Christmas: Wake Up!

In the middle of winter, being woken up by the sun feels like a distant dream. At the moment i watch the day slowly dawn as i read the Bible in the morning, and, on very bad days, while i'm driving my wife to school sometime later that morning. But there's something wonderful about sunrise, something hope filled, something refreshing about seeing the sunrise, something significant.

And because the Gospel is true, we should expect everything in the natural world to be filled with significance. This was clearly Malachi's point of view, when he described the coming of Christ like the rising of the sun. And there's lots of ways that's true. The sun brings hope, healing, help, security and joy, just like Christ's coming does.

But i think there's something else that Christ being like the sun does as well. It wakes us up. Malachi ministered in such a depressing time in the history of Israel. Not as bad as the times of the Judges perhaps, and in some senses better than the exile itself, but not by much. The people had returned the the promised land, free from captivity. As good students of Moses, they'd have known what to expect next. A glorious temple and a glorious kingdom, and they got neither. The temple was ok, but nothing in comparison to the old one, and as for the kingdom, they'd gone from being a world power to a provincial backwater.

And worse, they were asleep spiritually. The people offered the blind and sick animals in sacrifice, and the priests let them. Few took God's Word seriously. Worship had become wearisome to the people. There were few who were faithful, few who heeded Malachi's call. They were asleep, and they needed the sun. And the sun is the prescription for all our ills. We need to stop chasing the darkness away and open the windows.

If we're asleep, our prescription is the same. If tithing seems like madness to us, we need to be woken up. We need to remember that we have no earthly city, we have to remember that what we earn belongs to God anyway, we have to remember that our faith is seen as we serve God not money. As the sun rises, we hold money cheaper.

If worship is a weariness, we need the sun to warm us up. We need to remember our riches in Christ, our salvation from sin, our union with the Son of God. We need the sun to warm us up until we sing. And worship isn't just singing. We need to be woken up so that we live our whole lives as if the Gospel is true. So that what we read in the Bible stays with us, and changes us. we ned to bathe in the sun until we sing.

If we struggle to take the Bible seriously, we need to open our eyes and be dazzled by the sun. We need to ask for help every morning to see what's really there. And just like an eye doctor is glorified when we ask for help to see the sun, so God the Father is glorified when we ask for help to see the Son. And those are the prayers He loves to answer.

This is the healing we need. To give, to sing, to see. We need to be weaned off the dark, cold air, which we're told to desire, which we're told is safe, and come out into the light. We need to leap like calfs, because the Son of God has come, and He shines on us in all His glory.

Christmas: Refiners Fire

Malachi was written during the most depressing time of Israel's history. Not the darkest, that honour goes to Judges or Lamentations, but definitely the most depressing. The Hebrews had returned from exile, been blessed with Godly leaders and rebuilt a temple, but still the people sinned, still they offered blind animals in the temple, still they married the daughters of a foreign God.

There's a depressing familiarity about all that isn't there? Your author has been blessed with loving parents, world class training, a faithful wife, and types this from an office on a million dollar campus, but he still sins, he still shows unfaithfulness, ingratitude and laziness whenever he feels like he can get away with it. And the same is true (to a greater or lesser extent) of you too.

So what's to be done? Malachi tells us. And the answer is not found in religious activity, nor moral relativism, nor a government programme, the answer is a person. This person will suddenly come to His temple, He'll turn up one day and throw out the money changers. This person is the messenger of the covenant, He has made promises to the Sons of Jacob that He will keep. And He's like refining fire.

Fire. Bad news. Fire is a terror, as Smoky the Bear reminds us every summer. Fire will burn up the alloy, and since we're all alloy, we need some good news. The good news? That sweet word, refiners. Yes we're alloy, but there's silver to be made, when we are refined.

So Christ comes to refine us. He comes to end our false worship, our spiritual adultery, our lazy sins. He comes to burn up the things in life that displease Him. He comes to help us live by the Spirit, He comes to help us choose the narrow way. He comes to save, and to sanctify. He has saved us from the penalty of sin, and He is saving us from the power of sin. Slowly but surely those joy killing weeds in our hearts are being burned up. Slowly but surely sin looks less and less attractive, and Jesus more and more.

This is the hope that Malachi held out to the faithful remnant. There won't always be blind and sick animals being sacrificed. There won't always be priests who lead their people astray, Judah won't always be a forgotten backwater, God will keep His promises. The Christ will come, committed to His people, and save them from sin.

And it's that same hope that the whole Bible holds out for us this morning. We won't always sin. One day, we'll be with the Lord, and sin will be, well, not even a memory. But before then, be encouraged, that the Lord is so committed to your happy holiness, to your refinement that He not only lived to make it happen, but He died to make it happen.

