Tawa Baptist

Sabbath

Scripture: Deuteronomy 5:12-15

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

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • The Sabbath is about stopping
  • The Sabbath is about equality
  • The Sabbath is about redemption
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

When a couple get married they normally exchange rings as part of the ceremony. The minister might say something like…

“Wedding rings serve as a symbol of the vows you have just made. They are the outward and visible sign of an inward and invisible love which binds your lives together.”

Each partner to the marriage wears a ring both as an inward reminder to themselves of the covenant commitment they have made and as an outward sign to others that they are married.

Today we continue our series in Deuteronomy. Over the past couple of weeks, we have been looking at the ten commandments (or the ten words) of Yahweh to Israel. This week we focus on the commandment to keep the Sabbath holy.

The Sabbath is like wearing a wedding ring, it has a dual purpose. The Sabbath reminds Israel of their covenant commitment to Yahweh and shows other people they are committed to God for the long haul.  From Deuteronomy 5, verses 12-15, we read…

12 “Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the Lord your God has commanded you. 13 Six days you shall labour and do all your work, 14 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your ox, your donkey or any of your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns, so that your male and female servants may rest, as you do. 15 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore, the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.

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

There is much we could say about the Sabbath, too much for one sermon. So our message today focuses on just three things. The Sabbath is about stopping. The Sabbath is about equality and the Sabbath is about redemption.

Stopping:

The Hebrew word ‘Sabbath’ comes from a root word which literally means to cease or to stop. The Sabbath day, therefore, is about stopping work.

A stop sign, on the road, is not like a give way sign. By law, a stop sign requires you to bring your vehicle to a complete stand still, irrespective of whether any other traffic is coming or not. They normally put stop signs in places where they want you to take extra care.

Just as a compulsory stop sign is there to prevent accidents, so too the compulsory stop of the Sabbath day is there to keep you safe.

The pace of life for many people these days is so fast. We often go from one thing to the next without a chance to catch our breath, let alone reflect. Taking one day in seven to stop, allows us the time and space we need to regather our thoughts and make better decisions; decisions which will prevent a crash.   

Most people can see the wisdom in taking a regular day off, and yet many of us find it quite hard to actually stop working completely. When we do take a day off work our hearts and minds are still on the job. It’s like we are on a treadmill.

Technology doesn’t help us to stop either. Technology exasperates the problem. We are tethered to our phones and laptops, literally the touch of a screen away from emails and work worry. So how do we stop?

Well, before we can down tools and walk off site, before we can resist the urge to check those emails one last time, we have to stop at a deeper internal level.

If we feel like the job isn’t finished, then it will be a lot harder to rest.  In my job I don’t feel like I can really knock off for the week until the sermon is preached on a Sunday and sometimes not even then.

Of course, most jobs can’t be completed in a week. If you are a builder, then it might take you months to complete the house you are working on. Or, if you are a teacher you will likely be with the same class of kids for a whole year.

You have to break the job down into smaller pieces. That way you give your mind permission to rest when you have completed the stage you had planned to accomplish that week.

The risk with this approach is that something else will come along to derail your goal for the week, so if you can’t accomplish what you had planned you feel like you have to use the weekend chasing your tail to catch up.

Going a little deeper, each of us has a drive for meaning. We want our lives to have purpose. When we retire, we want to feel like we did something worthwhile with our life.

We can find meaning in a whole variety of ways. For example: through quality long term relationships with other people; by raising children; through the nurture of a deep spiritual life; by making truckloads of money or conversely by giving away time and money in service to the community.

One of the main places people try to find meaning is in their career, their work. They may put all their eggs in one basket pursuing a career in sport or business or politics or academia or whatever and strive to become the top in their field because they believe that will fulfil their need for meaning.

There’s nothing wrong with trying to be the best you can be, but one would have to question the wisdom in sacrificing everything (your family, your health, your sanity, your very soul) for work.

Common sense says, spread the risk. Don’t put all your eggs in the same basket. Find a healthy balance. If work is the only place you find meaning in life, or even the primary place, then you will find it hard to stop and rest. You may also become starved of meaning when you cannot work any longer and all your eggs are broken.

Ultimately, our life finds its meaning and purpose in God. We live to glorify God and enjoy him. Enjoying God can happen any day of the week, but if we don’t practice Sabbath, then it probably won’t happen at all.

We are talking about the deeper things that prevent us from stopping and resting. Closely related to the search for meaning is that unconscious feeling which keeps telling us we are not enough.

It’s that voice inside which goads us and sometimes scolds us into justifying our own existence. ‘I must be productive, I must achieve this goal, I must do more in order to be enough.’

That voice is lying to you. You are enough already. You were born being enough. While you were still in your mother’s womb, before you could do anything for yourself let alone for anyone else, God looked at you with love and acceptance and said, ‘You are my child’.

Faith is believing that you are enough and you don’t need to prove anything. Christian faith is resting secure in the knowledge that you are accepted by God, through Jesus. We are accepted, not because of what we have done, but because of what Christ has done on our behalf.

When you know deep in your soul that you are justified by Christ, that Jesus has got you, then work becomes an expression of gratitude and Sabbath rest the warm embrace of your heavenly Father.     

The Sabbath is about stopping. Not just stopping our day job, but stopping at a deeper inner level. Stopping the compulsion to justify ourselves.

Equality:

Sabbath is also about equality. In verse 14 we read…

14 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your ox, your donkey or any of your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns, so that your male and female servants may rest, as you do.

In ancient Israel there were three tiers or strata to society. There was the natural born Israelite, with Jewish parents. Then there was the resident alien or foreigner. Immigrants basically who were not Jewish by birth but for whatever reason chose to live among the Jews. And then there were slaves, referred to in the NIV translation as male and female servants.

What we notice in verse 14 is that all three classes of people are to be treated equally on the Sabbath. Distinctions over race, gender, free and slave, rich and poor are suspended on the Sabbath. No one has to justify their existence through productivity.

Our underlying value as human beings is upheld and given a chance to breathe on the Sabbath. This egalitarian approach, where everyone gets a break from work, reminds the economically secure that the people who work for them are to be treated with dignity and respect.

Likewise, it reminds the economically vulnerable of their humanity, that they are not tools. That their lives matter and count for something more than their mere usefulness on the farm.

We also notice God’s grace in extending the Sabbath rest to animals – to the oxen and donkeys for example. This reminds us of our responsibility as stewards or caretakers of God’s creation.

The equality of the Sabbath points beyond this world to the next. The equality of the Sabbath reminds us that it is God’s plan to stop slavery, stop sexism, stop exploitation, stop racism, stop the oppression of one group by another.

In his book called, The Sabbath, Abraham Heschel recalls a rabbinic legend:

At the time when God was giving the Torah to Israel, He said to them: My Children! If you accept the Torah and observe my [commandments]. I will give you for all eternity a thing most precious that I have in my possession.

And what, asked Israel, is that precious thing…?

The world to come [God answered]

Show us in this world an example of the world to come.

The Sabbath is an example of the world to come.

You see, God intended the Sabbath as a taste of heaven on earth. The Sabbath is meant to give us a picture of what God’s kingdom is like. Sabbath equality nourishes our hope for the future.    

The world we live in badly needs to observe a regular Sabbath. Many people today are short on hope and filled with anxiety. The justice and equality of the Sabbath interrupts our anxious thoughts and fosters hope of a better world to come.

Redemption:

For equality to be possible there must first be redemption. Redemption has to do with being saved from something bad; being delivered, set free or rescued. In Christian thought, redemption is closely related to atonement.  

In 1999, a 23 year old man, Cornelius Anderson (nicknamed Mike), robbed a Burger King at gunpoint, stealing $2,000. He was arrested and sentenced to 13 years in prison. They released him on bail and told him to await orders on when to show for his prison sentence.

Due to an admin error the orders did not come, so Anderson did not go to prison. At this point, Mike Anderson had a choice: either continue down the path of crime or choose an honest life.

Mike decided to make good and choose an honest life. He used his freedom to become a master carpenter and start his own construction business. He became a football coach, volunteered at his local church, got married, had three children and became a well-liked member of his community.

Thirteen years later the state discovered their error. They thought Mike was already in prison and only noticed their mistake when Mike was due to be released. The authorities then acted to have him incarcerated.

Mike wasn’t in prison long though. 35,000 people signed a petition for his release and after less than a year the judge let Mike go, saying he was a changed man. Anderson walked out of the courthouse thanking God.

That is a true story of redemption. Mike Anderson used the gift of freedom to turn his life around.

Some people might complain that justice was not served, that Mike got away with it, but I don’t see it that way. Redemption is not in conflict with justice. Redemption is a higher form of justice. Redemption is a God given opportunity to start again and make things right.

To force Mike Anderson to serve 13 years in jail after he had made good, would be to treat God’s grace with contempt.

In verse 15 of Deuteronomy 5, we read of another true story of redemption, Israel’s redemption…

15 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore, the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.

This verse points quite clearly to the purpose of the Sabbath, which is to remember and celebrate God’s redemption.

During the exile, when the Israelites were living in Babylon, the Sabbath became a symbol of solidarity and an exercise in hope.  God had led their ancestors out of Egypt with a mighty hand. This inspired the exiles to hope that he would lead them out of Babylon too, back to their homeland.

Over the centuries quite a few man made rules developed around the Sabbath commandment, detailing what people could and could not do on the Lord’s day. Sadly, the purpose or the spirit of the law got buried (or lost) along the way. 

Jesus challenged these man made rules on a number of occasions by healing people on the Sabbath day. In doing this he was reminding us the Sabbath is about redemption.

In Mark 2, Jesus famously said: “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”

When Jesus says, ‘the Sabbath was made for man’, he means it was made for humankind.

Conclusion:

I don’t want to tell you what you can and can’t do on your day off. But I do want to encourage to take one day off in seven. It tends to work better if you take the same day off as other people, whenever possible.

For the Jews the Sabbath is a Saturday, the last day of the week. For most Christians the Sabbath is traditionally a Sunday, the first day of the week. A Sunday Sabbath makes sense if you are a Christian because Jesus rose from the dead on a Sunday and Jesus’ resurrection is the basis for our hope of redemption.

In keeping with Jesus’ teaching, that the Sabbath was made for man, we do well to ask ourselves: What is it that my soul needs?

Perhaps you have had a particularly difficult week and you need to think about something other than the problem you have been trying to solve. Focusing on God in adoration and worship could help with that.

Perhaps you sit at a desk in front of a computer most of the week. What is something you enjoy doing that is completely different from that? Maybe gardening or fishing or mountain biking or walking on the beach is what your soul needs.

Perhaps your work involves staying home and looking after children most of the time. Maybe some adult conversation is what you need?

Perhaps your job is highly pressured with back to back meetings and long hours. Maybe just sitting still in a quiet room with a good book will refill your tank.

Or perhaps you live alone, filling the hours as best you can. Maybe coming to church to be with others or going out to lunch to chat with friends is the Sabbath for you. 

Alongside this question, ‘what is it my soul needs?’, we also need to ask, what is it the people around me need? Because the Sabbath is for everyone.

If you are an extravert and you are married to an introvert, then what your partner needs on their day off is probably going to be different from what you need. How can you both get what you need? 

The Sabbath is about stopping and resting, on the inside and the out.

The Sabbath is about equality, being fair to yourself and those around you.

And the Sabbath is about redemption, using your freedom to put things right.

Let us pray…

Father God, we thank you for the gift of Sabbath. Give us the grace we need to stop worrying, to stop striving and to stop trying to justify ourselves. Help us to see your redemption, both for ourselves and for others, and to walk in it. Through Jesus we pray. Amen. 

Questions for discussion or reflection:

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

  • Why do we need to stop working on the Sabbath?
  • How do we stop working, on the inside and the out?
  • Where do you find meaning for your life? Are all your (meaning) eggs in the same basket? How might you diversify your meaning making?
  • What does verse 14 of Deuteronomy 5 tell us about the Sabbath? What does the Sabbath show us about God’s kingdom? How does Sabbath equality foster hope?
  • What is redemption? Can you think of an example of redemption from your own life (or from the Scriptures)?
  • What is it your soul needs? What is it those around you need? 
Tawa Baptist

One

Scripture: Deuteronomy 5:6-10

Video Link: https://youtu.be/0ZRwCAwoBDg

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • God’s grace
  • God’s uniqueness
  • God’s character
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

Seeds are powerful things. Small, compact, seeds contain the DNA of the plant. From one tiny seed much fruit is produced. 

Today we continue our series in Deuteronomy by focusing on the first of the ten commandments. If the law of Moses is like a tree, then the ten commandments are the seed from which the tree of the law grows.

The ten commandments are at the core of God’s covenant with Israel. They contain the DNA of how Israel were to relate with God. From Deuteronomy 5, verses 6-10, God Almighty says to Israel… 

6 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 7 “You shall have no other gods beforeme. 8 “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 9 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 10 but showing steadfast love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.

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

Sometimes the ten commandments are described as the Decalogue or the ‘ten words’. This tells us the commandments are not just a list of rules. They reveal something of the soul or the Spirit of God.

Today’s verses, for example, tell us about God’s grace, God’s uniqueness and God’s character. Let’s start then at the beginning, with God’s grace.

God’s grace:

When you cook a meal, the order in which you do things is very important. For example, if you are crumbing a piece of meat (maybe a fillet of fish or some chicken tender loins or a nice cut of schnitzel), you always start by coating your protein in flour first, then dipping it in an egg wash, before rolling it in bread crumbs and frying in the pan.

If you cook the meat first and then try to coat it in bread crumbs after, it doesn’t taste so good. You do the frying last to give the meal texture and flavour.

Enjoying a good relationship with God is a bit like cooking. You have to get things in the proper order or it just doesn’t taste right.

When it comes to friendship with God, grace must always come first, then obedience can follow. Trying to obey God without grace is like cooking your meat first and then putting it through an egg wash later.  

God does not start his ten words with a command. He begins, in verse 6, with a reminder of his grace, saying…

6 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

You see, God gave his law after he had redeemed Israel from slavery. God saved the people and set them free first, then he made a covenant with them. Israel’s redemption from Egypt was not conditional on them obeying God’s commands. God didn’t say, “I’ll set you free if you obey me”. Grace came first. 

Obedience grows out of the soil of God’s grace. This means the commandments (and indeed the whole law) are part and parcel of God’s grace.

The commandments are an invitation to an ongoing friendship with God. They show us how to related with God in a right way.

We might think of God’s grace as a bridge across an otherwise unpassable ravine. God’s grace provides a way for us to cross over to the other side, to God’s kingdom. God’s kingdom is where God is obeyed freely and willingly out of gratitude and love. 

Time and time again we read in the gospels how Jesus put grace first and in so doing left the door of obedience open for people to walk through. In Mark 2, four men lower their paralyzed friend through the roof of a house in faith that Jesus would heal him.

The very first thing Jesus says to the man is, ‘Your sins are forgiven’. Grace comes first. Then Jesus heals the man, telling him to pick up his mat and walk. Grace upon grace.

What does the man do with that grace? He obeys Jesus in faith. He picks up his mat and he walks off. Beyond that we are not told. What we do know is the grace of forgiveness and the grace of healing has built a bridge to God for the man. That same grace has also opened a way for others to follow in faith too.

This idea of grace coming before obedience is a beautiful thought, but it is difficult for us to accept. It goes against the grain of this world. We are raised to do the mahi (the work) then reap the reward. We want to pay our own way and not be in anyone’s debt. While that approach is necessary and applauded in the work place, it does not transfer well to our relationship with God.

We can’t earn God’s favour, we can only receive it humbly. We can’t obey God in our own strength. Obedience to God’s commands grows out of the soil of God’s grace. Or to put it another way, grace empowers obedience. God’s grace gives us the moral currency to invest in a faithful relationship with God.

God’s uniqueness:

Sometimes when you go to the movies they have quiz questions on the screen before the movie plays. Here’s a movie trivia question for you.

Which 1986 film, starring Sean Connery, is famous for the line: ‘There can be only one’?  Is it A.) Jerry Maguire B.) The Empire Strikes Back, C.) The Breakfast Club or D.) Highlander?

If you answered D.) Highlander, then well done. Highlander is a cult classic.

Now, to be clear, the movie Highlander has nothing to do with Deuteronomy. But, when it comes to God, there can be only one. This is what the first commandment is getting at. In verses 7-9 the Lord says…

You shall have no other gods before me. 8 “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 9 You shall not bow down to them or worship them;

Now some of you may be thinking, ‘Wait a second. Don’t verses 7-9 cover the first two commandments?’ Well, yes and no.

Traditionally, there are two main ways of numbering the commandments. The more ancient way, which goes back thousands of years and is used by the Jews, Catholics and Lutherans, is to categorize verses 7-9 as the first commandment and to treat verse 21 (about not coveting) as two separate commandments.

