On his journey to faith, and even for some time after he became a believer, C. S. Lewis struggled with the Biblical commands to praise God. Was God like the man seeking reassurance of his own virtue or wit; or the woman who requires constant affirmation of her beauty or intelligence? Does God need reminding of his power and might? Or does he just want to make sure his generosity and philanthropy are known by all?

Worst of all was the suggestion of the very silliest Pagan bargaining … More than once the Psalmists seemed to be saying ‘You like praise. Do this for me, and you shall have some.’ … It made one think what one least wanted to think. Gratitude to God, reverence to Him, obedience to Him, I thought I could understand; not this perpetual eulogy.¹

Lewis only overcame this difficulty when he realised that it is when we enjoy something that we spontaneously overflow with praise. Lovers praise their beloved and parents their children. We praise athletes, restaurants, musicians, cars, art, food, weather, actors, authors, holiday destinations, coffee, tradesmen… we live in a cacophony of praise! In Lewis’ own words,

I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment… It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed.²

More than that, we avidly invite others to join in that same praise: ‘Wasn’t that awesome? Isn’t she lovely? Does it get any better than this?’

In Psalm 103, we find David delighting in his God, and inviting others to join in doing the same. These invitations echo out in ever-widening circles, starting with his own soul and eventually encompassing the whole of heaven and earth.

1. Praise the LORD for his blessings to you

The first invitation David gives is to his own soul:

Praise the LORD, O my soul;
   all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
Praise the LORD, O my soul,
   and forget not all his benefits—
who forgives all your sins
   and heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit
   and crowns you with love and compassion,
who satisfies your desires with good things
   so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

     – Psalm 103:1–5

Why does David feel the need to summon his soul to praise? In spite of being one of the most prolific praisers in the entire Old Testament, David had his ‘up’ days and his ‘down’ days much like we do. No doubt, some days he sprang from his bed with a song on his lips;((e.g. Ps. 56:16; 92:2.)) other mornings, however, saw him hard pressed, on the run and fearing for his life.³

Perhaps that is your experience as well? Perhaps you woke up this morning eager to meet with God’s people and proclaim together his greatness, goodness, glory and grace. But maybe your enthusiasm was muted, crowded out by sickness, sorrow or sin. Even at Christmas time, traditionally a time of great joy and praise to God, there will be some who find it difficult to rejoice, as they contemplate the empty place at the dinner table or the uncertainty of the year ahead.

Whatever your starting point, David models for us a right response: praise the LORD! In inviting us to praise, he is neither naive, nor unsympathetic. After all, David himself endured great trials throughout his life: he lived on the run from Saul and, later, his own son, Absalom; several of his children died before he did; and the psalms are full of his desperate prayers for deliverance from his enemies. Yet in this psalm, he invites his soul to consider his blessings rather than his trials. He does not ask for anything but focuses on benefits already received.

Chief among these benefits is the one he mentions first: God has revealed himself (v. 1). Wherever you see LORD in all uppercase, this represents God’s covenant name, the name by which he chose to reveal himself to Moses and hence to Israel. This is the ‘holy name’ which David’s ‘inmost being’ must praise. David uses this name nine times in this psalm.⁴ There can be no mistake about which God David praises: ‘Praise Yahweh, O my soul… Praise Yahweh, O my soul… Praise Yahweh, you his angels… Praise Yahweh, all his heavenly hosts…. Praise Yahweh, all his works… Praise Yahweh, O my soul’.

By revealing his name to Israel, God placed himself in a special relationship with them, what we call a ‘covenant’ relationship. And this relationship carried with it many benefits. David wrote elsewhere, ‘For the sake of your name, O LORD [Yahweh], forgive my iniquity, though it is great.’ (Psa 25:11). Centuries later, the prophet Ezekiel would write, ‘You will know that I am the LORD [Yahweh], when I deal with you for my name’s sake and not according to your evil ways’ (Ezek 20:44). Note the close connection between the name of the LORD, Yahweh, and forgiveness.

The name of the LORD is also closely associated with healing. Yahweh spoke to David’s son, Solomon, and promised that ‘if my people, who are called by my name [Yahweh], will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.’ (2 Chr 7:14). Similarly, the prophet Malachi promised, ‘But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings’ (Mal 4:2). Is it any wonder that David praises Yahweh for healing and forgiveness received in his name?

In verse 3, David mentions Yahweh ‘redeeming [his] life from the pit’. Perhaps he has in mind a literal pit, such as that in which Joseph’s brothers tossed him, and from which he was ‘redeemed’ for the price of twenty shekels, or like when the Israelites under Saul hid in caves and pits and cisterns to escape the Philistine army (1 Sam. 13:6). Elsewhere in the psalms, however, this same language is used to describe death itself.⁵ Either way, what is certain is that the pit is not a good place to be… and that Yahweh redeems his people from it. Praise the LORD!

In place of whatever destruction is to be found in the pit, David says he has been ‘crowned’ with ‘love and compassion’. Rather than death, he received not only life but life lived in the love and favour of God: he overcame his enemies, he was raised king (literally crowned!) over all Israel, he married and had children, and he lived to see his son crowned king after him.

2. Praise the LORD for his patience with his people

Then, from verse 6, David starts to consider the blessings of God to his people. Yahweh revealed himself not just to Moses but to the people of Israel (v. 7). Yet Israel consistently disappointed him. Repeatedly through their journey from Egypt to the Promised Land, they demonstrated the disobedience, idolatry, and lack of faith in Yahweh’s provision. Moses warned them of the consequences that would follow if they kept on like this in his final sermon before they entered the Promised Land, saying,

See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse— the blessing if you obey the commands of the LORD your God that I am giving you today; the curse if you disobey the commands of the LORD your God and turn from the way that I command you today by following other gods, which you have not known.
   – Deut. 11:26–28

You see covenants are not all about blessings; they also come with obligations, and failure to meet those obligations results in curse rather than blessing. Yet, in spite of this warning, Israel continued in their disobedience, earning the curse⁶ of the LORD many times over. David himself had committed adultery and murder. They all stood accused and under God’s wrath. Yet, astonishingly, David can write,

The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.
   – Psalm 103:8–10

David himself was witness to this in a very graphic way. He once ordered that a census be taken of his fighting men (2 Sam 24), though was later conscience-stricken saying, ‘”I have sinned greatly in what I have done. Now, O LORD, I beg you, take away the guilt of your servant.”‘ (v. 10). God gave him a choice of punishments: three years of famine; three months of fleeing his enemies; or three days of plague. David chose the plague, saying, ‘”Let us fall into the hands of the LORD, for his mercy is great; but do not let me fall into the hands of men.”‘ (v. 14). Indeed, Yahweh demonstrated his mercy by relenting before the destruction of Jerusalem was complete (v. 16).

Are we not in the same boat? If God were to repay us according to what we have done, who of us would escape judgment? Yet God is patient with us. How can this be so? Why does God refrain from pouring out the curses promised by Moses for those who are disobedient?

David attributes this mercy to Yahweh’s love for his people.

3. Praise the LORD for he loves those who fear him

David describes this love using a series of analogies:

For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
   so great is his love for those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
   so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
As a father has compassion on his children,
   so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him;

     – Psalm 103:11–13

In Hebrew thought, heaven is unimaginably far above the earth; so it is with Yahweh’s love. Can anything be further from the east than the west? Yahweh removes transgressions that far from us. Is there a greater compassion than a parent’s for a child? That is the compassion Yahweh has for those who fear him.

What is even more astounding, Yahweh offers an eternal love to those who are only temporary. Usually our love is in proportion to the amount of time we spend with someone: casual acquaintances get only a little love, whereas our family gets a lot. From Yahweh’s vantage point as eternal God, the years that I spend on earth are like bumping into a stranger on a train. Yet in that relative instant, he pours out his love upon me, upon you, upon us, upon our children and upon our children’s children!

On the other hand, Yahweh’s love is not indiscriminate. It is offered to those ‘who fear him’ (vv. 11, 13, 17), ‘who keep his covenant and remember to obey his precepts’ (v. 18). And this presents a problem because, as we have already seen, Israel was notoriously bad at doing any of these things. How can Yahweh’s love be said to be ‘everlasting’ if it is only for those who ‘fear’, ‘keep’ and ‘remember’ – as Israel often did not? What if we can’t meet the covenant obligations and so incur – again! – the covenant curses?

This problem is answered by Jesus Christ. Jesus was the only one who ever feared Yahweh perfectly throughout all of his life, who remembered Yahweh’s covenant and obeyed his commands. You see, Yahweh was so determined to demonstrate his faithfulness in delivering the rewards of the covenant that he took upon himself the requirements of the covenant also. According to Paul,

[N]o matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God. (2 Cor 1:20)

The promises of Yahweh to his people are ultimately and fully given to Christ as the fulfiller of the covenant. All that remains for us is to speak the ‘Amen’ – ‘I agree’, or ‘let it be so’ – to the glory of God.

When we realise that, the language of this psalm becomes even more significant. ‘As far as the heavens are above the earth’, that’s how far Jesus came to demonstrate the love of Yahweh. The Father withheld compassion from his one and only Son – in Gethsemane and on the cross – in order to show compassion to us. Jesus took away our sins, not just from east to west, but all the way down into death. Yahweh treated Jesus as our sins deserved, repaid him according to our iniquities. No longer does Yahweh accuse, because the curse has fallen on Jesus instead of on us. It is not our faithfulness to the covenant but Jesus’ that guarantees the covenant blessings. Paul would later write that,

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.” (Gal 3:13)

The curse fell on Jesus and we are redeemed from the pit.

4. Praise the LORD for his kingdom is over all

But there is another fundamental problem: how can we who are not descended from Abraham and so not part of this covenant in the first place lay claim to these promises?

