Like all companies, the coffee shop, Starbuck's, has a mission statement: to inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighbourhood at a time.
Meanwhile, Coca-Cola seeks To refresh the world...To inspire moments of optimism and happiness...To create value and make a difference.
Now on the one hand, we could pooh-pooh these claims as outrageously optimistic – how could flavoured drinks possibly inspire & nurture the human spirit, refresh the world and inspire moments of optimism & happiness?
And yet, on the other hand, Coca Cola operates in 200 countries, employs 71000 people and, on average, each of the 6.9 billion people in the world buys 3½ coca cola drinks every year!
So Coke's $2bn marketing budget is doing its job.
Now in Luke 4, Jesus comes along and says,
The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour.
One man. One massive mission statement. No marketing budget. No mass media. No employees.
It's a joke, isn't it?
It would have been if anyone other than Jesus had said this.
But Jesus comes with the power & authority of God himself – he is anointed with the Holy Spirit, 4:18, and sent by God the Father, 4:19.
And in the rest of ch 4 he demonstrates this power & authority by freeing people from the oppression & imprisonment of evil spirits and of sickness.
Of course, as far as these few people were concerned, this was fantastic! – they were healed - freed, and could return to normal life.
But the healings always point to something greater – or rather, to someone great – to Jesus – to who he is.
And already in Luke, we've seen that he is the Son of God, that he is able to resist temptation as we cannot, that he has the power & authority of God himself – that Jesus is God's anointed King.
So Jesus has come to announce that the kingdom of God – that is, that the good & perfect rule & reign of God's King – has begun to break into this sinful world.
And he begins to invite people to become citizens of this kingdom, to join him in his mission to announce the presence of the K of G to the whole world.
Yes, it's a massive mission. But it's a mission with the backing of all the infinite resources of the Lord God Almighty.
It started small, but it grew fast.
So when Jesus comes to Lake Genneseret (Galilee), he's the only one proclaiming the K of G. But the people crowd round him and listen to the word of God (5:1).
But there are so many people that it's hard for them all to hear – but hear they must: this is the mission – to get people to hear the word, the message, about the K of G.
So Jesus borrows Simon's boat, pushes out a little way from shore and sits there to teach the people as they gather round in one the natural amphitheatres formed by the inlets and hills of the lake.
Then, when Jesus finishes speaking, v4, he turns to the boat owner, Simon, and says, 'Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.' Let's go fishing!
Now you might think Simon would dismiss the request. After all, he's the experienced fisherman, and he's been out all night – the best time for catching fish – and caught nothing. Now this preacher-man is telling him to go out in the middle of the day, and to fish in deep water – the very time & place you would never fish!
So this is a test for Simon.
He's seen something extraordinary in Jesus: the way he healed his mother-in-law; the way he teaches with such authority.
But now comes the test; will he submit to Jesus? Will he obey what is, humanly speaking, a crazy request?
Simon replies, 'Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.'
He passes the test.
He's ready to take his first step of faith – it's not a leap in the dark, but a step of trust based on the evidence.
Simon's learned enough to put aside his ordinary expectations. Jesus is no mere preacher – no mere man. This Jesus is very, very special.
And Simon's trusting obedience pays off: they catch such a massive haul that their nets began to break, and they have to get their mates to come and help them. Even then, both boats are so laden with fish that they begin to sink.
Clearly this is a miracle – a work that only God could do, but a work done by this man Jesus.
So Simon falls at Jesus' knees and says, 'Go away from me Lord; I am a sinful man.'
And, you'll know what I mean when I say that as Simon falls down at Jesus' feet, he takes another step of faith.
Simon realises that the Jesus is God, and he's afraid. He knows that he is unworthy of God – that he is sinful but that before him stands the just, pure, holy God.
He knows that sinners cannot associate with the holy God.
And just as fire destroys everything combustible, so God will consume everything sinful and evil.
Simon, James & John are terrified of Jesus because they see that Jesus is not just a man – he is the very presence of Almighty God.
Then Jesus said to Simon, v10, 'Don't be afraid'.
This is pretty much a declaration of forgiveness – Jesus has accepted Simon. In fact, this sinner has a new future, 'From now on you will catch men.'
Previously, Simon had caught fish, killed them and sold them – he'd caught them for death.
But now, says Jesus, using a slightly different word, 'You will catch men alive – for life.'
And this is both a promise and a commission for Simon.
It's a promise – 'you will catch men'. And the fulfilment of the promise was illustrated by the huge catch of fish.
Humanly speaking such a catch was impossible. But Jesus has the authority and the power to do the impossible.
His mission statement might is, in human terms, outrageous. And let's face it, recruiting a few fishermen in Galilee seems like a pathetically small step to fulfilling this mission.
But Jesus demonstrates that this is no mission impossible. Not when the entire resources of God are at his disposal – so Simon will catch men.
And history records how Jesus' word was fulfilled – in the space of a few years, there were Xns not only in the middle east, but in Asia, Africa and Europe.
This promise to catch men was massively successful.
But catching men is also a commission. Simon has a new job.
From now on he's to catch men for the Kingdom of God by telling people who Jesus is.
'So', v11, 'they pulled their boats up on the shore, left everything and followed Jesus.'
From now on, they have have one master to follow, one mission to fulfil.
Their allegiance is no longer to the Galilee Fishing Co-operative with its mission statement, 'to inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one fish and one neighbourhood at a time.'
Now their allegiance is to Jesus and his mission to announce the good news of the K of G.
And because these men left everything to follow Jesus, we – you and me – have heard the gospel – we are part of the success of that mission.
And the same promise and the same commission passes on to us.
This is not just a commission for the disciples – if it had been, the church would have died out in one generation and J's mission would have failed.
Each and every Xn is commissioned by Jesus to tell others, 'From now on', he says, 'you too will catch men & women.'
But to our great relief we too realise that this is also a promise. When we tell others about Jesus, we do catch men.
Of course, not every fishing trip is a success. But Jesus is building his kingdom. Men & women are being caught here & all over the world.
Sometimes, we throw in some ground bait, try a catch but fail, and then much later discover that someone else came after us and made a catch because we'd enticed the fish in.
So let's get on with it.
Let's get up & leave our small personal missions, ambitions and goals behind.
Let's go fishing!
Wednesday 23 June 2010
Tuesday 15 June 2010
Authority & Power
Luke 4:31 – 44
If you've ever been to Disneyland, you'll know that there's an area called, 'Backlot'.
Here you get to see what goes on behind the scenes in the making of an action movie:
you see how they set up ramps and special effects to make a spectacular car chase.
you see the crash mats that save the stunt men as they're shot and fall from upstairs windows.
You see that the buildings are just wooden fronts... and so on.
Then, when you've seen all this, they show the finished film – and it looks for all the world as if it's real – as if this is all there is – no ramps or crash mats or stunt doubles.
As we live our day-to-day lives, we generally take life at face value – what you see is what you get. That's all there there is.
We're unaware that there might even be a 'backlot' to life – an unseen world behind the scenes of life.
But there is. It's the unseen spiritual world – the heavenly places – the place where God dwells and the place where the Satan dwells.
And at various ways and at various times, the unseen world breaks through into the seen world – the director steps onto the stage.
When Jesus arrives on earth, it's as if the director is making an appearance in his own film – like Alfred Hitchcock used to do.
But initially, the actors don't recognise Jesus as the director – they think he's just another actor.
So when Jesus goes to his synagogue in Nazareth and reads from the scroll of Isaiah, the people don't recognise what he's saying about himself – they think he's just one of them, “Isn't this Joseph's son?” they say, v22.
But then Jesus suggests that he is a prophet – that he has a message from behind the scenes – they force him out and go back to their ordinary little lives on set.
So Jesus goes down to Capernaum, v31, it's the sabbath, and he begins to teach the people. When they hear him, they're amazed at his teaching because his message has authority.
Now if you read the commentaries, they suggest that Jesus' message had authority because he wasn't like the other rabbis.
Normally, rabbis would quote other, more famous rabbis; 'Rabbi Jonathan Sacks said... , or perhaps, Rabbi Lionel Blue said...'
But Jesus doesn't quote other rabbis, and this, the scholars tell us, is why his message had authority.
But surely there's more going on here than that. Surely Jesus' teaching has authority because he really does know what's going on behind the scenes – he knows what the rabbis could not possibly know.
Jesus knows God's plans & purposes for the world and for these people sitting in front of him. He is God's Son from heaven.
And it's his knowledge of life behind the scenes that gives his message real authority.
But he also knows that God is not the only person who is active behind the scenes. The devil, or the Satan, is also active, trying to thwart God's plans - something he experienced first hand when he was tempted in the desert.
And, as we see in this passage, when Jesus appears on set, the devil shows up as well.
And then we discover that Jesus' doesn't only teach with authority, but that he commands the demons with authority as well.
So as Jesus teaches in the synagogue, a man possessed by an evil spirit cries out, v34, 'Oi, Jesus! What do you want with us? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are – the Holy One of God!'
The people may not see who Jesus really is, but this evil spirit does – here is someone from 'behind the scenes' – someone who knows that Jesus is The Holy One – the One uniquely set apart by God for a special purpose that only he can fulfil.
And that's why the spirit is afraid that he'll be destroyed – he knows that Jesus has unique power & authority to overcome evil.
So Jesus commands the evil spirit, v35, 'Shut up! Come out of him!' And the demon threw the man down before them all and came out without injuring him.
Once again, the people are amazed, and say to each other, 'What is this teaching? With authority and power he gives orders to evil spirits and they come out!'
And the news about him spread throughout the surrounding area.
The people see that there's something astonishing about what Jesus says and does – and clearly the two are linked – his authority is clear both in his teaching and his ability to command the evil spirits.
But where this authority is from and what it's for, they have no idea.
Well, Jesus leaves them with their questions, and sets off for Simon's house, v38. Now Simon's mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked Jesus to help her. So he bent over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. She got up at once and began to wait on them.
The striking thing here is that Jesus treats the fever just as he did the evil spirit – he rebukes it, and it leaves her.
Jesus is demonstrating that he has authority & power over all the destructive causes and effects of sin and evil.
Behind the scenes, God does not struggle to overcome evil – the Son of God gives a command, evil obeys and the effects of evil are undone.
And then, as evening comes, the people brought to Jesus all who had various kinds of sickness, and laying his hands on each one, he healed them. Moreover, demons came out of many people, shouting, 'You are the Son of God!' But he would not allow them to speak because they knew he was the Christ.'
So you see it doesn't matter who they bring, Jesus heals them – Jesus deals with the causes and effects of sin and evil.
What do I mean?
We know that sickness & disease is symptomatic of a world gone wrong. God didn't create a world with pain, sickness, disease or death – he created it very good.
But when man said 'yes' to evil – when we succumbed to the temptations of evil, we become trapped by the powers of evil and its consequences – sickness, disease and death.
But along comes Jesus and commands the powers of evil and rebukes the diseases of this sick world.
Such is his power & authority that with a word he frees people from the ravages of a fallen world.
And now we begin to see what's really going on here.
It's not simply that Jesus has compassion on a few sick and demon-possessed people. What Jesus is doing is to confront the evil that overshadows and blights our lives.
Jesus did not just come to his home town of Nazareth 2000 years ago – not that they wanted him anyway.
And he didn't just come to Capernaum – even though they wanted to keep hold of him there: v 42.
No, Jesus has come to preach this good news to everyone, v43, 'I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, that is why I was sent.' And he kept on preaching in the synagogues of Judea.
Jesus has come with a message – a message of good news about the Kingdom of God.
And so we need to take a step back, & remind ourselves of Jesus' mission.
Look back to vv18-19, & hear again what Jesus says he's come to do: READ.
And we see that this is precisely what Jesus has been doing
releasing people oppressed by evil spirits.
Freeing those imprisoned by pain, disease & suffering.
proclaiming the year of the Lord's favour – the coming kingdom of God.
Of course this begs a whole host of questions about how we enter that kingdom, and what it's like, and why we're not free from sickness & disease, evil and sin, and so on – questions that this passage doesn't answer.
But what this does show is how Jesus came from heaven with the authority of God to open the doors of the Kingdom of God
Jesus has demonstrated that he has God's authority to set up and to rule this new kingdom.
Now if you really believe this to be true, you need to learn what it means to live the whole of your life in the light of this reality.
All too many Xns live just like their non-Xn neighbours - except that they go to church on a Sunday when there's nothing better to do and say their prayers each day.
But consider how radically the K o G is described here – it gives freedom for prisoners; sight for the blind; release for the oppressed.
A freed prisoner won't enjoy his freedom on a Sunday, and then go back to prison on Monday morning.
Over the coming weeks, as we walk with Jesus through Luke's gospel, we'll begin to see what life in the K o G is really like.
If you've ever been to Disneyland, you'll know that there's an area called, 'Backlot'.
Here you get to see what goes on behind the scenes in the making of an action movie:
you see how they set up ramps and special effects to make a spectacular car chase.
you see the crash mats that save the stunt men as they're shot and fall from upstairs windows.
You see that the buildings are just wooden fronts... and so on.
Then, when you've seen all this, they show the finished film – and it looks for all the world as if it's real – as if this is all there is – no ramps or crash mats or stunt doubles.
As we live our day-to-day lives, we generally take life at face value – what you see is what you get. That's all there there is.
We're unaware that there might even be a 'backlot' to life – an unseen world behind the scenes of life.
But there is. It's the unseen spiritual world – the heavenly places – the place where God dwells and the place where the Satan dwells.
And at various ways and at various times, the unseen world breaks through into the seen world – the director steps onto the stage.
When Jesus arrives on earth, it's as if the director is making an appearance in his own film – like Alfred Hitchcock used to do.
But initially, the actors don't recognise Jesus as the director – they think he's just another actor.
So when Jesus goes to his synagogue in Nazareth and reads from the scroll of Isaiah, the people don't recognise what he's saying about himself – they think he's just one of them, “Isn't this Joseph's son?” they say, v22.
But then Jesus suggests that he is a prophet – that he has a message from behind the scenes – they force him out and go back to their ordinary little lives on set.
So Jesus goes down to Capernaum, v31, it's the sabbath, and he begins to teach the people. When they hear him, they're amazed at his teaching because his message has authority.
Now if you read the commentaries, they suggest that Jesus' message had authority because he wasn't like the other rabbis.
