Advent 4 - The Loving Gardener - Isaiah 37:26-32, Psalm 36:5-12, Matthew 1

Our passage this morning from Isaiah 37 is part of King Hezekiah’s story found in 2 Kings 18-20. Hezekiah is a good king, leading the people of Judah back to God, destroying the idols and their worship places in the mountains. But Hezekiah was also king during a really difficult time, a time when the northern kingdom of the 10 tribes of Israel disappears from history as the King Sennacherib of Assyria conquers them and disperses the people throughout his empire. Sennacherib then turns his sights onto Judah, mocking them, demanding tribute, which Hezekiah pays by stripping the gold off the doors and doorposts of the temple. Yet this doesn’t satisfy Sennacherib, bullies are never satisfied and always seek to humiliate their victims more, but then the Lord steps in with messages for both Sennacherib and Hezekiah. You can read this passage in context in 2 Kings 19.

The Lord tells Sennacherib, “Have you not heard? Long ago I ordained it. In days of old I planned it; now I have brought it to pass, that you have turned fortified cities into piles of stone. Their people, drained of power, are dismayed and put to shame. They are like plants in the field, like tender green shoots, like grass sprouting on the roof, scorched before it grows up. “But I know where you are and when you come and go and how you rage against me. Because you rage against me and because your insolence has reached my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth, and I will make you return by the way you came.” Sennacherib’s strength has come from the Lord, and he’s looking to deal with Judah like he did with the northern kingdom, to conquer and disperse them throughout his empire so they’ll disappear from history, but the Lord’s also going to deal with his arrogance. This is a warning that God’s in control, not him. God will send him home, led away like a bull with a hook in its nose, or a horse with a bit in its mouth. The bull and horse are powerful creatures, but are still easily led about with small pieces of metal.

The Lord has a message of hope for Hezekiah, “This year you will eat what grows by itself, and the second year what springs from that. But in the third year sow and reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit. Once more a remnant of the kingdom of Judah will take root below and bear fruit above. For out of Jerusalem will come a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.” Here we get a glimpse of God as the loving gardener of his people. This is a word of hope and restoration. There’s only a remnant left from the original people of God, the 10 tribes are gone and now Judah’s under threat; they’re like the grass scorched before it grows. The grass may be scorched, but it’s still rooted in the soil, and God’s watching over and tending to his people, ensuring that they will not be completely destroyed, a remnant will remain to grow once again. This is often called “remnant theology;” where “a portion of people are left after a disaster, especially a disaster identified with divine judgment. Especially in the Prophets, this term describes those who remain faithful to God despite suffering and who ultimately experience restoration.”

Scripture often uses agricultural and farming images to describe the Lord’s relationship with his people. The first garden in the Bible is in Eden, a garden planted by God and then given over to Adam and Eve to care for, and cultivate. In the Garden of Eden, every need of Adam and Eve is met, revealing the nurturing side of God, and his provision and care for his children. This becomes one of the main themes that runs through the whole of Scripture: God provides. Yet this isn’t enough for Adam and Eve and they choose disobedience to God in a desire to be like God, something that’s been passed on to each of us now. This is why we celebrate Christmas and the coming to earth of Jesus, son of God, saviour of humanity and creation. Jesus comes to overturn the power of death by dying and then rising from the dead 3 days later, washing away our sin and disobedience, restoring our relationship with God, our father and creator. God provides for our redemption through Jesus! This is why gardening in the Bible also represents hope and resilience. Even during times of exile, God tells his people to plant and cultivate, telling them through the prophets that nurturing life is an act of faith and trust in God's provision. This theme’s echoed in various places, where gardens symbolize places of peace, meeting, and spiritual growth.

In creation, God places in the order and structure of creation the process for how plants and animals are nourished and grow, how they mature, die, and return to the soil again. God puts into place all the elements needed for creation to flourish, including humanity. For crops and plants to flourish so there are good harvests, the gardener or farmer needs to carefully care for them. Whether it's a few plants on a patio, a back yard vegetable garden, or acres of corn or grain, for plants to thrive someone needs to care for their health: making sure the conditions are right and that there aren’t weeds competing with them for nutrients and water.

This isn’t something that’s done only when the farmer or gardener feels like it; it requires dedication and regular hard work, in some cases for years, before the fruit is seen. For fruit trees and vines to continue to produce every year, they need ongoing care, proper pruning, attention to the weather patterns, and care for the soil. Treated right, these trees and vines can thrive for generations, as you see in vineyards in Israel and Europe. To commit to something long term like this takes love for farming and gardening, for creation. Farmers and gardeners pour themselves into their work, their energy, sweat, tears, hopes, and prayers go into the plants and crops they plant and take care of, knowing that ultimately, they need to trust the Lord for the right balance of rain and sun at the proper times for their harvest to flourish.

Gardening and farming are hard work since the fall into sin. Nature itself was impacted by Adam and Eve’s disobedience. God tells Adam, “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.” God’s promise of a Messiah, Jesus, meant that God committed himself to his plan of redemption and a relationship with humanity, nurturing them in order to bring Jesus into our world to become both fully human and fully God in order to overturn the curse of sin. God became a gardener of our souls.

God carefully watches over and tends our souls to make sure the harvest is plentiful, and scripture shows that God has been doing this for generations: “Once more a remnant of the kingdom of Judah will take root below and bear fruit above.” Matthew 1 shows us that God’s carefully cared for remnant continued from generation to generation and that God cultivated each generation, making sure that one day Christ, the first fruit, would be born. Even though there were times when all a person could see was a stump, God kept nurturing the roots of the stump, preparing for the birth of a new shoot, of new life. The promise of the remnant bearing fruit is first fulfilled in Jesus’ birth, and even further fulfilled in the pouring out of the Holy Spirit on the people at Pentecost, birthing new life in many hearts that day, and is still today growing new life in people.

