A people who listen to God

Clevedon Baptist Church, evening service – 18/Nov/2012

I am blessed, that every time I am asked to preach here I am faced with a really challenging subject. This evenings question is one that I certainly do not have all the answers. It is, in a sense, one of the key questions of the faith: “How can we, as a people, learn to truly listen to God?” If we are to be true disciples of the Lord Jesus, true children of our Father God and truly indwelt by Holy Spirit we must be willing and able to listen to the voice of the eternal God. We must believe and trust that God is willing to speak to us, for He is. We must have ears to hear what the God saying; for I believe that God is not silent. Having said this we would do well to always remember that God is the Almighty God,

8“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,”  declares the Lord. 9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth ,so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

God speaks in a language we may not fully understand, with purposes we may not fully grasp, to ends we may not fully see.  God often speaks to us from an unexpected direction and from places we rarely visit or appreciate. Let us begin in humility, acknowledging our lack of understanding and appreciate that we need His help in all things, and especially in the act of listening and discerning His voice. And the fact that we need his help here tells us something of the purpose of listening. It is an integral part of relationship, if we do not listen to God can we truly say that we are His people and He is our God?

But what does God sound like? What does he say? You see there are many voices in the world. There are many strident and ardent voices shouting loudly from our culture, our family and friends, saying to us “do this, do that, be like this” We also all have internal voices and desires that often say to us “Do this, get everyone around you to do that, put yourself first, you worth it”. So we are trying to listen to God amidst all this background noise.  

How do we know it is God speaking to us?

The question is how are we to discern his voice from all the noise around us? If God speaks gently and unexpectedly how do we listen? So my first point is this “How do we know when God is speaking to us? How can we know that it is not just our own imaginations? How can we separate out the voices of others from the voice of God?”

I remember reading about the theologian Karl Barth. He was one of the most important Christian theologians of the last century, though German he refused to join the Nazis and resisted their attempt to reshape the Church. He made a visit to America in the 1960s and was mobbed by reporters for his most profound thought about life, the universe and everything. And he was purported to have said only this “Jesus loves me this I know for the bible tells me so”.

You see even the most eminent theologian Barth, who had written 12 huge tombs on Christian dogmatics, quoted a Sunday school song. He understood the simple, child-like, truth that Christianity is rooted in the historical word of God. We know of God loves us, first and for most, because His revealed word says it. Yes, we must also have that inner transformation of the Holy Spirit, that new birth. But the testing comes if our personal experience is in keeping with God’s revealed word. The only sure way of knowing what God is saying is listening to what he has already said! For God does not change is mind, He does not contradict Himself. He is eternal and His words are eternal and unchanging.

So, if we want to listen to God, to discern his voice from all the other competing voices of our culture etc we must go back to the words of God found in the bible. Listening to God means reading, and studying and believing the words of God found in the Bible. So when we seek to listen to that still small voice, that gentle whisper of God, it must be telling us something in keeping with what God has already revealed in His word. Most often God will speak to us directly through bringing certain passages of scripture to our conscious minds and spirits. The Holy Spirit will touch our hearts through the words of the bible resonating in our souls and spirits. I believe that this is the simplest and safest way of listening to God.

But do we need to interpret the Bible?

This of course is where most of the trouble in church can be found. We may accept the historical word of God as truth, but what does it exactly say about, say the role of the priests, or women leaders, or infant baptism, or Holy-Spirit baptism, or the true meaning of Communion, or whether it is right to go to war, or whether it is good to be rich in an age of hunger, etc …  I believe that the scripture does talk about many of these questions in some detail but let us be honest and confess that there has still been much historical division in the church over the correct interpretation.

The christian church itself has its own culture. It is not immune from false prophets and ego driven voices that seek to usurp God’s voice. As St Benedict said in the 6th century, “the Church has a long and sinful history” little did he know how bad things would get later on! These false prophets and leaders are more interested in defending and building up there own position than to truly and humbly consider what God is saying and has said.

Let us consider the situation described in the book of Acts chapter 15.

1Certain people came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the believers: “Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.” 2This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them. So Paul and Barnabas were appointed, along with some other believers, to go up to Jerusalem to see the apostles and elders about this question.

This was one of the first major conflicts that the church had to face - what to do with the problem of non-Jewish believers? Non-Jewish believers were called Gentile believers in scripture. Should non-Jewish believers be forced to become Jews as well as Christians? Its seems amazing to us that there was ever any doubt as to what God wanted. Surely, the Good News is for everyone Jew and Greek, male or female, slave or free, rich or poor. Well, at this moment in history about AD 50, that’s 20 years after Jesus’ death and Resurrection things were not that clear to all.

The church in Jerusalem was still predominantly Jewish, and they met in the Temple and followed most of the traditions of the ultra-religious Jews. It is interesting that they had groups of “believers” from the party of the Pharisees. Despite that fact that Jesus had been vehemently opposed to the Pharisees it appears from verse 5 that some were actually welcomed within the church. Their view seems to be that this influx of non-Jewish converts must not be permitted to dilute the traditions and law of God. So why should not these non-Jewish converts accept graciously the blessing of the Old Testament in full, including circumcision. Now remember at this point very little of the New Testament existed. The problem, for these Judaizing Pharisees, was that there were only a few non-Jewish believers in Jerusalem. So you can see how some of these highly motivated, ultra-religious, guys got it into their heads to go off to ensure compliance in the church in Antioch.

This “mission” wasn’t explicitly sanctioned by the Jerusalem church but these people acted as if they had permission. So on turning up in Antioch and they set out their stall and they were given a platform to preach and teach. And then it all turns “pair shaped”, Paul take great offense at what they are saying and insists on having stand up, face to face, full blown, and most probably heated, argument with them.

Who was right who was wrong? For us now, it was clear that these Judaizers did not get it. They completely missed the point of Jesus dying once for all. That is all sins, all transgressions could be forgiven. They didn’t understand that God salvation plan was a free gift, not an earned reward for good behaviour. For there is nothing we can do to make ourselves right with God. We must only believe that Jesus has done it all. They didn’t understand that the purpose of the Old Testament was to bring us to Jesus. They didn’t understand that Jesus was Messiah and Lord for everyone not just the Jews. The didn’t understand that if God is the Almighty God He must be the God of all and have plans and purposes for all.

