2Cor 5:21 BLOOD & SUBSTITUTE

"For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." 2 Corinthians 5:21

By way of explanation...

Saint Brian is a great guy - he's one of those natural evangelists. He can't help himself, and he never wants to stop. He's got a bunch of guys studying the Bible - even though they aren't believers. Yet. And he asked me to help out with a question that came out of their last meeting.

"Can you explain something to the guys next week?" said Saint Brian.

Sure, I said. No worries. What did they ask?

"They want to know what it means when we say that Jesus became sin."

So the following is a very rough outline of where the night went. We covered a lot of other ground, too. So this blog might expand later to cover more op the questions, answers and digressions.

CHRIST... BECAME SIN.

“A stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.”
That's how Paul describes the idea of Christ crucified.

The Jews couldn’t understand how Jesus could possibly “take away the sin of the world.” Gentiles could not imagine why an immortal God would choose to become mortal – and willingly die. The idea, by the world's logic, was strange.

The idea that Jesus died for our sins, that he had “become sin”, still needs some explaining today. Because, like way-back-when, it's a strange idea to say the very least.

Please understand this – what we’re tackling is NOT EASY. If you don’t get it by the end of tonight, don’t worry. It doesn’t mean you’re slow. Please remember, though, that it equally doesn’t mean that there’s actually anything wrong with the idea (which we usually call a doctrine).

It DOES mean that it isn’t an easy concept. It still causes controversy, even between people who have studied this What we’re going to investigate is this odd thought: “CHRIST BECAME SIN FOR US.”
Understand this, too. The Lord God is – at the same time – a loving God, a God of mercy, a God of justice, and a holy God. Sin is an offence to God that separates us from God and breaks our fellowship with Him. He is a holy God and sin cannot be where the presence is that of a pure, perfect and just God.

Substitution... for a person
If the offering you bring as a sin offering is a sheep, you shall bring a female without blemish. You shall lay your hand on the head of the sin offering; and it shall be slaughtered… The priest shall take some of the blood… and put it on the horns of the altar… and pour the rest of its blood at the base of the altar… Thus the priest shall make atonement on your behalf for the sin you have committed, and you shall be forgiven. Leviticus 4:32-35
Blood is very important. The pouring out of blood graphically tells the repentant sinner that his sin can only be paid for with blood. God instructs His people to lay the sin on the animal. The animal becomes sin, and is killed, and its blood is poured out.

Something really worth knowing here is that the man, when he realises that he has offended God, produces one of his own animals - he didn't just go to the shops and buy a sheep. A year-old, unblemished sheep is a pretty valuable animal; the sort of animal that makes wool, milk and and (most importantly) more sheep. The man would bring forward the animal, lay his hands on the animal - here his sin would be placed on the animal - and he would feel the animal die. He would understand that the sheep was a substitute for himself.

Why Blood?
For the life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to you for making atonement for your lives on the altar; for, as life, it is the blood that makes atonement. Leviticus 17:11
Blood, as far as God is concerned, is sacred. He forbids His people from eating blood (which is one of the things that defines a kosher product), because the blood is the life. This is the life, poured out in the place of the blood – the life – of a sinner.

What did Jesus do?
For Christ also died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God I Peter 3:18
Jesus willingly obeyed his Father, who sent him to earth. When Jesus was executed, God placed on him the sins of the world.

Everyone. Everywhere.

Just as the sins of an individual would be placed on the animal, the sins of the whole world were laid upon Jesus. And Jesus died, carrying with him the punishment that those sins should bring to us: death, and separation from God the Father. As the perfect, sinless Son, he was the only one who could do this.

