Matthew 17:1-9 [NLTse]

Six days later Jesus took Peter and the two brothers, James and John, and led them up a high mountain to be alone. ² As the men watched, Jesus’ appearance was transformed so that his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as light. ³ Suddenly, Moses and Elijah appeared and began talking with Jesus. ⁴ Peter exclaimed, “Lord, it’s wonderful for us to be here! If you want, I’ll make three shelters as memorials^[a]—one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” ⁵ But even as he spoke, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy. Listen to him.” ⁶ The disciples were terrified and fell face down on the ground. ⁷ Then Jesus came over and touched them. “Get up,” he said. “Don’t be afraid.” ⁸ And when they looked up, Moses and Elijah were gone, and they saw only Jesus. ⁹ As they went back down the mountain, Jesus commanded them, “Don’t tell anyone what you have seen until the Son of Man^[b] has been raised from the dead.”

Sermon

We’ve just heard Rich read to us Matthew’s account of Jesus’ “transfiguration”. Let me set the stage for this glimpse we’ve just been given into eternity.

Jesus and his followers have been traveling around Caesarea-Philippi, a Roman city and district at the foot of Mt. Hermon and where the Jordan River begins. The Romans are harsh rulers, and human life is considered cheap in their eyes, unless you are Roman, of course. And the Jews, even the elite, are treated with contempt and as little better than slaves by those they consider to be nothing more than arrogant pagans. They are waiting for the prophet Moses said would come, and for the Messiah – the Christ – that the prophets promised God would send to deliver them.

Jesus has been asking His closest followers what the crowds are saying about Him. They tell Him that some think He’s John the Baptist come back from the dead, or the prophet Elijah come down from Heaven, or Jeremiah, or one of the other great prophets. And then Jesus asks them what they think about Him. Simon Peter then makes his famous confession that they believe Jesus is God’s Christ, the long-promised Messiah, “the Son of the living God”, come to free Israel from Roman oppression and establish God’s Kingdom on the Earth.

And Jesus responds telling them that, yes, He is God’s Messiah – God’s Son – but that His destiny is not to gather an army and overthrow the Romans. God the Father has sent Him to go to Jerusalem, be mocked and tortured and go through horrific things at the hands of the religious leaders, and to then be killed. But after that, He tells them, He will be raised back to life again! And He goes on to tell Peter and them all that those who follow Him will be treated the same way: Mocked and, perhaps, tortured and, perhaps even go through horrific things, and maybe even themselves be killed in order to – along with Him – bring God’s Kingdom to the entire Earth.

I’m thinking that Jesus needs to try a better sales approach: “Come one! Come all! Be mocked and whipped and cut in two with Me! Yes, you can have a life of ridicule and strange conflict with those around you all because of Me and being a part of My Father’s work here in the world. Yes, you’ll get to be a part of healing people and bringing the dead back to life and spreading joy and peace across the face of the Earth. And you will know joy and peace yourselves beyond your wildest imaginings, along with the torture and perhaps even more horrific things that unbelievers and the enemies of My Father may want to do to you. But in the end you’ll have eternal life! Come! Follow Me!”

And I hear all the good and the wonders and even the glory in that, but the drawbacks are pretty huge, too! Where do you think you’d stand if you’d been there that day? John’s gospel tells us that many of the things Jesus said, instead of drawing people to Him, caused people to stop following Him. The miracles and healings and the ways He always beat the religious leaders in their battles of words and just the sheer life and excitement of being with Him were awesome! But ‘eating His body and drinking His blood’? Being beaten and perhaps killed? ‘Taking up a cross and following Him’? Jesus, that’s how the Romans torture rebels to death! What do you mean by calling us to that?

Of course, that’s the life Jesus is still calling us to today. So, what do you think? And what do you think was going through those first followers’ minds that day? If their minds were anything like my mind, sometimes, then I’m thinking they were likely pretty confused and, perhaps, conflicted: Wanting all the great things and wonders, and so badly wanting to be with Jesus and continue enjoying just being with Him. But the costs…

Of course, Jesus is so good, and He knows just what we need when we truly need it, doesn’t He? And so the next thing we read, Jesus has taken Peter, James, and John with Him up a high mountain, perhaps Mt. Hermon itself. (Now Peter, James, and John were the same three who accompanied Jesus when He raised Jairus, the synagogue leader’s, daughter from the dead, and who Jesus would later ask to accompany Him when He went away to pray alone in the Garden of Gethsemane after that Last Supper [the night before He was crucified]). And we read, “As the men watched, Jesus’ appearance was transformed so that His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as light. [And that] Suddenly, Moses and Elijah appeared and began talking with Jesus.” (vv. 2-3)

(Now, it hits me that God the Son’s Transfiguration on the mountain should not really amaze us. What should amaze us was God the Son’s Transfiguration in the manger: When the ever-glorious God the Son became not glorious; when the ever-blazing God the Son became not blazing; when the ever-brilliant God the Son became not brilliant. all that Peter, James, and John were really witnessing on the mountain that day was simply Jesus’ true Self! God the Son in His glory!)

Isn’t it just like Jesus to reveal His majesty to these leaders? James would go on to be the first Christian martyr. Simon Peter would become the acknowledged leader of the church and eventually be crucified upside down on account of his faith and life in Christ. John would spend much of his life imprisoned for his beliefs on the Roman prison-island of Patmos. And here as Jesus’ has just finished revealing to them His Own identity and destiny – God’s Messiah, the Christ, come to overcome – not just the Romans but – sin and death! And revealing to them their true identities and destinies, as well: As a part of joining Him in His work, to suffer and, perhaps, die with Him in order to help overcome evil with good… In the face of these hard things, isn’t it just like Jesus to encourage them and help them to truly, fully see all the wonders and life and glory and eternity He says is their destiny, as well. And so He shows them His true Self, and in doing so, shows them, if they continue following Him, what they will one day be like, as well!

Yes, we will share Jesus’ glory.

John wrote later to the churches, “Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but He has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like Him, for we will see Him as He really is.” (1 John 3:2)

And Paul records that it is such a spectacular glory that no matter our present sufferings, they can not compare to it! Romans 8:18, “Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory He will reveal to us later;” 2 Corinthians 4:17, “For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!” Philipppians 3:20-21, “But we are citizens of Heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for Him to return as our Savior. He will take our weak mortal bodies and change them into glorious bodies like His Own, using the same power with which He will bring everything under His control.”

And 1 Corinthians 6:3 says that we will judge the world and even angels in our glory. “When one of you has a dispute with another believer, how dare you file a lawsuit and ask a secular court to decide the matter instead of taking it to other believers! Don’t you realize that someday we believers will judge the world? And since you are going to judge the world, can’t you decide even these little things among yourselves? Don’t you realize that we will judge angels? So you should surely be able to resolve ordinary disputes in this life.”

The Revelation pictures that we will share Jesus’ throne when we are glorified: “Those who are victorious will sit with Me on My throne, just as I was victorious and sat with My Father on His throne” (3:21) David Mathis – preacher, author, editor, and church elder – wrote, “We will not be God, but we will be stupendously one with Him. We will not become the Groom, but we will be married to Him.”

Jesus is saying to Peter, James, and John, “Don’t be afraid! What you’ve just seen, This is the real Me, and this will be the real you. This is your future as you remain a part of Me! This is our life. What you saw in Me being glorified, that’s how I really am! And you’re going to be like Me! This is what faith and trust in Me leads to. This is part of the reward! As you persevere in following Me and living your lives for Me you are going to be like this. So, don’t be afraid. As a matter of fact, never be afraid again! The God almighty Who freaks everybody else out? He’s your Dad! My God and your God. My Dad and your Dad. This isn’t true for everybody, only for those who overcome and follow Me. So overcome! Live! Listen to Me! Build your life on Me! Obey Me! Trust Me! This is what you have to look forward to when you do. You don’t have to be afraid. Not ever again.”

In the meantime Jesus calls us to be content with a different kind of transfiguration. The kind that Paul writes about to the Romans, saying, “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you – [literally, “let God transfigure you”] into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect” (12:2). It’s the same kind of transfiguration Paul writes about to the Corinthians, saying, “So all of us who have had that veil [of unbelief] removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—Who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like Him as we are changed [literally, transfigured] into His glorious image” (3:18). And the Lord—Who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like Him Who was transfigured as we are transfigured into His glorious image.”

Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians 1:3-14 [NLTse]

³ All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. ⁴ Even before He made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in His eyes. ⁵ God decided in advance to adopt us into His Own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ. This is what He wanted to do, and it gave Him great pleasure. ⁶ So we praise God for the glorious grace He has poured out on us who belong to His dear Son. ⁷ He is so rich in kindness and grace that He purchased our freedom with the blood of His Son and forgave our sins. ⁸ He has showered His kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding.

