Genesis 12:10-20 ‘What not to do when you are afraid of people’

It was an embarrassing moment of failure.  I had just started college.  I had decided that I was going to take my faith seriously.  I had joined the Christian Union.  I was now walking across the front square with two of my new Christian friends going to the CU when a guy from my geography class bounded up to us.  ‘Where are you going?’  I froze!  He did not know I was a Christian.  I was scared to be seen as a religious freak.  So, I let God down.  I pointed to some buildings and said, ‘that way’.

Why do we let God down?  Why do we keep our mouths shut when we should be telling the world we belong to Him?  Why do we avoid conversations about those issues where the Bible offends the world?  Often, it’s because we’re scared of people.  Not because they are going to cut our heads off—like happens our courageous brothers and sisters in some parts of the world.  It’s just that we are like the pharisees, who loved the approval of people more than the praise of God (John 12:43).

This morning Abram sets us an example of what not to do when we are afraid of people.

Being afraid of people makes us self-centred

There a was a famine in the land.  So, Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while (10a).  Was Abram right to go to Egypt?  We are not told.  However, there is no sign that he enquired of God before making his decision.  It’s not always easy to know where God is directing us, but we make too many decisions with little prayer or the advice of wise Christian friends.

As they enter Egypt Abram explains to Sarai that her beauty puts him at risk.  ‘If the Egyptians see how beautiful you are and realise that you are my wife they will kill me, but they will let you live’ (12b).  ‘Say you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared for your sake’ (13).

Being afraid of people makes Abram self-centred.  He doesn’t say, ‘that it might go well with us’ but ‘that it might go well with me.’  We are often afraid of what people think of us because we are concerned about our image or our comfort.  Fear of people isn’t centred around the reputation of Jesus.  It is centred around our reputation.  It doesn’t show concern for others—like when we give the impression that something was someone else’s fault not ours. 

Being afraid of people comes from not trusting God’s promises

God had said that He was going to give Abram descendants.  At this stage Abram has no children.  So, if God is going to be true to His word then Abram is not going to be killed during this stay in Egypt.  The promise of God also implied protection for Abram: ‘I will bless those who bless you, and those who curse you I will curse’ (3a).  Abram is simply not trusting the promises of God.

Sometimes we keep our mouths shut about Jesus because we are not taking His promises seriously.  We are afraid of making a fool of ourselves.  Didn’t Jesus promise His disciples that He would give them the words to say?  Doesn’t that promise apply to us?  I don’t fully know how it works in my life because I often feel that I have not explained myself clearly, but Jesus can take our words and make them clear in the minds of those we talk to.

I don’t know if John Piper still jogs.  He has recently turned eighty.  But when he was jogging he would carry booklets or copies of John’s Gospel in his pockets.  He would pray for guidance for someone to talk to about Jesus and for the help of the Holy Spirit to know what to say.  If he saw a man standing on his own he would approach them and say, ‘Good morning!  My name is John.  I run through the neighbourhood and pray for people.  Is there something I can pray for you?’  Sometimes these conversations would give John the opportunity to speak about the hope he has in Jesus.  He often came away from those encounters frustrated that he had not said things better.  But he knew that the Holy Spirit had awakened compassion in him for the lost, that he had been given courage to overcome his anxiety and that Jesus had fulfilled His promise to teach Him what to say.

Being afraid of people causes us to keep secrets

Abram instructs Sarai to say that she is his sister.  There is some truth in that, as they share the same father.  But while it may be true, it is not the whole truth.  He hides the important detail that she is his wife.  Being afraid of people causes us to keep secrets.

Maybe you are protecting your image.  Maybe you fear what people would think if they knew what you are really like.  You are happy to talk about your successes but you never admit your failures.  You have never told anyone about those sins that so regularly get the better of you.  It leaves you feeling empty.  There is a part of us that needs to be known.

One of the blessings of gospel community is that we get to confess our sins to each other.  Confessing our sins gives us the opportunity to have someone remind us that we are forgiven people.  Confessing our sins is a great way to tackle our pride.  Confessing our sins keeps us accountable and allows people tell us that Christ really can change us.

Being afraid of people damages our witness

In that culture a woman without her father was under the protection of her brother.  If anyone was interested in marrying Sarai they would have to seek Abram’s permission first.  He can turn them away.  Although Abram had not counted on the pharaoh’s interest in her.  Pharaoh needs no one’s permission to take any woman!

Abram can’t protect Sarai, but Yahweh can.  He afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife (17).  Abram had been called to be a blessing to all the families of the earth.  He only brought misery to these Egyptians.  Abram’s deceit damaged his witness.  He leaves Egypt in disgrace.  We won’t be able to bless people with the good news about Jesus if we are crippled by the fear of what they might think of us.

