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Session 1 – New beginnings

13 OCTOBER 2020

Ps Ben Hooman

The book of Deuteronomy will significantly shape your life. If you want to feel the weight of this book you can’t read it right through at one time. You will never get the impact of the book if you do not break it up. It is thirty-four chapters, so that is a fairly long read. It will give you the overwhelming impression you never realised that there is so much of the love of God in the Old Testament.

“See, I have given you this land. Go in and take possession of the land that the Lord swore he would give to your fathers—to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—and to their descendants after them.” (Deuteronomy 1:8)

Deuteronomy is characterized by a strong sense of urgency. Even to the contemporary reader the challenge is decisive: 

“I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefor choose life, that both you and your descendants may live.” (Deuteronomy 30:19)

You will see that the Bible is not two different books with two different messages—a nasty, old book full of laws and a nice, new book full of love—as if there were two different Gods, or that God had somehow changed during the course of history. No! There is one God and He never changes. We are to love Him as we fear Him and we are to fear Him as we love Him. He is as much to be loved in the Old Testament as He is to be feared in the New. Our love, affection, and devotion to the Lord must be the true foundation of all our actions. Loyalty to God is the essence of true piety and holiness. Success, victory, prosperity, and happiness all depend upon our obedience to the Father. This book is a plea for obedience to God based upon the motives of love and fear. 

There are three questions we want to answer today: 1. Who is this book for? 2. What is this book about? 3. How does this book speak to us today?

Audience: Who is this for?

For those trusted with leadership

“When he takes the throne of his kingdom he is to write, for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, … It is to be with Him and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the Lord his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees” (Deuteronomy 17:18)

Imagine this: The king is crowned, and what is the first thing he is to do? Establish policy? No. He needs to know how to establish policy first.

This is a book for everyone who leads. It is for fathers, mothers, elders, pastors, anyone taking lead. If you are going to lead others you need to know this book.

For all of God’s people

Then Moses commanded them: ‘At the end of every seven years… when all Israel comes before the Lord… you shall read this law before them in their hearing. Assemble the people – men, women and children…so they can listen and learn to fear the Lord your God and follow carefully all the words of this law. (Deuteronomy 31:10-12)

The entire book of Deuteronomy was to be read every seven years before the whole community. This book is about God’s will for the lives of His people: Children need to hear what’s in this book. It’s for families. It’s for the whole church. Why? So that the people could learn to fear the Lord and obey God’s commands.

For people who have forgotten the Lord

More than 800 years after Deuteronomy was penned, 800 years after Moses spoke these words, God used this book to ignite an extraordinary change in the nation of Israel.

God’s people went through some dark times under some dreadfully evil kings. Men like Manasseh, who sacrificed his own son in the fire (how’s that for national leadership?), practiced sorcery, and consulted mediums and spiritists (2 Kings 21:6). It’s hard to imagine a darker day among God’s people.

I don’t suppose Manasseh ever read the book of Deuteronomy, let alone made a copy of it. If he knew it, he certainly paid no attention to it. During his reign this book was completely forgotten.

Manasseh reigned for 55 years. What happens after a half a century of national leadership without the Word of God? You get a generation that does not know the Lord and cannot tell good from evil or truth from error.

Then Josiah came to the throne. God was at work in Josiah’s heart. When he was just 18 years old, the High Priest (a man called Hilkiah) found a dusty, old copy of this book in the temple. It was probably written by one of the previous kings. God’s Word was covered in dust and forgotten by His people for half a century.

Josiah called for this book to be read and when he heard the words of Deuteronomy, He tore his robes because he saw how far the nation was from what God had called them to pursue. He gave himself to prayer and then launched a reformation that changed the face of the nation for a generation.

God has used this book powerfully in the past and I believe that He will use it at this great moment in our lives today.

Storyline: What is this about?

God had given the Promised Land to Abraham and his descendants. But three generations later (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph) there was a famine in the Promised Land and the family to whom God had given great promises went to Egypt where God provided them with food.

They stayed in Egypt for the next 400 years, not because they wanted to, but because they were oppressed and eventually became slaves there. So, they called out to God, and God raised up Moses, who led the people out of Egypt in the exodus. God made a covenant with them at Mount Horeb (also called Mount Sinai): “I will be your God: You will be my people.”

Moses reviews for us what happened next when God’s people went to Mount Sinai. Mount Sinai is where God gave them the Ten Commandments: 

“The Lord our God said to us at Horeb [Sinai], ‘You have stayed long enough at this mountain. Break camp and advance into the hill country of the Amorites… I have given you this land. Go in and take possession…” (Deuteronomy 1:6, 8)

They were organized and now it was time to move forward. They had appointed leaders (vs 9) and sent out spies (vs19), and that’s when fear set in (vs 26). They were unwilling to go up into the land (vs 26), instead they grumbled in their tents (vs 27), and said, “Where can we go, our brothers have made us lose heart?” (vs 28)

God’s people were so unhappy that they were talking about stoning Moses and Aaron. Then God stepped in, and He said about that generation: Not one of them will ever see the land I promised on oath to their forefathers. No one who has treated me with contempt will ever see it (Numbers 14:23).

So, the people wandered in the desert for an entire generation. They could not go back to Egypt. They could not go forward to Canaan. They were stuck, a believing people going nowhere. God was providing for them, but nothing of the mission of God was going forward.

“Thirty-eight years passed… and that entire generation of fighting men had perished from the camp, as the Lord had sworn to them. The Lord’s hand was against them until He had completely eliminated them from the camp.” (Deuteronomy 2:14-15)

When the last of the fighting men of that generation had died, God told Moses to move forward (2:16). They fought two battles, against Sihon(2:24) and Og (3:1), and these two great victories brought them right to the threshold of the Promised Land.

So, after forty years of wandering in the desert, God’s people are ready to cross the river Jordan. They are right on the verge of the Promised Land. They set up camp, and Moses speaks to them for the last time, “These are the words Moses spoke to all Israel in the Desert east of Jordan” (1:1).

It’s now the “fortieth year” since the exodus, “the first day of the eleventh month” (1:3). So, if they were using our calendar (which, of course, they were not) it would be November 1st. We know that entered the Promised Land on “the tenth day of the first month” (Joshua 4:19). That would be January 10^th. Deuteronomy records what God taught His people during the 70-day countdown to entering the Promised Land.

It had taken them forty years to get here. Now God spends these days preparing this new generation of His people for the challenge and opportunity that lay ahead of them.

Moses begins with the flashback: Let me take you back before any of you were born. We were at Horeb, and God called us to move forward (1:6). This is what happened a generation ago. Forty years ago your parents were gathered here. If they had believed God, you would have been born in Canaan. But fear took over, and so you were born in the desert and that’s all you have ever known. Now God is calling you. It’s your moment of opportunity. It’s your moment of destiny.

That’s the story. It’s about God’s people facing a major transition. This book is God’s Word for people on the threshold of an entirely new experience. You can see why we are drawn to the book of Deuteronomy—believers of the cusp of something new, the church embracing its mission.

Application: How does this speak to us today?

The message of this book is about what it takes for people with a faith to become people with a mission. The generation that died in the desert believed in God. They had experienced Him in the miracle they had gone through in the exodus. But they acted in unbelief.

Warren Wiersbe says, “Unbelief wastes time.”  A journey that should have taken eleven days took forty years. How many years of your life have been wasted in unbelief? God did so much for these people. They did so little for Him. So much could have been done, so little was accomplished.

The great question in Deuteronomy is: How can the people of God with a faith become the people of God with a mission? How can you move from being a person with a faith to a person with a mission? How can we move from being a church with a faith to a church with a mission? That’s what it’s about. What is it going to take to move a person from being a person of faith to being a person of mission?

Two things must happen:

• You have to break free from being defined by your past

Think about the people standing on the verge of the Jordan, less than 100 days from entering into the land of Canaan. They had all been born in the desert—they didn’t know anything else.

Imagine you’re in your late thirties, and you were born in the desert. You have a young family of your own, and your children were born in the desert too. God has been good to you. He has provided manna every day, and you’ve never known anything else. You believe in Him, and you’re grateful for all He has done for you. But your whole life has been shaped by the instincts and choices of your parents. They were believers, but they were so cautious, so afraid of risk, and that has become defining for you.

The only faith you have ever experienced is a faith that leaves you wandering around, experiencing God’s provision, but not doing anything to advance His purpose in the world. You’re a believer, but your life has no defining mission! Some of you will be saying, “That’s me!”  If your life is going to count for God you need to break free from being defined by your past. You need to be freed from thinking that believing in God and enjoying His provision is all there is.

• You have to overcome your fear of the future

God was calling these people to do some things none of them had ever done before. Moses says, “We’re going to live in houses!”  How do you live in a house when the only thing you’ve ever known is sleeping under canvas? Moses says, “We’re going to plant crops and raise harvests!”  But the only thing you have ever known is gathering manna from heaven?

God is leading them to a place they have never been and to a life they have never known. You are going to a new school or you are starting a marriage, and everything is new. When you move into something you have never experienced before, there are always fears.

Here’s the challenge God’s people were facing: Can we break free from the past, or will the past always shape us? Can I overcome my fears for the future, or will these fears always hold me back?

And so Moses gets up to speak the words in this book to a community of believers who were defined by the past and afraid of the future, people with a faith but not with a mission, and what does he speak to them about?

Moses spoke to them about the call of God, because when God calls you, He gives you the power to break free from the defining patterns of the past. And Moses spoke to them about the love of God, because it is the love of God when it pours into your own soul that empowers you to overcome your fears of the future. Perfect love casts out fear.

These people heard the call of God, experienced the love of God and seventy days later they moved into the land of Canaan. So, this book has everything to do with us and so much to say to all of us who need to make a fresh start today.

Run the Bible story forward 1,300 years to the time of Jesus and we find Him with His disciples on the night that He was betrayed. Picture these men gathered around Jesus. They have a faith, but they don’t yet have a mission. They are believers, but nothing about them is changing the world. Then “Jesus showed them the full extent of His love” (John 16:33), because the place is full of fear and they are all so discouraged.

After the crucifixion, the talk among the disciples was all about going fishing, retreating to what is safe and familiar. Then the risen Christ comes into the room. He breathes on them and says, “Receive the Holy Spirit… “As the Father has sent Me, so I am sending you” (John 20:21-22). When they receive the love of Christ and the call of Christ, men of faith become men on a mission.

