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1 Corinthians 1:18-31 – The Wisdom of God and the Wisdom of man

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1 CORINTHIANS 1V18 – 31.

 

The Wisdom of God and the Wisdom of man

 

1. INTRODUCTION.

 

Verses 10 – 17 are dealing with the divisions in the Church at Corinth. [We will deal with these when we come to chapter 3] The divisions arose over leaders. The members of the Church were aligning themselves behind Paul, Peter, Apollos and Christ; possibly others as well. Before Paul actually deals with these divisions he lays a foundation for the wisdom and power of the gospel.

 

Corinth was a cosmopolitan city influenced very much by Greek Philosophy and by Roman law.

Even though the Romans ruled the world of the time it was the Greeks who had the cultural and intellectual influence. The international language of the day was Greek. That is why the NT was written in Greek so that it could be understood internationally.

 

Greek philosophy dominated the intellectual world. Corinth was a intellectual centre; it was a natural bridge between the eastern and western Mediterranean. It was where many travellers passed through and was therefore a strategic place both commercially and culturally.

 

Some commentators tell us that there were up to as many as 50 identifiable Philosophical parties.

[philo = to love; sophia = wisdom] Love of Wisdom.

 

There were numerous travelling Sophists [teachers; orators] who would give lectures or hold debates about religion, education, economics, politics and social issues. And they would charge a fee  for doing so – the more popular and articulate the speaker the greater the fee.

 

In their arguments to belittle Paul some of the Corinthians were saying that he couldn’t have been much of a speaker if he didn’t even charge a fee. [alluded to by Paul in 2 Cor.11v7]

 

ILLUST: Mrs Thatcher can command large sums of money for her world speaking tours.

How do we judge her message? By its content or by the persuasiveness of her arguments and her oratory [and possibly by the persuasiveness of her handbag]? or by the fee she is paid?

 

Some of the Corinthian Christians had brought this kind of thinking into the Church. Paul here reminds them that this is absurd, as the cross is foolishness to the philosophies of this world. You can’t add human wisdom to God’s wisdom. You can’t add to what God has done!

 

2. THE FOOLISH MESSAGE. [1v18-25]

 

There were no chapters and verses in Paul’s original letter and the link between v17 and v18 is important.

He is drawing a distinction between the word of human wisdom and the word of the cross

 

[Christ sent me to] preach the gospel

not with words [logos] of human wisdom

…. for the message [logos] of the cross

… is the power of God [v17-18 extracts]

 

The logos that belongs to human wisdom and the logos that belongs to the cross are mutually exclusive.  Paul is telling the Corinthians Christians that there is no longer any need to follow the philosophies of human wisdom. Don’t be misled and divided by human speculautions. Don’t get carried away with philosophy.

 

People today are still carried along by various philosophies – caught up in the admiration of human opinion and human thinking. Human philosophies will always come up short – they will always be found wanting.

 

ILLUST: Communism was to be the new idea that would solve all the world’s problems. Has it?

Has Capitalism? Has democracy?

 

None of these things answer the basic questions of life.

 

ILLUST: As Ecclesiastes teaches, Life from an under the sun perspective, a human perspective, is meaningless!!

 

The only thing that can give meaning to life is the Gospel and it is that very thing that human philosophy rejects as foolishness. The world doesn’t want to know what the Bible says. Yet they all decry the terrible state of the nation and none of them have any answers to the dilemma.

 

To those who reject the Message of the cross, to those who are perishing, the message appears to be foolish nonsense. And it remains that way as long as they continue in their unbelief. The message of the gospel is not something that people can figure out for themselves given enough time and enough intelligence. NO!

 

The gospel is not philosophical wisdom but revealed wisdom. And that is why is only makes sense to those who are being saved. It was one of the early Church fathers who said,”I believe in order to understand”. Until God’s Spirit enlightens our minds the cross remains foolishness. And so it was to the Greeks and the Jews of Paul’s day.

 

Paul was writing to the Corinthian Church not because these philosophies were prevelant in the world but because they had crept into the Chrurch. It’s the same today.

 

Martyn Lloyd-Jones, “The whole drift toward modernism that has blighted the Church of God and nearly destroyed its living Gospel may be traced to an hour when men began to turn from revelation to philosophy.”

 

What are we doing when philosophy takes over from revelation. We are elevating man and lowering God. But that is man’s way.

To promote self.

To exalt self.

To be self-willed and proud and independent.

To think that we are so clever and have the answers to life’s questions appeals to our ego.

 

The cross of Christ cuts right across this way of thinking. It asks us to do nothing – allows us to do nothing – except respond to the message of the cross and accept Christ. It deals with our sin and it also deals with our pride.

 

Philosophical wisdom doesn’t deal with these. Human education and technological advncement are good things and properly used are of great benefit to mankind. BUT philosophy is bankrupt when it come to when it come to human nature, morality, sin, God and the hereafter.

 

Paul is being very sarcastic in v20.

Where is the wise man?

Where is the scholar?

Where is the philosopher of the age?

 

Paul is really asking,”Where are all these clever people who can solve the world’s problems?”

How much closer in peace than it was 100/1000 years ago?

Are we any closer to beating hunger, poverty, crime, immorality than they were in Paul’s day?

Has all our technology made us advance?

Has our education made us more moral?

Has international communication made us understand each other any better?

The basic human problems still remain!! And human wisdom is itself a basic part of the problem.

 

All of this worldly wisdom and philosophy hasn’t brought us any closer to God.

For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom

did not know Him, God was pleased through the foolishness of

what was preached to save those who believe. [v.21]

 

Salvation comes to those who take God at his word and believe in Jesus Christ and what he did on the cross. You can’t argue a person into the kingdom of God.

 

ILLUST: Farhad a young Muslim man after many evenings of discussion. “You are right Jesus must have claimed to be the Son of God but it’s too hard, I can’t believe it”

 

Philosophical argument saved no one.  The gospel is the power of God unto salvation, to all those who believe.

 

Paul now goes on to give two examples of those who rejected the cross in his day because they considered it to be foolishness.

Jews demand miraculous signs and

Greeks look for wisdom. [v.22]

 

They considered it to be foolish because it didn’t coincide with their idea about how to find God. The Jews had expected the Messiah to be a majestic conquerering king whose work would be accompanied by the kind of spectacular miracles that occured in the OT. Yet Jesus performed miracle after miracle in public for them all to see yet they did not believe.

Even though OT passages like Ps.22 and Isa. 53 foretold a suffering Messiah the Jews simply reinterpreted these passages to fit in with their preconceived ideas. To them a crucified Messiah was a contradiction in terms. This was a stumbling block to the Jews [v 23]. [a scandal]

 

To the Greeks God was ultimate reason – God could not feel – therefore if he didn’t fit what they thought was reasonable then he couldn’t possibly be God. If he couldn’t feel then the idea of a God who suffered was a contradiction in terms.. To them God was utterly detached and remote. The idea of God in Christ reconciling the world to himself through the cross was both incomprehensible and ridiculous. It was foolishness [v23] mwria – moron. – moronic.

 

What is clear from both these groups is that they refuse to bow the knee before God, instead they are determined to to make God fit their own ideas and desires.

 

Is this not like the world in which we live today. As long as God is there to christen us when we are born, bless us when we are married and comfort us when we die then we are satisfied, as long as he doesn’t  interfere with the rest of my life. As soon as we have preconceived ideas about what God can and cannot do and will and will not do we fall into the same trap as the Jews and Greeks of Paul’s day.

 

As long as the Jews continue to seek a sign and the Greeks cling to the wisdom they remain separated from God. The very thing they rejected – this foolishness/ this madness/ this cross – is in fact the only true sign and wisdom.

 

The scandal of the cross. It is hard for us to understand what the cross meant in Paul’s day. It was the most shameful,  despicable death anyone could die. It was reserved for the lowest criminals and the dregs of society. There was nothing more humiliating.

 

From a human point of view the Cross is folly and weakness. BUT it is this very foolishness and weakness that is in fact the demonstration of the wisdom and power of God. And that is only evident by the supernatural act of God saving both Jews and Greeks [Gentiles].

 

It is in the cross that God nullifies human wisdom. It is in the cross that God overpowers his enemies. The only message a Christian has to proclaim is the message of the cross, the Son of God becoming a man, dying to pay for our sins and being raised from the dead in order to give us new life.

For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom,

and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength. [v.25]

 

Paul is not saying that God is either weak or foolish. But that if God could possess any sort of foolishness it would be wiser than man’s greastest wisdom. And if it was possible for God to be weak that would still be stronger than man’s greatest strength.

 

In talking about God’s foolishness and weakness Paul means of course from the unbeliever’s perspective. Tragically, it is this very work of God that man rejects that is the only thing that can save man. The cross is the greatest demonstration of God’s power and wisdom.

 

3. THE FEEBLE RECIPIENTS. [1v26-31]

 

Paul now moves on from the foolish message to the feeble recipients.

Paul didn’t write 1 Corinthians to argue against the world’s false boasting, but rather because this boasting had crept into the Church at Corinth. Christians were glorying in their own abilities and and elevating their gifts. They were forgetting that their faith depended on God’s call and not on their merit. They were forgetting that the gospel is the message of the cross!!

 

Being Christains doesn’t mean that we are immune from false pride. We like to think that we can in some way contribute. But such an attitude reduces the power of the cross. Paul now reminds them that they in fact had nothing to offer God.

 

READ VV.26-28.

 

Paul tells those who think that they need worldly philosophy and wisdom to simply remember themselves as they used to be before God stepped into their lives. Most of them were the nobodies of society. They had nothing to crow about.

 

God is not interested in our social standing, our educational qualifications or our bank balance! Those things may carry weight in society but not in terms of our salvation. On the day of Judgement God isn’t going to ask us what school we went to. What counts is how we respond to the message of the cross of Christ.

 

God’s ways are not our ways! His wisdom is a kind of paradox. It was not that there were no wealthy or influential people in the church at Corinth, But not many. The philosophers and those walking the corridors of power were conspicuous by their absence.

 

This was not just true of Corinth but has been the case all through Church history!

