Help My Unbelief (Mark 9.14-29)

There’s a story about an atheist who is sitting down in a restaurant and he sees a fly in his soup.
So he calls the waiter over and says, “Excuse me, but what’s this fly doing in my soup?”
The waiter looks down, sees the fly and says “I think the fly is praying, sir.”
So the atheist says “Very funny. Look, I can’t eat this. Take it back.”
And the waiter says “You see? His prayers were answered!”

What if you were an atheist and you took out insurance against acts of God? Would you still technically be an atheist?

In my work as a church leader I meet many people. Some are convinced believers, others are confirmed sceptics… but many, perhaps most, are somewhere in between.

A YouGov poll, published in The Times in 2007, surveyed people throughout the United Kingdom on their personal beliefs.

And this is what the survey found…

I am an atheist (I believe that there is no God) 16%
I believe in God 28%
I believe in “something” but I am not sure what 26%
I am an agnostic (I simply can’t know if there is a God) 9%
I would like to believe and envy those who do but can’t 5%
I don’t know 3%
I haven’t given it much thought 10%
Other 3%

This means, if the poll is accurate, that over half the population of this country consider themselves - in some sense at least – to be people of faith, either believing in God or in some kind of unspecified higher power.

I wonder which box you would tick if the market researchers asked you today?

You might have to think a little bit before answering because for many people, faith isn’t a fixed thing. I meet plenty of people for whom belief in God almost depends on what side of bed they got out of that morning; it swells and recedes, like the tides.

Actually, I seem to be meeting more and more people who drifted away from God earlier in life, but having stopped to think about the path they've taken, have recently turned back to God again.

I wonder why this is… Perhaps one reason why some turn back to Christ a little later in life is because they realise how empty their life has become.

One person told me recently that this was the case for him. He said that life without something – or Someone – to believe in just led to a sense of restlessness and boredom and emptiness.

In fact, it was a Christian funeral, with its clear focus on the resurrection to eternal life, that made him think about the significance of his life and the doubts he had about his eternal destiny.

If you find yourself on this path, you might find that, in some ways, you can relate to this morning’s Bible reading.

In the account found in Mark’s gospel we find Jesus’ 12 disciples in a town surrounded by a crowd which includes mischief-makers and cynics. We know that because v14 says that certain elements were picking a quarrel presumably trying to show everyone how ineffective the disciples were.

Unfortunately, it seems that wherever you find religion you get arguments and this was no exception.

These days, I often hear argumentative people say provocative things like “We need to get rid of faith. Most wars are caused by religion. God is a delusion. Faith, if you’re ignorant enough to have it, should be a private matter and has no place in the public sphere. And the latest one - teaching children about God is child abuse.”

And, because those who say things like this tend to speak confidently and loudly, many people have the impression that Christianity is weak and dying. In actual fact, globally, the church is actually growing.

It is here. Saint Mary’s has practically doubled in attendance in the four years I have been here – something for which I take little credit personally by the way. There is a buzz here. Things are happening.

But, while global Christianity is as vibrant as ever, formal religion (the man-made decrees, the irrelevant rituals and the pompous regalia) is dying. It has no future. It turns people off. The world has changed. All that churchy otherworldliness makes less and less sense to people now.

The truth is that formal religion never was the answer to the world’s questions – only now everybody knows it isn’t the answer.

But formal religion is not what Jesus came to bring. And when people encounter the grace and life that Jesus came to bring – that’s a different matter altogether. Then everything changes.

In our Bible narrative, we read about a serious spiritual problem that no one knows how to cope with.

As a church leader, from time to time I get desperate requests to go and investigate and deal with some kind of paranormal complaint.

Usually it’s a house in which there are strange goings on such as lights coming on all by themselves or objects that are inexplicably moved overnight. Several times I have been asked to see individuals who have become disturbed having dabbled with something evil like the occult.

I have come to learn that this kind of think is utterly real. What we read about in the Gospel earlier seems to be a particularly disturbing incident of this kind.

