Genesis 2:4-25 WHO ARE YOU?

“Who are you? Why are you here?”

If I gave you a pad of paper and five minutes, it's be interesting to see what sort of answers we'd come up with. Why are you here? Because God willed that I should read blogs? Good Calvinist answer. Because it appeared in my in-box? Good honest answer! But if we moved onto the who-are-you question, things get a little harder. It's not as easy for some people to define who they are.
This is one of the most important unanswered questions for so many people today. That fact that they remain unanswered questions goes some way to explaining why there is a massive statistical blip in fatal single-vehicle car accidents involving men between 17-25.

Why cutting and self-harm is such a feature of the culture of young women between 14-25.

Why successful men and women turn to unfaithful sex and excessive alcohol.

Why kids join gangs and do whatever it takes in the hope of forging an identity with this new-found family.
Who are you?
Why are you here?
Simply lacking an answer can have a devastating effect on people.

John Calvin said it really well – “Our wisdom, insofar as it ought to be deemed true and solid wisdom, consists almost entirely of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves.”1
We need to have a knowledge of God before we can begin to understand ourselves – but just as importantly we need to have a knowledge of ourselves so that we can see our place in God's world and in God's great heart.

We need to understand something of God's holy justice and righteousness before we can understand why He cannot and will not tolerate our sin.
We need to get a grip on how much God loves us to understand how hurtful that sin is to him. And we need to understand our place in his heart and our own helplessness in sin before we can understand how painful and expensive grace is to God the Father...

We need a knowledge of God to begin to understand ourselves. And we seriously need to have a knowledge of ourselves if we're going to understand God better.
I think we need to hang on tightly to that thought when we read Genesis 1-3.

Genesis 1 gives us some knowledge of God. We see God exercise His power, His authority, his creativity. We saw that last week. There's no chaos, there's nothing random. You are not an accident – he made it all, he controls it all.
Genesis 2 gives us some knowledge of ourselves – as we should be. This is one of the very few places where we see man and woman exactly as they were made by God – sinless, blameless, walking with no barrier between man and woman, no barrier between man and God. Naked, not ashamed. We get to learn some things about what we were supposed to be.

Genesis 3 is where we learn about God and man when evil, temptation, sin and separation rip up the picture. It's where we learn how we blew it all to hell.

Genesis 2, however, hides in a bit of a valley between the mighty picture of creation in Chapter 1 and the blackness of sin's presence in Chapter 3. But it should be looked at on its own terms. Let's go to chapter 2v 4.
These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens.
When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up - for the LORD God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground - then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.
For me, this is one of the most beautiful images that I've ever read. It's all virgin land, it's well-watered, even though there's no rain. And God descends upon His newly created earth, stoops low and scoops, moulds and forms with His hands... a human. Back in Chapter 1 we see a change in God's language – instead of let there be..., He says let Us make.... And here He makes.
He formed the man of the dust from the ground. And then God does the most extraordinary thing. He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life... and the man became a living creature. Not like mouth-to-mouth, from one equal to another. This is how you resuscitate a tiny baby... breathe into the nostrils. This is a really tender picture. Man's first-ever breath was the breath of God. The word for breath – ruach in the Hebrew, pneuma in the Greek – is exactly the same word for Spirit. Man's first breath is the Spirit of the Living God.

Think about the sense of smell for a second. Smell is the unsung gift, the unsung sense. It is the sense most keyed to our memory. A baby instinctively bonds – and knows – its mother and father by smell.

My dad has been fixing aircraft all of my life. He'd come home from work, reeking of burnt jet-fuel and hot oil and metal and hydraulic oil... and there's something in that smell that still – all these years later – still stirs me, subconsciously but physically stirs my heart. If I have to drive any of you to the airport, you'll see me do it. I'll wind down the window and get great lungfuls of the air. It makes my heart feel good – that smell of my father still has an effect. Took me ages to work that one out – I just thought I was a mad pyro with a thing for kerosene – but the smell of my father still has an effect.

And with this strange and beautiful act, the first thing that Man ever smelled was the breath – the Spirit – of the Living God. Man is born by the breath of God. And when we read this, our memory should be doing a little tap-dance now...
Flesh gives birth to flesh but Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying You must be born again. The wind blows where it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is blowing. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.2

Wow. Every time I read it. Wow... Our first birth was when God first filled our lungs – and our being – with His breath, His pneuma, His Spirit, and we became living beings. We must be born again... no longer dead in sin but alive – brought back to life, resuscitated like that tiny baby – in Christ, by the Spirit, to God's great glory. Wow.

Genesis 2 tells us about us. We are most highly treasured in God's heart. We are made – fearfully and wonderfully made,2

and the breath of the Almighty has given us life. Who are you? Nothing less than that. Nothing less than that.
This is how God loves the world, Jesus says to Nicodemus. He sent His only Son... on a rescue mission that would see His only Son murdered, butchered, slaughtered... so that whoever believes in him will not perish.. Don't ever, ever forget that. That's how much God loves you. We are made – fearfully and wonderfully made, and the breath of the Almighty has given us life.

And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food.4
God has already made plants and animals, but for His most precious creation He plants a garden. He does the ultimate Backyard Blitz, and gathers together such a collection of botanical wonder... not just to provide this human with physical provision to keep him nourished and alive, but to please the man. Not just in taste and smell, either - pleasant to the sight and good for food. How strange. I never noticed that before – pleasant to the sight. He didn't make it just for His own pleasure, but for the man's pleasure as well! He designed us to... be pleased, to be able to be happy, to be content, to be stimulated by beauty. I wouldn't have ever thought of that.
But it makes sense, doesn't it? One of the things that I love about being a daddy is when Fiona and I do something (make a wading pool, build a bike, set up the Christmas tree – whatever) and then stand back and let the kids just discover. Their faces tell enough of the story... and watching them totally encompassed in that wheeee!!! kind of joy is priceless. Is that how God feels when we enjoy His goodness? Wow...

Who are you?

Why are you here?

We're here to enjoy every good thing that God has willingly, gladly, generously given us. God has given us the ability to feel happiness, to love beautiful things, to taste and go WOW, to smell and to smile. God's master plan was for us to be a happy people, and to KNOW that we're happy. And that our outrageous happiness brings a pleasure to His heart.

A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. And the gold of tat land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is the Gihon. It os the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush. And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
We get a little geography lesson here. There are two familiar names, the Tigris and the Euphrates. They both, of course, flow through Iraq – Baghdad is built right over the Euphrates. Doesn't look much like Eden now, does it? What a strange, bitter irony that these two rivers of the Paradise would later be the rivers of Babylon, where the children of God's covenant promise would weep for the memory of a promised home.

The Tigris starts up in the Ararat Ranges, the Euphrates flows through Turkey and Syria before it gets to Iraq. So what's this about the four rivers coming from a common source? And where are the other two rivers? The Pishon and the Gihon are lost to us – either metaphorically or physically, or both. There are lots of opinions in lots of commentaries, but the truth is, we don't know.

What we do know is what we see, and what we're told. We get a reminder that it's not just Eden where the goodness is – nothing has spoiled creation yet, so we get the geographic reminders that there's good gold and onyx and bdellium (a kind of resin related to myrrh). These are all very valuable trading commodities in the Ancient Near East. There are things of great value outside Eden too. Four rivers going out from Eden, downstream of the trees of righteousness, going out into the whole world. And – that said – there's the sad, wistful reminder that we'll never find Eden until there is a new heaven and a new earth; Eden is lost to us.

