Forgive Us As We Forgive Those... (Matthew 18.21-35)

Have you ever noticed what happens when you get to line 5 of the Lord’s Prayer? Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done… Up to that point the focus has been entirely on God. Father, your name, your kingdom, your will… But when you arrive at line 5, as we did last week in our series on the Lord’s Prayer, the focus changes from him to us. Give us daily bread, forgive us our sins, lead us away from temptation, deliver us from evil.

That’s no accident. There’s a reason for it and I call it the shirt button rule. When I was a small child, learning to dress myself, every morning I seemed to do my shirt buttons up wrongly. Most days, I would start in the middle and work up… “Oh, two buttons left and only one buttonhole. It’s not straight. OK, let’s undo the buttons and start again... This time, start at the bottom and work up. There we go… Oh! It’s still not straight. What’s happened there then? Ahh, that one’s the spare button, that’s why it’s all out of kilter again.” My mum used to walk in and say, “John, you’ve taken half an hour to button your shirt and it’s still all wrong. You’ve got to start at the top with the collar button and then work down.” She was a born theologian, my mum.

Here’s the shirt button rule: In all my thinking about God, his kingdom, my life, my work, the church, my family, the world – the only way to get it all in the right order, in the proper perspective is to start at the top, with God. If we get God right we get everything else right too. If we take mere human wisdom as our starting point we get God, life, the world, relationships, everything out of line.

Whenever I’m at a crossroads in life; job issues, relationship tensions, money difficulties… top button first - what does God think about this? What would he want me to do here? Or whenever a question raises itself; what about Asylum seekers in Stockton? Should I bother about global warming? What about the plight of the unborn? What should I say about the BNP? Top button first - how does God feel? Where is God on this issue?

Well, we got to the “us” half of the Lord’s Prayer last week. Give us today our daily bread. It’s about asking God for what we need, not necessarily what we’d like. What we need – which is enough to live on, and some to give away. The God we know though Jesus Christ is the God who, according to Psalm 52, owns the cattle on a thousand hills and the wealth in every mine. He is the God who defines himself as Yahweh Jireh – the Lord is my Provider. As SM Lockeridge put it, “No far-seeing telescope can bring into visibility the coastline of his shoreless supplies and no barrier can hinder him from pouring out his blessing.”

But Jesus didn’t just tell us we can pray for food, did he? He also told us that we need to pray for forgiveness - and express to God our readiness to forgive anyone who has wronged us.

Janet needs to forgive Derek for criticising her last week; he didn’t mean any harm and probably doesn’t even know how he hurt her feelings.

Fred needs to forgive a client who inconvenienced him by being late for an appointment. It was a small thing – but it meant he couldn’t get home to see his daughter before she had to go out. And he resented that.

Karen needs to forgive her husband for taking the car before asking if she needed it – which, it just so happened that she did.

I need to forgive the cat for getting me up in the middle of the night meowing.

All these are fictitious, but realistic, examples (except the one about cat, it really did wake me up at 3:00am). These things are all trivial really, but those little bits of gunk that we unthinkingly wash down the plughole end up blocking the drain. And minor resentments, that are not dealt with, over time, become major issues.

For example (and this is a true story) Richard Daley was a famous and popular Mayor of Chicago. He was an absolute giant on the political scene there and was re-elected several times. His total career as Mayor spanned from 1955 to 1976, that’s 21 years, a record that still stands to this day.

One morning his speech writer came to see him to ask for a rise. “I’ve been writing your speeches for years now and my pay is still the same as it was when you first hired me. I think I’m worth a bit more.” Well, Mayor Daley didn’t take kindly to this sort of request so he turned round and said, “Now listen up. You better forget what you just said. The fact that you work for an all-American hero such as Mayor Richard Daley ought to be reward enough.”

The following day, Mayor Daley had an important engagement. He rarely had the time to rehearse his speeches; so what happened usually was that he was briefed on the next engagement on the way there by his staff and he was handed a wad of paper just before he stood up to speak.

So here he is, one afternoon, about to address a huge public gathering to honour all the war veterans of the state of Illinois. Everybody is there; the State Governor, the national TV news crews, all the big cheeses from the armed forces – you name it. And so Daley begins his speech.

“Veterans of Illinois, I stand here today and salute you. The freedom we enjoy today we owe to men and women of valour like you. We are proud of your courage, your dedication, your heroism and your professionalism. And lest anyone forget the sacrifice you have made on our behalf, I announce today a 17 point plan of entirely new policy measures to keep the flame of your noble legacy burning for years to come.”

