A secure faith

As we've been reading the book of Job together in our SPA groups, the issue of God's sovereignty is brought into sharp focus against the backdrop of suffering.
In my quiet times, I've been reading 2 Corinthians. At first glance, it appears as though Paul is holding divine sovereignty and human responsibility in tension: so, in 1:21 he says, 'Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts guaranteeing what is to come.' But then in v24 he says, 'we work with you for your joy, because it is by faith you stand firm.'
So can we say both that God makes us stand firm and that we make ourselves stand firm by having faith?
Perhaps not. Paul is clear in Ephesians 2 that even our faith is a gift from God (v 8).
And yet, when the man comes to Jesus in John 6:28 and asks, 'What must I do to do the works God requires?' Jesus replies, 'The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent'. Here, 'the work of God' isn't the work God does, it's the work God requires of us, and that work is, 'to believe in the one he has sent' (i.e. Jesus).
So our faith is required of us and is the gift of God. This is hard for us to understand - how can something be required of us and God's gift to us? But the Bible constantly teaches that God is absolutely sovereign and that we are responsible for our actions. The classic summary is Genesis 50:20,

'As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.'

And this comes to a climax at the cross:

'This man [Jesus] was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge, and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.' Acts 2:23 

So God uses our actions to achieve his purposes. Some people kick against this, thinking that they have absolute freedom. But one of the purposes of God's long speech to Job in chapters 38 & 39, with its relentless questions raining down on Job,  is to force him to acknowledge that he has no power to control anything in all creation and that God is in control of everything. It's only when Job is able to acknowledge this in silence (40:4f) that he's able to make progress in understanding God.

Back, then, to the issue of 'standing firm in Christ'. Is it us or God who makes us stand firm? Well, we are commanded to stand firm, but behind our resolve stands God's grace and mercy which enables us to obey the command.

Jesus, Lord of the Sabbath

Luke 6:1-11


It's Saturday – the Sabbath – and the disciples are walking thru' a cornfield.
As they walk along, they pick a few heads of corn, rub them in their hands and eat the grain. Usually, this would be perfectly legal – you were allowed to pick grain with your hands from the edge of a field.
But today was the Sabbath. And the Pharisees were on them in a flash, 'Why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?'

It wasn't hard to break the Pharisees' Sabbath rules - they listed 39 types of work that were illegal - and the disciples had successfully broken at least 3 of them: harvesting; grinding and threshing.

Now it's true that in the OT, the people of God, Israel, were not allowed to work on the Sabbath – it was the day of rest – that's what 'Sabbath' means.

But when God told his people to have a day of 'rest' – a 'Sabbath' - he never meant that they should do nothing.
God's idea was that his people should take time out of the everyday work to enjoy the goodness of creation and especially to enjoy God.

So the Sabbath pointed back to the day when God had finished creating the world and he sat down to enjoy his perfect creation – and he particularly enjoyed the company of his special creatures: men & women.

But of course that enjoyment didn't last long. Soon men and women rebelled against God and ruined the goodness of creation. So they were expelled from God's presence, and suffered the horrific consequences of their sinful rebellion.

But as soon as the world been ruined by man's sin, God vowed to do something about it – to defeat evil and renew creation. This was God's plan of salvation.
As part of that plan God gave his people some rules for living. They're in what we call the OT.
But these rules were never an end in themselves – they always pointed ahead to what God would do to defeat evil, renew creation and win back our love.

And so on the Sabbath, God's people looked back with longing on the time before evil ruined everything.
But it wasn't only a time for looking back. The Sabbath also pointed forward to a new 'day of rest'. A day when God's plan of salvation would be complete & people would once again enjoy peace & friendship with God.
A day that would never end – an eternal day of perfect unity and loving friendship between God and his people. The Sabbath was a foretaste of heaven.

At least, that was God's idea for the Sabbath.
But the Pharisees had ruined everything. They'd created endless extra rules to make sure no-one ...did ...any ...work.
The focus was no longer on enjoying God, but obeying rules.
It was no longer a time of anticipation and hope, but a time of fear in case you broke one of the Pharisees' rules.

As some of you know, I play a bit of golf.
When I come home, Sarah always asks, 'How was it?'
And this week, it was great. Fabulous weather, I drove the ball straight, made 2 birdies and won 8 & 7. Great fun!
But imagine I came home and said, 'Brilliant! I caught Steve breaking rule 13-4: grounding his club in a bunker by the 7th green! Wonderful!'
But that's where the Pharisees have got to in their attitude to the Sabbath – rules dominated. Enjoyment of God was lost.
They'd turned the Sabbath on its head. The rules have become an end in themselves, and they're neglecting the real purpose of the Sabbath – to help people enjoy God and remind them of the prospect of pardon for sin; healing for sickness; release from evil; restoration of joy.
And if ever we find ourselves focusing on petty rules rather than on the Lord Jesus then we're in serious trouble – people who focus on the buildings or what we wear or whether we sit or kneel have left behind enjoyment of Jesus and replaced him with mere religion.

