Tag: mercy

January 26th 2025: Paul Daniel

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Matthew 9:9-13 Whose friend are you?

I’m going to ask you a political, rhetorical question. Do you like Donald Trump? In my work I travel a lot. I go to America once a year. It’s really interesting listening to people’s views on Donald Trump. Some people say they do not like him. However, if you ask the question after he has become president, sometimes people change their answer. They may change their mind about him because he is now in a position of political power and can do things for them. As I get older, I can be friends with someone, but only for a short time. People in politics have a short term of four or five years. The next person can come into power and change what the previous person has done. Your view on people can often depends on what you can get out of them. However, with Jesus you can have a relationship that goes on into eternity. This is to have an everlasting life, beyond death.

  1. The awesome call of Jesus.

When we look at this story of Matthew being called we see we the awesome call of Jesus. Here is an invitation to be a follower of Jesus, not for now but for all eternity. Before this, Jesus calls a paralytic to follow Him. The gospel is full of Jesus calling people from all different walks of life to follow Him. Here, He calls a tax collector. By his very reputation, the tax collector was doing things people didn’t like. He worked for the Romans, took more money than was due and pocketed the rest for himself. Jesus calls sinners, the unexpected, to be His friend. This is what this passage of scripture is all about.

The Pharisees question why Jesus calls sinners to follow Him. Maybe you can think of people in the world, in your community, who you may not like or get along with. We can sometimes have a Pharisee within us. Where can God call people to be His friend? What background, what environment can Jesus reach? As a Christian, think of people that are very difficult to reach. Yet Jesus can do the impossible. Jesus calls Matthew, a tax collector, to follow Him, to become His disciple. That’s what it means to become a Christian – to become a learner. To spend time with Him, to come and ask questions, to learn what it means to follow God. It means to worship God, to glorify Him, and please Him rather than yourself.

Matthew leaves everything behind. He puts Jesus first. He denies himself. In denying himself he is showing that he puts Jesus first. There is a complete transformation. A tax collector’s life would have been someone who was all out for themselves. What does he do? When Jesus was having a meal in Matthew’s house many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with Jesus and His disciples. Incredible! Here is someone who’s showing that they’ve got a complete transformation in the way they think. Rather than thinking about himself, he is showing hospitality. He is throwing a meal in his house.

There is a challenge for us as Christians in how we follow Jesus. Do you remember when you were first converted, when you were thrilled that God had invited you to follow Him? Your eyes were opened. You were shocked that God would be inviting you, knowing what you will like. Maybe you had hidden, secret sins. You wanted to pray, talk to Him. Yet, sometimes a Christian life starts as a big flame, then other challenges come and you were not so enthusiastic to tell your friends about Jesus, to change the way you live. We need to pray about our discipleship.

The call to follow Jesus is not just to be a convert, it’s about learning. As you start a new year, what would you like to learn more of this year? What would you like to learn more of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit? What you want to know more about Jesus, the author and perfecter of life? How do you want to change in your thinking, in your practise?

Matthew throws a great big party. As you know more about Jesus, it should make our appetite want to follow Him move. The awesome call of Jesus.

  • The awesome fellowship with Jesus.

What is the point of the call? It is to be with Jesus, to have friendship with Him. The Bible calls it a reconciliation. God calls us back to Him, to be right with Him. He wants to be with us. We have a relationship with Him.

What do the Pharisees, who were so critical, see? They saw a party. Joy. They saw Jesus enjoying being with sinners and them enjoying being with Him. The awesome fellowship with Jesus. We often talk about what it is like to be a Christian. Sometimes, words are not enough. It needs to be seen. People need to see the difference Jesus has made in our lives.

Is our fellowship with Jesus visible? What does it look like to have fellowship with Jesus, to have your sins forgiven, to testify of the work of the Spirit in your life? The Pharisees saw something they didn’t expect – joy, transformation, a tax collector who was not looking out for himself.

Sometimes, we can be really miserable Christians. What do people see when they see us? Do they see that joy, something different? How do we as churches show we are full of joy? We have a challenge to ourselves. Does the world see the party atmosphere? The awesome fellowship with Jesus.

  • The awesome request from Jesus.

As they have this meal, the Pharisees come, the ones who are full of ritual (v.11). The awesome request is to go and learn (v.13). The Pharisees are incredibly offended. They must be right and Jesus wrong. Fellowship with Jesus offends them. The Pharisees were well- taught but Jesus says, ‘You need to go away and learn what this means,’ “But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13 Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” (v.12-13).

We all need to go away and learn what this means. “For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” (Hosea 6:6). What God wants is not just your repeated sacrifices, but mercy. What is mercy? The way of getting into a relationship with God, that God doesn’t treat us as our sin deserves. He shows us mercy and wants us to be merciful. He does not want hypocrisy. He wants a genuine relationship where we want to worship Him, where we want to be with Him, to have fellowship with Him. He wants a genuine heart. He wants a relationship, not sacrifice. He wants a relationship, not rituals.

