Still Waiting?

Galatians 4.4-7 Luke 2.15-21

Are you patient? I easily get agitated and start tut-tutting. Pacing up and down. Muttering, “this is ridiculous!” When the computer’s on a go-slow. When traffic lights stay red for-e-ver. In queues. In the doctor’s waiting room and he’s running 45 minutes late.

Not all waiting is this annoying. But we live in an instant world. Information is at our fingertips in seconds thanks to the Internet. Amazon Prime makes next day delivery normal and expected. Credit cards mean you can buy things you can’t afford - NOW! How did people manage in the old days (by which I mean the 1980s)? Waiting was just what you did. Maybe we were more patient?

In the Bible, God makes people wait. We’ve just finished Advent Season, waiting for Christ to be born. This waiting is over. But a month of liturgical waiting for us, was at least 4000 years of actual waiting for humanity. Advent is also waiting for the Second Coming. This is almost 2000 years and counting.

1) The Waiting Is Over

Christ’s birth isn’t the beginning of His story. We treat birth as day one of a new existence. However, before we get out, we spend nine months developing in the womb. We had to get into the womb in the first place. Each person has a pre-history. Our parents met one another rather than someone else. And their parents, and so on. If any combination of my ancestors met a different person, or even if a different sperm got to the egg first, I wouldn’t be as I am today. The DNA of different individuals combined to eventually make us as we actually are. A cast of thousands made us. This is also true of Jesus. Only with Him, it’s a greater story with greater significance.

Mary had to wait for her nine months of pregnancy to end. Nothing unusual in that (except she was expecting no “ordinary” baby but one who’d deliver Israel). Nine months was a short wait.

700 years earlier, Isaiah prophesied this. “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel” and “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever.” 700 years - a long wait.

One who’ll reign on David’s throne forever. God told David about this. “When your days are over and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever (2 Samuel 7:12-13).” Seemingly fulfilled in Solomon, actually fulfilled in Jesus. The Temple Jesus built is the church, the living stones, which cannot be destroyed. 1000 years before Christ - a long wait.

In Deuteronomy 18:15 Moses told the Israelites, “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him.” In Acts 3, Peter confirms this is Jesus, even though it seemed like the Israelites Moses addressed would be the ones to hear him. Prophecy is a bit funny like that. No immediate coming - the Israelites had to wait 1400 years.

Just one more. God told the serpent in Eden, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” We see this as fulfilled in the cross specifically. The Devil tried hard to kill Jesus before the cross. Herod is the human villain in the Christmas story. The author of Hebrews wrote of Jesus, “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.” An explicit fulfilment of the coming of Christ as a human to destroy the serpent. That took at least 4000 years to happen. God is patient - and willing to make humanity wait.

2) The Coming of Christ

Paul wrote to the Galatians, “But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman…” It was no accident that Jesus was born when He was. God didn’t think, “well, I think I’ve made ‘em wait long enough. This Mary chick is a nice girl. She’ll do.” He maneuvered history to this point, getting the circumstances just right. But what if He hadn’t and Christ never came? What might we be doing in the UK now?

We can only speculate. In spite of His coming, the vast majority don’t worship Christ. Half the people openly say there’s no god or they’re not sure. Society doesn’t compel them to assume they’re Christian or pretend to be when they know they aren’t. The Ten Commandments have been largely ditched.

If Christ never came, what might we be worshipping? Probably different deities for different occasions. Maybe ancient British or Celtic gods, Saxon gods, Norse gods? Plenty of those. And many are just variations on the themes of war, harvest, earth, water. Or maybe we’d directly worship the sun, moon, stars, trees, water, animals?

How would people who think the story of Jesus’ birth is fanciful nonsense cope with stories of Roman gods and goddesses? Or would they tolerate it for the wine and sex, the dancing and singing? Consider the Roman god Saturn, who devoured his children by his wife Ops as soon as they were born because of a prophecy that one would overthrow him. After chomping through 5 children, Ops hid the child Jupiter and offered Saturn a large stone wrapped in swaddling clothes instead, which so upset his stomach he was forced to disgorge all the other children. Or Venus, born of the seafoam. Naughty Saturn castrated his father and threw the bits into the sea. As they drifted over the water, the blood mixed with it to foment the growth of Venus. Or Bacchus, who was born twice. The first time fathered by Jupiter, who assumed the form of a snake, slithered into the underworld and impregnated Proserpina. Later on, Bacchus was killed, his body torn to pieces. Jupiter gathered them up, placed Bacchus’ heart into a potion which was drunk by Semele, a mortal, who became pregnant. She was murdered, so Jupiter ripped the baby from the womb and sowed him into his thigh to nourish him until he was born.

Compare these to the birth story of Jesus - the difference is immediately obvious. In spite of the angels, the virgin birth, the star, it comes across as a very human story. The Bible accounts are supernatural, not unnatural. We’re privileged this is our story and God hasn’t given us over to depraved gods and practices.

3) The Wait Goes On

God sent His Son. And the consequence for us? Our adoption to sonship. The Holy Spirit in our hearts. We are children and heirs.