Paul phrases this clearly;
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, for it is written 'Cursed be every one who hangs on a tree' Galatians 3:13
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5:21
So that we might become the righteousness of God. We are, once again, without blemish or defect. We are able once again to be in the presence of a holy God. We can come home to our Father, because Jesus took our sins upon himself. Miraculously, he did this while we were still enemies of God:
God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, we will be saved through him from the wrath of God Romans 5:8-9

What Does This Mean Now?
We were made by a perfect and holy God, and we were made in His image. But we corrupted that image with our sin. Our sins, now removed from us by Jesus Christ the Righteous, are no longer the barrier between us and our Lord.
[Jesus] was handed over to death for our trespasses and was raised for our justification. Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 4:25 – 5:2
This is why Jesus came;
For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16

Artwork taken from http://www.leelofland.com/wordpress/?p=301

Mark 3:7-19 FOLLOWING JESUS

A few weeks ago there were a couple of events put on by churches. Mark Driscoll’s Burn Your Plastic Jesus series saw ten thousand people come to the Entertainment Centre, and another event organised by Sydney’s Asian Christian community, called RICE, gathered about four thousand. They were both pretty successful, but I suspect that they paled in comparison to Billy Graham’s campaigns through the 1950s.

In your Bulletin this week, Reg's letter has given us a reminder of that 1959 Crusade, and just how many people came – and how many people came to follow Jesus.

"The final meeting in Melbourne was at the MCG and drew 143,750 people. [Just for some perspective, that was a record – the next-highest attendance figure at the G was for an Aussie Rules grand final; 21,000 less people went to a Grand Final than went to hear the Gospel] The final meeting at the Sydney Cricket Ground was linked to the Showground with over 150,000 people attending and another estimated one million people hearing by radio or landline. In the campaign period more than 130,000 signified commitments to Christ."

I scored a few books at the Spring Fair (much to Fiona’s horror - although she has forgiven me for bringing more into the house). One of them was about the 1957 New York Crusade. Billy Graham ran it over 110 days. 97 meetings in Madison Square Garden. On average nearly 18,000 people attended EACH meeting. Over two million people from that one city attended. 56,000 people came forward to publicly accept Jesus. 22,000 of those were under twenty-one.

That’s some big numbers. Even better than just the numbers, I love the idea of that many people physically taking themselves somewhere to hear about Jesus. Not just hearing about him on the radio, or reading someone’s John 3:16 bumper-sticker, but being prodded by the Spirit enough to physically get up and GO!

In our Gospel reading this morning, we see a massive crowd. And they’re chasing Jesus. Have a look at the opening verse from the reading - chapter 3 verse 7: Jesus withdrew with His disciples to the lake, and a large crowd from Galilee followed. It’s not the first time – and it won’t be the last time – that he’s chased by a crowd.

In Mark’s account, we can see where people have come from. And, because Mark’s a good writer, he uses an expanding pattern. He starts at the edge of the Sea of Galilee and moves out.
Galilee: relatively local. They might have walked from across the road, or skirted the lake, or come from an area within a 20-kilometre radius. That’s like a walk-in from Bundeena (road, not ferry), or Bankstown just to hear Reg preach. (You’d go, wouldn’t you? Course you would…)
Judea – try walking from Parramatta or Stanwell.
Jerusalem – think past Kiama, Woy-Woy, Blackheath.
Idumea – up to 180km.
Across-the-Jordan and Tyre & Sidon: actually a lot closer, under a hundred kays. But they were foreigners, heathens, Gentiles and, worse, Samaritans...

And here they come.

There’s something edgy and dangerous about a large crowd. If you don't believe me, go to Auckland. Go to an All Blacks game. Wear a Wallabies jersey. There's something dangerous about a large crowd. We can see Jesus instructing his disciples (verse 9) have a boat ready for Him, to keep the people from crowding Him.
Crowds can be dangerous beasts, and the fear that the crowd might literally squash him to death is not an exaggeration.

This is a crowd that wants something.In Mark 6 we get this picture: Having crossed over onto the land they anchored at Gennesaret. And as they came out of the boat, people immediately recognised him. They ran around that whole region and began to put the sick onto mats. And wherever he went – villages, cities, countryside – they were putting the sick into the marketplaces and were begging him that even the hem of his garment might touch them. The chaos is growing in intensity. And, what’s worse, it’s getting in the way of what Jesus had come to do – preach!

Back at Mark 1:35 we see Jesus up in the hills before dawn to pray in solitude – only to be chased down by an edgy Simon: “Everyone is looking for you!” Now immediately before this, we read that a great mob had invaded Simon’s own house: 1:33, the whole city gathered together at the door, and Jesus healed many who had diseases and cast out many demons. So Simon’s pretty anxious to find Jesus – everyone is looking for you… in my lounge-room!