Normally, rabbis would quote other, more famous rabbis; 'Rabbi Jonathan Sacks said... , or perhaps, Rabbi Lionel Blue said...'
But Jesus doesn't quote other rabbis, and this, the scholars tell us, is why his message had authority.
But surely there's more going on here than that. Surely Jesus' teaching has authority because he really does know what's going on behind the scenes – he knows what the rabbis could not possibly know.
Jesus knows God's plans & purposes for the world and for these people sitting in front of him. He is God's Son from heaven.
And it's his knowledge of life behind the scenes that gives his message real authority.
But he also knows that God is not the only person who is active behind the scenes. The devil, or the Satan, is also active, trying to thwart God's plans - something he experienced first hand when he was tempted in the desert.
And, as we see in this passage, when Jesus appears on set, the devil shows up as well.
And then we discover that Jesus' doesn't only teach with authority, but that he commands the demons with authority as well.
So as Jesus teaches in the synagogue, a man possessed by an evil spirit cries out, v34, 'Oi, Jesus! What do you want with us? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are – the Holy One of God!'
The people may not see who Jesus really is, but this evil spirit does – here is someone from 'behind the scenes' – someone who knows that Jesus is The Holy One – the One uniquely set apart by God for a special purpose that only he can fulfil.
And that's why the spirit is afraid that he'll be destroyed – he knows that Jesus has unique power & authority to overcome evil.
So Jesus commands the evil spirit, v35, 'Shut up! Come out of him!' And the demon threw the man down before them all and came out without injuring him.
Once again, the people are amazed, and say to each other, 'What is this teaching? With authority and power he gives orders to evil spirits and they come out!'
And the news about him spread throughout the surrounding area.
The people see that there's something astonishing about what Jesus says and does – and clearly the two are linked – his authority is clear both in his teaching and his ability to command the evil spirits.
But where this authority is from and what it's for, they have no idea.
Well, Jesus leaves them with their questions, and sets off for Simon's house, v38. Now Simon's mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked Jesus to help her. So he bent over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. She got up at once and began to wait on them.
The striking thing here is that Jesus treats the fever just as he did the evil spirit – he rebukes it, and it leaves her.
Jesus is demonstrating that he has authority & power over all the destructive causes and effects of sin and evil.
Behind the scenes, God does not struggle to overcome evil – the Son of God gives a command, evil obeys and the effects of evil are undone.
And then, as evening comes, the people brought to Jesus all who had various kinds of sickness, and laying his hands on each one, he healed them. Moreover, demons came out of many people, shouting, 'You are the Son of God!' But he would not allow them to speak because they knew he was the Christ.'
So you see it doesn't matter who they bring, Jesus heals them – Jesus deals with the causes and effects of sin and evil.
What do I mean?
We know that sickness & disease is symptomatic of a world gone wrong. God didn't create a world with pain, sickness, disease or death – he created it very good.
But when man said 'yes' to evil – when we succumbed to the temptations of evil, we become trapped by the powers of evil and its consequences – sickness, disease and death.
But along comes Jesus and commands the powers of evil and rebukes the diseases of this sick world.
Such is his power & authority that with a word he frees people from the ravages of a fallen world.
And now we begin to see what's really going on here.
It's not simply that Jesus has compassion on a few sick and demon-possessed people. What Jesus is doing is to confront the evil that overshadows and blights our lives.
Jesus did not just come to his home town of Nazareth 2000 years ago – not that they wanted him anyway.
And he didn't just come to Capernaum – even though they wanted to keep hold of him there: v 42.
No, Jesus has come to preach this good news to everyone, v43, 'I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, that is why I was sent.' And he kept on preaching in the synagogues of Judea.
Jesus has come with a message – a message of good news about the Kingdom of God.
And so we need to take a step back, & remind ourselves of Jesus' mission.
Look back to vv18-19, & hear again what Jesus says he's come to do: READ.
And we see that this is precisely what Jesus has been doing
releasing people oppressed by evil spirits.
Freeing those imprisoned by pain, disease & suffering.
proclaiming the year of the Lord's favour – the coming kingdom of God.
Of course this begs a whole host of questions about how we enter that kingdom, and what it's like, and why we're not free from sickness & disease, evil and sin, and so on – questions that this passage doesn't answer.
But what this does show is how Jesus came from heaven with the authority of God to open the doors of the Kingdom of God
Jesus has demonstrated that he has God's authority to set up and to rule this new kingdom.
Now if you really believe this to be true, you need to learn what it means to live the whole of your life in the light of this reality.
All too many Xns live just like their non-Xn neighbours - except that they go to church on a Sunday when there's nothing better to do and say their prayers each day.
But consider how radically the K o G is described here – it gives freedom for prisoners; sight for the blind; release for the oppressed.
A freed prisoner won't enjoy his freedom on a Sunday, and then go back to prison on Monday morning.
Over the coming weeks, as we walk with Jesus through Luke's gospel, we'll begin to see what life in the K o G is really like.
Monday 7 June 2010
Forgiveness
A sermon preached by Paul Woodbridge on Sunday 6 June. Paul wanted me to acknowledge that some of his material originated with John Piper (www.desiringgod.org)
(Note, 'X' = 'that')
This July will see the 5th anniversary of the terrible atrocity when 4 fanatical suicide bombers blew themselves up on the London undergrd and a bus, killg many innocent people.
Since that horrendous evening, many stories have emerged of bravery and suffering. But one which was reported in a number of national papers was of a vicar in Bristol, the Rev’d Julie Nicholson, whose 24 year old daughter Jenny was killed in the Edgware Road attack. In March 2006, 8 months after Jenny had died, it was reported she had resigned her post because she found it too hard to forgive the murderers, and couldn’t reconcile her feelings of unforgiveness with her position as a minister.
She said, ‘Forgiving another human being for violating your child is almost beyond human capabilities. It is very difficult for me to stand behind an altar and celebrate the Eucharist and lead people in words of peace and reconciliation and forgiveness when I feel very far from that myself’.
What do you think of her action? Do you think she did the right thing? You have to, don’t you, feel both the greatest sympathy for her as well as real admiration for the transparent integrity she showed in her decision to resign.
Because this whole matter of forgiveness is a very serious thing. Consider some of the words Jesus spoke on this matter:
Mth. 6:12, 14-15: ‘Forgive us our sins as we also have forgiven those who sin against us…for if you forgive others their sins, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your sins’.
Somewhat sobering verses, aren’t they? C.H. Spurgeon said ‘Unless you forgive others, you sign your own death warrant when you pray the Lord’s prayer’. Someone once said to John Wesley, ‘I shall never forgive’. Wesley replied, ‘Then I hope you never sin’.
But these are very hard words to pray, aren’t they? Indeed, before we can honestly pray this bit of the Lord’s Prayer, we have to realise that we NEED to pray it. That is, before we can pray this petition, we must have a sense of sin.
And of course we see very quickly from the Scriptures that we are all sinners, we’ve offended God and broken his laws, and are in urgent need of his forgiveness. Perhaps that’s almost too obvious to say in a church like this – people at Crockenhill Baptist church know all about sin!
We might note that the Bible uses a number of different words for sin, and a brief look at just one of them helps us to see what we are really like.
The most common word is hamartia. This was originally a shooting word and means a missg of the target. So sin is the failure to be what we might have been and could have been, a failure to reach God’s perfect standards.
There was once a man called Samuel Le Grice. He was a brilliant youth who never fulfilled his promise. One writer on him says X there were 3 stages in his career: there was a time when people said, ‘He will do smthg’. Then there was a time when people said, ‘He could do smthg if he would’. Then there was a time when people said, ‘He might have done smthg if he had liked’.
Someone once said, ‘After a certain age, all of us, good and bad, are grief stricken because of powers within us which have never been realised: because, in other words, we are not what we shd be’.
That is really what hamartia is; and X is precisely the situation in which we are all involved. Are we as good husbands or wives as we cd be? Are we as good sons and daughters as we cd be? Are we as good students as we cd be? Is there anyone who will dare to claim X he or she is all they might have been, and has done all they cd have done? When we realise X sin means the failure to hit the target, the failure to be all X we might have been and cd have been, then it is clear X everyone of us is a sinner.
And Scripture is clear X sin is falling short of God’s target, which is to be like He is, as good as it is possible to be. And because God is perfect and wants our sins to be forgiven, he sent his Son, J.C., to be our Saviour, to die in our place, to take the punishment we deserved, so X we cd be forgiven and have eternal life.
Yet the verses we read a few moments ago in Matt. 6 say X we will not be forgiven by God if we hold fast to an unforgiving spirit. If we continue on that way, then we will not go to Heaven, because Heaven is the dwellg place of forgiven people.
Think also of our reading in Matt. 18, where Jesus told a parable to illustrate this point. Peter asks the question in v. 21, ‘Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to 7 times?’ And Peter wd have considered X excessive and extremely generous! But Jesus’ reply wd have stunned him: ‘I tell you, not 7 times, but 70 times 7’, that is, times without number! Our forgiveness of another person is to be unlimited, says Jesus.
Then he tells a parable abt a king who forgave his servant a million pound debt. That servant went out from the king and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a relatively small amount, but he refused his desperate pleas for mercy and had him thrown in prison. When the king heard abt it, he called / servant and said (vv. 32-35):
‘You wicked servant, I cancelled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow-servant just as I had on you?’ In anger, his master handed him over to the jailors to be tortured, until he shd pay back all he owed. And then a punch line which takes away our breath: This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive a brother or sister from your heart.
So the point of Matt.6:15 and 18:35 is X if we hold fast to an unforgiving spirit, then we will not be forgiven by our heavenly Father. And the reason for that is not because we can earn heaven or merit heaven by forgivg others, but because holding fast to an unforgivg spirit proves X we do not trust Xt. If we trust him, we will not spurn his way of life. If we trust him, we will not be able to take forgiveness from his hand for our million pounds debt and withhold it from our £10 debtor.
So there is a clear connection b/w between our forgivg and being forgiven by God. Forgiveness cannot be a one way process. Like all God’s gifts, it brings responsibility; it must be passed on. If we are to open our hands to receive his gracious pardon, we cannot keep our fists tightly clenched against those who have wronged us.
Jesus expects forgiveness of his people, and he assures them X such forgiveness means X the forgiveness of God is certain. ‘It is not X the act of forgivg deserves an eternal reward, but rather it is evidence X the grace of God is at work in the forgivg person and X that same grace will bring that person forgiveness in due course’.
Paul said in Eph. 4:32, Forgive each other, just as God in Xt has forgiven you. In other words, God’s forgiveness is underneath ours and creates it and supports it. So X if we don’t give it to others – if we go on in an unforgivg spirit – what we show is X God is not there in our lives. We are not trustg him. And not trustg him will keep us out of heaven, and cause us to be handed over to the tormentors, as Jesus puts it.
But perhaps we need to ask the question, What is forgiveness? What does it look like? We have heard from Jesus X it is essential. It is not icing on the cake of Xty. If we don’t experience it and offer it to others, we will perish in our sins, says Jesus. So it is tremendously NB to know what this is X is so essential to our eternal life.
May I give you a definition of forgiveness X comes from a writer called Thomas Watson abt 300 years ago. He wrote a book on the Lord’s Prayer, and when he comes to that phrase ‘Forgive us our sins as we also forgive those who sin against us’, he asks the question, When do we forgive others? And he answers:
‘When we strive against all thts of revenge; when we will not do our enemies mischief, but wish well to them, grieve at their calamities, pray for them, seek reconciliation with them, and show ourselves ready on all occasions to relieve them’. [T. Watson, Body of Divinity, p.581]
I think X’s a very good definition of forgiveness. Each part of it comes from a passage of Scripture:
1)Resist thts of revenge. Rom. 12:19, Do not take revenge, my dear friends,, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay”, says the Lord. By forgiving someone, I am trusting that God is a better justice-maker than I am. By forgiving, I release my own right to get even and leave all issues of fairness for God to work out.
2)Don’t seek to do them mischief: 1Thess. 5:15 – Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong.
3)Wish well to them: Lk. 6:28 – Bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.
4)Grieve at their calamities: Prov. 24:17 – Do not gloat when your enemies fall, when they stumble, do not let your heart rejoice.
5)Pray for them: Mth. 5:44 – But I tell you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you.
6)Seek reconciliation with them: Rom. 12:18 – If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.
7)Be always willg to come to their relief, a principle enshrined in Ex. 23:4 – If you come across your enemy’s ox or his donkey wanderg away, be sure to return it.
Here is forgiveness: when you feel X someone is your enemy or when you simply feel X you or someone you care abt has been wronged, forgiveness means,
Resistg revenge; not returng evil for evil; wishg them well; grievg at their calamities; prayg for their welfare; seekg reconciliation so far as it depends on you; and coming to their aid in distress.
All these point to a forgivg heart. And the heart is all NB, as Jesus said in Mth. 18:35, Unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.
I think of a former student at Oak Hill called Nick Banda whose cousin was shot dead durg a robbery at a newsagent’s shop 10 years ago. His story got into the national press and also featured on ‘Songs of Praise’. And what made it noteworthy and what amazed the reporters was the fact that Nick forgave the man who killed his cousin. Listen to some extracts from these reports.
Read extract from Daily Mail of 5-2-97:
‘A committed Xian told how he has forgiven the drug addict who shot his cousin dead. Nick Banda said he tht he wd never get over his cousin’s killing during a robbery at a newsagent’s shop. ‘You always feel emotions like the desire for revenge, X’s quite ordinary’, he said. But being a Xian means trying to be extraordinary.
Mr Banda’s cousin Nath was blasted to death after being robbed of just 26p by Avie Andrews. After Andrews was convicted, Mr Banda met him in his prison cell and told him, ‘I love you’.
Mr Banda said, ‘Nath was more than my cousin, he was my best friend. But I forgave Avie completely. It was unconditional. I believe he will benefit from the fact that he is forgiven. Certainly, it has given his family peace of mind’.
But perhaps it’s important also to think abt what forgiveness is NOT:
1)Forgiveness is not the absence of anger at sin. It is not feelg good abt what was bad.
I read recently abt a pastor who told of a woman in his church who never came to Communion. He probed and found X 15 years earlier she had been separated from her husband because he repeatedly beat her and sexually abused their children. She said X every time she came to Communion, she wd remember what he had done and feel so angry at what it cost her children X she felt unworthy to take the bread and wine.