If you ask, “Why are we stretching ourselves to open another campus, new life groups? Why are we making these sacrifices? Why in the world are we doing this?” The answer is: Because God calls us to be more than people with a faith. He calls us to be people on a mission.

People with a faith become people with a mission when the love of Christ enables you to overcome fear, and the call of Christ breaks you free from being defined by the past.

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Wednesday 29 September 2020

Ps Ben Hooman

This is the last teaching in the ‘Why Church’ series of four teachings. The aim of the teachings is to help you share the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ for His church. We started by looking at what the church is and how to see the church through the eyes of Jesus. Whatever the church means to Jesus, it must mean to us.

We also looked at the church as the body of Christ. We saw that there are false pictures of the church and that the Bible gives us a distinct picture of the church as the body of Christ whereof He is the head. Christ is working through the church as we as a local church connect with the Head and glorify Him.

We also looked at the church as the bride of Christ and how He loves the church and has given Himself for her. He leads the church and He nourish the church and will eventually present the church as His bride to Himself.

Tonight we are looking at the church as a building.

“In Him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit.” (Ephesians 2:22)

I have some big prayers for this series: For younger people trying to discover what God would have you do. Some of you have gifts that could be used strategically in the work of the church here and around the world. I’m praying that as we get a better vision of what the church is that you would seriously think and pray about whether God would be calling you to devote yourself full and directly to serving the body of Christ.

Some of you are in mid-life and you are looking at how to re-adjust your focus. You’re in a position where you are able to do that. I’m praying that there will be many in mid-life who get a fresh vision of the body of Christ and who say, “In the second half of my life, as God gives that to me, I am going to devote myself to the good of the body of Christ.”

Many of you have significant influence within Christian organizations.  You are doing marvellous work and you influence policy within these organizations. I’m praying that as a result of this series, you will say, “It is not enough to lead people to Christ and disciple them. Our organization needs an intentional strategy to help the people we serve to become part of a local church.” This is of huge importance. If you understand the doctrine of the church, it will begin to shape vision and policy.

For all of us, I’m praying that you will feel that being a member of the body of Christ is the greatest privilege that you have in this world.  I’m praying that all of us will value and treasure this gift and pour ourselves into becoming all that the church can be for the glory of Christ.

For those who are disappointed or frustrated with the church

The biblical image of the church we’ll be looking at today is especially important for people who’ve been disappointed with the church. You may be saying, “I’m hearing all this about a local congregation of believers, but I could tell you a story or two.” Well, I’ve been a pastor for twenty years, and I could tell you a story or ten as well.

If you’ve ever been discouraged or frustrated with the church, if you’ve ever felt like giving up on the church, and my guess is that most Christians have felt like this at some point in their lives, then this teaching is for you.

More than anything else, what we are going to look at today is what you need to hear and grasp and see, so that you will be able to sustain a lifetime of ministry within the body of Christ, wherever he places you.

The church is unlike anything else in this world, so God uses multiple images to teach us what it’s like. We are the body—this image tells us that Christ works through the church. Today, I want us to see that we are the building, and this speaks of Christ’s presence in the church.

The Church is a Building of People

“You… are being built together…” (Ephesians 2:22)

When Jesus said, “I will build my church” (Matthew 16:18), He was talking about people. God’s great purpose over all the centuries is to gather a people for Himself. Here on earth, Christ gathers people in local congregations of believers called out to worship, to be equipped, and sent out to serve.

This image shows that the purpose of our Lord is that He wants to build us together, “You too are being built together” (Ephesians 2:22). Peter, who is referred to as “the stone” or “the rock” picks up this same theme saying, “You [are] living stones” (1 Peter 2:5). Christ is putting together a building that’s made up of people and each of us is like a living stone.

It’s important to remember that building in New Testament times was rather different from the way that we build homes today. We are used to building with bricks. The obvious thing about bricks is that they are all the same. They are the same shape, the same size and the same colour.

But the picture here isn’t a building with bricks, but with stones, “You are living stones” (2:5). Stones come in all kinds of shapes and sizes and colours. They are hewn out of a quarry. When they come out, they have all kinds of rough edges, and the great skill of the master builder is to fit them together so that each one finds its special place within the building.

One of the joys of travelling in the country side is seeing the drystone walls once used as fencing. A drystone wall is one that’s built without mortar. Amazing! No mortar, and yet many of the walls have stood for many years.

These walls have no mortar—they are simply stones. You cannot build a drystone wall from one shape or size of original stone unless you cut them to the same shape and size. The whole point of it is that the strength of the wall depends on the placing and the shape of each individual stone.

It is something like this that the Apostle Paul is telling us about here—each of us is like a living stone. We are all different. We all have our own individuality, and Christ uses this as He builds His church.

You may come to our congregation and say, “I’m not so sure that I’m like other people here.” Then I would respond, “That is exactly why you are needed here.” Because it takes all kinds of shapes and sizes and colours, all kinds of living stones, for God, the Master Builder, to build the building that He is putting together.

God created you as a one-of-a-kind. He redeems what He created.  What He has placed in you by creation, He has now redeemed for the good of His church and for the ultimate glory of His Son.

The Church is a work in progress

“The whole building… rises to become…” (Ephesians 2:21)

“You too are being built together…” (Ephesians 2:22)

Notice the present tense, “The building rises… You are being built together,” this is something that is still going on. This is very important, especially for those who are prone to discouragement.

The Apostle is telling us here that the church is a work in progress, and God’s building is not yet complete. So, no one should be surprised if the local church looks and feels more like a building site than a showroom.

The church is made up of ordinary people who are in the process of being redeemed. We are all sinners in the process of being renewed.  There isn’t one of us today who is everything that he or she might be, and none of us here who is everything that he or she will be.

It was Augustine who described the church as “a hospital for sinners.”  He said it would be very strange if people were to criticize hospitals because the patients were sick. The whole point of the hospital is that people are there because they’re sick and they haven’t yet recovered.

Set your expectations of the local church wisely. It’s hard enough for two sinners to make a good marriage. So how much harder is it for 200 sinners or 2,000 sinners to make a good church? When we see Him, we will be like Him, but until then we are like a building under construction.

In any congregation of believers, you will find that there are things not yet done and things that are out of place. Some things need to be taken down and other things need to be cleaned up. Many things are only roughed in and need to be finished. It will always be like that until Jesus Christ comes.

It’s easy for a critic and the cynic to come into the local church and say, “Look at all this that is not yet done. Look at all this that is not yet complete. How can Jesus Christ be present in this?” And the answer is that Jesus Christ is present in His church as the Builder.

Suppose you have a renovating job to be done in your house. You hire a builder, you give him the key, and you go away on vacation. A week later you come back and everything is exactly the way you left it.  What’s your conclusion? You’d say, “The builder hasn’t even shown up.”

But if you come back and there are drop sheets on the carpets, ladders against the walls and a huge pile of junk outside on the pavement, you’d say, “The builders have been here,” because there’s chaos.

The evidence of Christ’s presence in a local congregation of believers is not that everything is complete, but that everything is in process. The fact that the church often feels more like a building site than a showroom is evidence of the presence of the Builder.

If you do not understand that the church is a work in progress, you will spend the rest of your life looking for perfection, and you will end up alone. That is not the will of God for you.

The Church is a home in preparation

“You too are being built together to become a dwelling place in which God lives by His Spirit.” (Ephesians 2:22)

Christ will not be the Builder forever. One day the building will be complete and when it is, Christ will make it His home. In other words, Christ will be at home with His people, when all His work in and among His people is complete. You are being built together “to become a dwelling place in which God lives by His Spirit” (2:22).

A theme that runs through the Old Testament

One great theme that runs through the bible story is God looking for a home on earth. At Mount Sinai God told Moses to build the tabernacle, a meeting place between God and His people. Then the Lord said something even better, “When you get into the Promised Land… seek the place the Lord your God will choose… to put His name for His dwelling” (Deuteronomy 12:5). The meeting place will now be a dwelling place.

Later David discerned that Jerusalem was that place. That’s why Solomon built the temple there. And when it was dedicated, the cloud of God’s glory filled the whole place. All the people could see the visible evidence of the presence of Almighty God. Here was the place where God actually is. Here was the place where God’s presence was made known, the dwelling place of God on earth.

Follow the story of the temple: God’s people sinned against Him in various ways, but by the time you get to King Manasseh the worship of God in the temple has been replaced with astrology. There are astrological signs etched in the temple of God (2 Kings 21). So, the glory of the Lord departed from the temple. God withdrew His presence.

The temple was eventually overrun and God’s people became exiles in another land for 70 years. Then God brought them back in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah and they rebuilt the temple. But when they dedicated it, no cloud of glory came and filled that temple.

They had the word of the prophets and they were looking for what God would do for a dwelling place. By the end of the Old Testament, the prophets are looking for the day when “the Lord will suddenly come to His temple” (Malachi 3:1).

And then one day He did. When Jesus walked into the temple, do you remember what He found? The leadership of the temple had lost their vision of ministry to the nations. It was no longer a house of prayer, so Jesus drove out the traders.

Later He said, “Not one stone here will be left on another; everyone will be thrown down” (Mark 13:2). In the year AD 70, in come the Romans and what Jesus said comes true, and it’s never been rebuilt. So, where’s the meeting place with God?

Jesus said something else, “Destroy this temple and I will raise it again in three days” (John 2:19). He wasn’t referring to the building. He was referring to Himself, to His own flesh. Do you see the huge significance of that?

The Lord Jesus Christ is saying, “You’ve thought that there was just one location in all the earth where you could have a true meeting with God.  I’m telling you I am the place where you meet with God. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” That’s true because “in Christ all the fullness of the Deity dwells in bodily form” (Colossians 2:9).

Then Jesus went on to say something extraordinary, “If anyone loves Me, he will obey My teaching, and My Father will love him and We will come to him and make Our home with him” (John 14:23).

The New Testament promise

If you come to love and trust the Lord Jesus Christ, here’s the New Testament promise: The Father and the Son, through the agency of the Holy Spirit, will truly come to make “home” in you. That’s why, later on in the New Testament, we find the Apostle Paul saying, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit?” (1 Corinthians 6:19).

That’s what you are. If you’re in Christ, this is really true of you. That’s why Paul says, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20). What was true of the Old Testament temple has become a living reality in me! It’s staggering.

