Tawa Baptist

The Prophet

Scripture: Deuteronomy 18:9-22

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

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Choose a future with hope
  • Listen to God’s prophet
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

What would you give to know the future?

If you knew exactly when an earthquake or fire was going to destroy your property, you would get insurance cover for that period, but you wouldn’t bother getting cover for the rest of the time.

Likewise, if you knew someone was going to be involved in a car accident tomorrow, you would hide their keys and keep them home for a day. 

What would you give to know the future?

Today we continue our series in Deuteronomy, focusing on chapter 18. In this passage Moses deals with the question of how God’s people are to manage themselves in the face of an unknown future. From Deuteronomy 18, verses 9-22 we read… 

9 When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. 10 Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, 11 or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. 12 Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord; because of these same detestable practices the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you. 13 You must remain completely loyal to the Lord your God.  14 The nations you will dispossess listen to those who practice sorcery or divination. But as for you, the Lord your God has not permitted you to do so. 15 The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him. 16 For this is what you asked of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, “Let us not hear the voice of the Lord our God nor see this great fire anymore, or we will die.” 17 The Lord said to me: “What they say is good. 18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites, and I will put my words in his mouth. He will tell them everything I command him. 19 I myself will call to account anyone who does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name. 20 But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, is to be put to death.” 21 You may say to yourselves, “How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the Lord?” 22 If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the Lord does not take place or come true, that is a message the Lord has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously, so do not be alarmed.

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

There are two halves to today’s message: The first half is about choosing a future with hope. And the second half is about listening to God’s prophet. Let’s start by choosing a future with hope. 

Choose a future with hope:

Another question for you to consider: Is the future fixed?

There are some who believe the future is fixed and there’s nothing we can do to change it. These people think the future is up to fate.

Believing the future is set in stone comes with a number of problems. For one thing, it undermines hope and creates a sense of apathy or despair in the person who thinks this way.

If you really believe the future is pre-determined and there’s nothing you can do about it, then you will be inclined to care less. A fixed future is devoid of any ethical considerations. If I can’t change the future, then my actions in the present don’t matter. I may as well do whatever makes me feel good. You become reckless and lose your sense of responsibility. A rebel without a cause.

At the other extreme, there are those who don’t believe the future is fixed at all. They think we create our own future. These people have a strong belief in themselves and their own abilities. They tend to be quite driven or intense.

If you really believe the future depends entirely on you, then that’s a lot of pressure. That comes with heaps of worry and not much peace. Human beings need some freedom but total freedom is a terrifying thing. If you go sky diving you don’t want to be free of your parachute, that would be disastrous.  

The person who believes the future is totally on them tends to take on too much responsibility. They don’t leave room for God to do something unexpected.

Just as there is no hope in thinking it is all up to fate, there is no real hope in thinking it is all up to you either. Because when you fail yourself, and everyone does fail eventually, you have no safety net.  

We are asking the question: is the future fixed? Somewhere in the middle of the spectrum are those who answer both ‘yes’ and ‘no’. Some things are fixed but not everything. We can have some influence over the future, but there are other things we have no control over and simply have to accept.

Hope is the capacity to imagine a better future, a good future, the best is yet to come. If you believe the choices you make matter in shaping the future, but that it doesn’t depend entirely on you, that ultimately God will work it all for good, then you have hope.

There are of course those who might say, I don’t know whether the future is fixed or not. That might be because they are too lazy to wrestle with the hard questions. Or it might be because the future has ambushed them and they are not sure of anything at the moment.    

Deuteronomy believes that ultimately God is in control of the meta-narrative of human history, but the choices human beings make still influence the course the future takes. God uses our choices in shaping the future. To obey God, in faith, is to choose abundant life. To receive Christ, in faith, is to choose a heavenly future, beyond this life.  

In verses 10-11 of Deuteronomy 18, Moses lists several things the Israelites are not to do. No divination, no magic, no witchcraft, no child sacrifice, no consulting the dead and so on. This list illustrates the sorts of things people sometimes do in order to try and know the future or even control the future.

There are still people today, in New Zealand, who do this kind of stuff. People who try to predict the future by reading tarot cards or tea leaves or the stars. Or, maybe they try to control the future by casting spells or sacrificing the wellbeing of their children in order to pursue a love affair or some other fantasy.

These people either believe the future is fixed and cannot change or they believe they create their own future. Either way, their hope is not in God. The Lord hates all this witchy poo stuff because it is based on a lie and it destroys people’s capacity for hope. It’s takes away people’s freedom. It is not good for the human soul.

There may be some here who have dabbled in this sort of thing, or maybe you’ve got in over your head. Perhaps you were at a fair ground one day and out of curiosity you got your palm read by Madam Zelda. Or maybe you were grieving for a loved one and went to a medium to try and contact them. Or perhaps you and your friends had too much to drink one night and tried a séance. Or maybe you’ve done worse.   

Does this mean you are excluded from God’s people forever? Is there no hope for you? Well, not necessarily.

Your future is not yet set in concrete. You have some influence over your future. You can choose not to do that sort of thing anymore. You can choose life and trust your future to Jesus. God, who loves you very much, has the power to deliver you from your past.  

The message of Deuteronomy is summed up in verse 13, which reads…

You must remain completely loyal to the Lord your God.

We must not divide our loyalty between God and anything else. We can’t say, in God we trust, and then rely on horoscopes or gazing into a crystal ball. 

Verse 13 is another way of saying, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength. This is how we choose life and a future with hope for ourselves.

Okay, that’s first part of our message, choose a future with hope. The second part is about listening to God’s prophet. God, in his grace, provides an alternative to airy fairy magic. God is willing to reveal the future through his chosen spokesperson.  

Listen to God’s prophet:

In verse 15 of Deuteronomy 18, Moses says: The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him.                                                          

Israel did not need to go to a medium or a spiritist to find out the future. God sent his own messenger. In fact, God raised up a series of prophets throughout the Old Testament who spoke His messages to the people as they needed it. Men and women like Samuel, Deborah, Nathan, Isaiah, Huldah, Micah, Jeremiah, Amos, Ezekiel, Daniel and so on. These prophets had a special role in keeping the nation accountable to the Law and their covenant with Yahweh.

In a healthy democracy the government’s powers are not concentrated in one person or one institution. Rather, power is separated, so the people who make the law are not the same as the people who enforce the law or decide disputes.

Traditionally, a democracy has three official institutions:

There is the legislature, which is the people who make the laws (for example, our Members of Parliament).

Then there is the judiciary, which are the people who adjudicate disputes (the courts and the judges).

And thirdly, there is the executive, which are the people who enforce the law (that would be the police).

There is another (unofficial) institution known as the fourth estate. We call it the news media; that is, journalists or the press. It is the job of the news media to report the facts concerning parliamentary, police and court proceedings, in a balanced and unbiased way, keeping the governing authorities accountable. 

In some ways our modern democracy, with its four estates, has its roots in the structure of government Moses prescribed for Israel. Yahweh (and Moses) recommended a separation of power in government.

Yahweh gave the Law through Moses. Judges were appointed in a democratic way to adjudicate disputes between people. And the Levites and priests had a role in enforcing the law.

The king (as we heard last week) was an optional extra. It wasn’t his job to make the law. His main job was to be a good example in keeping the law. He might also support the judges and the priests in making sure justice was done.

But it was the role of the prophets to be the fourth estate. The prophets were like credible investigative journalists who reported the facts in order to keep the king, the judges and the priests accountable to God’s law. Staying loyal to Yahweh was the key to life and a future with hope.

Now, in using this analogy, I do not mean to imply that journalists today are the contemporary prophets of our world. God can choose whoever he wants to be his spokesperson.

We might also think of God’s prophet as a doctor, diagnosing illness in the nation. If you have diabetes, you don’t want the doctor fudging your results and saying you will be fine. You need to understand clearly what the problem is and how best to manage your health going forward, so you have a future with hope.

Likewise, if God’s people are losing their saltiness and conforming to the pattern of this world, then they need God’s prophet to diagnose their spiritual illness and prescribe the right treatment to restore them.

Asking the prophet for advice was sort of like phoning a friend. If something was amiss and the king or the priests or the judges were unsure what to do next, they could inquire of God through his chosen prophet.

Of course, the prophet also passed on messages from God when no one had asked for his input. Like when the prophet Nathan confronted David after the king had murdered Uriah and committed adultery with Bathsheba. 

God’s prophet was a friend to Israel, but he (or she) was not in the king’s pocket. The prophet was a step removed, operating outside official government channels, able to give an unpopular minority report.

In verse 18 of Deuteronomy 18, the Lord says concerning his prophet, I will put my words in his mouth. This naturally raises questions for us: how did God do that? How did the Lord communicate with the prophets?

Reading through the Old Testament we notice the Lord spoke to the prophets in a variety of ways. It appears that God spoke to Moses and Samuel in a clear, audible voice. Other prophets, like Daniel & Ezekiel, received dreams or visions. Some may have interacted with angels. Elijah heard God not in earthquake, wind or fire but in a still small voice, like a whisper.

I’m not a prophet. I can’t tell you what the future holds specifically. I don’t know when the war in Ukraine will end. Nevertheless, there are times when I sense the word of the Lord has come to me. Not in an audible voice as such. More like a thought planted in my mind.

I know the thought is not my own because it is a better quality thought than the usual rubbish that flows through my brain and it is not a thought I’ve had before. It hasn’t come from any book I’ve read or any TV show I’ve watched.

It is new to me and it feels whole. It fits for the circumstances I’m in. Like the missing piece of a jigsaw puzzle, it creates connections and makes sense of other things. God’s word brings order to my thinking.

When the word of the Lord comes, I have to take myself off somewhere quiet and write, because writing helps me to listen to the virgin thought. 

There are times when I’m preaching in church and a stillness comes over the congregation. A kind of holy hush. (I’m sure it happens for other preachers too.) The traffic noise dies down, the rustling of lolly wrappers ceases and people stop coughing or whispering among themselves. I love those moments. In that stillness it seems to me the word of God is at work among us, in our hearts.

I believe the word of the Lord can come to any Christian believer, just not always in the same way. God made us with the capacity to receive his word, to sense his presence touching our spirit.

We cannot control when or how the word of the Lord comes but when it does come we need to pause and listen. Receive it into ourselves.

I wonder how the word of the Lord comes to you.

As God’s spokesperson, the Lord’s chosen prophet held quite a bit of influence in Israel. So there would inevitably be a few pretenders for the role, despite the severe punishment for taking the Lord’s name in vain. How then could you tell who was a bona fide, God authorised prophet and who was a fake? Well, there were three main tests…

Firstly, a true prophet of God speaks in the name of Yahweh and not in the name of some other god. Secondly, the message they preach comes true. And thirdly, they don’t say anything that contradicts the Law of Moses.

The first test, speaking in the name of Yahweh, is the test of clarity. Reading tea leaves or interpreting the entrails of a bird are pretty ambiguous and unclear signs. In contrast to this, the Lord’s prophets are clear about who they represent and what their message is.

Although the poetry and signs of the prophets of old may seem strange to us, their metaphors were not difficult for the people of that time to decipher, even if the prophet’s message was difficult to accept.

John the Baptist, the last of the Old Testament prophets, was very clear in his message of repentance, calling the religious leaders of his day a brood of vipers. Despite this clarity, many religious leaders hardened their hearts and chose not to believe John’s testimony concerning Jesus.

The second test, proclaiming a message that comes true, indicates the prophet’s words are verifiable. God’s messages are ‘evidenced based’, in other words. The truth of God’s word is worked out in human history.

We know Jeremiah was legit because his message came true in history. While other self-proclaimed prophets at the time were saying, “Don’t be afraid of Babylon, God will save Jerusalem”, Jeremiah was giving the very unpopular message of, “Don’t resist Babylon, you can’t win”. God upheld Jeremiah’s words because Jeremiah’s words were actually God’s words.     

Centuries later, Jesus (like Jeremiah) wept over Jerusalem when he could see history about to repeat itself. In Luke 19, Jesus predicted the Romans laying siege to the holy city and destroying it. This happened, as Jesus said, in AD 70.

There is a small catch with the verifiable test though. Sometimes true prophets are killed before their predictions can be verified.

The third test of a true prophet, that their message does not contradict the Law of Moses, is the test of consistency. God’s word is consistent. God does not contradict himself.

Jesus criticised the religious leaders for making their man made rules more important than God’s Law. The Pharisees had become so bogged down in the details they couldn’t see the wood for the trees. They were more loyal to their own tradition than they were to God himself and so, like the true prophet he is, Jesus called them out on their blindness.

As you have probably deduced by now, Jesus is the ultimate prophet to succeed Moses. Jesus fulfils the Law and the prophets. Through faith in Jesus, we can know the truth from God and we can choose a future with hope.

Does that mean then, that we have no further need for prophets? Well, no. In his letters to various churches the apostle Paul writes about the gift of prophecy. For Paul it was one of the more important spiritual gifts.

Of course, if someone claims to bring a word of prophecy, we (the church) still need to test that word and discern together if it is legitimate. The threefold test is similar. A true prophet speaks clearly in the name of Jesus. Their message is verifiable and it is consistent with the teachings of Jesus.

The Spirit of Jesus is a Spirit of grace & truth, so we would expect the prophets of Jesus to embody the same Spirit of grace & truth.

Conclusion:

At the beginning of this message I asked the question: What would you give to know the future?

A better question to ask is: What would you give to know Jesus?

I say that’s a better question because Jesus is the future, the eternal future. Jesus is the goal of humanity. He is our hope. If you want to know the future, get to know Jesus. Most of us know Jesus to some degree but none of us knows him completely or fully yet. May we grow deeper in our knowledge of and trust in Christ.

Let us pray… 

Father God, we thank you for not leaving us in the dark. We thank you for revealing your will to us through Jesus. We thank you too for offering us a future with hope. May you empower us by your Spirit to be completely loyal to Christ, for your glory and our own salvation. 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 would you give to know the future? What is it you would want to know and why?
  • Where would you place yourself on the spectrum between a fixed future and a fluid future? What are the implications of thinking the future is fixed? What are the implications of thinking we create our own future?
  • How do we choose life and foster a future with hope?
  • Why does Moses outlaw discerning the future through magic, reading omens, consulting the dead, etc.?
  • Has the word of the Lord ever come to you? What happened? What did the Lord say? How did you respond?
  • How might we test / know whether a prophecy is true or not?   
Tawa Baptist

Pure

Scripture: Matthew 15:21-28

Video Link: https://youtu.be/zzIlGG3rT3A

Message:

Good morning everyone and happy Mothers’ Day.

