Father, Forgive Them - Luke 23:24-25; 32-34

This is the part of the crucifixion of Jesus that always hits me the hardest, the part where the meaning of Good Friday and Christmas come together for me. Jesus is praying for us after having been betrayed, beaten, unjustly condemned to a most cruel death by a cowardly governor and vengeful religious leaders, and nailed to a cross. Now Jesus prays, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they are doing.” Let that sink in for a moment.

My first question usually is, who is the “they” Jesus is praying for here? Is it the Jewish leaders who’ve been planning his death for a while now, is it Pilate who unjustly condemned Jesus even after he found Jesus innocent, is it the soldiers who beat and mocked him, or the crowd who allows themselves to be manipulated and riled up into an unthinking and vicious mass, or is it the men on the crosses beside him? There are so many who need forgiveness and it’s easy to focus on them, but Lent is a time to be honest with ourselves and confess that it’s all of them and us too. We’re all sinners; it’s our sin that placed Jesus on the cross. We can identify with many, if not all of those who were there 2,000 years ago in Jerusalem and around the cross. 

Jesus is praying here for each one of us. We all need forgiveness. Jesus could have prayed for our punishment, instead he prays for our forgiveness. In the middle of his physical and spiritual suffering, suffering we simply can’t understand, Jesus stays true to who he is as God, full of mercy and grace, choosing for his people instead of against them. Out of Jesus’ great love for us he chooses to forgive and takes the filthy sin of the world on himself so we can be washed clean, made holy for his Father. 

Our forgiveness comes at a huge cost for Jesus, his grace to us isn’t cheap, as Dietrick Bonhoeffer reminds us. Forgiveness is one of the big themes in Scripture. Forgiveness is rooted in grace and mercy, pointing to the Old Testament sacrifices and rituals; it’s God choosing to not give up on his people. The Jews understood forgiveness as atonement leading to reconciliation between God and his people; as God lifting our sin from us and carrying it away.

Forgiveness is best understood through the images God gives us to show us how complete his forgiveness for us is. Psalm 103:12, “as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us,” and in Jeremiah 31:34, “No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” Then there’s Micah 7:19, “You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.” When God forgives, our sin is dealt with completely, he doesn’t see them anymore!

In the New Testament, forgiveness is rooted in God’s dealing graciously with his people, and the image of sending our sin away, releasing us from our sin. Forgiveness in the New Testament always points us to Jesus and how he forgives, relating to us with deep grace, freeing us from the chains of sin. The call to repentance also becomes more prominent, Jesus’ message is “Repent and believe, for the kingdom of heaven in near.” Repentance is confessing that we’re sinners; confessing our sin with a desire to change with the help of the Holy Spirit because we cannot change on our own. Right after Jesus’ resurrection, he appears to his disciples saying, “and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.” Repentance is rooted in faith, which is a gift from God so that we don’t connect our actions with earning God’s forgiveness. Our forgiveness is all about Jesus, all grace.

On the cross, Jesus prays for forgiveness because “they do not know what they are doing.” This is fascinating because Jesus knows how clueless we can be when it comes to our own hearts and sin. It’s a sobering picture of ourselves and should make us think much more deeply about what we really believe and how it shapes who we are and how we live. God knows our hearts, but do we? Do we recognize our sin and how it shapes how we interpret the world around us? How often don’t we shape our lives around what we want over what the Holy Spirit wants? Does love of God, neighbour, enemy, and persecutor truly shape our hearts and actions? Do we believe God adapts to our wants or do we truly shape ourselves on Scripture and what Jesus desires?

In a day and age where most people have multiple Bibles in their houses, multiple preachers to listen to online and in-person, why are we more biblically illiterate than people even just 50 years ago? Are we the people Paul warns about in 2 Timothy 4:3, “For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.” This is part of the reason the historical church developed the seasons of Lent and Advent, to get us into the Bible, especially the Gospels, to point us back to Jesus and our need for him. Ignorance doesn’t excuse us, but Jesus has sympathy for us, praying for our forgiveness even when we don’t understand just how much forgiveness we really need. Our reassurance is that the Father hears his Son’s prayer and answers it with mercy and grace! Pastor Norman Steen writes that, “When we pray for forgiveness our prayer is sure to be heard and answered, for we are praying along with Jesus; our prayer is wrapped up in his prayer. Our desire for forgiveness matches his desire that we be forgiven.”

We’ve focused just now on our sin and need for repentance. That’s because when we realize just how much we need forgiveness, when we realize how much Jesus did for us on the cross, we start to understand why Jesus taught us the importance of forgiving others. Jesus teaches us to pray in Luke, “Forgive us our sins. For we also forgive everyone who sins against us.” When we understand what it cost Jesus to wash away our sins, it takes us to a place of thankfulness, a place where our hearts are softened for others as Jesus’ has a soft heart, a heart of flesh for us. When we forgive others, it reveals that our repentance is real. Jesus not only teaches us to forgive, he shows us how to forgive, what forgiveness looks like. Our forgiveness of others flows out of Jesus’ forgiveness for us. Paul tells us in Colossians 3:13, “Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.”

