Archive for New Testament

“For all the Saints”

October 31, 2009 at 4:12 pm · Filed under Christian living, New Testament, The Church ·Tagged , , ,

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 “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus”. ( Ephesians 1:1)

What kind of picture does the word “saint” conjure up in your mind? Is it a plaster statue of the Madonna? Is it a picture in a stained-glass window? One little girl was asked what a saint was. She replied: “Someone with light shining through them.” That girl was thinking of the light shining through the figures of saints in the stained-glass windows in her church. But you know, it’s not a bad answer, is it? A saint is a person through whom the light of God shines. But should we restrict this term for particularly famous or holy persons, renowned for their good deeds, or the simplicity of their life? Should we only use it of people like Mother Teresa and Francis of Assisi? Should it be reserved for those who practiced great austerity and asceticism – people like Saint David who lived on herbs and cold water and spent hours up to his neck in icy cold water while he prayed.

Today is All Saints Day – a day of great importance to Anglicans, and even more so to Roman Catholics. But what does it mean to Non-conformists like us? What is a “saint” in Biblical terms?

Our text makes it plain and clears away any misconceptions: “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus”. ( Ephesians 1:1)

 

 

A Saint is a Christian Believer

A saint is not just a particularly special, or holy, or famous Christian. A saint is anyone who is faithful in Christ Jesus. The Greek word used for “faithful” also means “believing” – so we could also say a Saint is a Believer in Jesus Christ. Paul writes to all the believers in Ephesus and calls them “saints”.

We find this view of sainthood in the other New Testament Epistles:

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, …. to all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints. (Romans 1: 7)

To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy, (1 Corinthians 1:2)

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the church of God in Corinth, together with all the saints throughout Achaia. (2 Corinthians 1;1)

To all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi. (Philippians 1:1 )

From these and other texts we see that:

  • A saint is faithful and believing
  • A saint is holy and sanctified
  • A saint is called by God

A saint is not a special Christian, but any true Christian. This one of the great truths rediscovered at the Reformation – we are all saints, and our sins are forgiven by the grace of God alone.

 

 

Mediaeval misconceptions

In the Middle Ages, the Roman Catholic church developed a particular doctrine of sainthood which still persists today in some circles. The idea was that some people were so holy that when they died they went straight to Heaven instead of going to Purgatory.

(Of course, the doctrine of Purgatory is not found in the Bible. We are all sinners but our sins are cleansed by the blood of Christ. We will not need to spend centuries in Purgatory to atone for our sins before we will be allowed into Heaven.)

Anyway, back to the saints. These particularly holy people were thought to be much closer to God than the rest of us. And, just as you might ask another Christian to pray for you, so you might ask one of the “Saints” – even after their death – to intercede on your behalf. Obviously if you believed the Saint was already in heaven then you would think that he or she was much closer to God.

So people were encouraged by the Church to ask the Saints to plead on their behalf before the throne of God. To this day many people pray to the Saints. Some even write letters to them (which seems to me a bit like children writing letters to Santa Claus!)

Now none of this has any Biblical justification – for we are all saints anyway, if we are faithful to Jesus. We all have direct access to God through his Son.

(And there is no such place as Purgatory. Protestants hold varied views about what happens in the “intermediate state” ( the time between death and the final judgement) but none believe in Purgatory. Some hold the view that the soul goes immediately to Heaven to be united with a new resurrection body after the Last Judgement. Others think that death is like a “sleep of the soul” – we shall rest in the Lord, and on the Day of Resurrection be raised up with new bodies. If you hold the first view, then it is just possible that you might think you could pray to the Saints – to communicate with the souls of the departed in Heaven and ask them to intercede on your behalf.

But remember, in both the Old and New Testaments, God has warned us of the danger of spiritualism. We are not, in any way, to attempt to communicate with the dead. To my mind praying to the Saints comes perilously close to this.)

But I digress – all believers are saints, and share in the privilege of belonging to Gods people. What then can we say of God’s saints?

 

 

Faithful and believing

As I said earlier, the same Greek word ( pistis) is used for both “faithful” and “believing”. So we can say of God that he is faithful, he is reliable, he is our Rock in whom we trust. And you can say that the believer, in trusting in Christ, also becomes faithful to him. In other words, becomes more like God. So we have a mutual relationship of trust and love. If we are true Christians, then our relationship with God is based on personal trust in Jesus. It’s not just knowing the facts about Jesus, but knowing him as Saviour.

 

 

Holy and sanctified

“Holy” means “set apart” – like God himself. A saint is “set apart” from sin, from all that is anti-God, from hatred, from greed, from impurity. A saint is one who seeks to live by God’s laws.

“Well,” you may say, “we all fail don’t we, which one of us can claim to be without sin?”

We all fail, yes, but we can all be cleansed by the Blood of Christ. After all, a saint is simply a sinner who has repented and asked for God’s forgiveness. A saint is a sinner who has been made new, born again.

 

 

Called by God

A saint is called of God. Have you heard the call of God? Have you heard a call to personal repentance and faith in Jesus? You can be a nominal Christian because you were brought up in the Church, or because your parents were Christian, or because you are a church member. But that doesn’t make you a saint – a Christian in the true sense. One becomes a Christian, or a saint, when one hears the call of God and responds to it.

Perhaps some might say, “I have never heard the call of God.” Then I would say, “You are hearing it now, through this sermon!” Everyone here, in this church has heard, or is hearing, the call of God.

 How are we going to respond? Is it, “Yes, Lord, I am a sinner, but I want to be a saint”, or is it, “No, Jesus, I am not interested in religious things, I want to stay the same.”

How sad it is when people respond in the second way. They are condemning themselves to an eternity away from God, unless they repent before it’s too late.

 

 

May we all be true saints of God:

  •  faithful and believing ·
  • holy and sanctified 
  •  called by the Lord, and responding to the call.

May it be said of us that we are “saints” – people through whom the light of God shines. Jesus said: “Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” ( Matthew 5:16 )

 

 

 

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Fallen Angels

October 22, 2009 at 9:45 pm · Filed under New Testament, Old testament, evil ·Tagged , , ,

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Satan cast out of heaven by   Gustave Doré

 

Introduction

 
Last week we were thinking about angels. Yes, they do exist! They are real spiritual beings who surround the throne of God and are his messengers for mankind. Billy Graham refers to then as “God’s Secret Agents” in the world. But if this is the case, why then is there so much evil in the world? Why do ( to quote the poet Burns) “the best laid plans of mice, and men, gang aft agley” ?

Why is it that all the best utopian schemes to eradicate poverty, and to usher in world peace, and all the political solutions to the world’s problems fail, time and again? Why are we humans so ineffective at doing good?

Partly, we must admit, it’s our own fault. It’s the inherent selfishness and sin of mankind. But I think it goes further than that. Why, for example, does evil sometimes take such a personal and vindictive form? How can we understand such a man as Hitler, who had an insane hatred of the Jews?

The Bible writers ( the Prophets, and Evangelists, and Apostles ) and even Jesus himself, would answer that Satan and the fallen angels are behind all this. Evil is not just the absence of good. There is more to it than just the forces of decay and dissolution at work in the universe. 

No, evil is personal, and it is anti-God. There is an extremely powerful, malign being who hates God and his people and who does all in his power to thwart God’s purposes in the world. More than that, there are millions of such beings – devils, demons, evil spirits, fallen angels – call them what you will.

What then are these fallen angels? And since we are coming up to Hallowe’en, when many people will be concentrating on the occult, it might be a good thing now for us to think about them. After all, you have to know your enemy.

The Fallen Angels: their origin

Genesis tells us that Adam and Eve in Eden were tempted by the Serpent. Other passages of the Bible indicate that the Serpent is Satan. But how did Satan get there? Was not everything “good” when God created it? How did evil originate,  and how did Satan become evil?

Now we can not be dogmatic about this, but it seems obvious that if God created beings who could love him of their own free will then he would also have to allow the possibility of their not loving him. If they really are to love him freely they they also have the choice of rejecting him. He did not create them as robots.

This theme of the fall and rebellion of Satan and his followers is dealt with great poetic genius by Milton in Paradise Lost. It may read a bit like mythology in Milton but this idea is found in Scripture – the idea that some of the angels became evil.

For example

God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment. ( 2 Peter 2:4 )

and

The angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day;
( Jude 6 )

Nothing is said about what their sin actually was, but it is likely that they exalted themselves against God and aspired to the supreme authority. Satan, when he wanted to tempt Adam and Eve, used the same lure of selfish ambition and pride.

 

Their leader: the Devil

He appears in Scripture as the recognized head of the fallen angels. It seems that he was originally one of the highest princes of the angelic world. Perhaps he was the chief of all the angels. So when Satan led the rebellion against God, then Michael would have been promoted to Archangel ( see Revelation 12:7-12).

What titles are given to the Devil in Scripture?

Satan
This comes from the Hebrew “shatan”, which means “adversary”. This title emphasizes the fact that he is  the enemy of God and Man. That is why he caused the Fall of Man. That is why he attacked Jesus at the start of his ministry.

