Immeasurably More (Ephesians 3.20-21)

Introduction

Well, happy New Year to you all if I haven’t had the opportunity to wish you one already. I hope you’ve had a good Christmas break.

I remember when one of our children was small, I think it must have been Nathan, we were blowing up balloons together for a birthday party. And I was quite impressed that, even with his little lungs, (he would have been 6 or 7), he was able to blow into the balloon and inflate it… a bit.

After two little puffs, he’d proudly hold up this rather wimpy looking balloon perhaps the size of a large grapefruit and say “Look daddy, I’ve finished this one, can you tie the knot for me?”

These were pretty good quality balloons and I was easily able to inflate them to the size of basketballs. So I’d take his balloon, encourage him, and say “Well, that’s great – but let’s see how much bigger this one can go, shall we?” And I was usually able to blow 5 or 6 long breaths into it and make it much bigger.

You see, Nathan had inflated his balloon - but it wasn’t full. There was ample capacity for more – much more.

Christians, like balloons, come in all shapes and sizes. You’ve noticed, haven’t you? Some are quite large and round (especially just after Christmas). Some are long and thin. Some never get off the ground. Some are always up in the air. Some are quite flexible and can tie themselves up in knots. And some, like me perhaps, are just full of hot air…

Balloons of course have different capacities for containing air – and Christians too, the Bible tells us, have different graces and gifts apportioned to us in different measures.

It is not true to say that all Christians have exactly the same sort of Spirit-filled life, we don’t.

But, like Nathan and his balloon, however full we might think we are filled, most of us have a capacity for more.

The Bible talks about growing in grace – so you can have more grace. We could all have a greater measure of faith, more love and more power, increased expectation…

How hungry are you for an experience of God that is above and beyond what you have so far known? Or can you say that you are satisfied with your spiritual life as it is? Are you content that you’ve got it all, that you’ve made it?

Paul, writing to the Christians in Ephesus, pauses in chapter 3 to pray. And in his prayer he asks God to strengthen them, from the abundant storehouse of his glorious riches. He prays that they will be absolutely firmly grounded in love. And he prays that they will have spiritual power to really grasp and fully know the love of Christ and that they will be filled to the measure [that means replete, saturated, overflowing, bursting with] all the fullness of God.

Unless that is already your experience of the Christian life, let me tell you this morning that there’s more!

And Paul goes on to say it in Ephesians 3.20-21; “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”

I want to speak out three realities from these verses this morning and here they are.

Reality number 1: God is able to do much, much more than anything we could expect or even dream of.

Reality number 2: God’s sovereign power is already actively at work within us and among us.

Reality number 3: The glory of God, supremely revealed in Christ, must be reflected in the church in every generation, including our own.

And I’m going to take them in reverse order.

1. To God Be the Glory…

Reality number 3, that the glory of God revealed in Christ must be reflected in the church in every generation, including our own, means this: our top priority, our principal calling, is to magnify and exalt the greatness, the supremacy, the holiness and majesty and wisdom of God.

It’s not about us. It’s all about him. It’s all for him and he deserves it all.

What is “glory”? Have you ever stopped to think about that? It’s not an easy word to define is it?

We use the word in sports headlines. “England chase World Cup glory…” But we all know it’s going to end depressingly in the quarter finals on penalties.  

We use the word in nature. “The glory of the English countryside…” But we know really that for much of the year we’ll have to experience it battling to stay warm to the sound of driving rain lashing down on an umbrella.

Everywhere we use the word “glory” we devalue it except when we talk about God. So when the Bible says “To God be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus” it’s not talking about average sportsmen or hills and dales under heavy grey skies. It’s talking about a different order of things altogether.

The writer and pastor John Piper says “the glory of God is the beauty and brightness of his infinite perfections.” Think about that. The beauty… and brightness… of his infinite… perfections.

When I was in primary school, there was a big sensation the pop charts. He dressed in shiny clothes and he had an exciting name. People idolised him. He was a superstar. His name was written in lights; Gary Glitter.

But within five years of his peak nobody was buying his records anymore. Nobody was talking about him at all. He was all but forgotten. He attempted a comeback and flopped. It turns out he wore a chest wig and dyed his hair. Twenty years later, he was in a jail as a convicted sex offender. His fame lasted less than one generation and even that was a sham.

But even the genuine greats of human history, even the most admirable of men and women who have ever lived, even cultural icons who have left their mark, even the great and the good buried in Westminster Abbey, are as dust compared with the sheer greatness and grandeur of God’s glory.

I saw in the news that there was a meteor shower over the UK just before dawn on Friday. When you look up at the sky at night and see a shooting star it’s briefly entertaining; a fraction of a second and it’s gone. That’s what the glory of the very greatest men and women who have ever lived is like.

By comparison, the glory of God in Christ is like… the sun. You have to be warned against looking at it. Just as the sun’s light can blind you, so God’s glory is awesome beyond our capacity to bear it. For generation after generation, the intense radiance of God’s glory never fades.

About 750 years before Christ, Isaiah briefly saw the glory of God, and the manifestation of his holiness. The foundations of the place he was in trembled at the sound of the angel voices, and the room was filled with smoke and he called out in terror; “That’s it! I have looked God in the face! I’m finished!”

It’s the church’s job to reflect the countless facets of glory of God revealed in Christ in every generation, including our own.

Think about, for example,

• his absolute holiness
• his limitless goodness
• his manifold wisdom
• his unchanging faithfulness
• his saving grace
• his Father heart
• his immeasurable kindness
• Let there be an admiration for, and an echo of, God’s glory in All Saints’ this year. To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations. 

2. The Power of God is Among Us

Reality number 2. God’s mighty power is already at work within us. It means this: the same mighty power that spoke creation into existence from nothing, the same immense power that raised a corpse from death; the power to love the unloveable and forgive the unforgivable is right here.

We’re talking about:

• power that transforms the foulest sinners into the finest saints
• power that transforms the sulkiest foes into the sweetest friends
• power to that transforms tears of sorrow to shouts of joy

The Bible says that that power is at work among us. It’s in this place today.

Jesus once got into a discussion with a group of religious people called the Sadducees. These people rejected most of the Old Testament, they didn’t believe in the supernatural and they denied the resurrection. And Jesus said to them, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.”

According to Jesus, people go wrong in life if they are unfamiliar with God’s word. That is why we have chosen a verse for 2013 that says “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.”

The more acquainted with the Scriptures we are, the clearer our direction through life will be. That is also why we are reading the essential Bible together this year. Let’s saturate our minds with God’s thoughts and familiarise ourselves with words of truth.

But according to Jesus, people also go wrong in life if they do not experience God’s power.

In fact, knowing God’s word and knowing his power go together. You will never be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit if you haven’t soaked in God’s word.

How do I know that? Well, when Jesus returned from his 40 days of testing in the desert, Luke 4.14 specifically says he did so “in the power of the Spirit.” He had taken the devil on - and won decisively - by speaking out truth from Scripture. Every time he was attacked he answered, “It is written” and he affirmed God’s word. Jesus was filled of the Holy Spirit because he was full of the God’s word.

Tragically, like the Sadducees, I’ve known Christians who are ignorant of both the Scriptures and the power of God.

Don’t be lulled into thinking, because you’re baptized, or because you’re an Anglican, or because you never miss church, or because of some other formal qualification, that you’ve got everything you need.

In 1961, the minister at Westminster Chapel, Martin Lloyd-Jones, preached a sermon that really startled his congregation.

Some people had told him they had no need of being filled with the power of the Holy Spirit because (they said) they had already received everything they needed when they were converted many years before.

And Lloyd-Jones got a bit cross. “Got it all?” he said. “Got it all? Well, if you have ‘got it all’, I simply ask in the name of God, why are you as you are? If you have ‘got it all’, why are you so unlike the New Testament Christians? Got it all? Got it at your conversion? Well, where is it, I ask?”

Don’t be a “got it all” Christian. Be an “immeasurably more…” Christian!

