Growth and Growth.

Eleven men on a Galilean hillside, listening to their leader. Go and tell all the world, i have all authority, and i'll be with you. All the doubts and worries of the last few days seem like a dream...He's alive, and He's coming with us. It's all going to be ok.

Why did Jesus choose just twelve? You know He could have efficiently disciples a thousand times that number. Why twelve when one was a betrayer? Why not disciple all of Israel, and send them out? Now you're a light to the nations.

The church always works when it's the shepherd boy agains the giant. The church is Ruth, starving and looking for mercy, the church is Esther, casting herself on the mercy of the king, the church is Jeremiah preaching from the sewer, the church is the unpopular kids at Corinth High School. And in that way, the church thrives. Jesus loses about twenty thousand followers in a day in John 6, and then turns to His guys and asks if they're leaving too. He doesn't count gain and loss like we do, His ushers aren't in the balcony counting because the Kingdom of God is not a matter of flesh and blood.

The Kingdom advances as Bibles are opened in caves in northern Iraq. Demons flee as the Gospel is proclaimed from makeshift pulpits in primary schools in southern England. The sick are healed as 'thus saith the Lord,' rings out from a multi million dollar campus in Texas.

Trendy music isn't growing the Church. Neither a light show, or the best kids work in town, or the greatest summer camps, or the newest programs, or the biggest offerings. Those things might grow a church, but not the Church.

The Church grows as one man finds other faithful men to find other faithful men. It always has. Not the rich and the famous, but the poor, the weak, the needy. Men like you and me.

Grace Appeared...and Appears

Paul's account of the Christmas story, in Titus 2:11-14 is, as you would expect, all business.

No angels, no shepherds, no wise men. Paul shares the nativity with Titus in just two words; 'grace appeared.' What happened at Christmas? The grace of God appeared. Jesus came, and He brought salvation for all people.

I was thinking over these verses on Wednesday morning as i got ready to share them in junior chapel. Here's the Christmas story that you need, grace appeared. Here is the greatest gift that there is, Jesus. Grace isn't something seperate from Jesus, some object or feeling He puts into us, Jesus is grace. More grace in our hearts equals a greater and deeper knowledge of Him, and great appreciation of His love, and deeper response from us. This grace teaches us how to live. We're are to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions. We're not to worship our work and play at our worship, but labour to be brought close to God, worship and pray so that the centre of the universe would be the centre of the universe would be the centre of our lives. We are to be self controlled, Godly and upright. We're supposed to behave differently because of what we believe.

But there's something else in these verses that i hadn't ever really let hit home yet. Verse 13 tells us we're to do these things 'waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of our great God and saviour Jesus Christ.' As we look back on Christmas, we are to look forward to the second coming. As we remember that Jesus has come, we need to remember that Jesus will come again. We need grace to live godly lives, and we need grace to remember that Jesus will come again. We need to think and love and live differently because Jesus has come, and think and love and live differently because Jesus will come again.

In many ways, you and I live at the end of Isaiah. Isaiah is talking to the Jews in exile. He promises them that God has not forgotten them, that someone better than Cyrus will come with a better deliverance. But in the mean time, people sin, God's people mess up, and sometimes this hope seems a long way away, hard to believe even. But the exile did end, and then when Jesus came, the exile really ended. This is where we are isn't it? Fighting to keep our eyes fixed on the return of the King. Trying to live upright and Godly lives as a response to the amazing grace given at Christmas.

Well what a great reminder Christmas is. As the world celebrates Christmas, and as we celebrate the birth of our Saviour, let's pray that we would look forward to a real celebration, one that makes the wildest super bowl parties look like tea with grandma. One with something real and eternal to celebrate. Just as sure as Jesus came, Jesus will come, just like grace appeared, grace will appear again.

Jesus is the God who carries

Do you ever feel, perhaps in gray Mondays in November, that carrying on is about all you can do. Maintaining the status quo until you get to go back to bed is the best you can hope for? That in some situations, or a combination thereof, you've simply reached the end of yourself? Well then, my friend, Jesus is the God for you.

Isaiah 46 is written to the Jews in exile. Far from home, surrounded by pagan gods, their city, and with it their hopes, in ruins. They've been judged and sent far from home. How can YHWH be God? How can He be more powerful than Bel or Nebo? We're here in Babylon, and there's precious little hope. Hope hangs by a thread for the people Isaiah wrote to, maybe it does for you too. Chapter 46 brings us back to reality with a lovely bump.