The purpose of the sacrificial system in the Old Testament was to point prophetically to the loving self-sacrifice of the Son of God. The ceremonial traditions in the Old Testament, that is all the teaching on foods, rituals, and the initiation of circumcision, are no longer needed. The moral teaching of the Law, the ten commandments and the golden rule, remain but the ceremonial religious parts have been completed once and for all time. Like some epic Shakespearean drama, the religious and the historical parts of the Old Testament are like the opening acts which set out the back-story. This leads to that final climactic act of God on the Cross.  “It is finished” was the cry of Jesus on the cross. It is accomplished, “I have die once for all the perfect sin offering”. So this story is complete. It is not that God has changed His mind, No, it is that God has completed what He had always planned to do.

So a delegation from the Antioch Church was sent to the Jerusalem Church to get some resolution to this problem once and for all. Let me read from Paul’s description in Galatians 2

1 … I went up again to Jerusalem, this time with Barnabas. I took Titus along also.2I went in response to a revelation and, meeting privately with those esteemed as leaders, I presented to them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. I wanted to be sure I was not running and had not been running my race in vain.

Note that the first meeting was in private and was among the leaders only. It is wise to not have an open debate without the leaders first discerning what they believe to be God’s will in the matter. Let the hard talking, arguing and praying go on behind closed doors and without any fixed time limit.

Consider Paul’s grace and humility. Even though he was strongly convinced he was in the right, and he was in the right, he still was concerned to gain acceptance from other leaders. He wanted to keep the bond of peace. Discerning the will of God, even for an Apostle, is subject to testing. You may believe you understand God’s will but are you willing to put that understanding to the test? Alas, today there are many who strongly believe they know best but are unwilling to humbly submit to others. They believe that they and they alone are able to listen correctly to God. I have seen a few like this even in our church. It appears that listening to God, discerning the will of God and testing that perceived will is done by a community rather than just a single individual. That is not to say that the church is a democracy or infallible, no - there is no scriptural warrant for either of these positions.

Let us continue the story in Acts 15

7After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them: “Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. 8God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. 9He did not discriminate between us and them,for he purified their hearts by faith. 10Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear? 11No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.”

Then Paul and Barnabas spoke and finally James. Then we read ...

22Then the apostles and elders, with the whole church, decided to choose some of their own men and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas.

At this point the whole church affirmed the decision of the elders and apostles.

They chose Judas (called Barsabbas) and Silas, men who were leaders among the believers. 23With them they sent the following letter:The apostles and elders, your brothers,To the Gentile believers in Antioch, Syria and Cilicia:Greetings.24We have heard that some went out from us without our authorization and disturbed you, troubling your minds by what they said. 25 So we all agreed to choose some men and send them to you with our dear friends Barnabas and Paul— 26 men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.27 Therefore we are sending Judas and Silas to confirm by word of mouth what we are writing. 28 It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements: 29 You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things.  Farewell.

So, after 20 years from Christ’s death and resurrection, the matter was settled once and for all. - Well, not quite.

You may have noticed that in the last verse 29 it was not a complete win for Paul’s position. Non-Jewish (Gentile) believers were still encouraged to follow certain dietary requirement of the covenant of Noah. At the time this probably seemed very sensible as much of these things were found in the pagan Greek worship of “the gods”. So it would be like following two different belief systems at the same time; i.e. pagan and Christian. But also for some Jewish converts eating certain foods was so offensive that they couldn’t accept it and remain in close fellowship with non-Jewish converts.

However, even though this reasoning was based on good intentions it wasn’t based on a sound understanding of God’s plan of salvation for all. The letters of Romans, Hebrews and Corinthians discusses why this is the case. And the Gospels indicate that Jesus Himself didn’t seem to have any problem with this kind of thing; He shared fellowship freely with Jews and non-Jews, male or female, slave or free. This was one to the reasons he was so heavily criticised by the Jewish leaders.

This short judgement of the Church had the effect of storing up trouble for the future. Let us read from Galatians 2:11, sometime later

11 When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. 12 For before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group.  

Paul publicly rebuked Peter (Cephas) over his behavior on this issue. And Peter, to be fair, seems to accept this rebuke. The matter was clearly not resolved. In fact this problem rumbled on for another 20 years.  

Some 8 years later when Paul return to Jerusalem, for one last time, we read in Acts 21

17 When we arrived at Jerusalem, the brothers and sisters received us warmly. 18The next day Paul and the rest of us went to see James, and all the elders were present. 19Paul greeted them and reported in detail what God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry. 20When they heard this, they praised God. Then they said to Paul: “You see, brother, how many thousands of Jews have believed, and all of them are zealous for the law. .

“Are zealous for the law …” that doesn’t sound good! Do they understand that you are saved by the gift of faith not personal works? Do you they not understand that they can never be put right with God through what we do? Why are they going back to the Old instead of embracing the New Covenant? The Jerusalem Church had taken on an almost entirely Jewish character and it is clear that Paul’s views and actions were not entirely popular we read

21 They (the church members) have been informed that you (Paul) teach all the Jews who live among the Gentiles to turn away from Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or live according to our customs. 22 What shall we do? They will certainly hear that you have come, …

Basically, Paul’s very life was in danger, that how high feelings were running. Wow, this problem was still unresolved. The church at Jerusalem had been unable to free itself from the culture influences of the society in which it was based. The Jewish nation at the time was still under the occupation and rule of Rome, and they didn’t like it. Society was moving back to a “Old Testament spirituality” and Temple worship. This traditionalism became a groundswell of growing nationalism. It is interesting that despite the large number of converts at Jerusalem we read very little positive about the church’s activity over 30 year period in scripture. To be fair they were walking a tight rope, trying to avoid open conflict with an increasingly militant, nationalistic and orthodox Jewish society. Some 4 years after this event James the leader of the Church in Jerusalem was put to death, most probably by stoning.