Jesus says, ‘Go and learn.’ Isn’t that wonderful? Let’s go and learn what it means to have salvation. Our tradition doesn’t give us a relationship with God. Our religion doesn’t give us a relationship with God. Our Christian heritage doesn’t give us a relationship with God. It is mercy.

Sometimes, we have many things we can do as churches, many outreaches. Be careful what we’re asking people to do. We are inviting people to come to Jesus, sharing what it means to come and follow Jesus. What does Jesus want you to do? It is not what I want, but what does Jesus desire from me. We are called to follow Him. Therefore, we are called to learn from Him. We have many friends but He is the most important friend, Jesus friend of sinners. You and I will fail Him. But God, in His wonderful plan, is patient with us. He is full of compassion. He calls us to come and be His friend.

October 27th 2024: Andrew Bowden

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“And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:30-31.

Our Lord encounters a barrage of questions from the religious establishment. Many are trite, trivial and show shear arrogance and impertinence of men questioning the second person of the Trinity. They have such a sceptical approach. The Bible begins with God questioning man and woman. Adam is asked, ‘Where are you in all this mess?’ There is nothing trivial about the question. We read the Lord will come to seek and save the lost. Christ will be the central figure in the answer, opening up the way in His sacrificial death. That is the gospel. He came to deal decisively with sin.

The second question is to Eve, ‘What is this you have done? Don’t you realise the ramifications?’ The answer from God is what He will do on the cross and Christ will say, “It is finished.”

In the setting here in Mark’s gospel There is formality and hypocrisy before all questions. They lost the essence of the law, which is love. There is a stark contrast of them being so hard-hearted and Jesus reaching out to all. We see grace personified in Jesus. The very one God raised up to be the mediator, in His very demeanour, is so approachable, tender and compassionate. Incredible!

A lawyer steps forward and says to Jesus, ‘Which is the greatest commandment?’ It is like saying, ‘Which of your children do you love the most?’ Jesus comes to the very heart of the law – love is the essence. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” We are looking at our love towards God and how we should love God. The word ‘love’ covers so many things. It is a love, first of all, which is personal – ‘love your God.’

The gospel is not about ritual and ceremony, rules, regulations and robes. The gospel is about a loving, living, dynamic relationship with God. God has made us and created us to respond to stimuli: a sunset, a meadow of spring flowers, crashing waves on a shore. We respond to beauty with awe. The whole earth is full of the glory of God. God is behind it all. If the dawn chorus only happened once a year, no one would go to bed! Yet the human heart does not respond to God with all, wonder and love. Yet we know we are made for something more. We are made to know God in a personal way. We should respond to Calvary and the cross. John 3:16. The love of God towards us, is demonstrated in a way which will stand for all eternity as a thing of wonder.

The response on our part is to take God at His word, (Isaac Watts, ‘When I Survey the wondrous cross). We should have a personal response of love and appreciation, where we love God above all. This is the first and greatest of all the commands, with all the intensity of our being. Is there anything greater than love? (1 Corinthians 13).

Love is not legalistic. Marriage can deteriorate to something functional, having all the passion of yesterday morning’s cornflakes! Remember when you first came to know the Lord, when the Lord’s day came round you came with joyful zeal. You had a passion for prayer, excitement of sharing everything with God. But the passion evaporates, There is no real fire. You have lost your first love. Where has it gone? Where is the love? “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” We are to love with the entirety of our being because God has loved us, given His all for us. The only fitting response is our all – our talent, our time, our gifts, our resources – all used for His glory. Use everything to the glory of God and please Him above all else.

Paul addresses losing heart. The heart is all; it is where your deepest thinking goes on. The Christian life is not something imposed upon us. It is not outward but inward. Work out your salvation. It is God who is at work in you. When something is from the heart it is the driving force. How can anything material satisfy when there is a spiritual appetite for God and His word? Every breath we take is to make known the wonder of His Saviour. I praise my Maker while I have breath.

Live for Him. Breathe for Him with all your mind. Do you realise how heavenly a gift your mind is? Tozer writes, ‘There is an inner beauty in truth and a deliciousness in truth and she invites you, she beckons you into an enchanted world.’

We are so blessed with literature. There is so much available to us. We need to serve the lord with all our mind. Sing psalms and hymns which stretch us and our minds.

Love has another dimension. It is not just something that is vertical, it is horizontal. We are meant to be channels, conduits of the love of God, shown towards others. How can someone who has known such grace not, in turn, be gracious? How can somebody who has known such pardoning, such mercy, not in turn be merciful? How can someone who has come to adore the wonder and kindness of God not be good and kind in relating to others?

