Tawa Baptist

Unity

Scripture: Psalm 133

Title: Unity

Structure:

  • Introduction – unity is diversity with order
  • The Trinity and us
  • Unity comes down from God above
  • Unity is for sharing
  • Conclusion

 

Introduction:

On the wall here we have a picture of a tapestry of the Lord’s Supper

–         A tapestry is a unity

–         It is not sameness which makes for unity – rather, unity is diversity with order

–         Although there are many different coloured strands they are all woven together in an ordered way to pleasing effect

–         Together the strands form a bigger picture which makes sense

 

In our house there are three women and one shower

–         One of the things that happens with this arrangement is that long strands of hair gather in the drain, causing a blockage, so that the water in the bottom of the shower rises to your ankles

–         Whenever this happens it is my job to unblock the drain, pulling all the hair out by hand – I don’t mind though, it makes me feel useful

 

The hair in the drain is the opposite of unity

–         Unlike the tapestry which has a variety of different strands woven together in an ordered way, the hair in the drain is pretty much all the same and it is clumped together in a tangled mess of soap scum

–         There is no order, no bigger picture, no meaning, no pleasantness with hair in the drain

–         Unity is diversity with order – unity is pleasing

 

This morning we return to our series on the Songs of Ascents

–         These songs were probably sung by Jewish pilgrims as they made their way to the temple in Jerusalem for various religious festivals

–         They are songs for the faithful as they gather together for worship

 

Our focus today is psalm 133

–         This song celebrates God’s gift of unity

–         From the New Revised Standard Version we read…

 

1 How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity! 2 It is like the precious oil on the head, running down upon the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down over the collar of his robes.

3 It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion. For there the Lord ordained his blessing, life forevermore.

 

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate this reading for us

 

The Trinity and us:

One of the prominent features at the front here is the organ

–         The organ is a unity – it has a diverse range of parts & pipes put together in an ordered way to make music which is pleasing

 

The organ is a metaphor for creation – creation is a unity, a diversity of different matter put together in an ordered and pleasing way

 

Today is Trinity Sunday, when we reflect on the mystery of the triune God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit

–         God is a unity – a diversity of three persons who are one

 

In a limited way the organ serves as a metaphor to help us understand the Trinity’s interaction with creation

–         I say ‘in a limited way’ because I’m very cautious about using any sort of analogy for God or the Trinity

–         God is holy – which (among other things) means he is different from us and indeed different from any created thing

–         God is beyond compare so no metaphor is adequate for describing God

 

Having said that, metaphors can be helpful to help our finite human minds form some concept of our infinite God and how we might relate with Him

 

Anyway, as I was saying, if the organ represents creation then the Trinity (Father, Son & Spirit together) designed and built the organ

–         The organ is not God – creation is not God – it was just made by Him

 

God the Father is like the organist and composer of the music

–         The Father writes the music and plays it on the organ (or through creation)

 

The gospel of John tells us that God the Son (who we know as Jesus) is God’s Word – so the Son is like the music God has composed

–         Just as music is an expression or embodiment of the composer’s soul, in a similar way, Jesus is an expression or embodiment of God Himself

–         Just as the music unites the choir, so everyone is singing from the same hymn sheet, so too Jesus unites the church and indeed all of creation – Jesus shows us which notes to follow

 

If we imagine that God the Father is the organist and Jesus is the music and we (in all our diversity) are the organ pipes, then the Holy Spirit is the wind passing through the pipes, making the sound God wills through us

–         We can’t make the music on our own – in fact we only find our meaning and purpose when we let God’s will be done in our life

–         Nor do we get to hear the whole song in our lifetime – we have to wait for eternity for that

 

Now in some ways this analogy is inadequate

–         Firstly, Jesus is more than just the music (as important as that is)

–         Jesus is a real person – the one who came to redeem & repair creation

–         It’s like the organ of creation was damaged by sin and Jesus (the organ builder’s Son) came to fix it

 

Likewise the Holy Spirit is more than just the wind blowing through the pipes (as important as that is)

–         The Spirit of God is also a real person

–         If we are the organ pipes, each one of us sounding a different note, then the Spirit is like the tuner who comes to adjust us when we get out of tune

 

Of course – an organ is not a living thing with free will

–         Some parts of God’s creation always do what they are supposed to at the right time – not so us humans, we are far more difficult to work with

 

In John 15 Jesus uses the image of the vine – the vine being a living organic unity

–         The Lord says to his disciples: I am the vine, you are the branches and God the Father is the gardener

–         Following this logic we might cautiously suggest the Holy Spirit is the sap or the life flowing from within the vine to the branches

–         As branches we come in different shapes and sizes but we are united by Christ, the main trunk of the vine

–         What’s more we are sustained and made fruitful by the life giving Spirit of Jesus in us

 

Unity comes down from God above:

Returning to psalm 133

–         This song is attributed to King David and it is essentially about unity

 

Although it is short (only 3 verses) psalm 133 uses two quite different images to convey the one idea that unity is a good and pleasing gift from God

 

Verse 1 begins with David describing the experience of unity from a human perspective

–         How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity.

 

On the sixth day of creation (in Genesis 1) the Lord God saw all that he had made and it was very good

–         Creation before the fall was a perfect unity – it was diverse but at the same time ordered in such a way that was good and pleasing

 

Unity from God is not unpleasant, like tangled hair and soap scum clogging up the shower drain

–         No – unity from God is good & pleasant, like a well ordered tapestry conveying a meaningful bigger picture

–         Or like an organ playing the right notes at the right pitch at the right time

 

The implication of verse 1 is: if it’s not pleasant then it’s probably not unity as God intended it

 

In verse 2 we are given the first image of unity

–         It is like the precious oil on the head, running down upon the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down over the collar of his robes.

 

Now to us this image doesn’t seem all that pleasant

–         It actually sounds messy and inconvenient

–         If someone poured so much oil on your head that it ran down your face and onto your clothes you would probably want to jump in the shower and put your clothes in the wash

 

But in ancient Middle Eastern culture it was customary for the host to greet a guest by pouring oil on their head

–         It was a way of saying welcome, you have a special place of honour among us, we are pleased you are here

–         Oil on the head was a picture of generous hospitality – it was an expression of unity

 

We read of Jesus being anointed in this way on more than one occasion in the gospels, by women (because the men were preoccupied)

 

But the picture in verse 2 isn’t just one of hospitality – for the verse goes on to describe the anointing of Aaron, the high priest of Israel during the time of Moses

–         Aaron was anointed with a special kind of oil – one mixed with perfume

–         So the oil of unity is sacred and it has a pervasive aroma

–         Unity is a pleasant fragrance which cannot be contained and which everyone can enjoy [1]

 

Jesus is our high priest – he is the Christ or the Messiah

–         Christ and Messiah mean the same thing: anointed one

–         Jesus (the anointed one) is the head of the church and we are the members of Christ’s body

–         Although we are quite diverse in many ways we are united by Christ

–         Jesus brings order to our diversity and the oil of his Spirit is a pleasant fragrance which cannot be contained

 

The main thing to note in verses 2 & 3 of psalm 133 is that the oil of unity runs down – it descends from above, meaning that unity comes from God above

–         Unity is not manufactured by us from the ground up – it is a gift (or a blessing) bestowed by God from on high

 

We heard last week about the builders of the Tower of Babel

–         In the end their unity was revealed to be false for they were trying to manufacture it themselves from the ground up

–         That kind of forced unity never lasts

–         True unity is a blessing from God above – not a human achievement

 

Verse 3 offers a second simile for unity

–         It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion.

 

Mount Hermon is the highest mountain in Israel, found in the north near Galilee

–         Hermon is proverbial for its heavy dew

–         The mountains of Zion refer to the much smaller mountains in the south of Israel on which the city of Jerusalem was built

–         Hermon and Zion were diverse geographically speaking (they were spaced well apart) and they were quite different in height

–         Yet little Mount Zion enjoyed the same gift as grand old Hermon – they both share the same dew from heaven above

–         High and low drink the same sweet refreshment. [2]

–         Like the labourers in Jesus’ parable, at the end of the day, we are all paid the same, regardless of how many hours we worked  

Perhaps also, as King of Israel, David is reflecting on what God has done in uniting the different tribes of Israel – bringing the north and the south together

–         David sees a diverse range of people all coming together to worship God at his footstool in Jerusalem and he appreciates the harmony of it all

 

In any case, unity is a life giving blessing from God

–         Just as oil flows down from the head and just as dew comes down from above, so too unity comes down to us from God above

 

The thing is though that God often blesses us with unity in unexpected ways

–         Just last Friday night there was a power cut in Tawa – it was a complete black out

–         But it was also a blessing to our family – it was something a bit different, something fun and unexpected that brought us together

–         We lit candles, gathered close, laughed and talked because there wasn’t anything else we could do

–         It was quite a lovely time of family unity and felt like a gift from God

 

Unity is for sharing:

As well as showing us that unity comes from God above, the two images in psalm 133 also show us that unity is not designed to be contained

–         Rather, unity is for sharing

–         The pleasant fragrance of the perfumed oil on Aaron’s head and shoulders cannot be contained – the aroma is for everyone

–         Likewise the dew of Hermon falls liberally on Zion as well – it is not funnelled off somewhere exclusive – it is for high and low alike

 

Given that unity is a gift from God and given that it may come to us in unexpected ways, when it does come we need to be careful to recognise it and share it, without getting in the way – without creating a blockage

–         We need to ask ourselves how can we be a conduit for God’s gift of unity

 

In Luke 12 Jesus tells a rather sobering parable about a man whose land yielded a bumper crop

–         This blessing from God above created a problem for the farmer

–         Instead of consulting with his neighbours though he ignored his community and tried to figure out the problem on his own

–         He said to himself: ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’

–         Still talking to himself he said, ‘I know, I’ll tear down my barns and build bigger ones to store all my grain – then I’ll be able to retire early, put my feet up and take life easy.’

 

But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’

 

The tragedy is this man didn’t realise he was actually quite disconnected and God was trying to bless him with the gift of unity in the form of a bumper crop

–         If only he had talked with his neighbours he might have realised how his actions would only isolate him further

–         By holding onto the grain the farmer was driving the price up

–         If he had been less greedy and sold the grain at a lower price then the rest of the community would have benefited, especially the poor

–         Everyone would have enjoyed the pleasant fragrance of God’s special anointing on his land

–         High and low alike would have been refreshed by the dew of Hermon poured out on him

–         What’s more he would have enjoyed something far better than money – he would have experienced how good and pleasant it is to dwell in unity

 

By keeping it all for himself the man (ironically) rejected God’s gift of unity

–         He became a blockage to unity and God had little choice but to remove the blockage by taking back his life

 

Jesus told some really sad stories aye. That one was real tragic. I’m more of a happy ending kind of guy so let’s imagine this parable differently

 

Once there was a farmer who worked on his land from dawn till dusk six days a week

–         God had been good to him and blessed his hard work so that he was able to pay off his mortgage about 10 years sooner than he expected

–         But these kinds of gains come at a cost

–         As a consequence of working such long hours he didn’t have time for a wife and family – his was a relatively solitary life

 

He did reserve Sundays as a day off though when he would go into town to attend church in the morning before picking up some groceries from the supermarket on the way home

–         It wasn’t that he was particularly religious – he went to church mostly for the social contact (the cuppa and chat afterwards was his favourite part)

 

As the years went by the city expanded into the countryside and it was just a matter of time before property developers started eyeing up his farmland to build new homes for a hungry suburban market

–         One such developer offered the farmer 5x what he had paid for his land

–         It was a tempting offer – with no mortgage and this sort of cash in the bank he could retire before he was 50

 

That Sunday the preacher at church spoke about the parable of the rich fool in Luke 12

–         The farmer didn’t normally care for the sermon that much but this particular week he hung on every word

–         After reflecting on Jesus’ parable he decided not to get back to the developer just yet

 

The next Sunday, over coffee after the service, the farmer mentioned to one of the bankers in the congregation that he had been approached by a developer who was wanting to buy his land and turn it into a sub-division

–         The banker asked what the developer was offering and, on hearing a figure, explained how the land would be worth a lot more than that after it had been sliced up – The farmer had guessed as much

–         The banker asked if the farmer would consider subdividing the land himself

 

The following Sunday the farmer got into a conversation with a young guy in his 20’s who was saving to buy a house – it was tough to get a deposit together these days, especially with a large student loan

–         The farmer didn’t say anything about the developer’s offer this time

–         He was all of sudden conscious of a great divide between the two of them

–         So he offered the young guy some extra work on his farm

–         The young man was grateful and proved to be pretty good at fencing

–         To his surprise the farmer found he quite enjoyed the company

–         It had been a long time since he had worked with someone, it made the job seem more pleasant somehow

 

A few more weeks went by and the developer returned with an even bigger offer – but this time the farmer said ‘no’

–         Instead he made an offer of his own – not to the developer but to the young guy and his wife

–         He sold them a parcel of his land for half what the developer was offering him – which was about a quarter of the retail rate

–         To make the deal even sweeter he had a lawyer draw up a contract saying as long as they lived in the house they could pay him back interest free over a 20 year period

 

The couple still needed to borrow from the bank to build the house but the reduced cost of the land and the less onerous repayments made getting into their own home more affordable

–         The great divide he had sensed at first, between himself and the young man, was gone – the farmer felt closer to his neighbours

 

He did the same thing for others who were struggling, gradually selling pieces of his farm at below market rates

–         It meant reducing stock numbers a bit and being a bit smarter with his pasture management but it was workable because he was freehold

 

As the farmer shared his land a tight but diverse community developed so he became less isolated and more connected

–         He no longer needed to work 12 hours a day six days a week on his own – there were always willing neighbours ready to lend him hand

–         No one defaulted on their loans – partly because he was discerning about who he helped but also because a bit of grace usually motivates people to do the right thing

 

The farmer worked till he was 65 before taking his super and he lived comfortably in his retirement till his death at age 84

 

When asked by the pastor one day why he had helped so many people the farmer replied…

–         “When I look back on it I realise it wasn’t me who did it. I was isolated and alone before God blessed me with unity. All I had to do was get out of the way so God could do His thing.”

 

Conclusion:

Unity is diversity with order

–         Unity is pleasant

–         Unity comes down to us from God above, often in unexpected ways

–         Ultimately though unity is for sharing

 

Let us pray…

–         Father God, we thank you for your gift of unity through Christ the Son and the Holy Spirit

–         Help us to recognise your blessings when they come and to be a conduit for unity by sharing your good gifts

–         We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

 

https://soundcloud.com/tawabaptist/11-jun-2017-unity

[1] Refer Derek Kidner’s commentary on ‘Psalms 73-150’, page 489

[2] Derek Kidner, Psalms 73-150, page 489.

Tawa Baptist

The Tower of Babel

Scripture: Genesis 11:1-9 (also Acts 2:1-12)

 

Title: The Tower of Babel

 

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • A stairway to heaven
  • God’s judgment is salvation
  • Conclusion – Pentecost

 

Introduction:

The New Zealand short story writer, Owen Marshall, has a poem called The Divided World

–         It’s quite long so I won’t read you the whole thing but here’s a few lines,

 

The world is divided between those who blame Lucifer, and those who blame a lack of dietary fibre – between the superstitious, and the unimaginative

 

The world is divided between those who say they adore the country and never go there, and those who say they hate the city and never leave it 

 

The world is divided between those who try themselves, and those who seek a less corrupt judge.

 

The world is divided between those who are tolerant and wise, and their husbands. Between the people we always suspected, and the butlers who did it.

 

The world is divided between those who have shifted to the North Island, and those passed over for promotion;

 

Between those who face the world with a religion, and those who wish to but have only irony in its place. 

 

The world is divided between those who boast of their climate, and those who rejoice in secret that a cold wind isolates a landscape; between the few now, and the great majority on the other side.

 

The world is divided between those who are proud, and those who have lost their self-respect and so become the most dangerous of men;

 

When we look around the world today we see a great deal of division

–         The U.K. is divided over the Brixit issue

–         The U.S. is divided over Donald Trump’s nationalism

–         Syria is divided by Assad’s regime

–         The Middle East is divided by the Israeli / Palestinian conflict

–         While East Africa is divided by war and famine

–         Closer to home, families are divided by divorce

 

Today our message focuses on the story of the Tower of Babel – this is one of the traditional readings for Pentecost

–         It speaks to a divided world

–         From Genesis 11, verses 1-9 we read…

 

Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. 2 As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.