Things eventual came to a head when the Romans armies laid siege to Jerusalem in AD 70, killing tens of thousands, and eventually destroyed the temple, the temple complex and much of Jerusalem. This was predicted by Jesus is Matthew's Gospel. The Jerusalem Church never recovered its preeminence. I take this as warning for the Church to follow the way of grace and not works. God has made clear that the Old Testament worship and pattern were at an end, and the Temple has never been rebuilt. Without the temple you cannot correctly and truly follow the old way now, only the new.

Epilogue

So listening to God requires people to read and understand the scriptures. It requires elders and leaders to listen to the voice of God and discern His voice from all the other noise around. It requires a listen and discerning community that is humble and faithful.  It is easy to make mistakes, and being a large and successful church is no safeguard against error. Just because a Church decides to follow a certain plan does not mean that it is God’s plan. If the Jerusalem Church can make mistakes, I take it that no one is infallible.

For the Church to be a listening and discerning community, we need people to leave their egos, their cultural baggage and all self interest at the door. Come into our meetings in a humble loving way, seeking to say helpful not harmful things. We need people, who are full of trust in God, to speak from faith not fear. Our goals should be unity around Christ Jesus and peace with one another. The 4th century monk and theologian John Cassian presented these tests of what we think God is telling us: Is this path filled with what is good for all? Is it heavy with faith and trust in God? I like these a lot, they are full of wisdom. The 16th century Ignatius of Loyola suggested the following test: In this path, is there a sense of peace and movement toward God?  Or is there a sense of disease and movement away from God? Does our discerning, our plans moves us closer to God? If not its probably wrong.

Let us always and in every way move towards God.

Amen

A voice from the wilderness

Sermon in series on Joel,  Clevedon Baptist Church

Have you ever sat and asked yourselves why is the world the way it is? and I am not talking here about the Higg’s particle or the laws of physics. The question I am thinking about is this: why, as human beings, do we think the way we think, why do we entertain certain ideas and not others? I do not believe that the world of ideas is governed by biology it is governed by history. As individuals what are the stories we tell ourselves to navigate life’s ups and downs. As nations why do we structure our societies the way we do? These are difficult questions and they are ones we naturally avoid.

To sincerely ask these questions is to acknowledge that the answers we find may require us to change. They may require us to turn around our whole way of thinking. There is the danger here of conflicted thoughts, but also a danger of personal change, transformation, and setting out on a different path. These questions are in the territory, the realm, of the Prophets. Their calling is to proclaim answers to these questions. Their calling is to propose a particular view of the world that runs contrary to the widely accepted one. Their calling is not based in this world’s values. It is rooted in an entire different ground. It is a calling from an external source and something beyond their own creative imagining. For they have been chosen by the almighty, sovereign, Creator God to be a voice of one crying in the wilderness:‘Prepare the way of the Lord’[1] (Mark 1:3).

In listen to a prophet we are faced with the troubling possibility that there are two alterative views of reality. On the one hand the dominant world view that is so wide spread that it need not even be articulated, it is almost universally accepted. And on the other hand we have this voice that is irrelevant in world’s eyes, a cry from the ‘nowhere places of the world’, a lone, guttural, wail that reality is rooted on a connection with the eternal God.

You see the role of the prophet is not primarily one of predicted the future or even commenting on social justice. If you search the scriptures you will find these aspects only form a small part of prophecy. If I may paraphrase Walter Bruggerman[2] here: the role of the prophet is to present “a contest between two different descriptions of the world and an effort to show that the God of the Bible version of reality is more adequate and finally more reliable than the dominant cultural world view.

We see this contest throughout scripture, from beginning to end. Remember Moses presenting the people of God with a choice between two ways. Listen to voice of Moses, (in Deut 30:19) 

“¹⁹This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life”[3].

Listen to Joshua’s declaration to the people of Israel (Joshua 24:15)

¹⁵And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”[4]

Remember Elijah’s contest with the false prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. Listen to Elijah (1 Kings 18:21) 

Elijah went before the people and said, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.” 

Today, in our nation, we do not have Baal as the dominant cultural world view. Our dominant world view is founded on self-reliance and self-invention. We compete with one another to achieve status and success, both material and social. There is no default respect given for others. You often hear today “respect must be earned”. But if we require this of others will they not require it of us? In our quite moments when we are alone will we respect ourselves or will we be constantly anxious about ‘who we are?’ So, as Bruggerman put it, we will be motivated by pervasive anxiety about having enough, or being enough, or being in control[5] Is this modern life, being continually stressed about who we are and what we have? The Gospel say respect others and yourself, for this is the Golden rule ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’[6]

The dominant cultural world view is a consumerist, self-first, self-reliant, view of life that is mixed together with a growing militant atheism. This atheism arrogantly seeks to limit and reduce everything to what can be understood. It is a belief system that is accountable to no-one. Its logical conclusions, as Nietzsche advocated, is that power and arrogance are noble, i.e. “might is always right” and look what both Hitler and Stalin did with this idea. This is in stark contrast to the Gospel’s view of humble self-sacrifice, inter-personal accountability and reliance, social transformation, justice and fairness for all that is grounded in compassion, one for another.   

The biblical world view is one that starts with the assumption that God breathed life into us and created all things. We are made with the breath of the eternal God, in his likeness, living beings. However, we have forsaken this higher, eternal, reality exchanging it for a self-reliance and self-invention myth. We have abandoned, for the most part, the nature of God within us. The bible calls this sin. This has consequences far beyond our individual freedoms and actions. For once there is no longer any obligation for neighbour to look after neighbour mankind is free to oppress and dispose neighbours of their rights. Is this not the history of the world? Endlessly man fights against man, nation wars against nation, with wretched nationalisms that sanction enslavement and theft on a grand scale. The biblical account doesn’t end there, for it follows this fall, this loss of humanity’s purpose, with God’s loving acts of revelation.

God reaches out to us by lovingly revealing himself to a people, through a historical journey over many generations. We stand here a part of that historical family that stretches back to the being of humanity. So this revelation of who God is continues even to this present day. This revelation of the character and nature of God is given concrete form in the scriptures. And these scripture can only be understood through the Spirit of God in the heart that trusts.