The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.7
Before there was sin, before there was labour, before there was slavery and bosses and exploitation and mortgages to repay... there was work. There's an enduring image of Eden being some sort of luxury nudist retreat for people with access to a lot of hair-conditioner. And that is a fiction. Adam gets his hands dirty – but that's okay, because so did his Creator. God makes the earth, God comes to earth, God makes Adam out of the earth, Adam works the earth – he tends it and takes care of it. Remember verse 5? We had a hint – no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth, and no plant of the field had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not sent rain and there was no man to work the ground... The language is actually quite agricultural: fields, work it & keep it – tend and keep would be closer translations. So what does this say?
Adam worked – not for food, because all the best food in the world was at his fingertips; the Lord had surrounded him with food.

Not as God's slave – the God who made the universe and made Adam and made the Garden of Eden for Adam's pleasure doesn't need anything that man can make by work.

Not for a wage, not to repay a debt to his Creator... God gave Adam authority, responsibility and satisfaction. And that's an odd one to talk about, because our society's idea of Paradise is sitting on a cloud eating Philly cheese, or lying on a beach at Surfers... but, either way doing absolutely nothing.
I like mowing the lawn. I love the lawn-mowing etiquette here, too. (I was a bit concerned how early was too early to fire up the Victa – but I figured when the neighbor across started in with an angle-grinder, I was probably right to go...) I'm not a huge fan of having grass being blown up my nose and sneezing like the dickens, or stone-chips whacking me on the shin. But there's a pleasure, a satisfaction, a good feeling inside when I switch the mower off, have a short shower and a long icy-cold bath... then go back outside with a cup of tea and go aaahhh! Watching the birds come and eat, smell the new-mown smell. There's satisfaction in work that we're not remunerated for. Sometimes it's something physical, sometimes it's donating time to help a neighbor or a good cause... and that satisfaction is a gift from God. God's now given Adam authority, responsibility and satisfaction.
The curse that we'll see in Chapter 3 wasn't being made to work. The curse wasn't being turned out of a five-hundred-star lazy-town resort. The curse wasn't being made to work. Adam was a worker from the start. The curse was having to survive by his labour – which we'll see clearly in Chapter 3 – not the work itself. God wanted Adam to be a fulfilled, content, satisfied man.

Almost all of the unemployed people that I've talked to in the last couple of years would give pretty well anything to get employment, and not just for the money. I suspect that one of Satan's dirty tricks is to keep some people from being fulfilled, content and satisfied by denying them the opportunity to work. There's something to think about next time you find yourself muttering about the unemployed.

Who are you?

Why are you here?
We are made – fearfully and wonderfully made, and the breath of the Almighty has given us life. Nothing less than that.
We have been made in God's image, in God's great pleasure to enjoy – to enjoy the good things that God has been so pleased to make for us.
Do we feel like we're getting some answers to these two big questions?
Okay. Last stop.

Then the Lord God said, 'It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.' Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of he heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whateverthe man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all the livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not a helper fit for him.8

Last week we saw that at the end of each phase of his creation, God looked and declared that it was good. 1V4, the light was good. V10, land and sea was good. V12, the veggies were good. V18, sun and moon – good. Birds & fish & animals & creeping things – good, At the end of the sixth day, v31 – VERY good.
So what's this? 2v18 It is not good... It sounds out-of-place, doesn't it? What went wrong? I've made enough things from beds to bikes to rebuilding 747 engines. You follow the instructions, you stop every now and again and check it and say “OK – that's good.” Then you finish, look at it and say very good. Then you find seven bolts, a packet of washers some weird springy things that you swear you've never seen before... you look at the instructions, look at the engine and say, “oh. Not good.”

What had God left behind? What did he skip in the IKEA make-a-world kit?
It is not good that the man should be alone. I think that God is signalling very loudly that he hasn't finished yet. He declared things good in chapter 1 when they're completed – and when it's ALL finished, it's very good.
But at this point, it's not all finished, is it? There's all the plants and creepy-crawly swarmy things, birds, and beasts – all being paraded before Adam, and Adam having to come up with names for them all...
Note that carefully, by the way. That's the first demonstration that God meant it when he gave man dominion over the creatures. We saw it last week – God naming Day, Sky, Sea, Earth, because he had the authority to give things names. He bestows that authority to Adam, and Adam begins to take up that responsibility that God has laid on him.
After he's seen all the animals there is to see, there is still no animal that is a fit companion, no animal suitable as a helper – no animal to match Adam, the human that has been hand-crafted in the image of God and filled with the Spirit.
I think it's a mistake to read it & think that what God does next is... some kind of filling-in a gap in his plan, of God scratching his head & saying, 'I should really do something about that.' No. Adam has just seen how unique he is in God's plan, in his own design, in the authority given to him alone, and now he knows it.
I think that it's also a mistake to think that Adam as getting lonely or bored or in any way dissatisfied. I don't think Adam was going up to God, saying “that porcupine I tried to hug – it's not working out so good. Worse than the jellyfish...”

So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of the ribs and closed up the place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.

He brought her to the man. Not an afterthought, not an improvement on the original design (despite what the funny emails say). Not made from the clay that Adam's walked on, but made from Adam. Made from the bones that hold his heart. Shaped, like Adam, by the hands of God. And He brought her to the man. Who gives this bride away?
And the man knows instantly who she is, where she has come from, and the words are of such longing fulfilled; This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh!
At last! One flesh! One flesh – it's not a yucky kind of morph, it's not a euphemism for sex, it's completion. Bone of my bone. Flesh of my flesh. The two become one flesh. It's completion, it's fulfilment, it's the delight of God to give his most precious creatures this happiness beyond expectation and experience... but such a perfect creation that Adam knows her straight away.

Who are you?
Why are you here?
We are made – fearfully and wonderfully made, and the breath of the Almighty has given us life. Nothing less than that.
We have been made in God's image, in God's great pleasure to enjoy – to enjoy the good things that God has been so pleased to make for us. We have been made to revel in His creation, in His company. There's that great cliché that we're made for relationships, but it's absolutely true – we are! We're made for a relationship with God, we're made for a relationship with each other, we're made for one unbelievably special relationship with another human being.

Genesis Two is a glittering gem. Remember kaleidescopes? I always wanted to get inside it and be surrounded by it all, I wanted to live in a kaleidescope. I was a strange kid... but this is our kaleidescope. I want to live in Genesis Two, I want to go there, I want to stay there. But I can't, can I? Something happened that resulted in Eden being hidden from us. Eden's gone. We'll deal with that next week.
Here, we get a picture of God creating perfection. One day at the end of days, there will be a new heaven and a new earth, and they will be made perfect, and those whom Jesus rescued will be with him, praising God for ever and ever. This earth has still got so much beauty, but it is so tainted, so poisoned that it's hard even to hold the image of Eden in our minds without a little bit of cynicism “It can't be that good” “What's the catch?” It is that good. There is no catch. This is what God intended all along, and this is what he wanted us to be, and this is what he WANTS us to be.

I want it.

I keep hearing that phrase “the church is the bride of Christ” and now I finally see its intimacy! Bone of his bone. Flesh of his flesh. Brought to Christ by God, and enjoying each other forever in the love of the Father.

That's who I am.

That's why I'm here. Genesis 2 is where God tells us about us – and it's a love song.

And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good.

