Romans 5:1-4

Nehemiah 13

Romans 2:1-16

New course at our church

These are three posters I whipped up with Pages in iWORKS for a marriage and relationships course we are running at church. It took me about 30min with Pages which is so easy and has such cool templates.

Driscoll In Sydney

Try this

http://www.sydneyanglicans.net/media/video/?bcpid=1321273398&bclid=1376842859&bctid=1743107323

Pastor Wright

Recently Barack Obama has taken some heat for what his former Pastor said. The video above is one of the sermons that people objected to.

The sermon is hard hitting but from a non-American view point, I don't see anything to object to. About the only thing wrong is that it was said a week or two after 9/11 which in hindsight might have been a tad insensitive... BUT NOT INACCURATE. The reality of 9/11 is that it was America's imperialist foreign policy coming home to roost.

I think the response of the white Christian American establishment is an illustration of just how pervasive culture is to our way of viewing matters of faith. Some time back I posted an interview with Pastor John MacArthur who was interviewed around the same time as this sermon. Pastor MacArthur was arguing that there was biblical justification for attacking Iraq. What a contrast to this sermon!

Jumping to our own setting... 2008 New Zealand... I wonder what ways we are "corrupted" by our culture??? I suspect our goal orientated, time poor take on life impacts. Our individualistic, self sufficient approach must impact. And how about our approach towards Maori and Polynesian, Asian, Somali and African immigrants?

As Pastor Wright says... times like this are not a time for judging others... rather a time for looking at our own relationship with Jesus and his merry band of misfits (The Church).

Luke 22:39-46

This morning I spoke at OCC on Luke 22:39-46.

He came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives; and the disciples followed him. When he reached the place, he said to them, “Pray that you may not come into the time of trial.” Then he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, knelt down, and prayed, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me; yet, not my will but yours be done.” Then an angel from heaven appeared to him and gave him strength. In his anguish he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground. When he got up from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping because of grief, and he said to them, “Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray that you may not come into the time of trial.”

These are interesting verses as they precede the whole death, burial and resurrection sequence.

They are also interesting from the perspective of the decision that Jesus made. It is truly frightening to think of what life would be like if Jesus had gone... "oh stuff it... this is all too hard... I'm out of here". If Jesus had not surrendered his will to that of God's we would be completely up the creek. Fortunately for us he stood strong.

This contrasts with the disciples in this story who 'went fetal'. They checked out and gave up.

I guess this is one of the challenges for a modern day Christian. How do we surrender ourselves to God's will and not 'go fetal'? It seems to me that they answer is to look at what Jesus valued and follow that. Essentially this is making what Jesus wants in our lives more important than our wants. We surrender our desires to his.

The funny think is that when we do this, things seem to work better. This is because we start living our lives the way they are designed to be lived. Sometimes this takes a while to happen but it is always better.


This sermon was the first sermon I have done off bullet points. I am trying to learn how to speak without a word for word script. It is quite different. I think I still have a lot to learn.

Driscoll Parody

Be a man...

I have posted a number of videos by Mark Driscoll on my blog. If you follow them through into Youtube you will notice there are a number of videos that seem to be part of a campaign against him. There seems to be some conflict in the Mars Hill Church family. As in all cases, it is important to be discerning about what people preach. Whether they are a big name pastor like Mark or an anonymous party like some of the critique videos.

Some of the accusations in these critique videos are reasonably serious. If they are true, then we will see some serious trouble in this church in the near future. So... be wise. That said, I enjoyed these two videos.

Bible Toilet Humor

John MacArthur on war

[Edited after feedback]
I have been pondering whether to place this on my blog and whether to comment on it for days. I came across this interview on YouTube while watching a number of other sermonettes and interviews. There is a lot of resource out there.



In the end I have decided to put it up. I am making no comment about the war in Iraq. I do have views on this but this is not why I have put this up.

I am also not dissing America or Americans. There are Americans I love and care for deeply... just as there are Russians who I love and care for deeply. Also America has Crispy Cream donuts... hmmmm dooonuts!!!

Seriously... Why I have decided to put this video up is to encourage people to be discerning about what people in positions of authority or responsibility say. We all struggle with our humanness when it comes to applying what Jesus says.

Luke 7:36-50

Luke 7:36-50

This morning we are going to look at a time when Jesus was worshipped by a sinner-woman. This is quite appropriate today as we recognise the good work of important women in our lives… Mothers.

These verses this morning drive us to ask one question…

How do I respond to Jesus?

Now this might sound like the beginnings of an evangelical sermon… aimed at convincing those who do not call Jesus their Lord to follow Him. It is not.

If you do not know Jesus, and want to, please come and chat afterwards.

This question is actually aimed at those of us who know Jesus…who have already been called by Jesus.

How do we respond to Jesus?

Let’s have a look at Luke 7:36-50.


36 One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and took his place at the table.

Does it amaze you that while Jesus really stuck it to the Pharisees… called them on their hypocrisy… they kept inviting Him to eat with them?

37And a woman in the city, who was a sinner, having learned that he was eating in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster jar of ointment. 38She stood behind him at his feet, weeping, and began to bathe his feet with her tears and to dry them with her hair. Then she continued kissing his feet and anointing them with the ointment.

Isn’t this a bit over the top (OTT)? While this wasn’t necessarily a huge jar, it would have been quite an expense.

And isn’t this a bit inappropriate. I mean all this crying and kissing feet… awh!

39Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw it, he said to himself, ‘If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him—that she is a sinner.’

The Pharisee… who Jesus identifies as being called Simon… is appalled. This is a woman with a reputation. Surely Jesus, as a prophet, should know who she is. And if Jesus knows who she is… then He should put a bit of distance between Himself and this wailing chick. I mean… what would the congregation think when the photos hit the Woman’s Day? Simon can see the headlines now…

40Jesus spoke up and said to him, ‘Simon, I have something to say to you.’ ‘Teacher,’ he replied, ‘speak.’

Jesus knows what Simon is thinking… which is kind of ironic in that it proves that Jesus is at least a prophet.

Jesus is about to teach Simon a profound truth. And Simon is ready to listen.

41‘A certain creditor had two debtors; one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42When they could not pay, he cancelled the debts for both of them. Now which of them will love him more?’

Ok. So in today’s terms… one dude has a mortgage of $20,000 and one has a mortgage of $200,000. Both are about to declare bankruptcy. The bank cancels both debts. Which one likes their bank the most?

43Simon answered, ‘I suppose the one for whom he cancelled the greater debt.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘You have judged rightly.’

Of course the answer is obvious… the one who has the bigger debt being cancelled. You don’t need to go to Uni to figure that one out.

Jesus then makes the connection to Simon’s world…

44Then turning towards the woman, he said to Simon, ‘Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has bathed my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. 45You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not stopped kissing my feet. 46You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. 47Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which were many, have been forgiven; hence she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.’

This sinful woman had presumable heard Jesus before and repented of her sinful life. She had faith that He would forgive her. Because of this she was forgiven. She was forgiven much because she had a great deal of sin in her life. And because she was forgiven of so much her love, her gratitude, her response was great.

In fact her love was so great it was considered OTT… over the top. It was inappropriate for some at this meal. It was uncomfortable for those around her.

Theologically this is the guts of this passage. Faith leads to forgiveness which leads to love. Specifically the more you are forgiven, the more you will love.

Pretty simple… not rocket science!

But Jesus doesn’t finish the story there.

48Then he said to her, ‘Your sins are forgiven.’ 49But those who were at the table with him began to say among themselves, ‘Who is this who even forgives sins?’ 50And he said to the woman, ‘Your faith has saved you; go in peace.’

