Tawa Baptist

Jealous Love

Scripture: 1st Thessalonians 3:1-13

Video Link: https://youtu.be/6GVYmiFNkE0

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Paul’s vulnerability
  • Paul’s jealous love
  • Paul’s desire
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

Roller coasters. You either love them or hate them. There’s no middle ground. I’m definitely not a fan. My cousins and I were thrown off the Sizzler when we were kids and it left its mark.

Unfortunately, our children don’t share my mistrust of roller coasters and so, when they were younger, I reluctantly had to accompany them on these sorts of rides. They had a great time. Me? Not so much.

Someone once told me, never get on the roller coaster with your kids. They were speaking metaphorically. They meant don’t get carried away with whatever drama is happening in their life. Don’t let their emotions dictate your mood.

This person meant well but parenthood doesn’t work like that. If your kids are seriously ill or being treated unfairly or if they achieve some success, then you feel it with them. If you love anyone, you will be affected by what they go through. You are on the roller coaster with them whether you like it or not.       

Today we resume our series in Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians, focusing on chapter 3. You may remember how, in chapter 2, Paul had affirmed the Thessalonians’ faith, belonging and relationship. In today’s reading, we see that Paul has been on a roller coaster with the Thessalonians, his spiritual children. He gets a bit emotional and expresses his feelings.   

From verse 1 of First Thessalonians chapter 3 we read…

So when we could stand it no longer, we thought it best to be left by ourselves in Athens 2 We sent Timothy, who is our brother and co-worker in God’s service in spreading the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you in your faith, 3 so that no one would be unsettled by these trials. For you know quite well that we are destined for them. 4 In fact, when we were with you, we kept telling you that we would be persecuted. And it turned out that way, as you well know. 5 For this reason, when I could stand it no longer, I sent to find out about your faith. I was afraid that in some way the tempter had tempted you and that our labours might have been in vain. 6 But Timothy has just now come to us from you and has brought good news about your faith and love. He has told us that you always have pleasant memories of us and that you long to see us, just as we also long to see you. 7 Therefore, brothers and sisters, in all our distress and persecution we were encouraged about you because of your faith. 8 For now we really live, since you are standing firm in the Lord. 9 How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy we have in the presence of our God because of you? 10 Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you again and supply what is lacking in your faith. 11 Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus clear the way for us to come to you. 12 May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you. 13 May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones.

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

Three things we note here: Paul’s vulnerability, Paul’s jealous love for the Thessalonians, and Paul’s heartfelt desire. First let’s consider Paul’s vulnerability.

Paul’s vulnerability:

Elton John wrote a song in tribute to Marilyn Munroe. It was later adapted for Princess Diana. In the chorus he sings: And you lived your life like a candle in the wind, never knowing who to turn to when the rain set in…

The image of a candle in the wind, is the very picture of vulnerability. 

To be vulnerable is to be unprotected, in a precarious position, exposed or at risk of harm. When you love someone, when you care about them deeply, your heart is vulnerable, you are on the roller coaster with them whether you like it or not. Likewise, when you need someone to love you, your heart is vulnerable, like a candle in the wind.

In his book, The Four Loves, C.S. Lewis writes…

To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully around with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.

Paul understood vulnerability well. Before his conversion, Paul was hard hearted and hell bent on persecuting the followers of Jesus. But Jesus transformed Paul’s heart. Jesus made Paul vulnerable to God’s grace.    

The word vulnerability is not explicitly mentioned in today’s reading and none of the commentaries I read talked about it specifically so you may well wonder, how exactly is Paul vulnerable?

Well, it is both the tone of his writing here and the way in which he is so open with the Thessalonians about his feelings. Paul, the intellectual and theological giant, is wearing his heart on his sleeve and being honest about his need for them.

In verse 1 of chapter 3 Paul says, when we could stand it no longer… And in verse 5 he repeats this same line, only more personally saying, when I could stand it no longer. The thing Paul couldn’t stand here was not knowing how the Thessalonians were getting on. He was anxious for their wellbeing. But Paul also needed to know that the Thessalonians loved him.

Why was Paul so anxious? Why was he feeling so vulnerable? Because he had opened his heart to the Thessalonians and let them in.

In verse 8 of chapter 2 Paul actually says: We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well. Love anything and it will make you vulnerable.       

Paul had a lot riding on the Thessalonians. If they threw in the towel of their faith then not only would Paul’s work with them be in vain, he personally would feel like he had lost family members. The Thessalonians were his spiritual children. He was like a mother and a father to them in the faith. If they had given up on their faith, Paul would have been devastated.

But Paul is not devastated. Quite the opposite. From verse 8 of chapter 3 Paul writes…

8 For now we really live, since you are standing firm in the Lord. 9 How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy we have in the presence of our God because of you?

Before Paul received news that the Thessalonians were doing well, he was beside himself with worry over them. He couldn’t stand not knowing.

And when you feel vulnerable like that, you can’t really enjoy anything. You just sort of get by on a knife’s edge. Now that Paul knows they’re okay, that he hasn’t lost them, he can really live. In other words, he can enjoy life again.

The thing with being vulnerable is that it doesn’t always feel pleasant at the time. Vulnerability can feel risky, or unsafe, like you are not in control. The vulnerability of love requires faith.

Even though it feels risky, allowing yourself to be vulnerable with another person opens the door to intimacy, to closeness. Vulnerability creates a bridge, a connection. Vulnerability, when it is well placed, is the antidote to loneliness.

But we need to be discerning about who we choose to be vulnerable with. As Jesus said, don’t throw your pearls before swine. Don’t open up the treasures of your heart to someone who is going to treat those treasures cheaply.      

And, if someone shares something with you that makes them vulnerable, handle that pearl with gentleness and care. Be worthy of that person’s trust.

Paul was vulnerable with the Thessalonians and he loved them with a jealous love.

Paul’s jealous love:

For many people, jealousy is a bad word. We have a tendency to collapse jealousy and envy into one. But they are not the same thing.

Jealousy is when we feel like something we already possess is at risk of being taken away from us. In contrast, envy is the desire to have something that does not belong to us.

Can you see the difference? Jealousy has to do with losing something that is rightfully ours, whereas envy is about coveting what is not ours. 

Jealousy can sometimes cause us to behave in ways which are resentful or vindictive. But jealousy can also move us to do good things. Jealousy gives us courage to protect what we love and determination to restore what we have lost.

God describes himself as jealous. You probably know Jesus’ parable of the shepherd who went looking for the lost sheep. The shepherd left the 99 to find the one that was lost. That is a picture of God’s jealous love. His drive (or his zeal) to restore and protect what he loves and what rightfully belongs to him.

Jealousy is not necessarily a bad thing. It is a powerful energy that needs to be channelled for other people’s wellbeing.

When I was a child my grandparents took me with them on holiday to the beach. We stayed in a remote part of the Bay of Islands, up north, surrounded by bush, beaches and sea. My grandfather taught me to fish and to shoot. It was a boy’s paradise.

One day (I was about 7 or 8 at the time) my grandfather and I were doing some target practice with a .22 calibre rifle. Not a very powerful gun, but useful for shooting rabbits and possums and other cute furry animals that would otherwise destroy the environment.  

Anyway, while we were doing our target practice, a woman emerged out of the tea tree scrub yelling at us. She was angry; I’m mean next level angry, telling us in no uncertain terms to stop shooting at her family. She was mistaken. We were not shooting at anyone. Her family were never in any danger. My grandfather was very careful with guns. 

I guess, because we were on a hill, the rifle shots could be heard echoing around the bay and she thought the worst, that her family were under attack. As it transpired this mother had walked about three kilometres over rocks, through dense bush and up a very steep hill to protect her children.

And she did this knowing that the people she was intending to confront had a loaded gun. Incredible determination and courage. As I reflect on that event now, I realise this mother was exhibiting jealous love for her family. She was willing to risk her life to protect them.

We put the gun away for a few days and she walked back into the bush from whence she came, never to be seen again.

Nowhere in today’s reading from Thessalonians do we find the word jealousy, but we do come across the word love a couple of times. In any case it is clear, from the feelings and actions Paul reveals, that he loved the Thessalonians with a jealous love, like the mother in my story.

Verse 5 reads…

For this reason, when I could stand it no longer, I sent to find out about your faith. I was afraid that in some way the tempter had tempted you and that our labours might have been in vain.

The believers in Thessalonica were brand new Christians and Paul had not had a chance to complete their basic training. They were like Macualay Culkin, in Home Alone, having to fend for themselves in a hostile environment. And Paul was like a stressed and anxious parent, worried how they were getting on.

So Paul sent Timothy (his right hand man) back to Thessalonica. It’s about 500kms from Athens to Thessalonica, which takes a day in a train. But it probably took Timothy over two weeks, each way, on foot.

The New Zealand women’s cricket team (the White Ferns) are playing Australia at the Basin today. Australia are the team to beat.

Quite often, when you are at the cricket, you see people wearing captain’s hats. At first I just thought it was a group of mates dressing up the same. But then I kept seeing these captain’s hats at other games around the country. It wasn’t until I heard someone say: ‘Steady the ship’, that the penny dropped. 

The fans wear captain’s hats to ‘steady the ship’. It is a message of support to the batsman to not throw their wicket away. Stay calm, take it easy. Believe in the leave. You can’t score runs back in the pavilion.

As much as Paul wanted Timothy to stay with him in Athens, his jealous love for the Thessalonians was greater. The new believers in Thessalonica were getting a hard time for becoming Christians. Timothy’s visit was intended to steady the ship. That is, to strengthen and encourage the young believers in their faith.

In verses 2 to 5 Paul talks about persecution and trials and being tempted to abandon Christ.    

Paul says they were destined for these trials and that he kept telling them to expect persecution. This fits with the teaching of Jesus who said it would not be easy following him.

We, in New Zealand today, are not persecuted like the Thessalonians were. But that doesn’t mean we get off Scott free. Our beliefs and values sometimes put us at odds with the wider society in which we live.

But even if society agreed with and supported Christian faith, we would still face testing in some form. It seems to be necessary for faith development, like putting cake mixture in a hot oven is necessary for baking the cake.

What we find is that our faith is usually tested when we are at our weakest and not when we expect it. Temptation is never fair.

Two of the gospels tell us how Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness for 40 days. It was necessary for Jesus to go through this and overcome.

Unlike Jesus, we don’t always overcome when we are tempted. But the good news is that Jesus has done for us what we are not able to do for ourselves. We may lose the odd battle with temptation but that should not discourage or defeat us, for Jesus has won the war.

If we do trip and fall, it does not mean we are out. The Lord is gracious and compassionate. We admit our mistakes, pick ourselves up and carry on in the faith. It’s like Winston Churchill said: Success is not final. Failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts. 

Much to Paul’s relief the Thessalonians did not give in to the temptation to abandon their faith. When Timothy returned with the good news that the Thessalonians’ faith and love were strong and that they longed to see Paul as well, Paul was greatly encouraged.

Paul’s desire:

Wrapped up with Paul’s jealous love and vulnerability is Paul’s heartfelt desire for the Thessalonians. From verse 10 we read… 

 10 Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you again and supply what is lacking in your faith.

Prayer isn’t just the words we say to God. The essence of prayer is our heartfelt desire. Words may give expression to that desire but so might our tears or our sighs or our groaning or our laughter.

Paul’s heartfelt desire is to be reunited with his spiritual children, not just for his own comfort but more to supply what is lacking in their faith.

John Stott sheds light on the meaning of ‘supplying what is lacking’. If we think of the Thessalonian’s faith as a fishing net, then Paul is like a fisherman who wants to repair the net. Or, if we think of the Thessalonian’s faith as a broken leg, then Paul is like a surgeon who desperately wants to set the bone properly.  

Or to use another metaphor, the Thessalonians have made a great start to their Christian faith journey, but they need a few more essential supplies in order to stay on the right track, like a map and a compass and a torch.

Paul doesn’t just talk about praying; he can’t help but actually break into a spontaneous prayer for the Thessalonians from verse 11…

11 Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus clear the way for us to come to you. 12 May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you. 13 May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones.

Verse 11 describes Paul’s desire to see the Thessalonians in person again.

Verse 12 describes Paul’s desire for the Thessalonians’ love to increase, something only the Lord can do.

And verse 13 describes Paul’s desire for the Thessalonians to grow in holiness, from the inside out. (From the heart.)

Holiness is an unpopular word these days. It gets a bad rap. People tend to associate holiness with being superior or thinking you are better than others. Like that expression, ‘holier than thou’.

But that’s not a fair or accurate description. Holiness is about wholeness. When we hear the word holiness, we should think health & wellbeing, strength and integrity. We should associate holiness with love, because the two go together.  They complement each other.      

At home in our garden we have a tomato plant. It was only about two or three inches high when I first planted it, just tiny. Since then it has grown a bit and we now have some fruit.

At first I didn’t need to put a stake next to it because when the plant was small it could stand by itself. But now it has grown it needs a stake (alongside) to support it. And with all the dry weather we are having lately it needs to be watered pretty regularly too.

Perhaps the Thessalonians were like my tomato plant. They needed the water of love and the stake of holiness in order to be healthy & whole, fruitful & strong.

Conclusion:

This morning we’ve heard about Paul’s vulnerability, his jealous love and his heartfelt desire for the Thessalonians. All of these are an expression of Paul’s deep care for the Thessalonians.

Whose roller coaster are you on at the moment? Who is making you feel vulnerable? Who is triggering your jealous love? Who is occupying space in your heart?

Is it your partner in marriage? Your kids? Your parents? A friend? An enemy? A workmate? The people of Ukraine? The people in your neighbourhood?

What do they need? What do you need?

Let us pray…

Loving Father, you see what is in our hearts. You know our vulnerability. You understand our fears and our desires. In you we have all we need. Fill us with your Spirit of love and holiness, so that we may care well for others and for ourselves. 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?

  • Do you enjoy roller coasters? Why (or why not)?
  • Why was Paul feeling so vulnerable in relation to the Thessalonians? What does he do with this feeling of vulnerability? How does he express it? How might we know when we are feeling vulnerable? How might we express our feelings of vulnerability in a healthy way? 
  • What is the difference between jealousy and envy? Can you think of an event in your own life when jealous love was triggered in you? What happened? How did you respond? How might we channel our feelings of jealousy for the wellbeing of others?
  • What is the essence of prayer? In what ways can we express our prayers to God?
  • What was Paul’s heartfelt desire for the Thessalonians? (in verses 11-13) Why do you think Paul puts love and holiness together? How do love & holiness complement each other?
  • Whose roller coaster are you on at the moment? Who is making you feel vulnerable? Who is triggering your jealous love? Who is occupying space in your heart? What do they need? What do you need?
Tawa Baptist

Affirmation

Scripture: 1st Thessalonians 2:13-20

Video Link: https://youtu.be/FeNmfDe5CBE

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Affirmation of faith
  • Affirmation of belonging
  • Affirmation of relationship
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

Affirmation, it is so important to us as human beings. To affirm something is to declare it to be true. When we affirm we uphold, confirm or ratify what is true.

At the core of affirmation is making something or someone firm, strong or secure.

When you complete a course of training, you receive a certificate to affirm that you are qualified in your chosen field.

When you buy a house or a car, you sign papers to affirm that you are the legal owner of the property.

When you pray the Lord’s prayer, saying ‘Our Father, who is in heaven…’, you affirm that you are loved by God and made in his image.

When you get married, you exchange vows to affirm your love and commitment to one another.

When you worship God, whether that is by singing or giving your time and money or obeying him in some way, you affirm his worth.

When you give someone a word of appreciation, you affirm the good you see in that person. 

When you attend a funeral, you affirm that the life and passing of the deceased matters.

When you listen to someone with empathy, you affirm the value of their thoughts and feelings.  

