Tawa Baptist

The Right Way?

Scriptures: Proverbs 16:25; 14:12; 16:2; 16:7; 12:15; Jeremiah 27;

Matthew 7:13-14; 5:3-12

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

The Right Way?

Good morning everyone.

Today we continue our series in the book of Proverbs. Proverbs offers practical wisdom for this life.

The ancient world, in which Proverbs was composed, was largely an oral culture. Most information was passed on by word of mouth, rather than reading and writing.  

There was no internet, so you couldn’t google something to learn about it. And books, as we know them, hadn’t been invented yet. The ancients did write things on scrolls or on walls but reading and writing was an expensive exercise and access to writing materials was not common or widespread.

If you wanted to know something, you had to ask a person who knew what they were talking about and then listen carefully. Storytelling, poetry and song were often used to help people remember what they heard. Repetition was another strategy used to commit ideas to memory.

One thing you notice as you read through Proverbs is the repetition. Some Proverbs are repeated word for word in different chapters and other Proverbs are rephrased in a slightly different way.     

The focus of our message today is Proverbs 16, verse 25, which reads…

There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.

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

Where it says man, it means human being, both men and women.

This verse is basically saying that things are not always as they appear at first. The way something begins is not always how it ends. Or, as Bob Dylan put it, ‘What looks large from a distance, up close is never that big.’

More than this though, Proverbs 16 verse 25, is saying that we human beings are limited in our knowledge and understanding. We cannot rely solely on our own inner compass, or our own judgement. We need an external point of reference to check we are on the right path.  

If you are building a house, then you don’t just use your eye to determine if something is straight. You use a plumb line, a tape measure and a spirit level. Because what looks straight to the naked eye may be off by inches.

Or if you are a guitarist or a violinist then you don’t just tune your instrument by ear. You tune your instrument to a piano that you know is in tune or you use an electronic tuner, as an external point of reference.

Or if you are travelling a great distance in the wilderness or on the open sea, you don’t just follow your gut or your instinct. You use a compass or a sextant or the stars or GPS.      

There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death, is repeated, word for word, in Proverbs 14, verse 12.

We also find similar proverbs elsewhere. In chapter 16, verse 2, for example we read: All a man’s ways seem innocent to him, but motives are weighed by the Lord.

This gives a slightly different nuance of meaning. The idea here is that our mind has a way of fooling us. Our brain has this unfortunate tendency to be biased and filter out (or deny) the inconvenient truth about ourselves.

We might genuinely believe we are doing something with pure motives, when in fact we have mixed motives without being aware of it. Maybe we are compensating for the guilt we feel over something we did in our past. Or maybe we are really more interested in making ourselves look good in the eyes of others. Disinterested virtue is rare.

Each of us has what Carl Jung called a ‘shadow’. Your shadow is that part of yourself that you cannot see. Both good and bad lie hidden in your shadow. God sees what’s in your shadow, but you can’t. None of us is as good as we imagine ourselves to be.        

Proverbs 12, verse 15, gives another take on chapter 16, verse 25… 

The way of a fool seems right to him, but a wise man listens to advice.

This is almost the same as saying: There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death, except Proverbs 12:15 puts the accent on listening to good advice. Seeking the advice of others is one way of using an external point of reference to check whether we are on the right track or not.

The Bible is another external point of reference. When we read the Bible with an open mind, we are seeking the advice of wise men and women from ancient times. Of course, interpretation is key. We still need other believers to moderate our reading of Scripture, so we do not mislead ourselves. More importantly, we need the illumination of the Holy Spirit to discern God’s word.   

Jesus may have had Proverbs 16, verse 25 in mind when he said…

13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”

The broad road seems right to a person, but it leads to death. While the narrow road seems wrong, but it leads to life.

I don’t think Jesus is talking about being broad minded or narrow minded here. I think the broad road is a poetic way of talking about the easy or popular option, maybe even the cheat’s option. While the narrow road is a poetic way of talking about the more difficult but more honest option. 

When Jesus was being tempted by Satan in the wilderness, the Devil offered Jesus the broad road, the easy road, to power and success. ‘Bow down in worship to me and I will give you all the kingdoms of the world’.

But Jesus refused. Jesus chose the narrow road, the more difficult but honest road, of remaining faithful to God. Jesus stayed loyal to his heavenly Father, even though the narrow road went via the cross. Ultimately though, after the cross, the narrow road led to resurrection and eternal life.

So, if there is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death, how then do we know we are on the right path? How can we discern the way that leads to life and the way that leads to death?

We may listen to the advice of others but if their advice is bad, then where does that leave us? Likewise, we may read the Bible but if we misinterpret what we read then we end up on the wrong path anyway.

Well, I believe that if you are genuine in asking God to show you the right way and you are honest with yourself, the Lord will guide your steps.

 In Proverbs 16, verse 7, we read…

When a man’s ways are pleasing to the Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.

So being at peace with your enemies is a sign that you are on the right path.  

We should note that Proverbs 16, verse 7, is not a promise. It’s not a guarantee. Rather, it is a general rule. When we live in a way that pleases God, we can normally expect to be at peace with those around us.

There are exceptions to this rule of course. But, for the most part, if you do justly, show mercy and walk humbly, then you are more likely to enjoy peace with your neighbours. Makes sense right.   

Scripture interprets Scripture. What examples do we find in the Bible to illustrate this idea that there is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.

One example that comes to mind is found in the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah was an Old Testament prophet who predicted the fall of Jerusalem. Jeremiah’s message from God was, don’t resist the might of the Babylonian empire.

Any nation that does not serve the king of Babylon will be punished with sword, famine and plague… But any nation that does bow its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him, will live in its own land.

In other words, do not try to defend yourselves against the Babylonian army because you are not going to win.

To the Jews of his day, Jeremiah seemed unpatriotic. He seemed to lack faith in God. Other prophets (false ones) were telling the people that God would fight for them and Jerusalem would never fall.

And what these false prophets were saying seemed right to the people. Afterall, only a century earlier, during the time of king Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah, God delivered Jerusalem from the Assyrians.

Hardly anyone agreed with Jeremiah’s minority report and Jerusalem was destroyed with the survivors being taken into exile, just as Jeremiah predicted.

Jesus had a similar message for the Israelites of his day. Like Jeremiah, Jesus wept over Jerusalem.

Jesus’ message was, don’t resist the Romans. My kingdom is not of this world. Turn the other cheek. Walk the extra mile. This is the way of peace. If you fight against the Romans, you will cause yourself unimaginable suffering.

Tragically, the people ignored Jesus. Resisting the might of the Roman empire seemed right to most Jews at the time, but it led to death. Over a million people were killed in the siege of Jerusalem in AD70.

Jesus wept then and I imagine he still weeps now.

There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.

God’s ways are not our ways.

The Pharisees of Jesus’ day believed strongly that their way was the right way. They genuinely thought all their rules, which acted like a fence around the Law, were pleasing to God. But their way led to death.

Throughout the gospels Jesus challenged the Pharisees and religious leaders. Jesus called them out on their self-righteousness and hypocrisy saying things like…

Woe to you Pharisees, because you give a tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone.

Also, “… you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness…”

This tells us something about the way of life that pleases God. It tells us God is pleased with justice and generosity. It tells us God is pleased when religion is based on love for him and our neighbour. It tells us God does not like it when people use religion as a way to hide evil. True religion, true faith, true spirituality needs to come from the inside out. 

It wasn’t just the Pharisees who got it wrong. Even Jesus’ disciples, his closest friends, misunderstood God’s ways at times.  

In Matthew 16 we read what happened when Peter thought he knew best…

21 From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.

22 Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!”

Simon Peter meant well. It seemed right to him that Jesus should not suffer. But Peter was well off track.  

23 Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”

This must have hurt. Imagine thinking you were doing something good, only to be told by Jesus himself that you are aligned with Satan, the one opposed to God’s purpose. The strength of Jesus’ response to Peter mirrors the seriousness of Peter’s error.

24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save their lifewill lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.

We may have heard those words so many times they wash over us without penetrating our heart. But Jesus’ message here is shocking. This is a slap in the face, a reality check.

Picking up your cross is a metaphor for suffering in very real ways. To carry a cross in Roman times was to face pain, shame and death. No one wanted to be crucified. No one thought, ‘Oh, carrying a cross, that seems right and good to me. Let’s do that’.

Jesus’ words are counter intuitive, they turn our thinking upside down. Jesus inverts traditional wisdom. Traditional wisdom says, ‘choose the line of least resistance’. Picking up your cross and following Jesus, is the opposite of that.     

The apostle Paul put it in similar terms when he talked about offering your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God for this is your spiritual act of worship.  

The point is, serving God’s purpose, following Jesus’ way, is not an easy or glorious experience. It is difficult. It will cost you.

As a Christian you probably won’t have to literally carry a cross or be flogged or nailed to a tree, like Jesus was. But there will be times when obeying Jesus in faith makes you feel uncomfortable, frustrated, vulnerable and powerless. You will look foolish at times. You will be misunderstood. You will lose and you will wonder what the point is.  

Not that it’s all bad. There are also times when serving Jesus feels like a good fit and a privilege. But the values of God’s kingdom are so different from the values of this world that staying loyal to God’s values will inevitably result in personal suffering. The good news is, if you share in Christ’s sufferings, you will (one day) share in his glory.

Not that glory will matter to you by then. In the end you won’t be interested in glory. You won’t care what other people think. You will simply want Christ to hold you.

In Matthew 5, Jesus gives us the beatitudes. The beatitudes spell out what the right way looks like. What we notice about the beatitudes is the ‘right way’ does not always seem right at first. The beatitudes could be summarised like this: ‘There is a way that does not seem right to a man, but in the end it leads to life’.

For example: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

To be poor in spirit is to be emotionally depleted, at the end of your rope, weak and vulnerable, like you have been emptied of your courage and motivation. No one chooses to be poor in spirit. No one says, ‘I think I will be poor in spirit today because that seems right to me’. Being poor in spirit is something that circumstance forces on you.

Jesus said you are blessed or lucky if you are poor in spirit because being poor in spirit is a pathway to the kingdom of heaven. Being poor in spirit means you are aware of your need for God and willing to depend on him because you have nothing else.

Another example from the beatitudes of what the right way looks like.

Jesus said: Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

In order to be merciful, you have to be in a position of power in relation to someone else. The merciful are those who use their power to save or help others, as opposed to ignoring or oppressing others. Mercy might mean forgiving a debt or lifting someone out of a hole (literally or metaphorically). 

Mercy, therefore, is a choice. Jesus is saying that the measure you use for others is the measure God will use for you. If you show mercy to others, God will show mercy to you.

Showing mercy usually feels like a sacrifice. Showing mercy will cost you and so it is not easy to show mercy. Forgiving someone may not seem right, when what you really want is revenge. But, as right as revenge might feel in the moment, it leads to death. Mercy, on the other hand, leads to life for you.   