The more recent tradition, which dates back only 500 years to the reformation, thinks of verse 7 as the first commandment and verses 8-9 as the second commandment. While verse 21 is treated as a single commandment. 

The Jewish and Catholic tradition (the more ancient tradition) is better, in my view. It makes more sense. But it’s not a deal breaker. If you want to follow the reformed numbering, then we will still serve you communion next week.

The more important thought to grasp here is that the first commandment (as written in verses 7-9) points to the uniqueness of God. The Lord God Almighty is one of a kind. There is no other. There can be only one.

The command, ‘You shall have no other gods before me’,is stated positively in Deuteronomy 6 which reads…

4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

As we heard three weeks ago, loyalty and voluntary obedience is at the heart of loving God. The Lord God wants an exclusive relationship with his people, like a warm faithful marriage. God Almighty will not share us with any other god.

Returning to Deuteronomy 5, verses 8-9 explain what the Lord means when he says, ‘You shall have no other gods before me’.  Basically, you should not make or bow down to any graven image.

In the ancient world, pagans made little statues out of wood or stone as a tangible representation of the gods they worshipped. Psychologically, these idols held a kind of superstitious influence over people. In reality though, idols have no actual power. They are dead.

God does not want to be associated with pagan religious practices. He is unique, one of kind. God is unlike anything in all of creation. God is holy, set apart.

There is a mystery to God. We cannot know all there is to know about the Lord. We can only know what he chooses to reveal about himself. Any image we human beings come up with (no matter how well intentioned) is always going to fall short of a true representation of God. God is not defined by us.

Another reason God forbids the making of images for worship is that the Lord himself has made human beings in his own image. Unlike statutes of wood or stone, we human beings are living breathing creatures, capable of feeling joy and pain. Able to think and act and make decisions.

God’s intention, his ideal, is for creation to see the image of the divine in the way human beings care for each other and the environment.

It would be fair to say humanity has fallen a long way short of accurately representing the image of God throughout history. But there is one man who shows us very clearly what God is like and that is Jesus.

As the apostle Paul writes in Colossians 1…

15 The Son [Jesus] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.   

God does not want us to make an image of him because Jesus is the perfect image of God and we can’t improve on that.

If you look around the inside of our church auditorium you will notice, we don’t have a lot of images. Just the crosses and the fish symbol. You would not expect to find statues of Mary or Jesus or the saints in a Baptist church, although you might in a Catholic Church.

Interpretation of the command to not make a graven image or bow down to it has been a point of division among Christians throughout the centuries. At various times in church history people have taken offense at the images displayed in churches and destroyed them in a mood of holy indignation.

The Eastern Church got around this issue by not making 3D statutes but simply painting two dimensional icons instead.

To be fair to our Catholic and Orthodox brothers and sister, the images in their church buildings (whether they be two dimensional or three dimensional) were not intended to be objects of worship. They are simply a visual way of telling the gospel story.

Most people, at that time, could not read but they could still get the gist of the gospel by looking at the images. We might think of these images as a form of evangelism.

Rather than criticizing the way other people worship God, we would be better to take the plank out of own eye first. God expects our exclusive worship. That means he wants us to put him first in everything.

God wants us to put him first, not because he needs our praise, but because he loves us and wants the best for us. You see, to worship anything other than the one true God is to diminish ourselves. When we worship the Lord Almighty, we uphold our God given dignity and value as human beings.   

In the gospels, Jesus called people to put God first in ways which seem quite shocking to us. He once said to a rich young ruler: ‘Sell all you have, give the money to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven, then come follow me’.

The rich man went away sad. He did not bow down to idols as such, but Jesus’ challenge put a spot light on the fact that he worshipped his wealth alongside God.

It’s not that money is bad. But if we love money more than God, then we have a problem.

Perhaps the biggest idol of our time is what some call the ‘sovereign self’. We might also describe this idol as personal freedom or hyper-individualism. It is the idea that we must discover our deepest desires and longings and then do all we can to realize them, whatever the cost. [1]

There is nothing wrong with having desires or longings or a dream to pursue in life. These things are natural and may give us a certain joy or energy for a time. The problem comes when we enthrone what we want, and put it first, ahead of what God wants.

Most of us, if we are honest with ourselves, don’t always know what we want. We might think we want to be a movie star or a rock god or the owner of a winning Lotto ticket. We might think we want this girl or that boy to love us or to get that promotion at work or to score a century at Lord’s, but then (with the passing of time) we find we actually want something else. We never seem to find what we are looking for. 

The sovereign self is a false god. It is an illusion, a mirage. The sovereign-self fosters false hope. It misleads us. 

In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus dethroned the idol of sovereign self on our behalf, when he said: ‘Not my will Father, but your will be done’. Jesus did not want to go the cross and suffer separation from God, but he put aside what he wanted in a spirit of loving obedience to God the Father. And God gave Jesus his life back, only better than before.

To become a Christian is to topple the idol of self and let Jesus sit on the throne of our heart. To let Jesus be in charge. To let Jesus define who we are. To let Jesus bestow dignity and honour on us. And to find meaning in serving Jesus’ purpose.

What things in your own life compete with the worship of God? What needs to change for God to take first place?  If you are not sure, ask God to show you.  Sometimes our idols are hidden in our shadow side (our blind spot) where we can’t see them. We may not be aware.    

The ten words of Yahweh reveal something of God’s soul or Spirit. Verse 6 of Deuteronomy 5, reminds us of God’s grace. Verses 7-9a point to the uniqueness of God and verses 9b-10 shine a light on God’s character. 

God’s character:

Many centuries ago, after the time of Moses but before the time of Jesus, during the reign of the Persian Empire, there lived a philosopher named Heraclitus. Heraclitus influenced Plato who in turn influenced the Western way of thinking.

Not much of Heraclitus’ work has survived but one of his quotes, which made it to the internet age, reads: Character is destiny.

Character has to do with the way someone thinks, feels and behaves. Character describes the mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual. To say that ‘character is destiny’ implies a belief that the choices a person makes have an influence over the course their life takes.

Reality, as we know, is never that simple. Life is complex. There is much which is outside of our control. But we usually have some say over how we respond to our circumstances and that’s where character comes in.  

In verses 9-10 Yahweh tells us why we must worship him and him alone.

He says: for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 10 but showing steadfast love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.

The Lord describes himself here as a jealous God. You may remember from recent sermons that jealousy is different from envy. Envy is when we want something that does not belong to us. Jealousy, on the other hand, is that urge or that intense feeling to protect what rightfully does belong to us.

So envy is a bad thing and jealousy is a good thing.

Because God is wholly unique, because he is one of a kind, the only true God, he will not share the worship that rightfully belongs to him with anyone or anything else. There can be only one.

Following this train of thought, God will not share his image with anything else either. We human beings are made in God’s image. So God will not share us with an idol or a graven image.

On the face of it, those words about ‘punishing the children for the sins of the fathers’ sound grossly unfair. These verses need to be understood in the wider context of Scripture. The prophet Ezekiel clarifies any misunderstanding when he says…

20 The one who sins is the one who will die. The child will not share the guilt of the parent, nor will the parent share the guilt of the child. The righteousness of the righteous will be credited to them, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against them.

Heraclitus may well have been reading this verse from Ezekiel when he said ‘character is destiny’. Heraclitus and Ezekiel are in agreement here.

Ezekiel’s point is that God’s character is just and fair. And it is primarily God’s character that influences our destiny more than anything else. But the moral choices we make still matter. God takes our character into account.

Returning to Deuteronomy 5; verses 9 and 10 (when read together) seem to be saying: children and grandchildren may suffer in the short term because of the choices of their parents, but ultimately God’s character is heavily weighted toward love and mercy. For God shows steadfast love (hesed) to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments. In other words, God’s love far outweighs his anger.  

As we read in Psalm 30: For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favour lasts a lifetime; weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.

Conclusion:

Let us pray…

Father God, we thank you for your grace which enables us to obey you in faith and love. We thank you too for your uniqueness. There is no one like you. You alone are God. Forgive us for the times we enthrone ourselves. Keep us open to the work of your Spirit in developing our character, that we would better reflect your image. Through Jesus we pray. Amen. 

Questions for discussion or reflection:

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

  • What is the relationship between God’s grace and obedience to God’s commandments? Why does grace need to come first? Can you think of times in the Bible (and/or in your own life) when God’s grace came first? What happened and what followed?
  • In what ways does the first commandment point to the uniqueness of God?
  • Why is it important to give our worship exclusively to the one true God? What things in your own life compete with the worship of God? What needs to change for God to take first place?      
  • Discuss / reflect on the statement, ‘Character is destiny’. What do you think this means? Does this statement resonate with Scripture &/or your own experience? 
  • Keeping in mind the wider context of Scripture, how are we to understand/interpret Deuteronomy 5:9-10? What do these verses reveal about the character of God?
  • What aspects of your character has God’s Spirit been working on lately? What are the next steps of character development for you?

[1] Refer Timothy Keller’s book ‘Preaching’, page 133ff.

Tawa Baptist

Wonder – by Murray Lucas

Scripture: Psalm 8                                                         

Audio Link: https://soundcloud.com/tawabaptist/sermon-10-jul-2022-murray-lucas

Message by: Murray Lucas

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Past
  • Present
  • Future
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

The book of Psalms speaks of a wide range of human emotions and many of you will have a favourite Psalm which you identify with and helps you to work with God through life’s circumstances, both its challenges and its moments of joy.

The Psalm that I have found to be a huge help is Psalm 8.  Let us read it from the New International Version…

Psalm 8

 1 Lord, our Lord,
    how majestic is your name in all the earth!

You have set your glory
    in the heavens.
2 Through the praise of children and infants
    you have established a stronghold against your enemies,
    to silence the foe and the avenger.
3 When I consider your heavens,
    the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
    which you have set in place,
4 what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
    human beings that you care for them?

5 You have made them a little lower than the angels
    and crowned themwith glory and honour.
6 You made them rulers over the works of your hands;
    you put everything under theirfeet:
7 all flocks and herds,
    and the animals of the wild,
8 the birds in the sky,
    and the fish in the sea,
    all that swim the paths of the seas.

9 Lord, our Lord,
    how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Psalm 8 is unique for two reasons.

Firstly, it is the first hymn one encounters when reading the Psalms straight through. The psalms that immediately precede it are prayers spoken by people who are suffering or persecuted (Psalms 3-7).

Secondly, this Psalm is the only hymn in the Psalter spoken entirely to God. The focus of the psalm on the great and special privilege given to humanity occurs within the overarching focus on the sovereignty and majesty of God.

I would like to look at 3 parts of the Psalm that have helped me. I have related these passages to our Past, Present and Future.

Past:

One of the most dramatic shifts in the psalm happens between verses 1 and 2. We move from ‘You have set your glory in the heavens’ to ‘through the praises of children and infants God has established a stronghold against God’s enemies to silence the foe and the avenger’. We are moving here from God’s glory in the heavens to God’s glory in children and infants.

Jesus put a huge value on infants and children and rebuked his disciples for ignoring them and not valuing them enough. It is worth noting that Jesus himself cited this psalm on the day of his triumphant entry into Jerusalem when the children cried out, “Hosanna to the Son of David”.

A key aspect I want to bring out is that young children can teach us the value of wonder.

What is so special about wonder and children? 

Children inhabit a world rich in beauty and full of wonder. As an example, it is children who find their way to the wonderful world of Narnia, from CS Lewis’ classic book series, “Chronicles of Narnia”.

A healthy and happy childhood is filled with wonder for the simple reason that, through the eyes of a child, beauty is abundant and mystery is everywhere. A Monarch butterfly emerging from its chrysalis, a puddle in the street or the moon in the sky at night have more than enough beauty and mystery to evoke wonder. For a child his own backyard and some imagination are sufficient for hours of wonder … until he or she grows up.

I am grateful to my three year old grandson, Micah, for rekindling in me a sense of wonder. His joy and delight at watching diggers in action or watching a ladybug on a leaf is contagious and it has reignited the joy of wonder in me.

I acknowledge the author, Brian Zahnd, for his insights into wonder.

One of the tragedies of growing up is that we lose this capacity for childlike wonder. The loss of wonder is what we experience as boredom and boredom is a real problem.

Let us look at boredom more closely. Boredom is dangerous and deadly. Wonder is a feeling. Boredom is the loss of such feeling.  Sometimes we are led to believe that feelings are unimportant and I suppose that’s true for a machine, but we are not machines.

People devoid of human sensation and passionate feeling will often engage in dangerous and destructive actions in a desperate bid to feel something. Behind the evils of addiction and many other forms of self-destructive behaviour lies the culprit of boredom.

One of my favourite singing groups is Pink Floyd and not because they sang ‘We don’t need no education’. One of their other songs is ‘Comfortably Numb”. Its words have this theme – we grow up, lose wonder, and settle for being comfortably numb, but it really is a kind of death.

Wonder is a feeling. The loss of wonder is a loss of feeling. And when we lose the feeling of wonder, life just gets hard. The simple act of growing up and leaving childhood behind should not be such a catastrophe for our ability to wonder and be enchanted by mystery and beauty, but it seems that it is. 

God-given wonder is an essential ingredient if life is to be made liveable. God-given wonder is the cure – the cure for life-killing boredom. God-given wonder is the natural drug without which people may turn to alcohol or narcotics.

Sure, most people bravely soldier on without wonder, and even do so without drug addictions and self-destructive behaviour but is that the point of life?  That’s not life, that’s life with all the wonder crushed out of it and compressed to mere existence.

Wonder is what we’ve lost. Wonder is what we miss. Wonder is what we want. God-given wonder is our hidden Narnia into which we long to step and explore.

Joy Cowley captures this beautifully in her poem entitled ‘Bless Us, Lord’

Lord, when you blessed little children

You blessed every adult,

For childhood is not in our past but the pure state we carry with us,

Still connected to you our Source.

And so, Lord we ask you to bless us.

Bless the vision of the lovely heart 

That sees the world as fresh and beautiful.

Bless the trust that neither judges nor condemns.

Bless the quick sense of awe and wonder

That opens up wider than wide

Bless the lack of fear that makes space for love.

Bless the lightness of foot, rhythm of dance

And music of every present moment.

Bless the laughter that rings in us like birdsong.

Above all bless our childlike curiosity.

The challenge to me, and to all of us, is to reclaim a child-like wonder that adds to the thrill of living.

Present:

The second part of the Psalm that has impacted me greatly is: ‘What is mankind that he is mindful of them. Human beings that he cares for us’.

After considering the cosmic nature of God who sets in place the moon and the stars, we have this verse which states that God cares for us. I believe that means all human beings, irrespective of their background or opportunities. In fact, other Psalms will clarify that God has a special heart for the oppressed.

This is a dignity given by grace, a dignity given to every person, and constantly renewed as each person is the object of God’s particular care and concern. Among all the creatures, only humanity is crowned with glory and humanity.

Let us briefly consider the largeness of God in terms of the heavens. With the naked eye, one can see about 5,000 stars. With a four-inch telescope, one can see about 2 million stars. With a 200-inch mirror of a great observatory, one can see more than a billion stars. The universe is so big that if one were to travel at the speed of light, it would take 40 billion years to reach the edge of the universe. Considering the heavens makes us see the greatness of God.

It is a source of wonder that God who created all this values and cares for us. The Psalm goes on and states that God created us a little lower than the angels. Biblical scholars argue about the translation of the word ‘angels’. I prefer the interpretation that the word translated ‘angels’ is Elohim, and most often refers to God Himself. There are some Biblical scholars who believe that David said that man is a little lower than God, stressing the idea that man is made in God’s image. 

I want to return to the word ‘mindful’. Mindfulness is the basic human ability to be fully present, aware of where we are and what we’re doing, and not overly reactive or overwhelmed. Just as God is mindful of us, I believe that God or Jesus can be at the centre of our mindfulness.

It means abandoning technology and just being fully present to God. One simple exercise I have been introduced to is saying the statement ‘God is Love’ and sitting with it for a period of time, turning it over in your mind. Then saying, ‘God is’ and sitting with that for a period of time and then simply saying the word ‘God’ and doing likewise.

Firstly, the challenge of Psalm 8 is to recapture the wonder of the past.

Secondly, the challenge of Psalm 8 is to be fully present, embracing God-centred mindfulness and to value all people irrespective of their background or opportunities.

Future:

The latter verses of Psalm 8 steer us to the future. It outlines our responsibility as stewards for creation. In the Psalm it states we have a duty of care for domestic animals, wild animals, birds and fish and these creatures can only first survive and then thrive if we have a healthy ecosystem.