3 They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”

5 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. 6 The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”

8 So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why it was called Babel—because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

 

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate this Scripture for us

 

A stairway to heaven:

In 1971 Jimmy Page and Robert Plant wrote a song called Stairway to Heaven

–         It became a rock classic & was later criticised (in the 80’s) by people who said that when you play it backwards one of the lines talks about Satan

–         If that’s true then I suggest you don’t play it backwards

–         It sounds better if you play it forwards anyway

 

The first verse goes something like this…

There’s a lady who’s sure all that glitters is gold And she’s buying a stairway to heaven. When she gets there she knows, if the stores are all closed With a word she can get what she came for. Ooh, ooh, and she’s buying a stairway to heaven.

 

When asked what the song was about Robert Plant said it was “about a woman getting everything she wanted all the time without giving back any thought or consideration…”  [1]

 

In other words, it’s about someone who is a bit spoilt in that they always get their own way, while taking others for granted

–         The song criticizes those who think they are entitled to special treatment because they have lots of money or because of who they know

–         This verse in particular is saying you can’t buy happiness – you can’t expect money to make life perfect, you can’t buy a stairway to heaven

–         You are not entitled to special treatment – life doesn’t owe you anything

 

Now, I’m not here to defend Led Zeppelin – I have no interest in condoning them or condemning them (and I can’t speak for the rest of the song either)

–         It’s simply an illustration to help us better understand Genesis 11

–         The people who built the Tower of Babel were a little bit like the woman in the song who thought she could buy a stairway to heaven

 

Genesis 11 is set sometime between Noah and Abraham when everyone still spoke the same language

–         Language is a great unifier – being able to reach a common understanding connects us and helps us to work together cooperatively

–         As the descendants of Noah repopulated the earth a group of them migrated east and settled on the plains of Mesopotamia where they decided to build a city with a tower reaching to the heavens

–         They were essentially trying to build a stairway to heaven

 

According to archaeologists and historians the tower of Babel was most probably an ancient ziggurat. It would have looked a bit like a pyramid with a staircase to the top. Unlike a pyramid though it wasn’t hollow inside and it wasn’t used as a tomb.

In those times people didn’t actually live in the city like we do today – the city was more of a temple complex

–         The purpose of the tower was to provide a gateway and a staircase for the gods to come down from their heavenly realm and bless the people

–         People didn’t walk up and down the staircase themselves – it was sacred space for the gods to use

–         Therefore, the ziggurat or the Tower of Babel was very much a symbol of pagan religion

 

Now when we hear the word ‘pagan’ we tend to think of someone who has no religion, when in actual fact a pagan is very religious

–         Pagans seek to placate and manipulate the gods for their own benefit

–         Pagans view the gods as having needs

–         They think, “If I take care of the gods, by making sacrifices and offerings, then they will take care of me”

–         It is a quid pro quo arrangement: you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours

–         Pagans basically think they can pay the gods off and buy their way into heaven

 

In contrast to paganism, Christians believe there is only one God and He doesn’t have needs – He is Holy – meaning (among other things) that He is morally good and He doesn’t need us to take care of Him

–         God is not short of cash or any other resource

–         He doesn’t need anyone to build him a staircase to come down from heaven and He doesn’t need anyone to feed him with offerings of food

–         In fact it is the other way around – we need God to provide for us

 

Now, because God has no needs he cannot be manipulated – He is free – and the idea of a free God who won’t be manipulated is quite scary for some

–         What might the most powerful being in the universe to do us?

 

Given that we need God to provide for our needs and given that we can’t control God then it logically follows the only way we can relate with God is by faith – by trusting in His goodness & grace to provide for us

 

Faith in God’s grace, as opposed to buying a stairway to heaven – this is what makes Christian religion different from pagan religions

 

Verse 4 of Genesis 11 reveals the pagan nature of the building project

–         The people were building a city and a staircase for the gods so they could make a name for themselves and not be scattered over the whole earth

–         They were seeking to harness the power of the gods to leave a legacy – to make themselves famous and secure

–         We need to be careful what we wish for – the people of Babel did become infamous for all the wrong reasons

 

The builders of Babel’s stairway to heaven stand in stark contrast to Abram – the wandering Aramean who doesn’t settle in one place for too long, but walks by faith, trusting in God’s promises

 

You know, sometimes paganism can creep into Christianity

–         In its most obvious form paganism is known as ‘cargo cult’ or ‘prosperity doctrine’

–         The idea that if I give a lot of money to God he will bless me with health and prosperity and my life will go well – this is false

–         God does not promise us health and prosperity – these things are not entitlements. Nor are they for sale. They are gifts, pure and simple

–         We give back to God out of gratitude for what he has already given us

–         We give without strings

–         We practice generosity because God is generous

 

Sometimes though our paganism can be more subtle

–         Maybe we live a good clean life,

–         We meet our obligations and pay our taxes,

–         We take care of our family,

–         We serve in the life of the church (perhaps sacrificially),

–         We do everything right and yet we still have this abiding feeling of resentment, simmering away just beneath the surface

–         If that’s the case for us then perhaps on some sub conscious level our paganism is at work so that we think we are being short changed and that God owes us for all we’ve done for him

–         Like the lady in the song (deep down) we think we are entitled

 

One way to counter the dormant paganism which resides in each of us is to stay in touch with our vices – be honest with ourselves about our sin

–         If we turn a blind eye to the darkness in us and if try too hard to be good all the time, it usually comes back to bite us on the bum

–         We end up thinking that our good behaviour entitles us to special treatment, so that we shouldn’t suffer injustice or misfortune

–         We are not entitled to any special treatment in this life

–         God doesn’t promise that we won’t suffer.

–         To be sustainable our good behaviour needs to be born out of gratitude for God’s grace, not out of fear of calamity

 

The elder brother, in the parable of the prodigal son, shows us the ugly face of paganism when he refuses to come in and celebrate his younger brother’s return

–         The elder son thinks his long service and good behaviour entitles him to certain benefits which his reckless undeserving brother is now enjoying

–         He resents the Father’s grace toward the younger son

 

In the parable of the labourers we see an attitude of entitlement (and paganism) by those who worked all day and were paid the same as those who worked less time

 

These are negative examples – let me give you a more positive one…

–         You may remember Steve Askin, the helicopter pilot who died while fighting fires in Canterbury earlier this year

–         Well Steve’s dad is a Baptist pastor – Paul Askin

–         I shared a ride from the airport to a pastors’ conference with Paul Askin a few years ago – he’s a genuine soul

 

Anyway, after his son Steve had died fighting the fire, Paul was interviewed by the news media and he said…

–         ‘I got to spend 38 years with Steve’

–         What struck me here is that Paul said this with gratitude

–         Although he had suffered a terrible loss Paul was thankful for the time he had been given with his son

–         He didn’t deny his loss but nor did he deny the gift of Steve’s life

 

Paul is an outstanding pastor – he has served God faithfully for many years

–         If anyone might deserve a break its him

–         But Paul didn’t think his service to the Lord entitled him to special benefits – despite the pain he was in there was no resentment

 

Now I’m not saying it’s bad to feel angry when we suffer loss

–         Resentment is not always a sign of paganism

–         Grief is an unpredictable critter and we all handle our grief in different ways the best we can

–         All I’m saying is: in that moment, when Paul was at his most vulnerable, I saw Christ who didn’t think he was entitled to special favours because he was God’s Son but rather accepted the cross he was given

 

God’s judgment is salvation:

In verse 5 the Lord comes down to see the not yet completed city and tower

–         Clearly the Lord didn’t need the people to build him a stairway – he was quite capable of managing the journey to earth without their help

 

The fact that God came down to investigate shows us that God is fair & just

–         He doesn’t react rashly or flippantly – the Lord’s response is measured and considered – taking into account the facts

 

When God sees what they are doing he says to the heavenly council (which is presumably the other members of the Trinity and the angels in heaven)…

 

“If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”

 

God can see the people have embarked on a bad path – one which would ultimately be destructive to the builders’ themselves and to others

–         So God intervenes to prevent a disaster

 

Now we might ask ourselves, ‘What is the offense here? Why does God deem it necessary to intervene?’

–         Well, it’s not that cities or towers or other forms of technology are bad and it’s not that working together is bad either

–         Nor is it bad to want to leave a legacy

–         As we heard last week God chose a city (Jerusalem) as a dwelling for his footstool – the Ark

–         Not only that but he promised to make David’s name great and give David an everlasting legacy

 

Most likely the problem is with the people’s perception of God – their pagan theology sucks [2]

–         They have seriously misunderstood God by thinking he has needs and can be manipulated like a man

–         Paganism is fundamentally bad because it is based on a lie and eventually leads to all sorts of evil including human sacrifice

–         As a consequence God prevents them from doing further harm by taking away the key to their success – he confuses their language

 

Imagine for a moment that you’ve had some friends over to watch the rugby

–         Although you have been a responsible host one of your mates has had a bit too much to drink

–         You invite him to stay for the night but he refuses. So you offer to drive him home yourself but he won’t let you do that either

–         In the end you have no choice but to take his keys off him and wait for him to pass out on your living room floor

–         He isn’t too happy with you but that’s better than letting him drive drunk at the risk of causing an accident

 

By deeming your mate unfit to drive and taking his keys away you have passed judgment on him – but it’s a merciful judgment – a judgment which saves him

 

By confusing the languages God was taking the keys away from the builders and passing judgment on them – but it was a merciful judgment

–         In fact God’s judgment (in this context) is also His salvation

 

By scattering the people over all the earth the Lord was actually giving them a second chance – He wasn’t destroying them

–         But nor was he enabling their fantasy – he wasn’t colluding with their lie

–         He was putting them in a position of vulnerability where they would have a better chance of learning to trust Him

 

Verse 9 explains why the abandoned building site was called “Babel”

–         Babel is a parody on the Akkadian word Babilu from which we get the name Babylon – meaning ‘gate of god’ [3]

–         I say that Babel is a parody of Babilu because Babel is the Hebrew word for confusion and as providence would have it Babel also sounds very close to the English word babble

 

Babylon (or Babel as the Jews called it) was of course a city of exile for the Hebrew people – so you could imagine the delight the Jewish exiles had in reading this story of Babel – the city of their enemies

–         The narrator of Genesis is essentially criticising Babylonian theology

–         He’s basically saying, you think that Babylon is the ‘gate of the gods’ but you are confused – completely deluded in fact.

–         You can’t build or buy a stairway to heaven.

–         Right relationship with God is by faith, not manipulation.

 

Conclusion:

Today we celebrate Pentecost and the gift of God’s Spirit

–         At Pentecost we catch a glimpse of God’s plan of salvation for the world

–         The Holy Spirit translates the truth about Jesus for us

–         Not only that but the Holy Spirit resides in our hearts

–         And when the Spirit of Jesus is in our heart we don’t need to build a stairway to heaven because God is right there inside us already

–         Like an antidote to our hidden paganism the Spirit gently shows us our vices (He convicts us of our sin) and reassures us of God’s grace & forgiveness

 

When we look at what happened next (after Acts 2) we find that Jesus’ followers didn’t gather in Jerusalem for long

–         Rather God scattered the believers outward from Jerusalem to Samaria and to the ends of the earth,

–         And as they went the believers spread the good news of salvation by faith in Jesus

 

https://soundcloud.com/tawabaptist/4-jun-2017-the-tower-of-babylon

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stairway_to_Heaven

[2] Refer John Walton’s (NIVAC) on Genesis, pages 371-377 and 379-382.

[3] Refer Bruce Waltke’s commentary on Genesis, page 181.

Tawa Baptist

Kings & Priests

Scripture: Psalm 132

 

Title: Kings & Priests

 

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • A place to call home (King David)
  • A call to worship (Priests)
  • Conclusion – Jesus (King & Priest)

 

Introduction:

Once there was a young man smitten with a beautiful girl

–         She was somewhat indifferent to him though, and careless with his feelings in the way pretty girls can afford to be, but this didn’t deter him

–         When the young man heard the girl’s birthday was coming up he told her he would send her a bouquet of flowers, one for each year of her life

–         Later that afternoon he called the local florist and ordered 21 roses, with instructions that they be delivered on the girl’s birthday

 

As the florist was preparing the order he decided, that since the young man was such a good customer, he would put an extra dozen roses in the bouquet, bringing the total to 33

–         The girl didn’t take it so well and fortunately for the young man, he never heard from her again

–         Years later he found someone else better able to reciprocate his love [1]

 

This morning we return to our series on the Songs of Ascents

–         These songs were probably sung by Jewish pilgrims as they made their way to the temple in Jerusalem for various religious festivals

–         They are songs for the journey home to God

 

Our focus today is psalm 132 – It is a kind of a duet in two halves

–         The first half is essentially a prayer asking God to remember King David and his plans to build a house for the Lord

–         While the second half details the Lord’s response to this prayer

–         Like the florist in the story, God answers by giving his people more than they asked for or imagined.

–         Sometimes His ‘more’ may seem like a set back to us – but in the long run it proves better. From the NIV we read…

 

1 Lord, remember David and all his self-denial. 2 He swore an oath to the Lord, he made a vow to the Mighty One of Jacob: 3 “I will not enter my house or go to my bed, 4 I will allow no sleep to my eyes or slumber to my eyelids, 5 till I find a place for the Lord, a dwelling for the Mighty One of Jacob.” 6 We heard of it in Ephrathah, we came upon it in the fields of Jaar:7 “Let us go to his dwelling place, let us worship at his footstool, saying,8 ‘Arise, Lord, and come to your resting place, you and the ark of your might. 9 May your priests be clothed with righteousness; may your faithful people sing for joy.’” 10 For the sake of your servant David, do not reject your anointed one. 11 The Lord swore an oath to David, a sure oath he will not revoke: “One of your own descendants I will place on your throne. 12 If your sons keep my covenant and the statutes I teach them, then their sons will sit on your throne for ever and ever.”13 For the Lord has chosen Zion, he has desired it for his dwelling, saying, 14 “This is my resting place for ever and ever; here I will sit enthroned, for I have desired it. 15 I will bless her with abundant provisions; her poor I will satisfy with food. 16 I will clothe her priests with salvation, and her faithful people will ever sing for joy.17 “Here I will make a horn grow for David and set up a lamp for my anointed one. 18 I will clothe his enemies with shame, but his head will be adorned with a radiant crown.”

 

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate this reading for us

 

A place to call home:

There’s been a lot in the news lately about housing shortages, especially in Auckland but also in other main centres

–         Tawa has seen a bit of development as well

–         For some years now new houses have been going in around the Woodman Drive area

–         More recently a sub-division has been going ahead at Kenepuru

–         And we hear of plans for medium density housing around the Tawa Junction area

–         People are wanting room – a place to call home, space to dwell and rest

–         And for many that involves sacrifice & self denial just to save enough for a deposit

 

Psalm 132 begins with the psalmist remembering David’s self denial before the Lord

 

To remember means more than just re-calling to mind a thought from the past

–         The kind of remembering the psalmist is doing here is tangible and practical – like when someone ‘remembers you in their will’ – they actually do something for you

–         On ANZAC day we remember the self denial and sacrifice of soldiers by taking a day off work and holding dawn services to pay our respects

–         More than this though we don’t take our freedom for granted

–         In NZ when someone reaches the age of 65 the government remembers their years of tax paying and contribution to society by giving them a weekly superannuation payment and a gold card

–         We stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before us – we appreciate the benefits their self denial has brought

 

So when the psalmist says, Lord, remember David and all his self-denial, I think he is letting God know that he values the legacy David has left

–         He doesn’t take David’s self denial for granted

–         It’s kind of a thanksgiving for what David did in the past

 

Verses 2-5 detail David’s vow to find a place for the Lord

–         David plans to deny himself – he won’t rest until he has made room for God

 

What then does it mean to find a place for the Lord?

–         After all, God fills the universe – how can David possibly create a dwelling for God?

