Disdain or Devotion (Jeremiah 36.1-32)

Introduction

Well, hands up those of you whose favourite book in the Bible is Jeremiah! I’ll be honest, it’s not mine and I confess I’ve only ever preached on this book once before. It’s a book people tend to avoid and I think there are four reasons for that.

Firstly, the content; it’s quite heavy. A large proportion of it is about judgement and doom and gloom and impending disaster. We prefer our Bible reading to be a bit more uplifting.

Secondly, the length; it’s really long. In fact, Jeremiah contains more words than any other book in the Bible. We usually prefer something a little more bite size.

Thirdly, the structure; it’s confusing. The chapters are not arranged in chronological order so it’s not easy to see how the events relate to each other.

And fourthly, the culture; it’s so alien to us. Situated 2,600 years before our time, in a world with very different customs and ideas to our own, we struggle to relate to it especially if we're unfamiliar with the historical context.

With all that, what can Jeremiah possibly have to say to us? Well, I think, if we’re prepared to work hard and get to grips with it, we will find that it is extremely relevant to our situation in the UK today.

In May 1940, about 350,000 British soldiers were backed into a corner by advancing German forces near Dunkerque in northern France. Prime Minister Winston Churchill called it “a colossal military disaster.” He said that the whole root and core and brain of the British Army was stranded and seemed destined to perish.

On 23rd May, many political leaders of our country, led by King George VI and supported by newspaper editors, called for a national day of prayer to be held on the following Sunday, 26th May.

The history books record that just 24 hours after that call for prayer, to the surprise and dismay of his own generals, Hitler inexplicably ordered his armies to halt. Two days later, on 26th May, our nation cried out to God for deliverance. Churches were full all over the land as people came before the Lord.

At 7:00pm that Sunday evening, with Hitler’s armies still stationary, the order was issued to attempt an audacious evacuation of Dunkerque. A fleet of 800 fishing boats, private yachts and half-seaworthy dinghies were hastily sent across the Channel with orders to rescue as many men as possible before the Germans arrived.

Incredibly, Hitler’s tanks stayed where they were not only up to 26th May, but - inexplicably - on into early June as well. To this day, no one knows why. Churchill called it - listen to this quote - “a miracle of deliverance.”

Another national day of prayer was called on 8th September that year as the Battle of Britain was being fought in the skies above our land. It is generally acknowledged now that had the Luftwaffe established air supremacy over these islands the Nazis would have launched an immediate invasion and swiftly defeated us.

The Luftwaffe outnumbered the RAF by a factor of 3:1. But once again, there was an incredible deliverance against the odds. Germany’s failure to achieve its objective of destroying Britain’s air defences was its first major defeat in the Second World War and a crucial turning point in it.

Then on D-Day, 6th June 1944 our king made a speech. Here's an extract from it.

"That we may be worthily matched with the new summons of destiny, I desire solemnly to call my people to prayer and dedication. We are not unmindful of our own shortcomings, past and present. We shall ask not that God may do our will, but that we may be enabled to do the will of God... I hope that throughout the present crisis of the liberation of Europe there may be offered up earnest, continuous and widespread prayer. We who remain in this land can most effectively enter into the suffering of subjugated Europe by prayer. Thereby we can prophesy the determination of our sailors, soldiers and airmen who go forth to set the captives free... At this historic moment surely not one of us is too busy, too young or too old, to play a part in a nation-wide, perchance world-wide, vigil of prayer ... If from every place of worship, from home and factory, from men and women of all ages and many races and occupations, our intercessions rise, then, please God, both now and in the future not remote, the predictions of an ancient song may be fulfilled: "The Lord will give strength unto his people, the Lord will give his people, the blessing of peace."" [Psalm 29.11.]

Two national days of prayer and a global call to prayer. Two remarkable victories that defied the odds and turned the tide and one overwhelmingly successful assault that sealed the outcome of the war.

That was 1940 and 1944. This is 2014. Will our nation ever come before the Lord, with one heart, on its knees again? Even in a crisis?

I’m sure our Queen would show the same fear of God her father had, but I don’t think I can imagine today’s politicians or newspaper editors uniting to call the nation to prayer. Can you?

There is a feeling that our nation is not just drifting from its spiritual moorings; it’s throwing away the anchor altogether.

Background to Jeremiah

In this sense, Jeremiah lived in similar times to ours. He lived in a nation that was increasingly impatient with expressions of faith, where the rich became super rich and the poor got left behind, where people saw worship as irrelevant to their lives. He spoke publicly about all this for about 40 years and, during that time, he watched his country slowly slide away from God.

At first, people just thought that Jeremiah was a bit eccentric. Then, as he kept saying uncomfortable and inconvenient things, they began to find him a nuisance. And finally, when he refused to stop speaking out, he was silenced and attacked for being offensive.

You can’t understand Jeremiah unless you know a bit about the times he lived in. So let’s very quickly sketch the background to all this.

