Tawa Baptist

Worship

Scripture: Deuteronomy 12:1-7

Video Link: https://youtu.be/PRaDm5F3LH8

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Distinctive worship
  • Tangible worship
  • Joyful worship
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

Preaching is a bit like serving tea. In any sermon you will normally have three ingredients. The text of Scripture, an explanation of the text and then hopefully application of the text. Text, Explanation, Application. T.E.A. spells tea.

Application is the practical part which connects the message to everyday life. The preacher usually gives some examples of how the text applies but ultimately it is up to the listeners to put God’s word into practice.     

The book of Deuteronomy, as a whole, can be thought of as three speeches by Moses to the people of Israel as they stood poised at the edge of the wilderness, about to enter the Promised Land.

Moses’ second (and largest) speech, in chapters 5-26, is shaped very much like a sermon with a text, an explanation and some application. The text Moses is preaching from is the ten commandments of Yahweh, found in chapter five.

In chapters 6-11 Moses explains or unpacks the meaning of Yahweh’s ten words. In a nutshell, the most important thing is love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength. That’s the main point of the sermon, the lens through which the law is to be understood and life is to be lived.

Then, in chapters 12-26 of Deuteronomy, Moses outlines various ways in which loving God applies in everyday life. In other words, here are some laws and decrees (some practical things) you can do to demonstrate your love for God.   

Over the past three months I have been explaining the meaning of each of the ten commandments and how these apply for us today, in the light of Jesus’ teaching. This morning we continue our series in Deuteronomy by focusing on chapter 12, part of the application of Moses’ sermon.

In chapter 12 Moses gives some practical instructions about how the Israelites are to worship God once they enter the Promised Land. When it comes to worship, this is what loving God looks like. From Deuteronomy 12, verses 1-7 we read our text…

These are the decrees and laws you must be careful to follow in the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has given you to possess—as long as you live in the land. 2 Destroy completely all the places on the high mountains, on the hills and under every spreading tree, where the nations you are dispossessing worship their gods. 3 Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and burn their Asherah poles in the fire; cut down the idols of their gods and wipe out their names from those places. 4 You must not worship the Lord your God in their way.  5 But you are to seek the place the Lord your God will choose from among all your tribes to put his Name there for his dwelling. To that place you must go; 6 there bring your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and special gifts, what you have vowed to give and your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks. 7 There, in the presence of the Lord your God, you and your families shall eat and shall rejoice in everything you have put your hand to, because the Lord your God has blessed you.

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

As I mentioned before, Deuteronomy 12 is mainly concerned with how loving God applies to worship.  Three things to keep in mind. Worship of Yahweh is to be distinctive, tangible and joyful. First, let’s consider the distinctive nature of Israel’s worship.

Distinctive worship:

After a war is finished, the land is often littered with unexploded mines, live artillery shells and booby traps. The retreating army leave a trail of destruction behind them. Before the civilian population can return and rebuild, the army engineers need to clear the ground of dangerous ordinances. 

If the image of cleaning up after a war seems a bit far removed from life in New Zealand, then imagine you have a wasps’ nest in your garden at home. You don’t tolerate the wasps. You get someone in to destroy their nest.

Likewise, if you have rats running around in your ceiling, you don’t fold your hands and do nothing. You exterminate the rats. And, if you have a poisonous plant (maybe a stinging nettle) growing in your garden, then you don’t leave it there. You kill the plant and remove it.

In verses 2-3 of Deuteronomy 12, Moses instructs the Israelites to destroy all the paraphernalia associated with Canaanite religion. God Almighty is completely different from the fake gods of the Canaanites. Yahweh does not want people thinking that he is in any way like these false gods. Therefore, the Israelites are to worship the Lord Almighty in a distinctive way.  

Although the gods of the Canaanites were not real, the way the Canaanites practiced their religion had very real and destructive consequences. In verse 31 of Deuteronomy 12 we read…

31 You must not worship the Lord your God in their way, because in worshiping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things the Lord hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods.

Destroying any visual reminders of Canaanite religion was like extracting unexploded land mines or getting rid of a wasps’ nest or exterminating rats or removing a stinging nettle. It was a basic health & safety requirement.

Rather than worshiping Yahweh anywhere they felt like, the Israelites were to gather at one central place for their rituals of worship. That place would be decided by God.

The Canaanites had many gods that they worshipped in many places. Israel had one God whom they worshipped in one place. Israel’s worship of Yahweh was distinctive in its oneness.

The place God chose for people to come and offer their ritual sacrifices moved. At one time the Tabernacle and the ark of the covenant was located in Shechem, then Bethel, then Shiloh and eventually a temple was built in Jerusalem.

Not that God’s presence was limited to that one place. Rather, the central place of worship acted like the hub of a wheel, holding the nation together.   

As Patrick Miller explains, the emphasis is upon the Lord’s choice. The central activity of Israel’s life, which is the worship of the Lord, is fully shaped and determined by the Lord. [1]   

The point is, for Israel’s worship to be distinctive it needs to be pleasing to God, first and foremost. We don’t worship to please ourselves. We worship to please God. We don’t act like Canaanites and do whatever we think is right in our own eyes. We do what is right and good in the eyes of the Lord.

If someone invites you to their birthday party, you come at the time they say, to the place they are celebrating at and you bring a gift, something you know they will enjoy or at least find useful.

You don’t come too late or decide you are going to celebrate at a different venue. And you don’t come empty handed or with a gift you know they won’t enjoy. It’s their party, not yours. It’s about them, it’s not about you.  

How does this apply to us today? Well, a worship gathering is like God’s party. He is the host and we are his guests. Yes, we hope to have a good time at the party. But really it’s not about us. It’s about God and what he wants.

So, if there are some songs in the Sunday service you don’t like, you don’t get upset, because it’s not about your entertainment. You sing to the best of your ability. Or, if the prayers (and speeches) seem too long, you remember, it’s not about my convenience. We are here to celebrate God. Likewise, you don’t ignore the other guests at the party. You talk with them and you get along with each other for the honour and pleasure of the host.

Church is not a shopping mall. We don’t worship God for our own gratification or self-fulfillment. We worship God because he alone is worthy. If God meets us and makes us feel good while we are praising him, then that’s a bonus, a gift to treasure. It’s not an entitlement.

Earlier in the service we heard a reading from John 4, where Jesus has a conversation with a Samaritan woman about worship. The woman says…

19 “Sir, …. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”

21 Jesus replied, “…a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem…  22 the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks…”

What Jesus is getting at here is that the one centre for true worship is no longer a place but a person. And Jesus, the Messiah, is that person. Jesus the Christ has made a new covenant with God for us. Therefore, Jesus is the one through whom we worship God.

As Jesus said, ‘where two or three gather in my name, there I am with them’. This means we worship best when we gather with other Christian believers. And the thing that is meant to make our worship distinctive is our love for one another in Christ.

Okay, so that’s the first thing; Israel’s worship was to be distinctive from the nations around them. They were not to conform to the pattern of this world. The second thing is that Israel’s worship was to be tangible. 

Tangible worship:

Virtual reality is a term we have become familiar with in recent years. Virtual reality is a computer generated simulation of a three dimensional image that can be interacted with in a seemingly real way.

Virtual reality is an oxymoron though, because it is not physically real, it is intangible. You can’t eat and be nourished by a virtual sandwich. And, if you hit your thumb with a virtual hammer, you won’t do any damage nor feel any pain.

Israel’s worship was not virtual reality; it was tangible reality, worship with real substance and real consequences. It was physical as well as mental and emotional. From verse 6 we read…

6 there bring your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and special gifts, what you have vowed to give and your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks.  

The sacrifices and offerings listed in verse 6 are real tangible physical things. They mainly include animals and crops, produce of the land, things you could eat and drink. Israel’s worship was not virtual, it was tangible.  

Burnt offerings refer to sacrifices that were burnt whole as an offering to the Lord. The ancient Hebrew word for a whole burnt offering is holocaust, which took on a new meaning after world war two. 

Most of the other sacrifices and offerings listed in verse 6 could be shared with the Levites, the priests and the poor. So, it wasn’t like the lamb or the cow was completely destroyed every time. Often the meat or the grain or the wine was put to good use in feeding people.

The tithe was meant for sharing with those in need. A tithe is 10 percent of the year’s produce or harvest. In today’s terms it is 10% of your income. In ancient Hebrew thought, the tithe was like rent paid to God for use of the land. Sort of like a share-milker pays a percentage of their income to the farm owner.

The distinctive thing about the tithe though is that God (who is effectively the King and land owner) charges a relatively low rent. By comparison, a share-milker pays around 50% of their income to the land owner. The Lord only asks 10%

In fact, God is so generous he doesn’t keep the 10% rent for himself. He doesn’t need it. Instead the Lord God directs that the tithe owing to him be given to the poor and marginalized, including the Levites (who did not own any land because they were devoted to the Lord’s service).