What did Jesus say in Matt.11v25:

I praise you Father, Lord of heaven and earth,

because you have hidden these things from the

wise and learned, and have revealed them to little children.

 

It was the riff-raff, the scum of the earth that God chose to make kings and priests in his kingdom.

 

ILLUST: {MacArthur} A simple, uneducated, untalented and clumsy believer who has trusted in Jesus Christ as Saviour and who faithfully and humbly follows his Lord is immeasurably wiser than the brillant Ph.D  who scoffs at the gospel.. The simple believer knows forgiveness, love, grace, life, hope, God’s word – God himself. He can see eternity. The unbelieving Ph.D, on the other hand, knows nothing beyond his books, his own mind, and his own experience. He sees nothing beyond this life, and con be considered nothing but foolish.

 

ILLUST: We are often tempted to think that if this famous lady or that national sports star became a Christian they could make a real contribution to the gospel. NO! no more than any one else!

 

Servants are not highly reverred in the world but in God’s economy if you want to be great you must learn to be a servant.

 

ILLUST:  By God’s standards John the Baptist was the greatest, apart from Jesus himself.

I tell you the truth: Among those born of women

 there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist:

yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven

is greater than he. [Matt.11v11]

John the Baptist had no formal education, no political standing, no social position, no military rank and no money.

 

Those who remain proud and arrogant and unbelieving will never know true power and wisdom.

God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble [Prov.3v34. cf James 4v6]

 

God is constantly in the business of bringing proud people to their knees so that they can enter his presence in repentance and faith.

 

Paul’s purpose is not just to show that Corinthians that they have nothing to boast about but also to show the wonderful grace of God. That God can take the nobodies of the world and makes them sombodies for Him – that’s grace!

 

To know God is to know wisdom! And we have wisdom if we know him. He has given to us righteousness, sanctification and redemption. This is the wisdom of God and this is amd possible only by the Cross which is foolishness to the world.

Because of Christ’s death on the foolish cross sinners can be made righteous – justified – before

God.

Because of the cross the sinner can be set apart for God; made holy and blameless.

Because of the cross the sinner can be rescued from the the power and penalty of sin – ransomed.

 

The complete and eternal acceptance of the repentant sinner is foreign to the wisdom of the world. The wisdom of men calls for clever words, good deeds and human effort to gain salvation.

 

The ways and wisdom of God spell out the message of the cross as the only way. It is not the cross plus … BUT the cross alone!!

 

Listen to the words of the prophet Jeremiah:

Thus says the Lord:”Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom,

let not the mighty man glory in his might,

let not the rich man glory in his riches,

but let him who glories, glory in this,

that he understands and knows ME,

that I am the Lord who practises

stedfast love, justice, and righteousness

 in the earth; for in these things I delight:”

 says the Lord [Jer.9v23-24]

 

If our finances, our education and our social position have no influence or merit with God, which they don’t, and if our salvation is solely God’s work, which it is, THEN we have nothing to boast about in ourselves.

 

There is no need then to feel any sense of inferiority or superiority! Anything and everything we have is as a result of God’s goodness! THEREFORE the only thing we have to boast about is God himself.

 

MacArthur ” … in Christ we have received God’s wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redmption, we have no grounds for pride or boasting, because we didn’t deserve, earn or produce any of them. Man’s wisdom can produce none of those things. It can only produce pride, misunderstanding, strife and division.”

 

Therefore says Paul quoting Jeremiah:

Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord. [v.31]

 

In ourselves we have NOTHING. In Christ we have ALL THINGS.

 

1 Corinthians 1:1-9 – Profile of a perfect church

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1 CORINTHIANS

1V1-9

PROFILE OF A PERFECT CHURCH

 

1. BACKGROUND TO CORINTH.

 

In order to better understand Paul’s first letter to Corinth we must look at the situation in the city of Corinth. Whether we like it or not we are always influenced to a greater or lesser degree by the culture in which we live.

The church in Corinth was no different. BUT we have to bear in mind that they were all new Christians and so didn’t have the long Christian tradition that we have today. Tradition can, of course, also be a problem if we allow it to adversly affect the gospel message.

Corinth was an important city, not because it was situated in good farming country, but because of it geographical position. Corinth was the city that stood on the narrow strip of land that linked the southern part of Greece with the rest of the country. This strip of land called the Isthmus linked the Peloponese with the main part of Greece and separated the Saronic Gulf from the Corithian Gulf. It was four and a half miles across.

Rather than sail around the Penninsula small ships were “rolled” overland to the other side and larger ones were unloaed and the cargo reloaded into another ship across the Isthmus. Nero tried to build a canal across this strip of land but failed. A canal was finally completed in 1893!!

 

Corinth was therefore master of these East-West Harbours. Corinth was also dominated by a hill 1850 feet high, the Acrocorinth, which meant good military defense. It also had a good supply of spring water. Corinth was destroyed by the Romans in the 2nd century B.C. But then refounded by Julius Caesar in 44 B.C. So it was a relatively young city by Paul’s time. No real aristocracy. Made up of freedmen from Rome, Greeks, Jews, slaves. There was an influx of people from east and west. The city had become very prosperous very quickly.

 

Vice and religion flourished in this new city. The Acrocorith, was the location of the Temple to Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of Love. There were reported to be 1000 preistesses in the temple who were prostitutes. They applied their trade in the city at night.

The Temple of Apollo was also in the city. He was the god of music, song and poetry. Nude statues of him were many and his devotees displayed their devotion by homosexual acts with the god’s beautiful boys. It was a city were anything and eveything was to be found.

 

It was no different to many modern seaports. It was the Soho, Amsterdam and Los Angeles of the time. Commercialism, sexual-obsession, materialism and human philosophy dominated the city.

It could be a discription of any number of cities in the world today.

 

It was into this situation that the Apostle Paul came preaching the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. [Acts 18v1-18]

 

As we read in Acts 18 Paul preached in the synagogue until he was thrown out and then moved into the house of Titius Justus. A number of prominent Jews and Greeks became Christians as well as many ordinary folk including slaves. After staying in Corinth for 18 months Paul left and went back to Ephesus

From the time of his leaving Corinth and the writing of 1 Corinthians Paul had actually written another letter which we have no copy of. He refers to this in 5v9.

This present letter is written in response to a verbal report and a letter which he has received. Possibly the verbal report given by the bearer of the letter.

 

2. THE PROBLEMS IN THE CORINTHIAN CHURCH.

 

No church is perfect because it is made up of people who are not perfect – Corinth is no different.

It was a church wrought with a number of difficulties. It was a large Church but it had become cliquish – each following a different leaders or teachings. It was also a church where social class was very entrenched – snobbery was rife. There was very little church discipline, as a result immorality was tolerated and so also was false teaching. There was a distinct lack of “putting others first”  Also, too much emphasis on dynamic spiritual gifts rather than Love grounded in Truth. AND finally a disregard for the authority of the Apostle Paul himself.

With all this background, which is important in the understanding of 1 Corinthians, we come to read what Paul wrote.

 

READ 1V1-9

 

3. PAUL’S GREETING. [V1-3]

 

Paul’s Calling

 

Paul called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God..

 

Part of the conflict in the Church at Corinth was the they were questioning the authority of Paul. Right at the outset he reminds them that his authority is directly from God. God called Paul to be an apostle- A sent one. He was commissioned by God to be God’s messenger. The authority is God’s, NOT his.

 

This is always the case with any leader in the church – not that any today have the same authority as the apostles had. That was a special calling for the establishing of the church. BUT any authority in the church must be based on the word of God alone.

Paul was specially called by God.

 

The peoples’ Calling

 

Not only was Paul called BUT so too were the Corinthian Christians. He reminds them that they are not the Church of Corinth but rather “The Church of God in Corinth” – there is no room for division in the Chruch. It is not the church belonging to this or that leader or denomination. The Church belongs to God. There will be no denominations in heaven!!

We are not the Church of Binscombe – we are the Church of God in Binscombe.

 

Ekklesia – “a company of those called out”. We are called by God, both individually and collectively. It is God who takes the initiative. Together, “together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ”  and Jesus is “their Lord and ours” No Christian or group of Christians has special claim to Jesus.

This was aproblem in Corinth as we will see 1v10-17 “I follow Paul, I follow Apollos, I follow Cephas, I follow Christ”

 

It is healthy to be reminded that the Church is not our possession – its not MY Church or YOUR Church – its GOD’S Church and we are His possession. In Fact we are SAINTS.

“Called to be Holy” – hagios – ie Saints. The set apart ones.Saints are not a special group of  pious self-sacrificing Chrsitains who have been singled out and connonized by and ecclesiatical council. NO!! EVERY CHRISTIAN IS A SAINT!!!

 

Amazingly Paul calls this bunch of weak, cliquish, Corinthian Christians, Saints. And so are we. We have St. Jane, St. Minnie, St. Roger etc…..

Unfortunately we don’t always act like Saints, do we? But that does change the fact that we are.

 

ILLUST: Presidents don’t always act like Presidents. Prime Ministers don’t always act like Prime Ministers. But the are still Presidents and Prime Ministers.

 

Christians don’t always act like Christians but they are still Christians. We have been saved, redeemed, we are in Christ and when God looks at us he see Christ and he considers us holy because of what Jesus has done for us.

Our position “in Christ” should compel us to improve our practice. [MacArthur]

 

4. PAUL’S THANKSGIVNG FOR THE CORINTHIAN CHRISTIANS. [V4-9]

 

Paul gives thanks for two areas.

– What they have recieved from God

– What they will receive from God

 

What they have received from God. [v4-7]

 

Not only has the Church recieved salvation which is, of course, a gracious gift from God but they have also recieved ALL the gifts they need.

“… his grace given you … enriched in everyway … you do not lack any spiritual gift…”

 

It is important to note here that the “YOU” is Plural. The Church has all the gifts. NO individual Christian has all the gifts. Paul will deal with this in more detail in ch.12.

There is no room in the church for people who want to operate a one-man-band.

 

There is a sense in which we have received all of God’s grace – we have received Christ and with him we have received all things.