Jesus says, in Matthew 5, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

This morning, because it is Mothers’ Day, our message focuses on a mother in the gospels who shows us what it means to be pure in heart. From Matthew 15, verse 21 we read… 

21 Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. 22 A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.” 23 Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.”

24 He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”

25 The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said.

26 He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.” 27 “Yes Lord,” she said. “But even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”

28 Then Jesus said to her, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed at that moment.

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

There was a woman by the name of Monica who lived around 300 AD. She was married to a hot-tempered man by the name of Patrick, who was often unfaithful to her. Monica and Patrick had a son who they named Augustine. Patrick refused to allow Augustine to be baptized but Monica saw to it that Augustine at least went to Sunday school.

Augustine was more interested in girls than he was the Bible and during his teenage years he went off the rails a bit. Right through his 20’s he lived a life of debauchery and licentiousness.

Through this whole time though, Monica never gave up praying for her son. No matter how badly Augustine behaved, Monica never gave up hope. She loved Augustine and always believed it was possible for God to save her son.

Monica interceded in prayer for her son faithfully, everyday and often with tears, begging Jesus to save him. Then one day her prayers were answered.

Augustine was baptized during the Easter of 388AD. He then went on from his baptism to become arguably the most influential Christian thinker of his time, since the Apostle Paul. Augustine wrote hundreds of books, refuted 5 major heresies and shaped the theology of the church right up to the present day.

Soren Kierkegaard, another famous theologian who lived many centuries after Augustine, said that ‘purity of heart is to will one thing’.

Monica was pure in heart, motivated by love. She willed one thing for her son and she saw God answer her prayer.

The Canaanite mother, in Matthew 15, was like Monica in a way. She was pure in heart too and motivated by love. She willed one thing: for Jesus to deliver her daughter.

But before we get ahead of ourselves let me set the scene. In the context of Matthew 15, Jesus has just had a bit of a run in with the Pharisees. The Pharisees were giving Jesus’ disciples a hard time for not washing their hands before eating. In their minds washing your hands wasn’t just a personal hygiene thing, it was a religious thing. They thought handwashing rituals made a person spiritually clean or more acceptable to God.

But Jesus defends his disciples and explains, saying…

17 “Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? 18 But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. 20 These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them.”

Jesus’ point was that God is more interested in the cleanness or holiness of our inner life. Are we motivated by love? Or do we just want to make ourselves look good in the eyes of others.

After this conversation about what makes a person clean or unclean, Jesus and his disciples walk 80 kilometres north into the region of Tyre & Sidon. In doing this they leave the holy land of Israel behind and cross over in to the un-holy land of the Gentiles.

In the Old Testament, Tyre & Sidon were renowned as places of evil. Places the Jewish people expected God to destroy, like Sodom & Gomorrah. So there Jesus is, with his disciples in an unclean place, when all of a sudden they meet two people their Jewish upbringing taught them to avoid.

A Canaanite woman and her demon possessed daughter. You cannot get much worse, if you are a Jewish man. The Canaanites were the arch enemies of Israel.

This mother knows what the Jews think of Canaanite women. She understands full well the prejudice she is up against. It says something about her courage and character that she is willing to approach her enemies for help. Or perhaps it is an indication of her desperation. 

We don’t know a lot about this woman. We know vaguely where she comes from but we don’t know her name, or how old she was or whether she had other children. Was she still married or had her husband walked out because things got a bit tough? We don’t know.

We do know for certain that life was difficult for her. Robyn quoted me a line from a novel she was reading recently that struck a chord with us both…

‘Mothers are only ever as happy as their unhappiest child.’

This mother diagnoses her own daughter as demon possessed and says that she is suffering terribly. If the daughter is suffering terribly then so is the mother.

We can’t be certain what the problem was exactly. In ancient times all sorts of illnesses, whether physical, emotional, psychological or spiritual were attributed to demons.

Most likely the daughter and her mother were socially ostracised as a consequence of the problem. This mother had probably been coping with loneliness and high levels of stress for a prolonged period of time. After a while fatigue sets in. It would have been hard for her to imagine a future for her daughter.

The powerlessness and vulnerability of parenthood is terrifying. And so it is little wonder that this mother cries out to Jesus. She doesn’t approach Jesus quietly or politely. She risks all hope, shouting and making a scene.

Notice how she addresses Jesus as Lord and Son of David. Now at that time calling someone Lord wasn’t such a big deal. It was like calling a man Sir, a way of showing respect.

But hearing this Canaanite woman call Jesus the Son of David is a big deal. Very few of Jesus’ own people would have the insight or the courage to call Jesus the Son of David. This was the same as calling him the Messiah, the King.

Think about that for a moment. This woman has the audacity to ask the King of her enemies for mercy for her daughter. It was risky and politically complicated.

During the Vietnam War the Texas Computer millionaire, Henry Ross Perot decided he would give a Christmas present to every American prisoner of war in Vietnam.

According to David Frost, who tells the story, Perot had thousands of packages wrapped and prepared for shipping. Then he chartered a fleet of Boeing 707s to deliver the presents to Hanoi.

But the war was at its height. What Perot was wanting to do was risky and politically complicated. He was asking America’s enemies for their cooperation. The Hanoi government refused to cooperate. Officials explained that no charity was possible while American bombers were devastating Vietnamese villages.

The wealthy Perot offered to hire an American construction firm to help rebuild the villages but the Hanoi government still refused to help.

Christmas drew near, and the packages were un-sent. So a determined Perot flew to Moscow, where his aides mailed the packages, one at a time, from the Moscow central post office. And all the packages were delivered intact to the American POW’s. Perot persisted and when his enemies would not cooperate, he found another way.

In some ways Perot reminds us of the Canaanite mother in Matthew 15. She was not rich and powerful like Perot but she was tenacious and she had the boldness to approach the leader of her enemies for help. Like a postage stamp she sticks to one thing until she reaches her destination.

In verse 23, of Matthew 15, we read that Jesus remained silent, even though the mother was loud and unrelenting in her cry for help.  

We see the wisdom of Jesus here. The woman was basically proclaiming to everyone that Jesus is Lord and King. She was acting as a kind of evangelist, perhaps without realising it. Jesus listened.

Jesus’ silence also had the effect of drawing out what was in her heart. Silence does that. Silence invites those parts of ourselves which are hidden in the ocean of our unconscious, to surface, like a whale rising from the depths of the sea to breathe.  

The disciples become irritated with the mother’s repetition, eventually saying to Jesus, “Send her away for she keeps crying out after us”. In other words, give her what she wants so we can have some peace.

But Jesus says to his disciples, so the woman can hear: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel”.

We have the benefit of hindsight and so we know that Jesus’ mission was to start with Israel and then move outward to reach people of all cultures and ethnicities. Later, at the end of Matthew’s gospel, after his death and resurrection, Jesus gives the command to go and make disciples of all nations.

But this woman encountered Jesus before his resurrection and so she does not know what we know. She doesn’t have the benefit of hindsight.

Undeterred the woman knelt before Jesus saying very simply, “Lord, help me”. She does not use a lot of words. She does not try and make a deal with Jesus. She does not try to emotionally blackmail Jesus or threaten him. She does not prescribe what Jesus must do. She simply asks for help and trusts Jesus to decide what is best. This is a picture of pure, uncomplicated faith.

We know Jesus likes faith and so, at this point, we would expect that Jesus, full of compassion and love, would be moved to heal the child. But no, what Jesus does next is shocking.

In verse 26 Jesus says to this woman, who is already suffering terribly, ‘It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.’

In other words, charity begins at home.

The children, in Jesus’ little parable here, are the people of Israel. And their food is the healing and life that Jesus brings – Jesus is the bread of life.

Dogs is a reference to Gentiles generally but also to this Canaanite woman and her daughter specifically.  

Now, in our culture a dog is man’s best friend. A dog is loyal and trustworthy and loved by the family. But in ancient Jewish culture a dog was unclean. Dogs were despised. To refer to this woman and her kin as dogs is a racial slur, an insult.

When Jesus ignored the mother’s cries for help, she persisted.

When Jesus refused to help her child, the mother responded in faith.

How will she respond to the insult of being called a dog?

What will Jesus find in her heart? 

To her credit this mother answers with humility and wit saying, 27 “Yes Lord, but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”

This is a clever response. The woman is implying that she, a Canaanite, is still part of Jesus’ household, albeit with a very different status from the children.

Like Monica, this mother wills just one thing: that Jesus save her daughter. She is pure mum. Her heart (her inner life) is clean and holy and so she sees God’s salvation.

Jesus commends her saying: “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed at that moment.

No other Jew in the gospel of Matthew receives this sort of commendation for their faith from Jesus. A Roman Centurion is commended as having more faith than anyone in Israel but none of Jesus’ own people are said to have great faith, like this woman.

So what exactly is it that makes this mother’s faith so great?

It is her love for her daughter. Love is what motivated this mother to ask her enemies for help and to go on asking when she was ignored, refused and insulted. None of us knows the purity of our love unless it is met with resistance. Love, that is willing to suffer, makes faith great.   

That being said we might still wonder, ‘Why did Jesus put the woman through this? Why did he make it so difficult for her?’ Because it seems totally out of character for Jesus to refuse anyone in need much less be rude about it.

Well, it appears Jesus was using this encounter with the Canaanite mother as a teachable moment for his disciples. Jesus can see this woman’s holiness, but his disciples can’t.

He had just been telling his disciples that it is the state of a person’s heart that makes them clean or unclean. Now they have seen for themselves what purity of heart looks like, in this Canaanite woman, someone they had always believed was inherently unclean.

Jesus was showing his disciples what really matters to God. Faith, hope and love.

When we look at it this way we see that Jesus was not being callous or insulting at all. Jesus was actually showing great respect for this woman. He refused to patronise her or be condescending. 

As tired and frustrated as this mother may have been, Jesus knew he was not dealing with a weak or timid person. He was dealing with someone who was a force to be reckoned with. And that’s why he pushed back. Jesus knew the strength of the woman’s faith, hope and love. He knew she could handle it.   

So what does all this mean for us?

Well, the mother’s love for her child reflects God’s love for us.

God’s motherly love is like a hurricane. It is powerful but there is a calmness in the eye.

Unlike a hurricane, that destroys everything in its path, God’s motherly love is jealous. Not envious, not wanting what belongs to someone else. But jealous in the sense of wanting to protect what rightly belongs to him. God’s jealous love is powerful to protect his children from evil.

God’s motherly love is also pure and holy. The Canaanite woman was pure in heart, she willed one thing: for Jesus to heal her daughter. And the purity of her love was revealed in the way she was willing to suffer much for her child.

God’s love (like a mother’s love) always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

It is this kind of love that makes a person clean, holy and pleasing to God.

Let us pray…

God Almighty, we thank you for your motherly love for us. A jealous love, which is powerful to protect. A pure love, which is longsuffering. Help us to receive your love with grace and respect, that we would be fruitful for your glory. 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 was your mother like? What do you appreciate about her?
  • What does it mean to be pure in heart? Can you think of examples, either from the Bible or your own experience, that illustrate what it looks like to be pure in heart?
  • Try to put yourself in the shoes of the Canaanite woman in Matthew 15. What do you imagine her life was like?
  • Why do you think Jesus is slow to help the Canaanite woman?
  • What can we learn about prayer / intercession from the mother’s example?
  • In what ways does the Canaanite mother reflect God’s love? 
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

Hope

Scripture: Isaiah 9:1-7

Video Link: https://youtu.be/oXUHz7nTtHE

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • High hope
  • Just hope
  • Certain hope
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Kia ora whanau and good morning everyone.

Today is the first Sunday in Christmas Advent. As I mentioned earlier in the service, advent simply means coming. Christmas Advent is a time when we look back to Jesus’ first coming to earth 2000 years ago as a baby in a manger. It’s also a time when we look forward to his second coming in glory.

The first Sunday in Advent is traditionally associated with hope. Hope is when we believe something good is going to happen in the future. In keeping with the theme of hope, our message today focuses on Isaiah 9, verses 1-7…

9 Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he will honour Galilee of the nations, by the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan— 2 The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.  3 You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy; they rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest, as warriors rejoice when dividing the plunder. 4 For as in the day of Midian’s defeat, you have shattered the yoke that burdens them, the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor. 5 Every warrior’s boot used in battle and every garment rolled in blood will be destined for burning, will be fuel for the fire. 6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.

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

Hope is a powerful thing. Believing that something good waits for us in the future can give us real energy and strength to deal with difficult circumstances in the present. Of course, anything that is powerful is also dangerous and so we need to be careful not to misplace our hope.

Handling hope is a bit like flying a kite. You can’t fly a kite on a calm day. A kite rises against the wind. And it will only rise as high as you let it. The trick is, holding onto the string, so you don’t lose the kite of your hope altogether.

Three things I see in this passage from Isaiah 9. The hope on offer here is high hope, just hope and certain hope. First let’s consider Isaiah’s high hope.

High Hope:

As many of you know, we are planning some renovations to the north wing of our church auditorium. Before any of the physical work is done we toss around ideas and put plans on paper. These were discussed at the recent church meeting. Once we are agreed on the plan, work can proceed.

The first part of renovating any existing building is demolition. The basic foot print of the north wing isn’t going to change but the builders will need to do some demo to gut the place, before rebuilding a new layout and installing new toilets and so forth.     

Isaiah was an Old Testament prophet. The prophets give a theological interpretation of historical events. In other words, they tell us what’s happening in history from God’s perspective. The prophets put God’s plan on paper basically.

Generally speaking, the prophets (like Isaiah) preached messages of judgment and hope. Judgment is like the demolition phase of the rebuild. Things have got so bad in Israel that God can’t just plaster over the cracks anymore. He has to gut the building and install a whole new layout.

