Tawa Baptist

Jesus’ Presence

Scripture: Matthew 28:16-20

Video Link: https://youtu.be/x5NbZl6EPjU

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Jesus’ presence calms fear
  • Jesus’ presence is close
  • Jesus’ presence can be felt
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

Today we conclude our Renew Together mini-series in support of Arotahi.

our New Zealand Baptist Missionary Society.

Renew Together is about remembering God’s mission of gospel renewal and our part in that mission. Over the three weeks of this year’s Renew Together campaign we have used the sermon time to focus on Matthew 28, verses 16-20, also known as the Great Commission.

Two weeks ago we heard about Jesus’ great authority. And last week we unpacked Jesus’ great commission to make disciples. Today our message concentrates on Jesus’ great presence. Let’s remind ourselves of what Jesus says in Matthew 28…

16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey all I have commanded you. And surely I am with you all the time, to the very end of the age.”

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

There are many things we can say about Jesus’ presence. Today’s message focuses on just three ideas. Jesus’ presence calms fear. Jesus’ presence is close and Jesus’ presence can be felt. First, let’s consider how Jesus’ presence calms fear.  

Jesus’ presence calms fear

Human beings survive by forming attachments with other people. The first thing a new born baby does is cry, partly to get some oxygen into its lungs but also to get its mother’s attention and form an attachment.

Previously, experts thought that successful attachment was created by food but John Bowlby discovered there was more to it than that. Babies need caregivers who are responsive to them, who smile at them, talk to them and spend time interacting with them in a warm and positive way. 

The central idea of attachment theory is that primary caregivers who are present and responsive to a baby’s needs allow the child to develop a sense of security. When the baby knows that the parent is dependable, they are less anxious and this creates a secure base for the child to explore the world. The caregiver’s presence calms fear.

Over a period of three years the disciples had formed a significant attachment to Jesus. They had experienced Jesus’ love and faithfulness. They had learned to depend on Jesus and this had given them a secure base for their faith.

Soon Jesus would ascend to heaven so they would not be able to see him or hang out with him in the same way they had before. Things were about to change and change is scary.

What’s more, Jesus was asking his followers to do something really big. ‘Go and make disciples of all nations’; that’s massive, it’s huge, overwhelming even. Particularly when we remember the establishment was against them.

Perhaps the biggest trap for the disciples was their fear. The fear of abandonment. The fear of opposition. The fear of rejection. The fear of failure.  

The antidote to fear is presence; having someone with you who loves you. Someone you can trust. Someone who is greater than your fears. Jesus does not want his followers to be anxious or insecure so he says, “I am with you”.  Jesus’ presence calms the disciples’ fear. 

Jesus’ words echo the words of Yahweh, the Lord Almighty. A number of times in the Old Testament, God says to his people, “I am with you.” For example, in Joshua 1, as the people of Israel stand poised to enter the Promised land, we read…

9 …Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.

Then in Isaiah 41, the Lord says to the people in exile…

‘Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Famously, in Psalm 23, David says of the Lord…  

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

And, in the New Testament letter to the Hebrews chapter 13, we read…

5 Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”
6 So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid…”

We could go on quoting Scripture but you get the point. Jesus’ presence calms our fear. As the followers of Jesus we do not need to be afraid of poverty or evil or opposition or anything else because the Lord is with us.

The important thing is to maintain our attachment to Jesus. Because we can only make disciples if we remain attached to Jesus.  

It’s like the Lord said in John 15: “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”

We maintain our attachment to Jesus in a variety of ways. For example, by meditating on Scripture, keeping right relationships, practicing hospitality, observing times of sacred rest and singing praise to God, alongside other rhythms that support our whole life.

Prayer is perhaps the most important rhythm for maintaining our attachment to Jesus. Prayer is an open ended conversation with God, one that never really ends, even though it may be punctuated with long pauses and silences.

Whether we are talking to God or listening to him, prayer keeps us open to God’s presence. When we pray, we put ourselves in the hands of God and we stay attached to Christ.

Jesus’ presence calms fear and Jesus’ presence is close.

Jesus’ presence is close

Some of you may have noticed the way Jesus repeats the word all four times in three verses. All authority, all nations, all I have commanded and all the time.

Jesus is giving his disciples confidence. He’s saying, “I am present with you everywhere and always. Nothing can separate you from my love”.

Jesus’ presence is close. No one, who belongs to Jesus, slips through the cracks. No one is beyond the reach of Jesus’ presence. We are reminded of Psalm 139, which reads…

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. 

It’s important to note what Jesus promises and what he doesn’t. The Lord does not promise that nothing bad will ever happen to us. To the contrary, Jesus was quite clear that people would hate his followers on account of him.

What Jesus does promise is to be present with his disciples, every day and in all situations. So Jesus is present when everything is going smoothly and when everything is turning to custard.

In the book of Acts, chapter 7, we are given a picture of the closeness of Jesus’ presence with Stephen. From verse 54 we read…

54 As the members of the Council listened to Stephen, they became furious and ground their teeth at him in anger. 55 But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw God’s glory and Jesus standing at the right side of God. 56 “Look!” he said. “I see heaven opened and the Son of Man standing at the right side of God!”

57 With a loud cry the Council members covered their ears with their hands. Then they all rushed at him at once, 58 threw him out of the city, and stoned him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. 

59 While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 Then he fell on his knees and cried out, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he died.

Jesus did not stop the Council members from killing Stephen. Nevertheless, Jesus was close with Stephen in his suffering and Jesus’ presence made all the difference, enabling Stephen to forgive his killers as a sign of God’s grace.

You see, Jesus is not aloof or unaffected. Jesus’ presence is not that of a cool or neutral observer. No. Jesus is deeply moved by what happens to his followers. Jesus’ presence with his people is close, intimate, emotionally invested.

We notice the closeness of Jesus’ presence in Acts 9 when the risen Christ appears to Saul on the road to Damascus. From verse 3 we read…  

3 As Saul neared Damascus… suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”

5 “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.

“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. 

Jesus is so closely present with his people, that when we suffer he feels it. The church is the body of Christ in a very real way. Whether any member is hurt or helped, Jesus is affected by that. Even if we are not aware of Jesus’ presence, Jesus is still very aware of what we are going through.

Jesus’ presence can be felt

The point we need to get hold of here is that Jesus’ presence is not one dimensional. Jesus’ presence is not thin, like a cardboard cut-out. Jesus’ presence has real substance and depth so it can be felt by us.  

We might not always feel like Jesus is present but there will be times when we do sense Jesus’ closeness. The Holy Spirit facilitates Jesus’ presence. The Spirit of God makes Jesus’ presence real and tangible and personal.

In John 20 we read how the risen Christ breathed on his disciples and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’. And in Luke’s gospel, the risen Jesus tells his disciples to stay in the city of Jerusalem until they have been clothed with power from on high. That power is the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit enabled the disciples to carry out the great commission by preaching with boldness, healing the sick, speaking in foreign languages and many other remarkable things besides. People accepted Jesus as Saviour and Lord because the Holy Spirit made the presence of the risen Jesus felt. 

We need to remember though, that the Holy Spirit is involved in our lives in less spectacular ways too. Jesus isn’t just present in supernatural events. Jesus is present all the time, including the ordinary, the routine and the natural.

Let me offer you three real life examples of how Jesus’ presence can be felt. Maybe my experience of Jesus’ presence connects with yours.

Firstly, Jesus’ presence can be felt through people, particularly the people of God.

When one of our daughters was young she caught rota virus and had to go to hospital. While we were in hospital, Greg, the pastor of the church we attended, came to visit us. I was about 29 at the time and had never been visited by a pastor before.

I don’t remember what Greg said but I remember he prayed for us and I remember feeling touched that he would take time out of his Saturday afternoon to come to the hospital so we wouldn’t feel alone.

Jesus communicated his presence with us through a person, through Greg. Whenever one of God’s people visits someone, Jesus is present and the body of Christ (the church) is present also. 

Not only is Jesus’ presence felt through people, we can also sense the Lord’s presence in the perfect timing of certain situations.

A day or two after Robyn & I had relocated from Tauranga to Auckland, to train for ministry, we went for a walk in Cornwall Park and got a bit lost. I didn’t really like Auckland and was feeling the weight of our decision to uproot our young family. I needed reassurance.

As we wandered around in a general state of disorientation, I noticed an elderly man in the distance. He looked familiar. As I drew closer, I realised it was Walter Lang. Walter was the senior pastor of Hamilton Central Baptist when I was there in the 1980’s. I hadn’t seen Walter in over ten years.

There are more than one million people in Auckland so the chances of me randomly bumping into Walter at the very moment I needed assurance were very slim. The timing was too perfect for it to be a coincidence. I knew God’s Spirit was making a connection.  

Seeing Walter that day was a very real and tangible sign that Jesus was with us and we were on the right path. Walter became my mentor for the three years of our training.

Jesus’ presence can be felt through people and through perfect timing. Jesus’ presence is also felt in our gathered worship.

Last Sunday, Pat led the intercessory prayer. Pat didn’t know what I was going to say in my sermon and I didn’t know what she was going to say in her prayer. And yet there were very real connections between what Pat prayed and what I preached, particularly in relation to being sensitive to where others are at.

The Holy Spirit makes connections like that every Sunday. The connections might come through the sermon or the prayer but not always. Sometimes they come through a conversation over tea and coffee after the service. Other times through the songs we sing or in some other way.

Whatever form they come in, we recognise the connections as a sign of Jesus’ presence, because they resonate with something in our spirit.

The connections are often personal to you, because of what God is doing in your life, so other people may not see the connection. But even though the connection is personal, you still need other believers to make a connection.

Jesus’ presence is felt when we come together. As the Lord said, where two or three gather in my name, there I am with them.

Conclusion

This morning we have heard how Jesus’ presence calms our fear. We can’t be effective in making disciples if we are afraid. We need to maintain our attachment to Jesus in order to be fruitful. 

We’ve also heard how Jesus’ presence is close, in good times and bad. Jesus is not an aloof observer. The Lord is deeply affected by what happens to his people.

What’s more, Jesus’ presence can be felt by us at times too. We may sense the Lord’s presence in any number of ways including through people, through perfect timing and through our coming together for worship.

The overarching purpose of Jesus’ presence though, is to empower us to be disciples and to make disciples.

May the Spirit of God give us eyes to see Jesus at work in the world, hearts to feel his presence and willingness to obey his call. Amen.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

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

  • Why does Jesus promise to be with his disciples always?
  • On a scale of 1-10 (1 being poor and 10 being perfect) how would you rate your attachment to Jesus? Why do you give this rating? Does anything need to change? If so, what needs to change?
  • Discuss / reflect on Jesus’ words in Acts 9, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” What does this show us about Jesus’ ongoing presence with his disciples?
  • What role does the Holy Spirit have in facilitating Jesus’ presence?
  • When are you most aware of Jesus’ presence in your life? Think of / share examples from your own experience when you sensed Jesus was near.
  • How might we communicate Jesus’ presence to those around us?   
Tawa Baptist

Jesus’ Commission

Scripture: Matthew 28:16-20

Video Link: https://youtu.be/BsRMobff4y8

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Make disciples
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

Today we continue our Renew Together mini-series in support of Arotahi.

Arotahi is the new name for the New Zealand Baptist Missionary Society.

Arotahi means to focus in one direction, concentrating on one thing together.

Renew Together is about remembering God’s mission of gospel renewal and our part in that mission. Over the three weeks of this year’s Renew Together campaign we are using the sermon time to focus on Matthew 28, verses 16-20.

Although this passage is called ‘the great commission’, there’s actually more going on here. Last Sunday we heard about Jesus’ great authority and next week we will hear about Jesus’ great presence.

Today though our focus is the commission part of ‘the great commission’. Jesus’ great commission is to make disciples. Let’s remind ourselves of what Jesus says in Matthew 28…

16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

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

If we think of the great commission as a house, then Jesus’ authority is the foundation on which the house is built. ‘Making disciples’ is like the structure of the house. While the Spirit filled people of God, who live in the house, provide the presence. Our focus this morning is on Jesus’ commission to make disciples.

Make disciples

Perhaps the first question to ask then is, what does Jesus mean by a disciple?

Well, the Greek word used in the New Testament for ‘disciple’ is mathetes, from which we get the word mathematics. 

A mathetes (or a disciple) is a learner, a student, an apprentice. Someone, in the context of the gospels, who is learning to be like Jesus by following his example. The heart and soul of Christian discipleship is learning to love and obey God, like Jesus did.

Being a Christian is like being a tradesperson; a builder or a plumber or a boiler maker (if they still have those). In the same way you don’t become a qualified tradie overnight, so too you don’t become proficient at loving and obeying God instantaneously. It’s a process.

Jesus is the master tradesman and we are his apprentices. We learn how to love and obey God by listening to what Jesus tells us and by watching and following Jesus’ example.

Jesus commissions his eleven disciples to go and make more disciples, after training them. For three years the disciples accompanied Jesus wherever he went. They spent many hours in conversation with Jesus. They listened to his preaching. They watched how Jesus cared for people and they experienced his power and love for themselves, firsthand.

Not only that but they cut their teeth on some short term mission trips of their own. They put into practice what they saw Jesus doing by having go at preaching and healing for themselves.

The point here is that before the eleven could make disciples, they had to do their apprenticeship as a disciple. But even after they had done their apprenticeship and got their commission, they were still learning. Christian discipleship is a lifelong process.    

It’s the same with us. Before we can make disciples, we have to be a disciple. And, in this life, we never stop being a disciple. We never stop learning to love and obey God.   

There is a real freedom in being a disciple. If you think of yourself as a learner, and not as an expert, then you don’t have to have all the answers. A disciple is not a guru. A disciple is not perfect or elite. A disciple is curious. Sometimes disciples make mistakes but they learn from those mistakes. A disciple is on a journey to becoming more like Jesus. 

In verses 19 & 20 of Matthew 28, Jesus outlines the two main things involved with ‘making disciples’: baptizing people and teaching people.

Baptism is the sign of Christian conversion. Or to put it another way, baptism is how we enroll to become a disciple of Jesus. To be baptized is to surrender your life to Christ. Baptism says, I am making a commitment to learn to love and obey God, with Jesus as my teacher.

While baptism is important and is something to celebrate, it is not an end in itself. Baptism is a beginning. Jesus did not say, ‘Go and make converts’. No. He said, ‘Go and make disciples’. 

The bigger part of making disciples is teaching them to obey everything Jesus has commanded. 

Now, when we hear the word ‘teach’, we might think of a classroom setting with a teacher at the front and pupils sitting in desks. Chalk and talk. Part of discipleship does involve sitting and listening to people talk about Jesus.

But learning happens in other ways too, especially in the example we set. Discipleship is caught more than taught.

Teaching people to obey Jesus isn’t just about stuffing knowledge into people’s heads. Christian knowledge is primarily relational. So the point is not to know lots of facts about God and Jesus. The point is to help people grow in their experience of God’s love and truth.

The disciple, Simon Peter, learned something of God’s grace by listening to Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son and by watching the way Jesus forgave other people. But Peter’s most profound lesson on grace and forgiveness happened when he denied the Lord and was then later restored by Jesus.

In John 13, Jesus gave his disciples the command to love one another, as I have loved you… By this everyone will know you are my disciples.

Learning to love other Christians only happens when you spend time with them. And spending time with Christians (who may be quite different from you, or perhaps too similar in all the wrong ways) is more difficult than you might think. But we can’t expect to learn how to love one another without some form of church involvement.