All Scripture taken from the E.S.V. - the one my church lovingly calls the Eastern Suburbs Version.
1 John Calvin; Institutes of the Christian Religion, I.i.1
2 Psalm 139:14

3 John 3:6-8

4 Genesis 2:8-9

5

6
7 Genesis 2:15

8 Genesis 2:18-20

Photo taken from https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTwLCtHDmKjp6_Xh8av3_oPSvPKJWGQ6LRheCghM6lITfqj2v9I7xDCCj_CjE1oV30Un9LQ40t0reXBgcBdgH_dMjzSo8y105-DGUeE1Wsmp42LR6_EmWZDlZVT9yA1xPeXU5bzhjRTw/s1600-h/Lonely.jpg

Mark 4 Mission: Impossible

Mission Impossible. It’s a good phrase, even if the movies were all pretty confusing. I saw the first two, and I honestly couldn’t tell you what happened. The original TV series was really a lie… of course they weren’t impossible missions; the good guys completed the missions, the missions were just hard enough to be over in time for tea, and that there were enough gadgets in the cupboard to overcome the opposition. So really, if I’m paying attention to the movies, there’s no such thing as Mission Impossible. There’s Mission Difficult, Mission Expensive, an awful lot of Mission Unfeasable, one or two hundred Mission Stupid and 3 Missions That Require Tom Cruise Or We’d Simply Lose Interest.

One thing that we get taught in the movies is that nothing is impossible. We don’t even have the expectation of an impossible mission. We know the ending, we just want to know HOW it’ll get done. If you sweat hard enough, pull faces and show off your perfect teeth, have a hard-enough body… you can do anything. If you’ve had a massive car crash, you can still run like a maniac, correctly dial a number on a [product placement] iPhone, and use a pistol. Fall through the roof of a building while having a fight? No problem. I slipped in a bath a few years ago and I nearly snapped my leg in half. Obviously I’m not buff enough, because instead of wrestling my bath with my bare hands and throwing it clear through a wall, I just… fell over and clutched my leg like the wuss that I am. I howled – it hurt! It hurt for a few days! My wife asked me if I was alright, and then she laughed when she thought I couldn’t hear!

I like the real Mission Impossible stuff that I find in the Bible. Things that are absolutely impossible in real life. Things that Hollywood won’t touch, because they’re just so unbelievable.
Mission Impossible for a man named Gideon – he is given the task, by God, of gathering an army to defeat the Midianites. He raises an available army of 32,000 men, going up against an army that is evidently much, much larger. God says to Gideon - “Your army is too big.” Now we know that Israel is probably outnumbered here, because Gideon turns to his army and says “if you're scared... go home.” Twenty-two thousand people ran away. Basically a Super-Dome full of people did the bolt. Gideon is down to ten thousand men, God says to Gideon - “Your army is too big.” Gideon reduces the number of people in his army from ten thousand to three hundred – the details are in Judges 7 – before God is happy with the numbers. Three hundred soldiers. At a squeeze, we can get three hundred people into this building. So – have a look around. You’re up to fight a sellout crowd at the Olympic Stadium. And it’s full of angry Bulldogs supporters.

The story gets even stranger. As Judges chapter 7 unfolds, we see the army of not only Midian, but also the Amalekites – and all the people of the East lay along the valley like locusts in abundance, and their camels were without number.[1]

Anybody seen the movie 300? Having 300 soldiers set against a mighty army looked fantastic, didn’t it? Here’s Gideon’s army (a thousand years before the Battle of Thermopylae) – swords and shields at the ready? Here’s what they faced the enemy with… left hand holding a clay jar with a candle inside, and the right hand holding a trumpet. How would the movie look now? Gerard Butler passing out candles and musical instruments, like it was Carols in the Park! Now does it look like Mission Impossible?

We know how the story ends, don’t we? Question – did Gideon complete his Mission Impossible?
Did Gideon defeat the Midianites and the Amalekites and all those camels? No – Judges 7 makes it clear, over and over again, that the Lord alone would have the credit here. The enemy literally chopped itself to destruction, and only when the remnant fled did Israel give chase with weapons.
Sometimes we know the story so well that we miss the Mission Impossible. We remember the story, but we miss the workings of God.
We remember the story, but we miss the workings of God.

I wonder sometimes if we take this attitude with Jesus, with his Gospel, his euaggelion, his Good Message. I wonder if we acknowledge that yes, his mission was a Mission Impossible – but because we know the end of the story so well, we again miss the workings of God.

How do we see Jesus’ early ministry? How do we consider the first year or two of Jesus’ teaching and preaching? I think what often comes to mind is the series of miracles – some spectacularly public, some quiet and intensely private.
I think what often comes to mind is the series of brilliant teachings – Matthew 5-7, the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord’s Prayer, Luke 6, John 3 – being born again, Nicodemus, John 3:16.
We often see the high points – and that’s good, because they really are high points. But what we can do is miss how much of a Mission Impossible it was.
· Matthew 8:34 And behold, all the city came out to meet Jesus, and when they saw him they begged him to leave their region.
· Matthew 12:14 But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him.
· Mark 3:6 The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.
· Mark 3:21 And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, “He is out of his mind.”
· Luke 4:29 And they rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff.
· John 5:18 This is why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him
· John 7:20-21 “Why do you seek to kill me?” The crowd answered, “You have a demon! Who is seeking to kill you?”
· John 7:25 Some of the people in Jerusalem therefore said, “Is not this the man whom they seek to kill?”
· John 10:33 The Jews answered him, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you, but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.”


Here’s a mission, should you choose to accept it.

Go to a place, as a missionary. Tell people that you are the one that the great prophets spoke about. Tell people that the Bible was written specifically to point the way to you. Tell people that you are THE way, THE truth, THE life. And just to make it all the harder, tell all this to a people who know their Bibles inside out, firmly believe that they are doing the right thing by God, are very wary of false teaching, and have a very real sense of how wrong it would be to take the name and the Word of the Lord God in vain.

In other words, people a lot like us.
If somebody came through the doors at the back, came up to the lectern, flipped open the Bible to Isaiah 61, read aloud, sat down and then announced that he was the fulfilment of that prophecy… how many people here would be likely to go “oh, cool – we’ve been waiting for you”? How would you react? What would you say to such a man?
Mission Impossible – to preach the coming kingdom of God to a people who think they know all there is to know about God’s justice, mercy and wrath.
Mission Impossible – the rescue of humanity from itself.
Mission Impossible – turn hearts around and save them from the wrath that is to come.
Do we begin to fathom just how difficult the task that God gave to Jesus really is? Do we appreciate how hard Jesus worked, how much he preached, how constantly he spoke, appeared, walked, taught, preached, chatted, lectured, told stories, healed, argued, persuaded, debated… for people to begin to understand how his teachings were not only different from all the other itinerant preachers that were also around, but that his words were the words of God? Do we get it?

We sometimes say – very easily and quickly – that Christ died for my sins. We rarely say that he walked, exhausted himself, taught, taught, taught and taught… so that I might understand what it is that he’s saying… so that I might KNOW that he died for my sins.

One thing that we see over and over and over again in Jesus’ early ministry is how much preaching he did, how the Devil got in his way wherever he preached, and how determined he was to keep on preaching non-stop.
Matthew 5:23 And he went through all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom of God.
Mark 3:20 Then he went home, and the crowd gathered again, so that they [Jesus and the Twelve] could not even eat.
Luke 4:42-44 And when it was day, he departed and went into a desolate place. And the people sought him and would have kept him from leaving them, but he said to them, “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well; for I was sent for this purpose.” And he was preaching in all the synagogues of Judea.
No highway, no car, no public transport, no hotels overnight. No marketing campaigns, no radio ads, no guest appearances on breakfast TV.
No microphones, no public-address systems, no pre-recorded messages.

No internet to post blog-notes. No iTunes, YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter or (gasp) email, no laptops, no typewriters, no printing presses. Just a pair of feet covered by leather sandals, the message of the Lord God to stir up the hearts and minds and souls of men… and this.
The Bible.
This is what Jesus taught from. The Bible – what we call the Old Testament. The Scripture. God’s Word, given to us by men through inspiration.
Paul knew exactly what the Old Testament was for.
2Tim3:16 says… what? All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, training in righteousness. Good – now, what about the verse before it: the purpose of Scripture is to make you wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.
That’s what it was for, and that’s still what it’s for.