Jesus is the only begotten Son. We are adopted children. This is a brilliant thing. God chose you. God is our Father because He wants to be. It pleases Him. We’re God’s children now, but we wait for the redemption of the body. The wait goes on for the second coming of Christ and the resurrection of the dead, when the perishable body will be raised imperishable, raised in glory and power. As John wrote, “now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”

The Holy Spirit lives within the believer, the guarantee of our inheritance, a deposit of what is to come. Our inheritance is to share in the glory of Jesus. It’s knowing God. It’s eternal life. “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all...will also, along with him, graciously give us all things”. Nothing in all creation “will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” The wait goes on for the fulness of this inheritance.

God has “blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.” It “can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.” Moth and rust cannot destroy it. Thieves cannot break in and steal it. But the wait goes on. God kept mankind waiting at least 4000 years for the first coming of Christ. Maybe we shouldn’t be surprised that we’ve waited almost 2000 for the second. He’ll come when the time is right. God will keep His promise as He did before.

CONCLUSION

For many, Christmas is a time for the kids, the family, for eating and drinking too much. And God forbid any religion should sneak its way in! But for Christians, the religion must come first and the rest is trimmings. We need to “be more shepherd”. They heard the message of the angels and hurried off to look; then told everybody what they’d seen; they glorified and praised God. And we should “be more Mary”, who treasured the events to think about them often. And we, I, should be more patient...







Image by Mehmet Turgut Kirkgoz

https://pixabay.com/photos/sheep-shepherd-young-man-portrait-5605251/

God of Wonders

This is my talk at Zoom Church from 7th July, 2020 (Trinity Sunday)
The Bible text is Psalm 8.




THE WONDER OF CREATION

When I was young, I’d go into the back garden and look up at the evening sky. It was amazing to see the blackness, punctuated by starlight and the lovely moon. My childlike awe at this sight made me feel so insignificant. I had nowhere to go with this feeling. I believed in a god, but didn’t know Him. Did David look at the night sky and also feel awestruck? David, a grown man with a developed intellect, knew God and responded by praising the creator of all. He seems to throw up his arms and cry out to the majestic, creator God. We shouldn’t praise creation, but the One who made it. Instead of thinking humanity is insignificant, David was amazed this God considered people very significant.

Today, with the help of technology, we see far more than David could have dreamt of. How much more can we marvel that God loves us?

Psalm 8 is like a meditation on Genesis 1. It’s Trinity Sunday, and in Creation we see a God in three persons working - a Father who created, a Spirit who hovered over the waters of the Earth, a Word by which God created all things. John 1:1-3 tells us: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.” At creation is a Father God, a Word of God and a Spirit of God. The Church came to understand these are not three gods, but one God in three Persons. These Persons work together in unity.

THE WONDER OF GOD’s PERSISTENCE

David marvels that God bothers with human beings. The moon, the stars, the heavens - God could sit back and enjoy these things. They're no trouble, don’t disobey Him, don’t rebel against Him. Why intervene in David’s life, guide him, be his good shepherd, care about him?

God made mankind lower than angels. Yet it was to humans, not angels, that God gave charge over the earth. God said: “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over” all other living creatures. Birds, livestock, fish, wild animals - not made in God’s image. Mankind is. God says to humanity: “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

Mankind is to be like God to the rest of earthly creation; to rule over it. Not brutally exploiting the earth, not killing animals for fun, not draining earth’s resources for greed or the lust for power, denying others a little while hoarding excesses for ourselves. Rather, to work it and take care of it, as God may do with us. Training in order to produce a harvest for all. God isn’t cruel and exploitative, so in representing Him we shouldn’t be. We’re to rule over earth to enable it to produce good fruit, just as the Father prunes us to produce good fruit.

God instructed people to be fruitful, increase in number, rule over the earth and the other living creatures, but not over each other. They were to rule together. But soon humanity’s wickedness spiralled out of control and “the Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time” (Genesis 6:5). Instead of obeying God, they did their own wicked thing. Disobeying God, jealousy, murder, arrogance, pride, sexual immorality, corruption, violence, unbelief. Sound familiar? It was so bad God wiped out virtually everything by flood. Still mankind sinned as if there hadn’t been a worldwide catastrophe. (Let’s not take it for granted that COVID-19 will change people.) Rather than representing God, mankind made itself like God. In time, God took Israel and laid down detailed laws to show how they should live, as a witness to the nations around them. But barely had the ink dried on the agreement, Israel disobeyed over and over. And the nations continued sinning. Whatever God tried to get people to live right, it failed because people are sinful and rebellious in heart. But God didn’t give up.

THE WONDER OF THE INCARNATION

And so, we see the Trinity working together again. The Father sends an angel to Mary with good news - she’ll bear His Son. The Holy Spirit overshadows Mary’s womb so she conceives without a man. The Son born is Jesus, God in flesh, God in action as a human. Again, people were having none of it and killed Him.

Jesus, the God-man, demonstrated the kind of ruler God is. The Son of Man didn’t come to be served, but to serve. The one who is first, became as the one who is least. The king over all washes the disciples’ feet. His joy was to serve His Father and He served Him by serving others.

“Jesus ... made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!”

Jesus, king of angels, who could have summoned angels to rescue Him, became lower than angels. The Creator becomes part of His Creation, tasting the food He created, breathing the air, touching with human hands what He had made. The ruler of all things feels what we suffer, experiences our temptations, dies for our sakes. None of us fully understands what it is to be in someone else’s shoes. God now knows what it’s like to be Adam.

“Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.”

His perfect sacrifice leads many to God. Man kills Him, God raises Him to life. He ascends to heaven. He is crowned with glory and honour.

OUR RESPONSE

How should we respond?

By worshipping the Creator, not the creation, which is idolatry. We must not allow ourselves to bow down to other gods, which are just man made nothings. When we see something beautiful, give thanks to God, for it is His handiwork.

By caring for creation in all its forms, obeying God’s purpose for humanity, and in doing so reigning with Him. Maybe we need to consider our consumer choices a bit more, favouring ethical products.

By becoming like little children, shouting “Hosanna to the Son of David”, joyfully praising our Saviour. Rather than suppressing knowledge of God, we should sing it out. We bow the knee and acknowledge that He is Lord. We throw down our crowns and say:

“You are worthy, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honour and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they were created
and have their being.”

Can We Be Good? - Part 3 (Conclusion)

The text of my sermon on 29th March, 2020.
The Scripture this is based on is Romans 8:6-11

I have two questions to conclude with:

Did God really say? And, Is all this fair?

Did God really say? This is the doubt Satan sows. It worked splendidly with Eve, so why abandon a winning formula? Did God really say human nature is wicked? Did God really say you’re sinful? Did God really say only He is good? If I think I’m a good person who doesn’t need God, that’s the devil whispering, Did God really say? If I think Jesus didn’t need to die for me because I’m innocent, that’s the devil whispering, Did God really say? If I think Jesus isn’t the only way to God, that’s the devil whispering, Did God really say? If I think there’s a kingdom of darkness for bad people, a kingdom of Heaven for Christians, but there’s a middle ground for good non-Christians, that’s the devil whispering, Did God really say? It seems naive and nasty that nice, decent people who don’t believe in Jesus, are God’s enemies who can’t please Him. But Paul lays that on thick (and therefore I am compelled to do the same). This should lead us to preach the gospel to give those who are out the chance to get in.

The second question: Is all this fair? Is it fair that I’m condemned because my ancestors sinned? Is it fair I live in a messed up world because someone I never met ate some fruit? Is it fair that God condemns me for being human, something I can’t help? Is it fair that God gets the blame for bad things that happen in the world? Is it fair that He who gives us life and everything good is maligned, dismissed, disobeyed? Is it fair that Jesus died on a cross for our sins, though He’d done no wrong? Is it fair that I get to spend eternity with God when I don’t deserve to?

In every case, no!  A fallen world isn’t fair. We can’t make it fair. We’re wholly inadequate to do it in a just way. God has a better way than fairness. It’s called grace. Grace is better than fairness. Grace gives what isn’t deserved. For God’s grace, we must be grateful. Fair would see us condemned; grace sees us redeemed. And with the Spirit’s help, we should live a life of grace.

Can We Be Good? - Part 2 (Living By The Spirit)

The text of my sermon on 29th March, 2020.
The Scripture this is based on is Romans 8:6-11

LIVING BY THE SPIRIT

What’s this mean? Sounds vague and weird. The good news is: “To be controlled by the Spirit results in life and peace.” I suggested what being controlled by human nature means. Being controlled by the Holy Spirit is the opposite. The desire to do right, to obey God, exalt God, to put Him in the centre, follow His standard of what’s good, follow His way, to love Him. Paul expressed it in Romans 12:1-2. “Offer yourselves as a living sacrifice to God, dedicated to his service and pleasing to him. This is the true worship that you should offer. Do not conform yourselves to the standards of this world, but let God transform you inwardly by a complete change of your mind.” Watch many tv programmes and you see the standards of the world. Social media can be toxic. Some newspapers and magazines push ungodliness. These influence people much more than the church does. Even Christians fill their heads with junk all week and in normal times we’re supposed to counteract that in one hour on a Sunday! We need to be discerning over whose agenda we let drive us. We can read Christian books, the Bible, and listen to Christian radio and podcasts as a corrective. The resources online are vast. In Galatians 5:19-26, Paul gives as practical a contrast of living by human nature and living by the Spirit as you can get: “What human nature does is quite plain. It shows itself in immoral, filthy, and indecent actions; in worship of idols and witchcraft. People become enemies and they fight; they become jealous, angry, and ambitious. They separate into parties and groups; they are envious, get drunk, have orgies, and do other things like these. I warn you now as I have before: those who do these things will not possess the Kingdom of God. But the Spirit produces love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility, and self-control. There is no law against such things as these. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have put to death their human nature with all its passions and desires. The Spirit has given us life; he must also control our lives. We must not be proud or irritate one another or be jealous of one another.”

Paul was confident his Roman recipients were living by the Spirit, rather than human nature. The Spirit lives in the Christian. The evidence of that should be recognisable to everyone else. We must, however, not view people as mere dummies, controlled by inside or outside forces. We have wills. We can choose. We have no excuses. We can’t say, “It’s not my fault. I was born this way.” Our wills were bent, we were “slaves to sin”, but we’re not without guilt. But in Christ is forgiveness and hope, and if the Holy Spirit is within, we’ve been freed to do what pleases God. 

Paul encourages us to use this freed free will to cooperate with the Spirit (in Philippians 2:12-13): “Keep on working with fear and trembling to complete your salvation, because God is always at work in you to make you willing and able to obey his own purpose.” This is what we do when we obey God’s commands - and the Spirit helps us. He makes us want to. He makes us able to. We’re not trying to prettify our human nature; we’re to live out the divine nature.