He who did not spare his own son,

but gave him up for us all –

how will he not also, along with him,

graciously give us all things? [Romans 8v32]

 

GRACE and GIFTS are very closely linked – charis & charismata. What we have received from God in terms of our salvation and our gifts – using these words emphasises that they are unmerited. There is nothing we could have done to receive them. We never deserved them and we can never repay God for them.

 

“Grace is a gift, not a loan. Grace makes us totally indebted to God, but because the cost is so great we cannot repay it,, and because his grace is so great we need not repay it. In other words we are completely indebted but we have no debt. We cannot pay for our salvation, neither before or after we are saved” [MacArthur]

 

ILLUST: When your employer pays you he is not being gracious he is simply being honest and just. He is giving you what you deserve.

 

Salvation is priceless you can’t pay for it!!

 

One of the problem in the Corinthian Church was the misuse of the SPEAKING gifts – tongues prophecy etc. The word used is logos – same word used to discribe Jesus in John1v1

In the beginning was the Word and

the Word was with God and the Word was God

 

There were those in Corinth as there are in every generation who thought that their gift/s was /were superior to everyone else. The same is true of the word KNOWLEDGE. There were those who thought that they had access to special knowledge. If you go this way you end up with 1st and 2nd class Christians. BUT we are all special to God from the most obscure unknown Christian to the Apostle Paul Himself – all are equal!!

 

BUT Paul is  not speaking about Human wisdom or philosophy which was very popular amongst the Greeks of the day. Nor is he speaking about oratory or having a way with words.

ILLUST: Have you ever tried to talk to or discuss an issue with someone and you know what they are saying is not right but they have such a way with words that it is difficult, if not impossible, to argue with them.

 

BUT Paul is talking about God’s word and God’s knowledge which is given as a gift. The message of the cross is foolishness to the natural mind but is the power of God for salvation. It is ridiculed and considered anti-intellectual to believe the Bible.

Remember that in the context of what Paul is saying these gifts of ALL SPEAKING [LOGOS] AND ALL KNOWLEDGE are given to the Church. No one person has a monopoly of the word of God. That is why we are a team and must work as a team because the Spirit of God is at work within each one and EACH ONE has a contribution to make and is important to the healthy functioning of the body.

Having these things as gifts does not mean that we don’t have to study  and learn!!

ILLUST: An athlete has God-given ability. But If Lindford Christie didn’t train hard and use his talent he would not be World, Olympic and European 100m Champion.

 

Our goal is to be doing the best we possibly can until Jesus Christ returns as you eagerly wait for Jesus Christ to be revealed.

 

What they will receive [v8-9]

He will keep you strong to the end.

so that you will be blameless,

on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

God, who has called you into fellowship

with his son Jesus Christ our Lord,

is Faithful. [vv8-9]

 

“God saved us by his grace. He presently empowers us with gifts of his grace. He guarantees the final fulfillment of his grace. THE BEST IS YET TO COME.” [MacArthur]

 

God has called us into fellowship with Christ and he is not going to abandon us or go back on his word. One day Jersus Christ will come back and we will stand in the presence of God on the Day of Judgement – BLAMELESS.

 

This Corinthian Chruch with all its divisions and immorality and snobbery – blameless?? YES!!

This Chruch at Binscombe with all its imperfections and weaknesses – Blameless?? YES!!

Satan will not be able to bring a single charge against us. That Great Pursecutor of the Brethern will be silenced.

Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen?

It is God who justifies! [Romans 8v33]

Those he justified he also glorified …[Romans 8v30]

 

In spite of all the problems that Paul saw in Corinth he could still honestly thank God for them.

He could remeber what they used to be before God saved them and he knew what they would be when Jesus Christ returns – Holy and Blameless.

 

They same is true of us.

HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE? in a church infected by a city like Corinth? Because God was at work in them and he wasn’t finished his work in them  – AND he  isn’t finished his work in us either.  SO how is it possible to be blameless and holy??

GOD, ….. IS FAITHFUL [v9]

 

It is his doing; we can take no credit. We can only respond to his grace by living lives pleasing to him.

In the words of C T Studd that great English cricketer and pioneer missionary to China and Africa, “If Jesus Christ be God and died for me then nothing is too much for me to do for him”

May God help us to live lives worthy of our calling!

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Ulitmate pension plan

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3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 1 Peter 1:3-5

I was listening to the radio earlier this week and the presenter was leading a discussion about the recent reform of the state pension. As always, there were differing opinions about this issue, but some of the contributors were quite angry because they felt that the new system was unfair and they were being cheated of their hard earned retirement fund. This is a perfectly understandable reaction when faced with a situation that is perceived to be unfair. If you invest in something, whether that be financially or otherwise, it figures that you should get out at least what you put in. Continue reading →

Jonah 3 – Back to square one

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JONAH 3

Back to Square One

Jonah 3v1-10

INTRODUCTION.

 

Jonah’s experience in the belly of the fish could not have been a very pleasant one! He had faced death – in fact must have considered himself to be as good as dead – who wouldn’t, having been thrown into a raging sea and then being swallowed by a great sea creature. I doubt whether Jonah was thinking about plans for his retirement or where he would take his next holiday. Jonah had no future plans of his own – in fact he thought he had no future.

Yet within the belly of the fish God comes to Jonah and he realises that God is still with him and that he is not lost. Whether he knew at that point if he would be back in this world or simply ushered into the next, we don’t know. BUT he does know that even in the belly of the fish he is not out of reach of God’s redeeming grace.

Jonah knew that he had had an opportunity to obey God and that he had blown it. God had told him to go to Nineveh and Jonah had flatly refused.

Maybe there has been a point in your life when you know that you have disobeyed God. Maybe you willfully followed your own way – like Jonah you blew it. And ever since then you have felt like a second class Christian and God will never again ask you to do any thing significant for him. If that is how you feel then take courage from Jonah – God is the God of new beginnings.

The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time …[v1]

Intially Jonah had thought he had gotten away with disobeying God. BUT God is gracious and sends the storm and the wind and the fish to rescue Jonah from himself and his disobedience.

Imagine Jonah sitting on the beach covered in fish’s vomit – “Well I never expected to get out of there alive. I am glad that is over now I can go home!!”

 

 

1. GOD’S MISSION IS UNCHANGING.

After God has rescued Jonah he renews his command ” Go to … Nineveh..” God’s purpose was that his message be proclaimed in the great city of Nineveh and that Jonah was the one to do it. God had not changed his mind. Jonah is back at square one. Jonah had gone off at a tangent but God brings him back – as we saw in chapter 2 – back to repentence and renewed faith in him.

God has chosen the church to proclaim his message to the world and he has not changed his mind.

#God therefore and maked disciples of ALL nations….

#You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea,

Samaria and the ends of the earth………

#As the Father has sent meinto the world, I am sending you…

The Church’s mission to take the message of God to the World is unchanged. God hasn’t rewritten his agenda. He has changed his mind. Sometimes that Church has forgotten that – we have got involved in all sorts of worthy causes.

* one the one hand – we have become involved in social action – working together in ecumenical structure to bring relief and social justice. Good essential involvements BUT alone do not comprise the gospel.

* one the other hand – those who are more theologically correct have been busy developing good theology – to ensure that it is sound – often our theology is so sound that we are sound asleep. Dead orthodoxy.

* then there is the expectation that the world has of the church – the church is there to serve the community. “Why doesn’t the church do this or that..”   The church does not exist to please the community BUT to please God and serve him. If we are serving God as we should we will meet needs within the community BUT we may not please everyone in the community.

God’s mission is unchanging and God had brought Jonah back on track. His past failure did not prevent his future service. If you have failed God in the past and maybe feel that you still are – be assured of this God can bring you back.

It was not because Jonah tried harder or gained God’s favour somehow BUT it was purely an act of God.s grace that brought him back.

Is is grace that brings salvation and it is still grace that restores us when we are disobedient.

God brought Jonah back and gave the same command a second time. When God restores the Church he does not change his commission – his commision to take the gospel to the world is unchanging.

2. GOD’S METHOD IS UNCHANGING.

 

Go to that great city of Nineveh and proclaim [PREACH]

to it the message I give you [v2]

Have you ever wished that God would communicate to people in  a different way – If only there was a different method than more people would believe. If we could prove the existence of God then more would believe. If only God would do some signs and wonders then more would believe. If only we had a very lively, funny, entertaining preacher who people would flock to hear then ….

BUT preaching is the method God has choosen. Sometime we wish it could be another way BUT God works through the foolishness of preaching.

ILLUS.: Maybe some one is saying “I like good preaching. I am glad you said that I just come along and listen to preaching.”

Well let me disappoint you !!  Preaching is the business of every Christian  “BUT I am not a preacher”

Some years ago I took a concordance and looked up every reference in the NT which is translated PREACH – there are a number of word in the gk. translated preach but only one khrwson means “proclaim / herald”, not used very often. The more common word is lalew which means to “speak about” “to have a conversation”

We have this idea that preaching the gospel is for preacher only. Being witnesses to the message of Christ is the task of every believer not just a select few who are gifted to speak up front.

Some people say “Well I witness by my life”. – That is very commendable and necessary but we are still responsible to witness by our words. We have to visualise and verbalise the gospel.  Yes we must be living a christian life and then out of the context speak about the faith we have.

We may wish that God would use miraculous signs – but we need to be reminded of what Jesus said about those who seek signs and wonders.

A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign!

But none will be given except the sign of the prophet Jonah [Matt12v39]

What did the sign of Jonah point to? – it pointed to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. That is the message that we are to proclaim. How can the world hear the gospel unless someone tells them?? God has committed that task to the church!

It is his intension to use people to tell people!!  May be the problem with the modern Western church is that we are still in the belly of the fish!!

OR maybe we have simply allowed our society to mould us.

As someone put it. “Some are people are made by the time and some are made for the times”  Very few seem to be made for the times.

ILLUS.: Difference between a theromstat and a thermometer. A thermometer tells you what the temperature is. A thermostat reads the temperature and does something about it. It switches the heating on or off.

The thermometer- person is controlled by the trends in society. The thermostat – person tries to set the trends reather than follow or be controlled by them.

 

Which are we?? Jesus said that we were to be salt and light!!

