Spiritual Fitness: Fasting (Matthew 6.16-18 and Isaiah 58.1-9)

Introduction

Back in the 80’s I noticed a book in a Christian bookstore on aerobics. Judging by the cover, which featured a very attractive blonde sylph in a leotard, the book was targeting Christian women who wanted to keep in good shape and it was called... wait for it, ‘Slim for Him.’ The book deserved to flop massively on the basis of the cheesy title alone, but in actual fact keeping our bodies fit is (if you’ll forgive the pun) a theme that runs through the New Testament. Here’s the thing: just as my body needs a balanced diet, adequate rest, sufficient sleep and regular exercise, my soul needs to feed healthily, to be renewed and to work out as well. What are the kind of fitness exercises that get you in good shape spiritually? It’s what we’ve been looking at over the next few weeks in this run up to Easter we call Lent.

Today, the theme is fasting so let me share with you one of my favourite limericks on that very subject. It goes like this.

There was a young nun from Siberia
Who, of fasting, grew wearier and wearier.
Till one day with a yell, she burst from her cell,
And devoured the Mother Superior.

The Physical Effects of Fasting

In keeping with the experience of my poor, famished nun, I want to say straight away that fasting, in itself, is not particularly popular because it is not all that enjoyable. When I fast, I am not in the habit of shouting out as I wake up; “Oh praise the Lord, I’m not going to eat anything today. Therefore my stomach will rumble uncomfortably and before lunchtime my breath will smell like a dog’s. Halleluiah!” I’ve never been led to fast more than two days at a time, but I’m reliably told that the first 48 hours are usually the most difficult.

Speaking personally, it’s not all that bad in my experience. When I do fast it’s usually to seek specific guidance, or to pray for a situation that requires a miracle and also at times of spiritual frustration and desert when I need to break through to a fresh experience of God. I don’t find the physical aspect of it especially uncomfortable. It’s different for others. Apart from getting hungry; your body starts to rid itself of toxins which is why you get bad breath and you feel physically weak, even slightly dizzy. On top of that you can get mild headaches - especially if you usually drink a lot of caffeine. I’m told, however, that once you get to day 6 or 7, your mind is alert, your concentration is sharp, you have hardly any hunger pangs, you feel strong spiritually and good physically.

Different Types of Fasting

Some people observe a complete fast by refusing all food and all drink for a certain time – perhaps a day or often much longer. Jesus’ 40 day fast in the desert was of this nature. Others fast by forgoing just one meal. Still others do a partial fast, either by allowing themselves liquids, or by dramatically simplifying their diet to something as basic as a slice of bread and a cup of water. Another kind of fasting would be to forgo watching TV or to abstain from the internet or, for married couples, to pray together instead of having sex; Paul talks about that in 1 Corinthians 7 and he basically says, make sure you both agree about it and don’t let it go on too long. Still others talk about a green fast – where you, for a period of time, go without some conveniences in order to be carbon neutral during that time. There are all sorts of ways you can fast and I want to say that green fasts and TV fasts are valid, but I see fasting primarily as a voluntary abstention, from food and drink, for the express purpose of seeking God and to bring focus and intensity in prayer.

But Why Are We Even Talking About Fasting?

But someone here might ask, “Why are we even talking about fasting? Isn’t this legalistic? Or the stuff of fanatics? What about grace? Isn’t this salvation by works? Doesn’t the Bible warn against this kind of thing?”

And there are indeed some passages which seem to strongly question the value of fasting. Listen to this, for example from Matthew 9.14-17. “Then John’s disciples came and asked Jesus, ‘How is it that we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?’ Jesus answered, ‘How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them?’”

This shows that the people who followed Jesus around evidently never fasted at all. Apart from his 40 day fast, at the beginning of his ministry, there is no evidence that Jesus ever repeated it afterwards. That was unusual in those days. In fact it was unique. So John the Baptist’s followers ask him one day, “How come we have to go hungry twice a week? How come your lot have it easy?” And Jesus replies in effect, “Well it wouldn’t be right would it? Would you go round looking miserable at a wedding? This is a time to celebrate not to mourn.” And then he says this: “The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken away; then you will fast.”

What is he saying? Some people think he’s talking about the short period of grief between his death and resurrection. Jesus will be taken away and all those who believed in him will be devastated by their affliction. They will mourn and wail - and fasting in that society was a normal expression of funereal sorrow. But when Jesus rises from the dead the fasting will end and it will be back to situation normal.

But I don’t think Jesus was talking about a brief fast after his death and there are two reasons for that. Firstly, every other time the New Testament portrays Jesus as a bridegroom it is in the context of his return in glory. Jesus is talking about his absence from us now in 2010; while he is seated in glory until he comes again, and he is saying that this is a time when fasting is appropriate. The second reason I don’t think Jesus was talking about his death here is that fasting was clearly the normal experience of the Christians in the earliest churches. Acts 13.2-3, for example, says that while the Christians at Antioch “were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’ So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.”

Therefore, for these two reasons, Jesus must have meant that fasting would be a normal experience for those who follow him - until he comes again and we sit down together at the heavenly wedding feast.

All right, but doesn’t the New Testament also warn against being excessively religious? Yes, it does. For example, 1 Timothy 4.1-5 says, “The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons... They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth. For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.” It’s because of Scriptures like that that we need some straight talk about what fasting is not.

What Fasting Is Not

I remember a pastor from Saint-Louis, Missouri called John Lanferman talking once about a fast he decided to do. He was gripped by holy frustration. He wanted to see more commitment, more power, more conversions and more growth. So he decided that God really ought to send a revival in his church. That would sort things out nicely. So he began to pray and nothing much happened. So he said to himself, “We’ve got to get serious about this” so he started fasting.

And one day in a moment of reckless zeal he said to God, “Right Lord, this is it! I’m going to go on a fast and not a crumb will pass my lips until you send an awesome revival.” A few days passed - and do you know what? No matter how hard he looked, there was no sign of revival anywhere to be seen. But no matter, he kept going, fervently praying and fasting for a new move of God to break out. A week passed, and then two weeks. Three. Nothing happened. After about three and a half weeks of serious self-denial and passionate crying out to God, absolutely zilch had changed in his church. Then John Lanferman said, “Lord, I’m starting to get a little hungry now. Are you really gonna let me die?” And in the deafening silence from heaven Lanferman felt God was saying, “Uh huh.” Then he realised the first thing that fasting isn’t; fasting isn’t a hunger strike. You can’t twist God’s arm by fasting. You can’t cajole him into getting what you want by throwing your toys out of the pram and refusing to eat. A starvation protest is not a fast.

The second thing fasting isn’t is a diet in disguise. When you need to shed a few kilos it can be tempting to spiritualise it a bit by stirring a prayer or two in with the Weight Watchers celery soup. That’s not fasting either. A diet is a diet and the object of a diet is weight loss. Fasting is fasting and the goal of fasting is to seek God’s face. In Matthew 6.16 Jesus’ problem with the Pharisees is that they were being two faced. Going down a size, looking great in a bikini again or shedding that beer gut is a legitimate reason to diet, but it is not an adequate motivation for a fast!

Thirdly, fasting is not a shortcut to spiritual greatness either. You cannot grow in maturity or the knowledge of God simply by living in austerity and abstinence. Paul talks about this in Colossians 2.23 when he writes about fussy ascetics who go round making up churchy rules to live by; don’t handle, don’t touch, don’t taste. And he says, “Such regulations have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.”

Fasting is not, in itself, spiritually effective at all. It impresses people! Jesus says as much in v16: “When you fast, do not look sombre as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.” Here’s what Jesus is saying; if your goal is to show others what you are doing and win their admiration and enjoy their praise, people will possibly think highly of you. But that’s all. And human applause is as worthless as fool’s gold. God does not look down on those who forgo their lunch and say, “Ooh, he’s fasting now, I see. Pretty impressive…!”

That’s the point of the Isaiah reading. Churchy religion and pious devotion, whilst overlooking basic fairness and making money on powerless people, stinks. Isaiah says that God takes no notice of that sort of fasting whatsoever.

“Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord? Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?”

What Fasting Is

That’s what fasting isn’t. Now look at v18. “But when you fast… your Father, who sees what is done in secret will reward you.”

In other words, Jesus says, “Do it to be seen by God. Not to be noticed by men or women. Do I really have a passion for God himself, or – deep down – do I crave human admiration more? Some people feel good about giving, praying, going to church, reading the Bible and doing acts of kindness if they know people are watching! It indulges our ego if we know that others will see our good works or find out about them and think well of us. But no! Fast to be seen by God, “and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”

What’s the reward? Quicker answers to prayer? Not necessarily. So what is the reward Jesus talks about here that is gained through fasting and prayer? Well, think back to those times in your life when you’ve been in love. Think of that special one who made your heart beat faster, and with whom you could spend hours talking about nothing without getting bored. The one you daydream about, the one whose name you doodle on the edge of the page when you’re supposed to be taking notes in class. And imagine this special person lives far away and you have to communicate by letter. And let us say that one day a letter arrives in that familiar envelope with your name written in that unique handwriting. It arrives at lunch time and instead of sitting down to eat with your mates in the canteen, you go and sit alone under a tree to open and read the love letter you just received. The sweet yearning for your loved one, the joy that bubbles up, the love you feel, when you read and reread, and reread that letter – is it any sacrifice to have missed lunch? No. That is your reward. It’s the cherishing of a loved one who is better than any worldly comfort.

That’s what biblical fasting is. It is the savouring and enjoyment of God’s holy presence as being more satisfying, more delightful, and more rewarding than any earthly thing. It is to say, “Lord, you are my portion.” It is an expression of hunger and longing and yearning for God and for God’s glory. Nothing else will do! In the Song of Solomon, it’s when the beloved says to the lover, “Your love is better than wine.” In the psalms it’s when David says “Just one day in your house, even just to hold the door open for others, is better than a thousand anywhere else.”

Lord, the pursuit of your righteousness and the splendour of your presence and the supremacy of your glory are better, much better, than any luxury. As Paul says in Philippians 3.8, “I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ.” Fasting eloquently adorns that truth. And if we don’t ever feel that way, if we never really hunger and thirst for God, maybe our love for the world is spoiling our appetite.

American pastor John Piper, in his book on fasting, puts it this way: “If you don’t feel strong desires for the manifestation of the glory of God, it is not because you have drunk deeply and are satisfied. It is because you have nibbled so long at the table of the world. Your soul is stuffed with small things, and there is no room for the great. God did not create you for this. There is an appetite for God. And it can be awakened. I invite you to turn from the dulling effects of food and the dangers of idolatry and to say with some simple fast: This much, O God, I want you.”

