Wonderful Counsellor (Isaiah 9.1-7)

Introduction

A few weeks ago, Kathie and I spent a week in Paris to visit family there. Our trip coincided with the tenth birthday of our first grandchild.

I still remember very clearly a decade earlier getting a call from our eldest son breaking the news that his wife Beki had given birth earlier that day to a little girl.

Shortly afterwards, the first photos appeared. We studied them very carefully, and decided our new granddaughter had the best possible start in life – she looked nothing like me!

The announcement of the birth of a new baby always spreads a bit of cheer, doesn’t it?

Who is not pleased and relieved to hear that mum and baby are both doing well? Who does not marvel at the first pictures of this new-born bundle of cuteness? Who is not eager to learn the baby’s weight and most importantly the name he or she will be given?

Two of the best-known and most stunning prophecies in the Bible are essentially birth announcements (and for those of you who like a bit of highbrow music they both feature in Handel’s Messiah).

In Isaiah 7 there is the “Immanuel” prophecy; “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel” [meaning God is with us].

But today, we’re going to focus on the opening verses of chapter 9: “To us a child is born, to us a son is given.”

Here’s what it says:

Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past [God] humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he will honour Galilee of the nations, by the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan.

The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.

You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy; they rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest, as warriors rejoice when dividing the plunder.

For as in the day of Midian’s defeat, you have shattered the yoke that burdens them, the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor.

Every warrior’s boot used in battle and every garment rolled in blood will be destined for burning, will be fuel for the fire.

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.

Prayer…

Over the next four weeks leading up to Christmas at King’s, we’re going to be zooming in on each of the four descriptive titles that are given to the coming Messiah; Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, and today, Wonderful Counsellor.

Background

But so as to help us see and savour the full force and majesty of this prophecy, I need to give a bit of background.

When Isaiah spoke these words, about 750 years before Jesus was born, he was living in what had been, less than 200 years earlier, a great and prosperous nation that was the envy of the world.

By now though, Israel was diminished and in acute decline, torn apart by civil war, divided into two nations, squeezed and humbled by rival powers on its borders, and under threat from the increasingly dominant empires of Assyria and Babylon.

The people of God at the time Isaiah spoke this prophecy were led by a weak and corrupt king called Ahaz. Under his leadership, God’s people suffered military defeats and national humiliations. The nation was almost constantly at war. And invariably on the losing side.

Ahaz didn’t listen to the prophets or take any notice of Scripture. He promoted a cult of idols.

He actually made the worship of the living God illegal and locked the temple doors. He even offered some of his children as a human sacrifice to the pagan god Molech.

This is why Isaiah talks about an atmosphere of pessimism and gloom, about people walking in darkness and living in a land of deep darkness. Isaiah’s world was - spiritually - a terribly gloomy and depressing place.

A Child Is Born

But as chapter 9 begins, against all the odds and out of nowhere Isaiah says,

“There will be no more gloom” (v1).

“The people walking in darkness have seen a great light, and on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned” (v2).

“To us a child is born, to us a son is given (v6).

Predicting the sex of an unborn child, when you think about it, is not that hard. There’s a 50% chance of getting it right.

I guessed that our first child would be a boy. We had a little girl.

I then predicted that our other three children, one after the other, would all be girls. All three were boys. You can see I’ve never been blessed with a prophetic ministry...But Isaiah was and he said, there’s going to be a royal baby; it’ll be a boy (v6). And he got it right first time. Like I said, 50:50.

But then the odds lengthen considerably.

Isaiah also says where the child is going to be from (v1). He says God “will honour Galilee of the nations, by the Way of the Sea.” That’s where the light will shine.

In other words, the child will be associated with northern, not southern, Israel. Nothing good ever happened in the north. No one important came from the north. The centre of power and the engine of the economy were, like in the UK today, down south. But Isaiah says, “All that’s changing.”

At the same time that Isaiah was speaking, there was another prophet called Micah. Micah was saying, “Look, there’s going to be a new baby, a great ruler, our Messiah, and he will be from… the south, born in the little town of Bethlehem, about 80 miles from Galilee.

