Tawa Baptist

Now Unto Him

Scripture: Jude 24-25

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Preventing a disaster
  • Keeping the end in sight
  • Giving God the glory
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Back in November last year we started our Anthems series with the song Build my Life. In this series we have looked at the lyrics of one hymn or Christian worship song each week to see how that song informs our thinking about God and how it connects with Scripture and the heritage of our faith.

In many ways this series has provided an opportunity to do some Biblical theology – that is, to reflect on some of the bigger ideas about God and our Christian faith. The way we perceive God is influenced quite a bit by the songs we sing in church.   

Today we conclude our Anthems series with the song Now unto Him. We sometimes sing Now unto Him at the end of church services and meetings as a way of concluding proceedings. The tune for Now unto Him was written in the early 1970’s by a New Zealand woman called Olive Wood. Olive originally called the song ‘Benediction’. Benediction simply means blessing. Technically it is really more of a doxology – a statement of praise to glorify God – but it serves just as well as a benediction.

Although I can’t tell you anything about Olive Wood’s life, we do know the words to this short hymn come from the closing verses of the New Testament book of Jude. The name Jude is short for Judah.

Most scholars think that Jude is probably one of the biological half-brothers of Jesus. So Jude would have grown up in the home of Joseph and Mary with Jesus as his older brother. As far as we know Jude didn’t hang out with Jesus and the other disciples during Jesus’ three years of earthly ministry. Apparently he became a believer after Jesus’ resurrection.

Preventing a disaster:

When I was kid we were told the story of the Dutch boy who stopped his town from being flooded by putting his finger in the dike. A dike is a massive sea wall for keeping water out. The story goes that as the boy was walking home one evening he noticed a steady flow of water coming from a small hole in the dike. The boy then had a dilemma. If he ran to get help the hole might become larger and break open the sea wall, flooding the town. But if he stayed to stop the flow he might be stuck there all night.       

Although it was tempting to ignore the problem and hope that someone else would see it before it got worse, the boy felt a sense of duty and put his finger in the hole to prevent a disaster and save his town. Despite the cold and dark, the boy stayed there all night until some adults found him the next morning and fixed the sea wall.

Jude had wanted to write to the churches about salvation but instead he felt compelled to write a letter of warning to prevent a flood of false teaching in the church.

“Apparently these false teachers were trying to convince believers that being saved by grace gave them license to sin, since their sins would no longer be held against them.” [1]

These false teachers were de-moralising the church. What they said sounded credible at first but really their ideas undermined people’s motivation to act in morally right and holy ways. They had created a little hole in the dike of the young church’s faith and Jude wanted to plug that hole with his letter before it got any worse and destroyed the church.

The apostle Paul faced the same kind of problem. In Romans 6 he says: What shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer.

In some ways Jude’s short letter is not pleasant or comfortable reading. He uses a series of tragic examples from the Old Testament and other Jewish apocryphal writings to make his point that we can’t take God’s forgiveness for granted. We can’t major on grace at the expense of truth. We can’t cast off God’s moral law; for that would be like throwing the baby out with the bath water. God’s redemption should make us more motivated to be holy. God’s grace is not a license to do whatever we want. God’s grace is meant to set us free to become more like Jesus.

I’m sure Jude would rather have written about God’s goodness and love but, like the boy who spent the night with his finger in the dike, Jude was trying to prevent a disaster.   

Keeping the end in sight:

The story of the Dutch boy who saved his town is fictional. It’s made up. But it does contain some truth and the simplicity of it opens a window on one’s imagination.

What would it be like to sit all night, alone in the dark and cold, with your finger in a sea wall. I imagine your finger would go numb. Your eyes would become heavy with sleep. There would be no one there to encourage you or support you. It would be easy to become de-moralised, to give up and let the town go under water. How would you make it through the night? I guess you would have to keep a picture in your mind of what you were aiming to achieve. You would need to keep the end in sight when the village was saved and you were home again tucking into a hot meal.  

We call this hope. Hope is the capacity to see a positive future; to keep the end in sight, to keep going.   

Do you remember those radio competitions where a dozen people would try to win a new car by keeping their hand on that car the longest? If you lost concentration and took your hand off, even for just a moment, you were out. The last person with their hand still on the car was the winner.

I think they may have stopped running competitions like that because it is considered too cruel, even abusive. People literally went on for days without sleep in the uncertain hope they might win. Sure they got to stop every few hours for a toilet break but can you imagine how devastating it would be to hang in there for 5 days only to be the runner up. There was no prize for second place, just the emptiness of regret and misplaced hope.

Even if you were the winner you would still feel pretty stink for the others who walked away with nothing. Not to mention the utter physical and emotional exhaustion of the experience. I’m pleased they don’t do competitions like that anymore. 

Returning to verse 24 of Jude’s letter. After having given the false teachers a serious serve, and putting the fear of hell into those who may be inclined to believe them, Jude inspires hope. Verse 24 reads: Now unto Him who is able to keep you from falling and present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.

The first thing we notice here is that God is able. God has skills and power and abilities. As we read in Romans 16:25, God is able to establish you by the gospel, the proclamation of Jesus Christ.

Or as Paul says in Ephesians 3:20, God is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.  

God is able. This means the journey of Christian faith is not like those hand on car competitions. We are not doing this alone, in our own strength. It does not depend entirely on us.

God is able to keep us from falling. We are reminded here, of the words of Psalm 121: 1 I lift up my eyes to the mountains—where does my help come from? 2 My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. 3 He will not let your foot slip…
    

In other words, God is present with us now, helping us to get to the end. God is our number one supporter. God is not looking for the first opportunity to exclude us. If we do slip up, if we do take our hand off the prize for a moment, we are not automatically out. We have a God who gives second, third and fourth chances. God prefers to redeem his children if they are willing. So when we make mistakes we can return to God, admit our wrong doing, ask his forgiveness and the strength to carry on.

God is able to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. Imagine that; being presented faultless before God. That is the Christian hope in a nut shell. No one really wants to stand before God with all their sins and faults exposed. That would be terrifying and humiliating. But to be presented faultless, perfect, whole, as one who is righteous and without blemish. That would be a beautiful thing indeed. 

How does God do that? Well, one way to understand this is that God makes us faultless in Christ. To be a Christian is to be in Christ.

To be in Christ is to enter a new spiritual realm, like being granted citizenship in a new country, the land of Jesus.

To be in Christ is to be a branch grafted into the vine of Jesus. Apart from Jesus we can do nothing but when we abide in Christ we become fruitful.

To be in Christ is to be given a new status, like being released from prison into society and having your criminal record expunged.

In fact, when we are baptised into Christ we put on his righteousness. If our thoughts, words and deeds are like dirty rags, then being in Christ is like taking those rags off, having a bath and putting on Jesus’ clean clothes.    

Now some of you may be thinking, ‘Okay, it’s one thing to be faultless in Christ, to put on his righteousness and all that, but isn’t that like cheating or pretending or something? Isn’t that like dressing up mutton and calling it lamb, because it’s Jesus’ faultlessness, not our own. Besides what has been done in the past can’t be undone. We can’t say the mistakes we have made didn’t happen.

Well, let me offer you another couple of ways of thinking about this. If you can imagine your soul is like a stream of water. Sin pollutes the water of our soul. Sin makes the stream of our soul unreliable, toxic even. Through Jesus and the Holy Spirit, God purifies the water of our soul so we are actually pure and faultless on the inside. It’s not that the history of our soul is faultless. It’s more that the future of our soul is faultless, because of the work of Christ in us.

Or to use another analogy. Imagine your heart is an engine. Over time an engine develops faults and problems. The spark plugs become worn, the alternator fails, the battery goes flat, a gasket blows and you find you are burning too much oil. Through Jesus and the Holy Spirit, God reconditions and fine tunes the engine of our heart so it runs smoothly and without fault. We don’t pretend we never had engine problems. Rather, we enjoy driving again with God beside us.      

But we shouldn’t just look at this in an individualistic way. While being in Christ is a personal thing, it is also a community thing. We aren’t in Christ by our self. We are in Christ as part of his body the church. So thinking collectively, to be presented faultless before God may also mean the church community is presented perfect and whole before God, without any missing limbs or organs.

With the Christian faith, it is not a case of the winner takes all (as it is with the hands on a car competition). We share the prize of God’s kingdom. What’s more, we share the prize with exceeding joy. That is, without regret. Without feeling stink that we have won at the exclusion of others.

When I first considered that phrase, with exceeding joy, I thought the joy belonged to God. In other words, God is full of joy to see us presented faultless, in Christ, before him. I read it this way because of what Jesus says in Luke 15 with his parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost sons. In all three stories the punch line seems to be that all heaven rejoices when lost sinners repent and are found.

But when I read what the experts had to say about this verse, they reckon the joy belongs to us. So we are the ones who experience the exceeding joy when presented faultless before God. I suppose it doesn’t have to be either / or. It can be both / and. Both you and God have exceeding joy in each other’s presence.

When we are in the thick of the battle, denying ourselves for Christ, carrying our cross and following Jesus, we do well to remember the end goal is not suffering and self-denial. The end goal is union with God through Christ and the overflow of our union with God is exceeding joy.

Giving God the glory:

Because of God’s ability to keep us from falling and present us faultless, Jude ends his letter with a doxology; an expression of praise for God’s glory. In verse 25 we read: To the only God our Saviour be glory and majesty, dominion and power, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore. Amen.

You need to be aware that the lyrics of the song are slightly different to the actual words of Scripture in Jude.

We sing, to the only wise God. Whereas Jude doesn’t have the word ‘wise’ in there. To the only wise God actually comes from Romans 16:27 where Paul writes, To the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ.

Really it doesn’t make a lot of difference. The point is, there is only one God and wisdom is found in him, through Jesus Christ. That is, we gain access to God’s wisdom through Jesus.

The other difference between the song lyrics and Jude’s words is that the song leaves out the phrase, through Jesus Christ our Lord. I’m not sure why Olive Wood left that out. It seems quite important. Probably it was something to do with the meter and phrasing of the song. It would be too much of a mouthful to sing all those words fluently. In any case, the Christian belief is that we come to the only true God through Jesus. Jesus is the bridge and passport to the kingdom of God.

Many of you will be familiar with the Star Wars saga. The Star Wars universe is based on the belief that there are two opposing powers at work in the galaxy; the light side of the force and the dark side. Jedi knights, like Yoda and Luke Skywalker, are practitioners of the light side of the force, while Sith lords, like Darth Vader, use the dark side of the force. The philosophy of Star Wars is known as dualism. Dual (as in two) forces of equal strength pitched against each other.    

Why am I talking about Star Wars you may wonder? Well, there was a belief system which started to develop late in the first century (around the time Jude wrote his letter) which was similar, in some ways, to the philosophy of the Star Wars universe.  This belief system eventually developed into what we call Gnosticism. Gnosticism is a dualistic belief, with two gods pitched against each other, sort of like the dark side of the force and light side. The experts reckon the false teachers probably preached an early form of Gnosticism. 

When Jude wrote, ‘To the only God our Saviour be glory, majesty, dominion and power…’ he was making the point that, contrary to what the false teachers were saying, there is only one God, not two. While there clearly is the presence of evil in this world, evil is no match for the one true living God, our Saviour.

God’s glory includes his splendour, beauty, magnificence, greatness and transcendence. God’s glory is a weighty thing, it has substance, mass, gravity. We revolve around God’s glory, even if we don’t know it.            

God’s majesty refers to his royalty or his sovereignty, his authority or right to rule.

Dominion is an old fashioned word having to do with domain or territory. God’s dominion is his turf, his kingdom, the area of his royal reach.

And power is God’s ability to do things, to make stuff happen. We have heard about God’s ability to redeem and restore, to make perfect and present us faultless.

When we sing ‘To the only God our Saviour be glory, majesty, dominion and power…’ we are agreeing with Jude and millions of other Christians throughout history that God is above all and totally beyond compare. We want his reign in this world and his will to be done in our lives.      

The last line of the song which reads, ‘both now and forever’, doesn’t quite capture the full scope of Jude’s words which read, ‘before all time, now and forever.’ The glory, majesty, dominion and power of God are not limited by time. They are before all time, that is before creation. They are now in the present time in history. And they are forevermore, beyond time into eternity.

Conclusion:

We may become de-moralised by the state of the world and by the state of ourselves at times. We may become frustrated with how faulty and dysfunctional things are. When life is hard and confusing, when the news is all bad, we need to keep the end goal in sight. This life is not all there is. We were made for more. Jesus came to make all things new.

Our God is able to finish what he started. Our God is infinite, eternal and inexhaustible. He is bigger, longer, older, wiser, deeper, kinder, fuller and more generous than we can imagine. There is no other and never has been any other and never will be any other like him.

Let’s stand and sing…

Now unto Him who is able to keep

Able to keep you from falling

And present you faultless before the presence of His glory

With exceeding joy

To the only wise God, our Saviour

Be glory and majesty, dominion and power

Both now and forever, Amen. 

Questions for discussion or reflection:

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

In what way was Jude like the boy who put his finger in the dike? Have you ever been in a similar/analogous situation? What happened?

How should we respond to God’s grace? What is Christian freedom for?

Why do we need to keep the end in sight? How can we keep the end in sight?

What does it mean to be presented faultless before God’s presence? 

How is the philosophy of Star Wars different from Christian belief?

Take some time this week to imagine the goal of your salvation; standing faultless before God and enjoying him forever.

[1] Refer to the NIV Study Bible, 1985, page 1919. 

Tawa Baptist

There is a Redeemer

Scriptures: John 1:29, Deuteronomy 7:8, Luke 4:14-21, Genesis 50:19-21, Philippians 2:5-11, 1st Corinthians 13:8-12, Romans 8:22-24, Ephesians 1:14

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Jesus, our redeemer
  • Name above all names
  • Father, Son & Spirit
  • When I stand in glory
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

In the late 80’s I wrote an article for a Christian magazine. It was for a competition. I can’t remember exactly what the magazine was called now and I don’t remember the article either, but apparently not many people entered. They published the article and sent me two complimentary CD’s of Keith Green’s music.

Today we continue our ‘Anthems’ series. In this series we are looking at the lyrics of one hymn or Christian worship song each week to see how that song informs our thinking about God and how it connects with Scripture and the heritage of our faith.

This morning, because it is Trinity Sunday and because we are having communion, we are looking at the song There is a Redeemer. For many years I thought this song was written by Keith Green, because I had listened to it on his CD collection and it was his voice singing the song. Only recently did I learn it was actually written in 1977 by Melody Green, Keith’s wife. Keith made the song famous and he added another verse.

Near the beginning of this Anthems series (in November last year) we heard about Keith Green’s conversion to Christianity, when we looked at the song Create in me a clean heart. Melody Green’s story is similar. Like Keith, Melody was born into a Jewish family. Her grandparents fled persecution in Russia and settled in America. Melody’s dad was a Navy Seal, who served in World War 2. On his return he worked in a factory. Her mother worked in an accounting firm and her grandfather was Jewish Rabbi.

During her teenage years Melody went searching for God and tried various Eastern religions and philosophies. Eventually, Melody met Keith and they both went to a Bible study where they became Christians.

Melody and Keith were not ones to do things by halves. They took the words of Jesus seriously and opened their home in radical hospitality to people in need, giving away most of the money they earned. They also wrote an evangelical magazine called Last Days. 