These days we don’t sacrifice animals as part of our worship of God. Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross to atone for our sins fulfills the law and ends the need for animal sacrifice. Actually, Israel’s animal sacrifice in the context of worship, pointed to Jesus’ sacrifice.   

However, the end of animal sacrifice does not mean the end of tangible worship. As Christian believers, we still offer real, tangible, substantial sacrifices to God. Only the sacrifices we bring are not to atone for sin. They are an expression of our love for God.

When we come to church on a Sunday morning, we might be sacrificing a sleep in or time at the beach. That is tangible worship. When we sing songs in church we are offering a sacrifice of praise. That too is tangible worship, particularly if we don’t feel much like singing.

When we make automatic payments into the church’s bank account or put money in the offering bag; when we buy treats at the bake sale; when we give cash to World Vision or to mission work or the local food bank; we are sacrificing money and worshipping God in a tangible way.

When we volunteer to serve in the life of the church or to help a neighbour in need, we are offering our time, our talents and our energy (very real and tangible things) as an act of worship to God.

One of the most tangible ways we worship God is with our bodies. In Romans 12, Paul says: Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.  

We have a tendency to think of our bodies as our own to do with as we wish. But in Christian thought, one’s body is an instrument for God’s purpose.

When we take care of our bodies by maintaining good rhythms of sleeping, eating and exercise, then we are honouring God for the gift of our body in a very real and tangible way.

When we put our body to work in service to God; when we use our hands to help people and not harm them; when we use our tongues for kind words, not gossip; when we use our ears to listen with care; then we are offering our bodies in real tangible worship to the Lord.

Worshipping God with our bodies also means abstaining from those things that are harmful to us, like illegal drugs or too much alcohol or sleeping around. And for some that may feel like a real sacrifice.

The point is, worship is not just something we do on Sundays or on special occasions like Easter and Christmas. Tangible worship of God is a whole of life thing. As the prophet Micah famously said…

And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humblywith your God.

Justice, mercy and humility are not abstract or ethereal things. They are real, tangible, down to earth actions which lend integrity to our profession of faith. 

Worship of the living God is to be distinctive, tangible and joyful.

Joyful worship:

Joy is not exactly the same as happiness. Happiness is a pleasant feeling that happens to you, almost at random. Like when a butterfly lands near you, or a baby smiles at you or your sports team has a win. Happiness is a quick energy that picks you up, then dumps you soon after. We can’t really manufacture or control the circumstances that precipitate happiness. 

But joy is more intentional than that, more purposeful, less random. Joy is low GI. Joy is a sustained, slow release kind of energy that comes from hope.    

Joy is the fruit of hope. If your hope is to be reunited with loved ones, then joy isn’t just the good feeling you get when that reunion happens. It is also the positive energy that comes from anticipating that reunion before it happens.

If your hope is to live in peace, with justice, then joy isn’t just the good feeling you get when the war ends. It is also the energy that enables you to keep pressing forward in battle and win the war.

If your hope is to reap a good harvest (and get a good return), then joy isn’t just seeing the crop in the barn (or the money in the bank). It is also the energy to do the mahi (the work), to plough the soil, sow the seed and water the crop.

If your hope is to be raised in glory with Jesus, then joy isn’t just seeing Christ return. It is also the energy to endure and be faithful in this life.

Joy is the fruit of hope.

In Deuteronomy 12, verse 7, we read: There, in the presence of the Lord your God, you and your families shall eat and shall rejoice in everything you have put your hand to, because the Lord your God has blessed you. 

For ancient Israel, worship wasn’t just singing songs, saying prayers and listening to the sermon. It also involved staying for the shared lunch. Worship of Yahweh is meant to be a joyful celebration, a party which includes everyone.

Now, it would be fair to say that we don’t always feel like rejoicing when we come to church. The circumstances of our life may be difficult and putting on a happy face feels wrong. We just can’t fake it.

Well, you don’t have to fake it. You don’t have to pretend to be happy when something bad happens to you. You are allowed to grieve. If you can’t be honest with God, then it’s not a right relationship, much less a joyful one.

Joy is the fruit of hope and we only begin to hope when life is difficult. Usually the journey to joy requires us to pass through the valley of lament.

But even when you are in the valley, you can still look forward in hope to a time when God will wipe away every tear. You can rejoice in faith that life won’t always suck. Jesus is making all things new and he will redeem your loss in his way and his time.    

The joyful worship celebration envisioned by Moses, in Deuteronomy 12, is like a sign post pointing forward to the Messianic Banquet at the end of time, when those who love Jesus will be reunited with him in the greatest party the world has ever known.

Conclusion:

Many centuries after Moses, William Temple offered his vision of worship, which illuminates something of what Jesus meant when he talked about worshipping God in Spirit and in truth. William Temple writes…

Worship is the submission of all our nature to God. It is the quickening of conscience by His holiness; the nourishment of mind with His truth; the purifying of imagination by His beauty; the opening of the heart to His love; the surrender of will to His purpose – and all of this gathered up in adoration, the most selfless emotion of which our nature is capable.                     

Father God, help us to worship you in Spirit and in truth, we pray. Amen.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

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

  • Why does Moses insist that Israel worship the Lord their God in a distinctive way? In what ways was Israel’s worship meant to differ from Canaanite worship? In what ways is Christian worship today (meant to be) distinctive from the prevailing culture?
  • What do you think Jesus meant when he talked about worshipping in the Spirit and in truth (in John 4)?  What might this mean for us today?
  • Why do we no longer need to sacrifice animals as part of our worship of God? What tangible things do you do to worship God? How do you worship God with your body?
  • How does the ancient practice of tithing reveal the generosity of God?
  • Discuss / reflect on the difference between joy and happiness. Where does your joy come from? What is it you hope for?
  • Make some time this week to reflect on William Temple’s vision of worship, then spend time in adoration of God.   

[1] Patrick Miller, Interpretation commentary on Deuteronomy, pages 131-132. 

Tawa Baptist

God’s Commitment

Scripture: Genesis 8:20-22 and Matthew 13:24-30

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Noah’s worship
  • God’s commitment
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

Let me tell you a story. Once there was an artist, a painter. He had an eye for light, the way it falls differently depending on the time of year and the time of day. Although he worked hard trying to capture the nuance of the light on his subject, he never felt like he quite did justice to the picture in his mind’s eye. But at the same time he wasn’t able to give it up. The pursuit of beauty made him even more determined.

One day the artist was asked to paint a mural on a wall for the town. He took this project seriously. After months of thinking and sketching he started painting. The scale of the mural was large but he had it finished in a week. He wouldn’t admit to it being perfect but it was certainly very good – it suited the space. Many passers-by stopped to admire the mural’s grace and message.     

Sadly, one night, some vandals came and defaced the mural. The artist was deeply hurt by this. Not only had the vandals undone the time and effort he had put into the painting, they had shown contempt for him and contempt for the light. The only part of the mural not damaged was a corner where his name was. It was like the culprits wanted to mar his reputation.  

The artist could not stand to look at the now grotesque image. He set to work removing the graffiti but the spray paint they had used was stubborn; it wouldn’t wash off without damaging the art work underneath. There was no way to clean the mess without destroying the mural. Only the corner with his name on it was able to be saved.

Once the wall had been washed, the artist went about repainting the mural. In doing this he knew he was making himself vulnerable to getting hurt all over again. The vandals would likely come back to ruin the new art work too. But the artist refused to be silenced. He was determined that light and beauty would prevail in the end.    

Today we continue our series on Noah and the great flood. In some ways God is like the painter in the story and his creation is like the mural. Although the world God created was good, some vandals defaced it and God had little choice but to start again with Noah, the only one not tagged by evil.

Last week we heard how God remembered Noah, while Noah waited patiently for the Lord as the flood waters receded. This morning Noah and the animals are finally released from the ark. From Genesis 8, verses 20-22, we read…

20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offeringson it. 21 The Lord smelled the pleasing aromaand said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the groundbecause of humans, even thoughevery inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood.And never again will I destroyall living creatures, as I have done. 22 “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.”

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

In this passage we see Noah’s worship of the Lord and God’s commitment to repaint the mural of his creation.

Noah’s worship:

Can anyone tell me what happened on Tuesday the 28th April this year? [Wait]

That’s right, New Zealand moved from level 4 lockdown to level 3, under COVID restrictions. This meant that around 400,000 people returned to work and some restaurants opened for takeaways. I remember watching the evening news and seeing really long queues of cars snaking down the road as people waited in the drive-thru for their first taste of McDonalds in over a month.

After over a year in the ark God tells Noah he can leave; his lockdown is over. And the first thing we read that Noah does was worship God. Noah built an altar to the Lord and sacrificed some of the clean animals and birds on it. 