If we really love God we are meant to show the love of God. In the early church a people emerged who were wholesome, clean, attractive, principled and pure. That is what impacted the life of the early church. There was a spirit of love, compassion and grace.

October 20th 2024: Gareth Edwards

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Luke 18:9-14 The Pharisee and the Tax Collector – which are you?

I want to take you back to school and exams. We looked forward to exam time! Probably not! A favourite way of phrasing a question was ‘compare and contrast.’ That is exactly what Jesus does in this parable; He compares and contrasts a Pharisee and a tax collector. Although it is a parable, it may be based on a real event. Whether it really happened or was a story, we know it is realistic. We have written examples of the prayers of some Pharisees which bear a remarkable resemblance to this Pharisee’s prayer. This is very realistic.

We see two men in the same place – the temple. They are both doing the same thing – praying. But that is as far as the similarity goes. These two men are poles apart. Which of these two men are we like? We may want to say we are not one or the other. But the truth is everyone of us is either one or the other.

First, let us look at the Pharisee. He is full of himself. Standing was a normal posture for prayer. But what is abnormal is the nature of this man’s prayer. He addresses God and initially refers to the Lord. But subsequently, he never refers to the Lord again. The Pharisee is talking to himself about himself. He is congratulating himself. There is no confession of sin, of seeking forgiveness. He stands in the presence of a holy God yet feels no sense of guilt. When Isaiah is in the temple and God’s presence is so real, Isaiah can only confess he is a man of unclean lips (Isaiah 6:1-5). In Luke 5:8 Simon Peter fell to his knees saying, ““Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” In the presence of divine power, Peter can only humbly bow, acknowledging his sin.

This Pharisee, in his pride, praises himself for avoiding the vices so prevalent in others. Then he parades how devoted to his religion he is. The Old Testament only required fasting for one day a year, on the day of Atonement. But the Pharisee voluntarily fasted twice a week (Monday and Thursday). The law required certain crops to be tithed (Deuteronomy 14:22). But the Pharisees went further, even tithing the herbs from the garden. This went way beyond what was required and expected, in order to establish their righteousness and to parade their religious devotion. What the Pharisees said was no doubt true, but he does not see the sin in his heart undoes all his deeds. The Pharisee despises the tax collector and many others.

Pride is always a sin and a mistake. It is the deadliest of sins. We live in an age when we are told to love ourselves, we are not to be down on ourselves. That means we are encouraged to compare ourselves favourably to others. That increases our pride. There can be no pride when we compare ourselves to the righteousness of God. When we compare ourselves to the Lord Jesus Christ, to His perfect, sinless life, there can be no pride. There can be no pride in a Christian.

The deadliest form of pride is religious pride. It is the most deceptive lie. It is the cause of many being condemned to eternal damnation in hell. It is the most dangerous thing in the world to think we are acceptable to God because we go to church, we pray, read the bible, do good works and serve him. None of these compensate for the overwhelming sinfulness of our lives. We can never earn our salvation. Being proud is natural, the normal inclination of our hearts.

Let us consider the tax collector. He is also full, but not full of himself – he is full of repentance. This man knows and feels his sin. Whereas the Pharisee despised others, the tax collector despised himself and acknowledged he is a sinner. Tax collectors with doubly hated: They were regarded as collaborators with the Roman authority, and also regarded as thieves. Although despised by others as a traitor, none despised this man more than himself. He is ashamed of himself.

We see in the tax collector three things:

Firstly, He stands at a distance. He goes to the far corner of the temple, far away from the holy of holies, to pray. He does not come close to the presence of God. Secondly, he does not even lift up his eyes to heaven. Thirdly, he continually beats his chest as a demonstration of remorse for his sin. He knows he can do nothing other than hope that God would have pity on him, a sinner, “But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’”(v.13).

To be merciful is to be propitiated. It’s not a word that is familiar to people today. It is a Bible word which means to remove wrath, for god’s anger to be redirected away onto another. The tax collector knows he cannot escape God’s wrath. He can only hope God will lovingly turn His wrath away from him. He knows he does not deserve mercy but he asks for it anyway.

Have you felt the weight of your sin, the enormity of your rebellion against God? You must come under the conviction of your sin, acknowledge your sin. In Matthew chapter 5 Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” This does not mean poor in material terms – blessed are those who know they are spiritually bankrupt before God. Jesus goes on to say, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” This refers to those who mourn deeply for their sin. They know the depths of the corruption that is theirs and they grieve how they have offended a holy God.

We must accept we are Pharisees by nature and justly the object of God’s wrath, that we are the tax collectors and sinners by nature and justly deserve God’s wrath, before we can even begin to hope that He will have mercy on us. We can have mercy because He showed no mercy to His beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He died in our place on the cross bearing the responsibility for our sin.