As important as church life is, discipleship happens mostly in the ordinary, mundane routines of life.

If you are married, then marriage is the primary context for your discipleship. For example, you learn patience, grace and humility by listening to your partner, by doing the dishes and the vacuuming, by forgiving each other’s mistakes and so on.

Likewise, if you are single, then discipleship happens in the context of your singleness. Without a husband or wife, you might, for example, learn to rely more fully on God in faith and become good at companionship as you share your time and talents with the church and community.  

The workplace is another important context for discipleship. In most work situations you will have to get along with people who hold different beliefs from you. There may be times when you are tempted to do something morally wrong. As someone learning to love and obey God, how do you choose the Jesus’ way?

We learn by doing. We learn to love and obey God through the life situation we find ourselves in. Christian discipleship is a full emersion process.

In the 1970’s James Engel, of Wheaton College in the United States, developed what is known today as the Engel scale. The Engel scale describes the process of Christian conversion and discipleship.   

James Engel came up with 16 steps in this process. Most of those steps are taken before someone makes the conscious decision to become a disciple of Jesus.

Generally speaking, we start out in life having no awareness of God, that’s step one. Then, at some point, we become aware that other people believe in a higher power that we call ‘God’. Step two.

Having some contact with Christians is another important step in the process. You might, for example, grow up in a Christian home or you might know Christians at school or in your work place.

Hopefully, this contact with Christians is positive so you become interested in finding out more about Jesus, because Jesus is the heart of the Christian faith. 

As you learn more about Jesus you are faced with some decisions. Do I believe that Jesus is the Son of God? Do I believe that God raised Jesus from the dead? Do I believe God’s grace is sufficient for me? And, if I do accept these things as true, am I willing to surrender my life to Jesus and become his disciple?

The Alpha Course is helpful when working through these questions of faith.  

Once you have decided to become an apprentice of Jesus, by God’s grace you gain confidence in your decision and you make changes to your lifestyle in obedience to Christ. Those changes might include giving up drugs or alcohol or becoming kinder and more generous, or some other change depending on what God’s Spirit is doing in your life.

Part of your discipleship journey will include practicing spiritual disciplines like a daily quiet time for prayer and Bible study, attending Sunday worship regularly, giving to the poor and to the church, observing a Sabbath, volunteering your time in service to others and so on.

Eventually, you will learn to share your faith authentically, in a way that fits the shape of your soul. And, in the process of sharing your faith and discipling others, you yourself continue to grow in your relationship with Jesus.       

The Engel scale isn’t just about growing in our head knowledge of Jesus. More importantly it has to do with our attitude toward God. Are we cultivating a greater openness to God’s Spirit? Are we learning to love and obey the Lord more and more in faith?

The steps that James Engel developed provide a rough map of the discipleship process for some people. But the thing about maps is they don’t always match the reality on the ground. Discipleship is not necessarily a linear step by step process.

Sometimes we do the steps in a different order. Sometimes it’s three steps forward, one step back. Sometimes we have to repeat certain steps. And your particular discipleship journey may involve other steps that James Engel didn’t think of. That’s okay.

The point is, discipleship is a process and, like any learning process, you have to give yourself to it. We have to submit to our teacher, Jesus.

One of the helpful things about the Engel scale is that it reminds us to be sensitive to where other people are at in their journey toward Christ likeness. The Engel scale prompts us to listen and seek to understand others first.

If someone is in the early stages, just beginning to make contact with Christians, then you want their first contact to be positive. Do your best to ensure their experience with you is warm and real, not weird or scary.

You don’t need to dump a whole lot of Christian doctrine on people in the early stages. A theological framework can come later. Just be honest and kind. Listen with empathy and understanding. Let people experience the love and truth of Jesus through you.  

A couple of weeks ago we had the filters in our home ventilation system changed. The guy who came to our house to do this was from India. Jesus said ‘go to the nations’ but in many ways the nations have come to us here in New Zealand.

When I was paying the bill this guy asked me what I did for work and so I told him I was a minister at the local Baptist church.

He was curious about the different denominations, like Catholic and Protestant, so I said the various church traditions are like different flavours of the Christian faith. What really matters though is Jesus. Jesus is the one we share in common. Jesus is the heart of the Christian faith.

Now, most of the time when you mention the name Jesus, people change the subject. But this guy wanted to keep the conversation going. Fine by me.

He told me how he had been working in a woman’s house recently and she had given him a coin with ten rules on it. I guess it was the ten commandments.

While I admire this woman’s boldness, I’m not sure she was paying attention to where this guy was at or what he needed.

Yes, Christian discipleship does involve learning to obey the commandments, but knowing Jesus needs to come first. Because if we don’t know that Jesus loves us, then we won’t be able to obey.

Sadly, she gave him another rule, telling him not to get vaccinated against Covid. On the rare occasion someone wants to know about your faith, please talk about Jesus. Do not go off on a tangent. Do not take them down a rabbit hole. Keep the main thing the main thing. Jesus is the main thing.

This guy had been vaccinated so where does that leave him? Probably feeling judged, if not condemned. What would Jesus do in that situation?

Well, I believe Jesus would stand in solidarity with the man.

So, as Jesus’ representative in this situation, that’s what I did. I told the man I had been vaccinated too and that I believe God gives us science for our health and wellbeing. In other words, you don’t need to feel condemned for being vaccinated. Vaccination is not a barrier to becoming a Christian. Science is not the enemy of faith.

He looked at me and communicated his understanding with one word, ‘Freedom’. This guy was intelligent. He made the connection that Jesus and the Christian faith are about setting people free to love God, to love their neighbour and to love themselves. (Keep the main thing the main thing.)

Of course, there is much more you could say about Jesus and the gospel but you don’t have to cover everything all at once. Making disciples is a process and you may be just one of the many people God uses in that process. I believe there is still more God wants to do in this man’s life.

For the first eleven disciples, being commissioned by Jesus to go and make disciples of all nations meant actually travelling out from Jerusalem to other countries with the gospel. Does it mean the same for us as well? It might do, but not necessarily.

Obviously, God does still call people to become overseas missionaries. That’s what Arotahi is about. But he is more likely to call you to make disciples in your own neighbourhood; your school, your home, your church or your workplace.

If you are a parent or grandparent, then regularly reading stories about Jesus to your children and grandchildren is the obvious place to start. If you are married to someone who is not yet a disciple of Jesus, then showing your partner in marriage what a follower of Jesus looks like is surely a priority.

If you have the time and skill and desire to work with children or young people, then serving in Kids’ Church or Youth Group is a sensible way to make disciples. Likewise, if you love the Bible and people, then leading a small group Bible study might be one way you carry out Jesus’ great commission.

Or, if you work with someone who is interested in knowing more about Jesus, then embrace the opportunity the Lord has provided. Walk humbly with that person and share the grace and truth God’s Spirit has given you.

Conclusion:

Where are you at in the process of learning to love and obey God?

What are the next steps for you?

May the Lord bless you with wisdom and courage as you go and make disciples. Amen.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

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

  • What is a disciple? What is the goal of Christian discipleship?
  • Where are you at in the process of learning to love and obey God? What are the next steps, for you, in that process?
  • Think of those who have been instrumental in discipling you? What did they do that helped you to love and obey God?
  • What are some of the ways we might make disciples? How do you, personally, work out Jesus’ commission to make disciples?
  • Discuss / reflect on the Engel scale. To what extent do these steps align with your own experience? How is it different? How might the Engel scale help in the process of making disciples? 
  • If you had one minute to talk about your faith with someone who had some awareness of God but little or no experience of Christian faith, what would you say? 
Tawa Baptist

Jesus’ Authority

Scripture: Matthew 28:16-20

Video Link: https://youtu.be/4UlurtIrQV0

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Mountain top moments
  • Worship and doubt
  • All authority
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

Today we begin a new sermon series in support of Arotahi.

Arotahi is the new name for the New Zealand Baptist Missionary Society.

Arotahi means to focus in one direction, concentrating on one thing together.

Each year we spend three weeks focusing on the work of our Baptist missionaries working overseas and in New Zealand. We call this three weeks’ focus on mission: Renew Together. (In the past it was called Self Denial.)

Renew Together is about remembering God’s mission of gospel renewal and our part in that mission.

The New Zealand Baptist Missionary Society (NZBMS) began in 1885 with this statement of purpose: “…to fulfill the ‘Great Commission’ of the Lord Jesus Christ in those areas of the world to which He may direct.”

Over the three weeks of this year’s Renew Together campaign we will use the sermon time to focus on Jesus’ great commission. Let us begin then with a reading from Matthew 28, verses 16-20…

16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

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

Although this passage of Scripture, is called ‘the great commission’, there’s actually more going on here, including some important things about Jesus’ great authority and Jesus’ great presence. We will get to the commission part of ‘the great commission’ next week. The focus of this week’s message is Jesus’ authority.

Mountain top moments:

I grew up in the city of Hamilton. Unlike Wellington, the Waikato is a relatively flat place. The closest mountain of any significance is Mount Pirongia, about half an hour’s drive west of Hamilton.

It takes four and half hours to walk up Mount Pirongia, give or take. The thing I remember about the climb was the way it just seemed to go on and on and on. You thought you were making progress and then you had to walk down into a saddle, knowing you would have to climb up that distance again.

But just when you think the grind is never going to end, you come around a corner and you are there, at the summit. It’s a mountain top moment.

In general terms, ‘a mountain top moment’ is an expression which means a moment of exhilaration, joy and triumph after achieving a goal.

In spiritual terms though, ‘a mountain top moment’ refers to a significant revelation given by God. It’s a sacred time when you feel especially close to the Lord. Mountain top moments may not last long but they have the feel of eternity, like you are transcending time somehow. They leave a lasting impression.

Mountain top moments are a gift from God; we can’t really conjure them. But, in the Bible at least, they often come after some kind of ordeal.

Abraham had a mountain top moment when the angel of the Lord stopped him from sacrificing Isaac. Moses received the ten commandments on a mountain. And Elijah had a mountain top moment after his confrontation with the prophets of Baal.          

Mountain top moments mark the beginning, middle and end of Jesus’ earthly ministry in the gospel of Matthew. Jesus gives his famous sermon on the mount in Matthew 5. Then, in Matthew 17, we read of Jesus’ transfiguration on a mountain. While, in Matthew 28, the risen Jesus appears to his disciples on a mountain in Galilee.

All of these are special moments of revelation given by God. The sermon on the mount reveals Jesus’ authority in relation to the law. Jesus isn’t just a skillful and wise teacher. He is the one who fulfills God’s law of love on behalf of humanity.

Likewise, the transfiguration of Jesus on the mountain reveals Jesus’ authority as God’s representative. Jesus stands glorified alongside two of Israel’s greatest prophets, Moses and Elijah. Then a voice from heaven says of Jesus, ‘This is my Son, listen to him’. Jesus is the one the prophets spoke about.

The appearance of the risen Jesus, on a mountain top in Matthew 28, reveals Jesus’ authority over life and death. Jesus has conquered sin and death through his obedience to God in going to the cross. Jesus has authority to grant eternal life. 

As much as we may enjoy the mountain top moments and wish them to never end, we cannot remain on the mountain indefinitely. The disciples didn’t stay on the mountain top. They came down and went out into the world. In the same way, we must come down the mountain to live our lives on the flat.

Where are you right now? Are you on the mountain top or in the valley? Or somewhere in between? The mountain top may be where we are most aware of God. But really, God is with us wherever we are, even if we feel like we are in the pits.

Worship and doubt:

You’ve probably heard the saying, ‘Keep it real’. It means something like, be honest, don’t lie to yourself, be authentic. Live in your own soul. Be who you are.

The Bible has a way of keeping it real. It is such an honest book. It shows people as they are. It doesn’t gloss over the mess or the complexity that comes with being human. Verse 17 of Matthew 28, keeps things real where it says…

17 When [the disciples] saw [Jesus], they worshiped him; but some doubted. 

What we have here is a very honest picture of the disciples. A mixture of worship and doubt.

These disciples are Jewish and had been raised in the knowledge of the ten commandments, which said you shall worship no other God but Yahweh. The fact that the disciples worshipped Jesus shows they acknowledged his divine authority. After three years of not really understanding who Jesus is, the disciples finally get it. A mountain top moment of divine revelation. 

Matthew could have left out the part about some of the disciples doubting but he chooses to leave it in. And I’m pleased he did. It has the ring of truth to it.

It resonates with our own experience. Matthew is keeping it real.

So what does it mean that some doubted? Well, it is not doubt in the sense of complete disbelief. It is not the intellectual doubt of an atheist. Nor is it the arrogant doubt of those opposed to Jesus, like the religious leaders who believed in God and yet disbelieved that Jesus is the Messiah of God.

No. It is the kind of doubt that puts a person in two minds. It is an honest doubt that says, ‘I want to believe the good news, that Jesus is alive and God loves me, but I have some practical concerns that I find difficult to reconcile.’

We might call it the doubt that seeks integrity. Not the doubt of a closed minded skeptic but the doubt of an open minded seeker of the truth.

Let me offer two examples of how this honest doubt operates.

In the gospel of John, the disciple Thomas refused to believe that Jesus had risen from the dead without physical proof. Thomas wanted to touch Jesus’ wounds. For this he earned the nick name, Doubting Thomas, which is a bit unfair.

When we consider Thomas’ stand on this point we notice a certain thoughtfulness and integrity in the man. He was not willing to simply go along with the crowd. Thomas was in two minds. He wanted to believe Jesus was alive but he had some practical concerns he needed to reconcile and he was being honest about that.

When the risen Jesus did appear to Thomas a week later, Thomas believed and worshipped Jesus. Thomas rightly perceived Jesus’ divine authority. The interesting thing is that of all the disciples, Thomas travelled further with the gospel than anyone else, taking the message about Jesus all the way from Palestine to India.

There is another way to understand the doubt of the disciples in this context. That is: self-doubt. Richard France observes how the disciples were mindful of the way they had deserted Jesus when he needed them most. They were probably feeling a bit embarrassed by their lack of moral fiber.

They may have had no doubt that God had raised Jesus from the dead. What they doubted was themselves. How can I call Jesus, ‘Lord and friend’, when I have let him down so badly? How can I worship Jesus with integrity after my own lack of integrity has been so clearly shown?

You know there are some worship songs I find hard to sing. I am quite comfortable singing about the greatness of God and the worthiness of Jesus to receive all honour, praise and glory. I don’t doubt that God raised Jesus from the dead. That makes perfect sense to me.  

But when the chorus has me singing about what I will do for God or what I will give to God, my confidence evaporates. I doubt myself with good reason. I know my own limitations. What integrity I do have, stops me from making extravagant claims about what I will do for God. Like the first disciples, I worship with doubts about myself.

The good news is that Jesus’ authority is not threatened by the disciples’ doubt. Jesus is not unsettled by your doubts either. Jesus understands our weakness and frailty and is able to work with us.

Verse 18 tells us how Jesus came to the disciples and spoke to them.

Many, many times in Matthew’s gospel we read how people came to Jesus either for help or to question him. But only twice do we read that Jesus came to his disciples. Once, in chapter 17, after his transfiguration and then again in Matthew 28, after his resurrection.

Jesus comes to restore a sense of normality when his disciples are feeling overwhelmed by a supernatural event. [1]

Isn’t that cool. Jesus doesn’t use his authority like a big stick to keep his disciples in fearful submission. Jesus uses his authority to reassure his disciples and to calm their fears. Jesus accepts his disciples, honest doubts and all.