Isaiah 8 is essentially a message of judgment. In chapter 8, the prophet foretells how the Assyrians are going to overwhelm Israel in a flood of war and violence. Isaiah interprets this pending invasion as an act of God’s judgment on Israel. The Assyrians are being employed by God to do the demolition.

But after judgement comes hope. Isaiah 9:1-7 is a message of hope. After the tidal wave of Assyrian devastation, God will restore the people of Israel. First the demolition and then the rebuilding. The bigger picture, the longer term plan or vision is to remodel the nation of Israel and make it better than before.

The people need to know the message of hope. They need to understand the longer term improvements God has planned in order to make sense of the pending demolition.

If we didn’t tell you about the renovations, we are planning for the north wing, and you just turned up one Sunday to see the crèche and toilets in ruins, you would be shocked and upset. But since you know the ultimate purpose is to improve that area, you will be better able to cope with the temporary inconvenience.   

Now in using this metaphor I don’t mean to minimize or downplay the effects of the Assyrian invasion of Israel. The Jewish exile was obviously far worse than demolishing a few rooms. Many people lost their lives and others became refugees. So our building renovations are not really the same thing in terms of impact on people.

The point is, if you know the suffering you are going through is for a higher purpose, you are better able to handle it. Isaiah pitches his message of hope high because the judgment is so severe.

Verses 1-2 of Isaiah 9 talk about a reversal of fortunes for the land of Zebulun and Naphtali, in the region of Galilee. Previously they were in gloom and distress. But the people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.   

The northern parts of Israel, around Galilee, were the first to be attacked by the Assyrians. Isaiah is saying, they will be the first to see the light of a new day. Isaiah was right but it did not happen in his lifetime. The nation had to wait centuries.

Matthew, in his gospel, pointed out that Jesus is that light. Jesus started his ministry in Galilee. From Matthew’s gospel we read…

12 When Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, he withdrew to Galilee. 13 Leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum, which was by the lake in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali; 14 to fulfill what was said through the prophet Isaiah:

Isaiah 9 continues the theme of the prophet’s high hope for God’s people. In verse 3, Isaiah talks about how God will enlarge the nation and increase their joy. God will make them prosperous again.

In verse 4 we see another one of Isaiah’s high hopes for the future, where the prophet says: 4 For as in the day of Midian’s defeat, you have shattered the yoke that burdens them, the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor.

‘The day of Midian’s defeat’ refers to the book of Judges chapter 7, where Gideon defeated the entire Midianite army with just 300 men. Gideon did not do this in his own strength but through God’s strength.

The oppressor of Isaiah’s day was not Midian but Assyria. The Assyrians were the dominant world power. No one of that time seemed to question Assyria’s invincibility, except Isaiah. The prophet saw history from God’s point of view and so he could foresee a day when Assyria (the oppressor) would be defeated.

In New Zealand, at the moment, we are not facing imminent threat from a world super power, like Assyria; at least not that we are aware of. But we have been invaded by the Covid virus, as has every other country in the world.

I’m not suggesting that Covid is God’s judgement on the world, not in the sense of punishment. But the pandemic is certainly testing us and showing us what we are made of. It is a very trying and revealing time.

We have heard reports in the news over the past couple of days that a new variant of the virus is emerging around the world. It is unclear when we will finally emerge from this pandemic. While we don’t know what the immediate future holds, we believe nothing is too difficult for God to handle.

From history we know that pandemics seem to come round every 100 years or so. Then they go again. Viruses are like world super powers I guess. They rise and fall. Ultimately, God is in charge, not Covid. In the meantime, we still need to do everything in our power to protect our neighbours from the spread of the virus.      

Verse 5 shows the prophet’s high hope for peace: 5 Every warrior’s boot used in battle and every garment rolled in blood will be destined for burning, will be fuel for the fire.

Not only does Isaiah imagine a day when the Assyrians are conquered. He also dares to imagine a day when war is done away with for forever. That day has not come in its fullness for us just yet. But it will eventually. God’s vision for the future (and our high hope) is heaven on earth. Life without war and without sickness or disease.

Isaiah’s message of hope is not only high, it is also just.  

Just hope:

As anyone who has done a tour of our parliament buildings (here in NZ) knows, the Beehive had new foundations laid. These foundations have base isolators which allow some movement in case of an earthquake. They make the building strong. The underground carpark at Wellington hospital has the same sort of foundations. 

For peace to be resilient, for peace to stand and not fall when the earth moves, it needs to be based on a foundation of justice.

As I keep saying, the prerequisite to peace is justice. In order to have peace, we don’t prepare for war. Rather we support wise leaders who work for a just and fair world. Hope for peace, without justice, is misplaced and fragile, like a building without base isolators in an earthquake zone.

Or to return to our kite metaphor; hope for peace, without justice, is like a kite without a tail; it is unstable and won’t fly.

And so we come to Isaiah 9, verse 6, made famous by the songs we sing at Christmas:  6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Isn’t it interesting how, so often in Scripture, God’s purposes in history are associated with the birth of children. Truly his strength is made perfect in weakness. [1]

We can’t be sure how the Jews of Isaiah’s day understood this verse but we know that Christians down through the centuries have seen the birth of Jesus in Isaiah’s prophecy.

The titles of honour ascribed to this leader, this king, are too lofty and too grand to apply to any earthly king. They are divine titles. Indeed, this verse seems to be talking about God himself, as commander and chief.

They say that in the game of drafts you only need to think 1 or 2 moves ahead, but in the game of chess you need to be thinking 4 or 5 moves ahead. One of the jobs of a king is to make good decisions. A king needs to be like a good chess player, thinking several moves ahead, playing out all the various scenarios in his mind.

The Hebrew term for Wonderful Counsellor literally translates wonder planner

The phrase wonderful counsellor then refers to a king with the wisdom & foresight to design and develop extraordinary plans & policies for the ordering of the public life of his people [2]

As the word wonder suggests the vision and planning of this architect king are awe inspiring – the king’s wisdom leaves people gob smacked in amazement.

In Genesis 18, God visits Abraham & Sarah with a message of high hope. The Lord says that Sarah will give birth to a son. Sarah laughs at this, because she is well past child bearing age, so God says…

Is anything too wonderful for the Lord? [Meaning, is anything too difficult for the Lord?] At the set time I will return to you, in due season, and Sarah will have a son.”  

The Lord’s plan here is truly amazing in its scope and level of difficulty. Yahweh, the wonderful counsellor, is planning to redeem the entire creation through Abraham’s offspring and he is going to do this by making it possible for a 90-year-old woman to give birth to a son.

Isaac’s birth was a miracle of resurrection. Isaac’s birth demonstrates that nothing is too difficult for God. Even when it seems like all hope is lost, God can make things new.  

It should be noted however, that while Abraham and Sarah did see the birth of their son Isaac, they did not live to see the complete fulfilment of God’s promise. Their hope and ours is realised in the birth of Jesus. When we consider how Jesus makes good on God’s promise to Abraham, we begin to marvel at the Lord’s planning.  

The term Mighty God refers to God’s power. It goes hand in hand with wonder planner. Nothing is too difficult for God. But the term Mighty God also carries the nuance of military commander or warrior.

We don’t get the image of Jesus as a warrior so much in the gospels but the book of Revelation does portray Jesus as a mighty warrior who slays evil dragons and horrible beasts.

We may prefer our Jesus more domesticated, more meek and mild. But he is the Lord of hosts, the commander of legions of holy angels. Jesus uses his power to conquer sin and death, to establish justice and restore peace. He is the Prince of Peace.

These divine titles, in verse 6, are all different ways of saying the same thing. This ideal king will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness forever.  

So our high hope for peace is based on the firm foundation of wise and just leadership, the kind of leadership demonstrated by Christ.  

In a geo-political sense, that peace is not realised yet. But in a spiritual and personal sense, peace with God is available to us through faith in Jesus’ death and resurrection. 

Certain hope:

Not only is Isaiah’s message of hope high and just, it is also certain. It is not the kind of hope that hinges on luck, like maybe someday winning Lotto. Nor is it the hope that depends on your own skill and hard work, like possibly becoming an All Black or a Black Fern.

The future described in Isaiah 9 is a certain hope because it depends on God; it is based in the Lord’s will and purpose. As verse 7 tells us: The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.

Zeal is an intense, passionate enthusiasm or energy to get something done. The zeal of the Lord is not just a sudden short burst though. God’s zeal is long and deep. It is patient and tenacious.

There’s a quote in the movie Catch me if you can, which captures the idea of zeal quite nicely: Two little mice fell in a bucket of cream. The first mouse quickly gave up and drowned. The second mouse wouldn’t quit. He struggled so hard that eventually he turned that cream into butter and crawled out.

The second mouse had zeal.

Now, to be quite clear, the Lord is not a mouse and he hardly needs to struggle. But if a mouse can have the zeal to churn cream into butter, then how much more can the zeal of the Lord accomplish?

The zeal of the Lord is not a violent force, like a hurricane or a tidal wave or an earthquake. Nor is God’s zeal like an obsessive compulsive worrying. There is a gentleness and calmness to God’s zeal which is lovely and winsome.

In thinking about the certainty of our hope and the zeal of the Lord to accomplish things, I’m reminded of Gerard Manley Hopkins. Gerard was born in 1844 into an Anglican family. He was an excellent student, winning a scholarship to Oxford University. [3]

At the age of 21 he went through a moral and spiritual crisis and came out the other side a confirmed Catholic. Two years later he joined the Jesuit order and in 1877 was ordained a priest.

He loved writing but for seven years Gerard fasted from writing poetry – he gave it up. He only started writing again when asked by one of his superiors. Verse came flooding out of him.

Although Gerard Manley Hopkins was actually quite brilliant he wrestled with a feeling that he was a failure, as a teacher, a priest and as a human being. He felt that no one really understood him. Self-doubt, imposter syndrome, loneliness, despair. Perhaps some of you can identify?    

Like many deep feeling Christians, Gerard longed for God’s presence. There were times when he felt abandoned and neglected by God. These times, when his hope of a more intimate connection with God was disappointed, were agony.

I would like to think that Gerard Hopkins made the connection that most of the great prophets were poets. And most of them suffered during their own life time and probably thought they were failures too. I guess none of us know the significance of our life, in the course of history, from God’s perspective.

While he was alive, Gerard’s poems had a small audience, just himself and God. He did not enjoy fame or fortune or even good health. Gerard died in 1889 of typhoid fever. He was still relatively young, just 45.

His poetry may never have been known to world except for the zeal of the Lord.

It wasn’t until 1918, 29 years after his death, that a friend, Robert Bridges, prepared Gerard’s collection of poems for publication. His verse spoke to the heart of a generation who were disillusioned with God after four years of World War 1 and the start of a flu pandemic that killed even more than the war did.

I tell you this true story, about Gerard Manley Hopkins, to make the point that our hope in God is certain. It does not depend on our feelings. God is still present, even when it feels to us like he is absent. And his purpose is still at work, even after we have died.

Sometimes life doesn’t make a lot of sense. Sometimes we struggle to find any meaning or purpose in our suffering. There is a certain mystery to this life. We are not given all the answers, at least not this side of heaven. But that’s where faith and hope in God come to our rescue.  

We don’t have to have it all figured out. Whatever it is you have been through, whatever it is you are going through currently, whatever it is you are dreading, God has got this. He’s got you. He understands you completely and he can give your life meaning beyond the grave.    

Conclusion:

Isaiah’s message of hope for God’s people is high and just and certain. The zeal of the Lord is able to achieve far more than we can imagine.

9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears… 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. 13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. 

Let us pray…

Eternal God, we thank you for your wonderful plan to redeem our suffering and restore your creation. Save us from misplaced hope. When times are tough, give us the perspective to see the good future you have planned for those whose hope is in Christ. We thank you for Jesus’ advent and we look forward to his coming again in glory. Amen.   

Questions for discussion or reflection:

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

  • How do you define hope? What does hope mean to you?
  • Why does Isaiah follow a message of judgment with a message of hope?
  • Reflect on / discuss the ways Jesus fulfils Isaiah 9:1-7.
  • What is God’s vision (our high hope) for the future of human history? Are you able to imagine what that future will be like?
  • What (or who) is needed for peace?
  • On what does your hope depend? What makes our hope certain? 

[1] Refer Barry Webb’s BST Commentary on Isaiah, page 69.

[2] Walter Brueggemann, Names for the Messiah, page 7.

[3] Refer Terry Glaspey’s book, ’75 Masterpieces Every Christian Should Know, pages 218-220.

Tawa Baptist

Refuge

Scripture: Psalm 31

Video Link: https://youtu.be/SWSD7lHAypQ

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Lament (9-13)
  • Refuge (1-6) & (14-18)
  • Celebration (7-8) & (19-24)
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Kai ora whanau and good morning everyone.

During lockdown one of the families from our church wrote some riddles on the footpath outside their home to spread a bit of light and laughter. Here’s one of their riddles: Q: Why are frogs always happy? A: They eat whatever bugs them.

I like what this family did. To me it was an act of loving their neighbour; putting a smile on people’s faces during a stressful time.  