While Jesus has shown everyone the complete and utter reasonableness of the actions of the sinner-woman… just like today… many people were focusing on the legal nuances rather than glory of what had just happened.

In this case these negative people where thinking… How can this guy forgive sins? Only God can forgive sins?

And the answer is YES! Only God can forgive sins. Therefore Jesus is… you do the maths… But they had failed NCEA maths! They did not have Peter Walton-Jones as their teacher. They couldn’t see the equation from the lines.


Friends… as we take a moment today… and quite rightly so… to recognise all that our mothers are and have done on this Mother’s Day… I invite you to take a moment to think about how we respond to who Jesus is and what Jesus has done in our lives.

Do we love Jesus more than our mothers?

We should!

Is our desire to follow Jesus as strong as our desire to do what our mothers say?

It should be!

Our sins are forgiven through Jesus. Jesus has bought about real healing… healing of the soul. Jesus brought forward the foundations of an eternal Kingdom and invested it in us.

Are we a bit too measured and controlled in our response to these facts? Do we lack passion?

Passion is one of our three key themes of the vision for our church family. I would like to suggest this morning that the reason why passion has been targeted is that, as a church family, we are not passionate. We have even identified this ourselves.

I think we are too emersed in and swayed by our culture. Our culture is one of placing great weight on what other people think of us. PR and spin rule the day.

In many ways we are fearful and pre-occupied with our perception.

While we are called not to be a stumbling block to others, pre-occupation with our perception has become a lead weight tied around our collective ankles.

Quite frankly, it is time for us as a family to cut free of this weight. It is time that we feel free to worship Jesus passionately. It is time we serve Jesus passionately.

What does this look like?

I think we all have different God-given dreams of what a passionate community of Jesus followers would look like. My dreams involve a good chuck of my church family not being here… but being missionaries of one form or another. My dreams involve our church splitting every 10 or 15 years… and planting a new church. Big, scary, grandiose plans…

However, I would like to suggest that as a church family we are not going to see these dreams turn into realities when we are busy worrying what our perception is when it comes to actively and publicly following and worshipping Jesus.

We need to be like the sinner-woman at Simon’s house… passionately grateful… passionately focused on worshipping, serving and following Jesus in response to the amazing, undeserved forgiveness we have been shown.

We have an opportunity now with a time of communion and a time of musical worship.

Luke 5:27-39 : Why you should never patch Levis!

Recently I found a list on the internet. It is all the things you have to watch out for when going to a new church.

For instance…


You Might Be In the Wrong Church If....
• The missions budget just got cut in half, but the church treasurer just bought a new Harley.
• New "Purpose-Driven" mission statement includes vague reference to Jell-O-wrestling.
• On your second Sunday as a visitor they ask you to be their pastor.
• On the offering envelopes is printed "Please make cheques payable directly to the pastor."
• Everyone is handcuffed together at the ankles before preaching starts.
• The confessional has a coin slot and a hand lever.
• Bill Clinton is the speaker of the day and his topic is "Morality In America - How To Be A Shining Example".
• The minister falls asleep while delivering his own sermon.
• The Choir wears black leather robes.
• The media refers to the church facilities as a "compound".
• The ushers passing around the offering basket are wearing ski masks.
• The Bible they use is the Dr. Seuss version.

So… I hope you all feel comfortable this morning because none of these apply here. Although I have to say I have always liked the idea of filling the baptismal pool with jelly!!!



This morning you might be wondering why I have entitled this sermon… “ Why you should never patch Levis!”. Well, people have taken components from the passages we are studying today and drawn this conclusion. As we will see today, this is NOT what the passages are about.

In saying that, what we will see is that the “approach of patching” is not what we are called to.

Anyway… hopefully the title got your interest and caused you to read the verses over the last few weeks… which as an aside, is something I would encourage everyone to do as we go through this series in Luke.


So… This morning we are going to look at Luke 5:27-39.

Jesus Calls Levi
27After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, "Follow me." 28And leaving everything, he rose and followed him.

29And Levi made him a great feast in his house, and there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table with them. 30And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, "Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?" 31And Jesus answered them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 32I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance."

A Question About Fasting
33And they said to him, "The disciples of John fast often and offer prayers, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink." 34And Jesus said to them, "Can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? 35The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days." 36He also told them a parable: "No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. If he does, he will tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old. 37And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. 38But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. 39And no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says, 'The old is good.'"[a]



This is a story about a guy named Levi. Levi was a tax collector, when Jesus found him. He went on to be known as Matthew. He wrote a Gospel…

Any guesses of what Gospel he wrote.???

…Yip… the Gospel of Matthew.

And he was the one apostle whom we have no record of whether he was murdered or whether he lived a long life. All the rest were topped.


So the story this morning finds Levi… I prefer this name as it is pretty cool… in his tax booth.

Now tax collectors back then were not the highly regarded professionals that we think of today. The job was highly financially rewarding but society looked down on you if you were a tax collector. This is because you generally had to muscle people into paying their taxes. Break a few legs. Burn a few houses. Chuck a few people in prison. Really stick it to someone who could not pay… That type of thing.

This generally got you off side with your neighbours. You were not the most popular person in town.

In fact the religious people would avoid you all together. You were collecting taxes for the occupying Roman Empire and you were a traitor.

I guess some modern day equivalent positions could be:

• Whalers
• Nuclear waste contractors
• Brothel owners
• Chemical weapons manufacturers
• Landmine sales people
• Loan sharks
• Tobacconists

These are people you would prefer not to mention you were friends with. Not the social elite.

So Levi is sitting in his booth, creaming in the cash. He has done his leg breaking rounds. He only had to burn two houses that day. A nice quiet day. Although there have been a whole pile of people talking about this Jesus guy. Everyone is saying He healed a paralysed man.

And then Jesus wanders passed and calls to him. “Follow me.” A couple of amazing words that would change Levi’s life forever.

Now… we are about to see the whole point of this section of Luke.

What does Levi do?


Does he “ummm and arrr”?

Does he go… “one minute while I gather up my cash and close down my booth”?

Does he go… “hold on while I get my Uncle Bob to come and run things while I am away”?

Does he take a second to think… “I’ve got 25 years of high income, then someone will knock me off… verses… years of poverty, threats of murder, have my life turned upside down, probably get disowned, almost definitely get knocked off… but get to be with this amazing Jesus guy?

Does he think… I don’t even know this guy Jesus… although there is something certainly special about Him?

Does he hesitate?



No. He ups and follows Jesus. He leaves everything and follows Jesus.



Goosh… you say. That’s pretty impulsive.

Yes. Exactly.



It’s like he has no attachment to his old life… he is happy to dump everything.

Oh… definitely!



I think we can see that in this first section of our verses a pattern is demonstrated.

1. Jesus calls.

2. We drop everything and follow Him.


This is not just some obscure story.

Jesus teaches this same principle elsewhere.


Firstly, in Luke 5:3-11 with the story of the calling of Simon Peter that Ian covered a few weeks ago…

3Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon's, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat. 4And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch." 5And Simon answered, "Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets." 6And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. 7They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. 8But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord." 9For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken, 10and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, "Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men." 11And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.

Yes you heard right. Simon just got the haul of a lifetime… fish for Africa… yet he left it. He left his boat. His gear. His job. His family. He left everything!


In Luke 9:57-62, Jesus calls a number of men and they have things of life to deal with first.

57As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go."
58Jesus replied, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head."
59He said to another man, "Follow me." 
 But the man replied, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father."
60Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God."
61 Still another said, "I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family."
62Jesus replied, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God."


And again in Luke 18:18-30 with the story of the rich young man.

