A daily Christian devotional for the wandering journey through the COVID-19 wilderness and beyond. New devotionals every weekday, created by the pastors of Immanuel Christian Reformed Church of Hamilton: Anthony Elenbaas and Michael Bootsma.
Anthony Elenbaas and Michael Bootsma
A Sunday edition of Wilderness Wanderings! The text is Matthew 9:1-8. Today's service was lead by our Friendship Ministry. It is best to very the whole sevvice. Here is the link: here on YouTube. Or, head to our website to connect with the worshiping community of Immanuel CRC: immanuelministries.ca
A Sunday Sermon edition of Wilderness Wanderings! The text is John 20:24-29. Dive In discussion questions are below for further reflection! To see this sermon in the context of the worship service it comes from, find it here on YouTube. Or, head to our website to connect with the worshiping community of Immanuel CRC: immanuelministries.ca Dive In Questions How is this passage often preached? How was it preached today? In this passage, we learn that God is re-_______ our _____________ as his church. People become part of the body through the ___________ of the ___________ __________. Do you think some people are more important than others? Is this the right way to think about folks in the church? Who has placed people in the church? What is more important than spiritual gifts? How will you live this out in this body?
A Sunday Sermon edition of Wilderness Wanderings! The text is John 20:24-29. Dive In discussion questions are below for further reflection! To see this sermon in the context of the worship service it comes from, find it here on YouTube. Or, head to our website to connect with the worshiping community of Immanuel CRC: immanuelministries.ca
A Sunday Sermon edition of Wilderness Wanderings! The text is John 20:1-23. Dive In discussion questions are below for further reflection! To see this sermon in the context of the worship service it comes from, find it here on YouTube. Or, head to our website to connect with the worshiping community of Immanuel CRC: immanuelministries.ca What do you want people to be like? Do you want to be the same kind of person? What “influencers” have shaped your mind? What experiences have shaped you? Which “influencers” transform us? How does growing a seed compare to being transformed?
A Sunday Sermon edition of Wilderness Wanderings! The text is John 20:1-23. To see this sermon in the context of the worship service it comes from, find it here on YouTube. Or, head to our website to connect with the worshiping community of Immanuel CRC: immanuelministries.ca
A Sunday Sermon edition of Wilderness Wanderings! The text is John 19:28-37. To see this sermon in the context of the worship service it comes from, find it here on YouTube. Or, head to our website to connect with the worshiping community of Immanuel CRC: immanuelministries.ca
A Sunday Sermon edition of Wilderness Wanderings! The text is Luke 23:44-49. Dive In discussion questions are below for further reflection! To see this sermon in the context of the worship service it comes from, find it here on YouTube. Or, head to our website to connect with the worshiping community of Immanuel CRC: immanuelministries.ca What does darkness mean to you? What does darkness represent in the Bible? Which ones resonate with you the most? Do any of them frighten you? Spend some time this week imagining what the folks about the cross experienced in that darkness? What does Jesus mean when he says, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit?” How are we encouraged by this? Also, spend time this week mediating on benefits of Christ's death reflected on in Romans 8. Memorize the songs of Psalm Sunday and sing/speak them regularly.
A Sunday Sermon edition of Wilderness Wanderings! The text is John 19:28-37. Dive In discussion questions are below for further reflection! To see this sermon in the context of the worship service it comes from, find it here on YouTube. Or, head to our website to connect with the worshiping community of Immanuel CRC: immanuelministries.ca Why is valuable that Jesus is physically thirsty? How does John introduce Jesus' thirst? What does this say about Jesus? What does it say about his death on the cross? Jesus was thirsty for water. But he was thirsty for more too. What was it? Do you believe this about God? How does it change the way you live?
A Sunday Sermon edition of Wilderness Wanderings! The text is Mark 15:33-41. Dive In discussion questions are below for further reflection! To see this sermon in the context of the worship service it comes from, find it here on YouTube. Or, head to our website to connect with the worshiping community of Immanuel CRC: immanuelministries.ca DIVE IN QUESTIONS? What do you see when you look at church buildings or cathedrals? What two things are often represented by cathedral architecture? “Why do they focus on the awful way he died?” How would you have answered this question before today's sermon? What have you done to stop sinning? How do you think about sin? How problematic is it? Have you ever considered yourself cursed? Jesus took our curse upon himself. What does the cross make you think about? It is an awful way to die; yet does it not lead us to rejoice? What does it mean that the curtain in the temple was torn from top to bottom?
A Sunday Sermon edition of Wilderness Wanderings! The text is Luke 23:32-43. Dive In discussion questions are below for further reflection! To see this sermon in the context of the worship service it comes from, find it here on YouTube. Or, head to our website to connect with the worshiping community of Immanuel CRC: immanuelministries.ca In this word from the cross, was Jesus just being a good son, or did he intend something more? Have you ever considered Jesus strange comments on the family? What kinds of things unite the congregation you are part of, whether Immanuel or another? Identify some things that draw our attention away from realizing our unity in Jesus? How can you live into the unity of the church this week? How will you be ‘the Lord's servant'? Do you believe that by his death on the cross Jesus dethrones the proud? Can your actions be guide by the hope that in the end all people will confess Jesus is Lord (cf. Phil. 2:11)?
A Sunday Sermon edition of Wilderness Wanderings! The text is Luke 23:32-43. Dive In discussion questions are below for further reflection! To see this sermon in the context of the worship service it comes from, find it here on YouTube. Or, head to our website to connect with the worshiping community of Immanuel CRC: immanuelministries.ca What does Paradise mean to you? How did the sermon invite us to re-imagine it? Consider what ways you have acted like the folks around the cross. How do you see such actions played out in society today? What is indicated by the word ‘Today' as used in by Jesus on the cross? What happens when Jesus' touches us? How can the ‘Today' of the kingdom happen among us?
A Sunday Sermon edition of Wilderness Wanderings! The text is Luke 23:26-34. Dive In discussion questions are below for further reflection! To see this sermon in the context of the worship service it comes from, find it here on YouTube. Or, head to our website to connect with the worshiping community of Immanuel CRC: immanuelministries.ca Where do we pick of the story of Jesus on the cross? What might it mean that those at the cross ‘did not know what they were doing'? Why is it so astonishing that Jesus comes to us with forgiveness? How do we usually approach people who have wronged us? Evaluate your response to someone who has done you wrong. What do thing think it means to forgive? Have you learned to practice it? What might be your next step? Forgiveness is not reconciliation. How can forgiveness open the door to reconciliation?
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (Ephesians 3:20-21) Doxology is a fitting place to end this season of Wilderness Wanderings. This will be the last of the devotions for a while—and certainly the last of mine (Pastor Anthony). Perhaps Wilderness Wanderings will continue in time, but before turning to the season of Lent tomorrow, we simply give thanks to God for this good season of a unique ministry of daily devotions. Doxology is a word that means “word of glory,” and in our usage as Christians, generally means we are giving those words of glory to God. In the letter of Ephesians, this doxology circles us back to the beginning of the letter. But doxologies are scattered liberally throughout the New Testament. The word glory is scattered throughout the scriptures even more abundantly. To name a few, we hear that God is a God of glory (Ephesians 1:17), his glory reveals who he is (John 1:14), God gives glory to Christ (1 Peter 1:21) and his people (Romans 2:10); Christians are transformed from glory to glory (2 Corinthians 3:18); we are to do everything for God's glory (1 Corinthians 10:31) and give glory back to God (Ephesians 1:6). The new creation will reveal even more glory (Romans 8:18). “Glory” is one of those words that encompasses the whole of Christianity. No doubt this is why the first question and answer of the Westminster Shorter Catechism says “man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever.” Today is the “fat Tuesday” before Lent—a day of feasting before the fasting that has more or less turned in popular culture to a day of glorifying ourselves and our worst desires. Today is also the day of tariffs (or at least that's still how the news reads now)—a day when our attention is sucked up into politics and business as we struggle to understand just why exactly friendly neighbours need to be punching one another. Today is also the final Wilderness Wanderings for a time—a marking of an ending of a season of ministry. But here's the thing: no matter the day, no matter the news, no matter the grief, introspection, or self-glorification—each and every day is a day for doxology. Why? Because everything that Paul has written in the first three chapters remains true. Despite American tariffs, is it still true that Christ has ultimately destroyed the dividing wall of hostility between peoples through his cross in his church? Yes. Despite our sorrows in parting, has God still blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ? Yes. Despite any self-glorification, is it still true that the most important thing about us is that we belong to God, having been created and redeemed to the praise not of our, but of his glory? Yes. The fact of Christ Jesus and his church, carrying on down through all the generations faithful and sure no matter what personal or global events raged—this fact is evidence enough of the power of God our Father, who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine. Join me then today—and every day—in giving glory to God. In the good times and the bad, in plenty or in want, in life and in death—may God be glorified in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations. Forever and ever. Amen. For the last time, go now with his blessing: May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you : wherever he may send you. May he guide you through the wilderness : protect you through the storm. May he bring you home rejoicing : at the wonders he has shown you. May he bring you home rejoicing : once again into our doors.
And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord's holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:17b-19). What roots and establishes us in love? As was said yesterday, it is Christ dwelling in our hearts through faith by the gift and power of the Spirit. This is our rooting and establishing in love. It is Christ's love that grounds us, embeds us firmly in the soil of God's reality, enabling us to grow. Established in the love of Christ, the journey of our lives now follows the trajectory of Paul's prayer: discovering more deeply what God has already given, namely, this love of Christ. This discovery is empowered only by the Triune God in the context of the Christian community. At times it is said, in rather trite ways, that it's all about love. Just love. Yet, trite though it may seem—it is also true. The love of God in Christ is everything. Discipleship is a work of discovering this love more fully. It is a work of knowing Christ's love. Knowing not in a head-knowledge sort of way. Paul askes that we know the love of Christ in an intimate sort of way—the kind of knowing that comes through an unconditionally loving, committed, long-term relationship, like a good marriage. The task of Christian discipleship is to tangibly experience Christ's way of keeping this relationship of love with us, through things like his forgiveness for our failures, his commitment to us despite our foibles, his bearing with us in all situations, and his limitless gifts. Of course, our knowing this love doesn't come only from our experience of relationship with Christ. It comes also through the “manifold wisdom of God” that places us in a church—a church full of diverse, divided, disagreeable folks—people from all walks of life, all different ethnicities, all different personalities, all different opinions, and social classes. To fully grasp the width, length, height, and depth of Christ's love—we must know that he also loves all these people; forgives them; is committed to them and gives his gifts also to them. Even though we may not see how to be reconciled with some of these gangly Christians—we must confront the fact that they too are rooted and established in Christ's love. We must confront the fact that they too have been reconciled to God and to us in the church! There are no longer any dividing walls that separate us, for Jesus removed them all in his cross. To grasp the expansive love of Christ, we must face the reality of Christ's love for those Christians we deem unlovable. This recognition demands of us a deepening conversion to Christ: an ever deeper knowing of his infinitely expansive, unconditional agape love. Paul leaves us with a paradox here: he prays for a knowledge that surpasses knowledge. He asks that we might know something that is ultimately unknowable, or at least ungraspable by us finite human creatures. Yet in this journey of seeking to know the love of Christ that holds us and the church, the fullness of God slowly fills us up as we discover how truly established and enfolded in love we really are. For that, we need this doxology: Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (Ephesians 3:17-21).
This is the final sermon in our 2 Samuel series, and also Pastor Anthony's final message as a pastor at Immanuel. The text is 2 Samuel 7 from the New International Version of the Bible. Dive In discussion questions are below for further reflection! To see this sermon in the context of the farewell worship service it comes from, find it here on YouTube. Or, head to our website to connect with the worshiping community of Immanuel CRC: immanuelministries.ca DIVE IN QUESTIONS 1. What stands out to you from hearing these verses? Is God offering an invitation or a challenge to you through those words? Take time to pray about it. 2. In what way was God hidden/veiled and mysterious to David? In what ways can God be rather hidden or mysterious to us? 3. Given the ways that God is often hidden and mysterious to us, how do we often respond? How does this impact our prayers, how we make decisions, and how we do our work at home, school, or at our job? 4. Who is the story of 2 Samuel 7 about? What do we learn about the main character here? What good news is to be found? 5. How does this revelation of God change the way we go about our lives? What does it call for in response from us? 6. How might that worshipful life of submission look in your own life this week?