The church is a gathering of believers called out by God for worship, to be equipped, and sent out by God to serve. When believers gather Christ is present. Why? Because you, if you are in Christ, bring the presence of Christ with you when you gather for worship, and you take the presence of Christ with you as you are sent out to serve.

Of course, when two or three are gathered together in the Name of Jesus, there He is in their midst. He has to be, because if the two or three are in Christ, they bring the presence of Christ when they gather together.

Christ makes His home here on earth with His people, and everything that the temple pointed to is actually fulfilled in believers, who “are being built together to become a dwelling place in which God lives by His Spirit!” Christ makes His home here on earth with us, until He bring us to make our home with Him in heaven.

How to use the truth that the Church is the building

Use this to grow in patience

God uses two very imperfect environments to reshape us into the image of Christ. One is the family. The other is the church. Why?  Because these are the places where we rub up against others, and God uses this experience to smooth out the rough edges in our lives.

Think about yourself as a living stone. You’re cut out of the quarry and thrown into a wheelbarrow with some other stones. It doesn’t feel good because your rough edges are up against other stones. Then the builder takes the hammer and the chisel and starts chipping away at the edges.   He’s shaping you. All of this happens in the church.

You ask to grow in patience, so Christ places someone in your life who you find exasperating. You need to grow in courage and God puts you next to someone you find intimidating. One writer says, “Christians need the church for its problems as well as its blessings.” That’s true.

Another writer describes believers as “God’s abrasives.” How in the world are the rough edges ever going to come off you, if you never bump up against God’s abrasives? That’s why loner Christians end up with all the rough edges still on. They never get close enough to the means God would use to shape them into all that they can be in Christ’s building.

The church is the crucible in which we learn patience and endurance and forgiveness. You need the church with its problems as well as its blessings. This is the place where it happens—the family and the church.

You will never grow without them

It’s often said, “If you find a perfect church, don’t go there, because you’ll spoil it.” I have a new version of that, “If you ever find a perfect church, don’t go there, because it won’t do you any good.” Why? There are no abrasives in the perfect church. There won’t be any in heaven, but we need them on earth. It’s through the trials in life that Christ sanctifies us.

Joseph Ton, the Romanian pastor who was imprisoned for his faith, and been asked the question “Joseph, tell us what it was like to be a pastor in prison.”

One of the stories this dear and godly man told was about one of the guards. Joseph had made it his practice to ask about their children, so that he could pray for them, as well as for the guards, which was mind-blowing to these guards, who were very harsh men.

One day, one of the guards asked Joseph, “Why are you different from the rest of the prisoners? These guys all hate us. But you are praying for me and for my children.” Joseph said this one line to him, “To me, you are God’s stonecutter.”

Friend, who are the stonecutters in your life? Who is God using in this painful process of chipping off those rough edges, so that you became all that you can be in the everlasting purpose of God?

He does that painful work in the family and in the church, and it’s for His everlasting glory. So, use this to learn patience and to become someone who’s not too easily discouraged whenever there’s a difficulty. You will never endure in ministry unless you grasp this.

Use this to defend against sin

The whole point of a building is that it’s visible. The church is the visible home of the invisible God. We bear His name. We have His presence.

You’re going to go out into the world this week and you bear the Name of Christ. You are a member of the body of Christ. You are part of the building of Christ. And you are going to be tempted. You are going to be tempted to do something you know you shouldn’t do. You’re going to be tempted to say something you know you shouldn’t say. You’re going to find that there is an impulse within you to cultivate a sour spirit.

To defend yourself against that, I encourage you to say this to yourself: “How can I do this? How can I say this… when I am a living stone in the holy temple of Almighty God?” It will help you to defend against sin.

Use this to increase your joy

What a joy when the building is complete! There is coming a day when all the work of Jesus Christ will be complete. For you to be part of what Christ brings together for the everlasting glory of God will be an inexpressibly glorious joy, and that day is coming—the one temple in which God dwells by His Holy Spirit with His people.

Right at the end of the Bible you find the Apostle John looking out on all of the redeemed company of God’s people, the whole church brought together in the presence of the Lord, and he hears a voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men” (Revelation 21:3).  Now we’re in the presence of God with great joy forevermore!

I promise you this: You will be more at home in the presence of Christ, as a believer, fully redeemed in heaven. You’ll be more at home there, than at any time and any place you ever have been in your entire life in this world. You will be more at home with Christ and He will be at home with you. Nothing about us will grieve Him on that day, because His work will be complete. To be part of this work that Christ is doing in the church is the greatest privilege of our lives this side of heaven.

Sunday 11 October 2020

Ps Ben Hooman

We come to chapter two in the book of Jonah and at the end of our series because it is the most important part of the whole book, the most marvelous chapter, and I have great anticipation as we look at it this morning.

Last time we saw a Jonah feeling very miserable. Remember he was on his own outside of the city of Nineveh, sitting in the desert with a vine that was supposed to give him shelter, withered and lying dead in the sand.

He is angry with God, angry about Nineveh, angry about the vine, and God confronts him at the end of chapter four in dealing with his selfishness. “Jonah, you are concerned about the vine. You are all wrapped up in your own comfort, all wrapped up in your own life, all wrapped up in your own wellbeing. Jonah, you are concerned about the vine but I am concerned about the city of 120000 people who are totally and completely lost”.

That is where the book ends. But we cannot end there. It might look at this point that as if Jonah slipped off into retirement, and some people do that. People say time heals, but time heals when wounds are clean. But when a wound is septic, it becomes worse.

Thank God that Jonah did not slip into retirement as a grumpy old man but God’s grace triumphed in his life. How do we know that? The reason we know that is that he wrote the book. God brought him into a place where, instead being angry and frustrated as we find him in chapter four, he felt the inspiration of the Holy Spirit coming to him and he wanted to share what the grace of God has brought him in his life.

If you want to emphasize something that is really important, there are three ways of doing it: Put it at the beginning, that is what newspapers do. The headlines tell you the things that really matter. Put it at the end, so that it is the final thing you hear, leaving you with a lasting impression.

Or if you want to emphasize something you can put it in the middle—that is what Jonah did when he wrote his book. You can sum up the whole book of Jonah in one sentence: “Salvation comes from the Lord” (Jonah 2:9). That’s what this book is about, and Jonah puts that message on centre stage.

A Remarkable Testimony to God’s Grace

“Pick me up and throw me into the sea… and it will become calm for you… They took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm… The Lord provided a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights.” (Jonah 1:12,15,17)

Jonah disobeys God by refusing to go to Nineveh, and God intercepts his disobedience by sending a storm. Jonah knows the storm is a judgment from God, and he tells the ship’s crew to throw him overboard. They do it reluctantly, and immediately the sea grows calm. Then God provides a saving fish. This was an amazing miracle, and there is no doubt in my own mind that it really happened.

You will not be surprised that some writers suggest that this was just a parable, or that it was just a story or just a fable, rather than a historical event that really happened, that is used to teach us about God. But there is nothing in the story itself that suggests that.

The Lord Jesus said “As Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:40). The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ was a historical event, and Jesus speaks about what happened to Jonah in the same way.

What happened to Jonah doesn’t belong among the parables; it belongs among the miracles. In fact, there are really three miracles here: First—that God provided the fish at just the right time to save Jonah from drowning. Second—that Jonah survived three days and nights inside the fish. Third—that the fish vomited him out onto dry land safely.

Now, it’s good to know that God did an amazing miracle to save Jonah’s life, but the important question is: What does this have to do with us? Jonah wrote chapter two to answer that question. Out of his experience, Jonah writes this song of praise to tell us how God saves sinners like Jonah, how God saves sinners like you, and how God saves sinners like me.

The message of Jonah two is simply this: God saves guilty, believing, desperate, repentant sinners.

God saves guilty sinners

“You hurled me into the deep, into the very heart of the seas, and the currents swirled about me; all your waves and breakers swept over me.” (Jonah 2:2-3)

Jonah recalls what happened when he first hit the water: “All your waves and breakers swept over me.” Waves and breakers are obviously on the surface of the water. Jonah tries to keep his head above water, but the currents pull him under. Bobbing up and down, fighting for air and for his life, he manages to gulp a breath of air, but then a great wave comes crashing over him, and he goes under again.

Later, when he is inside the fish, he thinks about what happened and he says “God did this! God sent the storm. You hurled me into the deep… Your waves swept over me” (v3). Jonah could have said “The ship’s crew threw me into the deep,” but he’s coming to a distinctly Christian view of life. Behind the human events, Jonah sees the hand of God.

People view their lives in different ways. Some people see their lives as a series of events strung together by random chance. They feel that they are lucky or unlucky, and they talk like that all the time. Others see their lives as a series of events controlled by other people. They feel that they are victims. Other people see their lives as a series of events that they control. They feel that they are heroes, and they talk about themselves like that all the time. But Jonah knew that behind the crew and beyond the storm, God was at work in his life, exposing his guilt and confronting his rebellion.

Jonah knew he was in the water because of his own sin and rebellion against God. He had suppressed his guilt for a long time. He had done it so well that he could fall asleep in the boat. But in the water, he comes to his senses, he sees his own sin clearly and he knows that he is under the judgment of God.

Owning your own guilt

“You hurled me into the depths, in the very heart of the seas, and the currents swirled about me, all your waves and breakers swept over me” (Jonah 2:3)

God saves guilty sinners. God saves us, when we come to the place of acknowledging, owning, embracing our own guilt before Him. Owning our sinfulness means getting beyond this idea that so many people have that we deserve something better from God. If you’re going through life with this idea, get that out of your mind.

The Bible says that “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). Wages are what is due for work done, what we have earned. What I am owed for what I have done, by God, is not abundant life, but eternal death. That is what I am owed. That is what I deserve.

Owning your own sinfulness is the first part of believing the gospel: “I am a sinner, a rebel by nature and by practice, and what I deserve from God is eternity in hell.” If you don’t honestly believe that about yourself, you do not yet believe the Gospel. You are not yet being saved. Because God saves guilty sinners, and if you do not yet see that, then you are not yet in the position where God is saving you.

Jonah owned his own sin right there in the water. With the waves pouring over him, he said these words: “God, these waves are Your waves. I am under Your judgment. And I deserve to be under Your judgment.”