⁹ God has now revealed to us His mysterious plan regarding Christ, a plan to fulfill His Own good pleasure. ¹⁰ And this is the plan: At the right time He will bring everything together under the authority of Christ—everything in Heaven and on Earth. ¹¹ Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for He chose us in advance, and He makes everything work out according to His plan.

¹² God’s purpose was that we Jews who were the first to trust in Christ would bring praise and glory to God. ¹³ And now you Gentiles have also heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, He identified you as His Own by giving you the Holy Spirit, Whom He promised long ago. ¹⁴ The Spirit is God’s guarantee that He will give us the inheritance He promised and that He has purchased us to be His Own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify Him.

Sermon

The Scriptures make absolutely clear two things that cannot at one and the same time be true: That God has predetermined the ultimate end for human beings and of human history, and yet has given us human beings genuine freedom. The Bible reveals a God Who wants all people to know that He genuinely cares about the choices they are responsible for, while at the same time showing Himself to be a God Who, like a great chess master, is always in control of the board while moving strategically to His predetermined “end-game.” So great is our God and the mystery of His grace that God can honor and be responsive to our will even while remaining in control of the outcome.

In our reading this morning Paul writes to the Ephesians that God loved them and chose them in Christ before He made the world, and that He decided in advance to adopt them into His family through Christ. Then Paul goes on to speak to these saints of when they first began trusting in the Lord and how the Father all His wonders so that they would praise and glorify Him. God has predetermined the circumstances of our lives counting on the choices we will make, and yet He does so while taking a genuine interest in us as individuals and interacting and reacting to what we individually say and do.

It is a wonderful mystery that if we put our trust in Christ that it is counted as God’s work and His glory in us, but that if we reject Him and continue in rebellion against Him that it is our choice, freely made, and we will pay the right and fair penalty for our sin.

In the Book of Acts, fifty days after Jesus’ resurrection, Peter told a crowd of Jewish listeners, “This man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put Him to death” (Acts 2:23). And yet how could Peter’s audience bring about God’s set purpose for Christ and still remain free to exercise and be held accountable for their choices and will? The Bible doesn’t tell us. It only reveals that God has predetermined an outcome for us and for the entire universe that we can barely begin to comprehend. And yet that God does not force anyone to become a believer but works in a person’s heart so that the individual freely chooses to receive Christ as Savior.

Somehow – according to God’s great power – the Bible shows us a God Who is free to be God and Who gives human beings the freedom to be morally responsible beings who live in His presence and genuinely choose belief or unbelief, obedience or disobedience, submission or rebellion.

How can Jesus say, “No one can come to Me unless the Father Who sent Me draws him” (John 6:44)? How can we truly have free wills and be held responsible for our decisions and choices while needing God to move in us before we will ever move toward Him?

We know that He bought us through Calvary’s price. We know that He moved in us before we moved to Him. The Bible makes clear that our salvation is always initiated by God: He always is the One Who seeks us out and by His Spirit enables us to believe. Yet the Bible makes equally clear that we are left with the choice and held accountable for accepting or rejecting the undeserved kindness and mercy God the Father offers us in Christ.

The declaration “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 Jn. 2:2). “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him” (John 3:16-17) So no one ever needs to ask, “Have I been predestined?” The proper question is, “Have you accepted Jesus’ atoning death?” If you have acknowledged your sin; if you have believed that Jesus died for you and rose again; and, if you are living and have committed yourself to living a life of trust in and reliance on Him, then as you continue to trust and live in Him you can have confidence that you are a member of His elect and chosen body, the church (Romans 10:9)

How can the Lord have established all these wonderful things for you because of your faith in Jesus Christ before He even made the world? How could He have chosen you all those thousands of years ago when you only began to believe in Him these past months or years?

People who have not yet accepted the new life we’ve been given in Jesus seem to relate very well to the choice, the battle of the wills, the decision that needs to be made to receive or to reject Jesus’ offer to forgive our sins and make us new. And for those who are relatively new Christians the reality of that struggle may still be fresh in their minds. And yet once someone has admitted their sin and accepted Christ as Savior and committed to Him as Lord, many gain perspective to see the work of God’s Spirit dragging them into His Kingdom almost against their control; bringing us to new life even while we were clinging to our old life…

I have a couple hundred cards here that say:

“PRAYING FOR NEW LIFE

“for

“Anyone who belongs to Christ

“has become a new person. The old life is gone;

“a new life has begun!

“(2 Cor. 5:17)

“I ask committing to pray, share the new life God’s Spirit has begun in me, and live as an example of life in Christ.”

With this wonderful paradox in mind of God’s working for our salvation and our choosing to receive Him, is there anyone whom you would ask Him to receive new life in Christ? Who around you would you like to know the love God the Father has shown us in Christ? Who in your life needs the healing and peace, the hope and the joy that the rebirth into Christ brings? Whether you tend toward predestination or toward freewill, if you have ever prayed for God to help people believe, to convert people to Christ, to bring people into His Kingdom, then you are at least a believer in God’s willingness and ability to influence, sway, and perhaps even overcome a person’s “free” will.

Now some may be more difficult than others, and some may choose to reject Him forever, but as I pass the cards around I’m wondering for whom you would ask the God Who “so loved the world” to save and bring to life in Christ today: And I want to invite us to write their name or names down on this card – one name per card.

We’ll keep printing more cards week after week, but the idea is for us to take as many of these cards as we need and write on each the name of someone we would like God to make new by drawing them to faith in Christ.

We would pray through these cards Sunday after Sunday – maybe only a handful at a time, maybe all of them each time, and we will pray for them at our prayer meetings, and the elders and deacons at their meetings, … whenever the Lord would move us to run up here and grab this basket to pray.

I hope that as different ones we are praying for put their trust in Christ and begin living for Him that we would remove their card from the basket, put the date or the approximate date of their decision on their cards, and make the “prayers answered” cards into something special, or mount them onto something special, that would help us celebrate our loved ones’ putting their faith in Christ and God’s goodness and faithfulness in bringing them into His Kingdom.

Write clearly and legibly… Perhaps we’ll have hundreds of cards in this basket – individual persons whom we are praying for at any given moment. And yet, by God’s grace, perhaps the basket will empty as people come to Jesus, even as we continue to add cards for more people…

According to John 6:22-40 [NLTse]

²² The next day the crowd that had stayed on the far shore saw that the disciples had taken the only boat, and they realized Jesus had not gone with them. ²³ Several boats from Tiberias landed near the place where the Lord had blessed the bread and the people had eaten. ²⁴ So when the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor His disciples were there, they got into the boats and went across to Capernaum to look for Him. ²⁵ They found Him on the other side of the lake and asked, “Rabbi, when did You get here?”

²⁶ Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, you want to be with Me because I fed you, not because you understood the miraculous signs. ²⁷ But don’t be so concerned about perishable things like food. Spend your energy seeking the eternal life that the Son of Man can give you. For God the Father has given Me the seal of His approval.”

²⁸ They replied, “We want to perform God’s works, too. What should we do?”

²⁹ Jesus told them, “This is the only work God wants from you: Believe in the One He has sent.”

³⁰ They answered, “Show us a miraculous sign if you want us to believe in You. What can You do? ³¹ After all, our ancestors ate manna while they journeyed through the wilderness! The Scriptures say, ‘Moses gave them bread from Heaven to eat.’”

³² Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, Moses didn’t give you bread from Heaven. My Father did. And now He offers you the true bread from Heaven. ³³ The true bread of God is the One Who comes down from Heaven and gives life to the world.”

³⁴ “Sir,” they said, “give us that bread every day.”

³⁵ Jesus replied, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to Me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in Me will never be thirsty. ³⁶ But you haven’t believed in Me even though you have seen Me. ³⁷ However, those the Father has given Me will come to Me, and I will never reject them. ³⁸ For I have come down from Heaven to do the will of God who sent Me, not to do My Own will. ³⁹ And this is the will of God, that I should not lose even one of all those He has given Me, but that I should raise them up at the last day. ⁴⁰ For it is My Father’s will that all who see His Son and believe in Him should have eternal life. I will raise them up at the last day.”

Sermon – Why? What? How? Now!

In her blog, “Searching for Something”, a student named Michelle wrote: “I’m stuffing chocolate in my mouth, as much as I can take, in. It’s sickening-sweet, dripping down my throat, coating my tongue. I can’t take it. I’m not hungry. Yet I stuff it in to try to avoid that which cannot be solved by stuff-age. When you think about it, hunger is so easy to solve. The action of eating requires only some way of getting food into the mouth. Yet we go hungry. We go hungry because we do not have food. We go hungry because we have no time to eat. We go hungry because we diet. We go hungry because we are not satisfied. I just downed a bar of Hershey’s chocolate, yet I am still hungry: Hungry for answers to things that cannot be solved through simple arithmetic or logic; hungry for someone to tell me what I’m living for, for I have no answers.”