Jeremiah was called to speak God’s word during the reign of Josiah. We looked at this last week. Josiah was a good king - one of the best. It was during his reign that people accidentally rediscovered the Bible during a bit of spring cleaning in the temple. They blew the dust off, opened it up and found to their alarm that the whole nation was doing the exact opposite of what God had said would lead to peace and blessing and prosperity.

They were doing what he said would lead to famine and drought and war and losing their land. They took the book to Josiah. He tore his clothes in repentance and brought in sweeping reforms, leading the nation back to God. And God blessed them.

But after Josiah died, things returned to the way they had been before.

At this time in its history, Judah was situated between two hostile superpowers; Egypt (to the south west) and Babylon (to the north east). And if you were a little country in the middle, like Judah, you had to choose whose side to be on.

Well, the next major king after Josiah was Jehoiakim (there was one called Jehoahaz between the two but he lasted only three months).

Jeremiah brought Jehoiakim a word from the Lord. “The Lord says don’t side with Egypt.” Jehoiakim decided to side with Egypt. Anything that God said in those days was routinely ignored by those in power. A few years’ later, in 604 BC, there was an almighty battle between north and south.

Babylon demolished Egypt and established itself as the one, dominant superpower in that region.

Jeremiah had been saying in the name of the Lord for decades that a great power would come from the north and flatten little Judah. They told him to stop being unpatriotic.

He said the nation had to get right with God again. Nobody listened. He became a laughing stock and the target of mockery.

He asked “Why are we cutting ourselves off from (what we would call) our Christian roots?” People told him to stop whinging and they banned him from the temple.

He survived several attempts on his life. A priest had him beaten and put in the stocks for a day. He was thrown in a cistern and left for dead.

Here’s the thing - people just wanted him to say something nice. They didn’t want to be told that there was a train coming as they played on the railway line. They wanted to be encouraged and be told that there wasn’t a train coming because that feels better.

Writing It Down

One thing we know about Jeremiah is that he spoke spontaneously under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

We know he spoke without notes as well because Jeremiah 36 is the story about how all his words first came to be written down about 600 BC. Here’s how the story unfolds.

In v1-7 Jeremiah meets a lawyer’s secretary called Baruch who seems honest and supportive so Jeremiah asks him if he would be his scribe. He says “Look, I need to write down everything I’ve been saying for the last 20 years or so. This is going to be one, last, desperate effort to warn people that this is going to end in tears if nothing changes. If they hear it all together, maybe they will listen.”

But how could Jeremiah possibly remember everything he had said over the previous two decades or so with no notes to refer to? We speak. Life moves on. We forget what we said. Can you remember verbatim anything you said last year? I can’t even remember what I said in my last sermon!

But experts on brain function have discovered that the human brain creates a permanent record of our conscious experience which is stored away in the brain, like files on a computer drive.

I located a computer document a couple of weeks ago that I thought had been lost. It was an e-mail attachment that I opened, edited and saved. But when I opened it again none of my changes had been kept. Has that ever happened to you? Maddening isn’t it? Well, there is a record of it somewhere deep in the computer’s cache that you can access to recover it if you know how.

Similarly, everything we say and hear and see is stored away somewhere in our subconscious. The problem we have is retrieving it – but it is there.

What happened with Jeremiah is that the Holy Spirit brought back to his conscious mind everything he had spoken in the name of the Lord.

Jesus said that this is one of the things the Holy Spirit does. “All this I have spoken while still with you” he said. “But… the Holy Spirit… will remind you of everything I have said to you” (John 14.25-26). This is why incidentally it’s worth reading the Bible even if you forget it.

So, taking a pen and ink, Baruch put down, word by word on a parchment what we now have as chapters 1-25 of Jeremiah.

With the help of a computer, I worked out yesterday that, in English, that’s 17,341 words. Speaking at average pace, that’s about 3 hours of relentless bad news. That’s not easy listening.

Now it had to be read in public. Jeremiah had been banned from the temple by this time. So in v9-10 he gets Baruch to wait till the next big feast day and read it aloud in the temple then.

So that’s what he does. In v11-19 one of the temple officials hears it, takes it seriously, and tells the local councillors what he’s just heard. They say “You’d better bring the man here and let him read to us.” So he does.

They hear it and look at one another in panic. Why? Because if Jeremiah is right, the king has got his foreign policy completely wrong. Egypt is the wrong horse to back. “We’ll have to tell the king,” they say.

So in v20-26 they get the king’s private secretary to read it a third time, this time to the king. Jehoiakim has no time for it. He has zero fear of God. He is unwilling to listen. He takes a penknife and, as the secretary reads down the parchment, Jehoiakim cuts off what’s just been read and throws it into the fire.

What a contrast between Jehoiakim and his father Josiah! When they read the word of God to Josiah he tore his clothes and called the nation back to God.

When they read it to Jehoiakim in a display of open contempt for God’s word, he nonchalantly burns it.