In Isaiah 5:1-7, God is pictured as the owner of a vineyard, expecting it to yield good fruit, which represents his call for his people to live righteously, participating in the weeding and pruning of our lives for spiritual growth. When the vineyard produces wild grapes, it symbolizes Israel's unfaithfulness, highlighting the importance of bearing fruit in accordance with God's character.

In the New Testament, this image of God as a gardener is developed more deeply in John 15, where Jesus tells his disciples, "I am the true vine, and My Father is the gardener." Here, God is described as the vinedresser who prunes the branches so they’ll keep being fruitful. Jesus is emphasizing the need of remaining connected to him for our spiritual growth. This is how we grow to be more like Jesus, what we call sanctification. God’s actively involved in the process of our sanctification and nurturing us to produce spiritual fruit through the Holy Spirit.

The image of God as the gardener in the Bible reveals deep truths about who he is, the importance of spiritual growth, and the relationship between God and us. It reminds us God is actively cultivating life and guiding creation to its complete redemption when Jesus returns to claim his us and renew us so we’ll flourish as his vineyard. Join the Holy Spirit in its work of gardening our souls and lives.

Advent 3 - From the Wilderness of Despair to the Flourishing of Joy - Isaiah 41:17–20; Psalm 126; Luke 1:46–55

Isaiah 41 is found in the final section of Isaiah and focuses on the return of Israel back to their homes after the 70-year Babylonian exile. They’re not home yet, but their exile’s coming to an end in the near future and Isaiah writes to give them hope and strength. This passage is about encouragement to a people who have mostly been born in exile with the stories from their parents and grandparents of how wonderful home is, but for most of them, these are only stories. Isaiah’s writing to encourage them to not give up on their faith in God.

Isaiah’s addressing their despair. Despair feels like misery, a desolation of the soul, hopelessness, dejection, a lack of meaning or purpose in life. These can become long-term feelings that settle into the soul, becoming a state of being, choosing to see life through the lens of despair. Despair is a reality for many people today. There are those who have grown up in hard families, abusive even, seldom experiencing love or kindness. Having been foster parents for many years, Joyce and I had a number of children who felt this way come into our home. There are those who live in perpetual poverty who see no hope or relief in sight, those who live on the streets, some for many years who have lost hope of ever having a place to call home, there are those who are refugees who want to return home, but sense that they never will, and feel unwanted here. Despair leads to distance from others and from God, making it difficult to experience the presence and peace of God; to experience joy. Despair is found in every age.

When you’re struggling and feel no one sees you, the images here in Isaiah become real: barren heights, deserts, and parched ground reflect what’s in your heart and soul. You pray for relief, for something to change, or for someone to show up who sees you, who offers hope. Israel’s praying God will show up, and here through Isaiah God does, offering these words of hope, “I will make rivers flow on the barren heights, and springs within the valleys. I will turn deserts into pools of water, and parched ground into springs. I will put in the desert the cedar and the acacia, the myrtle and the olive. I will set junipers in the wasteland, the fir and the cypress together, so that people may see and know, may consider and understand, that the hand of the Lord has done this, that the Holy One of Israel has created it.” These passages this morning point to God’s presence and blessings, to bring us to joy and deeper trust in God.

The change that happens in a desert place is amazing if you’ve never seen it before. A place that is dry and parched, showing little signs of life can be transformed into a place filled with life and new growth as soon as rain comes. When we look at these images, it’s easy to see why Jesus offers us living water and calls us to allow streams of living water to flow from us into our world, John 7:37–39, “Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.” With the coming of new life from the living water through the Holy Spirit, we find ourselves able to move from despair to joy, leading us to confess with Mary, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior…for the Mighty One has done great things for me.”

Jesus connects living water to the presence of the Holy Spirit.  This was not a new insight, Isaiah connects water and the Spirit in 44:3, “For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants.” Throughout Scripture, nourishing rain and rivers also serve as a picture of spiritual nourishment given to satisfy our thirsty souls. In Isaiah, the gift of water leads to the incredible spread of numerous types of trees—trees you wouldn’t expect to see, a true flourishing out of lifelessness or despair. In Isaiah, this water that gives life is not for just anyone, it’s especially meant for the poor and needy, those who are weeping, the lowly, and the hungry. This may seem unfair, but this is so that “people may see and know, may consider and understand, that the hand of the Lord has done this, that the Holy One of Israel has created it.” As the people find new life, find hope again, find joy, it’s not found in what they can do for themselves, it’s found in the work of a God of mercy who cares for the humble, the hungry and who will lift them up over the proud and rich.

Joy is a mark of God’s people. Joy is closely related to gladness and happiness, although joy’s more a state of being than an emotion; a result of choice. Joy is part of the fruit of the spirit. Having joy is part of the experience of being a Christian. We have the Gospel, good news for all people, news of forgiveness and grace, news that our sin is covered by Jesus; this should lead to joy. We have the presence of the Holy Spirit, who lives in us, a gift of God’s presence. Trevor Hudson, a pastor from South Africa writes about seeing the joy in Dallas Willard’s faith. Someone told him he had a gloomy faith; he writes about seeking out the source of joy and went and reread the Gospels in order to find the joyous God that Willard talked about. Hudson was struck by how happy Jesus was. “He lived with a strong vibrant sense of the goodness of his father, the creator of the world. He seemed to have had the capacity of living fully in the present, giving his attention to the task in front of him, celebrating the presence of God here and now. He enjoyed parties, sharing meal, hugging children. He loved those around him fiercely and passionately. To cap it off, after explaining to his disciples how he would be the vine and they the branches, constantly drawing life from him, he said, “These things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you and your joy may be full.” (John 15:11)

Black gospel music and spirituals focus on salvation, hope, and resilience; bringing comfort and inspiration to those who listen to their music. This music comes out of the African American slave community that sought the hope and joy of the Gospel rather than allowing despair to shape their souls and faith. Even in the midst of often great suffering, the slaves kept their eyes on Jesus and on a God who saves; who leads his people out of slavery into freedom, even if it’s not in our lifetime. This is why in Advent we not only look back to Jesus’ birth, but also ahead to his return when we’ll all be free from the chains that hold us in despair, whether it’s physical, spiritual, mental, or emotional illness, addiction, broken relationships, poverty, or repetitive sinful behaviours that we just can’t break free from, or any other chain that holds us down.

