish.
  • I wonder if the opening lines of today’s song describe a hunger for intimacy with God – a longing to be close with God on the inside
  • It’s like we have a pudding stomach for God and no matter what other good things we might fill our lives with we never quite feel satisfied while our God stomach is empty
  • Blaise Pascal said, ‘There is a God shaped hole in every heart’, meaning we are born with a desire to connect with God intimately.

So, if we have this God shaped hole in our heart, how do we fill it?       

  • C.S. Lewis was once asked, ‘What makes Christianity different from any other religion?’
  • And he answered, ‘Oh that’s easy. Grace.’
  • What he meant was, with most other religions the goal is for humanity to try and reach God somehow
  • But with Christianity it is different. In Christ, God comes to us.
  • The opening lines of the song make this point – if we want to find God we don’t have to go far. God is near. He is not absent or hiding.

As we read in Psalm 139:7-12…

Where can I go from your Spirit?
    Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
    if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
    if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
    your right hand will hold me fast.

And in a similar vein, Psalm 145:18…

          The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.

As you can see on the wall, there’s a line in the song which reads…

  • You’re neither more or less inclined
  • We might call this the disinterested virtue of God
  • And by ‘disinterested virtue’ we don’t mean that God doesn’t care
  • We mean that God’s virtue, his goodness and faithfulness, is not conditional on our performance
  • God is good to us because of who he is, not because of what we do   
  • God’s love is steadfast – he is not fickle, his character remains consistent
  • It’s the idea that there is nothing we can do to make God love us more and nothing we can do to make him love us less.
  • This doesn’t mean God will indulge our evil (sometimes God’s steadfast love moves him to discipline us) – it just means we don’t need to earn God’s favour. It is freely given.
  • God causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. [Matthew 5:45]

Given the constancy of God’s steadfast love and given his disinterested virtue, the chorus suggests what our response needs to be…


So I will praise You on the mountain
And I will praise you when the mountain’s in my way
You’re the summit where my feet are
So I will praise You in the valleys all the same
No less God within the shadows
No less faithful when the night leads me astray
You’re the Heaven where my heart is
In the highlands and the heartache all the same

Just as God’s love and goodness does not depend on us, so too our praise and worship of God should not depend on our circumstances

  • We praise and worship God for who he is, not for how we experience life or how we feel
  • I am reminded of the example of Job. After he had lost all his wealth and all his children had been killed, he fell to the ground in worship and said,
  • The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.
  • This shows that Job had a strong basis or foundation of trust in the Lord.
  • He wasn’t relying on his wealth or his children – his life & faith was based on the name of the Lord (on God’s reputation and integrity). 
  • Like the song says, I will praise you on the mountain… and I will praise you in the valleys all the same
  • In other words, I’ll praise you when things are going well and I feel on top of the world and I’ll praise you when life is hard and I’m down in the dumps.

The words in this chorus are incredibly challenging – we hope our praise of God is pure and doesn’t depend on our circumstances but, at the same time, we pray (under our breath) that this won’t be tested. 

I spoke before about mid-life crisis. Often the journey of faith formation includes a kind of spiritual mid-life crisis

  • We (like Job) may suffer some loss or injustice and find that everything we had previously held to be true is now challenged and uncertain
  • We may feel filled with doubt, confused, angry with God and ready to chuck the towel of our faith in
  • These feelings may be symptomatic of a desire for something more real – a greater intimacy with God – sort of like being hangry for God  
  • When we find ourselves in that space there’s a number of things that help. Firstly, be honest – both with yourself and with God. Don’t pretend
  • Secondly, don’t throw the baby out with the bath water – figure out what’s important, what’s true. Hold on to Christ.
  • And thirdly, find something about God you can honestly praise him for.
  • Maybe you are angry with God and the last thing you feel like doing is singing a worship song – but you can still praise him that he is big enough to handle your anger.     
  • Praising God saves us from self-pity and self-centeredness. Praising God takes the focus off ourselves.  

The river of grace:

On the wall here we have the picture of a waterfall

  • Now there is no way anyone could swim up that waterfall – it’s just too powerful. At best we might stand below it and admire its beauty.

One of the verses of the song reads like this…

O how long have I chased rivers from lowly seas to where they rise
Against the rush of grace descending from the source of its supply

Now at first this sounds complicated, but it’s really quite a simple metaphor

  • As the authors of the song, Ben & Joel, explain:
  • A river connects the highest points on earth (the mountains) to the lowest points (the valleys) – that’s Jesus – he is the river that connects heaven and earth.
  • ‘Our God [Jesus] came down the mountain like a pilgrim in reverse’
  • We are sometimes slow to understand this
  • Sometimes we chase the river against its flow – against the rush of grace descending (God’s grace is like a waterfall) 
  • But we can’t reach God that way, any more than we could reach the top of a river by trying to swim up a waterfall. God’s grace is overwhelming

Following this metaphor of grace descending: just as water always chases the lowest point, so too Jesus finds us at our lowest point. It’s like Jesus said…

  • Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
  • The poor in spirit are at their lowest point, which is exactly where the river of God’s grace finds them

Jesus told a number of parables about God’s grace finding people at their lowest point. For example, the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector in Luke 18

  • The Pharisee stood before God, praying about himself, confident of his own goodness
  • Whereas the tax collector stood at a distance, not daring to look up to heaven but instead praying for mercy
  • God’s grace did not find the Pharisee because he wasn’t yet at the end of himself  
  • But God’s grace did find the tax collector who was at his lowest point.

Continuing this theme of God finding us at our lowest point another verse of the song reads…

O how fast would you come running if just to shadow me through the night
Trace my steps through all my failures and walk me out the other side

Please turn with me to Luke 15, page 100 toward the back of your pew Bibles  

  • Jesus tells a series of parables in Luke 15 about God running to find us, when we fail, and walking us out the other side
  • In Luke 15 we find the parable of the lost sheep, the parable of the lost coin and the parable of the lost sons. Let’s read verses 1-7 now…

15 One day when many tax collectors and other outcasts came to listen to Jesus, 2 the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law started grumbling, “This man welcomes outcasts and even eats with them!” 3 So Jesus told them this parable:

4 “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them—what do you do? You leave the other ninety-nine sheep in the pasture and go looking for the one that got lost until you find it. 5 When you find it, you are so happy that you put it on your shoulders 6 and carry it back home. Then you call your friends and neighbours together and say to them, ‘I am so happy I found my lost sheep. Let us celebrate!’ 7 In the same way, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine respectable people who do not need to repent.

God’s grace descends to us and, like water, finds us at our lowest point when we are lost and at the end of our rope

  • God’s purpose in finding us is to restore. All heaven celebrates over the one who repents.

On the wall here are the opening lines of a poem by Francis Thompson

I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;

I fled Him, down the arches of the years;

I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways

Of my own mind; and in the midst of tears…

Can anyone tell me the name of that poem? [Wait]

  • That’s right, it’s called “The Hound of Heaven”
  • This poem was first published in 1893 and had an influence on J.R.R. Tolkien, the author of Lord of the Rings

J.F.X. O’Conor describes the poem like this…

“As the hound follows the hare, never ceasing in its running, ever drawing nearer in the chase, with unhurrying… pace, so does God follow the fleeing soul by His Divine grace. And though in sin or in human love, away from God [the human soul] seeks to hide itself, Divine grace follows after, unwearyingly follows ever after, till the soul feels its pressure forcing it to turn to Him alone in that never ending pursuit.”

We are complex creatures and we don’t always behave in ways that make sense.