One thing that we see over and over again, as Jesus preaches and teaches, is that the Scriptures are constantly on his lips – the Law, the Psalms and the Prophets and the Wisdom literature. It’s all through his speech, his answers are rooted in the Scriptures, his wisdom – which all the Gospels tell us is one of the things which is making him famous – his wisdom is recognised by others because it’s embedded in the Word, and he teaches the scriptures with authority.

We’re kinda used to using scriptures to back up our positions, or our arguments, or our moral position on things – and that’s not a bad thing… is it? Here’s the problem. We can have a tendency to concentrate on one verse, and make that one verse the proof-text. Is the verse in context? Is it out of context? How is the person I’m talking to going to be able to tell?
Malachi 3:10 Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. It’s a very popular verse in certain circles, and it’s often quoted before a collection or an offering. And – as it stands – it sounds like a very generous offer: give your tithe, and God will bless you abundantly and more-than-abundantly. Well, that sounds right - why shouldn’t I use that as a proof-text to show that if you give, God gives. It’s there – it’s in the Bible. Why not?

Because of what the rest of the book says. The verse before Malachi 3:10 shows a very angry God – You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. I don’t intend to exegete the whole of that Malachi text – we’re running short on time as it is – but the message of Malachi is that God’s people are not doing what the Lord requires of them [call it disobedience]. Be obedient, willingly obedient, and I will keep the covenant I set with Abraham, the covenant I set with Moses and the covenant I set with David. God had already promised over and over again that he would bless his people abundantly, and that blessing comes ONLY because God is faithful – not because I’ve stopped short-changing the collection-plate. Certainly not because my faithfulness.

And yet it’s being used to encourage people to give – in the hope that they’ll gain some special blessing from God’s hand over-and-above. See the difference?

You see why it’s so important to know this thing as well as you can? Reg keeps saying it until he’s blue in the face. Stu Crawshaw’s been saying it for as long as I’ve known him, and that’s longer than some of you have been alive. Read your Bible every day! Study the Word, and study it well, so that even these words can’t be twisted around. Satan is brilliant at twisting God’s words, getting us to question what we’ve been taught.
Genesis 3 – right at the very start of it, Genesis 3:1 He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden?’” Well, no, God didn’t actually say that, as Eve points out, but it’s enough to get the conversation rolling. And he gets Eve questioning God, and His motives and His purposes, until Eve has actually forgotten what God said in the first place.
Did God actually say “You mustn’t have sex?”
Did God actually say “You must not cheat on your 2009 tax return?”
Did God actually say… you get the idea. As we saw in the Gospel reading – which Tim Beilharz is going to preach in detail on in two weeks – we see Satan using fact and Scripture. We see Satan using the Word of God against the Son of God.

Crazy but true – all of the things Satan tempted Jesus with had a foundation in Scripture. Stones into bread is a clear-cut reference to manna provided by God for His people in the wilderness. When he said to Jesus that the world had been given to him [Satan], there was truth in that - John 12:31 Satan is called the ruler of this world, I John 5:19 the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. And finally, Satan quotes a Psalm of David… to the Son of David.

The replies that Jesus gives to Satan all come from the book of Deuteronomy, which is very significant in and of itself. Why is it significant? Tim will tell you in two weeks. Tune in. I’m not going to snaffle his sermon – but go back to the idea of how quickly Jesus turns to the Law. We see it over and over and over again in the early Galilee ministry.
We see it in the Sermon on the Mount – Matthew 5-7 – as Jesus firstly declares that he isn’t removing the Law, he isn’t abolishing the Law, he isn’t in any way watering down the Law… he is fulfilling the Law. Secondly he holds up the Laws that cover murder, adultery, divorce, lying, revenge, hatred, charity, prayer, fasting… he holds them up, then holds up the human heart next to it.
He shows how obedience to the letter is useless, because the human heart is too damaged to willingly obey the Law.

We see it as Jesus specifically confronts the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law over two issues – the Sabbath, and the forgiveness of sins. These two are issues of authority, and Jesus has to show them that their understanding of the Sabbath was flawed, and that he has the authority to mend people’s hearts as well as their bodies. Why do you think that Jesus’ healings were often coupled with teachings about the Sabbath and about forgiving sins? He has the authority to mend peoples’ hearts as well as their bodies.

Jesus came to God’s people, those who knew the Law, those who thought that they knew God. And he showed them where they stand in relation to the law, how far away from obedience their hearts truly are, how that even in their rigid obedience to the letter of the law they constantly broke it in their hearts and minds. John nails it absolutely at the start of his gospel – He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.

Mission Impossible. We know the ending, we talk about it every Easter, we make movies like The Passion about it. We know the ending so well that we can miss the working of God. As Jesus’ mission is terminated, we see eleven men who knew Jesus more than any other men. We see eleven men who should have understood, who should have grasped it all… but fled in horror and terror and let their Master and their Lord be executed and be hanged on a cursed tree.

The Mission is impossible for men, and every man that knew and loved him had vanished. But nothing is impossible for God. Those men who ran away took hold of the saving gospel of Christ crucified and risen. They were given the Spirit, and they went forth. The Jewish leadership tried to beat the Gospel into submission – it grew and spread. The Roman leadership classed it as a dangerous cult and tried to stomp it to death – it grew and spread, and within three hundred years a Christian emperor sat on the Roman throne.

Mission Impossible. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is simply this. Preach Christ crucified and risen to the whole world.
Preach Christ crucified and risen to the whole world.
It’s impossible. So what?
Two questions – who do we say that Jesus is? Who do people outside these walls say Jesus is? Until those answers agree, we’re on mission. We’re on a mission that is just about impossible. It’s a mission that might take us anywhere. Two years ago, the notion of preaching the risen Christ would have scared me senseless. The thought of preaching Christ in Penrith would have... scared me a lot more. Some of you will be taken further than that, to places that you have no normal earthly desire to go. But you’ll know, and you’ll go, because your heart will burn.
Burn with the love of Jesus
burn fiercely for the hearts of those who don’t know him
burn because the Spirit set it on fire.

That’s when you don’t care about the impossible mission. That’s when the ending doesn’t matter. Mission impossible, should you choose to accept it. Take the saving message of God’s grace and Christ’s love to the whole world.

Your time starts now.

[1] Judges 7:12
Image from http://flickr.com/photos/dragonden/250835204/

Lk1:39-56 FAITHFUL

Sermon

Gymea Anglican

7:45am, 9:30am

Through Luke’s narrative we’ve looked at some very strange happenings, and we’ve kind of contracted the timeline in a way so that we can find our way through some crucial issues that sit around the edges of what we normally associate with the "Christmas Story." We’ve seen an angel sent by God find Mary, a virgin engaged to a man related by birth to Israel’s great King David. We’ve listened to the angel’s announcement, that this child, this boy that Mary shall bear is nothing less than the one that the Lord God will hand the throne of King David to – “The child to be born will be called holy – the Son of God”[1] We’ve watched Mary’s reaction to this news that’s both wonderful and troubling, and we’ve seen her great servant’s heart and her obedience to the Lord her God. And we’ve seen Isaiah’s great prophecy fulfilled.

At the same time we’ve read about the very strange origins of John the Baptist. His father was visited by an angel while he was in the middle of the Temple, and the angel told the old man that he and his elderly wife were to have a baby. Not just any baby, but one who would be marked from birth as a man with a mission.

