Batman, Superman, Spiderman, Catwoman, Flash Gordon and the Incredibles - what have they got in common?
Apart from the fact that they all, without exception, wear their pants outside their tights, they’re all superheroes. Thankfully you don’t have to wear your Calvin Klein’s over your trousers to be a hero.
The role of a hero is to surpass human limits, especially physically.
If you went up and down the streets of Stockton with a microphone asking people to tell you what their idea of a hero is most people would talk about the armed forces. But for all their bravery and courage I suspect most people would say they feel our country is more vulnerable to terrorism than 10 years ago (before 9/11). You might get some who’ll talk about Winston Churchill. But would that be the cigar-puffing victor of World War II or the loser of the 1945 General Election? Still others will sing the praises of Wayne Rooney or John Terry. But they come in two versions as well; back page version or front page version. In the end, all our heroes often disappoint us.
The Bible is full of heroes and the letter to the Hebrews, chapter 11, contains a long list of them. Listen to these daring acts; “They conquered kingdoms … they shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; their weakness was turned to strength; and they became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. Women received back their dead, raised to life again.”
And in this list, in v32, we find Samson. Samson was the hero who shut the mouths of lions and who was filled with mighty strength, even though he was weak.
Samson, in fact, didn’t look like superman at all. Don’t believe it when you open an illustrated Bible and see a picture of Samson looking like the Incredible Hulk. He didn’t. If Samson had the physique of Mr. Universe why did Delilah say to him in chapter 16, “Samson, what is the secret of your amazing strength?” I
She asked that question because Samson was a bit of a weed physically. He must have looked a bit of a loser. The secret of his mighty strength was not his rippling biceps, or his washboard stomach and six-pack but in the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
God usually calls people who are (humanly speaking) unfit for service to be his heroes.
When God wanted a personal spokesman and envoy to the world’s most powerful man he took Moses who had a bad st-st-stutter.
When he wanted a fearless prophet for Israel’s darkest days he took Jeremiah, a boy who had barely broken his voice, was a sensitive introvert and who wept - a lot.
When he wanted a champion to take on Goliath, a giant warrior armed to the teeth, he took a shepherd boy David and gave him an elastic band and five stones.
Don’t be intimidated by the size of the problems you face. God will use you just as you are. That’s all he needs. God uses ordinary people to do extraordinary things. Never say, “Oh, I could never do that.” You can! In the strength that God gives…
Gideon and Samson – Calling and Character
During May and June we looked at the life of Gideon. And we made two important discoveries. First of all that God is a God who calls. And secondly, God doesn’t always call the equipped, but he does equip those he calls. He provides everything necessary to meet the challenges of his calling. Always. No exceptions. 2 Corinthians 9.8 says, in the context of the call to a ministry of generosity, “God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.”
And the story of Gideon showed us how God can empower you to overcome your fears, to face up to your doubts, to grow in faith and authority, to trust in God when your life falls apart. Yes, when life falls apart. Because a call from God doesn’t mean a trouble-free life, it’s the opposite.
If someone ever says to you, and you sometimes hear this in church, “One day I became a Christian and then all my problems went away,” don’t believe it.
They’re either exaggerating, or lying or just haven’t been a Christian very long. Normally, when you become a Christian there is a period of euphoria and inexpressible joy, followed by challenges and setbacks and humiliations and suffering and indignity - but God is bigger than all that. The adventures of Gideon are extremely enlightening for us in that respect.
Samson too, like Gideon, was called by the Lord for a particular mission. In v5 of our reading tonight God says about Samson, “He will begin to deliver Israel from the hands of the Philistines.” His precise calling was announced even before he was born, before he had done anything at all, good or bad.
When you read Romans 9-11 you understand better this notion of God’s sovereignty. God knew that he was going to send Jesus to save people from their sins before the foundation of the universe. God has a purpose for your life too. It was established before you were born, before you were conceived. Before the creation of the world God already had a destiny for your life. So step forward in confidence! Pursue the Lord with all your strength, because he has already mapped out a future for you.