We could go on but you get the point: affirmation is about upholding the truth. It makes people and relationships stronger, more secure.

Today we continue our series in Paul’s letters to the Thessalonians, focusing on chapter 2, verses 13-20. The Thessalonian believers were going through a difficult time because of their faith in Jesus and so Paul affirms them and his relationship with them. From verse 13 of chapter 2 we read…    

13 And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is indeed at work in you who believe. 14 For you, brothers and sisters, became imitators of God’s churches in Judea, which are in Christ Jesus: You suffered from your own people the same things those churches suffered from the Jews 15 who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and also drove us out. They displease God and are hostile to everyone 16 in their effort to keep us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved. In this way they always heap up their sins to the limit. The wrath of God has come upon them at last. 17 But, brothers and sisters, when we were orphaned by being separated from you for a short time (in person, not in thought), out of our intense longing we made every effort to see you. 18 For we wanted to come to you—certainly I, Paul, did, again and again—but Satan blocked our way. 19 For what is our hope, our joy, or the crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes? Is it not you? 20 Indeed, you are our glory and joy.

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

As you have probably picked up by now, the new believers in Thessalonica were getting a hard time for becoming Christians. They were suffering in a variety of ways and to make matters worse, Paul, Silas and Timothy (who had introduced the gospel of Jesus to them), had been forced to leave prematurely.

The Thessalonians were in a vulnerable position and needed strengthening.

So Paul, who loves them very much, declares what he knows to be true…

Paul affirms the Thessalonians’ decision of faith;

Paul affirms their belonging to God’s people;

And Paul affirms his relationship with the Thessalonians personally.

Affirmation of faith:

First let’s consider Paul’s affirmation of the Thessalonians’ faith.

You may have heard the expression, ‘spill the tea’. The ‘tea’ in this metaphor is some piece of news or inside information about a particular subject. And ‘spilling the tea’ means sharing the news. Preaching the gospel is ‘spilling the tea’ about Jesus. 

When you make tea, to serve to others, you begin by putting some tea leaves in the pot. Then you pour some hot water into the pot with the tea and let it brew for a few minutes.

Once the brew is just right you can pour the tea into individual cups. Some people like milk or sugar with their tea, others are happy to have it black. Some like it in a dainty floral cup and others prefer a mug.

Whichever way you take your tea the main purpose is to drink it.  If someone pours you a cup and you don’t drink it, well that’s a bit odd, even a bit rude. When you drink the tea though, you show trust in the person who made it and affirm the other person’s hospitality to be true. You strengthen your friendship.

To make this analogy plain, God is the one who makes the tea while Paul, Silas & Timothy are like the tea pot. They are the vessel which carries God’s word.

The gospel message about Jesus is like the tea leaves and the hot water is the Holy Spirit. God’s word and God’s Spirit go together. The tea leaves of God’s word need to brew in the water of God’s Spirit for a little while before being served.

Or, to say it another way, the words we read in the Bible only become the living Word of God to us by the power of the Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit of God that makes the Word of God real and alive for us. We can’t drink the tea of God’s word without the water of his Spirit.

The individual tea cups are the human heart or mind. Our hearts and minds are vessels or containers for holding the tea of God’s Word & Spirit.

When someone spills the tea, about Jesus, we have a choice. We can receive the hospitality God offers, drinking his tea down (in faith) to our inner most being. Or we can close our hearts and minds to God’s word. 

The Thessalonians chose to receive the tea of God’s word through the tea pot of Paul, Silas & Timothy.

As Paul affirms in verse 13, you received the word of God, which you heard from us, and accepted it not as a human word, but as it actually is, the word of God,

In other words, with the help of God’s Spirit, the Thessalonians trusted Paul’s message and accepted it (or affirmed it in their hearts) as God’s word.  

Paul notes that the word of God is indeed at work in you who believe. When you drink your cup of tea it goes to work in you. It hydrates your body and refreshes you, it gives you a lift. God’s word is like that. God’s word goes to work inside the heart of the individual believer and among the community of believers.

In verse 13 Paul is affirming the Thessalonians’ decision of faith. Maybe some of the Thessalonian believers were having second thoughts, due to all they had suffered. Maybe they were thinking, we got this wrong. But Paul affirms their decision as true. He is saying, you all got it right.

It’s one thing to speak positive words of affirmation to yourself. That has its own power. But it’s something else altogether when someone you respect speaks words of affirmation to you. That is even more powerful.

When I was a kid I played school boy rugby. For most of my career it would be fair to say I was pretty useless. And when you are useless the coach doesn’t waste his time with you. No potential there.

But by the time I reached the fourth form, which is year 10 at high school, I started to understand the game a bit better and put more effort in with training and skill development. It made a difference. The coach noticed.

After seven years of playing the coach actually spoke to me one on one, giving me some pointers on other things I could do to improve. It was just a small thing but it was so affirming. It said to me, ‘I believe in you. I think you’ve got potential kid’. Didn’t quite make it to the All Blacks, but that’s not the point.

The point is, affirmation from someone we respect has real power. It makes us stronger and gives us confidence.

At some stage in your journey of Christian faith you will have questions and doubts. You won’t always feel particularly strong. Don’t let it throw you. It is to be expected.

The trickiest doubt we might face in life is self-doubt. Put yourself in the path of other Christian believers who are a little further down the track than you. Hopefully, if they are listening to this sermon too, they will speak words of affirmation to you, declaring truth over your life (like my rugby coach did for me).

That’s one of the reasons it’s so important to stay connected to a church and not go it on your own. It creates opportunities for affirmation. Church is one of the ways God makes us stronger.         

Sometimes a little opposition and struggle is another thing God uses to firm up our faith.

Affirmation of belonging:

Navy divers do a training exercise called the mud run. This involves a team of divers running through mangrove swamps knee deep in mud. It’s hard yacker. The mud sucks and claws at you, making your every move a huge effort.

Not only does this natural resistance training build physical fitness and strength, it also builds bonds between the team members who help each other. The idea isn’t to be the first individual over the finish line. The idea is to get the whole team across the line together, no one left behind.   

From verse 14 Paul writes…

For you, brothers and sisters, became imitators of God’s churches in Judea, which are in Christ Jesus: You suffered from your own people the same things those churches suffered from the Jews 15 who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and also drove us out.

Paul is saying here that the Thessalonians’ suffering is actually an affirmation that they have a place of honour among God’s people. They (even though they are mostly Gentile believers) belong alongside the first Jewish Christians, because they have suffered the same things for the same reason.

Far from being a cause for doubt, the Thessalonians’ suffering for their faith is in fact a sign of solidarity with Jesus, the prophets and the churches in Judea.

Paul is basically saying, you are in good company, for you walk in the footsteps of God’s faithful people. What an affirmation of belonging.

Paul uses the strongest terms he can to denounce the behaviour of those Jews who opposed the gospel of Christ, saying from verse 15:

They displease God and are hostile to everyone 16 in their effort to keep us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved. In this way they always heap up their sins to the limit. The wrath of God has come upon them at last

Now, it needs to be acknowledged that Paul’s words in these verses, have been subject to some grievous misinterpretation over the centuries. John Stott points out how one of the early church fathers, Chrysostom preached eight virulent sermons against the Jews, comparing them to animals.

In the Middle Ages the church (or part of it at least) created four repressive regulations forcing Jews to live in ghettos and wear distinctive clothes.

Then there is the embarrassment of the crusades when Jewish villages were ransacked. Not to mention Martin Luther’s writing (in 1543, toward the end of his life) in which he called for Jewish synagogues to be burned and Rabbis silenced.

When we, in the 21st Century, read Paul’s words under the shadow of the Jewish holocaust of the 1940’s, we may wish to edit verses 15 & 16 out of our Bibles.

But that is to misunderstand Paul’s heart. Paul didn’t hate the Jews. He would be horrified to think his words were misused in this way. Paul himself was Jewish. He loved his own people and would have given anything for them to be saved, as Romans 9-11 makes clear.

Paul’s point here is that by opposing the spread of the gospel among the Gentiles, some of the Jews (not all of them, just the extremists) were working against God’s purpose. Paul didn’t say this to incite violence against his own people. He said it to affirm the truth of God’s purpose, which is to save people of all nations.

You see, when we affirm that something is true, we are by implication saying the opposite is false. By affirming the Thessalonians’ faith and belonging as true, Paul was (at the same time) saying those opposed to them were wrong.

Paul’s use of strong and emotive language points to the depth of his conviction on the matter. If any of us had received the 39 lashes, five times, as Paul did (for preaching the gospel) we might use even stronger language.

Paul’s words here are not a license for anti-Semitism. His mention of God’s wrath gives all people cause for restraint. We do not need to take matters into own hands. God’s purpose will prevail in the end. The Lord will see that justice is done. Leave judgement to him.     

Having affirmed the Thessalonians’ decision of faith and their belonging to God’s people, Paul then goes on to affirm his relationship with the Thessalonians, personally.       

Affirmation of relationship:

Which of these terms describes a close relationship do you think?

Colleague, client, boss, acquaintance, best mates, golfing buddy, employee, cousin, Facebook friend, brother, sister, father, mother.   

I suppose it depends on one’s personal experience to some degree, but calling someone your best mate usually indicates a closer relationship than client.

Likewise, brother, sister, father or mother would normally suggest a closer relationship than colleague or Facebook friend.  

Listen to the words Paul uses to describe his relationship with the Thessalonians…

17 But, brothers and sisters, when we were orphaned by being separated from you for a short time (in person, not in thought), out of our intense longing we made every effort to see you.

Paul thinks of the Thessalonians as his family. He calls them brothers and sisters. What’s more he feels orphaned apart from them. In contemporary English an ‘orphan’ is someone who has lost both their parents. But in ancient Greek, the word ‘orphan’ also referred to parents who had lost their children. [1]

Paul is affirming his relationship with the Thessalonians using strong terms. Paul longs to see the Thessalonians face to face with the same intensity that a parent longs to see a lost child, or a small child longs to see a lost parent.

I remember being separated from my mum, in Chartwell Square, when I was about four years old. Chartwell Square is a shopping mall in Hamilton. At first it was an adventure but when I got back to our Mark 1, Ford Escort and discovered she wasn’t there, I was beside myself. I needed to see her face to face, in person. I felt like an orphan, anxious and alone in the world.       

Paul says that although he and the Thessalonians are separated in person, they were not separated in thought. Not a day has gone by where Paul didn’t think of the Thessalonians and wonder how they were. When you love someone, when you care about them, your thoughts are always peopled by them. 

Despite his intense longing to see the Thessalonians, face to face, Paul’s every attempt to return to them was blocked by Satan. It is unclear exactly what Paul means here.

The English word Satan comes from a Hebrew word meaning adversary, as in an adversary of God. Sometimes in the Bible the word Satan refers to the prince of demons (like a fallen angel). Other times it simply means someone (perhaps a mortal human being) who is opposed to God’s purpose.  

Whatever Paul may have meant by the term, in this context, he continues to use strong emotive language to make the point that it wasn’t in his power to return to see his Thessalonian family.

In verses 19 & 20 Paul writes…

19 For what is our hope, our joy, or the crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes? Is it not you? 20 Indeed, you are our glory and joy.

The Winter Olympics has just finished. Our most successful ever. Two golds and a silver. This was the first Winter Games in which New Zealand ever won gold. The dedication, commitment, hard work and skill the athletes put into winning those medals was huge. The joy of realising their goals matched their effort.  

The crown Paul refers to in verse 19 is not a royal crown. Rather it is the victor’s crown. In ancient Greece the winners of various events at the Olympic Games were crowned with a laurel wreath. It was their equivalent of a gold medal.

When Paul talks about the Thessalonians being our hope, our joy and our crown, it’s like he is saying, ‘You are our gold medal. We have worked so hard, suffered so much and been committed for so long to win you for Christ. We don’t want to lose you now.’

Paul is essentially affirming the high value he places on the Thessalonians and the relationship he shares with them. 

Conclusion:

This morning we have heard three of Paul’s affirmations for the Thessalonians. Three messages of strength. Let me finish with two questions for you. Firstly…

What truth do you need to affirm?

Perhaps, if you are struggling at the moment with ill health or grief or some other thorn in the flesh, you need to affirm the truth that God’s grace is sufficient for you.

Perhaps, if you are fearful about the things happening in our city and world today, you need to affirm the truth that God is in control, he’s got this.

Perhaps, if you are too hard on yourself, suffering from a brutal and relentless inner critic, you need to affirm the truth that you are loved and accepted by God.

Perhaps, if you are feeling a bit isolated or misunderstood, you need to affirm the truth that you are not alone, you belong to God and with his people.

My second question for you is this…

Who needs your affirmation?

Perhaps someone you haven’t seen in years.

Perhaps someone you see every day.

Perhaps someone at work or school.

Perhaps someone in your family.

See the good in that person. Declare the truth of it. Make them stronger.

Let us pray…

Spirit of Jesus, fill us with your grace and truth that we would be firm and steadfast in our faith, giving strength to one another. 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 affirmation and why is it important? Think of a time when someone affirmed you. What did they do or say? How did this make you feel?
  • What is the difference between reading the Bible and receiving God’s word? 
  • What does Paul mean when he says, ‘the word of God is at work in you’? How has the word of God worked in you and among you? What difference did it make?
  • How are we to understand 1st Thessalonians 2:14-16? How does a wider reading of the New Testament (e.g. Romans 9-11, Matthew 5:43-48) help inform / guide our interpretation of 1st Thessalonians 2:14-16?  
  • How does Paul affirm his relationship with the Thessalonians? How do you think this made the Thessalonians feel?
  • What truth do you need to affirm?
  • Who needs your affirmation?  

Some affirmations of Jesus (from Matthew 5)…

3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

[1] Refer Gordon Fee, NICNT Thessalonians, page 105. 

Tawa Baptist

Genuine

Scripture: 1st Thessalonians 2:1-12

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Paul’s message is true
  • Paul’s motives are pure
  • Paul’s manner is caring
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

How do you know something is true? How do you know it is genuine, the real deal, and not fake?

Well, some statements are provable by doing the math. If the numbers add up, then you know it is true. If they don’t, then you know it is false.

For example, if someone says, ‘the sum of two consecutive whole numbers equals an odd number’, then we can test the truth of that statement by simple arithmetic.

Five plus six equals eleven. 20 plus 21 equals 41. Three plus four equals seven. Pick any two consecutive whole numbers, add them together and you will always get an odd number.

We don’t need to calculate every combination of consecutive numbers. After a while, we will see a pattern emerging and (with some confidence) can say the statement is true.

Mathematics is pretty cool like that. It makes you feel safe because it follows rules and gives you relative certainty. Unfortunately, maths has its limitations. Not all things can be proved by arithmetic or algebra.     

Today we continue our series in Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians, focusing on chapter 2, verses 1-12. In this passage Paul offers proofs that he is genuine and his message is true.

You may remember how Paul and Silas faced opposition in Thessalonica and were forced to flee in the middle of the night. Paul, Silas & Timothy were the real deal, they were genuine. But their opponents spread malicious rumours about them to discredit them and discourage the new believers.

Paul knew he had to defend himself, not so much for the sake of his own reputation, but more for the sake of the Thessalonians’ faith. This is what Paul says in defence of himself and the Thessalonian believers…     

2 You know, brothers and sisters, that our visit to you was not empty. 2 We had previously suffered and been treated outrageously in Philippi, as you know, but with the help of our God we dared to tell you his gospel in the face of strong opposition. 3 For the appeal we make does not spring from error or impure motives, nor are we trying to trick you. 4 On the contrary, we speak as those approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. We are not trying to please people but God, who tests our hearts. 5 You know we never used flattery, nor did we put on a mask to cover up greed—God is our witness. 6 We were not looking for praise from people, not from you or anyone else, even though as apostles of Christ we could have asserted our authority. 7 Instead, we were like infantsamong you.