Everybody holds their breath. You can hear a pin drop. What is the good Mayor going to announce? Seventeen new policy measures? What is he going to say? Everyone wants to know. Mayor Daley himself wants to know! He turns the page of his speech notes and there, written in large letters, it just says, “You’re on your own now you all-American hero!”

If only Daley’s speech writer had been more… forgiving. But have you ever spent hours, or days, or longer harbouring resentment and nursing a seething dislike for someone who has done you wrong? I have. It’s one of the hardest things to stop doing; it’s like trying to get a red wine stain out in the wash - no matter what soap you use it’s always there.

When I was a kid we used to say the Lord’s Prayer at school. And I was always a bit curious about this bit. “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” I wonder how many kids couldn’t get out of their mind the image of a signpost in Jesus’ front garden saying, “Trespassers will be prosecuted” and Jesus coming out and getting really irate because we were treading on his lawn again.

So we had to say, “Oh, forgive us our trespasses.”

Of course, it’s nothing to do with being on anyone’s property and the modern version says “sins” which covers a bit more doesn’t it? “Forgive us our sins.” In fact, more literally, it’s forgive us our sins just as we have forgiven those who have sinned against us.”

I think we know what this means. It is spelt it out uncomfortably for us in Matthew 6.14-15 where Jesus says, “If you forgive others when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” I can’t wriggle out of that one. It means what it seems to mean. Jesus says here that the amount of forgiveness we get from God is directly proportionate to the amount of forgiveness we release to others who have hurt us. I’ll come back to that word “release” later.

Whenever I preach about forgiveness I feel nervous; I half expect someone to say to me afterwards, “It’s all right for you to talk about forgiveness, but let me tell you what happened to me…” And then they tell me about something appalling in their life; ‘A’ was rejected by his mother, ‘B’ was raped by her uncle, ‘C’ was humiliated in public by her husband, ‘D’ and ‘E’ were left out of their parents’ will after years of loving care. ‘F’ became an alcoholic because ‘G’ drove him to it. ‘H’s son committed suicide because he was constantly bullied and the school did nothing.

Saying “I forgive you” to someone who has irrevocably spoiled your life is one of the hardest things it is possible to do. How much forgiving do you have to do?

Apparently, the rabbis in Jesus’ day often discussed this very question. How many times can you forgive the people who have damaged your life before you just can’t do that anymore?

You can just imagine how pulsating those rabbinical council meetings must have been can’t you? “Right chaps, first item on the agenda tonight; matters arising, how many times do you have to say, “Behold, thou hast done much smiting unto my camel, but, lo, that’s OK” before you can legitimately declare, “Hark, thou hast gone a bit too far this time! Verily I say unto thee that thou art not forgiven at all. My camel hath been smote asunder and yea, I have got the hump!?”

And it transpires that the rabbis eventually agreed, after much deliberation, that three times was about right. “Oh, all right, I forgive you. Oh, all right, I forgive you. Oh, all right, I forgive you.” But if you trespassed a fourth time, well, that was different. Nobody had to forgive anyone for anything after three strikes.

So when Peter comes up to Jesus in v21 and says, “Lord, how many times should I forgive someone who sins against me? As many as seven times?” he’s thinking, “This is going to sound extra holy. This will get me the Nobel Peace Prize. Nobody would ever be so gratuitously noble as to suggest seven times.” So when Jesus replies, “No, not seven times…” Peter’s thinking, “Ah, the Lord is going to say to me, ‘No, not seven times Peter. What a saintly man you are choosing the Hebrew number of complete perfection. No Peter, in the real world, I reckon three or four should be about right.” That’s what Peter thinks Jesus is going to say.

So what a shock when Jesus says, “I’m telling you Peter, not seven times, but seventy seven times (or seventy times seven).” In other words, “No counting, Peter; just go on forgiving anyone who wrongs you, and who is truly sorry and repentant, however many times it happens.”

And I love to picture Peter’s stunned face; his mouth open, his lips moving slightly trying to find words that don’t come, his blinking eyes searching for some kind of sign on Jesus’ face this is all a joke… But no Jesus just stands there and looks him in the eye. Peter clearly doesn’t have all the lights on upstairs. “So Jesus says, “Look, it’s like a king who had to settle his accounts with his subjects...”

Well, you know the story. A man owes a lot of money. How much? Ten thousand talents. As the footnote in your Bible says, just one talent was worth about 20 years’ wages for a casual labourer… Twenty years’ pay! That’s one talent. This man owes 10,000. If the average wage in Britain is about £20,000 a year, which is what I’m told it is, then the equivalent sum to the one Jesus gave in this story, for us, would be about £200 million. In Jesus’ day, according to Michael Green, this sum was equivalent to ten thousand times the annual revenue of Galilee, Judea, Samaria and Idumea put together. Just paying the interest would ruin anyone but the super rich.

