Many of my future posts are going to appear here from now on!
The Sola Panel is a group of Reformed-Evangelical friends who love the five ’solas’ of the Reformation, and want to promote a Bible-driven passion for theology, holiness and gospel ministry. I strongly encourage you to check it out regularly (of course, I’m biased, being one of the contributors).
May 03 2008 | Uncategorized | No Comments »
Based on Psalm 46
Lionel Windsor Jnr, 21 June 2008 St Stephen’s Anglican Church KurrajongAs far as I can tell, I am now the only remaining Lionel Windsor in Australia, and I am so proud to own the name of my grandfather. Grandpa wanted his funeral to have words of encouragement, words of life. When he died, he owned and cherished the Bible our family gave him on Fathers’ Day, 1988. It was heavily used, read and annotated. Grandpa himself suggested that Psalm 46 should be used in the service, and it is my privilege to speak to you words of encouragement from this Psalm this morning.
The Psalm is a song about a city. A city that is unshakeable, calm and unmoved. All around the city there is confusion, chaos and turmoil: a tottering creation, the earth itself quaking, mountains falling into the heart of the sea, oceans roaring and foaming. There are also enemies at war with the city, surrounding the city and battering against its walls. But the city remains stable, steady, firm, solid, permanent, immovable, strong; a fortress that cannot be shaken, despite the frenzied turmoil going on outside it.
Indeed, not only is the city steady and unshaken, it is a peaceful city, a city full of joy and life amidst the chaos outside, a city with a river whose streams of life make it glad and bring life to its inhabitants, a city that brings joy to others too.
Now just for a moment, you might think the Psalm was speaking about my Grandpa, Lionel Snr. Many of you will know only too well the turbulent events that battered against his life. You will know some of the chaos and turmoil he experienced, and you will know how he carried himself in the midst of that chaos. You will know his constancy, his warm and gentle dignity, his stability, his deep strength, like the unfailing city of the Psalm. More than that, you will know the joy and gladness that he brought to the lives of others. All his life, his strength was a source of strength and firmness for countless others.
But then you only need stop for a moment to see the jarring note of discordance. For despite the strength, despite the firmness of more than nine decades of life, Grandpa is no longer here to give us that strength, is he?
Indeed, this Psalm is about the shaking of the unshakeable. Verse 2 speaks of the earth itself giving way. It’s about firm things, strong things, things that you can never imagine moving; falling, shaking, tottering and trembling. It’s about the world falling apart. It’s about Tsunamis that reach to the top of Bowen Mountain. It’s about the great empires and nations of the earth toppling and crumbling. It’s about the things in life we may think are firm and solid, failing; whether it’s a house, a bank account, a business career; whether it’s those deep friendships that have seen us through thick and thin; whether it’s those family ties that often seem the bedrock of our identity; whether it’s life itself; whether it’s the strength of the human spirit, even one as strong as Grandpa’s. It seems so firm and strong, doesn’t it? Yet here he is in front of us, in this box, shaken, broken. Death has overcome even a life as firm and stable and life-giving as Grandpa’s.
Yet this Psalm speaks of a city that remains firm and solid even when all else is shaken. What is the strength of the city? What makes it different from the mountains and the earth and all those other seemingly unshakeable things? It is the presence of God.
The presence of God. The inhabitants of this city do not sing here about the glory of the city walls or beauty of its gates or the firmness of its foundations. What do they sing? God is our strength and refuge. God is within her, she will not fall. God will help her at break of day. The God of Jacob is our fortress. The LORD almighty is with us. The only final comfort, the only unshakeable fortress that we can rely upon—it’s not the earth or the mountains, it’s not kingdoms or nations, it’s not in family or friends, it’s not in the power of the human spirit.
The only fortress that will not fail us is God’s presence: God himself. God is our strength and refuge.
And while at first, the city seems to be Zion, the mountain on which stood Jerusalem, the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells; this Psalm is not even about Zion, ultimately. It is about the presence of God. The stable, steady, firm, solid, permanent, immovable, strong presence of God himself. Which stays secure when everything else is made to totter and shake.
What shakes you? What rocks your world?
When Jesus Christ heard the news of the death of his dear friend Lazarus, he came to the tomb where they laid him. And when he saw the mourners, the sister of Lazarus and his friends and countrymen weeping, John’s gospel, chapter 11 verse 33, tells us that Jesus himself was deeply moved in spirit and shaken.
When the apostle John reports that Jesus was shaken, the word he uses in the original language is exactly the same word used 4 times in this Psalm 46. It’s the word used to describe the shaking of the world, the world torn apart. The shaking of the earthquake, the shaking and foaming and tossing of the waves in a storm, the shaking of the mountains, the shaking of the nations and kingdoms—when Jesus came to his dear, dead friend, and saw the grief and pain of loss that death produced (which in its own way foreshadowed Jesus’ own coming death), his heart gave way like the earth. He shook like foaming waters.
In one way this shows Jesus’ care, his love, his sympathy, doesn’t it? It shows how Jesus entered in to our sorrow, took part in the grief and loss in our world. Jesus is not aloof or distant from our grief in the face of death. He knows it all too well. And that means he can sympathise with each one of us today.
But it also shows us the profound wrongness, the awfulness, of death. For Jesus does not shake at earthquakes or tsunamis or the armies of nations. He shakes when faced with the great enemy, the great power that itself shakes and tears the world apart. He shakes at death.