We don’t have to time to go through all the beatitudes now. You can study them yourself later, if you want to know the way that does not seem right, but in the end leads to life.

Suffice to say that when it comes to discerning the right way, we need to look to Jesus. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. Jesus is our best external point of reference when it comes to measuring decisions. Jesus’ example embodies the way we need to take.

May the Lord bless you and guide you by the light of his presence in all the decisions you make, large and small. 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?

  • Discuss / reflect on the meaning of Proverbs 16:25. ‘There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death’. 
  • Can you think of a time when you (or someone else) did what seemed right, but it ended badly? What happened?
  • What did Jesus mean by the broad road and the narrow road, in Matthew 7:13-14?
  • How can we know if we are on the right path? What are some external points of reference we can use to check if the way we are choosing is actually right? What do we know about the way that pleases God?
  • How do the beatitudes in Matthew 5 inform (and challenge) our understanding of the right way?
  • Why do we need to include Jesus in our decision making? How might we do this? 
Tawa Baptist

A Gentle Answer

Scripture: Proverbs 15:1; 1 Samuel 25; John 8:1-11

Video Link: https://youtu.be/_5yRXjKYZPU

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • A gentle answer
  • Abigail’s answer
  • Jesus’ answer
  • Sometimes wrath prevails
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

Did you know that ‘words’ (w.o.r.d.s.) is an anagram for sword?

Putting the s at the front turns ‘words’ into a sword.

They say the pen is mightier than the sword. Words are powerful things.

Today we continue our series in the book of Proverbs. Proverbs contains wisdom for getting through this life. Proverbs has lots to say about words. Our message today focuses on chapter 15, verse 1, which reads…

A gentle answer:

A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.

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

This proverb is basically saying, words and the tone (or manner) in which we say them, have the power to calm a situation or make it worse.

We cannot control what other people might be feeling in the first instance, but we can control how we respond, and our response can have a profound effect on the outcome. 

A gentle answer may seem simple enough but it’s actually quite difficult to do, especially in the heat of the moment. Four things to keep in mind…

Firstly, gentleness requires backbone. A backbone lends strength and flexibility to the body. Being gentle does not mean being a push over or a jelly fish. Gentle is not weak. Gentleness requires the strength to stand your ground and the agility to adapt to change.

Secondly, a gentle answer requires logic. Gentle is not emotional. A gentle response involves keeping your composure and speaking sense. There is a time to express emotion but too much emotion tends to get in the way of a gentle answer.   

Some people are naturally empathic in the sense that they quite quickly and intuitively pick up on what other people are feeling. This is both a gift and a curse. On the one hand it helps you to read the situation and understand what you are dealing with.

But if the other person’s emotion bleeds into yours, then it becomes very difficult to keep yourself calm. If you are naturally sensitive to other people’s feelings, you can end up on the emotional roller coaster with them.

Giving a gentle answer requires you to hold on to yourself and not be overwhelmed. You need to read what the other person is feeling without getting sucked into the vortex of their emotion. You have to turn your own feelings off and think rationally in that moment.

You might say to yourself something like, ‘That person is angry and their anger belongs to them. It does not belong to me. I will stay calm and keep breathing. What is the outcome I want in this situation? And what are the logical steps to achieving that outcome?’       

A third thing to keep in mind, if you want to give a gentle answer, is finding common ground. You don’t have to agree with everything the other person is saying or doing but try and identify what you do agree on. Finding common ground enables you to build a connection.

One thing that gets in the way of finding common ground is the ego. You have to put your ego aside if you want to give a gentle answer. As long as you are focused on defending your ego, you won’t be able to find common ground.

A gentle answer requires backbone, logic, common ground and, fourthly, freedom. A gentle answer allows the person you are dealing with to make a free choice. By definition, gentleness does not threaten or coerce or manipulate in any way. A gentle answer presents the other party with a sensible option, not a blunt ultimatum.

There is a fifth thing required for a gentle answer and that is grace. Each of us has a certain amount of grace in the bank account of our soul. This balance of grace is like the currency we spend in dealing with the difficulties of life. Whenever something bad happens, like we become ill or we don’t get enough sleep or someone is unkind or unfair, or whatever, it costs us a little grace.

Likewise, when you are faced with an angry person, giving a gentle answer will require you to make a withdrawal from your grace account.

We need to keep an eye on how much grace we have left in our account. If you are running low, do something to take care of yourself so your balance of grace is topped up and you have the resources you need to manage yourself in a challenging situation.    

A gentle answer will cost you, but not as much as a harsh word. 

Abigail:

There’s a woman in the Bible who had the grace to give a gentle answer and turn away wrath. Her name is Abigail. In the book of First Samuel chapter 25, David (who is on the run from Saul) finds himself in the desert of Maon.

He and his men, as many as 600 soldiers, needed to eat. There was a rich man in that area by the name of Nabal. David sends some of his men to Nabal to ask if Nabal can help out with any supplies. Afterall, David’s men have provided security for Nabal by protecting his flocks.

But Nabal spoke harshly to David’s men, and he insulted David saying…

“Who is this David? Who is this son of Jesse? Many servants are breaking away from their masters these days. Why should I take my bread and water and the meat I have slaughtered for my shearers and give it to men from who knows where?”

Nabal’s response here shows a lack of grace and a large amount of ego. Nabal is no jelly fish; he is no push over. But he doesn’t have backbone either. A backbone combines strength with flexibility. Nabal is more like a brick wall, hard, brittle, inflexible. 

Nabal was not a wise man. Everyone in Israel knows who David is. David is the one who killed Goliath. David is a national hero, anointed by Samuel to be the next king. The smart thing to do was get on David’s good side.

When David’s men reported back to him, David told them to strap on their swords and he marched off with 400 soldiers to teach Nabal a lesson. David was angry and he did not intend to keep any prisoners.  

In the meantime, one of Nabal’s servants had a quiet word with Nabal’s wife, Abigail. The servant told Abigail how Nabal had hurled insults at David’s men even though David’s men had been good to them.

“Night and day they were a wall around us [protecting us] all the time we were herding sheep near them. 17 Please think this over and decide what to do. This could be disastrous for our master and all his family.” He is so mean that he won’t listen to anybody!”

Abigail didn’t need long to think about it. 18 She quickly gathered two hundred loaves of bread, two leather bags full of wine, five roasted sheep, two bushels of roasted grain, a hundred bunches of raisins, and two hundred cakes of dried figs, and loaded them on donkeys. 19 Then she said to the servants, “You go on ahead and I will follow you.” But she said nothing to her husband…

Abigail understood that a gentle answer was going to cost her, but not nearly as much as her husband’s harsh answer would cost them if she did not intervene.

20 Abigail was riding her donkey around a bend on a hillside when suddenly she met David and his men coming toward her. 23 When Abigail saw David, she quickly dismounted and threw herself on the ground 24 at David’s feet, and said to him, “Please, sir, listen to me! Let me take the blame. 25 Please, don’t pay any attention to Nabal, that good-for-nothing! He is exactly what his name means—a fool! I wasn’t there when your servants arrived, sir. 27 Please, sir, accept this present I have brought you, and give it to your men. 28 Please forgive me, sir, for any wrong I have done…

Nabal had reacted to David’s friendliness with arrogance and scorn. Now Abigail, responds wisely to David’s anger with humility and gentleness.

Notice though that a gentle response is not a weak response. There is real courage, real strength, real backbone in Abigail’s action here. Put yourself in her shoes for a moment. Abigail was facing 400 angry men and she was saying, ‘Let me take the blame’. 

Although Abigail has done nothing wrong, she offers to take the blame in order to save her household. This is a picture of grace. This reminds us of what Jesus did on the cross.

Notice too the way Abigail finds common ground with David. Abigail agrees with David that Nabal is a fool. She is wisely establishing a connection and acknowledging that David has every right to feel offended. At the same time, she is also putting distance between herself and Nabal.

To her credit, Abigail doesn’t burst into tears or allow herself to be overwhelmed by emotion. Rather, Abigail sets her gentle answer on the firm foundation of reason and logic. Abigail appeals to David’s conscience, his better nature. From verse 30 she says… 

30 And when the Lord has done all the good things he has promised you and has made you king of Israel, 31 then you will not have to feel regret or remorse, sir, for having killed without cause or for having taken your own revenge…”

This is wise. Abigail gently points out to David the logical outcome if he shows mercy. But she does it in such a way that David still has a choice. Abigail does not threaten David or try to force his hand in any way. She points out to David the benefit of showing mercy (you will be free from regret) and leaves the decision with him. Abigail gives David freedom.

Abigail’s gentle words turned David’s wrath away. The king accepted Abigail’s gift and did not carry out his revenge.

Jesus:

We are talking about how a gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.  Jesus was a master at the art of the gentle answer. In the gospel of John, chapter 8, we read…

2 At dawn Jesus appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4 and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 In the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” 6 They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.

The whole thing is a set up. We know the woman has been set up because it takes two people to commit adultery and the man isn’t there. The law said both the man and the woman should be stoned, not just the woman.

Primarily though, the Pharisees are trying to set Jesus up. If Jesus says, ‘Stone her’, then he gets in trouble with the Romans and if he says, ‘Don’t stone her’, he can be accused of breaking the law of Moses. 

Jesus is faced with a crowd, most of whom are either angry or confused. What does he do? Well, he holds onto himself. He does not let the anger or malice of his adversaries bleed into his soul or overwhelm his judgment. Jesus exercises the strength of self-control and says nothing at first. Instead…  

Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

Jesus’ response is gentle. It is not harsh or emotional. His response is courageous and rational. Jesus does not beg for mercy for the woman. Nor does he try to appease the Pharisees. Jesus doesn’t say, ‘Let me take the blame’, like we might expect.

No. Jesus finds common ground and he uses logic. The law is the common ground. Yes, the law does prescribe the death penalty for adultery. But, before you start throwing stones, think about the outcome for yourself if you do kill her. You will find it hard to live with yourself, knowing you also have sinned and deserve the same punishment. Jesus’ logic is clear. 

There is no coercion, no threat and no manipulation in Jesus’ gentle answer. Jesus leaves the decision with each individual and their conscience. The people are free to choose.

9 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” 11 “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

Jesus was gentle but firm with the Pharisees who were trying to trap him and he was gentle but firm with the woman too. Gentle does not mean weak. Jesus does not condemn the woman but nor does he condone adultery. Jesus shows back bone. Strength with flexibility.

Jesus makes a withdrawal of grace from his own personal account and deposits it in the woman’s account, not so she can carry on as she has been. But rather so she can make a fresh start in right relationship with others.   

Backbone, logic, common ground, freedom and grace. All these are on display with Jesus’ gentle answer.

