Tawa Baptist

On this rock…

Scripture: Matthew 16:13-20

Video Link: https://youtu.be/EOvjOUfDwZE

Audio Link: Stream Sermon – 21 Jun 2026 – On this rock… by tawabaptist | Listen online for free on SoundCloud

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Clear identity
  • Stable leadership
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

You don’t own a cricket bat just to oil it. The purpose of a cricket bat is to score runs. Of course, a bat cannot score runs by itself. It needs to be guided by the hands of a skilled cricketer.

Likewise, you don’t buy a tea pot just to keep it on the shelf looking pretty.

The purpose of a tea pot is to brew tea. But the pot cannot make the tea by itself. A person needs to pour the water and add the leaves.

You don’t purchase a tractor to leave it sitting in the shed. The purpose of a tractor is to do work in the field. However, the tractor isn’t going to operate itself. The tractor needs a driver.   

The church does not exist for itself. The purpose of a church is to carry out God’s mission, his purpose in the world. But the church cannot carry out God’s mission by itself. The church, which is the community of God’s people, is built up, guided and moved by the Spirit of Jesus.

Over the past couple of weeks our messages have been in support of the work of Arotahi, our New Zealand Baptist missions organization. Two weeks ago, we heard how Mary said yes to God’s call on her life. And last Sunday we heard how Jesus is our way home to God.

In today’s message we listen in to Jesus’ conversation with his disciples about building his church. From Matthew 16, verses 13-20, we read… 

13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” 14 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” 16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” 17 Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hadeswill not overcome it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will bebound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will beloosed in heaven.” 20 Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

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

This morning’s message is about building the church. Not the bricks and mortar construction of church buildings, but the spiritual and relational formation of a community of people who believe in Jesus. The church is the people.

As he talks about building his church community, Jesus has two things in mind: clear identity and stable leadership.

The Christian church gets its identity from Jesus and it requires stable leadership; leadership that is guided and sustained by the Spirit of Jesus.   

Clear identity:

Front and centre of today’s reading is the importance of having a clear sense of identity; we need to be clear about who we are. Without a clear identity, the church risks being assimilated into the surrounding culture. We don’t want to lose our saltiness, our distinctiveness, and become just another club.

Some of you may be familiar with the Avatar movies, made by James Cameron. This series of films features a fictional people known as the Na’vi. The Na’vi have blue skin. They live close to the natural world and they care for it. The Na’vi have a clear sense of identity. They know who they are and what they value.

When the Na’vi’s world is invaded by corporate raiders wanting to steal the planet’s natural resources, the Na’vi do not assimilate. They stay true to who they are. They remain clear on their identity and hold to their values.

The Na’vi have a saying, ‘I see you’. More than just a way of greeting people,

‘I see you’ is an acknowledgement of who that person is, deep in their soul.

It conveys respect, understanding and value for the person.

‘I see you’ is often accompanied by the gesture of moving one’s hand from the forehead to the chest, signifying trust and profound spiritual connection.    

As human beings we have a deep longing to be seen, in this way, by someone. We even have a word for it; intimacy. Into-me-see.

In verse 13 of Matthew 16, Jesus asks his disciples “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” The Son of Man is Jesus’ way of referring to himself. Jesus is asking, ‘Who do people (in general) say I am?’ It is a question of identity.

The disciples reply, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” Each of these people were servants of God, his spokesmen.

Herod thought Jesus was John the Baptist returned from the dead. Herod’s conscience was haunting him after he had John killed.

Elijah was one of Israel’s greatest prophets. He lived during the time of king Ahab and queen Jezabel. Like Jesus, Elijah confronted false religion and afterwards was taken up to heaven. Unlike Jesus, Elijah used violence.

People at the time of Jesus believed Elijah would return to herald the coming of God’s Messiah. In fact, it was John the Baptist who prepared the way for Jesus.

Jeremiah was probably more like Jesus than any of the other prophets.

Like Jesus, Jeremiah was despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

And like Jesus, Jeremiah, challenged the Jewish nationalism of his day, without resorting to violence. He had the unpopular task to telling his people to submit to their enemies. Sadly, the people paid a high price for not listening to Jesus or Jeremiah.   

In some respects, calling Jesus a prophet was no small thing. The Jews of the first century did not think God had spoken through a prophet in 400 years. And while it is true that Jesus was a prophet, this title is not adequate for him. Jesus is more than a prophet. The people of Jesus’ day did not see him, not properly.

So Jesus said to his disciples, “But what about you? Who do you say I am?”
And Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

Peter nailed it. Peter sees who Jesus really is.

Messiah is a Hebrew word which literally means ‘anointed one’. Christ is the Greek equivalent. In Old Testament times, God selected someone to be a prophet or priest or king by having his messenger pour oil over their head; oil being a symbol of the Holy Spirit’s anointing.

Jesus is God’s anointed one. He is not just a prophet. He is priest and King as well. More than this, there is something qualitatively different about Jesus.

He is in a league of his own. He is the Son of God. There is no other prophet, priest or king who comes close to Jesus. No other with the same standing.  

As Son of God, Jesus knows the mind of his Father. Indeed, Jesus reveals God the Father. To see Jesus is to see God.

Only God can reveal God, and so Jesus affirms Peter’s declaration, saying: Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you that you are Peter… 

The name Peter means rock. It’s like Jesus is saying to Peter, “I see you. You are a rock, strong, dependable.”

Two points of application here. Firstly, our discovery of Jesus’ identity must be a personal discovery. Peter was not following the crowd. His perception of Jesus was not influenced by the surrounding culture. Peter was able to see who Jesus really is because God revealed it to him personally.  

Being a Christian is more than simply knowing about Jesus. Being a Christian means knowing Jesus through a personal relationship with him. Recognising who Jesus really is, on the inside. Understanding that he is Lord of life and death, that he alone is righteous; and therefore, worthy of our trust and obedience. To see Jesus is to have an intimate spiritual connection with him.  

Only God can reveal God. We need the Holy Spirit to turn the lights on in our mind and spirit if we are to see Jesus. 

The second point of application is this: We don’t define ourselves. Jesus defines us. Peter was not always called Peter. His given name was Simon. Jesus gives Simon a new name (a new identity) and a new purpose.

The surrounding culture we live in says, you can create your own identity; you can define yourself. Our surrounding culture is at odds with the gospel of Jesus. We don’t create our own identity. Our identity and purpose are intimately entwined with Jesus. It is in discovering who Jesus is, for ourselves personally, that we discover who we are and why we are.

A cricket bat is not a cricket bat until it is in the hands of the batsman. Without the batsman, the bat is just a piece of wood. Jesus is the batsman.

A tea pot is not a tea pot until it holds the tea. Without someone to pour the water and add the leaves, it is just a pretty ornament, an empty vessel. Jesus is the one who pours the water and makes the tea.  

A tractor is not a tractor until it is put to work in the field. Without the driver, the tractor is just a hunk of metal sitting in the shed. Jesus is the driver. Jesus defines us.

We do not know who we are or why we are without Christ. Jesus shows us our true self and he helps us to fulfil our God given purpose. More than that, Jesus defines the church (the body of believers) and he enables the church to fulfil God’s mission.         

Whenever someone asks me what the vision of the church is, my answer is always the same, Jesus is the vision. Jesus is God’s vision for the church. No one can improve on him.

Stable leadership:

The Christian church gets its identity from Jesus. But for the church to have a sustainable future, it needs stable leadership; a team of people who will steady the ship and make decisions that are in keeping with the will of Christ.

After Peter makes his personal discovery that Jesus is God’s anointed one, the Lord then goes on to appoint Peter as leader for the early the church. In verse 18 Jesus says: “And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hadeswill not overcome it…”  

The word translated as church is literally assembly, as in the assembly of God’s people. As already mentioned, the Christian church is not a physical building or even an institution. The church, as Jesus describes it, is a gathering of people who can say with Peter, “I see you Jesus. You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”    

That Jesus is building his church on a rock speaks of stability. The church has a secure, strong, dependable foundation. So strong in fact that the gates of Hades shall not overcome it.    

Hades is the Greek name for the realm of the dead. Some English versions say the gates of hell, but that translation is misleading. Hades is not the same as our modern concept of hell. We think of hell as a place of torment and demons and destruction. But Hades, in this context, is simply a metaphor for death, no torture or suffering implied.

Jesus is saying his church will be stronger than death. Indeed, those who are part of Jesus’ church (his assembly of people) will be raised from the dead.

The church on earth may not appear that strong or robust, but it is eternally secure, not because of Peter but because of Jesus.

As we have already noted, the name Peter means rock. When Jesus says that the apostle Peter will be the rock on which he builds his church, he is speaking poetically. In plain language, Peter will be the leader of the early church; his leadership will give stability to the church community, like a rock foundation gives stability to an actual building.

Now when we think of leadership, we picture the person at the top. But that is not the picture Jesus gives us of leadership. According to the logic of God’s kingdom, the leader is on the bottom, like the foundation of a building. The leader paves the way for others; the leader supports others.

Providing stable leadership includes setting standards for the community; making it clear what is acceptable and what is not. In verse 19 Jesus says to Peter, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven;

This verse has been prone to quite a lot of misunderstanding over the years.

In popular culture, there is this idea that Saint Peter stands at the pearly gates, deciding who to let in and who to turn away. But this is not what Jesus had in mind in Matthew 16. Peter does not decide who gets into heaven. That is God’s decision.

We are better to understand the keys to the kingdom of heaven as the gospel concerning Jesus. As we heard last Sunday, Jesus is the way to God the Father. Therefore, the key is believing in Jesus. But how are people to believe in Jesus unless someone tells them the good news about Jesus?

Peter and the other apostles opened the door to the kingdom of heaven by their witness and preaching about Jesus. For example, in Acts 2 at Pentecost, Peter opened the door of the kingdom for 3,000 souls when he called on those present to repent and believe in the risen Jesus.

Likewise, in Acts 8, Peter and John opened the door of the kingdom for the Samaritans, by praying for those who believed in Jesus to receive the Holy Spirit, which they did.

And then, in Acts 10, Peter opened the door of the kingdom for the Gentile, Cornelius and his household. By doing this Peter was laying the foundation, paving the way, for all peoples to enter God’s kingdom through faith in Jesus.  

Of course, Peter was not doing this on his own initiative. Peter was responding to the impulse of Jesus’ Spirit.

Jesus continues addressing Peter saying, “…whatever you bind on earth will bebound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will beloosed in heaven.”

Binding has to do with what one forbids or prohibits, while loosing has to do with what one permits or allows.

During the first century the Jewish Rabbis had responsibility for interpreting the Law of Moses. Their interpretation either bound certain things (meaning it was prohibited), or it loosed certain things (meaning it was permitted).

Jesus is the word of God. In Jesus we have someone greater than the Law of Moses. Indeed, Jesus is the true interpretation of the Law. Peter has just confessed Jesus as the Son of God and so Peter (and the other disciples) were given the responsibility of interpreting the teaching of Jesus. [1]

To be clear, it is not that Peter makes a decision and heaven then endorses it. No. It’s the other way round. Peter is not the initiator of new directions for the church, he is the faithful steward of God’s prior decisions. [2]

Jesus’ words to Peter here are a promise of divine guidance. If Peter is like the cricket bat, then Jesus is the batsman guiding Peter. If Peter is like the tea pot, then Jesus is the one who fills Peter with the water of his Spirit and the tea of his word. If Peter is like the tractor, then Jesus is the one in the driver’s seat. The Spirit of Jesus is guiding Peter in accordance with God’s will in heaven.

We see an example of the Spirit’s guidance in Acts 10. Just before Peter went to preach the gospel to Cornelius (the Gentile), the Lord gave him a vision of all sorts of animals both clean and unclean, saying it was okay to eat them. This happened three times to reassure Peter it was okay to fellowship with Gentiles.

This vision gave Peter authority to loosen the tradition around food and fellowship so that the gospel of Jesus could spread. Without this direction from heaven, Peter could not have opened the door of God’s kingdom for Cornelius and other Gentiles.    

Conclusion:

This morning we have heard how Jesus builds his church; the community of his people. Two things are crucial for building the church. Having a clear identity in Christ and having stable leadership, which is guided by the Spirit of Jesus.  

For more than 140 years New Zealand Baptists have been involved globally in planting and building churches by training pastors and evangelists and supporting church associations so that churches are equipped to grow.

In particular, New Zealand Baptists have helped to plant churches in Tripura, a northern state of India. We have worked alongside these churches for 87 years. Now, with local growth, there are 1,000 Baptist churches with over 100,000 members who collectively make up over 60% of all the Christians in Tripura.

The Tripura Theological College is the only theological college in the state.

To serve such a large population, it needs support to train people to interpret God’s word and provide stable leadership for the church.

Following this morning’s sermon (while we are singing our closing song) the stewards will take up the special Renew Together offering for the work of Arotahi. Some of this money will help support the building of Jesus’ church in Tripura.

Now though, let us pray…

Jesus, you are the one who builds your church. Our identity is found in you. You define us. Help us to stay true to who we are in you. Bless your church, here in Aotearoa and overseas, with stable leadership guided by your Spirit. Amen.  

Questions for discussion or reflection:

  1. What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?
  2. What is the church? Why does the church exist? What is the purpose of the church? What is God’s purpose for you in relation to his church?
  3. Why is having a clear sense of identity important for the church? Where does the church’s identity come from? How do we strengthen / maintain our sense of Christian identity?
  4. When did you first ‘see’ Jesus? How did this happen for you?
  5. Why is stable leadership important for the church? What does stable leadership look like?
  6. Discuss / reflect on Matthew 16, verse 19. What does verse mean? What does it not mean? In what sense did Peter unlock the doors of the kingdom for people? What does it mean to bind and loose?    
  7. Who are you?

Bibliography:

  • R.V.G. Tasker, ‘TNTC: The Gospel According to St Matthew’, 1963.
  • William Barclay, ‘Gospel of Matthew Vol. 2’, 1967.
  • Michael Green, ‘BST: The Message of Matthew’, 2000.
  • R.T. France, ‘NICNT: The Gospel of Matthew’, 2007.
  • Craig Keener, ‘The Gospel of Matthew – A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary’, 2009.

[1] Green, page 180.

[2] France, page 627.

Tawa Baptist

The Way Home

Scripture: John 14:1-7

Video Link: https://youtu.be/L8xoKm0YL8g

Audio Link: Stream Sermon – 14 Jun 2026 – The Way Home by tawabaptist | Listen online for free on SoundCloud

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Jesus is our hope (vv.1-3)
  • Jesus is our way home (vv.4-7)
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

Having a home, a place to live and belong, is foundational to our wellbeing.

It is a deeply seated need; essential not just for our physical survival, but for our soul and spirit too. Having a place to call home gives us a sense of security and connectedness.

According to the UN Refugee Agency, more than 117 million people have been forced to flee their homes due to persecution, conflict or violence. That equates to 1 in every 70 people on the planet and it doesn’t include those hundreds of millions of people around the world who are homeless in their own country due to poverty.

Today we continue our annual Renew Together campaign in support of Arotahi, our New Zealand Baptist missions organization. The Renew Together campaign runs during June, culminating with a special appeal next Sunday.

Today’s message draws on part of Jesus’ farewell discourse in John 14, where the Lord talks to his disciples about the eternal home he is preparing for them. Jesus is the way home to God. From John chapter 14, verse 1 we read…

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” 6 Jesus answered, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”

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

There are two main points to our message this morning. The first is that Jesus is our hope. The second is that Jesus is our way home.

Jesus is our hope:

Hope and home are two words that go together. They are almost spelt the same, just one letter difference. Swap the p for an m and your hope becomes a home. More than mere spelling though, our hope is often intimately entwined with our desire to find and make a home.

Hope is believing you have a good future. Or to say it another way, hope is knowing your future is secure. When you don’t have a home, you look for one, in hope. You imagine what that home will be like. You look forward to finding a home, a place where you can be secure and belong.   

Let me tell you a story, an allegory, about the hope of finding a home.

Once there was a small boat carrying refugees across the ocean to a neighbouring country. The refugees were not safe in their own land and were looking for a new home. A place where they could be secure and find peace.   

During the night a storm blew up capsizing the boat. Most of the those on board managed to swim to a nearby island but not everyone made it.

Once ashore one of their number, a young man in his thirties called Josh, emerged as their leader. He found water, built a shelter, made fire, caught fish and took care of the sick and injured.

The survivors loved Josh and depended on him; he possessed a wisdom beyond his years. His kindness kept them calm. Although stranded on a remote island, this small group felt safe with Josh, much safer than in the war-torn land they had escaped from. In many ways Josh became their home.

After three years on the island, a ship was spotted on the horizon. It was headed straight for them. At first the survivors were excited. It looked like they were going to be rescued.