Jesus propitiated God’s wrath at Calvary. God’s just wrath against my sin was mercifully turned away from me and consumed Jesus in my place. My sin was paid in full at the Saviour’s death. God’s wrath burnt itself out on Jesus as He was condemned in my place. Our only hope of mercy is found in repenting of our sin and trusting in Jesus Christ alone. There can be no pride, only brokenness.

Jesus said it is the tax collector, not the Pharisee, who returns home from the temple justified – acquitted of all his sin, reckoned to be righteous. He is penitent therefore he is justified. He alone of the two is viewed as if he had never sinned at all. The Pharisee saw himself as being righteous but in fact was full of sinful pride, whilst the tax collector knew he was full of sin but he is declared righteous.

Here is the greatest contrast of all between the two men, a turning of the tables. The proud Pharisee is humbled whilst the humbled tax collector is exalted. That is God’s way. In James 4:6 we read, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” God confounds human expectation. It is not the self-confident religious who is saved but the penitent sinner.

It is only safe for you and I to be on our knees, lest the wind of God’s wrath should blow us to eternal damnation. We have to stay on our knees, not just in prayer, but constantly remind ourselves, ‘on your knees.’

Each of us needs to be justified, to be declared righteous. This is only possible if we are clothed in the perfect righteousness of Christ. There is no other way to know forgiveness of sin except to take Jesus Christ as our Saviour. Will you repent of your sin and trust in Jesus Christ for salvation today? Now? Will you be on your knees now? You don’t have to do this physically. Be humbled before God, as you are convicted of your sin, and cry out, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ The penitent sinner who humbly seeks God’s mercy will find it because of the life and death of Jesus.

We cannot earn mercy but we can receive it if we humble ourselves, confess our sin and depend totally on Jesus. Have you done so?

The Pharisee or the tax collector – which are you? It is for you and God. Make sure that if you are being a Pharisee, you are a tax collector humbled before God, trusting in Christ for forgiveness. It is the only way. May those of us who have been humbled by God’s grace be like the tax collector. May His continuing grace to us keep lest we stray to be a bit like the Pharisee.

August 8th 2021: John Mann

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Mark 7:31-37: A Saving Appointment with the Lord Jesus Christ

The gospels are filled with the miracles of the Lord Jesus Christ, as he confirmed the truth of who He claimed to be and who He is. We thank God for the accounts of the many miracles of Jesus that we read about and learn from.

As Jesus travelled through the area where He was, we read of many miracles. In chapter 5 we read of Jesus travelling through the region of the Gerasenes and we read of the healing of the demoniac who lived among the graves. Jesus healed that man. There is no other mention of anything else done in that particular account, no other incidents there.

 Immediately Jesus gets back in the boat and travels across the lake and there he meets with another two individuals who are in need: Jairus and his daughter who had died, and the woman who had suffered a bleed for twelve years. Jesus deals with them both. The woman is healed and Jairus’ daughter is brought back from the dead. There are no other mentions of other incidents in that particular area.

In chapter 7 Jesus travels another 30 miles, may be on foot, to Syro-Phoenicia and heals a Syro-Phoenician woman. There is no other mention of any other healing here. It seems that Jesus is keeping appointments with people to heal. He seeks out those who need His healing touch. At the same time, we realise these people have to be where Jesus is coming to find Him. They are desperate for answers, they want to find Jesus, only to find that He was ready to meet their need.

Salvation begins with people feeling the need for forgiveness and reconciliation. In loving kindness Jesus responds. He brings forgiveness and healing. The Lord Jesus Christ has called us to Himself. We find in salvation, He has come for us, granted us healing and deliverance from our sin. Have you had a personal appointment with the Lord Jesus Christ? Have you sought Him out?

Jesus is on His way back to the Decapolis. We have to ask ourselves why he would go back. His first visit hardly felt like a needy return. The people pleaded with Him to leave. He wasn’t welcome. Aren’t you glad that Jesus didn’t leave you when you first rejected Him? Aren’t you so grateful He never gave up on you? Jesus returned because He had an appointment. This should fill us with hope for loved ones who reject Him. He is able to save and to heal. Jesus is still saying, ‘I have an appointment with that person.’

This return visit will be different (v37). It is only the amazing loving kindness and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ can turn ‘Get out of our region’ to ‘He has done well.’ In verse 32 we see another person in desperate need, a man who is deaf and has lost the ability to speak. He lives in an isolated, silent world of his own, relying on others for his daily needs. In their care they take him to where Jesus is. The deaf and mute man must have been confused, wondering where they were taking him. He can see others are excited but doesn’t know why. His problem has cut him off from society.

Here is a picture of our spiritual condition before we know the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you remember a time when you were deaf to the gospel? When your physical ears heard but your spiritual ears were deaf? A time when the gospel went in through one ear and out through the other in spiritual deafness? This results in spiritual muteness, having nothing to say about the Lord Jesus Christ, no time to praise Him, being cut off from God. Our spiritual condition meant we could understand what it was all about. Sadly, in many of our churches this morning, the gospel goes in one ear and out of another. There is a world of difference between hearing and understanding.

