Starting Well

A.N.: I preached this as a sermon on the 2nd February 2014, on the passage Judges 1:1-2:5. This blog post is not word-for-word exactly what I said in front of the congregation.

Since the government scrapped January exams, I've had to sit mocks for all of my subjects in class instead. There's a phenomenon known to my friends and I surrounding exams, particularly your handwriting during exams. At the start of the exam, your handwriting is neat and legible, but by the time you reach the end of the exam and time has started to run out, you start to panic more and your handwriting becomes worse and worse until it might as well have been chiselled into a piece of rock for all that you can make out what it says.

This kind of flow from good to awful is what is going on in this passage of Judges. The Israelites are entering the Promised Land, and in order to live there they must first drive out the people who are already living there. They start of in this mission well, going from strength to strength - but by the end of Judges 1, it has turned sour, and their victories are becoming few and far between.

This siege of the Promised Land was first ordered by God in Deuteronomy, when God gives the Israelites clear instructions about how they are to drive out the people living there already in order to settle themselves. In Deuteronomy (Chapter 7, verse 2), God tells the Israelites that they must not make treaties or collaborate with those living in the land already in any way. Yet the Israelites do not obey God's instruction: instead, they disobey Him three times, and because of this, they begin to fail in their mission.

At the start of Judges, the Israelites are doing well. The tribe of Judah make about 15 victories during the initial 20 verses of this chapter. However, after this, they begin to lose battles, beginning with the battle against those who live in the valleys. The text is very clear in pointing out that the Israelites' adversaries in the valleys have iron chariots, and that this is a key factor in their defeat. At this time, the Israelites' weapons technology is still in the Bronze Age, so it is most likely that they fear their rivals with 'iron chariots'. After all, if you were waging war with bows and arrows against an army which had sub-machine guns, you would probably be forgiven for being a little fearful.

Yet it is this fear that shows the first cracks in the Israelites' wholehearted faith in God. A vicar once said in a sermon that the opposite of faith is not unbelief; the opposite of faith is fear. If the Israelites are scared, then they are not putting their faith fully in God, and they are not trusting in Him to give them victory - and so they are defeated. Faith can ensure victory even when all the odds are stacked against you, as David proved when he went up against Goliath. The Israelites did not put their trust fully in God, and this led to their defeat.

The second way that the Israelites disobey God's instruction is by not driving the people out completely. God has instructed that no one who was living in the land when they entered was to remain living there after they had settled, yet this is not what happened. After verse 20, the chapter begins chronicling the battles of the other tribes of Israel, who were not as successful as the tribe of Judah. In many cases, these tribes did not drive the people out completely, but rather pressed them into manual labour, or slavery. Thus, they did not obey God fully, and instead allowed those whom God had instructed them to drive out, to live among them instead.

The third and final way that the Israelites disobeyed God's instruction was to make a treaty with a Canaanite, or one who was living in the land already. This, however, is not the first time that the Israelites have collaborated with someone they should have been driving out. In Joshua, when the Israelites orchestrate the fall of Jericho, they are helped by the prostitute, Rahab, who hides two Israelite spies and aids them in escaping the guards. Yet there is a key difference between Rahab and the Canaanite in Judges, and that is that Rahab approached the Israelites, whereas the Canaanite was approached by the Israelites. In Joshua, it was the case that Rahab made a treaty with the Israelites, while in Judges, the Israelites made a treaty with the Canaanite. Thus, Rahab is called righteous in James (Chapter 2, verse 25), whereas the Canaanite in Judges is not even named. Rahab threw her lot in with the Israelites; the Canaanite merely accepted an offer of freedom.

At the start of Chapter 2, we see the Israelites made aware of the reason for their defeats, at which point they begin to repent. It is this act which sets the tone for the rest of the Book of Judges: the Israelites disobey God, they are punished (usually by a foreign power overthrowing or invading them), they realise their sin, they repent, they are restored, and then they forget about God, go back to disobedience, and the cycle starts again.

There is a tendency among Christians to take the Old Testament with a pinch of salt; Jesus has fulfilled the Old Testament, and therefore it is only necessary as background knowledge, and is not directly important for our lives. Yet this cycle we see in Judges is not one that has been broken; it is one that we are all in today.

Last year, I sat a history mock, and when I got to my lesson that morning, I didn't feel quite ready for it. I had revised, but suddenly, in the face of the exam itself, I began to panic and wonder if I had done enough. In order to help calm my nerves, I stood outside the classroom door and began to pray, asking God to help me calm down, to focus, and to trust in the work that I had done. A few minutes before my history teacher arrived to let us into the classroom, I realised that this was the first time I had prayed in a while; in fact, I hadn't prayed at all since the last time I was in a mess and had to seek reassurance. It was at this point that I realised that I was stuck in this cycle, just as much as the Israelites were all those years ago.