Sometimes wrath prevails:

That being said, it must also be acknowledged that a gentle answer does not always turn away wrath. It did for Jesus in John 8 and it did for Abigail in Samuel 25. But there are times when no amount of gentleness will do.

When Jesus was made to stand trial before the Jewish council, the Lord did nothing to provoke their anger. Jesus stood his ground and responded with gentleness and reason, grace and truth.  

When one of the guards struck Jesus on the face, the Lord answered not with emotion but with logic, saying, ‘If I said something wrong, testify to what is wrong. But if I spoke the truth, why did you strike me?’ 

And, when Jesus stood before the Roman governor and Pilate said, ‘Don’t you realise I have the power either to free you or crucify you?’ Jesus answered with logic and grace, ‘You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore, the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.’

Jesus’ gentle answer convinced Pilate that Jesus was innocent. From then on Pilate tried to set Jesus free but the anger of the Jews prevailed and Jesus went to the cross.  

Even while he was hanging on the cross, bleeding out, thirsty, exhausted, in agony, with insults ringing in his ears, Jesus still managed a gentle answer: ‘Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do.’

A gentle answer turns away wrath, most of the time, but not always. This life is not necessarily fair.

Conclusion:  

We are not likely to find ourselves in an extreme, life-threatening situation like Abigail or Jesus, for which we can be thankful.

But we may still be ambushed by a petulant child or a surly teenager. We may have to deal with an unreasonable adult or a grumpy husband or wife. And there may be times when people who do not know us that well, dump their prejudice on us.

Those moments often come without warning when we are feeling tired and otherwise distracted. We may not always be well equipped with the grace or the strength or the presence of mind we need to give a gentle answer.

Sometimes we will manage to hold on to ourselves and not be overwhelmed by the weight of someone else’s emotion. Other times our ego might get the better of us so that we seek to justify ourselves and respond more harshly than we would have liked. 

Try to have the same grace for yourself that you do for others. It does no good to get stuck in a cycle of feeling guilty and beating yourself up whenever you fall short of your ideals.

We can be our own worst enemy. Sometimes we end up shadowboxing with ourselves. Sometimes we need to speak a gentle answer to our own inner critic. 

Remember too, there may be times when a gentle answer is not called for. There may be times when it is better to give no answer and simply walk away from an angry person, give them a chance to cool down.

This is particularly relevant when communicating on social media. Best not to engage a keyboard warrior.

Life is messy. Sometimes we get it right. Sometimes we make the mess worse. None of us is perfect. We look to Jesus to be our wisdom and our righteousness, knowing that …he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Christ our Lord. 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?

  • Can you think of a time (in your own experience) when you observed a gentle answer turning away wrath? What happened?
  • Why is it necessary to keep emotion at arms’ length when giving a gentle answer? What can we do to hold onto ourselves and not be overwhelmed by emotion in the heat of the moment?
  • What is your ‘grace balance’ like at present? Are you running low on grace? What can you do, over the next few days or weeks, to top up your grace balance?
  • Discuss / reflect on Abigail’s gentle answer in 1st Samuel 25. How did Abigail find common ground with David? What logic did Abigail use to turn away David’s wrath?
  • Discuss / reflect on Jesus’ gentle answer in John 8:1-11. What common ground did Jesus find with his adversaries in this situation? How did Jesus use logic and freedom to turn away wrath?
  • What can we do when a gentle answer does not turn away wrath? What can we do when we fail to give a gentle answer? When is a gentle answer not appropriate?     
Tawa Baptist

Hope Deferred

Scriptures: Proverbs 13:12

Video Link: https://youtu.be/C-GvzmIqEsA

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Hope deferred
  • Longing fulfilled
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

Today we continue our sermon series in the book of Proverbs. Proverbs offers practical down to earth wisdom based on how the world operates. Whenever we read Proverbs, or any Biblical text for that matter, we need to be thinking, ‘How does this point to Jesus?’ ‘How does Jesus fulfil this wisdom?’

The focus of our message this week is Proverbs 13, verse 12, which reads…

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.

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

Hope deferred:

As with most of the proverbial sayings, there are two contrasting halves to this verse which give it a nice symmetry. Essentially though, this proverb is talking about one thing: the psychological effect of hope. ‘Longing’ is just another way of talking about hope in this context.

Deferred hope has a negative psychological impact on a person, but hope fulfilled has a positive psychological effect.

When hope is delayed by a long period of time or taken away altogether, it makes the heart sick.

You may remember from other sermons that the heart, in the Old Testament, usually refers to a person’s inner life. The heart is a metaphor for an individual’s mind, emotions and will.

When hope is deferred, a person’s thinking, feeling and motivation is negatively impacted, it is made sick. The greater the hope, the bigger the negative impact if that hope is not realized.

If you catch a bad flu, your body is made sick. You might experience aching joints and muscles. You might be shivering with cold one moment and sweating with fever the next. To say nothing of the headaches, sore throat, hacking cough, running nose and difficulty breathing.

The flu robs you of energy and impairs your physical functioning, so you cannot do all the things you are normally able to do.

It’s similar with hope. When hope is delayed for long periods of time, it impairs your psychological functioning, so you cannot handle daily life as well as you normally would. Even small difficulties, like being stuck in traffic, can seem overwhelming and put you in a spin.

Hope is the capacity to believe something good waits for you in the future. Hope sustains mental and emotional energy.  

Believing there is good in your future feeds your heart, your mind, your soul, your spirit so you have the psychological energy you need to get through and face the challenges that come with daily life.

The closer you come to realizing your hope, the greater the energy you feel. But, if someone moves the goal posts, if the finishing line is shifted and your hope is postponed, you become psychologically deflated.

All that emotional energy you were getting from hope drains away, like water in cupped hands. Take hope away and you take a person’s mental and emotional energy away.  

Let me give you an example to illustrate what we mean by the psychological impact of hope deferred…

Imagine you have been working away diligently for a whole year without taking a holiday. You have weekends off your regular job, but Saturdays and Sundays are pretty full doing household chores or running around after your family. Life is hectic and pressured.

After a hard year, carrying a heavy load at work and at home, you are tired and looking forward to some time away. In fact, you have had this holiday planned for months. A nice air b n b near the beach, just you and your family for ten whole days.      

Whenever the pressure comes on at work, whenever a client complains or the boss is unreasonable, you imagine swimming in the sea or building sandcastles with the kids. The very thought of the holiday gives you the energy to get through the daily grind with a smile on your face.

But then suddenly, just one week before you are due to go on leave, a cyclone passes over the country. There is flooding and slips and the access road to your air b n b by the beach is cut off. There is no way in or out for months.

Your dream of a relaxing holiday has been deferred. The hope you had been relying on to give you the emotional energy you needed to get through each day is gone. 

You are not even sure if you want to take your annual leave anymore. It’s too late to try and find another holiday place and if you stay home, you will end up painting the house or checking your work emails anyway. It feels like such a waste.      

Now, when a client complains about something, you reply with sarcasm. And when your boss asks you to stay late to get a project in on time, you drag your heels. What’s the point you think to yourself.

And when someone in your household doesn’t empty the dishwasher or leaves food on the bench to attract ants, you snap at each other. You just don’t have the energy to deal with minor irritations. Hope deferred makes the heart sick.

Typically, when we are young, our hopes tend to fly high. But as we grow through life, we face disappointment. Our heart is made sick when the people we trust let us down or when circumstance conspires against us. ‘The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune’, as Shakespeare put it.  

With each disappointment we learn to lower our hope, to clip the wings of expectation and edit our dreams, so as to avoid the pain of more loss. The problem with this approach is that the less you hope for, the less mental and emotional energy you have. 

Secular wisdom would say, don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Don’t commit all your hope to just one thing. Hedge your bets. Have a plan B in case plan A doesn’t work out. We can see the sense in that kind of reasoning, but how does this compare with the wisdom of Christ?

Part of Jesus’ message was: Don’t put all your hope in the temporary things of this world, put the larger portion of your hope in the eternal things of God’s kingdom.

The eternal things of God’s kingdom include righteousness, love, trust, generosity, kindness and so on. Jesus talked about storing up riches for yourself in heaven where rust and moth cannot destroy and thieves cannot break in and steal.

It’s not that you shouldn’t plan a nice holiday or save for a house or find a life partner. We live in this world and we still need things to look forward to in this life, even if they are temporary things.

The point is: Eternal hope lends perspective. Eternal hope helps us to cope better with the disappointments we experience in this world.

If someone you counted on in this life lets you down (a friend or family member maybe), then that sucks. That hurts. It’s painful. But if you also have Jesus as your friend, as your ultimate hope, it’s not the end of the world. You are not alone.      

Longing fulfilled:

Okay, so we have been talking about hope deferred. What about when hope is realized? The second half of Proverbs 13, verse 12, says: a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.

We heard about the tree of life last week, so we don’t need to rehearse all that again now. Suffice to say the tree of life, in Proverbs, is used as a metaphor for wisdom and wellbeing.

In the context of Proverbs 13, to say a longing fulfilled is a tree of life, is like saying, ‘it is good for you, psychologically, when your hope is realized’.

A longing fulfilled restores your mental and emotional energy. It gives you confidence and strength to cope with the vicissitudes of life. In fact, a longing fulfilled enlarges your capacity for hope.  

Earlier, I asked you to imagine looking forward to a well-earned holiday only to have your hope deferred by a cyclone. Well, it wouldn’t be fair to leave you in limbo like that so let’s pick up the story again.

By this stage, three days have passed since you heard the disappointing news that you cannot gain access to your air b n b by the beach. It is now two days before your leave is due to start. You are still deciding whether you will take the leave or work through like a martyr and take it out on everyone around you.

Then the phone rings. It’s a friend you knew from youth group days. Your friend lives in a different town to you now. Tauranga, as it happens. They are going to be away for the next two weeks and wondered if you would be interested in house sitting for them. “I know it’s last minute, but you would be doing us a huge favour”, your friend says.

You can’t quite believe what you are hearing. You quickly gather your thoughts. “Let me just check my diary… Yes, we could make that work. Happy to help.”   

After putting the phone down, you take a moment to reflect on the providence of God. You thank him for his goodness.

In an instant your hope is restored and your emotional energy returns. You take your family on holiday to the sunny Bay of Plenty, have a wonderful time and come home refreshed and ready to carry on. 

There’s a true story, of hope deferred and longing fulfilled, in the gospel of Luke. Luke chapter 8 reads…

40 Now when Jesus returned, a crowd welcomed him, for they were all expecting him. 41 Then a man named Jairus, a synagogue leader, came and fell at Jesus’ feet, pleading with him to come to his house 42 because his only daughter, a girl of about twelve, was dying.

Nothing threatens a parent’s hope like a seriously sick child. Jairus is longing for his little girl to live. All his eggs are in one basket. He has placed all his hope in Jesus.  

As Jesus was on his way, the crowds almost crushed him. 43 And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years,but no one could heal her.