Using people to carry the message is God’s method. It is a method that is unchanging. Jonah arose and went.. Will we??

3. GOD’S MESSAGE IS UNCHANGING.

 

It is not only God’s method that does not change but also his message!

That does not mean that we use the same style of preaching that Wesley used or Spurgeon or any of the other great preacher of the passed. Or even preacher in other parts of the world or even the UK. The message does not change but the language which carries the message must be contemporary and relavant to the society listening.

I sometime wonder if people don’t understand our mesage because we use jargon that doesn’t make sense to them.  It is no good talking to a non-christian or someone who never comes to church using words and phrases like – Redemption, atonement, being washed in the blood, etc …

The message that Jonah is to proclaim is very short and to the point.

Forty more days and Nineveh will be destroyed. [v4]

Only 8 words but they are from God and God is serious about he word.

Jonah did not go to the Ninevites and engage in debate. NOT “Let’s discuss this and come to a compromise that we can all live with! We need to tolerant each others beliefs! We don’t want to offend each other”  God’s message is not debatable! And we change it at our peril and people reject it at their peril.

Jonah’s message was short and God given -Forty more days and Nineveh will be destroyed. He did not analyse it on a TV chat show, or consult about it, or carry out and opinion poll – HE PREACHED IT.

Whatever Jonah’s passed problem he now believed God’s message and preached it with conviction – he was not ashamed of it.

Are we? Or can we say with PAUL:

I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God unto salvation  [Romans1]

We need to ensure that the message we communicate is indeed the unchanging message of God. The it is Christ and Him crucified and not some insipid, watered – down version of the gospel that is scarcely recognisable as the gospel.

It must be a message that draws attention to the message and not to the messenger. Sometimes the lights from the preacher’s name blurs the name of Jesus. It is interesting the v5 says “The Ninevites believed God” It could have said they believed Jonah – but the attention is focussed on God. There is always a temptation for us – esp. preachers – to want to grab some of the limelight for ourselves.

It must be an uncompromising message. The gospel of Jesus Christ is not the pragmatic presentaion of a set of options. As if there is some kind of smorgasbord of salvation. There is only one way of salvation.

Jesus said:

I am the way, the truth and the life,

no one comes to the father but by me [Jn.14v6]

So no matter how sincere or devote a person might be if they reject God’s salvation through Jesus Christ God will reject them.

We cannot, we dare not compromise God’s unchanging message.

We see God’s wrath and anger in the coming judgement on Nineveh. BUT I thought God was a God of love and mercy and grace – where is that in the message that Jonah preached.

4. GOD’S MERCY IS UNCHANGING.

The Ninevites did repent, even the king, and  God’s judgement was withheld so it is obvious that God’s mercy was shown –

ILLUS.: Imagine being sent to Baghdad – with the same message as Jonah was sent with to Nineveh. Pretty awesome task Jonah had. And you go to Baghdad andpreach and the city’s population repents and is baptised – even Saddam Hussein.

 

This is the level of what happen to Nineveh in the ancient world!! –

– God’s mercy was shown BUT where is MERCY in the message that Jonah proclaimed??

Forty more days and Nineveh will be destroyed. [v4]

The Ninevites realised that God’s message and the way it came to them implied the possibility that they might be spared!

ILLUS.: When you receive a RED Gas, Telephone or electricity bill – Not that any here do as I am sure you all pay your bills on time – but you know about them.

A red bill is a final warning that IF it remanis unpaid the particular service will be discontinued. The warning implies a way out – pay!

 

A warning usually suggests and opportunity for escape, however slim. Maybe Jonah told them of his escape from the great fish – if so then they had a good object illustration that God is merciful.

It is when God does not warn that we are in the greatest danger!

As in Romans 1 where is says that God gave them over to their sinful desires At that point there are no more warnings only the wrath of God. What a desparate situation to be in.

So a warning is evidence that God is merciful and compassionate. And he has warned the world that if it does not turn from its wicked ways accept Jesus Christ as the only way of salvation then it will perish.

We have received that message. If you have heard God’s warning and not responded – don’t delay.

We have received God’s mercy – He has chosen us and set his love upon us —

Jesus said to his followers “You did not choose me but I chose you…” What a blessed privelege!!!

BUT the verse does not end there  You did not choose me but I chose you… and appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last  — so we have a responsibility to covey that message to the world.

Jonah’s message was not just a message of doom BUT it was a message of Hope.

So the whole city of Nineveh turned.

I prayed that God would turn this nation back to himself. His message goes out and if it does not turn his judgement will surely come!! YOU see one greater than Jonah has come!

God’s mission has not Changed!

God’s method has not Changed!

God’s message has not Changed!

God’s mercy has not Changed!

God has given us a mission! We have a message! There is hope! Our society and nationa and world might be in a mess BUT one greater than Jonah is here! And we are the ones that must tell the world!!

Go forth and tell! O Church of God awake!

God’s saving news to all the nations take:

Proclaim Christ Jesus, Saviour, Lord and King,

That all the world his worthy praise may sing.

Jonah 1 – The folly of trying to run from God

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Jonah 1

The folly of trying to run from God.

 

Introduction.

 

Jonah prophesied in the Northern Kingdom of Israel, about 150 years after King Solomon and the split of Israel into two kingdoms. Jonah was active during the reign of King Jereboam II [684-753 BC]. Even though Jereboam II was a wicked king in God’s eyes,  God was nevertheless merciful to Israel and she enjoyed much prosperity at the time.

 

READ 2 Kings 14v25-27.

 

Assyria was the great super-power to the north – experiencing some internal struggles at thr time which may account for the relative peace in Israel.

 

The fact that Jonah is meyioned in 2 Kings with regard to other prophesies suggests that he was a well established prophet before God called him to go to Nineveh.

 

Be a fly on the wall for a moment:

GOD           “Jonah predict to the king that Israel will be victorious over Syria”

JONAH      “Yes Lord”

GOD           “Tell the king I said ….”

JONAH      “Yes Lord”

GOD           “Now do this and that”

JONAH      “Yes Lord”

GOD                    “Now get up and go to Nineveh …

JONAH      “Yes [doubtfully] Lord…

GOD           “And tell them to repent..”

JONAH      “WHAT???”

 

1. Why Nineveh?

 

Why on earth does God want Jonah to go to Nineveh?

Israel had not been to faithful in following God – God showing mercy to the Ninevites might shame Israel into repentence for abusing her blessings and priveleges – unfortunately this didn’t happen with Israel.

Jonah did not want to go!!!    Maybe he feared the difficulties of the task – he feared for his life. Many a missionsry has faced peril and some have lost their lives.

 

ILLUS.: Henry Martyn was killed as a result of presenting a Persian NT to the Shah of Iran.

Richard Cameron’s head was displayed on a pole in Edinburgh for daring to preach the Lordship of Christ in Scotland 300 years ago.

 

We can understand Jonah’s temptation to flee in the light of entering hostile Assyrian territory

 

The Hebrews considered the heathen as being beneath them – Gentile dogs.

God had passed them by!! God didn’t want the Jews to have anything to do with the heathen, did he?? For Jonah to go and preach God’s grace to the heathen was unthinkable. They should be wiped out – not saved!!

The initial declaration was one of destruction and punishment but Jonah knew God was merciful and compassionate.       [READ 4v2]          This did not sit well with Jonah – he could not see past his unbiblical prejudice against the gentile. That is why he ran away.

 

Whether Jonah knew it or not he was being used to take a step forward in the fulfillment of a blessing promised to Abraham [Gen 12v3]. The message of God’s saving grace was to go out to the whole world.

 

2. Jonah on the run!

 

READ 1v3.

 

God says “GO”.    Jonah says “NO!”

God says “Go east'”           .. Jonah goes west”   [Tarshish is in Spain]

 

Jonah was abeliever and a prophet, and inspite of his disobedience, he knew God was omnipresent – he would have known the words of Ps.139v7-8:

Where can I go from your spirit?

Where can I flee from your presence?

If I go to the heavens you are there!

If I make my bed in the depths, you are there!

 

Joanh was being deliderately disobedient – he was running away!

We have seen he had an anti-Gentile prejudice. His real problem was that God might bring these Ninevites to repentence! Jonah’s theology did not have room for the salvation of the gentiles – not too many anyhow!! Jonah was angry when God spared Nineveh and Show himself to be a compassionate and merciful God.

 

The same God that ent Jonah to Nineveh is the same God that sends the Church to the world – with the same message! That he is angry with sin BUT is merciful to those who repent.

 

God required obedience of Jonah but Jonah would not listen – he was determined to do his own thing his own way! And if God did not agree with him then he would make alternative arrangements – He had better things to do than go on a wild goose chase to Nineveh!

 

Jonah chose his own way because he did not like what he saw in God’s word – it did not make sense to him – but you see the Word of God does not make sense to human wisdom – it never will!  “His ways are higher than our ways ”   –   “the wisdom of the cross is foolishness to men….”

 

So Jonah ran away!!

Trudged 60 miles from Gath Hepher to Joppa – God let him go!!

Found a ship heading west – What providence!!

Paid his fare, boarded and sailed away!  As the ship sailed away he found a quiet corner and went to sleep!

He had done it!! Escaped!

 

Just because things go well it is no guarantee that we are obeying God – conversely if the go badly it does not mean that we are disobeying!

 

ILLUS.:  Christian businessman – I must be doing it right look how God is blessing me!  Prosperity is no gaurantee of spiritually or obedience.

 

Jonah attitude was like of the thief who thinks that because he has eluded capture so far he has got away with the crime altogether!

 

It is illogical to think that just because God’s discipline is delayed does not mean it won’t come! Because things fall into place for us it does not necessarily follow that we are obeying God’s will.

 

3. Jonah is found out!

 

READ v4-7

 

The wind and the storm obeyed God. The sailors cried out to their gods but Jonah remained sleeping – silence!  But God was not going to allow Jonah to get away with this willful disobedience.

He was even going to use this to glorify his name among these heathen sailors and bring them to salvation.

 

The strom is so fierce that they pray to their gods and jettison their cargo.