–         That would be like me thinking I could dig a hole large enough to contain the oceans of the world

 

David is well aware that God cannot be contained in a house – God will not be domesticated

–         More than likely psalm 132 has the events of 2nd Samuel chapters 6 & 7 in mind when David brought the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem

 

This is a picture of what the Ark of the Covenant might have looked like

–         For Israel the Ark embodied the holy presence & rule of the Lord God

–         It was also a tangible reminder of God’s covenant with Israel as it contained the 10 commandments

 

Since its construction in the wilderness the Ark had been kept in a tent

–         Having the embodiment of God’s presence travelling around in a tent showed the people that God wasn’t tied down to one specific location

–         For many years the Ark had sat in obscurity on someone’s farm until David thought to bring it Jerusalem

–         Then, once David had brought the Ark to the capital, it began to bother him that the Ark was kept under canvas while he lived in a flash palace

–         So when David talks about finding a place for the Lord, he means he wants to provide better accommodation for the Ark – he wants to bring it to Jerusalem and build a temple to house it

 

Interestingly God is referred to (in verse 5) as “the Mighty One of Jacob”

–         Jacob was famous for wrestling with God all night as he returned home after many years away

–         Perhaps there is an association here with David wrestling or struggling in his efforts to find a place for the Lord to dwell

–         Certainly it wasn’t an easy thing bringing the Ark to Jerusalem

–         It took David two attempts and a man died in the process

–         Not only that but David became estranged from one of his wives

 

David also wrestled with God over building a temple to house the Ark

–         David lost sleep over this issue – it kept him up at night, just as the angel of the Lord kept Jacob up all night in a wrestling match

 

I think there is a point of application here for us today

–         In our busy lives God often gets crowded out and like David it requires some self denial and commitment on our part to create room for God

 

Let me illustrate what I mean…

–         One of the consequences of more housing in Tawa is more pressure on infrastructure and roads

–         The intersection on the Main Rd and Surrey St, just outside the church here is a case in point

–         The Council would like to put a roundabout there to help traffic flow

–         And while there are some benefits for the wider community in having a roundabout those benefits come at a cost to the church – in particular its looking likely that we will lose around a dozen car parks give or take

–         The Council have been really good in talking with us about how we can minimise the loss of parks – they have gone out of their way to help us by seeking to free up other parks nearby

–         Obviously we would want to reserve the closest parks for the elderly, for those with young children and for visitors or newcomers

–         But there will be some who may have to deny themselves by parking further away in Oxford St, for example

 

Now the church doesn’t exist for itself – we are here for Jesus and for the world that God loves – so I’m not protesting against the roundabout

–         If it benefits the wider community then perhaps we need to see the loss of parking as part of our mission of being a blessing to the world

 

I’m also aware that having to park a little further away is a relatively minor inconvenience, especially when compared with the events in Manchester this past week

–         But although it’s a relatively small thing it is yet another thing in a long list of things which put distance between the church and society and make it more difficult for people to attend worship services

 

The loss of parks seems to me to be a kind of parable in that it illustrates what’s happening on a larger scale in NZ today

–         Incrementally, over time, God and the church are getting crowded out of our society by all sorts of things, like work & sports and other stuff

–         At the same time there is a growing distance between the church and society: the church often holds values which are at odds with society and we Christians cringe at the way the church is misrepresented in the media

–         Our society is generally less accommodating to God and the church (as we’ve seen with CRE) and so it is becoming harder to be a Christian

–         Therefore we who believe in Jesus need to be more intentional, more committed in making a place in our own lives for God to dwell

–         Like David, it is going to require more self denial on our part, to build a bridge between church and society

 

Returning to psalm 132: Despite David’s good intentions the Lord God did not want David to build a house (or a temple) for Him

–         Instead, the Lord would build a house (as in a royal dynasty) for David

 

In verses 2-5 David makes a vow to God, now in verses 11-12 God makes a vow to David, saying…

–         “One of your own descendants I will place on your throne…”

–         The Lord is referring here to Solomon

–         David would not be the one to build a temple for the Lord, but his son Solomon would

 

God then goes on to make a conditional promise to David…

–         “If your sons keep my covenant… then their sons will sit on your throne forever…”

 

This was a pretty big deal

–         Moses’ sons didn’t become the leaders of Israel after him

–         Nor did Joshua’s or Samuel’s or Saul’s

–         This was new – David had no reason (in history) to think that his descendants would be king after him

–         Here God is giving David far more than he ever asked for or imagined

–         We can’t out give God – He is too generous

 

A call to worship:

When I was about 6 my dad decided to build a swimming pool in our backyard

–         My dad likes a project and he is pretty handy at that sort of thing

–         It was 1976 so the pool was kidney shaped and deep enough to dive into

–         Anyway, dad decided he wouldn’t get a digger in to excavate the hole for the pool but would dig it out himself by hand

 

When we started I thought that with my help we could dig the hole in a day, but I quickly learned I had overestimated my digging ability

–         Despite all my efforts it took me most of the morning to shift half a cubic metre with my little spade

–         In the end my contribution was fairly modest and I had to adjust the timeframe I had in mind for completion of the project

 

We worked on digging that hole for weeks but it was worth it in the end

–         We got so much fun and enjoyment out of that pool

–         Of course it’s the end you need to keep in mind when you are shovelling clay – it’s the end that keeps you going

–         The interesting thing is that when the end is in sight you find a second wind – an extra burst of energy in anticipation of realising your goal

 

For the Jewish pilgrims making their way to Jerusalem to worship the Lord the journey was perhaps a bit like digging out the hole for the pool by hand

–         They didn’t fly there in a plane or drive there in a car or ride on a train

–         They typically walked, sometimes a very long way

–         This wasn’t a journey they could knock off in a day – it might take weeks depending on where they had come from

–         But by keeping the end in mind – thinking about the temple in Jerusalem – they found the strength to keep going

 

Returning to verse 6…

–         Ephrathah and Jaar refer to the region around Bethlehem, David’s hometown – Bethlehem is quite close to Jerusalem, about 9 km’s away

 

Verses 7-9 appear to be a call to worship

–         As the Jewish pilgrim’s walk through the fields of Jaar they know they are getting close, the end is in sight and they get a second wind, so they say: “Let us go to his dwelling place…” that is, to the Lord’s temple

–         “Let us worship at his footstool” – his footstool being the Ark

 

Verse 8 recalls the time of the Exodus from Egypt when Israel wandered in the wilderness for 40 years

–         The Lord God led the people by a pillar of cloud and fire

–         Each time the pillar moved the Israelites would pick up the Ark and say,

–         Arise, Lord, and come to your resting place, you & the ark of your might.

–         They were essentially asking God to bring them home to the Promised Land

 

Verse 13 of psalm 132 tells us the Lord chose Zion for his dwelling – his resting place

–         For the psalmist, in the Old Testament, Zion equated to Jerusalem – basically the main centre from which God ruled

–         For us Christians though Zion isn’t limited to geographic Jerusalem – it is essentially anywhere that God reigns

–         So Zion is a code word for God’s kingdom – the kingdom of heaven

 

Verse 15 tells us that where God reigns (where His kingdom has come) there is abundance and no poverty

–         I will bless her with abundant provisions; her poor I will satisfy with food

–         Verse 15 is looking forward to the realisation of God’s kingdom in its fullness when everyone will have enough

–         We haven’t got there yet, we are still digging the hole, still fighting against hunger and poverty in our time – and so the underlying assumption of the economic system we live under is scarcity

–         But this is not what the end looks like at all – the underlying assumption of God’s kingdom (of Zion) is abundance

–         What was it Jesus said? I have come that you may have abundant life

 

In connection with worshipping at God’s footstool (at the Ark) we have the prayer (in verse 9) that the Lord’s priests be clothed with righteousness;

–         The Lord responds positively to this desire in verse 16 saying…

–         I will clothe her priests with salvation, & her saints will ever sing for joy

 

These two verses are almost identical, except that in one the priests are clothed in righteousness while in the second the priests are clothed in salvation

–         Righteousness means ‘right relationship’ – dealing with people in a way that is fair and kind.

–         While salvation means being given abundant life, as opposed to being destroyed or excluded

–         Salvation comes in many forms: physical healing, forgiveness of sins, peace in our relationships, deliverance from evil, the eradication of poverty, acceptance into God’s family and so on

–         In the Bible righteousness & salvation are not things we achieve by our own efforts – they are gifts from God received by faith – by trusting God

–         Having said that God still likes to involve us in the process

 

When I was digging the hole for the pool with my Dad and my Pop, they pretty much did all the work – my contribution was quite small really and yet I probably got more use and enjoyment out of the pool than they did

–         It’s a bit like that with God’s gifts of righteousness and salvation – God does most (if not all) of the spade work but he still accepts what we bring

 

One of the key roles of the priests was to mediate God’s forgiveness to the people through the sacrificial system

–         The priests were there to help restore righteousness – that is to restore people to right relationship with God and between people

–         Priests that are clothed in righteousness therefore are priests who are able to mediate forgiveness because they themselves have been forgiven and stand in right relationship with God

 

Closely related to their role in mediating God’s forgiveness, the priests also had a role in mediating God’s salvation

–         The priests were a bit like doctors (except without the science)

–         The priests didn’t necessarily heal people but they had the authority to declare someone clean after they had been healed or purified

–         We read about this in the gospels. After Jesus healed some lepers he told them to show themselves to the priest so they could be declared clean and re-join the community

 

The Jewish priests wore special garments in carrying out their priestly duties – but wearing a special costume doesn’t make the priest fit to cleanse people, any more than wearing a surgical gown makes me fit to remove an appendix

 

The people’s prayer was for their priests to be clothed in righteousness

–         But in verse 16 God responds by saying, I can do better than that. I will give you priests who are clothed in salvation – that is, priests who mediate my power to heal and cleanse

 

The other part of the prayer in verse 9 is that God’s faithful people sing for joy

–         Worship should not be a loveless duty

–         Singing for joy is the icing on the cake – it speaks of a life that is overflowing with gratitude for the goodness of God

–         God’s response in verse 16 is that Zion’s faithful people (those who submit to God’s reign) will ever sing for joy

–         Once again God answers his people’s prayer with more than they asked for or imagined – their joy will be forever, without end

–         The grind of digging the hole for the pool may last for weeks but the joy of using it lasts a lifetime

 

Conclusion:

Psalm 132 concludes by looking forward in hope to God’s ‘anointed one’

–         ‘Anointed One’ in Hebrew is Messiah

–         As Christians we believe Jesus is the Messiah

 

We find three images for Jesus the Messiah in verses 17 & 18:

–         Horn, lamp and crown

 

Horn is an image of strength

–         Lamp is an image of clarity (or truth & wisdom)

–         And crown is an image of royal dignity – not just power but holiness too [2]

 

Verse 18 tells us that the Messiah’s head will be adorned with a radiant crown

–         The original Hebrew literally reads, ‘his crown will blossom’ [3]

–         Unlike the glitter of a man-made crown which looks pretty but is still dead, God will adorn Jesus’ head with the crown of life

–         God’s Messiah will be King over life and death

–         The poetry here is pointing forward to Jesus’ resurrection life

 

The poetry is also pointing back to Aaron, the high priest of Israel during Moses’ time

–         You may remember how God caused the wooden staff of Aaron to bud and blossom as a way of accrediting Aaron’s ministry as his priest

 

For Christians the connection is intuitive

–         In and through Jesus, God’s promises are fulfilled

–         Jesus replaces the Ark of the Covenant – he is the embodiment of God’s power & presence

–         Jesus is the ideal priest clothed in righteousness and salvation with power to forgive sins and to bestow abundant life

–         Jesus is David’s greater son who, following his resurrection from the dead, ascended to heaven where he sits enthroned in Zion

–         And Jesus is God’s answer to his people’s prayers – an answer far more generous and far better than we asked for or imagined

–         In short, Jesus is our hope and joy

 

Let us pray…

 

 

[1] Adapted from a story found in the book “The bells! The Bells!” compiled by Mark Stibbe, page 70.

[2] Derek Kidner, Psalms 73-150, page 488.

[3] Ibid.

Tawa Baptist

People are treasure

Scripture: Acts 9:1-19

 

Title: People are treasure

 

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • The role of doubt
  • Jesus and Saul
  • Ananias and Saul
  • Conclusion

 

Introduction:

There is a legend told of the wives of Weinsberg

–         The Duke of Weinsberg possessed an immense fortune in gold, silver and fine jewels, which he kept in his castle

 

The Duke had a falling out with King Konrad (the sovereign of the realm)

–         And so Konrad gathered his army and laid siege to Weinsberg demanding the Duke’s fortress, the massive fortune and the lives of the men within

 

Although the King had allowed for the safe release of all women and children, the wives of Weinsberg refused to leave without having one of their own conditions met

–         They requested that they be allowed to leave at sunrise the next day with whatever they could carry on their backs

 

Thinking the women couldn’t possibly make a dent in the massive fortune, the king decided to grant their request.

–         After all, he would be hailed as a generous and merciful king and most of the Duke’s vast fortune would still be left for him

 

But the king got more than he bargained for

–         The next morning at sunrise, as the women walked out, the entire army was stunned to silence as they saw each wife carrying her husband on her back – the wives valued their husbands more highly than silver or gold

 

Deeply moved by their love, King Konrad kept his word and no lives were lost that day.

–         People are the real treasure

 

Today is the second of three Sundays when we promote Tranzsend’s prayer and self-denial campaign

–         Tranzsend supports and resources NZ Baptist missionaries serving overseas

–         The theme for this year’s self-denial campaign is treasures handed down

–         Jesus is the greatest treasure God gave the world

–         That God gave His only Son to save us shows that people are treasure

 

Please turn with me to Acts chapter 9 – page 161 toward the back of your pew Bibles

–         Last week we heard how Jesus valued an outsider – the Ethiopian eunuch

–         Today we hear how Jesus treats one of his enemies as a valued treasure

–         From Acts chapter 9, verses 1-19 we read…

In the meantime Saul kept up his violent threats of murder against the followers of the Lord. He went to the High Priest 2 and asked for letters of introduction to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he should find there any followers of the Way of the Lord, he would be able to arrest them, both men and women, and bring them back to Jerusalem.

3 As Saul was coming near the city of Damascus, suddenly a light from the sky flashed around him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul! Why do you persecute me?”

5 “Who are you, Lord?” he asked.

“I am Jesus, whom you persecute,” the voice said. 6 “But get up and go into the city, where you will be told what you must do.”

7 The men who were traveling with Saul had stopped, not saying a word; they heard the voice but could not see anyone. 8 Saul got up from the ground and opened his eyes, but could not see a thing. So they took him by the hand and led him into Damascus. 9 For three days he was not able to see, and during that time he did not eat or drink anything.

10 There was a believer in Damascus named Ananias. He had a vision, in which the Lord said to him, “Ananias!”

“Here I am, Lord,” he answered.

11 The Lord said to him, “Get ready and go to Straight Street, and at the house of Judas ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul. He is praying, 12 and in a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come in and place his hands on him so that he might see again.”

13 Ananias answered, “Lord, many people have told me about this man and about all the terrible things he has done to your people in Jerusalem. 14 And he has come to Damascus with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who worship you.”

15 The Lord said to him, “Go, because I have chosen him to serve me, to make my name known to Gentiles and kings and to the people of Israel. 16 And I myself will show him all that he must suffer for my sake.”

17 So Ananias went, entered the house where Saul was, and placed his hands on him. “Brother Saul,” he said, “the Lord has sent me—Jesus himself, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here. He sent me so that you might see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” 18 At once something like fish scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he was able to see again. He stood up and was baptized; 19 and after he had eaten, his strength came back.

