Category: Sermon

[audioplayer file=”http://thegatheringcommunity.in/wp-content/uploads/the-heavenly-vision.mp3″]

Our passage today is Isaiah 6:1-8

Introduction to Isaiah –

– One of the most important book in the old testament
– Not much is known about Isaiah’s personal life
– Collection of oracles, prophecies and reports
– God was using the pagan nations to chasten Israel for its sins and cleanse it from iniquity

Isaiah mean “Salvation of Yahweh” or “Yahweh Saves”

It was Isaiah who prophesied about Jesus Christ many years back in Isaiah 7:14 & Isaiah 9:6

Book of Isiah starts with a vision Isaiah saw concerning the nations Judah and Israel.

V2. He starts by saying “for the Lord has spoken”

In the first 5 chapters Isaiah speaks on behalf of God conveys how upset he is with the people because of their disobedience and rebelliousness.

Our passage in chapter 6 starts with this beautiful vision where Isaiah says “I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne.

A Parallel to our current generation:
– The problem in those days were that people had forgotten their creator God.
– They had become self centered, arrogant & pleasure seeking.
– They made idols for themselves and worshipped them instead of their creator God.
– Gave themselves to drunkenness
– Did everything that dishonoured God

Which is what we see happening even today in our generation.

In a situation like that Isaiah is saying “I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne”

Often times when people go through suffering and pain they ask questions like “Where is God?”, “Is God really watching us?”, “Does God really care for us?”, If yes then why doesn’t he doing anything about it?

I believe the same visuals Isaiah saw about the Lord is true even today. The Lord is seated on a high and lofty throne watching over us.

When I read that verse It assures me that our God is not absent from our lives but He is sovereign over all that is happening to us. I believe He is in control.

And everything we go through is because of our own sinful choices, arrogance and rebelliousness towards God.

The pain and the suffering we experience is the consequences of the sinful choices we make every single day. It is our failure to acknowledge this great big God who created us in his image. We often forget that we live under the mercy of God. We fail to acknowledge that tomorrow our very lives can be taken away.

If God wants to wipe us out of this earth all it takes for him is to shake the ground and cause an earthquake. He can wipe us out in seconds.

Our very existence is uncertain if it was not for the mercy of God.

And here we are selfish, wicked, self-seeking creatures who does not care about anything except our own pleasures and needs.

The bible says in Romans 3:23 that’s the condition of every single human being.
“For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”

None is righteous, not even me.

And how do we get right with God? Can any of our human goodness please God?

In comparison to the standard of God holiness can any of our efforts match up to that?

You’re saying that by doing 100 good things and just 2 bad things you can please God?

The bible says Isaiah 64:6 “All our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment” in comparison to God’s holiness.

What that means is that a man who’ve done all good things in all his lifetime – never harmed anyone – never killed anyone – had been a good man as per human standards. Even he is unworthy to stand before God with all his worthy deeds.

The verses go on to say that that the Seraphim had 6 wings, with 2 he covered his face, with 2 he covered his feet and with 2 he flew. The Seraphim then takes a glowing coal that he had taken from the altar and touched Isaiah’s mouth with it and said –

“Now that this has touched your lips your wickedness is removed and your sins is atoned for”

How did that happen?

The altar from where the seraphim picked up the coal was a place where sacrifices were offered. In the olden days’ men would offer animal sacrifices on the altar to please God.

The altar of sacrifice signifies and symbolizes the place where the true and worthy sacrifice would be offered. The one that will please God. The one that will truly cleanse us of our sins and wash us of our iniquities.

And what is that sacrifice?

It is a sacrifice that God himself provided for us.

Romans 3:25 says “God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood”

Because we were unholy and unworthy to please God in any way, because we were sinful and all that we deserved was punishment and hell. God sent his only son – the one who lived a perfect and holy life while he was on earth – to take the punishment of our sins on our behalf – to dies for our rebelliousness – offered him as a worthy sacrifice on the ALTAR – to remove our wickedness and atone for our sins just as in the vision Isaiah saw.

The Christian faith is not based on stories and mythologies, the birth, death and resurrection of Christ are not just mere man made stories.

Jesus was not an imaginary person. No one in history will even deny the fact that a man called

Jesus lived and walked in this earth 2000 years back.

You may now want to ask why did God have to do something like that?

The answer is plain and simple in John 3:16

“For God so loved the world in this way, He gave his one and only son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

Now think about this – after all that God did for us through his son Jesus Christ – What does he asks as to do?

Does he say you need to walk a 100 miles to receive his forgiveness? Does he say you need to offer a thousand other sacrifices to gain this eternal life? Does he say you need to burn a hundred candle to please him?

All he says is “everyone who believes in this Jesus”

Unfortunately, the Christian world around us has become corrupt and has diluted this simple truth of the gospel. The Britishers made it worse for us. They called themselves Christians but set wrong examples to what it means to be a follower of Jesus.

Mahatma Gandhi in his book “My experiments with Truth” said “I like the Christ in the bible but I hate the men who follow him”

The truth is that the Christian faith is plainly believing in Jesus as the only way, truth and life. It is believing the fact that Jesus dies in our place, conquered death and rose again on the third day.
It is about repenting before God and turning away from our sinful ways. To love Jesus and love one another as Jesus loved us.

The last verse in the passage (verse 8) Isaiah hears a voice from the Lord saying “Who should I send? Who will go for me?”

The Lord is asking who will go to my people and tell this good news. And Isaiah replies and says “Here I am, send me”

Just as we heard and received this love and forgiveness through Jesus, we are called to share this truth with our friends, family and whoever comes in contact with us.

I was 18-year-old, and even though I was born in a Christian family. An old uncle who visited our home to pray for us explained this truth of Jesus to me and I can’t explain how my life has changed since then.

I’m at peace with God, I enjoy a joy that is inexpressible – I feel loved and that compels me to love others.

Jesus is real to me. And just as Isaiah I am happy to happy this joy with you.

So, here’s what I have to say as I end my sermon.

If you’ve never heard this truth before I want to encourage you to take out time and ponder upon this truth. And all you have to do is believe.

And if you’ve already believed and enjoyed fellowship with God you know what I’m talking about – Now go and tell it to others.

[audioplayer file=”http://thegatheringcommunity.in/wp-content/uploads/missions-jinson.mp3″]

“Revelation” over the years has been a fascinating book for the church. The divine author is Jesus and the apostle John pens down his visions. I’ve generally heard two responses from people when they talk about “Revelation”.

They either say it’s confusing due to the symbols mentioned in the book or they are captivated by the End Times message. However, they miss the most important reason why this book was written.

It wasn’t written to confuse the church or frighten the church with the mention of God’s judgment. Rather it was written to encourage believers to remain loyal to Christ in the midst of intense suffering, temptations and deception.

This great revelation from Jesus about the future should give hope, joy and focus to the believers that are going through a very hard time.

Rev 5:9, 10

And they sang a new song, saying,

“Worthy are you to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God
from every tribe and language and people and nation,
and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God,
and they shall reign on the earth.”

The focus of today’s passage is going to be on this new song!

Background of the text: God is sitting on the throne in all glory and splendour. He is surrounded by 24 elders seated on thrones with golden crowns on their heads. On the 4 sides of the throne of God, there are four creatures who never cease to say “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come”.

Whenever these creatures give praise to God, the 24 elders fall down before God’s throne and cast their crowns before Him. God the Father has a scroll in His right hand. The scroll is sealed with 7 seals.

A mighty angel proclaims with a loud voice “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?” And there was no one in heaven and on earth or under the earth who could open the scroll and look into it.

John seeing this started weeping loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or look into it. One of the elders tells John “You don’t need to weep anymore. See the Lion of Judah, the Root of David has conquered so that he can open the scroll and the 7 seals.”

And John sees the Lamb standing between the throne and the 4 creatures. The Lamb looks like it has been slain in all power and in all knowledge and takes the scroll from the right hand of God.

The moment that happens, the 24 elders and the 4 creatures fall down before the Lamb and sing a new song.

For this passage we learn that there are three reasons why we need to pursue the lost and be passionate about sharing the gospel:

1. Christ has Redeemed our Worship
for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God

When you think about the word “Slain”, what comes to mind? You think about slaughtering, butchering etc. Not a pretty sight if you’re at the Meat Shop seeing it happen, right? Now think about Christ. He is fully pure, holy and glorious! He is fully satisfied in the company and fellowship of the Trinity. Everything in all of creation was created through Him. Not just that He sustains all of creation. Why should He be slain?

In his overflowing love and purpose, He created man in His own image. His own reflection. How many of us have ever seen our mirror reflection doing something different? The design and intention in creating us was to see us reflect the holiness, wisdom, greatness and worth of God.
Why should He be slain?

When God created us, he desired perfect unity and fellowship with us. He would tell us to do something and we would obediently serve Him because He is all knowing and righteous in all His ways. In obeying God we would be completely satisfied! The hunger and thirst of our soul found its fulfilment in knowing, trusting and obeying?

Why should He be slain if he is so caring?

Then we turned away from Him. In our sin we chose to live apart from Him. We no longer wanted to reflect who God is but wanted to do our own thing. Instead of reflecting the holiness of God, we want to show how good we are. Instead of showing how wise God is, we want to show off our wisdom.

Instead of reflecting the greatness of God, we want to be great in the world. Instead of telling how worthy God is, we try day in and day out to prove our own worth to the world. No longer do we want to do what God tells us. We think we know what’s best for our lives. So we plunge into every sinful indulgence that our heart desires.

Genesis 6:5: The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

Now some of us may think. Hey, I’m not that bad. I’ve not actually acted upon every evil desire I’ve had. That’s where our understanding of sin and God’s understanding of sin differs. We are very superficial and selective in viewing our sin. We think the big sins are those that are culturally looked down upon and that leave us with a lot of guilt. That’s not how God looks at it.

For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart. (1 Sam 16:7)

That’s why Jesus could say in Matt 5:28: But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

If that’s the case, then there’s probably no good person on the earth. Even the “holiest” (in human terms) person on the earth would find himself falling short. Absolutely right. Rom 3:23: All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Why should Christ be slain?

You know we all talk about injustice but true injustice happened to Jesus. He was slaughtered for no fault of His. He died for rebellious people like you and me. We said no to Him. We rejected Him. We rightly deserved to face His wrath.

Yet He willingly gave up His life for us and rose on the third Day to purchase us back to God. Through Christ’s sacrifice we can reflect who God is once again! We can spend all of eternity seeing, knowing, trusting and obeying Him!

