Tawa Baptist

Informed by Love

Scripture: 1st Corinthians 8:1-13

Video Link: https://youtu.be/r5yAZXm_xNQ

Audio Link: https://soundcloud.com/tawabaptist/sermon-4-may-2025-informed-by-love

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Love informs knowledge (vv.1-3)
  • God is one (vv. 4-6)
  • Love restrains freedom (vv. 7-13)
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

Imagine for a moment that you have a superpower. Maybe super strength or the ability to fly or perhaps move objects with your mind or make yourself invisible. What if you could heal people just by touching them? Or discern what people were really thinking. 

The examples I’ve given are a bit far-fetched. They sound like something out of a Marvel movie, but power comes in more subtle forms too. Things like, inside knowledge, privileged position, money, creative ability and freedom; these are all examples of more commonplace powers we might take for granted.  

Whatever form it might take though, power makes us more vulnerable to temptation and more likely to cause harm. How do we use our power? Do we use it to help others, or do we use it to take advantage?

Today we start a new sermon series in First Corinthains. We are not planning to work through the whole letter, just one section (chapters 8, 9 and 10) where the apostle Paul addresses the question of freedom. How are Christians to use their special power of freedom? From 1st Corinthians chapter 8, verses 1-13 we read…   

Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that “We all possess knowledge.” But knowledge puffs up while love builds up. 2 Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know. 3 But whoever loves God is known by God. 4 So then, about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that “An idol is nothing at all in the world” and that “There is no God but one.” 5 For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”), 6 yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live. 7 But not everyone possesses this knowledge. Some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat sacrificial food they think of it as having been sacrificed to a god, and since their conscience is weak, it is defiled. 8 But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do. 9 Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak. 10 For if someone with a weak conscience sees you, with all your knowledge, eating in an idol’s temple, won’t that person be emboldened to eat what is sacrificed to idols? 11 So this weak brother or sister, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. 12 When you sin against them in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. 13 Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother or sister to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause them to fall.

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

Have you ever walked in, midway, through someone else’s conversation and felt a bit lost, trying to pick up the thread of what they are saying, not sure of what you have missed? Reading Paul’s letters to the Corinthians can feel like that sometimes.

The experts tell us Paul probably wrote at least four letters to the church in Corinth, but only two of his letters survived. To make matters more complicated, the Corinthian believers also wrote some letters to Paul, seeking clarification on a few issues. But the content of their letters is lost to history.

The result is that we, today, are left trying to put the pieces of the puzzle back together. Apparently, 1st Corinthians is Paul’s response to one of the letters the Corinthians had written to him.

One of their questions had to do with eating meat that had been sacrificed to idols. Is this okay or not? Eating idol meat might not seem like a hot button topic for us today in New Zealand, but it was a big deal in the first century.

Whether the question of eating meat sacrificed to idols seems relevant to us or not, the principles embedded in Paul’s response are still very pertinent for the church in the 21st Century.    

Three timeless principles woven through today’s Scripture reading:

Love informs knowledge, God is one and love restrains freedom.

Let us begin with love and knowledge. What do we mean when we say love informs knowledge?   

Love informs knowledge:

Well, basically this: True knowledge is not about accumulating a stack of information in your head. (We have the internet for that.) Nor is knowledge about having lots of degrees and qualifications.

True knowledge is relational. True knowledge (what we might call intimacy) comes with the experience of giving and receiving love over time.   

I didn’t get to know Robyn by taking a class (although there may have been times when she wished I had taken classes). There were no lectures or tests (at least not the kind NZQA would recognize), but there was a lot of listening and work and laughter (mainly Robyn laughing at me).

As someone said to us on our wedding day. Marriage is an education in which you lose your bachelor’s and never really gain your masters.  

Seriously though, Robyn and I have grown in our knowledge and appreciation of each other through more than three decades of marriage, with all the joys and difficulties and humdrum in between that living and working and raising kids together entails.

The first thing we notice about Paul’s response to the Corinthians’ question is the way he models the principle of love informing knowledge. Paul could have simply said, ‘No. Eating meat sacrificed to idols is wrong. Don’t do it. It’s my way or the highway’. End of conversation. But Paul takes a different approach.

You don’t deal with weeds by cutting off the tops and leaving the root in the ground. A more effective way of dealing with weeds is to pull the whole weed out, root and all. And it’s normally easier to pull weeds out if you soften the ground first with some water.

Paul persuades his readers by addressing the root of the problem. But first he waters the ground. He softens people’s hearts in a gentle way.

To be clear, the Corinthians are not the weeds here. The Corinthians are people that Paul cares about deeply. Unfortunately, some of their ideas were like weeds that needed to be removed and replaced with a more fruitful thought.

The surface question might be, ‘Is it okay to eat meat sacrificed to idols?’

But the deeper (root) question is, ‘Do you love God and your brothers and sisters in Christ?’

You see, the Corinthians believed that being spiritual had to do with possessing special knowledge. In their minds, having the right knowledge gives you a kind of superpower that makes you more ‘spiritual’ than others.        

But Paul helps the Corinthians (and us) to see that this is not what Christian spirituality looks like at all. For Christians, knowledge is informed by love.

Being spiritual is not about having the right answers or insights. Being spiritual is about giving and receiving love.

Indeed, Christian spirituality is about loving God and loving your neighbour as yourself.   

Paul agrees with the Corinthians’ statement that, “We all possess knowledge”. However, he qualifies their statement saying, “But knowledge puffs up while love builds up. 2 Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know.”

Or, as J.B. Phillips puts it: “While knowledge may make a person look big, it is only love that can make them grow to their full stature. For whatever a person may know, they still have a lot to learn.”      

In other words, knowledge doesn’t make you spiritual. Knowledge makes you arrogant. It inflates your ego, so you think you are better than other people. Love grows you spiritually.

In verse 3, Paul uproots the Corinthians’ false thinking: But whoever loves God is known by God.

Life is connection with God (intimacy with him). To be known by God is to be recognized by God as having a relationship with him. We gain true spiritual knowledge by being in a loving relationship with God. A relationship in which we receive love from God and learn to trust and obey him as well.

Love informs knowledge. If knowledge is divorced from love, then it becomes a destructive power. That’s Paul’s first principle. His next principle is that God is one. Or said another way, there is only one true God.

God is one:

Some people will not open an umbrella inside because they believe it brings bad luck. According to one theory this superstition comes from ancient Egypt where noblemen used umbrellas to shade themselves from the sun. To open an umbrella inside was considered offensive to the sun god.

These days we avoid opening umbrellas inside because we don’t want to knock anything over or poke anyone in the eye. It has nothing to do with any sun god.

In medieval times people associated black cats with the devil and witches and the plague. Consequently, for some, having a black cat cross your path is an evil omen. But really there is no scientific basis for being fearful of black cats, unless you are a mouse or a bird or a saucer of milk.

What about throwing salt over your left shoulder? Well, apparently this is to cleanse yourself of the little devil which sits on your left shoulder whispering things into your ear.

In my experience there is more than one little devil and they tend to attach themselves to memories. They don’t sit on my shoulder; there’s not enough room for them all. What’s the point in throwing salt over my shoulder? Not only is it a waste of good salt, it also means I have to vacuum more often, which is bad for my back.   

The city of Corinth, in the first century, was a very superstitious place. There were pagan idols everywhere you went. Trying not to offend any of the gods and trying to appease them if you did cause offense, was exhausting. 

One of the attractions of converting from pagan worship to Christianity is that with Jesus there is just one God. It’s a lot easier to serve one master, than many at the same time. Knowing there is only one God and he loves you, sets you free from a lot of unnecessary fear and superstition.

Knowing there is only one God also gives you a kind of superpower in a society that believes in many gods. And, as I said at the beginning of this message, having a superpower can be a dangerous thing.

Some of the Corinthian Christians were misusing their knowledge to justify some sketchy behaviour. They reasoned that because there is only one true God, then the so-called gods which the idols of wood and stone represent, don’t really exist. Zeus, Athena, Poseidon, Aphrodite and so on are nothing.

And if the idols are nothing, if they are not real, then they have no power. Therefore, eating meat that has been sacrificed to idols cannot hurt you.

Just like opening an umbrella inside your house is not going to offend the sun god and bring you bad luck because there is no sun god.

Again, Paul is gentle in weeding out the Corinthians’ self-serving thinking.

Paul agrees wholeheartedly that there is only one true God and all the idols are nothing. But he does qualify this somewhat by acknowledging the dual reality.

Objectively speaking there is only one God but existentially speaking (in the felt experience of most Corinthian citizens) there are many gods and many lords. Those gods and lords (false though they be) are still real enough in the minds of the pagan majority.

Later, in chapter 10, Paul goes on to clarify: “…the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons”.

In verse 6 Paul gives a wonderfully rich and valuable theological statement which has stood the test of time down through the centuries…

…yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.          

There’s a lot going on here, so let me give you the skinny version. Paul is affirming that there is only one God. God is the creator and Jesus is the one through whom God created all things. Caesar is not lord, as the cult of emperor worship believed. Jesus is Lord and he is one with God.  

More than this, the one true God is our Father. To describe God as our Father indicates a close and caring relationship with God. The Christian God is not like the pagan gods who don’t care about humanity. Our God is invested in his creation like a good Father is invested in his children. 

Building on this idea of God being a Father, we look to God just as a child looks to their parents to know things. We know who we are and why we are and what to do by looking to God our Father. God gives us our identity, our purpose and the right path through life.  

We don’t look to blind superstition to guide our behaviour, like the pagans do. Nor do we manipulate knowledge to justify our own bad behaviour, like some of the ‘knowledgeable’ Corinthians were doing. No. We take our lead from God’s love for us.     

We are talking about the responsible exercise of knowledge and freedom.

Love informs knowledge and love restrains freedom. Wait, did he just say, ‘love restrains freedom’? That can’t be right, can it? Isn’t love supposed to let me do what I want? No. True love knows when to exercise restraint.  

Love restrains freedom:

Now the kind of love in view here is not a fluctuating feeling. Rather, it is a settled commitment to the wellbeing of others, irrespective of how they make us feel. It is agape love, self-giving love. The kind of love modelled by Jesus.

Jesus didn’t need to go to the cross, at least not for himself. He was free to walk away, but he chose to restrain his freedom out of love for God and love for us. ‘Not my will Father, but your will be done’.

We drive north to see family in Hamilton and Tauranga every three months or so. It normally takes us about seven hours depending on road works and traffic. Our is not new or fast or powerful, but it is reliable; it gets the job done without costing too much.  

Most drivers are patient and show consideration on the road. But every now and then you come across someone who takes a crazy risk. Best to give them room and pray they don’t cause an accident.

People like that may know how to drive and they may own a fast and powerful car, but that doesn’t entitle them to pass at speed by crossing a yellow line on a blind corner. That kind of behaviour is not loving. It puts personal freedom ahead of the wellbeing of others.

Just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you should. Seeking the wellbeing of others sometimes requires us to limit our power and restrain our freedom.

In verse 7 Paul says that not everyone possesses the knowledge that there is only one God and idols are nothing. As believers in Christ, they may know in their head that God is one, but this knowledge hasn’t properly connected with their heart yet. It’s not part of their felt experience.

After years of bowing and scraping to idols in fear and superstition, they still feel like the pagan gods are real and could do them harm. What if eating the idol’s meat contaminates them in some way? What if eating in a pagan temple without worshipping the pagan gods makes the gods angry?    

Those believers who felt free to eat sacrificial meat thought their faith was stronger or more mature. They were looking down on other believers who had a sensitive conscience and were more selective with their eating.

So, in verse 8 Paul says: food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do.

In other words, eating meat sacrificed to idols does not prove that your faith is stronger. It doesn’t make you more ‘spiritual’. In fact, God is not that concerned with what goes into your stomach. The Lord is more concerned with how you treat others, especially those you might think are weaker than you.

Paul’s line of reasoning here follows Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 15 where the Lord says, 11 What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.”

In verse 9 Paul gets to the crux of the matter saying: Be careful that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak.

Have some consideration for the wellbeing of other believers, for whom Christ died. Just because you feel free to eat meat doesn’t mean you should. Be ready to limit your own personal freedom for the sake of others.

