Haggai 1v1-15 - Mind the Gap

What does normal Christian life look like for you?  What do we just take for granted or assume is the norm?  Are there things which we assume are normal which really shouldn't be?

Haggai chapter 1 poses two big questions for us: 1. Is what we think of as normal really normal? 2. Do we have a glory gap?

Is what we think of as normal really normal?

When God’s word comes to Haggai Israel have been back in the land for how long? 18 years. In 538 B.C. about 50,000 Jews returned and enthusiastically began rebuilding the destroyed city. But – Ezra in his history tells us - the sheer scale of the job, opposition and hardship gradually slowed everything down, until final work on rebuilding the temple ground to a stop. As Haggai opens the temple remains a ruin. And gradually day by day, week by week, month by month, year by year that has just become normal for God’s people. It’s now 520 B.C. and they walk past the temple ruins everyday without batting an eyelid. They just don’t see it anymore, the house of God in ruins is normal, just part of the landscape.

It’s the way we work. When we see something for the first time we’re amazed by it. Then gradually as we see it everyday it becomes familiar, until we just don’t think of it as significant anymore. It’s happens with the new wallpaper, or a new car, or a building, or a ruin. Think about it in the UK, we are no different are we, we walk past ruined or boarded up or churches converted to carpet shops, clubs and Mosques and don’t even blink.

But God sends Haggai to wake up a complacent people, to show them that what they have begun to think of as normal must not be normality. Israel should not be in the land God gave them without a temple. They should not be able to walk down the road without stopping and praying and determining to do something about the temple. God’s presence is what set Israel apart from the nations around about them. The temple was the sign of God’s presence. It was a physical reminder that God hears prayer, brings grace, and forgives sin. It was the political and religious and social centre of life for God’s people. Or it should have been, but it had been left in ruins because they had gotten used to life without it. The abnormal had gradually become the new normal, and the temple and God was forgotten.

Is what we think of as normal really normal? When you think about the UK what have we complacently just accepted as the way it is? I can’t help thinking that we’ve just accepted the protected place of Christianity as normal. That’s seen in our shock at the increasing pressure we face as Christians living out our faith. Our freedom has quickly been eroded and it’s as if we’ve been caught by surprise. But what is biblical normality? John 15v20 “Remember the words that I said to you: A servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.” John 17v14 “I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.” That is biblically normal Christianity. Has living in this bubble of Christendom just lulled us into a false sense of security, a wrong headed idea of normality so that we are so shocked that we are in danger of failing to stand in the coming storm? So that when we experience opposition or rejection we find ourselves wondering what we did wrong rather than expecting the gospel to offend.

What about for you as a church? Where might you be settling for a normality that isn’t normal? Are we settling for comfort rather than stretching to reach the lost? Is our normal a cosiness that avoids speaking the truth in love to one another, avoids challenging sin? Or that settles for being thought well of as we engage in reaching our community rather than seeing the lost won and risking the offence of the gospel? Or that settles for middle class values rather than gospel values?

What about individually? What has become normal that just shouldn’t be? A prayerless life? Weeks without sitting down to listen to God speak to me in his word? A creeping cowardice that means we won’t dare to talk about Jesus with family or friends or colleagues? A defeatist acceptance of repeated failings with the same sin that means we just accept it as sad but inevitable and so no longer fight it?

Haggai asks us to stop and look at our normal, and ask is it really what God calls normal for his people? Where have we accepted things that just should not be? Where are we in denial of Biblical reality or all that God has made and calls us to enjoy as his people redeemed, adopted and blessed in Christ and empowered and filled with the Holy Spirit himself.

Do we have a glory gap?

God speaks to his people through Haggai, first to the leaders(2-3), “Thus says the LORD of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the LORD.” God knows that they have stopped building the temple and won’t restart it again, and God wants the leaders to know and to lead. God knows the excuses the people have given. You can imagine the conversations ‘It wasn’t time to rebuild yet because of the opposition, when things quieten down’, ‘the time isn’t right we’re just too busy with the kids’, ‘there’s this and that that needs doing at home’, ‘Me, but I’m sure there’s someone more gifted at building than me’. Maybe the issue was disposable income, after all the economy has taken a downturn(6) and we never have enough. Perhaps they were waiting for a clear sign from God that this is what he wanted them to do?

Whatever the excuses were, God is dismissive of them in the contrast he makes. “Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your panelled houses, while this house lies in ruins?” All your excuses and yet you’ve been able to find the time, energy and money to build ornate, fancy houses for yourself. God’s house is a ruin you’ve not got time for but your own home, well, that’s different. God shows them that their excuses are exactly that.

Because here’s the problem behind the problem, they have a glory gap. Well, gap is a bit of an understatement there’s a yawning chasm between how they think of God and what God deserves. Look at (8)what is it God wants them to do? To build the house so that he takes pleasure in it and is glorified. God deserves glory and they aren’t giving it to him, they’ll get to him once they finished the panelling and maybe an extension or two and the kids are through university. God is getting the left overs of their time and energy and there is little of that. Notice how God describes himself (5) “the LORD of hosts” literally Yahweh of heavens armies. He is the incomparable, the almighty, the one whose glory the temple could not contain, yet they aren’t concerned with his glory. God has brought them back, he is faithful to his promise, and yet they won’t rebuild.

Turn to 2 Samuel 7 do you see what David says (v1-3), the contrast? David wants to build a temple for God though God says he is not to. David desires to see God glorified, ‘how can I have a house like this when God is in a tent.’ What a contrast to Israel in Haggai’s time, a people content with God’s house lying in ruins whilst they panel their houses. David thinks of God rightly, he is concerned to see God glorified, but Israel in Haggai’s time have this glory chasm. Their view of God is too small.

Don’t we see that temptation in ourselves? To be so taken up with building our reputation, our home, our family, our comfort, our kingdom, our glory when we should be concerned with God’s. And the shift rarely happens all at once, we don’t wake up and think do you know what today I’m going to live for my glory. It’s so much more dangerous than that because it’s gradual, incremental, bit-by-bit that our priorities shift, that our sense of amazement at the glory of God wanes. And Haggai leaves us no room for excuses – look at your life and consider where your priorities are, whose glory are you seeking? Where have I, have we, just slipped into seeking my kingdom rather than God’s kingdom?

The faithfulness and grace of God

Haggai is one of God’s covenant watchdogs. He comes to call Israel away from danger and back to the covenant. Because God is faithful to his people and to his word. (6)Israel can’t find any fulfilment, there is little harvest, famine, drought, and don’t you love the picture of putting wages into a bag with a holes in – doesn’t that seem so true to how life so often is. There’s no satisfaction for Israel in material things, they just can’t get enough. And (9-11)God explains why; “I blew it away… I have called for drought…” Does that shock you? God withholding, God keeping stuff from his people.

But we need to realise that this is God loving his people. God is being faithful to his word in Deuteronomy 28, his promise that if his people turned from him, if they broke the covenant he would discipline them with famine and drought. Why? Because God loves them so much he won’t allow them to be satisfied with anything less than him, because nothing else will bring lasting satisfaction. “Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified says the LORD.”

God is faithful to his covenant, so full of love that he won’t let them be satisfied without him. He’s been calling them in the drought and the withholding, but they haven’t listened. So God slow to anger now sends his prophet Haggai to call his people back to him. To consider their ways, to see what they have gradually fallen into; the complacency and half-heartedness.

And what is Israel’s response? (12-15)They repent. “They obeyed the voice of the LORD their God…” We see a great picture of what repentance is here, they recognise the glory gap they have been living with and stop building their own kingdom and start building the temple. They turn from what they were living for and turn to God and are taken up with a concern for his glory which is evidenced in practical works of worship.

And just look at what God does. (12-15)Even as the people respond God is poised waiting to help them at the moment of their repentance. It’s as if God has been poised ready and waiting to pour out his blessing on his people, longing to spur them on if they will just repent. (13)He comforts them that failure isn’t final, complacency, wrong priorities haven’t forfeited their relationship with God, when they repent he is with them. God is full of grace. And more than that God is active in stirring them up to work. God isn’t giving them the silent treatment, he isn’t waiting for them prove the genuineness of their repentance. Full of grace he stands ready to accept it and pour out his spirit to help his people know him and live for his glory.

Do you see the grace and love of God? He knows that we cannot find satisfaction in anything other than him, and he disciplines us to that end. Calling us by his word and his work to make him our greatest treasure. Proving it once for all at the cross where he gives his son so that he might be our treasure.

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus calls us as his followers to “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” Why does he do that? Because it is what we were made for, it is not a hard task it is where joy is found. We are made to enjoy God and glorify him and we will not be content until we do, and God will let his people be satisfied with nothing less.

