Hebrews 5:11-6:20

My friend Paul at university. 

What do we make of that? Friends who belong to church, serve in remarkable way, can speak of great Christian experiences.  Maybe they’ve even themselves taught the gospel to others.  They’ve been involved in ministry and have spoken personally of God’s goodness.  Maybe they’ve even helped you in Christian life and been a real example to you – and NOW, they are nowhere spiritually.  They don’t call themselves Christians anymore.  They feel like they’ve out-grown it.  They’ve consigned it to the past.  

What do we make of that? What about Christians who fall away?

Well it seems to me there can only really be two answers.

EITHER they weren’t really and truly and genuinely Christians.  They called themselves Christians, they went to church, they had experiences, they were involved in things but they weren’t actually converted.  And you might think that because – You cannot lose salvation can.  Jesus says it in John chapter 10, verse 27:

27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no-one can snatch them out of my hand. If you actually belong to Christ then Jesus takes responsibility for you, forgives all your sins and takes you to glory no matter what.

On the other hand you might think this and i’ve heard this taught: That such people who fall away were really and truly and genuinely Christians.  Hebrews 5 seems to warn that this is possible. They sinned once too often or they backslid in such an outrageous way that, though they once were in Christ’s hands nonetheless they managed to break themselves away from Christ and lose their salvation. 

Now, It’s a big issue isn’t it? But i want to say this up front. There are too many texts in Scripture that assure us that if you are a Christian you cannot fall away that this text here in front of us cannot mean that.  If someone is a christian they won’t fall away ultimately. They might wander for a bit but they’ll come back.  If they do fall away ultimately it doesn’t prove that ‘you can lose your salvation’.  It proves that they weren’t really saved.

it’s so important to get this.  Because it can do tremendous damage if you think Jesus has done the first bit of saving you – and now it’s up to YOU.  Good luck!  Hope you don’t blow it.  See you at the pearly gates.  Maybe.

No - a christian will not fall away - jesus has a hold on you.

— 

So what is this passage saying. To all of us, as Hebrews it’s saying ‘keep going’ for some of us it might be saying ‘get going’ ‘get started’!

in verses 11-14 the writer is addressing some Christians, and they’re a bit slow on the uptake, a bit immature, not really ready for rich and meaty teaching.  As I read this – notice how many times it says “you”

v11 We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. 12 In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! 13 Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. 14 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.

So that’s the Hebrew Christians.  And the writer keeps saying “I know what YOU are like, YOU are like this, YOU are baby Christians. it’s frustrating that you’re still baby Christians, but at least you are baby Christians.  You have the foundations.  And from chapter 6, the writer will speak of the foundations of their Christian faith that they’ve already got.  Chapter 6, verse 1:

Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, 2 instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. 3 And God permitting, we will do so.

So that was the foundation course that was run for these Christians.

Week 1 – repentance.  Week 2 – faith.  Week 3 – baptism Week 4 – laying on of hands - commissioning leaders in the new church Week 5 – the resurrection of the dead,  Week 6 – eternal judgement. 1st C Alpha course. 

Those are the foundations.  And the writer is confident that the Christians he’s writing to, have them.  He just wishes they’d grow up and mature fon those foundations. 

But then from verse 4 he speaks about another group of people.  He doesn’t use the word “YOU” again until v9.  Instead, in verses 4-8 he starts talking about “THOSE who have once been enlightened.”  Verse 6 “if THEY fall away.”  And when he gets to verse 9 he makes it clear that verses 4-8 are not about “YOU”, they’re about THEM

9 Even though we speak like this, dear friends, we are confident of better things in YOUR case–things that accompany salvation.

So clearly the things of verses 4-8 do not accompany salvation.  And so what we read in verses 4-8 are the non-saving experiences of THOSE who share in church and share in Christian things, but they don’t share in CHRIST.

And in verses 4 and 5 we read about some extraordinary experiences those people have had.  They have:

4 … once been enlightened, … have tasted the heavenly gift, …have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 … have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age,

These are incredible experiences.  They are not foundations.  But they are impressive experiences. Think about the situation. Here is a new church that’s gotten off the ground.  There’s been a lot of excitement, a lot of spiritual buzz going around the place.  And there are those people who will have got caught up in the experiences without ever laying the foundations.

We know from chapter 2v3 that this church was started by the Apostles themselves. And if that wasn’t impressive enough, their message was accompanied by signs, wonders and various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to His will.

This is typical even today of a frontier mission situation.  When the gospel first comes to a place you’ll often find this massive outpouring of the Holy Spirit in miracles and healings.  As this church got off the ground, there was a lot of Holy Spirit splashing around – if I can be that irreverent.  a lot of experiences.  And inevitably a lot of people caught up in them.  True Christians who then laid the foundations of actual repentance and faith etc. But also others who just had the experiences.

what were they chapter 6verse 4: Enlightenment.  The spiritual lights switch on in a dramatic way. ‘tasting the heavenly gift’, ’sharing in Holy Spirit - his peace and miraculous gifts. these people, Verse 5, taste the goodness of the word of God.  And the powers of the coming age. 

But the point is, it’s possible to have all these experiences but not have the foundations.  It’s possible to share in church in a profound way, but not to share in Christ.

And if such people invest in the experience but have none of the reality then they will have ultimately fruitless Christian lives.

That’s what verses 7-8 are all about:

7 Land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is farmed receives the blessing of God. 8 But land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless and is in danger of being cursed. In the end it will be burned.

These people were living under a shower of God’s blessings, day after day, but they didn’t have the reality.  And while-ever they lacked the reality they weren’t just staying neutral, they are actually producing thorns and thistles.  They’re actually moving further away from God. Because to live under the blessings of God in his church but not to actually give your heart to Jesus isdangerous.  It hardens you.  And the chilling fact of verse 4 is that if you carry on and carry on and carry on taking the gifts but rejecting the giver, there comes a point of no return, no going back. You wander from Jesus and you say ‘i’ve done that.. doesn’t work, i’m not gonna give that a go again.’ 

So what about those who fall away?  These very verses are the best argument anyone’s got for saying you can lose your salvation.  And these verses ain’t saying that.  Those who fall away were not truly converted in the first place.  You can’t lose your salvation.

If you could, then you’d likely spend all your time worried about yourself wouldn’t you?

I might sin too much in the future, I might make a hash of the Christian life, I might drift away and I will lose my salvation.  You’d think, ‘Jesus has laid hold of me, but I’ve got to make sure I’m good or else I can undo everything Jesus has done.’ But I mean, it’s absurd isn’t it, to think that little old me can undo the mighty salvation of Jesus? but if I entertain that thought I’m going to get so anxious, I’m going to stop looking to Jesus and start looking to my own performance and make sure I’m good enough to finish what Christ began. 

Will i sin and fall away? that will be my constant question. 

But if we get our thinking straight we will still have to face the warnings of this passage.  But these warnings will make us ask a different question: Not ‘will i sin?’ but “Am I Christ’s?”

Do I, RIGHT NOW, belong to Jesus?  If I do, I’m eternally secure.  But do I belong to Jesus?  Not just, have I had good experiences or Christian affiliations in the past.  RIGHT NOW, do I belong to Jesus?  Am I Christ’s?  It would be dreadful to share in church and not share in Christ, so do I share in Christ?  That’s our question.

In John 10, in the passage where Jesus says “No-one can snatch you out of my hand”, He says “I am the Good Shepherd… I know my sheep and my sheep know me.”  Do you have a relationship of knowing with Jesus?  You know Him, He knows you.

Don’t worry about whether you’ll sin or not.  You’ll sin alright.  Ask yourself, Am I Christ’s?

And the way you’ll get an answer will not be by staring at your belly-button waiting for a good feeling. 

Instead Verse 10, keep working and loving, helping God’s people.  Verse 11 there’s an assurance that comes from persevering in cheerful, loving Christian service.  But v13 is the major way of answering the question Am I Christ’s?  LOOK to God’s promise. LOOK to God’s promise and you’ll know. 

13 When God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no-one greater for him to swear by, he swore by himself, 14 saying, “I will surely bless you and give you many descendants.” 15 And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised. 16 Men swear by someone greater than themselves, and the oath confirms what is said and puts an end to all argument. 17 Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. 18 God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged.

Just briefly let me explain that.  God promises you eternal life.  You ask, How do I know He’ll come through?  Answer: Because He has sworn by Himself.  We do stupid things like “Swear on our grandmother’s grave” because we think of something so holy, we wouldn’t dare lie if we swore on grannies grave.  Well there’s nothing more holy than God.  So He swears by Himself, because He’s the ultimate.  And when you’re dealing with an Ultimate Thing then when you look to it you KNOW it’s true.

Just like.. You know that the  

The Sun is bright

Honey is sweet.

So God is trustworthy and will do what He’s promised.  Look to His promise and and you’ll see not only the THING promised but also the TRUSTWORTHINESS of that promise.

How? verses 19 and 20 show us that God not only promises eternal life, he makes good the promise.  God the Father sends God the Son to be our Priest and to bring us back to Himself.  He not only promises our eternal life – He goes out and achieves it for us.

19 We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, 20 where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest for ever, in the order of Melchizedek.

God the Son became God our Brother.  And as our Brother He became our Priest.

Tempted in EVERY way yet without sin.  The perfect sacrifice.  He rose from death, to sit down at God’s right hand.  He bears you on His heart.  

Keep looking to Him who is the embodiment of the promise. see HOW gracious He is.  HOW loving He is.  How He has gone to the very depths of the cross to win you.  And as you look to Jesus you start to see Him, not just as THE Priest.  But as Your Priest. He’s gone into the presence of God.  He is the Anchor and you are tied to Him.  You are His and He is yours.  And ifyou belong to Jesus then NOTHING can go wrong with your salvation!

simply look to Jesus and you see everything you need to see about your salvation.  It’s taken care of.  If you look to yourself, if you look to other religious practices, if you look to your own abilities to get to God you are cut loose from the Anchor.  Look to Jesus – He not only PROMISES your standing before God, He IS your standing before God.  Look to Him and you’ll find assurance.  Look to Him and you’ll find that fruitfulness in Christian living growing organically.

Before the throne of God above, I have a strong, a perfect plea.  A great High Priest whose name is love, Who ever lives and pleads for me.  My name is written on His hands, My name is hidden in His heart.  I know that while in heaven He stands, no power can force me to depart.

.

Hebrews 4:14-5:10

Passage that draws us into the main central theme of the book of Hebrews. Jesus our great High Priest. 

Immediately sounds quite foreign. Possibly quite unattractive 

I don’t know what comes to mind when you think about a Priest. 

Perhaps you think about a Cleric - a roman catholic priest dressed in black. something from father Ted 

Or perhaps you think of something more exotic - the High Priest of some eastern religion. 

The Bible of course is rooted in the Jewish faith of ancient Israel. In Israel there was a whole tribe - one of the twelve tribes, the levites - who functioned as priests for the worship of the nation.. and in 5v1 we are told what the function of the High Priest was: 

5v1 Every high priest is selected from among the people and is appointed to represent the people in matters related to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. 2 He is able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and are going astray, since he himself is subject to weakness.

A different High Priest was selected each year from the Levites, from the people to act as an intermediary between God and the nation. To represent the people to God, to act on their behalf v1 …and to represent God to the people, to act on God’s behalf v2

Let me ask you a question. Do you think that we still need to go through a priest inorder to get to God? Do we need a human being to mediate for us our relationship with God? 

The Bible’s remarkable answer is yes! 

We need a priest. The question is which Priest. The Priest we need is the man - Jesus Christ - our great High Priest. He brings us to God and he is God towards us! 

You can see those two movements in vv14-16 of chapter 4 

Jesus brings you to God and he is God to you

Jesus brings you to God 

v14 we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven,[as a human for us!] Jesus the Son of God, and therefore let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 

and Jesus is God to you 

we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have [a merciful high priest] one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. 16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. 

Let’s look at these 2 aspects of Jesus’ High Priesthood in turn and our prayer is that seeing Jesus: the great high priest who brings us to God will cause to delight and hold firmly to our faith 

and seeing Jesus, the merciful high priest who is God to for us will cause us to draw near to him to find grace to help in time of need 

1 Jesus brings you to God so hold fast! 

5:1-5 tell us about the High Priests of Israel. Selected each year from the tribe of Levi from among the people - to be the representative of the nation. So he had to be one of the people. He would act on their behalf towards God and act on God’s behalf towards the people. 

The whole point of priesthood, the ideal of priesthood is that you are down with the people and up with God - that way you bridge the gap perfectly. 

Well the key thing that the High Priest did in bringing the people to God is that he made the sacrifice on the day of atonement and brought it to God. You can read about it in Leviticus 16. 

The Temple in Jerusalem was set up by God to teach the people about the probem of their sinfulness and his holiness. The temple was a model of heaven and earth. Do you remember outside the temple was the place where the people could congregate and that is the place where animal sacrifices were made. Inside the temple was the holy place where priests could do stuff. But at the heart of the temple behind a great thick curtain was the most holy place, the holy of holies.. here the ark of the covenant, the throne of God- a gold box containing the ten commandments, symbolising God’s presence - dwelt. And no one could enter except for the High Priest on that one day - the day of atonement. That is when the High Priest got to bring the people to God. 

Just one day because of the huge problem. 

The High Priest was very good at being down with the people. He was one of them. No different as v2 says he is subject to the same weaknesses. The high priest was very good at being down with the people..

But he wasn’t great at being up with God. 

v3 he has to offer sacrifices for his own sins, as well as for the sins of the people. 

Sacrifices were a constant reminder that for sinful humanity to encounter the just and holy God unforgiven would mean death. The right wages for our sins is death. But the sacrifice dies in the place of the worshipper to allow them to draw near. And so the High Priest would make sacrifices for the sins of the people - these animals die on your behalf so you can approach God.. and the most costly sacrifices he makes for himself because then …carrying the blood of the sacrifice he enters the most holy place but only very briefly - sprinkling the blood on God’s throne - which is called the mercy seat.. and spreading incense everywhere - symbolising the prayers of the people to God and then he gets out of there  He doesn’t mess around.  He doesn’t stay to chat.  He doesn’t sit down on the throne to see what it feels like.  He leaves and he never returns.  Until a new High Priest does it all over again the next year.  Because this is only play-acting.  There’s nothing permanent or enduring about this.  It’s fearful, it’s momentous, it’s immense, but it’s not the real ATONEMENT.  It’s not the real way that sinners get right with God.

These old High Priests can’t represent you in the real court of heaven.

It’s a bit like if I go to court with you to help and support you. I can be down with you. I can sympathise with your plight, I can give you a character reference …but I’m not sure how much i can really help you or represent you because i am so not up with the Law. I, like you, don’t have a danny la rue what’s going on or being talked about. I am not much of a priest.. but what if i were both your friend AND the most gifted barrister or the generation..

And what if we had a friend who could represent us not just on earth but in the high courts of heaven!

what we need is not just any priest we need a GREAT High Priest 

One who is down with the people AND up with God

Well look at Hebrews 5:4 

No-one takes this honour [of being High Priest] upon himself; he must be called by God, just as Aaron was. 5 So Christ also did not take upon himself the glory of becoming a high priest. But God said to him, "You are my Son; today I have become your Father." 6 And he says in another place, "You are a priest for ever, in the order of Melchizedek.”

Christ comes along not as a temporary priest, not as a sinner priest, not as a mortal priest – He comes as a forever priest (that’s what the order of Melchizedek means – it’s an eternal order, it makes Him a forever Priest).  Christ is a forever priest, an eternal, pure, righteous Priest – the Son of God taking on our cause.  The Son of God who is down with the people (as He becomes man) but who is also UP WITH GOD.  Ascended to the right hand of the Father.

Look again at chapter 4 verse 14…we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God

Everything the old High Priests play-acted, Jesus has DONE.  He hasn’t just sacrificed some animals, He’s sacrificed Himself.  He hasn’t just travelled through a curtain, He’s gone through the heavens.  He hasn’t just spread some incense in the throne room, He has sat down and He’s there right now, praying for us.  Representing us perfectly to His Father as Man and for man.

14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven,[f] Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 

Jesus is the great high priest who brings you to God so hold fast! 

2. Jesus is the merciful high priest so draw near to him for help 

part of the High Priests duty 5v2 was to deal gently with the ignorant and the wayward - people who were out of the way, people who were sinning.  And the High Priest could do that because He too was weak. He understands, he knows what it is to be weak, therefore he can help the weak. God uses weak people.  

But what about Jesus - Sinless and glorious Jesus what does he think of us when we sin? Jesus, enthroned on high does he understand us in our weakness?

He does. He does…

Look at v7 7 During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. 8 Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered

Jesus subjected himself to our human weakness - cries and tears and obedience and suffering …

Look at 4v15 we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. 

Does the fact that jesus never sinned, never gave in to temptation mean that he knows less about temptation than we do? 

Does the tree that stays standing to the end know less about the effects of the storm than the tree that fell in the first hour or the one that fell in the final hour. 

Quite the contrary - Jesus knows more about the furnace of temptation than any of us ever will because as the heat of temptation grew he NEVER gave in - even when temptation was nuclear so that sweat dropped from his brow like great drops of blood he never relented. 

we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way,

he understands, he knows, he sympathises, he wants to help. He is our mercifu High Priest. 

The Preacher who got this with a penetration i’ve not seen elsewehere 

was a man called Thomas Goodwin. norfolk, lived in the 1600s. Goodwin started out as a preacher in his 20s with what he called ‘a ministry of battering consciences’ - which doesn’t sound too pleasant. he then had a meltdown and heard of the free grace of christ and it changed what his ministry would be about 

Goodwin developed a conviction that in his day people didn’t know christ well enough and therefore they didn’t deeply love him and were trapped in their patterns of sin.  People don’t know Jesus, they dream up a christless frightening God that they cannot turn to in their guilt, or Christ ascended in glory is just too alof as to be approachable or relatable to. and so Goodwin preached Christ - that the one who is on the throne of heaven is still that same friend of tax collectors sinners and if anything his glorified heart beats only more strongly with compassion for the weak and helpless.

On this theme - the merciful high priest - Goodwin put together his most popular work. a book called the heart of Christ in heaven towards sinners on earth. 

What a title! 

Goodwin says that here in hebrews 4 we see that 2 things in particular stir Christ’s compassion this afternoon 

our afflictions, our sufferings - he’s grieved when his body suffers 

but more than that He has compassion on us in our sins. He deals gently with the wayward.  

says Goodwin: “your very sins move him more to pity than to anger.. fear not …christ is so far from being provoked against his own - all his anger is turned against your sin and he will ruin it. but his pity is increased the more towards you, even as the heart of a father is towards a child that hath some loathsome disease… his hatred shall all fall, and that only upon the sin, to free you of it by its ruin and destruction, but his affections shall be the more drawn out to you; and this as much when you lie under sin as under any other affliction. Therefore fear not, ‘What shall separate us from Christ’s love?’

astounding isn’t is 

Goodwin’s point was that believers are those for whom sin is no longer their identity, Christ is. and the sin that remains in christians is like a sickness in them. 

And he says when a father has a child who is sick he doesn’t hate the child! No! he hates the sickness and will do anything to drive it out and he loves the child more because the child is sick! 

Our Jesus his heart goes out to us. His first reaction when a believer sins is pity - he hates the sin but his heart goes out to you. he hates the way you are struggling under it.. he longs to help.. 

Does this reality not change the way you might react to Jesus when you sin? 

because when you sin what is your normal reaction towards Christ?

you want to run from him. depart from me I am a sinful man. you feel guilty you want to hide from him.  

Whereas his first reaction is he wants to run to you..to help you… because he’s bled for you and will not let you go. 

and by the way this heart of Jesus in heaven is the exact representation of the heart of the Father. There are no divisions in God. As if the Father has to be placated by Jesus to love us. jesus is sent to do the will of the Father which is to love!

16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

Hebrews 3:1-4:13

What does it mean to be a christian? what is a christian? 

the beginning of v14 tells us what a christian is. A christian is someone who has come to share in Christ 

That is, something has happened to a Christian so that now they belong to Jesus. In a very real sense they have become a part of Jesus.  They share in Him. 

Martin Luther said that the best illustration of the relationship that a christian has with Jesus Christ is that of marriage. In marriage you come to be ONE FLESH with another human being.  And you belong to each other.  And perhaps you then have the same name, perhaps the same bank account, hopefully the same home, the same future – you are caught up in each other.  A Christian has come to share in Christ by trusting Him with their life and death and eternity.  And now through trusting Jesus we belong to Him and He belongs to us.  So His name and status is ours – we are declared to be righteous children of God.  His future is also ours – He will not divorce us, we are in an indissoluble union with Jesus and where He is, we will be also.  He has gotten through death and lives immortally, we will get through death and live immortally with Him.

So that’s what a Christian is – someone who has come to share in Christ.

Now, How do you know that you are a Christian? 

What evidence is needed? Profound experiences of God? would be great but their presence or absence doesn’t prove anything. Moral goodness? again, that would be great but again its presence or absence doesn’t prove you’re a christian. What about church involvement? can i rest on that? No. 

Look at the end of v14 We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end. 

The way you know that you’re a christian is that you persevere in your belief in Jesus to the end of your life. 

This isn’t meant to rock our assurance. In fact quite the opposite. it’s telling us that the way you know that you’re a Christian is that today you’re a believer. Do you believe Jesus is God, your saviour? If so then you are a Christian. Now, persevere in your belief to the end of your life.

One of the major concerns of the letter to the Hebrews is that we stand firm in confidence to the end. This perseverence doesn’t make you a Christian. Sharing in Christ makes you a Christian. But, by the grace of God, true Christians persevere. 

That’s what this letter says to us again and again and in chapters 3 and 4 Hebrews takes us back to the Old Testament to urge us on to persevere with a warning and a promise. 

It all revolves around the quote from the book of Psalms in 3:7-11. It’s a direct quote from Psalm 95 a psalm of Israel’s greatest King, David, that speaks about the very first generation of Israelites who were rescued: FROM slavery in Egypt FOR rest in a promised land but who FAILED to make it there. They FELL in the wilderness because they didn’t persevere in their belief. 

Here’s what the Psalmist wrote v7, 

‘Today, if you hear his voice,

8    do not harden your hearts

as you did in the rebellion,

during the time of testing in the wilderness,

9 where your ancestors tested and tried me

   though for forty years they saw what I did.

10 That is why I was angry with that generation;

I said, “Their hearts are always going astray

    and they have not known my ways.”

11 So I declared on oath in my anger

“They shall never enter my rest.”’

That generation rebelled, they grieved God, and they were not permitted to enter the promised land. It was a great tragedy. 

But here’s what’s important. This is not just distant history. Those things happened then as a warning and encouragement to us. As a foreshadowing of our journey of salvation. 

They were rescued from slavery in Egypt - we have been rescued from the slavery of sin and death.  

They journeyed in the wilderness of Sinai - we journey through the wilderness of this present age

They were headed for the promised land of Canaan - we are heading for the true land of promise of which Canaan was only a foreshadow. We are looking forward to sharing in God’s Divine Rest - the New Creation. 

So these things happened to them as a warning and encouragement to us to persevere 

As the Holy Spirit SAYS 3v7 TODAY if you hear his voice, do not harden your heart as you did in the rebellion. 

So what can we learn from that generation about the nature of sin? what it does to us, what it does to God? What’s the warning here? 

let’s think first about what our sin does to God..

that word anger there in the quote is very important. very important that we understand it rightly.  

because we often think of God as an angry deity. he’s angry with us and we quite frankly are angry with him. his anger means that we can keep him at arms length. 

But if we think like this we are gravely mistaken and have got God completely wrong. 

The anger that is spoken of here is a deep grieving kind of anger. It is the grief of unrequited love. It is the deep pain and hurt of a father with an unruly, rebellious child. It is the right and searing jealousy of a husband with an unfaithful wife. For God is a father and a husband to his people.

In Exodus 19 on the top of Mount Sinai God draughts the 10 commandments with Moses and he says to him. “This is what you are to tell the people of Israel: You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt and how I carried you on eagles wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession.”

Israel had seen what God had done to the superpower Egypt, the ten plagues, the escape through the red sea, he had led them by a pillar of fire at night and of cloud during the day. God had carried them to himself and now as the covenant promises are drawn up this is like their wedding night. And Moses carries the tablets of the ten commandments down the mountain and as he approaches the Israelite camp he finds that they are worshipping other gods. 

For 40 years God leads Israel, his wife, in the wilderness. Seeking to teach her to trust him. v8 calls it the time of testing. So sometimes God delayed the things his people needed - food or water - to train his people to trust him - to pray, to wait. If you’ve been a Christian any time, you’ll know God does this. But rather than wait the people became angry and complained and spoke against God again and again. they tested and tried him. 

And when God finally brought them to the borders of the promised land. And spies went in and returned and said - yes there are enemies there but it’s a land flowing with milk and honey and God has promised it to us - the people said no. we’re not going in. take us back to egypt. 

In Hosea chapter 11 God says this:

“When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. 2 But the more I called Israel, the further they went from me.  They sacrificed to the Baals and they burned incense to images. 3 It was I who taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by the arms; but they did not realise it was I who healed them. 4 I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love; I lifted the yoke from their neck and bent down to feed them…. 7 [But] My people are determined to turn from me.  (Hosea 11:1-7)

The book of Hosea is all about the adultery of the people of God. God consistently doing whatever it takes. paying whatever cost to get his wife back. But she cheats on him again. And he cries out with grief and pain. 

I don’t know what picture of God you have.  I don’t know what picture of your sins you have.  I think we tend to view our sins as legal transgressions against some impersonal rule-book.  No the LORD Jesus is our Husband.  And He is grieved – not so much by this particular sin or that – but by our hearts that seem to pursue satisfaction in anything but Him.  He is the spurned Lover, the rightfully Jealous Husband to whom we belong but against whom we sin every day.

Against you and you alone have I sinned, Oh God 

Oh people do you feel it?

God so loves us - he wants us for himself.. We hurt him. We hurt him. 

On the borders of the promised land. they say. Nope, We’re not going in. No thank you. Let’s find someone to take us back to Egypt. And finally..finally God gave them what they wanted. ‘They shall never enter my rest.’  It pains him with grief we are the apple of his eye but God gives us what we want. He never hands us over to what we don’t want.  He always hands us over to what we do want.