18A certain ruler asked him, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
19"Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good—except God alone. 20You know the commandments: 'Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.'"
21"All these I have kept since I was a boy," he said.
22When Jesus heard this, he said to him, "You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."
23When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was a man of great wealth. 24Jesus looked at him and said, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! 25Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."
26Those who heard this asked, "Who then can be saved?"
27Jesus replied, "What is impossible with men is possible with God."
28Peter said to him, "We have left all we had to follow you!"
29"I tell you the truth," Jesus said to them, "no one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God 30will fail to receive many times as much in this age and, in the age to come, eternal life."

The rich young man had so much stuff he did not want to leave behind. His wealth.


So we have a core principle… one of those global truths.

When Jesus calls… drop everything and follow.


Now I am not suggesting that when you become a Christian you must sell up everything, give it to the poor and move to Zimbabwe. I don’t think it is necessarily the case that we are all called to drop everything.

But I AM suggesting that we need to be prepared to give up everything…



So I have a question or two:

Are you prepared to drop everything for Jesus?

Are there things, people, relationships, pride… that you are holding on to?

Can we take a moment in silence, with our eyes closed and invite God to bring to mind those things that we are not prepared to give up…




I would encourage you not to ignore what came to mind or reason your way out of it. My experience is that our God is endlessly patient but also quite persistent. And it is a lot better to address things He points out NOW rather than later.


Someone once told me an analogy of what it meant to be a follower of Jesus.

A follower of Jesus should have their hands out like this [cupped hands]…

This is because it is the only way someone can receive something… Jesus’ calling, mercy, grace and love.

But having your hands like this also means that you are not clinging onto anything.



Back to the story…


Levi then does something else.

He is excited about following Jesus.

He wants to introduce everyone he knows to Jesus.

He wants to celebrate.

So what does he do?

He holds a great feast.

And who does he invite?

All his friends! And anyone else who is around!

Let’s focus on his friends…

And who are all his friends?

Other members of the local tax collectors union. His contract leg breakers… for times when the prospective tax payer was a bit bigger than him. Prison guards. Maybe some tax payers whom he had come to alternative payment arrangements with. Basically a whole pile of unsavoury types.


Levi wants everyone to share in what he has been shown.


At this point we are joined in our story by the Pharisees. The critics! These are the “na” sayers. The rules people. The legalists. The modern day letters-to-the-editor writers. The talk-show callers. The bloggers with a cause. The people who have nothing better to do than to pile expectations on others while living the opposite themselves. The hypocrites.

Have you ever met one of these people? Are you one of these people?


We are going to see in the course of this series in Luke that Jesus never really escapes these guys. They follow Him everywhere… eventually to His crucifixion.

And we will also see that Jesus never lets them escape from their hypocrisy. Jesus confronts them.

These verses are the first of some very hard and direct words to the Pharisees.


While the Pharisees challenge Jesus, they are also intrigued by this man. He is a powerful teacher. He knows his scriptures. He has real authority. Amazing things happen when Jesus was about. He acts like a rabbi. He has followers… disciples.


So what, they ask, is He and His disciples doing at a feast with the low life of society. He should know… being a rabbi and all that… that it is not right to associate with such scum. A number of translations actually use this word… scum… I think through this word you get a sense of how the Pharisees saw people like Levi.

Jesus then uses a parables or word imagery to say that what Levi has done was bang on the money.



Jesus says

… "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance." (Luke 5:31-32, ESV)

The NLT puts it a bit more clearly.

… “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners and need to repent.” (Luke 5:31-32, NLT)


Jesus says… I am a doctor with the cure for sin.

Do you think that this might have been what Levi saw when responded to Jesus’ call? Jesus the doctor with a cure for his sins?


Levi knew he was a sinner. Everyone had told him he was a sinner for so long. Most often they said this either just before or just after he broke their legs or burnt their house down. And normally quite colourfully.

On the other side we have the Pharisees. These were guys who thought they were not sinners. They lived under rules and regulations to keep them from sinning.


I want to take a little siding for a moment and talk about sin.

Now when we think of sin… what do we think about?

Most often we think about things that we do or say.

• I killed this person
• I burned down the neighbours chicken shed
• I thought that not nice thought
• I told that person a lie
• I gossiped
• Etc. Etc.

In technical speak these are sins of co-mission. We are active in them. We are doing or saying something that is wrong… that is not honouring of God.

The Pharisees tried to wipe these sins out of their lives through rules.

• Thou shalt not kill people
• Thou shalt not burn thou neighbour’s chicken shed down
• Thou shalt not think
• Thou shalt not do this.
• Thou shalt not do that.
• Etc. Etc.

Unfortunately they ignored the other side of sin… sins of omission. Sins of omission occur when we don’t do something or we aren’t being someone we should, even though God would have us do or to be this.

The classic biblical example is the story of the Good Samaritan. Both the Levite and the Priest pass by the injured man. Both are concerned about not breaking the laws around contact with blood. But in being so concerned about one law they did not care for their fallen brother. Their inaction was a sin. This did not honour God.

Have you thought about this before… your inaction… your not getting involved… might be sin?

Most of the Pharisees did not see this. They thought they were right with God because they followed their rules. They thought they were righteous.

Unfortunately they were deceiving themselves.

I’m going to leave that thought there and move on. I would invite you to think some more about this issue.


Luke carries on with his two themes of giving everything and celebrating but in a different time in the next section. In some translations the Bible uses the word “later”.

Here we see the Pharisees challenge Jesus directly. Up until now they had muttered under their breath… although Jesus always seem to hear their thoughts.

Now they ask directly… why aren’t your disciples behaving like John’s disciples… or ours for that matter? Surely all this feasting is not the way to God? Aren’t we meant to be fasting and praying?

Jesus gives another parable that illustrates that Levi’s recognition of his state as a sinner and his response was the right way.

… "Can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? 35The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days." (Luke 5:34-35 ESV)

Jesus hits them with a rhetorical question. Of course you can’t expect wedding guests to fast while the groom is with them. A wedding is a celebration. When the groom is there, it is time to celebrate.

It would be like asking… “can you make dancers at a rave not dance?”. Of course not!

Jesus is saying directly that what His disciples are doing is right.

With the issue of the feasts and celebrating out of the way, Jesus returns to our theme of leaving everything and following Him.

He tells two parables… the first is about patching old clothes. The next is about re-using old wineskins.

Let me explain them.

… "No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. If he does, he will tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old. 37And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. 38But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. (Luke 5:36-38 ESV)


If you cut a piece of cloth out of your new shirt and use it to patch an old shirt, what happens?

Firstly, the new shirt will have a hole in it. Unless you are looking for a bit of natural air conditioning built into your shirt, your new shirt is stuffed.


When you sew the patch onto your old shirt, what happens?

The colours will be different. If they aren’t different to start with, the new section will fade while the old material will have already faded. Also the new section will loss its stretchiness and it will distort the shirt.

In short you will stuff the old shirt and the new shirt.

Now is Jesus teaching Sewing 101? No!

He is saying, chuck your old shirt… symbolic of your old life… away and put on your new shirt… symbolic of your new life. Or more specifically… you can’t drag bits of your old sinful life forward with you or you will end up destroying both.

In short… Levi’s example of simply walking away from his old life… his old ways… and to follow Jesus is right.



What about the wineskins?

Wineskins were the skins of animals, like sheep. They were sewn together and grape juice was put inside and they were sealed. The grape juice fermented into wine. As it fermented, it would expand. However the animal skin would be new and stretchy and therefore they would expand with the fermentation. Eventually the fermentation would stop and the skins would harden with time.

So you would end up with a hard case with old wine in it.

This was the natural process. New wineskins. New wine. Old wineskins. Old wine.


Guess what would happen when you put new wine into an old hard wineskin?

BANG!!!!

The new wine would ferment, expand and blow the old hard wineskin apart.