I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith (Ephesians 3:16-17). The letter to the Ephesians is steeped in prayer. Paul begins with prayer, ends by calling the church to join him in prayer, and here in the middle, prays. As we discovered yesterday, Paul is on his knees in this prayer. It's a posture of humility, recognizing that God is both the giver of every good gift, and the most consequential actor and authority in any of our lives. Today we begin to discover what Paul is praying for. All these big themes have been coursing through the letter about God's grace in Christ that creates the world, saves us, and reconciles us as a disparate humanity into a single, diverse, yet unified church. Now Paul prays quite simply that we will have the faith to believe it's true. That we will have the power, not to do great things for God, but simply to hold space in our hearts for Christ to dwell there. Paul is on to something. This is indeed the very hardest of things to do. It is easy to do great deeds for God. Go on a mission trip, fund a building campaign, make a big and vocal stand on principle, start an organization, or make pilgrimage to a big Christian site, rally, conference, or retreat. The extreme things are all pretty easy to do—we just go flat out, push ourselves to the end, and voila, there we are. What is much harder to do is to simply believe. Our inner beings are often not strong enough to hold space for this Christ and this faith. Our innermost being is most often filled with anxiety for the future, our children, our health, our work, the church, our country, and the state of the world. Fear, cynicism, mistrust, jealousy, fears, ambivalence, regret, and despondency are far more often what lines the walls of our inner being than the strength of the Spirit and faith in Christ. So many of the things we hear or watch seem to suggest that this world and our lives are quite beyond hope or salvation. How then can we rest in any assurance that all these good words Paul has preached thus far can be true? Left to ourselves, we can't. Faith is a gift of God. Paul knows this and so he cuts his proofs and proclamations short to get down on his knees and pray that the God who has begun this good work in Christ will see it through to completion in us. He prays that our inner being might be strengthened by God himself through the power of the Spirit, that our hearts might be made ready to house a true faith in Christ. Even more: to house Christ himself. Today as we read these words of Ephesians 3—we join that prayer. May God indeed dispel the shadows of fear and mistrust within us, strengthening us instead to be people of faith in whom Christ makes his home. As you journey on, go with the blessing of God: Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (Ephesians 3:20-21)
For this reason, I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name (Ephesians 3:14-15). Concerning prayer, there are two questions or complaints that come my way regularly: “I don't know what to pray for” and “My prayers are short, I think they should be longer.” My response to the second complaint is to shrug my shoulders saying, “Don't worry about it.” Then I quote Jesus who specifically said, “God is not impressed by long prayers” (that's my paraphrase of Matthew 6:7). There are a few longish prayers in the Bible; most, like the one our text is from, are quite short. In answer to the second complaint, I point people towards the Bible: read the prayers in the Bible as your own. Offer them to God. If you ponder them, they will fuel your imagination. Consider with me our text which begins “For this reason…” If you have jumped in halfway through this letter, this is your invitation to start at the beginning to discover what Paul is referencing. He has been exploring the great cosmic scope of God's redemption plan in Christ. Often, we limit this to human souls, suggesting that God offers Jesus as an escape route from this world. But Paul will have none of that. In the cross, God reconciles all people into a new community which we know as the church. This fellowship is the show piece of God's saving work, demonstrating his wisdom before all the powers of the world. Here are reasons for praise and adoration, for thanksgiving and delight, for petition and pleading. Then he says, “I kneel before the father”. Thus, kneeling in prayer has a good Biblical foundation. Of course, it is not the only posture given in scripture. Laying face down gets more press. But the actual posture is not of greatest import. What matters is the posture of the soul, heart and mind. We can start praying with any number of postures: anger, frustration, boredom. Yet, if we are paying attention to what we are doing, namely, addressing God, somehow prayer always brings us to our knees, the work of the Spirit, no doubt. When we address God, we tend to relax into submission. From this place of submission, we discover ourselves on our father's lap. He cares for us. He loves us. It matters to him that we are angry, or frustrated, or bored. He holds us until we come to that place of trust and rest again. We discover that despite the negative postures with which we have entered prayer, attitudes which often bring shame, our father has held on to us. He has not turned away from us. Soon, we discover that we are not the only ones he is concerned about. He loves all his people. So, we look around and see some rejoicing and we share our father's joy. We see others in pain, having been abused, bodies riddled with disease, carrying the brokenness their own sins have caused. We find ourselves grieving right along with our father. And we pray for them. We see his church hands raised in adoration, broken by division, puffed up with pride, indifferent to the mission given, and in other places carrying it out gracefully. Some of his children resisting the reconciliation of the cross. We feel his sorrow for these children. We petition and plead for the Spirit to sanctify; to descend in power; to do his work. We see friends and family running away from our father or indifferent to his invitations. From our place of submission, prayers for them leak out of us. That they would head his entreaties, that they would stop running. Before the father, we discover there is so much to pray for. And we conclude with, Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (Ephesians 3:17-21).
In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence. I ask you, therefore, not to be discouraged because of my sufferings for you, which are your glory. (Ephesians 3:12-13) Today we come back to earth from the cosmic scope of the heavenly realms. We are to understand that God's power is both displayed and is sovereign over the heavenly realms. That is enough. The rest of the story is here—in the manifold wisdom of God's grace displayed in the church by the mystery of the cross. The church that God has made is not a flat uniformity where everyone is crushed into sameness, no—it is a manifold wisdom we see here: a unity in and of diversity. This is the “peace” that has been made through Christ in the Church. No one is flattened, everyone is reconciled. Given all this—the fact of God's Sovereign rule over everything, including the heavenly realms, the fact of the cross of Christ that breaks down dividing walls and reconciles a disparate and diverse humanity into a single, colourful church, and given the fact that in Christ there is now peace between God and humanity and the possibility of peace between people as well—given all this, we can pray. That's a lot of great and grand things to rattle off only to tell us that we can pray. Was it really worth all the fuss? That's a lot of planning and heavy lifting on God's part over thousands of years. Is the point of it all just to get a conversation going? Maybe it is that way. In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, there was nothing—all was empty and formless. Then God spoke. And when God spoke—all of creation burst forth into life and colour, substance and form, noise and light. When God spoke: creation responded. A conversation began. The word of the King had its effect and did not return to him empty. At least, not until Adam and Eve broke the conversation. Since that day—humanity has not always or even often responded to the words that God speaks. Creation likewise has become tongue-tied and no longer responds with the vitality and goodness that it once did. But God was not content to leave the conversation broken nor the relationship forsaken. God spoke his clearest word in the conversation through Jesus—in human form. He took all our ill responses, barbs, criticisms, jeers, and violence on himself and put them to death. In his new life, a fresh start begins. In our own experience we know that the simple everyday stuff of relationships and conversations can be the very hardest things to navigate. We respond with hurtful words and actions, or ingest hurtful words and actions from others. We puzzle about how to respond. Mistrust, bitterness, cynicism, distance, and even violence form. These are precisely the sorts of sins and breakings of shalom that Jesus took on himself and put to death so that forgiveness and reconciliation might result. Paul, likewise as a minister of this good news of Jesus, takes these sins and sufferings on himself—putting them to death in the death of Christ he bears so that forgiveness, grace, and the good news of Christ might be seen and heard through him. As recipients of this grace, we are called to the same. This is our glory: to enter the conversation with God in freedom and confidence because of Jesus, receiving the power of his death and life that reconciles us to him and others. When we give or receive hurts or barbs in our relationships and conversations with others, we put them to death in his death so that we might speak a word of confession or forgiveness in his name. Slowly, the conversation begins afresh. Humanity and creation begin to respond to the Creator in freedom and confidence, and to one another again too. Prayer is that foundational to our reality. How will you respond today? God has spoken to you. Will you respond? Will you come before him in freedom and confidence today? As you journey on, go with the blessing of God: Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (Ephesians 3:20-21)
His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord (Ephesians 3:10-11). For many of us, when we think of Christ's work of salvation, we think of individual souls being saved. We think of personal conversion stories. But when Paul writes about the mystery of the gospel, he expounds on the church. The result of the preaching of Christ's unsearchable riches and mystery is the birth and growth of the church. Gentiles and Jews embraced the gospel, were converted, and found themselves joint members of the family of God and the body of Christ. The church is central to the redemption project of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It was happening as Paul wrote. The mystery that God revealed to him was taking concrete shape before people's eyes. And in this new community, this new multi-racial humanity, the wisdom of God was being displayed. People could see it with their eyes. Indeed, the coming into existence of the church as a community of saved and reconciled people is a public demonstration of God's power, grace, and wisdom. God's mighty resurrection power, his immeasurable grace and kindness, and his manifold wisdom were on display as people once separated by language, custom, politics and religion were forged into a new community through the anvil of the cross. The word for manifold means many-coloured, and was used to describe flowers, crowns, embroidered clothe and woven carpets. The church as a multi-racial, multi-cultural community is like a beautiful tapestry. Its members come from a wide range of colourful backgrounds. No other human community resembles it. Its diversity and harmony are unique. It is God's new society. And the many-coloured fellowship of the church reflects the many-coloured wisdom of God. So then, as the gospel spreads throughout the world, this new and variegated Christian community blossoms. It is as if a great drama is being enacted. History is the theatre, the world is the stage, and the church members in every land are the actors. God himself has written the play and he directs and produces it. Act by act, scene by scene the story continues to unfold. But where is the audience? The audience are the cosmic intelligences, the principalities, and powers in the heavenly places. We are to think of them as spectators of the drama of salvation. Thus, the history of the Christian church becomes a graduate school for these spiritual beings. Beyond this we cannot say much about what these spiritual beings are. We just don't know. As the creation reveals God's glory to humans, the church reveals God's glory to these beings. We cannot see them, but they can see us. They watch fascinated as they see Gentiles and Jews being incorporated in the new society as equals. Indeed, they learn from the composition of the church not only the manifold wisdom of God but also his eternal purposes. This purpose he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, in the arena of history, through his death and resurrection, the gift of His Spirit, the preaching of the gospel and the emergence of the church. Who these beings are is not important. What is important is that we understand what God is doing. We must recon with the truth that the church is central to God's grand design for history. God has a purpose for the church, she is the showpiece through which he reveals his power, grace, and wisdom. And all who believe in Jesus Christ become part of this great intergalactic drama. It may not always appear that there is much power, grace, or wisdom in the church. But know this, God has no other plan. And he will work until all those rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms have bent the knee before the Son and declared him, Lord. Then this doxology will be complete: Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (Ephesians 3:17-21).