Try to think of a situation in your life, something dear to you, that seems to be utterly hopeless…

Here, there is a father agonising over his son. He is stricken with sorrow by the pain he sees him endure. There appears to be no hope and no relief. The disciples attempt to sort it all out, giving it their very best shot, but they are out of their depth and basically, whatever they’re doing it’s not working. You know that helpless feeling, when nothing’s working?

But the Bible says that when the people see Jesus, everyone is overwhelmed with wonder. There is something about Jesus that just sets him apart from everyone else.

Remember that this is a situation of conflict. Jesus transcends futile quarrels about religion. But when we encounter Jesus everything is possible.

Someone (not from round here by the way) whose marriage is in tatters said to me a few weeks ago “Why doesn’t God just sort out this mess I’m in?” I didn't say much in reply. But I reflected on that question afterwards.

We sometimes imagine that God should come and sort our lives out. But that is the wrong way round. In our reading, Jesus says “Bring the boy to me.”

He wants us to come to him.

“If you can do anything, then please help us” says the boy’s father to Jesus.

Jesus replies “What do you mean if?” Everything is possible for the one who believes.” And you can see that the man is torn. I do have faith but…

How would he answer that YouGov poll?

Probably somewhere between “I believe in God” and “I believe in something but I am not sure what.”

So he says, “I do believe. Help me overcome my unbelief.”

How much faith do you need? The truth is that we don’t always have faith like we feel we ought to have do we?

How much did the man have? Not much. It was faltering. “I believe. Help me overcome my unbelief.” But that is enough for Jesus to work with.

He was honest and he was open to grow. I invite you - in fact, I challenge you - to come to Jesus Christ with an open heart and mind and with the faith you have. 

The key to this passage is this: Jesus was prepared to go with the little faith this man had – not the great faith he didn't have. Everything… is possible… for one who believes.

So where to you place yourself in the YouGov poll? If you’re among the 56% who can’t say they definitely believe in God and yet don’t call themselves atheist either, our reading suggests that’s a good basis for coming to Jesus, ready to grow.

If you do find yourself today on the path that leads back to God, please don't shut him out any longer. Remember that God loves you, and Christ died for you. Don't let anything keep you from Him.

Sermon preached at Saint Mary's Long Newton, 30th September 2012

Water from the Rock (Numbers 20.1-13)

Introduction

We live in a changing world. You would agree with that statement I’m sure. The evangelist J. John sums it up very memorably: “If you were born before the war a ‘big mac’ was an oversized raincoat, ‘crumpet’ was what you had for tea, a ‘stud’ was something you fastened to your wrist, ‘going all the way’ meant staying on the bus until it reached the depot, smoking a ‘joint’ only meant burning the Sunday roast and ‘grass’ was something you cut with a lawnmower. Change is inevitable,” he concluded, “except from a vending machine.”

Change is not only inevitable – it is also healthy. Someone once said that politicians and nappies have one thing in common. They should both be changed regularly - and for the same reason.

We’re going to be looking together this morning at the changes that come about after 37 years, not 67, which is the time that has now elapsed since the end of World War II.

But first, I just want to set the teaching we’ve been doing in Numbers in the context of the whole book.

If you’ve read through Numbers as we’ve gone through our series you’ll have noticed that we have only focused on selected passages. Why is that?

Well, you can divide the book of Numbers into three main sections or headings if you like; census records, legislation and historical narrative.

We’ve only really looked the third of those three, the stories, so I want to say a little about the other two as we approach the end of our series.

The Censuses

The reason why the book of Numbers is called the book of Numbers is because it contains several censuses, in particular one at the beginning and one at the end. In each case, it is not an exhaustive population count; it is a military census, listing only men in their prime, able to fight.

You may have come across these long lists and wondered why on earth the Bible contains such, let’s be honest, monotonous data. Well, it’s the word of God too and there’s a reason for it.

It tells you that the stories in Numbers are authentic and describe what really happened to actual people. Surely no one inventing a story about a national exodus from Egypt would bother to make up pages and pages of names for all those people.

