In one of the episodes of a series called Young Sheldon, the mother of a young boy named Sheldon struggles with her faith when she hears of a friend who lost her 16-year-old daughter.
What I found interesting is that Sheldon who is 10 years old, loves science and calls himself an atheist comforts her. Paraphrasing Sheldon, he said that if the gravitational force was more or less than what it is then the earth would not exist.
The precision of the gravitational force shows that there is a Creator.
My finite mind can’t wrap my head around God’s infinite purposes. But listening to his logic made me look at my own life.
Throughout my life, I have asked God the question I believe you all can relate to- Why God? Why me?
I asked Him why am I in this situation when my parents were getting divorced.
Why don’t I have a normal life?
While growing up my failures left me feeling very hopeless and I asked why am I like this?
But looking back if these things didn’t happen, if I was in a perfect family would I then know God?
And if I didn’t make any mistakes would I need Jesus?
I realise that these trials have led me to Christ and also relate to the pain and suffering of another person. I have known God deeply in my suffering and therefore I can comfort others with the comfort I have received through Christ.
I know He has grieved when I have grieved. And I am forever grateful for this intimate fellowship with God Himself.
I understand God is Holy and He hates sin but I am glad He loves sinners. Jesus said that He leaves the 99 to find the one who was lost. I was lost and I am glad that despite my sins God Himself pursued me.
He came in flesh to relate to everything- trials, weakness and suffering, yet without sin. It was His compassion and steady love through the cross and resurrection that saves.
He is, therefore, our Perfect Priest who makes intercession on our behalf for grace and mercy. Therefore being our strength in times of affliction.
I don’t want to minimise the pain of a broken relationship, adversity, loss or injustice. What I want to do is magnify the truth that despite a dark and a broken world God is Sovereign.
And that’s a reason to rejoice because He makes ALL things (every detail of your life) work together for good and His Glory.
Moreover what I have learnt through these dark times is that my greatest gain is the presence of Christ Himself, His fellowship, His peace, His Strength and grace through the Holy Spirit.
The good news doesn’t just stop at salvation and reconciliation to God. But it goes beyond and is ongoing through His sanctifying work in us through these trials to make us more like Jesus.
Jesus said in this life you will have trials but be of good cheer for I have overcome them. And through the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony we can be confident to overcome these light and momentary afflictions cause He is with us and in us and He is greater.
Therefore through the perils of life, I pray you will see that God is Sovereign. He is in control despite sin and brokenness. He will make all things work together for the good of those who love Him And are called according to His purpose.
Most importantly we can delight in the undeserved privilege of His sweet fellowship through His Holy Spirit, so may we treasure Him above all with all our being.
At a time when the world is crippled with fear and every conversation when
people meet is about the corona-virus, isn’t it wonderful to see God’s people
gather together in love – to worship God and to fellowship with one another.
It’s good to re-iterate what Saju has been reminding us on the group that we
have a Sovereign God and nothing surprises Him. Rather, God has allowed the
situations that we are in – to show forth His glory and His mercy.
Church, I wish to remind you of an incident in the Bible in which Jesus and His
disciples get on a boat to cross over from one place to another. Jesus makes
Himself comfortable by taking a pillow and going for a good sleep.
Co-incidently, there is a great storm and the boat is about to give in. The
disciples were fretting for their lives. In their desperation, they cried out
to the Lord (who was apparently sleeping through all this). He got up and silenced
the storm and looked at the disciples and said in Mark 4:40, “Why are you so
afraid? Do you still have no faith?” Beloved, in times like these, fear is
common to find all around us – including our own hearts.
But fear does show a lack of faith – lack of faith in an-all sovereign God –
right in the midst of our situations. When the world goes through fear and
despair – let us the people of God – stand boldly without fear – showing forth
the love of Christ through our responses – even with one another, in the family
of God.
To be honest, I went through the motions of fear in the last week but a
reminder of the hope that a Christian has lifted my spirit. Let us encourage
one another and build each other up – in love. Because “Perfect love casts out
fear.” “I am no longer a slave to fear – I am a child of God.” But love is also
careful and responsible.
Our elders and few brothers were
travelling last week and they decided to skip today’s service – in love – so
that none of us would panic. Let us keep them and their families in prayer. Let
us turn to our passage for today –
1 Thessalonians 2:5-12
5 For we never came with words of flattery,[b] as you know, nor
with a pretext for greed—God is witness.
6 Nor did we seek glory from people, whether from you or from others, though
we could have made demands as apostles of Christ.
7 But we were gentle[c] among you, like
a nursing mother taking care of her own children.
8 So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with
you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had
become very dear to us.
9 For you remember, brothers, our labor and toil:
we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you,
while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God.
10 You are witnesses, and God also, how holy and righteous and
blameless was our conduct toward you believers.
11 For you know how, like a father with his children,
12 we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you
and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you
into his own kingdom and glory.
Pray.
We had talked about “Passion for the Gospel” last
Sunday and as I meditated on the text for today – I realized – Paul was talking
about the major reason behind his passion. His passion and craziness was fueled
by something so great that He could boldly stand for the Gospel in the midst of
conflict. And what was that? “Love”!
So, I would like to title my sermon today as “Love in action” and it is my
prayer this morning that we may be stirred up by the Love of God and love for
our brothers and sisters in Christ.
In these last days, the Bible says that the love of many will grow cold. In an
age of social media and television and lust – the word ‘love’ has lost its
purity and depth.
Covenant relationship in marriage has been substituted for just an agreement
paper. Family love has been substituted for whatsapp groups.
Brotherly love in churches have been substituted for a ‘hi and bye’
relationship. Inspite of all that – isn’t it wonderful that God has a remnant
which still builds their relationships on “Die together and live together”.
Isn’t it a wonder that the Gospel still binds broken hearts and wounded
relationships? Don’t we keep seeing the love of God displayed in the lives of
His children in difficult times as this?
Beloved, I wish to bring your attention this morning to this agape love which
is pure, willful and sacrificial – given to us freely through the Gospel. What
is this love that goes the second mile?
This passage gives a small glimpse of the love displayed in the lives of Paul
and his friends. As we begin, let us first understand what agape love is not..
and then we go on to understand what it really is..
What agape love is not?
Agape
love is not in speaking words of flattery (vs 5)
Paul and his fellow workers showed not their love to
the Thessalonians by speaking flattering words as he mentions in verse 5 – “For
we never came with words of flattery”.
‘Love’ in today’s age means to flatter someone and gain something in return.
Doesn’t that happen when we flatter our bosses to gain a good bonus or a
promotion in return? Doesn’t that happen when we try to flatter our friends for
some favour in return? Don’t we flatter people sometimes to get them to church?
Don’t we flatter our pastors and brothers and sisters sometimes to gain a good
standing before them? Don’t we flatter our brethren sometimes when we know that
what they do is a sin?
The human nature loves to be flattered but that is not love. Imagine a doctor
examining you and flattering you that you have a normal flu when you could be
having corona virus. That’s making your case even worser for you and others
around you.
Paul and the apostles did not use flattering speech while planting the church
nor while discipling them. They did not flatter them with a good opinion of
themselves: they did not preach that they were good people who just needed
Jesus to go to heaven. No! but they were blunt in saying that they were sinners
in a desperate need of a Saviour.
Nor did they flatter them by talking about the power of their self-will but
they declared just the reverse: they were weak, impotent and strengthless and
couldn’t think even a single good thought if not for the Grace and power of God
– who works in them both to will and to do.
They also did not flatter them when they were enjoying their sin and being
friends of the World. When a man from the Corinthian church was caught in
adultery, Paul wrote to them to count him as an unbeliever and deliver him into
the hands of Satan – Why? Why didn’t he flatter them?
Because he loved them!
Love does not flatter but looks at their eternal welfare and speaks the truth
in love. That does not mean we always find faults and sins in our brethren.
Rather love covers a multitude of sins. It does not keep an account of evil but
is lavish in forgiving others.
But when we do see someone going in a direction towards hell, let us take care
not to flatter them but show them their sin through the Gospel and point them
to a Saviour who loves them unconditionally and died for them.
Going on to my next point. –
– Agape love is not greedy (vs 5)
Paul and his friends did not preach the Gospel out of
greed or covetousness as said in verse 5.. “nor with a pretext for greed – God
is my witness.” He calls upon God as His witness when he says that yes – we
loved you – but we had no desire for money or position.
They trusted in an all-providing God for their needs and went all out for the
Thessalonians in love. A love which expects nothing in return? That’s agape
love. When Paul was old, he advises an younger elder – Timothy that “The love
of money is the root of all evil” (1 Tim 6:10). He also adds, “Godliness with contentment
is great gain”. (1 Tim 6:6).
Beloved, I know God is calling many from amongst us – from the Gathering
community – to show forth the love of Christ to our fellow brothers and sisters
sitting next to us – to the community of broken people in our neighbourhood and
colleges and offices.
But when you do that, remember that your God is an all-sufficient God and He
takes care of all your needs and you need not look at any man for anything in
return for the Gospel. Freely you have received, freely give! The love that the
Gospel pours into our hearts does not look for monetary gain or riches or gifts
from people.
Also, our expectations when we come to Jesus is not for riches or money or
prosperity. God has promised to supply all our needs but not all our greeds.
This attitude should not be just amongst our church members but also in our own
respective families.
Many of us come from families who do not know Jesus and they by nature have
money as their God. But what is our Christian response? I serve Jehovah Jireh –
God is my provider. I need not act like the gentiles but show forth Agape love
– which does not run after money.
Have God as your witness this morning – there may be failures – but let us draw
near to God confessing our greed to Him and ask Him to fill us with a love
which is selfless.