Our bodies still die because of sin. We’re forgiven in Christ, but that consequence is inescapable. However, those who live in the Spirit, those in whom the Spirit lives, will rise from death as Christ did. Our dead bones will live again. We’ll be raised on the last day. (1 Corinthians 15:42-44:) “What is sown is perishable; it is raised imperishable. It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body.” You will throw away that walking stick. You will rise out of that wheelchair. The cancer will be gone forever. No more sickness in the next life.

Whoever believes in Jesus never dies. The body dies, but the person doesn’t. We’re more than bodies. And the body will be raised to pain free, sin free life on the last day!

Can We Be Good? - Part 1 (What's so bad about human nature?)

The text of my sermon on 29th March, 2020.
The Scripture this is based on is Romans 8:6-11

Introduction

Who thinks they’re a good person? Most people? I expect that’s a reasonable assumption. I found a website with tips on being good. (I’m listing the main points here.) Determine what being a good person means to you personally. Choose a role model. Stop comparing yourself to others. Love yourself. Be yourself. Pray and/or meditate. Make small changes. Review your goals every day. This is part 1 of 3.  There are 16 more tips, but that would be tedious. There are good and bad pieces of advice here from a Christian perspective. Well, mostly bad, if I’m honest. What if I decide a good person kills infidels and my role model is Osama bin Laden?

I’m focusing on our reading from Romans 8, a superficial reading of which suggests Paul wouldn’t be so hopeful about becoming good, because human nature stinks. But why does it stink?

WHAT’S SO BAD ABOUT HUMAN NATURE?

From our reading alone:

To be controlled by it results in death

To be controlled by it makes you an enemy of God

If you obey it, you can’t please God

That’s a bit of a blow. Can human nature be improved by a few tweaks? In Jeremiah 17:9, the Lord states: “Who can understand the human heart? There is nothing else so deceitful; it is too sick to be healed.” In Genesis 6:5-6 we’re told: “When the Lord saw how wicked everyone on earth was and how evil their thoughts were all the time, he was sorry that he had ever made them and put them on the earth.” Isaiah 53: “All of us were like sheep that were lost, each of us going his own way.” Isaiah 64:6: “All of us have been sinful; even our best actions are filthy through and through.” Depressing stuff.

And yet, it didn’t start out this way. Human nature began good! God gave mankind everything to enjoy except the fruit from one tree, on pain of death. You’d think man would‘ve got on enjoying everything else but no, Satan’s little helper spoiled the party. Did God REALLY say you mustn’t eat the fruit from that tree? Nasty, selfish, spiteful God! He doesn’t want you to be like Him! Of course, snakyboy didn’t address Adam, to whom God had actually given that command. He approached Eve, who only had Adam’s word for it. She chose to ignore Adam and disobey God. When Adam saw Eve had disobeyed God, he didn’t say, “Eve, you silly moo, what have you gone and done?” He said; “Pah! Eve’s not dead! I’m having me some of that fruit!” He trusted Eve instead of God. He walked by sight and not by faith. God confronted them. What did they do? Adam blamed God for creating Eve in the first place. Eve said, “the devil made me do it!”

Thus human nature went bad. Disobeying God. Not trusting that God had humanity’s best interests at heart. Blaming God and others for the wrong we’ve done. Blaming the devil when we sin. From this flows all manner of evil through the millennia. The logic of “how to be a good person” is flawed. Jesus said, “There is no one good but God.” 

Barack Obama once said, “You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig.” A more attractive pig, perhaps, but nonetheless a pig. In the same way, putting lipstick on human nature won’t stop it being faulty. It’s better for society if people are “good”. The current apparent upsurge in volunteering and neighbourliness should demonstrate that. But it doesn’t put us right with God.

What’s it mean to be “controlled” by human nature? It’s the compulsion to do wrong, to disobey God, to blame everyone else, to put yourself in the centre, to set up your own standard of what’s good, to go your own way, love your bad self, set your heart on being bad. It’s a question of “where’s your head at?” The body follows the mind’s lead. Fill the mind with trash and the body will jump into the dustbin and wallow in it.

“And so people become enemies of God when they are controlled by their human nature; for they do not obey God's law, and in fact they cannot obey it.” We can’t serve two masters. We will love one and hate the other. We can’t deliberately, continually choose to disobey God, and at the same time love God. That’s the kind of self-deception of the man who has multiple affairs but claims “I love my wife”. 

Christians face a battle within. We don’t, I say with confidence, set out to disobey God or do wrong with no qualms at all. We seek to do the right things but sometimes fail. Paul felt this. “I am a mortal, sold as a slave to sin.” “I know that good does not live in me—that is, in my human nature.” “My inner being delights in the law of God. But I see a different law at work in my body—a law that fights against the law which my mind approves of. It makes me a prisoner to the law of sin which is at work in my body. What an unhappy man I am!” The solution to this? “Who will rescue me from this body that is taking me to death? Thanks be to God, who does this through our Lord Jesus Christ!” Even if we agree that what God wants us to do is right, and we don’t deliberately set out to be bad, we may still fail. But in such a case, Jesus pleads our cause.