BUT Jonah is sleeping!  The captian of the ship is amazed and rebukes him for not calling on his God!  Most people can’t sleep in a crisis BUT Jonah has blotted it out – oblivious to the danger that he is in – it is the sleep of one who has persuaded himself that he is safe when in fact he was in mortal danger.

 

Paul in a similar crisis 800 years later – was the one who prayed and brought assurance to the sailors – but Jonah was the cause of the crisis and he was sleeping.

 

There is an irony that the Lord had Jonah rebuked by a Heathen Captain. Jonah would never have been in the ship in the first place had he not turned his back on the God-given commission to take God’s word to the heathen! Now it is a Heathen ship’s-Captain that brings him back to God’s reality.

 

What an indictment against God’s people when it takes the heathen world to rebuke their disobedience.

 

The experience of Jonah is an example of the sin of a believer finding him out!

“Be sure your sins will find you out” It is not possible to escape from our sins, they will catch up with us in time, and – if not forgiven  and covered by the blood of Christ – then paid for in a lost eternity.

 

As Christian we can be tempted to play down sin. O we acknowledge our sin in general – after all we are not perfect – but then no one is!!  We can’t be good all the time>

BUT you see it is easy to extract general admissions of relative imperfection – after all God is only really angry with mass-murderers and rapists – There a little weakness in my life but nothing that will warrant the full wrath of and angry God.

 

And we accept that  things go wrong in the course of life and that maybe God’s way of keeping us in line “These things are sent to try us”

 

God won;t allow us to get away with that!! God does not condone in the saint what he comdemns in the sinner!!

 

Like Jonah – God eventually catches up with us and puts his finger on us and says “IT’s you”       “The Lot fell on Jonah”.

 

4. Jonah confesses!

 

READ v8-10

 

Jonah explains who his God is and why he is anger with him. The focus is upon who God is           – His holiness

– His love

– His glory

– His right to be angry with the waywardness of men who he made in

his image.

 

The sailors had been afraid of the storm but now they were terrified when they heard of Jonah’s God.

Their response to hearing of God was the corredt one – it is amazing that even though Jonah was disobedient God still use him to bring salvation to these sailors.

READ v16.  It became clear to them that the Lord was pursuing them as well – the were not just bystanders in someone else’s problem. They were not innocent victims of Jonah’s  transgression BUT they too were answerable to God for their own spiritual condition.

 

It is no excuse on Jonah’s part but it shows God”s sovereign dealings with men.  They were evangelised by Jonah’s confession.

 

CONFESSION IS NOT FORGIVENESS.

 

READ v11-12         Jonah’s confession did not mean that he was instantly forgiven and reconciled to God. The storm did not stop.

There is some how the view that God must forgive as it is is a right! NO!!

Forgiveness is not imperative – punishment is!! Forgiveness is optional – at the discretion of God’s mercy.

 

And God’s mercy is not given at the expense of his justice – hence the cross!!

 

Confession may be good for the soul BUT it is neither atonement for sin NOR a basis for forgiveness. Repentence and sorrow do not earn forgiveness.

 

Jonah had to learn in his own personal experience that the wages of sin really si death.

 

Jonah recognised that he was to blame. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you..

 

He accepted without reservation the consequences of his sin “Pick me up and throw me into the sea”

 

He does not bargin with God

 

ILLUS> many do . Lord if you get me out of this mess I’ll…..

 

Jonah anticipates God’s mercy to the sailors  v12a “.. the sea will become calm…”

 

God had called Jonah to preach to the Heathen in Nineveh!!

His prejudice would not allow him to go to his enemies -these gentile dogs.

BUT God uses some of thhese very gentiles to bring him to the place where he casts himself fully on God and His mercy

And in the process brings the message of salvation to the gentile sailors.

 

 

Titus 3:1-15 – Good deeds from salvation, not for it

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TITUS 3v1-15.

 

GOOD DEEDS FROM SALVATION, NOT FOR IT.

 

INTRODUCTION.

 

ILLUST: Newspaper article – “Surrey Advertiser”  –NEW AGE SHOP OWNER ANGRY AT ‘WITCHCRAFT’ HARASSMENT – evangelical, born-again Christian harassing and accusing the lady shop owner of evil and witchcraft.

 

Is this how Christians should behave towards those they don’t agree with? We will find the answer in this passage of scripture.

 

ILLUST: John Nichols quoted from “Christianity Today” – A printing Co. in USA who would only do work, cash up front, for anything that had a Bible text on it because Christians had such a bad payment record.

 

ILLUST: If you disagree with government legislation do you have the right to break the law? eg VAT on fuel.

 

It is not good being a citizen of heaven if by our behaviour in this world we discredit the king to whom we say we belong.

 

1. OUR PUBLIC BEHAVIOUR [V.1-2]

 

The Cretans had a reputation for not being the nicest people as Paul points out in 2v12 quoting one of their own prophets “Cretans are always liars, evil brutes and lazy gluttons”

Remember, also, that the Cretans were smarting under Roman occupation. They were not a happy group of people.

 

REMIND the people to be subject to rulers and authorities,

to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good,

to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate,

and to show true humility toward ALL men. [v1-2]

 

The fact that they are to be reminded shows that this is something that they already knew but were probably not doing.

Isn’t a lot of our teaching simply reminding. It is not that we don’t know but rather they we neglect to do what we know. We all need constant reminders.

 

ILLUST: How many times as a child were you reminded to “Put away” “Sit up straight” “Don’t chew with your mouth open” …..

As God’s children we need constant reminders!!

 

Just as Paul’s instructions for elders were that they be “blameless and above reproach” so it is true for all Christians.

 

Not only must we do these things mentioned but we must do it with the right attitude. Be ready [eager] to do what is good. This is a tough one!! Doing good to those who treat you well and to those who don’t!  Doing good to that unreasonable BOSS, that impossible relative, that rude, difficult neighbours, that argumentative, critical fellow Christian.

 

It is obeying the government and local authority without grumbling. Easy for us??!! What of those in countries were democracy is unknown.

 

QUESTION: “Do we always obey the authorities no matter what?”  Apply principles of Acts 5v29.

Peter and the others apostles had been brought

before the High Priest and his associates and

commanded not to preach about Jesus any more

Peter and the other Apostles replied,

“We must obey God rather than men”

The principle is always that God’s authority is higher than man’s. If we make such a stand we must first be certain that it is God’s word we are standing on and not our own ideas and secondly that if we make a stand we are prepared to endure the consequences.

 

ILLUST: If your company, Boss, asks you to do something dishonest will you stand for the truth and risk losing your Job.

 

Honesty is NOT always the best policy in terms of personal benefit BUT it is the RIGHT policy.

 

God is not just asking us to refrain from evil -which we must do – BUT he urges us to be eager to do good. Doing what is good has both a negative and a positive side.

 

This doesn’t mean that we don’t speak out against New Age teaching. It doesn’t mean that we back track on the truth in case someone is offended by what we teach. But we need to treat with kindness and consideration even those who disagree with us and who are our enemies.

 

The cross in an offence to those who are perishing [1Co.1] If our message is an offence, and it will be to those who reject it, BUT we are not to add to that offence by our own pride and stupidity.

 

The climax of the reminder of the things that we must DO is the last phrase of v.2 “show true humility toward ALL men.  {HUMILITY} as in 2 Tim.2v25 Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentence leading to a knowledge of the truth”

 

Mildness or humility or gentleness. [Hendriksen] – “Showing ALL mildness toward ALL people.

Showing some mildness toward some people might not be so difficult. Or showing all mildness to some people or even some mildness to all people BUT all mildness to all people even those Cretans ‘liars, evil brutes and lazy bellies’ – an assignment impossible to fulfill apart from the grace of God.”

 

2. THE MOTIVATION FOR DOING GOOD TO OTHERS. [V.3-7]

 

We have absolutely no right to treat others disdainfully. We need to remember, as Paul reminds the Cretans, what we ourselves used to be. We are what we are only by God’s grace and therefore have nothing to boast about. We need to remember what we were before God saved us.

At one time we too were foolish, disobedient,

decieved and enslaved by all kinds of passions

and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy,

being hated and hating one another. [v.3]

 

Before we were saved it was not that we were just without understanding [ that we did not know] we were unable to understand [we could not know]

 

The man without the Spirit does not accept

the things that come from the Spirit of God,

 for they are foolishness to him and

he cannot understand them, because they

are spiritually discerned. [1 Co.2v14]

 

It is only because of the kindness and love of God that we are no longer in that state!

 

READ V.4-6

 

We have such a striking contrast betwen vv 3 and 4!!

 

On the one hand man’s inhumanity to man being hated and hating one another on the other hand we have God’s love and kindness.

 

BUT also our dark sinful past is contrasted with our present regenerate state in Christ and our future hope of glory.  What a contrast!!

 

Paul is not simply speaking theologically, although he is that, but he is speaking out of a deep personal experience.

Paul was still breathing out mudereous threats

against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest

and asked for letters to the synagogues in Damascus

so that if he found any of those who belonged to The Way

whether men or women, he might bring them in chains to Jerusalem

[Acts 9v1-3]

That is what Paul was until he encountered the Kindness and love of God his Saviour. That is why he could write in Gal. 2v20 that the Son of God loved ME and gave himself up for ME.

 

You and I need to remind ourselves what God has done for us! When we consider what we were in the past and what now, by God’s grace, we have become we will do good to others who have no yet experienced the grace of God.

 

These verses are jam packed with the salvation that God has given us in Christ.

HE SAVED US [x2 – v5]

HOW?? springing from his LOVE and KINDNESS  but NOT because of anything we have done BUT because of [OR ACCORDING TO] his mercy. according to tells us something of the wideness and magnitude of God’s mercy.

Fredrick Faber”s old hymn; “Souls of men why will you scatter”

 

There’s a wideness in God’s mercy

Like the wideness of the sea;

There’s a kindness in his justice,

which is more than liberty

 

He saved us according to his mercy and he also saved us through the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives – REBIRTH.

The Holy Spirit imparts new life and washes us clean. He deals with our sin on the basis of the death of Christ on the cross. This work of the Spirit in us is not just the bear minimum!

The HS is generously poured out.