We think it’s bad being in debt today – and it is. But in that society, debt was devastating. Any lender who was not getting his money back could seize the borrower and sell him into slavery or force him and his family to work night nad day until the debt was paid off. Or he could lock him up in jail and sell off his land or even force relatives to pay off the sums owed. That explains v25; “Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.”

So the man goes to the king, with his heart in his mouth. You know what it’s like when you know it’s going to be “no,” but nothing ventured, nothing gained eh?

(I once made an offer for a Renault Espace that was being advertised for 15,000€. I only had 6,000€. So I made the offer hoping the seller would be totally stupid or desperate. “Look,” I said. “I really like the car. I’m really interested. Have you had much interest yet? No? Good. I’d like to make you an offer. I can’t quite match the asking price of 15 grand, but I’m happy to offer, well, 6 thousand.” Now, I thought the seller would refuse point blank… And actually he did).

But this guy, like me with that car, what has he got to lose? The money lender can only say “no” can’t he? “Look,” he says, “just give me a bit more time and I’ll… I don’t know, I’ll get some cash together, I could borrow a few grand from my parents, maybe sell some old stuff on eBay. I promise you, I will do everything I can to pay it all back.”

And, incredibly, the king lets him off. Moments later the shoe is on the other foot. He bumps into a colleague who owes him three months’ wages; £5,000. I’ve done the maths. The debt is one six-hundred-thousandth of the first debt.

“Give me a bit of time!”
“No, I want it now.”
“Please, just be patient, if you can just wait a couple of weeks…”
“I can’t wait. You’re going down until I get my money back.”

“Forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven also those who have sinned against us.”

The king finds out and when he does he changes his mind about the first servant. He throws him into prison and says, “You’re not getting out until you’ve paid yours.”

Then this devastating conclusion in v35; “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive a brother or sister from your heart.” That’s tough isn’t it? That’s uncompromising, teaching.

The word “forgive” in Greek, the language the New Testament was written in, literally means to let go, to release, to send away. Imagine you’re holding on to a rope attached to a boat. To describe the action of pushing the boat away and letting go of the rope you’d use the same word as the word “forgive.” You’ve got to just let go, you’ve got to release all that pent up frustration and resentment. Let it go!

I was praying with a woman once for physical healing, I can’t remember what sickness she was suffering from. As I was praying I felt the Holy Spirit urge me to ask her if she had had a difficult relationship with her sister. Straight away she stiffened up and folded her arms. All her childhood, her parents had said, “Why can’t you be more like your sister?” All those comparisons, all that humiliation, the pain of not being accepted for who she was…

She talked a bit and then I asked her if she was prepared to forgive. I told her that real freedom can only come when we leave behind our hurts and resentments that are so toxic to the soul. She said to me, “No, I can’t. It’s too much to ask. Can you pray anyway?” I said, “I’m sorry, I can’t. This is the only way through for you.”

You’ve got to let it go. Jesus let go of your sin against him. “Father, forgive them, they don’t know what they are doing.” You’ve got to leave the past in the past and refuse to hold it in the present. Jesus nailed your past to the cross – and it’s still there and your sins he remembers no more.

Colossians 3.13 says, “Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” Someone once came to me and complained about someone else in the church. “I felt really insulted by her. She really upset me. She was bang out of order. You’re the minister, sort her out.”

I said, “Debbie, did she spit in your face?” “I should hope not!”
“Did she pull a crown of thorns down on your head?”
“Did she pull your shirt off your back and give you 40 lashes?”
“Did she make you carry a cross up a hill before a baying crowd?”
“Did she crucify you between two criminals?”
“Did she put a sarcastic sign over your head and leave you to die?”

They did it to Jesus. “Forgive as the Lord forgave you.”


Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 25th October 2009

Taming The Lion (1 Peter 5.6-11)

Introduction

Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up: it knows it must run quicker than the fastest lion or it will be breakfast. Every morning, a lion wakes up: It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve. Satan is a roaring lion looking for someone to devour: when the sun comes up, we’d better be ready to run.

We’re been thinking about spiritual warfare since early September and we’re going to keep doing that until the end of November – so we’re about half way through. What ground have we covered so far? Let’s rerun the tape a bit and remind ourselves what we’ve learned. We’ve seen, as if we didn’t know it already through personal experience, that the spiritual battle is absolutely real. Spiritual warfare is as real as physical warfare.