Do you see the call of Haggai, consider your ways? Where have we slipped from seeking to serve and seek him? Will we repent and seek him? And don’t you love that comforting image of God, just longing for us to find our satisfaction in him, ready, willing and waiting to enable and encourage us as we seek him and his kingdom and the joy to be found there.

Daily Reading: Jeremiah 31 'Christmas; an end to exile'

Some things fit with Christmas don’t they? Turkey, snow, mulled wine, mince pies, crackers, nativity plays and so on. They are part of what Christmas is all about, so much so that they would seem out of place at any other time of the year.

Christmas has a certain feel to it, certain emotions attached to it; joy, peace, love, welcome, friendliness and so on. So I wonder if you thought our reading was a bit out of place this morning? Normally at Christmas we read about angels, shepherds and stables. But a verse about weeping and mourning and then the story about Herod executing all the boy toddlers in Bethlehem, that doesn’t fit with Christmas does it? It seems as out of place as snow or a Christmas meal in June.

We live in what some have termed the airbrushed society. It’s not just pictures of models or celebrities that are airbrushed, we do it with all sorts of things death is airbrushed out if sight, the homeless or destitute are similarly often airbrushed out of view, we do it with our retelling of history too. It’s fascinating that in our retelling of the facts around Jesus birth, we often airbrush this part of the story out too, treating it just like any other wrinkle or blemish.

But if you look at Matthew’s account of the nativity you’ll see he puts this front and centre. He starts with Jesus family tree, then records the angel speaking to reassure pre-wedding jitters Joseph, and the rest of the nativity story is compressed into two verse(1:24-25). And then his focus is on the Magi’s visit (eighteen months or so later), Herod’s murderous attempt to secure his dynasty and Jesus flight to Egypt and return to Nazareth. No long journey, donkey, shepherds, heavenly choir, or Gabriel visiting Mary.

And what’s even stranger is that Matthew says Herod’s actions and the mothers mourning fulfil Jeremiah the prophet’s words written hundreds of years before. One of the things that Matthew is keen for us to understand is that Jesus birth isn’t just another birth. It isn’t just a royal birth, like this year will see when Kate gives birth to the next heir to the throne, with all the excitement that attends that. Jesus birth of is of a different order, a different magnitude, altogether because this baby, Jesus, has been promised for thousands of years. He is the fulfilment of not just a short term plan but of God Father, Son and Spirits eternal plan. There has never been and will never be a more important birth.

I want to think about what Matthew is telling us under two simple headings: 1. Finding our Story, 2. Finding our Saviour

Finding our Story

I love Christmas morning, when the children open their presents and unwrap everything all over the bed or floor, or several floors. But when it comes to tidying up have you noticed something? It’s almost impossible to get things back in their box, there just seems to have been too much packed in the box and you find yourself struggling to stuff it back in. An Old Testament quotation is a bit like that. Matthew isn’t just referring to the verse but to the whole chapter around it. Turn back to Jeremiah 31 (p750).

(15)Is an island of sorrow in the midst of a sea of joy. But we want to focus on the sorrow first and then we’ll move onto the joy. In the verse the prophet is speaking about the mums in Israel, that’s who Rachel stands for, weeping because they have lost their children. Israel were at war with Babylon and some of their sons died in battle while others were taken captive into exile to live in Babylon. Now I’m told some mums weep on their children’s first day at school, their first day at secondary school, and definitely when they leave them at university for the first time, and in some cases every subsequent time. There is something innate that makes a mother sad at being parted from her children. But here it’s even worse; they are carried off miles away into exile by a hostile enemy never to be seen again. You can understand why the prophet says the mums will refuse to be comforted.

It is a tragedy, a foreign king taking God’s people into exile and some dying at his hand. Being taken away from God’s kingdom, having relationships fractured and destroyed.

That idea of exile and the mourning that comes with it is one of the Bible’s big themes. It becomes a repeated pattern. In fact the bible says that exile is the big story not just of Israel or the bible but of our lives as humanity and as individuals. It is our story:

We are made to know God and enjoy him forever as our loving heavenly father who we trust.

But we choose exile from God because we doubt he loves us and wants what is best for us and instead choose to find meaning in other things. We spend our lives pouring different things into our life trying to recapture what we were made for, trying to fill up the empty space.

But in deciding to live life apart from God, we choose exile. Just like Israel did by deciding to love everything other than God. They reject the loving living relationship with God that is theirs because they doubt his love and think they can find satisfaction elsewhere. But it leads to exile and weeping. It’s the same for us if we choose to reject the offer of relationship with God, God will ultimate respect that decision, he gives us what we want, exile. We will get an eternity without knowing and enjoying God and all his love and goodness.

Have you ever stopped and thought; what should God do about that?

Imagine for a minute that one of my children at 18 turns round and says, Dad I wish you were dead. I want what you give me what’s mine, I want your stuff but not relationship with you. How should I react? What should I do?

Can you discipline someone into having relationship with you? No.

What would love do? Love would lead me to be broken hearted but say ok. But it would also lead me to be always waiting ready for the phone call or the knock on the door, arms and heart open ready to forgive and welcome back my child. I would hope that the experience of a broken relationship, what they miss, would make them want eventually to reconcile when they came to their senses and I’d be ready to do that, because I love them.

God is the same – a loving father who hears, and is broken hearted by our rejection of him but never gives up loving us and waiting to welcome us home, to end the exile. In fact he uses the exile with Israel to show them what they are missing. It’s the same with us the brokenness of the world around us that search for meaning and fulfilment we feel is God in love calling us to realise what we are missing and turn back to him. And he goes further than just waiting passively.

2. Finding our Saviour

Look at (3)we see God’s character there “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness...” God hasn’t given up on Israel or us if we are far from him. But we, just like Israel, can’t get back ourselves. So God acts, did you see that here, God loved, God draws, God builds, God brings them back, God gathers, God delivers, God redeems, God turns mourning into comfort. Look at v16 God says stop weeping, why? Because God responds to repentance, to their recognition that they are missing him and were wrong to try to live life without God, by ending exile, by bringing Israel back. God stands ready, willing and able to bring back.

And this goes even further, God promises an end to exile forever. Look at(33-34), God will make a new covenant, a covenant whereby everyone will know God, he does so in Jesus, who doesn’t just come as a baby but lives forgiving and bringing people back to God, who dies to pay the price to seal those reconciled relationships, and makes a new covenant, a new relationship between us and God where we are viewed by God as his perfect children.

As Matthew quotes this verse he has this whole chapter waiting to jump out of the box. Jesus the baby born in Bethlehem is the one who comes to end exile forever, who comes to enable us to know God. Because God is not just waiting for us to turn back to him but God in Jesus shows his love by coming to find exiles and end exile and enable us to know God.

Jesus is called “Immanuel” God with us, God in love made man to seek and lovingly bring us back to God, to restore a broken relationship with God.

This weeping is the last weeping for exile, Jesus is the Exile Ender. From now on in Jesus everyone can know God by trusting in Jesus. He comes to secure our forgiveness for rejecting God but also to save us for relationship with God.

Do you want to know God? Do you want an end to life without God? Matthew says you can through trusting in Jesus. That God is not distant and cold and unloving. That he is not waiting for you to pull your socks up and work your way back to him, no he comes to find us in Jesus, to end our exile from him, to repair the broken relationship and bring reconciliation. That is brilliant news. It is joyful news, it’s why Christmas is such good news. The exile is ended, we don’t need to live life fearful of God, apart from God, seeking to fill the God shaped whole in our lives. We can know God ourselves.

That ought to make Christmas the most joyful time of the year, our exile is ended if we turn and trust in Jesus.

Dwelling in a text

I've been musing on something for a while now.  I wonder how much our 'instant' culture and it's unquenchable search for the new and the novel, and it's 'been-there-done-that-got-the-T-shirt' culture has impacted our Bible teaching.  Do we fall into the trap of racing through books of the bible, teaching each passage in it once, chapter by chapter (or more if it's the Old Testament) and then moving on to the next book?  Treating God's word like fast food to be consumed on the go.

Would we benefit more from a slow measured, prolonged, lingering over the feast scripture serves up to us in each passage.  What if we didn't package and programme our bible teaching but rather chose to dwell in a passage for a longer period of time?  What if we spent three of four weeks on a passage, mining it for the treasures it contains and the insights it brings?  What if we were in a passage long enough to learn it, not just grab a couple of it's truths?  What if we took time to marinade in it's teaching to apply it's depths deeply?  How would that feel?  How would it help us counter the culture around us of racing, time pressured consumption, before moving on to the next thing?  How would it shape us and feed us in ways that are different to now?