The Son Of Righteousness

In the middle of winter, being woken up by the sun feels like a distant dream. At the moment i watch the day slowly dawn as i read the Bible in the morning, and, on very bad days, while i'm driving my wife to school sometime later that morning. But there's something wonderful about sunrise, something hope filled, something refreshing about seeing the sunrise, something significant.

And because the Gospel is true, we should expect everything in the natural world to be filled with significance. This was clearly Malachi's point of view, when he described the coming of Christ like the rising of the sun. And there's lots of ways that's true. The sun brings hope, healing, help, security and joy, just like Christ's coming does.

But i think there's something else that Christ being like the sun does as well. It wakes us up. Malachi ministered in such a depressing time in the history of Israel. Not as bad as the times of the Judges perhaps, and in some senses better than the exile itself, but not by much. The people had returned the the promised land, free from captivity. As good students of Moses, they'd have known what to expect next. A glorious temple and a glorious kingdom, and they got neither. The temple was ok, but nothing in comparison to the old one, and as for the kingdom, they'd gone from being a world power to a provincial backwater.

And worse, they were asleep spiritually. The people offered the blind and sick animals in sacrifice, and the priests let them. Few took God's Word seriously. Worship had become wearisome to the people. There were few who were faithful, few who heeded Malachi's call. They were asleep, and they needed the sun. And the sun is the prescription for all our ills. We need to stop chasing the darkness away and open the windows.

If we're asleep, our prescription is the same. If tithing seems like madness to us, we need to be woken up. We need to remember that we have no earthly city, we have to remember that what we earn belongs to God anyway, we have to remember that our faith is seen as we serve God not money. As the sun rises, we hold money cheaper.

If worship is a weariness, we need the sun to warm us up. We need to remember our riches in Christ, our salvation from sin, our union with the Son of God. We need the sun to warm us up until we sing. And worship isn't just singing. We need to be woken up so that we live our whole lives as if the Gospel is true. So that what we read in the Bible stays with us, and changes us. we ned to bathe in the sun until we sing.

If we struggle to take the Bible seriously, we need to open our eyes and be dazzled by the sun. We need to ask for help every morning to see what's really there. And just like an eye doctor is glorified when we ask for help to see the sun, so God the Father is glorified when we ask for help to see the Son. And those are the prayers He loves to answer.

This is the healing we need. To give, to sing, to see. We need to be weaned off the dark, cold air, which we're told to desire, which we're told is safe, and come out into the light. We need to leap like calfs, because the Son of God has come, and He shines on us in all His glory.

Like Refiners Fire

Malachi was written during the most depressing time of Israel's history. Not the darkest, that honour goes to Judges or Lamentations, but definitely the most depressing. The Hebrews had returned from exile, been blessed with Godly leaders and rebuilt a temple, but still the people sinned, still they offered blind animals in the temple, still they married the daughters of a foreign God.

There's a depressing familiarity about all that isn't there? Your author has been blessed with loving parents, world class training, a faithful wife, and types this from an office on a million dollar campus, but he still sins, he still shows unfaithfulness, ingratitude and laziness whenever he feels like he can get away with it. And the same is true (to a greater or lesser extent) of you too.

So what's to be done? Malachi tells us. And the answer is not found in religious activity, nor moral relativism, nor a government programme, the answer is a person. This person will suddenly come to His temple, He'll turn up one day and throw out the money changers. This person is the messenger of the covenant, He has made promises to the Sons of Jacob that He will keep. And He's like refining fire.

Fire. Bad news. Fire is a terror, as Smoky the Bear reminds us every summer. Fire will burn up the alloy, and since we're all alloy, we need some good news. The good news? That sweet word, refiners. Yes we're alloy, but there's silver to be made, when we are refined.

So Christ comes to refine us. He comes to end our false worship, our spiritual adultery, our lazy sins. He comes to burn up the things in life that displease Him. He comes to help us live by the Spirit, He comes to help us choose the narrow way. He comes to save, and to sanctify. He has saved us from the penalty of sin, and He is saving us from the power of sin. Slowly but surely those joy killing weeds in our hearts are being burned up. Slowly but surely sin looks less and less attractive, and Jesus more and more.

This is the hope that Malachi held out to the faithful remnant. There won't always be blind and sick animals being sacrificed. There won't always be priests who lead their people astray, Judah won't always be a forgotten backwater, God will keep His promises. The Christ will come, committed to His people, and save them from sin.

And it's that same hope that the whole Bible holds out for us this morning. We won't always sin. One day, we'll be with the Lord, and sin will be, well, not even a memory. But before then, be encouraged, that the Lord is so committed to your happy holiness, to your refinement that He not only lived to make it happen, but He died to make it happen.