What does joy look like in your life? Can others see Jesus’ joy in you? Do you find joy in being part of this body of Christ, do you live out Jesus’ joy in worship, in serving, in sharing your faith, with the people in your life? Or do you find yourself bitter or critical and focused on sin and judgment, rather than Jesus’ love for you? Are you able to receive forgiveness and grace and offer forgiveness and grace to others? Do you choose joy? Are you strongly connected to Jesus as the source of your life and being?

Our joy comes from knowing that Jesus will return, seeing life through this reality; there’ll be no more suffering. Isaiah prophesizes of the restored people of God, entering into Zion with a crown of everlasting joy: Isaiah 35:10, “and those the Lord has rescued will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.” And Isaiah 55:12, “You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.” The indescribable joy of believers is possible because as we wait for Jesus’ return, we know that we’ve received the salvation of our souls.

Moving from despair to a joy that blooms with new life is rooted in trusting that God’s working for our good and deeply cares about us; choosing to believe in his promises to fill us with his living water in the Spirit. Joy comes from being in community with God and the body of Christ; from a life of continual prayer and communication with God, and from a love and study of Scripture, God’s gift where he reveals himself to us. This Advent, rejoice in the Spirit’s work, grateful for all the good we see around us, rejoicing in expectation of the day when the world will be made right again, and those who experience need will flourish, joining in the happiness of the psalmist and Mary confessing, “the Lord has done great things.”

 

 

From Repentance to Growth - Isaiah 27:1-6; Psalm 85; Matthew 3:1-12

Israel’s in exile in Babylon because of their faithlessness to God, failing to follow his way, preferring their own ways and the ways of the nations instead. These ways, as we reflected on last week, failed God’s call to live justly and walk in righteous ways with each other. Here in Isaiah 27, we see the Lord punishing Leviathan, the gliding serpent and monster of the sea, an echo back to how Satan took on the form of a serpent to tempt Eve and Adam into sin and disobedience. Isaiah associates the serpent with the sea, a place of chaos for Israel who are more connected with the wilderness. The sea’s a picture for the Israelites of the chaos sin brings; the power of its storms is like the storms sin brings into our lives. Sin brings brokenness and destruction. So how do we find our ways to fruitful vineyards, to the Lord’s unfailing love in Psalm 85 where the psalmist is searching for the Lord’s peace and salvation?

Matthew introduces us to John the Baptist, who comes to prepare the people for Jesus’ coming and ministry. John’s message is simple and blunt; he calls the people to repent by confessing their sins and turning back to God. He has his harshest words and strongest calls to repent for the Sadducees and Pharisees who are showing up to check out this wild prophet who’s baptizing people in the Jordan River, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

John’s hard on them because the Pharisees emphasize faithfulness to Torah, the study of scripture, and full obedience to the law. They’re influential leaders in Israel and created additional laws and requirements on the people, which leads Jesus to later charge them with placing heavy burdens on the people that God did not. But they also use these laws to benefit themselves, leading Jesus to call them hypocrites because they don’t recognize or acknowledge their own sin, only the sins of everyone else.

What is repentance? How do we live out repentance in our relationship with Jesus? In the Hebrew there are 2 words that are used for repentance: nāḥam, which means ‘to be sorry, change one’s mind’ and šûḇ which means ‘to turn back, return’. In the Old Testament, especially in the prophets, the call from God is for his people to return to their covenantal dependance on God; to turn back to the way of living with God and each other in the way God gave them at Mount Sinai, and in the spirit of the other covenants God made with them. The picture of repentance is of changing your direction away from your goals and destination and turning back and walking with God as your goal and destination.

Pilgrim’s Progress is an example of what our journey through life is like. It’s a story by John Bunyan about a man called Christian who journeys from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City. It’s a story that represents the Christian life, where each person, place, and event represents spiritual concepts and challenges. Bunyan shows the burden of sin that Christian must carry and how the path to God involves faith, perseverance, and overcoming obstacles like temptations and despair. Repentance looks like getting back on the path to God by confessing when we fail, and then putting our eyes on Jesus and trusting the way he taught us to live, shaped by faith and trust in him and the Father.  

John, when he calls the people to repentance, uses the Greek word metanoias, which combines the send of both Hebrew words and means ‘to change one’s mind’ and to ‘feel remorse or regret.’ Repentance is not just feeling sorry about what you did or thought, it’s about changing the direction of your heart from you wants and desires, your ways of thinking, what you believe, and embracing Jesus as your Lord and Saviour, filling your mind and heart with his teaching, looking at how he lived out God’s will, and embracing the spirit of God’s will; filling your ears with Jesus’ teachings, and your hearts with the Holy Spirit’s voice, and turning away from the voices that blast at us from our culture, trusting Jesus and who he’s calling us to be as his disciples. It can be hard to tune out the social media noise and chaos in our culture that uses conflict, anger, hatred, and division to shape how we live in and understand our world. It’s amazing how easily these voices grab us, how quickly we believe in them and turn away from Jesus’ way. Christians are not immune to the spirit of hatred spewing out at us.

John calls for the Pharisees and Sadducees and followers of God and Jesus to produce fruit that grows out of repentance. John baptized people as a step of repentance into a new life and identity, washing away their old life for a new life of obedience. What does that look like for us as we’re called to repentance and turn back to Jesus? When we look at our lives and choices, we find ourselves choosing against Jesus regularly, choosing to listen to other voices instead of the Holy Spirit’s.