Isn’t that the best reason for us to share the gospel? To tell them how they were rescued by Christ who was slain on their behalf. To tell them that Christ died to purchase them back to God. While sharing the gospel, I always love asking people why did a good person like Jesus have to die. It’s a question that people often don’t think about.

They just assume it happened without a proper reason. When I tell them that Jesus died for them, that’s their “Wow moment”! What a huge, wonderful gift! That the Son of Man would give up His life for a sinner like me. Could 1 billion USD even be compared to this incomparable gift of God? Would the best job, best house, best car, best education compare? No way!

2. Christ has Redeemed our Unity
from every tribe and language and people and nation

Do you guys remember Genesis 11? (Gen 11:1-9) That was the last time all the people of the world were one and had one language. And it’s such a sad thing that the last time all the world got together to do something united, what did they do?

They wanted to make a name for themselves and point a clenched fist at God. Since then all the people were scattered by language, people and nations. It was a result of the Fall. The amazing picture we see in Revelation is Christ redeems that unity.

In Christ, all those barriers have been removed.

Eph 2:14-16

14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. 

We are brought together this time not to defy God but to worship Him and serve Him in all unity! And how is that important or essential in understanding what our mission is. It’s in seeing God’s global purposes for redemption!

Christ is no longer confined to a certain section of society, a certain tribe, a certain elite class, a certain language group or a certain nation. His gospel is spread far and wide and will be received by different peoples!

A question for all of us to consider: do we think of the gospel as being essential to everyone we know and meet? Do we really believe in the multi-ethnic, multi-national, multi-lingual gathering that will take place before the throne of God?

Or do we live like people who only think Christ died and rose again for an elite group and hence we shouldn’t share? This should drive people to cross-cultural missions. As a church who believes in Christ who was slain and purchased people from every tribe, language, people and nation can’t look inward and only think about its own community and city.

3. Christ has Redeemed our Purpose
and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God,
and they shall reign on the earth.”

The word “kingdom” in the Greek actually refers to kings, leaders. And the word “priest” brings to mind those who offer sacrifices continuously before God. What does that identity mean for us?

and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel. (Ex 19:6)

This identity was God’s intention for Israel in the OT and is his intention for the church today. He desires us to be set apart for Him, devoted completely to Him and become the conduit by which His blessing moves outward to the people around us.

That’s what a priest would do. He would be the representative of the people to God and the representative of God to the people. How does this impact our mission? In every way! By Christ’s sacrificial death we have been given a new purpose to stand between God and the world interceding for them.

Christ is going to use you to bend His blessing of salvation, joy, hope and peace outward to your friends, neighbours and colleagues. And remember you did not earn or deserve to be here. Christ redeemed you from sin, Satan and death unto God so that you can be His priest forever and ever. And it is a special place for the redeemed. We are not ordinary priests but royal priests!

Rev 20:6: Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.

We will reign with Christ! We share in Christ’s authority! Wow! And this should boggle our minds. Why would Christ be slain? And why would He give me the privilege to serve Him as a royal priest? And why would He allow me to reign with Him?

Tomorrow if my boss tells me to become a partner in the business, I would tell him how imperfect and unqualified I am for the role. And here, Christ is telling you and me to reign with Him?

Do we need anymore reasons to wholeheartedly devote the rest of our lives to be on Christ’s mission?

[audioplayer file=”http://thegatheringcommunity.in/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/proclaiming-the-excellencies-of-god.mp3″]

We are doing a series on Missions.

Week 1 – we looked at Matthew 28:18-20 .. The Great Commission … We learnt what Jesus meant when he said all Authority in heaven and earth has been given to him. We also learnt that ‘Go therefore and make disciples’ is a command given to all of us…. That this mission is the end goal of all our lives… Mission draws us closer to God …. & The Ultimate goal of mission is Worship.

Week 2 – we looked at Luke 5:1-11 where Jesus calls out his first disciple Peter to follow him and join him … 3 lessons we learned about Mission from the passage were 1) Mission is rooted in a relationship with Christ 2) Mission is empowered by the qualification of Christ & 3) Mission is defined by the call to follow Christ.

If you’ve missed been there for any of the Sundays I want to encourage you to visit and listen to the past sermons as listed below –

• The Great Commission … Go Therefore – Matthew 28:18-20
• Defining Mission – Luke 5:1-11

The text for today’s sermon is from 1 Pet 2:9,10.

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Last to last week when David preached from 1 John 1:1-14 he answered 3 questions… Can you re-collect them?

Who is God?
What is he doing? &
Who am I in the light of that?

Similarly, I believe today’s passage will help us answer another set 3 important questions for us.

Who are we?
How did we get this Identity? &
What’s it for?

Who are we?

• Verse 9 – “We are a chosen people”

1 Peter is a letter written by Peter to a particular set of people – Who are they? – The elect in God (Christians), we see that in 1 Pet 2:1. He is addressing it to the people who believed in the gospel and surrendered their lives to Christ. Just as we are.

And in verse 9 is saying to them “You are a chosen people”

And as children of God it is absolutely irrelevant what caste or culture or language group we belong to. Because in the kingdom of God we are either ‘chosen’ or ‘not chosen’. We are either going to heaven and spend eternity with God or end up in hell and suffer.

John Piper quotes “What gives us our identity is not color or culture. But chosenness.”

So true it is!

In the Bible Paul writes in Ephesians 1:4 “He chose us in him (In whom? – In Jesus) before the foundation of the world”

Listen to me …. You were chosen by God into his Kingdom before the foundation of the world.

Let me ask you something…  Tell me how does it make you feel? 

Eg. Indian Idol

To be chosen by God is far more special than been chosen for any contest in this world.

It is a privilege to be part of this chosen race of people that God has set apart for himself.
And therefore, we need to be far more grateful and thankful to God than these people who will big contest or even a lottery ticket. Our joy should supersede all of them. Our expressions of thanksgiving and praise should be more vibrant than theirs.

Ephesians 1:4 also reminds me that even I was a small child in my mothers care, a spoilt teenager hanging around with a bunch of crooks, a failure in school, a shame to my father. God had his eyes on me. In the midst of all my circumstances and crowd around me – God identified me as his own – His chosen one.

And that’s exactly who you are? A chosen and beloved child of God.

• In Verse 10b Paul mentions our second identity … “We are men who’ve received MERCY from God”

To have received mercy basically means that, when we deserved punishment because of our sinfulness and fallen state as human beings, God didn’t punish us, but in fact blesses us instead. Mercy is the withholding of a just condemnation.

When God created the first man and the first women in his own image & likeness … and unlike other created beings he gave humans free will to choose between right and wrong.
And God gave them a free will so that they willfully choose to obey and worship God and not by force. God desired and still desires true and genuine worship from his children.

But instead of obeying and worshiping God they chose to rebel against Him … And therefore every human being is born sinful (including us) and deserve death and punishment from this Holy creator God.

God has all the rights to condemn us …. but He chose to show mercy … WHY? … Simply because He loves us.

In the beginning of Peter’s letter in chapter 1:3 he writes

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

Lamentations 3:22-23 writes

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness.

God didn’t just chose us but he also showed mercy and CONTINUOUS to be merciful to us every single day.

We are men who’ve received MERCY from God

• Verse 9 .. Our 3rd Identity …. “We are Holy nation”

By placing our faith in God’s son Jesus Christ alone to save us from our sins – believing that Jesus paid the penalty of our sin by shedding his blood. God declared us holy.

Hebrews 10:8-10 the author gives us this beautiful picture of what Jesus accomplished for us on the cross. He says

“Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them” – though they were offered in accordance with the Law. Then Jesus said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will” Jesus sets aside first to establish the second. And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

As Christians when God looks at us he doesn’t look at our sinfulness anymore but he looks at the Holiness of Christ.

We are a Holy nation, chosen by God & showered with mercy.

• Our fourth identity is …. “We are God’s possession” .. a treasured possession

We no longer belong to this world but we belong to God. We are his treasured possession. And therefore he continues to show his favor every moment. He provides us with all good things. He watches over us. His love constantly chases us.

Even though we walk through the valley of shadow of death … He is with us.

• Our fifth identity Peter says …. “We are a Royal Priesthood”

As a child of God we are priest having immediate access to God – we don’t need another human mediator. God himself provided the one Mediator between God and man, Jesus Christ. We have direct access to God, through God. And, second, we have an exalted, active role in God’s presence.
We are not just chosen, mercied, possessed, and holy just to sit away doing nothing. We are called now to minister in the presence of God. All our life is priestly service. We are never out of God’s presence. We are never in a neutral zone. We are always in the court of the temple. And our life is either a spiritual service of worship (Romans 12:1–2), or it is out of character.

This is Who we are.

God’s possession, a holy nation, chosen, showered with mercy and having access to the presence of God.

We are a chosen race
A royal priesthood
A holy nation
A people for God’s own possession

Now, our second question.

How did we get our identity?

I think the simplest answer to this question is “God gave it to us”

Not on the basis of our merits, our accomplishments OR our good works ….

Peter says this in a summary statement at the end of verse 9. He refers to God like this: “Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” The light in which we live now as a chosen race, holy nation, mercied by God as a Royal Priesthood. The way we got there is that God called us. He called us out of darkness into this marvelous light.

And that’s how we got out identity.

Now that we’ve answered the first 2 question “Who we are?” & “How did we get this identity?”. I believe it is equally important for us to answer the 3rd most important question.

What is it for?

If I have to call my son Jairus and hand him a set of tools and objects and walk away without saying anything. The next question he would ask me is “Dad, what is it for?”

If Anslem has to call you and give you a lakh of rupees and walk away without saying anything. The next question you would want to ask him is “What is it for?”

If you’ve been offered a job position in a multi-national company without you even applying for the job or even qualified for it. The next question you would to ask is “What is it for?”

In the natural world we always ask that question when we are offered something out of the blue. In the same way I believe it is important for us to ask that question when we’ve been offered something we don’t deserve.

And Peter answers that question in the passage. He says

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

God made us who we are so that we might proclaim
– The excellency of his freedom in choosing us.
– The excellency of his grace in showing mercy to us.
– The excellencies of his authority and power in possessing us.
– The excellencies of his worth and purity in making us holy.

In other words he has given us our identity in order that his identity might be proclaimed through us. God made us who we are so we could make known who he is. Our identity is for the sake of making known his identity. The meaning of our identity is that the excellency of God be seen in us.

Now, that’s a call for mission

And how do we proclaim his excellencies?