Responding to the Word

Is the UK in 2014 a Josiah nation or a Jehoiakim nation?

If the word of the Lord was read aloud in our Parliament, to our newspaper owners, to our financial shakers and movers, to our High Court judges, to our intellectuals today what would they do? I wonder if they would turn back to God as their predecessors did twice in 1940.

Or, these days, would Churchill’s “miracle of deliverance” be downgraded to “an inexplicable slice of luck”?

Have we forgotten what God did when, as a nation, we got down on our knees? Well, I’ll say more about all that next week.

What I want to highlight this morning is this: God’s word is indestructible.

All that work that Baruch did, writing it all down. It must have taken a couple of days. All destroyed. But you can’t get rid of God’s word!

Jesus said “Heaven and Earth will pass away but my words will never pass away.”

In v27-32, God says “Write the whole thing down again and add a bit more this time about Jehoiakim. Say to him that Babylon will certainly come now and bring this nation’s days to an end. Tell Jehoiakim that he will have no royal line to follow him. Tell him that he will not even have a dignified burial when he dies.”

History records that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon did indeed come with his armies the following year. It tells us that Jehoiakim died during the siege, his body was thrown over the city walls, and was never buried. It tells us that his son Jehoiachin took the crown but that he lasted just 3 months. It tells us that Jehoiakim never did have another descendant on the throne.

Oh, the folly of resisting God’s word. You might as well resist a hammer with an egg. In fact, Jeremiah likens God’s word to a hammer that shatters rock in chapter 23.

Bottom line? Jehoiakim gets a brief, inglorious mention in Wikipedia. Jeremiah’s entire prophecy is preserved forever in the world’s most translated, most distributed and bestselling book. It’s also the world’s most powerful book.

God’s Indestructible Word

You’ve probably heard about Brother Andrew’s miraculous distribution of Bibles in the days of the Soviet Union.

Well, I was told another story this week about a man, back in the days when the Bible was not widely available, who was traveling between villages with a barrow of Bibles and was met by a bandit on the way. The bandit stopped him and asked “What have got in the barrow under that cover?” He said “Books.” The bandit said “I don’t believe you, show me.”

So he did and sure enough, there were all these Bibles. The bandit was so annoyed that there was nothing more valuable he told the man to light a fire and burn the lot.

So the man said “OK, but would you let me read you a little bit before I do?” The bandit said “all right.”

So he picked up the first Bible and read the 23rd Psalm. The bandit said “That’s a good one, I’ll keep that book.” So he picked out another and read the beatitudes. “The bandit said “I like that, I’ll keep that one too.” And then he read 1 Corinthians 13 on love and the bandit said the same thing again. And so on until he had them all stacked up, not realising they were from the same book. So he said “I’ll have your barrow as well.” And off he went.

Years later that man was back in those parts and he found, to his surprise, that people were clamouring for his Bibles. He said “Oh, you’ve heard about this book have you?” They said “Yes.” “Where have you heard about?” They said “From the preacher in the village.” When he got to the village, there was the preacher, the former bandit, with his congregation.

Ending

I’m going to end with a word that appears twice in this chapter (in v3 and v7). It’s the little word “Perhaps.” As Jeremiah writes down all that God has said through him, he says “Perhaps.”

Perhaps if people hear this they will turn around from the path they’re on and I will forgive them.

Perhaps they will come before the Lord in prayer.

“Perhaps” is a word that tells me that there is always hope. I hold out the hope that our country will turn to the Lord again.

If I’m honest, I can’t see it happening humanly speaking but then who would have imagined that the rediscovery of the Bible in the temple would lead to a national revival under Josiah?

Perhaps if our generation could hear the word of the Lord, it wouldn’t get shredded and burned. Perhaps the Holy Spirit would turn hearts and change lives and heal our land?

It may seem unlikely. But who would have predicted our Army would survive intact after being cornered in Dunkerque? Who would have imagined our Air Force prevailing in the Battle of Britain when outgunned 3 to 1? But for the power of prayer and the gracious hand of God I believe our nation would have fallen into the hands of Adolf Hitler. Churchill believed that too. If Hitler had prevailed in 1940 he said "we should be reduced to the status of vassals and slaves forever." But the Lord ha mercy on us.

Perhaps if our country had to face some unknown peril again, (and I wouldn’t wish that), but if it did, perhaps we would come before him in repentance for our ingratitude as a nation and cry out to him once more.

Let’s stand to pray…

Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 23rd February 2014

Being Holy (1 Peter 1.3-25)

Introduction

I have with me here a jigsaw puzzle of 1000 pieces. I completed it a few years ago though I’m not a great jigsaw enthusiast. It’s of the history of this country from the Stone Age to the present day and I did the puzzle because I was useless at history at school and I thought this might be a good way to learn it.

I completed the puzzle as far as I could without looking at the image on the box. Well, I finished it and I now know a little bit more about British history than I did. 