Some people read Isaiah 9 and Micha 5 and say, “Ah, you see! The Bible contradicts itself! One prophecy says the Messiah will be from the north and another prophecy says he’ll be from the south.”

Well, Jesus was born in Bethlehem, as both Matthew and Luke clearly say.

They explain how a new Roman poll tax and an international census were perfectly timed to get one heavily pregnant mother to exactly the right place, Bethlehem, at precisely the right time, when a new star appeared, so Micah’s prophetic word would be unerringly fulfilled in meticulous detail.

But after that, Jesus grew up and lived most of his life in Galilee as the New Testament also clearly attests.

He was known as Jesus of Nazareth (which is up north). The focus of his ministry was mostly around - and on - the Sea of Galilee.

You see, God watches over his word.

Predicting the future is not easy. In 1962 The Decca Recording Company rejected the Beatles. They said, “We don’t like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out. 

In 1977 Ken Olson, Chairman of Digital Equipment Company said, “There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.”

But when God predicts the future, it is always spot on.

The editors of the World Christian Encyclopaedia once conducted a remarkable study. Going through the whole Bible, page by page, they listed 735 separate future predictions. They noted that predictive prophecy amounts to roughly 27% of all Bible verses.

Then, with an open Bible and a stack of history books, they learned that 596 of the 735 prophecies recorded in Scripture have already been verifiably fulfilled; that’s about 81%.

Of the 19% of biblical prophecies that have not yet been fulfilled, that’s 139 different predictions, most are about the return of Christ and the end of the world.

In other words, God is very careful to fulfil every prophecy in this book. And he will honour every promise in it too.

Read and mark every promise in his word to you. He will do what he has said he will do; you can count on it.

This is important for some of you to hear this today. God’s word is true. Believe his promises. He will be with you to the end of the age. He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. He will not leave you or forsake you. He will complete the good work he has started in you. No, nothing will or can separate you from his love.

God’s great and precious promises to you have the copper-bottomed guarantee of Jesus Christ his Son.

Don’t let appearances to the contrary let you lose your focus. Is it north? Is it south? It’s both. God knows what he is talking about, and you can trust… his… word.

Isaiah gives no name for this new king who’s going to be born. He just says that when he comes, it’ll be as a light and he will bring to an end spiritual darkness wherever he goes.

Wonderful…

Jesus has about 200 names and titles, more than any other figure in history.

One of them is Light of the world. “I am the Light of the world,” he said. “Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

Four more of Jesus’ names and titles are listed here. Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

The one we’re looking at today is Wonderful Counsellor.

We use the word “wonderful” today to describe the most mundane experiences.

We had wonderful weather on holiday. What a wonderful goal. Wonderful Copenhagen. These new underpants fit wonderfully…

But Isaiah says, “No, when people encounter this Messiah they will marvel, they will be filled with wonder.”

The word that he uses is pelé in Hebrew. Alec Motyer in his commentary The Prophecy of Isaiah says this word translated “wonderful” means “what is out of the ordinary.” It is used fifty-four times in the Old Testament to describe the awesome acts of God. There, the sense is “supernatural,” “confounding human knowledge,” “unfathomable” and “miraculous.”

When you read the Gospels, you see time and time again how fittingly this word is used to describe Jesus.

People were indeed amazed at his miracles. They said, “We’ve never seen anything like this!”

Jesus kept telling people, “Don’t tell anyone what I’ve done for you today,” but they couldn’t stop themselves. Word about him spread like wildfire.

They marvelled at his wisdom and his unique authority when he spoke. It was nothing like the dreary, sanctimonious moralising they were used to hearing.

People came from miles to see him and hung on his every word. Whenever he opened his mouth, the atmosphere was electric.  

Jesus is still wonderful today.

Nicky Gumbel of the Alpha Course tells the story of Jean Smith, from Cwmbran in Wales. She was in her mid-sixties. She had been blind for sixteen years. She could only go out with the aid of a white stick and a guide dog.

An infection had eaten away at the retinas (the mirrors) at the back of her eyes – and they could not be replaced. Not only had she lost her sight, she was in constant pain.

Jean went on an Alpha course. On the day away to focus on the Holy Spirit, she noticed all of a sudden that her pain had gone.