But the story of Samson is not really about calling. It’s about character, which is just as important if you are going to fulfil the purposes of God for your life. Samson was filled with the Holy Spirit in an amazing and unique way. The anointing of God on that man was particularly strong and powerful.
If Samson was around today he’d have his own show on God TV. He would be a star of the charismatic world. Samson would impress everybody. He’d have his own website; samsonmininistriesinternational.com. He’d be on stage at New Wine and Soul Survivor and Spring Harvest.
But tragically, Samson never fulfilled his potential. For all his Holy Spirit anointing Samson never had the stability or the gravitas of a real man of God and he wasted his life.
I say this with great sadness - and I’ve seen it time and time again in 20 years as a church leader; you can have amazing manifestations and incredible gifts, you can have charisma in spades, you can heal the sick and drive out demons, you can wow everybody around you with fantastic signs and wonders from heaven.
But if you aren’t showing the fruit of the Spirit; love, patience, goodness, gentleness, self-control, if you spend your life running after the next charismatic sensation instead, you will never build anything solid in the kingdom of God.
Let’s get this straight! God calls and God equips in unique ways, but the God’s desire for each one of us to grow up into maturity. And that is fundamental for a healthy spiritual life.
One of the great mysteries of life, for me, is that God doesn’t necessarily give the anointing of the Spirit for ministry to the most mature people.
Life would be less complicated if he did. And when I get to heaven I’m going to ask God “Why did you sometimes give the most powerful gifting to people who were unaccountable, unteachable, proud and self-absorbed?” Samson was the pick of the bunch; ungrateful, self-obsessed, sexually loose and excessively violent. And anointed by God!
The calling of God on his life (to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines) was, in the end, fulfilled - because God is faithful. But Samson’s death was even more tragic than his life. He died a pathetic hero, humiliated, blinded and tormented by the regrets of a wasted life.
Lanny Bassham, was gold-medallist in the Montreal Olympics in the small-bore rifle competition. And he once said this: “Our sport is controlled non-movement. We are shooting from 50 meters - over half a football field - at a bull’s eye the size of a small coin. If the angle of error at the point of the barrel is more than 0.005 of a millimetre (that is five one-thousandths), you drop into the next circle and lose a point. So we have to learn how to make everything stop. I stop my breathing. I stop my digestion by not eating for 12 hours before the competition. I train by running to keep my pulse around 60, so I have a full second between beats. You do all of this and you have the technical control. Then you have the other 80% of the problems - the mind.”
If we’re going to avoid ending up like Samson, wasted talent, we’re going to have to cultivate the attitude of a winner and learn to hate the excesses of Samson’s life.
His Parents – a Few Problems
In chapter 13 of Judges we get to meet the parents, Manoah and his wife. What does the Bible say to us about these two people? They were an ordinary couple. They had their cares and worries like everyone else: their people suffered under the oppression of the Philistines, a situation which had lasted 40 years already. Moses had warned the Israelites, in Numbers 33.55, that the Philistines would be “thorns in your side”. It’s a warning that God repeated word for word in Judges 2.3. When God repeats himself he has something important to say.
These Philistines were a serious enemy, constantly raiding the foothills from the coastal plain. Isaiah 2.6 speaks of their pagan divination; they were a people steeped in the occult. They settled on what we now call the Gaza strip - and they’re still there. And they’re still a thorn in the side of Jews today. In Samson’s time they were called ‘Philistines’, today they are called ‘Palestinians’ and many historians think they are their direct descendants. The more it changes the more it’s the same thing. The problems we hear about in 2010; kidnapped journalists and suicide bombers, could have been settled a thousand years before Christ if Samson had fully subdued the Philistines. Unfortunately he couldn’t even subdue his own passions.
But politics was the last thing Manoah and his wife were bothered about. Their greatest grief was that they couldn’t have a child. For years they waited, for years they tried. Years of visits to the doctor, years of praying, years of hopes, of doubt and finally of disappointment.
I think not being able to have children is a particularly painful affliction. In my own life, my most bitter tears, my most uncontrollable sobbing, have come at times of miscarriage. So I guess Manoah and his wife must have cried together, they must have shouted at the stars at night, “Why us?” Now this couple is already past the stage where they are inconsolable. Now they are simply resigned. There’s nothing they can do. They are totally powerless. And it’s then that God acts.