We proclaim is excellencies by

1. Living for His glory

Immediately after verse 10 . in verses 11 and 12 Peter writes

Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.

2. By been the light of the world & salt of the earth

Matt 5:16 Jesus said

“Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven”

3. By being obedient to Jesus’ call to go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit.

Isaiah 43:10 God says “You are my witness”

Mark 16:15 Jesus said “Go into the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation”

Last week Paul and his team encouraged us to be a witness for Jesus … and I believe it helped us to think of different ways to share the gospel with your family, friends & colleagues.

Conclusion: Trust this sermon has blessed your heart, we pray that you have a great week ahead proclaiming the excellencies of God in and through your lives.

[audioplayer file=”http://thegatheringcommunity.in/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/defining-mission.mp3″]

We’ll be looking at a familiar passage today which is known for the miracle in it but it’s not a common passage when people talk about mission. I thought it’ll be good for all of us to study it together and understand what its implications can mean for us today.

Luke 5:1-11

On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret,  and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat. And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. They signalled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken, and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.

Let’s set this up by talking a little bit about the context of this passage. A couple of verses before we get to this passage, Jesus says “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well; for I was sent for this purpose.” (Lk 4:43)

I think it’s interesting that Jesus plainly states his purpose to preach the good news and a couple of verses later he chooses his first disciples. It’s definitely connected. But don’t think that Christ is helpless when he looks at the huge task of getting the good news declared to all towns and therefore, he needs to urgently recruit some people to help him out. Acts 17:24-25 says “The God who made the world and everything in it, being the Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.”

Psalm 19:1 says “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork”. The heavens and sky are also used by God to declare His glory.

In Numbers 22, God used a donkey to communicate with Balaam. A donkey spoke in clear legible language to communicate with a person! If God can communicate through a donkey, let’s not ever think that God is dependent on us. He is not dependant on us and yet He choses to use us. That in itself should humble us and make us grateful for the privilege to join God in His marvellous mission.

What we understand from the relation between the passage in Lk 4:43 and Luke 5 is that Christ is extremely passionate about the mission (must preach the good news) and His disciples are also defined and described by that mission.

With that let’s look at our main text. We see how an eager and hungry crowd come toward Jesus in order to hear the word of God. Jesus is standing by the lake of Gennesaret and he sees two empty boats because the fishermen were washing their nets. Jesus climbs up the boat which belonged to Simon Peter and asks him to put it out a little from the land. This isn’t the first time Peter encounters Jesus though.

In John 1, we learn that two disciples follow Jesus when John the Baptist points at Jesus and says “Behold the Lamb of God”. Andrew was one of the disciples and he finds his brother Peter, tells him that they’ve found the Messiah and brings him to Jesus. (John 1:40-42)

On another occasion in Luke 4:38-39, Jesus comes to Simon’s house and heals his mother in law who has a high fever.

Peter so far has seen Jesus perform miracles, heal people, drive out demons and teach with authority but he hasn’t yet followed him. It’s like he’s in an environment where he’s being exposed to the person of Jesus but doesn’t yet see the significance in actually following him. Many of us who grew up in a Christian environment would relate to this story because growing up we’ve read stories in the Bible, hear people talk about Jesus, we are taught songs about Jesus but don’t get how that makes any difference to our lives. If you are there at this point, I hope the conversion story of Peter encourages you. It wasn’t a co-incidence due to which Jesus got into Peter’s boat. Rather it was an ordained and planned event that was going to transform his life forever! Wow!

Verse 4 & 5

And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.”

Could you imagine being in Peter’s shoes right now? He was an experienced, skilled fisherman. He just spent the entire night trying to catch some fish to no avail. Jesus on the other hand was a carpenter. I’m sure Peter must’ve wondered “I know Jesus heals people and all that but I know this trade better than him. I’m pretty sure that it’s not going to change anything”. Out of respect Peter heeds to Jesus’ request but probably didn’t expect or believe anything different to take place.

Think about something that you’re good at. You’re skilled at it because it’s a task that you do every day. You’re almost an expert in this field or task. Now what if someone with no experience in that task or field comes and tells you to do the opposite of what you think or believe, what would your response be?

Coming back to the text, Peter probably doubted Jesus at that point but he still exhibited trust by putting down the nets. Do you ever imagine what would’ve happened if Peter didn’t listen to Jesus? Instead you see him trusting and obeying what Jesus asked him to do.

Verse 6 & 7

And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. They signalled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink.

What an amazing miracle they’ve just witnessed! It’s absolutely unheard of! How could it be possible that from no catch they suddenly caught so many fish that the two boats are now sinking due to the weight? In their many years of fishing they’ve never caught so many fish. They now realize that this Jesus does not only heal people of their sicknesses but also controls nature and circumstances according to His will!

Verse 8 & 9

But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken

I find it interesting that before this miracle, Peter refers to Jesus as Master and now He is Lord. Peter understands the difference. Maybe earlier Peter only saw Jesus as an overseer and a Teacher but now He sees him as one with supreme authority. He realized that he wasn’t dealing with a Teacher and a Prophet but He was dealing with God Himself. I think that’s where Jesus gets offensive to people. People are okay with Jesus as long as He is a moral teacher or as long as he is a Prophet who talks about the future but they are reluctant to accept Him as God. And isn’t that strange? Why can’t Peter enjoy the abundance of his catch? Why is suddenly fearful and talking about his sin? This astonishing miracle opened his eyes to perceive the holiness of God and the sinfulness of himself. In essence what he probably meant is “Jesus, I know you are Holy and sent from God. I can’t be around you because I am so sinful! I am unworthy and unqualified to be with you!”

If you are there today, being overwhelmed in your sin and feeling absolutely unqualified to be on Jesus’ mission, here are 3 things this passage tells us today:

1) Mission is rooted in a relationship with Christ

Verse 10 ….And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.”

Those 4 words “Do not be afraid!” changed everything! Can you imagine how Peter, John and James felt at that very moment? They expected condemnation and judgment from Holy God. Instead they received compassion and forgiveness! “Do not be afraid” Such sweet words from Jesus for sinners like you and me. The reason why we are recipients of God’s immense love and forgiveness is because Jesus completely paid the price for our sin by dying on the cross. The judgment that was deserving of criminals like you and me because we sinned against God in our thoughts, words and actions was borne by Christ who committed no crime. Apart from the sacrifice of our Lord all that is left for us is condemnation! When you stare at yourself in disbelief and grief because you understand how sinful you are…Christ speaks a better word…Christ says “Do not be afraid. I got this”. That’s why Rom 8:1 says “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”. Why would anyone not want that?

One of the reasons why Christians ignore mission or aren’t passionate about God’s mission is because they don’t have a pattern of continuous repentance and faith. So they’re living with unconfessed sin and have forgotten everything about the freedom and joy they have in Christ. If we look into our lives, would we say that a pattern of turning from sin and completely depending on the life and work of Christ is THE defining factor? Or are repentance and faith merely random events in your life?

2) Mission is empowered by the qualification of Christ

Not just that Jesus also empowered and commissioned them to “catch men”

What does “Catch men” mean? It obviously doesn’t mean kidnapping! That would be wrong. The word “catch” in the Greek actually means make someone captive or imprison them. It’s talking in a spiritual sense. We have been given the task to “apprehend” people with the beauty of Christ’s love and sacrifice. That’s what happens when we share the good news. We tell people of how we were “apprehended” by Christ’s compassion and love for us and how we’ve been set free from the sin’s penalty and condemnation. Its good news because it’s a free gift available for them too!

What if we get the feeling that we’re unqualified to “catch men”? Well, it is Christ who qualifies you. Firstly, he qualifies us by cancelling each and every sin and by giving us His righteousness. Then He qualifies us by nurturing us through His Word as we read and obey it each day. I’m sure Peter and the others thought Jesus should’ve approached some of Pharisees who were much more knowledgeable to be his disciples. No, that’s not the way it works in God’s kingdom. In Acts 4:13, Peter and John were standing before the big shots in the Jewish religious circles and a very interesting description is made of them. “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they had recognized that they had been with Jesus”. It is the relationship with Christ that qualifies you.

One thing that all believers know is how Christ transformed their lives. It’s a truth we can’t forget or deny. Yet many still don’t want to share their testimonies. We still wait for that moment when we will be ready to share our faith. Isn’t Christ’s qualification enough for us? If we have a real relationship with Christ, then we are qualified to share.

3) Mission is defined by the call to follow Christ

Verse 11 –  And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.
I always keep thinking. These were fishermen who had their livelihoods entirely dependent on the amount of fish they caught. Were they acting foolishly by just leaving everything and following Jesus at a time when they got so much? Wasn’t that terrible business decision making? Why couldn’t have they waited for a few more years and then followed Jesus during retirement?

I think it’s because till now their identity (everything that defined and directed their course of life), their purpose (driving motivation), security (what can secure their lives), longing of their hearts (maybe the trade or the abundance could satisfy) surrounded around fishing and what it could provide.

They just met and had an encounter with Jesus who in one miracle showed them that He was the answer to their longing for a true identity, true purpose in life, true security and true satisfaction. It’s like the treasure in Matt 13:44. A man finds a treasure hidden in the field. In his “joy” he sells all that he has and buys the field. If you found the answers to the deepest questions in your life, would you hold back from giving yourself completely to the solution to those questions? That’s why it wasn’t foolishness but conscious and a joyful response by Peter, James and John to leave everything and follow Jesus. That’s where mission begins.

It’s a question of willingness to follow Jesus. Only a true follower of Jesus will be on Mission. Only a follower would want to trust and obey Jesus. Could it be possible that you don’t want to be on mission because you aren’t really following Jesus?

[audioplayer file=”http://thegatheringcommunity.in/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/the-works-of-god.mp3″]

Good morning — Please open your Bibles to 1 John

Back home — at the Red Tree church I get the privilege of pastoring — we are beginning a new series called THE WORK OF GOD. Where we will spend 3 weeks answering the question what is GOD at work doing?

As a pastor most of my time is spent answering three really basic questions… They come in all kinds of crazy circumstances and in crazy ways but when you boil it down I’m spending most of my time answering the questions: Who is GOD, What is He doing, Who am I in light of that?

Here is my encouragement to you this morning… No matter how many answers you get to those questions  — never stop asking them…

People all over the world whether they know it or not – are asking these questions — And the reason why these questions are still popular today is because the answers to these questions are actually make sense of the world we live in — they define for humanity it’s deepest questions, like: why do we exist?, what is our purpose?, how do we spend our time on this planet?…

Ecclesiastes tells us an incredibly depressing story about King Solomon – who set out to try and answers these questions outside of GOD and in the end his conclusion was vanity, vanity all is vanity!