We know from the beginning of Genesis 7 that God instructed Noah to take seven pairs of clean animals and one pair of every unclean animal. So in sacrificing some of the clean animals Noah wasn’t wiping out the species, he had spares.

We can’t be sure what constituted a clean animal or bird in Noah’s day. The Law of Moses, which defines what is clean and unclean, was not introduced until centuries after Noah so we don’t know what animals Noah sacrificed. But that is beside the point. The main thing here is that Noah’s first thought was not a Maccas run or going back to the office or anything mundane like that. His first thought was worshipping God. Noah puts God first.

Verse 21 of Genesis 8 indicates that God was pleased with Noah’s sacrifice. While Genesis 8 doesn’t explain why God was pleased, we know from elsewhere in Scripture the sorts of things God is looking for in worship.

For our worship to be pleasing to God it needs to be true. We can’t fake it with God. True worship comes from the inside out. In other words, it has its roots in our heart and its fruit in our obedient actions.

In Isaiah 29, verse 13, God criticizes the people of Isaiah’s day saying: These people come near to me with their mouth and honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men.

Jesus had a similar complaint about many of the religious leaders of his day. Jesus described them as ‘white washed tombs’ – looking good on the outside but full of decay and corruption on the inside.

In John 4, verse 24, while speaking to the Samaritan woman by the well, Jesus made it clear what kind of worship God requires saying: God is Spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.

Obeying God in faith is the litmus test of true, heartfelt worship. Like the prophet Micah famously said: Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of olive oil? Shall I offer my firstbornfor my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? 8 He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humblywith your God.         

And that is probably why God was pleased with Noah’s sacrifice of worship, because Noah obeyed God. Not just for show, when people were looking, but from the heart when it was him alone with God.

Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross has done away with the need for animal sacrifice. We don’t need to approach God by killing a lamb or a dove. We are able to approach God through faith in Jesus.

This is not to say that our worship is without sacrifice. Our sacrificial worship of God may come in a variety of forms these days, including the money we give to the poor and to the church, as well as the time we volunteer in service to God and his people.

If you are in business, then part of your worship may cost you trade if you choose not to do business on a Sunday. I am mindful too of the way this church (Tawa Baptist) has often offered its best and brightest people to serve in church and mission work both here in NZ and overseas. The people are a church’s life blood. It is a costly sacrifice training up interns and then sending them off to be a blessing for someone else.  

Noah’s worship was pleasing to God because it was true. Noah’s worship came from the inside out. It had its roots in Noah’s heart and its fruit in Noah’s obedient actions. Noah put God first, before his stomach and before his career.

God’s commitment:

It appears that Noah’s worship touched God’s heart. In verse 21, of Genesis 8, we read, The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma [of Noah’s sacrifice] and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even thoughevery inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood.And never again will I destroyall living creatures, as I have done…”

The reference to cursing the ground connects with Genesis 3, after the fall of humankind, when God cursed the ground making it harder for people to grow food. God will not curse the ground again because of humans.

But the more interesting thing here is God’s commitment to the human race. In Genesis 6:5, before the flood, we read how …every inclination of the human heart was only evil all the time. Now, after the flood in Genesis 8:21, we read that …every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. This shows us the flood has not changed the human heart. Noah’s heart may be better than most but God can see that, in time, his creation will degenerate again.

God is a bit like the artist who painted the mural on the wall. Even though the human heart has not changed, even though God knows the vandals will return to deface his image, the Lord resolves to persevere with his creation. He is determined that the beauty of his grace will prevail in the end. The implication here is that God is committing himself to suffering with his creation. God is leaving himself open to more grief so that we may be saved. 

Let me tell you another story. Once there was a writer. She wrote all sorts of things, from poems to short stories, to novels and even the occasional play. She was always looking for the right words to express the truth of something but often felt like her words didn’t quite do justice to the truth. Still, she couldn’t help writing. The pursuit of truth made her even more determined. 

One day she wrote a play. Actually it brewed in her mind for years before pouring out on her keyboard over the course of a week. She wouldn’t admit to it being perfect but it was certainly very good – a masterpiece. Handing her play over to the cast of actors felt like handing a child over to strangers. It was an act of trust. She hoped they would look after her baby.

Some months passed while the actors rehearsed the script and the prop builders constructed the set. Finally, the opening night came. The play started well but before long it became apparent the actors didn’t know their lines. In fact, the cast had made some pretty big changes to the script and it wasn’t recognizable as her story anymore.

The writer sat in the audience heart broken. Most of the cast of the play had completely misunderstood their parts. They had taken her magnum opus and turned it into a farce. Only one actor nailed it. The play-write felt betrayed. She wanted to stand up and stop the whole show. But instead she sat through it, even though it was torture, both for her and the rest of the audience.        

In some ways, God is like the writer of the play and humanity is like the cast who have forgotten their lines, misunderstood their parts and changed the script.  

Returning to Genesis 8. When God resolved not to destroy humanity he was essentially making a commitment to persevere with our imperfection, at least for a period of time (although not forever). Ultimately God’s plan is to redeem his creation – to make it new and perfect again.

The kingdom of heaven is a place where all the actors understand their parts and know their lines by heart. It is a place where God’s will is done; where his script is followed and the story of our lives are given coherence and meaning.

In Ezekiel 36:26, God says through the prophet: I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

In other words, God intends to give humanity a heart transplant; to remove our hard unfeeling heart (our dead heart) and give us a heart which is alive and beats for him. A heart which feels and is grieved by evil, as God’s heart is.

In Matthew 13 Jesus tells the parable of the wheat and the weeds. An enemy sows weeds among the wheat but the farmer does not uproot the weeds in case this disturbs the wheat. He allows the weeds to grow alongside the wheat until the harvest. Then at the harvest the workers separate the weeds from the wheat. The weeds are destroyed and the wheat is saved.

The parable of the wheat and the weeds is an allegory about the final judgement – the harvest represents judgement day. The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the people of God’s kingdom, while the weeds are the people of the evil one.

There is a point of connection between this parable and God’s attitude after the flood. Namely that God is committed to redeeming what is good in his creation, even though that involves persevering with the weeds of evil for a certain period of time.

Conclusion:

The world we live in is not perfect but the good news is: this world is not all there is. God has chosen to suffer with his creation in order to redeem it. In the end, the light of God’s truth and the beauty of God’s grace will prevail.

In the meantime, God makes this commitment: 22 “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.”

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 connections do you see between the story of the artist who painted the mural and the story God who created the earth?

Why do you think God was pleased with Noah’s sacrifice? What makes our worship pleasing to God?

What are the implications of God’s commitment to persevere with human beings, even though the human heart is bent toward evil?     

What connections do you see between the story of the writer who penned the play and the story of God who created history?

What connections do you see between God’s attitude after the flood (in Genesis 8:21) and the parable of the wheat & weeds (in Matthew 13)?

Although this world/life is not perfect, the hope of God’s kingdom gives us something to look forward to. What can we look forward to in the fullness of God’s kingdom?

Tawa Baptist

Jesus, Lamb of God

Scripture: John 1:29

Title: Jesus, Lamb of God

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Jesus’ innocence
  • Jesus’ vulnerability
  • Jesus’ sacrifice
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Today is Ram’s day – when rams all over New Zealand are put in paddocks with ewes for breeding purposes – it seems quite appropriate then to be talking about the Lamb of God today

In 1982 there were over 70 million sheep in New Zealand and about 3 million people – which equates to about 22 sheep per person

–         In recent years though this ratio has dropped – now there are more like 29½ million sheep and closer to 4.9 million people, which equates to about 6 sheep per person

–         Any way you look at it that’s a lot of sheep and lambs

 

Today we conclude our sermon series on the titles of Jesus by taking a closer look at the term Lamb of God

–         It’s strange in a way; Jesus’ favourite way of referring to himself was Son of Man and despite the fact that title is used numerous times in the gospels, it never really caught on in Christian tradition

–         By contrast the title, Lamb of God, only appears twice in the Bible and yet somehow it has become popular in Christian culture

–         Not sure if it’s just a New Zealand thing or if Christians all over the world prefer to think of Jesus as a lamb

 

The title, Lamb of God, is heard on the lips of John the baptist as he points out who Jesus is

In the gospel of John chapter 1, verse 29, John sees Jesus approaching and says:

–         Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.  

–         Then, the very next day, John sees Jesus walking by again and says to his disciples: Look, the Lamb of God

In addition to the gospel of John the Book of Revelation uses the term Lamb a number of times as a kind of code word for ‘Jesus’, but stops short of the full title Lamb of God

 

Now before we get into what the Bible has to say about the Lamb of God, I’m interested to find out what you think…

When you see the image of a lamb what comes to mind – what do you associate a lamb with?