What would we lose?  What would we gain?  And would we go back to a fast-food diet of scripture again?

How much is false teaching a threat to our churches?

I was teaching recently and as part of the session asked the group I was with what dangers their churches faced.  There were lots of dangers listed but no-one mentioned false teaching, which struck me as odd because the New Testament seems to see false teaching as a very real threat.  It's dangers are commented on in Acts 20 in Paul's warning to the Ephesian elders.  False teaching features heavily in the letters to Galatia and Colossae.  Romans 6 suggests another potential source of false teaching, 1 and 2 Timothy, 1 John and Jude warn against false teaching and in Jesus' letters to the 7 churches in Revelation he warns a number of churches about it.  How have we come to assume, something the bible takes so seriously, will not be a problem for us?

It's worth saying that there is a difference between bad or inadequate preaching and false teaching, and between mistaken preaching and false teaching.  False teaching is in error about something central to the Christian faith (e.g. denying Jesus is the Messiah, or was a real flesh and blood man, or which redefines sin so that things the Bible says are abhorrent are called good).  False teaching holds on to that teaching even when it is shown to be unbiblical, they will not be corrected even by God's word.  False teaching actively teaches this error to the church.

Now I wanted to be exact about that because it matters that we are careful in our definition of false teaching.  It is not false teaching if someone disagrees with us about mode of baptism, or number of times the church should meet or the like.  It is false teaching if they deny Jesus died for our sins or anything else central to the gospel.  It is not false teaching if their mode of teaching is just different from ours.  One of the great problems in our day is tribalism, but just because someone is different doesn't make them a false teacher.  We need to carefully listen and discern using the above three criteria.

But back to the question how much of a threat is false teaching to our churches.  False teaching is as big a threat in our day as it was in the apostles.  It is real it is alive and it is hollowing out churches by drawing them away from the gospel and into Christ-less salvation-less religion.  That is why the Holy Spirit has preserved the bible for us so that we weigh what we hear in light of what God's inspired word reveals to us.  It is where the authority and truth lies.

So if false teaching is a real threat what should we do?

1. Pray for those who teach you.  Pray that God will speak to them as they work hard at his word to teach it faithfully and apply it to our lives.
2. Listen Carefully.  Listen with your brain switched on to what you are being taught, taking notes may help, discussing it afterwards may help, you can often listen to it again via mp3 or podcast.  Don't sit back and turn your brain off, listen actively.
3. Look at what you are being taught.  Have the bible open in front of you.  Unless you know the whole bible word for word you need to be checking with the written word that what you are being taught is what the passage says.  It's even better if you have also read the passage and jotted down some questions before you come, it helps your brain be engaged and you are already thinking through issues.
4. Engage with the preacher.  The preacher doesn't want a that was a nice sermon on the door.  He wants you to ask him questions about the passage, to straighten out anything he didn't explain well or you just didn't get.  He wants to help you apply it to your life in detail in ways you can only do one on one.
5. Look at lives don't just listen to words.  In the New Testament ungodliness is a mark of false teaching, this makes it vital that we examine peoples lives as we listen to their teaching.  Not in terms of judging or being critical but in terms of looking to see the gospel lived out, sin fought, good done, and sinners called to follow Jesus.  Pray for your bible teachers here too, that they would be changed and thank God when they are.

Can you imagine the difference doing those five things would make to your listening, and as a preacher let me tell you a secret, it would also encourage and probably improve the preacher and their preaching.  They should be the norm as we seek to avoid false teaching by loving and pursuing and encouraging good teaching of the word of God.

Does our preaching lack bite?

Why do you preach?  Why do you listen to preaching?  Why do study the Bible?  I wonder how you answer those questions.  We preach, listen and study to hear from God, to understand more about who God is revealing himself to be and more of what he says about everything.  It is therefore, vital that we are listening to the text, working hard on what it said then and what it says now.  We must not jump straight to application or glean only from the passage what we feel the we want to hear, or what we are convinced our people need or want.  We don't start with application, we start with God's word to us as he reveals himself.

But here is where I have a concern, I notice it in myself, in my Bible Study, in my preaching and in my listening.  Often when I study and listen God's word lacks bite because having done the work on the text I so often stop at the implication rather than getting on to the application.  By implication I mean the principle which God is teaching us from a passage - for example the calling to go make disciples.  Its great that we hear that message, we need more than ever (not sure that's the right phrase - as much as ever?) to hear that call.  But if we just leave it at that it remains an implication, it is vague, it is nebulous and I am not sure what that really looks like in my week.

We need to work hard to make the implications of the text into applications, to take the implication and rub it into our lives and the lives of our hearers.  To flesh out in this example what it means to make disciples as being to be developing relationships with others, to be sharing life with them deeply, to be able to ask spiritually significant questions of an other, to be studying and applying God's word to an other, to be inviting them to see Christ in us as we live life together.  To be inviting them into your home.  To be talking about making disciples as a life long ongoing relationship.  To be giving people tools to be able to study the bible with others and be showing them why this needs to happen.  To be applying this implication to people in terms of; dads this is what you are doing with your children - you are making disciples with them - how?  In what they see you love, in how they see you treat the wife God has blessed you with, in how they see you fight sin, do good and call sinners to faith in Jesus.  In terms of church leaders - are you growing other church leaders?  Are you investing heavily in the next generation who will invest heavily in the next generation.

An implication is the principle the passage calls us to live out.  An application is what it looks like to live that out.  I wonder if sometimes we don't do that because we worry it rules out others in the congregation.  So we don't apply the need to be making disciples to dads because we worry about excluding the single woman, or the retired, or the teenager.  But in fleshing out implication as application we give people a model for how they can think this through themselves.  And over time if you track the groups you apply stuff in a detailed way to (and we will natural find it easiest to do it for those like us) you can make sure you over time cover everyone.

Teaching God's word always starts with God's word, but we haven't really taught God's word until we've shown the connection to peoples front lines.

Thinking about application

Good application starts with good interpretation, once we have understood the meaning of the text then we can begin to think about how it applied to its original hearers, and then to us, it will also reflect the context of the book and the bible.

· What was the application for those to whom the book was written?


- What truths did it teach them about God?


 - How ought they to respond to that?


- What did it teach God’s people about their hearts and thinking?


- What direct application does it give concerning actions?


- Is it simply reporting or recommending actions?


· What is the same for us? What is different?


· What is the application for our Christian friends?


· What is the application for our church?


· What is the application for our unbelieving friends?

From your interpretation you will construct your main teaching point, whiich you should be able ro express in one sentence. 

From your thought about the application questions above it will help if you think about yourself and your group and construct a main sentence that expresses how the passage calls us to respond.  e.g. Gen 37 main teaching point is Sovereign grace of God in working to keep his word even through this flawed family. The main response it calls for is praise and a change in the way we judge God’s faithfulness – not by circumstance.  There are other subsidiary points of teaching e.g. – flawed fatherhood, boastful Joseph, divided family and there may be application from that. But actually they all serve to highlight all the more the main teaching and application point.

 Application Questions:

The questions will be designed to help people work through to the point of seeing the application for themselves and work it into their lives. Here are some helpful starters:

- The passage teaches us that... how does that conflict with the way society thinks?



- A friend says... how would you use this passage to answer them?



- If we grasp... what fruit would we expect to see?



- If we fail to... what thorns might we expect in our lives?



- So what?

1 Samuel 1 - God and the "impossible"

Last night we started a new series at Lighthouse looking at 1 Samuel 1, here are my notes:

Often we struggle with Old Testament narrative we love the stories but struggle to work out how they apply to us, so how can we read it and understand it for ourselves. Here are 5 big questions to ask as you read:

1. Why? – is it included, what is the authors point? “We will never go wrong if we focus on God.”
2. Where? Literally, what comes before it? What follows it? Where historically does it fit?
3. How? Is it packaged in a certain way? What is happening (Acts/scenes)? Does the structure reveal an emphasis?
4. What? Observation of text. What is puzzling?
5. So what? What difference does this make to us? “If what I study won’t apply, there is something wrong.”

There are also some other things to bear in mind or look out for when reading narrative:

• Readers edge- Sometimes we know more than the characters (Job)
• Selectivity – the writer includes what they thinks is important and excludes what isn’t.
• Sarcasm - is a clue (e.g. I Kings 18:27, Dan 3)
• Imagination – writers pile up images to convey danger.
• Surprise – What should shock us?
• Emphasis and repetition – used as underlining.
• Reports not recommends – sometimes it even assumes we can work out if something is right or not in light of Law.
• Intensity – does the writer cram a lot into a short space? (Ruth 1:1-5)
• Tension texts – we should feel the suspense and get thinking about God’s providence.