I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God's grace given me through the working of his power. Although I am less than the least of all the Lord's people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Christ, and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things (Ephesians 3:7-9). This passage undermines a common misunderstanding of grace in the Christian church. In fact, it reveals, that we have shrunk grace down to something that we can manage. But it does not belong to us. It belongs to God. So we must allow him to define what grace is, what it means, and what it does. For many Christians, we understand grace simply and only as something that we receive from God. It is limited to the forgiveness of sins and the “get out of jail free” card that permits us to escape this world into heaven someday. Its like grandmother's fine china: as a precious possession, it remains locked up in the china cabinet for display and safe keeping. But rarely does it take up a place at the dinner table where life happens. God's grace is much more than that. It enlists us. Paul was made a servant because of “the gift of God's grace.” The gift obligates and equips. Grace in this verse does not relate to Paul's salvation, but to his ministry. Through grace he became a servant of the gospel. Grace connects us to Christ and to each other, but it also enlists and empowers us in the ministry of Christ. Grace always brings responsibility. Paul alluded to this earlier, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith… For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (2:8a,10). In our text, we are told how it worked in Paul's life. Paul viewed himself as a steward of the grace given him. His ministry to the Gentiles was unique, but all Christians are to be stewards of grace. All who have received grace should extend it to others. This becomes the main theme in chapter 4, where Paul writes, “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it” (4:7). Peter puts it rather bluntly, “Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms” (1 Peter 4:10). To receive grace is to be taken into its service. Grace connects, enlists, and empowers. It will not allow us to be passive, for it is God's power at work in us. Do we think ourselves not good enough or worthy enough to serve in this way? Paul anticipates the objection. “Although I am less than the least of all the Lord's people, this grace was given me…” Paul says. He perhaps felt he should have been rejected because he persecuted the church, but God chose him anyway—a choice not based on his ability, but on God's grace. Anything he accomplished was a result of the power of God at work in him. What is the stewarding service that God's grace enlists you in today? The answer is the same as the answer to the question of what you will do or did do today. Nothing in this world moves or works without God's gracious gifts, provisions, and salvations animating it—these being “the boundless riches of Christ.” The breath we breathe is the breath of God. The skills, know-how, curiosities, and passion we deploy in our work, home, volunteering, and schooling are gifts of God. The world in which we live is his creation. In other words: everything you do is already knee deep in the world of God's grace. The only question is how will your life today reveal a God-attentive stewardship of all that grace? How will the grace you've received serve his glory? The fine china is already on the table: God put it there—use it! As you journey on, go with the blessing of God: Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (Ephesians 3:20-21)
A Sunday Sermon edition of Wilderness Wanderings! The text 2 Samuel 5. Dive In discussion questions are below for further reflection! To see this sermon in the context of the worship service it comes from, find it here on YouTube. Or, head to our website to connect with the worshiping community of Immanuel CRC: immanuelministries.ca 1. What does home mean to you? What does it mean to be at rest? How these ideas used in today's text? 2. Why does David want to build a temple? Why does God say no? 3. What great things do you want to do for God? How do we sometimes get in God's way? How is God building in your life? In the life of our church? 4. When we get too full of ourselves and our plans for God, what should we do? 5. What does it look like when you sit before God? 6. What might deference, doxology and demand sound like in your prayers?
For this reason, I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles— Surely you have heard about the administration of God's grace that was given to me for you, that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly. In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to people in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God's holy apostles and prophets. This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:1-6). Most Bible scholars believe that, with verse 1, Paul intended to begin his prayer which concludes the chapter. But he interrupts himself to write about the role he's been given in God's great work of redemption. Because of this role, he has become a prisoner in a Roman jail. Imprisonment is no big deal for him, it simply offers a different venue by which to carry out the mission he has been given. Paul's role of administering God's grace is his concern in these verses. He calls it “the mystery of Christ.” This mystery is what all those saints in the litany of faith from Hebrews 11 were looking forward to. It is something that used to be hidden, but which now in Christ has been revealed. This ‘mystery of Christ' has to do with these Gentiles (non-Israelites). What God has revealed is that in Christ these Gentiles are now included in God's great work of redemption. That is, the work begun in and through Israel as recorded in the Old Testament. To know what God is doing in Christ, we need to be familiar with that story. But, of course, the fact that the Gentiles were going to benefit was already known long ago. God had promised Abraham, “all peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Genesis 12:3). So, what new thing did Paul learn? The very same thing that all of us learn at the heart of the Christian faith: that in the cross of Christ, all things are reconciled, including Jews and Gentiles. When Paul says the word “mystery,” he very often means “the cross of Christ.” When Christ tore down the “dividing wall of hostility” through his cross—he not only took the penalty for our sin and defeated death—he also joined once disparate peoples together. In his cross, he overcame great divisions. The people of God is now composed of both Abraham's descendants and everyone else who believes. They all become “the church” together. In an age in which division perforates the church, it is important for us to hear this message of the gospel. The divisions we feel are not primarily about Jews and Gentiles (though that has recently arisen again as a point of contention)—but about politics, ethics, and national identities. But no matter ones' politics, ethics, or national identities—all those who come to Christ in faith are nevertheless made into one body. Through the gospel of the cross of Christ, we all become “heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.” We are, therefore, to live unity. We are not asked to like other Christians, to be like them, or agree with them—but simply to recognize that humbling fact that we are one with them as sharers of the same Lord and the same benefits. This is indeed a great mystery. But it is the mystery of the cross, the mystery we have been given. May God's kingdom come and will be done—even in this, on earth as it is in heaven. As you journey on, go with the blessing of God: Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (Ephesians 3:20-21)
In Christ Jesus the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit (Ephesians 2:21-22). What images come to mind when you hear the word ‘church'? For many, it's a building, such as the one at 61 Mohawk Road West, Hamilton, where the Immanuel congregation, which I pastor, gathers to worship God on Sundays, where we go for mid-week ministries and meetings. After all, we often refer to such a building as ‘our church'. We invest ourselves into that building and the things that happen there. Time, money, talents are all committed to ensure that things continue to run as smoothly as possible. For others, the word church summons up images of people. The ones who sit around us on Sundays. Those that we have become friends with over the years, maybe some we grew up with. Some have walked with us in tough times. Others were our teachers in spiritual things. They nurtured our faith; they helped us grow as Christians. Yet for others, church conjures up difficult images. Disappointment from being neglected in a time of need. Rejected because we walked away at one time. Shame for not measuring up. Or deep hurt from being used or abused by those in authority. Though it may seem all put together on the outside, often the church has dark stains hiding underneath the carpet. Such are the things that the word church suggests to us. Yet in today's text we are invited to view the church from a different perspective. To see what lies behind the building, beyond the people, deeper than the dark stains that deeply damage the church's witness. We are often tempted to believe that our time, talent, and treasure are what hold the church together and keeps her going. As useful and necessary as these are, it is Christ Jesus that binds and sustains the church. It is not primarily the preachers that bring in the people, it is Jesus. It is Jesus who builds his church. Even though we will continue to say, ‘my church', and ‘your church', we must recognize that these phrases are inaccurate. The church, the congregation, does not belong to us, nor to the pastors. People may come and go from our fellowship and church buildings will continue to be built and sold for other purposes. Despite the apparent transitory nature of things, Christ holds his church together. In our text, notice that we Christians are not doing anything. All the action belongs to Christ, and to God. The church is not primarily what we do, but what God does to us and for us, she is the grand work of God. Five passive verbs are used to tell us how we get included in the action: we are brought near (13), the Spirit gives us access (18), we are built upon the foundation (20), we are joined together (21), we are built together (22). When we are pulled into the action, it is God who pulls us in. Already now, despite all our imperfections and distorted power plays and wrangling over the most minor issues, we are being gathered as the temple of God; the Holy Spirit already lives within the church. The church is much more than what meets the eye, it is more than the building and more than the people. It is the work of Christ, who is ‘growing up' a people who worship him, a people who are learning to follow his Word and Spirit, a people who increasingly live under the sway of his kingdom. People who are not static, but people who are maturing, who begin as acorns and grow to be oak trees. It is not our actions but God's that are most important in the church. There is far more to the church then what we see. Like an iceberg, we only see the tip. We see the people, the buildings, the programs, but underneath, far larger and for more important and influential is the Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The church is not a building. Rather, we are the building material Christ is using to build his church. It is the place where God welcomes us home. Next time you hear the word church, imagine that. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (Ephesians 3:20-21).
Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God's people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. (Ephesians 2:19-20) If you recall from last week, Paul reminded these gentiles in Ephesus of how they were once defined by all the things they were not: “Not-Jews” “Uncircumcised.” “Separate from Christ.” “Excluded from citizenship.” “Foreigners to the covenants of the promise.” “Without hope.” “Without God in the world.” Seven negative identity markers covering all the things that the Ephesians were not. How many of us define ourselves this way—by our deficiencies, by what we are not or by what we do not have? “Not skinny enough.” “Excluded from the property market of our peers.” “Not part of the group.” “Don't belong.” “Not enough money.” “Not what she has.” “Not what he can do.” “Not happy.” “Without the right job.” Many of us do this. It is much easier to see what's lacking in our lives than to see all the things we do, in fact, have. How many of us define our experience of church the same way? By what it isn't? “Not welcoming enough.” “Not my style.” “Not progressive enough.” “Not conservative enough.” “Not loving enough.” “Not serving enough.” “Not enough money.” “Not enough volunteers.” “Not the right programs.” “Not diverse enough.” “Not doing enough.” “Without all the people who used to attend.” “Without hope.” Our eyes get good at seeing the things we pay attention to. And what we human people tend to pay the most attention to are all the things that aren't there. The things that should be better, fuller, faster, more pleasing, and more aligned to our values, but aren't. As Christians, this simply is the wrong way to see the world. It is an immature way of using our capacity of attention. Paul will have none of it. In Jesus Christ, neither we nor the church are defined any longer by what we are not, but instead, by what we are. We are defined by what he has made us to be. So Paul now begins rattling off the positive identities we have received in Christ through the peace and salvation he has given. We are “fellow citizens.” “With God's people.” “Members of his household.” “Built on the foundation of those faithful ones who have gone before throughout the generations, including Jesus Christ himself.” We are to train our attention on the unseen things, yes. But not the unseen things that are missing. Our eyes are to be trained for the unseen things that are there: reality as it really is. Like a Holy Spirit stirring about, forming Christ in us. A God who has always provided and will continue to do so out of his Creation of abundance. A living Lord who beckons us to see his gifts that are abundantly more than all we could ask or imagine. If we are to live Christian lives, we need to know who and what we are, not what we aren't. And we need to know what the church is too, rather than what it isn't. The church is the place where we citizens of God's household and Kingdom gather to train our eyes to see the unseen reality of a living God at work, making us ever more fully into who we already are in Jesus Christ: giving us every good gift with which to bless this world along the way. As you journey on, go with the blessing of God: Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (Ephesians 3:20-21)
He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit (Ephesians 2:17-18). Jesus is our peace. He has done it. He has destroyed the barriers and dividing walls of hostility, putting them to death in his cross. And not only the barriers that stand between us people who are often harboring hostile feelings toward one another—but also the barriers between us and God. In his flesh, he has forged all of us into one single, new humanity, and reconciled us to God through the cross. Through our Prince of Peace, we have been brought near both to God and to one another—no matter the diversity or hostility that might still separate us. Foreigners and citizens, Catholics and Protestants, estranged family members, folks with differing political leanings—no matter: all who are in Christ have been made one and the most significant word about our relationships is spoken by him— “Peace.” This peace is a grace God has worked into us. Our calling is to work it out in our daily living. That is why later we read about lifestyle, words and actions—working this peace into our lives till it becomes natural. Jesus does not force us into this peace. He comes and preaches it. Offers it. And like a Sunday sermon—no one is obligated to take it, agree, or do anything with it. Jesus will not coerce us into working out what he has worked in by his grace. Otherwise, it wouldn't be grace, just another form of slavery. Remember that Jesus did not create peace in Jerusalem by overthrowing the Roman occupiers and taking control of the city, enforcing his kingdom and its peace on the population. Rather, he created peace by taking all their violence and hostilities upon himself as they cursed, condemned, whipped, and crucified him. In Luke's telling, Jesus weeps over Jerusalem, saying “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes” (Lk 19:42). But note what Jesus did do: he came to Jerusalem and preached his kingdom of peace. They rejected it and killed him. But peace was made all the same—it happened through the cross, through the putting to death of these hostilities. And on the other side—the possibility for a new, peace-laden resurrection life. Jesus again came and preached his kingdom of peace, even to those who had betrayed and abandoned him. Jesus continues to come preaching peace to all, both far away and near, offering his new life. The peace of Christ is on offer. Will you accept it? If we receive and believe that Jesus really has accomplished a peace between God and us and everyone else—then by the Spirit, the working out of this peace that has been worked in will transform us and all our relationships. And, because the source of this peace is in Christ, it is an inexhaustible gift. It continually flows from his life into our lives through the power of the Spirit, and from us into the lives of others—enough of it always, to cover every new hostility and division. As Isaiah puts it in some of our favourite Advent verses: “Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end” (Isaiah 9:7). Hard to believe. Certainly. But listen: God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us. Glory to God in the church! Glory to God in the Messiah, in Jesus! Glory down all the generations! Glory through all millennia! Amen (Ephesians 3:20-21 MSG).