I want to honour those in Tawa who are working tirelessly to improve our local ecosystem: groups such as Friends of Redwood Bush, Friends of the Willowbank Reserve and those that work in the local community gardens at Tawa and Linden.

This year the Tawa schools have been part of a programme entitled KETE- kids enhancing Tawa Ecosystems. They will be involved in tree planting, monitoring water quality and pest control. One of our own young people, Delta, is a student leader in this worthwhile initiative.

Psalm 8 asks us to seek to protect, sustain, and restore creation. As part of this authority, mankind has the responsibility to wisely manage the creatures and resources of this earth in a way that gives God glory and is good for man.

This means that it is wrong to see man as merely part of the ecosystem (thus denying his God-ordained dominion). It is also wrong for man to abuse the ecosystem, thus making him a bad manager of that which ultimately belongs to God (Psalm 24:1). The mandate of dominion asks man to use the creatures and resources of the earth, but to use them wisely and responsibly.

Recently I was loaned a book entitled ‘The Good Ancestor’. It challenges us all to be good ancestors and to have empathy and love for those that will be living in 100 years’ time and even longer, way beyond our lifetimes.

The author correctly states that we live in an age dominated by the tyranny of short-term thinking but the reality is future generations of all living creatures, including humans, are going to be profoundly influenced by how we act to-day.

We have some excellent examples of people who have planned for the future. An example is the polder water management system in Netherlands.  Its aim was to protect land from flooding by dikes. The oldest existing polder dates from 1533.

Another is the London’s sewers. This was built following the great stink of 1858 and the deadly cholera outbreaks. Chief Engineer Bazalgette took 18 years with 22,000 workers and 318 million bricks. The scale of his planning showed that he was thinking beyond the present to the future. The system is still in use to-day. In fact, to this day the Thames is the cleanest metropolitan river in the world.

How can we be good stewards of the natural world that God created? Biologist Janine Benyus says that we should draw our lessons for long-term survival from the 3.8 billion years of research and development that nature has to offer.

“The secrets to a sustainable world, are literally all around us. If we choose to truly mimic life’s genius, the future I see would be beauty and abundance and certainly fewer regrets. In the natural world the definition of success is the continuity of life. You keep yourself alive and you keep your offspring alive. Success is keeping your offspring alive for ten thousand generations and more, so what organisms have learned to do is take care of the place that is going to take care of their offspring.”

What does that mean with regards to caring for place? It means caring for the rivers, the soil, the trees, the pollinators and the very air we breathe. It means respecting the intricate relationships that sustain the web of life. If we overshoot nature’s bio capacity, we are failing in the task of taking care of the place that will take care of our offspring. If we want to be a ‘good ancestor’, we don’t foul the nest.

It is interesting to note that the Psalmist, in Psalm 1, talks about the life of a man who delights in the law of the Lord. In verse 3 he uses the metaphor of a tree to describe this person. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Note the value the Psalmist places on planted trees and water quality and the importance of predictable seasons.

We need to think long-term and particularly in the area of care and stewardship for our ecosystem. I would like to conclude by reading a statement by a leading Christian Climate Scientist, Katherine Hayhoe:

‘I believe in God. I believe he created this amazing platform to live in, and gave us responsibility, stewardship and dominion over it. I believe God delights in his creation and wants us to delight in it as well. And I believe we are here to love others, especially the poor, the vulnerable and those most in need- just as Christ loved us.’

Conclusion:

Firstly, let us recover the God-centred wonder of our past childhood.

Secondly, let us be fully present, embracing God-centred mindfulness. Let us celebrate that God cares for each one of us.

Thirdly, let us think long-term and strive to be good ancestors, particularly in the area of stewardship of our ecosystem.

‘Lord, our Lord how majestic is your name in all the earth.’

This is the message of Psalm chapter 8.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

  1. What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?
  • What is wonder and why is it important? How can children teach us about wonder? What can you do to foster or renew your sense of God-centred wonder?
  • Why is boredom dangerous? How can we guard against boredom?
  • Slowly re-read Joy Cowley’s poem, ‘Bless us Lord’. What are you in touch with? E.g. a memory, a feeling, a challenge, an inspirational thought, or something else?
  • Reflect on / discuss the ‘dignity’ of being human. How do you feel when you consider the place God has given human beings in his created order?
  • What does it mean to be a good ancestor? What practical things can you do to be a good steward of the natural world God has made?
  • Make some time this week to be fully present to God by trying the exercise Murray suggests. That is: Say the statement, ‘God is Love’ and sit with it for a period of time, turning it over in your mind. Then say, ‘God is’ and sit with that for a period of time and then simply saying the word ‘God’, sitting with that.
Tawa Baptist

Yesterday

Scripture: Deuteronomy 1:19-45

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

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Israel’s fear in the face of God’s faithfulness
  • Israel’s arrogance in the face of God’s anger
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

The atheist philosopher, George Santanya, once said: ‘Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.’

Whatever George Santanya may have believed about God, this quote certainly strikes a chord with Moses. In Deuteronomy, Moses gives a series of sermons to the people of Israel as they stand on the edge of the Promised Land, after 40 years of wandering in the wilderness.

In the opening chapters of Deuteronomy, Moses is at pains to remind the Israelites of their past, in particular the mistakes of their past.

Today’s message draws its inspiration from Deuteronomy chapter 1, verses 19-45, in which Moses recounts the events of 38 years earlier, when the people of Israel failed to enter the Promised Land.

Moses is now speaking to the adult children of those who faltered. And he doesn’t mince words or sugar coat it. Moses wants the next generation to learn from the past, so they don’t make the same mistakes their parents did.

Broadly speaking Moses highlights at least two mistakes to avoid from the past. There is Israel’s fear in the face of God’s faithfulness and there is Israel’s arrogance in the face of God’s anger. First let’s consider Israel’s fear. 

Israel’s fear in the face of God’s faithfulness:

In verses 19-33 of Deuteronomy 1, which we read earlier in today’s service, Moses recalls the events that led up to Israel’s first failed attempt to the enter the land.

In summary, the nation left Mount Sinai and arrived at Kadesh Barnea, which is an oasis to the south of the land of Canaan. Moses said: Take the land the Lord your God is giving you, don’t hesitate and don’t be afraid.

But the people wanted to send spies in first, which seemed prudent at the time, so Moses agreed. Each of the 12 spies gave a favourable report of the land but only two (Joshua and Caleb) were keen to proceed. The other 10 spies focused more on the obstacles and threats, saying there were giants in the land and the walls of the cities reached to the sky.

Unfortunately, democracy was the winner and Joshua and Caleb’s minority report was ignored. From verse 26 of Deuteronomy 1, Moses remembers…

26 “But you rebelled against the command of the Lord your God, and you would not enter the land. 27 You grumbled to one another: ‘The Lord hates us. He brought us out of Egypt just to hand us over to these Amorites, so that they could kill us. 28 Why should we go there? We are afraid.

Fear is a powerful thing. There are two kinds of fear. Rational fear, which is well founded in truth and useful to protect us. Like, seeing a hot element on the stove and not touching it for fear of being burned.

And then there is irrational fear, which is based on a lie. Irrational fear, if it gets hold of us, distorts our perspective and blinds us. Irrational fear paralyses people. The Israelites’ fear was irrational. It was based on a false belief.   

David Riddell, a Christian counsellor, has a helpful tool for correcting false beliefs and renewing your mind. He calls it Trace – Face – Replace.

The idea with trace face replace is to trace your self-talk and feelings to the underlying beliefs which are driving those feelings. Then face your beliefs squarely, to see whether or not they are really true. And, if the belief you hold is false, then replace it with a belief that is true.

For example, if you find that you have a habit of bailing out when the going gets tough, you might trace that behaviour to a belief that life should be easy. When you face that belief you find that it is false. Actually, life is not easy. So, with time and practice, you replace the belief with one that is true. Something like, life has it challenges but God is with us and for us through thick and thin. We need to speak the truth to ourselves.

Now I’m not suggesting that all anxiety can be cured in this way. There is a certain level of systemic (or ambient) anxiety in our world today, due to a range of factors which are outside of our control. Nevertheless, I think David Riddell’s method is helpful.   

The Israelites were afraid of entering the Promised Land. And when we trace that feeling of fear to its source, we see it was based on a belief that God hates them.

Moses, who is a wise and compassionate pastor, tries to get the people to face their wrongly held belief in order to replace that false belief with a belief that is true. In verse 29, Moses says… 

29 “But I told you, ‘Don’t be afraid of those people. 30 The Lord your God will lead you, and he will fight for you, just as you saw him do in Egypt 31 and in the desert. You saw how he brought you safely all the way to this place, just as a father would carry his son.’     

Sometimes we think that faith is not based on anything. It’s just a leap in the dark. But Biblical faith looks back at the facts of what God has done in the past. Faith is grounded in the reality of our experience with God.  (Not just our personal experience but our collective experience also.) 

Moses fights fear with facts. The people believe that God hates them and so Moses basically says, ‘Where’s the evidence for that belief?’ The facts are that God delivered you from slavery in Egypt and brought you safely through the desert to this oasis. All the evidence indicates that God loves you.

Why would God provide all that care and protection only to lead you into an ambush? It doesn’t make sense. Your false belief needs to be replaced with a true belief.

In verse 30, Moses says the Lord your God will lead you and fight for you. Here God is portrayed as a powerful warrior, the General of a heavenly army. This belief, that God will fight for Israel, is not random. It is based on the fact that God actually did this for Israel when they left Egypt. 

Then, in verse 31, God is portrayed as a loving Father, where Moses says: You saw how he brought you safely all the way to this place, just as a father would carry his son. Again, that statement is based on the facts of what God has done in the past.

So the true belief, the belief Moses wants the people to hold to going forward, is that God is powerful, like a mighty warrior, but also gentle and protective like a loving Father.

There is so much fear and anxiety in our world today. Some of it is reasonable but not all of it. If we were to trace our fears to the underlying beliefs we hold, we would probably find that many of our beliefs are simply false and need to be replaced with a belief that is accurate and true.

What is it you really believe about God?

I’m not sure we really know what we believe when we are singing songs in church on Sunday. I think we find out what we truly believe when the faecal matter hits the fan, Monday through to Friday.

Do you believe God hates you? The truth is, God loves you like a good father. That doesn’t mean you won’t have to struggle. That doesn’t mean you won’t ever meet with resistance. But it does mean you are not alone in your struggle.

Do you believe God is powerless? The truth is, God is mighty to save, like a powerful warrior. That doesn’t mean life will always be easy. It doesn’t mean everything will be handed to you on a silver platter. But it does mean God can work every circumstance for good.

Returning to Deuteronomy. Sadly, the people of Israel still would not trust the Lord, even though Moses had reminded them of the facts of God’s leadership and care for them. 

If verses 19-33 of Deuteronomy 1 speak of Israel’s fear in the face of God’s faithfulness, then verses 34-45 speak of Israel’s arrogance in the face of God’s anger. We pick up Moses’ retelling of Israel’s past from verse 34…

34 “The Lord heard your complaints and became angry, and so he solemnly declared, 35 ‘Not one of you from this evil generation will enter the fertile land that I promised to give your ancestors. 36 Only Caleb son of Jephunneh will enter it. He has remained faithful to me, and I will give him and his descendants the land that he has explored.’ 

37 Because of you the Lord also became angry with me and said, ‘Not even you, Moses, will enter the land. 38 But strengthen the determination of your helper, Joshua son of Nun. He will lead Israel to occupy the land.’

39 “Then the Lord said to all of us, ‘Your children, who are still too young to know right from wrong, will enter the land—the children you said would be seized by your enemies. I will give the land to them, and they will occupy it. 40 But as for you people, turn around and go back into the desert on the road to the Gulf of Aqaba.’

41 “You replied, ‘Moses, we have sinned against the Lord. But now we will attack, just as the Lord our God commanded us.’ Then each one of you got ready to fight, thinking it would be easy to invade the hill country.

42 “But the Lord said to me, ‘Warn them not to attack, for I will not be with them, and their enemies will defeat them.’ 

43 I told you what the Lord had said, but you paid no attention. You rebelled against him, and in your arrogance you marched into the hill country. 44 Then the Amorites who lived in those hills came out against you like a swarm of bees. They chased you as far as Hormah and defeated you there in the hill country of Edom. 45 So you cried out to the Lord for help, but he would not listen to you or pay any attention to you.

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

When we think of anger we tend to picture someone losing control. A sudden outburst of pent up emotion. Perhaps yelling or punching the wall. Anger has many faces though. More often, in our culture, anger slips out in the form of sarcasm, or it goes inward as with resentment.

Anger is usually the result of injustice. If you cut yourself, you bleed. If you suffer injustice, you feel angry. The greater the injustice the greater the anger (whether that injustice is real or merely imagined).

The problem with us human beings is that we have a proclivity to feel we have been badly slighted or unfairly treated when in fact we haven’t. Or we might be inclined to magnify the injustice we feel because there is power in taking the role of the victim. So human anger is not always righteous or justified.

In verse 34, Moses says that God became angry after listening to Israel’s complaints. Because we human beings are so self-centred we often make the mistake of thinking that divine anger is the same as human anger. But it’s not.

Yes, injustice makes God angry too; the Lord was angry with Israel because their complaints against him were untrue and unjust. But God has a far better handle on his anger than we do. God keeps the injustice in perspective. He doesn’t exaggerate it. And his expression of anger is always fair and measured, salted with mercy and creativity. God does not explode in a fit of rage.

We see the fairness of God’s anger in the solemn declaration he makes in verses 35-38. The Lord vows that this generation of Israelites, who believed he hated them, will not enter the Promised Land. So often God’s wrath takes the form of giving people what they say they want. God’s wrath is not him hitting people with a big stick. More often, God’s wrath takes the form of God stepping back and letting people experience the consequences of their own choices.

But God’s anger is also discerning. God’s anger minimises any collateral damage. The innocent ones do not receive the same treatment as the guilty. Caleb and Joshua, the two spies who trusted God and encouraged the people to take the land, they both get in. They have to wait the better part of 40 years, but still they are treated with fairness.

As well as being fair and righteous, God’s anger is also creative. Verses 39-40 surely reveal the beauty and wisdom of God’s anger. Israel were afraid of what their enemies might do to their children so God basically says, ‘I will prove your fear to be false. Your children will occupy the land. They will succeed where you have failed.’

Imagine this. Someone you know well, someone you had treated with kindness, repaid your kindness by spreading malicious rumours about you. The things they said were untrue, unkind and unfair.

How would you feel? I expect you would feel angry and rightly so. But what are you going to do with that anger? Are you going to play a game of tit for tat and say nasty things about them behind their back?

Or are you going to tell them to their face that they are out of line and then, to prove them wrong, put money in a Trust fund for their kids to buy a house one day? (In this little story you’ve got the means to do that.)

Probably most of us want to speak our mind to those who wrong us but I don’t think any of us would bless their children so generously. And yet that is effectively what God did with his anger. He turned it into something creative and beneficial, saying your kids will inherit the land. God is not like us. His anger is just and merciful.

God’s declaration, that the children will inherit the Promised Land, reminds me of Jesus who says in the gospels: Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the Kingdom of Heaven.   

Simple, childlike trust opens the door.

So what does Israel do in the face of the Lord’s anger? Well, they say to Moses (in verse 41)…

‘…we have sinned against the Lord. But now we will attack, just as the Lord our God commanded us.’

On the face of it, this looks like repentance and we would expect repentance to do the trick. But it is too late. This is not the eleventh hour. This is the thirteenth hour.[1] God has already made his solemn declaration and he won’t take it back. That particular generation of Israel have missed their window of opportunity for entering the land.

Another quote from George Santanya: ‘Fanaticism consists in redoubling your effort when you have forgotten your aim.’ 

Or to put it another way, if what you are doing isn’t working, then more of the same isn’t going to help. 

By this definition the Israelites of Moses’ generation were fanatics. They redoubled their efforts while forgetting their aim. Israel’s aim, their purpose, was to trust and obey the Lord God. Sadly, they had forgotten this and compensated by redoubling their efforts, by trying even harder. But there’s no point in shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted.

Even though Moses warned them that God was not with them to give them victory, the people rebelled against the Lord and in their arrogance marched into battle only to suffer heavy defeat.

Maybe their earlier repentance was honest enough in that moment but it is undone by the next moment’s truth.

It seems that Israel’s need for redemption was so great they were willing to risk their lives for it. But salvation belongs to God. We cannot manufacture our own redemption.

Interestingly, Hormah (the place of Israel’s defeat) comes from a word meaning destruction or annihilation. The message is: failure to trust God’s word results in death.

Today’s reading finishes with Moses recalling how the survivors of that defeat cried out to the Lord for help, but he would not listen or pay attention.