The cycle seems never-ending, but it will end one day, and we have to trust that that day is coming. It's not easy, but no one ever said that it would be; as long as we can hold on, we can trust that the cycle will be broken.

We have started well. But now we must continue.

Kindess

I preached this in church this morning. It was an all-age service which is why it's a little less formal and shorter than my other sermons. Also, the Prezis included in this post aren't actually the ones that I used in church (because I didn't have enough time to work out how to make the Prezi work in church) but the images are still the same, it's just I used PowerPoint in church rather than Prezi. There are indicators in the text for when to change the 'slide'.

Part 1 - Reflecting God



When we look at ourselves in a mirror, we see just us. This is not the case when God looks at us. When God looks at us, He sees the Holy Spirit within us. [next slide] And that is because when we become Christians, the seed of the Holy Spirit is planted within us and begins to grow. [next slide] What does this mean for us? It means that we become more and more like God each day, in all of His characteristics.  One of these characteristics, the one I'm going to talk about today, [next slide] is kindness.

[next slide] What do we mean by kindness? Kindness really means to go out of your way to be kind to someone; to help them, to make them feel better, or simply just to show that you care about them. So how can we see God's kindness? Well, we look to Jesus. [next slide] Jesus, being fully divine and fully human, is the perfect example of God's kindness in the context of humanity. There were so many things that He did that were just so kind. [next slide] In this passage, we see that Jesus eats with tax collectors and those deemed 'sinners'; those on the very bottom rung of the social ladder, those that others would have ostracised and wouldn't want anything to do with. Jesus actually sat down at ate with them. [next slide] In another passage in Mark, a blind man wants to be healed, but Jesus doesn't do it in front of everyone. He leads the man out of the town to heal him in private. Not only that, but He takes him by the hand and physically leads him out. And this is how we know that God is kind. Because Jesus was kind, God is kind; because God is kind, the Holy Spirit is kind.

[next slide] Which also means that we are kind. If the seed of the Holy Spirit is planted within us, then we reflect God's nature and we have this potential inside of us to be as close to God's true nature as possible. Obviously, we can't be perfect, but we can reflect those characteristics of God and God cannot look at us without seeing the Holy Spirit within us. The Holy Spirit cannot be uprooted from within us. It will always be there, growing and changing who we are day by day, making us more like Him.

Part 2 - Pass It On



I've already said that kindness is going out of your way to be kind. Kindness requires effort. [next slide] And because of this, people assume that it is something we need to achieve. Something we need to strive and struggle for. Sometimes we even make the mistake that we need to get this struggle right in order to be saved. But this is not true. Jesus already secured our salvation on the cross. [next slide] There is a line in a hymn called To God Be the Glory which says, "The vilest offender who truly believes,/ That moment from Jesus, a pardon receives". This basically means that we don't need to do anything extra in order to be saved, as long as we believe.

[next slide] But just because we don't need to struggle to be kind, doesn't mean that it isn't a struggle. Sometimes it can be hard to be kind to that person who isn't very kind to us, or who we don't particularly like. However, kindness is not fuelled by pure will power alone. We have help. Yes, kindness requires a conscious decision, but the Holy Spirit growing within us ensures that it gets easier, that we become more and more kind. You can't plant an acorn in the ground and not expect an oak tree to grow; in the same way, you can't have the Holy Spirit planted within you and not expect all of the characteristics of God - including kindness - to grow within.

[next slide] Another way of looking at kindness as not such a daunting subject is to take one day at a time; one thing at a time. We can think that as soon as we become Christians, a switch is flicked and instantly we need to be all-kind. But growth is gradual. It takes time, and we have to accept God's timing. We don't need to suddenly be all-kind. Apart from anything else, it would be exhausting. Instead, just take things one day at a time. One thing at a time. [next slide] Maybe tomorrow you'll tell your friends to stop gossipping about that other person in your class or at work. Maybe the day after you'll give up your seat on a bus or train to someone who might need it more than you. These little, random acts of kindness can really go a long way.

[next slide] I just want to leave you with this quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson: "To know that one life has breathed a little easier just because you have lived. This is to have succeeded." We don't need to be kind all of the time to everyone. If just one person, from one act of kindness, has been affected and helped, then we can consider ourselves successes for that day. And maybe, just maybe, through that one act of kindness we can create a snowball effect and inspire others to pass it on.

Acts 8:26-40

I gave this sermon at the evening service at my church last Sunday (Sunday 31 March 2013), and it's slightly different to the one that I actually gave up there for two reasons: firstly, because I was working off of notes both when I gave the sermon and when I typed it up, so it's expressed slightly differently than it was when I gave it; and secondly, when I gave my sermon there was a bit that I forgot to say and I didn't realise till I was halfway through, so the bit that I missed out has been included in this version.