There are traces of a deeper story here – traces of great pain as Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth have gone from newlyweds to old age with no children. But in Gabriel’s opening words, he tells Zechariah before anything else… do not be afraid, your prayer has been heard…[2] and that even though it would be to God’s great purpose, their prayer of pain would be answered.

Mary hurries from Nazareth to find Elizabeth with plans to stay a fair while. I don’t know whether she went to help Elizabeth through the final three months of her pregnancy, or two ladies with remarkable stories needed to spend time in each others’ company. They were related – how they were related isn’t specified – and I’d imagine that if anybody that I knew had been through what either Mary or Elizabeth had been through, they would welcome the chance to talk to someone with a shared experience.

They make a very interesting contrast, don’t they? Out of the two, Elizabeth is the one we recognise the most from other places in the Bible. Although we don’t get the specific details, we know that she’s not young – she’s well out of child-bearing age. We know that it has been a matter of great pain to her and her husband Zechariah, and it’s a matter that they’ve both constantly brought before the Lord. And in this, we see a reflection of some others throughout the Old Testament.

Sarah heard the Lord’s promise to her husband, that he would father a mighty nation. And – more like Zechariah – she was the one who had trouble believing. Paul tells us that Abraham believed the Lord, and He credited it to him as righteousness. Even when he was ninety-nine years old, not only did he believe what the Lord had promised him, he circumcised himself – and then went on to be a father (now that’s one tough cookie!).
Sarah, however, was more realistic, and when she overheard the Lord and Abraham talking she couldn’t picture it: “After I am worn out and my master is old, will I now have this pleasure?” [3] But the Lord honoured His promise to Abraham, and Sarah gave birth to Isaac.

Isaac’s wife Rebekah was described as barren for twenty years, and again we see Isaac praying on behalf of his wife. She gives birth to the famously-struggling twins, Esau and Jacob.

Jacob had two wives – two sisters, in fact. And from what Genesis 29 and 30 mention, all the problems that go along with that. But Rachel remained barren for a great amount of time, while almost everyone around her was having children by Jacob. Genesis 30:22 shows that she was not forgotten in her misery, though: “God remembered Rachel; he listened to her and opened her womb.” And she gave birth to Joseph. Rachel had one more child, Benjamin, but died after childbirth.

In the book of Judges we see an unnamed woman, the wife of a man called Manoah, described as sterile and childless. The angel of the Lord visited her and gave her instructions very similar to those given to Zechariah, physically marking out the child into God’s service from birth. The child’s name was Samson.

One that we should be familiar with is a woman by the name of Hannah, and we’ve been walking with Hannah and Elkanah through the Old Testamant readings. In the opening verses of I Samuel we see a pretty painful story, and we get a taste of the pain of barrenness. It’s still an issue loaded with great pain today, and I would hesitate before saying something as insensitive as “it was more painful back then.” There isn’t any easy way of living with it. There isn't.

Just to add to this horrible burden, Hannah is placed under the mocking social hammer. On top of the normal burden of wondering what is wrong with her physically is the weight of social judgment – she lives in a world that views barrenness as punishment from God. There must have been something that she had done, some sin committed, that had given God cause to punish her in this manner... It didn’t help that she had a husband that just didn’t get it.

Elkanah loved her very dearly – we see that he favoured her, that he tried to look after her and comfort her… but he just didn’t get it. Part of me feels a little sorry for Elkanah as he attempts to soothe his grieving wife: “Hannah, why are you weeping? Why don’t you eat? Why are you downhearted? Don’t I mean more to you than ten sons?” Wrong answer, buddy, thanks for playing... I can’t imagine that helping… but there are certainly times where I don’t get it, and I open my yap, and I get shot, and deservedly so… but the terrible fact is, as much as we husbands try to help our wives with burdens and deep pain, there will be things that we just don’t get, and that won’t be from a want of trying. That’s not a get-out-of-jail card for us husbands, incidentally… but there will be times where a burden is so intensely personal it can only really be dealt with between the carrier and the Lord.


Here’s one of the most painful lines in the Bible. I Samuel 1:10; “In bitterness of soul, Hannah wept much and prayed to the Lord.” That’s hard, isn’t it? “In bitterness of soul.” I know that a lot of people have the most enormous trouble praying when they are in the bitterness of their soul – it’s the last thing that they want to do. But Hannah pours out her pain before the Lord, in the house of the Lord.

And finally we have Elizabeth. The opening lines of Luke’s narrative pretty well give us her story, and we’ve seen Zechariah and Elizabeth last week. “Both of them were upright in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commandments and regulations blamelessly. But they had no children, because Elizabeth was barren; and they were both well along in years.”

The Lord is faithful. The Lord God is a speaking God: a God of words, a God of the Word, and a God who keeps His word. We remind ourselves of that every Sunday, we gather and pray corporately – together – for all manner of things… as the Prayer Book says, for all sorts and conditions of men. And in churches and in our Bible-study groups and home groups and men’s breakfasts… it’s a wonderful thing to say loudly, and to remind ourselves and each other of this great fact; the Lord is faithful.
But what about when we’re alone?

When we’re in a hospital corridor, waiting to hear a door open and someone to emerge with news?

When we’ve prayed for something for days and weeks and months and years – what then?

When you’re going on months of broken sleep and the kids just won’t stop for twenty minutes?

When nobody calls to see how you’re going, and you just can’t bear to call anyone else and burden up someone else?

What about then? Can we say, with clear mind and straight back, that God is faithful?

There’s one thing I love about the Bible, even though it’s a hard fact, and a hard thing to confront. It is absolutely unflinching when it comes to dealing with pain. We don’t see these women as success-stories - far from it. We don’t see these families as being richly and over-abundantly blessed by God for their obedience or their good prayers or their good works. We see them in their pain, we are privy to their misery, we hear the bitterness or their soul.
Looking at these women of devotion, their long-term prayer, their years of weary endurance, of praying in bitterness of soul… it makes me very wary of people who try to tell me that if you do the things that please God, he will bless you with every blessing that the world can offer. That if you pray believing that it will happen. An American preacher, Mark Driscoll, phrased it pretty well – it’s like Jesus is a big piñata, and prayer is a big stick – and if you bash Jesus hard enough with the stick, lots of goodies will fall from heaven. And your blessings are just such a marvellous sign to others of how pleased God is with you.

I just don’t find it in the Bible. What we do find in the Bible is… people like us. We see that unflinching picture of our own lives. I read these stories and I think of my grandmother, who prayed every single day for years and years and years for her boy and his family to come to the foot of Calvary. Her prayer was always going to be answered – always – but, to be sure, not in the timeframe that would have best pleased my grandmother. And I’m pretty certain that there was an element of suffering in that wait. I pray that there will never be a day when I pray for my kids to come back to the Lord – but if there is such a day, I know that I’ll pray in pain until that prayer is answered.

And that prayer will be answered. God is faithful. But we have to understand that He is faithful to His own plan, His own timing, His own reasoning. And that’s not easy.

For all the years that Abraham and Sarah waited and waited and waited… God honoured them, answered their prayer… but He did it in His time, as part of His plan. And thousands of years later, Paul holds him up before the world in the letter to the Romans as a shining example. “It was not through law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be the heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith… Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed – and so became the father of many nations.” [4]

For all the years of Hannah’s enduring barrenness, she gave birth to Samuel at exactly the right time – the man who would be the last judge of Israel, prophet, and the anointer of Israel’s first king, Saul, and her great King, David.

For all the years of Elizabeth’s pain, this wasn’t because she had committed some great sin that God was punishing her for – to the contrary, Luke makes it clear that she and Zechariah had found favour in the Lord’s eyes. But the time and the timing and the purpose and the plan of God was critical. He was faithful, He answered her prayer, but in His time.