Sadly, in July 1982, just a few months before his 29th birthday, Keith died in a plane crash along with two of their children. Melody was nursing a baby at the time and was pregnant with their fourth child. She became a young widow and solo mum.

Although it was incredibly painful and difficult, Melody came through this tragedy with greater gratitude to God and more love for others. She says, “Today I have more faith in God’s goodness and ability to provide than ever before. Even when terrible things happen He can turn those things towards our good…  but only if we have the patience to wait while we are hurting.”

Melody carried on the work she and Keith had started, serving and loving and preaching and writing in the name of Jesus. She lives in California these days.

Although Melody wrote the song There is a Redeemer five years before Keith died, it speaks to that situation and others like it. There is a Redeemer is about the ability of our triune God (Father, Son & Spirit) to redeem terrible things and use them for good.

Jesus, our redeemer:

The song starts with the words…

There is a redeemer, Jesus, God’s own Son
Precious Lamb of God, Messiah, Holy One.

Right from the start the focus is very much on Jesus. The opening verse gives us five titles for Jesus.

Jesus’ name itself means ‘the Lord saves’.

Jesus is God’s own Son. This means he is divine. We heard about Jesus’ divinity a couple of weeks ago.

Messiah literally means ‘anointed one’. Jesus is the prophet, priest and King, chosen by God to save His people.

Holy One means Jesus is set apart for God’s special purpose. It also points to Jesus’ goodness, his purity and integrity.

And Lamb of God picks up the ancient Jewish idea of sacrifice to remove sins. In the gospel of John chapter 1, John the Baptist sees Jesus and says, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.”     

In the Bible, lambs were associated with innocence, gentleness and deliverance. 

When Abraham was about to sacrifice his son Isaac on the altar, God provided a lamb as a substitute, thus delivering Isaac and his descendants from certain death.

When the people of Israel were about to leave their slavery in Egypt, God instituted the Passover festival – where each family was to sacrifice a lamb and paint the blood over the door frame, so the angel of death would pass-over that house.

And, on a daily basis, lambs were sacrificed in the Jewish temple as a way of atoning for sin

Lamb sacrifices were reminders of God’s deliverance, his redemption from sin and death.

Which brings us to the leading title for Jesus in this song. Jesus is our redeemer. So what is redemption?

Redemption is essentially a two stage process (or transaction). The first stage involves release and the second stage involves restoration.  So redemption is about setting free and making right. It’s about putting things back in their proper place, where they belong.

Imagine you are at a picnic by a lake. It’s a lovely day. You are sitting on your rug, eating your sandwiches and feeding the ducks, when you hear the sound of a large splash. You look round to see your car has rolled into the water. Someone left the hand break off.

Fortunately, no one was in the car and no people or animals were harmed in the making of this story. But you still have a dilemma. Your car is stuck in the mud and half under water. It doesn’t belong there and you can’t get it out. So you ring your insurance company and they redeem things for you. They send a tow truck which comes and winches your car out of the lake. Once the tow truck driver has released your car, she then takes it to the garage where a mechanic restores the engine to get it working again.

A few days later your car is running fine and back with you, on dry land, where it belongs. That’s redemption: first release, then restoration. While it didn’t cost you much, it did cost the insurance company quite a bit. Redemption is usually an expensive exercise, at least for the redeemer.        

The idea of redemption is illustrated clearly in the law of Moses. For example, if an Israelite came upon hard times and was forced to sell their land, the land could be redeemed by a close relative (a kinsman redeemer). This means a price was paid for the land to be released and restored to the rightful owner.

Or, if an Israelite was forced to sell himself into slavery, a close relative (like a brother or a cousin) could pay for that person’s release, so they could be restored to the status of a free man.

Every 50 years the Law of Moses provided for a Jubilee, which was basically a year of redemption, when all land was returned to the families it belonged to and all slaves were set free and debts forgiven. In this way people were released and restored. It was a handy strategy for preventing a gap between rich and poor. (Although we can’t be sure that ancient Israel actually practiced it.)

In any case, Jesus is our redeemer. With Jesus there is Jubilee. This is what Jesus was saying when he stood up in the synagogue and read from the prophet Isaiah saying: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the captives and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”

The year of the Lord’s favour refers to the Jubilee year. The year of redemption. The year of release and restoration. Jesus is our redeemer. He makes Jubilee happen. 

The quintessential redemption story is the story of Ruth, Naomi and Boaz. But I’m always referring to Ruth so I’ll choose another story instead. Like when God redeemed the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt.

In Deuteronomy 7:8 we read: But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.  

The Israelites were under the power of a foreign dominion; they were oppressed in Egypt. God released his people from that land of slavery and (eventually) restored them to the Promised Land, the land of Canaan, flowing with milk and honey, where they belonged. That’s redemption on a national scale.

Jesus is our redeemer. He sets people free from the slavery of sin and death, restoring us to God’s kingdom, where we belong. Jesus’ redemption is international in its scope. He does it for all people and nations who put their faith in him.

One of my favourite redemption stories is the story of Joseph. Joseph was his father, Jacob’s, favourite and it made Joseph’s brothers envious. They sold him into slavery and faked his death. But God redeemed the situation. He used it for good. Through a series of fortunate and unfortunate events Joseph rose through the ranks from being a lowly slave to becoming the Prime Minister of Egypt. God used Joseph to interpret Pharaoh’s dream and deliver the nation from starvation when the seven years of famine came.

In the end God restored Joseph’s family to him also. In Genesis 50 we read how Joseph’s brothers were afraid because of the way they had treated Joseph but Joseph redeemed them saying: “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. So then, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your children.”

Joseph became a redeemer for all of Egypt and for his brothers. Joseph points to Jesus, our redeemer. In Jesus we find the release of forgiveness for our sins and restoration to right relationship with God the Father.

Name above all names:

The next verse of the song reads…

Jesus my redeemer, name above all names,
Precious Lamb of God, Messiah, oh, for sinners slain.

A person’s name is their reputation, their integrity and their honour. That phrase name above all names is saying that Jesus has the greatest name. His reputation, his personal integrity, his honour, is higher than any other. We are reminded of Philippians 2 where the apostle Paul writes…

5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mind-set as Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross! 9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

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

This passage of Scripture tells us that Jesus is divine; he shares the very nature of God. It also speaks of Jesus’ sacrifice for sinners. Jesus is the precious sacrificial lamb of God.

One of the things about the sacrificial lamb in Jewish worship is that it had to be spotless, without blemish, perfect. God is infinitely worthy and so he deserves the very best we can offer. To say that Jesus is precious is to say that he is one of a kind. He is the only one good enough to serve as a sacrificial lamb in our place. No one else will do.

The song reminds us that Jesus was slain (or killed) for sinners. The word, sinners, does not refer to a particular class or category of people. Sinners refers to all human beings. We are all sinners and we are all sinned against. To be a sinner is to be alienated from God. That is, to be under the power of a foreign dominion. Sin is not where we belong.

As sinners we are like the car that rolled into the lake. We are in need of redemption. We have a choice. We can either stay in the lake or we can call on God for help. When we call on God he sends his Son, Jesus, to redeem us. Our redemption doesn’t cost us as much as it costs Jesus. He releases us from the lake and, as we cooperate with his Spirit, restores the engine of our heart so we are able to function in a right relationship with God again.       

Father, Son & Spirit:

The chorus of Melody’s song reads…          

Thank you, oh my Father for giving us Your Son
And leaving Your Spirit ’til the work on earth is done.

There is a clear reference of the work of the Trinity in this chorus. Jesus doesn’t do the work of redemption all on his own. Rather the redemption of creation is a team effort with each of the three members of the Trinity (Father, Son & Spirit) working together.

Broadly speaking, from a human perspective, redemption is the initiative of God the Father. God the Father comes up with the plan (I imagine in consultation with the Son & the Spirit) and then sends his Son Jesus and the Holy Spirit into the world to implement the plan. The plan is that Jesus will deliver humanity from sin and death by sacrificing himself on the cross. Jesus works in harmony with the Spirit and is obedient to God the Father in going to the cross. Then later, after Jesus’ resurrection, the Holy Spirit was given to complete (or bring to fruition) Jesus’ work of redemption in the lives of human beings. As I said last week, we are sanctified (or made holy) as we cooperate with the Holy Spirit.  

The point is, when it comes to our redemption, it is a team effort on God’s part.

Imagine your liver is failing. The whites of your eyes are turning yellow, you look jaundiced and you feel rotten. So you go to the doctor. This doctor is a liver specialist and a surgeon. The doctor examines you and sees that you need a liver transplant. He goes looking for a donor for you – someone who is healthy and well. As it happens the only donor who is a match for you is the surgeon’s own son. The surgeon’s son is precious for many reasons; especially as he is the only one who can save you.

Although the donor (the surgeon’s son) is a stranger to you, he loves his father and, after hearing about your situation, is willing to donate part of their liver. You only need a part of the liver. It will regenerate on its own once it is transplanted.

The whole situation humbles you. The doctor must really care about you; given he is willing to risk his only son’s life to save yours. But what can you do. You don’t have medical insurance and if you don’t accept the organ donation you will die. You gratefully accept the doctor’s surgery and trust the son’s sacrifice to redeem your life and health.

The surgery goes well and your body accepts the new liver. You begin to feel better and you realise you owe everything to this father and son. You ask what you can do to say ‘thank you’ and they reply, ‘Take care of your new liver.’ So that’s what you do. You lay off the alcohol and you go easy on sugar. You look after your body, inside and out, and you find ways to pay it forward.

In some ways, not in every way, but in some ways God the Father is a little bit like the surgeon and Jesus is a little bit like the son, who donated his liver, and the liver you received is a little bit like the Holy Spirit.

It’s not a perfect analogy, so don’t press it too far. I’m not suggesting the Holy Spirit is chopped liver. The Holy Spirit is a person in his own right. But he is like a vital organ to our life with God.

The point is, your redemption, my redemption, is a team effort on God’s part and it is costly. God’s only motivation was love. We owe God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) our very lives. How are we taking care of the new liver he has given us?

When I stand in glory:

The last verse of Melody’s song, which I think was added by Keith Green, reads…

When I stand in glory I will see His face
And there I’ll serve my King forever in that holy place.

‘Glory’, in this context, refers to the return of Jesus when God’s kingdom, the kingdom of heaven, is fully realised. So the line, when I stand in glory, looks forward to that time when we see Jesus face to face in all his heavenly glory. In 1st Corinthians 13 the apostle Paul writes about what it will be like when we stand in glory. From verse 8 we read…

But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

For many years (most of my life in fact) I had seen the Remarkables (a mountain range in Queenstown) on TV or in post cards and thought they look nice. It would be cool to go there one day. But when I actually did go to Queenstown and saw the Remarkables face to face I was blown away. I couldn’t stop looking at them. They really are remarkable.  

None of us have actually seen Jesus face to face, not yet anyway. We’ve seen his reflection in the Scriptures and perhaps in the church, that is, in the love we have known and shared with other believers. And while these reflections are beautiful in their own way, I expect they don’t really compare with the beauty of a face to face encounter with Christ in his glory. I imagine we will find it difficult to stop looking at Jesus.         

Our redemption is not complete. Full redemption is yet to be accomplished. In Romans 8 Paul puts into words our longing for full redemption where he writes, 22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved.

And in a similar vein Paul looks forward to the completion of our redemption in Ephesians. From chapter 1, verse 13 we read…

When you believed, you were marked in Christ with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.

When purchasing a house, the buyer normally puts down a deposit first, as a guarantee that they will go through with the agreement. The deposit seals the deal as it were. Then, when it is time to move in, the balance is paid and the keys are released to the new owner.

The Holy Spirit is the deposit on our soul guaranteeing our inheritance in God’s kingdom. We haven’t moved into God’s kingdom fully, not yet. We still live in this far from perfect world. But we won’t be slumming it forever. When Jesus returns we will be released from the power of this world and restored to God’s dominion.      

Conclusion:

Jesus is our redeemer. Jesus releases us from the power of sin and death and he restores us to God’s image and God’s kingdom. But he doesn’t do this on his own. No. Our redemption is a team effort between God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

While our redemption is guaranteed (from God’s end at least) it is not yet complete. In the meantime, we look forward in hope to that day when we can see Jesus face to face. 

I imagine when our redemption is fully realised we will be better able to worship God than we can now. 

Let’s stand and sing There is a redeemer as we prepare for communion…

There is a redeemer, Jesus God’s own Son

Precious Lamb of God, Messiah, Holy One.

Jesus my redeemer, name above all names
Precious Lamb of God, Messiah, oh, for sinners slain.

Thank you, oh my Father for giving us Your Son
And leaving Your Spirit ’til the work on earth is done.

When I stand in glory I will see His face
And there I’ll serve my King forever in that holy place.

Thank you, oh my father, for giving us Your Son
And leaving Your Spirit ’til the work on earth is done.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

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

What are the two parts / stages of redemption? Can you think of a time in your own life when you have experienced redemption in some way?

What examples of redemption do we find in the Old Testament? How do these redemption stories point to Jesus, our redeemer?

Discuss / reflect on the meaning of the phrase: ‘Jesus, precious Lamb of God’.

How do the Father, Son & Holy Spirit work together for our redemption?

Thinking of the liver transplant analogy above; how are you taking care of the new liver (new life) God has given you?

In what sense is our redemption incomplete? When will our redemption be fully realized? Take some time this week to reflect on what full redemption will be like. 

Tawa Baptist

Be Exalted, O God

Scriptures: 1st Samuel 24:1-22, Psalm 57

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • I will give thanks
  • Be exalted, O God
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

When I was a kid I was lucky enough to spend holidays at the beach. My Nan told me that if I held an empty shell to my ear I could hear the sea, even if I was hundreds of miles away from the ocean.

Of course, when I got older and stopped taking everything so literally, I learned that my Nan was speaking in metaphor. Scientists will tell you that when you listen to a shell, you’re not really hearing the sound of the ocean. The shell acts as a resonator for ambient sound. Normally our brains filter out background noises, like the wind and the sea and traffic and birds, but when you put a shell over your ear, some frequencies are amplified and others get suppressed. It sounds like the sea because the movement of the ocean is one of those background noises that your brain normally filters out.

Personally, I prefer my Nan’s explanation. The idea that an empty shell can pick up the sound of the sea from anywhere is way cooler.

Today we continue our ‘Anthems’ series. In this series we are looking at the lyrics of one hymn or Christian worship song each week to see how that song informs our thinking about God and how it connects with Scripture and the heritage of our faith.

The song we are looking at this morning is called Be Exalted, O God.

Be Exalted is one of those songs that sounds like the sea. On the one hand it is comforting and hopeful. But on the other hand it is at risk of being filtered out of by our brains as background noise, because the words sound so familiar.

The lyrics for Be Exalted were written thousands of years ago by king David. We find them in Psalm 57. But the tune we sing it to today was written by a New Zealander called Brent Chambers.

Brent was born in Napier in 1948. He became a Christian at a Youth for Christ meeting in 1966. In an interview with Lindsay Terry, Brent talks about his conversion. Brent says…

“I didn’t have a great deal of interest in the [YFC] meeting but decided to go along. The Lord spoke to me during that service, and I became a Christian that very night. A couple of years later, I realized that I was not including Jesus into my life’s activities. I somehow knew that I could not be an effective Christian unless he had my whole life. Consequently, I surrendered everything to Christ, and from that time, even as a new Christian, songs began to pour out of me.”

