Philippians 2v1-11

September 16, 2018 Saint Barnabas Dalston

The crucial importance of Unity.

What are you pursuing to make yourself happy? Career trajectory? Dream of a family?

Look at the apostle Paul. We know from reading the letter that he is in prison in Rome, he is chained up and facing possible execution. But incredibly he says (v..) that his joy is almost complete. He is almost full of joy. How wonderful. And, there is someting, he says, that would make his joy complete.. this is his immediate priority, his main prayer, this is what will give him happiness, satisfaction, peace. Not release from prison, Not relief of his circumstances.. that’s not what will complete his joy. The thing Paul longs for is deep unity in the church.. in Philipi and presumably everywhere. That’s Paul’s passion.

When you read the whole letter it doesn’t seem like there were huge fall outs, factions or warfare in the Philippian church plant. A bit of grumbling and arguing 2v14 A few disagreements 4v1, But Paul isn’t just looking to merely stop negative behaviour he’s longing to see deep authentic comm-unity.

Look at what he says in v2 ‘make my joy complete by being likeminded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose.’ There’s a depth of relationship here that goes way beyond being part of the same club, or recognising a familiar face or knowing someone’s name. Paul is talking about a unity of minds and emotions and wills. Thinking together, loving one another deeply, pursuing a common purpose together..

We’ve been saying that this book Philippians constantly challenges us with the Question what is the life worth living? what’s primary? what’s best? what really counts? Well this is Paul’s absolute priority. His happiness hangs on this. It’s more important than his freedom.

What about you and I? If you are a christian. Is the deep relational unity of the church your supreme goal?

Why is it so important? Here’s why ..

[70th anniversary of DDay] Our daily news is scarred with the disunity of our world. At very scale, environmental, global, national, local, personal we encounter broken relationships.

But the message of Christianity is that through Jesus Christ God has put a plan in motion that will one day heal the disunity of the world completely. In his death on the cross, Jesus Christ bore the consequences of all our brokenness. Jesus resurrection is the absolute proof of a future hope for the entire world and the church is the beginnings of that future reality. The church - people who’ve been brought back into friendship with God. Imperfect as we are, we are the sign to the world of that future reality, unity. We are the advert, the sign post!

Look at how Paul seeks to persuade the Philippian church to be who they are.

v1 Therefore, if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit then make my joy complete by being ONE

it’s wonderful to share common interest or common history with friends - shared love of a particular kind of music or sport; shared memories. But these things do not come close to what it means to be part of the church - if you are united with Christ and so am I, If you’ve experienced his love and so have I, If his Holy Spirit dwells in you as he does in me. The you and I are inextricably bound up with one another. We are brothers and sisters.

God has a good plan for this world. One day he will put it right. He will bring harmony, peace, life. Now we may question God’s wisdom on this but the church is the foretaste of that future.

It’s the show home for the estate that is yet to be built. This is why Paul is so concerned that the church lives up to her calling.

Well how are we doing here in Dalston?

Do we love each other deeply? Do we even know each other deeply?

We need help to do this don’t we?

God knows that. Paul knows it. And that’s why for the rest of the passage he will talk about the pride that stands in the way and the humility that comes from Jesus.

3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves, 4 Each of you should look not only to your own interests but also to the interests of others.

It’s worth being aware at this point that our current cultural ethos of ‘expressive individualism’ is very negative about concepts of humility. low self esteem is the cause of all our social ills.

here is a place where the bible flys in the face of our culture by talking about the prison of pride and the freedom of humility..

The prison of Pride

let’s think first about pride. and we could talk for hours but we’ll limit ourselves to just a few ideas that arise out of the text.. rivalry, emptiness and self centredness.

Paul says ‘do nothing out of selfish ambition.’ The word carries the idea of rivalry or competitiveness and shows us how pride robs us of life. It is summed up in the brutal honesty of the american writer Gore Vidal who once said,

‘It is not enough to succeed, others must fail.

Whenever a friend succeeds a little something in me dies.’

Here’s CS Lewis: ‘Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next person.’

Many of you know that I used to be an actor. And people sometimes ask me ‘oh so do you enjoy going to the theatre?’ and I sometimes say, I don’t really because i find it too painful because I’d love to be doing what they’re doing. It’s struck me.. Isn’t that sad? - that pride robs me of that pleasure! - Rivalry

what about emptiness?

Paul’s second phrase, ‘vain conceit’.. alludes perhaps to the source of our prideful strivings. In the greek its a conflation of two words keno (from kenosis: to empty) and doxia meaning glory. So in the KJV this is translated ‘vain-glory’ - it could mean bringing glory to yourself - that’s pride. But it actually points to our human condition. We are glory empty. We’re hungry.. for honour, respect, assurance because we sense deeply that we are people of importance and yet we don’t feel it. We feel lost. We’re hungry but we’re empty and so we’re striving..

We’re like this, the Bible says because we were made to live forever but we have turned away from God and therefore we’re fading. We were made never to be forgotten, to stand in the presence of God and to get his favour. We were made to last. But turned away from God we know we’re, fading, dying, we’re going to be forgotten. And so we desperately look to everyone we can to get them to say ‘you’re good, you’re worthwhile, you’re important, you’re significant.’ There’s emptiness so We use people to bolster our fragile sense of self.

and that’s the last of our threefold characteristics - self centredness

The essence of pride is the self. self absorption, self importance even self pity. It’s a crucial insight that the pride that stands in the way of community can manifest itself in inferiority as much as superiority in low self esteem, fear and self pity as much as in arrogance and haughtiness. Because at the heart of pride is love of self. And the fearful person is just as absorbed in themselves as the self righteous person!

You know when you’re going about your daily life you’re not constantly aware of your body are you..? You don’t keep thinking - hey my elbow is so cool. or hey check out my knees the way they bend like that! You only become conscious of your body when something’s broken; not right. When you’ve broken your toe - you’re suddenly regularly aware, in a way that you were not before, of your toe. You’re painfully aware of it. That’s how it is with our bodies. The parts of our bodies only draw attention to themselves when there is something is wrong. What about our egos? Our sense of self? I’m constantly thinking about myself. Aren’t you? ‘How am i doing? How am i looking? I really like myself.. I really hate myself.. what does he think of me? I really wish I had that. why did she say that.? She hurt my feelings.’ The ego is constanly drawing attention to itself because there is something unbelievably wrong with it! the prison of pride

rivalry, emptiness, self importance

what’s the cure?

the freedom of humility

v3 in humility consider others better than yourselves, 4 Each of you should look not only to your own interests but also to the interests of others.

what is humility according to the Bible?

and how do you get it?

Well here’s what it isn’t?

Humility isn’t thinking less of yourself.. -‘everyone’s better than me.’ that’s not humility that’s just another form of pride.. self concern, self pity.

No - Humility is not thinking less of yourself. Humility is thinking of yourself less.. Humility is the freedom of self forgetfulness.

[wouldn’t you want to know the freedom of humility? pp34-5 keller]

Wouldn’t you want to be a person who considered others better than yourself, looked to the interests of others, with honour and love?

How do you get that? How do you get Humility?

Here’s Paul’s answer. vv5-11

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus. And then Paul breaks into song. It’s a hymn - a hymn of praise to Jesus Christ..