  • Sometimes in our spiritual journey we try to run away from God
  • But the Lord pursues us with patience and love.

The centrality of Christ:

For Christians, Jesus is integral to faith formation

  • We are saved by faith (a foundation of basic trust) in Christ
  • We find our true identity and belonging in Christ
  • We have intimacy with God through Christ
  • And, whether life is stable or in crisis, we hold to Christ
  • Ultimately, our hope and our legacy is to become like Christ.  

In singing about the God who descends to save us, Ben Hastings & Joel Houston remember the centrality of Christ

For who could dare ascend that mountain that valleyed hill called Calvary
But for the One I call Good Shepherd who like a lamb was slain for me.

This verse is about the crucifixion of Jesus

  • Jesus is both the Good Shepherd and the sacrificial Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
  • The hill of Jesus’ crucifixion is (metaphorically speaking) a low point where God’s grace is found.
  • The line, who could dare ascend that mountain, is a direct reference to Psalm 24:4-6…

Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord?
    Who may stand in his holy place?

The one who has clean hands and a pure heart,
    who does not trust in an idol or swear by a false god.

They will receive blessing from the Lord
    and vindication from God their Saviour.

 Such is the generation of those who seek him,
    who seek your face, God of Jacob.

As Joel Houston explains, Jesus gives us clean hands and a pure heart so we can stand before God in his holy place and receive his blessing. 

Of course, we can’t sing of Jesus’ crucifixion and death without also thinking of his resurrection and ascension to heaven – the two go together.

And so a verse follows on the resurrection of Jesus…

From the gravest of all valleys come the pastures we call grace
A mighty river flowing upwards from a deep but empty grave.

The metaphor used here for God’s grace is pasture or nourishment

  • We feed on God’s grace at the lowest point – in the valleys 
  • The mighty river flowing upwards is a reference to Jesus’ resurrection.
  • Through faith in Christ we too can be carried upwards in the river of Jesus’ resurrection to eternal life.

The bridge of the song reads…


Whatever I walk through, wherever I am
Your Name can move mountains, wherever I stand
And if ever I walk through the valley of death
I’ll sing through the shadows my song of ascent

The bridge revisits the theme of spiritual journey which pervades the whole song. It affirms that (in Christ) God is with us and for us through all the stages and difficulties we may face in this life.

Your name can move mountains is a reference to Jesus’ words in Matthew 17:20

  • I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.

The mountain is a metaphor for some insurmountable problem

  • Even a small amount of faith (or basic trust) in Jesus can restore our perspective and bring our problems down to a manageable size.

And the line about walking through the valley of death is a reference to Psalm 23, which talks about the Lord being our shepherd

  • Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff they comfort me.     

Jesus’ rod is like a weapon that he uses against the forces of evil in order to protect his sheep, and his staff is like a shepherd’s crock which Jesus uses to gently guide his sheep onto the right path if we go astray.

  • Jesus is the good shepherd who stays close to guide & protect us when the going gets tough

Conclusion:

One of the things I like about Tawa Baptist is the diversity of the congregation

  • We are intergenerational, with people of all ages and stages of faith
  • Where are you at in your journey of spiritual formation?
  • Wherever you are at, God is near – he’s just not that hard to find
  • May we all be aware of Jesus’ nearness and grace throughout the week, with the beginning of Lent on Wednesday (26 Feb 2020).

Questions for discussion or reflection:

  1. Listen to the song, ‘Highlands (Song of Ascent)’.  What are you in touch with as you listen to this song? (What connections, memories or feelings does the song evoke for you?) 
  2. How hungry are you for God? How do you feed your hunger for God?
  3. What makes Christianity different from other religions?
  4. Why do we praise God? (What is the basis of our praise?) Think of something you can honestly praise God for. How might you best express your praise for this?  
  5. What can we do when we face a (mid-life) crisis of faith?
  6. Discuss / reflect on the image of Jesus being a river of grace, finding the lowest point. How does this fit with Scripture? (e.g. Luke 15 & 18.) Thinking of your own experience, where/when have you experienced God’s grace most profoundly?
  7. Discuss / reflect on Psalm 24:3-6. How does this relate to Christ?
  8. Take some time this week to reflect on where you are at in your journey of spiritual formation. For example: Where have you come from? What do you need from God at this point? What are the next steps for you?     
Tawa Baptist

Greater Than I

Scriptures: Matthew 20:20-28, Luke 4:18, Philippians 2:5-8, John 4, John 21:5

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • The origin
  • The content
  • Conclusion

Following are lyrics to the song:

You set the world into motion
Slavery unbound in each corner of the earth
A way of life to live by
That we won’t forget

You humbled yourself for us,
Status no longer important,
You’ve showed us how to live
Oh we’re grateful, oh we’re grateful

The woman at the well,
You showed her mercy,
You showed us how to love the broken
The blind man on the street,
You showed him kindness, you showed forgiveness
To make us see

Jesus, you’re more than we know,
So teach us how to be, in this broken world
Jesus, you’re a whisper in the wind, you’re the roar of lions
You’re our Prince of Peace

Introduction:

On the wall here is a picture of a mosaic

  • A mosaic artist takes pieces of broken ceramics and arranges them in a pattern to make a meaningful image
  • There is a certain poetry of redemption in putting together broken tiles and making something beautiful out of them

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 “Greater Than I”, written by our very own Peter Sim

  • The lyrics of Greater Than I are like a mosaic – they draw together a variety of fragments of Scripture to form a meaningful picture of Christ
  • Before we look at the song though let’s consider its author

The origin:

For those who don’t know, this is Peter Sim

  • Peter was born in October 1995, which means he is now 24
  • He grew up in Tawa, attending Redwood Primary school, then Tawa Intermediate and Tawa College
  • After College, Peter studied at Victoria University gaining a Bachelor of Arts in Criminology and Education before completing his Masters of Teaching. Peter is now in his third year teaching at Churton Park School

As a child Peter attended The Tawa New Life church and the Tawa Anglican church with his family

  • Then, as a teenager, Peter started coming to the Tawa Baptist youth group and became involved in the music team here
  • Peter describes his coming to faith in Jesus as a gradual process, with him taking more ownership in his teenage years
  • Peter was baptised here in this church on the 17th June 2012, nearly eight years ago now

Peter wrote the song Greater Than I in 2016 and we started singing it as part of our Sunday worship the same year. So Peter was around 20 or 21 at the time    

  • Peter used to be in a band called ‘Until Autumn’ and has written other pieces of music too – the song Author of my soul is one of Peter’s

A couple of weeks ago when I was talking with Peter about this he said,

  • ‘Music transcends language and other barriers. [Even if you don’t speak Spanish] you can listen to a Spanish song and still enjoy it. But you probably won’t enjoy listening to a Spanish audio book’.    
  • The idea that music transcends language and other barriers resonates with me. I think that music has a spiritual aspect to it which touches our soul, whether the music is religious or not.

Peter tells me he penned the words for his song after reading a book by John Ortberg called ‘Who is this man?’

  • John Ortberg is the Senior Pastor of a Presbyterian church in California
  • His book, ‘Who is this man?’, sets out some key principles of who Jesus is in easy to read English with real world application. 