We may prefer to think of God’s compassion and grace but what we have here is a picture of God’s unswerving justice. The people have simply reaped what they sowed. More than once they refused to listen to God and so God refuses to listen to them.

After the defeat at Homar, the people went to the oasis at Kadesh before returning to the wilderness for 38 more years. Sometimes you have to go back before you can go forward.

Conclusion:

You know, we need to be careful not to look down on Israel here. If we are honest with ourselves, we are not that different and we may even be worse.

Like Israel, we too are sometimes so focused on the giants in the land that we lose sight of God’s faithfulness. And in losing sight of God’s faithfulness we are overwhelmed by fear.

Like Israel, we too may be so desperate for redemption that we try to manufacture our own salvation. We may wear ourselves out trying to be good enough and then end up feeling defeated by the reality of how far we fall short.

Ultimately though we need to remember, today’s story is not primarily about us. This story is about Jesus. Jesus did for Israel what they could not do for themselves. Just as Jesus did for us what we cannot do for ourselves.

Jesus lived the perfect life of trust and obedience to God the Father on our behalf. And, in the process, Jesus conquered the giants of sin and death. Not only that but Jesus embodies the Promised Land of God’s kingdom.

We get to participate in God’s kingdom, not through our own strength or courage, but through simple childlike trust in Christ.  

The musician, Taylor Kingman, wrote a song called Wannabe. It’s not really the sort of song we might sing in church but the last verse makes an honest prayer, I think, even if Taylor Kingman did not intend that. Can you make this your prayer…      

I wanna be true

The blossoms of love are blighted with fear in the roots

And that moment was honest, untouched by the next moment’s truth

And I’m sorry for all I’ve taken and I’m sorry for all I’ve let loose

I wanna be true, I wanna be forgiven for giving up on everything I knew

I wanna be true. 

Amen. 

Questions for discussion or reflection:

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

  • Why does Moses remind the nation of Israel of its past mistakes?
  • How might we discern the difference between rational fear and irrational fear? How might we overcome irrational fear?
  • What do you really believe about God, Monday through to Friday? To help you explore this question, you may like to try the following exercise:

Are you aware of a mantra of self-talk or a feeling that is troubling you? Trace that self-talk or feeling to its underlying belief. Face that belief squarely. Is that belief true? If it is false, what belief can you replace it with?   

  • Why did God become angry with Israel? How did God deal with his anger? How do you typically deal with your anger? How is God’s anger different from human anger?
  • What connections do you see between this story of Israel and Jesus? What does Jesus do for Israel that Israel could not do for itself? What does Jesus do for us that we cannot do for ourselves?
  • Take some time this week to intentionally recall God’s faithfulness to you personally. It might be little things God does in each day or bigger things he has done over the years. Think of specific examples and thank him.   

[1] Credit to Walter Brueggemann for this line.

Tawa Baptist

Pentecost

Scripture: Deuteronomy 16:9-12

Video Link: https://youtu.be/Ix2Ecqso8L8

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Count – rhythm 
  • Give – gratitude
  • Include – communion
  • Conclusion – remember

Introduction:

Kia ora koutou and good morning everyone.

Today is Pentecost Sunday, a time in the church calendar when we remember and celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit provides a connection between Jesus and his followers. The Holy Spirit makes Jesus close and real.

Although today is Pentecost, the Holy Spirit is not bound by the church calendar. He can move at any time. But having a special day to remember the gift of the Spirit helps us.

Pentecost gets its name from the Greek word for fiftieth, because Pentecost is celebrated on the fiftieth day after Easter.

Ten days after Jesus’ ascension to heaven, while the disciples were waiting in Jerusalem, the Holy Spirit descended on them, empowering the disciples to proclaim the good news about Jesus in a whole host of foreign languages. We read about this in chapter 2 of the book of Acts. 

Pentecost wasn’t always a Christian festival though. Pentecost was originally the Jewish Festival of Weeks. Sometimes called the harvest festival. As it happens we learn about the feast of weeks in the book of Deuteronomy. From chapter 16, verses 9-12, we read…    

9 Count off seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain. 10 Then celebrate the Festival of Weeks to the Lord your God by giving a freewill offering in proportion to the blessings the Lord your God has given you. 11 And rejoice before the Lord your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name—you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, the Levites in your towns, and the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows living among you. 12 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and follow carefully these decrees.

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

In these verses Moses gives the Israelites a number of instructions. Moses tells the people to count the weeks, celebrate by giving and include the whole community in your celebration. Count, give and include.

Counting is about rhythm. Giving is about gratitude and including is about communion. First let’s consider the instruction to count.

Count – rhythm:

Have you ever noticed the rhythms that naturally occur in this world? The sun rises in the east and sets in the west and so we have the rhythm of night and day, sleeping and waking.

The ocean’s tide rises and falls with the gravitational pull of the moon. The moon itself goes through its own cycle from full moon to half-moon to new moon. The seasons have their rhythm too, of spring, summer, autumn and winter. Your heart also beats to a rhythm. We could go on but you get the point.

These rhythms support life and they become a measure for time. Without these natural rhythms the world would revert to chaos and life would not be functional or sustainable.

Deuteronomy places quite a bit of importance on the idea of time. We see this in the way Moses prescribed a rhythm of three main religious festivals each year. These holidays were pilgrimages in which the people of Israel travelled to one central place to participate in worship.

The three main festivals were Passover, which remembered God’s deliverance of Israel from slavery in Egypt. The festival of Weeks, which happened at the end of the grain harvest. And Tabernacles (also known as the festival of shelters) which remembered Israel’s 40 years in the wilderness when they lived in tents.

Christians don’t need to celebrate the Jewish festivals. The three main events for Christians are Easter, Pentecost and Christmas, each of which find their meaning in Jesus.

From verse 9 of Deuteronomy 16 we read…

9 Count off seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain. 10 Then celebrate the Festival of Weeks to the Lord your God

If you’ve ever done long distance running, then you will know the importance of keeping your rhythm. If you have to stop and start all the time it takes a lot more energy and the run is less enjoyable.

The Passover festival and the festival of Weeks book ended the barley and wheat harvests. This fifty-day harvest period was a busy time if you were a farmer. It was like running a marathon. When you are really busy and working hard you need a rhythm to sustain you and you need something to look forward to, a celebration or a holiday at the end of it.

Counting the days and the weeks gives you a lift, that motivation you need to get the job done. Only five more weeks till the school holidays. Only three more weeks to another long weekend. 

There is a thoughtfulness and a consideration for what people need in this command to count the weeks to the end of harvest. It provides a rhythm and something to look forward to. 

The last two or three years have been challenging, like a long distance run. Although we have much to be thankful for here in New Zealand, Covid has disrupted many of our natural rhythms. We’ve had to stop and start repeatedly and this has left us feeling more tired than we normally would.

The other thing about Covid and the various lockdowns we went through, is that we never really knew when it would all end. So counting off the weeks wasn’t possible. Hard to look forward to something when you can’t see the finish line.

What rhythms do you have to support your health & well-being? Perhaps eating meals and going to sleep at the same time every day. Maybe having a 30-minute walk in the morning. Or not bringing work home in the weekend, so you can look forward to a break.

What rhythms do you have to support your faith and hope? Perhaps starting and finishing the day with a dedicated prayer time. Perhaps stopping to be silent and still three or four times a week. Maybe meeting with your Bible study group once a fortnight. Hopefully Sunday worship features as well.  

Give – gratitude:

A few years ago now, when the kids were younger, Robyn’s parents gave our family a voucher to visit Hobbiton, near Matamata in the Waikato. At Hobbiton there is this amazing tree, known in Tolkien’s books as the party tree. It is where they filmed Bilbo Baggins’ birthday party for the movie. 

The tour guide asked the group what was different about the way Hobbits celebrate birthdays and no one knew, so I felt I had to answer. Hobbits don’t receive presents on their birthday, instead they give presents to all their guests. 

In verse 10 of Deuteronomy 16 Moses gives the instruction to celebrate the Festival of weeks to the Lord your God by giving a freewill offering in proportion to the blessings the Lord your God has given you.

The thing that strikes me here is that the people are to celebrate by giving. This is a bit like the way Hobbits celebrate their birthdays. Not by receiving presents but by giving gifts. Cool aye.

The other thing I find interesting here is that, in Deuteronomy, Moses places the emphasis on the freewill offering aspect of the festival.

The protocol for observing the Festival of Weeks is detailed in the book of Numbers and in Leviticus as well. But both those accounts focus on the mandatory aspects of the celebration. For example, the priests had to sacrifice two bulls, seven lambs, a ram and a goat, along with grain and drink offerings as well.[1]

In addition to this legal requirement, people could also make freewill offerings.    

In Deuteronomy, Moses shines a spotlight on the freewill aspect of the feast of Weeks. The technical details are not in view here, as much as one’s gratitude for the blessings the Lord your God has given you.

A freewill offering means exactly that. It is an offering you make to God of your own freewill. Not because you have to but because you want to. Not because you must but because you can.

In the gospels we hear of a woman of ill repute who anointed Jesus’ feet with expensive perfume. She did this of her own freewill, out of gratitude and love for what Jesus had done for her. Those who have been forgiven much, love much.

Likewise, in the book of Acts we read of Barnabas selling a field he owned and giving the proceeds to the apostles. No one was forcing Barnabas to do this. He was moved by the Spirit, in an act of gratitude and love.

Although there is a rhythm with Israel’s worship, Moses did not want this rhythm to become routine or like an empty ritual, where the people just tick a box. Nor did he want people to think that somehow their giving put God under obligation.

In giving to God we are not securing for ourselves some influence over God. We cannot keep God in our pocket. The Lord Almighty cannot be bought. To the contrary. All that we have is a gift from God. Our giving to God is meant to be a response of gratitude for his blessing in our lives.

Celebrating by giving provides an antidote to greed and avarice. What’s more, gratitude in worship keeps our feet on the ground, it keeps us humble. Gratitude saves us from the self-righteous contempt that often characterised the Pharisees. 

The point here is that giving is good for us. We don’t give because God is short of cash. God is not short on resources. Giving supports the life and well-being of the individual donor and the community.

Moses tells the people to count the weeks, celebrate by giving and include the whole community in your celebration. Count, give and include. Counting is about rhythm. Giving is about gratitude and including is about communion.

Include – communion:

In verse 11 Moses says…

11 And rejoice before the Lord your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name…

Moses is referring here to a central place of worship. This one place was to be the hub of Israel’s life in the land. It was to hold the wheel of Israel’s cultic worship together.

Having one central place of worship was also meant to provide coherence and integrity for Israel’s thinking about God. Without a central place of worship, the people would be inclined to conform to the influence of their pagan neighbours, with the result that Israel’s religion would become indistinguishable from pagan practices.  

One central place of worship reinforced the idea that there is one God and he is holy, set apart, different from the gods of the Canaanites and Philistines. 

During the time of Eli, Hannah and Samuel, that one central place of worship was Shiloh. But God’s name was brought into disrepute there, so the central place of worship became Jerusalem, during the time of David and Solomon.

In the gospel of John chapter 4, Jesus has a conversation with a Samaritan woman by a well. The Samaritans believed that their mountain, in Samaria, was the special place chosen by God, while the Jews maintained the temple in Jerusalem was the place.

Jesus said, “Believe me woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem… 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

For Christians, worship of God is not centred around a geographical place. For us, worship is centred in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus replaces the Jerusalem temple. In and through Jesus we are reconciled to God and we enjoy communion with God. In Jesus, God’s name, his character and reputation, dwells in fullness.

Returning to Deuteronomy 16. Verse 11 goes on to say that everyone is to be included in the celebration.

When we think of ancient Israel making sacrifices, we might imagine the slaughter and burning of whole animals. Livestock and grain going up in smoke. And while some sacrifices were treated in this way, other offerings and sacrifices took the form of a shared meal for the whole community, sort of like a Hobbit party.

The freewill offering attached to the Feast of Weeks was a party to which everyone was invited. Not just people in your own family but also your male and female servants. So women were included along with men.

The Levites were also to be included. It was the Levites’ job to look after the special tent of God’s presence and to assist with the ritual sacrifices and other religious duties. The Levites were set apart for God’s service and, as such, were not allocated any land. The Lord was their portion.

But wait there’s more. Moses says that foreigners, or resident aliens, living among you must be included in the feasting as well. And we cannot forget the orphans and widows. They were not to miss out either.  

What we notice here is that the Levites, the foreigners, the widows and the fatherless were in no position to contribute anything to the feast. Doesn’t matter though. Not being able to bring a plate should not exclude anyone.

What we have in this community meal, in which everyone is included, is a kind of communion. The food, the lamb, the bread, the grain, the wine was offered to God and belongs to him anyway because it came from him in the first place. So that makes God the host of the party and the host can invite anyone he wants.

And so, in the Festival of Weeks (and other religious practices of ancient Israel), we have a form of social welfare, where those who cannot provide for themselves are provided for.

Once again we see how the festivals and sacrifices Israel was instructed to make were beneficial for them. Israel’s rhythm of worship was not meant to be a heavy burden. It was meant to support the life and well-being of the individual and the whole community.

Deuteronomy’s instructions for the Feast of Weeks finishes with these words…

12 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and follow carefully these decrees.

We hear this phrase about Israel being slaves in Egypt a number of times in the Old Testament. Deuteronomy is peppered with it. In the context of chapter 16, the call to remember makes the Feast of Weeks a memorial meal.

But why frame the memory in this way? Why say, remember that you were slaves in Egypt, when you could just as easily say, remember God’s deliverance or remember your release or something more positive like that? After all, the Feast of Weeks is meant to be a party, a celebration, isn’t it?

Well, it is characteristic of Moses, and of ancient Israel generally, to make room for lament. Lament allows grief and sadness to be acknowledged and expressed. Something like 40% of the Psalms are laments, to say nothing of the prophetic writings like Jeremiah and Lamentations.

The longer you live the more you have to grieve. True rejoicing cannot really take place if grief and loss is ignored or swept under the carpet.

It is rude and insensitive to laugh and joke and drink too much, when there are children in the room who have lost their father or a woman who has just gone through a divorce or refugees who have been forced to leave their land.  

Remembering the pain of their slavery in Egypt goes hand in hand with including refugees, orphans and widows. It is a way of honouring those who have suffered loss and standing in solidarity with them. You’ve got scars? I’ve got scars from where I come from too?

The white middle class western culture I was born into is pretty buttoned down when it comes to lament. We are not very good at expressing our grief. But as repressed as we are, we still have the social sensibility to keep things real.

Where I come from it is not unusual for someone at a party to give a heartfelt speech and make a toast to absent friends. It might be a time to celebrate, like a birthday party or a wedding anniversary, but that doesn’t mean we have to pretend everything in our life is perfect or whole.

Conclusion:

This morning we celebrate communion. Communion is a memorial meal, bringing to mind Jesus’ suffering, death and resurrection.

As well as remembering Jesus’ scars, we also remember others in the room with us. Those who have suffered much to be here.

Communion isn’t just a personal thing, between you and God. Communion is something we share with each other as well. Communion transcends differences in gender and ethnicity and social status.  

Maybe your circumstances right now are a bit rubbish. Communion remembers forward as well as back. Communion looks forward to that time when God will wipe away every tear and heal every hurt. A time when we will participate in the Messianic banquet with Jesus in heaven.

Let us pray…

Eternal God, help us to find our rhythm as we walk humbly with you.    

Generous God, open our hands to pay forward what you have given us.

Compassionate God, open our hearts and minds to include others.

Suffering God, help us to remember where we come from and where we are headed. Through Jesus we pray. Amen. 

Questions for discussion or reflection:

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

  • What rhythms do we observe in the natural world and in our own bodies? How do these rhythms create order and support life?
  • What rhythms do you have to support your health & well-being? What rhythms do you have to support your faith and hope? What are you looking forward to in the short to medium term?
  • Why do you think Moses highlights the freewill aspect of the Feast of Weeks in Deuteronomy? What are the benefits of giving, both for the donor and the community?
  • Why did Israel have one central place of worship? Discuss / reflect on the ways Jesus replaces the Jerusalem temple.
  • How did the Feast of Weeks (and other religious rituals) contribute to the social welfare system of ancient Israel? Who are the foreigners, fatherless and widows in our society today? How might we include them?
  • Why is it important to make room for lament even as we celebrate? How might we do this in our context today?
  • Take some time this week to reflect on the connections between the Jewish festival of Weeks and the Christian festival of Pentecost. What do these two festivals share in common? How are they different? 

[1] Numbers 28:26-31

Tawa Baptist

Life Admin

Scripture: Deuteronomy 1:9-18

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

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • God’s faithfulness (roots)
  • Moses’ administration (trunk & branches)
  • Israel’s justice (fruit)
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

Are you familiar with the term ‘life admin’?