Without GOD nothing has meaning, nothing has purpose. Philosophers have been searching for the answers to these questions since the beginning of time.

Here is my concern for the church – and my main problem with cultural christianity — It seems to promote an attitude — that causes us to stop seeking… I prayed a prayer I’m done — We have pad answers to questions like: why do you exist? “for the glory of GOD”… NOW go live your life…

Listen the answer to the question why do you exist was never intended to stop our seeking of GOD… But rather to fuel it!

The most destructive thing that can happen to a person’s faith — to a person’s life is that they stop seeking GOD.

A.W. Tozer – “How tragic that we in this dark day have had our seeking done for us by our leaders.”

SO today I am hoping to stoke the fire of desire in your hearts for GOD by beginning the conversation with a question: “What is GOD doing?”.

We use language like invitation and participation. I want us with confidence to be able to answer the question What is it that I am being invited into and how do I participate once i’m there?

So What is the work of GOD? I broke it down to three of the most basic aspects of what GOD is doing:

Revelation: God is revealing Himself to His creation
Redemption: God is buying back what was stolen by sin, satan and death
Restoration: God is renewing that which was damaged by sin

I don’t have time to teach through all three this morning but I do want to address the first one.

Revelation: God is revealing Himself to His Creation. He’s making Himself Known… I could literally read hundred’s of passages of scripture to support this claim.

Yet it is becoming one of the least talked about aspects of the work of GOD in the church. Scripture itself is becoming less central to the life of the believer because of this truth.

Many in the western world are abandoning the beauty and sufficiency of the word of life and in the end they are finding themselves less and less satisfied with GOD.

Sin is attempting to be satisfied by anything outside of GOD and His design for us. Which means worship is the state of finding satisfaction in GOD and His design for us.

1 John 1:1-4

1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— 2 the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us— 3 that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. 4 And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.

My son’s favorite phrases is “Daddy do it again!”. He never tires of repetition. It doesn’t matter what it is. It could be a magic trick or drawing a picture or swinging him around. He never tires.

A few weeks ago we went fishing together and he has his own little fishing pole and I get all ready and baited up and we walk over to the side of the lake and I have the pole and wrap his little hands around mine so he could learn how to cast and we cast it into the lake — and no joke not 4 seconds after it hit the water a fish took the bait and hooked himself on our line.

So we reel it in together and there is this little fish on the line and Moses is just going nuts and jumping up and down and just so incredibly happy.

We take the fish of the line and throw it back and my son looks back up at me with his big blue eyes and says “Daddy — do it again!”.

So it’s on — I spend the next hour trying to become super fisherman. I am casting and reeling, I am standing under bushes and on logs trying to find the best spot for Moe and I to catch another fish. And nothing… I can see as time goes on the disappointment growing on my son’s face which put even more pressure… So I abandon my son and I am off to try and go catch a darn fish.

And he comes up to me and says Daddy I don’t like fishing anymore and I say oh son we’ll catch another fish and he looks up to me and says “I just want to be with you”.

In that moment it hit me. Moses’ do it agains were not because he was so amazed by what I accomplished but his “do it agains” were motivated by his desire to spend more time with me.

He got to be with me. If I did it one more time that was more time that we got to be together… the drawings, magic tricks, spinning around none of it was ever about anything else other than being with His daddy.

I was so busy trying to accomplish something for Him that I missed the real gift — which was just to be with him…

Let me begin by saying this: The greatest missed truth about the REVELATION of GOD is that all of it is for the purposes of a Restored Relationship with GOD.

Let me say it this way — GOD has AND is revealing himself to you so that you would have a genuine RELATIONSHIP WITH HIM.

GOD made you and He knows you and His desire is that you would know him… That you would know His glory and that He alone would be your satisfaction.

listen: Not because He’s lacking — but because He’s loving…

THE VEIL

1 John

1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— 2 the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us…

The apostles John and Paul were both big on the idea that what was hidden has now come to light. What was veiled by sin and human desire has now been brought to light by Jesus through His life, death, and resurrection.

John the Baptizer went around, before Jesus’ public ministry quoting the prophet Isaiah… “The people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and for those dwelling in the shadow of death a great light has dawned.”

Something has changed…

I hope we hear the zeal and excitement in this text — For John — in the 1st century they had only heard about GOD. There was 400 years of silence – no miracles, no burning bushes, no parted seas, no prophets — Just stories.

They heard about it but now through Jesus they SEE. God has become manifest — The word of life has come to be seen (known) and become a tangible reality for them.

GOD is at work making himself known. But why?

3 that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. {Relationship: The invitation is to participate in fellowship, deep relationship with the Father and with His son in the power of the Holy Spirit}

Time/Out – the God of all creation — wants to be in fellowship with you and on top of that has made a way for us to be in fellowship with him.

This truth is the most humbling truth… the God I reject on a daily basis by my indifference or selfishness or self righteousness — Is constantly at work wooing me to himself. Through revelation (Creation, Word, Jesus)

HE PURSUES

So all of the work of Revelation that GOD is doing is so that we would be humbled unto repentance and return to the FATHER….

NOW here is what Blows my mind… Not only is GOD revealing himself to us — He is pursuing us!

John 6:44 says that “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him…”

GOD is at work drawing you to Him so that you can know Him.

But let me show you how relentless His pursuit of you is…

The imagery used here is awe inspiring…

Turn with me to the book of HEBREWS 12:24-29…

GOD is relentless in His pursuit of us… His creation, His beloved children…

What this is saying is that GOD is willing to shake the heavens and the earth in such a way that anything that is not of him would fall away… So that the only thing that remains in our lives is Him and His glorious purposes and design. His UnShakable Kingdom

verses 28 and 29 display more of the heart of GOD and our only right response to that…

Therefore:
“let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken,
AND
let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe.”
for our GOD is a consuming fire…

When life seems to be shaken up this verse should come to mind because we know that the one thing that cannot be shaken is the kingdom of GOD that we have been promised through Jesus Christ. Our response: THANK YOU!

Our God is a Jealous GOD and is a consuming fire… Because He loves His creation— Because He desires good and glory in His creation — He leaves us with the only thing that can truly satisfy and truly capture our hearts and that is himself…

4 And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.

His willingness to whatever is necessary to keep His unshakable kingdom our firm foundation is because of His Unshakable LOVE for us…

WE MUST PURSUE HIM

Now I want to get practical. What does that mean for us?

Simply put the Doctrine of Revelation means: We are invited to know HIM…

And in order to know someone you must pursue them.

Here is a really basic truth for you… You will never lay a hold of that which you do not pursue.

This is why Jesus said in Matthew 16:24 “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”

God is pursuing you and GOD has initiated the relationship AND God has given us everything we need in Jesus — HE has done everything necessary BUT we have to lay hold of that work… it’s called FAITH.

One of the things that crept into Christianity is the idea of convenient grace and easy salvation

Where one can be “saved” purely as an academic endeavor but never truly have a love and desire for GOD. ONE can walk an aisle, pray a prayer, and even get dunked in water but in the end have no real desire for GOD.

This is one of the affects of the porn generation… It’s convenient and easy and there is no real work involved…

And then in the end we wonder why are left completely unsatisfied. What is more frustrating to me is we have a generation who is blaming GOD for their unsatisfying life when GOD has been at working inviting His creation to find satisfaction in Him.

Everything in the Christians life is completely and utterly dependent on relationship with GOD. GOD is drawing you to Him by revealing Himself to you. We must Lay a Hold of it…

James 4:5-8 5 

Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? 6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.

Matthew 5:6

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be satisfied or filled.

John 6:29

Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe (intimate knowledge) in him whom he has sent.”

It is not about understanding GOD… It’s about knowing Him.

He is not a science to be mastered or even a history to be detailed out, He is a person to be known!

This truly is the work that GOD himself has initiated with you. To know him… To See Him… To Cherish Him… To pursue Him as He has you firmly in His hands.

Jesus’s words to the thief on the Cross… You will be with me!… Jesus died so that we could be with HIM.

So what are some things for us to know in our pursuit of GOD…

1) We seek to know not to get…

– in knowing — everything we long for is satisfied.

My son taught me that day at the lake that what He truly sought was me. Not what I provided, not what I could do but me…

25 When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” 26 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27 Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. 34 They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” 35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” Do you believe that the best and most valuable thing God can give you is himself?

2) We seek him through His means not ours…

– (??Moses and Show Me Your Glory??)
– His word, prayer, mission, obedience

Matt 11:28-29

3) We seek Him in the mundane not just the extravagant…

– How are you knowing GOD in your singleness?
– How are you knowing GOD in your marriage?
– How are you knowing GOD in your vocation?
– How are you knowing GOD in your education?

We look for the red sea and miss the manna in the morning…

God never tires of the do it agains… Everyday the sun comes up, and every year the leaves change colors, and every minute he reveals and saves and renews His children. God never gets tired of the do it gain.

So SEEK HIM!

Psalm 70:4

May all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you!

[audioplayer file=”http://thegatheringcommunity.in/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/go-therefore.mp3″]

In our last series on Nehemiah we saw the missional journey of Nehemiah and therefore our next series is on Missions and I hope this stirs your heart to Go and spread the love of Jesus.

Our passage for today is Matthew 28:18-20

These are the final instructive word from Jesus to His church. Jesus had just risen, the Jews handed him over to the Romans to crucify him on the cross.

Unlike today the world in which Jesus commissioned his disciples was a hard ground. There is already a lot of tension between the Jews and the Romans and here is Jesus asking his disciples to go spread the good news to the world.

Not all of the disciples that were gathered believed in the fact that Jesus is now risen. But still Jesus did not reject or disapprove of them, he accepted their worship.

Verse 18 Jesus starts his conversion by saying “All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me”

Here’s what that authority meant –

• Authority to forgive Sins (Luke 5:20)
• Authority to mediate to the Father (1 Timothy 2:5)
• Authority to send the Holy Spirit (John 14:26)
• Authority to open the hearts & minds of His people (Luke 24:45)
• Authority to reveal the Father (Matt 11:27)
• Authority to give eternal Life to whom He chooses (John 10:27-28)
• Authority to raise us up on the last day (John 6:40)

Jesus showed His equality with the Father and possessed all authority and power.

Verse 19 – Go therefore & make disciples of all nations

This command was not given only to the disciples but even to us in this generation. We are called to make disciples.