Anyway, back to the disciples – there they are, munching on their freshly picked corn, as the Pharisees accuse them of law-breaking.
In steps Jesus, "Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God, and taking the consecrated bread, he ate what is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions."

David had the right idea about the law: yes, he broke the letter of the law, but only because there was a greater need and cause.
The Pharisees never criticised David for that, so why are they criticising the disciples for doing exactly the same thing?

But then Jesus takes the issue to a whole new level: v5, 'The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath'.
By calling himself 'the son of man', Jesus is pointing to his authority to speak and act for God – an authority which means he himself is more important than the Sabbath – he is Lord of the Sabbath.
That doesn't sound too shocking to us, but it would be like Wayne Rooney saying, 'The England football team exists only because of me and for me'.
Jesus is saying, 'The Sabbath exists only because of me and for me. It finds its fulfilment in me.'
In other words, if we're looking for the defeat of evil and a renewed relationship with God then we'll find them in Jesus – and only in Jesus.

If the Sabbath pointed forward to heaven, Jesus is saying that he's been sent by God with the authority to rule heaven, and to bring people into his heaven.
Now that's a big claim to make, and Jesus needs to provide some sound evidence to back up his claim.
And that's just what he does in vv6-8 On another Sabbath he went into the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was shriveled. 7The Pharisees and the teachers of the law were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal on the Sabbath. 8But Jesus knew what they were thinking and said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Get up and stand in front of everyone.” So he got up and stood there.
9Then Jesus said to them, “I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?”
10He looked around at them all, and then said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He did so, and his hand was completely restored. 11But they were furious and began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus.

The Sabbath points to the restoration of our relationship with God; the overthrow of evil, and heaven.
And while the Pharisees weigh people down with rules, Jesus proves that he has the power to fulfil the purpose of the Sabbath – v10, he “completely restores” the man's arm.

This 'complete restoration' points to the fact that Jesus has begun the restoration of God's creation.
And he does this as, one-by-one, people like you and me have our relationship with God restored by the grace and forgiveness of Jesus.
He fills us with the power of the HS, and we begin to hate evil and love God. Day by day our lives are restored into the likeness of Christ.

And so we begin to live each and every day as a Sabbath – living in a right relationship with God and enjoying a foretaste of heaven.

But religious people like the Pharisees hate this joy and freedom that we have with God.
They still want to set up a new world order by law-enforcement. They don't want to be changed from the inside. They're leopards who don't want to change their spots.
And they get angry with Jesus for challenging their religion. So angry that they begin to plot how to get rid of him.

And so we must ask ourselves whether we're relying on our own goodness to see us right with God, or whether we believe that we need God's radical intervention – that we too need to be completely restored.
If the thought of needing complete renewal raises your heckles, then I want to say as gently but as firmly as I can, that you're in serious danger of being like the Pharisees.
If on the other hand, you realise that unless God steps in and transforms your life, you're a lost cause, then you're in just the right place for restoration.
If this is you, then pray with me now.


For further reading: Hebrews 3:1-4:13; Colossians 2:13-3:4; Galatians 4:8-11. Andrew Shead has written an excellent article about the NT fulfilment of the Sabbath, which should be available once the beginningwithmoses.org website is up and running again.

Money, money, money

This is by no means an exhaustive look at money, but an intro that led to some good questions on Sunday evening:

Money, money, money.

“We live by the golden rule: those who have the gold make the rules”.

You can do a lot with money:
Earn it; steal it; scrounge it.
Save responsibly; hoard selfishly.
Invest ethically or unethically; gamble it away (some investments are a gamble).
Spend on self; buy things for others.
Give it away generously & joyfully; or give it stingily & begrudgingly, moaning about putting 10p in the collecting tin.

Each of these – getting, saving, spending, giving – has its own issues, so we'll briefly look at each of them in turn, and then spend more time thinking about our relationship to money and to God – after all the Bible is mostly concerned with relationships.

1. Getting money
“If you believe money can do anything, you will do anything to get money”.
I guess it goes without saying that Christians should not get money through dishonesty, theft, fraud or begging.
But of course sometimes it's not that easy – what if I work for a massive drug or health care company, and they're involved in abortions? Does this mean I can't work for that company at all?
Those kinds of questions must each be looked at carefully. No global answer.

But the Bible does give us very clear guidance about providing for ourselves through hard graft.
Some people in the church at Thessalonica were bone idle: in both 1 & 2 Thessalonians, Paul rebukes them:
In 1 Thes 1:4, he said, make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.
Then, in 2 Thes 3: For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: "If a man will not work, he shall not eat." We hear that some among you are idle. They are not busy; they are busybodies. Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the bread they eat.