In May 1738, an utterly disillusioned man who had also been thoroughly ineffective, not to say miserable, as an Anglican minister walked into a gathering in Aldersgate Street, London, in which someone was reading Martin Luther's introduction to the Epistle to the Romans. Something significant happened. That encounter changed the history of England.

The man was John Wesley of course and he later wrote about that experience. “I felt my heart strangely warmed,” he said. “I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.”

The whole nation came under God’s hand of blessing. A mighty revival broke out throughout the land.

Pubs emptied and chapels filled up. There were many signs and wonders. Hundreds of thousands of men and women were converted. (And the Church of England opposed it by the way).

Wesley travelled 250,000 miles (that’s more than the distance between the Earth and the moon!) and preached more than 40,000 sermons. He formed discipleship groups, he planted churches, he commissioned preachers, he administered relief charities and he opened schools and orphanages. He published many books earning at least £20,000 (a huge sum of money in those days). But he actually gave away £30,000. He lived very simply and died practically penniless. But under God he changed our nation armed with nothing but the simple gospel.

The power that is at work among us…

3. Immeasurably More…

And so to reality number 1; God is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine means this: however hard you strain to visualise the sheer span and dimensions of God’s bounteous supply of blessings, you will never get close.

He is able to far, far exceed anything you could dream of.

Our translation has the words “immeasurably more”. The King James Version used to translate it as “exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.” So God is able to do not just more, not just abundantly more, but exceedingly abundantly more. Are you ambitious for God’s glory to shine as never before in our church and in our land?

We’re going to be talking about key ministries at All Saints’ in the next four or five weeks.

Next Sunday Kathryn will be explaining why we invest so much in our youth. It’s a strategic decision we’ve made. It’s really exciting that we are sending out about a dozen of them as our missionaries at Easter to build a house for a homeless family in Mexico. I believe that there’s more, immeasurably more, to come.

Then Jan will be speaking in two weeks’ time about whole families. The PCC has given Jan the go ahead to recruit a team and start a new ministry after Easter called Messy Church. Don’t let the title put you off, it’s a nationwide movement and God’s anointing is on it. This may be one of the keys that unlocks unchurched families coming to Christ. I believe that there’s more, immeasurably more, to come.

God’s hand has been on our Connect ministry amongst retired people. We have never attracted as many to the lunch club as we do now. The Holy Spirit is moving and we want to go where God is blessing and join in. Sylvia is going to speak about our plans for that in three weeks’ time. I believe that there’s more, immeasurably more, to come.

We are not going to slacken off in our ambition to let every home around this church know that there is a vibrant Christian community in their midst.

We want to continue to resource evangelism and mission in other churches situated in poorer areas than ours. And I’ll be sharing some of the exciting news from further afield in four weeks’ time.

I want you to know that we are focused on exalting God’s glory here and further afield.

I believe, by the grace of God, and with Spirit-filled people, and with passionate serving, we’ll prevail and grow.

We are hoping and praying for a 5-10% increase in giving this year to ensure that all these ministries and others can flourish. In fact, we’re not just hoping for it, the PCC has budgeted for it. That is ambitious. Some would say reckless.

I believe, by the grace of God, and with Spirit-filled people, and with radical generosity, we can do it - and have money to spare.

These are very challenging times spiritually. These are also very testing times economically. But God is able to do immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine.

Ending

Remember that story about Nathan and the balloon? How full are you?

Simon Ponsonby of Saint Aldate’s Oxford says, “To be filled with the Holy Spirit leaves no room to be filled with anything else.” So let’s clear out everything that is taking up the space in our lives that the Holy Spirit alone should be occupying.

The Scottish evangelist to South Africa, Andrew Murray, used to suggest three simple steps to being filled with the Holy Spirit (in fact he had four, but I’m abbreviating it).

So let me leave you with this as we begin this New Year 2013.

Step 1 – say, “I must be filled.” Step 2 – say, “I may be filled.” Step 3 – say, “I shall be filled.”

Step 1 – “I must be filled.” Why must you? Because it’s God’s command. The Bible says “Go on being continually filled with the Holy Spirit.” So it’s imperative. God doesn’t say “If you want...” “I must be filled.”

Step 2 – “I may be filled.” Some people doubt that God’s word is really for them. Listen, the promise of Scripture is for all believers. Jesus said, “How much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?” God doesn’t say “This is only for leaders or the outstandingly holy.” “I may be filled.”

Step 3 – “I shall be filled.” Some people say, “Well, I’ll just put it off a couple of weeks and get round to it when I’m ready.” Listen, you won’t. You’ll never be ready. Jesus says, “All those who are thirsty, come.” The Lord is moving now.

Let’s stand to pray…

Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 6th January 2013

Why I am a Christian (1)

The Origins of the Universe Hint at the Work of a Creator

Weary of reading the barrage of predictable, patronising and often ill-informed comments every time I scroll through the "Have Your Say" or "Comment is Free" section on any Christianity-related BBC or Guardian web posting, I decided at the end of 2012 to jot down the reasons why I am a Christian. 

I came up with 26 reasons why I find Christianity believable. I then tried to arrange the different reasons under the categories of cosmological, existential and philosophical, theological, Christological, scriptural and personal or experiential. 

It occurred to me that probably none of my 26 reasons, on its own, would convince me that Christianity must be true. There are counterarguments that you can find for each one and they're not that hard to locate on the Internet. But together the 26 reasons build a case which satisfies my curious mind and makes sense of my felt spiritual experience.

The first four reasons (to do with the origins of existence, the fine tuning of the universe, the improbably life-favouring properties of the Earth and the appearance of life from non organic matter) are cosmological and astrobiological in nature and they underpin my understanding as to why I think that my belief in a creator is not unreasonable. And that's where it starts for me.

I do not treat any of my 26 reasons as "proofs."

It can be proved that 2+2=4, that the Earth is not flat and that I am genetically related to my children. However, I do not believe anyone - even I myself - can categorically prove that I really love my wife Kathie. But I know I do. Nor can I empirically prove that a Van Gogh masterpiece has any artistic merit - though I know it has.

In the same way, I do not think anyone can prove - or disprove - that God exists. It's just not that sort of knowledge. People have to consider the evidence without prejudice and draw honest conclusions from what they observe and experience.

Sadly, I think that this is what too many people fail to do. I find that many, believers and sceptics alike, behave tribally, defending their tribe whether it's right or wrong and attacking the opposition even when they plainly have a point. Like an exchange in the British Parliament's House of Commons it generates more heat than light and descends to caricature and trading insults instead of actually debating the matter in hand.

Anyway, this is the first of 26 reasons I am a Christian. That's one new post every two weeks for a year.

I think that the origins of our universe (indeed, the very fact that there was a beginning to our universe) raise big questions because they point to the work of an originator - a Creator. "In the beginning..."

Oxford Professor of Mathematics John Lennox writes about his aunt baking a birthday cake. Though, he says, you can analyse the ingredients and quantify the temperature they must have been heated to in order to deliver the end product, you can't prove that John's aunt made it, or for what occasion, just by examining its properties. What you do know is that it is there. And the fact that it is there at all points inevitably to the existence of a baker.

As the age-old philosophical conundrum has it, why is there something rather than nothing?

My first reason for being a Christian is that the universe is there at all and that it came into existence from nothing. If everything that comes into existence has a cause, what caused the creation of the elements, trillions of spinning planets, our beautiful world, vast burning stars, mighty galaxies that are light years wide in span, dark matter, mass, light and energy? From nothing?

Rationalist scientists and atheist philosophers like Fred Hoyle and Bertrand Russell in the early 20th century, no doubt driven by atheist presuppositions (or perhaps just lazily adopting Aristotle's philosophy) denied our cosmos had a beginning, stating that it was just always there. According to this view, there was no need for a creator at all because everything always existed. This was the standard orthodoxy for sceptics.

But in 1929 all that changed. Edwin Hubble's observation of red shift when studying the light from far away galaxies pointed conclusively to the reality of an expanding universe. First proposed by Belgian Catholic priest and cosmologist Georges Lemaitre, Hubble confirmed the theory beyond doubt. 