Michelle and millions like her are searching for that which will really satisfy; that one thing that will fulfill her inner hunger. Jesus says that He’s the answer to our hunger and thirst and that following Him settles the gnawing emptiness of the human spirit. But we tend to fill up on the wrong things.

Michelle is downing chocolate, and still others think that fixing their marriage or help with their money problems or being healed of disease would satisfy. The Lord Jesus tells the crowds who’ve followed Him around the lake, “You want to be with Me because I fed you, not because you understood the miraculous signs.” And we, too, have heard the health and wealth gospel and can come to Jesus for what He can give to us or do for us and completely miss what all these wondrous miracles – like signs along the way – are pointing to: That God is with us; that He has come among us in Jesus Christ and sent another comforter – the Holy Spirit – to stay with us forever.

He has revealed to us that our greatest need is not money or work or relationships or prestige or food or substances to help us deaden our pain. No. If, like Michelle, you are looking for answers and looking for meaning, then God in His goodness has revealed to us across the pages of the Bible that that deep inner hunger and thirst that’s gnawing at you comes from the Holy Spirit drawing attention to your alienation from God.

Maybe your parents didn’t treat you like they loved you or you have just never felt good enough; perhaps you feel unworthy of love or that you’ve been defiled and shamed and left as damaged-goods here in the world; possibly your life has been one person abandoning you after another, or you live your life in fear, insecure, uncertain… Our answer, our need, is not the perishable things of this life. Emmanuel – God with us – tells us, “Spend your energy seeking the eternal life that the Son of Man can give you.”

A person’s greatest need is the confident knowledge that our sins have been forgiven so that we can live trusting that our separation and isolation from the Almighty is over – that He is with us – and that His promises to us are sure and true! Yes, many people are experiencing legitimate needs. But if we give someone food, water, clothes, and shelter, if we fix their marriage or solve their money problems or heal them or their loved ones of whatever wasting disease and fail to share Jesus with them, then we have ultimately not given them what they truly need. This world’s immediate needs can seem so important and pressing, but what satisfies our soul-hunger and satiates our soul-thirst is Jesus showing us that God is good and the Holy Spirit showing us that God is close. That’s what satisfies.

And we eat the bread of life and drink the water of life by  reading the Scriptures by faith that Jesus is meeting us there, and, ? by applying what we are reading to our lives. So, if we are having troubles or are aware of troubles around us or around the world, then when we read we should be asking God to speak to us and grant us guidance about such things, believing He will. If we read truths we don’t believe – for instance, perhaps we’ve always thought of God as distant and uninterested or insensitive and uncaring or stern and demanding but our reading shows us God to be intimate and involved (Psalm 139:1-18), kind and compassionate (Psalm 103:8-14), accepting and filled with joy and love (Zephaniah 3:17; Romans 15:7) – then we need to believe that He’s trying to reveal His true Self to us, meditate on these things, and believe Him. If what we read seems like a coincidence – that is, perhaps you were considering a fast and your reading today talked about fasting – then believe that He’s giving you the guidance and encouragement you need, and act upon it. The only work God wants from you is to trust in Christ, the One He has sent.

We are going to be celebrating the Lord’s Supper in a little bit. If you know that you are a sinner and believe that God the Father has sent Jesus Christ the Son to absolutely satisfy His judgment against your sin; and if you believe that God’s near to you now, living in you by the Holy Spirit, then come and be a part with us in sharing the body and blood of the Lord. Know that if you keep coming to Him you will never be hungry again. Know that if you keep coming to Him you will never be thirsty again.

Keep coming to Him when you read the Scriptures. Keep coming to Him in prayer. Keep coming to Him in the bread and the cup. He will never reject those who come to Him.

The Prophet Haggai 1:1-15 [NLTse]
On August 29 of the second year of King Darius’s reign, the Lord gave a message through the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Jeshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest.
² “This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: The people are saying, ‘The time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.’”
³ Then the Lord sent this message through the prophet Haggai: ⁴ “Why are you living in luxurious houses while My House lies in ruins? ⁵ This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: Look at what’s happening to you! ⁶ You have planted much but harvest little. You eat but are not satisfied. You drink but are still thirsty. You put on clothes but cannot keep warm. Your wages disappear as though you were putting them in pockets filled with holes!
⁷ “This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: Look at what’s happening to you! ⁸ Now go up into the hills, bring down timber, and rebuild My House. Then I will take pleasure in it and be honored, says the Lord. ⁹ You hoped for rich harvests, but they were poor. And when you brought your harvest home, I blew it away. Why? Because My House lies in ruins, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, while all of you are busy building your own fine houses. ¹⁰ It’s because of you that the heavens withhold the dew and the earth produces no crops. ¹¹ I have called for a drought on your fields and hills—a drought to wither the grain and grapes and olive trees and all your other crops, a drought to starve you and your livestock and to ruin everything you have worked so hard to get.”
¹² Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the whole remnant of God’s people began to obey the message from the Lord their God. When they heard the words of the prophet Haggai, whom the Lord their God had sent, the people feared the Lord. ¹³ Then Haggai, the Lord’s messenger, gave the people this message from the Lord: “I am with you, says the Lord!”
¹⁴ So the Lord sparked the enthusiasm of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the enthusiasm of Jeshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the enthusiasm of the whole remnant of God’s people. They began to work on the House of their God, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, ¹⁵ on September 21 of the second year of King Darius’s reign.

Sermon
The small remnant of Israel was going through hard times. It was 520 BC and they’d been back in the Promised Land for eighteen years.

History and the Bible tell us that in 721 BC the Assyrian army destroyed the Israelite capitol of Samaria, relocating other conquered peoples into their lands and exiling and relocating the Israelites to foreign cities. The Assyrian Empire was overthrown by the Babylonian Empire, and in 586 BC the Babylonians destroyed the Judahite capitol of Jerusalem (remember that after Solomon’s death that Israel had split into two different nations, Israel to the north and Judah to the south?) and, again, relocated other conquered peoples’ into Judah’s lands and exiling and relocating the Jews across to other, foreign cities.

The Persian Empire conquered the Babylonian Empire, and then the Median Empire annexed the Persian. In the Book of Ezra chapter 1 we read that in 538 BC the Medo-Persian king, Cyrus, issued a decree that all the Jews who had been resettled across his lands were free to return to Jerusalem and work together to rebuild God’s Temple there. And the Book of Ezra tells how after a year of preparations and travel how those who had returned began rebuilding: Finishing the sacrificial altar and the foundation of the Temple, and starting on the walls.

Ezra 4 tells us that the peoples who’d been living in the land when the Jews returned wanted to join them in rebuilding, but how the Jewish leaders wouldn’t let them, and how those peoples then began conspiring to keep any and all construction work from going any farther. And history and the Bible tell us they were successful, and that the Temple building and its wall sat in ruins until 520 BC, the second year of King Darius’ reign, and the time of our morning’s reading from the prophet Haggai.
And it was a time of great hardship. Famine and drought choked the land and the people. Although the Temple was still just a footprint on the ground the altar was functional and the people had been faithful in the practice of their sacrificial rites, but the sky seemed like brass and the earth like bronze, and what they could make grow and what they could bring home was spent or eaten up all too quickly! And the people were afraid: Afraid for their next meal, afraid for their children and livelihoods, afraid for their very lives!

So they tightened their belts and cut back, and they worked harder and tried to work smarter, and they prayed more and worshiped more (consulting the teachers of the Law to make sure they were doing everything right), and they cried out to the Lord!

But God’s ways are not our ways, and how we seek to solve our problems does not tend to be the response the Lord is always looking for. The Jews cried out to Him and His response through the prophet Haggai was, “Build My House!” And the leaders and people replied, “Now’s not the time, Haggai. Can’t you see how we’re struggling? We need to be careful; our existence is on the edge of a knifeblade. We need rain! We need good soil! We need to plant and harvest and tighten up and perhaps set some treaties with our neighbors for food, if we can…”

Yet God’s answer to their troubles was, “I know your circumstances. I know your needs. I you’re your fears. Build My House!”
…
Last October I preached and taught about tithing for the first time in a long while. (Too long a while many of you said.) Following that message different ones of you brought to me various teachings you had heard over the years about tithing – what it should be, what it should not be – wanting to better understand this practice that has helped so many Christians across the centuries offer themselves more fully to God and grow closer to Him.

The two most frequently asked questions have been: “I know tithe means 10%, but is the entire tithe really supposed to be given to our local, “home” church?” and, “I know the tithe was a big deal in the Old Testament, but does the tithe apply to the New Covenant and our life in Christ today?”
I’ll start with the first question, that is: I know tithe means 10%, but is the entire tithe really supposed to be given to our local, “home” church?