And we see it here in Luke 1:41; “When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leapt in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.” Even before birth, the last great prophet before the coming of the Christ begins stirring in the presence of the unborn Messiah, the King who will save God’s people from their sins.

In all of this, Mary is almost the complete opposite, isn’t she? Rather than long periods of barrenness before producing a champion of God or a great heir, she has the holy Ghost come upon her before she’d even been with Joseph. Whereas so many of these people as a married couple prayed constantly to God over many years – in the bitterness of their souls – Mary is made pregnant at a time such a thing would hardly have been socially acceptable. Nothing convenient, nothing that you would normally associate with great joy.
So Elizabeth’s Spirit-filled words of prophecy and blessing must have felt like cool refreshing rain to Mary. “Blessed are you among women – and blessed is the child that you will bear!” There are very few things in the world that beat being told that your kid is good, or smart, or funny, or even polite. But when someone would pray over Fiona’s “bump”… and pray God’s blessing on the belly… well, that was a whole different ballgame. Heck – Mary had hardly put her bags down before Elizabeth opens up. I don’t even know if Mary’s had a chance to tell Elizabeth that she’s pregnant too, before Elizabeth comes out with this extraordinary statement… “Why am I so favoured, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” Already, the unborn child has been identified as Lord – by the mother of the one who will prepare his path.

Here’s something I always find strange – it’s the kind of healing that God’s Spirit brings. A lot of people I know who have suffered long-term pain tend to be very guarded, and spontaneous bursts of joy aren’t always an obvious feature. And yet Elizabeth sounds like she’s jumping up and down on the furniture in her excitemet and her joy. The Lord has given her joy back.

And Mary said...

"My soul glorifies the Lord

and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

for he has been mindful

of the humble state of his servant.

From now on all generations will call me blessed,

for the Mighty One has done great things for me—

holy is his name.

His mercy extends to those who fear him,

from generation to generation.

He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;

he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.

He has brought down rulers from their thrones

but has lifted up the humble.

He has filled the hungry with good things

but has sent the rich away empty.

He has helped his servant Israel,

remembering to be merciful

to Abraham and his descendants forever,

even as he said to our fathers."

It’s a bit like those scenes in the run-up to the American election, with Barack Obama quietly, gently, asking people in the audience what they, as people, could do. And the great optimistic answer would come back, quietly whispered, but determined; “Yes we can.”
Matt asked the question – “Can we trust God and His Word?” Yes, we can.
Last week the question was – “Do we trust God and His Word?” Yes, we do.

The question worth asking as we look at these great heroes of the Bible – not great warriors or mighty kings, but extraordinarily faithful prayers and women of unimaginable endurance and strength – the question is really – “How can we trust God and His Word?”

With prayer. With endurance when we cannot see the end. With hope even in places and times where there is no hope that we can see. With sure and certain knowledge that God is sovereign, God is in control of everything, and that all things happen according to His plan – even when we’re tempted to think we’re bad planners. But with prayer. Pray when you’re tired, weary, exhausted, frightened, angry, frustrated at the Lord because nothing appears to be working out right… but pray.


The Lord our God is faithful. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.

His steadfast love endures forever!

[1] Luke 1:35
[2] Luke 1:13
[3] Gen 18:12
[4] Rom 4:13, 18

Image courtesy of http://flickr.com/photos/ingegoesbroadway/2577268694/in/set-72157605088609705/

Lk1:26-38 THE HERALD ANGEL

Sermon
Gymea Anglican Church
7:45am, 9:30am

Christmas is one of the increasingly rare times of the year when there's actually a good level of public awareness of the back-story behind one of the big events of the year. In general, people know more about the Bible's narrative of Christmas than any other story in the Bible. Kids in particular know that baby Jesus was placed in a manger. They mightn't know what a manger is, but they know Jesus was in one.

They know that there’s a big, bright star, that angels come and shepherds go, that the wise men come (let's leave off how many for a moment), and they all come to worship the baby King Jesus.

That’s a huge piece of Gospel truth right there, embedded so deeply in our culture we almost miss it altogether. The kids know it better than the adults – King Jesus. Isn’t it strange? We wise, knowing adults are ready to question almost every aspect of that great Christian legend of Christmas, whereas the kids are the ones who show us how to hold the truth. No wonder we see Jesus, later on in Luke’s Gospel, saying; “I praise you, Father, Lord of Heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.” [1]

We’re looking at part of the traditional Christmas story, and it's a traditional time to talk about it. But in reality, this is something that (of course) happened a good nine months before Jesus was born. For those who follow lectionaries and church calendars, the Annunciation (the announcement by the angel Gabriel) is celebrated on March the 25th, exactly nine months before December 25th. So this is 8 ½ months late. Sorry.

Before we look closely at Luke's acount of this event, it's worth having a look at the chunk beforehand. [2] In that twenty-verse chunk there was another story involving the angel Gabriel. And, as Luke notes, that happened six months previous to this… so, figure about fourteen months before the birth of Jesus.

The angel Gabriel appeared to a man by the name of Zechariah. Zechariah was a priest, and on this day his job was to enter the Temple and burn incense before the Lord. Lots of people were outside, but only Zecariah would have been allowed inside. An angel was suddenly inside with him, in the smoke – and Zechariah’s reaction tells us something about angels… Luke 1:12 – “He was startled and was gripped with fear.” The Greek puts it slightly more – “and seeing him, Zechariah was terror-filled, and fear fell on him.”

Ditch the normal mental picture of pretty wings and halos and wearing white pillow-cases. Angels aren’t cute, pretty or delicate. They aren't likely to sit gently on the top of a Christmas tree. Nor are they likely to dance on the head of a pin. Angels are supernaturally powerful, immortal beings. They’re terrifyingly real. And they speak with authority, because they carry messages directly from the Lord God Almighty himself. There’s something about the physical presence of these creatures that is intensely intimidating, too. Gabriel’s first words sum up the human experience of angels right through the Old Testament… “Do not be afraid.”

Gabriel tells Zechariah that he and his wife will have a child. Zechariah asks just one question – “How can I be sure of this?” It's worth noting at this point the startling ability of men to ask the dumbest questions… how can I be sure of this? Because she’ll get a really big tummy, swollen ankles, a frightening temper and a desire for garlic ice-cream at three o’clock in the morning?
Gabriel’s response puts the priest in his place. “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news.” And Zechariah is struck dumb for his doubt, never to utter another word until he has obeyed the Lord's word in full.

Angels generally don’t announce babies, notwithstanding what the gift-card industry suggests. The Word of the Lord hadn’t been heard in the land since the prophet Malachi, four hundred years earlier. So why here? Why now? What was so extraordinary about this child that the Lord God would send an angel? Gabriel indicates to Zechariah that this baby would grow to be unique, filled with the Holy Spirit from birth, like Samuel a child dedicated to God from birth, to become a man who would “go on before the Lord, in the Spirit and the power of Elijah… to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” [3] This was to be one child marked from birth. And when Zechariah emerges, stunned and speechless from inside the Temple, we’re told that everybody realised that he’d received a vision. When his time of service was completed, he returned home. And Elizabeth became pregnant.

Luke 1:26 – “In the sixth month God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendent of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.”