After reading ‘Who is this man?’ it only took Peter four minutes to write the lyrics to his song, while the music came in just two hours the following day

  • The song writing process doesn’t normally happen that rapidly
  • The quickness of the song’s composition suggests a connection with the wisdom of the subconscious
  • It is also an example of how we find the meaning in the rear vision mirror, by looking back and reflecting on our experience
  • Often in life meaning comes after the fact
  • We have an experience, we react to that experience and then later we glean meaning from the experience by reflecting on our reaction to it     
  • This, it seems, was the case for Peter in writing this particular song
  • He read a book, reacted to it by writing a song and then found meaning in the song by reflecting on the words later.

The title, Greater Than I, doesn’t appear in the body of the lyrics.

  • When I asked Peter about the title he said it came after hearing someone say, ‘modern worship songs always seem to be about I and me.’ Worship songs should be about lifting up God and focusing on who Jesus is   

The content:

With this in view the song begins (and is punctuated throughout) with second person pronouns for God and Jesus

  • You humbled yourself for us
  • You showed her mercy
  • You showed forgiveness, and so on

Verse 1 reads…

You set the world into motion
Slavery unbound in each corner of the earth
A way of life to live by that we won’t forget.

This verse, like the others that follow, is a mosaic of Biblical ideas

  • Each line opens a different door on Scripture and faith’s experience 
  • ‘You set the world into motion’ is a reference to God’s creation of the cosmos in the opening chapters of Genesis
  • Now it is important not to misunderstand this line
  • There is a belief among some people in history that God created the world but then stepped back and no longer intervenes
  • Sort of like a divine clock maker – he made the world, wound it up and walked away to let it tick by on its own
  • This belief is called ‘deism’ – it is not a Christian belief
  • Peter is not saying God set the world in motion and then walked away
  • As the rest of the song makes clear, God set the world in motion and has stayed present and involved in his world ever since.
  • God loves his creation and has not turned his back on it.

‘You set the world into motion’ is an affirmation that we are not here by accident. We are here because God intended us to be here so there is meaning and purpose in our existence  

  • Interestingly the phrase ‘world in motion’ suggests a dynamic view of creation – a world which is not settled or complete but still evolving, still changing, still being brought to its full purpose by God
  • This view fits with the meta-narrative of the Bible and our experience.

Slavery unbound in each corner of the earth is another piece of the mosaic, not the same as the reference to creation but still connected to it

  • I asked Peter if this line about slavery referred to institutional slavery and people trafficking, which is still very much alive in each corner of the earth and he said, ‘No. It’s about the things that bind us personally’
  • In Luke 4, Jesus quotes the prophet Isaiah saying,

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”

There are lots of things that may enslave us personally; our fears, our sins, our past, our prejudices, and so on. Jesus came to set people free from these things

Each corner of the earth speaks of the universal reach of the gospel

  • Jesus isn’t just for the Jews, he is for all the peoples of the earth
  • In the Book of Acts, the risen Jesus says to his disciples…

“…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.”

Returning to Peter’s song, the line ‘A way of life to live by that we won’t forget’ reminds us that the Christian faith isn’t just a nice idea or an interesting philosophy. It’s not an academic thing in our head – Christianity is a lifestyle

  • Following Jesus should touch and shape every part of our life
  • In John 14 Jesus says: ‘I am the way the truth and the life’.
  • The church of the first Century understood this. Because of their distinctive way of living, early Christians were known as ‘people of the way’

The way of Christ is meek and gentle, not rough or violent

  • The way of Christ is gracious and truthful, it does not shame or manipulate
  • The way of Christ embraces weakness and vulnerability, but turns away from proud thoughts and puts no confidence in human achievement
  • The way of Christ turns the other cheek and forgives
  • The way of Christ is the way of the cross
  • There is a part of us that doesn’t like the way of Christ – that resists it
  • The way of Christ can be difficult and painful, inconvenient and frustrating, confusing and humiliating
  • And yet we stick to it because, in the long run, we believe it leads to peace

In his book ‘Who is this man?’ John Ortberg writes about the way of Jesus…

  • “His life and teaching simply drew people to follow him. He made history by starting in a humble place, in a spirit of love and acceptance, and allowing each person space to respond.”

Verse two of the song…

You humbled yourself for us, status no longer important,
You’ve showed us how to live. Oh we’re grateful, oh we’re grateful

The origin of this verse is found in Paul’s hymn in Philippians 2…

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very natureGod, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very natureof 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!

Verse 2 of the song talks about ‘status no longer [being] important’

  • In Matthew 20, after Jesus has just predicted his death for the third time, the mother of James and John came to Jesus and asked him for a favour
  • She said, “Promise me that these two sons of mine will sit at your right and your left when you are King.”
  • This request is about status and it strikes us as a bit insensitive in light of Jesus having just said that he will soon be crucified
  • Jesus replied to James and John, “You don’t know what you are asking”
  • When the other ten disciples heard about this they became angry with the two brothers. So Jesus called them all together and said…
  • “You know that the rulers of the heathen have power over them, and the leaders have complete authority. This, however, is not the way it shall be among you. If one of you wants to be great, he must be the servant of the rest; and if one of you wants to be first, he must be your slave – like the Son of Man, who did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life to redeem many people.”
  • As the Mandalorian would say, ‘this is the way’.

Jesus undoes our notions of social value and status    

  • Our status, in the sense of our place on the greasy pole, doesn’t matter because we get our identity from God, or more specifically from Christ
  • So, for example, when the apostle Paul was thrown into prison for preaching the gospel it didn’t matter (he could be joyful) because his identity, his status, his worth was secure in Jesus.         

On the wall here is a picture of a painting by Claude Monet

  • Monet painted this in the 1870’s – it is called ‘Sunrise’
  • Monet is famous as one of the founders of the French Impressionist movement
  • Impressionism is characterized by a concern with depicting the visual impression of the moment, especially in terms of the shifting effect of light and colour.
  • Or said another way, impressionism is a literary or artistic style that seeks to capture a feeling or experience rather than to achieve accurate depiction. (Impressionism is more subjective than objective)
  • So this painting by Monet is not necessarily an accurate depiction of the sunrise over a harbour in France
  • Rather it is a depiction of how Monet experienced or perceived that particular sunrise on that particular day
  • If he painted the same scene on a different day, it would look slightly different because the light would be different and his perception also.

The lyrics of many of the more contemporary worship songs we sing in church these days are written in the style of impressionism

  • So what we get is an expression of how the writer of that song saw the light of Christ (or perceived God) at the time they wrote it
  • Sometimes their impression of God resonates with our experience and other times it doesn’t
  • If the words don’t happen to harmonize with our own subjective impression of God, then it doesn’t make the song any less true
  • It just means we see God and the world differently from the author because our experience in life has been different from theirs.
  • None of us have a monopoly on God.
  • Much of Peter’s song needs to be understood as impressionism
  • I don’t think Peter sat down with the intention of writing in the style of impressionism, it just happened to turn out that way.

For example…

The woman at the well, you showed her mercy,
You showed us how to love the broken.

‘The woman at the well’ clearly refers to Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman in John 4

  • And, back in 2016, it gave Peter the impression of Jesus being someone who shows mercy and love to broken people
  • If Peter were to revisit this gospel story in 2036 he might get a slightly different impression of Jesus because by that stage he would have had another 20 years’ experience to reshape his perception and feelings
  • Our impression of God is not usually static – it is dynamic, changing 

For those not familiar with the story in John 4, Jesus is travelling by foot through the land of Samaria

  • It is around noon and he is tired and thirsty after walking all morning
  • His disciples have gone into town to buy some food while Jesus rests beside the well
  • As he is sitting there a Samaritan woman comes to the well to draw water
  • This is strange. Normally women came in the morning to draw water, when it was cooler, to avoid the heat of the day  
  • It appears this woman is not on good terms with her neighbours because she comes to the well at a time which avoids the other women

Jesus doesn’t have the means to draw water out of the well and because he is thirsty he asks the woman for a drink which, in that culture, is weird

  • Firstly, men didn’t speak to women in public – it just wasn’t proper
  • Secondly, Jesus was a Jew and, historically, Jews and Samaritans hated each other

The Samaritan woman can see that Jesus is a Jew by the clothes he is wearing and she says to Jesus, ‘How can you ask me for a drink?’