Read the text again, what shocks you? What questions do you have?

1. The way of the righteous in a sin sick world.
You can’t help but notice the righteous character of both Hannah and Elkanah as you read this chapter. Elkanah clearly leads his family in worship of Yahweh, taking them up to worship and providing them with sacrifices which would have been costly(3-4) both at the start of the chapter and twice at the end of the chapter. And Hannah is certainly portrayed as a godly woman. They live are righteous people, they live life in the light of God’s grace to them as his people.

But tragically (2)“Peninnah had children, but Hannah had none.” Bad things happen to good people; that is one of the first things this text tells us. The bible does not hide from the difficulties which afflict God’s people. And the injustice of Hannah’s situation is rammed home by the actions of Peninnah, what does she do? (6-7)she provoked Hannah continually. The contrast here just makes you feel the weight of the injustice even more, how can godly Hannah be childless and yet spiteful Peninnah have children, it’s the wrong way round it’s just not fair!

And then we read (5-6)and what is the repeated phrase? “Yahweh had closed her womb...”. That ought to stop and make us think, it’s not what we expect to read is it? We expect to read Hannah had no children but not that God stopped her from having children. It ought to give us a clue as to what is coming, God is at work, in fact thinking about the history of God’s people it is amazing how often God takes and works through what is impossible, but we will think more about that later.

What this text confronts us with straight off is that being one of God’s people does not function like the ‘get out of jail free’ card in monopoly. It is not that when suffering comes we can play the ‘but I’m one of your people it shouldn’t happen to me’ card. Hannah and Elkanah are devout worshippers of God but they suffer the effects of living in a world ravaged by sin. It is not about a lack of faith on Hannah or Elkanah’s part, she doesn’t need to just believe in God’s promises more. God’s people are not immune from suffering or heartache.

We see though not just Hannah’s problem and provocation but God’s. In 1 Samuel one we zoom in on one family in Israel who are living righteously, but that is not the general pattern. Judges 21:25 ends with this summary of life in Israel; “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.” That is the situation in Israel as Hannah and Elkanah go to sacrifice, they are the exception not the rule. Something which is brought home by the mention (3)of Hophni and Phinehas the priests. If the problem in Israel is that everyone does as they see fit then these two provoke God in much the same way Peninnah provoked Hannah. Just turn over to 2:12 where their lives are summarised like this “Eli’s sons were scoundrels; they had no time for the LORD.”  What was their job? They were priests, but priests who had no time for Yahweh, who didn’t love or care about God and therefore worship was a farce.

Here is chapter 1 we see two problems come together one on a national and salvation history scale in terms of the state of Israel, and another on a micro and personal scale in the barrenness of Hannah and the provocation she suffered. God is at work graciously and amazingly to resolve one problem as he answers another.

2. The prayer of the righteous in a sin sick world

Whenever we experience suffering or see others suffering we are faced with a choice; to run to God with it or to turn away from God because of it.

The author wants us to feel Hannah’s pain (6-10)load up the causes and pain felt as a consequence of her barrenness and Peninnah’s provocation. Hannah can’t have children and Penninah provokes her every time until she wept and would not eat, Elkanah tries to comfort her but just doesn’t get the pain she feels, and finally Hannah can take it no more and (10)”In her deep anguish Hannah prayed to the LORD weeping bitterly.” But notice that Hannah may weep bitterly but she has not become bitter, she still knows that God is the one to turn to. Throughout the chapter Hannah is a worshipper, she is a lover of God, she trusts in God. The character of God not the circumstances she is in determine her worship.

Hannah turns to God in her distress because she knows who God is and that he hears his people. Hannah knows that God is Almighty, she addresses him as Lord of hosts, Lord of the armies of heaven, the cosmic ruler and sovereign over everything. It is to that God she comes in prayer. But notice that despite acknowledging his might and cosmic power she also expects him to see and care about what is happening to her, a broken hearted woman from the hill country in Ephraim.

Her God is both universal and powerful and personal and concerned for her, but notice something else about her prayer she prays for a son to serve God. She doesn’t just pray for a child for herself but for a child to serve God.

Hannah knows that God is her only refuge – Peninnah provokes her, Elkanah doesn’t understand how she feels, and Eli accuses her(15) but Hannah “was pouring out my soul to Yahweh.” Isn’t that a brilliant definition of prayer – pouring out our soul to God.

It is understanding God that enables her to pray this way, her focus is on an Almighty God who cares and hears, she does not use the words “Our Father...” but she certainly approaches God as her Father. The answer to problems in our praying is to understand who God is not to focus on the mechanics of prayer. Our God is big enough and cares for us enough that we can pour out our soul to him knowing he is sovereign and he cares for us.

Hannah leaves with Eli’s benediction “Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of him.” She does not have a guarantee of a child but she knows that God has heard her and that is enough(18).

It is the comfort one of God’s children enjoys in coming to the Almighty God of the universe who cares for them and pouring out their hearts.

3. God at work to save a sin sick world

There is a real danger here that we can misuse this chapter to suggest that it is God’s will that every barren woman bears children. This is not a blanket promise to all God’s people, it is not prayer formula to use which guarantees pregnancy. The bible contains a number of cases of barren women whose wombs God opens; Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, Hannah, Elizabeth. And as you look at them you see a pattern of God doing the impossible as part of his plan of salvation; Sarah has Isaac the son of promise, Rebekah has Jacob and Esau, Rachel has Joseph who saves the fledgling nation, Hannah bears Samuel who is a great prophet and anoints king David, and Elizabeth bears John the Baptist who prepares the way for David’s greater son Jesus.

God can do the impossible and throughout salvation history he brings life to barren wombs to fulfil his promises, because this is God’s plan to save and he will do it. But it is not a blanket promise, it is not a how to, which is liberating because it means continuing childlessness is not a result of our sin or our lack of faith, it is the result of living in a sin ravaged world.

At the end of this chapter as Hannah has a son just as she asked God for and as that son is given over to God we ought to stand where the chapter starts and finishes worshipping God. God who is his peoples refuge even in the midst of problems and provocation, God who graciously hasn’t abandoned Israel but will work out his plan to save his people, God who hears his people when they pray and answers prayer in accordance with his purpose, God who is worth worshipping and living for because of his character rather than our circumstances.

2 Timothy 4:19-22 Gospel Ministry is Team Ministry

Here are my notes from last night:

1. What were Paul’s priorities?
2. Is Paul’s ministry a success and why?
3. How do you disciple someone?

Paul is now finishing off his final letter to Timothy, encouraging him to keep going in ministry and to come visit him quickly before he dies for his faith. All through the letter two themes, two passions, have shone through. Firstly, Jesus is his Saviour and the great news of the gospel must be proclaimed and believed. Secondly, his passion for people to be discipled and to serve Jesus Christ. I had a quick count and there are twenty five people identified by name as well as a household and other brothers and sisters.

Those two interwoven passions are what Paul exhorts Timothy to give himself to because that is what gospel ministry is; the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ his Saviour and the discipleship and love of people.

1. Loving the Gospel means Loving people
Gospel ministry cannot be separated from people. By its very nature preaching and teaching only takes place when someone is listening and learning, and discipleship requires someone to be a disciple.

This letter is littered with people that Paul knew personally, that he had spent time with, that he had preached to, partnered in the gospel with, and discipled. Some like Alexander are enemies of the gospel who have opposed and fought Paul, others like Demas, Phygelus and Hermogenes have deserted him. Some like Hymenaeus and Philetus have lost their way and are teaching false doctrine. But even then Paul knows each of their names, he feels their loss, their desertion or opposition, because he is passionate about people. And those bad experiences do not stop him loving others.

I want you to notice something about the way Paul talks about God’s people, **how does he refer to them? He names them as individuals or talks about them as a household or brothers and sisters. Paul doesn’t talk about the church as a nameless, faceless institution, he doesn’t love an institution he loves people, and that term brothers and sisters speaks of a relationship. The way he talks about God’s people reinforces his commitment to the relationship they have. I think that is something we need to think through. How do we think of church? The word ‘Church’ is not relational but almost cold and clinical, but they are our family in Christ, it is a group of people we love in the gospel, who we are committed to, who we will not lightly leave because we love them deeply. Loving the gospel means loving people.

There are those like Priscilla and Aquila who have engaged in ministry with Paul over years – serving God through their marriage, opening their home, and by their generosity. **There is Onesiphorus’ household, who is he? (1:16)He searched for Paul in prison and refreshed him. There is Erastus – a civil servant – who works hard for the gospel through his work. There’s Eubulus, Pudens, Linus, Claudia and the brothers and sisters; God’s people in Rome. All people Paul loves because he is reconciled to them in the gospel whether Jew or Gentile, whether like him or different from him.