Who are Bel and Nebo, asks the LORD? They're statues carried by beasts and livestock. Nothing special, or fearsome there. They need to be carried, they are a burden, they are the problem, they add to the problem. People of Israel, don't worry about a god who rides a beast to get around, don't worry about a god that can be picked up in someone's hand. Don't worry about a god who needs carrying.

Instead, verses 3 and 4 remind us, trust in the One who carried you. House of Jacob, people of God, you've been carried by the God from before your birth, from the womb. You've been looked after by Him since before you can remember. God has loved His people from the beginning. It's a holy, jealous, purifying love, which explains why you're in Babylon, but it's not a love that has left you. Nor will it ever leave you. 'even to your old age I am He, and to your gray hairs i will carry you.' House of Jacob, people of God, don't be misled by circumstance, i've loved you from the beginning, i'll love you until the end.

I'll carry you home again, Jesus promises. This section of Isaiah, 40-51, is full of reminders about the exodus. God will feed and water you in the wilderness, and God will bring you home. How? Well first He'll raise up Cyrus, who will change your location, and then He'll send Jesus, the true and better Cyrus, the One who rescues us from our real exile, who'll change our hearts.

Who has heard or seen a God like this, who works for those who wait for Him? So people of God, be comforted this morning, as you sit in exile, be comforted when it seems like all hope is gone. The twists and turns of your life end up somewhere good, not off the edge of a cliff. The Saviour is coming, the exile is ending.

Lessons from Isaiah

Evangelical Bible teachers (like me) are keen to remind their hearers that the Bible is living and active. That, the God breathed Word has as much to say to us, as it did to Isaiah  thousands of years ago. I've been reading Isaiah in the morning for the past few months, here's are some of the things i'm learning.

Isaiah's course was set by encounters with God. The well known vision of Isaiah 6, and the perhaps less well known comfort song in chapter 40. Both phases of Isaiah's ministry were set by God. The encounter with the LORD in chapter six gave him the energy, the bravery, to oppose evil and to encourage good. To stand in the street when no listened and to be faithful as Sennacherib's men stood at the gate. His encounter with the LORD in chapter 40 gave him the strength to continue when his public ministry was over. When we see God in His holiness we are fired up to fight sin wherever we see it, when we see God as the God of comfort and condescension, we are given the vision and the energy to comfort God's people in their depths. I need to meet with God every morning. Every morning in the wilderness God gave His people fresh manna, and every day, i need something new. I can't give the people i'm supposed to teach yesterday's meal, they need a man in the pulpit, in teen church, in parent meetings, teaching Sunday School and Children's Church, who has been ruined by God. I need to get my heart and my mind before God daily, and ask that He would do a fraction for me that He did for Isaiah.

Jesus stands and knocks. In Sunday School yesterday we looked at the letter to Laodicea together. Jesus' grace is remarkable in this letter. He tells them that they make Him sick, and then says that if only they'll have Him He'll come and eat with them. That dovetails well with a lot of how the LORD speaks through Isaiah. His covenant people have forgotten Him, but He has not forgotten them. They have turned to idols, but He has not turned to another people. He disciplines them, but as a Father disciplines the one He loves. Through judgement in Isaiah, there is always grace. Sins are always red as scarlet before they are made white like snow. The King is always betraying His God, before God sends the true King. God's grace in Isaiah is extraordinary. Super-abundant. He stands and knocks, He waits at the end of the road for a glimpse of His prodigal, He makes the mountains valley to bring rebels home. Rebels who are now truly sons. Jesus is sovereign, showing His power not just over Uzziah, Ahaz and Hezekiah, but also over Sennacherib, Babylon and Cyrus. But it is Jesus who is sovereign, not some generic, brutal wooden idol. Isaiah leads us to rejoice in both those truths.

Ministry isn't always what you expect. Isaiah's public ministry probably ended in chapter 39, or shortly thereafter. When Hezekiah died and evil King Manasseh took the throne, the days of public preaching for God's man where probably done. Biblical 'legend' has it that it is Isaiah the writer of the Hebrews talks about, who was killed by being sawn in two. I don't think they do that to popular people! But Isaiah wasn't finished when they took his church away from him. He kept going, loving God, His Word and His people. Teaching His disciples and making sure that the exiles knew that the LORD had neither been overpowered, nor forgotten about them. Isaiah loved the work more than the position. I'm sure there were hard days, days when he missed the freedom, days when he thought about preaching in the kings court. But i'm sure they were few and far between. I'm sure that the God He knew, and the plans He knew kept Him going. It was this that kept Isaiah steadfastly abounding in the work of the Lord. And so it must be for us.