This is the core reason we exist – of all the things we do in life.

We often speak of God been glorified in our lives. Mission is the means through which God is glorified in us.

Mission draws us nearer to God – and keeps us away from slackness.

Bill Hybels in his book “Becoming contagious Christians” writes

“Often I meet Christians who are in spiritual malaise, holding on to their faith but not advancing it much. Bible study has become a chore; prayer is a dry routine. The miracle of their own conversion, once recounted with great passion, is now a distant, fading memory. And going to church is – well, its something they just do.

Mechanically and half-heartedly, these people trudge along through the drudgery of quarantined Christianity.

But when these lethargic believers break out of spiritual isolation and meet some spiritual seekers, something incredible starts to happen. As they experience high-stakes conversions that tend to happen with unchurched people, they begin to notice a sort of inner renewal taking place. Areas long ignored suddenly come alive with fresh significance .. Isn’t it incredible how elevating our efforts to reach others can be a catalyst for personal growth?”

The ultimate goal of Mission is worship

Worship of the true & living God is the ultimate goal of Mission. We lead and disciple people to Christ not to make them mere Church going Christians but to lead them into becoming true Worshippers, the one the Father seeks.

John Piper in his book “Let the nations be glad” writes

“Worship is ultimate, not mission. Because God is ultimate, not man”

We need to make Mission the ultimate goal of our life by

• living intentionally
• looking for opportunities to glorify God
• consistently reaching out even in hard times
• staying faithful to our calling

[otw_shortcode_info_box border_type=”bordered” border_color_class=”otw-black-border” border_style=”bordered” shadow=”shadow-down-right” rounded_corners=”rounded-10″]This sermon is part of our Expository Preaching Collective on the Book of Nehemiah. Follow the link below to know more about What Expository preaching is and Why is it important to us. (Click here)[/otw_shortcode_info_box]

We have come to the end of Nehemiah! It’s been a wonderful process for all of us as we’ve seen God’s love and grace in rebuilding and restoring the hearts of His people. The story on the exterior might seem to be only about rebuilding, repopulating and governance but it was really about renewal of their hearts!

It’s been exhilarating recounting the experiences of Nehemiah, the people of Judah and learning to apply them to our lives. We’ve learnt a great deal on prayer, repentance, purity, obedience, giving ourselves to the work of God, worship, fighting sin, standing firm in opposition.

And yet when we come to the end of the book instead of finishing with a triumphant message, it closes with the sad reality of people’s failing commitment to God.

23 In those days also I saw the Jews who had married women of Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab. 24 And half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod, and they could not speak the language of Judah, but only the language of each people. 25 And I confronted them and cursed them and beat some of them and pulled out their hair. And I made them take an oath in the name of God, saying, “You shall not give your daughters to their sons, or take their daughters for your sons or for yourselves. 26 Did not Solomon king of Israel sin on account of such women? Among the many nations there was no king like him, and he was beloved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel. Nevertheless, foreign women made even him to sin. 27 Shall we then listen to you and do all this great evil and act treacherously against our God by marrying foreign women?”

28 And one of the sons of Jehoiada, the son of Eliashib the high priest, was the son-in-law of Sanballat the Horonite. Therefore I chased him from me. 29 Remember them, O my God, because they have desecrated the priesthood and the covenant of the priesthood and the Levites.

30 Thus I cleansed them from everything foreign, and I established the duties of the priests and Levites, each in his work; 31 and I provided for the wood offering at appointed times, and for the firstfruits. Remember me, O my God, for good.

This morning I want us all to go to Doctor Scripture for a checkup. Doctor Scripture will be doing a thorough check up of our hearts today. Our prayer is that the truths of this passage will illuminate us to know what’s in our hearts and turn to Christ for him to perform the surgery:

The first thing that we discover about our heart condition is that:

1. We are forgetful: Prone to forget our identity in God (v23-27)

23 In those days also I saw the Jews who had married women of Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab. 24 And half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod, and they could not speak the language of Judah, but only the language of each people. 25 And I confronted them and cursed them and beat some of them and pulled out their hair. And I made them take an oath in the name of God, saying, “You shall not give your daughters to their sons, or take their daughters for your sons or for yourselves. 26 Did not Solomon king of Israel sin on account of such women? Among the many nations there was no king like him, and he was beloved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel. Nevertheless, foreign women made even him to sin. 27 Shall we then listen to you and do all this great evil and act treacherously against our God by marrying foreign women?

“Wow! Really?” might be our response when we read this text. These were the same people in Chapter 10 swore…entered into an oath and curse to walk in God’s Law. I thought these were the people who separated themselves from the peoples of the land to the Law of God!

I thought they were the ones who stood for half a day confessing their sins to God and made a firm covenant in writing on a sealed document! Let’s look at Chapter 10:28-39 to see what all they had committed to. By Chapter 13 we find that all those commitments were forgotten and broken.

A couple of weeks back we saw how they neglected the house of the Lord and did not support the priests and the Levites, last week we saw how the people ignored the commandment to keep the Sabbath and now we see how they intermarry with the women of Ashdod, Ammon and Moab.

The Israelites witnessed first-hand how intermarriage with the people these nations always resulted in disobedience to God. Association with these nations always meant that the Israelites were led to sexual immorality and idolatry. There was no good that came out of these relations. It’s like that old sinful indulgence that we immerse in when we seek pleasure and comfort apart from God. Somehow for this sin there’s always an exception. When it comes to this sin we always compromise.

We love this sin so much that we don’t mind ignoring the commandments of God or the commitment to God. Just know that this comes at a huge risk. We learnt a couple of weeks back how our sin damages and contaminates our worship of God. There’s another thing at stake here. Identity!

V24 says: And half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod, and they could not speak the language of Judah, but only the language of each people.

Is anything wrong learning another language and culture? That’s why context is essential. In Ancient Times, the way nations used to conquer other nations was not just by power and might but also by teaching them their language and culture. That’s how they would brainwash them in order to make them slaves.

Daniel 1:3-8: 3 Then the king commanded Ashpenaz, his chief eunuch, to bring some of the people of Israel, both of the royal family[a] and of the nobility, 4 youths without blemish, of good appearance and skillful in all wisdom, endowed with knowledge, understanding learning, and competent to stand in the king’s palace, and to teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans. 5 The king assigned them a daily portion of the food that the king ate, and of the wine that he drank. They were to be educated for three years, and at the end of that time they were to stand before the king. 6 Among these were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah of the tribe of Judah. 7 And the chief of the eunuchs gave them names: Daniel he called Belteshazzar, Hananiah he called Shadrach, Mishael he called Meshach, and Azariah he called Abednego.

In Daniel’s time we see how the attempt was made to brainwash him and the other Israelites by educating them with the literature and language of the Chaldeans. Not just that, their names were changed: because that would also totally change their identity!

Now we may think…what’s the big deal about identity? Everything! It affects everything you do. Just imagine if you were literally brainwashed and sent out to roam within the city without any ID, what would that be like? Wouldn’t it be disastrous? You wouldn’t know where to go? You wouldn’t know who was in your family? You wouldn’t know what to do? Neither would you know your rights and duties as a citizen.

In the same way if you forget your identity in God, you forget your identity as a child of God, rescued by God to serve God and glorify God! If losing your identity physically is devastating, how much more dangerous is it to lose your identity in Christ?

• You forget that Christ has totally and completely forgiven ALL your sins.
• If we confess our sins, he isfaithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.(1 John 1:9)
• You forget that there is absolutely no condemnation for those who are in Christ! (Rom 8:1)
• You forget that in the presence of God there is fullness of JOY! (Ps 16:7)
• You forget that Christ chose and appointed you to go and bear fruit! (John 15:16)

We miss out on all of that by forgetting our identity! And Satan knows that so from the start he’s always tried to play around with our identity. He asked Eve “Did God really say that you shouldn’t eat of any tree in the garden?” By v5 he convinces her that her identity apart from God is more attractive. And from v6 we see how the whole of humanity and creation fell with that loss of identity.

And just like how Satan subtly tempted Adam and Eve to eat the fruit. He didn’t tell them explicitly that he was trying to confuse their identity in God. Similarly what are some sins we entertain assuming that they are innocent?

For eg: Culture around us will tell us we need to be secular, there’s no harm in marrying an unbeliever. Will you still go ahead and pursue a relationship knowing how it’s going to impact the way you view your identity? Another one, what we watch often on TV or on the Internet heavily impacts the way we view our identity. We may think it’s so innocent. It’s just a TV show.  But through the TV show they’ll subtly or overtly express ideas that are so unbiblical and we end up consuming them.

That’s why you see that from the way people dress, to the way people talk and the way people behave…all of that is being influenced by media. As believers we must be careful with what we watch because of the way it impacts our identity.

2. We are powerless: No amount of human effort can transform people’s hearts (v25 & 28-29)

25 And I confronted them and cursed them and beat some of them and pulled out their hair. And I made them take an oath in the name of God, saying, “You shall not give your daughters to their sons, or take their daughters for your sons or for yourselves.

28 And one of the sons of Jehoiada, the son of Eliashib the high priest, was the son-in-law of Sanballat the Horonite. Therefore I chased him from me. 29 Remember them, O my God, because they have desecrated the priesthood and the covenant of the priesthood and the Levites.

Perhaps one thing we can definitely understand from Nehemiah’s ministry is that he was very zealous. In this case however even though the intent was to remove and cleanse the evil that was in the nation, it still was abusive. The last chapter did talk about Nehemiah’s reforms but in his zeal did it actually lead people to repentance? So no matter what he tried, he still couldn’t change people because the problem wasn’t just in their behavior and action, the problem lied in their hearts! SIN!

Jesus clearly understood our hearts and described it perfectly. In Matt 15:19, Jesus says: “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. 20 These are what defile a person.”

It’s what’s in your heart that needs to be healed first. How have you approached your fight against sin? How have you approached your devotion to God? Is it by doing certain things, by completing a list or is it by having your heart transformed? Have you come to that place where you admit that no amount of human effort can actually change you? Only God can change your heart! If you are in that place waiting, help is there.

3. We are self-righteous: We always assume that we are more righteous than who we truly are (v30, 31)

Thus I cleansed them from everything foreign, and I established the duties of the priests and Levites, each in his work; 31 and I provided for the wood offering at appointed times, and for the firstfruits. Remember me, O my God, for good.