Gospel ministry is loving people, not with a liquid love that is transient and changeable but with the same love God has for his people – committed, stable, reliable, active, lasting the test of time.

2. Loving the Gospel means Discipling Others
As Paul faces his death is his ministry successful or not? We know Paul was deeply concerned about the churches he had been involved in planting. He warns the Ephesian elders that savage wolves will come in and attack the flock, he writes to the Galatians rebuking them for turning from the gospel to embrace legalism, he writes to the Corinthians to tell them to stop welcoming immorality, and in 1 and 2 Timothy he warns Timothy to deal with false teachers in the church. The future doesn’t look too promising does it?

Paul preached to make disciples not just to win converts, he wanted to establish long lasting churches because what mattered was the gospels spread and peoples ongoing growth. And so we see in this letter that Paul isn’t just committed and passionate about people and ministry but about discipleship.

Paul disciples people who will disciple others, Paul disciples the next generation of preachers, teachers and pastors who will lead the church: Timothy, Titus, Luke, Crescens, Mark, Tychicus, and Trophimus all discipled by Paul, all trained as they partnered with Paul in mission. As they watched his life up close, as they heard his teaching first hand, and as they observed his love for people and for his Saviour who were then sent out on ministry themselves but always supported by Paul.

Paul loves all God’s people but he strategically seems to invest time in those who will be the next generation of church leaders. And it has been costly to Paul.

Demas has deserted and there is a rawness about that loss, but it hasn’t stopped him discipling others. Demas here is a warning to Timothy and us about not loving the world more than Jesus. But he is also here to say don’t let someone who you disciple going off the rails stop you discipling others.

Then there is Mark. **How is Mark described? “helpful to me in my ministry” yet there was a time (Acts 15:36-39) when Paul refused to take Mark on mission with him because he had deserted previously. But now he has been restored and failure is not final – it’s no wonder Paul tells Timothy to gently instruct opponents because look what God’s grace can do – it restores to service. Isn’t that an encouragement; failure isn’t final God’s grace restores us even if we fail. And isn’t it a great model of grace as Paul shows that same grace welcoming back one whose loss he had felt so keenly earlier.

I think discipleship has been missing from our vocabulary as God’s people. But we need to rediscovery it. Are we committed to discipling others? To laying our life open so others can see, so they hear the teaching, see the passions, see the areas where battles are fought and grace needed? To training others so that things don’t suddenly stop when we stop doing something but seamlessly transition, so that the next generation of youth workers, Sunday School Teachers, preachers, pastors etc is growing. Real Gospel ministry is one which multiplies ministers.

But how? How do you disciple someone?
· Help them think about how they have been disciple already.
· Show them what discipleship looks like in the bible (Luke 9:51f)
· Discipleship means sharing life with them (1 Thess 1)
· Time – spend time together
· Let them see you teach and ask you about how and why?

I want you to notice something else. Gospel Ministry is team ministry. Paul isn’t a one man band, Paul always engages in ministry with others, normally with a team of people. Remember how throughout the letter Paul has been encouraging Timothy to endure not desert because gospel ministry is hard, Paul knows that through bitter experience. It can involve persecution, opposition, confrontation, rejection, desertion. Gospel ministry needs to be team ministry, even here he writes to Timothy because he is not alone he is part of a team.

It is not just here but it seems to be a biblical pattern, gospel ministry is team ministry. As we stand for Christ in the workplace we need others with us, ideally physically with us but if not supporting us in prayer, Sunday school teachers, youth workers, pastors need others with them.

Gospel ministry is team ministry. We engage in ministry relying on God but needing the God given support of others.

3. Loving the Gospel means pointing to the Lord and Grace
Paul’s closing words are significant, he knows that he will die soon and as he prepares Timothy and the church for that eventuality he points them to two things which never die, two things he has pointed to throughout the letter and throughout his life.

(22a)”The Lord be with your spirit.” Even as Paul will be no longer with him Timothy is not alone. Paul prays he will know Jesus presence, a presence which enabled Paul to preach at his preliminary hearing strengthened by the Lord even when everyone else had deserted him. What an encouragement for Timothy. What an encouragement for us, God is with us.

In the final phrase the “you” is plural not singular, this is something Paul prays for the church not just for Timothy. “Grace be with you all”, grace that (1:9) “was given us in Christ Jesus...” revealed in his appearing which conquered death and brought life and light. The church needs God’s grace – it is what saves us, it is God’s power at work transforming us, enabling us to life liberated by and under the rule of Jesus.

It doesn’t matter that I won’t be with you, you don’t need me you need Jesus and grace says Paul and they will be with you.

Isn’t that liberating and humbling, the church doesn’t need one person, no matter how gifted or charismatic, it needs Jesus presence as Lord by his Spirit active through his word and his people and a working and growing understanding and appreciation of the wonder of grace. That’s why even as Paul faces death it will not be the end of the gospel because it is not Paul’s gospel but God’s, not Paul’s power but God’s, not Paul’s talent but God’s grace, not Paul’s word but God’s.

Are you ready for this week? Jesus goes with us into our week and Jesus grace covers us for this week.

False teaching, inadequate teaching and boring teaching

As we have gone through 2 Timothy we have repeatedly seen Paul warn Timothy against false teachers.  But what is a false teacher and how do we differentiate that from inadequate teaching, or just boring teaching.  Is boring teaching bad teaching, is inadequate teaching false teaching?  I just simply want to try and clarify what the difference is between the three and give some pointers on how we ought to respond to each one.

Boring Teaching
This is bible teaching that does not engage its listeners in the truth because it is either haphazard, poorly prepared, scatter gun in its approach, overly complex, lacking in application, lacking passion, or just plain dull in delivery.  We have all heard bible talks like these (and all given them if we teach others).

How ought we to respond to this?  Firstly we ought to examine our own hearts, how much of this is an issue with me?  Secondly pray and ask God to help us engage with what we can, try taking notes, commit yourself to not bad mouthing the preacher, remember their sincere hold on the truth and love for the gospel.  Above all pray for the preacher and yourself as the hearer.
 
Inadequate Teaching
This is in many ways in the hardest to categorise but I'll give it a shot.  This is teaching that may miss the big point of a passage entirely and get entangled in a minor point, or it may import lots of other bits of the bible into this passage, or simply use the passge as s pring board to go all over the bible instead of dealing with the passage.  It may look at a gospel but ignore the specific point of the author by implying he missed out a bit another gospel writer included.  It may lack biblical balance, it may miss the place of the passage in the big salvation history sweep of the bible.  We may be left thinking 'where did that come from?'  In Acts 18v27f we see an example of this in Apollos who is teaching passionately what he knew "though he knew only the baptism of John", and he engaged in teaching it to the Ephesians.  His motives are right his passion commendable but he understanding is lacking.

How ought we to respond?  Again we need to remember that the person has a genuine love of the truth and of the gospel.  Again we ought to examine our hearts and minds; did we exercise self discipline in listening or did we allow ourselves to zone out, did the baby wake up and we missed a key biblical step in the sermon?  We also need to avoid developing a critical spirit, we are not sermon critiques, we are not playing the role of judge in an oratory competition rating each bible talk out of 10.  We are listening to God's word.

But we also need to beware simply swallowing everything.  I remember a friend of mine once saying that above the coat pegs at their church should be a sign which read, please leave your coat and brain on the hook and pick up your 'I'm ok' mask.  It was tongue in cheek, but I wonder if there is a serious side to it, do we listen discerningly (notice that discerningly, not critically) to the teaching, searching scripture to discern the truth of what we are being taught or do we just swallow it?

If there is something we are not clear on or want further clarification on we ought to ask the preacher.  We are not to do so in a way which is aiming to score points from the preacher, but to genuinely aid our understanding of the passage.  Acts 18 is instructive for knowing how we ought to deal with such things, "Priscilla and Aquila heard him, took him and explained to him the way of God more accurately".  The fruit of their loving teaching is seen in v28 "he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, showing by the scriptures that the Christ was Jesus".  Inadequate teaching needs loving correction by those who will disciple and lead the teacher.  I think in a local church context that responsibility falls to the church leadership.

False teaching
This is the sort of teaching which Paul has in the cross hairs in 1 and 2 Timothy.  Helpfully we see there that it is marked by being in error about something that is fundamental and central to the Christian faith, so for example in 2 Timothy the resurrection.  In 2 John 7 the heretical or false teaching is the denial that Jesus came in the flesh.  It is not about something which is of secondary importance, e.g. the millennium, mode of baptism, church leadership.