Once again, the tension is resolved in Jesus. The very next verse from Galatians 3 reads,

He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit. (Gal 3:14)

Christ met the requirements of the covenant, endured the covenant curse on behalf of we who could not… and offers us the covenant blessings that are his by right. In fact, he proclaims a new covenant, one in which the only covenant obligation is to repent of our sins and trust in Jesus himself to work in and through us by his Holy Spirit.

And this new covenant is guaranteed. In ancient times, a covenant lasted only as long as the king who made it, and only within the borders of his realm. But this king, King Jesus, rules a kingdom that is ‘established… in heaven’, and that ‘rules over all’ (v. 19) and so his covenant is not bound by race or place. Nor is it a covenant limited by time, for this king has risen from the grave, and lives for eternity past, present and future! Jesus is able to guarantee the covenant blessings for us because he is sovereign over all time and space.

As a personal aside, the fact that Jesus both fulfils the covenant obligations and guarantees the covenant blessings is tremendously encouraging to me. Earlier this year my Gran passed away, and this psalm was one of the readings she selected for her funeral. My Gran was one of the godliest women that I have ever known. Yet if my hope of seeing her again in eternity rested upon her ability to fulfil the obligations of the covenant – let alone my own poor ability to do the same – it would be a slender hope indeed. But the glory of the gospel is that it does not depend on her, or me. It depends on Christ, and is therefore a sure and certain hope.

There is only one covenant requirement: repent of your sin and put your trust in Jesus. As you do, you gain access to blessings seen only in shadow in the earlier covenant. Everyone who believes in Jesus receives eternal life (John 3:16), and his love remains on them literally ‘from everlasting to everlasting’ (v. 17). Friend, I beg you to receive it as the good news that it is and respond: turn away from your sins and turn to Jesus. He will bestow his many blessings upon you according to his goodness, mercy and wisdom. He will be patient with you, for he himself knows what it is like to live in a wicked world, to be tempted, and to feel weakness (Heb 4:15).

Conclusion: Praise Jesus because he is the LORD

Let’s close by considering the movement of the psalm: David starts with the individual, then Israel as a chosen people, and finally climaxing in the proclamation that, ‘The LORD has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all.’ (Psa 103:19) As Christians we recognise that climax in the distinctive work of Jesus Christ on the cross and his resurrection from the dead. It is an accomplished fact, a completed work. Yet we must also remember Jesus’ parting words to his disciples that echo so closely what David is doing in this psalm: ‘you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth’ (Acts 1:8). As followers of Christ we have the responsibility to declare Jesus Christ throughout the whole world, starting with our own heart. As Lewis wrote, that praise not only expresses but completes the enjoyment; and that joy naturally overflows into an invitation to others to share it with us.

David knew the LORD -Yahweh, which means ‘I-am-who-I-am’, or ‘I-will-be-who-I-will-be’ – and he couldn’t help but praise him and call his nation and, indeed, all creation to praise him. As we approach this Christmas season, let us remember that we know our Lord by another name – Jesus, Yeshua, ‘Yahweh saves’, Immanuel, ‘God with us’ – and let’s proclaim him in our praise!

Please pray with me:

We praise you Lord Jesus, for you are the Lord over all creation. As high as the heavens are above the earth, that’s how far you came to demonstrate your love, not just to those who fear you but on your enemies (Rom. 5:8)! Though eternally crowned with the love and compassion of your Father, you set aside that crown and were born as a human child to a humble family.

Lord, we delight in your name. Before your birth Isaiah prophesied your coming, saying that ‘The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel’ (Isa 7:14), which means ‘God with us’. He also named you, ‘Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace’ (Isa 9:6). The angel who appeared to Joseph instructed him to name you Jesus – ‘Yahweh saves’ – because you would ‘save [your] people from their sins’ (Matt 1:21).

And having lived a perfect life you did exactly that – saved us, your people, from our sins. You redeemed our life from the pit by going there in our place, and so you ensure that we no longer stand accused because our sins are blotted out forever. By rising to new life you proclaim that your sacrifice on our behalf has been found acceptable and is ‘from everlasting to everlasting’. And we know that God has exalted you to the highest place, and given you the name that is above every other name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil 2:9-11).

Therefore we delight to bear the name of ‘Christian’ – those who belong to Christ. As the Apostle Peter declared, ‘Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved’ (Acts 4:12).

Praise the Lord Jesus, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name!

Amen.

Bibliography

Lewis, C. S. Selected Books. London: HarperCollins, 2002.

Endnotes

1. C. S. Lewis, Selected Books (London: HarperCollins, 2002), 358-59.
2. ibid, 360.
3. e.g. Ps. 73:14; 88:13.
4. Ps 103:1, 2, 6, 8, 17, 19, 20, 21, 22.
5. Pss. 28:1; 30:3; 88:4, 6; 143:7.
6. Consider the strong ‘curse’ language of Deut. 27-30, especially Deut. 27:26; 28:15.

Powlison, David. Good and Angry : Redeeming Anger, Irritation, Complaining, and Bitterness. Greensboro, NC: New Growth Press, 2016.

I use to think I was a patient person… and then I had kids. They are able to find buttons I didn’t know I had and press them over, and over, and over again! As a result, there are days when I am little better than a bear with a sore head in my relationship with them. Why is that? How could it be that I could get so cranky with these little people I love so much?

In his book, Good and Angry: Redeeming Anger, Irritation, Complaining and Bitterness, David Powlison takes us on a guided tour of anger and its cousins. Drawing on his experience as a counsellor, together with biblical insights, Powlison presents anger as being capable of both good and bad expression. Insofar as it emanates from a worldview that is God-centered, as exemplified by Jesus Christ, it is constructive and good; but where it issues from selfishness and idolatry it causes great harm.

The strengths of Powlison’s book include his careful differentiation between righteous and unrighteous anger; the way he identified unrighteous anger as a sin problem; and his clear presentation of how the sin problem can only be overcome by means of the gospel and not some twelve-step program. On the other hand, I felt that he could have spent more time rooting what he was saying in Scripture so that people could feel the force of this biblical worldview.

As for me and my kids, Powlison’s analysis is spot on: “Your buttons say something very significant about what rules you.” May God grant me the grace to be gracious!

Today we continue a series through the Gospel of Mark. Throughout the first four chapters of Mark, Jesus has been growing in popularity. This man, Jesus, had brought a new kind of teaching, a teaching ‘with authority’ (1:27); he had cast out demons; he had healed Peter’s mother-in-law, a paralytic and many others who were sick. Mark records the reaction of the crowds:

This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!” (Mark 2:12)

But there was also a growing opposition. More and more, Jesus was coming into conflict with the teachers of the law, the Pharisees. This all came to a head in the latter part of chapter 3. The Pharisees came together to accuse Jesus of being in league with Satan. They were so persuasive that even Jesus’ own family were convinced that, at the least, Jesus must be out of his mind (Mark 3:21).
Not all the opposition was human in origin, either. Two weeks ago, Tim recounted an incident from the end of Mark 4 where Jesus and his disciples are out in a boat and a huge storm arises, threatening the swamp them. Even nature seems against him! Yet Jesus rebukes wind and waves and they submit to his command. The disciples ‘were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”‘ (Mark 4:41).

Which brings us to Mark 5. In this chapter, Jesus demonstrates his authority over evil and oppression; sickness; and even over death itself.

As they get out of the boat, Jesus and his disciples are approached by a man ‘with an evil spirit’ (v. 2). Mark is at pains to emphasise the power of this evil spirit: in spite of many attempts it cannot be bound, let alone subdued,¹ by any human effort; it names itself ‘Legion’, a picture of military strength in numbers. Afraid of his strength, the people of his village had driven him out, with the result that he was living in the local cemetery. In other words, he was as good as dead.

Reading about evil spirits prompts an almost contemptuous response in many today. ‘That’s just how they described people with schizophrenia, and other kinds of psychosis.’ Yet we ought not to jump to conclusions. C. S. Lewis once wrote,

There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight.²

Possibly this man would receive a particular medical diagnosis today, and would be treated and, perhaps, medicated, accordingly. But I would certainly not want to say that all who have mental health issues are possessed; nor would I want to say that all who are possessed will manifest mental health issues.

Nevertheless, there are two factors that confirm Mark’s analysis of this man’s situation. Firstly, he had been driven into isolation, cut off from anyone to show him compassion or care for him. This, to me, is one of the signs of evil at work. The second sign is found in verse 5: ‘Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones.’ That tendency towards self-harm is a strong indicator of an evil spirit trying to deface the image of God found in him.

Many people today find themselves in similar straits, often totally unaware of the path they are on. Sometimes it comes in the form of an addiction: drug and alcohol addicts find themselves increasingly isolated as they hurt the people who love them, even as they are destroying their own health. Adulterers and porn addicts devalue human sexuality and damage their capacity for meaningful relationship. But sometimes it can be addictions to more ‘respectable’ things that isolate and harm: wealth; power; beauty; success. Sometimes it is ‘lonely at the top’ because of all the people stepped on in getting there. Sometimes the relentless pursuit of physical perfection pushes people away rather than attracting them.

What is it in your life that isolates you from others, that causes them to push you away or you to push them away? Human beings are made to be in relationship. What is it that causes you to denigrate or damage the image of God in you or in others? Is your head often filled with thoughts of failure, of self-loathing, of worthlessness? These things may or may not be a sign of spiritual oppression, and you will require wise and godly counsel to discern and address the root causes. That was what this man needed, but instead his community drove him out.

Then, one day, he met Jesus… and everything changed.