–         [Wait for people to respond]

 

Jesus is like a lamb in some ways, but not in every way. Three ways in particular we can say Jesus is like a lamb…

–         Jesus is innocent, Jesus makes himself vulnerable, and Jesus offers himself as a sacrifice. First let us consider Jesus’ innocence

 

Jesus’ innocence:

One of the things the gospel writers make clear is that Jesus was condemned to die as an innocent man

–         And when we say ‘innocent’, we don’t mean naïve or gullible – Jesus was no green horn

–         By innocent we mean not guilty, without sin

–         We would of course expect Jesus’ friends to say he was innocent and so the real test is what someone impartial says about Jesus

–         When Jesus was brought before Pontius Pilate, the Roman Governor, Pilate questioned Jesus repeatedly and found no reason to charge him

–         Not only that but in Matthew’s account of Jesus’ trial, we read…

While Pilate was sitting on the judge’s seat, his wife sent him a message: “Don’t have anything to do with that innocent man, for I have suffered a great deal today in a dream because of him.” 

Both Pilate and his wife (independently of each other) could plainly see that Jesus had done nothing wrong

–         Several times Pilate tried to have Jesus released but in the end, to appease the crowd and prevent a riot, Pilate handed Jesus over to be crucified

–         But it wasn’t just Pilate and his wife who thought Jesus was innocent

Jesus was crucified between two criminals. One of the criminals hurled insults at Jesus but the other criminal responded by saying…

–         “Don’t you fear God, since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what we deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”  

Later that same day when Jesus had breathed his last the Roman Centurion who witnessed Jesus’ death said…

“Surely this was a righteous man.”

–         When all the people who had gathered to witness this sight saw what took place, they beat their breasts and went away.

Beating of the breast is a sign of protest & outrage – people could clearly see it had been a set-up, a terrible injustice. Jesus, an innocent man, had been killed

 

Jesus was as innocent as a lamb, and as vulnerable too

 

Jesus’ vulnerability:

To be vulnerable is to be open and unprotected, defenceless

 

On the wall here are a couple of pictures from our garden at home

–         The first is of a caterpillar eating the leaves of a swan plant

–         And the second is of a swan plant that has been stripped bare of its leaves

–         A swan plant is vulnerable to caterpillars – it has no defence against them

–         Caterpillars are in turn vulnerable to birds and those caterpillars who manage to become butterflies are vulnerable to wasps

–         Wasps, as far as I know, aren’t vulnerable to anything much and consequently no one really likes wasps

 

At one point, after I’d left home, my Dad owned a small lifestyle block

–         To keep the grass under control he had a couple of sheep – it was a steep section and not really suitable for mowing

–         One day I went to visit and while my brother and I were out in the paddock we noticed one of the sheep on its back

–         At first I thought the sheep had died but when I got closer I could see it was still breathing, it just couldn’t move – it was stuck on its back with its legs in the air

–         When we pulled it back onto its feet it ran off

–         There was nothing wrong with the animal – it had simply got caste

Reflecting on that afterwards it occurred to me just how vulnerable sheep are

–         A lamb has no way to defend itself

–         A dog has teeth, a cat has claws, a horse can run fast, a bird can fly away but a lamb has no natural defence

–         If a sheep loses its balance and winds up on its back it can’t even find its feet again – a sheep is dependent on the shepherd

Jesus’ vulnerability is not exactly like the vulnerability of a sheep or a swan plant or a caterpillar

–         A lamb, a swan plant and a caterpillar are all vulnerable by their very nature, whereas Jesus chooses to make himself vulnerable – Jesus chooses to put aside his divine force field and remain open to others

 

Vulnerability obviously comes with risk

–         Vulnerability tends to evoke one of two responses: either violence or love

–         If someone is defenceless then certain individuals will take advantage of that vulnerability for their own ends, as we saw (tragically) on Friday with the shootings in Christchurch

–         Most people though will act to care for and protect the vulnerable, as we have seen since, with the outpouring of support for those affected by the shootings

–         Jesus tended to have quite a polarising effect on others – people either loved him or hated him

–         Jesus’ disciples and those he healed and forgave tended to love him, not just because of what he did for them but because of the way he did it, with kindness and humility

 

By sending his Son to earth God was making himself vulnerable, opening his heart toward humanity in love

–         Jesus’ vulnerability was an invitation to love God – because we usually find it easier to love a lamb than a wasp

–         Sadly many of the religious leaders misunderstood God’s invitation and took advantage of Jesus’ vulnerability for their own ends – they plotted to murder Jesus

By choosing not to defend himself Jesus made it possible for the authorities to crucify him

–         In Matthew’s account of Jesus’ arrest, in the Garden of Gethsemane, one of the disciples struck the high priest’s slave with a sword, cutting off his ear, but Jesus responded with vulnerability saying…

“Put your sword back in its place. All who take the sword will die by the sword. Don’t you know that I could call on my Father for help, and at once he would send me more than twelve armies of angels? But in that case, how could the Scriptures come true…?”

Jesus had the power to smash his opponents but he chose not to defend himself

 

We should remember though that when Jesus returns it won’t be in vulnerability, it will be in glory and with power.

In Revelation chapter 6 the Lamb (aka: Jesus) breaks a number of seals

–         With the sixth seal there was an earthquake, the sun became black and the moon turned red…

Then the kings of the earth, the rulers and the military chiefs, the rich and powerful, and all other men, slave and free, hid themselves in caves and under rocks on the mountains. They called out to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the eyes of the one who sits on the throne and from the anger of the Lamb. The terrible day of their anger is here, and who can stand against it.” 

We may feel a little disturbed by this picture of the future. Certainly anger is not normally something we would associate with a lamb

–         The anger of the lamb is a righteous anger though – an anger at injustice

–         Many of the original first century audience of the book of Revelation were persecuted, living in fear, if not in hiding from the authorities

–         Being told the tables would be turned, and their oppressors would one day be the ones in hiding, was actually a great comfort and gave the early Christians hope in the face of their suffering

John’s vision of the power of the Lamb reminds us there is more than one side to Jesus’ character, as we have seen throughout this series.

–         With this in mind it isn’t always appropriate for us to make ourselves vulnerable – we need to be discerning about who we open our heart to

–         Jesus instructed his disciples to be as wise as serpents but as innocent as doves

 

So far we’ve heard how Jesus is innocent and makes himself as vulnerable as a lamb

–         What is perhaps less obvious to us today, but which would have been most obvious to the people of Jesus’ day, is that lambs were often used as a sacrifice

 

Jesus’ sacrifice:

Sacrifice is the act of giving up (or surrendering) something of value

–         If it’s not worth much to us then it doesn’t really count as a sacrifice

–         Usually we make a sacrifice in order to save or gain something else we value even more

–         For example, in a game of chess you might sacrifice a pawn to save your king, because without the king its game over

–         Or if you have a loved one who needs an organ transplant, you might sacrifice a kidney or part of your liver to save their life, because your liver will grow back and you can survive on one kidney

 

In the Bible lamb sacrifices were memorials of deliverance

–         When Abraham was about to sacrifice his son Isaac on the altar, God provided a lamb as a substitute, thus delivering Isaac and his descendants from certain death

–         When the people of Israel were about to leave their slavery in Egypt, God instituted the Passover festival – where each family was to sacrifice a lamb and paint the blood over the door frame, so the angel of death would Passover that house

–         And, on a daily basis, lambs were sacrificed in the Jewish temple as a way of atoning for sin

–         Lamb sacrifices were reminders of God’s deliverance, his redemption

–         So when John the Baptist said of Jesus, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” his Jewish listeners would likely have thought in terms of a sacrifice that delivers them from sin & death

At this point I’m reminded of the movie Finding Nemo

–         Quick quiz – what nickname is Nemo given, by the other fish, in the dentist’s fish tank? [Wait]

–         That’s right – ‘Shark Bait’

–         Shark Bait is a nickname with foreboding overtones

Although John wasn’t using Lamb of God as a nickname for Jesus (he meant it as a term of respect), there is still a sense of foreboding in the title

–         Lamb of God is code for ‘sacrifice of God’ and imagines a future in which Jesus is destined to give his life to save others

–         The imagery wasn’t lost on the disciples. As the apostle Peter writes in one of his letters…

For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.