The first thing that I noticed about this passage is that it's about journeys. There are two journeys in this story: the journey of Philip, and the journey of the Ethiopian. Philip's journey is one to which he is called by God; He sends an angel to tell Philip to go to the "south desert road", and the Holy Spirit takes him away again to continue his journey from Azotus. The Ethiopians journey is a journey home; he has been to Jerusalem to worship and is coming home when he meets Philip. Once Philip has been taken away, the Ethiopian continues on his journey home.

I'm going to focus on the journey of the Ethiopian, in its three main parts: firstly, when he is alone, coming home from Jerusalem; secondly, when he meets Philip and they travel together; and thirdly, when Philip is taken away and the Ethiopian continues alone again.

The first part of the Ethiopian's journey is when he is coming home from Jerusalem alone, and we are told that he has gone to Jerusalem to worship. However, he doesn't seem like someone who has just been worshipping. You would expect someone who is coming home from worship to be peaceful and full of joy. Yet he isn't; he is confused and frustrated at his lack of understanding of Scripture. It is important to note that the Ethiopian was a eunuch, and most likely a Gentile. Under Jewish law, eunuchs were not allowed to enter the Temple, and so when he got to Jerusalem he was probably turned away and not allowed to worship in the Temple.

The first thing to take away from this passage is that it's okay not to understand Scripture. At the end of this passage, the Ethiopian is baptised and enters into fellowship with Christ, despite his lack of understanding at the beginning. When Scripture is hard to understand, it's easy to just give up and think we'll never get it on our own. But the Ethiopian understood this; he knew that he wouldn't be able to understand unless someone explained it to him. We don't have a Philip who seems to appear out of nowhere to explain Scripture to us, but we can ask God to help us to understand.

The second part of the Ethiopian's journey is when Philip meets him. In this part of the passage, we see inclusion. The Ethiopian, one who has been excluded, invited Philip into his chariot in verse 31 because he knows that Philip can help him to understand what he is reading, and indeed Philip goes on to tell him the Good News, beginning with that very piece of Scripture.

So the second thing to take away from this passage is that Christianity is all-inclusive. In verse 36 the Ethiopian asks if he can be baptised, and at the bottom of the page it says that some manuscripts add verse 37, in which Philip tells him that if he truly believes that Jesus is the Son of God, there is nothing to stop him from being baptised. The Ethiopian, who under the old law was not even allowed into the Temple to worship, is now allowed to be baptised into fellowship with Christ based on pure faith alone in accordance with the new law - which Paul refers to Jesus as in many of the letters.

The third and final part of the journey that the Ethiopian makes in this passage is after he has been baptised. The Holy Spirit takes Philip away, and in verse 39 we read that the Ethiopian never saw Philip again; nevertheless, he "went away rejoicing". Now I don't know about you, but I think I would feel a little confused if the one who had brought me to Christ suddenly disappeared and I never saw them again. I would think, "Wait, I still have more to learn and I need you to teach me". But the Ethiopian doesn't do this; he rejoices. I don't know if any of you know anyone else's testimony, the story of how they became a Christian. A few years ago, at a Christian youth group at my school, we decided to use one of our meetings to tell each other our testimonies. I was sitting next to a girl who I had known for about four years by this point, and she told us her testimony. It was amazing. God had worked wonders in her life to bring her to Him and to Jesus. I listened closely, and I know I should have been thinking, "Wow, God, You've done wonders in her life, and You have shown her how amazing You are. Thank You!" But I wasn't thinking that; I was sitting next to her thinking, "My story is nothing compared to that."

In this passage, as we see the Ethiopian rejoicing, it becomes clear that it almost doesn't matter that Philip was the one who told the Ethiopian about Jesus. God could have sent almost any of the Apostles; that He sent Philip is almost insignificant: the important part is that someone was sent, and that through that person the Ethiopian believed and was baptised. And so the third thing to take away from this passage is that it doesn't matter how we come to Jesus, how we first encounter Him, how we first see Him. It just matters that we do.

Treasure in Clay Pots

Read: 2 Corinthians 4

At first look, this passage seems rather harsh. It speaks of non-believers being blind and that a fundamental part of Christianity is to endure hardships in the name of God. This is mainly what 2 Corinthians is about; the fact that Christians can boast about "the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ" (NIV). The letter was written after Paul's second visit to Corinth, where he discovered that the Christians there were beginning to slip back into their old ways, and was designed as a short, sharp shock to get them to buck up their ideas, to teach them that they didn't need to be quiet about their faith. Being a Christian isn't just believing in the Good News - it's about spreading it as well. At the end of the day, God has chosen to give us this wonderful news and the hope that comes with believing in Christ. God has chosen to give us the Holy Spirit, and the Old Testament has prophecies fulfilled by Jesus that prove His nature and that He was anointed by the Holy Spirit.