Losing Religion (Luke 11.37-54)

Introduction

As some of you know, we have had quite a lot of work done on our house this year; including a kitchen extension the addition of a downstairs W.C.

We bought the toilet bowl and wash-hand basin from a large bathroom specialist in the town centre. It is a good shop. The choice is amazing, the products are excellent and the staff are helpful. But the experience of shopping there made me really sad.

Why is that? It’s because this particular retail outlet is situated in a converted church building. And as we walked around looking at all the products on display, I couldn’t help but imagine that huge auditorium, decades back, as a living church, packed with worshippers, the word of God being preached and people regularly getting saved and baptized.

And now I’m looking at lavatories and taps and shower cubicles...

Of course, everywhere you go in the UK you see church buildings that long ago became retail stores, libraries, museums, community centres, art galleries, concert venues, even mosques and temples.

How did that happen? Churches don’t just suddenly die overnight without warning. Usually, they slowly become sick, go into gradual decline and eventually perish for - I think - one of two basic reasons.

Some die because, instead of sticking with sound biblical doctrine, they embrace and promote false teaching (such as denying the resurrection, or the deity of Christ or approving same-sex marriage blessings).

Other churches slowly die because they lose touch with the gospel of grace, and become religious and legalistic.

This is when people perpetuate church traditions without knowing why. They just say, “Well, we’ve always done this.” Church becomes all about keeping things going. People make you feel guilty and condemned if you don’t do more to keep the dreary old show on the road.

This is worthless religion. There is nothing attractive about it at all. It’s a drag. It’s all about pleasing people, not pleasing God. The Bible calls this cycle of drudgery ‘dead works’. There’s no real faith involved. There’s certainly no joy.

Churches living under grace, by contrast, have faith hardwired into their DNA. When someone asks, “Why are we doing this?” you never hear, “Well, I don’t really know.”

You’re much more likely to hear something like, “We're doing this because we believe we’ve heard from God and he’s calling us to step out, believing for what he’s promised, and as we do that, faith is rising in our midst.” That’s the sort of thing you hear all the time in a healthy church, living under grace.

There’s no heaviness, or guilt, or manipulation, or pressure or culture of pleasing people. Instead, when grace is taught in a church, people understand that they’re acceptable to God by faith; not by a slavish attachment to dead works.

My brothers and sisters, this is so vital. It is fundamental.

Scribes and Pharisees

In Jesus’ day, the dead works people were called Pharisees and experts in the law. We’re going to meet both in today’s passage from Luke’s Gospel.

Let me give you some background. The experts in or teachers of the law (sometimes they’re called scribes) are scholars, religious lawyers with letters after their names. They’re well-respected pillars of the community.

The Law of Moses in the Bible has 613 commandments that the Jews have to abide by. But for these teachers of the law 613 isn’t nearly enough! So they publish books that say, “Oh, but you’ve got to do all this as well.”

They add tons of new rules and traditions to what the Bible says. Then they say that it’s more important to follow their rules (which are easy to understand) than the Bible (which is hard to understand).

Below these experts in the law are the Pharisees who are not university educated like the scribes; they are what we might call dedicated laymen. 

The Pharisees have to choose an expert in the law to be their mentor. They hang on his every word, they take notes, they live strictly by all the extra rules that the teachers of the law add to the Bible. And they look down on anyone who struggles to match their religious intensity.

How is Jesus going to engage with these people?

Well, let’s read Luke 11.37-54…

When Jesus had finished speaking, a Pharisee invited him to eat with him; so he went in and reclined at the table. But the Pharisee was surprised when he noticed that Jesus did not first wash before the meal.

Then the Lord said to him, “Now then, you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. You foolish people! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? But now as for what is inside you—be generous to the poor, and everything will be clean for you.

“Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone. “Woe to you Pharisees, because you love the most important seats in the synagogues and respectful greetings in the marketplaces. “Woe to you, because you are like unmarked graves, which people walk over without knowing it.”

One of the experts in the law answered him, “Teacher, when you say these things, you insult us also.”

[Well, of course! Because the Pharisees, remember, are only doing what the experts in the law say they should do].

Jesus replied, “And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them.

“Woe to you, because you build tombs for the prophets, and it was your ancestors who killed them. So you testify that you approve of what your ancestors did; they killed the prophets, and you build their tombs. Because of this, God in his wisdom said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and others they will persecute.’ Therefore this generation will be held responsible for the blood of all the prophets that has been shed since the beginning of the world, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, this generation will be held responsible for it all.

“Woe to you experts in the law, because you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering.”

When Jesus went outside, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law began to oppose him fiercely and to besiege him with questions, waiting to catch him in something he might say.

Talk about making friends and influencing people! If you want to know how to lose friends and alienate people, here’s an object lesson from Jesus on how to do it in four simple steps:

• 1) get invited to lunch,
• 2) spend the entire meal insulting your hosts and calling out their hypocrisy. Then,
• 3) when someone protests that what you’re saying is offensive, tear into them as well and
• 4) walk off.

That, my friends, is what Jesus does here. Jesus reserves his most incendiary and chastening words, not for alcoholics, sex workers, junkies, compulsive gamblers and ruffians, but for well-heeled, respectable religious leaders.

Six times here he says, “Woe to you...” It must have brought a bit of a heavy atmosphere down on their fancy dinner party.

Jesus also said, on other occasions, “Blessed are you…” and as Steve rightly said last month, he spoke more blessings than he did woes, never forget that! But let's not gloss over the fact that he spoke both.

1. Religion Says, ‘We’re the Good People’

It all kicks off in v38 when the Pharisees show surprise when Jesus doesn’t wash his hands before the meal. This is nothing to do with hygiene. It’s actually an elaborate ceremonial ritual that the teachers of the law had devised.

