Imagine that on every single channel on the radio and TV there is a news flash. There is the black door with the gold Number 10 and stood in front of it is the Prime Minister, with the cabinet behind him.
He steps to the microphones; “Thank you for coming this afternoon, my government and I have an important announcement regarding our future as a country. For too long we have been trying sticking plaster solutions to the problems we face, rushing from temporary solution to temporary solution both at home and abroad, both in foreign and in economic policy. We have relied on our allies, our intelligence, our reasoning, our past, but it has become increasingly apparent that we can do so no longer. As a government we have decided we cannot solve these problems, no government can, no alliance or deal can.
And so this morning we ask you the people of Britain to join with us in prayer. Not a vague prayer to a God we do not know, but a prayer to the almighty God of heaven. We ask you to join with us in confessing and asking forgiveness for our stubborn foolish determination to trust in everything but him and cry out to him to save us because he is our only hope.”
How would you react? What would the headlines be the next day in the newspapers, on the news channels and so on?
That is the call Isaiah makes to Judah’s King, Hezekiah. Judah is in crisis economically and militarily. It is the small child stuck between the two posturing playground bullies of Assyria and Egypt. What should Judah do? What should the king do?
Hezekiah’s advisors keep telling him to make politically astute deals. But Isaiah says ‘Trust God not men’ And the king flits between the two, he’s a bit like us sometimes trusting God and standing for him, but at other times giving in to the pressure of those around him and trusting men and alliances not God. In ch37 he trusts God and the city is miraculously saved, but in ch39 he forgets God and trusts in alliances, and God warns Judah they face exile. They will be defeated in battle, the city ruined and the people carried far away to serve a foreign king.
Can you imagine how Judah felt? Exile. What about God’s promises? What about the promises to Abraham of a place, people, protection, and God’s big plan to bless all nations? This is the end of everything! There was a real danger that Israel would despair. How can you trust God when it seems hopeless? How can you trust God when it looks like his promises have failed?
That’s what this chapter addresses, how to have hope in despair, and it is hope founded on understanding who God is. God’s promises haven’t failed because he sends Judah into exile, in fact he is being faithful to them.
I want you to imagine you have been told not to do something. What happens if you do it and get caught? You get punished? Why? Is it that your parents are mean? No, it’s that they want you to learn what to do and what not to do, they want you to be safe and live life at its best. Discipline is the result of love. And good parents keep their word – break the rule face punishment.
God as he sends Israel into exile is lovingly punishing them because he wants them to realise trusting and worshipping anything other than him is wrong and dangerous, he wants to save them from an even greater danger. But there is hope because he says he is not done with Judah yet! (1-2)He speaks comfort to them; that is what these verses are, an encouragement. And look at what he calls them – what does he calls Judah? “my people”. And (2)the comfort is that Israel’s sins have been paid for, she has received double. Now that doesn’t mean she has been punished twice as much as she deserves, but she has been punished the exact double, the mirror image, of her sins, in other words God is satisfied. Here is comfort people can come back to God with their sin paid for.
But how? God can’t just sweep sin under the carpet, or put it in the bottom of the cupboard. And exile doesn’t atone for sin, only a perfect offering can do that. So how?
Israel knew that they couldn’t deal with sin, they knew that all the sacrifices in the world couldn’t stop them sinning or make them right with God. All through the bible there had been hints at a bigger, grander, bolder plan; God’s plan to bless all nations, a serpent crusher, a ruler who would be the lion of Judah, the exile ender, the shepherd king. Now (3)we get another piece of the puzzle – a voice - would come and tell them to get ready for something that had never happened before.
Look at (3)whose coming does the voice get them ready for? It is the ‘LORD’, Yahweh, God himself will come to his people. God isn’t just going to speak through a prophet, he isn’t just sending a message through his messenger. This messenger comes to get people ready for God himself to come.
Can you imagine the excitement if the Queen was coming to church next Sunday? People would come and get us ready, tell us how to stand, where to line up, how to bow and curtsey, what to say and so on.
Well this ‘voice’ comes to get people ready for God to come and live among them!
But if you were an Israelite God’s coming would be both exciting and scary, because of sin, sin kept on being a problem and God hates sin. It’s why Israel go into exile, because God is holy and Israel isn’t. The bible tells us we have the same problem, sin is in our hearts, and it always separates us from God, it breaks our relationship with him and leaves us facing his right anger and judgement. We need to be ready if we are ever to meet God, but how do you get ready to meet God? The great news is God acts, God loves, God comes down to deal with just that problem.
I wonder if you’ve seen ‘The Voice’; 4 judges listen to people sing and then decide if they want them or not. The twist is the judges can’t see the contestants they can only hear their voice and they can only choose so many on their team. They listen carefully for the next voice, is this the voice that will win the competition, sell records and so on.
By Matthew’s time Israel have been waiting to hear the voice for nearly eight hundred years. Turn to Matthew 3, after the nativity, the magi, the escape to Egypt and the return, Matthew fast forwards a 30 years and records these events:
“In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near. This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah:
“A voice of one calling in the wilderness,
Prepare the way for the Lord,
Make straight oaths for him.”
The voice is here says Matthew. The one who comes to get people ready for God’s coming is here. And the crowds flock to see John, they have been waiting hundreds of years for the voice to come because they know it means the Messiah is coming next. God himself is coming and sin will be dealt with.
How does he get them ready? He tells them to repent – to stop trusting and living for themselves, to stop running from God, and trying to find meaning in life themselves and instead to ask God’s forgiveness and run to him for meaning and joy. People listen to him and turn to God, they look for the Messiah to come.
And (13)”Then Jesus came from Galilee” and John identifies him as the one, the Messiah, God come, and so does God at Jesus’ baptism. John has called people to repent but he can’t pay for their sin, he can’t atone for it, he points them to one who is coming to do that for them. Jesus comes to seek the lost and wandering, to show people a tantalising glimpse of the kingdom, and to bring people into the kingdom by dying in their place and rising again having conquered sin.
But just flick back to Isaiah 40:5 Jesus doesn’t just come for Israelites, Jesus isn’t just their hope, he is the hope of the nations. He comes to save all nations from sin, to make us God’s people in God’s place, under his protection, enjoying and awaiting his plan.
Isaiah says know God and trust God. Only God can deal with our biggest need, our biggest problem. Only God in Jesus comes to solve the problem of sin, “he was pierced for our transgressions... the punishment that bought us peace was on him...”
As you look back on this last year who have you trusted? If we are honest we have to say how like Hezekiah and Judah we are – we switch from trusting God to trusting ourselves, from faith to trusting in our intelligence, or ability to provide for ourselves. God lovingly calls us again this morning to know him, to enjoy his rule, to experience his comfort, to trust him. Our loving Father waits, calling us to return to him, and he has done everything possible to enable us to return to him. He calls us to recognise how utterly ridiculous it is not to trust him with our lives when we see him in all his power and in his love, a love so for us that sometimes he disciplines us to show us our danger and bring us back to reliance on him.
As we look forward to this year I don’t want to make you panic but I do want you to be aware you and I have no idea where we will be twelve months from now. Our sense of being in control is an illusion, our idea of being able to determine our future is a sham. We have no idea what the next year holds, you only have to look back on the past year to realise that. But we don’t need to panic, shut down, stockpile food, or find a nice corner to sit and rock in. Because we know the God who promises us he is our comfort, who comes in Jesus to make us right with him and enable us to live enjoying and knowing him. Our reality is defined by God in love becoming man to bring us back to God, not our ability, or intelligence or circumstance. We know the God who is the Alpha and Omega who knows the beginning, the middle and the end and he is for us and will one day come back for us.
Trusting God in Jesus is not just a one off decision, it is a day by day, moment by moment reality that keeps a grip on the sovereignty of God and his love and grace shown us in God the Son and the present experience of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Trusting God is not vague but is seen in the way we make decisions, the way we view and use our possessions, the way we give away money generously, the way we love others, the grace we extend to people when they fail, the way we cling to God in crisis, in grief, in insecurity, and praise and thank him when we experience blessing, both the everyday and the extraordinary.
God is our hope. It is seen in our praying, our living, our loving, our repenting, our confessing, our relying. Because we realise God is for us, his plans for us are bigger and better than anything we can imagine or accomplish and we trust him secure in Christ and filled with the Spirit. Sit and read Isaiah 40:27-31 and then turn it into prayer.
Showing posts with label bible reading. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bible reading. Show all posts
Sunday, 27 December 2015
Saturday, 26 December 2015
Daily Reading: Genesis 49 'Christmas: promise ruler'
We saw yesterday how the first ever Christmas Card was God’s promise that a serpent crusher would come to defeat Satan and sin. Now here in Genesis 49 we have a second Christmas Card, a second promise, and it’s the promise of a coming king in the line of Judah. And alongside the promise of a coming King a glimpse of the nature of his kingdom.
There is a lot of imagery in this prophecy about Judah. But first comes the surprise, it is a surprise that this amazing blessing is given to Judah at all. After all he is not the firstborn, that’s Reuben, or Jacob’s favourite that’s Joseph. And Judah has a patchy record, in ch37-38 he is a jealous plotter, sexually immoral, and leaves the family of promise to live as a Canaanite. But he is so changed by experiencing God’s grace that he later offers himself in place of Benjamin when the brothers return to Egypt.
Judah doesn’t deserve the blessings given to him, but Judah is a trophy of God’s grace, he recognises his sin, repents and is changed by the grace of God. Judah is just as bad as Simeon, Reuben or Levi but he is changed by God’s grace. He listens to God’s warning(ch38) recognises his sin, repents and is changed. God doesn’t bless the good God blesses those who have received grace.
Judah and the tribe that will come from him will be prominent in Israel, a warrior tribe, and (9)with the image of a lion sat eating his kill who no-one dares disturb we see not just that Judah is powerful but the image of the lion also hold the promise of kingship. That implicit promise is made explicit in(10).
“The sceptre will not depart from Judah,
nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,
until he to whom it belongs shall come
and the obedience of nations be his.”
This isn’t a vague promise, this is a promise about a line of kings and specifically a coming individual, one day a king will come from Judah’s line and the obedience of the nations will be his. It is a deliberate echo of the covenant with Abraham that through him all nations will be blessed. A great king will come from Judah’s line.
But who is it? The big question is; where is he? Especially as Saul becomes Israel’s first king and he is from Benjamin. But then 1 Samuel 16 Samuel anoints David, in the line of Judah from Bethlehem in Judah. David becomes king after Saul’s death and Judah is the first tribe to proclaim him king. And David goes on to become a great king, the greatest king Israel ever had. But the promise is not complete, it’s only partially fulfilled in David. David is praised by the tribes, he does rule all 12, he does win battles and there are other nations which come to bring him tribute just as God promised in Genesis 49. But in 2 Samuel 7 God makes clear that the promise is not totally fulfilled in David, “I will raise up your offspring to succeed you...and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.”
David is like the trailer. When you go to see a film you sit through snippets of upcoming releases. They don’t show you everything, but you catch glimpses of what the film will be like, often the best bits but you don’t experience the full thing, it is meant to increase your appetite, your anticipation of that film, to make you want to see it. David acts like a trailer for the rule of God’s greater king in the line of Judah.
And God keeps both the promise to David and the one to Judah, the sceptre doesn’t depart Judah’s line. After David and Solomon as the kingdom splits into two; Judah and Israel, a descendant of David always rules on the throne of Judah the sceptre doesn’t depart, whereas in Israel there is no dynasty, no one line of kings. God keeps his promise, even as Judah are taken into exile David’s line continues, and two of David and Judah’s descendants are prominent figures in the return from exile to rebuild Jerusalem.
But the question remains where is God’s king, where is the lion of Judah? Matthew as a gospel is concerned about the coming of the king and his kingdom when the exile finally ends, and it opens with a genealogy that answers that question. If you are were a Jew anticipating the coming of the Messiah this genealogy is dynamite. You are waiting for a king in David’s line, the lion of Judah, who will fulfil the promises to Abraham reiterated to Judah about the nations.
“This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the Son of David, the Son of Abraham...” That is dynamite. Look at(2), Jesus is in the line of Judah, and Abraham, and David. And this genealogy is very carefully crafted so that it falls into 3 blocks of how many? 14. Why? In Jewish writing each consonant was prescribed a number: D was 4, V was 6, DVD = 14. Again Matthew is using a Jewish way of emphasising that Jesus is the Son of David, that he is the Messiah – God’s promised King bringing about God’s kingdom.
Everything about this opening genealogy announces that the king has come. Matthew records that Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judah, the town of David, and that the Magi came to worship a king.
It’s as if Matthew is shouting at the top of his lungs THE KING HAS COME! God keeps his promises, no matter what has tried to derail them. God keeps his promises not despite the sinful actions of people as if he is constantly engineering a new path round obstacles but amazingly even through those sinful actions.
God is sovereign, he reigns, he keeps his promises, and his king has come. That ought to thrill our hearts as we think about Christmas. All Israel’s sin and failings, all the opposition of evil kings, enemies, people like Athaliah who try to wipe out David’s line, all of it comes to nothing because God reigns and rules and he will send his king. Christmas ought to remind us again, give us confidence again, fill our hearts with joy again because our God keeps his promises. And not on the basis of our behaviour or our deserving them but on the basis of his grace.
The prophecy doesn’t just promise that a king will come but gives an appetising snapshot of his kingdom. (8)It’s a kingdom where enemies will be defeated, where the king is praised(8), where the nations come and bow the knee in obedience(10), and where there is prosperity and abundance(11).
Again much of this we see partially fulfilled in David, like a trailer for Jesus rule. The Philistines are defeated, he brings safety, security, prosperity, and Israel enjoy the blessings of being God’s people living under God’s king, the nations come and bring tribute.
David’s reign is Israel’s golden era and every subsequent king is compared to David. But David’s reigns is not forever, nor is Solomon’s and increasingly as you read on you find yourself asking where is the lion of Judah? If David is the trailer where’s the real thing?
As the angel speaks to Mary her words are loaded with significance “The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Judah for ever; his kingdom will never end.”
The King is here. It is little wonder that Luke’s Christmas narrative is shot through with joy, celebration and people bursting into spontaneous exuberant praise of God. The embryonic John the Baptist leaps in Elizabeth’s womb, Elizabeth bursts into praise, Mary breaks into song, Zechariah praises God, the shepherds are told tidings of great joy and having seen Jesus return glorifying and praising God. Simeon and Anna praise God and give thanks.
Do you remember the happy, joy filled atmosphere of the Queens Jubilee, that sense of celebrating her rule and reign? Multiply that by thousands of years spent waiting anticipating the coming of the king and you begin to get a sense of the joy that surrounds this kings coming. And the glimpses of the kingdom continue, demons recognise his rule and authority and are defeated, the Gentiles come and bow at Jesus feet both recognising, putting their faith in and obeying him, and in John’s gospel we see him turn water into wine, a lavish quantity of the best possible wine, before he then multiplies bread and brings satisfaction.
We enjoy Christmas, the fun, the joy, the food, all as a gift from God our Father, the celebration points us to God’s goodness and the nature of his kingdom. A kingdom not of bah humbug, but of joy, plenty, security, welcome. We ought to celebrate all that as a blessing from God and a reminder of what Jesus promises to bring.
Christmas declares to us what God’s kingdom is like. It is not a place overseen by a cosmic killjoy, but a place of plenty, security, safety, relationship, and enjoying life under his loving good rule. And we enjoy living in that kingdom now, we know it is not fully here, but we live under God’s loving fatherly care, and that is our security.
What are you excitedly anticipating about Christmas? What’s the bit you love? Is it the furtive secret wrapping, is it the look on faces as people open their gifts, the bright shining excitement in the eyes, the moment when the Christmas pudding is all aflame, or the when the meal is finished and you sit back relaxed and full?
For Israel they excitedly anticipate the coming of the king. But what about us? Jesus has come so what do we anticipate?
Turn to Revelation 5:5. John in his vision is distraught because no-one can open the seal on the scroll, until “Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep! See the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.” After the scroll is opened we see with John into heaven and there is a multitude from all nations praising God and bowing down to the lion who is the lamb, the obedience of the nations, and they live in a kingdom of provision and security, where enemies have been defeated. And the book ends with the King returning, his kingdom complete and his people sharing in his reign.
And what is John’s conclusion having seen all that, having seen the promise that the King will return, the offspring of David, the lion of Judah who is a lamb (22:16-17), John cries out “Come, Lord Jesus.” It’s as if his appetite has been whetted, his hunger and passion stirred and he can’t wait, he anticipates living life eternally enjoying the king’s rule.
We are always anticipating the next big thing, straight after Christmas Easter eggs come out, then it’s time to think about summer holidays, and so on. Always moving on to the next big thing. But what about our anticipation of Christ’s return? We live as his people under his rule now, but don’t you feel its frustrations? As around us people live for everything but God, as we battle with sin, as the world lives in the midst of its fallen-ness and brokenness. Doesn’t it make us want to shout out come Lord Jesus!
We as God’s people ought to live life with a sense of holy discontent. Not moaning and grumbling but aware that this world will not fulfil all our dreams, our hearts desires. We live not disheartened because we know this world can never satisfy us. We live in the now and not yet of the kingdom of God. We are part of his kingdom now, a kingdom where we enjoy living under his gracious rule, where our security doesn’t come from our job prospects, or family situation, or circumstance, but from knowing God. A kingdom where grace is our security and God’s unbreakable never giving up promise our certainty. We live enjoying all the good things God has blessed us with now but never letting them distract us from God the giver. But discontent because the world around us does not recognise Jesus our Saviour King or God our loving gracious Father. Discontent because its rebellion wounds us and causes us to live longing for the day when the obedience of nations will be his.
Genesis 49 lifts our eyes and says look for the coming of the king, at Christmas we remember with joy his coming and all that he has secured but it also ought to stir in us an anticipation of his coming again.
God has not forgotten his promises he will keep them. The King has come and we are his people and he will return. Christmas doesn’t whisper those truths quietly it confidently shouts them from the rooftops and calls us to live in the light of his coming whilst living looking forward to his return.
There is a lot of imagery in this prophecy about Judah. But first comes the surprise, it is a surprise that this amazing blessing is given to Judah at all. After all he is not the firstborn, that’s Reuben, or Jacob’s favourite that’s Joseph. And Judah has a patchy record, in ch37-38 he is a jealous plotter, sexually immoral, and leaves the family of promise to live as a Canaanite. But he is so changed by experiencing God’s grace that he later offers himself in place of Benjamin when the brothers return to Egypt.