Like a Mustard Seed

'Who're Kansas State? The Wildcats?'

'Oh what happened to New England...did they get a safety?'

Both of these statements were uttered by my wife last weekend, and both of them were exactly right. The athletics mascot for Kansas State University is the wildcat, and New England were awarded a safety (the closest thing in American Football to an own goal) in their weekend win over the New York Jets.

How did Rachel know those things? We don't follow Kansas State, they're hardly ever on TV, and we've never been to Manhattan, Kansas, where the school is located. She just knew who they were. The Patriots/Jets game was on in the background in a restaurant, and i've never gone over the finer points of the some of the NFL's more obscure rules with her. She just knew it's hard to get to 16 without a two point play in there somewhere.

I asked Rachel how that happened, and she said after a while things just sink in. And i suppose they do. We still have some ground to cover i suspect. She's probably a bit shaky on the genesis of the Wycome/Colchester rivalry, and might have some trouble in picking out Dave Carroll in a crowd, but after three years of marriage, we're getting there.

Jesus says this is what the Kingdom of God is like. Mark 4 represents a shift in Jesus ministry. No longer teaching plainly in the synagogues, but parabolically in the countryside. This is judgement on those who see but don't perceive and hear but don't understand. Suddenly, for those on the outside, everything is in a parable. Why is this rebel rabbi giving farming advice, and poor farming advice at that? Why isn't he condemning Rome and setting up in Jerusalem? Everything in a parable.

He tells us that the Kingdom of God, and in particular our growth in it is like a mustard seed. The smallest of the seeds producing a plant out of all proportion to it's size. It starts small, but when it's grown it's the largest of all the plants. Just like the Kingdom. Who would have thought that this ragtag bunch of men from the wrong part of the country would change the world? And yet they did. Who would think that 10,20,30 minutes alone in the Bible each day would change our hearts? And yet is does. This is the Gospel way isn't it? From small and insignificant comes the big and glorious.

We should read the Bible persistently and confidently, knowing that by it we're being changed. As quickly as we like? Probably not. But Christian growth isn't downloadable. It comes slowly, first the blade, then the ear,  then the full grain. But come it does. Isn't that encouraging? Just because we don't see something doesn't mean it's not there. Not in the Kingdom anyway.

Martin Luther knew it, he went and preached and then came home to his friends, trusting in the work of the Word. Isaiah knew it, and told us that the Word would not return void. We need to know it too, and keep those mustard seeds being planted in our hearts.

The Rebel Loving Lord

In Luke 24 Jesus explains to two of His disciples how the whole Old Testament is about Him. I like to think that He spent a lot of time on that walk to Emmaus talking about Isaiah. Isaiah is the Gospel. In sixty-six chapters the prophet unfolds holiness, judgement, sacrifice and grace, almost as explicitly as anyone in the New Testament does. Isaiah 30 is a great example of this.

If we read verses 19-33, who do we meet? We meet the Lord who teaches, and restores and fights for His people. He teaches them when to turn right and when to turn left, He restores them like a beautiful garden, and He fights for them and overcomes their enemies, earthly and cosmic, forever. I love the mixture of intimacy and fierceness in this passage. The intimacy of the one who whispers 'right' or 'left' in our ears, the gentleness of the one who plants and waters and gives growth, and the fierceness of the one whose arm will be seen in furious anger.

This would be an astonishing passage if it were addressed to a covenant keeping people. To a people who observed Passover  didn't trade on the Sabbath  didn't worship bits of wood or indulge in whatever sinful fancy came their way. This sort of God would be a remarkably gracious God if He was teaching and nourishing and fighting for a people who loved Him and honoured Him. How much more should our minds be blown and our hearts be warmed then, that this God is offering all this to a people with their back turned to Him.

Go back a page, and look at 30:1-17. What's happening? The stubborn children of Israel, under attack from Assyria have gone to Egypt for help. Chapters 28-31 contain some of Isaiah's most passionate preaching. He implores his listeners to trust in the Lord, not in chariots, to hope in the One who brought them out of Egypt, not in Egypt. But they don't listen. They rush to Egypt, they take treasure, they give themselves totally to Egypt, totally to what their flesh can see. And it's a disaster.

Sennacherib marches on through Judah, burning up town after town. Only the miraculous intervention of the Lord Himself stops them razing Jerusalem. And this happens because Hezekiah finally sees sense, and finally repents.