Just as a nursing mother cares for her children, 8 so we cared for you. Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well. 9 Surely you remember, brothers and sisters, our toil and hardship; we worked night and day in order not to be a burden to anyone while we preached the gospel of God to you. 10 You are witnesses, and so is God, of how holy, righteous and blameless we were among you who believed. 11 For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children, 12 encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory.

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

In these verses, Paul defends himself against the slander of his opponents. In particular, Paul defends his message, his motives and his manner. Contrary to what his accusers were saying, Paul’s message is true, his motives are pure and his manner is caring.

Paul’s message is true:

I have here a can of L&P. How might we know whether this can actually does contain Lemon & Paeroa?

Well, if you can see the label, then that gives you a clue. It says L&P on the outside. I’ve drunk enough of these to take the label on good faith and trust that it does in fact contain L&P. I’ve never opened a can of L&P and tasted sand.

But imagine if our experience of soft drinks was a bit patchy, less reliable, so that sometimes the contents were not same as the label said. How would I know if it did contain L&P and wasn’t just full of sand or water or something worse?

Well, the only way to know for certain is to open the can, pour the contents into a glass and have a taste. [Open the can and take a sip]. Yes, this is L&P.    

Apparently, one of the accusations against Paul was that his message was erroneous, false, untrue or empty. The first thing Paul says to refute this is: You know brothers and sisters, that our visit to you was not empty.      

In the same way that I know this can contains L&P, because I’ve actually tasted it for myself, so too the Thessalonians know Paul’s message is true from personal experience.

As we read in chapter 1, verse 5, last week, the Thessalonians didn’t just receive the gospel by hearing Paul’s words. They experienced the power and the deep conviction of the Holy Spirit, confirming the content and truth of the gospel.

Paul doesn’t need to come up with some elaborate argument to prove his point. He simply reminds his readers of the truth of what they themselves experienced. He keeps saying things like, ‘you know’ and ‘you remember’ and ‘you were our witnesses’.      

Sometimes, in our busy-ness, we can become detached from the facts of our lives. Maybe something bad happens in our day and our minds get stuck thinking about that one bad thing. Or maybe nothing especially bad happens but we begin to worry that it will.

One strategy to help reconnect us with the reality of God’s goodness in our lives, is stopping to reflect on what went well during the day and thanking God for that. You could do this thankfulness exercise while you are eating dinner with others or perhaps by yourself just before you go to bed at night.

Remembering what we know to be true helps to silence the voice of fear and conjecture. It restores our perspective.    

Verse 2 adds strength to Paul’s claim that his message is true where he says…

We had previously suffered and been treated outrageously in Philippi, as you know, but with the help of our God we dared to tell you his gospel in the face of strong opposition. 3 For the appeal we make does not spring from error…

In Acts 16 we read how Paul and Silas were stripped naked, given a severe beating (with whips) and then thrown in jail, without any sort of trial or procedure of justice. A short while later they were released. Most people would go home licking their wounds after an experience like that and Paul might have as well. But he doesn’t.

Paul doesn’t enjoy suffering and would rather he didn’t have to. So why does Paul dare to carry on proclaiming God’s message of good news about Jesus?

Because he knows the message he shares is true. And Paul knows his message is true because it comes from God. And he knows it comes from God because God has helped them to continue proclaiming the message in the face of strong opposition. Without God’s help Paul & Silas could not have continued.

In verse 4 Paul writes: we speak as those approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. We are not trying to please people but God, who tests our hearts.  

Paul has done the maths. Jesus suffered opposition for his message and so it follows that Paul, a servant of Jesus, will suffer for proclaiming the same message. God’s help for Paul and Silas, in their suffering, is evidence that Paul’s message is from God and therefore is inherently true.

Paul’s message is true and Paul’s motives are pure.

Paul’s motives are pure:

Some of you here may own some gold. Perhaps a gold wedding ring or a necklace or some other piece of jewellery. Maybe you have wondered whether it is real gold or a fake.

When I googled ‘how to test gold’ on the internet, the first piece of advice that came up said, ‘If it floats in water, it’s not real gold’.

Straight away I thought to myself, ‘the internet must think people are stupid’. Most metals will sink if you put them in a glass of water. Not everything that sinks is gold.

So I kept looking and found some other tests. I’m not sure how accurate they are.

Apparently, you can test the authenticity of gold by putting it in vinegar. If it changes colour then it’s not gold.

What’s more, gold doesn’t rust, which I think is probably true because I’ve had my wedding ring for over 30 years now and it has never shown any sign of corrosion or discolouration. (And I’ve washed a lot of dishes in that time.)

Then there is the ping test. If you drop a piece of gold on a hard surface it will make a high pitched pinging sound. That certainly works with my wedding ring.

If your gold jewellery has the letters GP stamped on it then that stands for ‘gold plated’, which means it’s not pure gold.

The other thing you can do to test the purity of gold is hold a magnet close to the gold. If the magnet attaches to the gold, then the gold contains other metals.

To be completely certain I guess you would have to take your gold to an accredited specialist to have it scientifically tested.               

From verse 3 of Thessalonians chapter 2, Paul writes…

3 For the appeal we make does not spring from error or impure motives, nor are we trying to trick you… 5 You know we never used flattery, nor did we put on a mask to cover up greed—God is our witness. 6 We were not looking for praise from people, not from you or anyone else, … 7 Instead, we were like infantsamong you.

Paul is talking about his motives here. He is saying they were as innocent and as pure in heart as babies.

In the first century (as in the 21st century) there were people who peddled philosophy or religion for some kind of personal gain. They may have done it to make money or to make people like them or for some other ulterior motive.

Jesus warned there would be false teachers. This is what the master said…

15 “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16 By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? 17 Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.    

In reflecting on Jesus’ words here about false prophets I can’t help but make a connection with the protest movement in our city at the moment. If we apply Jesus’ parable to this situation, then the fruit we’ve seen from this protest so far is fear, intimidation and a careless disregard for social responsibility.

Our politicians are receiving death threats. Kids walking to school are being spat on. People who choose to wear a mask are being verbally abused. Businesses are being forced to close. The courts, the police, the university, the transport system and residents have also been negatively impacted by this.

The fruit is not good. I’ll let you do the math.

We pray for a peaceful resolution soon.

Returning to Paul. We know Paul’s message and motives were genuine because the fruit of Paul’s life was good. In verse 10 of Thessalonians 2, Paul writes: You are witnesses, and so is God, of how holy, righteous and blameless we were among you who believed.

Holiness is about being whole, being one, having integrity, being the same on the inside as you are on the outside (like my L&P). Righteousness is about relating to other people in a right way and being blameless is about doing no harm. The three go together. They speak of good fruit and therefore point to pure motives.

Verse 9 tells how the Thessalonians witnessed the way Paul, Silas & Timothy worked with their own hands to provide for themselves, so they could preach the gospel, freely.  9 Surely you remember, brothers and sisters, our toil and hardship; we worked night and day in order not to be a burden to anyone while we preached the gospel of God to you. 

On this occasion at least, Paul chose to be a volunteer. This speaks volumes for the value of volunteering one’s time in support of God’s kingdom.

Does this mean that anyone who accepts payment for doing missionary or church work is not a genuine representative of God? No, of course not. Paul himself says in 1st Timothy, “For the Scripture says, “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain,”and “The worker deserves his wages.”

Paul had every right to expect recompense for his work but he chose not to, under the circumstances. The situation in Thessalonica was not an established church. It was a pioneering church plant in a hostile context. Paul supported himself because he didn’t want to be a burden and he didn’t want to give his opponents any ammunition. He didn’t want anyone saying he was doing it for the money.

Paul says, we never used flattery and nor did we try to trick you. The gospel message is good news but it is also quite uncomfortable, even painful to hear at first. The gospel forces us to face the inconvenient truth about ourselves.    

Paul’s message was not cargo cult or prosperity doctrine. Paul wasn’t saying that accepting Jesus would be easy or make them rich. Paul was quite clear that accepting Jesus as Lord meant dying to oneself, picking up your cross and following him. Paul’s honesty, in talking about the hard parts of the gospel, testified to the purity of his motives and the genuineness of his character.   

Any organisation these days, that produces financial statements, needs to have those statements audited (or at least reviewed) to ensure the accounts give a true and correct picture of the financial position and everything is in order.

The independent auditor looks beneath the surface of the financial statements to check whether the figures can in fact be substantiated. This includes taking a look at the accounting processes, what’s underneath. Once they are satisfied everything is in order, they give it their seal of approval. The auditor is a professional and unbiased witness. 

In verse 4 Paul talks about God being the one who tests our hearts. In other words, God (like an auditor) looks beneath the surface to check our unseen motives. God is a witness to our inner life.

In verse 5 Paul goes on to say that God is his witness. Paul is confident that God won’t find anything untoward in his motives. We are reminded of David’s words at the end of Psalm 139 where David says:

23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. 24 See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

Knowing God cannot be separated from knowing yourself. The two go hand in hand. The less we know ourselves the greater the risk of hurting others. We all need God to be the auditor of our heart. We need him to gently show us what motivates us so we can better serve his purpose.

Paul’s message is true, his motives are pure and his manner is caring.

Paul’s manner is caring:

If motives are about what’s happening inside a person, what’s driving them, then a person’s manner is about the outward way they relate with or behave toward others.

In the movie The Sound of Music, Captain Von Trapp has a very formal, strict and cold manner with his children, at least at the beginning of the film. He relates with his kids like a sea captain might relate with his crew, not like a father at all. Captain Von Trapp’s manner is distorted by his grief.  

Fraulein Maria, the children’s nanny, has a very different manner with the children. She is warm and kind, encouraging and caring. She comforts them when they are scared and gently guides them in a good path. Maria’s manner brings the best out of the children and indeed warms the Captain’s heart and heals his grief.  

In verse 7 Paul describes his manner of relating with the Thessalonians. Paul is much like Fraulein Maria. Paul says: Just as a nursing mother cares for her children, 8 so we cared for you. Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well.

There is a real tenderness in Paul’s words here. The Thessalonian believers were brand new Christians, toddlers in the faith. Paul, Silas and Timothy cared for their spiritual needs in the same manner as a mother nursing children.

Paul continues the parenting metaphor in verses 11-12 where he says…

11 For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children, 12 encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory.

Notice the verbs Paul uses to characterise the manner in which he relates as a spiritual father to his Thessalonian children: encouraging, comforting and urging. (Like Fraulein Maria)

To encourage literally means to put courage into someone. Children need courage to face the world, they don’t need fear. I believe we put courage into people by being there for them, being reliable. In that way the child learns they are not alone. If you know you are not alone, you can be brave. We also put courage into children by trusting them and speaking good words into their life and soul.

Children need comfort from their fathers too. Comfort is about showing kindness and tenderness, especially when a child has gone through a difficult time or had a hard knock. Comfort isn’t about doing everything for our kids. It’s not about spoiling them. Comfort is one of the tools, in our parenting tool box, for managing fear.  

And urging is about pointing people in the right direction; helping them to find the right path. Notice that it’s urging and not controlling or forcing or driving. As human beings we feel a natural urge or motivation to make decisions which are in line with our values. So the key to urging is instilling good values, from the inside out.

Paul’s manner (his way of relating) with the Thessalonians is consistent with his message of God’s love.

Whether you have biological children of your own or not, you can still relate to others younger in the faith by caring for them, encouraging them, comforting them and urging them to live lives worthy of God’s calling.   

Conclusion:

When Paul’s name and reputation were slandered by his opponents, he responded by reminding the Thessalonian believers of their experience of him. They knew first hand that Paul’s message was true, his motives were pure and his manner was caring.

Paul was genuine. He was the real deal and he provides a model for us.  

Let us pray…

Loving Father, guide us in the truth. Purify our hearts. Help us to live our lives in a manner worthy of your calling. 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?

  • How do we know something is true? How do we discern truth from error?
  • Why did Paul feel it was necessary to defend himself against the slander of his opponents? How did Paul do this?  
  • What can we do to reconnect with the reality (the facts) of God’s goodness to us personally?
  • How do we know Paul’s motives were good / pure? What motivates you? If you are not sure, how might you find out?
  • What do we notice about Paul’s manner in relating with the Thessalonians?
  • How might we encourage, comfort and urge others in their life and Christian faith?  
  • At end of each day this week, think of three things that went well and give thanks to God for those things.
Tawa Baptist

Connected

Scripture: 1st Thessalonians 1:1-3

Video Link: https://youtu.be/pZPJgH83KFI

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Connected in God
  • Connected in prayer
  • Connected in experience
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone and happy Waitangi Day.

Sometimes, when your internet connection drops out, you have to wait a few minutes watching the dots make a little circle until the wifi comes back online. We can become impatient because we have to wait a few seconds but the inconvenience of a buffering internet connection is nothing really. In years gone by, before the internet, people separated by the tyranny of distance had to wait months, even years, to receive word from loved ones.

Last week we began a new sermon series in Paul’s letters to the Thessalonians. By way of introduction, we looked at Acts 17, which is Luke’s account of how the Christian church got started in the city of Thessalonica, which is in Greece.

Today we get into the letters themselves, looking at the opening verses of First Thessalonians, in which Paul reconnects with the Thessalonian believers, by letter, after having not seen them for several months, perhaps a year. From verse 1 of First Thessalonians we read…

[From] Paul, Silas and Timothy,

To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace and peace to you. 2 We always thank God for all of you and continually mention you in our prayers. 3 We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labour prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

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

In these three short verses we note how Paul makes three quite profound and enduring connections with the Thessalonians. Paul shows how he, Silas and Timothy are connected to the Thessalonians in God, in prayer and in experience.  

Connected in God:

You may remember, from last week, that Paul & Silas had to leave the city of Thessalonica after certain people stirred up trouble and put pressure on Jason and the other believers.

Paul and his companions then went to Berea and from there to Athens. Paul was naturally concerned for the well-being of the Thessalonians and so he sent Timothy back to see how they were getting on.

By the time Timothy returned with his report, Paul was probably in the city of Corinth. As you can imagine, this journey would have taken months on foot. After hearing what Timothy had to say, Paul wrote his first letter to the Thessalonians to reconnect with them and to offer some guidance and encouragement. 

The experts aren’t sure exactly but they think First Thessalonians was probably the second letter Paul wrote to a church, depending on when you date his letter to the Galatians. Paul’s affection for the Thessalonians is clear. Despite being relatively new converts and despite having suffered for Jesus, the Thessalonians’ faith (their connection with God) was strong.

In verse 1, Paul addresses the Thessalonians in an interesting way. He refers to the Thessalonian church as being in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Being ‘in Christ’ is a favourite saying of Paul’s, but he wouldn’t normally start a letter this way or talk about being ‘in God the Father’ in the same breath.

The word translated as church is literally assembly, as in a gathering of people. So the assembly or the gathering of believers is in God. What does that mean? Is it like when the teachers at school say the assembly will be in the hall? Well, not exactly. Paul isn’t talking about the physical location of the Thessalonians. He’s talking in spiritual terms.  

Paul is reconnecting with the Thessalonians by affirming they are not alone. They are as close to God and to Jesus as you can get. They are in God. God is the source of their life, the ground of their being.

The Thessalonian assembly (or church) is in God, like a tree is planted in soil. If you take the tree out of the soil it will die. Keep it in the soil and it will thrive, drawing its life from the nutrients in the ground.

Or to use another analogy, the Thessalonian church is in God, like a school of fish is in water. Take the fish out of water and they soon die. Keep the fish in water and they live. God and Christ provide the right spiritual environment for human beings, much like water provides the right natural environment for fish. 

William Barclay uses the metaphor of air. He says that being in God (or in Christ) is like being in air. Not only is the air all around us (as close as our skin) but when we breathe, the air is inside us as well.