Apollyon
This comes from a Hebrew word meaning “destroyer”. Because he seeks to spoil all that is good and to destroy God’s works.

The Devil
This comes from the Greek word “diabolos”, which means “accuser” or “slanderer”. What the Devil does is, firstly to  tempt us to sin, and then secondly to accuse us of sinning! So we are tempted to wallow in our sins and to give up trying to be good. “May as well be hung for a sheep as for a lamb”.

The Devil is the author of all those guilt feelings which don’t go away, even when we confess our sins. (It is interesting that it is also the work of the Holy Spirit to make us feel guilty – He convicts us of our sins. But when that happens we turn to Jesus and receive forgiveness. On the other hand, the guilt feelings that the Devil produces do not lead to salvation.)

The prince of this world
Or even “the god of  this world” ( 2 Corinthians 4:4)
 This doesn’t mean that Satan is in control of the world – simply that he has power over all who do not submit to God. After all, you don’t actually have to be a Devil-worshipper or Satanist to do the Devil’s work. All you have to do is to fail to love and serve God.

As “prince” or “god” ( note the small “g”) of this world Satan has tremendous power and knowledge, but he is not all-powerful and all-knowing. Only God is. Satan’s power is limited by God and will ultimately serve God’s purposes.

We see this pre-eminently in the events of the Crucifixion. It was Satan who entered into Judas and tempted him to betray Jesus. It was Satan who motivated the enemies of Jesus when they agitated for his death. It was Satan who brought Jesus to the Cross.

But in Gods sublime purpose that very Cross was turned from defeat to victory. Through that Cross Jesus saved the human race, and indeed brought liberation to the whole universe. For all his evil intentions Satan only succeeded in fulfilling God’s plan. How amazing and mind-boggling is that!

 

Fallen angels: their activities

It is instructive to contrast the good and bad angels.

  • The good ones perpetually praise God, the bad ones perpetually curse him
  • The good ones fight God’s battles, the bad ones oppose God.
  • The good angels carry God’s messages, the bad ones try to deceive God’s people.
  • The good protect God’s people, the bad bring harm on God’s people.

They have many ways of doing these things:

  • Demons can possess people, sometimes causing physical or mental illness.
  • They possess Spiritualist mediums, impersonating the dead in order to deceive people. They lead people into occult bondage.
  • They bind and imprison humans with the ropes of fear, despair, discouragement, sorrow, lusts and temptations.

All these are ways used by the Devil and his angels to destroy God’s work.

 

But we must remember that they are on the run! They are on the losing side, and they know their cause is hopeless. Even though they are chained to hell in pits of darkness ( Jude 6). As Calvin said, “Though as spirits they are not limited to one place, they drag their chains wherever they go.”

 

Fallen angels:  their downfall

In the Parable of the Strong Man ( Matthew 12:22-29 ) Jesus likened Satan to a tyrant who has to be overcome and bound before his house can be despoiled and his captives released. Jesus himself is the one who binds Satan by his victory on the Cross.

Yes, Satan was mortally wounded at Calvary, but he still thrashes about ( as Michael Green says). He is rather like a conger eel in a fishing boat.  It is dangerous for hours after it has been caught. If you go near it it will bite your foot.

So Satan and his angels refuse to lie down and die. They still seek to harm us. But when, by faith, we stand in the victory of Christ we can bind them. Some people indeed have a special ministry of binding evil spirits and releasing the captives.  But in a sense, all Christians can bind Satan and his cohorts. Whenever we take up the weapons of love and encouragement, of joy and trust in the word of God, whenever we hold up the shield of faith we are binding Satan – we are holding back his evil purposes.
Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short.  ( Revelation 12: 12)

He knows he has a lost eternity. He is destined to be cast into the bottomless pit, with all his followers  ( Revelation 20:10).
All this might seem to be a bit scary. The activity of the fallen angels is frantic and their power is great ( for the time being). But we must remember that Christ and his angels have the final victory, and we shall share in that victory if we trust in Jesus.

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Angels

October 22, 2009 at 9:25 pm · Filed under New Testament, Old testament, worship ·Tagged , ,

 

depiction of a seraph from a mediaeval manuscript

“Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?” Hebrews 1: 14

 The other day I was walking past a little “New Age”-type shop in the town which often has dubious items in its window. (Some weeks ago there was a display of items connected with witchcraft – occult books, magic wands, crystal balls, etc.) What caught my eye the other day a was a display all about angels – or rather “Angel Therapy”. Apparently a lady by the unlikely name of Doreen Virtue has made this her speciality. She has cornered the market on “angels” and has written books about how you can contact your guardian angel and get help from them. You can buy special Angel Cards which are used rather like Tarot cards to tell fortunes.

I know that none of you would ever have anything to do with such occult rubbish as this. Don’t be misled by the word “Angels” – it really has nothing to do with the angels in the Bible, or not with the good ones anyway. (There are, of course, fallen angels or demonic spirits and it is far more likely to be connected with them.)

So realizing that such a thing as “Angel Therapy” is now quite popular in some circles I thought it was a good idea to look once again at what the Bible has to say about angels. (Looking into my sermon records I see it was eleven years ago when we last looked at this topic.)

People sometimes say, “Do you belive in angels?” And I feel like answering, “Yes, I believe in angels – but not necessarily the same as the angels you believe in. I depends what you mean by “angels”.

Well, what does the word “angel” conjure up for you? If you say someone is an angel you mean they are a very good person or a very caring person. Nurses are often called angels. If you say a little girl looks like an angel you probably mean she is pretty and has fair hair. If you say a child is an angel you mean they are well behaved.

For many people angels are confused with fairies. They don’t distinguish between the former which is a powerful spiritual being mentioned in the Bible and the latter which is entirely fictional. They think of some kind of delicate creature, usually female, with wings. Our ideas have been conditioned by illustrations in fairy-tale books, and by Christmas cards as well as by the paintings of the great masters of the renaissance period.

I think we may have to jettison all these ideas and go back to the Bible if we really want to know what angels are. Think for a moment: how would we react if an angel were to appear before us at this moment. Would we say, “Oh how lovely, how cute!” or would we be struck dumb with terror?

I would suggest the latter. Indeed, most times we read about angels in the Bible, the very first thing they have to say is, “Do not be afraid”. In the Bible people are always struck with awe at the appearance of a heavenly spiritual being.

Let’s try to answer some questions about angels:

 

What is an angel?

Our text says that they are ministering spirits sent to help God’s people. They are also described as fellow-servants with us humans ( Revelation 22:8).

The word Angel comes from “Angelos” in Greek, which means simply a messenger. The Hebrew word is Malak, and that also means messenger.

Here is a dictionary definition: “Angel: a messenger of God, familiar with him face to face, and therefore of an order of being higher than that of man.”

Angels are created beings, just as we are, but holy and uncorrupted. They are moral beings – pure spirits who worship God freely. No wonder that people are always terrified when they meet an angel! Angels shine with some of the glory of God himself. They bring to us a touch of his holiness. Sometimes they are called Seraphs or “burning ones” – a reminder to us of the fact that our God is a consuming fire ( Hebrews 12:29).

As purely spiritual beings, angels exist on another plane than ours. They inhabit another spiritual dimension. But Jesus tells us at the Resurrection we shall be like the angels. We shall be raised with a new spiritual body ( 1 Corinthians 15) and we shall share in the incorruptible life of eternity.

 

What do they look like?

Who knows? As purely spiritual beings angels are not visible to us. How they appear to one another we do not know, but when they manifest themselves to us they usually take human form.

Now, if we base our ideas of angels on works of art, or Christmas cards, or children’s nativity plays we might they are delicate, fairy-like, female creatures. (It’s always the little girls who get to play the angels in the nativity play – never the little boys!) But in the Bible, on every occasion the angel appears in the form of a man, with or without wings. In Mark 16:5, for example, we read of a “young man in a white robe” appearing at he tomb of the risen Jesus. On other occasions the angel is always referred to as “he”.

As far as I know ther is only one reference in the Bible to angels taking a female form, and that was in a vision or dream. The prophet Zechariah had a vision of two angelic creatures in the form of women with wings like those of a stork (Zechariah 5:9).

However, although may use a masculine personal pronoun when speaking of an angel but that does not mean they are men. Because angels are without a biological body they do not have a gender – you do not think of them as male or female.

As for the idea of angels having wings, this seems to have come from Isaiah’s vision of the seraphim crying “Holy, holy, holy!”

“I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” (Isaiah 6:1-3)

It is interesting to note that they had six wings, not two. Why then are angels usually depicted as creatures with two wings?

 

What do angels do?

One of their tasks is to bring messages from God. Sometimes messages of good news and sometimes messages of judgement, or of warning. Sometime it is a summons to action: “Get up, get going!” For example:

· to Gideon: “Arise and go in thy might”.

· to Elijah: “Arise and eat”.

· to Joseph of Nazareth: “Go quickly”.

· to Philip: “Arise and go”.