She went to church the following Sunday to thank God. The minister anointed her with oil for healing. As she wiped the oil away from her eyes, to her amazement, she saw the communion table in front of her. Jesus had miraculously healed her.

She had not seen her husband for sixteen years. She was amazed at how white his beard had become! She had never seen her daughter-in-law before.

Her six-year-old grandson who used to guide her around the puddles to avoid her getting her feet wet said to her, “Who done that Gran?” She replied, “Jesus made me better.” “I hope you said thank you, Gran.” She said, “I will never stop saying thank you.”

This is Jesus in 2021. This is what he’s like. This is what he does.

If you know Jesus personally you will understand from experience how wonderfully life-changing an encounter with him is. Everything about him was, is, and always will be, truly wonderful.

…Counsellor

He will be called wonderful… counsellor.

This may seem a strange title, really. What do counsellors do? 

If you’ve ever had counselling, you know they listen, they encourage and they show understanding. They also help their clients to see the issues they face more clearly or in a different way. 

The bottom line is that good counsellors help broken people get mended. They help messed up people get sorted.

It’s why we have trauma counsellors, marriage guidance counsellors, hospital counsellors, career counsellors, bereavement and divorce counsellors, post-natal counsellors…

All of us are broken in some way. All of us carry pain, and disappointment, and shame, and wounds.

Good counsellors also give trustworthy advice. If you have a really big decision to make you know how priceless really good advice is.

We all need wisdom we can trust.

It’s why mountaineers look for local guides. It’s why leaders seek out mentors. It’s why sportsmen and women value good coaches. It’s why government ministers have advisers. It’s why big business hires consultants. It’s why the Queen has a Privy Council.

Looking back over 2021, for many of us, it’s been a year of disappointments and dashed hopes.

 England, at last, get to the final of a football tournament only to lose it in yet another penalty shoot-out. A vaccine is rolled out for Covid-19 only to find it doesn’t really work as well as many expected. Western nations finally pull out of Afghanistan, after 20 years of costly nation-building, only to see the Taliban back in control within days.

We are undoubtedly living in a world of vastly increased complexity. The stresses and strains on the family, on education, on healthcare, on the economy, on the environment, just feel overwhelming.

Our world leaders arrive in office on a wave of optimism and euphoria only to discover they just don’t know what to do.

This is why we should pray for them for sound judgment; they have to find solutions to impossible situations.

The world needs wise counsel.

The world yearns for someone marked with greatness and understanding and gravitas who brings clarity and light. Someone who just seems to see into the heart of the problem. Someone who gives you belief that they can solve the unsolvable.

Basically, the world needs Jesus and his wisdom.

Again, the Gospels give abundant testimony to how perfectly Jesus fulfils this prophecy.

People constantly tried to trap him with trick questions and impossible conundrums.

Jesus always saw through the motive behind the question, understood the issue, knew what to do about it, and how to say it in plain language.

How often did he say, “Err, I’ll have to think about that and get back to you”? When did Jesus ever say, “I’m out of ideas”?

And if you know Jesus personally you will know from experience that he is a source of life-saving wisdom.

This is my testimony after four decades of following Jesus. The more I laid my life’s decisions before him in prayer, the more light I saw.

Ending

There’s a scene in the Chronicles of Narnia, Prince Caspian, where Aslan, the Christ-like lion, appears to the little girl Lucy for the first time in a long while. “Welcome child” he says. “Aslan,” says Lucy, “you’re bigger.” Aslan says, “That is because you are older, little one.” Lucy doesn’t quite understand. She thinks Aslan would get bigger because he is older. And Aslan says to her, “I am not [older]. But every year you grow, you will find me bigger.”

As we grow in faith, Jesus will seem to us greater, truer, wiser, more glorious. He truly is our wonderful counsellor.

At the first Christmas a child was born. A Son was given. And he is Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Do you need wisdom today? Do you feel lost and confused? Do you not know where to turn? Do you need to hear the utterly dependable voice of Wonderful Counsellor whose words bring light?

His name is Jesus, and he is here.

Let’s stand to pray…

Sermon preached at King's Church Darlington, 21 November 2021

Remember

I would guess that relatively few in our country know that the centre of gravity in terms of casualties and strategic battles in the Second World War was some way east of Berlin. 