If someone feels morally uncomfortable eating meat or drinking alcohol or watching a particular movie or laughing at your dodgy jokes or whatever, then don’t pressure them.

Don’t goad them into following your example, by making them feel they are somehow inadequate if they don’t do as you do. Let others feel comfortable in their own skin. Let their faith grow and take shape as the Holy Spirit directs.   

In verse 12, Paul joins the dots for the Corinthians (and us) saying: When you sin against them in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ.

Again, we are reminded of the words of Jesus who said: Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.

To sin against another believer is to sin against Christ. To love another believer is to love Christ and to love Christ is to love God. Paul would rather give up meat altogether than cause a fellow believer to fall and lose faith. Love informs knowledge and love restrains freedom.

Conclusion:

What is the takeaway here? (Please excuse the pun.) Well, one person’s meat is another person’s poison. What you have no problem with may be quite harmful to someone else.

We need to be conscious of the power of our words and actions and how these affect others. In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty. In all things let love be your guide.  

Let us pray…

Father God, you are one and you care for all people, weak and strong. Forgive us for the times we have wounded others’ faith and conscience. May your love inform our knowledge and restrain our freedom, through Jesus we pray. Amen.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

  1. What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?
  2. If you could choose a superpower, what would it be (and why)? What more subtle powers do you already possess? How do you use your power?
  3. What is the purpose of knowledge? Why does love need to inform knowledge?
  4. What does it mean (for Christians) to be spiritual? What does it mean to be known by God?
  5. Do you have any superstitions? If so, what are they and where do they come from?
  6. Discuss / reflect on 1st Corinthians 8, verse 6: Yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live. What are the implications of this statement?         
  7. Why is it important to restrain freedom? How do we know when to restrain our freedom?
Tawa Baptist

A Good Question

Scripture: Mark 12:28-34

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

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • The most important
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

If you want to get to know someone better, then you need to ask good questions. A good question has a number of characteristics…

For example, a good question is simple and concise, not so long and complicated that the other person gets lost or has to ask you to repeat yourself.

A good question has an honest purpose. By that I mean, you have a good reason for asking the question. You’re not trying to trick or embarrass anyone. You are genuinely interested in learning what the other person thinks. 

A good question is also open-ended, one that invites more than a yes / no answer. A question that engages the other person in conversation and maybe even reveals new insights.

Today we continue our series in the gospel of Mark. This morning’s lectionary reading is Mark 12, verses 28-34. To set the scene, Jesus has arrived in Jerusalem and is now teaching in the temple courts. Hope is running high.  

Up till this point various Jewish groups have been asking Jesus bad questions. Questions designed to catch him out and embarrass him. Long, complicated questions with a dishonest purpose. Questions intended to shut Jesus down.   

But in today’s lectionary reading, an expert in the law asks Jesus a good question. From Mark 12, verse 28 we read…

28 One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” 29 “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’There is no commandment greater than these.” 32 “Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. 33 To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbour as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” 34 When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.

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

The most important:

What is the most important part of a building? Is it the roof maybe? Without a roof you would get wet. But then without walls, you wouldn’t be able to put the roof on. So are the walls the most important part?

Well, the walls and the roof are important (certainly more important than the TV or the furnishings) but I reckon the foundation is the most important part.

If the foundation isn’t right, the walls and roof are likely to fall. 

How about a yacht? What’s the most important part of a yacht? Is it the sail? Without the sail the yacht isn’t going anywhere. Or is it the rudder? Without a rudder the yacht could end up on the rocks.

Well, the sail and the rudder are important, but I reckon the yacht’s buoyancy is the most important thing. If the hull takes in water the boat will sink.

What about marriage? What’s the most important aspect of a marriage relationship? Is it having things in common? Is it sex or romance? Is it communication? Well, all those things are helpful to a healthy marriage but, in my view, the most important thing is commitment. In particular, a commitment to one another’s wellbeing.   

Circumstances change and people change throughout the course of a lifetime. Commitment to one another’s wellbeing enables the relationship to function and to flourish through those changes. Commitment is the foundation of marriage. Commitment is the buoyancy keeping a marriage afloat through the storms of life.

In verse 28 we read how one of the teachers of the law heard Jesus give some good answers to some bad questions. Unlike the Herodians and Sadducees, who were out to trap Jesus, this teacher of the law asks Jesus a good question: Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”

This question is simple and concise, it has an honest purpose and it is open-ended.

There are 613 written commandments in the law of Moses, not to mention all the other regulations added by the scribes and Pharisees. With so many rules it would be difficult to see the wood for the trees.

Did one commandment stand out from the rest? Is there one law which serves as a key for interpreting all the other laws? Yes, there is.  

Jesus refers to Deuteronomy 6, verses 4-5, as the most important commandment. These verses are known as the Shema…

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

The Shema begins with a command to hear or to listen. The first duty of love is to listen. We can’t obey God unless we know what he wants. Loving God starts with listening to God. 

Interestingly the Shema (the most important, most foundational) commandment includes some theological statements about God…

Firstly, the Lord (Yahweh) is our God. This speaks to Israel’s special covenant relationship with Yahweh. In Jewish and Christian thinking, God is not some impersonal force. God is not ‘the universe’. God is a conscious being, capable of personal relationship.

The idea here is that God is committed to Israel’s wellbeing and indeed to the wellbeing of all his creation. To put it more plainly, the command to love God is prefaced by the reminder that God loves us.    

The Shema also affirms that the Lord (Yahweh) is one. This speaks to the theological belief that there is only one true God, not lots of gods. The Lord God does not have any rivals. He is not fighting to stay on top. The Lord God is all-powerful, almighty. Nothing poses any kind of threat to Israel’s God. Therefore, we can trust the Lord God. We can find security in him.

But wait there’s another layer of theological meaning here. The phrasing,

“The Lord is one”, indicates that God has integrity. God is whole, complete, not divided within himself. There is a harmony within God. The Lord is one.

For example, God’s justice is not at odds with his mercy. God’s justice is one with his mercy. When God destroys evil that is both an act of justice and mercy at the same time.  

The substance of the Shema (the most important command) is to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

The Greek word for love here is agapao (or agape). Often when we (English speakers) think of love, we imagine a pleasant warm fuzzy feeling, like falling in love. However, agape love is not always accompanied by a nice feeling.

Agape love is primarily an attitude of the mind and a decision of the will.

To love someone with agape love is to make a conscious choice to act in a way that is good for that person’s wellbeing, irrespective of how we feel.

You see, feelings cannot be commanded. We don’t have much control over whether we like someone or not. Jesus isn’t telling us what we must feel. Rather Jesus is telling us how to behave in relation to God.

Sometimes agape love requires us to go against the grain of our feelings. Thinking about thisin the context of our relationship with God, agape love says, I will remain loyal to God and obey him, even when it feels like God has abandoned me or let me down.   

The Shema says, lovethe Lord your God with all your heart. In general terms the heart, in the Old Testament, represents a person’s inner life, the core of your being where loyalty resides, where desire comes from, and decisions are made. The heart speaks to what you value and where your commitment lies.

To love God with all your heart therefore is to value God above all else.

It means not splitting your loyalty between God and any other thing.

Loving God with all your heart means remaining committed to the Lord God through thick and thin, in sickness and in health, for richer or poorer.

Your soul probably refers to your life force, the spark of life. Your soul is that unseen energy which animates your body. Your personality (your true self) comes from your soul. To love God with all your soul is to love God with all the energy and creativity and personality you possess.

This means being yourself with God. Not trying to be something you’re not. Accepting the way God has made you, being honest with him and enjoying him. Your soul is unique, like your fingerprints. No one can love God in quite the same way you can. No one can give God joy like you can.

Eric Liddell the Olympic sprinter said, “I believe God made me for a purpose – but He also made me fast. And when I run, I feel His pleasure”. For Eric Liddell, running was an expression of his soul. When Eric Liddell ran, he was loving God and this gave God pleasure, a pleasure that Eric could feel in his spirit. 

When do you feel God’s pleasure? Do you feel it when you are singing or when you are baking or when you play an instrument or work in the garden or paint a masterpiece or hang out with your grandkids?

We can’t always be doing the things we love. But whenever we can, we should spend time in our own soul, doing the things that God made us to do, the things that give God pleasure.  

The soul and the body go together. You can’t really have one without the other. A body without a soul is like a guitar without strings or a computer without software. It’s dead. Likewise, a soul without a body is like a surgeon with no hands or a pianist with no piano. The soul needs the body to express itself.

And so loving God with all your soul goes hand in hand with loving God with all your strength. On one level your strength is your physical power and stamina. But it’s more than that. Your strength is your skill and your aptitude as well.

Are you good with your hands? How might you use your practical skills to love God? Maybe by doing odd jobs for the those who are in need? 

Are you good with children? How might you use your aptitude with children to love God? Maybe by volunteering to help in Kids’ Church?

Your strength extends to the resources you possess too. Your strength might include things like your time, your money and your social connections. Therefore, to love God with all your strength means being a good steward of the time and money God has given you. Being generous with God and the poor.

Loving God then, is not just something we do on Sundays or special occasions like Christmas or Easter. Loving God is something we do everyday.

One thing we notice is that Jesus adds in loving God with all your mind as well. The original Shema doesn’t explicitly mention loving God with your mind, but it is surely implied by the terms heart, soul and strength.

Perhaps Jesus adds in loving God with your mind because he is talking with an educated man. For the teacher of the law, the mind (or one’s understanding) had special significance.

The point seems to be that God’s law is not something that can be blindly followed without thinking about it. Figuring out how to apply God’s law of love in a messy unstable world requires mental effort. It requires us to slow down and think through the implications, not just for ourselves but also for God and our neighbour.   

We probably shouldn’t make too much of the distinction between heart, soul, mind and strength. While each of these words adds an interesting layer of meaning, there’s also quite a bit of overlap between them, like a Venn diagram.

The main point here is to love God with your whole being. Love God with all that you are and all that you have. That is the first and most important commandment according to Jesus. That is the key to understanding all the other commandments.

In verse 31 of Mark 12, Jesus goes on to say: “The second is this: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’There is no commandment greater than these.”

Loving your neighbour as yourself is another way of saying, ‘do unto others as you would have them do unto you’. Or treat others the way you would like to be treated. Of course, loving your neighbour as yourself implies that you take good care of yourself too, as Murray emphasised four weeks ago. 

The Greek word Jesus uses here for loving your neighbour is agape, the same word he uses for loving God. As I mentioned earlier, agape is an attitude of the mind and a decision of the will.

The Jews of the first century would have understood their neighbour to be a fellow Jew. But as Ewan reminded us, three weeks ago, Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan demonstrates that your neighbour could be anyone you meet.

Whether you know your neighbour or not, whether you like your neighbour or not, God’s command of agape love requires you to act for their wellbeing, to the extent you can. Of course, each of us comes with our own limitations. It is not always in our power to help our neighbour as much as we might want to. 

Leviticus 19 lists various practical examples of loving your neighbour…

‘Do not steal. Do not deceive one another. Do not pervert justice. Do not spread slander. Do not hate your brother in your heart. Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge… but love your neighbour as yourself.’   

The teacher of the Law asks Jesus a good question: ‘What is the most important commandment?’ Jesus’ reply weaves together two commandments as one. Love God with your whole being and love your neighbour as yourself.

Jesus is making the point that love for God cannot be separated from love for your neighbour. And love for your neighbour cannot be separated from love for yourself.

It’s like the apostle John says in his first letter to the early church…  

19 We love because God first loved us. 20 If we say we love God, but hate others, we are liars. For we cannot love God, whom we have not seen, if we do not love others, whom we have seen. 21 The command that Christ has given us is this: whoever loves God must love others also.

God is one. Human beings are made in the image of God and therefore to love God is to love people. These all go together.

In verse 32 of Mark 12, the teacher of the law responds positively to Jesus.

The lawyer asked a good question and he found common ground with Jesus.

Normally Jesus is at odds with the religious leaders. But Jesus does not prejudge this man by his experience of other religious experts. Jesus takes each person as he finds them.

More than this, Jesus leaves room for the teacher of the law to add his own insight. And what an insight it is. To love God and to love your neighbour as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.

This might seem ho hum to us, but it was a huge admission from an expert in the law. This religious leader was implying that the temple system with all its rituals and sacrifices wasn’t all that important, compared to love.