News travels through families very quickly, doesn’t it? I think any time there’s a pregnancy, there’s a sense of managing the news before the news just escapes and runs away. So when Gabriel comes before Mary and greets her as one highly-favoured, and tells her the Lord was with her, I’m not surprised that she was a little edgy... especially if she's heard that it was an angel that took Zechariah's speech (and, as a side-thought, possibly his hearing as well; look very closely at Luke 1:62). So we see in verse 29 – “But Mary was greatly troubled at his words, and wondered what kind of greeting this might be.” Gabriel again tells her not to be afraid, and repeats that she has found favour with God.
It’s amazing how the world completely turns on just a couple of words. Simple sentences. “Will you marry me?” “I have your medical results back.” “We’re going to have a baby.” “It’s a boy.” Some of life’s most profoundly moving moments come in the simplest of sentences. The entire world’s orbit is changed forever as the coming of the Son of the Most High, Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel is announced…

But it’s announced quietly, to an audience of one.
In response to her question, Gabriel explains in verse 35 what will happen to Mary – that the Holy Spirit will come upon her, and that the power of the Most High will overshadow her – so the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. He reminds her of Elizabeth’s case, pregnant in old age, and reminds her that nothing is impossible with God.

Here’s a thing. Zechariah asks the angel a question - How can I be sure of this? Mary asks the angel a question - how will this be? Why is one question punished harshly, and the other answered so openly and gently?
Zechariah’s question comes from a place of disbelief. He’s a priest, in the temple, and God speaks directly to His priest through a herald-angel. Zechariah has no excuses, as far as Gabriel is concerned, for his disbelief. He should be prepared for the Lord to speak, but clearly is not – and the poor old man is dealt with, in a way that would be recognised very publicly. Big warning-sign… do not doubt the Word of Yahweh!
But what about Mary’s question? “How will this be since I am a virgin?” Is that a question coming from a place of disbelief? How is it possible for a virgin to remain a virgin and yet give birth?
Her question says something of her honour – she certainly wasn’t prepared to break that law, even with her husband-to-be, before it was right to do so. Pre-marital pregnancy was beyond shameful – it would disgrace Mary and her family, as well as Joseph and his. It makes her final word all the more amazing. Verse 38: “I am the Lord’s servant – may it be to me as you have said.”

That’s obedience, isn’t it? She knew full well that she faced the possibility of rejection by her husband, ostracism from society in general and her family in particular. And yet she takes it on.

I realize that I’m going against the trend at the moment. I’m being a highly unfashionable preacher. The current trends, as far as I can tell, is to leave the whole matter of the Virgin Birth alone. It’s an odd thing, it’s outside any scientific paradigm, it’s something that people find hard to believe…
And at points like this, at points where there are difficulties, at points where belief is hard, we are actively encouraged to put our faith in these things aside. "Oh, it’s too difficult. Don’t strain yourself trying to get your head around these things that are too hard. God wouldn't really do that, would he? The Virgin Birth is a legend – a myth. The resurrection isn't really believable... the authors of these books are hardly credible historians, are they?" Sadly – tragically – shamefully - these cries are coming as much from pulpits and bishops as they come from the world outside. Be careful.

So why is it so important? Why make such a big deal out of it?
Matthew records Jesus saying “Anyone who receives you receives me, and anyone who receives me receives the One who sent me”. Matthew records Jesus saying “All things have been committed to me by my Father, and no-one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him”. And, crucially, when Peter declares to Jesus “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God”, Matthew records Jesus saying “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man but by my Father in Heaven”.

What are we to make of these claims that Jesus makes of himself? If, as more and more people are content to believe, he was the son of two humans (no matter how remarkable they were), where do these outlandish claims take us? Certainly, Jesus' sayings and parables show that he deserves titles like “a great teacher” and “influential philosopher” and “wise man.” And, to be sure, most people today are more than happy to accord Jesus that honour.

But can he still be called a great teacher as he makes these claims of himself? Can a teacher be half-wise and half-delusional? If he is a liar, should we trust any of his wisdom? Next question, by logical extension… If this book, these accounts, this Bible, is full of half-truths instead of the truth… can I trust the God that I find in these pages with my soul?

How will this be, since I am a virgin? Can a Virgin Birth be proven? Can I give you scientific, rock-solid, absolutely irrefutable evidence that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit instead of by normal human agency?
In an age of science and reason, where scientists declare that if it can't be proven it cannot be said to have happened, I have to say... no. There is no scientific, rock-solid, absolutely irrefutable evidence that would satisfy these criteria that I can provide for you.
What I can do is point to the Scriptures. And there are one or two things that should be considered here. Even the harshest secular literary scholars agree on one thing. If these writings about Mary and Joseph and Jesus' miraculous birth were an invented myth, devised by the early Church... they shouldn't look like this.
* It's not myth – certainly not in the classical vein of mythology. Remember, Luke was writing to Theophilus, and whereas most of the classical mythical writers (like Homer) wrote highly-stylised poetry or lyrical stories for oral story-telling, Luke and Acts bear all the hallmarks of a written factual account in documented form.
There were certainly many myths concerning Greek and Roman gods who used all sorts of tricks to sleep with humans – and often in these stories a child happened afterwards. Traditionally, the resultant unwanted child would often become a nemesis to the father (look up the origin of the word nemesis!). Luke and Matthew make it completely clear that there is no accident – the direct will of God the Father brings forth the Son of God in flesh. The Father loves his Son, and the Son remains obedient to the Father - even to his death. That flies in the face of any mythological pattern that I can recall.
*It's overly simple One of the greatest arguments in favour of the truth of these Gospel accounts is, quite simply, that they are so simple. Matthew and Luke simply state what was. If it were a literary invention, there would be far more explanations attached, and a far-larger back-story. The thought that it was a First-Century addition actually creates more problems... why would you add such a strange, outrageous, unproveable, unbelievable portion?
The old 1662 Book of Common Prayer puts it just as simply. Being of one substance with the Father – who, for us men and for our salvation came down from Heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made man. There is simply nothing remotely like this anywhere else. Matthew and Luke don't give any stylised details of how this might have happened. It was enough to note that it occurred. The how is utterly irrelevant to them.

The why becomes apparent as you read the Gospels – only the Son of God has the authority to forgive sins. The Pharisees were absolutely right about one thing – only God can forgive sins. Only the Son of God can take every sin and place it upon himself. Only His blood, shed at great cost and pain, can atone for me and my rebellion against God the Father. Only the Son of God can save... me.
That’s why the question is so important. That’s why we bother working through the difficult bits. That’s why.

Mary’s reply to all of this amazes me every time I read this. Verse 38: “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said.” Simple belief, despite the enormous impact that this will have on her life. Great risk, great cost. I look at the difference between Zechariah’s terrified disbelief and Mary’s quiet, thoughtful, understanding acceptance and obedience. I find myself wondering what I’d do, what I’d say if I found myself in Zechariah’s place. Would I do any better?

*Here’s a question. If you were visited by a herald angel, what would you do? Would you freeze with fear? Would you do what Zechariah did and have great trouble believing the message of the Lord? Would you be like Gideon, who needed to see proofs before he’d believe that the angel spoke the word of God?
Because that, in essence, is the choice that we're given when we approach the Word of God. We read it. We study it. Sometimes we are perplexed by it, sometimes we don’t understand all of it. And that’s fair enough – I don’t think that there are too many people who would be brave enough to put up their hand to say “I understand all of the Bible.”
But here’s the real question. Do we trust it? The question isn’t “Can we trust it” – Matt looked at that one last week – but “do we trust it?” Do we accept what this book says about Jesus, what it says about God, what it says about us as fallen men and women? Do we trust it?

Children around the world are poking at Nativity sets, either in churches, front lawns, living rooms or in shopping centres. They know Santa, and they probably know the names of all the reindeer. But…
They know that the shepherds came to Bethlehem to see the baby King Jesus.

They know that the wise men came with gifts and worshiped King Jesus.

They always know which one the Virgin Mary is, and that Joseph stands right beside her.