The answer is, “yes”. I have read and studied the different teachings out there, even by many prominent Bible teachers and pastors. Some have likened the tithe to part of Israel’s tax system and so argued that, since some of the tithe went to governance and some went to the Tabernacle and Temple, that the tithe to one’s local, “home” church to support gospel-ministry today could be less. But the Bible doesn’t back up such an argument. I can say that because the tithe – fully 10% of a person’s wages – was actively practiced by Jews in Jesus’ day while they were paying full governance taxes to Rome.
Other Christian leaders, acknowledging the variety of para-church ministries carrying out the purposes of the tithe around our various communities today, have taught that perhaps 5% is adequate for giving to one’s “home” church as long as the remaining 5% is given to other ministries furthering the purposes the tithe was to be used for.

But this doesn’t stand up, either, since the annual Temple tax, the cost of sacrificial animals for the three festivals requiring Temple attendance, and all the gifts expected to be given to the poor and blind and lame, etc… were all in addition to the locally-given 10% tithe, even though these additional offerings satisfied the purposes of the tithe, as well.

So, yes, the entire tithe really is to be given to our local, “home” church.

The second question, I know the tithe was a big deal in the Old Testament, but does the tithe apply to the New Covenant and our life in Christ today? is also a “yes”. In Luke 11:42, the Lord Jesus is criticizing various religious leaders. And He says, “What sorrow awaits you Pharisees! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore justice and the love of God. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things.” So Jesus calls us to practice the tithe even as He makes clear that the righteousness and love of God’s grace is so very much more important!

I’m going to say that, although perhaps trying to be a blessing to us all, those who argue against the tithe are in fact hurting us and fostering our old nature’s love of money. Reducing the tithe to anything less, even proposing a half-tithe (as long as the other half is given to Christ’s purposes, as well) will only to encourage our desire to control where our money is spent and what ministries our money supports.

But practicing the tithe engages us in God’s battle against greed in our lives and our desire to rule and to think that anything is truly ours at all. (And, as far as supporting the many worthy ministries and causes out there: As the Lord grants us abundant wealth, or as our thrifty practices result in extra money to spend, our Father sets us free to joyfully and enthusiastically assist these other works, as well!)

All this being said, some of you have commented to me how hard it can be to tithe in such challenging economic times. And as I’ve told you the impact that tithing has had on Amy’s and my lives and lifestyle, many of you have encouraged me to share that impact during a message like this one. Now, I don’t pass these things on because Amy and I are “all that” and such superior Christians, I pass these things on in the hopes of giving you some real-world examples of how tithing can look and affect a marriage and a family and a home. So,
Because we tithe Amy and I get most of our clothing second-hand and we don’t go out to eat as often as we’d like, and sometimes don’t go out to eat at all.

Because we tithe we have had all manner of fights and arguments about it, and about money, and about our budget and what we’ll spend and where.

Because we tithe we have the lowest level of cable television (with only a handful of channels and ESPN that doesn’t have sound), Eden and Caleb don’t have cell phones, we drive used cars, and nobody is involved in any computer gaming that costs money.

On the other hand, because we tithe we know we’re a part of helping others around the church and our community who are in need. Because we tithe we don’t have the pressure to keep up with what everyone else has: All of us know we don’t have the money to buy new, and designer, and excess. Because we tithe we know we’re a part of the church’s Benevolences ministry, and Light In the Darkness, and White Gifts, and the Live Nativity, and we know that countless people have come to experience grace in ways they have never experienced before! Because we tithe we’re a part of the Church-Family events that we all invite our friends and neighbors to so they can see our Christian friendships and beautiful community here. Because we tithe we’re a part of the small groups, Sunday School classes, and Bible studies that teach and grow our faith, and are a part of supporting YoungLife and the Tri-State Pregnancy Center and missionaries around the globe! Because we tithe we feel good about our relationship to God’s Word: Because He’s telling us to do something and we’re able to see ourselves actually doing it…

Because we tithe we’ve gotten to see God working wonders in our lives. This past year Amy needed a lot of physical therapy and we were getting in over our head in medical bills. There was no way the PT place knew that, but God did. And one day, out of the blue, we got a letter from their accounting department that said (and I quote), “Because you have been faithful to your commitment” we are forgiving your debt! We’d been paying God our tithe and been paying them the monthly budget amount we’d agreed to with them: So, which “commitment” were we being praised for as they forgave our debt?

Because we tithe, although we are very careful about treating ourselves to things, we will often have people give us gift cards or money out of the blue given so that we might go treat ourselves! When you step out in tithing, especially during those times when you’re sure you can’t make ends meet, God meets you, and often provides exactly the things we need at just the times we need them.

Amy and I committed to tithe for the first time when we first arrived here in Milford. Since we made that commitment we’ve had times when it was relatively easy and other times when we knew we couldn’t afford it, but the Lord has provided and we have never regretted it.

I know times are tough. The Lord told those Jews who’d returned home that their tough times were because they hadn’t built His House. It might not make sense to us, how building a building could affect weather and productivity. But God’s ways are not our ways! Are things tight for you? Then tithe! Let’s do without. How much more influence could the church have if we all tithed? How many more lives might be transformed? Where can we cut back for God?

Let’s show our Father we trust Him and not money. And if you’ve cut everything back and you can’t pay your bills, then – because all the rest of us tithe – we’ll be able to help you keep a roof over your head and enough food on your table and adequate clothing day by day…

Don’t you know that this building and the ministry of First Presbyterian Church of Milford is here today because those who went before us tithed?! Some of you were baptized here. Some of you were married here. Many of you have had your souls transformed as the Holy Spirit has used this church in your lives. Do you really want to drive by here in 20 or 50 years with your grandkids to show them the church where God did all these special things in your life only to see that it’s become an art studio because we didn’t role-model tithing for future generations?

Commit to tithing for the next 3 months and see what God does with that. Not grudgingly; not like I made you, but with the anticipation of beginning a great adventure with God! Don’t give 1%. Don’t give 8%. Isn’t it time to believe the Lord and give the full 10% and see what He’ll do with that?

Through the prophet Isaiah the Lord said, “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts, and My ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so My ways are higher than your ways and My thoughts higher than your thoughts.” (55:8-9) “For the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God,” Paul wrote (1 Corinthians 3:19). “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously,” our Lord and Savior said, “and [God] will give you everything you need.” (Matthew 6:33)

The prophet Haggai records that when the people began to obey the message, then the Lord told them: “I am with you, says the Lord!” And He sparked their enthusiasm for Him. The word enthusiasm comes from the Greek en theos, to have God within.

My brothers and sisters: Tithe! And let’s watch our spark be fanned into flames!

Acts 2:1-12 [NLTse]

On the day of Pentecost all the believers were meeting together in one place. ² Suddenly, there was a sound from Heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting. ³ Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. ⁴ And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability.

⁵ At that time there were devout Jews from every nation living in Jerusalem. ⁶ When they heard the loud noise, everyone came running, and they were bewildered to hear their own languages being spoken by the believers.

⁷ They were completely amazed. “How can this be?” they exclaimed. “These people are all from Galilee, ⁸ and yet we hear them speaking in our own native languages! ⁹ Here we are—Parthians, Medes, Elamites, people from Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, the province of Asia, ¹⁰ Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, and the areas of Libya around Cyrene, visitors from Rome ¹¹ (both Jews and converts to Judaism), Cretans, and Arabs. And we all hear these people speaking in our own languages about the wonderful things God has done!” ¹² They stood there amazed and perplexed. “What can this mean?” they asked each other.

I would like to introduce all of you to a very special friend of mine: The Holy Spirit. I know that some of you know Him and know Him very well. But I know that others of you don’t know Him, and I know that still others of you think you know Him, but don’t know Him as well as you think you do or have been deceived to think Him to be very different than He is.

I think the most accepted deception about my Friend the Holy Spirit is the idea of Him being some very powerful (though fairly impersonal) “force” that is at God’s command, that was at the Lord Jesus’ command, and that has been at the command of a handful of mystics and extraordinarily faithful folks over the centuries. I think His very name, the Holy Spirit has perpetuated that deception as we tend to think of spirits as powers and forces and things to be manipulated and controlled and to protect ourselves from. So I wanted to introduce you to my Friend the Holy Spirit today in the hopes of dispelling and disproving such things.

First, I want to make clear that I’m not speaking on my own behalf in introducing the Holy Spirit to you this way: He asked me to. So, for the most part I’m just trying to be a good friend back by doing what He’s asked me to. Because the first part of those lies about Him that the Holy Spirit wants me to dispel and disprove today is that malicious idea that only a few “mystics and extraordinarily faithful ones over the centuries” are the only ones who get to know Him. He’s asked me to speak about these things today because He wants you to get to know Him.

