Sermon: 2 Peter 1:12-21

Let me ask you a question: How do you know who your parents are? Think about all the trust you put in various people and things just to determine who your own parents are. You trust your parents to know who their child is (and not to lie). You trust that the hospital didn't make a mistake and give your parents the wrong baby. You trust that a DNA test will give the right result. You trust that DNA science is not just a sham made up by scientists to get funding; you trust the scientific community to check itself and be honest about that. You trust that the specific scientist administering the test didn't mess it up or mix it up with something else. You trust them to interpret the results truthfully. And it's not that you just trust one of these things: you trust them all, as a system of fail-safes, to provide the truth to you, the poor person who doesn't know who their parents are.

Let me ask another question: how do you know your parents love you? There's no DNA test for that. Really, all you can do is watch their actions (to see that they're loving) and trust what they say when they tell you they love you (after all, their acts that you think are love might just be part of some big scam or experiment). You can't really know someone's heart - you have to trust what they tell you about it, and measure it against what they do.

Neither of these questions can be solved purely by logic. You have to trust other people, and trust a system that provides you with information. Dealing with God is almost exactly the same - except for two things that I'll get to shortly. But basically, in order to know who God is we need to trust people, and we need to trust a system. And to know how he feels about us, we need to look at what he does, and trust what he says. This is the point of what Peter has written for us in 2 Peter chapter 1.

Now, I should point out before going any further that what Peter has to say about all this isn't a gospel tract. It's not an evangelistic piece written to non-Christians to prove God's existence. If you go to a non-Christian and say, "Hey, here's a list of reasons why you should believe in God and why you should trust that he loves you," they are quite likely to just say, "Yeah, no." There are logical reasons for that: for instance, the more likely a piece of information is going to change your life, the more thoroughly you might scrutinise it. So climate change being real means some huge changes, and a government wouldn't want to make the changes without checking to make sure it's real. But there are also non-logical reasons for it: for instance, you don't want to change your life. Also like climate change: some governments just don't want to do the work to fix things, because other things are more important to them, like giving a billion dollars to a coal mine.

Proving that God exists is not like proving your parents exist. If I asked the question, "How do you know your parents existed?" you could just point to yourself. Logically, a child requires biological parents. There isn't another place for a human to come from. But if someone were to ask, "How do you know God exists?" and I were to answer, "Because everything else exists," that isn't as satisfying, because people aren't prepared to accept that logic. And this is where it's important for us to understand the first big difference between believing your parents exist, and believing that God exists. God doesn't exist in the same way that your parents exist: God's existence is before all other things. Everything but God was created by God. In terms of existence, he's different. So it's not surprising that discovering his existence will be different too.

What does that all mean? Well, to try and boil it down into something a bit simpler, let me put it like this: from a human position, if we try to discover God by first assuming he doesn't exist, our system is broken and we're likely to think God doesn't exist. If we assume that God does exist, then the system suddenly works very differently. God has to be part of the system that reveals him.

Now, that's all a bit of a tangent, because 2 Peter isn't about that. It's written to Christians who according to Peter "already know the great and precious promises of God and are firmly established in the truth". And it's because they know these things that Peter wants to make sure they never forget them. He wants them to know what undergirds these promises of God, what makes them reliable and trustworthy, so that the promises themselves are remembered. This is stuff that Christians need to know; that we need to be reminded of. Peter gives two reasons why we need to know what undergirds these promises: firstly, God's "great and precious promises" are the basis of our ability to participate in the divine nature with God. So that's pretty important. Secondly, as Peter goes on to explain in chapter 2, this knowledge protects us from false teaching, which would so readily pull us away from God and see us vulnerable to exploitation by liars. Mark will talk about that more next week.

So last week you looked at what those great and precious promises are that God has made to us. These are the foundation of the good news about God: obviously that he exists, but also that he loves us, he has come to earth as Jesus to save us, and we can participate in the divine nature with him because of that. That participation in the divine nature to Peter looks like the ability to escape the world of evil desires and to live a life of faith, goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, mutual affection and love.

And these great and precious promises are so great, so precious, that Peter devotes his whole life to making sure not just that his audience knows them, but that they never ever forget them! And so Peter wants to address how we can know that these great and precious promises are true, because he knows that even strong Christians can have times of doubt.

There's nothing wrong with doubt in the Christian life. It's not something to be ashamed of. We're humans, not robots - we don't just live lives of logic, we live lives of emotion and trouble and forgetfulness and pain and hurt, and these things can make us doubt, even doubt God. Peter knows that all too well. He turned his back on Jesus at his arrest three times! And this is Peter, who as he points out saw Jesus at the Transfiguration - saw Jesus in all his heavenly god-splendour. If Peter could turn his back on Jesus after seeing that - the crowning visual expression of Jesus being God - none of us are safe from doubt.

So what does Peter want us to know? He wants us to know how we can trust who God is, and that God loves us. And humanly speaking, that's no easy thing. Think back to parents. The information you would turn to to find out if your parents are your parents is part of a system that is much bigger than just yours parents. It involves doctors, nurses, scientists, a body of learning, a culture of truth-telling - all much bigger than your specific parents. There's a system of fail-safes aimed at getting you the truth. And as for whether they love us, we can only trust what they say and what they do.

But here's the second thing that's different about God: when it comes to learning about God, God is the system, and God made the system. There is no system bigger than God we can refer to. Logic, science, reason - these things are all products of God. God is outside them and prior to them. They're not useless, just limited. Who God is can't be verified against something outside himself because not even truth is outside God: God IS Truth. From a God position, God is the one revealing himself, and the truth about himself, and his love for us, both on a grand level but also on an individual level to people.

Jesus reveals his nature as God at the Transfiguration. More than his birth, more than his death, more even than his resurrection, the Transfiguration is the one time that shows without doubt that Jesus isn't just a prophet, or a teacher, or a miracle worker - he is God incarnate. And that most important revelation is seen by only three people in the whole of history, because that's how God wanted it. You don't get to see it. Neither do I. Nor did the nine other apostles. But Peter saw it. That's the system God chose - a system where three people get the proof, and everyone else gets to hear about it second-hand.