 

Jesus on the great day of the feast.

On the last and greatest day of the feast

Jesus stood and said in a loud voice

“If any one is thirsty let him come to me and drink.

Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said,

RIVERS of living water will flow from within him.

By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who

believed in Him were later to receive [John 7v37-39]

 

The same HS who cleansed us from our sin and justified us before God, is still in the process of of sanctifying us and giving us the hope of eternal life.

 

Already seen this pattern in chapter 2.

We were ungodly but have been saved from that and now in the present age are trying to live godly lives as we wait for the Blessed Hope.

 

We are HEIRS. Not only have we been justified by the JUDGE but also adopted by our heavenly Father and are heirs together with Christ. His eternal inheritence is ours because we are in Him.

 

 

3. THE SECOND REMINDER TO DO GOOD [V.8]

 

This is a trustworthy saying. And I want

you to stress these things, so that those

who have trusted in God may be careful

to devote themselves to doing what is good.

These things are excellent and profitable

for everyone [all people] [v.8]

 

If we understand what God has done for us and what awaits us in glory this should spur us on to do good to all. In the light of what God has done for us is there anything more important than that men and women should hear and respond to the gospel.

 

If they don’t see our good deeds how will they glorify God.

Let your light so shine before men that

they may SEE your good works and

glorify your father in heaven

 

If the gospel is true for us then it is true for all people. God does not have two agendas. There is only salvation through Christ and ALL need to hear that. We need to devote ourselves to doing what is good. That includes living above reproach in the midst of a corrupt world. Not that we are perfect but endeavouring to be honest and helpful. BUT we must speak and tell why we are what we are and do what we do. VISUALISATION AND VERBALISATION.

 

THIS VISION BEGINS IN THE LOCAL CHURCH AND EXTENDS TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH. It is excellent and profitable for ALL people. If we keep our salvation to ourselves we have missed the point

This gospel is for YOU and YOUR CHILDREN

and for ALL who are afar off [Acts 2]

 

5. OUR BEHAVIOUR MUST NOT CONTRADICT OUR BLIEFS. [V.9-11]

 

READ VV.9-11

 

Our behaviour is not just our individual behaviour but also our corporate behaviour.

 

ILLUST: FIEC Caister – We hire a 4-seater bike – signed for it NO DEPOSIT required from us Assistant said “It is not necessary from youfolk because we never have any trouble but unfortunately not all are like that”

 

BUT unfortunately this is not always the case, is it?

 

Therefore disagreements about trivia only serve to discredit the church. The devil is very skillful at sidetracking the Church. Satan is happiest when the church is preoccupied with its internal affairs. When a church turns in on itself and loses its missionsry vision then Satan is happy.

 

ILLUST: Russian Orthodox Church 1917 – debated the colour of robes while the Bolsheviks plotted the revolution.

 

Arguments about pew cushions; colour of the paint and the style of worship divide churches.

 

Very few Churches split over major issues. It is usually minor issues and personality clashes.

That discredits the church therefore Paul warns that if anyone in the body is causing division he must be warn BUT if he  or she refuses to listen then they must be excluded.

WHY?  Because the name of Christ is dishonoured in the community if the church is in division.

 

Positively we need to love each others

A new commandment I give unto you

that you love one another as I

have loved you.

By THIS shall all men know that

you are my disciples if you have

loved for one another [John 13v34-35]

 

Being constantly reminded of what we used to be and what we now are becasue of Christ and of waht we will be when he comes – in view of all this we must do good to all.

 

1 Peter 2v11 – 12

 

Dear friends, I urge you as aliens and strangers

 in the world, to abstain from sinful desires

 which war against you soul.  Live such good

lives among the pagans that, though they

accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your

good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

Titus 2:11-15 – Our teacher – “Grace”

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TITUS 2v11-15

 

OUR TEACHER – “GRACE”

 

1. INTRODUCTION.

 

ILLUST: Reading the stories of  missionary outreach through the centuries It becomes evident that when a tribe or group of people accept the gospel of Christ it affect the quality of life in the whole community. Tribes that were adversely affect by immorality and abuses of various kinds begin to change. Family life stablizes and even the economy of the community improves because people work hard and act more honestly and so on.

 

In missiological jargon we speak about the “uplfting effects of the gospel”. This phenomenon should not surprise us in the least. God’s salvation doesn’t only touch our spiritual life but it touches evert aspect of our lives.

 

The dichotomy between the spiritual world and the physical world is not a biblical one.Its a hangover from Greek thinking that has permeated our Western culture.

 

All the instructions that we looked at last week – the instructions to older women and older men, to younger women and younger men and to slaves – these directives are not detached from doctrine, in fact, it is exactly the opposite:

[v.10b KJV] “… That you may adorn the doctrine of God

our Saviour in all things.”

 

Doctrine is not something you find in dusty books in a Theological Library. Doctrine is to be practised. Abstract doctrine is useless – doctrine, teaching, must affect our behaviour.

That is what vv.1-10 are addressing. Now Paul moves on to give the motivation for this Christian living. The doctrinal basis.

 

Paul has just mentioned God our Saviour in v.10 and immediately GRACE is linked to it. So often in Paul’s writings this is the case. He can’t think of salvation without thinking of grace – rightly so! – the two are inseparable.

 

2. THE GRACE OF GOD HAS APPEARED …. [v.11]

…to bring into being A SAVED PEOPLE.

A HOLY PEOPLE

A SPECIAL PEOPLE

A HOPEFUL PEOPLE

 

Grace, the undeserved, unearned, favour of God. Grace is God’s spontaneous goodness that intevenes to deliver and help people. Grace here is almost personified – it is personified in the person of Christ. The picture of grace appearing is the vision of light suddenly breaking out.

 

ILLUST: Sunrise services on Easter Day in RSA on the Beach. The ky would glow and suddenly the sun was on the horizon of the Indian Ocean.

 

The Appearing of the grace of God does not only referto Jesus’s birth but also to his life, death, resurrection and ascencion.

For the God who said,”Let light shine out of darkness”

made his light shine in our hearts to give us the

light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

[2 Corinthians 4v6]

 

3. A SAVED PEOPLE [v.11; 14a].

 

Because of God’s grace we are A SAVED PEOPLE. Salvation is only possible because of God’s gracious favour.

 

Salvation and redemption go together.

He gave himself to redeem us from all wickedness [v.14a]

 

To redeem or to ransom is to pay a price in order to release from slavery. It was the language of the slave market. Kidnapper seek a ransom – a release price. And that is what Jesus did, not with silver and gold but by his blood. He, himself, said he would! That is why he came.

For even the Son of Man did not come to be served

 but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many [Mark 10v45]

 

There could be no redemption without blood

…the Son of God loved me and gave himself for me [Gal.2v20]

 

The emphasis is on the sacrificial act:

…the blood of Jesus God’s Son purifies us from all sin [1 John 1v7]

 

ALL MEN.  What does Paul mean by this?

(1) Those who would like us to believe that this proves universalism – that everyone will ultimately be saved. If that is so the every references in Scripture to Judgement, hell and separation from God must be erased. If all will be saved what’s the point of preaching the gospel – so all those parts of scrpiture must be removed.

 

(2) Does it mean that all have opportunity to be saved. Well it is God’s desire that all men will come to know him.

… God our Saviour who wants all men to be saved and

to come to a knowledge of the truth [ 1 Tim. 2v4]

 

(3) The principle of interepting the Bible is that you must take every passage in its context. Paul has just been speaking about young and old, men and women, slaves and masters. It makes most sense therefore to take the all to mean that God’s grace makes no distinction between age , sex or social standing. All means all kinds of people in this verse.

 

4. A HOLY PEOPLE [v.12]

 

Because of God’s grace we are to be A HOLY PEOPLE.

It teaches us to say “NO!” to ungodliness and

 worldly passions, and to live self-controlled,

 upright and godly lives in this present age.[v12]

 

Grace not only brings salvation it is also our teacher, trainer. It trains us to change our actions, our attitudes and our ambitions.

 

Negatively. It teaches us to say “NO” to ungodliness and worldy passions.

Saved we are cleansed and made pure in our standing before God. But we are not yet perfect and the old nature within us rises up and wants to control us.

The opportunities for sin are endless.

The temptation to say those hurtful words.

The temptation to quarrel, to be self assertive, to be materialistic [to want more and better possessions]

The temptation to flirt with the opposite sex and to entertain immoral thoughts.

 

Paul says we have to learn to turn away from those things. It is not easy. And we are going to fall because we are not perfect but the grace of God helps us say NO to these things so that we are not dominated by the longing for pleasure, power and possessions.

 

Positively. BUT living a godliy life is not just saying NO! NO! NO!

It is also saying YES!

(1) TO ONE’S SELF.  Self-control – selfmastery. Not all our desires and drives are sinful. By God’s grace they have to be trained in the right direction so that rather than controlling us we, by the Spirit’s power, control them.

(2) TO OUR NEIGHBOUR.  “upright” Our faith in not just a private matter. It must be lived out in the community of the saints and in the community as a whole. Our lives must be open and honest.

Let your light so shine before men that they

may SEE your good works and glorify your

Father in heaven [Matt   ]

 

Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me

All his wondrous compassion and purity

Oh, Thou Spirit Divine

All my nature refine

Till the beauty of Jesus be seen in me.

 

It is not easy – when we open our lives to people we are vulnerable – we can get hurt. And we probably will. Jesus said “I am sending out as sheep amongst wovles” Well that can be pretty dangerous. BUT we have the grace of God. It doesn’t take away the danger or the pain when we get hurt but it does help us cope.

 

(3) TO OUR GOD. godliness – devotion to our God. It means being self controlled an upright but also living in close communion with our Lord. In worship and prayer and study of His word and fellowship with his people.

 

IN THIS PRESENT AGE. Holiness and godliness is not only for the future it is also for the here and now. YES the world is a rotten place full of sin and corruption and immorality and selfishness. And it is here that God wants us to live godly lives.

The church is to have a preserving effect like SALT – how much worse would the world be if God was not present in his people. The world would self-destruct.

We can and we must influence the PRESENT AGE inwhich we live.