But God was not finished with Abram.  At the beginning of the next chapter, Abram builds an alter and calls on the name of Yahweh (13:4).  Yahweh won’t give up on his fearful servants.  

Conclusion:  What does Jesus feel about me when I am afraid of people?

One of the greatest examples of someone caving in to the fear of people is when the apostle Peter denies knowing Jesus.  Luke’s gospel records that at that moment Jesus turned and looked at Peter (Luke 22:61).  How we understand that look will determine what we believe Jesus thinks of us when we are too afraid to speak up for Jesus.

Spurgeon says, ‘I think that it was a heart-piercing look and a heart-healing look all in one—a look which revealed to Peter the blackness of his sin, and also the tenderness of his Master’s heart towards him.’  ‘Despite Peter’s sin, Christ would not abandon him.  In Peter’s darkest hour, the eyes of mercy peered out Caiaphas’s window and looked on him.  For Peter, and every other Christian, all God’s acts are mediated through him in love.  His love was meant to pierce and heal the apostle’ (Erik Raymond).   

It’s appropriate to be sad when we find ourselves letting Jesus down.  But we must not stop at this godly sorrow.  Indeed, we must make sure we’re not just nursing wounded pride.  The look in Jesus’ eyes says, ‘I still love you.  You have denied me, but I still look at you as mine.  I love you with an everlasting love, and even though you have deserted me, I am looking for you, and I am expecting to receive you back.  I have not turned my back of you’ (adapted from Surgeon).  

Remember that there is always more mercy in Jesus than sin in us!

Early church extra notes

Montanists

The Montanists emerged in what is now Turkey in the mid second-century.  Their founder, Montatas, believed he was was directly inspired by the Holy Spirit.  Priscilla and Maximillia, were two of his prominent followers.  They believed that the Lord's return was imminent.  They pursued rigorist lifestyles

Other.        

The early church was countercultural in accepting women and slaves into its membership.  It attracted many people from the poorer elements of society.  In 217 A.D., Callixtus, a former slave became the bishop pf Rome.  The second century Greek philosopher, Celsus, criticised the church for simply attracting uneducated and poor people.  He also criticised Jesus for coming for a poor and humble background.  There were some influential people who became Christians, as can be seen in the greeting that the apostle Paul shares from those of the household of Caesar (Phil. 4:22).   

Some have said that martyrdom provided the early church with its first opportunity for mass evangelism.  There are stories of people watching the early Christians being fed to lions in the Roman arenas and being converted from watching their courage.  The love that was shared among the early Christians was also a powerful apologetic.

There are a lot of legends about what happened to the twelve apostles.  The Scots claim that Andrew got as far as Scotland.  It is hard to know what to make of these legends.  However, it seems possible to probable that Thomas got to India.

The Greek word for 'witness' gives us the word 'martyr'.

The early Christians thought of the dates of the martyrs as 'birthdays' as it marked the beginning of their lives in heaven.

In the first and second century persecution was localized and sporadic.  From the third century there were times of state sponsored persecution along with periods of peace.

Christians were accused of cannibalism (because they ate the body and blood), incest (because they referred to each other as brother and sister and had 'love feasts'), illegal assembly and atheism.  They refused to bow to images of the emperor or offer incense to statues of him. 

They were accused of hating humanity for withdrawing from public and civic life (Tacitus).  They could not go along with all elements of society because of certain immoral practices.     

Christians were sown or wrapped inside the hides skins of wild beasts (which then shrunk in the heat), fed to wild dogs and crucified.

Christians were viewed with suspicion and often blamed when natural disasters etc. befell and an area.

Worship of the emperor was fairly easy.  You just had to give a sight bow before a portrait or seal or the emperor, or add a pinch of incense to a flame in his honour.  The Jews were exempt from emperor worship, but not the Christians.  

Perpetua and Felicity

Perpetua was a twenty-two year old noblewoman who was martyred in 203 A.D.. Her diary is one of the earliest texts written by a Christian woman.  

During this time there was an edict forbidding conversion to Christianity.  She was a catechumen (a believer awaiting baptism).  She was a nursing mother and she was arrested with her friend Felicity, who was heavily pregnant.  Her father visited her in the dark hot dungeon where she was detained trying to get her to recant.  She pointed at a pitcher of water and she could no more call herself anything other than a Christian than she could call a pitcher anything else, because Christian is what she was.  She was granted permission to have her infant with her.  Felicity gave birth to a healthy baby.  