Judah doesn’t deserve the blessings given to him, but Judah is a trophy of God’s grace, he recognises his sin, repents and is changed by the grace of God. Judah is just as bad as Simeon, Reuben or Levi but he is changed by God’s grace. He listens to God’s warning(ch38) recognises his sin, repents and is changed. God doesn’t bless the good God blesses those who have received grace.
Judah and the tribe that will come from him will be prominent in Israel, a warrior tribe, and (9)with the image of a lion sat eating his kill who no-one dares disturb we see not just that Judah is powerful but the image of the lion also hold the promise of kingship. That implicit promise is made explicit in(10).
“The sceptre will not depart from Judah,
nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,
until he to whom it belongs shall come
and the obedience of nations be his.”
This isn’t a vague promise, this is a promise about a line of kings and specifically a coming individual, one day a king will come from Judah’s line and the obedience of the nations will be his. It is a deliberate echo of the covenant with Abraham that through him all nations will be blessed. A great king will come from Judah’s line.
But who is it? The big question is; where is he? Especially as Saul becomes Israel’s first king and he is from Benjamin. But then 1 Samuel 16 Samuel anoints David, in the line of Judah from Bethlehem in Judah. David becomes king after Saul’s death and Judah is the first tribe to proclaim him king. And David goes on to become a great king, the greatest king Israel ever had. But the promise is not complete, it’s only partially fulfilled in David. David is praised by the tribes, he does rule all 12, he does win battles and there are other nations which come to bring him tribute just as God promised in Genesis 49. But in 2 Samuel 7 God makes clear that the promise is not totally fulfilled in David, “I will raise up your offspring to succeed you...and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.”
David is like the trailer. When you go to see a film you sit through snippets of upcoming releases. They don’t show you everything, but you catch glimpses of what the film will be like, often the best bits but you don’t experience the full thing, it is meant to increase your appetite, your anticipation of that film, to make you want to see it. David acts like a trailer for the rule of God’s greater king in the line of Judah.
And God keeps both the promise to David and the one to Judah, the sceptre doesn’t depart Judah’s line. After David and Solomon as the kingdom splits into two; Judah and Israel, a descendant of David always rules on the throne of Judah the sceptre doesn’t depart, whereas in Israel there is no dynasty, no one line of kings. God keeps his promise, even as Judah are taken into exile David’s line continues, and two of David and Judah’s descendants are prominent figures in the return from exile to rebuild Jerusalem.
But the question remains where is God’s king, where is the lion of Judah? Matthew as a gospel is concerned about the coming of the king and his kingdom when the exile finally ends, and it opens with a genealogy that answers that question. If you are were a Jew anticipating the coming of the Messiah this genealogy is dynamite. You are waiting for a king in David’s line, the lion of Judah, who will fulfil the promises to Abraham reiterated to Judah about the nations.
“This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the Son of David, the Son of Abraham...” That is dynamite. Look at(2), Jesus is in the line of Judah, and Abraham, and David. And this genealogy is very carefully crafted so that it falls into 3 blocks of how many? 14. Why? In Jewish writing each consonant was prescribed a number: D was 4, V was 6, DVD = 14. Again Matthew is using a Jewish way of emphasising that Jesus is the Son of David, that he is the Messiah – God’s promised King bringing about God’s kingdom.
Everything about this opening genealogy announces that the king has come. Matthew records that Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judah, the town of David, and that the Magi came to worship a king.
It’s as if Matthew is shouting at the top of his lungs THE KING HAS COME! God keeps his promises, no matter what has tried to derail them. God keeps his promises not despite the sinful actions of people as if he is constantly engineering a new path round obstacles but amazingly even through those sinful actions.
God is sovereign, he reigns, he keeps his promises, and his king has come. That ought to thrill our hearts as we think about Christmas. All Israel’s sin and failings, all the opposition of evil kings, enemies, people like Athaliah who try to wipe out David’s line, all of it comes to nothing because God reigns and rules and he will send his king. Christmas ought to remind us again, give us confidence again, fill our hearts with joy again because our God keeps his promises. And not on the basis of our behaviour or our deserving them but on the basis of his grace.
The prophecy doesn’t just promise that a king will come but gives an appetising snapshot of his kingdom. (8)It’s a kingdom where enemies will be defeated, where the king is praised(8), where the nations come and bow the knee in obedience(10), and where there is prosperity and abundance(11).
Again much of this we see partially fulfilled in David, like a trailer for Jesus rule. The Philistines are defeated, he brings safety, security, prosperity, and Israel enjoy the blessings of being God’s people living under God’s king, the nations come and bring tribute.
David’s reign is Israel’s golden era and every subsequent king is compared to David. But David’s reigns is not forever, nor is Solomon’s and increasingly as you read on you find yourself asking where is the lion of Judah? If David is the trailer where’s the real thing?
As the angel speaks to Mary her words are loaded with significance “The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Judah for ever; his kingdom will never end.”
The King is here. It is little wonder that Luke’s Christmas narrative is shot through with joy, celebration and people bursting into spontaneous exuberant praise of God. The embryonic John the Baptist leaps in Elizabeth’s womb, Elizabeth bursts into praise, Mary breaks into song, Zechariah praises God, the shepherds are told tidings of great joy and having seen Jesus return glorifying and praising God. Simeon and Anna praise God and give thanks.
Do you remember the happy, joy filled atmosphere of the Queens Jubilee, that sense of celebrating her rule and reign? Multiply that by thousands of years spent waiting anticipating the coming of the king and you begin to get a sense of the joy that surrounds this kings coming. And the glimpses of the kingdom continue, demons recognise his rule and authority and are defeated, the Gentiles come and bow at Jesus feet both recognising, putting their faith in and obeying him, and in John’s gospel we see him turn water into wine, a lavish quantity of the best possible wine, before he then multiplies bread and brings satisfaction.
We enjoy Christmas, the fun, the joy, the food, all as a gift from God our Father, the celebration points us to God’s goodness and the nature of his kingdom. A kingdom not of bah humbug, but of joy, plenty, security, welcome. We ought to celebrate all that as a blessing from God and a reminder of what Jesus promises to bring.
Christmas declares to us what God’s kingdom is like. It is not a place overseen by a cosmic killjoy, but a place of plenty, security, safety, relationship, and enjoying life under his loving good rule. And we enjoy living in that kingdom now, we know it is not fully here, but we live under God’s loving fatherly care, and that is our security.
What are you excitedly anticipating about Christmas? What’s the bit you love? Is it the furtive secret wrapping, is it the look on faces as people open their gifts, the bright shining excitement in the eyes, the moment when the Christmas pudding is all aflame, or the when the meal is finished and you sit back relaxed and full?
For Israel they excitedly anticipate the coming of the king. But what about us? Jesus has come so what do we anticipate?
Turn to Revelation 5:5. John in his vision is distraught because no-one can open the seal on the scroll, until “Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep! See the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.” After the scroll is opened we see with John into heaven and there is a multitude from all nations praising God and bowing down to the lion who is the lamb, the obedience of the nations, and they live in a kingdom of provision and security, where enemies have been defeated. And the book ends with the King returning, his kingdom complete and his people sharing in his reign.
And what is John’s conclusion having seen all that, having seen the promise that the King will return, the offspring of David, the lion of Judah who is a lamb (22:16-17), John cries out “Come, Lord Jesus.” It’s as if his appetite has been whetted, his hunger and passion stirred and he can’t wait, he anticipates living life eternally enjoying the king’s rule.
We are always anticipating the next big thing, straight after Christmas Easter eggs come out, then it’s time to think about summer holidays, and so on. Always moving on to the next big thing. But what about our anticipation of Christ’s return? We live as his people under his rule now, but don’t you feel its frustrations? As around us people live for everything but God, as we battle with sin, as the world lives in the midst of its fallen-ness and brokenness. Doesn’t it make us want to shout out come Lord Jesus!
We as God’s people ought to live life with a sense of holy discontent. Not moaning and grumbling but aware that this world will not fulfil all our dreams, our hearts desires. We live not disheartened because we know this world can never satisfy us. We live in the now and not yet of the kingdom of God. We are part of his kingdom now, a kingdom where we enjoy living under his gracious rule, where our security doesn’t come from our job prospects, or family situation, or circumstance, but from knowing God. A kingdom where grace is our security and God’s unbreakable never giving up promise our certainty. We live enjoying all the good things God has blessed us with now but never letting them distract us from God the giver. But discontent because the world around us does not recognise Jesus our Saviour King or God our loving gracious Father. Discontent because its rebellion wounds us and causes us to live longing for the day when the obedience of nations will be his.
Genesis 49 lifts our eyes and says look for the coming of the king, at Christmas we remember with joy his coming and all that he has secured but it also ought to stir in us an anticipation of his coming again.
God has not forgotten his promises he will keep them. The King has come and we are his people and he will return. Christmas doesn’t whisper those truths quietly it confidently shouts them from the rooftops and calls us to live in the light of his coming whilst living looking forward to his return.
Friday, 25 December 2015
Daily Reading: Genesis 3 'Christmas; the serpent crusher comes'
Happy Christmas.
What is Christmas all about? I wonder how you would answer that question. For the next few days I'm going to look at Christmas through Old Testament eyes, to get a sense of the building expectation and excitement through the Old Testament as they anticipate the promise being fulfilled. To see it for the pivotal moment in history and in God’s gracious plan of salvation which it is. So that we don’t treat it as just another Christmas, or as a time to survive a series of endurance challenges, or a set of chores to do before we collapse in an exhausted heap the day after Boxing Day. But so that we rejoice in Christmas and in all its significance and joy.
I think Genesis 3 is potentially the bleakest chapter in the Bible, in fact not just in the Bible but in the whole of history, partly because of the sense of overwhelming loss. In his grace, glory and goodness God has given Adam and Eve and their children a brilliant world. As it is described in Genesis 1 and 2 it is the holiday destination of our dreams, except this isn’t just a holiday destination it’s everyday life and it is even better than we can imagine.
God has given them a world of beauty and bounty. They are free to eat from every tree and plant in the whole world, except one. God has lovingly given them each other as perfect companions. Adam and Eve don’t have a honeymoon period, their marital life is one long honeymoon. They never argue, selfishly insist on their own way, or mis-communicate. There is nothing they keep from one another, they never resort to manipulation, coercion or emotional blackmail. They simply serve and enjoy one another. There is total intimacy, total unity, total respect, and perfect communication. And they enjoy all that against a backdrop of a world in which there is no threat, no death, no insecurity, no boredom. A world so good, just like its maker, that even work is fulfilling, fruitful and enjoyable not occasionally but every day.
And all of that, every blessing they enjoy are just the side effects of the greatest treasure of all. Adam and Eve are made to live enjoying and knowing God. They are made in his image, equal but different and yet united in living for God’s glory. They are made to relate, to love, to enjoy one another and God Father, Son and Spirit.
That is why this chapter is perhaps the bleakest in the bible, because in Genesis 3 we see destruction on the scale of a nuclear war. It’s as if a nuclear bomb has gone off where the irradiating effects of sin damage everything, including forever warping mans DNA so that sin is passed on as a genetic defect to future generations, yet bizarrely still leaving things standing, though now twisted and decaying.
When Adam and Eve choose the fruit they reject God, they decide God doesn’t love them, that he is restrictive, that this God who has given them everything to enjoy, who created them to share in his joy was really holding them back.
If you look at an old stone arch you will notice in the middle of the arch there is a stone. It is called the keystone and it is crucial to the whole structure of the arch, remove it and the arch collapses. That is the world in Genesis 1 and 2, God’s word is the keystone to creation, it is what brought it into being and what sustains it. But Adam and Eve pull it out, as they decide they know better than their loving God, that they can make a better world, a better life, find more fulfilment, more enjoyment without God.
And the consequences are devastating, a perfect marriage now marred by secrecy, manipulation, one-up-man-ship and blame shifting. The world now subject to decay, rebellion and death, work now a hardship and a struggle. And above all their relationship with God decimated, now they run and hide when God appears, and are driven out of God’s presence because of their sin.
Genesis 3 is bleak. But it makes sense of our world, our society, our relationships, our hearts better than any other explanation. The world is broken, our hearts are broken, we search for meaning, for significance, for something to fill us up because we are missing the very thing we were made for – to know and enjoy God.
Perhaps you wonder; if God exists, why would he make a world so broken? Maybe those are questions our friends and family ask around us. Genesis 3 shows us the answer, God didn’t make a world like this we did when we rejected him, but if it finished there, there would be no hope.
Look at 3:15 God curses the Serpent who we are told elsewhere is the devil and says:
“I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head,
and you will strike his heel.”
I’m sure you’ve seen images and heard stories of rescue teams digging through the rubble after an earthquake and finding a survivor. Such a discovered rekindles hope.
The great news is that amidst the rubble and remains of the perfect creation in Genesis 3 lies God’s promise, and because it is God who says these words it is a promise you can hold on to. God is not done with his creation yet, God is not done with mankind yet. God is not giving up and simply leaving the world and us to our own devices, left forever wondering what is missing, continually trying to pour something else into our lives to fill up the emptiness. God promises that there is hope amidst the hopelessness and that hope centres round a person, an offspring, one of Adam and Eve’s descendants.
Here is the first ever Christmas card, a promise of hope, that one day someone will be born who will crush evil. That figure of the serpent crusher, one who will be born as a man but who will destroy Satan, who will defeat the enemy of God and his kingdom. That becomes the big hope and is the question as each succeeding generation in the Bible is born; is this ‘the serpent crusher’?
In Genesis 3:15 we see the declaration of war between the offspring of the woman and the offspring of the devil. That isn’t just talking about man’s fear of snakes, but about the battle that rages throughout history between those who follow and love God and those who don’t. Just glance at ch4 and we see the battle commence as Abel who loves God is murdered by Cain who is mastered or ruled by sin, but the hope of an offspring remains in Seth. And that battle rages throughout the Old Testament as the world waits for the birth of the serpent crusher who will defeat sin and Satan.
Offspring becomes a key term in the promises to Abraham (Gen 15) an offspring through whom God will bless all nations, and then offspring features again in the covenant God makes with David as he promises an offspring whose everlasting kingdom God will establish.
But with every new generation the question remains ‘is this the serpent crusher?’ Will he defeat Satan? And at every stage the answer comes back no, as Abraham, Isaac, David, Solomon all sin and fail. Where is the serpent crusher?
Turn to Luke 3, we see this genealogy and it is deliberately placed alongside Jesus baptism. God the Father declares Jesus to be his Son, and he is filled and anointed by God the Spirit to engage on the mission God the Father has given him. Great you think, as you read, let’s get on with the mission. But then Luke stops and puts in a genealogy, I think we are meant to ask why? It isn’t just ‘a really bad bit of writing which a good editor would have noticed and made a footnote’, God inspired it to be there.
I think the clue is v23 and 38. Jesus “was the son, so it was thought, of Joseph.” This is Jesus legal line of descent, though Luke emphasises that Joseph isn’t his father. Jesus is God’s Son, a fact emphasised with the final clause of the chapter “the Son of God”. Exactly what God has called him as the Spirit descends and heaven opens.
Luke goes back past David, past Abraham to Adam, why? Because Luke wants us to understand that yes, Jesus is in the line of Abraham and David, he is their offspring, but vitally that in Jesus God the Son becomes a man. In fact he is the Son of God as no one has been since Adam, and he is descended from Adam, Adam’s offspring.
The serpent crusher is here. And that is born out in Jesus words and actions as he faces down Satan in the wilderness, as he drives out evil spirits, as he heals sickness, as he forgives sin. This is the serpent crusher. But supremely it is seen in Jesus death.
Hebrews 2:14 “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death – that is the devil – and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.”
At the moment when Satan thinks he has won, Jesus death, the tables are turned; God the Son willingly offers himself to God the Father as a sacrifice through God the Spirit in our place. And in so doing wins the victory, crushing Satan’s head once for all. It is no wonder that the angels sing out joy to the world at his birth. There can be no greater news, no more exciting message than that the serpent crusher has come at last, he lives his life crushing Satan, undoing the effects of the fall, showing what a world in relationship with God looks, like, filling up the ‘knowing and enjoying God hole’ in people’s lives that they have poured all sorts of other things into in unsuccessfully to fill it.
How do you feel about Christmas? Can we be bah humbug about the news that the world was waiting to hear from the very moment of the fall? About news which our world, our families, our friends, our colleagues still need to hear?
We will treat it as just another day if we believe we can engineer a return to Genesis 1 and 2 ourselves. But history tells us we can’t – communism, capitalism, feudalism, monarchy all tried and all failed. Science was the great hope and it has bought us phenomenal advances but it has also brought great destruction, it has developed wind farms, medicines, MRI scanners, and so on but has also produced the nuclear bomb, weaponised nerve agents and chemicals. All our technological advancements, all our sociological theories and experiments have not made us any more content, any more loving, any less lonely, or any less able to fill that hole in our lives.
Christmas cries out to us God has done what we could and can never do. Christmas is about hope amid hopelessness, it is about joy given to the joyless, love to the unlovely. The serpent crusher has come, death and Satan are defeated by Jesus who calls us to know him.
Who enables us to once again know God and to look forward to the day when we will enjoy him forever in a world without the marks of ruin, with the damage to our DNA undone, the curse removed. But you might say if Jesus coming has defeated sin and Satan why do we still see sins effects around us and in us?
It’s a great question. Christmas isn’t just a day when we look back it’s also a day when we look forward. Christ has come he has defeated death and sin and Satan, and he will come again. In the mean time we still live in the war zone, Satan is defeated but he wants to take as many with him as he can and so he lashes out. But even in his lashing out people see the brokenness of the world and look for answers. Seeing sin even in our hearts drives us back to Christ, and seeing sin in the world and knowing we have the joyful news to share drives us to tell others.
As those who have hope, who enjoy relationship with God Father, Son and Spirit, who have heard, responded to and live by this joyful news, Christmas has real meaning. It explains our broken world, but gloriously causes us to marvel at the love and grace of God, even as it causes us to look forward. And that ought to fill our hearts with joy so that Christmas positively bursts with it, so that our Christmas celebration is distinctive, because it is celebrating the most significant coming in history.