What is wrong with us?! What is wrong with us?

Well, The whole passage screams to us – it’s the heart, the heart, The heart of our problem is the problem of our heart.

Look at verse 8 – do not harden your hearts

Verse 10 – their hearts are always going astray

Verse 12 – See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart

Verse 15 – do not harden your hearts

The LORD Jesus is the great heavenly Husband and He’s not primarily after our wills, He’s not primarily after our intellect – He’s after our hearts. But by nature our hearts are hard, wandering and unbelieving.  And at the end of v13 we see that they can get even worse through sin’s deceitfulness.  Sin lies to us.  We are dying of thirst in the desert and instead of going to our Lord Jesus and asking for the living waters of His Spirit – sin comes along and says “Here, try this bucket of salt.  It’s much tastier than boring water.  This is what will satisfy you.”  So we spurn our Lord and His Living Waters and we slake our thirst on a bucket of salt.

And as we believe the deceitfulness of sin – it hardens us. It makes us less and less likely to ask for the Living Waters in future.  That’s the scary thing.  Sin doesn’t change the LORD’s attitude to us so much as it changes our attitude to Him.  Sin doesn’t harden Jesus’ heart towards you, sin harden’s your heart towards Jesus. Like the skin that forms on the top of paint our hearts seal over, our consciences lose sensitivity, we become comfortably numb.

What can be done to enable us to persevere? To change our hearts. Well there is hope. 

God can do things with hard hearts 

First there is his word 

We’re told in chapter 4:12 that the Word of God can come like a surgeon’s scalpel and bring out the thoughts and attitudes of our hearts. It doesn’t sound like a lot of fun does it, heart surgery isn’t fun – but it’s necessary.  And when we read or hear the Word of God it can expose what our hearts are like. I hope that’s even happening now. Some of the caloused scar tissue is cut away. the living and active word of God jump starts our dead cold hearts to life again. How much we need God’s word as a daily spiritual defribulator. 

then there’s God’s people 

Read with me from v12:

12 See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. 13 But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.

Every day. It only takes 24 hours for our hearts to be hardening. We are responsible for one another. We need one another.  

Proverbs 20v5 says The purposes of a man’s heart are deep waters, but a person of understanding draws them out. If you know Jesus, you are a person of understanding.  Jesus is Wisdom (according to Proverbs) and if you have Jesus you have understanding.  That means that if you know Jesus and if you get to know me – there’s a deep sense in which you know me better than I know myself.  I am a mystery to myself – I look down at my heart and it’s deep waters, I can’t see the bottom.  My heart is deceitful and wayward and difficult to pin down.  But you are much better positioned to diagnose the problems in my heart than I am. And i’m much better positioned to diagnose yours than you are. We don’t know ourselves – we need community to draw out what’s really going on in us so we can deal with these wayward hearts of ours. We’re talking here about the kind of community that gets to the heart – are you pursuing that kind of encouragement?  We won’t survive the wilderness without it.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote a wonderful little book on the importance of encouragement and he called it “Life Together.”  And a line from that book is one of the most insightful things I’ve ever heard about encouragement.He said: “The Christ in the word of my brother is stronger than the Christ of my heart.” By which He means, I might know in my head that Jesus is my Glorious and Beautiful Husband who shed His own heart’s blood for me, but when my Christian brother or sister looks me in the eye and says “Giles, Jesus loves you and gave Himself for you.”  That has a power to soften the hardest heart. because faith always comes to us from a word outside ourselves not from within. when we meet together we have the power to offer Christ to one another in ways that keep our hearts soft and trusting.

God’s word, God’s people, 

finally God’s promise

4v1 .. the promise of entering God’s rest still stands,

4v9 There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God.

Whenever we talk to each other and ask each other how we are. whether we’re doing quite badly or quite well we’re always tired. ‘I’m ok, i’m just tired. i need a holiday’ You know, deep in the human condition we all need a good rest. We long for rest. And God has promised us a share, in Christ, in his eternal rest. God promises it with all his heart. A future, permanent place of rest. He wants us to enter in. 

4v3 we who have believed enter that rest - it’s ours.  

And so let us persevere in believing every day of our lives - until we finally come home to him, to the lover of our very souls. 

since the promise of entering God’s rest still stands, 4v1 let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it.

Let us, therefore, 4v11 make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience.

let’s pray

Hebrews 2

Let me begin by asking you to conjure an image in your mind:

In Psalm 63:8 the Psalmist says to God : ‘My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.’  

Do you see the image?  I’m holding on to God. I need to. But really, underneath, He’s got a hold of me.  My soul does cling to you LORD.  But deep down it’s Your strong right hand that upholds me.  

We have started looking at the NT book of Hebrews - written (by Barnabas) to Urban Christians who are under huge pressure in a pluralist non-christian culture to drift, disobey, give up on their faith. 

And Chapter 2 begins with a stark warning to hold onto God

v1 “We must pay more careful attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.”  And v3 “how shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation.” Pay attention, says Hebrews. Don’t drift.  Don’t ignore this.  Hold fast to God. Salvation is at stake.

But if that’s all we read here, we might go away thinking – oh boy, I don’t think I have the strength. I don’t think I can do it. 

Well if that’s how we feel, the rest of Hebrews chapter 2 will give us a much bigger perspective.  Yes, verses 1-4 our souls must cling to God.  But verses 5-18 are all about the Strong Right Hand of God holding on to us. Ultimately your salvation is not down to your grasp of God.  As we’ll see in these verses, Ultimately your salvation is down to His grasp of you. 

And We were saying this last week that the way that you can hold onto God, in the midst of the problems and temptations of this life, is by contemplating, looking at, fixing your eyes on ..the Glory of Jesus Christ. It’s the only antidote that will expel all the poison that will otherwise perplex and enslave us..”

So that’s what the book of Hebrews is all about - showing us the glory of Jesus. Ordering all our joys under His primary joy. Because.. the way that we hold on to God is by gazing at the God who has taken hold of us. That’s what Hebrews 2 is gonna show us: Salvation is about being taken hold of by Jesus. 

Look at v16. I’ll read to you literally what it says in the original language “Surely it is not angels that He (Jesus) lays hold of but it is the descendents of Abraham (humans) that He lays hold of.” 

The word ‘help’ there in our church Bibles is a really weak way of translating a very strong word.  This is the word for ‘seize’ or ‘arrest’ or ‘catch’.  It’s got the idea of being taken into custody.  Jesus Christ taking Abraham’s descendents into His hands, up into His possession.  That’s the kind of ‘help’ Jesus offers.  He lays hold of us.

It’s a bit like people with cats. I’m not a cat person. I’m unfortunately allergic to the feline. But I’ve observed this. When you decide your cats really should go outside.  You ‘help’ your cats make that transition. But here’s how you help them.  you don’t simply provide instruction. You don’t simply command or cajole.”Ginger, outside..” You don’t simply open the way, clear the path and make safe passage. No it’s very hands on the ‘help’ you give. You seize the cats; catch the cats, gather them up.  And then you walk across the threshold carrying them under each arm.  And in this way You deliver them into a whole new realm.  That’s how You ‘help’ the cats make the transition.

Well it’s the same with Jesus Christ.  He looks on a humanity that needs delivering.  .  And so He “helps” us make the transition.  And He doesn’t simply provide helpful instruction about how we might do that. He doesn’t simply command or cajole. He doesn’t simply open up the way, clear the path and make safe passage. No. He is very hands on in the help He gives. He gathers us up and He strides across the threshold Himself to deliver us into a whole new realm.

He takes hold of us to restore us, rescue us and represent us 

so point number 1.  Jesus takes hold of us to restore US vv5-10 

The writer to the Hebrews (Barnabas) seems a bit obsessed with angels doesn’t he? Perhaps the church he was writing to was a bit obsessed with them. 

Angels are 1v14: Ministering spirits sent to serve those who are inheriting salvation. (Fiona and I have a theory that our estate agent, Max, through whom we’ve secured somewhere to move into is in fact an angel - we’ll invite him to our house warming and you can see for yourself).

In Hebrews chapter 1 the writer compares Jesus with the greatness of angels to demonstate Jesus’ greater glory but now here, he seems to compare Angels with humans 

Have a look

5 It is not to angels that [God] has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking. 6 But there is a place (namely Psalm 8) where someone has testified :

‘What is mankind that you are mindful of them,

a son of man that you care for him?

7 You made them a little lower than the angels;

[but] you crowned them with glory and honour

8 and put everything under their feet.’

we humans may be weaker than angels but we were made to steward the earth. that was the command given to adam and eve in Genesis 2, fill the earth and develop it, graciously rule over all nature and animals. That’s true humanity. 

And of course we’ve blown it haven’t we? From Adam and Eve’s first disobedience we, humanity, the family of Adam, ignore God and his word. 

v8 describes the tragedy 

In putting everything under them, God left nothing that is not subject to them. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to them.

BUT 

v9 we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honour because he suffered death..

Where humanity failed. Jesus succeeded. Jesus the Son, God eternal, second person of the trinity for a little while was MADE lower than the angels. God became a human being in a stable in Bethlehem and walked on earth. And because of his spotless life and his selfless death for us (end of v9). God made Jesus (end of v10) perfect through what he suffered. That is, God exalted Jesus, raised him from the dead - crowned Him to be ruler of all. Jesus restores humanity. As a human he does what humanity has failed to do.. 

And then look at the family language in vv11-13 

Jesus became human inorder to be a new Adam fathering a New humanity, a family that we can become a part of as we put our faith, our trust in him, Jesus. We can leave Adam’s race and be joined to our Jesus our brother and joined to a new human race! The first part of which - our pioneer Jesus - is already restored and ruling in glory.  And when he appears again on this earth we shall be raised like him and will rule with him. 

Jesus takes hold of our humanity and carries us over the threshold to restore US 

A big part of joy is having things to look forward to. It might be a holiday or a wedding, the birth of a child. The reality for a culture that is lost and has no real concept of the future - is that our hopes can be very weak. But in Christ we have a living hope. We have A Future.  We havd A world to come. Where it is not even angels that shall rule and govern and steward but US! Take heart. Rejoice in hope..  

2. Jesus takes hold of us to rescue us vv14,15 and 17

In order to rescue us, Jesus had to become one of us. Only a human can pay a human debt.

v14 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death – that is, the devil  

here’s the first enemy that jesus takes hold of us to rescue us from: darkness from below. Death is God’s holy punishment for our sin – but the devil holds the power of death because he accuses us before God. His is the darkness below us. 

But then there’s the darkness within us.  FEAR of death.  Verse 15 says we are slaves to our fear of death.  Everything we do is overshadowed by the grave. Now, very few of us face that shadow head on, we don’t dwell on it. But fear of death is the root fear out of which all other fears grow.  And it’s a slavery:  There is a driven-ness to a life without Christ that ultimately dances to the tune of this fear.  Before Christ gives us an answer to death, we are captive. It is a great darkness within us.

And finally there is a darkness above us. God’s anger at us in our sin.  Verse 17 recalls the Old Testament temple. In that building there was a Most Holy Place where the LORD dwelt, there was a Holy Place where priests worked, and outside there was an altar where sacrifices were made. And the sins of the people required atonement. A sacrifice that would turn God’s anger away. 

    This is so important.  Our problem is not just that we sin.  Our problem is that sin is an offence to a holy God, and He is righteously angry at us. If our problem was simply that we did bad things then the solution would be in our grasp – we could just stop doing bad things.  But the real problem is above us.  God’s anger at us in our sin – that is a problem that’s out of our hands. God’s wrath is the dark cloud above us.

And so without Christ’s rescue, there’s darkness from below, from within, and from above.. But.. the people walking in darkness have seen a great light. On those living in the land of the shadow of death a Light has dawned. For to us a child is born, to us a Son is given.  Jesus comes to lay hold of us in our darkness. He takes up our humanity in Himself in order to rescue us.. and he does so by his sacrificial death on the cross..

v17 ‘Christ had to be made like his brothers in every way that …he might make atonement for the sins of the people.’ 

The picture of v17 is really of the LORD sending all the priests and all of the sacrifices out of the temple.  And He Himself climbs off His throne in the Holy of Holies (this is the meaning of the incarnation) He climbs down off His throne.  He descends down through the Holy Place and out to the altar.  There He lays down and is slain as the Lamb.

And in His death, the death-sentence for our sin is truly and finally satisfied.  God’s anger at us in our sin is turned away from us because it has been turned on Christ and exhausted in Him.  Christ laid hold of us, summed up our predicament, took responsibility for it,faced the anger it deserves, paid for it in full and put it away for good.  

And then he rose again. He crossed the threshold, coming into a new realm beyond the darkness of sin, fear, and wrath.  And He’s done all this, as one of us, laying hold of our humanity, carrying us with Him.

In Ian McKewan’s novel Atonement Briony Tallis is a 13 year old girl with an active imagination – she is an inventor of stories.  After a sexual assault occurs near her country home – a combination of misapprehension and malice leads her to accuse her sister’s lover. The teenager’s evidence sends an innocent man to prison. And as she enters adulthood guilt for her actions begins to consume Briony Tallis. She is torn by regret and nagging remorse throughout her adult life. Longing to make amends, to set matters straight, to make some kind of Atonement.  But she is unable to do, and so, and haunted by remorse, she resorts again to her imagination – an attempt to find a way of becoming at peace with herself.

Guilt and shame are a real weight upon us. Some of it imposed upon us by others. Some of it our own. But Jesus in his death has taken responsibility for all our wrongs and he has made atonement. Jesus has taken hold of you to rescue you from the dominion of darkness and bring you into his kingdom of light. So will you not now please stand in his light as free of guilt and shame.. 

3. vv17-18 Jesus takes hold of us to represent us. 

Jesus has dealt with the darkness of our human failure, fear and shame, but we can still feel isolated in this world. There is still a darkness around us. Temptation and suffering is our daily experience. Does God really have any idea what it’s like to be human? Is there any point in praying? Does he know what we need? 

If you were part of a minority people group in a country and you felt your culture was misunderstood and overlooked and you weren’t being helped. What would you need? What you’d need is to get one of your own high up in the government of that country – to represent your people before the president or prime-minister or whoever it is who has the power to change things. 

v17 says that Jesus was made like us in every way ‘in order that He might become a merciful and faithful High Priest in service to God.’  It’s temple language again. Every year in Israel there was a special sacrifice of atonement of a spotless lamb made outside on the altar.  And then the blood of the sacrifice was brought by one of the people -  the High Priest -  through the Holy Place and into the Most Holy Place.  On the basis of the blood the High Priest could enter.  And He entered with the names of the tribes of Israel written across his breast-plate.  The High Priest literally carried the people of God on His heart before the LORD. 

It was another picture, foreshadowing what Jesus would do for real. Jesus is both the sacrifice and the great high priest. He laid hold of our humanity in order that he might lift it up to God and represent us there before the one who has power to change things.  Even now – there is a man - seated at the right hand of God. Jesus - Humanity represented in the Trinitarian Godhead!!  

And here’s the thing - Jesus is a merciful high priest. ‘Because (v18) he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.’ 

Jesus is able to sympathise and help you like no other friend can. Because he suffered every suffering he alone knows what you are suffering, and because he was tempted in every way (though he is without sin) he knows your temptations… he understands. 

And Because he has removed God’s wrath towards your sins past present and future Jesus now has only love, compassion and deepest affection for you. When you sin, his grace abounds to you all the more as he graciously maintains your justified status. His heart is filled with nothing but love for you and he longs for you to repent and confess so that he might run to you and show you the gracious and forgiving love that has been in his heart all along. If there is any grief in the heart of Jesus when you sin it comes from the fact that in your moments of sin you are not receiving the fullness of his love for you. 

Gospel primer. Have a gospel on the go. 

Jesus has taken hold of us.. that we might take hold of him 

To restore us - living hope 

To rescue us - freedom from fear and guilt 

To represent us - our merciful high priest… there for us 

Oh jesus - how wonderul you are. Source of all our joys 

Let’s pray 

Hebrews 1

We are beginning our studies in the NT book of Hebrews. 

A book that’s sometimes neglected. 

We don’t know who it was written by. It bears no signature. Wasn’t Paul. Could be Barnabas! Our own Barnabas who wrote it. 

We do know that it was written to Urban Christians, like us - there are more references to the city than any other bible book - some of Jewish background, some pagan - under pressure from a pluralist non-christian culture - to drift, disobey, give up on their faith. 

At times this book might feel overly detailed, distant and difficult. But at it’s heart this letter that reads like a sermon Fixes our eyes on the glory of Jesus and exhorts us, for the sake of our freedom and joy, to keep looking at Him! 

PRAY - light of the glory of God in the face of Christ strengthen, refresh, renew. 

Towards the end of his life, having buried ten of his children, having been harassed and hounded by the authorities, pushed into social exile, arrested for merely seeking to pastor his congregation. The 17th C preacher John Owen said this: 

“A due contemplation of the glory of Christ will restore and compose the mind … will lift the minds and hearts of believers above the troubles of this world. It is the sovereign antidote that will expel all the poison that will otherwise perplex and enslave them..”

Are you battered and bruised like Owen? The many troubles of life 

Our aim as we journey through Hebrews is to so fill our vision with the glory of Jesus. To see how Christ comforts and refreshes his beloved people with Joy. 

Because - The Joy of the Lord is our strength.  

Please can we talk about Joy for a moment?

I’m not talking about a fake Christian smile. ‘Praise the Lord anyway’ when life is really hard. But my prayer is that we will cultivate together, nourish in one another a joy in Christ in the midst of the troubles of life. 

Because I take it that joy is not an optional extra for a Christian. Like going to the cinema - it’s nice if you’ve got the time but if you’ve got young kids just forget it for about 18 years. I don’t think Joy is like that. “Rejoice in the Lord Always,” commands the Apostle Paul.. Joy is essential to Christian growth. For we were made to glorify God and enJOY him forever. And we do not enter into the new life to which we have been called if we don’t enter into our master’s joy. 

And Joycomes - have you noticed - through encountering beauty. Whether it’s a a 40 yard pass from the boot of tottenham’s Christian Erickson; Slowdive’s new album after 21 years of shoegaze silence; or whether it’s the laughter of friends over your meal. Joy comes through encountering beauty. 

And the richest beauty - the source of all beauties - is Christ. 

So we want to encounter Him to find a deeper joy in these coming weeks of Hebrews.  

And as we find deeper joy in him we will find our hearts bound together more, find ourselves loving each other as brothers and sisters more with his love. 

— 

To Hebrews.  Look unto Jesus,

Hebrews 1v1 

In the past God spoke ….to our ancestors …through the prophets at many times and in various ways. But Now In these last days God HAS spoken to US by his SON whom he appointed HEIR OF ALL THINGS AND THROUGH WHOM HE MADE THE UNIVERSE

All of Scripture is about THE SON. He is the point, the centre, the cornerstone, the jewell in the crown of our faith. And the first thing that Hebrews wants us to know about Jesus is that he is the Heir of all things and the creator of all things.  All things were made by him and for him says Colossians 

Now, this is not even the most important thing that could be said about Jesus but it’s a good place to start because it sets everything we’re going to say about Jesus in wonderful context. It frames our thinking well because from the outset we can be clear that we are not talking about our own little hobby horse. 

As we begin to think wonderful thoughts about Jesus it’s not that i happen to get excited about Jesus and my brother in law gets excited about climbing the Via Ferata in the Italian Dolomites. And it’s just that we have our own different things that really interest us .

That is what our culture wants to enforce upon those of religious belief and it’s very easy to let that message slip into our self conscious - that Jesus is just our little personal hobby horse. Some people go for Cordon Bleu cooking or Wind surfing some people go for Jesus. It’s your hobby.

The whole weight of our culture seeks to reduce Jesus to be an optional smear on top of ‘real life’ and to say that it’s pretty weird and backward to really believe in him. Witness the Media’s treatment of Lib Dem leader Tim Farron in recent weeks. 

Jesus is just your thing and keep it to yourself. And to the extent that we buy that … that is a great fat leach on Christian vitality. We sing songs of Christ’s majesty in here on a Sunday but as soon as we leave here - what relevance does Jesus have to the happy hordes of friends barbecuing on London Fields or to the concrete world of work on Monday morning? Those things look like real life. ‘Jesus your hobby’ - sucks all your christian life and strength and vitality out of you. 

And so before we go too far, Hebrews - written to Urban Christians in just such a pluralist, materialist cuture as ours- tells us we are not dealing with some laughable piffling little Christlet. NO, We are dealing with the ONE though whom all things were made, who upholds all things moment by moment with the word of his power. The skies, the mountains, music ALL things bear the marks of HIS artistry, And HE is the heir of all things. No one else. This is his world down to the tiniest atomic detail. And you only really know the joy of sunshine and, parkland and barbecues and friendship and work and creativity when you know HIM. 

And so we are not playing religious games here. Jesus’ character is so written into the fabric of reality that until you’ve thanked Christ for your life you haven’t discovered your true origin. Until you’ve depended on Christ for everything you haven’t found the true sustainer of your life. Until you have submitted your life to Christ you haven’t found your true purpose in life. For Jesus IS the maker, sustainer and goal of all things. 

Now i need to know that when the world marginalises us and makes our christianity out to be pointless and laughable. We need to know that we are not talking about a private individual interest but PUBLIC TRUTH. We are talking abut the ONE who is the heir of all things 

And then …

There’s this stunning phrase in v3 which links back to verse 1 

In verse 1we saw this great contrast of the past to the NOW  

In the past ..God spoke ….to our ancestors …through the prophets at many [isolated, different] times and in various [literally: piecemeal, bitty] ways - so God spoke in the OT, didn’t he, through historical events, scriptures, types, laws, ceremonies, practices, sacrifices … 

But Now (contrast) In these last days [the end days - it’s all been done, all fulfilled, because] God HAS spoken [finally, fully] to US by his SON 

So Jesus is …..The Full, Complete, Coming together of all the bits and pieces of the jigsaw revelation of God.. 

and v3 puts this way - it’s amazing - 

The Son is THE RADIANCE OF GOD’S GLORY AND THE EXACT REPRESENTATION OF HIS BEING 

it is in Jesus that we fully, exactly see what God is like. His glory… His being 

Think again about Jesus as he’s descibed in the gospels:  

What You see is a man with a towering charisma 

Health and healing, loaves and fishes - everything’s abounding in his presence 

He’s clearly so magnetic that people come flocking to be with him.. they didn’t want to leave 

rich and poor, men and women; children, sick, mad, frail. befriending the rejected; giving hope to the hopeless. the dirty and despised found that they mattered with Him. 

And his closest friends.. they found that as the Son of Man came eating and drinking ..to be with Jesus was everyday like being with a bridegroom at his wedding! 

Here is a man who on the one hand felt a world of pain, a man of sorrows familiar with grief and yet all through the gospels we see that he abounds with joy 

Joy …. and goodness …and love 

because, second half of v3, it was only after he had provided purification for sins that he returned to the joy of the majesty in heaven. It’s a strange phrase ‘providing purification for sins’ harking back to the ceremonies and sacrificies of Israel. Hebrews will have much to say about how these jigsaw pieces become radiantly clear jesus. But here we are reminded. He, the Lord of Joy, gave himself as a sacrifiice for us. He took our filth to provide for our purity.. 

Look at Jesus. Such joy, such goodness, such love..

In Jesus, in the gospels, we see ONE who had a HUGE heart 

He loved God, He loved people, he hated evil, he felt for the needy he is so FULL, he is so ALIVE 

and here you see is the point and the wonder 

Look at Jesus there in the gospels and there is Your God wonderfully displayed to US 

There is NO God in heaven who is UNLIKE that Jesus who we see 

JESUS IS the radiance of God’s glory. The exact representation of his being 

He is God from God light from light, true God from true God, One in being with the Father…

God cannot be other than what we see in Jesus. 

Meaning… that you can get rid of that horrible sly idea that behind the friend of sinners lies another god who is rather thinner on compassion and grace. 

There cannot be! Jesus is the FINAL, FULL. PERFECT revelation of God 

If you want to know what God is like - look at Jesus, look at Jesus

In Christ we exchange darkness and bittiness for light and fullness in our understanding of who God is. And the God who jesus shows us is an unsurpassably beautiful and lovely and desirable God. 

You know this stuff is right at the heart of our struggles with prayer?

If i am not daily seeking to allow JESUS to shape my thoughts of who God is. what i find is this ..

I find …if God is not like Jesus. I don’t want to pray to him. I wake up in the morning and the first thing that I am aware of is my basic sinfulness and if God is that Holy other in the sky i just don’t want to pray, i dont want to face him. But if God is like Jesus …then every morning though I amvile like the thief on the crossi know that i can say remember me and i know that he will! Though I feel lame and spiritually leprous I know what he is like towards people like me! I know how he will respond. I know he loves me. 

This means 2 things i think for our daily feeding on the Scriptures 

1. You’ve got to read the Bible backwards
2. You’ve got to have a gospel on the go 

You’ve got to read the Bible backwards 

God spoke in the past - the OT - in many - bitty ways - pieces of the jigsaw of who he is that come together - like the pieces of a kaleidoscope come to gether when you twist it - in Jesus. The OT is fantastic but You have to read the OT like the letter of Hebrews does with Jesus absolutely in your mind as the One who brings all those bits and pieces of revelation about God together. Read the Bible backwards.. 

And because Jesus fully reveals God to us. You’ve always got to have a gospel on the go. Never be out of the gospels. 

—

The rest of Hebrews 1 is devoted to showing Jesus’ greatness. And it’s as if the writer to the Hebrews (Barnabas ;-) thinks what can i compare Jesus to to demontrate his superiority his greatness and he says I know. I’ll compare him to the greatest known beings - Angels. 

We have a fascination with strength and power don’t we? From an early age - my son Zac - it was Yugiho cards for a while now it’s pokemon cards. My monster trumps your monster - more powerful. 

Angels are real - v14 ministering spirits to serve those inheriting salvation!

powerful 

But Hebrews says that Jesus trumps the angels - 

But look what’s interesting - not because he is more powerful, (bigger spirtiual biceps), not because he is a King.  