Human nature says with Pharaoh, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey him?” The Christian says, “I want to obey God but I’m battling this broken human nature and I don’t always win. Lord, have mercy on me!” If I want to obey God, but don’t always do it, it’s not me, it’s sin in me. Sounds like a cop out, but this is Paul’s teaching. This should be a comfort when we sin, not an excuse to do wrong. 

Image by Chetan Dhongade from Pixabay
https://pixabay.com/illustrations/good-vs-bad-evil-vs-good-2389058/

God, The Peacemaker

This is the official text of my sermon given on 15th March, 2020

Romans 5:1-11

John 4:5-26,39-42

On this Earth, people can do terrible things to each other. Just one example of many: In 1994, a terrible thing happened in one country. A genocide turned neighbours into enemies. Neighbours killed neighbours. One tribe mostly slaughtered another. 800,000 were killed in three months. (That’s the population of Manchester and Nottingham together.) Can people get over that? Forgive and forget? Can there be real peace? A four year old girl watched her mother shot in the back of the head. Her father was also murdered. She went to live with an aunt and grandmother. She came into contact with a church project which offered support. As a teenager, she accepted Christ and chose to forgive her parents’ murderers. She let go of hatred; gave it to God. She went on to excel in education, later to work in parliament. Now she’s a child protection officer for a charity. She loves helping people and wants to be a servant leader like Jesus.

Romans 5 is an intense part of a remarkable letter. I have two points this morning. Firstly, what God does for His enemies and secondly, what God expects from us.

What God does for His enemies

Who are God’s enemies? That word implies an intense, deep-seated hatred. An irreconcilable, open hostility. It’s that bad. Paul uses other words to build up a bleak picture. Ungodly. Those who fail to show proper reverence for God; who don’t honour what is sacred. Powerless. That is, weak and frail. What an insult! God thinks I’m a weakling, eh? Lemme at Him (shakes fist at the sky)! Sinners. Those who never make the grade - just not good enough. It was used in ancient times to describe an archer who failed to hit the target. This makes up a grim picture of those who don’t know God. Was Paul looking down on others and sneering? Absolutely not. We think of Paul as a most remarkable Christian. That’s not how Paul saw himself. He called himself “the worst of sinners”, “less than the least of all the Lord’s people”. He wasn’t pretending to be worse than he was. This isn’t for dramatic effect. He’d persecuted the church (and therefore Jesus Himself) in the past and was very aware of God’s grace towards him. He’d been openly hostile to Jesus, failed to show proper reverence to God by rejecting Jesus, had “faultlessly” kept the law but failed to impress God, showing himself to be powerless. Even his amazing religious pedigree wasn’t good enough. 

What about us? Or those we meet in daily life? Are we, or were we, enemies of God? Is that a tag we’d apply to ourselves when we didn’t know Jesus? Surely not? Let me be personal. I wasn’t that bad. I didn’t sin with reckless abandon, unlike others. I never killed anyone, never committed adultery, unlike others. I only stole once as a child under the influence of an older boy - and that was only a chocolate bar. Oh, I did steal a stamp from a friend’s collection - no one else to blame for that. But lots of people were worse than me. I believed there was a God. Did God consider me an evil enemy? Paul would say yes. I had everyday sins and attitudes which I wouldn’t have considered wrong, but which I now know are. God is a God of love, a God who is love, a God who so loved the world. But He’s also a God who hates sin; who has to save us from His own just, righteous anger. This doesn’t make God nasty. It makes His love all the more incredible! We can be fairly gracious to people we like. Only a superior love is gracious to enemies - that’s God’s kinda love. 

Christ died for sinners. And so it’s possible for a holy God to be merciful to us. THIS is how God shows He loves His enemies. Yet many have no interest in this gospel. Some hear it and think, “oh, this doesn’t apply to me. God’s not mad at me. I never hurt anyone. Look at all the bad people in the world. I’m alright.” C H Spurgeon wrote: "Our Lord Jesus Christ makes it clear that however good you are, you must come to him the same way as the vilest of the vile. You must come as guilty; you cannot come as righteous." Not everyone’s as bad as bad can be and some are more good than others. But all have sinned and keep falling short of God’s glory. A small sinner or a big sinner is still a sinner. We must come to Christ, believe, tell Him we’re sorry, want to be forgiven and want to change.

Paul repeatedly tells how God reconciled us to Himself. God took the initiative because of love. We’ve been reconciled through the blood (the death) of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Want the peace the world cannot give? This is it - peace with God through Jesus Christ. The world can give you peace of a sort - you can meditate and have some fuzzy, warm, peacy feelings; you can get a feeling of peace through drugs, legal or illegal; the world can make a kind of peace between people; but it can’t give peace with God. Only Jesus Christ does that.

Not only do we have peace with God through Christ. We enemies, we ungodly, powerless sinners are declared innocent of our ungodliness because Jesus took the punishment for our sins upon Himself. No good works of ours can cancel our sins. A thief won’t be declared innocent because he wasn’t a murderer; neither will he be acquitted because he did some good things. We can’t be declared innocent by God because there are worse people than us, or because we did good things, too. We needed and we need Jesus; to have faith in what He did for us. “What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus!”