As proof of this the Holy Spirit has asked me to have you look at Luke 11:13 with me… After teaching a bit on prayer the Lord Jesus, comparing God the Father to earthly fathers, says, “So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him.”

Raise your hand if you have ever asked God for anything… (You can put your hands down.) Now raise your hands if you’ve never asked God for anything… (If some raise their hands then ask them, “Are you able to talk with God and ask for His help and for things but you’ve just chosen not to?” …) So we all could ask the Father for things, [even if we never have], and many of us have asked of Him, is that right?

So, according to Jesus’ words here in Luke 11:13, who will God the Father give the Holy Spirit to? [Answer: “Those who ask Him.”] Who here could ask Him, if you chose to? … So, according to Jesus’ words here in Luke 11:13, who among us would receive the Holy Spirit if they asked?

J Hooray! That was one of the things the Holy Spirit wanted me to help you know today: Yes! He wants you to know Him, and wants you to know that, if you haven’t already, that the Father is ready and willing to give Him to you if you’d just ask! (You can see more about that in the “Holy Spirit” Insert in today’s Bulletins.)

And with that in mind, something else about those lies the Holy Spirit wanted me to talk with you about is that He’s not some “force” out there. He wants you to know that He’s a Person.

You may be thinking, “If the Holy Spirit was a Person then why isn’t His name ‘the Holy Person’? But a spirit can be a person. Any entity that thinks and feels and wills is a person. Because when I say that the Holy Spirit is a Person I’m not saying He has hands and feet and eyes and ears and mouth and so on. These are not the characteristics of personality but of corporality. Corporality means He would have a body or a material or physical existence, and I’m not saying that. I’m telling you He is a Person, that the Holy Spirit has a set of emotional qualities and ways of behaving and interacting with others around Him that makes Him different and unique among other people, other persons.

And the Bible tells us the Holy Spirit has knowledge, and searches out the deep things of God, and reveals those things to Christians. (1 Corinthians 2:10-11) The Bible tells us the Holy Spirit makes choices, using us according to His will. (1 Corinthians 12:11) (Which, of course, is where so many go astray, trying to get the mysterious and mighty power of the Holy Spirit to empower them for the works they want to accomplish, instead of being useful to Him for the works He wants to accomplish in and through us.)

The Bible speaks of the Holy Spirit as having thoughts and feelings and purposes (Romans 8:27), and of loving (Romans 15:30). (We Christians spend much time praising and celebrating and rejoiding in the love of God the Father and the love of God the Son, Jesus Christ. But how often do we even consider the wondrous love of God the Holy Spirit?)

The Bible credits the Holy Spirit with goodness, intelligence, and the ability to teach and instruct people (Nehemiah 9:20), and speaks of the Holy Spirit being grieved (Ephesians 4:30)… (A mere influence or power cannot be grieved…)

If the Holy Spirit were merely some mysterious, wonderful power then you and I in our weakness and ignorance would try to somehow to get hold of and use Him. But if the Holy Spirit is a real Person – infinitely holy, infinitely wise, infinitely mighty, infinitely tender – then the real truth is that we need Him to get hold of and use us! If we think of the Holy Spirit (as so many do) as merely a power source or a godly influence then our constant thought will be, “How can I get more of the Holy Spirit?” But if we think of the Holy Spirit the way the Bible speaks of Him, as a divine Person, then our thoughts will become, “How can the Holy Spirit have more of me?”

The deception that the Holy Spirit is merely some divine influence or power that we can get hold of and use only leads to pride and us strutting about as though belonging to some superior order of Christianity. But when we truly understand that the Holy Spirit is a divine Person – as real a Person as Jesus Christ Himself, an ever-present, loving Friend and mighty Helper, Who is not only always by our side but at the same time dwells in our hearts every day and every hour and Who is ready to take us through every joy, emergency, and calling of life – Who desires to take possession of our lives and make eternal use of us! well, it will put us on our faces in wonder and worship and keep us on our faces in wonder and worship. I can think of no thought more humbling or overwhelming than the thought that a Person of divine majesty, glory, and eternity dwells in my heart and is ready to use even me…

I’m going to be sharing more with you about my Friend, the Holy Spirit, on and off over the upcoming weeks. But let me end by saying that if the Holy Spirit has not yet come into your life to empower and make you more effective for building up and expanding Christ’s Kingdom here in Milford and beyond, please come talk with me or one of the elders whom you will find up front here after the Service.

It was after one o’clock when we were awakened to the sound of someone drumming all around us. We sat up, still somewhat asleep, but all was quiet. Then it started again, louder and longer this time. We realized it was our new next door neighbor practicing drums at one o’clock in the morning!

Amy picked up the phone and told me she was going to call the police. But I asked her, please, not to, that I would just go knock on his door and talk to him, instead. She was concerned about how he would react, but finally said okay.

So I went next door and knocked, and he was so very sorry he’d woken us up! He hadn’t realized how the sound would carry. And that was the end of it: We never heard him practicing after 9pm ever again. And he would come over to talk when he was having troubles. And then he started coming to our church dinners, and then began attending worship…

We live in a society that has more ways to help us be in touch with each other than ever before: Telephone and Voicemail, email and texting, Facebook® and Skype®, etc… And yet we are growing more and more impersonal in our dealings with each other than, perhaps, ever before in human history!

One of the ways we are being impacted by this growing use of social media in the place of voice to voice or face to face communication is in the ways we handle – or do not handle – our conflicts, grievances, and interpersonal struggles. People don’t sit down and “work it out” anymore. People write letters to the editor or get laws passed or get all your friends to hate the person along with you or start telling stories to hurt the other person’s reputation.

And many of these things aren’t new, but today they are more prevalent and more encouraged by the culture than ever before.

And yet we were made to live in harmonious, reconciled relationships with one another. Patterned after the perfect relationship God enjoys in Himself: Father, Son, Holy Spirit. God has revealed Himself to be three separate persons with unique manifestations and characteristics but while sharing the same character traints and existing in perfect harmony and unity together. We were made to enjoy such communion with our fellow human beings even as we were made to enjoy such communion with God.

The Lord wants His church to show the world what He is like and what it’s like to live with Him as our King, so He has made clear in His Word how we are to deal with our disagreements and the struggles and conflicts we have with one another. And because so many of those with whom we have troubles are not part of the church we can adapt these same principles to the disagreements, struggles, and conflicts we have with our friends, teachers, co-workers, bosses, and even family members, as well.

Matthew 18:15-17 [NLTse]

¹⁵ “If another believer sins against you, go privately and point out the offense. If the other person listens and confesses it, you have won that person back. ¹⁶ But if you are unsuccessful, take one or two others with you and go back again, so that everything you say may be confirmed by two or three witnesses. ¹⁷ If the person still refuses to listen, take your case to the church. Then if he or she won’t accept the church’s decision, treat that person as a pagan or a corrupt tax collector.

As we prepare to walk through Matthew 18:15-17, let’s begin with our own frame of mind and attitude. In Psalm 4:4 King David sings, “Don’t sin by letting anger control you. Think about it overnight and remain silent.” But in his letter To the Ephesians the apostle Paul, quoting the psalm, writes: “And ‘don’t sin by letting anger control you.’ Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry, for anger gives a foothold to the devil.” (4:26-27)

When we are hurt by someone we will often respond in one of two kneejerk reactions: We’ll either go for immediate revenge; or, we’ll not do anything but simmer and grow bitter. So as the Holy Spirit teaches us God’s Way and Truth and Life for our disagreements and conflicts we can see in the direction of Matthew 18 the importance of not rushing in and yet the importance of not delaying too long. Paul makes clear to the Ephesians the importance of not delaying too long: Because our growing anger can give a foothold for the devil in our lives. A little thing festers into a bigger thing, and the little things pile up together to become something huge. So we must not delay too long.

And yet it is also important that we not rush in too quickly because anger and hurt can give us a feeling of self-righteousness as we focus on our pain and the one who inflicted it. Because of that we can sometimes need time to remember that we are sinners, too. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus taught, “Why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own? How can you think of saying to your friend, ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye?” (Matthew 7:3-4)

As forgiven-sinners made new in Christ we have no business pointing out other people’s sins if we’ve lost sight that we’re sinners, too. Only with the humility that comes from knowing that we, too, hurt others and that we, too, need others to point out our sins to us do we have any right to confront each other.

A second reason to delay, while not delaying too long, is that if we are going to confront another with their sin we must do so out of genuine love for them. Paul, writing again to the Ephesians, says that if we want to respond to the lies and wickedness of others like Christ would, that we must “speak the truth in love”. (4:15) The Lord Jesus was as direct as can be. He called the Pharisees and other religious leaders “hypocrites” and told them they were like a “brood of vipers”. Harsh words! Yet He was able to be so direct because He loved them and knew they needed such harsh words to hear that truth. So if we do not love the one who hurt us we must first deal with the much greater sin in ourselves of not loving them before we seek to confront them about whatever their sins may be.

