Tawa Baptist

Vine

Scripture: John 15:1-10

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • The vine
  • The gardener
  • The branches
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

One of the first things a new born foal does is stand. A baby horse normally attempts to get to its feet within the first 10 minutes of its life and manages to successfully stand after about 30 minutes or so.

Only after it has got to its feet does it begin to suckle off its mother. Then it will start to walk or run for the first time within 90 minutes of its birth. By comparison most human babies start walking independently around 12 months of age, on average.

Why the difference? Well, one reason could be that horses need to be able to run to survive. A horse can’t afford to wait a whole year before walking.

But humans are different. Human beings don’t rely so much on their ability to run. Human beings survive by forming attachments or relationships with other people. And so one of the first things a human baby does is cry, partly to get some oxygen into its lungs but also to get its mother’s attention and form an attachment.

Previously the experts thought that successful attachment was created by food, but John Bowlby discovered there was more to it than that. Babies need caregivers who are responsive to them, who smile at them and talk to them and spend time interacting with them in a warm and positive way. 

The central idea of attachment theory is that primary caregivers who are available and responsive to a baby’s needs allow the child to develop a sense of security. When the baby knows that the parent is dependable, this creates a secure base for the child to explore the world.

Today we continue our sermon series on the I am sayings of Jesus in the gospel of John. Jesus uses a number of I am statements to describe himself. These sayings tell us about Jesus’ being, his identity.

Please turn with me to John chapter 15. Last week we heard how Jesus is the gate for the sheep. This morning we hear how Jesus says to his disciples: I am the vine and you are the branches. The main idea here is that attachment to Jesus is essential to our spiritual survival. From John 15, verses 1-10 we read…

“I am the real vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He breaks off every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and he prunes every branch that does bear fruit, so that it will be clean and bear more fruit. 3 You have been made clean already by the teaching I have given you. 4 Remain united to me, and I will remain united to you. A branch cannot bear fruit by itself; it can do so only if it remains in the vine. In the same way you cannot bear fruit unless you remain in me.

5 “I am the vine, and you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will bear much fruit; for you can do nothing without me. 6 Those who do not remain in me are thrown out like a branch and dry up; such branches are gathered up and thrown into the fire, where they are burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, then you will ask for anything you wish, and you shall have it. 8 My Father’s glory is shown by your bearing much fruit; and in this way you become my disciples. 9 I love you just as the Father loves me; remain in my love. 10 If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love.

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

There are three main characters in Jesus’ allegory here, each in mutual relationship with the others. The vine (which represents Jesus), the gardener (which represents God the Father) and the branches (which represent those who follow Jesus). First let us consider Jesus, the vine.

The Vine:

The maple leaf is one of the national symbols of Canada.

The thistle is the national flower of Scotland.

The Protea is the national flower of South Africa.

While the silver fern is New Zealand’s symbol.

What plant do you think was used as the symbol of ancient Israel? Anyone want to take a guess? [Wait]

You are on to it. The vine, or the vineyard, in the Hebrew Scriptures, was a symbol for the nation of Israel.

In Isaiah 5:1-7 the prophet sings the song of the vineyard…

My friend had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. 2 He dug the soil and cleared it of stones; he planted the finest vines. He built a tower to guard them, dug a pit for treading the grapes. He waited for the grapes to ripen, but every grape was sour…  Israel is the vineyard of the Lord Almighty; the people of Judah are the vines he planted. He expected them to do what was good, but instead they committed murder. He expected them to do what was right, but their victims cried out for justice.

There are other references in the psalms and the prophets describing Israel as the Lord’s vineyard and most of them end in a note of judgement. The message seems to be that ancient Israel had failed to produce the fruit of righteousness that God intended.

It is against this background that Jesus says of himself, “I am the real vine.” That’s like saying, “I am the real Israel.” Or, “I am the true Israel. I am the root stock of the nation who produces the fruit that God desires.”

That is an incredible claim to make. Jesus’ claim to be the true vine holds together judgment and hope. On the one hand, Jesus is criticising the nation of Israel, basically saying they have failed to produce the fruit God wanted.

But at the same time Jesus also castes a positive vision for the future. Judgment does not get the last word. Jesus is saying, I am what God called Israel to be. Where Israel failed, I will succeed. And so there is hope. In and through Christ, God gets the vineyard and the fruit he wants.      

Okay, so Jesus is the vine and God the Father is the gardener.

The Gardener:

From verse 2 Jesus explains how God, the gardener, breaks off every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and he prunes every branch that does bear fruit, so that it will be clean and bear more fruit.         

To better understand what God does let me take you through the annual cycle of tending to a grapevine.   

During winter, the vine dresser prunes (or cuts back) the previous year’s canes and chooses the best branches to grow new shoots. The gardener trains selected branches to grow along the wire. [1]

Then, during September or October, comes the bud break. This is when the first signs of life occur. The buds are extremely delicate during this time. You pray there are no hail storms.

The buds continue to grow and then flower. The gardener may choose to prune the downward facing shoots to reduce the crop size. Pruning in this way reduces the quantity of the crop with a view to improving the quality. With fewer grapes on the vine you get a concentration of flavour.

Then in November or December comes the fruit set. This is when bunches of green grapes appear and grow. You wouldn’t want to eat the fruit at this stage; it would be too sour.

Towards the end of summer, the green berries change colour and ripen. This process is called veraison. Depending on how many grapes are on the vine, some winegrowers will thin the crop so that more nutrients and goodness go into the remaining fruit.

Harvest usually happens in autumn, sometime between March and May, once the sugar levels in the grapes rise and they have reached their perfect ripeness. Harvest is a busy time. Once harvested the grapes do not continue to ripen.

When winter comes round again the leaves die off and the pruners trim the vines ready for spring and a new cycle of growth.

Leon Morris makes the observation that fruitfulness is the whole point of the vineyard. Left to itself a vine will produce a good deal of unproductive growth. Pruning is essential for maximum fruitfulness. The fruit of Christian service is never the result of allowing natural energies and inclinations to run riot. [2]

Or to put it another way; less is more. The temptation, particularly when we are young and have energy to burn, is to try and do everything. So rather than strategically focusing our time and resources on one or two things, we may be inclined to dissipate our energies in a flurry of busy-ness and activity.

There is no end of need and worthy causes in this world. There is always a long list of good things we could be doing. But the reality is, we can’t do it all. So the question becomes, what is it that God (the gardener) wants me to give myself to?  

Another way to frame that question is to ask yourself, what is it that I can do that others can’t do? If you have children, then no one else can really be a mum or a dad to your kids in the same way that you can. So giving love and time to your children, while they are still young, needs to be a priority.

I’m pleased that Bono chose to write songs instead of driving trucks. Just like I’m pleased Ashley Bloomfield chose a career in medicine rather than being a rock star. Just as I am pleased each of our deacons chose to serve the church instead of watching TV or playing golf. 

We can’t do everything. Less is more. Less quantity means better quality. What is it (or perhaps, who is it) that God wants you to give yourself to? And what is it that God is wanting to prune?  

Being pruned is not a pleasant experience. It can be painful and bewildering to be cut back. We think we are on the right track, doing well. We seem to be growing and making progress in our discipleship and then wham. We suffer some kind of loss or set back and we don’t understand why.

The temptation at that point is to give up on God. To lose faith. To cease remaining in the vine. But we need to remember that God is the gardener. God is in control not us. And God is very skilled at his job. He knows what he is doing and why.

If you feel like you are being pruned at the moment, hold on to the fact that God has a purpose in what he is doing. It could be that he intends to use this experience to improve the quality of your fruit. The quality of Job’s relationship with God, after he had suffered catastrophic loss and been restored, was far better than it was before his loss.

Now, by drawing a parallel between loss and God’s pruning I don’t mean to imply that every bad thing that happens to us can be put down to God improving the quality of our fruit. Suffering is often a mystery that we won’t understand this side of the harvest. By faith we know that whatever we might suffer, nothing is beyond God’s reach. God can redeem anything.

Jesus is the vine. God the Father is the gardener and we, the followers of Jesus, are the branches.

The Branches:

We began today’s message with the idea of attachment. Being attached to another human being in a nurturing, responsive relationship is essential to our survival. As infants, it is through a healthy attachment with one primary caregiver that we learn trust and find psychological security.

In verse 4 of John 15 Jesus says: Remain united to me, and I will remain united to you. A branch cannot bear fruit by itself; it can do so only if it remains in the vine. In the same way you cannot bear fruit unless you remain in me.

In other words, attachment to Jesus is essential to our spiritual survival.

We need Jesus like the branches of a tree need the roots and trunk. It is the roots and trunk that nourish and feed the branches. We need Jesus like a baby needs its mother or father. It is through Jesus that we learn trust and security.

Today is Pentecost Sunday when we remember afresh the gift of the Holy Spirit. Although Jesus does not explicitly mention the Holy Spirit, in the opening verses of John 15, he was just talking about God’s Spirit in chapter 14 and he will go on to say more about the Spirit in John 16.

We could think of the Holy Spirit as the sap flowing inside us from Jesus the vine. The Holy Spirit is life to the branches from within.   

More than once in today’s reading Jesus talks about the branches bearing fruit when they remain attached to him. So what exactly is the fruit? Well, verse 8 indicates the fruit is that which glorifies God. My Father’s glory is shown by your bearing much fruit;

When the vine produces quality grapes, the one who grew the grapes gets the credit. The gardener (God the Father) gets the glory. As branches grafted into Christ, our job (our main purpose in life) is to bear quality fruit for the glory of God. To glorify God means to reveal or reflect something of God’s goodness to others. To make God larger in the awareness of others, in a good way.

In Galatians 5 the apostle Paul lists some of the things that glorify God. Paul writes: But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. This is not an exhaustive list of the fruit but it gives us the idea.

When a husband and wife love each other and remain faithful through all the ups and downs of life, this is fruit which glorifies God. Their faithfulness points to God’s faithfulness.

Or when someone at work is having a bad day and you respond by not taking it personally but instead showing forbearance, this is fruit that glorifies God.

Or when a child sees someone alone in the playground without any lunch and goes over to share their own lunch and friendship, this is the fruit of kindness.

Or when a landlord does not charge a huge rent, simply because the market dictates it, but instead keeps the rent at a reasonable level, this kind of fruit reflects the mercy and justice of God. 

In verse 7 we see a connection between prayer and fruit where Jesus says: If you remain in me and my words remain in you, then you will ask for anything you wish, and you shall have it. 

This does not mean that we can use Jesus like a Genie in a bottle. Jesus is not promising to give us a never ending supply of wishes, like in the Tim Tam ad. Rather, when we are so closely attached to Jesus that his word is in us, we will be inclined to ask for things that are in line with his will and purpose anyway.

Another thing we notice is the number of times we come across the word remain in today’s passage. (The Good News Translation uses the word remain 11 times in ten verses.) The startling thing is that we bear the fruit of love by simply remaining attached to Jesus.

We are not required to go on some valiant quest to find the fruit like it was hidden treasure. Nor do we have to try and frantically manufacture or create the fruit ourselves. Branches don’t survive by running, like a horse. Branches grow and bear fruit by waiting, by remaining still. All we have to do is abide in Christ.

I say, ‘all we have to do is abide’, as if that is an easy thing. But in the rough and tumble of life, remaining attached to Jesus, over the long haul, is not as easy as it seems. Unlike the branches of a vine, we get a choice. We can walk away at any point. But in doing that we would only harm ourselves.

Okay then, if remaining (or abiding) in Christ is the key to fruitfulness, then what does it mean to remain attached to Jesus? How do we do that?

Well, in verse 9 of John 15, Jesus points us in the right direction when he says:

I love you just as the Father loves me; remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love.

Our attachment to Jesus is defined by love. There is a possible connection here with the Song of Solomon. The Song of Solomon is a love poem from the Hebrew Bible. The poet uses the vineyard as the place where the woman and the man will share their love. From Song of Solomon chapter 7:11-12 we read,

Come my beloved… let us go out early to the vineyards and see whether the vines have budded, whether the grape blossoms have opened… There I will give you my love.

I won’t read anymore because I don’t want you to get too excited. The point is, the vineyard is a place of tender love and intimacy. 

Love is loyal. Remaining attached to Jesus means being loyal to him. Christianity is an exclusive religion in the sense that we worship one God. Jesus is Lord. Jesus is the way the truth and the life. We follow him and no one else.

Love is open. Remaining attached to Jesus means being open to him. Open to listening to what he wants to say to us in the Scriptures. Open to receiving what he wants to give. Open to his truth and grace. Open to the sap of his Spirit. But it is an openness that goes both ways. We need to be honest with Jesus and not hide from him.

There is a certain vulnerability that comes with being open to Christ. Openness requires faith and trust on our part.

Love is voluntary. Remaining attached to Jesus is something we do because we want to, not because we are forced to. Our attachment to Jesus is not based on fear of punishment, nor is it based on some legal obligation. We stay close to Jesus and spend time cultivating our relationship with him because we like him. We enjoy his presence.       

Love needs to be expressed. When love is not expressed it turns into a kind of unbearable pain. When we express love to someone we invest a part of ourselves in that person and we strengthen the attachment.  Remaining attached to Jesus inevitably involves us expressing our love to him.

There are many ways to express love for Jesus but the primary way is through obedience; doing what he asks. Notice how Jesus puts love and obedience together. He does not separate them. Jesus loves us first and we respond by obeying him voluntarily. The love goes both ways.

Love is loyal. Love is open. Love is voluntary and love needs to be expressed. L.O.V.E. Spells love.

Now in giving you this acrostic I don’t mean to imply that this is all there is to remaining in Christ. There is a certain mystery with our attachment to Jesus. We can’t fully define it, much less reduce it to a pithy acrostic. Jesus’ attachment to us is deeper and more profound than we are able to fathom.

Conclusion:

Jesus is the vine. God the Father is the gardener and we are the branches.

One of the things I like about Jesus’ allegory of the vine is that it implies there are seasons in our life; seasons of new growth, seasons of fruitfulness and harvest, as well as seasons of dormancy and loss, when it seems that not much is happening.

This means we don’t have to feel guilty if we are not being fruitful all the time. Producing fruit is a process. We are not responsible for the outcome. We just need to remain attached to Jesus. God will take care of the fruit.

Whatever season you happen to be in at the moment, may God the Gardener keep you close to Jesus.

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 is attachment so important for human beings? What is needed for successful attachment?
  • How would Jesus’ original Jewish audience have understood his statement: I am the real vine?  In what sense was this a criticism of ancient Israel? In what sense is Jesus’ statement pregnant with hope?
  • Why does God prune the branches? Have you ever felt like God has pruned you? How did God do this? How did you feel / respond? What was the outcome? What (or who) is it that God wants you to give yourself to at this time?
  • What does it mean to glorify God? Can you think of real examples of the sort of fruit Jesus had in mind?
  • How do we remain attached to Jesus, the true vine?
  • What season are you in at the moment? What might you expect in this season?    

[1] https://winefolly.com/deep-dive/lifecycle-of-a-wine-grapevine

[2] Leon Morris, NICNT John, page 594.  

Tawa Baptist

Good Shepherd

Scripture: John 10:11-18

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Jesus knows – intimacy
  • Jesus brings – outreach
  • Jesus volunteers – love
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

Theodore Roosevelt once said: “People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader leads and the boss drives.”

Roosevelt was drawing attention to the fact that people willingly follow a good leader because they see value and meaning in where that person is taking them. By implication the leader is out front, showing the way by their example.

In contrast, the boss is behind, driving people, forcing them on a path they don’t necessarily agree with or understand.  

Today we continue our sermon series on the I am sayings of Jesus in the gospel of John. Jesus uses a number of I am statements to describe himself. These sayings tell us about Jesus’ being, his identity. What we notice is how closely Jesus identifies himself with God the Father.

Please turn with me to John chapter 10, verse 11, page 132 toward the back of your pew Bibles. This morning we hear how Jesus says: I am the good shepherd. A shepherd (in Biblical thought) is a leader. Jesus is referring to himself as a good leader, not a boss. We follow Jesus, we are not driven by him. From John 10:11-18, Jesus says… 

11 “I am the good shepherd, who is willing to die for the sheep. 12 When the hired man, who is not a shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees a wolf coming, he leaves the sheep and runs away; so the wolf snatches the sheep and scatters them. 13 The hired man runs away because he is only a hired man and does not care about the sheep. 14-15 I am the good shepherd. As the Father knows me and I know the Father, in the same way I know my sheep and they know me. And I am willing to die for them. 16 There are other sheep which belong to me that are not in this sheep pen. I must bring them, too; they will listen to my voice, and they will become one flock with one shepherd.