But because he is a Son 

See it there?

In this string of OT quotations about Jesus:

v5 5 For to which of the angels did God ever say,

    ‘You are my Son;

        today I have become your Father’[a]?

Or again,

‘I will be his Father,

    and he will be my Son’[b]?

v6 And again, when God brings his firstborn [Son] into the world, he says,

‘Let all God’s angels worship him.’[c]

v8 About the Son, God says ….

by the way these verses are not teaching that Jesus had a beginning or that he somehow became God’s Son. No, from eternity he is the Son of God but at his exaltation when he is enthroned (end of v3) after his death and resurrection, when v6 the firstborn heir is brought into the World to come, then he is revealed and declared to be Son of God and so ‘let all God’s angels worship him!’

Chad Le Clos 

Bert Le Clos, Olympics. ‘Look at my Son, he’s beautiful’ 

Jesus being the Son, shows us that God, the highest being in the universe, is not a lonely powerful monarch but a community of loving persons, an eternally loving God. A Father loving his son in the unity of the Spirit. Occasionally in the gospels. God the Father cannot help himself. At Jesus’ baptism This is my Son, whom i love. On the mount of transfiguraton. This is my beloved Son. But supremely - after Jesus’ loving, obedient death. His resurrection and ascension are God’s declaration that this is My Son - Look at him, he’s beautiful, worship him! 

Jesus is greater than the angels because he is the Son 

Jesus is so beautiful that he has captivated the mind and heart of the Father for eternity. he is the Father’s everything. There is nothing more precious to the Father than him because there is nothing better than him. 

And this is what we were made for - to find our refreshment, to find our joy WHERE THE FATHER ALWAYS HAS - in Jesus. To find a delight so great it can satisfy even a Divine heart - the heart ofthe Father for an eternity! That’s what we’re being brought into to enjoy. The Father shares with us what is most precious to him. Jesus himself is the very great reward of the gospel. He is the heart of it - yes we are given forgiveness, yes we are given eternal life but supremely we are given HIM. 

John Newton - ex slave trader, writer of our second hymn and the hymn we are about to sing, Amazing Grace. In a letter to a friend 

This is what i want us to see in Hebrews, 

Let me commend you to the grace and care of our Lord Jesus. They that dwell under the shadow of His wings shall be safe. His service is perfect freedom; in His favour is life. May His name be precious to your heart!

And may you have such increasing knowledge of His person, character, and offices, that beholding His glory in the Gospel, you may be changed into His image, drink in His Spirit, and be more conformable to Him.

To view Him by faith, as living, dying, rising, reigning, interceding, and governing for us, will enable us to endure any cross, to overcome all opposition, to with stand temptation, and to run in the way of His commandments with an enlarged heart.

And yet a little while, and He will put an end to our conflicts and fears, and take us home to be with Him for ever. Thus, by the power of His blood, and the word of his testimony, we shall be made more than conquerors, and in the end obtain the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love Him. 

Look unto Jesus - a haven for the burned out for the weary for the cold - he is sufficient 

he is better 

Prayer Luke 11.5-8

 We are in a series looking at prayer during this season of Lent. The reason is I want us to be praying church and a praying person this year. 

Last week we talked about the pattern for prayer - the Lord’s prayer.

We saw that the key to the Lord’s Prayer and to all prayer is found in the first words Our Father. This is incredible. To be able to call the God who created the heavens and earth your father. And yet that’s what happens when a person becomes a Christian. You are adopted into God’s family. He becomes your father. Prayer is the way you communicate with God your heavenly Father. What a privilege prayer is. Prayer we saw, according to the pattern of the Lord’s prayer begins with praise. Wow God! Hallowed be your name! Your kingdom come. Prayer continues with Confession - sorry. To remind us that we are people who need forgiveness and people who are forgiven. And prayer ends with asking. Please. Give us this day our daily bread, Lead us not into temptation. We are to ask, knock seek in prayer..

Which raises a question which I want us to look at this week. And the question is this. Why don’t we ask more? 

Statistics show that all of us pray at some time. Some of us only pray occasionally when we are in a crisis. Others of us pray a little more frequently. But none of us would say we pray a lot. We are slow to pray. But why? If God is your father and you are his child why wouldn’t you come to God in prayer? There’s only one answer.

It’s the oldest lie in the world. the one that the serpent used in the garden of eden. a lie that runs deep. the lie that God is not good. that he’s mean and doesn’t answer our prayers. our trials and sufferings and seeming unanswered prayers seem to back up the lie and so we feel that God says, No alot.. And so we don’t pray. 

Jesus realizes this might be an objection to us praying and so in v5-8 he gives us a parable. I want us to look at the parable to motivate us to pray by seeing that God will answer when we pray. God will answer when we pray.  He must! 

There are two things I want us to look at this afternoon .

1. What the parable means
2. How the parable should affect the way we pray

1. What does the parable mean?

Parables are stories that Jesus taught to communicate big ideas about God. The key to the this parable is the word translated persistence in v8. Sometimes it’s translated boldness, sometimes impudence. But in Greek the word literally means the avoidance of shame.  And so the question is who in he story is trying to avoid being shamed? 

Let’s look at the parable:

A person has come into the village at midnight and knocked on his friends door wanting a place to stay the night. His friend is not expecting him and so in a culture where hospitality is very important he finds himself unable to provide his guest with an appropriate meal to eat. So what does any 1st century middle eastern person do in this situation? He goes to one of his neighbours who has some bread to ask them to lend him some. He doesn’t knock on their door he calls out to them so they would recognize who it was. He says to his neighbour ‘I have nothing appropriate to offer this guest.’ 

In middle eastern times bread was the knife and fork and spoon for the meal. No bread no meal. Can you give me some bread so that he can be fed and he won’t think I’m not a good host and we are not an hospitable village. My honour and the honour of the village is at stake. 

When Fiona and I were on our honeymoon in Morocco we were invited to stay for a few days in the humble Marakech home of a grand lady called Halima. We accepted her hospitality and on the first day we were there we arrived back at her appartment after a very large lunch to discover that Halima had been cooking. A huge tagine was put in front of us with the exhortation ‘Mange Mange’ Eat Eat! Out of politeness we ate and it was delicious and we were stuffed and only then did Halima appear with the main meat course! The tagine had just been a starter! The main course was placed before us. ‘Gilles, Fiona.. Mange Mange!!” 

In oriental cultures laws of hospitality dictate that whether the wayfarer is really hungry or not, the host must serve his guest and the guest must eat. And it must be food adequate for the occasion. Honour is at stake. 

That’s why the man is out in the middle of the night calling through his neighbours letterbox.  ‘A friend has come and i have nothing to set before him.’ He would have had something in the house. People had basic foods stored. But he has nothing adequate for the occasion of welcoming a guest. He needs unbroken loaves. To give someone a half eaten loaf was considered an insult. And 3 loaves was the right number to be seen to be generous and lavish. This is only the beginning of what he would need for the meal. Perhaps more neighbours would need to be got out of bed. Though notice, end of v8, that true neighbourly behaviour would be to get up and give your neighbour everything he needs. 

Because of the homogeneous character of life in the East.  The guest is a guest not just of the individual but of the community. The whole village is responsible for his entertainment. The honour of the village is at stake. 

This background helps us with understanding the manner in which Jesus tells this parable and the response it would have got. It’s as if Jesus says “this guest has come to your village, to your house in the middle of the night and you have nothing to set before him so you go to call to your neighbour -  so much so normal..

But then imagine says Jesus that your neighbour says - “Aww look 

the doors closed and bolted I can’t give you any bread!” Or imagine he says “my children are in bed with me” - in the one room house the whold family slept on a mat in the middle of the floor - “if I get up they’ll wake up too.” Can you imagine such a thing?? The idea is ridiculous of course he’s not going to say that. Just imagine what the village would say in the morning. Look there’s the guy who dishonoured our village. Did you hear what he said to Fred last night - couldn’t be bothered to give him some bread because his door was closed.  Afraid of waking up the family.  What a mean fella he is. Dishonouring our village like that. Shame!

Jesus says of course he wouldn’t make these excuses. Even if he doesn’t like the fella who asks he’s going to give him whatever he wants so that he won’t be shamed by the village as a mean and dishonourable person.

And now here’s the point: If this guy will give to his neighbour who asks him so he is not dishonoured what will God our heavenly father do when we come to him with our prayers and requests?

Do you realize that God’s honour is at stake when we pray? God has to answer our prayers otherwise we could rightly accuse him of being mean and dishonourable. Or other people could accuse him. People could say you know their God he doesn’t answer their prayers even though they call him father.  

But God won’t allow his name to be dishonoured like that and therefore when you pray he will answer you. 

He might answer you in a different way than you expect. Or a different way than you want. More on that next week. But He has to answer you because his honour is at stake. It’s ridiculous even laughable to doubt that he will answer you. That is a huge incentive to pray. God will answer in the best way for the sake if his honour. 

In light of this how 

2. How should this affect the way we pray

should we approach God in prayer? If God’s honour is at stake in the prayers of his children how should we pray? 4 ways

1. Approach God confidently

Many of us don’t approach God confidently or we don’t approach God at all because we feel unworthy of approaching him. We’ve messed up in some way and we say well I can’t pray. I’d feel a hypocrite if I prayed. I’m not good enough. But the question is not are you good enough to pray but are you a child of God? Are you trusting in Jesus Christ? If not then put your trust in him and pray to your father maybe for the first time. If you are then no matter how you feel, no matter what you’ve done, no matter how good or bad you are God will hear and answer your prayer. Not because you are good enough but for his honour. He has to answer the prayers of his children. 

Maybe we don’t approach God confidently because we don’t feel that he cares, it feels like he is often silent and doesn’t answer. The age old lie of the serpent.. God is not good, God is mean. But Jesus says we are wrong. If the neighbour approached at midnight, who isn’t a friend and doesn’t care, for the sake of his honour gets up and provides everything needed. How much more so will God who is a friend - A Father, and does care. How much more will he for the sake of His honour provide us with what we need. God never, never ignores our prayers. He always answers in the way that we need. 

So approach God confidently 

2. Approach God comprehensively

Pray about everything and anything

Nothing too small – parking spaces (how else do you get a parking space when things are busy?)

Nothing too big –  

Nothing too easy - 

Nothing too difficult – One example in OT nebuzaradan

Pray about everything 

What’s the result when we don’t pray? We worry.  

Don’t get to that point. Take your cares, your concerns to the lord in prayer. Put it on the shelf. Place them at the foot of the cross. 

Worried about your children? pray, 

worried about work? pray, 

worried about the future? pray, 

worried about dying? pray. 

Don’t talk about those things or think about those things but pray.

And leave it with him confident that he will answer all our prayers because his honour is at stake.

3. Approach God constantly

Set times for prayer - QT yes they’re great am, lunch time, evening 

But pray at other times as well. 

Pray as you work

Pray as you drive. I always try and pray before I drive my car.  And there are other cars that you get into where you don’t just pray before they are driven but throughout the whole journey!

Pray as you have a meeting at work. 

Pray when you meet your boss 

Pray as you change a nappy

Pray in all circumstances. 

Pray when money tight, when money abundant, 

when healthy, when sick, 

on celebrations, in sadness, 

at the midnight hour 

when all alone and sad, 

pray at birth of newborn baby, pray at funeral. 

One good example from the Bible was Nehemiah. Prayed in his heart before he spoke to the King. Why/ because he was always praying. Why would you not pray to your heavenly father who is going to answer your prayer and honour his name.

4. Approach God continually

Be persistent in prayer. I prayed and it didn’t work. 

But it’s not like a recipe you see on bake off. O I tried that recipe it didn’t work. Not trying it again. No, pray and keep praying. Sometimes God answers prayer immediately, sometimes after a year sometimes after 10 years, sometimes after we have died. One great example of persistent prayer was George Muller.

George muller 19th century director of orphanages in Bristol 

In November 1844, I began to pray for the conversion of five individuals. I prayed every day without one single intermission, whether sick or in health, on the land or on the sea, and whatever the pressure of my engagements might be.
Eighteen months elapsed before the first of the five was converted. I thanked God, and prayed on for the others. Five years elapsed, and then the second one was converted. I thanked God for the second, and prayed on for the other three. Day by day I continued to pray for them and six years more passed before the third was converted. I thanked God for the three, and went on praying for the other two. These two remain unconverted. The man to whom God in the riches of His grace has given tens of thousands of answers to prayer, in the self-same hour or day on which they were offered, has been praying day by day for nearly thirty-six years for the conversion of these two individuals, and yet they remain unconverted; for next November it will be thirty-six years since I began to pray for their conversion. But I hope in God, I pray on, and look yet for the answer.* 

*One of these persons was converted before Mr Müller’s death, and the other only gave clear evidence of conversion after Mr Müller had passed away.

What makes you able to keep praying? God’s honour is at stake in answering the prayer. He will do it. 

Conclusion

God is a God who wants to honour his name. He told us to pray that in the Lord’s prayer. Hallowed be your name. He will make sure it is honoured by answering us when we pray. 

He has already given us his son JC.

He gave him to us when we didn’t pray, 

He gave him to us when we weren’t his children. In fact when we were his enemies.

He gave him up for us to make us his children.

If he loved us so much that he would not spare his own son but give him up for us all to make us his children won’t he along with him also give us all things? He’s promised to do it. He will do it.

Let’s pray

Prayer Luke 11:2-4

As we travel through Lent – the season of preparation for Easter - we’re thinking about Prayer. We’re spending 5 weeks in Jesus Christ’s school of prayer here in Luke 11:1-13.  Last week we saw that the foundation of all prayer is just one word ‘Father.’ We’ll come back to that. Today we’re looking at the framework for prayer that Jesus gave us - The Lord’s prayer. Probably the most spoken form of words in the history of the world. And yet it’s not just a formal prayer to be said by rote.. but a framework that takes us into the world of prayer. 

Prayer is a struggle – sometimes we don’t desire to pray, or our prayers seem to go unanswered so long that we lose heart. We don’t know how to pray. We don’t know what to pray.

Jesus gives us a framework for prayer. More crucially there are deep reasons to pray within the framework. Thousands of books written on prayer to help us pray. One of the most prominent recently was spiritual writer, Anne Lamott’s book on prayer entitled. Help, Thanks, Wow: The three essential prayers. 

Jesus’ pattern of prayer is a little different. And, good as Lamott’s writing is, Jesus’ is the pattern worth following. 

Jesus’ pattern is WOW, sorry, please  

The first element of Jesus’ pattern for prayer is PRAISE. Wow!  

Father, 

Hallowed be your name! 

Your Kingdom Come

Hallowed means Holy. Holiness is a rather alien concept in our culture it speaks of God’s otherness his greatness, his goodness, his glory. Holy is your name! It’s an expression of Praise. You are amazing! Kingdom refers to God’s Lordship his government of lives which brings life and transformation. Don’t you want relationships to be mended, don’t you want hatred to cease don’t you want injustice to end, don’t you want poverty to be a thing of the past, no more stabbings on our streets, don’t you want peace on earth? That’s what we pray when we pray your kingdom come.

Praise! 

When you meet people who just desperately need praise all the time - it’s not great is it? It’s kind of all about them and their insecurities. God seeks our praise for precisely the opposite reason. He is supremely worthy of all Praise. Constant praise. It’s for our good and our wholeness that we praise him. If we don’t praise him we live completely out of kilter with reality, with the way things are. If we don’t praise him the rocks will cry out! 

Last week we saw that prayer begins with the foundational principle that God is Father. There is a sense in which all human beings, made in God’s image are God’s offspring, his children. But Father describes a relationship that is not there by nature. By nature we self destructively reject God with all our beings. We cut ourselves off from God and his life. For God to become our Father meant forgiveness won at the cost of his own life. He sent his Son to his enemies to become one of us - united with humanity Jesus died for our sins and rose to establish our life. United by faith with Jesus the Son we can know God as Father. God would rather lose his own life than lose us. Such is his kindness, such is his love and when the reality of Father touches your heart. You must cry out in praise

Hallowed be your name! Your kingdom come! Your will be done! 

Prayer starts with God not with my needs. My needs are important to God but he wants me first. Prayer is about relationship. About growing in relationship with God. Prizing God over all things. Wanting him for him. Not for him meeting my needs or the things that he can give me. 

Prayer is always firstly about God. It is God centred. 

See If you think that prayer is asking God for things (and getting frustrated and angry when he doesn’t give them). the presumably you believe that it’s these things that you so want that will give you the signifcance satisfaction and security that we all need. 

But the Lord himself IS our ultimate and only need. He is the source of all signifcance, satisfaction and security.  The gospel of his love and power tells us that and encourages us to first and foremost enjoy Him. Rest in his fatherly care. spend time with him to get him not the things that you can get from him!! 

Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these other things shall be given to you. 

PRAISE 

praise spreading - the kingdom

The second element of Jesus’ pattern for prayer is CONFESSION - sorry Lord, I’m sorry. 

Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.

saying sorry is not easy and it’s not popular in our culture. I think that’s why sorry does not feature as one of the three essential prayers in Anne Lamott’s book. Sorry humiliates us, admits our failings, sorry might get us into trouble - we’ve admitted we were to blame, sorry puts us in a place of weakness before the person we’re apologising too, sorry might make us depressed.. 

But we are to say sorry to God all the time. NOT to wallow in our failings and NOT because our forgiveness hangs in the balance or is constantly in doubt. NO - we, if we trust in Jesus, we have been forgiven once and for all through Jesus’ death on the cross for us. We are right with God not on the basis of our performance but on the basis of Christ’s performance. And we are right with him by trusting in Jesus Christ.  We say sorry to God every day not to get forgiven but to constantly remind ourselves that we are people who need forgiveness and to remind ourselves that we AREpeople who have received forgiveness! 

Remembering this is very powerful for our lives. It produces both happiness and humility.

When you remember that you are forgiven it makes you happy. Some of us have an MP3 playing in our heads that says ‘I hate myself I’m really rubbish, I always mess up.’ That music weighs us down. But forgiveness changes the record to ‘I’m forgiven and loved and accepted by God just as I am.’ That gives you a joy, a happinness in your life. it frees you from self accusation and guilt. Enables you to live differently.

And when you remember you are forgiven it makes you humble and able to forgive others who wrong you. The reason we don’t forgive is we think we’re better than someone else. We say to ourselves ‘they’re bad I’m good.’  But forgiveness reminds us that we can’t say that because we do wrong things. We ourselves need to be forgiven. And if God has forgiven us our wrongs shouldn’t we forgive those who wrong us? Shouldn’t we let go of bitterness and grudges? That person who wronged you years ago well you can let that go, you can forgive.

If we are to live joy filled and humble lives free from guilt and bitterness we need to remind ourselves every day, bring it to mind, every morning say to ourselves ‘I am a forgiven sinner pardoned by God through the cross of Jesus Christ.’ 

WOW - SORRY 

and the third part of Jesus pattern for prayer 

PETITION - please 

2 parts to this 

Give us this day our daily bread 

Lead us not into temptation 

We do ask God for things. For help. We do depend on him. 

Do you remember we said last week that being united to Jesus the Son and drawn into the Father-Child fellowship of the Trinity means that Christian maturity is not becoming stronger, more self sufficient. It’s to become more dependent more aware of my weakness and therefore more and more in prayer 

Please 

Give me today my daily bread 

Notice that we are to pray for our needs not our wants, it’s our daily bread not our daily caviar. And notice also we are to pray for daily bread that is daily provision like the Israelites who were provided with manna to collect each day in the wilderness. We are to look for today’s needs to be met. not for tomorrow’s needs to be met today so we don’t have to pray tomorrow. Money, food or whatever else we need today.

Someone might say but i don’t even have the wisdom to know the difference between my wants and my needs. Many of my longings have gone unanswered and i feel paralysed to know what to pray. John Calvin is helpful here in his treatise on prayer in his magnum opus the Institutes. Pray with restful trust and yet pray with confident hope. God loves you and he knows what’s best for you. He’s not gonna give you something that’s bad for you. When you pray your heart must always be saying like we’re told to here and as Jesus prayed in the garden ‘yet not what i will but what you will be one. Your will be done’ We can rest in the will of God. And yet we should pray with confident hope. pour your heart out to God. Sometimes we don’t receive because we don’t ask.. and God sometimes will not give things without our asking because he doesn’t want us to think we did it, we don’t need God! God wants to hear our requests because he will gives us what we most need. 

Martin Luther saw a social dimension to this prayer as well. For all to get daily bread, there must be a thiving economy, good employment and a just society. Therefore to pray ‘give US this day our daily bread’ is to pray against wanton exploitation in business trade and labour which crushes the poor and deprives them of their daily bread’ 

Give us today our daily bread. 

And lead me not into temptation 

But deliver me from evil 

We are all tempted. But this is a prayer to not be LED INTO temptation but instead be delivered. It’s the danger of entertaining and considering giving in to sin. It might be prosperity that I am led into pride - the sin of thinking that i don’t need God. Or in adversity that I am led into despair - losing all hope and becoming angrily estranged from God. Seductions and trials come on us like a storm and can knock us off our feet. Please give us strength and grace to stand firm in them.

Wow 

Sorry 

Please 

The life transforming, world transforming privilege of prayer. Knowing God, loving him, receiving the assurance of his forgiveness, depending on our Father utterly. 

It’s a costly wonderful gift - access to God our Father. It cost God the suffering and death of his Son. Jesus was forsaken with our sins that we might be welcomed in. Jesus was rejected that we might accepted. God would rather lose his own life than lose us. You are worth that much to Him. How much he must love you. How much he must want to get to know you and bless your life. 

Let’s pray. 

Prayer Luke 11:1-2

Checkups in the interest of well-being are familiar features of modern life. You take your car in for its yearly MOT.  You buy software that scans your computer’s hard drive for corrupt files and other nasty things and gently heals them for optimum performance. As you get older – you’re wise to get check ups on your physical health and take seriously any treatments recommended. 

What about your spiritual health? Is that any different? 

On Wednesday we began that season in the church year called Lent. It’s been observed throughout the Christian church since the 3rd Century: 40 lent-gthening days of preparation leading up to Holy Week (recalling Jesus’s death) and Easter(celebrating his resurrection). Lent is not just about giving up chocolate. It is a season of check up.  it’s a time to look to our spiritual health.  A time of self searching, of repentance, of healing and renewal. 

And so for these weeks of lent begins we’re going to focus on renewing our lives of prayer.  Prayer is so vital to our spirtual health. 

Let me start with 3 observations 

The first one is that statistics show that everyone no matter what they believe prays at some time. Even my hairdresser Dave who never goes to church told me that he prayed when he was having a heart attack. When the chips are down. When someone you love is ill, when you find yourself in a desperate situation you pray. It’s a natural response. 

Second: most people find a life of prayer very difficult. Many of us want to pray but we just feel like we have no words. We pray for thirty seconds but then we give up we get distracted, we get bored. OR we’d like to pray but we just lack faith.. John Calvin defined prayer as ‘the chief act of faith’ so we don’t pray because we don’t really believe.. OR we think we’re just too bad to pray, God doesn’t want to hear me.. i’m just a failure..i’m in the midst of my sin when i’ve cleaned up my act then i’ll pray OR we’d like to pray but we just feel no desire to do so - maybe we’re just disappointed with God, feel let down by him.. he hasn’t answered our prayers. what’s the point? Finally, we don’t pray because it just feels like a dry duty. And if God knows better than I do what i need and he’s sovereign - he’s going to do what he’s going to do anyway - why bother praying?

Third observation 

When Jesus’ disciples were confused about prayer and how to pray. They asked Jesus to teach them. Here in Luke 11 we’re slowing right down to hear Jesus’ teaching on prayer. If you don’t know how to do something - you’re probably not going to succeed, you’re gonna give up. But why not listen to someone who does know how to do it??

We’re going to enter Jesus’ school for prayer 

And this afternoon we will focus on just one word which Jesus teaches is utterly utterly foundational to prayer. The doorway to kick start your prayer life.. 

One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.’

2 [Jesus] said to them, ‘When you pray, say:

‘“Father,

Father 

this is the foundation of all prayer. Father 

Jesus doesn’t begin with whats or hows but with who.  If we are ever to truly pray it is not subjects or methods that we need. We need to know who it is that we are invited to pray to.. 

Father 

What does it teach us about prayer that we pray to the Father?

well 3 things: 

First and it’s so obvious and yet we need to see it. 

by saying Father we see that prayer is about Communicating with a person. 

When someone becomes a Christian. Turns away from their sins and brokenness and puts their trust in JC and his cross. When that happens you are adopted into God’s family. He becomes your father and you become his child. As a result you begin a personal relationship with God. That relationship is developed through prayer. Just as human relationships are developed through conversations as we get to know each other better. My relationship with my wife is developed through conversation. If I didn’t talk to her it wouldn’t develop. So prayer develops our relationship with God as we talk to and have a conversation with him. If we don’t pray our relationship with God won’t develop. 

But what are we going to talk about?

How should I begin? What words should I use with this Parent of mine up there in the sky?

Where do i find the words? Where do i find the faith??

Well…

There is a sense in which ‘All speech is answering speech.’ Let me explain. 

How did you learn to talk? Babies do not enter the world and then immediately speak. That would be so weird wouldn’t it? Freaky! Neither are toddlers left to search to find words and language within themselves. No from the earliest days your parents speak to you - in simple words and sounds and loving tones that you heard and learned and when you were ready you said ‘duck’ or ‘mama’.

All speech is answering speech. 

And that is true with our Father God. 

We need to think about the overwhelming previousness of God’s speech to our prayers.

In one sense.. God’s blessings to us in our lives. Things we’re thankful for. God’s own recognisable answers to our prayers are part of his side of the conversation. But there is an overwhelming previousness to our speaking to God and that is God speaking to us in his word - the Bible, the gospel and supremely speaking to us through his Son, Jesus. 

Prayer is not really asking God for things and getting upset when we don’t get things our way. We can of course ask for things we’re commanded to and we’ll address the problem of seeming unanswered prayers in these weeks. But prayer doesn’t begin there. Prayer is God centred and it is responding to God’s speech. The continuation of a conversation that God has started. 