To be accepted by someone in authority is not only a great honour, it also fosters confidence and puts doubt in its place. Jesus’ authority is greater than our doubts and fears.   

The message here is that honest doubt does not exclude you from friendship with Jesus, but cynical doubt will. Know yourself and keep it real with God.

All authority:

Perhaps the clearest indication of Jesus’ authority, in Matthew’s gospel, is found on the lips of Jesus himself, where the Lord says: All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me…

This is both a statement of fact and a reference to the prophet Daniel who foresaw one like a son of man who was given all authority by God Almighty (the Ancient of Days). Jesus is the son of man prophesied by Daniel. Giving all authority to Jesus is something God had planned for centuries.   

One thing we notice here is that Jesus’ authority is universal. Jesus has been given all authority in heaven and earth. This means there is nowhere that Jesus is not in charge. There is no place seen or unseen that is beyond Jesus’ jurisdiction. The risen Jesus is Lord of life and death, of time and eternity, of this world and the next. 

Another thing we notice is how Jesus’ authority is given by God. It is not taken by force. In the same way that love can only be given freely, so too authority is given. Authority that is taken by force is not genuine, it is counterfeit. Jesus’ authority is legitimate because it is given by God Almighty.

Those who are familiar with Matthew’s gospel will understand that the key to Jesus’ authority is found in Jesus’ loving obedience to God the Father.     

In Matthew 4 we read that, when Jesus was being tested in the wilderness, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour. ‘All this will be yours’, the devil said, ‘if you bow down and worship me.’

But Jesus refused. Jesus would not betray God nor take the devil’s short cut.

By choosing the longer route of obedience to God the Father, Jesus received all authority in heaven and earth, far more than Satan offered.   

Returning to Matthew 28. In verse 19 Jesus goes on to say…

19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 

We will get to the part about ‘making disciples’ next week. Today our focus is the authority of Jesus.

Baptism is the initiation ceremony for Christians. Baptism represents a number of things, including submission to Jesus’ authority. When we are baptized, we are effectively saying; ‘Jesus is my Lord and King, I give my allegiance to Christ and commit myself to obeying him’. 

We also see Jesus’ authority in the baptismal formula he uses. Jesus, the Son, places himself in between God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. Jesus is saying, quite clearly here, that he is divine.

Notice though that we are baptized into the name (singular) of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We are not baptized into three names but into one name. So God the Father, Son and Spirit are one. There is a mystery to the Trinity that we cannot fully comprehend.  

Conclusion:

Let me leave you with this thought: Jesus, who has been given all authority in heaven and earth, shares his authority with his disciples by commissioning them to make more disciples.

And who are Jesus’ disciples? Is it just the eleven who met him on the mountain 2000 years ago? No. A Christian disciple is anyone who loves and obeys Jesus. So the question is: do we love Jesus enough to do what he says?

May our God of grace bless you with his peace and a deeper awareness of his love. Amen.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

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

  • Why does the risen Jesus meet his disciples on a mountain? What other mountain top moments do we read about in Matthew’s gospel? What do these mountain top experiences say about the authority of Jesus?
  • Have you ever had a mountain top moment (spiritually speaking)? What happened? What impression did you come away with? What change did it make in your life?
  • Why does Matthew include the comment that some of the disciples had doubts? What is the difference between honest doubt and cynical doubt?
  • Do you have doubts? What is the nature of those doubts? How might we best handle our doubts?
  • Where does Jesus’ authority come from? Why did God give all authority in heaven and earth to Jesus?
  • Who does Jesus share his authority with? What might it look like to exercise the authority Jesus shares?

[1] R. France, NICNT Matthew, page 651.

Tawa Baptist

Sparrows

Scripture: Matthew 10:26-31

Video Link: https://youtu.be/hKmTvdrS1-4

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Don’t be afraid of people
  • Don’t be afraid of death
  • Don’t be afraid of your value
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

Can anyone tell me the meaning of the word ubiquitous? (Not something that comes up in the daily Wordle.)  [Wait] That’s right, ubiquitous means being found everywhere. 

If something is ubiquitous it is common, widespread and constantly encountered wherever you go. Oxygen is ubiquitous. The orange road cones you see up and down New Zealand are ubiquitous. As are cars and cell phones.   

Sparrows are also ubiquitous. They are found everywhere. In urban areas, in forests, in the hills, by the sea and even in deserts. About the only place you don’t find sparrows is Antarctica. Sparrows are adaptable, resilient and prolific breeders. Most pairs will raise two or three broods a year.

Today we continue our series on Birds of the Bible by focusing on the Sparrow. Jesus talked about the sparrow when he was preparing to send his disciples on a mission trip. Jesus’ messengers need some of the sparrows’ adaptability and resilience. From Matthew 10, verses 26-31, we read…

26 “So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered and nothing secret that will not become known. 27 What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. 28 Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, fear the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell. 29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. 30 And even the hairs of your head are all counted. 31 So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.

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

It is thought there are around 130 different types of sparrows around the world. The kind we are most familiar with is the house sparrow. It’s called the ‘house sparrow’ because it tends to make its home near human habitation.

In Psalm 84 we read: Even the sparrow has found a home… a place near your altar. Sparrows are not afraid of human beings. Sparrows are comfortable in the company of people.

In the context of Matthew 10, Jesus is giving his twelve disciples instructions for mission. The Lord is sending his disciples out as messengers of the gospel, giving them power to heal and cast out demons. Part of Jesus’ encouragement to his messengers is to not be fearful.

Three times in verses 26-31 Jesus says, do not be afraid. Don’t be afraid of people. Don’t be afraid of death and don’t be afraid of your value.

Don’t be afraid of people:

In verse 26 Jesus tells his disciples, “So have no fear of them…” The them, that Jesus is referring to here, are those people who are opposed to Jesus and his messengers.   

Jesus combats fear with reason and logic. The disciples do not need to fear people, or what people may say about them, because nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered and nothing is secret that will not become known.

Now, on hearing this we might wonder, does that mean all my deepest darkest secrets are going to be revealed? Is Jesus saying, all those embarrassing things I’ve ever thought or said or done that I don’t want anyone to know about are going to be made public and I’m going to be humiliated? Because that is not comforting at all. That is terrifying.

Well, I don’t believe that is what Jesus means in these verses. In the context of Matthew 10, Jesus is sending his followers into the world with the message of the gospel. So the beans being spilled here are not your personal secrets. The information being uncovered is the good news about God’s kingdom coming to earth. This isn’t about us. This is about Jesus and God’s plan of salvation.  

So the reason Jesus gives for not fearing people is that the gospel is the truth and the truth will win out in the end. In other words, the messengers of the gospel may be misunderstood or maligned at first, but eventually they will be vindicated. They will be proven right.

In verse 27 Jesus continues… What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. 

The followers of Jesus are to share freely with others what Jesus has shared with them. Some people think that to be a good preacher or evangelist you must have the gift of the gab. But the bigger part of sharing the gospel is listening.

Most of you are not preachers but you are believers with good news to share. You might think, I’m not good at talking about my faith. I don’t know what to say or how to say it. Besides, no one cares what I think anyway.

Before we worry about what we might say in relation to our faith, we need to listen. You can’t share something you don’t have. You can’t tell people about Jesus unless Jesus is real for you. You can’t pass on God’s love unless you have experienced God’s love for yourself.

As Christians we listen to God’s Spirit in a variety of ways. Two of those ways include prayerfully reading Scripture and observing the world around us.

We can’t expect to know the gospel of Jesus unless we spend time regularly studying the Scriptures and listening to what other believers say about the Lord.

Likewise, we need to be outward looking and curious about the world. We can’t expect to communicate well, with people who believe differently from us, without first seeking to understand them.

We read the Scriptures and observe the world in conversation with God. We can’t expect to know what we really believe unless we are honest with ourselves before God in prayer.

If our talk about Jesus is to be real and authentic, then it must grow out of the soil of listening. For Christians, listening needs to be as ubiquitous as sparrows. I believe, when we listen well, God gives us something to say. The truth, spoken with grace, wins out in the end.

Don’t be afraid of death

After telling his disciples not to be afraid of people, Jesus goes on to say, don’t be afraid of death. From verse 28 of Matthew 10 we read Jesus’ words…

Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, fear the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

Again, Jesus appeals to reason and logic in combating the disciples’ fear. But the way it comes across (with talk of hell) seems more likely to fill us with terror. The English translation of this verse is like a bomb. It needs careful handling.

Your body, in this context, is your physical body. And your soul is the core of your being, your life force, that part of you that is unique and animates your body.

The trickier word, in verse 28, is the word translated as hell. Most of us, when we hear the word hell, probably imagine a place of torment, with a horned devil waving a pitchfork and torturing human beings by roasting them over burning coals for all eternity. We think unbearable pain, agony and despair. 

This concept of hell (as a place of eternal torture) is highly problematic, not least because it does violence to our understanding of the Almighty.

God is love. The Lord is just and merciful. He is kind, not cruel. The idea that God would torture anyone is totally inconsistent with the character of God, as revealed by Jesus.

When it comes to hell and the afterlife we need to be honest and admit the fact that we simply don’t know very much. We cannot say what hell is like with any certainty because we have not been there.

The Bible isn’t much help either. Scripture uses a variety of different images and metaphors to talk about the afterlife. Sometimes those images are confusing and seem to contradict each other. The afterlife is in the realm of mystery. God, in his wisdom, has not revealed the details to us.

What we can say with certainty is that the word translated, in verse 28, as hell is actually Gehenna.

Gehenna is a reference to the Valley of Hinnom, outside the walls of Jersualem. Gehenna (or the Valley of Hinnom) was the place, in the Old Testament, where people sacrificed and burned their children to one of the pagan gods. It was an evil practice, detested by the Lord Almighty.

Later, Gehenna became a rubbish dump for Jerusalem, where the city’s waste was burned. Fire and the stench of burning rubbish was ubiquitous to Gehenna. Jesus used the image of Jerusalem’s earthly rubbish dump as a metaphor for one aspect of the afterlife.

The interesting thing about the Gehenna image is that it is not a place of torture. It is a place of annihilation. It is a place where the human soul is not in torment but rather is destroyed, so it ceases to be altogether. 

Jesus does not want his disciples to be under any illusion. They will face suffering and persecution in their work of sharing the gospel. Sometimes that persecution might result in them being killed or martyred. However, the persecutors are limited. They can only kill the body; they cannot kill the soul.

The human soul is in God’s hands, not the hands of men. God Almighty is the only one with the power to grant immortality to the human soul. Likewise, God is the only one with the power to destroy the human soul. Not that he wants to destroy anyone. God’s preference is to save people. The Lord is looking for ways to get you into heaven.

It may seem contradictory to us that Jesus says, do not be afraid of those who can kill your body but do fear God who can destroy body and soul.

In the Bible, fear of God covers a range of meanings, from absolute terror, at one end of the spectrum, to something more like reverence and respect, combined with awe and wonder, at the other end of the spectrum.

In the context of Matthew 10, where Jesus is encouraging his disciples, fear of God is not something that is meant to terrorise them. No. Jesus wants his followers to be free from the fear of man. The fear of God is supposed to protect us.

If you touch something hot, it hurts and you learn to fear hot things. That is, you learn to be careful around boiling water and stove tops and fire. The fear of being burned protects you from harm.

In C.S. Lewis’ book, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, Mr Beaver is explaining that Aslan is a lion and Susan asks, ‘Is he quite safe?’ To which Mr Beaver replies, ‘Safe? Who said anything about safe. Of course he’s not safe. But he is good. He is the King I tell you.’

By definition, God is the most powerful being there is and as the most powerful being, he is not safe but he is good. Fearing God means remembering that God will not be domesticated or controlled by us.

Another example to illustrate how the fear of God operates. Imagine you are driving in your car. You see a speed limit sign that says you need to slow down to 40km’s/hour, because you are approaching a school. You slow down, not because you are afraid of getting a ticket, but because you do not want to do any harm. If you hit a child, you wouldn’t be able to live with yourself.

For the Christian believer, the fear of God is not so much about avoiding punishment. (Perfect love drives out the fear of punishment.) The fear of God has more to do with avoiding harm. We fear God in the sense that we value our relationship with God and do not want to do any harm to that relationship, nor to our own soul.

In Matthew 10, verse 28, it’s like Jesus is saying: you need to be more afraid of being disloyal to God than you are of being killed. Because you wouldn’t be able to live with yourself if you betrayed God.         

In practical terms, the fear of God protects us from every other fear, including the fear of hell. No matter what the followers of Jesus may suffer in this life, the Lord will not abandon his faithful ones to Gehenna. We do not need to fear hell. God did not make human beings for hell. God made human beings for relationship with himself.

Don’t be afraid of your value:

Anyone who has studied economics will know about the law of demand and supply. The more there is of something, the cheaper it is. Conversely, the greater the demand for something, the more it costs. Under this scheme, anything that is ubiquitous, like sparrows, won’t be valuable at all.

Jesus told his disciples not to fear people who oppose them in preaching the gospel and he told them not to fear death, but rather to fear God. Now he tells them not to fear their value. From verse 29, Jesus says…

29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. 30 And even the hairs of your head are all counted. 31 So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.

The basic message here is that we are valuable to God. Given the opposition and suffering the followers of Jesus would face, it was important they knew how valuable they are. Because, when the world treats us badly, we tend to think it is because we are not worth much.  

Human beings may not place a particularly high price on sparrows but God does value the sparrow. God’s way of valuing is different from ours. God does not follow the laws of demand and supply. God values what he has made, not because it is rare, but because he is love and that is what love does. Love values and love cares. 

It’s not that birds don’t matter. They do matter. That’s the point. Given that God values the sparrow, how much more does he value human beings who are made in his image?

One of our greatest human fears, is the fear that we don’t matter. That our lives have little or no meaning and that we are not valuable or loveable. As a consequence, we go to all sorts of lengths to prove our value, trying to make people love us. In the process we end up hurting ourselves and others.

The fear that you are not valuable is a lie. You do matter. Your life does have meaning. You are loved by God eternally. The Lord values you highly.

Even the hairs of your head are all counted. This is a poetic way of saying God knows you better than you know yourself. His attention to you and his care for you is beyond comprehension.

You might wonder why God would bother counting the hairs of your head? Perhaps it is because God knows you will lose many of those hairs in this life and he intends to restore them in the next. But not just your hairs. God plans to restore other more significant losses also. Nothing is beyond God’s reach. Nothing is beyond God’s care. 

Conclusion:

The phrase, God loves you, is ubiquitous, it sounds cheap, clichéd. But that doesn’t make it any less true. Oxygen is ubiquitous. It is so plentiful we take it for granted, but that doesn’t make it any less valuable, for without oxygen we would die in minutes.

We need to know that God loves us in much the same way we need to breathe. Do you believe that God loves you? How much do you really believe it?

In a few moments we are going to share communion together. Communion is a time to let go of our fear and trust ourselves to the love of God in Christ.