If loving God and neighbour is the foundation and framework of the building, then ritual sacrifice is like the furnishings. Just as the carpet and curtains make no difference to the structural integrity of the building, so too ritual sacrifice makes no difference to our relationship with God. Love is what really matters.

And Jesus couldn’t agree more. In fact, Jesus’ once for all sacrifice on the cross fulfills the law in this regard, doing away with the need for a temple building and ritual sacrifice. This teacher of the law is quite progressive for his time. Jesus commends the man saying, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” 

Conclusion:

One of my favourite love stories would have to be Matthew’s account of how Jesus’ parents, Mary and Joseph, got together. Jesus’ stepfather, Joseph, shows us what it means to love God and love your neighbour as yourself.

Mary was engaged to Joseph when Joseph found out Mary was pregnant.

Joseph did not know who the father was. It appeared as though Mary had committed adultery and the letter of the Law stipulated that Mary should be put to death for her crime.

Joseph had every right to feel angry, but he did not let his feelings get the better of him. Joseph took some time to love God with his mind. He considered the situation before deciding what he would do.

If Mary had cheated on him, then his love for God meant he could not marry her, for God does not condone adultery. Also, Joseph’s love for himself prevented him from marrying a woman who (it seemed) did not care for him.

But Joseph’s love for his neighbour meant he could not insist on Mary’s execution. If Mary was killed, her unborn child would die also. That would be taking an innocent life, that would be unfair. 

Because Joseph was a righteous man, he decided to divorce Mary quietly and save her from public disgrace. This would leave Mary free to marry the man who got her pregnant and two lives would be saved. In this way, Joseph obeyed God’s law of love.     

As it turned out, God let Joseph in on the secret that Mary had conceived by the Holy Spirit. Mary had been faithful after all. So Joseph went ahead and married Mary. The rest is history.

Let us pray. Gracious God, forgive us for the times we lose sight of what is most important. Help us to love you with understanding. Help us to live in our own soul and to feel your pleasure. Help us to support the wellbeing of those around us and so glorify you. Through Jesus we pray. Amen. 

Questions for discussion or reflection:

  1. What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?
  2. If you had the opportunity to ask one question of Jesus, what would it be?
  3. Discuss / reflect on the theological meaning(s) inherent in the statement, “The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” What does this tell us about God?
  4. What is agape love? How is agape love different from romantic love? Can you think of a time in your own life when you gave or received agape love? What happened?
  5. When do you feel God’s pleasure? How do you (personally) spend time in your own soul? Why is this important?
  6. What strengths, skills or resources do you possess? How might you best use these to love God and your neighbour?
  7. Why does Jesus hold together loving God with loving your neighbour as yourself? Why can’t these commands be separated?
  8. What is significant about the teacher of the law’s response to Jesus in Mark 12:32-33? 
Tawa Baptist

Christmas Day Message

Video Link: https://youtu.be/8O8tlfGlmuQ

Learning by Experience:

Kia Koutou and good morning everyone.

Mark Twain once said, ‘If you hold a cat by the tail, you learn things you cannot learn any other way.’

In other words, some things you cannot be told. Some things can only be discovered through personal experience. What you discover when you hold a cat by the tail is not to hold a cat by the tail. We tend to learn more from our mistakes than our successes. 

Albert Einstein, another dude with bushy hair and an impressive mustache, put it this way, ‘Learning is an experience. Everything else is just information.’

The point here is that we learn by doing. You don’t learn how to hammer a nail by watching The Repair Shop. You learn to hammer a nail by hammering a nail. 

Or take parenting as an example. Parenting books and Ted Talks may provide helpful information, but the real learning comes with the experience of trying to settle a crying baby or being there to support your kids when they need you or managing your feelings of powerlessness as your son or daughter leaves home. 

So does this principle of learning by experience work with God as well? Because God is not like us. God is Spirit. We can’t really see God or take him out for a coffee to get to know him.

Well, learning about God is not exactly the same as learning to hammer a nail or be a parent. But we still learn by experience.

We learn faith by being trusted.

We learn hope by being made to wait.

We learn love by being forgiven.

And we learn about God through Jesus.

Yes, you will pick up some helpful information by listening to sermons and reading spiritual books but the real learning about God comes with an experience of Jesus’ Spirit. 

When Mary (the mother of Jesus) first learned she was with child, she went to visit Elizabeth who was about six months pregnant with John the Baptist. 

41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. 42 In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! 43 But why am I so favoured, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?

Through the experience of the Holy Spirit, Elizabeth learned that Mary was carrying the Messiah of God. Elizabeth felt God’s presence in herself, and it was the experience of pure joy.

When the angels appeared to the shepherds, proclaiming the birth of the Messiah, the shepherds didn’t just say, ‘O yeah, good to know.’ Rather they hurried off to find Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in a manger.

They were not satisfied with mere information. They wanted to experience the presence of the Christ child for themselves, and that experience affected them. It compelled them to share the good news.  

When the wise men saw the star shining in the east, they knew from their research that it was significant. These wise men understood that real learning comes through experience.  So, they set off on a long journey to find the King of the Jews and experience his presence for themselves, in person. They were not disappointed.

Fast forward 33 years and we read about Thomas, the disciple who would not take other people’s word for it. When Thomas’ friends told him the information that Jesus had been raised from the dead, Thomas wanted to experience the risen Christ for himself. Let me touch him. Let me put my fingers in his wounds.

A week later Jesus appeared to Thomas and Thomas discovered firsthand that Jesus is both human and divine. Learning is an experience.

What is your experience this Christmas? Is it a busy time for you? A stressful time, a week of running around trying to fit everything in. When Christmas is uncomfortably full it can be difficult to experience the presence of Christ. Difficult but not impossible.

The very first Christmas was busy and full, messy and unpredictable. Nevertheless, Jesus was present in the most unlikely of places, a feeding trough. The Spirit of Jesus has a way of showing up where we least expect him.  Make room for the Spirit.

What is your experience this Christmas? Is it a lonely time, a sad time, an empty time when you feel the absence of those you love. Everyone around you seems to be happy but you cannot wait for the season to end and for things to return to normal. 

When Christmas is painful and joyless it can be difficult to experience the presence of Christ. Difficult but not impossible. Jesus was born into a violent world, a sad world, a troubled world. The good news is Jesus was born to redeem this world through his death and resurrection.

Blessed are you who are sad or lonely this Christmas. You are closer to God than you think. 

Let me pray for you…

Loving God, we thank you for entering into the human experience through Jesus. May you be real for us this Christmas and always. Open our hearts and minds to the presence of Christ, that we would learn from you. Amen.  

Tawa Baptist

Sparrows

Scripture: Matthew 10:26-31

Video Link: https://youtu.be/hKmTvdrS1-4

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Don’t be afraid of people
  • Don’t be afraid of death
  • Don’t be afraid of your value
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

Can anyone tell me the meaning of the word ubiquitous? (Not something that comes up in the daily Wordle.)  [Wait] That’s right, ubiquitous means being found everywhere. 

If something is ubiquitous it is common, widespread and constantly encountered wherever you go. Oxygen is ubiquitous. The orange road cones you see up and down New Zealand are ubiquitous. As are cars and cell phones.   

Sparrows are also ubiquitous. They are found everywhere. In urban areas, in forests, in the hills, by the sea and even in deserts. About the only place you don’t find sparrows is Antarctica. Sparrows are adaptable, resilient and prolific breeders. Most pairs will raise two or three broods a year.

Today we continue our series on Birds of the Bible by focusing on the Sparrow. Jesus talked about the sparrow when he was preparing to send his disciples on a mission trip. Jesus’ messengers need some of the sparrows’ adaptability and resilience. From Matthew 10, verses 26-31, we read…

26 “So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered and nothing secret that will not become known. 27 What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. 28 Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, fear the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell. 29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. 30 And even the hairs of your head are all counted. 31 So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.

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

It is thought there are around 130 different types of sparrows around the world. The kind we are most familiar with is the house sparrow. It’s called the ‘house sparrow’ because it tends to make its home near human habitation.

In Psalm 84 we read: Even the sparrow has found a home… a place near your altar. Sparrows are not afraid of human beings. Sparrows are comfortable in the company of people.

In the context of Matthew 10, Jesus is giving his twelve disciples instructions for mission. The Lord is sending his disciples out as messengers of the gospel, giving them power to heal and cast out demons. Part of Jesus’ encouragement to his messengers is to not be fearful.

Three times in verses 26-31 Jesus says, do not be afraid. Don’t be afraid of people. Don’t be afraid of death and don’t be afraid of your value.

Don’t be afraid of people:

In verse 26 Jesus tells his disciples, “So have no fear of them…” The them, that Jesus is referring to here, are those people who are opposed to Jesus and his messengers.   

Jesus combats fear with reason and logic. The disciples do not need to fear people, or what people may say about them, because nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered and nothing is secret that will not become known.

Now, on hearing this we might wonder, does that mean all my deepest darkest secrets are going to be revealed? Is Jesus saying, all those embarrassing things I’ve ever thought or said or done that I don’t want anyone to know about are going to be made public and I’m going to be humiliated? Because that is not comforting at all. That is terrifying.

Well, I don’t believe that is what Jesus means in these verses. In the context of Matthew 10, Jesus is sending his followers into the world with the message of the gospel. So the beans being spilled here are not your personal secrets. The information being uncovered is the good news about God’s kingdom coming to earth. This isn’t about us. This is about Jesus and God’s plan of salvation.  

So the reason Jesus gives for not fearing people is that the gospel is the truth and the truth will win out in the end. In other words, the messengers of the gospel may be misunderstood or maligned at first, but eventually they will be vindicated. They will be proven right.

In verse 27 Jesus continues… What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. 

The followers of Jesus are to share freely with others what Jesus has shared with them. Some people think that to be a good preacher or evangelist you must have the gift of the gab. But the bigger part of sharing the gospel is listening.

Most of you are not preachers but you are believers with good news to share. You might think, I’m not good at talking about my faith. I don’t know what to say or how to say it. Besides, no one cares what I think anyway.

Before we worry about what we might say in relation to our faith, we need to listen. You can’t share something you don’t have. You can’t tell people about Jesus unless Jesus is real for you. You can’t pass on God’s love unless you have experienced God’s love for yourself.

As Christians we listen to God’s Spirit in a variety of ways. Two of those ways include prayerfully reading Scripture and observing the world around us.

We can’t expect to know the gospel of Jesus unless we spend time regularly studying the Scriptures and listening to what other believers say about the Lord.

Likewise, we need to be outward looking and curious about the world. We can’t expect to communicate well, with people who believe differently from us, without first seeking to understand them.

We read the Scriptures and observe the world in conversation with God. We can’t expect to know what we really believe unless we are honest with ourselves before God in prayer.

If our talk about Jesus is to be real and authentic, then it must grow out of the soil of listening. For Christians, listening needs to be as ubiquitous as sparrows. I believe, when we listen well, God gives us something to say. The truth, spoken with grace, wins out in the end.

Don’t be afraid of death

After telling his disciples not to be afraid of people, Jesus goes on to say, don’t be afraid of death. From verse 28 of Matthew 10 we read Jesus’ words…

Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, fear the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

Again, Jesus appeals to reason and logic in combating the disciples’ fear. But the way it comes across (with talk of hell) seems more likely to fill us with terror. The English translation of this verse is like a bomb. It needs careful handling.

Your body, in this context, is your physical body. And your soul is the core of your being, your life force, that part of you that is unique and animates your body.

The trickier word, in verse 28, is the word translated as hell. Most of us, when we hear the word hell, probably imagine a place of torment, with a horned devil waving a pitchfork and torturing human beings by roasting them over burning coals for all eternity. We think unbearable pain, agony and despair. 

This concept of hell (as a place of eternal torture) is highly problematic, not least because it does violence to our understanding of the Almighty.

God is love. The Lord is just and merciful. He is kind, not cruel. The idea that God would torture anyone is totally inconsistent with the character of God, as revealed by Jesus.

When it comes to hell and the afterlife we need to be honest and admit the fact that we simply don’t know very much. We cannot say what hell is like with any certainty because we have not been there.