We can pray at any time.  Ideally we’re conscious of God throughout our day,  giving thanks, enjoying him, seeking his help, praying for that person. But our voice of prayer will dry up if we are not reading the Bible as God’s word to us.. His love letter to us. 

We often don’t pray because our faith, our belief in God as the source of reality get’s drowned out by the immediacies of the world around us. If we are not feeding our faith by hearing his voice in his word, by encountering His presence which is more real than reality itself then we won’t pray - we’ll have nothing to say. 

But if we do just read the Scriptures as from God our answering voice will emerge..

So that’s the first thing Father tells us. Prayer is communicating with someone. Responding to God’s speech 

2 Second by saying Father we see that prayer is based on grace not on performance.  

The way a child relates to their parents is very different to the way an employee relates to their boss. Your relationship with your boss at work is based on performance. But a child’s relationship with their parents is based on grace. As a father I am really bothered about the behaviour of my children because i want them to live well, i want them to honour God,  and because in some sense my reputation is connected with them and what they do. But my childrens’ position in our family is not dependent on how they perform. At the end of the day they are my children even if they don’t perform well. 

We all know what happens to employees who don’t perform well. You’re fired! 

But that is not the relationship we have with God. God does not fire any of his children. And so we can approach God in prayer with confidence not fear knowing that our standing with him as sons and daughters is based on grace not on how well we are doing. 

That means we can pray just as we are. We don’t need to clean ourselves up first. We can come to God as his children anytime. It’s all by grace.

Donald Trump. whether you like it or not, is the most powerful man in the world. 

There was a great picture of the Oval office that i saw online earlier today. Donald was sat at his desk surrounded by maybe 30 or 40 suits standing looking at the camera ready to act.. And in the foreground on one of the cream sofas with her feet up not looking at the camera is a woman who I assume is one of Trump’s daughters. 

See .. you have to be someone very powerful or influential to get an appointment with Donald Trump. You have to go through so much red tape and checks to even get close. But if you’re his child - you can walk into the oval office pretty much anytime you like.

I’m aware as I talk about God as a Father that some of us have not had good experiences of fatherhood but we all know what a good father should be like that’s why we get angry when we see or experience bad examples of fatherhood. When it comes to fatherhood earthly fathers are not the standard for God but our Father God is the standard for earthly fathers. He is the perfectly loving, perfectly wise, perfectly good Father who loves and cares for us his children.

think you’re just too bad to pray? God doesn’t want to hear me.. i’m just a failure..i’m in the midst of my sin when i’ve cleaned up my act then i’ll pray…

No - you’re his child. He longs for you to answer him. He’s constantly talking to you. he feels compassion for you in your sin. Turn to him.. Run into his arms. He loves you. 

3. by saying Father we see that Prayer is to be taken up into the very life of God. 

Look again at how our passage begins One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray…

One day Jesus was praying ..

He actually does this all the time, Jesus. Read the gospels. He’s always going off to pray by himself. He does it so much that’s why the disciples say teach us what you’re doing..

But - don’t you find it weird that Jesus prays all the time? cos I do. Cos this is God praying to God. What does this say about Jesus? When he came to our world, took upon himself our human nature. Did he kind of make himself then less than God the Father for a time - so he had to depend on Him in prayer - cos when he does pray he asks for a lot of stuff. 

Well the RC Theologian Karl Rahner puts it like this (and i think he’s bang on). "the economic Trinity is the immanent Trinity, and the immanent Trinity is the economic Trinity".  That is to say, God communicates Himself to humanity ("economic" Trinity) as He really is in the divine Life ("immanent" Trinity). Put it another way the relationship that we see Jesus the Son sharing with his Father in the gospels is how God is in eternity. The Father didn’t become Father when he adopted us. Jesus didn’t become the Son when he came into the world.  

No God in himself IS from all etenity:  A Father constantly giving life to and lavishing his love on his Son who is eternally receiving from and praising his Father and that flow of life and love IS the unity of the Holy Spirit!!!

And you see …

When we become Christians, adopted as God children. You have to understand that you’re not just being forgiven, you’re not just given a place in a childrens home NO you’re united with Jesus in order to be drawn RIGHT INTO the very centre of the trinitarian LIFE of God!

And you see when you PRAY - all three persons of the Trinity are involved. You are expressing the trinitarian life. You pray to the Father above you, through the Son alongside you by the Holy Spirit within you. The Spirit is the wind in the sails of our prayer as he catches us up into the Son’s love for the Father… testifying to us that we are God’s loved children and causing us to cry ‘Abba.. Father’ We’re brought into the divine fellowship. The Spirit of the Son cries to the Father through us! 

Think about this: If God WAS a single, independent person (the Muslim God) - then independence would be the godly thing. That would be how to be like God. To be closest to what reality really is would be for me to be self sufficient and alone! 

But that is not God. Not the deepest reality. No, God is a Father loving his Son who receives that love in the praise of the Spirit.  And so as the Son always depends on the Father THAT is the nature of Christian godliness. Being a Christian, a child of God is first and foremost all about receiving, asking and depending. Growing as a Christian is not about feeling more self sufficient it’s about feeling ever more needy and if you feel needy you will pray..

And when you are on your knees, literally or figuratively, in prayer enjoying the care of a powerful Father. That is when you are at the heart of reality. 

WOW! Prayer!! WOW! 

Enjoy your prayer life. 

Luke 10:38-42 Pete Jennings

Luke 10:38-42 Mary and Martha

Pete Jennings

Luke 10:25-37

We're looking at the life of Jesus in the gospel of Luke and here in chapter 10 the question is being answered - what does it mean to follow Jesus, what does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus.
Last week we saw that it is to be a messenger. Every Disciple is sent out to publicly communicate the world changing message of Jesus and urge everyone to believe it. 

This week we learn that Every disciple is a neighbour.  We are called to take the gospel to everyone and urge them to believe it but also we have a mandate to meet the needs of all the people around us whether they believe the message or not. We are called to be great neighbours in Hackney, in our communities, in our workplaces. 

Jesus gives us 3 things here  

a Mandate for gospel neighbouring 

he spells out the Magnitude of the task

finally he tells us the Motivation – the only thing that will enable us to do this

WARNING If you begin to feel guilty – don’t be. Guilt is not the motivation Jesus gives us. Be challenged but wait for the great motivation. 

1. Mandate – it’s required. ‘Go and do likewise.’ 

the call to be radical neighbours comes in the context of this dialogue with an expert in the Law. We’ll call him ‘The Lawyer.’ Sadly, he’s not genuine, he stands up v25– to test Jesus, to trap him into saying something that will discredit him. And so he asks ‘What must I do to inherit eternal life?’ What does God require? He’s seen the way Jesus welcomes bad characters; people who are disobedient to the law, people the law calls ‘sinners.’ When Jesus says ‘God accepts everyone’ - he’ll be exposed as someone who does not really respect the moral law. He’s trying to trap Jesus. But Jesus also has a trap (except Jesus’ trap is a trap of love – it’s alright to be trapped by Jesus). Jesus answers the Q with a Q: ‘What is written in the Law how do you read it?’ Now at this point the expert could begin to list the 700 or so Laws or he could – and this is what he does - give the classic summary of the law – ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength with all your mind; and love your neighbour as yourself.’ ‘You have answered correctly.’ Jesus replied. ‘Do this and you will live.’ Look who’s trapped now. You want to inherit eternal life by the law – that’s what the law requires. Jesus says do all that and you will live. 

But, v29, the man wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbour?’ 

Again the crowd would have gone silent all eyes on Jesus. See it was common knowledge that your neighbour was only your fellow Israelite. That’s who you should love – not Pagan sinners. But what would Jesus say – he who eats with Gentiles? 

You see underlying all this was the attempt by the Jews of Jesus’ day to tame the law inorder to make it do-able. If my neighbour is my Israelite brother – that’s achievable - If I care for my Israelite brother I keep the law.

And now here Jesus explodes all their limitations of God’s Law with one of the greatest stories ever told. The parable of the Good Samaritan. To the Question – who is my neighbour? Jesus answers You must become a neighbour to everyone and anyone in need, and you must love with radical self sacrificial love. That is what God requires. That is what it will mean to follow me. 

Go and do likewise.. 

See Jesus says don’t you dare limit God’s Law! Jesus asks for nothing less of his followers than to be radical neighbours to all in need. It’s required. – says Jesus It’s fundamental to following me. 

You know Jesus tells that other parable in Matthew’s gospel (chpt 25) – the shepherd dividing the sheep and the goats, sheep and goats actually look quite similar but the shepherd knows - he divides them – Jesus says that is what it will be like when I come to divide my followers from those who say they are my followers but are not. 

But how does he know sheep and goats? Jesus says to his true followers – Come take your inheritance prepared for you since the creation of the world for I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink,  I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.' And Jesus says "Then the righteous will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? "The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

You see? It’s required - the mandate – It will be the evidence that we have followed Jesus. You must become a neighbour to everyone and anyone in need, and you love with radical self sacrificial love. 

That’s the mandate. 

loosen your collar - it gets worse 

2. the magnitude 

what are the limits? Who should I love and How much should I love? 

First who should I love

the parable 

A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road (almost certainly riding an animal) when he saw the man – he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, (probably not riding on an animal, but could stop to administer first aid) when he came to the place and saw him, he passed by on the other side. 

And now Jesus delivers the first shockwave. 

If I begin a joke there was an Englishman, an Irishman .. you know how I’m going to continue …

If an Israelite tells a story: so there’s a Priest and a Levite – you know what comes next – and a jew. a regular Jew

But Jesus says a Priest a Levite and a Samaritan

Samaritan?! You probably know Jews and Samaritans hated one another. They were enemies, oppressing one another throughout their history. ‘he that eats the bread of the Samaritans is like to one that eats the flesh of swine” declared the Jewish Mishna. Daily prayers were offered in the synagogues that the Samaritans wouldn’t receive eternal life. If this was a Samaritan lying bleeding on the ground the Jewish audience would be saying he deserves everything he’s getting. But this is a Jew lying half dead on the ground and its a Samaritan standing over him.  

But Jesus’ Samaritan, v33 ,came where the man was; and when he saw him he.. took.. pity.. on him and, where the Levite had failed to do so the Samaritan treated and bandaged his wounds , and where the Priest had failed to do so the Samaritan put the man on his donkey and carried him to safety, and where the robbers had taken from him and left him, the Samaritan gave to him, stayed with him and promised to return. 

Jesus is frankly doing something personally dangerous – making a Samaritan the hero of the story… morally superior to the religious leadership of the audience. It’s like sitting down with a group of Palestinians and telling a story of the noble Israeli or telling the story of the good Turk to a group of Armenians. 

and yet Jesus is making a devastating point. 

v36 Which of these three do you think was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of robbers? The expert in the law replied ‘the… (he cannot speak the name) …the one who had mercy on him’ Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.” 

Who should I love? Who must I become a neighbour to? 

I am not just to love my own. Jesus says that Love and care and help is to be extended to the person who is different, to the least deserving, my worst enemy – in a word – anybody, everybody wherever there is need. 

There’s a famous letter from aniquity written by the Roman emperor Julian who was frustrated by the way that Christianity was growing and flourishing and the Pagan religions were dying. He writes, ‘the religion of the Greeks does not prosper. Why do we not observe how the charity of Christians to strangers does the most to advance their cause. it is disgraceful that these Christians support our poor in addition to their own, so that everyone is able to see that our co-religionists lack aid from us.’ You see the Christians then were promiscuous in caring for the poor – whoever they were! 

OK i can see who i am to love. everyone and anyone in need - underserving or enemy 

But then how much then should I love? How far should I go?

It’s interesting that Jesus uses a real life location for his parable. the road from Jerusalem to Jericho – everyone knew that road – one place on that road was called the pass of blood. If Jesus had set the parable in Hackney it would be on Murder Mile on a Friday night in the early 2000s – the man gets mugged badly – that’s no surprise – people raise their eyebrows sadly – that’s what happens on the pass of blood.  And the Priest and Levite they don’t stop. You know why they don’t stop? Because they are smart. If somebody’s lying half dead in the road that means the muggers are still nearby. To stop is stupid, to stop is fatal. How much should I love? How far should I go? The point is the Samaritan does stop on murder mile in the middle of the night. In compassion for the man’s life the Samaritan risks his own. He pours on costly oil and wine – he bandages tearing his own clothes. he climbs down from his animal and like a servant leads the injured man presumably into Jericho to take him to an inn. He pays money, stays the night and promises to return to pay whatever costs are incurred – so that the man will not be left indebted and enslaved to an unscrupulous innkeeper. 

Actually, entering Jewish Jericho is probably the most risky thing the Samaritan does in a violent revenge culture.  An American cultural equivalent would be a Plains Indian in 1875 walking into Dodge City with a scalped cowboy on his horse, checking into a room over the local saloon, and staying the night to take care of him. Is that Indian going to get out of Dodge alive – even if he is the one who saved the cowboys life? 

From first to last the Samaritan’s love is incredibly costly. 

And this is Jesus’ point. How much should I love? How much should I give?

Jesus says Go and do likewise. 

How much should I love? Jesus says Don’t you dare limit it. my followers love with radical costly self giving service. Who do you Help? – even the people you can’t stand the sight of, even the undeserving who have brought their problems on themselves. how do you help? to the place where their burdens, their sufferings fall in part on you. 

Extraordinary isn’t it? Radical neighbourliness is what we’re called to. 

But how? How do you do this? I mean is there anyone who does this? What is the Motivation.. what is the dynamic that enabled the church at the time of Julian and at other times in church history to love and care for the poor? What power will enable us to begin to love like this? 

The only dynamic in the world that can motivate this kind of living and loving is Grace. 

In other words - You will never show radical mercy until you have received radical mercy. This is what Jesus is trying to teach the Lawyer here. And it’s what he would teach us. The power to show radical mercy springs from the heart understanding that you, yes you, have been shown radical mercy. You have been the recipient of radical grace, love, help. 

See, Look at where Jesus places the Lawyer in the story and where he places himself in the story. 

1. The lawyer. Imagine Jesus had told the story like this – A Samaritan was traveling on the road to Jericho and he fell among thieves and a Priest came and left; and a Levite came and left; and finally a Jew came – a man just like you and he took pity and healed his enemy’s wounds and put him on his donkey and helped him. Now Go and Do likewise. What would Jesus’ message have been? it would have been Morality– you’ve got to be the hero, try harder, save the world. Do this and you will live, you’ll have worked your way to eternal life. But that isn’t where Jesus places his listener in the story. No, where is the Jew in the story? half dead on the floor – in desperate need of help and needing mercy.  This is very deliberate. Because the Bible says that is where we all are by nature – spiritually – we’ve rejected God and made him our enemy and we are lost in our sin and deserve only God’s judgement. First and foremost we all need mercy. That’s the Lawyer 
2. Jesus – where is Jesus in the story? From the very earliest years of Christian history the church has said that the Good Samaritan is Jesus. Jesus is the good Samaritan. The Samaritan comes from outside. He is seem as the enemy. In his eyes the injured man is undeserving of help and yet he ‘takes pity’ on the man – very specific word – deep compassion – a word used only of Jesus in the gospels. The Samaritan binds the man’s wounds and then pours on oil and wine. Again Jesus uses strange experssions here - OT language of the God who binds up the wounds of his people.  At great personal risk the Samaritan climbed down from his donkey and taking the part of a servant leads the man to safety. Jesus Christ who was in very nature God climbed down from his throne, taking the very nature of a servant and humbled himself to death even death on a cross. The Samaritan risked all for his enemies. JC came into a world that had rejected him and laid down his life for us in radical mercy and grace. 

We were lying in the gutter, half dead, undeserving – but Jesus in astonishing costly love and mercy has come down to take our burdens upon himself in his death on the Cross. Have you received that grace, that mercy, that forgiveness? 

If you have then it is in grasping what we have been given that we are then able to give to others. It is in grasping the mercy we have been shown that we are empowered to show mercy. It is in seeing how deeply we are loved that we are given radical power to love others. 

ill Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables - Jean Valjean isa hard and bitter man. Just out of prison he spends the night at the house of a priest and is caught by the police in the middle of the night leaving the house with stolen silver. Instead of consigning him to prison – the priest gives him the stolen goods and lets him go. That one act of mercy completely alters the direction of Valjean’s life. The one act shapes his future and transforms his attitudes towards others. 

Since he has been shown such mercy how can he not now show mercy to others. 

But you see that’s not just Jean Valjean’s story. That’s your story if you’re a Christian. 

Now 

when I see a person lying in the street, I remember that’s where I was when Jesus took pity on me. 

when I see that the person in need is my enemy, I remember that’s who I was when Jesus bent down and bandaged my wounds 

when that person is the least deserving of help and care, I remember that’s who I was and yet Jesus was lifted up on the cross so that I could be lifted up. 

since I have been shown such mercy – how can I not now show such mercy? 

It is as we grow in our grasp of the grace that we have received that we will go and do likewise. 

Pray. 

Luke 10: 1-24

We’re looking at the life of Jesus in the gospel of luke

We’ve seen that there’s a shift in theme, a turning point in Luke 9-10 

chapters 1-9 Who is Jesus? 9 onwards Since he is who he is - the divine son from heaven- how then shall we live? the answer is become a disciple, follow him. And what does that look like? well what these next chapters tell us..

next week - neighbours to all, following - worshippers 

this week - it’s to be a messenger. disciples are messengers 

every disciple of jesus is given a message to publicly proclaim, to communciate urging everyone to believe it. 

This of course is an incredibly hot issue in our society - 

Anyone claiming that they have the Truth;  saying that their religion is superior and trying to convert people to it is considered at best arrogant and at worst dangerous. The divisiveness of religion is seen as a major threat to world peace. 

And to a certain degree - that fear is absolutely right. There clearly is a danger that religion and ideology can play into the negative human tendencies towards superiority and separation. looking down your nose at ’them’ can lead to the marginalisation of others which can in turn lead to oppression, abuse or even violence against them. 

Our modern society’s solution to this problem is to seek to control religion, to privatise religion and silence the religious. We as western Christians feel this pressure very keenly and largely we bow to it. We are silenced; we bow to the dogma that it’s fine to believe what you want to believe as long as you don’t try to persuade or convert anybody else.. 

But - as we shall see in a bit there are deep internal contradictions and problems with this dogma. 

We shall see in this passage that Christian disciples ARE messengers. It cannot be avoided.  We are 

sent on a Mission 

with a Message 

and yet it is our Motivation that will affect the whole way we go about our mission and ensure that we are never contributors to oppression or abuse of others ..

Mission, Message , having the right Motivation 

1. mission 

v1 sent them ahead 

v3 go i am sending you 

chapter 9 v1 the apostles, the 12 sent to preach cast out demons heal the sick 

Those are the 3 things jesus does 

preach - persuade with the truth 

cast out demons = liberate people’s souls from that which is enslaving them 

heal the sick = mend bodies and communities, fabric of the world 

what jesus does - send apostles, his appointed leaders out with authority to do that 

and if we only had chapter 9 and not 10 we could probably legitimately say - ‘there you see that’s what the leaders do, full time christian workers, the clergy, they go out to do those things - we pay them to do it. i’m sure glad they’re doing that…’

but in chapter 10 - jesus gets 72 together. 72. ancient readers would know in the OT Genesis chapter10 table of nations - 72. This is Jesus way of saying it’s not just the clergy 

everybody is sent (word is missio). we’re all on mission and it’s a mission to all nations - to the whole world. 

all are needed - harvest is plentiful but the workers are few 

So pray for more workers, more disciples - that we’d become the workers that we are meant to be. God is in control. He is the LORD Of the harvest. 

You see this throughout the Bible - Abraham, Moses, Isaiah, - A disciple is someone who is called radically in - we don’t just know god from afar, closeness, intimacy to be blessed. BUT now at the very same time you are called radically out. go, i send you out 

mean? God says “i bless you to be a blessing” 

i only call you radically in inorder to send you radically out to care for the needs of others 

to be a healing agent, to reweave the fabric of the world where it’s ripping - to meet their needs so they can then do the same thing.  

God says before i met you when you were battling that inner sense of lostness and inadequacy it was understandable that you could be self absorbed, lost in your own problems and trying to survive. but now - i have met you, i have dealt with your shame. i have provided for your longings for beauty and love (and of course you don’t experience this like you ought to but it doesn’t matter) there’s no more excuses. you ARE liberated so get out. i am sending you. live for others 

Eph 2v10 

You are God’s workmanship created to do what God has ordained for you to do 

So it’s not that you are sent out in general. there are particular things, people for you to help. You have been shaped to be the instrument for healing that certain people or situations need. It’s Not just your joys but also your sorrows, your age, gender, ethnicity, gift mix, all your experiences put together means that God has shaped so that there are some hands that only you can hold, some needs that only you can meet, some demons out there that only you can drive out. 

there’s certain people that God has prepared for you to be the healing agent of God’s grace in their lives. 

This is utterly differnt to the reigning worldview that biological life is just here by accident you’re not here for any purpose. Heidigger called it ‘thrownness’ You’ve just been thrown into the world. There’s no meaning, no purpose, no point. 

But Jesus says no, not thrownness but sentness is the mark of your life 

i send you 

everyone has a mission 

it’s an urgent mission vv3-4. there will be risk and vulnerability. prayer and dependence is needed. 

but we also go with a power and authority vv5-6 as Jesus’ messengers to convey or withold the message of God’s blessing and peace in a tangible way 

disciples represent Jesus and therefore: 

to reject disciples IS to reject Jesus. very serious as the woes of mourning vv12-15 demonstrate 

sent on a mision

2. everyone has a message 

v16 ‘Whoever listens to you listens to me; whoever rejects you rejects me;

every disciple is given a message that they are to publicly communicate and urge others to believe it. 

now this is the hot issue in our society isn’t it. overt in media 

people say this is my only prob with xians 

it’s ok that they believe in jesus but they should not try and convert other people 

it’s ok that they believe and that they say that they have joy and peace but they should NOT say to other people that they should believe it too. saying this is right this is true, you must believe.  that’s so superior, that’s dangerous. keep it to yourself. 

but there’s a problem with that problem 

first there’s a problem from the christian side 

Jesus sends us out to communicate what he calls elsewhere ‘the gospel’ 

what is that? why was this word chosen to express the christian message? 

well, it has a v specific meaning. ‘gospel’ was news of an objective history changing event which changes everybody’s situation. so from ancient antiquity we have a document in greek which goes like this “this is the beginning of the gospel of Caesar Augustus”  

What? That’s what the word gospel meant. The gospel of CA was a declaration that he had ascended the throne. Taken out by heralds everywhere. News of a major history changing event that affects everybody. 

Another famous example form AD490 the battle of marathon. The athenian army went out on the plains of Marathon to battle against the Persians. Everyone expected the Persians to win and that Athens would subsequently fall. The city was on the verge of desperate anarchy - people preparing to flee for their lives. But incredibly the Athenians won - and as soon as they did they realised that they urgently needed to communicate the gospel. So they sent a single runner to run the 26 and a bit miles from Marathon to Athens to calm the panicking despairing people. The runner raninto the city and all he was able to do was cry out ‘Rejoice, we’ve triumphed” before he fell down dead. 

when JC said - go and proclaim my ‘gospel’ to every creature under heaven 

do you see what he is claiming? you get a hint of it in v18 when he says ‘I saw satan fall from heaven’ 

He’s claiming again as he claims on virtually every page of the NT - i was there.. before the creation of the world; before the universe existed, I AM.. I am the uncreated, eternal, second person of the triune God! I am God! The kingdom of God is near..

If Jesus is just a prophet and he had some teaching about God - that’s advice and you could say the message of JC is advice. Heres how you can live, pray, know God and you could say ‘hmm shall i take this advice or not? fine for you not for me thanks.. ‘

But if JC is God. If he saw Satan fall like lightning. If he has come to save us to restore us to God. The his birth into our world is Gospel. The history changing momentous event which changes everybody’s situation. And you have to know about it otherwise history is going to leave you behind.

To not convey this gospel is cruelty.
Like having the cure to cancer and keeping it for yourself and your family and friends. That would be outrageous. To not convey is wicked - and notice i use the word convey deliberately because to run into the street to shout in peoples’ faces may well do the very opposite than convey the Kingdom of heaven is near. How? how do we truly communicate this world changing news when people are so suspicious???

But that’s the problem from the Christian side to being told that we shouldn’t try and persuade others to believe. It’s not just advice - it’s gospel 

But there’s also a problem from the Non-Christian side with telling Christians it’s ok to believe in Jesus but you shouldn’t try to convert anyone; you shouldn’t claim that you have the truth. 

Because when a person says that. what they’re really saying is that you shouldn’t believe in Jesus. He can’t be the unique God. He isn’t. 

what they’re really saying is: YOU have to abandon your view of the universe (that Jesus is God) in favour of my view of the universe (That he is not). And i want to say, OK but how is that any less narrow than me saying to you I want to persuade you to abandon your view of the universe in favour of mine! 

The point is we all have our exclusive convictions. everyone is proselytising for their view of the universe. To say ‘stop it’ is to do it. 

We as a culture are rightly trying to deal with the superiority, the anger, the violence, the disunity that absolute religious truth claims can create. But The solution of saying ‘everyone can believe what they want to believe but no-one is allowed to claim they have the truth and seek to persuade others’ - is itself an exclusive truth claim.  It is ONE view of the universe that trumps and silences all others - doing exactly that which it seeks to outlaw.  And that at best is disingenuous at worst it is dishonest - and it doesn’t work.  To silence people from talking just drives us further apart. 

So how then do we deal with our differences, how do we deal with absolute truth claims that are hurting the world?

how do you make sure that a claim to truth is not destructive?