This pastor said to her, ‘You are not expected to feel good abt what happened. Anger against sin and its horrible consequences is fittg at least up to a point. But you don’t need to hold on to that in a vindictive way X desires harm for your husband. You can hand it over to him who judges justly (1 Pet. 2:23) again and again, and pray for the transformation of your husband. Forgiveness is not feelg good abt horrible thgs’. And he encouraged her to forgive him in this way, and to take communion as she handed her anger over to God and prayed for her husband.
2)Forgiveness is not the absence of serious consequences for sin. In other words, sendg a person to jail does not mean X you are unforgivg to that person. The pastor just mentioned has had a part in puttg 2 of his members in prison for sexual misconduct. Can you imagine the stress on that congregation as they tried to come to terms with what forgiveness is!
We may discipline a child in the home, or a person in the church, or a criminal in society. We may prescribe painful consequences in each case, and yet have a forgivg spirit.
Take eg the book of Hebrews. On the one hand, this book teaches X all Xians are forgiven for their sins; but on the other hand, it teaches X our heavenly Father disciplines us, sometimes quite severely. In Heb. 8:12, it says, I will be merciful to their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.
Then in Heb. 12:6, 10, we read: The Lord disciplines those he loves, and he chasens everyone he accepts as his child…our parents disciplined us for a little while as they thought best, but God disciplines for our good, in order X we may share his holiness.
So our sins are forgiven and forgotten in the sense X they no longer bring down the anger of a judge, but not in the sense X they no longer bring down the rebuke and correction of a Father.
Or we might think of the life of David, / man after God’s own heart (1 Sam. 13:14). He committed adultery and killed Uriah, the woman’s husband. Nathan the prophet came with stinging words to him in 2 Sam. 12:9 –
Why have you despised the word of the Lord by doing evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and have taken his wife to be your own.
David was broken by this condemnation, and says (13), I have sinned v. the Lord. To which Nathan replies on behalf of God: The Lord has taken away your sin; you are not going to die. But even though God had forgiven him – his sin is taken away – Nathan says (14), However because by doing this you have made the enemies of the Lord show utter contempt, the son born to you will die.
So there was forgiveness for David’s sin, but there were sad consequences also.
Numbers 14: Joshua and Caleb tell the people of Israel X they can indeed go up and possess the promised land. Yet the people are angry and want to stone them and go back to Egypt. God intervenes and says to Moses X he is abt to wipe out this ungrateful people and make him a nation greater and mightier than they (12).
But Moses pleads with God for their forgiveness (19): In accordance with your great love, forgive the sin of these people, just as you have pardoned them from the time they left Egypt until now.
So the Lord responds (20-23): I have forgiven them as you asked. Nevertheless, as surely as I live, and as surely as the glory of the Lord fills / whole earth, not one of those who saw my glory and the miraculous signs I performed in Egypt and in the desert but who disobeyed me and tested me 10 times – not one of them will ever see the land I promised to their ancestors.
They were forgiven, but the consequence of their sin was that they wd not see the promised land.
3)Forgiveness of an unrepentant person doesn’t look the same as forgiveness of a repentant person.
Jesus says in Lk. 17:3-4, Watch yourselves! If a brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them, and if they repent, forgive them. Even if they sin against you 7 times in a day, and 7 times come back to you sayg, ‘I repent’, you must forgive them.
So there’s a sense in which full forgiveness is only possible in response to repentance.
But even when a person does not repent, we are commanded to love our enemy and pray for those who persecute us, and do good to those who hate us (Lk. 6:27). Remember how Jesus prayed from the cross: ‘Father forgive them, they do not know what they are doing’. The people who crucified Jesus had not repented, yet Jesus prayed for their forgiveness.
Maybe the difference is X when a person who wronged us does not repent with sorrow and turng from their sin, that person cuts off the full work of forgiveness. We can still lay down our ill will; we can hand over our anger to God; we can seek to do them good; but we cannot be reconciled to them.
Thomas Watson said: “We are not bound to trust an enemy, but we are bound to forgive him”.
You can actually look someone in the face and say, “I forgive you, but I don’t trust you”. That is what the woman whose husband abused her children had to say.
But isn’t the heart crucial here. What wd make X an unforgivg thg to say is if you were thinkg this: What’s more, I don’t care abt ever trustg you again; and I won’t accept any of your efforts to try to establish trust again; in fact, I hope nobody ever trusts you again, and I don’t care if your life is totally ruined. That is not a forgivg spirit. And Jesus wd not accept that.
I think one of the most challenging yet most encouraging thing I have read abt forgiveness is in the book What’s so amazg abt grace? by Philip Yancey. Part 2 is devoted to our need to forgive. Let me conclude with this extract:
‘We do not forgive easily, nor find ourselves easily forgiven. Forgiveness, we discover, is always harder than the sermons make it out to be. We nurse sores, go to elaborate lengths to rationalise our behaviour, perpetuate family feuds, punish ourselves, punish others – all to avoid this most unnatural act.
Charles Williams has said of the Lord’s Prayer, ‘No word in English carries a greater possibility of terror than the little word ‘as’ in that clause – ‘Forgive us our sins AS we forgive those who sin against us’. What makes the ‘as’ so terrifying? The fact that Jesus so plainly links our forgiven-ness by the Father with our forgiving-ness of fellow human beings.
Jesus requires – no, demands – a response of forgiveness. So urgent is the need for forgiveness that it takes precedence over ‘religious duties’: Matt.5:23-24 – ‘If you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to that person, and then come and offer your gift’.
I never find forgiveness easy, and rarely do I find it completely satisfying. Nagging injustices remain, and the wounds still cause pain. I have to approach God again and again, yielding to him the residue of what I thought I had committed to him long ago. I do so because the Gospels make clear the connection: God forgives my debts as I forgive my debtors. The reverse is also true: only by living in the stream of God’s grace will I find the strength to respond with grace towards others’.
In 1994, Lesley Belinda’s husband, Charles, was one of the victims of the Rwandan genocide. 10 years later, Lesley returned to Rwanda to discover the truth about his death. When she met the men who may have been involved in the murder of her husband, she had to make the difficult choice of whether or not to forgive them, and try to answer the question, ‘What does it mean to truly forgive?’
Lesley has addressed audiences around the world on the subject of forgiveness. Drawing on her personal experience, she knows that being willing to forgive is a huge challenge, but, with God’s grace, can be possible. ‘I have wrestled long and hard in the past decade with issues of forgiveness and reconciliation. It is easy to talk of forgiveness, but much harder to put it into practice’.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu said, ‘When you forgive, you let go. It sets you free’. When you forgive, it shows you have received the grace of God.
LET US PRAY: Let’s us examine ourselves in the light of Jesus’ words and as we rejoice in the wonder of God’s grace and forgiveness, let’s also realise afresh how Jesus requires us to forgive. If someone has smthg against us, or we have somethg against another person, then Jesus says we should do something about it. We need first to be reconciled, and then come with cleansed and reconciled hearts to receive God’s forgiveness. So a few moments of quiet for us to examine ourselves.
‘Forgive one another, just as God in Xt has forgiven you’. Lord God, our loving heavenly Father, we give you praise and thanks that you do not deal with us as our sins deserve, but have dealt with our sins through the all-sufficient sacrifice of Jesus. As we rejoice in that fact, we acknowledge that your forgiveness has placed upon us the duty and responsibility to forgive others. We need the help of your Holy Spirit to do this, and so pray that he will give us the strength we need to obey you in this vital matter. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
(With thanks to John Piper)
(Note, 'X' = 'that')
This July will see the 5th anniversary of the terrible atrocity when 4 fanatical suicide bombers blew themselves up on the London undergrd and a bus, killg many innocent people.
Since that horrendous evening, many stories have emerged of bravery and suffering. But one which was reported in a number of national papers was of a vicar in Bristol, the Rev’d Julie Nicholson, whose 24 year old daughter Jenny was killed in the Edgware Road attack. In March 2006, 8 months after Jenny had died, it was reported she had resigned her post because she found it too hard to forgive the murderers, and couldn’t reconcile her feelings of unforgiveness with her position as a minister.
She said, ‘Forgiving another human being for violating your child is almost beyond human capabilities. It is very difficult for me to stand behind an altar and celebrate the Eucharist and lead people in words of peace and reconciliation and forgiveness when I feel very far from that myself’.
What do you think of her action? Do you think she did the right thing? You have to, don’t you, feel both the greatest sympathy for her as well as real admiration for the transparent integrity she showed in her decision to resign.
Because this whole matter of forgiveness is a very serious thing. Consider some of the words Jesus spoke on this matter:
Mth. 6:12, 14-15: ‘Forgive us our sins as we also have forgiven those who sin against us…for if you forgive others their sins, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your sins’.
Somewhat sobering verses, aren’t they? C.H. Spurgeon said ‘Unless you forgive others, you sign your own death warrant when you pray the Lord’s prayer’. Someone once said to John Wesley, ‘I shall never forgive’. Wesley replied, ‘Then I hope you never sin’.
But these are very hard words to pray, aren’t they? Indeed, before we can honestly pray this bit of the Lord’s Prayer, we have to realise that we NEED to pray it. That is, before we can pray this petition, we must have a sense of sin.
And of course we see very quickly from the Scriptures that we are all sinners, we’ve offended God and broken his laws, and are in urgent need of his forgiveness. Perhaps that’s almost too obvious to say in a church like this – people at Crockenhill Baptist church know all about sin!
We might note that the Bible uses a number of different words for sin, and a brief look at just one of them helps us to see what we are really like.
The most common word is hamartia. This was originally a shooting word and means a missg of the target. So sin is the failure to be what we might have been and could have been, a failure to reach God’s perfect standards.
There was once a man called Samuel Le Grice. He was a brilliant youth who never fulfilled his promise. One writer on him says X there were 3 stages in his career: there was a time when people said, ‘He will do smthg’. Then there was a time when people said, ‘He could do smthg if he would’. Then there was a time when people said, ‘He might have done smthg if he had liked’.
Someone once said, ‘After a certain age, all of us, good and bad, are grief stricken because of powers within us which have never been realised: because, in other words, we are not what we shd be’.
That is really what hamartia is; and X is precisely the situation in which we are all involved. Are we as good husbands or wives as we cd be? Are we as good sons and daughters as we cd be? Are we as good students as we cd be? Is there anyone who will dare to claim X he or she is all they might have been, and has done all they cd have done? When we realise X sin means the failure to hit the target, the failure to be all X we might have been and cd have been, then it is clear X everyone of us is a sinner.
And Scripture is clear X sin is falling short of God’s target, which is to be like He is, as good as it is possible to be. And because God is perfect and wants our sins to be forgiven, he sent his Son, J.C., to be our Saviour, to die in our place, to take the punishment we deserved, so X we cd be forgiven and have eternal life.
Yet the verses we read a few moments ago in Matt. 6 say X we will not be forgiven by God if we hold fast to an unforgiving spirit. If we continue on that way, then we will not go to Heaven, because Heaven is the dwellg place of forgiven people.
Think also of our reading in Matt. 18, where Jesus told a parable to illustrate this point. Peter asks the question in v. 21, ‘Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to 7 times?’ And Peter wd have considered X excessive and extremely generous! But Jesus’ reply wd have stunned him: ‘I tell you, not 7 times, but 70 times 7’, that is, times without number! Our forgiveness of another person is to be unlimited, says Jesus.
Then he tells a parable abt a king who forgave his servant a million pound debt. That servant went out from the king and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a relatively small amount, but he refused his desperate pleas for mercy and had him thrown in prison. When the king heard abt it, he called / servant and said (vv. 32-35):
‘You wicked servant, I cancelled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow-servant just as I had on you?’ In anger, his master handed him over to the jailors to be tortured, until he shd pay back all he owed. And then a punch line which takes away our breath: This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive a brother or sister from your heart.
So the point of Matt.6:15 and 18:35 is X if we hold fast to an unforgiving spirit, then we will not be forgiven by our heavenly Father. And the reason for that is not because we can earn heaven or merit heaven by forgivg others, but because holding fast to an unforgivg spirit proves X we do not trust Xt. If we trust him, we will not spurn his way of life. If we trust him, we will not be able to take forgiveness from his hand for our million pounds debt and withhold it from our £10 debtor.
So there is a clear connection b/w between our forgivg and being forgiven by God. Forgiveness cannot be a one way process. Like all God’s gifts, it brings responsibility; it must be passed on. If we are to open our hands to receive his gracious pardon, we cannot keep our fists tightly clenched against those who have wronged us.
Jesus expects forgiveness of his people, and he assures them X such forgiveness means X the forgiveness of God is certain. ‘It is not X the act of forgivg deserves an eternal reward, but rather it is evidence X the grace of God is at work in the forgivg person and X that same grace will bring that person forgiveness in due course’.
Paul said in Eph. 4:32, Forgive each other, just as God in Xt has forgiven you. In other words, God’s forgiveness is underneath ours and creates it and supports it. So X if we don’t give it to others – if we go on in an unforgivg spirit – what we show is X God is not there in our lives. We are not trustg him. And not trustg him will keep us out of heaven, and cause us to be handed over to the tormentors, as Jesus puts it.
But perhaps we need to ask the question, What is forgiveness? What does it look like? We have heard from Jesus X it is essential. It is not icing on the cake of Xty. If we don’t experience it and offer it to others, we will perish in our sins, says Jesus. So it is tremendously NB to know what this is X is so essential to our eternal life.
May I give you a definition of forgiveness X comes from a writer called Thomas Watson abt 300 years ago. He wrote a book on the Lord’s Prayer, and when he comes to that phrase ‘Forgive us our sins as we also forgive those who sin against us’, he asks the question, When do we forgive others? And he answers:
‘When we strive against all thts of revenge; when we will not do our enemies mischief, but wish well to them, grieve at their calamities, pray for them, seek reconciliation with them, and show ourselves ready on all occasions to relieve them’. [T. Watson, Body of Divinity, p.581]
I think X’s a very good definition of forgiveness. Each part of it comes from a passage of Scripture:
1)Resist thts of revenge. Rom. 12:19, Do not take revenge, my dear friends,, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay”, says the Lord. By forgiving someone, I am trusting that God is a better justice-maker than I am. By forgiving, I release my own right to get even and leave all issues of fairness for God to work out.