If you often do puzzles, you’ll know what it feels like when you tip the pieces out of the box onto the table. Hundreds of assorted shapes with different colours – your heart sinks. If you haven’t studied the completed picture on the lid of the box, it’s impossible to imagine what the individual pieces will look like when they’re assembled but you might guess the basic theme just by looking at the jumbled pieces.

Bits and Pieces of Jesus

The pieces on the table are similar to the picture the Old Testament prophets had of Jesus when they spoke about the Messiah. The letter to the Hebrews says “God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son.”

Like a jigsaw, it was in bits and pieces at the start but as the picture slowly emerges when you join the pieces together, with Jesus we see perfectly clearly what God is like.

Our reading this morning speaks about this: “the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, [who] searched intently and with the greatest care, [tried] to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow.” 

The prophets saw dozens of glimpses of Jesus. One said he would be conceived by a virgin. Another said that he would be born in Bethlehem. Another said he would be in David’s line. Another said he would speak in parables. Another said he would have his hands and feet pierced. Another said he be buried in a rich man’s tomb. Still another said he would rise again from death.

Peter Stoner, former Professor of Mathematics at Pasadena City College, did some sums and calculated that the probability of just 8 such predictions being fulfilled in one person is one chance in one hundred million billion (which is many times more than the total number of people who’ve ever lived). 

But only when all these prophecies come together do we see the full picture. And when we hold the box lid of Jesus’ life against it we see a perfect match.

Set Apart

When you step back and look at the completed picture, you see one like no one else.

He only had to say “Follow me” and fishermen dropped their nets at once.

People would travel for miles and press into crowded buildings to get anywhere near him.

Yet he would stop everything to give his undivided attention to one poor soul.

No one in all history has a personality anything like his. As John Stott said “It would be hopelessly incongruous to refer to him as ‘Jesus the Great,’ comparable to Alexander the Great, Charles the Great, or Napoleon the Great. Jesus is not ‘the Great,’ he is the Only. He has no peers, no rivals and no successors.”

Jesus stands head and shoulders above the rest. He is set apart from the crowd. And that is what the word “holy” means; different, set apart from the rest.

Some people don’t like the word “holy.” We sometimes associate it with weirdness. Religious oddballs are called “Holy Joes” People who look down their noses are called “holier than thou.”

But Jesus wasn’t sanctimonious. He was just unlike anyone who ever breathed before or since.

Today’s theme is “being holy” and this is what it means; to be like Jesus, to be set apart. When we live holy lives like Jesus people will see him in us. That’s why the letter to the Hebrews says “Without holiness no one will see the Lord.”

There’s a subtle temptation most Christians face from time to time – to want to fit in, to prove that we’re just like everyone else. But we’re not. Verse 15 of our passage says: “Just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: ‘Be holy, because I am holy.’”

The former slave trader turned preacher John Newton once said to the hymn writer William Cowper “I am not what I ought to be. I am not what I want to be. I am not what I hope to be. But, thank God, I am not what I used to be.”

How do you get on the path of holiness? You do what John Newton did. Firstly, he gave up running his life and turned to Christ in faith. He wrote about his conversion to Christ in the hymn “Amazing Grace” that we still sing today. Secondly, he repented of his former life - he stopped working in the slave trade and he did all he could to abolish it. He committed his life to becoming more like Jesus.

Our passage talks about some of the ways we live holy lives. These are the things that God expects of you and me. I’m just going to finish very quickly with four of them.

First, it talks in v13 about “minds that are alert and fully sober.” Think straight. Don’t get intoxicated with latest ideas and crazes. Our mass media relentlessly and subtly promotes godless standards and values. Holy people don’t get sucked into that. Holy people think differently.

Secondly, in v14 it talks about obedience. “As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance.” It’s saying don’t make the same mistakes you once did when you had no thought of God or relationship with Christ.

Thirdly, in v17 it says “live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear.” Fear God. That doesn’t mean you live constantly in dread of going to hell. Quite the reverse; Jesus delivers us from that. It means something else altogether. Think about how you’d feel if you upset someone you care for deeply. It is a healthy thing to fear hurting someone you love. That’s what it means to fear God. And if you really fear God, you’ll never fear anything else.

Fourthly, in v18-19 it says “Be grateful.” Having an attitude of gratitude moves your focus away from what you lack onto the abundance you already have. Psychological research shows that gratitude is good for you. And look what we have to be thankful for; “you were redeemed from your empty way of life.” Look at the price tag; “not with… silver or gold (money gets devalued with every economic crisis) … but with the precious blood of Christ.”

Conclusion

As I close, I want to do an experiment. This is something I came across this week. 

Close your eyes and imagine with me that you have a lemon in your hand. Feel how cold it is since you just took it out of the refrigerator. Feel the shape of it. Now take a knife and cut the lemon into quarters. Careful! Don’t cut yourself. Look at the juice run down over the sides on to your fingers. 