And that's enough. It's enough to put a stamp of approval on everything Jesus says and does as expressing who God is to us. If we need to know who God is, we have Jesus - God as a human being - doing God for us in a way that we can understand because he's doing God as one of us. We can participate in the divine nature because God participated in what it means to be human. That's the great and precious promise - and we can know it to be true, because Jesus was Transfigured, and Peter saw it. Yes, we have to trust Peter. Peter knew he was going to die soon, so he wrote it down. So yes, we have to trust tradition handing down this story to us as written in the Bible. Yes, we have to trust scholars like Penny who translate it from Greek into English. But God is part of that system - the one who Transfigured Jesus in front of those three apostles is the one who brings us Peter's message.

And God reveals himself to us in the Old Testament. The transfiguration speaks to the truth of the Old Testament - Elijah and Moses appear representing the Law and the Prophets! The Old Testament tells us who God is by showing us his power in the creation of all things, by showing us his dealings with humanity, particularly Israel, throughout history - he is a God who makes promises, and keeps them; who gives warnings; who mourns over his people's sins and failures, and yearns to bring them back to himself. It paints a picture for us of the kind of person God is. It's the things that God has done and said that help us judge whether he really loves us or not.

But it's also more than that. Peter tells us that God speaks through the writers of the Old Testament by inspiring them through his Holy Spirit. The Old Testament is a story of how over thousands of years God has spoken into individual people's lives, relating to them, transforming them, speaking through them to others - loving them. Sometimes God is a pillar of fire and cloud, sometimes he's a burning bush, sometimes he's a booming voice from the heavens; and sometimes, he's a small voice in the wind, he's in people's dreams, he is convicting people through his written word, and he is sometimes just in their hearts, telling them what to say or write.

That Holy Spirit, who guided the pens that wrote the Old Testament, is inside each of us. It is the key that unlocks God's word to us - it's like the Holy Spirit from back then talks to the Holy Spirit inside us now and says, "Hey, remember when David was in the wilderness scared and alone, and we spoke that psalm into his mind? That would really help Ben now. Let's unlock it for him." "You remember how full of love Boaz was when he married the widow Ruth? Matt's about to get married; let's increase his understanding of that love." "You remember what Jesus meant when he said 'Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven'? Those Christians in Egypt are getting persecuted pretty badly. Let's connect them with God there."

When times are tough, when things are hard, when you're struggling and suffering and doubt arises, remember that. Remember that God's Holy Spirit is in you. The same Holy Spirit that was with the prophets in the Old Testament; the same Holy Spirit that was with Peter and the New Testament authors; the same Holy Spirit that was with Jesus. How can you trust that God is who he says he is, that he loves us and will keep his great and precious promises? Because God has revealed himself through Jesus Christ to all humanity; and because God speaks to us in the written Bible, inspired by God the Holy Spirit, and God the Holy Spirit inside you will connect you to the truth of God's great and precious promises.  

Sermon: John 12:20-36

John 12:20-36

In our passage today, we hear Jesus address the crowd around him for the last time, and he talks to them about death. It's a very timely topic for Jesus. After this, he will not see the ordinary people of the city of Jerusalem again until he is put on trial and crucified. Before this, he has raised Lazarus from the dead - the most amazing miracle people could imagine - and those who were with him when he did it are spreading news about it to everyone they meet.

Death is an important topic to everyone. Everybody dies, it's universal. Death is a scary thing. Dying for something is sometimes called the ultimate sacrifice, paying the greatest cost.  People respect death's finality. This is why the raising of Lazarus from the dead is so amazing. It breaks the mould! People don't come back from the dead - not after four days. This makes Jesus someone to listen to, and especially when he is talking about death.

But when Jesus is talking about death, he doesn't talk about it in the way it's normally talked about. Jesus talks about death as something fruitful, something that is not final, something that is a necessary step of obedience to God, something that is part of God's plan, but which is followed by more. For Jesus, death is the step before multiplication. He applies this truth about death to himself, and he applies it to his audience.

Jesus applies what he says about death to himself. Jesus says in "31Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. 32And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” 33He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die." In God's economics, a sacrifice must be made first; then comes the good result of multiplication.

Jesus is talking about himself. God wants to save people from rightful punishment for their sin and rebellion. He wants to adopt people as his children, and include them in his family. And to do that, Jesus will die in their place. Without Jesus's death, others cannot be saved, cannot become God's children. But if God's son does die, if he does offer himself as the perfect, innocent replacement for us, then God's people will live forever with him as his children.

It is easy for us to think, "Why must Jesus die? This is not how it should work! It doesn't make sense! Surely there is a better way." That is in fact exactly what the people say, " 34The crowd spoke up, “We have heard from the Law that the Messiah will remain forever, so how can you say, ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up’? Who is this ‘Son of Man’?”"

Imagine if I said to you that if you wanted more of something, you should take what you have of it and bury it in your backyard. You might respond to me, "That is not how it works! If I want another phone, I don't bury my phone in the backyard. If I want another car, I don't bury my car in the ground. If I want more friends, or another child, or more money, I don't bury the ones I have!" That would be a terrible waste, a failure, something to be avoided. There must be a better way.

And you'd be absolutely right. None of those things would work. But what if you want more corn: will burying corn kernels work? I really like hot chillies. If I bury some chilli seeds in the dirt, will I get more chillies? Look for yourself! Of course it works. When you look at what I said generally, it seems crazy. But with the right understanding, if you want the right things, it suddenly makes sense. If you want more chillies, it is in fact the only way to get them - someone is going to have to plant some seeds. You have to give up some seeds to get more chillies. There is no other way.

In the same way, according to Jesus, his death is vital to God's plan.  To us, death is a failure, a terrible waste, something to be avoided. But Jesus's death is not a failure of God's plan. It is a fundamental part of the plan. And when he first says that, we can react by saying "Surely not. That's not how it works." So to help us understand, Jesus talks about farming grain, to show us something where his logic suddenly makes more sense.

23Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds." The only way to grow a crop to harvest is to bury some seeds; and the only way to make people into God's children is for God's son to die and be buried. There is no other way.

Jesus said that. Do you accept it? The crowd didn't! It's not always easy to accept God's truth. Many people think God's system is unfair. People say, "What kind of God lets anyone suffer, and especially his own innocent son?"  Richard Dawkins, a famous atheist, calls Jesus's sacrifice "cosmic child abuse". From a perspective where death is final, where it is scary, where we are powerless to change it, that makes sense.

But Jesus is saying that our understanding is wrong: death is not the end, it is a tool God uses for his glory, because God and God alone has power over death. If you trust God, you trust him to turn the death of his son into a great victory, in a way that only he can. And you can trust God, because Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, because God himself speaks at this moment in the passage to stamp authority on Jesus's words, and ultimately God raises Jesus from the dead himself to show that death is defeated.

Do you believe it? Do you believe that our God is in charge of everything, even death? Do you believe he can turn death into something good - so good that it means eternal life for his children, for us? I hope you do, because what Jesus has to say next is built on that.

Jesus had described how his death will produce fruit - by defeating sin, death and the devil. But Jesus doesn't stop there. He then calls for those listening to him to give up their lives: "25Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me."

What does Jesus mean? If Jesus's death saved us, why do we need to hate our own lives? If we're going to live forever because of Jesus's death, why do we need to make a sacrifice too? If Jesus has died so that we don't have to, why must we give up our lives?

And the answer is this: because there are other people who have not heard this news. Now, Jesus expects us to go out and make disciples.

To understand what Jesus is talking about, we need to look at the first thing that happens in this passage; the event that leads Jesus to say what he says. 20Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the festival. 21They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, with a request. “Sir,” they said, “we would like to see Jesus.” 22Philip went to tell Andrew; Andrew and Philip in turn told Jesus."

Jesus has spent three years on a mission, travelling around the Judaean countryside and telling people who he is:  the Son of Man, God come to earth as a human being. He's been preaching good news, performing miracles, and drawing people to himself, asking them to follow him.

But that time is nearly over. Jesus's mission was always going to culminate in him dying on the cross, because only by the death of the son of God could we be purchased back for our rebellion against God and made into his children. The focus of Jesus's work on earth was never to spread his good news around the world; it was to be the good news worth spreading! And so when these Greeks, who have travelled from far away to come to Jerusalem for the festival, ask if they can meet this Jesus they have heard so much about, Jesus uses that as a sign that his time of preaching is over. Now he begins his walk to the cross.

These aren't the first non-Jews Jesus has met. They aren't even the first Greeks to seek him out. But Jesus uses their request to clearly illustrate a divide - his time preaching to the crowds is over. It's time for him to make his sacrifice.

But it is also a sign for his followers, for God's people. Jesus isn't turning his back on the Greeks - he loves them! In the past he has healed them, revealed himself in the same way he did to Jews! But it is now no longer his role to spread God's message to people. That is now the job of God's people. That is now our job.

And that is what Jesus is talking about when he says we must hate our lives. He's not saying we must hate being alive instead of dead.  Jesus is not saying all who follow him must die like he did; he is saying following him is a way of life that requires giving up all other ways of life - it requires us to give up even the idea that we have a life of our own. And the life that comes from following Jesus is a life devoted to seeing his good news spread to all other people. We are called to bury the life we live that is focused on ourselves so that we can see the fruit of other people hearing God's good news about Jesus.

Paul the apostle discovered this truth for himself. In his letter to the Colossians he describes it as taking up in his own flesh what is lacking in Christ's afflictions. And in his letter to the Galatians he is even more stark, saying : "20I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Paul's life was devoted to seeing Christ's good news made known to all other people. For Paul, the inescapable consequence of Jesus's sacrifice was that as his follower he must likewise sacrifice his life as he lived it to see God's kingdom grow.

 It doesn't mean everyone has to go overseas as a missionary, as Penny and I are doing. It doesn't mean everyone has to quit their jobs or leave their families or drop out of school or put off their retirement. In a way, those like me and Penny who go into full time ministry have it easy. We are almost cheating! It's easy to see how we are giving up our lives for Christ because we are doing it 9 to 5, because we're physically travelling elsewhere. I think it is so much harder to do this living a normal life of work and family in a place like Australia, where our culture drives us to live that normal life for ourselves.

But that's not what we are called to do. We are called to give up our lives; not necessarily in death, but absolutely to God and his plan of adopting people into his family.

And that is so hard! It's so hard to put Jesus first in our lives when that involves a daily grind of work, family, church, rinse, repeat. Sometimes we might think that it would be easier to die for Jesus than to live for him. And we're not alone in that either! Paul says in Philippians that to live is Christ and to die is gain: that he would rather die and be in heaven with Jesus, because that's better by far; but he knows God wants him to hang around because there is still plenty of work for him to do.

Another thing we might think is that if we give up our own life for Jesus's life, we're going to lose out because of everything we might have to give up. This is, I think, the number one thing that stops people in the west from truly living their life for Jesus. People have asked me and Penny how we can possibly give up living in Australia for Africa, give up the time in our life when we are at our peak earning capacity, give up the chance of entering the property market in Sydney, give up friends and family and jobs and futures. Some struggle to give up even a few minutes of their day to pray for others, or a few dollars of their weekly income to support God's work. They think, "If I plant my time and money in God's dirt, they won't grow and multiply into more time and money!"

And of course they're right! Time and money, friends and careers and houses do not grow into a crop by burying them. But God's family does grow that way. And if God's act of burying his own son to welcome you into his family is something you believe and accept, then Jesus says the response you will have is to give up your own life to see that message spread.

Jesus makes it clear: unless you plant a seed in the ground, it will never sprout. But if you let it die and be buried, then many seeds will be produced. If you want a crop, if you want a harvest, you will only get it if you plant the seed. There is no other way. So it is with Jesus, and so it is with us.

If you want a new phone, or a nicer house, or a new car, or more friends, then Jesus does not guarantee you those things. Following his life is as likely to get you what you want as burying those things in the backyard.