The musicians will come now and lead us in song as we open our hearts to God. How deep the Father’s love for us, how vast beyond all measure.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

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

  • How does Jesus combat fear? How might we apply Jesus’ principles in overcoming our own fears? 
  • What does Jesus mean, in verse 26, where he says: “Nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered and nothing is secret that will not become known”? Why do we not need to fear people or what they might say about us?
  • How do we listen to God’s Spirit? Do you have a regular pattern of Bible study? What does this look like? How might we seek to understand people who believe differently from us?
  • How does the fear of God protect us? Why do we not need to fear death?
  • Some people think of hell as a place of eternal torture and torment. Others think of hell as a place of final annihilation. What difference does each of these paradigms make to our understanding of God?
  • Do you believe God loves you? To what degree do you believe this? How might we cultivate our trust in God’s love and care for us? 
Tawa Baptist

Ravens

Scripture: 1 Kings 17:1-6

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

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Anti-heroes
  • Elijah
  • Ravens
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

Can anyone tell me what a group of ravens is called? [Wait] That’s right, a group of ravens is often called an unkindness.

But you sometimes also hear terms like a treachery of ravens or a conspiracy of ravens. Unkindness, treachery, conspiracy, these are not very friendly words. Clearly, there is something a bit sinister or spooky about ravens in the human imagination. 

Today we continue our series on birds of the Bible. Last week we considered the ostrich. Today our message focuses on the raven. 

One of the classic Bible stories involving ravens comes from the Old Testament book of First Kings. In this account ravens are not associated with unkindness or treachery. To the contrary, they serve as instruments of God’s faithfulness and provision. From verse 1 of First Kings 17 we read… 

Now Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbein Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word.” 2 Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah: 3 “Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan. 4 You will drink from the brook, and I have directed the ravens to supply you with food there.” 5 So he did what the Lord had told him. He went to the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan, and stayed there. 6 The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook.

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

Anti-heroes:

You may have heard of the term ‘anti-hero’. An anti-hero is a central character in a story who lacks conventional heroic attributes. Anti-heroes are like flawed heroes. Anti-heroes blur the line between protagonist and antagonist. They may even seem like the bad guy at first, but in the end they are revealed to be the one who saves the day.

Examples of anti-heroes in the movies include Shrek, Snake Plisskin, Deadpool, Professor Snape and Robin Hood. They are unlikely heroes. In the context of First Kings 17, the raven is also something of an anti-hero. No one would think that God would use a raven to care for Elijah and yet he does.

The Law of Moses declared ravens to be ceremonially unclean and therefore not fit for human consumption. Ravens are birds of prey. Like vultures they feed off dead carcasses, among other things. You don’t eat ravens because ravens eat road kill.

Now in saying that ravens are ceremonially unclean, we don’t mean they are evil or bad. Ravens are one of God’s creatures and God’s creation is good. But as a non-kosher food, ravens came to be looked upon as something that God’s people should avoid.

A couple of weeks ago we heard about Noah sending a dove out of the ark to see if the flood waters had receded. Well, the dove wasn’t the first bird Noah sent. In verse 7 of Genesis 8, we read that God sent out a raven but (unlike the dove) the raven did not come back. It kept flying around.

The inference seems to be that the raven did not return to the ark because it found a smorgasbord of dead flesh to feast on.

The raven stands in stark contrast to the dove. The dove is gentle and winsome, a symbol of new life and peace. While the raven is wild and associated with death, rapaciously feeding off the left overs of judgement.

The ravens’ connection with death and judgement is seen again in Proverbs 30, verse 17, which reads…

The eye that mocks a father, that scorns an aged mother, will be pecked out by the ravens of the valley, will be eaten by the vultures.

The fifth command, to honour your father and mother, comes with a blessing attached; that you will live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you. The flip side to this blessing is that if people cursed (or mistreated) their parents they should be put to death.

Proverbs 30:17 is talking about the outcome for those who do not take care of their mum & dad. To have one’s eyes pecked out by ravens implies being killed and not receiving a proper burial, so one’s body is left out in the open for birds to eat. This is a poetic way of saying, if you don’t respect your parents, then no one will respect you.

Given these sorts of horrific images, it is little wonder that ravens are considered a bad omen, associated with death and judgement.

As scavengers that feed off the misfortune of others, ravens don’t fit the classical profile of a hero. They are more like the anti-hero in the Elijah story.

Elijah:

The prophet Elijah is also something of an anti-hero. Elijah is a complete unknown. He pops up in the history of the kings of Israel out of some place no one has heard of. He doesn’t come from a famous family. There is nothing especially impressive about him. And, from what we can tell, he appears to be prone to bouts of depression.

Despite his lack of pedigree and his loneliness, God’s Spirit was with Elijah making him brave.

Elijah lived at the same time as king Ahab. King Ahab reigned over Israel for 22 years and did more evil in the eyes of the Lord than any of the kings before him. Ahab was not an anti-hero; he was 100% villain.

Together with his infamous wife Jezebel, Ahab built a temple in Samaria for the worship of Baal, something forbidden by God.

Baal was the pagan god of fertility and weather. People in ancient times sacrificed to Baal (and did a whole lot of other terrible things besides) in the vain hope that he would make it rain so their crops would grow and they would not starve. But Baal does not control the weather.  

Yahweh, the Lord, the living God, does not want people to worship Baal or anything else because that is meaningless, empty, a waste of time, a lie. Even worse, it leads people to degrade themselves and hurt others.

These days, people in the western world don’t normally bow down to statues of wood and stone but we do have a tendency to worship things like money, sex, reputation, personal freedom, career and so on.

These things are not bad in themselves. In fact, they may be used for good. But if we make any of them the most important thing in our life, then they have a destructive effect on our own soul and in our relationships.

Given that many Israelites were vainly putting their trust in false gods to make it rain, the Lord (in his love for Israel) was moved to do something about it. In order to demonstrate that Baal was powerless and that Yahweh was Israel’s true provider, the Lord sent Elijah to tell king Ahab that it was not going to rain for a few years, nor would there be any dew.

In other words, Baal does not control the weather, the Lord God almighty is in charge, therefore trust him.

Notice the way Elijah says: “As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve…”  There are two rebukes implicit in this phrase. Firstly, Elijah is telling king Ahab that Yahweh, is the living God; not Baal.

And secondly, Elijah is saying he serves Yahweh, not king Ahab or anyone else. There is no flattery, no charm, no spin.

Elijah was risking his life by confronting Ahab in this way. This was a heroic thing to do. And yet Elijah is an anti-hero because he is doing something we don’t expect of a hero.

We would expect the hero to defeat the villain, and save the nation from disaster. But Elijah does not do this, at least not straight away. Elijah becomes God’s instrument for bringing about a famine across the land. Elijah’s ministry precipitates disaster. This is tough love, a way of bringing the nation to its senses. Elijah is both protagonist and antagonist.

For Elijah’s protection, the Lord instructed his prophet to hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan.

We don’t know exactly where the Kerith Ravine is today but a ravine with a stream running through it is an interesting choice. Ravines in the Middle east are prone to flash flooding. You wouldn’t ordinarily camp out in a ravine because if it rains suddenly, you could be swept away and drown.

Of course, if it doesn’t rain then you are at no risk of drowning. By obeying God and hiding in a ravine, Elijah was putting his money where his mouth was. He was showing through his actions that he trusted God’s word to him that it would not rain.

The Lord goes on to say to Elijah, “You will drink from the brook, and I have directed the ravens to supply you with food there.”

Anyone who is familiar with the Law of Moses would be somewhat surprised by this. As we’ve already noted, ravens are ceremonially unclean birds. They are associated with judgement and death. Why would God use ravens to feed his prophet?

Well, Elijah is not eating the ravens themselves, so he is not breaking the law. Given that Elijah is in hiding, it makes sense to use ravens to courier the food. Elijah can’t leave the ravine without risk of being spotted. Ravens flying around in the wilderness are not going to give away Elijah’s hiding place.  (The ravens were sort of like God’s Uber Eats.)  

Ravens

Yahweh’s use of ravens to feed his prophet is a criticism of Israel. Unlike Israel, the ravens obey God’s command. They are faithful servants of Yahweh. If the so called ‘unclean’ ravens are serving Yahweh, how much more should God’s holy people serve the Lord?

When we consider the way God made the raven, we can see it is a fitting choice to feed Elijah. The raven mirrors Elijah, as a sign, embodying God’s message to Israel. It’s like God is saying, the raven (the anti-hero bird) has something to teach you about how you should relate with me.

Ravens are highly intelligent birds, with relatively large brains for their body size. Ravens are smart enough to craft tools and plan for the future, as well as play games like hide and seek.

Unlike king Ahab, who lacks the understanding to realise he is wrong, ravens are intelligent enough to understand what God wants and do it. If a bird is smart enough to understand what God wants, then we human beings have no excuse.

Ravens are excellent hunters. They often hunt in groups enabling them to trap and kill prey twice their size. Just as ravens are excellent hunters, able to provide Elijah with bread and meat (suitable for human consumption), so too God is an excellent provider and can be trusted to feed his people.

In the gospel of Luke chapter 12, Jesus says this to his disciples…

22 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. 23 For life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. 24 Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! 

Jesus’ teaching here is not an excuse for folding your hands and doing nothing. The ravens still have to gather their food, just as we human beings still need to work to earn money to buy food.

The point is, God knows what we need and is well able to provide it, so we don’t need to worry. Worry is the cousin of Baal worship. By the same token, we do well to take a leaf out of the ravens’ book and be resourceful in using whatever is at hand.   

Ravens can remember faces. Whether you are kind to a raven or cheat a raven, it will remember your face and treat you accordingly. The Israelites of Elijah’s day had forgotten their covenant with the Lord. They had forgotten the Lord’s face, as it were. They needed to be more like the raven and remember God’s goodness to them.

At the end of the service most weeks, I pray a blessing over you which includes the phrase, may the Lord make his face shine upon you. In other words, may God smile on you. May he show you favour and grace. May he be pleased with you and may you feel his pleasure.

There is a lot that happens to us in this world to make us forget the Lord. Remember God’s face. Remember your commitment to him and remember the ways the Lord has made his face shine upon you. Thank him for his goodness. 

Ravens are good communicators, with the ability to point to things with their beaks and hold up items of interest as a way of making conversation. Ravens can even mimic human voices better than a parrot.

The Scripture doesn’t say this but I can’t help imagining the ravens communicating with Elijah, pointing at things and perhaps even mimicking what he said. Certainly they communicated something of God’s faithfulness in returning to feed Elijah each morning and evening.

We human beings are made for relationship, especially relationship with God. Communication is how we establish and maintain our relationships. Prayer is the word we use to describe our communication with God.

The people of Elijah’s day were not talking to the living God. They were talking to dead pieces of wood and stone. In essence they were talking to themselves. Keep talking to God. And when you don’t know what to say, mimic the words of Jesus. Pray the Lord’s prayer.

One other thing about ravens, they are faithful. Ravens mate for life. The Lord is faithful too. God wants an exclusive relationship with us. The Lord wants us to trust him. Yahweh desires our obedience of faith. As we read in Psalm 147…

9 The Lord gives animals their food and feeds the young ravens when they call. 10 His pleasure is not in strong horses, nor his delight in brave soldiers; 11 but he takes pleasure in those who honour him, in those who trust in his constant love.

The ravens trust God and honour him. We can too.  

Conclusion:

Okay, so if the ravens and Elijah are like anti-heroes, then what about Jesus? Well, Jesus doesn’t exactly fit the category of anti-hero. Yes, Jesus is the hero of God’s story but he breaks the mold. He redefines what it means to be a hero.

Jesus is not flawed like your classic anti-hero. Jesus is perfect. That being said, Jesus is misunderstood and rejected by many, precisely because he does what we don’t expect the hero to do. Jesus loves his enemies and forgives those who are killing him, even as he bleeds out on a cross.  

Here’s the thing about Jesus. Jesus shows us the face of God. It’s a face of forgiveness. The face of grace. The face of acceptance. A face that smiles on you.

Let us pray…

God of grace, help us to trust you and remember your face, as we go into this week. Through Christ we pray. Amen.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

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

  • What is an anti-hero? Can you think of examples of anti-heroes from books or films?
  • In what ways is the raven like an anti-hero? In what ways is Elijah like an anti-hero?
  • Why is the worship of Baal bad? What sorts of things do people today typically worship? What (or who) do you worship? Is there anything in your life that threatens to take God’s place?
  • Why did God choose ravens to feed Elijah? What can ravens teach us about how we are to relate with God?
  • What practical things can you do to remember God’s face?
  • What spiritual qualities do you share with the raven?  What raven like qualities would you like to develop?
Tawa Baptist

The Ostrich

Scripture: Job 39:13-18

Video Link: https://youtu.be/HXhf3YyM0-o

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Job
  • Yahweh
  • The ostrich
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

When we hear the proverbial saying, “Don’t bury your head in the sand”, most of us probably think of what? [Wait] That’s right, we think of the ostrich.

While ostriches are a bit comical to look at, they don’t bury their head in the sand, in order to avoid their problems, as is commonly thought. That is a myth.

It would be more accurate to say ostriches bury their eggs in the sand because it is warm there. They then poke their head into the sand occasionally to rotate the eggs.

Last week we began a new sermon series on Birds of the Bible by looking at the dove. Today we consider the ostrich. The ostrich is the largest living bird. An adult male may stand eight feet tall and weigh 300 pounds. Male ostriches typically have black feathers with a white trim, while the females have brown feathers.

The main Biblical passage in which the ostrich features is Job 39. From Job chapter 39, verse 13 we read…

13 “The wings of the ostrich flap joyfully, though they cannot compare with the wings and feathers of the stork. 14 She lays her eggs on the ground and lets them warm in the sand, 15 unmindful that a foot may crush them, that some wild animal may trample them. 16 She treats her young harshly, as if they were not hers; she cares not that her labour was in vain. 17 It was I who made her foolish and did not give her wisdom. 18 Yet when she spreads her feathers to run, she laughs at horse and rider.

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

Job:

To be able to understand these verses, we need to know the context. The book of Job deals with the problem of suffering and the verses we just read are part of Yahweh’s first speech to Job, found near the end of the story.

But let us start at the beginning. Job was a blameless and upright man who feared God and shunned evil. Job was also very wealthy. God allowed Satan to test Job. Satan began by destroying Job’s business and robbing him of his great wealth. Then Satan arranged for all of Job’s children to be killed in a storm, before afflicting Job himself with sores all over his body. 

Despite losing his farm, his family and his health, Job refused to charge God with wrong doing. He continued to worship God saying: Naked I came from my mother’s womb and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.

To add to Job’s woes, the very people one would expect to provide some comfort and support (his wife and best friends) only made matters worse. Not only did they show a lack of understanding and empathy, they actually blamed Job for his misfortune. Job was alone in his marriage and alone in his community. Job, the righteous & lonely sufferer, reminds us of Jesus.

Despite all of this though, Job did not sin in what he said. Job held onto his integrity. And it was integrity that required Job to ask God for a fair hearing. Eventually, Yahweh spoke to Job out of the storm.

Yahweh:

We might have expected God to comfort Job with a few gentle words of explanation but God does not do this. God offers Job no answers and instead responds forcefully with an avalanche of his own questions for Job.  

The strength of Yahweh’s approach shows Job that God is robust enough to handle his pain and his rage.  

At first glance God’s questions might seem unfair. They were hardly the sort of questions that Job could give a sensible answer to. But really Yahweh is doing Job a kindness. God has listened patiently to Job (at length). Now it is time for some medicine.

When you are in as much pain as Job was in, it distorts your perspective. Your world becomes quite small and you can feel trapped or cornered, like you have no options. In that frame of mind, you become defensive and entrenched in your own narrow point of view. What Job needs is a change of perspective.

One recommendation for promoting good mental health, is spending time in nature. Taking a walk in the bush or the mountains or by the sea, opens your mind to a new perspective, helping you to see your options more clearly.