They specified how much water you had to pour, what vessels to use, how you must pour it, how long the whole thing has to last and so on. And they did it to purify themselves from the defilement of having had contact with sinners before sitting down to eat.

Here’s the first reason we have to lose religion. Religion says that the world basically contains two kinds of people; good people and bad people. How do you know who the good ones are? Easy. "People like us, dear." They’re the ones like us. Bad people – well, they’re the ones like them.

So the Pharisees, the Bible says, go around praying in a loud voice so everybody can hear; “O God, thank you so much that I am not like other people - robbers, evildoers, adulterers - or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.”

And Jesus admits here in v42 that they do give a full tenth of their mint, rue and garden herbs. You can just picture them with a ruler and scissors on the parsley bush.

The Gospels tell us that they parade their generosity for all to see. They announce it with trumpets when they put money in the offering to be noticed by others.

Like all religious people, the Pharisees tend to think that other people are worse than they are. They are, as we say, holier-than-thou.

So religion says there good people and bad people. And we’re the good ones. And you’re the bad ones.

But the Bible says there aren’t any truly good people - except Jesus. Instead, there are messed up people who know they need forgiveness from God and messed up people who think they’re just fine without God.

Jesus goes to the religious people here - and he loves them - and he tells them the truth about who they are. And it offends them deeply because they think they're so good.

And all the way through the Gospels they say to Jesus, “How dare you!” They hate him, they try to trap him, they plot against him, then they arrest him, they rig his trial, and in the end they get him killed. 

Jesus also went to messed-up people; loose women, drunkards, tax collectors and petty criminals - and he loved them too - and he told them the truth about who they were as well.

And they usually said, “You’re right, we are totally screwed up. Our lives are the pits. How are we ever going to get out of the mess we’re in? Is there anything that can be done? Can you help Jesus? You can? Great!” they said, “Where do we sign up?”

They say that Frank Sinatra, before his deathbed confession, looked very worried. He looked back on his pretty colourful life with the rat pack and said: “This may take more than one priest.”

Actually, he didn’t need more than one priest. He didn't even need one priest. He only needed one Saviour – but at least he didn’t pretend he was a good man when he knew he wasn’t.

Jesus is interested in the heart, not in outward appearances. So he says in v39, “You Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness.”

Imagine Jesus looking intently at you and saying that! “How ‘holy’ on the outside. How rotten on the inside.” It must have been devastating!

I plead guilty to being quick to see impurity of heart in other people and slow to cultivate a pure heart myself. Are you the same? How often I need to ask God, in his mercy, to open my eyes to see the Pharisee in me, so I can repent of it. 

As well as thinking they’re the good people, the Pharisees love to parade their self-righteousness for everyone to admire. William Barclay says, they “basked in the sunshine of their own self-approval.”

They crave status and people’s fawning admiration. It says in v43 that they just love the most important seats in the synagogues and respectful greetings in the marketplaces.

All they care about is looking good and presenting your shiny clean image for all to admire. They want you to think they are better than everyone else but if you were a fly on the wall of their private world, you would see that they are utterly false.

2. Religion Burdens People with Guilt

Then Jesus starts on the teachers of the law - what’s their problem?

Jesus says to them in v46, “You load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them.”

This is the second reason we have to lose religion. Religion loads people down with burdens.

What burdens? It’s all that guilt. It’s all that condemnation. It's all those complicated, man-made laws. It’s all those dead works.

I’ve been reading a biography this week about the musician Van Morrison. He grew up in East Belfast in the 1950s, where they used to chain up swings and roundabouts in the park on Sundays because it was the Lord’s Day. God forbid that you might have any fun on the day when you should be in church!

That’s what the teachers of the law were like. Religion says this: “If you give up drinking, and tell no more lies, and stop swearing, and cut out all the excess, and brush yourself up, and become a better person, then God will love you.”

But grace says: “No! God already does love you. It doesn’t depend on you becoming a good person first.

And God showed just how much he loved you by sending his very own Son to live for you, die for you, rise again for you and come to live in you by the Holy Spirit.

The Bible says, “God demonstrates [God proves] his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, [that means when we were still all over the place, when our lives were messed up... think about your life as low and as far from God as it’s ever been… it was precisely then that] Christ died for us.”

So religion says, “God will love me if I make myself good enough.” Grace says “God loves me so much already.” And if you are in any doubt about how much God loves you just look at the cross.

Religion is like me turning around to my children when they were young and saying to them “Right kids, listen up. Here is a list of things that are important to me so I hope you’re taking notes. I want you to tidy your room, work extra hard at school, share your toys with your friends, clean your teeth three times a day, wash your hands before you eat – and if you do all that I will be your dad. And if you don’t, I won’t love you anymore and I will leave you.”

My kids always knew – at least I hope they did (I tried to tell them) – that they could put custard in my bed, they could dip my books in the toilet and write graffiti on the kitchen walls... To be fair, they knew that I wouldn’t be all that happy about it. But crucially, they knew I would never, ever stop being their dad or stop loving them if they did.

How much more is God absolutely committed to us, to loving us, to staying our Father if we are his children, to picking us up when we fall.

The gospel of grace is simple. A child can understand it.

The teachers of the law on the other hand, the religious people, made it confusing and difficult. Jesus says in v52, “Woe to you experts in the law, because you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering.”

Beware of churchy people who sound so clever, make it so difficult and convoluted that people give up reading the Bible because they feel they’re not clever enough.

3. Religion Resists the Holy Spirit

The last thing about religion (and more briefly) is that it always resists the Holy Spirit. This is the third reason we have to lose religion. Religion resists the Holy Spirit.