That’s how close and life giving God is to the Thessalonians, as close as air. That’s why their faith is thriving, despite the persecution they are experiencing for being Christians. Their physical or material life might be poor, but their spiritual life is rich.

By affirming the Thessalonians’ closeness to God and to Jesus, Paul is basically saying he is close to them as well. In verse 3 he talks about our God and our Jesus. Even though they are about 576 km’s apart (geographically speaking) they are close in the Lord, for Paul & Silas & Timothy are in God as well.

There are three crosses on the wall behind me. The crosses remind us of Jesus’ suffering, death and resurrection. I can’t see the crosses at the moment because I’m facing the other way. But I know they are there because I’ve seen them before. Now, I might forget they are there because I’m focused on something else but that doesn’t change the fact that they are still there.

You know sometimes we lose sight of God’s nearness and grace. We get busy with something or other and God passes out of our awareness. If God is out of sight and out of mind for too long, it may feel to us like God is absent or distant.

That subjective feeling can have a very real effect on us. It can mislead us into thinking that we are not loved by God or that God is angry with us or that he doesn’t care. But our feelings and perception are not always reliable. Like the crosses on the wall behind me, God doesn’t cease to be close to us just because our back is turned and we are thinking about something else.

We human beings need to turn and face God, regularly. We need to do tangible things to remind ourselves of God’s nearness and grace.

Those things might include starting the day by reading a chapter from the Bible. Or stopping three times a day to be still and pray. Or spending time with other believers, or singing songs of worship or listening to sermon podcasts. Whatever it is that puts you in touch with God again.

Paul is eager to reconnect or, more accurately, to insist that he and the Thessalonians were never disconnected, as verse 2 implies.

Connected in prayer:

At home we have a wall hanging. One of Robyn’s friends from school gave it to her. It reads: Prayer, the world’s greatest wireless connection.

Before the internet there was prayer.

In verse 2 of chapter 1 Paul says: We always thank God for all of you and continually mention you in our prayers.      

Prayer is eternal. Prayer is beyond the confines of time and space. In prayer, we draw close to others and to God. Prayer is about connection.

By keeping the Thessalonians in their prayers, Paul, Silas and Timothy were never apart from them. 

Prayer isn’t just the words we say to God. The larger part of prayer is listening to God. I have come to believe that prayer is also about the burdens we carry with and for others. When we pray for others we, in some way I think, connect with them and make their burden lighter.

I can’t give you any scientific or empirical evidence for this. But, anecdotally, people who have been going through some difficulty and have had others in the church praying for them, have said things like: ‘I feel lighter’ or ‘I feel like I’m being carried by people’s prayers’.

The flip side is that sometimes we can feel a bit weary after praying for others, like we’ve been doing some heavy lifting. At the same time, praying for others can also release us from the burden of our own problems and the tiredness which comes from always thinking about ourselves.

So while praying for others does take some effort, there is a mutual benefit on the whole.  

One of my cousins was really into scuba diving, when he was younger. He loved it. One day he was down fairly deep underwater and his mate got into trouble. My cousin kept his head and shared his breathing apparatus; you take a breath I’ll take a breath sort of thing. They returned to the surface slowly, to avoid getting the benz. Thankfully they made it up before my cousin’s tank ran out too.

Perhaps keeping others in our prayers is a bit like that. A friend finds themselves in deep water and in trouble. Maybe they are in so much distress or pain they can’t find the words or the faith to pray themselves. So you pray for them.

In praying for your friend like this, you are sharing your spiritual oxygen tank with them, at least until they reach the surface and can breathe (or pray) again themselves.    

That’s what intercessory prayer is; praying on behalf of others. We, who believe in Jesus, are priests. Interceding for others in prayer, with God, is what priests do. It is what Jesus (the great high priest) does.

Whether we are praying for ourselves or others, the risen and ascended Jesus knows our deepest needs and desires. He hears the inarticulate cry of our heart, asking God the Father for what he need. So even if we don’t know how to pray or can’t find the words, Jesus does know and has just the right words.    

Is there someone you know who needs you to share your oxygen tank of prayer with them?

Connected in experience:

So, even though they are apart physically, Paul and the Thessalonians are connected spiritually, in God and in prayer.

In verse 3, Paul goes on to point out another connection he and his companions share with the Thessalonians. They are connected in their experience. Paul writes…

We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labour prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

When we remember something, we are reconnecting with our experience of what we are remembering. Memory is a powerful form of connection. It brings the past into the present. It brings people, we haven’t seen in a while, close.

When I was at intermediate school one of my friend’s, Mark, had an older brother who sometimes used to pick us up in his Datsun 160B. Mark’s brother, Richard, used to play Dire Straits music in his cassette player; Tunnel of Love, Romeo and Juliet and so on. Very cool when you are 11.

Sometimes when I hear a Dire Straits song from the 80’s, I remember the Datsun 160B and my friendship with Mark, even though I haven’t seen Mark in over 30 years. It’s funny how a familiar tune or sight or smell can reconnect you with your past. Memory is a powerful transporter.

Dire Straits have a song called ‘Brothers in Arms’. In the second verse the singer remembers the connection forged with his mates on the battlefield…

Through these fields of destruction, baptisms of fire. I’ve witnessed your suffering as the battle raged high. And though they did hurt me so bad, in the fear and alarm, you did not desert me my brothers in arms.

The connections made through a shared experience of suffering run deep and live long in the memory.

As we heard last week (in Acts 17) the Thessalonian believers stood their ground under fire and did not desert their faith in Jesus, remaining loyal to Paul, Silas and Timothy. Their suffering for Jesus together is what connects them.

And when we suffer for Christ, we too are connected to other believers (around the world and throughout history) who have suffered for their faith. 

Three points of connection Paul makes when remembering the Thessalonians:

Their work produced by faith, their labour prompted by love, and their endurance inspired by hope

Faith, love and hope come to the surface in Paul’s letters a number of times, most famously in First Corinthians 13 where Paul writes, and these three remain: faith, hope and love, and the greatest of these is love.

Faith, hope and love are to Christian spirituality what oxygen, heat and fuel are to fire. They are indispensable, we can’t do without any one of them.

Faith, hope and love are about connection you see. They connect us to Jesus and to each other.     

Looking more closely, what does Paul mean by the Thessalonians’ work produced by faith. Idle faith, faith that sits around and does nothing is not true faith. Genuine faith finds expression in acts of Christian service and good deeds.

Those who did the online services in early January may remember John Tucker’s sermon about Jesus turning water into wine at a wedding. John made the connection between faith and work when he pointed out how the servants did what Jesus asked of them, filling the jars with water.

Filling each of those 120 litre jars of water was repetitive, time consuming, mundane, tiring work. And it may have seemed pointless too, when the problem wasn’t a lack of water but a lack of wine. Yet the servants did what Jesus asked of them, in faith. And Jesus did something very special with their work produced by faith.

Those of us who serve Jesus are connected through the work we do in faith that Jesus will use it for God’s saving purpose.           

Paul remembers also the Thessalonians’ labour prompted by love. The Greek word translated as labour here refers to hard labour, real back breaking toil. The kind of labour that puts blisters on your hands and sends you to bed early.

As Leon Morris says, the phrase labour prompted by love directs our minds to the unceasing hardship borne by the Thessalonians for love’s sake.

Those of you who are parents of small children understand about labour prompted by love. Caring for babies is exhausting. You are up all hours of the night feeding and changing nappies and working all day putting bread on the table or doing house work. It’s hard yacker. But you do it for the love of your family and through your labours a deep connection is created between parent and child.     

We are reminded of Jacob who laboured seven years for his father-in-law, Laban, so that he could marry Rachel. But those seven years seemed to him like just a few days because of the love he had for her. Romantic love gives you wings. 

Of course, the love Paul has in mind in Thessalonians is not romantic love, it is agape love. Not the love of seeking to possess something but a self-giving love. God’s love is always giving.

The Thessalonian believers did it tough for the love of Jesus. They were persecuted and harassed for becoming Christians but they handled it for love’s sake. Paul, Silas and Timothy also did it tough, working during the day with their hands to support themselves, then feeding the new born believers with God’s word in the evenings. It was hard graft.  

Thirdly, Paul remembers the Thessalonians’ endurance inspired by hope.

Hope is forward facing faith. Hope believes something good waits in our future. The Christian hope is that Jesus will return in glory one day to make all things new. Our hope is a future eternity without suffering or pain, where God wipes away every tear from our eyes, no more war or hunger or pandemics.

But getting there is a marathon, not a sprint. Hope of a better future gave the Thessalonian believers the strength to endure their present sufferings.

How is your hope at the moment? We are two years into a global pandemic and about to face a tidal wave of omicron cases (so we are told). We need the endurance inspired by hope. God has got us through this far. He will see us through to the other side.

Conclusion:      

Looking at the whole of verse 3 again we note that your work produced by faith, your labour prompted by love and your endurance inspired by hope are all in our Lord Jesus Christ.   

These things which connect us and support our life are not done in our own strength.  Nor are they hidden in some treasure vault beyond our reach. No, they are in Christ, whose Spirit is as close to us as the air we breathe.

So this spiritual connection does not depend on us. Nor does it depend on our changing moods or feelings. Our connection to God the Father and to one another depends on Jesus. Which means it is a reliable connection, not subject to buffering.

Our job is to remain in Christ. As Jesus says in John 15…

5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 

Let us pray…

Father God, we thank you for the connection we share with you and each other, through Jesus. Help us to remain in Christ and to draw strength from him, that we may bear the fruit of faith, hope and love. In 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 you think Paul is eager to reconnect with the Thessalonians? How do you think the Thessalonians may have felt receiving Paul’s letter and having their connection/relationship with Paul, Silas & Timothy affirmed/renewed? 
  • What does it mean to be ‘in God’ or ‘in Christ’?
  • How do you turn to face God? What tangible things do you do to reconnect with God’s nearness and grace?
  • Have you ever felt light (or carried) in some way by the prayers of others? How do you feel after you have spent time praying for others? Is there someone you know, at the moment, who isn’t able to pray for themselves and needs you to share your oxygen tank of prayer with them? 
  • Discuss/reflect on Paul’s three phrases in verse 3. That is: your work produced by faith, your labour prompted by love and your endurance inspired by hope. What do each of these phrases mean? Can you think of ways in which these three things have been (or are being) worked out in your life? 
  • Is there someone you need to reconnect with? Or, to put it another way, is there someone who needs you to reconnect with them? How might you go about reconnecting? 
Tawa Baptist

Persuasion

Scripture: Acts 17:1-10

Video Link: https://youtu.be/Y-PupQ_mVz8

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Persuasion
  • Protest
  • Persistence
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

One of the things that distinguishes human beings from animals is language. Unlike animals, people are able to communicate using words.

In some ways though, words have become cheap for many people in the western world today. We are bombarded with words in advertising, at work, on TV and the internet. With all the noise and confusion around words and their meaning, we may find ourselves longing for the oxygen of silence.

Words may have become cheap for us but, in the thought world of the Bible, words carry real power.

Today we begin a new sermon series in Paul’s words to the Thessalonians. Paul wrote two letters to the Thessalonians but, before we start into the letters themselves, we are going to take a closer look at Acts 17, which describes how the Thessalonian church got started.  

In Acts 17 we hear about the power of words for good and for harm. From verse 1 we read…  

When Paul and his companions had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. 2 As was his custom, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3 explaining and proving that the Messiah had to suffer and rise from the dead. “This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Messiah,” he said. 4 Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and quite a few prominent women. 5 But other Jews were jealous; so they rounded up some bad characters from the marketplace, formed a mob and started a riot in the city. They rushed to Jason’s house in search of Paul and Silas in order to bring them out to the crowd. 6 But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some other believers before the city officials, shouting: “These men who have caused trouble all over the world have now come here, 7 and Jason has welcomed them into his house. They are all defying Caesar’s decrees, saying that there is another king, one called Jesus.” 8 When they heard this, the crowd and the city officials were thrown into turmoil. 9 Then they made Jason and the others post bond and let them go. 10 As soon as it was night, the believers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving there, they went to the Jewish synagogue.

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

Acts 17, written by Luke, describes Paul & Silas’ experience in the city of Thessalonica. Three things we note. Paul’s mission work is characterised by persuasion, protest and persistence. Let’s start with Paul’s words of persuasion.

Persuasion:

Do you know those toys, for small children, where the child has to fit different shaped blocks through the corresponding shaped hole? There’s no way an oblong block is going to fit through a square hole. You can’t force the blocks.

First, you find the right shape to match the right hole and then you adjust the position of the block so that it lines up correctly. Once you’ve done that the block fits easily.

Persuasion is bit like that. The box that receives the shapes is sort of like the human heart or mind and the shapes that fit into the box are like pieces of the gospel message; ideas and beliefs.

You can’t force someone to accept or believe something that doesn’t fit for them. You have to understand the shape of the person’s heart & mind and then position the idea or belief in a way that person can accept.

Paul understood this. Paul did not coerce or manipulate people into accepting the gospel about Jesus. As verse 4 of Acts 17 tells us, Paul persuaded people.

Paul thought about the shape of his listeners’ hearts & minds and presented the gospel message in a way they could receive, without compromising or changing the gospel and without damaging his listeners’ hearts.

Thessalonica was the capital city of the province of Macedonia. Verse 2 of Acts 17 tells us that Paul went to the synagogue as was his custom. The synagogue was like the local place of worship for people of Jewish faith living in that area.

On the Sabbath (a Saturday) people came together in the synagogue for prayers and singing psalms and hearing the Hebrew Bible (what we know as the Old Testament) read aloud and expounded.

It was Paul’s custom to go the Jewish synagogue on the Sabbath because he had done that all his life. While the Jewish faith is not exactly the same as the Christian faith, the two hold quite a bit in common. The Christian faith grew out of the Jewish faith. The very first Christians were Jews.

From a mission strategy point of view, it made good sense for Paul to preach the gospel of Jesus in the synagogue because the people were starting with a shared understanding of God. This shared understanding included, for example, the belief that there is only one God, the creator of all there is. And he is just and merciful.  

Although Luke tells us Paul talked about Jesus in the synagogue over the course of three Sabbaths, this does not exclude the probability that Paul also talked about Jesus in people’s homes and the market place during the other days of the week. Luke’s account is not a comprehensive report of Paul’s activities. It’s more of a highlights reel.

What we notice in these verses is the way Paul went about persuading people to believe in Jesus’ death and resurrection. Paul understood better than anyone how difficult it was for Jews to believe that Jesus was the Messiah, when Jesus had been crucified.

The idea of a crucified Messiah was a key piece of the gospel that didn’t fit easily with the Jewish mind-set. To suggest that God’s Messiah had to suffer and die on a cross was like trying to fit a square peg through a round hole.

The Hebrew Scriptures carried authority for the Jews and so Paul reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that the Messiah had to suffer and rise from the dead. 

Reason, explanation and evidence were key tools in Paul’s toolbox of persuasion. We can easily imagine Paul using passages like Isaiah 53, which predicted the suffering of the Messiah, as a way of proving that Jesus had to suffer and rise from the dead. Isaiah 53 reads…

10 Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makeshis life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. 11 After he has suffered, he will see the light of lifeand be satisfied;

Verse 11 is talking about resurrection after death you see. Isaiah continues…

by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.  

Isaiah 53 fits for Jesus, the suffering Messiah.  

While it is Paul’s persuasive preaching that Luke highlights in Acts 17, it wasn’t just Paul’s words alone that convinced people to believe in Jesus.

As Paul himself writes in First Thessalonians chapter 1, verse 5…

…our gospel came to you not simply with words but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake.       

This tells us the Thessalonian believers were persuaded not just by Paul’s words but also by Paul & Silas’ example (their lifestyle and deeds).