By asking Job a series of questions about creation and the natural world, God is giving Job a new perspective. The Lord is helping Job to shift the focus off himself and he is dismantling Job’s defences.

God’s questions are a strategy for pulling down the wall that Job has built around himself, a wall that Job felt he had to build because his wife and his friends were so hostile to him. But also a wall that isolates Job and prevents him from experiencing the kind of closeness and understanding that could heal him.

Towards the end of chapter 38 and the beginning of chapter 39, Yahweh questions Job about a variety of animals. For example…

The lions and ravens which God feeds.

Mountain goats which breed and survive without the help of people.

Wild donkeys and wild oxen which roam free and do not need humankind.

As well as the hawk & eagle that make their home where no man can go. 

All of these animals are wild and independent of man. All of them are dangerous and all of them are free, especially free from fear. Is Yahweh trying to show Job that he does not need to be afraid?

Certainly Yahweh is sovereign. He is Lord and King over all things, including the animals, both domesticated and wild. This means, no part of the world lies outside God’s rule. No hostile, dangerous force exists beyond his authority.

Not that God micro-manages everything. Rather he allows and supports freedom within certain limits. All that happens, including Job’s suffering (and ours) takes place within God’s wise governance.

I don’t believe God goes out of his way to cause suffering. Rather he is in control of it. This means God allows suffering to happen but he keeps a leash on it. More than that, God uses suffering to serve his purpose. If God is the surgeon, then suffering is his scalpel. 

That is cold comfort when you are going through tough times. When we are in pain, we just want the pain to stop. And even after the pain has subsided, we may still wonder why we had to go through it in the first place.

Nowhere, in Scripture, does God promise to give us an explanation. We are not entitled. Like Job, we may never understand why in this life.

What God does promise is to never leave us or forsake us. Jesus chose the nails. Christ walks with us and tells us to pick up our cross and follow him. If we share in his suffering, we will share in his glory. That much is promised.       

The Ostrich:

Included in the list of wild animals, in Job 39, is the ostrich. The female ostrich gets six verses. That’s more than the lioness and the hawk. Verse 13 reads…

The wings of the ostrich flap joyfully, though they cannot compare with the wings and feathers of the stork. 

Perhaps we are meant to see some ironic humour in the ostrich here. The ostrich cannot fly, no matter how much it flaps its wings. Surely the irony is not lost on Job who has had his wings clipped. Job cannot understand his suffering (much less God’s ways) no matter how hard he tries.

Like the ostrich, we human beings need to keep our feet on the ground. We need to humbly accept our limits. The lesson of accepting our limits and embracing the way God has made us is a difficult one. But if we can’t accept ourselves as we are, then we set ourselves up for a great deal of anguish.

Notice that it says ‘the wings of the ostrich flap joyfully’. The ostrich is not frustrated that it cannot fly. The ostrich simply enjoys what she has been given. 

Let’s say you wanted to be a professional sports person but you were not born with the coordination or the genes to reach the heights you dreamed of. For years you train and practice and diet and strive but no matter how hard you flap your wings, you just can’t fly.

Eventually you realise, I can’t achieve what I want to achieve because I’m simply not made that way. And so you are faced with an existential crisis. Who am I? What is the point of my life? Why did I waste all that time?

Well, if you had fun and made friends it wasn’t a waste of time. Who cares if you don’t make it as a professional sports person. If you like sports, play at the level you enjoy. Play socially. Become a coach or a ref.

The ostrich does not try to be an eagle. The ostrich joyfully accepts that it is an ostrich. We save ourselves a lot of grief when are able to accept ourselves the way God made us.

From verse 14, we are given a description of how a female ostrich behaves with her young…

14 She lays her eggs on the ground and lets them warm in the sand, 15 unmindful that a foot may crush them, that some wild animal may trample them. 16 She treats her young harshly, as if they were not hers; she cares not that her labour was in vain. 17 It was I who made her foolish and did not give her wisdom.

These verses paint a rather unflattering portrait of the ostrich hen. They blend comedy with tragedy. Apparently, ostriches don’t make great mothers.

It’s interesting that God draws attention to the weakness or deficiency of the ostrich. More than that, God takes responsibility for it. Yahweh says, the ostrich is foolish because I made her that way.

The point seems to be that God has made things good, but not perfect. Imperfection and weakness (foolishness even) is part of the plan; it is built into the very fabric of creation. 

This is important to understand. It means we cannot expect everything in this world to function perfectly all the time. Sometimes things will go wrong. Sometimes your body will turn on itself and create cancer cells or produce too much cholesterol or fail to produce enough insulin or something else. 

The verse about the ostrich leaving her eggs on the ground introduces the idea of chance and randomness. Sometimes the ostrich’s eggs will be trampled on, other times they will be okay.

Now obviously, if God had made the ostrich with the good sense and skill to build her nest in a tree, the chance of the eggs being crushed would be greatly reduced. But that is not how God made the ostrich.

The analogue to this is that sometimes suffering is the direct result of the choices we make and other times it is random, just bad luck. More often though it is a combination of choice and chance.

We can make wise choices that mitigate risk and reduce the likelihood of suffering. But we cannot eliminate the possibility of suffering altogether because we cannot control everything.

If you drink and drive, you greatly increase the chance of causing suffering. But drinking and driving does not guarantee suffering. Sometimes you will get lucky and make it home without incident. By the same token, even when you drive sober, there is always the possibility of someone else running a red light and smashing into you. 

I know that Christians (generally speaking) don’t like the idea of luck. Many believers prefer to think that God is controlling every little detail of their life. That sort of belief is fine so long as nothing bad happens. But the moment things go wrong, your faith is turned inside out. Why has God done this to me?

Well, just because something bad happens to you, it does not automatically follow that God wanted it to happen. Yes, God is in control of the outcome and yes he could (if he so desired) micro-manage everything, but most of the time he chooses not to.

God allows room for his creatures to make mistakes. Even though Satan was wrong, God still allowed Satan to mess with Job’s life. Even though Job’s friends were wrong, God still allowed them to falsely accuse Job. The Lord works with the choices his creatures make.

Did God want Job to suffer? No! Of course not. God is not cruel. But suffering is what you get when you allow mistakes. The Lord allows imperfection (within certain limits) and that’s where chance comes in.     

Job’s friends kept insisting that Job was suffering because of bad choices Job had made in the past. They would not entertain the possibility of chance. But God does not agree with Job’s friends. Nowhere in his speech does the Lord convict Job of wrong doing. Yahweh vindicates Job.

Suffering does not submit to man’s moral calculus. Correlation does not prove causation. Just because you are suffering it does not automatically follow that God is punishing you. There is a certain mystery surrounding suffering.

God’s portrait of the ostrich indicates that the world is not perfect, so there is an element of risk and misfortune for all God’s creatures in this world. 

In many ways, Job is very different from the ostrich. Job was wise and consistently made choices which reduced the risk of suffering. Job cared deeply for his children and did everything in his power to look after them. Nevertheless, despite his diligence and care, Job’s children were still killed in a storm.

The book of Job teaches us that it is foolish to rely on luck. At the same time, Job also teaches us that God allows a certain amount of randomness in the universe. Sometimes there is nothing we can do. But even if we do suffer bad luck in this world, God is still in control of the outcome. This world is not all there is. God makes things right in the end, for the Lord is just and merciful.

(As Lance Corporal Jones likes to say, “Don’t panic Mr Mannering”.)

We human beings cause ourselves quite a bit of unnecessary suffering through worry and anxiety about the future. The ostrich does not suffer from worry though. Verse 15 says the ostrich is unmindful that some wild animal might trample her eggs.

Being a parent is terrifying really and it only gets harder the older your children get. When they grow up and leave home, your kids make their own decisions and you can’t protect them in the same way you could when they were young. To be a parent is to be vulnerable.

The temptation, when you’ve been through a traumatic experience (or three) is to imagine the worse. What if someone knocks them off their bike? What if they don’t make any friends? What if they forget to take their inhaler? What if they meet the wrong guy or the wrong girl? What if someone slips a pill into their drink? What if? What if?

Parenting is not easy. It’s an act of faith. As difficult as it is, we need to try and find the middle ground between the two extremes of helicopter parenting on the one hand and ostrich parenting on the other.

While we don’t want to neglect our children or be careless with them, we also don’t want to overthink things. The ostrich reminds us not to overthink it.

Oh for the wisdom to know when to intervene and when to stand back and let our kids figure it out for themselves. 

That being said, it seems a little unfair to laugh at the ostrich for the way it takes care of its young. It’s not the ostrich’s fault that God did not endow her with good sense. Quite apart from that, ostriches are hardly equipped to build their nest in trees or rocky crags, like other birds.

Perhaps this is one of the reasons ostriches are included in God’s speech to Job. For while Job’s parenting style is the opposite of the ostrich, he does share some things in common with this bird.

Through his misfortune Job was misunderstood. He became a sad joke, an object of ridicule, much like the ostrich is misunderstood and is often the object of ridicule. In this way at least, I imagine Job felt like an ostrich. Ostracised.

I said before that God made the world good but not perfect. Weakness is built into creation. That is true but it is not the whole truth. God also gives strength and special abilities.

The ostrich has a significant advantage. It can maintain a speed of up to 50 miles per hour for some distance and therefore can outrun most horses.

Contrary to popular belief, the male ostrich does not bury his head in the sand when trouble comes. Rather he starts running to try and draw the predator into a chase, away from his family. The ostrich knows the predator is unlikely to keep pace. So, while the ostrich may not be the smartest animal, he is fast and he does have some sense, which he uses to protect his family.   

God gives every creature a way to survive and excel. What is your strength? And how are you using the strengths God has given you?

Conclusion:

To recap then. As unlikely as it seems, the ostrich helps us when we suffer. 

The ostrich reminds us to joyfully accept ourselves as God made us.

The ostrich reminds us that this world is not perfect. God allows mistakes and therefore an element of randomness, so we cannot expect to go through life without some suffering.

The ostrich reminds us not to overthink it. Try and find the middle ground between worrying too much and being careless.

The ostrich also reminds us that we all have God given strengths and we should exercise our strengths for good.

One final thing the ostrich teaches us. Don’t take yourself too seriously. Try and keep your sense of humour.

In the end, the Lord restored Job. That is our hope too. In and through Christ, God is restoring his creation. He is making all things new.

May God give each of us the grace and courage we need to keep our feet on the ground and face life without fear. Amen.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

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

  • How do you feel when you think of Job’s story? What does Job’s story put you in touch with?
  • Why does God speak to Job out of a storm? Why does God ask Job a whole raft of questions about creation?
  • Discuss / reflect on the things Yahweh says about the ostrich in his speech to Job (39:13-18). How do these words about the ostrich help us when we suffer? 
  • What are your weaknesses? What are your strengths? How are you using the strengths God has given you? 
  • If you have children, where would you place yourself on the spectrum between helicopter parent and ostrich parent? Why? Does anything need to change?
  • Why is it important to accept that creation is good but not perfect?

Outtakes

The idea that ostriches neglect their young comes up again in Lamentations 4, which reads: Even jackals offer the breast, they nurse their young; But the daughter of my people has become cruel like ostriches in the wilderness.

There is no comedy in this verse, only tragedy. Lamentations recalls the siege of Jerusalem in 587 BC. This siege (like all war) affected the young in particular. During the siege, children received worse treatment than ostrich chicks. Because of a shortage of food, nursing mothers could not feed their babies.

Tawa Baptist

Hope feeds faith

Scripture: 1st Corinthians 15:51-58

Video Link: https://youtu.be/4Iw4j_DrU6Q

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • The hope of resurrection
  • The work of faith
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

Bishop Bill Frey once said: “Hope is hearing the music of the future; faith is dancing to it today.”

I like that. Hope is the capacity to imagine a good future. If you know, by faith, that something good is waiting for you in the future, it gives you positive energy in the present. The name for that positive energy is ‘joy’.

Today we conclude our series in 1st Corinthians 15, where Paul writes about the necessity and certainty of resurrection for the Christian faith. In these verses Paul summarises some of the main points of chapter 15 and he draws a connection between the future hope of resurrection and what that means for Christian faith in the present.  From 1st Corinthians 15, verses 51-58, we read…   

51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”  55 “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”  56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 58 Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain.

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

Today’s message is about two things: The hope of resurrection and the work of faith. Bishop Frey used the imagery of music and dancing to describe the dynamic relationship between hope and faith. ‘Hope is hearing the music of the future; faith is dancing to it today.’

We might also use the metaphor of food. Hope feeds faith. Hope is not a quick sugar rush. True hope doesn’t pick you up and then dump you. Real hope is nutritious food for the soul, giving sustained energy over time.

The future hope of resurrection feeds our faith in the present, so we can go the distance in doing the work God has prepared for us as we hold to Christ.   

The hope of resurrection:

Does anyone here watch Bear Grylls? He has a TV programme where he takes celebrities on an adventure in the wild. It usually involves doing something risky and eating something disgusting.

In pretty much all the shows I’ve watched, Bear makes a fire to get warm and to cook whatever he happened to find on the trail. But each time he demonstrates a different technique for getting the fire going.

In one episode he said he was going to start a fire using his own pee. It was a mystery to me how he would transform urine into fire. I’m pretty sure pee isn’t flammable, although I’ve never put that to the test.

Long story short, Bear did not pour his urine onto the kindling. Rather he peed into a clear plastic bag and then held the bag of urine up to the sun, refracting the light through his pee, just like you would concentrate light through a magnifying glass. This was enough to ignite some dry grass which he then fed with sticks and logs to get the fire going properly.

From pee to fire. Such a clever transformation. So obvious and simple in hindsight.

From verse 51 Paul reveals the mystery of resurrection. Namely that those who belong to Christ, whether they are sleeping in death or still living when Jesus returns in glory, will be transformed in the blink of an eye.

We might read that and think, how? That seems as unlikely as using pee to start a fire. But for God it is easy. In hindsight, post resurrection, I expect it will be obvious to us all.   

As we heard last week, the transformation of resurrection happens to our bodies. The Christian hope of resurrection does not imagine a disembodied soul in the next life. The Christian hope of resurrection includes a transformed body, one that is suited to our new existence in the kingdom of heaven.

Just as a seed is transformed into a plant and a caterpillar is transformed into a butterfly, so too our earthly bodies will be transformed into heavenly bodies, only much quicker. The change is from a body that wears out and dies to a body that doesn’t wear out or die. That is the hope of resurrection for all who belong to Christ.

In 1977 the rock band Queen released a song called We are the champions. It is a victory song, intentionally written for crowd participation. Even now (nearly 50 years later) We are the champions is instantly recognizable and easily sung at sports stadiums around the world.

In verses 54 & 55 Paul offers his own victory song, where he writes: Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death is your victory? Where O death is your sting?

Paul is referring to Isaiah 25 here, where the prophet says…

7 On this mountain the Lord will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; 8 he will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove his people’s disgrace from all the earth.

It’s like Paul is saying: through Jesus’ resurrection, we are the champions. Through Jesus’ resurrection, we are on the winning side. Through Jesus’ resurrection, we have the victory over sin and death.

Of course, while it is true that in and through Christ we are the champions, it also needs to be acknowledged that we live in the now but not yet. Yes, Jesus has won the victory over sin and death on the cross. But we haven’t yet fully realized that victory. We still await the final victory when Jesus returns in glory. We are (in a very real sense) on the way to victory.   

In verse 56 Paul explains his metaphor saying: The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.