Jesus doesn’t just sit back and accept his beloved friend Lazarus’ death as something right and normal, does he? Jesus reflected and experienced what the Bible tells us throughout its pages—that death is wrong. Death, in fact, is the ultimate result of God’s judgment on our world, and on us, for our willful disobedience against him. Death is a tragic reminder of the judgment that each one of us deserves before our holy God; the God who lifts his voice, and the earth melts. And this is why Jesus was so shaken by death—for he understands that it is the obvious and definite sign of a world gone wrong and people out of relationship with their creator. Worse even than crumbling mountains and falling kingdoms.
And yet if you know the rest of the story, you know that that is not all that Jesus did. You know that he did not shake so as to fall. For he had already spoken to his friend, Lazarus’ sister Martha.
And Jesus had said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26)
‘I am the resurrection and the life’, says Jesus. There will be a day, a last day, when there will be a resurrection of humanity. When God will once and for all deal with the terrible problem of death and judgment in our world. Where we will have a new, transformed body that will live a new, better, fulfilled life in a new creation, when God makes the whole world new. A place of joyful reunion with other believers, with no more crying or mourning or pain or death. And like a city, solid, secure and living in the face of death, Jesus says ‘I am the resurrection and the life’. You will only find this security, this resurrection and life, in me, says Jesus.
The Easter story tells us how powerful Jesus’ life was, doesn’t it? Jesus died, and yet he rose to life again. He rose from the dead ahead of time. He came back in a new, transformed body. Death overcomes us all, but death could not overcome Jesus. He is alive. And even more than that, he gives life. He is like city from whom streams of living water flow. The river whose streams make glad the inhabitants of God’s city. Because God is with him. God is with him permanently. Jesus is that city that remains stable, steady, firm, solid, permanent, immovable, strong. Strong enough to provide streams of life. Even in the midst of our greatest enemy, even when faced with assaults from death itself. Jesus is strong enough to bring physical, bodily, life to our mortal bodies. God is with Jesus permanently. He is the man of whom it is absolutely and irrevocably true: God is with him, he will not fall. The LORD Almighty is with him
Grandpa once said something that I’ll never forget. He said: ‘I don’t know how I would have got through my life without a faith in Jesus’. I witnessed that faith in Jesus, that trust in Jesus as a firm and immovable fortress in his life becoming more and more of a reality as his life went on. It was God’s presence with Grandpa, through Jesus, that made him who he was. That gave him the strength and stability to live and to love others. God was his strength and refuge. And we rejoice with him that he now sees that confidence on Jesus vindicated. That he is with his Lord and God now, with a life that can never be shaken.
The Psalm here issues us with a command—did you notice it? It’s there in verse 10
‘Be still, and know that I am God’
The call to ‘be still’, is not a call to quiet contemplation. At this point it’s not a call to sit in a calm place and reflect. That may be a good thing to do, but that’s not what it’s saying here. There is an urgency to this command to be still. It’s a command that is uttered in the midst of earthquakes, giant waves, an approaching enemy army. It’s a word shouted out in the face of the urgency of our own approaching death
It’s a call to stop! Be still! Stop! Know that I am God! Stop shaking. Stop quaking and surging. Stop fighting, stop panicking. Be still and know that I am God! Stop placing your confidence in those other things that seem secure but will all ultimately fall. Stop placing your final hope in family. Stop placing your final hope in friendship. Stop placing your final hope in the strength of the human spirit, or human love, or human power. Be still, stop—and know that God is God. And nothing else is God.
One of Grandpa’s favourite verses came from the book of Ecclesiastes:
‘He has set eternity in the hearts of man’
It means that we know and long for eternity, that we are not satisfied with death. Death is one of those areas where the statistics are 100% against us, isn’t it? Each one of us will end up in one of those boxes one day, no exceptions. And nothing at all in this life can stop it. Yet it is still wrong. Death is 100% normal. Yet we also know death is also 100% wrong. God has set eternity in our hearts.
But Jesus promises that if you trust him, he will grant us everlasting, full life. Jesus is the resurrection and the life.
Grandpa wanted me to speak words of encouragement, words of life. And so I must ask you: Have you stopped? Do you know that God is God? Is God the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ your strength and refuge? Is he your ever-present help in trouble? Is he with you, and is he your fortress? For if so, we will not fear, though everything else in life may give way
Jesus said […], “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.
Do you believe this?”
February 21 2008 | Psalms | 2 Comments »
In response to my sermon last night, I had a helpful comment that I thought it would be good to share.
In my sermon, I said:
When we talk about these things [i.e. alcohol, prostitutes, cravings to be beautiful, immoral fantasies, pornography, food binges], we often use the word ‘addiction’, don’t we?
That word can be helpful to describe the ongoing pressure of these problems.
But you’ve got to be very careful with that word, ‘addict’. The problem with the word is that it can be used to say that you have no control. That you can’t do anything about it.
But Christians are not ultimately addicts. We are not under the power of sin. Sin is not our master. Because we are united with a man who died to sin and rose from the dead. And that is power. It is powerful. God is with you to help.
If you think of yourself primarily as an addict, if you say, ‘that’s just me’, I can’t do anything about that addiction, You’re wrong. No, that’s not you. That’s the old self that was crucified. The addict is dead. You are told here to stop obeying it. You don’t owe anything to it. You’re free. You don’t have to pay for it, you don’t have to do anything for it. You have a new life.