Jesus said that the Holy Spirit is like the wind; you don’t know where it came from or where it’s going and you can’t control it. When the Holy Spirit comes in power, he ruffles feathers.

John Wimber used to say, “Church isn't about being neat and tidy; that’s what the graveyard is for. Life is oftentimes found in mess. The nursery is messy and noisy but that’s where all the life is!"

Jesus says here that these experts in the law vehemently oppose any move of God until it’s long gone – because it’s messy and noisy. And then, when the danger is past, they hypocritically build memorials to it.

I thank God for Mike Pilavachi, J. John, John Stott, Nicky Gumbel and many more – all of them Anglicans who have greatly blessed the church throughout the world.

But in the 18^th Century, the Church of England systematically opposed one of its own vicars, John Wesley. He was banned from every parish pulpit in the land. So, he preached in the open air instead. Thousands were converted to Christ; there were signs and wonders in the streets, countless people were baptized in the Holy Spirit and hundreds of churches were planted.

And the Church of England denounced all of it. But now, there’s an ornate memorial to him in Westminster Abbey. Even then, they managed to carve his birthday wrong on the marble!

And don’t let’s think this could never happen to us. It could. We could just as easily oppose a move of God out of fear and self-preservation, and end up speaking well of it once it was over.

Ending

I end with this: I was on holiday in central France some years ago and I noticed that, in some places, the river Loire was much reduced from what it had been in the past. There are dozens of little lakes and pools a good stone’s throw from the wide, sandy river banks.

Those pools are only there because a river had flowed there in the past. The pools are where the river used to be. 

The pools are great – people paddle in them; but they are just a shallow inheritance of a bygone era.

I started by talking about churches that die. They start to die when they are content to live off a legacy of the past.

Are you satisfied with what God did years ago in your life? Is neat and tidy religion enough for you now? Are the shallow pools of leftover religion enough for you these days?

Or do you long for that running, flowing, bubbling, living water that you only experience in the river?

Let's stand to pray...

Sermon preached at King's Church Darlington, 19th September 2021

What Will Happen to Those Who Never Hear About Jesus?

One of the big questions people often ask is what about people who die having never heard the gospel? What will happen to them? We understand easily enough from Scripture that 1) those who accept Christ as their Saviour receive the Holy Spirit and are given the free gift of eternal life, and that 2) those who consciously reject his gift of grace forfeit the gift of salvation and face an eternity separated from God.  

We may not like it. We may worry about friends and family who think they are fine without God. We may even wonder why a good God would not give a second chance after death – but we understand deep down that there is something terribly wrong about forcing people to accept a gift they don’t want. Hebrews 9.27 says that people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment so it seems clear that we all have to make a decision about Jesus in this life.

But what about people who never hear about Jesus and are therefore not even aware that there is a decision to make? What about people in far off lands where the gospel has yet to penetrate, or countries where there is another majority religion? Or even in some western countries where the church is so unrecognisable from the Book of Acts that people never see an authentic Christian community and therefore never take a second look? Will God treat them as if they have rejected the gospel? Or will he treat them as if they have accepted it? Universalists say that God will just save everyone in the end but there is nothing in the Bible at all to back that up so it seems a bit like wishful thinking.

It’s a hot potato whose temperature is increased by the fact that the Bible doesn’t really seem to say in clear terms what will happen to people who die having never heard about Jesus. Undeniably, different Christians, even ones who accept the authority of Scripture, hold different views.

Some point to Jesus being the one and only way to God (Jesus said, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me, John 14.6) and they take that to mean that anyone who has not made a conscious profession of faith in Jesus cannot be saved. Acts 17.30-31 is another passage some people quote to support this point of view. In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.

To the charge that this seems a bit unfair, people will often point to Romans 1.18-20 which says that everyone can understand enough about God through creation and their conscience to know exactly what they are rejecting, so they cannot plead ignorance. The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

But others tentatively disagree. They say that, although Jesus is always the means of salvation, maybe people can be saved by what he did on the cross - even though they don’t necessarily know or understand everything about it. They say that God’s justice will take into account how clear their understanding was about what God was offering them in Christ. So God will judge them according to the light they had because he is absolutely fair.

They accept that the New Testament says that we are saved by faith, not by works. But they say, “What about Romans 2.6-8? God will repay each person according to what they have done. To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honour and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. “Doesn’t this Scripture suggest,” they ask, “that there are people whose good lives show that the Lord illuminated their hearts with some kind of simple faith even if they never actually heard the gospel as such?

As I said above, the Bible’s authors do not spend a lot of time discussing this question. It may be a big interest for us but it was not for them. Overwhelmingly, their emphasis is on us preaching the gospel so that everyone can hear about Jesus and have a chance to respond to it personally, not wonder how people might fare if we just stay at home and talk hypothetically about theology! That’s why one of the best answers to this question “What about those who have never heard?” is “Who do you know who hasn’t heard about Jesus - and what are you going to do about it? 

In Genesis 18.25 Abraham pleads with God to save the city of Sodom from the judgment he had threatened because of the great and grievous evil they had committed. Abraham appeals to God to show mercy, (which he does), and Abraham says to himself, Will not the Judge of all the earth do right? It’s a rhetorical question so the obvious affirmative answer is not written down - but it’s a question worth reflecting on as we think about this question. Can we trust our wise, all-powerful, all-knowing creator God, who knows the secret of every heart, to do the right thing on the Day of Judgment? Will not the Judge of all the earth do the right thing?

I hope we have seen enough of God in our own lives to be able to say, “Yes, we can trust him. He will do right.” He is righteous in all his ways (Psalm 145.17). He is good. His love endures forever (Psalm 136.1). And he will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples with equity. (Psalm 98.9).