17 “The Father loves me because I am willing to give up my life, in order that I may receive it back again. 18 No one takes my life away from me. I give it up of my own free will. I have the right to give it up, and I have the right to take it back. This is what my Father has commanded me to do.”

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

Our message today focuses on three main things: Jesus, the good shepherd (or good leader) knows, brings and volunteers. First let’s consider Jesus’ knowing.   

Jesus knows (intimacy)

If you watch the TV program, Country Calendar, you would have seen (many times) the image of a farmer on a motor bike, or horseback, driving a large flock of sheep from behind. This is not typically the way shepherds move their sheep in the Middle East. In the first century shepherds led their sheep. They walked in front and the sheep followed because they knew the shepherd.

Gary Burge tells a true story which demonstrates the mutual knowing between Arab shepherds and their sheep. [1]   

During the Palestinian uprising in the late 1980’s the Israeli army decided to take action against a village near Bethlehem for not paying its taxes. The officer in command rounded up all of the village animals and placed them in a large barbed wire pen. Later in the week he was approached by a woman who asked him to release her flock. Her husband was dead and the animals were her only source of income.

The officer pointed to the pen containing hundreds of animals and said, with a chuckle, that it was impossible for him to find her sheep among so many. She asked that if she could separate the sheep herself, would he let her take them. The army officer agreed.

When the soldier opened the gate the woman’s son pulled out a reed flute and repeatedly played a simple tune. Within moments sheep heads began popping up across the pen. The young boy continued playing his tune all the way home with his flock of 25 sheep following him.

The shepherd knows his sheep and the sheep know the call of their leader.

In verses 14-15 Jesus says: I am the good shepherd. As the Father knows me and I know the Father, in the same way I know my sheep and they know me.

When we hear the word ‘know’, we tend to think head knowledge. Facts and figures. Objective, rational information. Nothing below the neck.

But to know someone in a Biblical sense means far more than mere head knowledge. Biblical knowing refers to deep, profound and intimate relationships between people.    

I guess it is the difference between knowing someone at a virtual Facebook level, without ever having met them, and knowing someone in real life who you’ve lived or worked with for many years. Biblical knowing goes way beyond Facebook knowledge. Biblical knowing involves personal experience. 

R. didn’t get to know me by reading my biography. When she agreed to marry me it wasn’t a case of picking me out of a catalogue. R. got to know me by spending time with me and with my family. She saw how I behaved in different situations and experienced how much she missed me when I wasn’t around. (I can say this because she is in Sunday school and can’t hear me.)

In verses 14-15 of John 10 Jesus is holding up his intimate knowing of God the Father as a model for the kind of intimate knowing his sheep (or his followers) are able to have with him. Jesus, the good shepherd, knows his sheep and through the experience of faith we know him.

Twice in these verses Jesus says: I am the good shepherd who is willing to die for the sheep.

That’s how much Jesus cares about the sheep. He is willing to sacrifice himself that we would live.

The word translated as ‘good’ comes from the Greek kalos. Kalos combines a number of ideas of goodness. It means morally good but not in a ‘holier than thou’ or legalistic sort of way. The moral goodness of Jesus has overtones of beauty and winsomeness. Kalos goodness leans towards being noble in the sense of having fine personal qualities.

So Jesus is an attractive leader. He is a noble leader, one we admire and respect. Jesus wins people over so they want to follow him. Jesus does not boss or drive people with guilt. He woos and draws people with grace.  

The mother in the story of the 1980 uprising was like a good shepherd. There was a certain attractiveness in the way she bravely but respectfully approached the army officer. The soldiers would have been armed but the woman and her son were willing to risk their lives to redeem their sheep.

There was of course some self interest in their risk. The sheep were their livelihood. Without the sheep they would be destitute. But there is no self-interest with Jesus’ willingness to die. The sheep in Jesus’ parable are actually people and Jesus is not dependent on them for his livelihood.

In contrast to the good shepherd, Jesus describes the hired hand who does not know or care about the sheep all that much. When the hired hand sees a wolf coming he runs away and leaves the wolf to snatch and scatter the flock.

In a general sense the hired hand represents those who are motivated by selfish gain. Some of the temple priests of the first century were corrupt and in it for the money. They didn’t like it when Jesus over turned the tables of the money changers in the temple because that was bad for business. But not all the priests were like that. I expect many were decent men who sought to honour God as best they could. 

Unlike the hired hand who is a flawed human being, the wolf is not human. The wolf is a powerful force of nature, a beast that cannot be reasoned with. The wolf represents death.

Now some of you may be thinking, how does it help the sheep if the shepherd is killed. Surely that is worse for the sheep. Well, ordinarily, that is true but Jesus is no ordinary shepherd. As we know Jesus has the authority to rise from the dead. Through the cross and the resurrection Jesus has conquered death.

Jesus, the good shepherd (the ideal leader) knows his sheep and Jesus brings his sheep into the fold.   

Jesus brings (outreach)

Some of you may have heard of the wives of Weinsberg. The legend goes that the Duke of Weinsberg possessed an immense fortune in gold, silver and fine jewels, which he kept in his castle.

The Duke had a falling out with King Konrad (the sovereign of the realm) and so the king gathered his army and laid siege to Weinsberg, demanding the Duke’s fortress, the massive fortune and the lives of the men within.

Although the King had allowed for the safe release of all women and children, the wives of Weinsberg refused to leave without having one of their own conditions met. They requested to be allowed to leave at sunrise the next day bringing with them whatever they could carry on their backs.

Thinking the women couldn’t possibly make a dent in the massive fortune, the king decided to grant their request. After all, he would be hailed as a generous and merciful king and most of the Duke’s fortune would still be left for him.  

But the king got more than he bargained for. The next morning at sunrise, as the women walked out, the entire army was stunned to silence as they saw each wife carrying her husband on her back. The wives and husbands of Weinsberg shared a love that was more powerful than death.  

Deeply moved by their love, King Konrad kept his word and no lives were lost that day.

The wives in this story are like Jesus who brings us out of the castle of death and into the freedom of new life. And we are like the husbands, in need of Jesus’ rescue.

In verse 16 of John 10, Jesus says: There are other sheep which belong to me that are not in this sheep pen. I must bring them, too; they will listen to my voice, and they will become one flock with one shepherd.

In the context of John 10, Jesus is speaking to the Jews. The other sheep he mentions here refer to the Gentiles or non-Jews (people like us). The one flock is the Christian church which includes people of all nations. And the one shepherd is Jesus himself. Jesus is looking forward to that time when his followers would comprise people of many different cultures and ethnicities. 

Jesus isn’t just the good shepherd (or ideal leader) of Israel. Jesus is the ideal leader of the church universal – all Christians, of every race, throughout history. 

What we notice here is that Jesus says, “I must bring them too…”.

To bring means: to go with someone or something. If I ask you to bring me an apple, you have to get up, go outside to the tree (or supermarket), pick the apple and walk back with the apple to where I am. Bringing takes time and effort.

Bringing an apple with you is relatively easy because the apple does not have a mind of its own. Bringing people with you is quite different. To bring someone with you involves reaching out and establishing trust. Forcing someone at gun point is not the same as bringing them. There is no coercion or threat of violence with bringing people.

When thinking of the way Jesus brings people with him we remember the wives of Weinsberg who brought their husbands out of death and into life.

At the same time, we are conscious that the women could not force their husbands to come with them. The husbands needed to swallow their pride and trust themselves to their wives. They needed to cooperate. It takes humility, on our part, to receive Jesus’ help and let him bring us with him. 

In relation to bringing these other sheep Jesus says, ‘they will listen to my voice.’ This tells us that bringing involves communication. The ability to communicate effectively is one of the essential qualities of a good leader.

Jesus communicates with people in a whole variety of ways. Preaching of the gospel has been one of Jesus’ main ways of bringing people to himself through the past 2,000 years, but it is not the only way. Jesus also speaks to people through dreams and visions. Even today we hear reports of people, who have never heard the gospel, having dreams in which Jesus appears to them and talks with them.     

It is not enough though to sit through a sermon in church or to receive a dream in the night. The thing that opens our ears to really hear the word of God and to really be moved by a vision of Jesus, is our need. More than anything else it is realising our own poverty, our deep hunger, that brings us to God.

The husbands of Weinsberg allowed their wives to bring them out because they were conscious of their need for salvation and their powerlessness to save themselves.

Whenever I pray for someone’s salvation I feel the weight of that prayer. Because I know that God’s answer will most likely involve some pain and humiliation for the one I am praying for, as they realise their need for God.

How did Jesus bring you to himself? What need opened your ears to hear Jesus’ voice and follow him?

Jesus is the good shepherd. Jesus knows, Jesus brings and Jesus volunteers.

Jesus volunteers (love)

There is a moving scene at the beginning of the first Hunger Games movie where Primrose Everdeen is selected to participate in The Hunger Games. Prim is just a young girl with a compassionate nature and will certainly be killed.

Prim’s older sister, Katniss, realises this and volunteers as tribute in Prim’s place. Katniss knows there is a pretty good chance that she will be killed in The Hunger Games but her love for her sister is so great she is ready to die for Prim. Katniss and Prim share a love that is more powerful than death.      

The Hunger Games is fictional of course, while Jesus’ death is a historical fact. But Katniss’ example serves to illustrate the point that Jesus volunteered to die as tribute in our place.

Some of you may have heard of the Catholic priest Maximilian Kolbe. Father Kolbe was arrested in 1941 and sent to Auschwitz. He had been providing shelter for refugees, including many Jews.

At the end of July 1941 a prisoner escaped from the camp, so the deputy commander ordered 10 men to be starved to death in an underground bunker as a deterrent to anyone else planning an escape. When one of the men cried out, ‘My wife, my children’, Father Kolbe volunteered to take his place.

Each day in the bunker Max Kolbe led the other nine condemned men in prayer. After two weeks Father Kolbe was the only man left alive. The soldiers wanted to clear the bunker so they gave Kolbe a lethal injection of carbolic acid. Max Kolbe did not resist but calmly offered his arm.

That’s a true story of a man who followed Jesus’ example by volunteering his life to save another. And, in case you are wondering, the man Father Kolbe saved survived the war and was present when they canonised Father Max.

Max Kolbe shared a love with Jesus and with his fellow prisoners that was more powerful than death.    

From verse 17 of John 10, Jesus says: “The Father loves me because I am willing to give up my life, in order that I may receive it back again. 18 No one takes my life away from me. I give it up of my own free will. I have the right to give it up, and I have the right to take it back. This is what my Father has commanded me to do.”

In these verses Jesus is saying he volunteers for the cross. He lays down his life freely and willingly because this is what God has asked him to do. 

Like Katniss and Max Kolbe, Jesus is willing to give up his life to save others. But Jesus’ volunteerism is not exactly the same as Katniss’ and Father Kolbe’s. Jesus volunteers from a position of power.

Katniss and Father Kolbe’s hands were forced in a way. They had little control in the situation. They had the power to volunteer in someone else’s place but, unlike Jesus, they didn’t have the power to overthrow their enemies.

Jesus did have the power to overthrow his enemies. When the guards came to arrest Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane and one of the disciples drew his sword, Jesus told him to put the sword away saying: Do you not think I could call on my Father and he would at once put more than twelve legions of angels at my disposal.      

That’s remarkable. Jesus had the power to destroy his enemies and avoid the cross but he chose instead to submit to God’s will in going to the cross, such was his love for God the Father.

You know the word Muslim is an Arabic term which means ‘one who has surrendered’. [2] More than any other human being Jesus surrendered to the will of God. But it wasn’t a forced surrender. Jesus surrendered willingly and freely to God’s will for him because of the love they shared.

When Jesus says, in verse 17, “The Father loves me because I am willing to give up my life…” he does not mean that he wins God’s love by going to the cross. Far from it. Later, in John 17, Jesus says that the Father loved the Son from the creation of the world. God the Father has always loved Jesus the Son.

The point is, Jesus’ voluntary death is a hallmark of his union with the Father’s will and an expression of the love they share together. [3]  The love, the bond, the relationship between God the Father and Jesus the Son is more powerful than death.

In verse 18 Jesus says, I have the right (or the authority) to give up my life and I have the right (or the authority) to take it back.

It wasn’t just God’s will for Jesus to die a sacrificial death on the cross. It was also God’s will for Jesus to live again, to experience resurrection life. Therefore, Jesus dies knowing he will receive his life back.

What we notice here is that Jesus’ authority comes from being one with God’s will. Being in God’s will gives us a certain authority also. I think Max Kolbe was able to volunteer like he did because he felt the power of being in harmony with Christ.  

Now, in some ways, I am reluctant to hold up the example of Max Kolbe. It may not always be the right thing to volunteer to die for someone else. If you are a parent of young children, then they can’t really afford for you to be a hero. You have responsibilities to your family.

More often Jesus does not call us to die for him. More often Jesus calls us to live for God. We are to be living sacrifices, giving ourselves to God’s will and purpose in a hundred different ways (large & small) every day. This is what it means to follow Christ. Volunteering as a living sacrifice, over a long period of time, is usually the more difficult thing.       

Conclusion:

Jesus is the good shepherd, the ideal leader of the church. And what a wonderful leader he is.

Jesus knows us intimately and desires that we share in his intimacy with God the Father.

Jesus reaches out, at great cost to himself, to bring us with him into the fold of God’s people.

And Jesus freely volunteers for God’s will, even unto death, such is the quality of the love he shares with the Father.

May grace and peace be yours in abundance.  

Questions for discussion or reflection:

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

  • What does Jesus mean when he says: I am the good shepherd?
  • How is knowing (in a Biblical sense) different from head knowledge? How do we get to know Jesus and God?
  • How did Jesus bring you to himself? What need opened your ears to hear Jesus’ voice and follow him?
  • Why did Jesus volunteer for the cross?
  • Where did Jesus’ authority come from? Where does our authority come from?
  • In what ways has God asked you to volunteer?

[1] Refer Gary Burge, NIVAC on John, page 302. 

[2] Refer Kenneth Bailey, ‘The Good Shepherd’, page 243.

[3] Refer Gary Burge, ‘NIVAC John’, page 292.

Tawa Baptist

Leadership

Scripture: 1st Peter 5:1-5

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • What?
  • Why?
  • How?
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

Dee Dee Myers once made the wry comment…

“I am endlessly fascinated that playing football is considered a training ground for leadership, but raising children isn’t.”

Dee Dee worked in the white house during the Clinton administration. Her observation reveals the western world’s often misplaced values when it comes to the question of what makes a good leader.

Today we continue our series in the New Testament letter of first Peter, focusing on chapter 5, verses 1-5. In this passage the apostle Peter addresses the elders of the church, giving guidance on the what, why and how of church leadership. Peter’s wisdom shows us what we need to look for in a leader.

From 1st Peter 5, verse 1 we read…

To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elderand a witness of Christ’s sufferings who also will share in the glory to be revealed: 2 Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, serving as overseers—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be;not greedy for money,but eager to serve; 3 not lording it overthose entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. 4 And when the Chief Shepherdappears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.

5 In the same way, you who are younger, submit yourselves to your elders. All of you, clothe yourselves with humilitytoward one another, because,

“God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

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

In these verses Peter lays out the what, why and how of church leadership. First let’s consider what the role a Christian leader is.

What?

There is a lovely term in cricket called ‘shepherding the tail’. The tail here refers to the lower order batsmen, those who are usually better at bowling than batting and therefore more vulnerable when at the cress.

Shepherding the tail is when the more skilled batsman, in this scenario, supports and protects the weaker batsman. This support may come in the form of words of encouragement and advice between balls. It may also mean the stronger of the two batsman facing more of the strike.

In verse 2 Peter appeals to the elders of the church to be shepherds and overseers of God’s flock.    

What is the role of the elders or leadership of the church? To be shepherds.