2)Don’t seek to do them mischief: 1Thess. 5:15 – Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong.
3)Wish well to them: Lk. 6:28 – Bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.
4)Grieve at their calamities: Prov. 24:17 – Do not gloat when your enemies fall, when they stumble, do not let your heart rejoice.
5)Pray for them: Mth. 5:44 – But I tell you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you.
6)Seek reconciliation with them: Rom. 12:18 – If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.
7)Be always willg to come to their relief, a principle enshrined in Ex. 23:4 – If you come across your enemy’s ox or his donkey wanderg away, be sure to return it.
Here is forgiveness: when you feel X someone is your enemy or when you simply feel X you or someone you care abt has been wronged, forgiveness means,
Resistg revenge; not returng evil for evil; wishg them well; grievg at their calamities; prayg for their welfare; seekg reconciliation so far as it depends on you; and coming to their aid in distress.
All these point to a forgivg heart. And the heart is all NB, as Jesus said in Mth. 18:35, Unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.
I think of a former student at Oak Hill called Nick Banda whose cousin was shot dead durg a robbery at a newsagent’s shop 10 years ago. His story got into the national press and also featured on ‘Songs of Praise’. And what made it noteworthy and what amazed the reporters was the fact that Nick forgave the man who killed his cousin. Listen to some extracts from these reports.
Read extract from Daily Mail of 5-2-97:
‘A committed Xian told how he has forgiven the drug addict who shot his cousin dead. Nick Banda said he tht he wd never get over his cousin’s killing during a robbery at a newsagent’s shop. ‘You always feel emotions like the desire for revenge, X’s quite ordinary’, he said. But being a Xian means trying to be extraordinary.
Mr Banda’s cousin Nath was blasted to death after being robbed of just 26p by Avie Andrews. After Andrews was convicted, Mr Banda met him in his prison cell and told him, ‘I love you’.
Mr Banda said, ‘Nath was more than my cousin, he was my best friend. But I forgave Avie completely. It was unconditional. I believe he will benefit from the fact that he is forgiven. Certainly, it has given his family peace of mind’.
But perhaps it’s important also to think abt what forgiveness is NOT:
1)Forgiveness is not the absence of anger at sin. It is not feelg good abt what was bad.
I read recently abt a pastor who told of a woman in his church who never came to Communion. He probed and found X 15 years earlier she had been separated from her husband because he repeatedly beat her and sexually abused their children. She said X every time she came to Communion, she wd remember what he had done and feel so angry at what it cost her children X she felt unworthy to take the bread and wine.
This pastor said to her, ‘You are not expected to feel good abt what happened. Anger against sin and its horrible consequences is fittg at least up to a point. But you don’t need to hold on to that in a vindictive way X desires harm for your husband. You can hand it over to him who judges justly (1 Pet. 2:23) again and again, and pray for the transformation of your husband. Forgiveness is not feelg good abt horrible thgs’. And he encouraged her to forgive him in this way, and to take communion as she handed her anger over to God and prayed for her husband.
2)Forgiveness is not the absence of serious consequences for sin. In other words, sendg a person to jail does not mean X you are unforgivg to that person. The pastor just mentioned has had a part in puttg 2 of his members in prison for sexual misconduct. Can you imagine the stress on that congregation as they tried to come to terms with what forgiveness is!
We may discipline a child in the home, or a person in the church, or a criminal in society. We may prescribe painful consequences in each case, and yet have a forgivg spirit.
Take eg the book of Hebrews. On the one hand, this book teaches X all Xians are forgiven for their sins; but on the other hand, it teaches X our heavenly Father disciplines us, sometimes quite severely. In Heb. 8:12, it says, I will be merciful to their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.
Then in Heb. 12:6, 10, we read: The Lord disciplines those he loves, and he chasens everyone he accepts as his child…our parents disciplined us for a little while as they thought best, but God disciplines for our good, in order X we may share his holiness.
So our sins are forgiven and forgotten in the sense X they no longer bring down the anger of a judge, but not in the sense X they no longer bring down the rebuke and correction of a Father.
Or we might think of the life of David, / man after God’s own heart (1 Sam. 13:14). He committed adultery and killed Uriah, the woman’s husband. Nathan the prophet came with stinging words to him in 2 Sam. 12:9 –
Why have you despised the word of the Lord by doing evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and have taken his wife to be your own.
David was broken by this condemnation, and says (13), I have sinned v. the Lord. To which Nathan replies on behalf of God: The Lord has taken away your sin; you are not going to die. But even though God had forgiven him – his sin is taken away – Nathan says (14), However because by doing this you have made the enemies of the Lord show utter contempt, the son born to you will die.
So there was forgiveness for David’s sin, but there were sad consequences also.
Numbers 14: Joshua and Caleb tell the people of Israel X they can indeed go up and possess the promised land. Yet the people are angry and want to stone them and go back to Egypt. God intervenes and says to Moses X he is abt to wipe out this ungrateful people and make him a nation greater and mightier than they (12).
But Moses pleads with God for their forgiveness (19): In accordance with your great love, forgive the sin of these people, just as you have pardoned them from the time they left Egypt until now.
So the Lord responds (20-23): I have forgiven them as you asked. Nevertheless, as surely as I live, and as surely as the glory of the Lord fills / whole earth, not one of those who saw my glory and the miraculous signs I performed in Egypt and in the desert but who disobeyed me and tested me 10 times – not one of them will ever see the land I promised to their ancestors.
They were forgiven, but the consequence of their sin was that they wd not see the promised land.
3)Forgiveness of an unrepentant person doesn’t look the same as forgiveness of a repentant person.
Jesus says in Lk. 17:3-4, Watch yourselves! If a brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them, and if they repent, forgive them. Even if they sin against you 7 times in a day, and 7 times come back to you sayg, ‘I repent’, you must forgive them.
So there’s a sense in which full forgiveness is only possible in response to repentance.
But even when a person does not repent, we are commanded to love our enemy and pray for those who persecute us, and do good to those who hate us (Lk. 6:27). Remember how Jesus prayed from the cross: ‘Father forgive them, they do not know what they are doing’. The people who crucified Jesus had not repented, yet Jesus prayed for their forgiveness.
Maybe the difference is X when a person who wronged us does not repent with sorrow and turng from their sin, that person cuts off the full work of forgiveness. We can still lay down our ill will; we can hand over our anger to God; we can seek to do them good; but we cannot be reconciled to them.
Thomas Watson said: “We are not bound to trust an enemy, but we are bound to forgive him”.
You can actually look someone in the face and say, “I forgive you, but I don’t trust you”. That is what the woman whose husband abused her children had to say.
But isn’t the heart crucial here. What wd make X an unforgivg thg to say is if you were thinkg this: What’s more, I don’t care abt ever trustg you again; and I won’t accept any of your efforts to try to establish trust again; in fact, I hope nobody ever trusts you again, and I don’t care if your life is totally ruined. That is not a forgivg spirit. And Jesus wd not accept that.
I think one of the most challenging yet most encouraging thing I have read abt forgiveness is in the book What’s so amazg abt grace? by Philip Yancey. Part 2 is devoted to our need to forgive. Let me conclude with this extract:
‘We do not forgive easily, nor find ourselves easily forgiven. Forgiveness, we discover, is always harder than the sermons make it out to be. We nurse sores, go to elaborate lengths to rationalise our behaviour, perpetuate family feuds, punish ourselves, punish others – all to avoid this most unnatural act.
Charles Williams has said of the Lord’s Prayer, ‘No word in English carries a greater possibility of terror than the little word ‘as’ in that clause – ‘Forgive us our sins AS we forgive those who sin against us’. What makes the ‘as’ so terrifying? The fact that Jesus so plainly links our forgiven-ness by the Father with our forgiving-ness of fellow human beings.
Jesus requires – no, demands – a response of forgiveness. So urgent is the need for forgiveness that it takes precedence over ‘religious duties’: Matt.5:23-24 – ‘If you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to that person, and then come and offer your gift’.
I never find forgiveness easy, and rarely do I find it completely satisfying. Nagging injustices remain, and the wounds still cause pain. I have to approach God again and again, yielding to him the residue of what I thought I had committed to him long ago. I do so because the Gospels make clear the connection: God forgives my debts as I forgive my debtors. The reverse is also true: only by living in the stream of God’s grace will I find the strength to respond with grace towards others’.
In 1994, Lesley Belinda’s husband, Charles, was one of the victims of the Rwandan genocide. 10 years later, Lesley returned to Rwanda to discover the truth about his death. When she met the men who may have been involved in the murder of her husband, she had to make the difficult choice of whether or not to forgive them, and try to answer the question, ‘What does it mean to truly forgive?’
Lesley has addressed audiences around the world on the subject of forgiveness. Drawing on her personal experience, she knows that being willing to forgive is a huge challenge, but, with God’s grace, can be possible. ‘I have wrestled long and hard in the past decade with issues of forgiveness and reconciliation. It is easy to talk of forgiveness, but much harder to put it into practice’.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu said, ‘When you forgive, you let go. It sets you free’. When you forgive, it shows you have received the grace of God.
LET US PRAY: Let’s us examine ourselves in the light of Jesus’ words and as we rejoice in the wonder of God’s grace and forgiveness, let’s also realise afresh how Jesus requires us to forgive. If someone has smthg against us, or we have somethg against another person, then Jesus says we should do something about it. We need first to be reconciled, and then come with cleansed and reconciled hearts to receive God’s forgiveness. So a few moments of quiet for us to examine ourselves.
‘Forgive one another, just as God in Xt has forgiven you’. Lord God, our loving heavenly Father, we give you praise and thanks that you do not deal with us as our sins deserve, but have dealt with our sins through the all-sufficient sacrifice of Jesus. As we rejoice in that fact, we acknowledge that your forgiveness has placed upon us the duty and responsibility to forgive others. We need the help of your Holy Spirit to do this, and so pray that he will give us the strength we need to obey you in this vital matter. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
(With thanks to John Piper)
Strength in weakness
A sermon preached by Paul Woodbridge on Sunday 6 June. Paul wanted me to acknowledge that some of his material originated with John Piper (www.desiringgod.org)
(Most of Paul's abbreviations are obvious, but "x" = "that").
2 Corinthians 12:1-10
Nearly 4 years ago, a notable night occurred for Britain’s leading football team. Spurs were away to Charlton in the FA Cup. The signs were not promising. Spurs had a massive injury list, in fact 3 of their 4 forwards were injured and had no chance of playing, to say nothing of several other injuries to key players. So in effect, they were some way off full strength, a seriously weakened team. And when, after 5 minutes of the second half, they went 2-0 down to a goal that the Oak Hill football team would have been ashamed to give away, the writing was on the wall, and I began to prepare possible responses to the cynics in this place who feel it appropriate to mock at other’s misfortunes!
But, hold on a minute…2-1, 2-2, 2-3 , then 2-4, all in the space of a few minutes! The glory days were returning! What had happened? Simply that, despite being weak, the team had found strength in their weakness and while recognising their lack, not least in terms of key players, had battled together and by mutual encouragement and determination, had produced an amazing result.
On a more personal note, I have had to learn what strength in weakness means. About a year or so ago, a number of people made comments on the amount of weight I seemed to putting on, including being called ‘8 months’ by my sons! While for many people here, getting close to 11 stone is something that they exceeded a long time ago, for me it was a new experience! I thought X maybe something shd be done abt this, and so resolved to stop the Crunchies at morning coffee time, as well as reducing the amt of snacking in the evening! Also no puddings at lunchtime! I even went to look at Southgate gym, but seeing the people there in action made me feel quite tired! This has meant at certain times in the day feelg quite weak and having to resist the temptation to snack. However, I’m sure that strength through this feeling of weakness has been the result as weight has reduced and muscle power and fitness have returned!
And really, this is the spiritual principle that the apostle Paul is drawing out for us in the passage from 2 Cor we had read to us. How can we grow in our walk with God? How can we keep close to him? How can we minister in a way that brings glory to him and sees other people come to faith and then grow in that faith? How can we deal with trials that come our way, troubles, difficulties, that perhaps come upon us without warning and which we wish had never happened?
We perhaps shd be wary of people who offer us the ‘secret of the successful Xian life’ (eg ‘God’ channels on Sky, including being invited to do what the people of Ephesus did in Acts 19 in bringing their handkerchiefs for Paul to touch – I shd send my handkerchief to this evangelist, + a donation to his organisation also, of course!), but even so I blve our passage does have somthg very NB to say to us abt livg a positive Xian life. Some have even described it as puttg forward a formula for success, the way to be consistent in Christ-like living, the way to grow in godliness.
And that secret is to be found in v. 9 - WEAKNESS! Now X’s probably not what we’d expect. It’s certainly not the way of the world, is it? In the word’s eyes, to be weak is to be a failure, inadequate, useless. The way of the world is to be strong, confident, self-assured, certain, in control. And the way to achieve this, if we listen to the adverts on television, is to buy the right kind of car, or perfume, or after shave! That will get us what, or who, we want! it’s our culture, it’s us: we can’t be weak!
But the apostle P. tells us X, no, that is not the Xian way. The Xian way is to be weak, for it’s only in weakness X the power of Xt can dwell upon us and we can actually be strong and fruitful and successful in our lives as Xians.
But what led P. to say this? How did he come to this conclusion, X the way to be most effective in God’s service, the way to be a success for Jesus, is to be weak? That only when we acknowledge our weaknesses can we know God’s grace and thus be strong? What are the weaknesses P. has in mind when he quotes Jesus in v.9, My power is made perfect in weakness? And then says, I will all the more gladly boast in my weaknesses? And then again in v. 10 says, For the sake of Xt, then, I am content, even delight in weaknesses?
Phps the best way the answer this is to let the other 4 words in v. 10 fill out what he has in mind. What he summarises as weaknesses in v. 9, he spells out in 4 other words in v. 10: insults, hardships, persecutions and difficulties.
INSULTS: when people think of clever ways of makg our faith or our life-style or our words look stupid, or weird, or inconsistent.
HARDSHIPS: circumstances forced upon us, things happening against our will, difficulties in our lives, pressures, stresses X we didn’t plan or even think wd be this way. But there we are, and it’s hard.