  • (You Jews won’t even use the same cups and bowls as us Samaritans)
  • But Jesus doesn’t let the conversation end there – he keeps it going, telling the woman the truth about himself, about herself and about God 
  • The truth about Jesus is that he is the spring of eternal life – he offers the life-giving water of the Holy Spirit
  • The truth about the woman is that her life and relationships are a mess – she has been married five times and the man she lives with now is not her husband
  • And the truth about God is that he is Spirit and can only be worshipped by the power of his Spirit.

All this truth telling made such a good impression on this woman that she went back to her village telling people about Jesus

  • The people begged Jesus to stay and Jesus graciously received their hospitality for two days, something other Jews would never do

Jesus shows us how to love the broken (like the Samaritan woman)

  • Jesus did not come in a show of strength, he came in weakness and need, feeling thirsty and tired
  • Jesus loved people (he built trust) by speaking the truth, giving people space to respond and receiving their help in the form of hospitality

The next couple of lines of the song give us Peter’s impression of Jesus after Jesus healed… The blind man on the street, you showed him kindness, You showed forgiveness to make us see.

There are a number of accounts, in the gospels, of Jesus healing the blind – for example, Bartimaeus in Mark 10 or the man born blind in John 9

  • Whichever version you look at, those who are physically blind appear to have more spiritual sight than the religious leaders
  • The punch line seems to be: Jesus helps us see God and he helps us to see how to be human, for we human beings are made in the image of God 
  • Kindness and forgiveness are divine attributes. When we show kindness and forgiveness we reflect the image of God.

And so we come to the bridge of the song…

Jesus, you’re more than we know,
So teach us how to be, in this broken world
Jesus, you’re a whisper in the wind, you’re the roar of lions
You’re our Prince of Peace

These words are essentially an expression of heart felt adoration to God

  • There is more to Jesus than we know
  • The apostle John finishes his gospel by saying this…
  • Now there are many other things that Jesus did. If they were all written down one by one, I suppose that the whole world could not hold the books that would be written.
  • I like the fact that Jesus cannot be contained by the human mind
  • I like that there is still more to discover about God
  • I like the mystery (the cloud of unknowing) that shrouds God
  • As the title of the song says, [God is] Greater Than I, which means he is more than we know

So teach us how to be, in this broken world

  • Jesus is our teacher; we are his disciples (his students)
  • We are learning how to ‘be’
  • As disciples of Christ we are not learning how to do – we are not learning a skill – we are learning how to be
  • Being is about the whole person and it’s about our character
  • As disciples of Jesus we are learning how to be like Jesus – to have his character        

And we are learning these things in this broken world, a world that God loves.

  • Now, it’s not that the world is completely broken beyond repair
  • It’s not broken like a glass shattered on the floor
  • There is still much beauty and goodness in the world; but at the same time there is something not right with the system or the way we live
  • History is scarred with war and oppression and misery
  • Even today it seems we can’t participate in society without colluding with injustice
  • We buy food or clothes and we don’t know where they come from or who may have suffered in making them cheap for us
  • Then there is the harm we do to the environment – all the plastic we dump and all the glaciers we melt
  • We are not willing participants with this injustice (often times we are not even aware of it) but still the way we organise or manage ourselves in this world is broken   
  • We need Jesus to teach us how to be in the world in a way that glorifies God, blesses other people and takes care of the environment.

The song finishes with three images of Jesus…

Jesus, you’re a whisper in the wind, you’re the roar of lions,
You’re our Prince of Peace.

When I asked Peter about this he said: small voice, big voice, sense of peace

  • Sometimes we hear Jesus (like Elijah heard Yahweh) as a still small voice
  • Other times Jesus roars loudly, like the lion of Judah
  • Always we are guided by his peace

It occurs to me the three things each of these images share in common is power

  • The wind is a powerful force of nature, just as a lion is powerful in the animal kingdom and a prince holds royal power in the human realm
  • Jesus isn’t just Lord of humanity – he is Lord over all of God’s creation.

Conclusion:

There’s more I could say about the words of this song – it is so rich – but that’s enough for today.

  • Peter, thank-you for sharing your song with us and for letting me preach on it this morning
  • Some of the things I’ve said are my impression of the meaning and not necessarily what you were thinking of when you wrote it
  • But that’s the beauty of poetry – it has a life of its own and speaks to each person’s heart as their experience allows and as the Spirit leads.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

  1. Listen to the song, ‘Greater Than I’.  (See the link at the top of these sermon notes.) What are you in touch with as you listen to this song? (What connections, memories or feelings does it evoke for you?) 
  2. What is deism and how does it differ from Christian belief?
  3. What sorts of things bind you personally? Can you think of a time when Jesus set you free in some way? What happened?
  4. What are some of the things that characterise the way of Christ? How do you experience walking in the way of Christ?
  5. What impression do you get from reading the story of Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman in John 4? What does Jesus’ example (in John 4) show us about loving the broken?  
  6. In what sense is the world broken?
  7. Discuss / reflect on the three images of Jesus at the end of the song: ‘a whisper in the wind, the roar of lions and our Prince of peace’. Which of these images resonates best with your experience? What other images would you suggest for Jesus? 
Tawa Baptist

Be still for the presence of the Lord

Scriptures: Genesis 28, Exodus 3, Isaiah 6:1-7, Matthew 17:1-3, Matthew 8:1-13

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Verse 1 – Holiness
  • Verse 2 – Glory
  • Verse 3 – Power
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

When our kids were young we took them to the Wellington Zoo

  • The day we went they had the Cheetah’s out of their cage taking them for a walk around the grounds on a leash
  • The zoo keepers explained to us that if we ever find ourselves in the presence of a Cheetah in the wild, the best thing to do is stay completely still, don’t move a muscle
  • Because as soon as you start running the Cheetah is hard wired to think you are dinner and will chase you down
  • Being in the presence of a creature as fast and powerful as a Cheetah gives one a feeling of vulnerability and respect at the same time.

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 Be still for the presence of the Lord

  • If you ever find yourself in the presence of God the best thing you can do is be still.
  • God won’t eat you, like a Cheetah might, but he is powerful and you can’t outrun him, so you may well feel vulnerable.
  • Being still and listening shows God respect and it helps us to take in the experience; to be present to God

The music and lyrics for “Be Still” were written by David Evans

  • David J. Evans was born in 1957 in Dartford, Kent, the United Kingdom.
  • He grew up in Winchester and was educated at the University of Southampton, studying social science

David Evans has been involved in a variety of church denominations and has led musical worship for much of his life

  • He works in the field of music education, having done research into the psychology of music
  • David will turn 63 this year but he was in his 20’s when he wrote Be still for the presence of the Lord

At the time Evans was involved in the charismatic movement of the 1980’s

  • The charismatic movement emphasises the ecstatic gifts of the Holy Spirit and encourages the expression of those gifts in gathered worship
  • For example, giving a word of knowledge, speaking in tongues, miraculous healing, prophecy and so forth
  • An ecstatic gift of the Spirit sometimes involves a mystical experience of God’s presence which overwhelms or transcends a person’s self
  • Many of the songs we might associate with the charismatic movement have tended to be upbeat, light and breezy type choruses
  • Be still for the presence of the Lord is not like that. Be still has a more serious, reverential tone.