Are you ready for Christmas? Not the presents, not the trimmings, not the food, are you ready for the opportunity to remember, to praise, to give glory to God, to witness to the world, about the most significant coming in history? What will it look like for you to celebrate the coming of the Serpent Crusher?
I think Genesis 3 is potentially the bleakest chapter in the Bible, in fact not just in the Bible but in the whole of history, partly because of the sense of overwhelming loss. In his grace, glory and goodness God has given Adam and Eve and their children a brilliant world. As it is described in Genesis 1 and 2 it is the holiday destination of our dreams, except this isn’t just a holiday destination it’s everyday life and it is even better than we can imagine.
God has given them a world of beauty and bounty. They are free to eat from every tree and plant in the whole world, except one. God has lovingly given them each other as perfect companions. Adam and Eve don’t have a honeymoon period, their marital life is one long honeymoon. They never argue, selfishly insist on their own way, or mis-communicate. There is nothing they keep from one another, they never resort to manipulation, coercion or emotional blackmail. They simply serve and enjoy one another. There is total intimacy, total unity, total respect, and perfect communication. And they enjoy all that against a backdrop of a world in which there is no threat, no death, no insecurity, no boredom. A world so good, just like its maker, that even work is fulfilling, fruitful and enjoyable not occasionally but every day.
And all of that, every blessing they enjoy are just the side effects of the greatest treasure of all. Adam and Eve are made to live enjoying and knowing God. They are made in his image, equal but different and yet united in living for God’s glory. They are made to relate, to love, to enjoy one another and God Father, Son and Spirit.
That is why this chapter is perhaps the bleakest in the bible, because in Genesis 3 we see destruction on the scale of a nuclear war. It’s as if a nuclear bomb has gone off where the irradiating effects of sin damage everything, including forever warping mans DNA so that sin is passed on as a genetic defect to future generations, yet bizarrely still leaving things standing, though now twisted and decaying.
When Adam and Eve choose the fruit they reject God, they decide God doesn’t love them, that he is restrictive, that this God who has given them everything to enjoy, who created them to share in his joy was really holding them back.
If you look at an old stone arch you will notice in the middle of the arch there is a stone. It is called the keystone and it is crucial to the whole structure of the arch, remove it and the arch collapses. That is the world in Genesis 1 and 2, God’s word is the keystone to creation, it is what brought it into being and what sustains it. But Adam and Eve pull it out, as they decide they know better than their loving God, that they can make a better world, a better life, find more fulfilment, more enjoyment without God.
And the consequences are devastating, a perfect marriage now marred by secrecy, manipulation, one-up-man-ship and blame shifting. The world now subject to decay, rebellion and death, work now a hardship and a struggle. And above all their relationship with God decimated, now they run and hide when God appears, and are driven out of God’s presence because of their sin.
Genesis 3 is bleak. But it makes sense of our world, our society, our relationships, our hearts better than any other explanation. The world is broken, our hearts are broken, we search for meaning, for significance, for something to fill us up because we are missing the very thing we were made for – to know and enjoy God.
Perhaps you wonder; if God exists, why would he make a world so broken? Maybe those are questions our friends and family ask around us. Genesis 3 shows us the answer, God didn’t make a world like this we did when we rejected him, but if it finished there, there would be no hope.
Look at 3:15 God curses the Serpent who we are told elsewhere is the devil and says:
“I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head,
and you will strike his heel.”
I’m sure you’ve seen images and heard stories of rescue teams digging through the rubble after an earthquake and finding a survivor. Such a discovered rekindles hope.
The great news is that amidst the rubble and remains of the perfect creation in Genesis 3 lies God’s promise, and because it is God who says these words it is a promise you can hold on to. God is not done with his creation yet, God is not done with mankind yet. God is not giving up and simply leaving the world and us to our own devices, left forever wondering what is missing, continually trying to pour something else into our lives to fill up the emptiness. God promises that there is hope amidst the hopelessness and that hope centres round a person, an offspring, one of Adam and Eve’s descendants.
Here is the first ever Christmas card, a promise of hope, that one day someone will be born who will crush evil. That figure of the serpent crusher, one who will be born as a man but who will destroy Satan, who will defeat the enemy of God and his kingdom. That becomes the big hope and is the question as each succeeding generation in the Bible is born; is this ‘the serpent crusher’?
In Genesis 3:15 we see the declaration of war between the offspring of the woman and the offspring of the devil. That isn’t just talking about man’s fear of snakes, but about the battle that rages throughout history between those who follow and love God and those who don’t. Just glance at ch4 and we see the battle commence as Abel who loves God is murdered by Cain who is mastered or ruled by sin, but the hope of an offspring remains in Seth. And that battle rages throughout the Old Testament as the world waits for the birth of the serpent crusher who will defeat sin and Satan.
Offspring becomes a key term in the promises to Abraham (Gen 15) an offspring through whom God will bless all nations, and then offspring features again in the covenant God makes with David as he promises an offspring whose everlasting kingdom God will establish.
But with every new generation the question remains ‘is this the serpent crusher?’ Will he defeat Satan? And at every stage the answer comes back no, as Abraham, Isaac, David, Solomon all sin and fail. Where is the serpent crusher?
Turn to Luke 3, we see this genealogy and it is deliberately placed alongside Jesus baptism. God the Father declares Jesus to be his Son, and he is filled and anointed by God the Spirit to engage on the mission God the Father has given him. Great you think, as you read, let’s get on with the mission. But then Luke stops and puts in a genealogy, I think we are meant to ask why? It isn’t just ‘a really bad bit of writing which a good editor would have noticed and made a footnote’, God inspired it to be there.
I think the clue is v23 and 38. Jesus “was the son, so it was thought, of Joseph.” This is Jesus legal line of descent, though Luke emphasises that Joseph isn’t his father. Jesus is God’s Son, a fact emphasised with the final clause of the chapter “the Son of God”. Exactly what God has called him as the Spirit descends and heaven opens.
Luke goes back past David, past Abraham to Adam, why? Because Luke wants us to understand that yes, Jesus is in the line of Abraham and David, he is their offspring, but vitally that in Jesus God the Son becomes a man. In fact he is the Son of God as no one has been since Adam, and he is descended from Adam, Adam’s offspring.
The serpent crusher is here. And that is born out in Jesus words and actions as he faces down Satan in the wilderness, as he drives out evil spirits, as he heals sickness, as he forgives sin. This is the serpent crusher. But supremely it is seen in Jesus death.
Hebrews 2:14 “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death – that is the devil – and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.”
At the moment when Satan thinks he has won, Jesus death, the tables are turned; God the Son willingly offers himself to God the Father as a sacrifice through God the Spirit in our place. And in so doing wins the victory, crushing Satan’s head once for all. It is no wonder that the angels sing out joy to the world at his birth. There can be no greater news, no more exciting message than that the serpent crusher has come at last, he lives his life crushing Satan, undoing the effects of the fall, showing what a world in relationship with God looks, like, filling up the ‘knowing and enjoying God hole’ in people’s lives that they have poured all sorts of other things into in unsuccessfully to fill it.
How do you feel about Christmas? Can we be bah humbug about the news that the world was waiting to hear from the very moment of the fall? About news which our world, our families, our friends, our colleagues still need to hear?
We will treat it as just another day if we believe we can engineer a return to Genesis 1 and 2 ourselves. But history tells us we can’t – communism, capitalism, feudalism, monarchy all tried and all failed. Science was the great hope and it has bought us phenomenal advances but it has also brought great destruction, it has developed wind farms, medicines, MRI scanners, and so on but has also produced the nuclear bomb, weaponised nerve agents and chemicals. All our technological advancements, all our sociological theories and experiments have not made us any more content, any more loving, any less lonely, or any less able to fill that hole in our lives.
Christmas cries out to us God has done what we could and can never do. Christmas is about hope amid hopelessness, it is about joy given to the joyless, love to the unlovely. The serpent crusher has come, death and Satan are defeated by Jesus who calls us to know him.
Who enables us to once again know God and to look forward to the day when we will enjoy him forever in a world without the marks of ruin, with the damage to our DNA undone, the curse removed. But you might say if Jesus coming has defeated sin and Satan why do we still see sins effects around us and in us?
It’s a great question. Christmas isn’t just a day when we look back it’s also a day when we look forward. Christ has come he has defeated death and sin and Satan, and he will come again. In the mean time we still live in the war zone, Satan is defeated but he wants to take as many with him as he can and so he lashes out. But even in his lashing out people see the brokenness of the world and look for answers. Seeing sin even in our hearts drives us back to Christ, and seeing sin in the world and knowing we have the joyful news to share drives us to tell others.
As those who have hope, who enjoy relationship with God Father, Son and Spirit, who have heard, responded to and live by this joyful news, Christmas has real meaning. It explains our broken world, but gloriously causes us to marvel at the love and grace of God, even as it causes us to look forward. And that ought to fill our hearts with joy so that Christmas positively bursts with it, so that our Christmas celebration is distinctive, because it is celebrating the most significant coming in history.
Are you ready for Christmas? Not the presents, not the trimmings, not the food, are you ready for the opportunity to remember, to praise, to give glory to God, to witness to the world, about the most significant coming in history? What will it look like for you to celebrate the coming of the Serpent Crusher?
Thursday, 24 December 2015
Daily Reading: Luke 11v1-13 'The Disciples Prayer part 3'
Now we come to the final thing we are going to think about from this prayer:
Jesus then uses some illustrations to teach the disciples about the nature of their praying and the nature of God their Father whom they pray to. (5-8)The point of this story is not a comparison between God and the sleepy friend, but between the disciple and the man who keeps on knocking and asking. Why does the man eventually get out of bed and give bread? “…because of your shameless audacity” – because he dared to ask and kept on asking. Make the most of your access to God.
Have you seen who wants to be a millionaire? Each contestant answers questions to accrue money and to help they have 3 lifelines; 50:50, phone a friend, and ask the audience. Sometimes you watch it willing someone to use a lifeline because they clearly don’t know the answer, just ask for help you want to shout at them.
Jesus is saying disciples have a lifeline, we can come boldly to God our Father by grace, not to someone who knows a bit about some subjects, but to the almighty, holy, creator God. But unlike who wants to be a millionaire where you can only use it once we can continually come to God. But how often do we use it like those contestants only as a last resort.
(9-10)Reinforce the point of the illustration – what are the three things Jesus tells them to do? Ask, seek, knock. Approach God because he has the answers, and is able to answer your prayers – there is nothing he can’t do. Though that doesn’t mean that he will always give us what we ask for.
(11-13)God is good, in contrast to the home owner, in fact in contrast to us Jesus says. How does Jesus describe his disciples? “evil” – morally imperfect, opposed to God. If even evil father’s give good gifts to their children how much more will their and our morally perfect, gracious and holy loving heavenly Father give to those who ask him.
Have you seen the film, or the pantomime (given the season), of Aladdin? Some people seem to think prayer is a little like rubbing the magic lamp and then making your wishes. You approach God you ask God gives - and even better you aren't just limited to three wishes and don't have to lug a dusty lamp around with you!
But the context of prayer answered is in the context of the prayer asked. It is the prayer that shares God’s concerns, that is for his kingdom not our comfort, for our daily needs not every desire, for forgiveness and the ability to forgive others not for a Mercedes SLK, for spiritual protection not a controlled care free life.
And the answer(13) is that God will give us his Holy Spirit if we ask him. His Spirit who guides us in prayer - enabling us to cry “Father…”, who makes God’s concerns our concerns, who enables us to pray God’s thoughts after him and who reminds us of the reality of our relationship, our dependence, and God’s goodness.
We can come to pray to God because Jesus has secured our relationship with God, not because we are perfect. It means if you haven’t prayed all week, this morning you can come to pray to your Father by grace. You don’t need to make atonement, Jesus has made atonement for you already, or feel wracked with guilt. You just need to come and talk to your Father.
But the Disciples Prayer also models for us the concerns of a disciple – the things we ought to be praying for. It lets us see the concerns of a disciple are those of the God he or she serves.
Jesus reminds us of the wonder that is prayer – now why wouldn’t you pray!
We keep praying because… God is good(5-13)
Jesus then uses some illustrations to teach the disciples about the nature of their praying and the nature of God their Father whom they pray to. (5-8)The point of this story is not a comparison between God and the sleepy friend, but between the disciple and the man who keeps on knocking and asking. Why does the man eventually get out of bed and give bread? “…because of your shameless audacity” – because he dared to ask and kept on asking. Make the most of your access to God.
Have you seen who wants to be a millionaire? Each contestant answers questions to accrue money and to help they have 3 lifelines; 50:50, phone a friend, and ask the audience. Sometimes you watch it willing someone to use a lifeline because they clearly don’t know the answer, just ask for help you want to shout at them.
Jesus is saying disciples have a lifeline, we can come boldly to God our Father by grace, not to someone who knows a bit about some subjects, but to the almighty, holy, creator God. But unlike who wants to be a millionaire where you can only use it once we can continually come to God. But how often do we use it like those contestants only as a last resort.
(9-10)Reinforce the point of the illustration – what are the three things Jesus tells them to do? Ask, seek, knock. Approach God because he has the answers, and is able to answer your prayers – there is nothing he can’t do. Though that doesn’t mean that he will always give us what we ask for.
(11-13)God is good, in contrast to the home owner, in fact in contrast to us Jesus says. How does Jesus describe his disciples? “evil” – morally imperfect, opposed to God. If even evil father’s give good gifts to their children how much more will their and our morally perfect, gracious and holy loving heavenly Father give to those who ask him.
Have you seen the film, or the pantomime (given the season), of Aladdin? Some people seem to think prayer is a little like rubbing the magic lamp and then making your wishes. You approach God you ask God gives - and even better you aren't just limited to three wishes and don't have to lug a dusty lamp around with you!
But the context of prayer answered is in the context of the prayer asked. It is the prayer that shares God’s concerns, that is for his kingdom not our comfort, for our daily needs not every desire, for forgiveness and the ability to forgive others not for a Mercedes SLK, for spiritual protection not a controlled care free life.
And the answer(13) is that God will give us his Holy Spirit if we ask him. His Spirit who guides us in prayer - enabling us to cry “Father…”, who makes God’s concerns our concerns, who enables us to pray God’s thoughts after him and who reminds us of the reality of our relationship, our dependence, and God’s goodness.
We can come to pray to God because Jesus has secured our relationship with God, not because we are perfect. It means if you haven’t prayed all week, this morning you can come to pray to your Father by grace. You don’t need to make atonement, Jesus has made atonement for you already, or feel wracked with guilt. You just need to come and talk to your Father.
But the Disciples Prayer also models for us the concerns of a disciple – the things we ought to be praying for. It lets us see the concerns of a disciple are those of the God he or she serves.
Jesus reminds us of the wonder that is prayer – now why wouldn’t you pray!
Wednesday, 23 December 2015
Daily Reading: Luke 11v1-13 'The Disciples Prayer part 2'
We began yesterday by thinking about that word 'Father' and how can always pray because of what Jesus has done for us. But here's the second thing we see:
One of the reasons we struggle with prayer is that it isn’t natural. From a young age in our culture we are taught independence – to feed ourselves, look after ourselves, stand on our own two feet, to be self reliant. In fact in our society to depend on someone else is viewed as a weakness. One of our problems with prayer is that we bring this attitude into our Christian life, and it affects our prayer life. We find relying on others hard - even when that person is God Almighty.
By contrast the Disciples Prayer reminds them and us that we depend on God (3)”for our daily bread” (4)for forgiveness and for spiritual protection – important in Luke in an atmosphere of increasing religious persecution. Jesus teaches his disciples that they depend on God for their physical and spiritual well being. Is that how we think of ourselves? My hunch is, it isn’t and it’s seen in our prayers. When was the last time you prayed for what you needed physically for the day. When was the last time we thanked God for our food? We live in a world that isolates us from that provision – the danger is we’re lulled into thinking that Tesco, Asda or Aldi provide, not God.
When was the last time we prayed for forgiveness for our sins and that realised grace would be shown in relational grace to others? Surely we can never underestimate our sinfulness and the wonder of grace, and yet when we fail to pray we do.
When did we last pray aware that today I am in a spiritual battle and need God’s protection – do we even see the world in those terms or are we so blinded by the physical world pulled over our eyes that the Spiritual battle does not feature in our thinking and therefore in our praying?
Have we swallowed Satan’s lie of independence? Do we think of ourselves as dependent on God for everything? For anything? Or is prayer the last resort after all else fails, the equivalent of the panic button?
In diagnosing a sick prayer life this is the root cause – we forget or don’t want to depend on God. But as Jesus teaches the disciples, prayer recognises that we are in a relationship with God and depend on him for everything. It strips away the pretence of our independence and confronts us with the reality of our total reliance upon God. But then if God is our Father, why would we not want to rely on him?
Why not stop now and spend some time meditating on your utter dependence upon God? Take some time to peel back the layers of lies that reassure you that you are independent and accept the truth that we are totally dependent upon our Father. Think about what that truth means about today, yesterday, this last week. All that God has given you, all that he has protected you from. And pour that out to God in praise and wonder.
We pray because… we are dependent on God.
One of the reasons we struggle with prayer is that it isn’t natural. From a young age in our culture we are taught independence – to feed ourselves, look after ourselves, stand on our own two feet, to be self reliant. In fact in our society to depend on someone else is viewed as a weakness. One of our problems with prayer is that we bring this attitude into our Christian life, and it affects our prayer life. We find relying on others hard - even when that person is God Almighty.
By contrast the Disciples Prayer reminds them and us that we depend on God (3)”for our daily bread” (4)for forgiveness and for spiritual protection – important in Luke in an atmosphere of increasing religious persecution. Jesus teaches his disciples that they depend on God for their physical and spiritual well being. Is that how we think of ourselves? My hunch is, it isn’t and it’s seen in our prayers. When was the last time you prayed for what you needed physically for the day. When was the last time we thanked God for our food? We live in a world that isolates us from that provision – the danger is we’re lulled into thinking that Tesco, Asda or Aldi provide, not God.
When was the last time we prayed for forgiveness for our sins and that realised grace would be shown in relational grace to others? Surely we can never underestimate our sinfulness and the wonder of grace, and yet when we fail to pray we do.