More importantly though, the Thessalonians were persuaded by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of Jesus is a Spirit of truth and grace. The Holy Spirit works in our heart and mind to create the right shaped opening to receive the gospel message, with deep conviction. God’s Spirit enables us to recognise when something is true.

Paul was mindful of his listeners, in the way he presented the gospel message, but he also recognised that ultimately the effectiveness of his message depended more on God’s Spirit than anything else.

Returning to Acts 17. Verse 4, tells us of three groups of people who were persuaded and joined Paul & Silas. In other words, they became followers of Jesus. These groups included Jews, God fearing Greeks and many prominent women.

We might pass over that without thinking much of it, but it’s actually quite illuminating. These days Paul gets quite a bit of criticism for what he writes in relation to women. Paul’s thinking may be misunderstood by people today but the fact that many prominent women responded positively to Paul’s presentation of the gospel strongly suggests that the women of the first century quite liked what Paul had to say.

Protest:

Not everyone liked Paul’s words though. Some of the Jews were not persuaded. In fact, some were so jealous at Paul’s success in winning converts that they organised a protest against Paul & Silas. The jealous ones formed a mob and started a riot. What happened next mirrored (in some ways) Jesus’ experience.     

They rushed to Jason’s house in search of Paul and Silas in order to bring them out to the crowd. 6 But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some other believers before the city officials, shouting: “These men who have caused trouble all over the world have now come here, 7 and Jason has welcomed them into his house. They are all defying Caesar’s decrees, saying that there is another king, one called Jesus.”

There are few things less trustworthy than a crowd. The organisers of the protest were basically accusing Paul & Silas of high treason. In today’s terms it would be similar to saying they were terrorists. The accusation was untrue and unfair.   

We are reminded here, of Jesus’ words in Matthew 10…

32 “Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. 33 But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven. 34 “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.

Jesus is not promoting war or violence. He is not talking in military or political terms. He is talking in spiritual terms. The point here is that there is no sitting on the fence with Jesus. You have to choose which side you are on, spiritually speaking. And there are real consequences to the choice you make. 

Jason made the choice to show hospitality to Paul & Silas. The eternal (unseen) consequence of this was that Jason was joined to Christ, destined to share in Jesus’ glory. The temporal (felt) consequence, for Jason, was finding himself at the sharp end of a protest and legal action.

8 When they heard this, the crowd and the city officials were thrown into turmoil. 9 Then they made Jason and the others post bond and let them go.

In other words, the magistrates put a legal obligation on Jason and the other Christian believers to get Paul & Silas to leave town. If Paul & Silas stayed, then Jason and the other believers would face some kind of penalty like losing their homes or going to prison.

Paul & Silas did not want Jason and the new believers to come to harm so they left quietly in the night, without making a fuss. 

Some years ago I worked in a cycle and mower shop. At times we came across nuts and bolts that were seized together with rust and age. If you tried to force the nut off, you ran the risk of breaking the bolt or slipping and skinning your knuckles.

As Aesop once said, it is better to use persuasion, rather than force. Most of the time you can persuade a rusty nut to come off with patience and a squirt of CRC, no damage done.

The jealous ones, who organised the protest against Paul, did not use reason or truth to persuade the authorities. They used lies and fear. They twisted the facts and manipulated the situation so that Paul & Silas were forced to leave. The problem with using force is that it usually has unintended consequences.

Those who were out to get Paul unintentionally promoted the spread of the gospel. By organising a protest against Paul & Silas, pretty much everyone in the city became aware of Jesus.

Now, it is thought that Thessalonica had a population of about 200,000 people in the first century. At least some of those 200,000 people would have become curious to learn more about Jesus.

Without intending to, the protest organisers actually gave weight and credibility to Paul’s message. They signalled to everyone that the gospel and the name of Jesus is a powerful thing that should be taken seriously.

The gospel is powerful but not in the way the authorities feared. God has a sense of humour. Less than 300 years later the emperor would become a Christian.

One other unintended consequence of the protest was the strengthening of the new believers’ faith.

After a potter has shaped the clay into the vessel they want (a bowl or a cup), they then put the soft clay into a kiln to be fired. The heat of the kiln sets the clay and makes the vessel strong.

By putting heat on Jason and the other believers and dragging them before the authorities, the protest organisers actually made the new believers’ faith stronger. Having suffered for their new found faith, Paul’s converts were more resolved to stick with Jesus.       

Reading between the lines of Acts 17 we see that God has a way of working adverse circumstances for good.

Persistence:

This pattern of persuasive preaching followed by strong protest was not unique to the city of Thessalonica. Time and again (in the book of Acts) Paul and his friends had to flee from one city to the next.

Which brings us to the third ‘P’ in today’s message: persistence. Paul was relentlessly persistent in persuading people to receive Jesus.

Persistence is about never giving up. We see Paul’s persistence in the wider context of Acts.

Before arriving in Thessalonica, Paul had been preaching the gospel in Philippi. With the help of the Holy Spirit, Paul managed to persuade a small group of people to believe in Jesus, including Lydia (the seller of purple cloth). But it wasn’t long before someone protested against Paul and he found himself being flogged and thrown in prison.

Once they had been released from prison in Philippi, Paul and Silas didn’t give up. They carried on, making the 100-mile journey (probably on foot) to Thessalonica, where they were forced to leave again for the next town, Berea. Fortunately, Paul’s reception in Berea was more positive.

Paul’s persistence paid off. As someone once observed, ‘Water cuts through rock, not because of its power, but because of its persistence.’

Of course, even persistence has its limits. The goal is not to be so stubborn that we never give in. The goal is to be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit, that we may go the distance in God’s will for us.

Conclusion:

So what do these three P’s (persuasion, protest and persistence) mean for us as Christian believers today?

Well, persuasion has a number of points of application…

Before we can persuade anyone else that Jesus died and rose from the dead, we must first be persuaded of Jesus’ resurrection ourselves. We must know what it is we believe about Jesus, with deep conviction, and hold to it.

Persuasion also requires us to be respectful of others who have different beliefs from us. What may seem simple and straight forward to you may be incredibly difficult for someone else to accept.

It does no good to force our beliefs on other people. Like Paul, we need to be ready to speak about our faith with gentleness and an understanding of how the other person thinks, trusting the Holy Spirit to create the right shaped opening in their heart and mind.    

We must not be surprised or discouraged by protests against what we believe. When you become a Christian, you choose a side, spiritually speaking. You are not likely to be driven out of town, like Paul was. But there is a good chance you will be misunderstood and misrepresented if you identify yourself as a Christian.

Don’t take it personally. It’s not really about you. The Christian message has often been unpopular and met with resistance. Take heart. God is more than able to use the efforts of those who protest against him for good.

Finally, we must persist in our witness for Jesus. Sometimes that will mean quietly going about our lives, letting our actions speak for us. Other times that will mean proclaiming aloud our deepest convictions about Jesus. Whatever happens, hold to Christ and be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit.   

Let us pray…

Lord Jesus, help us to know you more deeply, to love you more dearly and to share you more freely, with the help of your Holy Spirit. 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?

  • The Jews of Paul’s day struggled to accept the idea of a crucified Messiah. How were they persuaded to believe in Jesus?
  • Are there any aspects of the gospel message that you have found difficult to accept? How did you come to accept these aspects? (Who, or what, persuaded you?)
  • Verse 4 (of Acts 17) tells us a number of Jews, God fearing Greeks and prominent women were persuaded to accept Jesus after listening to Paul. What does this indicate to you?
  • What were the consequences for Jason in providing hospitality to Paul & Silas and accepting Jesus? What are the consequences for you personally in accepting Jesus?
  • How did God use the protest, against Paul & Silas, for good?
  • How do you think Paul & Silas might have felt meeting resistance in preaching the gospel and having to flee to the next city? Why do you think they persisted?
  • Take some time this week to prayerfully reflect on the points of application in the conclusion (above). Is there any point of application in particular you feel a deep conviction about? What is the Spirit saying to you? 
Tawa Baptist

Jesus’ early life (Neville)

A few weeks ago we celebrated Christmas, the time God became a human baby called Jesus. The New Testament doesn’t tell us a great deal about Jesus as he was growing up – it concentrates on the three years of ministry that started when he was 30. And on his death and resurrection.

Because not much seemed to happen, some people nowadays ask the question “Why did Jesus come as a baby, not a 30 year old?” We do so hate to be kept waiting, don’t we? Whatever happened to the saying that “Anything worth having is worth waiting for”? After all, the Jews of Israel waited many, many years for the birth of their Messiah, because God worked to a long-term plan for humankind.

Jesus was a gift that God gave to the world – and gifts are best enjoyed by taking time to unwrap them carefully, rather than just ripping the paper off and missing things hidden in the folds and layers. So I thought I’d have a go at unwrapping some of the early Jesus.

It’s that time of year when monarch butterflies are busy in our garden. You’ll know the main life stages of a monarch butterfly:

Egg

Caterpillar

Pupa

Adult butterfly

You can divide the human life span into stages too. People who study human development use up to 12 stages, but I think four is enough for today:

Infancy

Childhood

Youth

Adulthood.

Actually, my favourite way to think of human development is a lot less scientific, and doesn’t apply to everyone!

Stage 1: You believe in Santa

Stage 2: You don’t believe in Santa

Stage 3: You are Santa

Stage 4: You look like Santa!

Let’s go back to the idea of childhood, infancy, youth and adulthood.

No stage is more important than any other, so to be fully human, Jesus had to experience all of them. Of course, his three years of adult ministry were vital, and his death on the cross was a necessary sacrifice. But his early years living as a human were important too, preparing him for what was to come.

Like us, he was born virtually helpless, unable to walk, to talk or feed himself. Like us, Jesus would have watched and mimicked people, learnt to walk and talk and soak up what was going on around him.

When Jesus was about 40 days old, Luke 2:22-24 tells us:

The time came for Joseph and Mary to perform the ceremony of purification, as the Law of Moses commanded. So they took the child to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, as it is written in the law of the Lord: “Every firstborn male is to be dedicated to the Lord.” They also went to offer a sacrifice of a pair of doves or two young pigeons, as required by the law of the Lord.

This tells us that the family Jesus was born into was a devout one that followed the Jewish laws and traditions. By presenting Jesus in this way, they showed that he was part of the covenant between God and Israel.

In case you were wondering, the ceremony of purification referred to Mary, who by Jewish law was considered unclean for 40 days after the birth of her son.

Something else special happened at the temple during this visit.

Luke 2:25-32 records:

At that time there was a man named Simeon living in Jerusalem. He was a good, God-fearing man and was waiting for Israel to be saved. The Holy Spirit was with him and had assured him that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s promised Messiah. Led by the Spirit, Simeon went into the Temple.

When the parents brought the child Jesus into the Temple to do for him what the Law required, Simeon took the child in his arms and gave thanks to God:

“Now, Lord, you have kept your promise,

and you may let your servant go in peace.

With my own eyes I have seen your salvation,

which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples:

A light to reveal your will to the Gentiles

and bring glory to your people Israel.”

Simeon had waited many years to welcome Jesus. He set us an example of how to welcome Jesus and to give thanks to God for his gift. He reminds us not to become tired of trusting in God, just because things are maybe taking too long. He must have believed in “Anything worth having is worth waiting for”, after all, he got to hold the baby Jesus in his arms.

Jesus’s infancy wasn’t over yet, as recorded in Matthew 2:13-23. Back in Bethlehem, wise men from the East arrived, with special gifts fit for a king. Then Mary and Joseph had to flee to Egypt to escape King Herod and his plans to kill Jesus – the infant Jesus experienced being a refugee. It would have been unsettling too, when they returned from Egypt after Herod’s threat was gone, this time settling in Nazareth.

So, like any human infant, Jesus was influenced by the events and people around him:

  • His parents brought him up according to strong religious beliefs
  • People around him recognised how special he was, and expected great things from him
  • He was a refugee, and experienced the trauma suffered by his family

Now we come to Jesus’ childhood, which he spent in Nazareth, in Galilee. The Bible tells us of only one specific event of Jesus as a child, but we can fairly speculate on other aspects.

In Jewish families at the time, it was the responsibility of the parents to provide early education. Just about as soon as they could speak, Jewish children were taught the alphabet and some Bible verses. As he grew up, Jesus would have learnt other life skills from his parents – as well as scripture, he’d have learnt the rules of his culture and society, and how to behave in an acceptable manner. It’s good when children today do the same. The difference being that Jesus, who had to lead a completely sinless life, was presumably never naughty!

In Jesus’ time, all Jewish boys from the age of 6 or 7 were offered a free public education. This covered scripture and law, reading and writing, history and their equivalent to science and maths. This education was for boys from all backgrounds, so Jesus would have gone to school and made friends with other boys from all walks of life.

I went to school in the UK, and from the age of 5 my parents received an annual report of my progress. For some reason I have all these reports, and they make for interesting reading!

Here are few examples:

Aged 6: Neville speaks clearly and has a good mastery of words.

Aged 7: Has produced very good results in art and handwork, but prefers to keep clean!

Aged 12: He has made good progress in most subjects. Perhaps a more sustained effort would improve the overall standard of his work.

What do you think Jesus might have had on his school reports? Take a couple of minutes now to talk amongst yourselves about it.

Actually, the Bible does give us a report of sorts.

After the presentation in the Temple, Luke 2:39-40 tells us that

The child grew and became strong; he was full of wisdom, and God’s blessings were upon him.

What an example to follow!

When Jesus was 12, he went to Jerusalem with his parents for the Passover festival, as they did every year. Luke 2:41-49 tells of how, after his parents left on the long journey home, Jesus stayed behind in the Temple without telling his parents, who thought they’d lost him.

On the third day they found him in the Temple, sitting with the Jewish teachers, listening to them and asking questions. All who heard him were amazed at his intelligent answers. His parents were astonished when they saw him, and his mother said to him, “My son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been terribly worried trying to find you.”

He answered them, “Why did you have to look for me? Didn’t you know that I had to be in my Father’s house?” But they did not understand his answer.

After this reminder that he obeyed a heavenly father, Jesus went back with his parents to Nazareth, where he was also obedient to his earthly parents. Here, from the age of 12 to 30, Luke 2:52 tells us

Jesus grew both in body and in wisdom, gaining favour with God and people.

Already, by the age of 12, Jesus was not just growing and learning, he was setting a good example. He was teaching lessons that we can learn from today. His main ministry started when he was 30, but in a sense this was really the continuation of something that had started many years before.

So what do we know about Jesus as a child?

  • He obeyed God, and his parents, and pleased both
  • He became physically strong
  • He got to know and understand the scriptures inside out
  • He learnt to listen and ask questions
  • He set a good example

The Bible tells us virtually nothing about the teenage years and young adulthood of Jesus – yet it was during this period that he must have met many of the treasure store of characters who gave him an insight into the minds and lives of humans. Perhaps knowing something about where Jesus lived will help us fill in some gaps.

Modern Nazareth is a large and busy city, but archaeologists have been able to find and excavate the remains of the old Nazareth, from the time of Jesus. It seems that in those days Nazareth was a small village with a population of about 500, surrounding by many smaller agricultural settlements. Archaeologists have found artefacts associated with agriculture, glass working, cloth production, other crafts and food processing. Quarrying of limestone was also a busy local industry. Surrounding settlements had lots of roman artefacts, but despite Nazareth being quite close to an important roman city, very few roman artefacts have been found in the village. So Nazareth would have had an exclusively Jewish character, though no remains of a synagogue have been found yet.

This all suggests that in and around Nazareth, Jesus would have had the opportunity to speak with a wide range of people and observe their behaviours. His job as a carpenter or builder may well have taken him to surrounding settlements too. Men and women, young and old, poor and rich, shepherds, craftsmen, bakers, farmers, fruit and vine growers, tax collectors, widows, beggars – what an education in being human! And he certainly drew on these experiences later – he knew exactly how to communicate his teachings in the most relevant manner for different audiences.