Verse 14, do you see it?
‘Sin shall not be your master’.
Some of you might think you are habitually caught in a sin. The Bible never says it’s easy to kick these evil habits. It can be a long, hard road. You may have all sorts of emotional and physical dependencies you need to face up to. It may involve years of prayer and the advice and love of other Christians. I’m not saying it’s easy. But it’s possible. Jesus doesn’t demand perfection of us in this life. But he does demand progress. You want to be thinking long term. You want to be looking back on your life in ten years and saying, “while it still tempts me, it will not condemn me”. It may be a long, hard road. But even so, God wants us to deal radically with sin.
The comment from a church member was:
As an active member of a 12-step program for addiction I too shared your suspicion of the term ‘addict’. However my views have changed. I think the issue of addiction and sin is an important one. I think that admitting addiction is actually admitting to weakness over sin without grace. This admission of failure in self-control is the first step in almost all treatment programs for addiction. This admission of failure in self-control is then followed by a surrender to God-control. This is too difficult to explain here, but I feel that I am living proof that admitting addiction is sometimes a vital step that enables a Christian to deal with an area of difficulty with sin.
I think it is a helpful addition to what I said in the sermon. Addiction is a real power that many people (both Christians and non-Christians) struggle with. The first step in dealing with any sin, whether it’s a one-off wrongdoing or an ongoing habit or addiction, is to admit its existence and its power. In this sermon, I wanted to emphasise an important truth that is found in Romans 6, a primary and important truth that is above and beyond the existence of sin in our lives. That is, if we are in Christ, our sin or addiction (however real) does not actually define us or ultimately make us who we are. We are ultimately defined by the new life that we have in Christ. The power of that new life is more powerful than our addictions, and will enable us to deal with them. So the recognition that you are an “addict” is never an excuse for wrongdoing, it must only ever be the first “step” towards dealing with the sin in your life and, with God’s help, heading towards recovery.
I’ve spoken at some length with the person who made this comment. For those who are struggling with an addiction, programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous or Overeaters Anonymous, etc. are worth contacting, and they can put you in touch with other “twelve-step” programs for dealing with other addictions.
February 11 2008 | Romans | 2 Comments »
In Matthew 5:31-32, we read:
“It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery. And whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”
[from the English Standard Version of the Bible]
This may raise a question for you about your current life situation. You may be divorced, or separated and contemplating a divorce, and/or contemplating remarriage, or contemplating marrying a divorced person, and you may want to know how to live in the light of God’s word here.
Before we go on, let me remind you of the main point that keeps coming out in Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 5-7, commonly called the ‘Sermon on the Mount’. It’s very important to embrace this big idea, because unless you understand the thrust of Jesus’ teaching nothing else that Jesus says will make sense. The point is:
Being in God’s Kingdom goes way beyond keeping his rules.
Being in God’s Kingdom means loving God as your heavenly Father, and loving everything that God loves.
In Matthew 5:20, Jesus says,
For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
The scribes and Pharisees were meticulous rule-keepers. They knew God’s rules and regulations, and were fanatical about obedience to these rules. But Jesus shows us that bare rule-keeping is useless and empty. What God wants is a complete change of mind and heart so that we desire what God desires. God didn’t give us rules just so that we can grudgingly obey them (like the Australian Taxation Office); he gives us rules as examples of the sorts of things he loves, so that we can learn from them and bring our deepest inmost desires in line with God’s good pleasure. The rest of the Bible shows us that the only way for this to happen is for Jesus, through his death and resurrection, to provide us with forgiveness and a new heart; to bring us into a relationship with God where we seek to love and serve him as a Father rather than simply obey him as a lawmaker (e.g. Romans 6, Galatians 5).
In this passage (and elsewhere in the Bible, e.g. Matthew 19:3-12), we learn that God loves faithful, lifelong, sacrificial commitment to one’s marriage partner. Hence, this is also what God’s children should love. However, God knows that his people are sinful, and his law (in the Old Testament) is realistic about this sad fact. He knew that sometimes divorce is inevitable, and in his law he included a clause that aimed at limiting the destructive effects of such divorce:
Deuteronomy 24:1-4 “When a man takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, and she departs out of his house, and if she goes and becomes another man’s wife, and the latter man hates her and writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter man dies, who took her to be his wife, then her former husband, who sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after she has been defiled, for that is an abomination before the LORD. And you shall not bring sin upon the land that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance.
This passage seems to be ruling out an abominable practice that has been labelled ‘legalised wife-swapping’. The passage assumes the existence of divorce laws, but seeks to stop people from using these divorce laws as an excuse to legitimate their wife-swapping practices. Clearly, this part of God’s law (in common with much of the Old Testament law) is designed to protect the vulnerable, in this case women, from being abused by the powerful, in this case men who wanted to divorce and remarry on a whim.
The scribes and Pharisees seemed to be arguing along these lines: ‘Well, if there is a part of the law that allows divorce, that means that divorce must be OK with God under certain circumstances. So let’s work out the possible scenarios that will enable us to divorce our wives and still be obedient to God’s law.’ Instead of understanding that the law was there to protect the vulnerable, they read it as an excuse to justify their own sinful behaviour. This comes out even more clearly in Matthew 19:3-12.