Ultimately, the story of the scriptures is one of redemption and love.  Again and again, the Lord intervenes in history to save his people. God is living and active. He miraculously frees the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt through Moses. Then, again and again, generation after generation God continues this revelation and redemptive love through people like Joshua, Gideon, Samuel, Esther and Jehoshaphat. God saves his people out of his compassion and love. These acts foreshadow the coming of Saviour of the world; the Lord Jesus.   

So we turn to Joel, A prophet in the family of the people of God. A prophet’s call is to say things that people will not want to hear! They generate sharp opposition to their message. Amos was exiled, Jeremiah was thrown in a pit, Elijah was sentenced to death and hunted and Isaiah was sawn in two! They are called to live among scorpions and thorns[7] – such is the opposition to what they say.  Because their call is to shine a light on the dangerous and terrible spiritual conflict between ‘worldly-thinking’ and ‘God-thinking’. Joel’s task was to highlight the conflict between the culturally accepted world view and the Godly truth of creation, revelation and salvation. His call was to proclaim the contest and like those before and after to say to the people ‘don’t sit on the fence you can’t choose both life and death, choose life - choose God’

At this point it is worth commenting a little on the literary style of the prophetic writings. The first thing to say is that they share more similarity with poetry than philosophy. They deal with this contest between God-thinking and worldly-thinking by using story-pictures painted in words. It is interesting that they don’t fight the ‘worldly-thinking’ with philosophy or reasoned argument. You don’t fight fire with fire. Contrary to common wisdom, you fight fire with water! i.e. something completely different. And the poetic prophetic is able to touch hearts and souls in a way that philosophy or reasoned argument cannot. So when you listen to the Prophets remember that this is not systematic theology; it is not like Paul’s letters. They describe the things that have been, that are, and still to be, from the vantage point of God’s perspective, in a language that is poetically imprecise. They recognise that God cannot be adequately described by reasoning and words alone. 

In Joel, chapter 1, we learned about the consequences of not trusting God’s plans and purposes – disaster! You see the contest or battle between worldly-thinking and God-thinking is not some polite philosophical debate – no. It is literally a matter of life and death. For if selfishness and “each man for himself thinking” takes hold in a nation it results in the destruction of communities. It brings suffering and sorrow in its wake. Like an army of locusts devouring the land it brings despair and lays to waste the lives of many. So Joel urges repentance, and a turning back to ways of God.

¹⁴Declare a holy fast; call a sacred assembly.

Summon the elders and all who live in the land

to the house of the Lord your God, and cry out to the Lord.

In chapter 2 he continues his proclamation with a call to return to God with all of our hearts.

¹²“Even now,” declares the Lord,

   “return to me with all your heart,

    with fasting and weeping and mourning.”

¹³ Rend your heart  and not your garments.

   Return to the Lord your God,

           for he is gracious and compassionate,

  slow to anger and abounding in love,

  and he relents from sending calamity.

And at the end of chapter 2 Joel gives us hope in that future ‘day of the Lord’, that day of blessing and compassion.

 “ I will pour out my Spirit on all people.

   Your sons and daughters will prophesy,

    your old men will dream dreams,

    your young men will see visions”.[8]

This verse was quoted by Peter at the first Pentecost of the Church in acts 2. We as the new covenant people of God are to be a prophetic people, young and old, male and female. We are to be dreamers of dreams, people who image and envision our Lord God - a people who proclaim the Good News about God.

This terrible and wonderful ‘day of the Lord’ is prefigured in Acts 2. It is terrible because with it comes with the idea of being personally called to account for our actions. It is wonderful because it offers the hope of blessings beyond imagination. The ‘day of the Lord’ goes on from Acts 2, literally stretching on from this event, through the full history of the church, to the end of the world, at the end of chapter 2.

Chapter 3 continues this with a description of the judgment of mankind. Listen to the prophet Joel, (Joel 3:2)

“I will gather all nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat There I will put them on trial for what they did to my inheritance, my people Israel”[9],

And in verse 14-16

Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. ¹⁵ The sun and moon will be darkened, and the stars no longer shine. ¹⁶ The Lord will roar from Zion

What is the valley of Jehoshaphat, the valley of decision? Here we see something of what poetry can do that logic cannot. Poetry uses the history, our past and present experience to convey effects that are difficult to articulate. It describes in a new, deeper way, the past events but also portrays the present and future. The poetic prophetic often deals with all three, past, present and future at the same time.

The ‘valley of Jehoshaphat’ is literally in the Hebrew ‘the valley of Judgement’ for Jehoshaphat means ‘God has judged’. Joel uses this poetic wordplay to describe an idea, not just a specific place or event. Jehoshaphat, a former king of Judea, was surrounded by enemies. This is described in 2 Chronicles 20:1-30. The people of Jerusalem were in a desperate position: war with not one, or two but three strong enemies at the same time! They, finally, call on the Lord for help, commit themselves to God, worship, give thanks and march out to battle. But before even an arrow was loosed by them, the enemy armies started to fight each other in a valley near Jerusalem. They completely destroyed themselves – as Chronicles records; for ‘the battle belongs to the Lord … they destroyed one another’. The judgement of the nations is rooted in decisions they themselves make!  

The problem with sin is not just that it offends the Holy God. It offends the loving God because in living a ‘me-first’ existence we can and do trample on others, whom God also loves. Warring and violence of individuals and nations causes truly great and terrible suffering. Does God do nothing when the cry of those who have suffered is heard by him in the valley of decision? Does God say to them ‘so you have suffered, so what?’- No. God’s judgement is primarily one of justice and fairness. There is a final recompense for those who have suffered and been down-trodden, in the valley of decision and Judgement. And this is the argument against the Atheist, for whom without God there can never be any recompense, fairness or justice. You see we need God’s judgements to balance the books, to set the scales of injustice and suffering aright. Evil must not and shall not triumph. There will be many who look forwards to receiving justice when they bring their tears and sorrows to God.