Today our message is based on Psalm 31, written by king David. Psalm 31 is a bit intense in places, so we need to remember to smile from time to time along the way. From verse 1 of Psalm 31 we read…

1 In you, Lord, I have taken refuge; let me never be put to shame; deliver me in your righteousness. 2 Turn your ear to me, come quickly to my rescue; be my rock of refuge, a strong fortress to save me. 3 Since you are my rock and my fortress, for the sake of your name lead and guide me. 4 Keep me free from the trap that is set for me, for you are my refuge. 5 Into your hands I commit my spirit; deliver me, Lord, my faithful God. 6 I hate those who cling to worthless idols; as for me, I trust in the Lord. 7 I will be glad and rejoice in your love, for you saw my affliction and knew the anguish of my soul. 8 You have not given me into the hands of the enemy but have set my feet in a spacious place. 9 Be merciful to me, Lord, for I am in distress; my eyes grow weak with sorrow, my soul and body with grief. 10 My life is consumed by anguish and my years by groaning; my strength fails because of my affliction, and my bones grow weak. 11 Because of all my enemies, I am the utter contempt of my neighbours and an object of dread to my closest friends—those who see me on the street flee from me. 12 I am forgotten as though I were dead; I have become like broken pottery. 13 For I hear many whispering, “Terror on every side!” They conspire against me and plot to take my life. 14 But I trust in you, Lord; I say, “You are my God.” 15 My times are in your hands; deliver me from the hands of my enemies, from those who pursue me. 16 Let your face shine on your servant; save me in your unfailing love. 17 Let me not be put to shame, Lord, for I have cried out to you; but let the wicked be put to shame and be silent in the realm of the dead. 18 Let their lying lips be silenced, for with pride and contempt they speak arrogantly against the righteous. 19 How abundant are the good things that you have stored up for those who fear you, that you bestow in the sight of all, on those who take refuge in you. 20 In the shelter of your presence you hide them from all human intrigues; you keep them safe in your dwelling from accusing tongues. 21 Praise be to the Lord, for he showed me the wonders of his love when I was beset like a city under siege. 22 In my alarm I said, “I am cut off from your sight!” Yet you heard my cry for mercy when I called to you for help. 23 Love the Lord, all his faithful people! The Lord preserves those who are true to him, but the proud he pays back in full. 24 Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the Lord.

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

Have you noticed how some movies are non-linear? They don’t start at the beginning and move through in chronological order. Instead the plot line jumps around, backwards and forwards.

The 2017 film Dunkirk is an example of a non-linear story line. It is hard to follow at first, because the scenes are not in chronological sequence. But ultimately that makes the story more interesting. Like a mosaic (formed of broken pieces) we see how everything fits together in the end. The messed up order reflects the chaos the British soldiers went through at Dunkirk.  

Psalm 31 is non-linear. It doesn’t unfold in chronological order. One moment it is dark and intense and the next moment it sounds notes of joy and celebration. This non-linear approach reflects the chaos that David went through.

To give some clarity, I see three threads running through Psalm 31. Lament, refuge and celebration. Psalm 31 takes these fragments of lament, refuge and celebration and arranges them in a non-linear fashion. This curation speaks to our experience, how the circumstances of our lives seldom unfold in a neat and ordered way.  

Lament:

What do these songs all share in common?

I don’t want to talk about it

Candle in the wind

I don’t like Mondays

Sunday bloody Sunday

By the rivers of Babylon                              [Wait]

They are all songs of lament.

Here’s another riddle for you…

Q: What did the grape do when it was stepped on? A: It let out a little wine. 

A lament is a passionate expression of grief or sorrow. It comes from the Latin word for weeping and wailing and moaning. Lament is what the grape did when it was stepped on.

Lament is the opposite of denial. Lament is about facing and naming the truth of what we are feeling. Lament is like lancing a psychological boil so the infection can drain out. The purpose of lament is emotional cleansing. Verses 9-13 of Psalm 31, at the centre of the psalm, form the core of David’s lament.

9 Be merciful to me, Lord, for I am in distress; my eyes grow weak with sorrow, my soul and body with grief. 10 My life is consumed by anguish and my years by groaning; my strength fails because of my affliction, and my bones grow weak.

David tells God how he is feeling using words like distress, sorrow, grief, anguish, groaning, affliction and weakness. His whole self, body & soul, is affected.

What do these people have in common? (and this is not a joke by the way.)

Winston Churchill, William Cowper, Abraham Lincoln, Vincent Van Gogh and John Kirwan. [Wait] That’s right, they all lived with depression.

David’s lament, in verses 9-13 of Psalm 31, appears to be describing the experience of depression. We may tend to think of David as bullet proof. He was a brave war hero and one of Israel’s greatest leaders. And yet it is obvious, from many of the psalms he wrote, that his soul was often downcast and in turmoil.

Depression can be thought of in a variety of ways. Firstly, we might think of depression as a loss of energy and motivation. David talks about his strength failing and his bones growing weak.

When the battery on my laptop is running low the machine switches to ‘power saver mode’ to conserve energy. Depression is sort of like a power saver mode for our soul, when our emotional and mental battery is running low. Depression is telling us something about ourselves.

But that analogy is inadequate really. We are not machines. Unlike a laptop, which feels nothing, we human beings do feel the loss of energy. Depression comes with unpleasant feelings. Sometimes the dull ache of sadness and other times a more intense emotional pain, similar to being burned or cut.

Fear, anxiety and terror may also accompany depression. The fear attached to depression usually has to do with not being in control. Depression is that horrifying sensation that you are falling slowly into a dark, bottomless pit.

Depression has all the hallmarks of an internal hell. Unrelenting pain, threat of violence, fear, loss of freedom and enjoyment, loneliness, alienation from God and people, misplaced shame and guilt, together with feelings of condemnation and despair.  

In verses 11-13 we see something of the hell David finds himself in where he says…

11 Because of all my enemies, I am the utter contempt of my neighbours and an object of dread to my closest friends—those who see me on the street flee from me. 12 I am forgotten as though I were dead; I have become like broken pottery. 13 For I hear many whispering, “Terror on every side!” They conspire against me and plot to take my life.

From this we learn that David’s enemies have been bad mouthing him. They have been telling lies about him with the consequence that David feels prejudged, misunderstood, alienated and alone.

In today’s terms, it would be like suffering at the hands of social media trolls and cyber bullies. If they had the internet back then, people would have been posting really bad things about David on Facebook and Instagram so that David thinks even his closest friends have bought into the rumours and lies about him. 

Depression usually involves a loss of perspective. We may think we are seeing clearly but we are not. Depression hijacks our imagination, so that we begin to think the worst all the time.

Our mind plays tricks and we imagine people are having a crack at us when they’re not. Or we think no one cares about us and that the world would be better off without us, when in fact we are loved and appreciated and needed far more than we realise. David’s enemies are real but the idea that his friends and neighbours want nothing to do with him is probably false.   

For all the reasons mentioned above, depression has a corrosive effect on our sense of hope. Hope is the ability to imagine a good future. If you can’t imagine a good future, you will soon lose your joy, your energy and your motivation.

Despite the corrosive effect of depression, hope can be restored. Hope is like your liver. It grows back. Even if they cut out half your liver it will heal itself. The key to giving hope the chance to grow back is managing your thought life. Stopping yourself from going down the track of thinking the worst all the time.

The law of gravity says that, ‘whatever goes up must come down’. It is the opposite with the human soul. The law of the human spirit says that, ‘whatever goes down must come up’. Taking care of your soul is a bit like taking care of your garden. Think about carrots. They have to grow down before they can come up.

Those who sow in tears will reap with joy. Or, as Jesus said, Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.  

In JK Rowling’s Harry Potter stories, the villain is referred to by most as ‘he who shall not be named’. But Harry, the hero of the story, has no qualms in naming his enemy and freely calls him ‘Voldemort’. Harry does this because when we can name our fears, they lose much of their power over us. 

As I said before, lament is about naming the truth of what we are feeling and finding a healthy way to express our pain. When we can name our anguish we become less afraid of it and we are empowered. Naming our demons gives us a feeling of having some control in our own lives and that helps to restore hope.   

David was quite open and transparent about his mental health. We may not have the gift of putting our feelings into words, like David did, but that’s okay. David’s words can give voice to our feelings.

If we find ourselves in the crucible of depression, we can read Psalm 31 (and others like it– e.g. Psalms 39 & 88) as our own lament and know we are not alone. We are in good company.  

David has a number of weapons in his arsenal against depression. We’ve heard about lament. Now let’s consider refuge. 

Refuge:

If you are in a storm, the best thing to do is to find shelter. Get out of the wind and rain and find a safe, warm refuge. But what do we do when the storm is raging inside us? Well, we seek refuge for our mind. Seeking refuge is about looking after ourselves. 

Depression, at its worst, tends to be a 24-7 thing. Chronic depression doesn’t take a day off. We can’t be lamenting our troubles all the time, it’s too exhausting. At some point we need to come up for air and find some respite, some shelter from the storm.

One of my favourite poems is by James Norcliffe. It goes like this…

I’ve no idea whether

my uncle is a spiritual man

I only know that life

has battered him

as a fish is battered

and fried him

as a fish is fried

and rubbed salt

into all his wounds

but that when I say

how’s the world

not bad he’ll say not bad

and could be worse

just said with his mouth

looking elsewhere

papering himself

around with a warmth

that could steam windows 

(You know the way the windows in your car steam up on a winter’s night when you are bringing fish & chips home for dinner.)

I love that last line, papering himself around with a warmth that could steam windows. It speaks to me of someone who has suffered a great deal and found refuge on the inside. He has found a way to insulate himself from the storm.

In verses 1-6 of Psalm 31 David seeks refuge in his mind by praying to God.

Prayer is about communicating with God. Talking to him and listening to him.

Going a bit deeper though, prayer is about creating a refuge or a sanctuary for ourselves in God. When we pray, out a desire to be close to God, we paper ourselves around with a warmth that could steam windows.

From verse 1 David writes…

1 In you, Lord, I have taken refuge; let me never be put to shame; deliver me in your righteousness. 2 Turn your ear to me, come quickly to my rescue; be my rock of refuge, a strong fortress to save me. 3 Since you are my rock and my fortress, for the sake of your name lead and guide me. 4 Keep me free from the trap that is set for me, for you are my refuge.

Rock, refuge, fortress, these are all terms which express sanctuary or security.

There’s a James Bond film called Quantum of Solace. When Daniel Craig was asked what does ‘Quantum of Solace’ mean he replied, a quantum is a tiny amount (the size of an atom) and solace is another word for comfort. So a quantum of solace means small comfort.

The movie is basically about revenge; getting even with your enemies. The point is: there is little comfort in seeking revenge.

David does not seek refuge in the thought of taking revenge against his enemies. He does not take matters into his own hands because, as a soldier, he knows there is little comfort in violence. Best to leave vengeance to God.

Q: Why can’t you trust atoms?

A: They make up everything. 

From verse 15 we read…

…deliver me from the hands of my enemies, from those who pursue me…

17 Let me not be put to shame, Lord, for I have cried out to you; but let the wicked be put to shame… 18 Let their lying lips be silenced, for with pride and contempt they speak arrogantly against the righteous.

Clearly, David does not feel able to trust the people around him because they make up everything (they lie), but David does trust God. David takes refuge in the righteousness and justice of God. David finds hope in the knowledge that God will not tolerate evil indefinitely. David looks to God to put things right.

Jesus used David’s words, in verse 5 of Psalm 31, on the cross. This was the last thing Jesus said before he died: Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. It is an expression of trust. Jesus was subjected to injustice but he trusted himself to the righteousness of God.

Like David, Jesus was a man of sorrows, well acquainted with grief. One aspect of Jesus’ suffering included being forced to wear a crown of thorns on his head. Anyone who has suffered sustained mental torment will appreciate the significance of that.    

Not everyone experiences major depression, but everyone suffers eventually, one way or another. What is it you take refuge in? How do you find shelter from the storm?

Some people find refuge in things which are ultimately harmful to them, like alcohol or illicit drugs or romantic liaisons. Most people though find refuge in more benign pursuits, like a hobby or sports or watching movies.

Over the years I have found a great deal of meaning by nurturing a belief in the goodness of God. Contemplating the Scriptures has been a refuge for me.

But God’s goodness isn’t just found in the Bible or in singing worship songs. God’s goodness can be found in many ordinary places, like cooking a meal or losing yourself in a good novel or walking the beach with your dog or just hanging out with friends.

These more ordinary pleasures can serve as helpful distractions, providing a kind of Sabbath for our soul. We have to make room for fun and enjoyment. We have to remember to celebrate.

Time for another joke: Two TV aerials got married. The reception was great.  

Celebration:

In verses 7-8 of Psalm 31 David celebrates God’s answer to his prayer by saying…

7 I will be glad and rejoice in your love, for you saw my affliction and knew the anguish of my soul. 8 You have not given me into the hands of the enemy but have set my feet in a spacious place.

Part of David’s lament had been the way he had felt so alone and isolated and misunderstood. In these verses David celebrates the fact that God listened to him and understood. God knew the anguish of David’s soul. Being listened to and understood makes David feel loved.

If you know someone who is going through depression then simply being there and listening, without judging, goes a long way in helping. You don’t have to try and fix the depression. But you can walk through the valley of the shadow of death with them, so they know they are not alone.

Those words, you set my feet in a spacious place, are significant. David had felt like he was under siege, surrounded on all sides and cut off from all help. That is often how it feels for people in the depths of depression. Like you are hemmed in and don’t have any options. Like nothing is ever going to change and it will always be this way.

But that is not true. That’s just your mind playing tricks on you. There is a way through and things can get better. David found a way through. God put David’s feet in a spacious place, where he no longer felt like he was under siege. Where he had options.

In verses 19-24 David continues his celebration of God’s goodness.

Verse 19 reads…

19 How abundant are the good things that you have stored up for those… who take refuge in you.

Notice here that the good things are stored up, for those who take refuge in God. In other words, the best is yet to come. There are good things waiting for you in the future. So hold on, don’t give up.

Verse 21 reads…

21 Praise be to the Lord, for he showed me the wonders of his love [hesed] when I was beset like a city under siege.

David is looking back here, at his time of anguish (when he felt like he was trapped), and he is reflecting on the fact that it was actually through the difficult times that God showed him the wonders of his love.

Depression itself is not an expression of love or hesed but it does have the potential (in hindsight) to open our eyes to God’s love. When we look back on the hard times we see the ways God stuck by us and was loyal to us through thick and thin.  

Psalm 31 ends with these words…  

24 Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the Lord.

You know, the last thing you feel like when you are depressed is being strong. Telling someone to be strong when they are in the pit of despair is a bit trite, even cruel. But that’s not David’s intention here.

David is speaking as someone who has been through it himself. He’s saying, I know it’s tough but it is worth it. Hang on to your hope in the Lord.

Derek Kidner wisely notes that verse 24 could also be translated: he shall strengthen your heart. So the thought here is not that you have to summon resources you don’t have. The idea is that God will give you the strength you need as you need it.

Conclusion:

Depression is not a destination. It is a journey through darkness. Psalm 31 gives us tools for that journey. Pour out your pain in lament before God. Take refuge in the Lord’s goodness and look forward to that time when you can celebrate God’s love in a spacious place.