I hope you see the utter wickedness of this sort of argument. It is not treating God as a loving, caring Father who rules his people with a perfect mixture of justice and gentleness. Instead, it treats God as a cosmic lawgiver, a court or a government who will be satisfied provided we can tick the legal boxes and defend our actions with recourse to the appropriate loopholes. This legalistic attitude is called ‘hardness of heart’ by Jesus (Matthew 19:8). If you have this sort of attitude to divorce (that is, you want to find out how much divorce you can get away with), then read no further. You need to repent, because your ‘righteousness’ is just like that of the scribes and Pharisees: empty and entirely against God’s desires.
This is exactly the sort of thing that Jesus is railing against in Matthew 5:31-32.
“It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery. And whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”
People argue over the exact details of Jesus’ teaching here, but let me suggest an understanding which I think makes sense of the passage.
Many people maintain that this passage means that if you divorce your wife, you (somehow) ‘force’ her to marry somebody else, and since this new marriage is somehow illegitimate, she is in effect ‘committing adultery’ by continuing to live in the new pseudo-marriage. For example,
The husband who divorces his wife causes her to commit adultery because in the culture of that day, unlike ours, a single woman could hardly survive on her own, except through prostitution. She was therefore bound to take another husband and so be made into an adulteress. And the man who married such a divorced woman himself committed adultery in so doing, because he has married the wife of another man. This viewpoint presupposes the permanent character of the marriage bond. For Jesus, not even divorce can change that fact.’
Hagner, D. A. (2002). Vol. 33A: Word Biblical Commentary : Matthew 1-13. Word Biblical Commentary (Page 125). Dallas: Word, Incorporated.
But there are some big problems with views like this:
Instead, others have made a case (I think very convincingly), that the word ‘make’ in Matthew 5:32 means ‘make out’ or ‘make it (falsely) seem to be the case’. The word ‘make’ certainly has this meaning in other parts of the Bible. For example:
1 John 5:10 Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son.
John here is saying that if somebody does not believe God then he is ‘making’ God a liar. This can only mean that he is ‘making it (falsely) seem to be the case’ that God is a liar; he is ‘unjustly stigmatising’ God as a liar by not believing what God says. It can’t mean that our unbelief ‘forces’ God to actually lie, because God does not lie (Hebrews 6:18). So, in Matthew 5:32, it makes more sense to read ‘everybody who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her out to have committed adultery.’
This would fit with the sense of the passage in Deuteronomy 24 that Jesus is quoting. For a Jew whose life was governed to a large extent by the Old Testament Law, to divorce his wife implied that (in the words of Deuteronomy 24) he had found some indecency in her—that is, a divorced wife, along with any person she subsequently married, would have been viewed as an adulteress. The social and economic consequences of this would have been enormous, for an adulteress was ostracised from society and subject to economic hardship. Thus divorcing your wife just because you don’t like her would be a gross act of negligence (unless, of course, there were good solid grounds for believing that she had actually committed sexual immorality). Furthermore, the man who then subsequently marries the divorced woman would be guilty too, because he would be a party to the whole sordid legalised wife-swapping transaction. He is not legitimately marrying her, he is committing adultery. These men are treating this woman, whom God tenderly loves, as an object, not a person; showing blatant disregard for God and thus being unworthy of the kingdom of heaven, despite their apparent plea that they have a legal precedent for their activity. It’s worth noting that in present day Australia, one of the tragic effects of the introduction of ‘no fault’ divorce laws is that the weak and vulnerable (usually the women and children) are the ones who suffer the most.
(For other similar uses of the word ‘make’ as ‘make out to be’ check out John 8:53, 10:33, 19:7, 19:12, 1 John 1:10—use a literal word-for-word translation of the Bible such as the NASB to look up these verses.)
So the main point of Jesus’ teaching is: don’t use God’s law as an excuse for divorce, because God’s law is not there to legitimate your desire for divorce; it is there to protect the weak and vulnerable. Jesus is teaching that our attitudes to marriage and divorce are not just a matter of sticking to the letter of God’s rules; they are a matter of wholeheartedly loving the spouse whom we are married to, and seeking that spouse’s welfare above our own.
Now what about some of the situations in which we (Christians and non-Christians) today find ourselves with respect to marriage and divorce? If we have understood Jesus’ teaching correctly, how do we apply it with all our hearts, souls, and minds, rather than seeking to find loopholes in it? Let me suggest some areas of application:
As I suggested above, Christians disagree about this issue, and if you wish to check up the different positions I suggest that a good place to start would be to look at the eleven different views outlined on pages 294-323 of the book by B. Ward Powers, Marriage and Divorce: the New Testament Teaching (Concord: Jordan Books, 1987).
September 10 2007 | Matthew | No Comments »
What does ‘New heavens and New Earth’ mean?
The “New Heavens and New Earth” is a way of saying a “whole new creation”. It’s not trying to draw a distinction between Heavens and Earth; rather it’s trying to say “a new everything”.
The phrase “Heavens and earth” by itself are the Bible’s way of saying “Everything in the creation”. It’s a phrase that uses two words that refer to extremities (”heavens” and “earth”) to capture the breadth of everything in God’s creation. We use phrases like that as well, for example, “It’s all on for young and old”, meaning every person (even middle-aged), or “From east to west”, meaning everywhere.