Agape
love seeks not for glory from people (vs 6)
Paul goes on to say in verse 6 that he did not seek
glory from people. That convicts me. I would be wrong to say that I do not seek
glory from people. People must say nice things about me. “Isn’t he a great
guy?”, “Doesn’t he have a great zeal for God?”,
Beloved, most of us want God to do His work indeed but we also wish that if He
does work, It must be only through us. Like the mother of James and John, we
wish that we get to sit at the right hand and the left hand of Jesus – when He
is glorified. That is not agape love.
Agape love seeks the Glory of God even if I am abased and crushed in the
process. Agape love seeks God’s Glory in the salvation of sinners and in the
sanctification of the saints. I do not love you in order to gain your approval
– I love you because I am already approved and beloved in His Son – Jesus
Christ.
I am passionate to preach the Gospel and live the Gospel because I live in the
presence of an all-knowing God who knows my sitting down and my rising up and
my thoughts afar off. I must hurry on, brethren.
Agape
love doesn’t make demands and burden others (vs 6 & 9)
I will not spend much time in this point but I must
say that Paul and the apostles worked very hard for their bread and butter
in-spite of their commitment to the Gospel. Living out the Gospel in our lives
does not make us lazy men.
“God is our provider – so let us sleep?” “God cares for me – so, I need not
look after my family?” That’s not agape love, brethren. In verse 6, Paul says,
I could have made demands as an apostle but I did not.
In verse 9, He says – “you remember our toil – we worked night and day” – that
we might not be a burden to any of you. Beloved, we as children of God – with
agape love – need to bear one another’s burdens but we are not called to be a
burden to one another.
Paul in another place writes – “If a man will not work, let him not eat.” Don’t
we get sometimes very demanding with our brothers and sisters? Am I not his
brother? Shouldn’t he take care of me? Rather, you are called to take care of
him without expecting it in return. Agape love is not demanding but giving!
Ok, so we saw what Agape love is not. But what then is
Agape love:
Agape love is –
Affectionate
and gentle as a nursing mother
Let me read to you something written by Max Lucado:
“Moms,
I have a question: Why do you love your newborn? I know, I know, it’s a silly
question.. (but still) Why do you?
For months this baby has brought you pain. She (or he) made you break out in
pimples and waddle like a duck. Because of her you craved sardines (wada pavs)
and crackers (chocolates) and threw up in the morning. She punched you in the
tummy.
She occupied space that wasn’t hers and ate food she didn’t fix.
You
kept her warm. You kept her safe. You kept her fed. But did she say thank you?
Are
you kidding?
She’s no more out of the womb than she starts to cry! The room is too cold, the
blanket is too rough, the nurse (papa) is too mean. And who does she want? Mom.
She
didn’t even tell you she was coming. She just came. And what a coming!
She rendered you a barbarian. You screamed. You swore. You bite bullets and
tore the sheets. And now look at you. Your back aches. Your head pounds. Your
body is drenched in sweat.
Every muscle strained and stretched. You should be angry, but are you?
Far
from it. On your face is a for-longer-than-forever love. She has done nothing
for you, yet all you can talk about are her good looks and bright future. She’s
going to wake you up every night for the next six weeks, but that doesn’t
matter. I can see it on your face. You’re crazy about her.
Why?”
I
sometimes watch Abiah nursing our son, Nathan day and night – without much sleep
– tired, exhausted, weary – but still so affectionate and so gentle with him –
and I see a small glimpse of agape love there.
Look at how Paul describes his love for the Thessalonians – “You had become so
dear to us. We were gentle among you like a nursing mother. We were so
affectionately desirous of you. We were ready to share with you – not just the
Gospel – but ourselves.” T
hat’s agape love. Loving God’s children as a nursing mother loves her own
children. Oh that God would pour into our hearts such love for one another –
for each other’s spiritual welfare. Oh that we would be gentle and patient with
one another – forgive each other just as God in Christ forgave us.
Is there something that you have against your brother or sister this morning?
Make sure you forgive him/her and show some love to that person before you
leave. Oh God, pour out heavenly love into our hearts! Love that cares for
others. Love that goes a second mile for others.
Love that covers a multitude of sins. Love that is ready to give ourselves for
others. Is that possible? I leave that for you to ponder. Let me go on… a
mother’s love is great but a father’s love is equally important too.
A
strong pillar of encouragement and role-model as a loving Father
Fathers have a huge role in a child’s life which the world fails to adore and
admire. With all his failures as a human being, a father is a child’s strength
and role-model. A bad father leaves behind a broken home and a forever
distorted child – unless the child experiences God’s love.
Paul says, “Like a father, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and
charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God.” He also adds, “How holy and
righteous and blameless we were amongst you”.
Is there a role that God is calling you to play, dear brother, dear sister –
similar to a loving Father – who exhorts others and encourages others and
charges others to live in a manner worthy of God. When you lift up a fallen
brother, when you correct a brother’s sin in love, when you go out during the
week to your brother’s house and ask him how he is faring – you show forth
Fatherly love.
When we live out the Gospel as a role-model to our brothers and sisters, we
show forth love as a father to those around us. Beloved, God is calling us to
live lives like an open book – not a compartmentalized life. A holy life in
church and a sinner elsewhere – sets forth a standard of hypocrisy and
double-standard to the world around us.
This is not a father that a child looks for – says something but practices
something else. Let me be honest and vulnerable here – I have failed in many
areas to have a heart like a loving father but I pray that God would instill in
me and in all of us – such a heart of love – which stands up as pillars of
encouragement and role-models in this generation – in this city – those who
will point many to the Father – the Holy God – the loving Father but as we see
agape love being displayed in the roles of a mother and a father, it would be
incomplete for me to end this sermon without pointing you to the only perfect
Agape love displayed till date until now.
A
love which can be seen perfectly only in the Gospel
The man – Paul – with all his love and affections and
holiness – still would go on to say that amongst all the apostles – he was the
least of them and so, when we would look for a perfect example of Agape love –
you wouldn’t find it anywhere else except on the cross – in the Gospel – where
God so loved you and me that He would give His only Begotten Son for you and me
– wretched sinners and imperfect lovers!
If you admit that agape love is not what you display many a times – you have
good company – you need the Gospel as much as any of us would do. God –
I have a question – Why do you love us so? Why do you tolerate us? Only heaven
knows how much pain we’ve brought you. How we kicked against you and rejected
you. How we disobeyed you. How we mistreated the bodies you gave us. We ignored
the Word you sent us. And we killed the Son you sent us.
Ashamed I hear my mocking voice call out
among the scoffers. You have every reason to abandon us. But here comes an
answer from God – Yes. Yes. A thousand times yes. I have a million reasons to
abandon you. But I HAVE LOVED YOU WITH AN EVERLASTING LOVE! I am Agape Love! My
love does not change based on your actions – My love is much much greater than
a mother’s love – “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no
compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I WILL NOT FORGET
YOU!”
Is there someone out here who hasn’t experienced that love until now – I plead
with you right now by faith to look unto Him that was pierced on the cross for
you – Jesus Christ – He loves you! He loves you! He loves you!
There is no greater love than this – that a man lay down His life for his
friends! And HE did! As we close, I want you to meditate on this never-ending
agape love which loved His elect from before the foundation of the World!
As we respond by taking the Lord Supper, if you haven’t experienced the love of
God in your life, we ask you to let it pass by and you can reach out to us
after this service and we will be willing to help you.
Paul, the
apostle of Jesus Christ, reflects on his missionary trip to Thessalonica
Good morning, church! How are you all doing today?
What a privilege and an honour to preach the Word of God this morning and indeed I am so humbled to be filling the gap in the absence of our elders.
To begin, I wish to remind you of an incident in the Bible. Two people were on a journey from Jerusalem to Emmaus – walking frustrated and de-motivated after the crucifixion of Jesus. On the way, a stranger joined them and began to expound the Scriptures to them and their hearts burned within them.
He was none other than our Blessed Lord. As we dive into the passage for today morning, may the Lord open our hearts to see wonderful things from the Word and be ignited, encouraged, comforted, corrected and lifted up.
Let us turn
to our text for this morning – 1 Thessalonians 2:1-3
For you
yourselves know, brothers,[a] that our coming to you was not
in vain. 2 But though we had already suffered and been shamefully
treated at Philippi, as you know, we had boldness in our God to
declare to you the gospel of God in the midst of
much conflict. 3 For our appeal does not spring
from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive
Let us turn
to the Lord in prayer.
PRAYER …
On January 8, 1956, a 28-year old American missionary Jim Elliot was speared to death as a martyr on a sandbar called Palm beach in the Curaray river of Ecuador along with four missionary partners and friends.
They were trying to reach the Auca tribe for the first time in history with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Elisabeth Elliot – his wife – wrote down his story in her book – “Shadow of the Almighty”. This is where Jim Elliot was slain – in the shadow of the Almighty.
She had not forgotten the heartbreaking account of her husband’s death when she began writing 2 years later. When he was killed, they had been married for 3 years and had a 10-month old daughter.
The mission seemed to have ended even before it just began. Jim and his partners were preparing for this since months – trying to learn the language of the Aucas and circling their village with a plane and trying to make contact with them in some way or the other.
Finally, when the day came to meet them personally – due to a misunderstanding – the villagers speared them to death. Seemed like an open and shut case until Jim’s wife – Elisabeth, decided to go to the same tribe which murdered her husband – to give them the love of Christ. Seriously? The same uneducated, unloving murderers? They who had destroyed her family and home – left her alone with a 10-month old kid? Why did she do that? How could she do that?
In this passage, Paul seems to describe on her behalf and on the behalf of many who threw their lives for the sake of the Gospel. They were bitten by the Gospel virus – as Jeff described last week. They were ignited with a passion for the Gospel. No one infected by the Gospel virus could stay the same.
The man who penned down this passage – Paul – who was responsible for the killing of many of the followers of Jesus Christ – when the Lord encountered him on the road to Damascus – you remember what happened to him? “He who once persecuted the people of God was now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.”