How many of us know that there were double the number of deaths in Warsaw than in London during the Second World War? 

Less than 1% of our population died in World War II; in Belarus the figure is 25%. The UK suffered about 150,000 military war deaths overall from 1939 to 1945. The number who fell in the USSR is estimated to be about eleven million.

Understandably, every country tends to focus on those aspects of a war which most directly affect it. Our national consciousness at Remembrance here in the UK is shaped by events like the Somme, Dunkirk, the Battle of Britain, D-Day and so on.

Ever since the Armistice Treaty in 1918 annual services of remembrance have given thanks to God for the freedoms we enjoy and that were secured at so high a price; the lives of soldiers and civilians, plus many wounded to say nothing of the pain endured by loved ones when they learned that their husbands, fiancés, sons and fathers would never come home again.

103 years after the war that was supposed to end all wars, it has been estimated that perhaps 120 million people have been killed in armed conflict. However righteous the cause, however noble the objective, war always leaves heartbroken widows, fatherless sons and daughters and grief-stricken mothers who have to bury their own children.

Our acts of remembrance honour and lament the many who died too young in the fields of battle, and we stand with those most traumatised by war’s devastation. If we held a minute's silence for every victim of the holocaust, we would have to be silent for eleven and a half years.

As is often quoted in remembrance services and on war memorials, Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15.13). 

He said these words just hours before he died, giving his life not just for his country but for the whole world, to liberate it forever from the tyranny of sin and eternal death. His unique sufferings secure an enduring peace with God, having power to cleanse all who turn to him in repentance of all guilt and all sin for all time.

Sir Winston Churchill wrote a six-volume history of the Second World War, which told the story of that conflict from the British point of view and it won him the Nobel Prize for Literature. The last volume was intriguingly entitled, Triumph and Tragedy: How the great democracies triumphed, and so were able to resume the follies which had so nearly cost them their life.

These are words that should trouble our national consciousness and stir deep repentance in us. At this time of national remembrance, we do well to remember that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

“Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, quarrelling, and slander be put away from you, along with all hatred. And be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another just as in Christ God forgave you” (Ephesians 4.31).

The Crucifixion (Luke 23.26-49)

Introduction

The kings and queens of the United Kingdom are presented at their coronation with a golden sphere, called the orb. Adorned with 375 pearls, 365 diamonds, 18 rubies, 9 emeralds, 9 sapphires, 1 amethyst and a piece of polished glass, it is a serious bit of bling!

It represents our planet Earth and set at the top of it is a cross. When it is placed in the monarch’s right hand, the Archbishop of Canterbury says these words: “Receive this orb, set under the cross, and remember that the whole world is subject to the power and empire of Christ our Redeemer.”

What a thing! Death by crucifixion – long dreaded as the grimmest, cruellest, most terrifying, most distressing and most painful form of capital punishment ever devised, unequalled for public disgrace and humiliation – now depicted on top of the world, majestically bejewelled.

Nations, empires, kingdoms, thrones, political alliances, dominions, superpowers - the cross towers over them all.

What is it about the cross of Christ? It’s the shocking miscarriage of justice of an innocent man. It’s the most tragic and criminally unjust judicial murder in history. But it’s much deeper than that.

How do you explain that the fierce opposition the cross still attracts all over the world? When ISIS spread over Iraq and Syria the first thing they did in every town was to smash crosses on church buildings to bits. Satan hates the cross.

Even in the UK, we have all heard of Christians who’ve been bullied, demoted and sacked for wearing crosses at work. There’s a case going through the courts at the moment contesting that very issue. People want to censor the cross.

A few years ago, the supermarket chain Lidl airbrushed out a cross on the roof of a Greek church that featured on its yoghurt packaging. People are uncomfortable with the cross.

As we draw towards a conclusion in this series of highlights in Luke’s Gospel, today, we find ourselves at the cross; this instrument of death – abolished centuries ago – but which still inspires so much uneasiness, so much fear, so much hostility and, for us, so much worship.