The beauty of this miracle is Jesus came to open the lines of communication of our spiritual ears. The gospel is the truth. But in our natural condition we are deaf to its meaning unless we come to Christ. Then, by the power of the Holy Spirit, our ears are opened. We become hearers and experiencers of the gospel.

People took the time to take this deaf man to Jesus. Do you give thanks to people who lead you to the man who could heal you, when Jesus said to you personally, “Ephphatha! Be opened.”

These are pictures of the need of our day. The people had a heart to bring someone to Christ. Are we among the ‘some people’ bringing others to Jesus, or bringing Jesus to others through our testimony, our lives, our witness? We are called to reach our loved ones and neighbours by our testimony. How determined are we to take others to Jesus?

Do we notice how serious these people are? They begged Jesus to heal him (v.32). They believed Him. Are we begging Jesus to save others in our community? They were determined for him to know the healing power of Jesus. Can you imagine the man’s joy when Jesus heals him? Suddenly he hears for the first time. Are you filled with joy when you hear someone has been saved? There is joy for the deaf man and joy for the men who took him to Jesus. Do you thank God for the people who went out of their way to bring you to Jesus?

Jesus took the man aside (v33). Here we see this personal aspect of salvation. We are not forgiven as a group. Jesus wants a personal relationship. He takes us out of the crowd to have a personal appointment with Him. Jesus draws us aside from the company of others, from the distractions all around us. He says, ‘Will you accept me as your own Lord and Saviour?’

Then Jesus does this unusual thing. “Jesus put His fingers into the man’s ears. Then He spat and touched the man’s tongue.” (Mark 7:33). Why does Jesus do these strange actions? Jesus deals with each of us according to our own need. We come with our individual fears and doubts. What is the best way to connect with a deaf man? Sign language. Jesus touches the man’s ears and lips. He knows what the problem is, and He knows what the answer is. This would have caused many to resist, but not this man. He accepts the Lord Jesus Christ without turning away.

There are many people who know something is missing from their lives and may come looking to Jesus for an answer, but who are not willing to come without reserve. They want to be healed but not have an intimate relationship with a Saviour. They have missed the opportunity to be saved. But not this man. Whatever Jesus decided to do, this man puts his faith in Him. In this miracle, it is almost as if Jesus is kissing away the problem. We need to place ourselves into the hands of the only one who can heal our spiritual need.

Jesus looked up to heaven and sighed deeply when he said, “Ephphatha.” He has a deep love and concern in his heart for this man as He looks to heaven for his healing. He sighs with the same compassion He has for every one of us. Our healing is His passion. Salvation is the passion of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is why He came, that is why He was willing to suffer the scorn, the mocking, the rejection, the beating, the crucifixion and having God’s wrath poured out upon Him – because His passion is to save souls and to make us well. This is what Peter says, ‘He Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree so that we might die to sin and live for righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed.’

If you are a believer this morning, it is not through anything you have been able to offer, nothing that you have done, no righteousness of your own. This deaf man had no possibility, not a hope of healing himself. There was nothing that he could bring to Jesus, that Jesus could say, ‘Well, I’ll help you, you’ve gone so far I’ll bring you the rest of the way.’ The man was helpless, powerless and hopeless, just as we are, outside of Christ. There is nothing we can bring whereby we can say, ‘I’ve made a contribution.’

We are totally dependent on the mercy and grace of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. We can just imagine what the man was saying when he began to speak (v.35). He would be speaking His praise. Jesus came and suffered and died so people like you and me could have our ears unblocked, to have our dead hearts brought to life.

Have you known a saving, personal appointment with Jesus? What words are on your lips?

March 15th 2020: Tom Baker

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Tom Baker - March 2020-Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity
    and passing over transgression
    for the remnant of his inheritance?
He does not retain his anger forever,
    because he delights in steadfast love.
He will again have compassion on us;
    he will tread our iniquities underfoot.
You will cast all our sins
    into the depths of the sea.
You will show faithfulness to Jacob
    and steadfast love to Abraham,
as you have sworn to our fathers
    from the days of old.

Micah 7:18-20

Micah is not a well-known book. Micah is not a well-known man. Unlike most people in the Old Testament, we are not told his family name, who his father was. He was a nobody, not from an impressive family. We are told he came from Moresheth, about 22 mile from Jerusalem. Isaiah was in the city of Jerusalem at this time. Moresheth was a small, forgotten place in the countryside, in the middle of nowhere. But Micah is not concerned with knowing who Micah is. His theme is us knowing who God is. Is this your testimony? You are not concerned with people knowing who you are but about who God is? Or are you obsessed with yourself – either being terribly arrogant or terribly despairing – thinking too much or too little of yourself? Do you know the freedom of turning away from yourself and turning to God?