If you think of a scorpion, it is the sting of the scorpion that causes death. Sin is like a scorpion’s sting. Sin leads to death. But if you cut off the tail of a scorpion it cannot sting you, it is essentially harmless. Likewise, if you get rid of sin, then death loses its power and cannot harm you.

Paul also makes a connection between sin and the Law of Moses. Ironically, it is the law which gives sin its power. Romans 7 sheds some light on what Paul means here…

7 What shall we say, then? Is the law sinful? Certainly not! Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” 8 But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead. 

Even though the Law is good, it cannot save us. It can only show us our guilt and accuse us. The thought of having our faults revealed and being judged tends to fill us with fear and dread.

Returning to 1st Corinthians 15: To keep it simple, with the return of Jesus, death is destroyed and sin can no longer touch us. Through Jesus, we have victory over death. Knowing that, one day, God will destroy death in all its many forms gives us something good to look forward to; it gives us hope and that hope feeds our faith, it helps us to obey God in the present.

This hope of transformation through resurrection is not a long shot. It is not like the hope of maybe winning Lotto one day. For those who belong to Jesus, the hope of resurrection is a sure thing because it doesn’t depend on luck or our own ability or goodness.

Our hope of resurrection depends on what Jesus has already accomplished through his own death and resurrection.

One thing we notice as we read these closing verses from 1st Corinthians 15 is that Paul doesn’t play the fear card. Paul keeps it positive. Paul doesn’t threaten his readers with hellfire and brimstone. He doesn’t say, turn or burn. Paul uses the carrot and not the stick.

Some of us may have become Christians out of fear, because we wanted to avoid the pain and torment of hell (as our uninformed minds imagine it). God is gracious and he will still accept you on the basis of wanting to avoid hell but really a relationship which is based on fear is not ideal.

It’s not what God wants. God is love and he would prefer that our relationship with him be based on faith, hope and love, not fear.  

Hope feeds faith like a river waters the land or like bread nourishes the body.  And our faith needs to be fed and watered if we are to find the strength to do the work God has prepared for us. And what is that work? Our work is to believe in the one God has sent, to believe in Jesus.

The work of faith:

Recently I came across a short story by JRR Tolkien (of Lord of the Rings fame). The story is called ‘Leaf by Niggle’.

Niggle is an artist who lives in a society that does not value art. This does not stop Niggle from painting though. He loves beauty and painting for its own sake. Niggle is a perfectionist and spends many hours over the details.

He has a vision of a great tree with a forest and mountains in the background. But Niggle is better at painting leaves than he is at painting trees. He is always reaching to capture his grand vision of the tree but never quite getting there. Part of the problem is that Niggle has many mundane chores that prevent him from devoting his time fully to his master piece.

To make matters worse, Niggle has a kind heart and is not able to turn away from his neighbour in need. His neighbour, Parish, is lame and Parish’s wife is sick. When Parish’s roof starts leaking Niggle is imposed upon to help. In the process Niggle catches a chill and dies before he can finish his painting.

After Niggle dies, the precious canvas on which he painted his tree is used to cover the roof of his neighbour’s house and is all but ruined, except for a small corner which has a perfectly painted leaf on it. The ‘Leaf by Niggle’ is put in a museum but after a while the museum burns down and Niggle’s painted leaf is destroyed.  Niggle is soon forgotten by the people of this world.

In the afterlife, Niggle hears two voices. The voice of Justice and the voice of Mercy. Justice and Mercy are debating with each other about what should become of Niggle. The severe voice of Justice talks about how Niggle wasted his life and was always distracted, never accomplishing much. He never finished his painting of the tree.

But Mercy, a strong but gentle voice, points out that Niggle was kind hearted and helped his neighbour in need. What’s more, Niggle did not paint for fame or money. He painted for the love of art and beauty. Mercy and Justice agree to send Niggle to a kinder place for ‘a little gentle treatment’.      

When Niggle arrives in the heavenly country he finds the tree in his vision, the tree he had been trying to paint all his earthly life. Except now the tree is alive, it is not just a painting. And behind it is the forest and the mountains he had imagined on earth.

Parish joins Niggle in the afterlife and together they work to make this good place even better. The place is named “Niggle’s Parish” and becomes a garden of healing for people as they make their transition into eternity.

Most of us can identify with Niggle. We all have a dream or a vision of what we hope to accomplish in this life but none of us seem to be able to fulfill our aspirations. The demands and interruptions of this world get in the way, as do the limits of our skill and capacity. This life becomes marked by frustration, bitterness and gall until we find ourselves asking, what is the point? 

I like Tolkien’s story though, because it is hopeful. It reminds us this life is not all there is. It imagines a future in which our efforts in this life are not wasted but put to good use in the next life.

Said another way, our purest aspirations in work will come to complete fruition in God’s future. In paradise, the work you do will be useful, bringing you (and others) joy and satisfaction. You will not be frustrated by a lack of time or ability, for you will perform with all the skill you can imagine. [1]

Some might hear Tolkien’s story of Niggle and think: ‘Phew, the pressure is off. I can cruise through this life and it doesn’t matter too much because it will all be sorted in the next life.’  Well, that’s not the point of the story. Nor is that what Paul is saying in 1st Corinthians 15.

In verse 58, Paul writes…

Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain.  

Some in the church in Corinth were saying there is no resurrection of the dead. Paul counters this by encouraging the Corinthians to stand firm in their belief in the resurrection. Let nothing move you; let nothing shift your hope in the resurrection, because those who hold to their faith in the risen Jesus will realise the deeper meaning and purpose of their life.

The hope of resurrection is not supposed to make us complacent or apathetic. The hope of resurrection is supposed to inspire and energize our work of faith in this world. What we do in this life matters for eternity because it is not just our bodies which are transformed and resurrected. The fruits of our labours in the Lord are also transformed and resurrected.   

Whatever you do in love and faith in this life, bears abundant fruit in eternity. In fact, we could think of the faith and love we share in this life as an investment paying dividends in heaven.

As Jesus says in Matthew 6…

19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.  

Where is the treasure of your hope? What vision of the future captivates your heart?

Conclusion:

Given that hope feeds faith, how then do we get a seat at the restaurant of hope?  By holding fast to our belief in the resurrection of Jesus and taking time to feed our mind and soul on what we know of resurrection life from the Bible.

Over the past few weeks we have done just that…

In the resurrection those who abide in Christ will be given new supernatural bodies. Bodies that do not get sick or wear out or fail. Bodies that are well suited to eternity. Let the hope of a resurrected and transformed body feed your faith and your soul.

In the resurrection those who abide in Christ will receive a share in God’s kingdom. We will enjoy a paradise in which God’s will is always done perfectly. A place of joy and peace and abundance. No more poverty. No more grief. No more homelessness or war. Plenty of good things to go around for everyone.

Let the hope of heaven coming to earth motivate you to love your neighbour and care for the environment.


In the resurrection those who abide in Christ will experience the redemption of their life’s work. Your purest aspirations in work will come to complete fruition in God’s future. The work you do will become useful and satisfying. Your true calling will not be frustrated by a lack of time or ability.

Let the hope of having your life’s work fulfilled and made fruitful sustain your labour in the Lord now. 

In the resurrection those who abide in Christ will be reunited with loved ones who are also in Christ. Parents who have lost children too soon will see them again. Orphans deprived of their parents’ time & love will be cared for. You who are widows and widowers will meet your husbands and wives once more.  

Let the hope of restored and properly functioning relationships inspire you to be kinder, more patient, more honest, more gracious and more forgiving with those near to you today.


But the greatest hope, the most nourishing hope, of resurrection is the indescribable joy of intimacy with God. The ravages of loneliness in this world will pass like a bad dream. In the resurrection we will be so close to God, so immersed in his love, that we will know instinctively what the Lord wants and be willing and able to do it.

Let the hope of intimacy with God fill you with wonder so that your soul overflows with whole hearted worship and praise. 

“Hope is hearing the music of the future; faith is dancing to it today.”

May the music of heaven give you the rhythm and joy you need to dance through this life. Amen.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

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

  • Discuss / reflect on Bishop Frey’s quote: “Hope is hearing the music of the future; faith is dancing to it today.” What does this mean? What does this say about the relationship between hope and faith? 
  • What does Paul mean when he says, ‘the sting of death is sin and the power of sin is death’? 
  • Why does Paul focus on the hope of resurrection (rather than the fear of hell)? What is your relationship with God based on? Does anything need to change?
  • How do you feel hearing Tolkien’s story about Niggle? In what ways does the story ‘Leaf by Niggle’ relate to 1st Corinthians 15:58?
  • What does it mean to share faith and love in this life? How might we do this?
  • Where is the treasure of your hope? What vision of the future captivates your heart? How does the hope of resurrection influence your faith in the present?  

[1] Timothy Keller, ‘Every Good Endeavour’, page 96.

Tawa Baptist

Continuity & Transformation

Scripture: 1st Corinthians 15:35-50

Video Link: https://youtu.be/VUUAN9TiW8E

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Symptoms & Cause
  • Continuity & Transformation
  • Before & After
  • Conclusion – application

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

If you are out at sea and the boat you are in is leaking, you need to do two things. You need to bail out the water you’ve taken on board and you need to patch the hole to stop the leak. Patching the hole deals with the cause of the problem and bailing out the excess water deals with the symptoms.

Likewise, if you are running a high temperature you may need to take some Panadol to bring the temperature down but Panadol, by itself, only deals with the symptoms. To deal with the cause of the problem you need to go to a doctor. If the underlying issue is an infection, then you might need antibiotics to treat the cause.  

Today we continue our series in 1st Corinthians 15, where the apostle Paul writes about resurrection. Some in the church at Corinth were saying there is no resurrection of the dead. Having dealt with the symptoms of this problem, Paul also addresses the underlying cause of the problem. From 1st Corinthians 15, verses 35-50, we read…

35 But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” 36 How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37 When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. 38 But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body. 39 Not all flesh is the same: People have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another. 40 There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendour of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendour of the earthly bodies is another. 41 The sun has one kind of splendour, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendour. 42 So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; 43 it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 44 it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.  45 So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. 46 The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. 47 The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven. 48 As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man. 50 I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.

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

Symptoms and cause:

In the first 34 verses of 1st Corinthians 15, Paul writes about the absolute necessity of the resurrection for Christian faith. As helpful and necessary as these verses are, they mainly deal with the symptoms of the problem.  

Now, in verses 35-50, Paul addresses the underlying cause of the Corinthians’ problem. He patches the hole in the sinking boat of their faith. He administers the theological antibiotics needed to treat their infected thinking.

You see, the people of Corinth were strongly influenced by Greek thought. The Greek philosopher Plato (who lived about 400 years before Paul) came up with a theory that each human being has a divine soul of pure fire that, in this life, is imprisoned in a body. At death the soul (or spirit) escapes from the prison of the body and returns to the divine fire from which it came. [1]

To the ancient Greek mind, there was a false dichotomy (or a divide) between body and soul. The body was considered inferior (even bad) relative to the soul or spirit. Consequently, the ancient Greeks had a hard time accepting the resurrection of the body. The idea that God would raise people’s bodies from the dead was revolting to them.

Paul was Jewish and so his thinking started with the story of creation where God made all things and declared them good. For Christians there is no dichotomy between body & soul. Your body is not a prison, it’s not bad. Your body is good; it is sacred even. The problem is with sin and death.  

But Paul’s Greek readers didn’t think like that. They had been conditioned differently and so Paul had to address the underlying cause. Paul had to undo the Greek idea that the body was bad (like a prison) and he had to correct the false notion of a disembodied spirit after death.

People in our society today might also struggle with the idea of a bodily resurrection but for different reasons, perhaps because materialism is so pervasive in our culture. For many people, if they can’t touch it or see it or explain it, then it doesn’t exist. That’s how we are conditioned to think.

In verse 35, Paul imagines two questions some of his readers might ask:

How are the dead raised? (Or how is resurrection possible, in other words.)

And with what kind of body will they come? (Or said another way: what is the resurrected body like?) Paul answers these questions in the verses that follow.

He begins by saying, ‘How foolish’. Paul is not calling his readers stupid or unintelligent. Rather, he is using the term ‘fool’ in the Old Testament sense of someone who fails to take God into account.

How are the dead raised? By God of course. And with what kind of body will they come? A different kind of body, perfectly suited to eternity.

Continuity and transformation:

In short, Paul is saying there is a continuity between this life and the next but there is also transformation. Continuity with transformation.

There is continuity in the sense that just as you have a personal body in this life, so too you will have your own body in the next life. Contrary to Greek philosophy then, you don’t become a disembodied spirit when you die and you don’t lose your individuality.  

Having said that, your resurrected body will be a different kind of body from the earthly body you inhabit now. Your body will undergo a radical transformation in the resurrection.

This principle of transformation was different from what the Jewish Rabbis taught in the first century. The Rabbis believed in a bodily resurrection but they didn’t think the body changed. They believed you just get your old body back, which for most of us (as we get older) is not a happy thought.

When it comes to the resurrection, the Christian belief is continuity with transformation.

Paul isn’t making this stuff up. This is not some ethereal woolly idea without any basis in reality. Paul has a firm (evidence based) foundation for his claims about the resurrection.

In verses 36-41, Paul lists a series of examples from nature which demonstrate the continuity and transformation of resurrection. Paul talks about the bodies of plants, the bodies of animals, fish and birds, as well as celestial bodies like the moon and stars. It reminds us of the account of creation in Genesis 1 & 2. Indeed, resurrection is a new creation.

Paul is showing how the continuity and transformation of resurrection are built into the very fabric of the natural world. From verse 37 we read…

37 When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. 38 But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body. 

Take a tomato seed for example. The seed that is buried in the ground looks nothing like the plant that grows from that seed. Yes, there is a continuity between the seed and the plant, the seed has a body and the plant has a body, but God transforms the seed into something different, something more. 

Although Paul doesn’t mention it, we see the twin principles of continuity and transformation in the life cycle of a butterfly. A butterfly doesn’t start life with wings. A butterfly starts as a caterpillar before going into its cocoon and being transformed.

Paul goes on in verse 39 to talk about the different kinds of flesh God has given to animals, birds, fish and human beings. Paul is saying here that God gives all of his creatures a body type which uniquely suits their existence and their environment.

For example, he gives whales a body that enables them to live in cold water and dive to great depths. But, in the same way a whale doesn’t do so well on land, a human body couldn’t survive in frigid waters like a whale can.

Likewise, God gives birds a body that enables them to fly. But if a goat were to jump off a cliff, it wouldn’t fly, it would fall to the ground because God has given it a different body type, one which is suited for climbing mountains.

All of this is Paul’s way of answering the question posed earlier: with what kind of body will the resurrected come? With a body that is suited for eternal life.

The earthly bodies we inhabit now would not be able to cope with the glory of heaven, any more than a goat could fly or a human being could live in the sea.

Before and after:

In verses 42-44 Paul talks plainly about the transformation of the body through resurrection:  42 So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; 43 it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 44 it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.         

In these verses Paul notes four differences between our earthly bodies and our resurrected bodies. 

To begin with, our earthly bodies are perishable, they wear out, get sick and fail us until eventually we die. But the transformed body we receive through resurrection is imperishable. Which means it is physically resilient. It doesn’t get sick or tired or wear out. Think Wolverine or Superman or Captain Marvel.

Our earthly bodies are sown in dishonour and raised in glory. Glory is the opposite of dishonour. Glory, for human beings, has to do with honourable qualities like courage, integrity, faithfulness, wisdom and self-control.