Here’s what I think Paul is not doing here:

He’s not just telling us to follow Jesus example of humility. He’s not telling us to work on our humility. Because … You can’t! You can’t work on humility directly. If true humility is self forgetfulness as soon as you start thinking.. ‘now am i humble? i’d really like to be humble. Was i humble just then. yeah i think i was.. Doh!’ Humility is the shyest of virtues. You can’t talk to humility without it going away..

No, You can’t work on humility. It has to be a bi-product of something else.

The answer is you look away from yourself at another: Jesus Christ. And not to analyse and compare. This is not a list of Jesus’ qualities to imitate. Paul gives us a hymn of Jesus’ love to sing to our souls. It’s music to capture your heart. See that’s what we need - to have the emptiness of our hearts filled with true glory. The glory of Jesus Christ. We need to see him!

And there’s a word in v7 that captures Jesus glory. It’s that little phrase ‘he made himself nothing’ for us! You know what that word is? Kenosis. Sounds familiar “He emptied himself.’ That you and I might be filled.

I don’t know the tune - and i’d feel a bit embarassed singing a solo anyway so i’ll read it: Notice the into 3 great movements

Movement 1 vv6-7 The incarnation Jesus the eternal glorious God chose to become human

Movement 2 The atonenment v8 Jesus came to serve by suffering and dying on a cross

Movement 3 The exaltation vv9-11 In response to this glorious act of loving service God the father raised Jesus and exalted him to the highest place!

“read…’’

Here is the glory of Jesus you see. The glory of God - is in humility.

He emptied himself so we could be full.

He did this because incredibly in humility he considers us more important than himself.

He says of us ‘you to me are more valuable than all the jewells in the earth.’

When his love fills our hearts. We are set free from the desperate self centred search to fill our own emptiness. We are able to discover the freedom of humilty

the way up is down

the way to be truly rich is to become pure.

the way to become inflintely happy is to pursue the happiness of others

Philippians 1:1-11

September 9, 2018 Saint Barnabas Dalston

Philippians 1:11 and Acts 16:11-40

Welcome

Beginning a series in the NT book of Philippians

A letter written about 60AD by Paul (the great apostle to the Gentiles) and Timothy, ‘servants of Christ Jesus.’ To the fledgling christian church in Philippi which Paul had planted in the city 10 years earlier..

Paul’s church planting strategy always had an urban focus - Cities were and remain places of openness and influence. (the womb of culture). Philippi, though it is now a ruin in North Eastern Greece, in the ancient world was just such a stragegic city.

Its gold and silver mines - exhausted by the time of the Christian era, and it’s situation on the Egnatian way - the great highway which connected Rome with the East had made Philippi an important cultural and economic centre.

The city’s name came from the father of Alexander the Great, Philip II of Macedon who founded the city in 356BC. 200 years later the whole region had come under the rule of the Roman empire. And in 42BC, following military victories of Caesar Augustus close by, the city became a Roman colony endowing it’s populace with Roman citizenship. Roman war veterans settled in Philippi. It was an outpost of Rome and Empire in Northern Greece.

Philippians is a wonderful little letter. Many people’s favourite NT book. It is primarily a letter of Christ-centred encouragement. I encourage you to read it in one sitting this week. It’s so short but it includes some of the greatest lines in the Bible: ‘For to me, to live is Christ, to die is gain.’; ‘Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice.’; Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation ..present your requests to God. And the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.’

—-

At heart the letter begs a question:

Is there anything really worth living for? (and dying for?)

What really counts in life? What’s the best way to live? The most worthwhile?

Scientists tell us that it might be possible to prolong average life expectancy to 115 years old but will it be a life worth living?

What are you giving your life, your time and energy to?

——

Now, Read between the lines and you get the sense that this 10 year old church plant to whom Paul writes - they’re feeling pressure. The hard work of building a church community has taken it’s toll. There’s pressure within and without. From the outside there’s opposition (1:28) they live as a christian minority in an unbelieving city… and on the inside there’s unrest (4:2):complaint and hurts and disagreements. It feels like it’s just costing too much - this church lark.

But Paul writes to encourage.

To encourage them and any who would listen in that this IS the life worth living and rather than pulling away from God’s ways and God’s church .. to discover joy and to live for what really counts, the Philippians and we should press in to God’s ways and his church..

vv3-6 Be confident in the power of God

3 I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now,

Partnership in the gospel doesn’t refer to a shared love of a certain kind of music. The gospel is one of those rich bible expressions. It refers to the whole story of what God, in love, has done and is doing to repair this world and us through his son Jesus Christ who died for us and rose again. Paul and the Philippians and all Christians are partners in the gospel in the sense that we are called to share this story with others but also in the sense that we are recipients together of its blessings. We have come to know God through hearing the gospel, seeing its reality - the power of God.

The church at Philippi (like any church) was founded by an extraordinary display of God’s power. You can read all about it in Acts 16. There we read that Paul and his companion Silas had arrived in Philippi in AD52 following the prompting of a vision. On the first saturday they were there they went down to the river where there was a group or women praying. (They were probably gathered there because there were not the necessary ten Jewish men in Philippi to form a synagogue (lack of committed men in the church was a problem even then!)) As Paul shared the gospel, someone called Lydia, a rich merchant woman, an Asian from Thyatira, a spiritual seeker, became a christian and persuaded Paul to come and stay in her home. While he was staying there, he was followed around town by a girl. a greek, a native of the town, she’s a slave, spiritually she is out of control - lit. it says she is a pythonist, she is possessed with some kind of spirit through her involvement in the occult - she can tell fortunes (for real, not horroscopes). She follows Paul and Silas around mocking and Paul finally has enough and in an encounter of spiritual power he commands the spirit to come out of her. This young girl set free by Jesus is added to the fledgling church. The problem is that this young girl was a slave and her owners were furious that she had lost her supernatural powers. They seized Paul and Silas start a riot and Paul and Silas are flogged and thrown into prison.

In prison with their feet in stocks - which means they were being tortured - Paul and Silas prayed and sang hymns to God. Tortured and singing! Some of us have trouble singing because we’re still trying to digest lunch. Tortured but singing? Because they had seen God’s power to change the direction of Lydia’s life and bring her whole family to faith. They had seen God’s power to set free a girl afflicted by an evil spirit. Now they saw God’s power at work in another miraculous way: an earthquake shook the prison and every door flew open. The prison officer in charge. He’s a Roman, ex-military, working class, spiritually he’s probably disinterested and hardened, he’s killed people, he tortures people. - he’s about to kill himself, thinking all the prisoners have escaped, knowing he will face court martial for this. But Paul shouts out ‘wait! nobody’s going anywhere!’ And through this whole experience, this rough military guy’s heart is won for Christ and later his whole family are baptised.

This is how the church in Philipi was founded. It’s easy to forget the power of God so Paul reminds the Philippians.

It’s easy for us to forget God’s gracious power in the founding of our church - SBD. We started out with 40 adults and a dozen kids. In 8 years over 200 adults and 50 children have been part of the SBD story. a dozen people have come to faith one through the earthquake of terminal cancer one through a power encounter with Jesus; others through hearing the powerful message of the gospel week by week. It’s easy to forget the sacrificial generosity that has made this church possible. Remain and Be confident in the power of God.