 

5. A SPECIAL PEOPLE. [v14b].

 

Because of God’s grace we are A SPECIAL PEOPLE.

 

…to purify for himself a people that are his very own…

 

In the OT God chose tha nation of Israel to be his special people.

Out of all the peoples on the face of the earth

the Lord has chosen you to be his treasured possession [Dt.14v2]

 

In the NT the church are the people of God His treasured possession

But you are a chosen people,

a royal priesthood, a holy nation,

a people belonging to God, .. [1 Peter 2v9]

God has chosen us and is now in the process of purifying us to make us more and more like Christ.

Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her

to make her holy, cleasning her through the

 washing with water through the word. [Eph.5v26]

 

The word of God and the Spirit of God alway work together. As we heard and study the word of God His Spirit uses that word to clean us and change us, so that we become mature people.

 

6. A HOPEFUL PEOPLE. [V.13].

 

Because of God’s grace we are  A HOPEFUL PEOPLE.

 

While we live in this present age this is not our home, the is not our goal, this is not our HOPE. Our hope is a BLESSED HOPE  – The glorious appearing of Christ.  Our hope is not in the Hope but in the OBJECT/PERSON hoped for.

 

The grace of God has already appeared [v11] when Jesus came the first time – we are waiting for the second appearing. Why is it a blessed hope? Because when it comes it will bring bliss, happiness, delight and glory.

 

When that hope is realised we will see Christ face to face and will be like him for we shall see him as he is [1 Jn.3v2]

 

We get excited when we are waiting at the airport for a loved one whom we haven’t seen for a long time. How much more for our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ.

 

Debate as to whether this phrase is Our great God and our Saviour or our great God and Saviour.

I prefer the second – (1) the grammatical structure – one article not two “our”

– (2) theological – Jesus is the one who will return – it is his appearing that we await. SO I think it refers to One person not two. BUT ultimately God is one always!!

 

Because by his grace we are His SAVED, HOLY, SPECIAL, HOPEFUL PEOPLE  we should be eager to do what is good.

We have a great salvation, let us, therefore, live lives that are worthy of our calling.

Titus 1:1-9 – To be an Elder

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TO BE AN ELDER!

TITUS 1V1-9.

 

1. INTRODUCTION.

 

Who is Titus and why did Paul write to him?

Our information about Titus is very limited. It seem that he was brought to Jesus Christ by Paul himself – v4 “Titus my true son in our common faith”. He is from a pagan background. Gal.2v1-5 show that Titus travel with Paul to Jerusalem where an attempt, though unsuccessful , was made to circumcise Titus.

Fourteen years later I went up again to Jerusalem,

This time with Barnabas. I took Titus along also. [Gal 2v1]

 

Titus also features in 2 Corinthians. When the Corinthians Church seemed to be in crisis, it was Titus who was despatched as the bearer of Paul’s 1st letter to Corinth. He seems to have managed the difficlut situation very skillfully. Then he reported back to Paul during which time Paul wrote 2 Cothinthians and sent Titus back with the second letter.

 

It would appear from v5 that Paul and Titus had been in the island of Crete together.

The reason I left you in Crete

was that you might straighten out

what was left unfinished and

appoint elders in every town,

as I directed you. [v5]

Paul had left Crete and gone to Greece leaving Titus to finish the task they had begun togther. Titus is now an apostolic delegate in temporary charge of the church in Crete. There was prbably more than one congregation on the island and Titus was to appoint leaders, among other things.

 

Why the Letter? Didn’t Titus know what Paul had taught? Probably a twofold reason. To remind Titus, but also to have down in black and white the apostle’s instructions so that there could be no argument. Also, of course, so that these instructions could be inscrpiturated so that the Church throughout history could benefit. Including us.

 

2. PAUL’S OPENING REMARKS. [1V1-4]

 

These first 4 verses are packed with wonderful truths.

 

* Paul’s sphere of ministry and what he hopes to achieve by it.

Paul always presents himself as a servant/slave of God. As we saw last week in Haggai, to be God’s servant is to be accorded the highest honour.

Paul deepest desire is “for the faith of God’s elect” Paul’s life is given to the preaching of the gospel and the building up of the faith of God’s elect.

In the OT Israel were God’s choosen people but now in the NT era that role has been inherited by the Chruch.

 

* The faith of God’s elect must be based on the truth.

Faith based on falsehood is, like a building build of unsound foundations, will eventually collapse. True faith, saving faith requires a true grasp of the Apostolic message.

Paul is also at this point laying a foundation for what is still to come in the letter when he warns Titus and the Cretan Christians of those who are spreading false teaching and unholy practices.

 

With his emphasis on the truth – and rightly so – Paul adds a qualifier “which goes with godliness”

ILLUST: We can if we are not careful get so hung up on truth – we spend much time defending the truth – that we forget to put it into practice.

We have probaly all met people like this. They are so correct and have all the right answers but they are a pain in the neck. WHY? because they have neglected the balance.

But grow in GRACE and the KNOWLEDGE

of our Lord  and Saviour Jesus Christ [2 Pet.3v18]

He [Jesus] was full of GRACE and TRUTH

[John 1 v14]

 

May God save us from becoming unbalanced Christians. We need the truth BUT we also need the practical outworking of that truth in godly behaviour.

 

* Hope of eternal life is another characteristic of the Apostolic message. While this hope is what sustains Paul. It is not to be limited to him. The hope of eternal life is something all Christians can look forward to. There are to aspects to eternal life:-

1) We have eternal life – NOW. When you become a Christian you are reborn [Born spiritually]. zwhs aiwnion – Life of the age to come. Not simply life that will go on forever but also a new quality of life. Life abundant. Life to the full.

 

2)  What we have now is not all that there is. We will receive a much fuller experience of eternal life when this life on earth has ended.  This is what we have as our hope and what Jesus prayed we would have.

Father, I want those you have given me

to be with me where I am, and to see my glory,

the glory you have given me because you

loved me before the foundation of the world.

[John 17v24]

We have eternal life now but when Jesus returns [or we die and go to be with him] we will have it in a much fuller way.

 

The grounding of Faith.

This hope is not an airy-fairy hope-so hope but a sure and certain hope. Sure because the God who promises is sure and certain. “God who does not lie promised it from all eternity”

God’s promises are certain because of who he is:

When God made his promise to Abraham,

since there was no one greater for him to swear by,

he swore by himself ….

Men swear by someone greater than themselves

and the oath confirms what is said and

puts an end to all argument

Because God wanted to make the unchanging

nature of his purpse very clear

to the heirs of what was promised,

he confirmed it with an oath.

God did this so that by two

unchangeable things, in which it is

impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to

take hold of the hope offered to us

may be greatly blessed.
We have this hope as an anchor for the soul,

firm and secure. [Heb.6v13&16-19]

 

*Promised from eternity – manifested in time.  God’s promises are not abstract. He has fulfilled them in time. He promised before the beginning of time and has fulfilled his promises in history.

When the time had fully come

God sent his son …. [Gal.4v4]

 

God had a plan from eternity and when the time was right he put his plan into action. God has a plan from creation, He has a plan for the consummation of the world. When the time is right he will put his plan into action. NOT that God is waiting for time RATHER he is moving history to a climax.

 

* Preaching Faith  God’s word cannot be manifest in a void. It must have concrete expression in preaching. Paul here is emphasing not so much the act of preaching but the content of what is preached.

God was pleased through the foolishness

of what was preached to save those who believe. [1 Co.1v21]

 

In the past, OT era, their had been limited understanding of God’s purposes but now he has “Brought his word to light” through the gospel – the good news of God’s redemptive work in Christ.

Paul is thrilled that one as unworthy as he is had been entrusted with the gospel.

And so have we. We are not only the recipient of the good news we are also the bearer of the good news. What a privlege!!  [I am doubly blessed – I even get paid to do it]

 

* Common Faith – At last Paul mentions the person to whom he is actually writing.

Titus, my true son in our common faith [v4]

 

Paul is reminding Titus that all that he has written so far is not just for himself, Paul. It is true for Titus as well [and for us] This is the Faith that all who believe have in common. It does not matter what demoninational label we wear. Their is a body of truth that has been given to the Church and that is the only TRUE LABEL.

Jude writes:

I am very eager to write to you about

the salvation we share, I felt I had to write

 and urge you to contend for the faith

that was once for all entrusted to the saints [Jude 3]

 

The isseu is not; “Do I follow this Church or that Church?” Rather do I adhere to the Apostle’s teaching.

 

3. INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE APPOINTMENT OF ELDERS.

 

We can’t deal with all these characteristics individually.

Three groups: v6 – Family

v7 – negative characteristics [qualities an elder must not have]

v8-9 – positive characteristics [his deeds and his doctrine]

 

Before you switch off and think that this only applies to the elders, think again. All Christians are urged to live Godly lives.

“Be holy, for I am holy [1 Peter 1v16]

Be perfect even as your heavnley Father is perfect [ Matt.]

 

Jesus Christ wants us all to be godly people BUT those who aspire to be leaders in the church of God must be good examples of the believer. NOT perfect  but wholeheartedly following Christ.

 

This is an uncomfortable passage for me to preach as it probably is for all in leadership positions in the church. As I read the list I know that I fall far short. Like Paul I have to say “>>Not that I have already obtained all this but I press on”

 

(1) A good family man.

Don’t want to get into the place of women in ministry. And I believe that women have a vital role in the life of the church and I don’t just mean in the kitchen.

ELDERS however I believe must be men! Not because men are superior or more intellectual or more competent. There are many women who are more intelligent, more competent and better speakers than I will ever be. So that is not the reason.

Elders are men because of the creation mandate of male headship and because nowhere in scripture do I find a case of women to be elders.

[You are free to disagree with me but this is my view]

A faithful husband and a good father.

The family is the foundation of the church. Elders must model the gosepl in their own homes.

Loving your wife as Christ loved the Church. Managing their children with a balance of Love and Discipline.