Interestingly, the sum total of men counted at the end is about 1,800 men fewer than at the beginning – that tells you something. It tells you that God wasn’t blessing them during those 40 years in the desert and we’ve been discovering why. Basically, in a word, it’s a matter of obedience.

By the same token, you can look around the world today and see where God is blessing his people - and where he isn’t. There is tremendous church growth in Africa, in parts of Asia (especially China, South Korea and more recently in Cambodia), and in South America (notably in Brazil and Argentina).

But, generally, we have to say that God is not blessing his people in Europe or North America where church growth has either plateaued or is now in decline.

Revivals and regressions are cycles that always accompany God’s people. They did in Old Testament times as well – with golden eras under good kings like David and dark ages under wicked kings like Manasseh.

In 18th Century Britain there was great decadence and godlessness. Churches were empty and nominalism was common. Then the Wesley revival transformed the spiritual landscape once again. Obedience is a key issue and one we’re going to look at in depth this morning.

Interestingly, a new book by David Goodhew at Cranmer Hall has noted that the church in the UK is in decline everywhere – except London, where the trends have been reversed and God is starting a new thing.

G. K. Chesterton once said “Five times the church went to the dogs and each time it was the dog who died.”

Let’s pray that God exports that blessing and growth in London wider afield in our nation. So that’s the statistics.

Legislation

The second main heading in Numbers is legislation; God’s laws, which you find interspersed between sections of narrative, or story.

They are commandments, not comments, from God. J. John (again) always says that “The Ten Commandments, God’s top ten, are not obsolete, there are absolute.” But there are not just 10 Commandments, there are 613, and many of them are found in the book of Numbers.

The question we have to ask is “Are these laws relevant to us? “Are all these laws relevant to our lives, under the New Covenant of grace?”

The answer to that question is yes… and no.

The laws tell you what God likes. And God does not change. He is the same yesterday, today and forever.

Many of the laws concern sacrifices. Because Jesus shed his blood on the cross he fulfilled all sacrifices forever. You don’t need to bring a lamb or a goat so it can be slain on an altar on a Sunday morning. Jesus’ offering of himself is perfect, sufficient and final.

But you do need to bring a sacrifice. “Through Jesus,” says Hebrews 13, “let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise - the fruit of lips that openly profess his name.”

You do need to come to this place with reverent fear. It’s in the New Testament, not the Old, that it says “let us… worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.”

Many of the laws are about being careful to come into God’s presence, not casually, but cleansed and ready. They had to wear clean linen, they had to wash thoroughly and so on. Now, the precise stipulations are not important – but God does expect you to come to church prepared.

1 Corinthians 14 says “When you come together, each of you has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. Everything must be done so that the church may be built up.”

Many of the laws were given so that God’s people would be distinctive from the pagan nations around them. Take, for example the commandment that says “You shall not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.” That one law has given rise to centuries of meticulous kitchen arrangements in Jewish households.

There is a passionate debate about how long you must wait between consuming meat and dairy courses and what to do about meat stuck between the teeth that might not degrade for several hours and that could conceivably come into contact with dairy products later.

You have to admire their enthusiasm for the observance of God’s word in such minute detail, but it misses the point entirely.

That law was given to set God’s people apart from a known pagan superstition, in which young goats were cooked in their mothers’ milk because it was believed to increase the fertility of the herd.

God was saying “I don’t want superstition, I don’t want fertility rites, I don’t want you to be like them – you are to be different, you are to be holy.

Now, again, under the New Covenant we don’t need to fuss about with elaborate kitchen arrangements – but we do need to stand apart from superstition and not mix our faith in Christ with other religions.

So much then for the censuses and the legislation; we’ve concentrated mostly on the narrative so let’s get back to that now.

37 Years On – Still Grumbling

I’d like you to think back in time a little bit. The story in Numbers 20 finds God’s people 37 years on from where we found them last Sunday morning. 37 years.