God saves believing sinners

“From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord His God.” (Jonah 2:1)

When did Jonah first call on the Lord? When did he first ask God for help? Was it in the fish or was it in the water? Notice what he said inside the fish, in the past tense:

“In my distress I called to the Lord, and He answered me. From the depths of the grave I called for help, and you listened to my cry” (Jonah 2:2)

He is looking back to what happened before he was in the fish, when he called on God in the water: “In my distress I called on the Lord… From the depths…” (v2), or from Sheol, the place where people are separated from God. We would say hell. “From the depths of my hell, I cried out to God for help.” Here’s a man who has been running from God, but now he suddenly realizes that he is on the brink of an eternity without God.

The fight of your life

“I said ‘I have been banished from your sight’, yet I will look again toward Your holy temple.” (Jonah 2:4)

It isn’t easy to ask God for help when you know you have sinned, and you feel that you are under His judgment. When you feel your own guilt, it takes courage to ask God for help.

Jonah’s heart at this point condemns him completely: “God, there is no hope for me now,” he is saying to himself. “I see and I feel the weight of my guilt and my own failure.” He came to the conclusion that he was beyond forgiveness, and he felt in his heart that God had pulled the rug out from under him. He had no future. There was no hope for him now. Some of us may have been there. He came to a point where he really believed that: “God doesn’t want me now.”

But there is a battle going on in Jonah’s mind, and it is a battle that you will experience if you seek to find your way to faith. On the one hand: “I said, I have been banished from your sight…” (v4). There’s no hope for me. I’m an outsider. I’m gone! “Yet I will look again toward your holy temple” (v4). That is a marvellous statement of faith.

But it comes out of a great battle that is raging in Jonah’s soul—right there in the water. He wants to pray, but he feels so far from God that he feels he can’t possibly pray “God’s not going to listen to me!” The flesh tells him “God doesn’t want to know you.” But somehow, something from within him rises up “I’m going to cry out to God. I’m going to put my hope in God.”

Don’t expect coming to faith to be easy. Jonah struggled to believe. Your life and eternity hang on this, so don’t be surprised if finding faith is the fight of your life: “I said, I have been banished from your sight, yet I will look again toward your holy temple.” Make these words your own, in your struggle to believe. “Even though I am under Your judgment, yet I dare to hope in You.”

Daring to hope in God

“You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity” (Jonah 4:2)

How could he dare to hope in God? Because Jonah leans hard into what he knows of the God of the Bible. Here is an amazing thing: God was for Jonah even when he was against him! God is for you even when he is against you. It was while we were still sinners that Christ died for us. God justifies the ungodly (Romans 4:5).

Some folks have the idea that you need to clean up your life before God can save you. That’s like saying “If you swim to the shore, then God will send you a lifeboat!” That’s no salvation at all!

Jesus told a story about two men who came to pray. One man told God about the good things he was doing in his life, and then he went home. The other man told God about his sins, and said “O, God, be merciful to me a sinner.” Jesus said “That second man, not the first one, went home right with God.”

How can God make guilty sinners, who reach out to him in faith, right with him? How could God do that? The answer, at the very heart of the Bible, is simply this—and it applies backwards retrospectively into the Old Testament, as well as forwards proactively into our lives today; God makes guilty sinners right with him through the Cross where the Son of God gave himself for you.

Jesus Christ put Himself under the judgment of God, so that He could deliver you from it. The Lord Jesus Christ bore the guilt of your sin so that He could take the weight of that guilt off of your shoulders. He entered into hell itself so that He could save you from ever going there! That is what Jesus did for you on the cross. And that is why the apostles say in the New Testament “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31).

You’re never going to do that until you come to realize that there is sin from which you need to be saved. But when you come to own your own guilt, you believe on this Lord Jesus Christ, and what He has accomplished on the cross for you, then the benefits of His sacrificial death and resurrection will be applied to you, and you will be saved.

If it’s the biggest struggle of your life to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, if you find that Satan himself is pounding your mind saying “God doesn’t want to hear from you. You can’t come to God. You’ve gone way too far!” You fight through to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s the fight of your life and your eternity hangs on it.

God Saves Desperate Sinners

“The engulfing waters threatened me, the deep surrounded me, seaweed was wrapped around my head. To the roots of the mountain I sank down; the earth beneath barred me in forever. But You, LORD, my God, brought my life up from the pit.” (Jonah 2:5-6)

What happens when Jonah believes? The answer is that his problems get worse. God allowed Jonah to go down to the bottom, before He sent the fish.

He’s not above water now. His strength is gone. He’s sinking. “Seaweed was wrapped around my head” (v5). He has gone down so deep that he is surrounded by weeds on the ocean floor: “To the roots of the mountains I sank down” (v6). It seems clear that he went all the way to the bottom.

Remember that the storm at the surface had stopped. If Jonah had stayed on the surface, perhaps he could have held on to a piece of wood and saved himself, but God takes him down to the bottom of the ocean. He hits rock bottom. He has no way out. He is absolutely hopeless, and then God sends the fish: “To the roots of the mountains I sank down; the earth beneath barred me in forever. But you brought my life up from the pit, O Lord my God.”

Did Jonah see the fish coming? Was he conscious when he was swallowed, or had he passed out? But then once he is inside the fish he breathes, like a man spluttering back from the brink of death.

God saves people who cannot save themselves. Thousands of people have the idea that salvation is basically getting your act together, and that we do it with some moral effort, good works, family values, the ten commandments, and of course, believing in Jesus along the way.

If you could save yourself, why would Jesus have come into the world and why would He die on the cross? God sent the fish because Jonah couldn’t save himself. He’s right at the bottom, and that’s why God sent Jesus.

One evidence of true faith is that you know that, apart from the Lord Jesus Christ, what he did for you on the cross and what he is still doing for you now, interceding for you at the right hand of the Father, you would be completely, utterly and hopelessly lost.

Do you see that? Do you feel that? Is that clear to you? If it is, there will be praise and worship and love and thanksgiving to Jesus in your heart today. God saves desperate sinners. That’s the hope of the Gospel.

God saves repentant sinners

“Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God’s love for them.” (Jonah 2:8)

Salvation from sin involves both faith and repentance. When God saves Jonah from what looks like certain death, he does not get on the next ship to Tarshish. He does not continue in disobedience but does what God command him and goes to Nineveh.

Salvation, if you are really saved, involves a complete change in the direction of your life. You can’t hold idols and receive grace. This total change of direction is true, even if you lived a very moral life before you came to Christ. Who you live for, then changes. Turning to God means turning away from whatever had His place in your life before.

When Christ saves you, you are no longer your own. You are bought with a price (1 Corinthians 6:20). What a price it was! You belong to Christ. You are in him and he is in you. You are a new creation in Christ, created for good works (Ephesians 2:10).

Turning to a new life

“But I, with shouts of grateful praise, will sacrifice to You. What I have vowed I will make good. I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the LORD.” (Jonah 2:9)

When Christ saves you, you go through a spiritual death and resurrection that is symbolized in baptism. Like Jonah you go down under the water and then back up again, to live a new life in Christ. (Romans 6:4) Thank God baptism doesn’t include going to the bottom of the ocean!

Repentance has two sides: We turn from idols. We turn to the Lord. “But I, with a song of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. Salvation comes from the Lord”. Think about how amazing this is… praise and thanksgiving are flowing out of Jonah. The man is singing while he is in the belly of the fish! (v1).

Talk about worship venues. This is the most unusual worship venue of all time. This was the strangest sanctuary in human history. It was dark, and can you imagine the smell? You would think he would say “Lord, get me out of this place!” But he doesn’t say that. Instead the highest praise comes from this darkest place.

So why is Jonah so full of gratitude inside the fish? When Jonah was in the water, he was sure he would die. When he was in the fish, he was sure he would live. How could he be sure? Because if God had intervened in his life in such a miraculous way, what could be more certain than that God would complete it? What God begins, He always completes (Philippians 1:6).

Jonah worships in the belly of the fish because however uncomfortable his experience is, he knows that God is saving him. And that’s all he needs to know.

Pursue a Christ-Centered life today!

From inside the fish he prayed. He looks back on what God did for him in the water, and says: “Oh, God, when I was in the water, I called to You for help and You listened to my cry. You were the One who threw me into the deep. Your waves swept over me. I was on the brink of hell and I felt I was gone forever. But I said ‘I will look again to You. I cried to You for help.”

“I sank to the bottom, and here’s what you did, O God, You brought my life up from the pit! What you have done for me is so amazing that with a song of thanksgiving, I worship you, and I pledge myself to you. From this day, my life is Yours. I want to tell you right here and right now, that what I have vowed I will make good.

God is ready and able to save you. As someone who has, perhaps, sat on the fringes of Christianity, I want to invite you to take four life-changing steps today:

Will you own your own sinfulness today?

Will you confess to God today: “I am a sinner and a rebel by nature and by practice. What I deserve is not abundant life, but eternal death. Lord, I own my guilt and sinfulness before You.” Will you take that step today?

Will you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ today?

The Son of God loved you and gave Himself for you, when He died on the cross for your sins. He rose from the dead and, He is ready and willing to save all who put their trust in Him.

Will you ask Jesus Christ to save you?

 “Lord Jesus Christ, deliver me from sin, and death and hell through Your shed blood on the cross.” You may find that this is a great struggle, because of the spiritual dynamic that is going on right now.

Will you trust Christ, whatever happens in your life?

Jonah trusted God at the bottom of the ocean, and in the belly of a fish. I’m inviting all who believe; those who’ve believed for the first time today, and those who already have faith, to trust in Christ, whatever happens.

He said “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9). Trust Him in that.

He said “I will never leave you I will never forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5). Lean on that. He has said “My grace is sufficient for you; my strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). Hang on that!

Trust Him whatever happens. Those who trust in Him will never be put to shame (Isaiah 28:16).

Will you commit yourself to a new life of obedience to Jesus Christ as your Saviour, Lord and Master today?

Will you turn from all that God’s says is wrong? Will you pursue all that God says is good with the help of the Holy Spirit? Christ saves guilty, believing, desperate, repentant sinners. If you are taking these steps today, He is saving you!

Let us pray:

Father, seal Your Word into many hearts, also those who believe for a long time and find themselves in a deep or dark place. Also, in the hearts of those who desperately need to find you, and find your salvation for the first time today. we pray in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

Wednesday 7 October 2020

Ps Ben Hooman

“But the LORD said, ‘You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?’” (Jonah 4:10-11) (NIV)

It is possible to be genuinely grateful for your own salvation, and yet curiously disinterested in the salvation of others. The great irony of this book is that Jonah received God’s mercy, yet he was reluctant about this mercy coming to other people.