The false teacher is also marked by an obstinate and determined hold on their false teaching even in the face of the plain teaching of the bible and the loving correction of other teachers who point out their error.  This means the person who mis-teaches but when corrected and taught puts it right is not a false teacher.

By its very nature false teaching is also teaching others, a false teacher is not a false believer but a false teachers of others and the bible seems to make a clear distinction between the two, that means we ought to too.

Lastly false teaching is seen in that it does not lead to; godly living (2 Tim 3v1-9).  Often false teaching may lead to legalism or licence but it does not produce spirit empowered, gospel hearted repentance and humble change.  That means we must be able to see the lives of those who teach us the bible, and ought to detect in them a struggle with sin, a sense of battling with and putting to death pride, and a growing love of grace.

False teaching is in short persistently opposed to the truths of the gospel and seeking to lead others in the same error.  Our response to false teaching and false teachers is to keep away from it!  It is like gangrene (2 Tim 2), we are to call it what it is and not allow it to be taught in our churches but still lovingly seek to win back the false teacher.

On the flip side we can help our bible teachers avoid falling into any of these traps by encouraging them to preach the bible well.  How?

1. Pray for your bible teachers.  In 2 Tim 2v15 Paul tells Timothy to "Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth."  We ought to pray this for our bible teachers.
2. Come ready. Nothing encourages a bible teacher like teaching people who are keen to learn, read the passage before you come, engage during the talk, and ask questions of others afterwards.
3. Resource your bible teacher.  Churches must be resourcing their bibles teachers by providing them with the means to study well, to buy commentaries, to be taught and trained themselves.  But we must also resource them time wise, not crowding out their preparation time with expectations to be at or doing other things (Acts 6 - provides a good model).
4. Question your bible teacher.  On a personal note I love it when someone after a talk comes and genuinely asks questions about the passage, or challenges something that was said, not because it builds my ego but because it is thrilling to be part of someone grappling with and seeking to understand more of the character, plan and power of God through his word.
5. Treat your bible teachers as a person.  Do not put your bible teacher on a pedestal, they are not infallible and it will not help them to be treated as such.  Instead treat them as a person whom you trust and love in Christ and do the same for their family.

Britain's Theological Obesity

Apparently I live in one of the most obese towns in Britain, something which across the country is beginning to put a growing strain on our health service because of the illnesses related to and which are a result of obesity.

But it isn't just physically that we are feeling the affects of obesity.  I wonder if parts of the church in Britain are suffering from Theological obesity - in other words we gorge ourselves on teaching, teaching teaching, making the most of every opportunity, from church, to home group, from MP3's to conferences - and I am not against making the most of teaching.  But actually Bible teaching is designed to lead to Bible living, and I wonder if what is happening with the availability of bible teaching is that we gorge on it but do not become active with it.  So we listen to the Bible and take in what it says, we can repeat the ideas to others but do not convert that message into changed loves, thoughts, actions and reactions.

What is the antidote - well just as the antidote to physical obesity is exercise so it is to spiritual obesity.  We need to hear the word of God and do something with it - discuss it, learn it, activate it, and engage in life as a result of it equipped to serve others - after all that is the purpose of Christ giving us apostles, evangelists,  pastors, and teachers, (Ephesians 4:11).

If  we find that we are not serving, we are not loving more, we are not bearing with, we are not reaching out to, we are not stirred in our hearts and souls to engage with one another in discipleship and with a lost world with sharing the gospel.  Maybe we need to stand on the spiritual weighing scales!

An appetite to hear and listen to God's word is a great thing, but God's word is designed to produce service as we model ourselves on the one who served us motivated by his sheer grace which saves us and reconciles us with God and others.

Hope for Living - 1 Thessalonians 4v13-18

One day a hospital teacher received a call asking her to visit a boy. She took his name and room number and talked with his teacher. “We’re studying nouns and adverbs in his class now,” the teacher said, “and it would be great if you could help him understand them so he doesn’t fall too far behind.” 

The hospital teacher went to see the boy that afternoon. No one had told to her that he’d been badly burned and was in a lot of pain. Upset at the sight of the boy, she stammered as she told him, “I’ve been sent by your school to help you with nouns and adverbs.” When she left she felt she hadn’t accomplished much.

The next day as she went onto the ward, a nurse asked her, “What did you do to that boy?” The teacher worried she’d done something wrong and began to apologize. “No, no,” said the nurse. “You don’t know what I mean. We’ve been worried about him, but since yesterday, his whole attitude has changed. He’s fighting back, responding to treatment. It’s as though he’s decided to live.”

Two weeks later the boy explained that he had given up hope until the teacher arrived. Everything changed when he had a simple realization. He said: “They wouldn’t send a teacher to work on nouns and adverbs with a dying boy, would they?”

Hope matters. And in this series we’ve seen the distinctiveness of Christian hope, hope not just in this life but of eternal life, hope not just in heaven for those who die but of Christ’s return and the renewed recreated creation marked by the glory of God. We’ve seen that Christ’s coming again and the promise of a new creation give us hope for living now with suffering and death in perspective. But what is our response to these truths, where does the rubber hit the road? That’s what we want to look at tonight, we’re going to begin by exploring this passage before looking at some others.

In Thessalonica there was a problem, **what was it? They were worried about those who had died before Christ’s return; will they be resurrected, have they missed out?

Paul writes to encourage them to think rightly about death, the resurrection and Christ’s return. It is a response that is counter cultural; a typical inscription on a grave in Thessalonica would read: I was not, I became, I am not, I care not. But Paul wants these believers to know the truth and to live out their hope because of the promises of God!

1. What we believe gives us hope.(14)Paul uses the phrase “We believe...” and then explains the implications of that belief. **What is it that Paul says we believe? “We believe that Jesus died and rose again...” Our hope is founded in the historical death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, a death that pays the wages of sin for us, and a resurrection that guarantees we’re made right with God and death is conquered. 

Paul is quoting an early church creed which summarised their beliefs, similar to that used in 1 Cor 15: “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.”

Christian hope is not a vague wish it’s an historical certainty, anchored in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

And he goes on to point out the implication of that historical belief, because we believe that we also believe that he will come again, bringing with him those who have died in the mean time. Your friends haven’t missed out, those who die ‘in Christ” – believing and trusting in him are secure in him. They are in heaven now awaiting his return.
When Jesus returns the dead in Christ will come with him from heaven, their bodies will then rise – not as zombies but patterned after Christ resurrected physical body, the dead in Christ will be given their resurrection bodies(16), before the living are changed and united with our Saviour and them.

Again we see that it is Jesus presence that marks out these events, the dead are in Christ and with Christ, they return with him, and we are changed and caught up to be with the Lord, then and forever.

Paul reminds the Thessalonians of what the bible teaches about death, heaven, the last day and eternity. The dead are secure and with Christ now in heaven, and they w ill not miss out; they will return, and share in our ultimate hope in new physical resurrected bodies in a new creation with Christ for eternity. Doctrine matters! Knowing what the bible teaches matters because otherwise we’ll be like the Thessalonians uninformed, doubting and responding to death and living life wrongly.

2. Hope appliedPaul applies the doctrine he has reminded them of here – doctrine – truth is never the stuff of academia in the bible it is truth to set your living by. Here we see it in two main applications:

a. Grieve differently**How does the world grieve? Like all is lost, without certainty. But not you says Paul, believers grieve differently, why? Because we know what we believe and Christ’s historical resurrection means we know there is life beyond death, it means we trust God’s promises. Notice it does not say that we do not grieve – but that it is distinctly Christian grief, resurrection grief.

b. Encourage one anotherSecondly he says we encourage one another. **What is it we encourage one another with? (18)”these words”. The truths he has just reminded them of; not vague niceties about going to a better place but the concrete realities of the death and resurrection of Jesus our Saviour and its implications for those who trust in him. We remind each other of the basis of our hope and the certainty of Christ’s return, and the nature of death for the believer – they have “fallen asleep in him.”

We need to grasp that – we are never short of something to comfort and encourage those have lost a believing son, daughter, father, mother, sister, husband, wife or friend with.