Micah’s name means ‘Who is like the Lord?’ Micah starts and finishes his book with this. His name follows him and tells him who he is. Micah here is determined to preach to us God in all His glory. Who is like Him? He is speaking particularly of what he sees; God’s people have sinned in a number of ways. There is rampant idolatry, turning to lesser gods than their own. There is a particular issue with the corruption of the leaders of the nation. To make it worse, they sin in that they offer sacrifices to God without any humble repentance, just going through rituals. But Micah has also seen the greatness of God revealed in great judgement against His people. God, as He administers that judgement, feels a deep compassion. It grieves Him to see that. We see a great one who will take chaos and sin and put it all right, someone who will be a great ruler, righteous and holy. We see the great deliverer and salvation that He will provide.

Today, we still live in a messy world with messy lives, but He is still a great God and still great salvation is available in Him today. Micah saw Him and he was amazed. Are we? God is greatly to be praised. He is greatly to be feared. Some may not like this, but there is nothing more fearful than the love of God. God is to be feared because He is a God of love; you can stand on the rocks on the cliff face  at St. Davids and be fearful, yet still in awe of lies before you. God is great. We fear the sheer size of Him. There is nothing at all in existence that is greater than the love of God. When we first see the love of God our reaction is ‘Wow!’ Micah sees the great God says, “Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love.” (Micah 7:18).

He is a God who is infinite in every way: in His holiness, knowledge and power. He always has been a great God and always will be. Every great thing you have ever seen, He made it. Everything belongs to Him. He is greater than all of it put together.

Perhaps the most distinctive, amazing thing about God is He is a God of mercy, showing love to His people.

Let us explore:

  1. The mercy of God
  2. The faithfulness of God.

 

  1. The mercy of God. God sees us and our sin and still He loves us. Micah saw God’s people and their offences against God. We have offended God in many ways. Micah highlights our iniquity (our twistedness), our transgressions (our lawbreaking, doing what we known we should not do) and our sin (falling short). Because we are a sinful people, even the best we offer falls short. When see our offence, we see all this together.

Like those of Micah’s day we have turned away from God. Our great offence against God is simply we fail to acknowledge God and give Him the honour He deserves. We happily receive the things from His hand but wish He would clear off. We have failed to acknowledge God for how great He is. We attempt to solve our problems ourselves. We think more of ourselves than we ought to, thinking we do not need Him. God should be angry with us. We get angry with people who have offended us, God is angry with His people who have turned from Him. We are those people. All have sinned and are under His judgement. Micah is all the more amazed when he sees God is a God of mercy. He pardons them and removes all their guilt. It’s amazing!

Micah picks out two lovely images of how God deals with our sin, “He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea,” (Micah 7:19). He treads our sin underfoot and casts it into the depths of the sea. As Jesus hung on the cross, He took all our sin. God crushed our sin. Christ was cut off and died so we wouldn’t. He took it on Himself. God stamped out all my sin. He casts our sin into the depths of the sea, He takes it all and throws it into the deepest part of the sea – all of them, so they can’t come back. All sin, even the ones you are most ashamed of and the ones you can’t even remember, are cast away, never to return.

Are you still carrying your sin or has it been laid on Jesus Christ? Do you still carry a sense of guilt and try and make it up to God? Take it all to Him. And if you’ve done that, leave it there. Christ has dealt with it. Don’t feel you need to tidy up your life first. Come to Jesus Christ in all your need, see the great mercy that He displays – most strikingly at Calvary. The first thing He says on the cross is, “Father, forgive them,” (Luke 23:34). See the mercy of God. Lay hold of the grace of God, know His love for Jesus’ sake.

  1. The faithfulness of God. Great is His faithfulness. Not only does He see His people in sin and shows them love anyway, but He stands by them anyway. He is firmly committed to them and will be with them forever. We see two things:
    (i) the temporary anger of God and
    (ii) the permanent smile and favour of God.
  • The temporary anger of God is a just anger. He is angry with sinners. Some will reject Him forever. Yet that anger can be turned away; Christ has turned it away from all those who belong to Him. He bore it. I deserved it but Christ turned it to Himself.
  • Those who trust in Jesus Christ never have to face the anger of God. Instead, the Christian knows the permanent smile and favour of God. Why? He is a God who delights in steadfast love. What makes God happy? To show eternal steadfast love to sinners. It is mind-blowing! It is Life changing! God loves you because He enjoys it. He has bound Himself to you – not because He has too, but because He wants to.

How do you imagine God looks at you – smiling or frowning? If you are in the Lord Jesus Christ you can know the smile of God, unchanging, forever. God shows that same favour towards His Son. He always has and always will. He is proud of Him. When He sees His Son it just makes Him smile. If you are in the Lord Jesus Christ that is the same for you. He is faithful.