In worship we are expressing to God how amazing he is

  • If we become too chummy or casual with God, then we undermine the basis of worship
  • Apparently David Evans felt that some of the worship of the charismatic movement risked treating God in a trivial fashion
  • So he wrote ‘Be still’ as a kind of reminder to the church of the awesomeness of God
  • We need to be careful not to treat the presence of the Holy Spirit cheaply
  • We need to remember just who God is (his holiness, glory & power) and be still in his presence

Verse 1 – Holy:

Hence the song begins…   

Be still for the presence of the Lord, the Holy One is here.

Come bow before Him now with reverence and fear.

To claim that the Lord God is here, with us, may seem a bit presumptuous, but it’s not. In Matthew 18, verse 20, Jesus says to his disciples…

  • For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.  
  • Which means when we gather for worship on a Sunday the Lord Jesus is present with us by His Spirit

Verse 1 highlights the holiness of God

  • Holiness encompasses a number of concepts at the same time
  • To be holy is to be different, not the same, unique, set apart as sacred
  • God is different from us, he is ‘other than’ his creation, not made of chemicals or physical matter like the earth or a plant or an animal 

Holiness also speaks of wholeness or oneness – having moral integrity or goodness, being the real deal   

  • God’s holiness holds together justice and mercy (as one) 
  • God can be relied upon to do the right and good thing because he is holy

Reverence is a feeling or attitude of profound respect and deep awe

  • People have traditionally demonstrated their reverence by bowing down. 

Verse 1 of the song also refers to the fear of God; bowing with reverence & fear

  • The sort of fear that is in view here is not terror or anxiety
  • The sort of fear that is meant, in this context, is the feeling or motivation to respond in worship and obedience to God 

C.S. Lewis gives us a wonderful picture of what it means to fear and reverence God in his book, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe  

– Lucy is curious about Aslan’s nature and in a conversation with Mr & Mrs Beaver she asks, “Then he isn’t safe?”

– To which Mr Beaver replies, “Safe? …Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he is good. He’s the King, I tell you.”

One of the ways we might encounter the presence of God is in reading the Bible

  • About 12 or 13 years ago now, I stood in the pulpit here and gave a reading from the prophet Isaiah, chapter 53. It was getting close to Easter
  • Isaiah 53 tells about the suffering servant – it describes in profoundly accurate detail the way Jesus suffered. You know the passage…

…Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.

As I read that Scripture I felt deeply moved and started crying.

  • It was like the Word of God was present to me in a special or unique way (or perhaps I was present to it) and my emotions were overwhelmed
  • Crying like that, in a work context, is very unusual for me. I’m a trained professional. I don’t do public displays of emotion even at funerals.
  • With tears comes a feeling of vulnerability, a feeling of coming undone.
  • Somehow though, I managed to get through the reading
  • When I had finished and taken my seat in the congregation again a sense of stillness settled over me – sort of like when someone does something really nice for you and you feel touched and humbled by it.

Scripture is holy. Sometimes when we handle the Scriptures, we become aware of the transcendent (the holiness or otherness of God) and we are filled with a deep sense of awe and respect.

  • My tears, and the stillness that followed, were a natural expression of reverence – a sort of internal bowing of my heart before God’s goodness.

The second part of verse 1 of the song continues…

In Him no sin is found, we stand on holy ground.

Be still for the presence of the Lord, the Holy One is here.

We stand on holy ground sounds echoes from both Genesis and Exodus

  • In Genesis 28, Jacob is on the run for his life, after having deceived his father and stolen Esau’s blessing
  • At sunset he came to a holy place and lay down to sleep, resting his head on a stone
  • He dreamt that he saw a stairway reaching from earth to heaven, with angels going up and coming down on it.
  • And there was the Lord standing beside him, on earth.
  • Then God spoke to Jacob promising to be with him and protect him
  • When Jacob woke up he said, “The Lord is here. He is in this place and I did not know it.”
  • Jacob was afraid (he felt small and vulnerable) and said,
  • “How awesome is this place. This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”
  • Jacob responded to God’s presence in an attitude of worship, promising to give God a tenth of his income.

We are also reminded of Exodus 3 when God called Moses

  • Moses was tending the sheep of his father-in-law when he noticed a burning bush. Although the bush was on fire it was not consumed
  • When Moses drew closer to see what was happening God called from within the bush saying, “Moses, Moses.”
  • And Moses said, “Here I am.”
  • “Do not come any closer,” God said, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”

When Robyn & I got engaged, we gave a wedding invitation to my pop (my grandad). He immediately said, ‘The church will fall down if I walk into it’, by which he meant, I haven’t been to church in years and I don’t feel worthy to go.

  • My pop associated church buildings with the presence of God – his generation considered churches to be holy ground
  • For him attending a wedding in a church was not a trivial thing – the very thought of it raised feelings of vulnerability and reverence.

In some ways our contemporary western society has lost its sense of reverence for the holy. Many things that were once considered sacred are now treated as ordinary or profane.

  • Traditional Maori culture has managed to retain a respect for the sacred though

A few weeks ago a German tourist died on the Tongariro Crossing

  • The local iwi put a rahui on the mountains for three days
  • A rahui is a ban or prohibition against a particular area or activity
  • You could say a rahui is an order (or edict) to be still
  • No one was allowed to walk the Tongariro Crossing while the rahui was in place – in a sense it became holy ground (tapu)
  • TV reporters interviewed the son of the man who died and he said that, while he didn’t understand the Maori language (the words they spoke), he felt a deep sense of reverence or respect from the local iwi (tribe)
  • He was genuinely touched by the people and the rahui protocol.

We need to recover our sense of the sacred if we are to give God the honour he is due.

Verse 2 – Glory

While verse 1 highlights the holiness of God, verse two emphasises the glory of God…

Be still for the glory of the Lord is shining all around.

He burns with holy fire, with splendour He is crowned,

How awesome is the sight, our radiant King of light.

Be still for the glory of the Lord is shining all around.

The word glory has more than one meaning

  • Glory can mean ‘high renown, fame or honour, won by notable achievements’  
  • As in the glory of winning an Olympic gold medal, or the glory of saving someone and being known as a hero
  • Certainly the Lord’s achievements are very notable and he is famous everywhere
  • God’s glory is a weighty thing; a thing of substance, the real deal, solid glory through and through, not just glory coated 

But glory can also refer to beauty or splendour, radiance or magnificence

  • As in, the sunrise over the mountain was glorious
  • This sense of the word glory also fits for God
  • God’s grace is beautiful, his smile is radiant, he is clothed in splendour

For Christmas last year I was given a book of poetry by Anne Powell, who lives on the Kapiti Coast. She has a poem called Letting Go…

When it comes to prayer

trying hard is not the answer.

Think more of flying

a kite to freedom

on a clear day

or bathing beneath a waterfall

each sense awake

or letting the heart-gaze rest

on beauty.

Beauty opens to presence.

I want to draw your attention to that line: Beauty opens to presence.