Jesus does not ignore the problem, he says it has to do you with your 

3. motivation 

17 The seventy-two returned with joy and said, ‘Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.’

18 He replied, ‘I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Of course my gospel is going to give you that power 

But then 20 However, he says do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, I don’t like your motivation. I don’t like what is driving your ministry. instead rejoice that your names are written in heaven.’

there’s a kind of motivation that is bad and one that is good 

don’t rejoice that the spirit’s submit to you

why not? why not rejoice in that liberation for people. people being healed..

look carefully - they’re not excited about having liberated people. did they say wow lord we’ve helped people, people are free, husbands and wives are back together, children are helped 

they don’t say that, they say wow, we’re really something, even demons submit TO US! 

to really understand their motivation you have to look at second clause 

what does it mean to have your name written before printing?

every town had a town roll - like a census 

but only citizens would have their name there. only a person of substance, nobility ..only the powerful had their name written - that was to be a somebody - everybody else they were slaves, servants, artisans nobodies 

Jesus says. You’re looking for a sense of self, of substance. But i don’t want you to get your sense of self, your sense that you’re a somebody from power: your gifts, your accomplishments, your achievements, yourself - that’s going to lead to the same thing that made satan fall - pride. 

people who rejoice in their ministry; their performance. who say i’m somebody because i’m helping people, theyre listening to me…

…first of all you’re going to be coercive and manipulative towards those people who are believing you because they’re like your trophies, they’re how you know you’re somebody 

…but also you are going to be death on the people who reject you because when people reject you they reject your very somebodyness your very self, who you are! 

when your self image is based on your performance and people reject you you say things like “lord shall we call down fire on those unbelievers??” 

this is the thing the world sees happening with people who have exclusive religious truth claims and they’re scared of it and they should be scared of it and they’re repulsed by it and they should be! 

and Jesus begins to see it happening in this group of people and he sys 

rejoice not that you’ve got all this power, rejoice not in your performance …. i’ve got a better way … but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.’

what’s that mean?

In the Ancient world the belief was that when you die and face divine judgement in heaven the books would be opened - the divine accounts ledgers - and if your good deeds outweighed your bad (that’s what religion is) then your name would be written into the book of life. 

And Jesus Christ says let me tell you what the gospel of grace is and means - the gospel means that your names ARE written in heaven. Already written down. Past tense - are written. How? My life is not over yet.. Not all the accounts are in. How do I know if i’ve done enough?? 

The gospel says you’re already in, you’re already accepted..

It’s a like going to a classy restaurant in the West End. 

You meet the Maitre D at the door, he says Yes??

and you say ‘I think my name is …’

And the Maitre D says ‘Yes, yes it is …come this way’

He ushers you through …into the opulent restaurant to your table

Your name has been written. Rejoice in that unshifting grace  

How can it be? 

When God, at great cost, rescued his people from Egypt. He sent Moses up the mountain to receive the ten commandments.  And when Moses returned back down the mountain the people were already worshipping idols! They’d already cheated on God. And Moses says to God - if you are going to blot them out of the book, blot my name out instead. Let me take the rap for them. And God says I will blot them from my book but now you continue to lead them. How can God blot our names and yet continue to bless us? Because Jesus achieved what Moses offered but could not actually have achieved. Jesus took our sins and was blotted from the book of life for us. So that our names may be written in. 

And they are written in. We are saved. We are secure. We are in the clear forever! Rejoice not in your brief successes, achievements, strengths ..Rejoice not in POWER , Rejoice in Grace. 

And it’s this motivation that enables Christians to regard and speak to others in a way that is full of peace and humilty, honour and respect. To be agents of peace in our diverse world.  We are NOT morally, spiritually superior. Christians are not better people, or even necesarily good people, we’re forgiven people. We would expect therefore to find morally better people who are of other religions and no religion. In the final analysis we’re really not superior. We’ve stumbled upon grace. That we are asked to share. 

Dethroning Mammon - Matthew 6:19-24

Jesus spoke more about money than any other subject.
Partly because money talks, money -practically- gets things done. the generous giving of people who have been part of our church these past nearly 7 years has enabled us to turn this building from a semi derelict shell into a community resource and there’s much more to do. generosity is vital, we as a church plant receive no denominational funding we are entirely dependent on our congregation’s giving.  money is a practical issue. I’ll say a bit more about that at the end.

but money is also a spiritual issue. The way we think about money and what we do with our money is unavoidably linked to our spiritual life and growth - to our happiness! Jesus said you cannot love both God and money. Whether you’re rich and you have loads of it or poor and you don’t have any the Love of money will suffocate your relationship with God. So... money...It’s a practical issue. It’s a spiritual issue. 

v24 ‘No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.' 

Money has spiritual power says Jesus. The word, as you probably know, that Jesus uses is the word Mammon. The personification of wealth, riches, security. Money is just money but Money can rise up and take a form in our lives that rivals the place of God. Mammon - A Master that demands our service. That’s where we begin. 

1. Mammon masters us. 

Robert Bresson (was a French film director died in 1999. influential. 13 films over 40 year period). theme of money runs through all of his films to the point that his last film is called l’argent. money. It’s the story of a delivery man who gets involved in passing a forged note initially unwittingly and yet as you follow the trail of this forged note and the people who surround it with their love of money this man eventually ends up murdering a whole family. he’s in prison as a result and he has a conversation with one of his fellow prisoners who says to him. “i want happiness now on my own terms. Oh money, visible god, what wouldn’t we do for you?” 

It's a powerful image isn’t it. a £50 note - a visible god calling for our allegiance. saying ‘serve me’. 

Why would you serve money? seems ridiculous on the face of it - that a wad of notes in your pocket, or a string of numbers on your bank statement - has the power to control your life? 

I guess status or significance would cause you to serve money. the things that money can buy!
But probably for most of us in our circumstances it’s about security isn’t it? if i have enough money in the bank, enough treasure stored up ...then i’ll feel safe.

Mammon masters us. A rival god. Well, Jesus sets out the alternatives plainly. You either trust in money to provide for your needs or you trust in the God who created and controls all the worlds resources - who feeds the birds of the air and clothes the grass of the fields.
If you trust in money there is no room for God in your life.
You cannot serve both God and Mammon. Mammon wants to master us. 

let’s track back a bit now to vv22-23. pull the lens back and here’s a tough thing. Jesus seems to say in vv22-23 that it’s not obvious when you’re serving two masters. it’s not obvious when you’ve begun to love money.

2. Mammon deceives us

v22 ‘The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

The verses sound a little bit strange but i think the point is fairly simple. eyes let in light and allow us to navigate our body around space. so, if i was to turn and walk in that direction... because there’s light coming into my eyes i can navigate my way around the piano etc..
but if you were to blindfold and spin me round and then set me off - i’d crash!

And Jesus seems to say at the end of v23 that you can reach a position where you think that you are in the light and yet you are in darkness. and how great then is that darkness. You have become self deceived. I think he’s saying that money has the power to deceive us. we’re serving it. but we don’t realise that we’re serving it until it destroys us. It’s very subtle. Money has the power to make us spiritually blind to it’s power. 

How does Mammon deceive us? What are the destructive lies that we’re being fed? I’ve chosen 3 from Archbishop Justin Welby's excellent new book Dethroning Mammon (Mark Carney was photographed reading it on the tube)

1. Mammon shapes us to value most things that we can see and measure

Justin Welby tells the story of a lawyer friend who was handling the settlement of a divorce for the wife of a very wealthy man. the man had submitted to the courts a figure for his available wealth that seemed to be well below the truth. The lawyer asked the wife whether she had any idea how much he was worth and she was able to immediately respond with what was discovered to be the exact figure. How did she know? Well she knew because this wealthy man’s main occupation had been to weekly calculate the value of his liquid assets so that he could enjoy basking in how much he was worth. 

Here’s the great deception: While he sat counting what he had something of far greater value - his marriage - was slipping away. Since he could not count his marriage he did not value it, Since he couldn’t measure it it didn’t define him. Yet he valued and was defined by his money. Mammon had deceived him into calculating everything on the basis of mammon’s values not those of Jesus Christ. 

This happens everywhere and has always happened. 

Think of the response when Mary anointed Jesus’ feet with perfume worth a years wages - what a waste! 

Or, think of the response when a highly gifted woman decides not to go back to her successful career but instead stays home to be a mother or worse starts working for the church - what a waste! 

Welby writes: “the problem with materialism - this prioritising of the tangible - is not that it exists but that it dominates. It shouts so loudly that it overides our caring for other things which we cannot see or measure but are of far greater value” (p41) 

- relationships, the church, the environment, our children’s future..  

Mammon shapes us to value most the things that we can see and measure

2. Mammon preaches an economy of scarcity that compels us to hold on to our money.. 

Scarcity - we’re using up the world’s resources, jobs are few - we need to accumulate and hold on to money. 

The Economy of scarcity of course breeds fear. 

Welby again: “Fear is a powerful tool of Mammon …and much of our politics draws on that fear.. So we are taught to fear the outsider and the stranger, especially the needy stranger. Fear has a crippling effect on any country or society. It encourages extremism and populism in politics. It establishes a hermeneutic of suspicion, a way of looking at the world which begins all relationships with the question ‘what are they trying to get out of me?” (p72)

We live in a world of abundance. There is plenty enough for every person’s need. But Mammon causes us to embrace the fear of scarcity, and that fear drives us to selfishness and to grasping what we hold ever more tightly.

third and final deception 

3. Mammon teaches us to treat what we receive as ours

It’s my money to dispose of how i choose. 

A few years ago in the UK there was a small tax increase for people on the highest levels of income. Quite a number of those affected seemed to find the imposition of extra tax to be entirely unreasonable, describing it as socialist confisaction or quote ‘worse than the nazis’. And some left the country to avoid the oppressive UK system. Now, many of those people, we know, are generous philanthropists. They have set up foundations to give away money to worthy causes. But this is the point - it’s their money to dispose of how they choose. (Welby, p59-60)

Dont’ you think like that? It’s my money. I own it. 

But the problem with that belief, which Mammon encourages, is that if we own money, money can own us. If the relationship is that close. We think we’re using money but money is using us. Controlling us through worry. Distracting us from deeper matters…

Mammon deceives us, blindfolds us.. and we don’t know it until it’s too late and we are pierced by many griefs. People come pastorally and talk to me about all kinds of things but nobody ever wants to talk about their problems with money controlling their life..

Mammon masters and deceives us 

How then do we 

3 DETHRONE MAMMON    

our third point 

v19 Jesus says ‘Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. (Don’t deceive yourselves. It doesn’t last. It’s not secure. You can’t take it with you) 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

What does Jesus mean by ‘store up treasures in heaven?’ 

Remember, heaven is not a future state, It is the place from which now God rules over all.  So i think Jesus is asking us to use money in a life centred around the rule of God.His rule is the most important thing. It’s that which is to grip our hearts not money. that’s why he ends this whole section of teaching, this chapter with v33 seek first God’s kingdom and his righteousness and all other things will be given to you as well. 

Dethrone Mammon by Enthroning Christ 

What does that look like? Well, by worshipping Jesus we train ourselves to look at the world differently - not by the values of Mammon but of Christ 

That will mean:  

1. valuing not simply things which we can see or measured because 'what is not measurable may be valuable beyond measure.' (p40) 

Mary anointing Jesus’ feet - from one point of view could be seen as the waste of a years wages but from another as the preparation for the burial of the body of God which would be denied Jesus when the time came. A recognition of the act of supreme value (the death of Jesus) enshrined in Scripture for eternity. No wonder Mary poured out her most valued possession. She wanted to pur out her life! 

The talented woman who doesn’t return to her career but serves her child and her church (and incidentally i’m not making any judgements about what forms christian motherhood should take! why shouldn't it be a father remaining at home? what i am saying is that that decision) could be seen as a sorry waste of a life. But that would be to dance to Mammon’s tune. Perhaps that woman (or man) has a greater calling. Some things are more valuable than what we can see or measure.. 

We can’t see the future. We can’t easily see what we are doing to the environment. We can’t readily measure the effect of art, of kindness. And yet these things ARE the truly valuable things. Dethroning Mammon means valuing not simply things which we can see or measure

2. Dethroning Mammon means proclaiming not an economy of scarcity but an economy of abundance      

Our creator is not a God of scarcity but a God of abundant ‘ludicrous’ generosity. Of beautiful flowers that bloom only for a day, of sunsets, of rainfall, of more manna in the wilderness than could ever be collected; of the abundance of wine at the wedding at Cana! of the basketfuls of leftovers after the feeding of the 5000, Our God is the Father who gave us THE indescribable GIFT OF HIS OWN SON!!!  

Yes, our dismissive attitude to the value of that which we cannot see and measure - the environment, the future, - and our fear of scarcity causing us to accumulate and hold on has resulted in the raping of our planet; the unthinking consumption of resources. In God’s economy there is not enough for man’s greed … but there is more than enough for man’s need. Enough for everyone. 

As God’s people we need to repent and retrain ourselves (through worship) to see the world in terms of abundance. Generous giving of our money (and it’s not just money, some of us hardly have any! - it’s also our time, our energy, our talents, our love) sustains and empowers the church and shares with the poor but more than that it dethrones Mammon. Radical Generosity drives out fear and hatred. We need to proclaim an economy not of grasping scarcity but of rich abundance. 

finally 

3. Dethroning Mammon means treating what we have received not as ours (singular, personal, familial) but as ‘ours’ (plural, everybody, it’s for all) 

The possession of wealth (money, talents, time) is a God given gift to serve others, to identify with people, to show solidarity, to build relationships of abundance and grace and to change the world for the better. 

That’s what money is for. 

[The Bible] is agnostic about the money and power you already have. [What The Bible is interested in is] how you use that money and power - whether you put it in the service of God, and use it to wash the feet of the world; or whether you put it in the service of Mammon, and use it to insulate yourself from those whose feet smell bad. (p97) 

Welby says we should not be without hope! He cites numerous examples of what a society looks like in which Christ is enthroned and Mammon Dethroned. 

The post second world war ‘Marshall Plan.’ which saw the USAtransfer what would be in todaysterms hundreds of billions of dollars in aid and support for the collapsed economies of both the vanquished and the victors on the continent of Europe. 

The National Health Service. ensuring that every sick person would have treatment at the point of need. 

The UK government’s Department for International Development which has become a world leader, improving, over the last years, the lives of over 100 million of the world’s poorest children and their families inspite of recession and a remorseless attack by the press and many in parliament. 

Jubilee 2000 - the international coalition movement that secured the cancellation of more than a $100 billion of debt owed by 35 of the world’s poorest countries. 

All the people who worked to make these things a reality were enthroning Christ over Mammon, whether they knew it or not. And for many of them this was their conscious motivation. 

'When Mammon is dethroned and Christ takes his place we do not have cruelty but love and grace. We do not have shortage but abundance and human flourishing. We do not have deception, we have truth.' 

How do we dethrone mammon in our own lives? recognising the value of the unseen; noticing the manna that daily God lavishes upon our lives? 

It begins with Worship - centering, weekly and daily, our whole attention on the beauty and generosity of God. 

And then there needs to be repentance - a practical outworking of generosity in the way in which we live our lives. How are you using the gifts God has given you for others?

I spoke about financial giving to church. Our church relies on congregational giving to exist and grow in a fiercely expensive city. We’re always up against it so please give generously to our church. At Easter we will be 7 years old and after Easter we will have a whole church meeting to present a draft vision for the next 7-10 years. Hopefully a compelling vision from God that you can give to! Enabling us to be a community of celebration and abundance in which , the outsider, the alien and the stranger are welcomed and where they may find company and healing and hope…

Luke 9:43b-62 James May

Welcome, particularly if you are new here or are visiting, my name is James and I'm on the leadership team here at St Barnabas.

Over the last few weeks we have been looking at the Gospel account of Luke, and today we are looking at this very important passage which indicates a major turning point in Jesus’s ministry when he seems to turn from what seemed to be a highly successful and popular ministry which involved miraculous healing, to directing his journey towards Jerusalem where he knew he would face death. This journey itself begins in verse 51, which says, ‘Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem’, but in verses 43-45, he is giving his disciples a warning about what is to come. 

I was cycling to work on one of the icy mornings last week, and I was just reminding myself that the only times I have ever come off my bike we're going round corners in conditions like this, when I gently pulled into a turn, a car slowly approached the junction, and in readjusting my turn my wheels slipped from under me in almost precisely the same way as the previous 3 occasions, grazing my knee, tearing my glove, and making me feel more foolish than I had planned when I got out of bed. When I recounted this, a ‘friend’ commented, ‘you, saw it coming and it still got you’. 

The future is largely unknown to us, as those of us who followed the Federer, Rafa final today are well aware. We can hope, and we can plan, we can expect, but we can never be sure what is going to happen. We only see life backwards, after the event. 

The question the disciples faced again and again in this passage was should they trust themselves and their ideas for the future, or should they trust Jesus and his plans. 

For ourselves the question looks something like this. What if our life does not go according to our plans? Do we blame God for things not turning out as we’d hoped? Do we doubt God’s goodness or his kindness? We may experience life to be hard at times, and we may feel that following God makes it harder still – and we are caused to ask – is it worth it? 

Our personal struggles may give us enough reason to doubt whether God really cares for us, but even if things are going well for us personally, it doesn't take much reflection to realise that the question about whether God really cares is very profound. The catastrophic disasters of the last century do not really need listing, except that by naming them we can remind ourselves of how bad things can get, from the horrors of trench warfare, to the horrific mass killings, such as the Rape of Nanking, Auschwitz, and the Rwandan genocide, and today the war in Syria is just the most prominent of current conflicts. 

How do we have hope, and how do we trust God about the future when the past is so full of disappointments, and terrors? And yet we live with unparalleled wealth and health around the world. For a great many people life seems to be going very well.  

Richard Dawkins, looks around the world and eloquently draws this stark conclusion, ‘In a universe of electrons and selfish genes, blind physical forces and genetic replication, some people are going to get hurt, other people are going to get lucky, and you won’t find any rhyme or reason in it, nor any justice. The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but pitiless indifference.’ 

But despite this, we find it very difficult not to hope, to think that it is all meaningless, that there is no good, or evil, and nothing but indifference. We feel passionate and angry about many of the things that happen in our lives, and we don't aspire to pitiless indifference either in ourselves or in anyone else. If humans are capable of this we call them sociopaths, being pathological because it is a diseased state, rather than a good and natural state of being. Nevertheless Dawkins is pointing out that in the face of the facts it seems we are strictly all deluded to live differently as if there is such a thing as goodness or purpose. 

Our passage takes us on a journey which is both very challenging and surprising in its answers to these questions. It seems to me that the most important words in the passage are found in verse 44, when Jesus says, ‘listen carefully to what I am about to tell you.’ Luke did not record these words as a sort of engaging space filler to keep our attention. He understood that Jesus said this in all seriousness, and we would do well to listen ourselves because Jesus is clearly saying something of great importance. We know that because he makes an extended point in verse 45 about how they had apparently not listened to him. He writes, ‘But they did not understand what this meant.’ And then reinforces it again, saying, ‘It was hidden from them, so that they did not grasp it, and they were afraid to ask him about it.’ 

One conclusion might be that Jesus is not a very good teacher if he cannot convey such a simple message to them. But another is that there are some things that we find so uncomfortable and which have such massive implications, that even though we hear them, we may go into denial, or take a long time to accept the painful truth, or to begin to understand what the consequences are. Until the end of the chapter Jesus has a long list of such lessons which need listening too, but which are truly painful and difficult to hear and understand. 

If we try and inhabit the minds and experiences of the disciples, we may begin to see why they could not grasp what Jesus was saying. Luke's words are very sparse, and we need to pause over each phrase if we are to understand what he says. In the second half of verse 43, Luke simply records the background reality into which Jesus’ words were spoken. ‘While everyone, was marvelling at all that Jesus did.’ 

Now we know that Jesus did have people who opposed and rejected him in earlier chapters such as his home town of Nazareth, and many religious leaders, but even here it is clear that he was having a profound impact on everyone, and it seemed that the vast majority marvelled at all he did. This made it impossible for those who would plot to harm him to do anything for fear of causing a riot and risking bringing down the wrath of the Romans who did not tolerate disturbances in their provinces. 

So the disciples seemed to believe that they were following the true Messiah who had such power and such charisma that he would be able to reestablish the nation of Israel and kick out the Roman oppressors. His popular movement could not be going any better at this point. Which is why Jesus needed to ask them to listen carefully, when he predicts that he will be delivered into the hands of men. 

We should not give the impression that Jesus was changing his plans at this point, rather it was the disciples understanding of Jesus’s plans that needed changing. In his early ministry his miracles were interspersed with teachings which the authorities and disciples found hard to accept. And on his way to Jerusalem he continues to perform remarkable miracles. Rather this moment was a drawing together of all that had happened and the inevitable outcome was becoming clearer, and more defined, not least in the mind of Jesus himself. 

Jesus was never a populist in the sense that we have come to know populism today. Rather the opposite. Today's populists seem to say things which appeal to huge numbers of people, but do not have the capability to follow through in reality, and sometimes haven't lived lives which match up to their grand acclamations. Jesus, however, seemed to teach things which were very hard to accept, and had already predicted his death, but clearly had the power to do great things, and had the kind of life that people couldn't help being attracted by. 

His miracles were of such a commanding and remarkable nature that those who witnessed them should have listened to his words more carefully. When he calmed the storm in chapter 8, he asked the disciples, ‘where is your faith?’ because they should have known by this point who it was that they were dealing with. And they asked themselves, ‘who is this that even the wind and the waves obey him?’ This was presumably a rhetorical question. They knew from the Old Testament that it was God alone who controlled the wind and the waves. But they couldn't quite come out and give the answer their question demanded.

Jesus’ life and actions were of a different order from anyone else, and the disciples should have listened to his words carefully, because these were not some contestable words of some dubious populist, but the authoritative words of God himself. His miracles provided indisputable evidence that his words had authority. He is capable of removing the pains from our world, and he will do exactly that in the future, but there is a deeper problem which needs sorting out first – the problem of the human heart – and that is a problem which requires a more painful solution. 

However, the disciples seem to have taken a rather selective approach to who Jesus was and what he taught, preferring to suppress the awkward bits of his teachings, and get excited by the more appealing things, perhaps because they were so impressed by the crowds who marvelled at everything he did. So for them there remained very difficult questions. How can it be that Jesus who is so loved by everyone will be delivered into the hands of men?  And what about their hopes and dreams for the future? All would be lost. And so they simply could not grasp what Jesus was saying, and even if they had an inkling, they were afraid to ask about it.

Is it possible that even though we know in our heads how events unfolded, and that Jesus was crucified and then was raised to life again, that we also do not want to believe what Jesus is saying here because it is too uncomfortable for us? Jesus I think says to us all, ‘listen carefully to what I am about to tell you.’ We have our dreams and desires for what we want out of life, but this is not the road Jesus takes us down. 

You see we easily doubt God's goodness when things don't go our way. This wasn't a new problem that came with Jesus, but it goes back to the book of Genesis and the Garden of Eden, which records the serpent casting doubt on God's words, ‘did God really say do not eat the fruit of any tree in the garden?’ Which of course God did not say in the first place, but the seeds of doubt were sown, and in our hearts we all have the natural inclination to doubt that God has our best interests at heart, which is why Jesus says, ‘listen carefully’. What did God really say? 

Did he promise us miraculous healing and relief from the pains of this life? Did he come to swish away all our problems and give us every good gift in this present world? We have our ideas of how the future should look, and we faithfully pray for these outcomes, but we can be discouraged and even lose our faith if things don't turn out as we imagine they should if God really has our best interests at heart.

But the truth is we have never been able to fathom Gods purposes. We live on a tiny planet in a corner of a universe 13.5 billion light years across, so vast that we cannot begin to comprehend it. Psalm 8 says, ‘When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of the, human beings that you care for them?’ God’s perspective is so far beyond ours that we cannot begin to grasp it. 

It doesn't take much reflection to realise this. God's creation includes genetic mutations which are necessary for evolution to occur, and yet these same mutations cause cancer which can kill us. The tectonic plates that recycle carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and make mountains and oceans also cause earthquakes which destroy. Sickness and death is built into God's world. The universe itself will die in time – it will either grow old and cold, or it will collapse in on itself. And then there is the catalogue of destruction of humans against humans that I have already listed. How do we understand God's purposes in all this? Is Richard Dawkins right? Is it just about whether we get lucky? 

In the Old Testament, Job experienced a life of very great suffering, and yet he was in the end rebuked by God for presuming to question God's purposes. In chapter 42 Job says this to God, ‘I know you can do all things, I know that no plan of yours can be thwarted. You asked, ‘who is this who obscures my plans without knowledge?’ Surely I spoke of things I do not understand, things too wonderful for me to know.’ Job concludes, ‘My ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.’ 

Is Job just being foolish? A vulnerable man who is being bullied by God, when he should just admit that God, if he exists, is a cosmic psychopath who is blindly indifferent to the sufferings of human beings? 

We’ll come back to these questions, but for now we'll follow the passage a bit further.

The disciples are often unfairly criticised by modern commentators in my view for having such a vain and foolish discussion in verse 46 about who is the greatest. However, I wonder if there is not a general truth about human nature in their argument, which all of us are capable of and we would be missing the point to think they were being particularly obtuse here.

Their vision for the future sprung from their own wish fulfilment, and was therefore a human construction, in which as Jesus’s inner circle of disciples they could only imagine that they would end up with important jobs with their mate Jesus as boss. The last of the Ten Commandments is, ‘do not envy your neighbour,’ exactly because this is our natural instinct. If we do not define ourselves according to God's word, then we have to find our place in the order of things. Some have said we either reach out for demagogues or dictators who will tell us what to do, or we will follow fashion. But either way we compare ourselves with others in order to give our lives some purpose, and in doing so we feed the disappointment of realising that in such a world, Richard Dawkins is right, some people get lucky and others don't. 

Jesus’ answer gently points out that they could not be more wrong. In his world it is the least who is the greatest. This again is hard teaching to hear. Humility is more important than status in his world, when we put so much effort into trying to define our place in the hierarchy. And yet within a moment they are at it again in verse 49, as someone they didn't know was apparently casting our demons in Jesus’ name. Jesus here refuses to create divisions between insiders and outsiders, but rather sees all who are pursuing the right thing as being on the same side. 

But yet again the disciples failed to grasp what Jesus was saying, seeing the rejection by the Samaritan village in verse 53 as a reason to condemn because they believed they were defending their masters honour, and again Jesus rebuked the disciples. This too is a hard lesson, since they were now moving from a place where everyone marvelled at Jesus, to a place where he was not appreciated or welcomed. They still had not absorbed the truth that Jesus was to be delivered into the hands of men. 