Not far from there, a man named Jairus was getting frantic as he watched his daughter dying in front of him. He was a man of wealth, influence, and standing in his community, but nothing he did seemed to make any difference. He had called in the best doctors, all of whom had looked grave, shaken their heads, hemmed and hawed and eventually admitted they had no idea what was wrong let alone how it could be fixed. For twelve years he had delighted in his daughter: held her in his arms, nursed her when she was sick, laughed and cried, danced and played, and now… it was all going to end. This had come out of nowhere and there was nothing – nothing – he could do about it.

Perhaps you can relate? What is it in your life that has rendered you powerless? Perhaps you have stood where Jairus stood, watching a loved one clinging to life with a desperate but failing grasp. The cause may be different – cancer, car accident, or catastrophe – but the emotional trauma is off the charts. Perhaps it is not a life under threat but a suddenly broken relationship – with a spouse, with a parent, with a child, with a friend – and you feel utterly helpless to do anything to restore it. For some the crisis might be financial – sudden unemployment, a fire destroys your home – and you don’t know how you’re going to get by. If you have stood in any of these places then you know something of the despair that Jairus must have felt.

Then, one day, Jairus met Jesus… and everything changed.

Amongst the crowd that day was a woman who ought not to have been there. Unlike Jairus, the last twelve years had not been spent in blissful family life but in increasing desperation, trying to find someone who could help her with her problem. You see, for twelve years she had bled from her uterus – if not constantly then at least considerably more often and more heavily than was to be expected. As a result she would have been constantly weak and in pain. If that was not bad enough, she was also considered ‘unclean’ because of the blood³, meaning that she could not engage in the religious life of her community, nor could anyone touch her without themselves being rendered ‘unclean’.⁴ That is why she ought not to have been there in that crowd that day. Yet she was desperate. So she forced her way through the crowd.

Is this where you find yourself today? I know there are some in this church who suffer from chronic illness that means they are often unable to worship with us on a Sunday morning. For others it is the infirmity that comes with old age that gets in the way. Or maybe you feel isolated from your church and your community because you have children whose special needs consume so much of your focus there is little time for anything else? Perhaps your job means you are in a different city each week and so never get to really settle into a church community. Do you long to connect with people but, for whatever reason, you just can’t? Then you know something of this woman’s desperation.

Then, one day, she met Jesus… and everything changed.

At one level, these three people are just about as different as could be: two lived on the fringes of society, the other was a respected citizen; two were men, the other a woman; two were Jews, the other a gentile; only Jairus was wealthy, though the woman may once have been so.⁵ If they had anything in common, it was their utter desperation and helplessness.

Nor is there any common pattern in the way they were delivered from their maladies: one was healed with a word, one was healed with a touch, and one was healed with a word and a touch. Certainly all three had to exercise faith, but at different times. Jairus exercised faith before the act (in coming to Jesus, and in believing his words), and he exercised it on behalf of his daughter (who could no longer do so for herself). The woman’s greatest act of faith was not so much in her touch as in her coming forward in response to Jesus’ query. And it is doubtful whether or in what sense the demoniac exercised faith at all during his healing; his expression of faith came afterwards in his desire to follow Jesus, and in his going back to his village to bear witness.

Trying to read the gospels in order to discern a ‘method’ for ministry is ultimately futile. Mark seems to be deliberately undermining any attempt to categorise Jesus as a magician by showing that there is no fixed ‘method’. Even the ‘incantation’, talitha koum, – a common feature of magic stories – turns out to be nothing more than a gentle instruction to ‘get up’ in the girl’s native tongue, and is followed up with an instruction that she should be fed.

It is sobering to realise that many of the things Jesus did defy commonly accepted mission methods. What was he doing in gentile territory, pig-farming land, amongst the tombs? Evangelism ‘ought’ to be done where there are concentrations of people, not one-on-one in the wilderness with a crazy person. But Jesus had a divine appointment to free this man at this time from his oppression. Why would you allow such a man to then go and preach on his behalf. Surely, given his history, he would have little credibility. In fact, in the Gospel of Mark, this healed demoniac becomes the first missionary-preacher sent out by Jesus, a Gentile sent to the Gentiles,⁶ at a time before Jesus trusted even his own disciples to go out on their own.⁷ As Mark McCrindle said when he preached on this passage a couple of years ago, he was ‘a most unlikely ministry candidate’!⁸

By contrast, church marketers would have cheered at the approach of Jairus. Here at last was somebody influential, somebody who could really catapult Jesus into the stratosphere of religious opinion and popularity. Why would Jesus stop mid-stride and ask an apparently nonsensical question (‘Who touched me?’) and risk offending the very person who could get him places? Because he is about loving people rather than ‘getting places’. He calls the woman out, not to get ‘the credit’, still less to embarrass her, but so he could call her, ‘Daughter’ and bring her peace (v. 34). Why does he forbid Jairus and his family from telling anybody about the girl, when he had already commissioned the healed demoniac to go and spread the good news? Perhaps because it would take Jairus away from his family to do so, whereas the gentile man was being sent back to his.

The only constant through all three episodes is Jesus himself. At some point, all three found themselves at the feet of Jesus, begging for his help, his compassion, his mercy. And in each case he gave it… though, according to the Law, he had reason not to. You see, touching a gentile, or a woman with her period, or a dead body would all result in the one who touched being made unclean. They themselves would then be ineligible to participate in any kind of religious services, or to enter the temple. ‘Many teachers avoided touching women altogether, lest they become accidentally contaminated.’⁹ This is probably why the woman came forward ‘trembling with fear’ (v. 33); she feared that she had contaminated this rabbi, and was about to be publicly rebuked in front of the whole crowd.

But that is not the way Jesus saw it. You see, he knew something none of them knew: his purity would swallow up their impurity. And this was so because of what he was about to endure on the cross. Jesus could deliver the man from that evil spirit because he himself would endure all the devil’s wrath and yet emerge victorious. Like Moses before him, he commanded the waters – be still! – then used it to dispose of a hostile enemy, bringing about a new exodus and a new freedom. Jesus took that man’s oppression upon himself and, in so doing, freed the man.

Similarly, although the woman’s blood was a contaminant according to the Law, blood was also the only means prescribed by the Law for cleansing the altar and taking away sin. Jesus himself would soon offer his own blood as the ultimate detergent.¹⁰ In describing her suffering, Mark uses the metaphor of a scourge or whip (μάστιγός, vv. 29. 34); he will use the same word again in Mark 10:34 where Jesus prophesies his own literal flogging at the hands of the Romans. Jesus took on her suffering as his own and, in so doing, delivered her from it.

Finally, Jesus was not afraid to touch the girl because he knew that her death was no more significant than the sleep he proclaimed it. As one writer puts it,

The keys of death were hung on the inside of Christ’s tomb. From the outside, Christ could do many wonderful works, including raising a twelve-year-old girl and two men from the dead – only to die again (Mark 5:41-42; Luke 7:14-15; John 11:43-44). If any were to be raised from the dead, never to die again, Christ would have to die for them, enter the tomb, take the keys, and unlock the door of death from the inside.¹¹

Hallelujah!

Friends, I don’t know your situation. Perhaps you are facing an immediate crisis like Jairus; or ongoing suffering like the woman; or, perhaps scariest of all, you don’t actually know you have a problem, until you are face to face with Jesus. Whatever the case, you have a choice to make, a response to give. Will you, like the villagers, try and drive Jesus away, the way they had previously driven away the man he healed? Because the tragic irony is that the one who is strong enough to expel ‘Legion’ from the area will allow himself to be driven away… for a time. Will you, like the professional mourners at Jairus’ door, scoff at the words of Jesus? Or will you, like Jairus, like the woman, and like the man, fall at the feet of Jesus and ask for his mercy?

Come and meet Jesus… and everything will change!

Bibliography

Edwards, James R. The Gospel According to Mark. Accordance electronic ed. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002.

English, Donald. The Message of Mark : The Mystery of Faith. Leicester, England ; Downers Grove, Ill., U.S.A.: Inter-Varsity Press, 1992.

Garland, David E. Mark. Accordance electronic ed. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996.

Keener, Craig S. The Ivp Bible Background Commentary : New Testament. Accordance electronic ed. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1993.

Lewis, C. S. The Screwtape Letters. Sixtieth Anniversary ed. London: HarperCollins, 2002.

Piper, John. The Passion of Jesus Christ : Fifty Reasons Why He Came to Die. Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 2004.

Endnotes

1. ‘Mark’s description is more fitting of a ferocious animal than of a human being; indeed, the Greek word for “subdue,” damazō, is used of taming a wild beast in James 3:7.’ James R. Edwards, The Gospel According to Mark (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002), 154-55.
2. C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters (London: HarperCollins, 2002), ix.
3. Lev. 12:7; 15:19–24; 20:18.
4. Lev. 15.19.
5. She could once afford ‘many doctors’ (v. 26).
6. Edwards, The Gospel According to Mark, 160.
7. Donald. English, The Message of Mark : The Mystery of Faith (Leicester, England ; Downers Grove, Ill., U.S.A.: Inter-Varsity Press, 1992), 111.
8. Sermon preached 3/3/13, http://www.wphcc.com/sermons/transformed-by-christ/#
9. Craig S. Keener, The Ivp Bible Background Commentary : New Testament (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1993), 148.
10. David E. Garland, Mark (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996), 229.
11. John Piper, The Passion of Jesus Christ : Fifty Reasons Why He Came to Die (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 2004), 100.