Joel paints the picture of judgement and justice for the Jewish people. But this judgement is one that is set on an eternal stage and cosmic scale, in the valley of decision. The whole of humanity are there. All of the nations who contest with and against the Lord are there. ‘Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision’ . This theme is picked another poetic-prophetic book, in Chapter 20 of revelation.

¹¹Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. ¹²And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. ¹³The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done. ¹⁴Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. ¹⁵Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.

‘Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision’ – both the living and the dead. The judgement of God spans all people and all times. There is no escaping from that time. And there is an unavoidable decision to make. Which way are you going to go? Are you going to go into the valley of decision trusting in your own strength and your own understanding? Are you going to contend with the Lord God, in whom you do not trust or believe? Or is your decision going to be ‘I want my name written in the book of life’. Do you enter the valley like Jehoshaphat with repentance, and trust in Jesus Christ? Or are you entering the valley like those armies with sword and shield, trusting in your own strength, because you refuse to bow the knee, because you are determined to be in charge of your own life.

The words of the Prophets to you, here and now, are stop, stop, stop. Think what you are doing. Consider where your path is leading. Turn back to your creator God, Trust Him; accept Jesus and his sacrifice on the Cross. For if you trust Him you can have your slate wiped clean. All the things you have done wrong can be forgiven – no matter how bad. Your name will be written in the book of life. You may enter the valley of decision in hope and expectation. I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life

Choose life and the wonderful blessing of the heavenly Jerusalem - Listen to the Apostle John

³And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ⁴ ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

Amen

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[1] Mark 1:3

[2] Brueggemann, Walter (2011-12-15). The Practice of Prophetic Imagination: Preaching an Emancipating Word (p. 2). Augsburg Fortress. Kindle Edition

[3] Deut 30:19

[4] Joshua 24:15

[5] Brueggemann, Walter (2011-12-15). The Practice of Prophetic Imagination: Preaching an Emancipating Word (p. 2). Augsburg Fortress. Kindle Edition

[6] Matthew 22:39

[7] Ezekiel 2

[8] Joel 2:28

[9] Joel 3:2

Love suffers long

Sermon in series on the fruit of Holy Spirit, “the school of neighbourly virtues”

Clevedon Baptist Church,  – May 5/2012

In this series we have been looking at the fruit of the Holy Spirit, listed in Paul’s letter to the Galatians chapter 5 and verse 22-23. As it says in the New Living Translation,

“²²But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness goodness, faithfulness, ²³gentleness and self control”

Or if I read these verses from the New King James version

“²²But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³gentleness, self-control”.

It is always a good idea to have a few English translations at hand to get a feel for how different translators translate the original Greek and Hebrew text of the scriptures. And we are very blessed to have so many English translations.

In our series so far we have considered, Love, Joy and peace. So today we shall dwell on the “neighbourly virtue” of patience or the New King James version says longsuffering.

But before we consider longsuffering it would be good for us to go back to the beginning and consider the idea of fruit again. Why does the apostle Paul use this term fruit and not gift or blessing? The terms gift and blessing remind us of the things we have. But Paul uses to word fruit to talk more about who we are rather than what we have. The context of Galatians 5 is all about the way we live, our lifestyle, our choices, and manner of being. This work of the Holy Spirit is the processes of sanctification; that is becoming more like Jesus. There are many thoughts that come with this picture of fruit.

Firstly, think on this: good fruit is generally sweet, tasty and pleasant. And is this not what Paul is staying, one the one hand you have the way of the world that is listed in verse 19-21 and one the other the way of the Spirit listed in verse 22-23. The ways of the world could be summarised like this: not trusting God, serving yourself first and not caring about others.  Paul is saying this way is not the way to go; this life is not the life to have, this way leads to misery, death and judgement. It is like rotten fruit that is ultimately not sweet, not tasty and not pleasant even though it may appear pleasant for a while. However, God’s way will ultimately be sweet, satisfying and fulfilling.   

The second thing about fruit is that is takes time to grow. We do not see a tree with no fruit one day and then on the very next day full of ripened fruit. No, bearing, growing fruit is a process that takes time. The heart of the Christian life is this process. We must faithfully and patiently let the Holy Spirit grow the heart of Jesus within us and among us. So that we may be the love of Jesus to those we meet. And this growing is done through the up and downs of life. It is through all the seasons of life that this work of the Holy Spirit occurs. For there is a time for growing and there is a time for preparing to grow. Without the preparation of winter the growth of spring will not occur. God does much of His great work when it looks as if nothing is happening and all hope of new growth is lost.

Trust Him. Open your eyes of faith to see that God is always at work in your life. In every season and situation, in every struggle and trial our Father who is in Heaven will find some way to bring you good.

For “²⁸ we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them”. [Romans 8:28]

The final thing about this picture of fruit is that it grows from another. Not from your own strength does this fruit grow, no. It grows by the strength of another. Without the tree the branch withers, and without the branch the fruit cannot grow. Jesus, reminded us of this is John’s Gospel chapter 15:5-8

“I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.

Apart from me, Jesus says, you can do nothing. Jesus says to us we can, on our own, do nothing of eternal consequence, nothing to help the Church, nothing to grow the nature of Jesus in our hearts, nothing to change ourselves. He goes on to say

⁶Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned. ⁷But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted! ⁸When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father. ⁹I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love.  

The simple message of fruit is that it can only grow in our lives if we remain connected to God and His word. This is the gospel, the eternal and changeless gospel. The Apostle James encourages us to

“Draw near to God and He will draw near to you” [James 4:8, NKJV]

 

And be Paul reminds us that we should be

“confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;” [Phil 1:6, NKJV]

So let us never lose heart and give up. God has done, is doing and will continue to do His part; for His love for us will never fail [1 Corinthians 13:8]. So we should do our part and remain connected to Him. Let His words remain in our hearts and minds: trust truly, hope truly and love truly.    

Now let us reflect and meditate on the fruit that is patience and longsuffering.

Longsuffering is the hallmark of Christian love. It distinguishes Christian love from the other kinds of love that found in the world. It is a shame that English only has one word for Love in all its different forms. New Testament Greek has four words for love.