PERSECUTIONS: painful circumstances, or acts of prejudice or opposition from people ’cos of our Xian fth or our Xian moral commitmts. It’s when we’re not treated fairly and people take advantage of us.
DIFFICULTIES (or distresses or troubles): the idea here is one of pressure, or crushg, or being weighed down; circumstances X tend to overcome us with stress and tension.
So what P. has in mind here is not sin. He is not talkg abt a kind of behaviour – like we might say, X person has a weakness for greed, or X person has a weakness for over-eatg. P. is not talkg abt bad choices we make. He is not sayg, ‘The power of Xt is perfected in my bad choices’, or ‘I will all the more gladly boast of my bad choices’. Wknesses here are not wrong ways of behavg. They are circumstances and situations and experiences and wounds X make us look weak, thgs X we’d probably want to get rid of if we had the human strength:
If we were ‘strong’, we might take charge of our own fortune, and turn back the emerging hardship, and change our circumstances so they go the way we want them to, and not force us into discomfort.
If we were ‘strong’, we might use our resources to get out of the calamity or distress as fast as possible, or take charge of the situation so as to minimise its pressure.
But in reality, we don’t usually have that kind of human strength, and in any case, often these circumstances are beyond our control.
So these weaknesses X P. refers to are experiences and situations and wounds that are hard to bear and very difficult to remove.
But what is the SOURCE of such weaknesses? What happened in P’s situation X made him feel so weak? Did these thgs come from God or Satan? Or both?
If we take P’s ‘thorn in the flesh’ (V.7) as an eg, we can see what his answer is. In vv.1-4 of our reading, P. describes what amazg revelations of God and his glory he has been given – he was caught up into Paradise and heard thgs X cannot be told on earth (vv.3-4).
Wd X we cd all have such experiences of God! Is X not what we shd all be seekg to sustain us in our Xian lives?
How do you think P. wd’ve felt? Elated, renewed, excited! And how easy it wd have been for him to think X he was already risg above the ordinary hardships and troubles of earthly life because he was given such privileges!
But v. 7 shows us what actually happened: To keep me from being too elated or conceited, or to keep me from exaltg myself by these wonderful revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to keep me from being too elated.
Now this thorn in the flesh (whether it was some physical problem or some other problem) is one of the weaknesses P. is talkg abt. We know this because when he prays X God wd take it away in v. 8 (3 times I appealed to the Lord abt this, X it wd leave me, 3 times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me), the Lord answers in v. 9, ‘My power is made perfect in weakness. So the thorn in the flesh is one of the weaknesses we are talkg abt.
And where did it come from? P. calls it a ‘messenger of Satan’ (v. 7) given him to harass him and make life difficult for him. So one clear answer is X some weaknesses come from Satan, whose aim is always to undermine the Xian and make life as difficult as possible. He is out to get us, and his aim is destruction and misery and hindrance. He loves to try to get us to think X it’s all too much hassle, too much bother, too much hard work, and X really there’s no advantage in being a Xian, you’re no more protected from the vagaries of life than anyone else! So clearly some troubles at least come from the devil.
But it’s not that simple, is it? Satan is not the only one at work here. God is at work. This thorn is not just the work of Satan to destroy. It’s also the work of God to save, to have a +ve effect on P.
We know this for 2 reasons:
1st, ‘cos P. describes the purpose of the thorn in terms of preventg pride (7). But Satan’s whole design is to produce pride, not to prevent it. X’s how he damages Xians: either with pride in what we have done, or despair over what we haven’t done. P’s revelations in Paradise made him vulnerable to pride and exaltg himself. God uses the hostile intentions of Satan for P’s holiness, to make P. more Xtlike and humble. So God appointed this thorn of Satan for P’s spiritual good. This weakness, this obstruction, this hardship, was actually designed by God for P’s benefit.
So this thorn was a messenger of Satan – there was nothing intrinsically good abt it, and no amt of pious talk cd ever cover up the fact. Nevertheless, it was ‘given’ him by God for beneficial reasons.
Perhaps P. remembered what happened to Joseph in the OT. The 11 brothers sold Joseph into slavery, an evil action. But reflectg on it years later, Joseph himself cd say to his brother, You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the savg of many lives (Gen. 50:20).
So in P’s case, the immediate reason for the thorn, from God’s point of view, was the exceptional revelations; and its immediate purpose was to keep P. from spiritual pride and conceit.
b) The other reason we know the thorn is God’s work and not just Satan’s, is X when P. prays in v. 8 X God wd take it away, the Lord says (9), No, because my power is made perfect in weakness. In other words, I have a purpose in what is happeng to you, Paul. This is not ultimately Satan’s destroying, a –ve work. It is ultimately my savg, a +ve work.
Satan may only do what God the Father allows for the ultimate good of his children. God controls Satan. The very thorn itself in the hand of God becomes X by which God gives P. gt spiritual blessg. It was intended by Satan to harm, but God intended it for good.
And of course, X in itself shd be a gt encouragemt for belivers. When thgs seem to be going wrg, difficulties keep occurrg, life seems to be negative and in effect the devil seems to be havg a field day, even then, in fact God is in control, he can be trusted to brg good out of even the most negative and depressg situation.
A few years ago, Rudi Heinze, who used to be vice-principal here and is now retired back to America, had a successful quintupal heart bypass operation. We were kept up to date on what happened by his daughter Lisa. In one of her emails, she reflected on God’s purposes and the way he interacts in our lives. This is what she wrote:
‘We are grateful to God for bringing Rudi through and granting him this measure of healing. But we realise that the situation could easily have gone in another direction. Other complications cd have occurred. My father might easily have been taken from us by death. But we cannot say that God is good based on the fact that our prayers were answered in a way that we are in agreemt with. Yes, we think God did the ‘right’ thing by pulling Rudi through this crisis. Of course. It is our will that he stay with us for a very long time to come. But even if God had chosen to reward this good and faithful servant with the ultimate gift, the gift of homecoming, we wd still have to cry out that GOD IS GOOD! Our lives are in his hands. We feel secure in that knowledge. Our desire is to love and serve him and live under him in his kingdom. Let’s never lose sight of God’s love and goodness.’
And this leads to our final question – what is the purpose of such weaknesses? Is there a goal or aim for why weaknesses, difficulties, problems come? Why insults, persecutions, difficulties, troubles? Why am I struggling in this way? Why do I or my relatives have this illness? Why are things so difficult? Why is nthg workg in my life?
P. gives 3 brief answers abt his own experience, which are NB for us all to live by:
1) He says X Satan has the purpose to harass and torment P., to batter him, to silence him, to hinder his work. And so it’s right to pray for relief. X’s what P. did until he got a word from the Lord (8). If the Lord had never said in response to Paul’s prayer, ‘No, it isn’t my will that you be relieved of this thorn, P. wd’ve been justified, indeed required, to continue to pray for his healing. One writer said, ‘Never cease praying for healing until you are shown otherwise either by divine revelation or death!’.
Pain is not a good thg in itself. God does not delight in our sufferg. Satan does, and must be resisted. P. knew Satan was houndg him, and so he pleaded with God, Lord, you are sovereign and have triumphed over Satan, and so Satan can do nthg without your permission. So I pray X you will prevent Satan from harassg me. Take Satan off my back, I want to get on with my work without feelg weak. Surely Lord, I would be a much better servant of yours without this handicap!’.
And P’s response is an example for us. Instead of gettg all down and desperate in the face of exhaustion and accident and hatred and danger, the apostle turns his eyes to his God and Saviour. He keeps lookg to the Lord and therefore doesn’t lose perspective, hope. And so when we face the struggles, sicknesses and sorrows X so often make up our daily lives, let’s turn immediately to the Lord and seek his face and ask for his healing.
And in Paul’s case, the only reason he ceased asking for healing was ‘cos God, in effect, told him to shut up. ‘No, Paul. I’m not going to heal you. It isn’t my will in this instance that you be set free from this affliction. Rather I have a higher purpose in view: your humility and my Son’s glory manifest in the context of your on-going weakness’.
To which Paul, in effect, replied: ‘OK, Lord, I’ll shut up and submit to your merciful purpose in my life. I know you love me and desire what is ultimately of greatest good for my spiritual growth. Therefore, my prayer now is that you don’t let me miss out on any spiritual good that might come my way from this illness. Teach me everything I need to know and sustain me that I might be a platform for the glory of Christ and a source of comfort to other suffering blvers’.
2)God’s purpose over and through Satan’s harassmt is our HUMILITY. P. was in danger of spiritual pride and exaltg himself, and God took steps to keep him humble. And we might well think God’s answer to P’s prayer was rather a strange one – why didn’t he just remove the thorn? Why doesn’t he always remove difficulties, hindrances, thgs X come into our lives X make us weak? X’s certainly what P. wanted. And that’s certainly what I wd want.
But God’s answer to his request was not the answer X he – or we – wd wish. What we look for in our struggles and weaknesses is RELIEF from Satan’s harassmts, relief from sickness and sleepnessness, relief from fightings in the family and problems at work, relief from exhaustion and depression. P. sought it too – but did not receive it. WHY?
Well, it seems to be the case X God thinks humility is more NB than comfort. Humility is more NB than freedom from pain. God may give us a mountain top experience in Paradise, and then brg us through anguish and weakness lest we think we have risen above the need for total reliance on his GRACE. So his purpose is our humility and lowliness and reliance on him.
3)Finally, God’s purpose in our weakness is to glorify the grace and power of his Son. P. didn’t get what he expected or even wanted when he prayed X God wd take away the thorn. But he did get another revelation from God which we see in v. 9 – Jesus says, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Or, as The Message puts it, My grace is enough, it’s all that you need. My strength comes into its own in your weakness.
God’s design, we might say, is to make us all showcases for Jesus’ power. But not necessarily in the way you or I wd expect or even want: not by gettg rid of all our weaknesses, but by givg strength to endure and even rejoice in the difficulties. Paul’s ministry would be even more effective ‘cos of this thorn, as people saw the grace of God so evidently at work in him, despite his natural weakness.
God made us to need him, and, he has offered himself to us. And X’s what we see in Paul. In 2 Cor., he speaks of himself and his struggles, his weaknesses, his vulnerability, and his message. And finally he says he has learned a lesson he wd never want to live without: When I am weak, then I am strong, ‘cos only then can I know God’s grace and power workg through me (10).
So what’s a key way to live our Xian lives? To acknowledge our weaknesses. To say to God, ‘I am weak, I have needs, I have distresses and struggles and pains and who knows what else? Of myself, I can accomplish nthg, I am WEAK’. And X’s what P. learnt. But he also knew this: X Xt uses precisely such brokenness to build his church! Those weaknesses? Those are the tools Jesus uses to make us effective in his service!
Probably we don’t like that! We like to be strong, we want to be healthy, likeable. We want to be able to accomplish, want people to acknowledge that we’re able, X we’re quite something. But in God’s kingdom, our ability ultimately counts for nthg. All NB is GOD’s workg, and our willingness to admit X his strength is made perfect in our weakness. Xian spirituality delights in weaknesses; only in the acceptance and confession of weaknesses does the Xian find the supernatural grace of God flowing to meet their needs.
I’m sure we wd all say it’s important that when we preach a sermon, we should also first preach it to ourselves. And I feel something of a hypocrite in preaching on this passage, as I don’t think I’ve learnt this lesson of God giving strength in weakness. Many of you know that over the past months, I have had some health problems in terms of various bits of me not working properly. In particular, and of most nuisance, I have had this ear infection since Xmas day, which has left me very deaf, which has got increasingly hard to cope with. So I have been feeling somewhat wobbly and vulnerable and inadequate and angry in recent days. So may I ask you to pray for me, that I would learn what Paul learnt in these vss, X when I am weak, then I am strong, that God’s strength is made perfect in my weakness, X I wd rely on the grace of God in this situation.
And may we all be able to accept and acknowledge our weaknesses, because only then will we find the supernatural grace of God flowg to meet our needs. Weaknesses can keep us pinned to the Lord, in trust and confidence. Then he can really use us. Jesus says, My power is made perfect in weakness. May we all know that to be true in the coming days, months and years.
(Most of Paul's abbreviations are obvious, but "x" = "that").
2 Corinthians 12:1-10
Nearly 4 years ago, a notable night occurred for Britain’s leading football team. Spurs were away to Charlton in the FA Cup. The signs were not promising. Spurs had a massive injury list, in fact 3 of their 4 forwards were injured and had no chance of playing, to say nothing of several other injuries to key players. So in effect, they were some way off full strength, a seriously weakened team. And when, after 5 minutes of the second half, they went 2-0 down to a goal that the Oak Hill football team would have been ashamed to give away, the writing was on the wall, and I began to prepare possible responses to the cynics in this place who feel it appropriate to mock at other’s misfortunes!
But, hold on a minute…2-1, 2-2, 2-3 , then 2-4, all in the space of a few minutes! The glory days were returning! What had happened? Simply that, despite being weak, the team had found strength in their weakness and while recognising their lack, not least in terms of key players, had battled together and by mutual encouragement and determination, had produced an amazing result.
On a more personal note, I have had to learn what strength in weakness means. About a year or so ago, a number of people made comments on the amount of weight I seemed to putting on, including being called ‘8 months’ by my sons! While for many people here, getting close to 11 stone is something that they exceeded a long time ago, for me it was a new experience! I thought X maybe something shd be done abt this, and so resolved to stop the Crunchies at morning coffee time, as well as reducing the amt of snacking in the evening! Also no puddings at lunchtime! I even went to look at Southgate gym, but seeing the people there in action made me feel quite tired! This has meant at certain times in the day feelg quite weak and having to resist the temptation to snack. However, I’m sure that strength through this feeling of weakness has been the result as weight has reduced and muscle power and fitness have returned!
And really, this is the spiritual principle that the apostle Paul is drawing out for us in the passage from 2 Cor we had read to us. How can we grow in our walk with God? How can we keep close to him? How can we minister in a way that brings glory to him and sees other people come to faith and then grow in that faith? How can we deal with trials that come our way, troubles, difficulties, that perhaps come upon us without warning and which we wish had never happened?