Let us pray…

Loving Father, be with those who are struggling with their mental health at this time. Comfort them and give them strength sufficient for each day.

Be with those also, who are supporting loved ones who are struggling. Give them wisdom and understanding as they walk alongside.

Lord have mercy on us all. Set our feet in a spacious place once more that we would praise you. Through Jesus we ask. 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 lament? How is lament different from denial or distraction? Why might we practice lament?
  • What are some of the symptoms and/or effects of depression? How might we know if either ourselves or someone else is depressed?   
  • How can we help ourselves if we are depressed? How can we help others who are depressed?
  • What does it mean to find refuge in God? How might we do this? Where do you find refuge?
  • When you look back on the hard times you have been through, can you see ways in which God showed hesed/loyal love to you? What did God do? 
  • What do you need most at this time? Lament, refuge or celebration? Take some time this week to give your soul what it needs.
Tawa Baptist

Redeemed

Scripture: 1st Peter 1:13-21

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Holy Hope
  • Reverent Fear
  • Costly Redemption
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

If someone says, “You are a chip off the old block” or “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree”, what they mean is: you are very similar in character to your father or mother. You are like your parents, in other words.

Today we continue our series in the New Testament letter of 1st Peter, taking a closer look at chapter 1, verses 13-21. In this passage Peter focuses on his readers’ personal relationship with God the Father. Because God has given us new birth into a living hope (1:3) we are now his children. And as his children, we need to ensure we are a ‘chip off the old block’ (no disrespect intended). If God is the tree, then we are to be the apple that doesn’t fall far from the tree. In other words, our character should be like that of God our Father. Holy. From 1st Peter, chapter 1, verses 13-21 we read…

13 Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope on the grace to be brought to youwhen Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming. 14 As obedientchildren, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. 15 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16 for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”

17 Since you call on a Fatherwho judges each person’s workimpartially, live out your time as foreignershere in reverent fear. 18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemedfrom the empty way of lifehanded down to you from your ancestors, 19 but with the precious bloodof Christ, a lambwithout blemish or defect. 20 He was chosen before the creation of the world,but was revealed in these last times for your sake. 21 Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.

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

There are three main ideas I want to draw out of today’s reading: Holy hope, reverent fear and costly redemption. First let us consider the holy hope to which we are called.

Holy hope:

Last week we heard about hope. Hope is the capacity to imagine a good future. Hope is like a rope connecting the future to the present. When we are struggling to keep our head above water, hope connects us – it keeps us afloat and allows us to imagine things will turn out well in the end.

Christian hope is not a long shot. Christian hope is a sure thing because it is based on something that has already happened – the resurrection of Jesus.

Christian hope is also a holy kind of hope. It is the expectation that we will become like Christ – a genuine chip off the old block.

In verses 13-16, of chapter 1, Peter makes a connection between hope and holiness. To clarify what Peter is saying here I’ve come up with an acrostic which spells the word H.O.P.E.

H stands for the holiness of hope

O is for the obedience of hope

P stands for the preparedness of hope, and…

E is the expectation of hope

We’ll start with the expectation of hope and work backwards from there.

In verse 13 Peter instructs his readers to set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming.

The expectation of Christian hope is that we will receive grace (and not punishment or wrath) when Jesus returns in glory. To expect grace is look forward in anticipation of receiving something good.

When I was in standard 1 (Year 3 by today’s terms) I was called out of class to meet the headmaster in the gym. As I entered the gym I saw other kids of all ages throughout the school gathered too. I had no idea why we were there. The headmaster stood up and explained that each of us were going to receive an award at the end of year prize giving.

I was not told what prize I was going to get, just that I had to sit up on the stage and come to the front when my name was called. From that moment on I waited in eager expectation that something good was coming my way. When my name was called I received a certificate for most improved student and a picture book, which I still have.

It’s a bit like that with being a Christian. We have been selected to receive a prize, not because of anything we’ve done necessarily, but because God is gracious. We don’t know what the prize will be but we do know it is something good to look forward to in eager expectation.      

The E of Christian hope stands for expectation and the P stands for preparedness.

Verse 13 of chapter 1 begins with Peter saying: Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you… 

The reason they called us to the gym before the prize-giving is so we would be prepared. They wanted us to be there on time, in the right place and dressed appropriately, in our full uniforms. They also wanted us to be on our best behaviour, to be self-controlled, since we were going to be on the stage for everyone to see.

When Peter says, prepare your minds for action, he means, ‘gird up the loins of your mind’. To gird up the loins is an Old Testament phrase. In the ancient near east men wore long robes (sort of like Jedi knights). If they needed to make haste or do some manual labour they would hitch their robe up into their belt so they could move more freely. These days we might say, ‘Roll up your sleeves’ or ‘Get stuck into it’.

Christian hope is not a lazy or dreamy thing. Christian hope means rolling up the sleeves of your mind, getting your brain into gear and being mentally prepared.      

Karen Jobes notes how “Girding up the loins” may be an allusion to Exodus 12:11, where the Lord instructs his people to prepare for the exodus by eating their final meal in Egypt with their sandals on and their loins girded”. [1] That is, prepared and ready to go at a moment’s notice.

Returning to 1st Peter 1:13, the word translated as self-controlled is literally ‘be sober’. People who have no hope might drown their sorrows (they might get drunk). But Christians have real hope and so we have no need to find comfort in a bottle.

Like a batsman in cricket, facing a fast bowler, we must be mentally prepared and self-controlled with each ball that comes our way. We don’t want to nick ourselves out or miss the opportunity to put away a bad delivery.

The O in Christian hope stands for obedience. In verse 14 Peter writes: As obedient children do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance.

God’s grace does not give us a license to do whatever we want. Christian freedom comes with the responsibility to obey God. Indeed, the fruit of Christian faith is obedience. The kingdom of heaven is a place where God’s will is done perfectly. This means heaven is a place where God is obeyed, willingly and with love.

If our hope includes heaven then we need to get some practice in and obey God now, in this life. Obedience can feel difficult in this world, because there are forces within us (and around us) that work against God’s will. But part of our hope, part of the grace we look forward to with eager expectation, is that obedience in the kingdom of heaven will come more naturally, more easily.   

The H of Christian hope stands for holiness. In verse 15 Peter says: But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do;  

To be holy is to be set apart for a special or sacred purpose. As I’ve said on other occasions, your tooth brush is holy, set apart for your mouth. You don’t use your toothbrush to clean the toilet. A table is set apart for food. You don’t put your bottom on the dinner table.

Holiness is about moral purity and integrity. Holiness is about living in a distinctive way from the society and culture around you. To be holy is to be light in the darkness.  

We note too that we are to be holy in all we do. Our hope is to be fully set on the grace to be given us. Holiness is not a half-hearted thing. Holiness speaks of wholeness or fullness. Oneness. Last week I used the analogy of hope as a rope or a life-line. If you are drowning and someone throws you a life-line, you hold onto that rope of hope fully, with both hands and with all your strength, because it is your salvation.

In verse 16 Peter quotes from the Old Testament book of Leviticus where God says to Israel: “Be holy, because I am holy.” God’s people are to reflect God’s holy character, even though this makes them strangers in this world.

Christian hope is characterised by holy living, obedience to God the Father, preparedness for action and expectation of grace when Jesus returns.

Reverent fear:

The second idea I want to draw your attention to this morning is that of reverent fear. In verse 17 Peter writes: Since you call on a Fatherwho judges each person’s workimpartially, live out your time as foreignershere in reverent fear.

In verse 13 Peter had just talked about setting our hope on the grace to be given us when Jesus is revealed. Now, in verse 17, he talks about God’s judgement. These two ideas, judgement and grace, may appear to be at odds with each other. But they actually work together like two cogs in a clock which, although moving in opposite directions, actually function in harmony to keep the clock in time.

Or to use another analogy, our faith in God is like a guitar string, held in tension. One end of the string is anchored to the bridge, on the body of the guitar, and the other end is tied to the tuning keys on the head of the guitar. If the string is too loose it makes a dead, limp sort of sound. And if it is too tight it sounds out of tune and is at risk of breaking.

As Christian believers we need to hold the judgement of God at just the right tension with the grace of God. If the string of our faith is too tight – if we only ever think of God as a stern dispassionate judge – then our faith will sound highly strung and is at risk of snapping. But if we go to the other extreme of thinking that God is an over indulgent Father, who will forgive us without requiring confession or repentance, then our faith will make a dead, limp sound.

Yes, God is a loving Father who longs to show grace to his human children. But at the same time he is also an impartial judge who must be true to his own character and carry out justice. God’s grace and judgement are not separate. They are one – part of the same instrument. But they need to be held in the right tension, by faith, if we are to be in tune with God.           

So what is reverent fear? Well, reverent fear is the note that sounds when grace and judgement are held in tune.

Reverent fear is not so much the fear of being punished if you do something wrong. That would be a denial of our hope of grace. Perfect love drives out the fear of punishment. Reverent fear is the fear of not giving glory to God by the way we live our lives.

Reverent fear is like when someone represents their country in sport. The sports-person feels a great honour in representing their country and does not want to let their team down. The fear is not of being punished but rather of disgracing yourself by dropping the ball.

As Christians we have been given a great honour in representing God. Our greatest fear is not punishment. No, our greatest fear is failing to give our best for God. We don’t want to look back at our life, from the vantage point of eternity, and feel ashamed or have regrets. That’s the fear.       

Reverent fear is often the attitude of fathers as they drive their wife and new born baby home from the hospital. A man never drives as carefully as when he has his children in his car. It’s not that he is afraid of getting a speeding ticket. He drives with reverent fear because he wants to protect the precious life on board. Reverent fear is not about punishment. It’s about care and respect.  

When Robyn and I were married, a friend of ours (Geoff) made a metal stand for our wedding cake. Geoff had a degree in physics and he was a welder. The two tiers of the cake stand were welded together by a rod of steel, in the shape of a spiral.

Geoff made that cake stand in reverent fear. By which I mean he took great care in his work to ensure the welding was sound and the cake stand stable. Geoff was not fearful of being punished if the welding did not stick. Rather he was more concerned that our wedding cake not be ruined by faulty workmanship. Geoff did a good job. His workmanship was vindicated. The stand stood.

The main purpose of God’s judgement (at the end of time) is to vindicate God. Judgement day is a day when God’s workmanship (His justice and goodness) are revealed and people see that God’s work was sound and true all along.

Holy hope, reverent fear and costly redemption.

Costly redemption:

In 1998 the film Saving Private Ryan was released in New Zealand. The premise of the movie is that Private James Ryan is one of four sons serving in active combat during the Second World War. Each of his three brothers have been killed in combat and so James is the sole survivor. To prevent the family from losing all their boys, Captain John Millar and his platoon are assigned the task of searching for and redeeming the life of Private Ryan, who is somewhere in France behind enemy lines.

Although the movie is fictional it draws on the story of a real life soldier called Fritz Niland. I’m not sure of the details of Fritz’ story but Private Ryan’s redemption was a costly one indeed. While James Ryan was rescued and went on to live a long and full life, only one member of John Miller’s platoon survived. Private Ryan was redeemed by the blood of his fellow soldiers.   

From verse 18 of chapter 1 Peter writes: For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemedfrom the empty way of lifehanded down to you from your ancestors, 19 but with the precious bloodof Christ, a lambwithout blemish or defect.  

Peter is talking here about costly redemption. So what is redemption?

Redemption is being released from one state of being into another better state of being.  Private Ryan was rescued from behind enemy lines and released from active duty. He was taken out of a combat zone and allowed to return home.

In the ancient world of the first century, slaves could be redeemed when someone paid money to buy their freedom. Once they had been redeemed the person was a slave no longer. Their status changed from slave to freeman.

God redeemed the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt. That is, God set his people free. He did not do this by paying a fee to Pharaoh. He did it by his mighty power. The people of Israel went from living in a foreign land under a state of oppression to (eventually) entering the Promised Land where they were free to serve the Lord God and not Pharaoh.

In some ways the kind of world we live in today (a world organised against God) is a state of oppression. God is redeeming us (or releasing us) from the kingdom of this world and into the kingdom of heaven where we are truly free to do his will.

Another Old Testament reference to redemption relates to the exile. In Isaiah 52:2-3 the prophet says: Shake off your dust; rise up, sit enthroned, O Jerusalem. Free yourself from the chains on your neck, O captive Daughter of Zion. For this is what the Lord says: “You were sold for nothing, and without money you will be redeemed.”

Isaiah is talking here about the redemption (or setting free) of the Jews scattered in exile throughout Babylon and Assyria. It is a message of holy hope. God is going to open the door for the exiles to return home to Jerusalem.

Picking up this metaphor of the people of God as exiles and strangers, Peter addresses the Christians scattered throughout Asia Minor as strangers or sojourners. God is redeeming those who believe in Jesus, from their long exile in this world, and bringing them home to the heavenly Jerusalem.      

This redemption is achieved not with money but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. There is nothing more precious in all of creation than a human life. And there is no human being more perfect than Jesus. The Lord’s costly redemption reveals the depth of God’s love. 

Peter is stressing the costliness of our redemption here. Jesus is the unblemished sacrificial lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Jesus’ blood shed on the cross seals the deal, releasing us from the oppressive power of sin and death into a state of righteousness and eternal life.

In verse 20 Peter explains how Jesus, the Christ, was chosen before the creation of the world but was revealed in these last times for your sake.

This speaks of God’s foreknowledge. It tells us that God had a plan to redeem his creation even before he made the world.

It is through Jesus that we are able to believe in God. It’s not just that Jesus makes us aware that God’s exists. Nature does that. It’s more that Jesus shows us what it means to be truly human, made in the image of God.

When you are renovating your house it is helpful to have a picture in mind (a vision) of what you want your house to look like when it is finished. Same thing when cooking a meal. If you are following a recipe it helps to have a picture of what the meal is supposed to look like when it is ready. Jesus is the picture of what humanity is supposed to look like after our redemption is complete.

It is because God redeemed us with the blood of his own son that we can believe that he loves us. Furthermore, it is because God has raised Jesus from the dead that we can believe God will raise us also and make us truly human like Jesus. So your faith and hope are in God.