Now, put three of the quarters down and just hold one quarter of the lemon. Now, look at it. Lean down and smell it. Get a good, full sense of the lemon fresh scent of it. OK, now take a big bite out of this freshly cut, tart, yellow lemon. Imagine that lemon juice on your lips, your tongue and your gums. You just bit into this very bitter, juicy lemon.

Right, who feels like they have more saliva in their mouth than they did a minute a go? How can that be? It was only pretend! The reason is because you always react to what your mind thinks about.

So as we fill our minds and soul with the full and glorious picture of Jesus – the most attractive personality, the most compelling individual, the most inspirational figure in human history, let’s be grateful that we have had the privilege of meeting him and let’s commit ourselves afresh to be like him, living holy lives.

Sermon preached at Saint Mary's Long Newton, 9th February 2014

Raised with Christ (1 Corinthians 15.51-57)

In Memory of Doris Ward (3rd May 1915 - 16th December 2013)

The lead singer of the Rolling Stones Mick Jagger, now aged 70, was interviewed on a TV chat show a few years ago and was talking about how he keeps going as a youthful rocker. Jagger described the prominent creases on his face as “laugh lines.” The interviewer just smiled and said, “Oh come on, nothing’s that funny”!

The truth is our bodies are getting older, tireder, greyer, wrinklier, achier and for some of us balder every day. Warning, this talk is intended to depress everyone!

Or maybe not, because even if we are all getting older on the outside, the Bible says that those who receive the grace of God are actually getting younger - on the inside. The Bible says “We do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.”

Christians are a new creation; new men, new women. In Christ, you get younger every day. Isn’t that good news?

These days, most people have - at best - only a sketchy idea of what the Bible says about life after death. Ask someone on the street what they think about life after death and you’ll probably get one of three answers.

Some will say, a bit like the Corinthians our reading was addressed to, that our disembodied souls kind of float around for eternity. That comes from Greek philosophy. It’s Plato - and is not what the Bible teaches at all.

Secondly, some will say that we reappear in a different form at some future point on this earth. Reincarnation in other words. That’s Hindu or New-Age thinking and is not what the Bible teaches either.

Thirdly, others will say that there is absolutely nothing at all after death. Atheists believe that when you die, that’s it. For the committed sceptic it is silly to engrave the words “Rest in peace” on headstones. Dead people do not rest, they say. Bodies decompose and that’s all there is to say.

But the Christian vision of what happens to us after death is different to all these tree beliefs. And our reading is one of the places in the Bible where the Christian view is explained.

It says “The trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.”

Our fragile bodies eventually go downhill, die, then decay. Our personality, the real me, the real you, our thoughts, our beliefs stay very much alive. Doris is conscious at this very moment and but is without a body and she is enjoying God’s presence in heaven. One day, when the Lord returns, she will rise with a new, immortal body that will never grow old or tired. In the age to come, all the indignities of our present bodies will be history; the dishonour of our aged, wrinkly frames will be replaced, with something quite glorious.

We have a few illustrations from nature to teach us about these eternal realities. Let me share two of them with you.

The first is the seed and the plant. The genetic make-up of an acorn, its DNA, is identical to the oak tree it becomes. The tree is unrecognisable from the seed it grows from, which may be hundreds of times smaller, and completely different in shape. In the same way, the Bible says that we will be transformed beyond anything we could imagine, completely different. And yet, it’s totally the same thing. The acorn falls into the ground and dies only to become something more glorious. As our reading says, “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

Jesus, after he was raised, was the same Jesus - but different. People knew it was him and yet, curiously, there was something about him, so that people hesitated to go near him and, in fact, didn’t always recognise him at first.

Which brings me to the second illustration from nature; the caterpillar and the butterfly. At just the right time in its life, the caterpillar goes grey and hangs upside down on a branch and weaves a cocoon. It looks like it is creating its own coffin. But inside, it is undergoing transformation. It uses the same atoms it had as a caterpillar, rearranges them, recycles them, in order to emerge, rise, if you like, as a majestic butterfly, no longer crawling but flying! Its environment is no longer limited to the earth. It can now travel in the heavens.

The same is true of us when we die. Our bodies will be recreated, using the same raw materials, but this time equipped to exist on a different level.

I look forward to meeting up with Doris again one day. We’ll both have new bodies with no aches and pains. We’ll be different but certainly recognisable.

If the resurrection is just a fairy story, Jesus’ bones are lying in a tomb somewhere in the Middle East, our faith is futile, Christianity is untrue and Doris Ward wasted a large part of her life believing a lie.

But no. Her work in the Lord’s service, her praying, her encouragement of fellow believers, her stand against evil, her love for others, her giving, the faith she shared, were not in vain.

While her soul rejoices in the glorious presence of God in heaven, he is preparing for her a body able to enjoy him forever in the eternity to come.

It’s common to become overly preoccupied with our health, particularly as we grow older. Doris certainly had no fear of death. In fact, she was ready to go and rather wished it could have been sooner.