How does “God reaching out to His enemies” play out in our reading from John 4? Jesus reaching out to a Samaritan woman of dubious morals is a great example of God reaching out. Jews and Samaritans essentially hated each other. They didn’t associate with one another. Pious Jews took a long route rather than go through Samaria. But Jesus deliberately goes there. Jesus deliberately speaks to a Samaritan woman. This shocked His disciples. Not only a woman, but a seemingly loose one. The fact that she goes to the well on her own, at noon, when nobody went to fetch water, is seen as a sign that she was an outcast. She was spiritually dull. She didn’t get what Jesus was saying to her, but she was hardly unique in that! Inasmuch as she had a religion, it was a dodgy one, combining bits from different religions and butchering the Old Testament, dismissing all but the first five books. This woman was an enemy of the Jews and an enemy to God, yet through Jesus God reaches out to her. She believes, goes into town and tells people about Jesus. The people get Jesus to stay with them for two days and the outcome is salvation. “Now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Saviour of the world.” They became believers. 

What God expects from His Children

What does God expect from those who were His enemies but are now His redeemed loved ones? Can we believe in Jesus and carry on as we were? No. Children of God through faith in Jesus Christ cannot live as if they were still God’s enemies. 

God’s love has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. This has big implications. If we hated God before, we cannot go on hating Him. We must love Him by serving no other gods, worshipping no idols, not misusing His name, but rather worshipping Him in Spirit and in truth. If we hated other people, that too must change. Like the girl I mentioned in the introduction, who forgave those who killed her parents, we too must forgive those who sin against us. Nobody said that would be easy. To pray “forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us” acts as a reminder. Freely we’ve received, freely give. And we must love other Christians rather than hate them or harbour grudges. This can also be tough. But it’s an actual test of our faith. 1 John 4:20: “Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.” All Christians are part of God’s family - brothers and sisters. What we cannot do is hate one another. There are two ways of expressing love. There’s passive love and active love. Passive love wishes no ill to another - doesn’t kill, steal, commit adultery, lie or envy. Active love goes out and does something positive for Jesus’ brothers and sisters - feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, tending the sick, giving to the poor. Neither list is exhaustive.

Also, God expects us to boast. Really? We’ve all met people who are full of themselves. “Look at me! I did this, I did that, I am great!” They tell of their achievements with pride. That doesn’t sound like something Christians should do. However, the focus of our boasting is different. Our kind of boasting is about living with a God-given confidence. This confidence isn’t something we earned - it’s because of Jesus. Our faith is in Him. Our peace is through Him. The grace in which we stand is because of Him. This gives us reason for confidence. Salvation isn’t based on my performance, but on the death of Christ. We boast in God, telling how wonderful He is, how He saved us and reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ. This is our hope. This is our confidence. Not how great we are, but how great He is. This is humble boasting indeed! 

CONCLUSION

I’ll end by looking at what Jesus told the Samaritan woman about Himself. This is the Jesus we worship and believe in, who reconciled us to God and lives in us.

“If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” And: “whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

Later in John’s gospel (John 7:38-39), Jesus says: “Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” John explains: “By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive.”

Jesus gives the Holy Spirit to those who believe in Him. If you believe, the Spirit has been given to you and is within you. God is within you. Eternal life is within you. Your thirst has been quenched. The Spirit flows through you and from you, demonstrated by producing the fruit of the Spirit. In Galatians 5:22-25, Paul writes:  “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” 

The woman said, “I know that Messiah is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.” There had been prophecies that Messiah, the Anointed One, would come. Prophets of the Old Testament longed to see Him. His coming was a massively significant event. And here He was. Standing in front of a Samaritan woman. A king asking for a drink. This would be mind blowing! She was going about her daily business and suddenly she’s having a conversation with the hope of Israel and the light for the Gentiles! 

Despite a general hatred between Jews and Samaritans, Jesus went out of His way to tell Samaritans the good news. Before ascending to heaven, Jesus told His disciples: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). Samaritans were very much on Jesus’ gospel agenda. 

Here’s my takeaway thought: making peace between man and man is great. Making peace between God and man is greater. The only way to do the second is through the gospel, because, as Peter said of Jesus, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). And the best (though not the only) way of making peace between people is to preach the gospel, because when enemies believe in Jesus, they become brothers and sisters, children of God.

Image by Niek Verlaan from Pixabay

https://pixabay.com/photos/fist-rebellion-rebel-arm-arms-424500/

The Baptism of Christ - Part 4

CONCLUSION

Imagine we came to church today and the guest speaker was John the Baptist. He gets up to preach, looks us in the eye. “You snakes! Think you can escape the punishment God’s about to send? Do things to show you’ve turned from your sins. And don't start saying, we come to church every week. I tell you God can take these floor tiles and make churchgoers! The fire has started; live like God wants.” Would we get up and walk out? Sit and grumble, then thank him for his word after the service? Ask, how can I show God I’m repentant?

Jesus had a dialogue with the chief priests and elders of the people in Matthew 21:28-32. Jesus said, “Now, what do you think? There was once a man who had two sons. He went to the older one and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ I don't want to,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went. Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. ‘Yes, sir,’ he answered, but he did not go. Which one of the two did what his father wanted?” “The older one,” they answered. So Jesus said to them, “I tell you: the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the Kingdom of God ahead of you. For John the Baptist came to you showing you the right path to take, and you would not believe him; but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. Even when you saw this, you did not later change your minds and believe him.” Who do we want to be? People who pay lip service to God but don’t do what He wants? Or people who say no to God, think better of it, repent and turn to Him? Neither is the best option, but it reflects what was happening. The best thing is to say yes to God and follow it through. 