But when they realised it was a pirate ship, their joy turned to terror. Josh was not afraid though; he saw this as an opportunity. If he allowed himself to be captured by the pirates, he could escape the island and then come back to rescue the others. It was a daring plan, but he knew going away was the only way to secure his friends’ future.

Josh’s community were deeply troubled by the idea. They wanted to keep their leader with them. Josh was their security. All their hope was wrapped up in him. But what could they do. They were not strong enough to fight the pirates and no one else was going to help them.

Sensing how they felt, Josh reassured them he would return one day and take them to be with him.

The next morning the pirates anchored in the bay and sent a raiding party ashore to scavenge what they could. Josh went out to meet them while his friends hid in the trees. Quite unaware of the other survivors on the island, the pirates kidnapped Josh and sailed away. Josh had saved his friends by surrendering himself to evil men.

At first, those left on the island were distraught, thinking Josh was dead and the plan had failed.

But after several weeks, an airplane flew over, dropping supplies to the island by parachute. There was a note with the supplies. It read, “I made it and I’m coming back for you.” The survivors took heart and lived with the hope of knowing their future was secure. 

For those who need me to connect the dots, the Josh in this story represents Jesus and the survivors on the island are like Jesus’ disciples. The pirates are the pharisees who took Jesus away to be crucified and the supply drop is the gift of the Holy Spirit.

In verse 1 of John 14, Jesus says to his disciples, “Do not let your hearts be troubled…” Why are the disciples so deeply troubled?

Well, Jesus has just been explaining that he has to go away and leave them for a while, by which he means he is going to surrender himself to evil men and be killed.

The disciples are understandably upset by this. They have sacrificed a lot to follow Jesus, including leaving their homes and families. Indeed, Jesus has become their home and their security. Now they are going to be separated from him, the one they love and depend on, the one they have invested all their hope in.  

With this in view Jesus reassures his friends that the separation is not permanent; but it is necessary if he is to secure their future. Jesus is going to prepare a place for them in his Father’s house, that is in heaven. The preparation Jesus has in mind here is his atoning sacrifice on the cross.  

There are times in our journey of faith, when Jesus feels very absent. Times of darkness when our peace and joy are stolen. Times when our prayers don’t seem to make it past the ceiling and our heart feels empty. Times when all we can do is wait out the spiritual winter in faith and hope.

In stillness and trust is your salvation. The Lord has not forgotten you. He will return for you.

In verse 3, Jesus promises to come back for his disciples and take them to be with him. Just as Josh had to leave the island to find the means to rescue his friends, so too Jesus had to leave this world (via the cross) in order to save us.

Most commentators agree Jesus is talking about his second coming in glory here. After Jesus died, he was raised to life by God on the third day. Then he appeared to his disciples for 40 days before being taken up to heaven.

Ten days after his ascension, the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out at Pentecost and is still being poured out. One day, we don’t know when, Jesus will return for those who love and trust him. That is our hope, a hope which is guaranteed by Jesus’ resurrection and ascension.

Jesus is our hope and Jesus is our way home.

Jesus is our way home:

Another story for you. This one is a true story about finding my way home; one I’ve told a couple of times in sermons. When I was about four, I got lost, separated from my mum, in Chartwell Square. Chartwell Square was, at the time, Hamilton’s largest shopping mall.

At first, I felt fine. I just walked around looking up at everyone. But it didn’t take long before I started to get upset. The mall was new and big. I wasn’t familiar with it and I had no idea where to find my mother.

The adults around me were friendly enough but as is often the case with adults, they were not much help. They didn’t know where my mum was or even who she was.    

For some reason (perhaps God put the idea into my head) I decided that my best bet was to return to our car, which at that time was a burnt orange Mark 1 Ford Escort (similar to this one); relatively easy to find. Being the 1970’s no one locked their cars, so I let myself in and waited.

I just wanted to go home and I knew the car was my way home. Eventually my mum did return to the Ford Escort, relieved to find her son safe and sound.

In verse 4 of John 14, Jesus reassures his disciples that they know the way to the place where he is going. Thomas, who is known for his doubt and his honesty, says: “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

To which Jesus famously replies: “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me…”    

Jesus was going home to his Father, in heaven. Therefore, Jesus is the way home. We come to God the Father by being in Christ.

To put it another way, Jesus is like the car in my story. Find the car and you are guaranteed a ride home. Find Jesus, remain in him, and you will be taken to God the Father. Jesus doesn’t just give you directions on how to get to the Father. Jesus takes you to God the Father himself.

The emphasis in these verses is on Jesus being the way to God the Father. Access to the Father is only through Jesus. The idea that Jesus is the only way to God is offensive to many people these days. It comes across as arrogant, like Christians think they better than everyone else.

Well, Christians are not better than everyone else. The ground at the foot of the cross is level. As one of my lecturers (Brian Harris) used to say, ‘We are all sinners and we are all sinned against’.

A Christian is not better than others. I Christian knows they fall short and is relying on Jesus’ righteousness.

While it is true that Jesus is the only way to God the Father, it is also true there are many ways to come to Jesus. We human beings have only one heart, but there are many blood vessels leading to our heart.

Some people come to Jesus because a friend introduces them. Others encounter Jesus in a dream or through a miraculous intervention in their life. And still others (smart people like C.S. Lewis) work it out logically, rationally.  

Whatever way we might come to Jesus, we won’t really accept him (not properly) until we know our need for him. You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink. The horse will only drink if it is thirsty. It is our need, our thirst, our hunger, which makes us open to receiving Jesus.   

Someone might say, what about those who don’t know anything about Jesus? It’s not an even playing field, especially if you are born in a country that is not friendly to Christianity.

Well, God is fair. He takes all those factors into account. We don’t know how God will work things out in the end, but we do know he will do what is right by each person. The worst we can expect is justice. The best we can expect is mercy.

Jesus also said he is the truth. We (in the west) tend to think of truth as a body of knowledge, or a system of belief. Something is true or false; it is fact or fiction. For example, it is true to say the sun rises in the east, but it is false to say the earth is flat.

And while that captures part of what truth is, it is not the whole picture. Jesus takes a broader view, a more relational view. Jesus says he is the truth. Which means, truth is more than just a body of knowledge or a system of belief. Truth is a person; someone we can relate with.

The body of knowledge Jesus passed on to us (his teaching) is true because Jesus is true. If we think of our faith as a house, then Jesus is the foundation of the house.

When the foundation of a house is straight and true, the walls are straight and true. The doors and windows open and shut easily, the picture frames hang properly, the roof doesn’t leak and everything else is level.

But if the foundation of the house is crocked or untrue, the rest of the house will be out of square and prone to problems.     

We can trust Jesus’ word to us because Jesus is true. We can build our life on the foundation of Jesus’ teaching and know that the house will stand, because Jesus is on the level. He is faithful, reliable, trustworthy, strong.

Another example of what Jesus means when he says, ‘I am the truth’.

It’s like the difference between whole foods and processed foods. Whole foods are foods which are eaten in their natural state (or close to it). Things like fresh fruit and vegetables, nuts, grains and boiled eggs. Whole foods have a high nutritional value. They sustain you through the day.

Processed foods (on the other hand) have been altered or modified. Processed foods, like biscuits and white bread and fruit loops, tend to be high in sugar and carbohydrates, but low in nutritional value. They give you a quick pick me up, they make you feel good for a short while, but they don’t sustain you. They let you down over the long haul.

Receiving the truth of Jesus is like eating whole food. It is high in nutritional value, it sustains you. It doesn’t let you down. You can rely on it.   

Jesus doesn’t just tell us things that are true, he embodies the truth in himself. Jesus shows us the truth by his example. The Lord practices what he preaches. Jesus says, ‘love your enemies’ and when his enemies strike him, he turns the other cheek.  

The suffering of Christ shows us Jesus is trustworthy. He is true. You can rely on him.

Jesus completes the trifecta by saying, “I am the life”. Now, most people today think of life in merely physical terms. If you are breathing and your heart is beating, then you are alive. That is a relatively narrow definition of life. Again, Jesus takes a broader view, a more relational view on life.

In Christian understanding, life is connection. Specifically, connection with God.

The life of a plant depends on its connection with the sun. A plant can survive through the night, but if the night never ends, the plant will die. For a plant, life is connection with the sun.

Likewise, the life of a human being depends on their connection with God.

We can survive through the dark night of the soul, when it feels like God is absent, but if we are separated from the light of God for too long, we will die.

Without a real connection with God, our heart may still beat and our lungs fill with air, but our spirit will be dead. We will lose the capacity to give and receive love. We might exist but existing is not the same as living.

Eternal life is not existing forever. That would be a kind of hell. Eternal life is never ending connection with God. Eternal life is intimacy with God, forever. Life that is worth living. Life that never grows tired. Life that keeps its wonder and vitality.

Conclusion:

In verse 7 of John 14, Jesus indicates it is through him that we are able to have intimacy with God. Jesus says to his disciples, “If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”

Very simply, Jesus shows us God. If you want to know what God is like, if you want intimacy with God, then look to Jesus, remain in him. To remain in Christ is to stay connected to God, the source of life. As we remain in Christ, the Spirit works through us to create life-giving connections for others.   

Putting it all together, God is our home and Jesus takes us home to God, so stick with Jesus.

This year Arotahi is building homes; physical bricks and mortar which serve as places of security where people can connect with Jesus and each other.  

In partnership with the Bangladesh Baptist Church Fellowship, Arotahi is building hostels in Bangladesh for children. In addition to this, Arotahi is building homes here in Aotearoa, New Zealand for people who face barriers and adversity, including former refugees.

These homes will provide safe and stable spaces for people to live and belong. They will be rented at social housing provider rates to ensure affordability.

The rent received will contribute to the care of the children in the Bangladesh hostels.

Over the years to come, the value of these local homes will grow, creating a lasting legacy that will contribute to Arotahi’s future work.  

Let us pray…

Jesus, you are the way home to God. You are our hope, our security, our place to belong. Make us fruitful as we remain in you and wait for your return. Amen.  

Questions for discussion or reflection:

  1. What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?
  2. What is a home? Why is home important?
  3. Why are the disciples so deeply troubled? Why did Jesus have to go away?
  4. Have you ever been lost? What happened and how did you find your way home? 
  5. Discuss / reflect on Jesus’ statement: “I am the way, the truth and the life”. What does it mean that Jesus is the way? What does it mean that Jesus is the truth? What does it mean that Jesus is the life? 
  6. Why do we need to remain in Christ? How do we stay connected to Jesus?
  7. Do you know someone in need of connection? How might you reach out to them? 

Bibliography

  • R.V.G. Tasker, ‘TNTC: The Gospel according to John’, 1960.
  • William Barclay, ‘The Gospel of John: Vol. 2’, 1975.
  • Bruce Milne, ‘BST: The Message of John’, 1993.
  • Leon Morris, ‘NICNT: The Gospel According to John (Revised)’, 1995.
  • Gary Burge, ‘NIVAC: John’, 2000.
Tawa Baptist

Father, Son, Spirit

Scripture: John 16:5-15

Video Link: https://youtu.be/dlaJZBC44q0

Audio Link: Stream Sermon – 31 Mar 2026 – Father, Son, Spirit by tawabaptist | Listen online for free on SoundCloud

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • The person of the Spirit
  • The prosecution of the Spirit
  • The revelation of the Spirit
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

Today is Trinity Sunday, one week after Pentecost. The Trinity is the name we give to God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Some think of the Trinity as three divine persons who are one.

In simple terms, we might say the Trinity is the divine community of love. Beyond that, it is difficult to find the right words. There is a mystery in God that we cannot comprehend.

We read about the Trinity a number of times in the gospels. All three persons are present at Jesus’ baptism and, Father, Son and Spirit are woven through Jesus’ conversation with his disciples the night before he died.

Our message this morning focuses on John 16, verses 5-15, where Jesus talks about God the Father and the Holy Spirit in relation to himself. From John 16, verse 5 we read…

5 but now I am going to him who sent me. None of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ 6 Rather, you are filled with grief because I have said these things. 7 But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. 8 When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 about sin, because people do not believe in me; 10 about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; 11 and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned. 12 “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. 13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. 14 He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. 15 All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”

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

Today’s message has three parts: the person of the Spirit, the prosecution of the Spirit and the revelation of the Spirit. Although that sounds like a very Spirit centred message, what we discover is the Spirit does not act in isolation.

The Spirit acts in close relationship with God the Father and Jesus the Son.

Let us continue then with our first point: the person of the Spirit.

What is a person? You might think that is obvious, but it’s actually more complicated than you think. The best simple definition I could come up with was, a person is someone capable of relationship.

Now, there may be some exceptions to this but, for the sake of clarity, let’s use this as a working definition. A person is someone (not something), but someone capable of relationship. 

By this definition, a potato is not a person. A potato is not a someone. A potato is a something; it’s a vegetable. You can eat and enjoy a potato in many different ways, but you cannot really communicate with a potato. You can’t be friends with a potato or enemies for that matter. The potato is not aware it is a potato. It doesn’t care whether you mash it or fry it.

But a fellow human being is a person. Human beings are made with the capacity to relate, to communicate, to think and feel, to have opinions and make choices. Human beings care very much how you treat them. Don’t ever try to mash or fry a human person, it won’t be good for your relationship.

Now, there will be some human beings you find it impossible to relate with. That’s beside the point. They are still persons. They have a personality, a soul. They are able to relate with someone, even if it is not you.   

What about dogs? Is a dog a person? Well, I would say yes. Dogs are not human persons, obviously, but they are capable of relationship. You can communicate with a dog. A dog has feelings. Canine persons often make better friends than human persons.

A person then, is someone capable of relationship.   

Last Sunday we heard how Jesus used water as a metaphor for the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is also associated with wind and fire in the Bible. Wind, water and fire are forces of nature. They are not persons. They are a something, not a someone. They don’t possess a mind of their own or consciousness, as we do.

For this reason, wind, water and fire are helpful, but not adequate for describing the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit of God is not a force of nature; the Holy Spirit is a divine person, capable of reason and relationship. You cannot communicate with wind, water or fire but you can communicate with God’s Spirit.

In verse 7 of John 16, Jesus says to his disciples: Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. 

Jesus is talking about the Holy Spirit here. The original Greek word, translated as Advocate, is: paracletos, which literally means to call alongside. Advocate, in the legal sense of that word, is a good translation but there is no one word in English which does justice to describe the work of the Holy Spirit.

Notice here how Jesus describes the Holy Spirit as a person, using the personal pronoun, ‘him’.  The Spirit is a ‘him’, a someone, sent by Jesus to come alongside and relate with us as our advocate and helper.

In verses 5-7 we see something of the relationship between the three persons of the Trinity. Jesus says: but now I am going to him who sent me. Jesus is talking about God the Father here. It was God the Father who sent Jesus (His Son) into the world to save us.

Jesus had to go away to God the father before he could send the person of the Holy Spirit. The going away that Jesus speaks of is a reference to Jesus’ death on the cross, followed by his resurrection and ascension to heaven.

As I mentioned last Sunday, sin had to be dealt with first [by Jesus on the cross] before the Spirit could be sent. Jesus’ atonement for sin made it possible for the Spirit to be poured out at Pentecost. We live at a time in history when the Holy Spirit is available to all who repent and put their faith in Jesus.

Coming back to the point: the Holy Spirit is a divine person. We relate with the risen Jesus by the Holy Spirit, and we relate with God through Jesus.

This is mind-blowing stuff. Jesus is talking about human beings participating in the life of the Trinity by his Spirit. This means the Trinity is not a closed society, it’s not an exclusive clique. God wants to make room for humanity in his love.

Okay, so the Holy Spirit is a person. What then does the person of the Spirit do? Well, the Spirit has many roles and functions, one of which is acting as a prosecutor.     

The prosecution of the Spirit:

A prosecutor is a type of lawyer. A person with special skills who advocates for justice in the realm of the courts.    

The prosecution lawyer represents the state or the government. Their job is to decide whether to press charges and then provide evidence to prove guilt and secure a conviction against the accused.

The prosecutor in any criminal case is advocating for all citizens of that society. Although we are unaware of it most of the time, the prosecutor is upholding justice and defending each one of us against dangerous criminals.   

The person of the Holy Spirit acts a bit like a prosecution lawyer. He brings convictions against the world and the devil. By doing this the Spirit is upholding justice in the spiritual realm and defending us against evil.

In verse 8 of John 16, Jesus says the Holy Spirit will prove the world to be in the wrong… The world, in this context, refers to those people and systems who are against God and his people. The world as organised by Satan.

Although they were not aware of it, many of the Jewish religious leaders of Jesus’ day were aligned with the world, as were the Romans.

Jesus says the Holy Spirit will prove the world to be in the wrong about three things: sin, righteousness and judgement.

How then is the world wrong about sin? Well, the people who called for Jesus to be crucified got it very wrong. They thought Jesus had committed a grave sin by claiming he was from God. But the truth is, those who condemned Jesus to death were the real sinners.