The wine and the wineskin would be destroyed.

Again the message is simple… you can’t mix your old life… symbolised by the old wineskins… with your new life… symbolised by the new wine… or you will destroy both.


Again… Levi’s example of leaving everything and following Jesus was right.


But these parables… stories… were not for the benefit of Levi. Levi did not need to be told he was right to up, leave everything and follow Jesus.

No… these stories were for the Pharisees.


An interesting question is… do you think they… the Pharisees understood what Jesus was saying?

I think so.

Jesus finishes this section with what almost seems like a sad comment or reflection. One of those comments made as one leaves… made almost under ones breath.

He says…

39And no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says, 'The old is good.'

No one who tries to follow the laws and regulations seems to desire the new way Jesus is offering… the way made possible through His grace.

I sense Jesus is heart broken by this.

The irony that sinners are more attaching to His message and His person than those who claim to be followers of God devastates Him.


This morning we need to take care of some business.


Have we been called by Jesus… has Jesus said… FOLLOW ME!?
Then it is time to get off our backsides, stop making excuses, let go of our old life and follow Him.


Are we following Jesus but we are still holding on to things… ways… relationships? Are we wearing a patched shirt?
Then it is time to chuck that shirt and put on a new one… follow Jesus in all areas of our lives… not just those areas where we are comfortable in.
Because a half-way, mix and mash approach is going to lead to a lot of spilled wine sooner or later.


And finally, no matter where we are at… if Jesus is in the house… it is a time to celebrate. So let’s do that now because this is His house and we are His family.

Blessed to be a blessing

Well good morning! It is really great to be here this morning.

This morning I want to assure you that you are blessed. Despite what it might feel like sometimes…

• you live in a relatively free country.
• you are ridiculously wealthy.
• you are healthy.
• you probably have at least one cell phone each.

Let’s have a look at some stats!!!



In Ethiopia… one in ten babies die as an infant. In NZ, it is one in 200!!!

As a recently convert to Team Dad, even given all our complications, I’m pretty happy our daughter has been born in NZ.



In NZ you will live on average 30 years more that in Kenya and Ethiopia.



Ok… so people in the USA are very rich. But look at NZ verses these other countries…

We are loaded!!!



And cell phones… Many of us have two!!!


We are materially blessed as a nation. We are wealthy beyond the imagination of most people on earth!

There was another nation that was blessed. This was the nation or people group of the Israelites.

This blessing started off with Abraham in Genesis 22:16-18



God was saying to Abraham… because you obeyed me… I am going to bless you soooo much… beyond what you can imagine. And while you will benefit from this… it is through you that I will bless all the nations of the earth.


Now isn’t this an interesting concept… other nations are blessed through a nation that God blessed.

Or to make it a bit more personal… other people are blessed through people whom God blesses.

This is not an isolated incident in the Bible.

Look at Joseph. God blessed him and he was a real blessing to the nation of Egypt as he guided them through a drought.

Look at Jonah. Here is a guy who was a reluctant participant in blessing the people of Ninevah… but through his call to repentance, this city was blessed.

Look at Daniel and his mates. They blessed King Nebuchadnezzar and the people of Babylonian empire with their gift of wisdom that God gave them.

If you read many of the Old Testament stories you will see a common thread. God blessing people so that they can bless others.

Jesus continued this message. Jesus himself was described as being blessed (Luke 1:42). Jesus blessed many, both in action and in word. But He also taught specifically about this issue of why we are blessed.

I want us to quickly think about two of the stories Jesus told.

Firstly the story of the Rich Fool (Luke 12:15-21).



Here is a guy who has been blessed. He has fertile land, which is a big blessing. But what was his focus? To store up what he had been blessed with for himself.

Let’s look at another story. This time the story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:30-35).



The Samaritan traveller was undoubtedly blessed. He has supplies. He has money. He has his own donkey.

Contrary to what Shrek says, having a donkey is a blessing.

He also has compassion. And he blessed this mugging victim greatly.

If we look at the rest of the New Testament we continue to see this pattern.

In Acts we see offering being taken for churches who are facing famine.

We see people selling their homes and contributing it to the church so it can look after the needs of the less fortunate.

So what’s my point???

I want to strongly state that:

1. We are blessed!
2. There seems to be a pattern of God wanting those whom have been blessed to bless others.

Does this seem reasonable?

A part of scripture that has been having a deep impact on me for over a couple of years now is the end of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke.



As Jesus is about to ascend to heaven, he commissions His disciples. Essentially He says that I have blessed you with a message of salvation… a message of reconciliation. Now go bless others with this same message.

Now in both passages there is this focus on all nations. This is the same focus we saw back in Genesis... Being a blessing to all nations.

In the Luke account, Jesus says to start in Jerusalem. But this is not the starting and finishing point of this activity. There is no way you can read these pages and come away with the impression that Jesus though His disciples should only tell those in Jerusalem. He is saying to share the blessing Jesus gives His disciples with all nations.

So…

1. We are Blessed
2. We have this pattern of God wanting those whom have been blessed to bless others
3. Jesus commissions His disciples to bless all nations


And as believers, aren’t we Jesus’ disciples?

Does this mean that just maybe Jesus wants us, as His followers, to be about blessing other nations?

I again want to strongly state that… YES… we should be about blessing other nations. While we might start in our own back yard… our own proverbial Jerusalem… Jesus has set us a focus on the nations.

And this focus was been around since Genesis… as we saw earlier.

In fact I would like to go one step further. I would like to suggest that these commissioning verses are actually stating one of the core purposes of our lives. And… when we don’t fulfil this purpose… it leaves a void in us.

These are some heavy, and hopefully, challenging words.

I want to tell you a story about one of the most profound experiences I have had. In 2004 Carl, Claire and I went to Irkutsk, Siberia, Russia. That year we meet one of the most vibrant, fun-loving persons on this earth called Olga. Olga was not a believer but her brother Sergey is.



While Olga spoke next to no English… in fact I don’t recall her even saying “Hello”… and I spoke next to no Russian… not even a Privet!... we seem to connect. We had a lot of fun teasing each other. All with no language.

In 2005 we again spent time with Olga, this time as a believer. She was the same fun-loving, vibrant person but there was a new joy about her. I also had the absolute honour and privilege to baptise Olga.



Do the verses in Matthew come to mind??

… go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. 20 Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you…

This last year we spent a lot of time with Olga. She has started to learn and speak English. But more amazing is she is now speaking into the lives of some of the younger girls… discipling them.

I do not think I can ever explain or share how much joy seeing and thinking about this brings. The closest analogy I can give is when you are playing cricket and you hit the ball with the full face of the bat, in the sweet spot, with perfect timing and it flies to the fence. Not one of those brutal shots which is all about power and muscling the ball. Rather it is when everything comes together in refined perfection. I know this doesn’t fully do justice to what that feeling is but it is the closest I can get.

I think the reason for this feeling is that it was because it was one of those moments… in my case one of those very rare moments… where my purpose… what God designed me to be and do… was being fulfilled.

This morning I want to suggest that this purpose, of blessing the nations… blessing those particularly in nations less well off than ours… is something that is designed into all of us.

You might say that some people are meant to be involved in this type of activity… But others are meant to focus on their local community. Or on their family. Or on their ministry here in New Zealand. Or on their work environment.

There is one problem with this. I just can’t see this “out” in scripture. These areas are important but I do not believe that scripture says that it’s an either-or situation. I very much believe it is a both-and situation.

For some of you this might be a bit challenging. Over the years as I have shared with people about going to Siberia or being involved in mission trips, I have frequently come across the response that this is a wonderful thing for you to do but it is not for me.