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate this reading for us

The role of doubt:

In Jane Austin’s novel Pride & Prejudice there is a great deal of tension between the two main characters, Miss Elizabeth Bennett and Mr Darcy

 

Elizabeth has strong feelings of affection for Mr Darcy but she is not willing to admit them – she is blinded by her prejudice

–         Elizabeth wrongly assumes that Mr Darcy has a bad character and her prejudice creates this armour, this defence, this shell around her

 

Mr Darcy also has strong feelings of affection for Elizabeth, which he is well aware of – unfortunately his pride gets in the way

–         He thinks himself so far above Elizabeth Bennett that he is not free to express his feelings without contempt

 

Prejudice blinds and pride binds

 

Acts 9 begins by telling us that Saul (a devout Jewish Pharisee) was on his way to Damascus to arrest the followers of Jesus and bring them back to Jerusalem

–         The same Saul who watched with approval as Stephen was murdered now fanatically persecutes the followers of Jesus himself

–         Saul was a religious extremist – a fanatic

 

The psychologist Carl Jung once wrote…

–         Fanaticism is only found in individuals who are compensating for secret doubts  [1]

–         In other words, the less convinced we are of our own position on a matter, the more strongly we are inclined to defend it

–         Our pride and prejudice acts as a shield against the truth which our secret doubts point to

 

Now some people think doubt is a bad thing and certainly too much doubt can be a bad thing

–         If we doubt ourselves all the time then we lose all confidence and find ourselves living in constant anxiety

–         But we still need some doubt

–         Doubt causes the carpenter to measure twice and cut once

–         Doubt causes the scientist to find a proof for her theories

–         Doubt causes the Christian to seek the Lord’s will in prayer and in studying the Scriptures

 

Doubt is not the same thing as fear

–         Too much doubt can lead to fear but a little bit of doubt handled in the right way can lead us closer to the truth

 

Doubt is a bit like salt

–         Too much salt and the meal is ruined

–         But just the right amount of salt brings out the flavour (or the truth)

 

Jesus said to his followers – you are the salt of the earth

–         I wonder if one of the things he meant by that was…

–         Live your life in such a distinctively good way that it causes those who don’t yet know Christ to doubt their own beliefs

–         Those seeds of doubt may start people on a journey of seeking Jesus

 

Doubt is not necessarily the enemy

–         Doubt is what motivates us to check our facts and find out the truth

–         The apparent absence of doubt suggests a proud and arrogant heart

–         While a little bit of doubt indicates humility

 

The people who built the Titanic could have done with acknowledging their secret doubts – it would have saved many lives

–         Instead they over compensated by arrogantly claiming their ship was unsinkable

 

The reason there was so much tension between Mr Darcy & Elizabeth Bennett was because they were both un-willing to acknowledge their doubts

–         Perhaps the reason Saul was so obsessed with persecuting the followers of Jesus was because deep down he had his doubts about being a Pharisee

–         Underneath it all Saul suspected that Stephen was right about Jesus

–         But Saul’s pride bound him and his prejudice blinded him

 

It appears that Stephen’s witness to the risen Jesus strengthened by his example in asking God to forgive his murderers, affected Saul profoundly

–         Stephen’s martyrdom really got under Saul’s skin and made him less certain about his previously held beliefs

 

Jesus & Saul:

In contrast to Saul’s pride & prejudice we see Jesus’ grace & truth

–         The gospel of John tells us, the Spirit of Jesus is a Spirit of grace & truth

–         Jesus embodies grace and truth – he weaves the two together

 

By appearing to Saul on the road to Damascus and asking, “…why do you persecute me?” Jesus is confronting Saul with the truth, in a gracious way

–         The most obvious truth here is that Jesus is not dead, he is risen – which makes it clear that Jesus is the Messiah of God and consequently the followers of Jesus are right, while Saul is wrong

–         All at once Saul’s pride & prejudice is undone

 

Another difficult truth for Saul to face here is that by giving Jesus’ followers a hard time Saul was actually persecuting Jesus himself, God’s Messiah

–         The followers of Jesus really are the body of Christ

–         When we suffer, Jesus suffers

–         And when we are kind to other believers, Jesus feels that kindness too

–         What was it Jesus said?

–         “What you did for the least of my brothers, you did for me?”     

–         People are the real treasure

 

That Saul was wrong and that he had been persecuting God’s Messiah were painful truths to face

–         A third (more comforting) truth for Saul is that Jesus values him enough to intervene to save him

–         Jesus does not destroy Saul, even though Saul has been seeking to destroy him

–         Jesus does not threaten Saul with punishment, even though Saul has been persecuting him

–         Nor does Jesus ignore Saul

–         Instead, Jesus seeks to restore right relationship by being truthful about how Saul’s actions are affecting him

 

Jesus sees the potential (the treasure) in Saul and offers him a way out of his fanaticism

–         There’s no force or fear or coercion from Jesus at all

–         It’s like Jesus is simply giving Saul the information he needs and then trusting Saul, freeing him, to choose for himself

 

In his autobiography, Surprised by Joy, C.S. Lewis writes about his own conversion, saying…

“I became aware that I was holding something at bay, or shutting something out. Or, if you like, that I was wearing some stiff clothing, like corsets, or even a suit of armour, as if I were a lobster. I felt myself being… given a free choice. I could open the door or keep it shut; I could unbuckle the armour or keep it on. Neither choice was presented as a duty; no threat or promise was attached to either… I was moved by no desires or fears. In a sense I was not moved by anything. I chose to open, to unbuckle, to loosen the rein. I say ‘I chose’, yet it did not seem possible to do the opposite. …I was aware of no motives. …I am more inclined to think this came nearer to being a perfectly free act than most I have ever done.”  [2]

 

I understand Lewis to be saying here that he turned toward God freely

–         He was not motivated by the fear of hell or the promise of heaven

–         He simply surrendered his armour, let down his defences and opened himself in trust to the truth and grace of God

 

In verse 6 Jesus gives Saul a choice wrapped up in the command…

–         “…get up and go into the city where you will be told what you must do”

–         By obeying Jesus’ command Saul shows that he believes Jesus to be raised from the dead

–         But as Saul gets up to leave he discovers that he cannot see

–         The fact that Saul was blinded points to the objective reality of the experience – Saul could not discount what happened to him – it was real

 

Verse 9 tells us that Saul was blind for three days, during which time he did not eat or drink anything

–         A total fast like this was both a sign of repentance and an act of humility in seeking God

 

Ananias & Saul:

People are treasure – that’s a statement which implies grace and truth at the same time

 

Paul Windsor, who was the principal of Carey College when we were training for ministry, had a grace & truth graph he liked to show us – sort of like this one

 

On this graph we have four quadrants as indicated by the colours yellow, blue, red and green (This being an election year I need to stress that these colours do not represent political parties – I’m not telling you who to vote for)

The yellow quadrant represents those who are low on truth and low on grace

–         Before his encounter with the risen Jesus, Saul was most likely in the yellow quadrant – full of pride and prejudice, low on grace & truth

–         Nationalism thrives in the yellow quadrant

 

The blue quadrant represents those who are high on truth & low on grace

–         They might hold the Bible in high regard and have strict moral standards but have little tolerance for those who don’t share their point of view

 

The red quadrant is those who are high on grace and low on truth

–         The reds are sort of the opposite of the blues – the reds are light on judgement and repentance, high on forgiveness and mercy

 

While the green quadrant represents those who are high on truth and grace

–         Those in the green believe that God offers salvation to everyone, although not everyone accepts it

–         God is able to forgive even the worst of sinners but His forgiveness is not automatic or unconditional – God’s offer of salvation requires a response from us

–         Forgiveness and salvation are conditional on faith, repentance and us forgiving others. As Jesus taught us to pray:

–         ‘Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us’

 

Jesus exemplifies perfect grace & truth together so you want to be in the green quadrant if you can

–         Ananias was in the green quadrant too – he embodies Jesus’ grace and truth together

 

Ananias also shows us a healthy way to handle our doubts

–         When the Lord Jesus asks Ananias to place his hands on Saul so he may see again, Ananias is a bit reluctant at first

–         He expresses his doubts in Jesus’ request saying…

–         “Lord, many people have told me about this man and about all the terrible things he has done to your people in Jerusalem…”

–         And you want me to welcome him and heal him?

 

Jesus doesn’t reprimand Ananias for airing his doubts

–         Jesus is big enough to handle our doubts and he understands Ananias’ concerns: Ananias is measuring twice before he proceeds – he is making sure he understands correctly

 

If (or when) we have doubts about something we are generally best to lay those doubts before the Lord in prayer

–         Be honest with God about what we are thinking and feeling

–         Ask God to show us where the doubt is coming from

–         Is this an unholy doubt put in our mind by the evil one to mislead us

–         Or has God put the doubt there as a caution in our spirit so that we check our facts and measure twice to avoid error

–         Either way when we are honest with God about our doubts, asking Him to clarify His will in the situation, our pride & prejudice is undone and we open ourselves to grace and truth – fanaticism doesn’t get a toe hold

 

When handled in a good way doubt actually leads us closer to the truth

–         The outcome of being honest with Jesus about his doubts is that Ananias learns more of God’s plan for Saul. Jesus responds saying…

–         Go, because I have chosen him to serve me, to make my name known to the Gentiles and kings and to the people of Israel. And I myself will show him all that he must suffer for my sake.

 

Having dealt with his doubts in an open and healthy way Ananias is now free to approach Saul without prejudice

–         And so Ananias steps out in faith and obedience to Jesus

–         He goes to Saul, lays his hands on him and says: “Brother Saul”

–         There is so much grace and truth in those words

–         ‘Brother Saul’ communicates to Saul that he is forgiven and accepted as one of the family – he is welcomed into the Christian community

–         Saul has done nothing to deserve this acceptance but grace isn’t getting what we deserve – grace is getting what we need

 

As Ananias spoke something like fish scales fell from Saul’s eyes and he was able to see again

–         It’s like Jesus has freed Saul from his armour and answered his doubts

–         After that Saul wasted no time in being baptised

 

Conclusion:

Let me tell you a story about a boy we will call Jim…

–         Jim was a quiet kid – not shy exactly, more of a deep thinker

–         He attended a Primary school where people from the local church came once a week for half an hour to talk about God and the Bible

–         In many ways it was an easy half hour – you listened to a story, answered some questions if you felt like it and did an arts and crafts type activity

–         Religious Education (or RE for short) they called it

–         Way better than long division

 

Jim’s RE teacher (Mrs McFarlane) was really nice – always remembered people’s names, always talked about her three kids, Ruby, Hope and Josh and sometimes gave them home baking

 

One evening over dinner Jim (who was about 9 years old by this stage) asked his parents why they didn’t go to church

–         “We don’t believe in God” was the reply his dad gave. His mum didn’t say anything

 

This made Jim wonder whether the Bible stories he had heard in RE were true or made up

–         He figured his dad must know best and decided that he wouldn’t believe in God either

 

One Wednesday, just after the RE lesson had finished, Jim approached Mrs McFarlane and said to her, “I don’t believe in God”

–         The classroom teacher (Mr Dench) was clearly embarrassed that Jim had said this and gave him a stern, disapproving look – as if to say, “Jim, that’s rude – you should apologise.”

 

But Mrs McFarlane just smiled and said…

–         “It’s okay. Tell me James, why do you say that?”

–         “I’m not sure exactly. Dad says that God is just pretend, like Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny. And you were talking about being honest today so I thought I should tell you the truth.”

–         “I see”, Mrs McFarlane replied. “Well James, you don’t have to make up your mind about God just yet. You may feel differently when you are older. In the meantime I want you to know that you are welcome to continue attending my RE class if you want to. God still believes in you even if you don’t believe in him. He is big enough to handle your doubts”

 

Since it was morning break Jim left it at that and went outside to play with his mates

 

For a long time he didn’t give his conversation with Mrs McFarlane a second thought, although he did still attend her RE classes – she made a nice brownie

 

Ten years passed. Jim was 19 now and attending University

–         He had his restricted license and was driving home in the dark one night when he lost control on a corner and collected a cyclist

–         Jim was okay but the young guy on the bike was in a bad way

–         Although Jim had never been to church his parents had still raised him to do the right thing and so he never even thought about doing a runner

–         He called 111 on his cell-phone and asked for an ambulance

–         Then he waited with the cyclist until help came

 

For some reason (he wasn’t sure why) Jim remembered Mrs McFarlane’s RE class and that conversation he had with her 10 years ago where he had said he didn’t believe in God and she had said, “God still believes in you. He’s big enough to handle your doubts.”

–         In that moment, while he looked at the injuries he had caused, it didn’t make sense to not believe in God

–         He found himself saying under his breath, “God, if you are there and you really do believe in me then please make this right – let him live.”

 

Jim was a long time being interviewed by the police – they weren’t in any hurry to process him. They were being careful to do everything by the book so he wouldn’t get away with it

–         Jim kept wanting to know how the cyclist was but no one would tell him

 

When Jim got home his dad was livid – there was no grace with his dad, just plenty of hard truths

–         Jim didn’t have anything to say – he knew he was in deep trouble

–         He just stayed in his room for three days without checking Facebook once

 

Eventually the police came round and sat him down in the living room with his parents

–         The cyclist was going to live and (much to the constable’s disgust) the boy’s do-gooder parents had asked them to go easy on Jim

–         Jim would lose his licence for a while but he wouldn’t do jail time

 

Jim was relieved. He didn’t get the punishment he knew he deserved – he got the grace he needed

 

Jim asked the police for the cyclist’s name so he could visit him in hospital to say ‘sorry’ but the police wanted to check with the family first

–         A few days later they phoned back. His name was Josh – Josh McFarlane

–         Jim felt like he had been punched in the chest – could it be?

 

He took the shuttle from Kenepuru to Wellington hospital telling himself he wouldn’t stay long – just long enough to apologise and leave

–         But when he got there Josh was sleeping, so Jim sat in the chair & waited

–         Half an hour passed before Jim felt a gentle hand on his shoulder and a soft voice in his ear saying, “James, my friend. I’m so pleased you came.”

–         It was his RE teacher, Mrs McFarlane, Josh’s mum

–         There was no recrimination, no judgment, no condemnation

–         Just a kind smile and a warm hug to answer his doubts about God

 

Let us pray…

 

[1] Quoted in John Stott’s commentary on Acts, page 172.

[2] Quoted in John Stott’s commentary on Acts, page 173.

Tawa Baptist

Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch

Scripture: Acts 8:26-40

 

Title: The Gospel as Treasure

 

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch
  • Conclusion

 

Introduction:

Recently Robyn & I were fortunate enough to spend a week in Taupo

–         While we were there we came across a pamphlet detailing the top 10 walking tracks around the Taupo area

–         One of these walks was up Mount Tauhara, which is the mountain you can see tucked behind the Taupo township

–         I was quite keen to climb this mountain so Robyn and I came to a mutual agreement that she would go shopping for a mothers’ day present for my mum while I went climbing (climbing is less exhausting than shopping)

 

Anyway, Mt Tauhara isn’t that tall – the summit is only 1,088 meters and the track begins half way up anyway – but it is pretty steep all the way

–         I smashed it – got the top in 1 hour – which isn’t bad for an old guy

 

At the top a woman, with her three kids, laid down a painted rock

–         She explained to the rest of us there what she was doing

–         The idea is to paint a rock and then write on the back # the name of your town Rocks

–         For example, we might write #TawaRocks or if you come from Dunedin you would write #DunedinRocks

 

You hide the rock somewhere that people are likely to find it and then the finder snaps a photo holding it, uploads the photo onto social media, and re-hides it for someone else to find

  • – It’s sort of like a treasure hunt – except you don’t keep the treasure for yourself, you pass it on for others
  • – Apparently one rock which started in NZ has ended up in Italy

 

Today is the first of three Sundays when we promote Tranzsend’s prayer and self-denial campaign

–         Tranzsend supports and resources NZ Baptist missionaries serving overseas

–         The theme for this year’s self-denial campaign is treasures handed down

–         Jesus is the greatest treasure God gave the world and one of the main ways that Jesus is handed down to us is through the gospel

 

The word gospel simply means ‘good news’

–         In particular it refers to the good news that, through faith in Jesus, God accepts us

 

The gospel also refers to the four accounts of Jesus’ life and work, which we read about in the New Testament books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John

–         In many ways though the whole Bible points to Jesus – both the Old Testament and the New Testament – it’s all about Christ

–         In fact, Jesus is the key to understanding the Bible

 

Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch:

Please turn with me to Acts chapter 8, verse 26

–         You can find Acts 8 on page 161 toward the back of your pew Bibles

–         The Scripture reading I’ve chosen to go with this theme, that the gospel of Christ is treasure, is the account of Philip’s conversation with the Ethiopian eunuch

–         This is sort of a painted rocks story in that the treasure of the gospel is passed on to a distant land

–         From Acts chapter 8, verses 26-40 we read…

 

26 An angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Get ready and go south to the road that goes from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This road is not used nowadays.) 27-28 So Philip got ready and went. Now an Ethiopian eunuch, who was an important official in charge of the treasury of the queen of Ethiopia, was on his way home. He had been to Jerusalem to worship God and was going back home in his carriage. As he rode along, he was reading from the book of the prophet Isaiah. 29 The Holy Spirit said to Philip, “Go over to that carriage and stay close to it.” 30 Philip ran over and heard him reading from the book of the prophet Isaiah. He asked him, “Do you understand what you are reading?”

31 The official replied, “How can I understand unless someone explains it to me?” And he invited Philip to climb up and sit in the carriage with him. 32 The passage of scripture which he was reading was this:

“He was like a sheep that is taken to be slaughtered,     like a lamb that makes no sound when its wool is cut off.     He did not say a word. 33 He was humiliated, and justice was denied him.     No one will be able to tell about his descendants,     because his life on earth has come to an end.”