I want you to think back 37 years ago. Some of you may not have been born. Just to remind you of what life was like then, Margaret Thatcher became Conservative Party leader that year. The Birmingham Six were wrongfully sentenced to life imprisonment for an IRA bombing.

Manchester United were playing in the second tier of English football after relegation from the top flight. Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody was at the top of the charts. And I was a teenager – just – in secondary school. It’s a long time ago isn’t it?

Well, that’s the length of time that has elapsed between the sending out of the 12 spies in chapter 14 and what we read this morning; the water from the rock. The Bible is virtually silent about those 37 years of aimless wandering.

But we know this: the generation that had lived as forced labour in Egypt had almost completely died off, Miriam was one of the very last, and the new generation, virtually all under 40 years old, would soon be ready to finally enter the land of promise.

Once again they camped at Kadesh, where they were last week, the site of the reconnaissance mission that had ended in such disaster.

Moses, I’m sure, was hoping that the people were at last ready for a fresh start as they prepared to enter the land.

In fact, I’m sorry to say that this new generation were little better than their parents and grandparents had been.

Verse 2-5: “Now there was no water for the community, and the people gathered in opposition to Moses and Aaron. They quarrelled with Moses and said, ‘If only we had died when our brothers fell dead before the Lord! Why did you bring the Lord’s community into this wilderness, that we and our livestock should die here? Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to this terrible place? It has no grain or figs, grapevines or pomegranates. And there is no water to drink!’”

What’s wrong with this picture? Five things.

Party spirit. “They gathered in opposition to Moses.”

Negativity. “If only we had died.”

Faithlessness. “Why did you bring us into this wilderness?” (As if it was all Moses’ idea and God had nothing to do with it).

Finger pointing. “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to this terrible place?”

And, once again, grumbling. “No grain, no figs, no grapes, no pomegranates, no water.”

I said it last week; every time we grumble we are basically saying that we think God is doing a rubbish job of running the universe.

A dentist’s patient had to have a tooth extracted. After it was over, he went to reception and got the bill; £166 + VAT. So he started grumbling and complaining about the charge. “£200 for pulling out a tooth! It’s only about a minute’s work.”
“Well,” said the receptionist, “if you prefer, I’ll ask Doctor White to pull it out slowly next time!”

I bet that’s what Moses felt like – pulling teeth slowly. 40 years of daily provision, now within touching distance of the Promised Land, and they’re still moaning.

After all that time wandering about in the wilderness, maybe the Israelites forgot that their wanderings were a direct consequence of their parents’ own sin.

They couldn’t accept the fact that they, as a community, brought their own problems upon themselves, so they blamed Moses.

It’s human nature to blame the leader when things go wrong – even when we know deep down that our difficulties are our own fault.

Sometimes bad things happen to good people. Sometimes the righteous suffer and the wicked prosper. But often our troubles and tribulations come from our own disobedience and lack of faith.

We can ask God why he allows what he allows (there’s plenty of that in the Psalms). But we cannot blame God or anyone else for our sins. And until we accept our own responsibilities we will have little peace and no spiritual growth.

The American author and Christian leader John Ortberg was once part of a survey on spiritual formation. Thousands of people were asked when they had grown most spiritually, and what contributed to their growth.

The response was humbling. The survey found that the main contributor to spiritual growth was not transformational teaching. It was not being part of a small group. It was not reading deep theological books. It was not energetic worship experiences, nor finding meaningful ways to serve.

The surprising conclusion was that suffering was the key to spiritual growth. Respondents noticed that they grew more during times of loss, pain and crisis than at any other time. And I would certainly have to agree with that from personal experience.

All right, the Israelites were wrong about all their complaining and unbelief.

But perhaps one of the reasons why God allow us to go through so much is that he wants to see depth and strength and maturity and spiritual growth in us.

Maybe at All Saints’ we need to work out how to create more pain per member for maximum spiritual growth! Or perhaps not…

40 Years On – No Water Again

We’re 37 years on from the spies’ mission, but we’re 40 years on from the first time God gave water from a rock. In Exodus 17 there’s a similar event.