On March 7th the martyrs entered the arena singing hymns,  She was to be gored to death by a mad heifer.  The heifer failed to finish her off.  A young terrified gladiator was to finish her off, when she took his shaking hand in hers and guided the blade through er own throat.    

Post baptismal sin

From an early time baptism began to be associated with conversion and that it was the rite that brought about our forgiveness.  The problem then was, what do you do about sins that occurred after baptism.  One second century writing, 'The Shepherd of Hermes', suggested that you could have one serious sin after baptism forgiven.  Tertullian thought this was too lenient and nick named the writing 'The Shepherd' of adultery.

Lapsed 

One of the special issues regarding forgiveness was what to do with the lapsed.  The  lapsi was the term for those who had denied their faith during the Decian persecution of A.D. 250.  The church debated whether people how had denied their faith under pressure should be allowed back into the church.

One interesting tradition was that Confessors could forgive the lapsed.  The confessors were people who had been tortured or mutilated for their faith, but who had not denied their faith.  they were honoured in the church.  

After this persecution, Cyprian the Bishop of Carthage, held a council, where the lapsi were classified into five categories.  The sacrificati, were those who had sacrificed to idols, and were only to be offered absolution on their deathbeds.  The thunificati were those who had burned incense before statutes of the gods.  Libellatici were those who had bribed officials to get the certificate to say they had offered a sacrifice to the emperor--they were given a two-year sanction.  Acta facienties were those who had made false statements to save their lives.  Traditors (from Latin, 'handover')were those who had handed over Scriptures to be burned by the authorities from which we get our word traitor.

The general view was that the lapsed should not be treated as if nothing happened, yet pardon should not be denied to the repentant.   

Novitians  

Novatian (c.200-258), was a Roman presbyter, who opposed the election of a bishop due to his lenient attitude to those who had lapsed under persecution.  He believed that God could forgive sinners but that the church should not readmit the lapsed.  He led a strict group that separated from the church.  They were known as the Novatianists.  The re-baptised people who converted from the Catholic church.

Donatism

Donatism emerged in the forth century, in response to clergy who had renounced or betrayed their faith.  They believed that the purity of the church on a pure clergy who administered by worthy clergy.  They believed that sacraments offered by unworthy clergy were invalid.  They separated from the main church.  A radical group of Donatists attacked the church (they did not use swords because Jesus had forbidden this, but they murdered and attached with clubs).

Augustine inherited the problem of the Donatists.  He resorted to force ('compel them to come in') to bring them into the Catholic church.  Some Donatists remained in north Africa, until the arrival of Islam.  Some think that the church was vulnerable to being overrun by Islam because of the centuries of division between the Catholics and Donatists.  

Let's finish with a prayer from the Book of Common Prayer, a prayer that goes back to the fifth-century. 

Almighty and everlasting God,

you are always more ready to hear than we to pray

and to give more than either we desire or deserve:

pour down upon us the abundance of your mercy,

forgiving us those things of which our conscience is afraid

and giving us those good things

which we are not worthy to ask

but through the merits and mediation

of Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,

who is alive and reigns with you,

in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and for ever.

Here's another prayer from the early church, from Ambrose:

'O Lord, you who are all merciful, take away my sins from me, and enkindle within me the fire of the your Holy Spirit, take away this heart of stone from me, and give me a heart of flesh and blood, a heart to love and adore you, a heart to delight in you, to follow you and enjoy you, for Christ's sake.  Amen.'   

A prayer going back to the third century

Leader: The Lord be with you.
Response: And also, with you.

Leader: Lift up your hearts.
Response: We lift them up to the Lord.

Leader: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God
Response: It is right to give him thanks and prise.

The Gloria Patri back to the second century:  What is the ‘it’ in line three?  It is the Trinity.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son:

and to the Holy Ghost;

as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be:

world without end. Amen.

      

Promises rooted in grace (Genesis 12:1-6)

 

In 1678 the Baptist preacher, John Bunyan, wrote the allegory ‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’.  He wrote it while he was in prison, for preaching without a licence.  The Pilgrim’s Progress is in the form of a dream, in which the main character ‘Christian’ travels from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City.

At one stage in the story, ‘Christian’ and his companion, ‘Hopeful’, are captured by a giant named ‘Despair’.  The giant puts them into a dark dungeon inside ‘Doubting Castle’.  Christian becomes overwhelmed by dark thoughts.  Then on the Sunday morning, just as day is breaking, Christians remembers that he has a key called Promise on a chain around his neck.  The key unlocks the doors in Doubting Castle from Despair.

 

The story of Abram is about our promise-giving God.

