Tag: God’s grace

Saturday 31st July 2021: John Funnell

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Genesis 11:1-9 The Tower of Babel

I’m often asked if I can explain the Holy Trinity. God is three: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Three totally separate and defined persons, yet also, at the same time, they are perfectly one. How can three be one? How does this work? Can you explain it? No, the truth of the Trinity is too deep, too profound, beyond our understanding. It proves to us that God is beyond our invention. We can’t make something up we don’t understand. We may not be able to understand the complexities, but we can see the Trinity throughout scripture. We can see the application of the Trinity in our prayer life. We come to the Father, by the Son, through the Holy Spirit. Our worship and salvation is Trinitarian. We know from scripture there is God the Father, God the Son and God, the Holy Spirit, united perfectly in their diversity. We are all wonderfully unique, yet we gather as one. We come with our differences, yet one voice. We are honouring Him as we celebrate 199 years of worship at Penuel.

Our God is three in one and this is expressed in the wonderful diversity of His Church. Together, in love, God the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit created everything. They are Triune. God made us in His image and His image is Triune. As image bearers of a Triune God, we, as human beings, can do amazing things when we unite. We can invent vaccines in record time in a pandemic, we can send people into space. When we unite in God, we can do amazing things.

Genesis 11 is a very famous Bible story, although it is a story that is often taught negatively. But it is a story filled with positive lessons regarding our human potential. We can do amazing things when we come together and unite in one voice. For 199 years Penuel has stood firm for the gospel – one common purpose – to reach the heavens. Nothing is impossible. “And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.” (Genesis 11:6). These are God’s words. Amazing! What an accolade from God’s mouth.

“Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!” (Psalm 133:1).

But as we know, we see here the great Tower of Babel ends up failing. God divides the people through their language and scatters them. God can humble us at any moment. He will humble us if we get carried away. The big question for us is why did God humble the people building the Tower of Babel if they were doing such a good job? Their motive was wrong.

In verse 1 we see the people were moving eastward. Going East is very significant in Biblical narrative. It represents moving away from the presence of God. In chapter 10 we have a table of the nations, the offspring of Noah. This runs chronologically with chapter 11. The people listed in chapter 10 lived during the building of the Tower of Babel. Nimrod, a great builder of cities, was likely to have been involved in the building of the Tower; he lived at the same time and place. Nimrod’s name in Hebrew is ‘rebel.’ It is possible to assume the people were not following God and were following a rebel.

But there are other clues regarding the wrong reasons for building the tower, “Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” (Genesis 11:4). This reason to build the tower goes totally against God’s reason for humanity. In Genesis 1:28 we read that God told Adam and Eve to multiply and scatter, “And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it.” This command was also given to Noah and his sons, “And you, be fruitful and multiply, increase greatly on the earth and multiply in it.” (Genesis 9:7).

God tells the people to scatter, but what do they do? The consolidate and build a tower. They were ignoring God’s command to scatter, therefore, they were going against God’s wishes. So, God rightly and justly undid their work.

Why were they not listening to God and spreading out across the globe? I argue that is was because of fear. If they had scattered, they thought they would be weak and vulnerable, totally reliable on God. They were scared of possibly another flood. God had judged the Earth and flooded it. Catastrophic judgement. A flood happening again was a genuine concern for the people of the Bible. They built the tower with bitumen (v3). God told Noah to use bitumen to waterproof the boat. In their fear and rebellion, the people didn’t want to scatter and so they attempted to protect themselves against God’s judgement, so they waterproofed the tower. They were not trusting God’s covenant promise, they were not trusting in God’s grace.

Friends, the tower of Babel showed what humanity could achieve as image bearers of our Triune God. They build a huge tower to the heavens but God destroyed it and scattered them. Why? Well because, one, arguably, they were following a rebel, Nimrod. Two, definitely, because they were disobedient to God’s command to scatter. Three, they didn’t trust in God’s covenant grace. They were waterproofing. They trusted in themselves instead of going to a God of grace. They were scared and feared another judgement, another flood because they were going against God. They centralised their operations. They tried to get to heaven on their own terms. They should have submitted to His grace, trusting in His provision, looking to the rainbow and live free, abiding His love.

As a church today, right across Wales, we are guilty of doing the same thing. The Church in Wales is in massive decline because of it. We have ageing congregations, we are weak, we are low on numbers and low on resources. As a result, we fear closure, so we have stopped taking risks. We don’t want to scatter, we don’t want to spread ourselves too thin. In our desperation, we have forgotten God’s covenant promise. We really should be trusting in God in our weakness. In our fear we create holy huddles, trying in vain to protect ourselves. We are content to stay in our little chapels, worshipping how we want to. We stay and waterproof. What should we do instead? We should trust in His voice, trust in our weakness that God is gracious. The tower of Babel reminds us of what we can achieve when we work together. “And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.” (Genesis 11:6).

God did not save your soul to build a tower to heaven, to come to God your way. He saved you to go out and take risks, to scatter the gospel, in one voice, in unity, to the community He has called you to serve. Friends, the good news of the gospel, the good news we cherish, is we don’t have to build towers to reach heaven to meet with God. We come to a God who comes down to us, “And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built.” (Genesis 11:5). As Christians, we have Immanuel, God with us. Jesus Christ came down, so we don’t have to build up. It is by His grace, not by our works, that we are saved, so that no man might boast.

 Jesus came down and showed us, in utter weakness on the cross, that all sin and death can be obliterated. He rose again, and promises to be with us until the end of the age. He gave us that promise so that we can do church as God intended – which is to spread ourselves thin, to take risks for the gospel. God prefers that way, doesn’t He? His power is made perfect in our weakness.