On the face of it, their sin was killing an innocent man. They framed Jesus so they could murder him. But their sin went deeper than that. Their primary underlying sin was not believing Jesus was sent from God. Had the religious leaders believed in Jesus to start with, they would not have killed him.

Jesus is giving us a definition of sin here. Sin isn’t just all the bad things we do or all the good things we leave undone. Sin, at its root, is not believing in Jesus. If we don’t align ourselves with Christ, then we are aligning ourselves with the world as organised by Satan.  

Given the world is wrong about sin, it logically follows it is also wrong about righteousness. The world (by in large through history) thinks of righteousness as an achievement. If we do enough good deeds, then we can earn enough points to go to heaven or nirvana or paradise or whatever.

Not according to Jesus. Christians believe that righteousness cannot be earned, no matter how hard you try. Righteousness can only be received as a gift from Jesus.

Jesus is the only truly righteous one. This is proved by his going to God the Father. Jesus’ resurrection and ascension to heaven is God’s vindication of Jesus. It proves Jesus’ righteousness. It is the Holy Spirit who enables us to believe in Jesus’ resurrection and ascension.  

To put it simply, if sin is not believing in Jesus, then righteousness is believing in Jesus. Therefore, we are made righteous by putting our faith in Jesus.

Accept Jesus and God will accept you. Reject Jesus and you condemn yourself.

That is the gospel.

The world is wrong about judgement too. Many people in this world think God wants to punish them or their enemies or both. There is this perception that God is a severe judge, gathering evidence against people so he can condemn them. That is not a fair perception of God.  

The prince of this world (also known as Satan, or the devil), he is the one who wants to accuse you and condemn you. But we do not need to be afraid, for the Holy Spirit (like a good prosecuting lawyer) has proven the devil wrong so the evil one now stands condemned.

What is your perception of God? Do you think God is out to get you? Do you think he is gathering evidence to punish and condemn you? Or do you think he wants to heal you, to redeem and save you?

God is for you. He is not against you. Jesus defeated the devil on the cross.

If you are in Christ, then the evil one has no power over you. 

We see a real historical example of the Holy Spirit proving the world wrong in Acts chapter 2. On the day of Pentecost, Peter preached to the crowds saying…

36 “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.” 37 When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” 38 Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Peter preached Jesus and the Holy Spirit brought the inner conviction, so the people that day were cut to the heart. This conviction led the people to a realisation of the truth about Jesus and the grace of God.

Okay, so the Holy Spirit is a person, and he acts like a prosecutor, proving the world and the devil wrong. Now let’s turn our attention to the revelation of the Spirit.

When we talk about the revelation of the Spirit, we simply mean the Holy Spirit reveals things. It’s like we are in the dark and the person of the Spirit turns the lights on so we can see what was right in front of us all the time.

The revelation of the Spirit:

Have you ever believed something to be true, only to find you were wrong?

A hundred years ago, cigarettes were promoted as healthy, something good for you. Doctors endorsed smoking. It was accepted as a normal part of life. Now we know smoking can kill. Cigarette packets come with graphic health warnings.

It makes you wonder, what new truth will be revealed in 20 years’ time, changing the way we live?   

From verse 12 of John 16, Jesus says to his disciples: “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. 13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth…”   

These verses are talking about the revelation of the Spirit. The truth is too big, too much for us to take in all at once. We need time to absorb new information and adjust to that information gradually. The adjustment isn’t just intellectual; there’s an emotional and behavioural adjustment as well.

Although Jesus had told his disciples (ahead of time) that he would suffer and die and be raised to life again, they could not take it in. They were struggling to understand what Jesus meant when he said he was going away where they could not see him anymore.

Jesus understood this and reassured them that the Spirit would reveal to them what they needed to know as they needed to know it.

Some of you may have been to Pilot Bay at the Mount. Pilot Bay gets its name (I guess) because of the pilot boats that guide larger ships in and out of the harbour.

A navigator, who knows the coast well, boards the larger ship and helps to guide it safely, avoiding rocks and sandbars and other hazards. The ship’s crew don’t have the local knowledge they need, but the navigator from the pilot boat knows all the truth and guides the crew in it.

I wonder if it is like that with the Holy Spirit. When we come to a tricky time in our journey of faith, when we lack the specific knowledge we need, the Spirit guides us like a pilot guiding a ship into (and out of) a harbour.

Unlike the navigator from a pilot boat, the Holy Spirit is with us always, but we are usually more aware of him at the transition points in our lives.

We come across a real historical example of the Holy Spirit guiding Peter into the truth, in the book of Acts. In chapter 10, the Spirit piloted Peter to preach the good news to the Roman Centurion, Cornelius.

All his life Peter had avoided certain foods and certain people, thinking that contact with non-kosher food and non-Jewish people might offend God. This was a deeply held, sacred belief for Peter and other Jews of his time.

This belief was wrong. What’s more, it was getting in the way of the spread of the gospel. So the Spirit of Jesus reassured Peter, through a vision and through circumstance, that it was okay for Peter to eat non-kosher food and accept the hospitality of a gentile like Cornelius.

Long story short, as Peter was telling Cornelius about Jesus, the Roman Centurion and his gentile household received the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit guides us into the truth, especially the truth concerning Jesus and his redemptive purpose. How then do we know if a revelation is from the Holy Spirit?

In verses 13 and 14 of John 16, Jesus gives us two clues for recognising the Holy Spirit’s revelation: Firstly, the Spirit will not speak on his own, he will speak only what he hears Jesus saying.

In other words, the Holy Spirit won’t contradict Jesus. During his earthly ministry, Jesus said that food cannot make a person unclean. Peter’s vision in Acts 10 was consistent with Jesus’ teaching. So that’s the first test; the Spirit’s revelation will always be consistent with the teaching of Jesus.

The second test goes hand in hand with the first. The Holy Spirit will glorify Jesus. When Cornelius and his household received the Spirit, they praised God. The Spirit does not draw attention to himself; he is always putting the spotlight on God the Father and Jesus. So, if it doesn’t glorify Jesus, it’s not from the Spirit.

Conclusion:

In verse 15 Jesus says: All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”

Here we have a picture of the communion between Father, Son and Spirit.

God the Father shares all his knowledge, all his power and wisdom with Jesus the Son. Jesus in turn shares this with the Spirit who reveals the truth to us, as we need to know it.  

Let us pray…

Holy God, thank you for sharing yourself with us. Help us to share your love and truth with others, in harmony with your Spirit and to the praise of your glory. Amen.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

  1. What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?
  2. How would you define a person? What are some of the key characteristics of personhood? How do we know the Holy Spirit is a person?
  3. What did Jesus mean by ‘going away’? Why did Jesus need to ‘go away’ before the Holy Spirit could come?
  4. What is sin, according to Jesus? What was the deeper underlying sin of those who called for Jesus’ crucifixion? 
  5. How does the world’s understanding of righteousness differ from a Christian understanding of righteousness?
  6. What is your perception of God? Do you think God is looking for ways to condemn you or save you? Why do you have this perception?   
  7. What is your experience of the Holy Spirit’s revelation / guidance? Can you think of / share a specific example?
  8. How do we know if a revelation is from the Holy Spirit and not from some other source? 

Bibliography

  • R.V.G. Tasker, Tyndale Commentaries: The Gospel According to John, 1960.
  • William Barclay, The Gospel of John, Vol. 2, 1975.
  • Bruce Milne, BST The Message of John, 1993.
  • Leon Morris, NICNT The Gospel According to John, 1995.  
  • Gary Burge, NIVAC John, 2000.
Tawa Baptist

As He Is In Heaven

Scripture: Revelation 5:1-14

Video Link: https://youtu.be/15y0IXakKzk

Audio Link: Stream Sermon – 17 May 2026 – As He Is In Heaven by tawabaptist | Listen online for free on SoundCloud

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Worthy
  • Sacrifice
  • Redemption
  • Omnipotent
  • Incense
  • Praise
  • Hope
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

The first time I saw Aoraki Mt Cook up close and personal, I was awestruck.

The mountain was magnificent, majestic, beautiful. I could have sat there soaking up the grandeur all day. Every other little thought faded from my mind. It was liberating.     

Last Thursday was Ascension, a special day in the church calendar when we remember the Ascension of Jesus. For 40 days after his resurrection, Jesus appeared to his disciples before ascending to heaven.

Today, in celebration of Jesus’ Ascension, our message focuses on Revelation chapter 5. In Revelation 5, the apostle John describes his vision of the ascended Jesus in heaven. John’s vision is magnificent, far greater than seeing Aoraki Mt Cook for the first time. It has the power to leave us awestruck in wonder and praise. 

As we read this Scripture then, I invite you to park your questions and simply bask in the glory of the scene which John describes. Don’t think too hard about what it means. Simply enjoy the drama and majesty of it all. We will get to the interpretation later. From Revelation 5, verse 1, we read…      

Then I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne a scroll with writing on both sides and sealed with seven seals. 2 And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming in a loud voice, “Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll?”  3 But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth could open the scroll or even look inside it. 4 I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside. 5 Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.” 6 Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing at the centre of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. The Lamb had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spiritsof God sent out into all the earth. 7 He went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who sat on the throne. 8 And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of God’s people. 9 And they sang a new song, saying: “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation. 10 You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.” 11 Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. 12 In a loud voice they were saying: “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and praise!” 13 Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying: “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honour and glory and power, for ever and ever!” 14 The four living creatures said, “Amen,” and the elders fell down and worshiped.

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

The number seven is significant in the book of Revelation. It represents wholeness, completeness, perfection, like the seven days of creation. With this in view, our message today touches on seven key words from this chapter.

Our first word is worthy.

Worthy:

Some of you may be familiar with the legend of King Arthur. The story goes that one Christmas Eve an anvil sitting on top of a stone appeared in a churchyard. Embedded in the anvil was a sword. According to Merlin, only the true king could draw the sword out of the anvil.  

Many nobles tried, but none succeeded. None were found worthy to be king. Then came the young Arthur, a teenage boy, whose true lineage was unknown. Quite by accident and without being aware of the contest, Arthur pulled the sword out of the anvil easily. The humble Arthur proved to be the only one worthy to release the sword and inherit the throne.  

Revelation 5 begins with God holding a scroll in his hand. We wonder to ourselves what the scroll contains. Some think the scroll reveals God’s will and purpose for the future. More than just revealing knowledge though, opening the scroll may in fact release God’s plan of salvation on the earth.

This fits with the theme of Revelation. But we cannot afford to be too dogmatic, nor too literal in our interpretation. We can’t see the whole picture, which is probably the point.

In any case, the scroll has seven seals which can only be opened by someone worthy. To be worthy here is to be morally good enough. The seals of the scroll are like the sword in the anvil. They cannot be released by brute force or cunning. The test for unlocking the scroll is the moral worth that comes from divine pedigree.   

How different heaven is from the world we live in. In this world, rulers get things done by force or deceit or just being popular. But in heaven things get done by righteousness, purity of heart and goodness of character.

When the angel asks, “Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll?”, no one can be found. John weeps. Weeping is a Godly response to the evil that happens in this world.  Is there really no one good enough to open the scroll and release God’s saving purpose on the earth?

I like the way Leon Morris sees this: The seals that no man can break speak to mysteries in life. We can feel caught up in the world’s evil and its misery, unable to break free. At times we feel a sense of hopelessness and helplessness in the grip of forces stronger than us. The world’s agony is real. The world’s inability to break free from the consequences of its guilt is real. [1]

Only Jesus is worthy enough to open the seals and release God’s saving purpose.  

From verse 5 we read…

5 Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.”

Those of you who know your Old Testament will recognise that the Lion of the tribe of Judah and the Root of David is code for Jesus, the Messiah. So why not just say ‘Jesus is worthy to open the scroll’? Why does John hide what he is saying in poetry?

Well, John was protecting the church. In the historical context of the first century, the early church was persecuted by the authorities. If John wrote in a plain straight forward way and the Roman authorities got hold of his writing, Christians everywhere would suffer for it.

Much of Revelation is written in code, using language that would be understood by Christians but not by outsiders. John was being as wise as serpents and as innocent as doves to protect the infant church.       

Sacrifice:

And so we come to our second word: sacrifice. In verse 6, John is given a vision of a Lamb that looked as though it had been slain. In Old Testament times, lambs were sacrificed as an atonement for sin. Jesus is the sacrificial lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

Notice the contrast here. One of the 24 elders has just told John to look at the Lion of Judah, but instead of seeing a mighty lion, John beholds a wounded lamb. Jesus still bears the marks of his sacrificial death, even in heaven.

Most earthly kingdoms use mighty beasts to represent their countries.

Russia elevates the bear, Britain the lion, India the tiger and America the eagle.

Each of these creatures is noble but also naturally inclined to devour its prey.

New Zealand bucks the trend by having the kiwi as its national bird. The kiwi is a shy, flightless bird that comes out mostly at night to eat insects. The kiwi is no threat whatsoever. In fact, it is a vulnerable species.   

In heaven, the lamb is elevated. Lambs are a bit like kiwi, vulnerable.

How different heaven is from the power broking kingdoms of this world. Jesus conquered sin and death, not by brute force, but by obedience to God the Father. Jesus gained the victory by losing. The weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

Redemption:

Hand in hand with Jesus’ sacrifice is our third word, redemption. In verse 9 the 24 elders sing to Jesus the Lamb, saying: and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation.

This verse is speaking about redemption. Jesus purchased, he bought back, he redeemed human beings for God. The purchase price of our redemption is the blood of Jesus the sacrificial lamb.

What we notice here is that Jesus redeems persons from every tribe and people group. John’s vision of redemption is broad and inclusive in its scope.

Omnipotent:

We need to be careful not to overplay the lamb of God image. Yes, Jesus is represented as the Lamb who was slain, but he is not powerless or defenceless. This lamb has seven horns.

As we have already noted the number seven signifies wholeness, completeness or perfection. The horn, in Biblical imagery, represents strength or power. Seven horns, therefore, represents complete or perfect power. Omnipotence in other words.

Jesus’ omnipotence (his power) is perfect in the sense that no one can defeat him. As we sang earlier in the service, “There’s nothing too big, big, big for his power”.

But Jesus’ power is also perfect in the sense that Jesus is incorruptible. Jesus is worthy enough, he’s good enough to hold absolute power without being corrupted by it.

He possesses the strength of a lion and the gentleness of a lamb. Jesus exercises his authority as one who understands suffering. His power is tempered with compassion.

What about the seven eyes, which are the seven spiritsof God sent out into all the earth. Well, eyes are about seeing. Jesus is all-seeing, all knowing, he is omniscient, like God. There is no place in heaven or earth that the risen and ascended Jesus cannot see you or reach you.    

In Psalm 139 we read…

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

I invite you to sit with that for a moment. Soak in it, like a warm bath. Jesus is watching over your life for good, 24-7. He is with you always. Wherever you go, he sees you. Jesus sees the good you do that no one else notices. He sees your heart, your motivation, your wounds. He sees your desire, your doubt, your faith, your quiet desperation. Jesus bears witness to your life. He is worthy of your trust.

Incense:

Knowing that Jesus sees us and is near to us is an encouragement to pray. Indeed, the prayers of God’s people are precious to Jesus. In verse 8 of Revelation 5, John saw the 24 elders holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of God’s people.

Incense is our fifth word this morning. How different heaven is from earth. Most people in this world do not see the value in praying. It seems so weak, so ineffectual, so feeble. How can prayer make a difference? But in heaven our prayers are like expensive perfume, highly valued as a fragrant offering to God.

To pray to Jesus is to acknowledge that Jesus is worthy. Worthy of our time, yes, but more than that. Jesus is worthy in the sense that he understands us completely and is he willing and able to help us.  

We have touched on five of our seven words so far: Jesus alone is worthy to open the scroll. Jesus is the lamb of God who, by his sacrifice, redeems humanity. Jesus is omnipotent, all powerful, all knowing and he values our prayers like costly incense.

Praise:

Praise is our sixth word. In verse 12 of Revelation 5, John saw and heard countless angels giving praise to Jesus, saying: “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and praise!”

Notice there are seven things Jesus (the Lamb) is worthy to receive here. Notice also that these seven things are highly valued by most people in this world too. People want power, wisdom wealth, strength, honour, glory and praise for themselves. In fact, we human beings tend to make idols out of them.

When we pursue these things, they tend to ruin us. How easily we become slaves to money and the approval of others. We are not worthy, not morally strong enough, to receive too much of these things.

King Solomon is a case in point. He had power, wisdom, strength and wealth in abundance. He was showered with honour, glory and praise from all around, but it led him away from the Lord and it caused him to oppress his own people.   