The thing we notice here is that Peter doesn’t get into a detailed job description about what the leaders of the church are to do. He doesn’t start with the specific tasks of leadership. No. He starts deeper than that, at the level of their being. Peter’s logic is that if the leaders of the church get their being right, the doing will take care of itself.  

People tend to do what they are. Doing comes out of being. If you are a builder, you will naturally be inclined to lay a good foundation, measure twice and cut once. If you are an accountant, you will look to reconcile things and take a prudent approach. If you are a nurse, you will want to provide practical care for people.

A shepherd is inclined to watch, protect, feed, care for, count and heal their flock. Shepherds are used to long hours, hard work and difficult conditions. A shepherd thinks in terms of the whole flock collectively as well as the individual sheep and lambs. A shepherd is vigilant, aware and present.

Shepherding is like parenting. It is a better training ground for leadership than playing football.     

God seems to have a thing for shepherds. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were all shepherds, as were Moses and king David. Jesus was a carpenter but he described himself as the good shepherd. God often chose shepherds to lead his people because shepherds are wired up to take care of living things.

Earlier in the service we heard a conversation between Jesus and Peter, from chapter 21 of John’s gospel. The risen Lord Jesus appears to his disciples and has breakfast with them. After breakfast Jesus takes Peter aside and asks him three times to care for his sheep. (Some versions say ‘feed my sheep’)

Peter had it imprinted in the very fiber of his being that Jesus wanted him to be a shepherd to other believers in Christ. Peter is asking the leaders of the church to do the same – to be shepherds to the people entrusted to them.  

The image of the early church as a flock of sheep and the elders of the church as shepherds was very appropriate to Peter’s readers. Sheep are basically defenseless. They can’t run very fast, they are not naturally camouflaged and they don’t have sharp teeth or claws to defend themselves.

As we have heard over the past few months, the church in Asia Minor during the first century, was small and vulnerable, like sheep. Christians were marginalized, misunderstood and hated. Eventually Peter’s readers would be persecuted. They didn’t need a CEO style leader or a military commander. They needed leaders with the heart of a shepherd who would care for, guide, feed and protect them.

So how does this translate to our church context today? Shepherding is more of an attitude, or a mind-set, than a task. Doing comes out of being.

The equivalent of elders or leaders at Tawa Baptist are our Deacons and pastors. One of the Deacons’ tasks is to make decisions in the life of the congregation. Making decisions in itself is not necessarily shepherding. What makes the Deacons shepherds is their care for the congregation. So when the Deacons make a decision they are thinking about the welfare of the people in parallel with God’s will & purpose.

One of the classic expressions of shepherding a congregation is preaching. It is not the preacher’s job to entertain you or make you laugh, although it is okay if he or she does. It is the preacher’s job to lead you to the green pastures and still waters of God’s word, in the Scriptures, so you can find the guidance and nourishment you need for your souls.

Not everyone can preach but most of you can visit. When you make a pastoral visit to someone the main purpose is to listen and seek to understand the person you are visiting. You can’t help someone unless you know them. You may feel a bit useless just sitting and listening and drinking tea, but actually your presence has more power than you think. Your listening with empathy is a salve for loneliness. It creates a connection that God can use.

Of course, shepherding is not limited to preaching & visiting. There is a lot of administration and compliance involved with church leadership these days. A shepherding attitude does not ignore the necessary admin but rather looks to see how it can serve the well-being of the people. For this reason, health & safety is important to us, not because we like paper work, but because we want to protect people.

You may have twigged by now that shepherding isn’t just something the deacons and pastors do. In reality we all have a shepherding role to play. If you are the leader of a home group or if you are a Sunday school teacher or a crèche worker or youth leader, then you are a shepherd to those in your care.

But even if you don’t have an official role in one of our church programmes, you can still be a shepherd to someone in an informal way. Maybe by being present when someone is going through a difficult time. Or helping in a practical way with a meal. Or looking after their kids. Or simply noticing a change in them and asking, ‘Are you okay?’

Doing a particular set of tasks does not make you a shepherd. Shepherding is an attitude, or a mind-set, out of which a task of care is born.

Having addressed the what of church leadership (to be shepherds), Peter then talks about the why of leadership.              

Why?

The question of why one should be a leader has to do with motivation and purpose. Peter says…

Be shepherds of God’s flock… not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be;not greedy for money,but eager to serve…

Leadership is not easy. Like being a shepherd, the hours are long, the work is hard and the conditions are often difficult. There are certain pressures, both internal and external, that come with leadership. Often in leadership one is caught between a rock and a hard place. Sometimes a leader has to make decisions that are unpopular and lonely.

As Max Lucado says, “A man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the crowd.”

Being a leader in the church of the first century was not easy. The elders Peter was addressing were coping with enormous pressures from the society around them. Being a leader in that context required them to turn their back on the crowd in order to lead the orchestra of the church. It took real commitment.

Before you accept the mantle of leadership, you need to be very clear about why you are doing it. You can’t afford to go into leadership half-hearted. You need to embrace the commitment fully. You need to be willing.

It appears from verse 2 that ‘the church felt an obligation to provide financially for those whose Christian service prevented them from earning what they needed to live.’ [1] So some of the church leaders probably received a modest stipend.

While there is nothing wrong with paying people for their service to the church (don’t muzzle an ox while it treads the grain and all that), money in itself is not an adequate reason to serve in Christian leadership. You have to find an intrinsic motivation.

Although Peter doesn’t explicitly say in these verses, the motivation of love must surely have been in his mind. You remember that when Jesus asked Simon Peter to feed his lambs (in John 21), Jesus prefaced that request each time with the question: ‘Simon, son of John, do you love me?’

In this way Jesus helped Peter to be clear about his why. The primary motivation for any Christian leader has to be love for Jesus. You might start out enjoying the tasks of Christian ministry but that won’t be enough to sustain you. You might feel a certain affection for people but people will inevitably let you down.

The number one priority for any Christian leader is to keep the fire of their love for Christ alive. Love for Jesus is our why.       

There is a plant that produces a lovely deep coloured flower, known as the Amaranth plant. The name Amaranth derives from a Greek word meaning ‘the unfading flower’. The Amaranth flower is so called because it does not fade. It retains its rich deep colour.

In ancient times the Greeks would show honour to someone by putting a wreath or crown of flowers on that person’s head, much like we might award a medal to an Olympic champion. The wreath could be made of any kind of foliage but an Amaranth wreath was special because it did not fade in the same way other crowns did.

The Amaranth doesn’t just look good though, it is also good for your health. People use the plant to make medicine to treat ulcers, diarrhoea, swollen mouths and to reduce high cholesterol.  

In verse 4 Peter gives another reason why Christian leaders should serve…

4 And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.

A more literal translation of the original Greek reads…

4 And when the Chief Shepherdappears, you will obtain the amaranth crown of glory.

The ‘amaranth crown’ is paraphrased by most English translations as ‘the crown of glory that will never fade’, because the metaphor is lost on modern readers. The Chief Shepherd refers to Jesus and the amaranth crown is the eternal reward Jesus gives to those who go the distance in God’s will for them.

The Lord is no one’s debtor. He does not expect his servants to work for nothing. Those who shepherd God’s people have much to look forward to.

So then, we have two answers to the why of Christian leadership. Our motivation needs to be love for Christ and the hope of glory.

We have heard about the what and the why of church leadership. Now let’s consider how a church elder is to lead or shepherd God’s people?

How?    

There is a Chinese Proverb which says: ‘Not the cry, but the flight of a wild duck, leads the flock to fly and follow’.

I take this to mean that the best way to lead is by your example.

One of the shepherds, in my life when I was younger, was a man called Gus Row. Gus was the director of Youth for Christ Waikato when I was involved with YFC during the late 1980’s and early 90’s.  He was nicknamed ‘the Ox’.

Among his many gifts Gus was a wonderful speaker. He fed us with his words.  One of Gus’ illustrations was of a pair of oxen. He said in days of old, when oxen were used to plough fields, they would often pair an old ox with a young ox. The young ox had the strength and vigour to spur the older ox on. While the older ox had the patience and steadiness to guide and pace the younger ox so it could go the distance. The older ox acted as an example to the younger ox.

Gus used this metaphor to encourage older leaders to come alongside and mentor younger ones. There is a mutual benefit.

In verse 3 Peter appeals to the elders of the church not to lord it overthose entrusted to you, but be examples to the flock.

This recalls Jesus’ words to his disciples in Matthew 20:25-28…

“You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 26 Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— 28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

How are Christian elders to lead the church? By coming alongside and being an example of the way of Christ.

Or, to put it another way, “Leaders don’t inflict pain, they share pain.” [2]

Peter practiced what he preached as well. In verse 1 of chapter 5, Peter comes alongside his readers saying…

To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elderand a witness of Christ’s sufferings who also will share in the glory to be revealed:

Notice how Peter does not pull rank on his readers here. Peter is the premiere apostle but he doesn’t issue an edict or a command from on high. He doesn’t lord it over them or use his status to demand obedience. No. He humbly comes alongside and appeals to the elders of the church in Asia Minor as a fellow elder on the same footing.

In effect Peter says, “I’m an elder like you. I know what it’s like. I feel your pain. We are on the same side with the same goal. We both share in Christ’s sufferings and will share in his glory too.”

Peter learned the how of Christian leadership directly from Jesus of course. After Peter had denied Jesus three times, the Lord did not stand on high and reprimand Peter. He did not use the guilt Peter obviously felt to leverage Peter into doing him a favour. He didn’t say to Peter, ‘Look, you let me down and now you owe me. But you can make it up to me by taking care of my flock. Then we’ll be even.’

No. As we heard in John 21 earlier, Jesus came alongside Peter and restored him. No recrimination, no guilt, no shame, no leveraging, just the undeserved trust of a second chance. That is grace. That is the way of Jesus. That is the how of Christ’s example.

When we think of coming alongside and being an example to others we are reminded of the philosophy of 24-7 youth work. 24-7 uses a presence based (shepherding type) model. The idea is for youth workers to come alongside students and be hand holders, not problem solvers.

Now in saying that the how of Christian leadership is to come alongside and be an example, we do not mean to imply that church leaders can’t speak difficult truths to those in their care. Sometimes it is necessary for shepherds to discipline the flock. But to discipline means to teach, more than to punish. And the most powerful teaching method is our example.

Conclusion:

Sam Rayburn is quoted as saying, “You cannot be a leader, and ask other people to follow you, unless you know how to follow, too.”

Our reading today concludes with Peter’s appeal to young people and indeed to all people in the church. Peter says in verse 5…             

In the same way, you who are younger, submit yourselves to your elders. All of you, clothe yourselves with humilitytoward one another, because,

“God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

We have talked about humility a bit recently so there is no need to labour the point now. Suffice to say that humility is not putting yourself down. Humility requires a healthy self-awareness, not thinking too much or too little of yourself.

Humility is the necessary companion to Godly submission. Submitting to others is not popular. We are too infatuated with the illusion of personal freedom. We need to recover a right understanding of what Christian submission is.

Peter is not suggesting believers should submit to immoral leadership, without question. The kind of leadership Peter is asking his readers to submit to is a shepherding style of leadership modelled after the example of Christ.

As Joel Green reminds us, to submit is to find and occupy responsibly one’s place in the community of faith. To submit oneself is the opposite of withdrawal. Submission is not about numbing or negating yourself. Submission is about embracing one’s personhood. [3]   

Likewise, humility is about going with the grain of who you are, who God made you to be. The way of Christ is not to revolt and rebel. The way of Christ is to understand who you are and where you fit in God’s purpose.

By appealing to the young people to submit to their elders, Peter is in fact putting them on a path to becoming leaders themselves one day. Submitting to legitimate authority is one of the lessons every leader needs to learn.   

“You cannot be a leader, and ask other people to follow you, unless you know how to follow, too.”

This morning we’ve heard Peter’s what, why and how for Christian leaders.

A Christian leader is a shepherd. Their motivation is love for Christ and the hope of unfading glory. A Christian leader leads by coming alongside and being an example. 

Whether you are a leader or not we all need God’s grace. With this in mind let’s stand and sing Gracious Spirit dwell with me. Make this your prayer…         

[If you would like prayer, there will be someone available to pray with you after the service at front on the north side of the auditorium.]

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 leadership lessons might we learn from raising or caring for children?
  • Why do you think God often chose shepherds to lead his people?  
  • What does it mean to be a shepherd leader? Who has God entrusted to your care and how do you shepherd them?
  • Why is love for Jesus so important for a Christian leader? What can you do to keep the fire of your love for Jesus alive?
  • What does it mean to ‘come alongside’?
  • Why does Peter appeal to the young people to submit to their elders? How does submission to legitimate authority prepare us for leadership?
  • Take some time this week to reflect on your own style of leadership. What might those in your care be learning from your example? 

[1] Refer Howard Marshall’s commentary on 1st Peter, page 163.

[2] Quote by Max Depree.

[3] Refer Joel Green’s commentary on 1st Peter, page 171.

Tawa Baptist

Lifestyle

Scripture: 1st Peter 4:7-11

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Pray with clarity
  • Love with forbearance
  • Eat with others
  • Serve with faithfulness
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

In 2010 a movie came out called Eat, Pray Love, based on a book by the same name.  I never got round to watching it so I can’t make any comment on its content but the title of the film connects in some ways with today’s Scripture reading.

This morning we pick up our series in the New Testament letter of 1st Peter, which we began last year. You may remember the apostle Peter was writing to encourage the fledging church in Asia Minor who, in the first century, were initially marginalized and then later persecuted for their faith in Jesus.     

We continue our series in 1st Peter from chapter 4, verses 7-11. In this passage Peter instructs his readers to pray, love, eat and serve. From verse 7 of chapter 4 we read…

7 The end of all things is near.Therefore, be clear minded and self-controlledso that you can pray. 8 Above all, love each other earnestly,because love covers over a multitude of sins. 9 Offer hospitalityto one another without grumbling. 10 Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others,as faithfulstewards of God’s grace in its various forms. 11 If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God.If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides,so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.

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

Apart from being the title of a book and a movie, Eat, Pray, Love, sounds like good general lifestyle advice. It speaks of finding a healthy balance for your whole self, body & soul. Peter’s advice, in chapter 4, isn’t exactly the same though. The priority order is different. It’s not Eat, Pray, Love but rather Pray, Love, Eat and Serve. Peter starts with prayer. In essence he says, pray with clarity.         

Pray with clarity:

School has started back for many this past week and with it homework and assignments. One way or another we all tend to be motivated by a deadline or a goal to aim for. Some people like to get organized a long way in advance and others become more motivated as the date for handing in the assignment gets closer.

When we were at University, Robyn used to sit down at her type writer and smash out an essay the night before it was due. This was before we could afford a computer. Every time, without fail, she would get an A. It was astonishing.

When I asked her how she did it Robyn explained that for about two weeks beforehand she would lie awake at night organizing the ideas in her head. Then at the last minute, when she was clear in her mind what she wanted to say, she typed it all out.

My process is a bit different to that. I can’t hold too many things in my mind at the same time. In fact, it is in the process of writing that ideas and clarity come. Writing unblocks my mind in a way.

In verse 7 of chapter 4 Peter says: The end of all things is near.Therefore, be clear minded and self-controlledso that you can pray.   

‘The end of all things’ refers to the goal of salvation history. The nearness of the end is defined by Christ’s resurrection. [1] The resurrection of Jesus is the motivation to get your act together so you can pray with clarity. That is, with a clear mind and self-control.  

When we are young we imagine we can do almost everything because we have energy to burn and time is on our side. But as we get older we begin to realise that we don’t have all the time in the world to achieve everything we had hoped. So, in mid-life, we feel the need to prioritize. We say to ourselves, I may only have 15-20 good years left. What’s important to me, what’s the goal here, and how am I going to spend that precious time?

There’s nothing like a funeral to give you clarity. As the end draws near we become more clear minded, more focused, about what we need to do with our lives.

This is not to imply that we are to be reckless or careless, far from it. When the great reformer Martin Luther was asked what he would do if the end were to come today, he replied that he would plant a tree and pay his taxes. Planting a tree is something you do for the future and paying your taxes is about meeting your obligations in the present. ‘Luther meant that he lived every day in light of the end and hence he would do the appointed task of that day.’ [2]

Stepping back and taking a broader look at the arc of human history, Jesus’ coming (2000 years ago) signals a kind of mid-life crisis for humanity. Peter is saying, given where we stand in history (in relation to Jesus’ resurrection), we need to get some clarity on what really matters and therefore what to give our lives to. And we need to pray; we need to talk about this with God, because God stands on both sides of the divide.