Here’s another thing that fasting is; it is an assault on sin in our lives. In my own experience, when I am seeking God’s face through prayer and fasting, I find that the pull of temptation and the appeal of sin are noticeably weaker. I don’t know if that is a common experience but I suspect that it is. Monks who take vows of celibacy sometimes say that fasting is a powerful weapon against lust. Jesus’ 40 day fast in the desert was a deliberate strategy to emerge victorious from the onslaught of testing he would face from Satan at the end of that time. That’s why the Spirit sent him into the wilderness; he was training for battle. Fasting makes you physically weaker but spiritually more robust.

Ending

So, as I close, let me ask some questions.

Does the world, and all its glitz, deeply satisfy your soul? Do you consider everything rubbish compared to the great prize of gaining Christ? Is the incomparable love of Christ for your soul better than wine? Do you hunger and long and yearn for God more than food? Is one day in God’s courts better by far than a thousand anywhere else?


Preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 28th February 2010

Encounters With God: Peter (Luke 5.1-11)

Introduction

I have a friend called Marc. About ten years ago Marc was Deputy Director of Acquisitions and Mergers at the huge American International bank JP Morgan in London. And it’s while he was in London that he signed up for an Alpha Course at Holy Trinity Brompton. It changed his life.

After a few years Marc left his smart executive job to become the Director of the Alpha Course in France. Now, was that a sign of folly or a proof of faith? His colleagues thought he had lost his mind. To leave behind a brilliant career in high finance to go and build up a Christian ministry in the land of Voltaire, Diderot and Jean-Paul Sartre, where the Catholic Church is in frightening decline – it’s lunacy! It’s bordering on irresponsible. It’s career suicide!

But God blessed that step of faith. Under Marc's leadership, in the first 6 years, the number of Alpha courses in that country went from 30 to 380, in all denominations and in every area of the country.

Humanly speaking, to achieve such a rate of growth, under God, Marc had to work really hard and make himself sacrificially available, taking no salary or even expenses, travelling the length and breadth of the land. That’s not easy or painless when you have a young family with three young children and a mortgage to pay.

How did that come about? Marc, like many people before him, heard the voice of the Lord say to him, “Follow me!” And he stood up to follow Jesus without looking around him or behind him. Jesus calls you too to be audacious, to stand up, to push the boundaries, and meet the challenge of making Christ known to our generation.

I want to share with you tonight a few thoughts from Luke 5.1-11…

What would happen if Jesus fed the 5,000 in Preston Park? Probably someone from Stockton Borough Council's Parks and Public Spaces Department would fine him for preparing food on unauthorised premises and distributing it to the general public without a licence! What would happen if Jesus performed this miraculous catch of fish in the Tees estuary? Probably some official from the Department of Farming and Fisheries would arrive from nowhere and arrest him for exceeding EU fishing quotas!

But there is much more going on in this passage than the miraculous catch of fish. We were looking at this on the Growing Leaders Course on Thursday. The best leaders nurture and develop other leaders. It’s here that Jesus chooses and calls the first of his 12 disciples. More than that, it’s here that he meets his inner circle of three; Simon Peter, James and John. And I think it‘s here that he decides who he’s going to invest the most time with of all the twelve; Simon Peter.

Here’s a question for you: do you think Jesus chose his disciples carelessly..? Was Jesus hasty or impulsive when he chose these men..? I don’t think so. I think he was intentional about what he did and he only took those who corresponded perfectly with the criteria he had in mind. He didn’t just round up three blokes in the street who looked like they needed a bit of physical exercise. Nor did he hire the three top students from Capernaum Bible College.

Jesus doesn’t ask for volunteers and just hope for the best. He is a head-hunter.

And here he takes on three guys (and one in particular) who meet his standards. None of these three has any pastoral experience at all. They are untrained, unqualified and inexperienced. In short, they are total novices. But Peter (especially) has five qualities that set him apart from the rest – and each characteristic comes from an encounter with Christ.

What then are the key qualities that God is looking for in those he will decide to invest in? I’ll say that again; listen carefully, please. What are the key qualities that God is looking for in those he will decide to invest in? And do you have those qualities? Jesus is recruiting. He is building his Church. He is training a team. And now, as then, he is watching for people that possess the qualities he wants – those he found in abundance in Simon Peter.

1) Be Wired for Action

First of all, Jesus was looking for three blokes who were wired for action rather than passivity. Consider the situation carefully. Jesus is speaking to a gathered crown on a shore by the lake. He is interesting, funny, he is profound and he speaks like no one else ever spoke before. He is speaking with authority. The more he speaks, the more people there are pressing in to listen. The little crowd becomes a big crowd and then, because Jesus is by the lakeside and people are pushing him closer and closer to the edge Jesus ends up in the water with waves lapping around his ankles, then his calves, then his knees…

So Jesus gets into a boat and says to Simon Peter (v3) “Could you just push me out a bit away from the shore?” Why did he do that? It was probably much easier for him to push it out himself and jump in because Simon was occupied washing his nets on the shore; getting all the seaweed off and scrubbing them clean. He was obviously busy just then. He was working. I would have left him alone, but not Jesus! Jesus didn’t hesitate to disturb him because he wanted to see if Simon was active or passive. Was he inclined to action or to idleness? Seeing the problem, Simon puts his net down, jumps to his feet and sorts the problem out.

He could have said, “Listen, can’t you see I’m busy?” He could have said, “Your crowd control thing is not my problem!” He could have said, “Why don’t you just cut your sermon short, then they’ll go away.” No. Simon is a man of action, of initiative. He’s a practical guy. He sees a problem and sets about sorting it out.

I honestly think that if Simon had just carried on scrubbing seaweed off his nets that day and said to Jesus, “I’m busy, find someone else!” we’d never have heard about him again.

Are you wired for action? Do you get up on your feet and say “Let me help, what can I do to get this job done?” Or are you content to be a spectator?

2) Be Inclined to Simple Obedience

The second quality Jesus is looking for comes in v4-5.

“When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, ‘Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.’

Simple obedience. After Jesus has finished speaking to the crowds of people he asks Simon and his companions to jump into the boat, row out into slightly deeper water and then put down their nets that they had just finished washing.

In v5 it specifically says that they had just spent a completely unproductive night on the lake. “Simon answered, ‘Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything…”

As experienced fishermen they knew that the best time to fish was at night time because it was quieter then and the fish were unable to see the nets in the dark. They knew that. And now this young preacher, who probably knew nothing about the fishing industry, has the audacity to suggest that they put the nets down again in broad daylight. They’d been up all night; they would have been tired, irritable and discouraged. I would have said, “Why don’t you just stick to your job, and I’ll stick to mine?” I would have found Jesus’ suggestion annoying, frankly.

But look what happens. “But because YOU say so, oh alright, I will let down the nets,” says Simon in v5. That is an amazing reply. Because I am sure that Simon doesn’t want to do it. What do you imagine is going on in his mind as he rows out into deeper water? “Why did I agree to do this? Who does this preacher take me for? I should be going home to bed not going out fishing again. People are watching me, hoping I will make an ass of myself again and I am not going to disappoint them. This is insane. What am I doing? What was I thinking?”

Now here’s the thing: there are many, many people who are inclined for action. They may be very spontaneous, really gifted; they may be high energy people who get things done. But as soon as it comes to following instructions they are impossible.

Jesus knew what he was doing and he kept mavericks and free spirits out of his inner circle. He is looking for people who are obedient, who follow orders, who are teachable and accept his authority. Not people with their own hidden agendas who just do their own thing. And Peter passes the test here. “Because you say so, I will let do it,” Listen! You will never reach your full potential in God if you cannot follow a leader. Everyone here needs to learn to say, “This doesn’t look right to me, but as it’s you who says so, OK I’ll do it.”

3) Have a Right Evaluation of Yourself

The third quality that Jesus looked for - and found - in Simon Peter is a right, a true, evaluation of self. Verse 6: “When they had done (let down the nets), they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. So they signalled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.”

Assuming there would still be a number of people milling about on the shore (and given the fact that the crowd was very large, I’m sure there must have been some who were still there) it would have been easy for Simon Peter to milk the situation a bit. “Look at this everybody! Ladies and gentlemen, you are looking at a record catch from the most prolific fishermen Galilee has ever seen!”

But Simon does not talk like that because he has a right evaluation of himself. He gives the glory where the glory is due. In v8 he throws himself at Jesus’ feet and says, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” Verse 9 says they were astonished. In other versions it says they were “awestruck,” or “overwhelmed.” Or the “amazement seized them.” This is the encounter with God that changes Simon’s life.

It is significant that it’s only at this point in the story, the moment of encounter with Christ’s power that he’s called Simon Peter and not just Simon.

Simon means “reed.” It’s like his mum and dad called him “Weedy.” But Jesus renamed him Peter which means “rock.” In the entire New Testament not one of the fishermen Jesus chose is ever recorded as having caught a single fish without Jesus doing some kind of miracle. Have you ever noticed that? I think it’s fair to say that Peter didn’t really know what he was doing. But Jesus took a loser named “Weedy” and he turned him into a leader called “Rocky” because he saw that he was inclined to action, ready to obey, and he had a right evaluation of himself; a sinner needing a Saviour and only by anything at all - by grace.

But there’s a fourth quality too.

4) See God's Greater Purpose

And here it is: Jesus saw that Peter was able to see something bigger, something greater. He saw God's greater purpose. Yes, it is fantastic to catch fish, and it’s even better if the catch is big. There were so many fish that (v7 says) not one but two boats were in danger of sinking. For these men, this catch was not just a trophy to boast about to their mates – it was the mother of all pay days!

What was Jesus really saying when he talked about fishing for people in v10? There’s Peter, James and John with two boats overflowing with slippery, shiny, wriggling fish flapping about madly.

I think Jesus is saying here, “Look Peter! There’s more than this if you really want it. There are bigger fish to fry than these. I’m thinking about people Peter! Do you want to spend your life catching these slimy little sardines? Or do you see, by faith, hundreds of human destinies, transformed by God? Peter! If you think this is good, you haven’t seen anything yet.”

Look up from what you see around you and catch the vision of bigger things. Some of you know what I’m talking about now. Do you want to be involved in something grand scale for God or are you content to see small and stay in your comfort zone? Do you hear what I’m saying?