But if you want to grow God's kingdom, then the only way is to plant your life as a seed, and watch it die. Only then will your life bear the fruit of many seeds. This is what Jesus means when he says that those who hate their life will keep it for eternal life: not that they somehow save themselves - if they did, then Jesus would not have to die - but that those who really understand what Jesus has done for them are going to hate the life of money and self and children and things, and love the life of growing God's family.

And Jesus brings this message home with an admonition at the end of this passage: "35 Then Jesus told them, “You are going to have the light just a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, before darkness overtakes you. Whoever walks in the dark does not know where they are going. 36 Believe in the light while you have the light, so that you may become children of light.”"

If you have headlights on your car and you are driving down a dark road, why would you not turn your headlights on? Why would you risk that danger? The device you buy comes with instructions - why not read them to help you put it together? The meal you are making has a recipe - Why not follow it to make the meal properly? Usually we ignore the wisdom we've been given because we think we know better. Sometimes that works out, and sometimes it is a big failure.

In the same way, Jesus knows that there is a big temptation to ignore what he’s saying. The difference is Jesus is not giving us instructions for a television or a recipe for a cake. He is talking about life and death and life forever. He is the expert on death and life! We must rely on his message. He has given us the message of God's plan for life - for his own, how God will plant him like a seed so that in his death many will live.  It’s a message that many people don’t like. And he has given us the truth about our lives - that the only way to live a fruitful life is to spread his message. He says we are to devote our lives to that message, and spread it to all people.  And many people don’t like the thought of giving up what they actually want for what they should want – to see people join God’s family.

Not all of us are called to die for Christ. But all of us should be prepared to live for him. Just before Christmas last year I met a woman here in Sydney who was born a Muslim, married a Muslim, and then heard the good message about Jesus and became one of his children, and she has stuck to her guns even when her husband tried to kill her, even when he took her kids away.

She did not die, but now instead has to live a hard life for the sake of the message she believes. She could see her children again if she only dropped Jesus. She could live in the family house. She could be accepted. But that is no choice. Her life is not her own. She knows the truth. How can she live as if she doesn't know it?

And we all face the same situations. Living for Christ doesn't always mean death. But if we're prepared to die for Christ, we should be prepared to do anything else to live for him. Some of us get the call to go on the mission field, or into full-time ministry. Some are called into church leadership. Some are called to spread the message to strangers, some to friends, some to family. Some are called to raise money. Some are called to pray. Most of us are called to do several of these.

I don't know what you are called to specifically, but I do know what we are all called to generally - to love God and love our neighbour; to live and die for the good news of Jesus. If you don't know if you're called by God, then ask another Christian, especially a leader - they can be very perceptive. And pray for it to be revealed. And wait and listen for an answer.

But whether it's praying or donating money or involvement in a ministry or telling others the good news, if you do know God's call and you're not seeking to do it - if you're not prepared to put your life on the line to do it - then you are not living like someone who has the message. You are deliberately driving at night with your headlights turned off.

Now that we have the message, now that we have a calling to live for the message, we must live like that!  So don’t live like you didn't get the message.  You have the truth. Why live as if you do not have it? 

Prayer: The Parable of the Persistent Widow (Deut 10:12-22; Luke 18:1-8)

Heavenly Father,

We cry out to you for justice. It hurts to see weak people oppressed by the strong and careless. It hurts to see the poor downtrodden and taken advantage of because they are struggling to make ends meet. It hurts to see children abused because they have no voice. It hurts to see people marginalised and discriminated against because of political opinions, lifestyle choices, sexual preferences and even their gender. It hurts to see people locked up and mistreated because of their race, and because they are fleeing war and persecution. It hurts, and we feel powerless to do anything against it. We cry to you, God of heaven and earth, for justice.

And we thank you that you are the God of gods, the Lord of lords, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. You are just. You hear the cries of the oppressed, the weak and the vulnerable. You put yourself in their corner - you are their champion. You love foreigners, and you welcome all people to come to you and share in your love and salvation through Jesus Christ. We believe your promise to hear our prayers for the sick, the suffering and those crushed by other people's wickedness.

So we pray. We pray for the millions of refugees displaced around the world. Please give the people of the world your love, grace and mercy for them, and let them be welcomed with open arms into places of safety. We pray for the women, ethnicities and minorities who feel a real fear of persecution after the victory of Donald Trump in the United States. Assure them you will show no partiality and take no bribes. We pray for the people living on unemployment benefits, disability benefits and pensions here in Australia, who feel unfairly targetted by a cost-cutting government. Defend their cause, O God. We pray for those whose suffering is marginalised and silenced by our society: women suffering domestic violence, the disabled and the mentally ill.

We pray especially tonight for our sister Stacey and her family, suffering at this time due to a systemic failure in justice. Please heal Stacey's mother Heather, take away her pain, and provide her with housing. Please give the whole family comfort and strength in this great time of uncertainty and heartbreak. And please let this be an opportunity for her brother Craig to receive the treatment and care be had needed for so long.

Hear the cries for justice of all these peoples, and let them be assured that they will get justice, and quickly.

We pray with the psalmist, "Declare your enemies guilty, O God! Let their intrigues be their downfall. Banish them for their many sins, for they have rebelled against you."

"But let all who take refuge in you be glad; let them ever sing for joy. Spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may rejoice in you." We take heart knowing that you will avenge the suffering of the weak and the oppressed. Help us to show your love to them; to seek to offer them your great refuge. Give us patience as we wait for your swift and terrible justice on the wicked; and give us strength to show you love while we wait.