When did we last pray aware that today I am in a spiritual battle and need God’s protection – do we even see the world in those terms or are we so blinded by the physical world pulled over our eyes that the Spiritual battle does not feature in our thinking and therefore in our praying?
Have we swallowed Satan’s lie of independence? Do we think of ourselves as dependent on God for everything? For anything? Or is prayer the last resort after all else fails, the equivalent of the panic button?
In diagnosing a sick prayer life this is the root cause – we forget or don’t want to depend on God. But as Jesus teaches the disciples, prayer recognises that we are in a relationship with God and depend on him for everything. It strips away the pretence of our independence and confronts us with the reality of our total reliance upon God. But then if God is our Father, why would we not want to rely on him?
Why not stop now and spend some time meditating on your utter dependence upon God? Take some time to peel back the layers of lies that reassure you that you are independent and accept the truth that we are totally dependent upon our Father. Think about what that truth means about today, yesterday, this last week. All that God has given you, all that he has protected you from. And pour that out to God in praise and wonder.
Tuesday, 22 December 2015
Daily Reading: Luke 11v1-13 'The Disciples Prayer'
Here are some things people have said about prayer, I wonder if you identify with them:
Luke 11:1-13 is not the equivalent of the verbal slipper. Apparently it was a previous generation’s correctional implement of choice – when the slipper came out you knew you had done something very wrong. Luke doesn’t include this to discipline or make Christians feel guilty about their struggles with prayer. Why does Luke write? So Theophilus knows beyond a shadow of a doubt and lives in the light of it. He writes to encourage disciples to make the most of their privilege. It is not here to guilt us into praying but to remind and inspire us to make the most of the privilege that is ours.
(1)As Luke describes the scene what do we see? Jesus is in a certain place, praying. It’s a pattern you see in Luke. His disciples ask him to teach them how to pray. But there is a danger with this opening verse of oversimplifying application, sometimes we hear or think something like this. Luke 11 shows Jesus praying therefore we should pray. The danger is it becomes a legalistic thing, part of the religious rigmarole – we pray because he did. But as Jesus explains prayer to his disciples he gives 3 reasons which motivate us to pray.
One of the big questions is what prompts the disciples to ask Jesus for a prayer lesson, after all they were Jews, they would all have been familiar with prayer. If you just take one feast Passover which they celebrated every year they would have prayed a number of times as part of that meal, in Luke 18 Jesus tells the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector in which both pray. So what prompts the disciples to ask ‘Lord, teach us how to pray..?’ Because there is something different about the way Jesus prays. And he teaches a pattern of prayer to them, this is the disciples prayer, and it is relational, based on grace.
The wonder of this prayer is in its opening line; “Father” – sinners, rebels, imperfect disciples are taught to call God Father. It is a sign of the new access to God, the new relationship that Jesus comes to bring as he goes up to Jerusalem(10v22). A relationship where barriers are demolished, sin is dealt with and disciples can come to God by grace calling him Father. We don’t earn salvation as we pray we respond to salvation as we pray.
But notice that the relationship we are given continues in the substance of the Disciples Prayer. Jesus teaches disciples are to share the Father’s concerns – his glory, fame, reputation and his holiness. And secondly disciples are concerned for God’s kingdom, his rule, reign and recognition both now on earth but also its full realisation when Jesus comes again. Our praying doesn’t depend on what we do, but on what Christ has done. Our praying and concerns in prayer flow from our salvation and the relationship we have with God.
Isn't that liberating. I am not barred from praying today because I did not pray yesterday or because I did this or that. Neither am I able to come to God today full of the bravado of my good record. We neither come crawling or crowing when we come to pray because we always come to God our Father based on what Jesus has done for us. I am accepted when I pray because of Jesus! That frees my to always pray, no matter what. Why not make the most of that right now and pray? Why not begin by praising God and thanking him that you can pray because of Jesus?
- I pray but it doesn’t seem to go beyond the ceiling.
- I try to pray but I can’t stop my mind from wandering.
- My prayers are just a shopping list of things I want, it shouldn’t be like that should it?
- Why pray if everything has been determined beforehand?
- I’m not sure God answers my prayers – am I doing something wrong?
- Does it matter which person of the Trinity I pray to?
Luke 11:1-13 is not the equivalent of the verbal slipper. Apparently it was a previous generation’s correctional implement of choice – when the slipper came out you knew you had done something very wrong. Luke doesn’t include this to discipline or make Christians feel guilty about their struggles with prayer. Why does Luke write? So Theophilus knows beyond a shadow of a doubt and lives in the light of it. He writes to encourage disciples to make the most of their privilege. It is not here to guilt us into praying but to remind and inspire us to make the most of the privilege that is ours.
(1)As Luke describes the scene what do we see? Jesus is in a certain place, praying. It’s a pattern you see in Luke. His disciples ask him to teach them how to pray. But there is a danger with this opening verse of oversimplifying application, sometimes we hear or think something like this. Luke 11 shows Jesus praying therefore we should pray. The danger is it becomes a legalistic thing, part of the religious rigmarole – we pray because he did. But as Jesus explains prayer to his disciples he gives 3 reasons which motivate us to pray.
We pray because… God is our Father.
One of the big questions is what prompts the disciples to ask Jesus for a prayer lesson, after all they were Jews, they would all have been familiar with prayer. If you just take one feast Passover which they celebrated every year they would have prayed a number of times as part of that meal, in Luke 18 Jesus tells the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector in which both pray. So what prompts the disciples to ask ‘Lord, teach us how to pray..?’ Because there is something different about the way Jesus prays. And he teaches a pattern of prayer to them, this is the disciples prayer, and it is relational, based on grace.
The wonder of this prayer is in its opening line; “Father” – sinners, rebels, imperfect disciples are taught to call God Father. It is a sign of the new access to God, the new relationship that Jesus comes to bring as he goes up to Jerusalem(10v22). A relationship where barriers are demolished, sin is dealt with and disciples can come to God by grace calling him Father. We don’t earn salvation as we pray we respond to salvation as we pray.
But notice that the relationship we are given continues in the substance of the Disciples Prayer. Jesus teaches disciples are to share the Father’s concerns – his glory, fame, reputation and his holiness. And secondly disciples are concerned for God’s kingdom, his rule, reign and recognition both now on earth but also its full realisation when Jesus comes again. Our praying doesn’t depend on what we do, but on what Christ has done. Our praying and concerns in prayer flow from our salvation and the relationship we have with God.
Isn't that liberating. I am not barred from praying today because I did not pray yesterday or because I did this or that. Neither am I able to come to God today full of the bravado of my good record. We neither come crawling or crowing when we come to pray because we always come to God our Father based on what Jesus has done for us. I am accepted when I pray because of Jesus! That frees my to always pray, no matter what. Why not make the most of that right now and pray? Why not begin by praising God and thanking him that you can pray because of Jesus?
Monday, 21 December 2015
Daily Reading: Luke 10v38-42 'Priorities'
In Luke 10 Jesus is continuing to teach about discipleship, about what it looks like to “love the Lord your God with all your heart…soul…strength…and…mind.” In the previous section Jesus explained discipleship in terms of the need to show love to others, not to ask who your neighbour was but to be the neighbour where one was needed. Not because you can make yourself right with God that way, because he clearly showed that you can’t, but because it is how someone who knows God through Jesus should live in response to God sending his son. Now in these four verses Jesus is teaching about the need for the disciple to listen, the need for them to order their life rightly, to put first things first, to prioritise.
In the passage there is a simple compare and contrast between Mary and Martha, between their priorities, and what occupies their time.
In 1939 the New York Times wrote this “The problem with television is that people must sit and keep their eyes glued to a screen; the average American family hasn’t got time for it.” Yet here we are 70 years later and not only do we have time for it but the average Britain spends nearly 3 hours a day watching it, absorbing the information it bombards us with being influenced by the images it beams into our lives. It places pressure on us, it bombards us with demands, and it seeks to provide us with aspirations and soothes us into accepting its priorities. Since the advent of technology our lives have speeded up, rather than buying us time we seem to be under more pressure, with more to do, more demands to meet and just keeping on top of things is a challenge. It is partly why so many of us have a Martha complex.
Just look at the way Martha is described in this passage and at what she was doing. (40) “But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made.” Did you notice the word that Luke uses to describe Martha? She is “distracted”, she is pulled away from Jesus, her attention is on something else, and as the account continues we see that she is overburdened, overworked, and stressed out by all the preparations that need to be made.
She is so busy getting things ready that she has no time to spend with her guest, not that Luke includes this as an abject lesson to the disciples about social etiquette and how not to ignore your guest. But the importance here is that her guest is Jesus and she is too distracted to listen to him.
Just imagine for a minute that Bono popped round to talk to you about music, or Steven Gerrard about football, or Daniel Craig about acting. You wouldn’t leave them sat in the room whilst you just nipped on line to answer a few urgent emails. You would listen to them and learn from them.
Can you picture Martha in her distraction rushing about the kitchen, preparing the meat, peeling the potatoes and carrots, laying the table, chilling the wine, and polishing the glasses. Then you hear her sigh a few times, then a bit of chuntering as a pan lid clatters to the floor, then the lids being slammed into place with more force and then suddenly there she is at the doorway. She’s finally snapped “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”
Martha expects Jesus to tell Mary to get up and help her sister, but how does Jesus respond to her plea? (41) “Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better…” Do you see what Jesus is saying? Distraction is dangerous, Jesus isn’t saying that what Martha is doing in preparing the meal is wrong but that she is being distracted from what is best. What she ought to be doing is making time to listen to Jesus.
Maybe you find yourself, this morning, feeling that Jesus is a bit harsh on Martha. Perhaps if we are honest that is because we recognise and empathise with her, we have the Martha syndrome; full diaries, long to do lists, and we are always running out of time. It’s because our problem is Martha’s problem, we live like Martha.
What distracts us from taking time to listen to God? Martha leaves Jesus sitting in the front room while she rushes around in the kitchen, we have the Bible, the word of life, yet leave it while we rush around doing all manner of things neglecting what is best for what is good. What distracts you from listening? Maybe we have good intentions but when it comes to bed time we are just too exhausted to read and study the Bible and then we sleep in too late in the morning so there just isn’t time to do it before work. Maybe we tell ourselves that I’ll catch up at the weekend, but then the weekend comes and goes and it just gets missed. Do you relate to Martha this morning? Maybe even as we’ve been thinking about the passage you’ve been worrying about whether you’ve turned the oven on, or whether Al will be done by 11.30 so I can get home and make sure that the dinner isn’t burnt. Or maybe it’s the big project at work, or worries about the children or grandchildren that are distracting you this morning.
Do you see the question this morning; am I in danger of being distracted? Too distracted to listen to what Jesus says?
Luke highlights a deliberate contrast in (39-40) in the way he records this meal. Martha is “distracted by all the preparations” whilst Mary “sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said.”
Martha is distracted, Mary is devoted. In sitting at Jesus feet Mary has taken up the traditional and culture place of a disciple, unusual for the culture of that day, it is the place of learning, of instruction. And far from being rebuked Jesus commends her.
Whilst he says Martha is “worried and upset about many things” Jesus says “Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” Mary has avoided the danger of distraction and is commended for showing the devotion of the disciple. (22) “No-one knows who the Son is except the Father, and no-one knows who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” Mary has chosen what is better; she has chosen to listen as the Father is revealed by the only one who can reveal him. To listen to the only one who can bring about a relationship between her and God.
Here is a jar. I’ve got a challenge for you, I want you to put these three bags of sand, rocks, and gravel into the jar. They will all fit but only just. How would you do it? If you put the sand or gravel in first you can’t do it, the stones will stick out of the top. You have to put the stones in first, then tip the gravel in, then the sand will fill in the gaps between the stones and gravel. Time is the same, you have to prioritise, put the big things, and the important things in first just like the stones in first, then take what space is left for other things.
In our society we measure the value we place on something, be it a hobby, a friendship, or a relationship by the time we give to it. What are our priorities? Mary is commended for getting her priorities right, putting as most important what was most important, listening to Jesus teach, building a relationship.
Am I suffering from the Martha complex? Am I dangerously distracted or am I devoted as a disciple to the word of life, determined to build a relationship with God through his word?
So Tuesday night rolls around and its home group but it’s a gripping episode of Eastenders, or Man united v AC Milan on the television? The question - Distraction or devotion? It’s Saturday morning and it’s your turn for a lie-in - 5 more minutes in bed or 5 minutes reading the Bible - distraction or devotion? You are asked to meet with someone to form a prayer triplet and read the Bible together, your diary is busy but what is the priority, what does it look like to be devoted?
Why do I need to take time to listen to God because it will equip me to live a life worthy of the gospel, because it will enable me to see all my time as given to glorify God, because it will teach me the path of the disciple, how to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind.”
Listening to God is the disciple’s priority because it is about relationship; you cannot follow if you aren’t listening to the instructions. That’s where so many of us go wrong when doing DIY. It would be easy this morning to go away feeling guilty, but guilt will not help us change our priorities, grace will. Do you see the grace in this account? Look again at verse (40) Do you notice how Martha addresses Jesus, she calls him “Lord”, Martha is a distracted disciple and do you notice Jesus reaction to her? (41) “Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed…” He doesn’t condemn her but he calls her to come and listen, to copy her sister, to choose what is best, to come and know the Son and through him know the Father.
What about you this morning? How are you priorities? Come and listen is the call, reorder your priorities. Do you see the danger; the danger is distraction not necessarily with bad things but with good things. But the call for the disciple is to devotion, is to following, to listening, to learning and living to love and glorify God.
In the passage there is a simple compare and contrast between Mary and Martha, between their priorities, and what occupies their time.
In 1939 the New York Times wrote this “The problem with television is that people must sit and keep their eyes glued to a screen; the average American family hasn’t got time for it.” Yet here we are 70 years later and not only do we have time for it but the average Britain spends nearly 3 hours a day watching it, absorbing the information it bombards us with being influenced by the images it beams into our lives. It places pressure on us, it bombards us with demands, and it seeks to provide us with aspirations and soothes us into accepting its priorities. Since the advent of technology our lives have speeded up, rather than buying us time we seem to be under more pressure, with more to do, more demands to meet and just keeping on top of things is a challenge. It is partly why so many of us have a Martha complex.
Just look at the way Martha is described in this passage and at what she was doing. (40) “But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made.” Did you notice the word that Luke uses to describe Martha? She is “distracted”, she is pulled away from Jesus, her attention is on something else, and as the account continues we see that she is overburdened, overworked, and stressed out by all the preparations that need to be made.
She is so busy getting things ready that she has no time to spend with her guest, not that Luke includes this as an abject lesson to the disciples about social etiquette and how not to ignore your guest. But the importance here is that her guest is Jesus and she is too distracted to listen to him.
Just imagine for a minute that Bono popped round to talk to you about music, or Steven Gerrard about football, or Daniel Craig about acting. You wouldn’t leave them sat in the room whilst you just nipped on line to answer a few urgent emails. You would listen to them and learn from them.
Can you picture Martha in her distraction rushing about the kitchen, preparing the meat, peeling the potatoes and carrots, laying the table, chilling the wine, and polishing the glasses. Then you hear her sigh a few times, then a bit of chuntering as a pan lid clatters to the floor, then the lids being slammed into place with more force and then suddenly there she is at the doorway. She’s finally snapped “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”
Martha expects Jesus to tell Mary to get up and help her sister, but how does Jesus respond to her plea? (41) “Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better…” Do you see what Jesus is saying? Distraction is dangerous, Jesus isn’t saying that what Martha is doing in preparing the meal is wrong but that she is being distracted from what is best. What she ought to be doing is making time to listen to Jesus.
Maybe you find yourself, this morning, feeling that Jesus is a bit harsh on Martha. Perhaps if we are honest that is because we recognise and empathise with her, we have the Martha syndrome; full diaries, long to do lists, and we are always running out of time. It’s because our problem is Martha’s problem, we live like Martha.
What distracts us from taking time to listen to God? Martha leaves Jesus sitting in the front room while she rushes around in the kitchen, we have the Bible, the word of life, yet leave it while we rush around doing all manner of things neglecting what is best for what is good. What distracts you from listening? Maybe we have good intentions but when it comes to bed time we are just too exhausted to read and study the Bible and then we sleep in too late in the morning so there just isn’t time to do it before work. Maybe we tell ourselves that I’ll catch up at the weekend, but then the weekend comes and goes and it just gets missed. Do you relate to Martha this morning? Maybe even as we’ve been thinking about the passage you’ve been worrying about whether you’ve turned the oven on, or whether Al will be done by 11.30 so I can get home and make sure that the dinner isn’t burnt. Or maybe it’s the big project at work, or worries about the children or grandchildren that are distracting you this morning.
Do you see the question this morning; am I in danger of being distracted? Too distracted to listen to what Jesus says?
Luke highlights a deliberate contrast in (39-40) in the way he records this meal. Martha is “distracted by all the preparations” whilst Mary “sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said.”
Martha is distracted, Mary is devoted. In sitting at Jesus feet Mary has taken up the traditional and culture place of a disciple, unusual for the culture of that day, it is the place of learning, of instruction. And far from being rebuked Jesus commends her.
Whilst he says Martha is “worried and upset about many things” Jesus says “Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” Mary has avoided the danger of distraction and is commended for showing the devotion of the disciple. (22) “No-one knows who the Son is except the Father, and no-one knows who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” Mary has chosen what is better; she has chosen to listen as the Father is revealed by the only one who can reveal him. To listen to the only one who can bring about a relationship between her and God.
Here is a jar. I’ve got a challenge for you, I want you to put these three bags of sand, rocks, and gravel into the jar. They will all fit but only just. How would you do it? If you put the sand or gravel in first you can’t do it, the stones will stick out of the top. You have to put the stones in first, then tip the gravel in, then the sand will fill in the gaps between the stones and gravel. Time is the same, you have to prioritise, put the big things, and the important things in first just like the stones in first, then take what space is left for other things.
In our society we measure the value we place on something, be it a hobby, a friendship, or a relationship by the time we give to it. What are our priorities? Mary is commended for getting her priorities right, putting as most important what was most important, listening to Jesus teach, building a relationship.
Am I suffering from the Martha complex? Am I dangerously distracted or am I devoted as a disciple to the word of life, determined to build a relationship with God through his word?