That has always sat uncomfortably with me but we have a New Zealand cultural tendency accept each other’s opinions as valid. We call this tolerance.

What this means though is that I have been thinking about this subject for over two years now. So I am pretty sure that God is calling ALL of us, without exception, to bless the nations of this world.

So I have three challenges for you…

1. Show me anywhere in scripture that takes away the call of Jesus to bless the nations. You might like to look at Matt 8:21 and Luke 14:26.
2. If God has given us no out to this calling, what are you going to do about it?
3. If you decide you should do what Jesus is calling you too and you don’t know how to progress this, come and have a talk to me over the next few weeks about coming to Siberia with us.



Yes this is a blatant advertisement for Siberia. This is partly what these trips to Siberia are about. Helping our church family find out how they can fulfil this calling.

It maybe that you find Siberia is not your thing. But at the very least it will open your eyes… and probably your heart to the possibilities of being involved with people who are culturally different to you. It will show you that Jesus is the saviour and restorer of all the nations… not just New Zealand.

And if you fall in love with the people of Siberia… you will have found something that God designed you for.

1 Timothy 4:6-16 - Sermon from OCC

Well Good Morning and welcome to Onslow Community Church.

This morning we are going to look at 1 Timothy. So if you have your bibles, now is a good time to flick to this letter.

1 Timothy is easy to find. It is in the New Testament and it is part of the section of “T’s”. I just flick through the NT, from the back, until I hit a “T” and I’m sweet ‘cause I know it is somewhere there.

Anyway… let’s get a bit of perspective on this letter of 1 Timothy.

Basically this is a letter from Paul to Timothy. Paul… after his possum-in-the-headlights-of-heaven experience on the road to Damascus… had been wandering around the eastern Mediterranean Sea area preaching to the people there, starting churches with all the people who had believed in Jesus and moving on.

It seems that Paul visited a city on his first missions trip called Lystra, which is in modern day Turkey. There a young man Timothy became a Christian.

On Paul’s second trip, he stopped in on Lystra again. This is written about in Acts 16:1-5. He found that Timothy had grown in his faith. Timothy’s fellow believers thought very highly of him so Paul invited Timothy to join his mission.

We also see in these verses that Timothy must have been VERY keen to join Paul’s mission because he had a significant… how do we put it… barrier to overcome. Notice all the guys moving slightly in your seats. ☺

Now I should point out that circumcision is not a requirement to be a missionary or Christian. What was going on here was that not being circumcised would have limited Timothy’s ability to work with Jewish believers so he seems to have decided that if this will help introduce Jesus to more people… bring on the scissors!!!

So Timothy joined up with Paul and onwards they went on his second missions trip.

Timothy must have been a very gifted and impressive young man because almost straight away Paul is prepared to entrust churches to Timothy when Paul gets booted out of a city.

By Paul’s third missionary trip he is sending Timothy off left right and centre. He is sent to the Corinthians (1 Cor 4:17), Philippians (Phil 2:19), Thessalonians (1 Thes 3:2), to name a few.

We find Timothy in Ephesus when 1 Timothy is penned.

This letter is unlike a lot of Paul’s letter. In many ways we are eavesdropping on a personal letter. Other letters are to churches or to everyone. This is a personal letter to Paul’s young charge. So it is dealing with issues that are specific to Timothy and the ministry he was doing in Ephesus.

The letter deals with a good number of subjects including:

1. False teachers
2. Faith and perseverance
3. Worship services
4. Selecting church leaders
5. Relationships between church people

Many of these subjects are very useful for us as a family of believers, hence why this letter is in the Bible.

This morning I want to focus on what I see as the pivotal section of the letter…

1 Timothy 4:6-16

[Read out loud]


6 If you explain these things to the brothers and sisters, Timothy, you will be a worthy servant of Christ Jesus, one who is nourished by the message of faith and the good teaching you have followed. 7 Do not waste time arguing over godless ideas and old wives’ tales. Instead, train yourself to be godly. 8 “Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come.” 9 This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it. 10 This is why we work hard and continue to struggle, for our hope is in the living God, who is the Savior of all people and particularly of all believers.
11 Teach these things and insist that everyone learn them. 12 Don’t let anyone think less of you because you are young. Be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity. 13 Until I get there, focus on reading the Scriptures to the church, encouraging the believers, and teaching them.
14 Do not neglect the spiritual gift you received through the prophecy spoken over you when the elders of the church laid their hands on you. 15 Give your complete attention to these matters. Throw yourself into your tasks so that everyone will see your progress. 16 Keep a close watch on how you live and on your teaching. Stay true to what is right for the sake of your own salvation and the salvation of those who hear you.


These verses are the key to the letter. They are fatherly advice to Timothy and they connect all the other sections within the letter.

This section gives us ten short lessons to take onboard so we will work our way through these verses.


1. We need to explain things to our church family

6 If you explain these things to the brothers and sisters, Timothy, you will be a worthy servant of Christ Jesus, one who is nourished by the message of faith and the good teaching you have followed.

Verse 6 essentially says that everything that I, Paul, have written above should be explained by Timothy to the church he was pastoring in Ephesus. Things like:

• Beware of false teachers
• This is how you should worship
• This is how leaders should behave and be selected
• And so on.

The modern day implication for us is that we should teach what the Bible says. We should explain it so that everyone understands what was written and what it means. When we do this we are following good teaching and we are being a worthy servant.

So as a church we have a responsibility to explain what the Bible says. At OCC we do this primarily as part of these Sunday morning services and through homegroups. However if there are questions you have… big deep theological issues… there are people in our church family who will help you understand what the bible says about these things. Just ask!


2. Don’t waste time with old wives tales

7 Do not waste time arguing over godless ideas and old wives’ tales…

Oh how we love to do this. This is almost a cultural pastime for our generation. We love to discuss new theories and old theories and bits of trivia and just a whole pile of stuff. Information, ideas… knowing more has almost become a god for our generation.

Yet the more we know the more we realise we don’t know. The more we argue through philosophies, the more we realise that all this other stuff is pointing out the hopelessness of life without Jesus.

I was watching a very interesting series of videos on evolution. This genetic scientist was explaining how as he understood more about cells and how they work and reproduce, the more questions he had about the theory of evolution. When he asked his colleagues how to answer these questions there were no answers.

Eventually all his studies on evolution, a godless idea, pointed him to a creator/designer… Jesus.

Now what I am about to say is pretty politically incorrect in today’s world… but I will step forward and take one on the chin…

You don’t need to know a lot to have a successful life. You need to know Jesus is God and He created all things and He loves you. Its good to know a little bible. And that is about it.

Now I am not saying education is bad… hey I knocked out 6 years of uni, a bachelors and a masters in economics… but really a lot of what we study is only useful so we can participate in this world. It is important to participate in the world but nowhere near as important as participating in the Kingdom of God.

For instance… if you can get your mind around the wholeness of the cross and explain it simply and clearly – then you are a lot more valuable than say an economist to the people around you

As I said, not a PC view… but think about it!


3. Training

…Instead, train yourself to be godly. 8 “Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come.”…

So if arguing about and discussing godless ideas isn’t that valuable, then what is?

Well Paul answers this. He says “…Instead, train yourself to be godly.”

And he gives an example of physical training being good… but says that “…training for godliness is much better…”

What does this mean?

I don’t think he is talking about “training” ourselves to believe in Jesus because that is a gracious gift from God. It is not dependent on us so we can’t “train” ourselves in this.

Perhaps what he is meaning are things like what we find in Galatians 5:22…

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

Perhaps it is to be disciplined… another not very PC word… in prayer and reading the Bible and surrendering decisions to Jesus BEFORE they are made.

Perhaps it is being disciplined in spending a few hours preparing for homegroup rather than doing a 12 hour day at work.