Peter saw further. As soon as he caught the higher vision of a great harvest of human lives changed forever by the power of Christ, fish held no more interest for him. Verse 10; “‘Don't be afraid; from now on you will fish for people.’”

Is the harvest of thousands of souls in our land a passion Jesus sees in you? You’ll know if it is – because if it is you’ll say an unreserved “Yes” to the final test in v11.

5) Leave Everything Behind

Here it is: Peter was ready and willing to leave it all behind. Verse 11 is one of the most radical, extreme and revolutionary in all the New Testament.

“So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.”

They left their boats, their nets, their fish (or did they tip them all back into the sea? It doesn’t say). But they impulsively abandoned everything and followed Jesus straight away. Whoa! That’s… excessive. It’s outrageous. They left everything.

They left their work, their livelihood, their homes, and their security. Of course if every Christian was called to leave their employment there’d be no Christians left in the world, but for these three (and for my friend Marc who I mentioned earlier) that’s what it cost.

Is there anything that’s stopping you following Jesus where he’s leading you? If so, you’ve got to leave it behind.

Ending

I think the Lord is saying to some of us here tonight, “Are you ready to let go? When are you going to give me the best?” For some the problem might be a sedentary inclination. Jesus is looking for men and women who are inclined to action, who say without hesitation, “Since it’s you who is asking Lord, OK, I’ll do it.”

Some here might be seeing less blessing in their lives than they should because they have not yet fully learned to give God all the glory. Jesus is looking for men and women who see themselves as sinners, who humble themselves, and who understand that they are chosen and loved by grace alone.

Some here might find themselves stuck in a rut because their vision is too small. Jesus is looking for men and women who dare to cast their vision wider, who are not content with going through the motions, because they know by faith that there’s a harvest that God is preparing.

Finally, some here know that the time has come to leave it all behind: Doubts, hesitations, excuses, compromise – whatever the obstacle is that stops you from following Jesus wholeheartedly and completely. Leave it all behind tonight. Follow Jesus.


Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 7th February 2010

Following Jesus: The Highs (Luke 9.28-36)

Introduction

An Englishman, an Irishman and a Scotsman are sitting in a bar watching the evening news when a report comes on about a man threatening to jump from the 20th floor of a building. The Englishman turns round and says, “I'll bet you £50 he doesn't jump.” The Scotsman feels his wallet and says, “Och, no I don’t think so.” The Irishman says, “£50 is a lot of Guinness - you’re on.” A few minutes later, the man on the ledge jumps, so the Irishman hands the Englishman £50. The Englishman looks a bit embarrassed and says, “Actually, I can't take this money, I’ll be quite honest with you. I actually saw him do it earlier on the mid-day news.” “Me, too,” said the Irishman. “But I never thought he'd be mad enough to do it again!”

Or alternatively, an Israelite, an Israelite and an Israelite (Peter, James and John) go up a great height with Jesus. Not a 20 storey building but what Mark 9.2 describes as a “high mountain.”

Jesus quite deliberately took these particular men along, and he singled them out on at least two other occasions. Jesus chose 12, but he mentored 3 and invested more in them than in the others. Only these three were allowed into the room with Jesus when Jairus’ daughter was incredibly raised from the dead. Only these three were taken to the heart of the garden of Gethsemane, at the culmination of Christ’s passion, the night before he died. And only these three were present with Him here to witness this glorious and breathtaking event we call the transfiguration.

If you think you’re not all you could be as a follower of Jesus take heart from these men. Because on two out of these three special and unique occasions, that they were given such a rare privilege of sharing, they fell asleep! Can you believe that? So if you should doze off during this sermon I shall assume that you are having a momentous encounter with the Lord and that these are but the first signs of revival! But doesn’t it encourage you that Jesus chose three lethargic slackers to be his inner circle? The Lord only chooses the unworthy, the unfit and the unlikely - otherwise none of us would be here, your preacher included.

But even if Peter did fall asleep with his mates, what happened when he woke up was so remarkable that it never left him. Consider this: of all the extraordinary things that happened during the three and a half years he walked around with Jesus, (walking on water, feeding the 5,000, the raising of Lazarus, water into wine and many more) this event, the transfiguration, is the only one Peter specifically recalled in his letters 30 or 40 years later. If you’ll excuse the pun, for Peter, this was the high light of Jesus’ ministry.

This is how he described what he remembered: “We saw it with our own eyes: Jesus resplendent with light from God the Father as the voice of Majestic Glory spoke: ‘This is my Son, marked by my love, focus of all my delight.’ We were there on the holy mountain with him. We heard the voice out of heaven with our very own ears.” We saw it. We were there. We heard it.

Mountain-Top Experiences

In our evening services recently we’ve been thinking about encounters with God. Some of us would be able to talk about unique moments of grace and spiritual revelation that have left their mark on us. There have been times in my life when God has been so close it has almost been too much. Remarkable and sudden healing miracles that have left me marvelling. Or prophecies from sources who couldn’t possibly have known the significance of what they were saying, so accurate that my heart started racing and my palms began to sweat. Or times of joy and delight in praise and worship, where my whole being has been flooded with a sense of exhilaration. The day I was converted, tears welled up in my eyes and I sobbed uncontrollably for hours. Tears of joy, tears of sorrow for the wasted years, tears of relief.

Perhaps you too have had one of these top-of-the-world experiences; when you received healing from God, or when a child you have prayed hard for was born to you, when you were converted; maybe you went to New Wine or somewhere special like that. Many people have encounters with the Lord during an Alpha course or in prayer ministry. You may have had a fantastic spiritual experience here at All Saints’. Some of you have, I know. Maybe as you just sat quietly in prayer with the Lord, or perhaps you can point to a single event in your life when God brought you to the mountaintop and you felt he was so close that you could just reach out and touch him. I want to say three things about experiences like these.

1) Spiritual Highs Are Good

The first thing is this: spiritual highs are good and valuable. You can see how stirred Peter was by the experience he had on this mountaintop in v33. “Master, it is good for us to be here!” He’s saying, “Wow! This is brilliant. This is what it is all about!”

It must have been spectacular to behold. Jesus’ whole appearance changes before their eyes. He looks as if he is ablaze; his clothes are like lightning. He is gloriously and dazzlingly transfigured before them. They catch a vision of his supremacy and incomparable greatness. Then Moses and Elijah, two “signs and wonders” prophets, appear. They all enter a cloud of the glory of God. There is an audible voice from heaven. And then it all comes to an end and they find Jesus alone, his appearance just as it had been before. Whoa…!

But some people are very wary of anything experiential. They say, “Let’s not get carried away with all these feelings and emotions; it’s your mind that matters. All we need is the word of God,” they say. Are they right? Our minds do matter but, looking through the Bible, it seems to me that sometimes God just wants to blow our minds. If you and I were to do an exercise where we took all the mind-blowing bits out of the Bible, we’d be left with little more than the cover, the index and the maps at the back.

Don’t spend all your life going after unusual experiences with God. You will be disappointed. Don’t live for the sensational. You’ll just become a spiritual junkie. Don’t think God doesn’t love you if you haven’t had an encounter with the Lord for a long time. He definitely does love you (and if you need any proof that he does, look at the cross). But I want to say don’t despise or close your heart to encountering God’s awesome presence and power.

2) Spiritual Highs Never Last

Here’s the second thing, and I say it to those of you who might be up on cloud nine with the Lord at the moment. Perhaps you’re a new Christian or you’re in the middle of enjoying the highest and most spiritual of all spiritual highs. Well, thus saith the Lord, “it’s not gonna last forever.”

Visions of God’s glory are wonderful. Spiritual highs are great. Who wouldn’t want to hold on to the elation at all costs? You would want this amazing transfiguration to go on wouldn’t you? Peter did (v33). “Let us put up three shelters” he says, “one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.”

He’s saying, “How do you fancy a nice cabin on the mountain and a room with a view Lord?” It’s saying that Peter didn’t want to come back down to earth. He didn’t want this breathtaking event to end. He wanted to stay up there in his winter chalet and soak it all in week after week. Stay up there in his mountain retreat with his famous neighbours, Jesus, Moses and Elijah.

But the reality, my dear friends, is that no one builds a house on a mountain top. Life just isn’t lived out up high on the peaks. It’s lived in the valleys below. When Peter, James and John come down with Jesus from the mountain in v37, they find people in pain and in need. They come back down with a bump to the painful reality of everyday life.

It’s MMS: Monday Morning Syndrome. Just like before, people are possessed by demons (v39). Just like before, the disciples are out of their depths about what to do about it (v40). Just like before, not one among the twelve has the faintest idea about what Jesus is saying (v45). What a let-down! But what would have happened if Peter, James and John had stayed up in their cabins with Jesus, Elijah and Moses? The boy would still have been possessed. His family would have still been beside themselves with anguish about him. And (v43) nobody would have been amazed by the greatness of God.

Spiritual highs don’t last – they can’t last and we have to move on when life moves on.

3) Spiritual Highs Prepare Us for Spiritual Lows

Which leads me to the third thing I want to say this morning: spiritual highs prepare you and train you for spiritual lows. The mountaintop experiences God gives you are all about equipping you for life in the pits.

In our Growing Leaders course last week we were thinking about the vision of Martin Luther King. On 3rd April 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee, King preached one of his most famous sermons. In that powerful and history-making address, King said that he feared nothing. “We’ve got some difficult days ahead,” he said. “But it really doesn’t matter with me now, because I’ve been to the mountaintop... And I’ve looked over, and I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you... But I’m happy tonight; I’m not worried about anything; I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”

The very next morning, Martin Luther King was shot dead. But on the night he said, “I see the Promised Land” King was ready to face his destiny. He was ready to stare darkness in the face with no fear at all. Why? Because he had been to the mountaintop with the Lord. He was ready for the worst because he had been to the mountaintop with the Lord. Mountain top experiences give us the grace we need to be ready to walk into the darkest of valleys. They equip us to face the future in certain hope and assurance that God is there with us, whatever happens.