It’s all a bit monotonous really – but then, a fire alarm is monotonous!

Sometimes the angels help God’s people in times of trouble. For example, when Elijah was worn out and depressed after the contest on Mount Carmel, the Angel of the Lord came and strengthened him.

Some angels watch over Gods people and preserve them from harm. These are known as guardian angels. In Daniel 10 we read that each a nation has its guardian angel. And Jesus refers to the guardian angels of children: “See that you do not look down on one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven.” (Matthew 18:10 )

According to Hebrews 2, the angels were active in the giving of the Law to Moses.

In the Book of Revelation it is the angels who will execute God’s final judgement.

 

How many angels are there?

Perhaps God only knows the answer to that one. There must be far more than we can imagine – Daniel 7: speaks of “myriads upon myriads”. But their number is still finite: only God is infinite.

 

How may different types are there?

Again we do not really know, but we do read of various types of angels in the Bible:

 

Cherubs (or Cherubim)

The image suggested by the word cherub is probably of a chubby, red cheeked child. That is how cherubs are depicted in the paintings of Raphael and other Renaissance artists. This image owes more to the pagan Roman Cupid than to the Bible.

Cherubs in the Bible are very different. They are the angels who guard God’s presence. Two statues of cherubs were placed above the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies.

When Adam and Eve were driven out of the Garden of Eden cherubim prevented them from returning: “So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.” ( Genesis 3:24)

 

Seraphs (or Seraphim)

These seem to have a similar role to cherubim and they also worship God without ceasing.

We have already referred to guardian angels.

 

Destroying angels

At various times in the history of Israel God would bring his judgement upon the nation and send his destroying angel. The Angel of the Lord Very often the angel sent by God is referred to in these terms.

Sometimes the Angel of the Lord even seems to be a manifestation of God himself – a pre-incarnation manifestation of God the Son or an appearance of the Holy Spirit. If this is so then we are not talking of an angel here but of God himself.

 

Angel Gabriel

According to Jewish tradition there are four archangels: Gabriel, Michael, Raphael and Uriel. But in the Bible only the first two are named, and only Michael is said to be an Archangel.

 

Archangel Michael

He is the guardian angel of the people of Israel.

Reference is made in several places to various ranks of angels, but we haven’t got time to go into these now.

And then there are the fallen angels: Satan and his demons. This will be the subject of another sermon.

But going back to the good angels:

 

How do they work?

Once again we don’t really know. Often their ministry is secret and invisible. Billy graham has written a book entitled “Angels: God’s Secret Agents”. There are many instances, even today, when people have had food provided apparently miraculously, or have been saved from danger by what seems to be angelic intervention.

Only on occasions of supreme significance in the history of our salvation do angels reveal themselves. For example: in the life of Jesus. Angels ministered at his birth, his temptation, at the Garden of Gethsemane, at the Resurrection and at the Ascension.

 

Why are angels so often unseen?

Perhaps it is because if we could see them we would be tempted to worship them, as John was in the Book of Revelation:

I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I had heard and seen them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who had been showing them to me. But he said to me, “Do not do it! I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers the prophets and of all who keep the words of this book. Worship God!” ( Revelation 22:8-9 )

In the Early Church there were some groups who worshipped angels. The Letter to the Hebrews was written to combat this heresy. In it the writer compares Christ to the angels and stresses his superiority over them.

 

Why do people so often misrepresent angels?

Why do they persist in seeing angel as fairy-like creatures? It’s surely because every picture they have seen in the media, in books, in popular art has been influenced by the art of the renaissance. This in turn has come down from images of Greek and Roman Pagan gods in classical art. If people read the Bible they would have a much better idea of what angels are.

 

Conclusion

Why should we think about angels? You might be thinking, “This is all a bit theoretical. What practical help is it to the Christian life?” A great deal, I would say.

Angels are holy and awesome beings who reflect God’s holiness and power. Read all the passages in the Bible about angels and you will inevitably be led to think about God’s holiness and to worship him.

Too often we let our worship sink to the merely human, mundane level. But we don’t just come to church to feel better, or to be entertained, or to meet people. We come to worship and honour God.

Often nowadays, in many churches in Wales, it is a small group of ten or less people gathering to worship. For them it is a great source of encouragement to know that the glory of God in worship does not depend on the number of people attending. However small our congregation we know we are joined by countless millions of angels in our worship of God. Let us be encouraged as we remind ourselves that our faith is not just of this world.

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“Ephphatha”

September 7, 2009 at 10:29 am · Filed under Christian living, Jesus Christ, New Testament

Mark 7:24-37

Introduction

Today I am going to so something I rarely do – preach from a text, a single verse. Actually it’s really just one word from Mark 7: 34

“Ephphatha”, which means “be opened”.

This is the actual Aramaic word used by Jesus when he healed a deaf man and commanded his lips and mouth to be opened. But I want to apply it to this whole passage in Mark 7: 24 to the end of the chapter. Here we see Jesus going out into Gentile territory and breaking new ground, opening up new groups of people to the Kingdom of God. So it’s all about being open – in contrast to the closed minds of the Pharisees and Scribes. In the previous section they were criticising the disciples of Jesus for not going through the correct procedure before eating their food.

These men thought of religion as something just for the elite. Only for Jews, and only really for those Jews who were wealthy enough to be able to afford to go through elaborate time-consuming rituals. It was partly to get away from such people that Jesus went off to the territory of Tyre and Sidon. He also probably needed to get some rest and relaxation. So he left the country, he went abroad, out of Jewish territory.

Although Tyre and Sidon had originally been included in the land allotted to the tribes of Israel, the fact is that the tribe of Asher had never fully settled their territory. So Tyre and Sidon remained in the hands of the pagan Canaanites. At the time of Jesus it was a very mixed area, both ethnically and religiously. There were a few Jews around, but most people were pagans.

These were the cities of the Phoenicians who were great sailors. They were the first men to steer by the stars. They traded right across the Mediterranean, and even as far as Britain where they came to buy Cornish tin. They built cities in North Africa – most notably, Carthage. The Phoenicians who lived in Tyre and Sidon were known as Syro-phoenicians (that is Syrian Phoenicians) as opposed to the ones from North Africa who were known as the Carthaginians. They were all descendents of the ancient Canaanites and worshipped the god Baal.

(We read quite a lot about them in the Old Testament, in the story of Elijah. Jezebel was a Sidonian princess and worshipper of pagan gods.)

In Phoenicia there were also other tribes and races – Romans, Greeks and Syrians, among others. Two main languages were spoken by the common people – Aramaic (a language related to Hebrew which had been the official language of the old Persian empire) and Greek (which had been the language of the empire of Alexander the Great). Latin was the official language of the Roman authorities. The same situation existed in Palestine and it is very likely that Jesus and his disciples were bilingual in Aramaic and Greek.

 

 

Moving out

Mark tells us that Jesus and his disciples went to the vicinity of Tyre and stayed in a lodging place there. Jesus wanted to be on his own – but soon people heard who he was and started flocking to him. A woman came to him and begged that he would save her daughter from the power of an unclean spirit. We don’t know anything else about the girl. What was her name? How old was she? What form did the demon possession take? How had she come under this evil power? How long had she been in this state? We don’t know these things but we do know that her mother was desperate. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter.

She was desperate enough to come to this Jewish healer, even though she was just a gentile. “Gentile dogs” is what they were called by most Jews. And to the Jewish way of thinking dogs were unclean animals.

Now we come to the part of the story that causes most problems to modern commentators. It’s just so politically incorrect! Jesus refers to this woman and her daughter as dogs!

“First let the children eat all they want,” he told her, “for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs.”

It seems so harsh. It makes it appear that Jesus was as narrow minded and judgmental as the Pharisees. But we notice one thing, which is not apparent in the English versions of the Bible.

When he speaks to her, Jesus doesn’t use the normal Greek word for dog, KUON, which just means a cur, any old dog roaming the streets. Instead he uses the diminutive form, KUNARION, a little dog, a pet dog. It’s almost a term of affection.

It is surely significant that Jesus used this word for dog. (By the way, if you are wondering why Jesus should have been speaking Greek, it was because this woman was a Greek-speaker. Although she was Syro-phoenician she didn’t speak Aramaic. Just as you can be of Welsh birth and nationality and yet not be able to speak Welsh. Jesus apparently was bilingual, so he spoke to her in Greek.)

“First let the children eat all they want,” he told her, “for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs.”

The little pet dogs that lie under the table waiting for the children to drop scraps of food for them. Of course, no orthodox Jew would have such an arrangement in his household. The dogs, if there were any, would have been kept outside. But Jesus is talking to a Gentile woman, and Gentiles didn’t necessarily regard all dogs as unclean.

Jesus is saying, in effect, that he had come to bring God’s help to the Jews first. His mission was to show to the Jews that he was their Messiah. Only after that had happened would the Gentiles be included. Jesus is not excluding the Gentiles, he is just stressing that he is, first and foremost, the Messiah of the Jews.