Testing in the Wilderness (Luke 4.1-14)

Introduction

I was reading a book by David Pawson this week called Completing Luther’s Reformation. And, in that book, there were two anecdotes that really struck me.

The first was about a Hell’s Angel known to him who lived in his town.

He was into drugs and motorbikes and antisocial behaviour – and he had an image of Satan tattooed on his chest. Well, he was converted to Christ.

He knew he should be baptized, but he avoided it because he noticed how your shirt goes transparent when you come up out of the water and he didn’t want anybody to see his tattoo of the devil.

So, despite people encouraging him to be baptized, he kept putting it off. Finally, he got hold of a plastic surgeon in his local hospital and he asked if there was any way the tattoo could be removed.

The surgeon said, “Yes, there are two ways. The first is to burn it off, which is very painful and which will leave a big scar. The second is to take a skin graft from your thigh and transplant it on your chest. But it costs a lot of money, you can’t get it on the NHS and you’ll have to wait months.”

The guy said, “I can’t wait, and I haven’t got the money anyway.” So, he asked a friend to baptise him in a garden swimming pool surrounded by other Christian friends.

He went down into the water to bury his past and to wash away his sins, and when he came up out of the water the tattoo had completely and miraculously gone.

The second story was about a friend of his from London. At school he had been good friends with another boy, but after school they lost touch as often happens.

After leaving school, David Pawson's friend became a Christian and eventually a pastor. The other young man got into drugs and crime and his life began to spiral out of control.

Finally, he became suicidal and decided to end it all. Then he remembered his friend from school. He thought, “I wonder where he is now. Maybe he could help me.”

This was before the days of Facebook and he didn’t know how to trace him, so he went to a spiritist medium and said, “Could you help me locate my friend from school?”

She went into a trance and said, “I can describe for you the house he lives in.” She said, “It’s opposite a big park with trees,” and she gave detail after detail. She said, “I can’t give you the exact address but it’s in North London somewhere.”

Then she said, “I’ve got bad news for you. He died a few years ago.” She even gave him the date of death. But out of curiosity he set off anyway and spent weeks looking around North London parks with trees. He finally found a house exactly as the medium had described in the trance.

He knocked at the door and his old friend from school answered it! They talked for a long while, the pastor led him to the Lord and his life began to turn around.

But he said to his pastor friend, “The medium told me you were dead. She even gave me the date of your death.” So the pastor laughed and asked, “Oh really? What date did I die?” He gave it to him. He said, “That was the very day I was baptized.” Buried with Christ in baptism…

Two amazing stories. And I thought I’d share them with you today because they make a bridge between what Phil was saying last Sunday, about baptism, and today’s passage which is Jesus' battle with the devil in the wilderness. We’re in Luke chapter 4.

There’s something about being baptized in water that the devil doesn’t like because it gives you a decisive edge in the spiritual battle.

So following last week’s passage about Jesus’ baptism, after a little parenthesis on his family tree, the very next verse finds Jesus leaving the Jordan and heading into the desert for 40 days of rigorous self-denial, prayer and fasting. Are you up for that?

Matthew says, after Jesus’ baptism, “Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness.” Mark says it happened “at once”.

Jesus has just been overwhelmed by an outpouring of affection and approval as the Father’s dearly loved only Son at his baptism. He is in a good place. All is well.

Most of you have been there before - or somewhere near it. Your conversion, a glimpse of heaven in worship, your baptism, witnessing an amazing healing, maybe a special night at Stoneleigh or Spring Harvest or something...
It’s great when that happens. But life is not like that all the time. It isn’t for us and it wasn’t for Jesus either.

Let’s read what happens next…

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.
The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”
Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’”

The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendour; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. If you worship me, it will all be yours.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’”

The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here. For it is written: “‘He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”
Jesus answered, “It is said: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time. Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside.

Prayer…

If you are going though a season of testing or if you struggle constantly with temptation it doesn’t mean you are a spiritual minnow or that God doesn’t love you.

Terry Virgo says, “Rainbows never appear on clear days. Often you get a clearer view of God’s wonderful covenant faithfulness when you're going through one of  life’s storms.”

Temptation is a gymnasium. God allows it in your life because he wants to build up your spiritual muscle.

1) Satan attacks when we are at our most vulnerable (v1-4)

Jesus has not eaten for 40 days. Then Luke adds, with a bit of understatement, “he was hungry.” Jesus is at this time physically spent.

He is suffering from the severe heat by day and the extreme cold by night. Depending on what time of year it was, at midday the temperature could have climbed up to 40° and by midnight it would have dropped to about 4° - colder than a fridge.

Mark’s Gospel mentions that Jesus was with the wild animals. The desert of Judea is a harsh landscape with scorpions, snakes, wolves, jackals and the like.

If Jesus were to write a Trip Advisor review of his 40 day break in the desert it would read like a holiday from hell.
Hotel basic. Food minimal. Air con non-existant. Pests everywhere. Really annoying fellow guest.

Notice that Satan chooses to attack at the moment when Jesus is most vulnerable. Not at the spiritual high of his baptism. He bides his time and holds his fire, waiting for the moment when you are tired, or sick, or alone, or discouraged.

Satan will come to you, just like he came to Jesus, when you are most exposed and he will bait his hook with whatever is attractive to you.

Temptation is bait on a hook. The Devil’s goal is to offer you whatever short-term pleasure draws you to bite his grubby old hook, so he can reel you in towards death. Because sin leads to death.

Satan is like a crooked used car dealer. And he's good at his job. He won’t show you the rust under the chassis. He’ll say, “See how comfortable those leather seats are.” The devil is a salesman; he could sell shaving cream to the Taliban.