Why does God stick with you? Because you belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. How much faithfulness will He show? Even when Christ was dead and buried, He brings His Son up from the dead. There is nothing now that could take Him from us. We can never lose His favour if we belong to Jesus Christ, “And I am sure of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ,” (Philippians 1:6). He started loving you, He is not going to stop!

“Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance?” (Micah 7:18-20). Then Micah ends. There is no response, just resounding silence . . . because there is no-one like Him in all the earth. What a Saviour He is. There is no-one like Jesus!

 

June 30th 2019: Ian Middlemist

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Ian Middlemist-November 2018John 8:1-11

The first time you picked up a Bible, as you opened the pages you thought you were studying it. You were encouraged to get into the Bible. But notice, as you grow older as a Christian the Bible is studying you, revealing truths about yourself. The Bible examines you. The book speaks about you. It was written over 2,000 years ago but is scans us inside and out. God knows breathing out this Word, every sin, every thought, every word, everything I have done. There is nothing we can hide from Him. God deals with guilt on the basis of grace and truth.

This scripture passage speaks powerfully to our situations. The Scribes and Pharisees judged the woman according to the law, which clearly condemned her. All of us, like this woman, have been caught in an act of sin and stand condemned in front of God’s holy law. To be caught in the act of adultery meant that the act had to be witnessed, to be actually seen going through the physical movement that could be capable of no other explanation. A compromising situation, such as leaving a hotel room together, would not have been good enough in a Jewish court. It was very likely the Scribes and Pharisees had set a trap to catch this woman so that they could catch Jesus in the horns of a dilemma and get rid of Him. There was a clear motive. Either Jesus would have agreed the woman should be stoned or Jesus would have shown her mercy and would be soft on sin, not upholding the Law of Moses. It was a deliberate trap. They only brought one sinner to Jesus. Why was the man not brought to Him? You can’t commit adultery alone. Maybe he was on the side of the Scribes and Pharisees? We don’t know.

All of us, like this woman, have been caught in the act of sin. We have all had the humiliating experience of getting caught doing something we know was wrong. No matter what the sin, it is always embarrassing. This woman was not only caught in the act of adultery but then dragged into the temple, of all places! All the people would have examined her like a piece of meat. Worse, they accused her in front of Jesus. They were pushing for the ultimate punishment – the act of execution. Even if we manage to keep our sin hidden from others, before God all of our lives are laid bare, ‘And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account,’ (Hebrews 4:13). He knows every simple thought we secretly entertain, every swear word, every hatred – not letting go of those who have wronged us, sin we commit when we’re alone, when we’re away in another city, He knows it all. The reality is every single one of us is caught in the act by God.

Religious people are just as guilty of sin as openly immoral people. We tend to look on the woman in the story as a great sinner and overlook the fact that the Scribes and Pharisees are just as evil, even more so. Clearly, they didn’t care about this woman at all. They could have held her in private custody but they didn’t. She was just a pawn. Their concern is not for holiness in society but to get rid of Jesus. Even more serious, these religious leaders were sinning against the sinless Jesus. They weren’t concerned about God’s honour, but in all they did they sought to kill and get rid of the Son of God. What could be worse? They weren’t using scripture to judge themselves, just pointing the finger against the woman and Jesus. Religious people are just as guilty of sin as openly criminal people are. Paul builds such a case in Romans, ‘For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,’ (Romans 3:23). Who do we identify most with in this passage – the adulterous woman or the self-righteous Scribes and Pharisees?

If God is full of love and grace how can He show mercy to sinners and uphold His justice? Nowhere in the story does Jesus condone this woman’s sin, but He shows grace. He applies God’s law and truth to them. The Scribes and Pharisees came armed with the law to test Jesus. Jesus responds by stooping down and writing in the ground with His finger. This is the only place in the Bible where Jesus actually writes anything. What did He write? No-one knows. When He says, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her,” (John 8:7) He wasn’t saying judges need to be sinless. Rather, Jesus was applying what He taught in Matthew 7. The Scribes and Pharisees were hypocritical and were sinfully using this woman and Jesus to condemn her.

The starting place for receiving mercy is to be convicted by God’s holy law so that you are able to say, with the apostle Paul, that you are the chief of sinners. Jesus gives the law to the self-righteous but offers grace to broken sinners who repent. The law reveals your sin but the law cannot offer grace and forgiveness. We can infer by Jesus’ gracious words to the woman that He offered her grace. Are we gracious and show compassion? God’s justice is upheld. He can be both gracious to sinners and uphold justice at the same time. Jesus was a sacrifice for sin so that God’s justice could be satisfied, ‘It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus,’ (Romans 3:26). His death satisfies God’s wrath on our behalf.