There are over 40 different verses in the New Testament that specifically point out that the death of Jesus is “for us”, in our place. Here are just 5 of them:

Luke 22.20: This is my body, this is my blood given for you. 1 Peter 3.18: Christ suffered for us. 2 Corinthians 5.21: God made him who had no sin to become sin for us. Galatians 3.13: Christ became a curse for us. Romans 5.8: While we were yet sinners Christ died for us

But it won’t be the focus of what I say today because Luke’s Gospel, surprisingly perhaps, says nothing at all about what the crucifixion means – none of the Gospels do.

I once went into a DVD rental store (in the days when such things existed and was struck by noticing Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ was in the horror section. It is a harrowing film, difficult to watch in places.

But neither Matthew, Mark, Luke or John sensationalise the passion; there’s no gruesome detail at all. There’s no appeal to the emotions. All four simply report, in an almost matter-of-fact sort of way, the minimum facts and in particular how the different people who witnessed it interacted with what happened.

Let’s read it then; Luke 23.26-49.

26 As the soldiers led [Jesus] away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. 27 A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him. 28 Jesus turned and said to them, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children. 29 For the time will come when you will say, ‘Blessed are the childless women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ 30 Then “‘they will say to the mountains, “Fall on us!” and to the hills, “Cover us!”’ 31 For if people do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?”

32 Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. 33 When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. 34 Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.

35 The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.” 36 The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar 37 and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.” 38 There was a written notice above him, which read: this is the king of the Jews.

39 One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” 40 But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? 41 We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.” 42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” 43 Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

44 It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, 45 for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. 46 Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last.

47 The centurion, seeing what had happened, praised God and said, “Surely this was a righteous man.” 48 When all the people who had gathered to witness this sight saw what took place, they beat their breasts and went away. 49 But all those who knew him, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things.

Prayer…

How Did We Get Here?

How did we get here? How did it come to pass that the loveliest life the world has ever seen was terminated in the ghastliest fashion mankind has yet devised?

Jesus, remember, challenged his enemies saying, “which of you can find a fault in me?” No one could utter a word. Silence. And that was his enemies.

As we saw last Sunday, all the charges against him during his trial were false. He was manifestly innocent. His judge said again and again that he found the case against him without merit and dismissed it.

And still they crucified him. Not even the most powerful man in the region, Pontius Pilate, could stop it. Jesus didn’t try and get out of it. He accepted the cross. He had predicted it on several occasions. Indeed, he planned it.

Sometimes people ask, “why do bad things happen to good people?” But, as R.C. Sproul said, “that only ever happened once - and he volunteered.”

Before they finally succeeded in killing Jesus, there were no less than five failed assassination attempts on his life.

In Matthew 2.16, Herod tried to kill him in Bethlehem with the sword. In Matthew 4.5-6 Satan tried to kill him at the temple by talking him into jumping off a high roof. In Luke 4.28-30, locals in Nazareth tried to kill him by throwing him off a cliff. In John 8.59, the Pharisees in Jerusalem tried to kill him by picking up rocks to stone him alive. In John 10.31 and 39 the Judeans in Jerusalem attempt the same thing.

But each time they failed because Jesus alone decided when he would die, where he would die, and how he would die. Jesus had already said, “No one takes my life from me. I lay it down of my own accord.”

Even beaten up and pinned with iron spikes to his cross, looking utterly crushed and defeated, for Jesus it was all going exactly as planned.

Luke’s narrative mentions a large cast of characters; there’s a crowd of women, Simon of Cyrene, there are low-ranking soldiers who have the gruesome job of driving these nails through his wrists and ankles, there are two condemned men either side of him, some religious rulers, a Roman centurion and various other passers-by who stop to watch.

If you had been there, what would you have made of it all? What would you have said or done? Of all the characters around the cross, which one would you have been?

1. Simon - Resentment

In v26 the soldiers grab a man from the crowd called Simon from Cyrene and they make him carry the crossbar behind Jesus whose strength is failing after being deprived of sleep and food, and subjected to a Roman flogging.

In Roman-occupied Judea, any citizen at any time could be pressed into service of a Roman official and have to walk 1,000 paces or 1 mile. You get a tap on the shoulder with a Roman spear and you do what they say.

Everyone resented it and only complied grudgingly. But Jesus said, “If they make you walk one mile, walk two.”