I want to draw out some other implications of our hope which have to affect our living.

c. We wait faithfully(5:1-4)We saw in 2 Peter a few weeks ago and it is repeated again here that Christ is definitely returning though we do not know when. That certainty means we are to live faithfully, we live life now knowing that Jesus will come.

d. We live with a purpose (Philippians 3:12-21) Paul talks about straining towards what is ahead, pressing on to win the prize for which Christ has called us. We know Christ is coming and so our goal in life is to please him, as we eagerly wait for his return. Our hope gives us a reason to live differently, it does not make us of no earthly use, but spurs us on to live now pleasing Christ.

e. We endure suffering(Rom 5:3-5)It liberates us to glory in our sufferings(3), not because we are masochists, or because we can keep a stiff upper lip, but because we know that it is not pointless, that suffering is not hopeless. Suffering produces perseverance which produces character which produces hope. Suffering weans us from loving the world and putting our hope in the world and is used by God to enable us increasingly to boast in the hope of the glory of God. It makes us long for our glorious future where God rules and reigns, which will make our suffering seem like merely the dust on the scales. And as we fix our hopes less on the world our faith is proved and tested, and we are refined and fitted for our glorious future.

f. We are liberated from the fear of death (2 Cor 5:1-10) Our hope gives us confidence of live beyond death with means the fear of death does not paralyse us. In this life we will experience outward decay, persecution, hardship, trouble, illness and death, it is normal Christian experience because our hope isn’t in this world but the next. Instead it produces a people captured by the prospect of their glory so wonderfully secured by God’s grace in Jesus that they live out their hope even in the face of suffering and liberated from the fear of death!

g. We live assured by the Spirit (Eph 1:13-14)We hope and look forward to God’s glory not dependent on what we do but on what Christ has done and with his Spirit within us as a deposit guaranteeing our adoption. The Spirit is the first instalment of our new life and new relationship with God in all his glory. So we are not uncertain but assured and look forward to the future, cooperating with the Spirit now sealed in him for Christ return.

h. We hope in the glory of God (Rev 21)
Our hope is God in all his glory; an intimate, unalloyed, unbreakable relationship with the God of glory in all his splendour, holiness and majesty where every moment of every hour for eternity is bathed in his glory and we are transformed to perfectly reflect and irradiate his glory. That is our hope! It means now we will want to investigate, to dig into, to unearth, to mine the truths of God’s glory through his word so that we increasingly desire his coming, so that we pray “Come, Lord Jesus”, so that the joy of the gospel hope that is ours by grace inform our joyful living looking for our Saviours return.

The danger of applying scripture

In Galatians we see Paul clearly tackling the dangers of legalism.  But what is so scary is that the desires behind legalistic practice are so often good ones, in fact they are ones we would share.  It sees a biblical principle and wants to put it into practice, and so it suggests ways of practicing the principle.  That is all well and good, the problem becomes when one practice becomes the perceived outworking of that principle above all others, or is simply the only one emphasized.

Lets take for example the call to husbands to love their wives in Ephesian 5, it is an amazing call which Paul makes on husbands but what does it look like?  I want to suggest that it looks like lots of different practices as the principle is applied to different marriages.  There is no one over riding way to apply this.  To say it is taking time out of your week to have a date night is one possible practical application but does not fully explore the call to love.  There are hundreds of ways we are to obey this call and put our principle of love into practice.

But we so often pick one and seek to apply it and our thinking goes so long as I'm doing that I am obeying the principle. 

A principle is a clear teaching instruction or imperative from God’s Word to us. A practice is a specific action or decision that seeks to apply that principle to our living.  It is right that we who teach the bible provide examples of scriptural principles translated into practice but it must never become the practice of the principle.

Habakkuk 3 His Peoples Praise

Last night saw us finish off our quick study of Habakkuk, here are the notes.

The songs we sing show us how and what we think about things but they also influence us.  Songs reflect the spirit of the age they were written in.  That means even when the themes stay the same the way of thinking about such things change.

But the bible though written over centuries has enduring themes in its songs about God, be it Moses song of praise to God in Exodus, or Deborah’s in Judges 5, or David’s in 2 Samuel 22, or those in the Psalms - themselves written over hundreds of years.  They endure, they show us who God is and how he acts and they were written to influence those who follow after and will make them their own and sing them.

Habakkuk began in chapter 1 with questions to ask God, why are the faithful remnant in Judah not being saved from their oppressors?  And then when God revealed the Babylonian judgement; How, God, can you use such a wicked nation to judge one less wicked?  And final 1:17 How long will Babylon keep on indulging her wicked godless rule?  In chapter 2 we saw last God give Habakkuk and all his faith people a revelation of Babylon’s coming judgement and a vision for God’s faithful people to live by (2:14) “For the earth will be filled with the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.”  The justified are called to live faithfully because they know God and where the future is headed.

And that revelation leads Habakkuk to praise God, (1, 19b) show us that this is a prayer for God’s people to pray or sing.  As Habakkuk pens his praise he draws on images of God’s deliverances of his people in the past, and like all great song writers draws on lyrics, or ideas in songs of the past. 

Do you remember making collages when you were a child?  **How did you make them?  Collections of images, words or photo’s on a theme all put on one poster of wall.  This song is a bit like of collage of the victories of God as he delivered his people in the past and it draws the conclusion that God is a God who can be trusted no matter the circumstances.

It’s a song so the structure is not necessarily logical, he is not building a cohesive argument but rather providing snapshots of a God worth trusting.

God is active and awesome

**Habakkuk begins how?  “LORD, I have heard...”  He is looking to the past and as he does so **how does he react “I stand in awe” he is amazed at God’s work.  And so he prays “Renew them in our day,” Lord work out your purposes, and plans for salvation today I pray.  He is not praying that God would not send the Babylonians to judge he knows they are coming, but he is trusting in the character and purposes of God he sees revealed in history.  Lord do the same again – deliver your people through the midst of their struggle and the threats that surrounded them, “Lord in wrath remember mercy”.

He knows that God will judge Judah and eventually Babylon, he knows that God rules(2:17) and reigns as sovereign of all the earth and that one day his glory will cover the earth.  He prays that God would be who he is that he would bring his salvation, achieve his purpose, fulfil his plans, and in justice remember mercy – that the righteous will live by their faithfulness.

This introduces the collage of images that is the source of this confidence and this prayer.

God is Glorious and Terrifying

**Where would you expect God to come from?  Heaven, the temple, Jerusalem.  **But where does God come from(3)?  Teman and Mount Paran.  It’s a reference to the root that Israel took from Sinai to the Promised Land, and is drawn from Deuteronomy 33:2 and Moses blessing of Israel.  Sinai where God’s glory was revealed, where even the partially reflected glory of God on the face of Moses terrifies Aaron and the Israelites so much that they ask him to veil his face.  And that glory is the theme of these verses, it is everywhere, God’s glory is uncontainable and it is overwhelmingly powerful(3-4).  So powerful that even the strongest most permanent things in creation, the mountains, quake and are reduced to rubble.  And as Israel advanced with God the nations around about them are terrified, because to oppose God means to face his glory and power in judgement(5, 6-7).

God is Warrior and Deliverer

(8)Is an odd verse isn’t it?  Was God angry with the rivers or the sea and why?  Some argue this is a reference to water as a symbol of chaos but I think it’s more historic than that.  The answer we are meant to give to the question it poses is no, God is not angry with the rivers and sea, but he does use them to deliver his people in history.  In fact that explanation makes most sense of the text and the historical collage here.

The text first – the question is posed is God angry at the sea and rivers?  We are not given an answer until we are told who he is angry at (12-13) **who is it?  “in anger you threshed the nations...You crushed the leader of the land of wickedness.”  God is not angry with the rivers he is angry with the nations who oppose his people – because in opposing his people they oppose him and his plans.  And the rivers (10)are used by God as a means of sweeping them away.

The historical – God is a warrior who fights to deliver his people, to save his anointed one.  Turn to Exodus 15 Moses sings a song of praise to God after God brings them safely through the Red Sea and wipes out the Egyptian army and you can see that song picked up here.  Turn to Judges 5:19-22 as Deborah praises God for his deliverance using the River Kishon with God pictured on his chariot.

God is a warrior who fights to deliver his people and keep his promises, to work out his plan of salvation, and ensure the coming of his anointed one.  (11)Introduces another picture to the collage recalling Joshua’s defeat of Israels’ enemies as God makes the Sun and Moon stand still so they can be utterly routed, and also adds another picture of David’s deliverance from his song of praise in 2 Samuel 22:7-16 which pictures God as an archer and delivering his anointed king.

God is an awesome warrior who contends with the wicked, and those oppose his plans, who keeps his word and will bring his plan of salvation.

What God was he is, what God has revealed of his character in his acts of deliverance, in his keeping of his covenant promises, and his pursuit of his plan of salvation, God’s people can trust him to be even as they face the Babylonian exile, and the wait for their return in 70 years.  The righteous, those who God has justified can live by faith trusting in the awesome God who is active who is glorious and terrifying, who is a warrior and their deliverer.