Amongst my lowest lows I can recall how I once agonized with self-doubt for months when a girlfriend I once loved walked away from our relationship and never spoke to me again. I’ve cried bitter tears over four miscarriages, saying goodbye to the children we never knew and never had a chance to name. There is still an echo of that pain we felt when I talk about it now, over fifteen years later. I’ve teetered on the edge of a nervous breakdown for a year when I was betrayed by a trusted colleague…

Isaiah 45.15 says, “Truly you are a God who hides himself, O God and Saviour of Israel.” He does. Sometimes the Lord inexplicably withdraws, just like Jesus’ fading behind the cloud of glory, (v36) which suddenly appeared on the Mount of Transfiguration. Then, a bit later, they look round and Elijah and Moses have disappeared. Jesus is there on his own, looking just as he did before. It’s all over. Do you know what it is like when you just can’t get through to the Lord like you once could?

Those three things (the miscarriages, getting spectacularly dumped by a young woman I loved and being betrayed by a trusted colleague) are as low as my life has ever been. Where was God? At the time it felt like he was hiding, just like Isaiah said. How did I cope in those shadowy valleys, seemingly on my own? I got through because I had been to the mountaintop with God before. His grace, so evident in the times of blessing and fruitfulness, was (and is) sufficient to get me (and you) through the very worst that life can when it all goes wrong.

When you are in the foothills of joblessness, or in the plain of loneliness, or in the lowlands of illness, or in the vale of depression, look back at the mountaintop and hang on to the revelation of God’s love for you, of his faithfulness towards you, of his never-ending favour upon you. Cherish your recollections of God’s nearness.

4) Let’s Go!

So Peter’s longing to stay on the mountain is understandable enough but it is foolish and ill advised. If Jesus had stayed up there, he would never have gone to Jerusalem to suffer, die and rise again.

One last point: Have you ever noticed that Jesus was always saying “Let’s go!”? In Mark 1:38 he says, “Let us go somewhere else-to the nearby villages so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.” Let’s go. In John 11:15, when he heard news that his friend Lazarus had died, Jesus said to his disciples, “Let us go to him.” In the same chapter, knowing that the authorities in Judea had attempted to stone him, Jesus said to his disciples’ absolute dismay: “Let us go back to Judea” (John 11:7-8). Let’s go. Even when he knew he was to be handed over to death, in Mark 14:42, he said, “Let us go,” as he rose to meet Judas his betrayer. Let’s go. The only time Jesus did not say, “Let us go,” as a collective exhortation to the twelve, he said, “Let us leave.” (John 14:31) which amounts to the same thing.

But Peter here has a different agenda. Matthew, Mark and Luke all state that Peter said, “Let’s stay! Let us put up three shelters. Let’s stay in this comfort zone. I like it here, Lord.”

Christians do the same thing. Sometimes they dress it up in spiritual language and say, “Let’s consolidate,” (a word you won’t find in your Bibles incidentally. I’ve checked). “Let’s consolidate,” we say, meaning “Let’s play safe.” If someone asks me, “Why do you go to church on a Sunday?” or “why do you go to Christian conferences?” I might reply: “It feeds my spirit, I need to be refreshed. It is time out to build up my faith and recharge my batteries.” That’s O.K. In fact it’s very important. But look! After one day Jesus is already on his way down the mountain again. Let’s go.

Ending

So I want to challenge you this morning with the message of this reading. Do you ever feel that you are effectively in retirement mode? Treading water? Going through the motions?

Well, God is on the move. So if you stay still, he’s already gone. You put up a shelter to try and capture the magic of the moment and you’ll find that Jesus has already headed down the mountain to get on with releasing people from the powers of darkness. “Come on,” says Jesus, “let’s go! Are you coming with me or are you going to stick around up here on your own?”

What is God calling you to? These are only suggestions. It might be something else entirely. The only thing that matters is this: Jesus is heading down to where the needs are and where the action is. That’s where I want to be. I hope that’s where you want to be too.


Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 31st January 2010

Following Jesus: The Lows (Luke 7.18-35)

Introduction

I went into a car wash about two weeks ago opting for the most expensive programme including a jet clean under the car body to clear off all the road salt after the snow. Bad mistake! Immediately, on leaving the garage, the car started underperforming. Something must have got into the electrics. Dashboard lights started flickering intermittently. I experienced the occasional loss of power. Finally, a week later, last Saturday, our car slowed to a halt and I had to be towed back home from Darlington. If only I could turn the clock back, drive past that car wash and hose it down myself! I would have saved £5 on the car wash and significantly more for the breakdown service and car repair.

But worse things happen in life than this. Don’t they? Have you ever made a career change only to say after day one, “Oh dear! This is not at all what I expected.” You find yourself unhappier than in your last job and wish you’d never changed. People get married only to say later, “No one said anything to me about fights for the duvet cover or the angst over whether the toothpaste should be squeezed from the end of the tube or from the middle.” (By the way, it should really be squeezed from the end). Men agree to have children only to say later, “I had heard about crying babies at night and having to change nappies when I am trying to watch football – but no one warned me it would be every match!” Or has anyone chosen to buy a house in a certain area only to discover their new neighbour’s energetic passion for late night parties? “Oh dear, I wasn’t expecting this.”

If you have made a serious commitment to follow Christ, the likelihood is that you will experience times when you will say, “Lord, this has not turned out like I thought it would. When I first came to faith, there was a surge of joy and my life seemed full of meaning. You answered my prayers so amazingly and everything made so much sense. But now, nothing seems to be like it was. I’m not so sure any more.” You might be saying that to yourself today. “Where has my first love gone?”

A Promising Start

It is normal to experience highs and lows in following Christ. Next week we’ll look at the good times but today I want us to think about those seasons when faith is not going well. And to do that we’re going to consider John the Baptist. As a young man he should have had a long and successful life before him. Even before he was born, his father was told, “he is going to be a great speaker and will lead many people back to the Lord.” After his miraculous birth, his mother was past childbearing age, he was tipped to be a star. People would look at him and say, “One day that boy is going to be somebody.

But… it just didn’t seem to turn out according to the script. He ended up living on his own in a solitary place. He dressed in a rough camel hair coat. He ate grasshoppers for lunch (probably fried but possibly raw). He was in his twenties now, a forgotten man, and when people saw him, they would whisper, “There’s that strange man. Whatever happened to him?” Probably that is what John was wondering. “Lord, whatever happened to me?”

But then one day, in about the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, the Bible tells us that the word of God came to John in the desert. God had heard John’s prayers over the months and years, but the time had not been right. Listen! He has heard your prayers too. He has seen your tears. He has felt the beat of your hoping heart all the way through this season of waiting.

When God gives us a promise, it may take years before we see it fulfilled. Someone had a prophecy for me about six years ago, most of which was for then - but one detail in particular was not. That detail has only just begun to be fulfilled in the last year or so. When God gives us a promise the time before its fulfilment is to prepare in faith, so that when it does come to pass, we’re ready, we’re prepared, we know it’s from God and we can step out confidently in faith.

So John had been away in the wilderness, waiting, waiting, waiting for his moment to come. When the time was right, he came out of the desert as a controversial, provocative figure. People came from all over the country just to catch a glimpse of him and hear him speak. His message was confrontational and direct: “You must put your life into reverse gear now. The fire of hell is just around the next bend, and if you don’t do a u-turn in your life, you are going to crash into it. Repent! God is about to judge. The chainsaw is already on the tree.”

People came from all around to hear this. Hundreds would fall on their knees in repentance before God. The size of the crowds kept getting bigger and bigger. He baptized so many people; they started calling him John the Baptiser. Nothing like this had happened for years. Some were thinking he might be the Messiah. But he said, “No, I’m not. There will be one after me more powerful than I am. I am not even fit to shine his shoes. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”

The Turning Point

Then the day came which was the turning point of John’s life. John saw Jesus, and said, “That’s him! There he is! I told you one would come after me. He’s the one. I saw the Spirit come down from heaven and remain on Him. He’s the Christ, that’s the Messiah.” And the Bible says this: Some of John’s followers then began to join Jesus’ group.

With Jesus’ ministry taking off, John’s audience started to dwindle. One of John’s disciples got upset about this and he said so. “Teacher, everybody has started going to Jesus to be baptized. What are we going to do about this? This is not quite what we expected would happen.” And John said this; “Look, I only came to clear the obstacles off his running track. He must become more prominent, and I must fade out.”

John took it well, but I wonder if inside something inside him died that day. Following Jesus means counting all things as loss. It might mean the end of certain dreams. He must increase, I must decrease.

Downhill From Here

Not long afterwards, John preached a topical sermon about marriage, and he used the private life of King Herod as an illustration for one of his points. Herod was married, as it happened, but there was a scandal going round the palace and beyond. The king was having an affair with his brother’s wife, Herodias.

He forced his own wife out of his flashy palace, so he could shack up with his sister-in-law. Quite apart from ditching his first wife and breaking up his brother's marriage, sleeping with your brother’s wife was forbidden under their law as incest. But Herod had money and power and influence. So while the spiritual establishment disapproved, they said nothing, because they wanted to keep their privileged status.

But John? He feared no one. He knew the risks but he had counted all things as loss. He didn’t care about position and reputation. He publicly called sin “sin.” And once word got around that John had publicly denounced Herod’s marriage-of-convenience, the new bride was outraged and she determined to get even with him.

“Fundamentalist Preacher Slams Royal Wedding.” Things were coming to a head, so Herod had John arrested and put in prison.

After being there for a few months, how do you think John must have been thinking? The large crowds he had preached to were just a memory now. “This is not quite what I expected either.” We’ve all been through times like this. It’s not fair! It’s so unjust! It’s hard to believe God is really in control or really cares. You may want to cry out, “How long, o Lord, will you forget me.”

John must have been riddled with self-doubt. He was starting to get reports, through his last loyal followers, about Jesus. “I’m sure he’s the one God pointed out. Well, at least I was sure. Maybe I’ve been mistaken all along. I don’t know what I believe anymore.” So he got a couple of his friends together and said, “Go to Jesus and ask him, if he is the one or should we expect someone else?” So they did. Which is where our reading picks up the story in Luke 7.19.

Everybody here will have times when faith wobbles. Let’s not go into denial about this. Everyone says to themselves from time to time, “Well, how can that be right, Lord?” It comes at moments of illness or tragedy when God does not appear to us to be loving. It comes at moments of trial or temptation when God does not appear to us to be real. It comes at times of failure or unfulfilled dreams when God does not appear to us to be in control. These are the low ebbs of following Jesus.

Send Your Doubts to Jesus

I want you to notice this: John had two choices here. First, he could have kept it all inside and allowed it to eat away at his soul. “How come Jesus is enjoying blessing on his ministry while I’m stuck here literally at his majesty’s pleasure?" That’s the first option, but John rejected it. The second option was to send his doubts to Jesus – and that’s what he did. That’s what we’ve got to do; send our doubts to Jesus, saying “Why, Lord? What about this? How can this be right? Open my eyes to see your plan in this.”