Brent has written over 500 songs during his lifetime, alongside making a living by painting houses. He wrote Be Exalted, O God in 1977.

You know sometimes we can sing worship songs that are familiar to us and not really engage with them. The words come out of our mouth but our mind is elsewhere. It’s the same with reading Scripture or listening to sermons. Sometimes the words just wash over us without really going in or being real and then, one-day, God gently cups a shell over the ear of our soul and we pick up what he’s saying. Brent describes his resonator moment when Be Exalted, O God became real for him…

“After hearing my song, David Garrett [one of the founders of Scripture in Song music] asked me, Brent, do you think maybe God is speaking to you through these words?’ Up until that moment it was just another song that I had written, but when he said those words, my song became the Word of God to me, and my life’s call – my heart’s desire. I suddenly wanted to give thanks among the people and to sing praises among the nations. By the grace of God, we’ve done just that in many places, singing Be Exalted, O God’ and other songs.”

To help us hear God’s word in this song let’s turn to Psalm 57 now. The title of Psalm 57 says that David wrote this when he had fled into a cave to get away from king Saul. We read about David’s experience in the cave earlier in today’s service, from 1st Samuel chapter 24. Let’s read the corresponding Psalm now…

1 Have mercy on me, my God, have mercy on me, for in you I take refuge.
I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed.     

2 I cry out to God Most High, to God, who vindicates me.
3 He sends from heaven and saves me, rebuking those who hotly pursue me – God sends forth his love and his faithfulness.

4 I am in the midst of lions; I am forced to dwell among ravenous beasts—
men whose teeth are spears and arrows, whose tongues are sharp swords.

5 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth.

6 They spread a net for my feet—I was bowed down in distress. They dug a pit in my path—but they have fallen into it themselves.

7 My heart, O God, is steadfast, my heart is steadfast; I will sing and make music. 8 Awake, my soul! Awake, harp and lyre! I will awaken the dawn.

9 I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the nations; I will sing praises to you among the peoples. 10 For your steadfast love reaches to the heavens; your faithfulness extends to the skies.

11 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth. 

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

I will give thanks

Caves are like sea shells, they are resonators. Hollow spaces tend to increase resonance – they help us to hear more layers of sound. You notice this when you are in a cave. Small sounds that we might not ordinarily notice, like footsteps or breathing or water dripping are amplified in a cave – we hear them more fully, more clearly, than when we are outside in the open.

The psalms are like resonators. As we hold the psalms to our ear, they show us ourselves; all the different layers of being human. They help us to be honest in expressing both the good things and the bad and to move beyond what we feel to adoration of God. 

Brent Champers’ song begins with the line…

I will give thanks to Thee, O Lord, among the peoples.
I will sing praises to Thee among the nations.
These words come from verse 9 of Psalm 57; which is towards the end of the Psalm. While giving thanks to God is a good thing to do, it is not always the first thing to do. As human beings we need to give voice to the difficulties we are facing alongside the things we are thankful for.

With this in view, David does not begin with thanksgiving. David begins by asking God for mercy. Not the mercy of forgiveness (he hasn’t done anything wrong) but rather the mercy of God’s help and protection. David has been unfairly treated and he wants God to vindicate him.

Before launching into thanksgiving David acknowledges before the Lord the fear, stress, homelessness and injustice he has been living with. In verse 4 of Psalm 57 David describes in graphic terms the danger he is in…

4 I am in the midst of lions; I am forced to dwell among ravenous beasts—
men whose teeth are spears and arrows, whose tongues are sharp swords.

David is comparing the people who are after him (Saul and Co) as beasts hungry to kill him, not just physically but relationally as well. By spreading lies about David his enemies are alienating him, isolating him, from his community.

David has been under immense pressure and that pressure acts as a kind of emotional resonator. It makes David more aware of his need for God and consequently of God’s faithfulness in providing for him. To most people a cave is a dark spooky place to be avoided. But David’s vision of God’s goodness transforms the cave from a dingy hole in the ground to a refuge under the shadow of His wings.

This resonates with the story of Ruth, where Boaz says to Ruth, ‘May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.’ Ruth was, of course, one of David’s ancestors.

Despite the unfairness of his situation David (in verse 3) is able to see that God is on his side. The Lord has sent love and faithfulness from heaven to help him. David is not thankful for the stress of being on the run for his life and nor should he be. That wouldn’t be true or right. But David is thankful for God’s steadfast love and faithfulness. David is acutely aware of God’s reliability, when everything else around him is unreliable and uncertain.

God’s love and faithfulness are continually poured out from heaven for us, but we don’t always notice it. Like background noise, our brain filters it out and we tend to take God’s goodness for granted. But when we find ourselves in extreme circumstances; when we are acutely aware of our need, this acts as a kind of resonator and we notice those little things that God does under the radar to help us.  

For the past six weeks or more, we have been in a cave of sorts. We have been forced (by Covid-19) to stay at home in lockdown, hiding from the virus. We are aware of the collateral damage Covid-19 has caused around the world. It has taken lives. It has cost people their jobs and their businesses. It has created pressure and strain in families. We need to acknowledge that this experience has been harder for some than others. At the same time, it has not been without collateral beauty.

Collateral beauty is the opposite of collateral damage. Collateral beauty is recognising and cherishing moments of light and goodness in the midst of dark and difficult circumstances. Collateral beauty is what we get when God sends his love and faithfulness from heaven. Collateral beauty transforms a cave into the shadow of God’s wings, a place of sanctuary and comfort.

I had a collateral beauty moment on the first Sunday we were in level 4. I was in the church carpark, by myself, and I noticed the stillness. The Main Rd of Tawa is normally very busy. But on this particular day, there were no cars or people or any sort of background noise. There was just the silence of the sunrise. It was beautiful. I stood still for a moment to simply experience it. Was this what it was like for Elijah as he stood at the entrance of the cave on Mount Carmel all those centuries ago? Was this what it was like for the disciples when Jesus calmed the storm on the sea of Galilee? The stillness was so rare, so precious. I’m not sure I would have known (or appreciated) that sort of profound stillness apart from lockdown and I’m not sure I’ll ever know it again, at least not in the church carpark.

That was one of my collateral beauty moments during level 4. What was your moment? In what ways have you noticed God sending his love and faithfulness? You might like to pause the audio recording at this point and share with others your collateral beauty moment.       

Be exalted

You know, my Nan was a clever lady. She didn’t say a lot but she knew the right thing to say and when to say it. She could have given me the scientific explanation of why empty shells always sound like the sea but she knew that science by itself is not enough for the human soul. She knew that during a cold foggy winter’s day in Hamilton, when I was back at school, holding a sea shell to my ear would act as a resonator of happy memories at the beach. More than that though, it would also make me look forward in hope to the next summer holidays. My Nan’s explanation exercised my imagination and it filled me with wonder.  

In Psalm 57 we find a David who is so confident, so full of hope. His back is against the wall (literally) but he doesn’t give up. Saul and 3,000 of Israel’s finest soldiers have David cornered in a cave. David is outnumbered with nowhere to run and yet he can still remember God’s love and faithfulness. Not only that but he can even imagine a good future for himself, one in which he is set free and vindicated by God.

Jesus had the same kind of confidence and hope in going to the cross. He knew that, even though he would die, God would not abandon him to the grave. Jesus knew God would set him free from death and raise him to eternal life and that’s exactly what God did.      

The chorus of Brent Chambers’ song is the same as David’s chorus in Psalm 57;

5 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth.

To be exalted is to be lifted up, to be promoted. This refrain (for God to be exalted) is repeated twice in Psalm 57, once in the middle (in verse 5) and then again at the end (in verse 11).

What we notice is that although the exact same words are used both times, they are given a different meaning by the context. In verse 5 be exalted, O God is really a prayer for God to save David from real and present danger. Whereas, in verse 11, it is an expression of thankfulness for God’s salvation.

In verse 4 of Psalm 57 David describes his enemies as ravenous beasts. So, when David says straight after this (in verse 5) 5 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; what he means is: ‘Use your power God to save me from my enemies.’ [1] You be in charge God and put evil in its place.

Be exalted O God, resonates with the Lord’s prayer where we say, ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.’ Hallowed be your name means may your name be lifted up and treated as sacred.

In the same vein, when David says, let your glory be over all the earth, he is really asking for God’s purpose to be achieved everywhere. “God’s glory” is the manifestation (the outworking) of his sovereign rule. [2] Or said another way, “God’s glory” is his justice and mercy at work in the world. To sing, let your glory be over all the earth is basically the same as saying, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”.

In verse 6 of Psalm 57 David describes the way in which God has exalted his justice and mercy in the cave…

6 They spread a net for my feet—I was bowed down in distress. They dug a pit in my path—but they have fallen into it themselves.

While Saul was out hunting for David, he felt the call of nature. (He needed to relieve himself.) So he goes into a cave for some privacy. We can imagine the sound resonating around the cave walls. Little does Saul know that this is the very same cave that David and his men are hiding in. Saul has fallen into the pit he dug for David. Saul had planned to trap David and kill him, but now it is Saul who is at David’s mercy.

David’s men see this as God’s providence for David. They encourage David to kill Saul. It is tempting. David creeps up behind Saul and cuts a piece off the corner of the king’s robe. But then David is conscience stricken. He returns to his men and rebukes them saying, ‘Lord forbid that I should do such a thing…’ David will not exalt himself. He will not promote himself at Saul’s expense. David wants God to be exalted and murder does not achieve that. 

David may be hiding in a hole but he has the moral high ground and this enables him to say, in verse 7, My heart, O God, is steadfast, my heart is steadfast;

To have a steadfast heart is to have courage and a clear conscience. To be resolute and unafraid. Why is David’s heart steadfast? Because he has done the right thing and he knows it.

We see something of David’s steadfastness of heart in the way he addresses Saul. After Saul has left the cave David says…

‘May the Lord be our judge and decide between us. May he consider my cause and uphold it; may he vindicate me by delivering me from your hand.’

This is another way of saying: Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth.

This shows us that God can be exalted by the choices we make. Yes, God exalts himself by saving his people through acts of justice and mercy. But we human beings also exalt God (we raise up and promote God’s purpose) when we obey him.

In verses 8 & 9 of Psalm 57 David says, Awake, my soul! Awake, harp and lyre! I will awaken the dawn. 9 I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the nations;

This demonstrates David’s confidence in God to save him.

‘To awaken the dawn’ with praise for God means getting up while it is still dark (before the sunrise) and singing worship songs to God. I understand the ‘dawn’ here to be a metaphor for God’s salvation. It’s a way of saying, ‘I will give thanks and praise to God while I’m still waiting in the dark, even before I have seen the light of his salvation.’ David is steadfastly confident that God will act to save him. He’s so confident in fact that he thanks God in advance, even before God has actually answered his prayer. It’s a bit like asking God to deliver us from Covid-19 and then thanking him for saving us even before a vaccine has been created. Or, it’s like holding a shell to your ear in the middle of winter and thanking God in advance for the summer holidays that are coming.    

The first time David sings be exalted, O God (in verse 5)it was said in the context of being afraid for his life and was meant as a prayer for the Lord to save him. The second time David sings be exalted, O God (in verse 11) it is with grateful love, as one who anticipates being saved and coming through the other side.

We know this because in verses 9 & 10 of Psalm 57 David says, 9 I will give thanks to you, O Lord…  10 For your steadfast love reaches to the heavens; your faithfulness extends to the skies.  This is a poetic way of saying, God’s love and faithfulness is everywhere all the time. God’s love and faithfulness is like the air we breathe; it is abundant and life giving and always present.

As I said before, the risk with God’s love and faithfulness being so plentiful is that it can become like background noise; something our brain filters out. Something we take for granted.

Prayer isn’t just about asking God for stuff. Prayer includes being aware of the oxygen of God’s love and faithfulness; putting a metaphorical shell (or resonator) to our spiritual ear; being intentional about noticing the many small things God does under the radar which support our life.      

The incident in the cave (in 1st Samuel 24) ended with king Saul admitting he was wrong and leaving David unharmed. We see God’s hand in this. David took a leap of faith in speaking his truth to Saul. Saul was prone to bouts of insanity. The tormented king was just as likely to turn on David in that moment, but he didn’t. God exalted himself by using David’s act of justice and mercy to soften Saul’s heart and turn away the king’s anger. So David was given some respite.

But this wasn’t the end of it. David knew better than to trust Saul. It would not be long before Saul’s paranoia got the better of him and he went in pursuit of David again.   

Conclusion

Last Thursday we transitioned to level 2, with a limit on gatherings of 10 people. We are thankful to be able to catch up with family and friends in small groups. But at the same time we are not quite out of the woods (or out of the cave) just yet.

Nevertheless, we can give thanks to God for his grace in bringing us this far and we can continue to pray that God’s purpose will be exalted in all the earth.

God exalted himself most significantly in raising Jesus from the dead. Because of Jesus’ resurrection we can be confident that the sun of God’s salvation will rise on the night time of whatever trials and difficulties we may face. 

Intercessory Prayer

In a moment I will lead us in an intercessory prayer. David’s prayer for God to be exalted is a universal prayer. It can be applied in so many different situations because it is essentially asking for God’s will to be done in the world. It is a prayer for God’s justice & mercy to be lifted up everywhere. With this in mind I will offer words of intercession for various people and situations and I invite you to respond by saying, “Be exalted, O God”. When I pause that is your cue to pray, “Be exalted, O God”.

Let us pray…

Lord Jesus, you were a teacher. We pray for students who are returning to school this week. Keep them safe. Help pupils, teachers and parents with this transition.

“Be exalted, O God”

Lord Jesus, you are the well of living water. We pray for those people and animals in the Hawke’s Bay, Auckland and Northland who are adversely affected by the drought. May you bring the rain they need. Restore the land we ask.

“Be exalted, O God”

Lord Jesus, you were a self-employed carpenter. We pray for business owners who have lost income and livelihoods. May you restore what the locusts have eaten.

“Be exalted, O God”

Lord Jesus, you are the corner stone of the church. We ask your blessing on the churches in Tawa. May you be present through the on-line Alpha course and touch the lives of each one who participates in this.

“Be exalted, O God”

Lord Jesus, you were beaten, mocked and scorned. We ask your deliverance for those women and children who are trapped in abusive relationships. Set the captives free we pray.

“Be exalted, O God”

Lord Jesus, you are our King. We pray for wisdom for our government. May they act as your servants, promoting justice and compassion in our society.

“Be exalted, O God”

Lord Jesus, you have the power to heal: mind, body, soul and relationships. Make us whole and grant us your peace we pray.

“Be exalted, O God”

Lord Jesus, you are risen from the dead. May your resurrection be real in and through us. Strengthen our hope, renew our joy and keep us in God’s purpose we ask.

“Be exalted, O God”

Thank you Lord Jesus that you hear our prayer. Amen.  

Let’s stand and sing Be exalted, O God…

I will give thanks to Thee, O Lord, among the peoples
I will sing praises to Thee among the nations
For Thy steadfast love is great, it is great to the heavens
And Thy faithfulness, Thy faithfulness to the clouds

Be exalted, O God, above the heavens
Let Thy glory be over all the earth (x2)

Questions for discussion or reflection:

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

How might the Psalms help us to be honest with ourselves and worship God?

Why do you think David saw the cave he was in as ‘a refuge under the shadow of God’s wings’?

What collateral damage have you experienced because of Covid-19? What collateral beauty have you experienced? 