For a sacrifice to be truly worthy of the name it needs to be something of value

–         Therefore, under Old Testament law, it wasn’t good enough to offer a second rate lamb, that would be convenient to get rid of anyway

–         The sacrifice had to be valuable, a lamb without defect, one you would rather have kept for breeding purposes

–         Jesus is the perfect lamb, the innocent lamb, the best on offer, the most valuable in the whole flock

–         Clearly God loves his creation a great deal if he is willing to sacrifice his Son to redeem us

 

This is not to imply that we are more valuable than Christ

–         Using the chess analogy, Jesus the King became a pawn (like us) and sacrificed himself to save the game

–         Through his sacrifice Jesus not only saves the game, he changes the rules

–         Jesus, the sacrificial pawn, is resurrected to eternal life and restored to the throne as King, which means no one can ever remove him from the board

–         What’s more, by his Spirit, Jesus transforms the other pawns (that’s us) into knights and bishops and rooks

 

As followers of Jesus we are called to offer ourselves as living sacrifices

–         We give up things we value to make ourselves available to God’s purpose, to obey God in other words

–         We do this in faith, trusting Christ for redemption

 

Conclusion:

Let me finish with a reading from Isaiah 53 – this sums up the innocence, vulnerability and sacrifice of Jesus the Lamb of God

“But he endured the suffering that should have been ours, the pain that we should have borne. All the while we thought that his suffering was punishment sent by God. 5 But because of our sins he was wounded, beaten because of the evil we did. We are healed by the punishment he suffered, made whole by the blows he received.
6 All of us were like sheep that were lost, each of us going his own way. But the Lord made the punishment fall on him, the punishment all of us deserved.

7 “He was treated harshly, but endured it humbly; he never said a word. Like a lamb about to be slaughtered, like a sheep about to be sheared, he never said a word.

8 He was arrested and sentenced and led off to die, and no one cared about his fate. He was put to death for the sins of our people. 9 He was placed in a grave with those who are evil, he was buried with the rich, even though he had never committed a crime or ever told a lie.”

10 The Lord says, “It was my will that he should suffer; his death was a sacrifice to bring forgiveness. And so he will see his descendants; he will live a long life, and through him my purpose will succeed.
11 After a life of suffering, he will again have joy; he will know that he did not suffer in vain. My devoted servant, with whom I am pleased, will bear the punishment of many and for his sake I will forgive them.
12 And so I will give him a place of honour, a place among the great and powerful. He willingly gave his life and shared the fate of evil men. He took the place of many sinners and prayed that they might be forgiven.”

 

Let’s stand and sing our closing hymn – this is really a prayer of intercession for our country – ‘God defend New Zealand’…

 

Questions for discussion or reflection:

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

–         Why do you think this stood out to you?

2.)    What comes to your mind when you hear the word ‘Lamb’?

–         In what ways is Jesus like a lamb?

–         In what ways is Jesus not like a lamb?

3.)    How do we know that Jesus was innocent?

4.)    How do you respond to someone who is vulnerable?

–         How do you respond to the powerful?

5.)    When is it appropriate to make ourselves vulnerable?

–         When is it not?

6.)    Can you think of a time when you made a sacrifice? What happened?

7.)    What does Jesus’ sacrifice reveal about God’s attitude to us?

–         What is an appropriate response to Jesus’ sacrifice?

8.)    Read Isaiah 53 and take some time to reflect on (or discuss) Jesus’ innocence, vulnerability and sacrifice in those verses.

 

Tawa Baptist

Jesus – Son of Man

Scripture: Matthew 20:17-28

Title: Jesus – Son of Man

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Glorious King
  • Suffering Servant
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

I have here a New Zealand half penny

–         On one side is the image of a tiki and on the other side the image of a young Queen Elizabeth the Second

–         Two quite different images – one coin

–         ‘Two sides of the same coin’, is an expression which means two things are related even though they seem quite different

–         The tiki and the queen are both icons of New Zealand

 

Glory & suffering are two sides of the same coin.

–         Although they are quite different experiences they are closely related – we can’t have glory without suffering

–         Just like we can’t have reward without sacrifice,

–         Or light without shadows, or love without pain, or hope without loss, or privilege without responsibility

All these are examples of what we mean by two sides of the same coin – things that are so closely related they can’t be separated and yet they seem quite different

 

Today we continue our series on the Titles of Jesus, this morning focusing on the Son of Man, Jesus’ favourite way of referring to himself

–         The Greek word translated as ‘man’ is a gender inclusive word, so it is more accurately ‘son of humankind’, but we will stick with the term son of man because that’s familiar

–         Son of Man is like the proverbial coin with two sides

–         It speaks of both the humanity and divinity of Jesus

–         It implies both sacrifice and reward, service and authority, the cross and the crown, glorious king and suffering servant

 

Glorious King:

To get an idea of what one side of the Son of Man coin looks like we need to go back to the time of the Jewish exile, when the prophet Daniel was serving in Babylon. From Daniel 7, verses 13-14 we read…

13 “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. 14 He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.

To understand these verses we need to look at the context

–         In Daniel 7 the prophet Daniel is describing a vision

–         First Daniel sees four beasts or four monsters – which are representative of successive kingdoms of the ancient world, each one more frightening and inhumane than the one before

–         These monsters, or kingdoms, stand in opposition to the Kingdom of God

–         In verses 13 & 14 Daniel sees, not a monster, but one like a son of man

–         A human being – someone made in the image of God – someone who behaves, not as a monster, but as God intended

–         This son of man figure is representative of Israel – the people of God

The Ancient of Days is a poetic way of referring to God Almighty

–         The Son of Man is closely related to God Almighty

–         The Lord God gives the son of man authority, glory and sovereign power over all the nations of the earth

This then is one side of the Son of Man coin – the glory side

 

The Book of Daniel comes from the Hebrew Bible, what we call the Old Testament, so when Jesus refers to himself as the Son of Man his Jewish disciples naturally think in terms of the figure described in Daniel 7 – someone powerful and glorious, with God given authority

–         And this certainly is one side of the coin as Jesus affirms in various parts of the gospel, like Matthew 19:28, for example where he says…

28 …“Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

The allusion to Daniel 7 is pretty obvious here

–         By calling himself the Son of Man, and saying his disciples will rule over the twelve tribes, Jesus is implying that he is representative of the new Israel – that he embodies the Kingdom of God

Jesus also talks about his glory as the Son of Man in Matthew 24 where he speaks about his second coming at the end of the age…

“Soon after the trouble of those days, the sun will grow dark, the moon will no longer shine, the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers in space will be driven from their courses. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky; and all the peoples of earth will weep as they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. The great trumpet will sound, and he will send out his angels to the four corners of the earth, and they will gather his chosen people from one end of the world to the other.

Again, the connection with Daniel’s vision is unmistakable

 

Suffering Servant:

Jesus, the glorious king, is only one side of the Son of Man coin – the other side is Jesus the suffering servant

–         Please turn with me to Matthew chapter 20, verse 17 – page 29 toward the back of your pew Bibles

–         Before Jesus comes with the clouds and is crowned with honour and glory, he must first eat dirt and suffer the cross

–         I suppose if Jesus did have a coin in his kingdom (and I don’t think he does but if he did) it might have the picture of an empty tomb on one side and a cross on the other. From Matthew 20, verses 17 to 28 we read…

17 As Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside and spoke to them privately, as they walked along. 18 “Listen,” he told them, “we are going up to Jerusalem, where the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the teachers of the Law. They will condemn him to death 19 and then hand him over to the Gentiles, who will make fun of him, whip him, and crucify him; but three days later he will be raised to life.”

20 Then the wife of Zebedee came to Jesus with her two sons, bowed before him, and asked him for a favour.

21 “What do you want?” Jesus asked her.

She answered, “Promise me that these two sons of mine will sit at your right and your left when you are King.”

22 “You don’t know what you are asking for,” Jesus answered the sons. “Can you drink the cup of suffering that I am about to drink?”

“We can,” they answered.

23 “You will indeed drink from my cup,” Jesus told them, “but I do not have the right to choose who will sit at my right and my left. These places belong to those for whom my Father has prepared them.”

24 When the other ten disciples heard about this, they became angry with the two brothers. 25 So Jesus called them all together and said, “You know that the rulers of the heathen have power over them, and the leaders have complete authority. 26 This, however, is not the way it shall be among you. If one of you wants to be great, you must be the servant of the rest; 27 and if one of you wants to be first, you must be the slave of the others— 28 like the Son of Man, who did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life to redeem many people.”