So he doesn’t say to Jesus, “Let me be lord of your life and tell you what to do.” He knows Jesus will tell him to get lost so he tries something a bit more subtle. “If you are the Son of God, you can just tell these stones to become bread.”

Jesus hasn’t eaten for over a month. He looks at a pile of sand-coloured pebbles in the heathaze and notices how much they look just like freshly baked rolls. He can smell the baker’s shop in Nazareth.
This is how the devil tempts us.

Satan doesn’t say, “Have some unhappiness in your marriage relationship” because you will just think “no thanks.”
He’ll say, “Why not have some fun on this porn site. Nobody’s watching.”

He won’t say, “Why don’t you waste all your money and run up massive debts” because that’s not attractive to anyone.

He’ll say, “Let’s spend an evening gambling. Think of the exhilaration, think of the buzz. It’s your night, I can feel it.”
He won’t say, “I’ll help you become a selfish and lonely person that no one likes” because who wants that?

Instead, he’ll say, “Don’t strain yourself serving and loving others; put your feet up and live a life of ease. Look after number one, you're worth it.”

As so often, Satan plays with doubt. “If you are the Son of God…” With you and me it’s, “If you were a true Christian would you really think what you just thought?” Or, “Do you honestly think God loves you as much as he loves everyone else?” Or, “Surely someone who was genuinely saved would have more faith than you have by now…” Tell him to go to hell!

If you have asked Christ to be your Lord and Saviour, the matter is settled.
You are chosen before the creation of the world, a child of God, born from above, adopted and loved by your heavenly Father, you are the apple of his eye, an inheritor of the kingdom of God, your sin is paid for in full, completely forgiven. Your filthy rags have gone and you are clothed with the righteousness of Christ, with every spiritual blessing in heaven at your disposal. That is what God’s word says about you.

Revelation 12.10 calls Satan “the accuser.” Because he is.

But Jesus is absolutely clear about your spiritual status. This is what he says in John 5.24; “I’m telling you the truth, those who hear my word and believe him who sent me have eternal life and will not be condemned; they have crossed over from death to life.” It couldn’t be clearer.

Jesus is not going to let Satan call the tune for the sake of a bite to eat. “No, Satan, the Bible says, man shall not live by bread alone.” Go away.

2) He wants our worship (v5-8)

So the devil attacks us when we are most defenceless. Next, in v5-8, we get an insight of his ultimate ambition. 

What does Satan really want? Ultimately, he wants the whole world to fall down before him in worship.

In v5 he tries to sell Jesus a vain, egotistical dream. He shows Jesus all the glories of the earth; the pyramids of Upper Egypt, the Palace of Versailles, the Pentagon, the Great Wall of China, Sydney Opera House, Hollywood, the Kremlin in Moscow, the Taj Mahal, Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome and a thousand other marvels. There’s the bait dangling on the end of his hook.

John Piper says, “Prosperity cannot be a proof of God’s favour, since it is what the devil promises to those who worship him.”

It’s the  prosperity gospel. “All of this can be yours,” he says. “Name it and claim it. You can be rich beyond your wildest dreams. Just sign here,” says Satan, as he dangles the keys.

Jesus doesn’t take the bait. Because when you check the fine print it says, “The legal owner of all these kingdoms will bow down at Satan’s feet and worship him.”

Do you have desires and aspirations? I hope you do. But don’t let your dreams and ambitions remove God from first place in your life.

Jesus again counters Satan’s offer with scripture. It is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’”

I was watching an interview with Bible scholar Wayne Grudem recently where he talked about a friend of his called Vern Poythress.

I first met Vern Poythress he said, at Harvard University where he was a first year PhD student in mathematics. He had done his undergraduate degree at Caltech where he was first in his class academically. I saw him reviewing with a note card on a Bible passage; he would read, look up and look away and then look down and move the note card down - he was reviewing what he had memorised in scripture. I said to him “have you memorised very much of the Bible?” He said, ‘some.’ I said, ‘how much?’ And he said, ‘Well, the Gospel of John.’ I said, ‘Anything else?’ ‘Oh,’ he said, ‘Romans to 3 John.’” He had memorised all the New Testament epistles and an entire Gospel by his early- to mid-twenties.

I’m never going to memorise that much and I don’t expect you will, but to commit a few key, strategic Bible verses to memory is such a lethal weapon against Satan in times of temptation.

3) He diverts us from our calling (v9-13)

Finally in v9-13 we see that Satan doesn’t give up if he fails the first or second time.

Like those velociraptors in Jurassic Park who repeatedly spring out at the electrified bars on their cage, on the off chance they’ll find a weakness, the devil keeps chipping away at our defences.

“If you are the Son of God…” he says in v9. There he goes again!

Because he knows that some of us, if we listen to the same half truth over and over again, if it’s relentless, it will grind down our resistance and will end up accepting it, just for a quiet life.

“If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from the highest point of the temple.”
For the devil’s next trick he gets out his pocket NIV.

Satan knows that a verse out of Psalm 91 can sound quite convincing. “He will tell his angels to catch you so you won’t so much as stub your toe.”

Taking verses in Ecclesiastes out of context, I could preach pessimism, existentialism, cynicism, scepticism, alcoholism, sexism and even atheism.

But if you read the Bible systematically, rather than a verse here and a verse there, you will not be fooled by the devil’s lightweight Bible studies.

Satan is trying to deflect Jesus from his mission. Jesus could have his name in lights and be a great circus act. He can have celebrity and fame.

If Satan can get Jesus doing trick for his adoring public, maybe he’ll forget his mission to take up his cross, and suffer, and be rejected and die to take away the sins of the world.

Satan wants to get you off track from your destiny too. God has good plans for you, but Satan wants to lure you into useless vanity projects instead.