Jesus as a youth and young adult experienced a ‘normal’ family life. His family was deeply religious, so Jesus grew up in a home centred on God’s love. He was the oldest of at least 7 children, so he was probably given some responsibilities over his younger brothers and sisters. He would have been glad to escape and hang out with others of his own age too.

So what do we know about Jesus as a teenager and young adult?

  • He continued to live in a God-centred, loving home
  • He knew about the ups and downs of having brothers and sisters
  • He continued to study scriptures
  • He probably got to know many different kinds of people, so he understood about relationships

If we add up all that we’ve heard about Jesus growing up human, we can begin to understand why it had to happen this way. He came to earth to sacrifice himself for us, but he also came to teach the truth about why that sacrifice was necessary. And to do that, he had to understand us, identify with us and sympathise with our weaknesses.

One attempt to make sense of Jesus’ early life was made by Irenaeus, who was a priest in what is now the South of France only about 150 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus. He thought that:

Jesus passed through every stage of life:

He was made an infant for infants, sanctifying infancy. That is, he declared all infants to be holy, set apart for a sacred purpose.

He was made a child for children, sanctifying childhood. That is, he declared all children to be holy, set apart for a sacred purpose. He set an example of family love, righteousness and obedience.

He was made a young man for young men, an adult for adults, sanctifying youth and adulthood. That is, he declared all youths and adults to be holy, set apart for a sacred purpose.

During his ministry, Jesus drew on all those relationships from his younger days, all those people skills, all those experiences of what makes humans tick. And he has never lost them, only added to them, so that whoever you are, he knows how to relate to you. It doesn’t matter what age you are, what sex or gender, what your background is, what your circumstances are – Jesus knows how to relate to you in a human way. And as God, he relates to you in the very personal way that only God can.

After God appeared to humans in human form, they had to wait for him to grow up before he was ready for his great ministry, his death and resurrection. But he was worth waiting for.

Jesus told his disciples, in John 14:1-3, that he will return to complete his mission of salvation for mankind:

“Do not be worried and upset,” Jesus told them. “Believe in God and believe also in me. There are many rooms in my Father’s house, and I am going to prepare a place for you. I would not tell you this if it were not so. And after I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to myself, so that you will be where I am.”

He was saying “I’m worth waiting for”.

Jesus is patiently waiting to come back, because he is giving humanity as much time as possible to choose and follow him. He wants as many people as possible to repent and return to heaven with him. He knows we are worth waiting for.

Tawa Baptist

Wishes & Worship

Video Link: https://youtu.be/tKkOt-DVER8

Wishes:

In his book, A Night the Stars Danced for Joy, Bob Hartman imagines a shepherding family sitting under the night sky making wishes.

The shepherd father, who has fought a few battles with wild animals and Romans, wishes for someone to save him from the violence and greed of others.  

The shepherd mother, who nurses regrets over things said in anger, wishes for peace of mind and a chance to redeem the past.

While the son (a young boy), who is feeling a bit bored, wishes for fun and excitement, something to sing and dance about.

In some ways our wishes reflect what we don’t have. They point to the emptiness and the loss we feel inside.

Part of praying involves sharing our wishes with God. God is not like a genie in a bottle who grants our every wish, no. But God is still interested in hearing what we wish for. God wants to restore the loss and fill the emptiness we feel with his goodness and love. That’s why Jesus came.

Praying is a bit like a zipper. You know the way a zip merges together, or the way traffic on the road merges together when two lanes become one lane. Prayer is sort of like that.

Prayer is a mystery in which God’s wishes merge with our wishes.

In prayer we don’t just bulldoze our way forward regardless.

In prayer we slow down. We listen to what God is saying he wants (his will) and we let God know what we want. Then we trust the outcome to him.

In prayer we are ready to give way to God’s purpose.

As it turned out the wishes of the shepherds in the story fitted perfectly with God’s wishes. Like the shepherd father, God also wants to see an end to violence and greed. Just as he wants us to have peace of mind and release from the hurts of our past. And God is delighted to give his children something exciting to sing and dance about.

Jesus is the key. Jesus comes to make God’s wishes come true on earth.

The wonderful thing about God’s wishes is they are even better than anything we could have wished for or imagined.

What is it you wish for? What emptiness do you need God to fill? What loss do you need him to restore? I wonder what it is God wishes for you personally. I wonder what God wants for all of us together.

Worship:

Bob Hartman’s story is loosely based on the gospel account of the angels and shepherds. In Luke 2, verse 20, after the shepherds had seen Jesus, Mary and Joseph, we read…

The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

According to Luke, the shepherds were buzzing with excitement, telling everyone they met what they had been told about Jesus. They responded in praise & worship to God. Their worship looked and sounded like a party.

We might not always think of worship as a party or a celebration. We might be more inclined to think of worship as a sombre sacrifice and sometimes it is. Or we might think of worship as a duty (something we do in obedience to God).  And, while that is true, we must not lose sight of the fact that, at its heart, praise & worship is a joyful response to God for what he has done and will do.

In a few moments we are going to sing the Christmas carol, Hark the herald angels sing, as a response of worship to God. During this song we encourage you to dance and express yourself as you sing.

For those who may not feel much like dancing, we have some really cool (and very easy) actions you can do. You don’t have to remember all these actions. Just do what you feel comfortable with.

The first action is the New Zealand Sign Language word for peace, which goes like this. Super easy to remember and low key. Jesus is the Prince of peace.          

The next action is the New Zealand sign language word for party. To say party in NZSL you make the hang loose sign with both hands like this. Worship is meant to be a party. Jesus’ coming to the earth is good news. So when we are singing, let’s party. 

Another action that fits for Hark the herald is glory. When we worship God in a genuine way we bring him glory. The New Zealand Sign Language word for glory looks like this. Have your thumbs pointing down by your waist and then raise your arms above your head, waving your thumbs as you do.

You can really go to town with this one. Glory, glory to God in the highest.   

So, as a response of worship, let’s sing and celebrate God’s gift of Jesus:

Hark the herald angels sing…    

Tawa Baptist

Joy

Scripture: Isaiah 12

Video Link:  https://youtu.be/KGIJF20p74w

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • The joy of God’s salvation – personal acceptance
  • The joy of God’s presence – public celebration
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Kai ora whanau and good morning everyone.

Today, because it is the third Sunday in Advent, our message focuses on joy. Joy is a positive energy, one which usually gives us a pleasant feeling and inevitably finds expression in our words and actions.

Isaiah chapter 12 has some things to say about joy. In particular joy is the product of God’s salvation and presence. From verse 1, of Isaiah 12, we read…   

In that day you will say: “I will praise you, Lord. Although you were angry with me, your anger has turned away and you have comforted me. 2 Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The Lord, the Lord himself, is my strength and my defence; he has become my salvation.” 3 With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. 4 In that day you will say: “Give praise to the Lord, proclaim his name; make known among the nations what he has done, and proclaim that his name is exalted. 5 Sing to the Lord, for he has done glorious things; let this be known to all the world. 6 Shout aloud and sing for joy, people of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel among you.”

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

These verses from Isaiah 12 fit neatly into two parts. The prophet quite conveniently introduces each of the two parts with the phrase, In that day you will say, (Isaiah uses this sentence in verse 1 and then repeats it in verse 4). 

This tells us Isaiah is picturing some day in the distant future. Like I said a couple of weeks ago, first the judgement, then the hope. First the demolition of Israel, then the rebuild. First the invasion by Assyria, then the restoration by Yahweh. First the grief, then the joy.

As I see it, verses 1-3 are about the joy of God’s salvation, which calls for personal acceptance.  

While verses 4-6 are about the joy of God’s presence, which calls for public celebration.

The joy of God’s salvation – personal acceptance:

In the ancient world most people could not read or write. Communication was largely by the spoken word, rather than the written word. It was an oral culture.

This meant people had to be good listeners and good at remembering. It also meant if someone wanted to make their message clear they had to repeat key words. Repetition was like highlighting or underlining what you wanted to say.  

When we look at the first three verses of Isaiah 12 we see quite clearly the word salvation repeated three times. We also notice the words comforted, defence and strength, which all describe different aspects of God’s salvation.   

The other thing we notice is the high frequency of singular personal pronouns like I, me and my.

You have comforted me. God is my strength, my defence, my salvation.

To someone in the ancient world, the first half of Isaiah 12 is talking about God’s salvation in a very personal way. You can hardly miss it.

So what is this salvation that Isaiah is at pains to highlight?

Well, salvation denotes an act of deliverance, like when God delivered the Israelites from slavery in Egypt or when Jesus delivered the disciples from a storm on the lake.

God’s salvation is a vehicle. It is that which takes a person from a bad state of being to a good state of being. Salvation, then, is God’s means of transport.

There’s a funny line in the movie, Kung Fu Panda, where Panda finds himself at the bottom of a mountain and he says, ‘My old enemy, stairs’. Salvation for Panda, in that instance, would be an elevator. Something that would transport him to the top of the mountain easily.

Or, if you happen to find yourself in a burning plane, then salvation is a parachute. The parachute transports you safely out of a bad situation.

And of course, there is the famous salvation of Star Trek. Whenever Captain Kirk found himself in trouble on an alien planet he simply said, ‘Beam me up Scotty’, and in seconds he was transported to the safety of his ship.

You may sometimes hear Christians using the word rapture. Perhaps you have had that panicky feeling when you find yourself alone, with no one else around, and you start to wonder, ‘has everyone been raptured and I’ve been left behind’.

The word rapture has two meanings. Rapture means intense joy and it also means transport. Rapture, in a Christian understanding, is the idea that Jesus will one day transport us to where he (and God) are. This is cause for great joy. To be raptured is our salvation, our ‘beam me up Lord’ moment.   

The name Isaiah actually means Yahweh is salvation.[1]God’s salvation, his means of transport from a bad situation to a good situation is multifaceted. God’s ride comes in many different forms.

 As verse 1 (of Isaiah 12) makes plain, the salvation in view is the removal of God’s anger. God had been angry with Israel because of their immoral behaviour. But God’s anger does not last forever. His anger is not divorced from his care. God comes to Israel’s rescue. His salvation will eventually transport the people from a state of wrath to a state of comfort.    

For the Jewish exiles, reading Isaiah’s prophecy in a foreign land, salvation meant being transported out of exile back to Zion, to Jerusalem their homeland.

What does God’s salvation mean for you, personally? What sticky, unpleasant, perhaps painful situation, do you find yourself in? What transport do you need right now?

Do you feel guilty because of something bad you’ve done? Or ashamed because of something good you haven’t done? Then the vehicle of salvation you need is forgiveness and redemption.  

Do you feel hurt or angry because of some injustice or loss you have suffered? Then the vehicle of salvation you need is vindication and restoration.

Do you feel alone in a crowd, misunderstood, a stranger and out of place? Then the vehicle of salvation you need is friendship and intimacy.

Whatever your situation, the Lord knows it and he sees your heart. He understands perfectly the transport you need.

One thing I would say about God’s salvation: we don’t decide what form the transport will take. It might be a Mercedes Benz or it might be a skate board. Either way, our job is to accept God’s vehicle of salvation however he chooses to provide it.    

In verse 2 we read: Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid.

The key to accepting God’s salvation is trust. The trust that is meant here is practical not just theoretical. Trust doesn’t just say, ‘the train exists’. Trust gets on the train and allows the train to transport you. Trust believes that you will reach your destination, even though the train may go through some pretty long and dark tunnels at times.

Trust doesn’t just say, ‘God exists’. Trust holds on to Jesus and walks with him, day by day. Trust accepts the fact that Jesus will bring you home to God, even though you can’t physically see Jesus or always feel his presence. 

Verse 3 gives us a wonderful metaphor: With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.

In the ancient middle east, people didn’t have running water coming out of a tap in their kitchen. They couldn’t jump in the shower to get clean or flush a toilet.

In the ancient world, people had to go to a communal well, a hole in the ground, and draw water out with a bucket. It was time consuming, physically demanding and a bit of a chore. Not really enjoyable. But people still did it because of necessity. You can’t live very long without water.      

Verse 3 says that this mundane, labourious task will be done with joy. You are going to have energy for it. You are going to want to do it. Why? Because you are thirsty and the water of God’s salvation is good, the best you will ever taste. Salvation then is something we are drawn to by our need.

The image of wells of salvation, suggests that salvation is something we imbibe. It is something we take into ourselves. Something that is life giving. Something that sustains us and our transport.

Pilgrims travelling through the wilderness might ride a camel or a donkey or a horse. Or at least they would have an animal to carry all their stuff. At strategic points along the way they would stop at a well to let their animals drink. Sort of like we might stop to fill up our car at a petrol station.

The implication here seems to be that God’s salvation involves a journey.                              

Earlier in the service we read a passage from John 4 (in the New Testament) where Jesus had a conversation with a Samaritan woman at a well.

The Samaritans came about as a consequence of the Assyrian invasion that Isaiah had predicted. The Jews of that area intermarried with the Gentiles and a new race came into being. The Samaritans were sort of half Jew, half Gentile.

Historically Jews and Samaritans hated each other. But Jesus tried to find some common ground. Jesus makes himself vulnerable and asks this Samaritan woman for some water from the well.

The woman doesn’t realise that Jesus is the primary well of God’s salvation. The water Jesus has to offer is the Holy Spirit. For those who believe, Jesus and his Spirit are the means of transport home to God.

Joy is the product of God’s salvation and presence. The joy of God’s salvation calls for personal acceptance, while the joy of God’s presence calls for public celebration.      

The joy of God’s presence – public celebration:

In his book, A Different Drum, Scott Peck tells the story of a monastery that had fallen on hard times. Over the years its ranks had dwindled until there were only five monks left.

In the woods near the monastery was a small hut where the Rabbi, from the local town, would sometimes go for retreat. The Abbot went to visit the Rabbi to see if he had any advice to save the monastery.

“I know how it is”, said the Rabbi. “The spirit has gone out of the people. Very few come to the synagogue anymore. The old Rabbi and the old Abbot sat in silence for a while, feeling the weight of the years, then spoke quietly of deep things.

When the time came for the Abbot to leave, they embraced and he asked the Rabbi, “Have you any advice that might save the monastery?”

The Rabbi answered, “No, I’m sorry. The only thing I can say is that the Messiah is among you.”

When the other monks heard the Rabbi’s words, they wondered what this could mean. “The Messiah is among us, here at the monastery? Do you suppose he meant the Abbot? Of course, he has been the leader for so long. On the other hand, he might have meant Brother Thomas. Thomas is so kind. Certainly he could not have meant Brother Elrod because he is often grumpy. But then again, Brother Elrod is also very wise.”

As they contemplated in this way, the old monks began to treat each other with extraordinary respect, on the off chance one of them might be the Messiah. They also thought about themselves differently.

Every human person carries the dignity of being made in God’s image. And every Christian believer carries the Spirit of the Messiah.    

Because the monastery was on the edge of a beautiful forest, people occasionally came to have a look. They sensed the extraordinary respect and love between the five aging monks. The Spirit of the Messiah was indeed among them, in the way they related with each other.   

Visitors became more frequent and stayed to talk with the monks. There was a real peace in the atmosphere. The brothers’ simple joy, the positive energy people felt just by being with the monks, was contagious. After a while one young man asked if he could join and then another and another. Within a few years the monastery became a thriving order once again.

Verse 6 talks about the joy of God’s presence, where it describes the Holy One of Israel being among you.

Isaiah is looking forward to that time in the future when the Lord God will walk among his people again, like God walked with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Before that could happen though, the people would feel the pain of God’s absence.

In the gospel of John, chapter 1:14, we read how Jesus fulfilled this prophecy of Isaiah. The apostle writes: The Word [that is, Jesus] became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

After Jesus had completed his work on earth he ascended to heaven and sent his Holy Spirit to be present with his church on earth. While we do not see Jesus physically in the present, we have the words of Jesus who said: ‘wherever two or three are gathered in my name, there I am among them’. The Lord also said, ‘By your love for one another will all people know you are my disciples.’

