Pete's Reviews and Sermons: November 2022

Sunday, November 27, 2022

Be Ready

Preached 27 November 2022 at Christ Church, Billericay

Introduction

We were hoping to get our live-streaming up and running for Christmas, but as you heard this morning, the temple already has it, and all nations will stream to it.

OK, attempt at humour over for now.

Advent

Well it’s the first Sunday of advent, so It’s almost mandatory for me to ask “Are you ready for Christmas?” In my case, there are still a lot of preparations to be completed. Christmas will be different this year, we do not have guests flying over, so I will miss two of my grandchildren.

Christmas

Getting ready for Christmas is a lot of work, but at least we know what needs to be prepared and when it needs to be ready for – December 25 every year. That’s easy, though, compared to getting ready for the second coming – which is what our New Testament reading is about.

Day and Hour

First of all we have no idea when it will be, may be today, maybe one hundred years or more. It’s not only that we do not know, it’s that we CANNOT know. Only the Father knows that, and he hasn’t even told His Son. There is so much speculation, and so many have claimed to know the date – they were all wrong, indeed the speculation itself is a sin, because if we were supposed to know, it would be there in black and white.

Just as the days of Noah

In Noah’s time the flood came as a surprise to everyone except Noah. He must have spent months or even years building his boat – it was huge. I remember taking Pathfinders into Chestwood Close to pace out the size. Starting at the boundary between the church and the house, we went all the way down the hill and couldn’t get quite far enough because there were more houses in the way. So the few that knew what Noah was doing must have been doubled up with laughter and his huge construction. Everyone else was just getting on with their lives, doing what they always do.

What will happen

They didn’t know that anything would happen. We at least have some clues as to what will happen. Jesus gives us a small clue:

Mt 24:40,41 Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left.

Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.

But there is no indication of who will be taken, or how it will happen, because that is not the point that Jesus is trying to make. Look back at verse 31 for those details, if you need to know. The point is that there will be a sudden disruption and lives will be changed.

War

If you want to know what that looks like, think of all the reports of the war in Ukraine. How many times do we hear reports of some who were killed and others who escaped death or even injury, and the two were in the same place. For at least some of what He is saying, Jesus may well have been talking about the coming war with the Romans that led to the destruction of the temple in AD 70.

Thief

Jesus’s next example is less apocalyptic. The thief who comes in the night. Many of us have experienced break-ins. In my case, thankfully while we were out of the house, but even that is bad enough, and it always leaves us asking “What could I have done differently?”

I think I’ve shared with you my idea for vats of boiling oil above each of the doors before. I haven’t done it yet because I’m not sure how I’d test it, or if I could afford to keep the oil boiling all the time.

Seriously though, perhaps uniquely in our time we can have camera’s watching so that we can always keep watch, or at least the machine can keep watch for us.

Be ready, keep watch

Anyway, back to the Bible passage. The message is clear – ‘be ready’, ‘keep watch’ because you don’t know when it will happen.

Scouts

The scout's motto is ‘be prepared’, it’s a similar idea. When Baden-Powell, their founder, was asked what they should be prepared for, he said “anything really”. That applies to us too, because we have no idea what we will meet along the way.

But how?

So what does it mean to be ready? How can we always be watchful?

I can only concentrate on something for about 3 hours, then I need a break for food or drink, at that point I can easily lose track of what I’m doing. 3 hours of watchfulness would be a disaster, so I have to create awareness that will last days, weeks, years.

Habit

It has to become a habit. Maybe you’ve heard it takes 21 days to establish a habit. That’s a myth according to the psychology today website, but the idea can still be helpful. It’s about repetition – which will eventually turn into a habit, and doing just one more for the times when you feel like giving up.

Short Accounts

Tom Wright, in his commentary on this passage, suggests keeping ‘short accounts’ with God, that means regular worship, regular prayer, regular bible reading and regularly asking for forgiveness for all the things we do wrong – like for the times when regular becomes more like occasional.

This is good practice, spending some daily time with God, or at least some time with God most days, will certainly help us to stay close and therefore to stay alert.

Good Doctrine

We must also ensure that our beliefs and behaviours don’t slip. It won’t keep us watchful if we spend 15 minutes in prayer and bible reading, then go out and behave just like everyone else. Tomorrow, we’ll have a lot to say sorry for, and again every day, but our standards will slip, and we won’t be ready.

What we believe

It’s important that we are clear about what we believe. I remember one of Margaret’s sermons from quite a while back now, where she explained the importance of the belief in the virgin birth. So, I’ve asked today, that instead of our usual affirmation of faith, we say something together that is a bit more specific about our core Christian beliefs. So, we’ll be saying the Apostles Creed, later. I’m going to read it through for you now, as I do, we should listen carefully and ask ourselves do we really hold this to be true. Maybe we did once, maybe it was important once, but what about now?