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate this reading for us

 

At Christmas time, and sometimes birthdays, a box of Roses chocolates normally appear

–         Roses chocolates come in an assortment of flavours – they are not all the same. Yes, they are made in the same factory with the same chocolate, but they have different centres

–         We all have our favourite flavours and also the flavours we won’t touch

–         It seems none of the women in our family like the mint Roses, because they always get left. Sometimes I open the box to find four mint chocolates and nothing else, which suits me because I quite enjoy mint

–         Robyn likes the coffee flavour whereas coffee chocolates make me gag

In NZ the mint flavoured Roses come in a green wrapper – which makes perfect sense. But in the UK the coffee flavoured Roses come in a green wrapper, which is just a cruel joke if you ask me – first world problems

 

In Matthew 20, the Scripture passage we just read, Jesus shows his disciples the other side of the Son of Man coin

–         They know all about the glorious king who will come riding on the clouds and they love that flavour of the Son of Man

–         But they don’t seem to want to know anything about the suffering servant, that’s a flavour that gets left in the box

Verses 17-19 are the third time, in Matthew, that Jesus has predicted his own death and with this third prediction comes the most detail

–         Jesus is going to Jerusalem knowing he will be betrayed, condemned to death and handed over to the Gentiles, who will mock him, whip him and crucify him

–         This is basically the opposite of what Daniel had described – in Daniel’s vision the Gentiles worship the Son of Man, they don’t mock and kill him

–         Saying the Son of Man would suffer in this way was completely foreign to the disciples, like a green wrapper on a coffee flavoured chocolate, it just doesn’t make sense

–         But it’s not all doom and gloom – after the suffering comes the glory, after death comes resurrection – Jesus rises on the third day

 

The disciples aren’t ready yet to face what Jesus is saying about sacrifice – they are still thinking about the reward Jesus had mentioned in Matthew 19, of sitting on thrones to rule the 12 tribes of Israel

–         Straight after Jesus’ passion prediction the mother of James & John approaches Jesus with great reverence for a favour…

–         ‘Promise me that these two sons of mine will sit at your right and your left when you are King’     

–         On the one hand this shows strong faith in who Jesus is – the disciples, of whom the wife of Zebedee appears to be one, are fully committed to the belief that Jesus is the Son of Man spoken of by the prophet Daniel

–         But on the other hand the request reveals misplaced ambition and an ignorance of the other side of the coin

–         Jesus is a suffering servant as well as a glorious king and somehow his suffering redeems people, so his sacrifice is not in vain, it has purpose

 

When we think of the brothers’ request in light of Jesus’ crucifixion we remember the places to Jesus’ right and left were occupied by criminals, condemned to die – James & John don’t know what they are asking

Jesus says to James & John, “Can you drink the cup of suffering that I am about to drink?”

–         “We can”, they answer – and indeed they would

–         The book of Acts tells us James was killed by king Herod, while tradition tells us John was exiled to the island of Patmos

–         Both brothers sacrificed and suffered in quite different ways for Jesus

 

The other disciples are not happy with the brothers so Jesus acts as a peace maker – he gets them together to prevent any bad feeling from turning septic

–         Interesting how Jesus has the wisdom and grace to transform something that could have been quite destructive into a teachable moment

–         Conflict often drives people apart but Jesus is able to use conflict to bring people together – amazing

Jesus explains that things operate differently under his reign

–         In the kingdoms of this world (as represented by the monsters in Daniel’s vision) greatness is characterised by pushing people around

–         But in God’s Kingdom, as represented by the Son of Man, greatness is characterised by service to others

–         The values of God’s kingdom are, in many respects, the opposite of the values of this world

–         For this reason God’s kingdom is sometimes called the ‘upside down kingdom’

Now for those familiar with the Netflix series, Stranger Things, ‘the upside down’ is a dark and toxic place, filled with horror and monsters (Poor Barb)

–         It would be more accurate to think of the world we live in as ‘the upside down’ and the kingdom of heaven as the way things are supposed to be

–         We only think this world is normal because we don’t know anything else

 

Jesus’ idea that greatness is measured in service to others is a complete paradigm shift – it requires us to retrain our minds & change our behaviour

 

Last week, Elissa & Hannah spoke about their trip to Nepal and the work of the Leprosy Mission there

–         They told us about a leading edge surgery where the doctors take the tendon attached to the middle finger and splice it, connecting it to the other fingers. This surgery restores movement to the whole hand

–         Surgery by itself isn’t enough though – people who have had the surgery need to retrain their brain to move their fingers, because the tendon of the middle finger is now connected to the thumb and ring finger

 

Or to use another illustration:

–         Backing a trailer requires the driver to move the steering wheel in the opposite direction than they would backing without a trailer

–         Backing a trailer is counter intuitive – you have to do everything the other way around

Jesus’ idea that greatness is measured in service to others is counter intuitive at first, requiring us to retrain our minds & change our behaviour

 

Now when we talk about service to others we mean service without ulterior motives

–         If someone gives a lot of money away to charity with the intention of getting a knighthood then that’s not really service to others, that’s service to oneself

–         But if someone gives money away out of love for people, in a way that doesn’t make themselves look big or others look small, then that’s true service

 

True service requires us to die to ourselves and what we want – it often involves the crucifixion of things like our ego, our reputation and our ambition

–         Jesus suffered massive indignity and humiliation in going to the cross

–         He didn’t do it for the glory – he did it out of love for God the Father and love for us – glory was simply the consequence of suffering love

 

Contemporary New Zealand culture is different, in some ways, from the ancient Middle Eastern culture of Jesus’ day

–         It would have been quite shocking for Jesus’ disciples to hear that the slave (the person on the lowest rung of society) was the greatest in God’s kingdom – but that’s not shocking to us

–         Despite the growing gap between rich & poor in this country we still like to think of ourselves as egalitarian

–         Generally speaking we like the underdog (at least in our imagination)

–         And we are quite ready to criticise and dishonour those in positions of power and leadership – it’s the New Zealand way

–         But focusing on someone’s social position misses the point

–         It’s not about position or status, it’s about service, and one can serve the interests of others from any social position, high or low

–         Jesus is not saying, ‘Down with the man’

–         He is not saying politicians and those in authority are bad

–         We still need leaders, and good ones, but leadership is just a function

–         Service to others is the true measure of greatness

Jesus is a leader – a very powerful leader, with God given authority, and yet he doesn’t abuse his power for his own advantage

–         Jesus uses his power to save others, at great cost to himself

 

Mother Teresa modelled the kind of service Jesus was talking about

–         Although she didn’t hold any political office or command any military power, she had a certain authority or mana or influence which came from her service to the poor

Father Damien De Veuster also modelled the greatness of service to others

–         During the 19th Century, Father Damien served as a priest to the people of Molokai Island – a medical quarantine for people with leprosy

–         Father Damien taught the Christian faith to the people and also cared for the patients himself

–         He established leadership within the community to build houses, schools, roads, hospitals, and churches.

–         He dressed residents’ ulcers, built a reservoir, made coffins, dug graves and shared food, providing both medical and emotional support.

–         If you want to be great become the servant of all

 

Most of us are unlikely to do the sorts of things Mother Teresa and Father Damien did but we can still serve others where we are, with what we have

The word ‘deacon’ means servant

–         To be a deacon of Tawa Baptist is to serve this congregation and that’s what each of our deacons do – they serve Christ by serving you

–         There’s a tremendous amount of work in being a deacon these days – it’s not just a pretty title

–         And in addition to their deacons’ responsibilities each one is involved in hands on service to the church, whether that’s painting or fundraising for 24-7 or helping in Club Intermed or leading all-age services and so on

 

It’s not just the deacons though – we have some very able musicians in this church who could easily play to a larger audience if they chose to but they don’t, because it’s not about them. They are committed to serving God and serving you, here in this place

In many ways I’m preaching to the choir – because I know that pretty much all of you here are serving others, either in the life of this church or through your work, in the community or at home, so I don’t need to labour the point

 

Conclusion:

Today is the first Sunday in Lent. Lent is a time when we prepare for Easter

–         It is a time of self-examination – a time for realigning ourselves with the values of God’s kingdom and the attitude of Christ

–         We need to do that because we live in the upside down, we live in relative darkness, with monsters, and so it is easy to lose sight of God’s kingdom

–         We need to remember there are two sides to the coin

Jesus Christ is the Son of Man – He is both glorious king and suffering servant

–         We don’t want to be so focused on the glory to come that we forget others and start serving our own ambition

–         But nor do we want to become so immersed in our service to others that we despair of this life and forget the glory of heaven

–         We need to keep both sides of the coin in view

 

Questions for discussion or reflection:

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

–         Why do you think this stood out to you?

2.)    What comes to your mind when you hear the term ‘Son of Man’?

–         How is this similar to or different from the disciples’ understanding?

3.)    Reflect on / discuss the continuity between Daniel’s vision of the Son of Man and Jesus’ use of the term (e.g. Daniel 7:13-14, Matthew 19:28 & 24:29-31)

4.)    What is your favourite Roses chocolate? Is there any flavour you won’t eat?

–         Which side of the Son of Man coin do you prefer – glorious king or suffering servant?

–         Why is that do you think?

–         How might we keep both sides of the coin in view?

5.)    How does Jesus act as a peacemaker in Matthew 20:24-28?

–         How might we act as peacemakers in similar situations?

6.)    What might ‘service to others’ look like for you?

–         What does it mean to die to oneself?