Here’s the bait dangling before you. Bite the hook and you’ll go nowhere with God and waste the gifts he has given you.

Ending

If only years of Christian living somehow made temptation easier to overcome.

Unfortunately, in my experience anyway, it doesn’t. But temptation is not sin as long as you resist it.

There’s a story about a married Christian businessman who is driving to a three-day marketing conference and he is car sharing, at his company’s request, with a pretty young colleague.

Halfway there, she says to him that she finds him attractive. A bit later, her hand accidentally on purpose brushes his knee. He says nothing, and carries on driving until he gets to a service station. He stops, saying he needs to fill up the car and make a quick phone call.

10 minutes later, they’re back on the road and she asks if the call was urgent. “Oh yes!” he replies, “very urgent. I had to call my pastor. I said ‘pray for me brother because there's a woman in my car who is trying to seduce me’!” The atmosphere changes in an instant.

Let me end with some practical application.

Jesus arrives the desert, v1 tells us, “full of the Holy Spirit.” In v14 Jesus leaves the desert, after all those temptations, not battered and exhausted, but in the power of the Spirit, strong and victorious.

What's the best way to resist and overcome temptation? Be continually filled with the Holy Spirit.

That’s why Galatians 5.16 says, “Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

Let’s stand to pray...

Sermon preached at King's Church Darlington, 1st August 2021

Honour One Another Above Yourselves (Philippians 2.3-11)

Introduction

If you were expecting Michael to preach this morning, I’m sorry for the disappointment. He was due to speak, and had prepared his talk, but he went down with a summer cold at the end of the week and yesterday morning he texted me to ask if I could stand in.

So I’d like to start with a little disclaimer. This talk has not benefitted from the amount of preparation I would have otherwise devoted to it. Just managing expectations…

Also, it contains some of what would have been Michael’s sermon, but it has some of my own material in it as well.

If you begin to wonder which bits are his and which are mine, the easiest way to work it out is that the really good bits are mine and the substandard bits are his!

Please don’t take that remark seriously by the way! It’s probably the other way round in truth.

Actually, it sort of introduces the theme which is the last in this ‘one another’ sermon series. I’ll come back to that in a moment.

But before I do that, I want to say that I hope that you have heard God speak to you through this series over the last few weeks.

If you remember, we spent some time walking through the letter of James back in the spring with its focus on not just saying we have faith but acting it out in our daily lives. That is key.

And looking at these one anothers was designed to add a bit of flesh to the bones of what we were challenged by in the Letter of James.

Let me ask you, as we start, what do you think a community of people devoted to authentically living out faith in Jesus should look like?

What we’ve seen over the last few weeks is that it looks like people who love one another, who forgive one another, who serve one another, and who connect, or do life with one another.

In Romans 12.10 it says, “Be devoted to one another in love. Honour one another above yourselves.” 

Let me pray... 

Ego and Humility

I want to begin by playing a little interactive game. I hope that’s OK.

I’m going to read out seven quotes and you have to say by raising a hand if you think the quote is from former U.S. president Donald Trump or football manager Jose Mourinho. If you are not interested in football, Jose Mourinho does not carry a reputation for humility and meekness.

• The point is you can never be too greedy. (DT)
• The beauty of me is that I'm very rich. (DT)
• Maybe he should have an IQ test, or go to a mental hospital or something. (JM)
• My IQ is one of the highest and you all know it. Please don't feel so stupid or insecure; it's not your fault. (DT)
• I think I'm actually humble. I think I'm much more humble than you would understand. (DT)
• God, and after God, me. (JM)
• God must really think I’m a great guy. He must think that, because otherwise he would not have given me so much. (JM)

Well! The ego has landed… Two men there who really rate themselves and their opinion.

But we live in a world where everyone has an opinion.

And now, with social media, everyone has a platform to put that opinion out there regardless of whether it’s factually accurate or whether it’s hurtful to those who read it. 

We also live in a world that celebrates the relentless pursuit of fame and success.  The TV show The Apprentice, is perhaps the purest expression of this naked ambition.

The latest advert for this present series features a contestant on the show, who says, “I have two goals in life; more money and more power, and nothing is going to get in my way.” It doesn’t matter if it means walking over others and disposing of them.

Every obstacle to the goal of wealth and power must be ruthlessly eliminated.

Friends, family, faith – it is all unimportant. I will promote myself and my interests even if it means destroying someone else. It’s dog eat dog.

Obviously, that’s extreme, which is why it’s on TV, but survival of the fittest is the way of the world.

Going Low to Soar High

And it's against this backdrop that the church stands out as a radical, counter-cultural, revolutionary movement.

God wants a community of people who esteem and honour one another above themselves.

Perhaps the passage that says this most powerfully is Philippians 2.3-11 which I’ll read in a moment but before I do, are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll tell you a story.

The Danish philosopher, Søren Kierkegaard, used to tell the tale of a young prince who longed for a future wife and queen.

One day, on an errand for his father, he passed through a poor neighbourhood of a certain town and noticed there a young peasant girl whose beauty, fairness and purity stole his heart.

Several times the prince returned to that town in the hope of catching a glimpse of this young maiden.

Without ever having said a word to her, he found himself falling irresistibly in love with her.

Day and night his thoughts were consumed by this question; how could he propose to her? He could, of course, as the king's son simply order her to marry him.

But with a forced marriage he would never be sure that her love for him was genuine. He wasn't interested in a trophy queen. It had to be true love or nothing.

At last, he came up with a plan. He threw off his royal robes, removed his jewelled ring and disguised himself as a peasant.

He moved into the poorest part of town and lived with the local people. He adopted their accent, shared their simple food and worked hard for a modest wage.

In truth, it was more than a disguise; it was a new identity.