Husband of one wife – meaning? One wife at a  time??? No living a godly life with one woman in a life commitment. Being Faithful until death do us part

Their is a vital role for the wives in this ministry. A man with an unchristina wife or a wife who is malicious or gossipy can himself be an elders. {Would you have called nme to be your pastor if Janet was not a Christian}

In the same way their wives

are to be women worthy of respect

not malicious talkers but temperate

and trustworthy in every way [1 Tim.3v11]

 

In order for us to model the gospel we must have open homes [all of us] as we spend time together we must talk about the gospel. {NOT PREACH} talk about life through the grid of the gospel. Hospitality is mentioned in v8.

Hospitality is more than entertain some to a meal. It is making them feel welcome and at home in your home.

 

(2) Negative Characteristics.

summary: not dishonest and not out of control. Must not be someone who can’t control his habits [drinking, gluttony or anything else that is to excess] control his actions; not physically or verbally violent.

Not overbearing: We all naturally want our own way. We have to learn to “consider others better than ourselves”

Church work is team work [or it should be]. It is very difficult working with someone who is pushy and arrogant and always wanting their own way.

I am deeply grantful to God for have men like John and Alan to work with!!!

 

(3) Positive Characteristics.

Good deeds and good doctrine.

In attitude and behaviour we must be wanting to benefit others for thier good.

Open heart and open home – therefore the wife must be with him in this as it is her home too.

These charateristics are not just for Church life but for all life.Church, Home , Work and every other area of life. ABOVE REPROACH [blameless] so no one can point a finger and say “HYPOCRITE” we all fall and make mistakes but the over all tenor of life must be above reproach.

 

GOOD DOCTRINE – we must know what we believe [v9]

For two reason – to teach others and to refute falsehoods.

 

Some say “All this talk about doctrine! we just want to worship God in simple faith”

 

The gospel is simple [children understand] but it is not simplistic and we need to know what we believe. Without sound teaching our worship of God is hindered.

Calvin – “The end of theology is not knowledge but worship”

            Elders are given the pastoral oversight of the church but they need a knowledge of God’s word to do it because it is only the gospel that can bring salvation and help people to live godly lives.

 

We have received a great salvation and now we need to live up to it with God’s help. READ 3v11-14

The Cross: The liberating power of the cross

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The Liberating power of the cross.

 

Colossians 1:15-23a; 2:6-15.

(Focus on vv13-15)

 

ILLUS.: I can remember at various times being in the presence of couples who are always having a go at each other. Criticising, cutting each other down, insulting, blaming. You wonder, if they do that in public, what goes on behind closed doors. They dredge up old hurts and fling tem in each other’s faces.

 

What a joy it is then to see couples like this who seem to have a pile of chips on both shoulders begin to restore their relationship. The flame of love begins to flicker again – they are learning to forgive.

It is a thrill to see forgiveness bring life and laughter back to marriages that were once dead and full of hate and bitter recriminations.

 

Forgiveness is a wonderful word and how much we all stand in need of it. Not only in marriages but wherever people are involved. Without it life is harsh and bitter and pretty miserable altogether. Hopeless, in fact.

 

Hopeless describes exactly the position humanity was in prior to the cross. We were bitterly at odds with God. He would reach out in love and we would argue, insult and ignore Him.

 

Then Calvary came and God offered us forgiveness in Christ. This allowed a real love relationship to begin between us and God.

 

As Christians we must never forget – “In Christ we have been forgiven”.

Paul uses an interesting picture to describe this – Colossians 2:14 14 having cancelled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. (NIV)

 

  1. 1.     The code that was cancelled.

 

Think of the 10 commandments [it may well have referred to the wider law].

Think of how often we have broken those commands. Things we have said and done and thought that we shouldn’t have. Things we could have done and haven’t done.

Visualise all these things and God making out a bill and realise how much we are in debt. Then take a good long hard look and declare bankruptcy. No way can we pay the bill.

The good news is this 15……. he forgave all our sins14 having cancelled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us;

“Having cancelled” – “Paid in Full” – as we saw last week that is what Jesus said when he cried out on the cross “It is Finished!”

That is forgiveness – He has cancelled the debt. He has paid in full. No longer in debt. No longer bankrupt.  Forgiven!

 

  1. 2.     The code was nailed to the cross.

 

Having forgiven all our sins and cancelled the written code that was against us, he took it away, nailing it to the cross.

 

Part of a Roman cross was called a titulus, from which we get our word title.

The titulus was nailed above the head of the crucified person.

Remember the titulus Pilate wrote for Jesus “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews”

Normally the put the list of crimes above the persons head so people walked passed and said, “Well he certainly deserved what he got!”

 

When the people look at Jesus on the cross they saw a strange titulus – “This is Jesus of Nazareth; The king of the Jews!”

The Jewish leaders were not happy and they wanted Pilate to change the titulus to “He claimed to be the king of the Jews!”

BUT Pilate as weak and wet as he still had enough backbone to insist his version remain.

 

However, the unseen titulus on the cross of Christ was a long list of my crimes and yours and those of the whole world.

 

When Jesus was on the cross he took the code, our indebtedness, and wrote cancelled across it. He also, as it were, took the titulus, the list of all our sins and nailed it over his own head.

 

When we look and see Jesus hanging on the cross, we don’t only see “Jesus of Nazareth; the king of the Jews” – we also see a record of the sins of people like you and me. He died for us, took our sin, nailed it to the cross. The cross means that we have been forgiven in Christ.

 

  1. We died with Christ.

 

The cross doesn’t only mean that Christ died for us but also that we died with him.

It means that we die to all that it was necessary for Christ to die for.

Christ died for our sin – we need to die to sin.

What does that mean?

It doesn’t mean that we are dead.

It doesn’t mean that sin is dead.

It means that the relationship has been terminated.

Romans 6:6-14 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin — 7 because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.

8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.

11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. 14 For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.

 

What does all this mean?

ILLUS.: When I was 17 – in SA – I received from the Govt. one of those cunning invitations to join the army. The day duly arrived and I was loaded onto a train with 100s of other conscripts and send 300 miles away to an army base.

I was no longer Gray but Robinson #73429078.

There was a very nice gentleman there call RSM Lubbe who had a big mouth and a big voice and he delight in standing 1” from your nose and opening his cavernous mouth shouting at you as if you were on the other side of the world.

You have to stand as stiff as a ramrod and answer Yes Sa’mjoor! – No Sa’majoor! {Afrikaans for SM}

 

A nice man – friendly, warm, personable, interested in our well-being.

Don’t believe it!! If you saw him coming you’d straighten up, swinging arms higher, thumbs on top, heel dug in.

I guess there are clones of RSMs in every Regiment around the world.

At the end of 12 months I had the option to sign up for a further 12 months – I regretfully declined.

 

I got my discharge papers, changed into civilians clothes and left.

I walked passed him in the town. I immediately started to stiffen, swinging my arms.

A voice inside me said “You don’t have to do that!”

“WHAT?”

“NO! – You have no further obligation to him. He has no further authority over you. So if you like you go on, marching about, swinging your arms looking funny. BUT you don’t have to!””

 

My shoulder slumped, my hands went into my pockets were they hadn’t been for 12 long months and I whistled as I walked passed him.

 

He could have turned red and purple and shouted his head off but he couldn’t do a thing about it – I HAD DIED TO HIM.

 

That’s what the cross means. We have died to all that it was necessary for Christ to die for. Why go on living to it? Why be in bondage to it? We don’t have to be. We are free!

We have been liberated by the cross of Christ.

 

He stood before the court

on trial instead of us;

he met its power to hurt,

condemned to face the cross:

our king, accused of treachery;

our God, abused for blasphemy!

 

These are the crimes that tell

the tale of human guilt;

our sins, our death, our hell –

on these the case is built:

to this world’s powers their Lord stays dumb;

the guilt is ours, no answers come.

 

The sentence must be passed,

the unknown prisoner killed;

the price is paid at last,

the law of God fulfilled:

he takes our blame, and from that day

the accuser’s claim is wiped away.

 

Shall we be judged and tried?

in Christ our trial is done;

we live, for he has died,

our condemnation gone:

in Christ are we both dead and raised,

alive and free – his name be praised!

 

© Christopher Idle (born 1938)  Hymns for Today’s Church #129

The Cross: Outline

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THE CROSS: OUTLINE

 

Is following Jesus all  struggle and cost? – what about life without over stress / about fulfilment / about future hope?

The Lord has outlined a wondrous pattern and a wise design for believers who want to enjoy a successful, fulfilling life. Note these paradoxes { a seemingly contradictory statement that nonetheless is true.}

We see unseen things (2 Cor. 4:18);
We conquer by yielding (Rom. 6:16-18);
We find rest under a yoke (Mt. 11:28-30);
We reign by serving (Mark 10:42-44);
We are made great by becoming little (Luke 9:48);
We are exalted by being humble (Mt. 23:12);
We become wise by being fools for Christ’s sake (1 Cor. 1:20, 21);
We are made free by becoming His bond servants (Rom. 6:10);
We are strong by being weak (2 Cor. 12:10);
We triumph through defeat (2 Cor. 12:7-9);
We live by dying (John 12:24,25; 2 Cor. 4:10,11).

Spiritual growth / discipleship sometimes seems a paradoxical mystery BUT is nevertheless true and very worthwhile.

 

The Cost of following Jesus.

 

Luke 9v57- 62.

 

  1. 1.        The Fox.

–       seeking status

 

  1. 2.        The Funeral.

–       maintaining the status quo

 

  1. 3.        The furrow.

–       divided loyalties

 

Following Jesus means …

– change

– more concerned about what God thinks

– a deep concern for others

– cost   – privacy

  –        materially

–        emotionally …etc.

 

…it also means –  Benefits / fulfilment

 

– see unseen things (2 Cor. 4:18)

– conquer by yielding (Rom. 6:16-18)

– find rest under a yoke (Mt. 11:28-30)

– reign by serving (Mark 10:42-44)

– are exalted by being humble (Mt. 23:12)

– become wise by being fools for Christ (1 Cor.1:20-21)

– are made free by becoming His slaves (Rom. 6:10)

– are strong by being weak (2 Cor. 12:10)

– triumph through defeat (2 Cor. 12:7-9)

– live by dying (John 12:24,25; 2 Cor. 4:10,11)