How did Jesus reply? “Let’s go somewhere else.” As important as healing the sick and throwing out demons is, it’s getting in the way of what Jesus had come to do. “Let’s go somewhere else – to the nearby villages – so that I can preach there also. That’s why I’ve come.”
What was Jesus preaching? Mark 1:15 “The time has been fulfilled – the Kingdom of God is approaching – repent and believe in the Good News.”

Time. Approaching. Words with urgency… I think Satan, who couldn’t get a win out in the desert, was trying a new distraction.

Thousand and thousands are following him. Some thought he was raising an army to overthrow their Roman oppressors and the corrupt kingship of Herod. John records that after the miraculous feeding of five thousand men, they began to say “this one is truly the Prophet, the one coming into the world!” Jesus, having known that they were about to come and seize him and make him King, withdrew again to a mountain by himself. Is that helping him preach or hindering? How is one man going to preach so everyone can hear?

Jesus had a better plan. Back to our reading: Mark 3: 13. Jesus went up on a mountainside, and called to him those he wanted – designating them APOSTLES. What’s the difference between disciples and apostles? The terms seem to be interchangeable when the Gospels speak about these people that Jesus chose. So what sets these twelve disciples apart from what Luke 6 calls “the great crowd of disciples”?

Well, they were still very much disciples. They would spend much of the next couple of years at the feet of their Master, learning. But they were different.
Apostello - . It's the Greek word that means "to send out." Apostolon - is "the sent-out ones". Envoys, designated messengers. And certainly we’ll see them later, through the book of Acts, as the ones sent out, as messengers in His name; the Sent-Out ones with the Good Message. He appointed twelve – designating them apostolon - that they might be with him, and that he might send them out to preach and have authority to drive out demons. These are the twelve he appointed:
He laid the name Peter on Simon; to James the son of Zebedee and John his brother he laid the name Boanerges, which means Sons of Thunder; Andrew; Philip; Bartholomew; Matthew; Thomas; James the son of Alphaeus; Thaddeus; Simon the Cananean (or Zealot), and Judas Iscariot who also betrayed him.

Twelve good men and true – well, nearly. Judas Iscariot we know enough about.

Simon will grow in prominence as being the one most likely to say something rash and regret it instantly. He'll swear to defend Jesus to the death, and will be the first to deny him in front of men.

The sons of thunder, James and John – we’ll see them scrapping and arguing for prominence, which will reach a dreadful climax when their own mother goes to ask Jesus if her little boys can sit at each side of him in heaven... for all those who were ever embarrassed by Mummy wiping their dirty face with a hanky in public, this one's for you...

I doubt very much if these guys would get past initial interviews in most companies –with the exception of Judas (perfect executive material) I doubt that any of these guys would survive a job interview for the lowest levels of management, much less run a business.

But Jesus knows people better than people know people.

Simon... Peter – upon this rock I will build my church. He says this to someone that most of us would regard as pretty unstable, and he says this with a total lack of irony.

Jesus knows people better than people know people.

To the one who denied him again and again and again, Jesus has that painful, beautiful conversation on a beach:
Simon son of John – do you love me? You know that I love you. Feed my lambs.
Simon son of John – do you truly love me? Yes Lord, you know that I love you. Take care of my sheep.
Simon son of John – do you love me? Lord you know all things; you know I love you. Feed my sheep.
And the last thing that we hear Jesus say to Simon Peter is the first thing we hear him say… Follow me.
Jesus knows people better than people know people. And I'm so thankful for it.


There were thousands and thousands of people who followed Jesus, and there are so many more who follow Jesus today.

Some follow Jesus because… well, it’s traditional. Mum and Dad did it. It's a bit like voting Labor or Republican... It's what we do 'round here...

Some follow Jesus because, tragically, they were told that Jesus would make all their dreams come true and all the bad bits go away.

Some follow Jesus because that’s what good people do, and church is where kind people go, and they like kind people.