Forgiveness is hard and a process. It begins by deciding to forgive. For 20 years, a man began every day with speaking into a mirror, “I forgive….,” and then he listed the names of soldiers who had abused him and other prisoners in a concentration camp during WW 2. He said it took 20 years for the forgiveness to move from his mouth to his heart. He chose to forgive because Jesus told him the importance of forgiveness, he knew that a lack of forgiveness would poison his heart otherwise. It took the Holy Spirit softening his heart through the years, showing him how much Jesus loves him and that the only way he would be able to forgive is to let Jesus’ love, shown in Jesus forgiving his sin, shape his heart and allow him to accept Jesus’ forgiveness and allow that forgiveness flow through him. Ephesians 4:32, “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you,” helped him understand this. One word of warning, forgiveness does not mean placing yourself in danger or staying in an abusive relationship; forgiveness and justice work together, they are not opposites, sin has consequences. 

Forgiveness comes at a cost for all those who choose to forgive. Forgiveness is a choice, not a feeling. Forgiveness is a promise to not keep bringing the matter up with the one who has sinned against you, leaving it fully in the past. It means refusing to dwell on the offense, focusing on the forgiveness. Forgiveness means praying for the well-being of the other person, praying for the presence and blessing of the Holy Spirit in their lives, praying that the Holy Spirit will transform their, and your hearts, to be more Christ-like. 

Forgiveness through grace is at the heart of our faith. If there’s anyone you need to forgive, begin by embracing Jesus’ forgiveness of your sin, and then pray for his help in forgiving. It may just start with words, but the Holy Spirit will work in you to move forgiveness from words to your heart, allowing you to begin to find healing and hope. 

Fearfully and Wonderfully Made - Psalm 139:13-16

What a special morning! We’ve commissioned young people and leaders to serve in Mexico over the March break and we’ve celebrated the sacrament of baptism of Peyton, remembering how God has claimed Peyton as his daughter, sealing her to himself. Arte and Jennifer responded by promising to raise her to love and serve him in faith. We’re reminded of the beauty and preciousness of life in the baptism of Peyton, and how this preciousness of life compels us to go and serve others so they too can know how God is never far away, as David mentions earlier in the Psalm. 

Arte and Jennifer, in the verses you’ve picked to reflect on for Peyton’s baptism, we hear an echo back to Genesis and how God created humanity, Genesis 1:26–28, “Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” We see how God created man, “Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” The word in Hebrew for breath is also the word for spirit and life, God breathed his spirit of life into Adam, a beautiful picture of the intimacy God desires to have with us.

David picks up on this imagery here, “For you created my inmost being; you knit, or weaved me together in my mother’s womb.” I love how personal this is, Peyton, and Kaden before her, were knit or weaved together by God’s own hands, given life through God’s active work and presence. Life is a divine gift from God to be valued and cherished as they are precious to God. Life is already precious in the womb as Isaiah affirms, Isaiah 49:1, “Listen to me, you islands; hear this, you distant nations: Before I was born the Lord called me; from my mother’s womb he has spoken my name.” God knew and called Peyton even before she was born, speaking her name, maybe even before you were certain of her name. 

This is how we know Jesus; he knows our name, John 10:14–15, “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me—just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep.” We know how much God cares for us when Jesus teaches us not to worry in Matthew 6:25–26, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” It’s easy to see how precious children are, but sometimes it’s a challenge for us as we grow up to remember how precious we are to God and to remind our children in their times of doubt. 

King David marvels at how God works in ways and places we can’t always see, using the images of the depths of the earth, a place often associated with the afterlife, and being made in the secret place, the mother’s womb, pointing to how God’s working and acting from conception to even after we die, a picture of God’s faithful presence our entire life. There’s a mystery here that we can’t completely understand even with all the knowledge we have today of how life begins, of how intelligence, creativity, the ability to wonder and dream and create, all come together in each of us, all beginning in the warmth and darkness of the womb. We call these communicative attributes, things that make up who we are as people that we share with God because we’re created in his image.

There’s so much we don’t know about how we’re created, body and soul. We do know that we’re fearfully and wonderfully made by God’s hand. This is important to remember. Paul, picks up on this when he writes the church in Ephesus, Ephesians 2:8–10, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” The Greek for “handiwork” or “workmanship,” depending on which version of the NIV you’re reading, can also be translated as “masterpiece.” This picks up on the images in the Old Testament of God as the great artist creator, echoing to Isaiah’s image in Isaiah 64:8, “Yet you, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.” As the scholar P.A. Ross writes, “This fact prompted the psalmist to break forth in praise over the thought of how marvellously he had been made. Even David’s rudimentary knowledge of the marvels of the human body led him to be in awe and wonder. The words wonderfully and wonderful are mindful of God’s marvelous knowledge.” God knows us, he knows our hearts and souls, and he loves us deeply as our creator and Father. 

David offers us the reassurance that our lives are in God’s hands, Psalm 139:16, “Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” Albert Mohler writes, “The verse declares that, even in the womb, the child was being formed under the supervision and by the active involvement of God who already had planned the course of his life. This statement has much to say about how people must give human life in the womb the same loving care that God—whose Spirit gives life—bestows upon it. The passage is poetry, but is still revealed truth. The passage also stresses the sovereignty of God more than any other psalm; people are not the masters of their own destiny, but are in the hand of the Lord.”