He lived this way for three years, hoping he would get just one chance to meet the young woman of his dreams.

Finally, they met, and to his great disappointment, it was not love at first sight on her part.

So, he courted her, and charmed her and amused her and was attentive to her. Gradually won her heart. Slowly, she grew to love him deeply and all because he had first loved her.

It’s a charming ‘happily-ever-after fairy story, and Kierkegaard used to tell it to bring out the flavours and emotions of Philippians 2.3-11. Here’s what it says… 

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: 

who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross! 

Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Jesus, just like that young prince, emptied himself, became flesh and blood, and embraced the role of a simple domestic servant.

He was laid in a borrowed manger, he preached on a borrowed boat, he rode into Jerusalem on a borrowed donkey, and he was buried in a borrowed tomb.

And now we're told, “In humility, value others above yourselves. In your relationships with one another, have the same attitude of mind that Jesus had.”

That's the path that God has mapped out for every Christian. It's a life totally turned away from the all-consuming pursuit of me.

It's quite surprising how many popular Christian book titles are about finding true happiness here on earth, achieving personal success or fulfilling your potential.

Here are a few popular titles I noticed as I browsed online yesterday.

• “20 Ways to Make Every Day Better.”
• “You Are Stronger Than You Think: Discover the Power to Overcome Your Obstacles.”
• “Become a Better You: 7 Keys to Improving Your Life Every Day.”
• “Destined for the Top: Overcoming the Issues That May Hold You Down.”
• “Powerful Attitudes for a Successful Life.”

I haven’t read any of them and they might be much better than their titles suggest. But it just doesn’t sound much like Jesus to me.

Jesus asks, “What good is it for you to gain the whole world, [meaning personal fulfilment, success, wealth, happiness, comfort…] and yet lose your very self?”

He says, “Whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.”

He says, “The first shall be last.” “It is hard for the rich to enter the kingdom of God.” How would that go down on The Apprentice?

Verse 3 says, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit but in humility consider others above yourselves.”

The apostle Paul started out by describing himself as ‘the least of the apostles’ (1 Corinthians 15:9). This was one of his earlier letters. Later on, he called himself ‘less than the least of all God's people’ (Ephesians 3:8). Finally, in one of his last letters, he described himself as ‘the worst of sinners’! (1 Timothy 1:16).

It is not that he got worse and worse; it is simply that, as he became more and more filled with the Holy Spirit, he became less and less full of himself.

“In humility, consider others above yourselves” he says.

I’ve noticed that humble people are pleased when others around them do well. They are free to be happy for them. They don’t compare themselves to high performers and worry that they don’t measure up. They tend to be secure.

If v3 urges us to be humble, like Jesus, v4 says to be generous, like Jesus. Not looking to your own interests, it says, but each of you to the interests of the others.

According to Nicky Gumbel among the key words in the Bible (and I haven’t checked his maths): 'Believe' is used 272 times. 'Pray' ... 371 times. 'Love' ... 714 times. 'Give' ... 2,162 times.

When I was a boy, the kids in my school playground who shared their sweets were not only the most popular, unsurprisingly, they were also, curiously, the most cheerful. Was it the same in your school? Giving people tend to be joyful souls.

The social psychologist Oliver James wrote a book a few years ago called Affluenza. And in it he said that 50% of people with incomes over £35,000 feel they can’t afford to buy everything they need.

And in fact research shows that whatever your income and however much is in your bank account people will always think that they need about a third more income to live the way they think they should.

Mammon always says, “You haven’t got enough to give away. Keep it. Store it up.” But God says, “Do not look to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.”

The more you sow into others' lives, the more you will reap in your own.

Verses 5-8 are up there with the most profound scriptures in the New Testament. They focus on Christ's perfect obedience and lowly status which led him to his ugly, harrowing death. But straight afterwards, v9 begins “Therefore God exalted him.”

So Christ's majestic glory is a direct consequence of his lowly emptying of himself and taking the form of a servant.

This is why “God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, before which every knee should bow...” And Paul says, our attitude should mirror that.

No act of kindness you do, no loving word you speak, no extra mile you walk, no generous gift you offer, no unnoticed menial job you accept, no hour of prayer you set aside is ever insignificant in God's purposes.

The world says, look after your own interests - pursue money. Jay Gould, the American multi-millionaire businessman and investor said on his death bed, “I suppose, that I am the unhappiest and least satisfied man on earth.”

The world says, look after your own interests - pursue pleasure. The libertine Lord Byron was legendary for his excesses in wine, women and song. But in his later years he admitted, “Cirrhosis, syphilis and regret are mine alone”.

The world says, look after your own interests - pursue power.

In the Louvre Museum in Paris there is a painting by Charles Le Brun called Alexander Entering Babylon. There he is, this invincible Alexander the Great riding into another conquered city to a hero’s welcome.

He stands, majestic, in a gold and ivory chariot, pulled by two elephants captured from the Babylonians. Alexander is crowned with laurel leaves, he points authoritatively with his left hand, and holds a golden sceptre in his right. Trumpeters go ahead of him announcing his arrival. Beside him, three men carry a large golden vase, the spoils of war.

Everything about this painting exalts this man as impressive and powerful. Alexander is known as "the Great" because of his spectacular success as a military commander.

He never lost a single battle, despite the fact that his armed forces were typically outnumbered. Academies throughout the world still teach his military tactics today.

It is said that Alexander would send heralds into conquered cities before him proclaiming, “I, Alexander, have conquered the world. Now I will conquer the stars.” Legend says that he wept in his tent after entering India at age 29, because there was no land left to conquer.

But all human glory is pathetic compared to Christ's. No one compares to our Lord and Saviour!