Cyrene is in modern-day Libya; that’s over 1,000 miles away. Simon is more than likely visiting Jerusalem at that time to celebrate Passover. Maybe he’s saved up for years to fulfil his ambition of attending a great festival like this one in the City of David.

After his long journey from North Africa, he finds himself ordered at knifepoint to carry a 50 kilo, blood-stained plank of wood that’s got the smell of death all over it. I’d understand it if Simon of Cyrene had a bit of a chip on his shoulder about that.

Do some of us feel like a bit like he might have felt? Do you ever wonder to yourself, “What am I doing here?” Has following Jesus become an inconvenience, a weary chore for you? Have you become less willing to count the cost, take up your cross and follow Jesus than you used to be?

2. The Women – Sympathy

Or maybe you identify more with one of the women. In v27-31 some women meet Jesus on his way to execution, and their hearts break with compassion and pity for him.

They see this poor man getting beaten up and they can’t help but feel for him. They begin to sob.

Maybe you’re a bit like one of these women when you think about the cross. You see the unfairness and the injustice of it and you feel sorry for that nice man who suffered so badly.

But Jesus doesn’t want pity or sympathy. “Don’t cry for me,” he says. “Cry for yourselves…” He is saying, “this is more than a very bad day for one man; this is the entire nation of Israel rejecting its Messiah.”

Jesus knows that, forty years later, the Romans will besiege Jerusalem for two years and then pound the entire city to rubble. Days of terror and carnage will follow.

Jesus says here that the consequences of rejecting the Messiah will make women wish they had never brought children into the world to witness it.

“If people do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?” Jesus says this in Aramaic, but it will be recorded in Greek and then much later put into English, so it loses a bit in translation. It means, “If this is how the Roman military treats the innocent, how do you think they will punish the guilty?”

Jesus is not looking for sympathy – he wants you to see the bigger picture; not just what happened to him but what it means for you.

Ask God to open your eyes today to see that the cross is about you. If you had been the only spiritually lost person on earth, he would have still gone through the whole ordeal just for you, because he loves you that much.

3. The Leaders and Soldiers - Ridicule

Some resent him. Some pity him. Others mock him. In v35, the unbelieving religious leaders show their contempt. “He saved others; let him save himself if he is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.”

The soldiers in v36-38 just find it funny. “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.”

There are people today, I see them every time I browse my social media, who love an opportunity to ridicule Christianity and sneer at Christians.

Sadly, we sometimes deserve to be the butt of jokes. But at times there’s just hatred and contempt behind it. These are the kind of people surely who would have taunted Jesus as he made his way to the cross.

Probably none of us here today can relate to those who laugh and jeer at Jesus as he hangs there dying. But maybe there is just one here this morning; this might be the first time you’ve ever been in a church and it all seems like a bit of a joke...

Or perhaps someone one day will overhear a recording of this talk, someone who just dismisses Jesus as a laughingstock, who uses his name as an expletive…

Listen! Jesus leads the greatest and numerically strongest movement in world history. The church world-wide is still growing. He has no peer, no rival and no equal.

He laughs off every failed attempt to side-line him. Many more millions will leave everything they have to follow him long after you’re dead and forgotten.   

Don’t risk an eternity of darkness and unquenchable thirst and bitter regret separated forever from God. Turn to Christ today. Come humbly to Jesus in repentance and faith.

4. The Cynical Thief – Disrespect

It was prophesied in Isaiah 53, 750 years before Jesus was born, that he would be put to death with the wicked. All four gospels affirm that Jesus was crucified between two thugs. But only Luke tells us what they said.

In v39 it says that one of them hurled insults at him. “If you were really any kind of Messiah you’d get yourself out of this predicament and if you were worth the time of day you’d get us out of it as well!”

This is, in fact, a very commonplace way of talking to Jesus. Some messiah! Where were you when I was overlooked for that promotion and pay rise? What kind of Saviour were you when I fell and ended up in A&E? If you were really the King of kings and Lord of lords, how come you can’t even make the bus come on time?

Is that how you talk to God sometimes? But Jesus is not your domestic servant. Or mine!

He is worthy of praise precisely because he calms a thunderstorm with one word of authority, and yet he refuses to use his breathtaking power to come down from the cross.