  • One of the ways we become aware of God’s presence is by being still enough to let our heart-gaze rest on beauty
  • When I see something beautiful, whether that’s a sunset
  • Or the moon when it is full and close to the horizon,
  • Or dolphins leaping out of the water
  • Or Tui feeding in a kowhai tree
  • Or a snow capped mountain bathed in sunshine
  • Or a child’s smile
  • Or a quiet act of kindness done in secret
  • Whenever I see beauty I am reminded of God our creator
  • Beauty opens to [the glory of God’s] presence
  • But to see the beauty that opens to presence we need to be still, still on the inside.

Back to verse 2 of our song…

  • ‘Be still for the glory of the Lord is shining all around’
  • Jesus said, Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.
  • Perhaps when Jesus said this he meant, you can see the beauty of God’s glory everywhere you look.

In Isaiah 6, the prophet had a vision of God

  • In his vision he saw seraphs (heavenly creatures) calling to one another:
  • Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.
  • If you read on you will see how Isaiah felt both vulnerable and full of reverence in God’s presence – he was acutely aware of how far he fell short saying, ‘Woe is me. I am a man of unclean lips…’

When Moses came down from the mountain, after meeting with God, he had to wear a veil because his face shone with the reflected glory of God

  • Even though the glory of God, in the face of Moses, was second hand the people still couldn’t look at Moses directly.  

We see the glory of God, first hand, in the person of Jesus

  • In the opening chapter of his gospel the apostle John writes…
  • We have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father
  • And at the birth of Jesus, the glory of the Lord shone around
  • Then, in Matthew 17, we read how Jesus was transfigured on the mountain top with Peter, James and John as witnesses
  • As they looked on, a change came over Jesus: his face was shining like the sun and his clothes were dazzling white. 

And, in talking about the glory of God in the face of Jesus, we are reminded of Jesus’ crucifixion & death, along with his resurrection & ascension to heaven

  • There is no glory without suffering – suffering always precedes glory
  • Each year, at ANZAC parades around the country, we pay respect to those who served, suffered and died in war
  • Part of any ANZAC service involves being still and observing a few moments of reverent silence
  • Sometimes we forget how much God has suffered (and continues to suffer) for his creation
  • If we show respect to fallen soldiers how much more should we show respect to Christ for all he went through.
  • The appropriate response to the suffering and glory of God is to be still in an attitude of reverence and respect

Verse 3 – Power

Verse 1 of our song draws attention to the holiness of God’s presence

  • Verse 2 talks about the glory of God’s presence
  • And the theme of verse 3 is the power of God’s presence…

Be still for the power of the Lord is moving in this place.

He comes to cleanse and heal, to minister his grace

Implicit in these lines is the good news that God is not coming with power to destroy us, but rather with power to do good to us

  • Minister here is a word which means serve
  • And grace is any good gift of God, usually undeserved.
  • In other words, the Lord serves good gifts to people, sort of like a chef serves a meal to the hungry or a chemist dispenses medicine to the sick or a priest serves communion to the faithful.

Last week we heard how God’s power cleansed and healed the bitter waters at Marah, so the people could drink (Exodus 15)

  • In the gospels we see time and time again Jesus’ power to cleanse and heal and minister God’s grace   
  • In Matthew 8, for example, we read…

When Jesus came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him. 2 A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”

The first thing we notice here is the man’s vulnerability and reverence before Jesus. He doesn’t presume upon God’s grace

  • He addresses Jesus as ‘Lord’, a title of respect and then he says, “…if you are willing, you can make me clean.”
  • He is truly respectful. He doesn’t tell Jesus what to do. He asks.
  • We can’t begin to understand how much rejection this man experienced in his life because of leprosy
  • He was taking a huge risk. He was making himself vulnerable. What if Jesus said ‘no’? It’s not like the man had any leverage in this situation. He is at the bottom of the heap.

3 Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately he was cleansed of his leprosy. 4 Then Jesus said to him, “See that you don’t tell anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”

Jesus ministered God’s grace by cleansing and healing the man with leprosy

  • Notice though that Jesus still required the man to fulfil his obligation under the law after he had been healed
  • Jesus’ kindness does not equate to slackness or casual dismissal of the law. Rather Jesus’ kindness leads to respectful fulfilment of God’s law.  

No work too hard for him. In faith receive from him

  • This line of the song reminds me of the Roman Centurion (also in Matthew 8) who came to Jesus for help…

6 “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly.”

7 Jesus said to him, “I will go and heal him?”

8 The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. 9 For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

10 When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith…”

13 Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go! It will be done just as you believed it would.” And his servant was healed at that very hour.

The Roman Centurion is at the opposite end of the social scale (compared with the man who had leprosy) and yet he still behaves in the same way when in the presence of Jesus – with vulnerability and reverence

  • Even though he is an officer in the Roman Army the Centurion treats Jesus with the respect due to a superior
  • And even though the Centurion has the weight of the Roman empire on his side he doesn’t exert this power (he doesn’t attempt to leverage Jesus)
  • But instead makes himself vulnerable before Jesus, for indeed he does feel vulnerable.
  • Like Isaiah, he is acutely aware of how unworthy he is saying, ‘I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word and my servant will be healed…’ Reverence and vulnerability you see.
  • The Centurion believes that nothing is too hard for Jesus and in faith he receives from Jesus.

Conclusion:

The song, ‘Be still’, reminds us of the holiness, glory and power of God

  • But these attributes of God’s presence are not separate things – they are integrated as one, just as God is one.
  • We may well feel vulnerable in God’s presence – but that’s okay, in fact it is appropriate
  • Vulnerability with reverence prevents us from treating God’s presence too lightly and it purifies our worship of God making it more meaningful.  

In a few minutes we will share communion together

  • Communion is about celebrating the presence of Jesus among us
  • Communion is a holy ritual, not something to be treated lightly, but something to be handled with an attitude of reverence 
  • Communion reminds us of the suffering and glory of Jesus
  • Just as it reminds us of the power of God over sin and death.

As we prepare our hearts to receive communion let’s stand and sing, Be still for the presence of the Lord the Holy One is here…  

Questions for discussion or reflection:

  1. Listen to (or sing) the song, ‘Be still for the presence of the Lord’.  What are you in touch with as you listen to this song? (What connections, memories or feelings does it evoke for you?) 
  2. Why did David Evans write the song ‘Be still for the presence of the Lord’?
  3. What is your experience of the charismatic movement? Or, have you ever had a mystical experience of God’s presence? What happened?
  4. What do we mean by the holiness of God?
  5. What does it mean to ‘bow before God with reverence and fear’?
  6. What is the glory of God?
  7. How did the man with leprosy and the Roman Centurion (in Matthew 8) behave in the presence of Christ? How do you behave in the presence of Jesus’ Spirit?
  8. Discuss / reflect on Anne Powell’s poem, ‘Letting Go’. Is it true for you that ‘beauty opens to presence’? Take some time this week to let your heart-gaze rest on beauty.
Tawa Baptist

Guide Me O Thou Great Jehovah

Scriptures: Psalm 37:23-24, Psalm 73:23-24, John 6:28-35, Exodus 15:22-26; Revelation 22:1-2, John 7:37-39, Exodus 13:17-22, Exodus 15:1-5, Genesis 15:1, Psalm 28:7, Joshua 3:14-17, Revelation 20:14.