Unlike Solomon, Jesus is worthy. Throughout his ministry the devil tempted Jesus with offers of counterfeit power and glory, but Jesus resisted the evil one, remaining loyal to God the Father.

By overcoming these tests, Jesus proved that he alone is good enough, pure enough, righteous enough, strong enough, to receive and handle power and glory in all its forms, without becoming a slave to it.  

Hope:

Our seventh word is hope. In verse 9 we read how the 24 elders sang a new song… The book of Revelation is full of new things: a new name, a new song, a new heaven, a new earth, a new creation. The elders sing a new song because God is making all things new, through Jesus.

The New Testament was originally written in Greek. The Greek language has two words for new, Neos and Kainos.

Neos means new in terms of time or age, something recent. Like when someone says, have you seen the new Spiderman movie? It’s the latest version of the same old story. Or when someone buys a second-hand car; its new for them but not brand new.  

In contrast, Kainos means new in terms of quality or essence. Something fresh, something original that has not existed before or that we have not experienced before.

Revelation uses the word Kainos. New in the sense of: ‘No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no human mind conceived what the Lord has prepared for those who love him.’  

One of the big themes of the book of Revelation is that Jesus comes to bring a newness that is original and fresh, a quality of life that we have not experienced before. This Kainos type newness gives us hope.

The Christians of the first century (that John was writing to) were suffering and persecuted in this world. They needed something better to look forward to.   John’s vision of the ascended Jesus, ruling from heaven, gave them hope that the life to come is not just more of the same. It is qualitatively new, different.

The hope John articulates is this: You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.”

God’s people may often be last in this world, but they will be first in the next. They may be subject to oppression in this life, but they will reign in the next. Through Jesus, God is making all things Kainos new.

Conclusion:

This morning we have touched on seven words, inspired by Revelation 5.

If we rearrange these seven words, the first letter of each word spells, W.O.R.S.H.I.P.   W stands for Worth, O is for Omnipotence, R is for Redemption,

S is for Sacrifice, H is for Hope, I is for Incense and P is for Praise.  

Jesus alone is worthy, for he is omnipotent, perfectly powerful. Jesus redeems humanity through his atoning sacrifice. Through Jesus we have the sure hope that God is making all things new. The Lord values our prayers like costly incense. Jesus is worthy to receive our praise.

Revelation 5 describes John’s vision of the ascended Jesus being worshipped alongside God the Father. We worship Jesus because he is divine.

Let us pray…

Jesus, you are worthy to receive power, wealth, wisdom, strength, honour, glory and praise. You are our hope, our righteousness, our joy. Be large in our awareness we pray. Amen.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

  1. What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?
  2. Have you ever had the experience of being filled with awe and wonder? What were the circumstances?
  3. What does it mean that Jesus is worthy?
  4. Discuss / reflect on some of the ways John’s vision of heaven (in Rev. 5) is different from the way things operate on earth.
  5. What does it say about Jesus that he is described as a slain lamb with seven horns and seven eyes?
  6. Why does John hide what he is saying in poetic code?
  7. Why do the elders sing a new song? Take some time this week to compose a song or write a poem in praise of Jesus.    

Bibliography

  • William Barclay, The Revelation of John, Volume 1, 1965.
  • Leon Morris, Revelation, 1969.
  • Marva Dawn, Joy in Our Weakness, 2002.

[1] Morris, page 93.

Tawa Baptist

Three women and a baby

Scripture: Exodus 2:1-10

Video Link: https://youtu.be/6GXi7kmRR4o

Audio Link: Stream Sermon – 10 May 2026 – Three women and a baby by tawabaptist | Listen online for free on SoundCloud

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Creative faith
  • Courageous intercession
  • Compassionate leadership
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

Today is mothers’ day, a time to honour the women in our lives who have given birth to us, fed us, raised us and cared for us. With this in view our message today focuses on three women who acted in motherly ways. From Exodus chapter 2, verses 1-10, we read…

Now a man of the tribe of Levi married a Levite woman, 2 and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months. 3 But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basketfor him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. 4 His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him. 5 Then Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her female slave to get it. 6 She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. “This is one of the Hebrew babies,” she said. 7 Then his sister asked Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?” 8 “Yes, go,” she answered. So the girl went and got the baby’s mother. 9 Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you.” So the woman took the baby and nursed him. 10 When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, “I drew him out of the water.”

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

There is more than one way to be a mother. In this passage we observe how three women all act as mothers for the same child. Moses’ biological mother exercises creative faith. Moses’ sister exercises courageous intercession and Moses’ adoptive mother exercises compassionate leadership. Let us begin with Moses’ biological mother.   

Creative Faith:

There is a classic puzzle known as the nine dots puzzle. The aim is to link all nine dots using four straight lines without lifting the pen. What you discover (after much time and frustration) is that it’s impossible to do this if you think inside the box.

The only way you can do it is by drawing your lines outside the box. The nine dots puzzle requires outside the box thinking; that is, thinking in a creative way. Moses’ biological mother had a problem which required outside the box thinking. So what was the problem?

Well, the king of Egypt (also known as Pharaoh) had issued a command to all his people, to throw every newborn Hebrew boy into the River Nile.

Pharaoh was basically instigating a policy of genocide or ‘ethnic cleansing’ against the Israelites.  

In the opening verses of Exodus 2, we read how Moses’ mum gave birth in the usual way and she saw that her son was a ‘fine’ child. There are echoes of the creation story here.

In Genesis 1, on the sixth day of creation we read, God saw all he had made and it was very good. The Hebrew word translated as fine, in Exodus 2, is the same word as good, in Genesis 1. Can you see the connection? Moses’ mother looked on her son and saw he was fine (or good), just as God looked on his creation and saw that it was good.

Although God’s name is not mentioned in the story of Moses’ birth, the reader is reminded of the creation story. Just as the Lord brought order to the chaos in the beginning, at creation, so too he is bringing order to the chaos of Pharaoh’s decree to murder Hebrew babies.   

Moses’ biological mother cannot drown her own son, so she hides him as long as she can. This kind of ‘in the box thinking’ was never going to be a permanent solution. It would soon become impossible to keep her child hidden.

Let’s just pause a moment and imagine what life was like for Moses’ parents. Normally, the birth of a child is something to celebrate, but Moses’ mum and dad could not share the good news with anyone.

Presumably, Moses’ mum tried to hide the fact she was pregnant in the first place. Then there was the difficulty of giving birth as quietly as possible, not to mention the constant stress to trying to keep the baby from crying once he was born.

Parenting a newborn baby is difficult at the best of times. Just imagine how exhausted and on edge Moses’ parents must have been trying to protect their son with a death sentence dangling over his head.

Moses’ mum is a smart lady. She knows that hiding her son is not sustainable.

If Moses is to have a chance, she needs to think outside the box, and this is the creative solution she comes up with. Moses’ mum took a basket, covered it with tar to make it watertight and set it among the reeds of the Nile with her baby in it.

Moses’ mum didn’t just throw her son into the deep end to see if he would sink or swim. No. She put him in a water-tight vessel and nestled him in the calm part of the river, among the reeds, where he was likely to be found, hopefully by someone kind.

By doing this, Moses’ mum was exercising creative faith. Creative faith is not blind faith. Creative faith is smart faith, faith that thinks outside the box for the wellbeing of others. Faith that is as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves. Faith that provides doorways for our kids, giving them the best possible chance in life.

There were no guarantees with the plan. In fact, there was a lot that could go wrong. But it does no good to overthink the things we cannot control. Moses’ mum did everything in her power to give her son the best chance she could, and she gave God an opportunity to act. This is what creative faith does; it gives God options.

Courageous Intercession:

How many here have a younger brother or sister? Being an older sibling comes with responsibility. Indeed, the eldest child in the family normally possesses a stronger sense of responsibility than others. We often find ourselves in a parenting role for our younger siblings. It shapes us.  

Moses’ biological mum was not the only woman who provided care for Moses. Moses’ sister also played a mothering role in her brother’s life by exercising courageous intercession.

Intercession comes from a Latin word that simply means ‘to go between’.

An intercessor intervenes on behalf of another person. Acting as the go between, or the advocate, for someone else. 

Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt, was a courageous intercessor. She was vocal in her support of the African American civil rights movement. Eleanor opposed her husband on this issue by becoming one of the only voices in the Roosevelt administration insisting that benefits be equally extended to Americans of all races.

Oskar Schindler (an Austrian born industrialist) was another courageous intercessor. He intervened, not with words but with actions, to save 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust of the Second World War. He did this by creative ‘out of the box’ thinking; employing Jews in his enamelware factory and bribing SS officials to look the other way. 

Eleanor Roosevelt and Oskar Schindler were people of power. Their intercession was courageous in the context of the times, but they interceded from a position of relative privilege. Moses’ sister did not enjoy such power or privilege, which made her intercession all the more courageous.

In verse 4 we read how Moses’ sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to her baby brother. Unlike Cain, who killed his brother Abel, Moses’ sister watched over her brother for good. As an older sibling she had a strong sense of responsibility. She was her brother’s keeper.

When Moses’ sister saw that Pharaoh’s daughter had taken pity on the baby, she found the courage to speak up and intercede for Moses saying, “Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?”  

What an incredibly brave thing to do. Moses’ sister was a lowly slave girl, while Pharaoh’s daughter was among the powerful elite. And yet, Moses’ sister was suggesting to Pharaoh’s daughter that she break the law and go against her father. Moses’ sister could have wound up in a lot of trouble for even talking to the king’s daughter, let alone encouraging civil disobedience. It was a huge risk.  

But Pharaoh’s daughter agreed and Moses’ sister acted as an intercessor, a go between, fetching Moses’ mother. This resulted in Moses’ mother being paid to nurse her own son.  

I invite you to pause and reflect in silence for a moment. Who has interceded for good in your life? Bring that person to mind. How did it make you feel when you learned they had your back? If it’s a good feeling, sit with it for a while.

Is there someone who needs you to intercede for them?

Compassionate leadership:

There is more than one way to be a mum. Moses’ biological mum exercised creative faith, Moses’ sister exercised courageous intercession and Moses’ adoptive mum, the princess of Egypt, exercised compassionate leadership.  

God’s deliverance often comes from unexpected quarters. Pharaoh’s daughter is the one we least expect to save Moses. She is a pagan. She is the daughter of Israel’s arch enemy and she comes from a life of privilege.

We might expect her to be so self-absorbed that she doesn’t even notice the baby. Or, if she did notice him, so blindly loyal to her father that she would leave the child to drown. But this princess’ behaviour topples our prejudice.   

Some commentators observe that God is parallel to Pharaoh’s daughter here.

We wouldn’t naturally associate God Almighty with a princess, much less a pagan princess whose dad is a homicidal maniac. And yet this is what we find in Exodus 2.  

The Lord (Yahweh) is not mentioned in Moses’ birth narrative, but we see his image reflected in the way Pharaoh’s daughter responds to the situation with compassionate leadership.

Verse 6 tells us that when the princess opened the basket and saw the baby crying, she felt sorry for him. This ‘feeling sorry for him’ goes deeper than superficial sentimentality. She demonstrates genuine compassion for Moses.

Compassion is a feeling of empathy which moves a person to an act of mercy. Compassion doesn’t just feel sorry for the poor. Compassion does something to help the poor.

Jesus whole ministry was an act of compassion. In Matthew 9 we read…

35 Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”  

Jesus didn’t just feel sorry for people. He was moved to heal people and show them a better way to live. The interesting thing here is that Jesus drew others into the work of compassion with him. Indeed, he encourages us to pray for God to send more workers to help with the heavy lifting of compassion.     

In verse 9 of Exodus 2, Pharaoh’s daughter says to Moses’ mother, “Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you.”

Pharaoh’s daughter shows double compassion here. Compassion in saving the baby Moses and also compassion for a struggling Hebrew family. Pharaoh had subjected the Hebrew people to slave labour. But Pharaoh’s daughter does not agree with slavery. She wants to be fair and pay the workers.  

Notice the connection with Jesus here. Just as Jesus invites others to help him in the work of compassion, so too Pharaoh’s daughter draws together a team of people to care for baby Moses.   

Pharaoh’s daughter takes the risk of going against her father’s command and makes a long-term commitment to provide for Moses. She eventually adopts Moses as her own son, thus saving his life. This act of compassionate leadership is, at the same time, an example of courageous intercession.

God is parallel to Pharaoh’s daughter in this chapter. At the end of Exodus 2, we read how the Israelites cried out to God under their slavery and the Lord heard their cry and was concerned for them.    

Just as the princess was moved with compassion by the cry of the Hebrew baby, so too God is moved with compassion by the cry of his people. And just as Pharaoh’s daughter was faithful in adopting Moses as her own son, so too God provides for our adoption through Christ.

In Galatians 4 we read…

4 But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.  6 Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.

Through faith in Jesus, we are adopted into God’s family. We are royalty. 

The name ‘Moses’ is actually an Egyptian name, probably meaning ‘son’, but it sounds like the Hebrew word, ‘to draw out’. Just as Pharaoh’s daughter drew Moses out of the Nile, so too God will draw Israel out of slavery in Egypt.

Moses’ deliverance, by the hand of Pharaoh’s daughter, foreshadows Israel’s deliverance by the hand of Yahweh.

The princess’ compassionate leadership and courageous intercession remind us that not all the Egyptians are like Pharaoh. We cannot judge a group by one member of that group.

The actions of Pharaoh’s daughter also remind us that God’s people don’t have the monopoly on compassion. God is free to work with and through whoever he wants.

Conclusion:

As is so often the case, the Lord begins his work of redemption quietly, unobtrusively, under the radar, often through the creativity, courage and compassion of those we least expect.

In Israel’s case, God sowed his seeds of salvation through women. We see God’s sense of humour here. There is considerable irony in Pharaoh’s policy of killing the sons and preserving the daughters. As it turned out, the daughters were far more dangerous than the sons. 

May the Lord bless you.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

  1. What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?
  2. What are some of the ways a person can be a mother? Who has been a mother to you? 
  3. How is the beginning of Genesis similar to the beginning of Exodus?
  4. What is creative faith? How might you exercise creative faith in your everyday life?
  5. What is intercession? Can you remember a time when someone interceded for good in your life? What happened? How did you feel? Is there someone you can intercede for?
  6. In what ways is God parallel to the daughter of Pharaoh?
  7. What connections do you observe between Moses and Jesus? 

Bibliography:

  • R. Alan Cole, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries: Exodus, 1973.
  • George A.F. Knight, Theology as Narration: A Commentary on the Book of Exodus, 1976.
  • Terence E. Fretheim, Interpretation Commentary: Exodus, 1991.
  • Alec Motyer, Bible Speaks Today: Exodus, 2005.
Tawa Baptist

The rich man and Lazarus

Scripture: Luke 16:19-31

Video Link: https://youtu.be/yi8J-TveAQc

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Jesus’ purpose
  • The rich man and Lazarus
  • The afterlife
  • The rich man and Abraham
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

GPS stands for Global Positioning System. The GPS in your car or phone receives signals from satellites orbiting the earth which allow it to determine the latitude, longitude and altitude of your location within inches.

If your GPS only gave the latitude coordinates, then it wouldn’t be very helpful. You need all three reference points to be able to pin-point your position with accuracy.

Accurately interpreting Scripture is like finding the right GPS location. You need more than one coordinate. A single verse or passage won’t do. Scripture interprets Scripture.

Today we continue our sermon series on the parables of Jesus, this week focusing on the parable of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16. Also known as the parable of Dives and Lazarus. ‘Dives’ being the Latin word for ‘rich man’.

Fair warning, the content of this parable may disturb some listeners. It has the quality of a Stephen King movie. It plays on our worst fears about the afterlife.

We need to remember; the parable of the rich man and Lazarus is just one of many stories Jesus told in the gospels. We cannot expect to get an accurate picture of salvation and judgement based on this one parable alone.

That said, from Luke 16, verse 19 we read…

19 “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. 20 At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores 21 and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. But the dogs came and licked his sores. 22 “The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. 23 In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. 24 So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’ 25 “But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. 26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’ 27 “He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, 28 for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’ 29 “Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’ 30 “‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ 31 “He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”

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

Jesus’ purpose:

The first question we need to ask ourselves is, why did Jesus tell this parable? What was his purpose? Understanding Jesus’ purpose prevents us from going down the wrong path with our interpretation. We discover Jesus’ purpose by looking at the context. The context gives us another coordinate.

In verse 13 of Luke 16, Jesus says: 13 “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” 14 The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. 15 He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of others, but God knows your hearts. What people value highly is detestable in God’s sight.

Jesus then goes on to talk about the value and permanence of the law and prophets before telling the parable of the rich man and Lazarus.

The immediate context shows us Jesus’ purpose. Jesus told this parable for the Pharisees, who were sneering at him because of his teaching about money.

This parable, therefore, is not about the temperature of hell. It’s about the Pharisees’ attitude to money and their interpretation of what we know as the Old Testament.