Talk about hope deferred. Here is a woman who has been on a roller coaster of disappointment for twelve long years. This woman has suffered terribly during this time. She may have experienced ongoing physical pain from her bleeding.

She would most likely have dangerously low iron levels, resulting in tiredness and diminished immunity. Which means doing daily tasks, like carrying water, cooking meals and so on would be much more demanding. Not only that but she would be more susceptible to illness and infection.

As if the physical trauma of her complaint was not bad enough, this woman would have been excluded from community life as well. If she wasn’t married, then she would have no chance of finding a husband and if she was married, she would not be able to get close to her husband or have children.

Under Old Testament law her bleeding made her ritually unclean so she would not be able to participate in worship. She was probably poor as well, having spent all her money on doctors who could not heal her.    

It was a pretty miserable existence for her. But despite twelve years of disappointment, the woman put what hope she had left in Jesus. 

44 She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped. 45 “Who touched me?” Jesus asked. When they all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you.” 46 But Jesus said, “Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me.”

The healing comes at a price. It is free to the woman, but it costs Jesus. Here we have a picture of God’s grace. Grace may be free but it’s not cheap.  

47 Then the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at his feet. In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched Jesus and how she had been instantly healed. 48 Then he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace.”

We might wonder why Jesus calls this woman out so publicly. I mean, hasn’t she suffered enough humiliation and embarrassment. Wouldn’t it be more winsome for Jesus to use his discretion and say nothing.

Well, Jesus is not trying to embarrass her. To the contrary, Jesus wants to complete the woman’s healing. She has received physical healing by touching Jesus but what about the social and psychological healing she needs?

By inviting the woman to publicly confess the truth of her healing, Jesus is restoring her to the community.  Now, she can be included again. That’s social healing. And by affirming the woman for her faith, Jesus is giving her honour, dignity and respect. That’s psychological healing.

Perhaps Jesus is also helping the community think differently about women and about women’s health generally.  

The Lord has fulfilled the woman’s longing. Jesus has been a tree of life for her.

But spare a thought for Jairus, the father of the sick girl. Every passing minute must have felt like an age to him. The interruption and the slowness of the crowd is deferring his hope.     

49 While Jesus was still speaking, someone came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. “Your daughter is dead,” he said. “Don’t bother the teacher anymore.” 50 Hearing this, Jesus said to Jairus, “Don’t be afraid; just believe, and she will be healed.”

‘In the chilly hours and minutes of uncertainty, I want to be in the warm hold of your loving mind.’ (Donovan, Catch the Wind.)

Jairus is very much in the warm hold of Jesus’ loving mind in these minutes of uncertainty. The temptation here is for Jairus to abandon all hope, but Jesus calms Jairus’ fears and keeps his hope alive. Jesus encourages Jairus to believe something good is waiting in his future.

51 When Jesus arrived at the house of Jairus, he did not let anyone go in with him except Peter, John and James, and the child’s father and mother. 52 Meanwhile, all the people were wailing and mourning for her. “Stop wailing,” Jesus said. “She is not dead but asleep.”

53 They laughed at him, knowing that she was dead. 54 But he took her by the hand and said, “My child, get up!” 55 Her spirit returned, and at once she stood up. Then Jesus told them to give her something to eat. 56 Her parents were astonished, but he ordered them not to tell anyone what had happened.

Jairus’ hope had been deferred but now the longing for his daughter’s life to be restored is fulfilled. Jesus is a tree of life to Jairus’ whole family.

These twin stories in Luke 8 serve as a pattern for us in our journey of faith with Jesus. We come to Jesus in hope that he will help us in some way. But Jesus does not always give us what we want at first. Sometimes we have to wait.

In the waiting, we are sifted and refined.

Last week, we heard how God prevented Adam and Eve access to the tree of life in the Garden of Eden. That is not how the story ends.

In John’s Revelation we read: To those who overcome, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the Paradise of God. 

We need to maintain our hope in Jesus, for he is our tree of life. In Christ our deepest longings are fulfilled.

May the Lord heal your heart and fulfill your longing for him. 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?

  • What is hope? Why do we need hope?
  • Can you think of a time when your hope was deferred? What happened? What psychological effect did it have on you?
  • How might we measure mental or emotional energy? What are your mental and emotional energy levels like at present? What do you need to fill your emotional tank?
  • What are you looking forward to (or longing for) at the moment? Where is your hope placed? How vulnerable is your hope?
  • Reflecting on the story in Luke 8:40-56, who do you identify with most? Why?
  • What does it mean to put your hope in Jesus? How do we maintain our hope in Christ? 
Tawa Baptist

Tree of Life

Scriptures: Proverbs 11:30 & 3:18 & Luke 7:1-10

Video Link: https://youtu.be/dqemajnLd6I

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Tree of life
  • Winning souls
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning, everyone.

Today we continue our sermon series in the book of Proverbs. Broadly speaking, we might think of the book of Proverbs like a sandwich. The opening and closing chapters are the bread holding together the filling of proverbial sayings in the middle. 

Chapters 1-9 offer poems extolling the value of wisdom. We have been focusing on these chapters over the past few weeks.

Chapters 10-29 contain hundreds of short sayings which serve as a guide for how the world operates. These little nuggets of wisdom tend toward generalisation and don’t explore the exceptions to the rule all that much.  

The proverbial sayings do not appear to be arranged in any sort of helpful order. It’s not like there is a nice, neat chapter on alcohol and then a chapter on sex and a chapter on money. The sayings are all mixed together. 

The book of Proverbs closes (in chapters 30-31) with the bread of more poetry.

Today we take a bite into the filling of the Proverbs sandwich, the actual wisdom sayings themselves.

Our message this morning focuses on chapter 11, verse 30, which reads…

The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who wins souls is wise.

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

The tree of life:

Trees are amazing. They have the power to heal and to make life better.

Trees turn carbon dioxide into oxygen, so we can breathe. The leaves of a tree also purify the air, removing toxins within a 100 metre radius. 

Trees promote biodiversity by providing a home for all sorts of wildlife including birds, insects and small animals.

Trees take care of the soil. Tree roots help to prevent erosion and they purify the water running off into streams and rivers.

Trees act as a natural air conditioner, helping to cool temperatures in urban areas. City streets are covered in tar seal which exasperates the heat. Trees shade the tar seal from the sun, thus reducing the temperature in the neighbourhood.

Walking or sitting among trees supports mental health too. Trees reduce people’s stress levels and calm anxiety. This is to say nothing of the beauty of trees. Trees are life giving in every way.

Perhaps the most obvious benefit of trees though, is the fruit they produce. Trees are a source of food for humans and animals, birds and bees.

Proverbs 11, verse 30, is a verse of two halves. The first half describes the fruit of the righteous as a tree of life.

The righteous are people who, as a matter of principle and habit, routinely do the right thing in their relationships with others. Righteousness equates to right relationship.

The fruit of the righteous refers to the words and actions of righteous people. Things like justice, honesty, mercy, kindness, faithfulness, forgiveness, humility and so on. Let me give you an example based on something that happened to me when I was at university…

Imagine you go to a cash machine to get some money out. You try to withdraw $200 but the machine doesn’t give you the cash. The money comes off your account balance as a withdrawal but there’s something wrong with the ATM, so the money doesn’t physically come out.  

The ATM is right outside an actual branch of the bank, so you go inside and stand in line for 20 minutes. Eventually you are seen and explain your story to a bank teller. The teller listens patiently only to say, “I’m sorry, there’s nothing I can do.” She doesn’t believe you.

At that moment another customer walks up to the teller next to you and says, “I just withdrew $20 from the ATM outside but the machine gave me $220, so I’m returning the extra $200.” It is then clear to everyone the ATM had a hiccup and the $200 belongs to you. The teller gives you the $200, you thank the honest stranger and go on your way feeling strangely warm inside.

The person who got $220 when they only withdrew $20 could have walked away with the extra money and no one would be any the wiser. But she didn’t. She was righteous and returned the cash that did not belong to her. The fruit of her righteousness in this situation was justice and honesty.

Her justice and honesty were a tree of life to you. Not only did you have the money you needed to buy your groceries, but you also felt better about the world you live in. The fruit of this righteous woman strengthened your capacity for trust and helped you to be less anxious.

The thing about trees is they are always doing good. It’s not like they carry out random acts of kindness when it suits them. Trees do good for the environment all the time, simply by their living presence.

It’s the same with righteous people. They have a positive, life-giving effect on those around them all the time, through their presence and because that is who they are.

Sometimes we might think that to be righteous we must perform some grand gesture or carry out a heroic task of superhuman proportions. Maybe like working in a refugee camp or finding a cure for cancer or rescuing kittens from a burning building or raising lots of money for a good cause. And while they may be good things to do, righteousness is usually more routine, more ordinary than that.

Righteousness is not an isolated act. Righteousness is a state of being. Being there for your family, to support them. Being content with your husband or wife and not looking over the fence. Turning up to work, doing your best for your employer or your employees. Using your pay to put food on the table.

Righteousness is being patient when your child is having a tantrum. Righteousness is knowing when to say ‘yes’ and when to say ‘no’. Righteousness is owning your mistakes and putting things right to the extent you can. Righteousness is trusting God to make things right when you have been wronged.     

Another thing about trees is they do good silently, invisibly. Most of the time we don’t even notice the good trees are doing. Unless we consciously go out of our way to study trees, we probably take them for granted.   

Righteous people are like trees in that they don’t advertise the good they do. Most of the time we don’t even notice righteous people. Righteousness is not glamourous or attention seeking. In fact, righteousness may appear quite pedestrian or boring even.

Reflecting on your own experience for a moment; who, through their righteousness, has been a tree of life to you? [Pause]

Those of you who know your Bibles will be aware there is mention of the tree of life in Genesis. What connection (if any) is there between the tree of life in the garden of Eden and the tree of life in Proverbs? In Genesis 2 we read…

9 The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Adam and Eve were allowed to eat the fruit of any of the trees in the Garden of Eden, except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Sadly, they disobeyed God.

Consequently, Adam & Eve were expelled from Eden and not allowed access to the tree of life in case they ate the fruit and lived forever. This tells us the tree of life in Genesis represents immortality. Living forever without dying.

It might seem unkind of God to keep the tree of life from Adam and Eve, but it was a mercy. To live forever with our Sin would be terrible. The essence of Sin is alienation from God, alienation from our neighbour and alienation from ourselves.

To be alienated from yourself is to hate yourself. Some people project their self-hatred out onto others. Some people internalise it. To hate yourself is a cruel torment. To not be able to live with yourself (or anyone else) for all eternity would be a kind of living hell in which one longs to die.

It is because God did not want us to suffer in this way that he kept the tree of life from us. God was limiting our suffering. Death and resurrection are the fresh start we need to be free of sin and alienation.  