We perhaps shd be wary of people who offer us the ‘secret of the successful Xian life’ (eg ‘God’ channels on Sky, including being invited to do what the people of Ephesus did in Acts 19 in bringing their handkerchiefs for Paul to touch – I shd send my handkerchief to this evangelist, + a donation to his organisation also, of course!), but even so I blve our passage does have somthg very NB to say to us abt livg a positive Xian life. Some have even described it as puttg forward a formula for success, the way to be consistent in Christ-like living, the way to grow in godliness.
And that secret is to be found in v. 9 - WEAKNESS! Now X’s probably not what we’d expect. It’s certainly not the way of the world, is it? In the word’s eyes, to be weak is to be a failure, inadequate, useless. The way of the world is to be strong, confident, self-assured, certain, in control. And the way to achieve this, if we listen to the adverts on television, is to buy the right kind of car, or perfume, or after shave! That will get us what, or who, we want! it’s our culture, it’s us: we can’t be weak!
But the apostle P. tells us X, no, that is not the Xian way. The Xian way is to be weak, for it’s only in weakness X the power of Xt can dwell upon us and we can actually be strong and fruitful and successful in our lives as Xians.
But what led P. to say this? How did he come to this conclusion, X the way to be most effective in God’s service, the way to be a success for Jesus, is to be weak? That only when we acknowledge our weaknesses can we know God’s grace and thus be strong? What are the weaknesses P. has in mind when he quotes Jesus in v.9, My power is made perfect in weakness? And then says, I will all the more gladly boast in my weaknesses? And then again in v. 10 says, For the sake of Xt, then, I am content, even delight in weaknesses?
Phps the best way the answer this is to let the other 4 words in v. 10 fill out what he has in mind. What he summarises as weaknesses in v. 9, he spells out in 4 other words in v. 10: insults, hardships, persecutions and difficulties.
INSULTS: when people think of clever ways of makg our faith or our life-style or our words look stupid, or weird, or inconsistent.
HARDSHIPS: circumstances forced upon us, things happening against our will, difficulties in our lives, pressures, stresses X we didn’t plan or even think wd be this way. But there we are, and it’s hard.
PERSECUTIONS: painful circumstances, or acts of prejudice or opposition from people ’cos of our Xian fth or our Xian moral commitmts. It’s when we’re not treated fairly and people take advantage of us.
DIFFICULTIES (or distresses or troubles): the idea here is one of pressure, or crushg, or being weighed down; circumstances X tend to overcome us with stress and tension.
So what P. has in mind here is not sin. He is not talkg abt a kind of behaviour – like we might say, X person has a weakness for greed, or X person has a weakness for over-eatg. P. is not talkg abt bad choices we make. He is not sayg, ‘The power of Xt is perfected in my bad choices’, or ‘I will all the more gladly boast of my bad choices’. Wknesses here are not wrong ways of behavg. They are circumstances and situations and experiences and wounds X make us look weak, thgs X we’d probably want to get rid of if we had the human strength:
If we were ‘strong’, we might take charge of our own fortune, and turn back the emerging hardship, and change our circumstances so they go the way we want them to, and not force us into discomfort.
If we were ‘strong’, we might use our resources to get out of the calamity or distress as fast as possible, or take charge of the situation so as to minimise its pressure.
But in reality, we don’t usually have that kind of human strength, and in any case, often these circumstances are beyond our control.
So these weaknesses X P. refers to are experiences and situations and wounds that are hard to bear and very difficult to remove.
But what is the SOURCE of such weaknesses? What happened in P’s situation X made him feel so weak? Did these thgs come from God or Satan? Or both?
If we take P’s ‘thorn in the flesh’ (V.7) as an eg, we can see what his answer is. In vv.1-4 of our reading, P. describes what amazg revelations of God and his glory he has been given – he was caught up into Paradise and heard thgs X cannot be told on earth (vv.3-4).
Wd X we cd all have such experiences of God! Is X not what we shd all be seekg to sustain us in our Xian lives?
How do you think P. wd’ve felt? Elated, renewed, excited! And how easy it wd have been for him to think X he was already risg above the ordinary hardships and troubles of earthly life because he was given such privileges!
But v. 7 shows us what actually happened: To keep me from being too elated or conceited, or to keep me from exaltg myself by these wonderful revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to keep me from being too elated.
Now this thorn in the flesh (whether it was some physical problem or some other problem) is one of the weaknesses P. is talkg abt. We know this because when he prays X God wd take it away in v. 8 (3 times I appealed to the Lord abt this, X it wd leave me, 3 times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me), the Lord answers in v. 9, ‘My power is made perfect in weakness. So the thorn in the flesh is one of the weaknesses we are talkg abt.
And where did it come from? P. calls it a ‘messenger of Satan’ (v. 7) given him to harass him and make life difficult for him. So one clear answer is X some weaknesses come from Satan, whose aim is always to undermine the Xian and make life as difficult as possible. He is out to get us, and his aim is destruction and misery and hindrance. He loves to try to get us to think X it’s all too much hassle, too much bother, too much hard work, and X really there’s no advantage in being a Xian, you’re no more protected from the vagaries of life than anyone else! So clearly some troubles at least come from the devil.
But it’s not that simple, is it? Satan is not the only one at work here. God is at work. This thorn is not just the work of Satan to destroy. It’s also the work of God to save, to have a +ve effect on P.
We know this for 2 reasons:
1st, ‘cos P. describes the purpose of the thorn in terms of preventg pride (7). But Satan’s whole design is to produce pride, not to prevent it. X’s how he damages Xians: either with pride in what we have done, or despair over what we haven’t done. P’s revelations in Paradise made him vulnerable to pride and exaltg himself. God uses the hostile intentions of Satan for P’s holiness, to make P. more Xtlike and humble. So God appointed this thorn of Satan for P’s spiritual good. This weakness, this obstruction, this hardship, was actually designed by God for P’s benefit.
So this thorn was a messenger of Satan – there was nothing intrinsically good abt it, and no amt of pious talk cd ever cover up the fact. Nevertheless, it was ‘given’ him by God for beneficial reasons.
Perhaps P. remembered what happened to Joseph in the OT. The 11 brothers sold Joseph into slavery, an evil action. But reflectg on it years later, Joseph himself cd say to his brother, You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the savg of many lives (Gen. 50:20).
So in P’s case, the immediate reason for the thorn, from God’s point of view, was the exceptional revelations; and its immediate purpose was to keep P. from spiritual pride and conceit.
b) The other reason we know the thorn is God’s work and not just Satan’s, is X when P. prays in v. 8 X God wd take it away, the Lord says (9), No, because my power is made perfect in weakness. In other words, I have a purpose in what is happeng to you, Paul. This is not ultimately Satan’s destroying, a –ve work. It is ultimately my savg, a +ve work.
Satan may only do what God the Father allows for the ultimate good of his children. God controls Satan. The very thorn itself in the hand of God becomes X by which God gives P. gt spiritual blessg. It was intended by Satan to harm, but God intended it for good.
And of course, X in itself shd be a gt encouragemt for belivers. When thgs seem to be going wrg, difficulties keep occurrg, life seems to be negative and in effect the devil seems to be havg a field day, even then, in fact God is in control, he can be trusted to brg good out of even the most negative and depressg situation.
A few years ago, Rudi Heinze, who used to be vice-principal here and is now retired back to America, had a successful quintupal heart bypass operation. We were kept up to date on what happened by his daughter Lisa. In one of her emails, she reflected on God’s purposes and the way he interacts in our lives. This is what she wrote:
‘We are grateful to God for bringing Rudi through and granting him this measure of healing. But we realise that the situation could easily have gone in another direction. Other complications cd have occurred. My father might easily have been taken from us by death. But we cannot say that God is good based on the fact that our prayers were answered in a way that we are in agreemt with. Yes, we think God did the ‘right’ thing by pulling Rudi through this crisis. Of course. It is our will that he stay with us for a very long time to come. But even if God had chosen to reward this good and faithful servant with the ultimate gift, the gift of homecoming, we wd still have to cry out that GOD IS GOOD! Our lives are in his hands. We feel secure in that knowledge. Our desire is to love and serve him and live under him in his kingdom. Let’s never lose sight of God’s love and goodness.’
And this leads to our final question – what is the purpose of such weaknesses? Is there a goal or aim for why weaknesses, difficulties, problems come? Why insults, persecutions, difficulties, troubles? Why am I struggling in this way? Why do I or my relatives have this illness? Why are things so difficult? Why is nthg workg in my life?
P. gives 3 brief answers abt his own experience, which are NB for us all to live by:
1) He says X Satan has the purpose to harass and torment P., to batter him, to silence him, to hinder his work. And so it’s right to pray for relief. X’s what P. did until he got a word from the Lord (8). If the Lord had never said in response to Paul’s prayer, ‘No, it isn’t my will that you be relieved of this thorn, P. wd’ve been justified, indeed required, to continue to pray for his healing. One writer said, ‘Never cease praying for healing until you are shown otherwise either by divine revelation or death!’.
Pain is not a good thg in itself. God does not delight in our sufferg. Satan does, and must be resisted. P. knew Satan was houndg him, and so he pleaded with God, Lord, you are sovereign and have triumphed over Satan, and so Satan can do nthg without your permission. So I pray X you will prevent Satan from harassg me. Take Satan off my back, I want to get on with my work without feelg weak. Surely Lord, I would be a much better servant of yours without this handicap!’.
And P’s response is an example for us. Instead of gettg all down and desperate in the face of exhaustion and accident and hatred and danger, the apostle turns his eyes to his God and Saviour. He keeps lookg to the Lord and therefore doesn’t lose perspective, hope. And so when we face the struggles, sicknesses and sorrows X so often make up our daily lives, let’s turn immediately to the Lord and seek his face and ask for his healing.
And in Paul’s case, the only reason he ceased asking for healing was ‘cos God, in effect, told him to shut up. ‘No, Paul. I’m not going to heal you. It isn’t my will in this instance that you be set free from this affliction. Rather I have a higher purpose in view: your humility and my Son’s glory manifest in the context of your on-going weakness’.
To which Paul, in effect, replied: ‘OK, Lord, I’ll shut up and submit to your merciful purpose in my life. I know you love me and desire what is ultimately of greatest good for my spiritual growth. Therefore, my prayer now is that you don’t let me miss out on any spiritual good that might come my way from this illness. Teach me everything I need to know and sustain me that I might be a platform for the glory of Christ and a source of comfort to other suffering blvers’.
2)God’s purpose over and through Satan’s harassmt is our HUMILITY. P. was in danger of spiritual pride and exaltg himself, and God took steps to keep him humble. And we might well think God’s answer to P’s prayer was rather a strange one – why didn’t he just remove the thorn? Why doesn’t he always remove difficulties, hindrances, thgs X come into our lives X make us weak? X’s certainly what P. wanted. And that’s certainly what I wd want.
But God’s answer to his request was not the answer X he – or we – wd wish. What we look for in our struggles and weaknesses is RELIEF from Satan’s harassmts, relief from sickness and sleepnessness, relief from fightings in the family and problems at work, relief from exhaustion and depression. P. sought it too – but did not receive it. WHY?
Well, it seems to be the case X God thinks humility is more NB than comfort. Humility is more NB than freedom from pain. God may give us a mountain top experience in Paradise, and then brg us through anguish and weakness lest we think we have risen above the need for total reliance on his GRACE. So his purpose is our humility and lowliness and reliance on him.
3)Finally, God’s purpose in our weakness is to glorify the grace and power of his Son. P. didn’t get what he expected or even wanted when he prayed X God wd take away the thorn. But he did get another revelation from God which we see in v. 9 – Jesus says, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Or, as The Message puts it, My grace is enough, it’s all that you need. My strength comes into its own in your weakness.
God’s design, we might say, is to make us all showcases for Jesus’ power. But not necessarily in the way you or I wd expect or even want: not by gettg rid of all our weaknesses, but by givg strength to endure and even rejoice in the difficulties. Paul’s ministry would be even more effective ‘cos of this thorn, as people saw the grace of God so evidently at work in him, despite his natural weakness.
God made us to need him, and, he has offered himself to us. And X’s what we see in Paul. In 2 Cor., he speaks of himself and his struggles, his weaknesses, his vulnerability, and his message. And finally he says he has learned a lesson he wd never want to live without: When I am weak, then I am strong, ‘cos only then can I know God’s grace and power workg through me (10).
So what’s a key way to live our Xian lives? To acknowledge our weaknesses. To say to God, ‘I am weak, I have needs, I have distresses and struggles and pains and who knows what else? Of myself, I can accomplish nthg, I am WEAK’. And X’s what P. learnt. But he also knew this: X Xt uses precisely such brokenness to build his church! Those weaknesses? Those are the tools Jesus uses to make us effective in his service!
Probably we don’t like that! We like to be strong, we want to be healthy, likeable. We want to be able to accomplish, want people to acknowledge that we’re able, X we’re quite something. But in God’s kingdom, our ability ultimately counts for nthg. All NB is GOD’s workg, and our willingness to admit X his strength is made perfect in our weakness. Xian spirituality delights in weaknesses; only in the acceptance and confession of weaknesses does the Xian find the supernatural grace of God flowing to meet their needs.
I’m sure we wd all say it’s important that when we preach a sermon, we should also first preach it to ourselves. And I feel something of a hypocrite in preaching on this passage, as I don’t think I’ve learnt this lesson of God giving strength in weakness. Many of you know that over the past months, I have had some health problems in terms of various bits of me not working properly. In particular, and of most nuisance, I have had this ear infection since Xmas day, which has left me very deaf, which has got increasingly hard to cope with. So I have been feeling somewhat wobbly and vulnerable and inadequate and angry in recent days. So may I ask you to pray for me, that I would learn what Paul learnt in these vss, X when I am weak, then I am strong, that God’s strength is made perfect in my weakness, X I wd rely on the grace of God in this situation.
And may we all be able to accept and acknowledge our weaknesses, because only then will we find the supernatural grace of God flowg to meet our needs. Weaknesses can keep us pinned to the Lord, in trust and confidence. Then he can really use us. Jesus says, My power is made perfect in weakness. May we all know that to be true in the coming days, months and years.
Tuesday 1 June 2010
Revelation 1
Revelation 1:1-8
(Notes from a sermon I preached at St John's, Tunbridge Wells on Sunday 31 May).
I wonder what you think about this book, Revelation?
It does contain some weird stuff – just look across to 1:12ff...