So in v20 they arrive and ask John’s question on his behalf. “Are you the one who was to come or should we expect someone else?”

Jesus knew that John could have used a bit of encouragement right then. Look how he responds. In reply, Jesus basically says in v22-23, “Look hard at the plus column and not just the minus. Look! There are changed lives. There is healing. There is something to shout about - at last - for the poor.” And then a personal note of encouragement for John; “And blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.”

God knows all about our times of self-doubt, nights of confusion, the sense of loneliness, being a single voice calling out in the wilderness. He understands our displeasure at having locusts for tea again, the frustration at the unfairness of it all… “Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.”

It’s not because you’ve got it all together, or have perfectly behaved children, or enjoy wonderful health, or live a carefree and prosperous life that people will see Christ clearly in your life. God’s grace works best in and through all life’s unexpected twists and turns, and all our bad surprises.

The Bottom Line

Jesus could have done a great miracle to get John out of prison, but he didn’t. Why not? It doesn’t make sense. Here is a man who spoke for God, had the anointing of the Spirit, was arrested for telling the truth, and ended up losing his life because some sulky teenager did a sexy dance for her drunken step-father. Who would expect that for a man or woman devoted to God? Where was God when this happened? I don’t know.

But John’s role was to prepare the entire world for the coming of Jesus Christ. He did his work and he did it well. Jesus says in v28 “I tell you, among those born of women there is no-one greater that John the Baptist…” He had no idea that the ministry he would have would be a short one and that it would keep him from reaching his 35th birthday. By the time John was executed, much of the public acclaim he had enjoyed was already forgotten as Jesus’ ministry took off.

But I believe, if you could meet John and ask him if it was worth it, John would say, “Worth it? To know him? To be his cousin? To point others to him? To make his road level? To watch his fame increase? I would not have missed all that for the world. I always said I was not even fit to shine his shoes.” And here’s the bottom line: It doesn’t matter what the Christian life costs – because it’s so worth it!

The Cross

Finally, this. “I tell you,” says Jesus in v28, “among those born of women there is no-one greater that John… yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.” Why did Jesus say that? We can see why John was the greatest man ever born up to that time. He prepared the way for the Lord. He spoke the word of God with no fear. He baptized hundreds and turned many hearts to the Lord. But why was John the least in the kingdom of God?

He never saw the cross. He never heard those words, “Father, forgive them, they do not know what they’re doing.” He never got to marvel at Jesus cleansing a dying thief of his guilt; “Today, you will be with me in paradise.” He never saw Jesus lifted up in his suffering, taking the sin of the whole world on himself. He never heard those words of decisive triumph over sin, over sickness, over evil, over death; “It is finished!” But we have.

It says in v33 that John came neither eating bread, nor drinking wine. But we do. We get to gather round the Lord’s Table and feast on the grace of God in Jesus. We get to marvel once again as we break bread and pour wine.

Whether we are in work or out of a job, foreign or at home, tired or fresh, optimistic or depressed, hungry or filled, at peace or distressed - we belong to one another, we are members of one another. We, who are many, are one body, because we all share in one bread. Meeting together at the same table, we express belonging, not just to Christ, but to one another as well. It is a communion table.

Ending

So whether the sun's shining down on you and the world's all as it should be, or whether you’re on the road marked with suffering, and there's pain in the offering, let’s come and say together, “Lord, we love you.”


Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 24th January 2010

The Focus of God’s Glory (Luke 3.15-22)

Introduction

I know some of you will have already seen that German Coastguard video, but just in case you haven’t, here it is now (click here)

Apart from indulging in some gratuitous humour at the expense of the Germans what was the point of showing that? Well, if the vessel going down had been Greek, and not British, the captain would have used the word baptizo instead of ‘sinking.’ To be baptized in the language of the New Testament means to be plunged, dipped, sunk or immersed and both our readings this morning speak about passing through water, you might have noticed.

If you’ve got a church Bible handy, you might like to open it again at Luke chapter 3, page 972. And while you’re finding it I want to say that apparently the river Tees is frozen over this morning. We will be baptizing in it after the service! Actually, that’s what they used to do in Soviet Russia. At dawn they’d break the ice and totally immerse their new converts before pulling them out – blue but new! It was the only time of day they were sure of being undiscovered by the secret police. In the face of imprisonment, beatings, unjust dismissal from employment, and compulsory, ice cold baptism, the Church didn’t just survive - it thrived.

1) The New Commissioning

Everybody here, and me first, is a sinner in need of a Saviour, so everybody here needs to be baptized. If you haven’t been already I would strongly suggest that you are – we won’t insist on doing the baptism in the river Tees… A few verses before our reading, in v3, Luke tells us that baptism in water is all about repentance.

In v10-14 you see exactly what that meant for the people who came down to be baptised by John. “If you have two coats, you share them with somebody who doesn’t have one, so give away half your clothes to homeless people. Civil servants shouldn’t rip people off by overcharging them and exaggerating their expenses claims. And listen to this; John calls one group “a brood of vipers” because they grumbled about their pay packet! “Be content with your pay,” he said.

John the Baptist ruffled feathers. In v19 it says how he finally went too far, openly criticising King Herod for stealing another man’s wife. I wonder what this man would say to our celebrities and politicians in 2010? I wonder what he’d say to us? I can’t imagine he would make any of us very comfortable.

The Bible says this; “(Jesus) is able to sympathise with our weaknesses; he has been tempted in every way, just as we are - yet without sin.” It is perfectly clear that Jesus never sinned, so he - unlike us - had nothing to repent of, and therefore didn’t need to be baptized.

What must that have felt like for Jesus? When you and I are tempted, we come under pressure to sin, a pressure we can either give in to or we can resist. For example, Fred is tempted to steal some money. He fights the temptation for a while in his mind but eventually he gives in and commits the theft, at which point that particular battle with sin is over, the battle is lost, so the pressure eases off. But Jesus lived with the burden and pressure and full weight of temptation constantly upon him, and it never diminished by giving into it; he was always battling, and every time he resisted falling into sin in the power of the Holy Spirit - which is how we can do the same.

“Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit” says the Lord.

So why did Jesus, of all people, submit himself to John’s baptism of repentance? In a way, it’s one of those unanswerable paradoxes like: Why is the word “abbreviated” so long? Whose cruel idea was it for the word “lisp” to have an “s” in it? How can it be that there is only one Monopolies’ Commission?

Some say Jesus was baptised because he wanted to endorse what John the Baptist was doing. He was saying in effect; “John is O.K. by me.” Others think it was like a shot across the boughs; he was identifying with the sinners in the water, rather than the Pharisees, who looked on judgementally from the riverbank. He was showing everyone that his work was going to be all about sin and how to deal with it. But, you know what? None of this convinces me 100%.

I wonder if we might be making a bit too much of the word “repentance”. That is what John’s baptism is about, as we have just seen. Repentance, for us, is a theological term. It’s spiritual language. But the original word metanoia didn’t have any particular religious baggage attached to it in the first century. Metanoia (repentance) was just a word like metamorphosis, or metabolism or metaphor. It was an everyday word, used by housewives and market traders. When you went out for a stroll, you walked a distance, then you turned back; that was metanoia. It just meant “to turn around.”

So here, while sinners were making a u-turn from their previous life of sin, Jesus was turning his back on his previous occupation as a carpenter. Everybody else went into the water as sinners, and came up out of it cleansed. Jesus went into the water as a wood craftsman and came up out it as a travelling preacher. He changed the course and purpose of his life. I think this is mostly a public commissioning of Jesus’ new ministry by his Father.

I just wonder if there is anyone here who, at the beginning of this New Year, feels they are on the verge of doing something radically new under God, in the power of the Spirit. I’m not talking about something you just dream up because you’re bored; I’m talking about a strong yearning that God places in you. Remember Alan Farish, just walking down Stockton High Street a year and a half ago, and God meets with him, speaks to him and unexpectedly gives him a completely new direction – that God has honoured since in wonderful ways.

I just felt as I was praying over this talk that God might be stirring someone here in a similar way… If it’s not from God it’ll come to nothing. If it is, it’ll be unstoppable. Step out in faith. Take the plunge like Jesus did (literally!) and follow the Lord’s leading. That’s maybe something that you’ll want to bring before God in the prayer ministry time later…

2) The Anointing of the Spirit

Back to the reading: John was preaching and baptising people one by one. People would have been led beyond the shallow water and very probably fully immersed in the river (it’s what the word baptizo means; the word for “sprinkle” is rantizo and Luke doesn’t use it). Then, we are told, as Jesus was praying, heaven was opened, the Holy Spirit came down not as a dove, but it was something like one, and Jesus was anointed by the Spirit.

For 30 years up to this point, Jesus had grown up, watched his father Joseph in his workshop, become a carpenter, and spent time himself making doorframes, roof beams and furniture. He was just a little-known provincial joiner up to that point. His teaching in the temple at the age of 12 is included in Luke’s gospel not because it was routine but because it was remarkable. We know in any case that Jesus did no miracles at all before his baptism because John’s gospel tells us that turning water into wine at Cana was the first miraculous sign he ever did.

Jesus was anointed by the Holy Spirit at his baptism so that his life thereafter would be invested with spiritual power. Jesus did not do miracles as the Son of God; he did them as the Son of Man, anointed by the Spirit. Which is precisely why he said that we are able to do the same works as he did - and even greater still - because we too can be (and should be) human beings, filled with the Holy Spirit.

One of my children at the age of 8 prayed for, and laid hands on a little girl, I don’t even know why. I think it’s the first time any of my kids ever did that. The girl slumped to the floor for about an hour and a half. Her parents had told me that the child had been abused by a visitor to her home about a year before that. I believe that God was healing the pain of that experience. The next day, I asked her about the experience in a matter of fact kind of way. I asked her if she remembered it and she said, “Yes, it was wonderful. I was in Jesus’ arms”, she said. I still know that family well. The girl is now grown up, well adjusted, and going on with God.

Any of us here can move in the power of the Holy Spirit, even from a young age. It’s an important element in Julia’s vision for the children’s work here; to train our children in knowing God personally, to step out in faith and to be become accustomed to using the gifts of the Spirit – while their faith is still childlike. Can I encourage you to pray to be filled with the Spirit the moment you get up every day and look for opportunities to serve the Lord?