Paul writes

3 I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

If God’s power can start a church in Philippi or Dalston, can kickstart faith in the souls of men and women then with Paul we can have confidence that what God has begun … he will complete..

‘The day of Christ Jesus’ refers to the day when Jesus will return. That’s the part of the story that is still to come: ’Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.’ Not this time as a baby come to save but as a King come to bring his eternal kingdom. The work God has begun in you, if you’re a Christian, is eternal life and He promises to complete that work. He will raise us to life, he will make all things well; We’re going to live forever.. Let it sink in. How then should we live? What counts? What’s worth living for? Live in the light of that day. In the light of an eternal future. Give yourself to the work of God’s gospel - God’s transforming power.

Of course, It’s not always easy to just do that. It’s an act of faith. In a moment we’ll see what is fundamental to helping us live in the light of the day of Christ.. But there’s a hint in the text.. God will bring to completion the work he has begun in you… Be confident in the power of God.

Second thing - if you want to give your life to what really matters..

2. Be joyful in Christian friendship

7 It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart and, whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me. 8 God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.

Paul writes this letter from prison in Rome. The imminent threat of execution hangs over him 1:20, 2:17. Paul is in chains… but his heart roams free. The apostle had probably only spent a matter of weeks or months establishing the church in Philippi, many of the newer Christians there he hasn’t even met - he knows them through others but the letter demonstrates this wonderful network of loving christian friendships..

Throughout the letter you have Paul praying for the Philippians, articulating his affection, They’re his joy and crown, he longs to see him. And we learn that the Philippians pray for Paul and have provided for his needs. Just turn to chapter 2 v19 and you see others who are part of this network of Christian friendship. 2:19 Paul wants to send Timothy to them soon so he, Paul, can get concrete news about them. v20 ‘I have no one else like him, who will show genuine care for your welfare. For everyone looks out for their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. But you know that Timothy has proved himself because as a son with his father he has served with me in the work of the gospel.” See all these relationships? Read on v25 here’s another guy: “I think it is necessary to send back to you Epaphroditus my brother, co-worker and fellow soldier, who is also your messenger whom you sent to care for my needs. For he longs for all of you and is distressed because you heard he was ill. Indeed he was ill and almost died but God had mercy on him, and not on him only but also on me, to spare me sorrow upon sorrow. Therefore I am all the more eager to send him so that when you see him again you may be glad and I may have less anxiety. So then welcome him in the Lord with great joy…”

Be joyful in Christian friendship.

Our shared faith - as Paul says ‘all of you share God’s grace with me’ and our shared mission - defending and confirming the gospel can bring about the most profound love and friendship. Many of you tell me about dear Christian friends. These are friendships that are not known in other spheres of life..

Christian friendships can be profound but they are not not straightforward; they are not a given. All relationships need work. In part, Paul is having to write to the Philippians to remind them to think right about and work at their Christian friendships 1:27, 2:2 Be united - ‘Be of one mind’ Don’t let bad feeling, or disagreement or bitterness get in the way..

You know the church is a bit like a human family in many respects - we are brothers and sisters - we are brought together by something more than just shared interests something that unites very different people. they say don’t they: ’you can choose your friends you can’t choose your family.’ This means that just as in families you can take one another for granted and make more effort with people outside the family than within. So it is with God’s church. It’s more effort - so we don’t bother. But then we miss out on the joy that could be ours.

Paul will urge us in this letter to put on our gospel glasses. Have a gospel perspective. sense the people sitting around you. That person you’re sitting next to is a child of God, their life purchased with the blood of Christ. There is no imagining what one day they will be. Honour one another. Give thanks for one another. Look to the interests of others before your own.

Paul will urge us into gospel partnership. you philippians might be a roman colony an outpost of Rome in the city of Philippi. But the church of JC - are citizens of heaven; an outpost of heaven in the earthly city. Have you forgotten your missionary call that is at the heart of christian friendship? do hard things together. pray for healing, pray for holiness, pray for your friends and then go out and be good news together.

But how?

brings us to third point..

how are we to be confident in God’s power? live for the day of Christ? how are we to be joyful in Christian friendships? look to the interests of others before ourselves?

3. Be prayerful in pursuing what really counts

Paul prays. So often we do not have because we do not ask. We find it hard to pray.

What does Paul pray for the Philippians? We should pray it for ourselves and one another..

First verse x he prays that our love would abound more and more. That our love for God and for one another and for everyone would grow. Good thing to pray. But notice that it’s not any kind of love it’s a love that is shaped by the knowledge and moral insight that comes from the gospel. It’s a wise love that comes about through reading the bible and through wise counsel with one another. Because this love isn’t just a feeling it needs to show itself forth in action, in the best way of living and using our gifts - which is why Paul says v10 that we need to be brought to a place where we can ‘discern or ‘approve of’ what is best..’ That is - brought to a place where we can see what counts, what’s the best way for me to live .. and have the will to put that into practice..

Notice that Paul refuses to give blanket commands for what the best kind of Christian life looks like. How many hours should you give to church, care of your neighbour, sharing the gospel with your friends. No, life is far more complex than that. We have different lives and commitments and time and situation gifts and capacities and personalities and so Paul simply prays that your love would abound in knowledge and depth of insight so that you will be able to approve and pursue what is best. The life worth living.

Do you see what this is saying?

Do you want to be pure and blameless for the day of Christ? They’re words that refer to an inner consistency and and an outward goodness of life. Do you want that? Do you want to be v11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God?

Do you want your life to be lived to the glory of God?

If we want these things for ourselves, for one another, for our church then we have only to ask.

Be prayerful in pursuing what really counts..

We don’t know what a life worth living is? But God does. We should ask him.

We can’t manufacture love, wisdom, righteousness in our lives. But God can. We should ask him.

he will change our hearts..

why not pray this prayer this week?

The Parable of the Ten Minas Luke 19v11-27

August 19, 2018 Saint Barnabas Dalston

Hello, my name is David and I’m a member of the congregation here at Saint Barnabas. A big welcome if you are new here. Today we are looking at the last of Jesus’ parables in the Gospel of Luke.

We have a lodger staying in our house at the moment. He’s called Nick. He’s Greek, 27 years old and works at RoofEast - a rooftop bar near the Olympic park in Stratford. I really like Nick. He high fives my boys Ben and Frank every morning. He’s kind and respectful and after each long shift into the early hours he’s careful not to wake us up as he creeps up the stairs.

Nick is waiting. Waiting for the paperwork on his visa to be sorted. His girlfriend is in America. His friends and business partners are in Texas – they are setting up a chain of Juice Bars there. And Nick is stuck here. Largely alone. Working long, long hours.

What keeps him going is the thought that soon, very soon, his visa will arrive and he will join his girlfriend and friends in Texas where they can start their new business. In the light of this his long hours, his loneliness has a purpose – the more he can earn now, the more he can finance his new business. He has a future hope and that transforms and gives a kind of grittiness to how he lives now.