Crowds can be fickle, and adulation at one moment can turn into vitriol the next. When they were to arrive in Jerusalem, they would find that the crowds would welcome Jesus with Hosannas and palm branches and a few days later would be crying out ‘crucify him’.

The disciples themselves who were so keen to defend his honour in the Samaritan village, run away, hide, desert and deny even knowing Jesus.

The purposes of God are simply much bigger than ours. We would want to win these small victories for our own egos but Jesus knows that the biggest problem we have is the problem of our hearts, and this cannot be solved by populist uprisings or quick fixes which appeal to our vanity. 

In verses 57-62, Jesus drives his message home more clearly in listing examples of what we might have to give up if we are to follow him. There is a cost to discipleship. We may have all sorts of wishes, to have the normal comforts such as even the animals have in verse 58, with fixes having holes and birds nests, or fulfilling our family duties before following him. Or we may be tempted to turn back and look at what we might have had if we didn't follow him. 

The German Theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote a book called, the cost of discipleship. He opens his book provocatively saying, ‘Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of the church’. He argues that we distort the good message of grace to our own advantage, that Jesus has given us everything for free by dying for us, so that we do not have to do anything to be accepted and loved by God. 

He writes, ‘Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance… Absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Christ, living and incarnate.’ 

On the other hand he writes, ‘Costly grace is the treasure hidden in a field; for the sake of it a man will gladly sell all that he has. It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble, it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him…. Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow,, and it is grace because it calls us to follow him. 

The teachings of Jesus in this passage are therefore very hard, and the disciples and followers of Jesus were constantly looking for cheap grace, when all that Jesus has to offer is costly grace. 

But it is the great paradox of this story, that the disciples did actually listen. At the beginning of his gospel account Luke writes ‘Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have happened among us, from those who were from the first, eye witnesses and servants of the word. I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning.’ 

So it seems certain that the only way we know about these conversations between Jesus and the disciples would be their own reports to those who compiled the gospel accounts. The disciples present themselves as stubborn fools who failed to listen to the words of Jesus. Years later, after Jesus had been crucified and raised from the dead, they did grasp and understand what he had said to them all those years before. They were no longer competing to be the greatest, or holding onto their sense of pride. Instead they had become like children, putting all their faith in Jesus alone, and telling the gospel writers just how stupid they had been. They present the story of Jesus going to the cross, not Jesus the populist. 

Far from being an uncaring God who is indifferent to our sufferings, Jesus participates in our sufferings, and suffers so that our hearts may be healed of their pride and their rebellion, and that we can can follow him by serving others without regard for what it might cost us. 

It would be a strange thing to do to invent a religion in which the heroes were such fools, and in which the main character is crucified. But the disciples had learnt the deep truth of costly Grace – following Jesus may be hard, but it is worth it. They could easily be quoting Job saying, ‘My ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.’ 

Perhaps then we too should wrestle with these truths over months and years because they are so against everything that is instinctive to us. Our human inclinations are for cheap grace, for easy solutions, and for avoiding uncomfortable truths. But the costly Grace of Jesus may lead us to suffer now, for a greater prize in the future. When life seems hard, we need to remind ourselves that Jesus didn't promise it would be easy, but it is worth it because if who he is. We are asked to follow him.

Let us pray, ‘Heavenly Father we confess that we do not listen carefully to your words. We fail to see that you have warned us that there is a cost to following you, and we feel disappointed, and start to doubt your goodness when life does not go the way we feel it should. We pray that we would be reminded that far from avoiding suffering, you chose the road to the cross because you wish to solve the problem of pride in our hearts, and we know you alone have the power to do this. We pray that you would help us to listen carefully to what you say, so that we are not misled by our own desires and plans. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.’

Luke 9:28-45

Martin Scorcese’s new film Silence. Many of you will have seen it. Based on the novel of the same name by the Japanese Roman Catholic author Shusako Endo. It is, i think, a stunning, eviscerating film. It tells the story of two young Jesuit Priests in the mid 17thC who enter Japan, where Christians are undergoing brutal persecutions - torture, beheadings, crucifixions - (The very things incidentally that are happening today to christians in Aleppo). The young Jesuits go in search of an older Priest who had been their mentor and who, it is rumoured, has apostasized: abandoned the faith. It is a story about the challenge of faith in the face of violent persecution. A story about incomprehensible suffering and the silence of God. 

Why would God permit these people to suffer so much? Asks the young Father Rodriguez. And why is God silent? 

It is suffering which so often causes us to question God - his trustworthiness, his reality. 

We come, i presume, to trust and love God because we encounter his goodness, his glory; his love in Jesus Christ. He spoke to us through the Scriptures and became real to us. And we would love to stay in that place. That mountain top experience of God. Peter, on the mount of transfiguration wants to build shelters to keep Moses and Elijah and Jesus there - to hold onto the glory; Make it last forever. But life with God is not lived on the mountain top but in the valley; in the real world of spiritual struggle where the other disciples in our passage find themselves. 

Life, for the most part, is full of stuggles isn’t it? For many in our world right now their lot is extreme poverty and hunger or violence, war, persecution, homelessness and loss. Even if we do not find our selves in such desperate circumstances we all know what it is to struggle - often alone - with disappointments, deep sadnesses, unrealised dreams, broken or difficult relationships, emotional problems, mental or physical illness, addictions and compulsions. Life is full of pains and griefs. 

Well how are we to think about God and suffering?

Our tendency in our culture is to think that all should be healthy and painless and well. That should be what God would want for us and therefore as contemporary followerers or would-be followers of Jesus Christ when suffering comes we stop trusting that God is in control - he’s absent and we feel that he has abandoned us - He is silent. 

In this section of Luke’s gospel. Focus has changed from ‘who Jesus is’ to ‘what it means to follow him’.

Jesus is teaching his disciples how they are to cope in the real world of spiritual struggle. He’s just told them that suffering is coming - that he - the Christ is going to suffer and die! and following him will mean sacrifice for them. But now he takes his 3 closest followers up the mountain to reassure them that he is always in control and that he is not silent. 

And there are 2 things that disciples in a broken world must do: 

they must [Stop], Look and Listen  

Look at Jesus 

Listen to Jesus 

Keep looking, keep listening 

1. LOOK at Jesus 

If our tendency when suffering comes is to lose our heads - our trust in God goes, he becomes abstract, our belief in his reality wavers, prayer dries up… We need to look to see that he is in control 

28 About eight days after Jesus said this [- that is: telling his disciples about his death and the cost of following him], he took Peter, John and James with him and went up onto a mountain to pray. 29 As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning. 

What a sight this must have been. as Jesus is transfigured. for a moment the veil is lifted and Jesus’ true identity and glory as the eternal son of God is revealed. the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning. 

Look at who he is. 

v30 Two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared in glorious splendour, talking with Jesus. 

There’s a lot of chat about why Moses and Elijah are here. Moses represents the law, Elijah the prophets - ok. Jesus is like Moses because he’s leading the people of God into a new era and he’s like Elijah because he is promised to come again in the future.. 

But isn’t it really just because Moses and Elijah are the two most heavyweight dudes from the OT and they’re on Jesus’ team. AndJesus is shown to be far greater even than they!

31 They spoke about Jesus’ departure, which he was about to bring to fulfilment at Jerusalem. And Peter wants to hold onto the glory - he doesn’t want them to leave. The cloud - always associated with the glorious presence of God - comes down. And If the presence of Moses and Elijah wasn’t affirmation enough.. God the Father speaks.. 35 A voice came from the cloud, saying, ‘This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.’ 

this is my Son! Jesus is the Son of God. The Father bursts with pride and can’t contain himself. Like that interview with Bert Le Clos by Clare Balding at the 2012 Olympics when His son, Chad Le Clos the South African swimmer had just won the gold medal in the 100m butterfly, Bert sees his son and is just overcome, "Look at my boy, Look at my son, he’s beautiful, he’s beautiful,"

This is my Son - the Father bursting with pride affirms Jesus. Jesus is the Son of God. 

But 'Son of God' is also a title that Scripture gives to the Messiah, the promised deliverer King That’s who Jesus is: Son of God, the rescuer King of glory. Nothing escapes his control. Look at who he is - clothed in Lightning! 

When suffering comes and remains we do not know what the reason for it is, but we know what the reason is not. It is not because God is not in control, or is not there, or doesn’t care. Jesusis the King. One day his glory will transfigure and heal this whole sad world. 

—

The next day v37 Jesus and the 3 come down the mountain. Back into the real world of spiritual struggle. And down in the valley the other disciples have been confronted with the pain of a poor family’s predicament. A man who has a son, his only child. And the child has quote ‘a spirit that seizes him and he suddenly screams; it throws him into convulsions so that he foams at the mouth. It scarcely ever leaves him and is destroying him.’  

What a terrible thing. What awful suffering. The disciples have tried to help but their faith has gone even before they even started. "how could God allow this? where is God?" They do not pray.. 

40 I begged your disciples to drive it out, says the man but they could not.’ 

Jesus rebukes his disciples for their unbelief. they are a part of a faithless and crooked generation. And then Jesus himself in his compassion and power heals the boy and gives him back to his father. 

Look at who Jesus is. He is not absent.  

Be reassured. he is in control

It’s not easy to trust in the face of struggle. We need the Holy spirit’s help to see with the eyes of our hearts. To see jesus deeply, trulyin a way that really changes us. We need to Pray. 

Pause to pray. Open our eyes to see. 

Look at Jesus - he is not absent 

2. Listen to Jesus 

If our tendency when suffering comes is to despair ..to think that God is silent, that he has abandoned us.. We need to listen to Jesus.. We need to Listen to him about his death.

This is my son, my chosen, listen to him says God the Father in v35 This is my son, my chosen, listen to him

Just as ‘My Son’ is a reference to a title in the OT - a title for the promised deliverer King - the Messiah/the Christ 

‘My Chosen’ is also a reference to an OT figure that Jesus is the fulfilment of. The mysterious figure of ‘the servant’ in the prophecies of Isaiah - He is the ‘chosen one of God.’ (Isaiah 41:9, 42:1, 43:10), The servant….Chosen … to suffer ….for US. 

Remember Isaiah 53 

He was pierced for our transgressions, 

he was bruised for our iniquities, 

The punishment that brought us peace was upon him, 

and by his wounds we are healed  

Jesus is the suffering servant - Listen to him 

When Jesus speaks with Moses and Elijah on the mount of transfiguration they speak v31 about his departure, his death .. 

strange conversation to have. But actually that word there translated departure, if you look in the footnote, is the greek word for 'exodus'. Of course exodus means departure but in the Jewish mind it means so so much more…Because in the exodus/passover event the death of the lambs meant the rescue of Israel - departing the slavery ofEgypt for the freedom of the promised land. 

Jesus, in his untimely, unjust death, shows us how seemingly inexplicable suffering can have a redemptive purpose. How suffering will ultimately give way to glory: The death of the lamb will mean the redemption of the world from the slavery of sin and sickness and suffering and death. 

Listen to jesus about his suffering. About who he is for you and for the world. 

Look at what Jesus says to his disciples down in the valley after he has healed the boy. v43 

While everyone was marvelling at all that Jesus did, he said to his disciples, 44 ‘Listen carefully to what I am about to tell you: [literally: let these words sink into your ears] the Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men.’ 

Listen to Jesus about his suffering for you

There’s a scene towards the end of Scorceses’ Silence when the persecutions are long past, christianity has been suppressed in Japan and one of the priests Father Rodriguez after many years begins to pray again.. And a voice plays in his head, perhaps it is the voice of God. It says. “I suffered with you. I was not silent”

The suffering of Jesus with us, and for us is God’s constant word to us in the midst of our sufferings. God has spoken and continues to speak in the sufferings of the Son of God. He is not silent. 

Listen to him. Let these words sink into your ears

This week. Struggling to handle some disappointment: I’d been helping with arts club and hardly anybody turned up! I kept praying and nobody was coming through the door. God was silent. (Actually a handful of lovely people did come and we think people are just not in the pattern of it yet.) But i took it personally. It felt at the time like a rejection. And i found myself saying to God,  "Lord, we’re trying to do something for you; make you known - why are you letting this happen?? Why are you silent??" And then I thought about this sermon and what Jesus might say to my 'Why is it so hard. Why do people reject us?' 

Jesus would say,  'I was rejected, I was deserted, I’m not silent'

When you’re let down or turned on by colleagues at work or even friends. And you say 'Why is this happening God? Why are you silent??'

Jesus says I was deserted, I was betrayed. I am not silent. 

When you Lose everything you have, even your very life. 'How can God allow this?? God, why are you silent?'

Jesus says I was crucified. I am not silent

Listen to Jesus about his suffering for you

Of course just as it is not easy to Look, to see.. it is not easy to Listen and hear . the disciples did not understand v45. They didn’t understand what it meant when Jesus said he would suffer they did not grasp it. v45

We need the Holy Spirit’s help to have ears to hear. To hear Jesus deeply, truly in a way that really changes us. To work his word into our bitter trials and disappointments until they bring a sweetness and a trust. 

Let’s pray.

Luke 9:1-27

Welcome. 

We're returning to Luke’s gospel. One of the 4 gospels; the 4 accounts of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We looked at the first 8 chapters of Luke last year. 

There is something in the human spirit, i think, that longs for adventure. Even those of us who just want a quiet life need some sense of purpose and achievement. Most of us are inspired by stories of courage and espionage - spy missions and military successes, we’re exhilharated by the achievements of explorers and adventurers and sportsmen and women. It draws out some desire in us for the same. we might compensate for our lack of adventure by starting a business or taking up an extreme sport, going on exotic holidays, having an affair or losing ourselves in novels or online fantasy worlds where we can be the potent hero that we are not in the real world.

we can’t all be james bond but surely we can be heros just for one day? 

Could it be that this sense that we are made for adventure and courage and sacrifice and joy is within us because we are made to be disciples of Jesus Christ? Because as we shall see the authentic christian life as jesus presents it to us is a life lived on Mission; an adventure of radical service and sacrifice and joy.

Here at the beginning of chapter 9 we reach a turning point in Luke’s gospel. Up to this point the main focus has been the Identity of Jesus. Who is he? Now, as we enter the second half of the gospel Jesus begins preparing his disciples for his departure and suffering and the focus shifts to what it means to follow Jesus. What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus? 

Actually the two themes are closely linked and overlap: what it means to follow Jesus is unavoidably connected with Who Jesus is. Questions of Jesus’ identity are sandwiched into this passage about following him. Did you notice? v 8 and then again in v18 Who do the crowds say jesus is? and then in v20 Jesus asks his disciples: who do you say I am? to which Peter answers ‘You are the Christ of God’. And Jesus says that’s right, I’m the promised deliverer SENT from God, to SERVE by SACRIFICING my life (v22) that the world might live. 

And around those insights into Jesus’ identity..What will it mean to be a disciple of Jesus? 

It will mean being SENT (vv1-6), to SERVE (vv10-17)  and it will mean (vv23-27) SACRIFICE

Perhaps you’re thinking about becoming a Christian. Perhaps you already are a Christian.What does it mean to follow Jesus? It means you are sent with Jesus; you serve with Jesus and you sacrifice with Jesus. He leads us on this adventure. He never asks us to do anything he hasn’t already done. And neither does he ask us to do anything alone- He is with us. 

Let’s look at each of these in turn 

1. vv1-6 Disciples are SENT with Jesus’…. authority. 

v1 Jesus called the 12 together. his first disciples, his inner circle and he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal those who were ill.” 

Now there’s something special and specific happening here: the 12 were sent to extend the very work that Jesus’ was then and there doing. Christians today are not, I believe, sent,  in the same way to instantaneously heal the sick and drive out demons in the way that Jesus and his Apostles did. However all disciples of Jesus in all ages are SENT to proclaim and live out the message of Jesus (the gospel) to a world sorely in need of the good news. (incidentally this will almost certainly include praying for healing and working to drive out injustice). Right at the end of Matthew’s gospel Jesus says to his followers. “All authority has been given to me, therefore GO and make disciples of ALL Nations.”

All Disciples are SENT with Jesus’ Authority to make other disciples - who will Go and make disciples. This isn’t just something for keen Christians or Vicars. 

We all must Go …because Jesus, with all authority, sends us

Not that we Go in an authoritarian way. This is not a crusade!  

Look at the very next verse. ‘Take nothing for the journey – no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra shirt. Whatever house you enter, stay there until you leave that town. 

You don’t go resourced and you don’t go collecting from house to house. We are to go in faith and dependence on God and on those who welcome us. Just as Jesus was sent from heaven with nothing for the journey, humble and utterly dependent - a new born child into a hostile world. so we are to go in humility and total dependence. 

...But also with proper confidence and conviction: v5  If people do not welcome you, leave their town and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.’ Rejection is NOT a sign to you - ‘you shouldn’t be doing this..what gives you the right? you’re offending people’ no - it’s a sign to them, a warning that they are rejecting God!

If you’re rejected Move on. It’s an urgent mission. Don’t be discouraged or put off. Be humble and confident. You go with the authority of Jesus.  

James Bond may have a licence to kill. Disciples of Jesus have a licence to tell. And not by the authority of Queen and country but by the authority of the King of Kings. We bring LIFE!

LIFE! We, as ambassadors, are involved in the greatest adventure of sharing Christ who gives salvation and life eternal! Life saving surgery, daring mountain rescues, military operations to save captives from a siege - they are all one thing. But disciples of Jesus are in the business of the renewal of the world and the salvation of lives for eternity.

What does it mean to be a follower of Jesus? It means to be SENT on Mission with Jesus.                  As the Father sent me so I am sending you, he says.

This ‘sentness’ is at the heart of what it means to be a Christian, at the heart of what it means to be the church. If it feels like there’s something missing from the heartbeat of your christian life or missing from our church it could be that you, that we are not heeding Jesus’ command to go - beyond our comfort zones, to cross the great divides with him to prayerfully, humbly make Jesus known, to speak of him, to make disciples. Who are you being sent to?

2. 

What does it mean to be a follower of jesus? 

It means to SERVE with Jesus’……. strength. 

10 When the apostles returned, (apostle incidentally means ‘one who is sent’!) they reported to Jesus what they had done. Then he took them with him and they withdrew by themselves to a town called Bethsaida, 11 but the crowds learned about it and followed him. He welcomed them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who needed healing.12 Late in the afternoon the Twelve came to him and said, ‘Send the crowd away so they can go to the surrounding villages and countryside and find food and lodging, because we are in a remote place here.’

Jesus and his disciples have retreated to a remote place but the crowds have followed and Jesusis willing to proclaim the gospel to them and heal those in need. And wonderfully, as the day draws in, the twelve are sensitive to the needs of the crowd: people need something to eat and they suggest to Jesus that he disperses the huge crowd to go and find food and lodging. that’s their solution. 

But Jesus sees this ‘problem’ as an opportunity to teach them what it means to be his disciples. 

v13 He replied “You give them something to eat.” You Serve

Well the disciples - end of v13 - had thought about serving the people but quickly rejected the idea in favour of their suggested solution of dispersing the 5000 to surrounding villages because a) we have only 5 loaves of bread and two fish - i.e not nearly enough food and b) unless we go and buy food for all this crowd - which of course would be impossible to find a takeaway able to fulfil the order even if we had the cash needed! We don\t have the resources. Solutions exhausted.. let’s send the crowd away. 

But of course there is another solution; another way that the disciples could feed the crowd… 

They had forgotten who was with them AND they’d forgotten their most basic Bible stories. The Exodus. Bread from heaven. Manna and Quail. They’d forgotten that GOD feeds his people in the wilderness. 

Jesus said to his disciples, v14 ‘Make the crowd sit down in groups of about fifty each.’ 15 The disciples did so, and everyone sat down. 16 Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke them. Then he gave them to the disciples to distribute to the people. 17 They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. 

Here’s the solution when Jesus asks you to serve. Realise that he intends to do the serving through You. He alone is the provider. He alone has the resources. But he wants to use us as vessels, as conduits of his love and service. 

Disciples are called to SERVE with the strength that Jesus provides 

It is an extraordinary miracle that Jesus performs. Lots of people have tried to explain it away. 

The supply of food came from a group of wealthy ladies. But where are they mentioned in the text? Jesus broke the food into tiny little bits. And everyone was satisfied? Jesus hypnotized the crowd into believing they were filled. I promise you that was a solution presented by two liberal theologians in the 1960s. Or maybe Jesus’ example of sharing led others to get out their packed lunches and share their food. But that’s just not the way Luke presents things and how do you explain the 12 basketfulls of left overs??! 

The only sane solution is that Jesus multiplied the food and provided bountifully in the wilderness just as God had done in the Exodus. Who is he? 

Disciples of Jesus are called to serve. 

But that is because Jesus wants to meet needs and he wants to do so through us! 

what an extraordinary thing! what an adventure serving could be if instead of getting exhausted with our own solutions or telling God what to do we asked Jesus to provide and stepped out in faith where we see him leading. 

Sent with Jesus, Serve with Jesus

Finally 

vv 21-27 

Disciples SACRIFICE with Jesus 

Jesus is the Christ of God. The promised deliverer King SENT to SERVE 

and the way he serves v 22 is by suffering and being rejected and killed before being raised to life

he SACRIFICES his life to bring LIFE 

23 Then he said to them all v23 : ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. 25 What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self? 26 Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.

Sacrifice. The cross, every day, is to shape the disciples life. 

The way of the cross is the way of death. 

If you’re going to trust God put Him in control of your life, submit to His ways, know His LIFE then you must deny yourself - die to yourself! If you want to save your life; keep control of your life then you’ll lose life because you inevitably say no to God. You might gain the whole world but if you’ve kept God at bay you lose your very self! The way of the cross is the way of death which leads to life. 

And The way of the cross is the way of rejection.

Jesus was rejected and despised …so will Christians who speak up for him be. If i want to save face in the eyes of the world i am ashamed of the rejected Jesus. If I choose to publicly associate myself with Jesus, my independent life is at an end. The way of the cross is the way of rejection 

It is of course a hard road. To be sent, to serve, to sacrifice. 

Jesus asks us for everything because he is everything. 

[ill. Going on holiday – one of my jobs is to pack the car. It really is my job, I want to do it with no interference – cos it’s quite scientific. The principle is this all the hard non-negotiables have to go in first – suitcases, travel cots, boxes of books and toys. Then when all of that is loaded – the soft stuff – duvets and coats go in because they sort of fit around the main things.] How do we think about our lives? When we pack our lives what are the non-negotiables that go in first, take the most space? Career, my art, my work [goes in]; relationships [a big one]; home, childrens education big hard heavy things and Jesus Christ well isn’t he kind of flexible? – doesn’t he just fit around everything in my life? won’t he just fit around my plans? Won’t he? He won’t. 

Follow me. he says, Follow me,. This life is a journey, there’s an urgency to begin it and it’s all about him and serving; proclaiming his Kingdom with life and lips. 

Jesus’ claim on our lives overrides all former claims, all other claims. He is to fill our lives and everything we do and are is to be an outflow of that – an expression of his Kingdom. 

Advent Carol Service - Isaiah 9:1-7 Giles Fouhy

Welcome to SBD. A joy to see you here. 

I’d like us to look for a few minutes at the the prophecy of Isaiah 9 written 700 years before the birth of Christ.  which was our second reading (you may want to have a look at it again). The great theme of Isaiah’s prophecy is PEACE. 

Isaiah looks and he sees… PEACE breaking upon his nation. Breaking out over what we now call the middle east. Darkness and oppression and the shadow of death give way to dawning light, freedom and rejoicing. Isaiah sees the end of war. Enduring peace. 

And why? how? 

v6…For to us a child is born, to us a son is given and the government will be on his shoulders… of the increase of his government and PEACE there will be no end.. 

When the angel visits the shepherds to announce the birth of Jesus Christ this is precisely the accompanying anthem: Glory to God in the highest and on earth PEACE…

Now you might say .. Ok Jesus Christ was born and lived, history at least backs that up. But Peace? One of the great barriers to belief in God is the sufferings of this world. We’re sick of the sorrow, sick of the pain, sick of hearing again and again that there’s gonna be … peace on earth… 

But please stay with me… God is not indifferent to our sorrows and our pain. In fact he has taken them upon his shoulders for the sake of our peace. 

—

Peace is of course a much broader category than just the absence of war. In Hebrew thinking Shalom described total wellbeing: harmony between the nations, within society and family and even harmony with your own self.

For all our great advances in wealth and technology we find it more difficult than ever to find peace. 

Peace eludes us.  This Christmas the conflicts in the very nations where Isaiah sees peace: Israel, Iraq, Syria… they continue to degenerate into an inhuman brutality. 

Brexit and the US elections have exposed deep divides and growing intolerance in western societies.  Families and relationships wilt under the pressure. 

And our own hearts are mostly restless. 

I read somewhere that the average spend on Christmas presents for children this year will be £400. And the average time those toys will actually be played with before interest is lost? 2 weeks. And we adults are no different are we? We all pursue things to answer the restless yearning of our hearts briefly satisfying our desires..the restlessness comes back. There’s an absence of peace. A great gulf.. 

Why? Why are we like this? Why the conflict, why the division? why the emptiness? 

Surely we ask ourselves why? 

—

Here’s the Bible’s explanation. We are like this because there is a God who made us and yet we have wandered from him. We’ve forgotten God. Losing God’s wisdom and counsel we are each left to govern ourselves - a yoke that burdens us. Wandering far we find ourselves lost.. lost in the valley of the shadow of death. Cut off from God’s life we cannot live fully, spiritually. 

So, we’re a bit like Christmas trees.. We smell good for a while, We can dress ourselves up to look great on the outside. But uprooted.. we are dying. Spiritually..we are dying.

We have turned our backs on God.. each taken government on our own shoulders - that’s why we clash, that’s why we divide, that’s why we have no peace… 

But here is good news of hope and great joy…

God has not turned his back on us. 

To us a child is born, to us a son is given and the government will be on his shoulders.

Nothing changes life like a baby. If you’re a parent you’ll know exacltly what I mean. How is it that one so small can turn your world upside down? Well this child turns the entire world upside down. 