That is what our prayer ministry team look to do every week. They are there for us. To pray for God’s power to break into the lives of all who ask for prayer. We have seen the Lord do wonderful things over the years and we are so grateful to God for those on the team who serve in this way. Ordinary people can do extraordinary things under God when they are anointed with the Holy Spirit, like Jesus was.

3) God’s Approval

Finally, v22. There was a voice; “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” Last week we were thinking about the Magi’s journey as the pursuit of God’s glory. But this morning I want to say that the focus of God’s glory is Jesus; he is the radiance of God’s unsurpassed majesty. You see the sum of God’s goodness and greatness in the face of Christ. All God’s inexhaustible affection and approbation and esteem focus on his Son. “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”

This is so important for us to understand. Because many of us grow up hearing things like, “You could do better.” “You are not good enough.” “You’ll never succeed.” “You are wasting my time.” “You never try hard enough.” “Do better, try harder, hurry up, get on with it…” Have you heard those voices? If you have, you’ll have heard them more than once, because the devil loves to replay the tape over and over. And it leads to a life of drivenness where people think “What must I do to be acceptable or accepted?”

But notice how God’s words are so different. They are words of fatherly approval. “You are my Son...” That is to say, I am your heavenly father. Since before creation, there is an unbreakable bond between us, and you cannot ‘unbecome’ my Son. That is where everything starts; in your identity as my loved Son.

“You are my Son whom I love...” That is to say, my eternal affection is directed towards you, I will not change my mind about you because my love is a devoted, covenant love that endures forever, you have stolen my heart,

“You are my Son whom I love, with you I am well pleased.” That is to say, I am so overwhelmed with pride over you, I rejoice exceedingly in who you are; I am not just pleased, I am well pleased with you.

God the Father’s endorsement and statement of approval is indisputable, unambiguous and unequivocal. Christ’s unparalleled worth is settled in the mind and heart of God. And, here’s the thing: if you are in Christ his righteousness is imputed to you, that is to say all his virtues and merits are awarded to you as a gift. So the Father’s esteem for you is exactly equivalent to the favour he bestows on his only Son. That’s why nothing can separate you from the love of God. Oh, what a blessing it is to be in Christ Jesus. “You are my child whom I love, with you I am well pleased.”

Ending

There are three words I wanted to share today.

Firstly, some here may be aware that God is stirring them for a new call, a new commissioning. You are sensing that God is saying to you that this is a time he has ordained for a new direction in ministry. I think that if that is you, this morning will be like the confirmation of something God has already been saying to you. It may be only one person here, and you may be feeling that this is all a bit weird. Well, yes, Jesus getting baptised is a bit weird too. But if that’s you I want to encourage you to follow in Jesus’ footsteps: “Step out from the crowd and take the plunge.”

Secondly, the difference between the Jesus who made wooden furniture and the Jesus who spoke with authority, had compassion on the crowds, drove out demons, healed the sick and touched lepers was the anointing of the Spirit. Some of you know you want to pray like Jesus prayed and move more in the power of the Holy Spirit. You know that Jesus was be anointed with the Spirit to resist the devil, pray with power and minister with authority. If that’s you I want to encourage you to follow in Jesus’ footsteps: “Step out from the crowd and take the plunge.”

And finally, some of you have been listening to those voices; “Could do better, not good enough, will never succeed, wasting my time, doesn’t try hard enough…” They don’t come from the Lord because “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”


Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 10th January 2010

The Brightness of God’s Glory (Matthew 2.1-12)

Introduction

Happy New Year. A quick unscientific survey of the Christmas cards we received this year reveals that those featuring the Magi significantly outsell those depicting shepherds. Both are probably a long way behind Father Christmas who, for all I care, was probably drinking fizzy drinks on the North Pole when Jesus was born – but let’s not go there.

Far be it from me to tell politically incorrect jokes. I would never do such a thing. But, in the interests of clarification, for the benefit of those who don’t know what a politically incorrect joke is, allow me give you an example. They say that Jesus wasn’t born in Ireland because they couldn’t find a virgin or three wise men. Now isn’t that terrible? It’s not even biblical. In point of fact, the Bible never actually says that the Magi were men or women. The grammar is inconclusive; they could have been all men, all women, or some of each. The old King James Version translated Magi as wise men but no modern translation does – for the very good and simple reason that Magi doesn’t mean ‘wise men’ at all.

What does it mean? In Acts 8 and 13 we are introduced to two men; one called Simon and the other Elymas. Both are referred to in Greek as magoi and the word is translated there ‘sorcerer’ or ‘magician’. They were in fact both practitioners of the occult. The word magoi could refer to all manner of astrologers, interpreters of dreams, fortune-tellers, tealeaf readers, crystal enthusiasts, faith healers or even snake charmers. These Magi may have actually been new-age travellers. In the book of Daniel (1.20 and 2.27) other Magi appear as magicians, diviners and enchanters.

So surprise no1; they weren’t wise at all, certainly not in God’s eyes. Surprise no 2; they weren’t necessarily men either. Surprise no 3; nothing in the New Testament says that there were three of them. And surprise no4; it says nothing about them being kings (…or queens) either. Apart from that, ‘three wise men’ and ‘three kings’ are perfectly good titles!

The idea that these people might have been kings comes from an interpretation of Isaiah 60 which reminds some people of the appearance of the star and the visit of the Magi. It’s a prophecy that looks 750 years ahead to the coming Messiah and it says this:

Arise, shine, for your light has come,
and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.
See, darkness covers the earth,
thick darkness is over the peoples,
but the Lord rises upon you
and his glory appears over you.
Nations will come to your light,
and kings to the brightness of your dawn.

It is unquestionably a prophecy about Jesus. But it’s not really about the visit of the Magi at all. It mentions a light that comes but it doesn’t mean the appearance in the night sky of a newly discovered star; it’s the glory of the Lord itself that shines against the background of the thick darkness of evil.

We’d probably pick one of the wonders of the world but God chooses the cramped and dingy dishonour of an animal’s night shelter to display the stunning brightness of his eternal heavenly glory. Who would have predicted it? The brightness of God’s glory, shown in a sleeping infant, is gentle enough not to blind us – but is strong enough to compel these Magi to journey from miles away.

So much for who these mysterious Magi may have been – more importantly what does this narrative in Matthew chapter 2 tell us about who God is? What kind of God is it that would draw these ancient clairvoyants, physically miles away from the Promised Land and spiritually miles away from God, to happen upon the most significant, the most important child ever born?

It’s a God full of grace and mercy, who doesn’t count our sins against us, who invites us, who draws us to his glorious self – even, sometimes, amazingly, through the very folly of our own defiance of his laws – such is his kindness. This is the God whom, the Psalms say over and over again, rescues us “from the pit.” It uses the expression “from the pit” for a reason. It means this: I am not, of myself, an upright, respectable man who has found his way to faith. No! I am, of myself, a lover of sin, without excuse, richly deserving God’s fully justified wrath and having no chance of escape from the serious consequences of my rebellion against him.

The fact that God would draw these Magi from far away in the East to Bethlehem to shows us that he is the God whose forgiveness is comprehensive; he removes sin from us as far as east is from west. His greatness is admirable. You can never degenerate or fall away from grace so far that it’s too far. Because his arm is not too short to save and his compassion is from everlasting to everlasting.

Do you ever feel far away from God? Do you feel far away from him this morning? Well, you’re not too far away. And you may not even be as far away as you think you are.

1) God Rewards Those Who Seek Him

How is it that these Magi, coming from a point as distant from God as it is perhaps possible to be, how is it that they ended up discovering him? I am going to suggest three things. First of all, they were seekers. You can tell that from the first two verses of Matthew chapter 2.

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east...”

We know that they were seekers by asking one simple question. Here it is: Would you travel long distances over several months to check up something you don’t honestly care about? No, neither would I. But when they noticed changes in the night sky, they used serious air miles to check it out. They were curious. They were inquisitive. They wanted to know more. And when they finally got to Jerusalem they asked around, “Excuse me, we heard that there is a new king around here. Where is he? Where do we go to see him, please?” There’s a restless quest going on here. These are earnest enquirers.

God makes very firm promises to people like this. In Luke 11, verses 9 to 11, a passage well known by many of us, Jesus talks about seeking and seekers. This is what he says, translating it literally: “Keep on asking and it will be given to you; keep on seeking and you will find; keep on knocking and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who keeps on asking receives; everyone who keeps on seeking finds; and to everyone who keeps on knocking, the door will be opened.”

He’s encouraging you to put your doubts and hesitations behind you. Keep seeking, don’t give up, and you will find it in the end. If you haven’t yet found what you are looking for, keep looking.

A few years ago, a very bright young girl named Elsa signed up for an Alpha course I was running. Her family was Buddhist and from Korea but she actually grew up in France. Elsa was special. I have rarely met anyone who sought answers to her questions with such determination and resolve. Every week she would grill the other group members with question after question. Elsa, like the Magi, was from the east and, like them, had her background in other religious ideas. But like the Magi she was a serious seeker. And like the Magi, when she got to her point of arrival, she was… disappointed. The Magi reached Jerusalem and didn’t find what they had been looking for. They had to keep going a bit longer. So they did. And so did Elsa, who finished the Alpha course not having become a Christian, but having started to come to church, still not at all convinced, but still searching.

Six months passed and we were planning to run another Alpha course so I started to look around for some people who might stand up in church and say, “Sign up to Alpha, it’s really good and changed my life.” And I asked Elsa if she too would like to say a few words. I said, “I want to show people that it’s not a brainwashing programme. You can come out the other side, free to do as you please, and even if you don’t become a Christian, it’s very interesting and worthwhile.” She answered me, “I’ll do the interview, but I’m afraid I won’t say what you want me to.” I said, “Why not?” She replied, “I’ve become a Christian, I hope you don’t mind!” Elsa’s journey lasted well over a year, but in the end she found what she was looking for. And her faith is stronger for having left no stone unturned in her quest for the truth.

“Let us press on to know the Lord”, said the prophet Hosea. Those who keep searching for Christ, those persist in seeking God’s face, those who never tire in their endeavour to know God more will always be on the verge of some new and exciting discovery. Because God is an inexhaustible mine of treasure, knowing him is a never-ending pursuit. And full of surprises too. What did the Magi think when they came to honour the new king and found an infant of such unspeakably humble surroundings?