The good news of the gospel is that Jesus opened heaven’s doors for all who repent of their sins and turn to him in faith. Because of Christ, we don’t need to fear death any longer. He has decisively nullified the sting of death.

When we know Christ, we know that one day we will be with Him forever and that makes all the difference.

Thank God for Jesus’ promise: “Because I live,” he said, “you also will live.” 

Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 8th February 2014

Pray Earnestly (2 Kings 19.9-19)

Introduction

I am told that some years ago, there was a series of posters in London, advertising the Tube network and featuring famous characters from British history. One poster had Henry VIII on it, with the caption, “A day return for the Tower of London please.” And someone had got a marker pen and scribbled underneath one of the posters with the words, “Oh, and just a single for the wife!”

* In fact, the anecdote is not quite true as I discovered after giving this talk - and as this picture shows. Transport for London came up with the whole caption, not a cheeky graffiti artist.

Of course we all know about the six wives of Henry VIII from school. But I suspect that most of us feel a bit lost when it comes to history and, if we’re honest, biblical history is even sketchier for some of us. So I’m going to spend a few minutes explaining the background to the story we had read from 2 Kings. I’ll try to be brief.

Background

We’re in the 7th Century BC and the dominant world power at that time is Assyria, to the north east of Israel and Syria is a mighty military machine at that time; they terrorise neighbouring nations and sweep all before them.

They were not only formidable; they were famous for their cruelty and gratuitous violence. They were absolutely ruthless towards anyone who dared step out of line.

You can go to the British Museum today and see the most edifying engravings of Assyrian soldiers flaying alive their conquered enemies, impaling anyone who refused to pay them tribute and throwing in boiling oil anyone who had the temerity to defy them. Women and children too - there were no exceptions. So they struck terror in the hearts of anyone who happened to be in their way.

The Assyrian Empire 7th Century BC

In 745 BC the extent of their empire is represented by the area marked in purple on the map – that’s a surface smaller than Scotland. In 722 BC, having expanded in all directions, they swept south through Syria and conquered it. They continued down through the northern kingdom of Israel (the area marked in yellow) and devastated it. 10 of the 12 tribes of Israel were obliterated, apart from 200,000 people who were deported from Samaria to Assyria in chains, never to see home again.

Ten years later, their king, Sennacherib, pushed further south into the southern kingdom of Judah (the area marked in brown) and he reduced 46 fortified cities to rubble. By this time their empire had grown to a size somewhat larger than the whole of the UK.

But Sennacherib decided not to take Jerusalem. He was keen to head further south into Egypt and invade that, giving him total supremacy of the entire Middle-East. What he did do though was demand a heavy tribute from Jerusalem – protection money – in return for leaving them alone. So King Hezekiah of Judah scraped together all the gold he could find, stripping the temple bare, and he paid Sennacherib his tribute.

But 30 miles south west of Jerusalem, as he laid siege to the heavily fortified city of Lachish, Sennacherib had a change of heart. He decided that he shouldn’t have let Jerusalem off so he made a U-turn and headed back north to attack Jerusalem too.

The Crisis

This is where our reading picks up the story. Sennacherib sends messengers on ahead. They ridicule the living God. They say that Hezekiah is deluded if he thinks his God is going to stand in the way of the irresistible force of the approaching Assyrian military just 15 miles away. “There’s not a single city, nation or deity that has been a match for us. How do you think that little Jerusalem will be the first?”

It must have been absolutely terrifying. But have you noticed how the devil uses the same basic narrative against God’s people today? “Look how feeble and ineffective you are! Nobody takes you seriously anymore. Do you think poor old God is going to help you? You’re finished.”

I was listening to a radio interview with the comedian Frank Skinner this week. He was doing a tour in Scandinavia with Eddie Izzard a few years ago and Izzard, who is a transvestite, was saying “I wonder if I mention it, if the audience will accept me.” And they both agreed that it would be no problem.

Frank Skinner then said that he is a practicing Catholic. And he said “I wonder if I mention it, if the audience will accept me?” And they both agreed that the audience would be far more accommodating of Izzard’s transvestism than they would of Skinner’s Catholicism.

Now, who am I to judge? Eddie Izzard does not profess to be a Christian as far as I know. But has it really come to this that people would think that it’s not OK for a man to follow Christ but that everything is perfectly normal if a man walks around in women’s underwear and high heels?

Just like Hezekiah, we can feel bewildered by the contempt that is poured on us for the sake of Christ. Maybe I’m just a bit oversensitive, but it does feel sometimes like Christians are constantly misrepresented, that the Bible is endlessly belittled and that the church is - at best - ignored in our culture.

This particular story is written down three times in the Bible; in 2 Chronicles, in Isaiah and here in 2 Kings. So it is very important.

In Isaiah’s version of this event, you find a comment from Hezekiah that isn’t recorded in either Kings or Chronicles. When he hears this news, as he is soon to be surrounded on every side, Hezekiah says, “I feel like a woman in labour who hasn’t got the strength to give birth.” I’m no expert but I bet that any midwife would tell you that that’s a most perilous situation for both mother and baby.