In both accounts, the people grumble and dispute with Moses and in both accounts the place is renamed Meribah to commemorate that quarrel. So people have naturally concluded that the same story has been told twice.

But there are differences which show that they are in fact separate incidents. The first time the place in which the miracle occurred was called Rephidim; this time it was about 150 miles north-east of there, in a place called Kadesh.

The first time God said to Moses to strike the rock with is staff; this time (v8) he told Moses to speak to it.

“Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water.”

Verse 11 says “Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank.”

But in v12 there’s a late and perhaps surprising twist. “The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, ‘Because you did not trust in me enough to honour me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them.’”

Isn’t that a bit harsh? Isn’t that a bit like getting a red card and penalty for an accidental handball?!

All the way through Numbers it’s the people who have been like a nappy that needs changing while Moses has been an exemplary leader. Now he’s like a politician who is soon to be voted out of office.

There are four things wrong with it – and these four things are a danger for any leader.

First of all, it shows Moses’ lack of faith. That is the specific charge that God makes against it. “Because you did not trust in me enough…” Leaders in the church need to be men and women of faith who trust in the sufficiency of God’s word.

Lack of faith leads to disobedience. God tells Moses to do something that doesn’t sound reasonable to him; speak to the rock to get water out of it.

So he decides “no, that won’t work” so he does something instead that he thinks is much wiser, such as hitting the rock with his staff. Leaders in the church need to be men and women of obedience take God at his word and act consistently with it.

At the root of Moses’ action is laziness. He just mechanically expected God to act in the same way as he had before in Exodus 17. He’s become stale and is going through the motions.

He never noticed that God wanted to reveal his power in a new way. Leaders in the church need to be men and women of freshness who refuse to just trot out the same old methods that worked before.

Finally, Moses had developed an arrogant and self-important attitude. In v10 instead of saying “God will bring water out of this rock for you.” he says “Listen, you rebels, must we (Aaron and I) bring you water out of this rock?”

Moses had forgotten God and was taking control. He assumed the place of God and it was all about him. Leaders in the church need to be men and women of humility who inspire and give God the glory for success but don’t control.

Ending

That’s a tall order! But God sets high standards.

He wants a carefully prepared sacrifice of praise from his people, not a thoughtless going through the motions that costs us nothing.

He wants leadership with integrity and faith, not unbelief and self-importance.

So, as we begin this new academic year, those of us who are leaders (small group leaders, preachers, lunch club, children’s and youth leaders, PCC members…) let’s commit to being leaders of faith and integrity. Would you stand please if you are a leader.

And let’s commit to giving God the absolute best in worship. If you feel God has challenged you about that today I’m going to ask you to stand as well.


Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 9th September 2012

The Wholehearted and the Fainthearted (Numbers 14.1-25)

Introduction

Three boy scouts are telling their Scoutmaster about their good deed for the day. “We helped an old lady across the street on our way here.”
The scoutmaster looks at them a bit suspiciously.
“And did it actually take all three of you to do that?”
“Yes, it did” they all reply. Then the smallest one adds, “To be honest, it wasn’t easy - she didn’t really want to go!”

The Israelites in Numbers 14, like that poor old lady, didn’t really want to go either.

Just to rewind the tape a bit, in case you’ve been away over the summer, we’ve been going through the Book of Numbers, which describes the journey of the Israelites from slavery and oppression in Egypt to freedom and blessing in he Promised Land. It should have taken them about three weeks. It took them 40 years - so if you think Virgin trains are unreliable…

Sometimes people think this is ancient history and it doesn’t really have much to say to us today.

But this particular episode of history is referred to in the New Testament, in 1 Corinthians 10, where it says “God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. Now these things occurred as examples [and warnings] to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did.”

That’s why it’s so important to read and study history; if you don’t learn from it, you're condemned to repeat it.