What can we do to make/keep ourselves aware of the oxygen of God’s love & faithfulness?

Why did David pray ‘Be exalted, O God’ in verse 5 of Psalm 57? (What did he mean in that context?) And what did David mean when he said ‘Be exalted, O God’ in verse 11? How is the nuance different in each repetition of this refrain?

How can we exalt God? (How can we lift up his purpose in the world?)

Take some time this week to awaken the dawn with praise for God – that is, to thank God for his love and faithfulness.

[1] Refer James Mays’ commentary on the Psalms, page 210. 

[2] Ibid.

Tawa Baptist

10 May 2020 – Oceans

Scripture: Matthew 14:22-33, Acts 10, Psalm 131:2, Song of Solomon 2:16

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Walking on water
  • I am yours and you are mine
  • Trust without borders
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone and happy Mothers’ day to all the mums out there. A special shout out to my own mum, who is listening to this in Hamilton. 

You may be familiar with the phrase, ‘Measure twice, cut once’. It’s a carpentry metaphor. When a builder is cutting a piece of wood he or she wants to make sure it is the right size to fit, before cutting, otherwise the wood is wasted. 

If making a decision is akin to cutting a piece of wood, then thinking things through and doing your due diligence first is akin to measuring twice.

There are two opposites to measuring twice and cutting once. At one extreme there are those who cut first and try to make it fit later. And, at the other extreme, there are those who are always measuring and never get around to cutting. They never commit to a decision. 

You may like to do a little exercise in your bubbles now. On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is equivalent to cutting first and making it fit later, and 5 is equivalent to measuring twice before cutting and 10 is equivalent to always measuring and never committing to a decision, what number would you give yourself? 

(You could pause the audio recording at this point and share your answer with those in your bubble. See if they agree with your self-assessment.) 

Hopefully this was a fun sharing time and you are still talking to each other. 

It is important to know there is no ideal number. It often depends on the circumstances. Some situations call for us to cut first, without measuring. In other situations, we do well to measure but not commit to a decision, perhaps because we don’t have enough information. Most of the time though, measuring twice and cutting once is our best option. Wisdom is the ability to discern which approach is best under the circumstances. 

Today we continue our ‘Anthems’ series. In this series we are looking at the lyrics of one hymn or Christian worship song each week to see how that song informs our thinking about God and how it connects with Scripture and the heritage of our faith. 

The song we are looking at this morning is called Oceans. 

Oceans was written by three blokes from Hillsong United in Australia; Matt Crocker, Joel Houston and Salomon Ligthelm. It was released in 2013 and has been very popular in church circles around the western world. 

Oceans is largely based on Matthew 14:22-33; the story of Peter getting out of the boat to walk on water toward Jesus.   

Joel Houston explains, “It’s really a song about stepping into the unknown, about faith and raw trust in God.”

Walking on water:

Since so much of the meaning of Oceans is found in Matthew 14, let’s revisit that story of Jesus & Peter walking on water now. From verse 22 we read… 

22 Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. 23 After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone, 24 and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.

25 Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. 26 When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.

27 But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

28 “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”

29 “Come,” he said.

Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”

31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”

32 And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. 33 Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

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

The impression we get of Peter, in the gospels, is that he was naturally inclined to cut first and make it fit later. It appears that Peter didn’t really think things through when he said to Jesus, “Lord, if it’s you, tell me to come to you on the water.” What a strange and peculiar test. To be fair to Peter though, it had been a very long and exhausting day and it is difficult to think straight when you are under stress.  

The opening verse of the song Oceans begins…

You call me out upon the waters, the great unknown where feet may fail.

This line recalls Jesus telling Peter to get out of the boat and walk on the water towards him. It also recalls how the feet of Peter’s faith failed, and he began to sink, when he took his eyes off Jesus.   

Verse 1 of the song continues…

And there I find You in the mystery, in oceans deep my faith will stand.

This line rightly acknowledges the mystery of God. We can’t know God completely or understand all his ways. God reveals himself to us, in part, through creation, through the Bible and most notably through Jesus. But our minds are too small, too finite to fully grasp God, who is infinite. The things about God that remain inaccessible to us are in the realm of mystery. When it comes to the mystery of God we are not able to measure twice, nor do we have to commit to a firm position. We simply trust. 

Now it was fashionable for a while (during the 20th Century) to explain the miracle out of the account of Jesus walking on water. Some people postulated that Jesus was just walking on the beach beside the lake so it only appeared to the disciples that he was walking on water. Others came up with the theory that Jesus was walking on a sand bar. None of these natural explanations make sense though.

Matthew is very clear that Jesus miraculously walked on water. There was no trick of the light and no sand bar. Verse 24 of Matthew 14 tells us the boat was far out on the lake. There are no shallow spots far out on the Sea of Galilee and, from that distance (in the dark), the disciples wouldn’t be able to see Jesus until he got quite close to the boat. What’s more Jesus rescued Peter and got into the boat with the disciples, so he was definitely out in the deep part of the lake. 

A belief in the miraculous power of Jesus does not make our faith less credible. If anything it points to the greatness (or the mystery) of God. If we could explain everything about Jesus, he wouldn’t be the Son of God.   

The first half of the chorus of the song reads…

And I will call upon Your name and keep my eyes above the waves.
Again this connects with Peter’s experience in Matthew 14. When Peter started to sink he called out to Jesus to save him. I like the observation Neville made in his all-age activity earlier in today’s service. 

Neville said, ‘When Peter started sinking he did not call back to his friends to throw him a rope – he called to Jesus for help.’ 

Peter’s instinct was to rely on Jesus. 

The song Oceans encourages us to learn from Peter’s experience and keep our eyes above the waves – that is, keep our eyes focused on Jesus (As we sang earlier, Turn your eyes upon Jesus…) 

Verse 2 of the song continues the walking on water theme where we sing… 

Your grace abounds in deepest waters, Your sovereign hand will be my guide.
Peter experienced Jesus’ grace in deepest waters when Jesus held out his sovereign hand to rescue him. You might remember from last week that God’s sovereignty refers to his supreme power and ultimate authority in this world. God is free to do whatever he wants but he chooses to use his power for the well-being of his creation. Jesus, who is full of grace & truth, used his power to save Peter.   

But it wasn’t just Peter who experienced God’s grace out on the lake that night. The other disciples received the grace (or the gift) of seeing Jesus calm the waters when he got into the boat. This revealed to them that Jesus is in fact Sovereign over creation – even the wind and waves obey him.  

Verse 2 of the song also reminds us that even though the feet of our faith may fail and fear sometimes gets the better of us, Jesus will never fail us. Jesus’ faithfulness does not depend on us. Jesus is faithful because he is the Son of God and God is faithful. 

God’s grace and faithfulness is as deep and abundant as the water of the oceans. This means we are not condemned if our faith fails. It’s not the end of the world if we make a mistake. God is big enough to forgive and redeem our mistakes. Whether Peter should have got out of the boat on that occasion or not is beside the point. The fact is, he did get out and walk on water for a little bit. And although he took his eyes off Jesus and started to sink it wasn’t the end of his life, nor was it the end of his relationship with Jesus. God’s grace was sufficient for Peter and it is sufficient for you too. So if we fail, we don’t give up. We ask for Jesus’ help and we learn from the experience. 

I am yours and you are mine:

Returning to the chorus of today’s song. The second half reads…

When oceans rise, my soul will rest in Your embrace, for I am Yours and You are mine. 

Certainly Peter rested in Jesus’ embrace, when Jesus lifted him out of the water. 

But these lines make other connections as well. ‘When oceans rise’, makes us think of global warming and the way the world’s oceans are literally rising due to the melting of glaciers and ice shelfs. Our world is anxious about the ecological crisis we are facing. As Christians though we find our security in God. We do what we can to stem the tide and we trust ourselves to God.   

My soul will rest in Your embrace reminds me of Psalm 131:2 which reads, 

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

Just as a mother holds a child in her tender embrace, so too God holds our soul in his embrace. 

Twice, in Psalm 131, David says his soul is like a weaned child. To be weaned is to become accustomed to managing without something which we were previously dependent on. For example, the child stops drinking its mother’s milk and starts eating solid food. It’s not that milk is bad – it is good for a time – but as the child grows it needs more substantial nourishment. A baby cries when it is hungry so the mother will feed it. A weaned child does not cry though because a weaned child knows it will be fed and waits for mum to prepare the meal. 

How does God feed the human soul? God feeds our soul with meaning. When something is meaningful it is worthwhile – it has a point to it, a purpose that is satisfying. Meaning answers the ‘why’ questions of life & death. Ultimately God is the one who gives meaning to our lives. The thing is, we often have to wait, in quiet trust, for that meaning to be revealed.  

We quieten our soul by abandoning outcomes to God. By not seeking to manipulate the end result. Embracing the truth that we don’t have all the answers, let alone the resources to make things turn out right. How will God deliver the world from global warming and Covid-19 and any other threat we may be anxious about? I don’t know. What I believe is that God can deliver us. The fact that Jesus walked on water demonstrates that he is Lord of creation. Nothing is too difficult for him. He won’t let the storm or the waves get out of control. Ultimately God is in charge. 

The chorus of the song Oceans includes the line, For I am Yours and You are mine. This means we belong to God, exclusively. As I said a couple of weeks ago, God is jealous for us. He will not share us with anyone or anything else. 

For I am Yours and You are mine, reminds me of the Song of Solomon 2:16, which reads: My beloved is mine and I am his; he browses among the lilies.

On the face of it, the Song of Solomon is a love poem describing the experience of young love, falling in love, romantic love between a man and a woman.  

Some Christians throughout history have interpreted the Song of Solomon as an allegory or parable for the church’s relationship with Jesus; where the church is the woman and Jesus is the bridegroom.

My beloved is mine and I am his; This is talking about an exclusive, close personal relationship with Jesus.

And, He browses among the lilies, is a metaphor which basically means he admires my beauty. 

Perhaps you don’t feel all that beautiful at the moment. Perhaps you’ve done things that make you feel ugly or gross. Perhaps other people have said and done things to you that make you feel worth less. Let me say this; you are not defined by how you feel about yourself. You are not defined by your mistakes. Nor are you defined by other people’s actions toward you. You are defined by God and you belong to Jesus. You are his beloved. When Jesus looks at you he is browsing among the lilies – he is admiring your beauty, in other words. He sees you, the real you, and he loves you. 

It is the power of God’s love for us, in Christ, which makes us feel safe enough to get out of the boat. 

Trust without borders:

The bridge of the song Oceans is a brave prayer. It reads…

Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders,
Let me walk upon the waters wherever You would call me.
Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander
And my faith will be made stronger in the presence of my Saviour.

That phrase ‘trust without borders’ sounds like its borrowed from the organisation called Doctors Without Borders. As the name would suggest Doctors Without Borders is an international humanitarian agency that provides medical aid across national boundaries, irrespective of race or religion or political affiliation. It is a Non-Government Organisation (NGO) known for its work in conflict zones and other hard places that are not well resourced. 

Returning to the song. When we sing Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders, we are saying something like: Spirit lead me out of my comfort zone. Help me to trust God in those extreme circumstances where things are unfamiliar and I’m over my head; where material resources are scarce and my normal supports are taken away.

It needs to be said that these are the sort of words you might sing from a place of confidence; a place of wanting to be challenged and looking for an adventure. If you are already in a place of crisis and feeling stretched beyond your own capacity, then you probably won’t want to sing these lines, as catchy as the tune is.  

That phrase trust without borders brings to mind the life and work of Jackie Pullinger. Jackie was born in England in 1944. She went to church as a child and was quite serious about God but didn’t really like him all that much. Then she had a personal encounter of God’s love which changed her life. After that she just wanted to share God’s love with others. 

At the age of 22 Jackie had a dream and a vision in which she sensed God was calling her to overseas mission. She applied to various mission organisations but none of them would accept her. So Jackie went to ask a vicar what she should do. I suppose this was a case of measure twice, cut once. The vicar said, ‘Get on a boat and ask God to show you where to get off’. That’s a bit like saying, ‘Let the Spirit lead you where your trust is without borders’. So that’s what she did. 

In 1966 Jackie left England and got as far as Hong Kong where she stepped out of the boat and into the unknown. She served the poor in miraculous ways, in what was once called ‘the walled city’. Gang members came to Christ and drug addicts were set free through the power of prayer. Jackie turns 76 this year and has never looked back. Her trust in Jesus is without borders. 

The Spirit of God also led the apostle Peter where his trust was without borders. After Jesus’ death and resurrection, Peter and the other disciples received the gift of the Holy Spirit. To receive the Holy Spirit is to be filled with the love and truth of God so that you can’t help but show and tell others about God’s love. 

In Acts 10 we read how the Spirit led Peter way outside his comfort zone. Peter had a vision in which God declared all kinds of animals and birds clean or kosher to eat. This vision was shocking to Peter. He was Jewish and the Law of Moses prohibited consumption of certain animals. At first Peter resisted the voice that was telling him to eat these forbidden foods. It seems he was measuring twice, or three times in fact, because he had the vision three times.  

God gave Peter this vision because he was preparing Peter to reach out beyond the borders of ethnic Israel to a Gentile by the name of Cornelius. The Jewish food laws had to be put aside if Jewish Christians were going to reach the Gentile world.   

As Peter was wondering what the vision meant, some men arrived. They came to invite Peter to Cornelius’ home. Normally Jews didn’t enter the house of Gentiles because it made them ceremonially unclean. But God had just shown Peter it was okay. So Peter stepped out of the boat of Jewish custom and went to Cornelius’ house. 

When Peter started telling Cornelius and his household about Jesus’ death and resurrection, …the Holy Spirit came down on all those who were listening to his message. 45 The Jewish believers who had come from Joppa with Peter were amazed that God had poured out his gift of the Holy Spirit on the Gentiles also. 46 For they heard them speaking in strange tongues and praising God’s greatness. Peter spoke up: 47 “These people have received the Holy Spirit, just as we also did. Can anyone, then, stop them from being baptized with water?” 48 So he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to stay with them for a few days.  

Peter learned from his experience of walking on water with Jesus. He didn’t let his failure in faith define him. He didn’t remain reckless in his approach to discerning God’s will. Nor did he become so cautious that he was always weighing things up and never committing to a decision. 

When we sing, Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders we are not throwing all caution to the wind. In my experience, if God is going to ask you to step out of the boat and into a difficult place, where you have no choice but to rely on him, he usually provides good confirmation. Peter and Jackie both measured twice and cut once. So if you sense God calling you into something unknown then please measure twice. Pray and talk with a Godly person who you can trust and keep your eyes on Jesus. 

Conclusion:

In an interview with Premiere Christianity Magazine, just last year, Jackie Pullinger was asked: “Is there a particular message that’s on your heart for Christians? 

And Jackie replied, “My message is always the same; it’s how to get us sure enough of God’s love, so we can go out and share it with the lost. …to me it’s quite simple. Having tasted of his love all I want to do is share it until I die.” 

Although Jackie’s interview had nothing to do with the song Oceans, I think her theology (at this point) sums up the song quite well. Oceans expresses a desire to be so close to Jesus, so sure of God’s love, that we will trust him to go out and share his love with those who don’t yet know him. 

Of course, you don’t need to go to the other side of the world to share God’s love. God might be calling you to share his love with someone a lot closer to home. 