You could check out:
Other examples:
So when Isaiah predicts that God will create a “new heavens and a new earth” (Isaiah 65:17, 66:22) he means a whole new creation, a whole new world with *everything* made new (check out Revelation 21:5). That means that what we look forward to is not just floating around on clouds, or being away from the good things of the world. Sometimes we wrongly use the word “heaven” like this, as if “heaven” means boring eternity or playing harps. Rather “heaven” is a shorthand for “new creation”, and it means that all of the good things in this world will be made perfect, complete, and joyful forever.
As for the exact details - the Bible doesn’t give too many details. Questions about how old we’ll be in the new creation, or exactly what food will be there, or whether my dog will go there, aren’t really answered. But we do know that it will be joyful, interesting, fun, full of love and care and that God will be there giving us good things (check out 1 Corinthians 15)! I certainly look forward to it!
As an aside, I’m not entirely up to speed with the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ teaching, but having had a chat to a few of them over the years I can definitely say that the Bible’s teaching on the “New Heavens and the New Earth” is completely different to what I’ve heard the JW’s teach. From what I understand, the JW’s believe that the “New Heavens” is different to the “New Earth”, that there will a limited number of very special people in the “New Heavens” while the rest are on the “New Earth”. There is absolutely nothing in the Bible to indicate this, although they sometimes refer (wrongly) to Revelation 14:1-3 to support the theory that there are 144000 special people who are different from other Christians. But like most numbers in Revelation, 144000 is a “symbolic” number, meaning “lots of God’s people” - 12 generally represents the number of God’s people (12 tribes of Israel), 1,000 generally represents a large tribe, and so 144000 is 12 times 12 times 1000, symbolic of lots of God’s people - you and me!
July 23 2007 | Revelation | No Comments »
“With regard to ‘filling the earth and subduing it’, do you think that Christians also have a responsibility to the earth and its strained resources? I.e. is it possible for Christians to have ‘too many’ kids? (Is the earth overpopulated and strained; how much should we consider this?)”
The answer to this question is ‘yes’ and ‘no’!
Yes, Christians certainly have a responsibility to the earth and its resources. In the context of Genesis chapters 1 and 2, where this phrase is found, ’subduing’ the earth implies a responsibility towards the good world that God has given us - our job is to be the ‘image of God’ in the world, servant rulers over the creation. So we must take our responsibilities seriously, caring for the earth as God cares for it.
However - and this is where the question is heading - does the second part of God’s command negate the first? That is, have we come to a point where there are simply too many people in the world, and where any more ‘filling’ will mean that we aren’t properly taking care of the world? Or to ask it in perhaps a more biblically faithful way, have we already completed our obedience to God’s command to ‘fill’ the earth - i.e. is the earth now full and we can stop procreating?
The answer to these questions is a resounding “no” (at the very least not yet) - and let me explain why. Overpopulation, at least by itself, is not causing the strain on the earth’s resources. What is causing this strain is a much more basic problem, a problem which Francis Schaeffer identified way back in the sixties, a problem which the Bible talks about again and again - human greed (e.g. Exodus 20:17, Romans 1:29, James 4:2-3). It’s not that there are too many people, it’s that each person, on average (especially in the West), is unsatiably using more and more resources. Think of Australians: in general, on average, we are gobbling up oil to get ourselves around more conveniently, we are gobbling up land because the average household size has dropped so that fewer and fewer people are now living in bigger and bigger houses - not to mention the extra cost in electricity for heating and lighting, etc. The strain on the earth’s resources would be stopped overnight if we all became content with what we had and happy to live with larger families under one roof.
Or take food resources, for example. To quote a statistic I heard only recently (see this news article): there are now more obese and overweight people in the world than there are malnourished people in the world (that includes countries such as China). That statistic means that there is far more than enough food for everybody, many times over. It’s just that it’s not being distributed properly - because of corruption and greed. The technology that we have at our disposal means that we are able to distribute the world’s resources. At least in the area of food, the statistics show that we are far from overpopulated.
In my experience, when I have met couples who refuse to have children because they don’t want to contribute to “overpopulation”, it’s far more likely that this is not the real reason. The real reason is much more likely to be that they don’t want their comfortable lifestyle, and their desire to be “upwardly mobile” (i.e. covetous) to be affected. In fact, a far better thing for them to do for the world’s resources would be for them to have children and to teach them, by word and example, to be less greedy, more content to live with each other in the same household and use less petrol and electricity, etc.
Of course, the best thing we can do for our world is to speak and live out the the gospel, to our neighbours and our children, which will bring change in people’s lives, teach us contentment, and enable us to put greed and covetousness to death.
July 16 2007 | Genesis | No Comments »
Mike Cowie is leading a Bible study that’s working through the book of Isaiah. Having just studied Isaiah chapter 6, he had a question. He wrote:
We discussed the purpose in Isaiah’s message. Why would God want to harden people to prevent them from repenting? – reminiscent of God’s work in Pharaoh prior to the Exodus. This seems a bit opposed to His character. Doesn’t He call his people to repentance?
We thought that perhaps this passage should be read as a judgement, not a call to repentance. God tells Isaiah to pronounce judgment on Judah – they will not understand or perceive and therefore will not be healed. This ‘dull’ing of their ears and the ‘close’ing of their eys is the judgement itself not just a warning of judgment to come.