The man who speared down Jim Elliot once bitten by the Gospel bug went to the US and preached the story of God’s love which came after him even though he tried to destroy it. Beloved, the Gospel of Jesus Christ makes us radical Christians – empowered by the Holy Spirit.
As I attempt to describe the passion that was ignited in Paul’s heart for the Gospel’s sake – in his message and his life – let us examine our own hearts – cause honestly, all of us – having been bitten by the Gospel bug years ago need a reminder again and again – week after week – daily – of what Jesus did for us in laying down His life for us and redeeming us and making us his own.
So, here in this passage – we see Paul – being ignited by a passion through and for the Gospel – how he ministered to the Thessalonians – through the message of the Gospel and through a life saturated by the Gospel. I would like to title my sermon – “Ignited by a passion for the Gospel” and drive home these following truths from the passage:
Passion for
the Gospel is:
Characterized by boldness in
conflict and
Enriched by the purity of the Gospel
Characterized by boldness in conflict and
A guy bitten by the Gospel bug is characterized by boldness in conflict as mentioned in verse 2 and I quote – “But though we had already suffered and been shamefully treated at Philippi, as you know, we had boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in the midst of much conflict.”
Paul had just come out of a great conflict – beaten at Phillipi, thrown into prison, wrongly charged, shamefully treated – for the Gospel’s sake. He could have packed his bags and gone off for a vacation or a recovery break. He had enough of reasons not to go on for his next challenge.
If it was me, I can imagine myself trying to find out which is the next flight home – I have a wife and a kid to take care of. But not so with Paul. Sufferings made him rely on God for more boldness to stand as a messenger of the Gospel.
Paul in himself was a weak man and when we think about any of the saints of old, let us not have a notion that they had a strength which was different from ours. Inspite of all his weaknesses, he says, “We had boldness in our God”.
Beloved, the Bible and our rich Christian heritage is filled with people who were weak, helpless, weary in themselves yet who were extremely bold in their God. Think about a Moses who killed a man and ran away from Egypt and was feeding his father-in-law Jethro’s sheep for 40 years.
When God asked him to go to Pharaoh, he had so many questions – “Who am I to go? I smell of sheep”, “What if they will not believe me or listen to me?”, “I cannot speak. I am a man of stammering lips” and finally – “Please send someone else”.
Don’t we resonate with the same objections and questions in our lives? What about Gideon – He was hiding in a winepress when the angel of the Lord said to him, “O mighty man of valor?” – “What? Who? Me?” Jeremiah said, “I am just a child”; Isaiah – “I am a man of unclean lips”. The apostles when they were beaten and were commanded not to speak in the name of Jesus, they went back and prayed for what? – Boldness!
Dear brothers and sisters, do we find our passion for the Gospel running out due to fear and struggles and sufferings? I exhort you this morning to seek for boldness in our God inspite of conflicts, sufferings, struggles and weaknesses.
When Jim Elliot was killed, Elizabeth found boldness in her God to go out to her husband’s killers and preach the Love of God through the Gospel. Conflicts do not kill passion, rather they only serve to increase it even more. Conflicts do not end Gospel stories – they only begin another new chapter.
Beloved, the Gospel welcomes you this morning to find boldness in God to stand firm in the midst of much conflict and not be bogged down by sufferings and taunts from unbelieving family members and friends. Paul says – “We have a treasure in our earthen vessels.
We are hard-pressed on all sides, yet not crushed. Perplexed – yet not driven to despair.” He says elsewhere in Galatians 6:17 – “We carry in our bodies the brand marks of the Lord Jesus Christ”. Conflicts and sufferings are going to be an integral part and brand of a Christian’s life yet his boldness in his God will enable him to carry out great exploits.
But our boldness in God must stem from a deeper understanding of the Gospel which brings me to point 2.
Enriched by the purity of the Gospel
Let me read to you what Paul says from verse 3 – “For our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive”. Beloved, Paul has a Gospel message – free from impurity and error – which makes him appeal to the Gentiles in boldness.
He is so passionately caught up with the Gospel message that it burns like fire in his bones – He knows that the Gospel is the power of God to those who are being saved. He need not add or subtract to the Gospel that he received.
He warns as well in the epistle to the Galatians that ‘let anyone who preaches to you any other Gospel than that which you received from me – let him be accursed.’
He knows that the Gospel is sufficient to save – both himself and his hearers and so he preaches it. He knows that nothing else other than the Gospel can ever save and so he preaches it even more.
What is the Gospel? “I am a great sinner. Jesus Christ is a great Saviour”. The purity of the Gospel makes a man go passionately crazy such that they are termed as “fools for Christ’s sake”. Let me take an example here – Martin Luther – the leader of the reformation – when he was moved by the purity of the Gospel in the doctrine of justification – he turned the world upside down.
How else can you explain a person being willing to defy every authority structure of this world and to stand utterly alone as a young priest against all of the authorities of the church—against the pope, against church counsels, against the finest theologians in the land?
Martin Luther had a high and holy view of God. He trembled before a Holy God. He kept evaluating himself, not by comparing himself to other human beings, but by looking at the standard of the character of God—the righteousness of God.
As he saw himself so awful in comparison to the righteousness of God, after a while he began to hate any idea of the righteousness of God.
He had such a fear of the wrath of God that, early on in his ministry, somebody put this question to him: “Brother Martin, do you love God?” You know what he said? “Love God? You ask me if I love God? Sometimes I hate God. I see Christ as a consuming judge who is simply looking at me to evaluate me and to visit affliction upon me.”
Imagine a young man preparing for the ministry declaring that he goes through periods of hating God. Luther’s hatred was inseparably related to this paralyzing fear which he expressed that he had about God.
Then one night he was preparing his lectures as a doctor in theology to teach his students at the University of Wittenberg in the doctrines and teachings of the Apostle Paul in the book of Romans.
He then came to these words: “For the righteousness of God is revealed by faith, and the just shall live by faith” (Rom. 1:17). And suddenly the concept burst upon his mind that this passage in Romans was not describing that righteousness of God by which God Himself is righteous, but the righteousness of God that He graciously and freely provides for you, me, and anyone who puts their trust in Christ.
Anyone who puts their trust in Christ receives the covering and the cloak of the righteousness of Christ.
Luther said: “It broke into my mind, and I realized for the first time that my justification, my station before God, is not established on the basis of my own naked righteousness, which will always fall short of the demands of God. Rather, it instead rests solely and completely on the righteousness of Jesus Christ, which I must hold on to by a trusting faith.
And when I understood that, for the first time in my life I understood the gospel. And I looked and beheld the doors of Paradise swung open, and I walked through.”
It’s like Luther said to the world, from that day forward, to popes and to counsels, and to kings: “The just shall live by faith; justification by faith alone. ‘God is holy and I am not’ is the article upon which the church stands or falls, and I negotiate it with no one because it is the gospel.” Is that crazy?
Brothers and sisters, if that’s crazy then I pray that God would send an army of insane people like that into this world so that the gospel may not be eclipsed.
So that we might understand that, in the presence of a holy God, we who are unjust may be justified by the fact that God in His holiness—without negotiating His holiness—has offered us the holiness of His Son as a covering for our sin. This is the Gospel for which Luther was ready to die!
Beloved, maybe there is someone here who has never experienced what this passion and craziness is all about. And it is our prayer that you would be ignited today with a fiery passion through and for the Gospel.
“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose” – Jim Elliot wrote this down in his diary.
Jim threw his life for the Gospel as he was ignited by a passion through the Gospel and Elisabeth continued the good work seeking boldness in an all-Sovereign God who entrusted them with the Gospel.
It’s such an honor to be with you this morning and it really is a gift to
gather as God’s people in His presence like this.
We are
continuing in a study that began last weekend of 1 Thessalonians. So, if you have a Bible
with you, I’d invite you to turn there with me.
We’ll be looking specifically at 1 Thessalonians 1:2-10 this morning.
I
think that all of us have a tendency to come into a church gathering and sort
of go through the motions. To take this time for granted. I want to encourage
you to recognize how sacred this time is for us this morning.
We get
to approach The Word of God — which is God’s revelation to us about who He is &
what He’s done & what that means for our lives.
We approach this living, active, breathing love letter from God. The thing that
shapes us & molds us & corrects us & trains up. The thing that
leads us into righteous.
We get
to do that together as God’s people and see God move in our midst. As He
changes us for His glory.
Brother & Sisters, this really is a sacred opportunity this morning
Let’s
READ 1
THESSALONIANS 1:2-10
I want
to spend some time this morning talking about THE VIRAL NATURE OF THE GOSPEL.
The concept of a virus that spreads rapidly should be one that we all
understand pretty clearly right now given the dominant news around the world.
If you
turn on any news outlet a lot of what you see is coverage of the Coronavirus.
The
point for us is that the entire world is talking about this epidemic that could
likely become a pandemic that’s spreading fear throughout the world. It’s
almost like we’re conditioned toward fear whenever a new virus emerges.
As the
virus spreads there’s fear, There’s uncertainty, There’s death. Well, this is
how God designed the gospel to spread to the ends of the earth, But with a
disease you have fear & death the gospel brings HOPE & LIFE.
The
Apostle Paul gives us a picture of the viral nature of the gospel and how it
spreads. He shows, how you and I are meant to be carriers of the gospel who
infect people around us with our actions & with our words.
That’s what I want to look at today
I’d
like you to hold onto this principle as we work our way through the text
Principle: The gospel comes to us in
power, it transforms us and then causes us to live radically transformed lives
as it moves through us to people around us
In
other words when the gospel invades the human heart, we’ll see is a movement of
God upon us.