Over the last 7 weeks we have been sharing together in the book of Zechariah. On behalf of the LORD, Zechariah issued a call for repentance coupled with a promise:

This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘Return to me,’ declares the LORD Almighty, ‘and I will return to you,’ says the LORD Almighty. (Zech 1:3)

The rest of the book, and particularly chapters 9-14, elaborates on the promise of the LORD’s return using many powerful images: the LORD will be a good shepherd, who cares for his flock rather than taking advantage of them; he will be a ruler, a judge and a deliverer. Perhaps most powerfully of all, Zechariah pointed to a king who was to come:

Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. I will take away the chariots from Ephraim and the war-horses from Jerusalem, and the battle bow will be broken. He will proclaim peace to the nations. His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth. As for you, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will free your prisoners from the waterless pit. (Zech 9:9–11)

Well, fast forward some 500 years and there was indeed a king in Jerusalem, King Herod. This king had poured vast amounts of time and energy into the rebuilding of the temple – 46 years, according to the Pharisees of Jesus’ day – with the result that it was more than twice the size of the Solomon’s Temple. True, he was not a Davidic king (he wasn’t even a Jew by birth), but he had done the work of a Son of David in building the Temple, just as the first Son of David, Solomon, had done before him. And he was acceptable to the Romans and therefore enjoyed a relatively long and prosperous reign.¹

Was this the king that Zechariah had spoken of?

Matthew gives us our first clue that all is not well with this king in Matthew 2. Three men arrive in Jerusalem to ask after ‘the one who has been born king of the Jews’ (Matt. 2:2). Matthew records that, ‘When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him’ (Matt. 2:3). You see Herod had not been born king; he had been made king, rather unexpectedly, by the Roman Senate, and had assumed the throne with a Roman army at his back. If, now, someone had been born king, then his own security was placed in doubt. It is his actions that follow that put the question beyond all doubt. For Herod plotted to find and eliminate this new threat, ultimately killing all children under the age of 2 in Bethlehem and its surrounds. This is hardly the action of one ‘righteous and having salvation’ (Zech. 9:9)! It is a tragic irony that Jesus and his family escaped persecution and death by fleeing into Egypt, suggesting that Herod was even worse than the Pharaoh who put Israelite children to death in the days of Moses. Herod was a Pharaoh-like king, rather than a king after God’s own heart as a Son of David ought to be. He is not the king Zechariah prophesied.

So the question lingered: ‘Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews’?

Fast forward another 30 years. Once again, we find a city in uproar:

When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is this?” (Matt 21:10)

It is this question that we want to answer this morning.

The king of peace

The Galileans who arrived at Jerusalem with Jesus certainly thought they knew the answer. Many of them had witnessed Jesus’ ministry in their home towns, had seen the sick healed, the possessed exorcised, and even the dead raised. Moreover they had heard his teaching, teaching delivered with an authority beyond that of the scribes and Pharisees (Matt. 9:8; Mark 1:27; Luke 4:36). And now, here he was entering Jerusalem for one of the biggest festivals of the year, Passover, when the population of Jerusalem would temporarily swell to more than 6 times its normal size;² surely this would be an ideal time for him to proclaim himself king?

Imagine their delight, then, when they see this same Jesus riding into Jerusalem, perhaps the only one riding amongst that throng of people. And he was riding a donkey just as Solomon, the first Son of David, also rode to his coronation (1 Kings 1:38).³ So they got on board, throwing their cloaks and branches on the road to form an impromptu ‘red carpet’ to welcome the king. And they shouted: ‘Hosanna to the Son of David!’, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’ and ‘Hosanna in the highest!’

‘Hosanna’ is a plea for God to deliver,⁴ so ‘Hosanna to the Son of David!’ is a way of begging God to deliver by the hands of his anointed king. In fact, this is exactly what God was going to do, but it would not be in the way most of them anticipated. They would have expected Jesus to lead a revolt against the Roman authorities in the city, and to take the throne as king of the Jews.

But that was not Jesus’ plan. In fact, he carefully chose his actions to show that that was not the kind of king he intended to be – at least, not at this time. He rode into Jerusalem, not as warrior king mounted on a war horse or chariot, but as a king coming in peace and riding on a donkey. Matthew emphasises this by only partially quoting Zechariah 9:9:

This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet: “Say to the Daughter of Zion, ‘See, your king comes to you, [righteous and having salvation], gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’” (Matt. 21:4-5)

By omitting the words ‘righteous and having salvation’ Matthew places additional emphasis on Jesus’ gentleness. He returned to Jerusalem to bring peace rather than war.

On one level, the crowds were exactly right. They had rightly recognised the true king, the Son of David, the Messiah. Yet they missed the significance of Jesus’ actions, so caught up in their own vision of what Jesus ought to be doing that they missed what he was actually doing. They had listened selectively to what the Old Testament said about the Messiah, hearing about the king who would conquer but not the shepherd who would be struck; the judge who would deliver, but not the one who would be pierced. The difference between their expectation and reality perhaps partly accounts for the evaporation of their enthusiasm over the next week. Doubtless at least some of the same voices crying ‘Hosanna!’ would soon be crying ‘Crucify!’

Isn’t this something we are guilty of as well? We get so caught up in our plans for what God ought to be doing that we miss what God is actually doing. Take Romans 8, for example: We read promises like, ‘[I]n all things God works for the good of those who love him’ (Rom. 8:28) and ‘If God is for us, who can be against us?’ (Rom. 8:31) and ‘[I]n all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us’ (Rom. 8:37), but we skip over ‘present sufferings’ (Rom. 8:18), a creation groaning in the pains of childbirth (Rom. 8:22) and people groaning inwardly waiting for the redemption of their bodies (Rom. 8:23).

Friends, as you seek to answer the question ‘Who is this?’ take the time to read the whole of Scripture, to see the whole picture of what God is doing – lights and shades, colours and greys. Don’t try to filter out the dark bits, the bits that don’t fit with your vision of the world, that don’t match with your plans. For we find God at work just as much in the darkness as in the light. The picture of Jesus spans the whole spectrum from shadow to sunlight, and it is a glorious picture indeed. At his first coming, Jesus would be struck, he would be pierced, he would be crucified upon a Roman cross; yet in the midst of that apparent defeat he conquered sin and darkness and death.

The prophet from Galilee

Listen again to Matthew’s words:

When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is this?” (Matt. 21:10)

The whole city was ‘stirred’, just as they were ‘disturbed’ when the Magi arrived back in chapter 2. The question then was, ‘Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews?’ And the answer now ought to be, ‘This is the one born king of the Jews’. But it wasn’t.

You see, not everyone was so impressed by Jesus as the crowd from Galilee. In fact, being a Galilean followed by a bunch of Galileans was not a thing to inspire credibility when it came to religious matters. As best I can tell, it would be like a bunch of Parramatta Eels fans showing up, claiming to have a premiership team: a claim to be viewed with deep distrust! Can anything good come out of Parramatta?⁵ Look into it and you will find that a premiership team does not come out of Parramatta!⁶

So, if not the king, who did they think he was?

The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.” (Matt 21:11)

You can almost hear the scorn: the ‘prophet’ from Nazareth. The crowds outside the gate were proclaiming him king, but in the city it was a more sophisticated, urbane, and even cynical bunch. A ‘better class of people.’ They were not going to be taken in by the claims of a back-woods rabbi claiming to be a king. They knew where true power lay, and it was not with a man on a donkey.

Friend, if you are not a Christian I know how easy it can be to do this. It is easy to allow our prejudice to make us miss the truth. Perhaps you think, ‘He’s just another religious nut, and religion is the source of trouble not the solution.’ This is one of the hallmarks of the so-called ‘New Atheism’, trying to equate science, progress, and sophistication with abandoning religion. Or perhaps you question his relevance: ‘Jesus lived 2000 years ago and a long way from here. What could he say that is relevant to me today?’ Even some apparently positive prejudices, such as ‘Jesus was a good man; a good moral teacher,’ become an excuse to relativise Jesus’ claims and treat him as just another voice among many.

But I urge you not to allow your prejudices to lead you to dismiss Jesus too quickly. No, put those things aside and take the time to consider his claims about himself, and the evidence he offers for those claims. Make sure you are engaging the real Jesus, not some stereotype or second-hand picture of him. Look carefully at what he says about the world – that it is broken and sinful, that it needs saving. Then look at the solution he offers – his own sacrificial death to endure the punishment for sin, his resurrection life as the promise of a new life and a new world for all who believe in him. With those in mind, you must then consider his call upon you – abandon your attempts to save yourself and your world (because, frankly, they are not working) and trust instead in his work on your behalf. Jesus knows what he is talking about and his invitation is sincere. And if you want more evidence of his faithfulness and ability to deliver on his promises, keep listening: again and again we will see Jesus delivering on the promises of God given through Zechariah more than 500 years before!

Put your trust in him today.

The priest who rules the courts

Well, if the ‘sophisticated’ Jerusalemites didn’t think much of him, it is clear that Jesus did not approve of their actions either.

Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it a ‘den of robbers.’” (Matt. 21:12–13)

Many who journeyed to Jerusalem would have found it more convenient to purchase livestock for sacrifice than to have to bring it on their journey. Similarly, certain types of coins were unacceptable for paying the temple tax because they bore images of other gods, so pilgrims would need to change their local currency for money that was acceptable. Arguably, these were important services; but they did not belong inside the temple courts. This is especially true insofar as they prevented people from engaging in the true purpose of the temple: prayer. Can you imagine trying to worship amidst the cooing of doves and clinking of coins, not to mention the vociferous bartering that would inevitably accompany such transactions?

Of particular note is that this was going on in the Court of the Gentiles, the only part of the temple that Gentiles were permitted to enter. It was meant to be a place for the nations to come and meet with God. Yet here it was, chock full of merchants, traders, and their customers, leaving little or no space (let alone peace!) for its intended purpose. In driving these people out, then, Jesus was beginning to fulfil the promise in Zechariah 2:11:

Many nations will be joined with the LORD in that day and will become my people.