 

God gives promises to an undeserving world

What has happened so far in the book of Genesis?  We have seen creation followed by humankind’s fall into sin.  We have seen human evil and violence become so bad that our brokenhearted God sends the flood in judgement.  We have seen arrogant humanity tying to make a name for themselves as they built the tower of Babel, and God responding by scattering them over the face of the earth.  Humankind has proved helplessly corrupt and rebellious.

Yet God insists on blessing sinful humanity.  The Lord is good to all, He shows compassion on all He has made (Psalm 145:9).  God causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous (Matthew 5:45).  But there is something more.  Through Abram God has a plan to bless all the families of the earth (12:3).

God gives promises to undeserving people

Abram means ‘exalted father’, which is a bit ironic given that he is seventy-five years old and has no children.  Abram comes from Ur of the Chaldeans, which is a city located in modern day Iraq.  Ur was known as a center of moon worship and the book of Joshua tells us that his people worshipped idols (Joshua 24:2).  While Abram is in Ur, God speaks to him (Acts 7:2).  While humankind tried to make a name for themselves at Babel, God is going to make a name for Abram.

Why Abram?  Why this man from an idol-worshipping people?  We are not given any explanation for God’s choice!  But then we are also given no explanation why God should set His favor on us.  Bible commentator, Dale Ralph Davis, explains that, if ‘you think you know why God has shown grace to you, then you don’t know yourself and you haven’t the foggiest idea what grace is.’  We have done nothing to earn God’s blessing.  We have done plenty to forfeit His favor.  God’s grace is rooted in his sovereign goodness, not in any goodness in us.

God’s promises bring a challenge

God’s favor comes to us freely, but it will cost us everything.  The only appropriate response to God’s kindness is wholehearted obedience.  The Lord said to Abram, ‘go!’  ‘Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the place I will show you’ (12:1).  It was a journey that of over two thousand kilometers.  The book of Hebrews explains that, ‘by faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going’ (Heb. 11:8).  But there is something else about Abram’s journey.  His ultimate destination is the same as ours.  He was longing for a better country than Canaan—a heavenly one (Heb. 11:13).

Abram is the Bible’s first pilgrim.  The apostle Peter writes: ‘Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul.  Live such good lives among the pagans, that though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us (1 Peter 2:11-12). 

Deep in the land of Canaan, Abram build an alter at the great tree of Moreh.  That could be translated ‘the great tree of the teacher’.  This was a pagan sacred site.  There Abram plants his flag and declares ‘my God reigns.’  He then travels to the hills east of Bethel.  He pitches his tent and builds another alter—Abram knows that his salvation depends on the death of a substitute, these sacrifices look ahead to the greater sacrifice on the cross.  There he calls on the name of the Lord. 

God’s promises point to Christ

The promises that God makes to Abram are the backbone of the whole Old Testament.  As we read through the unfolding narrative we will see God gathering a people to Himself, placing them in the Promised Land, and seeking to bless them (P, P, B).  Indeed, God’s people are to be a blessing to all the peoples of the world as they point to Yahweh.

Yet, ‘no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ.  And so, through him the “Amen” is spoken to God’ (2 Cor. 1:20).  In Jesus we are the seed of Abraham (Gal. 3:29).  Jesus is the place where we find rest (Matt. 11:28).  In Him we inherit every spiritual blessing (Eph. 1:3).  We are to be a blessing to all the families of the earth as we seek to shine like stars in the sky as we hold fast to the word of life (Phil. 2:14-15). 

Conclusion

The Monday before the one just past, I sat down to begin writing this sermon.  I felt very weary.  As you might know, Granny Jean has had a difficult summer and is not as strong as she was.  It is a tiring time in our family.

I am sure that many of you also feel weary.  You may be having troubles with housing and finances.  You might work with people who are not easy.  You might have issues in your marriage or with your children.  You might feel the strain of being a long way from home.  

As we work through the life of Abram we are going to think about how we learn to trust the promise-keeping God.  We too are pilgrims in this land.  We too are to be sustained by the promises of Yahweh.  Every command in the Bible implies the promise of strength to do as He directs.    So here are three promises to hold on to when life threatens to overwhelm you:

-          ‘Fear not, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you.  I will uphold you in my righteous right hand’ (Is. 41:10).

-          ‘Let us not become weary in doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up’ (Gal. 6:9).

-          ‘Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need’ (Heb. 4:16).

God’s promises are the key to enable us escape from the clutches giant Despair and free us from Doubting Castle. So now as we begin this journey with our father Abraham, may God enable us to follow His various callings on our lives so that we can live well for the glory of Jesus.  Amen.