Let us pray…  

Lord Jesus Christ, be real for us we ask. Make us so sure of God’s love that we can’t help but share it with others. May we each know deep down, through the work of your Spirit, that I am yours and you are mine. Amen.  

Oceans

Verse 1

You call me out upon the waters
The great unknown where feet may fail
And there I find You in the mystery
In oceans deep my faith will stand

Chorus

And I will call upon Your name
And keep my eyes above the waves
When oceans rise, my soul will rest in Your embrace
For I am Yours and You are mine

Verse 2

Your grace abounds in deepest waters
Your sovereign hand will be my guide
Where feet may fail and fear surrounds me
You’ve never failed and You won’t start now

Bridge

Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders
Let me walk upon the waters
Wherever You would call me
Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander
And my faith will be made stronger
In the presence of my Saviour

Questions for discussion or reflection

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

How do you prefer to make decisions? Where did you place yourself on the scale from 1 to 10? Did others in your bubble agree with your self-assessment? Did you agree with their self-assessment? 

Has there been a time in your life when you sensed Jesus calling you out of the boat (metaphorically speaking) and into the unknown? How did you respond?  What happened?

How might we keep our eyes above the waves and on Jesus? (What practical things can we do?) 

In what sense is God like a mother to us? How does God feed your soul? 

What does Song of Solomon 2:16 mean for us? That is, ‘My beloved is mine and I am his; he browses among the lilies’. 

What does it mean to sing, Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders? Why might we sing this? 

What is your experience of God’s love? Is there someone God is calling you to share his love with? How might you do this? 

Outtakes

Being filled with the Spirit is not something we just do once and that’s it. Being filled with the Spirit is something we need to go on doing, like drinking water.      

Tawa Baptist

How He Loves

Scripture: Deuteronomy 5:6-9, Nahum 1:2-3, Matthew 10:37-39, Luke 15:1-7, Romans 8:18, Psalm 85:10-12

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Jealousy
  • Transcendence
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

Today we continue our ‘Anthems’ series. In this series we are looking at the lyrics of one hymn or Christian worship song each week to see how that song informs our thinking about God and how it connects with Scripture and the heritage of our faith.

The song we are looking at this morning is called How He Loves, written by John Mark McMillan. It was released in 2005.

We don’t sing How He Loves in our Sunday worship services very often, probably because it is difficult for a smaller congregation to sing. It works better with a larger gathering. I quite like the song though. It has some salty, bold lyrics. God’s love is not pedestrian.

As usual we don’t have time to unpack every line of the song but I do want to focus our attention on two themes: jealousy and transcendence. First let us consider jealousy.

Jealousy

Okay, here’s a quiz for you. What was the name of the rock band who wrote the song Mr Brightside?     

That’s right, The Killers. You’re on to it. They almost have a cult following. The Killers wrote Mr Brightside around the end of 2001. It’s a song about jealousy. One of the band members had a funny feeling that something wasn’t right in his relationship with his girlfriend and sure enough, when he turned up at the pub, he found her there with another guy. Mr Brightside describes the feeling of jealousy provoked by cheating.

So what has this got to do with John McMillan’s worship song, How He Loves? Well, John McMillan’s song is also about jealousy, but jealousy of a different kind, divine jealousy. The opening lines of How He Loves read… 

He is jealous for me, loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.
 

Jealousy is not a word we usually associate with God. It tends to be a word that carries negative connotations for us. Jealousy often makes us think of envy and people behaving badly, as with The Killers’ song Mr Brightside. So what is jealousy and in what sense can we say God is jealous?

Well, jealousy is a very strong, very intense emotion. We might call jealousy a passion or a zeal or a fury. Jealousy is triggered by an affront to our rights or our honour. If we believe something belongs rightfully to us but is then given to another we will instinctively feel jealous. For example, a husband or wife may feel jealous if their partner in marriage is unfaithful in some way. By its very definition marriage is an exclusive relationship. There are some things in marriage that should not be shared with anyone else. Both husband and wife have every right to expect faithfulness from their partner. So a jealous reaction (a feeling of intense fury or passion) in the context of unfaithfulness in marriage is fair and understandable. In fact, the more you love your husband or wife the greater the potential for jealousy.  

But not all jealous reactions are fair or right. Some jealousy is misplaced. For example, if you don’t like your hair (or if you don’t have hair) you might look at someone who has perfect hair and feel jealous. That is, you might believe that the hair on their head should belong to you. Clearly, that kind of jealousy (which we might more accurately call ‘envy’) is not fair or justified. We have no right to the hair on someone else’s head. This is a frivolous example of misplaced jealousy – I’m not meaning to get at anyone who may be bald.

Another example of jealousy is when someone gets the praise or the promotion or the prize that we believe belongs to us. In that situation we may feel quite justified in our jealous indignation (our anger), but really we are seldom in the best position to judge. Sometimes life is unfair. Sometimes things don’t go our way but God, who is jealous for justice, has a way of making things right, if not in this life then in the next.

The point is, jealousy is that strong feeling we get when something we believe rightfully belongs to us goes to someone else. Sometimes our human jealousy is appropriate and other times it is not.

But God’s jealousy is always righteous and justified because God is the creator of all there is, so everything rightfully belongs to him anyway.

Now you might be wondering if this idea that God gets jealous is just a human notion, something we have projected onto God. Let me assure you it’s not.

God describes himself as jealous in the Bible. For example, in Deuteronomy 5:6-9, while giving the ten commandments, God says to his people Israel…

6 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; 7 you shall have no other gods before me. 8 You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 9 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God…

The specific context for God calling himself jealous is the command to not worship any other God and to not make an idol. We might not bow down to actual statues, like people in the ancient world did, but we do sometimes place a higher value on things that are created, things that are less worthy than God. For example, we may worship money or our career or our reputation or our family or our own pleasure.

God is saying he has every right to insist upon our absolute loyalty and obedience. If we give our worship to something that is not God, then we are denying God what rightfully belongs to him and we will trigger God’s jealousy. 

God does not insist that we worship him exclusively because he needs it. God is not insecure. He doesn’t need to have his ego propped up with praise every five minutes. God doesn’t actually need anything from us.

No. God insists that we worship him exclusively because we need to. Worshipping God is good for us – it gives our lives value and meaning.

When we worship things that are not God we devalue and demean ourselves. We make ourselves less than whatever it is we bow down to and we empty our lives of any sort of lasting meaning.

The Bible often depicts God as a husband whose wife (Israel) has been unfaithful to him by worshipping other gods (with a little ‘g’). If God didn’t experience intense jealousy over infidelity, then that would indicate he didn’t care at all. The fact that God rightly feels jealous when we worship other things proves that he cares a great deal.

Returning to the first line of the song for a moment…

He is jealous for me, loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.

Putting the image of a hurricane alongside the idea of God’s jealous love is perfect. It’s so Biblical. In the book of Nahum chapter 1 we read…

A jealous and avenging God is the Lord, the Lord is avenging and wrathful; the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries and rages against his enemies. 3 The Lord is slow to anger but great in power, and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty. His way is in whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.  

They are strong words.   

The thing about a hurricane or a whirlwind is that we can’t tame it. We can’t domesticate it. A hurricane is a powerful and dangerous force.

Sometimes we forget how dangerous God can be. The jealous love of God is like a hurricane – we need to make sure we are on the right side of it.

Sometimes Israel got on the wrong side of God’s jealousy, but in the reading from the prophet Nahum, it was Israel’s enemies, the Assyrians, who were on the wrong side of God.

To say that ‘God is jealous for me’ is to say that God is on my side and he is going to deal to my enemies with the rage of a hurricane.

Now, as I alluded to in our responsive prayer (earlier in today’s service), our enemies are not flesh & blood (our enemies are not other nations). Our enemies are unseen; things like pride, resentment, fear, loneliness and depression. But even though our enemies are unseen, they are still very real and just as dangerous as bullets and bombs. God’s love is greater than those things.

The other thing I need to make clear about the hurricane image is that it is a metaphor for God’s jealous love. We shouldn’t take it too literally. If an actual hurricane passes over a country and wreaks havoc, that doesn’t mean God is angry with that nation. The survivors of an extreme weather event need compassion, not condemnation.

Now some of you may be thinking, ‘Okay, fair enough, the Old Testament does describe God as jealous. But what about the New Testament. How does God’s jealousy fit with the person of Jesus? After all, isn’t Jesus supposed to show us what God is like on the inside?’

Good question. Thank you for asking it. Yes, Jesus does show us what God is like on the inside. And yes, Jesus does reveal God’s jealousy. Let me give you some examples…

In Matthew 10:37-39 Jesus says, “Whoever loves his father or mother more than me is not fit to be my disciple; whoever loves his son or daughter more than me is not fit to be my disciple. Whoever does not take up his cross and follow in my steps is not fit to be my disciple. Whoever tries to gain his own life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for my sake will gain it. [1]

These verses are difficult for us and yet in them we find an example of divine jealousy. Jesus is not saying we shouldn’t love our family. We need to honour our parents and not turn away from our family when they are in need. But, at the same time, Jesus is saying that he is entitled to a greater loyalty from us than our own family is. So if our family give us an ultimatum and ask us to choose between them or Jesus, then we need to choose Jesus. If Jesus were just a man, then he would have no right to say this. But because Jesus is also God, he has every right to say it. 

A.T. Luter observes how the Biblical words that are used for jealousy are closely associated with zeal and zealousness. Zeal represents intense emotional effort and energy focused toward a goal. Jealousy is the relational counterpart to zeal, primarily a focusing of emotion toward a person in the desire for a closer, better relationship. [2] 

Thinking of jealousy in this way (as an intense desire to be closer to a person) reminds me of Jesus’ parable of the lost sheep in Luke 15. Jesus said…

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

This parable is an example of the jealous love of God. We rightfully belong to God. He is our creator, our heavenly Father. If we are lost or carried off by something else, then God jealousy pursues us with his love to find us and bring us home. God’s jealous love will not abandon us or share us with the evil one. Jesus is the good shepherd who restores the lost sheep.

Perhaps the clearest example of how Jesus reveals God’s jealous love was in going to the cross. God was so jealous for us, he felt so strongly that we belong to him, and not to sin or death, that he redeemed us back for himself through Jesus’ crucifixion and death. Indeed, God’s act of raising Jesus from the dead also demonstrates the power of God’s jealousy. God’s jealous love is stronger than the grave.

Okay, so that’s one of the themes of the song, divine jealousy. The other aspect of the song I want to highlight is transcendence. 

Transcendence

By transcendence I mean ‘rising above’ our circumstances, being lifted out of our troubles. (This has nothing to do with transcendental meditation by the way.) A transcendent experience is one which is extraordinary, incomparable, matchless, second to none. The song How He Loves describes the kind of transcendent experience one can have through the love of God.   

In the movie Forrest Gump, Forrest and Lieutenant Dan are out one night on their boat, fishing for shrimp, when a huge storm hits. It’s the worst storm in that area for decades. Lieutenant Dan is angry with God. He’s up in the rigging yelling insults at God, ‘You call this a storm…’ He’s practically goading God to sink their ship. Forrest is more circumspect, more humble. He’s got his hand on the wheel navigating the boat through the waves.

Lieutenant Dan’s fury is a jealous sort of rage. He believes he was destined to die a hero’s death in battle (in Vietnam) but God spared his life through Forrest Gump and now Lieutenant Dan feels cheated. Dan thinks God has taken something from him that wasn’t his to take. But God’s jealous love for Lieutenant Dan is greater than Lieutenant Dan’s jealous rage at God. In fact, God’s love lifts Lieutenant Dan out of his hurt and resentment.    

They survive the ordeal at sea and when they come into port the next morning they see all the other boats in the harbour have been smashed to pieces. Prior to the storm they couldn’t catch a cold. Now, after the storm, all their competition has been taken out and they catch tons of shrimp.

Eventually Lieutenant Dan makes his peace with God. He breaks off his romance with death and transcends his troubles, he rises above his self-pity and rage, to embrace a new life.        

John Mark McMillan, the author of How He Loves describes how his song came about (and I paraphrase here)…

Some of my friends were in a car crash. One of them (Steven) died later in hospital that night. I was angry and confused and hurt. Steven was a youth group leader and had been in a prayer meeting earlier that day. I process things through music. The song ‘How He Loves’ is not about a pretty, clean, Hollywood, ‘hot pink’ type love. It’s the kind of love that is willing to love things that are messy and difficult. Gross things. God could still love me in my anger and frustration and resentment. He could love me through that. God wasn’t offended that I was angry at him. ‘How He Loves’ is a song that celebrates a God who wants to hang with us through the mess.       

John McMillan’s song describes something of the extraordinary, incomparable, matchless, transcendent experience of God’s love. Sometimes in worship we become so absorbed in God that we transcend our troubles. Whatever mess we are in fades away and we lose ourselves in awe and wonder and delight at the goodness of God. It’s like our soul is granted a Sabbath rest from its pain and struggle and we are actually able to heal.

We notice transcendence in verse 1 of the song when we sing…   

When all of a sudden, I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory, And I realize just how beautiful You are, and how great Your affections are for me.

Afflictions eclipsed by glory reminds us of Paul’s words in Romans 8:18…

“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”

As I’ve said on other occasions, suffering and glory go hand in hand in the Bible. If we share in Christ’s suffering, we will also share in his glory.

What strikes me about Paul’s words in Romans 8 is that the glory will be revealed in us. It’s like we are vessels or containers for God’s glory. As Paul says in 2nd Corinthians 4:7, we have this treasure in jars of clay to show this all-surpassing power is from God.

Verse 2 of the song continues the theme of transcendence where it says…

And heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss, And my heart turns violently inside of my chest, I don’t have time to maintain these regrets, When I think about, the way that He loves us,

We are reminded here of Psalm 85:10-12…

Love and faithfulness meet together; righteousness and peace kiss each other. 11 Faithfulness springs forth from the earth, and righteousness looks down from heaven. 12 The Lord will indeed give what is good, and our land will yield its increase. 13 Righteousness goes before him and prepares the way for his steps.

Jesus is heaven’s kiss on the earth. In and through Christ heaven meets earth.

Back to the song, …my heart turns violently inside of my chest suggests a deep internal heart change, repentance in other words.

Or perhaps it’s more like the way our heart races or skips a beat when we come near to the one we love.

We may regret some of the things we have done in our life. We may keep going back in our mind rehearsing our past mistakes, feeling bad and playing the ‘what if’ game with ourselves.

But when we think about the way God loves us we don’t have time to maintain these regrets – we transcend our past. We rise above ourselves. We realise it’s not about us. It’s about Jesus.

Conclusion

God loves us jealously. His love is transcendent, extraordinary, incomparable, second to none. In God we find our rest.

Let’s sing in our bubbles now, How He loves us…

How He Loves

He is jealous for me, loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden, I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,
And I realize just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me.

And oh, how He loves us oh
Oh how He loves us,
How He loves us all

And oh, how He loves us oh,
Oh how He loves us,
How He loves us all

He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.

And we are His portion and He is our prize,
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes,
If His grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking.
And heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss,
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest,
I don’t have time to maintain these regrets,
When I think about, the way that He loves us,

Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.
Yeah, He loves us…

Questions for discussion or reflection:

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

What is jealousy?

How might we handle (process) our jealous feelings in a healthy way? 

Why is God’s jealousy always right and good? In what sense is God’s jealousy an expression of his love?

Why does God insist that we worship Him exclusively?