Prayer isn’t just asking God for stuff in this life. Prayer is primarily about strengthening our relationship with God, by communicating with him. Prayer, in that sense, helps us in this life and the next.

Okay, so that’s the first thing Peter says: understand where you are in relation to the end goal, get things clear in your mind and pray. Pray with clarity.

The next thing is love – love with forbearance.

Love with forbearance

When you cook a roast dinner it always pays to make plenty of gravy. If you don’t quite get the timing right, if you over cook the meat so it dries out, then covering it with gravy saves the dinner. 

In verse 8 Peter writes: Above all, love each other earnestly,because love covers over a multitude of sins.

Now the kind of love that is in view here is not an emotional warm fuzzy feeling, like falling in love. It is deeper than that. The love in view here is a thoughtful commitment to the well-being of others, even when they irritate you. Love, in this context, means treating others in the Christian community in a way that takes care of relationships. It is an earnest love that persists despite little rubs and difficulties.

If our relationships in the church together are like a roast dinner, then earnest love is like the gravy; it covers over a multitude of sins.

This does not mean that if we love others God will forgive or cover our sins. No, our sins were taken care of by Jesus on the cross. Nor is Peter saying that serious sin in the church should be ignored or denied or covered up. [3] Rather sin needs to be dealt with in a way that sets people free to live righteous lives.  

Peter is probably drawing on Proverbs 10:12 which says: Hatred stirs up dissension but love covers over all wrongs.

The point seems to be that when we love someone we don’t allow the little irritations to create a rift or bitterness between us.

In the church hall kitchen, we have a fire blanket. If something catches alight, you can throw the fire blanket over the flames and it suffocates the fire. Love covers sins sort of like a fire blanket covers flames and extinguishers the fire before it gets out of control. Love suffocates sin to stop it from spreading.

Or, to use another metaphor, you might go out for lunch with someone and when it comes time to pay they realise they have left their wallet behind. Because you love the person (because you care about the relationship more than money) you don’t give way to irritation but quietly cover the cost for them, without making a fuss. Love covers over a multitude of sins.

Quite a lot of the tensions we experience in our relationships, whether in the church or at work or school or in the home, aren’t actually sins. They are merely differences in personality or simple misunderstandings.

For example, some people like to be organized well in advance. Others are real last minute, seat of your pants types. It’s not a sin to be last minute but it can be irritating to those who like to have things settled days beforehand. Personality differences like this can be covered or overlooked with earnest love.

Many years ago, before we lived in Tawa, we had some friends over to our house. I happened to be folding towels at the time, putting the washing away, and one of our friends pointed out that I was doing it all wrong. Apparently my towel folding was offensive (or at least mildly irritating) to her. It didn’t bother me, nor was it sinful. It just wasn’t worth getting into an argument about. So I waited until she left and folded the washing in my own unique (Will) way.

An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of repair. Earnest love prevents those little irritations from getting a foothold and turning into full blown sins.  

Some of you may remember JP. JP passed away a couple of years ago but when he was alive I would sometimes visit him at his home in W. On more than one occasion, as men are inclined to do, we ended up talking in his shed. JP’s garden tools, his spade and trowel especially, were quite old and well used but he always kept them pristine and gleaming.

A coastal environment can be quite corrosive on metal tools but JP prevented any rust by always washing his tools after he had used them and then applying a thin coat of oil on the exposed metal.

Love that covers all wrongs is like the oil on JP’s tools. The oil of love actually protects relationships from corrosion and prevents sin from getting a foothold in the first place.         

Pray with clarity, love with forbearance and eat with others.

Eat with others

To be more accurate, Peter doesn’t literally say, ‘Eat with others’. He says offer hospitality to one another, or as the Good News translation puts it, open your homes to each other without complaining. Eating with others is of course something that normally accompanies the offer of hospitality.

In practical terms hospitality could mean giving people a meal or a bed for the night. But at a deeper level hospitality is about making room for people, creating a comfortable space for others, where they can feel safe to be themselves. In this deeper sense, making space to listen to others is one of the primary expressions of hospitality.   

In the context of the first century, hospitality was essential to the survival of the church. Missionaries and apostles relied on the hospitality of others as they travelled around preaching the gospel. The person who delivered Peter’s letter to the churches in Asia Minor would also have trusted the Christian community to give him a bed for the night.

Not only that but the early church didn’t have dedicated buildings for gathered worship. People used to meet in one another’s homes. It was a house church arrangement, sort of like when we were in level 2 lockdown and small groups of you got together for on-line services in each other’s living rooms.

For most of Jesus’ ministry he and his disciples were guests in other people’s homes. Luke 10 famously describes Jesus’ stay in the home of Mary and Martha. Martha became upset because she was left to do all the house work by herself while Mary sat at Jesus’ feet. Poor Martha was too frazzled to see that Mary was showing a greater form of hospitality by making space to listen to Jesus. Jesus defended Mary, without condemning Martha. 

Jesus wasn’t always the guest though. He showed hospitality to others as well. Jesus made himself available. He created a safe space in and around himself. He fed people with the word of God and he restored lost souls.

Jesus took the role of host on a number of occasions, most notably when he fed the multitudes in the wilderness and at the last supper when he washed the disciples’ feet. In some traditions the priest actually calls the communion bread ‘the host’ because it represents Christ’s body. When we share communion, Jesus is the host and we are his guests.

Hospitality, when it is preceded by prayer and love, creates the opportunity for intimacy and intimacy dissolves loneliness.

Pray, love, eat and serve. Servewith faithfulness.  

Serve with faithfulness

In verse 10 of chapter 4 Peter writes:

Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others,as faithfulstewards of God’s grace in its various forms.

A steward is a manager. Management or stewardship is about the effective and efficient use of resources. In this case the resources are the gift God has given you. To be a faithful manager, one must be thoughtful and diligent.

The thing about being a manager is that you don’t own the resource yourself. Someone else owns it and you are responsible for taking care of it and making the most of it. That means being clear in your own mind about what the purpose of the gift is and discerning in the way you use it.

Let me tell you a story to illustrate what it means to be a faithful manager.

Once, in the days before electricity and automation, there was a lighthouse keeper who had but one job – to keep the lamp burning at night so ships could find their way and not come aground on the rocks.

The lighthouse keeper was given an allowance of oil as fuel for the lamp. Each week he received a new batch of oil, just enough to keep the lamp of the lighthouse burning for seven nights until a new batch came. He could not afford to spare any oil or the lamp would go out.

One day a travelling merchant came by and asked the lighthouse keeper to sell him some oil at a fair price. But the lighthouse keeper refused and the merchant went away complaining about how unreasonable the lighthouse keeper was.

The next day a farmer came and asked to borrow some oil for the wheels of his wagon. But the lighthouse keeper refused and the farmer went away grumbling about how mean spirited the lighthouse keeper was.

Then on Saturday the minister of the local church came by asking for oil for the evening service the next day. But the lighthouse keeper refused him too and the minister went away to preach a vigorous sermon on the evils of greed.

The following day a poor widow came and asked the lighthouse keeper for some oil for her stove, because her children were hungry and her house was cold. The lighthouse keeper made an exception for her but he didn’t touch the oil set aside for the lighthouse lamp. Instead he gave her oil from his own stove and went hungry himself that night. He only had one condition: that she didn’t tell anyone.

Every day someone came wanting oil for some good reason or other and, except for the poor widow, the lighthouse keeper turned them all away empty handed. The lighthouse keeper remained faithful to his calling, always keeping the lamp lit.       

One night the merchant, the farmer and the minister all found themselves on a ship off the coast of where they lived. As they sat together, each with a glass of brandy in hand, complaining about the lighthouse keeper and the price of oil, a strong wind picked up and the seas began to swell.

Thick clouds blotted out the moon and stars, casting a heavy darkness over the sea and their thoughts. How would the captain find the harbour? How would he avoid the rocks? The conversation grew quiet.

Just then they saw it – the slow arc of the lighthouse keeper’s beacon, reaching out its giant arm of hope. Now they understood why the lighthouse keeper refused them oil. Now they were thankful. Never again would they say a word against the lighthouse keeper.

The ship made it safely to shore and over the next few days the three men put things right. The merchant brought a gift of oil to the lighthouse keeper for his stove. The farmer left ham and eggs on the lighthouse keeper’s door step and the minister preached a sermon on ‘Jesus the light of the world’, giving thanks for the keeper of our souls.           

What I like about this story is that it shows us we don’t have to be all things to all people. We are each given oil (a particular gift from God) in some form another. Our job is to be faithful managers of that oil, clear minded about the purpose of our gift and discerning about how best to use it in service to others.    

From verse 11 of chapter 4 Peter continues…

If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God.If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides,so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ.

Peter is saying here that we have all been given a different gift from God. Our job is to be faithful managers of what God has entrusted to us. We are not to hoard our gift or hide it away. Nor are we to waste it or treat it cheaply. We are to be thoughtful in how we make the most of it in service to others.    

If God’s gifts to us are like water, then we are like a smart tap. A tap that knows when to turn on and when to turn off. We don’t produce the water ourselves, God does that. Our job is to release the water when it is needed. We don’t leave the tap running unnecessarily. Nor do we shut off the water supply altogether. We give drink to the thirsty and cleansing to the filthy.  

You may have heard me compare preaching to making a cup of tea. If the sermon is the tea, then the preacher is the tea pot. God puts the tea bags and hot water of his word into the preacher and lets it brew during the week. It is not comfortable for the preacher but it is necessary to the process. Then, on a Sunday, the preacher pours the tea. (Biblical preaching is one form of God’s hospitality for you.)

The purpose of our faithful service is that God may be praised through Jesus Christ. God gives a meaning and dignity to our service of others which makes it all worthwhile. Like the townsfolk in the story of the lighthouse keeper, people may not appreciate the way you manage the gift God has given you. But you are not doing it just for them. You are doing it primarily for God.     

Conclusion

Today’s passage ends with a doxology,

To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.

A doxology is a short hymn of praise to God, a declaration of his glory.

A declaration of God’s glory often follows the contemplation of his gifts.      

Pray, love, eat and serve. This is Peter’s lifestyle advice for his readers.

What we notice with these practices is that they are ordinary everyday things. There are no grand gestures in view here, just small things done with great love.

In a few minutes we will share communion together.

Communion is a time to pray, love, eat and serve.

The musicians will come now to lead us in song as we prepare our hearts.

We love him because he first loved us…

Communion

If you would like prayer there will be someone available to pray with you after this morning’s service, at the front by the water cooler.   

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 helps you to be ready and able to pray? How does a clear mind and self-control support prayer?
  • What would you do if the end were to come today?
  • What does Peter mean by ‘earnest love’, in verse 8? What does he mean when he says, ‘love covers over a multitude of sins’?  
  • Why is hospitality important to the Christian community? What is at the heart of true hospitality? How did Jesus practice hospitality? How do you practice hospitality?
  • What gift has God given you? What is the purpose of this gift? How are you managing the gift/grace God has entrusted you with?
  • Take some time to reflect on Peter’s four pieces of lifestyle advice: pray, love, eat and serve. Which of these do you sense needs your attention?  

[1] Refer Karen Jobes’ commentary on 1st Peter, page 275.

[2] Refer Thomas Schreiner’s commentary on 1st Peter, page 211.  

[3] Refer Karen Jobes’ commentary on 1st Peter, page 279. 

Tawa Baptist

Sanctuary

Scripture: 1st Peter 3:13-17

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Sanctuary
  • Transparency
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

Before we start I just want to say ‘thank you’ to the mystery person who put peanut brownie cookies in my letterbox last Monday. That was a winsome thing to do. They were delicious and I appreciated the connection with the sermon.

Today we continue our series in first Peter, focusing on chapter 3, verses 13-17. Part of the purpose of Peter’s letter is to encourage Christians who were suffering for their faith in Jesus. At the time Peter was writing, the church in Asia Minor was probably not subject to full on persecution but Christians were a marginalized minority, viewed with suspicion. There was social pressure to hide one’s faith in Christ. Believers were apparently misunderstood, maligned and slandered. In a culture where reputation was everything, the church’s reputation was getting a beating.

In today’s passage, and the verses that follow, Peter talks about how the Christian community is to handle itself in that context.

From 1st Peter chapter 3, verses 13-17, we read… 

13 Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? 14 But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear their threats; do not be frightened.” 15 But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hopethat you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, 16 keeping a clear conscience,so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. 17 For it is better, if it is God’s will,to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.  

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

Two words which give us a handle on this passage are sanctuary and transparency. We are to find sanctuary in Christ and we are to be transparent (or open) about our hope in Jesus.   

Sanctuary:

Last Monday, while someone was putting peanut brownie biscuits in my letterbox, I was at Zealandier, also known as the Karori Bird Sanctuary. As most of you probably know Zealandier has a special fence around it to keep predators out. The idea is to provide a secure environment which is attractive to birds. One which is filled with the kinds of trees native birds like to feed off.

In some ways Zealandier is to native birds what Christ is to Christians. Just as native birds find sanctuary at Zealandier, so too we Christian believers find our sanctuary, our security, our home and our nourishment in Christ. To be a Christian is to be in Christ. We thrive in Christ, just like native birds thrive in the Karori Sanctuary and just like branches thrive when connected to the vine.   

In verse 13, of chapter 3, Peter says: Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good?

There is sanctuary, there is security, in doing good. If you do something bad, something which is outside of a Christian lifestyle, then you invite unnecessary risk and harm into your life. Sort of like a bird that chooses to make its nest outside Zealandier invites the threat of cats and other predators.   

In verse 14 Peter goes on to say: But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed.

These words echo the teaching of Jesus in Matthew 5:10 where the Lord says: Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

It might seem contradictory to us that we are blessed if we suffer for doing what is right, because suffering for any reason does not feel good, it hurts. Being blessed is not measured by a subjective feeling though. Being blessed is an objective state of being.

If someone asks you to do something difficult it is actually a complement. It says, ‘I trust you to handle it.’ And that’s how Peter sees it.  For him it is a privilege, or a sign of God’s favour, to suffer for Christ (if that is God’s will).

Verse 16 also picks up the idea of finding sanctuary in doing good. Peter writes about, keeping a clear conscience,so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.

It is never pleasant to be the subject of rumour and malicious talk. It feels unfair and something in us wants to cry out, ‘It’s not true’. But we know that the louder we protest in our own defence, the more guilty we appear. As Shakespeare wrote in Hamlet: ‘The lady doth protest too much, me thinks’.

We heard last week that true humility means not responding to people’s insults but trusting God to vindicate us. One sanctuary, or safe place we take refuge in, when we are slandered, is a clear conscience. We can find strength and security in knowing we are not guilty of the things our adversaries accuse us of.

We also find sanctuary in the knowledge that God is just and all knowing. He will defend us in his good time. That’s what Peter means when he talks about his readers’ enemies being ashamed of their slander. It’s not that we wish our enemies to be embarrassed. Rather, we want the truth to win out in the end, because the truth is in everyone’s interests.

Following this train of thought, verse 17 reads: For it is better, if it is God’s will,to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.  

Peter’s point is that his readers’ present suffering, for doing good, is not a sign of God’s punishment or displeasure but rather a sign of his blessing, his favour. If we suffer for the sake of righteousness, we stand to receive a reward.   

From the second part of verse 14 Peter says: “Do not fear their threats; do not be frightened.” 15 But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord.

This is a reference to Isaiah 8, where the Lord (Yahweh) says to the prophet:

12 “Do not call conspiracy everything this people calls a conspiracy;
do not fear what they fear, and do not dread it. 13 The Lord Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy, he is the one you are to fear, he is the one you are to dread. 14 and he will be a sanctuary;

In the context of Isaiah 8, the people of Judah were afraid of being invaded and overrun by their enemies. But the Lord’s message to Isaiah was, do not be afraid like the people. I, the Lord God Almighty, am in control. Fear me. Revere me. Regard me as holy and I will be a sanctuary for you. 