How does Jesus feel about me when I sin?

 

How does God feel about me when I sin?

What does Jesus feel about me, when I sin?

That’s a really important question.  It will determine whether you run towards God or away from him with your feelings of guilt.

For me gluttony is a sin I struggle with.  It’s serious because I know that it displeases God.  So, when I have lost control, pigged-out and stuffed my face, knowing full well that what I am doing is wrong, how does Jesus feel with me at that moment?

How does Jesus feel about you when you have just looked at that screen and satisfied your lust?   How does Jesus feel about you when you have just lost your temper and the state of your heart was reflected in the language you’ve used?  How does Jesus feel about you when you have just assassinated the character of another person, a person made in the image of God?  The Puritan Thomas Goodwin says that ‘your sins move him to pity more than anger.’

Let me tell you a little more about Thomas Goodwin.

Goodwin was born in 1600, into a Christian family.  He went to Cambridge University to train to be an Anglican minister.  However, his faith was superficial and he was vain.  He wanted to become a famous preacher who impressed people with his wisdom and wit.  Then he was moved by a sermon he heard at a funeral.  This caused him to look inward to see if he could see evidenced that he really was born again.  During these years of introspection, he was preaching, but he was a preacher who berated his people and portrayed God in a hard light.  Then he had a meltdown!  He recovered as he began to see the kindness and grace of Jesus.  His preaching changed, as he sought to melt people’s hearts with the love of Christ.

Goodwin’s most famous book is called, ‘The Heart of Christ in Heaven towards Sinners on Earth’, or more simply, ‘The Heart of Christ.’  It’s about how Jesus feels about us now that he is in heaven.

Jesus is the same approachable person in heaven as he was on earth

Goodwin suggests that some people think that now that Jesus is in heaven, now that he is seen in all his holiness, now that he resides in glory and is worshipped by angels, he ‘is therefore of a severe and sour disposition against sinners, and not able to bear them.  No, says he; “I am meek”, gentleness is my nature and temper.’

Goodwin says, ‘Christ is love covered over with flesh, yea, our flesh’.  He points out that while some people seem naturally inclined to compassion than others, Jesus ‘is of a softer mould and temper than the kindness of all men’s hearts put into one.’  Think of the kindness person you have ever met, multiply that by infinity, and you have Christ.  But he is like that now that he is in heaven.

We know that Jesus was approachable when he was on earth.  Children felt safe with him.  The sick found compassion in him.  He was known as a friend of sinners and tax-collectors.  But is he as approachable now that he is in heaven, now that he is enthroned at the right hand of the Father and now that he is worshipped by angels and robed in majesty?  Goodwin says that, ‘the heart of Jesus Christ, now he is in heaven, is as graciously inclined to sinners as ever it was on earth.’

 

Jesus hates our sin as we hate sickness in our children

Goodwin points out that we go to the throne of grace to receive mercy and find grace in our time of need (Heb. 4:15).  We look to him for strength when we are tempted, but we also look to him for mercy when we fall.  Jesus is able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and wayward (Heb. 5:2).  Wayward people are sinning people.  He is drawn to us even as we rebel against him.  He is gentle towards us even when we let him down.

You might have heard someone say, ‘God hates the sin and loves the sinner.’  That’s too much of a simplification.  Apart from Christ we were enemies of God.  But if you are born again then God’s anger has been turned away from you.  Sin is no longer your identity, you are a beloved child of God.  Indeed, your accuser, the devil, will point to your sin and say that this is who you are.  But sin is no longer the real you.  The real you is the you that you are in Jesus.  You are a child that is embraced in the father’s love.  You are a sinner who had your guilt washed away.  You are one who falls, but Jesus keeps on picking up.  Your sin is not the real you because ‘you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God’ (Col. 3:3). 

To the Christian Goodwin can say that in your sin, ‘his pity is increased to you, even as the heart of a father is to the child that has some loathsome disease …’  It’s of the Christian that we see that God hates our sin but loves us.   When our children are sick, we hate that illness, but we do not hate them.  Our sin actually stirs up compassion in him towards us.  Goodwin states that ‘your very sins move him to pity more than anger’.  ‘If the holy God who has no sin reacts with pity to us, then how much more should we react with pity to others’ (Williams).

One good objection

Goodwin suggests that their remains one reasonable objection that arises to the idea that Jesus sympathises with us in our weaknesses: what about the fact that he never sinned?  He has not experienced the self-loathing and regret that we feel when we fall in the face of temptation.  Indeed, Hebrews links the sympathy of the high priest towards the ignorant and the wayward to the fact that he too was a man who had to offer sacrifices for his own sins (5:3).