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Verse 1
  • Verse 2
  • Verse 3
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

A couple of weeks ago Robyn & I were walking along the beach from Waikanae to Paraparaumu when we reached the Waikanae river

  • Sometimes, when the tide is low, you can walk across the estuary there and the water only comes up to your knees
  • Other times though, when the tide is high, you have to swim across
  • Well, this particular day the tide was sort of half in / half out
  • We couldn’t see the bottom of the river so we weren’t sure how deep it was. I thought I would test the waters, literally
  • It would be nice to say there was a miracle but the waters did not part for me. And, even after all these years of following Jesus, I still haven’t mastered the art of walking on water. Don’t know how he did it.
  • I got about a quarter of the way across and the sand gave way underfoot. My pants got wet, but it didn’t matter
  • It was a warm day so, to avoid the chaffing you get from walking in salt water pants, I just took my trousers off for a while and walked beside the river in my boxer shorts.
  • For some reason Robyn wasn’t all that keen on walking beside me at this point – she made sure there was plenty of distance between us until my pants went back on.

I tell you that story because it is important to be able to laugh at ourselves

  • But also because it highlights our need for guidance
  • Much of life is routine, like walking along the beach, just putting one foot in front of the other and enjoying the view   
  • But every now and then we come to a river (a transition point in our life) and we have to make a decision.
  • Do we cross, or walk around it the long way, or do we turn back?
  • At those times we need guidance.  

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 Guide Me O Thou Great Jehovah

‘Guide me O Thou great Jehovah’ was sung at Princess Diana’s funeral in 1997 and then again at Prince William and Cate Middleton’s wedding in 2011

  • The tune has also been heard at rugby matches in the UK at times
  • It is a song which isn’t just sung in church but resonates with wider society

The words for ‘Guide me O Thou great Jehovah’ were written by a man named William Williams

  • Now for some reason there seem to be a lot of people called William Williams who lived during the 18th & 19th Centuries
  • The William Williams we are talking about is a different person from the missionary who came to NZ in the 1800’s
  • The author of ‘Guide me O Thou great Jehovah’ was a Welshman who lived during the 1700’s

Williams grew up in a Christian home but his family didn’t attend the established Anglican church – they were part of an independent church

  • At first Williams studied to become a doctor but then changed tack and trained instead to become an Anglican minister
  • It seems that at some stage during this period of his life Williams heard the preaching of a man named Howell Harris, and had a conversion experience
  • The Church of England ordained Williams as a deacon but wouldn’t make him a priest so Williams joined the Methodist movement
  • For over 40 years he travelled all over Wales preaching the gospel
  • As an accompaniment to his preaching Williams wrote many hymns in his native Welsh language

William Williams first wrote ‘Guide me O Thou great Jehovah’ in Welsh in 1745. Sixteen years later the song was translated into English.

  • The tune we sing it to today was written in 1907 by John Hughes

‘Guide me O Thou great Jehovah’ was particularly relevant to Williams’ experience as a travelling preacher

  • He spent much of his time walking or riding in the wilderness between speaking engagements, so I expect Williams got his britches wet crossing rivers on more than one occasion

Verse 1:

Williams drew inspiration for his song from Israel’s experience in the wilderness of Sinai. The hymn starts…

Guide me, O thou great Jehovah, pilgrim through this barren land;

Jehovah is one of the names for God. It is a Latinized version of the Hebrew word ‘Yahweh’

  • The word Jehovah emerged in some translations of the Bible during the 16th Century – so it would have been in use during Williams’ day 
  • Some more recent versions of Williams’ hymn use the word ‘Redeemer’ instead. In any case we are singing to God Almighty

A pilgrim is a traveler. Not just any traveler but someone on a sacred journey to a holy place.

  • Christians are pilgrims. This world is not our home. We are travelling through the wilderness of this life to reach the holy city of God, the heavenly Jerusalem, the Kingdom of Heaven

You can cross the estuary on Waikanae beach in less than a minute at low tide, but the walk around takes about an hour

  • The long way leads you on a meandering track through wetlands which is not unpleasant but not at all efficient or direct  
  • After their exodus from slavery in Egypt, Israel could have made it to the Promised Land in just a few months but they ended up wandering around in the wilderness for 40 years, during which time God guided and protected his pilgrim people
  • Sometimes, in our journey of faith, God leads us through a barren land
  • A place where the good seed we sow doesn’t bear much fruit
  • A time when we feel dry and the path is unmarked and tough going
  • An environment that seems spiritually corrosive and unforgiving, where we can’t afford to make mistakes and so we need God’s guidance more than ever.

The second part of verse one reads…

I am weak, but Thou art mighty; hold me with Thy powerful hand;

Now if, like me, you listened to too much music in the 80’s then this line might remind you of the Billy Idol song, ‘Catch my fall’ with its repeated refrain…

  • ‘If I should stumble, catch my fall’
  • Of course Williams was more influenced by the psalms than he was Billy Idol 

From psalm 37 we read…

  • If the Lord delights in a man’s way, he makes his steps firm; though he stumble he will not fall, for the Lord upholds him with his hand.

And in psalm 73 we find similar words…

  • Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory.

The metaphor of God upholding us with his hand speaks of God’s nearness to us – his close presence

  • Not carrying us, but letting us walk on our own two feet, while still staying close by if we get into trouble.
  • During the holidays I read the Christian classic Hinds Feet on High Places. It’s an allegorical story about the journey of faith
  • The main character, ‘Much Afraid’, learns to walk in the high places by walking with sorrow & suffering, and not by being carried.
  • Sometimes ‘Much Afraid’ stumbles but the Shepherd (Christ) does not let her fall.

Becoming like Christ is a process, it doesn’t happen overnight. We need to be patient and hold grace & truth together

  • That means being honest about our own short fallings and, at the same time, affording ourselves some grace, not beating ourselves up
  • Sometimes we will stumble morally and spiritually but that’s okay
  • God’s grace is sufficient for us
  • If we do stumble, then the Lord is close at hand to catch our fall.

Verse one of the hymn finishes with the repeated refrain…

Bread of heaven, bread of heaven, feed me now and ever more.

There is a double reference here…

  • Firstly, to Exodus 16 where the Lord God feeds the nation of Israel with manna from heaven for 40 years
  • And secondly, to John 6 where Jesus multiplies the loaves and fishes to feed the 5,000
  • Afterwards the crowd catch up with Jesus and ask him for a sign saying, “Our forefathers ate manna in the desert; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ And Jesus replied…
  • I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
  • Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.”

Jesus is the bread of heaven who nourishes and sustains our spiritual life

  • In other words, Jesus feeds our souls with a relationship with God

Verse 2:

Verse 2, of the hymn, starts with the line…

Open now the crystal fountain, whence the healing stream doth flow;

‘Whence’ is an old fashioned word that simply means ‘from which’ and ‘doth’ means ‘does’

Again this verse alludes to a number of different Scriptures

  • Please turn with me to Exodus 15, verse 22, page 76 near the front of your pew Bibles. We are back now with the people of Israel in the wilderness. From Exodus 15, verses 22 to 26 we read…

Then Moses led the people of Israel away from the Red Sea into the desert of Shur. For three days they walked through the desert, but found no water. 23 Then they came to a place called Marah, but the water there was so bitter that they could not drink it. That is why it was named Marah. 24 The people complained to Moses and asked, “What are we going to drink?” 25 Moses prayed earnestly to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a piece of wood, which he threw into the water; and the water became fit to drink. There the Lord gave them laws to live by, and there he also tested them. 26 He said, “If you will obey me completely by doing what I consider right and by keeping my commands, I will not punish you with any of the diseases that I brought on the Egyptians. I am the Lord, the one who heals you.”

God healed the water with a piece of wood and he heals our souls with his law

  • Obeying God’s commands is like clean water to our soul, it cleanses us on the inside.  

The term ‘crystal fountain’ reminds me of the last chapter of the Bible, Revelation 22…

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. 