Perhaps it is to see what Jesus did and try it.

Many of these things grow or develop through practice, trial, training… whatever you want to term it.

And these things are a million times more valuable than a couple of degrees.


4. Trustworthy sayings

8 “Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come.” 9 This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it.

In verse 9 Paul says this is a trustworthy saying and we should accept it. Now there is a bit of argument about whether verse 8 is the trustworthy saying or verse 10. The NLT translation, which we are using, suggests that it is verse 8.

The question is… why does Paul say that something is a “trustworthy saying”?

Well first of all we should note that Paul uses this phrase three times in 1 Timothy.

a. …“Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” – and I am the worst of them all. (1 Tim 1:15)
b. …”If someone aspires to be an elder, he desires an honorable position.” (1 Tim 3:1)
c. “Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come.” (1 Tim 4:8)

When we look at these trustworthy sayings they seem to me to be a little like the sayings in Proverbs. They are not rhyming or structured like a proverb but they are a little snippet of wisdom that is worth remembering.

So I think we have a little bit of wisdom captured here and Paul is highlighting it.


5. Our hope is in Jesus

10 This is why we work hard and continue to struggle, for our hope is in the living God, who is the Savior of all people and particularly of all believers.

We have hope in Jesus and this is what drives us to struggle. Pure and simple.


This verse however does introduce an idea that is troubling.

Jesus is “…the Savior of all people and particularly of all believers.”

All people??? How does that work, you might ask? Doesn’t Jesus only save those who believe in Him?

There is a doctrine… I would suggest a false doctrine… called universalism. Basically it says that Jesus saves (in an eternal sense) everyone… those who follow Him… and those who don’t. It doesn’t matter if you believe… He saves you.

I don’t believe this! This interpretation doesn’t fit with a large number of other verses and teachings in the Bible.

This can degenerate into quite a complex issue but basically what we believe is that many people will reject Jesus and they will spend eternity separated from Him – in hell. (John 3:36) We then go on to debate a little over whether we are chosen or whether we chose… but generally we agree that it is through the grace of God.

Anyway…

There is another doctrine called common grace. This basically says that Jesus’ sacrifice has benefits for all people but special extra benefits only for Jesus followers. These extra benefits revolve around eternity but are also in the present.

For instance, people in general are restrained by their conscience. This is a benefit for all of society. But only believers receive eternal life and have the Holy Spirit working in them, guiding them through our earthly life.

This is a very simple skim over this issue. It is a big doctrinal debate. Just type “1 Tim 4:10” into Google and you get 82 pages of links. There is a serious amount of discussion about it.


The key point to take on board here is that Jesus is our hope… AND regardless of whether you believe in Him or not… He is the only real hope for all.


6. It is ok to be young

11 Teach these things and insist that everyone learn them. 12 Don’t let anyone think less of you because you are young.

Timothy was a young man. But he was also a gifted, key leader.

Some of you will have found at times that when you are young and you are responsible for people who are older than you, your youth can be a tension. In many cases authority comes with age and experience. But this is not always the case. Sometimes older people struggle to deal with this situation. Sometimes younger people struggle with the situation as well.

Paul tells Timothy not to “…let anyone think less of…” him because he is young.

Age has nothing to do with God given authority. If God has given you a gift of leadership… if He has called you to be a teacher… off you go. This is what Paul is telling Timothy.

However this is not an invitation for all you young guys to rock up and say to mum and dad… “Paul says you are not to think less of me because I am young… so I am off to my mates to make pipe-bombs… I’ll be back late… don’t wait up”. Because that would not be respecting your parents. Also, experience and maturity are a benefit and when we are young we do some pretty silly, thoughtless things because we sometimes don’t see the whole picture.

Paul connects this thought of “it is ok to be young” with the next lesson which is to live a life of example to all.

Before we jump onto that however… for us somewhat older folks (commonly called ‘old fogies’)… there is an application here. Sometimes we are guilty of undervaluing the contributions or potential contributions of younger people. Yes… young people don’t necessarily have the experience we do. Sometimes that can be a good thing. Sometimes we get a bit set in our ways. And our ways may not be the right ways.

I feel Paul giving us a prod to be a bit more cognisant of what young people are thinking.


7. Be an example

Be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity.

Great wisdom here. And this is wisdom applicable to young, old, average, male, female…

Be an example to everyone else in our:

a. Speech
b. Life
c. Love
d. Faith
e. Purity

Great, wise advice. It doesn’t matter who you are, if you reflect well in these five areas… if you are an example to others in these five areas… people will overlook your age, gender, race, class, wealth, poverty… whatever. People will think well of you.


8. Church

13 Until I get there, focus on reading the Scriptures to the church, encouraging the believers, and teaching them.

Paul tells Timothy to focus on reading the Bible to the church he is pastoring, to encouraging them and to teaching them. This is the definition of what a pastor should do.

If you go to a church that does not have the Bible read, that does not have people encouraging one another and are not being taught what the Bible says… then maybe you should look elsewhere. Because this is a lot of what church is about.

When we think about our church family here at OCC, we need to be reading the Bible together. On Sunday morning and in our homegroups. It is important that we ground ourselves in what God has said.

We need to be encouraging each other to step out in faith… trying new things… new ministries. We need to be hearing stories of what has happened and how Jesus showed up.

For example… the other day at Friday prayer meeting we prayed for a whole pile of things and God answered them. Not all but heaps.

• Rachel was about to have her end of year recital and said she was having issues with it. It went well.
• Heather was having blood pressure issues. This got sorted.
• Claire was having a pregnancy scan. The two previous low grade scans showed stuff. After we prayed… the high grade scan showed it was gone.

Awesome observable ‘God-moments’. We need to hear these stories because they encourage one another.

We need to be being taught what the Bible says and how that affects us here and now.

• How does Jesus feeding 5,000 people impact me?
• How does Stephen being stoned to death affect me?
• How does Jesus challenging people to cast the first stone if they are innocent affect me?
• How does Jesus’ commandment to go to the ends of the earth to spread His message affect me?
• And so on…

So we need to see these things happening in our church. When they are not, we need to ask why. And when we have a part to play in these activities, we should. It is so valuable because it is building up our church family.


9. Make use of your gift

14 Do not neglect the spiritual gift you received through the prophecy spoken over you when the elders of the church laid their hands on you.

Gifts… TNT are doing a 7 week study on these at the moment. It is really interesting.

Spiritual gifts are given to all believers by the Holy Spirit (Rom 12:6), not by people. In this case Timothy was made aware of his gift through the elders of his church prophesising about it.

This is important to know, as sometimes you will see people on TV “giving out” spiritual gifts to people. These ‘gift-giving’ people tend to wear white suits, cry a lot and turn up in private jets. A southern American or slightly ethnic accent also helps. I’m not sure why. And something about money always seems to come up…

Anyway… the Bible gives us three lists of gifts. They are…

Romans 12
• Prophesy
• Serving
• Teacher
• Encouragement
• Giving
• Leadership
• Showing kindness

1 Corinthians 12-14
• Wisdom
• Special Knowledge
• Faith
• Healing
• Miracles
• Prophecy
• Discernment
• Speak in tongues
• Interpret tongues
• Leadership

Ephesians 4
• Apostles
• Prophets
• Evangelists
• Pastors
• Teachers


I suspect these are not exhaustive lists but they give a pretty good start.

Now… we believe Timothy had the gifts of being a pastor and teaching. This is why Paul found him so useful for sending to various churches.

In this verse Paul is reminding Timothy… actually he is encouraging Timothy… to keep using his gift. The Ephesians appear to have been a pretty trying lot. So Paul is basically saying…

Dude… you are really good at pastoring this church… God chose you to do this work so it will turn out amazingly cool… so keep on at it!!!