Can I encourage you, if you’re not yet a believer to keep going? Jesus said you will get there in the end if you don’t give up. And can I urge those of you who are believers, especially if you’re in a rut spiritually, to abandon your comfort zone and get on your camel and seek more of God. Don’t be satisfied with what you have already. There’s much, much more – but you have to look. And go on looking...

2) God Honours Sacrifice

The second thing is this. God honours sacrifice. The Magi must have made big sacrifices. Verse 1 says they travelled from the east (and that doesn’t mean East Jerusalem down the road; it possibly means modern day Iran or even India). In any case it was a long way. It may have been up to a year of travelling. And in that part of the world the days are hot and there’s little shade. The nights are cold and there’s little shelter. You’re staying in tents. You’re surrounded by camels. There are no toilets, baths or electricity and you miss your family. There is danger from bandits and wild jackals.

They made big sacrifices to follow a star. “We saw his star in the east” they say in v2. Astronomers say there was an alignment of Jupiter and Saturn in 7BC. There are records in China dating back to 4BC of an unusual evanescent star. We know Jesus wasn’t born in the year zero, but a few years earlier, so that might explain the star from a human point of view. The star could have been a supernatural manifestation of the Lord’s glory, who knows? It’s a detail.

The point is the Magi went to great lengths to pursue it. Sometimes following the Jesus that the star led to means blood, sweat and tears too. Jesus spoke of following him and taking up your cross in the same breath. Being a follower of Jesus can mean making an unpopular and costly stand at work. A friend of mine was once asked by his company to defend a dossier that he knew involved false accounting in order to secure a contract. He said, “I’m not going to do that.” They said “Why not?” He said “This is morally wrong and, as a Christian, I am telling you I will have no part in it.” They told him to clear his desk by 5:00pm that day. Following Jesus can mean working hard, painfully hard, at a troubled marriage instead of taking the easy way out. Following Jesus can mean forgoing marriage for his sake. Following Jesus can mean forgiving a parent who has abused you. It can mean all manner of adversity. But I want to say that God honours sacrifice. He honoured the Magi for the hardship that they endured for the sake of Christ. They would be amongst the first to see the awesome glory of God in human form. What distinction! What an honour!

Sometimes, looking at the titles in Christian bookshops, I get the impression that the most important thing in the world for many Western Christians is personal fulfilment and earthly happiness. It’s as if the ultimate goal in the Christian life is successfully assuming every role, having all your ambitions fulfilled, marrying a perfect spouse, attaining a good standard of living, and having a body that is not too fat, not too thin but a normal, healthy size. Self-help is everywhere, but where are the Christian bestsellers on self-denial, on the necessity of putting off personal happiness till later for the sake of Christ, on serving Christ in all circumstances? Is there anyone who dares to say to our generation, “you will never be happy, never be fulfilled, if Jesus is simply a servant of your personal fulfilment programme?”

David Livingstone, the great pioneer of the gospel who made Jesus known deep into the heart of the African continent, once said this. “People talk of the sacrifice I have made in spending so much of my life in Africa. Can that be called a sacrifice, which is simply acknowledging a great debt we owe to our God, which we can never repay? Is that a sacrifice, which brings its own reward in healthful activity, the consciousness of doing good, peace of mind, and a bright hope of a glorious destiny? It is emphatically no sacrifice. Rather it is a privilege. Anxiety, sickness, suffering, danger, foregoing the common conveniences of this life - these may make us pause, and cause the spirit to waver, and the soul to sink; but let this only be for a moment. All these are nothing compared with the glory which shall later be revealed in and through us. I never made a sacrifice. Of this we ought not to talk, when we remember the great sacrifice which he made who left his Father's throne on high to give himself for us.”

That’s right. God honours the sacrifices we make, but what are they in comparison with what he did for us? So I want to encourage those of you who are paying the price for following Christ today. Lift up your heads. God crowns you with honour and the best is yet to come.

3) God Delights in Worship

The last thing I want to say is that God delights in worship. The Magi were ready to be worshipers.

The gifts they brought (gold, incense and myrrh) were, I understand, typical of the kind of presents one would offer royalty in that time and culture. They were making a statement about who Jesus is. They talk about the King of the Jews in v2 - but they almost certainly weren’t Jews themselves so why should they go to such lengths to bring him their tribute? I can only suggest that, at the end of the road, he had become their king too.

Even though they may well have come from a background of devotion to the elements of earth air, fire and water, even though, as far as we know, Magi were opposed in principle to the idea of any personal god, they appear to have put all that behind them to become worshippers. Ask yourself this morning; is my worship up to the standard of these men who were only just coming out of pagan rituals.

“We have come to worship him.” They say in v2. In v11 they adore the newborn king. That same verse speaks of bowing down. So they gave praise to God with their whole selves, not just with their minds. Their adoration was engaged, not passive. It says that they offered treasures. They expressed worship to Christ with their wealth, not just with their words. It was costly, not cheap. In v10 we read that they were overjoyed. So their devotion touched their emotions too. It was glad, not cheerless.

Focussed on who God is, full bodied, costly, joyful, transforming adoration; this is worship that God delights in. This is worship that God deserves.

Ending

So, as I close, let us come before God the Father and ask him to make into us a people who never tire of seeking his face. Let us come before God the Son and ask him that we will gladly make sacrifices, laying down our lives for his and for the gospel’s sake. And let us come before God the Holy Spirit, and ask him to draw us to be the kind of worshippers in whom God delights.


Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 3rd January 2010

Encounters with God: Moses (Exodus 20.18-21 and 34.29-35)

Introduction

Have you ever wondered why the Bible is like it is? As a young Christian I used to think to myself sometimes, “Why isn’t the Bible easier to read? Why doesn’t it just have straightforward index-linked, easy-to-remember lists of truths about God, about life and about the way things are?”

For example, don’t you think it would be easier if you just opened the Bible and it said, “Chapter 1: Holiness. God is holy. Holiness means being separated or set apart from all that is not good and praiseworthy. Christians should be holy too, but that does not mean pious or sanctimonious. It means living in the power of the Holy Spirit so as to be attractively distinctive from the world around. For examples of holiness see page 582-590. Chapter 2: God is loving.” And so on?

Wouldn’t things be simpler that way?

But it is significant that God’s word does not come to us in propositional statements like that. There’s a reason for it. God, in his wisdom, has given us most of the Bible in narrative, that is to say stories (true stories) about real and ordinary people, and how their real choices, real words and real actions affected their relationship with God and changed their understanding of his ways.

The Bible is not a theoretical text book. It’s a how-to book with true-to-life examples. Even in the New Testament letters, where you do have hundreds of propositional statements;

• The wages of sin is death
• God is love
• Rejoice in the Lord always
• It is God’s will that you should be holy
• Christ has been raised from the dead etc., etc.

Even then, the letters are real correspondence between real people; it’s a living dialogue that had to do with what people do and how they respond to God.

I say this because we’re starting a series of talks tonight on encounters with God. We’re going to look at people like Moses, Jacob, Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Mary, Peter and Paul at moments in their lives where they met with God.

Jesus looked at the Pharisees and Teachers of the Law once and said to them, “You search and study the Scriptures so diligently, so carefully, because you think that in them you possess eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.”

In other words what Jesus is saying is this: “As much as systematic theology and Bible study and learning doctrine are important and commendable disciplines, you know what?, it’s all about an encounter with the living God.”

God’s Awesome Presence

How do you meet with God? Apart from coming to services like these, do you set aside time in order to do so?

Sometimes God meets people with a majestic display of power and holiness. That was the case for Moses and Isaiah. Sometimes he speaks to them with a still, small voice. That was the case for Elijah and Jeremiah. Sometimes it’s an unexpected revelation in the middle of a normal day; that was the case for Mary and Peter. Sometimes it’s very physical; Jacob wrestled with an angel, Paul fell to the ground and was blinded.

I think God meets with us in different ways because for each of us he has a unique plan. Whenever God meets with us he always chooses the way that best accomplishes his purpose. We encounter God in many different ways but whatever way it is will always be about God’s plan and will in our lives.

Here, with Moses, the encounter with God is a fearful, imposing and disturbing manifestation of noise and light. Let’s just read it again, starting in Exodus 20.18:

“When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance and said to Moses, ‘Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die.’ Moses said to the people, ‘Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning.’ The people remained at a distance, while Moses approached the thick darkness where God was.”

Why did God manifest his presence so dramatically here? I think the answer lies in the context. The Hebrew people were just starting a new-found existence as a nation under God, not long freed from centuries of slavery in Egypt. It was a new dawn for them. The first (and instinctive) thing people do on being released is to express their freedom by saying, “No one’s going to tell me what to do anymore!”

This is why it was important for Israel to see God’s awesome power and authority. Unless they had witnessed this display of God’s greatness and glory they would never have listened to Moses. They would have turned round and said to Moses, “Who do you think you are? Who set you up as our leader, telling us what to do and where to go?”

And, in fact, as soon as they forgot God’s power and might that is precisely the sort of thing they did say as Numbers and Deuteronomy show.

Three Observations

Number one (and it’s obvious, really): The full manifestation of God’s presence is an overwhelmingly awe-inspiring thing (v18). Try and imagine standing at the foot of a great mountain under a broodingly violent thunderstorm; there are sudden thunderclaps that make you jump, there are distant and menacing low rumbles that make the hair on the back of your neck stand up, there are loud and abrupt trumpet bursts that startle you; there is dazzling, sheet lightning behind heavy lead-grey clouds. The mountain is covered in thick, billowing smoke.

God’s coming near was a fearsome experience. The letter to the Hebrews describes it in these words; “…a mountain… that is burning with fire, …darkness, gloom and storm… a trumpet blast… a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them… The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, ‘I am trembling with fear.’”

There have been times in my life - particularly when I have heard God speak prophetically revealing secrets of the heart or seen God heal visibly and instantly - and my principal emotion was awe; an adrenaline rush akin to alarm but without the sense of dread. But usually we only ever experience a fraction of the full, crushing, awe-inspiring grandeur of God’s holy presence.

I think I can usually spot mature, discerning Christians in a church of strangers. Believers who really know God tend to be mindful of his utter holiness and formidable greatness when they come to worship. They know that the full manifestation of God’s presence is overwhelmingly awe-inspiring. There’s something about their body language that expresses a holy reverence and a healthy fear of the Lord even when his presence is not especially manifest.

Second observation here: Most people at Sinai chose to stay at a safe distance from God’s presence (v18).