Also he seems to be testing this woman to see if she really wants to allow God to work in her life. Or is she just looking for a miracle cure for her daughter? There are several other occasions in the gospels when Jesus seemed to go out of his way to put people off following him. He often needed to test their intentions.

But this woman rises to the test:

“First let the children eat all they want,” he told her, “for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs.” “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “but even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” Then he told her, “For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter.”

 It wasn’t just because of her clever repartee, it was because she showed faith in the God of Israel. She acknowledged that Jesus had come to the Jews first but she also wanted some crumbs to fall for the Gentiles. It’s an amazing combination of humility, boldness and faith.

And because of that faith Jesus performed an amazing miracle. He drove out the demon at a distance, without even meeting the girl. No words of power, no ceremony of exorcism, not even a command to the demon to go. He simply said, “The demon has left your daughter” – and it was so! She went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

 

 

Moving back

Jesus stayed in the region of Tyre and Sidon for some time. (One commentator suggests about six months.) Then he returned home to Galilee. On the way home he went into the region of the Decapolis which was on the Gentile shore of Lake Galilee.

The people of this area were also pagan – a mixed population of Syrians and Greeks. But the area was close to Jesus’ home in Caphernaum and the people spoke Aramaic, just as he did.

In one of the villages they brought to him a man who was deaf and who had a speech impediment. Once again, we don’t know anything about this man. We don’t know his name or his age, or how long he had been deaf. Was it from birth? Was he indeed totally deaf or just profoundly deaf? Was his speech impediment a consequence of his being deaf? We don’t know.

This man lived at a time when there was no provision at all for deaf people. No one had yet devised a sign language for the deaf. There was no support, and no cure for his condition. This man was in a desperate plight. The people begged Jesus to lay hands on him, in the hope that it might effect a cure.

So there was this crowds of excited people all around the man – jostling and gesticulating. They grabbed hold of the man and propelled him toward Jesus. The deaf man must have been completely bemused. He didn’t know what was going on, or why they were pushing him toward this stranger! Immediately Jesus grasped the situation. He saw that the man was bewildered. So he led him away from the crowd, to a quiet place.

Now Jesus could have just laid hands on this man and cured him. But he wanted the man first to know what was happening – so that he would have faith in Jesus. So Jesus spoke to the man with signs and gestures:

  •  He placed his fingers in the mans ears, as if to say, “Your hearing will be made whole.”
  •  He touched the man’s tongue with saliva, as if to say, “Your speech will be made perfect.” (In ancient times saliva was believed to have healing properties.)
  • · He looked up to heaven and sighed deeply, as if to say, “God sympathises with your plight. He is going to heal you.”
  • · And then Jesus said the word “Ephphatha”, which means, “Be opened”.

 

Why does Mark record the actual Aramaic word Jesus used? I don’t know, but I can’t think of a better word to use. Just think of these three syllables:

Eph – Pha – Tha.

Each syllable requires moving the lips and the teeth. It must be just about the easiest word in the world to lip-read! So the man saw the word with his eyes. He knew he was being healed, and the next moment he could hear and speak.

At this, the man’s ears were opened, his tongue was loosened and he began to speak plainly. Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone. But the more he did so, the more they kept talking about it. People were overwhelmed with amazement. “He has done everything well,” they said. “He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”

 

 Conclusion

“Ephphatha: be opened.”

This word seems to me to be the key to the whole passage. It’s all about openness.

  • Jesus went to Phoenicia and spent time among the Gentiles. He saw them as human beings, with human needs. Despite his words to the women he did not see them as dogs. He was open to them. “Ephphatha: be opened.”
  •  He delivered the little girl from an unclean spirit. Her life was suddenly opened up to all that was good and pure. “Ephphatha: be opened.”
  •  His conversation with the Syro-phoenician woman indicated that the saving power of God was going to be made available to the Gentiles as well as to the Jews. Not yet, but after the Resurrection, and after the Day of Pentecost, the Good News was going to go out to every nation. The doors of salvation were going to be opened up to all. “Ephphatha: be opened.”
  •  In the Decapolis, once again Jesus ministered to a Gentile person. He opened up a new life for this man even as his ears and mouth were opened. “Ephphatha: be opened.”

 

And what about us? do we need to open up too?

  •  Surely we need to be open to the fact that God can work in ways we can not imagine, outside our institutional religious structures. That’s just what Jesus was doing in that Gentile territory.
  •  We also need to open up to God himself. We can’t hide anything from him anyway. But he yearns for us to open our hearts to him – to receive the blessings of his Spirit.
  •  Then at last our ears will be open and we will listen to his word. Our mouths will be open and we will proclaim the glory of his name. We will tell others about this Jesus who “has done all things well”.

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With Jesus in the boat

June 22, 2009 at 7:27 pm · Filed under Jesus Christ, New Testament, Suffering ·Tagged , , ,

 

 

Mark 4: 35-41

Introduction

“With Jesus in the boat we can smile at the storm, Smile at the storm, Smile at the storm, With Jesus in the boat we can smile at the storm, As we go sailing home.”         (Children’s chorus based on this incident in Mark.)

 

A storm at sea

Jesus had been working hard, teaching the crowds, healing the sick. He was exhausted. So he said to his disciples, “Let’s get in a boat and go to the other side of the lake”. That was the Gentile side – he knew it was unlikely that any Jewish people would want to go there. Jesus climbed into the boat just as he was and lay down on a fisherman’s leather cushion at the stern of the boat. Within a short while he was fast asleep – worn out. And so they set off in their boat, and a few other small boats with some other followers of Jesus went with them.

Now, weather conditions on Lake Galilee are treacherous. The hillsides and valleys all around the lake funnel the winds. Sometimes a squall can blow up out of nowhere, with no warning. That’s what happened here. One moment all was peaceful and calm, the next they were struggling against strong winds and huge waves. The waves were breaking over the boat and they were in danger of being swamped. The disciples panicked – but there was Jesus, fast asleep! One is reminded of Jonah fast asleep, below deck on the ship to Tarshish. The difference is that in Jonah’s case, his sleep was an escape from a guilty conscience. In the case of Jesus it was sheer physical and mental tiredness. He was asleep and he was at peace.

All this was too much for the disciples. “Master don’t you care if we drown?” they cried, as they tried to rouse him. Jesus rubbed his eyes, got slowly to his feet, and in a loud clear voice said, “Quiet, be still!” Jesus spoke to the storm just as you might command a barking dog to be quiet. And the wind just petered out, the waves died down, and calm came over the sea.

“Why are you so frightened?” he said to his disciples. “Do you still have no faith?” And they were filled with great awe and fear. “Who is this, even the wind and the waves obey him?” It was fear that had led them to awake the master. Now he is awake it is replaced with a much more profound awe and fear. Who is this man?

At the beginning of this incident we see a very human Jesus. He lies down in the stern of the boat just as he is: unwashed, unfed, totally worn out. He seeks the oblivion and restorative power of sleep. This is a very human Jesus. He is so obviously a man, and we can all identify with him. But when he calms the storm they see his divine power. Here is a man who can control the weather with a single word of command. We see no magic mumbo-jumbo here, no incantations, no spells. Not even an invocation of the name of Jehovah. By his own power Jesus stills the storm, with a word of command. And the wind and waves obey him.

Who is this man? He’s more than just a man. What then, an angel? A semi-divine being? No, something more than that. For the disciples this was the beginning of a steep learning curve that will lead ultimately to Thomas’s great words of faith: “My Lord and my God!” The recognition of the divinity of Jesus Christ.

 

Storms of life

Now we, as followers of the Risen One, also believe that Jesus is Lord and God. We also believe he has power to calm storms. Like many preachers, and commentators, and hymnwriters of the past, we can see a parallel with the storms of life which Jesus can calm.

“Will your anchor hold in the storms of life, When the clouds unfold their wings of strife?

When the strong tides lift and the cables strain, Will your anchor drift, or firm remain?

“We have an anchor that keeps the soul Steadfast and sure while the billows roll,

Fastened to the Rock which cannot move, Grounded firm and deep in the Savior’s love.”

 

And:

Be still, my soul; thy God doth undertake To guide the future as He has the past.

Thy hope, thy confidence, let nothing shake; All now mysterious shall be bright at last.

Be still, my soul; the waves and winds still know His voice who ruled them while He dwelt below.”

 

what do we mean by “the storms of life”? Well, I suppose, all the “heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to”, as Shakespeare says in Hamlet.

We are thinking of all the trials and difficulties we face at times. For one person it might be financial crisis of debt. For another: life-threatening illness. Or it could be bereavement. It could be be pain and disability. It could be rejection and opposition, perhaps persecution for one’s faith, or because of one’s race. Some might suffer slander and backbiting. Others might be worried about loved ones: their safety, their heath, their moral or spiritual well-being. It might be the burden of broken relationships or divorce. It might be the pressure of work or the stress of responsibility. It might be the loss of a job or the pain of long-term unemployment. It might be the intolerable burden of caring for someone else. This is a far from comprehensive list. I’m sure some of you could add to it from your own experience.