The apostle John is describing a picture of heaven in these verses

  • Jesus himself says in John’s gospel “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive.

The next stanza of verse 2 of the hymn reads…

Let the fiery, cloudy pillar lead me all my journey through:

Exodus 13 describes the way God led the people of Israel through the wilderness by a pillar of cloud during the day and a pillar of fire at night

  • When the pillar moved the people followed and when the pillar stopped the people pitched their tents.
  • The pillar was a clear and visible sign of God’s presence – sort of like a divine GPS

The pillar of cloud symbolises the mystery or inscrutability of God

  • We can’t see God or understand all of his ways
  • We are limited creatures and there are aspects of God Himself which remain hidden from us 

The pillar of fire symbolises the holiness of God

  • At the right distance fire gives light and warmth and comfort but fire can also be incredibly powerful and dangerous
  • A pillar of fire is not tame, it can’t be domesticated
  • We need to have a deep reverence, a holy respect, for God.
  • We need to remember that while God helps us in many ways, he is also free and won’t be controlled or manipulated by us 

Wouldn’t it be great if discerning God’s direction for our life was as clear and simple as looking out the window and seeing a pillar of cloud and fire. But that isn’t usually our experience is it

  • Although we don’t have a ‘fiery, cloudy pillar’ we are given the Holy Spirit, who Jesus says leads us into all truth

Verse 2 finishes with the line…   

Strong deliverer, strong deliverer; be thou still my strength and shield.

As a travelling preacher William Williams would have felt quite vulnerable at times, travelling in the wild, at the mercy of the elements, not always certain where he might sleep at night

  • But he was also vulnerable in facing crowds of people who didn’t know him and could turn on him if they felt so inclined
  • Williams was not in a position to defend himself so he had to trust God to protect him

The idea of God being a shield is found in a number of places throughout the Bible

  • In Genesis 15, for example, after Abram has just saved his nephew Lot and come through the horrors of battle, the Lord (Yahweh) says to him,
  • ‘Do not be afraid Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward’
  • And in psalm 28, David (who was a soldier) says,
  • ‘The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him and I am helped.’
  • Then there is the shield of faith that we read about in Ephesians

We may not face the same sorts of physical threats that Abraham and David and William Williams faced, but we might battle internally with unwanted thoughts and emotions which take us captive and lead us down a dark path

  • In many ways the inner battle is harder I think because the enemy is invisible
  • We need God to deliver us from the thoughts that lead us on – we need God to be our shield against the evil that we can’t see

Verse 3:

A river is a powerful thing – powerful to give life and powerful to take it away

  • When we were young, my friends and I would sometimes go kayaking on the Wairoa River, in the Kaimai Ranges, near Tauranga
  • The water level of the Wairoa River is controlled by a hydro dam
  • Most of the time the water level is quite low, with calm gentle flowing pools
  • But on certain days during the summer they open the flood gates of the dam and the water level rises creating some spectacular rapids

When I was still a novice paddler, just learning, I came out of my kayak on the rapids. The water took my fibre glass boat and literally wrapped it around a boulder – broke it in two like it was a match stick

  • This was a good experience to have in some ways because it taught me to respect the river. A river is a powerful force of nature
  • It doesn’t matter how good a swimmer you are, sometimes the current is just too strong
  • A couple of years later one of the men in our canoe club drowned on the Wairoa. Although he was a very experienced paddler, the current pinned him under a ledge and there was nothing anyone could do to save him
  • The forces of nature are no respecter of persons. The wild is not just or merciful

Verse three of our hymn reads…

When I tread the verge of Jordan, bid my anxious fears subside;

Death of death, and hell’s destruction, land me safe on Canaan’s side

‘The verge of Jordan’ here refers to the Jordan River

  • And ‘Canaan’s side’ refers to the land of Canaan – the Promised Land, the Holy Land – it is a metaphor for heaven

In Joshua 3, after the Israelites’ time in the wilderness had come to an end, we read how the nation of Israel passed through the waters of the Jordan River to enter the Promised Land…

14-15 It was harvest time, and the river was in flood.

When the people left the camp to cross the Jordan, the priests went ahead of them, carrying the Covenant Box. As soon as the priests stepped into the river, 16 the water stopped flowing and piled up, far upstream at Adam, the city beside Zarethan. The flow downstream to the Dead Sea was completely cut off, and the people were able to cross over near Jericho. 17 While the people walked across on dry ground, the priests carrying the Lord’s Covenant Box stood on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan until all the people had crossed over.

God, the creator of rivers, stopped the waters of the Jordan (while it was in flood) to enable his people to cross safely

  • But the people still had to take that step of faith
  • They had to trust that God would hold the waters back while they crossed and they wouldn’t be swept away

William Williams was using the image of the Israelites crossing the Jordan into Canaan as a metaphor for the people of God crossing the river of death to enter the Promised Land of heaven  

  • ‘When I tread the verge of Jordan’ is a poetic way of saying, ‘when I face the hour of my death’
  • ‘Bid my anxious fears subside’ means calm my fears. Give me faith and courage to face death without fear.

That phrase, death of death and hell’s destruction sounds foreboding

  • What does it mean?
  • Well the closest Scripture reference I can find to illuminate this line is found in Revelation 20, verse 14…

Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.  

In the context, Revelation 20, talks about a universal resurrection of the dead

  • All the dead are raised to life and face judgement
  • Some pass through the river of judgment to enjoy eternal life
  • Others are sentenced to death for a second and final time
  • As I understand it the purpose of the ‘lake of fire’ is not so much to torture but to destroy; to annihilate or vaporise things
  • Verse 14 uses poetic language to describe the ‘death of death’ or the end of death in other words – which means for those whose names are written in the book of life there will be no more death, no more tears or grief
  • The good news is that through faith in Christ we are delivered from the second death, and landed safe on Canaan’s side
  • All those who confess with their mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in their heart that God raised Jesus from the dead will be saved.
  • So do not be afraid. It does no good living in fear of hell.
  • God is just and merciful and he will do what is right by each one

Our hymn finishes on a note of hope…

Songs of praises, songs of praises, I will ever give to thee.

Williams is imagining his future in the kingdom of heaven, singing praise to God forever

  • But from our vantage point in history we can see how Williams’ songs are still giving praise to God now, more than two centuries since the Welsh Hymn writer died.

Conclusion:

The start of a new year is often a time when we need God’s guidance

  • It is a time of facing a river to cross perhaps in the form of starting a new school, or a new job or leaving home to live in a new city 
  • Whatever 2020 holds for you may God give you the courage and strength to face the unknown as you trust in him
  • And may you know that the Lord is with you and for you.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

  1. Listen to (or sing) the song, ‘Guide Me O Thou Great Jehovah’.  What are you in touch with as you listen to this song? (What connections, memories or feelings does it evoke for you?) 
  2. Have you ever crossed a river before on foot or horseback? What was it like?
  3. William Williams identified with the Israelites in the wilderness of Sinai. Have you ever walked through a barren land, spiritually speaking?  (Or perhaps you feel like you are in a barren land now?) What is/was your experience of God in that space?
  4. How does God teach us to walk by faith? Give thanks to God for the times you have stumbled and He has caught your fall. 
  5. What do you think Jesus meant when he said, ‘I am the bread of life’?
  6. What does the fiery, cloudy pillar symbolise?
  7. Verse 3 of the hymn sounds echoes of hope. Discuss / reflect on the hope you hear in this verse. 
  8. Which verse (or line) of the song do you identify with most?  Why?