Most people, though, follow Jesus for far better reasons than that – and this church is blessed with so many saints that have not only heard the Good Message, they clung to it for dear life, surrendered their old self and their old life at the foot of the Cross. They heard Jesus say follow me. They’ve heard someone like a Billy Graham, or a Jack Derrett, or a Keith Thompson, or a Cath Robertson, or an Alf or a Wilma, or an Alan Watson, or an Al Webb or an Al Robbo, or a Dr Bonamy, or a Bill or a Norma Andrews... or any one of you saints explain what Jesus meant when He said I am the way, and the Truth and the Life. It’s with gratitude that they see the Father’s grace and mercy and it’s with a glad heart that they say thank you that He has chosen them, called them, elected them, said Follow me..

So – time for the hard question. Where are the crowds? Where are the swarming hordes? Where are the vast crowds that we saw fifty years ago in Sydney and Melbourne and New York? What’s changed? Why is it that we call it a miracle to get ten thousand Christians together for one night? What’s changed? What happened?

We’ve forgotten the urgency.

While he was out for the Burn Your Plastic Jesus event, Mark Driscoll dropped into Moore College and gave a lecture. He actually gave us – us being modern 21st Century evangelical Christians – a pretty big serve.
We’ve lost all sense of evangelistic urgency. And we’re not expecting much. And I think he’s right.
Example? If someone like Stu or Matt Redmond or myself told you that we were going to attempt a revival like the Billy Graham crusade… in six months’ time… I wonder how you’d react. If we said that we wanted to win 217,000 souls for Christ… Would you think we were over-ambitious? Delusional? Or just plain nuts? (Strangely enough, we’re working on a plan… true story!)

As 21st Century Bible-believing, Jesus-loving evangelical Christians, we’ve lost all sense of evangelistic urgency. And we’re not expecting much.
Do you believe John 3:16? That God so loved the world that He gave His only Son? That whoever believes in him will not perish? That, Mark suggested, will make all the difference in the world.

We know so well that God will save His elect, but we think that somehow it’ll just happen, that God will just choose someone to go to those people who are part of that elect but who don’t know it yet… We have a hard time seeing ourselves as people God has chosen to go to them… that’s someone else’s job. Like mine. Or Reg’s.

No! It’s not Reg’s job, it’s not Stu’s job, it’s not Matt’s job or Tim’s job or Jai’s or Fi’s or Tracey’s or my job… it’s OUR job.

We ALL get to preach the Gospel. We all get to tell people that great word from Romans 10:12-13; The same LORD is LORD of all, and richly blesses all who call on him, for “everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved”.
But read on… grab your Bibles. Check this. Get to know it. Get this one into your hearts. Paul absolutely nails it. Romans 10:14 and on. You need to know this if you've read that marvellous promise.
How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in?
And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard?
And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?
And how can they preach unless they are…

Are what? Apostello’ed. Sent.

Evangelism isn’t just huge Billy Graham crusades. Preaching doesn’t just happen at lecterns like this. Sermons might, occasionally even good ones! But preaching... where does preaching happen?

Preaching happens when someone has enough care and concern and love for another person that they’ll show them how Jesus has saved us from the wrath to come. Paul again – 1 Corinthians 15:3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance [there’s that urgency]: that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day, according to the Scripture… (By the way, if anyone hasn't done their homework and thought about a very brief Gospel outline, there's a great cheat-sheet...)

A lot of the people who went to those 1959 Crusade understood the urgency. They went out and built churches (people and buildings) from scratch, they started home Bible-studies, they evangelised their families and their friends.

A lot of our young people understand that. I got a text message on Thursday night from one of the guys in Year 12 – he’s got a huge sense of urgency, because he’s only got a couple of weeks left to go. And he’s charging hard. He's talking to a hundred guys in his high school about Jesus. Another four just committed their lives to Christ, and a lot are curious.

Preaching happens when someone has enough care and concer and love for another person that they'll show them how Jesus has saved us from the wrath to come.

Guess what? You're preachers.