Now isn’t that something we should be saying a lot more to one another?


10. Do all this with vigour

15 Give your complete attention to these matters. Throw yourself into your tasks so that everyone will see your progress. 16 Keep a close watch on how you live and on your teaching. Stay true to what is right for the sake of your own salvation and the salvation of those who hear you.


Finally, Paul says that Timothy should do all these things with vigour… not half heartedly… but for the sake of Jesus… Really give it 100%!

And why…

Because people are watching and their salvation depends on it.

And this is what it… life… everything we do… is really all about… isn’t it?

I mean, our goal is to see others come to salvation… come to know Jesus… and then grow!!!


This morning I don’t really have a single silver bullet… a single concluding, thought provoking, life changing point. We have looked at ten very valuable lessons out of these verses. I imagine that only one… two at the most… would have connected with each of you.

For me… I am challenged to avoid godless arguments and discussions. This is something that is a constant fight for me personally.

Over the last couple of years I have also been more and more challenged by verse 10… the importance of reading the Bible, encouraging people and discipling people. This has come out of our times in Siberia.

The question this morning, as we go through these passages, is… what is Jesus saying to me?

Maybe this is something you can ask Jesus as we come into a time of communion.

Communion is a time where we are advised to examine ourselves. We can ask Jesus to show us what we should change and a time for us to surrender our sin to Him for forgiveness.

AND… It is also a time to remember and to celebrate the life giving, sin cleansing action of Jesus on the cross… represented by the bread and the grape juice.

AND… It is also an excellent time to call out to Jesus if you don’t know Him. ‘Cause ultimately, all this… our worship, what we teach, our church family, our own families and ourselves… it is all to His glory!

Who is Jesus? - Sermon from OCC 19th Nov

This morning I would like to explore one of the most important questions we face… Who is Jesus? Our answer to this question has big and eternal consequences.

Many people see Jesus with only one eye.

You’ve probably heard people say “Jesus was a good man”. This is true. But He is so much more.

You’ve probably heard people describe Him as a “wise teacher” or as Moslems describe Him… “a prophet”. Again, this is true. But He is so much more.

You may have even heard people go as far as describing Him as “their saviour”. This is very true. But He is so much more.

There are a million and one different views of Jesus. In many cases they are true. But in many cases they only paint part of the picture.

This morning I would like to outline the bare minimum of who Jesus is. I intentionally say “bare minimum” because I want to recognise that Jesus grabs hold of our lives in different ways.


I have two reasons for doing this.


1. For those of you who do not know Jesus… I want you to meet Jesus. So this morning is going to be like when a friend of yours introduces you to a friend of theirs. Your friend will tell you about this person you are about to meet so you already have a bit of a foundation to start a friendship on. So this is what we are going to do.

2. For those of you who do know Jesus… I want us to gain a fresh and invigorated passion for just how amazing Jesus is. As the video highlighted, sometimes we lose the sense of just how amazing Jesus’ ministry and example was. And sometimes we forget that Jesus is both our saviour AND our God. Other times we forget that Jesus walked the same road we are walking.


So… Who is Jesus?

There are five core descriptors of who Jesus is…


1. Firstly, He was Mary’s son and He grew up to be a man.

2. Secondly, He is the greatest, wisest teacher ever.

3. Thirdly, He is the perfect example of how we should live in harmony with the will of God.

4. Fourthly, He is our saviour – through His redemptive work, saving us from the penalty for our sin and giving us a new hope.

5. And finally, He is God – sovereign and reigning over all creation.


We will have a look at what the Bible says about each of these. Before we do, I should point out that not many people argue about one to three. There is solid historical evidence that Jesus lived. There is also very strong collaborative and logical evidence that the biblical story of Jesus is true.

What people do argue a lot about is four and five which are in affect the implications of the biblical story being true.

So with that context… let’s have a look at…


Jesus the man

Jesus was a man. In John 1:14 the Bible says that “…the Word…”, meaning God, “…became human and made His home among us…”.

One of the really important theological concepts to grasp is that God came into human history as a man for a period of time. Jesus was NOT a man who became God because He was good. It is very clear that because of our sinful nature, humans are not able to be ‘good enough’ to become God.

This is actually a big differentiating issue between what we as Christians say and what all other religions say. And I think, when you really get honest with yourself, that it makes sense.

We get a reasonable sense from the Gospels, particularly Luke 2, of Jesus as a man.

Growing up, Jesus was very much like other young Jewish boys of that time. He was circumcised. He was named. He was presented to the Lord at the Temple. He grew up strong and healthy.

Later we see Jesus taking part in a wedding feast (John 2:1-12), sharing a meal with people (Luke 19:1-8), sleeping (Luke 8:23), being tempted (Matthew 4:1-11)… and eventually dying (Luke 23:46).

Jesus, being fully human, took part in all of the human experience… except sin.

In John 1:14 Jesus is described as “…full…” - not half full or full most of the time – but “… full of unfailing love and faithfulness.”. In other words, though He was tempted, He DID NOT SIN. We see in Matthew 4 Jesus being tempted with power and hunger – representing for all you Maslow-philes both His base needs and His affirmation needs. Yet He DID NOT SIN.

In fact when the Roman centurion oversaw Jesus being crucified, he said “…Surely this man was innocent…” (Luke 23:47).

No one could honestly point to anything with which to accuse Jesus – accept that He claimed to be God – which as it happened, is true!

So… it is really important to understand that Jesus was a man… human like us. We can identify with Him. We can be confident that He knows what it is like to be human.


Jesus our teacher

Jesus was the great teacher. This fact is pretty universally recognised.

Actually just this week Elton John… of all people… said that “…he admired the teachings of Jesus…”. And then with the next breath announced that he wanted to ban all religion because it bred hatred of his homosexual lifestyle.

In His day, even Jesus’ opponents recognised Him as a great teacher. In Matt 22:15-22 the Pharisees try to trap Jesus but instead they came away amazed by what they hear.

The general public recognised Jesus as a great teacher. “The people were amazed at his teaching, for he taught with real authority – quite unlike the teachers of religious law” (Mark 1:22).

Jesus taught about a large array of issues. You can divide these into four areas:

1. Repent! Basically this means recognise your sinfulness, turn away from it and place your faith in Him.
2. He explained what the law really meant in the context of the Kingdom of God.
3. He showed people what the Kingdom of God is like and how to start establishing it.
4. He prophesised about what would happen to Him.

If you want to personally discover how much Jesus still teaches us, read a chapter of Matthew each day for a month.

The last point is interesting. Jesus prophesised about His death and resurrection. He was bang on the money.

Jesus was a great teacher and He still teaches us today.


Jesus our example

Jesus is our example. Jesus’ life, as recorded by those around Him, was and still is, a walking, living, breathing example for us to follow.

Let’s quickly run through just some of the characteristics Jesus demonstrated to us…

• (Matt 14:14) Compassion –
• (Luke 19:1-8) Reaching out to the social ‘underbelly’ of society –
• (Luke 20:1-8) Humility –
• (Luke 19:45-48) Social Justice –
• (Luke 20:20-26) Respect for Authorities –
• (Mark 10:13-16) Blessing others –
• (Luke 11:1-13) How to pray –
• (Luke 10:30-37) Caring –
• (Luke 11:37-54) Criticising hypocrisy –
• (Luke 13:31-35) Grief over this world –
• (John 13:1-17) Being a servant –

Probably the characteristic that stands out the most – by virtual of it is the hardest for us to follow – is that of being totally surrendered to the will of God.

In Luke 22:42 Jesus prayed… “Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine”.

This prayer was a reflection of Jesus’ life. He was totally surrendered to doing what God wanted Him to be doing.