I wonder if being tempted in every way left Jesus contemplating what it must feel like to fall into sin.  Surely, he can not have failed to imagine what we experience when we allow ourselves be overcome by temptation!  But there is something more: Jesus became sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21).  He took upon himself our moral filth.  He identified with our evil on the cross.  He experienced God’s holy anger for what we have done to displease God.  Indeed, when we feel guilt for what we have done, we are actually feeling the guilt for sins that have been forgiven.  On the cross Jesus felt the full weight of God’s displeasure so that these sins could be forgiven.

Conclusion:  The different deaths of two great men

Goodwin points out that Christ’s love is not a ‘forced love’ as if he only loves us because he must.  His disposition of love comes freely and naturally to him.  He is after all the son of the ‘father of mercies.’  He is not reluctant to love you, he delights to love you. 

The heart of Christ melted the heart of Thomas Goodwin.  His dying words were, ‘Christ cannot love me better than he doth.  I think I cannot love Christ better than I do; I am swallowed up in God … Now I shall be ever with the Lord.’

How you understand God’s heart to you when you fail Him will determine whether you run to Him or away from Him when you let Him down.

One of the greatest examples of falling to the fear of people was when the apostle Peter denied knowing Jesus.  Luke’s gospel records the moment highlighting that the Lord turned and looked at Peter (Luke 22:61).  One Christian writer points out that how you understand that look of Jesus is foundational to your perception of how He looks at you when you sin (Erik Raymond). 

We know that Jesus pursued Peter in mercy after the resurrection and restored him.  So, I think we can be safe to conclude that this was a look of love.  Spurgeon says, ‘I think that it was a heart-piercing look and a heart-healing look all in one—a look which revealed to Peter the blackness of his sin, and also the tenderness of his Master’s heart towards him.’  ‘Despite Peter’s sin, Christ would not abandon him.  In Peter’s darkest hour, the eyes of mercy peered out Caiaphas’s window and looked on him.  For Peter, and every other Christian, all God’s acts are mediated through him love.  His love was meant to pierce and heal the apostle (Erik Raymond).  

It is appropriate to be sad when we find ourselves letting God down.  But we must not stop at that godly sorrow.  Indeed, we must make sure we are not just nursing wounded pride.  The look in Jesus’ eyes said, ‘I still love you.  You have denied me, but I still look at you as mine.  I love you with an everlasting love, and even though you have deserted me, I am looking for you, and I am expecting to receive you back.  I have not turned my back of you’ (adapted from Surgeon).  

Don’t minimize your sin when you approach the throne of grace.  Don’t make excuses.  See it for all its horror.  But then remember that there is always more mercy in Jesus than there is sin in us (The Bruised Reed).  If you truly belong to Him you cannot sin yourself out of His love.  And if you are not sure you are not sure that you belong to Him, then listen to His promise, ‘I will never turn away anyone who comes to me’ (John 6:37).  Come sincerely and take Him at His word!  

Psalm 23:5-6 'Home'

  

I have a recurring dream.  It’s about home.  It’s actually about the home I associate with growing up.

I am in our house with mum.  I look at her and ask, ‘how come we are getting to use this house, we sold it?’  To which she replies, ‘they are away for the weekend.’  But I have an objection.  If that is the case how come my stuff is still in the cupboard?  At that stage the dream would end.

But then the dream developed.  Now my mum explained that the people who purchased the house never moved in.  They didn’t like it.  So, we still have use of it.  Sometimes I dream that I am outside of the house and not welcome to go in because the new owners are there.

We all have a longing for home.  Humanity has had that longing since we were expelled from Eden.  The final verses of Psalm 23 are about coming home.  But our deepest sense of home is found not in a place but a person.

Maybe Jesus is calling you home for the first time.  He has broad shoulders to carry.  All you need to do is admit that you are lost and helpless.

Maybe you have strayed from the path.  You are now sad and miss being close with Jesus and his people.  He comes looking for us no matter how far away we have gone.

Maybe you are passing through the valley of the shadow of darkness, and what you need to know is that there is a banqueting table just over the horizon.  He is travelling with you.

1.       The host prepares a feast

There is a debate whether these last verses continue the picture of shepherd and sheep or whether we are now dealing with a host and his guests.  I think the picture has switched to the host, but the shepherd and the sheep are still in the back of our minds.  Notice that the psalmist is still speaking to God not just about God—it is still ‘you’ not ‘my’.