Isaiah uses the imagery of briers and thorns for sin. In our verses today, Isaiah’s pointing ahead to Jesus’ return when the dragon or serpent will be destroyed, and Jesus is going to either find a fruitful vineyard or thorns and briars that will be thrown on a burn pile. Jerusalem was surrounded by vineyards which represented blessings while briers and thorns often come up in Jesus' parables as signs of Satan's and evil men's work. Fire is often used as a description of judgment, and later in the New Testament as an image of hell. John the Baptist warns, “Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.” Repentance leads to peace, flourishing, and new life. Repentance leads to growth and fruitfulness; it turns away God’s wrath and anger as we eagerly wait for Jesus’ return.

Repentance begins with confession, with being honest with yourself and God that you’re a sinner. Our tendency is to minimize our sins, think about Jesus’ parable of the Pharisee and tax-collector praying. The Pharisee praises himself to God while the tax-collector humbly confesses he’s a sinner in need to God’s grace and forgiveness. We need to see that we all need a saviour as we journey to the manger, and as we wait for Jesus’ return. As we journey through the danger of serpents and thorns, we also hear John the Baptist’ warning that judgment’s coming. This is why confession needs to be paired with some hard work in our lives and hearts. Isaiah talks about fruitful vineyards, but those vineyards need constant weeding and feeding in order to grow healthy fruit. We’re called to do weeding in our own hearts, lives, and minds, called to repentance, confessing our sins, walking in obedience to the way of Jesus. The Holy Spirit helps us identify the weeds and thorns in our lives and hearts, will help us in the weeding; help us flourish and grow into fruitful followers of Jesus as we wait for his return.

If you wrestle with addiction or other struggles, you know that the strength of addiction or mental or emotional challenges can make you feel hopeless because no matter how much you want to change. It’s hard and you find yourself falling again and again. Know that God is a God of mercy and grace who brings people into our lives to walk with us, encourage us, find healing and hope, and to pick us up again. We talk about sanctification in the church, the life long journey to become more like Jesus, but it’s a life long journey filled with ups and downs and we’ll never reach full Christ-likeness in our life time, only when we reach heaven will we be fully renewed!

Paul shows us what the fruit of the Spirit, what a fruitful soul vineyard looks like in Galatians 5:22–25, “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.” A fruitful soul vineyard, filled with these virtues that reflect who God is, takes regular cultivating, weeding, and feeding. We feed this fruit through attention to the Spirit, to regular study of the scripture, time in prayer, and gathering together to encourage and build each other up in these virtues. We don’t do this in our own strength, we need to remember that the Lord is our keeper, that he provides what’s needed to grow and provide a harvest of righteousness and faithfulness, helping to prepare the way for his return.

How are you tending to your vineyard? Are you rooted in the promises of God, in Jesus and the power of the Spirit, and the community of believers?  

First Sunday of Advent - A Shoot from a Stump—A Sign of Hope - Isaiah 11:1–9, Psalm 72:1–7, 12–19, Luke 1:26–38

The church often turns to the prophet Isaiah in Advent. Isaiah comes just before the conquest of Judah by Babylon, a time of unrest, injustice where the rich are getting richer and more powerful, the poor, widows, and oppressed are ignored, and compassion is hard to find. Isaiah warns of God’s judgment against his own rebellious people, but also against the nations that defy God.

Psalm 72 is a prayer that reflects the desire of the people for a king whose reign will be shaped by justice and righteousness; the virtues of a faithful king, faithful to God and to his people. The Hebrew word ṣeḏeq, which is translated righteousness, probably comes from Arabic meaning ‘straightness.’ The basis of righteousness in the Old Testament is relationship, both between God and man, and between man and man. Righteous is about promoting the well-being and peace of the community. For the prophets, righteousness includes the idea of helping the poor and needy. In terms of the relationship between God and men, righteousness points toward a correct relationship to the will of God shaped by Israel’s covenant with God.

 Righteous action flows out of God’s election of Israel and according to his covenants. God is a righteous judge who acts for his people and whose righteousness his people depend on for deliverance and protection. Psalm 72 is praying for a righteous king, praying that God will send the promised Messiah king to bring freedom. In the time of Isaiah and the psalmist, God sees and hears the people that the rich and powerful fail to see, except as a means to grow their own power and wealth. For those looking for a righteous king, for a Messiah, there seems to be little hope to hang onto. But the prophets keep pointing the people back to God, reminding them that the weak and needy are precious to him; he hears their prayers for a king that will have God’s heart for them. The hope for God’s people is that a king will come from the line of David, son of Jesse. Isaiah’s looking ahead to a time when it will look like David’s family tree has been cut down with only a stump left.

Today it’s easy to be pessimistic about life and wonder, as Israel often did in the time of Isaiah, is there any reason to hold onto hope. Jesus still hasn’t returned and it’s hard for so many today. The gap between the wealthy and poor continues to grow larger, so many corporations have lost any sense of social responsibility and are focused on making the greatest profit they can for their share-holders, even if it’s on the back of the less fortunate. This week a new report came in that 25% of Canadians are suffering from food insecurity, meaning there’s a growing number of people going hungry, needing to access food banks to feed their families. More families are literally living from pay-cheque to pay-cheque, frightened of even one unexpected bill or sickness, while the very wealthy don’t seem to see or care. There are wars, rumours of war, the number of refugees in the world grows daily, and more and more countries want no part of welcoming them in. Persecution and oppression occur around the world and our brothers and sisters in the faith often suffer greatly for following Jesus. As the French writer Jean-Baptiste Karr said, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”

With defeat at the hands of the Babylonian empire coming close, Isaiah offers a burst of hope, “The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him—the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord—and he will delight in the fear of the Lord. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears; but with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth.” This shoot will do the two things everyone wants from their leaders: with righteousness he will lead with compassion and care for the least among us, and punish the wicked.