For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. (Ephesians 2:14-16) Can Christians claim to be people of peace? Some say that Christians are the problem, having created many conflicts. From the crusades to colonial campaigns, from the bloody religious wars during the reformation to residential schools in recent memory—we Christians have little track record to draw on when it comes to peace. It's true that in many places and times, Christians have not been agents of peace and reconciliation. Not even in our own lives. Today is Valentine's Day. Even for many Jesus' followers, it's a bitter and lonely day. Broken relationships and divorce litter our families too. How often have you or I not added bricks to the walls of hostility that divide us from others? Even our efforts at good produce unintended harms more often than we would like. Can we say anything when it comes to peace? Are we just as much part of the problem as the next person? But if we, followers of the Prince of Peace, cannot talk about peace, who can? It is an important question. Violence continues to erupt all around us, embodied in wars in Gaza, Ukraine and many other places. Can we speak peace into these situations, tainted though our actions have been? Can we speak a word of reconciliation—of forgiveness or confession—among relationships that are broken and breaking, even though we ourselves have helped fortify walls of hostility? When it comes to these questions, Paul helps us out. At the beginning of this chapter, he reminds us that left to ourselves, we are dead in our transgressions. Our history is littered with sin, discord, and division. Thankfully however, peace does not begin with us. It begins with God. Christ accomplishes it. He is our peace. He is the one who tears down the dividing walls of hostility and destroys the barriers. He is the one who unites deeply divided ethnic groups into one new humanity within his church. And he does it through his cross where all the hostilities we can muster are put to death—whether the hostilities of our past, present, or future. All of them die in the death of Christ on the cross. His victory over human hostility is total. None of it survives, such that what remains, is peace. The peace he gives, he gives freely to all, as a gift of this new resurrection life. This is the reality in Christ which will be seen fully at his second coming. For now, though, amidst the continuing hostilities of our lives and world, take heart that we Christians can still speak of peace. The way we do it is not by pointing to ourselves, but to Jesus—reminding ourselves and others that “he is our peace.” Of course, we must do so with humility. Confession and repentance are also requirements. For if Christians will not humble themselves in confession and repentance, who will? Where Jesus' resurrection life is present among us, glimpses of that peace shine through. As you journey on, go with the blessing of God first given in this letter: May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you: wherever he may send you. May he guide you through the wilderness: protect you through the storm. May he bring you home rejoicing; at the wonders he has shown you. May he bring you home rejoicing once again into our doors.
Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (which is done in the body by human hands)—remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. (Ephesians 2:11-13) Wilderness Wanderings will be wrapping up soon as I (Pastor Anthony) take a call to Orillia. So: in these final installments, we will be reflecting on the letter to the Ephesians—particularly those verses that lead us into Paul's prayer from the end of chapter 3. In some ways, the verses from today's text are a repeat of the verses that began the chapter where Paul wrote “you were dead in your transgressions and sins.” Paul begins with the past tense in both places to heighten the contrast: because in Christ, things look a lot different! The point Paul was making at the beginning of the chapter was about death and life, sin and salvation. But now he begins to work his way into the implications—what does it mean to practice this resurrection life we've been given? Firstly, it means working out the grace that God has worked into us. That's what the verses before this describe. But it also comes with a change in status and relationship. Here Paul comes with a litany of things that the Ephesians were and weren't before Jesus entered the picture: “Gentiles.” “Uncircumcised.” “Separate from Christ.” “Excluded from citizenship.” “Foreigners to the covenants of the promise.” “Without hope.” “Without God in the world.” Of course, what one realizes is that this list only makes sense from the point of view of an insider to all these things, that is, a Jewish person. Pious Jews were accustomed to praying a daily prayer of thanks to God for not being created as a gentile. The Temple courts, likewise, were divided into inner and outer courts. One for gentiles on the outside, and one for Jews on the inside. Gentiles could not pass through the dividing wall on the penalty of death. Warnings were posted in Greek and Latin to make sure they knew. Hostilities ran hot between insiders and outsiders. As they did at some level between many different ethnic groups. But here's the thing—Jesus tears down all these ethnic hostilities and barriers. He strips these believing gentiles of all their former disqualifications. Not only that, he has the audacity to bring these gentiles who were once far away—not just into the inner court, but into the very presence of God! He tears the veil to the Holy of Holies and by his own blood, invites them right in! This is not merely an interesting point of ancient history or Biblical research. It is emblematic of something much deeper. In his cross, Jesus shatters all ethnic and national boundaries inside his church. Not just then, but also today. And not firstly by giving courses on EDI or anti-racism to tell us of our biases or how to treat one another. No, it begins more subversively than that. Jesus begins simply by bringing those who were once far away, near. Near enough that we all have to encounter one another and contend with the fact that we're all now siblings of the same saved family on the same basis: faith in Jesus. Together in the presence of Jesus, stuck now with hated enemies, immigrants, and foreign outcasts who have become our sisters and brothers: this is where transformation into the life of resurrection begins. Will you submit to the encounter? As you journey on, go with the blessing of God: May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you : wherever he may send you. May he guide you through the wilderness : protect you through the storm. May he bring you home rejoicing : at the wonders he has shown you. May he bring you home rejoicing : once again into our doors.
For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart (Hebrews 12:2b-3). What images come to mind when you hear (or read) the name ‘Jesus'? A little lad hanging onto his mother's leg in the marketplace, unnerved by all the noise, smells and people? A teen learning trades from his father? A dusty-footed traveller wandering the paths of Judea and Galilee followed by a gaggle of uncomprehending disciples? A preacher sitting in a boat? A feeder of thousands? A healer of the sick? A shepherd of his flock? An innocent person, arrested, tried and crucified? Or resurrected appearing to his bewildered disciples who in hiding? All valid images. All valid portraits of Jesus, our Lord and Saviour. But coming towards the end of his letter, our author wants us to see something different, to focus our attention not on Jesus' humiliation, but on his glory. Not because his humiliation was not important, nor because it doesn't have great value for our faith and life and contemplation. He draws our attention to the truth that Jesus was able to endure all these humiliations because he knew that at the end of the race there was joy. What joy? The joy of redemption of course, not his own but ours. In Luke 10, Jesus sees Satan fall from heaven and is filled with joy, while in Luke 15, when Jesus tells stories of the lost being found, the finders are all filled with joy. Those finders represent God in the parables. Jesus was willing to endure the agony of humiliation, suffering and death because he knew that this was the road to bring us and the entire cosmos back into communion with God. And because he finished his race, shouldering the humiliation, he sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. It is this final image of Jesus in his glory and power that our author draws to our attention now. Jesus is the firstfruits of the new creation, he is the guarantee that we will be glorified too. We have a whole crowd of witnesses cheering us on, but it is not to them that we should look. No, we need to keep our eyes on Jesus. He is the prize. We see him, there, on the throne, nail scarred hands, sword pierced body, the crown of glory not hiding where the thorns pierced him. In his encouragement to us not to grow weary or lose heart, our author does not point us to the great cloud of witnesses, but rather to this one. But it is not his battle wounds that draw our attention, its his joy. The joy that radiates from his face draws us on. Today, we might struggle. Today, we might be weary of the bills that need paying. Today, we might be weary of the brokenness we feel in our hearts and see in the lives of others. Today, we might be burdened with the endless slaughter of innocents in our world. Today, we are called to self-denial and humility, to sacrifice, to resisting the world and self even unto death. Dying is the way of the disciple. Jesus would not have us ignore all that. But his joy draws us forward, it keeps us in the fight. It keeps us doing the right thing in the right way, just like Jesus did. His joy enables us to suffer for his cause today. His joy tells us that someday, we will be enveloped in that joy. Someday, all of creation will be filled to overflowing with that joy. For now, we look at Him, we hear him speak, we do what he says, we follow where He leads, we trust he will provide. Looking to him and his love, till our hearts burn with it. We see him beckoning us on. His eyes are fixed on us, radiating joy, delighting in us. He is drawing us to himself, leading and perfecting our faith, changing us into his likeness from glory to glory. As you journey on, go with the blessing of God first given in this letter: Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. (Hebrews 12:1-2a) Peer pressure is a thing. So is personal determination. The author of Hebrews draws on both, cheering us on to faith in the race of life. Of course, peer pressure and personal determination can also undercut faith when they run the wrong way. For instance, while there are many benefits of strong Christian institutions—there can also be drawbacks. A common story in the Christian schools is one where a group of friends pushes the limits of acceptable behaviour when it comes to bullying or partying. They look around at one another and encourage one another on: I won't tell if you don't tell. We're all good Christians here, and aren't Christians permitted to be strong, have fun, etc.? As one group begins to push the boundaries of what constitutes acceptable Christian character and behavior, others follow suit. This is a negative form of Christian witness: a witness that erodes character, perseverance, and faith among the community of believers. I ought to add that it does not just happen at school. Our personal determination can also flag. It is exhausting to fight for the good against the wrong, to take personal stands of integrity against issues, whether big or mundane, not to mention the quieter internal battles against sin and despair. Our resolve can be cut short in a thousand ways: some of us have strong internal critics that hamper our confidence in stepping forward in faith, others of us are worn out, grieving, or discouraged, others still are impacted by the seasonal blues. Great athletes tell us that endurance and perseverance in a long race is ultimately about the mental resolve to keep going and push through. There are many reasons that's hard to do, even more so when the peer pressure we feel invites us to consider giving up. Enter the book of Hebrews. Over chapter 11, we have been reminded that our lives participate in a much longer and larger story: the story of God in, through, and among his people. It is the story of Creation. The story of Able, Noah, and Abraham. The story of Sarah and Rahab. It is ultimately the story that culminates in the good news of Jesus—his birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension. We await the end of the story at Jesus' second coming to set all things right and make all things new. But until then we participate in the story by living our own lives of faith. As we do, the writer invites us to listen to the cheers of those who have gone before us. We have a larger community than just those who surround us at school, work, or in our friend group. It is none less than Abraham and Sarah cheering us on from the crowd, together with all sorts of lesser known saints—perhaps even some of those that you have known from this life. Those dearly loved ones of ours who ran the race before them—faults, foibles, and faith all wrapped together. They cheer us on, encourage us, and continue to speak to us through their example of how to fight the good fight and finish the race. That's the kind of peer pressure we need—a positive pressure that carries us forward through hard times and hard choices of personal character and integrity that keeps Jesus ever in the fore. We are not to look at how difficult the race is, how loud the voices to give up and give in are, nor how limited our own resources and desire to keep going. Instead, we are to keep our head up and our eyes trained on Jesus. This, we are told, is enough. Because Jesus is not just the one we run to. No: he also run this race and by his help we are enabled to run it to. As you journey on, go with the blessing of God: Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect (Hebrews 11:39-40). The whole book of Hebrews has been heading towards the conclusion of this chapter. The Old Testament saints had something, but we have something better. They received a promise, but we have received what God promised to them. They received some small promises, such as the land God promised to Abraham and descendants too many to count. But the main promise they did not receive. But to fully grasp our author's intent, we need peek ahead. After this we read, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles…In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood” (12:1, 4). Its about our struggle against sin. The letter begins with Jesus, who “after he had provided purification for sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven” (1:3). This great promise of Jesus Christ, his redemption and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the better promises of the better covenant, the saints of old did not receive. They died in faith, not having received the promises, only seeing them from afar. Yet, in faith they struggled against sin. But our resources for that struggle are far superior. Our author uses two words to describe the new covenant in Christ: better and perfect. The word “better” occurs 13 times in this letter. Jesus has inherited a better name; he has brought us a better hope; he is the deposit of a better covenant presented in better promises sealed with his blood; in Him we have the better country, a heavenly one. To them God spoke through the prophets; to us through his Son. To them he offered the rest of Canaan; to us the rest of God. Their high priest was a man who died; ours is a priest for.ever. Their sanctuary was on earth; ours is the true sanctuary in heaven. Their sacrifices did not bring cleansing; the sacrifice of Jesus makes our hearts new by the Spirit; even our consciences are cleansed. They worshipped before an earthly tent; we have access into the very presence and love of the Father. God has indeed provided something better for us: the blood of Jesus and his continuing presence through the Holy Spirit. The better thing God has provided is summarized in the word perfection; a term used 14 times. It comes from the ancient Greek term for "purpose" or "end." It does not mean sinless, even though that is on the horizon. It refers to God's ultimate plan and purpose for us which is accomplished in Christ. Paul offers us this, “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in [Christ], and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross…But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish…” (Colossians 1:19-20, 22). In Christ, we are being made holy through the Spirit's power. We have many more resources for the struggle against sin than the saints who lived before Jesus. Therefore, keep up the struggle. Don't give up. Don't be lazy. Don't be faithless. God is perfecting us in Christ. As you journey on, go with the blessing of God first given in this letter: Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
An extended Sunday Sermon edition of Wilderness Wanderings! The text comes from 2 Samuel 6 from the New International Version of the Bible. Dive In discussion questions are below for further reflection! To see this sermon in the context of the worship service it comes from, find it here on YouTube. Or, head to our website to connect with the worshiping community of Immanuel CRC: immanuelministries.ca DIVE IN QUESTIONS 1. What stands out to you from hearing these verses? Is God offering an invitation or a challenge to you through those words? Take time to pray about it. 2. How does the word for peace (Shalom/Salam) get used in the names found in the books of Samuel? What do we learn about peace through the way these peace-names are used? 3. Read the previous story of the Ark from 1 Samuel 4-6 sometime. What (either from your reading or Pastor Anthony reminding us in the sermon) is similar about the way Israel dealt with the ark and the LORD who was seated upon then and now in 2 Sam 6? 4. What are the ways in which we can attempt to “use” God as a dead religious totem rather than submit to him as our living LORD with whom we are in relationship? 5. What does a life of worshipful submission to the name of Lord Almighty look like from 1 Samuel 6? 6. How might that worshipful life of submission look in your own life this week?