Verse 18 is the hinge on which this great chapter turns.The Lord waits to be gracious. He knows repentance is coming, and Isaiah promises his listeners that it will be received. In fact the Lord loves to show mercy to sinners, He loves to display His grace, the apex of His glory. He doesn't wait passively, He's not sitting around anxiously hoping that Hezekiah will lead His people in repentance, but He will wait until the right time to show Himself mighty, and gracious, and glorious.

In Mark 2:17 Jesus tells us that He came not to call the righteous, but sinners. Sinners like Judah in Isaiah's time. Sinners who worship idols and turn to Egypt. Are you a sinner? Do you feel like your rebellion has taken you far from the grace of God? Great! That's the one qualification for entry to the Kingdom! Only repent, and the Lord will teach you, in this life and eternally. The Lord will nourish you, and you'll enter paradise, the Lord will fight for you, and finally overcome the enemies that Jesus disarmed on the cross.

Let your mind be blown, and let you heart be warmed by this God, the rebel loving Lord.

Isaiah 59:16-17

I've been reading Isaiah in the mornings over the last six mornings, what a book! Full of comfort and consolation, but also judgement and devastation. God is the God of victory for His people. He is the God who is crushed, and through that crushing comes victory.

This morning i read 59:16-17. If you came from Mars, and heard of a God who was perfect, and powerful, how would you expect Him to deal with the problem mentioned in verse 16? No one in Israel, not one of God's people interceded, no one was standing. You might expect this sovereign power to rise and rage, the judge and destroy. But, Martian friend, you'd be wrong.

What happens next? 'then his own arm brought him salvation.' God provided a man, who would stand, a man who would bring salvation. There was not a single Israelite with the law written on his heart. Jesus came, with the law written on His heart. There was not an Israelite who kept the law. Jesus came and kept the law. There was not a King who loved the Lord with all His heart, all His mind and all His strength. Jesus came, and Jesus did. He came and brought righteousness, His righteousness upheld Him. There is no one else in all of history of whom this can be said.

What does Isaiah say next? 'He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on his head.' Well hang on, this is Ephesians isn't it? We all know that famous passage. Jesus wore the breastplate, of His own righteousness first. Jesus can wear the helmet of salvation, because it salvation belongs to Him.

We can't work our way to God. The Gospel is all about Him coming down. And down He came. What does Paul want us to out on in Ephesians 6? Not disconnected truths about Jesus...we need Jesus Himself. His righteousness, His salvation, His good news.

This morning we worship a good God, a rescuing God, a God whose name is Jesus. He comes and gives. He gives His life, He comes and gives righteousness and salvation. Bless the Lord oh my soul, and forget not His benefits...

You really should listen to Glen Scrivener on Isaiah. Really!

Line Upon Line

I like to think i'm committed to two things that help read and understand the Bible. The first is expository preaching, that is, doing the best you can do to let the Bible speaking for itself in preaching. Not riding a hobby horse, not preaching on a topic, but taking a part of the Bible, and building bridges from one verse to another. The other is the discipline of Biblical Theology. BT seeks to explain the flow of the Bible's story in it's context, in it's place. It's perhaps best understood as a way to read the Bible that speaks about Jesus, 'beginning with Moses and the prophets.' It stops us from thinking that 'blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,' refers to modern day America.

Reading the Bible line by line, and precept by precept is undoubtedly the best way to do it. So why is it condemned by Isaiah in 28:13. Why is this reading of the Bible what leads to falling backwards, being snared and taken? Well, you and I know the answer. Our hearts, then as now, are the problem.

We are proud, idol making, religionists at heart. So we take something good, like Bible reading, and make it ugly. Like those prophesied against in Isaiah's time, we make our faith a religion. We've had our devotions, we've listened to some 'good' preaching, we're not like 'those people,' we're doing pretty good. We don't need to go to the Temple and plea for mercy, we just need to thank God for getting things right. We read, we preach, we understand line upon line, and precept upon precept, but that's not enough.

It's not enough now for the same reasons it wasn't enough then. Why not? Because religious Bible reading for it's own sake never brings us to Christ. Our eyes glaze over as we read our ten chapters a day, our hearts are hard as we exchange our devotions for sermon prep. We miss Jesus when this happens. We're not searching the scriptures to see Him, we're sitting in front of a book to tick a box.

So we must stick to line upon line, precept upon precept, but only to see Jesus, only to enjoy His light, never to tick our boxes. Then we'll avoid falling backwards, and our religion won't be a snare to us. Open the Bible and seek Him whom your soul loves.