So how does the tree of life in Genesis inform our understanding of the tree of life in Proverbs? Well, the writers of Proverbs were most likely piggy backing off the tree of life imagery in Genesis.

Proverbs 11, verse 30, is not saying that the fruit of the righteous will enable people to literally live forever. It’s simply a poetic way of saying, righteousness promotes long life and well-being. Righteousness feeds the human soul and spirit with good things. Indeed, righteousness blesses the whole community.

Proverbs 3, verse 18, says that wisdom is a tree of life to those who embrace her. This is another way of saying the same thing: the wisdom of righteousness is life giving.    

Winning souls:

The second part of Proverbs 11, verse 30, says: and he who wins souls is wise.

If you come from an evangelical background then, for you, winning souls might equate to convincing someone to become a Christian. Getting them to pray the sinner’s prayer, ask Jesus into their heart and be baptised.  

But I don’t think that’s what the writers of Proverbs had in mind, not exactly.

A soul is a person’s life force. So, the word soul is associated with life. It’s a term that describes your essence. More than that though, the term soul refers to a whole person. As in the phrase, ‘there were 250 souls on board’, meaning there were 250 living individuals on board.

You are not just a body, with a mind. You are a soul, with a body and a mind. Your soul (your life force, your essence) animates your body and lends uniqueness to your personality. 

In the context of Proverbs 11, to win souls could mean to save someone’s life or at least have a positive and lifegiving effect on their wellbeing. It may also mean being winsome in the way you relate with others.

Both halves of verse 30 shed light on each other. If the first part of verse 30 is saying that the words and actions of a righteous person are lifegiving to those around them, then the second half is saying wise people (who are also righteous) have a positive effect on the people around them.

Looking at verse 30 from another angle, we might also say, a wise person knows that righteousness is the way to influence other people for good. When someone is treated with kindness and fairness, it affects their soul in a positive way, so they want to be kind and fair too.

A wise person wins souls by their righteous and winsome behaviour, not by fast talking or manipulation.

Let me give you two examples of people who win souls through wisdom and righteousness. The first is from the movie The Shawshank Redemption.

Andy, a righteous man, is sent to prison for a murder he did not commit. Despite suffering abuse and mistreatment, Andy petitions the authorities to send him books so he can teach other prisoners to read and write. The fruit of Andy’s righteousness is a tree of life to those around him. Andy has a lifegiving effect on his fellow inmates.

Through his wisdom and righteousness, Andy wins souls. One soul in particular is that of a fellow prisoner nicknamed Red. Red has been in Shawshank for decades and it has destroyed his capacity for hope. Red does not dare to imagine a better future because he knows that hope can drive a man insane. Hope is dangerous.

But Andy has a different perspective. Andy says, “Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.”

At the end of the movie, Red is released from prison and the last thing we hear him say is, “I hope I can make it across the border. I hope to see my friend and shake his hand. I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams. I hope.”

The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who wins souls is wise.

Through his righteous friendship, Andy won Red’s soul. Andy restored Red’s capacity to hope.

As inspiring as it is, The Shawshank Redemption is a fictional story, based on a book by Stephen King. This is not to suggest the righteous who win souls are a fiction, just a nice ideal that does not exist in the real world. 

There is a true story, a gospel story, based on historical fact, which shows us what soul winning righteousness looks like. From Luke 7, verse 1 we read…

When Jesus had finished saying all this to the people who were listening, he entered Capernaum. 2 There a centurion’s servant, whom his master valued highly, was sick and about to die. 3 The centurion heard of Jesus and sent some elders of the Jews to him, asking him to come and heal his servant. 4 When they came to Jesus, they pleaded earnestly with him, “This man deserves to have you do this, 5 because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue.” 6 So Jesus went with them.

The Roman army were the occupying force in Israel at the time of Jesus. The Roman army were the enforcers. Mostly they restricted Jewish freedom and oppressed the people.

But here we have a Roman Centurion, in charge of 100 soldiers, who is not destroying or oppressing the Jews but actually helping them by building a synagogue. The Centurion does the unexpected. He overturns our prejudice.  

This wise and righteous army officer is a tree of life to the Jewish community. Through his fairness and generosity, the Centurion has won the souls of the Jewish elders. He has earned the trust and respect of those he is there to police.  

More than that though, this Roman Centurion wins Jesus’ commendation too. Not by some grand gesture or heroic deed but by his vulnerability and faith. From verse 6 we continue our reading…

Jesus was not far from the house when the centurion sent friends to say to Jesus: “Lord, don’t trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. 7 That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. 8 For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

Jesus, who was Jewish, could not enter the home of a Gentile, like the Roman Centurion, without becoming ritually unclean. The Centurion knows this and finds a winsome way to save Jesus from this socially awkward and culturally embarrassing situation.

Here we have a greater quality of righteousness. The righteousness that comes from faith. The Centurion loves his servant, and he trusts Jesus to heal his servant from a distance.

9 When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd following him, he said, “I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel.” 10 Then the men who had been sent returned to the house and found the servant well.

Through his faith, the Centurion won the soul (or saved the life) of his servant, and he won the respect of Jesus in a winsome way. He continues to win souls even today.

Who do you identify with most in this story? The servant in need of healing? The wise Centurion? The Jewish elders who intercede? Perhaps you identify with Jesus? Or someone in the crowd following Jesus, bearing witness to it all? 

We may be reluctant to think of ourselves as the Centurion. Kiwi culture does not allow us to think too highly of ourselves. But we may not be too different from him. Like the Centurion, we too have put our faith in a Christ we have only heard of from a distance and not yet seen.

Conclusion:

The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who wins souls is wise.

Jesus was crucified on a cross, nailed to a tree of death. The fruit of Jesus’ righteousness, in going to the cross in love and obedience to God, is a tree of life to all those who put their faith in Christ. Indeed, Jesus’ wisdom in obeying God, even unto death, has won millions of souls down through the ages.

In a few moments we will share communion together. Communion is a time to remember the abundant life Jesus has won for us.

It is through Jesus’ death that our alienation comes to an end.

It is through Jesus’ sacrifice that our relationship with God is made right.

It is through Jesus’ love that we are set free from self-hatred.

It is through Jesus’ resurrection that our hope is restored.

May the righteousness of Jesus bear fruit in our lives. 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?

  • Discuss / reflect on the benefits of trees. When was the last time you planted a tree?
  • What does the fruit of the righteous refer to? Can you think of examples from the Bible or from your own experience?
  • Who, through their righteousness, is a tree of life to you? What do they do that is life giving? Give thanks to God for them. How might you be a tree of life to others?
  • Why does God restrict access to the tree of life in Genesis 3? Why is this a kindness?
  • What does Proverbs 11:30 mean by winning souls?
  • Thinking of the story of the Roman Centurion in Luke 7, who do you identify with most and why? The servant? The Centurion? The Jewish elders who intercede? Jesus? Or someone in the crowd following Jesus? 
Tawa Baptist

Guard Your Heart

Scripture: Proverbs 4:20-27 and Mark 7:1-23

Video Link: https://youtu.be/Kdy3Yj1uakc

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • The heart’s trajectory
  • Guarding your heart
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

Today we continue our series in the book of Proverbs. Proverbs offers practical wisdom for living. It gives handy life hacks for people starting out in the world. 

Our message today focuses on chapter 4, verses 20-27. As we move through these verses see how many different body parts you recognize. From Proverbs 4, verse 20 we read…

20 My son, pay attention to what I say; turn your ear to my words. 21 Do not let them out of your sight, keep them within your heart; 22 for they are life to those who find them and health to one’s whole body. 23 Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life. 24 Keep your mouth free of perversity; keep corrupt talk far from your lips. 25 Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you. 26 Give careful thought to the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways. 27 Do not turn to the right or the left; keep your foot from evil.

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

Six different body parts are mentioned in these verses: the ear, the heart, the mouth, the lips, the eyes and the feet, plus the body as a whole is mentioned once. Following the path of wisdom is something that involves a person’s whole being.

The heart’s trajectory:

The organ that connects all the body parts is the heart.

For most people today, the heart (in a metaphorical sense) is considered the seat of a person’s feelings or emotions. For us, matters of the heart have to do with one’s affections and romantic love, in contrast to the head which is concerned with logic and reasoning.

People in the ancient world didn’t have the same head / heart dichotomy that we do. They didn’t separate matters of the head and the heart.

In the Old Testament, the heart is a metaphor for a person’s inner life, the core of their being. The heart includes your mind, emotions and will. It is essentially that part of yourself which is concerned with decision making.

The heart, in ancient thought, is sort of like the parliament or the board room of a person’s body and soul. The decisions made in one’s heart set the path for one’s life. The heart is like the rudder of a ship; it determines the course you take.

Airplane pilots are taught the 1 in 60 rule, which states that one-degree error in heading will result in the aircraft being off course by one mile for every 60 miles travelled. Which means that after 120 miles you will be two miles off course and so on.

One degree might not seem like much but it could mean the difference between arriving safely or crashing into a mountain.   

Repeatedly, throughout Proverbs 4, the father pleads for his children to listen and pay attention to his words of wisdom because following the father’s teaching sets the course for the young person’s life. If they are even one-degree off, it could mean the difference between life and death.  

Verse 21 reads: Do not let my words out of your sight, keep them within your heart; This is a poetic way of saying, commit the things I teach you to memory. Do not forget them. Keep my words of wisdom front of mind always.

The world we live in is very different from the ancient world. People in Old Testament times did not have the internet. They couldn’t google something on their phone. They couldn’t watch a Ted Talk or a YouTube clip at will. Books were not readily available either. So they had to remember things.

People learned by listening carefully and committing what they heard to memory. That involved time, concentration and repetition. Gaining and retaining wisdom took some effort but it was worth the effort because it could save your life.

That being said, we should not blindly follow everything we are taught. From time to time we need to check if the wisdom we follow is set to the right course. Because if it’s not, we will find ourselves further and further off track as time passes.

The Pharisees provide a classic example of how a particular tradition of wisdom got off track and led people away from God. In Mark 7, we read how some teachers of the law took issue with the way Jesus’ disciples did not wash their hands in the proper way before eating. Jesus answered them…

8 “You put aside God’s command and obey human teachings. 9 You have a clever way of rejecting God’s law in order to uphold your own teaching. 10 For Moses commanded, ‘Respect your father and your mother,’ …11 But you teach that if people have something they could use to help their father or mother, but say, ‘This is Corban’ (which means, it belongs to God), 12 they are excused from helping their father or mother. 13 In this way the teaching you pass on to others cancels out the word of God…”

Somewhere along the way the Pharisees’ tradition of wisdom got off course by one-degree and, over time, it led them away from keeping God’s law. Jesus provided a much needed critique of the Pharisees’ traditions, to get them back on course before they crashed.     

We critique what we are taught by measuring it against the Bible. Indeed, the Bible acts as a ruler and a protractor to inform our heart and help set a good course for our life.