Nehemiah undoubtedly was active in removing the evil that was in the nation and bringing things to order but he ends the entire episode with no mention of his own faults. We see a humbled and penitent Nehemiah in Chapter 1 where he’s pleading and confessing his own sins alongwith the sins of the people. Now there’s no confession in his prayer.

This happens a lot when you’re leading or discipling other people. Often you’ll think that the passage you read only applies to the person you’re leading. You’re always thinking of ways you can apply that Scripture to the other person. It’s all good but is that Scripture reading you? The root issue is because we often think we’re more righteous than whom we truly are.

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  (1 John 1:8, 9)

The true display of the Spirit’s work in a person’s life is not in the denial of sin but in the growing awareness of sin and repentance! That’s why repentance is not a one-time activity for a believer, it is a continuous lifelong activity until the believer becomes like Christ!

Guess what…even the most hardened unbeliever thinks he is more righteous than he is. That’s why even after the gospel is shared, he won’t budge because he doesn’t think it’s required for him. Only the person who truly sees his sin for what it is knows why he needs Jesus.

Have we identified the sin of self-righteousness in our hearts? Have we been denying the actual presence of sin in our lives or has it been brought to the light in confession?

We’ve just seen three different truths about our human condition: We are prone to forget our identity in God, no amount of human effort can transform people’s hearts, and we think we are more righteous than we are. Where we failed is where Jesus succeeded.

He was completely aware and in sync with His identity with the Father, his effort is complete and can transform people’s hearts, he was the only person who lived a life that was considered perfectly righteous by the Father! Our frail and wicked lives were the reason why we deserved to die. But Christ showed His compassion and love by dying in our place on the cross.

Three days later he rose from the grave to give us our true identity: united with God forever, to give us a new heart and to give us a new righteousness! His own righteousness! We receive it in repentance and faith! If we ask ourselves, which of the three has been the hindrance this past week:

Forgetting our identity, Our Self-Efforts or Our Self-Righteousness? Can we turn from it and run to Jesus receiving what He has already done for us?

[audioplayer file=”http://thegatheringcommunity.in/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/the-meaning-of-sabbath.mp3″]

[otw_shortcode_info_box border_type=”bordered” border_color_class=”otw-black-border” border_style=”bordered” shadow=”shadow-down-right” rounded_corners=”rounded-10″]This sermon is part of our Expository Preaching Collective on the Book of Nehemiah. Follow the link below to know more about What Expository preaching is and Why is it important to us. (Click here)[/otw_shortcode_info_box]

This is our second last preaching collective on the book of Nehemiah and our text today is Nehemiah 13:15-22
Last week we saw how the Eliashib the priest profaned the house of the God by preparing for large chamber for Tobiah where the offerings were supposed to be kept as per the commandment from the Lord. When Nehemiah hears this news he gets angry and throws away all the household furniture of Tobiah out of the chamber and bring back the vessels of the house of God along with the other offerings.

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We learnt how SIN damages the worship of God individually and contaminates the worship of God corporately. To deal with sin that leads us into disobedience we must begin by hating them, take drastic measures to uproot them & replace them with elements of worship.

[bctt tweet=”The Importance of Sabbath and its Implications on us Today” username=”gatheringmumbai”]

Today we will look at another unusual event or an issue that takes place in the camp.

In verse 15 Nehemiah is saying “In those days I saw in Judah people treading winepresses on the Sabbath, and bringing in heaps of grain and loading them on donkeys, and also wine, grapes, figs, and all kinds of loads, which they brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day”

What Nehemiah meant to say was “they were basically working on the day of Sabbath”

The reason I used the word unusual event or a problem is because we live in a generation where work is celebrated and is the norm. Day in and day out, in season and out season … you ought to be working.

Majority of middle class, lower middle class and especially the lower class people don’t even get a Sunday off. If they don’t work all 7 days then they won’t be able to provide for their families. In my new company they encourage people to configure the company email on their mobiles so they are constantly working even on holidays, our team has a whatapp group where they are chatting about work all the time. This is the culture we are living in right now and maybe in this context the verse 15 may have sounded unusual to you.

Why is Nehemiah the leader upset to see people working a Sabbath day? Isn’t that good for the growth of the nation? Isn’t that good that people are busy?

Nehemiah wasn’t upset because of some personal reasons but he was upset because the disobeyed God’s command. It was God’s command that people shouldn’t work on a Sabbath day.

It was one of the commandment given to Moses, we read that in Exodus 20:8-11. It’s the 4th command.
Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work; but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord God; in it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your manservant, or your maidservant, or your cattle, or the sojourner who is within your gates; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and hallowed it.

Here’s what we will be doing in the next couple of minutes, we will unfold the meaning of Sabbath and also discover its implications for us in the new covenant. Two lessons we will learn from this text is ..

1. Obeying God is more important giving in to our cultural demands.
2. Obeying God is more important that making extra or even losing much.

5 things that stands out from the command over Sabbath in Exodus 20:8-11 are

1. The word “REMEMBER”

Firstly, God is telling the people to remember the rest day. Sabbath means Rest.
People of God had to remind themselves that they need to take a break, a day off after every 6 working days. It was not an optional command but a mandatory one.

I guess because in those days they did not have systems like today, it’s easy to remember a day of holiday because it’s an off at work, we in fact count our days till the weekend comes. But in those days since they did not have a calendar they used to work at their winepress, farms etc every day and maybe they had to make an extra effort to count 6 days … thou they had to do it as a community they had to remind themselves to take a break after every 6 days.

2. KEEP IT HOLY

Second, “Keep it holy,” means set it aside from all other days as special. Specifically, as verse 10 says, keep it “to the Lord,” or “for the Lord.” In other words, the rest is not to be aimless rest, but God-centered rest. Attention is to be directed to God in a way that is more concentrated and steady than on ordinary days. Keep the day holy by keeping the focus on the holy God.

3. The command is not just YOU

“your son, or your daughter, your manservant, or your maidservant, or your cattle, or the sojourner who is within your gates”

We cannot say “Well, I will keep it, but I will put my maid to work, or set my ox to threshing with a carrot in front of his nose at 6 PM the evening of the sabbath so that it will thresh the grain all day while I rest.” God says, No. You miss the point if you try to keep the business running by using servants or animals or relatives. What point?

4. God’s Rest after creation

In Genesis 2:2 we read, “And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done.”

The questions that arises in our hearts is If God is omnipotent—if He has all power—it doesn’t make much sense that He would need to “rest.” After we’ve had a busy week, we take a nap—but God.

The important thing to notice in that verse is, it doesn’t say God “needed” to rest; it simply says that He did. It is therefore clear from Scripture that God did not rest because He was tired.

Genesis 17:1 calls God the “Almighty God.”
Psalm 147:5 says, “Great is our Lord, and mighty in power; His understanding is infinite.”

God is all-powerful; He is never tired and never needs to rest.

Isaiah 40:28 says, “The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary.”
God is the sum of perfection; He is never diminished in any way, and that includes being diminished in power.

When God said, “Let there be light,” the light appeared. He simply spoke creation into existence (Genesis 1:1-3).
Later, we read that Jesus Christ “is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power” (Hebrews 1:3).

The entire universe is held together by Jesus’ word. The creation and maintenance of the universe is not difficult for God. A mere word will suffice. As Psalm 33:9 declares, “For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm.”

The Hebrew word translated “rested” in Genesis 2:2 includes other ideas than that of being tired. In fact, one of the main definitions of the Hebrew word shabat is “to cease or stop.” In Genesis 2:2 the understanding is that God “stopped” His work; He “ceased” creating on the seventh day. All that He had created was good, and His work was finished.

God did not merely “rest” on the seventh day; He “stopped creating.” It was a purposeful stop. Everything He desired to create had been made. He looked at His creation, declared it “very good” (Genesis 1:31), and ceased from His activity.

Sabbath means to cease and rest ….

Here what I believe the implications of Sabbath is for us today.

1. Firstly, it is applicable to all and not just the leader, pastor or elder of the church
2. The bible doesn’t suggest a particular day as Sabbath, like only Sunday …. It just says the 7th day.
3. It basically means to cease from doing any kind of work …. whether office work or even household work … it means to halt from doing any mundane daily activities … that may even include cooking … even our servants & maids shouldn’t be allowed to work on that day
4. It is not supposed to be an aimless rest where we sleep till 12 PM, have lunch in the afternoon and go back to sleep again. Rather it has to be God centered – Praying, reading & meditation on his word
5. More than physical or mental rest it means to rest in God, trusting his sovereignty over our lives.
In the light of what Sabbath means and the disobedience of the people of Judah in the story of Nehemiah here are 2 lessons we need to learn from the text.

1. Obeying God is more important than giving in to our cultural demands.

We understand the reason for the disobedience of the people of God was the influence of the outside world. And to stop that Nehemiah takes a drastic step.

In verse 19-21 it says

As soon as it began to grow dark at the gates of Jerusalem before the Sabbath, I commanded that the doors should be shut and gave orders that they should not be opened until after the Sabbath. And I stationed some of my servants at the gates, that no load might be brought in on the Sabbath day. 20 Then the merchants and sellers of all kinds of wares lodged outside Jerusalem once or twice. 21 But I warned them and said to them, “Why do you lodge outside the wall? If you do so again, I will lay hands on you.” From that time on they did not come on the Sabbath.

Let’s evaluate, what are some of the cultural influences and demands that distract us from obeying God and what are some of the drastic steps we need to take in order to avoid them.

Job Culture – Stand firm in our convictions
Family Culture (Indian) – Speak up against them as the Lord gives you grace
Societal Culture (bribe) – Conduct yourself in godliness and set ourselves as an example
Entertainment Culture – Discern what is distracting you from worshiping and obeying God and restrain from those as the Lord leads.

We looked at Romans Romans 12:2 a few weeks back it says

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

The word of God prohibits us from loving the world and the things of the world.

1 John 2:15-17

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

Story of Eric Liddel is a great example. Been a sprint runner and been selected for the Olympics, he refuses to run the race because it was scheduled on Sunday his Sabbath day.

2. Obeying God is more important that making extra or even losing much.

It is often that people give in to the demands of their financial needs and end up working every single day without rest. But I believe taking a Sabbath off also implies that we cease to trust in our own ability to provide for ourselves but trust more on God who is our ultimate provider.

Matthew 6:25-33

25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?[g] 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you,even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

– For some it would mean for some of us to give up on the extra income that we make on our rest day – share my example of working on rest day for extra money – people of God faced loses on that day because of no trading

– For some it would mean to have less or limited food for that day

In this context I consider Sunday to be my Sabbath day .. my sermon preparation and preaching is not work but deep diving into god’s word … our fellowship time with you guys are a joy whether it’s a Sunday morning or an afternoon or an evening get-together – as long as we’re not working – neither our maid and cook – as long as our focus is God.