And you guys are the bridge-builders. You’re surrounded by workmates, employers and employees and customers. You meet with other young mums, you meet people in shopping-centres and sales conferences. There’s – what? Well over a hundred people here this morning to whom He has given His Good Message... How many souls can be touched by the Gospel carried by a hundred?

And when those thousands carry that Good Message onward?

In 1959, Billy Graham’s 130,000 people listened to the Gospel of Christ crucified and raised, as one man told it, and committed their life to Him.

There’s just under 217,000 people living in the Shire – a little less than double than that 130,000 landmark. So we have the advantage. A little less than two people each…

There are so many people who need to hear – to hear that great Good Message of God’s great love and that amazing grace of His Son Jesus the Christ – so that they can hear him say follow me, to come home to our Father in Heaven.

The first thing Jesus said to Simon the fisherman is follow me. The last thing Jesus said to Peter – the rock, upon whom he truly built his church - was follow me. And then… there was a life filled with getting other people to do likewise.

May it be so with us.

Amen.

Photo of Billy Graham Crusade meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina, 1958. Sourced from http://www.wheaton.edu/bgc/archives/images/PFs/BGEA-1958-Charlotte/006.jpg

Luke 15:11-32... LOUDER THAN JETS

MEN'S BREAKFAST
16th September, 2008

St Bede’s Anglican Church in Drummoyne meets in a magnificent old building. It’s a 1930’s design, built with very solid dark brick; the place is toweringly tall-ceilinged, with a pipe organ that you almost need abseiling gear to reach. It was about half-way through a service there on Sunday when two other features became apparent.

Acoustics. And location. St Bede’s is right under a flightpath.

A big old 747 with a full fuel-load makes one heck of a din. And the noise inside a big old church just echoed and boomed around the high brickwork. It was like listening to a V8 in a washing machine. One of the skills you need at St Bede’s is the vocal power to out-shout a Boeing.

I love the picture we find in the Gospel of Luke – chapter 15 – of one man who would’ve shouted louder than a jet. The father of the Prodigal Son. He’s never joking when He roars in joy, “Let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost and is found.” And here we are – a collection of sons who were dead, and are alive again.

It’s one of the best-loved stories in any of the Gospels, and rightly so. I think most of us can see something ourselves and our walk in that parable… sad and badly battered, finally remembering our Father and attempting to find our way to fall at His feet… only to realise that He’s already come running up the driveway to us, he’s scooped us up and kissed us, and in his great love and mercy and grace He lets the world know – loudly – that we live again..

We can feel the combination of humiliation and gratitude when we realise that. We know what it feels like to be given our lives back. We know that great and awful cost that Jesus paid so that we who were desperately lost can come back home with our Father.

When we step out the door this morning, we’re going to walk out and into a world of Prodigal Sons. Thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands… I think most of us can recognise some of them by instinct. We can see the great, great heartbreak when someone realises that they are sitting with the pigs, looking at the slops, wondering what happened to the world that they were enjoying so much of just a couple of weeks or days ago. We recognise them, and our hearts do go out to them, and we pray for them – even when there’s not much else that we can do.

Confession – I hate calling the parable “The Prodigal Son.” It’s about the only time we use the word prodigal at all. It means “The son who spent a lot,” and that’s true enough. But it doesn’t quite cover it. We’re almost too familiar with the story to realise what a horrendous picture He was painting.

When Jesus told this parable, he picked out one of the worst social situations that anyone in that day could imagine. This would be a disaster. A son – a younger son at that – actually had no right to ask for his share of that inheritance. He had a duty to his family. But this arrogant little upstart quite deliberately decided to shed himself of all responsibility. Get the old man to cough up his life savings, then simply walk out. This was a family’s nightmare. There would be shame on the family, that a son of theirs could do such a thing.

Because there would be no mistaking what the boy was doing. He was showing utter contempt for his father. There’s an obvious question for the father - what kind of son did you raise? A father of that kind of son really had only one option in the face of such contempt, and that would be to turn his back on the boy and disown him. Completely. That was understood, and – certainly in the society that Jesus was speaking to – it was the expected, respectable thing to do.