34 The official asked Philip, “Tell me, of whom is the prophet saying this? Of himself or of someone else?” 35 Then Philip began to speak; starting from this passage of scripture, he told him the Good News about Jesus. 36 As they travelled down the road, they came to a place where there was some water, and the official said, “Here is some water. What is to keep me from being baptized?” 37

38 The official ordered the carriage to stop, and both Philip and the official went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. 39 When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord took Philip away. The official did not see him again, but continued on his way, full of joy. 40 Philip found himself in Azotus; he went on to Caesarea, and on the way he preached the Good News in every town.

 

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate this Scripture for us

 

In my 20’s I got a job working for a Non-Government Organisation which supports people with disabilities to live in the community

–         Part of my role was to accompany people, who experienced disability, as they led awareness training

–         This involved visiting schools and workplaces so people could talk about their lives and their disability as a way of breaking down barriers and helping mainstream society to accept individual difference

 

One guy I worked with lived with cerebral palsy

–         Cerebral palsy can affect people in different ways but in his case his movement and speech was disrupted, which meant he used a wheelchair to get around and other people found his speech difficult to understand

–         Every other part of his anatomy was in good working order

 

Although he was quite intelligent and capable the sound of his voice created a barrier in other people’s minds so that he was often prejudged as inferior or people simply lost patience with him and wrote him off

–         Part of my job was acting as his interpreter

–         He would say something and I would repeat it so that those in the room who weren’t used to his voice could get his meaning

–         My job then wasn’t so much to help him – he didn’t need my help

–         My job was to help others to understand him

 

One thing I learned quite quickly was that disability is a social construct

–         By which I mean it wasn’t cerebral palsy that disabled this guy so much as the society in which he lived

–         Other people’s prejudice was more disabling to him than cerebral palsy

–         It was not being given a fair go that disabled him

 

Our passage from Acts today begins with an angel of the Lord telling Philip to go out into the wilderness to a lonely road

 

An angel of the Lord is basically a messenger sent by God

–         That’s what angel means, ‘messenger’

–         Receiving a visitation from an angel made it abundantly clear that God was in this

 

Philip was one of Jesus’ 12 disciples

–         When Jesus called Philip to follow him, the first thing Philip did was to introduce one of his friends (Nathanael) to Jesus [1]

–         Nathanael also became a disciple of Jesus

–         Some people are like Philip – they are the glue connecting people

 

Philip was known as an evangelist

–         Evangelism has almost become a swear word these days, which is quite sad because evangelism is actually a good thing

–         It is a word closely related to ‘gospel’ or good news

–         An evangelist is essentially someone who spreads good news

–         Or to put it another way: evangelism is one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread

–         Philip is called an ‘evangelist’ because he was one man telling others in need they could find acceptance with God through faith in Jesus

 

Prior to being visited by an angel of the Lord, Philip had a very successful time telling the Samaritans the good news about Jesus

–         Crowds of people believed Philip’s message and became Christians by being baptised

 

It seems quite strange then that, after such a successful ministry in Samaria’s principal city, God would then send his star evangelist into the middle of nowhere

–         But Philip didn’t question God’s strategy – he simply trusted that God knows best and went where the Lord directed him

 

Travelling down this deserted road (at the same time as Philip) was an Ethiopian eunuch. What are the chances?

–         It’s a bit like finding a painted rock from Africa on the top of Mt Tauhara

 

Now when we hear the word Ethiopia we tend to think of famine and poverty and starving children

–         But in the ancient world Ethiopia was different to that – more wealthy

–         On today’s map it is located in North Sudan

–         So the Ethiopian eunuch was most likely a black African man

 

A eunuch is a man who has had his equipment (his tackle, his junk) removed or damaged so he can’t have children or even relate with a woman sexually

–         To a certain extent he has been disabled by the society he lives in

–         On the one hand a eunuch (if he was skilled enough) could rise to great power in government

–         This particular Ethiopian eunuch was something like the minister of finance in a very wealthy nation – so he was no slouch

–         But on the other hand eunuchs were also the subject of much derision and scorn – people made fun of them or despised them

 

I imagine it was a very isolated and lonely life being a eunuch

–         You could fall in love but you couldn’t marry or have children

–         You could rise to great power but only in the service of others

–         You could be very good at what you do but still have to endure sniggers and smirks behind your back from people far less capable than you

–         You could serve a very important purpose but never actually belong or be remembered. There was a certain injustice that came with being a eunuch

 

The Ethiopian eunuch had travelled a long way to Jerusalem to worship God

–         Somehow he had heard about the God of Israel and liked what he heard

–         Assuming he had been castrated though, under the Law of Moses, he could never belong to the congregation of God’s people [2]

–         He couldn’t even be circumcised and yet he did what he could to draw near to the Lord

–         He travelled to Jerusalem to worship God, he obtained a copy of the scroll of Isaiah the prophet (no doubt at great expense) and he read these holy Scriptures to know God better

 

It appears the eunuch’s visit to Jerusalem was somewhat disappointing

–         As Jesus had demonstrated, when he cleared the temple, the whole Jewish religious system was set up to exclude foreigners like this eunuch

–         No doubt his experience in Jerusalem had made it more difficult for the eunuch to understand the Hebrew Bible (our Old Testament)

–         How might he relate with this wonderful, powerful, creative, redeeming, faithful God?

 

The Bible is difficult to understand

–         What is meant as good news often comes across as bad news or, even worse, as nonsense

–         Because the Bible is hard to understand many people these days lose patience with it and write it off as a myth or untrue

–         In this way they seek to disable the Scriptures

–         This is quite unfair to God (a denial of justice)

 

Part of our role as Christians is to interpret the meaning of Scripture for those (like the eunuch) who do genuinely want to understand what the Bible is saying

–         That’s one reason why we have Bible study groups – not just to improve our own knowledge but also to help others interpret the Scriptures

 

The guy I worked with, who had cerebral palsy, struggled with understanding the Bible and the Old Testament in particular

–         There are verses in the Old Testament which seem to us today to be quite unfair to those who live with disability.

–         For example, Leviticus 21 where it says…

 

No man with any physical defect may make the offering: no one who is blind, lame, disfigured or deformed; no one with a crippled hand or foot; no one who is a hunchback or a dwarf; no one with an eye or skin disease; and no eunuch. 

 

If you live with a disability and you don’t understand the broader context of the Bible then words like these can very unhelpful – they sound like rejection

 

What we need to understand is that the Law of Moses is not the ideal and it was not meant to be permanent

–         God gave the Law to Israel as a provisional step towards restoring His ideal for creation [3]

–         There are a number of things the Law of Moses appears to condone which are far from ideal – like slavery for instance

–         Is slavery God’s ideal? No – of course not. But God couldn’t change everything all at once, it would be too much for people.

–         So God, in His grace and wisdom, meets people where they were at and regulates certain contemptible practices (like slavery) to protect the vulnerable

–         The Law of Moses was actually a huge moral advance for people living at that time in history but it was never the end goal – it was merely a stepping stone to the ideal

 

The prophets who came after Moses (like Isaiah & Jeremiah and all those guys) also provided a stepping stone, but ultimately we find God’s ideal in Christ

–         Jesus didn’t come to do away with the Law & prophets – he came to fulfil the Law – that is to restore God’s ideal for humanity

–         If the Law and the prophets were given to help transition us to God’s ideal then Jesus came to complete that transition

 

Jesus is the one who shows us what God’s ideal looks like

–         And when we look at Jesus’ attitude towards people who lived with disability we find it was one of acceptance and respect and empowerment

 

Returning to our friend the Ethiopian eunuch

–         God, who sees everything, is aware of the eunuch’s struggle with the Old Testament and acts to help him understand the full picture

–         The Holy Spirit says to Philip, Go over to that carriage and stay close it

–         Philip runs over beside the carriage – it would have been moving quite slowly so would not be hard to keep up with

–         And Philip hears the eunuch reading from the book of Isaiah (it was customary to read aloud in those times) so he asks the eunuch…

–         “Do you understand what you are reading?”

 

Socially speaking Philip and the eunuch were poles apart

–         The eunuch was high ranking and Philip was low ranking

–         They were also likely from a different cultural background

–         But that is often the way of Christ – he comes to us in weakness, when we least expect it and in the presence of someone quite different from us

–         Despite the social distance between them the eunuch is humble enough to admit he doesn’t understand and invites Philip to sit with him

–         By inviting Philip to sit beside him the eunuch closes the gap between them

 

The passage of Scripture the eunuch was reading was this…

 

“Like a sheep that is taken to be slaughtered, like a lamb that makes no sound when its wool is cut off, he did not say a word. He was humiliated and justice was denied him. No one will be able to tell about his descendants because his life on earth has come to an end.”   

 

Interestingly the eunuch doesn’t ask Philip, what does this mean?

–         He already knows what it means from his own personal experience

–         The eunuch knows what it is to have parts of himself cut off

–         He understands humiliation and injustice

–         He is well aware that he can’t have descendants and that his life is coming to an end

–         He knows well enough what it is to be near the top and still feel like you don’t belong, still wonder what the meaning of your life is

–         He can identify with the one being written about in a very real way

–         So he asks Philip,

–         “…of whom is the prophet saying this? Of himself or of someone else?”

–         Because whoever it is, the eunuch can relate to that person profoundly

 

Philip starts where the eunuch is at by explaining that the passage he is reading is talking about Jesus – Jesus is the key to understanding the Scriptures

–         Philip then goes on to explain the good news about Jesus – that through faith in Christ we can find acceptance with God

 

We can’t be sure of all that Philip talked about but given that the eunuch had a copy of Isaiah’s scroll on his lap it’s tempting to think that Philip pointed him to chapter 56 where Isaiah says…

 

A man who has been castrated [a eunuch] should never think that because he cannot have children, he can never be part of God’s people. The Lord says to such a man, “If you honour me… and if you do what pleases me and faithfully keep my covenant, then your name will be remembered… among my people longer than if you had sons and daughters. You will never be forgotten.”

 

Do you see here how Isaiah moves beyond the Law of Moses?

–         The Law said a eunuch could not be part of God’s people but by the time of Isaiah God is saying the eunuch is able to belong

 

I can imagine Philip saying to the eunuch: the way we honour God, the way we please him, the way we keep his covenant is through faith in Christ. Put your trust in Jesus, believe in him, and you will find acceptance with God

–         You see, Jesus has fulfilled the law on our behalf and so being a foreigner and a eunuch is no longer a barrier

–         This was incredibly good news to the eunuch

 

As they travelled down the road, they came to a place where there was some water and the official said, “…What is to keep me from being baptised?”

–         In other words, I believe in Jesus and I’m willing to demonstrate my faith in Christ through baptism

–         God had clearly set this encounter up – he had clearly woven Philip’s and the eunuch’s lives together at just the right moment

–         So Philip baptised him

 

After the eunuch’s baptism the Spirit of the Lord took Philip away to preach the good news about Jesus in other places while the eunuch went on his way rejoicing because he had found acceptance with God through Jesus

 

We don’t hear any more about the Ethiopian eunuch (in the New Testament at least) but early Christian tradition, dating from Irenaeus in the second century, says that he went on to proclaim the good news about Jesus in Africa

–         The eunuch shared the treasure of the gospel he had been given

 

Conclusion:

Part of the work of our Tranzsend missionaries involves being a Philip to those around them – helping others to understand the good news about Jesus found in the Bible

[1] John 1:43-45

[2] Deuteronomy 23:1

[3] Refer to Paul Copan’s book, ‘Is God a Moral Monster’, pages 57-62.

Tawa Baptist

The Weaned Soul

Scripture: Psalm 131

Title: The weaned soul

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Humility of heart
  • Contentment of soul
  • Conclusion – Hope

 

Introduction:

On the wall here we have three pictures

–         We have Doctor Who’s ‘Tardis’

–         The Wardrobe from the ‘Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe’

–         And the suitcase from ‘Fantastic Beasts and where to find them’

 

Who can tell me what these three things share in common?  [Wait]

–         That’s right – they are all a lot bigger on the inside than they appear on the outside and they transport you to a different world

 

This morning we return to our series on the Songs of Ascents

–         These songs were probably sung by Jewish pilgrims as they made their way to the temple in Jerusalem

–         They are songs about drawing nearer to God

 

Our focus today is psalm 131

–         While this song appears quite small from the outside (only three verses long) – it is actually very spacious on the inside

–         Psalm 131 is like a gateway into a whole different realm

–         In this song the author, King David, touches on some pretty deep themes including humility of the heart, contentment of the soul and hope for the nation. From the New Revised Standard Version we read…

 

1 O Lord, my heart is not lifted up,     my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things     too great and too marvellous for me.

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

3 O Israel, hope in the Lord     from this time on and forevermore.

 

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate this reading for us

 

Humility:

I have in my hand a spirit level

–         This is a builder’s tool which shows whether something is level or not

–         If the floor or the wall or whatever it is you are measuring is straight and true then the bubble here will sit nicely between the two lines

–         But if it’s on an angle (if one part is lifted up or standing too proud) then the bubble will move outside the lines [1]

 

David begins psalm 131 by talking to the Lord about humility. He says…

–         O Lord, my heart is not lifted up, my eyes are not raised too high…

–         David is saying here that he is not proud – he is humble

 

Some people think that humility consists of being self-deprecating or having a low self-esteem or putting yourself down. It doesn’t.

–         Humility is about having a true and accurate estimation of yourself in relation to God and others

–         The person who is truly humble doesn’t think too highly of themselves nor too lowly of themselves – they are level headed in their perception

–         To be humble then is to be on the level, straight, true and honest

 

Now you might be thinking – isn’t David boasting when he says he’s not proud, doesn’t that undo his humility? (humility is a sort of a Catch 22 like that)

–         Well no. David isn’t boasting, he is simply stating the facts

–         He has got his spirit level out and everything is straight & true – nothing is lifted too high or sitting too proud

 

David says that his heart is not lifted up

–         What does he mean by his ‘heart’?

 

Contemporary western society tends to equate the heart to a person’s feelings or emotions

–         In the Bible though, the heart isn’t limited to a person’s feelings

–         Rather the heart is the seat of the will

–         In other words, the heart is where decisions are made

–         This means, what we say and do comes from the heart

–         Our personal values, the things that are important to us, the principles we live by all reside in the heart

–         The human heart is sort of like the parliament of the individual

–         The heart governs a person’s life

 

You sometimes hear people talking about ‘inviting Jesus into your heart’

–         What does that mean?

–         It means to let Jesus sit on the throne of your life,

–         Let him be Lord, let him be Prime Minister,

–         Give him executive authority, make Jesus your power of attorney

–         Let Christ inform and guide the decisions you make

 

When David says to the Lord, my heart is not lifted up (or not proud) he means something like: I don’t make decisions without you God

–         I am not wilfully disobedient

–         I don’t think that I know better than you Lord

–         I submit my will to your will

–         I give you, O God, power of attorney over my life

 

Now at this point some of you, who know David’s story, might be thinking…

–         ‘Really? Is that right David? What about Uriah and Bathsheba? How did God feature in those decisions?’

–         And that’s a fair point – David wasn’t perfect.

–         We don’t know exactly when David wrote psalm 131

–         It could have been before the debacle with Uriah and Bathsheba or it might have been after that, when David had repented

–         We can be fairly confident he didn’t write it during that time

 

In any case we are told that David was a man after God’s own heart

–         Meaning that, generally speaking, David pursued God’s will

–         He went after what God wanted in most situations

 

Returning to verse 1 – David goes on to say to the Lord:

–         …my eyes are not raised too high

–         If a person’s heart is where decisions come from then a person’s eyes relate to perception

–         It’s like David is saying: I don’t look down on others

–         I don’t think of myself as better than other people

–         I don’t even compare myself to them

–         And I don’t see my desires as being more important than anyone else’s

 

Sometimes we can be bitterly disappointed when we don’t get what we want, especially if someone else does get what we want

–         That’s my seat, I always sit there

–         I was looking forward to that last piece of cake and someone beat me to it

–         I really wanted to be selected for the Lion’s tour of NZ but Warren Gatling didn’t pick me

–         Or, I wanted to sleep in but the kids woke me up early

–         These are frivolous examples of course but you get the point:

–         The truly humble person knows that it’s not realistic to expect to always get what you want

–         Humility is the awareness that we are not the centre of the universe – the world doesn’t revolve around us

 

The second half of verse 1 continues this theme of humility

–         I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvellous for me.

 

Here David appears to be saying, I accept my limits – in particular the limits of my understanding and the limits of my ability

–         Humility means accepting that we don’t know everything and learning to live with mystery, which can be more difficult for some than others

 

Science is able to explain many things about the physical universe but not everything

–         In 1953 Albert Einstein wrote a letter in response to one of his critics

–         In the letter he says…

 

“Dear Mr. Moffat, our situation is the following. We are standing in front of a closed box which we cannot open, and we try hard to discover what is and is not in it.” [2] (The closed box Einstein was referring to is the universe)

 

Which came first? The chicken or the egg?