Amen

Prayer: Abram and Lot (Genesis 13-14)

Heavenly Father,

You come first in everything. Before there was a mote of dust or a sliver of light, before anything was created, you were there. You have always been, always are and will always be. You are the first in power: you have the first say in what happens when, how, by who and why. You provide meaning to all things. And you have the last say: when everything is wrapped up and finished, you will judge and you will be right; and no-one will be able to question it. You are the first in righteousness: you are always right and good and true. There is no shadows in you, no lies, no scheming or deviance. You can always be trusted to have everyone's absolute best interests in your hand; you can make the simple wise, you can turn evil to good, you can turn stubborn hearts towards you, you can make the sick well, the humble exalted and the weak strong. And you are the first in love: before we loved you, before we were even born, you have loved us so powerfully, so intentionally, so perfectly and so fully that you would come to earth as one of us, join us in the trials and troubles of life, to stand with us, to teach us, to reveal yourself to us and to die for us and save us from the wrath we deservedly face. You are first in the resurrected life too: you did not stay dead, but rose again, and in doing so lift up our hearts with hope and assurance that you are victorious. You come first at the very end; your enemies are not your equal. You rise far above them, and you will cast them away so that there will be no more crying, no more pain, no more suffering and no more death.

We stand in awe of you, God. You are amazing from first to last, perfect in every way, and loving without fault. And we thank you that you pour your strength into us through your Spirit so that we can be a part of your amazing work in this world. We pray that through us you might heal the sick, lift up the weak, stand up for the oppressed and rescue the lost. We thank you for every person who comes through our church doors; those who have known you for decades, and those who still aren't quite sure about Jesus. Work in each of our lives so that we might know you more, and be Jesus to others. We pray for every child that comes in contact with our church - in C4K, in scripture, in junior jivers, in Oasis and in WAY - we ask that you will make yourself known to them again and again, and keep knocking on the doors of their hearts so that they might open up and receive Jesus. We pray for those who come to us for comfort, for strength and for help - by your power let us give them what they need in Jesus.

And we pray for all those who might never set foot in our doors; let our own lives be open doors to Jesus for all the people we meet. We pray for the people in our community of Waitara, our city of Sydney, and our country Australia; let them mix and mingle with Jesus through mixing and mingling with us. Let them meet Jesus at the shops, in schools, in the workplace, over shared fences, on public transport and in the street. May we be your ambassadors to many throughout our lives, and may Jesus walk among the people we meet.

And we pray for those who we may never meet; let our lives still speak the name of Jesus to them in every way they can. We pray for those thousands of people whose lives are touched by the Scotts in Taiwan, the Ongs in Malawi, the Compassion kids we support, and every person who receives a bible throuhg the Bible Society. We ask that through our prayers and through the gifts we provide, Jesus will be revealed to people we may never meet in this life. Just as you are first in everything, we ask that you would be first in everything we do and think and say.

Amen

Prayer: The wisdom of hard work (Proverbs)

Heavenly Father,

We are really thankful for work. You are a god who works: who has created all things; who sustains everything; who works hard at relating to people and reaching out to them; who sent Jesus to do the work of closing the gap between people and God by defeating our sin, nailing it to the cross.

You provide all good things for people, and you also have given us a say in how we go about getting those things. You provide us with so many good things to do, and there is so much good that comes from it! We can give people things they need. We can bring joy into people's lives. We can be creative and inventive. We can make a difference in this world. We work in jobs that pay us wages that we use to meet our physical needs, or in our families where children or the sick need care and sustenance and shelter, or in study in order to learn and grow and create future opportunities, or we simply work on cultivating godliness and joy in ourselves and others. You have given us a part to play in our own lives, and the lives of others, so that we can make a difference, and we are thankful.

But we live in a broken world, where it doesn't always work out the way we'd like. You have told us that you have a plan for people and for the world, but we so often see things going against your plan. We want to pray for and commit to you, Lord, people who are unemployed because they cannot get work, or who are too sick to work. We pray for people who don't want to work. We pray for families where the young or the old are neglected and not looked after. We pray for people whose jobs are sometimes boring, or unnecessary, or whose work does not help meet people's good needs, or who are trapped in a job and cannot leave. We pray for those whose work is valuable, but who are underappreciated or forgotten; or who are exploited by their employers or by society. And we pray for those who don't have anything worth doing, or who waste their time and money on things that are pointless, that don't bring joy, or that bring trouble and harm. We pray for those who work for work's sake, and who miss out on the rest that you provide.

None of these things are in your plan, and yet we live in a world where they are so common. We ask you, please Lord, to help us to follow your guidance for work. Help us to help others who are trapped in these problems and troubles of work. And help us not to turn work into an idol, or to trust in our work to solve our problems, but instead to trust you to have everything in hand.  And help us to rest in you; to place things into your hands, look to you for our provision; and to spent quality time with you. Give us the values of your own heart: let us work for your glory, your righteousness, for truth, and for love.

We pray all these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen

Sermon: Psalm 1 - Live Righteously

Once again, I include here not only the sermon itself but also the scribbles of thoughts that I had as I was working it up (you'll find that a little further down) . I hope that is of help!

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"Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked, or stand in the way that sinners take, or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, who meditates on his law day and night." Over two and a half thousand years ago, well before Jesus walked the earth, these words greeted the person who opened the Book of Psalms. Psalm 1 stands at the front of the Book of Psalms as an introduction to the whole book; a message to anyone who would open this book of prayers and songs belonging to the people of God. It encourages the hearer of this psalm, and then of every psalm following, to treat these psalms as God's law, his instruction to his people.

Psalm 1's message is simple: live righteously. This psalm expresses in a few short ideas what it means to live righteously in a world with a righteous God.

Psalm 1 is all about how great it is to live righteously, and what it looks like to live righteously. But interestingly, it has nothing to say about why we should live righteously.

Now you've just heard the psalm read, and you might think, well, hang on, it sounds like the psalm does answer this question - it says the righteous will be blessed. It says everything they do prospers. It says that God watches over their way. Aren't they good reasons to be righteous?

Well, not really. See, living righteously for the sake of personal benefit and gain is like boasting about how humble you are: it's a contradiction. The moment you boast about your humility, you're no longer humble. The moment you start living righteously for personal gain, you're no longer righteous.

So why live righteously? Psalm 1 doesn't really seek to answer this question at all, because in the mind of its author, and in the mind of its readers, the answer is absolutely obvious: you should live righteously because it is the right way to live! That's why it's called being righteous - because its right.