Women received back their dead, raised to life again. There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated—the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground. (Hebrews 11:35-38) Pastor Michael referred to the first half of this long paragraph yesterday—the part where everything goes really pretty well. Kingdoms are conquered, justice is administered, swords are sheathed, women receive back their dead, resurrected. Faith gives witness to God's strength in the midst of our weakness, and what incredible things he can do! But now the paragraph turns. The story of faith is not always a story of triumph in the near term. Sometimes it looks a lot more like God's silence or human sadness, hardship, and death. We heard yesterday of women who received back their dead: like the widow at Zarephath whose son was raised by Elijah (1 Kgs 17:17–24), or the Shunemite woman, whose son was raised by Elisha (2 Kgs 4:18–37). Now we hear of those who were tortured and refused release--those who ultimately died a martyrs death so that they might receive “an even better resurrection” (2 Maccabees 7). Not a resurrection within this life, like the sons of the women mentioned above received. Those young men would die again at the end of their natural lives. But a better resurrection—the resurrection from the dead when Jesus returns and death is no more. A resurrection after the end of our mortal lives. This is the better resurrection. We desire and often think the life of faith should be one of fighting and winning our battles in the strength of the Lord right here and now. Despite all the well marketed books, podcasts, social media content, and lovely contemporary Christian Music anthems to that effect—the Bible simply doesn't substantiate a faith that finds its victory in this life. The victory is a faith that holds on to God, even if it doesn't come with a shred of earthly benefit. Faith holds on to God, trusting that God alone is enough. The victory is his business, not ours. He himself will bring the final victory over sin, death and evil—in his time—whether in this life or the next. As CS Lewis once put it in The Screwtape Letters on the pen of a senior demon writing to a younger one: “Our cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do our Enemy's will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.” These people of faith in God alone who trust and obey despite all else—they, the ones who go about “in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated,” they are the ones of whom it is said: “the world was not worthy of them.” By the grace of God, may we be found in their number. As you journey on, go with the blessing of God: May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you : wherever he may send you. May he guide you through the wilderness : protect you through the storm. May he bring you home rejoicing : at the wonders he has shown you. May he bring you home rejoicing : once again into our doors.
And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. Women received back their dead, raised to life again. (Hebrews 11:32-35a). As Jericho's walls fell, the first period of Israel's history closes. Its time to speed up the story. Our author rattles off a few prominent names of judges, kings, and prophets, recalling what faith both produced and suffered. He wants us to see that under and behind and within all the outward events recorded, there lived faith in God. History is the record of what God has done through and for those who trusted Him. Notice how much faith accomplished: kingdoms conquered, justice established, lions quieted, flames stilled, swords sheathed. See also that among those mentioned in these verses, few are remembered for their strong faith. Their faith was faltering and feeble. Maybe Jesus was thinking of them when he told his disciples that with faith the size of a mustard seed, they could move mountains. Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah were hardly shining examples of godly folk. Yet, they make the list. How encouraging for us who have a faltering faith. We see that God does not promise the faithful a life free from difficulty and danger. Rather, faith is called into exercise when human resources are exhausted and danger looms. We would never learn to know either God or ourselves as His children through a life of ease. Trials can accomplish two things. They give us the opportunity of honouring God by waiting for him in trust and they give God the opportunity of showing how faithful He is in watching over His children, working for and in us. In difficult times our hearts are drawn towards our heavenly father, in dependence and humility and trust. When we face hardship God can reveal in our open heart all the tenderness and all the saving power of His love. Suffering is the school of faith; it is the place where Christians grow spiritually. It is also true that selfishness is the death of faith. When we seek to be strong in faith, for the sake of our own comfort and goodness and power, we will fail. Gideon and Barak, David and Samuel, were all people who lived for their nation and God's cause in it. They were God's chosen instruments for doing His redeeming work in His people. Likewise, when in our weakness, we give ourselves to God and others, we have the right to claim God's mighty help. Faith is not so that we can reap benefits for ourselves from God. Rather, it is for the advancement of Christ's kingdom and the building up of his church. What a work there is to be done! Our involvement in God's church, in his mission beyond it, in our fight against injustice in society and the workplace, in promoting the welfare of all in our schools and public spaces, in our struggle against sin in our own hearts, faith is needed. In all those places and more, weak Christians become heroes of faith as we learn to trust in God to subdue kingdoms, to work righteousness, to obtain promises! Let us offer ourselves to God for the struggle. As you journey on, go with the blessing of God: May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you: wherever he may send you. May he guide you through the wilderness: protect you through the storm. May he bring you home rejoicing; at the wonders he has shown you. May he bring you home rejoicing once again into our doors.
By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient. (Hebrews 11:31) As pastor Michael pointed out yesterday, we've skipped over 40 years in the wilderness between the Red Sea and Jericho. Or at least—that section of time is skipped over here in chapter 11's litany of faith. But the time of wilderness testing did figure earlier in the book of Hebrews, quite prominently in fact. So why doesn't it show up here? Because the writer considers the wilderness to have been a time not of faith, but of disobedience. This is what we read in chapter 3: “Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? And with whom was [the Lord] angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies perished in the wilderness? And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed? So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.” (Hebrews 3:16-19) The author uses the same word—disobedient—in our verse today: Rahab, the woman of faith is contrasted with “those who were disobedient.” We presume that the “disobedient” must refer to the other inhabitants of Jericho who died. Maybe. But if we remember back to the book of Joshua—there were also disobedient Israelites killed in the Jericho affair. If Joshua, chapter 6 told the story of Rahab's faith that literally stood out amid the crumbling walls of Jericho, chapter 7 tells us of the disobedience of Achan who grabbed plunder from Jericho's fallen ruins in direct defiance of God's command. Achan held on to Jericho rather than God and perished. Rahab held onto God rather than Jericho and lived. We can often presume that the faithful are the ones inside the church and people of God. The Bible rarely sees it that way. Very often the wicked and disobedient are mixed up within the people of God and it's the foreigners and sinners like Rahab the Prostitute who witness to God's people about what it means to be people of faith. This is the story here. The distinction between outsiders and insiders is obliterated like the walls of Jericho. What matters is not whether you were born to Abraham or within the church—what matters is the faith of Abraham and the faith of the church. All of us are “the disobedient,” and whether in the church or out of it, we remain so UNLESS we place our faith in God. This is the distinction that matters. Will you let go of all other forms of wealth and security and hold on to nothing but God, in faith that he alone will save? Rahab had such a faith, and was saved. It happened right there in the very moment of Jericho's fall: her life was held secure even as all else crumbled around her. God made a way for her where there was no way, just like he did for Israel as they crossed the sea. He still does the same today for all who cling to him in faith. As you journey on, go with the blessing of God: May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you : wherever he may send you. May he guide you through the wilderness : protect you through the storm. May he bring you home rejoicing : at the wonders he has shown you. May he bring you home rejoicing : once again into our doors.
By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the army had marched around them for seven days (Hebrews 11:30). Our writer teleports us from the exodus out of Egypt right to the conquest of the promised land, from the roaring waters of the Red Sea destroying the Egyptian army to the shadows of Jericho's walls. But much has happened in between. Over 40 years of much. And much has changed. Israel's faith has grown. Pharoah and his army had no fear of God, but according to the two spies who stayed at Rahab's house, “The Lord has surely given the whole land into our hands; all the people are melting in fear because of us” (Joshua 2:24). Fear of God indeed. Now, Israel fears God too, but in a very different form. She eagerly follows Joshua's instruction to march around Jericho, confident that its walls will fall. Not fear, as in afraid, but fear, as in confident faith, our God can do it. They could not see how it would fall; on the face of it, nothing could seem more foolish than to march round a strong fortress for seven days on end, led by seven priests blowing rams' horns. They could not see faith at work on those solid walls. Those huge ramparts and battlements seemed to stand fast and firm. Yet, when they marched round the city seven times on the seventh day and heard the last blast of the rams' horns, they shouted with a great shout and the walls crumbled (Joshua 6:20). No battering rams beat upon them, but faith can do better work than battering rams or dynamite In this extraordinary approach, God was pleased to magnify himself, to terrify the Canaanites, to strengthen the faith of the Israelites, and to prevent all boasting. Israel could never claim victory over Jericho. God was victorious. This is the faith to which we are called. God can and will in his own time and in his own way cause all powerful opposition against his interest and glory to fall down. Later in Israel's history, the Assyrians fell, the Babylonians fell, the Medes and Persians fell, the Greeks fell, the Romans fell. And in our day too, kingdoms arrayed against the Lord have fallen. Those who seek glory for themselves will fall in confusion just like those who built the tower of Babel (Genesis 11). For six days the Israelites marched. Each day, the folks of Jericho likely got braver. Did they mock Israel? Probably. Faith learns to wait. Faith does not grab hold of but has patience until God gives. We are called to a life of faith that expects and receives. Israel marched and waited and received. God often uses weak and unexpected means to accomplish his purposes. Paul put is succinctly, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18). Our task is not to understand, but to believe. Later he also wrote, “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds” (2 Corinthians 10:3-4). Our primary weapon is faith. Faith in God. Faith that his purposes will not fail. Faith that we will receive our reward, a place in God's heavenly city. As you journey on, go with the blessing of God: May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you: wherever he may send you. May he guide you through the wilderness: protect you through the storm. May he bring you home rejoicing; at the wonders he has shown you. May he bring you home rejoicing once again into our doors.