The first Éros (ἔρως)  is the passionate love, with sexual desire and longing. This love has its place within marriage, between a man and woman. Philia (φιλία) is a mutually supportive love between friends. Storge (στοργή) is the affection felt by parents for their children.

While all these three can be good in the right setting, we get something back by this kind of loving, some pleasure, some affection, and some personal support. But a different word is used for Christian love in the New Testament - the Greek word for Christian love is Agápe (ἀγάπη). This is an unconditional love, a love that does not get anything back from the person whom you love! It is selfless; it considers first the needs of the other and not our own.

And this is the love is mostly mentioned by Jesus, read John 15

⁹I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love.  …   ¹²“This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. ¹³“Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.

Christian love is nonsensical, to the world. It is a love that does not get anything back. It is all about self sacrifice, laying down your life for the sake of others. Now is this not hard? And how can you learn to love this way without understanding the way of patience, humility and longsuffering? It is possible to circumvent this path, this way of the cross, to understand and practise Christian love truly?

You see the character of God, in the people of God, is grown through hard times, suffering and self sacrifice. Not only is Christian love the capstone virtue, it is the way by which we learn and grow all fruit, all the virtues listed in Galatians 5.

We are all called to acts of kindness, goodness, faithfulness and gentleness. This is costly; we are called to love those who do not care to love us.

This must be especially true in the church, for if we cannot love our brother and sisters in Christ how can we truly love those who are not Christians and those who may even be our enemies? If a suggestion is made for some change in our church what is our reaction? Do we first think about how it will affect us? Do we say to ourselves “I have a nice oasis away from the struggles of life here in the church and please don’t ask me to change what I am doing” Do we focus only on our own needs and wants or do we love, with Christian love? Do we seek the good of others first and foremost? This is the heart of the problem with our modern churches, with us. We accept Christ's sacrifice on the cross but we are reluctant to follow too closely the way of the cross, the way of Love.

Jesus told us that it is “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” [John 13:35]. Now this love that Jesus was talking about was not the love of friends, a love that gets something back! No, it was the self-sacrificial kind of love; Christian love. You see when people who are not believers see this kind of love in the Church they will notice something wonderfully nonsensical is happing among us. This is our true Christian witness. This is how some parts of the Church shine more brightly than others. It is not through sound doctrine or large congregations or even wonderfully worship services, but through sacrificial love expressed one to another in the fellowship. And I believe that this can only be done with the help of God.   

So, it is in laying aside our own agendas for the greater calling from above that the Spirit of God grows the fruit of God in us and among us. As a church are we prepared to do this? As individuals are we prepared and willing to do this? For as Paul says to us

⁴Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; ⁵does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; ⁶does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; ⁷bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. ⁸Love never fails. [NKJV, 1 Corithians 13:4-8]

Can you hear the words of the Spirit through Paul: Love suffers long, is not self seeking, bearing the failings of others, enduring the state of the church. This is not some fluffy, cuddly love. It is gritty and hard. It is steadfast, realistic and genuine. Is this not difficult? Does this not require some braking of our natural pride? May it not also result in heart ache and suffering? Who then is up to such a challenge? Who among us can live such a life? CS Lewis, in his wonderfully way, put the case to us

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.”

 ― C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

To love is to be vulnerable and so to love is being more open to the possibility of suffering because there is evil in this world. As Christians we must not shy away for this calling to love – for it is the only way that leads to life. Remember, we continue in this way because we trust God has a plan for Good here and His plan will not fail.

The scriptures are littered with examples of those who patiently suffered for the sake of trusting God. I could mention patriarch Job who was struck down for season with almost soul destroying set of circumstances. I could mention Joseph who was betrayed by his own brothers sold into slavery to eventual be thrown into a wretched dungeon for many years. I could mention the prophet Elijah who had to suffer a complete collapse of faith amongst the people of God when they started to follow false gods. I could mention the prophet Isaiah struggles with evil despotic kings, or the prophet Jeremiah who was cast into a cesspit by his own people for speaking out the word of God.

If you believe that the Christian life is easy open up your bibles and read. But God can use hard times help to focus our attention on our utter need for Him. The spiritual preacher Oswald Chambers remarked

Of course “we all know people who have been made much meaner and more irritable and more intolerable to live with by suffering: it is not right to say that all suffering perfects. It only perfects one type of person ...... the one who accepts the call of God in Christ Jesus.” - Oswald Chambers

The character of God, in the people of God, is grown through hard times and suffering if we do not turn away from Him. CS Lewis again put it like this

For it when a Christian has known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. Then they have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.” 

Beautiful people do not just happen they are grown through a life of trusting Jesus. The Apostle Paul summarised this process of growing the character of Jesus in our hearts in the book of Romans 5

¹Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ²through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. ³Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; ⁴perseverance, character; and character, hope. ⁵And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

The Apostle Paul knew a thing or two about longsuffering, just read the second letter to the Corinthians; He was beaten, flogged, thrown in prison, shipwrecked, betrayed by some of his closest friends, had people in his churches say he was not a good enough preacher, had people in his churches say he was not spiritual enough – and this is the Apostle Paul here! At one point he even despaired of live itself [2 Corinthians 1:8]. He was struck down with some affliction, we know not what, that he called a “thorn in the flesh”. He begged God, on three occasions, to remove it but the Lord said “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” [2 cor 12:9]. God’s power is most truly revealed in our lives when we understand that his presence, his grace is all we need.

The Holocaust survivor Corrie Ten Boom, who lost her father and sister to the concentration camps, put it like this

You may never know that Jesus is all you need, until Jesus is all you have. - Corrie Ten Boom 

Paul knew this, He knew that that suffering produces perseverance; ⁴perseverance, character; and character, hope.