Think about this anti-smoking commercial. Smoking kills. Ads like this have been around for decades. In fact, they have been around for so long that people sometimes ask, Why do we still need these ads? Surely everyone knows by now that smoking kills.

And yet even this ad, stating the obvious, still assumes something - that killing people is bad. This ad doesn't need to explain why something killing you is bad. Everyone knows killing is bad. Psalm 1's message is the same: live righteously, it says. It doesn't need to explain why righteousness is good. Everyone knows that doing the right thing is right - that's why it's called the right thing.

And so maybe we might ask instead the same question that people ask about anti-smoking ads - if the message is so obvious, why say it at all?

And the answer is simple: people still smoke. People still live wickedly - that is, the opposite of righteously. It turns out that knowing something is right is not enough to make someone do it. Pretty much every smoker these days knows that smoking kills, yet they keep smoking. It's human nature that knowing something by itself is often not enough to change our behaviour.

There are other anti-smoking ads that come at it from a different angle. We're told, Every cigarette you don't smoke is doing you good.  Give up smoking for a week, and your sense of taste and smell improves. Now that alone isn't the reason to give up smoking - the reason to give up is because smoking kills. But the other health benefits are an encouragement to quit, and a testament that quitting is truthfully good for you. Again, the ad doesn't need to explain why getting better is a good thing. Being healthier is just good, everyone knows that.

Psalm 1 is like one of these commercials. But instead of being anti-killing and pro-healthy, it is anti-wickedness and pro-righteousness. It is an important and powerful message to us, and so that's what we're going to be looking at today.  That message is, "Live righteously because it is right; and be encouraged that living righteously is good for you, which is helps us know that it is right."

What, then does it mean to live righteously? Psalm 1 says three things: Living Righteously means not living wickedly; Living Righteously means savouring God's instruction; and Living Righteously means living a life that lasts.

Let's start at the beginning, verse 1: "Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked, or stand in the way that sinners take, or sit in the company of mockers." You might notice that the new NIV that I just quoted is a bit different from the old one, "Blessed is he who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of mockers." I like the new translation, because it makes it a bit clearer - this verse is not about someone becoming an obstacle for sinners by blocking their way from sitting in their chair. It's about a person who does not follow the ways of wicked people.

Now, it might seem obvious to say, but it's an important place to start: living righteously means not living wickedly! But the emphasis is on the "living". Look at this verse again: "Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked, or stand in the way that sinners take, or sit in the company of mockers." The simple fact is that everyone lives a life that is made up of both right things and wrong things. You can be faithful to your spouse whilst cheating on taxes. You can work hard to provide for your family, but also be greedy. You can selflessly work to cure blindness in rural Australia and the third world whilst publicly stating that there is no God. Righteousness and wickedness are two parts of every human being's life. We all do things that are against what God's will is.

The question is not "Have you ever done anything wicked?" Perfection is God's standard for salvation - which is precisely why we need Jesus, because we aren't perfect and can't meet that standard. We need to remember that we can't do anything to earn our salvation. God and Jesus have that under control, and thank God for that. Psalm 1 is not calling people to put their faith in God to save them. It is calling people who have already put their trust in God as mighty, majestic and merciful to now change the direction of their life to one that is righteous. Living righteously isn't about living perfectly. Living righteously is about responding to God by striving meet his standard, shaping our lives around doing the right thing for God, for other people, and for ourselves.

Take a moment to reflect on that. Think about your life's compass. A proper compass always points north, no matter what you do. Sometimes there's a mountain in the way though, and you need to go around it, and you might get lost or take a wrong turn, but your compass continues to point north. What determines which way your life points? What determines how you make your decisions? Do you plan your life based on what God wants, on what is right? Or do you just do what everyone else does, or what feels good, or what draws less attention, or what makes you secure?  Well, a proper life's compass points your life towards righteousness. You might take some twists and turns, but if you are living righteously, it means that compass keeps pointing towards righteousness, towards God. If your life's compass is pointing towards anything other than righteousness, then your compass is broken, and you shouldn't follow it.

Verse 2 says this: "But whose delight is in the law of the Lord, who meditates on his law day and night."  Living righteously means savouring God's instruction.  The word translated 'law' in this verse is 'Torah'. When we think of 'Torah', we usually think of the first five books of the Bible - that is, the Old Testament Laws. But the word more correctly means 'instruction' - not so much like instructions for putting something together, but more like the teaching a student receives from a teacher. And God's teaching to us is more than just following laws. As I said, one of the reasons this psalm is first in the book of psalms is because it encourages people to treat these psalms as God's instruction. Of course, nowadays we are blessed to have not just the first five books, not just the psalms, not just the Old Testament, but the whole New Testament as well. And from this collection of books we can discover God's instruction to us.

And it stands to reason that living righteously requires a relationship with God's instruction. After all, where else does righteousness come from, if not God, the righteous one? This is of huge importance: the message of what is righteous and what isn't is contained in God's instruction to us.

So what then do we do with God's instruction? We must savour it. Listen to the words that the psalm uses: "whose delight in the law", "meditates on it day and night." This does not describe simply reading the Bible. There are scholars out there who have read the Bible many times, who know its contents back to front, and who treat it simply as a historical document that has no impact on their lives.

We must savour God's instruction like a tree savours water. Verse 3 says "Such a person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever they do prospers. 4 Not so the wicked; they are like chaff that the wind blows away." Savouring God's instruction includes producing good fruit that comes from his instruction. It includes thriving on his instruction. And it means that what we do will prosper - our actions, based on God's instruction, will achieve God's purposes.

Think about the tastiest thing you've ever had to eat or drink. Not necessarily the most expensive thing, but the most delicious thing.  I love chocolate ice cream. And my favourite chocolate ice cream was Cape Byron Supreme Chocolate Mud Cake ice cream. It was superb. Creamy. Chocolatey. Swirls of mud cake. full of rich flavour, and with a thick body. You don't just eat that kind of ice cream. You savour it. When you're eating it, you dwell on it; it's the most important thing you're doing at that moment; you enjoy the taste, and the texture, and the whole experience. It brings you bliss. And when you aren't eating it, you still think about it. You remember it. You wonder when you'll get to have it again. And when you have something else, you are still thinking about it! You're comparing the quality, the flavour, the creaminess, the price.