Even worse, the boy went to a far country – in with the Gentiles, in with the heathens. And he blew it all – the wealth of his father’s hard work. He blew it all to hell. Smoking it up, drinking it up, screwing it up. To people listening to Jesus, this son has pretty much spat in his father’s face, turned on his heel and walked.

Here’s the dangerous part. We live in a society that really encourages our young sons and daughters to follow this son. This is… pretty normal these days. It’s an expected story, and very much the Australian experience.

In one sense, it’s considered part of growing up. The Aussie rite of passage. Schoolies week. Three months in London that suddenly turns into three years of working in a pub to try to buy a ticket home. Moving out of home to get a party-flat and a Commodore ute and a job to pay for the beers…

I honestly think that the most dangerous part for us is how we look upon the Prodigal Sons (and Daughters) out there who are having the time of their lives. Especially when we’re doing it tough, especially since we’ve had to grow up a bit, especially since we’ve got kids and a hard job, and we can’t afford to play anymore… And, of course, we’re now good sons of our Father, so we can’t play like that anyway…

How easy is it for us to both quietly despise them and envy them at the same time? To wait quietly for them to have The Crash? Even though it’s happened to us, and we’ve had our Father run out to us and embrace us and kiss us… how easy is it for us to find ourselves with a heart like the older brother in that parable?

There’s a word in German that doesn’t really have an English counterpart. Schadenfreude. Look it up. Sound familiar?

I can guarantee you one thing. If we’re looking at someone with a heart like that, it’s going to be pretty hard to pray for them. It’s hard to pray for someone to be welcomed back by our Father when part of us feels that they deserve to stay with the pigs. It’s pretty hard to lay a table for them here when part of us actually still wants to be out there in that heathen place with them.

As we go out the door into the world of men, I want us to keep an eye out for those Lost Boys and Girls who haven’t come to grief yet, who haven’t had to hire themselves out to feed the pigs. Guard our hearts from thinking like men. Pray that we remember how to think like a rescued son. Pray that as we’re dealing with people today, that we’ll never think that they’re too far away for our Father to love. Pray that we’ll hear God shouting with joy in that great voice that’s louder than jets: “This, my son, was dead – and is alive again!”


Painting: Charles Mackesy, The Prodigal Son. Charcoal and gouache on board
http://www.artnet.com/artwork/425274646/132476/charlie-mackesy-the-prodigal-son.html

Romans 12:1 FATHER'S DAY...

ROMANS 12:1
MEN’S BREAKFAST

2/9/2008

We’ve survived winter. It’s the second day of spring. The mornings are getting lighter. Summer’s on the way... you can tell; only one of Bob’s chefs had a beanie on this morning… And it’s Father’s Day on Sunday. I like Father’s Day. I love Father’s Day. I’m hardly a veteran of these things – Grace is only six… but Father’s Day gets better and better each year.

Which is really odd, because the presents are getting worse and worse.

It goes like this. Gracie is getting older. As she’s getting older, she’s able to make some choices and some guesses as to what makes a good present. She’s able to make cards all by herself. So now, instead of either a really funny card or a really poignant card (and my wife is brilliant at finding exactly the right card), I get a yellow bit of paper with a strange wild scribble in the middle. That looks like a cross between a wombat and a tyrannosaurus. That’s a drawing of… me, is it? Okay, she might be better at portraits than I gave her credit for. But for Father’s Day, do you really want to be reminded that you’re a large and hairy dinosaur? Do you really think the truth will set you free?

That’s just the cards. The presents are going to get worse, too. I promise you, they are going to get worse. My fault – I’ve been spoiled; my wife is one of the best present-buyers ever. Girls know about buying presents, because they listen and remember. If us guys think they only have brilliant memories for grudges, keep this in mind – they store plenty of good information, and they’re better at it than we are.

But my wife won’t be doing the buying. Gracie will be. And then the other two kids will when they get old enough. So presents like really good obscure books and CDs, and underpants and socks (I actually LIKE getting socks and underpants! A sock should only have one hole, and undies should only have three. Mine end up with enough holes to keep a squid comfy) – they’ll start to disappear. And be replaced by pretty strange stuff that Grace has seen in a shop and thought “Daddy would love that”. Probably in pink, too.