 

With Jesus in the boat we can smile at the storm

Whatever the storms of life may be, we know we are safe if the Lord is with us. Those disciples were safe as long as Jesus was in the boat with them, even when he was asleep! God would look after him: it was not his destiny to drown in Lake Galilee. Rather, he was to go on to die at Calvary. That was God’s plan. Yes, “With Jesus in the boat we can smile at the storm”.

But notice this: Jesus has to be in the boat with us. Have we got Jesus on board?

Our church, the Presbyterian Church of Wales, faces many storms at present – have we got Jesus on board with us? If we are seeking to glorify him, then we will weather the storms.

We have storms in our lives too. Ask yourself: “Have I got Jesus on board? Is he the Lord of my life? Does he rule my actions? Do I know him as my Saviour? If the answer is “yes”, then I can face the storms of life that come at me. The Lord is in the vessel of my life, I need not fear the storms. And if, perchance, he does not calm the storm, then he will give strength to endure it. If we have Jesus on board, then we can face the storms. But if we don’t yield our lives to him, then there is no way we can expect his help in our lives.

 

Conclusion

So, once again, the call is to follow the Risen Christ, who is Lord and God in human form. “Immanuel: God with us.” He will be with us in the boat as long as we have invited him on board.

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Pentecost Power

June 5, 2009 at 6:12 pm · Filed under New Testament, The Holy Spirit ·Tagged , ,

 

Acts chapter 2

(Sermon Preached in Brecon Presbyterian Church on Sunday 31 May 2009)

Today is Pentecost Sunday – although I don’t ever recall it being called that when I was a child in Park End Church, Cardiff. I can’t remember it being called anything but Whit Sunday. In those days Whitsun was a bank holiday and Whit Monday was always the day for the Whitsun Treat. I remember us as children clambering onto a lorry with Sunday school benches roped to it. We clung on to those benches for dear life as the lorry climbed the steep hill out of Cardiff,  up to some farmer’s field, where we had games and a picnic. There didn’t seem to be any Health and Safety regulations in those days!

I think, to most of us, the the religious significance of Whitsun was completely lost. We must have been taught about it in Sunday School but I don’t ever recall hearing about the coming of the Holy Spirit. For children today it probably has even less significance. It’s not even called Whitsun now, it’s the Late Spring Bank Holiday, and it doesn’t always happen on Whit weekend.

By the way, if you’re wondering about the origin of the phrase Whit Sunday, it comes from the time when confirmations were always held at Pentecost. The candidates for confirmation all wore white robes and dresses: hence White or Whit Sunday.

 

Rumours

But how can we get back to the true meaning of Whitsun? It helps a bit, I think, to call it Pentecost because that reminds us of the events we read about in Acts Chapter two. On the Jewish Feast of Pentecost, when Jerusalem was filled with pilgrims from everywhere Jews lived, the Holy Spirit came. He came upon an obscure group of Galilean fishermen and ex tax-collectors who were followers of Jesus of Nazareth -  Jesus who had been crucified seven weeks previously. On that day, Good Friday, the Sun had been darkened, there had been an earthquake and the heavy curtain in the Temple had been torn in two  – momentous and apocalyptic events.

A week later there were rumours going around that Jesus had risen from the dead and had been seen by his disciples. His tomb was empty and his body gone – the Jewish and Roman authorities didn’t know what to make of it.

And still the rumours kept coming. More and more people said they had met with the risen Jesus – on a mountaintop, by Lake Galilee, in Jerusalem behind locked doors, in the village of Emmaus. Jesus kept popping up everywhere! But despite these appearances of the risen Lord his followers seemed to be pretty intimidated. They were scared of the authorities. They didn’t want to risk facing jail and crucifixion, so they met in secret. No doubt the authorities hoped all this religious enthusiasm would die down. After a while surely people would realise Jesus was dead. And then his followers would disperse – going back to their old lives as fishermen, etc. That’s what the authorities hoped, but how wrong they were!

About six weeks after the Passover there were more rumours rumours going round. This time it was claimed that Jesus had gone back to heaven. Some of his followers even claimed to have been at his ascension. It all seemed too ridiculous to be true to the authorities, but his followers continued to believe in him. They started holding daily prayer meetings in the upper room of a house in Jerusalem. They were waiting for something to happen – the coming of that mysterious power Jesus had promised them.
“Do not leave Jerusalem,” he had said, “but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”      (Acts 1:4)

And that’s what they were waiting for.

 

 

A storm of spiritual power

Then, ten days after the Ascension, it happened. On  the Day of Pentecost there was a sound like a rushing wind, something that looked like tongues of flame resting on each follower of Jesus. Every one was filled with the Holy Spirit, They felt a new joy and peace and love, a new power. They started praising God in strange tongues. It all happened at once. That quiet little upper room in Jerusalem suddenly became the centre of a veritable storm of spiritual power. People outside heard the noise and came running. And the disciples spilled out into the street proclaiming God’s glory in a variety of languages. And so the Christian Church was born.
Imagine a news report of the time might have looked (if they had had them).

 

AMAZING EVENTS IN JERUSALEM AS RELIGIOUS HYSTERIA HITS THE CITY

Yesterday a tremendous wave of messianic fervour hit the Metropolis as crowds of followers of the prophet Jesus rampaged though the streets. Jesus of Nazareth was a messianic pretender who was crucified by the Romans seven weeks ago, during the Passover festival. Now his followers claim he is alive again. They have been seen in the streets shouting out in many different languages that Jesus is the Messiah and praising him as the Son of God.

Why do the authorities tolerate such blasphemy? Why don’t they just produce the body of the imposter Jesus and put paid to these claims? And how did these ignorant men become proficient in so many different languages – Parthian, Elamite, Phrygian and Egyptian among others?

In an astonishing further development it appears that about 300 people publicly joined themselves to the new Jesus sect yesterday.

The man Peter seems to be the ringleader of the group. Yesterday he harangued the crowd and publicly accused them of responsibility for the death of Jesus. Then, in an unprecedented turn of events, instead of lynching him, the crowd asked how they too could become followers of the so-called Messiah! Will this madness never end? Will it take over the whole world? Can the authorities do nothing?

 

Well, we know it didn’t stop there – and it is still taking over the world. Here, in the West, we get despondent when we see the decline of Christianity in our society, as well as the increase in other religions such as Islam. And yet the Gospel is spreading like wildfire in many parts of the world. Even in the Muslim heartlands of North Africa thousands of people are turning to Christ.

Here in Wales – formerly known as “the Land of Revivals” – we have a situation which makes us feel despondent. Our clinging to outworn traditions and basking in our knowledge about the great revivals of the past have made us complacent. We somehow think revival will come automatically, like the ebb and flow of the tide. 

  • But will it come if we don’t pray?
  • Will it come if we don’t spread the Gospel?
  • Will it come if we don’t repent of all evil in our lives?
  • Will it come  if we don’t seek reconciliation with our brothers and sisters?
  • Will it come if we don’t open our hearts to the work of the blessed Holy Spirit.

(close with prayer)

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Called by name

January 19, 2009 at 1:25 am · Filed under New Testament, Old testament ·Tagged

Samuel and Eli

Names are funny things -  although perhaps it’s that people are funny about names! Often, when I visit people in hospital I have difficulty finding the patients – they are in hospital under a different name from the one I know them by. You’d be surprised how many people use their middle name in everyday life, but on all official records  are known by their first name. And then some folk like to be called by a name they have chosen for themselves or by a nickname.  I wonder how many of you here are known by a different name than the first name on your birth certificate.

Names are very personal and the closer you are to a person the more free you can be with their name – changing it perhaps to some shortened or diminutive form. 

What about our realtionship with God then? If God were to address me personally by name,  would he use my surname like a schoolmaster of the old school? “Jenkins, come her at once!”. No. I’ve never heard God audibly call my name but I am sure that if he did  he would call me David. Jesus tells us that he is the Good Shepherd and the Good Shepherd knows each one of his sheep by name and calls them individually by name.

My dog knows his name but sometime he chooses not to hear it and doesn’t respond. ( That’s what you get with a willful Jack Russell terrier!) Do we respond to God’s call or are we blocking it out?

You know, the whole Bible is full of occasions when God spoke to people individually.  On some occasions we actually have it recorded that God addressed them by name.

We’re going to look at some of these now.  (I don’t claim this  is an exhaustive list and I haven’t included those occasions when it is the angel of the Lord, rather than the Lord himself, who calls the person.)

Samuel

Samuel is the first one that springs to mind – the favourite Old Testament Bible story of so many people(1Samuel, chapter 3).  There’s this young boy  (we don’t know exactly how old he is) helping the Priests and Levites at God’s shrine in Shiloh. Presumably he helped to light the lamps and fetch water and wood. And he slept there, on the premises of God’s house.

And in the night God called: “Samuel! Samuel!”  At first Samuel didn’t recognize it as the voice of God -  but Eli the chief priest  knew.
“Go back down, and if he calls you again say, ‘Speak, Lord, your servant is listening’.”