“Sinners” heeded John, the self righteous refused to. Who entered God’s Kingdom, according to Jesus? John’s message still stands and is elevated this side of the cross and resurrection. I’ll close with the transformed Peter’s words at Pentecost: “Each one of you must turn away from your sins and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, so that your sins will be forgiven; and you will receive God's gift, the Holy Spirit.  For God's promise was made to you and your children, and to all who are far away—all whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” Peter made his appeal to them and with many other words he urged them, saying, “Save yourselves from the punishment coming on this wicked people!” (Acts 2:38-40)

Let’s trust in God’s promise to forgive, to send His Spirit and save us from punishment.

The Baptism of Christ - Part 3

THE GREATNESS OF JESUS

I’m picking out three things John said.

“There is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” I wonder what John meant by this? We see Jesus crucified, the Passover Lamb of God who died for our sins that we could be forgiven. John wasn’t expecting a dying Messiah, but one who’d lead Israel into glory days, so experts tell us. Did John see Jesus taking away the sin of the world by removing sinners from the world? Separating wheat from chaff? John wasn’t wrong. Just his timing was off. 

“He is the son of God.” What did John mean by this? Jesus was a godly man? That sounds too simple. Angels were called sons of God, but I doubt it’s likely John thought Jesus was a glorified angel. Israel as a nation was called God’s son. Did John see Jesus as Israel personified? Kings were sometimes considered sons of God. Maybe he saw Jesus as King of Israel? Or maybe son of God just meant “Messiah”? We’re blessed in having a fuller understanding of Jesus as Son of God. Our Hebrews reading shows that the Son is the one through whom God created everything, who reflects God’s brightness, who’s the exact likeness of God’s being, who sits at God’s right hand, who’s greater than angels and worshipped by them, whose kingdom will last forever…

“He is the one who baptises with the Holy Spirit.” What does this mean to John? Hear again John’s words: “I baptize you with water, but someone is coming who is much greater than I am. I am not good enough even to untie his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. He has his winnowing shovel with him, to thresh out all the grain and gather the wheat into his barn; but he will burn the chaff in a fire that never goes out.” Does John equate the baptism of the Holy Spirit with sorting the wheat from the chaff? The salvation of the righteous and the judgement of the wicked? Are we in Isaiah 40, the Lord sending a wind making the grass wither and flowers fade? Continue further in Isaiah 40 and we read in verses 9-11: “Jerusalem, go up on a high mountain and proclaim the good news! Call out with a loud voice, Zion; announce the good news! Speak out and do not be afraid. Tell the towns of Judah that their God is coming! The Sovereign Lord is coming to rule with power, bringing with him the people he has rescued. He will take care of his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs together and carry them in his arms.” Is this the gathering of wheat into His barn? 

What actually happened when Jesus baptised with the Spirit? Jesus gave explicit instructions to His disciples (in Acts 1:4-5): ““Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift I told you about, the gift my Father promised. John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” In Luke 24:49, He put it like this: “And I myself will send upon you what my Father has promised. But you must wait in the city until the power from above comes down upon you.” What happens at Pentecost in Acts 2 is Jesus baptising the disciples with the Spirit. In their case, they proclaimed God’s works in the many languages of the Jews gathered in Jerusalem at that feast. They became His witnesses in Jerusalem. The greatness of Jesus here is that the Spirit, the gift of the Father, is sent by Jesus. The Father shares His glory with Jesus. 

And finally in this point, the baptism of Jesus by John. Our reading says: “After all the people had been baptized, Jesus also was baptized. While he was praying, heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit came down upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my own dear Son. I am pleased with you.”” 

Here’s what the account in Matthew 3:13-15 says: “At that time Jesus arrived from Galilee and came to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. But John tried to make him change his mind. “I ought to be baptized by you,” John said, “and yet you have come to me!”

But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so for now. For in this way we shall do all that God requires.” So John agreed.” 

This shows the great humility of the Lord. Christmas shows His humility in laying aside the glory of Heaven to be born as a baby in less-than-kingly circumstances. Easter shows His humility in allowing Himself to be subjected to a criminal’s death though He committed no crime. Allowing Himself to undergo a baptism of repentance by John, though He’d nothing to repent of, is another amazing example of Jesus’ humility.

The Baptism of Christ - Part 2

THE SECOND MESSAGE OF JOHN - “I am not the Messiah, but I have been sent ahead of him.”

Once, some of John’s disciples pointed out that Jesus was baptising and everyone was going to Him. John had the same problem as Jesus - his disciples not grasping what he repeatedly told them. John was preparing the way for Messiah, but those protective disciples didn’t get it. John (cue eye roll) reminded them, “You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah, but I have been sent ahead of him.’” John was glad people were going to Jesus. His mission was being fulfilled. “He must increase; I must decrease.” 

We can learn from this. It’s not about me, it’s about Jesus. We seek to do a great job for the Lord, not get praise for ourselves. He must increase; we must decrease. Christ is more important than our service for Him. Jesus is centre of attention. “Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labour in vain” (Psalm 127:1).