Every person is precious to God because we’re all created in his image and by his hand. In a world where hate is easily and quickly spread, we need to remember that whenever we talk to or about someone, we’re talking about someone created in the image of God, someone that God desires to be saved, as Peter writes, 2 Peter 3:9, “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” Every person is precious and valuable, whether we like them or not, so when you want to say something hateful, or share a hateful meme online that seeks to belittle or mock someone, stop and pray for them instead and acknowledge that God cares deeply about them and so should we. As followers of Jesus, we’re to be known for being respectful of all life, for protecting life from conception to death, not for creating division or hatred based on our differences.

Jesus came to earth, formed in Mary’s womb, fearfully and wonderfully made through the work of the Holy Spirit, teaching us through his life and teachings how we’re to live with each other with grace, loving God above all, loving each other, and even loving our enemies and those who persecute us. Jesus shows us how precious we are by taking all our sin on himself, washing us clean, as baptism reminds us, giving us a new life as children of God. Psalm 139 also calls us to remember that our identity is found in God who has made us. Because Jesus has washed us clean and the Holy Spirit lives in us, we’re called to share this gospel message so that all those who struggle with feelings of self-worth, all those who’ve experienced abuse and rejection, all those who’ve been discriminated against because of skin colour or ethnic backgrounds can hear the good news that they are precious and valuable to God!

David marvels that God has personally created each one of us, that God’s an artist who’s created each of us a unique masterpiece. Peyton has been created with different interests and passions than Kaden, God has different plans for her, unique to the gifts and talents he’s placed in her for you and her to discover. As we journey through the week ahead, I encourage all of us to remind the people you encounter that they’re precious to Jesus; find ways to affirm their uniqueness as God’s masterpieces and bless them as the Spirit blesses us.   

God’s Faithfulness - 1 Samuel 27-28; 2:1-10

Baptisms remind us who we belong to and of God’s blessings. Catrinus and Gloria, you and your families especially recognize this as we celebrated Pax’s baptism just a few moments ago. It was a special moment on New Year’s Eve when I received your text that Pax had been born; you wrote, “Her name is Pax Chalaine Brouwer. Pax is Latin for peace because that is what she has brought us thanks to God.” When talking to you later on, you said she was a miracle given to you by God, this is reflected in the passages and Bible story you chose for the service; the story of Hannah’s pain-filled prayers for a child. It strikes me that Hannah’s deeply loved by her husband Elkanah. He shows his love by giving Hannah twice as much food as he does to his other wife Peninnah, but his love isn’t enough. Hannah identifies herself by her barrenness and the shame that others lay on her. Elkanah can give Hannah love, but ultimately, he cannot give Hannah her heart’s desire, only God can. Elkanah even asks her, “Don’t I mean more to you than ten sons?” Hannah doesn’t even bother answering him because he can’t give her the answers to her own painful questions, only God can. Hannah turns to the only one who can fulfill her deepest desires and transform her situation.

Hannah vows to God that if God gives her a son, she’ll give him over to the Lord for all the days of his life. God answers Hannah with the gift of Samuel. The verses you chose begins with Hannah keeping her vow, “I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him. So now I give him to the Lord. For his whole life he will be given over to the Lord.” And he worshiped the Lord there.” You understand Hannah and her deep desires in a way that many of us cannot. Hannah names her son Samuel, “heard by God,” a confession of faith in a God who hears the cries of our hearts.

I appreciate how you identified three themes in Hannah’s story and prayer; themes that shape your own faith: God’s power to transform, the importance of surrendering to God, and God’s faithfulness. Hannah fulfills her vow to God when Samuel is weaned, likely 3 or 4 years old, and brings him to the temple for the priest Eli to raise with his own children. The temple becomes both Samuel’s home and place to worship. Samuel’s life is shaped by worship; his birth an answer to prayer rooted in trust and faith of the Lord. Hannah recognizes that Samuel is first of all a child of God, a child from God. Pax’s baptism reminds us that she too is a child of God. 

As you mentioned, this is part of our confessions: Lord’s Day 1, “What is your only hope in life and in death? That I am not my own, but belong body and soul to my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood, and has set me free from all the power of the devil. He also preserves me in such a way that without the will of my heavenly Father not a hair can fall from my head; indeed, all things must work together for my salvation. Therefore, by his Holy Spirit, he also assures me of eternal life and makes me heartily wiling and ready from now on to live for him.” This is part of your prayer for Pax, that her heart and soul is rooted in the worship of, and trust in our faithful saviour Jesus. 

Hannah turns to God in a beautiful prayer of faith that echoes Mary’s Magnificat in Luke 1, and King David’s prayer of thanksgiving in 2 Samuel 22. She rejoices in the Lord’s faithfulness, not only to her, but she remembers his faithfulness to his people throughout history. Her prayer’s a deeply personal prayer that recognizes the upside-down nature of God’s kingdom. Hannah begins with rejoicing and celebrating the Lord’s holiness. She gives thanks that, “in the Lord my horn is lifted high.” Hannah’s referring to a custom among Middle-Eastern women of the time of wearing a tin or silver horn on the forehead that their veil hung from. Wives, who have no children, wear it pointing more outwards, while those who become mothers point it upwards, showing that they’re mothers; a sign of God’s blessing to them. 