He was also exercising the authority promised in Zechariah:

If you will walk in my ways and keep my requirements, then you will govern my house and have charge of my courts. (Zech. 3:7)

This is a conditional promise. The condition is to ‘walk in [the LORD’s] ways and keep [his] requirements’. Jesus fulfilled that condition through his life of perfect obedience to his Father, and obedience that extended all the way to death on a Roman cross and beyond. Because of that obedience, because he fulfilled the condition, God has fulfilled the promise by granting him authority over all things (cf. Eph. 1:10, 22; Phil. 2:9-11).

As Jesus heals the blind and the lame, we see that he also fulfils the requirement of Zechariah 7:9-10:

Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. In your hearts do not think evil of each other.

The chief priests and teachers of the law would have excluded such people from entering the temple, assuming that their physical maladies were symptoms of a deeper spiritual malady. But Jesus’ solution is to heal them inside and out. Remember the promise in Zechariah 13 that Dr. Petterson pointed us to last week?

On that day a fountain will be opened to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity. (Zech. 13:1)

Jesus is, once again, the fulfilment of this promise. He fulfils it in part through physical healing; he completes it through his sacrificial death on the cross.

Friends, Jesus is committed to seeing you come to the Father in prayer and in worship. He has done everything to make it possible. He drives out those who put profit ahead of praise. He heals the broken and the sick. Ultimately he died on the cross so that you might be made cleansed and holy. And if that weren’t enough, he got up out of the grave to invite you to come. Come to the Father!

The judge who renders judgment

Matthew recounts a strange event the following morning:

Early in the morning, as he was on his way back to the city, he was hungry. Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, “May you never bear fruit again!” Immediately the tree withered.

When the disciples saw this, they were amazed. “How did the fig tree wither so quickly?” they asked.

Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.” (Matt 21:18–22)

There is much that could be said about this, but we only have time to focus on one aspect. When fig trees grew leaves, it was normally a sign that their fruit was ripe. This fig tree, however, had leaves but no fruit. From a distance it looked as though it was healthy and productive, exactly what a hungry traveller needed; get up close, however, and it was a complete disappointment. So Jesus pronounces a curse upon it, with devastating results.

The disciples are fascinated by the power implicit in Jesus’ judgment; it takes effect immediately. And Jesus takes the opportunity to teach them a lesson about prayer and faith. Yet he may also hint at a larger judgment, a judgment upon the very mountain on which they stood, the Temple Mount, and by extension the temple built upon it. Herod’s temple was one of the wonders of the ancient world, much admired for its architecture and finery. If Zechariah’s contemporaries could have seen it they would have been astounded and probably thought that this was God’s promised temple, the glorious Jerusalem promised through Zechariah. But Jesus had demonstrated that it was all ‘leaf’ and no ‘fruit’ – no justice, no righteousness, no healing, no prayer.

Ultimately, by his own sacrifice in laying down his life, Jesus would destroy this temple, and replace it in three days with a new temple – his own resurrection body (John 2:18-22). And it was Jesus’ promise to do this that was quoted against him at his trial (Matt. 26:61) and mockingly hurled at him as he was dying on the cross (Matt. 27:40).

In a sense, Jesus could be seen as the exact opposite of the fig tree. He was the ‘fruit’ without the ‘leaves': the judge who submitted to false judgment; the high priest who was sacrificed rather than making sacrifice; the king who came to be executed rather than crowned. He endured all that was thrown at him for the sake of those who scorned him. He fulfilled all of the conditions so that we might receive all of the promises!

Do you remember that right at the start of Zechariah, God made a promise: ‘Return to me… and I will return to you’ (Zech. 1:3)? That is an astonishing promise; but the gospel message goes one better. The gospel says ‘I, Jesus, have returned to you so that you may return to me.’

Praise God!

The return of the king

One final thing. Many of you would have recognised the title we gave to our series in Zechariah, ‘The Return of the King’ as the title of the third volume in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. The King spoken of in that book is the mysterious ranger, Aragorn, known to some as ‘Strider’. There is a point in the novel where Aragorn’s right to be King of Gondor is made plain to everyone – by his courage, his sword, his healing, and his ability to command the loyalty even of the dead. Yet he faces opposition from the Steward of Gondor, the one supposed to be caretaker in his absence. So, rather than being crowned straight away he goes off to fight what appears a hopeless battle against the dark lord, Sauron. In the end, it is his faithfulness in the face of such impossible odds that allows his companions to destroy the source of Sauron’s power.

In Aragorn, Tolkien has gifted us with a magnificent picture of Christ. And, like Aragorn, Jesus will one day return to claim his rightful crown.

Come Lord Jesus!

Bibliography

Jeremias, Joachim. Jerusalem in the Time of Jesus; an Investigation Into Economic and Social Conditions During the New Testament Period. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1969.

Endnotes

1. Some 37 years, 34 in Jerusalem.
2. Joachim Jeremias, Jerusalem in the Time of Jesus; an Investigation Into Economic and Social Conditions During the New Testament Period. (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1969), 84.
3. The word used for Solomon’s mount is pered, ‘mule’, which is the offspring of a stallion and a donkey. So, in a sense, Jesus’ ride was even humbler than Solomon’s, containing not even a trace of the warlike stallion.
4. NIDNTT, s.v. ὡσαννά.
5. cf. John 1:46.
6. cf. John 7:52.

Few authors are as consistent in their message over a long period of time as John Piper. For nearly 4 decades, Piper has been working out a theology that emphasises the glory of God with laser focus and crystal clarity. His latest offering, Walking in the Light, is no exception.

In this work, Piper identifies three areas of human existence – money, sex, and power – that can be used to either uphold or detract from God’s glory. He works this out in the terms of Romans 1:23, with each holding potential for an exchange of the glory of God for a lie. Where God is most valued, he will never be exchanged for things of lesser value such as influence, a salary, a spouse etc. Thus, they can be used in service of God. However, where they are valued more highly than God, an exchange is made, with something perceived to be lesser value (God) exchanged for something perceived to be of greater value (sex, money, power).

The key, then, to appropriate appreciation of power, sex, and money lies in properly appreciating the glory and worth of God, particularly as appreciated in the person and work of Christ. Piper uses the analogy of a solar system set up to orbit around the moon rather than around the sun; the solution is to restore the sun (the Son!) to the centre, live in ‘the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ’ (2 Cor. 4:6).

Piper’s analysis seems sound, and it is refreshing to have an approach that does not flee too quickly to labelling everything ‘idolatry’ (even though that is what it is), but dwells on the implications of that (God is neither valued nor glorified). I highly recommend this short book to Christians at all stages of their journey.

‘The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.’ (14)

The lights dim and the buzz dissipates into stillness. Amidst hushed anticipation, the gathered gloom gives birth to a lone figure, striding purposefully towards her post. Having secured attention, evidenced by swelling applause from behind her and watchful readiness in front, she takes her place and, after the slightest of pauses, signals commencement.

The music that follows is not the feature; this is understood, for the curtains are not yet open. Yet it is of one piece with the show, and none can doubt it, for it is a tapestry of themes that are to come. This is known as the overture, and it is deliberately designed to set the scene for the play that is about to commence. The audience is introduced to the musical motifs that are so closely entwined with the plot as to be indistinguishable: the hero’s theme; the sinister tones of the villain’s refrain; the lovers’ duet; the haunting strains of loss. Before an actor so much as appears on stage, we are already familiar with the musical anchor points ahead of us. They are never explained; it is only if you know what is to come that it ‘makes sense’.

John opens his gospel in the same sort of fashion. In these first 18 verses, we are exposed to many of the mega themes that will come up over and over again throughout the rest of his message, such as light, darkness, life, rebirth, witness and revelation. Yet there is one thread woven all the way through this overture, like an instrument that plays the same riff in the midst of all the other themes, contributing to each and binding them all together. What’s more, this specific instrument doesn’t actually play again throughout the rest of the show! It is important, then, that we appreciate its contribution now whilst it plays. You can read through John’s Gospel to appreciate the other important themes, but this morning we want to focus on ‘the Word’.

‘The Word…’

John begins:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (1)

More than any other creature on earth, human beings love to communicate with one another; words are the way we do it. Some of us communicate with many words, some with few. We write them down, type them out, whisper them and shout them. We constantly invent technologies to allow us to communicate over greater distances more efficiently and effectively: the loud speaker; the radio; the telephone; video; the internet… and the list goes on! Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are just the latest in a long line of products that tap into our desire to, in words and pictures, communicate ourselves to one another. Can you imagine what those sites would be like if we took the words away?

We also use words to explain our actions. Who hasn’t heard a child launch in to a long and complicated explanation of exactly how they ended up where they did? In the absence of such explanation their actions may seem inexplicable; once explained they often do show a degree of logic, albeit not always sound! Their words give us a fuller picture of what was going on from their perspective.

We also use words to teach and to learn; I’m using them right now! We express important ideas and concepts that we need to convey using our words. When we go to school, a large part of our education is in learning the right phrases and terms to accurately express ourselves. We take complicated concepts like algebra, art and assonance and condense them down to a single representative word or phrase. We then use these words as a shorthand that allows us to build up even more complicated and interesting ideas, and the process repeats.

We choose our words carefully, because unless we do so they may be misunderstood, or may convey a message other than – or even contrary to – the one we intended.

We can sum these three ideas up – expressing ourselves, explaining our actions, and instructing others – using the word ‘revelation’. Some things cannot be discovered or found; they must be revealed.