And so, the Messiah is among us now, by his Spirit.

But wait, there’s more. The Christian belief is that one day, when Jesus returns in glory to establish heaven on earth, the Lord will again dwell among us in person. In Revelation 21, the second to last chapter in the Bible, we read…

Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,”for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

Isaiah foresaw a time, at the fulfilment of human history, when God would live with his people. A time of great joy. Not just an inner feeling of personal joy or contentment but a public celebration of communal joy.

Verses 4-5 of Isaiah talk about the public celebration that is called for with the joy of God’s presence on earth…

4 In that day you will say: “Give praise to the Lord, proclaim his name; make known among the nations what he has done, and proclaim that his name is exalted. 5 Sing to the Lord, for he has done glorious things; let this be known to all the world.

In that day it won’t be just the thought that the Messiah is among us. We will actually see Jesus face to face.

Conclusion:

That day has not been realised in its fullness yet. Joy is the product of God’s salvation and presence. Isaiah 12 is big picture stuff. It gives a long range, Hubble telescope, view of the future.

In the meantime, what can we do to put ourselves in the path of joy…

We can take one day off in seven, a Sabbath day to rest and to renew our perspective through worship. We can also maintain regular patterns of sleep and not leave it too long between holidays.

We can make good moral decisions, choosing a lifestyle that is in line with our values. We can think about the needs of others and find ways to show kindness, without embarrassing people or leaving them in our debt.

We can carve out time for simple pleasures like losing ourselves in a good book or hanging out with friends or spending time in our garden or going for a walk. Whatever it is that helps you to let go of the pressures and worries of life.   

Probably the most important thing to remember though, is that we cannot expect to feel joyful or happy all the time. It is completely normal to feel sad sometimes or angry or tired.

Some of you may have become Christians under the false expectation that, in order to be a good witness, you must always be up, always smiling, always positive, always playing the glad game. Nothing will empty you of joy quicker than pretending to be something you’re not. If the psalms teach us anything it is to be honest with ourselves and with God.     

My sense is that many people in our community are feeling quite weary at present. I imagine some here don’t feel much like celebrating this Christmas. Joy may seem a long way off. But the truth is, Jesus could return for our rapture at any moment. Things can change very quickly.

Let us pray…

Father God, Lord Jesus, Holy Spirit, you are the source of our joy. Thank you for your salvation and your presence among us. Give us eyes to see the transport you provide and hearts to trust you, even in the darkness. Renew our strength and lead us in the path of peace, for your name’s sake 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 your experience of joy?
  • What is God’s salvation? Have you experienced God’s transport from a bad state of being to a good state of being? What happened? How did you feel? How did you accept God’s vehicle of salvation in that situation?
  • Discuss/reflect on the metaphor, wells of salvation. What are the implications for us?
  • How is the presence of the Messiah made real among us today? Can you think of a moment or a relationship in which Jesus has been real for you recently?
  • What can you do (practically) to put yourself in the path of joy? 
  • Take some time this week to bring to mind the things you are thankful for. Do something to celebrate (with others) the things that have gone well.

[1] Refer John Goldingay’s NIBC on Isaiah, page 89.

Tawa Baptist

Peace

Scripture: Isaiah 11:1-9

Video Link: https://youtu.be/-iOYOs5t4dg

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Wise Spirit
  • Righteous Judge
  • Universal Peace
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Kia ora whanau and good morning everyone.

Have you ever noticed how many dystopian movies there are these days? Dystopia is a term used to describe a highly dysfunctional society, in contrast to utopia which refers to an ideal society.

A dystopian film is usually set in the future with a government that is evil or corrupt. As a consequence, the people suffer in a nightmarish society, ruled by violence and fear and injustice.

Examples of the dystopian genre include The Divergent Series, The Hunger Games Trilogy, The Matrix series, Gattaca, The Running Man, Snowpiercer and Escape from New York.

The main function of these dystopian films is to critique our present day society. It’s like these movies are giving a prophetic message of what could happen if we don’t fix the problems we have now.

The Bible also critiques contemporary society but it does so without giving in to despair. The Bible critiques the present day and inspires hope by imagining a good future.       

Today is the second Sunday in Christmas Advent, traditionally associated with peace. Advent is a time of consciously waiting for the peace only Jesus can bring. Jesus is the Prince of Peace. Our message this morning focuses on Isaiah 11:1-9. In this passage the prophet paints a picture of a utopian future, one of universal peace. From verse 1 of Isaiah 11, we read…

A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. 2 The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him – the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord – 3 and he will delight in the fear of the Lord. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears; 4 but with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked. 5 Righteousness will be his belt and faithfulness the sash around his waist. 6 The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearlingtogether; and a little child will lead them. 7 The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. 8 The infant will play near the cobra’s den, and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest. 9 They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

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

This passage from Isaiah is about the Messiah, God’s anointed King. The Messiah is empowered with a wise Spirit. He is a righteous judge. And, through his wise and just rule, the Messiah will ultimately bring about universal peace.

The Jews of Isaiah’s day were not sure who this ideal king would be, but they could be sure his wisdom and righteousness were a critique of many of Israel’s previous kings who were far from wise or just.

Christians believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ. We believe Jesus will one day usher in universal, lasting peace.

Wise Spirit:

In verse 1 of chapter 11, Isaiah gives us this metaphor for the Messiah:

A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.

Jesse was the father of king David. David’s descendants sat on the throne of Israel for many years. Some of those kings were good but many of them were rotten. God was patient but there is only so much he will tolerate.

Eventually God decided enough was enough and he brought an end to the Davidic monarchy. He cut the descendants of David off from the throne, like cutting down a tree and leaving only the stump.

In chapter 11, Isaiah foresees the day when a new king (a descendant of Jesse and David) will be restored to the throne. This new king will be different to any of the kings that went before. He will bear good fruit, the fruit of righteousness.

Two things we notice about this metaphor. Firstly, the new shoot (or the new Messiah) grows out of something considered long dead. This is a miracle of resurrection.

Secondly, waiting for this new Messiah will require some patience. What God has planned is not going to happen overnight. It will take many years for the new shoot to appear, grow and bear fruit.

In verse 2, Isaiah describes the special power and authority of this new Messiah, saying: 2 The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him – the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord.

In other words, the Messiah will be empowered with the Spirit of God.

Wisdom, in a Biblical understanding, isn’t so much about head knowledge or being book smart. Wisdom doesn’t necessarily come from having a PhD. Wisdom is more practical than that. Wisdom is about making good moral choices and the way one lives their life day to day.

Understanding suggests being able to join the dots correctly. So, someone with good understanding can see how general principles apply in specific situations. Understanding also suggests an awareness of how people tick.      

Jesus demonstrated wisdom and understanding on numerous occasions, especially when questioned by the religious leaders. One time they asked Jesus, ‘Teacher, is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?’

But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “…why are you trying to trap me? Show me the coin used for paying the tax… Whose portrait is this? And whose inscription? …Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.”     

Wisdom and understanding you see. Jesus understood the hearts or intentions of his questioners. He also had the wisdom to know how to apply the spirit of God’s law to a specific situation, which wasn’t necessarily detailed in God’s law.

Returning to our passage from Isaiah. The Messiah will also have the Spirit of counsel and of might. Counsel here is about the right kind of strategic advice. Drawing on last week’s message, the Messiah will be a wonderful counsellor (or wonder planner), good at chess. 

Might is associated with power but, in this context, it’s not so much the power of brute force. More the power of thinking smarter and having the will or courage to follow through on your convictions.

Jesus also fits the bill when it comes to counsel and might. Jesus’ counsel, if someone hits you, is to turn the other cheek. Incredibly difficult to do but an excellent strategy for minimising violence.

Not only was Jesus’ teaching on this point smart, Jesus also had the might, or the strength, to turn the other cheek and not respond with violence when he was physically beaten at his trial. 

Knowledge of the Lord, means knowing God through relationship and experience. Knowledge doesn’t just mean knowing facts about God. Knowledge comes from tasting and seeing that the Lord is good. Knowledge of God is the basis of trust in God.

Fear of the Lord has to do with awe and reverence and respect for God. As Proverbs tells us, ‘the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom’.

The Messiah will delight in the fear of the Lord. I quite like Abraham Heschel’s rendering of verse 3: Through the fear of the Lord he [the Messiah] will have supreme sensitivity.

Sensitivity speaks of discernment. When a woman caught in adultery was brought before Jesus, in John 8, the Lord showed supreme sensitivity in his dealing with the angry crowd and the frightened woman.    

Righteous Judge:

In ancient times, if people wanted to settle a serious dispute, they might go to the king for a resolution. King Solomon, who lived many years before Isaiah, was renowned for His wisdom. People brought their disputes before him.

Famously, two women came to Solomon one day. They both lived in the same house and both had infant sons. One of the sons had died, but both women claimed the surviving child was theirs.

Solomon ordered one his soldiers to cut the living boy in two and give half to each woman. One of the women just shrugged her shoulders, she was pretty unmoved by this command. But the other woman begged the king to spare the child’s life and give the baby to her rival.

Solomon had no intention of harming the baby. It was a test to see which of the women was the true mother. Obviously the child belonged to the woman who was prepared to give up her baby to save his life.

In Isaiah 11, verses 3-4, we read…

He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears; 4 but with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth.

These verses are basically saying that the wise Messiah will be a righteous judge. He won’t give preferential treatment to someone just because they happen to be rich and powerful.

There is a famous statue of lady justice holding scales in one hand and a sword in the other. The balanced scales represent fairness and equity. While the sword represents punishment for wrong doing.

The interesting thing is that lady justice is wearing a blind fold. The message with the blindfold is that justice does not take into account a person’s race or religion or wealth or position in society. Whatever your demographic, whatever your background, your case will be decided on the evidence, not on who your parents are or how much money you have.

The inspiration for lady justice comes from passages like Isaiah 11. The Messiah will not judge by outward appearances. He will look deeper, to the heart of the issue, because things are not always as they first appear. 

For example, if a widow steals a loaf of bread to feed her hungry children, then the righteous judge (who is also the king) will acknowledge the law has been broken but also look deeper as to the cause. Why is this woman so poor that she has to steal bread to feed her family?

Is it because her landlord is charging too much rent? Is it because her boss isn’t paying her enough? Or is it because someone has a monopoly on bread making and can charge whatever they want?

If the woman stole bread because the system is broken, then it’s not fair to punish her for something she has no control over. This righteous judge is also the king of the land. His word is law. He controls the system. So he can fix whatever the larger problem (with society) is.   

So that’s the main idea with these verses in Isaiah 11. The Messiah is a righteous judge who looks at the heart of the matter in order to make his kingdom (his society) a fair place for everyone. A place in which widows don’t need to resort to stealing.

But let me develop this idea a bit more, because I don’t want to leave you with the false impression that the rich are evil and the poor are saints. We all know that people are more complex than that. Nor should we think that every act of wrong doing can be blamed on a faulty system. Individuals still have to take some responsibility.

The point we need to keep hold of here is that God’s Messiah does not judge by outward appearances. Sometimes needy people are hidden in plain sight.

Sometimes they are businessmen wearing suits and a thin smile to hide the emptiness they feel inside. Or they may be lampooned politicians who everyone loves to criticise. Or the tired, busy (and somewhat invisible) parent sacrificing their own needs and wants for their family.

No one liked Zacchaeus the tax collector. They all thought he was a corrupt businessman who got rich by robbing decent hard working folks. But that was more of a prejudice. They did not see his loneliness or feel his hurt at the comments people made at his expense.  

Jesus did not judge Zacchaeus by what he saw or heard people say. Jesus looked deeper, beneath the outward appearance, and saw a generosity and faithfulness in Zacchaeus that was just waiting to be released. Jesus honoured Zacchaeus and the whole community was blessed, particularly the poor.  

You know sometimes we judge ourselves by outward appearances. Maybe we look in the mirror and we don’t like what we see. We wish we were a different shape, with better skin or better hair or a bit taller. All superficial things, most of which we have little or no control over.

Or perhaps we get to our middle years and look back at our life, wondering what have I accomplished? What difference have I made in the world? What if I had climbed a different ladder?

In 1946, Frank Capra directed a movie called It’s a wonderful life.  It’s a Christmas movie, although probably not that well known in New Zealand today.

The main character, George Bailey (played by Jimmy Stewart) is a kind man who always puts others first, at his own expense. He is a regular middle class guy, a businessman, who helps people with their finances.

His generosity to others puts him in a vulnerable position. He reaches a low point in his life and his nemesis, Mr Potter, rubs salt in the wound. Potter tells George that he is worth more dead than alive, and George believes him.

George is ready to throw in the towel but then a guardian angel comes along and shows George the good news about himself. Clarence, the angel, shows George the positive difference his hard work and kindness has made in the lives of others.

Maybe you can identify with George. Maybe you do your best to help but still end up feeling like it’s not enough somehow. That your life and efforts have fallen short of the mark. Don’t judge yourself or your efforts. You don’t know how God will use your life for good. What we do know is that God does not waste anything done in love.

Having a Messiah who is a righteous judge, saves us from judging ourselves.

Or, to put it more strongly, you have no right to judge yourself. You are not qualified. You can’t see deep enough or far enough, like Jesus can. You will either think too much of yourself (like Mr Potter) or too little (like George).

Returning to Isaiah 11. The poetry in verses 4 & 5 is vivid. It points to a Messiah (a king) with divine power.

He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked. 5 Righteousness will be his belt and faithfulness the sash around his waist.

The King, Isaiah has in mind, can slay the wicked with his words. That’s how wise and powerful he is.

Accountants get a bit of a hard time. I know this because I used to be one. But actually accountants have quite a bit of power to do good. You would be surprised by how helpful accounting is in pastoral ministry.

Many of us tend to like movies where the hero takes out the bad guy with a fist or a gun. The movie sets us up to hate the villain with a sense of righteous indignation. Then it satisfies our desire to see revenge.

In real life, it doesn’t necessarily play out that way. In the 1930’s it wasn’t Batman or Wonder Woman or Dirty Harry or Bruce Willis who dealt a blow to the mafia. It was actually the work of an accountant, Frank J. Wilson, who finally brought Al Capone to justice.

The Messiah pictured in Isaiah 11 doesn’t carry a gun or a sword. He doesn’t need to swing his fists. He is more like an accountant, who uses his head. The Messiah’s weapons are righteousness, faithfulness and words of truth. Possibly also a calculator (although Isaiah doesn’t mention the calculator in these verses).   

Universal Peace:

God’s promised King, foreseen by Isaiah, has a wise spirit, he is a righteous judge who ushers in universal peace.  In verses 6-8 we read of a utopian future…

6 The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearlingtogether; and a little child will lead them. 7 The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. 8 The infant will play near the cobra’s den, and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest.

In this metaphor we have the hunters and the hunted; the weak and the strong; the deadly and the vulnerable; the cunning and the innocent. Each of these pairs of opposites is living together in peace, safely and without fear. When everyone knows the fear of the Lord they feel secure and are not afraid of their neighbours. 

John Goldingay sums up the meaning well when he says: ‘Harmony in the animal world is a metaphor for harmony in the human world. The strong and powerful live together with the weak and powerless because the weak and powerless can believe that the strong and powerful are no longer seeking to devour them.’ [1]

Verses 6-8 are a metaphor about how the world will be when the fruit of the Messiah’s reign is realised in its fullness. It is life as it will be when Jesus returns in glory. This is paradise on earth, at the dawn of a new age.