In what ways does Jesus reveal divine jealousy? Can you give examples from the Bible?

What is transcendence?

What is your experience of God’s transcendent love? What is your response to His love? (If you are not aware of God’s love for you personally, you might like to ask Him to show you.)

Outtakes

One another occasion in the gospels we read how Jesus fell asleep in a boat during a hurricane. Imagine that, Jesus is so at home in the middle of a storm that he is able to sleep like a log. Why is Jesus so relaxed? Because he is God and his way is in the whirlwind and storm.

God’s jealous love isn’t just contained in the first line of the song. Verse 2 also implies God’s jealousy for us where it says,

…we are His portion and He is our prize…
Deuteronomy 32:9 tells us the Lord’s portion is his people.

The apostle Paul talks about ‘thinking of others as better than ourselves’ (Philippians 2:3). When we do that we prevent feelings of jealousy in the first place. For example, if someone else gets the praise, the promotion or the prize, then we are happy for them because we believe they (and not us) are rightly entitled to it.

John McMillan also wrote the song King of my heart, which we sang earlier today during our on-line service.

[1] Refer M. Erickson, ‘Jealousy’, The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, page 410.

[2] Refer A.B. Luter, Jr. ‘Jealousy, Zeal’, DPL, page 461.

Tawa Baptist

As the deer pants for the water

Scripture: Psalm 42, Numbers 16 & 26:10-11, Romans 7:15-25, John 4:14.

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Psalm 42
  • Romans 7
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone

Many of you will be aware that Shona is uploading a recording of a hymn to her Facebook page most days while we’ve been in lockdown. Last Wednesday afternoon I was at my computer, working on the sermon, when Robyn walked in and played me Shona’s hymn for that day. It so happened that Shona’s hymn was ‘As the deer pants for the water…’, the very song I had been working on for this morning’s ‘Anthems’ series message. I didn’t know Shona was going to play ‘As the deer…’ and she didn’t know I was going to preach on it. 

Some would call that serendipity. Some would call it chance. Others might call it providence or a God moment. When things like that happen, I like to see God’s hand in it. For me it is a sign of God’s presence.       

As the deer pants for the water is a song about longing for God more than anything else. It was written by a guy called Marty Nystrom. Marty was born in Seattle, Washington, in 1956. He graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in music education in 1979. It is unclear to me exactly when Marty wrote ‘As the deer…’. Some sources say it was 1981, while others say it was 1984. In any case, the story goes that Marty had travelled to Dallas Texas to attend summer school at the ‘Christ for the Nations Institute’. Possibly there was a girl there he was interested in but that relationship didn’t work out the way he had hoped. For whatever reason it was a difficult summer for Marty. He was struggling with some inner turmoil, and he was struggling physically with the Texas heat.

Marty’s roommate suggested he go on a water fast to draw close to God. A water fast is when you don’t eat any food, you only drink water. Marty recalls what happened next…

“I took up the challenge, and on the 19th day of the fast I found myself sitting at a piano trying to write a song. I was simply playing chord progressions when I noticed a Bible on the music stand of the piano. It was open to Psalm 42. My eyes fell on the first verse of that chapter… ‘As the hart (deer) panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.’ After reading the verse I began to sing its message, right off the page. I wrote the first verse and the chorus of a song, pretty much straight through.”

Marty had no intention of showing the song to anyone. It was to be for his own devotional time with the Lord. However, before leaving the school to go back to Seattle, he did share it with one person, Dave Butterbaugh. Dave then introduced it to the students of the school and it became a favourite.

As the deer pants for the water is special for many people. (Neville tells me they played this song at his baptism.) On the face of it, As the deer appears to be quite simple, but its roots run deep in Scripture. There are many interpretative possibilities. This morning’s message focuses on just two of the Scriptures I’m in touch with as I reflect on this song. First let us consider Psalm 42… 

Psalm 42

The opening verse of Marty’s song reads…

As the deer pants for the water so my soul longs after You
You alone are my heart’s desire and I long to worship You

These lines find their inspiration from Psalm 42. Psalm 42 is oozing with the pathos of longing for God. From verse 1 we read…

As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?
3 My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me all day long, “Where is your God?”
4 These things I remember as I pour out my soul: how I used to go with the multitude, leading the procession to the house of God with shouts of joy and praise among the festive throng.

5 Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Saviour and my God.

6 My soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar.
7 Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me.

8 By day the Lord directs his love, at night his song is with me—a prayer to the God of my life.

9 I say to God my Rock, “Why have you forgotten me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?” 10 My bones suffer mortal agony as my foes taunt me, saying to me all day long, “Where is your God?”

11 Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Saviour and my God.

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

You may have heard on the news this past week of the New Zealanders who were stranded in Peru due to corona virus border closures. It was desperate times as many of them were being turned out of their accommodation and unable to “safely shelter” in Peru. I imagine they were longing deeply to return home. Fortunately, God’s providence came in the form of a government-organised mercy flight, which left Lima last Tuesday (14 April) and touched down in Auckland on Wednesday. I expect those on the flight and their loved ones were greatly relieved.

The psalmist’s home was Jerusalem. However, when we read Psalm 42 all the way through, we discover in verse 6 that the psalmist is writing these words not from the temple in Jerusalem but from the slopes of Mount Hermon. Mount Hermon is nearly 340 km’s from Jerusalem which, in the ancient world, was a formidable distance. In some ways being on Mt Hermon was (for the psalmist) sort of like being a New Zealander stranded in Peru.

The author of psalm 42 remembers how he used to lead people in a procession of worship to the temple in Jerusalem and he longs to be able to do so again. For ancient Jews the temple embodied God’s presence. It’s not that God was only present in the temple. God is omnipresent – like the air we breathe he is everywhere at once. But to the Hebrew mind, God was somehow present in a special way in the Jerusalem temple. Consequently, the psalmist longs to return to Jerusalem and worship God there. Mount Hermon just isn’t the same.   

For Christians, Jesus is our home. He is our sanctuary, our safe place, our temple. On more than one occasion Jesus identified himself as the new temple. Jesus embodies the presence of God in a special way. Jesus taught us that wherever two or three people are gathered in his name, there he is also. So, in Christian understanding, the new temple is not a building – it is a gathering of two or more believers in Christ.

With this in view there is a connection between Psalm 42 and our current experience in lockdown. Some people, perhaps especially those in a bubble by themselves or in a bubble without any fellow believers, may be longing to gather with other Christians to worship God. It’s not that we can’t worship God by ourselves. It’s just that it’s not quite the same.

Having said that, even when we are able to gather for church services, there are still some things that prevent us from worshipping God. On one level we might want to give God praise but on another level we just can’t because what we are feeling on the inside is incongruent (it doesn’t fit) with praising God.   

We may, for example, be going through some inner turmoil. Certainly the writer of Psalm 42 was in distress. He says, ‘My soul is down cast within me.’ If we are feeling anxious or sad it is very difficult to praise God and mean it. In that situation we are best not to fake it. God wants our honesty. Sometimes we don’t have words to offer God. Sometimes all we have are our tears. In verse 3 of Psalm 42 the psalmist says, ‘My tears have been my food day and night…’  He longs to worship God. He longs to have intimacy with God but all he has is a deep and overwhelming feeling of sadness. ‘All your waves and breakers have swept over me.’

If all you have to offer God are tears, then that is where you start, but it’s not where you finish. Please, don’t settle into self-pity. It is a trap. After flushing out his emotions with tears, the psalmist then engages his brain and his resolve (his will). More than once he says to himself, ‘Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me?’ This shows us the psalmist is thinking about the cause of the problem, so he’s looking for a solution, or at least some way of managing his feelings. Then he engages his resolve by saying to himself, ‘Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Saviour and my God.’  Resolve is that grit, that commitment, that discipline of your will to put one foot in front of other and just keep going until you get through it.   

Praise and worship is not always the starting point. More often it is the goal and we have to do a fair bit of processing before we can reach the goal of praising the Lord. Very simply, the psalmist gives us a three stage process for dealing with our inner turmoil…

Step one: express your feelings in a healthy way – don’t bottle things up and don’t pretend but also don’t wallow in your tears for too long.

Step two: engage your brain – think about why you are in turmoil. This is where talking to someone who knows you and is wise can be helpful.

And step three: resolve to move forward in faith & hope toward God.    

Marty Nystrom was not able to worship God in the way he wanted to while he was downcast and in the pit. He had to do some processing first. In fact, Marty wrote his song at the end of 19 days of processing by fasting. Now I’m not suggesting you need to go on a water fast for 19 days. That may have been the right thing for Marty at that time but it’s not the right thing for everyone. We are all having to give up enough during this lockdown without adding a water fast to the mix. So we need to exercise some common sense.

The point is, we may long to worship God but are prevented from doing so because of what is happening inside of us. Another thing that can hold us back from worshipping God is a feeling of shame. Shame is different from guilt. Guilt is usually a private internal feeling, whereas shame is more of a public external thing. Shame is something we are made to wear so it’s something everyone sees. Often shame is undeserved.

Psalm 42 is one of the songs of the sons of Korah. The sons of Korah were part of the tribe of Levi who served in the temple, but not as priests. They were called the sons of Korah because they were descended from a man named Korah. The book of Numbers tells us that Korah rebelled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness and was killed by fire. However, the line of Korah did not die out. [1]

I imagine the descendants of Korah had to wear quite a bit of shame through no fault of their own, because of what their granddaddy did. But God is so gracious and just. Some centuries after Korah’s rebellion, his descendants served as worship musicians, composing and performing songs in the temple in Jerusalem. This is a beautiful picture of God’s providence and redemption. By giving the sons of Korah a valuable role in his service, the Lord clothed them with honour.

Perhaps, like the sons of Korah, you have a chequered ancestry, a few skeletons in the family closet. Perhaps, through no fault of your own, you live with a sense of shame because of this. Maybe this feeling of shame inhibits you from worshipping God as freely as you would like. May be you don’t feel good enough. Jesus came to set the captives free. God has a place of honour for you in his purpose.

There is more we could say about psalm 42 but I would like to move on to our next Scripture, Romans 7

Romans 7

In his letter to the Romans, chapter 7:15-25, the apostle Paul writes …

15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. 21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.

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

Now you might be thinking, how on earth does this relate to today’s song? Well, let me explain. In this reading from Romans Paul is describing the war that rages inside each one of us. On the one hand, we love God and want to do his will. But on the other hand, there are forces at work within us that seem to sabotage our best intentions, so we end up not obeying God as we want to do. Paul calls those sabotaging forces our ‘sinful nature’. While Jesus has conquered sin on the cross, we still wrestle with sin in this life.

I don’t know if you have ever tried swimming in jeans and a pull over. It’s very difficult, not to mention dangerous. Every movement is heavy and sluggish and you keep feeling like you’re being dragged down. Swimming in a wet suit is quite the opposite. A wet suit is streamed lined and naturally buoyant – it actually helps you to stay afloat and makes swimming easier.

Obeying God is the purest form of worship. Trying to obey God while we are encumbered by our sinful nature is like trying to swim in jeans and a pullover. Our sinful nature is one of those things that gets in the way of us worshipping God properly, as he deserves. In contrast, being clothed in the righteousness of Christ is like swimming in a wet suit.

Returning to this week’s song. Part of the chorus reads: You alone are my heart’s desire and I long to worship You.

The heart here is a metaphor for a person’s inner self – our core.

In the Bible the heart isn’t just a container for our emotions. The heart more accurately refers to the mind and will.

To sing, You alone are my heart’s desire seems like a grand claim indeed.

For those of us who take seriously the words we sing it may feel dishonest to say that God is our only desire. In reality our hearts generally have a number of competing desires.

But the chorus is not the only part of the song that makes bold claims. We may also feel like we are stretching the truth when we sing lines like, ‘I love You more than any other, so much more than anything’ in verse 3.

Or ‘I want You more than gold or silver… you’re the apple of my eye’ in verse 2. While God certainly deserves our greatest loyalty and affection, he doesn’t always get it.
 

And this is where Paul’s words in Romans 7 are so helpful. Paul gives us a way of separating our heart’s desire from the competing desires of our sinful nature. In verse 25 of Romans 7 Paul says: So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.

‘In my mind’ is another way of saying ‘In my heart’ because remember, in the Bible, the heart refers to the mind. ‘In his mind’ Paul is 100% devoted to doing what God wants (he’s a slave to God’s law). But in his ‘sinful nature’ (which is something different from his heart and mind) Paul is not inclined to do what God wants.

King David helps us to see the distinction Paul makes between our heart and our sinful nature. In the Bible, the prophet Samuel describes David as ‘a man after God’s own heart’. [2] Which is another way of saying that ‘in his mind’ David wanted what God wanted. And yet, despite being a man after God’s own heart, David’s sinful nature led David to commit adultery with Bathsheba and orchestrate Uriah’s murder. These were clearly things God did not want. So while the desire of David’s heart & mind was to do God’s will, David’s sinful nature sometimes sabotaged his obedience to God. This did not stop David from praising God though. David’s sinful nature did not stop him from writing psalms and delighting in the Lord.       

What I’m saying here is that we can sing to God, ‘You alone are my heart’s desire…, and mean it, because the desire of our heart & mind is something quite different from our sinful nature. While it is true that we all still struggle with sin in this life, the good news (for those who trust in Jesus) is we won’t have to wrestle with sin in the next life. Our ‘sinful nature’ was nailed to the cross with Christ and will not drag us down in the life to come. In eternity we will be free to swim (or worship God) without being encumbered by our sinful nature.  

Therefore, when we sing ‘and I long to worship you’ we mean, ‘I long for the time when Christ returns in glory and I am finally free of my sinful nature, finally free of that force in me that keeps sabotaging my obedience to God.

In verse 3 of the song we sing to Jesus these words, ‘You’re my friend and you are my brother even though you are a king…’ 

Friend, brother and king. These three relationships all have one thing in common: obedience. But the kind of obedience one gives to a friend or a brother is different from the sort of obedience one gives to a king.

We obey a king because we have to – that is our duty. But we do what a friend or a brother asks because we want to – because we love them.

In Matthew 12:48 Jesus says, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” Then pointing to his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”

Jesus is saying that obedience to God is what makes us part of God’s family.

Likewise, in John 15 Jesus says to his disciples, “My command is this: Love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command…”     

Obedience is the purest form of worship. When we sing ‘I long to worship you’, we mean ‘I long to obey you Jesus, not just as a king (because I have to) but as a friend and a brother because I love you’. 

In Matthew 5 Jesus says to his disciples, ‘Blessed are you who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for you will be satisfied.’ If you truly hunger and thirst to be free of your sinful nature and to worship God in spirit and in truth, then God who looks upon the heart (and mind) will satisfy your desire. 

Conclusion

In verse 2 of the song we say of Jesus, ‘…only you can satisfy…’

Jesus is God’s providence, God’s serendipity for our thirsty soul. As Jesus says in John 4:14…

“…whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

The water Jesus was talking about is the Holy Spirit. Jesus satisfies our thirst for God through the gift of the Holy Spirit. Jesus’ Spirit is water to our soul.

What is it you long for?

Let us pray.

Father God, you know our needs and you care for us.

We pray for those who are thirsty for you but don’t know it. Save them from looking in all the wrong places. Help them to realise their need for you. May they encounter the living Christ and be satisfied by the water of your Spirit. 