And they know that in that little nest of straw lies King Jesus. They don’t see the irony of the King of heaven and earth lying in a cow’s feed-box. But they know who the King is.
The most important question we can possibly ask as we approach Bethlehem through this week and the next, is “do we know the King?”

“Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”

[4] Let me encourage you over the next couple of weeks... be childish this Christmas!

Amen.

[1] Luke 10:21
[2] Luke 1:5-25
[3] Luke 1:17
[4] Luke 18:16-17

Matt6:19-36 FAITH TRUST CONFIDENCE Part 3

Part of the "Design of a Disciple" series

2nd November, 2008

"If you’re not trusting in Jesus here, you will either fall to greed or fall to anxiety. And both of those are absolute markers of our society today." From Part 1

"What’s the mark of a follower here? What’s the design of a disciple look like? Faith, trust, confidence. Someone who trusts God with everything… even money. And that’s not easy. It’s downright scary." From Part 2

For those of you who are still at home with Mum and Dad, please… recognise that, especially in times like today, this whole money thing is incredibly, incredibly stressful for them. If you ask your mum or dad for something, and they say no, we can’t afford it… please – honour you father and your mother by not fighting back on that one. As a dad, let me tell you – it hurts when I can’t provide Grace with something that she has asked me for. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that if I could afford it I’d buy her whatever she asks… but not being able to is heartbreaking.

For those of us who have to pay the rent or the mortgage, find money for the groceries, struggle desperately to figure out what we’ll have to miss out on to make sure the kids don’t dip out… How do we do it?

How do we look at Jesus saying do not worry and stop ourselves going – yeah, right in our souls? How do we obey the command do not worry?
For some of us, it can feel irresponsible, it can feel like poor stewardship, it can feel like very poor management. When I told my in-laws that I was leaving my job to pursue full-time study at Moore College, it was pretty hard for Fiona’s mum to completely hide her feelings. She tried, but you could see her trying so hard not to say that’s unbelievably reckless… and, by the way, that’s my daughter and my grandkids you’re dragging through the hedge. And you know what? I really could see her side of that.

For some of us, the trust and faith and confidence to be able to not worry is going to be as alien as breathing underwater. It feels all wrong.

I got a SCUBA licence eight years ago. Now – I’ve always loved diving and snorkelling, I’ve done it most of my life, and to me using a snorkel is the most natural thing in the world. (Fiona, on the other hand, finds it totally freaky to stick a bit of rubber in her gob and stick her head underwater… it seriously gives her the willies thinking about it.) I’m used to it, though.

But the first time I used an aqualung – an air-tank and a regulator - I couldn’t trust myself to breathe any lower under the water than when I used a snorkel. Until I was totally committed to moving lower and lower and lower – and still trusting this thing in my mouth to deliver my air and keep me alive – I was never going to be able to leave the surface. But once I did… and was able to move down and down and around and down, the world changed forever.

When I dive, I have a couple of gauges – a compass, a pressure gauge and depth gauge, and I use a watch so I know the limits of my air and a few other things. It means I’m careful of my resources, I’m conscious of them, I have a requirement and a responsibility to be planned and disciplined.
But I still need to trust enough to breathe normally. If I’m too anxious I’ll never leave the surface. If I’m too greedy and dive outside my limits, I’ll run out of air really quickly, and I’ll set myself up for a whole heap of very real and very horrible dangers.
If I trust what my instructor says, if I breathe slowly, deeply and constantly, I’ll be able to move in one of the most amazing environments that God has made. And it’s beautiful.

Jesus asks a lot of us here, make no mistake. In the most troubling times he says trust God. But he says trust God because these are the most troubling times. Do not let your hearts be troubled, he told his disciples. Trust God, trust also in me. Where was Jesus when he said this? In a room at the end of a Passover meal, a few hours before his arrest, torture and execution. But despite this – really because of it – his words ring with the warmest of comfort. Have a listen… In my Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you... and if I go there to prepare a place for you, I will come and receive you to myself, so that where I am you may be also. You know the way that I am going.

You know what I really love? In amongst this hard, hard teaching that we find in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus points us irresistibly to the beauty that His father – our heavenly Father – has made. I’m going to close by letting Jesus’ words reassure us, by letting what Jesus says about our Father assure us that we can place our trust and our faith and our confidence in the living God. Let’s eavesdrop in…

Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Matt6:19-36 FAITH TRUST CONFIDENCE Part 2

Part of the "Design of a Disciple" series
2nd November, 2008

"It is, I think, impossible to grasp Jesus’ command to not worry without understanding that he is asking for us – as people of God – to put our faith and our trust and our confidence in him. Alone...
"Here we come down to faith, down to trust, down to confidence... if you’re not trusting in Jesus here, you will either fall to greed or fall to anxiety. And both of those are absolute markers of our society today." (From Part 1)


Matthew 6:19 Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. Let’s not misunderstand this. It’s not saying we should have nothing to do with money. It’s not saying that the holiest thing we can do is to swear vows of poverty and give it all to the church. It's not saying that putting money in the bank or superannuation account is wrong.

It is saying this. If you’re stockpiling, ask yourself why. You only stockpile things that you trust – nobody stockpiles junk. Be wise, be shrewd, be careful and responsible stewards with what God has given you – the Bible’s very clear about that, too. But don’t hoard out of a lack of trust in God. Don't hoard, fearing that the Lord will suddenly stop providing for you.

Moving on a mite – Matthew 6:22 The eye is the lamp of the body. Now this bit used to puzzle me. Good eyes, bad eyes, evil eyes, black eyes… all a bit Halloween, really. It feels pretty random, here in a patch about treasure, money and trust. It sounds like something that should be over in Chapter 5 (with the eyes being plucked out and tossed away). And this is one of those passages where critics point to, and say it's evidence that what we’ve got here in Matthew 5-7 wasn’t really a sermon – it's a chopped-up mash of teachings, put together by a sloppy editor later.

But here’s something really interesting – they’re wrong. It’s right where it should be. A Jewish Christian by the name of David Stern did a commentary on the New Testament[1], and he made this observation: “In Judaism, having a good eye (ayin tovah) means being generous, and having a bad eye (ayin ra’ah) means being stingy. That this is the correct interpretation is confirmed by the context, greed and anxiety about money being the topic in both the preceding and following verses.” A good eye means being generous, a bad eye means being a miser. In that light, look at verses 22-23 again.
The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. So if the light in you is darkness - how deep is that darkness!
If you’re generous to others, if you trust God enough to let go of some of your money to help other people, then you glow! Go back to a verse Matty talked about three weeks ago – Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and praise your Father in heaven. And you know what? That sounds like it fits there just fine. Doesn’t it?

Next step in the same thought. No-one can serve two masters. Now, if you’ve just been told that the darkness in you is great, if you’ve been described by Jesus as having a bad eye, as being stingy…are you in control of your money, or is the money in control of you? Who’s working for whom? Are you in darkness or are you in light? Remember what we saw when Jesus talked about murder, adultery, righteousness…
What he’s talking about is the real state of the heart, the real heart that drives actions – not actions designed to cover up the heart.

Here’s a quiet little test to subject ourselves to… is my view of money, is my treatment of money, driven by anxiety and fear of it running out? Is it driven by greed for more, envy at what others have, for a little more luxury and comfort? Or is it driven by a genuine understanding and trust that God is in control? No-one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

What’s the mark of a follower here? What’s the design of a disciple? Faith, trust, confidence. Someone who trusts God with everything… even money.
And that’s not easy.

It’s downright scary.

Next: True Trust


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[1] For more information on the work of David Stern visit http://www.messianicjewish.net/jntp/index.html