Peter’s first century readers may have been tempted to give in to fear of their neighbours. After all the Christian church was vulnerable; it was a marginalised minority in a potentially hostile environment. Peter’s message to them is do not be afraid of your pagan neighbours. The Lord Jesus is in control. Revere him. Notice how Peter equates Jesus with Yahweh, the Lord.  Peter is saying that Jesus is our sanctuary.  

To revere Jesus as Lord, in our heart, is to keep Jesus in the center of our lives – to orientate our whole lives around Christ and his teaching.  

There is a Baptist pastor from the South Island by the name of Andy Edwards who has worked in pastoral ministry for 30 years. Andy writes, “My biggest desire, which is my biggest challenge, is being ‘present’ to God, myself and others… and in this journey I have found slowing down and stillness to be the precondition of presence.”  

Stillness is the precondition of presence. I like that.

When I was at Zealandia last Monday, I found myself on the top of a ridge on the Lakeview Track, which overlooks the upper dam. As often happens in the bush I could hear many birds all around but I could not see any. So I sat down on a bench beside a couple of feeding stations. Just sat quietly in stillness, not really expecting anything to happen.

Within two minutes a male saddleback and a male bell bird turned up and started feeding on the sugar water. (You can tell the males because they usually have brighter feathers than the females, which is sort the opposite of the human species.) These birds were about a meter away and they stopped there to feed for a good five minutes, although I wasn’t really keeping track of the time. It was a beautiful moment; a moment of genuine sanctuary.

To revere Christ in our hearts includes being present to Jesus, present to ourselves and present to others. Stillness is the precondition of presence. Now obviously we cannot be still all the time. Much of the time life requires us to be active and on the move. But we need to stop and be still sometimes in order to revere Christ and be present to him.

Fear, anxiety, worry, conspiracy, these are the predators that rob the human soul of stillness. When we revere Jesus in our hearts, we find sanctuary from fear and a certain stillness for our soul, so that we may be nourished by the presence of God.

Transparency:

Zealandier is not like a zoo. It is not a cage where the birds are trapped inside. There is a fence to keep rats and cats and possums out but there is no roof to keep the birds in. Zealandier is transparent. It is open to the public and the birds are free to come and go as they please. The transparency of the sanctuary actually encourages native bird life in the greater Wellington area. 

Being in Christ is like being in a sanctuary that has a definite boundary fence or code of conduct, but it also has a gate to give access to the public and it has no roof, it is open to be shared.  

In verse 15, after having told his readers to revere Christ as Lord, Peter writes: Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hopethat you have. But do this with gentleness and respect…

So far, throughout this series, we have heard Peter encouraging his readers to be a winsome witness and let their distinctive Christian lifestyle do the talking. Here, in verse 15, Peter says be prepared to speak words of explanation as well.

The idea is that we Christians are to be open and transparent about our hope in Jesus. We are not to push our beliefs down people’s throats. (That would not be respectful or gentle.) Nor are we to keep our faith locked away like an animal in a cage. Rather we are to be prepared to speak when invited.

Peter had to learn this the hard way. On the night when Jesus was betrayed and arrested Peter was not prepared. He was standing outside warming himself by the fire when those with him asked if he was with Jesus. Sadly, Peter denied this three times without gentleness or respect.

But Peter found redemption. Later, after Jesus’ resurrection, when Peter was brought before the same Council who condemned Jesus, Peter was prepared to speak words of reason, with gentleness and respect. 

Okay, so what might you say if someone asks you why you are a Christian? Well, I’m not going to give you a script to follow. It does not work to recite someone else’s words. That just sounds like a telemarketer trying to sell you something. What we say has to be real and genuine. You have to find your own words and your own way of getting the message across.

With these things in mind, try to remember this acrostic. L.O.V.E. Love. Love is the main point of the gospel message. Jesus came to show us God’s love.

L stands for listen. Love listens. If someone wants to have a conversation about your Christian faith, then try to listen to what they are really saying. Listening is both respectful and gentle. Listening earns us the right to be heard and it helps us to understand the other person better.

Which brings us to the O in ourL.O.V.E. acrostic. O stands for others. If someone asks you to give account for the hope you have, you need to understand it’s not about you, it’s about them. What do they need from this conversation? We learn what others need by listening and asking questions.

What you say does not need to be long but it does need to be clear. Don’t use Christian jargon or big theological words that make the other person feel small. Because that is not gentle or respectful and it does not communicate God’s love. The Christian faith is reasonable. It is logical. It makes sense. Put yourself in the other person’s shoes and ask, ‘what sense are they making of what I’m saying?’.

V is for vulnerable. Make yourself vulnerable, without going overboard, and without making anyone else vulnerable. Do not speak down to the person. Do not patronize. Come alongside. Share from your heart as much as is helpful. There is a risk with sharing something deeply personal, like our hope in Jesus. We risk rejection.

But that is the way of Christ. Jesus did not coerce people. He challenged people, yes. And his words disturbed people. But he spoke from a place of vulnerability. He did it without defending himself, with his arms open and his heart exposed.

There is a certain stillness in making ourselves vulnerable for the sake of the other person. Even when people cannot understand the content of what we are saying, if we say it with vulnerability, so that the other person knows they are standing on holy ground, a feeling of stillness settles on the conversation and a door to God’s presence is opened.

E is for experience. When it comes to sharing your faith, experience is your friend. People cannot argue with your experience. I like to talk about the goodness of God and the meaning God gives to life because that is real in my experience. One of the reasons I am a Christian is because Jesus makes this world a better place. He makes ugly things (ugly situations) beautiful.

He makes pain bearable.

He comes alongside me when I am lonely and shows me his scars so that, without words, I know I am understood. I am not alone.

He does not lie to me and, for those who have been let down and lied to a lot, that is huge. That is gold.

There is a purity to Jesus that I love and am terrified of at the same time.

These are my words. You need to find your own words based on your experience of God.

When you are in a conversation think L.O.V.E. Start by listening. Remember it is not about you. It is about the other person. Be prepared to make yourself vulnerable but not too vulnerable. Share don’t scare. And speak from your own experience.  

So how might we prepare ourselves then? How might we find the words we need to articulate our hope?

We need to take time daily to soak in the Scriptures and be present to what the Holy Spirit might be saying.

We also need to think about our faith and sometimes to wrestle with the gnarly bits. When you boil it all down, what is it you actually believe to be true in simple language.

And how does that square with the Scriptures, with your own experience and the experience of other believers?

In verse 15, when Peter talks about the hopeyou have… the you is plural, not singular. So it is both your hope personally and our hope collectively. Hearing what other Christians believe and how they have made sense of the gnarly bits helps us in forming what we believe. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. You don’t have to figure it all out on your own. But you do have to own it. It has to be real for you and that takes a process.  

Hope here refers to future salvation. Hope therefore is having faith (or trust) that, even though the present may be difficult, we have something good to look forward to in the future.

That hope may be the hope of resurrection and seeing Jesus face to face.

It may be the hope of being reunited with loved ones who have passed on.

It could be the hope of seeing justice done, of God vindicating the righteous and righting wrongs

It may the hope of seeing a friend or family member share our faith in Christ

Or it may be the hope of being set free from the limitations and burdens and pain we carry in this life.

You know the hope you carry inside you. You know the hope that carries you.

I do not pretend to be good at hope. Like Jonah I tend to think the worst. But, like Jonah, I also know God is more gracious than I am. Which is why God does not quit me and I cannot quit him. And so I find hope in God’s character, his goodness.   

We are talking about the need to be transparent about our faith; to be open about our hope in Jesus. Those of us who were at the church forum last Wednesday saw a wonderful example of transparent hope when Katie & Dan shared with us their sense of call to become youth pastors.

Dan & Katie were quite open with us about the journey they are on. This openness (this transparency) created a moment of stillness, I felt. There were a couple of things Dan said in particular, which I won’t share with you because it is Dan’s story and it is for him to share. But the gentleness and respect and vulnerability with which they shared created a stillness which opened the door to presence. I have asked Dan & Katie to share with us next Sunday morning.

Conclusion:

We started today’s message hearing about the situation of Peter’s first century readers, how they were misunderstood, maligned and socially marginalised. Our situation in 21st Century New Zealand is not identical to theirs but there is some overlap.

The church in New Zealand today is not persecuted but we are aware of a growing disconnect between what Christians believe and what the wider society, we live in, believes. I don’t think we have it as hard as some of Peter’s readers did but we also do not have it as easy as we once did. It seems Peter’s letter is becoming more and more relevant to us.

We need to maintain our sanctuary in Christ. And that means taking time to be still and wait for the presence of Jesus.

We also need to be transparent about our hope in Christ. And that means being prepared to speak with words of love.   

Let’s stand now and sing, Jesus, be the center…

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 the situation of Peter’s first century readers? How is that similar (or different) from our situation today?
  • What practical things can we do to find and maintain sanctuary in Christ?
  • Why do we need to take time to be still? How does stillness help us to be present to God, ourselves and others? Do you have regular patterns of stillness in your weekly routine? If not, what would need to change to create space for stillness?
  • Why do we need to be transparent about our hope in Christ?
  • What would you say if someone asked you to talk about the reason for your hope?  
  • Discuss / reflect on the L.O.V.E. acrostic. Which aspects do you need to work on? (e.g. listening, others, vulnerability, experience.)
Tawa Baptist

Milk

Scripture: 1st Peter 1:22-2:3

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Converted to love
  • Born to last
  • Feed on God
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

When I was in my teens I was asked by a mate to do some hay making. Being a city boy I didn’t realise what I was in for. I started the day with breakfast of a couple of Weetbix and a piece toast, before heading off to work in the field.

Unfortunately, it had rained a little the night before so the hay was a bit damp. And lifting a wet bale of hay onto the back of a truck takes more energy. By lunchtime I was feeling a bit depleted. My breakfast of two Weetbix and one piece of toast was not enough to sustain me for the heavy lifting of the whole day. I needed a more substantial breakfast.

Today we continue our series in the letter of 1st Peter. Last week we heard how the Christian believer is to relate with God – that is with holiness and reverent fear. Today’s passage shifts the focus to living in right relationship with other Christian believers. From 1st Peter, chapter 1, verse 22 through to chapter 2, verse 3, we read…

22 Now that you have purifiedyourselves by obeyingthe truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply,from the heart. 23 For you have been born again,not of perishable seed, but of imperishable,through the living and enduring word of God. 24 For, “All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, 25but the word of the Lord endures forever.” And this is the word that was preached to you.

2 Therefore, rid yourselvesof all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slanderof every kind. 2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk,so that by it you may grow upin your salvation, 3 now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.

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

In a nutshell, Peter is saying here: you have been converted to love and born to last, therefore feed on the goodness of God.

You see, loving people can be hard yacker. Like hay making it involves heavy lifting. It is only by feeding on the goodness of God that the work of love is sustained over a lifetime.    

Converted to love:

Imagine you are walking in the wilderness, through native bush. This is not just a casual day walk. This is one of the great walks, lasting nearly a week. Two days into the journey, someone steels your food and your tent. So, by day three, you have not eaten for a while and you’ve been sleeping rough. Now you are tired and hungry.

As you follow the path you come to a river. There is no bridge. If you continue on the path you are on, it will lead you beside the river to who knows where. (They stole your map and compass as well.)  Just then you see people on the other side of the river, cooking sausages. You have a choice. Either you stay on your side and carry on walking beside the river until you reach the sea, or you cross over to join the people for dinner.

Crossing the river would not be easy. It would take some effort and involve risk. The water is cold, the current is swift and the river is deep, so you would have to ditch your pack and swim.

Someone on the far bank of the river sees you and calls out for you to come over. You catch a whiff of the sausages and decide to take the plunge. What have you got to lose? Except your pack, which is kind of pointless now your food and tent have been stolen.

A couple of minutes later you are on the other side, dripping wet and shivering. The small group of trampers welcome you with a hot Milo and a dry towel. You have never met them before but they are friendly and kind and they are headed in the right direction. They know the way back to civilization.   

This little story is an allegory to Christian conversion. Christian conversion is both an event and a process. Conversion is an event that happens at a particular point in time, when we make a conscious decision, but it is also a process that happens over time.

The conversion event in my story was when the tramper crossed the river. He made a conscious decision to leave the path he was on and go in a different direction. He did this because he saw people on the other side calling him over. Crossing the river was not easy. It required him to leave his pack behind.

But the weary tramper did not convert into nothing. He converted into a community that cared for and accepted him.

Of course, the story of conversion does not end there. The trampers were on a journey out of the wilderness. The process of conversion was not complete until they had finished the journey and made it back home to civilization.     

In verse 22, when Peter writes, you have purifiedyourselves by obeyingthe truth, he is talking about Christian conversion. The ‘truth’ Peter’s readers have obeyed here is the gospel truth concerning Jesus. Peter’s readers have heard the good news about Jesus preached and they have believed it. Someone has called to them from across the river and they have left the old path they were on, ditched their baggage and crossed over to the other side. They have accepted Jesus as their Saviour and Lord and joined the camp of his people.

Conversion may refer to the transition from one religion to another, but it can also refer to moving deeper into one’s own religion. I expect most of Peter’s Gentile readers would have converted from paganism to Christianity. While his Jewish readers had moved more deeply into their own religion. Because Jesus, the Messiah, is Jewish. He is at the heart of Jewish faith.

Some of you may have converted to Christianity from another religion. While others may have become Christians without having any sort of religious background.

Many of you have grown up in a Christian home and gone to church with your parents since you were a child. You may find it hard to identify a particular point in time (a conversion event as such) because you grew up immersed in the church. Nevertheless, there is probably a point in your journey where the Christian faith deepened from being something you went along with, because that’s what your parents believed, to something you owned for yourself and integrated into your life. That moving deeper is an event within the process of Christian conversion.

The point Peter is making in verse 22 is that we are converted to love one another. Christian conversion is not just that point in time when we admit intellectual agreement with certain doctrines (although it does include that). Christian conversion is the process of growing in our love for God and his people.

The kind of love Peter has in mind here is genuine, sincere, unpretentious love. Deep love, from the heart. Love from the core of our being, from the inside out. This kind of love is not just a warm fuzzy feeling (although it may sometimes include pleasant feelings). The love in view here is expressed in righteous relationships based on God’s character. Christian love is very much an action as well as an attitude. An action informed by the way God loves us in Christ.

To put it more plainly loving one another requires the heavy lifting of self-control and patience and forgiveness and turning the other cheek and that sort of stuff.    

Those who have been on the journey for a while will know that the process of conversion often involves a number of events (or river crossings) as we move to a deeper love of God and his people. With each crossing we must leave something behind but we also hopefully find a warm cup of Milo waiting for us on the other side.

We are converted to love and we are born to last.

Born to last:

Tuesday, the 1st of September, marked the beginning of the season of spring. Some of you may have daffodils popping up and coming to flower in your garden. Many kowhai trees around Tawa are in full glory. The intense yellows are a beautiful distraction.

As much as I enjoy the visual symphony of spring, I am also aware that every daffodil and kowhai flower and cherry blossom is pregnant with sadness. They only last a few brief weeks, perhaps less if the wind picks up, and then they are gone.  

In verse 24 of chapter 1, Peter quotes from the prophet Isaiah: “All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, 25but the word of the Lord endures forever.”

This quotation comes from Isaiah chapter 40. It was originally intended as a message of comfort and encouragement to the Jews living in exile, following the fall of Jerusalem in the sixth century BC.

These Jews of the diaspora, these sojourners living in a foreign land, were disheartened and wondering where they stood with God. Did his covenant promises still hold true?

You see, the kingdoms of Assyria and Babylon and other places the exiles were scattered, seemed invincible but they were actually like grass. Their glory was like the flowers of the field. Here today and gone next week. Yes, they looked spectacular now but they were pregnant with sadness. They would not last.

By contrast, God’s word (his promises to his people) would endure forever. And so Isaiah’s message to the exiles was good news. ‘Yes, the promises of God’s word do hold true. You are not forgotten in your loneliness and alienation. Despite the way things appear you still belong to God.’ 

Peter piggy backs off Isaiah. He appropriates Isaiah’s message and applies it to his readers. Peter addresses the Christians of the first century AD as exiles. As followers of Christ they have been oppressed and given a rough deal. But the Roman empire (as glorious and as mighty as it seemed at the time) was like grass. Here today, gone tomorrow.    