By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned. (Hebrews 11:29) If one reads the book of Exodus, “faith” does not seem the right word to equate with the people. This is how Exodus 13 reports it: “As Pharaoh approached... They were terrified and cried out to the Lord. They said to Moses, ‘Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die'” (Ex. 13:10-11). Moses' response comes with a bit more faith. He says: “'Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.'” (Ex. 13:13-14) These are the two polls between which our lives of faith oscillate. Between utter hopelessness and despair on the one side and an uncanny ability to stand firm despite everything that says you ought to crumble on the other. It's worth saying that the people's appraisal of the situation was correct. But for God: they were surely dead. Caught between an ocean and an army with livestock, children, and the elderly members of the community—there was no way the whole group was going to escape. What we need to understand from this is that faith does not make sense. According to the maths: the Israelites die. But Moses in this moment was looking beyond the facts and statistics, strategy and common sense. He not only had an assurance about the God he could not see, but also a confidence in what he hoped for. Namely, salvation. He stood firm in a belief that an invisible God really can step in to save his people from the visible dangers they face in this world. This is what faith is, but how many of us have it? When we speak of salvation, we're usually speaking of a death for sin in the distant past that gives us a heavenly home in the distant future. Neither this past nor this future seem to have much import for the life we're living today. It's nice—a great future comfort to be sure—but it's not going to pay the bills. Nor is it going to save us from any of the dangers we or our loved ones face. We take that work into our own hands with our own know-how. And so it is that we find ourselves believing quite orthodox things, and yet nevertheless forsaking faith in the living Lord Jesus who in this very moment still sits on the throne and steps into this world to save his people. Like the Israelites before us, we have a hard time leaving Egypt. To finally and fully leave Egypt, the Israelites had to let go of what they knew and what their 5 senses were telling them. They had to give way to the faith Moses held out before them—that their only hope of salvation was in a God they couldn't see, working against everything they could. They Egyptians stayed in Egypt, of course: the faithless real world logic of “you can't walk through the bottom of the ocean” literally came crashing down on them. But the Israelites made it through an impossible danger in an impossible way. They walked by faith in a God who makes a way where there is no way, and so found themselves walking on dry, solid ground. Whatever it is that you face right now in your life: stand firm and take hope. Believe, in faith, that the Lord Jesus still fights for his people and saves them, even today. As you journey on, go with the blessing of God: May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you : wherever he may send you. May he guide you through the wilderness : protect you through the storm. May he bring you home rejoicing : at the wonders he has shown you. May he bring you home rejoicing : once again into our doors.
A Sunday Sermon edition of Wilderness Wanderings! The text 2 Samuel 5. Dive In discussion questions are below for further reflection! To see this sermon in the context of the worship service it comes from, find it here on YouTube. Or, head to our website to connect with the worshiping community of Immanuel CRC: immanuelministries.ca What qualities should a good leader have? Do you know a leader who has demonstrated the traits of a shepherd? What role was the king supposed to fill in Israel? Some time this week read and reflect on Ezekiel 34. In the middle section of the chapter David fails in several ways. What are they? How can the church follow in the example of Jesus? How can you? How does the story of Jerusalem (the city of David) give us hope? Who are the church's enemies today? Should we be afraid of them? What has happened to them? What does the defeat of God's enemies change us? How do we fight against our enemies today?
Because of his faith, Moses was the first to keep the Passover Feast. He commanded the people of Israel to sprinkle blood on their doorways. He did it so that the destroying angel would not touch their oldest sons (Hebrews 11:28). God is King. The unseen God is king. My God is King. Moses believed this. This faith is on display once more in our text. God had been demonstrating his kingship throughout Egypt with a series of plagues. Now it was time for the show down. The last plague was about to take place, the death of the firstborn sons. The death of Pharoah's son was proof that the Egyptian gods were no match for the God of Israel, that he was indeed king. It was time for Israel to put their faith in this God. They, too, would be subject to the destroying angel, unless they killed the Passover lamb and sprinkled its blood on their doorposts. God himself would stand in the way of the destroying angel, protecting those behind the bloodstained doorposts. Israel, too, needed to trust that God was King, that he was stronger than the enemy. Our author is inviting us into this story, to this kind of faith. He has already mentioned the sprinkling of blood. In 9:11-22, he compared Christ's sacrifice to the sacrificial rituals of the old covenant. The blood of animals protected Israel from God's judgement, yet it was insufficient. Christ's blood is far superior and cleanses us permanently. Our text specifically mentions the smearing of blood on the Israelites' door posts to avoid the death angel's work. This act was an act of faith in an as-yet-unseen event. This first Passover was an act of faith that God would save Israel. She was yet in Pharoah's clutches. All subsequent Passovers looked back to the event of the angel of death passing over the homes sprinkled with blood; that God himself stood guard protecting his covenant people. But this first Passover was an act of faith, that redemption was at hand. Our celebration of the Lord's Supper looks both backward and forward. We look back at the Christ on the cross, believing that his blood covers our sin. Our author recognizes that the reality of cleansing and the experience of it do not always come together. Thus, he often writes about the cleansing of the conscience. Even if we don't feel cleansed, we are. We believe it in faith. We look back at the cross, we see God's love for us there. His firstborn, his only son, dying for us. He died; we live. As God passed over the Israelites who lived behind the blood, so we live shielded by the blood of Christ. Christ is that Lamb, he is our Passover, he was sacrificed for us. The Lord's Supper is also an act of faith looking forward. Salvation is much more than just forgiveness. It is full restoration of the entire cosmos. Life in this world can often be discouraging. We see the evidence of poverty all around, we are diagnosed with disease, loved ones die, disagreements sever relationships, even marriages, wars bring destruction. Its difficult to imagine a world without all this pain. But in faith, we participate in the Lord's Supper in anticipation of the day when Christ will return and set everything right. Our tears will be dried. Our sorrows will be no more. Shalom will fill the cosmos and our hearts. Our Christ, though unseen to our physical eyes, is King. He is stronger than the enemy. He has overcome. He will see this done. As you journey on, go with the blessing of God: May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you: wherever he may send you. May he guide you through the wilderness: protect you through the storm. May he bring you home rejoicing; at the wonders he has shown you. May he bring you home rejoicing once again into our doors.
By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king's anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible. (Hebrews 11:27) If we said it once, it's worth saying again: God is King, not Pharaoh or any other ruler past, present, or future. Recall the words from my devotion two days ago. There the author of Hebrews stated that Moses' parents were not afraid of the king. Now Moses is the one “not fearing the king's anger.” In that devotion, I wrote: “For someone to be unafraid of a king—whether that be the edict of an ancient emperor or a modern day elected President or Prime Minister—it means they have a view of reality that extends beyond what can be seen. They understand that there is a yet higher power behind the thin veneer of this present moment—a God who still rules and reigns as Sovereign Lord King over this earth. … Faith sees God. Right here, right now—on the move.” This is precisely what the author of Hebrews means. Why was Moses not afraid? Because “he saw him who is invisible,” that is, God the true King. You cannot read the Bible without this kind of vision. Think of our current series in Sunday worship. When we read the texts of Samuel & Kings, we are tempted to think that Saul, David, and Solomon are the king of Israel. They aren't. They never were. God is still the King. And to the extent that Saul, David, and Solomon acknowledge that fact and point their people to the High King, the LORD—Israel is her true self. But when they forget and start acting as if they were the only king by taking too many wives, say, or naming a city after themselves like the “City of David,” that is when Israel becomes a nation “like all the other nations,” which is far less than Israel was called to be. When one's eyes are peeled to see God as King and we ourselves as citizens of HIS country who merely reside as foreign aliens in this one (Canada)—then we see things rightly. That is when Christians begin to do those strange, counter-cultural things that Christians do when they are willing to give up their own standing, wealth, even life for the sake of others or for our love of God. Very often we see this go sideways when Christians make “strong” stands and draw hard lines, but seek to enact those stands through unrighteous means: violence, factional fighting, subverting the rules. This is not the way of the King. Not that Christians can't make strong stands, but in his Kingdom the way something gets done is just as important as what gets done. Ends do not justify means: both ends and means must be righteous in his kingdom. And if that means we cannot get done what we think we ought to or need to get done, well then, it just doesn't get done. We wait in trust for the Lord to do what we cannot, for we are always constrained by his law and his ways. But even so: in our waiting we do not fear. No matter how bad things get or look, we do not fear. Even if our life is made hard and persecution comes our way: we do not fear. Why? Because we see “him who is invisible,” our God, still seated on the throne. This is the root: faith. A “confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” As John will write later in his letter: it is faith in this God and his perfect love that “drives out fear.” As you journey on, go with the blessing of God: May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you : wherever he may send you. May he guide you through the wilderness : protect you through the storm. May he bring you home rejoicing : at the wonders he has shown you. May he bring you home rejoicing : once again into our doors.
By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward (Hebrews 11:24-26). Yesterday, Pastor Anthony ended his devotion on Moses' parents with these lines, “Faith is not lived in the future, but in the present. By time heaven comes round—it'll be too late to try.” That sentence there, “Faith is not lived in the future, but in the present.” This is the kind of faith that the author of Hebrews ascribes to Moses, which he learned from his parents – their words, sure, but certainly also from their actions. Our author wants us to understand something about Moses -- because of that faith, he made a choice. He grew up in Pharaoh's household as the adopted son of the royal princess. He had access to the best luxuries and wisdom and powers of the Egyptian regal court. It was all there at his fingertips: all the papyri of the magicians who could turn staffs into snakes (Exodus 7:12), all the best food and drink, all the pleasures a young man desired, all the training of an Egyptian soldier. But he made a choice. He turned away from it all. Moses chose to identify with God's people rather than with the godless. He chose at great personal cost: loss of wealth, relinquishment of status, and intense mistreatment. He “regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt.” This phrase squishes time together: present, future and further still. Certainly, Moses experienced reproach by identifying himself with the people of God but in doing so he also experienced the reproach of the coming Messiah (that is the present and the future). Our author does this to encourage his readers, in the 1st century and in the 21st century, to make the same choice that Moses made: to accept the reproach that comes from identifying with Christ and with his church (that's the further still, us). He is encouraging us to join Paul in declaring, “I want to join [Christ] in his sufferings. I want to become like him by sharing in his death” (Philippians 3:10 NIRV). Are you willing to make that kind of choice? Are you willing to be identified with a group that declares Jesus is Lord above all the rulers of the world, even when people say, ‘where's the proof'? Are you willing to put some of your hard-earned income towards the mission of God as worked out through his church, even if it costs you that vacation or new vehicle that you are dreaming of? Are you wiling to name among your friends, people whom the world deems undesirable, people who can offer you nothing but friendship? Are you willing to be identified with a group of deeply flawed people who regularly mess up their God given mission? Does your faith enable you to trust Jesus when he said, “Truly I tell you, no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life” (Mark 10:29-30). Does your faith live in the present, in the here and now? As you journey on, go with the blessing of God: May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you: wherever he may send you. May he guide you through the wilderness: protect you through the storm. May he bring you home rejoicing; at the wonders he has shown you. May he bring you home rejoicing once again into our doors.
By faith Moses' parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king's edict. (Hebrews 11:23) The character of any person, government, or culture is displayed in highest relief by the way they treat their weak and vulnerable ones. Under Herod in Matthew 2—the baby boys and toddlers were killed as a means of stamping out any claims of God's Messiah coming to the kingship. In Pharaoh's Egypt, a similar policy is taken to stamp out the threat of the God's people of promise—they were multiplying too fast. God very often entrusts himself and his people to weakness, rather than strength, because as Paul put it in speaking about his thorn in the flesh—it is when we are weak that we remember God's strength is sufficient for us. For someone to be unafraid of a king's edict—whether that be the edict of an ancient emperor or a modern day elected President or Prime Minister—it means they have a view of reality that extends beyond what can be seen. They understand that there is a yet higher power behind the thin veneer of this present moment—a God who still rules and reigns as Sovereign Lord King over this earth. Faith is not just a hope in heaven after death or at the end of time. Faith sees God. Right here, right now—on the move. Our hope does not lie in heaven—our hope is in God. And God is not only in heaven at the end of time, but also right here with us, among us on earth in our time. That is what gives terrified parents the capacity to defy an earthly king's order—what gives weak people strength. They believe that God saves—not just later at the end of time—but in the here and now of life as it is lived. Christians too live by the rules and assumptions of a different culture and kingdom: the kingdom of God. In this kingdom, we are able to extend mercy in a world of hard lines; offer hospitality in a world of mistrust, and speak forgiveness in a world of grievance. We can produce these counter-cultural acts because we draw on a source outside the reality brought to us through our screens. Faith sees the God of mercy, forgiveness, and hospitality offering these graces to us—setting a table for us in the presence of our enemies. Faith hears the call to go and do likewise. Faith trusts that this same God is with us as we go. This is how daring acts of saving and preserving life against the grain of the politics and culture of the day are done. Moses' parents didn't do this simply because Moses was a cute baby or because they were abnormally unafraid—no, they did it because they had faith in God. The God who they trusted would see their plight and hear their cries. A God who would set things right. A God who creates and sustains life against any whims of ruthless rulers. Do you see this God? Will you act out in this kind of faith? By time heaven comes round—it'll be too late to try. Faith is not lived in the future, but in the present. As you journey on, go with the blessing of God: May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you : wherever he may send you. May he guide you through the wilderness : protect you through the storm. May he bring you home rejoicing : at the wonders he has shown you. May he bring you home rejoicing : once again into our doors.