The rich man in the parable is a cartoon portrait representing what the Pharisees themselves believed. As you know, cartoon portraits tend to exaggerate certain features of the person being drawn. It appears Jesus is using hyperbole here to make his point.

Jesus is saying to the Pharisees, your interpretation of the law and prophets is wrong and therefore your attitude to money and people is wrong. You don’t value what God values. If you don’t repent, you will end up in a bad place, like the rich man. Let me give you two examples of how the Pharisees misread the Bible.

Firstly, they assumed they were automatically accepted by God because they were Jewish, descended from Abraham. Tough luck if you are not Jewish.

All those filthy gentiles are going to hell. That is severe prejudice, that’s racism, right? But, as we see in Jesus’ parable, being a descendant of Abraham does not help the rich man.

The Pharisees’ reading of the law and prophets also led them to believe (wrongly) that health and wealth are God’s reward for being righteous, therefore the rich and healthy must be righteous in God’s sight. Conversely, those who are sick or poor are being punished by God for their sin.

This belief is still around today. It’s sometimes called ‘cargo cult’ or ‘prosperity doctrine’. Jesus’ parable turns the Pharisees’ beliefs about money upside down.      

The confidence the Pharisees put in their ancestry and their wealth was misplaced.

Okay, so we can see (from the context) that Jesus’ purpose in telling the parable of the rich man and Lazarus is to correct the Pharisees’ misguided interpretation of the law and prophets. Now let’s look more closely at the parable itself.

The rich man and Lazarus:

Of all the parables Jesus told, this is the only one in which a character is named. The rich man is not named. When someone is not named in the Bible, it is often because they don’t deserve to be remembered.

The poor man, Lazarus, is named though. By giving the poor man a name, Jesus is signalling to his audience that Lazarus (even though he is poor and sick) is the hero of the story. Lazarus gets the honour of being remembered.

Lazarus is a Hebrew word which means ‘the one whom God helps’.

At first glance Lazarus’ name may seem ironic, because it does not appear that God is helping Lazarus, at least not in this life.

Lazarus does not enjoy good health. He is covered in sores and apparently cannot walk by himself. Verse 20 says Lazarus is laid at the gate of the rich man, which implies he must be carried. All of this means he cannot work or participate in gathered worship. He is an outcast, obliged to beg for survival.

By contrast, the rich man wears expensive clothes and lives in luxury, fine dining every day. The rich man is well connected.

In many ways Lazarus reminds us of righteous Job who lost everything, through no fault of his own, and ended up sitting by the rubbish heap scraping his sores with a piece of broken pottery. Lazarus does not scrap his sores with pottery, but he does (apparently) make friends with the local dogs who lick his sores.  

Unlike Job though, Lazarus does not complain to the Lord or to anyone else. Lazarus sits in silence. He does not call out for help from the people who pass by him every day on their way to the rich man’s banquets. He says nothing, all the time quietly longing to eat the scraps that fell from the rich man’s table.

But no food comes his way.

According to the internet, 1% of the population in New Zealand own 16% of the wealth. And according to the 2023 census, over 112,000 people (or 2.3% of the population) are severely housing deprived. 14.3% of children live in poverty.  

Growing up in the 1970’s, I don’t recall seeing anyone begging or sleeping rough in New Zealand. Now we see it all the time and we live in a welfare state. How did this happen? How do we turn it around?

There was no state funded welfare system for Lazarus. He was literally on the bones of his bum, dependent on the kindness of others.

The afterlife:

In time Lazarus dies and the angels carry him to Abraham’s side where he is comforted. The rich man also dies but he doesn’t go to the same place as Lazarus. The rich man finds himself in torment.

By the Pharisees’ reckoning the rich man should have been with Abraham, but Jesus turns their belief on its head.

Now, if all we had to go on was this one parable we might think the poor go to paradise when they die and the rich go to hell. Fortunately, the Bible offers other points of reference, other coordinates, that give us a more accurate picture of judgement and salvation.

We know from a wider reading of the Scriptures that the rich man did not go to hades because he was rich. He ended up in hades because he did not love God or his neighbour.

When asked, what is the most important command in the law, Jesus replied:     

30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’There is no commandment greater than these.”

The rich man loved luxury and fine dining more than he loved God or his neighbour. If he had loved God and his neighbour, he would have trusted God’s word and helped Lazarus in some way. He had the resources and he could see the need. Lazarus was right on his doorstep. But the rich man didn’t seem to care.

By the same token, we know being poor does not give you a free pass to paradise. Abraham was accepted by God because of his faith. In Romans 4, Paul writes: 3 What does Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”

That Lazarus found himself by Abraham’s side in the afterlife shows that Lazarus was justified by his faith in God, just as Abraham was justified by faith. God, who looks at the heart, could see Lazarus’ patient faith, even though Lazarus looked to everyone else like he was rejected by God.

Suffering and poverty, in this life, are not proof of God’s displeasure. Nor is health and wealth proof of righteousness. This life is not always fair.  

Returning to Luke 16, in verse 23 Jesus says the rich man was in torment in hades. Some English translations use the word ‘hell’, but the original Greek says ‘hades’, which is not exactly the same as hell.

What then is hades? According to Greek mythology (which is not supported by the Bible) the souls of the dead went to hades, a place characterised by darkness and gloom (sort of like Wellington on a bad weather day).

The Greeks imagined different zones within hades. For example, a neutral zone, where ordinary souls are kept, neither a place of reward nor punishment. There was also a paradise zone, where heroes and righteous people are rewarded. As well as a zone of torment where evil doers are punished.

Lazarus, it seems, was in the paradise zone with Abraham, while the rich man was in the place or torment.

There is a Greek myth about hades which shares some similarities with Jesus’ parable of the rich man and Lazarus. In this myth, a man by the name of Tantalus did a few things to anger the gods, so they sent him to the torment zone in hades where he was forced to stand in water with a fruit tree above his head.

Whenever Tantalus tried to bend down to drink, the water receded. And whenever he tried to reach up and pluck some fruit from the tree, the branch would spring away. This meant Tantalus was always thirsty in the presence of water and always starving in the presence of food. It is from this myth, about Tantalus, that we get the English word tantalise.   

The rich man’s punishment, in Jesus’ parable, was similar to that of Tantalus. The rich man could see Lazarus in paradise with Abraham and longed for a splash of water to cool his tongue. He was being tantalised.  

Now, just because Jesus’ parable of the rich man and Lazarus bears some similarities with aspects of Greek mythology, it does not automatically follow that Jesus endorsed Greek mythology. We know the Greek gods are not real because the Bible tells us there is only one true God, the Lord, Yahweh.

Likewise, we cannot base our understanding of hell on this one parable.

The New Testament employs a variety of different images and metaphors to describe exclusion from the kingdom of heaven.

Sometimes we come across the phrase outer darkness, and other times we are given the picture of a fiery furnace. Jesus also used the image of Gehenna, which was the rubbish dump outside of Jerusalem.

Where does that leave us? Well, if we take the Bible seriously, then we know there is a final judgement and there is a hell. We know hell is a place to avoid, but we cannot say with any certainty what hell is like. Is it a place of eternal conscious suffering? Or is it a place of total annihilation? Or is it a bit of both, some punishment before a second death? There are many theories but honestly, we don’t know.

What we do know, from the Bible and from our own experience, is that God is good. He sees the whole picture and he looks at the human heart. He is just and merciful, slow to anger, full of compassion and rich in love. He won’t treat anyone unfairly. God has provided for our atonement through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. Forgiveness is available for all who repent and believe in Jesus.

The rich man and Abraham:

We see God’s fairness worked out in the rest of Jesus’ parable. In verse 24 of Luke 16, the rich man calls out: ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’  

What we notice here is the rich man’s attitude toward Lazarus has not changed. He still thinks of Lazarus as beneath him, someone to be used like a slave or a servant. He doesn’t seem to understand that the social status he enjoyed while he was alive has no currency in the afterlife.

The rich man is willing to put Lazarus in harm’s way just so he can cool his tongue momentarily. The rich man’s sense of entitlement is incredible.

What the rich man should have said was, ‘Lazarus, please forgive me. I’m so sorry’. But he doesn’t. The rich man remains unrepentant.

25 “But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony.

The thought here is not that people who receive good things in this life are automatically destined to receive bad things in the next life. No. That’s hardly fair. Besides, the reality is we each receive a mixture of good and bad things in this life. The point is, the rich man is being judged by his own standards.

In Matthew 7, Jesus says the measure you use for others is the measure God will use for you. The rich man neglected to care for Lazarus and now he himself is being neglected.

From verse 27 the rich man says to Abraham, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, 28 for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’

This is the only glimmer of virtue we see from the rich man. Sadly though, he still fails to see Lazarus as one of his brothers. Yet again, the rich man thinks he can boss Lazarus around like a slave.

Through all of this, Lazarus remains silent. There is no angry outburst from Lazarus. No resentment. Lazarus does not tell Abraham what to do. Lazarus has forgiven the rich man, harbouring no bitterness toward him.

Abraham refuses to send Lazarus back from the dead saying, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’

There it is. The law of Moses and the teachings of the prophets make it clear what God wants; for people to act justly, love mercy and walk humbly. The rich man and his brothers have no excuse.

Jesus is telling the Pharisees here that his teaching about how to use money (and everything else for that matter) is in accordance with the law and the prophets. So when the Pharisees sneer at Jesus’ teaching, they are putting themselves at odds with Moses and the prophets.  

Like the Pharisees who keep arguing with Jesus, the rich man continues arguing with Abraham, insisting that if his five brothers see someone rise from the dead, they will repent and be saved. But Abraham is not having a bar of it.

‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”.

How true that turned out to be. When Jesus raised his actual friend, Lazarus, from the dead (in John 11), the Pharisees and other religious leaders did not repent. They became more determined to kill Jesus and Lazarus. That’s how badly they misread the Scriptures.

Conclusion:

So what can we take from Jesus’ parable of the rich man and Lazarus?

Here’s three things:

Firstly, what we do in this life has eternal consequences. Our choices matter. When we love God and love your neighbour, money becomes our servant, something we can use to help others. If we don’t love God and our neighbour, money will inevitably become a cruel master that oppresses us and others.

Secondly, when we fail to love God and our neighbour (and we will fail at this), we need to repent and put our faith in Jesus. Salvation is not an entitlement. Getting into the kingdom of heaven is not automatic. God is looking for ways to get us into his kingdom, but we still need to repent and believe in Jesus.

Thirdly, we need to be very careful how we interpret and apply the Bible. Remember, we need more than one coordinate. Scripture interprets Scripture. If we read the Bible in a self-serving way, we risk ending up in a very bad place.

Let us pray…

Jesus, you are our righteousness and our hope. Empower us by your Spirit to love God and love our neighbour as we love ourselves. We ask you to deliver us from evil that we may enjoy fellowship with you forever. Amen.  

Questions for discussion or reflection:

  1. What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?
  2. Why is our interpretation of Scripture important? How can we check that our interpretation (and application) of Scripture is accurate?
  3. How does Jesus’ parable of the rich man and Lazarus make you feel? Why do you think it makes you feel this way?
  4. Why did Jesus tell the parable of the rich man and Lazarus?
  5. Why did the rich man end up in a place of torment after he died? Why did Lazarus end up being comforted by Abraham?
  6. What does the rich man’s dialogue with Abraham reveal about the rich man? What does Lazarus’ silence throughout reveal about Lazarus? What does the parable reveal about Jesus and God?
  7. What is your key takeaway from this message? What might you do differently? How might you think differently?  

Bibliography:

  • William Barclay, ‘The Gospel of Luke’, 1965.
  • Leon Morris, ‘Tyndale Commentaries: Luke’, 1976.
  • Fred Craddock, ‘Interpretation Commentaries: Luke’, 1990.
  • Darrell Bock, ‘NIV Application Commentary: Luke’, 1996.
  • Joel Green, ‘New International Commentary on the New Testament: The Gospel of Luke’, 1997.
  • Kenneth Bailey, ‘Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes’, 2008. 
Tawa Baptist

Fishers of Men (by Pat Hutchison)

Scriptures: John 1:35-42, Luke 5:1-11, Acts 1 & 2

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • The Call
  • The Journey
  • The Fulfilment
  • Conclusion:

Introduction:

Some of us consider we have done Easter, we have had our share of Hot Cross Buns, Easter Eggs and we came to Church twice, so let’s move on,  But wait a minute are we missing something if we end Easter on Easter Sunday?  We celebrate the Resurrection with some amazing songs and there is so much hope.  Something wonderful has happened that changed our world forever, prophecy came true and we have a Risen Saviour who is in the world today.

I want us to pause and take a look at some events before and after the Resurrection. 

What was it really like for the disciples, in particular Simon Peter. 

We will look at: The Call

                              The Journey

                              The Fulfilment

The Call:

It began for Simon Peter with “The Call” We read in John 1:35-42.

The next day John was there with two of his disciples.  When he saw Jesus passing by he said, “Look the Lamb of God!” When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus.  Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?” They said, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”). “Where are you staying?” “Come” he replied, “and you will see.” So they went and saw where he was staying and they spent that day with him.  It was about four in the afternoon.  Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus.  The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus.  Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John.  You will be called Cephas” (which when translated, is Peter).

John had his disciples, it was not uncommon for a Rabbi to have followers – “Come and you will see” was an invitation to follow Jesus, but Jesus was more than a “Rabbi”.   The two disciples left John and followed Jesus. 

Andrew is named as one of the disciples with John and one of the first things he did was to find his brother and tell him “We have found the Messiah (that is the Christ) Andrew brought Simon to Jesus who named him Peter.

Jesus wanted them to be more than followers, they were to become “Fishers of Men”.  In Luke 5:1-11 we read:

One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret (Galilee). The people were crowding around him and listening to the word of God.  He saw at the water’s edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets.  He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from the shore.  Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat.  When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water and let down the nets for a catch.”  Simon answered, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything.  But because you say so I will let down the nets.”  When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break, so they signalled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.  When Simon Peter saw this he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord, I am a sinful man!”. . .   Then Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid; from now on You will fish for people.” So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed Jesus.

Simon respectfully addresses Jesus as Master but is clearly not happy with the command to go a little deeper and cast his nets.  He tells Jesus that they had worked all night and caught nothing so what was the point of casting their nets again – inferring they were fishermen who knew night was the best time for fishing.  This is one of the first glimpses we get into Peter’s personality – blunt. To the point.  Peter disagreed with the request but nevertheless obeyed. 

The catch was amazing – way more than they could cope with. Peter recognised this as being a miracle, Peter experienced the grace of God and was aware of his sinfulness.  Peter was awestruck.  He is aware that his life is changed and henceforth they will be “Fishers of Men”.

So we are beginning to get a picture of Simon Peter:

  • He is a fisherman
  • He has heard about Jesus
  • He is Andrew’s brother
  • Andrew brings him to Jesus
  • Jesus gave him the name of Peter.
  • He is obedient
  • He speaks his mind
  • He becomes a disciple of Jesus.

The Journey:

This brings us to “The Journey”.  What did the disciples see and learn.  They witnessed the teaching of Jesus, the miracles, the parables, the healings.  How the religious leaders treated Jesus, how the Pharisees were looking for ways to show Jesus was not following the laws of God.  They were there at the feeding of the 5000.  They participated in the sending out of the 12 in pairs.  That was a lot to absorb and process.   Most of the references are “the disciples” but as events are drawing closer to the end of Jesus ministry, we find Peter mentioned by name.

These events give us glimpses of Peter’s personality as well as his belief and understanding of who Jesus was. It is not possible for us to look at everything so I will just focus on a few key events.

Peter experienced a very personal and close experience of the healing power of Jesus.  In Matthew, Mark and Luke Jesus went to Peter’s house with his disciples. When the disciples were in that area they often used Peter’s house as a meeting place, so they were familiar with the house and all who lived there. On this occasion Peter’s Mother in Law was sick with a fever and Jesus touched her.  Immediately she was healed and able to get up and serve her guests. The healing was complete and was a healing of someone close to them. 

There was the time after the Feeding of the 5000 when Jesus sent the disciples ahead of him by boat so he could pray by himself.  The water became rough and in the early morning Jesus came to them – he was walking on the water and the disciples saw him.  They were terrified and said – It’s a ghost. 

Jesus calmed them and assured them it was himself.  Peter replied asking Jesus to tell him to come to him.  Jesus did this and Peter got out of the boat and walked towards him.  Peter was distracted by the wind and began to sink, he cried out to Jesus and Jesus rescued him rebuking him for having little faith.  When they climbed back into the boat the wind died down and the disciples worshiped him saying, You truly are the Son of God.