By calculating the rate of expansion, cosmologists and mathematicians were then able to trace the origins of our universe to about 13.75 billion years ago. The Big Bang. No longer was anyone saying that the universe just always existed. Hubble proved that it must have had a beginning. This cosmological model is now undisputed by scholars. It is about as factually certain as the assertion that the Earth is spherical and travels round the Sun.

Lemaitre and Hubble established that the universe had a starting point and physicists since then have agreed that the raw materials for everything that exists were... nothing. Everything that is - trillions upon trillions of stars and planets spinning in perfectly symmetrical patterns in trillions upon trillions of vast galactic systems just appeared, by themselves, ex-nihilo, from nothing. As if by magic...

I think it is fair to say that this scientifically established consensus not only fails to rule out, in itself, a wise and powerful eternal creator, it practically calls out for one.

Of course, all this could have all just happened all by itself; the ultimate case of spontaneous combustion. But how? Why would all existing matter; an unimaginable mass of stuff and mind-boggling levels of energy just appear in an instant, without cause, from nothing at all, all by itself?

It's like the arrival in your driveway of an elegant limousine that had no designer, no manufacturer, and has no driver or fuel. It just isn't plausible.

Stephen Hawking and others have attempted to account for the incredibly precise physics necessary for our universe to exist by appealing to the concept of a "multiverse." According to this idea, our universe, unique among an infinite number of other universes, just happened to have all the right laws of physics to create it and sustain it.

Suffice to say that the multiverse theory does not come from long calculations chalked up on a university blackboard. It is thrashing about in the dark. It is nothing more than a hopeful guess, bereft of any evidence, indeed without any possibility of evidence since any proof could only exist outside our ability to test it.

This is the poverty of the kind of option you're left with if you have an a priori assumption of the impossibility of a creator God. This is the best that the most brilliant human minds on the planet can come up with.

It is philosophical desperation; the kind that must allow for the possibility, indeed - since there has to be an infinite number of universes – the kind that must insist on the certainty, of another universe somewhere populated by flying pasta trolls and candy floss teapots orbiting the planet of the fairies.

John Lennox's birthday cake is still waiting for an explanation of who baked it, who it was baked for and why. All we can really do is look at each other, shrug our shoulders and admit that it is there. And then enjoy eating it.

The fact remains that I am still waiting for an intellectually satisfying explanation as to why it is more logical, not less, that our vast, mysterious, complex and astonishingly beautiful universe came into being from nothing, all by itself, and not by the will of an all-powerful creator who is outside of time and has no beginning and no end.

That's why "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1.1) sounds like a decent starting point to me.

And that's the first reason why I am a Christian.

Mary Christmas: The Maternity Drama (Luke 2.4-19)

Well, I want to wish a very happy Christmas to you and your families.

All of us treasure things in our hearts, don’t we?

You perhaps have a few fond memories of big occasions like a wedding or an anniversary. Or perhaps when you were a child. Do you remember having little friends round for your birthday party? Wasn’t that the most exciting thing in the world? How weird would it be if they all turned up and said “Happy birthday!” and then proceeded to give presents – not to you – but to each other? Christmas, of course, is Jesus’ birthday. I’ve already wrapped the presents for my family. What gift do I have for him?

For anyone who has been a parent, the birth of a child is an unforgettable experience and one that is cherished forever.

So it is not surprising that we read in Luke’s gospel, chapter 2, verse 19 that Mary treasured in her heart the events surrounding the birth of her firstborn child Jesus.

The enchantment of the carols, the candlelight, the lights on the tree and the homely crib scenes tend to distract us from the trauma it must have been for Mary to give birth in the circumstances she did.

Some of you have been mothers. How many of you would have chosen to have your first baby far from home, after an arduous sixty mile trek? Pictures on Christmas cards often depict her riding on a donkey as Joseph leads the way on foot but the Bible never mentions a donkey and it is possible that she had to walk the four day journey.

When she got to Bethlehem she would have found herself in a militarised zone in a foreign occupied territory, her relationship with Joseph in serious jeopardy – no hospital, no bed, and only farming apparatus at hand to place her baby down for a sleep?

It’s not exactly an expectant mother’s nesting dream is it?

Mary, this young, single mother will have arrived in Bethlehem, physically exhausted and due to go into labour at any time, only to find that there was no lodging available. 

You hear about emergency deliveries in taxis, helicopters and ambulances when labour is sudden and short-lived - and you feel for the mother who would surely have wished for a less anxious delivery - but the birth of Jesus was a proper maternity drama.

These are the shabby conditions which the Lord of glory chose to frame his entrance into our world. He didn’t consider the squalor or the stress beneath his dignity. That’s because he loves you.

It’s been pointed out that the word “stable” is nowhere to be found in the Gospel narratives. It just says that there was no place to stay at the guest houses – or inns – and we surmise from that that the birth must have been in some kind of animal shelter because Luke mentions three times that Jesus had to make do with an ox’s feeding trough as an improvised cradle. It probably wouldn’t even have been clean, let alone sterile.

But remember what Mary had said to the angel when he announced the news that she would bear the Messiah; “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me according to your word.” Then, she was ready for the adventure and trusted God to know what he was doing.

But I wonder if Mary began to doubt that God was really in control of the situation when her labour pains started and it was obvious the accommodation was going to have to be makeshift and the delivery was going to have to be improvised. How did she feel then?

Do you sometimes wonder, when everything seems to be going wrong, in fact when everything is going wrong, if God can possibly know what he is doing? Some things go so far awry from the way anyone would have planned them that you begin to question whether or not you are in God’s will at all.

“If I am in God’s will for my life, people ask, “then why aren’t things going smoother? Why am I meeting such spiritual resistance? Why do the doors seem to keep closing in my face? Why am I struggling so hard? If I am in God’s will for my life why doesn’t he remove the obstacles to progress?”

There are three reasons why Mary might have thought that this was the wrong time to have a child:

Firstly, her marriage was not yet consummated and Joseph was minded to call the wedding off altogether. In the first century in the Middle East that was a very vulnerable state to be in. She must have wondered if she was going to be left a disgraced single mother with an annulled marriage, a baby to raise, a disapproving society and no support.

Secondly, the census was thoroughly inconvenient and it totally disrupted all their plans. The birth of her child was away from home, where there’s the security and support of the extended family.

Thirdly, the lodging arrangements were completely unsatisfactory. Talk about holidays from hell; this is every mother’s nightmare. Everywhere they look is closed as the contractions get more and more and more frequent – and then, suddenly, with nowhere to go, Mary’s waters break and she wonders if the baby will make it.

This must have felt like the worst day of her life. In fact, it was the very best.

This was the day she would hold in her arms the infant Christ and love him as her baby. What did she treasure in her heart when she looked into his eyes?

Did you know that there are 322 prophecies about the Messiah in the Old Testament, that is the part of the Bible that was written before Jesus was born?

322. They tell you things like where he would be born (Bethlehem), what he would say, how he would die, that he would be betrayed by a kiss… they even predict how much money he would be betrayed for (20 pieces of silver – not 29.99). All 322 prophecies were fulfilled by Jesus. The mathematical compound probability of all 322 predictions being fulfilled in one man in one moment in time – do you know what it is? – it is 1 in 84 with 100 zeros after it.

What did Mary treasure in her heart when she looked into the eyes of the child who had already started fulfilling those 322 prophecies?

What do you treasure in your heart tonight? You cannot hold him in your arms as Mary did but do you hold him in honour and love him as your Lord?

This is the night that rustic shepherds would come and bow down before her child.

What did she treasure in her heart as they explained how an angel had told them about her baby, the one who they would find lying in a manger, a Saviour, Christ the Lord?

What do you treasure in your heart tonight as we echo the song the angels sang in these carols?

And if you could ask Mary then, as she rested after her harrowing labour and crisis birth in that scruffy barn… if you could ask her “Mary, would you go through that ordeal again?” what do you think she would reply?