In that culture the host would have commissioned the women of the house or the servants to prepare the banquet.  But notice that the host does it himself.  ‘You prepare a table before me.’  It reminds me of some amazing verses in Luke’s gospel where Jesus speaks of his return.  ‘It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes.  Truly I tell you, he will dress himself to serve, he will have them recline at the table and he will come and wait on them’ (Luke 12:37).  When Jesus returns he will wait upon his people. That’s astonishing.  It is interesting that just a few verses earlier in Luke Jesus addresses to his people saying, ‘do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom’ (verse 32).

Jesus’ people are his delight, and he loves to serve them.

2.      He serves us in the presence of our enemies

C. S. Lewis doesn’t like the idea that we are served in the presence of our enemies.  It sounds vindictive, as if we are taking pleasure in our enemies cowering before us as we are served.  But maybe the way to view this is to see how Jesus served his people in the presence of their enemies.

In Luke’s gospel (7:36-50), a woman who had lived a sinful life weeps and wets Jesus’ feet with her tears, pouring perfume on them.  Simon, the host, is a Pharisee, and he criticises Jesus for allowing such a woman do such a thing.  What does the friend of sinners do?  Jesus defends her.  ‘She loves much because she has been forgiven much’.  She is safe with Jesus from the accusations of her enemies.  When people try to shame you with your past, do not fear, you are washed, you are cleansed and you are justified.

3.      He anoints your head with oil and your cup overflows

The anointing referred to her is not the anointing of a king for service but the anointing of a guest in an act of generosity to make them feel relaxed and secure.  Home is where we are full known and totally loved.

Our cup overflows.  Spurgeon says, when Jesus is the host no guest goes empty at the table’.  The host comes to top up your glass.  In Romans we read that, ‘the Holy Spirit pours God’s love into our hearts’ (Romans 5:5). 

4.      Your perspective changes

‘Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.’  There are two special Hebrew words used here. 

‘Goodness’ is a translation of the Hebrew ‘tov’.  Tov is used in Genesis 1, where God sees his creation and pronounces it good.  God restores our souls and makes good out of the chaos.

Mercy is a translation of the Hebrew ‘chesed’.  Chesed is God’s covenant love.  It is love based on a covenant and love that goes beyond what is expected.  I heard a description of chesed being live a man who marries a woman, and when she gets a chronic illness he gives up his job to care for her.  His actions are based on their covenant relationship but they go beyond what would be normally expected.

Apparently ‘follow’ is too soft a translation.  ‘Pursue’ would be better.  Goodness and mercy pursue us.  David Gibson suggests that something pursues us we see it as we look backwards over our shoulder.  As we look back on the valley and the chaos it is only the passing of time that enables us to look back and see that goodness and mercy were pursing us.  In the Lord of the Rings Sam asks Gandalf, ‘is everything sad going to be made untrue?’  Looking back with the eyes of God’s care helps us rethink our memories.

The was an old shepherd who used to preach.  He once said that he would like to name two sheepdogs ‘goodness and mercy.’  Every time we are straying it is God’s goodness and mercy which brings us back to the shepherd.  ‘It is the kindness of God that leads to repentance’ (Romans 2:4).

5.      Home now and forever more

I saw a brief chip on RTE where a man talked about doing up an old house.  He said that while his friends were partying and travelling the world he was working on the building.  He admitted, ‘I grew up with my mum moving from bedsit to bedsit.  This house fulfilled a deep need.’  But that need cannot be met with bricks and mortar, it can only be met in a person.  As Augustine said at the beginning of his spiritual autobiography, ‘you have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you.’

The banqueting table is not just a picture heaven.  Goodness and mercy follow us all the days of our life.  But we do look forward to a wedding feast.  Jesus delights to be with us now and he will be with us for ever.

I only got to one day of Kinfire.  In the meeting I attended a woman called Shirley was interviewed.  She said, I am eighty-six years old and I am looking forward to heaven.  That’s wonderful.  John Lennox was reflecting on being in his eighties and said, ‘I am looking forward to seeing Jesus.’  He explained, ‘heaven is not the goal, heaven is where Jesus is, being with him is the goal.’

Home is not a building, it is a person.  That person is Jesus.           

They are not my problem (Amos 7-9)

As we have studied the book of Amos I have realized that there are a few things that we just can’t say about people.  We can’t say, ‘they are not my problem’, because God has made us his problem.  We can’t say, ‘I just don’t care about them’, because God cares about undeserving us.  We can’t say, ‘it’s their own fault’ or ‘they just messed up’, because God does not treat us as we deserve but according to his loving kindness.