At the Transfiguration, Jesus takes a small group of the disciples – Peter, James and John up a mountain. They witnessed a vision of Jesus, Jesus was praying and his appearance changed, his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning. Two men – Elijah and Moses were with him and spoke of Jesus forthcoming death. Peter and the other disciples were sleepy but became fully aware at the vision in front of them. 

Peter immediately responds by wanting to build booths to house the three figures.  Is this Peter’s impetuousness or does he misunderstand the vision?  God speaks and Peter and the other disciples are awestruck and Elijah and Moses disappear.  Jesus reassures them not to be afraid and when they are coming down the mountain Jesus tells the disciples not to tell anyone what they had seen.

The Transfiguration marks a turning point in Jesus Ministry as from here on everything points towards the Cross. Jesus foretold his death.  Peter responds to this by taking Jesus to one side declaring this will not happen.  We see Peter’s impetuousness come to the fore and Jesus rebukes him. The idea of Jesus dying is difficult for Peter and the disciples to grasp.  Peter has not grasped the full meaning of Jesus as the Messiah and what this means for Jesus. 

Jesus and the disciples are in Jerusalem, it is just before the Passover and Jesus is escalating his preparation of the disciples for what is coming and Peter is continuing to act impulsively.

We have the Washing of the disciple’s feet, Jesus tells of his betrayal by one of them.  Jesus gets up from the meal, takes of his outer garments and begins to wash the disciples’ feet, something expected of a servant, not a leader.  Peter does not want Jesus to wash his feet and Jesus explains the necessity of this.  Peter over reacts and wants Jesus to wash all of him.  Jesus replies and in his explanation tells them there is one present who is not clean and teaches them about servanthood.  This is bewildering to the disciples who could not possibly grasp what is to happen.  It is in this situation that Jesus predicts his betrayal and Judas leaves the group.

Jesus prepares his disciples by telling them he will be with them only a little while longer and giving them the command to Love one another.  By this everyone will know that they are His disciples by their love.  Peter asks, “Where are you going?” Jesus tells Peter that where he is going no one can follow but they will follow later.  Peter vows to lay down his life for Jesus and Jesus answered and predicts that before the rooster crows Peter will disown Jesus three times.

Jesus and his disciples went to the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus took Peter and two other disciples further into the Garden and told them to wait and watch while he went to pray.  Jesus began to be sorrowful and troubled – he knew what was coming.  Three times they fell asleep while waiting and Jesus tells them his hour has come and the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners, Rise:! Let us go! Here comes my Betrayer.

Judas betrays Jesus and Peter reacts with his sword, cutting off the ear of one of the men in the group coming to arrest Jesus.  Jesus rebukes Peter and heals the severed ear.  Jesus is lead away.  Peter and another disciple follow Jesus trying to keep as close as possible to him as they could.  Peter is recognised as being close to Jesus, first by a servant girl and another two times and a rooster crows.

How devastating for Peter who is immediately aware of Jesus prediction and we are told that Peter wept.

We don’t hear much about Peter until after the Resurrection when he sees Jesus along with the other disciples.  Peter and another disciples were told by the women that Jesus was not in the tomb when they came to anoint him, and they saw the empty tomb. Peter was also in the locked room because they were fearful about the rumours circulated by the guards at the grave that the disciples had taken the body from the grave. Jesus appeared to the disciples. 

Peter was fishing and again they caught nothing.  Jesus appeared to them and Peter is again told by Jesus to put down his net and the catch was amazing.  Jesus had breakfast with the disciples and Jesus reinstates Peter, and declares his love for Jesus and Jesus tells Peter to feed his sheep.

From the journey we learn:

  • Peter stayed with Jesus from the time of his call
  • Peter declared Jesus was the Messiah
  • Peter often acted impulsively
  • Peter often misunderstood Jesus
  • Peter was rebuked by Jesus
  • Peter didn’t want Jesus to die and said he would do everything to stop it
  • Peter witnessed the  transfiguration of Jesus
  • Peter denied knowledge of Jesus three times
  • Peter was with the disciples when Jesus appeared to them
  • Peter recognises Jesus when they were fishing after the Resurrection
  • Peter is reinstated by Jesus and given responsibility for the followers of Jesus.

The Fulfilment:

This leads us to the Fulfilment of Jesus bestowing on Peter he was to become a “Fisher of Men”.

The story of Peter continues in the Book of Acts.  He is indeed a Leader and is empowered by the Holy Spirit from being a follower to bringing many into faith and belief in Jesus.  We cannot look at all the accounts of Peter in Acts.

In Acts we read, before Jesus was taken up to heaven, He appeared to the disciples over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God.  On one occasion he gave them this command “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about.  For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.   You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth”.

The Day of Pentecost occurred at the same time as Jews gathered to celebrate The Feast of Harvest, so that explains why there were crowds from many places.  The origins of Pentecost is 50 – it was celebrated 50 days after the Passover and on the eve of 50 days after the Resurrection.

The Holy Spirit came with a great wind and tongues of fire.  They could understand the different languages and people were amazed – some people used the opportunity to say the people were drunk.  We read of Peter addressing the crowd calling on them to Repent and be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins.  And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off – for all whom the Lord our God will call. We are told about 3000 came to faith that day.  This was indeed the beginning of the Christian Church.

We also learn about Peter healing a lame beggar asking for money by saying “Silver or Gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you.  In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Many who knew this lame beggar were amazed and Peter took advantage of this and preached to the gathered crowd.  Shortly after Peter and John who was with him were arrested and imprisoned after being brought before the Sanhedrin.  This resulted in them speaking the truth despite being threatened into silence.

Healings continued along with persecution but nothing could stop them. The Sanhedrin wanted Peter and John put to death but a Pharisee named Gamaliel spoke to the Sanhedrin telling them to leave them alone saying if their activity is of human origin it will fail.  But if it is God they will not stop these men. They were released after a flogging.  They never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah.  And many believed.

Peter was summoned to go to Cornelius a Roman Centurion who is described as devout and God fearing.   Peter had a vision and the result of this is that Gentiles (non-Jews) became Christians and were welcomed into the Community of Believers.  

The story does not end with Acts.  Towards the end of the New Testament we have the Letters of Peter, these are attributed to Peter.

From the Fulfilment we learn

  • Peter was empowered by the Holy Spirit
  • Peter was bold
  • Peter healed a lame man
  • Peter was put into prison for his preaching and teaching
  • Peter was persecuted
  • Peter had a vision
  • Peter took the gospel to the Gentiles
  • Peter left us with the Letters of Peter

Conclusion:

Our faith journey begins with a call and our faith journey has ups and downs with difficult times.  We may not be imprisoned or persecuted but there is suffering involved.  We learn from Peter that when you answer God’s call you don’t become perfect.  You don’t have to strive for perfection.  Faith is always growing – we learn and grow. 

Like Peter we need to keep looking to Jesus – if we take our eyes off Jesus we will sink like Peter. 

We too can become Fishers of Men.  Peter’s brother bought him to Jesus we too can bring our brothers and sisters to Jesus.  We can speak to individuals, we can pray and we can increase God’s Kingdom and so become Fishers of Men.

Let us pray…

Almighty God we have heard about Peter, his call his journey and his fulfilment of being a Fisher of Men.  Help us to be bold like Peter and to become Fishers of Men to bring others into your Kingdom. Amen.

Tawa Baptist

True Religion

Scripture: Matthew 21:10-19

Video Link: https://youtu.be/PqlzG3Y8V8w

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • The merchants
  • The priests
  • The fig tree
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

At a wedding recently I met a man from Russia. He was telling me how quite often, in Russian wedding ceremonies, the bride and groom seal the deal by stepping on a glass. This might stem from a Jewish custom, I think.

There are generally lots of words in wedding ceremonies, but the act of stepping on a glass is symbolic. It signifies the finality of the marriage commitment. What has been done cannot be undone. Breaking a glass also reminds the couple that the journey of life involves sorrow as well as joy.

This acted-out parable communicates the meaning of the marriage commitment with a power and clarity that goes beyond words.

This morning, we continue our series on the parables of Jesus. Many of Jesus’ parables come to us in the form of the spoken word; stories which, in their own mysterious way, infiltrate the human imagination.

Not all of Jesus’ parables are stories though. Sometimes Jesus demonstrated his parables with symbolic actions that communicated God’s message with a power and clarity that goes beyond words.

With today being Palm Sunday (the beginning of holy week) our message focuses on Matthew 21, verses 12-19. This passage describes at least two acted-out parables of Jesus; symbolic actions performed on the first Palm Sunday, twenty centuries ago. From Matthew 21, verse 12 we read…            

12 Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. 13 “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’” 14 The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them. 15 But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple courts, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they were indignant. 16 “Do you hear what these children are saying?” they asked him. “Yes,” replied Jesus, “have you never read, “‘From the lips of children and infants you, Lord, have called forth your praise’?” 17 And he left them and went out of the city to Bethany, where he spent the night. 18 Early in the morning, as Jesus was on his way back to the city, he was hungry. 19 Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, “May you never bear fruit again!” Immediately the tree withered.

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

In Luke 17 (last week’s message), Jesus talked about not causing others to stumble and rebuking those who sin against you. In the reading we just heard, from Matthew 21, Jesus rebukes those merchants and priests who are causing others to stumble, and he rebukes a fig tree for being fruitless.

You have probably heard the phrase, ‘throwing down the gauntlet’. A gauntlet is an armoured glove worn by knights in medieval Europe. A gauntlet protects your hands in battle.

If a knight wanted to challenge another knight to a duel, he would throw his gauntlet at the feet of his opponent. This symbolic act called into question the opponent’s honour and bravery. By picking up the gauntlet the opponent showed he accepted the challenge. If he refused, his honour was degraded.

Over time, ‘throwing down the gauntlet’, has come to mean any sort of action that demonstrates a desire to confront another person.

In Matthew 21, Jesus throws down the gauntlet to the religious leadership in Jerusalem. He is not so much questioning their bravery as he is their integrity. Jesus throws down the gauntlet in a number of ways.

In verses 1-11, Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey, surrounded by pilgrims who are shouting, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David’. This is an acted-out parable; it is Jesus’ way of announcing himself as Israel’s Messiah. It is also a challenge to those in authority in Jerusalem. Will they submit to Jesus as King or will they resist?

The merchants:   

Jesus’ first act, after arriving in the holy city, is to drive out the merchants and money changers from the temple courts. This is another way of throwing down the gauntlet.   

Jesus is demonstrating (through an acted-out parable) how God feels about business being carried out in the temple. Clearly, the Lord is not happy. 

Jesus is not flying off the handle in a fit of rage. His actions are considered, intentional, surgically precise and fair. Jesus is motivated by love for God and love for his neighbour.

Now the merchants were carrying out a necessary service to facilitate worship. They were selling doves and livestock for pilgrims to sacrifice to God in the Jerusalem temple. Likewise, the money changers were exchanging foreign currency for the right kind of currency. So why does Jesus drive them out of the temple courts?

In verse 13 the Lord provides Scriptural warrant for his behaviour by quoting from the Old Testament prophets. First Isaiah, then Jeremiah. When Jesus says: “It is written, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’”he is quoting from Isaiah 56, where we read…

3 Let no foreigner who is bound to the Lord say, “The Lord will surely exclude me from his people.” …4 For this is what the Lord says:foreigners who bind themselves to the Lord to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be his servants, all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it and who hold fast to my covenant—7 these I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.”

The prophet Isaiah gives us a vision of inclusion here. Jesus came to fulfil this vision. God’s purpose was for Israel to be a light to the other nations of the world. God wanted the nation of Israel to be a picture of what his kingdom is like. The other nations of the world were to learn about God from Israel.

With this in view, the temple was designed with an area for Gentiles (non-Jews) to come and seek the God of Israel. However, Gentiles could not go past their designated area in the temple courts. It was a case of, ‘you may come this far and no further’.

The merchants and money changers were plying their trade in the court of the Gentiles, which essentially made it impossible for people of other nations to draw near to God, in prayer.

By clearing the merchants out of the temple courts, Jesus was welcoming people of all nations. He was making room for prayer and reminding Israel of God’s purpose.

In Matthew 27, when Jesus gave up his spirit on the cross, we read how the curtain hanging in the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. This is a sign of what Jesus’ death accomplished. We now have direct access to God through Jesus, whatever our ethnicity. We no longer need a temple building.

Jesus’ rebuke, of the merchants, that they were making the temple a den of robbers, comes from the prophet Jeremiah. In Jeremiah chapter 7 we read…

9 “‘Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known, 10 and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name, and say, “We are safe”—safe to do all these detestable things? 11 Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching! declares the Lord.

In Jeremiah’s day (centuries before Jesus) many people hid their evil deeds behind the cloak of respectable religion. They gathered for worship on Saturday and carried out the prescribed rituals, but the rest of the week they disobeyed the ten commandments.    

Their religion was false and God was not having it. After centuries of warning, the Lord allowed the Babylonians to attack Jerusalem and destroy the temple built by Solomon, killing thousands and forcing the rest into exile.     

By quoting Jeremiah and referring to the merchants as ‘robbers’, Jesus is implying they were ripping the people off, exploiting them financially.

More than this, Jesus was throwing down the gauntlet; he was challenging the integrity of those who ran the temple system. They were no better than the people of Jeremiah’s day. God had allowed Israel’s enemies to destroy the temple once and he would do it again if necessary.

How then does Jesus’ clearing of the temple apply to us today? Let me offer two applications…

Firstly, our faith (our religion) needs to have integrity. It needs to be true.

We live with integrity by practicing what we believe. Coming to church on Sunday won’t cut it if we are not obeying Christ the rest of the week as well. We need to do justly, love mercy and walk humbly with our God.

In order to live with integrity, we need to clear time and space in our cluttered lives to pray and nurture our relationship with God. The goal is to be fruitful for God’s glory and we can only be fruitful when we abide in Christ.

In some African cultures, so I’m told, there’s a tradition of sitting outside someone’s house to say thank you. No words are spoken; the person simply sits. The longer you sit, the greater the thanks.

If you were to do that in kiwi culture it would seem weird, like you were stalking the person. But in some African cultures, this gesture expresses gratitude with a power and clarity that goes beyond words.  

How do you carve out time to be with Jesus? Prayer isn’t just asking God for stuff. Sometimes prayer is like sitting outside God’s house, offering our time in silent contemplation and gratitude for who he is and what he has done.

The priests:

Jesus’ rebuke of the merchants in the temple courts is really a rebuke of the religious leaders who allowed them to be there in the first place. It is to the priests we turn now. 

After clearing the temple, the blind and lame came to Jesus and he healed them. 15 But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple courts, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they were indignant.

Jesus’ healing of the blind and lame within the temple is its own kind of acted-out parable. Jesus’ symbolic actions show us what a temple is for. A temple is place of prayer. A place where people are reconciled to God and made whole.

A place where vision and perspective are restored and people find the means to walk without a crutch. It is also a place where God is praised.

Jesus replaces the temple building. We find salvation and hope in Christ.

Jesus is our temple, our holy place where we are reconciled to God.   

Ironically, the chief priests and scribes show themselves to be spiritually lame and blind. Jesus would have healed them too, but they didn’t want this.

They were too busy being indignant. Indignant just means angry.   

Hosanna literally means ‘save us now’ and Son of David is code for the Messiah, God’s anointed King. The children can see that Jesus is the Messiah come to save them, but the religious leaders cannot see what is staring them in the face, even with all the miracles Jesus is performing.

What was it Jesus said in Matthew 5? Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. The children are pure in heart; they can see God at work in and through Jesus. The religious leaders are not pure in heart. They are blind.   

The priests question Jesus saying, “Do you hear what these children are saying?” They think Jesus should be silencing the children’s praise. But Jesus does not silence the children. Again, Jesus quotes Scripture to his opponents (much like he did with Satan in the wilderness).

The Lord says, “Yes,” [I do hear what they are saying] “have you never read, “‘From the lips of children and infants you, Lord, have called forth your praise’?”    

Of course they have read it. This comes from Psalm 8. Far from silencing the children’s praise, Jesus is holding up the children as an example for the religious leaders to follow. Talk about throwing down the gauntlet. But the religious leaders don’t pick up the challenge. They have no response for Jesus.

So the Lord retires to Bethany for the night. Bethany is about two miles outside of Jerusalem on the side of the Mount of Olives. Jesus is making time and space to be alone with God. I imagine Jesus was sitting outside God’s house in silent contemplation and gratitude for what God has done in revealing his glory to little children.       

The fig tree:

Okay, so given the corruption and dodgy dealings in the Jerusalem temple we can understand why Jesus rebuked the merchants and the priests. But what was his beef with the fig tree?

From verse 18 of Matthew 21 we read: 18 Early in the morning, as Jesus was on his way back to the city, he was hungry. 19 Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, “May you never bear fruit again!” Immediately the tree withered.

Fig trees, in the Middle East, bear fruit twice a year. Usually in June and then again in September. We know for a fact that Jesus came across this fig tree in early April, because it was a week before the Jewish Passover festival.