I believe she would look down adoringly at him
· announced by her cousin Elizabeth as special
· celebrated by angels as a glorious Saviour
· revealed by shepherds as Christ the Lord

and she’d say “Would I do it all again? Definitely. 100%.”

No one knew Jesus better during his time on earth that his mother. May you know him through and through as she did.

No one’s openness to God, and obedience to his will, and faith in adversity is likely to come close to Mary’s.

So as you follow Christ, and especially if the road is particularly arduous at the moment, may I wish you a very Mary Christmas.

And as you open your presents tomorrow, most of which you honestly won’t really need – thank God for the one gift he gave you that you truly can’t do without.


Sermon preached at Saint Mary's Long Newton, 23rd December 2012 and All Saints' Preston on Tees, 24th December 2012.

Living Till He Returns Or Calls Me Home (1 Thessalonians 4.13 - 5.11)

Introduction 

There’s an old story about a business that was relocating to smart new offices and flowers were delivered on the first day. The owner read the out the card to the staff; “Sincere regrets, rest in peace.” He was a bit cross, so he called the florist to complain. The florist apologised but said “Well, it could be worse. There is a funeral somewhere today with a note on the coffin saying “Congratulations on your new location”!

As we continue reading through 1 Thessalonians, we notice a change of subject when we get to chapter 4, verse 13 where Paul starts to talk about grieving the death of loved ones and the second coming.

So, to start with, I’m really going to cheer you all up by talking about dying. Last week I talked about sex, this week I’m talking about death. One member of the congregation, who shall remain nameless said to me on Monday, “Sex, death – it’s the same sort of thing isn’t really?” I said “Speak for yourself!” Actually, I say I’m going to talk about dying. Really I’m talking about living - until the Lord calls us home.

Attitudes to Death in Culture 

Whether we regard death with resignation, or with defiance, or with denial it is the one experience we will all face (unless the Lord returns first). One of the founding fathers of the United States, Benjamin Franklin, famously noted that “nothing in the world can be said to be certain except death and taxes.” Some wit replied “Yes, but death doesn't get worse every year!”

Death is an unpopular topic of conversation. So it’s not surprising that there is widespread ignorance about it. So it’s no wonder that Paul starts off by saying in v13 “We do not want you to be uninformed [or ignorant] about those who sleep in death.”

These days it’s common to hear ideas about reincarnation or (especially when children die) becoming an angel. Or people say things like “Granddad’s looking out for us now from up there”, or “Auntie Mary hasn’t really gone, it’s just like she’s in the next room or is in the wind.” I’m sure you’ve heard this kind of thing at funerals.

Probably the most common thing I hear from bereaved relatives is “Uncle Tony would have wanted you to be happy, so we’re going to wear bright colours and celebrate his life instead. Don’t be upset,”

People get through bereavement as best they can of course and I don’t say this critically, but I think grieving properly, with real tears, is important and it can even be unhealthy to bottle it all up and force a smile, however well-intentioned that is.

In fact the Bible says as much. Remember how Mary Magdalene wept when she couldn’t find Jesus’ body? She needed closure and she needed an emotional outlet. Jesus openly wept when he heard about Lazarus’ death too.

I just feel that some of you might need to grieve today. Something that might have been bottled up for years. There is great healing and release in grieving. The Bible says there is a time to mourn and a time to dance and I just feel that he wants to bring healing to someone here today in that way. If you feel tears welling up in the service, I want to urge you to come forward for prayer ministry later.

So notice Paul doesn’t say here, “We don’t want you to grieve.” He says in v13 “We don’t want you to “grieve like the rest, who have no hope.”

In Bible times, as today, there were many ideas doing the rounds about death.

A second century letter written by someone called Irene has been discovered. The letter reads: “I was sorry and wept over the departed one… but nevertheless against such things one can do nothing. Therefore comfort one another.”

The tone is resignation. It speaks quite pathetically about those whose business it is to console - but who have no consolation to offer. There’s nothing good you can do or say.

It’s common to hear that sort of approach today. The British Humanist Association’s slogan is “For the one life we have.” Because humanists don’t fear hell or yearn for heaven, they try to make a virtue of having no hope, no expectation, no wish, of anything beyond the grave. So when someone dies, all you can really do is dispose of the body, say a few nice things, and support each other as best you can. And that’s it.

Christian Attitudes to Death 

I’ve accompanied Christians in their dying days many times I have marvelled at the peace that descends on a believer as death approaches. Christian funerals have a starkly different feel to them.

I’m sure I’ve told you before about the man in Buckinghamshire who was given weeks to live by his doctor. He went home and sent out invitations to all his non-Christian friends. The invitations said: “Come and stay with me. Come and see how a Christian dies.”

Archaeologists have unearthed another letter, also dating back to the second century, but this time about Christian funerals, which says this: “If any righteous person among them passes from the world they rejoice and offer thanks to God; and they escort the body as if he were setting out from one place to another nearby.”

There is one reason, and only one reason, why Christian attitudes to dying and death are so different; the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

The Bible often speaks of the death of believers as sleep or rest. Paul uses that language three times in this short passage.

But the New Testament never speaks of Jesus’ death as “falling asleep” lest anyone get the wrong idea. It insists repeatedly that Jesus actually died; he breathed his last, he surrendered his spirit and was independently certified dead. His lifeless corpse was physically handled by several witnesses as it was removed from the cross and laid in a tomb.

And God didn’t wake him from sleep; he raised him from death, on the third day. The tomb was empty. Why was no corpse ever found? Because there wasn’t one.

Why didn’t the disciples understand it or believe it until they encountered Jesus face to face? Why the penny drop only then? Because they were genuinely shocked by it and never expected it.

Hundreds of eye witnesses saw him alive. Not one person, not one, out of hundreds who were stoned, beheaded, crucified and thrown to the lions for preaching the resurrection, ever admitted to staging an elaborate hoax. Because they knew it to be true.

Verse 14: “We believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.”

If you’re a Christian, don’t fear death. It’s just a doorway into a new reality that outshines anything this life has to offer.

People often say to me “I’m not afraid of death, but I am anxious about the process of dying.”

Well, that’s fair enough, I think. Even Jesus shuddered at the thought of the agony he knew he would have to face on the cross: “Father,” he said, “if it is possible, take this cup from me.” He endured far more than you and I ever will. He is Emmanuel, God with us, who does not abandon us, especially at the hour of death.

Sometimes God gives departing believers glimpses of what is to come (partly I believe to encourage us who remain.) I mentioned the evangelist Billy Graham last week. He once once said this: “Just before dying, my grandmother sat up in bed, smiled, saying “I see Jesus and he has his hand outstretched to me. And there is Ben and he has both of his eyes and both of his legs.” (Ben, Billy Graham’s grandfather, had lost an eye and a leg in war.)

Sceptics might say it’s just delirium or wishful thinking. But there are several books out at the moment by people who claim to have had foretastes of heaven during a serious illness only to make a full recovery. Two are written by medical doctors, one of whom trained at Harvard.

Another is the testimony of a small boy who recovered from a life-threatening operation. He recovered and later revealed information he couldn’t possibly have known - such as meeting a miscarried older sister who he had never been told about. There is a remarkable convergence in each of these testimonies.

Let that encourage you. Nevertheless, as we all journey towards death, don’t put your confidence only in anecdotes and testimonies; ground your faith in the well-attested historical fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
As Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins [and] those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost… But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead.”

Whether he returns first or calls us home beforehand, the Bible says “we will be with the Lord forever.”

The Lord’s Return 

But what if the Lord returns first?

In 1988 there was a publishing sensation. A hitherto unknown author called Edgar Whisenant wrote a book called “88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will be in 1988.” 4.5 million copies flew off the shelves. In January 1989 it didn’t sell so well. Undaunted, the author wrote a sequel the following year with the title “The Final Shout – Rapture Report 1989.”

This, despite Paul writing in 1 Thessalonians 5.1, “Now about times and dates we do not need to write to you…”

Why didn’t Paul need to write about times and dates? Was it because Edgar whatshisname had worked out it was 1988? No. The reason is, v2, “You know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.”