Choosing names for a child is a big responsibility isn’t it? For many of us in our grandparents generation the names of choice were Mabel and Albert and Winifred. When i grew up in Essex in the 1970s everyone was either called Gary or Sharon. And now things have come full circle and we’re back to Ada and Alfred again. I heard of a tribe in New Guinea who also loved to use English for their babies names but without having a clue what the words meant so one man was called second gear while his good friend went by the name of tinned-fish.

Names are important. You carry your name through life. Names can place expectations on a child. 

Well, what about the names this Christmas child, Jesus, is given! 

He shall be called… Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.. 

You can imagine the scene down the local shopping center- people crowding round Mary and Joseph cooing at the new baby ‘aww isn’t he lovely ..what’s his name?’ … Well actually we’ve called him ‘Mighty.. Mighty God..” 

What do these extraordinary names mean? 

Well, the names tell us how the child brings Peace.. 

He is Wonderful Counselor. Here is the idea of wisdom.  Light for those in darkness. Read a gospel again this Christmas - we have some you can take at the back for free - and just listen to the words of Jesus. And it’s not just his words. Jesus is the wisdom of God which confounds the wisdom of the world. The world says that we solve our problems through power, force, wealth. We idolize the strong and the impressive. But God comes to us as a child, he sets aside his glory and power and wealth and takes upon himself our flesh, he shares our sorrows, he takes the government upon his shoulders - our darkness our problems.. He is wonderful counselor.  

He is Mighty God. That word mighty is the Hebrew word for ‘hero’. He is the hero God. Why is it that acts of courage and heroism - the Olympic games; our greatest stories of life laying down love - why do they move us so? Because they all point to the greatest act of heroic love. God   came   to die   for us. On the cross Jesus Christ takes the consequences for all our ignoring of God onto his shoulders that we might be free.. 

Everlasting Father. Look in the manger, the newborn baby, his tiny fingers and toes - this is who God is.  We have all kinds of thoughts about God don’t we? We think of God as distant or angry and disapproving. A God of judgement. Here’s the thing - our darkness and rebellion does deserve God’s judgement. But this is our God - lying in a manger, hanging on a cross.  He comes.. he takes the judgement that is ours upon his shoulders. 

You know what this is? It is the action of a perfect Father towards his child. A good Father, in love, will do anything for his child.. even, or perhaps especially, for a wayward child. 

Incredibly the baby in the manger is your everlasting Father…

And he is Prince of Peace. Vladimir Putin? Xi Jinping? Donald Trump? Jesus Christ is on the throne of the world.  He is establishing his peace on earth - i’ll say a bit about that in a moment. And one day, the Scriptures promise, he will come again in glory to fully establish justice and Peace How we long for that day. We need it now but he holds back for the present - why? because he waits for people like you and me to be reconciled to him. 

See, it’s To you that a child is born. To you a son is given.  

He came for you. Discover what it means to know him. This New Year - maybe come along to our Open to Question group in the Prince Arthur.  It’s designed for skeptics and seekers. no one will know (details on the beer mats). 

As I end let me tell you about Maryam Benham. She is an eleven year old Iraqui Christian girl who fled the slaughter of ISIS in her home city of Mosul. When asked "What are your feelings towards those who drove you out of your home and caused you hardships?” Maryam responded, "I won't do anything to them, I will only ask God to forgive them. .. You have to forgive them. Jesus is my father, and He is my creator. I have no one else better than him.”

Here is how Jesus Christ even now establishes his kingdom of peace. 

When the light breaks upon you that you have been forgiven at great cost then you find resources to forgive -  yourself and others whatever the cost. The cycle of violence is broken.  

When the light breaks upon you that you are loved by God beyond your deepest imaginings - then the yoke of trying to govern your own life is shattered.. You’re free. 

And If to you this child has been given then truly you want for nothing, forever... your heart can finally rest… 

Advent - 2 Peter 3:11-18 Nigel Beynon

I want to start by thinking about the difference between waiting and wanting. But I’m not happy with those words. Waiting sounds passive and boring and wanting sounds active and more exciting – and I want it to be the emotions to be the other way round. Let me explain. 

Imagine a child on Christmas Eve – looking at presents under the tree – and feeling this desperate excitement – they can barely sleep – it’s in their mind all the time - they just can’t wait – to open their presents. 

What they are doing is waiting – but it’s not passive and dull – it’s not waiting for a bus type of waiting – it’s an excited, eager, can’t wait – sort of waiting. 

Compare that with a child who passes the window of a toy shop in July. They look in – and see things they like. Great toys. They want them but there’s little chance of getting them – it’s a ‘can’t have’ sort wanting – or probably won’t get – sort of wanting. 

In those terms – I think today it’s probably true to say that as a culture we do quite a lot of wanting – and not much waiting. There are some things we wait for - there’s the holiday we’ve booked that we’re looking forward to – maybe we buy a flat and can’t wait to move in – there’s sometimes of ‘I can’t wait’ waiting. 

Yet there’s quite a lot of I want – a better job, fulfilling relationship, more money – but there’s little chance it’s going to happen. It’s not wrong – we might want very good things. But it’s a can’t have/probably won’t get sort of wanting.

Well Peter here says that Christians – those who trust in Jesus if that’s us tonight – are people or should be people – who are dominated by waiting - filled with a can’t wait – sort of waiting. And actually being filled with that sort of waiting will change our wanting. 

In particular - we are waiting for what Peter calls righteousness. That’s first thing we’re going to focus on – we’re people who: 

Waiting – in a can’t wait way - for righteousness

V11-12, READ. 

That phrase, look forward, is literally, wait, as you wait for the day of God. But ‘look forward’ is a good translation because there is anticipation to the waiting – you’re expectant and longing – it’s waiting in a - can’t wait - sense. 

We’re waiting for the ‘day of God’ or the day Jesus returns to this world - Peter has been describing that day throughout this chapter. So far he’s said it will be a day of judgement for the enemies of God. In this second part of the chapter he focuses on it being a day of recreation. Lets go on in v12-13 READ. 

It’s the most extraordinary day. A day of judgement, destruction - the end of this world as we know it, and the start a perfect new world. What we sometimes call heaven – but is better called a new creation. 

And Peter says three times - Christians are waiting for it. V12 we’ve seen – we look forward to the day of God. V13 we are looking forward or waiting to his new world. And v14 – since you are looking forward – waiting.

That’s why I say that for Peter, Christians are waiting people – this is his assumption – that we’re waiting for this day – in an expectant – eager – can’t wait sort of way.

So the question that makes me ask – is that true of us? True of me? Am I waiting –longing - for God’s new creation.

I remember someone asking me – do you think about heaven? Can’t remember what the context was now – but it was a good question. It led to realise – and say – it’s in my thinking, but not in my thoughts. 

It’s in my thinking – that is, it’s in my theology, I believe it, I would say it’s true. But it’s not in my thoughts, my day to day musings – my longings. 

Peter isn’t just thinking of right theology – he’s talking about looking forward to this – so it’s in our minds – we’re looking forward to this - longing for this.

As I say that’s often not true of me – and you may feel similarly. Now why is that? Why aren’t we looking forward to this day?

Well I think there are two reasons you might not look forward to something. One is because you don’t think it will happen. Very unlikely – so why get excited? Or because you don’t think it’s going to be that good. It doesn’t grab you, it’s not worth being excited about. 

If we’re going to long - God’s new creation – we’ve got to see it’s both certain and very, very good. 

First of all it’s certain. V13 READ. God has promised this new world. And he’s made that promise throughout the Bible. The OT prophets constantly look forward to this new world – picture it and promise it. Jesus talks about this perfect world – and promises it. The apostles in the epistles – John in Revelation – describe it and repeat God’s promise. 

Now after making all those promises - can we imagine God saying – I know I promised but I don’t think I’ll bother. I know I’ve promised again and again – over hundreds of years – I know I’ve given foretastes and pictures of this future in Jesus – I know I’ve shown I always keep my promises throughout Bible history – I know my son died to make this new promise possible – but I’ve changed my mind, let’s not.

It’s ridiculous isn’t it? We should feel how ridiculous that is. If we don't feel certain of this new creation – if it doesn’t feel like a reality coming towards us - we must ask what am I saying about God's promise? Am I saying he won't keep it? 

God has gone on record – I promise I will perfect this world. And he’s acted in Jesus to bring it about. So after all he’s said, and all he’s done – it’s certain. We just have to wait. 

But secondly - and perhaps more importantly - this new creation will be very good – perfect. V13 READ. I love that phrase – the home of righteousness. It’s the home of everything right. 

We often think of righteousness in a moral sense. And that’s right - this new creation will be morally perfect - everything will be as God wants it to be – perfectly right.

But righteousness is also a relational word. Being righteous means in right relationship. So in this new creation - every relationship will be right. 

Our relationship with God will be right. We’ll love him, obey him, serve him, adore him, be captivated by him. 

And our relationships with each other will be right – we’ll know and love and serve, and enjoy and appreciate each other.  

So what this means is - this new creation - is everything we could ever want. 

If you’re anything like me you could sum up a lot of your life as a search – a search to make things right. There’s getting the right job, and living in the right place, and achieving the right goals – but actually more than that – I want to be right - do the right thing – day dream that if only I could stop doing that, and be more like this, and always do that. 

And not only do the right thing – but to do the right thing – in right relationships. To treat others well – receive from them – give to them – and to be right with God – to be filled with love for him and adore him and want to praise him – and know his love for me – and be overwhelmed by that. Be filled with a sense of his amazing grace to me and care. That would be good wouldn’t it!? To get all those things right. 

One day that search will be over – in the home of righteousness. We get a taste of those things now – but something always spoils it, we’re often left wanting – searching. But one day – everything will be right – and it will be all we ever wanted – and much more – everything bad in this world gone – everything good in this world perfected - the home of righteousness. It’s wonderfully good.

As we get that – as we fix our eyes on that – as we remember it’s certain and it’s good - we’ll grow in waiting – a can’t wait waiting for righteousness.

I’ve got a suggestion about all of this which might be useful, I’m not sure. My suggestion is - this week every time we notice we want something – we think if only I could have that. Or every time we notice we’re waiting – looking forward to something. We try and use that as a stepping stone – to waiting for God’s new creation.

So say we think – I wish I had a job that suited me better – groan inwardly. We can then we can say to ourselves – one day it’s going to much better than I could ever believe - I’m going to be perfectly fulfilled in my work. One day – when Jesus returns – my work and role and gifts – will be perfectly used and fulfilled.

Or maybe we think I can’t wait to go on holiday next month – we can say to ourselves – that’s a good thing to wait for – but one day it’s going to better than I could ever believe - this holiday is little a taste of what is to come and how good it is going to be in the home of righteousness.

The here and now feels so real to us – this future feels thin – so we need to keep reminding ourselves it’s certain and its good – my little suggestions is - as we want or wait for things here – we use that as a stepping stone – we keep saying to ourselves it’s going to be so much better – and we pray that it will become more real to us – and we’ll grow in waiting for righteousness – we grow in our - can’t wait - sort of waiting. 

Now having said that – let’s go on to the effect this waiting has now? Peter says this waiting should lead us to keep working at righteousness. 

Keep working at righteousness

Lets read v11 READ.  Holy and godly lives - lives that are like God’s character - righteous lives.

Or v14 READ. Spotless and blameless – that’s how Peter describes Jesus – the lamb with blemish or spot. So he’s saying – be like Jesus – in his perfect character.

Be like God, be like Jesus – be righteous in how you live. 

Now why do we do that? Peter gives two reasons – one more negative v11 READ.

Your home, your job, your car, your bank account – none of it is going to last. So why live for those things. Why make them the centre of life? Rather doing the right thing – being the right thing – that is what really matters. 

Second reason is more positive – I want to focus on this – v13, 14 READ

Peter’s saying – you’re looking forward to the home of righteousness – one day being made righteous – so you are right in all you are and do - that hope – that certainty – should lead you to live right lives today.

Now how does that work? How does becoming righteous in the future - mean we work at it now?

If you said to someone – you’re going to become a billionaire – going to be given huge amounts of money – guaranteed – so what you ought to do now is earn as much money as you can. They’d probably think – why bother – I’m going to be a billionaire.

If you said to someone – you’re going to move to live in a mansion – a palace - so work at that extension to your flat. Why bother? 

Why does the guarantee of something – the certain fulfilment of something – mean you work for it now? 

Well money or houses aren’t the right way to think. We need something more relational.

Imagine a couple who are engaged. They are looking forward to their wedding day – to being married. Maybe it’s a can’t wait sort waiting. Marriage to them is about being united with each other – belonging to each other – exclusive – beautiful enjoyment of each other. 

The bloke goes on his stag night – friend says – see that girl over there – she’s single - it’s your last chance before you get hitched – fancy a final fling? 

Well – to talk like that – shows you don’t get what marriage is. What it’s about. If you understand where you’re going – if you’re looking forward to this wonderful exclusive union. Then a last fling – just doesn’t fit – to say the least. 

Christians are looking forward to the home of righteousness. Being made right – in behaviour – in relationships – in every part of life. And it’s going to be wonderful – it’s going to be life itself. 

As we wait – what about a quick fling – a sin or two?

Well to talk like that - shows we don’t get it. We don’t understand where we’re going –what we’re caught up in. If we see where we’re going – the home of righteousness – where like a marriage – we will belong to God – be right in ourselves and right in relationships and right with God - seeing that – being gripped by that – shows us how we live now. 

As we wait for righteousness – we work at righteousness. Because we see that’s where we’re going – that’s what God is doing in us – that’s what life is about. 

We fail of course – we do sin – we’re weak and we fall. The language Peter uses shows that he expects it to be hard – make every effort – this isn’t going to be easy. Going to be a struggle and you’ll fail. But God is gracious – forgives the past – and says look to the future – look where you’re going. 

And as we say - one day I will be perfectly righteous in the home of righteousness - that is where I'm going, that is what I’m part of, and my life is about. As we get that - we work at righteousness. 

This changes what we want now. Or what we work at. 

We might want our job to be better suited to us – but Peter is saying make every effort to be righteous in the job you’ve got. We want the satisfying relationship – Peter says make every effort to be righteous in the relationships you’ve got. We might want to change our home, or situations – Peter says what really matters is being blameless and spotless in the situation we are in. 

Not that changing all those things is wrong - we can do that - but what really matters is being righteous in those things. 

We wait for righteousness – with a can’t wait waiting – as we do that – as we see where we’re going and what life is about - we keep working – making every effort to be righteous now.

Advent - Matthew 3:1-12 Alexandra Lilley

My earliest, perhaps most vivid childhood memory involves the excitement of receiving an advent calendar aged around three – and not being able to bear the anticipation, opening each and every door on 1st December - counting down to Christmas – and then deep disappointment that I hadn’t brought the big day any closer.

A new appreciation of the advent season as an adult – not least because I’m now responsible for the practical preparations – card-writing, present-wrapping, tree-decorating, food shopping, bed-making… sermon-writing…

But more so, that this is a season of interior preparation for the coming Saviour – so that when Christmas actually arrives, we can sing that wonderful line from ‘O Little Town of Bethlehem’ with heartfelt gusto: Cast out our sin, and enter in, be born in us today. 

Particularly if you have children, it may be that the herald of Advent, prompting us to prepare - to get ready – with all the edible and material preparations, is that ubiquitous, chubby, red-suited guy, cheerfully dishing out gifts. If Father Christmas or Santa is in one corner, then we are this evening going to consider his absolute antithesis in the opposite - this obscure, wild, skinny prophet, dressed in camel skins, handing out warnings and insults and threats. 

John the Baptist, the figure in today’s gospel reading, is the one who helped prepare a people for the arrival of Jesus those two millennia ago and he is one who can help us prepare as the Christmas season rolls around again. John arrives on the scene, aged probably around 30, and began preaching and baptizing in the River Jordan. There was huge significance in that location; crossing the River Jordan in the history of the people of Israel signified entering into the Promised Land. Now, that promised land – long-lost through years of exile and occupation – that promised land where God’s perfect rule had its way was coming into being. 

As we prepare this season to encounter Christ afresh at Christmas; as we prepare for the coming kingdom of God in all its fullness, there are three paradoxes that John the Baptist draws to our attention.

Six spokes of a wheel 

Three ways to prepare this advent:

Prepare our hearts (water and fire)

Prepare our minds (justice and mercy)

Prepare our posture (stillness and action)

Firstly, prepare our hearts with 

WATER & FIRE

“I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”

As I mentioned, Advent is a time of inner preparation as we look to welcome Jesus, our Lord and Saviour, God-as-a-human-person coming amongst us. Being aware, just like the throngs of people on the banks of the River Jordan, of our own fallen, broken, sinful ways, we confess our sin again, and seek the wonderful cleansing and forgiveness that God gives freely to us all, without limit, whatever we have done. 

John offers the baptism of water – of repentance – turning from what is past and being washed gloriously clean. 

But John tells us that Jesus offers something more - the baptism of fire, of the Spirit. 

The writer Dallas Willard lamented what he termed: “the gospel of sin management”, which purely seeks to deal with our mistakes, with the past but does not offer a transformed life with God, lived out day-to-day. John offered a one-off turning point in the water of baptism, but Jesus offered the in-filling of the Holy Spirit. In Luke’s gospel, when the angel Gabriel tells John the Baptist’s father, Zechariah, about the son he will have, who will make a people prepared for the Lord – we have this wonderful throwaway line: that even before he is born he will be filled with the Holy Spirit. That the Holy Spirit – the very presence of God – the same Spirit who hovered over the waters of creation – can fill an unformed, unthinking, unborn foetus is remarkable – and should encourage us, if we feel too small or too weak to be filled ourselves with the Holy Spirit.

The water of baptism will wash us…..

but the fire of the Spirit will fill us and transform us. 

What needs to be washed out of our lives? What caked-on habits, behaviours or attitudes need to be soaked in the Jordan? 

And what emptiness, lack, hopelessness or uncertainty within us could be filled with the fire of the Spirit, bringing hope and direction to our lives. 

The first paradox – an invitation for water and fire in our hearts. 

Secondly, this passage encourages us to prepare our minds with

JUSTICE & MERCY – the second spoke on the wheel. 

We see justice and mercy in John’s response to the different people who come to him. Some people arrive on the banks of the River Jordan aware of their separation from God, aware of their weakness, their brokenness, seeking forgiveness. They came confessing their sin and receiving baptism into new life. There is mercy shown freely to them. 

Just finished running Alpha at church last week – those for whom this has been most transforming, are those who are perhaps at the bottom of the heap…  Mercy is shown to those who are humble. 

The Pharisees and Sadducees – the religious leaders – turn up too, maybe with a different motivation, since John does not mince his words with them. They are told quite plainly that their religious credentials – their status holds them in no stead, when faced with the coming judgment. As Jesus’ words will later reveal – justice needs to be meted out here, as the religious leaders are actually putting obstacles in the way of ‘the wrong kind of people’ meeting with God. Justice is coming for the proud. 

The quoted words in our gospel reading come from Isaiah chapter 40: 

A voice of one calling:

“In the wilderness prepare

    the way for the Lord;

make straight in the desert

    a highway for our God.

4 Every valley shall be raised up,

    every mountain and hill made low;

the rough ground shall become level,

    the rugged places a plain.

5 And the glory of the Lord will be revealed,

    and all people will see it together.

For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

Preparing means a leveling of the land – a reversal of the current order. What does that look like? I think Mary gives us some of the answer in her celebratory Advent song, as she anticipates the birth of Jesus: 

“He has brought down rulers from their thrones

    but has lifted up the humble.

He has filled the hungry with good things

    but has sent the rich away empty.”

Terrifically satisfying in the light of some less-than-humble leaders in our current times. But before I get too smug, I need to recall that in the global scale, I am far and away in the richest sector of the world’s population. These are words of comfort and challenge in equal measure.   

Continuing Isaiah 40 – once the highway is prepared for God, this is the kind of God who arrives on the scene (from verse 10)…

10 See, the Sovereign Lord comes with power,

    and he rules with a mighty arm.

See, his reward is with him,

    and his recompense accompanies him.

11 He tends his flock like a shepherd:

    He gathers the lambs in his arms

and carries them close to his heart;

    he gently leads those that have young.

Here is this beautiful contrast between the military might of a powerful warrior God, establishing justice, and the pastoral image of the vulnerable little lambs being drawn to the heart of the shepherd God.

As we prepare our minds for the arrival of Christ, can we hold together an understanding of the God who is both mercy and justice? 

Which side do you tend to emphasise? 

If we lean in our imaginations towards considering God as our cosmic comfort blanket, then this might be the time to meditate on God’s almighty power, that will override our current political turmoil. 

If you primarily consider God’s immense might, then may you be encouraged to meditate on God’s gentleness and intimacy. Could you let your (British) defences down, imagine yourself being gathered up and carried close; being drawn into the very heart of our merciful God?  

In the news last week, Leonardo Da Vinci’s portrait of John the Baptist was unveiled, having undergone restoration – 15 layers of varnish removed. John, as he is often depicted, is pointing, but the dark varnish had concealed the object to which he pointed. The restoration revealed a cross in the darkness. This paradox of characteristics is revealed ultimately in the cross of Christ where justice and mercy meet. 

Prepare our hearts with water and fire

Prepare our minds meditating on God’s mercy and justice and finally, 

Prepare our posture in

STILLNESS & ACTION

The Greek philosopher and mathematician Archimedes is credited with these famous words: Give me a lever and a place to stand and I will move the earth… describing the disproportionate strength that comes from balancing a lever on a fulcrum or pivot and applying a force – however heavy the object, theoretically anything can be moved with a long enough lever balanced over a fixed pivot. 

The Franciscan theologian Richard Rohr uses this image to describe the necessary relationship between stillness and action in the Christian life – or contemplation and activism – or engagement and retreat. 

Advent is a time to recalibrate that scale of stillness and action. And depending on our temperaments, one of those ends of the spoke will feel like a more comfortable place to be. Being busily engaged in the world or being quietly on retreat with God. I hazard a guess, that the latter is harder for most of us in our full London lives. 

We are told in the passage that people left the busy city of Jerusalem and the surrounding regions – they would have walked for a couple of days to find this wild prophet in the wilderness – to encounter one who was immersed in the presence of God. John’s wild appearance and unusual lifestyle indicates that he has been outside of civilisation for a while – retreating – and there is a holiness that emanates from him as a result. 

And yet John is fulfilling the active call on his life – to be a herald for Christ. Even in the womb, before language has formed, he leaps for joy at the presence of his cousin Jesus, performing his job as herald before he was born. Again, in Isaiah 40, the prophet states:

You who bring good news to Zion,

    go up on a high mountain.

You who bring good news to Jerusalem,

    lift up your voice with a shout,

lift it up, do not be afraid;

    say to the towns of Judah,

    “Here is your God!”

That disembodied voice in Isaiah calling out in the wilderness has flesh put on it in John the Baptist. This herald for God who is both a still, fixed point, fixed on God – and a lever, fulfilling the active call on his life. 

In a way, the church today is like a reincarnation – in the truest sense – of John the Baptist - proclaiming to the world to prepare, prepare, prepare for the coming king. Ignatius: “He who goes about to reform the world must begin with himself, or he loses his labour”. 

There is much good news for us to share and Christmas services to invite people to; yet only by making room for even moments of stillness – that place to stand – will we be able to be truly active and engage and able to move the world. 

I’ve asked us to imagine these three paradoxes like spokes of a wheel – fire and water, justice and mercy, stillness and action – and at the centre is, of course, Jesus Christ, offering us to be washed clean with the water of baptism and an in-filling of the fire of the Spirit. Holding together – even embodying – the characteristics of justice and mercy; inviting us to meet him in the stillness of the wilderness and to go out into the world with him to proclaim his kingdom. 

Before I close, let’s take a moment of quietness to consider, what one way am I to prepare this coming week? 

To be washed clean? To be filled up?

To marvel at the power and justice of God? 

To be gathered into his arms and held close to his merciful heart? 

To find a moment to be still and just be?

To raise up my voice and herald the coming king? 

Prepare (A Blessing for Advent) —Jan Richardson

Strange how one word

will so hollow you out.

But this word

has been in the wilderness

for months.

Years.

This word is what remained

after everything else

was worn away

by sand and stone.

It is what withstood

the glaring of sun by day,

the weeping loneliness of

the moon at night.

Now it comes to you

racing out of the wild,

eyes blazing

and waving its arms,

its voice ragged with desert

but piercing and loud

as it speaks itself

again and again:

Prepare, prepare.

It may feel like

the word is leveling you,

emptying you

as it asks you

to give up

what you have known.

It is impolite

and hardly tame,

but when it falls

upon your lips

you will wonder

at the sweetness,

like honey

that finds its way

into the hunger

you had not known

was there.

2 Kings 6:8-23

We're continuing with our study in the lives of the great prophets Elijah and Elisha in 1 and 2 Kings.  It's a crucial period of Biblical history. One of the few points in Biblical history where God intervenes in miraculous ways. The Bible is not - as populalry believed - FULL of miracles.  Miracles are clustered at key points in salvation history when God is defending or progressing his kingdom. So this is a key point of the Bible where we can expect to learn much about God’s work in his world to restore humanity and all creation to himself.

Here we have an episode of war avoided. Of clememcy (mercy, forebearance) that leads to an armistice (a ceasing of hostilities) 

And the great theme that runs through this episode is the theme of blindness and sight. God sees, Elisha sees, The servant is blind and sees, The enemy are blind and they see. 

Seeing, sight and blindness. I can remember when i began to lose the clarity of my sight. I kept complaining about the overhead projector (OHP) being out of focus! It was only when borrowing my sister's glasses at an art gallery that i discovered that i was the one with the sight problem!  

None of us sees clearly, spiritually. Only God sees perfectly. We on the other hand are blind and need to receive the gift of sight and even when we have been given the gift of spiritual sight we need to go on daily having our sight clarified, properly focussed; the eyes of our hearts opened. 