Background

God’s Old Testament kingdom had been divided in two.  The southern kingdom was Judah, and its capital was Jerusalem.  The northern kingdom was Israel, and its capital was Samaria.  During the division Jeroboam was king of the north.  He did not want his people travelling to the temple in Jerusalem, so he put golden calves in Bethel and Dan.  At Amos’s time, and hundred and thirty years later, another Jeroboam (no relation) is king in Israel.  Israel was experiencing a time of financial growth, but the people were opulent and their religion was hypocritical. 

Amos was minding his own business in the south as a shepherd and fig tree farmer.  God called him to go to the north in Bethel and tell the people, ‘your courts are corrupt’, ‘your religion is empty’ and ‘you are oppressing the poor’.  ‘If you don’t turn back to God there will be a ‘day of the Lord’ where God is going to judge you.  They did not turn back, and forty years later the Assyrians came and conquered their nation.

Caring for the vulnerable reflects the character of God

The most famous verse in the book of Amos reads, ‘but let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream’ (5:24).  James, the half-brother of Jesus, writes something similar: ‘religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep yourself unstained from the world’ (James 1:27).

The Hebrew word for justice is ‘misphat’.  It is a broader word than our word.  It is used hundreds of times in the Old Testament for ‘treating other people’s problems as our own.’ 

The Hebrew word for righteousness is ‘tsedaqah’.  In older versions it is translated ‘charity’, but it is more than charity because it is not optional.  It is an obligation for those who follow the Lord.

These ideas are rooted in God’s character.  ‘Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne, love and faithfulness belong to you’ (Psalm 89:1).  Jesus says that we are to be merciful as our father in heaven is merciful’.

God cared for us when we were vulnerable

Amos gathered a crowd at Bethel by denouncing the surrounding nations.  Then he did something unexpected: he turned of Judah and Israel.  In fact, there are three times as many verses denouncing Israel as there are verses denouncing any of the other nations.  The logic for this is given in chapter 2: ‘It is I who brought you up out of Egypt and led you for forty years in the wilderness’ (2:10).  ‘You were victims of injustice.  You were enslaved in Egypt.  You cried out to me in pain.  I came to your rescue.  Now you don’t care for the vulnerable.  How can that be?’

Compassion towards the vulnerable shows that we understand the logic of the gospel.  ‘For by grace you have been saved through faith.  And this is not your own doing.  It is a gift of God.  Not by works, so that no one can boast’ (Ephesians 2:8-9).  We show mercy to the underserving because God has shown mercy to us.

God calls us to be a blessing to the vulnerable

Speaking to both he northern and the southern kingdom God says, ‘you only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore, I will punish you for your iniquities’ (3:2).

Not all who were a part of Israel and Judah were truly God’s people.  Not all who walked with God’s people knew him.  Similarly, not all who belong to churches are born again.  One of the ways that we know that we belong to Jesus is that the Holy Spirit gives us compassion to his people.  ‘If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother or sister in need, but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in that person?’ (1 John 3:17-18).

God called Israel and Judah to be a blessing to the nations.  He calls us to be a light to those around us.

Before we finish I want to show you a picture of the gospel beauty in this book.  

In chapter seven the people have turned their back to God.  God tells Amos that he is going to send locusts among them.  This would be a disaster for a society that centered around agriculture.  So, Amos prays, ‘O, Lord God, please forgive!  How can Jacob stand?  He is so small!’ (2-3).  The Lord listened to Amos and relented from sending disaster.  Then God says that he will judge by fire.  Again, Amos pray.  ‘O Lord God, please cease!  How can Jacob stand?  He is so small!’ (5-6).  Again, God relents.  We live is a society that is often cruel and unjust.  Do we love our neighbors and pray for them?  Do we ask God to forgive them and turn back his judgement?  Of course, Amos is also giving us a picture of Jesus, who has prayed for us so that God’s judgement would be turned away.

Israel did not repent.  The threatened day of the Lord came.  The Assyrians came from the north and conquered them.  But the book does not end without hope.  A day will come when ‘I will raise up the belt of David that is fallen’ (9:11).  There will be a future king.  At that time the ‘mountains will drip with wine’ (9:13).  Then in John’s gospel Jesus is at a wedding in Cana, and the water is turned to wine, and the wine flows. He brings justice and mercy.  He will bring us to a new Jerusalem where righteousness dwells (2 Peter 3:13).

Conclusion

So, the logic of the gospel says that as God has cared for us, we must care for the vulnerable.   We can’t say, ‘they are not my problem’, because God has made us his problem.  We can’t say, ‘I just don’t care about them’, because God cares about undeserving us.  We can’t say, ‘it’s their own fault’ or ‘they just messed up’, because God does not treat us as we deserve but according to his loving kindness.