Now onto Matthew 18…

Notice how we’re to go privately at first. So often we tell everybody and their mother about what somebody did against us before ever telling them. Then if we do ever confront them we’ve so thoroughly dragged them through the mud to others around the office or among our friends or at church that no wonder they don’t want to ask our forgiveness and be friends again! So Jesus says, “Go privately.” Don’t let anyone know. Bring your Bible. Gently, humbly, show them and tell them what you’ve experienced. That way, they can tell you they’re sorry and change their ways without any embarrassment or shame from others around them.

Now, if they aren’t sorry, or if they won’t acknowledge their wrong, the Lord tells us that if we want to live out this abundant life He’s given us then the next thing to do it to go find somebody else who’s experienced this person’s sin. The Lord isn’t telling us to go tell somebody else about the sin. No, He’s saying for us to go and find somebody else who’s been hurt or offended or sinned against by this person in the same way, and, with that person, to go and confront them again, together. Again, the idea is to keep it all as private as can be so that if they are sorry and repentant that they can make amends and you can all be reconciled together without any embarrassment or shame to mess things up.

Now I want to pause right here to say, I know this takes all of what many of us used to consider “the fun” out of our conflicts. I know that many of you, perhaps, used to enjoy the revenge of making the person who hurt you look bad in other’s eyes. I know that many of you, perhaps, used to enjoy the attention and pity you used to get in describing the ways you’ve been hurt and wronged. Yes, Jesus is telling us that we must give all that up to gain the true joy of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. (Romans 14:17)

That being acknowledge, if even after the two of you who’ve experienced their sin have humbly confronted them in love they still refuse to acknowledge their sin, then Jesus tells us to “take your case to the church”. In our case I would encourage you that here’s the time to get one of the elders involved. Now, you don’t have to. You could stand up in the middle of Coffee Hour and start making a stink about it.  But I hope you won’t, but would bring it instead to one of the elders and share it with them. Not being a part of the hurt and offense the elder might be able to offer some insights you have missed, and the elder can then serve as a “neutral party” to join you in confronting the person one last time. And perhaps that elder’s presence and confirmation will be what the person needs to apologize and be reconciled with you.

However, if not, the elder is in the best place to initiate whatever discipline might be appropriate to keep the unrepentant person from encouraging others in sinful and hurtful and self-serving ways. (That’s not the goal the process is striving for, of course. The Lord is calling us to be reconciled to each other, to overcome the “divide and conquer” works of the devil, to show the world how we Christians love each other, and in doing so to give the world a glimpse of Heaven and the Kingdom of God.) But sometimes church discipline is what’s needed to help that happen. (See 1 Corinthians 5:1-5 and 1 Timothy 1:19-20)

Lastly – though perhaps it would be best if done firstly – forgive them whether they are sorry and repent or not. You can’t fully make up and trust can’t be fully restored without their acknowledgment of their sin and their seeking your forgiveness and God’s grace to change, but forgiving them will release you from holding a grudge, and from bitterness growing up inside of you over time. And then what you’ve allowed to happen to you over time will leave you worse off than anything they ever could have done.

You can see how this process – although strictly given to us by the Lord to help us live our new life with other Christians – can be so readily borrowed for use in our relationships with non-Christians, as well. And though sometimes it may seem best to us for the other party to be the one to come and be reconciled to us: The boss or the leader or the teacher or the one who “they know what they did!” However, the Lord calls us – whether we’ve wronged or whether we’ve been wronged – as soon as He’s pointed these things out to us, to go and be the ones to make the first move towards reconciliation. To be like Christ, given power by His Spirit, to always and never give up moving to be reconciled with others.

¹⁸ Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone… Never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous anger of God… Don’t let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good. (Romans 12:18, 19, 21)

Introduction

The focus of our Services of Worship today are on leadership as we ordain and install new elders and deacons to lead and serve this congregation today. As a part of this occasion we’re going to be reading two passages from the Bible that talk about leadership.

The context of these readings comes from Israel’s wilderness wanderings in the book of Exodus. They may not seem to be about leadership, but let’s open ourselves to the Spirit of God and hear what He is saying to His church today…

Exodus 13:17-22 [NLTse]

¹⁷ When Pharaoh finally let the people go, God did not lead them along the main road that runs through Philistine territory, even though that was the shortest route to the Promised Land. God said, “If the people are faced with a battle, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.” ¹⁸ So God led them in a roundabout way through the wilderness toward the Red Sea. Thus the Israelites left Egypt like an army ready for battle.

¹⁹ Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for Joseph had made the sons of Israel swear to do this. He said, “God will certainly come to help you. When he does, you must take my bones with you from this place.”

²⁰ The Israelites left Succoth and camped at Etham on the edge of the wilderness. ²¹ The Lord went ahead of them. He guided them during the day with a pillar of cloud, and He provided light at night with a pillar of fire. This allowed them to travel by day or by night. ²² And the Lord did not remove the pillar of cloud or pillar of fire from its place in front of the people.

Exodus 33:7-11 [NLTse]

⁷ It was Moses’ practice to take the Tent of Meeting and set it up some distance from the camp. Everyone who wanted to make a request of the Lord would go to the Tent of Meeting outside the camp.

⁸ Whenever Moses went out to the Tent of Meeting, all the people would get up and stand in the entrances of their own tents. They would all watch Moses until he disappeared inside. ⁹ As he went into the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and hover at its entrance while the Lord spoke with Moses. ¹⁰ When the people saw the cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, they would stand and bow down in front of their own tents. ¹¹ Inside the Tent of Meeting, the Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend. Afterward Moses would return to the camp, but the young man who assisted him, Joshua son of Nun, would remain behind in the Tent of Meeting.

Sermon – Why? What? How? Now!

We Christians are quite serious in believing that when we gather together for worship and work that God is present and sovereign: That is, that the Lord our God is truly with us and absolutely master and in charge, there is no power or authority in Heaven or on the Earth that matches or even rivals Him, even though He allows human beings freedom of choice (and even to make horrible choices). God creates and guides, God saves and heals, God corrects and blesses, God calls and judges. With such all-inclusive and o-so-personal leadership from God, what is the place of human leadership?

Well, obviously, it has to be second place: Elders, deacons, ministry leaders, we must not elbow our way to the front; we must not bossily take over. Self-centered, ego-prominent leadership betrays the Lord and poorly serves the church that is His people and His body within which He dwells. The best leadership in Christian communities is inconspicuous, not calling attention to itself, and yet not sacrificing anything in the way of passion and commitment either.

You will hear such of such humility and passion and commitment being called for in the questions being asked of these men and women we will soon be ordaining and installing into leadership, these men and women whom the Lord has called through our voices and votes to be our servant-leaders in the Way, the Truth, and the Life that is Jesus Christ.

The message that greeted you on the screen when you first came in this morning said, “Wake up, sing up, pray up and pay up; but never give up or let up, or back up or shut up ’till the cause of Christ is built up in this world!” A friend from our old Lehigh Presbytery sent that to me this past week saying that he thought of our church when he read it.

We are all servant-leaders in Christ. No one else can fulfill the function in Christ’s body you were made to fulfill. That is, no one else can succeed in the ministry-work that the Holy Spirit has come upon you to succeed in. The Lord has not given us elders and deacons and pastors and others to keep us from our ministry, our work, our part of the Body. As we pray for and follow our servant-leaders, let each of us fulfill our calling in life. The Lord is our leader: He is with us and sovereign that we might do immensely more than we could ever ask or imagine!

Christ has died for this: To bring servant-leaders to God. Christ has overcome death for this: To bring a people to life – and through them – a light to the world. Christ lives in us for this: That we might destroy the works of the devil and make His – our Master’s – joy complete!

Are you committed to live your lives for Jesus Christ in this world?

Will you shine for Him, letting your words and deeds draw people’s attention to His goodness and grace?

When you fail or fall, will you ask Him and any whom you may have hurt forgiveness, and will you freely grant forgiveness to those who ask it of you?

For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven. ² A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to harvest. ³ A time to kill and a time to heal. A time to tear down and a time to build up. ⁴ A time to cry and a time to laugh. A time to grieve and a time to dance. ⁵ A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones. A time to embrace and a time to turn away. ⁶ A time to search and a time to quit searching. A time to keep and a time to throw away. ⁷ A time to tear and a time to mend. A time to be quiet and a time to speak. ⁸ A time to love and a time to hate. A time for war and a time for peace.