And it's not even about how often you have it. I haven't had Cape Byron ice cream in years - they don't make it any more - but I still think about it even now. That's what it means to savour something. And that's what our relationship with God's instruction should be like.

It's about seeking God's instruction from the Bible, but also from books that discuss the Bible, from sermons that explain the Bible, from songs that rephrase the Bible, from seeing people's lives that are shaped by the Bible. God's message, his instruction, exists in all those things. It's about enjoying the fact that when you read it, or hear it, or sing it, or remember it, it is God's very own teaching for your life. It's about recognising its value. It's about thinking about it all the time - not necessarily in a scholarly way, but in a real world practical way, thinking, "How does what God's told me fit into this bit of my life right now?" And it means when you hear other people say different things about how you should live, holding up God's instruction against it and comparing the message, the meaning, the rightness and the impact on how you live righteously.

It's not about how much Bible you read, or how often. Reading it more will help, certainly. But there are very, very few people who get to spend all day every day reading the Bible. Most of us have to work, or go to school, or look after our families. It's about savouring God's teaching when you can - from the Bible, from sermons, from songs, from a book, from talking with other Christians and seeing their life - and valuing that instruction, letting it sink in, mulling it over, deliberating on it, and holding it up as the truth against which other teachings get compared.

Think about a school classroom. Imagine if the teacher simply stood up the front and read out the textbook in a monotone regardless of whether the children were paying attention, misbehaving, asleep, bored, out at lunch - would you send your kids to that school? What about a teacher who used poetry, and music, and games, and stories and activities, who worked as much at keeping the children's attention and enjoyment as providing their instruction - would they be the better teacher?

Think about your relationship to God's instruction.  Does the thought of seeking out God's teaching fill you with joy? Do you delight in reading it, or hearing it? Do you meditate on it and say to yourself, "What does that mean in this situation?" Do you hold it up during your day and say, "How does this compare with what the government is telling me, what my boss is telling me, what the television is telling me?" Because if you're not savouring God's instruction like a tree savours water, then everything you do will eventually dry up and blow away like dry husks left behind after a harvest.

Now we move on to the last two verses: verse 5, "Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For God watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will be destroyed." This psalm transitions beautifully from looking at what it means to live righteously, (blessed are those who don't live wickedly but who savour God's instruction) to what it looks like to live righteously (they savour God's instruction like a tree savours water so they prosper, but those who don't dry up) and now, finally, to what the results of living righteously are (those who don't dry up and blow away, they are not God's people, the follow a path that disappears).

The last big point of psalm 1 is that Living Righteously means living a life that lasts. And that's something we need to hear, because so often we see situations and hear stories where people who are not living righteously seem to be doing really well, while those who are living righteously suffer for doing it! Big companies profit at the expense of child labour while paying no tax, and their shareholders cheer; governments lock up innocent people for months and years in offshore prisons, and their votes increase; people campaign for God to be removed from schools and public discourse, and their voices spread across the airwaves. Meanwhile those who release evidence of corruption and blow the whistle on wrongdoing get forced into exile; those who pray for the release of prisoners are arrested; those who spend their lives healing the poor are kidnapped by terrorists. Where is the blessing? Where is the prosperity?

Psalm 1 lets us look further forward, to see the end result of a righteous life and a wicked life. We're told that the life of the person who lives righteously, the life we should be living, is a life that God watches over. The word for "watches over" has a very personal connotation to it. God knows this way of life, he is familiar with it. He keeps it close to himself, because this is God's way of life - the life we see lived by God on earth as Jesus Christ. It is a life that lasts forever - not because by being righteous we earn our place in eternity with God, but because a righteous life is the life we will be living in that eternity. A righteous life is the life of the eternal God.

But the wicked way of life? It will be destroyed. There is no room in God's eternal kingdom for wickedness. And thank God for that! Greed, lust, murder, theft, corruption, violence, rebellion against God - all of these things are temporary! They don't last! God doesn't just punish those who live that way; he destroys that way of life entirely! And as for those who choose to live wickedly and reject God, they will not stand when judgment comes! They will not fit in with the assembly of the righteous. God has no place for them in his kingdom. And we are reminded of these truths every time we see the wicked get brought down, every time their schemes blow up in their faces, every time they are exposed; we're reminded every time we do the right thing and we see God's plans furthered in people's lives. That's the way it's meant to be, and that's the way it's going to stay.

We started off this morning with the question "why be righteous?" and I said that psalm 1 assumes we know why - because it's right. But the book of psalms actually words the question a different way, which we see following directly after psalm 1. It's no accident that the first words of psalm 2 are this: "Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain? Etc" 

We want to ask the question," Why should we be righteous?" But God puts the question to us, "In the face of a righteous and loving God, why would you be wicked?"

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Big idea: Righteousness is great
Big question: what does it mean to live righteously?

Main points:
1) Living Righteously means not living wickedly
2) Living Righteously means being steeped in God's word
3) Living Righteously brings lasting prosperity
4) Living Righteously is the way of God

Not about why to live righteously - that's kind of meant to be obvious. You can't live righteously because it pays off - that's not righteous! You're meant to live righteously because it is RIGHT. Hence the name.

Psalms are part of the lord's instruction for us. God doesn't just demand rational thought worship, nor just pragmatic hands worship. He expects emotional heart worship.

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We are bombarded by advertising. Everyone wants to tell us why we should do something or not do it, buy something and not something else, what you should eat, what you should wear. They make all kinds of promises. Some of them seem reasonable: come to our dentist and we'll fix your teeth. Others are outlandish: drink Coke, and you will have fun. Some are outright comically ridiculous: wear Lynx body spray, and crowds of women will chase after you.