The tree was not supposed to bear fruit for another three months and yet Jesus speaks to it in such a way that it withers. That doesn’t seem fair. We are not used to that sort of carry-on from Jesus. Was the Lord just a bit hangry? (Someone get Jesus a Snickers.) Well, no. Jesus’ encounter with the fig tree was an acted-out parable.

According to Joel Green[1] (and other Bible experts) fig trees bear an early crop of bitter and immature male figs called ‘taksh’ which drop off before the proper fruit comes in June. Taksh is sometimes eaten by the poor, but it doesn’t taste very nice.

If a fig tree doesn’t bear the immature taksh, then it won’t bear proper fruit in June or September. Jesus could tell the fig tree was barren because it had no taksh on it. The leaves were also misleading. Normally, a fig tree with leaves promises fruit. The leaves of this fig tree though were like false advertising.   

Jesus was not condemning a perfectly good tree that would have fruited in due course. The tree had already condemned itself by being fruitless.

The fig tree (like the grape vine) was symbolic of the nation of Israel. (Sort of like the maple leaf is symbolic of Canada and the silver fern is symbolic of New Zealand.)

With this imagery of the fig tree in mind, the Old Testament prophets[2] used the withering of fig trees as a symbol of God’s judgement on Israel.

Jesus’ encounter with the fig tree, therefore, was an acted-out parable of God’s judgement on Israel for practising empty (fruitless) religion. It was a symbolic action that communicated God’s message with a power and clarity that goes beyond words.

To the casual observer the Jerusalem temple system looked good, but it lacked substance. The fruit that God wanted (of justice, mercy and humility) was not there. Indeed, the religious leaders were plotting to murder Jesus, the Messiah of God.

The withered fig tree was a prophetic sign of what was going to happen to the Jerusalem temple. In AD 70, some decades after Jesus’ death and resurrection, Jewish nationalism provoked the Romans to lay siege to Jerusalem and destroy the temple building and many lives with it. Jesus’ prediction came true.

It’s important to understand that in giving this prophecy, Jesus held no malice in his heart. Grief, yes, but not hatred. Just a day before, when he entered Jerusalem, Jesus wept over the city as Jeremiah did before him.  

We come across another parable featuring a fig tree, in Luke 13. In the context, Jesus was telling people they needed to repent or perish. From verse 6 we read

6 Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any. 7 So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’ 8 “‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. 9 If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’”

In this spoken parable, Jesus highlights God’s grace in giving people more time to repent. God does not want to destroy. He would rather redeem. But we must not presume upon God’s grace. If we don’t bear the fruit of repentance, God will bring us to a just end.

The religious leaders had plenty of opportunity to repent. John the Baptist came before Jesus saying: the axe is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

Then Jesus came preaching a gospel of repentance and performing miracles, for three years. After Jesus’ death and resurrection, the nation of Israel would be given another 40 years of Christian witness before the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and the temple. Sadly, many missed their opportunity.

Conclusion:

Jesus’ acted-out parables of clearing the temple and declaring the fig tree fruitless, are a call to God’s people down through the ages, to practice true religion. The kind which bears the fruit of justice, mercy and humility. We can only do this by God’s grace and the power of Jesus’ Spirit.

Let us pray…

Loving God, we have sinned in thought, word and deed. We have sinned in ignorance and by our own deliberate fault. We have been unfair to you and unfair to others. Forgive us we pray. Help us, by your Spirit, to walk in freedom and righteousness. Through Jesus we ask. Amen. 

Questions for discussion or reflection:

  1. What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?
  2. What acted-out parables (or symbolic actions) have you participated in? What meaning do these convey?
  3. Why did Jesus drive out the merchants from the temple courts? What was he communicating through this acted-out parable? How does Jesus’ clearing of the temple apply to us today? How might it apply to you personally?
  4. Discuss / reflect on Jesus’ references to Isaiah 56 and Jeremiah 7. How did these prophecies relate to the people/temple of Jesus’ day? How might they relate to our situation today?
  5. What is the purpose of a temple? Why is a temple building no longer necessary? Who fulfils the purpose of the temple for us?
  6. How do you carve out time to be with Jesus? What does your prayer life look like? Do you make room to sit and consider God’s goodness and grace?
  7. Why does Jesus say to the fig tree, “May you never bear fruit again!”? What does the withering of the fig tree signify?
  8. What does it look like to bear the fruit of repentance? Is there anything you sense God wants you to repent of? Take time this week to make things right with the Lord.

Bibliography:

  • R.V.G. Tasker, ‘TNTC: The Gospel According to St Matthew’, 1963.
  • William Barclay, ‘Gospel of Matthew Vol. 2’, 1967.
  • Michael Green, ‘BST: The Message of Matthew’, 2000.
  • Craig Keener, ‘The Gospel of Matthew – A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary, 2009.
  • R.T. France, ‘NICNT: The Gospel of Matthew’, 2007.

[1] Refer Green, page 223

[2] C.f. Isaiah 34:4 and Jeremiah 8:13.

Tawa Baptist

The Shrewd Manager

Scripture: Luke 16:1-9

Video Link: https://youtu.be/3PdGt4m0G2M

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • The shrewd manager
  • The noble master
  • The not so shrewd disciples
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

In Matthew 10, as Jesus is commissioning his disciples for a short-term mission trip, he says to them: “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore, be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.”  

Shrewd is a word which means clever, smart, astute, sharp-witted, intelligent.  

The world is sometimes hostile to the Christian message, therefore we who are believers need to be shrewd or street smart. We need to manage ourselves well, without doing harm. We need spiritual insight to navigate the society we live in, without compromising our faith in Christ.   

Today we continue our series on the parables of Jesus. Last Sunday Sam Barris spoke on the parable of the Good Samaritan, in Luke 10. This week our focus is the parable of the Shrewd Manager, in Luke 16, (also known as the parable of the unjust steward).

The parable of the unjust steward could be summed up by Jesus’ instruction to “be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves”, although the emphasis in this parable is on being as shrewd as snakes. From Luke 16, verse 1, we read…

Jesus told his disciples: “There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. 2 So he called him in and asked him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.’ 3 “The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I’m not strong enough to dig, and I’m ashamed to beg— 4 I know what I’ll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.’ 5 “So he called in each one of his master’s debtors. He asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ 6 “‘Nine hundred gallonsof olive oil,’ he replied. “The manager told him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred and fifty.’ 7 “Then he asked the second, ‘And how much do you owe?’ “‘A thousand bushels of wheat,’ he replied. “He told him, ‘Take your bill and make it eight hundred.’ 8 “The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. 9 I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.

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

There are two main characters in this parable: the shrewd manager and the noble master. Listening to the parable are the not so shrewd disciples.

Let us begin with the shrewd manager.

The shrewd manager:

They say survival depends mostly on the top two inches. If you are lost in the wilderness, you will make it out alive if you are shrewd, if you have the right mindset and an astute awareness of your environment.

In practical terms, this means staying calm and accepting the reality of your situation. Denial wastes time and energy. The sooner you recognise what’s really happening, the sooner you can get clarity on your next steps.

Clarity on your next steps comes with focusing on what you can control and setting priorities accordingly. One of the first things you need to prioritise is building a shelter. You can go weeks without food, but if it’s cold and wet and you don’t have shelter you might not make it through the night.     

The parable of the shrewd manager comes straight after the parable of the prodigal son. Both parables share some similarities.

Each has a noble master and a wayward character who wastes their master’s money. Indeed, the word ‘prodigal’ means to be extravagant, reckless with money or wasteful. The shrewd manager is essentially a prodigal manager.

Both wayward characters have a reality check. They reach a crisis point, an ‘aha’ moment about themselves, when they come to their senses. Once they accept the reality of their situation, they find clarity on a way forward.

And, in both parables, there is a merciful outcome. Each of the wayward characters is saved by the extraordinary grace of their master.

These two parables are not the same in every way though. Jesus told the parable of the Prodigal Son primarily for the Pharisees, that they would rejoice in the fact that he (Jesus) had come to seek and save the lost.

In contrast, Jesus told the parable of the Shrewd Manager for the benefit of the disciples, that they would not be naive but would be street smart and awake to the reality at hand.

The parable of the Shrewd Manager assumes a scenario that Jesus’ Middle Eastern audience would have been familiar with. A rich landowner who leased his land to farmers who paid rent by giving the landowner a portion of their harvest.

In Luke 16, verse 1, the rich man learns that his manager has been wasting his possessions, so he calls the manager in, fires him on the spot and orders him to hand over the books.

Interestingly the manager does not argue with his master. When the master asks him, ‘What is this I hear about you?’, the manager is silent. The manager is shrewd. He doesn’t react defensively in the moment. He stays calm.

The manager can see he is in a precarious position. His survival is at stake.

To argue his innocence or offer excuses, when he does not have a leg to stand on, would only escalate the situation and further aggravate the master. Best to exercise his right to remain silent while he gathers his thoughts.  

After leaving his master’s presence, the manager has a reality check. He says to himself (in verse 3), ‘What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I’m not strong enough to dig, and I’m ashamed to beg…

This is a moment of crisis for the manager. To his credit he harbours no illusions about himself. He quickly comes to his senses and faces the facts. Shrewd people may be a bit crafty in their dealings with others, but they know better than to deceive themselves.   

The manager does not worry about what he cannot control. He focuses on what he can do in the situation. He prioritises shelter. His plan is to make his master’s debtors will feel obligated to take him in once his job is gone.

If he does them a favour, perhaps they will employ him or at the very least provide him with hospitality for a while.  

The shrewd manager wastes no time. He calls his master’s debtors in and (one by one) he reduces their debts significantly.

To the first he says, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ 6 “‘Nine hundred gallonsof olive oil,’ he replied. “The manager told him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred and fifty.’

Four hundred and fifty gallons of oil was worth about 18 months’ wages. It was a very large sum.  

To the second debtor the manager says, ‘And how much do you owe?’

“‘A thousand bushels of wheat,’ he replied. “He told him, ‘Take your bill and make it eight hundred.’

The first debtor got a 50% reduction and the second debtor got a 20% reduction. However, twenty bushels of wheat (at that time) was roughly the same value as 450 gallons of oil (about 18 months’ wages). Again, it is a very large sum.

There were other debtors, no doubt, each getting a generous discount on their invoices, but Jesus only mentions two. Two is enough to give the idea.    

Now the debtors don’t realise the manager has already been given the sack and is no longer authorised to write off their debt. The manager has very shrewdly given the debtors what we might call ‘plausible deniability’.

Publicly the debtors would be able to say, ‘I had no idea the manager had been fired. I thought he was authorised to make the reductions’.

But, given the manager’s reputation for shrewdness, the debtors might also be thinking, ‘This is a bit too good to be true. I have a feeling the manager is going to want his cut’. So privately the debtors might be expecting to split some of their savings with the manager afterwards.

The manager very shrewdly gets the debtors to write the reduction in their own hand. This shows the master the debtors are aware of the reductions making it a lot more difficult for the master to change the figures back without losing face. [1]

Okay, so that gives us a picture of the manager’s shrewdness. The manager knows how to survive. He stays calm. He quickly accepts the reality of his situation. He focuses on what he can control and he prioritises shelter.

That said, he has still taken a huge risk. The manager has been extremely generous with the master’s money. What if the manager has pushed it too far? What if the master decides he’s not having this? The master is well within his rights to send the manager to prison for fraud or sell the manager and his family as slaves to recoup his losses. It is to the master we now turn.

The noble master:    

The master is described by Jesus (in verse 1) as rich. This raises the question of the character of the master. Is he rich because he is ruthless or is he more community minded in how he uses his wealth, more noble?

At times, in the gospel of Luke, the rich are cast in a dim light. For example, in Luke 6 Jesus says: “Woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort.” This in contrast to the poor who are blessed because the kingdom of God is theirs. (Jesus’ parable of the rich man and Lazarus, at the end of Luke 16, illustrates this thought.)

But the rich are not always cast in the role of the villain. Elsewhere in the gospels, Jesus makes a rich man the hero of his stories. For example, the father in the parable of the prodigal son is rich but also very gracious in welcoming home his wayward son. Likewise, the vineyard owner (in Matthew 20), who pays all his workers the same, is rich but also very generous, a good guy.

The point is, being rich does not automatically equate to being bad, just as being poor does not automatically equate to being good. We know from our own experience people are more complex than that.

When Jesus said, ‘woe to the rich’ and ‘blessed are the poor’, he was making a point: the values of God’s kingdom are very different from the values of this world. What we think of as fortunate or blessed is not what God thinks of as fortunate or blessed. Indeed, there is a startling reversal of fortunes with the coming of God’s kingdom. The first shall be last and the last shall be first.   

The rich man (the master) in the parable of the shrewd manager is portrayed as noble. He appears to be liked and respected by others in his community.

The parable begins with the manager being accused of wasting his master’s possessions. If the rich man wasn’t decent, the community would not be warning him that his manager was up to no good.    

But there are other clues to the master’s noble character as well. In verse 2 we note the master acts in a way that is both just and merciful. We see the master’s justice in that he does not ignore the manager’s immoral behaviour. He calls the manager to give account.

Among other things, the parable of the shrewd manager reminds us that a day of judgement is coming. God is like the noble master, and we are like the manager. Everything we have, all our possessions, all our time, our talents and energy, our very lives, it all belongs to God our master.

We are merely stewards, managers, kaitiaki of what God has entrusted to us. One day God will call us to give account for how we have used what he has entrusted to us. One day we will have to hand in the ledger of our lives.

How are we using the freedom and resources at our disposal? Are we using our money and time and skill in service of God’s purpose? Or are we wasting it, squandering it, using it to our own advantage?   

As well as being just and not letting his manager carry on wasting his resources unchecked, we also note the master’s mercy and grace. The master was well within his rights to demand the manager repay the losses.

If you have a company credit card and you exceed your budget, running up expensive lunches and luxury travel on the card, you expect your employer to not only fire you but also demand repayment of the excess and probably take you to court.

But the noble master in this parable does not require the manager to repay his debt. He knows the manager cannot afford it. After giving the manager an opportunity to explain himself, and getting no response, the master simply fires the manager on the spot. The manager has got off lightly because his master is merciful as well as just.     

Another clue to the master’s noble character is found in how the manager responds to being fired. The manager’s survival strategy hinges on his belief that the master is noble.

If the master was a ruthless man, a scrooge type character, the manager would not have risked further aggravating his master by discounting the debtors’ accounts. The manager knows his master is kind and generous and that’s why he thinks his plan will probably succeed, which it apparently does.

The manager’s strategy is brilliantly shrewd. By reducing people’s debts, the manager has made his master look like a generous hero in the eyes of the whole community.

The master chooses to show extravagant grace to the manager once again and does not contest the reductions. This act of grace for the manager is also an act of grace for the whole community. Everyone wins at the master’s expense. [2]

Does this remind you of anyone? Jesus perhaps?

In verse 8 we read how the master commended the dishonest manager because he acted shrewdly.  

The master praises the manager, not for being dishonest, but for being clever and brave. Jesus is not giving his disciples license to act fraudulently or immorally here. Remember, Jesus’ disciples are to be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves. The manager in the parable was certainly shrewd, but he was not innocent.    

The not so shrewd disciples:

Jesus seems to lament the fact that his disciples are not so shrewd. In the second part of verse 8 the Lord says: For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light.

In other words, Jesus wants us (his disciples) to be smart in doing what is right. When we face adversity or crisis in this world, Jesus wants us to respond with creativity, like the shrewd manager. Jesus wants us to use our initiative, our street smarts, to manage ourselves well and advance the gospel. He wants us to trust wholeheartedly in the goodness of God.

How might we be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves?

Let me give you some examples from Scripture of what this looks like …

Rahab the prostitute acted shrewdly when the Israelites surrounded the city of Jericho. She protected the Jewish spies and made a deal with them for her own protection. Rahab is one the heroes of faith listed in Hebrews 11.

Nathan, the prophet, was shrewd in how he confronted king David.

After David committed adultery with Bathsheba, Nathan flew under the radar; he got through David’s defences with a parable about a rich man who stole a poor man’s lamb. And when David reacted in anger at the rich man, Nathan said to him, ‘You are the man’.    

Zacchaeus, the tax collector, was a shrewd manager. When Jesus invited himself to Zaccahaeus’ house for dinner, Zacchaeus saw his opportunity and declared he would give away half his possessions to the poor. Zacchaeus was being generous with God’s money, and Jesus commended him for it.

The apostle Paul was a shrewd operator too. When he was arrested without just cause, he used the opportunity provided by his arrest (and his Roman citizenship) to appeal to Caesar, so he could speak to the emperor about Jesus and thus advance the gospel.

In verse 9 Jesus goes on to say: I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.