Which, He initiates with us, When that happens, it never leaves us alone it
never leaves us the same. It radically transforms us at the core level of our
nature and then radically transforms what comes out of our lives over time
To the
point where it moves through us to infect & impact the people around us. That’s
the principle that we talk about so often.
That’s what we’re talking about this morning and I want to flesh that out for
you in 3 movements that we can observe in the text.
1) We
have been chosen by God as objects of gospel renewal
Look
again at verses
2-5… .“We give thanks to God always
for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before
our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of
hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has
chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power
and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction.”
Please
understand what Paul is driving us toward here:
We are objects of gospel renewal. God acted upon us, He initiated with us, This
renewal wasn’t our idea, Our idea was rebellion going our way instead of God’s
way.
This
is a common theme that we see in all of Paul’s writing.
In Titus chapter 3 Paul explains what life outside of Christ looks like. It’s a
life that’s defined by selfishness & self-gratification. It’s marked by
malice & envy & relational conflict. And then he describes how all of
that changes, when God moves upon us
He
says, “But when the goodness and
loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works
done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of
regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly
through Jesus Christ our Savior,”
Please
don’t miss this,
You didn’t find God, He found you.
You didn’t choose God, He chose you.
You didn’t stumble upon the gospel, the gospel came to you IN POWER
You
are an object of God’s love & mercy & grace. When He targets you, The
gospel comes in Word & in Power, Meaning — it’s not just intellectual, it’s
not just something that we hear & understand, It moves in our hearts in
power to radically change us.
This
is what Paul means when he says that it brings conviction. It awakens the heart
to the truth of our sin & rebellion and convicts us while simultaneously
allowing for repentance & faith.
This is what salvation looks like And that salvation belongs to God
It
creates relational intimacy with each other — that’s marked by love. Paul says,
“We’re thankful for you, we’re praying for you, we constantly remember you.” And
— it’s all because of what God has done to radically transform them.
You
can think about it like this, Reconciliation with God — is the only thing that
allows for reconciliation with one another.
God
moves on us as objects of renewal .That moves in us in power — as it changes
us, Which shapes how we interact with other people.
And —
that’s our 2nd point:
2) We
have been chosen by God as agents of gospel renewal
Look
again at verses
5-7: “You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for
your sake. And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the
word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an
example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia.”
God’s
work in us — isn’t really about us. It’s the way that He’s chosen to glorify
His name in the world — THROUGH US.
Paul
is reminding the Thessalonian believers that he, who was once far from God —
lived out his gospel transformation among them. He was with them — and they
were able to see the power of the gospel at work in Paul Which is what God used
to bring the gospel to them — as Paul proclaimed the truth…
All of
this means that we are called to IMITATE & MODEL.
Remember the viral nature of the gospel?
God’s design is to work through the infectious nature of the gospel at work in
us. We catch transformation from His work in others and we spread
transformation as we model it for others.
And —
let me point out 2 important things as it relates to this:
This requires proximity. Notice the words “AMONG YOU”.
This only works if you’re in close proximity with people. The same way a virus
will only spread if you’re with people.
The
2nd important thing to note here is that:
Imitating & Modeling happens best when we’re suffering for the
gospel. You want to see what someone really believes — see what they do when they
begin to face affliction.
** God
glorifies Himself in a unique way through us — when He allows us the privilege
of suffering for the gospel. This shouldn’t surprise us when we look at Jesus,
The disciples, The early church, The historical church & the current
persecuted church throughout the world.
**
Peter — there Spirit rests upon you when you suffer.
So —
get this We’re OBJECTS of gospel renewal as God moves in and changes us. That
leads us to be AGENTS of renewal. Where God uses us to model the gospel to
others.
3)
We
have been chosen by God as carriers of gospel proclamation to the
whole world
Look
again at verses
8-10: “For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from
you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere,
so that we need not say anything. For they themselves report concerning us the
kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to
serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he
raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.”
The gospel
will not let you sit still. It will necessarily propel you out into the world
as an agent of renewal — a gospel proclaimer — wherever you go.
And — there’s
nowhere you can’t go.
You
and I — are carriers of the gospel — are charged with speaking the gospel into
a culture that is riddled with IDOLATRY. I’m not just talking about outward —
visible idolatry that we see so pervasively in India. I’m talking about the
idolatry of the heart.
Idolatry
is slavery. The gospel brings freedom!
Here’s the thing: The church becomes a viral movement — when you see the
ruthless dethroning of idols in people’s lives. The gospel brings that freedom
in our hearts and then we get the privilege of being able to speak that into
the lives of other people
So,
We have been chosen by God as objects of gospel renewal We have been chosen by God as agents
of gospel renewal &
We have been chosen by God as carriers
of gospel proclamation to the whole world
This is the vision that we must have as the church if we’re going to be viral in how we live out the gospel.
Here’s the hard truth:
The longer that someone is a Christian the greater the tendency to quarantine themselves to just hang out with other infected people.
We must push back against this,
++ Be reminded of the gospel at work in your life — God’s Sovereign rescue of you
++ Be
reminded of your calling to live that out & proclaim it in the lives of
people within the family of God
++ Be
reminded of the calling on your life to take that gospel near & far
Good morning church! As a church we’ve been going through a series called “Gospel Renewal” and covered various topics like prayer, humility, repentance, dependence, satisfaction, obedience and stewardship and the overall theme was that the good news of God’s love for us in Christ is not just the secret but the power enabling us to do all of these things.
Today’s theme is the last one in this series titled “Gospel Shepherding”. Let’s turn to our main text for today from Hebrews 10:23-25.
23 Let
us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised
is faithful. 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good
works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but
encouraging one another, and ball the more as you see the Day drawing near.
Cricket fever is high in the country right now due to the World Cup. I’m sure many of us have been following the India matches. During one of the matches this week – there was a time where MS Dhoni was batting alongside Rishabh Pant.
Right there you saw two generations of wicket-keepers batting together. One of the commentators at the points said something like “The experienced veteran MS Dhoni shepherding the young, dynamic, enthusiastic Rishabh Pant”.
And I thought that was a good way to describe shepherding – encouraging, guiding and helping someone else in their growth. I thought if the secular world understands the need of shepherding someone, how much more is the need for us as believers! After all we know how it’s not just the church leaders that are called to shepherd people but it’s each and everyone no matter what stage you are in your Christian life.
Husbands are called to shepherd their wives. Parents are called to shepherd their children. Church members are called to shepherd each other – shape and influence each other in a way that they are pointed toward Christ. But the question is how? How can I shepherd the people in my life?
Two points:
1.Shepherding requires the gospel
Shepherding
needs us to know, believe and live out the gospel. I’m sure most of you were
like “Duh. This is like an anti-climax.
Off course I knew that. What’s new about it?” Before I answer that let’s
see where it’s mentioned in this passage.
V23 Let
us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised
is faithful.
When I think about “Holding fast”, I imagine the picture of a child holding the hands of the parent tightly. And what do we need to hold fast to? The confession of our hope. What is that? The gospel! By gospel I mean what God has done for us through Jesus.
Now some of us might think “Okay, I believed in the gospel many years back, but why do you say that I cannot shepherd the people in my life without that? Why do I have a need of the gospel today?” That’s a great question. And that’s why I want us to look at this chart on the 3 dimensions of the gospel. When we look at the Bible we see that the gospel is described in 3 dimensions.
Past: When I believed I was made right with God through Jesus.
When
I put my trust in Jesus, God fully forgave me of all my sins and received me as
His own child.
Present: Every day I am being made more like Jesus
As
the Spirit works in my heart through the Bible, and as I yield myself to what
He shows me, I am being changed and renewed into Jesus more and more each day.
Future: When Jesus returns, I will perfectly reflect Him
On
the Day of Judgement, I will not be ashamed. I’ll be given a new body like
Jesus’ body – free from corruption and separated from the presence of sin. And
I’ll be invited to share in His inheritance.
You can see
here how there are 3 dimensions to it. The problem is sometimes in our hearts
and beliefs, we end up only focusing on one of these dimensions. And that has a
few dangers that I want us to be aware of.
Past: If we only focus on the Past
dimension of the gospel – where I was made right with God in the past, it can
lead us to become prideful and licentious. We’ll think that “Jesus died for my
sins so there’s no need for me to work out my salvation. Jesus already died for
my sins so now I can live any way I want with no responsibility” forgetting the
present and the future dimensions.
Present: If we only focus on the Present dimension of the gospel – where we are made more and more like Jesus each day, it can sometimes lead us into despair. As the Spirit makes us more aware of our sin, we’ll think that “Oh I am so not like Jesus. I’m the opposite because my thoughts and my actions don’t match up to Jesus’ life.
God can’t accept someone like me who keeps failing in my performance” forgetting the past dimension of what Christ did on the cross.
Future: If we only focus on the Future dimension of the gospel – where Christ comes back again those who trust Him as Lord will be like Him, it can lead us to becoming lazy and not steward our time, talents and resources well.
There have been people in history who have left their jobs and left their responsibility of family thinking “Jesus is going to come back soon so why waste time in working a job and taking care of a family. Let me just wait on the coming of the Lord” forgetting the present dimensions of the gospel by daily stewarding what God has given us to glory of God.
When we believed in the gospel and surrendered our lives to Jesus, we did that to all the 3 dimensions. We don’t get to pick and chose one of them. We need all the 3 dimensions of the gospel to live out our Christ walk! That’s why the writer of Hebrews say “Let’s hold fast to it – without wavering”. “Firmly hold on to it. Don’t let go”.
But if we all are honest; we’ll admit that our faith does waver. We don’t always hold fast to the gospel. Like a little child, it feels like we are losing grip from the hands of our Father. But here’s the awesome truth at the end of v23 “for He who promised is faithful”. The wonderful hope for us is that God is holding on to us! He is keeping us. And He reveals His faithfulness through His blood bought promises!