We’re going to see how far Jonah was from the heart of God, and learn how we can be less like Jonah and more like Jesus: “When God saw what they did, and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion, and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened” (Jonah 3:10). It was this generous outpouring of the mercy of God that got Jonah angry!

Jonah says “You are a gracious and compassionate God” (4:2), but Jonah was not a gracious and compassionate prophet. There is a huge contrast between the heart of God and the heart of Jonah.

The Compassion of God and the Complacency of Jonah

“Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people… Should I not be concerned about that great city?” (Jonah 4:11)

God is concerned about the city. He says “There are 120,000 people in Nineveh, and these people matter to Me!” What is Jonah concerned about? God says to him “You have been concerned about the vine” (v10).

The contrast here is striking. God is concerned about the city. Jonah is concerned about the vine. There’s nothing wrong with that. The vine was a good gift from God that brought comfort, blessing and joy to Jonah.

We are all concerned to some degree about the vine. We are concerned about our jobs, our homes, our investments, our health and our plans for the future. We are concerned about the things that bring us comfort and joy in this life.

But do we share God’s concern for the city? Do we care about the thousands of people “who cannot tell their right hand from their left?” You can’t hear these words without thinking about the people in this great city who do not yet have saving faith in Christ.

God cared about 120,000 people who were facing judgment in Nineveh. And He cares about the people of this city, many of whom do not have saving faith in Christ. God cares for this city, and if we share His heart, we will care about it too.

Jonah was concerned about the vine. God is concerned about the city. It is easy for us to become deeply concerned about the vine and yet strangely unmoved by the plight of millions without Christ who face eternity with the worm and the wind.

The natural question that is raised by looking at the heart of God and the heart of Jonah, that they are so far apart, is this:

How can I grow in compassion?

Rejoice in God’s unique creation

“You have been concerned about this vine, even though you did not tend it or make it grow.” (Jonah 4:10)

The point is that God did make the vine grow. God gave life to the vine, and He gave life to the 120,000 people in the city. “Jonah, you care about the life of the vine. Why don’t you care about the lives of the people? Every person that you meet is a unique creation of Mine.” That’s the logic and the force of what God is saying to Jonah.

God never made two snowflakes the same, and He certainly never made two people the same. Every person you have ever met, every person that you ever will meet is a unique creation of God. That’s why people are so interesting.

When you sit down next to someone on a train, or in line at the grocery store, or at your desk in school, say to yourself “God made this person.” There is nobody else quite like this person anywhere in the world, there never has been anyone else like this in the history of the world, and there never will be again.

God cares about this person and right now, in His sovereign purpose, He has placed me next to them. Take an interest in people, and you will grow in compassion.

Every person that you will ever meet is a unique creation of God. That is true even of the worst people that you meet. Nineveh was known for terror and torture. These people were notorious for their wickedness “[their] wickedness has come up before me” (1:1), and yet God cared about them. He had compassion on them. “Should I not be concerned about this great city?” (4:11).

God’s glory is seen in the scope of his compassion: “The Lord is good to all; He has compassion on all he has made” (Psalm 145:9). What is the scope of God’s compassion? He has compassion for all that He has made. That doesn’t mean that God will save all people. It does mean that He cares about all people.

God cares about His enemies. God loves His enemies and does good to those who hate Him: “He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matthew 5:45). It was “while we were still sinners [that] Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

God gives life to those who will use it to praise Him, and He gives breath to those who will use it to curse Him. He sustains His enemies. Every atheist is sustained every moment of his or her life by the mercy of God.

Try to show kindness to all people, especially those whose beliefs or whose behaviour may offend you or repulse you, because that’s what God does. When you show compassion, especially to someone who you find most offensive, you reflect the heart of God.

Reflect on our human condition

“Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left… Should I not be concerned about that great city?” (Jonah 4:11)

It could be that the 120,000 people who “cannot tell their right hand from their left” is a reference to young children, but I think it is much more likely that this is a description of people who have lost their moral compass. They are no longer able to discern between right and wrong, between good and evil.

We use “right” and “left” to give directions: “Go down this street and when you get to the third street turn left, then keep going until you get to the fourth street—take a right on it. The house is half way down on the left-hand side.” A person who cannot tell their right hand from their left cannot follow directions. A person who does not know which way to turn in life will quickly become hopelessly lost.

God says “I have compassion for Nineveh because it is a city of 120,000 people who are just like that! They don’t know how to follow directions. They are completely lost. They cannot discern good from evil. They call evil ‘good,’ and they call good ‘evil’ (Isaiah 5:20). They are in complete moral confusion, and for that reason I have compassion on them.”

Reflecting on our human condition will increase your compassion; it will enlarge your heart, to reflect the heart of God. It will make you more sensitive, less condemning like Jonah, and more like Jesus.

What is the human condition? The Bible describes it many ways, here are three:

Blindness

“The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:4)

The blindness is real. It is not just that the unbeliever doesn’t want to see. It is not that he is being obtuse. He cannot see! You talk to him about Christ and what he means to you and he cannot connect with what you are saying. It is a genuine blindness. He doesn’t get it.

Slavery

“I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.” (John 8:34)

The slavery is real. To be “a slave to sin” means that the sinner can’t stop sinning. He does not have the power to do so. He may be able to change the particular form of his sins, but he cannot stop being a sinner. That’s what slavery means—you’re a slave and you can’t get out of it.

Death

“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins.” (Ephesians 2:1)

This death is real. By nature we are unresponsive to God. We don’t have the power within us to change. That’s why we can’t save ourselves. Jesus said, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him” (John 6:44).

When you get the Bible’s picture of the human condition into your mind, it will help you with people who are like Jonah, who you would otherwise be angry or judgmental with. Let me try and illustrate this. Imagine that you are responsible for parking at a rugby test, that is now outside of the Covid lockdown: The cars are jammed in, bumper-to-bumper. When the game ends, your job is to clear the car park as quickly and as safely as possible. The job carries some authority, so you are given a uniform, a flag and a whistle.

Your strategy is simple; as soon as all the drivers arrive to their cars in the first row of a section, you will begin moving them out into the exit lane, so that the others parked behind them can follow.

After the game lets out, a flood of people slowly makes their way to their cars. You see that in the front row of one section all three drivers are seated in their cars, so you raise your flag to call them forward.

Nothing happens. You blow the whistle. You point to them and wave the flag again, but nothing happens. Then you notice something strange—these guys are in their cars, but they haven’t even started their engines. What in the world are they doing?

By now the folks in the cars behind are wondering the same thing. They are getting frustrated. Some of them are sounding their hooters. People are getting angry. Why are the guys at the front not moving?

You start getting angry yourself, because it’s your job to clear the car park in an efficient manner. So you walk over to the cars. That takes time and leads to even more blaring hooters, because people sense that something isn’t right. Some people have rolled down their windows and are shouting abuse at the drivers on the front row.

You get to the first car, and bang on the window: “Get moving!” The driver rolls down the window. “I don’t know what happened,” he says “but I can’t see. I got in the car, and everything went dark. I can’t drive. I’m blind!”

You go quickly to the next car, and bang on the window: “This man has a problem, he can’t move his car. You need to get moving.” The second driver tries to roll down his window, but he has great difficulty.

You look at his hands and you see that he is in handcuffs. “I don’t know how this happened,” he said “but I got in the car and some guy was hiding in the back seat. He slapped these handcuffs on me and then took off. I can’t drive, I’m stuck!”

By now, the folks in the cars behind are getting ready to riot: Hooters are blaring and people ten rows back are standing on the load bin of their bakkies, waving their fists and shouting abuse.

You move to the third car, and bang on the window. “Sir, these guys have a problem. They can’t move their vehicles. I need you to move your car now!” There is no response. You look more closely. The driver in the third car is slumped over the wheel. He is dead.

Crowds of people are shouting abuse, blaring their hooters, and saying what they will do to the drivers in the front, if they don’t get moving.

But you have compassion. Why? Because you understand the problem—one guy is blind, one guy is bound, and the other guy is dead. All the shouting in the world isn’t going to change that.

There is a kind of Christianity that is angry with the sinful world. And there is a kind of preaching that rails against the evils of our time, and seems to find a certain pleasure in doing so. It is angry because it really does not adequately reflect on the human condition.

What is the human condition? All human beings that are born into this world are blind to the glory of Christ, bound by sin from which we cannot get free, and plain dead, unresponsive to God. And no amount of blaring of hooters is going to change any of these situations.

When you reflect on the human condition it will help you to understand what salvation is all about. It has to come through the light of the Gospel, lit and giving sight by the power of the Holy Spirit. It has to involve the redeeming work of Jesus Christ, not just His forgiving work, but His freeing work. And it has to involve the resurrection power of the Lord Jesus Christ, actually giving us new life and new birth. Of course, the New Testament tells us that all of these things are found only in Christ.

The human condition is that we are all born blind, bound and dead. That is true of every person born into the world, including your children. My children were born this way. I was born this way. You were born this way.

Reflecting on the human condition will affect the way that you parent your children. It will help you to grow in compassion. It will make you less like the Jonah, who was very moral and very angry. There are a lot of fathers, a lot of mothers, who are just like that. It will make you more like the Lord, who has compassion on people who cannot tell their right hand from their left.

Here’s something for you to work on this week: Think about someone who really annoys you. You get upset with them and you feel impatient with them. You know that you need to grow in compassion for them. Reflect on our human condition in relation to them and you will grow in compassion.

Maybe you are thinking “That’s all very well, but what if the person who angers me most is a Christian?” Though God has given us sight, we only see in part (1 Corinthians 13:12). Though we have the Spirit, we still battle with the flesh. Though we are new creations, we are not yet what we will one day be. So, let us be patient with one another in Christ as well.

Has your heart been gripped by the compassion of God? When God says “Nineveh has more than 120,000 people who cannot tell their right hand from their left… Should I not be concerned about that great city? (v11). The word translated “concern” literally means “to have tears in one’s eyes.” The root meaning of the word is “to overflow”

“Nineveh has more than 120,000 people who do not know their right hand from their left, should I not have tears in my eyes over that great city?”