We don’t really know the origin of the devil because we aren’t given lots of detail in the Bible where he came from. There’s a hint that he is an angel who, with many other angels, rebelled against God and are to this day, living in open revolt against him. There are a few mentions in the Old Testament of the work of the devil, but in the New Testament, as the radiance and the glory of Jesus Christ shine brightly, Satan’s activity and personality are brought into the light and are exposed, so it becomes much clearer that there is this personal force of evil that we have to contend with in the power of the Holy Spirit and under the authority of Jesus Christ.

And people say, “Oh well, of course, this is just medieval superstition. It’s like belief in fairies and goblins.” Jesus believed in the devil; he faced him, he drove out demons and he talked about Satan being thrown out of heaven like lightning.” Some people say, “Well Jesus only believed in the devil because that was just the 1st Century worldview. Everybody at that time believed in the devil.” No they didn’t. The Sadducees, who were amongst Jesus’ opponents, didn’t believe in the devil, the resurrection or anything supernatural at all, and Jesus opposed them publically.

Satan is real and he is a liar, an accuser, a deceiver, a destroyer and a tempter. The Hebrew word for Satan means “Accuser” or “Slanderer” because he slanders God’s name and reputation. That’s why people outside of the church often have such a negative view of God. They say, “Why is he so down on people enjoying themselves?” It’s a false view of God because Satan is a liar, he slanders God before people. He also accuses Christians before God. Day and night he is shouting to God about all your sins and mine. But, thank God, Jesus is our Advocate in heaven and, as Counsel for the Defence, he pleads our case and because he has paid in full the penalty for our sin, he always gets all the charges dropped.

We’re told in 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 8 that when the Lord Jesus returns he “will overthrow Satan with the breath of his mouth, by the splendour of this coming.” When Christ returns he will throw the devil into a lake of fire; a hellish inferno that will never be extinguished.

The Bible talks about war in heaven. The kingdom of God clashes and collides violently with the kingdom of darkness. One of the consequences of that for us is that, sometimes, we get caught up in it - and most of us indicated a few weeks ago that we have gone through seasons of spiritual affliction. That’s what the theatre of spiritual battle looks like.

But Satan looks also to gain subtle footholds in our attitudes and establish strongholds in our thinking through devious means. That’s what we saw last week. It’s a holy discipline for us to take authority and take our thoughts captive and make them obedient to Christ. But that is what separates spiritual giants from spiritual dwarfs. The moment that thoughts that are contrary to God’s revealed truth begin to appear spiritual giants say, “Get out of my head” and they bring their thinking back into line with God’s revelation.

Our Default Stance

What we’re going to do tonight is two things. Firstly we’re going to consider what our basic stance should look like most of the time. I’m not talking about times of particular spiritual assault - and God knows we have had some of that here in the last 18 months or so - I’m not talking about seasons of affliction or temptation or attack. I mean every day. Spiritually speaking, what should my default mode be? And secondly, we’re going to see what a lion attack looks like and learn how we ought to respond when the devil springs an ambush.

In our reading from 1 Peter 5 it says that “the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” But in the verses surrounding this statement Peter draws up a list of four qualities that God wants us to cultivate at all times. This is what our basic default stance in the Christian life should look like. He says,

1) humble yourselves, 2) cast your anxieties on God, 3) be self-controlled and 4) be alert.

What I am saying is that these are not actions to take when you come under attack, I don’t think that’s what it means. Peter goes on later to talk about how we should respond the moment the devil strikes. And we’ll come to that later.

But these four; humble yourselves, cast your anxieties on God, be self-controlled and be alert are actions to take all the time so you are ready and prepared - just in case.

Here’s a question; we know the devil opposes us at all times and all places. What do you need to do to get God to oppose you? The answer is “be proud.” Just walk around arrogantly, looking down on people - especially older people - as if you have nothing to learn, criticising what everyone else does but offering no alternative and God will resist you. He has said he will and he will. So if anyone wants to go through life opposed by God, resisted by heaven, hardly growing at all, bearing no fruit, making no impact on the world around, spiritually impotent - then the key is to cultivate a proud, haughty, arrogant attitude.

1 Peter 5.5-6 says, “You who are younger, submit yourselves to your elders. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, ‘God opposes the proud but shows favour to the humble and oppressed.’ Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.” God says the same thing in Proverbs 3.34 and James 4.6 where it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Submit yourselves, therefore, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”

Pride says “Be superior, promote yourself.” Humility says “Be unselfish, humble yourself.”