For this utopian future to be realised, the hearts and minds of the whole world need to be transformed by experiential knowledge of the Lord. Verse 9 reads…

9 They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

This is telling us something that is hard to believe – that the peace will be universal. The peace is not limited to a particular holy place. The peace fills the whole earth, like the waters cover the sea. Think about that for a moment. The waters of the sea of peace are deep, inexhaustible and full of life. 

In that day preachers, like me, will be out of a job. We won’t need to explain the Scriptures to you because the reality to which the Scriptures point (that is, Jesus the Messiah) will be real in people’s lived experience.

Conclusion:

Sadly, this is not life as we experience it now. This utopian vision of universal peace is a critique of the present world in which weak and vulnerable people are often taken advantage of by ruthless and greedy individuals. This world is still a dangerous place. So don’t go putting your hand in a snake’s nest.

Although universal peace is not a reality for us yet, personal peace with God is possible now through faith in Jesus. Jesus’ death on the cross and his resurrection from the dead opens the door to friendship with God.

Grace and peace be yours in abundance.

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?

  • Do you have a favourite dystopian film? What is it and why do you like it? What critique might this film be making about our society today?
  • What does Isaiah’s metaphor of a shoot growing out of a dead stump reveal about God’s promised Messiah?
  • What does Isaiah have in mind when he talks about the Spirit of wisdom, counsel, understanding, might and fear of the Lord? Can you think of examples from the gospels where Jesus demonstrates this Spirit of wisdom?
  • Do you judge yourself? Where does this lead? Why is it important to leave judgement (of ourselves and others) to Jesus? 
  • Discuss / reflect on the metaphor of the animals in verses 6-8. What is Isaiah saying with this word picture? Can you imagine a world like that?

[1] Refer John Goldingay’s commentary on Isaiah, page 85.

Tawa Baptist

Psalm 84

Scripture: Psalm 84

Video Link: https://youtu.be/T0b7x_uOo7Q

Key Point: God is our home

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

A question for you. Who came up with this quote?

“One road leads home and a thousand roads lead into the wilderness”  

[Wait] Apparently it was C.S. Lewis, from his book The Pilgrim’s Regress.

Today’s message is based on Psalm 84. Psalm 84 is about the road that leads home to God. From verse 1 we read…  

1 How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord Almighty! 2 My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. 3 Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young— a place near your altar, Lord Almighty, my King and my God. 4 Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising you. 5 Blessed are those whose strength is in you, whose hearts are set on pilgrimage. 6 As they pass through the Valley of Baka, they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools. 7 They go from strength to strength, till each appears before God in Zion. 8 Hear my prayer, Lord God Almighty; listen to me, God of Jacob. 9 Look on our shield,O God; look with favour on your anointed one. 10 Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked. 11 For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favour and honour; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless. 12 Lord Almighty, blessed is the one who trusts in you.

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

God is referred to more than 20 times in the 12 verses of this psalm and references to God’s dwelling crop up about 10 times. The main idea seems to be: God is our home.

A home is different from a house. A house is a building but a home is a place of belonging and connection, a place of sanctuary and refuge, a place of comfort where we can let down our defences and be ourselves.  

Home, in the best sense of that word, meets the needs of our soul. When we are away from home we ache for it.

God is our home:

During the 19th Century, Elizabeth Browning wrote this poem…

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace.
I love thee to the level of every day’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for right.
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

Elizabeth Browning wrote this sonnet for her husband Robert Browning. It is about her love for him, a love which is multifaceted and which she hopes will transcend death. Their love is not just physical, it is spiritual.

Elizabeth Browning’s poem is an expression of deep, heartfelt feeling. It is unrestrained and unashamed, her heart on the page. Robert is her home.

As well as being a poet, Elizabeth Browning was also a campaigner against slavery and human trafficking. She was an advocate for those who had lost their home through injustice.

Elizabeth Browning’s poem parallels the feeling of the poet in Psalm 84. Psalm 84 reads like a love poem, only the author isn’t writing for their husband or wife. They are writing for God and in particular his presence symbolised in the Jerusalem temple.

From verse 1 we read: 1 How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord Almighty! 2 My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.  

When the psalmist describes God’s dwelling place as ‘lovely’, he doesn’t just mean how nice or pleasant. The sense is more like, ‘How dear to me is your dwelling place. I love it so much’.

But it’s not primarily God’s house that the psalmist holds dear. It is the one whose presence is found in the house; it is God himself that the psalmist longs for. My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. In other words, my whole being aches for you God. You are my home.

Or as Elizabeth Browning would say: How do I love you [Lord]? Let me count the ways. I love you to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach.

Verse 3 provides an image full of warmth where it says: 3 Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young— a place near your altar, Lord Almighty, my King and my God.

If even sparrows and swallows can make a home in God’s temple, then how much more does the psalmist belong. The psalmist knows God is his home.   

Sparrows and swallows normally mate for life. They are loyal to their mate. Perhaps the psalmist is intimating that he worships only one God and he is loyal to the Lord his God for life.

Sparrows don’t generally leave home. They tend to stay in the same place pretty much all their lives, if they can. In contrast, swallows tend to travel long distances in migration. The image of the sparrows and the swallows suggests that both those who have never left home and those who have wandered far and wide can find a home with God.

As verses 4 & 5 say: Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising you. 5 Blessed are those whose strength is in you, whose hearts are set on pilgrimage.

These verses might be saying, whether you stay at home with God, like the sparrow, or whether you travel a long way to draw near to God, like the swallow, you are blessed. 

Some people grow up in a Christian family. They go to church all their life and never stray far from the Lord or his people. They are blessed, they are fortunate. Others don’t start life knowing about God or going to church. They may learn about God’s love and become followers of Jesus later in life. They may have further to travel but they too are blessed.

And then there are those who, for whatever reason, spend time in the wilderness, when God seems a long way away. Maybe the wilderness wanderings are of their own making, like the prodigal son in Jesus’ parable. Or maybe the wilderness years are not their choice, like a forced exile. Either way, there is strength and blessing for those whose hearts are set on pilgrimage.

My great-grandfather served with the New Zealand expeditionary forces in Egypt, Turkey and England during the First World War. He was overseas for around four years during which time he kept a diary of his experience. Nothing too deep, more of a record of what he did each day.

In those times, over 100 years ago now, troops were transported by ship, rather than plane. Each day, on the boat ride home, Albert had only one entry; the number of miles the ship had travelled that day. Albert’s heart was set on home. He’d had enough of war and couldn’t wait to get back to New Zealand.

This is what it is like for those in Psalm 84 whose hearts are set on pilgrimage. They can’t wait to get back home to the Jerusalem temple, the special place of God’s presence.

You may recall, the heart in ancient Hebrew thought refers to a person’s inner life, their mind basically. And a pilgrimage is a special road trip or journey to draw near to God. Ancient Jews tended to make literal pilgrimages to Jerusalem for the various religious festivals, like Passover and Pentecost.

Going a little deeper though, to have one’s heart set on pilgrimage is to have a mind-set or an orientation directed toward God. Or to say it another way, to set your heart on pilgrimage means to have a highway in your mind to God.

So, for example, when something goes wrong the first thing we think to do is pray and ask God to lead us in accordance with his will. And when something goes well, the first thing we think to do is thank God for his grace. And when we have some spare time, our preference is to spend that time enjoying God, looking for signs of his presence, like divine finger prints on the day.          

Verses 6 & 7 describe what it is like for those whose hearts are set on pilgrimage: 6 As they pass through the Valley of Baka, they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools.

My grandfather was a well driller. He did all sorts of drilling but his main work was putting down water bores for farmers and whoever else wanted one.

Drilling water wells is something life giving for people and stock. Once a well is put in place it is fairly permanent. You can’t really take the water well with you when you leave the farm. A water well is a lasting legacy. 

The Valley of Baka (in verse 6) is thought to be a dry and arid place. The road back home to God’s presence is not easy in places. Drawing close to God through pilgrimage may feel tiring and dry and inhospitable at times. But those who believe that God is their home make what would otherwise by a dry journey a place of springs.

For Jewish pilgrims of old this may have meant digging physical wells in dry places. For the followers of Jesus (Christian pilgrims) this equates to being a blessing to God’s world. As we journey through this world we are to dig wells, or leave a life giving legacy, for those who follow after us.   

Jesus’ life and teaching (recorded in the gospels) is the deepest well, with the purest water. But there are other wells we can draw from too.

Perhaps the point of application for us is: how might we dig wells in dry places as we journey through life? We do this by sharing the gifts God has given us.

Elizabeth Browning’s poetry is a well for those who take the time to dip into it. C.S. Lewis’ writing is a well for those who read his books with thoughtfulness. The people who paid for and built this church auditorium have left us a well to gather around for worship. The musicians who wrote the songs we sing in church have left wells for us to be refreshed by as we sing their songs.

When you dig deep in giving your time and love to someone else, particularly a child or a young person, you are digging wells of refreshment which they can draw from long after you have gone. Our Deacons do quite a bit of spade work too, in the form of careful decision making to help our congregation both in the present and the future.

What gift has God given you to share? What kind of well (or legacy) can you leave for those who come after you?       

Verse 7 says of these pilgrims: They go from strength to strength, till each appears before God in Zion.

You know when you are on a long hike through the bush or up a mountain, there comes a point when you feel a bit weary. Then, as the end gets closer, you find a second wind. The hope of reaching your goal spurs you on with new strength and a vigour you did not know you had.

Zion is another word for the city of God. Ancient Jews probably thought of the earthly Jerusalem as Zion, God’s holy city. For Christians though, Zion refers to the heavenly Jerusalem. To appear before God in Zion is a way of talking about returning home to God.

We belong with God. God is our home, our sanctuary, our refuge, the one with whom we can be ourselves.   

In verses 8 & 9 the psalmist offers a prayer to God, saying: Look on our shield,O God; look with favour on your anointed one.

The phrase anointed one refers to the king of Israel, the leader of God’s people. The king is also referred to as our shield. In ancient times it was the king’s job to protect the nation, and that’s why he is called a shield. The psalmist is asking God’s favour or grace for the king because when the king is supported by God the whole nation prospers.

In Greek ‘anointed one’ translates as Christ and in Hebrew as Messiah.

For Christians, Jesus is the Christ or the Messiah, God’s anointed one. Jesus is our king and our shield. We look to Jesus for leadership and protection.

What we find though is that Jesus does not necessarily protect us from military or political threat. Rather, Jesus protects us from the power of sin and death, bringing us home to eternal life with God.

Verse 10 reads: Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.

Psalm 84, was written by the Sons of Korah. The Sons of Korah were Levites, part of the tribe of Levi (nothing to do with denim jeans by the way).

In ancient Israel, God appointed the Levites to serve in his temple. The Levites were not authorised to make sacrifices like the priests. Instead they did things like, being on door duty and singing in the choir.

The Sons of Korah were most likely descended from the same Korah who led a rebellion against Moses in the wilderness. Korah was killed for his disobedience when the ground opened up and swallowed him whole, in Numbers 16. But some of his descendants survived and were appointed by David to lead the temple music. [1] It is a lovely story of redemption.

I imagine the descendants of Korah felt some shame because of what their great, great granddaddy did. But God did not hold it against them. The Lord bestows favour and honour.

Some listening to this may carry a sense of shame because of what someone else in their family has done. Let me say to you, God does not hold the actions of your parents or your grandparents against you. We cannot deny the past but we are free to follow a different path from our forebears.

Verse 11 says: For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favour and honour; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless.

To say that God is a sun means that God is the source of all that is life-giving and good. And to say that God is a shield means that God is in fact our King, our protector, our security.

Being blameless, in Hebrew thought, means to be whole or wholehearted. Not two faced but having integrity, so that what you say is one with what you do. Not behaving one way at church on a Sunday and then a different way at home or at school or at work the rest of the week.    

Being blameless then is not about being perfect and never making a mistake. Being blameless is about being the real deal, the genuine article. Not being phoney, not being a chameleon.

In the Marvel (movie) universe, Thor was blameless (in the sense of being wholehearted), while Loki was two faced. And in Jane Austin’s Pride & Prejudice, Mr Darcy was wholehearted, while Mr Wickham was not.   

The Sons of Korah are not faking it. They are wholehearted in their musical worship and in the walk (or rhythms) of their daily lives.

Verse 11, where it talks about God not withholding any good thing, reminds me of Jesus’ words in Matthew 7 where the Lord says…

7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. 9 “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!

This is in keeping with the idea that God is our home. Jesus wants us to understand that God is a loving Father who knows how to give good things to His children. It does not necessarily follow that we will always get what we want though.

The 19th Century German artist, Caspar Friedrich has a painting called, “Wanderer above the sea fog”. It shows a man standing on a rocky outcrop overlooking a rugged landscape shrouded in fog. The wanderer cannot see a clear path ahead but he looks quite relaxed. One gets the sense he will find his way home through the fog.

The band U2 have a song called Walk On. It is about home and exile, among other things. Bono has a line in the song where he sings: Home, hard to know what it is if you’ve never had one.

That line resonates. Our collective sense of home has been severely eroded. In the developed world homes are ripped apart by domestic violence, separation and divorce. Hundreds of thousands of kids grow up without any sense of security or any idea of what a functional home life looks like.    

And in other parts of the world people are forced to flee their homes because of war or famine. Literally millions of people are displaced through no fault of their own. Hundreds of thousands of kids grow up in refugee camps.

Home, hard to know what it is if you’ve never had one.    

I’m not sure what you feel when you hear me say, ‘God is our home’. Maybe you feel confused because you’ve never really experienced anything approximating a real home. Or maybe you feel angry because you had a home once but then it was taken from you.

Or maybe you feel hopeful because you are looking forward to that day when you will finally be at home with God, in Zion. 

In another part of that same song by U2, Bono sings a line pregnant with hope: We’re packing a suit case for a place none of us has been. It’s a place that has to be believed, to be seen.   

Our eternal home (with God) is a place that has to be believed to be seen. We can’t really imagine it yet. The best we can do is trust God.

Psalm 84 finishes with another beatitude: Lord Almighty, blessed is the one who trusts in you.

Trust is more difficult for some than others. If you have been let down or betrayed by those close to you, or had your home ripped out from under your feet, then you may find it hard to trust. Trust is a gift from God.

Most of you are here this morning (or listening to this on-line) because you do trust God, or at least you want to trust him, even if it is a struggle at times.

I believe trusting God is worth the risk. We all have things that go wrong in our life and reasons not to trust. But a lot of things go well also, or at least are not as bad as they might have been.

Conclusion:

The journey home to God requires us to make a choice every day to trust God. We have to believe that God will guide us through the fog. Trust is the foundation on which our home is built.

The good news is that we do not make the journey alone. Jesus gives us his Spirit to guide and help. In John 14, the night before his crucifixion and death, Jesus said to his disciples…

“Do not be worried and upset. Believe in God and believe also in me. There are many rooms in my Father’s house, and I am going to prepare a place for you.”

Let us pray…

Father God, you are our home. Help us to trust you regardless of the changing circumstances of our lives. Be our sun and our shield. Guide us and protect us. When the way home is dry, give us strength to dig deep and leave wells for those who follow in our steps. Make us a blessing to others and bring us into your presence with honour and joy. 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 difference between a home and a house? What was your home life like growing up?
  • What might the psalmist be wanting to convey by using the image of sparrows and swallows? Which bird to do you identify with more, the sparrow or the swallow? Why?
  • What does it mean to have your heart set on pilgrimage?
  • What gift has God given you to share with others? What ‘well’ can you leave as a life-giving legacy to those who come after you?
  • How do you feel when you hear the phrase, ‘God is our home’? Why do you feel this way? What did Jesus have to say about home? 
  •  Take some time to look at and reflect on Caspar Friedrich’s painting “Wanderer above the sea fog”. Alternatively, listen to the song “Walk On” by U2. Do either of these pieces of art resonate with your experience? How? 

[1] Derek Kidner, 49-50