With this is mind Peter could say with confidence (in verse 23) that his readers have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.

In other words, they were born to last. Born for eternal life.

Jesus referred to the word of God as a seed in his teaching. Notice the imagery of the seed here. A seed is something small and ordinary looking. A seed is often hidden and covered in dirt. A seed does not look like much but it is full of potential. Just as a seed carries the DNA of the plant, and a sperm carries the DNA of the father, so too the word of God carries the characteristics of God the Father. God is eternal and God is love. That is what the Christian convert is born to.

If we believe in Jesus, then we have been converted to love and born to last therefore, to sustain our life and our love, we must feed on the goodness of God.

Feed on God:          

Have you ever noticed the way nothing in God’s creation clashes? His colour schemes are constantly changing but they always fit. They always make sense. Whether it is a sunrise over the sea or sheep in the high country or flowers in spring or the moonlight over Wellington harbour, it always goes together.

There is a logic to the way God does things. That logic is not always evident at first but it reveals itself to those who are pure in heart and patient enough.

In verse 1 of chapter 2, Peter says: Therefore, rid yourselvesof all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slanderof every kind.   

We notice here that three of these five vices are about sustaining what is false. Deceit, hypocrisy and slander are enemies of the truth and therefore they undermine the genuine, sincere, unpretentious love Peter was just talking about in verse 22.   

Clearly all five vices do not fit people who have been converted to love. They actually work against loving one another. Likewise, these vices do not follow logically (they do not make sense) for those who have been born again through the living and enduring word of God.  We need to rid ourselves of them – cast them aside like leaving the old pack behind before crossing the river.

From verse 2 of chapter 2, Peter writes: Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk,so that by it you may grow upin your salvation, 3 now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.

The main idea here is that Christian believers need to feed on the goodness of God. It is by feeding on the goodness of God that we gain the nourishment and strength to grow in our love for one another. 

Now there are a couple of things to clarify here. Firstly, Peter is not meaning to suggest that his readers are immature in their faith. There is no criticism here. Some of his readers may have been new converts but a lot of them would have been Christians for a while. In the same way that people of all ages drink milk, so too Christians at all stages of faith can feed on the goodness of God.

Although, elsewhere in the New Testament, milk is used as a metaphor for teachings suitable for immature Christians (e.g. Hebrews 5:12), no such negative connotation is found here. Rather, Peter sees milk as that which all Christians need in order to nurture and sustain their faith. [1]

The emphasis in the text is on craving God’s goodness.

We also need to clarify what is meant by milk? Many modern commentators take the view that milk is a metaphor for God’s word, as found in the Bible. But that is quite a narrow understanding.

Yes, reading the Bible and listening to sermons and going to Bible studies can and does nourish our faith & love but it is not the only way our faith & love is nourished. For example, your soul may be nourished by noticing the ways God has worked his purpose for good in your life and thanking Him for that. Spending time in nature, reflecting on the way God fits everything together, can also be milk to your soul.   

Verse 3 makes it clear that the spiritual milk Peter has in mind here is the milk of God’s goodness or kindness.

Verse 3 connects with Psalm 34:8 where the psalmist says: Taste and see that the Lord is God. Blessed is the person who takes refuge in him.

That word spiritual is also worth a closer look. What does it mean that the milk is spiritual? In the original Greek version of the New Testament the word spiritual is actually logikos. In ancient Greek literature logikos was normally translated as rational or reasonable; that is, fitting or making sense.      

This is quite different from the way we tend to think of the word spiritual. Many people today hold a false dichotomy when it comes to spiritual things. We tend to think that ‘spiritual’ means the opposite of physical. Something non-material and therefore not scientific or rational or understandable.

But that is not what the Bible means by spiritual. To be logikos or spiritual, in the New Testament, is to be ‘true to the real nature’ of something. [2]

It is logikos, or ‘true to the real nature’ of an apple tree to produce apples. 

It is logikos, or ‘true to the real nature’ of a carpenter to measure twice and count once.

It is logikos, or ‘true to the real nature’ of an accountant to reconcile and balance the books.

It is logikos, or ‘true to the real nature’ of a citizen to pay their taxes and abide by the laws of the land.

It is logikos, or ‘true to the real nature’ of a baby to crave its mother’s milk.

It is logikos, or ‘true to the real nature’ of a father to protect and provide for his children.    

It is logikos, or ‘true to the real nature’ of a Christian to copy Jesus by loving God and loving your neighbour.   

This means that being spiritual (or logikos) is about fulfilling the purpose for which God created us.

If God created you to be a teacher, then teaching is spiritual.

If God created you to be a stay at home mum or dad, then looking after kids, changing nappies, doing the washing and baking biscuits is spiritual.

If God created you to make music, then playing the guitar or the piano or the viola or the bass, for his glory and other people’s enjoyment, is spiritual.

If God created you to work with your hands, then making beautiful kitchens or wiring someone’s house or unblocking someone’s drain is spiritual.

If God created you to be a manager, then treating your staff with kindness and fairness is spiritual.

I could go on but you get the point. Being spiritual is not an aesthetic, it is not about appearances. Being spiritual is about being true to our real nature – the way God has made us.

In the gospels Jesus got upset with the religious leaders of his day because they were not logikos. They were not spiritual. They were not behaving in ways that were true to the spirit of God’s law. The opposite of logikos, the opposite of being spiritual, is being a hypocrite. A hypocrite is an actor; someone who is pretending to be what they are not.

In Romans 12:1 the apostle Paul tells the Christians in Rome that presenting their bodies as living sacrifices is their logikos worship (their spiritual worship). It is worship that is true and reasonable and fits with the new reality to which they have converted.

Conclusion:

So when Peter instructs us to crave pure spiritual milk he means, fill your boots with that which is fitting for a child of God to feed on. And what is fitting for a child of God to feed on? The goodness of God.          

If we feed on deceit. If we feed on malice or evil. If we feed on gossip and slander. If we pretend to be something we are not. If we keep replaying in our mind the hurtful things that people have said or done to us. Then we will be quickly drained of the strength we need to love one another.

But if we feed on what is true. If we feed on kindness and goodness. If we shut down gossip and slander. If we learn to be ourselves and live in our own soul. If we let go of our hurt and instead replay in our mind the many facets of God’s grace for us. Then we will be nourished and strengthened to grow in our love for one another. 

We have been converted to love and born to last therefore, to grow and sustain our life and our love, we must feed on the goodness of God.

May grace and peace be yours in abundance. 

Questions for discussion or reflection:

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

  • What do you normally eat for breakfast? Is this enough to sustain you for the day?
  • Reflecting on your own experience, what have been the significant events in the process of conversion for you?
  • What does Peter mean by love? How does this quality of love find expression in your community of faith?
  • Why does Peter quote from Isaiah 40? (in 1st Peter 1:24) How was Isaiah 40 relevant to Peter’s readers? Does Isaiah 40 resonate with you? If so, why?
  • What does the word logikos (spiritual) mean in the context of the New Testament? What does Peter mean by pure spiritual milk?
  • Take some time this week to feed on the goodness of God.

[1] Refer Karen Jobes’ commentary on 1st Peter, page 132.

[2] Ibid, page 136.

Tawa Baptist

How He Loves

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

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Jealousy
  • Transcendence
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

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

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

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

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

Jealousy

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

They are strong words.   

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Transcendence

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Conclusion

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

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

How He Loves

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

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

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

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

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

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

Questions for discussion or reflection:

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

What is jealousy?

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

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

Why does God insist that we worship Him exclusively?

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

What is transcendence?

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

Outtakes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tawa Baptist

Love & Light

Scripture: Ephesians 5:1-14

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Live in love
  • Live as light
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Today we continue our series in Ephesians

  • In some ways the letter to the Ephesians is like a river – it flows from a single source (God’s grace for us in Christ) and then, down-stream, the letter issues into a variety of moral & ethical applications for daily life
  • Like a river, Ephesians forms a continuous whole
  • Because of limits of time and concentration we aren’t able to adequately preach on the whole of Ephesians at once
  • We have to break it into smaller more manageable pieces
  • The problem with this though is that we can miss the bigger picture; we can lose the thread of the whole
  • We are now looking at the moral & ethical implications of life in Christ – but in doing this we need to remember that Paul started his letter with God’s grace – grace comes first
  • Although we have covered chapter 4 already, I’d like to start from the end of Ephesians 4 to give a sense of connection with what has gone before.
  • From Ephesians 4, verse 32 we read…

Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a person is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient. Therefore, do not be partners with them. For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light. This is why it is said: “Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

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

The headline of today’s Scripture reading is ‘Imitate God’

  • We can’t imitate God in every respect but we can show kindness, compassion and forgiveness toward others, as God shows us
  • God is love and God is light
  • When we live our lives in such a way as to reveal His love and the light of His truth, then we are imitating Him
  • What then does it mean to ‘live a life of love’?

 

Live in love:

Well, the kind of love that is in view here is self-giving love – let me tell you a story to illustrate what I mean

Years ago now, I watched an old short film in black and white. I don’t remember what it was called but the story was about a husband and wife who were about to celebrate their first wedding anniversary

  • They loved each other very much and wanted to give one another something special as an anniversary present
  • Being young and newlywed though, they didn’t have much money
  • The wife had beautiful long hair, it was smooth and silky to touch and smelled divine
  • The husband thought to himself, ‘I know just the thing’
  • The husband had an old pocket watch handed down from his grandfather
  • He really loved that watch, because it reminded him of his grandad
  • His wife knew exactly what she would buy him

The day of their anniversary came and the husband & wife exchanged presents

  • The wife opened hers first and there it was, a beautiful silver comb for placing in her long hair. At once she burst into tears
  • When the husband asked, “What’s wrong my love”, the wife took off her head scarf to reveal a crew cut – all her hair had been cut off
  • The husband gently kissed his wife on the forehead and said, ‘I love you’
  • ‘Even with my bald head?’ she gasped between sobs
  • ‘Yes, even with your bald head. But why did you cut it? You loved your hair’

The wife silently handed her husband his present, as if to say, ‘Here’s your answer’

  • As the husband unwrapped the parcel he realised all at once how much they loved each other
  • Inside was a silver chain for his grandfather’s pocket watch
  • ‘Do you like it my love?’ the wife asked
  • ‘Yes, it is very fine indeed’
  • ‘Then why the long face?’
  • ‘I sold my grandfather’s watch to buy the comb for your hair’
  • The wife reflected for a moment and then said, ‘And I cut my hair to buy a chain for your watch’
  • At that moment they smiled at each other and started laughing
  • ‘You loved me enough to sell your grandfather’s watch’
  • ‘And you loved me enough to sell your hair’
  • Self-giving love you see

 

The Bible gives us plenty of examples of self-giving love

Joseph, the dreamer, showed self-giving love by forgiving his brothers who had sold him into slavery. He had them in his power to do with as he wished. But he didn’t take revenge. He treated them with generosity and grace

Moses showed self-giving love in leading the people of Israel out of slavery in Egypt. He didn’t really want the job at first. He would have preferred the quiet life of a shepherd. But instead, he put aside what he wanted and took on the responsibility of leading God’s people

Ruth showed self-giving love to Naomi. After Naomi’s husband and sons had died Ruth made a solemn commitment to stay with Naomi and take care of her, even though Naomi’s prospects didn’t look good

Joseph, the carpenter, showed self-giving love in his treatment of Mary, the mother of Jesus. It must have been hard for Joseph to learn that his fiancé was pregnant with someone else’s baby. But he didn’t want to subject Mary to public disgrace. When Joseph learned the truth he went ahead and married Mary, in obedience to God and love for Mary

Jesus showed self-giving love by leaving his glory in heaven, becoming a human being, going to the cross and giving up his life for our salvation. He wrestled with it you know, in the Garden of Gethsemane, sweating great drops of blood. The prospect of facing separation from God wasn’t easy. But Jesus went through with it so we could share in the life of God. Self-giving love pleases God.

Now, when I give you all these examples of people showing self-giving love it sounds romantic and heroic, but I can tell you from experience that the reality of self-giving love is hard yacker. Day in, day out, it’s not easy or glorious.

  • Self-giving love is changing nappies in the middle of the night, doing housework, transporting children, coaching sports teams, working double shifts, leading Sunday school or youth group, caring for aging parents, being patient on the road and a million other mundane little things, all of which we do to imitate God, because God is worth it

Self-giving love stands in contrast to self-indulgence and self-gratification

  • From verse 3, of Ephesians 5, Paul describes the sort of lifestyle the followers of Jesus need to avoid…

But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving.

Sex is not a bad thing – sex is a good gift from God, which the Lord intended for husband and wife to enjoy exclusively in the context of a loving marriage

  • Sexual immorality and impurity cover every kind of sexual sin; basically all sexual intercourse outside of a God ordained marriage [1]
  • Greed is wanting more and more – it’s an unhealthy desire
  • It could be greed for sexual encounters, or greed for money, or greed for something else. Greed is the opposite of generosity
  • Sexual immorality is a behaviour. Greed is the attitude, or motivation of the heart, which leads to immorality

As well as not practicing sexual immorality, Paul is saying there shouldn’t even be any hint of it among God’s holy people.

  • That means no crude jokes and no sexual innuendo in our talk
  • It’s not that humour is bad. Nothing wrong with a good clean joke
  • The problem is, when we make light of something we make that thing more acceptable
  • Joking about sexual immorality makes it easier to go down that path
  • Thanksgiving, on the other hand, puts us on a path to enjoying God and being content with our life

 

In verses 5-7 Paul goes on to explain the spiritual danger of immorality and greed…

For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a person is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient. Therefore, do not be partners with them.

I’m not sure about you but I find these verses a bit disturbing. Paul’s words here are prone to misunderstanding; they need some explanation.

An idolater is someone who worships something other than God

  • Whether that is a statue of wood or stone or money or their career or their reputation or sex or whatever.
  • Idolatry is the opposite of imitating God
  • Idolatry goes hand in hand with immorality and greed
  • Idolatry begins with us thinking we are in charge – but then we find out (often too late) that we have become slaves to what we worship

The kingdom of God is a place where God alone is worshipped

  • In God’s kingdom, God is in charge – he’s the boss (not us)
  • Therefore, God’s kingdom is a place where God’s will is done (His subjects obey Him willingly)
  • There is no immorality or greed in God’s kingdom because obedience to God rules out those things
  • By definition God’s kingdom is a place of self-giving love & generosity
  • God doesn’t want to exclude anyone from His kingdom
  • Anyone who is willing to submit to Christ is allowed into God’s kingdom
  • But if we refuse to submit to Christ, if we carry on living a greedy or immoral lifestyle, then we exclude ourselves

God’s wrath refers to God’s righteous judgement or anger against sin

  • Sin is that which separates us from God and ultimately destroys us
  • God is slow to anger but, because God loves His creation, he won’t tolerate sin indefinitely
  • Paul doesn’t specify exactly what he means by God’s wrath, in these verses, but the wider Biblical text indicates that God’s wrath can find expression in a number of different ways
  • If we think of sin as a forest fire, destroying trees, then God’s wrath is like a drenching rain putting the fire out
  • Or if sin is a time bomb, then God’s wrath is the bomb disposal unit
  • Other times God’s wrath is more of a hands off thing; where He stands back and lets people pursue their desires and learn by the consequences of their own actions
  • In any case, God’s wrath is fair – it is just & right, controlled & measured

Another point of clarification is needed in regard to verse 7, where Paul says, do not be partners with them

  • This does not mean we have to cut all ties with those who live an immoral lifestyle or who are greedy
  • The point is, as Christians we are not to participate in an immoral lifestyle
  • So long as an immoral person is not going to lead us astray we can still have a normal social relationship with them [2]
  • We separate from sin, not from people or society
  • And we remember that we ourselves are not perfect. There is good and bad in everyone. We are all sinners and we are all sinned against.

 

To the parents out there who feel uncomfortable with the lifestyle of their adult children, I want to say, you are not responsible for the choices your kids make. There are many influences on our children

  • Where possible we need to stay in right relationship with our kids and do our best to imitate God’s self-giving love for them

And if you are worried about someone you love who might be living an immoral lifestyle, then remember that God is good. His wrath is fair and just

  • This means, the worst we can expect from God is justice (getting what we deserve)
  • But, when we are in Christ we can expect mercy and grace (being treated better than we deserve)

Now there may be some here who have had sex outside of marriage and are wondering, does that mean I’ve blown it, that I’ve excluded myself forever?