The parable of the Ten Minas speaks of a future hope. A future reunion that can transform and give meaning to the way we live our lives now.  JESUS waits for us all – you, me, everyone in Hackney, all the people of the world – either at the end of our lives or when he returns as King.  What will he say to you?  Because really it (life!) boils down to that. What will Jesus Christ the Saviour of the world say to me David James Cawston? Will the things I value be valued by Christ? Will the things I ignored and left undone prove to be the very things that Jesus most treasures?  The parable presents a surprisingly hard-nosed picture of judgement. It is clear that our lives will be assessed and I’d like to suggest this judgement operates on two levels. That is going to form the structure for this short talk.  First, we are going to look at Jesus’ Judgement of his SUBJECTS – that is Everyone, and  Secondly, Jesus’ Judgement of his SERVANTS, that is Christians.  1. JESUS’ JUDGEMENT OF HIS SUBJECTS It is probably natural when reading this parable to focus on the central portion, verses 15-26, which speaks of the three servants, their relative success in multiplying their masters’ money, and his subsequent judgement of their work. However this narrative is bookended (at the start in verses 11-14 and at the end in verse 27) by more problematic and obscure but equally important information. And in order to understand this we need to quickly look at a couple of contextual points: First; Jesus is nearing Jerusalem when he tells this parable and his followers are expecting the kingdom of God to appear when he gets there. Verse 11 says ‘…he went on to tell them a parable, because he was near Jerusalem and the people thought that the kingdom of God was going to appear at once.’ Jesus’s followers thought that his arrival in Jerusalem would herald a great reckoning when the Roman oppressors would be defeated and the Jewish people’s freedom restored. Jesus told them this parable to indicate that the Kingdom would not come for some time and that he would be going away and returning in judgement, just like the King in the parable. Second; This narrative of a man of noble birth travelling to a distant country to be appointed king initially seems strange. When our Queen dies will Charles get the Eurostar to France to be crowned king? It seems ridiculous to us but it would have been normal to Jesus’ listeners as they lived in a country occupied by foreign rulers. Indeed just a few years before this parable was told King Herod’s successor Archilayus travelled to Rome to be crowned governor of Palestine.  Verse 14 tells us that ‘his subjects hated him and sent a delegation after him to say, ‘We don’t want this man to be our king’ and the exact same thing happened with Archilayus. He was so reviled that the Jewish people lobbied against him in Rome.

These opening verses present us with an absent King who is rejected by a large number of his subjects and that of course is a picture of Christ who, as he tells this parable, is on his way to the cross. On his way to being crucified by his subjects.  The Bible tells us that all of us say in our hearts along with the subjects in verse 14 ‘We don’t want this man to be our king’. We reject God’s rightful rule over our lives and we fall short of his holy standards. And the result? Well it is there, starkly, in verse 27: ‘But those enemies of mine who did not want me to be a king over them – bring them here and kill them in front of me’. That is the Judgement of Jesus. That if we reject him we face eternal separation from him. It’s a hard truth.  I don’t know if you noticed the first few words of our passage? Verse 11 reads ‘while they were listening to this…’ That is it seems Jesus told the Parable of the Ten Minas whilst he was in the house of Zacchaeus. And that for me is helpful because the story of Zacchaeus is one that needs to be held in tension with the judgement in our parable. Zacchaeus, a man who betrayed his countrymen to work for the Romans as their chief tax collector and then betrayed them again by taking more from them than he should. He got richer as they got poorer. This is the man, reviled and full of sin, that Jesus sought out. He accepted him and ate with him.  It’s a picture of grace and Christ’s offer to all. He says to you, me…everyone ‘I must stay at your house today’. Through my death for you on the cross I accept you, with all your sin which I have paid for. Our choice is to accept this free offer or reject it.   You’ll notice that Zacchaeus’ change of behaviour – see there in verse 8 of chapter 19 he gives half his possessions to the poor and pays back those he has cheated four times the amount – comes in response to Christ’s saving love and grace.  Some of you will know that we have a youth group here on Thursday evenings. TRU – The Room Upstairs. We have a short talk time and a few weeks ago one of the boys said this about life: ‘It’s like this’ he said ‘you have like a big chequebook and every good thing you do in your life gives you a little tick in a box on the chequebook and when you get to heaven you show this to Jesus and if you have enough ticks he will be pleased and let you into heaven’. It’s actually a very perceptive comment. I believed the same thing at his age but wouldn’t have been able to articulate it. Something in our hearts thinks we can earn our way into God’s good books.  And there is the danger that a reading of the Parable of the Ten Minas perpetuates this myth. The first two servants win Christ’s approval but the third fails. The Bible is clear that no amount of good works can meet God’s holy and just standards. Each of us is fully and wholly dependent on God’s grace in Christ – so that no-one can boast.  That is then the Judgement of Jesus. He holds out his offer of grace to all the Zacchaeus’s, all the sinners. Verse 27 of our parable makes the consequences of rejecting that offer clear. 

So we’ve looked together at Jesus’ judgement of his subjects. Now let’s turn to JESUS’ JUDGEMENT OF HIS SERVANTS

Here in the form of the three servants we have Jesus’ judgement of Christians. We can broadly see the first two as one group – the ‘good’ servants and the third servant as the other - the ‘wicked’ servant.  Let’s look at the ‘good’ servants first. What can we learn from them?   You’ll remember my lodger Nick who I mentioned earlier. Nick who has a future hope (in Texas) that gives him meaning and hope and grit and determination in the present. Obviously his goal, whilst good, is not ultimate in the sense we are dealing with here. But I have to admit, my Christian life is not like that at present. As a follower of Jesus I know, deep down here, what is important to Christ, and what is not. I know what is of eternal worth and what is of the world. And yet so often the temporary things of this life crowd out Jesus’ voice. Prayer, worship, building up others, loving others, giving money, giving time, witness get replaced with ‘stuff’: TV, drink, ambition, laziness, lack of love, to name a few. I think this passage points to a few attributes and qualities that can help us be ‘good and faithful’ servants of Jesus.

First, there is a sense that what Jesus requires of us is to follow him in the small things. He says to the servant in verse 17 ‘…Because you have been trustworthy in a very small matter, take charge of ten cities.’ It reminded me of Jesus’ miracle the feeding of the 5,000 (see Luke 9) where he takes the meagre offering of a small child and turns it into a feast for thousands. Jesus is able to take our small offerings and turn them into great things. Things with eternal significance. A prayer, a kind word, dragging yourself to church, telling someone about your faith, singing a song of worship, giving money to someone in need, forgiving someone, bearing a friend’s burden. These are small things, not recognised as ‘great acts’ by the world but infinitely important to our Saviour Jesus.

Secondly, be thankful. Perhaps months or years after the master leaving the first servant was doing very well. She had invested here money in a field, established a farm, which had produced crops, sold for profit which funded the purchase of a further portion of land and so on. Three years down the line she was a wealthy farmer respected by her competititors who she began to realise were overcharging and cutting corners to up their profit. When the temptation came to follow suit she was brought to her senses by the distant memory of her master counting out his coins into her hand before he left. What would he think of her when he returned? Would he approve of her cheating and lying and stealing in order to maximise his money?  So often we forget that our money, our talents, our possessions, our friends, our family, our time, even our faith are all counted out into our hands by our Heavenly Father. Everything we have is a gift from him and that realisation should, could transform the way we live. That is why turning to God in prayer each day and THANKING him for things is healthy. Grace before a meal reminds us that ultimately our food comes from Him. Turning to him in prayer amidst our personal successes and failures acknowledges that these things are in his control and come from him, not us. Jesus counts out into our open hands our time and talent and all that we have. We can live lives of thankful service in response.