But you don't often see advertisements like this: Eat food. Stay hydrated. Breathe air. For the vast, vast, vast majority of people, these things don't need to be said. There are some basic things in life that we do because they are a self-evident good. You could make an advert for eating food just like any other ad - eating food will keep you alive. Eating food leads to fun and excitement. One of the key habits of successful people is to eat food. But the truth is we don't really need to tell people to eat food. We eat because it is part of being alive. If someone isn't eating at all, we know something is wrong.

Instead, we might have public service announcements about things that people need to know but otherwise don't - eat healthy food, don't just eat bad food all the time. Drink water, but because there is currently an e coli crisis, make sure you boil it before you drink it from the tap. Don't inhale glue fumes, because they are dangerous.  Or we might use advertising to encourage people to do something they already know but find difficult - smoking is bad, you should quit.

Psalm 1 is a psalm like this. It's talking about a self-evident good - being righteous, or living righteously. It's a short psalm, only six verses, and it stands at the front of the Book of Psalms as an introduction, a message to anyone who would open this book: live righteously. It doesn't say why, because asking why you should live righteously is like asking why you should eat food - the answer is obvious! You eat food because it is food. You live righteously because righteousness is right. A poster that says "Smoking kills" doesn't need to explain why dying is bad. And the first psalm doesn't have to explain why righteousness is right.

Instead, it describes what it means to live righteously.

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Prayer: Unwrapping people (Revelation 6 and 7)

Heavenly Father,

We are amazed at your majesty. You are the God of Eternity, the God of Existence, the God of Power and Greatness and Salvation. You are so much bigger than we can understand or comprehend. And yet you talk to us.  You are so strong that sin and suffering and death are things that you can bat away with the back of your hand. You are so amazing that you can use the prayers of little children to defeat your enemies.

In the face of your greatness, we can only ask why? Why would you even deign to pay any attention to human beings at all? We are just one part of your grand creation. We only live a short time. We cause lots of pain and suffering. We ignore you, and seek to oust you from our lives. We rail against your rightful rule, and rebel against your good and perfect plans.

And yet not only do you listen to us; you love us. You glorify us and honour us with your attention. You make us in your image, and you give us freedom. You choose us, you set us apart. You lift us up over the rest of the earth, giving us power to shape it and change it and improve it; to be creative and innovative, just like you. You deputise us to look after what you have created. You treat us with dignity and respect.

We're sorry that we don't always treat you the same way. We apologise for all that we have done this week that has disrespected you, that has gone against your plans for us, that has caused us to push ourselves away from you. We also pray on behalf of our families, our communities and our leaders, all of whom may have turned against you in some way this week, may have caused harm and injury to others, may have plundered the weak or frustrated the poor, been unjust to the innocent or oppressed the powerless. We come to you pleading for those who are suffering, that you might be with them, comfort them, and bring an end to their sorrow. Tonight in particular we pray for the Chapman family, and for Bruce's recent diagnosis of cancer. We pray for your comfort of their family, your healing of Bruce, and that the hope you give us might bring them joy.

And we thank you that despite all this, you sent your Son to walk as one of us - to be human as we are human; but to be perfect as you are perfect. We thank you that in Jesus we can see the relationship that you so desire from us. And we thank you that you work your perfect plans through his life, his death, and his resurrection. You have redeemed us from the curses of death and judgment by Christ becoming a curse for us. And then you have destroyed these enemies once and for all through his great resurrection. We thank you for your promise to us that there will no longer be crying, there will no longer be mourning, no more hunger, pain or death. What a great God you are to clue us in to your plans, to give us that hope, and to let us start living for you now.

And so we praise you together, Lord Most High. We praise you not as slaves to sin and death, but as children and heirs in your eternal family. Help us, in all that we do, to proclaim your wonderful deeds. May our lives mirror those amazing actions of Christ, so that the earth might be filled with your glory.

In all these things we pray by the authority of Jesus Christ,
Amen

Prayer: Eternity Unwrapped - Revelation 21 and 22

Heavenly Father,

We praise and adore you as the one who is before all things, who always was, always is, and always will be. You have the whole of history at your fingertips, and every day of the future is an open book to you. For you there are no mysteries. And not only do you know all that has happened, all that is happening, and all that will happen, but you hold it all in the palm of your hand. You are the architect of the future, building and furthering your plans through every decision we make, right or wrong. You are so great that you can turn our worst mistakes into your biggest blessings. You even turned our rebellion against you and our denial and murder of your son Jesus Christ into our eternal salvation. You are just that amazing.

But even though you can see the beginning, and the end, and you know what came before, and what will come after, you still dwell here with us in the now. You care about every one of us, and our momentary concerns. You want us to call on you when things get tough. You tell us to ask you when we are sick, to complain to you when life is hard, to question you when things just continually go wrong, and in all that to continue to have faith in you that you've got everything under control. And you do, Lord God. Because you don't hide your plans from us. We hate sickness, we abhore injustice, we avoid pain and we are upset by death. And you have shown us that these things will not last. You will last forever. We know that. But you call us to live with you forever, to live a life with you where there is no sickness, there is no injustice, there is no pain and there is no death. That's your plan, and you have shared it with us. And you have told us that these words are trustworthy and true. Our pain and our shame and our grieving will all be done away with. And we can trust you to do it, because you are our God.

And so we pray to you about all these things, as you have told us to. We pray for the sick in our midst, and those in our lives who are plagued with illness. We pray for those who face injustice, unfairness and oppression, both in our community and across the world. We pray for those who are wracked by pains, whether from physical hurt or from guilt, shame and betrayal. And we pray for those who grieve because of the loss of loved ones. We pray for all these things because we know you care about them. Give comfort and strength, encouragement and support to your people, so that we might see for ourselves these glimpses of your eternal kingdom. And then let us take those lights out into the world, where others might too see your glory through the comfort and strength and encouragement and support we offer others, as we pass on this testimony of your Son that you have given us - the time is coming, and it is coming soon. We praise you because you promise to accept anyone who wishes to take your free offer to live with you forever.  These words are trustworthy and true.

We rejoice in the thought, and we pray together, "Come, Lord Jesus." And we ask that the grace of the Lord Jesus be with your people. Amen.