Hannah, looking back over the Lord’s history with Israel, highlights how the Lord has compassion for the weak, the oppressed, those without hope, and turning things around against those who have everything and fail to realize that in their wealth and power they’re been called by God to care for the ones who’ve learned to lean heavily on God. Last week we reflected on how we’re called to transform our minds so we know God’s will, but our God also enters into our lives regularly to transform us, and even to transform the situations we’re in. Hannah’s prayer reminds us of how God is behind the breaking of the bows of the warriors while those who stumble are armed with strength; how those whose stomachs were always full now are hiring themselves out for food, while those who were hungry now have full stomachs. Hannah then touches on something so personal to herself, how she who was barren now has seven children, while she who has had many sons pines away. We hear an echo to Job’s confession, Job 1:21, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.” Job knows a faithful God. 

This takes trust in the Lord to praise the Lord’s faithfulness in the good and the hard. I appreciate how you confessed how you were “reminded of his faithfulness many times through out this journey and love how Hannah’s prayer shows God’s sovereignty, faithfulness and reminds us to praise God in all circumstances.” This is hard for many today as we’ve been conditioned by our society to believe that we deserve the best, that we can accomplish whatever we want to accomplish, but then life happens and we find we need to learn how to trust. We see this movement in Hannah; in the beginning nothing can satisfy the hurt in her, but by the time she gives Samuel over the Lord, “so now I give him over the Lord. For his whole life he will be given over to the Lord,” a difficult moment for any mother to leave her young child behind for someone else to finish raising him, but she’s learned to lean on the Lord, surrendering herself to him, and now trusting him to care for her son. 

Hannah learns that the deepest desire of her heart needs to be God rather than her child, and so she gives Samuel over to the Lord as promised. We see Mary, Jesus’ mother, make that same emotional and spiritual journey of surrendering her son to God, trusting in God’s plan for his life. I’m sure Hannah never imagined how her son was going to be so instrumental in Israel’s history, being part of the beginning of Israel’s kingships. Your desire for Pax is to dedicate her to the Lord and his plans for her, even though we have no idea of how the Holy Spirit is going to shape her or use her. We trust the Lord’s plans ahead of time.

Not all our prayers are answered in such beautiful ways, yet when we surrender ourselves to God’s will and walk in faith and trust, God walks with us. Our salvation and hope rest not in what we have or what we do, Paul writes in Titus 3:5 “he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.” God is with us through the presence of his Spirit, who is actively with us, “he will guard the feet of his faithful servants.” We’re reminded that the Lord’s powerful and mighty and will give us the strength we need to trust in his ways; that he will exalt the horn of his anointed in his way and his timing. 

Baptism reminds us of God’s faithfulness to his people, a reminder of who we belong to. On the first Pentecost, Peter calls the people to repent and be baptized: Acts 2:38–39, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.” With the gift of the Holy Spirit, we hear an echo to Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus, “No one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.” Paul writes in Galatians 3:27 “for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.” 

This is identity language, family language, and it’s offered freely to those who accept Jesus, who place their faith and trust in him. Our value and identity come from Jesus; this is at the heart of Jesus’ reminder to love God first above everything else because he surrendered his precious son to be sacrificed for us. Baptism reminds us of the new life we receive from God through the gift of the Holy Spirit and the washing away of our sin; new life that ushers us into the kingdom of heaven.

Transformed - Romans 12:1-2

GEMS Sunday is always a special Sunday, and I especially love your theme verse this year, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing, and perfect will.” How many of you have things you would like to change about yourselves? 

Following Jesus changes us when we take Jesus seriously. Verse 1 talks about offering ourselves as a living sacrifice; what do you think that means? Paul wants us to make God the most important person in our lives and to try to please God with everything that we do. One of the ways I do this is to ask Jesus every morning to help me see all the ways to do the good works that he’s prepared for us to do each day. I ask Jesus to give me a kind heart to help anyone who needs help that day, and to help me share with them how much Jesus loves them. 

When you love and care about each other, and try to make sure that everyone, even the people you might not like, are all treated with respect, it’s one way of worshipping God. You can be at school, at home, playing with other kids at the rink or gym, or even at the grocery store by helping the people and kids around you, you’re worshipping God. When you help someone who’s being teased or bullied feel safe and important, when you do your chores the best you can, and when you obey your parents, you’re worshipping God. But we all fail at times, so we ask God to transform us to be more who like Jesus wants us to be.   

The GEMS theme this year is about Jesus transforming us. Do you know what word they use for “transformed?” The Greek word that Paul uses is “metamorphosis.” When I checked one of my dictionaries for a simple definition, it told me metamorphosis is “a change of the form or nature of a thing or person into a completely different one, by natural or supernatural means.” When I checked out the GEMS board downstairs, I noticed that it’s covered with butterflies and that’s when I remembered science class. The first time I heard this word was in science class when we were studying how caterpillars and tadpoles were similar because of how they both changed. I was especially fascinated by the caterpillars. Do you know how butterflies become butterflies? 

Butterflies start off as caterpillars. God then created them to know when it’s time to transform from a caterpillar into a butterfly. After they’ve spent lots of time eating and growing and getting ready to change, the caterpillar begins to build a chrysalis around itself, like a small tent. While the caterpillar’s hidden away in its chrysalis, God does something pretty amazing to the caterpillar, a lot of the caterpillar’s body dissolves and then the core the caterpillar’s body begins to reform and the antennae and wings begin to grow and this common crawly caterpillar turns into a beautiful butterfly that has wings and can fly! I think that’s pretty amazing. Can you imagine how fascinating the world becomes for the butterfly? Before all it could do was crawl over a few plants and eat and eat, and now it can fly and see the world in a completely different new and wonderful way. Do you know that some butterflies can fly 4,000 to 5,000 kilometers when they migrate south for the winter? Amazing!