The answer has to come through understanding God’s plan of salvation that’s mapped out in Isaiah. God plans to save his people in a surprising way, in a way that doesn’t rely on human strength or human wisdom, or even on the physical nation of Israel. A large part of that plan, therefore, will involve the ministry of Isaiah, confirming God’s people in their stubborn and rebellious ways, so that they don’t see God’s wisdom until (in a sense) it’s too late, until their own human strength has been toppled, until their nation has been completely humbled and they are ready to see God’s answer to their plight. It is a salvation that comes through judgment.
This comes through again and again in Isaiah - the idea that God’s salvation doesn’t rely on human wisdom. Keep a lookout for this theme as you read through the book of Isaiah.
“For how long, O Lord” - is Isaiah asking: “how long will Judah be kept deaf, blind and unhealed for?”
The answer in vs 11-12 must be the exile of Judah that occurred in 606 BC.
So taken this way Isaiah’s message to Jerusalem and Judah is that God will judge them by closing their ears and eyes to Him until their destruction in the exile.
Yes and no! The thing about the book of Isaiah is that it (deliberately) keeps working with multiple fulfilments - it works on a number of different levels, which is its great glory, but also why it can also be a little hard to get a grip on.
In fact, the first time verses 11-12 is fulfilled is earlier than the Babylonian exile - it’s in the Assyrian crisis described in chapters 36-38, where the whole land of Judah was devastated except for the capital, Jerusalem, and Hezekiah was forced to rely on God alone. God did preserve the city of Jerusalem at that time, but only after the nation had been almost completely wiped out. This happened in 701 BC (or perhaps 688 BC). It’s described in chapter 29, as a time when God makes his people blind and dull (29:9-14). And in Isaiah 35:5, there is the promise that in the future, the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the redeemed of the Lord will return to Jerusalem.
However, the Babylonian exile (which happened in stages from 606-587 BC) is also on view (Isaiah 39:6-7). The Babylonian crisis - where the whole nation is completely devestated - introduces the background to the second half of the book, chapters 40-66, which are written to the returned or soon-to-be-returned exiles. So in chapter 42, God speaks of a servant, who will open the blind eyes and bring the exiles back from Babylon (Isaiah 42:7), even though Israel had been blinded (42:16-18). If you read Isaiah 42:16-25 you’ll see this all worked out.
BUT … the Babylonian exile isn’t the final fulfilment of this prophecy. For even as the exile finishes, God promises an even greater work for the future. Part of the tension of the Old Testament comes from the fact that, while the physical exile was over, the glory of Israel was never really restored to the way the prophets predicted. People were looking forward to a real end of the exile, a time when God’s glory would be properly revealed in Israel. And God, in Isaiah, predicts that this will happen - but again in a way that human wisdom and human power can’t comprehend. There will come a servant, a suffering servant. This servant will display God’s wisdom, his amazing salvation (52:13). But it won’t be understood by the people, because they are still blinded to God’s ways (52:14-15). He will be despised and rejected, a man of sorrows (53:3). But his suffering and rejection by God’s blinded and dulled people will actually mean salvation, because he will suffer for the sins of the world - he will justify many by his wisdom (53:11).
This is the climactic fulfilment of this prophecy - and as the book of Isaiah ends, it still seems to be something that will happen in the future.
I’m content with this aside from the fact that Jesus tells His disciples that Isaiah’s prophecy in vs 9-10 is fulfilled in the confused listeners to His parables (Matt 13:14-16). How can Isaiah’s prophecy to a particular group of people at a particular time with a distinct end point continue to apply to Jesus’ “listeners” 600+ years later?
Is the proclamation of judgement true for all people beyond Judah and beyond the exile? Perhaps Isaiah’s specific judgement/prophecy for Judah is also true for all people in that it is a general consequence/punishment of sin? The “holy seed” that will come (Jesus) is the only way anyone will be able to truly see or hear and then be healed. Through the work of Jesus and the provision of His Spirit people will be given revelation - unattainable by human sight or understanding.
This may be stretching things a little. I’m struggling to make sense of the passage in its Isaiah context given Jesus’ words in Matthew.
When Jesus comes, that’s exactly what happens. He doesn’t display human strength or power or wisdom, so he is rejected by his own people, who have been deliberately blinded and dulled. This was part of God’s plan of judgment:
John 9:39 39 Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.”
John 12:37-43 37 Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him, 38 so that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: “Lord, who has believed what he heard from us, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” [Isaiah 53:1] 39 Therefore they could not believe. For again Isaiah said, 40 “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them.” [Isaiah 6:10] 41 Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him. 42 Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue; 43 for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.
But it is also God’s plan for salvation. That’s why John, above, quotes Isaiah 53:1 (which is the suffering servant poem, the bit of Isaiah that speaks about Jesus dying for our sins) - this weakness, not understood by the people, is salvation for the world. With Jesus being rejected as foolish and weak by his own people, there is the opportunity for salvation for the whole world.
This same theme is taken up by the apostles. Peter says:
Acts 2:22-24 22 “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know- 23 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. 24 God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.
Or as Paul says
1 Corinthians 2:7-8 7 But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
This is also why Jesus told parables about the kingdom (e.g. Matthew 13) - to both harden in judgment those who were to reject and crucify him, and also to bring salvation to those who do finally understand Jesus’ purpose in dying for our sins.
What does that mean for us? There is still the same blinding and enlightening going on today, as the message about Jesus is spoken. When Paul speaks of this process, he keeps making reference to the idea in the book of Isaiah:
1 Corinthians 1:18-25 18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” [Isaiah 29:14] 20 Where is the one who is wise [cf. Isaiah 29:14]? Where is the scribe [cf. Isaiah 33:18]? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. 22 For Jews demand signs [cf. Isaiah 7:11] and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews [Isaiah 8:14-15] and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men [cf. Isaiah 52:13-15].