God uses words for all of these purposes as well. First and foremost, God reveals himself to us through his Word. He speaks to Adam&Eve, Noah, Abraham, Jacob and so on. To each one he shares a little bit more of his essence, who he is. We can infer some things about God based on his creation, but without his words we are unable to understand what makes him tick, who he is.

Who God is defines what God does. If we do not know his character, we cannot possibly understand what drives his actions. Take the story of the Flood in Genesis 6. A massive flood comes and wipes out the population of the Earth, excepting only 8 people; this is a tragedy by anyone’s standards. It is only when we hear God’s words about this event that we realise that God is a holy and just God, who cannot abide evil. Yet he is also a merciful God, who gives grace to those whom he chooses.

Of course, God also uses words for our instruction. Perhaps the most famous example of this is found in Exodus 20; it is the rare person who has not at least heard of the 10 Commandments. These are a series of explicit instructions that outline how God’s people are to act; at the same time, they further reveal God’s character and show what is important to him. They are what distinguished the people of Israel from all other nations, for God had revealed himself particularly to them.

In addition to the aspects of revelation we have already mentioned, God’s words have one more important characteristic: they accomplish his will. Think back to Genesis 1&2. God speaks the word – ‘light’ – and there is light. He speaks again and the waters separate from the sky, then recede to reveal dry land… and so on. It is God’s word that is the vehicle for his will. We can not do this. Occasionally I test this. I lie in bed after I wake up and say ‘up’. You might be surprised that often this has no measurable result at all; when it does, it usually only serves to make my wife grumpy enough to kick me out of bed!

God’s words are valuable to us beyond measure. We are fortunate to have God’s words written down for us. As I sit at my desk and write this, I can count 11 different translations of God’s word within arm’s reach. From these, from what God has said, I can learn something about who God is.

At the time of Jesus’ birth, no prophet had arisen to speak God’s word for some 400 years. Many Jews felt that they were living out the words of Amos’ prophecy:

I’ll send a famine through the whole country. It won’t be food or water that’s lacking, but my Word. – Amos 8:11

They longed for a return of God’s word, but what they got was not what they expected. For John speaks not of God’s words, but of his Word. This Word is a person in his own right, for though he “was with God” and indeed “was God”, he can nevertheless be spoken of as distinct from God. John speaks of a revelation greater than that given through Moses. And just in case we have no idea what he is talking about, John makes it clear:

For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ (17).

‘… became flesh…’

Jesus combines all of these aspects of revelation in his person, works and words. He is the new and better – indeed the final and complete – revelation of God. He expresses God’s character in his own character, for he is God. When Jesus shows compassion, it is because his Father is compassionate; when Jesus is angry, we know that the Father is angry. Similarly, Jesus explains to us why God does what he does. He teaches us the response that God desires. And ultimately he accomplishes God’s purposes in the way that no other can. John summarises this at the end of today’s passage:

No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known. (18)

The fact that God the Son can be called ‘the Word’ tells us that it is God’s very nature to reveal himself. We are not capable of comprehending God in his entirety, for we are finite and he is infinite. But if a persons’ word is the means by which he reveals what he is thinking, Jesus is God’s thought spoken in such a way that men and women can understand it.

God is not to be thought of as aloof or indifferent. He reveals himself. But he reveals himself as he chooses. He is sovereign in revelation as in all else.

There is an important question to be answered here: if God has expressed himself fully and finally in Jesus, why do we need the rest of the Bible? Perhaps the New Testament is OK, for at least it is talking about Jesus, but why should I read the Old Testament? The answer is at the same time both simple and profound. The Bible as a whole gives us the vocabulary to understand Jesus. Let me see if I can explain.

In a couple of years, Jonny Miller will be of an age to properly appreciate his first Bledisloe Cup match. Let’s say that he sits down by himself in front of the television to watch it. Unless his indoctrination has already commenced, chances are good he won’t be able to make much of the game. If you asked him about it afterwards, he might be able to tell you that some of the people wore yellow and some black, that the yellow people were cheering at the end and the black ones looked sad… but that would probably be extent of it. If he sat down with his Dad, however, who explained what a try is, a lineout, a scrum, a drop-goal and so on, he would be starting to develop the vocabulary with which to understand and explain the game. As his knowledge and experience increased he would be able to grasp the more complicated aspects of the game, and the words associated with them – rules governing who is offside, what merits a penalty, tactics etc. Eventually he would reach a point where he could describe in detail all the events taking place on the field, and appreciate a Wallaby victory in all its glory! (Come to think of it, if this particular fantasy did actually come about, he might learn some vocabulary of a different sort!)

Is it any wonder that God, preparing the greatest event in history, wanted us to have the words and concepts with which to appreciate it? So we find that both the Old and New Testaments are riddled with ideas which we can use to understand Jesus. They are important ideas in their own right, and certainly had meaning and value to their original audience; but in addition to that role they also provide a context for catching some small portion of Jesus’ purpose, words and works. The themes and motifs presented in the Old Testament overture arrive full force in Jesus himself and are recognisable because we have already heard them in miniature. So we can say that Jesus is the new and better Adam, who faced his temptation in the garden yet remained without sin; he is the new and better Abel, killed because the sacrifice he brought was more acceptable than his brother, whose blood cries out, not for vengeance, but for forgiveness; the new and better Joseph, sent ahead by God to make preparation for the salvation of his people; the new and better Moses, through whom come ‘grace and truth’ not just ‘law’. I could keep going like this all day – but I won’t, because to do that would be to miss out on the rest of what John has to say to us. But before I leave this subject let me say that if you have no idea what I am talking about, let encourage you to make some time to spend reading through the Old Testament; don’t settle for an infant’s perspective on the most important event the world has seen or will ever see.

‘… and made his dwelling among us.’

But whilst Jesus’ ministry bore many similarities to Old Testament people and events, he also brought a unique twist.

What was new in John’s day was the fact that this Word “became flesh and dwelt [that is, remained] among us” (John 1:14). Rather than coming and going as he had in the days of Abraham and Moses and the prophets, the divine Messenger had now taken on human flesh and remained among men.

Jesus is the full, final and permanent revelatory Word of God. All that we need and are able to understand of God, we find present in Jesus Christ. He is God’s Word to you… and to me, and to us.

He is also what I have chosen to call a ‘provocative’ word, a word that demands a response.

Perhaps you are thinking that you are interested in knowing and hearing more from God, but now is just not a good time. Maybe tomorrow, or next week when it is more convenient? But there are some words that require a response:

• ’Hello.’
• ‘How are you?’
• ‘My name is Tim.’
• ‘Can I say something crazy?’

What kind of relationship would develop if you didn’t respond to any of these? ‘Um, can we talk about it next week?’ Chances of things developing seem pretty slim.

John points out very clearly that there are only two responses to this Word. On the one hand, it is possible to ignore him and even reject him; we know that many do. ‘He was in the world, but though the world was made through him, the world did not recognise him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him’ (10-11). What a tragedy! Imagine that, instead of Jono explaining the game it is now the inventor of Rugby; what a shame it would be if Jonny decided to ignore him or reject him, because he could have no better opportunity of understanding it than that! Or, to shift the illustration, let’s say you were trying to act in one of Shakespeare’s plays and by some freak occurrence of time and space the author appeared to you and wanted to explain your part to you. Would you ignore him? Take this situation and multiply its magnitude many millions of times, and you might be starting to get close to the enormity of what John records: the Author of Life wrote himself into history in order to communicate with his creation.

It is far better, it seems to me, to take advantage of this unprecedented contact with the Author, to build a positive relationship with him. According to John, ‘to all who received him, to those who believed on his name, he gave the right to be children of God’ (12). This is important: in fact, it is what John has been leading up to. The reason Jesus, God’s Word, became flesh, was in order that we might become children of God. It is for this that ‘the Word became flesh and made his dwelling amongst us’ (14).

How does this relationship come about? According to John, it is ‘to those who received’ the Word that God gives the right to be children of God. How then do you receive Jesus? The first thing is to be sure that we are receiving the right person… and not some other pretending to be him. What’s more, our relationship must be founded on who he has revealed himself to be. Imagine I introduced myself to you as Tim, but you persisted in calling me Ralph, because that’s how you prefer to think of me; or that I told you I couldn’t stand eggs and the next week you serve me up omelette for dinner. Our relationship would not be going good places! This may seem obvious, but it is often overlooked as we choose to receive the Jesus of our imagination rather than the Jesus revealed to us in Scripture. If you do that, you end up worshiping an imaginary God; if, instead, you commit yourself to seeking out the God of the Bible, he will not hide himself from you. After all, ‘the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us’ (14) for this very reason. ‘No one has seen the Father, but God, the One and Only, has made him known’ (18).

Read your Bible, and ask that God would reveal his Son to you through it; then ask that he would reveal himself to you through Jesus his Son.

In the time they had been with him, Jesus’ disciples had witnessed some extraordinary things. This man, Jesus, had brought a new kind of teaching, a teaching ‘with authority’ (1:27); he had cast out demons; he had healed Peter’s mother-in-law, a paralytic and many others who were sick. Mark records the reaction of the crowds:

This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!” (Mark 2:12)

But there was also a growing opposition. More and more, Jesus was coming into conflict with the teachers of the law, the Pharisees. This all came to a head in the latter part of chapter 3. The Pharisees came together to accuse Jesus of being in league with Satan. They were so persuasive that even Jesus’ own family were convinced that, at the least, Jesus must be out of his mind (3:21).

I can only imagine that this would have been troubling for Jesus’ disciples. The Pharisees were respected members of the community, who were charged with teaching God’s word. Can you imagine if all the doctors in the community came together to tell you that the medicine that had healed you was poison; or if the police told you that the man you were hanging out with was a charlatan and a fraud? You might be starting to get a picture of how conflicted the disciples would have been. On the one hand, Jesus had called them, was their teacher and friend; they knew that following him was the right thing to do. But wasn’t it the Pharisees’ job to know about religious things? They said that Jesus was not sent by God but by the devil. And if not even Jesus’ own family believed in him… ? If Jesus was really a messenger from God, a reliable teacher and prophet, then why was there such opposition?