We can’t see the transformation happen, and it takes time for it to happen; about 3 weeks for the caterpillar to change into a butterfly. It’s the same thing with us; we don’t always recognize how the Holy Spirit is working in us to transform us more and more into the people God calls us to be. When I think about the caterpillar changing into a butterfly, I sometimes wonder if it hurts while its body changes. It can’t be easy for the caterpillar’s body to transform so much so fast. It must take a lot of work for it to transform itself. But in the end, the transformational is so cool; from a caterpillar into a creature of beauty that brings wonder and joy to so many people!

Our verse tells us, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” I found it interesting that Paul is talking about renewing our minds, about changing the unhealthy and wrong ways we think and what we allow into our minds. When we have wrong thoughts and ways of thinking about people or things that have happened, it hurts us and it can hurt others, and this hurts God. It happens so easily. What we watch on tv or online, the music we listen to, or the kinds of people we hang out with and listen to, can really impact how we think and act. When we listen to things that fill our minds with things we know aren’t right it can make us say and do things we know our parents, teachers, and God might not be happy about. When we fill our minds and hearts with rotten stuff, rotten stuff comes out of us.

This is why Paul tells us in Philippians 4:8–9, “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.” Your theme t-shirts say it really well, “Transformed by God’s Word from the inside out!” My grandfather told me that I should find someone that I admire who loves Jesus and lets Jesus shape who he is, and then imitate him. Paul tells us the same thing when he tells us to imitate him as he imitates Jesus. 

How can we transform our minds so that we can test and approve what God’s will is? We need God’s help to transform our minds. How does God do that transformation? One of the most important ways that God uses to transform us and through reading the Bible regularly. You can read it on your own, with your family, at church, and wherever you are. In the Bible, God shows us who he is: he’s the creator of the entire universe! When you look up into the night sky and see all the stars, the moon, and even some of the planets that are close by, God made them all! All the trees, plants, animals, and even each one of us was created by God. All the things that have been created by people were because God gave us the skills and imagination to be able to create them because we’re small creators in God’s image. We discover in the Bible that God never gives up on us and is willing to forgive us when we do things that are wrong, he even sent his son Jesus to become human, so that we could learn even more about God and wash away all our sin on the cross.

God transforms us through prayer. When we talk to God, God guides us through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit takes our prayers to God and even prays for us when we find it hard to say what we need to say to God. The Holy Spirit fills us with faith and trust as we pray, reassuring us that hears our prayers and loves us to give us what builds us up and helps us to become more like Jesus. 

God uses times like right now when we come together to worship God. The Holy Spirit during worship reminds us Jesus’ amazing love for us and the call to love each other and share with others how much Jesus loves them too. We’re reminded of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross where he washes our sins away, transforming our hearts when we believe in Jesus as our Lord and saviour. Worship gives us the opportunity to tell Jesus how much we love him and to ask him to transform our minds and hearts, so that how we treat others is a witness to who Jesus is. Jesus tells us in Matthew 5, “let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”

We know what God’s will is, we find it in your GEMS verse, Micah 6:8 “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” It’s not always easy, remember the butterflies? They transformed from plain caterpillars into beautiful butterflies; in the same way we can be transformed more and more into beautiful, amazing girls, women, and people who look and sound like Jesus. Your old friends may tease us about our transformation into people that make Jesus the most important, but Jesus loves the beautiful people you’re transforming into!

A Hunger for the Gospel - John 6:35-51

This morning we’re wrapping up our series on heart hunger by reflecting on hungering for the gospel. We celebrated the good news in the Lord’s Supper as we celebrate Jesus and how he’s made us right with God. All through history, people have searched for good news, for hope, and a reason to keep on going when things feel dark. The majority of the news today feels bad; our hearts hunger for good news to counter the bad and fill us with hope. In Greek, gospel is euangelion, which means good news meant to be shared.

In our passage, I hear the echoes of the doctrines of comfort found in the Canons of Dordt. Jesus invites the crowd to come to him, while our doctrines lead us into a deeper relationship with Jesus. Jesus tells us his gospel news through telling us who he is, and the story of Israel. Just before this, John tells us Jesus feeds 5,000 people with only 5 loaves of bread and 2 small fish. After feeding the people, Jesus goes off by himself while the disciples jump into a boat to go to the other side of the lake. In the night, Jesus joins his disciples by walking to them on the water. Jesus, as the creator, controls the elements of creation from bread, to fish, to the water he walks on, echoing the beginning of John’s gospel where we’re reminded that all things were created through Jesus. 

The next day, on the other side of the lake, the crowd finds Jesus again. The people want more bread and it’s easier to ask Jesus for it than work for it themselves. They’re looking for Jesus to provide for them like God did with manna for 40 years while wandering in the wilderness. Jesus reminds them that the bread they ate didn’t come from Moses, it came from God. Now the true bread from heaven that gives life to the world is here. 

Jesus declares, “I am the bread of life;” those who come to him will never go hungry, and whoever believes in him will never be thirsty. This is life nourishing language, God providing language. Jesus gives life and nourishes life because he’s the “I Am,” echoing back to Moses and the burning bush. This is gospel news for those who hunger and thirst. We hear echoes to Jesus’ meeting with the Samaritan woman at the well where he offers her living water, pointing to the gift of the Holy Spirit poured out on God’s people. Jesus reveals himself to her as the promised Messiah who has come to save his people. 

