9.00am and 10.30am Sunday 31 August 2003
Rev Des Botting
Readings: Psalm 46; Luke 17:1-10
Over the past three days about 600 people from all parts of New Zealand have gathered at the Greenlane Christian Centre to attend the Kingdom Builders 03 Conference organised by the Bible College of New Zealand. Five people from our congregation attended all or parts of the conference and have been greatly blessed and deeply challenged by what they saw and heard. The church covered the registration costs of four of these as a commitment to invest in those who are leaders in our congregation, or have leadership potential that needs to be encouraged and developed.
As one of those who attended, it was a profoundly moving experience. The keynote speaker for the three morning sessions was Rick Watts, an Associate Professor at Regent College in Canada. His addresses threw new light on familiar Bible passages, and brought home the far-reaching implications of what it means to be created in the image of God. Although Ive been a Christian for 47 years, some of the teaching in these past three days has opened up fresh insights into Gods Word, basic truths like Gods primary purpose in Christs death on the cross. Jesus died to pay the penalty for our sins. But for what purpose? Yes, that you and I can be forgiven, but also to make you and I holy. God wants us to be holy, because he is holy.[1] And He wants us to be holy so that His Spirit can come and live within us. In the past I have put the focus on His death as the means by which we receive the forgiveness of our sins. But it is far more than that. He wants our bodies to be his dwelling place. Twice in 1 Corinthians the Apostle Paul stresses this point. He writes to the Christians in Corinth, All of you surely know that you are Gods temple and that his Spirit lives in you. Together you are Gods holy temple[2] And again at the end of chapter 6 where hes writing about the importance of keeping our bodies free from sexual immorality, he says, You surely know that your body is a temple where the Holy Spirit lives. The Spirit is in you and is a gift from God. You are no longer your own. God paid a great price for you. So use your body to honour God.[3]
This also is part of the vision John relates in Revelation when the new Jerusalem comes down from God in heaven. He writes, Gods home is now with his people. He will live with them, and they will be his own. Yes, God will make his home among his people.[4] God cannot live where there is sin. Jesus died for our sins not only just that we might be forgiven, but that we might be a place where His Spirit dwells. It reminded me of what God said through his prophets in the Old Testament where he said, I will sprinkle you with clean water, and you will be clean and acceptable to me. I will wash away everything that makes you uncleanI will take away your stubborn heart (AV stony hearts) and give you a new heart and a desire to be faithful. You will have only pure thoughts, because I will put my Spirit in you and make you eager to obey my laws and teachings.[5] God made us to live in relationship with him, and in Christ he has reconciled us to himself so that that relationship can be restored. I have heard these things many times before, but it felt as though an essential missing part of the jigsaw fell into place. I could see something of the bigger picture. This is what the Good News is all about! The God who created human beings to be like Him and to live with him, makes it possible for that image and relationship to be restored. We begin then to show the fruits and the gifts of Gods Spirit in our lives and relationships with one another. In being all that God created us to be, is to live for the praise of his glory,[6] to bring glory to God. There is no greater destiny than that.
How does all this fit in with what we read from Luke 17? If every human being is made in the image of God, and we are to encourage each person to reach their divine purpose in life, then we must not put anything in the way that would cause them to miss out on this. Jesus says to his disciples, It is impossible but that offences (literally, scandals) will come.[7] Jesus is a realist. He knows we are going to make mistakes. It is impossible that it be otherwise. Thats reassuring, isnt it? We can take comfort in that. Were not going to get it right all the time, no matter how hard we try. This is why the Bible frequently counsels us to be patient with each other.[8]
But Jesus adds a warning, that there will be trouble for those through whom these offences come. He says, A person who causes even one of my little followers to sin would be better off thrown into the ocean with a heavy stone tied around their neck. So be careful what you do.[9] Were going to make mistakes, but be careful. We need to remember that every human being, and especially those both young in age and young in the faith, are made in Gods likeness. Gods longing is for them to know him and for His Spirit to dwell in them. If we cause them to stumble or miss out on this for which they were created, then, Jesus says, it would be more advantageous for us if we were dead. Rick Watts in his second address about relationships, said, Every act of abuse against another human being is an act of high treason against God. We must be very careful how we live, and the example we are setting. It is like the father and son climbing a dangerous part of a mountain, and as the father pauses to choose the safest path to take, his son calls out, Choose the good path, Dad. Im following right behind you. What an awesome responsibility it is to have younger ones following you. At the end of our life we dont want to be like the story told of an old man who on his deathbed was worried about something he had done years before. He said, When I was a lad, I often played in a big public reserve. Near its centre two roads met and crossed, and, standing at the cross-roads, was an old rickety sign post. I remember one day twisting it round in its socket, thus altering the arms and making them point in the wrong direction; and Ive been wondering ever since how may travelers I sent on the wrong road.[10] I ask myself as I ask you, in what direction is my life pointing others? Whether we are aware of it or not, our lives are pointing somewhere. This is why Jesus said, Be careful what you do.