This echoes the teaching of Proverbs, with its warnings to lazy students
Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise!
It has no commander, no overseer or ruler,
yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest.
How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep?
A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest - and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man.
Sorry, did I say students? I meant sluggards!

Of course, in the Bible, there's no such thing as retirement! But that doesn't mean it's a bad thing – there's nothing about cars or nuclear power either – they're all modern inventions, and we have to look for guiding principles...
Titus 3:14 Our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good, in order that they may provide for daily necessities and not live unproductive lives.

So, just as we're encouraged to pray for God to “give us today our daily bread”, so we should provide 'for daily necessities'.
So it's right to make sensible provision for retirement so that we won't have to sponge off others, but we shouldn't make extravagant provisions.
Which moves us neatly on to savings & investments.

2. Saving & investing

What we need to do is to keep the principle of working to provide for our daily needs alongside Luke 12:15-20
And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”

So pension planning & saving are all very well so long as they are for daily necessities and not for an easy, luxurious life with no thought for eternity.
Of course this isn't easy – we don't know what the future will hold – except we do... We know that we will be with the Lord Jesus for all eternity, and that mo

One other thing – investments should be ethical.
Two types – negative – avoids putting savings into tobacco, certain kinds of armament manufacture, companies that promote abortion etc.
and positive – actively seeking out companies that promote fairness & equality etc.
Problem – what non-Xns think of as equality, we might think of as immoral...

So, we;re working hard to provide for our family and our future, but we're not building bigger & bigger barns, we're just trying to provide for the daily necessities.
But how should we spend what we earn?

3. Spending

There's only on kind of shopper in the Bible – grasshoppers!
To our possessions-obsessed world, there's surprisingly little about shopping in the NT.
Of course there was less choice in those days, but beautiful clothes & jewels were desirable.
But people must have coveted what their friends and neighbours owned, or God wouldn't have forbidden covetousness in the 10 commandments.

As ever, the Bible encourages us to put the beauty of good relationships and holiness before outward beauty.
So, in Matt 6, we're to trust our Father in heaven and not worry about clothes; and in 1 Pet 3:3 women are told, Do not let your adorning be external - the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewellery, or the clothing you wear - but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious.

So our priority is inward beauty which not only radiates a deeper and longer-lasting outward beauty, but also reflects & glorifies God's own beauty.

Some have said that we should be careful about what we spend so that we have more to give away.
But while that sounds good, it actually turns the Bible's teaching about giving on its head.
So, last in our list of what you can do with money is giving.

4. Giving
An important general principle for Xns is that we give expecting nothing in return.
Xn giving is an imitation of the grace of Christ:
For you know, says Paul to the Corinthians, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.
The Bible's teaching on giving is very straightforward to understand, but much harder to put into practice.
1. Xns give first to God – in the OT, the first-fruits of the harvest were devoted to God, and were used in the temple as sacrifices or to feed the priests who led worship.
In Mat 6:33, Jesus says, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

And Paul holds up the Macedonians as an example: they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us.

2. Xns give proportionately & generously: In 1 Cor 16:1 Paul says, 'Now about the collection for God's people: Do what I told the Galatian churches to do: On the 1st day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income...
Does that mean we should give 10% like the OT believers did? No.

In the NT there are no laws about giving, only principles. But most Xns would want to try to begin with 10% and then go beyond that just as the Macedonians did: In a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, egging us earnestly for the favour of taking part in the relief of the saints.

Xns give generously because it imitates Jesus' own self-giving love and grace to us. That's what the whole of 2 Cor 8 & 9 is about.

3. Xns give cheerfully:
2Cor 9:7 Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
-----
But I said we'd think about our relationship to money and to God – and I've not left enough time for that... so briefly...
“Money”, someone has said, “is the god of the world's leading religion.”
And it's true.
For sinful humans, the desire to have more, to own more, to buy more, are second only to the desire to eat and drink.
The whole world economy is based on the desire to increase our wealth.

So it's incredibly difficult for us as Xns not to get sucked into this way of thinking.
We are possessed by materialism, and money makes a terrible master: as Ecclesiastes says, Whoever loves money never has money enough;whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income.

So we must dethrone the god of money. And the only way to do that is to replace it – replace it with the one true God.
For, as Jesus says, No-one can serve two masters. Either he will hate one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

Everyone has a god, and for most people its money – but the Lord God Almighty is a much better god – he is our eternal Father, who has loved and called us from before the beginning of time, and will continue to love and care for us for all eternity.

Let's stop serving money, and make money serve the Kingdom of God.
Let's stop worshipping money, and use our money to worship God.


Questions....