God’s call came to Samuel when he was just a boy. It was a call be a prophet – to bring God’s message to the people of Israel. And that very first message was one of judgement on Eli’s house for the blasphemy of his sons.

Over the years, as Samuel grew up, God spoke words of wisdom and guidance for the nation through his lips. Today God can still speak through the lips of a child.

Elijah

 Another prophet of God. You remember how God had used him in a mighty contest of power against the prophets of Baal.  And after it was all over Elijah felt exhausted.  When Queen Jezabel threatened his life he panicked and ran off into the wilderness. Eventually Elijah he made his way to Mount Horeb and retreated into a cave  – completely depressed and full of self-pity.

 God said: “What are you doing here, Elijah?” ( 1 Kings 19: 9)

It was a challenge to Elijah to get back to the task for which God had called him.  God ministered tenderly to Elijah and then sent him back, renewed in spirit, to appoint kings and leaders of nations.

God’s call to Elijah had been a challenge to get back on track. We all need that sometimes in our own lives.

Abraham

The severest test of all was when God called Abraham by name. Previously the Lord had called him to leave his home and move to a new land. He had learned to life the life of faith  – trusting in God. His faith had been rewarded when Sarah had given birth to Isaac, the child of the promise.  All God’s promised were to be fulfilled through that child.
 

Now comes the test:  God calls him by name

Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, Abraham! Here I am, he replied.
Then God said, Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.              ( Genesis 22: 1-2)

The amazing thing is that Abraham obeyed, even though God had promised that through his son Isaac he would bring blessings to the whole world. All the promises were bound up in Isaac.

Abraham was prepared to do the unthinkable – to sacrifice Isaac if that was what God wanted of him. He believed that, if necessary, God could bring Isaac back from the dead (or so we are told in the New Testament  – Hebrews 11:19)

Abraham was ready with the knife to slay his son when God called again – this time through his angel.

But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, Abraham! Abraham! Here I am, he replied.
Do not lay a hand on the boy, he said. Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.
(Genesis 22: 11-12)

We see why Abraham  is regarded as the greatest person of faith in the Old Testament – the father of all who believe.

God calls to each of us, at times, to make sacrifices for the sake of his Kingdom. We should be thankful that it is not of the order of magnitude of the test experienced by Abraham.

Let’s go to the New Testament now, and think of some of the people Jesus spoke to by name:

Zacchaeus

This is a favourite New Testament Bible story for so many people: the little man who was so hated by the people that no one would let him through the crowd to see Jesus. He was rich  but there was something lacking in his life. He wanted to see Jesus and he wanted his life to change, so he took the unconventional path. I think climbing a tree when you are no longer young is very unconventional and a sure sign of determination. Zachaeus sat there among the foliage thinking no one would notice him. But Jesus looked up and spoke to Zacchaeus by name.

When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.     ( Luke 19: 5)

 Jesus invited himself to  Zacchaeus’s house.  Perhaps we need to realize that he invites himself in to our lives. Are we going to open the door for him and eagerly welcome him in the way Zacchaeus  did?

Simon Peter

Well, we know how Jesus called Simon and gave him the new name of Peter, the rock. Not because Simon was a rock at that time but because Jesus saw he was capable of becoming one.  (John 2: 42)

Later, you recall, Peter denied his Lord and wept bitterly over his failure. After the Resurrection Jesus appeared to his disciples on the lake shore. And he spoke to Peter by name:

When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon son of John, do you truly love me more than these? Yes, Lord, he said, you know that I love you. Jesus said, Feed my lambs.     (John 21: 15)

Do you love me?  Does he not ask that question of us also? Do you love me more than all these other things  in your life – all this stuff?  Do you love me?

Martha

One day Jesus went to the house of the sisters Martha and Mary. Mary was sitting at his feet and lapping up his every word – she really wanted to hear what Jesus had to say and to learn from him. But Martha was preoccupied with getting the meal to the table. She had no time to sit and listen. She was under stress and felt at that moment that getting the food ready was the most important thing of all. In her desire to honour Jesus she had forgotten the purpose of his visit, which was to talk with them about the things of God. A hot meal seemed, at that moment, to be more important than the words of Jesus.

But Jesus spoke to her by name:

Martha, Martha, the Lord answered, you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.                       (Luke 10: 41- 42)

Jesus was giving a gentle rebuke to Martha. It’s not that he didn’t want her to serve him a meal: it’s just that the things he was saying about God’s kingdom were of paramount importance. He would rather she sat at his feet, like Mary.

And are we not also sometimes likely to be so concerned about serving the Lord that we fail to listen to his words?

Lazarus

He was the brother of Martha and Mary. What an amazing thing: he died of a fatal illness and he was in the tomb for four days!  When Jesus came, he ordered them to roll away the stone. Then he addressed  Lazarus by name.  He stood at the mouth of the tomb and cried in a loud voice: “Lazarus, come forth!”  And the dead man came out of the tomb, still wrapped up in strips of cloth like a mummy. But he was no longer dead!

“I am the Resurrection and the Life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live”, Jesus had said previously, and Martha had believed him. (John 11:25)

Have we heard the voice of Jesus calling us from the spiritual death of sin and selfishness to a new life of love and faith in his service?

Mary Magdalene

On the first Easter Day Mary Magdalene stood by the empty tomb of Jesus, weeping. She thought someone had taken his body. Then the risen Lord stood by her and addressed her by name:

“Mary!”

“Master!”, she cried ecstatically – and she clung to him.    (John 20:16)

So Mary Magdalene became the very first person to meet the risen Lord and to hear his voice calling her name.

 Today the Living Lord calls us by name.
“David!” he says …
“Jane!” …                              (fill in your own name here).

 And do we respond: “Master!” ?

We read in the Book of Acts of the Risen Lord speaking to another person. This time it was a number of years after the Resurrection and Ascension and Jesus spoke from heaven.

Saul of Tarsus

Saul was on the road to Damascus, on his way to persecute the Christians. Suddenly, a light from heaven beamed like a searchlight
He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?                               (Acts 9: 4)

Saul was blind for three days and he fasted and prayed. And God called a man called Ananais by name:

In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, Ananias! Yes, Lord, he answered.  (Acts 9: 10)
Go to Saul and lay hands on him so that he may regain his sight.
Ananias did what the Lord had told him.

“Brother Saul!” he said, to the man who, three days earlier, had been seeking to imprison him!

And Saul was healed, and baptized, and filled with the Holy Spirit.

 God does call us to do difficult things sometimes. Ananias had to go to his enemy and heal him. Saul had to admit he had been totally wrong, he had to repent and he had to believe in Jesus.

God challenges us when he called us by name. But what wonders of joy there are for those who respond to his call!

 

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Nativity Narrative

December 29, 2008 at 12:22 pm · Filed under Jesus Christ, New Testament ·Tagged , , ,

Luke 2:22-28

Tradition

We all love the familiar Christmas carols, don’t we?  And the children’s Nativity Play, and the Manger Scene with the Ox and Ass standing by. The Shepherds with their lamb and the Three Wise Men gathering around the manger all together.

This is our traditional crib scene, and this is how we imagine the Nativity. Over the centuries the Church has made a pretty little story out of the Nativity. There is a danger of making it seem cosy and welcoming, when in fact it was the exact opposite. The stable was cold, droughty and smelly. There was no welcome for the Son of David in David’s town -  no room at the inn. And alongside the birth of the wondrous child we have such terrible events as the Slaughter of the Innocents and the Flight into Egypt.

In our Christmas services we hear parts of the Nativity story,  but rarely do we hear the whole story from beginning to end. It’s all out of context – no wonder people often get confused about the story.

To those who have not grasped the whole narrative there seem to be many discrepancies. Why does Luke refer to the “manger” – presumably in a stable – while Matthew talks about the “house” where the child was? Why does Luke speak of the presentation of the child in the Temple at Jerusalem  while Matthew speaks of the Holy Family fleeing for their lives to Egypt?

If we go through the story in chronological order we will see these discrepancies vanish. You see, Matthew and Luke are telling us different parts of the same story.

So let’s start at the beginning:

 
Preparation

Luke chapter 1 –  In the days of Herod King of Judea there was a priest called Zechariah. He had a wife called Elizabeth and they were godly and righteous people. Unfortunately they had not been blessed with children. (To be a wife and childless was a disgrace in those days.)  One day, when Zechariah was in the Holy Place, burning incense before the Lord, an angel appeared, to announce that Elizabeth was going to have a child. That child was to become John the Baptist, the one who would come first to announce the  advent of the Messiah.

So Elizabeth conceived – even though she was well past the age of childbearing. And when Elizabeth was six months pregnant there was another angelic visitation. This time the angel Gabriel was sent to  a young virgin in Nazareth called Mary who was betrothed to Joseph the carpenter. (She was a cousin of Elizabeth.)

Mary was astounded at the news that she was going to become the  mother of God’s Son. but the Angel Gabriel reassured her and reminded her that with God all things are possible. Mary immediately submitted to God’s will.