Isaiah’s a prophet of hope, pointing the people to the promises of God that he’ll send a Messiah; the Lord’s servant who will rescue them from both political and spiritual oppression. Isaiah points ahead to a shoot coming up from a stump; revealing that the seemingly dead stump’s roots are still filled with life, and a Branch will grow up and bear fruit again. This Messiah’s often referred to as the Lord’s servant, but unexpectedly, a suffering servant who will bring justice and rule in righteousness while experiencing injustice himself.

Isaiah points to a renewed creation where all of creation is at peace within itself. There’ll be no more survival of the fittest, but instead peace and flourishing for all creatures. Predators and prey will sleep side by side in safety, a beautiful picture of what justice and righteousness looks like in the kingdom of God; relationships of shalom with all the meaning of this Hebrew word where there will be peace within creation, flourishing among all people and with all creatures, where there’ll be building up rather than destruction, and the earth will know the Lord within a covenantal relationship of faithfulness. This image occurs repeatedly in Scripture: Ezekiel 34:25–27 ^“‘I will make a covenant of peace with them and rid the land of savage beasts so that they may live in the wilderness and sleep in the forests in safety. I will make them and the places surrounding my hill a blessing.  I will send down showers in season; there will be showers of blessing. The trees will yield their fruit and the ground will yield its crops; the people will be secure in their land. They will know that I am the Lord, when I break the bars of their yoke and rescue them from the hands of those who enslaved them.”

The Bible closes with a picture of the renewed creation and the second advent when Jesus returns, Revelation 22:1–5 “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.”

Yet God’s people experience 400 years of silence after the return from exile. But hope wasn’t dead, just as it’s not dead today. An angel comes to a young virgin in Nazareth, a small town in a small country under foreign rule and tells the young girl Mary, “Greetings, you who are highly favoured! The Lord is with you.” Judah’s under Roman rule, things are hard, oppressors have come and gone. They were free for a time under the Maccabees, but that’s long gone. Messiahs have come and gone, usually making things even harder for the people. Herod’s built a beautiful temple, but he’s cruel and unjust, only in it for himself. Now an angel comes with amazing news for Mary, “You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. he will be great and will be called the Son of the Most-High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David.” Her son will be born through the power of the Holy Spirit and Jesus, the holy one, will be called the “Son of God.”

With the coming of the shoot from the stump of Jesse, this Branch has begun to gather people around him from all nations. Paul writes in Ephesians 1:10, God’s plan is “to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.” In our world filled with failed flawed leaders, Jesus is returning to bring in a renewed kingdom of justice and righteousness under God, the king-child born of Mary, raised, and crucified in a small oppressed country, raised from the dead for our sin, and returning to deliver the needy, defend the oppressed, and hold the wicked to account for their actions for failing to care for the people. Jesus comes to transform hearts, to create a new people shaped in his image, and to call us to follow him as our Lord.

We’re the body of Christ, part of the already/not-yet kingdom of heaven, a sign of hope to the world. Until Jesus returns, we’re called to be shaped by his values of justice and righteousness, to answer as Mary does, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Righteousness and justice are personal, lived out in relationship with our neighbours. Where can we, as a church, as individuals, or families can be involved in acting justly, seeing and walking alongside the poor, the orphans, the widows, and foreigners among us, offering the hope of Christ, sharing the new life found in Jesus? Go, sharing the hope of Jesus with words and actions this week.

Keep in God’s Love - Jude

                     

The world has changed a lot in the past 30 years. It used to be when we talked about a virus, it was about our physical health, now when we talk about a virus, it’s because our computers, phones, cars, or anything electronic has become infected with a virus that can shut things down and make our devices useless. In a similar way, false teaching can infect our spiritual lives, leading us into unhealthy ways of living, of relating with each other, and with God. Jude’s warning the people that false teachers have crept into the church and are giving the people wrong and unhealthy ways of understanding who God is and what Jesus has done for us. It’s not just Jude who writes the churches about this, Peter warns against false teachers in his second letter, and Paul warns about the same thing in a number of his letters. Jesus also warned about false teachers and shepherds showing up for their own benefit.

Jude calls us to fight for what we believe, for what we’ve been taught in Scripture and Jesus; listening to God’s voice over the clamour of voices in our world trying to lead our hearts away from God. He knows that when we contend for the faith, it becomes more real to us. Jude warns them, “They are ungodly people who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.” God’s grace is seen as permission to do whatever they want, depending on God’s grace to forgive them. The word Jude uses, “pervert,” means “to change or transfer.” In Jude’s situation, the immorality he’s warning against is sexual immorality and perversion. These false teachers are changing what God’s grace and Jesus’ sacrifice are really about. They’re teaching that you can embrace the sexual morals and practices of the people around you and God’s grace will give forgiveness and there’ll be no judgment for their sin.

Paul gets angry in Romans 6 over the same attitude, verses1–2, “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” Paul, and Jude, are countering the false teaching that God owes us forgiveness and that obedience to God’s laws and Jesus’ teachings and way are not important. False teachers ignore that God is a just God and punishes deliberate disobedience. They fail to acknowledge that deliberate disobedience means that you’ve failed to truly accept Jesus as your Lord, that you still see yourself as your lord rather than confessing that you belong, body and soul, in life and in death to Jesus and follow his ways out of gratitude and thankfulness for all he’s done for your salvation.

Jude uses the Greek word “ekporneuw” for sexual immorality, where our word pornography comes from. Pornography is rooted in lust and self-centered desire. It’s often about exerting power over others, treating them as objects to be controlled or manipulated sexually, believing that you’re in control when actually, your desires are what’s in control. In the 60s, the idea that free love would bring joy and freedom hasn’t worked out that way. Instead, it’s brought more brokenness, more shallowness, more regrets and hurt, than joy or freedom into relationships. Today, young adults and teens are looking for a stronger deeper foundation to relationships than the free love mantra of the boomer generation because they’ve seen the brokenness in their grandparents’ and parents’ relationships because of the lack of relational commitment, leading to the increase in pornography and casual sex. The thing with immorality is that it begins small, like looking at images, which makes it easier for Satan to take you deeper into sin.