If you’re here today, struggling to believe in the past dimension of the gospel – “When you think…can God actually forgive all my sins? Can He actually wipe my slate clean after all the horrible things I’ve done?” Here’s what Romans 8:1 says There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
I remember my 9th standard Sunday school teacher telling me – God in His holiness can’t even look at us because of our filth and sin. But for those who surrender themselves to Jesus, when looks at us He sees His Son. Wow. Even though I was an unbeliever at that time it blew my mind.
If you’re here today, struggling to believe in the present dimension of the gospel – “I know I’ve trusted in Christ, but I feel like I’m losing the battle to sin each day”. Here’s what 1 John 4:4 says “Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.”
God has placed His own Spirit within us. He has written His law on our hearts and our minds so that we can be empowered to live in obedience to God as we yield to the Spirit.
God has placed His own Spirit within us. He has written His law on our hearts and our minds so that we can be empowered to live in obedience to God as we yield to the Spirit.
If you’re here today, struggling to believe in the future dimension of the gospel – “Will God really remove every iota of sin and make me like His Son when Jesus comes back?” Then here’s what Jesus says. “I told you that I would sacrifice my life and die for your sins – and I did that.
I told you that I would rise from the dead and give you a new life – I did that. I told you that I would change you from the inside out and you can see how I’ve brought you so far from the day you believed. In the same way I’m telling you “I who began a good work in you will bring it to completion”. That’s my promise. I’m putting my word on the line. In doing so I’m putting my character on the line to show you that I am faithful to every thing that I promised I will do.”
That is the wonderful hope that we need! We need all the 3 dimensions! And it’s the joy that this gospel produces which wells up in our hearts making us want to shepherd other people. Not only does Shepherding require the gospel but:
2. Shepherding
involves intentionality and consistency
Intentionality:
24 And let us
consider how to stir up one another to love and good works
There is a “considering and some thought process” that goes behind shepherding. It’s not random. You’re taking some time to think about the people in your lives.
You’re taking time out to think about their needs. You’re thinking about areas in their lives where they are failing to believe in the gospel. And then you’re praying and asking God to enable you to love and serve them.
I’m into client-servicing and my part of my job involves scheduling calls or face to face meetings with my clients. I’ve had a few occasions where I’ve gotten on calls with little or no agenda or plan on what to speak and those calls end up being fruitless.
On the other hand there have been times when I’ve had a clear agenda and I’ve even thought through what I want to speak to them and those calls/meetings end up being meaningful. The client appreciates the help that he received at the end of the day. So if in the business world – intentionality is useful and important, how much more importance needs to be given to thoughtful consideration to encourage a brother or sister in Christ?
I understand that some of us are wired differently in terms of our personality (organized vs unorganized) but I think this passage is still urging us to put thought into our meetings with each other. Taking time out & putting some thought communicates that you care about people.
Let’s pause for a moment and ask ourselves a question – when was the last time we took out time before a Sunday service or a gospel community thinking about a church member and considering how could we encourage that brother or sister in the Lord?
When was the last time you took time out to think how you could encourage your spouse or family member in the Lord? Thinking through what would it look like for us to help meet a need? How can we stir each other up to love and obey God?
Shepherding
involves intentionality but it also involves:
Consistency:
25 not
neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one
another, and ball the more as you see the Day drawing near.
There is a consistency to this intentionality as well. As elders one of the questions we get asked is “Why should I be committed to a local church?” And usually we try to answer it is by pointing people back to Scriptures like this telling them it’s actually a command from God. And let’s understand God’s heart behind this command.
God’s desire is not to take attendance of His sheep. He’s not a rule-book keeper. His heart is v25 “encouragement”. He wants us to be encouraged in our faith and walk with Christ. He knows that His sheep forget the gospel, they forget the 3 dimensions, he knows that they struggle with sin and suffering, He knows that they are torn by the brokenness of the world and so He wants them to be encouraged more and more.
He wants us to encouraged on a personal level where we are encouraged by other believers and He wants us to intentionally encourage others with our words, gifting and service. There was a season in my own life between the time at my first church and the Gathering – for about a year when I was inconsistent and not committed to a local church.
I kept thinking “If we plant a church, then from that day onwards I will be very committed”. Not only was I disobedient to God’s call of being committed but I also missed out on the encouragement that my heart needed and that I needed to offer other believers.
So I’m sharing this from a place where God had to teach me this truth – that Christian growth happens in consistency. Consistency of meeting up and learning from and encouraging other believers. Sometimes we think meeting once a month with other believers or once a quarter is enough for us – that’s not how God designed us to grow.
We can only grow with other believers as we interact with them consistently. It’s true that no church is perfect because we’re all sinners needing God’s grace. But it’s a total joy to see how God in the midst of this brokenness actually is restoring and repairing people like us through the church.
And we miss out on experiencing the beauty of this when we aren’t being intentional and consistent.
Our passage for today is Matthew 25:14-30 and the topic we will be looking at is Gospel Stewardship.
Everything we have and everything we see around belongs to God – Our time, treasures, talents, things & places. In 1 Cor 4:7, Paul writes “Whatever we have, we have received from God” – Beginning with our lives and everything in it.
We are merely Stewards of what actually belongs to God.
Biblical stewardship isn’t just about being good managers of our schedules, our skills, and our stuff, but it calls us to use all these things in the way the Lord wants, for His glory.
Here in this chapter, Jesus is telling a series of parables to his followers explaining about the kingdom the God. In the parable right before our passage, he tells the story of the five foolish virgins who were unprepared in receive the bridegroom and missed the chance to go with him.
In verse 13, Jesus says, “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.”
Jesus is not merely saying stories to entertain the disciples. He is sharing some life-impacting truths through these parables. He is talking about the Kingdom of God, he is revealing the heart of the Father and his expectation from his children.
In the parable, Jesus is telling us that God is like this man who called his servants and entrusted them with his property. He then gave talents to each one of them according to their abilities, watch them steward those talents and rewarded them accordingly.
Here are a couple of things we learn from this parable.
God has gracefully given to us.
To Jesus’s original hearers, a talent meant a very large unit of monetary value. People whose net worth equalled a talent were very well off. Scholars say that one talent in today’s world would be worth crores of rupees.
In reality, no servant’s stewardship was insignificant. Each received something of great value.
But this parable is not really about stewarding money. It is about stewarding our time, talents, treasures, abilities – everything we have and possess, God entrusts to us.
No one in this room can say God did not give them anything.
If you say so then, consider these words of Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 4:7
“What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?” (1 Corinthians 4:7).
The master wasn’t obligated to give the servants anything. Each servant received his talents by the grace of the master.
Remember, God had graciously given to each one of us sitting here according to our capabilities. To some, artistic abilities, writing abilities, cooking skills, serving skills, talking skills, musical abilities, counselling abilities, dancing abilities, parenting abilities, etc.
And as we faithfully steward whatever is given to us, more will be provided, as it was given to the servants who brought back double portion.
He expects us to put in hard work.
When the third servant brought back the one talent as it was and gave it back to the Master, the Master answered and said ‘You wicked & slothful servant’.
God hates a lazy person, it makes him angry to see a man lazy. There is no reward for the one who is lazy. Proverbs 12:24 – The hand of the diligent will rule, while the slothful will be put to forced labour.
The other two servants took the talents, worked hard and brought back double the portion, and the master applauded them and gave them more.
God expects us to put in hard work to grow our artistic abilities, counselling abilities, cooking abilities, talking skills etc.
He expects us to seek and apply wisdom.
When the lazy servant came with nothing, the master says “couldn’t you at least be wise to invest the money with the bankers, and at least brought back the interest”
Proverbs 9:6 says “Leave your simple ways, and live, and walk in the way of insight.”
The two faithful servants applied wisdom to double their money and brought back returns to their master, and he was pleased.
God expects us to seek and apply wisdom as we steward the talents he’s given to us.
Proverbs 4:5-6
“Get wisdom, get understanding; do not forget my words or turn away from them. Do not forsake wisdom, and she will protect you; love her, and she will watch over you.”
The wisdom that comes from heaven – a pure; peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. – James 3:17
He will hold us accountable.
Finally, God has not given us the talents for our own self-gratification. But someday he will hold us accountable for how we’ve stewarded the time, talents & treasures he has given us.
“everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more” (Luke 12:48). जिसे बहुत दिया गया है, उस से बहुत मांगा जाएगा, और जिसे बहुत सौंपा गया है, उस से बहुत मांगेंगें॥
This parable is meant to strike the appropriate fear of God in us and force us to ask what we are doing with the gracious gifts that has been given to us.
We cannot run away from God.
Brothers & sisters, in reality, we are the lazy and foolish servant in the parable. Even though we know that God is just and holy, who can reap without sowing and gather without scattering the seed. We, in our flesh, chose to rebel against him, we chose to remain slothful, and we chose to remain foolish. We are the sinful ones.
If anyone here says, no I’m not like that foolish servant, I work hard, I apply wisdom to everything I do. I would ask you, as you do these things, are you always doing it for the right reasons – seeking God’s glory above everything.
1 John 1:8 says “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.”
Brothers & sister, we cannot be a biblical steward if we haven’t really understood the Gospel — the story of what God has accomplished through the life and death of Jesus Christ.
Yes, we are supposed to work hard
Yes, we are supposed to apply wisdom in everything we do
Yes, we are supposed to be accountable to God
But not without the inspiration of the Gospel, of what Christ has accomplished for us.
When we received the saving grace of Jesus, the Gospel changes not only a person’s destination in eternity but also his heart and mind here and now. The Gospel transforms more than a person’s relationship with God; it also transforms a person’s relationship to everything else.
That’s why, when someone says he’s become a believer, the most reliable evidence that a person has been converted is that he begins looking for ways to use his time, talent, and treasure in service to the Gospel.