Tawa Baptist

Faith Tested

Scripture: Genesis 22:1-14

Title: Faith Tested

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • God’s test
  • Abraham’s faith
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

When I was applying for ministry training with Carey College in Auckland they required us to do some testing

–         We were interviewed by a psychologist and by various other people and we had to sit a psychometric test

–         I remember being put in a small room by myself, given a questionnaire and told to answer as many of the questions as I could within a certain time frame – it wasn’t long, only about 30 minutes or so, if my memory serves me correctly

While I was sitting the test someone walked by the open window behind me – it was clear they needed help and so I was faced with a choice:

–         Do I stop what I’m doing to help them and thereby jeopardise my psychometric test results? Or, do I just ignore the person in need?

–         I decided to see if I could help the guy

–         I don’t remember what he needed now (it was nothing major) but it chewed up a few minutes and consequently I wasn’t able to complete all the questions

–         It didn’t matter though because they accepted me anyway

–         Carey must have been desperate that year

At the time I didn’t think anything of it but, it occurred to me afterwards, that maybe the guy stopping by the window asking for help was actually part of Carey’s test

–         I thought I was sitting a written tick box test when in fact the real test was whether I would interrupt what I was doing, while under pressure, to see to the needs of someone else. I guess I’ll never know.

 

Today we continue the series on Abraham, focusing on Genesis 22, page 24 near the front of your pew Bibles

–         Just to bring you up to speed, Sarah has by this stage given birth to Isaac, the long awaited son & heir to God’s promise

–         Ishmael & Hagar have left home and Isaac is probably in his mid to late teens by now, maybe around 17 or 18 years’ old

–         In these verses the Abraham cycle reaches its climax with God putting Abraham’s faith to the ultimate test. From Genesis 22, verse 1 we read…

Some time later God tested Abraham; he called to him, “Abraham!” And Abraham answered, “Yes, here I am!”

2 “Take your son,” God said, “your only son, Isaac, whom you love so much, and go to the land of Moriah. There on a mountain that I will show you, offer him as a sacrifice to me.”

3 Early the next morning Abraham cut some wood for the sacrifice, loaded his donkey, and took Isaac and two servants with him. They started out for the place that God had told him about. 4 On the third day Abraham saw the place in the distance. 5 Then he said to the servants, “Stay here with the donkey. The boy and I will go over there and worship, and then we will come back to you.”

6 Abraham made Isaac carry the wood for the sacrifice, and he himself carried a knife and live coals for starting the fire. As they walked along together, 7 Isaac spoke up, “Father!”

He answered, “Yes, my son?”

Isaac asked, “I see that you have the coals and the wood, but where is the lamb for the sacrifice?”

8 Abraham answered, “God himself will provide one.” And the two of them walked on together.

9 When they came to the place which God had told him about, Abraham built an altar and arranged the wood on it. He tied up his son and placed him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Then he picked up the knife to kill him. 11 But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, “Abraham, Abraham!”

He answered, “Yes, here I am.”

12 “Don’t hurt the boy or do anything to him,” he said. “Now I know that you fear God, because you have not kept back your only son from him.”

13 Abraham looked around and saw a ram caught in a bush by its horns. He went and got it and offered it as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 Abraham named that place “The Lord Provides.” And even today people say, “On the Lord‘s mountain he provides.”

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate this Scripture for us

 

God’s test:

In the 1971 movie version of Roald Dahl’s Charlie & the Chocolate Factory, Willy Wonka is in search of someone to take over his chocolate business

–         To select the right person, someone he can trust, Mr Wonka devises a test

–         Those lucky children who win a golden ticket get a tour through his chocolate factory

–         Before they enter the factory however, a villain by the name of Slugworth, approaches each child individually and offers to pay them a large sum of money if they will steal an everlasting gobstopper for him

–         During the factory tour each child gets given an everlasting gobstopper and so the test is set

One by one each of the children eliminate themselves by some moral failure until only Charlie is left – but even Charlie has disqualified himself by stealing fizzy lifting drink, so he is dismissed by Mr Wonka without getting anything

–         Charlie’s grandpa Joe storms out in a rage determined to sell Slugworth the everlasting gobstopper but, even though there is nothing in it for him, Charlie quietly leaves the gobstopper on Mr Wonka’s desk

–         Charlie would rather remain in poverty than betray Mr Wonka

–         “So shines a good deed in a weary world”

–         Charlie has passed Mr Wonka’s test and inherits the chocolate factory

 

Genesis 22 starts with the narrator telling us that God tested Abraham saying…

–         [Please] Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love so much and go to the land of Moriah. There on a mountain that I will show you, offer him as a sacrifice to me.

Probably the first thing we notice here is how out of character God’s request is

–         It does not make sense, it goes against who God is, it seems to be a contradiction of God himself

–         Previously the Lord had promised a son to Abraham & Sarah, and Isaac was born. It was Isaac that God said would inherit the promise

–         Isaac was the one through whom God’s blessing would flow

–         And yet God is now telling Abraham to kill Isaac

–         “The command and the promise of God are in conflict” [1]

Quite apart from being illogical, God’s request for Abraham to sacrifice his teenage son seems immoral

–         Some centuries later, in the Bible, God makes it clear that child sacrifice is evil and therefore not to be practised, although at that point in history the law had not yet been given

–         What we have to keep in mind here is that God never intended for Isaac to be sacrificed – as verse 1 makes clear, this was just to test Abraham

–         We might listen to this story and think that Isaac’s life is at risk here

–         But Isaac’s life was not at risk – we know God would not have let any harm come to Isaac because of the promises God had made about Isaac

–         The real risk here is to Abraham’s relationship with God – because it’s the relationship that’s being tested

–         Will Abraham trust God with everything?

–         Of course Abraham doesn’t know it’s a test, at least not yet, just as Charlie didn’t know he was being tested by Mr Wonka and just as I didn’t know the true nature of my test to get into Carey – this sort of test only works if the one being tested doesn’t realise it’s a test

 

The other thing, which isn’t so obvious in our English translations, is the gentleness or tenderness with which God speaks to Abraham here

–         Most English translations have God saying: Take your son…

–         But the Hebrew has a particle of entreaty attached, which gives this phrase a feeling of tenderness:

–         Please take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love so much…

–         Gordon Wenham sees here a hint that the Lord appreciates the costliness of what he is asking Abraham to do [2]   

It’s interesting that God requires Abraham to travel to Moriah to make the sacrifice. Moriah is 3 days journey away from Beersheba

–         Three days walking and thinking

–         Three days for the reality of what God is asking to sink in

–         Three days to change your mind

–         But Abraham doesn’t change his mind

 

The exact location of ancient Moriah is disputed – some say Moriah is where the temple in Jerusalem would later be located, which has a certain poetry to it

–         But others say this is unlikely

–         What is perhaps more significant (and more knowable) is the name itself

–         Moriah is derived from the Hebrew word ra’ah which primarily means to see to or provide

–         So in the very word Moriah (which means something like provision) we have the seed of salvation & deliverance [3]

–         If Abraham reads between the lines then he will find a hidden message of providence from God

The bigger principle we draw on for our own application is that God’s testing usually contains his provision, his salvation, his grace

 

In Mark 10 we read how Jesus tested a man who came to him. From verse 17…

17 As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

18 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. 19 You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honour your father and mother.’ ”

20 “Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.”

21 Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

22 At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.

 

This gospel story shares a number of things in common with Abraham’s story in Genesis 22

–         In asking Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, God was basically asking Abraham to give up everything

–         Likewise Jesus was asking the rich man to sacrifice everything

–         And, in both stories, the Lord’s testing contained his provision, his salvation, his grace

–         We’ll get to God’s provision for Abraham shortly but in the case of the rich man, Jesus wasn’t asking him to sacrifice everything for nothing

–         Rather he was saying that his giving to the poor would be transferred for him into heaven, so it wouldn’t be lost

–         What’s more Jesus wasn’t asking the rich man to step into a vacuum

–         Rather he was inviting the rich man to walk with him – so the man would be provided for within the community of Jesus’ followers

–         The Lord’s testing contained his provision – it just required a step of faith

 

Another thing we note is the Lord’s love

–         God was testing Abraham in a spirit of love – not in order to catch him out or disqualify him

–         Likewise we read that Jesus looked at the rich man and loved him

–         Jesus wasn’t trying to make it harder for the rich man – he was helping to set the man free so it would be easier for him to find eternal life

–         To be tested by God is difficult but it’s also a sign of respect & affection

–         If God tests us it’s because he believes in us – he thinks we will pass the test. God doesn’t test us beyond what we can handle

–         His testing is done in love, to strengthen us – it is not meant to destroy us

 

There’s at least one more thing these two stories share in common

Walter Brueggemann says:

–         “God tests to identify his people, to discern who is serious about faith and to know in whose lives he will be fully God” [4]

You see, it’s possible to obey God in some aspects of our life but not in others

–         The reality is: God is Lord of our life in those aspects where we trust & obey him, but something else is lord of our life in those aspects where we don’t trust him and therefore don’t do what he wants

–         For God to be fully God of our whole life we must be willing to trust him with every aspect

–         The whole meaning and purpose of Abraham’s life hinged on Isaac

–         So in asking Abraham to sacrifice Isaac God was asking everything of Abraham

–         By choosing to obey God in this, Abraham was saying that he trusted God completely with Isaac’s life and with the meaning of his own life

–         Therefore the Lord knew he could be fully God in Abraham’s life

In the case of the rich man and Jesus (in Mark 10) we don’t know what the rich man chose in the end – we only know he went away sad

–         If he chose his wealth over Jesus then he was basically saying he didn’t trust God with his wealth and consequently he wasn’t willing to allow Jesus to be fully Lord of his life

 

Okay, so we’ve talked about God’s testing of Abraham

–         Now let’s consider how Abraham handled God’s test

 

Abraham’s faith:

Verse 3 tells us that early the next morning, after God had told him to sacrifice Isaac, Abraham cut some fire wood, loaded his donkey and headed off to Moriah with Isaac and two servants

–         The point is, Abraham wastes no time in obeying God

 

As they draw near to the place, Abraham tells the two servants to stay where they are, while he takes Isaac with him

–         Isaac carries the wood & Abraham carries the knife & coals for the fire

–         As Christians we look at this picture and are reminded of Jesus who carried a burden of wood on his back in preparation for his sacrifice on the cross. Isaac points to Jesus.