It is in this context that Jesus teaches this parable of the sower. And it is for this reason that I believe Jesus intends for his disciples to identify Jesus (and ultimately themselves as well, as they follow in their master’s footsteps) as the sower in this parable. So this morning we will largely focus on the role of the sower under three headings: (1) the sower goes out to sow; (2) the sower sows generously, in spite of opposition; and (3) the sower sows expecting a great harvest.

The sower goes out to sow

The first point to be made about the work of the sower is found in v. 3.

A farmer went out to sow his seed. (Mark 4:3)

The NIV translators have chosen to use the word ‘farmer’ here, though this obscures the fact that the noun is closely related to the verb ‘to sow’.¹ For this reason, I prefer the ESV translation of this verse, which says, ‘A sower went out to sow.’ Though a farmer has many tasks – watering, harvesting, dealing with pests etc. – right now he is a sower. His job is to sow. That is his sole focus at this time. The time for harvesting will come later, but right now he must sow the seed for otherwise there will be no harvest.

This is consistent with Jesus’ own life and ministry. According to his own interpretation, the seed to be sown is ‘the word’ – the word of God. Wherever he went, he was always proclaiming the kingdom of God.

“The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!” (Mark 1:15)

He spoke with the authority of God, exercising command over sicknesses of body and spirit. He corrected the false teaching of God’s law, helping people to hear God’s word afresh. At the end of this chapter, Jesus will command the storm to still, and it will obey him.

But speaking God’s word was not Jesus’ responsibility alone. In chapter 6, Jesus will send the Twelve out to preach the word of God, to exercise authority over evil spirits and heal the sick. They will call people to repentance and will pronounce a curse on those who do not welcome them. Even now, Jesus is preparing them for that task, warning them that not everyone will respond to their message positively.

Friends, if you are a disciple of Jesus Christ, you are a sower of God’s word. You have your own field to sow: your family; your work; your soccer team; your friendships; your neighbours; your club; your mothers’ group; your political party. Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, you are called to be a sower who goes out to sow God’s word.

This is not limited to simple gospel presentations, though these will have their place. Perhaps your friend is having problems disciplining her children; or a colleague is dealing with conflict in the workplace. Maybe your neighbour has suffered great tragedy or your team-mate has broken up with his girlfriend. God’s wisdom has relevance to all of these circumstances, so why not sow it? And sow into the lives of those who are Christians as well, for we all need it.

Are you genuinely sowing God’s word into your life, and those around you? If not, ask God to show you by his Spirit how and where to begin today. For the sower must go out to sow if there is to be a harvest. It may seem obvious, but the role of a sower is to sow. If you are a disciple of Jesus, you are a sower and you too must sow God’s word.

The sower sows generously

As I read through Jesus’ parable, I am struck by how seemingly indiscriminate the sower is in where he sows his seed. Some falls on the path, some on rocky places, some on shallow soil. Surely the sower ought to know his field, and only sow in the places likely to yield a crop?

This is a farmer who is determined to sow right to the edges of his field. Every inch of fertile land must be planted, so that the maximum possible crop is achieved. He is not concerned about some seed being lost, because he has plenty of seed. If he doesn’t plant it, it will just sit in his barn and rot; it is only by planting the seed that he will see a harvest. So he sows generously, all over his land.

I hope that we have the same generosity in the way we sow the word of God. But I see two potential barriers.

Firstly, perhaps we do not have the ‘seed’ to sow. Where does that seed come from? It is the harvest of God’s word as sown and grown in our own lives. Perhaps you identify not so much with the sower as with the path. You feel like you’ve been walked all over for so long, there is not really room in you for God or his word. And so you will leave here this morning having rejected his command – perhaps not for the first time – to ‘listen’ (v. 3) and to ‘hear’ (v. 9). Or perhaps, like the rocky places, you hear God’s word and it excites you; the shallow but warm layer of soil on top of the rock allows for rapid growth. But there is still that rocky core, that part of your heart and mind where God and his word are not welcome – your pride, your relationships, your money, your sexuality, your identity. And when God’s word addresses those things your will choose them over him. Maybe you’re quite happy for God to do what he will with you, so long as it fits into your schedule, your ambitions, your desires, your plan. And so you find you have little or no grain, because all of your time and energy is being invested in secondary things.
If this sounds like you don’t despair, because there is hope… but it does not lie with you. Soil cannot change itself. Cry out to Jesus, asking him to deal with whatever prevents you from hearing and obeying God’s word. He can do it – just look at the Apostle Paul.

Ananias balked when he was called to go and sow the word of God into Paul’s life. He said,

“I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your saints in Jerusalem. And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name.” (Acts 9:13-14).

If ever there was soil that was rocky path, it was Paul! Yet the Lord responded with the astonishing claim that Paul was his ‘chosen instrument to carry [his] name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel’ (Acts 9:15)! And talk about about a harvest! For Paul became one of the greatest evangelists of all time, yielding a great crop of God’s word in his life and ministry.

Though the process is not always comfortable – imagine how soil feels being plowed! – if you ask him Jesus can and will make you into the kind of soil that produces a crop ‘thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times’ (v. 8) what was sown. Then, not only will you be able to enjoy your own fruitfulness, but you will have plenty of seed to sow into others around you as well.

The second barrier to sowing generously is when we try to economise on our sowing. We measure out God’s word based on who we think will respond positively and who will not. But that’s not our job. Unlike an actual farmer, our supply of seed is unlimited. Our job is to sow, and to sow generously, all the way to the edges of the field assigned to us. God by his Holy Spirit will determine the response, yielding a crop oftentimes in surprising places – such as the Apostle Paul!

So the sower sows generously, even knowing that some of the seed will be lost (such as that on the path) or will bear meagre fruit at best (such as that on the shallow, rocky soil or the seed amongst the thorns).

Are you sowing God’s word generously? Or are you hampered by your lack of seed or your attempts to economise? Ask the Lord to grant you the seed to sow and the generosity to sow it. For the sower must sow generously if the harvest is to be plentiful.

Excursus: Why different kinds of soils?

But does this really tell us why there is such opposition to Jesus’ work and words? After all, God is sovereign over all the earth; why doesn’t he make all of the soil fertile? This is an important question, and not really answered in the parable itself. Instead, Jesus addresses this concern in the preface to his explanation:
When he was alone, the Twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables. He told them, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables so that, “‘they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!’” (Mark 4:10–12)

This is a troubling explanation, because it seems to suggest Jesus uses parables as an instrument for preventing understanding. In other words, he speaks in parables to ensure that some do not understand his message, and so do not repent and seek forgiveness. Can this be right?

To understand, we must consider the original context for the words that Jesus quotes from Isaiah 6. There, Isaiah has a vision of the Lord God seated on his throne. Confronted with absolute holiness, he becomes painfully aware of both his own sins and those of his nation (Isa. 6:5). God graciously deals with Isaiah’s sinfulness (Isa. 6:6-7), but that still leaves a sinful nation to deal with, and Isaiah is to be instrumental in accomplishing God’s purpose in this regard, “Here am I. Send me!” (Isaiah 6:8).

We don’t know what Isaiah expected, but surely it was not what follows:

He said, “Go and tell this people: “‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’ Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.” (Isaiah 6:9–10)

Isaiah, by his prophetic ministry, was to bring about a hardness of heart in the people of Judah. Can you imagine having this message preached at your commissioning? ‘Go, and preach the word; your preaching will make them hard-hearted, deaf and blind, so that they will neither repent nor be saved.’ That is a hard calling in anyone’s book.

Why such a harsh message? The first five chapters of Isaiah leading up to this passage detail the repeated failings of God’s people. Though they have every reason to love and trust God, they have rebelled, turned their backs on him and forgotten him.² Their worship of God has descended into meaningless ritual³ instead of the justice and righteousness that God requires.⁴ They ought to be the unique people of God, a light to the world showing how God ought to be worshiped;⁵ but instead they are no different from the nations around them.⁶ God, through Isaiah (and many other prophets) has called them to repentance but they have refused. And so, he enters into judgment.

Part of this judgment is that Judah shall become deaf and blind to God’s word. But why does God preclude the possibility of repentance? Why must Isaiah,

Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed. (Isaiah 6:10)

Doesn’t God want them to repent?

I don’t claim to have a comprehensive answer to this question. But I do think we glimpse his purpose when we remember that the judgments pronounced by Isaiah (and other prophets) culminate in the exile. And the exile was the ultimate demonstration that ‘the system’ was not working – nor would it ever. Let me explain.

A little over six years ago, Katrie and I were eagerly anticipating the arrival of our first child. We wanted a natural delivery, because we had been taught that anything else was second best. Except there was a problem: the baby had not turned around, and was in a breech position. Apparently this complicates natural birth, so we were strongly advised to consider delivery by Caesarean section. Our obstetrician explained that it was OK to wait for a time and see if the baby turned, but only for a time. And so we waited the full time allotted, before reluctantly proceeding with the Caesarean. We were glad we did! Because as the doctor delivered Aedan to us, he showed us that the umbilical cord had become wrapped around his neck – three and a half times! Our plan was never going to work. And, though it might have seemed unfair for the obstetrician to impose a time limit, in the providence of God that was exactly what needed to happen.