There is something raw and throbbing with power about Habakkuk’s description of God.  It challenges our downsized, tamed, domesticated view of God.  This is God in all his glory, in his sheer unstoppability, in his covenantal faithfulness , in his unending unswerving pursuit of his plan to bring salvation through his anointed one.

This collage of images confronts us with the real God we worship.  It ought to provoke the same reaction in us as in Habakkuk “I stand in awe of your deeds” and prayer Father God reveal yourself to people, save your people.  Do we ever think we have God nailed down, that we know all there is to know about him?  This chapter challenges us.

It reminds me of CS Lewis’s Narnia books and Aslan.  Aslan is not a tame lion, in fact you are never quite comfortable when he is around because you are always aware of his power and majesty, his untameability, yet you are utterly convinced that he is good.

A Right Response

Habakkuk began with questions, he began almost by putting God in the dock; what are you doing?  Don’t you see?  Are you listening?  Then he was appalled and asked; how can you use the wicked to swallow up the relatively righteous and how long?

But he comes to trust God because of who God is not because of the answer he gives, because he comes to know God not just know what he is doing.  It’s interesting because his questions are all about God revealing his plans, but God’s loving answer is not just here are my blueprints but here I am know me.  He has his view of God not just expanded but exploded.

Notice (16)it doesn’t remove his fear of what God is going to do, but it does enable him to wait trusting God – not sitting waiting like we do at a bus stop – but actively living serving God, worshipping God, teaching others how to worship God, while he waits for God to be who he is.

(17-18)And it enables him even in the midst of barrenness to rejoice not become embittered and cynical, because his joy comes from the God he knows and faith in his word not in his circumstances.  He will not draw conclusions about God from what he sees, but he reaches conclusions on what he sees based on what he knows about God.  That is what it means to live by faith, and it is a mark of God’s people.

The books closes with Habakkuk a changed man “The Sovereign LORD is my strength...”  Not because everything is going well, the wicked are still oppressing the righteous, justice is still being perverted, the exile and cruelty of the Babylonians is still on the horizon – knowing it is coming hasn’t removed those facts.  But Habakkuk knows God, the sovereign glorious, awesome, untameable, warrior God who keeps his covenant and will his rescue his people in his way which will be the best way.  And Habakkuk will live by faith, actively waiting, justified to live faithfully, liberated to serve joyfully, because God – this awesome amazing, terrifying God - is his strength.

How much more ought we who know that God is faithful, that he is our Saviour, that his determination to deliver his people sees his anointed one die in our place.  Every Sunday we meet on the first day of the week to remember God our Saviour, and to look forward to the day when everything will be put under Jesus feet and he will reign and rule.  “I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Saviour”

Matthew 1:1-17 A Strange way to start a book

Who or what are the three most significant people or events in your life? It may be meeting someone who became a close friend, or someone who moulded your whole future, inspiring you to do something, or someone who challenged you and led you to believe in Jesus. Maybe a relationship, maybe the birth of a child, maybe a job, a chance meeting?

Matthew’s gospel opens in an odd way, at least according to our way of thinking, I’ve never come across a novel or even a biography that opens with a long genealogy. But Matthew by firmly rooting Jesus in history and as he does so he ties him in with 3 significant people and events in Israel’s history, can you spot the 2 key characters? There was no bold print, or underline at the time Matthew wrote so he used repetition, who are the repeated characters? Abraham and David. They were the two key characters in Jewish history and were characters to whom God gave great promises. What is the key event that is mentioned? The exile, Israel and Judah being taken captive into Babylon.

Genealogy means beginning or origin, it’s the same phrase used in Gen 2:4, and Matthew’s point is that this is a new beginning. In Jesus God is doing something new and stunning. But Matthew doesn’t say scrap history and start afresh from here, instead he provides this new beginnings Old Testament roots, this new beginning fulfils all the promises and hopes and dreams scattered throughout the Old Testament, this is the climax to which everything has been leading – Jesus Christ the Son of David, the Son of Abraham.

1. The Son of Promise
What is Abraham famous for? God called him and gave him 4 promises.
"1The LORD had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.
2“I will make you into a great nation,
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
3I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.”
4So Abram went, as the LORD had told him"

God makes four promises to Abraham; People, Place, Protection, and Programme. And the promises centre on the coming of a son. Abraham does have a son but just one, then Isaac has two sons and slowly the promise of a people is realised, they are given a land, though it is not as it should be and they are given great protection but forfeit God’s love, and the programme of being a blessing to all nations, well look at the genealogy.

Tamar and Rahab are Canaanites, Ruth is a Moabitess, and Bathsheba is a Hittite, even in Jesus bloodline there are glimpse of all nations coming to trust God and being blessed. But they are ones and twos not the thousands, the nations that the prophets pictured. And as Matthew opens Israel are still expectantly waiting the coming of a son who will fulfil these promises.

Matthew says Jesus is “the son of Abraham” – watch this space, read this account because Jesus is one to watch, he is the Son of promise, the one through whom all nations will be blessed.
Having started his gospel that way Matthew ends it by recording Jesus words immediately before his ascension “go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit...” Jesus is the Son, what are the disciples to do with that knowledge? Go tell everyone – all nations - they can know God.

It is because Jesus is the Son of Abraham that you and I are here this morning, because he calls the nations.

2. The King of Promise
Who is the second character emphasized? David. Jesus is the Son of David, David is the King Israel looked back longingly to but again he is a key character with a promise. A promise that a Son would come from David’s line who would rule his people from his throne forever. Solomon is David’s son yet despite a promising beginning his reign descends into idol worship and division, and Matthew gives us some of the kings in that line in this genealogy and some are good but some are bad, some follow God but some worship idols, and as you read the list you find yourself asking the question where is the promised king whose throne would last forever?

Where is God’s forever King, when is he going to keep his promise?

Then Matthew starts his gospel with these words “This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the Son of David...” Jesus is that King! The Son of David born in Judah’s line, Jesus is the King. Matthew nails his colours to the mast with his 8th word of his gospel “Messiah” – God’s anointed one.

Jesus kingship is a key idea in Matthew, 10 times in Matthew he is referred to as the Son of David, it is what the blind men call him in ch 9, the question the people ask in ch12, it’s what the Canaanite woman cries out ch15, what the crowds cry at his triumphal entry into Jerusalem and what the children cry in the temple. To be the Son of David was to be the Messiah.

Lots of people ask why Matthew has stylised his genealogy, v17 makes much of their being how many generations in each block? 14. 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.

And throughout the gospel we see people either bowing the knee, accepting his rule and entering the kingdom or rejecting him and going to war with God’s king and God’s kingdom.

3. The end of the Exile
One historical event is emphasized here what is it? The exile, when Israel are expelled from God’s place because of their refusal to live as his saved people.

Exile is a theme that runs throughout the bible. When Adam and Eve rebel against God in the Garden what happens? They are driven out of God’s presence because of their rebellion against God. When Cain kills Abel he is driven out from God’s presence, when the people rebel at Babel they are scattered by God’s judgement. And at the exile Israel, God’s people in God’s place who reject God’s rule are driven out from his place and scattered, but the prophets promise a glorious return.

As Matthew opens Israel are back in the land but it is as an occupied nation, the temple is not the glorious vision of Ezekiel, the nations haven’t flocked to worship God, and Israel continue to struggle to serve God.

Jesus is the Son of Abraham, the Son of David, but he will also end the exile, he comes to gather the scattered and provide them with a new way of relating to God, it’s a new beginning, a new covenant. And in the early chapters Jesus collects disciples like a magnet collects metal, crowds flock to see and hear him. Jesus gathers Gentiles, women, children, fishermen, tax collectors, sinners and rebels along with those who are just ordinary good people but who recognise that they are still living in exile from God. That their refusal to live life with loving God with all their heart and being has left them in spiritual exile. And they glimpse in Jesus the end of that exile, that in him Son of Promise, King of promise, the exile is ended and they can know God in a whole new way. Sin forgiven and relationship entered.

Sin separates us from God it sends us into exile. We were made for relationship with God but our refusal to acknowledge him as creator and Lord means we’re exiled. Jesus comes to end that exile.

Do you ever feel a bit apologetic for mentioning Jesus at Christmas, for challenging people about the real meaning of Christmas? Matthew is so captivated by what he has discovered about Jesus that he will discomfort the Jews, he will challenge their understanding of the bible, centuries of tradition, as he proclaims Jesus is the Son of promise, the King of promise and the only way to end our exile from God. We have to tell others the exile is ended Jesus is the way back to God.

What did this news stir Matthew to do – to tell others not because of guilty or out of a grudging sense of duty but because this is the greatest news ever! All God’s promises are fulfilled and there is a new way of relating to God! Let’s call others to come and join us as we praise God for sending Jesus.