So firstly, humble yourselves. Secondly, cast your anxieties on God. Because he cares for you. This is about everyday worries; where am I going to find love, how am I going to pay off my debts and cover the bills, where am I going to get a job, how am I going to deal with an impossible colleague… or whatever. It’s hard to throw your worries and cares on God isn’t it? But consider the alternative; sleepless nights, loss of appetite, bad moods, prescription tranquilizers, comfort eating, counselling and even hair loss.

Thirdly, be of sober mind. This is all about appetites. Having a sober mind means that, by the grace of God, I’m going to think straight. I’m not going to spend money I don’t have, I’m not going to eat food I can’t burn, I’m not going to drink alcohol I can’t manage, I’m not going to visit web sites that I know will take me out of God’s will for my life and I’m not going to pass on gossip I’ve just heard. By the grace of God. As a friend of mine once said to me, “If you haven’t run into the devil lately, maybe you’re travelling in the same direction.”

And fourthly, be alert. Imagine you are on safari, your land rover has broken down in the middle of the savannah, and you’re walking through the bush, knowing there is a pride of lions on the loose somewhere in the area what would you feel like? We’ll, that’s what “be alert” means. Have your wits about you.

Satan as a Lion

The devil is a formidable and impressive adversary. The Bible presents him as an intelligent being. He is associated with tactical slyness and subtle deception. Jesus called him the father of lies (John 8.44). Satan employs several strategies. If one of them fails, he goes on to the next. He looks for weaknesses to exploit. In Matthew’s gospel Jesus says he dresses in sheep’s clothing but underneath the fancy dress he’s a hungry wolf looking to visit carnage on unsuspecting prey.

Here, in 1 Peter he is compared to a ferocious, roaring lion, on the prowl, with the stated ambition of picking off a victim to ambush, kill and sink its fangs into. So how do we fight the lions in our lives – like “lion around in bed?”

I once read a book about the lion’s hunting behaviour. They stalk their prey for hours and hours, observing the pack of buffalo or antelopes or zebras, waiting to see if one will get distracted and become slightly separated from the rest. Once a lion selects its victim it approaches silently, patiently, inch by inch, until suddenly it springs, runs, jumps, pulls its victim down and goes for jugular artery, to suffocate it as quickly as it can and stop it thrashing around in self defence. It tears off flesh and feasts on the still-warm meat. Let’s not get romantic about spiritual warfare. That ferocious, bloodthirsty, man-eating hunter is what God says our enemy is like.

Gus Mills from the African Lion Working Group studies the behaviour of these animals for a living. He notes that, like all cats, lions are strong on acceleration, but weak on stamina. They can burst into a sprint with fantastic power but they are not built to keep it up for long.

That’s why the devil will never pursue you on one particular strategy for a prolonged period. He tends to strike occasionally and with the element of surprise, but he will not persist if he sees you’re a match for him in the chase. In the reading from Luke 4, he lasted with Jesus a few minutes and then, when he saw he was no match for Jesus, the Bible says “he left him until an opportune time.”

Because lions have little staying power they have to get as close to their prey as possible before they charge and pounce. Therefore, they have to conceal themselves when they stalk their prey, and approach for a kill. They hide in long grass; they crouch and crawl low against the ground. They hunt mostly under cover of darkness at night – and especially when there is no moon or plenty of cloud cover. They have excellent eyes that see much better in the dark than we do (in fact, their vision is about eight times better than ours). They always stay upwind of the animals they stalk. They are awesome stealth machines.

That’s how Satan works. As he is a spiritual being, a fallen angel, he operates in the spiritual realm and, as such, sees a lot more than we can. There are spiritual realities all around us that we do not perceive except by a gift of discernment – but he does. He likes darkness and obscurity where things are ambiguous and vague; and he likes to conceal himself. 2 Corinthians 11.14 says he even disguises himself as an angel of light.

To catch their prey, lions have to be quick and clever. If their intended victim is some distance away at first the lions move towards them fairly rapidly. But as they get closer they slow down, hold their heads and bodies as low as they can and focus intently. If the prey looks up in their direction, the lions freeze, then inch forward as soon as the prey bends down to continue feeding or looks away. Eventually, if it is patient enough, a lion will manage to get within striking distance, which is 20-30 metres from the prey.

According to Gus Mills, when a lion runs out and begins the chase, statistically the prey actually has a better than even chance of escaping. It’s only if a particular individual fails to detect the lions in time, or if it stumbles or runs into an obstacle that the odds begin to favour the lion. So, given the odds, lions look to select a victim that is either sick or young or who has become isolated from the herd.

That is what the devil does. He is stalking even now. He is looking for sick ones. They are Christians who are undernourished from not getting enough of the milk and meat of God’s word, who are not getting stronger year on year – they’re suffering from truth decay. That’s easy pickings for a hungry lion.