How many of you have been victims of a burglary in your home or a car theft? I am sorry that happened to you. It happened to me once and it’s traumatic isn’t it? Now keep your hands up please if that break-in was pencilled into your diary beforehand? No one.

The point is that nobody knows when the Lord’s return is going to be. Even Jesus, who knows pretty well everything there is to know, said “No one knows the day or the hour; not the angels, not the Son, only God the Father knows.” It’s a secret.

And if God the Father doesn’t even tell God the Son when it is, why did four and a half million halfwits imagine that God shared the information with Edgar whatshisname? They just didn’t think it through did they?

There are four things we know about the Lord’s return from this passage. Firstly, a thief will come in the night; secondly, a woman will go into labour; thirdly, people will have to stay awake and not get drunk, and fourthly; people will need to put body armour on. As Tom Wright says, “Don’t try that one at home!”

Of course, all four are metaphors. What do they mean?

The thief in the night doesn’t mean that Jesus is like a light-fingered criminal. It just means that his return will be come out of the blue and without warning. And for those who do not belong to him, who are not prepared for it spiritually, it will be distressing.

So v2 says “While people are saying Peace and Safety, destruction will come on them suddenly and they will not escape.

What about the woman in labour metaphor? That means that everything else in life will become completely unimportant by comparison. When the contractions come and the waters break no expectant mother says, “I’ll just hang the washing out, do the week’s shopping and take the dog for a walk …” No, everything fades into the background as the focus is placed on the packing the bag and getting to the hospital!

A couple of years ago, I went to Saltburn for the day with Joseph and Benjamin. We went walking along the coast toward the Jurassic cliffs, looking for fossils and shells. After a while we looked up and found that the tide had been coming in really quickly and we were about to be cut off. We ran as fast as we could, back towards the main beach, some of the way through ankle deep water and we just made it.

When Jesus returns it will be like that. People will be so absorbed in what they’re doing, that that they won’t notice the signs of the times and they won’t be spiritually prepared for Christ’s return.

So thirdly, it says in v6-7 to be watchful and sober, not sleeping or drunk. To be asleep here means to live as if there will never be a judgement day. To be watchful means living holy lives, like I was talking about last week.

We’ve all heard stories of husbands-to-be waking up after a stag night wondering why they’re dressed in a tutu and chained to a lamppost on a roundabout – and realising that their drinks must have been spiked with laxatives!

I’m sure I don’t need explain to the good churchgoing people of Eaglescliffe why getting hammered is not all that clever! The point here is that when people’s senses are dulled to the reality around them, when people are spiritually desensitized, they’ll be unprepared for the Lord’s return.

And fourthly, Paul mixes his metaphors one more time by saying in v8 “let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.”

I remember travelling around Italy when I was a teenager and visiting a site a few miles south east of Naples. On 24th August in the year 79, the place I was standing was buried under 20 metres of ash and debris that came down from nearby Mount Vesuvius. The towns of Herculaneum and Pompeii (where I was) were completely destroyed.

One of the witnesses of that event was a 17 year old called Pliny who later wrote these words: “You could hear the shrieks of women, the wailing of infants and the shouting of men; some were calling for their parents, others their children or wives, trying to recognise them by their voices. People bewailed their own fate or that of their relatives and there were some who prayed for death in their terror.”

It’s apocalyptic isn’t it? When Jesus returns it will be just as sudden, just as unannounced. There will be no time to reconsider. For some, who are not ready, it will come as a terrible shock.

It could be that meeting the Lord “in the clouds and in the air” is also a metaphor. The air, in Greek thought, was a way of talking about the spiritual realm. So in Ephesians 2.2 the devil is called “the prince of the power of the air.” It could mean that we will share Christ’s spiritual victory as he returns visibly. Or it could actually mean we will ascend physically to meet him and accompany him as he returns to Earth from heaven. Honestly, I don’t know. It doesn’t affect the status of my relationship with God. I’ll know when it happens.

But I know this: practically every passage in the New Testament that speaks of the Lord’s return makes this point: because no one knows when it will be, be ready at all times. Suppose he were to return tomorrow? Or today? How would he find you living? Are you ready to meet him? Live each day prepared to welcome Christ.

There are several models for the exact unfolding of events surrounding the Lord’s return. I remember learning about it all in Eschatology lectures, plotting it all out on charts. Was I an a-millennialist, a post-millennialist or a pre-millennialist? If I was a pre-millennialist, did I favour the classical post tribulation model or was I of the dispensationalist pre-tribulation rapture school?

To be honest, I have friends in all of these theological camps. I could spend hours going through the different schemes and systems and explaining to you why I think what I think - but it’s much more edifying for you if I close with a few bullet points of what pretty well all Christians agree on. Theologians might hold different opinions on the sequence of events leading up to Christ’s return, but they all say this:

· Christ will come in glory to judge the living and the dead
· He will return physically and visibly and all the world will see it and know it
· There will be a loud command and the sound of a trumpet
· Believers who are still alive will meet him when he returns
· Dead believers in Christ will rise and be given new resurrection bodies

Conclusion

But listen; whether Jesus returns or calls us home first, only one thing is essential to know when you leave this building this morning – are you ready or not? Get right with God today. Make sure you’re ready.


Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 2nd December 2012

Living Holy Lives (1 Thessalonians 4.1-12)

Introduction

Well now, I’m going to say quite a bit about sex this morning.

I can see you’re just thrilled…

I’m not putting any pictures on the PowerPoint this morning by the way.

Perhaps I should take inspiration from a noted sex therapist who was asked to say a few words about the subject at an after dinner speech. So he stood up and said, “Ladies and Gentleman, it gives me great pleasure...” And then he sat down again.

Actually, even though we sometimes find sex difficult to talk about, most of us are fascinated by it. Apparently they found a big hole in the nudist colony wall The police are looking into it! Not surprisingly…

Public Attitudes to What the Church Says 

You sometimes hear it said that the Church is just completely out of touch with reality. In fact, even the Archbishop of Canterbury had to admit as much only this week when he said that ordinary people would be unable to make sense of the decision at General Synod to not proceed with women bishops.

If you ask around, you can find plenty of people who think the Church has an image problem. People might talk about archaic language, boring music, antiquated buildings, redundant costumes, ridiculous structures and I could go on.

Many people think that the Bible’s teaching on sexual purity is hopelessly outdated. If you’re not married, just say no.

“But the world has moved on” people say. “We need to leave this kind of outdated morality behind.”

What is perceived as a “No sex please, we’re Christians” approach is dismissed as unreasonable. “It’s unhealthy” people say. Or worse, “It’s repressive.”

Some voices even within the church question how wise it is to persist with it, given how few people take it seriously in general society.

Consent and Non-Consent

When Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 4.6 that “no one should wrong or take advantage of a brother or sister” people, even outside the church, would generally concur I think.

Paul seems to be talking about persistent, unwanted advances, or some kind of exploitation - perhaps even abuse. And clearly, most people would agree that those things are not unacceptable.

But when we read in v3-6 that we should avoid sexual immorality, that we should learn to control our bodies and steer clear of passionate lust, some people ask “Why should we? As long as it’s between two consenting adults what’s wrong with it? Once again,” they say, “the church is out of touch with the real world.”

Let’s make sure we understand properly what the Bible has in mind in these verses. The word translated “sexual immorality” or in other versions “sexual promiscuity” or “fornication” is porneia in Greek from which we get “pornography.”

It’s not talking about all sex – God created sex, in the context of marriage, to be enjoyed and delighted in. What we have here though is an umbrella word basically meaning sex between two people who are not married to each other.

The thing is 1 Thessalonians was written to a community in the first century Roman Empire and a marked feature of life then, and specifically in Greece, where Thessalonica is located, was sexual permissiveness. Then, as now in the West, people did not see unmarried sex as a sin; it was just part of normal life.

Paul was writing to a world similar to ours – except actually most people today would view it as worse. In those days, prostitutes were openly paraded and were even a central feature of temple worship. If you were lower down the social scale, you were the submissive partner and exploitation and even abuse (both homosexual and heterosexual) were seen as fair enough. That was just your place in society’s pecking order. Nobody really questioned it or challenged it.