Before we can critique the tradition of wisdom passed on to us, though, we must first take the trouble to understand it properly. Don’t be that person who discards everything just because one thing isn’t quite right. The traditions we inherit usually contain a valuable kernel of truth. Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.     

Guard your heart:

Returning to Proverbs 4. The emphasis on retaining wisdom is reinforced again in verse 23 which reads: Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.                                                                          
When I first read this verse I thought, okay if the heart basically equates to the mind, in the world of Proverbs, then guarding my heart (or my mind) means being really careful about what I let into my thought life.

See no evil, hear no evil. Don’t watch too much rubbish on TV. Avoid conspiracy theories and dodgey websites. Read wholesome Christian books and listen to plenty of worship music. Keep bad stuff out. Put good stuff in.

Like the apostle Paul says in his letter to the Philippians: Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praise worthy, think about such things.  

While it is generally a good idea to be careful what we feed our mind on, that is not exactly what Proverbs 4 is saying. A wellspring flows outwards. If your heart and mind are a wellspring, then verse 23 is saying be careful about what you let out of your heart and mind.

As one commentator puts it: To guard the heart is to be prudent about the heart’s outgoings, to tend with diligence and discretion to how one expresses one’s thoughts and feelings.[1] In other words, develop a good filter.

You may have heard on the news this past week that about 40% of Wellington’s water supply is seeping away in leaks because the pipe infrastructure is old and deteriorating faster than we can fix it.

This means we are likely to face water restrictions over the next few months, especially if it is a long dry summer as expected.

In this situation, guarding the water supply is more about keeping the water in than anything else. Likewise, guarding the wellspring of your heart has more to do with preventing leaks than it does keeping bad things out. 

To use another metaphor. The risk with nuclear power plants is not what might get in but rather what might leak out. You want clean energy out of the nuclear power plant. You don’t want radioactive material to escape.

Jesus understood there is good and bad in the human heart and that guarding the heart means not letting the bad stuff out. In Mark 7, Jesus says…

20 “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. 21 For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23 All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”

Verses 24-27 of Proverbs 4 spell out what ‘guarding the heart’ looks like.

Firstly, guarding your heart means being careful about how you talk. There is a direct line between your mind and your mouth. Verse 24 reads: Keep your mouth free of perversity; keep corrupt talk far from your lips.

Before you say what’s on your mind, stop and T.H.I.N.K. Is it true? Is it helpful? Is it inspiring? Is it necessary? Is it kind? Grace and truth is what we are aiming for with our talk.

We don’t always understand the power of our words. When we say something out loud it carries more weight than a mere thought. We have a tendency to start believing the things we say, even when those things are not quite true.

Your mouth is like a scalpel. It needs to be handled with surgical precision for it has potential to do good or harm. You don’t need to say everything that is in your heart and mind. Some things are better left unsaid.

Now this advice to measure and restrain your words seems to fly in the face of contemporary wisdom. The thinking in our society today is more attuned to the philosophy of ‘better out than in’. Unrestrained talk is considered to be therapy or catharsis. 

Proverbs 4 challenges this notion. It helps us to find the middle way between stiff upper lip stoicism and verbal diarrhea. Proverbs 4 is saying, guard your heart by being careful about what you say and who you say it to. When you need to share something personal, find a trustworthy listener.

Verse 25 offers another way to guard your heart: Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you.

Avoid temptation in other words. Don’t allow yourself to be distracted by evil. Do not covet. Do not look over the fence at what your neighbour has.

This idea of ‘fixing your gaze directly before you’, implies you have a goal or a vision for your life, something good you are aiming for. The goal for Christians is to follow Jesus. To love God, love your neighbour and love yourself. Or, as the prophet Micah puts it, to do justly, love mercy and walk humbly with God.

This being said, you need to allow some distraction in your life. It doesn’t work to be super focused all the time. If you are too intense you’ll end up blowing a gasket or turning into a Pharisee.

It’s okay to stop and smell the roses every now and then. It’s okay to have time off when you need a rest. It’s okay to watch the rugby or to have a hobby. The point is, avoid temptation to evil. Don’t torture yourself by looking at what you cannot have. Remember what you are aiming for and stick with it.   

When you are driving a car, it’s important to keep your eyes on the road. Otherwise you might end up in a ditch or over a bank. Same thing in life generally. Where your eyes wander, your feet follow.

As we read in verse 26…

Give careful thought to the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways.   

This verse is talking about the regular rhythms and routines we keep in our lives. Part of guarding your heart involves maintaining healthy patterns of work and rest, eating and sleeping, giving and receiving, worship and play, socialising and solitude.

So, for example, if you have had a very busy week, then giving careful thought to your path might mean planning a quiet weekend, especially if you are an introvert. Give yourself a chance to recover and regroup.

Or, if you know you have some away trips planned with work, then giving careful thought to your path might involve prioritising time to spend with your family before you go away and after you get back, in order to keep your relationships solid.     

Part of guarding your heart involves thinking about the path you are on and where this will lead you.

Verse 27 reads: Do not turn to the right or the left; keep your foot from evil.

The assumption of verse 27 is that the young person, who is receiving instruction here, is already on the right path. They don’t need to repent or change their ways. They simply need to stay on track and not pursue evil.

Not turning to the right or the left means having the strength to say ‘no’. Not being easily swayed by those around you.

We live in a relatively permissive society, where almost anything goes. Personal freedom is one of the idols of our time. Many people think they have a right to do whatever they want. Some might call it a spirit of entitlement. The discipline of saying ‘no’ to ourselves does not come naturally to us.

The strength to say ‘no’ comes from having a clear sense of your own identity. Knowing who you are and whose you are. When Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness, Jesus was able to say ‘no’ because he knew who he was. Jesus was deeply aware that he was God’s son and he knew the Father loved him.

Conclusion:

Among other things, Proverbs 4 reminds us to guard our heart for it steers the course of our life.

Guarding your heart isn’t just about what you let into your heart, it actually has more to do with what you let out of your heart.

We guard our heart by being careful with the words we speak, careful with what we set our sights on, careful with the path we walk day by day and careful to say ‘no’ when we need to.  

Where is your heart leading you?

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 does the Old Testament mean by the term ‘heart’? How is this different from our contemporary understanding?
  • How might we check if the wisdom / tradition we have received is right?
  • In the context of Proverbs 4, what does it mean to ‘guard your heart’? Why is it important to guard your heart?
  • What practical things can we do to guard our heart?
  • Where are your sights set? What are you aiming for? What is your vision / goal in life? Is anything unhelpful distracting you from this?
  • Think about the regular rhythms and routines of your day and week. Where are these leading you? Does anything need to change?

[1] Christine Yoder

Tawa Baptist

Principles

Scripture: Proverbs 3:1-12

Video Link: https://youtu.be/3zN8xHVvEg0

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Verses 1-4
  • Verses 5-8
  • Verses 9-12
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

I grew up in the city of Hamilton. The main feature of Hamilton is the Waikato river, New Zealand’s longest river. As a general principle, river water travels downstream and consequently you can expect anything floating on the water to travel downstream too.

Having said that, there are times when the water travels upstream, against the main flow. This usually happens near the bank of the river. Sometimes floating objects get caught in an eddy and are prevented from moving downstream. But eventually they come unstuck and carry on their journey to the sea. 

Today we continue our series in the book of Proverbs. Proverbs offers practical wisdom for living well in this world.

The book of Proverbs is like a river. It describes the main flow of wisdom and the outcomes one can expect from certain choices. It doesn’t explore the eddy lines and back flows all that much. Proverbs is more concerned with the main principles of wisdom rather than the exceptions to the rule.  

Our message this week focuses on chapter 3, verses 1-12, which read…

My son, do not forget my teaching, but keep my commands in your heart, 2 for they will prolong your life many years and bring you peace and prosperity. 3 Let loyal love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. 4 Then you will win favour and a good name in the sight of God and man. 5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. 7 Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil. 8 This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones. 9 Honour the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits of all your crops; 10 then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine. 11 My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline, and do not resent his rebuke, 12 because the Lord disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in.

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

Verses 1-4:

The book of Proverbs contains principles. A principle is a fundamental truth or proposition that serves as the foundation for a system of beliefs. Principles guide our reasoning and behaviour.

For example, one of your principles for living might be ‘do unto others as you would have them do unto you’. This principle then informs your chain of reasoning and behaviour: I want people to be honest and kind with me, therefore I will be honest and kind with others.

Of course, living by this principle does not guarantee people will always be honest and kind with you, but it does increase the likelihood of positive treatment. In any case, your kindness and honesty is not dependent on others. You aim to be kind and honest on principle, irrespective of how others may behave. 

Proverbs gives us principles to live by but we should not confuse these principles with promises.

The principle in verses 1-2 of Proverbs 3 is that the son remembers the commands (or instructions) his parents have given him, for they will prolong your life and bring you peace and prosperity. This is not a promise. There is no guarantee that following the parents’ wise advice will always bring prosperity.

Following the path of wisdom is not a get rich quick scheme. We don’t learn wisdom in order to accumulate lots of money. We learn wisdom on principle, because that is who we are and what we want to build our life on. 

There will be times when the vicissitudes of life create an exception to the rule. The story of Job is a case in point. Not all suffering is the result of folly. Sometimes bad things happen to good people and we don’t know why. We don’t always get what we deserve. But, as a general principle, following the path of wisdom leads to peace in the end. Ultimately, God restored Job.

The phrase translated as peace and prosperity is actually one word, shalom, in the original Hebrew. Shalom is wellbeing or abundant life. The prosperity of shalom has less to do with money or possessions and more to do with the richness of right relationships in community with others.  

The principle then is that remembering the parents’ wisdom is good for wellbeing, not just your own personal wellbeing but also the wellbeing of the whole community.

Verses 3-4 provide another principle to live by, the principle of loyal love and faithfulness. The term loyal love is actually hesed in the Hebrew. I’ve talked about hesed before. Ruth did hesed for her mother-in-law Naomi. Jesus does hesed for us on the cross.

Loyal love and faithfulness is about commitment and taking care of your relationships. Being a trust worthy person, maintaining your friendship and support through good times and bad.

To bind something around your neck is to have it with you all the time, wherever you go. To wear it so people can see. A wedding ring on your finger is a symbol of loyal love and faithfulness to your partner in marriage. It shows your commitment to your spouse.

Likewise, for some people, wearing a cross around their neck is a sign of their commitment to Christ. For others a cross necklace is just decoration. Wisdom says it is important that the symbols we wear on the outside of our bodies reflect the deeper principles and commitments we hold in our hearts. 

The heart, in this context, represents a person’s inner life. It includes your mind, emotions and will. To write loyalty and faithfulness on your heart is to be the same on the inside as you are on the outside. Don’t just pretend to be loyal and faithful, mean it genuinely, from the inside out.