In this life we may want to act with honour all the time but in reality we fall short more often than we would like. In the resurrection we will have the kind of transformed character that supports our best intentions to act with courage, integrity, faithfulness, wisdom, self-control and so on. 

Or as William Barclay puts it: we will no longer be servants of our own passions but rather instruments of pure service to God.

Our bodies now are weak but in the resurrection they will be powerful. We will be able to cope with the rigours of God’s kingdom both physically and morally. In thinking of power, don’t think in terms of brute force. Instead, think of Jesus.

Power (in this context) isn’t just about how much you can bench press or how much you can bend people to your will. We are not talking about military or political power here.

Power, in a Christian understanding, is more about moral fitness. Jesus had the power to stand against injustice, to speak the truth and, at the same time, to be gracious and gentle. Jesus had the personal power to turn the other cheek and to forgive. What’s more, Jesus also had the supernatural power to heal people and deliver them from the tyranny of Satan.

Power is defined by the example of Christ, not by the broken standards of this world. Christ-like power appears weak at first but don’t be fooled; the weakness of God is stronger than the might of empires.    

The fourth transformation of the body (named in verse 44) is the change from a natural body to a spiritual body. To be spiritual means to be responsive to God’s Spirit. It means being so close to God, so in tune with him, that you instinctively move at the impulse of his love. 

Imagine finding a piece of drift wood on the beach. Now imagine taking the wood home and transforming it into a finely crafted wooden flute, which you play beautiful music with.

Your body in this world now, is like the drift wood. In the resurrection, God transforms the driftwood of your body into a beautiful instrument that is in tune with him, through which his Spirit works to ‘render the music of perfect worship, perfect service and perfect love’. [2]

We are trying to describe the indescribable. We are trying to imagine the heavenly using earthly images. Words fall short.

Understand this though, a spiritual body is not an immaterial thing. A spiritual body is not a phantom or a ghost. A spiritual body has real substance. You can touch and feel a spiritual body.

When the risen Jesus appeared to Thomas, the Lord said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put into my side…’

Thomas was able to physically touch Jesus’ resurrected body.

If an earthly body is a what we might call a natural body, then a spiritual body is a supernatural body, one that is fit for the kingdom of heaven.

In verses 45-49, Paul compares and contrasts Adam and Jesus. The first Adam was made from the dust of the earth and received life from God. There is no shame in being made from mud, in being earthy. God declared our bodies (and indeed all he made) to be good.

Being people of the earth is a natural and necessary stage in our development, just as being a caterpillar is a necessary stage of development for a butterfly. Or being a seed is a good and necessary stage of development for a plant.

But this life is not all there is. The next stage of our development is to become like the risen Jesus, the last Adam, the heavenly man.

Like us, Jesus was an earthy person. He was made of dust as well. But, after Jesus had died, God raised Jesus to eternal life and gave him a heavenly body, a supernatural body, suited for eternity. Jesus is our model, our pattern.

Those who belong to Jesus will be resurrected like Jesus and given a new body, one made from the stuff of heaven so that we can be close to God and enjoy him forever. The stuff of heaven is imperishable, it is glorious, honourable, (morally) powerful and perfectly in tune with God.

Conclusion:

You might be wondering, well that’s all well and good but how does this apply to us now, today? Let me suggest three points of application…

Firstly, when it comes to the question of how your earthly body is disposed of when you die, from an eternal perspective, it makes no difference whether you are buried or cremated. Our earthly bodies are made of dust and return to dust. In the resurrection we are given new supernatural bodies, made from the stuff of heaven. God doesn’t need your old bones to make the new you.

So you don’t need to tie yourself in knots worrying about how God will resurrect you. This is not his first rodeo. He created the heavens and the earth. He created you. God knows what he’s doing. Nothing is too hard for the Lord.

Secondly, as you get older you will notice your body doesn’t work as effectively or efficiently as it did when you were younger. You move slower. You seem to have more aches and pains and you find you can’t do as much as you once could. Getting older is difficult.

The good news is that in the resurrection you will be given a new body which is resilient and doesn’t let you down or become frail. So, whatever physical pain or limitations you may be enduring now, these will not last.

Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

A third point of application. Whether you are young or old or in between, you may feel at times like a moral or spiritual failure. You may struggle to understand what God wants you to do in any given situation, let alone have the courage or integrity to obey him.

Remember, you are a work in progress. In this life you are like the seed. You are like the caterpillar. You are like the driftwood. God has not finished with you yet.

Be confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

In the resurrection, we who belong to Christ will be so close to God, so in tune with him, that we instinctively move at the impulse of his love. It might be difficult to imagine right now, but God will get you there in the end if you hold to Christ. His grace is sufficient for you.

There are other points of application, but that is enough for today. May our God of grace strengthen our hope as we look forward to the transformation of our bodies in the resurrection. Amen.

(Prayer will be available after the service by the water cooler.)

Questions for discussion or reflection:

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

  • When faced with a problem, why is it important deal with both the symptoms and the cause of the problem? What was the likely cause of the Corinthians’ problem concerning the resurrection?  
  • Do you believe in a bodily resurrection? Why or why not? Has your understanding (or belief) about resurrection changed over time? If so, how? 
  • In what sense is there a continuity between this life and the next?
  • Why is it necessary for our bodies to undergo a transformation in the resurrection?
  • Thinking of what Paul says in vv. 42-44, how is our resurrected body different from our earthly body?
  • Discuss / reflect on the three points of application offered at the conclusion of this message. Can you think of any other ways in which the Christian belief in a bodily resurrection applies to us now?  

[1] Kenneth Bailey, ‘Paul Through Mediterranean Eyes’, pages 454-467.

[2] William Barclay’s commentary on Corinthians, page 177. 

Tawa Baptist

The End

Scripture: 1st Corinthians 15:20-28

Video Link: https://youtu.be/WsylwUo8wpo

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Jesus’ resurrection means the end of death
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

When I was a kid my grandfather took me fishing every holidays. One of the things he taught me was how to avoid making a bird’s nest of your line. If you let your reel go too quickly, it tends to tangle the line. The key is control. Take your time and let your line out slowly.

Today we continue our series in 1st Corinthians 15, where Paul writes about resurrection. There were some in the church at Corinth who were saying there is no resurrection of the dead and this was creating a bird’s nest in people’s faith and thinking. Paul was writing (among other things) to untangle the bird’s nest. From 1st Corinthians 15, verses 20-28, we read…     

20 But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. 22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.  23 But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. 24 Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death. 27 For he “has put everything under his feet.” Now when it says that “everything” has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ. 28 When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all.

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

Now, after hearing that, you may be feeling a bit confused. I certainly felt confused the first 10 or 20 times I read it. Paul is untangling a bird’s nest here, so it is little wonder we might be somewhat bamboozled. But really, Paul’s main idea is not that complicated.

Jesus’ resurrection means the end of death.

We could summarise Paul’s thinking like this: Jesus’ resurrection means the end of death.As we work our way through the detail, I want you to keep that bigger picture in mind: Jesus’ resurrection means the end of death.

If I am following a recipe, I always like to have a picture of what the cake is supposed to look like when it is finished. Written instructions are necessary but without a picture of the end product I can’t see the goal I aiming for.

In 1st Corinthians 15, Paul is showing us what the recipe of resurrection turns out like.

When you are planting trees on your section, you need to keep the end in mind. The tree might be quite small when you put it in the ground, so you have to think ahead and imagine what the tree will look like in 10 or 20 years’ time. Is it in the right place? Will there be enough room for it?

In 1st Corinthians 15, Paul is showing us what the tree of resurrection looks like when it is fully grown.

If you think back to your time at high school, you might remember your maths text book. The body of the text book contained problems for you to solve and at the back you could find the answers. Being able to look up the correct answer enabled you to learn from your mistakes. It gave you a clue as to how to approach the problem.

In 1st Corinthians 15, Paul is giving us the answer to the problem of death so we can work backwards from there and learn from our mistakes.

In verse 20, Paul describes Jesus’ resurrection as the ‘firstfruits’ of those who have fallen asleep. The Law of Moses prescribed that the first sheaf of barley harvested from a common field was to be offered to God in the temple. In fact, on the first Easter Sunday, when Jesus rose from the dead, the Jewish priests would have been offering the firstfruits of the barley harvest.  

Offering the firstfruits was an acknowledgement that the whole harvest belonged to God, for the Lord had provided it. The offering of the first sheaf of grain blessed and guaranteed the rest of the harvest.

Jesus’ resurrection was like an offering of the firstfruits. Jesus’ resurrection is a foretaste or a deposit, guaranteeing the resurrection of all those who belong to Christ.    

In verses 21 & 22, Paul draws a comparison between Adam and Christ. Just as those who are descended from Adam die, because Adam sinned, so too those descended from Christ (through faith) will live, because Jesus the Christ was obedient to God.

Christ is both the beginning and the end. Jesus is the first of a new breed of human beings, a new creation, a new race which obeys God in faith. At the same time, Jesus is also the end result or the goal for humanity. If we want to know what God intends human beings to be like, then we look to Jesus. The risen Christ is God’s vision for humanity.

Basically, Jesus does for us what we are not able to do for ourselves. Jesus lives the perfect life on our behalf. He fulfils God’s requirements for us. Our part is to stand in solidarity with him. That is, to trust Jesus.  

The Wellington train lines had some difficulties over the past week. We could think of Paul’s comparison between Adam and Christ as two separate train lines. The train line which began with Adam leads to death. It is going to end in tragedy. But there is a second train line which begins with Christ and leads to life. The destination of Christ’s line is resurrection.

Adam’s line and Christ’s line overlap for a certain period of time in history. God wants to give everyone the opportunity to get off Adam’s death train and get onto Jesus’ life line. Getting off Adam’s train and boarding Jesus’ train requires an act of faith.  

In verse 23 Paul goes on to point out the resurrection happens in two stages. First, Jesus was raised from the dead and then later, when Jesus returns in glory, those who belong to Christ will be raised to life as well.

This means physical death is not a permanent state for those who belong to Jesus. Physical death is a temporary state, sort of like sleep.

Some of you may be wondering, what about those who do not belong to Jesus? What happens to them? Well, Paul doesn’t deal with that subject in these verses and so neither will I.

It is not for us to say how God will deal with people who don’t know Jesus or who do know him but reject him. What we can say with confidence is that God is good; he understands all things and he sees the heart. The Lord is just and merciful, slow to anger and rich in love. Therefore, we can rely on God to do what is right by each individual person.

From verse 24 Paul continues…

24 Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

The word end can have two meanings. It can mean the termination or destruction of something and it can also mean the purpose or goal of something. Both meanings are relevant here.  

Paul is saying that when Jesus returns in glory, the dead who belong to Christ will be resurrected. This resurrection of Jesus’ followers will mean the end (as in the destruction) of death. At the same time, the destruction of death is God’s end (as in God’s goal or purpose) as far as his creation is concerned.

In short, God’s purpose is to destroy death. Jesus’ resurrection sets in motion a process which will ultimately result in the end of death. So while death was not destroyed 2,000 years ago, when Jesus was raised to eternal life, death will be destroyed when Jesus returns to raise those who belong to him. 

Verses 24 & 25 indicate that the risen and ascended Christ is reigning. Jesus is King. However, despite Jesus’ reign, the enemies of God are still at work. And so we currently live in (what is sometimes called) ‘the now but not yet’. That is, the Kingdom of God is here now, in the person of Jesus, but it is not yet fully realised on earth.

We live in between the resurrection of Jesus and the destruction of death.

Yes, Jesus has conquered sin and death, but sin and death are still doing damage here on earth.

Perhaps we could think of it like a war. Once the heat of battle is over and the war is won, the effects of the war still remain for a certain period of time. Those who have survived the war may be maimed, both physically and psychologically. What’s more the enemy, though defeated, has left land mines in the ground which need to be cleared. 

To complicate matters, those loyal to the defeated enemy remain in the country to stir up trouble. Eventually though, all the land mines and booby traps will be cleared. All the trauma of war will be healed and God will wipe away every tear. What’s more, the enemies of Christ (including death) will be put under Jesus’ feet.

Jesus told a number of parables to illustrate this interim time of the now but not yet, including the parable of the wheat and the weeds, in Matthew 13.

You know the one. A man (aka: Jesus, the Son of Man) sowed good seed in his field. But, while everyone was asleep, the man’s enemies came and sowed weeds in the same field.

The man let the weeds grow alongside the wheat because he knew that if he pulled up the weeds, the wheat would be uprooted too. The man waited until harvest time (that is, the end of the age) and instructed the harvesters to separate the weeds from the wheat. The weeds are destroyed while the wheat (or those who belong to Christ) are brought into the barn (into God’s kingdom in other words).      

Returning to 1st Corinthians 15. Verse 27, where it says: For he “has put everything under his feet”, appears to be a twin reference to Psalm 8 and Psalm 110.

In the context of Psalm 8, putting everything under his feet, means God’s purpose is for humanity to rule over creation (the fish, the birds and animals) in a compassionate and fair way, maintaining the balance and harmony of the natural world.

But in the context of Psalm 110, putting everything under his feet, is a poetic way of saying, the Lord’s enemies (also the enemies of humanity) will be dead and buried, with no possible way of making a comeback.  

It seems Paul is saying two things at once here. Firstly, that the resurrection of Jesus restores God’s order to creation and secondly, that the resurrection of Jesus destroys death.

This makes sense because, destroying death is part and parcel of restoring God’s order to creation.  As long as people die, God’s sovereign purposes are not yet fully realised. Hence the need for resurrection.

Now, in talking about death, it is important to understand that we don’t just mean physical death. Death, in a Biblical understanding, isn’t just when someone’s heart stops beating and their brain function ceases.

Death comes by degrees. It disguises itself in many different ways. Sickness is a form of death. Divorce and the breakdown of relationships are a form of death. Violent acts of crime reek of death as does economic injustice. Addiction and slavery also spell death. And then there is spiritual death, which is essentially alienation from God.   

We live in the now but not yet, between Jesus’ resurrection and his second coming. Jesus has won the war and defeated death (on the cross) but God hasn’t yet destroyed death.

Knowing that, one day, God will destroy death in all its many and varied forms gives us something good to look forward to; it gives us hope. This means, when death touches our lives in some way, we do not need to be afraid. God does not want bad things for us, he wants good for us.

And this is why Jesus taught us to pray for God’s kingdom to come and his will to be done, on earth as it is in heaven. By praying for God’s kingdom to come, we are calling for an end to death, we are asking for eternal (resurrection) life.

In verses 27 & 28, Paul clarifies the obvious; that God the Father will not be put under Christ the Son. Rather, as Paul has already stated in verse 24, when death is destroyed, Christ (the new and perfect representative of humanity) will hand over the kingdom to God the Father, so that God may all in all.

By subjecting himself to God, Jesus is doing for humanity what we failed to do. Jesus is restoring the right order of things: with God in charge, human beings living in faithful, loving obedience to God and the rest of creation subject to (and cared for by) human beings. 

That phrase (in verse 28) where it says, so God may be all in all, sounds a bit cryptic but really it’s not that difficult. It is simply Paul’s unique way of saying, so God’s will may be done everywhere by everyone. That is what God’s kingdom is: A world where God’s will is done perfectly. A world without evil or fear. Relationships characterised by love and joy and peace.    

Conclusion:

To summarise then: Jesus’ resurrection means the end of death is inevitable. We live in the now but not yet, in between Jesus’ resurrection and our own resurrection. While Jesus currently reigns supreme, the enemies of sin and death still have an influence in this world, but it won’t always be like that.