Immorality and sexual sin have many roots: many think that lust is the root cause of immorality, but often lust is rooted in anger; anger at others for perceived or actual actions, or self-anger from a lack of self-respect and self-condemnation for not being enough, for not measuring up to your own or other’s expectations, or from rejection. The hook-up culture and affairs are often rooted in the belief that sex will build connections and relationships which will provide fulfillment in who you are, it’s often rooted in wanting to be accepted or to belong. The reality is that these relationships create emptiness instead of fulfillment, broken relationships rather than stronger relationships, regret instead of joy, and rejection instead of acceptance.

Paul warns us in 1 Corinthians 6:18–20, “Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.” We are the body of Christ in the world and sexual immortality impacts others, not just yourself. It impacts the person you sin with because if you’re honest with yourself, you’re focused on your own pleasure over the other person’s. It creates brokenness within the church body as we’re the body together and unfaithfulness hurts us all. It hurts God and creates brokenness with God because it’s about you rather than about God, creating spiritual sickness. God is pure, so as his children, as the body of Christ, we’re called to imitate Jesus and seek purity.

Our culture confuses lust and sex with love. Love is rooted in how we treat each other, showing respect for the other person, putting their needs above your own, about patience, protecting, trusting, about depth, kindness, truth, perseverance, and hope. Marriage and commitment look different in our culture, marriage has many different forms in our culture, often shaped more as a contract rather than a permanent covenant filled with deep commitment. If it takes too much work, leave and pay the penalty, and then make a new contract with someone else who will fill your empty spot, who will make you whole. The problem is we place so much responsibility on someone else to make us whole, something that only God can do. John Calvin talks about a God-sized hole in each of us, but false teachers tell us that the right person can fill this hole instead of God.

What’s the cure to this spiritual virus? We acknowledge that marriage is a gift from God, and mirrors God’s relationship within himself where the Father pours into the Son and Spirit, the Son pours into the Father and Spirit, and the Spirit pours into the Father and Son; that sexual purity reflects our relationship with God. Jude shows us the cure in the beginning and end of his letter, “To those who have been called, who are loved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ,”  ending with “To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy—to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore.” Being kept for Jesus, the one who’s able to protect us from virus thinking, who’s able to keep us safe because we’re in him, kept safe by the love of God through faith in Jesus.

Old Testament laws around sex focused on purity, on being an example to the nations around Israel of what healthy relationships look like and that our relationships with each other are a reflection of our relationship with Jesus. Lev 18:1-5 is a chapter that lays out unhealthy ways of relating to each other sexually. These laws are given to build healthy relationships that are healthy and help each other grow more into the image of God. Purity shows health, brings health into our relationships.

God pours his love and gifts into us; marriage imitates God by pouring into the other, building the other up, helping the other to grow into the person God’s created them to be. Marriage and sex are about giving to the other rather than taking for yourself. In Genesis 2:23-25, God creates Adam and Eve and Adam marvels at Eve, “The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.” That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh. Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.” Sex is a beautiful gift, it joins us together in marriage, becoming one flesh; a life-long relationship that is other-focused, building each other up to become who God has called them to be. It’s intimate, God-given, and exclusive. Paul uses marriage as an example of Jesus’ relationship with us, a life-long commitment to build each other up to be who God’s created us to be. Sex and sexuality are a gift of beauty and wonder, given to create intimate safe relationships; it’s about purity and holiness reflecting God to the world.

We’re created by God for intimate relationships within committed marriage relationships; sex is a gift to help us grow in intimacy. He gives us marriage as a life-long commitment between a man and a woman; our very bodies are designed for this intimacy. Jesus’ teaching always points us to trust in God’s ways. It takes trust and faith that God knows what’s best for us. We may not always understand the why of God’s ways and rules, yet we walk in faith, trusting that his way shapes us more into the image of Jesus, keeping in his love virus-free.

Speaking the Word Boldly - Acts 4:1-31

                        

Peter and John have just healed a lame beggar and are sharing the good news of Jesus with the people who recognize the healed beggar! Peter’s preaching in Solomon’s Colonnade when the priests, Sadducees, and temple guard come up to Peter and John and are disturbed by what they’re saying about Jesus. Peter’s telling the people that the beggar was healed by the name of Jesus and the faith that comes through Jesus. Peter also tells them that they’re responsible for killing Jesus and calls on them to repent and turn to God for forgiveness. Peter and John are thrown into prison for the night, but many who heard them believe in Jesus. The good news continues to spread and the number of those who accept Jesus as their Lord and Saviour keeps growing!

What are some of the things you’re excited to talk about with friends, co-workers, fellow students, and neighbours about? Many of us have favourite sports teams, politics, and important current issues that capture our attention or hearts are some of the things that people get excited about. We talk about the things that are important to us, things that show others who we are, and what we care about, yet often, these are not important things, they’re distractions Satan uses to keep us from talking about life changing eternal things, like our salvation and Jesus. So many people are distracting themselves to death, look at how many people doom scroll, never going deeper in any relationships with others or God; there’s an emptiness in our distractions.

The greatest thing that’s ever happened in the history of the world is the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. This is the foundation of the gospel message. When it comes to sharing our faith and talking about who Jesus is, and how important he is to us, many believers find themselves tongue-tied. Some of this comes from accepting culture’s insistence that public life and faith should be separate, others believe talking about faith or politics is impolite. It’s easy to find excuses to be quiet about our faith. Speaking the Word boldly begins with understanding and experiencing the power and presence of Jesus in our own hearts and lives, how Jesus is the reason for the transformation happening in our lives, our relationships, our priorities, and how we understand the world and our place in it. It begins with spending time together in reading the Scriptures to come to know Jesus more personally; so, we can teach the Scriptures to others so they can know Jesus.