 

As they walk along Isaac asks Abraham, where is the lamb for the sacrifice?

–         And Abraham answers, “God himself will provide one”

 

The Hebrew word for ‘provide’ used there is ra’ah – from the same root used for Moriah – it means to see to it, as in God will see to it

–         Our English word ‘provide’ comes from the Latin word ‘pro-video’ [5]

–         Video means to see and pro means before

–         So pro-video means to see before

–         God is able to provide because he can see what is needed beforehand

–         Abraham doesn’t know how God will provide he simply trusts that God will see to it – such is Abraham’s faith in the Lord

 

In verse 9 we read that when Abraham came to the place God had told him about he built an altar, arranged the wood on it, bound his son and placed him on the altar, on top of the wood

 

Again we see something of Jesus in the way Isaac submits to his father’s will

–         As a boy of 17 or 18, strong enough to carry a heavy load of fire wood, Isaac could have easily resisted his elderly father – but Isaac doesn’t resist, he is the picture of meekness

–         What was it Jesus said? Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth. Isaac actually did inherit the land

 

Abraham lifted the knife and was about to kill his son when, at the last second, the angel of the Lord called to him, from heaven, to stop

–         Speaking on God’s behalf the angel said, “Now I know that you fear God, because you have not kept back your only son from him.”

–         This sentence is interesting, especially the first part…

–         Now I know that you fear God…

 

What does it mean to fear God?

–         In the Bible, to ‘fear God’ is a term which basically means to obey God

–         Fear God is code for obey God

–         People might obey God for any number of reasons, many of which have nothing to do with fear, in the sense of being terrified or anxious

–         In this context Abraham doesn’t obey God because he’s scared of what God might do to him if he disobeys

–         No. Abraham is remarkably calm about all of this – he obeys God because he trusts God and believes God will somehow provide a way

 

But the really interesting thing here is that little phrase at the start of the sentence: ‘Now I know…’

–         ‘Now I know’ seems to imply that God didn’t know something about Abraham previously

–         What? Isn’t God supposed to know everything already in advance?

–         Shouldn’t the Lord have known beforehand what Abraham would do?

 

John Walton offers a good explanation I think. He writes…

–         “We must differentiate between knowledge as cognition and knowledge as experience” [6]

–         You see, there are different types of knowledge, aren’t there

–         There’s knowing something in your head, cognitively, and there’s knowing something practically, from experience

 

Cognitive knowledge by itself is not enough – it’s less than satisfying

–         For example, I have here a bar of chocolate

–         Looking at this bar of chocolate I know cognitively (in my head) that I will enjoy it, but knowing that in my head doesn’t actually satisfy me

–         It’s only when I experience the chocolate by eating it that I know the enjoyment of it

 

Or take another example…

–         R. knows cognitively (in her head) that I love her, but if she went through our whole marriage only ever knowing that in her head, then we would have a pretty sad and empty marriage

–         But when I do the housework or I buy her something I know she likes

–         Or I give her my undivided attention and listen to her

–         Or I tell her how much I like what she is wearing, or I take her out on a date or on a holiday, then she knows in her experience that I love her

–         And knowing something in your experience is far more satisfying

 

Because we believe that God is all knowing we can agree that God knew, cognitively, what Abraham would do (in advance) – but he didn’t know it in his experience until Abraham actually obeyed him

 

God’s test enabled the Lord to taste the quality of Abraham’s faith

–         I believe God experienced Abraham’s faith as genuine and pure

–         We know his faith was genuine because he obeyed God

–         And we know it was pure because Abraham obeyed even though there was nothing in it for him & in fact obedience would have cost him dearly

–         Knowing the purity (the quality) of Abraham’s obedience of faith, in his experience, delighted God, it blessed him

 

When was the last time you did something for God that caused him to know, in his experience, that you love him?

–         We can demonstrate our love for God in a whole variety of ways, both large & small

–         We can put our shopping list prayer aside for a few minutes and spend time simply adoring him, praising him, telling him how much we appreciate and value him

–         We can love those people he places around us – even people we find difficult

–         We can forgive others as he has forgiven us

–         We can give the Lord our undivided attention, spending time in the Bible trying to listen to what he is saying

–         We can follow the promptings of his Spirit

–         We can respond in obedience to his call on our life

–         And when it feels like our life is being emptied and we can’t see the way ahead we can trust that God will provide a way, somehow

 

In verse 13, having been stopped by the angel of the Lord, Abraham looks around and sees God’s provision in the form of a ram caught in the bushes by its horns. Abraham sacrifices the ram and Isaac lives

–         Then Abraham named that place Jehovah Jireh, ‘the Lord provides’

–         And guess what, the Hebrew word translated as provide is: Ra’ah

–         God saw beforehand what was needed and put the ram there in advance

 

Conclusion:

The writer of the New Testament book of Hebrews makes this comment on Abraham’s faith…

 It was faith that made Abraham offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice when God put Abraham to the test. Abraham was the one to whom God had made the promise, yet he was ready to offer his only son as a sacrifice. God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that you will have the descendants I promised.” Abraham reckoned that God was able to raise Isaac from death – and, so to speak, Abraham did receive Isaac back from death.  [7]

The writer of Hebrews is drawing a connection between Abraham’s faith and our faith, as Christians, in the resurrection of Jesus

–         If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, you will be saved. [8]

 

It has been a testing time for many people in this congregation lately

–         Some of you have experienced significant loss and all the pain and disorientation that goes with that

–         In Genesis 22 God preserves Isaac’s life, but we know from our own experience that he doesn’t always preserve life

–         To those of you who have lost the Isaac in your life, the good news is: death does not have the final say. God has provided a way

–         Through Jesus’ resurrection God has seen to it that our losses can be restored and our mistakes redeemed

 

Let us pray.

–         Loving Father, save us from the time of trial and deliver us from evil.

–         But if it is your will that we be put to the test, grant us the grace to keep trusting you and give us eyes to see your provision within the test. Through Jesus we ask it, Amen.

 

Questions for Discussion & Reflection

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

2.)    How do you feel reading this story of Abraham being tested by God?

3.)    Have you ever sensed that God was testing you in some way?

–         How? What happened?

4.)    In what sense was God’s test of Abraham illogical and even a contradiction of God’s own character?

5.)    Compare & contrast God’s testing of Abraham in Genesis 22 with Jesus’ testing of the rich man in Mark 10. How are these stories similar? How are they different?

–         How is God’s love evident for Abraham and the rich man?

–         How did God provide for Abraham and the rich man within the test?

–         Is there any aspect of your life that you are yet to trust God with?

6.)    Can you think of other examples from the Bible, or from your own experience, where God’s testing also contained his provision?

7.)    In what ways does Isaac remind us of Jesus?

8.)    What does it mean to fear God?

9.)    In what sense did God not know? (refer Gen 22:12)

10.)       How do we know when our faith in God is genuine?

–         How do we know when our faith in God is pure?

11.)       Take some time this week to express your love for God.

 

[1] Calvin quoted in Walter Brueggemann’s commentary on Genesis, page 188.

[2] Gordon Wenham quoted in Paul Copan’s book, ‘Is God a Moral Monster?’ pages 47-48.

[3] Paul Copan, ‘Is God a Moral Monster?’ page 48.

[4] Walter Brueggemann’s commentary on Genesis, page 193.

[5] Karl Barth referred to in Walter Brueggemann’s commentary on Genesis, page 191.

[6] John Walton, NIVAC on Genesis, page 514.

[7] Hebrews 11:17-19

[8] Romans 10:9