So Tuesday night rolls around and its home group but it’s a gripping episode of Eastenders, or Man united v AC Milan on the television? The question - Distraction or devotion? It’s Saturday morning and it’s your turn for a lie-in - 5 more minutes in bed or 5 minutes reading the Bible - distraction or devotion? You are asked to meet with someone to form a prayer triplet and read the Bible together, your diary is busy but what is the priority, what does it look like to be devoted?
Why do I need to take time to listen to God because it will equip me to live a life worthy of the gospel, because it will enable me to see all my time as given to glorify God, because it will teach me the path of the disciple, how to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind.”
Listening to God is the disciple’s priority because it is about relationship; you cannot follow if you aren’t listening to the instructions. That’s where so many of us go wrong when doing DIY. It would be easy this morning to go away feeling guilty, but guilt will not help us change our priorities, grace will. Do you see the grace in this account? Look again at verse (40) Do you notice how Martha addresses Jesus, she calls him “Lord”, Martha is a distracted disciple and do you notice Jesus reaction to her? (41) “Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed…” He doesn’t condemn her but he calls her to come and listen, to copy her sister, to choose what is best, to come and know the Son and through him know the Father.
What about you this morning? How are you priorities? Come and listen is the call, reorder your priorities. Do you see the danger; the danger is distraction not necessarily with bad things but with good things. But the call for the disciple is to devotion, is to following, to listening, to learning and living to love and glorify God.
Sunday, 20 December 2015
Daily Reading: Hebrews 2v9 'But we see Jesus...'
My boys love the card game Top Trumps, we have various version of the game. If you don't know it the aim of the game is simply to win the other persons card by having a higher number in the chosen category, thus trumping their card. Some of the versions have been played so well the boys don't even have to look at the cards, but know them off by heart.
Hebrews is a bit like a pack of top trump cards. The pastor's point in writing Hebrews is to show how in Jesus we have the ultimate expression of God, and therefore everything is better in him. Jesus, God the Son, provides a better revelation of God than angels - Chapter 1-2. Jesus is better than Moses - Chapter 3. Jesus is a better High Priest - Chapter 4 and so on. At each stage the pastor warns against drifting away from Jesus, from what we have heard, from the salvation he provides and so on.
"But Jesus..." could in many ways be a good two word summary of the book. Hebrews 2v5-9 remind us of our need of Jesus. How the world made to be under the rule of man as the pinnacle of God's creation has been marred and marked by sin. How that is not how the world is any more, that is not what we see. Instead we see chaos and war and decay, sin ruining God's good creation. Then come those words in verse 9 "But we see him...". We see Jesus - God the Son stepping into the darkness, the chaos, the world infected by sin, giving a glimpse of his authority and his rule over it as he raises the dead, calms the storm, feeds the hungry. And ultimately as he breathes his last only to burst through death to new life again, so that by faith in him we may all share in his life, and his coming rule.
Why would you want to drift from him? Why would you forget? Why would you choose not to listen to this good news? How will we ensure that none of those things happen to us? Feed again on what is yours in Christ - we don't earn it - it is given to us by faith.
Hebrews is a bit like a pack of top trump cards. The pastor's point in writing Hebrews is to show how in Jesus we have the ultimate expression of God, and therefore everything is better in him. Jesus, God the Son, provides a better revelation of God than angels - Chapter 1-2. Jesus is better than Moses - Chapter 3. Jesus is a better High Priest - Chapter 4 and so on. At each stage the pastor warns against drifting away from Jesus, from what we have heard, from the salvation he provides and so on.
"But Jesus..." could in many ways be a good two word summary of the book. Hebrews 2v5-9 remind us of our need of Jesus. How the world made to be under the rule of man as the pinnacle of God's creation has been marred and marked by sin. How that is not how the world is any more, that is not what we see. Instead we see chaos and war and decay, sin ruining God's good creation. Then come those words in verse 9 "But we see him...". We see Jesus - God the Son stepping into the darkness, the chaos, the world infected by sin, giving a glimpse of his authority and his rule over it as he raises the dead, calms the storm, feeds the hungry. And ultimately as he breathes his last only to burst through death to new life again, so that by faith in him we may all share in his life, and his coming rule.
Why would you want to drift from him? Why would you forget? Why would you choose not to listen to this good news? How will we ensure that none of those things happen to us? Feed again on what is yours in Christ - we don't earn it - it is given to us by faith.
Saturday, 19 December 2015
Daily Reading: Hebrews 2v1-4 'In danger of drifting?'
This Sunday we're thinking about Hebrews 2v9, but today I want to dwell on v1-4 to set the context:
How good are you at listening? Everybody hears but how good are we at listening attentively. Good listening takes active involvement and concentration.
The story is told of Franklin Roosevelt, who often endured long receiving lines at the White House. He complained that no one really paid any attention to what was said. One day, during a reception, he decided to try an experiment. To each person who came down the line and shook his hand, he murmured, “I murdered my grandmother this morning.” The guests responded with phrases like, “Marvelous! Keep up the good work. We are proud of you. God bless you, sir.”
It was not till the end of the line, while greeting the ambassador from Bolivia, that his words were actually heard. Nonplussed, the ambassador leaned over and whispered, “I’m sure she had it coming.”
How well did you listen to that story? Who was it about? Where was he? What did he say to the visitors? Where was the person who listened from?
Some of us were hearing but not listening, it was just background noise which we never really tuned in to.
Hebrews 2 moves from the soaring truths about the nature and superiority of Jesus – God’s ruling reigning Son, the creator and sustainer, the ultimate revelation of God – to applying that to the lives of the readers. And the application is that given who Jesus we must pay attention to him and the revelation he brings.
We make choices all the time about who we listen to. Here the pastor writing Hebrews tells his church who they should listen to. 1:2 “In these last days he [God] has spoken to us by his Son... We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard.” Listen to the glorious Son of God. Listen to the one who is superior to the angels, who ascended and rules , who the Old Testament points to, who saves, who is unique, who supremely reveals God because he is God. He is worth listening to.
What does Jesus reveal to them(3)? “so great a salvation”, later in the chapter he describes it like this; “But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honour because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered. Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters.” (9-11)
Jesus comes to reveal God and as he does so he reveals our need of forgiveness because our sin – our hard hearts, our refusal to acknowledge our creator – means we face judgement. But Jesus revelation, his message, is that he, God’s perfect Son, has come to take our deserved punishment, to stand in our place, so that our sin is paid for and we are credited with his perfect record and become God’s holy sons and daughters and his brothers and sisters.
That is worth listening to, worth paying careful attention to, it is a message beyond anything else we will ever hear in terms of importance. Listen to Jesus, pay close attention to his words and his living. He alone reveals God, every other word you hear pales into insignificance.
I wonder what you think the most significant words you have ever heard are – ‘Will you marry me?’ the first cry of your child, I love you, we’d like to offer you the job...they all pale into insignificance compared to the message of the gospel.
Jesus is worth listening to, listen to him his words bring life.
The pastor anticipates the question why should we listen and he answers with a warning about the consequences of not doing so and witnesses to verify the message.
(1)gives us an instruction and (2)“For” he is going to explain why, and he uses a lesser to a great argument.
He has established that Jesus is superior to angels and that the revelation he brings is superior to theirs. So if the angels message – the law – when ignored or broken brought punishment how much more is punishment deserved if the greater revelation and message is ignored or broken. If breaking the law led to punishment of the offender how on earth shall we escape if we ignore the Son of God the ultimate revelation of God and the message of salvation he brings! The answer is we won’t.
Who is this written to? Hebrew Christians, in fact the pastor applies it even to himself as he includes himself in this warning, “how shall we escape...”
It throws up a question doesn’t it; can you lose your salvation?
Part of our problem is that we think of salvation wrongly, we think of salvation as a past event. But in the Bible salvation is past, present and future. We have been saved when we trusted in Jesus – all our sins are paid for and we are viewed as God’s perfect children, but we are also being saved as we offer ourselves daily to God and grow in our understanding and application of salvation, and we will be saved finally when we are delivered from God’s judgement on the last day.
Be warned pay attention because you want to lay hold of your salvation not drift from it.
(3-4)It’s as if he is in a court of law calling witnesses to verify the message. In line with the Old Testament he produce 3 witnesses. The Lord announces salvation, it is confirmed by who? the apostles and other eyewitnesses, God testifies to who Jesus is and his message, how? By signs and wonders – just as he showed himself in redeeming Israel from slavery – and the Holy Spirit at work in Jesus followers is the final witness.
You can rely on the gospel and on Jesus but you must be warned not pay it careful attention is dangerous.
How does the pastor encourage his readers to listen? “We must pay the most careful attention...” That word carefully means frequently, especially, or to a greater degree. It is a call to attentiveness to active listening, to a listening that is keen, willing and active in application.
They must listen or they will drift. Life is not a pond which is still and in which you can stay still, it’s a river and if you are not making progress you are driven backwards, swept away. And notice that they aren’t in danger of outright rejection of the gospel, but of gradual, incremental, imperceptible drift.
We have to take this warning very seriously, so how can we spot if we are drifting?
There are two ways in the passage:
1. Not paying careful attention - Do we take time each day to dwell on our great salvation? Do we fix our thoughts on it, do we seek to apply it afresh to our lives every day? Do we delve into the bible longing to understand more of our great saviour and what he has saved us for or do we content ourselves with what we know? Do we take it for granted!
2. Ignoring our great salvation – That word ignore also carries with it the idea of neglecting something, not giving it the attention it deserves. There is the danger of distraction, we would never say we are ignoring the gospel, but we become taken up with other things they may be good things but they distract and draw us away effectively making us ignore the gospel; things like angels, or traditions, or ministry, or family, or money, or career.
Hebrews also contains some other signs of drifting:
1. Being hard hearted and not taking God’s warnings seriously
2. Not living looking for God’s promised rest
3. Not growing in our understanding and application of the gospel
4. Not spurring one another on
5. Giving up meeting together
6. Living by sight not by faith
7. Not fixing our eyes on Jesus and following his example
8. Forgetting the wonder of our salvation
9. Losing our joy
10.Grumbling
As you honestly evaluate your life and your heart do you see any of those symptoms? Are you in danger of drifting? What is the antidote? How do we ensure we do not drift?
We pay careful attention to what we have heard. We turn back again to the gospel, the good news of Jesus. We don’t content ourselves with a cursory reading but we study it, we delve deeper into it, we do what the pastor does here; we seek to understand the wonder of who Jesus was and all he does, the full horror of our sin and the true wonder of our rescue and future. Because it is the gospel that is the fuel that fires our faith.
What happens if you put the wrong fuel in an engine? It may run ok for a short while but eventually as the mix of right fuel and wrong fuel works its way through the engine it coughs and splutters until it totally cuts out. You may be thinking I’ll redouble my effort, I’ll try harder, I’ll set aside longer for my readings, I’ll not get up until I have spent 20 minutes on my knees in prayer and so on... That will last for so long, but it is like the wrong fuel you will eventually cough and splutter and run out, because that is dependent on your own efforts.
By contrast Hebrews would call us to look at Jesus, refresh yourself in the gospel of grace and as you do that change will flow from your heart – don’t redouble your efforts but listen carefully, attentively to the gospel. That may mean we do some of those things we have just said – prioritise reading the bible, home group etc – but that will be because we are seeking to know Jesus rather than as an end in itself.
Be where you can hear the gospel, but don’t settle for just hearing it but work out what changes it is calling for in your life and put them into action, get others to help you do so. Take the time to build relationships where you can work the gospel into each others lives.
Don’t drift – are you drifting? Do you see some of the symptoms? Be amazed at who Jesus is and what he has done for us and pay it careful attention!
The story is told of Franklin Roosevelt, who often endured long receiving lines at the White House. He complained that no one really paid any attention to what was said. One day, during a reception, he decided to try an experiment. To each person who came down the line and shook his hand, he murmured, “I murdered my grandmother this morning.” The guests responded with phrases like, “Marvelous! Keep up the good work. We are proud of you. God bless you, sir.”
It was not till the end of the line, while greeting the ambassador from Bolivia, that his words were actually heard. Nonplussed, the ambassador leaned over and whispered, “I’m sure she had it coming.”
How well did you listen to that story? Who was it about? Where was he? What did he say to the visitors? Where was the person who listened from?
Some of us were hearing but not listening, it was just background noise which we never really tuned in to.
Hebrews 2 moves from the soaring truths about the nature and superiority of Jesus – God’s ruling reigning Son, the creator and sustainer, the ultimate revelation of God – to applying that to the lives of the readers. And the application is that given who Jesus we must pay attention to him and the revelation he brings.
We make choices all the time about who we listen to. Here the pastor writing Hebrews tells his church who they should listen to. 1:2 “In these last days he [God] has spoken to us by his Son... We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard.” Listen to the glorious Son of God. Listen to the one who is superior to the angels, who ascended and rules , who the Old Testament points to, who saves, who is unique, who supremely reveals God because he is God. He is worth listening to.
What does Jesus reveal to them(3)? “so great a salvation”, later in the chapter he describes it like this; “But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honour because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered. Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters.” (9-11)
Jesus comes to reveal God and as he does so he reveals our need of forgiveness because our sin – our hard hearts, our refusal to acknowledge our creator – means we face judgement. But Jesus revelation, his message, is that he, God’s perfect Son, has come to take our deserved punishment, to stand in our place, so that our sin is paid for and we are credited with his perfect record and become God’s holy sons and daughters and his brothers and sisters.
That is worth listening to, worth paying careful attention to, it is a message beyond anything else we will ever hear in terms of importance. Listen to Jesus, pay close attention to his words and his living. He alone reveals God, every other word you hear pales into insignificance.
I wonder what you think the most significant words you have ever heard are – ‘Will you marry me?’ the first cry of your child, I love you, we’d like to offer you the job...they all pale into insignificance compared to the message of the gospel.
Jesus is worth listening to, listen to him his words bring life.
The pastor anticipates the question why should we listen and he answers with a warning about the consequences of not doing so and witnesses to verify the message.
(1)gives us an instruction and (2)“For” he is going to explain why, and he uses a lesser to a great argument.
He has established that Jesus is superior to angels and that the revelation he brings is superior to theirs. So if the angels message – the law – when ignored or broken brought punishment how much more is punishment deserved if the greater revelation and message is ignored or broken. If breaking the law led to punishment of the offender how on earth shall we escape if we ignore the Son of God the ultimate revelation of God and the message of salvation he brings! The answer is we won’t.
Who is this written to? Hebrew Christians, in fact the pastor applies it even to himself as he includes himself in this warning, “how shall we escape...”
It throws up a question doesn’t it; can you lose your salvation?
Part of our problem is that we think of salvation wrongly, we think of salvation as a past event. But in the Bible salvation is past, present and future. We have been saved when we trusted in Jesus – all our sins are paid for and we are viewed as God’s perfect children, but we are also being saved as we offer ourselves daily to God and grow in our understanding and application of salvation, and we will be saved finally when we are delivered from God’s judgement on the last day.
Be warned pay attention because you want to lay hold of your salvation not drift from it.
(3-4)It’s as if he is in a court of law calling witnesses to verify the message. In line with the Old Testament he produce 3 witnesses. The Lord announces salvation, it is confirmed by who? the apostles and other eyewitnesses, God testifies to who Jesus is and his message, how? By signs and wonders – just as he showed himself in redeeming Israel from slavery – and the Holy Spirit at work in Jesus followers is the final witness.
You can rely on the gospel and on Jesus but you must be warned not pay it careful attention is dangerous.
How does the pastor encourage his readers to listen? “We must pay the most careful attention...” That word carefully means frequently, especially, or to a greater degree. It is a call to attentiveness to active listening, to a listening that is keen, willing and active in application.
They must listen or they will drift. Life is not a pond which is still and in which you can stay still, it’s a river and if you are not making progress you are driven backwards, swept away. And notice that they aren’t in danger of outright rejection of the gospel, but of gradual, incremental, imperceptible drift.
We have to take this warning very seriously, so how can we spot if we are drifting?
There are two ways in the passage:
1. Not paying careful attention - Do we take time each day to dwell on our great salvation? Do we fix our thoughts on it, do we seek to apply it afresh to our lives every day? Do we delve into the bible longing to understand more of our great saviour and what he has saved us for or do we content ourselves with what we know? Do we take it for granted!
2. Ignoring our great salvation – That word ignore also carries with it the idea of neglecting something, not giving it the attention it deserves. There is the danger of distraction, we would never say we are ignoring the gospel, but we become taken up with other things they may be good things but they distract and draw us away effectively making us ignore the gospel; things like angels, or traditions, or ministry, or family, or money, or career.
Hebrews also contains some other signs of drifting:
1. Being hard hearted and not taking God’s warnings seriously
2. Not living looking for God’s promised rest
3. Not growing in our understanding and application of the gospel
4. Not spurring one another on
5. Giving up meeting together
6. Living by sight not by faith
7. Not fixing our eyes on Jesus and following his example
8. Forgetting the wonder of our salvation
9. Losing our joy
10.Grumbling
As you honestly evaluate your life and your heart do you see any of those symptoms? Are you in danger of drifting? What is the antidote? How do we ensure we do not drift?
We pay careful attention to what we have heard. We turn back again to the gospel, the good news of Jesus. We don’t content ourselves with a cursory reading but we study it, we delve deeper into it, we do what the pastor does here; we seek to understand the wonder of who Jesus was and all he does, the full horror of our sin and the true wonder of our rescue and future. Because it is the gospel that is the fuel that fires our faith.
What happens if you put the wrong fuel in an engine? It may run ok for a short while but eventually as the mix of right fuel and wrong fuel works its way through the engine it coughs and splutters until it totally cuts out. You may be thinking I’ll redouble my effort, I’ll try harder, I’ll set aside longer for my readings, I’ll not get up until I have spent 20 minutes on my knees in prayer and so on... That will last for so long, but it is like the wrong fuel you will eventually cough and splutter and run out, because that is dependent on your own efforts.
By contrast Hebrews would call us to look at Jesus, refresh yourself in the gospel of grace and as you do that change will flow from your heart – don’t redouble your efforts but listen carefully, attentively to the gospel. That may mean we do some of those things we have just said – prioritise reading the bible, home group etc – but that will be because we are seeking to know Jesus rather than as an end in itself.