He picks out the young ones. These are new Christians who aren’t yet experienced in fighting sin. I’ve known so many people who have asked Christ into their heart in a moment of excitement but who have slipped away soon afterwards. They come under pressure from their friends and families. They don’t count the cost and they don’t go the distance – their young faith devoured by Satan, the roaring lion. It’s tragic.

And then Satan goes for the ones who become isolated from the herd. These are solitary Christians, loners, who think they’re alright on their own and don’t get to church very often. They opt out or they just drift towards the edge. Satan notices and draws close to pounce.

Ending - Resist and Stand Firm

All right. Lions stalk zebras and antelopes and buffalo - and God says here that that is how Satan behaves towards us. Because he is always on the prowl we have a default stance and we know what that should look like – that is to say we know from these scriptures how we should be, as Christians, all the time.

But when the devil actually attacks God says to do two things; resist him and stand firm in the faith. What do we actually mean by attacks from the devil? Peter talks about fellow believers throughout the world going through the same kind of sufferings. This letter was written from Rome shortly after the outbreak of persecution under the Emperor Nero. Christians were already being singled out for physical maltreatment, they were being picked on in society, they were being falsely accused of cannibalism (because of the Lord’s Supper) they were having their jobs taken away, their children were being harassed at school, they were losing privileges, they were having the windows of their homes broken.

This kind of persecution is very common today right across the Communist world and certainly in the Muslim world. Some forms of discrimination have crept into legislation in the West now too – people are being disciplined for wearing crosses and being ostracised for having objections in conscience to new working practices that are contrary to God’s Law. We should be under no illusion here; the devil is behind this and he is looking for someone to devour.

Satan attacks in other ways too; false teaching in the Church, fallacious gossip and slurs, acts of vandalism, threats of legal proceedings, assaults on health and seasons of acute temptation are just some examples. And we’ve had to deal with most of the items on that list in the last 18 months. Make no mistake, we have been in a tough battle and we’re not finished yet.

This is a time to stand firm and resist the devil. This is what Jesus did when he did battle with Satan in the wilderness where he was tested. He’d just been filled with the Holy Spirit and he’d been fasting so he was spiritually prepared, but he just stood his ground and spoke out the truth of God’s word - and the devil moved on.

Resist him, standing firm in the faith. If we do, we will emerge stronger from every spiritual conflict and we will be victorious for the battle is the Lord’s. As Moses said in Exodus 14, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today… The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”


Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 18th October 2009

Your Kingdom Come (Luke 10.8-16 and 11.1-4)

Introduction

One day, a vicar was mowing the lawn in his garden when he saw a kitten climbing an apple tree and getting stuck. The poor little thing was very frightened stuck up high on a branch and it was desperate to get down, so it started to meow.

Rather that bother the Fire Brigade with a call out for such a frivolity, he decided to drive his car up to the tree and attach a rope between the branch and his bumper. By backing the car up very gently away from the tree the aim was to lower the branch sufficiently to be able to reach up and rescue the little kitten. So he fixed the rope, started his engine and began to back away from the tree, lowering the branch, when suddenly the rope snapped. It all happened so quickly. When he looked up the kitten was nowhere to be seen.

A week later he goes to visit a parishioner a few doors down the road. Just imagine his surprise when he sees the same kitten curled up on the sofa. So the vicar says, “I’m just curious, but where did you get the kitten from?” “Oh,” says the parishioner, “you wouldn’t believe me if I told you. Last week my little girl was begging me for a kitten. I didn’t really want one but I hated to disappoint her. So I said, let’s pray about it and if God wants you to have one he will answer your prayer. No sooner had we said ‘Amen’ than this little fella flies in through the window! Two miracles vicar! Firstly the answered prayer and secondly a kitten that flies!”

God does answer prayer. Sometimes in remarkable ways…

I’ve got a book of Christian cartoons at home and there’s one with a pastor praying in his office. His secretary comes in, finds him on his knees and says, “Oh good, I thought you were busy working!” In reality, most of us find prayer quite hard. If you do, don’t worry about it, it’s not you. It really is quite difficult. A former bishop of mine, Geoffrey Rowell, once said, “In the contest between prayer and work, work always wins because it’s easier.” That sounds about right to me. Prayer is much harder than work.

You know the Mission that Mother Teresa founded in Calcutta? Well apparently there was a time when the sisters and volunteers were becoming totally overrun by the demands placed on them. There were simply far more helpless mothers, half-dead old men, abandoned orphans, and sick babies than they could keep pace with. They had to turn people back. Open wounds had to be left untended until the next day, leaving them exposed to infection. Desperate children had no option but to go away and sleep in the streets.