You can’t hear that without thinking about Jesus weeping over the city of Jerusalem. Tens of thousands of people, and He says “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, if you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace, but now it is hidden from your eyes” (Luke 19:41). Christ knows the human heart. He wept over the city. He has compassion on you, rest assured of that. This is the God of the Bible.

Engage in Christ’s redeeming mission

“Jonah went out and sat down at a place east of the city…He waited to see what would happen…” (Jonah 4:5)

Jonah’s heart grew cold when he was disconnected from the work God was doing. God’s Spirit is at work in a great revival that was sweeping through the city. People are coming to repentance and faith. But Jonah is outside. He’s passive and disconnected from what God is doing, obsessed with the plant and his own life.

The king and the prophet

There is a striking contrast here between the king and the prophet. Both of them sat down. They assume the same posture, but in entirely different ways.

When the king hears God’s Word, as a result of Jonah’s ministry: “He rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust” (Jonah 3:6).

The king sat down in prayer. He sat down in repentance. That’s the point of the sackcloth. Then the king said “Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. Who knows, God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger” (Jonah 3:8-9).

Jonah also sat down. “Jonah went out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city” (Jonah 4:5).

The contrast is amazing: The king is a “new believer.” He has just received the Word of God for the first time, and he is actively engaged, pleading with God for the salvation of his city. The prophet is a mature believer but he sits outside, passive, watching to see what will happen.

Hearts grow cold on the side lines of ministry. You can’t grow in compassion without being engaged in the work that God is doing. Compassion is more than a feeling. It is love in action. Look at what God’s compassion for Nineveh involves:

He calls Jonah and sends him to Nineveh: He sends a storm to intercept Jonah, He exposes Jonah’s sin, He prepares a great fish to save Jonah, He causes the fish to spew Jonah onto the beach, He calls Jonah a second time, He gives Jonah the message, He gives faith and repentance to the people, He changes the heart of the king, He pours out a spirit of prayer among the people, He relents from sending disaster.

God is always at work. That is what Jesus said “My Father is always at work!” It’s more than pity, more than feeling sorry for people in their lost condition. It is God taking action for the good of people who cannot help themselves. The king is growing in compassion because he is in the city, praying in the dirt for the salvation of his people.

In His compassion God sent Jonah to Nineveh, but His compassion doesn’t end there: “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

As we talk and pray in these days about how we might double our impact for Christ, it would be easy for some of us to sit back and say “Well, it will be interesting to see what happens.” In every church there are people who are working and people who are watching.

Ask God how He wants you to be engaged in Christ’s redeeming work at this season of your life. Choose the company of those who are working, rather than the comfort of those who are watching, and you will grow in compassion.

Let us pray:

Father, please expand this all to small and all too cold human heart. Please make me less than Jonah and more like Jesus. Help me in a fresh way to take an interest in other people with every other person I meet. Help me to grow in compassion by thinking more deeply about the human condition. Give me more patience for my brothers and sisters. Let me also cry over this city that do not his left from his right. By Your grace make us more like our Lord Jesus Christ in whose Name we pray, Amen.

Wednesday 23 September 2020

Ps Ben Hooman

In this series we are looking at ‘Why Church’ in helping us to share the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ for His church. Whatever the church means to Jesus, it must mean to us. We looked at what the church is, what the body of Christ is, and tonight what the bride of Christ is.

“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church.” (Ephesians 5:31-32)

Warren Wiersbe say, “Never get hung up on one image of the church.”  We can find that helpful. There is nothing on earth quite like the church. Since you cannot compare the church to any one thing, God teaches us by comparing the church to many things.

So, when God uses multiple images to teach us about the church, that tells us that we are looking at something wonderful that is beyond the ordinary experience of life in this world. Today we come to a third image of the church and that we are the bride of Christ.

Christ’s Bride

“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her” (Ephesians 5:25)

Notice the order: The apostle doesn’t say to Christians, “Jesus loves the church the way you love your wives.” If that was the case we’d be in trouble because sometimes we don’t love our wives very well.

Thank God it’s the other way round. He says, “Husbands love your wives as Christ loves the church”. The union between Christ and His church is the model for Christian marriage.

Paul does not say that marriage teaches us about Christ and the church. Paul says that the relationship between Christ and the church tells us what God intends for a husband and wife in marriage. That’s where you are to discover it.

That’s why the apostle says, “For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.  This is a profound mystery, but I am talking about Christ and the church”

If you grew up in an unhappy or a dysfunctional home, if your parents were not happy together or they did not treat each other well, you will have faced this question: How do you know what it means to be a godly husband or wife?

If your father was not present or if he was not faithful or good, where can you learn, as a man, how to treat a woman? Or as a woman, where can you learn how to relate to a man?

You may say, “Well, of course, Jesus is my model for everything in life, but Jesus was never married, so I can’t look to Him in this.” But what we’re learning here is that Christ has a bride and that bride is the church.

People sometimes say, “I didn’t have a good father, so I can’t relate to God as Father.” Nobody comes to know God by having a good father!  You find out what a good father is by coming to know God. It will be liberating to you when you see this.

Don’t get this the wrong way round. Get to know God and you’ll discover what a good father is, whether you had a good father in your childhood or not. Get to know Christ and you’ll discover what a good husband is, whether you saw this modelled for you when you were younger or not.

This is the wonderful news of the Gospel applied to relational life.  Knowing God in Jesus Christ is wonderfully redemptive, no matter what your background. There is wonderful hope here.

Paul was writing to folks in Ephesus who would have grown up in pagan homes where there was no knowledge of Christ at all. He was saying to them, “You can learn to love your wives like Christ loves the church, as you get to know Him.”

If you want to know what a godly marriage looks like, the place to begin is not with your parents. No matter how good they were, they are going to bring all kinds of cultural and generational baggage into the picture.  The place to begin is with the relationship between Christ and the church.

So, husbands (and this is primarily for husbands) think deeply about Christ and the church, and God will teach you what kind of husband he is calling you to be. Christ’s love for the church gives you the shape, it gives you the pattern, it gives you the template for loving your wife.

How Christ loves the church

• Christ gave Himself for the church

“Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her.” (Ephesians 5:25)

Here is Christ in heaven, at the right hand of God, but He loved the church and gave Himself up for her. What does that mean?

Christ says, “I’m ready to pay any price. I am ready to endure any pain to do her good.” He puts on hold all the joys that are His in heaven, and He loves the church when there’s no love coming back, “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). He endured. He suffered and He forgave.

Now listen to this, “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church!” If you think about that for just a moment you’ll immediately say, “Lord, I cannot do this in my own strength. I need Your Spirit. I need Your love. I need Your power. I need Your forgiveness if I am to begin loving my wife the way that You loved the church.”

That alone would be a reason for coming to Christ in repentance and faith to receive from Him today.

• Christ leads the church

“For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, His body, of which He is the Savior.” (Ephesians 5:23)

Christ takes the initiative with the church. Christ is always up to something good. If you read the history of the church, you see the revivals; God sweeping into the church, bringing His people new blessings that they never imagined.

What will Christ do in this church next year? There isn’t a single one of us who can answer that question. We will experience His blessing and see His love in ways that will surprise us with joy. That’s the romance of the Christian life.

You never know what Christ will do next, but whatever it is, you know that it will be good. In the next year, He may sweep us all away into His everlasting glory. Do you know that He won’t do that?

What does this mean for us when He says: “Husbands love your wives as Christ loves the church” It means the husband has the singular responsibility, if we are copying Christ’s model, to be the initiator, the innovator in the home, to make sure that the marriage does not become dull, stale or boring.

When was the last time you did something completely unexpected and surprising that was for your wife’s good? When was the last time you did something that made her say, “Oh, my,” something that brought joy into the dull routine of life?

• Christ nourishes the church

“After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church.” (Ephesians 5:29)

The point here is very simple. You look after your own body. You feed it, you nourish it, you protect it, you build your own body up. The church is the body of Christ, and this is what Christ does for the church.

Christ feeds the church. He nourishes the church. He protects the church, builds her up and He causes her to flourish. The attention and the affection of Christ are always with the church.

Christ always knows exactly what the church needs. Husbands, love your wife like that. He sees what she can become. Husbands, love your wife like that. The church is always on the mind of Christ and He loves her as she is. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church!

• Christ will present the church to Himself

“[Christ will] present her to Himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.” (Ephesians 5:27)

The church, as we saw last week, may not always look so attractive now, but she has a glorious future as the radiant bride of Christ.

Michael Griffiths, wrote a book about the church called, “Cinderella with Amnesia.” That is a brilliant title. You remember the story of Cinderella. Some might say not an appropriate example to us but it is a good way to express the church.

She goes to the ball and dances with the prince, and his heart is captivated by her. But Cinderella has to leave before midnight, and as she runs from the ballroom one of her slippers falls off.

The prince is left looking for the woman he loves. So, he orders that the slipper be tried on the foot of every maiden in the land. The one on whom the shoe fits is to be brought to the palace.

Now picture Cinderella sitting at home. She is dressed in rags. She is despised by her ugly sisters. She is oppressed by her wicked stepmother.

But her destiny is a life of love and joy and peace in the palace.

Cinderella is a wonderful picture of the church. Sometimes she looks a bit ragged. There are some ugly brothers and sisters who despise her and count her of little value, and in some parts of the world, a wicked stepmother persecutes her. But Christ loves the church and he will bring her to His palace.

Michael Griffiths takes up that picture, “The church is often like Cinderella… with amnesia.” Our greatest problem is that we lose sight of our Prince and of our glorious future. We need to remember who we are and to whom we belong.

Christ has chosen a bride and his bride is the church. He will “present us to Himself.” Who else could do the presenting? And when He does, the church will not be in rags and tatters. The church will be “without stain, wrinkle or any other blemish”.

There will be no zits on this bride’s face on her wedding day and no wrinkles either. If zits are the pain of youth, wrinkles are the pain of old age. They speak of tiredness, weariness and carrying a heavy load.  Christ says, “There will be no wrinkles on my church. She’ll be radiant.  She’ll be glorious. And she’ll share the joy of heaven forever.

It is the church that Christ presents to Himself. We should thank God for the many agencies and ministries that God has raised up. But it is important to remember that their task is to support the church.

Christian schools, seminaries, radio ministries, missionary societies and evangelistic organizations, welfare organizations, what are they? They’re like bridesmaids who assist the bride as she gets ready for the bridegroom. The bride needs her bridesmaids, but it’s a great mistake to make more of the bridesmaids than you make of the bride.