Let’s reflect on these lessons and make adjustments in our lives that are God glorifying.

[audioplayer file=”http://thegatheringcommunity.in/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/161009_1100-mp3cut.net_.mp3″]

[otw_shortcode_info_box border_type=”bordered” border_color_class=”otw-black-border” border_style=”bordered” shadow=”shadow-down-right” rounded_corners=”rounded-10″]This sermon is part of our Expository Preaching Collective on the Book of Nehemiah. Follow the link below to know more about What Expository preaching is and Why is it important to us. (Click here)[/otw_shortcode_info_box]

How many of us would generally evaluate the risk involved before we take any financial decision for ourselves or our families? It’s interesting that when it comes to moral issues specifically sin; we don’t usually put any thought to it. The harm in making sinful investments outweighs and outdoes any of the great mistakes we may make in our career or finance because it deals with the worship of God negatively. I believe today’s passage offers a sober warning and reassuring hope for us. It tells us two things about making sinful investments:

1) Sin damages the worship of God individually
2) Sin contaminates the worship of God corporately

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Read Nehemiah 13:4-14 (Click text to read)

1) Sin damages the worship of God individually (v4-7)

In these few verses we see two main characters being described. Eliashib and Tobiah. Let’s try and find out from Nehemiah what we can know about them.

[bctt tweet=”The High Risk of making Sinful Investments! (Nehemiah 13:4-14)” username=”gatheringmumbai”]

Eliaship:

• Eliashib was the high priest at the time. His grandson was the son in law of Sanballat the Horonite. (v28)
• He had a huge responsibility of leading the people in spiritual matters.
• He had the responsibility of ministering to them and ministering on their behalf by offering sacrifices in the temple.
• He also had the responsibility of looking after the Levites and the priests by making sure that the tithes and the offerings that were brought to the temple were distributed to them.
• Eliashib was related to Tobiah.

Tobiah

• He was an enemy of the people of God.
• He hated the idea of Nehemiah seeking the welfare of the people of Israel. (Neh 2:10)
• He despised and jeered at the people while they were rebuilding the walls. (Neh 2:19)
• He accused the people of rebelling against the King.
• He and his counterparts became very angry when they saw that the work of the walls continued in spite of their threats. (Neh 4:7)
• Even toward the end of the rebuilding process, we see how they tried to deceive and make Nehemiah afraid in order to somehow make the work to stop. (Neh 6:19)

We know how the broken walls were a picture of the spiritual state of the people of Judah. They were in shame and in spiritual ruins. But God lovingly pursued them and repaired their hearts! Therefore when Tobiah tried to attack the people of Judah and attempted to stop the work, he wasn’t just being an enemy of the people he was being an enemy of God!

Now this enemy of God was given the storage place that was meant to store tithes and offerings that supported the ministers who were given the great responsibility to lead the nation in worship! By whom? Eliashib the high priest. Nehemiah returns back after his absence to discover the “wickedness and evil” that was done by Eliashib. Now what made this act to be really evil? Not only was it because he was the enemy…there were some more reasons to this:

i) Disobedience to the direct command of God. (Deut 23:3-6)

As a nation, the Moabites and Ammonites always intended to harm & destroy the people of God. It came through sexually immoral practices and marriages that led people into idol worship. God loves his people too much to allow them to be harmed by these nations and that’s why he commanded them to not enter the assembly. God is a loving protective father!

ii) Failure in guarding the sanctuary kindles the wrath of God (Num 18:1-7)

It’s clear from this passage that the fury of God will pour out on outsiders and the priests for ritual trespasses. We might think “what’s the big deal”. It’s just a room in a temple. Why should God become so angry? Well would you be able to enter the President’s office as and when you like? No. You require special permission. What stops anybody from just entering the presence of God? God’s holiness and our unholiness!

You know the Bible tells us in 1 Cor 6:19 :

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?

2 Cor 6:16 :

What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said,

“I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them,
and I will be their God,
and they shall be my people.

This verse tells us that this temple is devoted exclusively for the Living God! It cannot be shared with idols! Cannot! Plus, it’s His stamp on us signifying His very close union. It’s a very special relationship that he shares with us.

Eph 2:21 calls us a “holy temple”. We are set apart and pure!

Now the question is how have we been guarding our temple? Just like Eliashib, have we allowed relatives like Tobiah in this temple? And these relatives are the sin idols we identified last week. We’ve known this sin and indulged in it too long. Now it’s too hard to part ways with it. Are there relationships in our lives which are tainted and scarred with sin? What are the habits and sin patterns that we have continued to give shelter to? What about our speech? Has sin penetrated through our conversations? What consumes our thoughts throughout the day? We inevitably worship what we end up thinking about most. What about pleasure? What is it that you delight in the most? Is it God or is it sin? What is it that has been your source of security this past week? If this one thing or person was taken away from you, you would find it so hard to survive. Is there a comfort in this life that you cannot live without? How much do you end up thinking about yourself during the day? Is sin and self the core foundation of your pleasure and excitement each day?

Brothers and sisters, let’s understand this clearly. Our God hasn’t changed. He is still Holy as He was in OT. If we are keepers or guards of the temple that is there in us, we will need to give an account for it. Don’t allow yourself to be deceived. There is grace but is should never be used as a license to sin!

2) Sin contaminates the worship of God corporately (v10-11)

10 I also found out that the portions of the Levites had not been given to them, so that the Levites and the singers, who did the work, had fled each to his field. 11 So I confronted the officials and said, “Why is the house of God forsaken?” And I gathered them together and set them in their stations.

The sin of Eliashib was now affecting other people as well. The Levites and singers who were dependent on the tithes and offerings had fled to their fields because they needed to find an alternative to sustain themselves. At what cost? The worship of Almighty God!

Brothers and sisters, let’s understand that sin is not just something that we’ll need bear the consequence of but what’s at stake is “the worship of God”. Let’s come out of the self-centered view of sin where it only affects us: it affects the worship of God corporately too.

How? By dwelling and continuing in sin:

a) We pollute the image of God in our minds: God is probably thought about as someone who doesn’t really judge sin, who doesn’t really have a high view of holiness etc. We’ve made God out to be like one of us.

b) We corrupt the image of God to each other and the world: If the “people of God” love sin, live in sin, breathe sin what image of God are we sharing with the world? It’s not a great, wonderful, glorious God. God is zealous about His glory. And that’s why God has also graciously provided church discipline as a way of maintaining the purity of His people. And also, people’s sin eventually finds them. Secret sin never quite remains a secret for too long.

Our sin obstructs and damages our worship & our sin contaminates other people’s worship. Worship is to bow down out of reverence to someone. The first reference in the Bible was in Genesis 22 when Abraham says that he is going on top of Mount Moriah to “worship”. God’s desire and design for us was to fall down in worship at the gaze of His glory and wonder. What sin did when Adam and Eve fell was to blur that image. So instead we started worshipping people, possessions and pleasures only to bring upon us judgment for forsaking life and choosing death! The reality is by our sinful nature, we have chosen death! Even the most righteous man on the earth currently would still find idols lying in His heart. But God is so faithful and merciful…he sent His only Son to this earth. He worshipped God fully and perfectly. It was pure and pleasing worship! He then died for us all – ungodly, idol worshipping and hypocritical people so that the blinders could be opened in order to recognize our God as the God of glory! Our response is repentance and faith. What does that look like according to today’s passage? What should the approach to sin and idolatry be in our life?

Let’s compare it with Nehemiah’s response.

1. Angry (v8)
2. Threw the household furniture of Tobiah out of the chambers. (v8)
3. Cleansed the chambers, put back the vessels of the house of God with grain offering and frankincense. (v9)
4. Appointed reliable men as treasurers. (v13)

I believe these are parallels for us today:

1. It needs to begin with hatred toward the sin. Motivated by the zeal for the worship of God personally and corporately.
2. Drastic measures need to be taken to uproot the idols from our life.
3. We must replace the idols with elements of worship (Scripture, prayer, service, witness)
4. We must have reliable resources to help us maintain the standard of worship: We cannot truly claim to be repentant of habitual sins apart from Christian community. Eg: my struggle with pride. In God’s grace He has graciously provided means of grace of dealing with our toughest struggles with the help of community.

Which idols of yours have been challenged head on this morning? Do you understand how the glory of God is being compromised by your sin? Do you see how your sin is affecting the worship of your other believer brothers and sisters? Let’s turn to Christ and accept His way of turning away from idols. What is God calling you to do today?

[audioplayer file=”http://thegatheringcommunity.in/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/161002_1050-mp3cut.net_.mp3″]

[otw_shortcode_info_box border_type=”bordered” border_color_class=”otw-black-border” border_style=”bordered” shadow=”shadow-down-right” rounded_corners=”rounded-10″]This sermon is part of our Expository Preaching Collective on the Book of Nehemiah. Follow the link below to know more about What Expository preaching is and Why is it important to us. (Click here)[/otw_shortcode_info_box]

Our text for today is Nehemiah 13:1-3 (Click the text to read)

So far God’s been doing an amazing work in the life of these people and I believe as we are about to finish this book it is true that it has impacted our lives as well. Before I go ahead I want to share some of the specific areas in my life that God has been working through this book.

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1. The first thing I believe this book has made me understand is the sovereignty of God over our lives, the story of Nehemiah reminds me that it is God who is building his church and just like Nehemiah he has chosen each one of us to be used for His glory and name for this generation. And if we remain faithful to his calling he will satisfy us with all eternal blessings.
2. The second thing I believe this book reminds me is God’s great love for us. Even though God’s end motive is his glory and his fame his motivation is his great Love for us. He immensely loves us, the one whom he made in his own image. It is His great love that drives him to pursue us till the end just as he did in the lives of these people mentioned in the book.
3. The third thing I learned from this book is that God expects and desires a response in return, and the response is our heartfelt adoration, worship and an obedience, always trusting in his saving grace and not ability to do it right.

[bctt tweet=”The exclusivity of God’s people just as the Gospel is exclusive (Nehemiah 13:1-3)” username=”gatheringmumbai”]

The passage we are looking at today is one of the responses of the people of Israel. When they read from the Book of Moses they discover a peculiar demand from God that needed attention.

What was that demand?