But in this, as in many other areas of life, the first Christians refused to take their standards from contemporary society. Always beware when people say the church should be more like the world.

Generally it’s like saying the lifeboat would be better off if it had more water inside it.

Why does Paul draw boundaries here about what’s OK in the bedroom and what’s not? People might say that, to be perfectly frank, it’s none of his business. Why should any Christian leader interfere with what consenting adults choose to do? Aren’t there more important priorities like feeding the hungry and sheltering the homeless?

God’s Will for Us

Paul gives two reasons for what he says. Firstly, sexual purity is what God wants for us.

In v2 he says “you know what instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.” In other words, “Remember, this comes from the top.”

In v3, he repeats it “It is God’s will that you should be sanctified.” So it’s not about what Paul wants, this is what God wants.

He says it a third time, just for good measure in v8: “Anyone who rejects this instruction does not reject a human being but God, the very God who gives you his Holy Spirit.”

What does God want? Verse 3 “It is God’s will that you should be sanctified.” “Sanctified” (some versions use the word “holy”) doesn’t mean “pious” or “religious” – it literally means to be set apart for a special purpose.

If you’ve got 100 apples and you place 20 in a box, those apples are holy.

If you’re sanctified, you’ll stand out from the crowd; so what it’s saying here is that God wants you and me to be conspicuous, to catch the eye, to be different.

Why does God want that for us? Because in his wisdom, as our designer and creator, he knows what is best for us and because he loves us he wants us to avoid what he knows is harmful to us.

Let me illustrate for you using independent research, why God’s wisdom urges us away from human wisdom which is just doing as we please sexually.

Human wisdom says who needs a bit of paper? God’s wisdom replies “Because marriage, represented by a signed certificate, is the most stable sexual relationship there is.

The Office of National Statistics reports that there were almost 120,000 divorces in the UK in 2010 - three times the number recorded in 1967.

The divorce rate for married couples is lower among those who saved themselves until their wedding night than for those who didn’t. According to a survey of those who were married for the first time in the 1980s, there is a 60% higher probability of divorce in the first eight years for those who lived together before marriage than for those who didn’t. 60%!

That’s a lot of pain. When the Bible talks about husband and wife being united together as one flesh the image is like two pieces of paper being glued together, the glue being the covenant or the promises.

When a marriage breaks up, because of adultery for example, it’s not the glue you tear – it’s the paper, and adults and children alike suffer pain and grief.

Last year, the Family Planning Association reported that the UK has the highest teenage birth rate and teenage abortion rate in Western Europe. That is another consequence of sexual immorality and that is another good reason why God wants us to be set apart.

An American radio presenter called Paul Harvey made this comment on one of his programmes. He said, “You know, in every Holiday Inn hotel. there is an AIDS prevention kit in the bedside cabinet drawer. It is called the Gideon’s Bible.”

There were over 383,000 cases of sexually transmitted diseases diagnosed in the UK in 2009, the latest year I could find figures for. That’s a 38% increase on the figure for the year 2000. That’s a lot of Gideon’s Bibles staying in the drawer! But 383,000 STDs are another consequence of sexual immorality and that is another good reason why God wants us to be set apart.

I’m sorry for bombarding you with statistics but I need to say that I am not just voicing opinions – I believe the wisdom of the Word of God is supported by independent research and statistics and the numbers are saying that the Bible is right. The so-called sexual revolution has not brought about happiness and health and an end to repression – just the opposite.

Can anyone honestly say that our secular society, is better off than, say, 50 years ago – a period when the Bible has been largely removed from schools and attacked in the media?

So firstly, God knows what makes for our happiness, and that’s why he calls us to live holy lives. He wants to live well and avoid heartache.

God’s Warning for Us

But there’s another reason and it comes in v6-8. If v3-6 are about God’s will for us, v6-8 are about God’s warning to us.

This is what it says: “The Lord will punish all those who commit such sins, as we told you and warned you before. For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. Therefore, anyone who rejects this instruction does not reject a human being but God.”

Basically, what it’s saying here is that this sort of sin – and in fact the Bible says all sin - has spiritual consequences for us. We may not like to hear that.

But God is holy, holy, holy - and righteous and just and true, and even one sin would be enough to banish us from his presence forever. When Isaiah encountered God in the Old Testament he was so overwhelmed by God’s breath-taking holiness that he thought he was going to die. The Bible warns in Hebrews 10:31, “It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” That’s scary…

It’s much more comforting to think that God is not that bothered, but that is not what the Bible says.

The truth written down here is this; if people block their ears to God’s word, they actually refuse God himself. Let me read that verse again: “anyone who rejects this instruction does not reject a human being but God.”

Whenever we think “no thanks” to what the Bible teaches us, we actually say “no thanks” to the Lord, full-stop.

Just a few months ago, a respected, high profile Christian leader entered into a wrong relationship, deserted his wife and children, leaving them in financial difficulties and abandoned the ministry he had spent years building up. I don’t sit in judgement over him. There, but for the grace of God, go I.

My point is this: Not surprisingly, that man didn’t carry on attending his local church or start attending another one. That tells me quite a lot about where he is with God right now. “Anyone who rejects this instruction… rejects God.”

Adultery is about what feels right for me at this particular moment in time. That’s the wisdom of the world. It says, “my body is mine to do as I see fit instead of belonging to my wife or husband.”

I pray he will be restored. Because, however low we fall, with the grace of God there is always a way back, as we’ll see in a moment.

The wisdom of the world says that my virginity is mine to give away as I see fit. Godly wisdom says my virginity is a precious gift that I keep to give away to my future wife or husband. And Godly wisdom bears fruit.

For ten years, Dr. Nancy Moore Clatworthy, a sociologist from Ohio State University, has been researching couples who have lived together unmarried. To her surprise, the data she compiled found that the couples who had lived together before marriage argued with each other more often than couples who had not. And the rate of marriage breakdown was higher as well than for couples who had not lived together before marrying.

Is sexual sin worse than other sins? No. Possibly we attach a greater stigma to sexual sin but the Bible doesn’t because all sin separates us from God.

What Paul says here about the consequences of promiscuity is also true of jealousy, prayerlessness, theft, unbelief, laziness, greed and 101 other things besides.

In 1983 Billy Graham appeared in a TV show with the actress Joan Collins. The interviewer asked “Billy, were you aware that Joan has appeared in Playboy magazine? And Billy Graham replied, “Yes, and I’ve seen it. Someone showed it to me in the barber shop.” And then he went on to preach the gospel.

Even in 1983 you could scarcely avoid seeing erotic material from time to time. Now, with the Internet, it’s much more prevalent and easily accessed.

I like that story about Billy Graham though – it reminds me that we can’t completely remove ourselves from the world. But the gospel is good news and it sets us free from the lust that wants to grab hold of us and take us away from everything that is healthy for our soul.

Nobody here – and I mean no one – will be able to stand before God and boast of our purity and righteousness before him. Remember what Jesus said, “Anyone who even looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

With that kind of standard, who among us is is ever going to make the grade? Only Christ’s perfect record is good enough – he who was tempted in every way just as we are - yet was without sin.

And his perfect, unblemished record is what he gives to you whenever you come to him in repentance and faith. The Bible says that God loves us. When sinless Jesus died on the cross, all our sins - all of them - were placed on him, and he took the death sentence and experience of hell we deserve.

Believe Christ died for you. The Jesus who saves you is the same Jesus who sanctifies you. Invite him to be Lord of your life today, no matter how many times you have before, and when you do, receive God’s promise to forgive you, and restore you completely and fully.

Living in Love and Humility

Briefly, Paul goes on in v9 and following to say this: “Now about your love for one another we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other. And in fact, you do love all the brothers and sisters throughout Macedonia. Yet we urge you, dear friends, to do so more and more, and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.”

I like what William Hendriksen says in his commentary about this passage; He writes, “Fanatics, busybodies and loafers, nearly every church has them.” He sounds really fed up doesn’t he?!