God’s end goal, his ultimate purpose, is to destroy death in all its forms. Which means the best is yet to come.

As we read in the Revelation to John…

3 I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” 

May our God of love refresh our hope and strengthen our faith, through Jesus’ resurrection. Amen.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

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

  • Is the meaning of 1st Corinthians 15:20-28 clear to you or a bit confusing at first? 
  • Why does Paul show his readers God’s end goal in verses 20-28?
  • What difference does it make to you (personally) knowing that God’s end goal is to destroy death?
  • Discuss / reflect on the meaning of verse 27a (for he has put everything under his feet) in the context of Psalms 8 & 110.
  • What does Paul mean when he writes: ‘so God may be all in all’?
  • Take some time to pray the Lord’s Prayer slowly (phrase by phrase) reflecting on the meaning of the words in light of what Paul’s says about God’s end goal in 1st Corinthians 15:20-28. 

Our Father, who is in heaven, hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.

Save us from the time of trial and deliver us from evil.

For yours in the kingdom, the power and the glory.

Forever and ever. Amen.

Tawa Baptist

The Consequence of Resurrection

Scripture: 1st Corinthians 15:12-20 & 29-34

Video Link: https://youtu.be/axBZHOQ-Bd0

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Logical consequences of resurrection
  • Moral (& practical) consequences of resurrection
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

Imagine, if you can, a world without gravity. It would make life very difficult. Even if you managed to get to sleep on the floor, you would wake up on the ceiling. You wouldn’t be able to take a shower very well. Trying to keep your food down would be tricky and going to the toilet would be a nightmare.

But really, you wouldn’t be able to do any of those things because, without gravity, life as we know it would not exist. The earth would disintegrate. 

Today we continue our sermon series in 1st Corinthians 15. There were some in the church in Corinth who were saying there is no resurrection of the dead. In chapter 15 Paul corrects this mistaken thinking.

To say there is no resurrection of the dead is like saying there is no gravity. Without the resurrection of the dead the Christian faith disintegrates.

Last week we heard how the death and resurrection of Jesus is the heart of the gospel. In today’s passage, Paul invites us to imagine the consequences of denying the resurrection. From 1st Corinthians 15, verse 12, we read…  

12 Now, since our message is that Christ has been raised from death, how can some of you say that the dead will not be raised to life? 13 If that is true, it means that Christ was not raised; 14 and if Christ has not been raised from death, then we have nothing to preach and you have nothing to believe. 15 More than that, we are shown to be lying about God, because we said that he raised Christ from death—but if it is true that the dead are not raised to life, then he did not raise Christ. 16 For if the dead are not raised, neither has Christ been raised. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is a delusion and you are still lost in your sins. 18 It would also mean that the believers in Christ who have died are lost. 19 If our hope in Christ is good for this life only and no more,then we deserve more pity than anyone else in all the world. 20 But the truth is that Christ has been raised from death, as the guarantee that those who sleep in death will also be raised.

29 Now, what about those people who are baptized for the dead? What do they hope to accomplish? If it is true, as some claim, that the dead are not raised to life, why are those people being baptized for the dead?  30 And as for us—why would we run the risk of danger every hour? 31 My friends, I face death every day! The pride I have in you, in our life in union with Christ Jesus our Lord, makes me declare this. 32 If I have, as it were, fought “wild beasts” here in Ephesus simply from human motives, what have I gained? But if the dead are not raised to life, then, as the saying goes, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we will die.” 33 Do not be fooled. “Bad companions ruin good character.” 34 Come back to your right senses and stop your sinful ways. I declare to your shame that some of you do not know God.

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

The more observant among you may have noticed that part way through this reading we skipped from verse 20 to verse 29. We missed out eight verses. We will look at those eight verses next week. Our focus today is on the consequence of saying there is no resurrection of the dead.

Broadly speaking, verses 12-19 deal with the logical consequences of no resurrection and verses 29-34 deal with the moral & practical consequences. Let’s start with the logical consequences.

Logical consequences:

ACC have a series of TV advertisements which are aimed at preventing accidents. In one scenario a young man has the idea that he will jump from the top of a waterfall. Before he does though, he has a hmmm. He considers the consequences of jumping from a great height.

As he thinks it through he realises there is a serious risk that he will injure himself. Recovering from the injury would be a significant inconvenience to himself and his friends. With both his arms broken, who would wipe his bottom when he had to go to the toilet?

In verses 12-19 of 1st Corinthians 15, Paul gets his readers to have a hmmm; to think through the consequences of going along with the idea that there is no resurrection of the dead.

We could summarise the logic like this…

If you say there is no resurrection of the dead, then it logically follows that Jesus was not raised from the dead. And if Jesus was not raised from the dead, then the gospel message is false, our faith is based on a lie and our sins are not forgiven. Without the resurrection, Jesus died for nothing.

The main point here is that the integrity of the Christian faith rests on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Without a good foundation, the building collapses. Without the resurrection of the dead, the Christian faith collapses. If you remove a beating heart, the person dies. If you remove the resurrection of the dead, the Christian faith dies. Without gravity, the earth would disintegrate. Without resurrection, Christian faith disintegrates. 

Some of you may be wondering, how exactly does our forgiveness depend on Jesus’ death and resurrection?

Well, by raising Jesus from the dead God was vindicating Jesus. God was saying: I verify that Jesus was right and that he died for the sins of the world.

The resurrection of Jesus proves that Jesus did not die for nothing, that Jesus was true in what he taught about God. Logically, the resurrection of Jesus signals the triumph of love over hate, truth over falsehood, goodness over evil and life over death.  

Last Sunday we heard how the objective historical evidence for Jesus’ death and resurrection is very strong. I don’t need to rehearse that again today. Suffice to say, Paul can declare with confidence, in verse 20, But the truth is that Christ has been raised from death, as the guarantee that those who sleep in death will also be raised.

Okay, so when we have a hmmm and think through the consequences of saying there is no resurrection of the dead, we can see logically that the Christian faith comes undone.

Hand in hand with denying the logical consequences of the resurrection, there are also some very real moral and practical consequences. The moral and practical consequences relate both to this life and the next.

Moral consequences:

Viktor Frankl was an Austrian-Jewish psychiatrist who survived the concentration camps of the second world war. Viktor Frankl believed that life is the quest for meaning. Indeed, we are motivated by a hunger for meaning.

Viktor Frankl said: ‘When a person cannot find a deep sense of meaning, they distract themselves with pleasure.’

It is my observation that people search for meaning in all sorts of ways and are often disappointed. One of the things that gives a deeper (more satisfying) meaning to this life is the conviction that there is another life waiting for us beyond death. Because if this life is all there is, then death has the last word and if death has the last word then what’s the point?  All you are left with is hedonism, the maximisation of pleasure and the minimisation of pain.  

In verse 19 Paul makes the comment: If our hope in Christ is good for this life only and no more,then we deserve more pity than anyone else in all the world.

If we took this verse in isolation, we might misunderstand Paul to mean that the Christian faith is only good for the next life and is of no benefit for this life. But that’s not where Paul is going with this.

When it comes to being a follower of Jesus, there are costs and benefits in this life. One of the costs of being a Christian is that you can’t put your own pleasure ahead of everything else. For example, you can’t get drunk and you can’t sleep around. Nor can you lie, cheat and steal to get ahead in life. To make things even more difficult we are honour bound to forgive people when they wrong us.    

As it happens, following Jesus also comes with benefits. For example, because you don’t get drunk, you don’t suffer a hangover. Likewise, because you don’t sleep around, you avoid the shame and emotional trauma of cheap sex. Also, people are more inclined to trust you because you don’t lie, cheat and steal. What’s more, it is in forgiving others that we ourselves are forgiven and set free.

So, in many ways, living a Christian lifestyle is actually a morally and practically smart thing to do in this life. But again, that’s not where Paul is going with this.

Later, from verse 31, Paul goes on to say: My friends, I face death every day!… 32 If I have, as it were, fought “wild beasts” here in Ephesus simply from human motives, what have I gained?”

Paul is referring to the very real cost of being an apostle of Christ. When Paul says, I face death every day, he means he risks his life to preach the gospel every day. The “wild beasts” Paul fought in Ephesus are most likely the crowd that wanted to lynch him because his preaching of the gospel threatened the Ephesians’ false view of God and was bad for business.   

Paul suffered a great deal of hardship in the process of proclaiming the death and resurrection of Jesus. Why would he put himself through all of that suffering if he wasn’t convinced the resurrection is true? Paul found deep meaning through an encounter with the risen Jesus Christ. The meaning of Jesus’ resurrection sustained Paul as he suffered injustice for the sake of Christ.  

We are unlikely to suffer to the same degree that Paul did but we might sometimes face social rejection and misunderstanding for our beliefs. It would be fair to say that identifying as a Christian is not cool. The temptation to surrender our faith in the resurrection is strong in the materialistic society in which we live. But if we do that, we empty this life of its deeper meaning.

Paul continues in verse 32 saying: But if the dead are not raised to life, then, as the saying goes, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we will die.”

If there is no resurrection, then that means this life is all there is. And if this life is all there is, then you may as well party hard. It’s like Viktor Frankl said: ‘When a person cannot find a deep sense of meaning, they distract themselves with pleasure.’

Paul goes on to say in verse 33: Do not be fooled. “Bad companions ruin good character.”

Paul is quoting the ancient Greek playwright Menander. This is Paul’s equivalent of using a movie clip to illustrate the point. The point being, if you spend too much time in the company of people who say there is no resurrection you will end up living a dissolute, immoral lifestyle.

If you let go of your belief in the resurrection, you discard the deeper meaning of your life. And if you discard the deeper meaning of your life you become a danger to yourself and to others.

God wants us to be close with him in right relationship. Jesus’ death and resurrection enables intimacy with God in this life and the next. Intimacy with God is the deepest (most satisfying) meaning there is.

That last sentence, in verse 34, I declare to your shame that some of you do not know God, is interesting. Paul is drawing a connection between God’s character and the resurrection. The fact of the resurrection testifies to God’s goodness and power. If you say that God did not raise Jesus from the dead, then you are really saying sin and death are stronger than God’s love, which is an ignorant thing to say. The power of God’s love has no rivals.

Some of you might be thinking, what about verse 29? Well, I’m saving that for last. Verse 29 reads: Now, what about those people who are baptized for the dead? What do they hope to accomplish? If it is true, as some claim, that the dead are not raised to life, why are those people being baptized for the dead?  

Baptism itself is a visual symbol of the death and resurrection of Jesus. Going under the waters of baptism represents the death of Jesus and the death of our old way of life. In the same vein, rising up out of the waters remembers Jesus’ resurrection and, at the same time, points forward to our own resurrection.

On the face of it, verse 29 seems to suggest there were people in the ancient church who were baptised on behalf of the dead. Maybe they had a friend or a family member who died before being baptised and so they went through the waters of baptism for them, to ensure their loved one’s eternal salvation.

Paul is not condoning this sort of thing. Far from it. Paul is simply pointing out the inconsistency in the Corinthians’ logic. You can’t have it both ways. You can’t say there is no resurrection and then be baptised on behalf of the dead.

Having said that, experts over the centuries have come up with about 40 different ways of interpreting verse 29. I’m not going to take you through all 40 interpretations, but I will mention one alternative which seems sensible to me.

Being baptised for the dead might refer to those who are baptised and become Christians as a result of a Christian believer dying. Like when a non-Christian is baptised in the hope of being reunited with a loved one who has died. For example, a heathen husband gets baptised ‘for the sake of his believing wife’, so that he might be reunited with her in the resurrection. Or a dying mother wins her daughter with the appeal, ‘meet me in heaven’. [1]

When I was about 10, my grandmother was diagnosed with cancer. By the time they picked it up the cancer had spread to her liver. Nan lived with us for the last three months of her life.

During that time, we invited a faith healer to come and pray for my Nan. It was the early 80’s when NZ was in the midst of the charismatic renewal movement. The prayer did not result in my Nan’s physical healing. She still died of cancer but her death became the catalyst for our family to become Christians.    

We were not baptised for my Nan’s eternal salvation. Nan is saved through her own faith in Jesus. We were baptised as a sign of our conversion and in the hope that we would see my Nan again in the resurrection.

Who would you like to see again in the resurrection?

Conclusion:

Returning to the main point of our message today. What you believe about the resurrection has very real consequences. The resurrection is essential to the Christian faith. It is as essential as gravity is to the physical world. Christianity doesn’t have a lot of non-negotiables but the resurrection is one of them.    

As Paul says in Romans 10:9, If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord”, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Confessing with our mouths that ‘Jesus is Lord’ is not hard for most of us. Believing in our heart (in the core of our being) that God raised Jesus from the dead can be more difficult.

Intellectually, we may have no trouble accepting the historical evidence for Jesus’ resurrection. Likewise, we can see logically how Jesus’ resurrection makes sense of the Christian faith. The resurrection of Jesus gives substance and meaning and integrity to our faith.

But intellectual agreement is not the same thing as heart commitment. Sometimes the seed of our belief in the resurrection sits just below the surface of the soil, it doesn’t go that deep. So there is a gap between what we say we believe and how we respond when our faith is tested.

Jesus told his disciples about his death and resurrection at least three times before it happened. But the reality of what Jesus was saying didn’t really penetrate the soil of their hearts at first. The disciples’ heart commitment to Jesus’ resurrection came after the fact; after they had been through the crucible of the cross. They saw Jesus’ resurrection in the rear vision mirror.  

It is the same for us. Normally we have to go through the crucible of unjust suffering, or face the death of someone we love dearly, before the reality of resurrection takes root in our heart.

In the book of Job, possibly one of the oldest books in the Bible, Job says this while he is suffering great injustice: 25 I know that my redeemerlives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth. 26 And after my skin has been destroyed, yetin my flesh I will see God; 27 I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within!

Job found meaning in his life, in the face of unjust suffering, by believing in a bodily resurrection. Job believed that even after death he would see God who would redeem his suffering and make sense of it all.

That yearning in your heart that no words can describe. That deep sense of dissatisfaction you feel with the way the world is, that no amount of entertainment or pleasure can numb. That is the desire for resurrection, for eternity, for intimacy with God. It is a desire only God can satisfy.  

Over the years I have sat at the beside of a number of Godly people as they passed from this world to the next. There is a calmness, a peace, an acceptance, an absence of fear, even a curiosity, in the spirit of these men and women of faith that shows me the resurrection is real.    

The journey to deep, heart-felt belief in the resurrection of Jesus can take a life time. Don’t worry. God’s grace is sufficient for you. He will get you there in the end if you hold to Christ.     

May God’s Spirit grant you the grace and strength you need for the journey. Amen.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

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

  • Why is the resurrection essential to the Christian faith? What are the logical consequences of saying there is no resurrection of the dead? 
  • Why did God raise Jesus from the dead? What does the resurrection of Jesus prove?
  • Discuss / reflect on Viktor Frankl’s thought: ‘When a person cannot find a deep sense of meaning, they distract themselves with pleasure.’ What does he mean? Do you agree or disagree? How do you find meaning for your own life in this world?
  • What are some of the costs and benefits (for you personally) of living a Christian lifestyle? Why are you a Christian? (Or, if you do not have faith in Jesus, why are you not a Christian?)
  • Has your belief in the resurrection been tested? If so, how? And what did you learn?
  • Who do you look forward to seeing in the resurrection?          

[1] Kenneth Bailey, ‘Paul Through Mediterranean Eyes’, page 450.