At the end of the Bible, John the Apostle hears a great roar coming from heaven, “Hallelujah, for our Lord God Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready… Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!” (Revelation 19:6-9).

How to Love the Church

“A man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife and the two will become one flesh. This is a profound mystery, but I am talking about Christ and the church.” ( Ephesians 5:31-32)

Christ has chosen a bride and His bride is the church. We are his body. We are his building. We are his bride. And if you really love the Bridegroom, you will love the bride.

There is a holy union between Christ and the church that is like the union between a bride and a bridegroom. If you hurt the bride, you are no friend of the bridegroom.

Every husband knows this—if someone is rude to your wife, you will rise to defend her. Why? Because God has made you one with her, and if someone insults your wife, they have insulted you.

Do you remember how Saul of Tarsus persecuted the church? He was on his way to Damascus with anger in his heart, ready to do damage to the church, and Christ appeared to him in a blinding light.

When Christ spoke to Saul, He did not say, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting the church?” He said, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” (Acts 9:4) What you do to the bride you do to the bridegroom.

Let’s use this to our advantage. If my wife is in need and you help her, you are my friend forever. I am one with her, so the kindness you showed her is a kindness you showed me. The church is the bride of Christ, and when you’re good to the bride, you bring pleasure to the bridegroom.

A pastor once said, “For a long time in my own spiritual journey, I separated my love for Jesus and my love (or more often, lack of love) for the local church.  Immersed in a tradition that wonderfully emphasized personal belief in Jesus and following Him in personal discipleship, I finally grasped that I was also to love what Jesus loved.

With that realization, I understood the teaching of Holy Scripture more clearly. The closer I walk with Christ, the nearer and dearer His beautiful bride the local church becomes.

The question I most often ask myself is, “What do you truly love?”  What we truly love is not hard to determine. What do we dream and talk about? What do we sacrifice for? What do we persistently pray for? What we truly love is evidenced in how we spend our resources of time, talent and treasure.’

He also refers to the work of Dr. Gary Chapman who has identified, “The Five Love Languages,” five ways in which love is expressed in marriage. The five love languages are: Words of affirmation, Quality time, Thoughtful gifts, Acts of service, and Physical touch.

I want to be fluent in all five of these love languages in my marriage. I also want to speak all of these languages in my love for the bride of Christ. I have found this a helpful grid for testing how far I have come in sharing the passion of Jesus Christ.

Affirmation

How do you speak about the church? Do you speak well of her? How often do you speak of her with a critical spirit? The church is Christ’s bride. How does Christ feel about the way you speak about His bride?

Time

If there are three words that define our culture in these times, I think they would have to include: “My busy schedule.” This defines us. Some of us don’t have quality time for the church because our schedule is crammed full. What is it crammed full with?

I ask you to take a look at your schedule. What are the values that are driving your schedule and your children’s schedule? What is the fruit that will come of that schedule? Ask yourself, “How will I explain to Christ why my family had so little quality time for his bride?”

Gifts

It was quite surprising to discover that the average giving to church in its area, is about three percent of the average income.

I’ve come to this conclusion: We don’t see the church as Christ does.  We haven’t been captured by a vision of the local church. The local church is the body through which Christ does His work in the world, the home He is building, the bride to whom His heart and His blood are pledged.

I want us to grow in our giving to the church, not simply so that we can do more of what the church is called to do here and around the world, but because I want us to share the passion of Jesus Christ. Christ loves His bride. The church is his consuming passion and I want to be like Him.

Serving

I think we speak this language better than any other. We are a serving church, with so many people actively engaged in some way. If that’s not true of you, I encourage you to learn this language and love the bride of Christ by getting involved in some area of ministry.

Touch (presence)

It would be helpful to expresses “touch” as “presence,” in this context.

Another way we love our local church is simply be being there. Many of you look forward to Saturday and Sunday as the high point in your week. You love Christ and you love Christ’s people. When we stand to sing, you sing. When we sit to pray, you pray. You are here and you are physically engaged in the worship of God. You are hungry and you are thirsty after God.

Can I say this from the heart as your pastor? There are too many of us who gather for worship about one weekend in every four. And for some there may be some very good reasons. But the heart of my concern, and I plead with you about this, is that I’m praying there will be a rising of the spiritual temperature among us.

It’s too easy to have a notional faith in which you sign off on certain things you believe and live on the edge of the community of God’s people, moving no further in sharing the passion of Jesus Christ. He loves the church and gives Himself for it, and even now lives with her as the centre of all He’s doing in time, preparing for the church all the joys of eternity.

I’m asking you to honestly and privately examine yourself. Gary Chapman’s five love languages are actually a very good way for us to measure how much we love the bride of Christ, to measure how much we love what Christ loves—by our attending, our serving, our giving, our time and our words.

Ask yourself, “Do I really share the passion of Jesus Christ.” I love the bridegroom, but do I love the bride? Think about the glory of this and the privilege of this.

Christ has chosen a bride and He gave Himself for her on the cross.  Right now He lives for her in glory, and one day, it may be very soon, He is coming to sweep her away and take her home. If you love the Bridegroom you will love the bride.

Increasingly, as you come to understand these things, you’ll count it your greatest joy in this world to belong to the church which is the body through which Christ works, the building that He makes His home and the bride with whom He will share eternal life—His joy and delight forever.

My prayer is that you will see the church and yourself as the bride of Christ. Prepare yourself for the great wedding so He can find you clothed in white linen without spec or wrinkle. What a day to look forward too.

04 October 2020

Ps Ben Hooman

The book of Jonah is about the unravelling of a mature believer’s life. We also discovering the marvellous promise of God that when the wheels come off, God does not abandon His own children but He is faithful to His own.

Jonah is really opening up what is happening in his life. Under his good reputation there really was a divided heart. Although God used him in a remarkable way, he spent most of his life hiding from the God he set out to serve.

As we move further into Jonah chapter four, we find the surprising truth that although God used Jonah to transform a city, and after that revival experience, Jonah is not full of joy but he is rather angry and frustrated and at sorts with the God he is supposed to love.

“Then the LORD God provided a vine and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the vine. But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the vine so that it withered. When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, ‘It would be better for me to die than to live.’” Jonah 4:6-8 (NIV)

It may be helpful to note that God actually did a double restoration in Jonah’s life. Firstly, He sent a storm and a fish to deal with Jonah’s open rebellion and disobedience, and then secondly, God used a vine and a worm and then a wind to deal with the hidden anger lurking in Jonah’s heart.

This is a wonderful story about the faithfulness of God. Jonah is telling us “God knew how to deal with me in my rebellion, and He knew how to deal with me in my anger. I ran from God, and He brought me back. I became angry with God and he met me in my anger. God brought me through. Salvation is from the Lord.”

The story of the Vine, the Worm and the Wind

We pick up the story in Jonah 4:5,

“Jonah went out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city.” (Jonah 4:5)

Put yourself in Jonah’s shoes. You are filled with resentment, and you are feeling miserable. You are not happy about life. You are on your own, sitting in the desert sand, just a few kilometres east of a city you really don’t like.

The sun is beating down on you, so you decide to make a shelter. You don’t have much to work with in the desert; a few stones, some water and some sand, just enough to make some mud bricks. So, when you put it all together, it’s not much of a shelter.

The Vine

Then God steps in. Look at this wonderful expression of the kindness of God,

“Then the Lord God provided a vine and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort.” (Jonah 4:6)

No fertilizer ever produced anything like this! This was a miracle vine! It sprang up literally overnight. Picture a time-lapse video, showing the growth of a plant from seedling to full maturity in a matter of seconds. The appearance we can create with some good camera work, God actually does. Jonah wants us to know that this vine was a gift from God.

God is good. He saw how miserable Jonah was, and he gave him a special gift to ease his discomfort. This vine in the desert was a wonderful expression of the kindness of God.

Notice Jonah’s reaction: “And Jonah was very happy about the vine” (v6). I can imagine Jonah looking at his man-made, baked clay shelter, and then looking at the marvellous mass of green foliage on the vine, and saying “God’s shelter is much better than mine.”

The vine was God’s gift that brought comfort, joy and blessing to Jonah. Jonah was very happy about the vine!

Here is the question in connecting with the message today: What is your vine? Think about the blessings of God in your life, the gifts that bring you comfort, joy and blessing.

Here are a few in my life: My wife and children, and the home that we love, the privilege to be part of this church, my church family, good health, and fulfilling work.

What is your vine? God is good and He bring good gifts you would not have if it was not for the Gift! Thank God for His gifts in your life that bring you comfort, joy and blessing!

For the men who are married: When you give your wife a message on WhatsApp, SMS or Facebook, you can tell her “You are my vine! You are the gift of God in my life, you bring me joy and comfort and blessing; I love you and I thank God for you.” And ladies, you can say the same if you like.

What else brings you comfort, joy and blessing? Have you had success in business? It is a gift from God. Do others speak well of you? That is a gift from God. Have you enough money to spend some on your pleasure? That is a gift from God. Thank God for the vine.

The Worm

Notice the next thing that happens,

“But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the vine so that it withered.” (Jonah 4:7)

Can you imagine! Jonah woke up ready for another day of comfort, joy, and blessing under the vine that has made him so happy only to find that the vine has been chewed up and withered. It’s gone!

Put yourself in Jonah’s shoes: “God, what in the world are You doing? Yesterday You gave me comfort, joy, and blessing in a vine, and then a worm comes and destroys my happiness! This vine disappeared as fast as it came! One day You pour out Your blessing, the next day You take it away!”

There is a pattern here: One day the vine brought comfort, joy, and blessing into Jonah’s life. The next day the worm brought sorrow, loss, and disappointment.

The obvious question: What is your worm? What is the source of sorrow, loss and disappointment in your life right now?

You build a business and it is a source of blessing, but as times change, it becomes a burden. Your ministry sees evangelistic success. It grows like the vine, but then the worm comes and destroys all the good work you have been doing.

You marry in the confident expectation of having children, but a child is not born. God gives you children, but then they grow up and leave, and it feels like there is an enormous hole at the centre of your world. The one you love is taken from you.

This is a really helpful way of thinking about what is happening in our economy today. God sends a bull market, and we all rejoice in the vine. God sends a bear market and we all complain about the worm. The Lord gives. The Lord takes away. We all know about the vine and we all know about the worm. That’s what Jonah is experiencing here, and its painful stuff.