Apostles Creed

I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again;
he ascended into heaven,
he is seated at the right hand of the Father,
and he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting.
Amen.

Holy Life

When our beliefs are straight, we will have to live a holy life. Paul writes in Ephesians 5:

³ But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. ⁴ Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. ⁵ For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a person is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. ⁶ Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient. ⁷ Therefore do not be partners with them.

There’s lots more, so please read the whole chapter later. If we follow Paul’s advice, it will have an impact on not only how we behave, but also who we are involved with in all of our relationships in the world and in the church.

Be watchful – the world has changed

This is what it means to be watchful, to be ready for whatever is coming, whether that is the Son of Man, or war, or poverty, or our own demise. The pandemic and the lockdowns that went with it have affected our patterns of worship, and how we do things, that may be a good or a bad thing, but now is the time to take a look and carefully examine what has happened and how we are affected.

To help us do that I would like to suggest an exercise, a piece of ‘homework’, although I hate it when preachers say that, it is a good description of what I’m suggesting.

Testimony

Many of us have been asked to give our testimony at various times. We’ve done it over the years in various Autumn Courses that we have run, and at times when we have prepared ourselves to talk to non-Christians. We start with life before conversion, and talk about what Jesus has done in our lives. Today, though, I’d like to suggest that we write a testimony for ourselves that starts immediately before the pandemic, and looks at what Jesus has done for us through it and since the lockdowns have ended.

The aim is to help us see how things have changed, in our beliefs, our behaviours, our worship, our prayer life, and our Bible reading.

Have things changed for the better or for the worse? We must remain watchful, ready, in the world, in the church, and especially of ourselves.

Amen.

Here's the video of the sermon: https://youtu.be/GFVJTas3p9c

References

https://sermonwriter.com/sermons/isaiah-21-5-king-of-the-mountain-mclarty/

https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/jesus-coming-changes-everything-edward-frey-sermon-on-messianic-prophecies-41265

https://sermons.faithlife.com/sermons/512981-matthew-24:36-44-are-you-ready

https://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2017/05/08/be-prepared-scout-motto-origin/

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/taking-it-easy/202001/how-long-does-it-take-form-new-habit

Sunday, November 06, 2022

The resurrection is everything

Preached at Christ Church, Billericay, 6 November 2022

Intro – The Resurrection is Everything

This morning we have two readings that talk about the resurrection, so I’m going to look at each of them to see what they tell us, and to see that the resurrection is key to our beliefs as Christians.

What Job background

I’ll start with Job, but before we look at the reading today, we’ll have a quick re-cap on Job’s story.

Job had everything – a big family and great wealth. He was also careful to follow all the rules, and present the right sacrifices at the right times, he would even make precautionary sacrifices for his sons – just in case they had sinned, and he didn’t know it.

Satan’s Challenge

One day, God was telling Satan about him, and Satan challenged God to take all the good things from Job to see if he would still worship God in the same way. God allowed Satan to attack Job, but not to kill him. Job knew nothing of this conversation – obviously.

His wealth is taken, his children are killed, and he is afflicted with terrible diseases. Bad things happen to good people.

Job’s friends

Three ‘friends’ arrive to council him, to encourage him to reflect on his life and repent of the evil he has so obviously done. They are an object lesson in how not to help someone in distress. At one point Job’s wife tells him to curse God and die. Just the sort of support you need from your nearest and dearest.

Justice

All Job wants is an opportunity to put his case to God, that he may get justice. By the time we get to chapter 19, Job thinks he will soon die, so he is looking to get justice after his death. In the pagan theology of the time, a personal patron-deity acted as a champion for an individual human, pleading his cause in the council of the gods. In the Book of Job, the angels perform this role.

Personal Justice

That’s not good enough for Job, he wants to put his own words to God.

“Oh, that my words were recorded, that they were written on a scroll, that they were inscribed with an iron tool on lead, or engraved in rock forever!”

The scroll that Job is talking about would probably be made of copper, so whatever medium is used Job’s words will last a long time.

Then Job sees something else. Where this vision came from we are not told, but we know that Job was faithful, so we can assume he knew his scriptures, and he gets just a glimpse of resurrection.

And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!

Job sees a bodily resurrection and his chance to put his case before God and receive justice. It gives him a new hope to go on, something to look forward to through his misery and impending death.

Ending Job’s story

If you don’t know the ending of Job’s story you can read it later, start at chapter 38 and read to the end.

The Sadducees

In our second reading, Jesus is teaching in the temple courts. The Pharisees and Sadducees are asking various questions and hoping to trip Him up. Now it’s the Sadducees turn. The Sadducees focus on the Pentateuch – Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, & Deuteronomy. They do not consider later writings to have the same importance, and they rejected the oral tradition that was taught by the Pharisees.