Maybe there are some amongst us this evening who are waiting on God for a breakthrough. For years, you have prayed for something and nothing has happened. What’s your thing? Spiritual barrenness, an insolvable impasse at work, a problem in the family, a matter of the heart, a long illness, a financial cul-de-sac… What if today was the day when at last God announced his deliverance?
Never give up hope. Even if long ago you gave up believing that God will hear your prayers, who knows if today is the day that he has ordained to act? There’s a situation in my life that looks no different than it did a decade ago. I’m still praying.
Manoah and his wife are my reminder that nothing is impossible with God. Every time I read this story I get the impression that Samson’s parents were a couple with problems. Perhaps that’s understandable. We usually find them physically apart - and the truth is surely that they were not all that happy together. They had issues with communication and trust.
In v10, she tells the old man that the angel has come back, but he doesn’t trust what she says. Why doesn’t he just take her word for it? In v11 he has to ask, “Are you the one who spoke to my wife the other day?” She’s just told him that. How to make your wife feel devalued, lesson number one; never take what she says seriously. And it seems that Manoah is well instructed in lesson number two as well. In v12 he asks the angel what he’s supposed to do about this son who is going to be born. And the angel replies a bit coldly that if he’d listened to his wife in the first place he wouldn’t need to ask that question. “I’ve already told her” he says, twice. How to make your wife feel devalued, lesson number two; verify everything she says with independent sources.
It’s so real, all this. Deep unhappiness in most couples traces its origin to small niggles like this. Frustration leads to bickering and scoring points - we’ve all seen couples like this and it’s horrible. It’s embarrassing. Tragic divorces often start with misunderstandings, inadequate communication, repressed anger, disagreement which is swept under the rug and lack of forgiveness. It’s true for couples and it’s true for all relationships. Maybe tonight the Holy Spirit is putting his finger on something you need to put right with somebody else. God heals broken lives and strained relationships.
Samson Himself – a Promising Start
To finish, what about Samson himself? Here’s an interesting statistic: the percentage of Americans who own a pair of running shoes and who never actually do any running. It’s 87%! That’s Samson, he’s got all the equipment, all the right gear, but what for?
And the last thing I want to say is v25. “The Spirit of the Lord began to stir him.”
God’s Spirit was starting to rouse him, to fire him up, to awaken passion for the mission God had for him to do. But it’s just a beginning. And the truth is that Samson wore the trainers but never trained for anything. He never even got out of the starting blocks with God. I wonder if there are people here tonight who feel that they are at exactly the same place?
Some of us here tonight have been Christians a long time. Maybe you had a powerful experience with God which started to set you on fire spiritually, but that was a long time ago, and the fires have long since cooled. Or maybe you have a spiritual or natural gift that you never use. The Spirit of the Lord started to stir you… Remember that?
For others here, God’s renewing work in your life is not fully developed. There may be reasons for that. Like apprehension about going deeper with God. Or the presence of unresolved sin might be blocking what the Spirit has started. Or perhaps it might even be a feeling of unworthiness. Can God really use me? Yes he can.
Still others of us are young in faith. So the Holy Spirit is stirring you and it’s the fresh start of a new adventure in your life. That’s great! Do you want to let Holy Spirit have more of you?
Ending
As I close then, Philippians 1.6 says “I am confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” There’s no prize awarded for a good start. God is looking for men and women who are going to stick to the road and finish the race. So I encourage you tonight to invite the Holy Spirit to relight the flame he has placed in you.
We’re going to give you an opportunity to do that in a moment. If you know God is speaking to you tonight about responding in faith to his call or if you want to seriously grow in godliness and Christian character –
Or if you, like Samson’s parents, are disappointed with God and are waiting on an answer to your prayer or if you’ve have let a relationship stagnate and go cold and you want that to change.
Or maybe, like Samson, you’ve only known the Spirit start to stir you - I believe God will bless and honour the step of faith and humility it will be for you to stand and ask for that.
Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 3rd October 2010
No comments:
Post a Comment