Jesus tells the people in the crowd, “All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.” Jesus is declaring that he’s more than the promised Messiah, he’s the Son of God! 

Jesus comes down from heaven because after he and the Father created everything very good, then sin happened when Adam and Eve listened to the serpent. Sin impacts every part of creation, total depravity. They aren’t wise enough to realize the very good they have in God, and they fall for the serpent’s slippery words, bringing the curse of death. God had warned them, “Don’t eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” God doesn’t reject Adam and Eve; he gives them clothes to cover their nakedness but allows the consequences of their sin play out. God also promises them a Messiah who will come and crush the head of the serpent. He’ll save his people, renewing and restoring creation again; gospel news! The crowd hears Jesus, but they have a hard time accepting it, “At this the Jews there began to grumble about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” They said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I came down from heaven’?” 

As Jesus challenges the crowd, we hear the comfort of what we call the doctrine of unconditional election. Jesus talks about how he’ll lose none of the ones his Father gives him, the ones the Father chooses to save. We know through the story of Scripture that the Lord chooses us not, because we deserve it, but out of his own gracious will. In choosing us, God’s revealing his amazing grace and good will. In Jesus’ words, we also hear the doctrine of perseverance of the saints. The perseverance isn’t by us, it’s God’s perseverance in not giving up on us; he refuses to let go of us, reassuring us that we cannot lose our faith because it’s a gift from him. It’s not our perseverance that leads to our salvation; it’s Jesus’ perseverance that leads to our salvation and eternal life with him. 

Jesus acknowledges that not everyone’s going to be saved, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day.” Those God chooses cannot resist his amazing grace, his grace is irresistible, but there are those the Father’s not sending to Jesus. This can be hard to hear. In our compassion for others, we wonder how can it be that a God of love wouldn’t send everyone to Jesus to be saved. 

Jesus helps us understand this in parables like the one in Luke 13, “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, ‘Sir, open the door for us.’ “But he will answer, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’ “Then you will say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’ “But he will reply, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!’ “There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth.” We read this as the people on the outside weeping in sorrow, but Jesus is giving us a different picture. 

In the Old Testament, gnashing of teeth was an expression of anger used for the wicked and their enemies. In the New Testament, gnashing of teeth is connected to future punishment and the wicked people’s refusal to repent and admit the justness of God’s judgment. James puts it this way in his letter, “but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed.” 

We read in Revelation 16, “They were seared by the intense heat and they cursed the name of God, who had control over these plagues, but they refused to repent and glorify him…. and cursed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, but they refused to repent of what they had done.” They refused a relationship with God and Jesus and kept choosing themselves and their heart desires. This is about God’s justice. Having walked with those who been abused or persecuted, part of their healing was the reassurance that their abusers would have to stand before God’s justice, especially if they managed to escape justice here. Jesus rescues his people from Satan, punishing Satan and his people with hell.

Jesus’ atonement for our sin is great enough for all sinners, but is only given to those chosen by God and who accept Jesus as their Lord and Saviour, this is limited atonement. In Acts 10:43, Peter, when he goes to Cornelius’ house, tells them, “All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.” Paul says something very similar in Romans 10:9, “If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Salvation comes through having a relationship with Jesus. Jesus talks about raising his people up on the last day when Jesus comes down from heaven again to renew all creation. 

When we allow the gospel story to shape our minds and hearts, we understand the world more deeply, giving us a strong foundation to walk through life with strength, knowing we’re given what we need to move through each day. We’re reminded of the gospel of Jesus. This is worldview stuff, shaping what we value and how we live with each other. In a culture used to criticizing others harshly, often anonymously, hurting relationships, we live face to face as a supportive family shaped by the Spirit, Galatians 5:22–26, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.” We become more Christ-like, allowing the gospel to shape us: we love God more; we love our neighbour so much we have to share the gospel with them so they’ll know the love of Jesus too. 

A Hunger for Freedom - 2 Corinthians 3:7-18

Paul is writing to the church in the city of Corinth because he’s heard there’s a group of Jewish believers who are emphasizing strict obedience to all the laws of Moses to the Gentile believers. There’s an aspect of trusting in your obedience to earn your salvation in this thinking. Paul shows us the difference between the old covenant grounded in the laws of Moses, the ones engraved in letters in stone that brought condemnation and still came with glory, and the new covenant in Jesus and what he accomplished that’s even more glorious. The glory found in the old covenant is muted, Paul uses the example of Moses wearing a veil when he came down from Mount Sinai after spending time in the presence of God, his face shining with God’s glory, frightens the people. Now in new covenant times, the glory shines bright as it’s unveiled, bringing righteousness. Paul writes, “For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory.” God gave Israel the law to shape his people and point them to the coming Messiah, and now Jesus has come. Paul writes, “And if what was transitory came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which lasts!” Paul keeps our focus on Jesus, not Moses. 