Let’s look at the passage 

3 scenes

Scene 1 vv8-13 is a split screen between the enemy king of Aram (Syria) and his advisors and the hometeam King of Israel and Israel’s prophet Elisha. And the scene is rich in comedy. 

v8 The King of Aram was at war with Israel

Of course war is never a laughing matter, as we remember today those who made the ultimate sacrifice for us. War is tragic and often inexpicable. This war no less than any other because the chapter that immediately precedes this one - we looked at it over the last two weeks - tells the story of how the commmander of the army of Aram, a man called Naaman received extraordinary grace from the God of Israel. Healed from his leprosy, Naaman had come to know the God of grace for himself. Maybe the obscuring of grace perpetrated by Gehazi, Elisha’s assistant, going after Naaman to take payment from him (last week’s passage) had stumbled Naaman and he was no longer a Christian. Maybe this episode happened many years after Naaman’s day, (Elisha seems older - the King calls him Father). We don’t know. All we know is that the King of Aram was at war with Israel. And in his war rooms in a bunker in his palace in damascus he is building a military strategy with his senior advisors. moving models of chariots and horsemen and foot soldiers around a great map of Israel and then sending out coded orders to his officers in the field to make camp in such and such a place. But back in Israel Elisha the man of God is also taking strategy to his commander in chief - the Arameans are there and there.. now there …Time and again Elisha warned the King so that he was on guard in such places. 

And the King of Aram is pulling his hair out. Outfoxed every time. And he demands to know who is the spy in his senior ranks leaking top secret intelligence!!?? But his advisors somehow know about Elisha v12. “Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the King of Israel the very words you speak in your bedroom.”  

Some commentators conclude that Elisha must have had an informant among the executive office of the King of Aram. A senior staff that would have consisted of the Kings most trusted confidants - family members and the like (let the reader understand). But the passage is deliberately pointing us in the direction that Elisha has prophetic sight, miraculous sight given by the God who sees and (hears) all.

Many times the Bible affirms that God, of course, sees everthing. Nothing escapes his gaze. It’s one of the reasons why he is qualified to judge perfectly because he sees perfectly. He even sees the thoughts and attutudes of our hearts. 

Is this a discomforting thought? In a way yes of course. We don’t want someone to see us do we? That’s what makes this time of year so terrifying as Christmas approaches and Santa’s arrival in town is imminent. “he sees us when we’re sleeping, he knows when we’re awake, he knows if you’ve been bad or good so be good for goodness sake!” It’s sinister isn’t it. A young Jean Paul Sartre upon realising that God sees him was so disturbed that he rejected the whole idea of God. 

Of course whether the omniscience of God is a cause of discomfort or fear very much depends on the character of the God who sees us. 

At a time of great uncertainty th ereality that a God of abundant grace, compassion and goodness sees all and cares for all is a source of great hope and great strength. 

Scene 2 vv14-18 The siege of Dothan

The King of Aram resolves to capture Israel’s secret weapon - Elisha. Intelligence reveals that Elisha a is in the small hill station of Dothan. Aram sends a strong task force of horsemen and chariots by night to surrround the city v15 When the servant of the man of God rose early in the morning and went out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was all around the city. And the servant said, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?” The servant is understandably alarmed by the turn of events. Dothan has no defences to repeal this sort of attack. Surrounded and hopeless. But Elisha is calm and assured and utters these enigmatic words v16 “Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” 

And Elisha prays his first prayer for sight. “O Lord open his eyes that he might see.” So the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. 

Elisha’s servant was not blind and yet Elisha prays for him to see. And God answers that prayer. 

There is a deeper seeing than just physical sight; seeing the physical world. There is a seeing that none of us have by nature. The foreign enemy - we shall see - didn’t have it. But neither did the good and faithful servant. None of us have spiritual sight whether we’re nasty or nice, wicked or moral. All of us by nature have hearts that are darkened (Ephesians 4). We’re all insensitive to spiritual realities, we can’t see them, we actually suppress them, we’re blind. 

And therefore Spiritual sight - has to be a gift. A miracle. 

This means that becoming a Christian is not - as some think - an extension of a current way of living - turning over a new leaf, a resolution to live the way i ought to live. an extension: becoming morally better; religiously more active. 

No - becoming a Christian is much more like receiving a new faculty; a sixth sense. Being ushered into a whole realm of reality you never knew existed! Its’ more radical than just becoming a good person! 

Imagine a person born totally blind. they have no concept of colour or shade (light or darkness). And they’re talking to you and you’re talking about colours and they say, “So, Is red like the sound of a trumpet or the feel of wool?” and you want to be sensitive by the only answer is ‘No..” because sight is NOT an extension of hearing or feeling. It’s something utterly different. It enables you to perceive realities that hearing and touch cannot perceive and therefore there is no way for you to even imagine what colour or shade is like until you have that faculty. 

Spiritual sight. “O Lord open his eyes, so that he might see” Then the Lord opened the servants eyes and he could see.. Spiritual sight is the begiining of faith. A whole new realm. Where ideas that were so abstract, even silly to you become compelling and real to you. So real that they change you permanently. That they begin to govern your priorities, your decisions, the whole way you live your life.. 

And we’ll see in a bit that that spiritual sight is always a process. It often comes gradually, sometimes it can be instant like with Elisha’s servant. But often it’s a gradual seeing. An dit needs to continue throughout the Christian life - clarifying your sight .. but we’ll come back to that. 

Spiritual sight is a gift. 

Third Episode vv19-23 Capture and Grace

In v18 the enemy forces of Aram begin to descend from the city walls to … take Elisha. Would they have been obstructed.. would there have been death, pillage, rape - the horrors of war? Would Elisha have called upon the fiery hosts of heaven to destroy the enemies of God? 

Elisha prays his second prayer. This time for blindness. “Please strike this people with blindness.” So [the LORD] struck them with blindness in accordance with the prayer of Elisha.

Imagine the scene as these great warriors are suddenly completely disarmed by the loss of their sight. Plunged into darkness. How terrifying it must be to suddenly lose your sight. Murderers instantly become helpless, dependent, like little children. Perhaps some swung their swords around aimlessly in fear and desperation. But they are quickly disarmed and have no choice but to follow Elisha’s lead.. who marches them down the road and leads them to the astonishment of all that watched into Israel’s capital, Samaria. What an extraordinary scene it must have been. Presented to the King of Israel who says to Elisha, “Shall I kill them, my father, shall i kill them?” 

The physical blindness disarms the enemy. But in the Bible. God always strikes people with physical blindness inorder to open their eyes to their spiritual blindness. The classic example is the Apostle Paul on the road to Damascus searching out Christians to have them arrested (Acts 9). He is blinded by the Jesus. God’s way of saying: Paul, you are spiritually blind. 

What is it that we are spiritually blind to? What is the nature, the condition of our spiritual blindness. 

Well, firstly we are blind to our sin

The Aramean soldiers, attacking, killing - they thought they were just following orders they didn’t know they were fighting God. 

In the same way unless i am given spiritual sight I cannot see the depth of my own sin. I will see sin as breaking rules and regret sin only when it messes up my life. But when and as spiritual sight is given i will understand sin not just as breaking rules but as a pervasive attitude of heart. I am NOT a good person. Even the good i do, i see that i do for my own sake. CSlewis in his book Mere Christianity says, you know how you can tell when someone s not yet a Christian. They will never say consistently (might say it in a moment of self deprecation but not consistently) that they are self centred, self absorbed. Non Christians might say “I don't like to have to ask for forgiveness. I am good. I don't do a lot of things that are bad. I try to do nothing that is bad.”

The more Christians grow the more they will say, ‘I am not good. I am self centred’.[extended training course for ministers, lovely old couple retired missionaries, most godly woman, tears in her eyes, ‘i’m so proud’ You’re not proud at all!.. She saw that she was..] seeing the depths of your sin. 

And when and as spiritual sight is given i will regret sin not just when it gets me into trouble (which means that when trouble goes i’ll go back to it).. I’ll regret sin because it grieves the God I love and who loves me. And because that never goes away i really might not go back to my sin so easily. Spiritual sight can bring change that lasts. 

blind to our sin - that’s the first part of our condition 

but the second is that we are blind to our own blindness

In John chapter 9 when Jesus heals a man born blind on the sabbath the religious leaders are incensed and Jesus says to them. ‘for judgement i have come into the world so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind. And the religious leaders say, “What? are we blind too?” And Jesus says since you say you can see, you’re doubly blind!!” 

One of the ways that you know you’re blind is that you don’t think you are.. If you don’t think you are blind today - You are 

And the third thing that we are tragically by nature blind to is the beauty of grace.. But of course here also is the way out of our blindness. 

The Aramean soldiers had no idea that Elisha -public enemy number one - was actually the greatest friend they ever had. Elisha - on all the wanted posters of Aram, hated would be the instrument of amazing grace

The Aramean army, the enemy who had been ravaging Israel is led helplesly into the lions den - Samaria. The King of Israel bounces with excitement, Shall i kill them? Shall I kill them? And Elisha answers NO .. give them a feast. Elisha prays for the third time v20 “LORD open the eyes of these men so that they can see.” This army that deserved to die by every rule of war instead are given a feast.. A radical shocking act of clemency that stops the War 

This is the gospel. 

We deserve to die for our utter rejection of God. We’ve abused his glory. Made him our enemy. 

We deserve to die by every rule of war and instead we are given a Feast 

How? 

Because there was another prophet. Hundreds of years after Elijah who too was surrounded by an army in a garden. And when his followers resisted he stopped them saying, Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?  But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?’ (Matthew 26:53-54) 

All recipients of grace receive grace beacuse their sin was put on Jesus Christ. 

Jesus was executed so that we will never be 

He was executed for our war crimes that we might receive a feast 

He was plunged into deepest darkness that we might be brought into the light 

Oh that the Lord would open our eyes again - or maybe for the first time - to the beauty of his grace. 

How can God offer spiritual sight to blind people? - because of Jesus. 

How do we receive that sight? 

We just ask. Like Elisha did. “LORD open his eyes so he can see, her eyes so she can see. My eyes that i might see. 

And it’s a process.. For all of us.. The process of coming to believe; seeing who Jesus is ...Is an ongoing process of having our eyes opened to the glory of God 

Elisha’s servant - he was already a believer.. he would have known God, known a lot about God, a lot of right theology and doctrines. He panics when he sees that Dothan is surrounded by the enemy..He knew the promise that God is always with his people but he didn’t see it. And because he knew it just in his head and not with the eyes of his heart it didn’t deeply affect him. But when he had his eyes opened… When he saw it ..he knew it not just with his head but with his heart. He saw the reality of an idea that previously was just an abstraction. And when he saw it - it gripped his heart and changed him 

See it’s possible to believe in a God if forgiveness and yet still be wracked with guilt. It's possible to believe that God says don’t commit adultery but then get embroiled in an affair 

You believe something but you don’t SEE it 

Cos if you saw it … it would change you 

We need God’s ongoing help to clarify our vision. to be people who are constantly saying - i've heard this before but now i see it! 

That’s why the great apostle Paul prays in Ephesians 1 for christians that the eyes of your hearts will go on being enlightened that you might see Jesus, know Jesus. 

If you’re a Christian you’ve been wonderfully given the gift of sight to overcome your blindness, so that you might see the depth of your sin and the beauty of God’s grace.. but your sight needs to be constantly clarified (cleaning my glasses) and constantly improving. We slip back into spiritual short sightedness and so Everyday we need to pray as we look at Jesus in the Scriptures. every day ..”Open my eyes Lord so that I may see.”

2 Kings 5: 15-27

It doesn’t take much to distort a message with huge consequences: 

a wealthy american lady was travelling in europe and found a piece of jewellry she wanted. the price was outrageous but she emailed her husband any way telling him of her desire and the cost of the item. upon receipt of the message her husband instructed his secretary to immediately email back : “No, price too high” The problem was that the secretary omitted the rather important comma. the message the wife received from her husband was “No price too high” and there were celebrations in Europe. 

It doesn’t take much to distort a message with huge consequences. A comma. A couple of bags of silver and a couple of changes of clothes..  

we come the second half of the Naaman story the first part of which we looked at last week. 

Naaman is a foreigner. He is the commander of the Aramean army. Aram is modern day Syria. He’s hugely successful and highly regarded but he suffers with leprosy. There’s a young Israelite slave girl in his household. We never learn her name. She was taken captive by Syrian raiders. You know that story that continues in the news about the Nigerian schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram - this girl is like one of those. Naaman is like a Boko Haram general and yet she speaks up to help him. She directs him to Elisha, the prophet of God in Israel. Naaman turns up at Elisha’s place with a huge entourage and huge amounts of cash - gold, silver and changes of clothing for a great exchange - Naaman’s wealth and greatness for a grand healing! And Elisha sends out a message via his assistant Gehazi - go and wash in the Jordan river 7 times and you’ll be restored. Naaman is furious with this nothing-something - as Nigel called it last week. But eventually he is persuaded to do it and his skin is totally restored, not just improved, his skin becomes like that of a young boy. Elisha refuses ANY payment for this healing. This is God’s gift - given not because you deserve it Naaman - because you DO NOT.. and not because you bought it, Naaman because you DID NOT. And Naaman sets off back to Syria resolved to worship the God of Elisha, changed not only outwardly but inwardly. He has begun to know for himself the true God of power and grace …

And then we come to the second part of the story 

The greed of Gehazi 

Elisha’s servant, Gehazi, his personal assistant goes dishonestly after the clothing and silver that Naaman had offered to Elisha. and he covets and lies and steals as one sin leads to another and is compounded. and he does so at a terrible price. We shall see that something terrible arises from Gehazi’s sin which justifes the punishment that Gehazi receives. The leprosy of Naaman will cling to you and your descendents throughout all generations! 

This will be a very sobering story

 It’s important to remeber who Gehazi is. Gehazi is NOT the bad guy. Naaman was the bad guy! Naaman, healed of his leprosy.. his skin restored was the pagan, the idol worshipper. Naaman was the Boko Haram general responsible for murder and the kidnap of young girls. Gehazi was an Israelite, a worshipper of God - a Christian. He is described every time we see him as the servant of elisha drawing parallels with the earlier relationship between elisha and elijah. We’ve seen Gehazi in action. He is Elisha’s representative 2 Kings 4:13, his right hand man. Elisha seeks advice from Gehazi 4v14. He acts through Gehazi and sends him on missions for him 4v29. 

So Gehazi is NOT the bad guy. He is a devout individual. Part of the company of the prophets.  companion and servant of the greatest prophet of the time. So gehazi was a man of faith. One who was willing to endure material deprivations and endure persecutions and support elisha. Remeber this waspost jezebel israel a very difficult and dangerous environment in which to administer the truth amidst all of the idolatry of Israel which Elijah and Elisha had been so vigorously combatting and denouncing 

So Gehazi is definitely a good and faithful and godly man up to this point 

This is why this is such a sobering story for US. Because Gehazi is an example of what can happen to even a devout individual. In fact the great sin that Gehazi is guilty of is a sin that only a christian can commit!  

The apostle paul warns in 1 Co 10:13 “if you think you’re standing firm .. be careful you don’t fall” You can be confident of your strength, that you’re beyond reproach, a strong Christian, clued up. That confidence can deteriorate into a self confidence and self assurance and you become careless and let down your guard..

gehazi is a tragic example of that. he succumbs to the sin of greed and covetousness 

what we need to understand is that we are people who are living with a fallen human nature even if our hearts have been changed and we’ve been born again by the spirit of god, the old nature remains within us. 

the minute you let down your guard you’re in trouble

this we see as we look at gehazi.                                                                                                          

see first, his rationalisations

v20 After Naaman had traveled some distance, Gehazi, the servant of Elisha the man of God, said to himself, “My master was too easy on Naaman, this Aramean, 

there’s probably an ethnic slur there. it doesn’t say Naaman the dirty Syrian but that’s probably the sense of it. ‘this Aramean.’ This is the enemy who owes much to us for his actions.  

“My master was too easy on Naaman, this Aramean, by not accepting from him what he brought. As surely as the Lord lives, I will run after him and get something from him.”

Gehazi had seen and heard his master, Elisha refuse any gift from Naaman. 5v16 As surely as the Lord lives, whom I serve, I will not acceot a thing.” And even though Naaman urged him he refused. The example of the prophet was clear but Gehazi rationalises his actions to go after some of those tantalising riches. 

he rationalises need and self pity                                                                                                           

this is such a waste! Naaman is so rich he has all of that wealth, he’s not going to miss any of that and he’s our enemy, he’s put us in this place! we could use it - we’re so poor we’re always on the run, our lives are constantly under threat because of these wicked kings of israel it’s time to spread the wealth around a little bit. we could use a little clothes, we could use a little money. we’re struggling out here. We deserve this.. 

I’m sure Gehazi was rationalising that this wasn’t just for him - this was for all the community he was with - although of course when he returns he tries to hide the booty from Elisha. Quite how he was going to explain the new wealth of the community we have no idea. I rather think that the wealth was for him.. but he rationsalised that it was for the common good.  

Here’s the point: every sin has its plausible explanation. by plausible i mean one that makes sense to us at the moment that we determine to commit it 

that is true from Hitler to Hollywood. from genocide to pornography and everything in between we rationalise. Hitler wanted to create the perfect germanic workers’ paradise and the world could enjoy the benefits of german genius exercised from the top 

we’re always rationalising that 'after all we really deserve it' or 'they deserve what their getting' or 'i need it' or 'it won’t be missed they have so much' or 'i had to because …'

and it all seems to us at that moment at least very reasonable, very excusable very understandable. we minimise the act we maximise the pressures on us that make it necessary 

it all makes such perfect sense to gehazi and look at the ultimate cherry on the cake - he puts a spiritual gloss on his sin. v20 As surely as the Lord lives, I will run after him and get something from him.” God would want this. God is gracious he doesn’t hold back from us. To honour God.. I will do this.. 

Gehazi provides for us an example of that which we are always doing. rationalising and in the process we’re letting down our guard; and in the process weakening our own character. and the likelihood of yet another transgression in that direction as we are corrupted by those little decisions and make future decisions that are of greater consequence.  

there’s the rationalisations - then comes the act itself v21 So Gehazi hurried after Naaman. When Naaman saw him running toward him, he got down from the chariot to meet him. “Is everything all right?” he asked. 22 “Everything is all right,” Gehazi answered. “My master has sent me

is that true? no that wasn’t true. it’s a lie. so he’s adding to the breaking of the 10th commandment ‘you shall not covet’ with breaking the the 9th commandment ‘you shall not bear false witness’ 

My master has sent me to say, ‘Two young men from the company of the prophets have just come to me from the hill country of Ephraim. 

now is that true? there’s no evidence that it’s true. it’s never mentioned in the text. this seems to be a story he just made up. a plausible story for a plausible sin. 

Please give them a talent of silver and two sets of clothing.’”

Now notice this? he doesn’t ask for the gold remember there were vast amounts of gold, he doesn’t ask for that. there were ten talents of silver that Naaman had brought with him. he only asks for one of those Naaman had ten sets of clothing he only asks for 2 of those. 

why didn’t he ask for more? why didn’t he ask for a bag of gold as well? that would have gone a long way.. 

well it’s all part of the rationalisation isn’t it? Gehazi is being restrained. very modest in what he’s requesting. i’m not being like a greedy person who would go and ask for all of that gold and silver- instant millionaire - that would be sinful! i’m not a greedy individual. I’m not taking more than would be a reasonable amount. I’m a godly individual, i’m a good christian so i’m just asking for what is reasonable and sensible payment for us poor starving sons of the prophets 

i’m not going to ask for ten changes of clothing just 2; and i’m not going to ask for ten talents of sliver, no no just one will be fine; and i’m not even going to touch the gold. aren’t i virtuous! 

see how our sinful minds work? in the midst of the commission of this crime he is rationalising and convincing himself of his virtue in not taking more like a truly sinful person would do. 

whenever you or i are stepping in a direction away from God we will find some way of justifying it.. and to find a way even in the commission of the act to convince ourselves that we are somehow virtuous. that there is virtue in what we do!

v23 “By all means, take two talents,” said Naaman. He urged Gehazi to accept them, and then tied up the two talents of silver in two bags, with two sets of clothing. Gehazi i’m sure with great protestation, unlike his master Elisha, allows Naaman to press upon him an extra bag of silver and then v23 [Naaman] gave them to two of his servants, and they carried them ahead of Gehazi. Naaman even provides Gehazi with grand free delivery to carry off the loot 

v24 When Gehazi came to the hill, probably in samaria he took the things from the servants he doesn’t after all want elisha to see this and put them away in the house. He sent the men away and they left. Then he went in ..

You can see what Gehazi is doing here. If his actions HAD been righteous he would have presented them to Elisha. BUt It’s a bit like when i come back from a slightly indulgent shopping trip. Letting himself silently in the back door, sticking the stuff quickly in the wardrobe in his bedroom. And then going around to arrive by the front door. ‘Hi Elisha, I’m home!” 

25 When he went in and stood before his master, Elisha asked him, “Wherehaveyoubeen, Gehazi?” Gehazi answered. “Your servant didn’t go anywhere,”

every parent has to love that response

it’s midnight - where have you been? i haven’t been anywhere 

who were you on the phone with? no-one 

such a guilty answer. irrefutable proof that something is up  

where have you been? 

how that question makes the guilty tremble. 

Gehazi knows his number is up as soon as that question is asked 

the weakest answer since adam in the garden 

what have you done? 

i don’t want to be asked that question on judgement day. what have you done? the answer won’t be pretty. i don’t want to answer the question where have you been? those are very threatening questions that expose our souls 

and gehazi is exposed and he knows it 

in the last 2 verses we see the judgement that results

v26 But Elisha said to him, “Was not my spirit with you when the man got down from his chariot to meet you? 

literally ‘did not my heart go with you?’ meaning my awareness about where you were going, my concern about where you were going… i saw your eyes when you looked at that vast treasure and i saw the longing, and it told me that you were thinking ‘oh no, don’t let it all get away’ i could see the covetousness, i could see the yearning . and when you slipped out my heart went with you … i thought ‘oh no ..where is he going ? what will he do? and i knew what you were after’ Elisha knew it either because he was a careful observor of human nature or he knew it because God gave him prophetic insight - whatever the case … he knew. … 

27 Naaman’s leprosy will cling to you, Gehazi, and to your descendants forever.” Then Gehazi went from Elisha’s presence and his skin was leprous—it had become as white as snow.

perpetual leprosy is God’s judgement upon Gehazi. Naaman, the leper, is cleansed. Gehazi, the servant of God, is made leprous!! 

a moment of weakness can destroy your family, your career, your whole life.                                   

YET the seriousness of this judgement implies that a deeper sin has been committed here. 

Look at Elisha’s words again in v26 “Was not my spirit with you when the man got down from his chariot to meet you?  Is this the time to take money or to accept clothes—or olive groves and vineyards, or flocks and herds, or male and female slaves? 

is this the time, Gehazi to receive gifts?  there may be such a time.  there’s nothing inherently wrong with ministers receiving gifts. but this was not the time 

remember that Naaman had arrived to do a deal with God. My wealth and and greatness in exchange for a grand healing. this was the pagan view of the gods: you brought the gift and by doing so you purchased for yourself the assurance; the certainty that the god would intervene on your behalf. God as a divine vending machine – put in your money – choose your gift – in this case healing – and press the button with the right prophet. 

This view of God is not limited to the ancient world. Bus journey in the Himalayas in NW India. Terrifying roads. Bus driver stop at a shrine offer some gifts and then really put his foot down!

Neither is this view of God limited to Eastern religions. All religion is based upon my doing enough, giving enough to warrant God’s favour. Enough religious practice, enough good deeds to outweigh my bad. It’s about me climbing the ladder by my actions and gifts to get to God. 

But Christianity says religion can never work. This solution has way too high a view of myself and way too low a view of God. The Bible says that God is more holy and perfect and glorious than we can possibly imagine. The very idea that we - flawed and broken and selfish human beings can climb our way into the presence of God, win or buy his admiration and favour is utterly preposterous. Deep down we know it, deep down we know we’re lost - it’s why we desperately cling to what we have our importance, our wealth, our benevolent acts.. 

But the radical message of Christianity is grace. That we do not climb the ladder up to God.. we cannot! Instead God descends to us. Not that he lowers his standards or compromises his character. No, in love, he came down in the person of Jesus Christ to pay for our failures that he might offer us mercy, forgiveness, healing, relationship with himself freely. FREE grace. 

Grace is the only way to know God. 

It’s humbling - you can do nothing ..you can only receive it 

Which means that the tiniest implication that we have to do something to win God’s favour or give something in return for God’s favour is toxic to relationship with God. As soon as you trust in yourself you are not trusting in Christ. You’re pursuing self salvation which doesn’t work. Whenever you think ‘God owes me, i’ve served him, I’ve given, I’ve paid my dues’ then you know you are no longer relating to the true God but some slot machine idol of your own making. 

Remember how adamant Elisha was that he wouldn’t pander to Naaman’s sense of his own greatness. Just go and dip in the jordan in your yfronts. And Elisha wouldn’t receive one sheckel of Naaman's wealth. 

Not because gifts are wrong but because this was NOT the time

not when you have a pagan syrian who does not understand the ways of God and who doesn’t understand the grace of God and thinks he can bribe his way into God’s favour. We didn’t want to obscure the gospel, gehazi This was not the time! 

And now what happens with Naaman and his new faith as he returns to Syria with news of the God who had totally healed him for the price of two bags of sliver and two sets of clothes. What happens when Naaman serves the God of Elisha and gives his money to God’s work and then something goes wrong in his life? Does he give up on God? 

Obscuring the gospel of grace is a matter of life and death! It has eternal consequences in people’s lives. Listen to the Apostle Paul in his NT letter to the Galatians (1:8) if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse! 9 As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse! That is - eternally damned!!

At the time of the reformation in Europe, heretics - preaching salvation by works were executed. it was universally accepted that if you were preaching heresy you were killing people spiritually and therefore guilty of murder - a capital crime deserving capital punishment. 

Gehazi, you could say therefore, standing there, a leper.. was fortunate.. it could have been worse. 

His family’s leprosy would bear witness to the need not to obscure the gospel of grace. 

It doesn’t take much to distort a message with huge consequences

A warning for church leaders and any who teach and convey the christian message by our words and by our lives.. 

Grace is glorious. and grace is dangerous