Only Gospel-inspired stewardship is the true stewardship.
By the Gospel & for the Gospel
When a person eagerly begins to use his resources to serve and spread the Gospel, it testifies to the value he places upon the Gospel and to the fact that he treasures the God of the Gospel above all.
Let me give you a couple of examples, and then I’ll finish.
For example, the way I treasure and steward my marriage will tell you how much my life is impacted by the Gospel, how much I’ve understood the Love and affection of Christ for His bride.
If I’m stewarding my marriage in an unhealthy manner, where I’m failing to exercise love and forgiveness towards my wife than it is evident that I’ve really not understood the Gospel, especially the love and forgiveness of Christ.
Similarly, Art & Music are good endeavours, but unless it is inspired by the Gospel, with a deeper understanding of God love and his power displayed through his son Jesus, and with the motive to glorify the giver of gifts, it can turn into a breeding ground for pride, depression & brokenness.
This morning as you leave this room, I don’t want us to go thinking, I’m now going to work hard, apply wisdom and do something for Jesus. No, I want you to leave the room saying I’m going to fall deeper in love with Jesus, draw inspiration from Jesus, from his expressions of love, forgiveness and grace.
May it be that our hard work and application of wisdom be the outcome of the impact of the Gospel, only then we will be able to fully and faithfully steward our time, talents and treasures given to us in a manner that it glorifies God, just like the two faithful servants in the parable.
As a church, we’ve been going through a series called “Gospel Renewal”. Our conviction is that unless the gospel changes our hearts, we will never be able to produce true and lasting fruit –be it in prayer, humility, repentance – all our efforts will render meaningless unless it’s fueled by the love of God.
This week’s theme is “Gospel Dependence” or “Gospel trust”! What does it mean to depend on God? Can we trust God apart from the gospel? These are some of the questions we will look to answer as we look at Genesis 15.
The background of this story is that God has called a man called Abram out of his land, his extended family and commanded him to go to a place called Canaan and promised him that many nations would come through him, and all the families of the earth would be blessed through him and this place called Canaan would become an inheritance for him and his descendants! Wow.
That’s such a wonderful promise. However, there is one problem – he & his wife are well aged in years and they don’t have any children. Can this promise be fulfilled? Let’s read in Genesis 15. (read here)
Trust No one! That’s one recurring theme I’ve noticed people say a lot in this city. People find it hard to trust others.
Be it with the rickshaw driver, or vegetable vendor or anyone who provides some kind of service to you, or even the people who work with you – people don’t trust each other quickly and they always feel like that everyone’s out to cheat them.
Somehow I feel that this issue of trust also flows into our relationship with God. Often we ask “How can I trust God in my struggles, my pain and my circumstances? How do I know He is really concerned? How do I know that His plans are for my good?”
Even though we know these are easier topics to talk about on Sunday…deep down we know how we struggle to depend on God during the week. So what encouragement is offered to us from this passage?
I think it
tells us of two things:
1.Gospel dependence is always rooted in God’s Word (v5-6)
5 And he
brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you
are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” 6
And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.
This passage starts off with God telling Abram that God is His shield and that His reward will be very great! This time Abram responds by telling God – sort of like complaining “God what will you give me, for I continue to be childless”.
What we need to understand is that in the ancient world barrenness was considered to be a curse or a punishment from God. On top of that, there was the shame in society that families felt from others when they were barren.
You can imagine the emotional pressure that Abram felt at that point. And we can see at least 3 barriers that Abram had to overcome in order to depend on God:
Physical barrier: Both he and Sarah were well advanced in their age. Probably around 80 at this point of time. We know how it’s physically impossible to give birth at such an old age.
Rational barrier: Because they didn’t have any children, the only logical heir he could have is his servant Eliezer – probably a faithful servant in his household. In Abram’s mind he probably was thinking – if God wants to fulfill that promise of bringing out nations, it will now need to happen through Eliezer.
Time barrier: Already enough and more time has passed. He was growing impatient probably saying “how long, Lord”? “God, please answer now….I’ve waited for a long time”.
If Abram considered all of these barriers, it would’ve made it really difficult for him to trust and depend on God. But what does God do? God tells him that Eliezer won’t be the heir…his own offspring would the heir.
God brings him outside and shows him the stars in the sky and asks them if he’s able to count them. And God says that many descendants will come from him. And then in v6 it says “Abram believed the Lord”. What? That’s it? God said this and Abram believed? How?
Because
it was not an ordinary person’s word but God’s Word! It wasn’t just someone’s
optimistic encouragement but God’s Word.
He had to trust in the truthfulness
of God’s Word – God who never lies (Titus 1:2)
He had to trust in the ability of
God to do what He said –
He believed God who gives life to the dead and
calls into existence the things that do not exist. (Rom 4:17)
20 No unbelief made him waver concerning the
promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, 21
fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. 22 That is why
his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.” (Rom 4:20-22)
God’s Word is
synonymous with His character. God’s Word is a means of grace given to us so
that we can trust God. (Faith comes by hearing, hearing the word of God [Rom
10:17])
In all this
what I’m trying to say is that the word of God is so very essential for us
to depend on God.You cannot depend on God apart from God’s Word.
Why? Because God’s Word reveals God’s truthfulness and His ability to do what
He has promised.
Sometimes when we are struggling with habitual sin, or when we’ve been praying to God for a specific issue – it could be physical healing or godly spouse or a job and haven’t received an answer yet – because I know my own heart I know others can have the same tendency – we tend to go into a shell and stay away from God’s Word.
We want to stay away from reading the Bible. We want to stay away from the church. We want to stay away from the preaching of God’s Word. We just want our space.
And even though all our feelings tell us that’s what we need to do, I just want to encourage you all and remind you that what you need the most is God’s Word. You need to know that God is truthful and that He doesn’t lie.
You need to know that God is more powerful than the circumstance or the sin that you’re going through.
Gospel Dependence is held by God’s
faithfulness (v18-21)
It’s not
enough to know that God’s Word is true and that He is able to do what He said,
but also to know that He is faithful no matter what.
Right after Abram believes the Lord’s Word, God tells him that the land of Canaan will be given to Abram to possess. Abram asks God “how can he know that he’ll possess it”?
God tells him to get some animals and cut them in half and some birds. Abram did that and then fell into a deep sleep where he sees a vision. In that vision, God tells him that his descendants would be slaves in a foreign country for 400 years and after that God will bring them back to this Promise Land.
And God sends down fire and that passes between the animal pieces symbolizing His covenant with Abram.
What’s important to know is God is absolutely serious about keeping His commitment. God didn’t say – “okay, it’s going to take 400 years…Abram won’t be alive until then so it doesn’t matter”.
Neither did God think “the Israelites in 400 years are going to be extremely rebellious and sinful, they don’t deserve my commitment”. In fact, this was an unconditional covenant with Abram.
God made this covenant and He did it by passing through the pieces which meant that if God didn’t keep His commitment, then what happened to the cut animals will happen to Him! Wow! Our faith is held by God’s faithfulness.
God’s faithfulness was perfectly displayed on the cross. The willingness of our loving Savior Jesus to take on the punishment for our sins and absorb the wrath of God on our behalf – and go through with it is mind-blowing!
Because that was the only way we could have a relationship with God. He didn’t bail on us and neither did He leave us to die. He came after us even if it costed Him His life. Our faith is held by God’s faithfulness.
When we waver in our dependence on God when we fail in our personal holiness – what’s our hope? Is it to do better next time? Is it to manufacture new faith?
No! It’s God’s faithfulness toward us. I’m not saying that God’s faithfulness should be used as an excuse for sin. But I’m saying if you’ve truly understood God’s faithfulness, that will cause you to turn away from sin and turn towards God.
I remember brother Saju once shared a story with me about a pastor of a church. This pastor had a wayward daughter and even though he was a pastor of the church for many years, he thought it was proper for him to step down from his role for some time and focus on his family.
Every night his daughter would come back late after parties, and this pastor would wait up for her – look at her and say that he loves her. Every night. Finally one day this daughter repented and came to know the Lord.
And in her testimony, she said that it was actually the faithfulness of her father despite all the things she did wrong that helped her understand the gospel and come to know Christ.
When I fail
in my faith, I need to know that God’s faithfulness holds me. I need to know 1 John
1:9 – if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us from
all unrighteousness. I need to know that God’s faithfulness will come through
for me.
Lastly, I just want to mention one thing before we close – if today a prosperity preacher would preach this passage, he would say that God’s faithfulness means giving me everything that I want.
If you don’t have everything you want in health and wealth – then you probably don’t have enough faith yet. We know that’s not the teaching of Scripture but how are we to respond to God biblically on issues that we’ve been praying for a long period of time?
Yes, we persistently pray about this and come back to God again and again. We tell God how what we’re asking isn’t coming from selfish motives to spend on ourselves. But then we also surrender the answer and trust that if God by withholding this answer from us it bring Him more glory, then we want to submit to His will.
Because our lives are about Him and His glory and not ours. God can use our strength and our weakness. God can use our plenty and our lack. And that’s also gospel dependence – trusting God to do what is best for His glory!
Today’s sermon is part of a series called
‘Gospel Renewal’. Last two Sundays we covered topics on Prayer & Humility.
And today we’re going to talk about Repentance.
Through these sermon series, I believe we are
discovering how to consistently live all of life under the influence of the
gospel. And as we do that one of our greatest needs in gospel-centered living
is to understand repentance accurately and biblically.
Firstly, I want to begin by defining the
word Repentance, because it seems many of us have a different understanding of
the word.
The word Repentance in Greek is the word ‘metanoia’, and ‘metanoia’ essentially means ‘change in mind’.
The full biblical definition of repentance is a change
of mind that results in a change of action.