One final point before we finish with the third servant. You will notice that he wrapped his mina in a piece of cloth and buried it. A safe option!  In contrast the other two servants invest their mina. And as anyone knows any kind of business involves risk. Generally the greater the risk the greater the reward or loss. Is there something of that in the Christian life? In Luke 9:24 Jesus says: ‘For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it’.  Serving God involves an element of risk.  When we tell people that we are a Christian we risk our reputation. When we give our money back to God via the church or a charity or someone in need we risk our financial security. When we chose to invest everything in have in following Christ, if it turns out to be untrue we risk wating our life. Jesus calls us to risky living.  Just like Noah building a great carcass of a boat on a plain that hadn’t seen water in decades sometimes our faith can seem a step too far. The parable assures us that it will not be in vain. 

So, finally, what of the third servant? There are two quick questions I want to examine together: 1. Who does the servant represent? And 2. What is the servant’s motivation? How can we understand him? Let’s return to the text from verse 20: ‘Then another servant came and said, ‘Sir, here is your mina; I have kept it laid away in a piece of cloth. I was afraid of you, because you are a hard man. You take out what you did not put in and reap what you did not sow.’  His master replied, ‘I will judge you by your own words, you wicked servant! You knew, did you, that I am a hard man, taking out what I did not put in, and reaping what I did not sow?’ Why then didn’t you put my money on deposit, so that when I came back, I could have collected it with interest?’ Then he said to those standing by, ‘Take his mina away from him and give it to the one who has ten minas’. 

There is some debate amongst Bible scholars as to the status of the third servant. Who does he represent? Is he like those, in the Parable of the Sower in Luke chapter 8, who are found among the path or rock or thorns? Those who hear and accept the Jesus’ message but for different reasons fall away and are not saved? Or alternatively is the third servant a Christian who is left with nothing as a result of her fruitless life but still saved by grace? I would tend towards the second view. It seems clear from a reading of verses 26 and verse 27 that the judgement and fate of the third servant is different from the subjects in verse 27. The servant has his mina taken from him. The subjects have their very lives taken from them. The servant is left with nothing but the implication is that he is still saved by grace. I was reminded of a passage in 1 Corinthians which speaks along similar lines. 1 Corinthians 3: 9-15:

‘If anyone builds on this foundation (Jesus Christ) using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. If it is burned up the builder will suffer loss, but yet will be saved – even though only as one escaping through the flames.’

 And finally what is the servant’s motivation? Is the master overly harsh with him? What leads the servant to view his master as a hard man?  Imagine you are this third servant. You are called into your master – ‘here is a portion of my wealth’ he tells you ‘invest it until I return’. You return home and ponder. Why would I spend my time and effort earning an absent boss money? Just bury it. And if he ever does come back – he probably won’t, most people hate him round here – I can return his money. In the meantime I can get on with my life. Making my own money. Keeping my own money. Spending and enjoying my own money.

Is it this which is behind the servant’s complaint that the master is ‘a hard man, taking out what he does not put in, reaping what he does not sow’? The third servant expects that if his master does return he will take back his money leaving him with nothing. All that time and effort wasted just to make someone else richer.  In fact the master’s return reveals him to be kind, encouraging and extremely generous. The first and second servants are rewarded for their small acts of service with exponentially greater gifts of position, privilege and responsibility – the rule of ten and five whole cities respectively. The fate of the third servants is a stern warning to us to invest all that God has given us in his service. It won’t be wasted it will be rewarded. If we channel our time into our own agendas at the expense of God’s we will be left with nothing.  

 Jesus Christ is not a hard, severe judge but a kind gentle Saviour, waiting for us, ready to greet you and me with the words ‘well done, my good servant!’. Our small acts of service will be rewarded with such generosity that our breath will be taken away. This parable pleads with us not to waste our lives and regret it.  CS Lewis in his book the Weight of Glory says: “It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

Invest your life in following Jesus and you will be richly rewarded! Let’s pray

The Parable of the Persistent Widow Luke 18v1-8

July 29, 2018 Saint Barnabas Dalston

The Parable of the Shrewd Manager Luke 16:1-13

July 22, 2018 Saint Barnabas Dalston

I moved to London in 1996 to start university, and after my first year in halls of residence I moved to rent somewhere with some friends in the east end. One of my other friends at the same time, aged 19, bought a house in Bow, ex-council house, not lovely but quite big and a good location, and he lived there for a few years with friends. I remember thinking ‘wow, that seems a bit of a headache, having to be a landlord’, boilers breaking, medical students spilling beer or vomiting on the carpets. 3 years later when he qualified as a doctor, he bought another house, this time a Victorian terrace. The first one had cost him 70k, and the second 140k. He held onto them for 10yrs or so, and made an absolute fortune when he sold them. Both of them had gone up 7-8x in value – he was a millionaire, aged 25. It had been a very shrewd investment. At that point, I was wishing I’d done the same.

Well, in this parable called the ‘shrewd manager’, Jesus looks at what is a shrewd investment.

So in this parable we’ve got this dishonest manager who works for a very rich man. His role would have been to manage all his affairs, to invest his money, make positive returns, to run his household, to organise his staff, to sort out his pension – a bit like a Carson from Downton Abbey or an Alfred to Bruce Wayne (Batman)… But it transpires that this man has been lazy and wasteful (v.1 – he was ‘accused of wasting his possessions’) and the master finds out about this.

So v.2 the master calls him in, asks him to explain himself and gives him his marching orders, but with a 3-mth notice period ‘you cannot be my manager any longer’.

This is a very big deal in those days; it is likely that he would have lived with his master, so losing his job would also have made him homeless. There would have been no job seekers allowance, no benefits system. So the manager is clearly very anxious, v3. He says to himself 'what shall I do now?' I am in my 50s - I am not going to be able to dig for a living, I’ve got a bad back, and I certainly don’t want to start begging – that’d be way too humiliating, imagine my friends walking past – how awkward.

So he comes up with a cunning plan v.4 ‘I know what I’ll do so that when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses’.

In Black Adder, Baldrick, would often say these words ‘I have a cunning plan’, which was always entertaining as the cunning plan was usually so stupid…

And similarly what this manager decides to do is so outrageous, he calls in some of the people who owe his master money.

The first man comes in – you can picture how they are feeling, queueing up outside the managers office, perhaps fearful that they’ll be demanded to pay the debt in full, maybe thrown in prison if they can’t do it.

The first man owes 800 gallons of olive oil - that makes a lot of salad dressing, and that amount is thought to have cost around 3y wages for an average man – but to his surprise, the manager slashes the debt by 50% v.6 ‘take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it 400’. You can imagine him stifling a shriek of delight, as he quickly gets his chequebook out before the offer is withdrawn.

The second man comes in, he owes even more: a thousand bushels of wheat, that would have cost the equivalent of 9y salary. And again this man is given a huge discount – this time 20% off.

But as each of these men leave, the manager hands them his business card, ‘by the way, I’m looking for a job…’

Can you see what the manager is doing? He is following through with his plan in v.4, he is acting to make friends for himself: so that ‘people will welcome me into their houses’.

Now perhaps the thing that makes this parable slightly quirky and hard to relate to is the rather unexpected response of the Master in v.8 'the master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly’ – really, commended him? We would have expected the Master to be outraged. His dishonest lazy manager in the last few days of his work for him has ripped him off and lost him a lot more money.