–         What happens to something when it enters a black hole in space?

–         Who built Stonehenge?

–         Is there intelligent life on other planets?

 

We could go on but I don’t mean to side track your thinking or occupy your mind with things too great and marvellous

–         If we are this limited in our understanding of the physical universe how much more limited are we when it comes to understanding God?

–         Humility means accepting the limits of what we know and learning to live with mystery

 

Humility of heart is perhaps the most important of all the virtues

–         It’s a bit like the soil out of which the other virtues grow

–         Like the virtue of contentment – which we read about in verse 2…

 

Contentment:

But [instead of occupying my time and thoughts with things too great and marvellous for me – instead of comparing myself with others and instead of lifting what I want above what God wants]

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

 

David has talked about the heart, the eyes and the mind

–         Now he talks about his soul

–         What is the human soul?

 

Well, describing the soul is like putting together a jigsaw puzzle – you can’t really define the soul in one pithy sentence or reduce it to a formula

–         The best we can do is describe the soul in pieces and then admit that we don’t have all the pieces – there are limits to our understanding here

 

The soul is different from the heart and the spirit

–         The heart is where values are held and decisions are made – like the parliament of the individual

–         And the human spirit is our capacity to connect or relate with God and others – sort of like wifi or cell-phone coverage

–         While our soul is the life force which animates us and connects the various aspects of our self

 

If the term ‘life force’ is too Star Wars sounding for you then you might prefer Dallas Willard’s metaphor, where he compares the soul to an inner stream, which refreshes, nourishes and gives strength to every other element of our life [3]

–         Just as a river gives life to the land it passes through, so too our soul gives life to our body, our mind, our heart and our spirit

–         Normally we can see a river or a stream but the stream of our soul is underground, it is hidden deep beneath the surface

–         In fact the soul is the deepest level of life and power in the human being

 

Expanding on Dallas’ metaphor we could say that if the soul is a stream of water, then God is the source (or the well-spring) of the soul

–         While the human spirit is the channel (or the conduit) through which the water of our soul flows

 

The thing that convinces me most that we have a soul is death

–         Whenever I see a dead body it’s obvious to me that the soul has departed

–         Looking at a corpse is quite different from looking at someone sleeping

–         Death has a certain pallor – a kind of greyness

–         A dead body is missing something more than just a heart beat

–         It’s missing the soul – it’s missing the stream of its life force

 

Returning to psalm 131 – David says he has calmed and quieted his soul

–         What does it mean then to quieten your soul?

–         Well, sitting still in silence, is a helpful start but it’s not usually enough by itself – our mind can be racing even if our tongue is still

–         We quieten our soul by abandoning outcomes to God

–         By not seeking to manipulate the end result

–         Not seeking to make ourselves look good in the eyes of others

–         Not seeking success or fame or superiority

–         Embracing the truth that we (on our own) don’t have the resources to make things turn out right

–         The soul settles down and finds its level when we let go of our reputation and simply trust God with the outcome

 

Dallas Willard compares the soul to an inner stream

–         Like any metaphor though it has its limits, it’s just one piece to the puzzle

–         King David provides another piece, comparing his soul to a weaned child with its mother – The poetry in this verse is profound

 

To say the soul is like a child indicates that the soul is not static or fixed but is dynamic, changing and growing, developing and learning

–         Furthermore it seems David is implying that God is the mother of his soul

–         We normally hear God described as a Father but sometimes the Bible associates God with motherhood

–         This is entirely appropriate – God cannot be contained by our narrow human categories

–         In any case, David appears to be saying that his soul feels a close bond with God – like a mother and child

 

The aspect that is underlined most strongly though is that David’s soul is like a weaned child

–         (He says ‘weaned child’ twice, which is significant in such a short poem)

–         To be weaned is to become accustomed to managing without something which we were previously dependent on

–         In the case of a mother and a baby, the child becomes accustomed to food other than it’s mother’s milk

–         So the child stops drinking its mother’s milk and starts eating solid food

–         It’s not that milk is bad – it is good for a time – but as the child grows it needs more substantial nourishment

 

A baby cries when it is hungry so the mother will feed it

–         A weaned child doesn’t cry though – a weaned child knows it will be fed and waits for mum to prepare the meal

 

How does God feed the soul?

–         God feeds the soul with meaning

–         When something is meaningful it is worthwhile – it has a point to it, a purpose that is satisfying

–         Meaning answers the ‘why’ questions of life & death

–         We often find meaning in stories – that’s why the Bible is full of stories – they feed our soul, they help us to make sense of our lives and our losses

 

Ultimately God is the one who gives meaning to our lives

–         The thing is, we often have to wait for that meaning to be revealed

 

Abraham couldn’t see the meaning of his wealth when he had no children to pass it on to – he waited many years for God to fulfil his promise

–         But his wait was not in vain

 

I imagine Joseph struggled to see the meaning of his life when he was sold into slavery by his brothers and then later sent to prison for a crime he didn’t commit

–         But God used Joseph to save millions from starvation

 

Moses probably didn’t see much meaning in his life as a shepherd caring for sheep in the desert for 40 years, especially after being raised in a palace

–         But God used Moses to save the Israelites from slavery

 

The disciples struggled to see the meaning in Jesus’ death on the cross

–         At the time it may have seemed to them like they had wasted the last 3 years of their lives

–         Little did they know the cross was part of God’s plan to redeem creation

 

You may be finding it hard to locate the meaning in your life at the moment

–         Perhaps your job seems pointless or maybe you don’t have a job

–         Perhaps you were once very involved in church work or missions but now you feel like God has forgotten you

–         Maybe you have suffered a terrible loss and the grief is overwhelming

–         Hang in there – you never know when God will reveal the meaning

 

John of the Cross was a 16th Century Carmelite monk who didn’t really understand the meaning of his life’s work at the time

–         Through his thinking and writing John was among those who tried to lead a reform of the Catholic church during the 1500’s

–         John was arrested by those he was trying to help and during his confinement he wrote what became a classic, The Dark Night of the Soul

–         I don’t expect he ever imagined God would use his writing to help millions in the centuries that followed

 

Let me read you some excerpts from his book – John speaks directly to this process of God weaning the Christian soul…

 

After a soul has been converted by God, that soul is nurtured and caressed by the [Holy] Spirit. Like a loving mother, God cares for and comforts the infant soul by feeding it spiritual milk. Such souls will find great delight in this stage. They will begin praying with great urgency and perseverance; they will engage in all kinds of religious activities because of the joy they experience in them.

But there will come a time when God will bid them to grow deeper. He will remove the previous consolation from the soul in order to teach it virtue and prevent it from developing vice…

They will enter the dark night of the soul and find all of these things removed. They will have the pleasure taken away so that the soul may be purified. For a soul will never grow until it is able to let go of the tight grasp it has on God…

When their delight [in spiritual milk] comes to an end, these persons are very anxious and frustrated just as an infant is angry when it is taken away from its mother’s breast…

Let it suffice to say, then, that God perceives the imperfections within us, and because of his love for us, urges us to grow up. His love is not content to leave us in our weakness, and for this reason he takes us into a dark night. He weans us from all of the pleasures by giving us dry times and inward darkness. [4]   

 

David’s soul had been feeding on spiritual milk – but God weaned him off milk in order to help David grow up (spiritually)

–         David’s soul had been through the dark night – a time of disorientation and dryness where his usual devotional routines (like writing and singing worship songs for example) had lost all their pleasure

–         But now the dark night has done its work and David’s soul is content

–         He doesn’t cry out to God every time something doesn’t go his way

–         His prayer time isn’t a long shopping list detailing all his needs & wants or worries & fears

–         He knows that God understands his needs and he trusts God to provide

–         David has abandoned the outcome to God

–         His soul has found contentment with the Lord

 

Now some of you will have been through the weaning process we call the dark night of the soul and you will know exactly what David and John of the Cross are talking about

–         Others of you wouldn’t have faced the dark night yet – that’s okay

–         If you haven’t faced the dark night, know that it’s coming

–         And when it does come – don’t panic

–         Be calm, be still, quieten your soul – abandon the outcome to God

–         When your soul is being weaned by God you may feel like you are losing your faith – you’re not

 

Hang on through the dark night – God is bringing you to the next stage of faith in him, where you will be less anxious to know all the answers and better able to accept His will, even when His will is unpleasant or delays your satisfaction

 

Conclusion – Hope:

David finishes his song by addressing the nation…

–         3 O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time on and forevermore.

 

Hope has to do with believing something good is coming in the future

–         Hope is a form of meaning more substantial than milk

–         The bread of hope feeds our soul in the present

–         Hope sustains our soul with joy and energy

 

God has weaned David off spiritual milk and is now feeding him the bread of hope – David (the king) wants to share this bread of hope with his people

 

We are currently in the season of Easter, as we wait for Pentecost

–         For Jesus’ first disciples Easter was a time of weaning

–         There was Easter Saturday of course when Jesus was dead and the disciples were confused and grief stricken

–         (A very acute dose of the dark night of the soul)

–         But the time between Jesus’ resurrection and Pentecost was also a time of weaning

–         Previously the disciples had access to Jesus 24-7

–         He was present with them physically all the time – like a mother with a small child

–         But after Jesus’ resurrection and ascension the disciples’ way of relating with Jesus had to change

–         Jesus was no longer present with them physically

–         The disciples had to go through this weaning process in order to grow up in the faith

 

Jesus didn’t abandon them altogether though

–         Jesus gave them the gift of the Holy Spirit and the bread of hope

–         He promised them he would return one day in glory to make all things right – this is our hope too

 

https://soundcloud.com/tawabaptist/30-april-2017-weaning-the-soul

[1] The inspiration for this illustration comes from Josh Moody’s book, ‘Journey to Joy’, page 137

[2] http://discovermagazine.com/2004/sep/einsteins-grand-quest

[3] You can read more about Dallas Willard’s thoughts on the soul in his book, ‘Renovation of the Heart’, pages 169-181.

[4] From Richard Foster and James Smith’s book, ‘Devotional Classics’, page 33-36.

Tawa Baptist

Resurrection means transformation

Scripture: John 20:10-18

 

Title: Resurrection means transformation

 

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Jesus’ resurrection transforms Mary’s life
  • Jesus’ resurrection transforms our relationship with God
  • Jesus’ resurrection transforms death
  • Conclusion

 

Introduction:

Three of four weeks ago I went to see the latest version of Beauty and the Beast at the movies with one of my daughters

–         The theatre was packed – in fact there were signs up when we arrived saying the movie had been sold out for the day

–         Fortunately we had booked online so we got a seat

 

In a number of ways Beauty and the Beast is a parable of the Gospel story

–         It’s not an exact match with the gospel but it does speak to some of the deepest needs of the human soul – in particular our need for redemption and transformation. I think that’s why it’s so popular

 

For those who aren’t familiar with the story a selfish prince is turned from a man into a hideous beast and love is the only thing that will break the spell

–         Not superficial romantic love, but real love

–         Deep unselfish love which sees beneath the surface and is committed to the other at great personal cost

 

The hero of the story is a young woman called Belle

–         And the villain is a man called Gaston

–         All the villagers love Gaston but (like the Pharisees in the gospel) he is not as good as he appears – Belle sees through him

 

Long story short, Belle is the Christ figure in the story – she shows the beast what unselfish love looks like

–         The beast learns to love unselfishly too and becomes the recipient of Belle’s love, thus setting him free so he is transformed into a man again

 

The prince turned beast represents humanity under the spell of sin

–         Through the fall we have become beast like

–         Christ is the one who shows us what it is to be fully human

–         Jesus redeems us and transforms us

–         He sets us free from the spell we are under and restores our full humanity

 

Of course we can’t press the analogy too far

–         Beauty and the Beast is a fairy tale – it is a made up story

–         While the gospel is a true story – the death and resurrection of Jesus actually happened in history

 

Today is Easter Sunday

–         Easter Sunday is about the resurrection of Jesus

–         The resurrection is the most important event in all of human history

–         The resurrection changes everything

–         It changes our lives now, it changes our relationship with God forever and it even changes death

 

Earlier in the service we heard a reading from John chapter 20, verses 1-9

–         This morning’s message is based on the verses which follow

–         From John 20:10-18 we read…

 

10 Then the disciples returned to their homes. 11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; 12 and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet.

13 They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” 14 When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus.

15 Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.”

16 Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). 17 Jesus said to her, “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

18 Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her.

 

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate this reading for us

 

Jesus’ resurrection transforms Mary’s life:

When I was about 4 or 5 years old I got lost in Chartwell Square

–         Chartwell Square was the latest shopping mall complex near where we used to live in Hamilton

–         Somehow I got separated from my Mum and no one could tell me where she was

–         I wasn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer but for the first time in my life I had a good idea

–         It occurred to me that if I went back to our car then eventually I would find mum because at some point she would return to the car also

–         This was back in the days when people didn’t lock their vehicles so I could get inside without a key

–         There I was waiting inside our burnt orange Mark 1 Ford Escort

–         Time seemed to go incredibly slowly and I became upset wondering if I would ever see my family again

 

Looking back, sitting in that empty car feeling lost, was a bit like being in a tomb – it was like facing the end of something

–         My mum did eventually turn up again though and we were reunited

 

Our Bible reading this morning focuses on Mary Magdalene and her reunion with Jesus

–         So who is Mary Magdalene?

–         Well, she was a different Mary to Jesus’ mother

 

‘Magdalene’ is probably not Mary’s surname

–         Rather it is a reference to the village she comes from called ‘Magdala’

 

Luke 8 tells us Mary Magdalene was the woman whom Jesus delivered from seven demons

–         We don’t feel comfortable talking about demons these days do we

–         It sounds superstitious or unscientific – backward even

–         They say the greatest trick the devil ever played was convincing the world he doesn’t exist

–         But evil is still present in the world, even if it goes by a different name

 

Having a demon in you is like being ruled by a fascist dictator

–         You are not in control, you are not free – it is torment

–         Life is reduced to a hellish existence and one feels less than human

–         One longs for oblivion – to simply not exist, to go to sleep without dreaming and never wake up

–         In fact the idea of eternal life becomes a nightmare

–         You start to think – if this is what life is then who wants to live forever?

God can keep His heaven

 

Other people don’t necessarily understand what you are suffering because it’s going on inside you – it’s invisible, they can’t see it

–         If you have a physical illness then people usually have sympathy for you

–         They send you cards and flowers – they might make you meals or put you on the prayer chain or maybe even start a ‘give a little’ page for you

–         But if you have a demon, people generally avoid you

–         You become isolated and feel lonely in a crowd

 

Mary didn’t just have one demon – she had seven – so there was no reprieve for her, no rest, no Sabbath

–         Then one day Jesus sees her suffering and has compassion on her

–         He gets it – he understands her torment and he sees her (the real her)

–         More than just understanding her though he actually has the power to send the demons packing – and that’s what he does

 

Jesus’ redeems her soul – he sets Mary free

–         Now, instead of 7 evil dictators bossing her around and making her life a misery, she has one Lord – his name is Jesus and he is good

–         Jesus isn’t taking anything from her – he isn’t demanding any sort of repayment – she is free and chooses to use her freedom to serve him

 

Luke 8 tells us that Mary Magdalene was one of the women who helped to support Jesus and his disciples out of her own means

–         Mary followed Jesus, partly out of gratitude for what he had done for her, but also because Jesus gave her life meaning and purpose again

–         Not only that, but with Jesus came a community to belong to – other people who had been through similar experiences of suffering and redemption

 

John 19 tells us that Mary had been at the cross when Jesus died

–         This shows she had courage and was devoted to Jesus in a spirit of unselfish loyal love

–         Now, in John 20, we find Mary again, on Sunday morning at the tomb, ready to finish the job of caring for Jesus’ body in death

 

Peter and the other disciple return home but Mary stands weeping outside the tomb – This is bit like returning to the car when you are lost – it was Mary’s best chance of finding Jesus

–         Mary sits with her grief – she doesn’t rush away

–         She gives her soul time to catch up with what’s happening

–         You see, in losing Jesus Mary hasn’t just lost a good friend (as difficult as that is) – she has also lost the meaning and purpose of her life

–         For the last 2 or 3 years Mary’s whole life had revolved around Jesus

–         With Jesus she had a valued role, an important job to do

–         Now with Jesus gone there was this huge hole in her life

–         What was she supposed to do, where did she fit, what was her role now?