As we try to follow in Jesus’ footsteps, this I think is the hardest thing to do. Too often our own will overrides what God would have us do.

One of the things to note about these many characteristics that Jesus demonstrated was that they were quite opposite to the way that many of the religious leaders of the day thought. For instance most of the nation thought that the Kingdom of God would be ushered in with a powerful ruler who would blow away anyone, like the Romans, who got in His way.

Yet Jesus was the antithesis of the religious leaders view... which explains why they found it so hard to see who Jesus was.

So Jesus provided us the example of how to live our lives in harmony with God’s will.


Jesus our saviour

Jesus is our saviour. In some ways this is part of His example to us. By being resurrected from the dead, He shows us that we will be too.


But what does it really mean to be “our saviour”? There are a number of aspects to this. Paul sets this out clearly in Ephesians 2:4-7:

4 But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, 5 that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) 6 For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. 7 So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus.

So what can we pull out from these verses:

1. Our salvation is because of God’s rich mercy… His grace.
2. Our salvation is because God loves us
3. We were dead because of our sin
4. We are raised from the dead… the spiritually dead… into life through Jesus
5. Because we are united by faith with Jesus we will join Him in heaven
6. Why… so God can point to us as examples of His grace and kindness

This is what it means to be saved. Death has no hold on us… just as it had no hold on Jesus. We are freed to live life now. And we will be with Him in heaven.

Now this descriptor of Jesus – Jesus is our saviour - is probably the most argued about. This is because as Christians we believe the role of saviour is exclusive to Jesus. We believe there is NO other way to be saved except through being united with Jesus. This causes great offence to those who believe other things because we are basically saying they are either blind or a fool.

If you don’t have a belief about your eternity, then you are blind. If you believe some other religion, we say you are being fooled.

Now there are a couple of arguments against Jesus being the saviour that I want to look at.

Firstly… “surely there are other ways for ‘good’ people to enter eternity”. There are two countering arguments against this…

1. No one is good enough to enter heaven off their own efforts.
2. Jesus said. In John 14:6 Jesus says “…I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.” He doesn’t say “I am a way”… He claims to be exclusive. And just to clarify the point, He then says “…No one can come to the Father except through me”.

The second argument goes… “prove Jesus rose from the grave”. Well you can’t conclusively. What you can say is that:

1. The biblical account points to many people seeing Jesus after He was crucified. In one case over 500 at one time. It is pretty difficult to get 500 people to fake something and not spill the beans.
2. The New Testament authors challenged people who did not believe this claim to go and talk to those who saw Jesus after He was crucified. At the time these texts were written there were plenty of people alive who had seen Jesus – both before and after His crucifixion. There seem to be no fear of people investigating.
3. Roughly a third of the world’s population identifies themselves as followers of Jesus. Why on earth would a third of the world follow a dead man – a liar – a lie? If this is a con then it is a con of biblical scale – excuse the pun.
4. And finally, there are a truckload of people in this very room who will testify to how Jesus came into their life, turned it upside down and now they live for Him. How can Jesus do this if He is still dead?

Despite the arguments that people have about Jesus, it is important to know that what Jesus claimed, he delivered on. If you have faith in Him then you are united with Him and hence you will pass through death… you will spend eternity with Him. You can be sure of that.


Jesus our God

Jesus is our God. John Chapter One makes this very explicit.

1 In the beginning the Word already existed.
The Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
2 He existed in the beginning with God.
3 God created everything through him,
and nothing was created except through him.
4 The Word gave life to everything that was created,[a]
and his life brought light to everyone.
5 The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness can never extinguish it.[b]
6 God sent a man, John the Baptist,[c] 7 to tell about the light so that everyone might believe because of his testimony. 8 John himself was not the light; he was simply a witness to tell about the light. 9 The one who is the true light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.
10 He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognize him. 11 He came to his own people, and even they rejected him. 12 But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. 13 They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God.
14 So the Word became human[d] and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness.[e] And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.
15 John testified about him when he shouted to the crowds, “This is the one I was talking about when I said, ‘Someone is coming after me who is far greater than I am, for he existed long before me.’”
16 From his abundance we have all received one gracious blessing after another.[f] 17 For the law was given through Moses, but God’s unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God. But the unique One, who is himself God,[g] is near to the Father’s heart. He has revealed God to us.

“The Word” is Jesus.

In Mark 15:39, as Jesus died, his Roman executioner exclaims “…This man truly was the Son of God”. This is a non-believing Roman with so much blood on his hands. Yet he recognises who Jesus is.

The demons recognised Jesus as God… having the power to cast them into hell.

Jesus repeatedly demonstrated His sovereignty… His control… His authority… over all things. Jesus brought people back to life… multiple times. He healed so many people they lost count. He feed thousands of people with food that was really only enough for one person. He vanished. He calmed a storm. He walked on water.

These are amazing demonstrations. I mean, if you ever have delusions of grandeur… if you ever think you are a really powerful dude… just try crossing the Cook Strait by foot. Let me know how you get on.

Doing all these things didn’t make Him God… but they showed He has power and authority that is only really explainable by Him being God.




Conclusion

So let’s bring this all together.

Who is Jesus?

1. He was a man
2. He is our teacher
3. He is our example
4. He is our saviour
5. He is God

This is what Jesus claimed. This is what the Old Testament prophets predicted. This is what the writers of the New Testament testified to. This is what other historical accounts corroborate.

For many people Jesus is more. However I am not sure the biblical account clearly includes more. Some people suggest that Jesus was a friend to His disciples. Many people describe their relationship with Jesus as “friends”. I guess I wonder whether Peter felt Jesus was his friend when Jesus called him Satan? (Mark 8:31-33)

That said, it seems to me that Jesus does reach into voids in His followers lives and fills them. To the fatherless He becomes their father… and so on. I think this is very much on a relationship basis however.

So why have we been talking about these five descriptors? I want to suggest this morning that we frequently focus on one or two and then proceed to lose perspective on just who Jesus is… just how amazing He is.

I just mentioned an example of where this happened. Mark 8:31-33

Then Jesus began to tell them that the Son of Man[a] must suffer many terrible things and be rejected by the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of religious law. He would be killed, but three days later he would rise from the dead. 32 As he talked about this openly with his disciples, Peter took him aside and began to reprimand him for saying such things. 33 Jesus turned around and looked at his disciples, then reprimanded Peter. “Get away from me, Satan!” he said. “You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.”

Peter forgot that Jesus is his God. Peter forgot that Jesus was his teacher. Peter just saw Jesus as a man. You might get the impression from this text that Jesus was not terribly happy about Peter reprimanding Him.

Many Christians see Jesus just as their saviour… their ticket into heaven. The term “fire insurance” is often used. We sometimes rest on the surety of our salvation and do not surrender our lives to Jesus. Or we “hide” bits of our lives – as if we could really hide from Jesus?

When we do this I think we are denying who Jesus is.

This is a really really important point… so I am going to repeat it…

When we lose perspective on just who Jesus is, we end up denying who Jesus is.


So…

If you don’t know Jesus, I hope this morning you have caught a glimpse of who He is. My prayer is that you might be interested in getting to know Him.

If you already know Jesus, then I have a challenge for you. This week think about who Jesus is to you. Maybe you could ask these questions:

• Do I know that Jesus has walked an even tougher path than me and made it?
• Do I recognise that what Jesus taught is applicable to me?
• Do I long to follow in Jesus’ footsteps?
• Do I know that Jesus died and was raised… and what does this mean to me?
• Is Jesus my God - Lord over all aspects of my life?


My prayer this morning is that each of us individually would know Jesus… the man, the teacher, the example, the saviour… our God.