As a general principle, being loyal and faithful will result in a good reputation. Over time, people will learn they can trust you. That being said, you don’t practice loyalty and faithfulness in order to make yourself look good. You are loyal and faithful and practice hesed on principle, because that is who you are; that is the foundation on which you want to build your life.

While a good reputation is not guaranteed or promised, it is the normal by-product of a life lived with loyalty and faithfulness.

There’s an interesting wee connection between Proverbs 3 and Luke 2. After the boy Jesus was left behind in the temple and his parents found him, we read   

51 Then Jesus went down to Nazareth with his parents and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart. 52 And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man. 

We don’t always follow the wisdom of our parents but Jesus did. We are not always loyal and faithful but Jesus was. Jesus fulfils the principles of wisdom we read about in Proverbs. Jesus does for us what we are not able to do for ourselves.

Verses 5-8:

Verses 5-12 of Proverbs 3, spell out some of wisdom’s principles as they operate in our relationship with God. Verses 5-6 are well known…

5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.  

The main principle here is to rely on God; don’t be sucked in by the illusion of self-reliance. 

We tend lean on this verse at isolated times when we are facing a significant life decision, like who to marry, whether to change careers, how to handle a tricky issue and so on. But really, these verses are for all of life, not just the crisis points and crossroads.

Trusting the Lord needs to be a constant principle we live by 24-7. We are to trust with all our heart, completely, totally. Trust is the antidote to worry and anxiety. Trust sets us free to think more clearly so we make better decisions. Trust enables us to wait patiently and to rest so our strength is renewed.

Trust is like a bridge over a gorge; it provides a way to safer ground.

Trust is like a torch light when you are walking at night in the bush; it doesn’t show the whole journey, but it does reveal enough to take the next step.

Trust is a promise kept; it gives you confidence to move forward.

Trust is like a warm meal; it fills you with comfort and strength.

There is a lot in this world that we don’t know and cannot control. If we think about that stuff too much we soon become overwhelmed with fear. Trusting God means leaving the stuff we don’t understand and cannot control with God. Not worrying about it but instead focusing on the things we can control.

God is the source of wisdom.  God alone sees the whole picture. We only see a small piece of the puzzle and not always that clearly. If we make decisions based on the little we know, without reference to God, then there is a good chance we will get it wrong.

This does not mean we have nothing to offer. Rather, trusting God with all our heart means we put God at the centre of our decision making.

The temptation is to rely on ourselves. That is what Adam and Eve did when they ate the forbidden fruit. Their sin (and ours) was to stop trusting God and rely on their own understanding.

Verse 6 talks about acknowledging God. In one sense that means praying to God; asking him to guide us and show us the way. But asking God for guidance is the easy part. The harder part is listening for God’s response; discerning what he is saying.

In order to do that we must know God. So the bigger part of acknowledging God is knowing him. We come to know God in the experiences we have along life’s pathway and as we trust him.

For example, my knowledge of God as Father did not come solely from a book. It came mostly from being a son and becoming a father myself. Likewise, my knowledge of Jesus (his goodness and suffering) came in part from reading the gospels but more deeply through serving in the church.

My knowledge of God’s forgiveness comes from realising when I have messed up, being honest about that and receiving forgiveness. It also comes when other people do wrong and I have to look to God for the grace to forgive them and let it go. 

The principles of loyal love and faithfulness in verse 3 are divine qualities. As we practice loyalty and faithfulness we grow in our knowledge of God. 

Do you understand the principle here? Acknowledging God isn’t just something we do in our head. It is the knowledge that comes from experience; from walking in relationship with God. And that happens all through life’s journey.

Verses 7-8 are saying almost the same thing as verses 5-6, just in a slightly different way. Not being wise in your own eyes is another way of saying, do not lean on your own understanding.

Fearing the Lord, goes hand in hand with trusting the Lord. To fear the Lord, in this context, means to respect the Lord, to recognise him as the source of wisdom and to be in touch with your need for his help. Those who fear the Lord do not want to do anything to damage their trust with God and so they shun evil.

The wisdom of these verses could be paraphrased as, walk humbly with God. The natural consequence of walking humbly with God is enjoying good health in your physical body.

This does not mean that everyone who is sick is wise in their own eyes. People can become sick for any number of reasons. Sickness is not proof of sin. Correlation does not prove causation. The principle here is that there is a connection between body and spirit.  

Jesus understood the body / spirit connection well. The Lord said, human beings cannot live on bread alone but need every word that God speaks. The person who fears and trusts the Lord, listens to God’s word and obeys it. The wisdom that comes from God is as necessary for life and health as food.  

Verses 9-12:

Part of acknowledging God involves honouring the Lord with your wealth. People in the Old Testament did this by offering the first fruits of their crops to God at the temple. The first fruits were then shared with the poor and the priests.

Giving a portion of our income (according to our means), rather than hoarding it up for ourselves, is an act of trust in God. It’s a practical way of saying, ‘God gave me this and God will continue to provide’.

Verse 10 says that when you return the first and best to the Lord, your barns will be filled to overflowing. You’ll have more than you need in other words.

Again, giving to the Lord is not a get rich quick scheme. We give to the Lord as a matter of principle, because offering the first and the best to God is an acknowledgement that all we have comes from God. It is God who provides us with a job and an income and the wherewithal to do the work.

Jesus talks about the wisdom of generosity in Luke 6, where he says…

“Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

Our earthly economy is driven by the assumption of scarcity. The underlying belief of our society is that there is not enough to go around and so when something is in short supply, the price goes up. The economy of God’s kingdom is different from that. The underlying principle of God’s kingdom is abundance. With God, there is more than enough to go around.

We still have to do the mahi though. We still have to be good stewards of what we have. But the principle of reaping what you sow holds. If you sow generously, you will (more often than not) reap a greater harvest. And if you forgive others, God will forgive you.

Verses 11-12 of Proverbs 3 show us that God’s love is expressed as much by the Lord’s disciplineas by the abundance he provides…

…do not despise the Lord’s discipline, and do not resent his rebuke, 12 because the Lord disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in.   

When we hear the word ‘discipline’ we may think of punishment. But discipline is a word that really means teaching. Disciplining or teaching someone will usually mean correcting them when they are wrong, so they don’t keep repeating their mistake. But that correction need not involve punishment. More likely it will involve further practice until you get it right.

Verse 11 says we are not to resent God when he rebukes (or corrects) us. Resentment is a form of anger. Anger is the natural response to injustice. We get angry when we think we are being treated unfairly. If God corrects you, because you are doing something wrong, that is not unfair, that is kindness.

But what if we suffer when we haven’t done anything wrong? Could God be teaching us something in that experience? In his book, The Problem of Pain, C.S. Lewis says this…  

“I suggest to you that it is because God loves us that he gives us the gift of suffering. Pain is God’s megaphone to rouse a deaf world. You see, we are like blocks of stone out of which the Sculptor carves the forms of men. The blows of his chisel, which hurt us so much are what make us perfect.”

C.S. Lewis was far wiser than me, but I’m not sure I agree with him entirely on this point. From a human perspective pain does not translate as love. Megaphones don’t work on the deaf but sign language does.

What’s more, human beings are not like blocks of stone. Stone is unfeeling, unyielding, unforgiving. Human life is fragile, sensitive to suffering, vulnerable.

Yes, God is a sculptor, but we are more like clay; soft, malleable, easily bent out of shape. In my experience, God’s correction of us is like that of a potter, who adds water and shapes our character with a gentle touch. Yes, the clay vessel goes into the furnace of suffering to set, but no longer than is necessary.

God’s discipline may, at times, involve suffering but not always. There is a patience and a grace to God’s discipline that is truly humbling.

If you know someone who is going through a difficult time at the moment, then please don’t make their ordeal any more difficult by suggesting God is teaching them something. Better to ask yourself, what is God teaching me.

God has a way of glorifying himself through suffering. I have learned a lot over the years by observing the way other people have handled themselves with courage and faith as they have journeyed through loss and grief.

Conclusion:

There are many principles of wisdom in the book of Proverbs but the most important principle is that God is love and everything he does is an expression of his love. The more we know that, the better we are able to trust him and rely not on our own understanding.

May the Lord bless you with a deeper experience of himself. 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 principle? How is a principle different from a promise? Describe one principle that guides your reasoning and behaviour?
  • Why do we practice loyal love (hesed) and faithfulness?
  • What connections do you see between Proverbs 3:1-12 and Jesus (in the gospels)?
  • What does it mean to trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding?  How might we do this?
  • Discuss / reflect on the various ways you (personally) have come to know God.
  • Why do we give the first and best to God?
  • In what ways has God disciplined / taught / corrected you? 
Tawa Baptist

Be Discerning

Scripture: Proverbs 1:8-19

Video Link: https://youtu.be/Dcc1c-rIOTk

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Prepare children for life
  • Listen to discern
  • Consider the outcome
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

Today we begin a new sermon series exploring the Old Testament book of Proverbs. Proverbs offers practical wisdom for living well in this world.

Primarily it gives the ABC’s of wisdom; life skills for beginners. It’s wisdom 101. At a deeper level though, Proverbs also offers insights for those who have been around the block a few times and know the ropes pretty well.

The first nine chapters of Proverbs are essentially a parent’s advice for their son, which fits quite nicely with today being Fathers’ Day. You’ll be pleased to know I don’t intend to cover all nine chapters this morning. Our focus this week is chapter 1, verses 8 to 19, which read…    

8 Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction and do not forsake your mother’s teaching. 9 They are a garland to grace your head and a chain to adorn your neck. 10 My son, if sinful men entice you, do not give in to them. 11 If they say, “Come along with us; let’s lie in wait for innocent blood, let’s ambush some harmless soul; 12 let’s swallow them alive, like the grave, and whole, like those who go down to the pit; 13 we will get all sorts of valuable things and fill our houses with plunder; 14 throw in your lot with us; we will all share the loot”—15 my son, do not go along with them, do not set foot on their paths; 16 for their feet rush into evil, they are swift to shed blood. 17 How useless to spread a net where every bird can see it! 18 These men lie in wait for their own blood; they ambush only themselves! 19 Such are the paths of all who go after ill-gotten gain; it takes away the life of those who get it.

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

There’s a lot going in these verses. Three points to focus our message today.

A wise person prepares their children for life. A wise person listens critically in order to discern truth from error. And a wise person considers the outcome before committing to a course of action. First, the wisdom of preparing children for life.

Prepare your children for life

When I was about 5 or 6, I used to walk to and from school by myself. It was about 3 kilometers each way. One of the things my mum impressed upon me, before sending me out into the world, was the importance of not accepting a car ride from anyone. She gave this instruction to protect me.   

I took my mother’s advice very seriously. One time a friend of mine was being driven to school by his mum in a Morris Minor and they stopped to offer me a lift. Even though it was quite safe, I was five and lacked discernment so refused the offer and kept walking.   