 

We can understand Mary’s loss in some ways

–         Maybe you’ve had the experience of losing a job or going into retirement and at the same time feeling like you’ve lost your identity a little bit too

–         Or when the kids leave home and you are no longer needed to take care of them – you find yourself asking, ‘what’s my role now?’

–         Or shifting towns and losing your networks of support and belonging – where do I fit?

 

Perhaps Mary was also afraid of the demons coming back now that Jesus had gone

 

When Mary looks into the tomb she sees two angels in white sitting where Jesus had been lying

–         The angels say to Mary, “Woman, why are you weeping?”

–         Their question suggests that sorrow is out of place

–         Mary explains: They have taken away my Lord and I do not know where they have laid him

–         Mary’s concern appears to be that Jesus’ enemies have stolen his body to show further disrespect to him in death

–         However, the presence of angels is a clue that it is not robbers who have removed the body, rather what has happened stems from God’s power [1]

 

Mary turns around to see Jesus standing behind her (in the garden – outside the tomb) but Mary doesn’t recognise him – she thinks he is the gardener

–         Mary is still focused on the tomb

–         The photocopier of her mind is jammed with grief – she can’t get past Jesus’ death

 

Jesus repeats the angel’s question, “Woman, why are you weeping?” and then adds his own question, “Who are you looking for?”

–         But Mary doesn’t quite get it yet – her soul needs more time to catch up

–         So Jesus says her name, ‘Mary’

–         Understanding spiritual reality is a gift from God – we need God’s help

–         In saying her name Jesus is opening Mary’s mind to understand the reality of his resurrection

–         All at once Mary gets it and responds in Hebrew, their special language

–         (Speaking Hebrew like this shows the tenderness and closeness between them both)

 

Resurrection means transformation

–         It isn’t just that Jesus has been transformed though

–         Mary too has been transformed

 

You see, what we don’t pick up from reading the English translation is that Jesus spoke Mary’s name in Hebrew – everywhere else it is written in Greek

–         ‘Mary’, in Hebrew, is Miriam

–         Miriam was of course Moses’ older sister

–         Mary Magdalene, who everyone avoided and feared because of her 7 demons, becomes the new Miriam to the new Moses

–         Mary isn’t just redeemed – she is also transformed

 

Just as Miriam took care of her brother Moses’ needs, so too Mary had taken care of Jesus’ needs

–         Just as Miriam oversaw the baby Moses as he journeyed down the Nile, so too Mary had overseen Jesus’ journey from the cross to the tomb [2]

 

In Jewish society 2000 years ago women were not trusted as legal witnesses

–         And yet Jesus sows the seeds of social transformation by giving Mary the honour of being the first to bear witness to his resurrection

 

The Old Testament Miriam became a prophet bearing a message to Israel

–         Now the New Testament Miriam (Mary Magdalene) carries the most important prophetic message ever: Jesus is risen

 

It’s quite true what Jesus said: the first shall be last and the last shall be first

–         Mary had been last and now she was first

–         First to discover the empty tomb

–         First to see the risen Jesus

–         And first to tell the good news of Jesus’ resurrection

 

Resurrection means transformation

–         Jesus’ resurrection transformed Mary’s life

–         And Jesus’ resurrection transforms our relationship with God too

 

Jesus’ resurrection transforms our relationship with God:  

Upon recognising Jesus, Mary must have instinctively embraced him, for Jesus says: “Do not hold onto me because I have not ascended to the Father…”

 

These words of Jesus are easy to misunderstand

–         It’s not that Jesus doesn’t want to be touched by Mary

–         He’s not afraid of being contaminated before going back up to heaven

–         Rather it’s like Jesus is saying: ‘It’s okay Mary, you can let go of me now. There’s no need to keep hanging on – I’m not about to disappear up to heaven just yet. I plan to stick around a bit longer before I ascend to my Father – so you will get to see me again before I depart.’ [3]

–         Jesus’ words are a reassurance to Mary, a comfort (not a rebuke)

 

At the same time Jesus is also indicating that the relationship will need to change, for while Jesus isn’t ascending to the Father immediately he was still planning to return to heaven

–         Mary and the other disciples should not assume that Jesus’ resurrection means everything will go back to the way it was before

–         Jesus’ presence with his followers was about change

 

“Mary cannot ‘hold on’ to the way Jesus has lived and worked among them but must instead rethink the nature of intimacy with Jesus. It will be a new intimacy, a spiritual intimacy, realised in the coming of the Holy Spirit”  [4]

–         In other words, once Jesus does make his final ascension his presence on earth will be mediated through the Holy Spirit rather than a physical body

 

In verse 17 Jesus says to Mary:

–         Go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God’

 

Jesus’ brothers in this context refers to his disciples

–         The implication seems to be that Jesus’ resurrection transforms the very nature of our relationship with him and with God

–         Jesus says, God is ‘my Father and your Father’ – we have the same Father so now we are family

–         Jesus is the natural born Son of God and we (the followers of Jesus) are God’s adopted sons and daughters

 

Resurrection means transformation

–         Jesus’ resurrection transformed Mary’s life

–         Jesus’ resurrection transforms our relationship with God

–         And Jesus’ resurrection even transforms death

 

Jesus’ resurrection transforms death:

Let me tell you a story…

 

Once there was a rich young man

–         His father was a millionaire and the young man was in line to inherit his father’s fortune

–         Most people think that children who grow up rich don’t know the value of money because they’ve never had to work a day in their life

–         That’s not true – those who grow up with a trust fund know the value of money better than most and it generally causes them to despise it, if not themselves

 

This young man lost his mother when he was 8 years old

–         She died of a rare illness and despite many costly treatments there was nothing his father or the doctors could do for her

–         It was a painful loss at the time but it was also the making of him

–         When you have lost something money can’t replace it has a way of teaching you what really matters in life

 

Later, when he was in his 20’s, he met a girl and fell in love with her

–         They were married and for a short while he thought their lives were bliss

–         But it turned out she was more in love with his bank account than she was with him and she left for another man

–         The betrayal broke his heart but then ‘a heart that is broken is a heart that is open’ [5]

 

The young man continued working in one of his father’s companies but it didn’t matter how many hours he put in or how many good decisions he made or how good his golfing handicap was he still felt both lost and trapped at the same time

–         In other people’s eyes he would always be the boss’ son who had everything handed to him on a plate

–         His wealth & privilege was a cruel dictator – it isolated him

–         He felt alone in a crowd

–         People don’t have too much sympathy for you when you are rich

 

One day he received a letter from a child he had been sponsoring through World Vision

–         The child lived in an orphanage and was inviting him to come and visit

–         Sick of his job the young man got his vaccinations and boarded the plane for Uganda

 

He knew Africa would be different to what he was used to but nothing could have prepared him for the contrast

–         It was the smell more than anything that hit him

 

In a strange way though the young man felt more at home in the orphanage with his sponsor child than he did in his father’s board room or on the golf course

–         Over there no one really knew him so he was free to be himself without all the prejudice that went with being a millionaire’s son

–         He didn’t know poverty and hunger like they did

–         Nor did he know what it was like to be a child soldier

–         But he did understand what it was like to lose that which money can’t replace – he knew betrayal and loneliness well enough too

–         In a beautifully ironic way the things he had suffered in life became a nursery for compassion

 

The visit was meant to be for just a few days but the young man stayed on and helped out around the place

–         Turns out there were things his money was useful for

–         For the first time in a long time his life made sense

–         He felt like he had meaning and purpose and he felt like he belonged

–         By letting him in the young man’s sponsor child had also set him free

–         This was his redemption

 

The young man continued working in the orphanage as a volunteer for nearly two years and was happy until one day one of the children, whom he felt particularly close to, became ill and died

–         Unlike his mother though it wasn’t a rare disease – it was something that could have been easily prevented with a better health service

 

The young man was deeply distraught – he didn’t know if he could continue working at the orphanage

–         In fact he couldn’t understand why the others seemed to bounce back so easily – didn’t they know that death was the end?

–         They must have known – these kids had seen more death than most people and yet, somehow, they managed to keep their hope

–         But the photocopier of his mind was jammed with grief – he couldn’t get past the child’s death

 

After several weeks one of the nuns, who worked with him, noticed his thousand yard stare wasn’t going away and she sat with him for a while

–         She didn’t say anything at first – just sat there and listened in silence

–         Then she told him about the story of Jesus’ resurrection

–         The young man had heard the Easter story before but when she spoke, it was like he was actually hearing it properly for the first time

–         The lights went on and he finally understood – finally believed

–         Jesus’ resurrection transformed him

–         The resurrection changes everything

–         Because of the resurrection death is not the end – it is a new beginning

–         Jesus’ resurrection is the only currency that can restore those things money can’t replace

 

Conclusion:

Let us pray…

–         Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, your resurrection changes everything

–         Your resurrection has the power to transform our lives in the here & now, to make life worth living

–         Your resurrection also has the power to transform our relationship with God – making us His sons and daughters

–         And it has the power to transform death, from an end to a new beginning

–         Fill us with your Spirit we pray Jesus, so that we may live in the light and energy of your resurrection life. Amen.

[1] Gary Burge, NIVAC John, Page 555

[2] Ibid, page 574

[3] This is my paraphrase of Leon Morris’ thought in the NICNT on John, page 742

[4] Gary Burge, NIVAC on John, page 567

[5] A line from a U2 song, by Bono

Tawa Baptist

Jesus Prays

Scripture: Mark 14:32-46

 

Title: Jesus Prays

 

Our first reading today comes from Mark 14, verses 32-46…

 

32 They went to a place called Gethsemane, and Jesus said to his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” 33 He took Peter, James and John along with him, and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled. 34 “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death,” he said to them. “Stay here and keep watch.”

 

35 Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him. 36 “Abba, Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I want, but what you want.”

 

37 Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Simon,” he said to Peter, “are you asleep? Couldn’t you keep watch for one hour? 38 Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

 

39 Once more he went away and prayed the same thing. 40 When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. They did not know what to say to him.

 

41 Returning the third time, he said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Enough! The hour has come. Look, the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners. 42 Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!”

 

43 Just as he was speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, appeared. With him was a crowd armed with swords and clubs, sent from the chief priests, the teachers of the law, and the elders.

 

44 Now the betrayer had arranged a signal with them: “The one I kiss is the man; arrest him and lead him away under guard.” 45 Going at once to Jesus, Judas said, “Rabbi!” and kissed him. 46 The men seized Jesus and arrested him.

 

May God bless the reading of His word

 

One of the things that strikes me about Mark’s account of Gethsemane is the importance of prayer to Jesus

–         But what is prayer?

 

Well, sometimes we understand what something is by its opposite

–         The opposite of light is darkness

–         The opposite of vision is blindness

–         The opposite of reality is fantasy

–         The opposite of facing something is avoiding it

–         The opposite of awareness is ignorance

–         And, in Mark 14, the opposite of prayer is sleep

–         While Jesus goes off to pray, the disciples fall asleep

 

When we sleep we are unconscious, unaware of reality

–         If the opposite of prayer is sleep then prayer is waking up to reality (to truth), becoming more conscious of God’s presence and will

–         (After all God is the ultimate reality)

 

Prayer also includes becoming more aware of what is going on inside us

–         When we pray we get our head and heart together

–         We get organized, we get mentally & emotionally ready

–         A good prayer time gives us both the God awareness and the self-awareness to better help others

 

Jesus’ prayer in the garden reveals his full awareness of the situation

 

In Mark 14 Jesus’ prayer time begins with profound emotional awareness

–         Jesus began to be deeply distressed and troubled, saying “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death,”

–         This reminds us of the refrain from Psalms 42 & 43…

–         Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me?

 

Sometimes we can feel overwhelmed with emotional distress and we are not sure why

–         It takes time & effort to pray – to become conscious of what God wants and to come to terms with how we feel about that

–         Jesus had known for some time that it was God’s will for him to go to the cross

–         Now he was having to deal with the intense pressure and tension this created within him

 

Jesus didn’t want to suffer this separation from God his Father and so he says…

–         “Abba, Father, everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I want, but what you want.”

–         This prayer is the fruit of intimate agony – it is beautifully honest, revealing a love stronger than death

 

In contrast to Jesus who is fully awake, fully conscious, fully aware of what is happening, the disciples keep falling asleep

–         They are unconscious – unaware of what is about to happen

 

If you are a test batsman about to face a fast bowler

–         You don’t go to sleep or let your mind wander off in a daydream

–         You make sure you are ready

–         You look at the field placements to see what your options are

–         You make sure you know where your middle stump is

–         You keep your eye on the ball

–         A small lapse of concentration and you could get out

 

Jesus is about to be arrested and crucified – a terrible thing is about to happen and the disciples aren’t ready

–         Jesus asks them to stay awake – to keep watch and pray so that they will not fall into temptation

–         Jesus doesn’t ask his disciples to pray for him

–         He asks his disciples to pray for themselves – that is, to become aware of the reality before them and within them

–         Prayer is how Jesus’ followers keep their eye on the ball

 

Interestingly Jesus says to the disciples…

–         The Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak

–         I’m pretty sure Jesus isn’t talking about the human spirit here

–         I think he means the Holy Spirit is willing to give us strength to pray and resist temptation when our bodies are tired & weak

–         So prayer is not something we do in our own strength

–         Like Paul says in his letter to the Romans…

–         The Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.

 

Now in saying that the opposite of prayer is sleep, I’m not suggesting that sleep is bad

–         Sleep is good – in many ways sleep is like a foundation – we need our rest

–         It’s really more a case of timing – sometimes prayer is even more important than sleep and Gethsemane was one of those times

 

When Judas turns up with temple guards to arrest Jesus – the Lord is not surprised – he is fully aware of what is going on, he sees it coming

–         (Look, here comes my betrayer)

–         Jesus is mentally and emotionally ready to face his ordeal because he has worked through the tensions within himself

–         The disciples on the other hand are quite unprepared

 

As Christians we are to have an attitude of prayerful awareness

–         This might mean starting your day with the question: ‘What do you want to do today Lord?’

–         It could mean looking for God’s presence throughout your day – both in the ordinary routine and the unexpected interruptions

–         It means being in touch with what you are feeling and giving your soul the time it needs to catch up – not pressing your feelings down or putting them aside for too long

–         So if you are angry or hurt or happy or sad, take time to sit with that feeling – be still before God, give Him room to show you what He wants to reveal

–         Feelings are the messengers of the soul – deep calls to deep

 

We could go on but you get the point

–         Prayer is about facing reality – not avoiding it

 

What realities are you facing this Easter?

–         What weighs your soul down in sorrow?

–         What does God want in your situation?

–         And how does this make you feel?

 

Prayer

Let’s face reality by praying the Lord’s Prayer together now…

 

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. Amen.

 

 

 

https://soundcloud.com/tawabaptist/14-apr-2017-gethsemane

Tawa Baptist

Accident Investigation Form

ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION FORM


1.     Particulars of accident
Date of accident:  
Time of accident:  
Location of accident:  
Date reported:  

 

2.  The injured person
Name:
Address:

 

 
Date of birth:
Phone number:
Reason for being at the location:
⃝    Employee ⃝    Visitor ⃝    Contractor
⃝    Volunteer ⃝    Congregation ⃝    Other:
Length of employment (if applicable):  
Injury  
Tick the type of injury: Part of the body affected:
⃝    Laceration/cut  
⃝    Scratch/abrasion  
⃝    Strain/sprain  
⃝    Bruising  
⃝    Foreign body  
⃝    Heat burn/scald  
⃝    Internal injury  
⃝    Dislocation  
⃝    Fracture  
⃝    Poisoning  
⃝    Chemical burn/gas  
⃝    Other (please specify):

 
Type of treatment given:
Name(s) of person or service (e.g. medical centre) giving treatment:

 

 

 

3. Damaged property
Property or material damaged and the nature of damage:
 
 
 
 
 

 

4. The accident
Description    
Describe what happened.

Include a drawing of the event if this was a vehicle accident, or if a picture will help in the investigation and to address the hazard. Please draw on the other side of this form, if needed.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Analysis    
What caused the accident?
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
How serious could it have been?
⃝    Minor ⃝    Serious ⃝    Very serious
If nothing changes, would this incident occur again?
⃝    Rarely ⃝    Occasionally ⃝    Often
Prevention    
What action has been taken to stop another accident like this from happening again?
Action By Whom When
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

 

5. Investigation
Name of person(s) who investigated  incident:
 
 
Have Worksafe been advised? ⃝    YES ⃝    NO
If YES, date of advisement:  

 


NOTES AND EXPLANATORY GUIDANCE

The Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 places requirements on ‘Persons Conducting a Business or Undertaking’ (PCBUs) to record and investigate accidents. The church, as an organisation that employs staff and uses volunteers, is deemed to be a PCBU.