I am the Lord’s servant, Mary answered. May it be to me as you have said. Then the angel left her.  (Luke 1: 38)


So Mary conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit while still a virgin. She went to visit her cousin in the hill country of Judea. When Elizabeth heard the voice of Mary she felt the child in her own womb leap for joy. Mary responded with that wonderful song known as the Magnificat. After three months she returned home to Nazareth.

 
Joseph

Meanwhile Joseph was in a predicament. We read in Matthew how he resolved to break the betrothal quietly. He was horrified to  find that his fiancee was pregnant with someone else’s child. He had not slept with her, she was a virgin and was supposed to be one until her wedding day. Joseph’s heart was broken at the thought that she had been unfaithful to him. But the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream to reassure him.

Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.    ( Matthew 1:20)

So Joseph married  Mary,  knowing that her child was the Son of God.

 

Census

We go back to Luke’s Gospel for what happened next.

Caesar Augustus issued his famous decree. Like all politicians of all times he needed money – and the easiest way to get it was to raise taxes. And to raise taxes he needed to be able to check up on his subjects. So he ordered a census -  everyone had to go back to their ancestral home and be enrolled on the tax register there. What chaos it caused!  All the road were choked with families travelling to and fro. Joseph was of the line of King David so he had to go to Bethlehem. For Mary the journey was particularly hard and dangerous for the baby in her womb. It was 90 or so miles over rough road on foot or on donkey back and Mary was almost at full term. But Caesar Augustus took no reckoning of such things – everyone had to be enrolled, no exceptions.

When they got to their destination the town was crowded with other descendents of David who had also come to register. There was no room in the inn. And so, God’s Son was born in a stable or outhouse. Mary wrapped her child in strips of cloth and then placed him in the manger because she had no cradle for him.

Luke then tells us about the shepherds watching over their flocks who were told the glad tidings by the angel. And the choir of angels who proclaimed :

 ”Glory to God in the highest,  and on earth peace to men on whom his favour rests.” (Luke 2:14)

The shepherds hurried down to Bethlehem and eventually found the child in the manger. They were overjoyed and praised God.

Law of Moses

After a day or so, I should imagine, Joseph and Mary found better lodging than a stable for their child.  On the eighth day they took him to the local synagogue in Bethlehem to be circumcised according to the Law of Moses, and he was given the name Jesus – the name the angel had given him before he was conceived.

Now the Law of Moses also specified that 40 days after the birth of a male child  that the mother should go to God’s sanctuary to undergo rituals of purification and to present her child to the Lord. So it was that Joseph and Mary travelled from Bethlehem to Jerusalem,  to the Temple ( a journey of about 10 miles) with Jesus to dedicate him to the Lord.  As they were bringing the baby into the Temple courts they were met by a holy prophet of God, Simeon, who took the child in his arms and blessed God

“Now, O Lord you can let your servant depart this life in peace according to your word of promise – for my eyes have seen your salvation.”

Simeon had been waiting for this moment for years. (It had been revealed to him that he would not die until he had seen the Lord’s Messiah.) Immediately he recognized this Child as the Messiah.  Simeon prophesized wonderful things about the Child and so did Anna, a devout elderly lady who had spent all her time in the Temple in prayer.

Wise Men

Now you might have noticed something missing in the story so far. Where are the Three Wise Men?

Let’s put aside any idea of the wise men arriving at the stable at about the same time as the Shepherds. Also let’s put aside any idea of them being kings – it says nothing about that in Matthew. As for the tradition that they were called Balthazar, Gaspar and Melchior, and that one was a European, one an Asian and one  African – all that is made up, sheer fantasy!

All Matthew tells us is that they were Magi or Wise Men. He doesn’t even tell us how many there were – although we assume there must have been three because of the three gifts. Let’s put out of our minds all traditional and legendary accretions and stick to the historical record. So where do the Wise Men fit in, if they were not in the stable?

We notice that Matthew tells us it was when Jesus was born in Bethlehem that Wise Men from the East came to Jerusalem. Some translations say after Jesus was born. And that makes sense because the wise men saw the star in their distant eastern country and that star presumably appeared on the very night Jesus was born. It could have taken them many weeks or even months to travel to Jerusalem. They may have come from Persia or from Southern Arabia.

We note that Herod was eager to know the exact time the star had appeared – he  wanted to know how old the baby was. late. Later, when he was filled with anger that the Wise Men had not returned, he gave orders to slay all the baby boys under the age of two in the Bethlehem area. It thus seems likely that Jesus was more that one year old by this time – possibly getting on for two.  If he was that old, then he would not have been in a stable. Joseph and Mary did not live in a stable permanently. Thus we have the explanation of Matthew’s reference to the “house” where the Child was.

Flight and return

When Herod ordered the slaughter of the  children Joseph was warned in a dream by an angel and fled the country with his little family. So  it was that God’s Son lives his earliest years, not in Israel, but in Egypt.

 Some time later Herod died and Joseph, Mary and Jesus went back to the Holy Land. Herod’s son was in control of Judea so they didn’t settle there. Instead they went back to their old home of Nazareth in Galilee. And there it was that Jesus was brought up.

 

Themes

In this wonderful narrative of the infancy of Jesus  we see a couple of very important themes:

God’s overruling providence
There were a number of occasions when the Child was in danger of loosing his life:

  • Mary could have had a miscarriage during the arduous journey to Bethlehem.
  • Jesus could have died of exposure in the street if shelter had not been provided.
  • Herod’s soldiers could have killed him along with the other baby boys, But God protected his Son.

 

God’s concern for the outsider
In this narrative we see God’s concern for despised agricultural workers ( and shepherds really were regarded a the lowest of the low), childless women like Elizabeth ( and they really were despised), widows like Anna (who had no place in the social structure) and Gentile like the Wise Men (who would have been treated with disdain by Herod’s scribes, despite all their wisdom and wealth). And the Holy Family found refuge in the despised pagan land of Egypt – the very place where the Israelites had formally been slaves.

God chose the humble and  weak people and the despised and and deprived situations to  bring about his salvation. His Son came not just for the rich and powerful, the honoured and the admired. He came also for the humble, the poor, the needy, the outcast and rejected.

God’s salvation is for all people. As the angel said to the shepherds:

“Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.”

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Mary and Joseph

December 20, 2008 at 1:08 am · Filed under Christian living, New Testament, marriage ·Tagged , ,

 
From the experience of Mary and Joseph we can learn something for our own lives. An example to follow.

Mary

She was a young woman who was:

 Godly

The angel said: “the Lord is with you” – obviously Mary was a girl who knew and loved God. The Lord would not have chosen her if she had been in rebellion against him.

Are we the same kind of people?

 

Perplexed

Mary didn’t know what these words meant. How could she be highly favoured of God? Why should an angel (the Archangel Gabriel no less) visit her?

We also may be perplexed in life by many things.

 

Apprehensive

Mary had questions to ask the Archangel Gabriel. She didn’t see how it could come about that she would be the mother of God’ Son, the Messiah. She wasn’t married and she was still a virgin.

Perhaps we have questions about life and about God which seem to be unanswered.

But Gabriel reminded Mary: “Nothing will be impossible with God”. When God is in the midst of a situation that situation is transformed. And this is true of our situations – who knows what God can do in our lives when we open up to him?

 

Believing

Mary trusted the words of the the angel. She believed the promises of God – even though what was promised was unprecedented in human history.

Do we trust God – his promises to us? Do we believe in Jesus his Son?

 

Submissive to God

“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May it be to me as you have said.” Then the angel left her. (Luke 1:38)

Will we say “Yes” to God, as Mary did.

 

 

Joseph

He was a young man who was:

 

Righteous

Like Mary he also loved and feared the Lord. He knew God and sought to live by his laws. We are told that Joseph was a righteous man.

 

Perplexed

Joseph also was perplexed – not to say shocked. He found out his fiancee was pregnant. He had not slept with her – some other man must have seduced her. She had been unfaithful to him. And yet, it was so out of character for Mary. How could she have done that? His mind was in turmoil – probably more so than the mind of Mary.

 

Loving

Joseph still loved Mary. As a religious man, a righteous man, he would have to break off the betrothal. But as a loving man he would do it quietly, to avoid scandal and pain to Mary. He still loved her.

Are we capable of having the same kind of loving spirit Joseph had?

 

Believing

But when it was all explained to him by the Angel of the Lord, in a dream, then Joseph believed God. Although it seemed a far-fetched and even incredible explanation, he believed. Perhaps his knowledge of Mary’s character and his love of her made it easier for him to believe this than that she had been unfaithful to him.

 

Obedient

Like Mary he did what God said. He took her to be his wife, so that he could become the foster-father of Jesus. Mary was not going to be a single mother, and Jesus would have a human father-figure.

 

One last thing:

Self-controlled

“He had no marital relations with her until she had born her Son”

Although he was her husband he did not demand his marital rights. So their marriage was not consummated until after the birth of God’s son.

After that time they took up normal marital relations and other children, brothers and sisters to Jesus, were born to Mary and Joseph.