One of the responsibilities of parenthood is preparing your children for life, particularly life as they will experience it out in the world, after they leave home. The world is not a safe place. It is a mixture of good and bad.

Our children need to know how to tell the difference between good and evil. They need some street smarts both to avoid going down the wrong path and to know when it is safe to accept help.

If we think of parenting styles along a continuum. At one extreme there are those parents who abdicate their responsibility and do little or nothing to prepare their children for the world. Maybe life is busy and there isn’t time to show their kids the way because they are working two or three jobs. Or maybe they just don’t have the skills to know how to prepare their kids.

Parents who abdicate responsibility are basically leaving things to chance. That’s a recipe for learning the hard way.

At the other extreme there are those who become too involved in their kids’ lives and seek to manipulate circumstances so their children are never confronted with the realities of the world.

Perhaps they are rich and can afford to buy their kids out of trouble. Or maybe they are anxious and unconsciously manage their fear by controlling every detail of their children’s lives. (Helicopter parenting.)

Manipulating the situation is not helpful in the long run. If a child’s life has been so protected they never felt the consequences of their choices, they may struggle when reality bites.  

Please understand, it is not my intention to make anyone feel stink here. Parenting is hard and there is enough guilt attached to it already. Most of us are doing the best we can, often under pressure. Sometimes we get it right and sometimes we don’t. But even if we managed to get everything right, there are still no guarantees. There are many influences on our children these days.  

Wherever we may find ourselves on the spectrum, God is gracious enough to redeem our mistakes and wise enough to work with our choices.  

The middle ground, between abdicating and manipulating, involves educating our kids about the world so they are prepared to make good choices and avoid harm. When we take the time to educate our kids, we demonstrate that we care about them and we trust them. Education is an act of faith and love.  

Proverbs 1-9 imagines a scenario where a father and mother sit down with their son, who is coming of age and about to leave home, in order to make him aware of the dangers in the world so he is able to avoid pitfalls and wrong turns. (So he doesn’t accept rides from the wrong people, in other words.)

Listen critically to discern

Now before we continue I need to acknowledge that, for some here today, the language of Proverbs may be a bit challenging. The instruction is addressed to a ‘son’. Does this mean, daughters are excluded? No, it doesn’t.

I toyed with the idea of making the language more gender neutral; using the word ‘child’ for example. But that’s not what the text actually says. Proverbs was written centuries before the time of Christ in what we (today) might call a patriarchal society.

Generally speaking, men were in charge. Men held most of the power and control. Therefore, men were in a position to do greater harm. So, in that culture, if you instruct young men to act wisely, there is a benefit to all of society, especially women. Because when men behave foolishly it is often women who pay the price.

The principles of Proverbs have a universal application. So, whatever your gender, keep listening and ask yourself, how do the principles in these verses apply to me?

In all fairness, the authors of Proverbs are not sexist misogynist pigs. To the contrary, they had a deep respect for women. As we shall see in the coming weeks, the writers of Proverbs personify wisdom as a woman.

There is value in these verses for people who don’t have children too. You can still be a mentor or a coach. Sometimes younger people are more open to wisdom from an older friend who is not their father or mother.  

The first lesson of wisdom is listen. Listen to your mum and dad. The father’s instruction (or discipline) and the mother’s teaching will be a garland to grace your head and a chain to adorn your neck.

A garland for your head is a wreath of flowers or leaves representing honour and a chain to adorn your neck is a symbol of power and authority, similar to what a mayor or other important leader might wear.

The point is, if you listen to the good advice of your parents, you will eventually receive honour and respect and influence in the community.  

It should be noted that Proverbs 1 imagines parents who give good advice and who model a good example. Verses 8 and 9 are not suggesting that one should blindly follow their parents’ advice without thinking. Some adults are not fit to give good advice. If your mum or dad are telling you to do something unjust or unkind, then you cannot expect that to result in honour and respect. Find a mentor whose advice you can trust.

The context makes it clear that wisdom requires us to listen critically in order to discern good from evil.  

In verses 10-15, the parents prepare their son to face one of the dangers he might encounter when he leaves home and ventures into the wider world. The temptation to join a gang.

The parents simulate for their son how the conversation is likely to go when a gang member is trying to recruit him. Gangs promise things that young men want. Comradery and a sense of belonging. Security and purpose. Identity and respect.

There’s nothing wrong with wanting those sorts of things. The problem is using violence and injustice as a short cut to gain them. The gang in Proverbs 1 plans to mug some innocent passer-by, to kill them and steal their stuff.

Notice how the wisdom of Proverbs operates on two levels, in these verses.

At the basic level, the advice is don’t get involved with gangs. Be careful about the company you keep. But at a deeper level the young man is being taught not to be gullible. Don’t be foolish enough to believe everything you hear. Listen critically in order to discern. 

If some group starts talking violence, then you know what they are offering is not as good as it sounds. Do not go along with them. Do not give in to peer pressure. Use your brain and be discerning.

You don’t need to join a gang to get a sense of comradery. Committing crimes won’t make you feel secure or earn you respect. There are better ways to meet your need for belonging and purpose; like joining a sports team or a choir or becoming a youth group leader or a volunteer fire fighter or some other form of service that benefits your community.

Now I expect almost everyone here would agree that joining a gang is not a good idea. That’s because we have a choice. The young man in Proverbs 1 comes from a good home with two parents who love him. He has other more life giving options available to him and the financial resources to pursue those options.

Not everyone enjoys the same advantage in life. For some it is not easy to avoid or escape gang land. Some people are trapped in that world and are not free to leave, much less make an informed choice. They might not know any other way to live. So we shouldn’t look down on people who join gangs. There, but for the grace of God, go I. 

So how might we adapt the advice in Proverbs 1 for girls? Because, if you have a daughter, she is not likely to want to join a violent gang. Well, the principle of wisdom in view here is, listen critically in order to discern. Don’t be gullible. Don’t be foolish enough to believe everything you hear.

At the right time your daughter may need help to discern what kind of boys she can trust and what ones to avoid, so her heart is not broken. We can’t always choose who we fall in love with but we can choose to tread lightly and take things slowly. 

When it comes to listening critically in order to discern good from evil, we cannot go past the words of Jesus in Matthew 12, where the Lord says…

For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. 35 A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him.

To put it another way; the Spirit of Jesus is a Spirit of truth and grace. If a person’s conversation lacks truth and grace, then that is surely a red flag. You cannot trust them.

Okay, so Proverbs 1 shows us the important role parents (and mentors) have in preparing children for life. Parents do well when they educate their kids about the dangers they might face in the world and how to navigate those dangers.

More than simply telling kids what to avoid, we need to teach the children in our lives to listen critically in order to discern good from evil for themselves. That means modelling a helpful example in our own conversation.

Consider the outcome

The third principle of wisdom to focus our message today, is the importance of considering the outcome before committing to a course of action. Where is this decision leading me?

In verses 16-19, the parents paint a picture for their son of the outcome of getting involved with a gang. Violence begets violence. You reap what you sow. Verse 17 is the first real proverb of the book: How useless to spread a net where every bird can see it!

In ancient times the net was strewn with seeds and the bird was caught when the hunter pulled the draw string. For the trap to work though, the bird has to be unaware there is a trap.

The proverb in verse 17 operates on more than one level. If we imagine the bird is the son, then the proverb asserts the young man should see and avoid the verbal net of the gang members who are trying to recruit him.

However, if we imagine the bird is the gang of thieves, then the thieves are setting a trap for themselves without realizing it. In their hurry to assault an innocent passer-by, the gang is running into the trap they have set for others.      

But what if we are the bird? Most of us would probably say, ‘Joining a gang does not tempt me. I would never fall for that trick’. And therein lies the trap for us. The proverb reminds us the bird is trapped because it is unaware of the danger. If we think the proverb doesn’t really apply to us, then we too are unaware of the danger and therefore at risk of being caught.

Sure, not many here would want to become a patched member of a criminal gang but gangs come in many different forms. In the book of Genesis, we read how Joseph’s ten older brothers formed a gang to kidnap Joseph and sell him into slavery. Have you ever ganged up on someone in your family?

Have you ever been tempted to join a gang of gossips who do violence to other people’s reputation? Have you ever been tempted to join a gang of white collar businessmen by investing in companies which are unethical?

Thinking globally, some might say Putin’s army is just a really big gang with heavy fire power, mugging the country of Ukraine. Most Russians probably don’t see it that way though.

What if our standard of living (here in the West) is generated at great cost to the rest of the world? What if the clothes I’m wearing have been made in a sweat shop by modern day slaves? What if we are involved in an economic system that essentially functions like a gang in exploiting the poor and we don’t even realize it?

If that is the case, then we are like the bird in the trap. Or to use a different metaphor, we are sawing off the branch on which we are sitting.

The point of the proverb is to get us to open our eyes to the outcome of our actions. Violence and injustice, in any form, is foolish because it destroys the innocent and the perpetrator. No one wins.

Before you become too overwhelmed by the reach of Proverbs 1, let me bring the application of these verses closer to home. We have a responsibility to help the children and young people in our lives to think about the outcome before making a decision.    

For example: Where is this social media thread taking me? What is going to happen if I break the conditions of my restricted license? What is my escape plan if I’m at a party and find myself in a situation I don’t feel comfortable with? What are the consequences of having another drink? What is the likely outcome of giving my heart to this boy or that girl?

You get the point. We can’t chaperon our kids everywhere they go. We can’t shield them indefinitely. But we can encourage them to be discerning listeners and to think about the outcome of their choices.

Conclusion

So how does Jesus fit with all of this?

Jesus is the wisdom of God. Jesus embodies practical wisdom for living well. If we want to be wise, we need to look to Christ. 

In and through Jesus we find a quality of belonging, security, identity and purpose that is more meaningful and more lasting than any gang could offer.

And when we make poor choices and find ourselves trapped, like the bird in the proverb, Jesus is able to set us free.

May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ give us the spirit of wisdom so we may know him better. 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 does the father in Proverbs 1:8-19 go about educating his son? What helpful things did your parents do to prepare you for life? What wasn’t so helpful?
  • How might the principles in Proverbs 1:8-19 apply to daughters? Can you think of actual examples from your own experience?
  • Why is the first lesson of wisdom to listen? How do we discern good from evil?       
  • Why are gangs attractive to (some) young men? What other more positive ways can a young person meet their need for belonging and purpose, etc.?
  • Why is it important to consider the outcome before committing to a course of action? How might we help the children and young people in our lives to think about the outcome before making a decision? 
  • What is the meaning of the Proverb in verse 17? Discuss / reflect on the various ways this proverb could apply to us today. How do we avoid getting trapped in the net?
  • How does Jesus fit with (inform/fulfil) Proverbs 1:8-19? 
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.