Penuel Church, I love you. You are a small congregation in the middle of nowhere, yet you are utterly untied in your faith to keep going. When I come here, I meet with Jesus. He is here. Your faith to keep going, your faith to reach out into the community in your weakness, is a lesson for the church right across Wales. I pray that you will continue to spread yourself thin for the gospel, trusting in God’s ways.

January 13th 2019: Roger Thomas

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roger thomas-jan19Mark 5:1-20

The Gadarene man possessed by demons.

This incident happened quite early on in the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. Prior to this event, Jesus was teaching on the shore of Galilee. He taught thousands through parables. There were so many people there, pressing upon Him, so He had to go on to a boat, facing the shore, to continue teaching the people. In the evening, Jesus and His disciples crossed from the western shore to the eastern shore. They arrived in the country of the Gadarenes. Gadara and nine other cities in the area formed a region known as the Decapolis (In Greek, Deka means ‘ten’ and ‘polis’ means ‘cities’). Most of this region was to the east side of the Jordan River and was a Greco-Roman region.

The Gentiles here kept pigs. To the Jews a pig was an unclean animal; Jews would never keep pigs. To the Gentiles, keeping pigs was no problem.

Jesus and His disciples came to the country of Gadarene. As soon as they arrived a man possessed by demons came out to meet them. He was in a pitiful condition. Reading of this story in Matthew and Luke, as well as Mark, we learn he was a man possessed by demons. A demon is a fallen angel. After the angels were created perfect by God some rebelled against God and were thrown out of heaven. Their chief is the devil. Ephesians 2 tells us they dwell in the air. But in this passage we can also see they live in men, animals or a region. This man was possessed by many demons, a legion. A legion was a name for a division of the Roman army made up of 6000 soldiers, therefore this man had many demons living in him. What was the effect of this possession on the man? Luke says he didn’t live in a house but in the tombs, naked. He was ferocious, a dangerous man. Matthew says that people would avoid going near where he lived because he was so dangerous. He was so strong that he was able to break his shackles and chains into pieces. He’d been like that for a long time. Imagine what he must have looked like. Satan is full of malice, full of hatred. He wants to destroy people. That’s what Revelation 11 tells us. The devil had destroyed the life of this man.

The man knew exactly who Jesus was, calling Him ‘Jesus, Son of the Most High God’ (Mark 5:7). The demons know who Jesus is, they didn’t have any doubt.

Notice the authority Jesus has over these demons. As we go through the passage, we see that when the demon-possessed man saw Jesus he ran and worshipped Him. This man, who no-one could control, bowed down and worshipped Jesus. He cried out, ‘Have you come here to torment us before the time?’ (Matthew 8:29). He is referring to the end of time, when demons will be cast into hell. The demons were worried Jesus would do this now. They begged Him not to do this now, saying, ‘Send us to the pigs; let us enter them’ (Mark 5:12). They did not want to be sent out of the country. They begged Jesus that they enter the pigs, knowing that they needed His permission for this to happen. They could not do it without Jesus’ authority. They had to leave the possessed man but did not wanted to stay in the area. The devil can only do what God allows him to do. Jesus is Lord of kings, rulers, people, angels, over demons and the devil.

Notice the change in this man. After the demons left the man and went into the pigs – 2,000 pigs, they ran violently. Again, see the character of the devil, the stamp of Satan in the pigs as they ran violently into the sea. The people, told by those looking after the pigs what had happened, ‘saw the demon-possessed man … sitting there, clothed and in his right mind’ (Mark 5:15). What a transformation! Jesus had released him from the grip of the evil one. More than that, Jesus had given him new life, He had put spiritual life into his heart. He was born-again. The Holy Spirit had come to live in his heart. He had come to know God. This is why Jesus Christ had crossed the lake – in order to save this man. He was in a Greco-Roman region. The gospel wasn’t only for Jews, the gospel would be for the whole world. The man sat at the feet of Jesus in his right mind. It shows what Jesus can do with a man, what Jesus can do with our society. Do we believe, like this man, that Jesus is the Son of God? Do we believe the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ? To be right with God, to be forgiven of our sins, we need to believe the message of the gospel. The power of Christ gives hope. Look at the change in this man. If we’re not a Christian, we can become a Christian. If we’re a Christian struggling with life, Jesus gives hope.

Look at the response of the people of Gadara, ‘they were afraid’ (Mark 5:15). When the people saw the man they were afraid. Why? There was an awareness in their hearts that something supernatural had happened. You would have thought the people would have been thankful and asked Jesus to stay. However, ‘They began to beg Jesus to depart from the region’ (Mark 5:17). What a blessing they lost! (Jesus did later return to the region, Mark 7:21).

Contrast this with the response of the healed man, who ‘begged Him that he might be with Him’ (Mark 5:18). He believes in God, he is thankful and wants to be with Jesus and serve Him. But Jesus wasn’t willing. Jesus had other plans for him. God has a plan for our lives. It wasn’t God’s plan for him to be a disciple with Jesus, He wants him to go home to his friends, who he would not have seen for a long time, and tell that what Jesus had done. And this is what he does, sharing what Jesus had done for him. What a wonderful testimony. And the people marvelled.

God expects us to share with people what He has done for us. How are we to be witnesses for Christ? ‘In your hearts honour Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defence to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect’ (1 Peter 3:15). Put Christ first in your heart. Always be ready to give the reason for the hope that is within you. Do this with meekness and humility. We are only who we are by God’s grace. We need to live the life of a Christian, doing good works, treating people with love (John 13:35), so that others see the light of Christ.