The Bible isn’t much help either. Scripture uses a variety of different images and metaphors to talk about the afterlife. Sometimes those images are confusing and seem to contradict each other. The afterlife is in the realm of mystery. God, in his wisdom, has not revealed the details to us.

What we can say with certainty is that the word translated, in verse 28, as hell is actually Gehenna.

Gehenna is a reference to the Valley of Hinnom, outside the walls of Jersualem. Gehenna (or the Valley of Hinnom) was the place, in the Old Testament, where people sacrificed and burned their children to one of the pagan gods. It was an evil practice, detested by the Lord Almighty.

Later, Gehenna became a rubbish dump for Jerusalem, where the city’s waste was burned. Fire and the stench of burning rubbish was ubiquitous to Gehenna. Jesus used the image of Jerusalem’s earthly rubbish dump as a metaphor for one aspect of the afterlife.

The interesting thing about the Gehenna image is that it is not a place of torture. It is a place of annihilation. It is a place where the human soul is not in torment but rather is destroyed, so it ceases to be altogether. 

Jesus does not want his disciples to be under any illusion. They will face suffering and persecution in their work of sharing the gospel. Sometimes that persecution might result in them being killed or martyred. However, the persecutors are limited. They can only kill the body; they cannot kill the soul.

The human soul is in God’s hands, not the hands of men. God Almighty is the only one with the power to grant immortality to the human soul. Likewise, God is the only one with the power to destroy the human soul. Not that he wants to destroy anyone. God’s preference is to save people. The Lord is looking for ways to get you into heaven.

It may seem contradictory to us that Jesus says, do not be afraid of those who can kill your body but do fear God who can destroy body and soul.

In the Bible, fear of God covers a range of meanings, from absolute terror, at one end of the spectrum, to something more like reverence and respect, combined with awe and wonder, at the other end of the spectrum.

In the context of Matthew 10, where Jesus is encouraging his disciples, fear of God is not something that is meant to terrorise them. No. Jesus wants his followers to be free from the fear of man. The fear of God is supposed to protect us.

If you touch something hot, it hurts and you learn to fear hot things. That is, you learn to be careful around boiling water and stove tops and fire. The fear of being burned protects you from harm.

In C.S. Lewis’ book, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, Mr Beaver is explaining that Aslan is a lion and Susan asks, ‘Is he quite safe?’ To which Mr Beaver replies, ‘Safe? Who said anything about safe. Of course he’s not safe. But he is good. He is the King I tell you.’

By definition, God is the most powerful being there is and as the most powerful being, he is not safe but he is good. Fearing God means remembering that God will not be domesticated or controlled by us.

Another example to illustrate how the fear of God operates. Imagine you are driving in your car. You see a speed limit sign that says you need to slow down to 40km’s/hour, because you are approaching a school. You slow down, not because you are afraid of getting a ticket, but because you do not want to do any harm. If you hit a child, you wouldn’t be able to live with yourself.

For the Christian believer, the fear of God is not so much about avoiding punishment. (Perfect love drives out the fear of punishment.) The fear of God has more to do with avoiding harm. We fear God in the sense that we value our relationship with God and do not want to do any harm to that relationship, nor to our own soul.

In Matthew 10, verse 28, it’s like Jesus is saying: you need to be more afraid of being disloyal to God than you are of being killed. Because you wouldn’t be able to live with yourself if you betrayed God.         

In practical terms, the fear of God protects us from every other fear, including the fear of hell. No matter what the followers of Jesus may suffer in this life, the Lord will not abandon his faithful ones to Gehenna. We do not need to fear hell. God did not make human beings for hell. God made human beings for relationship with himself.

Don’t be afraid of your value:

Anyone who has studied economics will know about the law of demand and supply. The more there is of something, the cheaper it is. Conversely, the greater the demand for something, the more it costs. Under this scheme, anything that is ubiquitous, like sparrows, won’t be valuable at all.

Jesus told his disciples not to fear people who oppose them in preaching the gospel and he told them not to fear death, but rather to fear God. Now he tells them not to fear their value. From verse 29, Jesus says…

29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. 30 And even the hairs of your head are all counted. 31 So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.

The basic message here is that we are valuable to God. Given the opposition and suffering the followers of Jesus would face, it was important they knew how valuable they are. Because, when the world treats us badly, we tend to think it is because we are not worth much.  

Human beings may not place a particularly high price on sparrows but God does value the sparrow. God’s way of valuing is different from ours. God does not follow the laws of demand and supply. God values what he has made, not because it is rare, but because he is love and that is what love does. Love values and love cares. 

It’s not that birds don’t matter. They do matter. That’s the point. Given that God values the sparrow, how much more does he value human beings who are made in his image?

One of our greatest human fears, is the fear that we don’t matter. That our lives have little or no meaning and that we are not valuable or loveable. As a consequence, we go to all sorts of lengths to prove our value, trying to make people love us. In the process we end up hurting ourselves and others.

The fear that you are not valuable is a lie. You do matter. Your life does have meaning. You are loved by God eternally. The Lord values you highly.

Even the hairs of your head are all counted. This is a poetic way of saying God knows you better than you know yourself. His attention to you and his care for you is beyond comprehension.

You might wonder why God would bother counting the hairs of your head? Perhaps it is because God knows you will lose many of those hairs in this life and he intends to restore them in the next. But not just your hairs. God plans to restore other more significant losses also. Nothing is beyond God’s reach. Nothing is beyond God’s care. 

Conclusion:

The phrase, God loves you, is ubiquitous, it sounds cheap, clichéd. But that doesn’t make it any less true. Oxygen is ubiquitous. It is so plentiful we take it for granted, but that doesn’t make it any less valuable, for without oxygen we would die in minutes.

We need to know that God loves us in much the same way we need to breathe. Do you believe that God loves you? How much do you really believe it?

In a few moments we are going to share communion together. Communion is a time to let go of our fear and trust ourselves to the love of God in Christ.

The musicians will come now and lead us in song as we open our hearts to God. How deep the Father’s love for us, how vast beyond all measure.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

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

  • How does Jesus combat fear? How might we apply Jesus’ principles in overcoming our own fears? 
  • What does Jesus mean, in verse 26, where he says: “Nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered and nothing is secret that will not become known”? Why do we not need to fear people or what they might say about us?
  • How do we listen to God’s Spirit? Do you have a regular pattern of Bible study? What does this look like? How might we seek to understand people who believe differently from us?
  • How does the fear of God protect us? Why do we not need to fear death?
  • Some people think of hell as a place of eternal torture and torment. Others think of hell as a place of final annihilation. What difference does each of these paradigms make to our understanding of God?
  • Do you believe God loves you? To what degree do you believe this? How might we cultivate our trust in God’s love and care for us? 
Tawa Baptist

Cryptic Cross Words

Scripture: John 12:20-36

Video Link: https://youtu.be/0JlP3GcxrOo

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • The why of the cross (purpose)
  • The way of the cross (strategy)
  • Conclusion – The crisis of the cross (decision)

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

Many people these days do the daily Wordle. But I’m interested to know, does anyone here still do the crossword?  [Wait]

There are basically two types of crosswords. The regular type which uses similar words for clues and cryptic crosswords, which are a bit trickier. With cryptic crosswords each clue has two parts. One part gives a definition of the answer and the other part is an additional hint using word play.

For example, a cryptic clue might read: A holy symbol of torture (5 letters).

Any guesses as to what the word might be? [Wait]

That’s right, cross. A cross is both a holy symbol and an instrument of torture.

Last Sunday we started a new sermon series for Lent, looking at some of the events in Jesus’ last week on earth leading up to his crucifixion. Today’s reading focuses on John chapter 12, verses 20-36. In this passage Jesus talks cryptically about the meaning of the cross. From John 12, verse 20 we read…

20 Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the festival. 21 They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, with a request. “Sir,” they said, “we would like to see Jesus.” 22 Philip went to tell Andrew; Andrew and Philip in turn told Jesus.

23 Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. 25 Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honour the one who serves me. 27 “Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name!”

Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.” 29 The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to him. 30 Jesus said, “This voice was for your benefit, not mine. 31 Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. 32 And I, when I am lifted upfrom the earth, will draw all people to myself.” 33 He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die. 34 The crowd spoke up, “We have heard from the Law that the Messiah will remain forever, so how can you say, ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up’? Who is this ‘Son of Man’?”

35 Then Jesus told them, “You are going to have the light just a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, before darkness overtakes you.  Whoever walks in the dark does not know where they are going. 36 Believe in the light while you have the light, so that you may become children of light.” When he had finished speaking, Jesus left and hid himself from them.

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

Today’s Scripture reads like a series of cryptic crossword clues. It takes some thinking about. Here’s the big picture: Jesus is talking about the cross. He is presenting the why of the cross and the way of the cross. The why of the cross speaks to purpose and the way is about Jesus’ strategy for achieving that purpose. So why did Jesus go to the cross?

The why of the cross:

Here’s another cryptic clue for you: ‘shining a light on honour’ (7 letters). What could the word be?  [Wait] You can find the answer in verse 28, by the way. [Wait] That’s right, glorify.

To glorify something is to shine a positive light on it, to highlight that which is honourable and good. God is love and so we glorify God (we highlight His goodness) when we love others.

In the context of John 12, it is just days before Jesus will go to the cross in obedience to God the Father. Jesus is riding a wave of popularity with the people. Even some God fearing Greeks have asked to speak with him. But Jesus doesn’t really care about being popular. The cross is what’s on top for Jesus.

With this in mind, Jesus explains the why of the cross. This is the purpose in other words. Jesus gives at least three reasons why he must be crucified: To glorify God’s name. To defeat Satan and to draw all people to himself.  

In verse 28, Jesus prays: Father, glorify your name. Jesus is deeply troubled by the thought of going to the cross. If he must suffer in this way, then he wants his suffering to have meaning and purpose. He doesn’t want to suffer in vain.

God’s name is his reputation and his integrity. God’s name is love. Jesus wants his crucifixion to shine a light on God’s love. Jesus wants God to be honoured through the cross.

Jesus’ prayer for God’s name to be glorified is a model for us. One thing is certain in this life. We will suffer pain, uncertainty and loss. How should we pray when faced with suffering? Well, Jesus shows us (by his example) to be honest about how we are feeling and ask God to make our suffering serve a higher purpose. 

So we might pray something like, ‘Lord, this really hurts. I don’t like it and would rather not have to endure it. But your will be done. Redeem my suffering. Let my suffering shine a light on your love, your grace, your justice, your mercy, your goodness. Amen.’  

Interestingly, God answers Jesus’ prayer in an audible way, saying: “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.”  

There are three times in the gospels when God speaks audibly. Once at Jesus’ baptism. Then again at Jesus’ transfiguration and here, for a third time, in John 12. The audible voice is for the benefit of those around Jesus.

To some people, God’s voice is like the sound of thunder. Powerful but incomprehensible. To others, God’s voice sounds like an angel. I’m not sure what an angel sounds like but one imagines something like the hallelujah chorus. Beautiful, melodic, intelligent, pregnant with meaning.

Why is it that some hear thunder when God speaks, while others hear music? We can’t be sure but perhaps it has to do with how well we are tuned in to God? It is the Spirit of Jesus who enables us to tune in and hear God.

Verse 28 is saying that God has glorified his name through Jesus’ work so far (for example, his miracles of mercy and his teaching of truth) and God will glorify his name again through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross.   

So that’s the first reason why Jesus went to the cross, to glorify God’s name. The second reason is to defeat Satan.

In verse 31 Jesus says: Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out.

The phrase ‘prince of this world’ is a cryptic way of referring to Satan. On the face of it, Jesus’ death on the cross would appear to be a victory for the evil one, when in actual fact it is God’s way of judging the devil.

We might think of it this way: In a game of football, if a player misbehaves perhaps by becoming violent and throwing a punch, the referee gives that player a red card and sends them off the field for the rest of the game. By killing Jesus, Satan earned himself a red card and God (the referee) sent him off the field.

Of course, the spiritual battle Jesus won against evil was infinitely greater than any football match.  My illustration falls short.

Jesus’ victory over Satan naturally raises questions for us in the 21st Century. Because 2000 years after Jesus’ crucifixion it appears that Satan is still on the field, still very active in this world. In what sense then has Satan been defeated and driven out?