In the same way the manager had to prepare for his future because he was about to lose his job, so too we need to think about our eternal future.

This life won’t last forever and when it ends, we can’t take our money with us. If we are smart, if we are shrewd, we will invest our money in that which lasts.  

And what lasts beyond this life? Faith, hope and love conceived by the gospel of Christ.   

Let us pray…

Gracious God, grant us the wisdom and courage we need each day. Make us clever and kind in communicating your goodness and truth. Through Jesus we pray. Amen.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

  1. What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?
  2. Discuss / reflect on Jesus’ parable in Luke 16:1-9. Who did Jesus tell this parable for? Why did Jesus tell this parable?
  3. What does it mean to be shrewd? In what ways does the manager in Jesus’ parable demonstrate shrewdness?
  4. Can you think of a time in your own life when you were faced with a real crisis? What happened? How did you respond / survive the crisis? 
  5. What clues do we find in the text that indicate the master is noble? In what ways is the master like Jesus?
  6. How might we be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves when communicating the gospel message? Can you think of examples of what this looks like from Scripture or from your own experience?
  7. How are you using the freedom and resources God has entrusted to you?  

Bibliography:

  • William Barclay, ‘The Gospel of Matthew’, 1967.
  • R.V.G. Tasker, ‘Tyndale Commentaries: St Matthew’, 1963.
  • Michael Green, ‘BST: The Message of Matthew’, 2000.
  • Craig S. Keener, ‘The Gospel of Matthew’, 2009.
  • R.T. France, ‘New International Commentary on the New Testament: The Gospel of Matthew’, 2007.
  • Kenneth Bailey, ‘Poet and Peasant’, 1983.
  • Kenneth Bailey, ‘Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes’, 2008. 

[1] Refer Kenneth Bailey

[2] Refer Bailey, Poet & Peasant

Tawa Baptist

The Good Samaritan (by Sam Barris)

Scripture: Luke 10:25-37

Good morning everyone. Today I’ll be carrying on Will’s current theme of Parables. We’re going to be looking at the Good Samaritan today – a parable that stems from a question asked of Jesus from an expert in religious law.

We’re going to look at the questions he asked, how Jesus responds, what that meant for the people at the time, and what that means for us now. Let’s begin with reading the parable in Luke chapter 10 v 25 – 37.

One day an expert in religious law stood up to test Jesus by asking him this question: “Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life?”

Jesus replied, “What does the law of Moses say? How do you read it?”

The man answered, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.’ And, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’”

“Right!” Jesus told him. “Do this and you will live!”

The man wanted to justify his actions, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbour?”

Jesus replied with a story: “A Jewish man was traveling from Jerusalem down to Jericho, and he was attacked by bandits. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him up, and left him half dead beside the road. “By chance a priest came along. But when he saw the man lying there, he crossed to the other side of the road and passed him by. A Temple assistant walked over and looked at him lying there, but he also passed by on the other side.

“Then a despised Samaritan came along, and when he saw the man, he felt compassion for him. Going over to him, the Samaritan soothed his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them. Then he put the man on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where he took care of him. The next day he handed the innkeeper two silver coins, telling him, ‘Take care of this man. If his bill runs higher than this, I’ll pay you the next time I’m here.

“Now which of these three would you say was a neighbour to the man who was attacked by bandits?” Jesus asked.

The man replied, “The one who showed him mercy.”

Then Jesus said, “Yes, now go and do the same.”

When I was being toilet trained, my parents struck up a deal with me. Every time I went to the toilet and undertook the necessary actions, I would receive one M&M. I agreed, so we wrote up the contract, and the M&M deal was on.

After reviewing the contract however, I noticed a loophole. Fantastic. The deal had specified exactly what I said, “Every time I went to the toilet and undertook the necessary actions, I would receive one M&M.”. It didn’t say anything about undertaking the necessary actions to completion.

I would go to the toilet a little bit, if you understand what I mean, retrieve my agreed upon reward, and then go back to the toilet to do a little bit more, expecting to retrieve the same reward straight away again. From what I’ve been told, it worked at first but my parents were not pleased with me exploiting this loophole so it did not last.

Of course, my main objective here was to obtain as many M&Ms as possible. I was also really asking the question “What’s the least I can get away with here and still obtain my reward?”.

We see the same thinking from the lawyer in this section. The first question he asks of Jesus is, “What should I do to inherit eternal life?”. This gives us a good understanding of how he views Jesus’ teachings to this point. He sees the way to eternal life as a tickbox exercise “If I just do this handy list of things, I’m in – job done.”.

It makes sense, he’s a lawyer – all you’ve gotta do is follow these rules and you’re good to go. This isn’t quite how inheritance works however – an inheritance is received, it’s not earned.

Jesus replies with a question, directing him to the laws he knows this man is already aware of. “What does the law of Moses say? How do you read it?”. How do you read it is an interesting question. He doesn’t just ask him to quote it word for word, Jesus is asking him how he understands and interprets it, maybe as far as how do you choose to live this out?

The lawyer then answers by quoting parts of Deuteronomy and Leviticus.

“You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind” And “Love your neighbour as yourself”.

He’s nailed it, what a great answer! He describes loving God in all ways – not just a nice feeling but how you live out your life – day to day. As he quotes, loving God goes hand in hand with loving your neighbour as well.

Jesus agrees, a great answer! He says “Right! Do this and you will live!”.

The lawyer then follows up with a question that shows – while he may have fantastic theological knowledge, his desire to live it out fully might not quite be there. There’s a big gap between his knowledge and understanding of the law and how he chooses to act on that.

“Who is my neighbour?” he asks. Luke says that he asks this to justify his actions, not in hoping that he’ll be given the opportunity to show love to more and more people around him, but rather the opposite. He wants to cut down his list of requirements to the bare minimum. He wants to prove he already meets this requirement, job done. He’s asking how can I narrow my obligations and still receive the same reward? Eternal life sounds pretty great, I’m up for that. Let me just check it’s not going to be too much of an inconvenience though.

Some people close to me are so easy to love, I’m completely fine with them being my neighbour. Some others though…. They don’t quite agree with me on everything, maybe they even don’t like me. Surely, I don’t need to show them the same love as those in my inner circle, for example.

Often when I’m reading the Bible and I’m reading passages about religious leaders testing Jesus, trying to cut him and his teachings down, or attacking him for breaking their laws, I read them as the villains of the story. Here’s Jesus who we love, sharing the Good News, and these religious experts come in and just don’t get it – they’re on the bad side, trying to shut down Jesus, the hero of the story.

When I read about this religious lawyer, he’s quite relatable to be honest. I don’t want him to be relatable, but I find myself asking the same question regularly. Whether it’s toilet training or something a bit more recent – reaching out to a friend, giving up my time, energy, and resources to provide for others, putting in my best efforts at work, being a loving friend, brother, flatmate, leader. What’s the minimum I can do to pass? Do I have to put in this level of effort for everyone?

Let’s read again how Jesus responds. Jesus replied with a story:

“A Jewish man was traveling from Jerusalem down to Jericho, and he was attacked by bandits. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him up, and left him half dead beside the road. “By chance a priest came along. But when he saw the man lying there, he crossed to the other side of the road and passed him by. A Temple assistant walked over and looked at him lying there, but he also passed by on the other side. “Then a despised Samaritan came along, and when he saw the man, he felt compassion for him. Going over to him, the Samaritan soothed his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them. Then he put the man on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where he took care of him. The next day he handed the innkeeper two silver coins, telling him, ‘Take care of this man. If his bill runs higher than this, I’ll pay you the next time I’m here.’ “Now which of these three would you say was a neighbour to the man who was attacked by bandits?” Jesus asked. The man replied, “The one who showed him mercy.” Then Jesus said, “Yes, now go and do the same.”

Hearing this parable in 2026 has quite a different meaning to it than how the Jewish audience were hearing this story when Jesus told it for the first time.

A lot of the depth is lost on us at first – it becomes a nice story of how we should show acts of kindness and not walk past those in need. That in itself is great and important but the cultural impact of this story at the time ran a lot deeper.

Firstly, Jesus introduces us to a Jewish man who is travelling from Jerusalem to Jericho. The road from Jerusalem to Jericho was an infamously dangerous road. It was isolated, steep and rocky – descending 4000 feet through narrow, winding canyons that provided great hiding spots for bandits. It had a bad and unsafe reputation but from all we’ve been told, this man is travelling it by himself. Living up to the reputation of the road, the man is attacked, robbed, beaten, and left to die on the side of the road.

We then see a Priest and a temple assistant come across this man in need and walk right past him. There’s an expectation here, that the Jewish audience would have had as well, that these are the exact people who would help out this man in need. It’s even possible that the priest was very wealthy, travelling with a group, plenty of resources available to help here.

I spent some time trying to work out the reasoning or justification these people would have to ignore this man especially given their titles and roles in the temple. Some commentaries said that the priest would have been thinking about becoming ceremonially unclean if they touched this person (if he was dead) or that they only had an obligation to help Jewish people and there was no way of knowing this beaten man’s cultural or ethnic origin so why risk it?

There were all these ideas flying around as to their motivation to just walking past but after looking at it for a bit, I realised it probably doesn’t actually matter. Jesus doesn’t focus at all on their motivation or justification behind this. The sole focus is on their actions and what they chose to do when faced with this opportunity to help – they walked right past.

When we’re faced with situations where we have an opportunity to help those in need, do we focus on the action we need to take or our reasons for not helping? We might be quite tired, we don’t think we’re the best person to support, we might have enough going on to deal with ourselves. Those can all be true but whether our inaction is justified someway or it isn’t – it is still inaction. Our rationalisation of this does nothing more to support the person who is in need.

What Jesus was doing in introducing these two characters in the Priest and the temple assistant was setting the Jewish audience up for the big plot twist. This is where some of the cultural context may not pack the same punch for us as it did for them at the time. Jesus has established a narrative direction here – we’ve started with a priest, next we’ve got a temple assistant, who’s next? The audience here are probably anticipating an Israelite/a regular Jewish person.

That would have been an obvious and clear next person, based on the structure of their society at the time. There would have been genuine shock when a despised Samaritan became the hero of this story.

When you hear the word Samaritan, what do you think? I would be very surprised if you didn’t automatically think of this story we’re talking about today. In fact, the term “Good Samaritan” is a common term today for someone who selflessly helps someone in need. Being called a Good Samaritan today is a great compliment. We even have a charity here called Samaritans Aotearoa. They are a charity that provides a 24/7 crisis help line where volunteers pick up the phone and support people who call through whether they’re lonely, suicidal, depressed, distress or just going through a bad time. The impact of this story over time has moulded the meaning of the word Samaritan into something incredibly positive.

This was really not what the word represented when Jesus told this parable. There was a huge cultural divide between Jewish people and Samaritan people. Jews despised Samaritans largely because of historical, ethnic and religious divisions. When Israel fell to Assyria, foreign people settled in the region and intermarried with the remaining Israelites, creating a group Jews later saw as religiously compromised – or Samaritans which you can read about in 2 Kings 17.

By Jesus’ time, the hostility was so strong that Jews and Samaritans typically avoided each other. We see examples of this in the book of John. Firstly, on a separate occasion to this, Jesus and Jewish religious leaders are debating and, in an attempt to discredit him, they say to him in John 8:48: “You Samaritan devil! Didn’t we say all along that you were possessed by a demon?”. Calling him a Samaritan here is meant as a derogatory term, implying he is religiously corrupt or outside true Jewish faith, and they pair it with accusing him of being demon-possessed to completely undermine his authority.

Secondly, the divide is made clear when Jesus was speaking to a Samaritan woman at a well. When Jesus asks her for a drink, she is shocked because Jewish men normally would not speak with a Samaritan woman at all saying “You are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan woman. Why are you asking me for a drink?”.

This gives an idea of how the Jewish audience would be reacting to this new character introduction – a Samaritan man? This can’t be good. What happens next though? “Then a despised Samaritan came along, and when he saw the man, he felt compassion for him. Going over to him, the Samaritan soothed his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them. Then he put the man on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where he took care of him. The next day he handed the innkeeper two silver coins, telling him, ‘Take care of this man. If his bill runs higher than this, I’ll pay you the next time I’m here.’

There are a lot of justifiable reasons for the Samaritan man to walk past, just like the priest and the temple assistant did. In fact, he probably has a lot more reasons to simply carry on his journey. Firstly, this Jewish man was travelling by himself on a dangerous road. He put himself into this situation, right? He clearly wasn’t well prepared or made some bad decisions that got him to this point.

Secondly, this man is Jewish remember. We have a pretty good idea of what he might think of a Samaritan man coming to his aid.

Thirdly, what if this was a trap? An ambush? The same bandits who attacked and robbed this man could be hiding around the corner waiting for him too.

Fourthly, helping this man is going to be expensive and ruin his plans. There are many reasons to walk by here, but he does not. The Samaritan simply acted out of compassion.

Jesus then asks the religious expert: “Now which of these three would you say was a neighbour to the man who was attacked by the bandits?” The man replied, “The one who showed him mercy” Then Jesus said, “Yes, now go and do the same.”

Jesus flips the question on its head. It’s no longer about asking “Who is my neighbour?”. We’re called to be a neighbour to those around us. Jesus makes it very clear that any form of social, cultural, religious, political barriers should not be getting in the way of being a neighbour and showing love to those in need.

What does that look like for us then? If there’s anything that is plentiful in the world today, it’s opportunities to help people in need. It’s clear that Jesus is saying that loving your neighbour is not just an emotion, it’s a physical response as well.

James 2 tells us: Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, and you say, “Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well”—but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do? It’s a very simple message but do we find it as simple to live out every day on an individual level?

Sometimes it’s small: noticing someone struggling, offering a listening ear, lending a hand with a practical task. Sometimes it’s bigger: volunteering your time, giving resources, or supporting someone who feels isolated. And sometimes it means crossing barriers – social, cultural, or personal – to show care where others wouldn’t. In all cases, it’s about seeing the need and responding with action.

It needs to be a part of a church’s identity as well. When people are in crisis, do they feel they can rely on their local church for support? Can we say that now about our church? Here’s a great example of a church showing love to their community: How good is it to see God’s love being broadcast in local media?

[Audio clip plays of a church providing refuge for people after a crisis]

May they be an example to all of us. Beyond practical help, we can also provide spiritual help to those in need – again, there is a lot of need for this too. Whether that’s praying for those around us, sharing the hope we’ve found in Jesus, providing encouragement, inviting people to church.

The opportunity to lead people to Jesus and the hope he brings is ever present. This comes with the same limitless boundary as to who our neighbour is that Jesus describes in the parable as well. That can be scarier or harder though, right? This is where the cultural, religious, political, personal and a range of other differences can feel like a bigger blocker. If someone is rude to me for whatever reason, that doesn’t make it easier to pray for them. I certainly don’t want to be responding with an invite to church.

This always makes me think of the story of Jonah which we heard here a month or two ago. Jonah, after delivering a message from God to the Ninevites, anticipates and even hopes for God to destroy Nineveh as his message had warned. When God showed compassion to the Ninevites and chose to not carry out the destruction He had threatened, Jonah was very angry. Jonah doesn’t believe the Ninevites deserved the same love God had shown him. To which the Lord responds: “…Nineveh has more than 120,000 people living in spiritual darkness, not to mention all the animals. Shouldn’t I feel sorry for such a great city?

Who are the Ninevites in your life? If there’s someone in your life that you’re praying God deals with instead of saves, you’re missing an opportunity to show them the same love you’ve experienced.

To live like the Samaritan in this story, we have to understand that we’ve also been the Jewish man beaten at the side of the road before as well – or maybe we still are. Jesus is our good Samaritan. He’s compelled by compassion to act and show us love. He gave everything, even His life, because he sees the great need we have and acts on His compassion. Through Jesus, we accept the gift, or the inheritance, of eternal life. When we experience Jesus’ compassion, it should change how we live. The love he has shown us isn’t meant to stop with ourselves. When we respond with love to our neighbour, it is an outpouring of the love we have been shown.

Galatians 5 reminds us what that looks like in action. But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.

Living like the good Samaritan is a lifestyle shaped by the Holy Spirit, showing God’s love in practical ways. To be clear, this message isn’t coming from someone who has this perfected either. Living this out fully is a journey that we go on when we accept Jesus into our lives and seek to follow Him and grow more like Him every day.

My prayer today is that for myself and for everyone here, may this message lead us to take action when we feel compassion. To show love to those who need it – not because of where they come from or what they believe, but because of the love we have been shown.

1st John 4:9-12 tells us: God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.

If this isn’t a love that you have experienced yourself, you’re in the right place. Chat to those around you, we also have a regular prayer ministry team. May you come to know and understand what it means to be loved by God as well.

Let’s pray: Dear Lord, thank you for this parable and what it teaches us. May we come to love those around us as you have loved us. In Jesus’ name, Amen.