I’m glad to say that I don’t find All Saints’ a refuge for fanatics, busybodies and loafers! Actually, Paul is saying that this church is full of love and that’s one of the things I really appreciate about All Saints’ too.

Not that any church should rest on our laurels – twice in these verses Paul urges his readers to keep on doing the right thing more and more.”

Ending 

Finally, this thought; the psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross once said “People are like stained glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.”

Let the pure and holy fire of Christ burn in your heart. It is God’s will for you to be holy.


Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 25th November 2012

God's Law (Matthew 5.17-20)

Introduction

I want to begin by asking you six questions. And I am going to ask you to raise your hand if what I say is what you think. Here we go.

Firstly, raise a hand if you think lay people should have a big say in the way the church is run.

Secondly, hands up if you believe that Jesus was really raised from the dead.

Third question, would you please raise your hand if you are confident that you will be admitted to heaven when you die?

Fourthly, raise a hand please if you think that studying the Bible is worthwhile.

Fifthly - and I’m not taking notes - hands up if you think that Christians should give a generous proportion of their income to the Lord’s work, to support good causes and to alleviate suffering in the world.

And lastly; hands up if you believe that sending missionaries to lands that know nothing of Jesus Christ is a good thing. Thank you.

You are probably wondering why I started with those six statements. So I’ll tell you. Jesus said in our Gospel reading this morning, “Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Please listen carefully now, here’s the link. We know, from the Gospels, that the Pharisees and teachers of the law would have unhesitatingly raised a hand to all six, as many of you have - and I have – and yet Jesus said you’ve got to do better than that to enter the kingdom of heaven.

Here’s what we know about what the Pharisees on these six points.

1. Contrary to what many people think, the Pharisees were actually a dedicated lay movement – none were priests.

2. Unlike the Sadducees, who were the woolly liberals of the day, the Pharisees believed in the resurrection so they were quite sound.

3. Furthermore, they were absolutely confident that they themselves would attain eternal life.

4. They were very keen readers of Scripture; they learned hundreds of verses by heart and they spent many hours in Bible study groups.

5. You can guarantee they would be in Lewis’ good books. They methodically gave a full one tenth of everything they earned to God; from their monthly pay cheque to their garden herbs.

6. And to cap it all off, they were fervent about spreading the faith to other lands. Jesus said to them “You travel half way round the world to make just one convert” – that’s dedication isn’t it?

But I say it again. Jesus said you’ve got to do much better than them if you’re going to enter the kingdom of heaven. Think about that. The Pharisees who were radically committed to obeying every aspect, every detail of God’s law, no matter how trivial it seemed to be, fell short.

I doubt if there are many Christians, me included, who in practice come even close to their attention to detail. It’s a bit of a problem isn’t it? That’s what this sermon will try and explore.

The Law in the Big Picture of God's Word

We’re continuing our series on the big picture of the Old Testament. So far we’ve seen God create the world and we’ve seen that his creation has been spoiled by sin. This world is not the way it was meant to be. It’s all gone wrong because people made and still make bad choices and choose to rebel against God.

We’ve looked at the patriarchs; Abraham, Isaac and Jacob who learned to relate to God through faith and who grew through their many mistakes. We’ve seen how God made covenants, or binding agreements, with people and how he released his enslaved people from Egypt.

If you’ve ever tried to read the Bible from cover to cover I suspect you will have been all right so far.

But at this point, the end of the book of Exodus and into Leviticus and Numbers and then Deuteronomy it gets much harder. This is the bit we call the Law.

In Deuteronomy 1 it says that Moses “proclaimed to the Israelites all that the Lord had commanded him concerning them.” And it says that he “began to expound the law.” What is this law all about?

First Things First

A few days after God miraculously set his people free from slavery in Egypt he gave them ten simple rules to live by. We know them as the Ten Commandments.

It’s very important to understand that with God, it’s always this way round. First he sets them free. And then he tells them how to live. God still works that way today.

First he saves you. And only then does he tell you how he wants you to live as a grateful response to him.

That means Christians shouldn’t judge people who are not believers and lecture them about their shocking morality. Christians need to concentrate instead on telling others about the One who sets people free from sin. Only when they have been saved from sin should we talk about how to live God’s way.

When I was in Paris, we ran an Alpha course twice a year. We regularly had the joy of seeing people turn to God through this simple but powerful introductory course to Christianity.

In two consecutive autumn courses we welcomed two women with fertility problems. One had been trying unsuccessfully for a baby for 14 years. Even hormone treatment and artificial insemination were useless. When she got to 40 the doctors told her it was hopeless and that she should forget it.

The other woman had had an abortion when she was a teenager and there had been complications, making subsequent attempts to conceive a child unfruitful.

Both had gone through painful break-ups in unmarried relationships. Both came to the church in desperation. Both came to faith in Christ during the Alpha course. Both were filled with the Holy Spirit on the ‘away day’ halfway through the course. Both became pregnant within a week. And both gave birth to healthy babies (one boy and one girl) the following August.

The thing is both women had domestic arrangements that were certainly not what the Bible would prescribe as the right way to live. Both had messy lives. We didn’t judge them. We just loved them.

But as soon as they became Christians, without us saying a word, both wanted to put their lives right and live according to God’s word. That’s the work of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus sets you free first and then tells you how he wants you to live as a glad response to his saving grace.

That is why Jesus never commended the Pharisees, even though they lived upright lives. They went around criticising others and tut-tutting, placing a burden of condemnation on them, but they never lifted a finger to help people carry it.

And that’s is what Jesus means when he says , “Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.”

One Law, Many Laws

So God gave his people the Ten Commandments. But in fact, that’s just the start. From Exodus to Deuteronomy, there are in total 613 different laws.

Some of the laws are quite straightforward. Do not give a false testimony in court. Do not commit adultery. Do not steal. Most of the straightforward ones are also repeated in the New Testament and are just as valid today.

Some of them are quite weird. Do not eat shellfish. Do not shave your sideboards. Do not wear garments with wool and linen mixed together.

Most of the weird sounding ones are not repeated in the New Testament and are not binding on us today. Those laws were given so that the people of Israel would distinguish themselves from pagan people around them and stand out. They tell us that our God wants us to stand out from the crowd – but in different ways.

Other laws dealt with the sacrificial system God established to take away sins. These regulations taught the people that God is holy, and that sin is serious - so serious it can only be cleansed by the shedding of blood.

Sin is still serious and God is still holy. But those sacrifices are no longer needed, because Jesus shed his blood as the final and complete sacrifice for our sins.

The New Testament says in Galatians 3:25, “Now that faith (in Christ) has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law.”

Does this mean we should just ignore those parts of the Old Testament? No, not at all. They teach us just how seriously God takes sin, and they remind us too of what it cost God to make our salvation possible. Most of all, they point us to Jesus Christ, who loved us so much that He was willing to give His life for us.

Pointing to Christ

When you think about it, God makes it pretty easy for us, doesn’t he? Never mind the 613 laws, just start with the Ten Commandments. It’s just ten simple rules to keep. It should be easy. But we don’t even get past the first one. “You shall have no other gods before me.” That means nothing should be more important to us than God.

But how many of us, honestly, have never put anything above God? It could be your job, it could be your holiday, it could be your family, it could be golf or football, it could be food and drink, it could be your church, it could be anything… the moment anything or anyone replaces God as first in my affections I break Commandment number one.

All of us are lawbreakers. Everyone who has ever lived has been a lawbreaker. The problem with the Law is it tells you what to do but it doesn’t give you the power to obey with your heart.

When winter passes and the springtime sun starts shining, we start spring cleaning because we see just how grubby our homes get over winter. God’s Law is a bit like the light that reveals how dirty a room is.

That’s why Jesus says in v17, “I haven’t come to abolish the law”. It’s really good to be able to see dirt and dust in your room. That’s why he says in v18, “Not one dot of an “i”, not one cross of a “t” will disappear from the law until kingdom come”.