It’s also a helpful picture of those times when you fall back into an old sin after you thought you had victory over it. The victory made you happy like the vine, but then it gets chewed up by the worm of a fresh failure. Your victory has withered.

The Wind

The vine, worm pattern is repeated many times in the life of a believer. But notice that it gets worse!

“When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint.” (Jonah 4:8)

Again, try to put yourself in Jonah’s shoes: It’s bad enough to lose your vine. But on the very day that the vine is chewed up, God also sends a scorching east wind! The sand is blowing into Jonah’s face. The sun is beating down on his head. “God, if you are going to take my vine, you might have done it on a cool day.”

The vine brought comfort, joy and blessing. The worm brought sorrow, loss and disappointment. The wind added affliction, pain, and distress.

Obvious question again: What is your east wind? What in your life is causing you affliction, pain, and distress?

The surprising truth about the Worm and the Wind

The vine, the worm and the wind: Which of these comes from God?  Notice what the Bible says: God provided the vine (4:6), God provided the worm (4:7), and God provided the scorching east wind (4:8). It’s the same word that is used in each verse. Jonah wants us to understand: “God’s hand was as much in the worm and the wind as it was in the vine.”

God was working as much in the wind that brought affliction, pain and distress and in the worm that brought sorrow, loss and disappointment as He was in the vine that brought comfort joy and blessing.

God uses each of them for our sanctification

God provided all three, all being used in God’s sovereign purpose in Jonah’s life. Notice Jonah used the same word “provided,” back in chapter one!

“But the Lord provided a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights” (Jonah 1:17)

The God who saved Jonah by providing a great fish now sanctifies Jonah by providing a vine, a worm, and a scorching east wind.

It’s good to learn these two important Bible words: Justification is how God forgives us through Jesus. Sanctification is how God makes us like Jesus. The first is an event, the second is a process. How does God do this sanctification process in our lives?

God provides for our sanctification through gifts that bring joy, trials that bring sorrow, and experiences that bring pain. The fish is God’s fish, the vine is God’s vine, the worm is God’s worm, and the wind is God’s wind.

Now it’s easy to see why God provided the vine. God is good. All good gifts come from Him.

“And we know for those that love God all things work together for good, for those that are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28)

But why did God send the worm and the wind? What possible good can come in my life from the worm and the wind?

God used the worm and the wind to save Jonah from a vine-centered life. A vine-centered person is one who is so taken up with the joys and blessings of God’s vines in this life that he comes to love his gifts more than the God who gives them!

At the heart of our sanctification, God is working to make us more like Jesus, weaning us away from the vine-centered life to rather live a Christ-centered life for His purpose, praise, and glory.

God’s vines often mask our problems

Let us look at the tragedy of a vine-centered life. If you live such a life, you will be angry about the vine. Jonah is angry when he lost the vine.

“’Do you have a right to be angry about the vine?’ ‘I do,’ he said, ‘I am angry enough to die?’” (Jonah 4:9)

When God took away the vine, Jonah’s anger intensified. Jonah was already angry (v4), but when God gave him the vine (v6), he was happy. The anger seemed to go away. But now that the vine is gone, his anger is back. Here’s a man who is fundamentally angry with God, but the vine masked Jonah’s problem for a time.

Friends, money, family, relationships, and success can do that. God’s gifts in your life bring you happiness, but if your greatest joy is in the vine, you will live a vine-centered life. And when the vine is gone, what happens is that your antagonism towards God starts coming out. It will mask the hidden anger in your own heart.

Jonah lost his reason to live. He found his own comfort and joy in the vine to such an extent that, when it is gone, he no longer feels he has a reason to live. So he says “It would be better for me to die than to live…  I am angry enough to die” (v8-9).

Something has become so important to you that you say “If you take away the gifts that bring me comfort joy and blessing, I do not have a reason to live.” The extraordinary thing is that Jonah is saying this to God, who is the reason to live!

If you live a vine-centered life, your reason for living withers with the vine. The vine is not the reason to live! Your family, your friends, your work, and your money are good gifts from God, but they are not the reason to live. Thank God for the vine, but don’t live for the vine. The reason to live is not the gifts, but the Giver!

Jesus says: “If you want to come after Me, you have to love Me more than father, mother, wife, or children”. What is that all about? You dare not live a vine-centered life, for if you do, it will take you to a place where ultimately you end up angry about the vine and see no reason to live anymore, been living for the wrong things.

The Bible has a good word for a vine-centered life and that is idolatry. It is the first sin and the hardest to overcome.

Now I want to show you an extraordinary contrast between two people who experienced very similar things. Jonah was not the only person to experience the joy of the vine, the loss of the worm, and the pain of the wind.

Think about Job’s vine: He had one wife, seven sons, and three daughters. Besides that he had 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 donkeys and a large number of servants. That is fantastic wealth!

The Bible says “He was the greatest man among all the people of the east” (Job 1:2-3). That’s some vine! He is supremely blessed in terms of comforts in this life.

What was Job’s worm? His financial security, represented in his animals, is completely devastated. Then the greatest tragedy of all: The house where Job’s children were enjoying a party collapsed, and none of them survived (v19). That’s some worm!

What about Job’s east wind? His wife, who he might have looked to for support, says to him “Why don’t you curse God and die?” (Job 2:9). His own health breaks down leaving painful sores all over his body (v7). Then his friends arrive (v11)! And instead of bringing comfort, their trite religion only increased this poor man’s affliction.

Anger or worship?

Notice the contrast in the way that Job and Jonah responded to the vine, the worm and the wind in their lives. Jonah responded with anger: “I am angry enough to die” (Jonah 4:9). Job fell to the ground in worship and said “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21).

Maybe you will want to confess with me today “I’m much more like Jonah than Job.” Often we love the vine so much, that when it withers, we wonder if there is any reason left to live. We love God’s gifts more than the Giver. We live vine-centered lives more than Christ-centered lives. The Bible has a name for loving the vine more than loving God. It is called idolatry.

We said last time that God’s grace will either lead you to anger or worship. The same thing is true of the vine, the worm and the wind.   God’s gifts will either lead you to anger or worship. You see the one in Jonah and the other in Job.

Loving God more than His gifts

All of us are on a journey leading in one of two directions, either we are loving God more or we are resenting God more. When Christ winds up human history, there will be two groups of people: One will worship God forever, the other will hate God forever.

Every person is moving along one of two lines, either to perpetual joy in God, or perpetual resentment towards God. All of us are moving nearer to heaven or nearer to hell every day.

How can I cease to be one who is angry with God? How can I love God more than I love His gifts? How can I overcome idolatry in my heart? How can I find my reason to live in God rather than in what He gives or takes away? How can I overcome a hidden resentment against God that lurks in my heart? How can I love God more?

The New Testament clearly answers how you can grow in loving God.  John writes: “We love Him because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19 AV). The more you see God’s love for you, the more you will grow in loving Him.

The way to love God more is by taking in more of His love for you. That’s why we in all our worship and all our preaching we keep coming back to the centre of all things, the cross of Jesus Christ, where God’s love for you is demonstrated, poured out, and put on display.

The glorious love of God put on display

The outcome of Jesus’ endurance

Think about the vine, the worm and the wind in the life of our Lord Jesus. What was the vine that brought Him joy and comfort and blessing in His experience?

Jesus chooses twelve disciples and calls them to be with Him. He has the comfort, joy and blessing of their companionship (Mark 4:14). He sends them out and their ministry is blessed with such success that with His heart full of joy, He exults “I saw Satan fall like lightning” (Luke 10:18).

Then the worm came. The disciples, who had brought Him comfort, joy and blessing, all forsook him and fled. Judas betrays Him with a kiss. Peter denies him with a curse, and Jesus is plunged into sorrow and loss.

And then the east wind blew. Not only did the disciples desert Him, but he was scourged and mocked and crowned with thorns. He was nailed to the cross, he was plunged into total darkness, and in His affliction, pain, and distress, He cried out “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34).

Why was all this happening to Him? The Bible says: Christ bore your sins in His body on the tree (I Peter 2:24). The Son of God loved you and gave Himself for you (Galatians 2:20). He endured the worm and the wind so you could be brought into an eternity under God’s vine, under His blessing and receiving His goodness.

Examples of God’s love in the Scriptures

Do you see God’s love for you in Jesus? King David had a greater vine than anyone else who ever lived. He enjoyed the greatest of comforts and he tasted God’s love, and here’s what he said “Your love is better than life” (Psalm 63:3). “Your love means more to me than the vine. Your love is better than any of your gifts in this world.”

Job saw that too. Oh, he went through a thousand agonies in his sorrow, but for Job, the worm and the wind were his finest hour. For in his pain he worshipped, and there is no higher worship than that which comes out of your pain and your loss.

The good news is that Jonah got there too. God did not leave Jonah in His anger. That’s the point of the story. If Jonah had remained angry this story would never have been written! The very fact that we have this story is evidence that God brought Jonah through his anger.

We’re going to see next how God met Jonah’s anger with a display of His own love! God did not abandon him in His anger. God brought him through. And what God did for Jonah, He is able to do for you.

Do you want to be less like Jonah and more like Jesus? Not to live vine-centered lives, but Christ-centered live?

Then receive God’s gifts gratefully. Every good gifts comes from the Lord, so if you have friends, if you have a job, if you have money, if you have family, whatever gift brings you comfort, joy and blessing from the hand of God, receive it with thanksgiving and let it be to you a source of praise: “Lord, make me more thankful for the vine in my life. Make me more thankful for your good gifts. Help me to identify them in my life.”

Also do not hold God’s gifts lightly.” God’s gifts are gifts, they are not rights. When we confuse them, we get into all kinds of difficulty. They come from His hand. The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Nothing in this life or in this world lasts forever. “Lord, help me to love You more than Your gifts.” That is the only right way to live. “I do not want to spend my life as an idolater.”

Rejoice that you belong to Christ. The vine will pass away. God’s love for you in Christ will never pass away.

Let us pray:

Father deliver us from the vine-centered lives. Deliver us from the idolatry that lurks in our hearts where we love the gifts more than You the Giver. Show us more deeply Your amazing love, for us to have a higher and greater joy in You rejoicing that our names are written in the book of life. Thank You for the ultimate sacrifice on the cross for us to be under the shadow of Your vine. To Christ we give all praise and glory in whose Name we pray, Amen.