Be where you can hear the gospel, but don’t settle for just hearing it but work out what changes it is calling for in your life and put them into action, get others to help you do so. Take the time to build relationships where you can work the gospel into each others lives.
Don’t drift – are you drifting? Do you see some of the symptoms? Be amazed at who Jesus is and what he has done for us and pay it careful attention!
Friday, 18 December 2015
Daily Reading: Luke 10v25-37 'Really loving'
1. You’re walking through town when a dishevelled guy shouts “Big Issue!” What do you do?
a. Avoid eye contact and walk on as if you didn’t hear.
b. Smile sympathetically but don’t buy it as you don’t like it.
c. Walk over engage in conversation and buy a copy.
2. There’s a knock on your door, it is a man recently released from prison selling kitchenware. Do you?
a. Grab the kids and duck down behind the sofa.
b. Open the door and talk to them but politely decline as it’s cheaper to buy it in ASDA.
c. Talk to them and buy some things.
3. You nip into town to get some money, as you walk down an alley you hear running feet and see a young man lying on the floor with cuts and swelling around his face. What do you do?
a. Walk quickly out of the alley not wanting to get involved.
b. Phone the emergency services and leave, after all they could come back.
c. Phone the emergency services, put your coat under his head and sit talking to him while you wait for the ambulance to arrive. Explain what happened and go with him to the hospital.
Keep those answers in your head as we look at this passage. The big question as we approach this passage is do I love God? And how is that love seen?
Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem(9:51) knowing he will die there. He is preparing his disciples for life after the cross and ascension, teaching them what it means to be his followers. The tension between Jesus and the Jewish leaders has been growing and an ‘expert’ comes “to test” Jesus(25). “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” he asks. Or ‘How can I be sure that I’ll be saved at the final resurrection?’
Jesus reply is surprising. He has just explained to his disciples that he reveals the Father to them(22), they know that he is God’s Messiah, they have just been telling everyone he is the king of God’s Kingdom. So you would expect him to answer along those lines wouldn’t you? What must I do to inherit eternal life? ‘Trust in me, here let me explain…’ Or even hand him over to Peter to explain. But he doesn’t, what does he say? “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” And then when this expert answers with the summary of the law(27) Jesus surprises us again as he praises his answer, “Do this and you will live.”
Is Jesus saying you can be good enough to earn your way into heaven? Is he saying you don’t need him? If this was the only story in the Bible and it stopped there you could conclude that. But it doesn’t, instead Jesus explodes the idea that he and we can ever love God like that, that we can ever reach that standard.
How do you know whether you will inherit eternal life? You look at the way you love God and at your relationship with him. The way to love God is with total devotion expressed in emotion, consciousness, drive and intelligence, and such love is seen in your loving your neighbour as yourself.
The lawyer asks a follow up question (29)“Who is my neighbour?” Jesus, who do I have to love? What are the limits, give me a list so that I know what the bare minimum is? He is minimising love for both his neighbour and for God, but Jesus tells a story of surprising, lavish compassionate love without limits that highlights this man’s and our inability to earn salvation.
I wonder how you picture the scene(30). It’s not the equivalent of taking a stroll down Bawtry Road, but of walking through an alley in the knife crime hotspot of London. The Jericho Road ran from Jericho 17 miles to Jerusalem and climbed nearly 3500feet, it was rocky and surrounded by caves. It was known as ‘the bloody way’, and incidents like(30) were common. What does the man need as he lays half dead? He needs someone who loves God and shows it by loving his neighbour.
Over the horizon comes a figure that turns out to be a priest(31) surely he’ll help, but he passes by on the other side. Then another figure appears in the heat haze and as he gets closer it’s a Levite – surely he’ll help? But he too passes by on the other side. Both men limit their love, they ask ‘Who is my neighbour?’ and conclude not this man.
But before we condemn this man or the Levite and Priest we need to be careful we don’t condemn ourselves. There actions are logical aren’t they? They make the excuses we find ourselves making; to stop and help would be dangerous, the mob could still be around, and think of the potential consequences for me and my family. What about the cost to my time I’m busy?
I guess we might console ourselves that we pay our taxes and give to Worldvision or Tearfund, we are not indifferent to need it just that this time… We are more like the Levite and Priest than we find comfortable. The Levite could console himself that he cared for the poor, part of his responsibilities at the temple was giving alms to the poor, and the Priest well he served the sick and ill. They do their bit just not right now.
We also isolate ourselves from the needs around us. It’s easy to live in a isolated cosseted world and not see need. Before we condemn these men we need to ask ourselves if we aren’t living our lives in light of our own answer that question ‘Who is my neighbour?’ Think back to the 3 scenarios, who is your neighbour?
Does my love for God shown in my love for my neighbour have limits?
The question as Jesus tells the story is(37); can you spot the neighbour? We lose the impact of this story because we are so familiar with it. But it is like a BNP campaigner being helped by an asylum seeker, an injured British Soldier in Afghanistan being helped by a Taliban fighter, a Rabbi in Jerusalem being saved by a Palestinian. The word ‘Samaritan’ was used as an insult by the Jews, they were seen as a mongrel race, outsiders not fit for the kingdom, and they worshipped God wrongly. But the Samaritan sees the injured man and how does he respond(33)? He is filled with compassion for him, compassion that touches his heart and activates his hands, compassion that sees him lavish love on this injured man.
He goes to him, bandages his wounds, pours on oil to sooth them and wine to disinfect them. He puts him on his donkey, takes him to an inn where he cares for him overnight. He doesn’t help and run, there is nothing minimalist about his actions. The next morning he pays two days wages, enough for room and board for 24 days and as he leaves emphatically says that when he returns he not the injured man will pay any additional costs.
Jesus question is simple but devastating; “Which of these three do you think was a neighbour to the man…?” Who showed total love for God? Who followed God’s law? The lawyer almost chokes on his answer, he can’t even bring himself to say ‘Samaritan’ but instead says “The one who had mercy on him.”
Go and do likewise, says Jesus. Do you see the challenge for the lawyer? Don’t just know the law but act on it; don’t ask who your neighbour is but love God totally and live it by loving all. By meeting the needs of those around you where those needs are found.
“What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus agrees with the mans answer of fulfilling the law, but in the parable he destroys the notion that the man is capable of doing so. His desire to put limits on who he has to love clearly shows he has not understood, that he cannot meet, God’s standard.
(22)Only in Jesus is the Father revealed, only by knowing Jesus can you know God because only he fulfils the law on our behalf, only he loves the Father like this, only he loves his neighbour like this. Only through the grace and mercy of God in Jesus can we have a relationship with God and having experienced such love we are to live lives marked by it. To love God with all our heart, soul, strength, mind evidenced in loving our neighbours as ourselves, just as our saviour did.
“Go and do likewise.” Is the phenomenally challenging call to discipleship.
a. Avoid eye contact and walk on as if you didn’t hear.
b. Smile sympathetically but don’t buy it as you don’t like it.
c. Walk over engage in conversation and buy a copy.
2. There’s a knock on your door, it is a man recently released from prison selling kitchenware. Do you?
a. Grab the kids and duck down behind the sofa.
b. Open the door and talk to them but politely decline as it’s cheaper to buy it in ASDA.
c. Talk to them and buy some things.
3. You nip into town to get some money, as you walk down an alley you hear running feet and see a young man lying on the floor with cuts and swelling around his face. What do you do?
a. Walk quickly out of the alley not wanting to get involved.
b. Phone the emergency services and leave, after all they could come back.
c. Phone the emergency services, put your coat under his head and sit talking to him while you wait for the ambulance to arrive. Explain what happened and go with him to the hospital.
Keep those answers in your head as we look at this passage. The big question as we approach this passage is do I love God? And how is that love seen?
Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem(9:51) knowing he will die there. He is preparing his disciples for life after the cross and ascension, teaching them what it means to be his followers. The tension between Jesus and the Jewish leaders has been growing and an ‘expert’ comes “to test” Jesus(25). “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” he asks. Or ‘How can I be sure that I’ll be saved at the final resurrection?’
Jesus reply is surprising. He has just explained to his disciples that he reveals the Father to them(22), they know that he is God’s Messiah, they have just been telling everyone he is the king of God’s Kingdom. So you would expect him to answer along those lines wouldn’t you? What must I do to inherit eternal life? ‘Trust in me, here let me explain…’ Or even hand him over to Peter to explain. But he doesn’t, what does he say? “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” And then when this expert answers with the summary of the law(27) Jesus surprises us again as he praises his answer, “Do this and you will live.”
Is Jesus saying you can be good enough to earn your way into heaven? Is he saying you don’t need him? If this was the only story in the Bible and it stopped there you could conclude that. But it doesn’t, instead Jesus explodes the idea that he and we can ever love God like that, that we can ever reach that standard.
How do you know whether you will inherit eternal life? You look at the way you love God and at your relationship with him. The way to love God is with total devotion expressed in emotion, consciousness, drive and intelligence, and such love is seen in your loving your neighbour as yourself.
The lawyer asks a follow up question (29)“Who is my neighbour?” Jesus, who do I have to love? What are the limits, give me a list so that I know what the bare minimum is? He is minimising love for both his neighbour and for God, but Jesus tells a story of surprising, lavish compassionate love without limits that highlights this man’s and our inability to earn salvation.
I wonder how you picture the scene(30). It’s not the equivalent of taking a stroll down Bawtry Road, but of walking through an alley in the knife crime hotspot of London. The Jericho Road ran from Jericho 17 miles to Jerusalem and climbed nearly 3500feet, it was rocky and surrounded by caves. It was known as ‘the bloody way’, and incidents like(30) were common. What does the man need as he lays half dead? He needs someone who loves God and shows it by loving his neighbour.
Over the horizon comes a figure that turns out to be a priest(31) surely he’ll help, but he passes by on the other side. Then another figure appears in the heat haze and as he gets closer it’s a Levite – surely he’ll help? But he too passes by on the other side. Both men limit their love, they ask ‘Who is my neighbour?’ and conclude not this man.
But before we condemn this man or the Levite and Priest we need to be careful we don’t condemn ourselves. There actions are logical aren’t they? They make the excuses we find ourselves making; to stop and help would be dangerous, the mob could still be around, and think of the potential consequences for me and my family. What about the cost to my time I’m busy?
I guess we might console ourselves that we pay our taxes and give to Worldvision or Tearfund, we are not indifferent to need it just that this time… We are more like the Levite and Priest than we find comfortable. The Levite could console himself that he cared for the poor, part of his responsibilities at the temple was giving alms to the poor, and the Priest well he served the sick and ill. They do their bit just not right now.
We also isolate ourselves from the needs around us. It’s easy to live in a isolated cosseted world and not see need. Before we condemn these men we need to ask ourselves if we aren’t living our lives in light of our own answer that question ‘Who is my neighbour?’ Think back to the 3 scenarios, who is your neighbour?
Does my love for God shown in my love for my neighbour have limits?
The question as Jesus tells the story is(37); can you spot the neighbour? We lose the impact of this story because we are so familiar with it. But it is like a BNP campaigner being helped by an asylum seeker, an injured British Soldier in Afghanistan being helped by a Taliban fighter, a Rabbi in Jerusalem being saved by a Palestinian. The word ‘Samaritan’ was used as an insult by the Jews, they were seen as a mongrel race, outsiders not fit for the kingdom, and they worshipped God wrongly. But the Samaritan sees the injured man and how does he respond(33)? He is filled with compassion for him, compassion that touches his heart and activates his hands, compassion that sees him lavish love on this injured man.
He goes to him, bandages his wounds, pours on oil to sooth them and wine to disinfect them. He puts him on his donkey, takes him to an inn where he cares for him overnight. He doesn’t help and run, there is nothing minimalist about his actions. The next morning he pays two days wages, enough for room and board for 24 days and as he leaves emphatically says that when he returns he not the injured man will pay any additional costs.
Jesus question is simple but devastating; “Which of these three do you think was a neighbour to the man…?” Who showed total love for God? Who followed God’s law? The lawyer almost chokes on his answer, he can’t even bring himself to say ‘Samaritan’ but instead says “The one who had mercy on him.”
Go and do likewise, says Jesus. Do you see the challenge for the lawyer? Don’t just know the law but act on it; don’t ask who your neighbour is but love God totally and live it by loving all. By meeting the needs of those around you where those needs are found.
“What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus agrees with the mans answer of fulfilling the law, but in the parable he destroys the notion that the man is capable of doing so. His desire to put limits on who he has to love clearly shows he has not understood, that he cannot meet, God’s standard.
(22)Only in Jesus is the Father revealed, only by knowing Jesus can you know God because only he fulfils the law on our behalf, only he loves the Father like this, only he loves his neighbour like this. Only through the grace and mercy of God in Jesus can we have a relationship with God and having experienced such love we are to live lives marked by it. To love God with all our heart, soul, strength, mind evidenced in loving our neighbours as ourselves, just as our saviour did.
“Go and do likewise.” Is the phenomenally challenging call to discipleship.
Who are the needy? It’s obvious in the parable, but there isn’t someone laying on the road in front of me! We need to open our eyes, step out of our comfort zone. To learn to read the world around us as Jesus did his. To see the elderly struggling with loneliness and isolation or pay their fuel bills.
The single parent struggling with a lack of adult conversation, the constant parenting and pressure of doing everything. To listen to the welter of accents of refugees, asylum seekers and others who need to learn English and are so often shunned by others. To hear the cries of those who labour in child poverty or prostitution and have no advocate.
Will we pray this week ‘God, open my eyes to the needy you have put here for me to show my love for you to?’ We need to be thinking about how we as a church are going to engage in these areas, what needs we can meet and how? How do you start? Look at your family – what needs are there? I think one issue is how we care for our elderly relatives. Look at your church family – Loneliness, money worries, grief, are all around us. Will my love for God be seen in my compassion for others that moves my heart and activates my hands? What about your street or neighbourhood? Are you aware of needs, those struggling with grief, marriages, children, divorce, disability. What about your shopping trolley? Do the products we buy speak of love for God and our neighbours?
We need to repent of the limits we put on our love. We need to come again to the cross, because only the cross will change us. Guilt will see us apply some ointment to calm our troubled conscience – maybe by setting up a direct debit or something. But when we see God’s love for us, for those who were dead and deserved nothing, alienated from him, his enemies, in Christ’s death for us. Only grace will change us because when we see need we will see an opportunity to reveal the love of God, to be like Christ.
This doesn’t replace telling others the gospel but wins a hearing for it. It verifies the reality of the gospel. “Go and do likewise.”
The single parent struggling with a lack of adult conversation, the constant parenting and pressure of doing everything. To listen to the welter of accents of refugees, asylum seekers and others who need to learn English and are so often shunned by others. To hear the cries of those who labour in child poverty or prostitution and have no advocate.
Will we pray this week ‘God, open my eyes to the needy you have put here for me to show my love for you to?’ We need to be thinking about how we as a church are going to engage in these areas, what needs we can meet and how? How do you start? Look at your family – what needs are there? I think one issue is how we care for our elderly relatives. Look at your church family – Loneliness, money worries, grief, are all around us. Will my love for God be seen in my compassion for others that moves my heart and activates my hands? What about your street or neighbourhood? Are you aware of needs, those struggling with grief, marriages, children, divorce, disability. What about your shopping trolley? Do the products we buy speak of love for God and our neighbours?
We need to repent of the limits we put on our love. We need to come again to the cross, because only the cross will change us. Guilt will see us apply some ointment to calm our troubled conscience – maybe by setting up a direct debit or something. But when we see God’s love for us, for those who were dead and deserved nothing, alienated from him, his enemies, in Christ’s death for us. Only grace will change us because when we see need we will see an opportunity to reveal the love of God, to be like Christ.
This doesn’t replace telling others the gospel but wins a hearing for it. It verifies the reality of the gospel. “Go and do likewise.”
Thursday, 17 December 2015
Daily Reading: Luke 10v1-24 'Reason to Rejoice'
(1)Jesus gets the 72 together and sends them out, what is their mission? "to go ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go” They play the role of the get ready guy, they go before and prepare the way. Their message is “[God’s] kingdom has come near to you.” they are to tell people that the long wait is over.
Israel has been waiting for God’s kingdom for hundreds of years, awaiting the fulfilment of the promise, they have been longing for it. And as each king came the question was is this him, is this God’s king, is now the time of the kingdom when we will be God’s people in God’s place enjoying God’s rule? The disciples message is that there are no more sleeps, the long wait is over the king and therefore the kingdom are here. But before they go out with that great news Jesus teaches them first about the nature of that mission.
It is a needy mission(2). As Jesus looks at the nation of Israel what does he see? Ripe harvest fields, but he also sees the workers are few. What happens if the harvest is ready but there is no-one to pick it? It rots and is wasted. The answer is for the disciples to go but also to pray as they go for more workers. There are people looking and longing for God, knowing something is missing, looking for peace with God. And as the disciples go not only will they see people joyfully accept the kingdom but also become workers in the harvest field.
Jesus is not into one man ministry. His is a ministry of multiplication, he starts as 1, then he calls followers, in chapter 9 he sent out 12, now he sends out 72 others, with the prayer that the gospel multiplies. The gospel doesn’t win converts it makes disciples and multiplies workers, labourers, harvesters, ministers.
It’s why our vision statement as a church makes no mention of growing a big church. It says “We exist to equip God’s people to be grace in the community to the glory of God.” That is why church exists, to make, grow, nurture you as followers of Jesus so that you take the message of grace into the world and win disciples because the harvest fields are ready.
Is this a prayer we pray? Notice it is those he sends who pray it, they don’t pray and sit at home waiting for someone else to go. I wonder what excuses pop into your head when we talk about mission, about evangelism. We are good at coming up with excuses not to share the gospel with people. But what if people reject the message or me? Jesus warns the disciples that will happen, expect it he says, but they are not rejecting you but God(16). In fact they are to expect rejection where you expect welcome - in the towns of Israel. Sometimes those we think will welcome the gospel will reject it. But what about the risk? Expect it, Jesus sends the disciples out on a risky mission – “as lambs among wolves”. Neither fear of rejection or risk should stop us.
I’ll wait for someone else to do it or I’ll do it another time? Jesus says the mission is urgent (4)that’s why he tells them not to greet anyone, he isn’t saying be rude, head down charge on, but don’t engage in the traditional long protracted greetings. But they are nice people… It matters because of the consequences(12-16). We need to keep in mind that rejection of the gospel brings judgement, in rejecting the gospel they show that they want no part in the kingdom of God. And here it is towns in Israel who Jesus says are condemned.