By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions concerning the burial of his bones (Hebrews 11:22). Perhaps the greatest test of faith is not sacrifice but success. If so, Joseph's faith was of the best vintage. We know from his story that he pondered deeply the things of God. His faith could see that the suffering he endured God was using for good. Even though his brothers' intentions were evil of the worst sort, Joseph, in faith, saw that “God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives” (Genesis 50:20). One can imagine that Joseph spent many hours wrestling with God in prayer, like his father Jacob at the Jabbok (Genesis 32:24). But it was not Joseph's piety that the Holy Spirit calls our attention to. Rather, through his long and successful carrier as Egypt's second in command, he maintained his faith that God had a prophetic and salvific plan for Israel. It was not powerful Egypt but little Israel that God would use to redeem the world. Not Egypt, but Israel, would display the glory, holiness, mercy and love of God. Such faith must have seemed eccentric and bizarre to all who knew about it. In his day, Egypt was the dominant world power. Israel must have felt a little like Canada does today, with the USA as a neighbour. Abraham's descendants were only a tiny tribe, scarcely more than an extended family. That Joseph rose to become Vice-President in this superpower was not that unusual. But for such a leader, while still in office, to believe and announce that hope for the world's future lies not with superpowers, but with tiny Israel and with her God-given role in history – that is quite another thing. It was not Israel's holiness, nor her understanding of her identity that mattered. Israel's history reveals she was neither very holy nor very able to embrace her God given identity. What mattered is what God had promised, and that God was a keeper of his word. The Holy Spirit gave us this chapter of faithful people to shore up our own faith. Not faith in our faith, that is silliness, but faith in God. Despite Israel's weak position in the world God did use her. Today, many people are concerned about the church. She is shrinking in North America. In some places she is coddling up to power; in other places she is losing her holiness. Her light seems to be dimming and her saltiness diminishing. These things are important. However, they are not ultimate. The church is not dependent on her size or even her holiness, she is dependent on God. Fear not, says Jesus, I am with you to the very end of the age. Israel was no longer living in the land of promise. But Joseph believed that God's people would return there. God's plans would be fulfilled, and he wanted to be identified with them. Even in death he wanted to be remembered not as a famous prime minister of Egypt, but as a member of a fledgeling nation through whom God would redeem the world. Egypt was not her home – the promised land awaited. Material success often dims our longing for the new creation. We become so comfortable and secure with our worldly possessions we neglect laying up treasures in heaven. Joseph's eyes of faith did not waver from the future. He fixed his eyes on God as we fix are eyes on Jesus, longing for the joy that awaits us, not depending on the momentary joys of life today. He worked faithfully for Pharoah, all the while, keeping his eyes fixed on the Important prize, God's affirmation, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” As you journey on, go with the blessing of God: May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you: wherever he may send you. May he guide you through the wilderness: protect you through the storm. May he bring you home rejoicing; at the wonders he has shown you. May he bring you home rejoicing once again into our doors.
An extended Sunday Sermon edition of Wilderness Wanderings! The text comes from 2 Samuel 4 from the New International Version of the Bible. Dive In discussion questions are below for further reflection! To see this sermon in the context of the worship service it comes from, find it here on YouTube. Or, head to our website to connect with the worshiping community of Immanuel CRC: immanuelministries.ca DIVE IN QUESTIONS 1. What stands out to you from hearing these verses? Is God offering an invitation or a challenge to you through those words? Take time to pray about it. 2. What do you learn of Saul's world ways from this passage? 3. Where do you see these ways in your own life or in the world around you? i.e.: the ways of fear, mistrust, and taking life into our own hands in a way that neglects God. 4. What is story of shame in this chapter (and book—read 1 Samuel 20 and 2 Samuel 9, noting that this chapter falls directly in the middle of the two!)? 5. How do the ways of the Lord overcome Saul's ways of shame in this book? 6. How will you trust in God's work in Jesus this week, rather than the fears and mistrust that might swirl about?
By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future. By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph's sons, and worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff. By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions concerning the burial of his bones. (Hebrews 11:20-22) I am acutely aware at the moment of something I've observed quite often in the lives of others: it is hard to end well. It is hard to let go. And no one ever has as much control as they might hope over the circumstances that bring the end they must face. There are all sorts of endings we must face, and it begins quite early on. The end of diapers as we graduate to being fully potty-trained. The ends of school years, eventually graduating from grade 8, then grade 12, then perhaps other forms of schooling after that. The end of living at home. The end of relationships. The end of single life. The end of jobs, houses, and cities as moves fling us to and fro through life's middle-years. Eventually we come to the end of someone's life: a mother, father, sibling, friend. We come to retirement. We come to an empty nest, the end of our family home, we downsize. Eventually we come to the end of driving, independent living, good and dependable health. Until eventually we come to the end of our own life. The early parts of life teach us that life is a journey of growing up and growing into—a journey of gaining and earning friends, skill, strength, knowledge, wealth, influence, and control. But that often causes us to miss the countermovement at work underneath in the form of all these endings and moments of letting go. It is similar to the waves on an ocean that come in quite visibly on the surface, bringing energy, sound, and a living quality of vitality to the experience. But what we cannot see is what lies underneath—the undertow, the countermovement, the waves that go back out and keep the sea from swallowing up the land. These waves underneath are the movement of release and erosion: the movement that can suck you under, pull you to your end, claim your life. So it is. Our life rolls in toward the shore, cresting and breaking at any number of high points with sound and flourish. Underneath the surface, our life continues to be struck by the undertow in the form of endings and loses—but never enough to change our direction until that eventual moment when we reach the shore. Our life peaks, and the movement that dominates our journey is reversed. We then become the waves underneath, retreating from the shore. We interact with the waves sill moving in—celebrating their journey forward of growing up and growing into. But our path is a different one now—a journey marked mostly by endings. The Christian life is an invitation to pay our first attention to the countermovement of undertow, loss, and letting go, rather than to the movement of gaining and earning. Jesus shows and tells us that we must die before we can live. It is only the one who loses their life who truly finds it. By faith: Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph all did this. They did not learn these lessons quickly or early—especially in Jacob's case—but they did learn them and so were able to end well. They learned to let go and let God even while they lived so that when their end finally came, they did not meet it with bitterness, resentment, cynicism, or defeat. They met it with grace—with words of blessing on their lips for those who would take over their place. They met their end with faith—a faith that no matter what they had gained or lost—God would provide a future and a salvation yet for those who came after. Let us meet all our endings in this same faith in the God who secures the future and invites us to end with blessing on our lips. As you journey on, go with the blessing of God: May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you : wherever he may send you. May he guide you through the wilderness : protect you through the storm. May he bring you home rejoicing : at the wonders he has shown you. May he bring you home rejoicing : once again into our doors.
By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death” (Hebrews 11:17-19). In our ears, the story of God's command to offer Isaac as a sacrifice is laced with ethical problems. How could God ask this? There's much in this story, told in Genesis 22, that will leave any thoughtful reader with questions, or that seems downright unspeakable. But the spare, skillful narrative points the way to its beating heart. The story is structured in three cycles. Three times, there's a summons to Abraham - first by God, then by Isaac, and then by the angel of God. Three times, Abraham's tender answer: "Here I am" (Genesis 22:1, 7, 11). Three times, a response. And those three cycles have Abraham's trembling reassurance to Isaac at their rhetorical center: "God himself will provide" - literally, "God himself will see to it." This is what the author of Hebrews draws to our attention. Isaac was the child of promise. Through him, the promise to bless the world, in fact, the promise to repair this sin-polluted creation, that promise would be fulfilled through Isaac. It was God's word, his promise. Now Abraham is commanded to sacrifice him. A test of faith indeed. God's promise and God's command are diametrically opposed to each other. Abraham is now a man of faith. This is God's problem to solve, not his. So, he goes to the Mount with his son. When Isaac askes, “Where is the lamb?” Abraham simple responds, “God himself will provide.” After God provides a ram for the sacrifice, Abraham names that mountain: Jehovah Jireh, "The LORD will provide." The church father, John Chrysostom noted that Genesis 22 is a "sketch ahead of time in shadow" for how God would one day provide for the putting right of God's whole world, once and for all. I think he was right. God said to Abraham, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love” (Genesis 22:2). Later, at Jesus' baptism, God speaks again saying, “This is my Son, whom I love” (Matthew 4:17). Eerily similar words – a sketch ahead of time in shadow. This dark story, in the end, foreshadows another journey taken untold centuries later. Jesus of Nazareth - Son of Abraham, and Son of God - would walk into that same mountain range, with wood on his back, and make the dreadful three-day journey into death. These are the lengths to which the divine Love would go for the sake of the world. Abraham's son was spared death. But God did not spare his own son. Isaac knew not what lay ahead. Jesus did. He willingly took up his wood; he went willingly to the altar of the cross; he willingly offered himself unto death. But death could not hold him. Abraham was right – God can and will raise the dead. Can we trust God in the face of a bleak future? Is God anywhere to be found when we're walking in darkness? Is God at all present in the horrors of human life? The empty cross and the empty tomb are the answer. The light has pierced the darkness. The promise of God is that someday, there will only be light, nor more darkness. With faith in that promise, we walk hopefully in the dark of our Mount Moriah. As you journey on, go with the blessing of God: May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you: wherever he may send you. May he guide you through the wilderness: protect you through the storm. May he bring you home rejoicing; at the wonders he has shown you. May he bring you home rejoicing once again into our doors.
All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. (Hebrews 11:13-16) They did not receive the things promised. But they believed anyway. There are some moments in our lives when we feel like everything is going right. Life is good, our family is good, work is good, and the sun is shining. It is good to feel like we're living our best life. And sometimes we do feel that way. But there are plenty of other times when the ground feels to have slipped out from beneath our feet. Something or someone in our home, work, or school context feels threatening. Our health is compromised. Someone we have a relationship with leaves or abandons us. In those moments, we are reminded of how few and fleeting are the threads that hold up our security and sense of well being. What we often fail to recognize however, is that this is also the proper context in which to really understand the meaning of our faith—because it is the truest sense we ever get of our real situation. We've always lived precariously. Nothing has ever been guaranteed. Death, suffering, and hardship are far more often the norm in human history than peace, order, and good government or life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. No one fully receives all the things promised until we arrive at life's end or Christ's return. Citizenship in a stable, peaceful, and prosperous country (which both Canada and the United States are, despite what any politician might say to the contrary) can lull us away from the admission of Hebrews that in fact, we are all foreigners and strangers on earth. If our country on earth is pretty good—why would we look for a better country—a heavenly one? So in those moments of feeling unsettled—say, when a pastor leaves, or a death occurs, or some other unsettling anxiety sweeps through your life—take it as an opportunity to live by faith and not by sight. Remember and believe that it is God who has promised us life and a future: not our RRSP, our children, our legacy, our government, or our or next vacation. Remember that our lives are lived in trust in God, and that our eyes ought always to be straining just beyond what we are given, to see Jesus who beckons us onward until we arrive finally and fully at our home with him. Then what we see now only as a poor reflection will be replaced with seeing our God, face to face. Then we shall know fully, even as we are fully known. Then only the good things like faith, hope, and love will remain. The greatest of which, is God's own love. This is what our lives finally rest upon. Because God loves us, he “is not ashamed to be called [our] God, for he has prepared a city for [us].” A home, with him. As you journey on, go with the blessing of God: May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you : wherever he may send you. May he guide you through the wilderness : protect you through the storm. May he bring you home rejoicing : at the wonders he has shown you. May he bring you home rejoicing : once again into our doors.