5. The Repentant Thief - Faith

In v39-43 there is one of the most amazing conversations in the entire Bible. Both Matthew and Mark agree that both rebels begin by heaping insults on Jesus.

But at some point during the six hours of crucifixion, one of them changes. Was it when he hears Jesus pray, “Father, forgive them because they don’t know what they are doing”? It doesn’t say.

But I think there is a moment when he looks up at the signs above their heads which informed onlookers of the crimes for which they were being punished. Above his own head; “thief”. Above the other rebel’s head; “thief.”

And he confesses the sin in his life. “We are getting what our deeds deserve” he says.

“I’m a sinner; a thief. I did it. I admit it. It wasn’t the bad crowd I got into or some genetic predisposition to get into crime. It wasn’t my parents’ fault or the rough neighbourhood I grew up in. There are no excuses. I plead guilty. I deserve this. I have broken God’s laws.”

And then he looks at the sign above Jesus’ head; “This is the King of the Jews.” His head is crowned with thorns, his hair matted in blood – but in a moment of grace and faith he sees it - this is a real King!

Jesus is the only flawless, perfect life ever lived and in a flash of insight this thief sees it. “This man has done nothing wrong” he says.

He looks at this exhausted, blood-stained, dying man and – unbelievably – he can see the big picture: this is not the end of Jesus. “Remember me when you come in your kingdom” he says. He’s going to have a kingdom in which he will yet reign and rule. What amazing faith.

Jesus answers him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

Listen! No matter who you are, no matter what you’ve done, and how many times you’ve done it, no matter how big the mess you’ve made is, it’s not so beyond the pale that Jesus can’t clean it up.

And this dying thief is all the proof you need that it’s never too late to admit your sin and ask Jesus to remember you.

In the New Testament, Hell is described as a dark place, a lonely place, a thirsty place and a Godless place. On the cross, Jesus endured darkness, abandonment, thirst and separation from God. He literally went through Hell as he took on himself your guilt and mine.

But because he died for the sins of the whole world, no one needs to end up in hell. You, like that repentant thief, can be with the King in paradise.

6. The Centurion – Enlightenment

Finally, the Centurion. In v47, it says, “The centurion, seeing what had happened, praised God and said, “Surely this was a righteous man.” Mark’s Gospel quotes him in full. “Surely, this was the Son of God.”

What happened to make this man say that?

Luke says, “It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two at 3pm, the exact moment the Passover lamb was slain to atone for sin…

The sky at midnight was bright with angelic glory when Jesus was born and it was dark at midday when he died.

For three whole hours, in fact, it went eerily dark until Jesus bowed his head and died at 3 o’clock. And then, as soon as he died, it brightened up again.

That’s what the Centurion saw. And in a moment of grace and faith he literally saw the light.

Ending

Who are you in this story? A bit annoyed to be associated with it against your will? Feeling sorry for Jesus but not really getting that his death is for you? Laughing at it all? Seeing your sin and thanking Jesus for forgiveness?

We’re going to share Communion in a moment as we remember the Lord’s sufferings for us and renew our allegiance to him as our King and our love for one another as his beloved bride. We are on holy ground.

The musicians are going to lead us in worship but as they get ready to do that, let me end with this true story.

Some years ago, a Chinese church leader called Allen Yuan was arrested and imprisoned because of his faith in Christ. He was 44 years old.

His wife had to raise their six children (aged from six to seventeen) alone and also care for an elderly mother.

Yuan was in jail for 21 years and throughout that whole time he never once saw his family, or had any Christian fellowship, or even saw a Bible.

Conditions were harsh. He suffered terrible isolation. At times, the temperature in his cell dropped to -29°C but he was never ill.

All that time people urged his wife to remarry, saying Yuan must have died. She had several proposals. But she refused each time, saying she would never remarry until she had concrete proof her husband was dead.

He was finally released when in his mid-sixties. He had missed all his children growing up to adulthood. He had missed his wife. Life was hard for her too obviously.

But whenever people would speak to him about the high price he had paid for following Jesus, he would smile with joy and simply say, “Nothing compared to the cross.”

 

Sermon preached at King's Church Darlington, 31 October 2021

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