There is encouragement, as we engage in mission we do so with the comfort that we can pray to the “Lord of the harvest”. God is sovereign, he rules and reigns even as people accept or reject the great news that they can know God.
The disciple shares Jesus Missional mindset. They know the need, they pray to and trust the Father, they take risks and they go to tell others because they know it matters.
The disciple also shares Jesus wonder at grace and their privilege. One of the questions Luke 9 poses is; is it worth being a disciple? Jesus has made it clear that it is costly(23-37), uncomfortable and uncompromising. Discipleship is hard and we must not hide the cost, but it is a privilege. (17)The disciples come back form their mission and they are full of joy why? “demons submit to us in your name”…
But Jesus corrects their thinking, he shows them that the real reason to rejoice(18-20) is not the submission of demons. Yes their mission is significant, it is part of the overthrow of Satan and the advance of the kingdom Satan has been trying to wipe out through out history. But the real reason to rejoice is their salvation, it is the gift of God by grace, not your ministry success or failure.
Too often we allow our circumstance to dictate how we feel to us. So if my ministry is going well, if my work is going well, if I am doing a good job as a parent or whatever I feel good and I can rejoice. But what about when they aren’t? If how I relate to God is dependent on my performance then I will be devastated and not be able to praise God.
Jesus calls the disciples not to rejoice because of ministry success but because of the grace and love of God. Read the Psalms and you will find it is exactly what the psalmist does again and again in the midst of difficult circumstance he rejoices in the steadfast love of God.
(21-22)Jesus prayer of praise to God is a model of how we rejoice. What does he praise God for? His revealing of the gospel of salvation to those who were not wise or clever. Rejoice in your salvation by grace and recognise your privilege, (23-24)others before you longed for this. The irony is we are even more privileged, we live after the resurrection, we live with the Bible, God’s word, written down and in our hands yet sometimes we long to be back there with the 72.
What do we rejoice in? What do we consider my privileges? The disciple doesn’t just walk like Jesus, he doesn’t just follow Jesus but he thinks like Jesus. Grace in amazing, we have been privileged by the grace of God to be forgiven, redeemed and called to know God and call others to enter into relationship with him and make that privilege know to all.
Israel has been waiting for God’s kingdom for hundreds of years, awaiting the fulfilment of the promise, they have been longing for it. And as each king came the question was is this him, is this God’s king, is now the time of the kingdom when we will be God’s people in God’s place enjoying God’s rule? The disciples message is that there are no more sleeps, the long wait is over the king and therefore the kingdom are here. But before they go out with that great news Jesus teaches them first about the nature of that mission.
It is a needy mission(2). As Jesus looks at the nation of Israel what does he see? Ripe harvest fields, but he also sees the workers are few. What happens if the harvest is ready but there is no-one to pick it? It rots and is wasted. The answer is for the disciples to go but also to pray as they go for more workers. There are people looking and longing for God, knowing something is missing, looking for peace with God. And as the disciples go not only will they see people joyfully accept the kingdom but also become workers in the harvest field.
Jesus is not into one man ministry. His is a ministry of multiplication, he starts as 1, then he calls followers, in chapter 9 he sent out 12, now he sends out 72 others, with the prayer that the gospel multiplies. The gospel doesn’t win converts it makes disciples and multiplies workers, labourers, harvesters, ministers.
It’s why our vision statement as a church makes no mention of growing a big church. It says “We exist to equip God’s people to be grace in the community to the glory of God.” That is why church exists, to make, grow, nurture you as followers of Jesus so that you take the message of grace into the world and win disciples because the harvest fields are ready.
Is this a prayer we pray? Notice it is those he sends who pray it, they don’t pray and sit at home waiting for someone else to go. I wonder what excuses pop into your head when we talk about mission, about evangelism. We are good at coming up with excuses not to share the gospel with people. But what if people reject the message or me? Jesus warns the disciples that will happen, expect it he says, but they are not rejecting you but God(16). In fact they are to expect rejection where you expect welcome - in the towns of Israel. Sometimes those we think will welcome the gospel will reject it. But what about the risk? Expect it, Jesus sends the disciples out on a risky mission – “as lambs among wolves”. Neither fear of rejection or risk should stop us.
I’ll wait for someone else to do it or I’ll do it another time? Jesus says the mission is urgent (4)that’s why he tells them not to greet anyone, he isn’t saying be rude, head down charge on, but don’t engage in the traditional long protracted greetings. But they are nice people… It matters because of the consequences(12-16). We need to keep in mind that rejection of the gospel brings judgement, in rejecting the gospel they show that they want no part in the kingdom of God. And here it is towns in Israel who Jesus says are condemned.
There is encouragement, as we engage in mission we do so with the comfort that we can pray to the “Lord of the harvest”. God is sovereign, he rules and reigns even as people accept or reject the great news that they can know God.
The disciple shares Jesus Missional mindset. They know the need, they pray to and trust the Father, they take risks and they go to tell others because they know it matters.
The disciple also shares Jesus wonder at grace and their privilege. One of the questions Luke 9 poses is; is it worth being a disciple? Jesus has made it clear that it is costly(23-37), uncomfortable and uncompromising. Discipleship is hard and we must not hide the cost, but it is a privilege. (17)The disciples come back form their mission and they are full of joy why? “demons submit to us in your name”…
But Jesus corrects their thinking, he shows them that the real reason to rejoice(18-20) is not the submission of demons. Yes their mission is significant, it is part of the overthrow of Satan and the advance of the kingdom Satan has been trying to wipe out through out history. But the real reason to rejoice is their salvation, it is the gift of God by grace, not your ministry success or failure.
Too often we allow our circumstance to dictate how we feel to us. So if my ministry is going well, if my work is going well, if I am doing a good job as a parent or whatever I feel good and I can rejoice. But what about when they aren’t? If how I relate to God is dependent on my performance then I will be devastated and not be able to praise God.
Jesus calls the disciples not to rejoice because of ministry success but because of the grace and love of God. Read the Psalms and you will find it is exactly what the psalmist does again and again in the midst of difficult circumstance he rejoices in the steadfast love of God.
(21-22)Jesus prayer of praise to God is a model of how we rejoice. What does he praise God for? His revealing of the gospel of salvation to those who were not wise or clever. Rejoice in your salvation by grace and recognise your privilege, (23-24)others before you longed for this. The irony is we are even more privileged, we live after the resurrection, we live with the Bible, God’s word, written down and in our hands yet sometimes we long to be back there with the 72.
What do we rejoice in? What do we consider my privileges? The disciple doesn’t just walk like Jesus, he doesn’t just follow Jesus but he thinks like Jesus. Grace in amazing, we have been privileged by the grace of God to be forgiven, redeemed and called to know God and call others to enter into relationship with him and make that privilege know to all.
Wednesday, 16 December 2015
Daily Reading: Luke 9v37-62 'Dithering discipleship'
Can you imagine how the disciples felt as they came down from the mountain? Imagine the high of seeing Jesus in his glory. What will happen now, surely it will be glory all the way. But when they get down the mountain they are brought down to earth with a bump. The next section of incidents are almost a montage of the disciples failures.
In the first incident, the big question in v41 is who is Jesus speaking to the crowd or the disciples? Who does he rebuke and why? I wonder if Jesus is addressing both the crowd and the disciples. The disciples have manifested their lack of faith in their failure to cast out this evil spirit, but Jesus will once again show them his glory, what they cannot do he will do. It is Jesus glory that this incident shows to the amazement of the crowd. Jesus is God revealing his glory.
Whilst they are still thinking about this incident Jesus teaches them that his glory will be made most manifest as he goes to the cross (v44). Luke emphasises that the disciples do not understand what Jesus is saying in both verse 45 and the incident following as the disciples argue over who is the greatest. As Jesus reveals that he is God made man in all his glory and that he will go to the cross, the disciples are arguing about which of them is the greatest. Jesus uses an object lesson as he stands a little child in front of them. Greatness in the kingdom is dramatically different, it is achieved through humility and serving of others.
But it will face opposition. Jesus knows and experiences that as he goes through a Samaritan village on his way to Jerusalem. The people reject him because of where he is going, he is determined to reach Jerusalem even knowing what it means for him. Yet again we see the disciples wrong reactions, as James and John ask if they should call down destruction on the city. They are right in one sense that rejection of Jesus is grounds enough for judgement, but they are swift to judge unlike Jesus, who rebukes them.
Finally Jesus teaches them about the cost of following him. It is hard not easy or comfortable. It makes Jesus the disciples number one priority, anything less is to fail to really grasp who he is.
The various pictures we are given of the disciples here show us how much they have yet to grasp about who Jesus is and what it means to follow him. But above all they serve to highlight the grace of Jesus, he will go to the cross to die for his followers, including these men. Grace is the reason we relate to God rightly not our record and that will always be the case. Don't be quick to look down on the disciples rather take time to identify with them.
In the first incident, the big question in v41 is who is Jesus speaking to the crowd or the disciples? Who does he rebuke and why? I wonder if Jesus is addressing both the crowd and the disciples. The disciples have manifested their lack of faith in their failure to cast out this evil spirit, but Jesus will once again show them his glory, what they cannot do he will do. It is Jesus glory that this incident shows to the amazement of the crowd. Jesus is God revealing his glory.
Whilst they are still thinking about this incident Jesus teaches them that his glory will be made most manifest as he goes to the cross (v44). Luke emphasises that the disciples do not understand what Jesus is saying in both verse 45 and the incident following as the disciples argue over who is the greatest. As Jesus reveals that he is God made man in all his glory and that he will go to the cross, the disciples are arguing about which of them is the greatest. Jesus uses an object lesson as he stands a little child in front of them. Greatness in the kingdom is dramatically different, it is achieved through humility and serving of others.
But it will face opposition. Jesus knows and experiences that as he goes through a Samaritan village on his way to Jerusalem. The people reject him because of where he is going, he is determined to reach Jerusalem even knowing what it means for him. Yet again we see the disciples wrong reactions, as James and John ask if they should call down destruction on the city. They are right in one sense that rejection of Jesus is grounds enough for judgement, but they are swift to judge unlike Jesus, who rebukes them.
Finally Jesus teaches them about the cost of following him. It is hard not easy or comfortable. It makes Jesus the disciples number one priority, anything less is to fail to really grasp who he is.
The various pictures we are given of the disciples here show us how much they have yet to grasp about who Jesus is and what it means to follow him. But above all they serve to highlight the grace of Jesus, he will go to the cross to die for his followers, including these men. Grace is the reason we relate to God rightly not our record and that will always be the case. Don't be quick to look down on the disciples rather take time to identify with them.
Tuesday, 15 December 2015
Daily Reading: Luke 9v28-36 'Glimpsing Glory'
At the end of the book of Deuteronomy Moses dies on Mount Nebo, able to see into the Promised Land but not to reach it, he dies looking for the promise to be fulfilled, trusting that God is going to provide. Luke 9 is the next time we see Moses.
The big question for Luke in the last few chapters has been; ‘who is Jesus?’ But there is another question that we need to ask; why does it matter? What difference does it make?
If Jesus isn’t God’s Messiah, if Peter was wrong then the crowds are right and he’s just another prophet. Worth listening to but not worth denying yourself, carrying your cross and dying for. If he isn’t the Messiah then the resurrection is a fairy tale. If he isn’t the Messiah then the church and its message is a fraud. If Jesus isn’t God’s Messiah then there’s no salvation and we’re still under God’s judgement for our rebellion against him and we face a lost eternity.
This question is the most fundamentally important, the most potentially life changing, question we will ever have to face and answer. Luke in recording the conversation between Jesus and the disciples shows three things: 1. Jesus is the Messiah(20), 2. he must suffer, be rejected and die(22), and 3. he would rise and come in glory(26). Here in v28-36 God affirms that each of those statements are correct as they see Jesus glory(29), hear of his suffering and death(31) and hear God’s testimony that Jesus is the Messiah(35).
Peter has just made his confession that Jesus is “God’s Messiah”, but unexpectedly rather than being met by a well done they are told to keep quiet and that Jesus will be rejected, suffer and die, and that his life establishes the pattern of discipleship. You can imagine they were a bit bewildered.
But now they see the reality of Jesus authority and reign, they’re given a glimpse of the glory of the kingdom of God(27) and of the son as he takes them up on a mountain to pray(29). It is a splendour associated with God ruling in his throne room. It’s as if for a few moments the veil of his humanity, his incarnation, is lifted so they can see divine reality. Something that is helpful for us to focus on as we approach Christmas.
It’s like the moment at a wedding where the bride’s veil is lifted and everyone can see how beautiful she looks, how radiant and happy. Jesus veil is lifted and his glory is revealed and it provides reassurance and encouragement for the disciples, but it doesn’t stop there.
(30)Moses and Elijah appear and talk with Jesus. Why Moses and Elijah? They are significant figures in Israel’s history. Moses is the prophet and mediator between the people and God who leads Israel out of Egypt and slavery and to the mountain where God’s redeemed people are taught how to live in the light of their salvation. And Elijah in the New Testament is the prophet associated with the end times and God’s coming kingdom rule and reign.
Moses is a reminder of the past and Elijah a pointer to the future, and both these two figures come and talk to Jesus who is the fulfilment of all these things(31). What do they talk about? “his departure”, look at the footnotes it tells you that the word is exodus. The exodus is the great salvation event of the Old Testament as God redeemed his people through the blood of the Passover lamb and brought them out from slavery so that they could worship him.
How would Jesus bring about an exodus? Through what he is going to do at Jerusalem. It’s a link back to(22) it is what Jesus sets himself to do in (51)as he “resolutely set out for Jerusalem”. Jesus, the glorious Son, God’s Messiah by his rejection, suffering, death and resurrection will gather a blood bought and forgiven people to himself who will worship God.
As if that wasn’t enough (34-35)God himself adds his testimony as to who Jesus is. The cloud is a sign of God’s presence throughout the Old Testament and it is from the cloud that God speaks “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.”
God authenticates Peter’s conclusion. Where have we heard those words before? God repeats his assertion at Jesus baptism that Jesus is his Son, and it is also a reference back to Psalm 2v7 and identifies Jesus as his Messianic King, who will inherit the nations and will judge, and is therefore to be served.
How else does God identify Jesus? “I have chosen…”. But chosen for what? It’s another loaded Old Testament term. In Isaiah 42 the servant of the Lord is identified as God’s
“ chosen one in whom I delight;
I will put my Spirit on him,
and he will bring justice to the nations.”
It is the same servant who Isaiah 53 describes:
“He was despised and rejected by others,
a man of suffering, and familiar with pain…
…he was piereced for our transgressions,
crushed for our iniquities…”
Jesus is God’s Son, the chosen one, he is the one whom the Old Testament points to, who Moses and Elijah have been longing to see and who the future flows from. He is the pivotal moment in history. He is God’s Messiah and his rejection, suffering and death are part of God’s plan of salvation, the only way to gather a redeemed people who will worship God rightly. Jesus rejection and death are no accident, he is not the helpless victim of circumstance. This is God’s son willingly obeying the Father’s will, laying aside his glory for a little while to seek, save, redeem and gather a people to worship God.
The Right Response of the Disciple
How do the disciples respond? Peter wants to build 3 shelters, they are afraid, and finally they are quiet.
Luke tells us that Peter “did not know what he was saying.” In other words Peter didn’t know how to respond. I always find the disciples mistakes an encouragement, not in the way the world revels in the failure of others because it makes us look better. But just because I’m so like them, if I had the same experience I’d probably want to stay there or commemorate it too. In our culture we’d probably have asked for Moses and Elijah’s autograph, or whipped out our camera phone for a quick ‘selfie’ and post it on Facebook!
But God immediately breaks in and he tells the disciples how they ought to respond. God gives his testimony to the uniqueness of Christ; he alone is God’s Son and Saviour. He is greater than Moses and Elijah, revered characters in Israel’s history, he is unique, and he will do something they never could.
We must not think differently from God. Jesus is not one way among many of relating to God rightly. He is not just another prophet he alone is God’s Son and Saviour. It is not politically correct, it does not sit comfortably with our multicultural society but it is what God reveals to us. We must tell those of other faiths that Jesus is not just another prophet, he is not equal to Mohammed, or John Smith, or Guru Nanak. He alone saves.
Now that doesn’t mean we don’t respect other faiths, in Acts we see the gospels clash with Judaism, paganism and Emperor worship, and what marks out the disciples is the way they reason, explain, and dialogue with people. Yet they do so without compromising on the truth and uniqueness of Jesus Christ. People will not see the uniqueness of Christ unless the truth is presented to them in its uncompromising honesty but with his winsome love.
Secondly notice God’s application of this truth to Peter, James and John. What does he tell them to do? “listen to him.” To listen means to hear and act, to put his words into practice. It takes you back to the image of the two builders from Luke 6 one who builds on the sand and the other who builds on the rock. What is that story teaching, the need to listen careful and build your life on Jesus words. What is my life based on? Is it based on my hunches? Is it based on my logic? Or is it based on Jesus teaching?
Ch9-19 are teaching for the disciples, he teaches them about the cost of following him, about the disciples love for others, about their priorities, about how and what they pray for, about what not to love, about what the disciples concerns are, what they live for and so on. Will we listen? You will listen not just if you are here Sunday by Sunday but if you put his words into practice, if they will change you.
If we want to really listen to him, we will want to work this out, home groups help with that, it’s somewhere you can open up about your struggles to apply Jesus words to your life. If you haven’t been for a while why not resolve to go this morning and tell someone from your group you will be there.
Jesus is God’s Messiah, he is the one who by his suffering, death and resurrection brings lost people back to God with their sins forgiven so that they can live worshipping him. Worshipping him by listening to his words and putting them into action.
The big question for Luke in the last few chapters has been; ‘who is Jesus?’ But there is another question that we need to ask; why does it matter? What difference does it make?
If Jesus isn’t God’s Messiah, if Peter was wrong then the crowds are right and he’s just another prophet. Worth listening to but not worth denying yourself, carrying your cross and dying for. If he isn’t the Messiah then the resurrection is a fairy tale. If he isn’t the Messiah then the church and its message is a fraud. If Jesus isn’t God’s Messiah then there’s no salvation and we’re still under God’s judgement for our rebellion against him and we face a lost eternity.