People seem to have two main reactions:
The first is to become completely obsessed with it – trying to find dates & historical events that match up with every tiny detail; getting bogged down in pre-tribulational pre-millennialism; post millennialism; pre-tribulational dispensationalism; a-millennianism andn every other ...tional ...ism you can imagine.
I'm so old that I remember when bar codes were first introduced, and some people thought they were the mark of the beast in chapter 16.
I'm not so old as to remember the Reformation, but Luther & his mates thought the beast was the Pope & the Catholics. Of course the Catholics thought that the beast was Luther!
But if some people get obsessed with Revelation, others ignore it.
After all, as someone has said, 'if a strange book produces strange Xns, perhaps it's best to leave it to them!'
But it's an important book – it's the longest letter in the NT – in fact only Mt; Lk & Acts have more chapters.
More important than it's sheer length is the urgency of the message: before John even greets the churches he emphasis the urgency of his message in v1, 'this is the revelation of J.C. which God gave him to show his servants the things that must soon take place' and in v3, 'blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near'.
But before we delve into what it is that's going to take place so soon, we need to understand what sort of book this is.
When you read in Ps 17, 'hide me in the shadow of your wings' you don't say that God therefore is a giant pigeon – you know the Psalms are poetry and you read them as such.
But how should we read Revelation? When we read of a woman with clothed in the sun, with the moon under her feet and on her head a crown of 12 stars, what are we to make of it?
How we understand that will depend on the sort of book Revelation is.
And, John tells us exactly what it is in vv1-3.
First, and not surprisingly, it's revelation – v1 – the revelation of J.C. which God gave him
A 'revelation' is a disclosure of things that otherwise could not be known.
So, over recent months, we've got used to 'revelations' about MPs expenses – the disclosure of things we otherwise could not have known.
If we look at v1, we see that in this book, the Revelation is made by God himself, through Jesus, and then via an angel-messenger to John.
And it discloses what's happening in the unseen, spiritual realms, where God rules and Satan rebels.
Then, second, this book contains the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw v2
One of the biggest themes in John's gospel is that Jesus has been sent from God into the world to reveal God to the world.
Because Jesus was with the Father in the beginning, he knows the Father – he knows what happens in heaven because he'd lived there for all eternity.
And now, Jesus tells John what he saw in heaven.
Third, this book is prophecy, v3
Now people often think that prophecy is all about the future. But it's not.
Read Isaiah, Jeremiah & the other prophets, and you'll find an awful lot about the past – the way God called and cared for his people;
about the present - how the people are rejecting & rebelling against God;
and only then about the future – a warning of impending judgment and promises of salvation.
And in Revelation, there's a lot about the past – the victory of the cross.
And there's a lot about the present and the immediate future facing the 7 churches John is writing to.
They're facing persecution and trouble from the evil power of the Roman empire. That raises questions in their minds, 'Is it worth persevering?', 'Does God have ultimate power over evil, or is there a chance that he will lose and the devil win?'
And then there's some stuff – though not as much as people think - about the long-term future – the return of Christ, the new heavens and the new earth.
So when John talks about things happening soon, he's not necessarily talking about the return of Jesus, but about what will be going on in heaven when the church faces persecution.
When he does talk about the return of Jesus, the urgency is because we don't know when he will come – and in this John echoes Jesus' own words – “be ready because you do not know when the master will return.”
So, v3, you will be 'blessed' if you read, hear and keep these words – if you understand who God is, what he has done, what he is doing, what he will do, and how the devil is trying to thwart him but won't succeed – then you will be blessed – because you will be able to live in this troubled world at peace with God.
So this book is revelation, testimony & prophecy. But, v4, it's also a letter – John is writing to 7 churches in what is now western Turkey.
And so he greets them just as Paul does in his letters, read vv4b-5
The world has always, and will always, be fundamentally opposed to Christ, to Xns, to the church and to Xy.
So to pray that the church will enjoy the grace and peace of God-the-Ttrinity is more than a mere greeting – it's a real plea to God to supply these churches with the gifts, the unity and the confidence that he alone can give.
And immediately, John is reminding these Xns of the greatness of the God who will give them grace & peace: he is, he was, and he is to come.
This God is always present, always at work. There's no parliamentary recess in heaven, no six week summer holiday.
And before the throne of the eternal God are 7 spirits. This may refer to 7 separate spirits or angels, but for three reasons, I think John's referring to the HS:
First, 7 is the complete number – on the 7th day, creation is complete and God rests to enjoy the perfection of creation.
Second, reference to the Spirit is sandwiched between references to the Father and the Son.
And third, the Spirit is the source of grace and peace to the church every bit as much as the Father and the Son.
And the Son, v5, Jesus Christ is the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead and the ruler of the kings on earth.
Once again, John refers to Jesus as the faithful witness – the one uniquely placed to reveal God.
But he doesn't only reveal – he also rescues and rules.
He is the first-born from the dead – the guarantee of the resurrection, and he is the ruler of the kings on earth.
This is really important for persecuted Xns – imagine trying to live as a Xn in N. Korea with Kim Jong-il as your president. Or in China under Hu Jintao.
To be reminded that Jesus rules over-above your evil king is really important. But it also raises questions – if Jesus rules, why doesn't he do something for his oppressed people?
That's a question this book will return to again and again, and we'll do well to listen carefully because tho' none of us really knows what it is to be persecuted, there's no doubt that life will continue to get harder & harder for Xns in Britain over the next few years.
University Student Unions will continue trying to impose their beliefs on Christian Unions; schools & government departments will insist that the only acceptable belief is atheism, and atheists will insist that their morality is the only acceptable morality.
So listen up – this book will reveal why you need not despair and why you must not give up when you are denounced as evil-doers.
So what is the reality for the Christian?
Where do we stand in relation to God and this world?
vv 5-7 give us a glorious overview of the eternal privileges of God's people – and notice how we benefit and at the same time God is glorified:
READ
The Xn privilege begins with Christ's love for us – a love which is demonstrated by Jesus buying us freedom from our sins with his blood.
The Bible is clear that every non-Xn is a slave to sin – they have no choice but to serve themselves and the devil.
But Jesus bought our freedom when he died on the cross, and we became his slaves – a slavery of perfect freedom because he is the perfect master who only desires that we fulfil our created potential.
And that potential was to be a kingdom – a kingdom of priests to God.
As priests, our lives are dedicated to serving and glorifying God – we do not exist for our nation, for our political masters or for our employers.
We are a kingdom of priests to God.
We are all in full-time priestly ministry – the glorious ministry of worshipping God.
Whether we spend our time at school, at work, at home, in retirement – we're all in full time ministry. There's not a moment of the day or night when we cease to be priests of God.
As John writes about God's astonishing act of love in redeeming people from slavery to sin and transforming them into holy priests, he bursts into praise: to him be glory and dominion for ever & ever. Amen
And as he remembers Christ reigning over all things, he remembers that one day he will return, Behold, he is coming with the clouds and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.
Christ is returning – in unimaginable, brilliant glory.
There's no point in searching this book for details of when – we don't know when. Even Jesus himself said this was the one thing the Father had not told him – so how can we possibly know?
And when he comes, every eye will see him – there will be no escaping or hiding from his majesty – and everyone – from those who nailed him to the cross to the farthest tribe on earth – will wail – they will mourn because of their sins which nailed this glorious Christ to the cross.
And so we conclude with the reminder that God is the Alpha and the Omega.
He was there in the beginning and he will be there at the completion of all things.
He created this world and he will recreate this world.
Which raises the most fundamental question of this book and the most important question we will ever ask ourselves, 'Who will you be worshipping when Christ returns or when you die?'
(Notes from a sermon I preached at St John's, Tunbridge Wells on Sunday 31 May).
I wonder what you think about this book, Revelation?
It does contain some weird stuff – just look across to 1:12ff...
People seem to have two main reactions:
The first is to become completely obsessed with it – trying to find dates & historical events that match up with every tiny detail; getting bogged down in pre-tribulational pre-millennialism; post millennialism; pre-tribulational dispensationalism; a-millennianism andn every other ...tional ...ism you can imagine.
I'm so old that I remember when bar codes were first introduced, and some people thought they were the mark of the beast in chapter 16.
I'm not so old as to remember the Reformation, but Luther & his mates thought the beast was the Pope & the Catholics. Of course the Catholics thought that the beast was Luther!
But if some people get obsessed with Revelation, others ignore it.
After all, as someone has said, 'if a strange book produces strange Xns, perhaps it's best to leave it to them!'
But it's an important book – it's the longest letter in the NT – in fact only Mt; Lk & Acts have more chapters.
More important than it's sheer length is the urgency of the message: before John even greets the churches he emphasis the urgency of his message in v1, 'this is the revelation of J.C. which God gave him to show his servants the things that must soon take place' and in v3, 'blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near'.
But before we delve into what it is that's going to take place so soon, we need to understand what sort of book this is.
When you read in Ps 17, 'hide me in the shadow of your wings' you don't say that God therefore is a giant pigeon – you know the Psalms are poetry and you read them as such.
But how should we read Revelation? When we read of a woman with clothed in the sun, with the moon under her feet and on her head a crown of 12 stars, what are we to make of it?
How we understand that will depend on the sort of book Revelation is.
And, John tells us exactly what it is in vv1-3.
First, and not surprisingly, it's revelation – v1 – the revelation of J.C. which God gave him
A 'revelation' is a disclosure of things that otherwise could not be known.
So, over recent months, we've got used to 'revelations' about MPs expenses – the disclosure of things we otherwise could not have known.
If we look at v1, we see that in this book, the Revelation is made by God himself, through Jesus, and then via an angel-messenger to John.
And it discloses what's happening in the unseen, spiritual realms, where God rules and Satan rebels.
Then, second, this book contains the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw v2
One of the biggest themes in John's gospel is that Jesus has been sent from God into the world to reveal God to the world.
Because Jesus was with the Father in the beginning, he knows the Father – he knows what happens in heaven because he'd lived there for all eternity.
And now, Jesus tells John what he saw in heaven.
Third, this book is prophecy, v3
Now people often think that prophecy is all about the future. But it's not.
Read Isaiah, Jeremiah & the other prophets, and you'll find an awful lot about the past – the way God called and cared for his people;
about the present - how the people are rejecting & rebelling against God;
and only then about the future – a warning of impending judgment and promises of salvation.
And in Revelation, there's a lot about the past – the victory of the cross.
And there's a lot about the present and the immediate future facing the 7 churches John is writing to.
They're facing persecution and trouble from the evil power of the Roman empire. That raises questions in their minds, 'Is it worth persevering?', 'Does God have ultimate power over evil, or is there a chance that he will lose and the devil win?'
And then there's some stuff – though not as much as people think - about the long-term future – the return of Christ, the new heavens and the new earth.
So when John talks about things happening soon, he's not necessarily talking about the return of Jesus, but about what will be going on in heaven when the church faces persecution.
When he does talk about the return of Jesus, the urgency is because we don't know when he will come – and in this John echoes Jesus' own words – “be ready because you do not know when the master will return.”
So, v3, you will be 'blessed' if you read, hear and keep these words – if you understand who God is, what he has done, what he is doing, what he will do, and how the devil is trying to thwart him but won't succeed – then you will be blessed – because you will be able to live in this troubled world at peace with God.
So this book is revelation, testimony & prophecy. But, v4, it's also a letter – John is writing to 7 churches in what is now western Turkey.
And so he greets them just as Paul does in his letters, read vv4b-5
The world has always, and will always, be fundamentally opposed to Christ, to Xns, to the church and to Xy.
So to pray that the church will enjoy the grace and peace of God-the-Ttrinity is more than a mere greeting – it's a real plea to God to supply these churches with the gifts, the unity and the confidence that he alone can give.
And immediately, John is reminding these Xns of the greatness of the God who will give them grace & peace: he is, he was, and he is to come.
This God is always present, always at work. There's no parliamentary recess in heaven, no six week summer holiday.
And before the throne of the eternal God are 7 spirits. This may refer to 7 separate spirits or angels, but for three reasons, I think John's referring to the HS:
First, 7 is the complete number – on the 7th day, creation is complete and God rests to enjoy the perfection of creation.
Second, reference to the Spirit is sandwiched between references to the Father and the Son.
And third, the Spirit is the source of grace and peace to the church every bit as much as the Father and the Son.
And the Son, v5, Jesus Christ is the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead and the ruler of the kings on earth.
Once again, John refers to Jesus as the faithful witness – the one uniquely placed to reveal God.
But he doesn't only reveal – he also rescues and rules.
He is the first-born from the dead – the guarantee of the resurrection, and he is the ruler of the kings on earth.
This is really important for persecuted Xns – imagine trying to live as a Xn in N. Korea with Kim Jong-il as your president. Or in China under Hu Jintao.
To be reminded that Jesus rules over-above your evil king is really important. But it also raises questions – if Jesus rules, why doesn't he do something for his oppressed people?
That's a question this book will return to again and again, and we'll do well to listen carefully because tho' none of us really knows what it is to be persecuted, there's no doubt that life will continue to get harder & harder for Xns in Britain over the next few years.
University Student Unions will continue trying to impose their beliefs on Christian Unions; schools & government departments will insist that the only acceptable belief is atheism, and atheists will insist that their morality is the only acceptable morality.
So listen up – this book will reveal why you need not despair and why you must not give up when you are denounced as evil-doers.
So what is the reality for the Christian?
Where do we stand in relation to God and this world?
vv 5-7 give us a glorious overview of the eternal privileges of God's people – and notice how we benefit and at the same time God is glorified:
READ
The Xn privilege begins with Christ's love for us – a love which is demonstrated by Jesus buying us freedom from our sins with his blood.
The Bible is clear that every non-Xn is a slave to sin – they have no choice but to serve themselves and the devil.
But Jesus bought our freedom when he died on the cross, and we became his slaves – a slavery of perfect freedom because he is the perfect master who only desires that we fulfil our created potential.
And that potential was to be a kingdom – a kingdom of priests to God.
As priests, our lives are dedicated to serving and glorifying God – we do not exist for our nation, for our political masters or for our employers.
We are a kingdom of priests to God.
We are all in full-time priestly ministry – the glorious ministry of worshipping God.