Up until this point, basically God has been doing a lot of liberating and no small amount of providing – and the Israelites have been doing much moaning and copious complaining.

As they say in Yorkshire, “It was neither nowt nor sommat” - they were no longer in Egypt but they weren’t yet in the Promised Land.

A bit like an engagement really, you no longer quite have the independence of singleness but you don’t yet have the advantages of marriage either. Engagement is a testing time and, as I said to you last week, this time in the wilderness was a test – which most of them failed quite spectacularly.

So all the way up to chapter 14 they’ve been grumbling. They grumbled about their food, they grumbled about the lack of water, they grumbled about Moses’ leadership, they grumbled about their conditions. It says “they grumbled in their tents.” Now, if I’d been camping for as long as they had been I think I’d have been moaning and murmuring as well. I hate camping. I find it unfathomable that anyone actually spends money on camping holidays. You’d honestly have to pay me handsomely to even contemplate it.

But, even considering the Israelites haven’t been able to wash properly for two months and are having to eat off paper plates with disposable knives and forks, on a scale of 1-10, their whinging is off the scale.

Golda Meir, who, in 1969 became the fourth leader of the reborn state of Israel, once muttered that “Moses sent the children of Israel to the only piece of real estate in the Middle East that had no oil!” So even in the 20th Century there was still an echo of this complaining. Or perhaps she was smiling at the irony of it.

The truth is this: Our grumbling and moaning about our lot is really a comment on what we actually think of God. Listen, if you mutter about the weather, as I confess I did this week, you’re actually finding fault with the way God is running the universe.

And poor old Moses, all this time up to chapter 14, has been like an exasperated parent at the wheel with several hundred thousand noisy kids in the back squabbling among themselves and asking “Are we there yet?”

Last week, in chapter 13, twelve spies went on a reconnaissance mission into the Promised Land. All 12 reported back that it was a land flowing with milk and honey, just as God had promised.

But despite the fact that God also promised that they would definitely enter and take possession of it, 10 of the 12 felt that God must have got his facts wrong, that the land was unconquerable, and that entering it was, in fact, in their opinion not possible.

At the end of chapter 13 the fainthearted ten decide to share their market research with the whole community. Now, in chapter 14 (v1-4) the people give their considered response.

Rebellion against God (v1-4)

How do they take the news? Let’s say their response is… not as enthusiastic as it could have been. They raise their voices and weep aloud. They protest against their leaders. They express regret that God had ever miraculously saved them from Pharaoh’s onrushing army, when he opened up the Red Sea.

“If only we had died in Egypt!” they say. Then they say that if they try to get into the Promised Land, you know, that place that God has sworn to give them, if they try to get there they will be like lambs to the slaughter - so it would be better if they just die of thirst in the desert. And then they say they want to choose another leader and go back to Egypt and be enslaved by Pharaoh again.

I think it’s fair to say that the report was not quite everything they had hoped for!

Talk about pessimism. If there was an Olympic sport of pessimism they would imagine they would just miss out on the podium. I think they’d win the gold medal.

But I want to say that this is more than just pessimism about the future. It’s rebellion against God. The whole nation is turning its back on God and rejecting his ways.

Does that sound familiar? You can trace legislation and court rulings in the UK in my lifetime and see a similar pattern; the legalisation of abortion on demand, the promotion of Sunday trading, the repeal of the blasphemy law, the extension of licencing hours, the outlawing of wearing a cross at work, the prohibition of public prayers and soon no doubt, the introduction of so-called same-sex marriage.

However well-intentioned all this might be, it reflects a mood in our nation that wants to cut ties with our Christian heritage. “We want to go back to Egypt!” No matter that our rejection of God has coincided with a catastrophic disintegration of family life and prisons that are fuller than ever.

Now look what’s going on here in Numbers as the nation rebels against God –they listen to the ten fainthearted spies and they ignore the 2 wholehearted ones. The basic issue, the root cause if you like, is that they are giving more credit to the opinions of men than they are to the word of God.