This question is the most fundamentally important, the most potentially life changing, question we will ever have to face and answer. Luke in recording the conversation between Jesus and the disciples shows three things: 1. Jesus is the Messiah(20), 2. he must suffer, be rejected and die(22), and 3. he would rise and come in glory(26). Here in v28-36 God affirms that each of those statements are correct as they see Jesus glory(29), hear of his suffering and death(31) and hear God’s testimony that Jesus is the Messiah(35).
Peter has just made his confession that Jesus is “God’s Messiah”, but unexpectedly rather than being met by a well done they are told to keep quiet and that Jesus will be rejected, suffer and die, and that his life establishes the pattern of discipleship. You can imagine they were a bit bewildered.
But now they see the reality of Jesus authority and reign, they’re given a glimpse of the glory of the kingdom of God(27) and of the son as he takes them up on a mountain to pray(29). It is a splendour associated with God ruling in his throne room. It’s as if for a few moments the veil of his humanity, his incarnation, is lifted so they can see divine reality. Something that is helpful for us to focus on as we approach Christmas.
It’s like the moment at a wedding where the bride’s veil is lifted and everyone can see how beautiful she looks, how radiant and happy. Jesus veil is lifted and his glory is revealed and it provides reassurance and encouragement for the disciples, but it doesn’t stop there.
(30)Moses and Elijah appear and talk with Jesus. Why Moses and Elijah? They are significant figures in Israel’s history. Moses is the prophet and mediator between the people and God who leads Israel out of Egypt and slavery and to the mountain where God’s redeemed people are taught how to live in the light of their salvation. And Elijah in the New Testament is the prophet associated with the end times and God’s coming kingdom rule and reign.
Moses is a reminder of the past and Elijah a pointer to the future, and both these two figures come and talk to Jesus who is the fulfilment of all these things(31). What do they talk about? “his departure”, look at the footnotes it tells you that the word is exodus. The exodus is the great salvation event of the Old Testament as God redeemed his people through the blood of the Passover lamb and brought them out from slavery so that they could worship him.
How would Jesus bring about an exodus? Through what he is going to do at Jerusalem. It’s a link back to(22) it is what Jesus sets himself to do in (51)as he “resolutely set out for Jerusalem”. Jesus, the glorious Son, God’s Messiah by his rejection, suffering, death and resurrection will gather a blood bought and forgiven people to himself who will worship God.
It is the purpose of his veiling, his incarnation and as that veil is lifted they see the glory of the one who will secure for his people their exodus from sin and judgement and slavery to life lived as God's people in God's place delighting in his rule.
As if that wasn’t enough (34-35)God himself adds his testimony as to who Jesus is. The cloud is a sign of God’s presence throughout the Old Testament and it is from the cloud that God speaks “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.”
God authenticates Peter’s conclusion. Where have we heard those words before? God repeats his assertion at Jesus baptism that Jesus is his Son, and it is also a reference back to Psalm 2v7 and identifies Jesus as his Messianic King, who will inherit the nations and will judge, and is therefore to be served.
How else does God identify Jesus? “I have chosen…”. But chosen for what? It’s another loaded Old Testament term. In Isaiah 42 the servant of the Lord is identified as God’s
“ chosen one in whom I delight;
I will put my Spirit on him,
and he will bring justice to the nations.”
It is the same servant who Isaiah 53 describes:
“He was despised and rejected by others,
a man of suffering, and familiar with pain…
…he was piereced for our transgressions,
crushed for our iniquities…”
Jesus is God’s Son, the chosen one, he is the one whom the Old Testament points to, who Moses and Elijah have been longing to see and who the future flows from. He is the pivotal moment in history. He is God’s Messiah and his rejection, suffering and death are part of God’s plan of salvation, the only way to gather a redeemed people who will worship God rightly. Jesus rejection and death are no accident, he is not the helpless victim of circumstance. This is God’s son willingly obeying the Father’s will, laying aside his glory for a little while to seek, save, redeem and gather a people to worship God.
The Right Response of the Disciple
How do the disciples respond? Peter wants to build 3 shelters, they are afraid, and finally they are quiet.
Luke tells us that Peter “did not know what he was saying.” In other words Peter didn’t know how to respond. I always find the disciples mistakes an encouragement, not in the way the world revels in the failure of others because it makes us look better. But just because I’m so like them, if I had the same experience I’d probably want to stay there or commemorate it too. In our culture we’d probably have asked for Moses and Elijah’s autograph, or whipped out our camera phone for a quick ‘selfie’ and post it on Facebook!
But God immediately breaks in and he tells the disciples how they ought to respond. God gives his testimony to the uniqueness of Christ; he alone is God’s Son and Saviour. He is greater than Moses and Elijah, revered characters in Israel’s history, he is unique, and he will do something they never could.
We must not think differently from God. Jesus is not one way among many of relating to God rightly. He is not just another prophet he alone is God’s Son and Saviour. It is not politically correct, it does not sit comfortably with our multicultural society but it is what God reveals to us. We must tell those of other faiths that Jesus is not just another prophet, he is not equal to Mohammed, or John Smith, or Guru Nanak. He alone saves.
Now that doesn’t mean we don’t respect other faiths, in Acts we see the gospels clash with Judaism, paganism and Emperor worship, and what marks out the disciples is the way they reason, explain, and dialogue with people. Yet they do so without compromising on the truth and uniqueness of Jesus Christ. People will not see the uniqueness of Christ unless the truth is presented to them in its uncompromising honesty but with his winsome love.
Secondly notice God’s application of this truth to Peter, James and John. What does he tell them to do? “listen to him.” To listen means to hear and act, to put his words into practice. It takes you back to the image of the two builders from Luke 6 one who builds on the sand and the other who builds on the rock. What is that story teaching, the need to listen careful and build your life on Jesus words. What is my life based on? Is it based on my hunches? Is it based on my logic? Or is it based on Jesus teaching?
Ch9-19 are teaching for the disciples, he teaches them about the cost of following him, about the disciples love for others, about their priorities, about how and what they pray for, about what not to love, about what the disciples concerns are, what they live for and so on. Will we listen? You will listen not just if you are here Sunday by Sunday but if you put his words into practice, if they will change you.
If we want to really listen to him, we will want to work this out, home groups help with that, it’s somewhere you can open up about your struggles to apply Jesus words to your life. If you haven’t been for a while why not resolve to go this morning and tell someone from your group you will be there.
Jesus is God’s Messiah, he is the one who by his suffering, death and resurrection brings lost people back to God with their sins forgiven so that they can live worshipping him. Worshipping him by listening to his words and putting them into action.
Monday, 14 December 2015
Daily Reading: Luke 9v18-27 'The Disciple's Decision'
Verse 20 Is one of Luke’s cliff-hanger moments. Do you feel the tension as Jesus turns to his closest friends, those who he has mentored, who he is planning to build the church around, who he hopes to entrust the good news all the world needs to hear to, and asks them; “Who do you say I am?” Can you feel the tension; what will they say, what answer will they give? Others have been saying he is a prophet, but now they are on the spot what about you?
And Peter the group spokesman gets it right “God’s Messiah”. What would you expect verse 21 to say as Jesus responds? ‘ Jesus smiled and said brilliant God has revealed this to you, now we can really start telling people, I know you are just back from mission boys but lets go again…’ But he doesn’t! What does it say? “Jesus strictly warned them not to tell this to anyone.” Why?
The problem is this gap between their expectations and reality. Peter’s response carries with it Davidic and Royal connotations. Acts 1:6 gives us a glimpse of their expectations; “at this time are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” Do you see the expectation: the Messiah, God’s promised rescuer is a nationalistic saviour, its all about Israel, it is all about immediate rule and rescue from physical enemies.
But(22) Jesus shows them reality, God’s unexpected plan for his anointed King. It involves suffering not victory, rejection not acceptance, and death not coronation. Do you see the gulf between their expectations of a glorious Messianic rescue and rule and the reality of God’s salvation plan? That is why they are not to tell anyone yet.
Have we got our view of Jesus right? He isn’t just a prophet, he is God’s enfleshed, anointed and willing to be rejected, suffer and die to bring about our rescue. He is the one seen throughout the pages of the Old Testament; the promised one who saves and delivers through suffering and death. He is the serpent crusher, the true Passover lamb, the perfect sacrifice for sin, God come to his temple, and the suffering servant who takes away the sin of the world.
And he willingly, knowing what was to come does what is necessary to restore us to God. His rejection, suffering and death show us the true horror of our sin and the nature of the judgement we were under. And it reveals to us the depth of God’s love and grace to us.
Jesus then teaches his disciples what it will mean for them to follow him. And he begins by giving them three commands (23). They are the marks of discipleship, they are not optional extras, notice the word he uses “whoever wants to be my disciple must…” This isn’t like the air conditioning or climate control on your car; this isn’t even like the radio or CD player, optional extras. This is the very thing that makes the disciple a disciple. The disciple must a. deny themselves, b. take up their cross and c. follow him.
We live in a world that is all about me; it is about having what I want when I want it. Where the cry is be good to yourself, be a better you. But Jesus calls the disciples to something radically different, the disciple is not to be enslaved to themselves, instead they deny themselves and take up their cross.
The image is that of a criminal convicted of a serious crime being made to carry their cross through the streets of the city to the site of their execution. They were forced to do it to show everyone that their rebellion was at an end and they now submitted to the state. Jesus takes this powerful and distasteful image and uses it as a picture of discipleship. The disciple carries their cross showing they are no longer rebelling against God but live submitted to him. It is his will not theirs that matters. When do they do it? Daily. It’s the question the disciple asks and answers every morning – Today will I live calling the shots or obeying God?
And the third command is to follow the pattern that Jesus sets, the pattern of (22)rejection, suffering, and death. How can you live like that? Only when you see Jesus is God’s promised deliverer and the cost of that rescue. In the remaining verses Jesus sets up some contrasts and they pose two questions of the would be disciple. (24-25)What do we value? Is it ease and life now or salvation and life in eternity? (26)What are we scared of? Is it the rejection of my friends, family, and colleagues or is it rejection by God?
How you answer those questions determines whether you will be his disciple – What do I value? What am I scared of?
Maybe that is you, you’ve heard the gospel, and you know it is true but you will not take that step of standing for it. You don’t want the rejection that might come, you don’t want suffering and you certainly don’t want to die. It is not what you say you are you are, it is what you are you are. You are not a disciple if you say you follow Jesus, you are a disciple if you follow Jesus and these verses show that it is uncomfortable and uncompromising. You need to decide; who is Jesus and will I follow him?
Perhaps you have trusted Jesus but you are aware this week there have been times when you haven’t picked up your cross, other times when you put it down because carrying it would be too hard. We are not saved by performance but by grace, forgiveness is found at the cross. But what will this look like? (24)Jesus says following him brings death, suffering, rejection and it does, every one of the 12 bar one dies a premature death, and he probably dies on a penal colony for his faith. But we don’t live in a physical persecution culture, so what does it mean today?
The world hasn’t changed, discipleship means to live life with God’s goals and under his rules following the pattern set by Jesus Christ, not conforming to the world. I wonder what you think the biggest danger you face is? Is it terrorism, a virus, antibiotic resistance, is it the rise of far right political parties, is it recession. As I have asked myself that question this week the answer is none of those, the answer is materialism.
Materialism is the pursuit of power, independence, comfort and security, and it is the biggest threat to our discipleship. And the world calls us to pursue it. How do you know if it’s a threat? Ask yourself - what are your dreams for your children? Is it for them to be a doctor, to have a nice house, to have a nice family, to be comfortable so that you don’t have to worry about them? Or is it for them to serve God no matter what? Or maybe it is to ask ourselves where we see ourselves in 5 years time; is our answer couched in terms of bigger house, better job, nicer car, or is it to have seen friends and family come to Christ?
To follow Jesus is to renounce the pursuit of power, independence, comfort and security, and it is to prioritise and take risks for and with the gospel. It will affect our careers – it may mean saying no to a promotion because it will stop us playing an active role in the church. It may mean not moving house because that would take us away from a community God wants us to reach. It will affect the way we use our money – we are given it by God to use for his glory not our ease.
How can we live like this? (22)Jesus knows that at the end is resurrection and with his resurrection will come his reign. Heb 12:2 “For the joy that was set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Jesus was future focused, he looked for the day when he would have accomplished his mission and would be welcomed home by God to reign and rule.
How do we live like this now? How do we deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow him? By following him who for the joy set before him endured the cross. (26-27)Jesus ends by fixing the disciples eyes on his coming. Are your eyes fixed on his coming? Are your expectations right; suffering, rejection and death now but glory and welcome then?
And Peter the group spokesman gets it right “God’s Messiah”. What would you expect verse 21 to say as Jesus responds? ‘ Jesus smiled and said brilliant God has revealed this to you, now we can really start telling people, I know you are just back from mission boys but lets go again…’ But he doesn’t! What does it say? “Jesus strictly warned them not to tell this to anyone.” Why?
The problem is this gap between their expectations and reality. Peter’s response carries with it Davidic and Royal connotations. Acts 1:6 gives us a glimpse of their expectations; “at this time are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” Do you see the expectation: the Messiah, God’s promised rescuer is a nationalistic saviour, its all about Israel, it is all about immediate rule and rescue from physical enemies.
But(22) Jesus shows them reality, God’s unexpected plan for his anointed King. It involves suffering not victory, rejection not acceptance, and death not coronation. Do you see the gulf between their expectations of a glorious Messianic rescue and rule and the reality of God’s salvation plan? That is why they are not to tell anyone yet.
Have we got our view of Jesus right? He isn’t just a prophet, he is God’s enfleshed, anointed and willing to be rejected, suffer and die to bring about our rescue. He is the one seen throughout the pages of the Old Testament; the promised one who saves and delivers through suffering and death. He is the serpent crusher, the true Passover lamb, the perfect sacrifice for sin, God come to his temple, and the suffering servant who takes away the sin of the world.
And he willingly, knowing what was to come does what is necessary to restore us to God. His rejection, suffering and death show us the true horror of our sin and the nature of the judgement we were under. And it reveals to us the depth of God’s love and grace to us.
Jesus then teaches his disciples what it will mean for them to follow him. And he begins by giving them three commands (23). They are the marks of discipleship, they are not optional extras, notice the word he uses “whoever wants to be my disciple must…” This isn’t like the air conditioning or climate control on your car; this isn’t even like the radio or CD player, optional extras. This is the very thing that makes the disciple a disciple. The disciple must a. deny themselves, b. take up their cross and c. follow him.
We live in a world that is all about me; it is about having what I want when I want it. Where the cry is be good to yourself, be a better you. But Jesus calls the disciples to something radically different, the disciple is not to be enslaved to themselves, instead they deny themselves and take up their cross.
The image is that of a criminal convicted of a serious crime being made to carry their cross through the streets of the city to the site of their execution. They were forced to do it to show everyone that their rebellion was at an end and they now submitted to the state. Jesus takes this powerful and distasteful image and uses it as a picture of discipleship. The disciple carries their cross showing they are no longer rebelling against God but live submitted to him. It is his will not theirs that matters. When do they do it? Daily. It’s the question the disciple asks and answers every morning – Today will I live calling the shots or obeying God?
And the third command is to follow the pattern that Jesus sets, the pattern of (22)rejection, suffering, and death. How can you live like that? Only when you see Jesus is God’s promised deliverer and the cost of that rescue. In the remaining verses Jesus sets up some contrasts and they pose two questions of the would be disciple. (24-25)What do we value? Is it ease and life now or salvation and life in eternity? (26)What are we scared of? Is it the rejection of my friends, family, and colleagues or is it rejection by God?
How you answer those questions determines whether you will be his disciple – What do I value? What am I scared of?
Maybe that is you, you’ve heard the gospel, and you know it is true but you will not take that step of standing for it. You don’t want the rejection that might come, you don’t want suffering and you certainly don’t want to die. It is not what you say you are you are, it is what you are you are. You are not a disciple if you say you follow Jesus, you are a disciple if you follow Jesus and these verses show that it is uncomfortable and uncompromising. You need to decide; who is Jesus and will I follow him?
Perhaps you have trusted Jesus but you are aware this week there have been times when you haven’t picked up your cross, other times when you put it down because carrying it would be too hard. We are not saved by performance but by grace, forgiveness is found at the cross. But what will this look like? (24)Jesus says following him brings death, suffering, rejection and it does, every one of the 12 bar one dies a premature death, and he probably dies on a penal colony for his faith. But we don’t live in a physical persecution culture, so what does it mean today?
The world hasn’t changed, discipleship means to live life with God’s goals and under his rules following the pattern set by Jesus Christ, not conforming to the world. I wonder what you think the biggest danger you face is? Is it terrorism, a virus, antibiotic resistance, is it the rise of far right political parties, is it recession. As I have asked myself that question this week the answer is none of those, the answer is materialism.
Materialism is the pursuit of power, independence, comfort and security, and it is the biggest threat to our discipleship. And the world calls us to pursue it. How do you know if it’s a threat? Ask yourself - what are your dreams for your children? Is it for them to be a doctor, to have a nice house, to have a nice family, to be comfortable so that you don’t have to worry about them? Or is it for them to serve God no matter what? Or maybe it is to ask ourselves where we see ourselves in 5 years time; is our answer couched in terms of bigger house, better job, nicer car, or is it to have seen friends and family come to Christ?
To follow Jesus is to renounce the pursuit of power, independence, comfort and security, and it is to prioritise and take risks for and with the gospel. It will affect our careers – it may mean saying no to a promotion because it will stop us playing an active role in the church. It may mean not moving house because that would take us away from a community God wants us to reach. It will affect the way we use our money – we are given it by God to use for his glory not our ease.
How can we live like this? (22)Jesus knows that at the end is resurrection and with his resurrection will come his reign. Heb 12:2 “For the joy that was set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Jesus was future focused, he looked for the day when he would have accomplished his mission and would be welcomed home by God to reign and rule.
How do we live like this now? How do we deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow him? By following him who for the joy set before him endured the cross. (26-27)Jesus ends by fixing the disciples eyes on his coming. Are your eyes fixed on his coming? Are your expectations right; suffering, rejection and death now but glory and welcome then?
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