This is sanctification: the process of growing more Christ-like. It is founded on trust in Jesus but it is a life long journey of remaining close to Jesus through all life’s ups and downs. The fruit of the Holy Spirit are the signs of a growing Christ-like heart and mind. And Paul reminds us also at the end of that passage in Romans 5

God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us  

This last verse is the key to what we must do. It’s not about effort, knuckling down to try and develop more patience. Impatiently saying to yourself ‘I really need to develop more patience, kindness, gentleness, and self-control!’ I’m not sure it’s ever about effort and self will. You cannot make yourself holy or good. You cannot grow the fruit yourself. God grows the fruit when we remain connected and obedient. You see, you can let Him fill your heart with His overwhelming love. In doing so you will understand that He is all you need, that His grace is sufficient for you in every circumstance. For it is only when we allow God to fill us with his love, that we will understand what we must do, how we must live our lives.

I pray that we learn to do this more in this place. Let us welcome God’s love shed abroad in our Hearts by receiving afresh the Holy Spirit of God. Let us not fear suffering rather let us draw close to Him as he draws close to us. May the mercy and peace of God keep us safe during all life’s trials – I pray. 

Be filled with the Holy Spirit

First Sermon in series on the Holy Spirit, Clevedon Baptist Church,  – April 15/2012

We start a new series today on the Holy Spirit and what a challenge this is for us - to understand more fully the person and the work of the Holy Spirit, is the most vital thing for our church today. This is because the Holy Spirit is God Himself. Let us humbly confess that God is infinite and we know Him in only in part. But let us not fool ourselves, this part is very much smaller than it should be because of our sins - or in plain language our lack of commitment to Him, our complacency, and our fear.

The works of the Holy Spirit are the actions of God, and His plans are the will of God for us as individuals and for our church.

The Holy Spirit is person who convicts the world of sin[1]. He shows us our utter need for God. If we say ‘yes’ to the prompting of The Holy Spirit then He will breath into us a new life. Since God is Spirit we must be spiritually alive before we can know him, as Jesus says to us we must be born anew[2].

The Holy Spirit brings us assurance. He helps us feel in our hearts[3] that we truly are God’s children, forgiven, accepted and loved[4]. He can and does bring healing[5], healing of heart and minds, healing of broken and damage relationships, and sometimes healing of our bodies. He is our helper and Guide in the Christian life, the source of all transformation. He helps us to become more like Jesus – although this work is never complete before we see Him face to face. 

The Holy Spirit continues to teach us deep truths about God if we will listen.  He increases our understanding of the Holy Scriptures; and this understanding is not just some intellectual activity. This is the mistake the Pharisees made. You cannot understand scripture without experiencing the love of God in your hearts. The more you experience this love the more you will understand what God’s word means.

The Holy Spirit enables us to worship God, in spirit and in truth, intimately, reverently and lovingly. True worshiper is what God is looking for not a people just singing a bunch of songs without feeling or understanding anything.

And most importantly, the Holy Spirit is the power of God in his Church. Without this power, this wonder working power, this power shown throughout the book of Acts and the New Testament, our witness is lifeless and will be without much fruit. In our thinking let us not put limits on God. Let us not interpret God’s word through our shallow experiences and understanding. Let us not say, I have not experienced this therefore scripture doesn’t apply to me now! If you think this, you are on very doggy ground with this argument. No, God’s word does not change, and his ways do not change. Let us seek God, return to God and ask God for more of this power of the Holy Spirit – for with this power I just wonder what things are possible.

So you see the Holy Spirit is not some optional extra. He is not something added, once every generation, to make a deluxe type Christian[6]. He is an absolute necessity. He is vital and essential for He is truly God among us and within us.

If you are truly a Christian then you must know something of the Holy Spirit within you. The Apostle Paul makes it plain when he says

“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved”. (Roman 10:9) (NLT) And “no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit”. (1 Corinthians 12:3) (NLT)

And listen to the words of Jesus in John 14 (NKJV)

“I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— ¹⁷the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you”.

Note that the Holy Spirit is another helper, or as it says in other translations, a counsellor, an advocate, a comforter and an encourager. He is another one, just like Jesus, and like Jesus He is fully and truly God. The Holy Spirit is a person, not an impersonal thing, action or force! And if we are Christians He dwells among us and within us. I think scripture is plain on this point.

We are living in challenging times – but maybe this is always true for God’s people. In every age, in every generation the baton of faith is passed and it is our turn to run the race, to live the life that God would have us live, the life of faith and hope and love. Our Lord Jesus said to us this: “Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows, but take heart because I have overcome the world”[7].

Today, the challenges to our faith are real, for we live in a secular, atheistic society that seems to neither know nor care about what we do in our churches. We must not detach ourselves from the society in which we live because Jesus wants us to remain as a light to the world[8]. But by in remaining in the world the danger is that we do not go on being transformed by the Holy Spirit of God and that we become conformed to the patterns of this world.

The apostle Paul puts it like this “Don’t copy the behaviour and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect”[9]. Therefore “ .. letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace.”[10]

So this is the heart of the challenge for us today. Are we to be conformed the patterns found in the society around us or are we to be transformed by the Holy Spirit of God to live the life that Jesus would have us live?

In his book Discipleship, David Watson (1981), said this

‘the mood in our affluent modern society is that of apathy, cynicism, frustration, alienation and increasing hopelessness. In our spiritually bankrupt generation people are looking not for religion but for reality. .. Unless God is manifest in our midst people have little time for the Church. Unless we become the living, loving, caring body of Christ on earth why should anyone believe in the saviour? The call of Jesus to his disciples was absolute: they had to deny themselves, take up the cross and follow him – no turning back.’.

We, as a people here, are not just some club or society meeting together for our own pleasure. We are called and chosen to be the people of the living God. We believe and trust in the almighty, eternal, creator God. Even though we are just like simple clay pots[11] we have this precious presence, among us and within us, that world does not understand. We have a connection with the eternal, this knowledge of the infinite, this hope, this faith, this trust in the way of Love. We do not need to copy the world’s ways, no. We need to redeem of our own true calling – the ways of the living, creator, God. We need, like that prodigal son, to return, repent, and reconnect with our Lord.