Well, from our very limited human perspective, we might say that Satan’s defeat at Golgotha took place in the spiritual realm. With Jesus’ death and resurrection something shifted, spiritually, so that Satan was cast out of the heavenly court. 

Satan may still be loose in the physical world, wreaking all sorts of havoc, but his time on earth is limited. Satan has lost his authority as a prince. When Jesus returns in glory he will expel Satan from the earth as well and make all things new. The new heavens and the new earth will not be tarnished by evil.

There is another, more personal, way to think about the devil’s defeat. The name Satan is a Hebrew term which literally means accuser or adversary. Satan is the one who accuses us before God. He is the one who takes us to spiritual court and makes all sorts of accusations and threats against us.

Theologians tell us that, on the cross, Jesus took our sin (our crimes against God and humanity) upon himself. So, when Jesus died, our sin died with him. This means, when Satan accuses us of wrong doing, his accusations are empty because our sin died with Jesus on the cross.

Therefore, Satan has no case. When we align ourselves with Jesus, God throws the devil’s accusations out of court and we are acquitted. 

You may (at times) still feel Satan’s accusation against you personally but, as a believer, you do not need to fear his accusation because he has no actual power to condemn you. He’s just playing mind games. There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.  

For those of you who struggle with the idea of a Satan, let me put it this way: On the cross Jesus overcame fear with love. He overcame condemnation with forgiveness. For those who believe, the love of God (as displayed by Jesus on the cross) has the power to conquer the fear of death and silence the voice of the accuser.  

We are talking about the why of the cross. Jesus’ purpose in going to the cross was to glorify God’s name, to defeat Satan and to draw all people to himself.

Time for another cryptic clue. ‘Make a picture come closer’ (4 letters). [Wait] You can find this word in verse 32. [Wait] That’s right, draw.

The word ‘draw’ can mean, ‘to make a picture’ but it can also mean ‘to come closer’, as in draw near.  

In verse 32, Jesus says: And I, when I am lifted upfrom the earth, will draw all people to myself.         

Crucifixion involved being lifted up on a cross for everyone to see. And so, ‘When I am lifted up’ is a cryptic way of saying, ‘when I am crucified’.

The cross of Christ serves the purpose of drawing all people to Jesus. We are not driven to Jesus by fear. We are drawn to Jesus by his passion. Passion is a word which literally means suffering. If you have ever felt the passion of love, you will understand why passion means suffering. 

The cross is a symbol of suffering. Suffering and death is the universal experience of every human being. Jesus suffered in pretty much every way. He suffered physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. He suffered insult, injury and injustice and so anyone who has ever suffered, even a little bit of what Jesus suffered, can identify with him.

Our own suffering (large and small) can be a vehicle to intimacy with Jesus. If we are misunderstood, maligned or treated unfairly. If we suffer loss or abuse, hunger or thirst, then we can draw close to Jesus in that experience, knowing we are not alone. Knowing Jesus has been there before us and shares in our pain now. 

Because suffering is universal, the cross of Christ draws all people to Jesus. Our reading today started with some Greeks coming to ask Philip if they could meet with Jesus to talk with him. They were God fearing people who were intellectually curious. They were seeking the truth.

But after that we don’t read any more about these Greek seekers. We don’t know whether they got to speak to Jesus or not. Their presence in the narrative is a bit cryptic. What we do know is that Jesus took their enquiry as a sign that his hour had come.

Leon Morris explains: The fact that the Greeks had reached a point of wanting to meet Jesus showed that the time had come for him to die for the world. Jesus no longer belongs (exclusively) to Judaism, which in any case has (largely) rejected him. Jesus belongs to the whole world. [1]

The Greeks, in John 12, represent the wider world who seek a Saviour. Whether Jesus spoke with the Greeks or not, he certainly died for them.

The way of the cross:

Okay, so we’ve considered the why of the cross. Now let’s consider the way of the cross.  In talking about the way of the cross, we mean the strategy Jesus used for achieving God’s purpose. 

Jesus’ way is somewhat of a paradox. The way to life is found through death. The way to glory is found through suffering. And the way to honour is found through service. These are not three separate things. They are three ways of saying the same thing.

Jesus illustrates his strategy, in verse 24, using a parable from nature. Just as a single seed must be planted in the earth and die in order to become a plant and grow many more seeds, so too Jesus must die and be buried in order to be raised and bring eternal life to many. In short, Jesus’ sacrificial death multiplies life.

Jesus’ illustration of the seed is not difficult to understand. But what does it mean for us, his followers? How do we apply Jesus’ words about hating your life in this world? Does this mean we must go around miserable and grumpy all the time?

Well, no. There is much that is beautiful in this world. Much to be celebrated and enjoyed. Simple things like watching a sunset or the companionship of an old friend or the smell of freshly baked bread or reading a good book. It is necessary and healthy for us to take time out to enjoy these simple pleasures.

When Jesus speaks about hating your life in this world, he is using an ancient Jewish idiom that is mostly lost in translation for us.  The ‘world’ in the gospel of John often refers to this current age, this epoch in history, which is finite and coming to an end.  

Jesus’ point is not to become too attached to the things of this world because they are passing away. Your house, your car, your career, your bank balance, your special skills and talents, your reputation; these are all temporary things. They do not travel with you, to the next world, when you die.

What really matters, is faith expressing itself in love. The love you give in this world is banked for you in the next, in eternity. More than just being banked, the love you give is multiplied like a seed. It is transformed beyond all imagining.

‘Hating your life’ does not mean harming yourself or treating yourself harshly. You are highly valued by God and you need to care for the body and soul God has given you. Jesus goes on to explain, in verse 26, that hating your life in this world equates to serving and following him. As Paul says in Romans 12, we are to be living sacrifices.

Serving Jesus will look different for each of us. For some it means giving your time and skills to help in the church. For others it might mean raising your family to know and love Jesus. And still for others, serving Jesus might mean practising his values, living out his way, in the workplace.

Conclusion – the crisis of the cross:

One more cryptic crossword clue: ‘A decision made under pressure’ (6 letters). What’s the word? [Wait] It starts with a ‘C’ and ends with an ‘S’. [Wait]

That’s right, Crisis.

The word crisis literally means to decide. The crisis point is the moment of decision. But in everyday usage a crisis is a time of intense distress or pressure. The cross of Christ creates a crisis. The cross of Christ demands a decision.   

When Jesus spelled out to people his strategy, the way of the cross, the crowds had difficulty accepting it. They could not imagine a crucified Messiah. They thought their Saviour King would remain forever and so they questioned Jesus.

They were half right. Yes, Jesus the Messiah does remain forever but not without being crucified first. After Jesus died, God raised him to eternal life. Unfortunately, the crowds were not able to put that together.

Jesus has already answered their question and doesn’t waste his breath repeating himself. Instead he says: “You are going to have the light just a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, before darkness overtakes you…”    

In the gospel of John, Jesus is the light of the world. Light, therefore, is Jesus’ cryptic way of referring to himself. Jesus is basically saying, believe in me while you still can because if you don’t believe in me now, the window of opportunity for faith will close and you will lose yourself in the dark.   

To walk in the dark and not know where you are going in life is to not know what your future is. To not know you have a good future is to be hopeless, it is to be in despair. Jesus doesn’t want despair for us.   

The cross of Christ creates a crisis. The cross of Christ demands a decision. Have you accepted the light of the world? Have you put your trust in Jesus?

May the Spirit of God turn the light on in our minds that we would believe and see and walk in the way of Jesus. 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 does it mean to glorify someone or something? How do we glorify God?
  • Can you think of a time in your own life when God used your suffering to serve a higher purpose? What happened?
  • Discuss / reflect on the various ways Jesus defeated Satan on the cross. How loud is the voice of accusation in your head? What triggers that voice? What defence might you employ against the voice of accusation?
  • Think about your own experience of suffering. Does this connect with Jesus’ suffering in some small way? Take a few moments to draw close to Jesus in the intimacy of your shared experience. Know that you are not alone. Know that Jesus walks with you, sharing in your pain.
  • What did Jesus mean by ‘hating your life in this world’? How do you serve Jesus in this life?
  • What simple pleasures can you enjoy this week to nourish your soul and invigorate your service to Jesus?   

[1] Leon Morris, NICNT on John, page 524.

Tawa Baptist

Devotion

Scripture: John 12:1-11

Video Links: https://youtu.be/8W_gVTSJsas

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Self-giving acts of devotion
  • Self-serving acts of deceit
  • Lenten devotion
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

Who can tell me what was special about last Wednesday? [Wait]

That’s right, it was Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent.

Lent is an old fashioned word which literally means ‘lengthening’, as in the lengthening of days. In the northern hemisphere Lent happens in spring as the days lengthen. It’s the opposite for us in the southern hemisphere. The days shorten during Lent.   

Irrespective of where you live in the world, Lent is the 40 days (not including Sundays) preceding Easter. Lent is not something we find in the Bible. It’s a Christian tradition passed down through the centuries. During Lent Christians remember the events leading up to and including Jesus’ suffering and death.

Remembering Jesus’ suffering isn’t just something we do in our head. Many Christians identify with Jesus in a tangible way by carrying out self-giving acts of devotion. Acts of devotion typically include praying, fasting and giving, in order to draw closer to Jesus.

Today we begin a new sermon series, for Lent, which explores some of the events in the week leading up to Jesus’ crucifixion. Our Bible reading this morning focuses on the gospel of John, chapter 12, verses 1-11.

In this passage we see both beauty and ugliness. From John 12, verse 1, we read…

Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. 2 Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honour. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. 3 Then Mary took about a pintof pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

4 But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, 5 “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.” 6 He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.

7 “Leave her alone,” Jesus replied. “It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. 8 You will always have the poor among you,but you will not always have me.”

9 Meanwhile a large crowd of Jews found out that Jesus was there and came, not only because of him but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. 10 So the chief priests made plans to kill Lazarus as well, 11 for on account of him many of the Jews were going over to Jesus and believing in him.

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

As I mentioned earlier, today’s reading reveals some beauty and some ugliness. The beauty is front and centre in the form of self-giving acts of devotion. While the ugliness lurks in the shadows in the form of self-serving acts of deceit. First let us consider the beauty of devotion.   

Self-giving acts of devotion:

The first self-giving act of devotion we notice is Jesus’ act of coming to Jerusalem for the Passover. In the context this was a brave thing to do.

At the end of John 11, after Jesus has raised Lazarus from the dead, we read how the chief priests and Pharisees said that if anyone found Jesus, they should report his whereabouts so they could arrest him. Jesus was essentially an outlaw, wanted by the authorities.

Jesus came to Bethany knowing the end was near for him. Knowing he would soon be giving his life as a ransom for many. Jesus did this as an act of self-giving devotion to God. 

But Jesus isn’t the only one who is brave. When Jesus arrives in Bethany, his friends defy the religious authorities by throwing a party in Jesus’ honour.

Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him.

You know, self-giving acts of devotion come in many forms. Martha’s act of self-giving devotion was providing hospitality for Jesus.

You may recall how Martha got a bit upset, in Luke chapter 10, when she was catering for Jesus and his disciples and Mary wasn’t helping. Mary was listening at Jesus’ feet. Jesus defended Mary and gently corrected Martha on that occasion.

From this we may draw the false conclusion that for devotion to be true it must involve sitting in a room by yourself praying and reading the Bible. While that is one very valid form of devotion, so is doing the dishes, when those dishes are washed with a heart full of love for God.

Now in John 12, sometime after the Luke 10 incident, there is no bitterness or resentment from Martha. She serves quietly, without complaint. Her devotion is practical and behind the scenes. Jesus has given Martha her brother back and she is thankful, happy to serve.        

Verse 2 of John 12 sheds some light on another form of devotion. We read that Lazarus reclined at the table with Jesus. In that culture tables were low to the ground and there were no chairs, just cushions. People lay on their side with their head near the table, relaxing while they ate.

Reclining might not sound like much. In fact, it may sound lazy. But, in the context, it paints a picture of the devotion of companionship.

Companionship is a word that literally means to share bread with. But in contemporary English a companion is a friend, someone whose company you enjoy. Someone who spends time with you and removes the sting of loneliness.