“No Ammonite or Moabite should ever enter the assembly of God”

This command is found in the book of Deuteronomy 23:3 (Click on the text to read)

Who were these Moabites and Ammonites that God disliked so much?

To understand the origin of Moabites and Ammonites let’s turn to Genesis 19:30-38 (Click on the text to read)

The Moabites and the Ammonites were both tribes related by blood to Abraham as they descend from his nephew (Gen. 19:37–38). They were born out of sin and their generation continued in sin just as their parents did.

These peoples often brought much trouble for Abraham’s children. It was Moab that led Israel into Baal worship on its way into Canaan. In Num. 25:1–3 we read about it.

While Israel was staying in Shittim, the men began to indulge in sexual immorality with Moabite women, who invited them to the sacrifices to their gods. The people ate the sacrificial meal and bowed down before these gods. So Israel yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor. And the Lord’s anger burned against them.

There’s another incident where both the Ammonites and the Moabites hired Balaam, a prophet to curse Israel as it journeyed toward the Promised Land. The story is found in Numbers 22-24.

One of the prominent issue we see regarding the Moabites and the Ammonites is that whenever the people of God got closer to them they ended up sinning against God by indulging in sexual immorality and idol worship.

The episode with Balaam also shows that the Ammonites and Moabites always meant harm and destruction to the people of God.

It is therefore clear to us that God’s command to separate them from the assembly of God was nothing to do with race or ethnicity, it had and has everything to do with distinction as the people of God and purity in worship to him.

Now, let’s unfold this thought furthermore.

In that case, what did it meant for the people of God to separate the Moabites and the Ammonites from among them?

• It meant that they wouldn’t have any influence of these people over their lives in a way that displeases God.
• It meant that they wouldn’t be persuaded anymore into sexual immorality by their women.
• It meant that they wouldn’t be led to worship any other gods other than the true and living God Yahweh.
• It meant that only God alone would be glorified in their midst.

I believe what this text is trying to emphasize and remind us is the exclusivity of God’s people from the world around – just as the Gospel is gloriously exclusive.

How is the Gospel exclusive?

Let’s unfold the exclusivity of the Gospel before we look at the exclusivity of God’s people.

The Gospel is the only one way to be reconciled to God and that is by grace, through faith in the substitutionary work of Jesus Christ on our behalf. That’s exclusive! There are not many ways, there is only one way.

Out of millions and billions of people on this earth God chose to reveal himself to an exclusive bunch of people and through them choose to shine and reveal His glory throughout earth to every tribe and nation and tongue.

And how do we know that this God called Yahweh is the only true God? We know it because every word in these scriptures inspired by God has answers to man’s deepest longings, whether it is for love, peace, fulfilment, joy or any other yearnings.

Ravi Zacharias, an Indian who was born in a hindu family, at the age of 17 tried to commit suicide by swallowing poison. While in the hospital, someone handed a bible to his mother as she read from John 14:19 the very words of Jesus which said “Because I live, you also will live” changed his life forever and became a follower of Jesus. He is now 70 years old and goes around the world proclaiming the good news of Jesus.

He once said

“When you think of it, really there are four fundamental questions of life. You’ve asked them, I’ve asked them, every thinking person asks them. They boil down to this; origin, meaning, morality and destiny. ‘How did I come into being? What brings life meaning? How do I know right from wrong? Where am I headed after I die?’”

He concludes this argument by saying that the answer is found only and only at the feet of Jesus.

He said “Only through repentance and faith in Christ can anyone be saved. No religious activity will be sufficient, only true faith in Jesus Christ alone.”

The Gospel is exclusive.

Nabeel Qureshi, a devout muslim by birth wrote in his book “Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus: A Devout Muslim Encounters Christianity”

“While I was wallowing in self-pity, focused on myself, there was a whole world with literally billions of people who had no idea who God is, how amazing He is, and the wonders He has done for us. They are the ones who are really suffering. They don’t know His hope, His peace, and His love that transcends all understanding. They don’t know the message of the gospel. After loving us with the most humble life and the most horrific death, Jesus told us, “As I have loved you, go and love one another.” How could I consider myself a follower of Jesus if I was not willing to live as He lived? To die as He died? To love the unloved and give hope to the hopeless?” 

The good news of the Gospel, the work of Christ on the cross for the redemption of human kind is exclusive. There is not many but one truth.

And here’s an interesting thing. Just as the Gospel is exclusive so are we, the children of the most high God. And here’s what the word of God has to say about us.

John 1:12 – We are children of God.

John 15:15 – I am a friend of Jesus.

Romans 3:24 – I have been justified and redeemed.

Romans 6:6 – My old self was crucified with Christ, and I am no longer a slave to sin.

Romans 8:1 – I will not be condemned by God.

Romas 8:2 – I have been set free from the law of sin and death.

Romans 8:17 – As a child of God, I am a fellow heir with Christ.

Romans 15:7 – I have been accepted by Christ.

1 Cor 1:2 – I have been called to be a saint.

1 Cor 1:30 – In Christ Jesus, I have wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.

1 Cor 6:19 – My body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who dwells in me.

2 Cor 2:14 – God leads me in the triumph and knowledge of Christ.

2 Cor 5:17 – I am a new creature in Christ.

Gal 5:1 – I have been set free in Christ.

Eph 1:3 – I have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

Eph 1:4 – I am chosen, holy, and blameless before God.

Eph 1:7 – I am redeemed and forgiven by the grace of Christ.

Eph 1:11 – I have been predestined by God to obtain an inheritance.

Eph 2:10 – I am God’s workmanship created to produce good works.

Eph 4:24 – My new self is righteous and holy.

Phil 3:20 – I am a citizen of heaven.

Phil 4:7 – The peace of God guards my heart and mind.

Phil 4:19 – God supplies all my needs.

We are an exclusive people of God called to live distinct life for His glory. And anything that comes in the way of God, anything that takes away His glory from us he dislikes them. Just as he disliked the closeness and association of the Ammonites and the Moabites who were among them, infiltrating their minds and distracting them for serving God.

In the light of this text, we need to identify what these Ammonites and the Moabites mean to us in this generation. The ones God hates and wants us to put away with.

First, I thought I will give you a list of things I think are the Ammonite and Moabites in our lives but then I realized that my list could be different to your list. I believe based on our upbringing, our circumstances, our nature, our lifestyle we all have different idols to deal with and it will be unfair if I fail to miss any one of them.

Instead, I want to help you identify them for yourselves.

To help you identify the Ammonites and Moabites in your life I’ve categorized a set of questions into 2 groups.

The first group is “WORSHIP”, it says anything that hinders worship of God in our life needs to be put away. We read in the scriptures how the Ammonites and the Moabites were responsible for distracting the people of God from worshipping him.

The second group is “SERVICE”, it says anything that hinders us from serving God needs to be put away. The Ammonites and Moabites schemed against the people of God by hiring Balaam to curse them and wipe them out from the earth, taking out a whole generation of people called to serve God.

Under worship I’m listing 8 hindrances that keep you from worshipping God – it’s a list by a Puritan preacher and author called Thomas Brooks from 1608. I hope it helps you identify your hindrances to worship.

These Ammonites and Moabites are our enemy and we need to be aware of their schemes.

1. Anything that makes the world look beautiful, attractive and desirable instead of Christ.

1 John 2:17 says “The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever”

Many people profess Christ and see him as desirable for a time. For a while they enjoy private and public worship and do it all with enthusiasm. But before long Satan presents to them worldly things and makes those look more beautiful and desirable than Christ, and many souls are drawn away.

2. Anything makes you aware of the fact that those who worship the Lord have often faced danger, loss and suffering.

There are many men who would obey the Lord and worship him, except that they fear the consequences. The enemy loves to present the high cost of obedience. This was the case for many in Jesus day: “Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue” (John 12:42).

3. Anything that make you aware of the difficulty of worshipping well.

The enemy will whisper, “It is difficult to pray well, it is hard to spend time with the Lord and to persevere until he speaks to you through his Word, it isn’t worth the effort of going to church and being warm and friendly and engaging with other Christians.” Whatever God tells you to do, the enemy will present it to you as a great burden or as something you do poorly, and in this way he will keep you from it.

4. Anything that leads you to wrongly understand the implications of the gospel.

Christ has done everything for you and given everything you need in his death and resurrection. There is nothing left for you to do but rejoice in Christ and to serve him out of the joy of salvation. But the enemy will lead you to make wrong inferences from what Christ has done, encouraging you, for example, to believe Christ has freed you from the need or desire to spend time with him or to gather with other Christians. He will allow you to see the gospel, but do all he can to make you understand it all wrong.

5. Anything that shows you how many of those who follow Christ with obedience are poor and despised.

The enemy will ensure you see that those who are most interested in worshipping God are the poorest and most despised of all. You can see echoes of this in John 7: “The Pharisees answered them, ‘Have you also been deceived? Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him? But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed’.”

6. Anything that shows you that the majority of the people in the world, along with the great and mighty of the world, do not worship the Lord.

The enemy will ask, “Don’t you see that the great, the rich, the honorable, the intellectual elite, the wise, the most honored, and the sheer majority of people do not trouble themselves with worshipping the Lord? You would be much better off to be like them. After all, why would you think that you, of all people, have this figured out?” To have success here he will intentionally draw your attention away from Exodus 23:2 and many similar passages: “You shall not fall in with the many to do evil, nor shall you bear witness in a lawsuit, siding with the many, so as to pervert justice.”

7. Anything that fills your mind with unimportant and distracting thoughts while you are attempting to worship

He afflicts you with so much distraction and futility that you are tempted to say, “I have no desire to hear from the Lord in his Word, no desire to speak to him in prayer, no desire to spend time with other Christians in worship services.” He crowds out the very thought of worship by the sheer weight of lesser concerns.

8. Anything that encourages you to take comfort in past performances of your religious duties and in that way he convinces you to stop trying.

He reminds you that in the past you read so much and prayed so much and spent so much time in worship. And having reminded you, he convinces you that you have earned the right to coast for a while. “You already know this. You’ve already done this. You’ve already prayed this. You’ve been to better worship services than this.” And through it all he inclines you to rest from worship.

Under Service, here are the list of items that you need to put away that God would dislike,

1. Anything that makes you feel undeserving and unworthy in the service of God.
2. Anything that withholds me from confessing my sins with one another so I can serve God guilt free.
3. Anything that hinders me from giving myself to prayerful submission to God.
4. Anything that hinders me from soaking myself in God’s word.

In conclusion, remember we have to put away everything that distracts us from worshipping our God and everything that takes away our joy of serving him.

God bless you.