How are we are to respond when mistakes happen? Jesus said, we are to correct any followers of His who sin. Sin must not go unchallenged. It must not be allowed to continue unchecked. Part of being made in Gods image is that we were created to live in relationship with one another. Sin mars those relationships. It spoils them. It breaks them. Forgiveness is the oil that allows relationships to be restored and to run smoothly. Without it, like a motor without oil, they will cease up. All of us know what it is like to be hurt by another person, not just physically, but emotionally. It can be very difficult to forgive a person who hurts us in that way. But, for the follower of Jesus, when there is genuine repentance on the part of the offender, we must forgive that person. If you want to move on in your life, you cannot keep holding grudges and being resentful. You are the one who will suffer in the long term if you do.
It takes a tremendous amount of energy to continue hating a person. John McAlpine has a very good article entitled, Why Should I Forgive You? in the latest issue of Refresh, published quarterly by the Spiritual Growth Ministries Trust. The whole winter issue is devoted to the subject of Forgiveness. He says that slowly he is realising that forgiving is more like a journey than a destination. It takes time my festering wound needs to be opened, cleaned out and exposed to fresh air and light. Forgiving is my risking a future other than the one imposed by the past or memory. It is setting a person free, and discovering that that person is me. It is my decision not to hurt myself for the real, or imagined, wrongs done by you. It is my decision to cancel all that prevents the flow of love and life through me. Unforgiveness does that. It dries up the flow of Gods love and life through me. John McAlpine ends with the story of the indigenous American grandfather talking to his grandson about how he felt about a tragedy. He said, I feel as if I have two wolves fighting in my heart. One wolf is vengeful, angry and violent! The other wolf is loving and compassionate! His grandson asks: Which wolf will win? The old man responds, The one I feed will win![11]
Make our faith stronger, is the disciples response to Jesus words. It may well be in reference to his saying that they were to forgive seven times in the one day if the person committing the wrong genuinely repents. The teachers of the Law taught the people that they were to forgive three times in a day. Jesus, in saying seven times, is doubling what the teachers of the Law of Moses taught, plus one. He isnt saying, Just you wait until you get to the eighth time. (Matthews version of this incident has Jesus saying that they are to give seventy times seven.) What both passages mean is that there is to be no limit on the forgiveness we offer, as long there is genuine sorrow for the wrong that is done.
The disciples may well have been thinking, How on earth can we do this? This is impossible! Not so with God. And Jesus gives them a lesson on faith. He says, If you had faith no bigger than a tiny mustard seed, you could tell this mulberry tree to pull itself up, roots and all, and to plant itself in the ocean. And it would![12] A mustard seed is very small, but grows into quite a large bush. Basically Jesus is saying, it is possible to forgive like this, not because we have great faith, but, rather, faith in a great God who has so graciously forgiven us. The Apostle Paul said, Stop being bitter and angry and mad at others. Dont yell at one another or curse each other or ever be rude. Instead, be kind and merciful, and forgive others, just as God forgave you because of Christ.[13]
I began with some thoughts from the Kingdom Builders 03 Conference. In these closing verses from our reading, the essence of its thought is summed up in the last sentence, When you have done all you should, then say, We are merely servants, and weve simply done our duty.[14] Servants do not expect any special favours from their masters. They know that their primary task is to attend to their masters needs. Only when those needs have been met, can they look to their own. This was the way Jesus lived. He came to do the Fathers will. He said, My food is to do what God wants![15] Jesus was the servant par excellent. Even though he was truly God, he gave up everything and became a slave, and obeyed God, even to dying on a cross.[16] We are to follow his example. As human beings made in the image and likeness of God, we are to give ourselves completely to him by serving one another.
Nothing that we can ever do on earth can discharge the duty and debt we have to God. As Isaac Watts expressed it in his famous hymn,
Were the whole realm of nature mine,
that were an offering far too small,
love so amazing, so divine,
demands my life, my soul, my all.
Therefore, we can never ease off or take time out from being a Christian. There are no set hours. It is 24 hours a day, 7 days of the week. There is so much to be done, and there are only a few workers to gather in Gods eternal harvest.[17] We are to labour, not seeking for any reward, except to know that we do his will. It is for this that we were created.
[1] 1 Peter 1:16
[2] 1 Corinthians 3:16-17a (All Bible references are from the Contemporary English Version unless otherwise stated.)
[3] 1 Corinthians 6:19-20
[4] Revelation 21:2-3
[5] Exekiel 36:25-27
[6] Ephesians 1:6,12,14
[7] Luke 17:1 AV
[8] Ephesians 4:2; Colossians 3:12-14
[9] Luke 17:1b-3a
[10] See William Barclays The Daily Study Bible The Gospel of Luke, St Andrews Press, Edinburgh, 1975, p. 216.
[11] Refresh A Journal of Contemplative Spirituality ed. Andrew Dunn, published by Spiritual Growth Ministries Trust. Winter 2003 Vol. 3, No. 1
[12] Luke 17:6
[13] Ephesians 4:31-32
[14] Luke 17:10
[15] John 4:34
[16] Philippians 2:6-8
[17] Matthew 9:37-38