So often, when I read the gospels, I’m struck by the loneliness that Jesus must have felt. Yes, he had a pretty amazing communion with God but, at the same time, he was continually misunderstood by the religious leaders, by the crowds and even by his own disciples.

Lazarus offered Jesus the gift of companionship. He was a friend to Jesus. Someone Jesus could hang out with, without being drained.

During certain stages of life, we may find the pressures of family and work force us to be a Martha, always serving. That’s okay but perhaps we also need to listen to that deeper longing in our soul to be a Lazarus. To take time to slow down and recline with Jesus in comfortable conversation or easy silence.   

And so we come to Mary’s self-giving act of devotion. Verse 3 reads…

Then Mary took about a pintof pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

If Martha’s love language is acts of service and Lazarus’ love language is quality time, then Mary’s seems to be gift giving and touch.

Mary’s act of devotion was wholehearted. She was loving Jesus with her whole being, no half measures. She used the full pint of nard on Jesus, total commitment.

Mary’s act of devotion was extravagant. The perfume cost a year’s wages, for a labourer, but love doesn’t count the cost. It is the instinct of love to give and keep giving.  

There is a line in the hymn, ‘When I survey the wondrous cross’, where we sing: Were the whole realm of nature mine, it would be an offering far too small. Mary gives Jesus the most precious thing she owns and yet it still doesn’t feel like enough.

Mary’s act of devotion was courageous. Respectable Jewish women in the first century did not let down their hair in public. It was considered inappropriate. But Mary isn’t concerned with what other people think. Her eyes are only on Jesus.

Mary’s act of devotion was tender. Not only does Mary let down her hair, she even uses her hair to wipe Jesus’ feet. This means touching him in a good way, in a kind and gentle way. What a contrast to the abuse Jesus’ body would suffer just a few days later. Mary gave Jesus the gift of tenderness going into the hardest week of his life.

Mary’s act of devotion was humble, not presumptuous. She anointed Jesus’ feet and in that culture touching feet was a bit like cleaning toilets. This shows the value Mary placed on Jesus. Even his feet (the lowest part of Jesus’ body) deserved the best.

I am reminded of Ruth uncovering Boaz’ feet by the threshing floor. Ruth is known for her loyalty. Is Mary pledging her loyal love to Jesus here?

Mary’s act of devotion was timely. Jesus was soon going to die. On some level, Mary senses that she only has a small window of opportunity to do something special for Jesus. She sees the Kairos moment and gives expression to her love while she can.

If the last few years have taught us anything it is that none of us knows what tomorrow holds. Don’t leave the important stuff undone. Express your love, in a right way, before it is too late. Love, when it is not expressed well (or not expressed at all), turns to pain, a kind of smoldering coal in your chest. 

Mary’s act of devotion blessed everyone. The whole house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. This is instructive for us. Acts of self-giving devotion bless everyone in the house. The closer we are to Jesus, the more we love him, the more everyone around us benefits.  

Mary’s act of devotion was symbolic, it was meaningful.  She was anointing Jesus’ body for burial ahead of time. Whether Mary was aware of this fact or not, we don’t know. What we can say is that Mary’s costly act of self-giving devotion points to Jesus’ costly sacrifice on the cross. 

Mary’s act of pouring expensive perfume on Jesus’ feet is a parable for God pouring his love and grace on the best and worst of humanity.

The beauty of Martha, Lazarus and Mary’s self-giving acts of devotion for Jesus, paint a picture of what John means by eternal life. They give us a glimpse of intimacy with God, the kind of intimacy that can be ours in and through Jesus.

Self-serving acts of deceit:

But, as Bono says, ‘darkness gathers around the light’. Lurking in the shadows are some self-serving acts of deceit.

In verses 4 – 6 we read…

4 But one of Jesus’ disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, 5 “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.” 6 He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.

Judas’ greed and deceit stand in stark contrast to Mary’s authentic generosity and genuine love.

A point of application for us. When you are criticized for doing something good (for acting with self-giving love), then try to remember the criticism is not about you. It might be directed at you but really the criticism reveals more about the one doing the criticizing than it does about you.

Likewise, if you find yourself criticizing someone else unfairly, then take a moment to reflect. The criticism you are making is probably coming from your own shadow.  Your shadow is that part of yourself that you cannot see.

Judas’ criticism is coming from his shadow. Love of money has blinded him. Judas cannot see the goodness in Mary’s act of devotion, nor the worthiness of Jesus in receiving such an outpouring of love. Judas isn’t just criticizing Mary; he is devaluing Jesus as well. Judas’ words reveal something pretty ugly.

Notice though Jesus’ self-giving act of devotion for Judas. Jesus, the prophet who sees into people’s hearts, knows that Judas is a thief and yet he does not expose Judas to shame.

But he does defend Mary’s actions. In verse 7 Jesus says…

7 “Leave her alone. It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial…”

Jesus is a master at saying a lot with few words. Firstly, Jesus protects Mary. More than that, Jesus interprets Mary’s self-giving act of devotion through the lens of his pending death. In doing this, Jesus draws out the eternal significance in what Mary has done.

Then Jesus goes on to say in verse 8…

8 You will always have the poor among you,but you will not always have me.”

Jesus is quoting from Deuteronomy 15, where Moses says there will always be poor people in the land and you should help them whenever you can.

At the same time, in a very private and gentle way, Jesus is calling Judas out on his hypocrisy. Jesus is effectively saying to Judas that if he really cared about the poor he wouldn’t be stealing from the common purse.

But Jesus is also intimating that he will be killed soon. The words, you will not always have me, validate the timing of Mary’s act of devotion, for Jesus is a wanted man.

The chief priests’ self-serving act of deceit makes Judas look like an amateur. Not only were the chief priests plotting to kill Jesus, they also wanted to kill Lazarus whom Jesus had raised from the dead. Killing Lazarus would be like destroying the evidence.

Perhaps they figured, even after we kill Jesus people will still remember him. But if we get rid of Lazarus, then we can erase people’s memory of what Jesus did and rewrite history to suit ourselves.

But the chief priests’ self-serving act of deceit failed. The memory of Jesus’ self-giving love, which conquers fear and death, has not been erased in 2,000 years.

Lenten Devotion:

We started this message talking about how people draw close to Jesus during Lent through prayer, fasting and giving. The thing is, prayer, fasting and giving don’t have any power in themselves to bring you close to Jesus. The chief priests prayed and fasted and gave to the poor and yet they couldn’t have been further from Jesus. 

It is the spirit in which you pray, fast and give that creates the connection. Prayer, fasting and giving are merely tools of devotion. You can use the tools to build a wall or you can use them to dig a well.

You can use the tools to guard against your own insecurity (like the religious leaders did) or you can use them to give yourself to God and his purpose in the world (like Mary, Martha & Lazarus did).

If, for example, you choose to give up chocolate or coffee for Lent, then you do well to ask yourself, why? Am I doing this with mixed motives; perhaps to lose weight or appease my own guilt? Or, does my fasting serve a more noble purpose; like standing in solidarity with the poor and saying, ‘I love you Jesus’.

If not drinking coffee makes you grumpy with the people you live with, then you are better not to give it up. But if you can keep your temper and donate the money you save to a worthy cause, then you are using the tools of fasting and giving to dig a well from which others can drink.

And, if the loss of comfort you feel in fasting puts you in touch with Jesus’ experience in some small way, then your act of devotion has strengthened your connection with Christ.

Another practical thing you can do for Lent is reducing your TV watching. Then the question becomes, what will I do with my spare time? If you give the time to spiritual reading, then you dig a well to refresh your own soul, making yourself better equipped to refresh others.

Or you could volunteer some of your free time to help someone in need or spend a few hours a week picking up rubbish in your neighbourhood. In this way, you are loving your neighbours and identifying with Jesus who gave himself to help us and clean up our mess.

Conclusion:      

Whatever you choose to do for lent, you need be honest with yourself. Self-serving acts of deceit will pass away but self-giving acts of devotion, done in the name of Jesus, will shine forever.

In 1st Corinthians 15, the apostle Paul writes, …stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain.

Or said another way, be sure that nothing you do for Jesus is ever lost or wasted. Whatever you do for Christ, in love and honesty, no matter how large or small, becomes indestructible, eternal.

You might lose your job, your business, your car, your home, your money, your hair, your youth, your beauty, your health, your memory and many other things beside. But every act of self-giving love and devotion you carry out in the name of Jesus is preserved forever in the kingdom of heaven, where flood and earthquake, rust and moth, inflation and thieves cannot rob or destroy.

O that we could keep that eternal perspective in mind and not be overwhelmed by the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune that we suffer in this world.  God is love and love is everlasting.

One question remains: How do you express your love for Jesus?

May the love of God fill you, the peace of Christ keep you, and the companionship of the Holy Spirit give you courage. 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 do you plan to do during Lent to draw close to Jesus? What acts of devotion have you found helpful in the past? What hasn’t worked so well for you?
  • Discuss / reflect on the various forms of self-giving devotion performed by Jesus, Martha, Lazarus and Mary in Luke 12:1-11. Which of these are you most naturally drawn to?
  • How might we deal with unfair criticism? How might we know when other people’s criticism of us is really more about them than it is about us?
  • Why did the religious leaders want to kill Jesus? Why did they want to kill Lazarus?
  • How much of your time and energy do you invest in self-giving acts of devotion for Christ? 
  • How do you express your love for Jesus?  
Tawa Baptist

L.O.V.E.

Scripture: Deuteronomy 6:1-9

Video Link: https://youtu.be/ncW1DISd1kQ

Audio Link: https://soundcloud.com/tawabaptist/sermon-3-jul-2022-love

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Love for God is Loyal
  • Love for God is Obedient
  • Love for God is Voluntary
  • Love for God is Educational
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

Last Tuesday a parcel arrived for Robyn in the post. It was relatively large, about 600mm square. The parcel contained a flat pack table, that Robyn wanted me to assemble for her classroom.

While I quite enjoyed woodwork at school, flat packs are not my favourite. Flat packs tend to be a bit of a lottery. Sometimes they go together okay and other times, there are pieces missing or the instructions don’t exactly line up with the pieces you are given.

When it comes to assembling flat packs, you give yourself the best chance of success by reading the instructions all the way through first. The other thing I find helpful, is having a picture of what the finished product is supposed to look like. That way, if the instructions are a bit vague, you can at least see what you are aiming for.

As it turned out, this particular flat pack was decent quality. It had good instructions and a picture of the finished product on the box. I managed to assemble it without any trouble, while watching the sports news and the weather. The things we do for love.

Today we continue our series in Deuteronomy. Among other things, Deuteronomy contains detailed instructions on how to assemble the flat pack of Israel’s life in the ancient world.

In this morning’s passage, which focuses on the opening verses of Deuteronomy 6, Moses shows the Israelites a picture of what the finished product is supposed to look like. The Israelites need to keep this bigger picture in mind because it makes sense of the details. From Deuteronomy 6, verses 1-9 we read…  

These are the commands, decrees and laws the Lord your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, 2 so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the Lord your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life. 3 Hear, Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, promised you. 4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

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

These words, about loving God with all your heart, all your soul and all your strength probably sound familiar because we hear them on the lips of Jesus, who identified loving God as the greatest commandment.

But what does it mean to love God? True love for God involves at least four things. Love for God is Loyal, Obedient, Voluntary and Educational. L.O.V.E. spells love.  First let us consider loyalty.

Love for God is Loyal:

Sylvester Stallone once said: “I learned the real meaning of love. Love is absolute loyalty. People fade, looks fade but loyalty never fades.”

We might not expect that sort of wisdom from the man who played Rocky and Rambo, but I think there is more to Sly than meets the eye. He is right on the money with that quote. Loyalty is at the heart of true love. I guess a life time of working in Hollywood and the fickleness of fame showed him what matters.

In Arthur Millar’s play, ‘The death of a Salesman’, the main character Willy says, “You can’t eat the orange and throw the peel away. A man is not a piece of fruit.”

What Willy means is that you can’t treat a person like he is a piece of fruit. You can’t take the best out of him and then chuck him away when he is used up. That’s not loyalty. Loyalty is about remaining faithful, sticking with someone through thick and thin. Accepting the person, peel and all.