The only sinless person in the temple that day who would have legitimately thrown a stone at the adulterous showed mercy. Trust in Jesus.

God’s grace then is the basis of a holy life. Jesus said to the guilty woman, “Go, and from now on sin no more,” (John 8:11). He doesn’t say, ‘Go your way, sin no more and I will not condemn you.’ There’s nothing you can do to make yourself righteous. Her pardon was the motivation to change. There’s nothing you can do to obtain justification. God grants forgiveness as a free gift, free grace becomes the motive for living in holiness. ‘What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?’ (Romans 6:1-2). God’s amazing grace is the greatest motive for living a holy life.

I was guilty. I was condemned before Him. But rather than condemning me, the Son loved me enough to die in my place and offer a full pardon. Since it cost Him so much, I want to please the One who love me and sacrificed Himself for me. There are no conditions. Just grace available to every sinner whose been caught in the act.

March 31st 2019: Chris Benbow

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Chris Bembo-March19The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, Luke 18:9-14

This is mind-bending! It’s confusing. It’s scandalous. The good guy, the model citizen does good things, goes to the good place, the temple, to pray. He does a good thing by praying. But, in fact, it’s not good. To God, it’s disgusting. It’s wrong. Then, the bad guy, not the guy you’d invite around to dinner, comes to God and it’s good. You see how this would have messed with the heads of the people who first heard this parable?

The issue here is righteousness. Who is righteous? Who is justified? At the end of our lives we will stand before God, the books will be opened, it will be time to find out who’s in and who’s out. Jesus teaches this parable to answer that.

The Pharisee – yeah! The tax collector – boo! Jesus sets up the extreme contrast. We ‘get’ this as we view from a New Testament perspective. However, in Jesus’ time the people didn’t see Pharisees as bad guys. They had unparalleled knowledge of the Old Testament scriptures. They were the pillar of society. They ‘fast twice a week and give a tenth of all’ they have (Luke 18:12). Fasting is going all day without food and devoting the day singularly to prayer, to God. The Pharisees also tithed, giving a tenth of all they had, giving God the first-fruits, the best of their income. From a religious standpoint, this Pharisee is a pretty good deal.

Then there’s the other guy – the tax collector. He would have been the scum of society. The Romans were a pagan empire who had slaughtered many and took taxes. Some of God’s people had joined the opposing team and bullied and intimidated the rest of God’s people, joining the foreign Romans. They would bankrupt people. They were socially and morally disgusting.

So, here they are, two people – the hero and the heathen, the Pharisee and the tax collector. They both came to the temple. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: “God, I thank you that I am not like other people – robbers, evildoers, adulterers – or even like this tax collector (Luke 18:12). The tax collector wouldn’t even look up to heaven, ‘But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ (Luke 18:13). Jesus continues, ‘I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.’(Luke 18:14).

Why is the good guy not right with God and the supposed bad guy is?

Here we see displayed righteousness and received righteousness. There is a world of difference! Which one are we most like? Are we like the Pharisee, righteousness displayed? We are right and others are wrong. This could be shown in secular ways – being self-righteous., thinking we are better than others because we recycle, because we care for the environment. It could be we get in a car and think we’re a better driver than others. Maybe it’s a cause we support – we’re an activist, supporting an environmental cause or charity, thinking of ourselves as being better than others. This is self- righteousness displayed.

May be it is even worse, religious self-righteousness. The Lord asks, why should you be in glory? If your answer begins with ‘I’ you’re in big trouble, thinking it’s all to do with you. The Pharisee’s prayer has only one mention of God and four mentions of himself. It is all about him and what he’s done. Now he thinks he is righteous. And God says, ‘No, it’s not good enough.’ God is perfect, just perfect. So compared to Him, our best isn’t good enough, to God it is offensive. The Bible says no-one is righteous, no not one. No matter how good we think we are, our displayed righteousness is no good at all.

Received righteousness is beautiful. This is righteousness received as a gift from God. The tax collector knows what’s he is like, ‘But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ (Luke 18:13). He is essentially in mourning, grieving his sin. We’re in that boat too, we are all in that situation. The tax collector sees his sin as obvious. He can only utter, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” (Luke 18:13). He knew he was morally bankrupt. All that was left for him was to throw himself on the mercy of God. Mercy, God’s free gift, given through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

As Jesus tells this parable He knew what was going to happen. His naked, bloody body would be beaten, broken, hanging off a cross. It is only when you realise, this is it, this is the only way, that you realise your best is never good enough. The only thing we can do is hold our empty hands, say we have nothing to give and ask for His mercy. You will have His mercy. The price is paid. It’s done. Finished. This is the gift of righteousness. The only righteousness that is acceptable to God. If you haven’t put your trust in Jesus’ righteousness, come to Jesus and receive His grace. There is no other way. Throw yourself on God’s mercy and you will be saved.