The next morning, the religious leadership have Peter and John brought to them, asking them by what power or name did they heal the man. Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit boldly tells them that it’s by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, and that there’s no salvation found in anyone else. This is a powerful testimony before these powerful leaders. Peter boldly declares to them that they’ve missed the boat; that with all their knowledge, they’ve missed that Jesus is “the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.” Jesus is the promised Messiah, the one from God who has come to save the people, but they can’t see it, but need to be shown this.

The leaders are afraid because they see how faith in Jesus is spreading, but can't stop it. They see the lame man walking and can’t deny the power Peter and John have; power that comes from believing in Jesus, so they command them to not to speak of Jesus any more. Before they’re let go, Peter and John tell them, “Which is right in God’s eyes: to listen to you, or to him? You be the judges! As for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.” Peter and John have to decide whether to listen to them or to Jesus’ command in Matthew 28, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Peter and John know Jesus, they’ve sat at his feet for three years learning about the kingdom of heaven. They didn’t always understand, even ended up denying Jesus, yet they also learned the power of grace and forgiveness, the beauty of Jesus’ way, how he’s the truth, and how we find our life in him. It’s a no-brainer for them to choose Jesus over the religious leaders. Our culture tells us to not share our faith, that it's private, but we’re called to listen to Jesus first to make disciples and teach them to obey out of a spirit of gratitude for our salvation; we have to choose who we will listen to.

Peter and John share what happened with their own people who follow Jesus as Lord and Saviour, and they praise God, acknowledging his sovereignty, asking for the Spirit to give them the ability to speak God's Word with great boldness. Sharing our faith with boldness begins with having a passion for Jesus, for recognizing and experiencing the power of Jesus and his forgiveness and grace in your life, knowing in your hearts and lives that he died for you personally, and for every other person; all we need to do to receive this forgiveness and grace is to accept Jesus as our Lord and Saviour.

Sharing our faith needs to be rooted in prayer, seeking the Holy Spirit's power and guidance, trusting that the Spirit will give us the words and the boldness to tell others who Jesus is, and what he’s done for us in his life and on the cross. We share what we believe is important and precious to us, what we’re passionate about, and there’s nothing more important than our salvation. Our salvation is an eternal thing; it impacts who we are and our future all the way into eternity. Our tendency is to think about the right now, where can I experience joy and fulfillment, where can I experience pleasure or fulfillment right now. Satan loves to distract us with our wants, keeping us away from thinking about our need for salvation, for an eternal relationship with Jesus.

Sharing the good news doesn't take an education or degree. The good news is for everyone and is best received from ordinary people living ordinary lives with the presence of God shaping them. This is why the apostles’ words resonate so deeply with the people, it comes through ordinary people who know Jesus. Asking the Holy Spirit for opportunities to share Jesus with those on our Praying for Five cards is a good place to begin. When an opportunity to talk with one of your five comes up, one of the best ways to figure out how to share the gospel with them is to ask them to tell you their own story. When they share their life stories, we have the opportunity to listen to their heart issues; this means we need to spend more time listening than telling in order to be able “to share the gospel of Jesus in a way that meaningfully speaks to the heart of others,” as Francis Shaeffer teaches. Listen to their stories with the gospel story of Jesus in your mind. As you listen to their stories, ask yourself, what are they looking for, what answers does the gospel provide, how does the gospel meet them where they’re at in life, who is the hero of their story, and how is Jesus a better answer than what they’re going after, or trusting in right now. This means we need to know our culture in order to speak Jesus into the lives of people.

As you learn the other person’s story, you’ll hear opportunities to share how Jesus is the reason for the on-going transformation in your life, your relationships, your priorities, and how you understand the world and your place in it and how he can bring hope and meaning to them. When we talk about Jesus, we share what we've seen and heard; how have you seen God working in your life, how have you heard God speak to you? Use resources like 10 Ways to Talk with Someone About Their Faith; we have various resources to help you talk about Jesus.

As you build these relationships, Francis Shaeffer teaches that the skill we need for evangelism and discipleship is to “have enough compassion to learn the questions of our generation.” Three of the big questions are “Who am I, Where do I belong, and What difference can I make?” Before we can answer the questions of our generation, we need to listen well to Scripture and the Holy Spirit in order to identify the gospel answers to the questions people are really asking, how their answers can be found in Jesus. Peter and John, Paul and the other apostles and early preachers and evangelists in the early church knew Scripture and Jesus, and were able to share God’s history with his people and how all his promises are fulfilled in Jesus; how Jesus speaks into our lives.

To speak the Word boldly: know Jesus as your saviour personally and deeply, be deep in Scripture with others, talk regularly with God in prayer for others, for your 5 to come to accept Jesus, listen to the stories of others so you can speak Jesus into their lives, and keep asking the Holy Spirit to help you to speak the Word with boldness. May the Lord guide you as you go to make disciples for Jesus.

 

 

The Gospel - Acts 8:26-40

                         

The gospel news of Jesus is beginning to move out from Jerusalem into the surrounding areas due to persecution against the church in Jerusalem. This began after the stoning to death of Stephen after his witness to the people that Jesus is the promised Messiah. Philip ends up in Samaria where the people respond to his message of Jesus with great joy! While in Samaria, Simon the sorcerer believes Philip’s message and is baptized. Peter and John are sent to see what’s happening and Simon’s true heart is revealed. What Simon really desires is power and influence, Peter calls Simon out, telling him to repent and pray for forgiveness and transformation. This is a reminder for us to reflect on our own relationship with Jesus. Do we follow him simply for advantages and blessing, believing if we give enough to God, he’ll pour out his blessings on us? Simon’s story ends with his plea after Peter chastises him, “Pray to the Lord for me so that nothing you have said may happen to me.”