The Bible is full of stories of loyal love. There is Ruth’s loyal love for Naomi, Jonathon’s loyal love for David, Barnabas’ loyal love for Mark, Moses’ loyal love for Israel, the Father’s loyal love for the prodigal, Jesus’ loyal love for Simon Peter and so on.   

One of the key messages of Deuteronomy is, remain loyal to Yahweh the Lord. Do not turn aside to the right or the left. Do not worship any other gods. Stay on track with God Almighty. Don’t treat the Lord like an orange.

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

These verses are known as the Shema which means ‘hear’. For centuries Jews have recited these words as part of a daily ritual of prayer.

Verse 4 is sometimes translated ‘the Lord is one’ and other times, ‘the Lord alone’. This is not an either / or choice. The original Hebrew embraces a both / and meaning.

To say, the Lord is one, points to the wholeness, the oneness, the unity and integrity of God Almighty. God is wholehearted in his commitment to the promises he makes. God’s loyalty is undivided. This means, if we are going to be in a relationship with God, we must give Him our undivided loyalty too.    

To say, the Lord alone, points to the reality that there is no other god. It connects with the first of the Ten Commandments, ‘You shall have no other gods before me’.

The Lord God Almighty is not in competition with anyone or anything else. There is only one God, therefore, to worship anything else is a lie, a falsehood, a meaningless fantasy. Again, this belief calls for our undivided loyalty to the one true God. 

When we hear the word love we may be inclined to think of a nice, warm fuzzy feeling. An emotion, like falling in love. Sometimes good feelings accompany love but not always.

Loyalty is the backbone of love. Loyalty enables love to stand under the weight of gravity. Loyalty provides strength with movement. Without loyalty, love is like a jelly fish; beautiful to look at but with no skeleton, no integrity, just a nasty sting in the tail.

We might also compare loyalty to the roots of a tree. The deeper the roots of loyalty go the more resilient the tree of our relationship with God. But if the roots of loyalty don’t run deep, then when dry times come, the tree of our relationship withers and dies.  

So that’s the first thing: to love God is to be loyal to him. Closely connected to loyalty is the idea of obedience. 

Love for God is Obedient:

If you grew up in the 80’s you are probably familiar with the movie the Princess Bride. It is a story of loyal love. The story begins with a boy sick in bed with a cold. His grandfather comes over to his house to look after him and reads him a story from a book.

In the book we are introduced to the heroes, Westley and Buttercup. Buttercup is a farm girl and Westley is a farm hand. Whenever Buttercup wants something Westley answers with the words, ‘As you wish’. He obeys her, doing just what she asks, simply because he loves her.

At the end of the movie, after the boy’s grandad has finished reading the story, the boy asks him to come back and read again tomorrow and the grandad answers, ‘As you wish’, because he loves the boy. 

Deuteronomy is peppered with commands, decrees and laws and with the encouragement to obey the Lord, so things will go well for you in the land.

In verse 5, we are told the essence or the DNA of all the commands and laws and decrees of Deuteronomy…  

5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

This is the picture on the box, showing us what the finished product of a life of obedience to God looks like. This is what we are aiming for. This greatest commandment makes sense of all the detailed instructions. The main reason we obey God is because we love him.   

The heart, in Hebrew thought, refers to a person’s inner life. Not just our feelings but our mind and our will, or our decision making faculties, as well.

The meaning of the word soul can have a different nuance depending on the context, but in this verse the soul refers to our whole self, including our physical body and our life force or vitality.

The word translated as strength, in verse 5, is more than just your physical energy or your ability to bench press heavy weights. Your strength here includes your wealth, your money, your time, your tools, your social influence, your house, your skills and talents, as well as your livestock (if you a farmer) or your car (if you live in the modern world).

Your strength basically equates to the resources at your disposal.  

The point is, love for God involves using everything we are and everything we have in obedience to God’s purpose.

So, for example, loving God with all your heart, soul and strength means paying a fair price for things, even if that might cost a little more, because we know that God wants us to do justly and not rip other people off.

Of, if you are in the place of the seller, loving God with all your heart, soul and strength means charging a fair price, rather than letting the market decide.

I know Christian landlords who are charging their tenants significantly less than the market rate because they are motivated by love for God, not love of money. 

Love for God is Voluntary:

This obedience of love is not an empty, heartless, fulfilling of duty. Nor is it a callous, mercenary, self-interested obedience, so that God will bless me. The obedience God wants is voluntary, motivated by love. In verse 6 we read…

6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts.

In other words, the obedience of love isn’t just for show. Our obedience needs to come from the heart, from the core of our self, from the inside out. Not because we have to, but because we want to. True love for God is voluntary.

As much as I don’t like assembling flat pack furniture, I will volunteer to do it for Robyn because I love her. I don’t hold Robyn in my debt for assembling her table. I take pleasure in being able to help her. In fact, I would feel jealous if she asked anyone else.

If you are a parent of small children, then you may not like changing nappies but you volunteer to clean up your child’s mess because you love them. You don’t keep an account of all the money you spend on nappies and wipes in order to invoice them when they are older. You don’t even think of it as a debt.

Or, if you are a parent of teenagers, then you may not like picking your kids up from wherever they happen to be in the middle of the night, but you volunteer because you love them. You don’t expect your kids to pay you like an Uber driver. You may not even expect them to thank you. You are just pleased to have them home safe. Love is its own reward.    

Or, if you have a friend in hospital, then even if you don’t like hospitals you may still volunteer to visit because you love them. You don’t expect your friend to entertain you when you arrive. Nor do you tell them all your troubles. You are there for them, to listen and be present so they know they are not alone.

When we volunteer to help others, out of a heart motivated by love, we are imitating God our Father. God’s love for us is voluntary. God is not obligated to us in any way. God takes care of us, even though there is often nothing in it for him. And he does not count the cost.  

Now when we say that ‘love for God is voluntary’, we are implying that true love is an act of freedom. Love is not involuntary, like a sneeze or the hiccups or an obsession of some kind. Love is a conscious choice. In fact, we cannot love God unless we are free. God sets us free so we can love.  

The Israelites had to be set free from their slavery in Egypt and from their fear, before they could truly volunteer to love God with their all. What things are binding you? What things are holding you back from loving God more fully? What hurts from the past do you still carry?

Okay, to recap what we’ve covered so far: Loving God with all your heart, soul and strength is the greatest commandment, the one that makes sense of all the other laws and decrees. Love for God is loyal, love for God is obedient and love for God is voluntary.

As nice and neat as this sounds, it’s a pretty tall order. Loving God with all your heart, soul and strength, all the time is not easy. Do not despair though. The ‘E’ in our L.O.V.E. acronym stands for educational.

And by ‘educational’ I mean love for God is a learning process. We aren’t expected to know everything all at once. Nor are we expected to never make a mistake. But we are expected to learn from our mistakes.       

Love for God is Educational:

Those of you who watch the TV show, The Simpsons, will know how every episode starts with Bart writing lines on the board at school. I’m not sure if teachers still make students do this but I remember having to write lines on the odd occasion.

Zig Ziglar is quoted as saying: “Repetition is the mother of learning, the father of action, which makes it the architect of accomplishment.”

There is truth in this I think. The more we repeat something over and over again, the more it sticks in our memory. That’s true, not just of writing lines, but of anything we attempt to learn.

Remember when you first started to learn to drive. Everything was a bit stressful and unfamiliar. You were trying to remember to look in the rear vision mirror, while changing gear and keeping an eye on your speed limit. After a couple of months though it becomes second nature.

Returning to Deuteronomy 6, from verse 7 Moses says…

7 Impress these commandments on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

This is education by saturation, learning by repetition.

We probably never learn more than when we have to teach someone else.

Deuteronomy always has its eye on the next generation. Moses doesn’t want the people to forget. He wants them to remember and pass on God’s law of love to their children and grandchildren and so on.

Verse 7, instructs adults to talk to children about God’s commands in the everyday circumstances of life. You see a rainbow you talk about the hope we have because of God’s promises. You watch a movie with a redemption arc in the story line, you find a way to connect it back to Jesus. The kids get grumpy and have a fight, you talk about forgiveness, once they have calmed down enough to listen.

When you sit down for a meal you say a prayer to thank God. When you put your kids to bed at night you read a Bible story or two. When you start the day you recite the Lord’s prayer together. These are just some of the ways we might apply verse 7.

Thinking of verses 8 & 9, we might not tie Bible verses to our hands and heads but some of you may have a fish symbol on your car or perhaps a cross stitch Bible verse hanging on your wall. When I was younger, and had time for hobbies, I used to make small wooden crosses and give them to people as gifts. Maybe you have decorated a cake with the words ‘Jesus loves you’.

Use your imagination, be creative. What can you do to remind yourself and the people in your household of God’s law of love?      

Conclusion:

The night before his crucifixion and death Jesus said to his disciples:

Whoever accepts my commandments and obeys them is the one who loves me.

This means we love Jesus by obeying his commands.

In a few moments we will share communion together. Communion is a time to remember God’s love for us in Christ. Jesus opens the door to friendship with God. It is Jesus who makes it possible for us to love God.

Where we have failed to be loyal to God, Jesus has been loyal for us.

Where we have failed to obey God, Jesus has obeyed for us.

Jesus volunteered for the cross, because of his love for God.

By following Jesus in faith, and with the help of the Holy Spirit, we receive an education in loving God.

Grace and peace to you on the journey. 

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?

  • Have you ever assembled a flat pack before? How did it go? Are you the kind of person who reads the instructions first or do you prefer to wing it?
  • What is loyalty? Why is loyalty important to love?
  • Why do we obey God? What is the difference between obedience motivated by love and obedience driven by duty? Who do you obey?
  • Discuss / reflect on the meaning of Deuteronomy 6:5 ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength.’
  • Who do you volunteer for? What things are binding you or holding you back from loving God? What hurts do you carry from the past?
  • What can you do to remind yourself and the people in your household of God’s law of love?    

Outtakes

This idea that love for God is educational isn’t just an Old Testament Moses thing. It’s a New Testament Jesus thing too. Jesus taught his disciples the meaning of love and in turn commanded them to make disciples also.

Incidentally, the word ‘disciple’ simply means student or apprentice. To be a disciple of Christ just means we are learning to be like Jesus.

We shouldn’t compartmentalise discipleship exclusively into some form of church programme. Christian discipleship doesn’t only happen when you are listening to a sermon or attending a Bible study group or doing your personal devotions. Learning to love God encompasses all of life. 

Discipleship, learning to be like Jesus, happens in singleness and marriage, when you are at work or play, whether you are well or sick.

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

Psalm 36

Scripture: Psalm 36

Video Link: https://youtu.be/HYK-TE2dACc

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Prophecy (1-4)
  • Praise (5-9)
  • Prayer (10-12)
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Kai ora whanau and good morning everyone.

Tell me, what do these things all share in common?

The Screwtape Letters, The Problem of Pain, The Great Divorce, The Abolition of Man, The Four Loves and The Magician’s Nephew. [Wait]

That’s right, they are all books written by C.S. Lewis.

Clive Staples Lewis was a wonderful servant of the Lord whose writing continues to bring light and clarity to our thinking about God.

In his book, The Great Divorce, Lewis says: There is but one good; that is God. Everything else is good when it looks to him and bad when it turns from him.   

I quite like that quote. It sums up our reality as human beings. We depend on God for our goodness and indeed for our very lives. Lewis’ words here remind me of Psalm 36, the focus of our message today.   

The title of this Psalm reads: ‘For the director of music. Of David, the servant of the Lord’. There are only two psalms which describe David as the Lord’s servant. This one and Psalm 18. 

From verse 1 of Psalm 36 we read…

1 I have a message from God in my heart concerning the sinfulness of the wicked: There is no fear of God before their eyes. 2 In their own eyes they flatter themselves too much to detect or hate their sin. 3 The words of their mouths are wicked and deceitful; they fail to act wisely or do good. 4 Even on their beds they plot evil; they commit themselves to a sinful course and do not reject what is wrong. 5 Your love, Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. 6 Your righteousness is like the highest mountains, your justice like the great deep. You, Lord, preserve both people and animals. 7 How priceless is your unfailing love, O God! People take refuge in the shadow of your wings. 8 They feast on the abundance of your house; you give them drink from your river of delights. 9 For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light. 10 Continue your love to those who know you, your righteousness to the upright in heart. 11 May the foot of the proud not come against me, nor the hand of the wicked drive me away. 12 See how the evildoers lie fallen—thrown down, not able to rise!