The ‘gotcha’ question

They do not believe in the resurrection of the dead, and like a lot of people with fixed views, they have ready-made examples to prove their point. In this case, that the resurrection is impossible. So they have a scenario involving 7 brothers. According to Jewish law, if a husband dies childless, his brother must marry his widow and try to provide children for his brother. In their scenario, each of the 7 brothers dies, and finally the widow dies – still childless. So whose wife will she be at the resurrection?

Well, there is no way to answer that, so there cannot be resurrection – God wouldn’t give them laws that can’t be obeyed.

The Answer

Jesus has an answer, of course. He splits life into two ages. The current age, where people marry and live out their lives, and the age to come, after the resurrection, where there is no longer marriage, or death, because the people there are like the angels. They are all God’s children. That answers a part of their question.

Jesus then goes on to explain that even Moses, the key scriptural figure for the Sadducees, recognises that there is resurrection. That’s Exodus 3:6

Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.”

So God is “not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.”

Of course, the listening Pharisees support Jesus in this.

Resurrection – not believable

Jesus makes it plain in many places in the gospels that he will be killed and will rise again. Despite the debates we have looked at between the Sadducees and the Pharisees (and Jesus) the disciples found the resurrection difficult to believe. They were devastated when Jesus was arrested and killed, they may have accepted what the Pharisees said, but they really believed what the Sadducees said.

When the two women went to the tomb to prepare Jesus’ body and found the stone rolled away, they returned quickly to Peter and John and told them what had happened. They were not believed.

When Jesus appeared to his disciples in the locked room, they couldn’t deny that it was Him, but Thomas who was not with them was not convinced. Until, of course, his turn came to meet the risen Jesus, then he believed. Jesus said to him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (John 20:29)

It is perhaps more difficult for us than it was for Thomas. We are not going to get a chance to meet the risen Jesus in the flesh.

My response

I was first introduced to about 30 teenagers at this church in the very early eighties by a colleague. One of the things I had to be sure about was that the claims of the resurrection were reasonable. I wasn’t looking for proof, I was just looking to see if the apparently ridiculous claim that a man rose from the dead was in any way believable – I wasn’t expecting it to be.

I spent many months talking to this friend, the group leaders and another friend not associated with this church before coming to the conclusion that is was not just reasonable but probable. Getting to a level where I could accept it as an article of faith took a bit longer.

Those discussions though were not what finally made me decide to follow Jesus, but without them I wouldn’t have ever got close.

Paul

Belief in the resurrection is critical to all the other beliefs about God and Jesus that we hold. There were people in Corinth who said there was no resurrection – here’s how Paul responded:

1 Cor 15:13 If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.
¹⁴ And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.
¹⁵ More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead.

Has it changed us

I wonder, though, how much has our belief in the resurrection changed us. I remember (rather vaguely, I ashamed to say) an African bishop talking about our health and safety culture and asking why, if we believe in the resurrection, we are so afraid of death.

It wasn’t always like that.

Early church

The famous Roman physician Galen marvelled at the Early Christians’ courage in the face of death: “Their contempt for death is apparent to us every day.” Romans wondered at the courage of Christians in the Colosseum, many of whom faced their martyrdom, singing.

Martyrs

There are countless examples through the ages of Christian Martyrs going cheerfully to their deaths, singing praises to God, knowing that they will meet Him at the resurrection.

Sir Thomas More

There are other example too. Sir Thomas More, who was charged with high treason, is said to have joked with his executioners.

He asked for help ascending the scaffold, but assured his executioner that coming down would not be so much trouble. He even moved his beard out of the way, so it should not be cut, lightly remarking that at least it “hath not committed treason.”

He had once considered becoming a monk, and clearly had a strong faith in the resurrection.

Our Lives

I often wonder how strong my faith would be, should I face persecution and death. I know that we can never really know how we would respond if that situation were to occur.

But we can see how we respond to the lesser threats that we face each day. The ridicule, being ignored or shunned, being passed over for promotion, being pushed out of a job, there are any number of small way that the world can reject us and make our lives less tolerable.

Can we respond positively to those threats, knowing that however difficult this life is, there will be a resurrection, and then we can live with our God as we would like?

Both Paul and James have something to say about our present sufferings, here’s Paul:

Romans 8:18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.

And James:

The resurrection is a critical belief in defining whether we are Christian or not. Perhaps if we had a better appreciation of the resurrection, like Job, if it was as real to us as it was to the early martyrs, if we saw it as clearly as Jesus did, then we would be less concerned with our difficulties and more prepared to openly talk about the things we believe.