⁹ What do people really get for all their hard work? ¹⁰ I have seen the burden God has placed on us all. ¹¹ Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end. ¹² So I concluded there is nothing better than to be happy and enjoy ourselves as long as we can. ¹³ And people should eat and drink and enjoy the fruits of their labor, for these are gifts from God.

[PASTOR] Sermon

We gave our kids a Wii for Christmas. (Actually, friends of ours had recently gotten a WiiU and so had given us their Wii that we in turn gave to our kids.) We’ve been playing it a good bit since Christmas, especially MarioKart and bowling & boxing and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed!

Computer-gaming is a lot like life, if you think about it that way: That is, there are difficulties that need to be overcome, opponents to defeat, and there always seems to be some kind of a “boss” at the end of each “level of difficulty” that needs to be overcome in order for us to advance to the next level. Of course, in life sometimes the hardships, trials, or opponents we face are of our own making: Ungodly choices or too hasty decisions we’ve made, prejudices or bad attitudes we’ve gone along with, people we’ve hurt or enemies we’ve left behind in our wakes, destructive habits we’ve refused to break, to name just a few… And all of our interactions with these difficulties, trials, and opponents seem to eventually lead us up to some kind of “turning point” or another – a “point of no return”, a “moment of decision”, a “crisis”, a “crossroads” – and what we do and how we handle that “boss” (to use the computer term) determines whether we “level up” to the next level or have to start all over again.

In Ecclesiastes the “preacher” – the “gatherer-together of wisdom” – tells us that there are God-appointed times not only for the good and pleasant things in life, but also for death and for killing and for tearing things down and for crying; God-appointed times for grieving and for scattering and for turning away from those around us and for quitting our searches and for throwing away; God-appointed times for tearing apart and for hating and for war…

As much as we may not like to face it, the truth is that bad things happen. Sometimes God ordains unpleasant things to happen, things that challenge our comfort and convenience and ease; other times the Lord simply permits them to happen. After all, our Father’s goal is not our comfort, convenience, and ease but is our well-being, our wholeness, and our Christ-likeness. So, things we consider bad do happen and our Father has told us they will happen and that they will keep on happening because we live in a world that loves darkness more than light. (John 3:19) And because they are times that are promised and appointed by God, they should not be times to fight against or to ignore or to pretend aren’t happening or going to happen. They are times for us to exercise our faith, trusting in the God Who lives outside of such times in eternity; the God Who is absolutely sovereign over all.

The Gatherer writes that God has placed eternity in our hearts. That is, God has put a “restless yearning for the kind of perfect world that can only be found in His perfect rule” into the hearts of all people, believers and unbelievers alike. And, yes, He does give us glimpses of that perfection in creation and our relationships and across the blessings of this life, but they are only glimpses. And we ought not expect their fullness in this life or before Jesus returns. Bad things happen and are going to happen, and Jesus shows us the way to truly find meaning in life: By cheerfully accepting life and all it’s made of as coming from the hand of our loving Father.

When we’ve been playing the Wii together these past days (especially when we’ve been watching each other play, as opposed to playing against one another) we do a lot of cheering each other on: “You can do it, Caleb!” or, “Watch out behind you, Noah!” “Don’t give up, you guys. Keep at it! Come on, you’ve almost made it!” Etc…

Now did you notice as I was rooting for them that I never once cheered for the game to get easier? I never cheer for the different opponents or trials to disappear from the level. I mean, where would all the fun and challenge and adventure and satisfaction-in-victory be if everything just got easy? Jesus cheers for us the same way.

In John 17, after the Lord had washed the disciples’ feet, shared the Passover meal with them, and talked with them for some time about things to come, He prayed for them. But He didn’t ask His Father to make their lives easy or to keep them from hardship or harm. He prayed for the Father to protect them through all such things so that they might be united. As He prayed He didn’t ask that the Father would take them out of the world but that while going through the trials of the world that He would save them from giving in to the evil one. He prayed that God the Father would make them holy by His truth, teaching them His Word which is truth.

The apostle Paul prays for and cheers on the congregations he writes to at the beginning of most of his letters, as well. Across 1 Corinthians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and 2 Thessalonians Paul prays that the saints would be “kept strong to the end so that they would be blameless on the day Christ returns”; that they would “receive spiritual insight and wisdom so they might grow in the knowledge of God”, that their “hearts would be filled with God’s light so they might understand God’s hope and understand God’s great power available to believers”; that God would “finish the good work He began in them, with their love overflowing more and more, continuing to grow in knowledge and understanding to live pure and blameless lives until Christ returns, filled with the fruit of their salvation”; and, He prays they would “have all the endurance and patience they would need, being always filled with joy, and always thanking the Father”; and that the Lord would “enable them to live a life worthy of their calling, confident in His power to accomplish all the good things their faith might prompt them to do”; and more…

That’s the kind of cheering the Lord seems to think we need to keep “leveling up”, cheering that recognizes that the hardships and trials we face in this life are a part of God’s plan to shape the fullness of His likeness back into us again; the cheering we need to overcome the difficulties and beat the bosses this life will send our way.

F. B. Meyer, an English devotional writer and advocate for social causes during the mid-18- and early-1900’s, once wrote: “God’s dealings with us are on an ascending scale. The steps that slope away through darkness to God will always be beckoning to greater and yet greater things.

“Have you known Christ as the Word?” he writes. “He is more – both Spirit and Life. Has He become flesh? You shall behold Him glorified with the glory He had before the world began. Have you known Him as Alpha? He is also Omega.

“Have you beheld the Lamb on the cross? You shall behold Him in the midst of the throne. Have you seen the Spirit descend like a dove on one head? You shall see Him come as a fire upon an unnumbered multitude.

“Do you acknowledge Him as King of Israel? You shall hear the acclamations that salute Him as King of the world.

“Live up to all you know, and you shall know more. Be all you can, and you shall become more. Do all that your two talents permit, and you will find yourself ruler over four cities.”

It’s such a great feeling of accomplishment when we finally get that lay-up down or master the take-down we’ve been practicing, when we’ve memorized our lines or finally gotten that difficult harmony, when we’ve finished that paper, and when our diet has finally become our typical way of eating, etc… Likewise it’s such a great feeling of accomplishment when we haven’t had a cigarette all day; and when we haven’t worried about that worrisome thing all morning; when we were so tempted to rage but somehow found the grace to be gentle, instead; when we realize that although we used to lust after him or her, that we don’t anymore; such a great feeling of accomplishment to see ourselves in big and little ways becoming more and more like Christ!

So let’s expect troubles and trials, and expecting them let us pray that God would grant us and those around us going through them the graces and empowerment we and they really need to persevere, to be brave, to overcome, to grow in faith, hope, and love despite it all, so that the Lord might be made much of here in Milford and the Tri-States area and to the ends of the Earth. And so our neighbors and co-workers and friends and loved ones around us might be saved.

When important people come to town, everyone one knows it. NBA stadiums sell out months before LeBron or Kobe show up for game time. When Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson or Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie do a personal appearance, hundreds of screaming fans will show up hours ahead of time. When the President visits, you can be sure the mayor will meet him at the airport, and schoolchildren will be there to give the First Lady flowers. (We’re still celebrating the visit of a president from 50 years ago!)

But the Christmas event shows us that God does things differently. You might even call His way sneaky. The most important person in the history of the world snuck into town late one night and definitely did not stay in a five-star hotel. Actually, Jesus was smuggled into Bethlehem through the womb of a teenage girl, who gave birth in a barn. That’s different.

We all know the story of Christmas: the baby, the barn, the shepherds, the magi… But hidden inside that familiar story is the surprising revelation that God’s way is to ignore the big shots and use nobodies instead. Here are the stories of a few of God’s nobodies:

The Gospel According to Luke 1:26-38

²⁶ In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a village in Galilee, ²⁷ to a virgin named Mary. She was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of King David. ²⁸ Gabriel appeared to her and said, “Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you!”

²⁹ Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean. ³⁰ “Don’t be afraid, Mary,” the angel told her, “for you have found favor with God! ³¹ You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name Him Jesus. ³² He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give Him the throne of His ancestor David. ³³ And He will reign over Israel forever; His Kingdom will never end!”

³⁴ Mary asked the angel, “But how can this happen? I am a virgin.”

³⁵ The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will be holy, and He will be called the Son of God. ³⁶ What’s more, your relative Elizabeth has become pregnant in her old age! People used to say she was barren, but she has conceived a son and is now in her sixth month. ³⁷ For nothing is impossible with God.”

³⁸ Mary responded, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.” And then the angel left her.