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

David, the servant of the Lord does three things in this psalm: prophecy, praise and prayer. As the servant of the Lord David knows the truth about humanity, he adores God’s goodness and he prays in faith.

Prophecy:

In popular culture a prophet is thought to be someone who predicts the future. In the Bible though a prophet is someone who communicates God’s message. He or she sees the truth of the present situation and speaks that truth to the people; how the people respond shapes their future.

Broadly speaking, the prophets of the Old Testament gave two kinds of messages: messages of judgment and messages of hope.

Those who were proud and had turned away from God tended to get a message of judgment. You’re on the wrong track, change your direction in life before you end up destroying yourself.

While the humble poor, who were suffering oppression, tended to receive a message of hope. Keep looking to the Lord and trusting in him. He will deliver you and restore you.     

Messages of judgement and hope are not either / or. They are both / and. They go together. There is hope in God’s judgement. When we return to God we are saved.

C.S. Lewis was somewhat of a prophet during the 20th Century, although he probably would not have seen himself in that way.

In his book, Mere Christianity, Lewis writes: No man knows how bad he is until he has tried very hard to be good.

Lewis goes on to say: ‘Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. After all, you find out the strength of an army by fighting against it, not by giving in. You find out the strength of a wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down. A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness — they have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it: and Christ, because He was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means — [Jesus is] the only complete realist.’

Psalm 36 begins with David giving a prophecy. Verse 1 reads: I have a message from God in my heart concerning the sinfulness of the wicked: There is no fear of God before their eyes.

Sometimes prophets are called Seers because they have the God given ability to see into a person’s heart. David’s message, from God, is not a prediction of the future. Rather it is a vision of what goes on inside an evil person. David knows the truth about humanity and it is not pretty.

In some ways the human heart is like a loaded gun waiting for the wrong circumstances to pull the trigger. I remember my systematic theology lecturer, saying: ‘Christians should be the least surprised by sin’. When people do bad things we should not be shocked by it.

We should not look down on the wicked nor think of ourselves as too good to commit evil. That potential is within each one of us. Those who think they are not capable of evil are like the person C.S. Lewis described as never having offered any real resistance to sin. 

David knows his potential for evil and he knows what it is to suffer at the hands of evil doers. That’s probably how God gave him the insight.

There’s a scene in the movie Shawshank Redemption where Andy, a wrongly convicted prisoner, approaches the boss of the prison for justice. The prison boss won’t help Andy and so Andy says to him, ‘How can you be so obtuse?’

To be obtuse is to be insensitive or hard hearted, lacking compassion. The wicked are obtuse, they are deluded. In their own eyes they flatter themselves too much to detect or hate their sin. The boss of the prison is like that; he does not fear the Lord. 

Usually the term ‘fear of the Lord’ means having reverence and respect for God. But in Psalm 36 the word fear leans more towards terror and being afraid for your life.

There are basically two reasons why a person obeys God. The first reason is because they love God and want to please him. But if a person does not love God they might still obey him just to save their own skin, because they are afraid of what God will do to them if they don’t act justly. 

Obviously, the ideal is to obey God because we love him. But God is gracious enough that he will still accept the person who obeys him out of fear. However, God will not accept the person who neither loves him nor fears him. The wicked are so obtuse that they don’t even fear God, much less love him.

In verse 3, David says the wicked are deceitful and they fail to act wisely or do good. In the Bible, wisdom is not about being brainy or super smart and intelligent. Wisdom is about doing the morally right thing, the good thing.

Being a Christian is not easy. There are times when it is frustrating and difficult and confusing and humiliating and painful and a whole list of other unpleasant things. But don’t let that put you off. It’s not all bad and it is worth it in the end. In the meantime, it helps to be very clear in your own mind, about why you are a Christian.

Perhaps, like me, you started the Christian journey from a place of fearing the Lord and wanting to avoid hell. That’s okay. We all have to start somewhere. It is better to fear the Lord than ignore him.

But fear of the Lord by itself is not enough; it won’t get you through this life. At some point you need to grow in your love for the Lord. And the only way I know of growing in your love for the Lord is to focus on his goodness and to enjoy his love for yourself.

In verses 5-9 of Psalm 36, David praises God for his goodness and love.     

Praise:

In his book, Reflection on the Psalms, C.S. Lewis writes about praise. He says,

I thought of praise in terms of compliment, approval or the giving of honour. I had never noticed that all enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise…

We delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment… It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed.

Lewis is pointing out here the relationship between praise and enjoyment. God does not need our praise. He is not insecure or vain. We praise God because we have experienced his love and we enjoy him. We can’t help but praise him. 

It’s like when anyone in our family sees a rainbow and has to tell the others. Or when the surf is going off and you just have to tell your mates to get out there and catch a wave. Or when you hear a really good joke and need to share it. Praise is essentially the expression of enjoyment. Praise liberates joy.

In verses 5-6 of Psalm 36, David liberates some joy when he praises God by saying: Your love, Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. Your righteousness is like the highest mountains, your justice like the great deep.

The first thing we notice here is the spaciousness of God. God is not small or stingy. He is roomy and generous. The love and faithfulness of the Lord is sky high – it has no limits. His righteousness is as solid and dependable and unmissable as the highest mountain range.

I remember waking up at Aoraki Mt Cook and looking out the window at Mount Sefton, on a beautiful cloudless blue sky day. It was spectacular. I couldn’t stop looking at the mountains all around us. That’s what God’s righteousness is like. It is awesome and beautiful and impossible to miss.

Once again our friend, Mr Lewis, clarifies things when he writes: We may ignore but we can nowhere evade the presence of God. The world is crowded with him. He walks everywhere incognito. (Letters to Malcolm)

God’s justice is like the great deep. The great deep refers to the ocean.

Like the ocean, God’s justice is a powerful force that cannot be manipulated or controlled by human beings. God’s justice has hidden depths. There is a certain mystery to it. God’s justice is teeming with life and it feeds us, it supports our life. God’s justice is also patient, turning rock into sand. 

Returning to verse 5, the word translated as love is actually hesed. (My apologies for not pronouncing it correctly.) Hesed is steadfast love, loyal love.

Hesed is not just a feeling. It is an action. Katherine Sakenfeld, who did her PhD on this subject, outlines the three main criteria of hesed. [1]

Firstly, the action is essential to the survival or the basic wellbeing of the recipient – so it’s a big deal.

Secondly, the needed action is one that only the person doing the hesed is in a position to provide – given the circumstances no one else can do it.

And thirdly, hesed takes place in the context of an existing relationship.

Unlike human hesed which is limited, God’s hesed (his loyal love) is unlimited, it crosses boundaries reaching to the heavens. This is like saying, ‘No one and nothing is beyond the reach of God’s love’.  

In the gospels, Jesus crossed boundaries in a righteous way, extending divine hesed to people he did not know. In doing that he transformed their lives and created a special kind of relationship with them.

When Jesus healed the man born blind on the Sabbath, that was hesed.

When Jesus delivered a man from a legion of demons, that was hesed.

When Jesus protected the woman caught in adultery, that was hesed.

When Jesus forgave the man who was paralysed and then healed him, that was hesed.

When Jesus invited himself to Zacchaeus’ house for dinner, that was hesed. 

When Jesus died on the cross to make us right with God, that was hesed.

Verses 5-6 are about the greatness of God, while verses 7-9 are about God’s care and providence. Or, as verse 8 puts it, People feast on the abundance of your house.

The image here is one of joyful celebration. In his book, The Weight of Glory, Lewis observes how ‘the sun looks down on nothing half so good as a household laughing together over a meal’.

Christians readily see connections in these verses with Jesus who identified himself as the light of the world, the bread of life and a well springing up to eternal life. 

Verse 9 of Psalm 36 is beautiful poetry, full of mystery. It says: in your light we see light. I’m not sure these words are fully knowable but, given the context, light suggests joy along with purity, clarity and truth.

Possibly C.S. Lewis had verse 9 in mind when he wrote: I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen – not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else. (Is Theology Poetry) 

It is the light of God’s goodness and love which helps us to trust the Lord and to see what is right. 

Exuberant praise welling up out of enjoyment of God is one thing, but David (like us) was living in a fallen world. The Lord’s servant still had to contend with the difficult reality of wicked men who sought to do him harm. And so Psalm 36 moves from prophecy to praise to prayer.

Prayer:

Here’s another little gem from Lewis: Relying on God has to begin all over again every day as if nothing had yet been done.

This is something I have found to be true in my own experience. I imagine that after David had killed Goliath, it may have been tempting for him to stop relying on God. I expect a victory like that would make most young men a bit cocky, a bit over confident. But not David. He does not turn away from God in pride. 

The secret to David’s success is that he relies on God all over again, every day, as if nothing had yet been done. We demonstrate our reliance on God through prayer. That is, by asking for his help daily.

David’s prayer in verses 10-11 of Psalm 36 is this: Continue your love to those who know you, your righteousness to the upright in heart. 11 May the foot of the proud not come against me, nor the hand of the wicked drive me away.

Once again the Hebrew word for love, in verse 10, is hesed. David is asking God to support the righteous and the upright in heart. Righteousness indicates right actions in one’s relationships with others, while uprightness of heart refers to one’s inner life being true or without pretence.

The upright in heart are like the pure in heart. They are the same on the inside as they are on the outside. They don’t pretend to be something they are not.  

David stands in solidarity with the righteous and upright in heart when he asks God to protect him in verse 11. David wants God’s love (his divine hesed) to set the agenda for his life, not the power of proud men. 

Verse 12 is a statement of faith: See how the evildoers lie fallen—thrown down, not able to rise! David is voicing his confidence in God’s ability to protect him. His faith is not blind or unfounded. It is based on his experience of God helping him in the past.  

We, who are Christian, may feel a bit uncomfortable with David’s prayer. He was a soldier, having to fight for his life. Most of us know nothing of mortal combat. We may have occasional fantasies of violence against our enemies, when we feel angry or afraid, but we know this is wrong.

Jesus taught us to love our enemies and to pray for their well-being, not their downfall. So what are we to do with David’s prayer?   

Another word from C.S. Lewis on prayer may help us here: We must lay before God what is in us; not what ought to be in us.

The psalms are unapologetically honest. They reveal what is actually in the psalmist and not necessarily what ought to be in him. Our prayer life needs to be honest, otherwise it loses its power.

If we are not honest with God we risk resenting him or, even worse, becoming obtuse and deluding ourselves. The upright in heart are honest with God, even when their truth is difficult to say.      

Please hear me on this. Honest is not careless. We still need to keep our prayers respectful, remembering that God loves us and wants the best for us.

Conclusion:

There is but one good; that is God. Everything else is good when it looks to him and bad when it turns from him.   

So the question for each one of us is, which way are we facing?

Are you looking to the Lord, feasting on his goodness?

Or do you have your back to him, pretending he is not there?

Jesus shows us the goodness of God. He shows us what it looks like to be made in the image of God, what it is to be truly human in the best sense of that word.

When we look to Jesus, when we build our life on his teaching and follow his example, we become good.

Let us pray…

Father God, we thank you for your love and faithfulness, your justice and mercy, your grace and truth. Give us a vision of yourself, in the face of Jesus, that we would reflect your image and enjoy you forever. Amen.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

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

  • Do you have a favourite C.S. Lewis book or quote? What is it and why do you like it?
  • What do you think C.S. Lewis meant when he wrote: No man knows how bad he is until he has tried very hard to be good?
  • Why did you become a Christian? Is your reason for being a Christian the same now as it was when you started your journey of faith?
  • Discuss / reflect on the relationship between praise and enjoyment. Why do we praise God?
  • In what ways is God’s justice like the ocean? In what ways is God’s righteousness like a great mountain range? What does David mean when he says, “God’s love (hesed) reaches to the heavens”? What are verses 5-6 telling us about God?
  • Why does David pray? Why do you pray? Why is it important that we keep our prayer life honest?
  • Take some time this week to contemplate the various ways Psalm 36 connects with Jesus.

[1] Katherine Doob-Sakenfeld, Ruth, page 24