The purpose of the investigation procedure is to determine actual causes of an accident/incident and to put in place procedures or controls to minimise the chances of a recurrence.

 

Serious harm and significant hazards – notifiable incidents

A notifiable incident is where someone’s health or safety is seriously endangered or threatened (or results in death). A notifiable incident also covers incidents which may have only resulted in minor (non-notifiable) injuries but had the potential to cause serious injury, illness or death (i.e. significant hazards).

If the incident is notifiable – that is, it caused serious harm, or the hazard is significant and could cause serious harm – then do not use this form. The correct form to use is the “Form of register or notification of circumstance of accident or serious harm” which is also available at the church office or on the website.

Note: when an incident results in serious harm, WorkSafe NZ must be contacted immediately and the scene must be isolated and protected for inspection.

Tawa Baptist

Forgiven

Scripture: Psalm 130

 

Title: Forgiven

 

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Guilt
  • Forgiveness
  • Waiting
  • Conclusion

 

Introduction:

When I was a kid, for special occasions like birthdays, we would go to Pizza Hutt for dinner

–         This was in the days when Pizza Hutt had an actual restaurant you could sit down in – It seems to be all takeaways now

–         Anyway one of the exciting things about Pizza Hutt, for kids, was the little red pencils and activity sheets they gave you as you waited for your pizza to come to the table

–         On these activity sheets they usually had a maze like this one…

 

The idea was to trace your pencil through the maze, in one side and out the other, without going down a dead end

–         It doesn’t sound like much fun when I explain it now (in an age of iPads) but when you are young almost everything is full of wonder

 

This morning we continue our series on the Songs of Ascents

–         These songs were probably sung by Jewish pilgrims as they made their way to the temple in Jerusalem

–         They are songs about drawing nearer to God

–         Sometimes drawing closer to God can feel like trying to find your way through a maze – you don’t always know if you’ve taken the right turn and you sometimes get lost and come up against a dead end

 

Our focus today is psalm 130

–         In this song the psalmist describes a way out of the maze when you are lost – It is the way of forgiveness & waiting in hope

–         From the New Revised Standard Version, we read…

 

1 Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord. 2     Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive     to the voice of my supplications!

3 If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities,     Lord, who could stand? 4 But there is forgiveness with you,     so that you may be revered.

5 I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,     and in his word I hope; 6 my soul waits for the Lord     more than those who watch for the morning,     more than those who watch for the morning.

7 O Israel, hope in the Lord!     For with the Lord there is steadfast love,     and with him is great power to redeem. 8 It is he who will redeem Israel     from all its iniquities.

 

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate this song for us

 

Psalm 130 shows us a way out of the maze

–         It takes us from the prison of guilt to the freedom of redemption

–         The way out is characterised by forgiveness and waiting in hope

–         Let’s begin by considering the depths of guilt

 

Guilt:

Tell me, what happens as you go down deeper and deeper under water? [Wait]

 

That’s right, it gets darker and darker

–         Not only that but the pressure on you gets heavier and heavier

–         We can’t breathe under water so the deeper we go the more we feel trapped and therefore the more panicky (or fearful) we become

 

In verse 1 the psalmist says…

–         1 Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord.

 

The ‘depths’ are a metaphor – they are a place of great pressure and fear, where it is dark and it feels like you can’t breathe and everything is closing in on you

–         It is a place of profound despair and weakness

–         A place where many people might lose hope because they can’t see a way out – but not the psalmist, he sees a way

–         Even though no one can hear you under water (in the depths) the psalmist still cries out to the Lord saying, ‘Hear my voice’

–         It may seem like a long shot but what’s he got to lose

 

‘Supplications’ is a word which here means to ‘beg humbly’

–         The psalmist is begging God for mercy from a position of vulnerability and weakness

 

It’s not until verse 3 though that we learn what is causing all this distress

–         3 If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand?

 

‘Iniquities’ is another word for ‘sins’ – in particular sins of injustice

–         If God were to keep a record of all our mistakes, all our moral failures, then we wouldn’t have a leg to stand on

–         This tells us it is guilt which is weighing the psalmist down in the depths

–         Verse 3 also tells us everyone is guilty of iniquity – no one is innocent

–         So we are all in the same sinking boat

 

Now it needs to be said that guilt is a slippery critter

–         Sometimes we don’t feel guilty when we should – it’s like we have this blind spot and can’t see how our actions have been unfair to others

 

Other times though we can misplace our guilt, which is when we feel guilty about the wrong things

–         For example we might feel guilty because we ate a bar of chocolate or we didn’t go to the gym

–         These things are not really ‘iniquities’ – they are not moral issues of injustice and we don’t need to feel bad about them

–         (Unless of course the chocolate isn’t fair trade chocolate)

 

Misplaced guilt, however, can be more serious than not going to the gym

–         Like when someone survives a car crash while others in the car die and the survivor feels guilty even though they did nothing to cause the crash

–         Or when kids feel guilty for their parents’ divorce even though it’s not their fault and they were powerless in the situation

–         Surviving a car crash is not a sin

–         Nor is being the child of divorced parents

–         There’s no reason to feel guilty about that

 

The author of psalm 130 is not blind to the way his actions have affected others

–         Nor is his guilt misplaced

–         His guilt is appropriate in the face of his moral failure

–         We are not told specifically what the psalmist is feeling guilty about

–         But we do know he is a pilgrim who is drawing closer to God

–         And when we draw closer to God it is inevitable that our conscience will be pricked

 

If you are sitting in a room in the dark or the half-light then you don’t tend to notice the dirt and the grime that has accumulated on the ledges and windows

–         You probably don’t see the cobwebs in the corners or the bits of broken biscuit trampled into the carpet

–         But when someone turns the light on, suddenly all the marks show up

 

It seems to be a principle that as we draw nearer to God we become more aware of our guilt

–         This is because God is a moral being, he is supremely & thoroughly good

–         The Lord is light and as we draw closer to the light all our dirt (all our iniquity) is exposed and we realise we don’t have an excuse

 

The inconvenient truth of the gospel is that before we can feel good we need to feel bad – before we can enjoy God we must grow sick of ourselves

 

Guilt is the thirst (parched and desperate) that draws us to drink from the well of life

–         Guilt is the coldness (long and bitter) that draws us to warm ourselves by the embers of love

–         Guilt is the pain (stabbing and relentless) that draws us to Christ the doctor of our souls

–         Guilt is the boil (sensitive and fierce) that longs for the lance of forgiveness to release the infection

 

Forgiveness:

When I was at Baptist College preparing for ministry my mentor, Walter Lang, gave me his complete set of the Journals of John Wesley – all 8 volumes

–         I can’t say I’ve read them all but let me read to you a small portion

–         In May 1738 John Wesley writes…

 

In this vile, abject state of bondage to sin, I was indeed fighting continually, but not conquering. Before, I had willingly served sin: now it was unwillingly; still I served it. I fell, and rose, and fell again…

 

During this whole struggle between nature and grace, which had now continued above ten years, I had many remarkable returns to prayer, especially when I was in trouble; …But I was still ‘under the law’, not ‘under grace’; for I was only striving with, not freed from, sin. [1]  

 

Now what you need to understand is that John Wesley was not a bad person by society’s standards

–         He wasn’t a slave trader or a drug dealer or anything like that

–         He was a minister of the church, a preacher and a missionary

–         By most people’s standards he was a very virtuous man

–         And yet he was struggling in the depths

–         He still wrestled with sin and guilt having not felt touched by forgiveness

 

John Wesley wrote that this is the state [that] most who are called Christians are content to live and die in

–         It is possible to come to church and call yourself a Christian and not feel truly forgiven

–         We might know in our head that we are forgiven but do we know it deep down in our soul

 

Some people give up on the Christian faith because it makes them feel stink about themselves most of the time and they don’t want to feel bad anymore

–         That is such a tragedy

–         I don’t believe God wants us to feel guilty any longer than we have to

–         Guilt may be necessary for a time but it’s not meant to be the norm

–         Just like feeling thirsty or cold or in pain should not be the norm

 

John Wesley persevered with his guilt for more than 10 years

–         Perhaps you have suffered longer

 

On the morning of Wednesday the 24th May 1738, John Wesley opened his Bible on the words: “Thou art not far from the Kingdom of God”

–         That afternoon he was asked to go to St Paul’s (a church)

–         The hymn they were singing was psalm 130

–         Out of the deep have I called unto Thee O Lord: Lord hear my voice

 

In the evening of that same day John Wesley writes…

–         I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther’s preface to the Epistle to the Romans.

–         About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death. [2]   

 

The Lord is not standing over us waiting for us to make a mistake

–         He is standing beside us waiting to forgive

–         In verse 4 the psalmist says…

 

4 But there is forgiveness with you, so that you may be revered.

 

Walter Brueggemann makes the observation here that…

–         Forgiveness is the first fact of a new life

–         From forgiveness everything else flows [3]

–         The forgiveness is not earned, not reasoned or explained and not negotiated – it is simply believed in, trusted

 

Forgiveness comes before reverence (or fear) of God

–         It is because the psalmist knows the Lord has the power to forgive that he is able to show God the proper respect of obedience

–         Grace is the horse which pulls the cart of obedience

 

(It’s interesting that the psalmist doesn’t talk about God’s punishment being what inspires fear & reverence – it is God’s forgiveness that causes us to fear him.)

 

Psalm 130 shows how the Lord’s forgiveness provides a way out of the prison of guilt to the freedom of redemption

–         This sounds straight forward enough but on closer inspection we find there’s quite a bit of waiting in between our guilt and our redemption

 

Waiting:

In verses 5-6 the psalmist uses the image of a watchmen standing guard on the walls through the night – waiting for the morning…

 

What we notice here is that waiting and hoping are virtually the same thing

–         To wait for the Lord is to place your hope (or your trust) in his promises (in his word)

 

Not only is the waiting eager but the hope is certain

–         It may feel like a long wait but the morning is certain to come

–         So too the Lord’s forgiveness & redemption are certain to come for those who wait in faith

 

I said earlier that guilt is like a boil (like an abscess)

–         And I compared forgiveness to a lance (or a needle) that pierces the boil of guilt allowing the infection to drain out (what a lovely image for you)

 

When I was preparing the sermon I wondered whether I should make it the antibiotics of forgiveness for the boil of guilt

–         After all, antibiotics seem like a more gentle approach to treating an abscess – the image of lancing a boil evokes anticipation of pain

–         But I decided the lance was a better metaphor of forgiveness because forgiveness is not always pain free

–         What’s more forgiveness is about releasing the infection of sin

–         And antibiotics don’t convey the same image of release

 

The other reason I stuck with the lance of forgiveness is that antibiotics on their own aren’t usually enough for serious infections

–         Anyone who has had a decent boil knows it has to be drained eventually

–         But before it is drained there is a period of waiting for the boil to come to a head

–         To lance the boil before it is ready doesn’t achieve much – in fact it probably delays the healing process, if anything

 

Now some people may be thinking, ‘Why does God make us wait for forgiveness and redemption from our sins?’

–         Poor old John Wesley struggled for over 10 years

–         While the people of Israel had to wait 40 years in the wilderness until they were properly released to enter the Promised Land

–         Well, the boil of guilt must be allowed time to come to a head before God can release the puss of sin

–         Imparting the peace of forgiveness before someone is ready is like trying to lance a boil before it is ready – it delays the process

 

In thinking of this point I’m reminded of a scene from the 1986 movie The Mission

–         ­The Mission tells the story of some Jesuit priests who travel deep into the Amazon jungle to bring the gospel to the Indians living there

–         One of the priests used to be a human trafficker – he hunted the Indians and sold them as slaves

–         For a long time this reformed slave trader couldn’t accept forgiveness

 

As part of his penance he dragged his armour through the jungle to where the Indians lived

–         At one point one of the Jesuit brothers tried to cut him free from his burden but the reformed slaver just gathered it up again and carried on

–         It was like he was carrying his guilt and he wasn’t ready to let it go

–         The boil hadn’t come to a head

 

Eventually, when he finally did reach the Indian tribe their chief cut him free

–         That was the sign he needed to know that God had forgiven him

–         Once he felt forgiven then he could serve the people

 

The other thing to say about waiting in hope is that it’s actually good for us

–         When we wait for something we tend to value it more

–         If you give a diamond ring to a 3 year old they are not likely to take care of it – they will probably lose it

–         But if you wait until they are 33 then they will look after it

 

God makes us wait, not because he needs time but because we need time

–         By the same token, when the time for forgiveness arrives we shouldn’t put it off

 

Examining your guilt is a bit like looking in the mirror – you don’t want to spend too long doing it

 

What we find with the author of psalm 130 is that his focus changes

–         He becomes less introspective and more outward looking as the psalm progresses

–         In the first six verses the psalmist is focused on himself in relation to God: ‘I cry to you, hear my voice, I wait, I hope…’

–         (This is what guilt does – it narrows our peripheral vision)

–         But in the last two verses the psalmist stops his navel gazing and thinks about the wider community of God

 

In verses 7-8 he calls Israel to hope in the Lord because of God’s great power to redeem

 

To redeem is to set free, to release, to liberate and so it’s very close to forgiveness in its meaning

–         Guilt makes us a prisoner in our own soul

–         Forgiveness releases us to think outside of ourselves

–         We need to be prepared to seek forgiveness while we can and wait in hope for God to bring his redemption when the time is right

 

The point we shouldn’t miss is there’s often a gap (a time of waiting) between being forgiven and realising our full redemption

–         Just like there is a time of waiting between when the boil is lanced and drained and when the wound finally heals over

–         Or to use a different analogy: the stain of guilt may be removed from clothes of our soul by the washing of forgiveness but we still have to wait for the clothes to dry before we can wear them

 

Conclusion:

There are many stories of forgiveness in the gospel

–         But the story which (I think) fits best with psalm 130 is Jesus’ forgiveness of the criminal on the cross

 

Jesus was crucified between two criminals

–         The first criminal was not in touch with his own guilt

–         He didn’t feel bad about what he had done

–         He seemed to be blind (or unfeeling) when it came to the impact his actions had on others

–         He gave Jesus a hard time saying: Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us.

–         Jesus ignored this first criminal – he said nothing to him

 

The second criminal was in touch with his own guilt

–         He rebukes the first criminal saying: Don’t you fear God? You received the same sentence he did. Ours, however, is only right, because we are getting what we deserve for what we did; but he has done no wrong.

 

The second criminal does feel bad for what he has done – and what’s more he feels bad for Jesus who hasn’t done anything to deserve crucifixion

 

What I find particularly interesting is way the second criminal begins by saying:

–         Don’t you fear God?

–         To fear God is to have deep respect and reverence for him

–         This connects with verse 4 of psalm 130 where the psalmist says…

–         But there is forgiveness with you, so that you may be revered [or feared]

–         We hold God in deep reverence and respect because he has the power to forgive

 

It’s like the second criminal is saying to the first:

–         What are you doing?! You are guilty and without excuse.

–         You need forgiveness and God is the only one with the power to forgive.

–         This man Jesus, who you are insulting, is God’s representative

–         Why would you insult the one man who could help you get forgiveness from God

–         Don’t you respect God – don’t you believe God has the power to forgive?

 

Clearly the second criminal did believe that God could forgive him and take away his guilt

–         What’s more he also believed Jesus was the key to God’s forgiveness

–         So he says: Remember me, Jesus, when you come as King

–         The man is in the depths and he is begging Jesus for mercy from a position of vulnerability and weakness

 

And the Lord replies: I promise you that today you will be in Paradise with me

–         Jesus is promising the man redemption

–         The implication here is that the man’s sins are forgiven

–         Jesus is not standing over the man waiting for him to make a mistake

–         He is hanging beside the man waiting to forgive

–         All the man has to do is wait in hope and keep trusting in Jesus’ promise of paradise

–         What we notice is there’s a gap – a time of painful waiting – between being forgiven and being fully redeemed

 

In a few minutes we will share communion together

–         Communion is a time to remember that with Jesus there is forgiveness

–         The musicians will come now to lead us in song as we prepare our hearts to receive God’s grace

[1] The Journal of John Wesley, Volume One, pages 471.

[2] Ibid, pages 475-476.

[3] Walter Brueggemann, The Message of the Psalms, page 105.