According to the Urban Dictionary, life admin refers to one’s personal day to day chores of an administrative nature.

Life admin could include things like paying your bills, responding to emails, managing your superannuation plan, organising insurance and so on.

More broadly than that, life admin may also refer to other non-paperwork tasks which have to be done but which are not necessarily enjoyable. Like getting a warrant of fitness for your car or having your prostate checked or doing jury duty or removing hair and soap scum from the shower drain.

Life admin is basically all those jobs which must be done but which you don’t really want to do and don’t get paid for. Although life admin may seem boring or burdensome it is still quite important. The consequences of not attending to our life admin can be quite damaging.   

Today we continue our series in Deuteronomy. Last Sunday we looked at the opening verses which point to the importance of time, place and words in the book of Deuteronomy.

The people of Israel are on the edge of the Promised Land with all the possibilities and problems that anticipates. After 40 years of wandering in the wilderness they are about to find a home for themselves, with God’s help.

Of course, finding and keeping a home involves quite a bit of life admin. Life admin, on a national level, seems to be what Moses is talking about in today’s passage. From Deuteronomy chapter 1, verses 9-18, we read…

9 At that time I said to you, “You are too heavy a burden for me to carry alone. 10 The Lord your God has increased your numbers so that today you are as numerous as the stars in the sky. 11 May the Lord, the God of your ancestors, increase you a thousand times and bless you as he has promised!  12 But how can I bear your problems and your burdens and your disputes all by myself? 13 Choose some wise, understanding and respected men from each of your tribes, and I will set them over you.” 14 You answered me, “What you propose to do is good.” 15 So I took the leading men of your tribes, wise and respected men, and appointed them to have authority over you—as commanders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties and of tens and as tribal officials. 16 And I charged your judges at that time, “Hear the disputes between your people and judge fairly, whether the case is between two Israelites or between an Israelite and a foreigner residing among you. 17 Do not show partiality in judging; hear both small and great alike. Do not be afraid of anyone, for judgment belongs to God. Bring me any case too hard for you, and I will hear it.” 18 And at that time I told you everything you were to do.

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

Today’s Scripture passage can be thought of like the three parts of a vine.

Verses 9-12 are talking about God’s faithfulness in keeping his promises. God’s faithfulness is like the roots providing stability and nourishment for the vine.  

Verses 13-15 show us something of Moses’ administration of the nation. The system of administration that Moses put in place (some might call it the law) is like the trunk and branches, giving structure and strength to the vine.

Thirdly, verses 16-18 outline the principles of Israel’s justice system. Justice is the fruit of the vine.

First let’s consider God’s faithfulness…

God’s faithfulness:

If you like watching cowboy movies then you probably know the way many of those movies end, with the hero riding off into the sunset after saving the day.

It is a classic end scene and usually leaves us feeling good as we walk out of the theatre. That kind of ending imagines there is no life admin for the cowboy to do. He is free, without a care or responsibility in the world. Or so it seems.

But have you ever thought about what happens after that? I mean, quite apart from the fact that the hero has to deal with sun strike, he isn’t going to get very far before he needs to stop and set up camp for the night.

From a practical point of view, it would make more sense to ride off at dawn the next day, with the sunrise at your back. Or better still, not ride off at all but stay and make a life with the people you have helped, because the cowboy’s life is pretty lonely really. Sleeping in the desert with rattle snakes isn’t much fun.

Deuteronomy is not like a cowboy movie where the hero (God) rides off into the sunset after saving the day. God is faithful and sticks with his people, despite all the extra life admin Israel causes him.

In verse 9, on the edge of the Promised Land, Moses reminds the people of what he said to them 40 years earlier at Horeb (aka Mount Sinai)…

9 At that time I said to you, “You are too heavy a burden for me to carry alone. 10 The Lord your God has increased your numbers so that today you are as numerous as the stars in the sky. 11 May the Lord, the God of your ancestors, increase you a thousand times and bless you as he has promised! 

What Moses is pointing to here, is God’s faithfulness in keeping his promises.

A few hundred years earlier, God had promised to bless Abraham with many descendants and make him into a great nation. God’s promise also included a special covenant relationship with Israel and the gift of land in Canaan.

Moses is acknowledging the fact that God has kept his promise to bless Abraham with many descendants and God has created a covenant with Israel. Now, as they stand poised to enter Canaan, Moses reassures the people that God can be relied upon to keep his promise with the land too.    

God’s faithfulness in keeping his word is the source of our life and redemption. If our faith and hope are not rooted in the eternal promises of God, then our life admin loses its meaning and the fruit doesn’t develop as God intended.  

God’s promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob put the nation of Israel in a privileged position. But with blessing and privilege comes great responsibility. In verse 12, Moses recalls the weight of that responsibility…

12 But how can I bear your problems and your burdens and your disputes all by myself?

There is a parallel telling of this story in Exodus 18. When Moses’ father-in-law, Jethro, visited Moses and saw how Moses was being worn out dealing with the life admin of the whole nation, he gave some fatherly advice about delegating responsibility and Moses listened.

Leaving the wilderness to enter the Promised Land is not the end of the story, where everyone lives happily ever after. In Deuteronomy, Moses makes Israel face the facts that blessings, gifts and prosperity (the so called good life in the land) comes with work. It requires people to pull their weight and share the responsibility of administering justice and mercy. If you want the treats, you have to do the mahi (work). 

Moses’ administration:

God’s faithfulness in keeping his promises is like the roots providing stability and nourishment for the vine that is Israel. In keeping with this metaphor, Moses’ administration is like the trunk and branches giving structure and strength to that vine. From verse 13 we read…

13 Choose some wise, understanding and respected men from each of your tribes, and I will set them over you.” 14 You answered me, “What you propose to do is good.” 15 So I took the leading men of your tribes, wise and respected men, and appointed them to have authority over you—as commanders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties and of tens and as tribal officials.

Moses uses a somewhat democratic approach, letting communities and tribes within Israel choose their own leaders. But unlike contemporary western democracy, which is done by popular vote, Moses identifies three criteria for selecting leaders. They should be wise, understanding and respected.

Wisdom, in the Bible, is a very practical thing. It is not abstract or theoretical. Wisdom is knowing how to do what is right.     

Understanding is also practical. It is not something you can gain simply by reading a book, as helpful as reading is. Understanding comes with life experience.

Wrapped up in this idea of understanding is something we call discernment. If wisdom is about knowing how to do the right thing, then discernment is about knowing what the right thing is to do. Being able to separate good from evil.

Wisdom, understanding and discernment are about competence. Good administration relies on people who are capable. 

It’s important too that Israel’s leaders be respected. Respect is different from fear. In New Zealand culture, respect is something that is earned through service and exhibiting good character qualities. Respect goes hand in hand with moral authority and trust. Respect holds the door open for right relationship. It allows good chemistry between people to happen.   

We asked Becca if she would consider leading our children’s ministry because Becca is competent. She has practical wisdom and understanding in working with children and relating with families.

Becca is also respected. She has done her apprenticeship. She has served in the life of the church in a variety of ways and demonstrated good moral character in the process. The staff and Deacons know that Becca will work well with the team. Competence, character and chemistry.

Returning to Deuteronomy. Different societies and cultures organise themselves in different ways. The kind of society or culture we come from shapes the way we do our life admin.

In broad terms, the culture of the ancient near east was more collective and less individualistic than modern western culture and this is reflected in Moses’ system of administration. 

For example, Moses encourages the Israelites to take collective responsibility, rather than exercise individual freedom. Accordingly, he sets up a system in which decisions are made in consultation with the group, rather than each individual doing what seems best in their own eyes.

There is a clear hierarchy with Moses’ administration but this is not at the expense of equality. As we will hear shortly, Moses instructs those in positions of authority to treat everyone equitably.

The hierarchy, with leaders in charge of tens, fifties, hundreds and thousands is functional. Being a leader does not make a person more valuable than anyone else. Everyone, whatever their role, is to be afforded value and respect.   

It is interesting that Moses chooses a mainly collective approach to the administration of Israel. For a great deal of his life, Moses worked alone in the wilderness taking care of sheep and goats. He enjoyed (or perhaps endured) a lot of personal freedom and didn’t really have to answer to or consult with anyone.

Collaborating with others (as usually happens in collective societies) wasn’t really an option for Moses. He didn’t have much choice except to be self-reliant.

And as for identity, well Moses grew up in the Egyptian palace, separated from his kin. When he tried to identify with his own people they rejected him. Moses never really fitted or belonged with any collective group. His strong personal identity was formed in the crucible of alienation and solitude.

Perhaps it was precisely because Moses had lived so much of his life on his own, as an individual, that he could see the wisdom in a collective approach.

Whatever the case, a nation or an organisation that relies heavily on a single leader at the top is not sustainable or resilient over the long haul.         

Moses’ collective approach to the administration of Israel stands as a kind of critique of our modern western approach.

Mark Sayers, an Australian pastor and cultural commentator, says this…

“The whole of contemporary Western culture – from the structure of our malls and cities, to the very fabric of the internet and social media platforms – are ideologies that shape us toward a vision not rooted in the eternal, but in the unlimited freedom and pleasure of the individual.”

In other words, we live in a me society, not a we society. And our society is orientated toward the fleeting feel good moment, not the eternal promises of God.

Interestingly, Mark Sayers sees an opportunity in this self-destructive hedonism. The individual pursuit of unlimited freedom and personal pleasure has a way of imploding on itself eventually. It creates a vacuum of meaning which makes people hungry for God.

Sort of like the prodigal son who only came to his senses when he was feeding pigs and starving. Sometimes, in order to really appreciate that Jesus is the bread of life, we must first realise there is a hunger in all of us which nothing in this world can satisfy.

Having said that, not everyone comes to their senses like the prodigal son did. Some people do not survive the black hole of extreme individualism. Some are swallowed whole by our consumerist society. So I’m not suggesting we must all

go off the rails, like the prodigal son, in order to find meaning in Christ.  

Nor am I suggesting collectivism is the answer. No. Jesus is the answer. Extreme collectivism is just as dangerous as extreme individualism. There is wisdom in finding the middle way, borrowing the best from both worlds.

Paul’s words in Romans 12 are particularly relevant for our time.

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Returning to the structure of today’s message; God’s faithfulness is like the roots providing stability and nourishment for the vine that is Israel. Moses’ system of administration is like the trunk and branches providing structure and strength for that vine, while justice is the fruit of the vine. 

Israel’s justice:

In verses 16 & 17 Moses reminds Israel of some principles of justice. These principles reflect the justice of God. Moses says…

16 And I charged your judges at that time, “Hear the disputes between your people and judge fairly, whether the case is between two Israelites or between an Israelite and a foreigner residing among you. 17 Do not show partiality in judging; hear both small and great alike…” 

The first thing we note here is that justice listens. Judges are to hear both sides. This might seem so obvious that we take it for granted but actually, giving people a fair hearing is essential to justice.

When we make room to listen we give people a voice and when people feel heard, their dignity and worth as human beings is upheld. When we are able to speak our truth cleanly, some measure of justice is released in us.

So that’s the first thing, justice listens and hears. The next thing is that justice is fair, impartial, even handed.

The statue of lady justice shows a woman, with a blindfold, holding a pair of evenly balanced scales in one hand and a sword in the other. Justice is blind to whether a person is rich or poor, powerful or not, a natural born citizen or a foreigner.

In other words, a person’s demographic is irrelevant. What matters with justice, is putting things right.

You may wonder why justice is portrayed as a lady in the statue. If the statue finds its inspiration in Scripture, and to some extent it clearly does, then it could be associating justice with wisdom. Because in the Bible, wisdom is personified as a woman. Sophia, is the Greek word for wisdom.    

As I’ve said on other occasions, there is no peace without justice and there is no justice without wisdom.

Verse 17 continues with Moses saying to the judges, ‘Do not be afraid of anyone, for judgment belongs to God’.

Nothing interferes with the faculty of discernment like fear. Justice requires a non-anxious presence.

Moses’ advice here can be interpreted in a variety of ways. Perhaps Moses is saying that human judges represent God. Or maybe he means that human judges should not be swayed by the shifting sands of public opinion or what others may think of them. Rather, they should fix their minds on God’s standard of justice.

Whichever way we interpret this verse, justice is important to the Lord. God and God alone has the right to pass judgement. Ultimately we all answer to God.    

Verse 17 finishes with Moses saying: “Bring me any case too hard for you, and I will hear it.” 

In our judicial system people often have a right of appeal if they don’t agree with the decision made by the judge. But verse 17 is not saying that. In this context, it is not the complainant or the defendant who appeals to a higher authority, but the judge himself.

If the judge can’t decide the case, then they can pass it up the chain to Moses.

A case might be too hard if the judge doesn’t have the powers of discernment to see who is in the wrong and what should be done about it. But a case may also be too hard if the judge senses a conflict of interest.

The point seems to be that justice requires the humility, the self-awareness and the personal integrity to recognise our own limitations, blind spots and prejudices. As Jesus said, we need to take the plank out of our own eye so we can see clearly to remove the speck from someone else’s eye.

Now these principles of justice, outlined by Moses, are not only for those who work in the judicial system. We all have a duty to God, our neighbour and ourselves to act justly.

As the prophet Micah famously said: What does the Lord require of you? To do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

Conclusion:

This morning we have talked about the vine that is Israel. In the gospel of John, Jesus says of himself, “I am the true vine and you are the branches”.

Jesus proves the faithfulness of God. Jesus fulfils the roots of God’s promises.

Jesus provides the wisdom and the Spirit, the truth and the grace, the structure and the strength, we need to do our life admin well.

It is only as we stay connected to Jesus that we are able to bear the fruit of justice, mercy and humility.

Let us pray…

Father God, you are faithful. May our faith and hope be deeply rooted in your eternal promises. May our lives be transformed by the renewing of our minds, that we would have the understanding to discern your will and the wisdom to know how to do your will. Keep us close to Jesus we ask and make us fruitful for your glory. Amen.      

Questions for discussion or reflection:

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

  • Can you think of some life admin tasks which you have been putting off for a while? Why do we need to attend to life admin? Do you have a plan or a system for administering your life admin? What does that system look like?
  • How is Deuteronomy different from a cowboy movie, where the hero rides off into the sunset while end credits roll?
  • Why does Moses set up an administrative system for managing Israel’s life admin? What is notable or distinctive about Moses’ administrative system?
  • In verse 15 of Deuteronomy 1, Moses recommends three qualities for leaders. Why are these qualities necessary for leaders?
  • Discuss / reflect on Mark Sayers’ comment: “The whole of contemporary Western culture – from the structure of our malls and cities, to the very fabric of the internet and social media platforms – are ideologies that shape us toward a vision not rooted in the eternal, but in the unlimited freedom and pleasure of the individual.”

What do you think this means? Do you agree with Mark Sayers’ comment? How might God redeem a society like this?

  • What principles of justice do you see in Deuteronomy 1:16-17? How are (or can) these principles of justice be applied in our personal lives and our wider society today?    
Tawa Baptist

Open

Scripture: Luke 24:13-35

Video Link: https://youtu.be/Sm-a5vJA_Gg

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Open mouths
  • Open book
  • Open home
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

What do these four things share in common: a thumb print, a cork screw, a pin number and a key? [Pause]

That’s right, they open things. A thumb print opens your phone. A cork screw opens a bottle. A pin number opens your bank account and a key opens a door.

This morning, because we are in the season of Easter and because we are celebrating communion, our message focuses on Luke chapter 24, verses 13-35. In this passage Jesus opens the mind of two of his disciples on the road to Emmaus, the afternoon of the first Easter Sunday. From Luke 24, verse 13 we read…

13 Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven milesfrom Jerusalem. 14 They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. 15 As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; 16 but they were kept from recognizing him.

17 He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?”

They stood still, their faces downcast. 18 One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, “Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?”

19 “What things?” he asked.

“About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. 20 The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; 21 but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. 22 In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning 23 but didn’t find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. 24 Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see Jesus.”

25 He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 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 farther. 29 But they urged him strongly, “Stay 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, and he disappeared from their sight. 32 They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” 33 They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together 34 and saying, “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.” 35 Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.

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

In this passage Jesus opens his disciples’ minds to the reality of his resurrection. This involves opening their mouths, opening the book (of Scripture) and opening their home. First let’s consider how Jesus opens the disciples’ mouths.  

Open mouths:

Do any of you have a cupboard at home that you use to hide your mess. Perhaps the things in this cupboard were stuffed away in a hurry, because you had guests coming over and you needed to make the place look tidy. 