Now Philip’s sent by an angel to the area of Gaza, a major trade route, and area very much in our news today. Here he meets an official from the queen’s court in Ethiopia, a gentile believer in Israel’s God; the gospel message of Jesus continues to spread. The eunuch had come to worship at the temple, likely for the Passover, meaning he was in Jerusalem during the time of Jesus’ arrest, crucifixion, resurrection, and the pouring out of the Holy Spirit. Now he’s on his way home and reading from Isaiah. The Spirit tells Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.” We see here how God arranges our encounters with others to give us opportunities to share the good news of Jesus and make disciples. When opportunities to talk about faith come up, it’s not an accident, the Holy Spirit places you in that place, at that moment, to help the other person to hear the gospel news of Jesus.

Philip obeys the Spirit and hears the eunuch reading from Isaiah. It’s normal for people to read out loud in this culture as it helps people to remember and reinforce what they’re studying, to think about it more deeply as they see, speak, and hear what they’re reading. Philip doesn’t stand there passively listening, he asks a great question, “Do you understand what you are reading?” The eunuch replies, “How can I, unless someone explains it to me?” He shows a desire to learn, a humbleness in admitting that he has much to learn in order to understand. This desire to earn and study Scripture, asking others to help us learn doesn’t seem to be as present today. The average follower of Jesus today is less biblically literate than even 50 years ago. Part of it may be laziness as we can easily ask Google, some of it may be a lack of appreciation for how the regular study of Scripture keeps us connected with God and Jesus, and how the Holy Spirit uses it to transform us.

This is the heart of the Reformation, a return to the study of the Bible, to trusting in Christ alone, saved by faith alone, grace alone, all to the glory of God, being rooted deeply in Scripture, out of a deep desire to know God and his grace and glory through Jesus. The early church regularly spent time together studying the Scriptures, learning how they all pointed to, and revealed who Jesus is. Luke describes the early church community in Acts 2, “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer…. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” Our faith is a faith built in community, the body of Christ, the family of God, as we study and learn together.  

We live in a culture and time that often believes we’re wiser than the historical faith community, believing we don’t need the historical church’s wisdom to understand and interpret Scripture. The basic message of the Bible is clear, we’re sinners and we need a saviour who is Jesus Christ, yet there’s so much more depth, wisdom, and life guidance in Scripture. This story of the eunuch calls us to appreciate what more we need to learn, and to discipline ourselves to meet together regularly for the regular study of who God reveals himself to be in his Word, how Jesus is pointed to on every page of Scripture, and how we’re to live as Jesus’ followers, shaping our lives on loving God and neighbour, and making disciples. Scripture reminds us that we live in both a physical and spiritual world, and need to care for our soul life as well as our physical life. Just like we go to the doctor for our physical health, we need to be with the Spirit and in Scripture regularly for our spiritual health.

The eunuch was reading, “He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth.” Philip begins with this passage and shares with the eunuch the good news of Jesus. Philip may have begun with sharing how John the Baptist and Jesus himself often referred to him as the Lamb of God, how the sacrificial system of Leviticus points to the destructiveness and evil of our sin and the need for God’s forgiveness found in the acceptance of the sacrifices offered for the sins of the people, with the death of the lambs and goats representing our own deaths for punishment for our sin.

The gospel begins with the story of creation, how everything was created very good, but sin enters into the world through temptation, an alien in the very good creation, even after being told the punishment for sin is death. In order to truly understand the need for a saviour, we need to know the seriousness of our sin, that disobedience is rebellion against God and a disease infecting our souls. Being a royal official, the eunuch would have understood the seriousness of rebellion. However, God never gives up on us, promising a saviour who will crush the head of the serpent whose insidious words tempted Adam and Eve into rebellion, choosing to work his plan of redemption through Abraham and Israel in order to lead the nations back to God. Then, like Jesus shows the disciples on the road to Emmaus after his resurrection, the Spirit shows how all the Scriptures point to Jesus as the promised Messiah.

Dallas Willard wrote about working for money, “But the focus Jesus wanted us to have is the investment we make in people and their character: “As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.” 1 Peter 4:10. This applies also to the study of Scripture, we learn so we can help others meet Jesus through the gospel news. In 2 Peter 3:18, Peter writes, “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” We seek to grow in order to make disciples. It begins with filling our lives with Jesus. Our world looks to distract us from what’s important to the things that don’t really matter. Plan your faith life, put it on your calendar whether it’s on your phone, wall, or desktop.

The eunuch believes and accepts Jesus as his Lord and Saviour and Philip baptizes him. The Spirit then takes Philip away while the eunuch heads home to Ethiopia, where tradition says he preached the gospel to the people there. Philip knew the Scriptures and knew Jesus and helps the eunuch to know Jesus too. If we’re going to be disciple makers, a knowledge and passion for Jesus in your life is important so you can teach and lead others to become disciples of Jesus.

The Gospel news can be summarized as: God created everything and it was good, and very good! However, we are all sinners and we don’t measure up to God’s standards. God is just, he can’t simply tolerate our sin, which twists the good gifts good gives us, and pretend it’s not there; as a just God he must punish sin, which is death.

There’s nothing we can do to save ourselves, no matter how good we might be, we still sin. But the good news comes because God’s also love and provides a substitute to take our punishment for us. There’s no creature able to do it, so God sends his own son, Jesus, as the perfect substitute to take our place; completely God and completely sinless human.

Our sin is placed on Jesus who takes it to the cross and to the grave and after 3 days rises from the dead, having completely overcome sin and death. Jesus offers forgiveness and eternal life, a gracious gift, to all those who will believe in him. Jesus then gives us the Holy Spirit to guide us and help us share the gospel news of Jesus. We’re saved to do good works, showing our thankfulness to Jesus, assuring us of our faith so others can be won over to Jesus.

May the Spirit speak deeply into your heart, may your passion for Jesus and the study of Scripture continue to grow so that your witness to others may lead them to come to know and accept Jesus as their Lord.