I recently been watching the American drama The House of Cards, and it’s about a politician named Francis Underwood rise to power. His strategies to make it to the top are not very commendable – they include bribery, corruption, murder, blackmail… He is successful and his methods are effective, but as you watch, he’s so unpleasant, you’re unsure if you want him to succeed or not.

Similarly here, the hero of the story, the person we are called to emulate and copy in some way, is also not likeable… so why is Jesus telling this parable, what are we to learn from it?

I have 3 points that I think Jesus makes in the passage: a better perspective, better stewards, a better master.

The first point: ‘A better perspective’ v.8-9

But what is he commended for?

v.8: ‘The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly’ - what he is doing is using money in the present to secure his future after this job is finished. The parallel for us is to use our money and resources in this life to invest in our future; our eternal futures.

We get this from v.9 ‘I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings’

What he is commended for is that he puts money into something more valuable – friendships.

There are no investments, bonds, ISAs or money from property that will really last, Jesus spells this out in v.9: ‘when it is gone’, the only thing we can take with us into the new creation is people. Jesus is encouraging us to put our money towards things that will last forever, things might result in people coming to heaven.

One man who did this was John Laing. He was in the construction industry and when he died in 1978, his firm was one of the largest in the country – you’ve probably seen the signs on new buildings: Laing O’Rourke (it merged after his death). His firm built the M1 motorway and Sizewell nuclear power station.

When he was in his 20s, he made a vow that as his personal income increased, his standard of living would stay the same and it would be his giving which would increase.

He never talked about his giving but we know now that he helped to bankroll what we now call UCCF (a charity that works to make Jesus known in universities).

He also built churches, theological colleges, pastors homes - all for free.

He would drop into the UCCF offices each week, asking the same question:

'How many students have become Christians this week?'

When John Laing died in 1978 his firm was worth millions and millions

But his own estate was worth a paltry £381

He was investing in something far more worthwhile – he was investing his money to help secure people many people’s eternal homes.

So how are we to use our money and resources? Jesus is encouraging us to use them for things that will really last – that means using our money, our resources and our homes towards things that will develop relationships where we can share the good news of the gospel, maybe that involves opening up our homes to our friends, or eating out with people, being generous and kind with what we have, showing that we value them and time with them is important to us and worth investing in. It might also involve giving our money to organisations and charities that are working to make Jesus known in this country and around the world.

v.9: ‘use your worldly wealth to gain friends, so that when it is gone, you may be welcomed into eternal dwellings’

Can you imagine the welcome that John Laing received into heaven from all those he helped to bring to Christ through his generous giving. You probably wouldn’t hear many people talking about this sort of investment as ‘shrewd’ in today’s society, would you.

Jim Elliott, was an American missionary to South America, and he was killed by a tribe there that he was working with, he said: ‘He is no fool to give up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose’ rpt

The Cambridge dictionary’s definition of shrewdness is ‘the ability to judge people and situations well and make good decisions’. Surely this is shrewd business, to use our resources to invest in the eternal futures of those around us.

Have you ever tried to imagine the concept of eternity? I find it quite hard to get my head around – it will never end, everything we know here in this life is temporary and will come to an end. But imagine the new creation, eternity in paradise, a world of perfect friendships, love, never any sadness, crying or pain and we’ll be with our Lord, and this will continue for ever – would we consider this to be shrewd. When we are there, we will never for one moment regret giving generously of our time, resources and money to the eternal futures of other people.

What is the reason that we have this better perspective

Well, it is the Lord Jesus Christ -he embodies the message of verse 9

Here is the author of Creation, the eternal Son of God

All riches are his, all power belongs to him

And yet he gave up his home in heaven and lived and died among us. He clothed his power with weakness.

All so that we might become friends with God

And enjoy an eternal home with him

So that’s the first point, a better perspective – that’s the longest one.

-the second point, I’ve titled Better stewards v.10-12

So in this parable, the Master clearly represents God, and the manager represents people entrusted with God’s possessions.

The word for manager here is the Greek word: oikanamos, which means manager or steward. So the point Jesus makes is a reminder that we are stewards of God’s possessions.

I wonder whether we really believe this- if we really believe that everything we have is God’s, not ours.

If I’m honest, when there’s a sermon on money & giving, some of the emotions evoked would be those of guilt and discomfort, as I think about what more I can spare from my meagre bank balance?

I say to myself: ‘I earned this money, I worked very hard for it’

we need to remember…

Who gave us our jobs? Who gave us health so we can do our work? Who gave us our skills/intelligence? Who placed us in these circumstances? - you can be sure that you if we were born in S.Sudan, that we wouldn’t have the same level of wealth.

No, the point Jesus is making in this parable is that we are stewards of God’s possessions - everything we have belongs to god, and that he is entrusting these things to us for a time to see if we can be trustworthy and responsible with them.

see v.10 ‘whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, whoever is dishonest with little will be dishonest with much’

It’s almost as if this life is a test – can we be trusted to use well the things God has loaned us in the 70-80yrs that we have in this life (maybe less) – v.11 ‘if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches’ – true riches again is speaking about eternity in paradise.

So what does being trustworthy mean?

Well I think this covers our use of money both in terms of honesty and also using it responsibly:

- our honesty – we are to pay people what we owe them, not to swindle people, to be honest with our tax returns – this is a good witness, remember we are managing our masters goods here – we want to give him a good name.

A couple of years ago I was paid a consultancy fee for a day’s work in a private firm who were developing gastroenterology services, and I received a small fee for my work. A few months later I was paid large lump sums on 2 consecutive months – each time I informed them and paid it back – it transpired that they had another R Palmer working there (she had also been paid). Then it happened again two months later… now they were a very big firm, very successful, I don’t think they’d have missed the money, it would have been a drop in the ocean for them, it was very tempting just to see if they noticed… a big test on my honesty. I did pay it back – of course, I was secretly hoping that they’d be so impressed with my integrity, that they’d tell me to keep the cash – they didn’t!

So trustworthiness involves honesty, but also our responsible use of money – we are not to be wasteful – in some circles Christians view money as something evil just to get rid of (asceticism) – well, that’s not right (the manager in the parable was fired for being wasteful)

We are to be wise with money.

It is ok for us to try to earn as much as we can (through honest means), so that we can use it well – money is hugely important for church work.

When this church began we fundraised and raised >100k to develop the church hall, which can be used to serve our local community and to make Jesus known.

Many of you will know that this church is a second generation church plant from St Helens Bishopsgate, which is in the city of London, and has a number of very wealthy bankers in their congregation. Through their generosity, St Helens have planted 13 churches since 2001 to create vibrant bible-teaching churches all around London.

Gospel work is hugely expensive, spending on building and staff and wouldn’t be possible without Christians earning money and using it for eternal purposes.

That’s our second point, we are called to be better stewards, but we do need to beware – always the danger is that money can become our Master, our god, and this brings us onto our final point – ‘A better Master’

Look at v.13: ‘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.’

Jesus speaks a lot about money in the NT, as it has such potential to tip over from being a good thing God gives us to use well, to something that controls and masters us. This is called idolatry.

Maybe you can recognise times when money can begin to master us.