In the Letter to the Ephesians chapter 5, Paul puts it like this,

“¹⁵So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise. ¹⁶Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. ¹⁷Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do. ¹⁸Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit” (NLT)

Be filled with the Holy Spirit, literally in the Greek, a present command.  This is not a one time event - go on and on being filled with the Holy Spirit. Yes, we have the Holy Spirit within us as Christians but the scripture also says that we can put out the fire of the Holy Spirit, Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5:19 “Do not quench the Spirit”. If our brother or sister has some insight or blessing or prophecy from God, let us encourage them as they try and encourage us. Let us not try and put out their fire for God because of our own fears. In Ephesians 4:30 Paul warns us not to fall into habitual sin, “do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God”. Let speak the truth, one to another, in a loving way. Let us try speaking words that are helpful not harmful. Both, a lack of truth telling and a lack of love in our words grieve the Holy Spirit. Superficial politeness is not godly. If it masks an uncaring and un-reconciled heart, it grieves God. For God requires that our love for one another is honest. If we are completely alienated from God we read in Acts 7:51 that it is possible to “resist the Holy Spirit”. Please never do this!

You see, for some of us, at some periods of our lives, do not walk forwards. We lose our way; we step backwards from a deep commitment to God. You see living the Christian life is not easy; it is not easy and God understands this. We are not people who are naturally attuned to the way of love, self-sacrifice and putting other people first. We are born in a world that seeks to pull us towards its own ways.

So to avoid these dangers, we must “be filled with the Spirit”, for “the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness” as it says in Roman 8:26. We must go on and on drawing close to God – continually listening to the Spirit in prayer, continually learning from the Spirit through the scriptures, continually walking and living in the Spirit in our actions.   

There is much to learn of the works of the Holy Spirit and this sermon is only the first in our series.

  

Now let us consider the text from John’s Gospel chapter 20. What a week the disciples had been through, they had witnessed the highs of Palm Sunday and the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. It almost seemed that all the Jewish people and the whole world were going to accept Jesus as the Messiah. And then that Friday, oh no they must have thought, it was too terrible to remember. All their fears were realised and their hopes crushed. You see our faith, this mere Christianity, is always present in the darkest and most bleak settings – when it seems as if there is no hope, no faith, no love, when everything is lost, the miraculous God turns up. Our faith in Jesus is real and honest and true, so it does not seek to avoid unpleasant times, times of despair and death – no, God has a way of bringing life out of even death - for nothing is impossible with God. On that Sunday morning, what hope was there left for the disciples? None, yet Jesus rose from the dead, and came back to life. – Hallelujah.

It was Mary that saw him on that first morning, and let those who question the role of women in his Church meditate on this fact. It was to a woman, Mary Magdalene, that Jesus appeared first after the resurrection. And it was to this Mary that Jesus gave the first commission to speak, to tell, to proclaim His resurrection and ascension. This is the same Mary who at one time was so complete messed up in her mind and heart and spirit that she was possessed by seven demons! Does this not tell us something of the way God works? As Isaiah reminds us “’.. my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the LORD”. (Isaiah 55:8)

The disciples listen to the testimony of Mary but presumably they could not fully accept it as they were still bound by fear. Listen now as I read from John’s Gospel.    

¹⁹On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!”

Our God is a God of peace, a deep, abiding, heartfelt rest and comfort. Jesus says to those disciples “chill – it’s ok” - “be at peace I understand your weaknesses and failures and we are at peace because I forgive everything. Jesus knew all they needed was this “shalom” – this peace and forgiveness of God. Is this not true for us also?  If you have fears and troubles let the peace of God comfort your heart today. And when you know this comfort bring this comfort to others – let us learn to say one to another “Peace be with you”

 ²⁰After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. ²¹Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” ²²And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.  ²³If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

The word I want us to dwell on here is “breathed”. The Greek word (emphysáō) used for ‘breathed’ is the same word used in the most ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament. Listen to Genesis 2:7 which reads “the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed (Hebrew: Ruach) into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. (Genesis 2:7).

God forms man’s body out of the dust, and it’s a body with no life until he breathes into it. Dr Martyn Lloyd Jones put like this

‘Jesus had finished his work and presented himself and his blood in heaven, and is now head of the church and he come to these disciples and apostles to make it clear to them that they are his body. He breathes his Spirit of life in the body, in this extraordinary parallel with what happen in man’s creation at the very beginning’

The breath of God brought life, literally creating mankind. Now Jesus breathes on his disciples saying “receive the Holy Spirit” and this was also an ‘act of creation’. I believe this ‘act of creation’ is the beginning of the Church. The commission of the church is given in the following verses 21 and 23 “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you ..  ²³If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

As His church we are sent to preach peace and forgiveness, literally to declare the facts that God. This is our primary message. ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life’ (John 3:16). Because of Jesus death on the cross all our sins can be forgiven. He exchanged places with us, he took everything that we have done wrong and its punishment in his death on the cross. We have this sweet exchange, he died for us that we might know peace and forgiveness. Because of His resurrection we know this is true. Those who confess, repent and believe that Jesus rose from the death shall not perish but find life eternal, an abundant and full life.

This is the message of reconciliation that we have as Christians. It is the power of God. It is the way of love, we have this great commission from Jesus to proclaim that we can be reconciled to our loving Father God and that we can also be reconciled one to another. Let us learn and re-learn the way of peace and forgiveness.

The ‘breath of God’ was a one time event. We are born again only once, the church began only once. But the work of the Holy Spirit is not just with beginnings, remember Pentecost, Acts chapter 4 and rest of the New Testament. He is with us for the whole journey of faith[12]. Let us not “quench” his work in our lives or his church, let us not “grieve” him, pray God let us never “resist” him. But rather let recommit our ways to him, let us let go of our complacency and fear and “be filled” afresh day by day with the Holy Spirit of God – that the glory and love of God may be more fully know to us and to the world. –Amen

Ask and you shall receive, come to Christ Jesus, believe, repent and be filled with His Holy Spirit of Peace and forgiveness.

 

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[1] John 16:8

[2] John 3:7

[3] Romans 5:5

[4] Romans 8:14-17

[5] 1 Corinthians 12:8-10

[6] A W Tozer

[7] John 16:33

[8] John 17:15

[9] Romans 12:2

[10] Romans 8:6

[11] 2 Corinthians 4:7

[12] Philippians 1:6