It’s like leaving your home to go to the
market, instead on the way, you change your mind and decide to walk towards the
mall.
It is impossible to truly change your mind without
that causing a change in action.
That is why John the Baptist called people to “produce
fruit in keeping with repentance” (Matthew 3:8).
A person who has truly repented of his sin and
exercised faith in Christ will give evidence of a changed life .
The passage I want us all to look at today
is 1 John 1:5-10
This is the message we have heard from him
and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie
and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the
light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another,
and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we
have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we
confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we
make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
First of all, remember, John is writing
this letter to the believers in Ephesus. What John is saying is that when you talk
about having fellowship with God & practicing the truth, you need a ‘change
of mind’. You need to Repent.
Here’s what he is saying…
If we say we have fellowship with God
while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.
If we say we have no sin, we deceive
ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
As we hear these words of John, and think
about the application in our lives, let me give you a mental image of where our
Christian is with regards to this particular situation that John is talking
about.
When we were born in this world, we were
born sinful and wicked. And no matter how cute and pretty the new born babies
look, the truth is, their heart is disconnected from God.
The reason we are born sinful is because
as humans, when we were first created by God in His image to worship Him – We
were given the freedom to choose the right thing, we misused our freedom and
willfully chose what was against God.
Our disobedience not only disconnected us from having a healthy relationship with God, but it also invited his wrath and anger. And since we were all born out of the first humans Adam and Eve, we all inherit their sinful nature, and a broken relationship with our creator God & are worthy of his wrath and anger.
Romans 3:23 – For all have
sinned and fall short of the glory of God
Romans 6:23 – For the wages
of sin is death – which is what we deserved
John 3:16 – But God so loved the us that he gave his one and only
Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal
life.
Romans 3:24 – all are justified freely by
his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
Romans 6:24 – but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Jesus came to earth and lived the perfect life in our place, took the penalty of our sins and paid the price on the cross, and in return gave his righteousness to us.
He took our dirty unrighteous garments and gave us his righteous garments.
Now when God looks at us, he is looking
through the filter of His son, claims us back from the world, embraces us and
calls us his own.
Brother & sisters, when we are
confronted with this truth, there is a transformation that happens in our
heart. For the first time we truly repent of our sins, believe in the gospel
& eventually make a public declaration of our faith through Baptism.
Do not be mistaken – When this happens, God forgives all our past, present & future sins. We stand justified before him forever.
He says nothing can separate us from his
love – neither physical death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor
powers, nor things present, nor things to come, [39] Nor height, nor depth, nor
any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love
of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. – Romans 8:38-39
But, a lot of people think that we only
repent of our sins & believe in the gospel once for all and there is no
need to repent & believe again and again.
People who think that way forget that even
thought our soul is set free from eternal condemnation, we still continue to
live in our flesh and in this corrupt world. Our bodies are trapped here until
we die or until Jesus returns.
We also forget that as we continue to grow in our faith, there are two things happens in our heart & mind. We grow in the awareness of God’s holiness and we grow in the awareness of our sinfulness.
And if we don’t walk in daily repentance,
we can go into two different directions. Let me explain.
When we focus only on the Holiness of God, we easily get into a performance mode. And when we only grow in realization of our sinfulness, we get into a pretending mode. And both these places are harmful for us.
They stop us from experiencing a spirit
filled Christian life.
In our passage today, John is talking to
believers who are bent towards the pretending mode. People who are pretending
to have fellowship with God and walking in the light but are in darkness and
unwilling to admit that they are drowning in sin.
Listen carefully as I read the passage
again.
This is the message we have heard from him
and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie
and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the
light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another,
and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we
have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
And here’s the solutions John offers
If we confess our sins, he
is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from
all unrighteousness.
To bridge the gap between God’s holiness
and Our sinfulness, the only way we can do it is when we live a lifestyle of
repentance by confessing our sins to God & believing in the Gospel.
Here’s what happens when we do that daily. We grow in appreciation of what Christ has done for us on the cross. Our heart grows bigger and bigger each day.
God performs chemotherapy on us, killing
the bad cells of our sinful nature and producing new ones. Changing our stony
heart into a heart of flesh.
Biblical repentance frees us from our own devices
and makes a way for the power of the gospel to bear fruit in our lives.
We never stop needing to repent and believe.
And as we do that, there are two reasons they happen.
The first is, we express the genuineness of their faith. The second reason is,
we maintain a close relationship with the Father in heaven.
Amen
Finally, as I close, let me highlight three things about repentance one gain.
As Christians, we don’t repent daily because we fall
off and become unbeliever again as we sin. The first time when we truly
repented of our sins, he fully accepted and has given the entry pass to his
Kingdom.
As Christians, we repent so that we daily grow in
appreciation of what Christ has done for us on the cross.
We repent and confess our sins because we have the
confidence that God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse
us from all unrighteousness.
Good morning church! We started a new series last weekend titled “Gospel Renewal” and we’ll be covering different topics over the next 2 months like prayer, humility, repentance but explaining how all of these fruits can only come about through the gospel.
What we mean by that is – in every other religion and moral science class – people unanimously agree that prayer, humility, repentance are good things to cultivate through self-effort.
However, the Bible stands in stark contrast to all of these – through Scripture we understand that all these things can only be truly produced by trusting on the grace of God through Jesus Christ. That’s why we call it Gospel Renewal. And after last week’s theme on Gospel centred prayer, today we will look at Gospel Humility from Philippians 2.
As we are turning to today’s passage, let me just highlight a few reasons why “Humility” is an absolute need for all of us. For that we need to consider the opposite of humility which is “Pride”.
Now usually when we think about pride – we usually imagine someone who says “I’m awesome, I’m great and I do all things well”. Although this is one-way pride expresses itself, however I just want to mention a few more subtle ways in which pride manifests itself in our hearts.
Being over-critical about others: We’ve
taken it upon ourselves to points out the theological errors or sin struggles
in other people. As believers do we need to correct people? Yes, but if we see
a pattern where we are always the ones correcting others or if we are more
concerned about the sin and issues in other people rather than our own, it’s
pride.
Prayerlessness: Prayerlessness
ultimately arises out of pride which makes us feel like we don’t need God as
much. We can figure things out and fix ourselves using self-effort.
Not confessing sins: Our pride often
prevents us from admitting that we have messed up and sinned against God. We
usually end up minimizing the sin or getting defensive or innovating new ways
to fix our sin problems apart from God.
Not asking others for help: Even though
we might be struggling in our faith, we’ll never ask our brothers and sisters
to help us. We’ll never reach out to them or even if someone offers to help us,
we’ll not take it seriously because in our pride we wouldn’t want to be
perceived as helpless and weak.
And I want to be the first to admit that I’m prideful and
God has been working on my heart over the last so many years humbling. I hope
we realize that in many ways like this we all struggle with pride and we need
the gospel to help us and change us to produce true humility.
3 Do nothing from
selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than
yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to
the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in
Christ Jesus,[a] 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count
equality with God a thing to be grasped,[b] 7 but emptied himself, by taking
the form of a servant,[c] being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found
in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death,
even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on
him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every
knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every
tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
(v3-11)
We see in verses 3-4 how Paul instructs the Philippian church in humility to count others more significant than themselves and look to the interests of others and not just our own.
But he knows that all of these instructions will be empty and futile apart from the gospel…apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. In a sense he was saying – unless you immerse yourself in the gospel, you will not be able to produce humility. And he mention 3 ways does that:
1.Looking up to Christ (v5-7)
5 Have this mind among
yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,[a] 6 who, though he was in the form
of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,[b] 7 but emptied
himself, by taking the form of a servant,[c] being born in the likeness of men.
I remember while I was growing up – I somehow got very simplistic answers like “The best way to live your life is to be like Jesus”. Pretty quickly I realized how impossible it was to live like Jesus.
In fact I found following the model of Jesus to be very intimidating because with every passing year I realized how further away I went from becoming like Jesus. But all of that changed when I became a believer.
Reading the Bible, I realized that the secret of the Christian life is that Jesus is now united with us in a relationship so deep and intimate that now He lives His life in and through us!
Jesus isn’t just a model but the motivation for our lives!Jesus isn’t just the inspiration but the enabler for our lives!
And so when we read the word “have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus” – realize that it’s not as though we are forced to follow someone else’s philosophy but rather as believer we earnestly desire to have the mind of Christ.
To look at the world in the way He does. To imitate Him. Because He is a part of us and we are a part of Him! What is the mindset of Christ? Let’s read v6-7. Its astonishing if we have to read it carefully.
Jesus Has the same nature and image of God –
In the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John 1:1)
He 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. (Heb
1:3)
And yet He did not consider equality with God as something
to be seized or something to be held to for advantage. In a world where people
fight for position and status – unwilling to give up their position of
power…this seems to be unbelievable!!!
Paul takes it one step further when he says 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of
a servant,[c] being born in the likeness of men.
The idea of emptied himself means “willing to come down to no reputation”. Jesus didn’t lose His divinity (He didn’t stop being God). Jesus didn’t lose His purity.
But He did empty Himself of aspects of the richness of His glory and majesty to become like us. He took the form of weakness by putting on our flesh. Jesus is the Creator God becoming like a creature.
The word “servant” is Greek is the word “doulos” which means
bondservant or slave. Here the Master of the entire universe took on the form
of a slave – one of subservience.
The Son of Man came
not be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many (Matt
20:28)
In another place in Galatians it says that Jesus was born under the law. Think about it – Jesus gave the command of circumcision to Abraham in Genesis and centuries later Jesus Himself got circumcised on the eighth day.
Jesus Himself gave the law and commands to Moses and centuries later He lived in obedience to that same law. It’s humiliating when you think about it.
He was willing to lay down and give away His reputation to be with us. He’s not disconnected from us and our issues. Here is our God who identifies with us by emptying Himself and taking our form and living in the very same broken world that we live in.