So one day one of the novices approached Mother Teresa and said, “What are we going to do? We can no longer cope. We are sending people away. We simply do not have the resources we need. Some of the sisters are discouraged and exhausted.” Do you know how Mother Teresa replied? She said, “Then we shall have to get up in the morning one hour earlier. And we shall spend that extra hour in prayer.”

I’m glad they had Mother Teresa running that place and not me. I would have said, “Then we shall have to get up in the morning one hour earlier to fit more people in.” Because, you see, Geoffrey Rowell is right, in the contest between prayer and work, work always wins, because it’s easier.

So it’s good that when Jesus talks about praying in Matthew 6 he doesn’t say, “Oh just get on with it, it’s not rocket science.” No, he explains how to go about it. “Don’t show off using fancy words,” he says in v5, “it’s not a performance. Be yourself.” “Don’t overcomplicate it,” he says in v6. “You really need to find a private space where you can be alone with God.” “And don’t waffle on and on with long, repetitive lists,” he says in v7, “God knows what you want to say.”

We’re looking at the Lord’s Prayer over this autumn term. The Bible tells us that Jesus gave this prayer in response to the specific question by the disciples. “Lord, teach us to pray.” It’s quite a good question to ask, that. If somebody came up to you and said, “You’re a Christian aren’t you? Oh good. I was wondering, tell me, I have wanted to learn to pray for years; where do think I should start?” What would you say in reply? Would you offer a technique? Would you recommend a book? Would you be lost for words? Do you think you’d mention this prayer?

Jesus gave it to us as a model and it’s perfect. We call it the Lord’s Prayer, but actually it’s ours. “This then is how you should pray”, he said (in Matthew 6.9). And it’s really simple.

“If you want to pray, well here is the sort of thing you can pray about. You can start by praising your heavenly Father; “hallowed be your name.” You can pray that God’s rule of law will be established over the world. “Your will be done on the earth just like it is in heaven.” ‘Your will be done’ doesn’t mean, ‘You know, whatever, Lord.’ Quite the reverse. Margaret Sentamu, wife of the Archbishop of York once said, “As Christians in Uganda, during the Idi Amin regime, we continued to pray the Lord’s Prayer. But… when we prayed ‘thy will be done’ we were praying that God would intervene in this dreadful situation we found ourselves in, which lasted nearly ten years.” “Your will be done” means “let heaven invade earth.”

Then you can ask him about the things you need. There’s no need to grovel or cringe. Just ask - he’s your heavenly Father who loves you. “Give us today our daily bread.” You can pray about relationships, especially for short accounts and for a forgiving heart. “Forgive us our sins, as we also have forgiven those who have sinned against us.” Oh, and pray to resist falling into sin. “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” Or, as one child remembered it, “lead us not into Thames station but deliver us some e-mail!”

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name… But what about the third line of the prayer, the line which says, “Your kingdom come?”

The Kingdom

What does Jesus mean when he talks about the kingdom of God? When we talk about kingdoms, we normally think of a geographical entity, a political state with territory, a flag and national anthem, like the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia or the United Kingdom. (Actually, the United Kingdom is not really united at all. Ask a Scot, for example, how happy he will be cheering for England during next year’s World Cup! So the U.K. is not united and it's not a kingdom either; other than that, it's quite a good name. Our nation is, in fact, a devolved and increasingly fragmented constitutional monarchy. But the United Kingdom sounds a bit more snappy doesn’t it?

If the U.K. were a kingdom, in the strict sense of the word, it would be governed by an all-powerful monarch, and not by four elected parliaments or assemblies. Queen Elizabeth’s power is symbolic; she reigns but she doesn't rule. But in a kingdom, the sovereign has position – and power as well. The king decides. Full stop. And his people submit, never questioning. There are no elections. There is no parliament. There is no democratic debate. There is little in the way of free speech.

How would you like to live in a country like that? Not so sure? But would you change your mind if the king was always wise and fair, who made sure that no one had to beg, that the sick were given good care and that the old were given a decent life, a king who ensured, that in his kingdom, children could play safely in the streets, a king who loved his subjects so much that was willing, if necessary, to lay down his own life for them? Would you like to live in a kingdom like that?

Everything about the kingdom you live in, is dependent on the character of the king who governs it. With a good king, you have a happy kingdom and loyal subjects. When Jesus came, he said that a kingdom like that was within touching distance. You could get into it. It's not far away now. That’s why the Bible says he preached the good news of the kingdom of God. You can see why it's good news, can't you?
This kingdom, rather than being a geopolitical nation state, I define purely and simply as “wherever God’s reign and rule is exercised and embraced.”