What does Hezekiah mean? He means “In this crisis, I just can’t express the inner faith I should have in God.” Do you ever feel like you’ve got faith inside you somewhere, but you just can’t bring it out? Fear can be quite paralysing. That’s where Hezekiah was, that’s where we are sometimes and the prayers we pray at times like that are earnest prayers.

Jesus prayed earnestly we’re told as he contemplated the horrific agonies that he would face in his imminent passion and death.

When you’re desperate, you pray like never before. What better time to pray to the God of the impossible than when things are completely without hope?

Isaiah had warned Hezekiah prophetically about Assyria before and he had ignored it. He probably felt guilty, that it was all his fault.

Do you ever say to yourself “if I had just lived in obedience to God’s word, I wouldn’t be in the mess I am now.” It’s a bit rich for me to go running off to God now and ask him to bail me out.”

But that’s exactly what Hezekiah does. And that’s what we can do as well. Listen, there is no sin so serious, no crime so heinous, no mistake so bad and no decision so stupid that God cannot sort it out, put it in the past and bring to birth something new.

In v14 Hezekiah spreads the letter from Sennacherib before the Lord. That’s not a bad idea. When you are anxious, bring your fears into God’s presence. When you get a bill you can’t pay spread it out before you as you come to God in prayer. When you’ve got a work schedule you feel overwhelmed by, hold it up before God – it’ll feel much smaller.

In v15 he extols God’s greatness and majesty. He speaks out that the Lord is above everything. He alone permits an empire to rise or fall. He determines the flow of history and the destiny of peoples. However fearsome and revered a king Sennacherib might be, the Lord is the King of kings and Lord of lords.

That’s a wonderful place to begin. If you’re going to pray effectively, it helps to get a big picture. This is what we mean when we say we magnify the Lord. We get perspective. We enlarge our vision of his greatness and might. When we pray, we come before the throne of heaven from whence all authority flows.

In v17-18 he presents the problem to God. He tells God what is happening as he sees it. He doesn’t dress it up in spiritual language; he talks to God about these Assyrians and how they have demolished everything in their path. Can I just encourage you, be real when you pray. Tell God how it is - in plain English.

In v19 he makes his appeal. And it’s quite telling what he prays for. Given the situation, we might expect him to pray “Deliver us from his hand so that we will all be safe.” Or “Deliver us from his hand so that we will know that you answer prayer.” But he asks this: “Deliver us from his hand so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone Lord, are God.”

This year when we commit ourselves to grow in prayer and pray specifically for growth, our prayer is not just that people will grow in faith and come to Christ. It’s not just that our community will be touched by God. It’s that everyone will know without a doubt how wonderful the Lord is.

Some years ago, Nicky Gumbel, the man behind the Alpha Course, got a telephone call from a man called James who asked to see him. They met and had lunch together. James had been an actor and was at that time a TV director. He had married a very beautiful woman called Anna. They had everything, in a way; success, fame, good looks, money, all they needed - except happiness. After three years of marriage, Anna suddenly left him. 

James said, “I don’t know how to forgive for what’s happened.” And Nicky explained to him that it’s very hard to forgive unless you know that you yourself have been forgiven. And so, after a bit more explanation, James said sorry to God for the past, turned from everything he knew was wrong in his life, thanked Jesus for dying for him and invited the Holy Spirit to come and live within him.

James began to experience a relationship with God. Almost immediately, what he wanted more than anything else was to be in contact again with Anna. The Holy Spirit was showing him that not only did he need to forgive Anna for leaving him, but he needed her forgiveness as well for the mistakes he had made in the marriage.

But by this stage she had met someone else, she had moved into another house, and was beginning proceedings for divorce. He could only contact her through her solicitor and she wouldn’t see him.

So, with James’ agreement, Nicky wrote to her on his behalf asking if he could meet her instead. James prayed earnestly that when Nicky wrote to her asking if she would come and meet him she would. And she did. Nicky and his wife Pippa spent some time talking with Anna and they asked her if she would see James just for half an hour, explaining that he was a different person now.

Anna said, “I’ll think about it.” Two days later, she wrote saying, “I’ve thought about it and I’ve decided that I don’t want to see him again. I want to press ahead with the divorce.” But - note this - James carried on praying earnestly. Friends kept praying too.  

As it happened, Billy Graham was doing a mission at Wembley and at that time. James had reached the point where he had said to God, “Lord, I would love this relationship to get back together. But I am more concerned about Anna, that she should come to know what it is to have a relationship with you.” 

So, he sent two tickets for her and the man that she was living with to go to hear Billy Graham. They returned the tickets, saying they couldn’t go. That would seem to be that.