You feel pain and hurt? Jesus fully understands. Do you experience temptation? Jesus knows exactly what that feels like. If this doesn’t humble us, nothing else will. The God of the universe becoming like us! Amazing!
2. Looking at the Cross
8 And being found in
human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even
death on a cross.
When we think about the cross nowadays – it’s placed above church buildings signifying that it’s a church building. In the early 2000s wearing a cross used to be also a style statement.
And I was a new believer in those days and I also starting wearing a cross. One uncle from church who used to take bible studies for us once asked me a question: he asked me if the cross is a faith statement or a style statement?
For the first time, I began to question why I wore the cross because deep down I knew it was a fashion statement. So even though nowadays the meaning of the cross is quite different from what it was in NT times.
When Paul wrote this letter to Philippians, they knew what the cross meant. It was capital punishment in the Roman empire.
Only the guiltiest criminals, the worst of the lot, people who would cause violent uprisings against the Roman government – only they would receive this punishment. Not only was it the cruellest way of killing criminals and but it was extremely humiliating because it was done publicly.
And we see our Saviour Jesus Christ – even though he was innocent and sinless – willingly giving up Himself on a cross. Why? Let’s remember that we deserved to be on that cross – not Jesus because of our sins.
The horror of the cross is a reminder of how serious the charge and penalty that was levelled against us. But at the same time, the cross is a declaration of God’s love and mercy toward us.
Jesus Christ was willing to be humiliated by even dying on the cross – if that is what it meant to save us from the wrath and punishment for our sins! Here is our God who protects us by laying down His life! He loves us so much that He takes our punishment upon Himself so that we can eternally live in a relationship with Him! It’s mind-blowing!
Did we earn this favour? No! Did we deserve this? Absolutely
not! And that’s what humbles our hearts. When we realize that we were once
condemned prisoners who have been set free by the sacrifice of our Saviour!
3. Kneeling before Christ
9 Therefore God has
highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and
under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the
glory of God the Father. (v9-11)
Imagine you were invited to meet the President of a country. In that place where you are going to meet him, there’s a gathering of the entire army of the country, the officials and governors.
And when you attend the meeting, you won’t go and announce “I’m so and so and I’ve done all these things in my life”. Instead, you’ll be humbled at the sight of the President and everyone else gathered there.
John Piper says something like when you go to the Grand Canyon…you don’t go there and think of how great you are or how good you look…why? You’ll be blown away by the breath-taking beauty of your view! You’ll be humbled at the creation of an amazing God!
Similarly, these verses tell us that the name that has been given to Jesus is so honourable and so great – that at that name every knee will bow down in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord! Wow!
I think what it means is that when Jesus Christ returns and King and Judge in His glory – every person on the earth – believers and even unbelievers will kneel and acknowledge Jesus Christ when they see Him!
What does that mean for us as believers now – is that We’ll never know what humility is unless we’ve learnt to humble ourselves before Christ!
Humility comes from an awareness of who Jesus Christ is and who we are in relation to Him. Humility involves surrendering to the will of Jesus Christ!
In my experience, I’ve seen how God had used the gospel to humble my heart while listening to the Gospel being preached or when a brother has applied the Gospel to my life situation or when my heart melts with the Gospel during my Bible readings.
It doesn’t happen through self-effort or self-improvement. It happens when we look up to Christ, look at the cross and kneel before Christ!
After doing a year of expository preaching on the
Gospel of Mark, we will now be focusing on a series of topical preaching called
‘Gospel Renewal’. What I mean by the word Gospel is the life, death and resurrection
of Jesus Christ for the redemption of mankind.
We’re using the word Renewal because even though we
hear and use the word Gospel often times in our verbiage we still fail to
understand the depth of it and for the most part we don’t know how to apply the
Gospel in our daily life and live for the Gospel.
Therefore, the aim of this series is to learn how the
Gospel changes and impacts everything we do, that anything and everything we do
is only a response to God’s love and grace that He has shown us in Christ. The
ultimate goal is to glorify God.
Today’s topic is going to be on the subject of GOSPEL
PRAYER. The passage I chose to study and
preach is 1 John 5:14-15.
To give you a bit of a context, John is writing this
letter to the believers in the Church of Ephesus.
After giving a long list of instruction to the church
on the doctrine of Christ, Obedient living & Devotion, John is almost concluding
his talk, and in chapter 5:14-15 he says
14 And this is the confidence
that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he
hears us.15 And if we know
that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we
have asked of him.
Last Sunday Jeff reminded us that
our primary call is to be with Jesus. That, before we are called to do anything
for Jesus, we are called to be with Him and abide in Him.
And it is through prayer and devotion
that we get to be with Christ and to enjoy Intimacy with Him.
Brothers & sisters, Prayer is
the most important spiritual discipline for every Christian.
But, have you wondered why our
Prayer life becomes the most neglected spiritual discipline of all? That’s
because, our prayer life is the prime target of the enemy and he will do
anything to distract us from approaching God in prayer.
Last week while Jeff and I were
in Taiwan going through the City to city Church planter intensive training, one
of the topic that really blessed me was the topic on prayer by a pastor called
Jon Hori.
One of his statement that stood
out for me was when he said “I’m not worried when I hear that the church isn’t
growing even though the people are genuinely praying, I’m worried when I hear
that the church is rapidly growing but people aren’t praying”
This is what it implies – Any
growth in our lives, whether in church, at work, in college, in finances that
isn’t grounded in prayer is a dangerous endeavour.
It’s a dangerous endeavour
because it will damage our faith and (leads us into misery / leave us feeling
hopeless and miserable). Without prayer, we will drift away from God’s plan and purpose and end up
in a place where we were never intended to be.
It will damage our faith because
when we apply worldly wisdom to achieve things on our own strength, we will end
up disregarding God and take pride in our own achievements and abilities
instead of giving glory to God. We will stop believing in the Gospel and lose
faith in Christ.
If you are convinced that prayer
is most important to us, let us now look at how we need to prayer. As we look
into today’s passage, I want to talk about the essentials (Saar) of prayer and
the methods of praying.
In the passage as John is
encouraging the people to pray he is saying two things that I believe is most
essential when we think about prayer.
14 And this is the confidence
that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he
hears us.15 And if we know
that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we
have asked of him.
1. Our prayer needs to be rooted in Christ, with confidence in Him and His finished work on the cross.
What I mean by that is when we go
to God in prayer we don’t go with a self-righteous and prideful heart like the
Pharisee in Luke 18 who goes to the temple and prays ‘God, I thank you
that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like
this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I
get.’
Have you noticed, often times we
fail to go to God in prayer because we think we’ve failed to live a perfect and
obedient life, one that is pleasing to God, and that God is not interested in
me or in my prayer unless I do it right.
Brothers & sisters, God knows
our heart, he knows our struggles, he knows our failures, he knows our short
comings, he knows the repetitive sinful tendencies we struggle with. And yet he
does not expect us to fix all that and then approach Him in prayer.
Rather, he desires that we go to
Him as we are, sinful & broken like the Tax collector who stood at a
distance, with His eyes on the ground, beating his breast and praying, “God,
have mercy on me, a sinner.’
What Jesus accomplished for us on
the cross is far greater than what we can ever imagine.
In 1 John chapter 1, John writes
8 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.
If we go to God in prayer with
the attitude of ‘I am right & have no sin, therefore God hears me’ then we
deceive ourselves. No matter how hard we try, we can never match up to the
standard of God’s holiness.
Rather when we go to God in
prayer and confess our sins, then he is faithful to forgive our sins and
cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Let’s not forget brothers and
sisters that once we were alienated from God, we were his enemies because of
our evil behaviour. But Christ came to this world, lived among us, lived the
righteous life we were supposed to live, and through his death on the cross he
absorbed the wrath of God that was upon us and presented us holy in God’s
sight, without blemish and free from accusation.
This is our identity in Christ,
and this is the confidence in which we approach God in prayer.
2. The second thing we learn about prayer from this passage is that we ask according to his will and not ours.
Often times, this aspect of
prayer messes up with our pride, our self-gratifying nature & our dreams
& desires, Isn’t it?
The reason it messes up is
because often times we think we know what is better for us. But in doing so we
fail to realise the ultimate goal of God in this universe He created us for
himself and for His pleasure. We forget that ultimately He is in control
of everything and calls the shots on us.
No matter how many dreams and
desires you have for yourself. If they are not as per God’s will for your life
and it they don’t serve his ultimate goal, then what you are chasing after will
never satisfy you.
And therefore, to be in the
perfect will of God should be the ultimate goal of our life. Nothing else in
life can satisfy our inmost cravings and longings – not wealth, pleasure,
comfort or people.
Even Jesus, while teaching about
prayer in Matthew 6 teaches us to primarily pray for God’s kingdom and Gods
will to be done in our lives.
What John is saying is that
whatever you ask, if it is the will of God for your life, He will provide.
So, how do we pray in a way that
we seek His will.
James 4:13-15:
Come now, you who
say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a
year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow
will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a
little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord
wills, we will live and do this or that.”
Seeking for God’s will as we pray
is the right thing to do.
I hope I’ve initiated a spark in
to your heart to revive your prayer life. Please don’t let it go off, rather
flame it to fire and live for God.
The other thing I wanted to share
is our prayer postures. Often times we think of only one or two ways in which
to approach God in prayer. But let me conclude by suggesting a couple of more
prayer postures or methods that has personally benefited me.
Prayer Postures:
Quite time behind the doors
Prayer Journalizing Eg. King David
Prayer Cards
Walk & Talk
Family devotions
Community prayer
“Our prayers may be awkward. Our attempts may be feeble. But since the power of prayer is in the one who hears it and not in the one who says it, our prayers do make a difference.” – Max Lucado