Whether we spend our time at school, at work, at home, in retirement – we're all in full time ministry. There's not a moment of the day or night when we cease to be priests of God.
As John writes about God's astonishing act of love in redeeming people from slavery to sin and transforming them into holy priests, he bursts into praise: to him be glory and dominion for ever & ever. Amen
And as he remembers Christ reigning over all things, he remembers that one day he will return, Behold, he is coming with the clouds and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.
Christ is returning – in unimaginable, brilliant glory.
There's no point in searching this book for details of when – we don't know when. Even Jesus himself said this was the one thing the Father had not told him – so how can we possibly know?
And when he comes, every eye will see him – there will be no escaping or hiding from his majesty – and everyone – from those who nailed him to the cross to the farthest tribe on earth – will wail – they will mourn because of their sins which nailed this glorious Christ to the cross.
And so we conclude with the reminder that God is the Alpha and the Omega.
He was there in the beginning and he will be there at the completion of all things.
He created this world and he will recreate this world.
Which raises the most fundamental question of this book and the most important question we will ever ask ourselves, 'Who will you be worshipping when Christ returns or when you die?'
Luke 4:13-30
Last week, we saw how Jesus was tempted:
tempted to serve his own needs
tempted to do gain the power, splendour & prestige of this world
tempted to test God.
But, despite weakness & hunger, Jesus resisted each temptation.
And we were also reminded that while Jesus resisted, we so often do not:
we serve ourselves.
we look for power & prestige from things like education, employment, beauty & possessions.
we test God – demanding that he proves himself.
Then we went to the cross, to Luke 23, and we saw how even there Jesus resisted temptation & did nothing wrong. He died a perfect man, taking on himself the just punishment that should be ours for our weakness & failure.
As the hymn says,
There was no other good enough
To pay the price of sin;
He only could unlock the gate
Of heaven, and let us in.
Now, in Luke 4:14, Jesus returns to Galilee & he's welcomed with open arms, 'Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. He taught in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.'
Then he went on to Nazareth, his home town. He went to the synagogue where he was clearly well-known because they asked him to do the reading. He was handed the scroll of the prophet Isaiah – a large scroll probably about 1' high & 24' long - and he unrolled it until he found Isaiah 61 verses 1 & 2.
Then, standing in front of all the people, he read, 'The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour.'
And, says Luke in v20, 'The eyes of everyone were fastened on him – everyone is staring at Jesus – looking to him. And he rolls up the scroll, gives it back to the attendant and sits down. 'Today, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing', he says. In other words, 'The great prophet Isaiah was writing about me. I am that Spirit-filled man, and I've come to establish the new Kingom of God.'
Jesus is saying something about himself, and something about his mission.
First, Jesus says something about himself:
'The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me.'
In the OT, the HS was given by God to just a few special people – prophets & kings.
The prophets spoke for God, and the kings ruled for God. And that's just what Jesus has been sent by God to do. He's not come on his own, he's been sent by God with a message for the people.
So Jesus is God's anointed King, his Spirit-filled prophet, sent by God to fulfil the mission promised through Isaiah.
And having told everyone who he is, Jesus then says something about what he's come to do - he tells us his mission statement:
'The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor, to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour.'
At first glance, it seems as if Jesus will be setting up a whole series of charities:
Christian Aid to relieve poverty
Amnesty International to release prisoners
the RNIB for the blind and
Liberty for human rights and civil liberties.
And it's true that, throughout his ministry, Jesus certainly does heal people and free people from the oppression of demons. But these are simply the outward signs of a far deeper reality.
So we need to take a wide-angle lens & look at the big picture if we're going to understand Jesus' mission.
And we need to go back to Isaiah.
Isaiah is the tale of two cities: First, the earthly Jerusalem. Isaiah 1:2-4 & 7
God's people have turned their backs on God, and he's turned his back on them.
Soon, they'll be sent into exile in Babylon – oppressed & imprisoned.
This is not the Lord's people enjoying the Lord's favour.
But then there's the heavenly Jerusalem – the new capital city of God's new kingdom:
Isaiah 60:14-17
And the chapter goes on to paint a wonderful picture of a city renewed and blessed by the presence of God, enjoying peace and plenty, joy and light.
And then comes chapter 61 – the chapter Jesus turned to in the synagogue: 'The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour.'
Jesus has come to bring God's people into a whole new kingdom – the kingdom where Jesus rules – the eternal kingdom of God.
And back in the synagogue, back in Luke 4, as Jesus preaches, Luke tells us that everyone spoke well of Jesus, amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips.
You can imagine the scene: as Jesus preaches, the congregation begin to nod approvingly. They turn to each other & whisper, 'He really does preach very well, doesn't he?'
And then some of them say something seemingly insignificant, 'Isn't this Joseph's son?'
But as we read, the alarm bells ring. We remember what God had said about Jesus, 'This is my Son'We remember that the devil taunted Jesus, 'If you are the Son of God...'
But these people – oh, they know who he is – he's Joseph's son – “How extraordinary that a carpenter's son should preach so well!”
And Jesus senses what's going on – v23, "Surely you will quote this proverb to me:`Physician, heal yourself! Do here in your home town what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.'"
Jesus knows that when they understand what he's claiming; that he is the Son of God, not the son of Joseph; when they begin to understand that he's claiming to be God's anointed king, then they'll turn on him – 'You're mad – you need a doctor. Don't preach to us, preach a bit of humility to yourself!'
And then they'll say, 'Go on then, if you're the Son of God, prove it. Do some miracles for us, like they say you did in Capernaum!'
Jesus knows what's going on in their hearts. He knows that, just as they rejected the prophets before him, now they'll reject him.
“No prophet is accepted in his home town”, Jesus says - his family & friends know him - how can he possibly be God's chosen one?!
And Jesus illustrates this rejection from the OT:
There was once a prophet called Elijah – you can read about him in 1 Kings 17.
At that time, Israel worshipped idols and provoked God to real anger, so there was a famine in the land. During the famine, Elijah needed to eat, so God sent him to a foreign widow in Zarephath. She welcomed God's prophet Elijah and God gave this foreign woman and her son all the food they needed, while Israel starved.
Another time, there were lots of people in Israel with leprosy. But God only healed a foreigner, Naaman, the Syrian.
Do you see what Jesus is saying?
He's telling these people that because they won't accept him, God will bring the blessings of his kingdom to foreigners, not to them. Because they won't acknowledge themselves as the poor, the imprisoned, the blind, the oppressed, he can't help them. So if they don't want to receive the year of the Lord's favour, he'll take it to the pagan Gentiles.
And the people are furious!
So they drive him out of town and take him to the brow of a hill to throw him off the cliff. But somehow Jesus just walks right through them and goes on his way.
We're not told how Jesus does this, but clearly it's a miracle – so the people got their miracle after all!
If Jesus is the Son of God – if the Spirit of the Lord has anointed him to preach good news, to proclaim freedom for prisoners, sight for the blind and release for the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour, then the question is, 'Do we recognise ourselves as being poor and needing good news?#
Do we recognise that we're prisoners of our own making – trapped by our selfishness and narrow-mindedness that rejects the gospel?
Do we acknowledge our blindness & ignorance? Do we realise that if we want to know God, we have to depend on his word to reveal God to us?
Do we realise that we're oppressed and enslaved by sin, incapable of doing what is right, incapable of glorifying and honouring God?
If not, then we're like the villagers of Nazareth who thought Jesus was just Joseph's son, and we'll reject him and even try to rid the world of him. Not that our puny resistance will stop him – he will just walk on through.
But when we acknowledge our need – when we recognise our pathetic, sinful, blind, oppressed lives, and turn to Jesus as God's son, then we begin to discover true freedom and begin to see God as he is.
We're freed from the idolatry of the kingdom of this world and enter the glorious kingdom of the freedom of God's sons.
Last week, we saw how Jesus was tempted:
tempted to serve his own needs
tempted to do gain the power, splendour & prestige of this world
tempted to test God.
But, despite weakness & hunger, Jesus resisted each temptation.
And we were also reminded that while Jesus resisted, we so often do not:
we serve ourselves.
we look for power & prestige from things like education, employment, beauty & possessions.
we test God – demanding that he proves himself.
Then we went to the cross, to Luke 23, and we saw how even there Jesus resisted temptation & did nothing wrong. He died a perfect man, taking on himself the just punishment that should be ours for our weakness & failure.
As the hymn says,
There was no other good enough
To pay the price of sin;
He only could unlock the gate
Of heaven, and let us in.
Now, in Luke 4:14, Jesus returns to Galilee & he's welcomed with open arms, 'Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. He taught in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.'
Then he went on to Nazareth, his home town. He went to the synagogue where he was clearly well-known because they asked him to do the reading. He was handed the scroll of the prophet Isaiah – a large scroll probably about 1' high & 24' long - and he unrolled it until he found Isaiah 61 verses 1 & 2.
Then, standing in front of all the people, he read, 'The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour.'
And, says Luke in v20, 'The eyes of everyone were fastened on him – everyone is staring at Jesus – looking to him. And he rolls up the scroll, gives it back to the attendant and sits down. 'Today, this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing', he says. In other words, 'The great prophet Isaiah was writing about me. I am that Spirit-filled man, and I've come to establish the new Kingom of God.'
Jesus is saying something about himself, and something about his mission.
First, Jesus says something about himself:
'The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me.'
In the OT, the HS was given by God to just a few special people – prophets & kings.
The prophets spoke for God, and the kings ruled for God. And that's just what Jesus has been sent by God to do. He's not come on his own, he's been sent by God with a message for the people.
So Jesus is God's anointed King, his Spirit-filled prophet, sent by God to fulfil the mission promised through Isaiah.
And having told everyone who he is, Jesus then says something about what he's come to do - he tells us his mission statement:
'The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor, to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour.'
At first glance, it seems as if Jesus will be setting up a whole series of charities:
Christian Aid to relieve poverty
Amnesty International to release prisoners
the RNIB for the blind and
Liberty for human rights and civil liberties.
And it's true that, throughout his ministry, Jesus certainly does heal people and free people from the oppression of demons. But these are simply the outward signs of a far deeper reality.
So we need to take a wide-angle lens & look at the big picture if we're going to understand Jesus' mission.
And we need to go back to Isaiah.
Isaiah is the tale of two cities: First, the earthly Jerusalem. Isaiah 1:2-4 & 7
God's people have turned their backs on God, and he's turned his back on them.
Soon, they'll be sent into exile in Babylon – oppressed & imprisoned.
This is not the Lord's people enjoying the Lord's favour.
But then there's the heavenly Jerusalem – the new capital city of God's new kingdom:
Isaiah 60:14-17
And the chapter goes on to paint a wonderful picture of a city renewed and blessed by the presence of God, enjoying peace and plenty, joy and light.
And then comes chapter 61 – the chapter Jesus turned to in the synagogue: 'The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour.'
Jesus has come to bring God's people into a whole new kingdom – the kingdom where Jesus rules – the eternal kingdom of God.
And back in the synagogue, back in Luke 4, as Jesus preaches, Luke tells us that everyone spoke well of Jesus, amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips.
You can imagine the scene: as Jesus preaches, the congregation begin to nod approvingly. They turn to each other & whisper, 'He really does preach very well, doesn't he?'
And then some of them say something seemingly insignificant, 'Isn't this Joseph's son?'
But as we read, the alarm bells ring. We remember what God had said about Jesus, 'This is my Son'We remember that the devil taunted Jesus, 'If you are the Son of God...'
But these people – oh, they know who he is – he's Joseph's son – “How extraordinary that a carpenter's son should preach so well!”
And Jesus senses what's going on – v23, "Surely you will quote this proverb to me:`Physician, heal yourself! Do here in your home town what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.'"
Jesus knows that when they understand what he's claiming; that he is the Son of God, not the son of Joseph; when they begin to understand that he's claiming to be God's anointed king, then they'll turn on him – 'You're mad – you need a doctor. Don't preach to us, preach a bit of humility to yourself!'
And then they'll say, 'Go on then, if you're the Son of God, prove it. Do some miracles for us, like they say you did in Capernaum!'
Jesus knows what's going on in their hearts. He knows that, just as they rejected the prophets before him, now they'll reject him.
“No prophet is accepted in his home town”, Jesus says - his family & friends know him - how can he possibly be God's chosen one?!
And Jesus illustrates this rejection from the OT:
There was once a prophet called Elijah – you can read about him in 1 Kings 17.
At that time, Israel worshipped idols and provoked God to real anger, so there was a famine in the land. During the famine, Elijah needed to eat, so God sent him to a foreign widow in Zarephath. She welcomed God's prophet Elijah and God gave this foreign woman and her son all the food they needed, while Israel starved.
Another time, there were lots of people in Israel with leprosy. But God only healed a foreigner, Naaman, the Syrian.
Do you see what Jesus is saying?
He's telling these people that because they won't accept him, God will bring the blessings of his kingdom to foreigners, not to them. Because they won't acknowledge themselves as the poor, the imprisoned, the blind, the oppressed, he can't help them. So if they don't want to receive the year of the Lord's favour, he'll take it to the pagan Gentiles.
And the people are furious!
So they drive him out of town and take him to the brow of a hill to throw him off the cliff. But somehow Jesus just walks right through them and goes on his way.
We're not told how Jesus does this, but clearly it's a miracle – so the people got their miracle after all!
If Jesus is the Son of God – if the Spirit of the Lord has anointed him to preach good news, to proclaim freedom for prisoners, sight for the blind and release for the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour, then the question is, 'Do we recognise ourselves as being poor and needing good news?#
Do we recognise that we're prisoners of our own making – trapped by our selfishness and narrow-mindedness that rejects the gospel?
Do we acknowledge our blindness & ignorance? Do we realise that if we want to know God, we have to depend on his word to reveal God to us?
Do we realise that we're oppressed and enslaved by sin, incapable of doing what is right, incapable of glorifying and honouring God?
If not, then we're like the villagers of Nazareth who thought Jesus was just Joseph's son, and we'll reject him and even try to rid the world of him. Not that our puny resistance will stop him – he will just walk on through.
But when we acknowledge our need – when we recognise our pathetic, sinful, blind, oppressed lives, and turn to Jesus as God's son, then we begin to discover true freedom and begin to see God as he is.
We're freed from the idolatry of the kingdom of this world and enter the glorious kingdom of the freedom of God's sons.
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