We love the excellence of his glory, but all the more because it is mingled with his humility. We love his lion-like majesty, but all the more because of his lamb-like meekness. We love his sovereignty over all things, but all the more because it is clothed in obedience and submission. 

We love the way he stumped the Pharisees with his wisdom, but all the more because children loved his simplicity. We love his power and authority to calm storms with a word, all the more because he refused to use that power to come down from the cross.

Alexander the Great died at the age of 32, of a fever - probably malaria. All that pomp and glory and human grandeur taken down in just a few days by a humble mosquito… While Jesus still leads the biggest movement earth has ever seen and it is still growing every day.

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus.

Ending

I want to finish this talk and this series, with a challenge that makes this personal and real for you.

And I’m going to paraphrase what it says in Philippians here and invite you to personalise it by filling in the blanks with the name of someone who you find difficult.

This person could be part of this church, your spouse, a parent, a child, a sibling, another relative, a friend, your boss, an employee, or a co-worker.

Have a think about someone you find difficult... And now let’s make this a solemn commitment before God.

Following the Christ's example, and by the Holy Spirit’s enablement, I will reject self-seeking glory and vain pride, and I will strive to humbly regard _____________ as more important than myself. Rather than constantly looking out for my own interests, I will also look out for the interests of ____________

Sermon preached at King's Church Darlington, 4 July 2021.

 

Names

It think it’s unlikely that you have heard of Eric Bishop, Thomas Mapother, Mark Sinclair, Krishna Pandit Bhanji, Caryn Johnson, Paul Hewson, Robyn Fenty, Katheryn Hudson or Edson Arantes do Nascimento.

But if I told you that they are better known as actors Jamie Foxx, Tom Cruise, Vin Diesel, Ben Kingsley and Whoopie Goldberg, musicians Bono, Rihanna and Katy Perry, and footballer Pelé my guess is that you will have a much better idea of who I’m talking about.

Names can be important signposts of who we are – or want to be. Reg Dwight certainly doesn’t quite have the glitter and pizzazz of Elton John and Stevie Wonder sounds rather more wonderful than his real name of Steveland Judkins. 

You might perhaps be known by a different name than the first one recorded on your birth certificate; perhaps a contraction, a second name or a nickname. My father was called Michael but all his friends knew him as Mike. My mother is Sylvia but she much prefers to be called Sally. At school to my friends, I was only ever 'Lambo'.

In the Bible, names are even more important than in 21st Century show business and entertainment. They do not project a false or preferred public image so much as encapsulate someone’s real character and personality. This is particularly true of God himself who pins names to himself to tell us what he is like. He is Yahweh Yireh – my provider, Yahweh Nissi – my banner, Yahweh Rapha – my healer, Yahweh Tsidkenu – my righteousness, Yahweh Shalom – my peace and Yahweh Shamma – the Lord who is always there. Jesus means ‘The Lord Saves.’ This explains why Joseph was told to name him thus; it wasn’t because Mary and Joseph liked the name but “because he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1.21).

This is also why there are so many name changes in the pages of Scripture. Sarai becomes Sarah and Abram becomes Abraham when they go from being unable to conceive to becoming a mother and father. Jacob becomes Israel after the pivotal episode in his life when he wrestled an angel after his dream of a ladder reaching to heaven. Gideon became Jerub-Baal after he demolished his family’s idolatrous altar.

To the forlorn and utterly despairing people of God banished and humiliated in exile, God spoke these words in Isaiah 64: “You will be a crown of splendour in the Lord's hand, a royal diadem in the hand of your God. No longer will they call you Deserted, or name your land Desolate. But you will be called Hephzibah, [meaning ‘my delight is in her’] and your land Beulah [meaning ‘married’]; for the Lord will take delight in you, and your land will be married.

Jesus renamed Simon (reed) Peter (rock) to signify his change from being weedy and unreliable to being solid and fearless. Joseph was given the name Barnabas (meaning son of encouragement) because of his constantly positive, uplifting personality. Saul (Jewish) became Paul (Latin) on his first missionary journey as his unique calling as Apostle to the Gentiles came into ever-sharper focus.

It is a great pity that we sometimes allow things that we did long ago or that have happened to us in our lives to end up somehow classifying us. Someone who has battled with addiction to drink is labelled an alcoholic. Someone who has struggled with addiction to drugs is branded a junkie. Someone whose marriage irretrievably broke down in pain and acrimony is categorised as a divorcee. Someone with a prison record, however long they have been reformed, is marked as an ex-con.

But, as Christians, none of this constitutes our core identity which is in Christ and in Christ alone. Are you letting something from your past - or present – not just describe you but define you? Do you wear, as a badge of identity, the label “I’m disabled”, “I’m unhappily married”, “I’m unemployed”, “I’m a widow”, “I’m old”, “I’m… whatever”?

In Christ, our status and core identity has changed forever. Every one of us who believe in Jesus as our Saviour and Lord can - and certainly should - consider ourselves chosen from all eternity, loved, the apple of his eye, born again and adopted into a new family, ransomed at huge cost, forgiven everything, restored, made holy, declared righteous, blessed with every spiritual blessing, seated in heavenly places with Christ, and with the guaranteed inheritance of having our names indelibly etched into the Book of Life.

This is how God defines us. This is who God says we are. In the post-Christian West, the fashion these days is for self-definition and self-identification, and anyone who dares to question someone's claimed identity in public, even when it is patently nonsensical, can expect to lose their job and/or spend a day in court. To challenge someone who says "I identify as..." is to transgress a new, unwritten blasphemy law. But, if you are a Christian, never mind who you say you are. Never mind who anyone else says you are. You are who God says you are.

Photo credit: Tim Mossholder on Unsplash.