Except that Billy Graham decided to stay on for one extra night so James thought, “I’ll have one last go.” He sent two tickets again. The next morning he got a phone call from Anna. She probably thought she was safe because at that stage the decree nisi had already gone through. She said, “I think I would like to come and hear Billy Graham. The man I live with can’t come, so can I go with you?”

So they went to Wembley and at the end of the talk, Billy Graham, as he usually does, invited people who wanted to give their lives to Christ to come forward. Anna got up out of her seat and went forward. The counsellor at the foot of the stage asked her if she had come with someone else. Anna said, “Yes, I have.” So the counsellor said, “Well, is the person that you’ve come with a Christian?” And she said, “Yes.” So the counsellor said, “Oh, great, well why don’t you go and get him?” And she said, “But it’s my husband.” So the counsellor said, “Well, that’s even better!”  But she said, “No, you don’t understand. I have not been with him for two and a half years!”

The following morning, James and Anna walked into church having spent the first night together in years. They had to go to court to get the decree nisi set aside and when they told their story to the judge, and how Jesus had saved their marriage, he was delighted! He’d never heard anything like it. The court usher was in tears. James and Anna went on to have children, become leaders in the church and as far as I know are still together.

But the thing is this: Nicky Gumbel, when he tells the story, says how he went back through his prayer diary reading dozens of prayers he wrote down that the relationship would be restored - and God answered every one. 

Ending

If you don’t know the end of the story of Hezekiah and Sennacherib I’ll sum it up quickly. But do read the rest when you get home.

Isaiah had prophesied that Jerusalem would be delivered without the Assyrians even firing a bow. How totally unlikely was that? But Hezekiah’s earnest prayer that God’s word would come to pass was answered in every detail.

There is evidence from secular history (both Egyptian and Greek) that a sudden epidemic of rodents ate the bowstrings and shield straps of the Assyrian troops at night and decimated the army with bubonic plague. It swept through the camp.

Just like people still remember the Charge of the Light Brigade 160 years on, people wrote about this event 300 years after it happened, because there had never been a military collapse like it before or since.

The Bible says that the Angel of the Lord struck down Sennacherib’s army and archaeologists have uncovered a site full of hastily buried bones believed to be their remains.

Sennacherib broke camp and returned home to Nineveh. He recorded that he had kept Hezekiah in Jerusalem like a bird in a cage but, unsurprisingly, he didn’t mention his military humiliation.

But he never went back to Judah again and popular feeling against him grew. People began to plot against him, even within his own family, and in the end he was assassinated.

Let me conclude: Oswald Chambers once said “We do not pray at all until we are at our wits’ end.” I think that is slightly exaggerated.

But there is something unique about prayer when you are absolutely desperate. If you do feel at your wits’ end this morning there’s a reason why you’re here. When you’ve done all that is humanly possible and you’ve still got an insurmountable problem there’s only one place to go. Our God is able.

Let’s stand to pray…

Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 26th January 2014

Playing Scrabble without the Vowels

I was chatting with friends recently and we wondered what being a Christian would be like without a community of believers to belong to. 

I found myself saying, “Being a Christian without a church is like playing Scrabble without the vowels.”

In just the same way that our hearts sink when our seven allocated letters are all vowels, perhaps we take church for granted sometimes. But try playing without them! So here are five advantages of being committed to your church – beginning with a, e, i, o and u.

A is for accountability. Being an active member of a church keeps us accountable to God and to our fellow believers. Every time I take Communion I am saying with all my brothers and sisters “Lord, we need more grace from you.” The New Testament is full of “one anothers” – love one another, encourage one another and accept one another but also admonish one another and forgive one another. We can’t do that alone. We need each other for true spiritual accountability.

E is for encounter. The Lord has pledged his presence when two or more gather in his name. Though we can of course meet with God on our own, Jesus never made a promise about it. Psalm 22.3 says that the Lord inhabits the praises of his people. We can meet with God when we worship together in a way that we can’t when we are alone.

I is for inspiration. Gathering to sing praise, to hear the word of God expounded with passion and to share spiritual gifts to build one another up is inspiring. OK, some Sundays are a bit more inspirational than others – such is life. But God has designed the church so we can learn, grow, be stretched and be challenged. Expect to be inspired!

O is for outreach. More outreach is done through the local church than through any other agency in the world. Messy Church and the Lunch Club (at All Saints’ Preston on Tees) and Godzone and the Community Lunch (at Saint Mary’s Long Newton) are just four of many opportunities that enable people in the churches I lead to meet with hundreds of people each month who don’t yet know Christ personally.

U is for unity. God loves unity; he is three persons but one God. We know that unity is important in any organisation; political parties that are divided are unelectable and football teams with a divided dressing room usually struggle. But when churches seek and find unity in the Holy Spirit there is nowhere better on earth to be. In fact, Psalm 133 tells us that God commands blessing on his people when they live and work in unity together.

When you’ve got all that, who needs ‘muzjiks’* on a triple word score?

* Muzjiks (meaning Russian peasants) at 79 is the highest scoring word in Scrabble apparently.