Sorting out the cupboard is one of those jobs you know you need to do but somehow just can’t seem to find the time or the motivation for. Avoiding the cupboard will eventually create more stress for you though, when you can’t find what you are looking for.

To tidy up the messy cupboard you have to start by taking everything out and sorting it into piles. Decide what you are going to keep and what you are going to throw out. Then put the keepers back in the right place.

Sometimes our hearts and minds can become like the messy cupboard. We stuff thoughts and feelings, doubts and anxieties, hopes and longings into a metaphorical cupboard inside us, which no one else sees and which we ignore, because it is easier than unpacking everything and sorting through it.

That strategy may work for a little while but it’s only a matter of time before the contents of the cupboard cannot be contained any longer. Talking about the things that are troubling us (the messy things we stuff away, out of sight) is one way to empty the cupboard in our mind and get our head straight.

We need to exercise wisdom though in choosing who we talk with about our mess. You are probably best to avoid sharing deep personal stuff with someone who is not equipped for that kind of conversation or who can’t be trusted with the information.

God is equipped though and he can be trusted. A big part of prayer is emptying the cupboard in your mind by talking with him and asking his help to sort the mess.  

In Luke 24, Jesus found two of his disciples walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus talking about him and all that had happened, in particular, his suffering and death.

They didn’t recognise Jesus at first. Perhaps the thing that prevented them from seeing Jesus was the messy cupboard in their mind.

Jesus seemed to understand this and so he got them talking (he opened their mouths as it were) simply by asking them what was on their mind. Jesus knew it was important that they be allowed to express their thoughts and feelings.

It’s interesting that Luke gives quite a bit of space to what the disciples have to say here (at least seven verses). The implication is that listening to others empty the messy cupboard in their head is really important. It is a sacred duty in fact. 

Sometimes when we are listening to someone else we can feel tempted to jump ahead of them. Perhaps anticipate what they are going to say or short circuit the listening part and give them the benefit of our advice. But that never works.

The first and most essential part of cleaning out the cupboard is emptying the contents. Letting others talk is how we empty the contents. If you give your advice before someone has finished talking, that’s like putting more stuff in, you only make the mess worse.

Jesus gets his bewildered disciples talking and he listens.

In verse 21 the disciples express their disappointment when they say…

21 but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel.

They had high hopes that Jesus was going to deliver them from their enemies the Romans. But their hopes of military and political supremacy were dashed when Jesus was killed.

Jesus does not minimise or deny his disciples’ feelings. Jesus accepts that they feel disappointed but he does not leave them in the pit. After they have finished saying what they need to say, Jesus opens the book of Scripture for them.

Open book:

When we were kids we used to love doing those join the dot pictures. You know the ones, where each dot on a page is numbered so that when you draw a line, following the numbers in the right order, you end up with a picture.

Before joining the dots, you can’t really see the pattern. It’s only afterwards that you see the image. It was a bit like that for the disciples. They needed Jesus to help them join the dots.

In verse 27 we read: And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he [Jesus] explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.     

The Scriptures that Jesus used to join the dots were the Hebrew Scriptures, what we know as the Old Testament. The Scriptures are sort of like a map. They provide some perspective and direction. They help us find our way in life.

Of course, we need to know how to read the map. Maps are two dimensional. They don’t always show you how rugged or steep the terrain is. One inch on a map might not seem far but if that inch includes a mountain or a deep gorge, then it may take more than a day or two to navigate on foot.

When the disciples read the map of the Hebrew Scriptures they saw the parts about the victory and the glory of the Messiah and they overlooked the hard terrain, about the Messiah having to suffer first.

So their hope was built on the false assumption that the Messiah was going to deliver Israel from suffering. Whereas the Prophets were actually saying that God was going to bring deliverance through the Messiah’s suffering.

And that deliverance wasn’t just for Israel but for all the other nations as well, including Israel’s enemies 

So, how might we know we are on the right track with our reading of the map of Scripture?

In verse 32, after the disciples had recognised Jesus, they said to each other: “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”

Three things we note here. Firstly, the disciples’ hearts were burning within them as Jesus spoke. Fire is a symbol of God’s Spirit. I understand this to be a poetic way of saying they felt the presence of God’s Spirit within them.

This is not to imply that God’s Spirit always feels like a burning sensation within. The Spirit may manifest himself in any number of ways.

One point of application for us is, when we read Scripture we may find a particular verse stands out for us or we get a strong impression that God is wanting to speak to us through a specific passage. We need to pay attention to that sensation in our spirit and ask God to confirm it and clarify it. 

Secondly, the disciples felt the burning sensation together at the same time.  When it comes to reading the map of Scripture we need to do so in dialogue with other believers. If our individual understanding is not in harmony with the Christian community, then we should not put too much weight on it.  

The third thing we note in verse 32 is that the disciples saw the meaning in the rear vision mirror (as they reflected on their experience). Often the meaning God wants us to get from the Scriptures is not obvious to us until after the fact, when we are looking back on it with the benefit of hindsight.

Some of you here may do the daily Wordle on your phones. Robyn does it and recently (while on holiday) I joined her. With Wordle you have six chances to work out a five letter word.

You start by guessing any five letter word. If you guess the right letter in the right place it shows up as green. If you guess the right letter in the wrong place it shows up as yellow. And if the letter is not in the word at all, it shows up as purple. It’s a process of elimination.

This particular day our first guess was GRACE. We got the E in the right place so our next guess was SPIKE. The I was correct too but we still needed to find the other three letters.

After a bit of thought we went with the word OLIVE. The O was spot on. We were getting closer but still no cigar. The harder I looked at the word OLIVE the more the answer evaded me. I could not for the life of me think of a five letter word that started with O, had an I in the middle and ended in E.       

After doing something else for a while, Robyn figured it out…

The word was OXIDE. In hindsight it seemed so obvious. But beforehand I just could not see it. This is often how it is with discerning what God is saying. We get a few clues along the way but the harder we strain to figure it out the more it alludes us. Eventually though the answer comes (with patience).

So, to recap, three keys that open the book of Scripture (from verse 32) are the Holy Spirit, other believers and hindsight.

That means we need to read the Bible with a prayerful sensitivity to God’s Spirit. We need to dialogue with other believers to discern a shared understanding of the Scriptures. And we need to reflect on specific Bible verses in light of our own experience (in hindsight). 

Interestingly, it was not an exposition of Scripture by itself that opened the eyes of the disciples. Rather, the revelation came when the disciples opened their home to Jesus.  

Open home:

In verses 28-29 of Luke 24 we read…

28 As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if he were going farther. 29 But they urged him strongly, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them.

It would have been more difficult and dangerous to travel alone in the dark and so the two disciples open their home to Jesus for the night, even though they still have no idea that it was Jesus who had been walking & talking with them.

By inviting him in to their home, the disciples were opening their lives to Jesus personally. What we notice here is a process of drawing closer to Jesus. A journey towards intimacy.

It’s sort of like pass the parcel. You know, that party game where you pass a parcel around a circle of people and when the music stops, the person holding the parcel takes a layer of wrapping off, and so on, until you get to the final layer and the present is revealed. Verse 30 tells us what happens when the last layer of wrapping is removed.

30 When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them.

It is at this point that the disciples’ eyes and minds are opened and they realise that Jesus has risen from the dead. This is the greatest revelation of all time, indeed the greatest present ever.

Note the oddness of this scene though. When you go to someone else’s house for dinner you expect the host to serve the meal. But Jesus, who is supposed to be the guest in this situation, takes the role of the host and begins to serve the disciples.

Jesus takes the bread, gives thanks and breaks it, just as he did at the last supper and just as he did when feeding the multitudes. Just as he will do again one day when we feast in heaven with him.

The point is that Jesus is the host of our salvation and we are his guests, if we accept the invitation.

After this we read that the two disciples wasted no time in returning to Jerusalem to tell the others. Their joy could not be contained. And when they arrived their experience of Jesus’ resurrection was confirmed. Peter had also witnessed the risen Jesus.

Conclusion:

Jesus opened his disciples’ minds to the reality of his resurrection first by opening their mouths and listening to them and then by opening the book of Scripture so they could join the dots. 

The disciples responded by opening their home to Jesus and sharing the good news of his resurrection.

Where are you at in this process of realising that Jesus is risen from the dead?

Are you cleaning out the cupboard in your mind?

Are you joining the dots of Scripture?

Have you invited Jesus into your life and your home?

Or perhaps you are ready to tell others the good news that Jesus is alive?

Let us pray…   

Lord Jesus Christ, you have conquered death. Thank you for listening to us and joining the dots of understanding. May we make room for you in our hearts, our homes and our daily lives. Open our minds to the reality of your resurrection. Move us to faithfulness by the impulse of your love. Amen.   

Questions for discussion or reflection:

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

  • Why does Jesus ask the disciples what they are talking about? (in Luke 24:17 & 19)
  • How do you manage the messy thoughts and feelings in your life? Do you have a trusted friend you can unpack the messy things with?  How do we listen effectively to others? 
  • Take some time to do a join the dots picture. Make it a hard one that isn’t obvious before the dots are joined. Why do you think it was difficult for Jesus’ disciples to join the dots of Scripture?
  • Discuss / reflect on the three keys for opening the book of Scripture? (Refer Luke 24:32) E.g. How might we recognise (or be sensitive to) God’s presence / Spirit when reading the Bible? What practical things can we do to reflect on Scripture in light of our own experience?
  • What is significant about Jesus acting as host while a guest in his disciples’ home? Why do you think the disciples recognised Jesus in the breaking of bread? How does Jesus’ resurrection inform the way we understand communion?   
  • Using the four stages in the Emmaus story as a framework, where are you at in the process or realising Jesus is alive? Are you cleaning out the cupboard in your mind? Are you joining the dots of Scripture? Are you ready to invite Jesus into your life and your home? Or are you ready to tell others the good news about Jesus? What do you need in order to progress in this process?
Tawa Baptist

Care

Scripture: 1st Thessalonians 5:12-22

Video Link: https://youtu.be/p9_RXHv8CM8

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Respect your leaders (12-13)
  • Care for the needy (14-15)
  • Discern God’s will (16-22)
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

Can you remember the first time you left home? Maybe you were going away on a school camp for a week, or perhaps you were going overseas on an exchange trip or leaving home to go flatting.

In all likelihood one of your parents probably went through a checklist with you. Have you packed your tooth brush? What about your phone charger? Do you have a spare inhaler in case the first one runs out? Make sure you eat properly. Stay away from the boys. Or stay away from the girls. Remember I love you. Stay in touch and call me when you get there. I’m going to miss you.

This is a little ritual that many parents can’t help performing when they send their children into the world. It’s not easy being apart from the people you love. It takes faith.

Today we continue our series in Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians, by focusing on chapter 5, verses 12-22. In these verses Paul is getting towards the end of the letter and he is preparing to say goodbye.

Before he signs off though, Paul runs through a checklist of things he wants the Thessalonian believers to remember. Paul loves them like family and wants them to be okay in the world without him. From verse 12 of Thessalonians 5 we read… 

12 Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to acknowledge those who work hard among you, who care for you in the Lord and who admonish you. 13 Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other.  14 And we urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle and disruptive, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone. 15 Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone else. 16 Rejoice always, 17 pray continually, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 19 Do not quench the Spirit. 20 Do not treat prophecies with contempt 21 but test them all; hold on to what is good, 22 reject every kind of evil.

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

There are lots of things in Paul’s checklist for the Thessalonians. We could summarise them under three sub headings…

In verses 12-13 Paul is appealing to the congregation to respect their leaders.

In verses 14-15 he is urging them to care for the needy.

And in verses 16-22 Paul is instructing the believers to discern God’s will.

Let’s start with respecting your leaders.

Respect your leaders:

Donald McGannon once said, leadership is an action, not a position.

Donald was a broadcasting industry executive. He worked to improve the standards of radio and television broadcasting. Among other things, Don insisted on dropping cigarette advertising, at a time when that was an unpopular thing to do. He was a leader who used his influence for good.

‘Leadership is an action, not a position’, was very much Paul’s view on leadership too. In verse 12 Paul says…   

12 Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to acknowledge those who work hard among you, who care for you in the Lord and who admonish you.

The interesting thing here is that Paul uses verbs (or doing words) to describe the leaders of the congregation in Thessalonica. Having a fancy title doesn’t make you a leader. Rather it is what one does that makes them a leader.

The three things a church leader does: Work hard among the congregation. Care for the congregation and admonish people.   

Working hard for the congregation is about service. Good leadership is servant leadership. Leadership takes time and energy. Not just physical energy but emotional and mental energy as well. It’s not only the long hours, it’s also the weight of responsibility a leader carries.   

A good leader works hard because they really care about the well-being of the people. To care for people means to look after them. Make sure their needs are met.

Fun fact, the Greek word translated as ‘those who care for you’, in verse 12, can also mean ‘those who are over you’, as in those who are in authority over you. So the thought here is of someone who uses their authority to take care of others (as opposed to abusing their authority).

Admonish is a bit of an old fashioned word. To admonish someone is to correct them or to warn them to avoid a certain course of action. Admonishing people is essentially about providing guidance. It can sometimes require having a difficult conversation with others.

Of course, the spirit in which a Christian brother or sister admonishes is one of gentleness and humility. Christ like admonition aims to balance grace and truth. The foundation for admonishing people is the example we set.

When thinking about admonishing we might draw on an image from the sailing world. As John Maxwell says: ‘The pessimist complains about the wind. The optimist expects it to change. The leader adjusts the sails.’

Admonishing people is about adjusting the sails to suit the conditions, so the boat doesn’t capsize or go off course.

In verse 13 Paul says to the Thessalonian congregation, regarding their leaders:   

13 Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other. 

In other words, we Christians are to love and respect the leaders among us. Don’t make a leader’s life more difficult through conflict. Nothing will empty a leader of their joy more quickly than having to sort out strife. Support the leaders among you, not with flattery or empty words, but by living in peace with each other. Get along together.

Kiwi culture is relatively egalitarian and independent. Kiwi culture, generally speaking, is not naturally inclined to respect those in leadership. Our wider society suffers from tall poppy syndrome. We, in New Zealand, have a tendency to cut our leaders down, (although one would hope this does not apply so much in the church).

But if you think it through, it is in everyone’s interest to support and respect good leaders because, by Paul’s definition, they are the ones doing most of the heavy lifting. They are the ones trimming the sails and keeping the boat afloat. They are the ones caring for you and looking out for your interests.

To show contempt for our leaders is like poisoning the water upstream. It just makes everyone sick.

So that’s the first thing, respect your leaders. Paul’s next piece of advice is, care for the needy.

Care for the needy:

From verse 14 we read… 

14 And we urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle and disruptive, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone.

The first thing we notice here is that Paul is addressing everyone in the church, not just the leaders. So everyone in the congregation has a responsibility for pastoral care. We must all be our brother or sister’s keeper. 

In this verse Paul identifies three types of needy persons: those who are idle and disruptive, those who are disheartened and the weak.

The Greek word translated as ‘idle & disruptive’ is ataktos, which literally means ‘out of line’. It originally referred to a soldier who was out of line or slacking off and not following orders. A soldier who is idle and disruptive puts the lives of his platoon at risk. He is a danger to everyone.

There were, apparently, some in the church at Thessalonica who were freeloading off the goodwill of others and not pulling their weight. Paul’s message to them (as we find out in his second letter to the Thessalonians) was, ‘if you don’t work, you don’t eat’.

This may seem a little uncaring of Paul, but it was actually the most caring thing to do. The idle and disruptive were busy bodies, gossips, meddling in other people’s business and generally making things worse. They needed a more positive and constructive occupation for their time, both for their own well-being and for the well-being of the whole community. 

In caring for others we need to avoid creating dependencies. Wise care doesn’t mean doing everything for someone. That is a short cut to resentment for the carer. Wise care motivates people to do for themselves what they can.

The second type of needy person, Paul mentions, are those who are disheartened. The disheartened are sad and need to be encouraged.

We are not exactly sure why some were disheartened. Perhaps they had been worn down by the constant criticism and opposition of their pagan neighbours. Or maybe they were grieving the loss of loved ones. Whatever the reason, they needed the courage to carry on in the Christian faith and not give up.

We give courage to people, partly by the positive things we say, but mostly by staying close to them. Committing to them. Being present with them so they do not become lonely. Because it is when we feel like we are on our own, in our faith, that we are most vulnerable to losing heart and giving up.

In the Old Testament story of Ruth, Naomi had become disheartened. Naomi’s husband and two sons had died. In her sadness she had lost hope and become bitter. But Naomi’s daughter-in-law, Ruth, made a commitment to stay with Naomi whatever happened. ‘Your people will be my people and your God will be my God. Wherever you go I will go there with you.’

God used Ruth’s commitment to redeem the situation and restore Naomi’s faith and hope. There is strength in friendship and community.