The pressure on us to do the same is relentless. I’ve given you some examples from the statute book.

Here’s another example. We are subjected 24/7 by our media to a purely naturalistic explanation for the origins of the universe. We are told that the Big Bang must have just happened all by itself.

In an Oxford debate between two of their distinguished Professors, atheist biologist Richard Dawkins and Christian mathematician John Lennox, Dawkins admitted that he does not know what caused the origin of the universe, but that he believed that there will one day be a naturalistic explanation and that he did not need to resort to magic to explain it.

However, in the press conference after the debate Professor Dawkins responded to a question from journalist Melanie Phillips by saying that he believed that the universe could have just appeared from nothing. ‘Magic!’ she said.

So first there was nothing and then nothing caused everything that exists to come into being. That is what we are being told happened. Or alternatively, first there was nothing, and then someone caused everything to exist, as the Bible claims.

The question is, are we going to give more credit to the ideas of man than to the word of God?

Hebrews 11.3 says “By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.”

Every day we face the same choice – we either put our faith in human wisdom or we hold that God’s word is dependable and worthy of informing and guiding our thinking at every level.

Back in Numbers 14, the whole community is in open revolt against Moses and against God. In fact, they are on the point of abandoning the Lord altogether, rejecting his salvation, refusing his guidance, snubbing his promises and running back to Egypt.

We call that apostasy from the Greek “apo” meaning apart or away and “stasis” meaning to stand. You make the choice to stand apart from all that you held true, you step away from salvation. It was called shipwrecking your faith in New Testament times.

Obviously, a vessel only becomes shipwrecked when it sails too close to rocks or icebergs. Ships don’t sink in clear, deep water. When we delight in the wisdom of men whilst becoming lukewarm towards the word of God we’re navigating in shallow waters.

Standing Up in Faith (v5-9)

I said just now “the whole community was in open revolt against Moses” – in fact two men, Joshua and Caleb, who were among the 12 spies, stood out and said “No, this isn’t right.” Two positive voices against a national chorus of boos.

No wonder Winston Churchill once said, “The best argument against democracy is a five minute talk with the average voter.”

By majority vote, Caleb and Joshua were dismissed as if they were representing the Monster Raving Looney Party. But only they held on to God’s perspective and refused to be swayed by fine-sounding arguments.

“The land we passed through and explored” they say in v7-9 “is exceedingly good. If the Lord is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us. Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will devour them. Their protection is gone, but the Lord is with us. Do not be afraid of them.”

Battling Unbelief (v10-19)

But I’m afraid the people didn’t listen to them or reconsider. In fact, in v10 we are told that the whole assembly seriously contemplated stoning them to death.

Can you credit it? After experiencing the extraordinary plagues on Egypt, the miraculous deliverance through the Red Sea, fearsome signs and wonders at Sinai, a column of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, daily manna from heaven and quail till it came out of their ears – why, after seeing so much of God’s amazing power, did the Israelites stop trusting God now?

God asked the same question in v11-12.

“How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the signs I have performed among them?”

Actually, don’t we sometimes do the same thing? We trust God to take care of the smaller issues but we doubt his ability or willingness to handle the big problems, the tough decisions, the frightening situations.

Don’t stop trusting God just as you are ready to reach your goal. Has he, or has he not, brought you this far? Are you, or are you not, still in one piece? Has he, or has he not, blessed you in your life?

Bottom line; you can trust God for the future because he has already shown you how good he is when you trusted him in the past.

Well, Moses goes off and pours all this out to God. Hearing the Lord say “I will strike them down with a plague and destroy them…” just pushes Moses to cry out for God’s mercy in one of his great intercessory prayers (v13-19).

“If you destroy this people the Egyptians will hear about it. Think of your reputation, think of your honour, your renown, the stain on your good name Lord! People are going to go around saying ‘The Lord was not able to bring these people into the land he promised them on oath.’ So please forgive them.”

The Glory of the Lord (v10)

And the Bible says this; “The glory of the Lord appeared at the tent of meeting to all the Israelites.”