By faith, with Sarah's involvement, he received power of procreation, even though he was too old, because he considered him faithful who had promised. Therefore, from one person, and this one as good as dead, descendants were born, “as many as the stars of heaven and as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore” (Hebrews 11:11-12). The Heidelberg Catechism defines true faith as “not only a knowledge and conviction that everything God reveals in his Word is true; it is also a deep-rooted assurance, created in me by the Holy Spirit through the gospel, that, out of sheer grace earned for us by Christ, not only others, but I too, have had my sins forgiven, have been made forever right with God, and have been granted salvation” (A 21). The author of Hebrews would probably not disagree with this definition. However, I suggest, recognizing that I am skating on thin ice, that according to Hebrews 11, more should be added to this confessional definition. Hebrews 11 faith often involves a physical response to God. It involves action taken in response to the unseen God and his promises. Faith is not merely static belief or cognitive assent. It spurs us to act in accordance with God's truth. There is a boldness to faith that caused Noah to build an Ark, Abraham to leave home and Moses' parents to hide their son. This courage is rooted in the faith that, in the end, God will come through; he will keep his promises. The folks mentioned here stepped forward with eyebrow-raising tenacity and confidence. There was no perceptible reason for doing so, except that God had spoken. God revealed himself, and that was reason enough to act. Their faith caused them to behave in certain ways, in ways expectant of promises fulfilled. Along with the promise of a new homeland, God promised Abraham children. Well, there was only one thing to do with that promise. But this promise tested Abraham's faith severally. He got very old, and so did Sarah; well beyond childbearing age. God continued to promise, and Abraham kept working on his faith. Finally, he was enabled to become a father because he believed God. Abraham, an old man, and Sarah, his wife, as good as dead, became parents, trusting in the faithfulness of God. We are challenged to take our eyes off the obvious—in this case the inability of old people to become pregnant—and to focus on the faithful God who keeps his promises. There is more hidden in this promise. The number of Abraham and Sarah's descendants would continue to expand until their children included not just those of their blood line, but all those with their kind of faith. Paul said it best, “Understand, then, that those who have faith are children of Abraham” (Galatians 3:7). As the Catechism put it, true faith “is also a deep-rooted assurance, created in me by the Holy Spirit through the gospel, that, out of sheer grace earned for us by Christ, not only others, but I too, have had my sins forgiven, have been made forever right with God, and have been granted salvation.” All those with this faith are children of Abraham and recipients of the promises God made to him. The question remains, how will that faith effect the way that we live? As you journey on, go with the blessing of God: May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you: wherever he may send you. May he guide you through the wilderness: protect you through the storm. May he bring you home rejoicing; at the wonders he has shown you. May he bring you home rejoicing once again into our doors.
By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. (Hebrews 11:8-10) Without exaggerating too much, this more or less feels like my life right now—except for the “inheritance” part—as we prepare to follow the call to Orillia. “He obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going… like a stranger in a foreign country…” Of course there is also something universal in the story of Abraham. It is not just a story for pilgrims who happen to be moving house, but for all Christians who journey toward God and the promises he has set before us in Jesus. It is a lifelong journey—the journey of discipleship. It is a journey marked by not knowing entirely where we are going. What will we become when we follow Jesus? What does God call us to do with the few days and limited resources in our possession? Who will we encounter and befriend along the way? We often fear that God will make us do the opposite of what we want—that if we happen to make eye contact with the Almighty and get pressed into his call, he'll ship us off to some far-flung continent to suffer deplorable conditions as a missionary or something. It happened to Abraham, after all (to Femke and I too!). But this notion misunderstands something about our God. Does he sometimes call us to do hard things? Sure. But God just as often works with our desires as against them—indeed the journey of the Christian life is a journey of purifying and refining our desires. God placed desires in the human heart so that we might desire him and his gifts. When lived well—the journey of our Christian lives bends our desires increasingly toward God to the point where we may begin to trust those desires to lead us home. In the example of Abraham—he made his home in the promised land, but despite arriving in this good place of God's calling, the promised land always pointed beyond itself to “the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.” So Abraham lived always as a stranger in a foreign country. Not because he had no claim on the land on which he lived—but because his true home was with God. This is perhaps a strange thing to wrap our heads around—but its true for us as well. Whether one rents, tents, or owns a house and cottage—we too are naught but strangers in a foreign country. Why? Because our true home is not here at all—but with God in Christ. He is the one to whom we belong. Home is the place of rest we will know with him when this earth and its heavens are made new and we see him at last as he is: face to face. Until then: we journey forward in faith, trusting that the one who made the promise is faithful and will provide everything needful until at long last he brings us home. As you journey on, go with the blessing of God: May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you : wherever he may send you. May he guide you through the wilderness : protect you through the storm. May he bring you home rejoicing : at the wonders he has shown you. May he bring you home rejoicing : once again into our doors.
A Sunday Sermon edition of Wilderness Wanderings! The text 2 Samuel 3. Dive In discussion questions are below for further reflection! To see this sermon in the context of the worship service it comes from, find it here on YouTube. Or, head to our website to connect with the worshiping community of Immanuel CRC: immanuelministries.ca Spiritual ECGs usually happen through the discipline of confessing sin. How regularly do you take time for this? Should you take more time for it? How well do you read the Word of God? Once you have read it, what do you do with it? Consider James 1:23-25. Choose one of the gospel's accounts of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane and meditate on this story. When you pray, what it your goal? Is it an act of submission to God. Consider 1 Peter 5:6-7 – let your praying be shaped by these words. Jesus calls us to be peacemakers. How well do you live this out? Or are you more like Joab? To be shaped by peace we must go to the cross of Jesus. As you reflect on Ephesians 2:11-22, hear Jesus speaking his words to you, “My peace I give you” (John 14:27). What signs of weakness are given in this chapter? Jesus does perfectly what David only did imperfectly. Choose to follow him.
“Noah had faith. So, he built an ark to save his family. He built it because of his great respect for God. God had warned him about things that could not yet be seen. Because of his faith Noah showed the world that it was guilty. Because of his faith he was considered right with God” (Hebrews 11:7). Noah had faith. What does faith mean? It can be understood as ‘faith equals creed'. So, if we believe everything professed in the Apostle's Creed, then we have faith. Years ago, the Christian Reformed Church put a lot of emphasis on the Heidelberg Catechism; we might have been left with the impression that if we had it memorized than had sufficient faith to join the church. The Bible does at times refer to faith as a set of beliefs. For example, check out 1 Timothy 4:6 and Jude 3. But generally, the idea of faith implies something much more dynamic and active: a life lived in a trusting relationship with God. This active faith certainly rests on sound teaching, but it cannot be summed up by intellectual assent. This is James' point in much of his letter which he sums up with, “As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead” (2:26). And Paul agrees, writing in Galatians 5:6, “The only things that counts is faith expressing itself through love”. And of course, the author of Hebrews, fully concurs. In our text, we learn that God, who is unseen, warned Noah that a flood, a form of judgement on evil, was coming. And so, Noah built an ark far away from any water. It is often assumed that it took Noah about 100 years to build the ark, but we have no evidence for that. And that is not the most important matter. We ought to note Noah's ‘holy fear' or ‘great respect' for God. He paid close and reverent attention to God's instruction. When God spoke, Noah believed and built an ark, even though he could not see the waters. This is faith. The hymn writer put it like this, “there is no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey.” But there is more. As he built the ark, his faith stood in sharp contrast to the unbelief of those around him. They had to choose whether to believe God's word. If they believed, they would need to join Noah in building the ark. It is still true today: Christian obedience has powerful evangelistic value. People are influenced not only by what we say to them, but by the way we respond to what God says to us. Good examples will either lead unbelievers to faith or condemn them. There is something very convincing in a life of holiness and regard to God; it convicts people's conscience calling them to choose for or against Jesus. This is the best way the people of God can confront unblievers; not by harsh and condemnatory language, but by a holy exemplary conversation and deeds arising from our faith. The story of Noah brings us to the waters of baptism which speak of both judgement and salvation. A baptism prayer puts it this way, “In the time of Noah, you destroyed evil in the water of the flood; and by your saving ark, you gave a new beginning”. These waters teach us that evil, even our evil, must be washed away in the blood of Christ. Faith that believes in the cleansing blood of Christ is faith that also pursues godly living (Titus 2:11-14). As God was patient in the days of Noah, he remains patient today. His judgement is not quick in coming. “[God] is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). Let us live by this faith. As you journey on, go with the blessing of God: May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you: wherever he may send you. May he guide you through the wilderness: protect you through the storm. May he bring you home rejoicing; at the wonders he has shown you. May he bring you home rejoicing once again into our doors.
By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: “He could not be found, because God had taken him away.” For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. (Hebrews 11:5-6) Enoch is someone we know next to nothing about. His life is covered in a couple short verses in Genesis. However, we do know a few things. In Genesis 5, he is listed as the 7th individual in a genealogy of 10 people that ends with Noah. 7 and 10 are important numbers in Hebrew reckoning: both conveying a sense of “completeness.” 7 gaining its importance from the 7 days of God's completed Creation and 10 from the number of commandments. Genealogies are often elongated or contracted to ensure that the places of honour of the 7th and 10th spots are given to significant individuals. So it is with Enoch and Noah who both wind up in our list here in Hebrews 11. Enoch is described in Genesis 5 as one who “walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.” This scant bit of information plus the allusion to Enoch being the only person besides Elijah who did not taste death led to all sorts of speculation and superstitions about Enoch by the time the book of Hebrews was written. The Book of Enoch (not written by Enoch, but a whole tradition of made-up stories about him) was already old and well known by this point. Yet the writer of Hebrews does not engage in wild fantasies about the Nephilim, angels, watchers, and the like (as all this other Jewish superstition around Enoch did). Instead, the writer of Hebrews drags the story of Enoch from other-worldly fantasy and grounds it back in everyday, ordinary faith of the sort Pastor Michael talked about yesterday. The story of Enoch is rather simple according to Hebrews: Enoch pleased God. Without faith, this is impossible. Therefore Enoch had faith. Nothing more, nothing less. But we can still learn something from Enoch, says the author: we can take up this same simple faith of just the sort we've been talking about here so far. Faith believes that an invisible God really does exist, and not only that he exists, but also that he acts in the affairs of human history, “rewarding those who earnestly seek him.” The writer of Hebrews does not mean rewards like nice jobs, houses, and boats, nor is he necessarily talking about eternal life. In Enoch's case, the reward was not having to face death and entering more fully into God's presence. Most of us will probably still have to face death, but if we look back to what the writer might mean by God's rewards—we see it does indeed look a lot like that second thing: entering more fully into God's presence. God's reward according to Hebrews is “rest.” The promise is that we might enter God's rest. It is a place of mercy, peace, and a permanent 7th-day Sabbath rest with God. If you remember, Enoch is the representative of this 7th day Sabbath rest as the holder of that 7th spot in the Genesis genealogy. Amid all our toil and cares in this world—this sort of rest in the presence of God is very much what we hope for. Rest from our labours. Rest from our misery and suffering. Rest from our fears. Faith—like the faith of Enoch—is confidence in just that sort of thing: “confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” A place of rest in God's presence for each of us who earnestly seek God in faith. As you journey on, go with the blessing of God: May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you : wherever he may send you. May he guide you through the wilderness : protect you through the storm. May he bring you home rejoicing : at the wonders he has shown you. May he bring you home rejoicing : once again into our doors.
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