That is, if you see the wisdom of God in Jesus’ death on the cross rather than in human power, or your own wisdom, you are saved by God’s power. If you refuse to, you are further blinded and salvation doesn’t come.
It’s a complex answer, isn’t it? But part of the glory of Isaiah is the way that it speaks on multiple levels and is able to be used by the New Testament to build up a great picture of God’s wisdom and glory, shown supremely in his suffering servant Jesus.
June 25 2007 | Isaiah | Comments Off
Here are the answers to some questions from my recent sermon on Philippians 3:12-4:1.
Question 1
It kind of seemed like you were implying that there are people here at church who are better than others - “Better Christians”. Who are these growing people?
It’s important to remember that all Christians have equal status in Christ. We are all sinners who have been saved from God’s judgment through Jesus’ death and resurrection, entirely undeserved (e.g. Galatians 3:26-29).
However, in this passage Paul is implying that there are certain Christians who are worth following more than others. They are the ones who are living according to the pattern Paul gave them (Philippians 1:17) - i.e. those who, like Paul, are living their lives with the goal of resurrection and eternal life in mind.
How might you recognise them? There will be many things to look out for. They will be people who put serving Christ before other things. People who are willing to suffer for the sake of Jesus. People who think of others first before their own pleasure, their own interests, their own ambition (E.g. Philippians 2:3-4). People who make decisions about education, about jobs, about boyfriends and girlfriends and marriage partners, with God’s glory in mind before their own satisfaction. People who, in social situations, are not concerned for their own popularity or happiness, but for the comfort of others. People who give up their discretionary time to be involved in groups or activities that encourage others to grow in Christ or help to share Jesus with non-Christians. People who turn up faithfully to church and Bible study, week by week, because they care about their fellowship with others and want to encourage them. People who don’t spend their money on trivial gadgets or new cars or get massive house mortgages because they want to be free to use their time and money to serve Christ. The list could go on …
Question 2You spoke about putting ministry opportunities first. What about in the case where your gifts are quite flexible and you feel you could find a useful role in pretty much any church?
This is a great question - because if you’re asking it, it means you’ve already got the important question right. If you are striving for your resurrection life, and seeking to serve God and others in light of that goal, then your attitude and motivation is all in the right place.
However, the question then is, how do I make individual decisions about what to do in life (e.g. which church do I go to), especially if I have a choice? This becomes an area of wisdom, where there are no necessarily easy or cut-and-dried answers (I’d define biblical wisdom as “understanding the shape of the world, and acting accordingly”). Praying for wisdom is a good first step!
However, there are a number of questions that could guide your decision-making in this area.
And remember that in areas like this, you’re free to make decisions. Rejoice in the choice that is before you, and if you have chosen with godly Christian wisdom, there is no need for regret. God is sovereign, and wherever you are, that is where God wants you to be!
Question 3
I’ve found that sometimes my longing for heaven is selfish. It’s about leaving the ‘crap’ of earthliness behind. I often struggle to find it the right motivation for gospel partnership.
Yeah - Paul had that longing too (Philippians 1:21-22). Often having our hearts fixed on heaven involves “hanging in there”, trusting in Jesus day by day, knowing that he who began a good work in you will faithfully bring it to completion on the day of Christ (Philippians 1:6).
But it’s worth remembering what resurrection actually means. We’re saved to be part of an everlasting, heavenly fellowship (or “partnership”) -
But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. (Hebrews 12:22-23)
The Christians you’re with today, you’re going to be with forever - albeit in relationships that are perfect and not full of all the ‘crap’ that often gets in the way of good relationships here. That’s why Paul decided it was better to stay with the Philippians, even though he knew that being with Christ was better by far.
June 12 2007 | Philippians | No Comments »
I think this is one example of where biblical theology is really important in understanding a Bible passage.
Did you notice that in the passage, the idea of the ‘covenant’ crops up twice - once in verse 10 (the ‘covenant of our fathers’) and once in verse 14, referring to the marriage covenant between a man and a woman? A covenant is basically a special solemn relationship involving obligations between two parties. This passage in Malachi relates together the covenant between God and Israel (the ‘covenant of our fathers’) with the covenant between a man and a woman - the marriage covenant.
This is very important, because the passage is referring back to the covenants which God made with the ancestors of Israel - with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. You can read about the covenants between God and Abraham in Genesis 15 and 17, and these covenants culminate in an oath from God in Genesis 22:17-18:
I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.”
Do you notice the word ‘offspring’? It’s the same word as you find in Malachi 2:15:
Malachi 2:15 Has not the LORD made them one? In flesh and spirit they are his. And why one? Because he was seeking godly offspring. So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith with the wife of your youth.
Literally, the word ‘offspring’ means ’seed’. And to be more precise, the phrase in Malachi 2:15 should be translated ‘Because he was seeking offspring [or seed] of God’.
What’s going on here? In Genesis, God promises that Abraham will be a very special person. He will be the father of a great ’seed’. That ’seed’ will be victorious over his enemies, and will be the source of blessing for all the other nations of the earth. So a very important part of the covenant between God and Abraham is that there will be an ’seed’ who will be the source of blessing for the whole world. This is God’s purpose for Abraham and his descendents, the nations of Israel. Clearly, this ’seed’ wil lbe produced by procreation between husbands and wives in Israel.