The third type of needy person are those who are weak. Again, we can’t be sure who the weak refer to. Maybe Paul means those who are morally weak, who are vulnerable to temptation in some way. Or perhaps the weak are those who are a bit timid or afraid. Either way they needed help.

Interestingly, the Greek word translated as help, literally means to cling to or to cleave. In other words, we are to help the weak by holding on to them, supporting them, holding their hand as it were, giving them security.

Whether someone is needy or not, we are to be patient with everyone. To be ‘patient’ here means to have a long fuse or to be long suffering. It is part of our Christian discipleship to go the distance with people and not give up on others who we may find annoying or frustrating or slow to learn.

Patience is one of the key characteristics of love. Love is patient, love is kind… Paul is giving us a picture here of what love looks like. In verse 15 he says…

15 Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone else.

Paul is echoing the words of Jesus who said (in Matthew 5)…

38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ 39 But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.

Both Paul and Jesus’ words here don’t just apply to fellow believers within the church. This teaching applies to our relationship with people outside the church as well. This is not easy to do. We need God’s grace.

It might help for us to remember that someone who does us wrong, isn’t necessarily an evil person. They are more likely a needy person.

Hurt people, hurt people. Do you get what I’m saying there? If someone hurts you, there’s a good chance they are acting out of their own hurt. They may want you to understand their pain and the injustice they have suffered. While their behaviour is unacceptable and wrong, they need healing, not more hurt.

Some of you may remember a story I told of Robyn some years ago. When Robyn was pregnant with our eldest daughter, a boy in her class lost his temper and punched her in the stomach.

When I heard about it my blood boiled. But Robyn put herself in this boy’s shoes. She understood that life wasn’t easy for him at home. She didn’t take it personally. She instinctively knew he was acting out of his own hurt and what he needed most was to be shown love. And so, when he had calmed down, she gave him hug. She had no problems with him after that.     

Hurt people, hurt people. This doesn’t necessarily explain all bad behaviour, but it does remind us to put ourselves in other people’s shoes. Which I think is what Paul is asking us to do in these verses.    

Do you have someone needy in your life?

Are they disruptive and in need of something meaningful to do?

Are they disheartened and in need of your encouragement and companionship?

Are they weak and in need of support?

Are they annoying, do they press your buttons. Do they need your patience?

Are they hurt and in need of healing and grace? 

How might you care for them? What is in your power to do?

I say, ‘what is in your power to do’, because I’m talking to a room full of people who I know do care for the needy and I don’t want you to feel guilty about what is not in your power to do. There is no end of need in this world but there is an end to our energy and resources.

Alongside caring for others, we also need to take care of ourselves. So exercise wisdom and know that God’s grace is sufficient for you.  

Respect your leaders, care for the needy and discern God’s will.

Discern God’s will:

From verse 16 Paul gives us a cluster of imperatives (instructions), in rapid succession, which seem to be about discerning God’s will and walking in it. Paul writes…  

16 Rejoice always, 17 pray continually, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 19 Do not quench the Spirit. 20 Do not treat prophecies with contempt 21 but test them all; hold on to what is good, 22 reject every kind of evil.

This topic of discerning God’s will, probably deserves its own sermon series. We don’t have time to explore every knook and crany now but Paul does give us some very helpful tools for situating ourselves in the path of God’s will.

Firstly, he says: Rejoice always. My initial reaction to this is, ‘yea, right’. It doesn’t seem realistic to always rejoice. There are times when we can easily celebrate but other times when rejoicing goes against the grain. So discernment is called for.

If someone does an illegal manoeuvre in their car, we don’t need to say, ‘Thank you Jesus for dangerous drivers. I really enjoy stress’. You don’t have to jump for joy if you get Covid. Nor do you need to put on a happy face if you lose someone or something you love.

I don’t think Paul is suggesting we pretend to be something we are not. He is not saying we should deny our feelings or our circumstances. You see, Paul’s instructions to 16 Rejoice always, 17 pray continually, [and] 18 give thanks in all circumstances; are not independent of each other, they go together.

The chapter and verse numbering we have in our Bibles was never in the original text. The numbering was added centuries later to help us find our place. Unfortunately, the demarcation of verses sometimes has the effect of distorting the meaning of Scripture.

The instruction to rejoice always goes hand in hand with praying and giving thanks. Keeping those three together, the message is: discern God’s hand for good in your daily life and talk to him about it. Thank him for the good.  

So, for example, if someone cuts you off on the motorway, once you have recovered from the shock, you might see and appreciate how God prevented an accident and give thanks that no one was hurt. You might also pray for the other driver.

Or, if you lose someone you love, then you might tell God how you are feeling (in prayer) and thank him for the good times you had with that person, taking comfort in the hope that, through faith in Jesus’ resurrection, you will see them again one day.  

In reality, getting to a place where we can truly rejoice and thank God is a process. And we call that process prayer. Prayer isn’t just chatting to God. Prayer also includes times of weeping, times of silence and stillness, times of sacred reading and reflection.     

Praying continually then, is about remaining open to God’s presence and activity in our lives, 24-7. So whatever may happen, whether it seems good to us or not, we are looking for God in it.

It’s not that we always get an answer or understand why things unfold the way they do. It’s more that we recognise we are not alone, that God is with us and for us, working it all for good. And that is something we can rejoice in and give thanks for without having to fake it.  

In verse 19 Paul says: Do not quench the Spirit. This is connected to what has gone before and what follows.

It is the Holy Spirit who enables us to discern God’s will. The Spirit reveals the truth to us. The Spirit intercedes (or prays) for us continually and enables us to see God’s hand for good in all circumstances so that we can rejoice and give thanks with sincere hearts.   

The Spirit also gives prophecy. Now when we hear the word prophecy we might think of someone predicting the future. There can be a future element to prophecy but more often prophecy is a message from God about the present.

You might sense God speaking to you through something in a worship service, like the sermon or a prayer or the words of a song or if someone shares something spontaneous.

But words of prophecy (little messages from God) can also come to us through conversation with others. This can happen when we are not expecting it. In fact, the person we are talking with may not even be aware of the significance of what they are saying.   

Paul’s advice is to have a thoughtful and measured response to prophecy, not a knee jerk reaction. If we think God might be saying something to us, then we need to test it to discern whether it is in fact from God. If the message is consistent with the teaching of Jesus, if it is edifying and helpful to ourselves and others, and if fellow believers concur, then it probably is from God.

Whatever we are presented with, we are to discern the kernel of truth and discard the husk. We are hold to what is good and reject every kind of evil.   

Conclusion:

We have heard today Paul’s advice to respect our leaders, care for the needy and discern God’s will. There is a smorgasbord of wisdom in these verses. What is God saying to us collectively? What is God saying to you personally?

Let us pray…

Lord Jesus Christ, you are the good shepherd. You lead and guide, you care and provide. Give us wisdom and grace to help the needy, without neglecting ourselves. Give us eyes to see God’s fingerprints in our lives and discernment to walk in God’s will. For your name’s sake. Amen.   

Questions for discussion or reflection:

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

  • How did Paul define leadership? What three things does a leader do?
  • Why does Paul instruct the congregation to respect their leaders? How do we respect our leaders?
  • Do you have someone needy in your life? What is their need? How can you best care for them? What is in your power to do?
  • What does it mean to rejoice always, pray continually and give thanks in all circumstances?  Can you think of examples from your own life of how to apply these instructions? 
  • How can we discern God’s activity in our lives? How can we know when God is speaking to us?   
Tawa Baptist

Long View

Scripture: 1st Thessalonians 5:1-11

Video Link: https://youtu.be/N0JwN1MmGmc

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Take a long view
  • Be prepared
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

As many of you know there is a residential care facility (a home) for older people at the southern end of Tawa called Longview. Originally it was a facility for people who were blind.  

When you sit in one of the north facing lounges, the name makes sense. Situated as it is, on a hill, you can see right down the valley. You do in fact get a long view, as the name suggests.

Thinking metaphorically, the term long view describes an approach to a problem or situation that emphasises long range factors.

People who save for their retirement take a long view of their life.

People who plant native trees strategically, take a long view of the environment.

A government that invests wisely in education is taking a long view of the country’s future.

We can take a long view of the Covid pandemic by reminding ourselves that these sorts of things come around every 100 years or so and normally run their course after 3 or 4 years.

Today we continue our series in Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians, focusing on chapter 5, verses 1-11. Last week we heard how Paul reassured the Thessalonian believers who were concerned about those who died before Jesus’ second coming. Paul said they would not be disadvantaged in any way.

This week’s passage continues the theme of Jesus’ second coming with the same tone of reassurance. In these verses Paul encourages the Thessalonians to take a long view and to be prepared. From chapter 5, verse 1 we read…      

Now, brothers and sisters, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, 2 for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. 3 While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labour pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.

4 But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. 5 You are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. 6 So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be awake and sober. 

7 For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. 8 But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. 9 For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. 10 He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. 11 Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.

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

Paul is using a lot of metaphors in these verses. If we boil it all down though, his message seems to be that when it comes to waiting for Jesus to return, we need to take a long view and we need to be prepared.

Or said another way, taking a long view helps us to be prepared for Christ’s return.   

Take a long view:

The Bible thinks of history in two ages or two epochs. The first epoch of history is the present age, which is characterised by evil. And the second epoch we might call the Messianic age, which is characterised by the reign of King Jesus.

Paul uses the metaphor of night and day (darkness and light) to describe these two ages. The present age is like night time and the Messianic age is like the new day.   

There is an overlap between the present age of darkness and the Messianic age of light. The Messianic age started with Jesus’ coming 2000 years ago and will continue eternally. The present age is still going but will eventually come to an end with the return of Jesus.

We live in the overlap between Jesus’ first coming and his second coming. During this time of overlap, the Kingdom of God is sometimes described as ‘now but not yet’. Or, ‘now, but not fully realised’.

We might catch glimpses of heaven on earth but generally speaking this world (the time in which we live) is a bit of a mixed bag really. The best is yet to come for those who are in Christ.

The point at which Jesus returns and the present age ends is sometimes called the Day of the Lord.

In verses 2-3 Paul writes…

2 for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. 3 While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labour pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.

‘The day of the Lord’ is a phrase borrowed from the Old Testament. It describes a period of time (not necessarily 24 hours) in which God intervenes in human history to save and to judge.

So the day of the Lord is both a day of salvation and a day of judgment. A day of deliverance for some but also a day of destruction for others. Like when God saved the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt. That was a time of deliverance for Israel, but a time of death and destruction for Egypt.

Or going back further to the time of the great flood. That was a time when God intervened to judge the people of the earth for their evil deeds. But it was also the beginning of a new day, a new start for creation, with Noah and his family. 

Paul’s words, in these opening verses from Thessalonians 5, echo the words of Christ. Jesus talked about his return coming like a thief in the night. No one knows the day or the hour. 

There are two images in these verses; that of a thief and that of a pregnant woman. Burglars don’t make an appointment to rob people’s houses. So the image of a thief tells us that Jesus’ second coming will happen at a time when people least expect it. It will take people by surprise.

The image of a pregnant woman adds a different nuance. Labour pains, for a pregnant woman, are expected. They are certain and unavoidable. When a woman is heavily pregnant there is no turning back. The baby has to come out one way or another.

Put the two images together and the thought is: the day of the Lord (when Jesus returns) will certainly happen (no one can escape it) but it will happen at a time when no one expects.

Now, this idea that the day of the Lord means salvation for some people and destruction for others can be a little unsettling. It raises the question, what will happen to me and the people I love? Because you don’t want to be on the wrong side of the Lord when he returns.

Both John the Baptist and Jesus preached a message of repentance. They said, the day of the Lord is certainly coming and so you need to get your life in order. You need to make sure that your hearts and minds and way of living are acceptable to God, so that you are not destroyed along with evil.   

But Paul’s purpose is not to frighten the Thessalonians. His purpose is to encourage them. They were persecuted. They were getting a hard time from their pagan neighbours. Paul is not telling the believers to repent. They have already done that. He is reminding them to take a long view of history.    

The fact that the day of the Lord is certainly coming is a comfort to the beleaguered church. It means they will be delivered from the pagans who are treating them unfairly.

It’s like that famous line preached by Martin Luther King: The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice. That’s good news if you are oppressed. But it’s bad news for the oppressors.

From verse 4 Paul reassures the Thessalonian believers that they are on the right side of the Lord…

4 But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. 5 You are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness.

For those who are in Christ, the day of the Lord is not like a thief. Rather Jesus’ return is like the dawn of a new day.

Paul says: you are all children of the light and children of the day. ‘Light’ is an image for God. Paul is saying you are all children of God. To be a child of God is to belong to God’s family and to get our identity from Him. To bear his image.  

The word ‘day’ in these verses refers to the new day, the new epoch, the Messianic age, when the kingdom of God is realised in its fullness. To be ‘children of the day’, therefore, means that anyone who is in Christ belongs to the Messianic age and will not be destroyed.  

Paul is comforting the Thessalonians by showing them a long view of history. Taking a long view helps us to be prepared.   

Be prepared:

The Thessalonians are children of the day in more than name only. Being children of the day carries with it a responsibility to conduct ourselves in a way that is appropriate to daytime behaviour. From verse 6 we read… 

 6 So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be awake and sober. 7 For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. 8 But since we belong to the day, let us be sober,

Once again Paul is using metaphors or word images to get his idea across. It’s not that the Thessalonians were alcoholics. They did not need to be reprimanded about their drinking habits.

When a person is drunk they are not in control of themselves. By saying, don’t be like those who get drunk and fall asleep, but be sober and awake, Paul is saying exercise self-control.

We can’t control what other people do, nor can we control when the Lord will return. The best we can do is control ourselves so we are prepared for Jesus’ coming.

Getting drunk is also about excess. So the idea here is to avoid excess of any kind (not just excess alcohol). As we wait in the overlap, the now but not yet, we want to live a balanced life.

On one level, living a balanced life is about making sure our rhythms of work, play and sleep are in order. Making sure we pay attention to the needs of our body and soul. Looking after ourselves. Building fun and enjoyment into our lives and not always being a slave to duty. Making sure we get the mix of solitude and social interaction right for our personality and stage of life. 

On another level, living a balanced life is about managing our thoughts and feelings and not becoming too fixated on just one thing. Children of the light avoid getting stuck in a rut with the same old patterns of thought.

When Paul says, don’t be asleep but be awake, he is talking figuratively. He doesn’t mean we should not get a good night’s sleep. He means, be prepared for Christ’s coming. (Incidentally, good rhythms of literal sleep actually support us to be awake and prepared.)

I like Gordon Fee’s turn of phrase in relation to these verses. He says (and I paraphrase), being prepared is not about living up-tightly but living uprightly. [1]   

Did you get that? Being prepared is not about living up-tightly but living uprightly. If we are always on edge, thinking: ‘I must be good, I must be good. Jesus could comeback at any moment. I don’t want to be left behind’, then we will end up having a nervous breakdown.

There is enough anxiety in the world without adding to it. Paul doesn’t want the Thessalonians to be fearful or uptight. He is well aware of the present difficulties they are facing and, with that in mind, he is urging them to be prepared; to live righteously and without fear of what the future holds.

Getting prepared for the day of the Lord is not something we can leave to the last minute. John Stott offers some helpful illustrations for guiding our understanding of what it means to be prepared…

It’s too late to prepare for an exam at the moment the exam paper is set in front of you. You have to put in hours of study before that.  Likewise, it is too late to prepare for a marathon when the starting pistol goes off. It takes months of training and discipline to get ready for a marathon.

And, living in Wellington, we might add: it is too late to prepare for an emergency when the earthquake strikes. You need to have your emergency water supply and canned foods in place before that happens.

In verse 8 Paul brings out another metaphor for how believers are to prepare for Jesus’ return, saying…

8 But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.

The first thing we notice here is the triad of faith, love and hope. Paul had talked about these three at the beginning of his letter. Faith, love and hope are at the core of what it means to be a follower of Christ. 

Paul uses this image of Christians equipping themselves for spiritual battle in a couple of other letters as well. Most likely he is drawing on Isaiah 59 where the Lord God (Yahweh) dresses himself in military armour as he sets out to achieve justice in the world.

A breastplate protects your heart and a helmet protects your head. They are defensive, not offensive. Paul is not encouraging the Thessalonians to attack their enemies. He is encouraging them to be prepared for when they come under attack.

Living in the overlap is a dangerous place to be, spiritually speaking. We might not suffer persecution like the Thessalonians, but the world in which we live is not altogether friendly to the followers of Christ either.

What then does it mean to put on the armour of faith, love and hope. Well, armour doesn’t put itself on. It’s not like Iron Man’s suite of armour which automatically wraps itself around Robert Downey Junior. To get dressed in military equipment we must be intentional. It won’t happen by itself.