We pray too for those who are thirsty for you and do know it. Help us as we wait for you. Lead us beside still waters and refresh our spirit with your Spirit. We pray these things in the name of Jesus our brother and our friend. Amen.

Let’s sing, ‘As the deer pants for the water’ in our bubbles now…

Verse 1

As the deer pants for the water
So my soul longs after You
You alone are my heart’s desire
And I long to worship You

          Chorus

You alone are my strength, my shield
To You alone may my spirit yield
You alone are my heart’s desire
And I long to worship You

Verse 2

I want You more than gold or silver
Only You can satisfy
You alone are the real joy giver
And the apple of my eye

Verse 3

You’re my friend and You are my brother
Even though You are a King
I love You more than any other
So much more than anything

Outtakes

The chorus of the song begins, You alone are my strength, my shield.

The image of God being a shield is found in a number of psalms. It is a way of saying that God is our protector, especially when we are under attack.

To say that God alone is my strength and shield is to admit our own vulnerability. We are like sheep (basically defenceless) but God is the one who defends us.    

Questions for discussion or reflection:

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

Have you had any God moments lately? Who might benefit from hearing about your God moment?

How do you feel when reading through Psalm 42? What are you missing (longing for) most during this time in lockdown?

On a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being extremely thirsty and 10 being satisfied) where would you place yourself in longing for God? Why?

Discuss / reflect on the three practical steps the writer of psalm 42 gives for processing his inner turmoil? How might these apply to your life?

What prevents you from worshipping (obeying) God properly? Is it in your power to do anything about this? If so, what? If not, what is in your power to do?

What is Paul saying in Romans 7:15-25? How does Romans 7:15-25 help us to sing, ‘You are alone are my heart’s desire’?

What are the implications of calling Jesus our friend and brother?

[1] For the story of Korah refer to Numbers 16 & 26:10-11

[2] 1st Samuel 13:14

Tawa Baptist

In Christ Alone

Scriptures: Ephesians 2:20, John 1:11, Romans 5:18-19, 2nd Corinthians 5:21, Matthew 20:28, Romans 8:38-39, 1st Corinthians 15:20-22.

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Security
  • Atonement
  • Hope
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

What is your favourite comfort food? Is it chocolate? Is it a bag of chips? Is it freshly baked bread? Is it KFC or fish n’ chips? Or maybe you like a good old fashioned roast with lots of crispy potatoes and lashings of gravy.

Comfort food is food that provides consolation or a feeling of well-being. We tend to eat comfort food when we are sad or anxious. It usually has a high sugar or fat content and is often associated with some kind of warm memory from our childhood, like when your grandad made pikelets or your mum made apple pie.

Today we continue our ‘Anthems’ series. In this series we are looking at the lyrics of one hymn or Christian worship song each week to see how that song informs our thinking about God and how it connects with Scripture and the heritage of our faith.

The song we are looking at this morning is called In Christ Alone. This modern day hymn has proved very popular in churches around the western world. In many ways it is comfort food for the Christian soul.

In Christ Alone was released in 2002. The music was composed by Keith Getty and the lyrics were written by Stuart Townend. Keith Getty was born in Ireland in 1974 and Stuart Townend was born in England in 1963. Stuart also wrote How deep the Father’s love.

In Christ Alone is lyrically rich, touching on many ideas from Scripture.

This morning I would like to explore three of the key themes I see in the song. Namely: security, atonement and hope. First let us consider the theme of security.      

Security:

A few weeks ago, when it became apparent that the world was about to go into lockdown, we saw some panic buying at supermarkets. Some people felt anxious that grocery supplies would run out and started stock piling food.

Flour was one of the first things to disappear, which makes sense because flour is versatile. It can be used in the making of so many comfort foods. But other supplies have also been in high demand – things like sugar, coffee, pasta, lollies, bread, Nuromol, soap and, for some reason, deodorant. Now, I can understand why most of these things would fly off the shelves in difficult times. Having plenty of coffee and sugar and bread gives people a sense of security. But I can’t understand why people felt they needed to stock pile deodorant. We are meant to be practising physical distancing so one would think there was little need to smell nice. Robyn will be the first to tell you, I haven’t really bothered much with deodorant since we’ve been in lockdown. (I’m pretty sure you can’t smell me over the internet.)      

Seriously though, the events of the past few weeks have tested our sense of security and some have been more sorely tested than others. Sadly, people have lost work and income. Fortunately, our government has provided some financial assistance to cushion the blow and many banks and landlords have extended grace to those worst affected.

These physical and financial comforts are helpful for maintaining a sense of security and well-being but, at the same time, the human soul also needs to feel secure at a deeper level – in our spirit.    

In Christ Alone is filled with words of comfort that remind us of the security we have in Christ. Verse 1 reads…

Christ is my light, my strength, my song. This cornerstone, this solid ground.

Firm through the fiercest drought and storm. What heights of love, what depths of peace. When fears are stilled, when strivings cease. My Comforter, my All in All. Here in the love of Christ I stand.

Jesus is the light of the world. If you are in the dark and feeling afraid then turning the lights on makes you feel safe – it gives you a sense of security.

Likewise, Christ is our cornerstone, our solid ground – he is a firm and secure foundation on which to build the house of our life. This reminds us of Jesus’ parable of the two builders – one who built his house on the rock and the other who built his house on sand. When the storm hit, the house built on sand fell but the house built on rock stood. To build our life on the rock is obey the teaching of Jesus. There is security in the wisdom of Jesus. We can trust his word.

Jesus is referred to as a cornerstone in a number of places in the Bible, like in Ephesians 2:20 for example where Paul writes…

Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.

The security that is in view here is that of belonging to the household of God. The title of the song In Christ Alone might give some the impression of being alone in their faith in Christ. But this is not what is meant. Actually we are in Christ together. Even if you are alone in your bubble at this time you are not alone in Christ. You are part of the household of God.     

I’m conscious that a number of people in our congregation and community have immigrated to NZ recently. I’m told that residency applications (even before the Corona virus hit) are a slow process. And that can create a feeling of discomfort and unease. Without residency there’s a whole lot of things you can’t do, like buying a house and putting down roots. This challenges one’s sense of security. Jesus offers himself as a cornerstone for anyone who will believe in him. In and through Christ we have residency in the kingdom of God.

Verse 1 of the song also describes Jesus as my comforter. Jesus is the ultimate comfort food – he is the bread of life. Jesus is the flour which never runs out.

The last line of verse 1 of the song reads, Here in the love of Christ I stand. God is love and, as the apostle John reminds us, perfect love drives out all fear. God’s love is a reliable source of security.

Atonement:

The second major theme we find In Christ Alone is that of atonement.

Atonement is a word which has a very long and complicated history. It is a technical word used by theological experts to describe what Jesus achieved on the cross. Perhaps the simplest way to understand it is at-one-ment. To atone is to be ‘at one’, whole, reconciled.

During this past week there was a news article on TV about bowling greens. Green keepers were asking for a special dispensation from the government to be able to continue looking after the country’s lawn bowling greens. They were saying that safely maintaining what is already there will be cheaper in the long run than letting things get out of control and having to put it right later on.

Many bowling greens in NZ are sown in a species of grass called Cotula (Leptinella dioca). Cotula is a small native herb that spreads out as it grows, forming a very compact mat. You wouldn’t sow a bowling green in Cocksfoot or Buttercup because those kinds of grasses (which you often see on the side of the road) grow up tall, rather than out flat. 

For the bowling green to be an even playing field the lawn needs to be one type of grass. If part of the green is sown in Cotula with patches of Cocksfoot and Buttercup interspersed, then that’s no good. The bowls won’t roll evenly. A well-kept bowling green is one type of grass. In a sense the job of a green keeper is to achieve atonement (or ‘at-one-ment’) of their bowling green.

If we were to think of our relationship with God as a bowling green and ourselves as green keepers, then the truth is, we haven’t looked after the green. We have allowed patches of pride, selfishness and fear to grow. Consequently, the green (of our relationship with God) isn’t right. It doesn’t run true and we can’t fix it ourselves.

On the cross Jesus was making our relationship with God one again – he was removing our sin and making the divine / human relationship whole, making it right, so that things run true.  

Now, if you don’t understand my illustration, then don’t worry. Just think of atonement as reconciliation.  Verse 2 of the song brings to mind Jesus’ work of atonement – making us one with God.      

In Christ alone, who took on flesh, fullness of God in helpless babe

In John 1 we read how Jesus (the Word of God) became flesh. To take on flesh is a poetic way of saying ‘God became human’. We call this the ‘incarnation’. Christian doctrine says that Jesus is both fully human and fully divine at the same time.

The next line of verse 2 of the song reads…
This gift of love and righteousness, scorned by the ones He came to save
Jesus is God’s gift of love to the world. As John 3:16 says…

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him may not perish but have eternal life.

Sadly, as John’s gospel tells us, Jesus came to his own but his own received him not. (John 1:11). Jesus was scorned (rejected) by those he came to save.

The Roman Governor, Pontius Pilate, could see that Jesus was innocent and tried to save him but the crowd called for Jesus to be crucified.

So far so good, until we get to the next line in verse 2…    

‘Til on that cross as Jesus died, the wrath of God was satisfied

For every sin on Him was laid. Here in the death of Christ I live.


Hmmm. Most people probably read these lines without giving the words a second thought. But one phrase there has proved quite controversial.

No one disagrees with the fact that Jesus took our sin upon himself and died on the cross. That is generally accepted by Christian believers. The difficulty is with the line; the wrath of God was satisfied.  

The Presbyterian church hymnal committee, in the United States, asked the authors of the song if they could change the words from ‘the wrath of God was satisfied’ to ‘the love of God was magnified’.

Townend and Getty politely said ‘no’.

The Presbyterians respected the author’s wishes but, on the basis of that one phrase, did not include In Christ Alone in their hymn book, even though they agreed with everything else in the song.

So what’s the problem? Well, before I answer that, it is important to acknowledge that the authors of the song are sincere Christians who I believe genuinely want to honour God and build up the body of Christ. It is not my intention to put them down. It is my intention to help us understand the songs we sing in the best possible light. 

The problem is, that line (about the wrath of God being satisfied) makes God look bad. It gives some people the impression of an angry God who must be appeased – sort of like a pagan god. Now I don’t think the authors intended that meaning. After all, the line actually reads …as Jesus died, the wrath of God was satisfied, which suggests timing rather than causation and so allows for some flexibility of interpretation.

Nevertheless, the ambiguity is not ideal. Not only does this line create a problem with people’s perception of God, it also raises a difficulty in logic. It doesn’t make sense to think that the wrath of God was satisfied by the death of Jesus. Jesus was an innocent man. If God is filled with wrath at sin and injustice, then the death of an innocent man is not going to satisfy God’s wrath – it’s only going to add to it.    

So, if we are going to sing this song, what is the best way to understand that infamous line?

Michael Green describes God’s wrath as ‘his settled opposition to all that is evil.’ God’s wrath is different from human anger. God is just and merciful. He doesn’t fly off the handle in a rage and take out his anger on people who don’t deserve it. By the same token his character will not allow him to tolerate evil.

If we agree with Michael Green, that God’s wrath is ‘his settled opposition to all that is evil’, then the thing that satisfies God’s wrath (the thing that turns God’s wrath away) is the end of evil and the beginning of faithful obedience to Him. As we sing in another hymn, ‘Trust and obey for there is no other way.’

Therefore, it would be more accurate to say that it’s not Jesus’ death that satisfies God’s wrath but rather Jesus’ obedience of faith in going to the cross as God asked. Jesus, who is fully human, obeys God on behalf of humanity and in doing so atones for us – he reconciles us to God.

As we read in Romans 5:18-19, 18 So then, as the one sin condemned all people, in the same way the one righteous act sets all people free and gives them life. 19 And just as all people were made sinners as the result of the disobedience of one man [Adam], in the same way they will all be put right with God as the result of the obedience of the one man [Jesus].

That phrase ‘the wrath of God was satisfied’ needs to be read in context with the very next line of the song which says, ‘For every sin on Him was laid’.  

This reminds me of what the apostle Paul says in 2nd Corinthians 5:21,

We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him [Jesus] who had no sin, to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

What Paul is saying here, is that our sin was nailed to the cross with Jesus. Therefore, from God’s point view, our sin died on the cross with Jesus.

Once again, it’s not the death of Jesus that satisfies God’s wrath. More precisely, it is the death of sin which satisfies God’s wrath. Sadly, we can’t have one without the other. For sin to die, Jesus also had to die. 

Verse 4 of the song picks up another angle on atonement where it says…

For I am His and He is mine bought with the precious blood of Christ.

This is probably a reference to the way Jesus understood his crucifixion.

In Matthew 20:28 Jesus said of himself, for the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many.

To ransom something is to pay a price to redeem it or secure its freedom. Jesus’ blood ransoms us – it buys us back, setting us free from the bondage of sin.

As with any metaphor we need to be careful not to make it walk on all fours. That is, we shouldn’t over interpret it by imagining that Satan demanded and received a payment from God in Christ’s blood. [1]  That gives the devil too much credit. Satan is not able to leverage God like that.

There are two main ideas to take away from the ransom analogy:

Firstly, that Jesus’ sacrifice was costly, it was paid in his life blood. So we shouldn’t take it for granted.

And secondly, we now belong to Christ. In other words, we are now at-one with Christ and with God.

Now, if you’re still listening, well done. You may be thinking, ‘Wow. This atonement stuff is really complicated and hard to understand, especially for a Sunday morning.’ I make no apology for that. It doesn’t hurt us to think deeply about our faith from time to time. One of the advantages of an on-line service is that you can go back and listen to the message again or read the sermon notes until the complicated stuff makes sense.    

By the same token, don’t stress about it if you can’t get your head around the atonement. Our salvation does not depend on understanding how the cross of Christ works. Our salvation depends on faith in Jesus.

When I get in my car to drive somewhere I don’t have to understand how the engine works in order to get from A to B – I just have to turn the engine on and drive.

Likewise, if I go to the doctor with an infection, I don’t need to understand how the medicine works for it to make me better – I just need to take it.

We don’t have to understand how Jesus saves us – we just have to believe that he does. Like I said in my Good Friday reflection: “We cannot understand the full meaning of the cross of Christ. We can only stand in silence before it, acknowledge its wonder, and submit to its power.”  [2]

Okay, so far we’ve considered two themes of the song: security and atonement. A third theme we notice is hope.    

Hope:

Often with Christian hymns the subject of hope is raised in the last verse, at the end of the song. ‘In Christ Alone’ sounds a note of hope in the very first line, where it says, In Christ alone my hope is found.

Hope is a word that is closely related to faith. Hope is believing we have a good future. Hope says, we will get through this. The best is yet to come. Worry and believing the worst about the future is the opposite of hope. The ‘panic buying’ we saw in supermarkets recently was a sign that some people were not hopeful. On the other hand, the way most New Zealanders have supported the lockdown and stayed in their bubbles indicates many people do have hope – we do believe we can eliminate the spread of this virus. If we didn’t have hope, we wouldn’t bother staying home.   

Hope is like a kite. It rises against the wind. When things are going well we don’t tend to think about the future all that much. There’s no need to. We are happy enough in the present. But when things are difficult, when we face some sort of opposition, we look to better days ahead and hope rises. The word we use to describe the positive energy of hope is joy. Joy lifts us when we are going through difficulty.    

I don’t know about you but one of the things I’ve noticed this year is an unprecedented use of the word unprecedented.