Paul’s mission is to point people to Jesus, “whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” Paul is talking about freedom from the power of sin, freedom Jesus has accomplished for us in his death and resurrection. The glory revealed as Jesus takes away the chains of sin that bind our hearts and souls to the curse that comes with sin: separation from God and death. We experience freedom from trying to earn our salvation through perfect obedience to the law, which as Scripture clearly shows us, is impossible for us. This is why Paul keeps calling us to turn to Jesus who has completely fulfilled the law. When we accept Jesus as our Lord and Saviour, when we believe in him and place all our faith and trust in Jesus, his perfect obedience covers us and we’re made righteous in and through Jesus. Jesus gives us his Spirit which is transforming us more and more into his image, filling us with his glory!

The Law is a gift from God, but it reveals our sin and brokenness and need for a Messiah. We know that sin creates brokenness, it points us away from God and Jesus, and silences the voice of the Holy Spirit within us. Sin wraps us in powerful chains. These chains can wrap us tightly in hopelessness and despair. These chains look differently for each of us; they can look like deliberate sin choices, like addiction, destructive and spiritually unhealthy ways of thinking, the actions of others towards us, or our past of brokenness and/or abuse. We don’t choose these chains, often they slowly and silently wrap themselves around our hearts and souls, weaving their ways around us tighter and tighter until it feels like we’ll never escape them, that all hope is lost.

Addiction is a powerful chain, and in my personal birth family, we’ve wrestled with the chains of addiction. As one family member says, “You don’t begin something thinking that it’s more powerful than I am and it’s going to make me submit to its will rather than me controlling it.” Everyone has their own story of that road into addiction. Our youth group in Allendale served regularly at a homeless shelter serving dinner. We would sit with some of those who came and ask them how we could pray for them. One man shared how he had been a successful doctor, but the stress of trying to save people’s lives every day got to him and he began using prescription drugs to handle the stress. He became addicted and this affected both his marriage and his job and he lost both, as well as his house and belongings. This led him to the streets and the shelter in order to survive. Drugs were the only way he felt he could survive each day and his inability to say no to the drugs took away all his hope. His addiction was rooted in the inability to defeat death and illness, in his own realization that he wasn’t God. The chains of addiction were painfully wrapped tightly around his mind and heart.

In another situation, I walked alongside a person who struggled with unhealthy ways of thinking that impacted her relationships with others. There were feelings of entitlement and yet feeling that she wasn’t respected. This created conflict within the church and her family. People were afraid of her, which created more hurt and brokenness. Yet when you asked people how they saw her, they all commented about how much they appreciated all she did, even while being afraid of her anger. Over time, as conflict grew, she would go to another church where the same patterns happened and she would end up back in our church again. This created depression, pain, and more striking out. At the heart of her struggle was the inability to trust others, which lead her to push against the church leadership, revealing a lack of trust in God. The chains of her unhealthy ways of thinking were so strong!

My call into ministry came through walking alongside people who were living rough lives caught in these types of chains and ended up at a Christian community center that reached out to those on the streets and in hard situations. Satan is creative in how he can trap us. The majority of those we walked alongside with wanted nothing more than to be free of their addictions or destructive relationships. They were all looking for happiness, peace, or hope and when it proved hard to find or keep, they turned to other behaviors and substances to take away the pain, taking those chains back on again. Slavery can become normal. We see this in the wilderness when Israel’s discouraged at how hard things are and complain how back in Egypt they had watermelon to eat and water to drink; slavery is easier in some ways than freedom.

Yet there are always those who hunger deeply for freedom, and in my experience, at some point end up turning to Jesus to see if freedom is possible. Often, they are drawn to the law parts, hoping that obedience will make them free; it’s not until they hear Jesus’ invitation in Matthew 11, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light,” that they learn  to rest in Jesus, to trust that he’s done the law for them, calling them to rest in him, to lean on his strength rather than their own.

In John 8:31–36 Jesus talks to the Jews who had believed him, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?” Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” When we believe in Jesus, we’re set free from our sin and made righteous before God, but that doesn’t mean we’re fully healed, that our addictions, ways of thinking and behaving, our bitterness and consequences of our past disappear. It does mean that we’re at the beginning of a journey of renewal, trusting that Jesus places people with skills of healing, counselling, encouragement, and equipping in our lives. There are those in our church family to help pick us up again when we stumble, reminding us that we’re deeply loved and forgiven by Jesus. Our chains are heavy and not easy to carry, especially when they’re placed there by others. Freedom is hard, which is why we’re called as the family of God to be there for and with each other, working with the Holy Spirit to be transformed.

Paul writes in Galatians 5:13–15; 22–23, “You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other…. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” True freedom leads us to freedom that begins to shape us into a new person shaped by the Holy Spirit. This will happen over time; hope and the experience of Jesus’ love will come, bringing trust in Jesus, which brings strength. Even though we may fall again and again, we know that we can overcome the chains that hold us down because our strength and freedom is found in Jesus. 

A Hunger for the Truth - John 14:1-14

Jesus has just finished eating the Passover meal with his disciples. Passover remembers the exodus out of Egypt when God brought his people out of slavery to the Egyptians. John’s setting the stage to show how Jesus’ upcoming death will save us from our slavery to sin. Judas has left and Jesus tells the remaining disciples that his time with them is short. Jesus leaves them with a new command, John 13:34–35, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” 

Jesus now encourages his disciples to believe in him as they believe in God. He reassures them that even though he’s leaving, that he’s going to make a place ready for them and will come back to take them home to his Father’s house when their place is ready. Now Thomas speaks up, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” My first thought is always, “Thomas, Jesus just said that he’s coming back to take us, all we need to do is trust in Jesus that he knows the way, we’re fine.” 