Joseph and Mary’s discipline and control in sexual matters is an example to all followers of Jesus.

 

If only we could all be the same kind of people Mary and Joseph were: godly, believing, obedient, loving and self-controlled.

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The true spirit of Christmas

December 14, 2008 at 9:57 pm · Filed under Christian living, New Testament ·Tagged , , ,

1 Thessalonians 5:12-28


Well, Christmas is almost upon is. Next Sunday we will have our carol service. Everyone is going about making  preparations – all the rush and bustle of the pre-Christmas period. Some of us have already had more than one Christmas dinner!

With all this bustling activity how can we keep the true spirit of Christmas?

The first thing is surely to come to church and to worship Jesus Christ. That is what we are doing today and we can find in the New Testament many passages which offer guidelines for living the Christian life. One of them is in our reading from 1 Thessalonians today. Paul gives advice on how the followers of Jesus Christ should behave. If we follow these guidelines we will be living as true Christians and keeping the true spirit of Christmas.

I Thessalonians 5:16-24
 Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise the words of prophets, but test everything; hold fast to what is good;  abstain from every form of evil. May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do this.

How?

Now there seem to be some very difficult commandments here. How can you “rejoice always”, or “pray without ceasing” or “give thanks in all circumstances”? it just seems impossible, doesn’t it?

The first thing we should note is that these words are intended for committed Christian believers – they are  for those within the church. Can you imagine the response of the outsider to these words?  What would a non-Christian say?

“Rejoice always? Are you kidding? Who can do that? Should anyone ever do that? Isn’t that just plain denial, a refusal to deal with the present moment?
Pray without ceasing? Who can do this? That will give you camel knees? Besides, isn’t there too much work to be done to just waste time mumbling in the dirt?
Give thanks in all circumstances? Whose side are you on anyway? O yeah, slap me again, it felt so good.
Do not quench the spirit? Now there’s one I can agree with. This is the time of season to be merry and to party. Let’s break out the spirits!

The rejoicing, praying, giving thanks in the Spirit are things done by insiders; that is, by those who know something about the present circumstances that can only be known by faith.”  -  (Comment by  preacher from the Internet.)

The point is that to those who are outside the life of faith, those words are ridiculous. But to those who are inside they not only make sense, they give purpose to life.

 

Looking from the inside

Inside is different from outside. It’s a bit like Dr. Who’s “Tardis”. From the outside it’s just an old-fashioned 1960s police telephone box. But inside it is a vast hi-tech ship capable of traveling through time and space. It’s totally different inside. So is the life of faith.

Let’s try and look at these words then from within the faith.

 ”It is not who you are or what you were that is of interest to God but what you desire to be.” –St. Gregory.


It’s your aspirations which matter. And these words are aspirational. We may not always be able to achieve the standard set out here by Paul but we will try. We will aspire to be true followers of Jesus.

To capture the true spirit of Christmas we must:

 

1) Rejoice always

Now this doesn’t mean we have to go around like Pollyanna, denying the reality of evil (although to be fair to Pollyanna the little girl in the story, that’s not what she did, she just looked for the positive in everything).
It doesn’t mean we have to go about with a great big grin on our face and smile in all circumstances. No, that is something which people who do not know the Lord may have to do. They may have to be in denial about the realities of life. The Christian, on the other hand, knows how to rejoice with those who rejoice and to weep with those who weep. The person of this world can only cope with its problems by denying them. The so called “joy” of this world is not really joy -  it is happiness. And happiness, by its very nature, is temporary.

Note that the word “happy” is derived from “hap” or circumstance. So when good things happen to you you are happy, when bad things happen you are unhappy. It’s all a matter of “hap” or chance. But Christian joy is more than just happiness.

One preacher puts it this way:
“Outsiders have never experienced the presence of the Holy One. They base their joy on their physical and relational circumstances. Relationships always change, they are like rollercoasters. (Which is why basing marriage on romantic love is so silly) Our joy is based on our experience of the Divine…  
Most of our culture is based on selling each other joy [or rather: happiness], prepackaged, easy to use. But the toys always break, the sex appeal fades, they stop laughing at my jokes, and sooner or even sooner some really bad stuff happens. Only God remains. Only God is faithful. “

Our joy is something much deeper. We can hold on to it under trial and temptations because we know the presence of God in our lives. We know he loves us – he sent his Son to be born in a stable and to die on a cross. Whatever happens to us in this life we know there is a better world coming. To paraphrase an advertising slogan: “The future’s bright: the future’s” … no, not Orange.  Rather, the future is suffused with the golden glow of eternity.

The Apostle Paul could rejoice even while he was in prison and we also can learn to rejoice, even in the setbacks of life.

 

2) Pray without ceasing

 No, it doesn’t mean going around mumbling prayers all day long. I think it means: don’t give up praying, don’t get so discouraged that you stop taking things to the Lord in prayer. He is with us at all times and there is no time or place in the world we can not pray to him. For some people, their time of prayer is just when they kneel down at their bedside to say their prayers. For others there is the realization that we can talk to God in a onversational way throughout the day. We don’t have to pray out loud  – God reads all our thoughts.

So I think this instruction is about having a prayerful attitude in all that we do.

 

3) Give thanks in all circumstances

Once again we seem to be back to Pollyanna – the relentlessly cheerful orphan in the story who found an occasion for thankfulness in everything. Have you seen the film of it  (it was on TV recently) starring Hayley Mills aged 12.

It’s quite a good film really. Pollyanna’s parents had been missionaries in the West Indies. She had wanted a doll for Christmas so they asked the Mission Society to send one for their little girl. When the parcel arrived they discovered there had been a mix-up – it was a pair of crutches, not a doll. Pollyanna was upset but her Father said  “Let’s play the Glad Game -  think of something you can be thankful for.”
“What’s good about having a pair of crutches?” she said.
“Well you can be thankful you don’t need to use them!” said her father.

I’m not saying we should all be like Pollyanna’s father, or like Pollyanna herself – there is something off-putting about relentless cheerfulness. But there is  such a thing as a positive attitude to life.
 If we believe God loves us and he is working out his divine purposes then we can find things to be  thankful for in the circumstances of life. In the film Pollyanna and her father had made a game of it – the Glad Game. Always look for the silver lining in the cloud. It is surely a good thing to cultivate a positive, optimistic attitude. Look for the things for which you can thank God.

(Remember: this is meant to be aspirational – I do appreciate that we do not always manage to achieve it.)

 

4) Do not quench the Spirit

No, it doesn’t mean “drink your whiskey neat”! It refers to the way we can hinder the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives. By a lack of faith, or by negative attitudes, we can fail to take hold of the spiritual gifts he has for us.

There is a story about a man who had a dream of heaven. An angel showed him  into a room, the walls of which were lined with cubby holes. inside each cubby hole was  a parcel, all  wrapped up. “Who are all these  presents for?”,  said the man.
“These are all the spiritual blessings and gifts the Lord wanted to give you in your lifetime, but you didn’t take hold of them!” said the angel.

Yes, we can quench the Spirit if we are too proud to accept what God offers us. If we try to live the Christian life in our own strength.

 

5) Do not despise the words of prophets

This is linked with the previous one. God has given gifts of prophecy to some people. He can use them to convey his words. Prophecy can come in different ways, I think:

  • it might be the words of a preacher in a sermon
  • it might be the words of Scripture
  • it might be that someone really feels they just  have  to say something to us.

All these can be forms of prophecy. “Now, if God is speaking to you”, Paul says, “don’t despise what he says. Listen to the way he wants your life to go”.

But, of course, not every prophecy is true. Not everyone who says, “The Lord told me this”, is speaking the truth.sometimes they are deceiving, and sometimes they are self-deceived so:-

 

6) Test everything

Check up on whether it really is from God. How can we know? Ask yourself:

  • does it agree with the teaching of the Bible?
  • does the prophecy ring true? If specific facts were given, did they turn out to be true? Did any predictions come about?
  • What about the lifestyle of the person who brings the message. Are they godly, are they honest, are they loving, are they humble?

“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. (Matthew 7: 15-16)


Jesus tells us it’s by the way a person lives their life and by he things they do that we shall know if they are genuine.

Test everything – don’t be gullible – don’t be taken in by every new and trendy teaching.

 

7) Hold fast to what is good and abstain from every form of evil

It’s not just a matter of exercising discernment, we must live godly, honest and loving lives also.

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable— if anything is excellent or praiseworthy— think about such things.  (Philippians 4:8)

We need to concentrate on the things that are good and wholesome (and that seems to have brought us back to Pollyana again!)

 

Conclusion

 

As Paul draws near to the end of his epistle he pronounces a benediction on his hearers and readers:
 
May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do this.
(Thessalonians 5:23-24)   

You see, it’s not a matter of struggling hard to live up to these commands it’s God who will do it in us. He will do the work of sanctification by his Holy Spirit, we do not rely on our own strength. And as we live our lives we are looking forward the return of our Lord when we shall be with him for eternity.

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