If You Will Not Listen

How do we know we're listening to God? How do we know we're hearing His voice? How do we know it's not just our thoughts, or desires, or something worse. If you listen to the local Christian radio station, you'll end up thinking that God speaks through waterfalls and sunsets, through this song and that song, and maybe He does. But wouldn't it be good to know for sure.

You know where we're going.

In Malachi 2, The Lord has a serious problem with the priests. So serious that He wants to rub dung into their faces. he them to stink physically because they stink spiritually. He wants people near them to be as disgusted with them as He is. Why? Because they refuse to listen to listen. They're not taking His Word seriously. They're not reading, meditation and applying the scriptures. And even though God talks to the priests, and we don't have a priestly class any more, the point for us is clear. What you think about the Bible is (ultimately) what you think about God.

There are four consequences in our lives when we don't listen to the Bible that we see in this passage. The first, in verse 2, is simply that we will not have a heart for God if we don't listen to Him. I can't know what my wife wants, what she likes, what she needs if i never listen to her. I can't please her, i don't know her if i never hear her voice. And the same is true with God. What a shame if we feel more connected to our favourite tv characters than we do to the living God.

Secondly, in verses 8a and 9b, when we don't listen, our lives will fall short of the standard that God sets us. Narrow is the way that leads to salvation. Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees you will never see the Kingdom of God. Not in quantity, but in quality. Our righteousness must be of a different sort, it must be faith produced and joy filled. But those flames won't burn if they're not stoked by the Bible.

The end of verse 9 gives us our third warning, relevant not just to preachers. If we don't listen to the Bible then we will show partiality. Preachers will start preaching for a pay cheque not the glory of God, Christians will become yes men, rather than prophetic challengers of their friends. Because that makes sense, unless our categories of success and failure, of what matters and what is inconsequential are shattered and rebuilt by the Bible.

And lastly, when we don't listen you'll lead other people astray. if i don't listen i'll lead my wife astray. I'm like a child, not knowing how to go in and out, how can Fox Sports Live be more important than what God has to say. How can you best serve your friends, and family and co-workers and students and employers and employees? Listen to God!

Verses 5-7 gives the rewards of listening. Life and peace. Fear and awe. True instruction. Fight for time in your day to listen to God, neglect something else. Listen to the Bible.

The Sun of Righteousness

Of the many things that would surprise the 17 year old me about my life today (uses a mac, enjoys lasagna, makes a living from standing up in front of people and talking) perhaps the one that stands out the most is that i married a teacher.

The American day starts early, very early. In fact kids have to be at school fully an hour before i did when i was their age. That means at this time of year we see a lot of sunrises! A lot of blacks turning dark blue, then pink then light blue, a lot of frost being melted. I think Malachi would regard this as an advantage of marrying a teacher. Daily reminders of what Christ's coming will be like.

Towards the end of the final book in the Old Testament, Malachi tells us that 'the sun of righteousness will rise.' The Son is a sun. Why this word picture? Well because Israel were about to head off into 400 years of darkness with no word from the LORD, until John The Baptist showed up, but also because the sun does many things that the Son does.

The sun chases away darkness, and so does the Son. Daylight gradually moves from east to west, rising over my family in Australia, then my family in England, and finally here. It gets rid of darkness totally. Just like Jesus. He comes, and darkness flees, darkness screams and begs to be dismissed into a herd of pigs. We don't stand in our gardens at 3am trying to chase away the darkness, the sun rises and does it for us.

The sun frees us from fear, and so does the Son. I'm not really scared of the dark, and we live in a safe neighbourhood, as evidenced by the fact that we've occasionally left the doors unlocked all night, but sometimes a strange noise at 2am can be unsettling. How often our lives are like a strange noise at 2am! But with Jesus comes light, and with light comes the casting out of fear. We can see that noise was a squirrel running into a tree, we don't need to fear what;s just ahead of us. The Son is here, we can see and we can understand.

The sun brings growth, and so does the Son. This summer we had a mixture of ridiculously hot weather and tropical rain. And that meant the grass, plants, and sadly the weeds grew like crazy! As we're exposed to the Son, we grow. It can be argued that Christian growth is simply loving Jesus more and more. As the Son rises we naturally are drawn towards Him, as the sun draws plants towards itself.

The sun bring song, as so does the Son. Why do the birds sing? Because they are warmed by the sun. Should we not sing when our hearts have been warmed by by the Son? Christians sing because they can't help it. The wonderful things Christ has done for us bring us leaping out the stall like a calve, full of joy. Birds in darkness don't sing, maybe the same is true for Christians.

Perhaps the one advantage of being up early on dark mornings is to see the sun rise. The greatest advantage of Christmas is that the Son has come, chasing away darkness and fear, and bringing growth and joy.