Unprecedented means ‘never done or known before’. Therefore, by its very definition, unprecedented is not a word we should use very often.

One thing that is truly unprecedented in human history is the resurrection of Christ. While it is true that Jesus raised at least three people from the dead during his earthly ministry, those miracles were different from the miracle of Jesus’ resurrection. Lazarus and the two kids who Jesus raised from the dead would have eventually died again but Jesus was raised to eternal life. He received a new body, one not subject to sickness or death.           

The third and fourth verses of In Christ Alone celebrate Jesus’ resurrection and the certain hope this creates for us. Verse 3 starts with the words…

There in the ground His body lay, light of the world by darkness slain.
Then bursting forth in glorious day, up from the grave He rose again.

All four gospels testify to the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Jesus’ resurrection is proof that Jesus was who he said he was – the Son of God.

Jesus’ resurrection shows us the justice of God – it was God’s way of vindicating Jesus. By raising Jesus from the dead God was saying Jesus was innocent and did not deserve to die.

Jesus’ resurrection also shows us that Jesus is Lord over life and death – he has victory over sin and the grave. The song picks up this theme of Jesus’ supremacy in various lines. For example, in verse 3 where we sing…   

And as He stands in victory, sin’s curse has lost its grip on me.

In the context of the song, Sins’ curse most likely refers to guilt and death, which are mentioned in the opening line of verse 4.

Our sin was nailed to the cross with Jesus so sin has been crucified. Sin no longer has power over us and this gives us hope. It assures us we have a good future to look forward to.   

Verse 4 of the song continues the theme of Christ’s supremacy where it says…

From life’s first cry to final breath Jesus commands my destiny.
No power of hell, no scheme of man can ever pluck me from His hand.
This reminds me of Romans 8:38-39 where Paul writes,

38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

Because Jesus is Lord of all, because He reigns supreme we have hope and security, both in this life and the next. 

But wait, there’s more. Jesus’ resurrection provides Christian believers with evidence that God will raise us to eternal life one day too. In 1st Corinthians 15:20-22 Paul writes about the certain hope of resurrection…

20 But the truth is that Christ has been raised from death, as the guarantee that those who sleep in death will also be raised. 21 For just as death came by means of a man, in the same way the rising from death comes by means of a man. 22 For just as all people die because of their union with Adam, in the same way all will be raised to life because of their union with Christ.

Christ’s resurrection has real implications for those who place their trust in him. Christ’s resurrection guarantees our resurrection to eternal life. This is not an unlikely hope (like winning lotto). This is a certain hope and a real comfort when a believer dies.

Conclusion:

The song finishes with the line, Till He returns or calls me home, here in the power of Christ I’ll stand.

This reminds us that Jesus will return in glory one day. Therefore, we need to be ready. No one knows the day or hour.  

It also reminds us that we don’t stand in our own strength. We stand in the power of Christ’s Spirit. This means we are not alone and it doesn’t all depend on us.  

Jesus is our all in all. He gives us security. He reconciles us to God. And, through Christ, we have the hope of a good future.

Intercessory Prayer

Let us pray.

Generous God, we pray for those who are struggling financially during this time of lockdown. Help people in need who are applying for government assistance. Open doors to release your providence where it is needed.

Father God, may you help those who are managing the pressures that come with working from home and caring for children. Give them the grace of patience and good humour. Make our marriages and families stronger through this experience we pray.

Gracious God, may you help those who are feeling insecure or anxious at this time. Calm all ungodly fears and bring stillness to every racing mind. May your peace be our security.

Loving God, we pray for those who are working in essential services. Protect them from all harm and encourage them in the vital work they do.

Suffering God, may you help those (in NZ and overseas) who have lost loved ones and are unable to gather for a funeral. Comfort them by your Holy Spirit and bring to their minds happy memories. The love we give is never lost. 

Faithful God, may you help those who are seeking residency in NZ, wanting to make this country their home. Give them your reassurance and provide them with a turangawaewae (a place to stand), a cornerstone.

Compassionate God, may you help those who are feeling disconnected or lonely. Make the at-one-ment of Christ real for them. Help them to draw near to Jesus and feel the warmth of God’s people. Help us all as we tend the bowling greens of our relationships.    

Living God, may you help those whose hope is waning. Cause them to rise against the wind and soar on wings like eagles. Keep the truth and wonder of Jesus’ resurrection present in our minds we ask.     

Immanuel, may you help those who are trying to care for parents and family members from a distance. Watch over our loved ones for good. May we all remember that nothing can separate us from God’s love in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Wise and merciful God, we pray these things in submission to your perfect and pleasing will. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

In Christ Alone is comfort food for the Christian soul. Not junk food, but real hearty nourishment. Let’s nourish our souls as we sing, In Christ Alone…

In Christ alone my hope is found
He is my light, my strength, my song
This Cornerstone, this solid ground
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm
What heights of love, what depths of peace
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease
My Comforter, my All in All
Here in the love of Christ I stand

In Christ alone, who took on flesh
Fullness of God in helpless babe
This gift of love and righteousness
Scorned by the ones He came to save
‘Til on that cross as Jesus died
The wrath of God was satisfied
For every sin on Him was laid
Here in the death of Christ I live

There in the ground His body lay
Light of the world by darkness slain
Then bursting forth in glorious Day
Up from the grave He rose again
And as He stands in victory
Sin’s curse has lost its grip on me
For I am His and He is mine
Bought with the precious blood of Christ

No guilt in life, no fear in death
This is the power of Christ in me
From life’s first cry to final breath
Jesus commands my destiny
No power of hell, no scheme of man
Can ever pluck me from His hand
Till He returns or calls me home
Here in the power of Christ I’ll stand

Questions for discussion or reflection

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

What is your favourite comfort food? Is there a special memory attached to this comfort food?  In what sense are certain worship songs like spiritual comfort food?

Discuss / reflect on some of the images of security in the song. E.g. light, cornerstone, firm foundation, comforter and love. How do these connect with Scripture? Which image of security resonates best with you?  Why is that do you think? 

What does atonement mean?

What problems can you see with the line, ‘Til on that cross as Jesus died, the wrath of God was satisfied? What is God’s wrath? How does Jesus turn God’s wrath away? (Think obedience, not punishment.)

What is hope? How is hope related to faith and joy?

Why is the resurrection of Jesus so important to Christian faith? What are the implications of Jesus’ resurrection for you personally?  

Outtakes

The cornerstone metaphor is also used of Christ in 1 Peter 2:6 where the apostle writes: 5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual houseto be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For in Scripture it says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.”

In the verses above, from 1 Corinthians 15, we see our three themes of security, atonement and hope drawn together.

Union with Christ speaks of the result of atonement – Jesus makes us one with himself and with God.

Likewise, Christ’s resurrection speaks of hope in that it guarantees our resurrection to eternal life.

And, when we put Christ’s work of atonement and the hope of resurrection together, we have security in Christ.

[1] Refer to the Ransom article in the ‘Dictionary of Biblical Imagery, page 695

[2] Stanley Grenz, ‘Theology for the Community of God’, page 340

Tawa Baptist

When I survey the wondrous cross

Scriptures: Galatians 6:14, 1st Corinthians 1:18-31, Matthew 22:37

Good Friday Reflection:

Good morning everyone.

For many years the BBC Good Friday radio broadcast has started with the hymn, When I survey the wondrous cross. ­The words for When I survey were written by Isaac Watts in 1707 in preparation for a communion service. Isaac Watts was about 33 years old at the time. The hymn was originally named “Crucifixion to the World by the Cross of Christ,” but apparently that didn’t catch on and these days we simply call it by the opening line When I survey.  

Isaac Watts was the son of a deacon in the Independent Church. As an 18 year old Watts was critical of the hymns they sang in church in the 17th Century, so his father said to him, “Make some yourself then.”

And that’s exactly what Isaac Watts did. He started writing his own hymns. Over his lifetime he penned the lyrics for about 750 songs, including Joy to world, which we sing at Christmas time.

Many consider ‘When I Survey the Wondrous Cross’ to be one of the greatest hymns ever composed. Certainly it was ground breaking in its day. When I survey is unlike the other hymns, of that time, in that it reflects a personal spiritual experience. It describes the affect the cross of Christ can have on the human soul.

The sentiment of the opening line (and indeed the whole song) is that “We cannot understand the full meaning of the cross of Christ. We can only stand in silence before it, acknowledge its wonder, and submit to its power.”  [1]

At that stage in church history many people had been focused on getting their doctrines right. While good doctrine is helpful for guiding our thinking about God, Watts could see that doctrine by itself wasn’t enough. Faith in God isn’t just a set of philosophical principles or ideas to be examined under the microscope of our mind. We don’t define God. God defines us.

On some level Isaac Watts knew that God is relational and people need to have a personal encounter with Jesus. We need the love of God to touch us on the inside. Songs like When I survey were controversial in Watts’ day, perhaps because they were considered too subjective or too emotional. And yet, for over 300 years,the song When I survey the wondrous cross has opened people’s hearts to the wonder of God’s love and given us a way to express our deep personal gratitude to Jesus.

The second line of the song refers to the ‘Prince of Glory’. This is a title for Jesus. Prince of Glory (with a capital G) means Prince of heaven.

‘Prince of Glory’ also indicates that all glory and honour are due to Jesus.   

In the last line of the first verse of the song Watts talks about pouring contempt on all my pride. Contempt is the feeling that something is worthless. And pride, in the context of this song, is a feeling of self-satisfaction. Pride says, ‘I don’t need God. I can do this on my own.’ Therefore, ‘to pour contempt on our pride’ is to consider our own achievements as worthless and to rely, not on ourselves but rather, on what Christ has achieved through the cross. 

C.S. Lewis had some things to say about pride. He said, for example,

…pride is spiritual cancer: it eats up the very possibility of love, or contentment, or even common sense. [2]

A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you. [3]

…it was through Pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind.

In verse 2 of the hymn we speak directly to God saying, ‘Forbid it Lord that I should boast, save in the death of Christ my Lord’. This is a paraphrase of Paul’s words in Galatians 6:14, where the apostle writes,

‘May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.’  

The world, in this verse from Galatians, refers to everything that is against God. The world then is not so much a geographical place. The world, in this context, refers to an ‘anti-God state of mind’. Paul is saying the cross of Christ has (for him at least) killed his pride. In other words, Paul’s anti-God state of mind has been crucified. He no longer thinks of himself as not needing God. He now thinks and acts with reference to what God wants.

Taking his cue from Paul, Isaac Watts (like C.S. Lewis) had the insight to see that the cross cuts to the core of the matter – human pride. When we face the cross of Jesus squarely and honestly it humbles us.  

To put it another way; if we think of our pride as a house of cards (something we have spent a lot of time carefully constructing, but which isn’t very stable or resilient), then Christ’s sacrifice on the cross flattens our house of cards. 

The second part of verse 2 of the song continues the theme of ruthlessly crucifying our pride: All the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to his blood. This line reminds me of what Paul writes in 1st Corinthians 1:18-31. Let me read you read some of the verses from this passage of Scripture…

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”

20 Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

… 22 Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ [is] the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

26 Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong…

31 Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”   

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

What the world values and holds in high esteem: things like youth, beauty, wealth, skill, success, popularity, performance, winning and so on, these are of little eternal consequence. What really matters in the end is faith expressing itself in love [4], as demonstrated by Christ’s obedience to God in going to the cross.

You know, as we grow older and more self-aware, we come to understand the paradox that our strengths contain the very seeds of our weaknesses.

What are the vain things that charm you the most?

If verses 1 & 2 of the song seek to crucify pride, then verse 3 of the hymn shows us what we see when we survey the wondrous cross … 

See from his head, his hands, his feet, sorrow and love flow mingled down!
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet? Or thorns compose so rich a crown?

This verse sets our minds on Jesus, bleeding out on a cross; a crown of thorns on his head, nails through his hands and feet. Sorrow mixed with love speaks of self-giving love. It also suggests not just the physical pain Jesus endured but also the mental anguish and grief Jesus suffered over his separation from God.

The final verse of the song indicates what our response should be…

Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were an offering far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.

This verse speaks of the fact that Jesus was the only one worthy to make the sacrifice to atone for our sin. Nothing else in all creation could have sufficed. When we understand that God did not hold back even his own Son for us, our conscience requires us to not hold anything back from God.

We know from the Law of Moses and from Jesus’ teaching that we are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul and with all our mind. Jesus shows us, by his example, what that means and through the cross he provides the motivation to love God.

Now it needs to be acknowledged that we are all on a journey with this. While the final verse of the song holds up an ideal response, we don’t always manage to love God with our all. Wherever you are at on the journey I encourage you to not give up. Keep walking with Jesus. God is gracious and he understands our intentions are often bigger than our capacity to deliver (like a child at a smorgasbord whose eyes are bigger than his belly).

Peter was adamant that he would never abandon Jesus and yet, within a few hours, his enthusiasm was drained and he denied Jesus three times to save his own neck. Like Peter, we have all fallen short of our own best intentions. The good news is that Jesus did not condemn Peter. Jesus restored Peter and Jesus wants to restore us too.

When we survey the cross we face mystery. We cannot understand the full meaning of the cross of Christ. We can only stand in silence before it, acknowledge its wonder, and submit to its power.”  [5]

Let’s do that now as we sing in our bubbles, When I survey the wondrous cross…         

When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of Glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
Save in the death of Christ my God:
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to his blood.

See from his head, his hands, his feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down!
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet?
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?

Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were an offering far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my All.

[1] Stanley Grenz, ‘Theology for the Community of God’, page 340

[2] C. S. Lewis (2003). “A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C. S. Lewis”, p.115

[3] C. S. Lewis (2003). “A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C. S. Lewis”, p.114

[4] Galatians 5:6b

[5] Stanley Grenz, ‘Theology for the Community of God’, page 340

Tawa Baptist

Abide with me

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

Introduction:

Good morning everyone

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

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

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

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

Today we continue our ‘Anthems’ series. In this series we are looking at the lyrics of one hymn or Christian worship song each week to see how that song informs our thinking about God and how it connects with Scripture and the heritage of our faith.

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

Origins:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Death and resurrection:

The opening verse of the hymn reads…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

These lines are talking about how short life is.  

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

The second half of verse 2 finds a note of hope  

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

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

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

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

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

Fear not:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Conclusion:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Questions for discussion or reflection:

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

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

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

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

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

What does it mean to revere God’s name?

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

Tawa Baptist

The Lord is gracious & compassionate

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

Structure:

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

Introduction:

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

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

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

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

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

Today we continue our ‘Anthems’ series

  • In this series we are looking at the lyrics of one hymn or Christian worship song each week to see how that song informs our thinking about God and how it connects with Scripture and the heritage of our faith.

The song we are looking at this morning is called The Lord is gracious and compassionate

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

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

  • Graham Ord recorded the song in 1998 with Vineyard music

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

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

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

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

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

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

That was Graham Ord’s story of becoming a Christian

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

The Lord is gracious and compassionate:

A backbone gives strength and stability to the body

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

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

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

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

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

The word compassion is also very rich in its meaning

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Lord is slow to anger and rich in love:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • We can’t have it both ways.

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

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

There are three criteria to hesed in the Hebrew Bible:

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Lord has removed our transgressions:

The second verse of Graham Ord’s song reads…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Conclusion:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Let us pray…

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

Song Lyrics:

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

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

Questions for discussion or reflection:

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

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

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

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