    • No – not necessarily
    • Fornication, greed, adultery, sexually abusing others, all of those sins can be forgiven and the slate wiped clean, so long as we repent
    • Repentance means being sorry for what we have done and stopping the immoral behaviour
    • Once we’ve repented and been forgiven we don’t have to revisit it – we don’t need to feel bad anymore.
    • If God has forgiven you, you can forgive yourself
  • As far as the east is from the west, that’s how far He has removed our transgressions from us

 

We are to imitate God – that means living a life of love and living as light

Live as light:

Yesterday, as I was reflecting on verses 8-14 of Ephesians 5, I came up against a block – I couldn’t quite get a handle on what Paul was trying to say with his image of light and darkness.

  • Sometimes the Scripture doesn’t yield its meaning easily
  • When that happens I need to get out of my office for a bit and find some creative inspiration
  • So I went to Caroline Hollow’s art exhibition at Redwood Kitchens, on the Main Rd here in Tawa – it’s still on this afternoon until about 4pm
  • Most of you will know Caroline because she has worshipped here at Tawa Baptist for many years
  • Caroline’s exhibition is called A Transformed Landscape.
  • There’s one painting there called Ideal Wellington.
  • It’s a landscape of the Wellington harbour without the impact of man, without a city scape intruding on the environment
  • Among other things, Caroline’s work shines a light on the effect human beings have had on the land

As part of her exhibition Caroline produced this little booklet which contains a number of quotes. One quote, by Michael Bonnet, leapt off the page to me. Michael writes…

“The anthropologist Gregory Bateson notes how when faced with a changing variable we tend to focus on modifying our environment rather than ourselves.”

It’s true. We human beings have put so much energy into changing the environment to suit ourselves, and in the process (of trying to make everything revolve around us) we’ve done a lot of damage to the planet

  • If we spent more time letting God’s Spirit change us and less time trying to modify the environment, the rain forests in South America (the lungs of the world) might not be burning now
  • Jesus came to earth to save all of creation but his strategy was to begin by changing the human heart, from the inside out
  • The problem isn’t with the environment. The problem is with us. We have a tendency toward idolatry; we are inclined to worship ourselves.
  • If we let the Spirit of God change our heart, the land will heal

As I was walking back from Caroline’s exhibition it occurred to me what Paul was trying to say in Ephesians 5

  • Verses 8-14 are about the transformation that God’s light brings
  • Light has the power to effect change
  • What we notice though is that the change Paul is talking about is not so much a change to the environment but a change to ourselves
  • A change to our minds and our behaviour

 

In verse 8 Paul says, For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light

    • Jesus is the light of the world so when we are ‘in Christ’ we too become light. That’s not a change to our environment. That’s a change to us
  • Likewise, in verse 14 Paul says, “Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

 

  • This is some kind of quote used in the early church
  • Our former condition is described in terms of sleep, death and darkness
  • Christian conversion is nothing less than waking out of sleep, rising from death and being brought out of darkness into the light [3]
  • Once again, that’s not a change to our environment. That’s a change to us

 

Verse 9 talks about what the change within us looks like

  • (for the fruit of light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth)  

 

  • The image here is of a tree bearing fruit
  • Without light a tree can’t bear any fruit. Left in the dark a tree will die
  • But with the right amount of sunshine the tree bears good fruit in season
  • The light of Christ produces the fruit of changed attitudes and behaviour
  • Instead of the lie of idolatry, we are set free by the truth about God (and the truth about ourselves)
  • Instead of being motivated by greed, we are motivated by goodness
  • And instead of living an immoral lifestyle we live in righteousness (or right relationship) with others

 

The power of God’s light, to change the human heart, is developed further in verses 11-13 where Paul says…

  • Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light.

 

This is a green crayon. I have here a dark piece of paper and a light piece of paper

  • If I make a mark with this crayon on both pieces of paper, which one do you think will be more visible? [Wait] Ok, let’s try it and see
  • [Make a mark on both pieces of paper, then hold them up]
  • Which mark is easier to see? That’s right. The one on the light paper
  • Light exposes things. Light makes things more visible
  • When we live as children of light we can’t help but expose the truth

What does Paul mean by exposing the deeds of darkness?

  • Wrong doing is like a mushroom – it thrives in the dark but shrivels in direct sunlight
  • Exposing the deeds of darkness means shining a light on them
  • We shine a light by our example of a good lifestyle and by speaking up
  • Sometimes the presence of someone who lives a good life is enough to make a wrong doer feel guilty for their secret sins and change
  • Other times though exposing the deeds of darkness may require us to speak up, like reporting child abuse to the police so they can investigate
  • Light is truth and the truth brings change by setting people free

 

Conclude:

This morning we’ve heard how we are to imitate God by living a life of self-giving love and living as light

  • Let me conclude with one more illustration to sum things up…

[Hold up a large candle]

  • This is a candle – actually it’s the Christ candle that we light on Christmas Eve. [Place the candle on the table and light it]
  • This is just a little tea light candle
  • Imagine the larger candle represents Christ and the little tea light candle represents you
  • Christ shines a light on what God is like
  • The goal is for us to imitate God and, because Jesus shows us what God is like, that means imitating Christ
  • Repentance is the journey of moving closer to Christ – becoming more Christ-like
  • This is what it means to be ‘in Christ’
  • [Move to the table and light the smaller candle off the larger one]
  • ‘Everything that is illuminated becomes a light’

 

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. In what way(s) can we imitate God? In what sense can’t we imitate God?
  3. What does it mean to ‘live a life of love’?
  • Do you have a story of self-giving love? Who would benefit from hearing your story?

4. What does Paul mean by ‘sexual immorality, impurity and greed’?

  • How are the sexual ethics of the New Testament different from the sexual ethics of western society today? How are they similar?

5. How are we to relate with those who don’t share our values or moral beliefs?

6. Discuss / reflect on Gregory Bateson’s comment that human beings tend to focus on modifying their environment rather than themselves.

7. What does it mean to live as children of light?

  • How might we expose the deeds of darkness?

8. Light a large-ish candle and put it in the centre of the room. Take a smaller, tea-light candle for yourself. Spend a few minutes in stillness as you contemplate what you want to say to God. Maybe something you are sorry for. Maybe something you need help with. Maybe someone you are concerned for. Maybe something you are thankful for. Say a quiet simple prayer to express your feeling and intent. After you have prayed, light your tea light candle from the larger candle in the centre of the room. Take a moment to be still again. Is God saying anything to you?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[1] Refer John Stott, Ephesians, page 191.

[2] NIV Study Bible, footnote to verse 7.

[3] Refer John Stott, Ephesians, page 201.

Tawa Baptist

Balance

Scripture: Psalm 8

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Security
  • Love
  • Responsibility
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Yippee, Wha-hoo, Go you good thing, On ya mate, Well done, Tu Meke, You are awesome, That was amazing

  • These words and phrases are different ways in which we express praise
  • Some of these words and expressions you won’t find in a dictionary but that doesn’t matter – the words themselves are not the main thing
  • It’s more the feeling we give to those words, the positive intention and energy behind them

This morning we take a break from our sermon series in Ephesians to focus on Psalm 8 – a psalm of David

    • In this song David pours out his praise for God’s creative activity – in particular for the security, love and responsibility God gives, which makes our lives functional and meaningful
  • From verse 1 we read…

O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. 2Through the praise of children and infants you have established a stronghold against your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger. 3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have established, 4 what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?  5 Yet you have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honour. 6 You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet: 7 all flocks and herds, and the animals of the wild, 8 the birds in the sky, and the fish in the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas.   9 O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

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

[Listen to a recording of children laughing and playing]

Security:

That was a recording of children laughing and playing and having fun

  • Let’s listen to it again
  • [Replay the recording of children laughing and playing]
  • This is what praise sounds like out of the mouth of babes
  • Children make those sorts of happy sounds when they feel safe and secure – security is the foundation really

Psalm 8 begins and ends with the words…

  • O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

In the original – the word LORD (all in capitals) – actually translates as Yahweh

  • Yahweh is God’s personal name
  • It means something like, I am who I am, or I am with you and for you

The LORD is our Sovereign

    • A Sovereign is a King or a Queen – the ruler of the realm
    • God’s name is God’s reputation & integrity; His greatness and goodness
    • David is saying that Yahweh is King of the whole earth – second to none
  • This is basically a statement of adoration and allegiance

One of the main jobs of the King is security – keeping his people safe

  • The subject of security is pretty big in the psalms
  • Whenever you hear a word like ‘strong hold’ or ‘high tower’ or ‘shepherd’ or ‘bulwark’ or similar the psalmist is talking about security
  • Verse 2 reads…

2Through the praise of children and infants you have established a stronghold against your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger.

It’s interesting that Psalm 8 (a hymn of praise) comes after 5 other psalms where David calls out for help and deliverance from his foes

  • David’s praise for the security God gives wasn’t just a theoretical thing
  • David knew God’s security first hand as someone who lived in a dangerous world and had actual enemies who wanted him dead

The praise of children and infants is pure because children possess a certain innocence

  • In Matthew 21, after Jesus had cleared the temple of the merchants, we read how the blind and lame came to Jesus and he healed them
  • Children witnessed this and shouted praise to God because of Jesus, saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David”
  • When the religious leaders heard the children’s praise they were indignant, so Jesus quoted this verse from Psalm 8 to them
  • The Pharisees were the foe; they wanted to kill Jesus but the praise of children was Jesus’ defence, his stronghold
  • God silenced the religious leaders, not through brute force
  • Not through an overwhelming demonstration of his power and strength
  • But through the praise of children and infants; through what appears weak and of little account

Just a few days after that the religious leaders conspired to murder Jesus

  • There was no defence for Jesus on Good Friday, but that was God’s plan
  • To defeat strength with weakness
  • Jesus silenced the foe (sin) and the avenger (death) not with overwhelming force – but through his own suffering and humiliation
  • What looked like Christ’s defeat (on the cross) was actually God’s victory

From 1st Corinthians chapter 1 we read…

  • For the message about Christ’s death on the cross is nonsense to those who are being lost; but for us who are being saved it is God’s power…
  • For what seems to be God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom and what seems to be God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.

Now here’s the thing; when what we thought was strong is defeated by what we thought was weak, it has the power to completely change the way we think, so that what we fear most no longer has a hold on us

One of the things children need from parents is security – they need to feel safe

  • Parents give security to children in a number of ways
  • In the first two years of life children learn security by the presence of at least one adult who is consistently there for them to care for their needs
  • In the normal course of events a baby will cry for one of four reasons:
  • Either they are hungry or they have a dirty nappy or wind or they’re tired
  • You take care of those four things in a timely way and they will feel safe and secure and learn trust (as opposed to fear)

As kids gets older they still need to be fed but they also need boundaries to make them feel safe and secure; rules and routines that are kind and fair

  • And if they cross the line then they need to know that it’s not the end of the relationship, that there is a way back
  • For every mistake there is a remedy

God gives us security and we reveal to our children what God is like by giving them security and love

Love:

Some years ago now our family went to Opito Bay in the Coromandel for a summer holiday (Robyn’s aunty & uncle let us stay in their bach up there)

  • I have this enduring memory of lying on the concrete at night, with one of our daughters, looking up at the stars
  • The concrete was still warm, having baked in the sun all day, and the stars were bright because there isn’t much light pollution in Opito Bay
  • The star light we saw may have been billions of years old and who knows, perhaps some of the stars we were looking at had burnt out thousands of years before we were born
  • When you think about the vastness of time and space it makes your problems seem very small; it takes your focus off yourself and puts things in proper perspective
  • The person who looks up to God seldom looks down on other people

In verses 3 & 4 David describes feeling both small and cared for as he gazes up at the stars…

3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have established, 4 what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?

This is poetry – it’s not science. We are not to conclude that God literally made the moon and stars with his fingers

  • It’s a metaphor in which God is portrayed as an artist carefully arranging the heavens
  • Fingers are for fine work – they are for taking care of details
  • Fingers are gentle and skilled
  • The fact that God handles the moon and stars with His fingers shows us how big and strong God really is
  • It also speaks of God’s control over the heavenly bodies
  • Our lives are not controlled by the moon and stars or the horoscope
  • God is in control of the constellations, and this should help us to feel secure despite our smallness

The Lord is mindful of us and cares for us

  • When you love someone they populate your every thought (whether that’s your husband or your wife, your son or your daughter, your friend your sister, brother or whoever); you are mindful of them
  • You remember them in your prayers, you remember what they asked you to get at the supermarket, you remember their birthday and you send them text messages when you’re not with them
  • Likewise, when you love someone you care for them – you are affected by what happens to them so that if they cut their finger you feel their pain
  • Care isn’t just a feeling though – care is something practical that we do to help make those we love more comfortable

Children need love – they need people in their lives who are mindful of them and who care for them in practical ways

  • When a child is very young they aren’t able to separate themselves from their mother – they have just spent 9 months in the womb and haven’t developed a sense of their own identity yet
  • This means that they are very sensitive to the way dad treats their mum
  • If dad is kind to mum and treats her with thoughtfulness and care, then they will feel loved by dad
  • But if dad mistreats mum then they will feel hurt and not worth much
  • So the first way for parents to love their children is to love one another

As the child gets older, and is able to differentiate themselves from their mother a bit more, love is given in other ways – mainly through time spent together

  • I don’t remember many of the toys I was given as a child; but I do remember the quality time my parents spent with me
  • We want to give our kids as many good memories as we can

Responsibility:

God provides us with security, God loves us and God trusts us with real responsibility

Some years ago now I read Bill Bryson’s book, ‘A short history of everything’ in which Bryson describes the ‘Goldilocks Effect’

  • The goldilocks effect is a metaphor for how everything is ‘just right’ for sustaining life on earth
  • The earth is just the right distance from the sun, just the right distance from the moon, just the right size and therefore the right gravity
  • With just the right amount of oxygen in our atmosphere, just the right amount of salt in our oceans and so on
  • This planet is held in a wonderfully intricate balance – if any one of thousands of different factors was even a little bit out, planet earth wouldn’t be habitable.
  • Some people say the Goldilocks Effect is just random luck; but there is no hope (or truth) in thinking like that
  • The Bible teaches that God took great care in making this world just right for sustaining life
  • When we think of it like that, we begin to realise there is meaning and purpose to life on earth; our lives are not random, they matter

Not long after I first started at Tawa Baptist I conducted a survey. It was a way of getting to know the congregation

  • One of the questions at the end of the survey had to do with how we contribute to the well-being of others especially in the wider world
  • And I remember R answered in a way that no one else did
  • R said, “I ride my bike to work” and in brackets he wrote ‘pollute-less’
  • R was doing his bit to keep the balance in our world – he was taking care of the environment
  • But I think also that R really likes riding his bike
  • Given R’s love of cycling I had to include a bicycle illustration in the sermon – so please wait for a moment. I’ll be back…

[Go back stage and return with a bicycle]

How long do you think I can keep my balance on this bike? [Wait]

  • Okay, let’s test my balance – let’s see how long I can stay upright

[Try to balance on my bike while not moving]

That wasn’t very long was it. Why couldn’t I keep my balance for more than a few seconds? [Wait]

  • That’s right, because I wasn’t moving. To keep my balance, I need forward momentum, I need positive purpose

Returning to Psalm 8. In verse 5 David talks about the dignity God has given humanity, saying…

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

Verses 5-8 of Psalm 8 come from Genesis chapter 1

  • There (in the first chapter of Genesis) it tells how God created order out of the chaos and how God made us human beings in His own image

To be crowned with glory and honour is a privilege

  • To have dominion (or stewardship) over the animals, the birds and the fish, is a responsibility
  • As God’s vice regents, as His representatives, His deputies, it is our job to help maintain the balance

The position we have in creation is a position of trust

  • And it’s not a position or a trust that we have earned – it has simply been given to us
  • God shared his glory & honour with us before we had a chance to do anything at all
  • This means that we did not become the dominant species on planet earth by natural selection
  • Our place in the natural order is not the consequence of survival of the fittest. We have dominion over other creatures by divine selection

This means our royal status and authority over creation is subject to God

  • We don’t have free reign to do whatever we want
  • We are to use our authority and power in ways that serve God’s own purposes and reflect God’s own practices
  • God is mindful of us and cares for us, therefore we need to be mindful of the rest of God’s creation and care for it, both human and non-human
  • We are dependent on God to help us keep the balance – we can’t do it without Him
  • Trying fulfil our responsibility as human beings, without God, is like trying to ride a bike without forward momentum; God gives us the positive purpose we need to stay upright

So how are we doing with our responsibility?