Mary was a teenage girl from a small town. In Bible times, women were not important people, and teenagers were even lower on the scale. Mix in her premarital, anonymous pregnancy, and you’ve got not only a real nobody on your hands but a scandalous nobody! Yet Mary was God’s choice. She conceived the baby Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit. To God this nobody, Mary – willing to bear scandal for His glory – was somebody, and because she said, “Yes!” to God she has become somebody very important! But she was a nobody first, until she said, “Yes,” to God…

The Gospel According to Matthew 1:18-25

¹⁸ This is how Jesus the Messiah was born. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. But before the marriage took place, while she was still a virgin, she became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹ Joseph, her fiancé, was a good man and did not want to disgrace her publicly, so he decided to break the engagement quietly.

²⁰ As he considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. “Joseph, son of David,” the angel said, “do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit. ²¹ And she will have a son, and you are to name Him Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

²² All of this occurred to fulfill the Lord’s message through his prophet: ²³ “Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call Him Immanuel, which means ‘God is with us.’”

²⁴ When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded and took Mary as his wife. ²⁵ But he did not have sexual relations with her until her son was born. And Joseph named him Jesus.

Joseph was a nobody, too: Just a hard-working craftsman. He was faced with a choice between trusting God and protecting his small-town reputation. He chose trusting God even though it meant rejection and shame from those around him. So God chose Joseph to act as a foster-father to the Savior of the world.

The Gospel According to Luke 2:8-20

⁸ That night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep. ⁹ Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them. They were terrified, ¹⁰ but the angel reassured them. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. ¹¹ The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David! ¹² And you will recognize Him by this sign: You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth, lying in a manger.”

¹³ Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others—the armies of Heaven—praising God and saying, ¹⁴ “Glory to God in highest Heaven, and peace on Earth to those with whom God is pleased.”

¹⁵ When the angels had returned to Heaven, the shepherds said to each other, “Let’s go to Bethlehem! Let’s see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

¹⁶ They hurried to the village and found Mary and Joseph. And there was the Baby, lying in the manger. ¹⁷ After seeing Him, the shepherds told everyone what had happened and what the angel had said to them about this Child. ¹⁸ All who heard the shepherds’ story were astonished, ¹⁹ but Mary kept all these things in her heart and thought about them often. ²⁰ The shepherds went back to their flocks, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen. It was just as the angel had told them.

Shepherding has become romanticized in our day, but back then shepherds were not important people. As a matter of fact, just the opposite: Shepherds were filthy, unreliable, and foul-mouthed with no manners; and spending their days and nights working and sleeping with their beasts made them ill-suited for human company over time. Yet they were the first guests invited to the celebration! They saw the skies ripped open and heard the song of Heaven. In just one winter night, these social misfits witnessed more of God’s glory than all the priests and royals in Jerusalem!

The Gospel According to Matthew 2:1-12

Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the reign of King Herod. About that time some wise men from eastern lands arrived in Jerusalem, asking, ² “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw His star as it rose, and we have come to worship Him.”

³ King Herod was deeply disturbed when he heard this, as was everyone in Jerusalem. ⁴ He called a meeting of the leading priests and teachers of religious law and asked, “Where is the Messiah supposed to be born?”

⁵ “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they said, “for this is what the prophet wrote: ⁶ ‘And you, O Bethlehem in the land of Judah, are not least among the ruling cities of Judah, for a ruler will come from you Who will be the shepherd for My people Israel.’”

⁷ Then Herod called for a private meeting with the wise men, and he learned from them the time when the star first appeared. ⁸ Then he told them, “Go to Bethlehem and search carefully for the Child. And when you find Him, come back and tell me so that I can go and worship Him, too!”

⁹ After this interview the wise men went their way. And the star they had seen in the east guided them to Bethlehem. It went ahead of them and stopped over the place where the Child was. ¹⁰ When they saw the star, they were filled with joy! ¹¹ They entered the house and saw the Child with His mother, Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped Him. Then they opened their treasure chests and gave Him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

¹² When it was time to leave, they returned to their own country by another route, for God had warned them in a dream not to return to Herod.

In their own lands the Magi were clearly somebodies, but in Judea they were nothing more than spectacles. At home they may have been rich, famous, and influential, but in Judea they were simply pagan astrologers: Foreigners with the wrong religion, wearing the wrong clothes, and reading from the wrong sacred books; yet the Father invited these pagan foreigners to celebrate the birth of His Son!

The Gospel According to Luke 1:5-20

⁵ When Herod was king of Judea, there was a Jewish priest named Zechariah. He was a member of the priestly order of Abijah, and his wife, Elizabeth, was also from the priestly line of Aaron. ⁶ Zechariah and Elizabeth were righteous in God’s eyes, careful to obey all of the Lord’s commandments and regulations. ⁷ They had no children because Elizabeth was unable to conceive, and they were both very old.

⁸ One day Zechariah was serving God in the Temple, for his order was on duty that week. ⁹ As was the custom of the priests, he was chosen by lot to enter the sanctuary of the Lord and burn incense. ¹⁰ While the incense was being burned, a great crowd stood outside, praying.

¹¹ While Zechariah was in the sanctuary, an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing to the right of the incense altar. ¹² Zechariah was shaken and overwhelmed with fear when he saw him. ¹³ But the angel said, “Don’t be afraid, Zechariah! God has heard your prayer. Your wife, Elizabeth, will give you a son, and you are to name him John. ¹⁴ You will have great joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, ¹⁵ for he will be great in the eyes of the Lord. He must never touch wine or other alcoholic drinks. He will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even before his birth. ¹⁶ And he will turn many Israelites to the Lord their God. ¹⁷ He will be a man with the spirit and power of Elijah. He will prepare the people for the coming of the Lord. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and he will cause those who are rebellious to accept the wisdom of the godly.”

¹⁸ Zechariah said to the angel, “How can I be sure this will happen? I’m an old man now, and my wife is also well along in years.”

¹⁹ Then the angel said, “I am Gabriel! I stand in the very presence of God. It was He Who sent me to bring you this good news! ²⁰ But now, since you didn’t believe what I said, you will be silent and unable to speak until the child is born. For my words will certainly be fulfilled at the proper time.”

As a part of the high priestly family Zechariah and Elizabeth would have been a part of Jerusalem’s elite, that is, if they had had children. But Elizabeth’s barrenness was thought to be a sign that the Lord was displeased with them, perhaps punishing them on account of some secret sin. So while they were likely treated kindly to their faces, they would also likely have been the objects of scorn and wagging fingers and giggling gossip. Yet this childless couple found themselves picked to care for and raise the greatest prophet of the Old Testament tradition! And the one who would prepare the people to receive their Messiah!

The Gospel According to Luke 2:25-40

²⁵ At that time there was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon. He was righteous and devout and was eagerly waiting for the Messiah to come and rescue Israel. The Holy Spirit was upon him ²⁶ and had revealed to him that he would not die until he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. ²⁷ That day the Spirit led him to the Temple. So when Mary and Joseph came to present the baby Jesus to the Lord as the law required, ²⁸ Simeon was there. He took the child in his arms and praised God, saying, ²⁹ “Sovereign Lord, now let Your servant die in peace, as You have promised. ³⁰ I have seen Your salvation, ³¹ which You have prepared for all people. ³² He is a light to reveal God to the nations, and He is the glory of Your people Israel!”

³³ Jesus’ parents were amazed at what was being said about Him. ³⁴ Then Simeon blessed them, and he said to Mary, the baby’s mother, “This child is destined to cause many in Israel to fall, but He will be a joy to many others. He has been sent as a sign from God, but many will oppose Him. ³⁵ As a result, the deepest thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your very soul.”

³⁶ Anna, a prophet, was also there in the Temple. She was the daughter of Phanuel from the tribe of Asher, and she was very old. Her husband died when they had been married only seven years. (³⁷ Then she lived as a widow to the age of eighty-four.) She never left the Temple but stayed there day and night, worshiping God with fasting and prayer. ³⁸ She came along just as Simeon was talking with Mary and Joseph, and she began praising God. She talked about the Child to everyone who had been waiting expectantly for God to rescue Jerusalem.

Of all that we know of Simeon and Anna, they were elderly and alone in the world, two people who – in the world’s eyes – had outlived their usefulness. And yet the Spirit of God had been whispering to them for decades that they would witness the most important event in the history of Israel, in the history of the world! Even after they held God’s Son that day in the Temple the world would have considered them to be has-beens and simply living off others’ charity. Yet Simeon and Anna were in on God’s secret plan decades before the rest of the world even knew what was going on!

When God invites you to His Christmas to celebrate the birth of His Son remember that He’s inviting the nobodies. The powerful people, the beautiful people, and the cool kids might not make it to the celebration. They’re welcome, but they might be too busy building their own kingdoms. Meanwhile, God’s Kingdom is filling up with the people no one notices.

If you’re a nobody this Christmas season—rejoice! You are not far from the Kingdom of God.

A very special thanks to writer and preacher/teacher Ray Hollenbach.