Tim Keller writes about this in his book Counterfeit Gods:

He talks about there being ‘deep idols’ within our hearts, such as power, approval, comfort or control, which sit beneath the more concrete and visible ‘surface idols’, such as money, spouses, children, careers. He says ‘Some people want lots of money as a way to control their world and life. Such people usually don’t spend much money and live very modestly. They keep it all safely saved and invested, so they can feel completely secure in the world. Others want money for access to social circles and to make themselves beautiful and attractive. These people do spend money on themselves in lavish ways. Other people want money as it gives them so much power over others. In every case, money functions as an idol and yet, because of various deep idols, it results in very different patterns of behaviour’

Can you identify yourself in any of these patterns? I imagine all of us are prone to money becoming our idol at times.

Money is a terrible master – it dictates our status, our significance and our security.

It tells us our status is tied to our job

It tells us our significance is in our pay grade

It tells us our security is in our savings

- and we’ll for ever feel anxious as there will always be others in a better place than us

Steve Jobs was the CEO of Apple - one of the greatest innovators and businessmen of this age – he died in 2011 and some of his final words are quite striking:

“I reached the pinnacle of success in the business world. In others’ eyes, my life is an epitome of success.

However, aside from work, I have little joy. In the end, wealth is only a fact of life that I am accustomed to.

At this moment, lying on the sick bed and recalling my whole life, I realize that all the recognition and wealth that I took so much pride in, have paled and become meaningless in the face of impending death.

In the darkness, I look at the green lights from the life supporting machines and hear the humming mechanical sounds, I can feel the breath of death drawing closer…

Now I know, when we have accumulated sufficient wealth to last our lifetime, we should pursue other matters that are unrelated to wealth…

Should be something that is more important:

Perhaps relationships, perhaps art, perhaps a dream from younger days

Non-stop pursuing of wealth will only turn a person into a twisted being, just like me.

God gave us the senses to let us feel the love in everyone’s heart, not the illusions brought about by wealth.

The wealth I have won in my life I cannot bring with me.

Money is a terrible master.

But God is a good master. For those who are forgiven in Christ, he freely gives to us:

A status in his family: being loved children of God

A significance in his kingdom, being in relationship with our Maker and with one another

A security in heaven, which can never be lost

Prayer

Lord, we thank you that through the death of your son that you have made us your children and secured for us a wonderful eternal future. We ask for your help, that for the years that you give us here in this world, that we’d be responsible and faithful stewards with the money and resources that you’ve entrusted to us, and keep us from ever allowing it become our master. Help us to be free to give generously in order to help bring others with us to our eternal home with you.

Amen

Weekend Away 4. Hosea 2:14-23. The True Marriage

July 15, 2018 Saint Barnabas Dalston

Introduction: the promise of happiness

A while ago I went to a wedding of a good friend. It was a lovely day – very musical day – he is musical and he sang a song at the reception – “Happiness, is just around corner.”

Perhaps a little idealistic we might say. But – what we all want isn’t it – to be happy. To be fulfilled, secure, content. We’ve mentioned through our talks that lots of things around us offer that to us. It’s how most adverts work – you get a picture of a happy, fulfilled, contented life in some form – or a bit of it. If you only you get the right perfume, car, holiday. Same can go with jobs or possessions or pleasures.

But probably the most common place we look for that happiness and fulfilment are relationships. Marriage perhaps – or children – family – friends.

God is making a similar promise to us in Hosea – he’s promising us something that will give us what we want – something will satisfy, fulfil and bring true happiness. And our instinct is right – it is about relationships – he is offering us a relationship that will give what we’re searching for.

As we come to finish Hosea, the question for all of us – is who will we believe? Which promise will we trust, who will we be faithful to?

We saw earlier that despite Israel’s adultery, God still loved her, and in his love he promised to marry her again.

Now we might think – but why marry her again, surely she’s going to do the same thing? What’s going to be different time?

The point of this last talk is that as God remarries Israel – he acts to make it different. God changes things so it’s a true marriage – everything a marriage should be. First of all,

1) God will make his new bride faithful in relationship, Hosea 2v16-20, 14v4

2v16 READ – the day of the new marriage. Look at footnote – ‘my Baal’. As Israel committed adultery – as she gave her trust and worship to Baal – she was still worshipping her God, Yahweh, as well. But she sometimes got them mixed up – and called Yahweh Baal.

It’s a terrible thought – calling your spouse by the wrong name. Imagine an unfaithful husband saying to his wife - Do you want to go out Saturday night, Alison? I mean Susan.

But that terrible state is going to change, v16 she’ll no longer call me baal. Why? What makes the difference?

V17 READ – or no longer will their names be remembered. So God is going to act - and take away the name of Baal from Israel’s lips. He’ll even wipe their memory – so that they won’t remember his name. And then as a devoted lover, Israel will only have eyes for, or a name for, one God – her true husband.

In other words God is going to make his bride faithful to him.

We see the same thing in v19-20 READ.

There are the qualities in perfect marriage – full of faithfulness and love. Now God has always been like that – but he’s going to act to make his marriage like this – Israel is faithful too.

One last reference, 14:4 – having invited them to repent, God then says, READ.

This is the heart of Israel’s problem in the old marriage – she has the disease of waywardness, of turning away from God. Another verse in Hosea says, “A spirit of prostitution is in their hearts” – Israel is ill in her spirit. She is addicted to adultery. It’s a habit she can’t kick.

But in the new marriage God says, I will heal her - I will make her whole and healthy with faithfulness.

A while ago I read a book describing the current developments in biotechnology. Popular explanation of some of the amazing things that might become possible.

How we might discover the cancer gene, the heart disease genes - and how we will have enormous power and ability to cure ourselves and put ourselves right.

However the book had a real concern about all this as well – because in the history of humanity we have always abused that sort of power. Commercial exploitation, social inequality, ethical misdemeanours.

Interesting conjunction – this enormous power to put ourselves right physically – yet at the same time a complete inability to do the right thing. We have if you like a spiritual gene – we have a spirit of prostitution. We treat other things as god and so do things wrong. And we are unable to eradicate or replace that gene.

But God says, in this new marriage, I’m going to heal you. I’m going to do spiritual surgery on my new bride – I’m going to remove this addiction to adultery. I’m going to act in you so that you are faithful to me, and will only have my name on your lips.

God will make his new bride faithful in relationship.

2) God will give his new bride fabulous riches, Hosea 2v21-23, 14v5-8

Second difference is that in this new marriage, God will give his new bride fabulous riches.

2v21-22 READ.

The word ‘respond’ here means acting in response to a need. And Israel – as they face God’s judgement, are in great need.

There is no rain, no food. They have been defeated by Assyria, people been killed and deported. The land, the nation, is dead. You could sum that up with the word Jezreel – that was the valley where Assyria defeated Israel – so is symbolic of this death.

But God will respond to this need – first to the skies, sky will respond to the need of the earth for water by sending rain. Earth will respond to the need for grain and wine and oil, by producing crops.

All this will respond to the need of Jezreel – because it will bring the nation back to life. God will plant Israel in the land – and she will grow – in crops, in wine, in oil, as a nation, she will grow and become all she was meant to be.

See similar thing back in chp 14v5-8 READ.

I don’t know if we’re a bit too urban to get this imagery.