  • Not so great. There is a huge disparity between the vision of humanity in this psalm and the reality of human history
  • Our dominion has become domination
  • Our stewardship has become slavery
  • Our rule has become ruin
  • We have dragged God’s reputation through the mud
  • We have become the foe and the avenger
  • And all creation groans as it waits for its salvation

One of the tasks of parenting is to teach our children responsibility

  • We want our kids to grow up to be responsible adults
  • As human beings, made in the image of God, we have a responsibility to care for our neighbour, to care for the environment and to care for ourselves

Responsibility is like riding a bike – it requires balance

  • If our sense of responsibility is too great, then this creates problems:
  • Like we might feel guilty when we don’t need to
  • Or we might keep coming to the rescue when others don’t need rescuing
  • Or we might feel like we are carrying the weight of the world on our shoulders and life loses its joy
  • Or we find ourselves becoming resentful because we always seem to be the one who does the work while others keep letting us down

On the other hand, if our sense of responsibility is too light or missing altogether, then that creates a different set of problems:

  • Like we make a mess that others have to clean up
  • Or we throw away our plastic so sea birds eat it and die horribly
  • Or we indulge ourselves at the expense of others, causing them trauma and pain

The prodigal son didn’t feel enough responsibility – he was reckless

  • Whereas his older brother carried too much responsibility and he became resentful
  • Responsibility is a balancing act and we teach children to manage the balance by living a balanced lifestyle ourselves
  • By avoiding extremes and excesses
  • Having a time for doing chores, a time for rest and a time for play
  • Having a consequence for misbehaviour that is fair and not too heavy handed
  • By balancing involvement in church with involvement in the community
  • Having time alone and time to socialise
  • Being good to others without neglecting our own needs
  • Being mindful of the products we buy and how we dispose of our waste
  • I could go on but you get the point: being responsible means keeping a healthy balance and the key to keeping our balance is letting God be the boss of our lives because God is the one who gives us the forward momentum of a positive purpose

Conclusion:

While we have failed in our responsibility, Jesus is our Saviour (He has taken responsibility)

    • Jesus is the one who fulfils Psalm 8’s vision of humanity
    • Jesus shows us what God originally intended
    • In Christ we find security.
    • In Christ we experience God’s love
    • And in Christ we learn to balance responsibility

 

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. How do you feel when you hear children laughing and playing happily? (What memory does this evoke for you?)

3. What is your experience of the security God gives?

  • How might we give a sense of security to those close to us (especially children)?

4. Have you looked up at the stars at night and contemplated like David did? What happened within you as a consequence of doing this?

5. Who do you love? (That is, who are you mindful of, who affects you, who do you show care for?)

  • How might we show love to those around us (especially children)?

6. What does it mean to have dominion over the animals, birds and fish? (What does it mean to live responsibly?)

7. What do we need to keep our balance?

  • What are some of the symptoms of having an over developed sense of responsibility?
  • What are some of the symptoms of having an under developed sense of responsibility?
  • Thinking about these symptoms is there anything you need to do to restore the balance of responsibility?

 

Tawa Baptist

Fullness

Scripture: Ephesians 3:14-21

Title: Fullness

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Paul’s prayer for fullness
  • Strength for your inner being
  • Knowing Christ’s love
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

I have here a dry sponge [hold up the sponge] all rigid and hard

  • For this sponge to be useful it needs to be wet
  • I could sprinkle a few drops of water on top so that its damp in places but that’s not really going to work for wiping down a table
  • To carry out its purpose this sponge needs to be filled with water
  • [soak the sponge in a bucket of water]
  • When water has passed through every pore the sponge is no longer hard but becomes flexible and able to serve its purpose

This morning we continue our series in Ephesians by focusing on chapter 3, verses 14-21. This is Paul’s prayer for his readers

  • From the New Revised Standard Version we read…

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate this Scripture for us

Paul’s prayer for fullness:

Prayer isn’t just words we might say. The 19th Century hymn writer James Montgomery wrote…

Prayer is the soul’s sincere desire,
Unuttered or expressed,
The motion of a hidden fire
That trembles in the breast. [1]

This tells us that prayer has to do with true intention or desire

    • Sometimes that desire is expressed in words and other times it burns in our heart like a hidden fire
  • We might not always have the right words when we pray but that doesn’t matter so much to God because His Spirit understands the unseen intention of our heart

In verse 14, of Ephesians 3, Paul writes, “I bow my knees before the Father…”

    • Most Jews of Paul’s day stood up to pray, so the act of kneeling to pray is unusual; it demonstrates Paul’s earnest intention, his heartfelt desire
  • The richness and beauty of Paul’s language in Ephesians 3 suggests he is trying to find words to do justice to his hidden fire
  • Paul’s prayer is that his readers (people like us) would be filled with all the fullness of God
  • In other words, Paul wants us to be filled with the Spirit of Christ – not just a few drops on top of the sponge of our soul but completely saturated so our inner being expands to become flexible and useful in God’s hand
  • For that to happen though our inner being needs to be strengthened

 

Strength for your inner being:

In one hand here I have a plastic bag and in the other a hot water bottle

  • If I was to fill both of these with boiling water, which one would you put in your bed to warm up the sheets? [Wait]
  • I would put the hot water bottle in – I wouldn’t risk using the plastic bag because the plastic bag isn’t really strong enough

 

These are a couple of cardboard boxes and this is a wooden chair

  • What do you think will happen if I sit on the card board boxes?
  • Let’s find out [sit on the box]
  • Now what happens when I sit on the chair? [sit on the chair]
  • The card board boxes weren’t strong enough to support my weight but the wooden chair was – no surprises there

 

Okay, one more – If you are planning to stay in the same place for a while then chances are you will live in a house

  • But if you are just passing through or visiting a place on holiday then you might camp in a tent
  • A tent is okay for temporary accommodation but it’s not as strong or as warm as a house – houses are generally more permanent

In verses 16 & 17, of Ephesians 3, Paul writes: I pray… that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through God’s Spirit and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love.

As I said earlier, Paul’s prayer (his deep desire) is that we (his readers) be filled with all the fullness of God, but for that to happen our inner being needs to be strengthened 

God fills our inner being (our soul) like hot water fills a hot water bottle, so that we radiate his warmth to others

  • Without the strengthening of the Holy Spirit our inner being is like the plastic bag; it’s not suitable for holding the hot water of God’s fullness

 

Our inner being (our heart – the core of ourselves where desires are born and decisions are made) is a bit like a chair or, better still, a throne

  • Without the strengthening of the Holy Spirit our heart is like a cardboard box; it’s not strong enough to hold the weight of Christ the King

Our inner being is like a dwelling place; through Christ, God fills us like a family fills a house

  • For you Bible nerds out there, there are two words in Greek for dwelling
  • paroikeo, which means to inhabit a place temporarily as a stranger
  • And katoikeo, which means to settle down permanently – to make that place your home [2]
  • The word that is used, in verse 17, for Christ dwelling in us is katoikeo
  • Without the strengthening of the Holy Spirit our inner being is like a tent; it’s okay as a temporary measure but Jesus isn’t just passing through
  • Christ intends to take up residence in us permanently
  • God wants to make his home in us – pretty amazing aye

As you can see there, at the end of verse 17, Paul uses two other images of strengthening – being rooted and grounded in love.

  • Being rooted in love makes us think of a tree
  • Just as a tree gets its strength from being rooted in the soil, so too our inner being gets it stability and nourishment from being deeply rooted in God’s love
  • Being grounded in love makes us think of a building
  • Just as a house gets its strength from a firm foundation, so too our inner being gets its security and resilience from remaining in God’s love

You may be wondering, ‘what does it mean to be rooted and grounded in love?’

  • Well, in John 15 Jesus says, “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love… This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you…”
  • We remain in Christ’s love by loving one another

Some of you may have noticed Paul’s reference to the Trinity in Ephesians 3 – God the Father, Son & Holy Spirit

  • In receiving the Holy Spirit, we are receiving Christ and in receiving Christ we are receiving the fullness of God

 

Okay, so Paul’s prayer is that we (his readers) be filled with all the fullness of God and for that to happen our inner being needs to be strengthened

  • But there is something else we need in order to be filled with the fullness of God and that is the knowledge of Christ’s love
  • It seems we come to know Christ’s love incrementally, in stages

Knowing Christ’s love:

In verses 18-19, of Ephesians 3, Paul writes…

I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

In these verses Paul seems to be talking about the dimensions of Christ’s divine love, which are beyond measure

  • Sometimes (perhaps most of the time) our thinking is too small where God is concerned
  • We have a tendency to put God in a box because it’s too overwhelming or too scary otherwise
  • As well as being strengthened, our inner being (our thinking) needs to be expanded or enlarged to receive the fullness of God
  • Knowing Christ’s love enlarges our inner being to make room for God
  • Sort of like water enlarges a sponge or like warm air inflates a balloon or baking powder expands cookie dough

How then do we know Christ’s love?

  • Well, Paul touches on two ways in verse 18: by the Holy Spirit and through the church

The ‘power to comprehend’ is likely a reference to the Holy Spirit

  • The Spirit of Jesus is a Spirit of love and truth
  • Jesus said His Spirit would lead us into truth
  • So we comprehend Christ’s love by the power of God’s Spirit, just like we understand the Scriptures by the illumination of God’s Spirit

The Holy Spirit gives us a lens through which to interpret the events of our lives

  • Two people may have exactly the same experience and yet see that experience in a completely different way because one has the power to comprehend and the other doesn’t
  • When the people of Israel were in the desert, Moses sent 12 spies into the Promised Land to check the place out
  • Ten of the spies returned saying the people are giants and we can’t possibly take them on
  • Those 10 spies had a pretty small idea of God – either they didn’t really believe that God loved them or they thought God was pretty weak
  • But two of the spies, Joshua and Caleb, returned excited, believing that God wanted to give them victory
  • While all 12 spies had the same experience, only Joshua and Caleb had the power to comprehend that God loved them and was bigger than the people of the land

Let me give another example of how the Spirit helps us to comprehend Christ’s love. This is a personal example and I’m reluctant to share it because it makes me feel vulnerable so please don’t make me regret it

  • Last week we were away from Tawa on holiday and for some reason or other I was feeling grumpy so I poured out my heart to God
  • Things build up over time and the holidays are often the only opportunity I have to do any house-keeping on my soul
  • Anyway I was honest with God about how I felt and my feelings were not pretty – I was quite sour with God
  • Afterwards I felt a bit bad for being so honest with the Lord
  • God is incredibly good to me, He is so kind and gracious
  • I want to always give God my best but sometimes he gets my worst – my pain and my anger; and that’s not fair because he doesn’t deserve that
  • But in that moment, of feeling bad for being sour, I sensed God’s Spirit saying to me that he likes both my sweetness and my sourness
  • Just like I enjoy sugar and lemon on my pancakes
  • You need the sourness of the lemon to cut the sweetness of the sugar

Normally I would hide the fact that I can be sour sometimes but I take the risk of sharing this with you because I think that most of us (perhaps all of us) unconsciously think that there are parts of ourselves which are unacceptable to God and which God cannot love

  • We don’t like that part of ourselves so how can God like it?
  • God’s love is far more spacious and generous than we imagine
  • God’s love is great enough to swallow our sourness and kiss our ugliness
  • It’s God’s Spirit who reveals this truth to our inner being
  • I can tell you that God accepts you but you won’t be convinced until God’s Spirit touches that part of you
  • I believe this is one of the things Paul is praying for when he says, ‘may you have the power to comprehend Christ’s love.’

 

The next thing we note, in verse 18, is that knowing Christ’s love happens ‘with all the saints’

  • ‘Saints’ is just another word for other Christian believers – the church
  • A saint isn’t an especially good Christian in this context
  • In Paul’s thinking, all those who believe in Jesus are saints, no matter where they are in their journey of faith
  • The point is, we need other Christians (or the church) to enlarge and deepen our knowledge of Christ’s love

For example, when you look at the church, through the lens of God’s Spirit, you see the wide range of different people who follow Jesus and you start to get an idea of the breadth of God’s love

  • You realise that God doesn’t just love people like me – he loves all sorts of different kinds of people
  • You only have to look around this room – Tawa Baptist is made up of people of every age group, from many different cultures and countries and with a whole variety of denominational and theological backgrounds
  • God’s love is big enough to embrace humanity in all its diversity

Now anyone who has managed to remain in the church for more than a few years will realise how imperfect the church is. People get hurt in churches

  • Usually it’s not intentional or malicious but either way it’s only a matter of time before someone ruffles your feathers or offends you or takes you for granted or even wounds you deeply and you are faced with a choice: either forgive them or leave in a huff
  • It is in the act of forgiving the hurt that we begin to know Christ’s love in forgiving us
  • The paradox is we wouldn’t have known that aspect of Christ’s love unless we had been hurt ourselves

Of course, we learn about Christ’s love in more positive ways too

  • Not long after I became a Christian my parents divorced – I was in my early teens at that stage
  • In the years that followed I experienced the love of Christ through one or two men in the church who took the time to come alongside me and be there for me, to listen and give me support
  • The time they spent with me showed me I was cared for and valued
  • Looking back, I may not have experienced that aspect of Christ’s love unless my parents had split up

We come to know Christ’s love, therefore, through the Holy Spirit, through other Christian believers and through our own suffering

  • You see, there are two sides to love – there’s joy and there’s pain, there’s comfort and there’s grief
  • The truth is we can’t know Christ’s love without some degree of suffering
  • And so we come back to our need for Christ who redeems our suffering
  • By His Spirit, God takes the imperfect circumstances of our lives and uses them to renovate our soul – to strengthen and enlarge our inner being so that the fullness of God fills us

Conclusion:

We do well to remember that it is God who renovates our inner being

  • We can’t enlarge or strengthen ourselves any more than a plastic bag could change itself into a hot water bottle or a cardboard box could change itself into a chair or a tent could change itself into a house
  • As Paul says in verses 20-21, of Ephesians 3, the glory goes to God, who is able to accomplish abundantly more than all we can ask or imagine…

 

  • Paul’s confidence was in God

Having said that, we still need to cooperate with God’s Spirit at work in us

  • We still need to pay attention to our inner being
  • We need to spend time in prayer and study of the Scriptures
  • We need to guard our thoughts and weigh our desires
  • We need to be intentional about listening for God and discerning His will
  • There is a healthy balance to find here of course – we don’t want to become so focused on our inner life that we forget to love our neighbour
  • By the same token, we don’t want to become so caught up in serving others that we neglect our own soul

How is the sponge of your inner being?

  • Is it filled with the fullness of God, wet through and flexible in His hand?
  • Or is it dry and hard and in need of refreshment?

 

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.) Discuss / reflect on James Montgomery’s thought that, Prayer is the soul’s sincere desire, unuttered or expressed.

  • Are you aware of your soul’s sincere desire?
  • To what extent do the words you pray reflect your soul’s sincere desire?

3.) What was Paul’s sincere desire for his readers?

  • What does it mean to be filled with all the fullness of God?

4.) What do you think Paul means by our ‘inner being’?

  • How is our inner being strengthened and enlarged?

5.) How do we come to know Christ’s love?

  • Can you think of a time when the Holy Spirit has given you power to comprehend Christ’s love for you?
  • Can you think of a time when you have experienced some aspect of Christ’s love from other Christian believers?
  • What role does suffering have to play in the process of knowing Christ’s love?

6.) How is the sponge of your inner being?

  • Is it filled with the fullness of God, wet through and flexible in His hand?
  • Or is it dry and hard and in need of refreshment?

 

[1] John Stott’s commentary on Ephesians provided the inspiration for this illustration on prayer

[2] John Stott, The Message of Ephesians, page 135-136.