Why do people often prefer to remain at a distance from God? Some people keep their distance because they just assume that God cannot be known. Others avoid God, because they are living with sin in their lives and are not prepared to have that challenged and changed. Sadly, many remain at a distance, because they have a false view of God and they assume (wrongly) that he could never love them after all they have done. It says here in v18 that the Israelites kept their distance from God because they were scared. It was beyond their experience.

Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning.”

Here is clear evidence that the fear of the Lord is nothing to do with being scared of him. Moses explicitly says, “Do not be afraid.” But in the very next sentence he explains that the reason for all the thunder and lightning is so that they will learn to fear the Lord.

My definition of the fear of the Lord is: “an acute awareness of the presence of God’s power that produces a sense of awe, calls forth reverence and inclines the heart away from sin.”

So Proverbs 14:27 says, “The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, turning people from the snares of death.” Then Proverbs 19:23 says “The fear of the Lord leads to life: then one rests content, untouched by trouble.”

Third observation here: Most people preferred to meet with a man than meet with God. They would rather that someone else might speak to God on their behalf (v19).

As an ordained minister I get a similar refrain sometimes; “You’re a vicar. Will you say a prayer for my daughter? You’re a priest. Will you come and exorcise my haunted house?”

They said, “Look Moses, we don’t think it’s appropriate for us to talk to God directly, so we’ll just talk with you, and then you can go and tell God what we think. We don’t really feel it’s our place to go up the mountain, we don’t feel led, you go!”

They wanted someone to stand between them and God; an intermediary. So that is what Moses did. Years later, judges, then prophets, then priests and then kings all stood before God and spoke with him on behalf of the people, representing their concerns to God and hearing the word of God for them. But now the Lord Jesus Christ stands forever a perfect mediator between us and God and he gives all who have faith in him (you, you and you…) free and unlimited access to the throne of the heavens!

The Transformational Encounter

What happened when Moses came back from his face-to-face encounter with God? Chapter 34, v29 says his face was radiant because he had spoken with the Lord. They had to put a veil over his face because the brightness of his countenance was almost otherworldly. It says in v30 that they were afraid to come near him.

This event turns up in the New Testament, in 2 Corinthians 3, where it says this:

“Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, (he’s talking about the Law of Moses that absolutely everyone failed to keep) if that came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory… will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious?

…We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to prevent the Israelites from seeing the end of what was passing away… But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And with unveiled faces we all contemplate the Lord's glory, being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord...”

In other words what it means is this: the freedom of the Holy Spirit to know God and love him is so much better than the dreary, pious and half-hearted observance of religious regulations and guidelines. God’s glory and majesty shone brilliantly in Moses’ face when he gave the law. So how much more should his glory and majesty be seen in holy joy and abundant blessing and overflowing grace in our lives as we grow in our relationship with God?

Two observations on chapter 34 and then I’ll close:

Firstly, Moses’ encounter with God had a visibly transformational effect (v29). It’s not that the people could see God’s presence in Moses. The reality is that it was so bright they couldn’t ignore it. I’ve heard people say of Christians who have met with God, or who are brand new born again, “She is radiant” or “He is just glowing.” With Moses it was just one man out of a whole nation. With the Church it’s thousands at the same time.

How often do you spend time with God? Put it this way, if you could, would you spend more time soaking in his presence? Listen – you can! The more you do, the more people will say, “You’re radiant, you glow.” Your face probably won’t light up a room. But the time you spend in the wonderful presence of God will have an effect on your life - and people will know you have been with God. Your meeting with God, my meeting with God has a visibly transforming effect.

Second observation: Moses’ encounter with God included hearing from him (v32). It wasn’t just a weird experience. It wasn’t just a buzz or a great feeling. In all the encounters with God in the Bible there’s substance, there’s content. God speaks.

The point of Moses’ encounter with God was to pass on to the people the words God had spoken with him face-to-face. That’s another classic feature of meeting with God; if it’s genuine, it will have a prophetic edge. You hear from God in some way and you know it’s God because when you pass it on to someone else later it’s fresh and alive. Someone was saying this morning we pray “Give us today our daily bread.” Yesterday’s is stale. You can’t live off yesterday’s blessings, yesterday’s experiences, yesterday’s breakthroughs. What is God’s word to me today? I’ll never know unless I set aside time to meet with him.


Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 3rd January 2010

The Thick Darkness Where God Is (Exodus 20.21)

Introduction

A friend of mine, who is retired now, once told me about an experience he had when he was a newly consecrated bishop. He was visiting a saintly old lady in hospital and towards the end of his visit she turned to him and said, “Now look here, if you’re going to be worth having as a Bishop, never forget Exodus 20.21. You do know that verse don’t you?” (It just so happened that Bishop John Taylor is an expert in Hebrew and has written commentaries on the Old Testament but for the life of him he couldn’t remember anything about that verse. “Well?” she said, “Do you know the verse or don’t you?”

A little embarrassed, he started to confess that that particular verse had momentarily escaped his memory, but she cut him in mid sentence. “Never forget,” she said, “the thick darkness where God is.”

When he got home he looked it up. Sure enough, Exodus 20.21 says, “Moses approached the thick darkness where God was.” Psalm 97 mentions this same heavy, dense blackness as well: “Clouds and thick darkness surround him.” Isn’t this a bit of a surprise? Wouldn’t you expect the Bible to say instead that God is surrounded by radiant light?

I mean to say that already this evening we have sung the words, “God of God, light of light,” “All is calm, all is bright,” “In your dark streets shines the everlasting light,” and “Radiant beams your holy face.” Who may dare intrude into God’s awesomely holy presence without due humility and reverence?

In Psalm 139 it says, “If I say, ‘Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,’ even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.” You could travel to the bleakest place on (or under) the earth – and God would still be there.

In Darkness We See More

450 miles north of Santiago in Chile, high up in the Andes at an altitude of nearly 8,000 feet, is the La Silla Paranal Observatory. It’s one of the best places for stargazing in the world. About 7,000 stars can be seen there. In any town you can only ever make out a few hundred. From La Silla Paranal you can see the Milky Way, the Andromeda galaxy and amazing meteor showers with the naked eye.

It’s so remote that there is no light pollution from nearby cities. There are hardly any blinking lights from passing airliners because it’s so near the mountains. The night sky there is as inky black as anything you will ever see. But that is why it’s possible to see and admire the visible universe so distinctly there.

It’s why diamonds are always shown on a black velvet cloth. Their beauty and brilliance is that much more striking that way.

It’s why the eternally glorious Son of God entered the earth in a shabby stable, surrounded by beasts of burden and farm odours. His grandeur and splendour are so much more stunning that way.

No room at the inn. What did it feel like? Everyone shakes their head and closes their front door in front of you. Every hotel, every B and B, every guesthouse, every hostel in town has the “No Vacancies” sign up… everywhere is full.

Or is it? I mean, how full were these places really?
Think about it a minute. You turn up at a hotel one night and ask for a room.
The receptionist says, “Sorry sir, we are full.”
So you reply, “I don’t think you understand. There must be some mistake. I am the Queen’s Private Secretary and she will be here in an hour.”

If it was the Queen, she would say, “I’ll just speak to the manager, sir.” While she’s away speaking to him you set your mobile phone to go off in 12 minutes. 10 minutes later the manager appears with the surprising news that there must have been some understanding and there is a room free after all.

You thank the man and start to make the necessary arrangements, when suddenly your mobile phone rings. You switch off the alarm and say into the phone, “Good evening Ma’am… Yes, ma’am. I see ma’am… Certainly ma’am. Goodbye ma’am.” Turning to the hotel manager you say, “Her Majesty is not able to come tonight after all. Tell you what, as you’ve gone to so much trouble, I’ll take her room!”

But Joseph and Mary are lost in a strange town, exhausted from the long journey, stressed by the increasingly frequent contractions and feeling deflated by all the “No Vacancies” signs. They’re in no state to argue and so they settle for the one offer they get; a cheerless and dingy outhouse where the donkeys and cattle bed down for the night. It’s the darkness where God is…

Two Examples

About 2½ million people in sub-Saharan Africa die from AIDS every year. It leaves widows with no income and orphans with nowhere to live and no one to love them. It leaves desperately sick people with no healthcare in some of the world’s poorest countries. Every death is a grim tragedy for someone.

I have a friend called Chris Brooks, who is a medical doctor. Shortly before he was due to retire, he gave up everything he had and moved to Malawi, one of the poorest countries on earth, and where life expectancy is just 48 years old. He set up two clinics giving free healthcare to penniless nobodies. Last year, his clinics treated 120,000 people with dignity and care and attention.

I once asked him how he keeps going in such a wretched place with so much misery and do you know what he said? He said that the presence of the Lord is never stronger, never more real, and never more tangible than when serving the poorest of the poor because it’s so close to the heart of God. 60% of HIV/AIDS programmes in Africa are funded and run by churches. They’re in the thick darkness where God is.

If I asked you to name the three most dangerous, most violent, most volatile countries in the world, I think most of you would still put Iraq in there somewhere.

It’s still a perilous place. The vicar of Baghdad, Andrew White, gave an interview at the height of the troubles there about two years ago and he said this:

“Sometimes the news is so bad that all I can do is sit on my bed and cry. A few years ago 10 people in my church were killed in a single week. You can’t help yourself asking ‘Lord, why?’ Every member of my Alpha team was killed once when their minibus was ambushed on their way to a conference in Jordan.”

“Eleven members of my staff were shot dead in 2007. I’ve seen people come to our church at the risk of their lives. It takes them 3 hours to complete the one mile journey because of all the security. I’ve made pastoral visits having to wear a bulletproof helmet in a helicopter that came under fire from bandits.”

“We have five Alpha courses now, in three languages. People are coming to Christ dozens at a time. The previous owner of the place where I work left a fantastic baptistery for us. It’s Saddam Hussein’s old swimming pool and we have baptized hundreds in it, always at 6 in the morning, sometimes to the sound of distant explosions.”

Wherever you find suffering and affliction and gloom on earth – you’ll find God at work. Whatever your darkness is; family worries, bereavement, illness, joblessness, depression, financial problems, loneliness… The thick darkness is where God is.

Ending

It was in Bethlehem’s dark streets in a backstreet cow shed that Jesus came to earth - because it’s in the darkness that God is most at work.

There was barely daylight at noon the day Jesus died - because it’s in the darkness that God is most at work.

It was pitch dark in the cold, stone sealed tomb on Easter Sunday morning - and you know what happened there.


Sermon preached at the Carol Service at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 20th December 2010