More of a tangent, than an attempt at exegesis, this message of “He must increase; I must decrease” reminds me of something Clive said last year. "The people in our church over 50 are mostly white; the people under 50 are mostly from ethnic minorities. We must get used to seeing more ethnic minority people involved in ministry and this will change how we do things." Ministry goes beyond standing up front in church, but in that too “white” people may decrease and “non-white” increase. Ministry isn’t something white people inherently do to others. We’re one in Christ and God’s gifts are not distributed ethnically. I wonder if we have untapped preachers, leaders, singers amongst the Iranians, Pakistanis, Africans, West Indians (as well as Brits)? 

Jesus was a very different Messiah than John expected and John came to doubt. He was in prison, so maybe we can forgive him his uncertainty. Adversity crushes the spirit and tests faith to the limit. John needed reassurance so sent some disciples to ask Jesus if He really was Messiah after all. Jesus replies: “Go back and tell John what you are hearing and seeing:  the blind can see, the lame can walk, those who suffer from dreaded skin diseases are made clean, the deaf hear, the dead are brought back to life, and the Good News is preached to the poor. How happy are those who have no doubts about me!” Jesus redirected John’s thoughts. John was fixated on Isaiah 40. Jesus points him to Isaiah 61. “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners.” We look back and see a developed understanding of the first and second coming of Christ. John was totally unaware of this. In the midst of troubles, we can’t see how they’ll resolve. We need encouragement to trust God; we need to know, “is this Christianity malarkey a load of old guff or is Jesus who He says He is?” No matter how convinced we are of God’s goodness when things go well, we easily forget it when trouble comes. 

When baptising Jesus, John saw the Spirit descend and stay on Jesus, as God told him in advance. Yet he came to question whether Jesus really was Messiah. This is a warning. We’re to be confident in God’s power to keep us but not complacent, as if we’re untouchable. The devil prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. He sought to devour Jesus. He sought to devour Peter. He sought to devour John the Baptist. Are we immune? Philippians 2:12-13: “Keep on working with fear and trembling to complete your salvation, because God is always at work in you to make you willing and able to obey his own purpose.” 

The Baptism of Christ - Part 1

The text of my sermon from 12th January 2020

Bible Reading:

LUKE 3:1-22

HEBREWS 1:1-12

Two men. Born within months of each other. Their mothers were cousins. Both play an important part in God’s plan for Israel, and the world. Both prophesied about in the Old Testament. John the Baptist and Jesus. Two very familiar names. I want to look at the Message of John and the Greatness of Jesus.

It’s not difficult to spot what John’s message was. It has two basic elements:

“Turn away from your sins, because the Kingdom of heaven is near!”

And:

“I am not the Messiah, but I have been sent ahead of him.”

1. THE FIRST MESSAGE OF JOHN - “Turn away from your sins, because the Kingdom of heaven is near.”

Also expressed as, “Turn away from your sins and be baptized and God will forgive your sins.” John’s baptism was so the sins of the repentant could be forgiven. 

John was set apart by God for this. When he was a baby his father prophesied over him: “And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him, to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins” (Luke 1:76-77). It’s reasonable to think his father would’ve talked to John about this as he grew up and John would’ve thought about it. John came to understand he was fulfilling Isaiah 40:3 - A voice cries out, “Prepare in the wilderness a road for the Lord! Clear the way in the desert for our God!” 

If we read Isaiah 40:6-8 we find:

A voice cries out, “Proclaim a message!”

“What message shall I proclaim?” I ask.

“Proclaim that all human beings are like grass;

    they last no longer than wild flowers.

Grass withers and flowers fade

    when the Lord sends the wind blowing over them.

    People are no more enduring than grass.

Yes, grass withers and flowers fade,

    but the word of our God endures forever.”

John came to expect an imminent judgement from God to punish sins. Sinners would wither, fade and die, so they needed to repent, be baptised and forgiven.

Hear John’s method of evangelism. “You snakes! Who told you that you could escape from the punishment God is about to send? Do those things that will show that you have turned from your sins. And don't start saying among yourselves that Abraham is your ancestor. I tell you that God can take these rocks and make descendants for Abraham! The ax is ready to cut down the trees at the roots; every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown in the fire.” Are we so desperate to get people into church nowadays that many present a “nice” message offering everything with no need to change? John seemed like he was trying to put people off! Crowds were coming to him, so maybe he was making sure their motivation was right? “If you’re coming to get baptised you’d better change your ways! This isn’t a religious tick box exercise!” The people responded. “What are we to do, then?” His words were striking home. “Whoever has two shirts must give one to the man who has none, and whoever has food must share it.” Some tax collectors came to be baptized, who asked him, “Teacher, what are we to do?” “Don't collect more than is legal,” he told them. Even soldiers asked him, “What about us? What are we to do?” He said to them, “Don't take money from anyone by force or accuse anyone falsely. Be content with your pay.”

John made it clear what repentance looked like, with bespoke answers to different people. What might John say to our generation? Pretty much the same, I think. And maybe: stop saying “I’m offended! I’m offended!” to get your own way; consume less and donate the savings to charity; be nice to strangers on social media instead of vilifying them; take more interest in your character than your appearance? 

Image by Markus Christ from Pixabay

https://pixabay.com/illustrations/church-st-john-the-baptist-new-ulm-1637450/