Jesus is the bridge. He is the pathway on which we walk by faith out of slavery to the Promised Land. Out of our exile, in the Babylon of this world, and into the heavenly Jerusalem.  

The thing we need to understand about being redeemed is that we are not set free to do whatever we want. We now belong to the one who redeemed us. We belong to God the Father in other words.  

So if we are not free to do what we want, what are we free to do?

We are free to call God our Father.

We are free from the emptiness and spiritual ignorance of our past.

And we are free to emulate (or to copy) God’s holiness.  

Conclusion:

Not only does God’s costly redemption make holiness possible, it also makes God’s love visible.

May 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?

  • What is the expectation of Christian hope?
  • How might we prepare our minds for action?
  • What does holiness look like for you personally? How do we live a holy life?
  • Why do we need to hold God’s judgment in tension with his grace? How well tuned is the string of your faith? Is it too highly strung (overly weighted towards God’s judgement)? Or is it too limp (biased towards God’s grace)?
  • What does it mean to live in reverent fear?  How is this different from living in fear of punishment?
  • What does Peter mean by redemption?
  • How do you feel when you consider the costliness of your redemption?  

[1] Karen Jobes’ commentary on 1st Peter, page 111.

Tawa Baptist

Now Unto Him

Scripture: Jude 24-25

Structure:

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

Introduction:

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

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

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

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

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

Preventing a disaster:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Keeping the end in sight:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Giving God the glory:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Conclusion:

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

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

Let’s stand and sing…

Now unto Him who is able to keep

Able to keep you from falling

And present you faultless before the presence of His glory

With exceeding joy

To the only wise God, our Saviour

Be glory and majesty, dominion and power

Both now and forever, Amen. 

Questions for discussion or reflection:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tawa Baptist

Mirrors & Reflections

Scriptures: Genesis 1:26-27; John 1:14-18; John 15:8 & 2 Corinthians 4:6-15

Title: Mirrors and reflections

Key Idea: Our mission is to glorify God and be a blessing to His world

Later this morning, during the AGM, we plan to quiz you on the content of the Annual Report – I’ve got a warm-up question for you now

  • What did I see as I walked the streets of Tawa early in June this year?
  • [Wait] That’s right. A kowhai tree

Kowhai 1

And what was significant about this tree?

  • It was in full flower at the beginning winter; 3 months earlier than usual

The tree, which was on Lincoln Ave, was full of Tui (I counted at least seven) all feeding off the nectar of the flowers

  • I stood and watched the Tui in the kowhai tree for nearly 10 minutes
  • It was a beautiful sight, a glorious sight, and I found myself quietly praising God under my breath
  • The kowhai tree was a blessing to the Tui and a blessing to me

This morning, because it’s AGM Sunday, we are taking a break from our sermon series in Ephesians to focus on our church’s mission

For many years now we have expressed the church’s mission with the words:

  • To glorify God and be a blessing to His world
  • I don’t talk about this very much and probably should put it before you more often than I have – but there it is

 

To glorify God, means to show others what God is like

  • To reflect His good character
  • To praise His name and give God the credit or the honour

To be a blessing, means to communicate through word and deed something of God’s love and truth and presence to others

  • To do something that enhances someone’s else’s well-being

‘Glorifying God’ and ‘being a blessing’ are two sides of the same coin

  • When we glorify God by showing others God’s grace and truth, His justice and mercy, the world is blessed

This statement also reminds us that our mission is to God’s world

  • The church does not exist only for itself
  • We are here both for those within the church and those outside of it
  • So it’s not all about us
  • Our purpose, our ‘why’, our reason for being is God and the world

 

Some of you may be wondering, where did this mission statement come from?

  • Well, it comes from the Bible and from Christian tradition
  • The shorter Westminster catechism sounds similar a note where it says: “The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.”
  • The people who penned that were drawing from the meta narrative (the big story) of the Bible when they wrote

Right throughout the Bible we read about God’s glory and the role of God’s people in mediating His blessing

Ask for a volunteer

  • All you need to do is stand at the front here with your back to the audience. You don’t need to say anything and you can’t turn around

Position myself with a mirror facing the volunteer so the congregation can see the face of the volunteer reflected in the mirror.

Put up your hand if you can see [volunteer’s] face reflected in the mirror

  • What if I do this with the mirror – can you see now?
  • Try the mirror in a variety of positions and get the congregation’s feedback
  • What if the mirror was all dirty? You wouldn’t be able to see as clearly

Okay, thanks, you can sit down now

At the beginning of the Bible, in Genesis chapter 1, we read… 

Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness… So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them.

Our purpose as human beings is to glorify God

  • To glorify God means to show others what God is like
  • God created us to be like mirrors – to reflect His image to all of creation,
  • Sort of like the mirror reflected [volunteer’s] image so you could see her face
  • In practical terms this means that God wants us to shows others what His kindness and love and forgiveness and truth and care is like

Unfortunately, the mirror of our lives gets a bit dirty sometimes or it’s pointing in the wrong direction so we don’t reflect God’s image very well

  • When that happens we need to clean the mirror and reposition it

There are many stories in the Bible of how God has elected certain people to glorify Himself and be a blessing to His world

  • For example, the Lord said to Abraham, “…all peoples on earth will be blessed through you,”
  • God’s plan was for Abraham’s descendants, the nation of Israel, to show the other nations of the world what God is like and, in so doing, enhance their well-being
  • God gave Israel His law (the 10 commandments and so forth) to reveal His goodness and justice
  • Sometimes Israel managed to glorify God and be a blessing, and other times they failed miserably
  • Eventually, when the time was right, God sent His Son, Jesus, to show us how it is done. From the gospel of John chapter 1 we read about Jesus…

And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth… From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.  No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.

In other words, Jesus glorifies God

  • Jesus shows us, better than anyone or anything else, what God is like
  • Jesus fulfils the purpose of humanity in being the perfect image of God
  • And therefore we need to look to Jesus to see what God is like and to see how to be human

As well as a mission statement our church also has a vision statement

  • A vision is a picture of what we are aiming for
  • If our mission statement is about purpose, then our vision statement is about hope
  • Why are we here? To glorify God and be a blessing to His world
  • What does that look like? It looks like Jesus; or as we phrase it, Christ in community.
  • We don’t have time this morning to explore what we mean by Christ in community, suffice to say that Jesus shows us how to glorify God and be a blessing to the world

 

Now it is important to understand that there is nothing we can do to add to God’s glory – His glory is perfect or complete already

  • God doesn’t need us to fill up the tank of His ego
  • Or to make Him look good – he already looks good
  • We can’t improve on His perfection

 

  • We are the mirror – the mirror doesn’t add anything to the image, it simply reflects what is already there

So when we talk about glorifying God we really mean reflecting or revealing the goodness of God that has always been there since before creation

In the same vein of thought, there is nothing we can do to create or manufacture blessing

  • In blessing others, we are simply passing on the blessings we ourselves have received from God – we are paying it forward

Lift up a plate covered with a tea-towel

  • I have here a plate with a number of items on it
  • You can’t see what is on this plate because it is covered with a tea towel
  • Would anyone like to guess what is on this plate? [Wait]
  • Okay, they were interesting guesses.
  • Let’s see what actually is on the plate [remove the tea towel]
  • It’s a fruit platter: we’ve got an apple, a banana, a mandarin, a lemon and a kiwifruit

Glorifying God is like removing the tea towel to reveal what God is like underneath; removing the tea towel doesn’t add anything to the plate it just shows people what’s there

  • God is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and quick to forgive and a whole lot of other really wholesome things besides

Now, imagine you’ve never tasted any of these kinds of fruit before

  • I could try to explain to you what the fruit tastes like, by saying its yummy, or its sweet or its juicy, but you wouldn’t really understand, not until you tasted the fruit for yourself
  • People taste what God is like when they experience Jesus through us
  • Our lives are like the plate that holds or displays the fruit of God’s goodness

In John 15, Jesus says to his disciples…

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine-grower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit…

Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing…

My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.

The kind of fruit I believe Jesus had in mind here includes things like: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control

  • When people see and taste that kind of fruit in our lives they are blessed and God is glorified; much like the Tui feeding off the nectar of the kowhai tree

When we are able to tell others about the good things God has done in our lives, naturally and without embarrassment, we glorify God

  • There is so much hope and meaning in the Christian faith; when we are able to find wise and creative ways to communicate that hope and meaning, we glorify God
  • When we have the humility to admit we were wrong and the courage to put things right, we glorify God
  • When we have the grace to forgive those who have hurt us, we glorify God
  • When we have the faithfulness to keep our commitments, even though it is not convenient to us, we glorify God
  • When we have the patience to handle someone else’s anger with gentleness, we glorify God
  • When we have the faith to be generous and not worry too much about tomorrow, we glorify God
  • To be able to bear this sort of fruit we need to stay close to Jesus

 

One of the things you may notice about our mission is that it’s quite broad and inclusive – a lot of different things could fit under the framework of glorifying God and being a blessing. That’s intentional.

  • The glory of God is broad and the richness of His blessing is wide
  • God is glorified in many different ways

A child glorifies God by their innocence, their uncomplicated trust, their delight and their wonder

  • Young people bless us with their energy, their fresh ideas and their belief that, together, we can make a positive difference in this world
  • Those of us in mid-life tend to bless others by providing support and scaffolding for young and old alike
  • And those who are older glorify God by keeping the faith – they bless us with the wisdom and perspective that comes with experience
  • Older people often don’t realise how valuable their presence, their prayers, their support and their encouragement are to the rest of us

I’m speaking in generalisations of course and don’t mean to draw too sharp a distinction between the generations

  • Older people can still glorify God through their delight and wonder
  • And those in mid-life can still bring fresh ideas
  • Just as our young people can bless us with their service
  • The point is, everyone has a something to offer – God is able to use us all to glorify Himself and be a blessing to His world

 

Sometimes we may think we that we can only glorify God and be a blessing from a position of strength, but this is not true

    • God often uses our weakness and suffering to glorify Himself
  • As we heard Jesus say in John 15, God prunes every branch that bears fruit to make it bear more fruit…

 

  • Pruning hurts – it is not usually pleasant
  • Suffering and glory go hand in hand

In John 11, Mary and Martha sent a message to Jesus to say that their brother Lazarus was ill, and Jesus responded by saying…

  • ‘This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God’s glory’

 

    • By the time Jesus arrived in the town of Bethany, Lazarus had been dead four days, and the sisters were in pain, grieving
    • Nevertheless, Jesus said, ‘Take away the stone’
    • When Martha protested that there would be a stench Jesus said to her,
  • ‘Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God’

 

  • So they took the stone away and Jesus called Lazarus back from the dead

The miracle Jesus performed in raising Lazarus was a sign pointing to Jesus’ own glorification – his death and resurrection

  • It seems in this life we can’t glorify God without suffering

In 2nd Corinthians chapter 4 Paul connects our weakness & troubles with God’s glory, when he writes…

For God…made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.

  • In other words, Jesus shows us what God is like and God helps us to understand this in our inner being. Paul continues…

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.

  • ‘Jars of clay’ is a reference to our earthly bodies
  • A jar of clay is something humble and fragile; as opposed to a gold cup
  • God is glorified, His power it seen more clearly, in our weakness

We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.

  • Which is another way of saying, Jesus is glorified through our suffering and troubles

…we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to himself. All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.

  • In other words, Jesus is our vision (our hope)
  • Jesus’ experience provides the picture or the pattern for us to follow
  • And the pattern is suffering, death and then resurrection to eternal life

Therefore, we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.

  • The glory of God is a weighty thing, a meaningful thing, an enduring thing, a thing of substance
  • When we share in the sufferings of Christ, God shares His glory with us
  • Suffering in this life is the price we pay for glory, but really it’s a small price to pay in the light of eternity

I know that many of you face difficulties and challenges – perhaps with your health or with your family or in some other way

  • You may not always feel like you are glorifying God or being a blessing but it does not depend on you – not entirely
  • It is something God does when we remain in Christ
  • God is the great artist painting a masterpiece with our lives – he uses all the colours of our character and circumstances to display His glory
  • One of the joys of heaven will be seeing what God has done with our lives to reveal Himself and to bless others

 

There is a lot more we could say about all of this but that’s enough for now.

 

Questions for discussion or reflection:

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

2. What does it mean to glorify God?

3. What does it mean to be a blessing to God’s world?

4. How do we know what God is like?

5. In John 15 Jesus talks about himself as the vine and us as the branches. He then says God is glorified by the fruit we bear and by us becoming his disciples.

  • What is the fruit Jesus is talking about? (Give practical examples)
  • Abiding in Christ is the key to being fruitful. How do we abide in Christ?

6. Can you think of someone who glorifies God through their weakness or suffering?

7. What is your purpose (mission) in life?

  • How does this fit with God’s purpose/mission?

 

Tawa Baptist

Hope

Scripture: Mark 8:31-33 & 10:46-52

Title: Hope

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Bartimaeus’ hope – Mark 10:46-52
  • Peter’s hope – Mark 8:31-33
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Earlier in the year I preached a message on well-being and care of the soul, using the acronym: HEALING.

–         Each letter represents a word which, when properly applied, is life giving to the human soul…

–         Hope Energy Appreciation Lament Inter-dependence Nurture & Giving

–         At the time I touched lightly on each word and said I would come back later to explore the ideas in more depth

–         Now that we have finished our series on Abraham we can do this

–         Today our message focuses on hope

Hope is a very popular (in) word at the moment

–         It is rightly thought to be one of the life lines for those who experience depression – we see images on TV of John Kirwan writing the word ‘hope’ in the sand on the beach

But what is hope – what does it mean?

–         Well, to hope is to want something to happen

–         Hope, therefore, is a desire or a longing that is yet to be realised

–         Hope imagines something good and believes it can happen

–         We express our hope to God in prayer

–         In the Lord’s Prayer, for example, we say to God, ‘Your will be done, your kingdom come’ – which expresses our desire, our hope for heaven on earth

–         Prayer is important because it fosters hope

–         Hope requires some measure of faith or trust as we wait for our longings and expectations to be fulfilled

 

Developing our definition further, we could say hope is the capacity or ability to handle opposition, perspective and expectation (another acronym)

–         To help us understand this dynamic of handling opposition perspective and expectation let’s read a gospel story of hope realised, from Mark 10…

 

Bartimaeus’ Hope – Mark 10:46-52

As Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus (which means “son of Timaeus”), was sitting by the roadside begging. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more,

“Son of David, have mercy on me!”

Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.”

So they called to the blind man, “Cheer up! On your feet! He’s calling you.”

Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus.

“What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked him.

The blind man said, “Rabbi, I want to see.”

“Go,” said Jesus, “your faith has healed you.”

Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.

 

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate this Scripture for us

 

Handling hope is a bit like flying a kite – you need three things…

–         A sail to catch the wind

–         A string to hold onto the kite

–         And wind to lift the kite up

 

Perspective is like the sail of the kite

–         Our perspective needs to be set at just the right angle to catch the wind and it needs a tail to keep it balanced

 

The string represents expectation – we control the kite of hope by managing our expectations

–         If we don’t have enough string (or expectation) our hope never climbs very high

–         But if we let our expectations get out of hand we risk losing hope altogether

 

The wind represents some difficulty or challenge or opposition

–         A kite rises against the wind, not with it

–         Without an opposing wind, hope doesn’t rise

 

Bartimaeus faced some winds of difficulty and opposition in his life

–         For starters he was blind, a significant obstacle in that context

–         He also faced the difficulty of living under enemy occupation

–         And, when he called out for Jesus to have mercy on him, Bartimaeus faced opposition from the crowd who tried to silence him

 

But Bartimaeus wouldn’t be silenced – he maintained the sail of his perspective that Jesus is the Son of David and the kite of his hope rose

–         That expression Son of David is code for ‘Messiah’

–         From Bartimaeus’ perspective Jesus was the true King of Israel, not Caesar

–         In naming Jesus as the Messiah, Bartimaeus was giving voice to the hopes and expectations of many of the people in the crowd

–         Perhaps the ones trying to silence him were afraid he might start a riot

 

Hope is good for the soul in that it generates its own positive energy

–         We call that energy joy

–         It’s the joy of expectation – of anticipating something good coming our way – of looking forward to our desire being realised

–         The joy or positive energy of hope is powerful – it can’t really be contained

–         That’s why hope is so important in helping to combat depression

–         Bartimaeus’ joy at hearing that Jesus was passing by only heightened his expectation of salvation, causing him to hold more tightly to the string of hope by continuing to call out for mercy

 

Okay, if hope is the expectation of something we want to happen then it logically follows that the opposite of hope is the expectation of what we don’t want to happen

–         The feeling that comes with the expectation of something bad happening can be described in a number of ways including, fear, worry or anxiety

–         Hope and anxiety are often in a wrestling match within us

–         For Bartimaeus, hope in Jesus overcame fear of the crowd and the Romans

–         But it’s not always like that for us, is it

–         We don’t want to worry, we don’t want to be anxious for anything, but sometimes (or perhaps a lot of the time) we can’t help it

–         Anxiety can be a brutal master – but Jesus is Lord, not anxiety

 

In Matthew 6 Jesus says to those who are anxious…

–         Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

–         Jesus then goes on to talk about how God clothes the lilies of the field

–         Jesus is saying here that we can find release from our anxiety when we change our perspective – when we take the focus off ourselves and our problems by looking outward to nature and to God

 

‘Look at the birds… look at the lilies of the field’ – in other words: spend time in nature, observe God’s creation, it will renew your mind

–         Being in the bush or by the sea or up a mountain grounds us – it puts us in touch with what is real and it gives our mind a break from our fears

 

But to get the most out being in nature we need to look for the ways that God is active and present in caring for his creation

–         We need to think about God as a good and loving Father who values us and wants to give us good things

–         One of the reasons we sing songs of adoration & praise to God is to restore our perspective – to remind ourselves that it doesn’t all depend on me

–         To be filled again with a sense of wonder at the largeness of God and consequently the smallness of our problems

 

Now for those of you who are struggling with significant levels of anxiety these measures (of spending time in creation and contemplating God’s care) are likely to be helpful but may not be the whole answer – there are other things that can help with anxiety as well, and we’ll touch on some of these in the coming weeks

–         Two things I’ve learned from my own experience

–         Most of my fears are never realised – most of the things I get anxious about never actually happen

–         But when bad things do happen I always seem to survive and somehow God uses that experience for good – he redeems it

–         So hold on, with God’s help you will get through this

 

Peter’s Hope – Mark 8:31-33

So far we have talked about the positive aspects of hope, but it needs to be said that hope is not always a good thing

–         If hope is about desire & expectation and we place our hope in something that is ultimately not good for us, nor good for others, then it can be destructive to the human soul

At least three times in the gospels Jesus tells his disciples how he must suffer & die before being raised from the dead

–         One of the reasons Jesus did this (I imagine) was to balance the disciples’ perspective and help them to manage their expectations

From Mark chapter 8 we read…

He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”

Clearly Peter’s hopes and expectations for Jesus were quite different from what God had in mind

–         Perhaps Peter was wanting Jesus to be a military & political leader like David or Solomon – perhaps he was expecting Jesus to destroy the Romans

–         Certainly he wasn’t expecting Jesus to suffer & die

 

We might hear that line about Jesus referring to Peter as ‘Satan’ and feel a bit chilly, a bit uncomfortable – ouch that must of hurt Peter

–         But, if hoping amounts to coveting what others have, then it is not good for our soul and we can’t expect Jesus to bless it

–         Or, if hope amounts to wanting revenge or political advantage, then hope has become hate and we can’t expect Jesus to help us realise our desires

–         Hope can be detrimental to the soul when it is misplaced or disappointed and so we need to be careful what we hope for

–         It was kinder for Jesus to adjust Peter’s expectations, by speaking the difficult truth, than for Peter to go too far down the path of misplaced hope

 

If we widen our perspective on these verses we find an application for ourselves

–         Mark 8:31-33 provides a key for helping us to handle opposition, perspective and expectation

–         Jesus is saying here, following me is not an easy ride

–         You can expect some opposition & difficulty in this life

–         For Jesus opposition came in the form of rejection, betrayal & crucifixion

–         We probably won’t suffer as much as Jesus did, but, because of our association with Jesus, we can’t expect everyone to love us or accept us

–         There will be times when we face the dark night of the soul – when everything seems bleak and we feel like God is absent

–         The bigger perspective to hold on to is that our suffering is only temporary but the glory of heaven is forever

–         This life is just a drop in the ocean of eternity

–         Through Jesus the grief of death is followed by the joy of resurrection

–         As Laurie Guy says, “Human hope is based on divine suffering” [1]

 

In talking about hope we must acknowledge despair

–         Despair isn’t so much the opposite of hope

–         Despair is the utter loss of hope.

–         To despair is to lose the ability to believe that what we want could ever happen – despair is the death of desire and consequently the death of joy

–         To despair is to feel powerless – it is to think that nothing we do will make any difference

 

Despair is a terrible place to be – and when we are in despair we think it will never end, but it does end (nothing lasts)

–         It’s like the clouds of depression hang low & thick so we can’t see the sun’s rays of hope and everything is grey & gloomy

–         But just because you can’t see the sun behind the clouds doesn’t mean the sun isn’t there

–         Hold on – the clouds will pass and the sun will become visible again

 

In the same way that not all hope is good, so too not all despair is bad

–         Despair is a good thing if what we hope for is a bad thing

 

If you are in a place of despair at the moment then know that God is able to redeem the experience and use it for good

–         Despair has a way of purifying our desires

–         Despair can kill off those desires which are not Godly or life-giving, to make room for the new growth of desires that are good for our soul

–         As painful as it is there is a certain clarity that comes with despair

–         Bartimaeus saw Jesus with a clarity that others with sight didn’t have

–         I imagine despair had killed off Bartimaeus’ desire for more worldly pursuits and refined his hope in the Lord – in God’s Messiah

–         I expect that Bartimaeus wanted Jesus to restore his sight not just for the obvious reasons but more importantly so he could see Jesus for himself

 

Let me tell you a story about a young man named Jethro

–         Jethro grew up in a fairly well to do family

–         As a child Jethro didn’t really know what hope was because all his desires were taken care of – he didn’t really want for anything

–         He was, as Pink Floyd would say, ‘comfortably numb’

But all was not as it seemed on the surface

–         Jethro’s dad worked in finance and when the market crashed he wasn’t able to keep his family in the lifestyle to which they had become accustomed

–         Jethro’s dad started drinking too much – well, he had actually always drunk too much but now it was more noticeable

–         Not only that but he started gambling to try and recoup what the economic recession had consumed

–         The TAB and the pokies seemed to offer hope of redemption

–         Unfortunately, not everyone is a winner babe, and the boat, the bach, the car and eventually even the family home were sold to repay gambling debts

–         Jethro’s dad had misplaced his hope

By this stage Jethro was no longer numb – he had started to gamble with hope himself, although not in exactly the same way as his father

–         Jethro’s longing, his greatest desire, was to make his dad proud of him

–         And to this end he found himself half way through a finance degree

–         Now let me say, there is nothing wrong with doing a finance degree or working in the stock market, if that is what your passion and calling is

–         We need Christian businesspeople

–         But finance wasn’t really Jethro’s passion or calling – he was just doing it in the vain hope of winning his father’s approval

–         Sadly, it didn’t matter how many A’s Jethro got, his father kept on a downward spiral and the approval he craved from his dad never came

–         Jethro’s hope just kept being disappointed

To avoid too much student debt Jethro lived at home while studying at university and as a consequence he got to witness most of his parents’ arguments

–         In the end, when his mother had had enough, she threw his father out

–         It was a survival thing more than anything – she had to do it to save herself. No sense in being dragged down further by her husband’s problems

Jethro remembers watching his dad walk away and realising in that moment that he was never going to win his father’s approval

–         The hope that had once motivated him to succeed in business school was lost – it just emptied out of him like diarrhoea

–         For the first time in his life Jethro felt despair – the death of desire

–         There didn’t seem like much point in finishing his degree after that

The next year was extremely difficult for Jethro – he felt lost, abandoned and sad

–         Nothing gave him pleasure anymore

–         Depression is a vicious cycle – when we are in pain we tend to withdraw from people because there is too much risk in getting close – it hurts to be touched – but the more we withdraw the more isolated & lonely we feel

–         And loneliness feeds depression

–         Jethro would have self-medicated with alcohol except there was a deep anger in him that refused to be like his father

At the time Jethro thought the pain he felt would never end – but it did

–         Not overnight or all at once, but gradually, like ice thawing

Looking back Jethro could see that losing hope had purged him of his demons – despair had changed his perspective and given him clarity

–         It became clear to Jethro that putting his hope in things like making lots of money or gaining his father’s approval was wasted

Unexpectedly Jethro’s despair drew him closer to God (his heavenly Father) – the suffering of Jesus helped him to make sense of his own suffering & loss

–         Or to put it another way, suffering opened Jethro’s eyes to see who Jesus really is

New shoots of hope sprang forth

–         Jethro started to reconnect with people and he retrained as a teacher – now he finds meaning in helping others to develop their potential

–         He still has the odd dark day now and then but they are few and far between

–         For the most part Jethro is able to enjoy life again

As it turned out, Jethro’s dad came right too

–         He didn’t get back together with his wife, but he did give up the drinking and the gambling and made his peace with the family

 

Conclusion:

Each of us has a slightly different experience of hope and despair – maybe your experience is similar to Jethro’s, maybe it’s different

–         The point is, we need to place our hope in that which is worthy of us and Jesus is worthy – hope in Jesus is hope well placed.

–         Jesus doesn’t promise to give us everything we want or expect – sometimes he makes us wait – but ultimately, in him, we find abundant life

 

Let me finish with some words of hope from the book of Revelation

–         To those early Christians who faced much opposition from the Roman Empire, the apostle John gives an eternal perspective…

–         He who sits on the throne will protect them with his presence. Never again will they hunger or thirst; neither sun nor any scorching heat will burn them, because the Lamb, who is in the centre of the throne, will be their shepherd and he will guide them to springs of life-giving water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

 

Questions for Discussion or Reflection:

1.)    What stands out for you in reading these Scriptures and/or in listening to the sermon?

2.)    What is hope?

3.)    In what sense is opposition or difficulty necessary for hope?

–         Can you think of other Bible verses (or stories) that show a connection between opposition/difficulty and hope? (E.g. Romans 5:1-11)

–         When has hope been most real in your own life?

4.)    What can we do to combat anxiety?

5.)    When is hope good for us?

–         When is hope bad or dangerous?

6.)    What did Jesus say to manage people’s expectations or adjust their perspective when they had misplaced hopes? (E.g. Mark 8:31-33; Matthew 5:11-12, etc.)

7.)    How might we be helpful to someone who is in despair?

–         Or, reflecting on your own experience of despair, what was most helpful to you?

8.)    Take some time this week to simply be in nature and meditate on God’s love, care & provision for you and/or those close to you.

 

[1] Laurie Guy, ‘Unlocking Revelation’, page 64.

Tawa Baptist

Loss & Hope

Scripture: Genesis 23

Title: Loss & Hope

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Abraham mourns
  • Abraham buys land
  • Hope for exiles
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

“The Kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then went and sold all he had and bought that field.”  [1]

Today we continue our series on the life & faith of Abraham & Sarah

–         Last time we heard how God tested Abraham by asking him to sacrifice his son Isaac. Abraham passed the test and Isaac’s life was spared

–         This morning our message focuses on Genesis 23

–         About 20 years have gone by and Isaac is a grown man – 37 years old

–         Sarah dies and Abraham finds hope in the face of death

–         Abraham is like the man who found the treasure and bought the field

–         From Genesis 23, in the NIV, we read…

 Sarah lived to be a hundred and twenty-seven years old. She died at Kiriath Arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan, and Abraham went to mourn for Sarah and to weep over her. Then Abraham rose from beside his dead wife and spoke to the Hittites.

He said, “I am a foreigner and stranger among you. Sell me some property for a burial site here so I can bury my dead.”

The Hittites replied to Abraham, “Sir, listen to us. You are a mighty prince among us. Bury your dead in the choicest of our tombs. None of us will refuse you his tomb for burying your dead.”