V5 Israel will blossom like the lily – a beautiful nation.

V5 she will be like a cedar sending down roots. Idea is that she will be secure and strong.

V6 Splendour like an olive tree – she will be majestic, awesome as a nation.

V6 ‘fragrance like a cedar’ – Israel will be attractive and desirable.

God is promising to make Israel – secure, strong, fruitful and prosperous, majestic and wonderful.

Of course that what Israel wanted. She longed for good crops and wine and the rest of it – but she went to Baal and Assyria for them.

But the truth is, all these riches belong to God – and as he makes her faithful to him – he then showers these riches on her.

It’s like Indecent Proposal – last time – my adapted version. Demi Moore married to Robert Redford who is fabulously wealthy. The affair with Woody has been exposed – Redford has left her to Woody and she’s seen he has nothing to offer – and then he takes he back – she’s faithful to him – she can’t even remember Woody’s name – and so he showers her with riches. All she wanted before – all that Woody use to promise her – she is has from her true husband.

So too God will make his bride faithful – and then pour out all these fabulous riches on her – crops, oil, wine, people. He is going to lavish wedding gifts on her, and make her life so rich and abundant, she couldn’t even ask for more.

Of course the most wonderful thing, at the heart of all this – is simply that this new bride will know God.

2v23 READ. These are lovers talking to each other – saying, you are mine, and I am yours. We belong to each other – we know each other – we are united in relationship together.

We said earlier – this return – this remarriage – happens through Jesus. He comes as a bridegroom to love us – to win us back – to die for us – and bring us into a relationship with God – which is the true marriage. Number 3,

3) God makes us his new bride in Christ, Ephesians 5:25-27

Let’s look at Ephesians 5. Here Paul talks about marriage and how Christ is a model to follow – for instance v25 READ. V28 READ.

Then he goes on to say v31 READ. Now that is a quote from Genesis 2 – and in Genesis 2 it describing Adam and Eve and their human marriage.

Then Paul says v32 READ.

Paul is saying that this quote from Genesis 2 – that describes human marriage – what it’s really talking about is the divine marriage between Christ and his church.

Now you may be familiar with this – I don’t know – but the Bible says human marriage is actually a picture of the true marriage – ultimate marriage. That is the relationship between Christ and his church.

Here is the fulfilment of Hosea – God promises to come to marry his people again – God promises to act to make his bride faithful and to pour out his riches on her. That happens through Jesus.

That happens in part now.

V25-27 READ. We have been made faithful by Christ’s death. Not faithful in how we behave we still do things wrong, but he has taken away all our wrong and our sin in his death. So we are now holy, perfect – faithful. God can look at us and see us as a faithful, perfect bride. And he’s changing us to be more faithful – by his Spirit. He’s doing that spiritual surgery in us – taking out that spiritual gene of adultery – so we are faithful to him.

And we see that Christ gives us fabulous riches too - v29 READ. Hosea said God would care for his bride – now we see Christ feeds and cares for us as his own body. And he does that as he feeds us spiritually and helps us to grow in knowledge of him and being like him.

Yet of course, we are well aware, our marriage with Christ is far from perfect. In many ways we are still waiting for Hosea to be fulfilled – we’re still waiting for the wedding day God promises. And the Bible says it’s coming.

4) God makes us fully his bride in the new creation, Revelation 21&22

21v1,2 READ. Christ will return and God will bring about a new creation, a whole new world. But it’s described as a wedding. God’s people are the bride. Christ is the groom. And they are going to married – it’s like now we’re just engaged. Here is the wedding day when we are united. And Hosea is completely fulfilled. So,

God’s bride is now completely faithful – 21v9-10 READ. The imagery changes a little – the bride is the city, which is the people of God. But v11 READ.

This is a transformed bride – now perfectly pure, shining with God’s glory – reflecting his character and faithfulness. Later in 22v3 we read that the people of God serve him in the city – don’t serve anyone else, because they’ve been made perfectly faithful to him.

And so God gives his bride fabulous riches. First of all every that spoils has been banished from this city. 21v4 READ.

We can also see it positively – this city is everything a city could possibly be. V12 says it has a great high wall showing its security. It is made of every kind of precious stone – just look at v18, or v21 READ.

The language is being stretched to try and describe just how majestic, how desirable, how fabulous this city is.

You know this language of precious stones is also used of the prostitute in Revelation, the anti-God world – who seem to have all the riches of the world. But now we see – what the world wanted, and tried to get – actually comes from God. He is the source of all riches. And now he showers them on his bride.

Most of all – the heart of all this – is that we will know God. 21v3 READ. 22v4 READ. It’s the wedding day – the bride is finally with her husband, and they are united in intimate, profound, union with each other. It’s the perfect relationship – it’s what we always wanted.

A while ago I read about a TV programme in the States called, who wants to marry a millionaire? A millionaire selected his bride from about 50 contestants – then they were married on TV.

However, before all that happened – there was a prenuptial contract signed – stating that if the marriage broke up the bride wouldn’t be able to claim any of his money.

That sums up the low point we can reach in our relationships – not really trusting each other. Not really giving ourselves to each other – not really loving each other.

Human marriage, at its best, points to this divine marriage. At its worst – makes us long for this divine marriage – because we are fed up with the disappointment, loneliness, the hurt and the pain of life here. We long for a perfect relationship – which gives us all we really want.

On this wedding day, there will be no prenuptial contract – because this marriage will never end. There will be no going off with other partners – because this marriage will be utterly faithful. There will be no holding back – of possessions, or love – because Christ will give us all his riches – all of himself.

There will nothing left to do – but to enjoy the relationship. To enter an eternal honeymoon of perfect relationship.

Application

I said at the start we all want happiness, fulfilment, meaning and security.

And lots of things around us offer us something of that. Jobs, fashion, beauty, possessions, homes, pleasures and entertainment.

They aren’t wrong things – just won’t give us all you want. Because they are not god. Not enough.

Our instinct is often that we will get it in relationships - friends, family, a partner. Because the heart of what we want is to love and be loved isn’t it. To know and be known. To be valued and enjoyed. And to have some to love and enjoy and know.

But again while relationships are good - they only give us a taste of that fulfilment we want. And sometimes much less as we hurt and disappoint each other.

But God – being married and united to God. Being loved by him – to death. Being made rich by him. Knowing him. Being known by him. See his face. That is it. That is what we want. That is what we were made for. That is what life is about. As we see that – as we believe that - we give ourselves to him – to knowing him and growing in him and serving him – and being faithful to him now.

Sometimes people get married – and then for various reasons - down the track they renew their marriage vows. They remind themselves, and then recommit and reinforce their vows.

In a few minutes we’re going to have the Lord’s supper. And this is a bit like renewing our marriage vows with Jesus.

As we eat and drink it’s as though Jesus says to us:

All that I am I give to you – all that I have I share with you.

He has given himself for us – that’s how much he loves us. And he shares with us all of his riches – his forgiveness, his righteousness, most of all he shares himself.

And as we eat and drink it’s as though we say to him:

I receive your love – I receive you. And I give myself to you. All that I am is yours. Forsaking all others – all other gods, all other idols that promise so much - I’ll be faithful to you as long as I live.

Let’s use communion to renew our vows with Jesus.

The True Marriage

SBD Weekend July 2018

Hosea 2:14-23