Jesus is more reassuring, he tells Thomas, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” We’re so used to hearing these “I Am” statements from Jesus that we often miss the impact of what Jesus is saying. Each of the statements Jesus makes here is weighty enough to stagger the disciples by what he's claiming here. When talking to Martha at Lazarus’ death, Jesus calls himself “the life,” while to the Pharisees he refers to himself as “the door” and “the light of the world,” a way of saying he’s the way. In Mark 12:14, the Pharisees tell Jesus, “You teach the way of God in accordance with the truth.” 

This morning we’re narrowing in on Jesus saying “I am the truth.” Truth is often seen as a slippery idea today. Some say that we each create our own truth. It wasn’t much different in Jesus’ time. There were different Jewish traditions, and it was hard for the Jewish person in Jesus’ time to determine which tradition, or truth, was really Yahweh’s will. For the Jews, truth is understood in terms of faithfulness and reliability, especially as it relates to Yahweh. The New Testament also picks up on the Greek idea of truth as reality, along with as the Jewish concepts of faithfulness and reliability. Jesus Christ is shown as “the Truth” and the apostles present the gospel as “truth.” In Scripture, truth is understood as part of God’s character: God is truth, truth is found in God. 

Michael Goheen, a former professor at Redeemer University, writes, “In the Western story, ultimately reliable truth is found in eternal ideas that transcend history. In the Bible, ultimately reliable truth is found in God’s mighty acts in history, especially in Jesus Christ” …. “One of my university professors, a Jewish rabbi, said to me something like the following: “The difference between Jews and Christians is a different understanding of truth. We Jews believe truth resides in historical events that give meaning to a story and shape a community to live into that story. You Christians believe truth resides in theological ideas around which a community forms by believing those ideas.” 

In many ways, Pilate’s question to Jesus at his trial is still being asked today, “What is truth?” Today, many people hunger to know what truth really is. In our church tradition, we tend to lean more towards the Greek and modern approach to understanding truth as reality, while under-valuing the Jewish approach of finding truth in relationship. Post-modernity leans towards creating our own truth, and the newest cultural movement is being called meta-modernism where people hold competing and even opposite truths together without seeing any tension in doing so. 

The Bible reveals and teaches truth with both Jewish and Greek understanding. Truth is about facts and rationality, it’s about faithfulness, firmness, and reliability. Truth is about what’s real and genuine and opposite to falsehood, truth is about being complete rather than incomplete. In Jesus we get a very distinctive image of God; in Matthew 3 at Jesus’ baptism, we see God in heaven loving his Son Jesus who is God with us, and with the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, we experience God with us and in us. God is complete in himself. God often locates truth in himself, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. John 1:14, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” Truth and mercy are often placed together in Scripture and shows God’s loyalty and love to his people, creating trust in God.

John writes in his first letter, 1 John 5:20, “We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true by being in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.” John tells us the Holy Spirit shows us what truth is, John 14:16–17, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.” The Holy Spirit points us to Jesus as the truth found in the center of the Biblical story. Jesus is God and the Son of God, part of the Trinity, a relationship. We are children of God in a relationship with God creating a deeper trust in God and his words of wisdom and truth about the world around us and our place in it.

Most of us, when we’re looking for truth, are looking for facts. Scripture calls us to look to a person, to Jesus for truth, to listen to what he teaches about how the world’s supposed to be. Jesus is truth; he’s trustworthy and reliable, teaching and showing us the reality of life: that we’re sinners and need forgiveness, and this forgiveness is found in him. Our true identity is rooted in Jesus. Jesus reveals that the world belongs to the Father and so do we and that he alone can give us a full life; that the world’s promises to fill us with all our desires is a lie and false. 

We know truth through our relationship with Jesus. Truth is knowledge of who Jesus is, and a faith filled relationship with Jesus. In John 8:31–32, we’re reminded of this, “To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” When we look for truth, we’re looking for God; Jesus tells Phillip, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.” If we want to see the truth of all things, the reality of what life is, where meaning and purpose are found, we look to God, and we find God in Jesus. Jesus reveals to us that God loves us so much he comes into a world broken by sin and shaped by lies because of Adam. God’s truth in Scripture is that we are sinners, redeemed sinners when we accept Jesus as our Lord. As the second Adam, Jesus takes our sin on himself, washes it away through his sacrificial death, bringing renewed life and the promise of a renewed creation again; filling us with hope and excitement as we join in Jesus’ work of sharing the gospel of truth found in Jesus and giving our communities a glimpse of the kingdom of heaven through our lives together.

Knowing truth leads to acting on that truth and living that truth out in our lives: John writes in 1 John 3:18, “Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.” John’s likely remembering Jesus’ words at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into action is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.” That rock is Jesus and the truth of his teaching. We see how Jesus interprets the law in terms of relationship; lust is adultery, anger is murder, both breaking our relationships with God and others. 

When we accept Jesus as truth, this empowers us to recognize and stand up against evil and wrong by evaluating the structures, cultural values, and idolatries prevalent today to Jesus’ teachings and life so we can shape our lives, values, and actions on Jesus; critiquing wisely the cultural influences impacting each of us. This helps us to be free from the falsehoods our culture has embraced, and living in the truth that is Jesus, which sets us free to lead others into the truth and kingdom of heaven as we build on the rock of truth that is Jesus.