I was reading a book by Canon Andrew White this summer. Andrew is the vicar of Baghdad, a ministry he exercises with a price on his head - you may have seen him on TV. And he witnesses appalling suffering. He once baptized, in secret, a Muslim family who had come to faith in Christ. He said to them “You know the risks don’t you?” They said “Yes. But we cannot deny Jesus.” Within a week news of their conversion had leaked and all were shot and killed.

In one particularly bad year, most of Andrew White’s staff team were assassinated. But the people of Saint George’s Bagdad often see the cloud of the Lord’s glory. Here are a couple of pictures taken when it appeared; the first is at a large funeral when many Christians were killed in a suicide bomb in a nearby Catholic church.

Moses saw this often, Solomon saw it when he dedicated the temple, Ezekiel saw it, Isaiah saw it.

But even with the manifestation of the Lord’s glory among them, I’m afraid their hearts were hard.

In John’s gospel, in the chapter when Jesus walks on water and feeds the 5,000 he says to the people “You have seen me and still you do not believe.”

I’ve seen God do extraordinary things in my time as a believer – amazing guidance, astonishing answers to prayer, incredible healings, one case of protection of a small child that Kathie and I can only attribute to angels and several startlingly accurate prophecies that revealed detailed information that can only have been divinely inspired… many of you have similar testimonies – and yet we find ourselves doubting God’s power when it comes to the crunch.

The Outcome (v20-25)

Anyway, because of Moses’ prayer, the Lord doesn’t wipe them out there and then. For the sake of his honour he waits till all the contemporaries of that generation die off, 40 years, before he leads them into the Promised Land. Only Joshua and Caleb and the younger generation made it. Unbelief gets you nowhere – literally in this case.

Here’s what God said about Caleb; “Because my servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he went to, and his descendants will inherit it.”

The old limerick sums it up well:

Now Joshua, son of Nun
And Caleb, son of Jephunneh
Were the only two
Who ever got through
To the land of milk and honey.

Conclusion

As I sum up, let me try and bring this down to earth.

Here at All Saints’ we are facing a challenge of faith. We have a roof to repair. Just this Thursday we were reminded of the urgency of the situation. When heavy rain fell, there were drips falling on the piano. Which is the right project to opt for? If we go for project one, a like-for-like replacement, I hope it’s because we genuinely feel, under God, that it’s the right thing to do and not because we are fainthearted when we look at the cost. If project two is the right thing to do, as God provided manna and quail from heaven and water from the rock, he will provide for the insulation.

Again, Andrew White in Baghdad; when he first went there about a decade ago, it cost $2,000 a month to run that church. Now they have a medical clinic, they give out tons of food, they provide for widows and orphans and they have to pay for security - and it costs $165,000 a month, 80 times more than ten years ago. They live by faith and every month, God provides – just enough. Canon White says in his book, “God is never late - but he rarely takes the opportunity to be early!” The difference between project 1 and project 2 is half a month’s running costs at Saint George’s Baghdad – no big deal for God.

We want to employ someone, from January, to take hold of the Sunday children’s ministry, to develop a midweek club, to expand our school assembly team, to explore Messy Church (which is specifically aimed at unchurched families) with Jan, who has a real vision for it. We feel this is right under God. That’s a step of faith as well. Are we wholehearted or fainthearted?

This week I received a newsletter from my previous church in Paris. I quote from it word for word: “Last time I wrote to you I shared news about our Thanksgiving Day. I told you that we had received around 80,000€ of the total for which we were praying for 95,000€. But God honours his promises and hears our prayers and in the next few days in a most miraculous way the money continued to flow in so we ended up with over 97,000€!”

So as I close, are you fainthearted, like the Israelites in the desert who look at the challenges in your own life and as a church and say “We’re doomed!”?

Or are you wholehearted, like Caleb and Joshua who entered the land? Do you have faith to say “With God, whatever the challenge, we can certainly do it!”?


Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 2nd September 2012