But… but… I’ll love it. It’s something that I really look forward to. And when Benny and Maggie get started, I’ll get more strange things. I asked my dad; what the strangest Father’s Day present that I got him? Apparently I made him a pottery ashtray. Shame he hadn’t had a smoke in ten years…

You see, part of the charm of kiddies and their presents is that they give us something that they see as great. They haven’t tried to calculate what will appeal to us the best. They’re better than that. They give us their heart. And we wouldn’t have them any other way.

Grace is bringing me a present. She knows that whatever she brings for me is going to make me smile. She wants to please me. She loves me, and she loves telling me.

Grace isn’t getting me a present because I need a present. She’s not giving me a present in the hope of making me love her more. She’s giving me her heart.

I wonder what we’d give God if we could give Him a Father’s Day present. What would we give? I’m not talking about money – I want to get that straight. But I am talking about what we bring before our Father in heaven. If you could give God a Father’s Day present… why am I asking a bunch of blokes about giving presents, anyway? We’re terrible at presents! Shops love us guys at Christmas time – because we panic, and when we panic we bleed money. One Christmas I had no idea what to buy my wife. I went into one store with my hands raised and said “HELP! I’m a stupid male!” And I was in a panic because I knew Fiona had dropped a couple of really big hints…

So – guys – here’s Fiona’s guide to present-buying. It starts with “listen”. She listens to what I say I want, even if I wasn’t actually asking. And she’ll drop hints near certain days, and she’ll let me know it if I’m not listening. So she should…

Has God dropped hints? What does God say that He wants? The Book of Malachi is the last book in the Old Testament, and it’s about bringing God the wrong present. I’m going to make a really strong suggestion. Before you get to Father’s Day, read Malachi. It’s a really short book. Four chapters. Two-and-a-half pages. Read it.

But what is the right present? Not the easiest question! What do you get the man who has everything? What do you bring the One who not only has everything but has made everything? It makes it pretty hard to know where to start.

Paul picks up on how ridiculous this notion is, and he collects a line from the Book of Job: “Who has given a gift to Him that he might be repaid?” For from him and through Him and to Him are all things. (Rom 11:34) So what can we give our Lord and Master?

God provided an answer through the Old Testament; sacrifices. But even then, the sacrifices were really a demonstration of a state of heart. Whether a man was truly thankful or repentant was how God saw how acceptable the sacrifice was. Look at Cain and Abel, and the tragic consequences. I did a really quick survey last night on the word sacrifice, and what came up, over and over again, was… well, you pick up the theme.
1 Sam 15:22 – Does the Lord take pleasure in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice.
Ps 40:6 – You do not delight in sacrifice and offering…
Ps 51:16-17 – Were I to give a burnt offering, thou wouldst not be pleased. The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, God, thou wilt not despise.
Hs 6:6 – I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
Jesus picks up this quote and hurls it at the Pharisees twice in Matthew. Go and learn what this means; “I desire mercy and not sacrifice.”

As he so often does, it’s Paul again who gives us the answer – what a good present for our Heavenly Father is… I appeal to you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Romans 12:1 – right after he’d noted the silliness of trying to offer God a gift.

Is it adequate? No – it’s like a present that Grace buys and hand-wraps. It’ll never look anything like a DJ’s catalogue, but it’s all that she has, and it’s all she can do, and my heart sings.

Is it adequate? No - but, really, it’s all we have, and it’s what God wants. And it makes His heart sing, because finally – finally – we start to do the thing we were created to do. To worship.

We’re not giving ourselves to God because He needs us to. We can’t calculate a way to please Him so we can sneak into His good books – there was only ever one way that could be done, and Jesus did that. We never could, and we must never think that we can.

But - We do it because we love Him.

So this Father’s Day, as we think about what to get for our dads – or as we get given things… look at the heart behind the present. And take the time to talk to our Heavenly Father about Father’s Day.

Artwork from http://shop4men.com.au/catalog/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=13&products_id=55&osCsid=a78131efc77e1c1d5fef240bb5c154d7 I won't complain if anybody sends me some.