At the time of Malachi, we can see that God still has this purpose in mind for Israel. He is still seeking ’seed’ to be the source of blessing for the world. The Israelites should be faithful to their covenant with God, which in turn will mean that they will be faithful to each other in their own marriage covenants (i.e. not divorcing), will keep themselves distinct as the nation of Israel (i.e. not marrying foreigners), and produce ‘offspring’ that will be the source of God’s blessing for the world.
But the problem in Malachi is, they aren’t being faithful, either to their covenant with God (in remaining distinct from the nations), or their covenant with their own wives (in staying faithful and not divorcing them). You can hear the exasperation in Malachi’s voice - how are God’s purposes going to be achieved when the covenant itself, and so the ’seed’ of God, is still in jeopardy?
The ultimate answer is found in Jesus, the true seed of Abraham. Jesus the Israelite was faithful to God’s covenant, and he is the seed whom God was seeking. In Galatians 3, we read:
Galatians 3:16 The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed [or, offspring]. The Scripture does not say “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but “and to your seed,” meaning one person, who is Christ.
And through Jesus, we share in that promise:
Galatians 3:29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
That’s why Malachi is so concerned about the ’seed’ at this point in God’s plan - because Jesus, the true seed, had not yet come, and the whole covenant seemed in jeopardy by Israel’s faithlessness in marriage, at the very point which should be producing the seed of God.
Now what does that mean for us, now that the seed has come? Well, even though we’re not Israelites and we don’t have to produce any ’seed’ to bless the world with, faithlessness in marriage is still wrong! We should remain committed to our marriage covenants, because that is God’s character - he is faithful to his covenants, so we should be faithful to ours. And although I don’t think it’s the main point of the passage in Malachi, it’s still an important point to say that a strong commitment in marriage will be hugely beneficial for the children of that marriage - really the most important thing you can do for your kids (or your future kids!) is to be fully and wholeheartedly committed to your spouse (or your future spouse).
But does that mean that children from broken families, or children from mixed marriages between believers and unbelievers, are somehow less ‘godly’ or ‘legit’ or ‘impure’? Not at all! Paul addresses this issue in 1 Corinthians 7:13-15:
1 Corinthians 7:13-15 13 If any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever, and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him. 14 For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy. 15 But if the unbelieving partner separates, let it be so. In such cases the brother or sister is not enslaved. God has called you to peace.
The point that Paul makes is that now, because Christ has fulfilled the covenant between God and Israel, the children of Christians are ‘holy’ (which I take it here means something like ‘pure’ or ‘legitimate’, not necessarily ’saved’) even if they are married to an unbeliever, or even if their unbelieving spouse leaves them.
This is actually great news for kids from broken or ‘mixed’ marriages - even if one or both of your parents have done stupid things in their marriage and things are pretty bad, this doesn’t mean God has abandoned you to your fate and you’re doomed forever with the sins of your parents.
February 22 2007 | Malachi | No Comments »
Probably the best place to go to talk about the relationship between (water) baptism and salvation is 1 Peter 3:21-22:
21 Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.
The point Peter is making about water baptism is that it is a sign of a greater reality that actually saves you: the appeal to God for a good conscience. That is, I am not saved by being baptised. But baptism is a sign, a symbol, of something that does save me: Jesus’ death and resurrection, which I appropriate to myself by asking God to cleanse my conscience.
Therefore, water baptism in the New Testament was the most common way that people were saved - not because the baptism itself did anything for them, but because in undergoing the sign of baptism they were asking God to save them. And in our day too, water baptism is still a very appropriate and helpful sign (or, to use a more old-fashioned term, a “sacrament”) of this reality.
The problem comes, though, if you start confusing the sign with the reality. Take a more modern example: a road sign. Let’s say you ask me for directions to the St Michael’s Night Church Getaway next year (27-29 April 2007, in case you were wondering). I tell you, “Go south along the Princes Highway, and when you see the sign that points to Camp Koloona, follow that sign and you’ll get to the camp site”. Now just suppose that I’m sitting there at the camp site and you turn up successfully. I say to you, “Good to see you at the Night Church getaway! You must have followed the sign! It was a good sign, wasn’t it? Big, bold letters, nice colours.” And you tell me, “Actually, no, I didn’t see the sign, and I had to drive a few extra km out of the way, but I got here anyway”. How should I react? I should be glad, of course, that you got to the camp site! But what if I said to you, “Well, mate, I’m sorry, but in fact you’re not actually at Camp Koloona. The way to get to Koloona is to follow the sign, and you didn’t follow the sign. Therefore you’re not here. Sorry, but I can’t talk to you because you’re not actually here. La la la la la…” That would, of course, be crazy.
But it’s the way people can sometimes talk about baptism (”You’re not baptised? Sorry, but you’re not saved!”). Baptism is a sign of salvation - but people can be saved without undergoing the sign (take, for example, the criminal on the cross next to Jesus in Luke 23:42-43). The may have missed out on the sign, but if somebody has appealed to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, then they are saved. It may still be a good idea to undergo the sign of baptism - since baptism is a good, appropriate sign of salvation. But what is wrong is to confuse the sign with the reality and insist that a person must be baptised with water otherwise they can’t possibly be saved.
October 30 2006 | 1 Peter | No Comments »