One tried and true method by which Christians have equipped themselves with faith, love and hope is something called a rule of life. A rule of life is a schedule or rhythm of practices that one carries out each day and each week.

This rule of life is designed to train our bodies and our minds to be more like Christ. You might tailor your rule of life to suit your spiritual needs or the shape of your soul, much like a personal trainer at the gym might tailor a work-out programme to meet your fitness goals.  

A rule of life could include things like starting each day with prayer and Bible reading.

Taking one day off in seven to rest and worship.

Drinking alcohol in moderation or not drinking at all.

Opening your home in hospitality to others on a regular basis.

Ending each day by writing in your thankfulness journal.

Not having any screen time 2 hours before going to sleep at night. 

Getting 40 minutes of physical exercise each day.

Taking half an hour to be completely still and silent, three or four times a week.

Meeting weekly with other believers to pray and share and study the Bible.

Some form of service to the community.

Devoting a certain percentage of your income in worship to God.

Trying not to work more than 50 hours a week in your paid job.

And, if you are married, setting aside regular time to listen to your spouse

And, if you have children in your life, reading to them.   

The thing about a rule of life is that you follow the rule even when you don’t feel like it, so that you develop moral and spiritual fitness. In this way we are prepared for being at odds with the world and we are ready for Jesus’ return. 

Whatever your rule of life is, it needs to include times and places when you can take your armour off and relax a bit. We each need to find sanctuary, or safety, with other believers, when we can let down our guard and allow others in.  

Do you have an intentional rule of life? If you don’t, then make it your goal this week to develop a plan for one. 

Now, please don’t feel burdened by this. That was never Paul’s intention. To the contrary, Paul was wanting to lighten the Thessalonians’ burden (and ours) by encouraging us to take a long view and by reminding us that our salvation does not depend entirely on us.

From verse 9 Paul says…

9 For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. 10 He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him.

We might hear the word wrath and immediately alarm bells go off so that we don’t hear what follows. But if we pay attention to what Paul is saying, the main thought is that our salvation does not depend on our performance or the shifting sands of our feelings. It depends on God.

Our salvation is by God’s initiative and through Jesus’ sacrifice. Therefore, we don’t have to live up-tightly, we are free to live uprightly.

With the phrase, God did not appoint us to suffer wrath, we need to be careful not to take Paul’s words in a direction he never intended. It is not that we human beings have no choice in the matter. It’s not that God chooses for some people to suffer wrath and others to be saved.

God wants all people to be saved but, at the same time, he respects the choices people make, even if that choice is to reject him.

Like I’ve said in other sermons, God’s wrath is not an emotional or uncontrolled flare up of anger. God’s wrath is measured and fair. God’s wrath is his settled and righteous opposition to evil.

God’s love means that he cannot tolerate evil indefinitely. The long view is that, ultimately, God intends to destroy evil. That is good news. God is the one who bends the arc of the moral universe toward justice.

The words in verse 10, about being awake or asleep, are metaphors for being alive or dead when Christ returns. They refer back to the concerns Paul dealt with at the end of chapter 4. For believers, it makes little difference whether we are alive or dead at Jesus’ second coming, for we will all be reunited with him.

Conclusion:

Paul finishes this section of his letter by saying…

11 Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing. 

This tells us that Paul’s purpose in sharing this stuff about the Day of the Lord is not to scare people but to give believers courage to carry on.

Life was tough for the Thessalonians because they identified with Jesus. It was important that they looked out for one another and had each other’s backs.

Life is tough for us at times too. Not in the same way exactly, but it can still be a grind as we wait for our salvation to be realised in its fullness. The opposition we face today is perhaps more subtle, less overt.

In any case, it is important that we look out for each other too. To do this we need keep in touch with one another regularly and not neglect meeting together. But I hardly need to tell you to build each other up with kind words and expressions of trust, for you are already doing that.

Let us pray…

Almighty God, you see the beginning from the end. Thank you for including us in your plan of salvation. Thank you for the forgiveness that is ours through faith in Christ. Grant us the grace to take the long view that we would be prepared when Jesus returns. Help us to live uprightly, not up-tightly. Through Jesus we pray. Amen.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

  1. What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?
  • What does it mean to take a long view? When is it helpful to take a long view?
  • What is the day of the Lord?  How does the day of the Lord make you feel? (E.g. comforted or full of dread, or indifferent, or something else.) Why is that do you think?
  • Discuss / reflect on the two epochs / ages of history. How might this long view of history shape our thinking and behaviour in the present?
  • What practical things can we do to be prepared for Jesus’ return? Do you have an intentional rule of life? If so, what is your rule of life? If not, how might you go about developing a rule of life? 
  • Why did Paul write about the Day of the Lord (Jesus’ second coming) in his letter to the Thessalonians?
  • How might we encourage one another and build each other up, as Paul instructs in verse 11?  

[1] Gordon Fee’s NICNT The First and Second Letters to the Thessalonians, page 200. 

Tawa Baptist

Reassurance

Scripture: 1st Thessalonians 4:13-18

Video Link: https://youtu.be/VnfIyKKRv9g

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Reassurance
  • Resurrection
  • Reunion
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

Some of you may have heard of the word Parousia. Parousia is a Greek word. It has two meanings: presence and coming. In Christian theology the Parousia refers to the second coming of Jesus.

Christians believe that Jesus will return again one day. This belief is based on various Biblical prophecies. 

Today we continue our series in Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians, focusing on chapter 4, verses 13-18. In this passage, and the verses that follow in chapter 5 (which we will look at next week), Paul addresses some concerns relating to the Parousia, Jesus’ second coming. From verse 13 of chapter 4 we read…  

13 Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of humankind, who have no hope. 14 For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.  15 According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.  17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.

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

The topic of the Parousia, and end times generally, is often seen as complicated and contentious, with a wide variety of differing opinions and interpretations. But today’s Scripture reading is relatively simple and straight forward and doesn’t need to be complicated by speculation.

Three words to give you a handle on what’s important here: reassurance, resurrection and reunion. Let’s start with reassurance.

Reassurance:

Reassurance is the action of removing someone’s doubts and fears.

If your friend is worried about having bad breath, then you might provide reassurance by giving them a mint and telling them their breath smells fine.

Likewise, if someone close to you is worried about something they’ve said and whether it might have been taken the wrong way, you can reassure them by saying, ‘no one will be thinking about what you said’.

Or, if your kids are afraid of the dark, you might reassure them by leaving a night light on and saying, ‘There’s nothing in the dark that isn’t there in the light.’

We reassure people by taking away their fear and doubt.

We often need reassurance at times of transition in our lives. Starting school. leaving school. Starting a new job. Getting married. Shifting towns. Retiring. And when we lose someone we love.   

Paul had told the Thessalonians about Jesus’ second coming but, in the time Paul had been away, some of the believers in Thessalonica had died. And so the question, the concern, the doubt, the fear rose in their mind: what happens to them? If a believer dies before Jesus returns, will they miss out? Will they be left behind? Would they ever see their loved ones again?

Verse 13 and verse 18, which frame today’s passage, set out Paul’s purpose of reassuring the Thessalonian believers who were grieving the loss of people who had died. Paul is basically saying, it’s going to be okay. Those who pass away before the Parousia won’t be left behind. You Thessalonians will see your loved ones again. In verse 13 Paul writes…

13 Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of humankind, who have no hope. 

Grief creates a vacuum or a hole in our lives into which fear, worry and doubt can creep. But with the right kind of reassurance (based on truth) the hole can be filled with faith, hope and love. The truth sets people free from their fears, worries and doubts and it allows faith hope and love to grow.

Most people in the ancient world faced death with utter despair and powerlessness. Pagans believed death was the end, it was final. No more. And so their grief was heavy indeed.

But Christians have a different belief system. To the Christian mind, physical death is not final, it is not the end. Paul uses sleep as a euphemism for death because sleep is temporary. After sleep there is an awakening. And, after a good sleep, you feel better.   

Some people over the centuries have read into these verses an idea known as soul sleep. Soul sleep is the theory that when a person dies their soul sleeps in death while their physical body decomposes. Then, when Jesus returns, their soul is woken up and they are given a new body. It’s an interesting idea but it’s not without its problems. 

There are lots of theories about what happens to people in the time between them dying and Jesus returning. The Bible is not all that clear about the specifics so we should hold these theories very loosely.

The truth is, we don’t know exactly what the experience of death is like. That is not revealed to us in this life. We do know that we come from God and we return to God. That means when we die, God looks after us, so we couldn’t be in better hands.

In any case, we can say with some confidence that Paul’s intention here is not to speculate on what happens to a person between their death and Jesus’ return. Paul’s focus, in these verses, is what happens when Jesus comes back at the Parousia.         

What’s more, in verse 13, Paul is not saying that Christians cannot or should not grieve. Rather he is saying that Christian grief is qualitatively different from pagan grief because Christians have hope. Hope is the belief that something good waits for us in the future.

So, while it is painful to lose someone we love, we believe that loss is not permanent. Christian hope (in the face of death) provides an anti-inflammatory for grief. It still hurts when someone dies and we need to acknowledge our grief, but we are comforted by hope at the same time.

Resurrection:

The thing is, for reassurance to work, it has to be true. Reassurance which is made up or fake is not reassurance at all. And that’s where Jesus’ resurrection comes in. In verse 14 Paul writes…

14 For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. 

Belief in Jesus’ death and resurrection is foundational to Christian faith. Pretty much everything Christians believe hinges on a belief in Jesus’ death and bodily resurrection.

If we don’t believe that God raised Jesus from the dead, then we have no basis for believing that he will raise us or anyone else from the dead. Jesus’ resurrection from the dead is the basis of our assurance. Jesus’ resurrection is the first fruits or the deposit, if you like, guaranteeing the resurrection of those who believe in him.

If you want to fly on a plane, from one place to another, you need to buy a ticket on-line. Then, once you get to the airport, you have to get your boarding pass. The boarding pass guarantees your seat on the plane.

Jesus’ death & resurrection buys us a ticket on the plane to God’s kingdom. We don’t have to pay for the ticket, Jesus has already done that. But we do need to get our boarding pass. Believing in Jesus’ death and resurrection is how we collect our boarding pass.  

So the question is: do you have your boarding pass? Do you believe in the resurrection of Jesus?

From verse 15 of Thessalonians 4, Paul continues…

15 According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 

The Thessalonians were afraid that those who had died believing in Jesus would miss out when Jesus returned in glory. Paul is saying here, ‘No, they won’t miss out. The dead in Christ are not disadvantaged in any way. Those who have fallen asleep (or died) in Christ will be resurrected when Jesus returns.’

If you fall asleep when you are on the plane, that’s okay. You will still end up in the right location and you will wake up when the plane lands. 

The Thessalonians can trust this reassurance because this is according to the Lord’s word.  It comes from Jesus, so it’s true.  

Earlier in the service we heard a reading from Matthew 24. In that passage Jesus explains what happens at his second coming and the lead up to it. Jesus says that false Messiahs will appear but we should pay no attention to them. From verse 27 of Matthew 24 we read…   

27 For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 29 “Immediately after the distress of those days

“‘the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’ 30 “Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earthwill mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. 31 And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.

It is pretty clear that Paul is getting his description of the Parousia from Jesus.

Three things we note about Jesus’ second coming. It is universal, it is unmistakable and it is personal. 

By universal we mean the Parousia is not localised to a particular area. It is everywhere. So it’s not like people in New Zealand are going to miss out because Jesus decides to return in the Middle East.

By unmistakable we mean you can’t miss Jesus’ second coming. It won’t be like Jesus’ first coming when he was born in a manger and only a handful of people got to see him. No. Jesus’ second coming will be clearly visible to everyone.

And by personal we mean the angels will gather those who belong to Jesus wherever they are in the world. No believer left behind.  

Now, the reflex of our 21st Century scientific minds is to ask, how is that even possible? Well, nothing is impossible for God.

If it helps, keep in mind that Jesus (and Paul) are probably using a certain degree of poetic license to describe a spiritual event. So we need to avoid interpreting these words with a crude literalism. There is a mystery to this which calls for humility. We don’t know what we don’t know.    

Rather than asking, how is the second coming even possible? We would be better to ask, am I ready for Jesus to come again?

Some of you may have heard of a series of fictional books and movies known as the Left Behind series. In this imagining of the future, Christians are raptured or taken away to be with Jesus and everyone else is left behind in a world that quickly degenerates into chaos.

If you haven’t seen the movies or read the books, then don’t bother. And if you have seen the movies and read the books, then please don’t let that colour your thinking about end times and the Parousia.

Pretty much all the experts say the Left Behind series should be ‘left behind’ because they do not represent a Biblical picture of the second coming. 

When talking about the beginning and end of human history, we need to tread lightly and admit the limits of our knowledge. In his 1949 book Christianity and History, Herbert Butterfield writes…

“We can do worse than remember a principle which both gives us a firm Rock and leaves us the maximum elasticity for our minds: the principle: Hold to Christ, and for the rest be totally uncommitted.”

Holding to Christ necessarily means holding to his death, his resurrection and his return. But the details of how and when that return will happen, we hold loosely. We keep our minds open, elastic, flexible.  

Reunion:

Holding to Christ is precisely what Paul is encouraging the Thessalonians to do. The resurrection of Jesus makes possible the reunion of believers.

In verse 17 of Thessalonians 4, Paul gets to the heart of the matter where he writes…

17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.

The key idea here is reunion. Reunion with Jesus and reunion with fellow believers who have passed on. The Thessalonians were worried that those believers who had died would miss out. But no. Paul reassures them with the certain hope of reunion. We will be together with them and with the Lord 

Now, once again, we must be careful not to miss the point. It’s not that we will float in the air on clouds with Jesus forever. A picture of heaven, with people playing harps in the clouds, is exactly the crude literalism we want to avoid.   

In all his letters Paul doesn’t show much interest in the geography or location of heaven. For Paul, heaven is being with Jesus. Eternal life, in the New Testament, is a relationship of intimacy and joy with God.

Grief can do funny things to the mind. I remember losing someone I loved in my 20’s. There was the inevitable sadness and pain of course. But there was also this longing to see them again. Just to be with them.

Once I walked into a bakery to buy some lunch and I saw someone who looked just like the person who had died. For a moment I thought it was them. It was all I could do not to call out their name.  

This person who died, I had witnessed their suffering when they were alive and just needed to know that they were at peace, that they were not suffering in death. I was still sorting through my theology of the afterlife at that point.

When someone dies and we know they are in Christ, we can comfort ourselves with the thought that they are with Jesus now, in a far better place. But it’s not always clear where people stand in relation to Jesus. We don’t know what goes on in another person’s heart. What happens to those who are not in Christ?

In my grief and anxiety for the person I had lost, God (in his grace) reassured me. One night, while I was sleeping, I had a dream in which I met the person who had died. I won’t tell you the details of the dream because it is personal to me and it won’t mean anything to you. But when I woke up and reflected on the dream, somehow I just knew this person was not suffering. And that helped me to move on.   

I know that many of you here have lost people you love and it’s not always clear where they stand with God or whether you will see them again. Some things are beyond our knowing in this life. Some things we just have to leave in God’s hands, trusting him.

We can find reassurance though, through faith and reason. Not by speculating on what we don’t know, but by returning to what we do know. And this is what we do know…

God is love and love never fails. God is just and merciful, patient and kind. The Lord loves all people and indeed all of his creation. It hurts God to see us in pain. Because of God’s character (his goodness and compassion) we can be confident that the Lord will do what is right by our loved ones when they die. 

The truth is, God is looking for ways to be reunited with us. That is why Jesus came to earth in the first place, so that we could be reunited with God and each other. Therefore, we hold to Christ: his death, his resurrection and his return.    

Conclusion:

Let us pray…

Loving Father, we thank you for your goodness and grace. You are our maker and we are your children. When we grieve, reassure us by your presence and with your truth. Fill the vacuum left by our loss with faith, hope and love in Christ. Give us a vision of the risen Jesus, returning in glory, to reunite us with you. Amen.   

Questions for discussion or reflection:

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

  • What is reassurance? Can you think of a time when someone gave you reassurance? What happened? How can we reassure others?
  • Why does Paul use sleep as a euphemism for death? How might we face death and grief in a healthy way?  
  • Why is a belief in Jesus’ death and resurrection so important to Christian faith? What do you believe about Jesus’ death and resurrection?
  • What three things do we note about Jesus’ second coming (as described in Matthew 24:27-31)? What reassurance can we take from these three things? 
  • How can we prepare (be ready) for Jesus’ second coming?
  • What can we do to find reassurance when someone we love dies and we are unsure of where they stand with God?