Then Abraham rose and bowed down before the people of the land, the Hittites. He said to them, “If you are willing to let me bury my dead, then listen to me and intercede with Ephron son of Zohar on my behalf so he will sell me the cave of Machpelah, which belongs to him and is at the end of his field. Ask him to sell it to me for the full price as a burial site among you.”

Ephron the Hittite was sitting among his people and he replied to Abraham in the hearing of all the Hittites who had come to the gate of his city. “No, my lord,” he said. “Listen to me; I give you the field, and I give you the cave that is in it. I give it to you in the presence of my people. Bury your dead.”

Again Abraham bowed down before the people of the land and he said to Ephron in their hearing, “Listen to me, if you will. I will pay the price of the field. Accept it from me so I can bury my dead there.”

Ephron answered Abraham, “Listen to me, my lord; the land is worth four hundred shekels of silver, but what is that between you and me? Bury your dead.”

Abraham agreed to Ephron’s terms and weighed out for him the price he had named in the hearing of the Hittites: four hundred shekels of silver, according to the weight current among the merchants.

So Ephron’s field in Machpelah near Mamre—both the field and the cave in it, and all the trees within the borders of the field—was deeded to Abraham as his property in the presence of all the Hittites who had come to the gate of the city. Afterward Abraham buried his wife Sarah in the cave in the field of Machpelah near Mamre (which is at Hebron) in the land of Canaan. So the field and the cave in it were deeded to Abraham by the Hittites as a burial site.

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate this reading for us

 

Abraham mourns:

During a storm we might see some lightning and hear some thunder

–         The lightning & thunder happen at the same time but because light travels a lot faster than sound we don’t hear the thunder until seconds later

–         You can roughly calculate how far away the lightning strike was by counting the seconds that pass between the lightning and the thunder

–         Sound travels one kilometre every 3 seconds [2]

–         So, if we hear were to count 15 seconds between a lightning flash and the sound of thunder we know the lightning struck 5 kilometres away, because 15 seconds divided by 3 kilometres per second = 5 km’s

–         Or if we were to count 6 seconds between the lightning and the thunder we know the lightning was closer, only 2 kilometres away

Our emotions are a bit like thunder – our feelings travel at the speed of sound, slower than the speed of light

–         Consequently there is often a gap between something happening to us and us feeling it

–         The more detached from our soul we are the longer it takes us to feel it

–         While the more in touch with our soul we are the quicker we feel it

For example, we might have an accident or get some really bad news and at the time we feel relatively okay, better than we expected we would

–         But then the feeling hits us a couple of days or weeks later – maybe we start freaking out or we break down in tears or whatever

–         Lightning, then the thunder

 

In Genesis 23 lightning strikes (so to speak) when Sarah dies

–         Sarah & Abraham have been together for well over 100 years and they have been through all sorts of experiences (good & bad)

–         Sarah was loyal to Abraham through thick & thin – but she was not one to ride on the coat tails of her husband’s faith

–         Sarah had her own relationship with God

–         Her faith was hard won and tested in the disappointment of barrenness

–         Sarah went from hope to despair and beyond, then back again

In losing Sarah, Abraham lost a great deal

–         Verse 2 tells us that Abraham went to mourn for Sarah and weep over her

–         Abraham is in touch with his soul – he knows who he is and what is important to him. He is comfortable being himself and isn’t trying to be something different

–         Because Abraham is in touch with his soul he is able to face loss honestly, without denial. When lightning strikes he feels the thunder

 

To mourn is to show the sorrow you feel for the death of someone

–         People in the ancient world mourned or showed their sorrow in a number of ways including wearing sackcloth, sitting in solemn silence, putting ashes on their head, tearing their clothes and so on

–         These days we mourn in quite different ways

–         We don’t wear sack cloth but we might wear black clothes

–         We don’t throw ashes on our head but we might dress up for a funeral or hang out with friends & family to share stories

However we do it, mourning is a way of being in touch with our soul and showing others the thunder we are feeling on the inside

–         Mourning is the opposite of hiding our feelings

–         Mourning is refusing to pretend we are okay when we are not feeling ok

–         Mourning means expressing our grief rather than holding it in

–         Mourning is a way of spring cleaning our soul, as opposed to sweeping things under the carpet

–         Many of us in this congregation have done quite a bit of mourning lately

 

We’re not told specifically how Abraham mourned, except that he wept

–         This reminds us of Jesus who wept at the grave of his friend Lazarus

–         Weeping releases something in us – it sets us free is some small way

–         Tears are like oil in an engine – tears lubricate the inner workings of our soul so things don’t over heat or seize up

–         Tears reduce the friction caused by death

Of course, when anyone dies there are usually a lot of practical things to organise – so Abraham doesn’t wallow in his sorrow

–         He takes a positive step – he rises to buy some land in order to bury Sarah

 

Abraham buys land:

Victor Hugo, the writer of the book Les Miserables, has a quote…

–         Virtue has a veil, vice a mask

A bride wears a veil over her face as a sign of her modesty – her purity

–         A veil is both delicate and transparent

–         It allows people to see who you are without giving everything away

A mask, on the other hand, is something people hide behind

–         People who wear masks are pretending to be something they are not

–         Virtue has a veil, vice a mask

–         Abraham has a veil, the Hittites (it seems) are wearing a mask

 

Abraham approaches the Hittites in the gate of their city

–         The gate of ancient cities wasn’t just an entry point – it was more importantly a place where legal decisions were made

–         Most ancient cultures were oral cultures, as opposed to writing cultures

–         So if you wanted to make an agreement or settle a dispute you didn’t do this in writing – you did it by speaking publicly with the people involved in front of respected witnesses

–         Abraham goes to the gate because he wants to legally purchase land

Abraham approaches the Hittites in an attitude of humility & vulnerability, as one wearing a veil – modest and transparent

–         He doesn’t come in force, nor does he beg – he is gracious & true saying,

I am a foreigner and a stranger among you. Sell me some property for a burial site here so I can bury my dead.

Abraham is a ‘resident alien’ – he doesn’t have full citizenship rights so he can’t buy & sell land without permission from the locals

–         There is a certain irony here – Abraham is asking permission to buy the land that God has already promised to give him

–         Abraham doesn’t use God as an excuse to take the land by force – he doesn’t start a holy war with the Hittites to get what he wants, no

–         Abraham modestly puts himself somewhere near the bottom of the social ladder – he humbles himself before the people of the land

 

Again we see something of Jesus in Abraham – I’m reminded of Philippians 2 where the apostle Paul writes…

–         Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant…

–         Abraham didn’t grasp the land – but humbled himself saying, I’m a foreigner and an stranger among you

But at the same time he is quite direct & straight up about what he wants

–         There’s no hidden agenda – everything is above board & transparent

–         He wants to own a permanent stake in the land

The Hittites replied to Abraham, “Sir, listen to us. You are a mighty prince among us. Bury your dead in the choicest of our tombs. None of us will refuse you his tomb for burying your dead.”

The Hebrew which is translated as ‘mighty prince’ there, literally means ‘a prince of God’ [3] (i.e. a prince of Elohim)

–         The Hittites recognise that Abraham has a special relationship with God

–         However, their politeness is somewhat of a mask – the truth is they are reluctant to sell any land to Abraham

–         Behind the mask they are saying, ‘you are welcome to use our land to bury your dead but we want to retain ownership’

Abraham is not so keen on that idea so he wisely requests that they ask Ephron (on his behalf) if he will sell his cave

–         That’s a smart move – Abraham isn’t getting the response he wants from the group so he gets more specific by asking an individual

–         This also shows that Abraham has done his homework – he knows the particular place he wants for a burial site and who owns that land

–         Ephron’s land is near Mamre, which is a sacred place for Abraham because God met Abraham at Mamre

Ephron happens to be there at the gate and says, ‘I’ll give you the field and the cave to bury your dead.’

–         Now, as generous as that sounds, Ephron is not offering to give the land to Abraham for nothing. It’s just a polite (masked) way of saying ‘let’s negotiate’. After all, Abraham didn’t ask for the field, just the cave

–         The fact that Ephron is now making the field part of the deal is a sign to Abraham that he is about to get more than he bargained for

Abraham is not interested in playing games – he gets to the point as quickly as he can and offers to pay Ephron

–         Ephron says the price is 400 shekels of silver – but what’s that between me and you?

–         Well, I can tell you 400 shekels is a lot – more than your average worker could expect to earn in a life time

–         But what can Abraham do? Ephron has him over a barrel

–         He needs to bury Sarah soon, before her body starts decomposing

–         Abraham agrees to Ephron’s terms without haggling with him – which is unusual in that culture. But it’s not about the money for Abraham

–         Clearly Abraham values his wife Sarah – he will gladly pay the price for the woman he loves

By paying what Ephron asked and not negotiating the price down, Abraham reduces the risk of the sale being contested in the future

–         No one can argue that Abraham ripped Ephron off with blankets & beads

–         Abraham is looking to the future – he is staking his claim in the land that God has promised him

–         You see, in that culture people had a strong desire to be buried with their ancestors in their native land. By purchasing a burial place in Canaan Abraham demonstrated his unswerving commitment to the Lord’s promise. [4] Canaan was his new homeland.

 

“The Kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then went and sold all he had and bought that field.”

–         Like the man in Jesus’ parable, Abraham was prepared to pay whatever was necessary to gain the treasure (the hope) that field promised

 

Hope for exiles:

This story of Abraham buying land in Canaan is really a story of hope for the exiles

Many centuries later Abraham’s descendants (the nation of Israel) were under siege by the Babylonians and the city of Jerusalem was about to fall

–         The people were facing either death or exile to a foreign land

–         At the very point of facing defeat God tells his prophet, Jeremiah, to buy a field

–         In many ways it was a crazy financial decision – buying land just weeks before the Babylonians seized possession of it

–         But God asked Jeremiah to do this as a sign of hope in the face of death & exile

–         The Lord was saying to the people, ‘I will restore you and your land. One day you will again buy & sell property in Canaan and live in safety’

 

In some ways it was similar with Abraham

–         Abraham was facing death – he had just lost his dear wife Sarah and he was, by this stage, an old man himself, at 137

–         As a resident alien, a landless foreigner, Abraham was also a kind of exile

–         He had left the land of his birth to follow the call of God and now Canaan was his new homeland – but he wasn’t yet a full citizen so he was sort like an exile in his own country

–         Buying real estate was a courageous act of hope – It was a way of saying our present circumstance does not determine our future

–         Beyond death there is resurrection – life with abundance

–         Beyond exile there is restoration – belonging with peace

 

New Zealand has undergone rapid change in recent years. Some of those changes have been good but other changes have been detrimental to community

–         I heard someone say recently that, ‘Culturally speaking, the church in NZ is in exile at the moment.’ There is truth in that statement

–         To be a Christian in NZ is to be like a resident alien in your own country

–         It’s not quite as difficult for us as it was for Abraham – we can still buy & sell property for example

–         But to a large extent the way of Christ is a foreign concept to our society

–         Even the stories of the Bible are foreign to many people today

–         We are a minority and we are not in power

 

Conclusion:

So what are we to do? Well, we take a leaf out Abraham’s book

We stay in touch with our soul so that we can face loss honestly, without denial

–         When lightning strikes we feel the thunder

–         We don’t pretend it doesn’t hurt – we mourn, we weep

–         But we don’t wallow in our sorrow either

–         After our tears we rise and act positively, doing what needs to be done

 

When dealing with those who don’t share our faith we wear a veil, not a mask

–         We don’t give everything away but we don’t pretend to be something we are not either – we don’t fake it, nor compromise who we are

–         We humble ourselves, remaining modest & transparent

–         We don’t seize, by force, what God has promised – we pay our dues

–         We don’t wage a holy war against our neighbours – we seek the peace, the wholeness, the shalom of the city in which we live

 

Above all we face death & exile with a spirit of hope – a determined belief that God’s kingdom will come in our land one day

–         That doesn’t necessarily mean we go round buying up real estate

–         The field where our treasure is buried is not a literal patch of dirt

–         Jesus is the treasure – Jesus embodies the Kingdom of God in his person – so the field is wherever we find Jesus

Three places we are likely find Jesus…

–         In the Bible

–         In right relationship with other believers

–         And in our own experience of suffering

But the key to finding Jesus is the Holy Spirit

–         So when we read the Bible we ask the Holy Spirit to illuminate Christ in the Scriptures – to shine his light on what we are reading so we can see the heart of God

–         And when we are hanging out with other Christians we ask the Holy Spirit to connect us – so we are aware of the presence of Christ among us (Where two or three are gathered in his name, Jesus is with them)

–         And when we are going through a difficult time we ask the Holy Spirit to make us one with Christ in his suffering – for if we share in his suffering we will also share in his glory

 

Questions for discussion or reflection:

1.)    What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon?

2.)    Can you think of a time in your life when lightning struck and then thunder followed a little later? What happened?

–         What does it mean to be in touch with your soul?

–         How in touch with your soul are you?

3.)    What does it mean to mourn?

–         How do you mourn?

–         Why is it important not to wallow in our sorrow?

4.)    Victor Hugo said, “Virtue has a veil, vice a mask”.

–         What do you think this means? How is a veil different from a mask?

–         In what sense did Abraham wear a veil in his dealings with the Hittites?

5.)    What is the significance of Abraham insisting on buying land to own in perpetuity, as opposed to borrowing a tomb to bury Sarah?

6.)    Discuss (or reflect on) the similarities and differences between Abraham’s and Jeremiah’s real estate purchases

–         How was the purchase of land an act of hope in the face of death & exile?

–         What acts of hope might we perform in the face of death & exile?

7.)    In what sense is the church in NZ in exile at the moment?

–         What can we do in a context of cultural exile?

8.)    Take some time this week to find the treasure of Jesus (with the help of the Holy Spirit)…

–         By reading the Bible

–         Spending time with other Christians

–         Or in some difficulty you are facing at present

 

 

[1] Jesus, quoted in Matthew 13:44.

[2] https://www.wikihow.com/Calculate-the-Distance-from-Lightning

[3] Refer Bruce Waltke’s commentary on Genesis, page 318.

[4] Refer footnote to Genesis 23:19 in the NIV Study Bible, page 40.