I believe God was doing something similar with Judah. The covenants under which Judah lived – the Abrahamic covenant, the Mosaic covenant, the Davidic covenant – had enabled a long cycle of disobedience, judgment, repentance and disobedience again. Those covenants by themselves were not sufficient to accomplish God’s purposes because they didn’t address his people’s sinfulness. That plan was never going to work, and Judah needed to see it. A new people was required, descended not from sinful Abraham but from the sinless son of God. A new law was required, written not on tablets of stone but on the hearts of men and women.⁷ A new king was required, one not only after God’s own heart⁸ but the very expression of his heart.⁹ The Lord hardened Judah’s heart in order to accomplish his greater purpose and make way for what Jeremiah would call a ‘new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah’ (Jer. 31:31).

And that purpose is also evident in Mark’s gospel. For the growing opposition to Jesus would culminate, not in another exile, but in the crucifixion of the Son of God. The new covenant was proclaimed in the blood of Jesus, poured out for us;¹⁰ but that would not have happened if not for the hardness of heart precipitated by Jesus’ teaching. As Jesus taught that he had authority to forgive sins, some rejoiced but others found it intolerable blasphemy.¹¹ As he healed, particularly on the Sabbath, the crowds saw God’s power at work but the Pharisees saw a threat to their authority and plotted to kill him.¹² So even though he knew that sowing the word of God would produce hardness of heart in some, he also knew that even that hardness of heart would ultimately serve God’s purpose and plan.

We, too, must sow the word of God in spite of opposition. It is a hard thing to know that speaking God’s word may be the cause of hardening and judgment in our family, our friends, our colleagues. Yet it may also be the means by which God brings them to repentance and faith, and it is that hope that helps us to go out and sow day after day. Which brings us to our final point.

The sower sows in hope of a great harvest

After receiving his commission, Isaiah is understandably distressed:

Then I said, “For how long, O Lord?” (Isaiah 6:11)

We can imagine Isaiah’s thinking: ‘Maybe it is just temporary. One year? Five years? Twenty? How long before you redeem your people, O Lord? How long before you allow them to repent and be healed? How long must I proclaim this curse upon my nation?’

The Lord’s answer is not encouraging:

And he answered: “Until the cities lie ruined and without inhabitant, until the houses are left deserted and the fields ruined and ravaged, until the LORD has sent everyone far away and the land is utterly forsaken. And though a tenth remains in the land, it will again be laid waste. But as the terebinth and oak leave stumps when they are cut down, so the holy seed will be the stump in the land.” (Isaiah 6:11–13)

The judgment of God on Judah was to be thorough. Even if ninety percent of the land were wiped out, that is still not enough! But, as so often when God pronounces judgment, there is also hope. For even though Israel is like a tree that has been cut down, yet there will still be a ‘holy seed’ that will be a ‘stump’ that contains the possibility of regrowth. The desolation and destruction will not be complete.

In Jesus’ parable, however, there is even more cause to be hopeful; he speaks of a crop thirty, sixty and even a hundred times what was sown. While Jesus’ ministry parallels Isaiah’s in many ways, in this he is quite different. Isaiah saw only the possibility of regrowth long after the judgment he proclaimed; Jesus saw a great harvest that would grow from his preaching of God’s word. The exile had done its job of preparing the soil, and now it was ready for planting.

We ought to have the same expectation as we sow the word of God into the lives of those around us – and indeed in our own life! Jesus says elsewhere,

The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. (Luke 10:2)

It is not the harvest that is in doubt; it is the workers! So in the very next verse he appoints seventy-two of his disciples and says, ‘Go!’ (Luke 10:3). Though the image has changed from sowing to harvesting, the need for workers is constant.

The disciples were doubting Jesus and his ministry because of the opposition that it aroused. They had their eyes on the seed that was lost, but failed to appreciate the tremendous harvest that was in front of them. Friends, let’s not make the same mistake. Don’t doubt because of opposition, but believe in the great harvest… and sow!

Endnotes

1. ἐξῆλθεν ὁ σπείρων σπεῖραι. cf. the more general γεωργός in Matt. 21:33 || Luke 20:9.
2. Isa. 1:2-4.
3. Isa. 1:11-15.
4. Isa. 1:16-17.
5. Isa. 2:3-6.
6. Isa. 2:6-8.
7. Jer. 31:33.
8. 1 Sam. 13:14.
9. John 1:1-18.
10. Luke 22:20.
11. Mark 2:6.
12. Mark 3:6.

Tice, Rico. Honest Evangelism: How to Talk About Jesus Even When it’s Tough. The Good Book Company, 2014.

This short volume may best be thought of as an encouragement to do evangelism. Tice freely acknowledges that evangelism is hard (an acknowledgment that contributes the ‘honest’ in the book’s title). I was personally challenged by Tice’s approach to 1 Peter 3:15. For many years, I have been one of those with a ‘passive’ approach to evangelism, based largely on this verse. Yet Tice correctly points out that 1 Peter sets out a context of Christians suffering for being Christians. We ought to be prepared to share the gospel even in the face of opposition and suffering.

Yet, he says, opposition is only half the story, for there is also a hunger for the gospel.

We must be honest about the hostility, or we’ll have wrong expectations and give up on evangelism. But we must also be excited about the hunger, or we’ll have no expectations at all, and never start evangelism.
Chapter 1

That hunger ought to motivate us. But the hunger must also exist within us – a desire for Jesus as our greatest love.

So for as long as Jesus is not my greatest love, I will keep quiet about him in order to serve my greatest love, my idol. I will keep quiet about him because I am afraid of losing my greatest love, my idol.
Chapter 3

Having outlined some of the motivations for why Christians ought to evangelise, Tice devotes the balance of the book to practical discussions of how to evangelise. He explores the content and presentation of the gospel, giving many practical tips on how to communicate with clarity and honesty. These chapters will prove helpful to newcomers to the work of evangelism. At times, however, I found the material sacrificing depth for the sake of clarity. This is not necessarily a bad thing, of course, but some footnotes highlighting related resources might have been helpful. For example chapter 7 gives a cursory overview of issues of contextualisation, and it would have been good to see this developed further (how do I work out how to approach my culture?) or at least some pointers on other resources which could be used to go further. Similarly, some of the mnemonic schemes (Identity/Mission/Call, Character/Conviction/Competence/Courage) could have been fleshed out a bit further, particularly with respect to how they are grounded in Scripture.

In all, Rico Tice has offered an accessible primer on evangelism that helps us to have correct expectations about both the challenges and joys of the task. I pray that it will be used by the Holy Spirit to prompt and encourage more and more ‘lay’ Christians to share the gospel in their own context.

Our last two family holidays have been road trips to Melbourne and the Sunshine Coast respectively. One of the things I found trickiest whilst driving was remaining alert to changes in speed limits. It is easy to get so used to driving the same speed that you can easily miss the transition from one zone to the next, and end up driving too fast or too slow.

As we walk with Christ, there will come different seasons of ministry for us also. Some of these seasons will be inaugurated by major life events: getting married; starting a new job; illness; the birth of a child; bereavement etc. Others will come on gradually, as you grow in spiritual maturity or your health declines. It is important to be alert to these transitions, whether immediate or gradual, and be prepared to seek and understand God’s call on your life for this season.

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven. (Eccl. 3:1)

Jesus had distinct phases in his ministry. There were periods where he was fully engaged in public ministry, addressing crowds, healing the sick, casting out demons and confronting the religious leaders. Yet at other times, he withdrew to pray, to meditate and to spend time focused on his disciples. Jesus was alert to God’s timing, and shaped his ministry accordingly.

Why not take some time this week to assess your commitments in light of the season that you are in? Perhaps you will find that you are ‘driving’ too fast and need to slow down. This can be painful: slowing to 80 or 60km/h after driving for an hour or more at 110km/h is a special kind of hell! Alternately, perhaps it is time for you to stop driving slow in the fast lane and increase your commitment to advancing the Kingdom of God. Either way, ask God to show you your life through his eyes, and how you ought to use the time, energy and resources he has granted you.

Sunukjian, Donald R. Invitation to Philippians: Building a Great Church through Humility

Donald Sunukjian is well known to a generation of seminary students for his influential homiletics textbook, Invitation to Biblical Preaching (Kregel Academic&Professional, 2007). The present volume is part of a series intended to complement that book by providing concrete models for the principles presented therein. Let me say straight away that I have not read Invitation to Biblical Preaching , so am not qualified to judge Sunukjian’s success (or otherwise) in achieving this stated aim. Nevertheless, I found there was much to appreciate in this volume.

Invitation to Philippians is constructed as a series of sermon transcripts, lightly edited for presentation in written rather than oral form. This means that much of the original freshness of presentation is retained, and this is helpful for a young preacher trying to get the flavour of Sunukjian’s preaching style. The alert reader will pick up tips on how much and what repetition is required, both within one message and from one week to the next. However, this can also become somewhat tedious, particularly if (as in my case) the book is read within a short space of time. I also found some of his material was heavily contextualised this his (American) context – perfectly reasonable, given that was the context in which he was preaching, but occasionally difficult for a non-American to appreciate.

Sunukjian’s treatment of the text is sensible and solid. Obviously this is a series of sermons, rather than an exhaustive commentary, so his goal is to expound and apply the text. His intention is to model some of the ways a book like Philippians might be preached. In this light, he offers good insights on portions of the text, and some thoughtful challenges, presented with clarity. For me, one of the most valuable parts was seeing how he connected themes from one week to the next, building on the previous message and preparing for the next, though never at the expense of the current text.

Like many Christians, I suppose, Philippians holds a special place in my heart – much as the Philippians themselves did in Paul’s. Thus it is a joy to see this new volume appear expounding this wonderful text. Yet, in the end, I did not feel that the models of preaching presented herein were so compelling that I need to find out more about the method and principles that underpin them.