The Kingdom that Comes

The kingdom of God happens to be what Jesus chose to speak about more than any other thing. It as his favourite subject. According to the last verse of the Acts of the Apostles, it was the main emphasis of Paul’s teaching too. “Boldly and without hindrance Paul preached the kingdom of God,” it says.

And Jesus said, that when we pray, we should say, “Your kingdom come.” What exactly do you think that means? I looked up all the references in the New Testament when the words “kingdom” and “come” occur in the same sentence (which, with a computer is fairly easy to do) and I discovered that there are three distinct meanings to that phrase.

1) Within

The first meaning is internal and personal and it comes, for example, in Luke 17.20-21. “Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, ‘the coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, nor will people say, “Here it is”, or “There it is”, because the kingdom of God is within you.’”

He said it to the Pharisees, these churchy, religious, pious men who loved dogma and ritual. “God’s rule has got to be within you,” he said. It means, “I want God’s rule of law to be the decisive factor that guides my heart.” Happy are you if Christ’s authority rules your relationships, your finances, your values, your time. It is a wonderful thing to live under God's government. It is the key to a life of blessing.

Jesus never preached the church; he preached the kingdom. You can go to church all your life and still live independently of God’s rule. Is the kingdom of God just a nebulous concept or does God reign in your heart? This is what was going on when we sang earlier, “Reign in me, sovereign Lord, reign in me. Captivate my heart, establish there your throne.” Did you mean it when you sang it?

2) Around

The second meaning of “your kingdom come” is “Let it break in all around.” This is where the powers of heaven suddenly break in confronting the darkness, with blessing and healing and deliverance from evil spirits and release from oppression and rebirth into new life. Jesus said in Matthew 12.28, “If it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.”

If I’m honest, when I pray “Your kingdom come” that is the guiding, overarching image in my mind. And this is what our second reading in Luke 10 was about, wasn’t it? “When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is set before you. Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your town we wipe from our feet as a warning to you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God has come near.’”
This is why we say, “Your kingdom come” when we pray for healing on the streets. Since July the team has prayed for nearly 350 people and we have seen numerous people healed, several lives transformed and a small number of people becoming followers of Jesus. The kingdom is coming in Stockton. May it come more!

Say, “Your kingdom come” when you pray for your friends and family who haven’t yet tasted and seen how good the Lord is. They say that the American preacher D.L. Moody made a list of 100 people, and prayed for them each day, that they would be converted. By the day he died, ninety-six had become Christians. The other four were converted at his funeral. “Your kingdom come.”

3) Everywhere

So the kingdom comes within and around. Every time we say, “Lord, your kingdom come” we mean, “have more of my heart, let your ways be my ways, bring me to a deeper repentance, have your way in my life.” We also mean, “God, do great and mighty works of power in our town and nation; heal the sick, deliver the oppressed, bring a revival of signs and wonders that the world may believe.”

The final sense of “Your kingdom come” is what Jesus meant when he said this at the last supper; “I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” In this sense it’s the future event when God’s supreme reign and rule will finally be established everywhere. One day a voice will proclaim, “the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign forever and ever.” Until then, we pray for the hastening of that day.

In his book The Pleasures of God, John Piper makes a list of all the blessings of that day. “In the kingdom” he says, “we will inherit the earth and the world, but this is secondary. In the kingdom we will judge angels, but this too is secondary.

“In the kingdom we will reign on earth with Christ and possess power over the nations; we will eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God; the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, the lion will eat straw like an ox; the little child shall play over the hole of the cobra and put his hand in the adder's den; we will beat our swords into ploughshares and our spears into pruning hooks, nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore; justice shall roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream; our bodies will be made new, and God will wipe away every tear from our eyes, and death shall be no more, neither will there be crying or pain or guilt or fear anymore; and we will sit on the very throne of the King of kings - but all these are secondary privileges of the kingdom.

“The main reward of the kingdom, the reward above all others and in all others, is that in the kingdom we will behold the glory of God and enjoy that glory with the very pleasure of God. …The great hope of all the holiest people is not only that they might see the glory of God, but that they might somehow be given a new strength to savour it with infinite satisfaction - not the partial delights of this world, but if possible, with the very infinite delight of God himself.

“Surely this is the river of delights. This is the water of life that wells up to eternal life and satisfies forever.”

O God, let your kingdom come…

Ending

I’d better close - or we shall be here till kingdom come. I think I want to end by leading you all in a prayer that covers each of the three senses of this cry from the heart, “your kingdom come.”


Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 4th October 2009