God’s Law is the light that reveals how dirty our lives are compared to his holiness. Thank God for that. But God’s Law is not the broom that clears up the mess. The broom that clears up the mess of our patent inability to obey the law is Jesus - how we need him!

A Matter of the Heart

What God wants is love from the heart; love for him and love for others. That’s why Jesus whittled down hundreds of laws and commandments to just two; “Love the Lord with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and all your strength. And love others as you love yourself.”

In other words, it’s a matter of the heart.

So does your righteousness surpass that of the Pharisees? Or is your religion, like theirs, only about ‘dos and don’ts’ with no affection for God and no love for others?

Let’s pray...


Sermon preached at Saint Mary's Long Newton, 18th November 2012

Peace For Our Time (Remembrance Day Sermon 2012)

Habakkuk 1.1-4, 13-17 and John 14.23-27

On 18th November 1961 in an upstairs room in a modest two-bed semi in Essex a young mother gave birth to her first son (there's a picture of it, the house - it's the one on the right with the porch). He wasn’t much to look at, and he cried round the clock but she loved him as only a mother can. That baby boy was me. And I came into the world just 16 years after the end of World War II.

I was born into a very different world than I would have, had the generation before mine not risked and, in many cases, laid down their lives to defend these islands from the cruellest tyranny Europe has ever known.

That is why we do this every year. We do not wear poppies just to remember death but also to savour the better life we enjoy at their expense. Their bravery and sacrifice bequeathed us the legacy of a continent at peace – and we are grateful.

I want to talk about two sorts of peace this morning.

One spring evening in an upstairs room in Jerusalem, Jesus said looked at his twelve closest friends and most loyal followers and said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” It was the evening before he died.

The peace Jesus gives, he said, is “not as the world gives.” That is to say, the world offers one sort of peace. And Jesus gives something else.

What sort of peace does the world give? What does the peace, that is not like Christ’s peace, look like?

To answer that question, look at our very best efforts to contain war.

World War 1 (1914-1918) was a conflict that was so thoroughly awful that it was called the war to end all wars. 17.6 million people died or went missing in just four years. 21.2 million more were wounded – and that’s just military casualties, not counting civilians. When it ended, people said “We must learn how to work together to make sure it never happens again.” The war was officially ended with a treaty signed in Versailles. They set up an organisation called the League of Nations so that international conflicts could never be allowed to escalate out of control again. 

On 30th September 1938, just 20 years after the end of that war, our then Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain flew back here from Munich. He stepped off the plane waving a piece of paper signed jointly by himself and Adolf Hitler hours earlier. He said, to great cheers from the gathered crowd, “the agreement signed last night… [is] symbolic of the desire of our two peoples never to go to war with one another again.”

Later that night outside number 10 he said “it is peace for our time… go home and sleep quietly in your beds.” 

That’s the peace that the world gives. It wasn’t peace for our time and it was anything but a time to sleep quietly in bed. In fact, the very next day, as the newspapers carried the headline “Pact with Hitler is only a beginning” Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia. 

Within a year, Britain was at war with Germany; a conflict that spanned six years. In the Second World War, there were 24 million military casualties and approximately 49 million civilian ones. In other words, this war was over four times more deadly than the war to end all wars, two decades earlier. 

So much for the peace that the world gives…

On the 26th June 1945, within two months of the end of the Second World War, there was a summit of world leaders in San Francisco.

The outcome of that historic gathering was that the United Nations was formed.

They issued a charter in which the following resolutions were affirmed.

We the peoples of the United Nations [are] determined

· to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind…

· to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbours…

· to unite our strength to maintain international peace and security

These are beautiful words. These are commendable goals. This is the peace that the world gives. The problem is, sadly, like the Treaty of Versailles, it doesn’t deliver the peace we all yearn for.

If it did, there would be no conflict zones anywhere in the world today. War would be a thing of the past.

The truth is, not a single month has passed by since the setting up of the United Nations when there hasn’t been a war somewhere.

This is the peace that the world gives.

And, of course, war and violence is not just a modern phenomenon. Habakkuk, in our first reading cried out; “Lord, why is there so much strife and violence and you do nothing about it?” He wrote those words over 600 years before Christ. About that time, a prophet called Jeremiah was saying “Peace, peace you say – but there is no peace!” It has been the same sorry story throughout human history.

Jesus said that there will be “wars and rumours of wars and nation rising up against nation” until the end of time.

Why is it that we, as a species, the human race, are so manifestly unable to deliver the peace we all so long and yearn for?

We see from a very young age that small children fight over toys. My entire childhood there was a running feud and a bitter dispute between my brother Richard and me on who should have the top bunk bed. We have only recently negotiated a truce! As we get older, the toys and beds become land, and positions of power and natural resources like oil.

We find too that we clash with each other in our marriages and families, sometimes with irretrievable breakdown. We fight at work. We fall out with the neighbours.

There will always be wars and rumours of wars, as Jesus said, because the human heart itself is not what it should be.

Jeremiah, again, said “The human heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?”

So this is the peace that the world gives; momentary, illusory and ineffective.

But remember the words of Jesus.

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”

What is the peace that he gives? In what way is it different?

To answer that question I want to introduce you to a young man called Cyril Barton. On 18th July 1943 he wrote the following letter to his mother to be opened in the event of his death. 

Dear mum,

I hope that you never read this but I quite expect that you will. 

I am expecting to do my first operational flight in a few days. I know what operations over Germany mean and I have no illusions about it. By my own calculations, the average life of a crew is 20 flights and we have 30 to do in our first tour. 

I am writing this just to tell you how I feel about meeting my Maker. All I can say about this is that I am quite prepared to die. It holds no terror for me. I know I will survive the judgement as I have trusted in Christ as my own saviour. I have done nothing to merit glory; because he died for me, it’s God’s free gift. At times I have wondered if I have been right believing what I do and just recently I have doubted the veracity of the Bible. But in the little time I have had to sort out intellectual problems I have been left with a bias in favour of the Bible. 

Apart from this though, I have the inner conviction as I write, a force outside myself and my brain, that I have not trusted in vain. All I am anxious about is that you and all the rest of the family would also come to know him. I commend my Saviour to you. 

I am writing to Doreen separately. I expect that you will have guessed by now that we are quite in love with each other. She too will find the blow hard to bear. But there is a text that we have often quoted to each other and it is written in the Daily Light she gave me. Romans 8:28 – We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him. It’s true. 

Well, that’s covered everything now. Love to dad and all. 

Your loving son, Cyril. 

On 30th March 1944 Cyril Barton's Halifax bomber was hit by enemy night fighters. Two fuel tanks were punctured, the radio was disabled, the starboard inner engine was on fire and the intercom lines within the plane were cut. 

A misinterpreted signal resulted in three of the crew bailing out. Cyril was left all alone with no navigator, no bombardier and no wireless operator. As he crossed the English coast his fuel finally ran out and with only one engine working he approached the village of Ryhope, near Sunderland. If he had bailed out then, his stricken aircraft would have crashed into a row of houses so he stayed on board to steer it towards a pit head instead. 

He was pulled alive from the wreckage but he died before reaching the hospital. He was only 22. It was his 19th mission.

He was posthumously awarded the highest honour for gallantry, the Victoria Cross.

“I commend my saviour to you” he wrote to his mother and from the grave he commends his saviour to us all today. If anyone merited the Victoria Cross it was Cyril Barton – but his greatest reward, his eternal reward, was in Christ.

As a young pilot, Cyril Joe Barton knew he was staring death in the face every time he took off on a wartime mission. How could he face death with such courage, with such nerve, with such… serenity?

He knew the peace that Jesus gives, that the world cannot give, and it settled his fearful heart.

But his death was still a bitter blow to their parents, one from which they never fully recovered. As far as I know, they never shared their son’s faith and never tasted the peace that Jesus gives and that the world cannot.

Do you have that peace? Have you discovered it? Put your life into his hands today, as Cyril Barton did, and then ask Christ to help you bring his amazing peace to others.

“Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, [for] you were called to peace” (Colossians 3:15).

Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 11th November 2012