New Creations in Christ
2 Cor. 5:17
There are many benefits to being a follower of Christ in a country like the United States where we have freedom of religion. We have tax exempt status as a church, we don’t worry about your leaders being hauled off to jail, we can have public baptisms down at Dean’s Mill, we can post Bible verses to Facebook, we can go on mission trips and pass out Bibles and other religious literature at the Youth Fair, you can pray with your Christian co-workers, and the list goes on and on. And when you think about it, we live in a country that is saturated with Christianity – Christian colleges and seminaries and Christian schools, Christian camps, Christian television, Christian Radio, Christian movies, Christian music, Christian artists.
There is no shortage of “Christianity” in our country.
But at the same time, there is a very serious danger, even an insidious danger, that necessarily goes along with the freedoms we enjoy, and that is the danger of embracing Christianity without embracing Jesus the Christ. And guess who is most prone to this danger that results in people passing into eternity separated from Christ, doomed to eternal torment? People who grow up in religious homes. People who are raised in Christian families. It is because of this danger that I feel compelled to speak to you this morning about what it means to be a new creation in Christ. So if your parents are or were Christians, if “church” has been a major part of your life for as long as you can remember, I want you to pay special attention to what we are talking about today.
Our text is found in 2 Cor. 5:17, and in this verse Paul says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” The point Paul is making here is that you cannot have a genuine experience with Jesus Christ, and remain unchanged. Let me say that again. You cannot have a genuine experience with Jesus Christ, and remain unchanged. In other words, if you claim to be born again, if you claim that Jesus is your savior, if you claim that you expect to spend eternity in heaven and you are no different today than you were before you came to Christ, you better give some serious though to your salvation claim. Because the point Paul makes in this verse is that a genuine salvation experience changes you. You are a “new creation.” “The old has passed away, the new has come.”
Let’s look at some passages in the New Testament that illustrate this truth. We will start in the book of 1 Corinthians, and look how Paul shows this truth in chapter 6, verses 9 – 11.
9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, 10 nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God.
Let’s look next at Eph. 2:2-7. And again, note the presence of a changed life. It is seen primarily in the tenses.
And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2 in which you formerly walked according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. 3 Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
The third passage we need to look at is Eph. 4:17-32. This passage is important because it shows us the process of becoming a new creation. In other words, what steps do we actually have to take if we want to change from our former way of life to a way of life that pleases God?
17 This I say therefore, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind,
18 being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart;
19 and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality, for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.
20 But you did not learn Christ in this way,
21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus,
22 that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit,
23 and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind,
24 and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.
Now at this point, Paul is going to illustrate that threefold process in five different ways. He addresses the issues of lying, sinful anger, stealing, unwholesome speech, and destructive behavior.
25 Therefore, laying aside falsehood, speak truth, each one of you, with his neighbor, for we are members of one another.
Lying – you replace with truth
26 Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and do not give the devil an opportunity. Sinful anger - you replace with resolution
28 Let him who steals steal no longer; but rather let him labor, performing with his own hands what is good, in order that he may have something to share with him who has need.
Stealing – you replace with honest work
29 Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, that it may give grace to those who hear.
30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
Unwholesome speech – you replace with edifying words
31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32 And be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.
Destructive behavior – you replace with kindness, etc.
So do you see how it works? You put off the old, change your thinking, and put on the new. Now the final passage I want us to see quickly is in 1 Pt. 4:1-5, where again we see the contrast between life lived before Christ, and life lived after coming to Christ.
Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, 2 so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. 3 For the time already past is sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of the Gentiles, having pursued a course of sensuality, lusts, drunkenness, carousals, drinking parties and abominable idolatries. 4 And in all this, they are surprised that you do not run with them into the same excess of dissipation, and they malign you; 5 but they shall give account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.
So here we have four biblical examples of what a new creation in Christ looks like. Do you see the reality that when a person has a genuine experience with Jesus, he is changed? Do you see that he is a different kind of person? Now building on this, I want to take you the book of 1 John to show you four evidences of this new life. In other words, we just looked at illustrations of how this change works, now I want to show you proofs, or evidences, that you are a new creation.
1. You will have a new desire to obey your Lord. 2:3-6, 2:28-29
3 And by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments.
4 The one who says, "I have come to know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; 5 but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: 6 the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked. (1Jo 2:3-6 NAS)
28 And now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming. 29 If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of Him (1Jo 2:28-29 NAS)
Cf. how my parents used to take the Bible and appeal to me as a teenager to change my ways, and my response was, “So, what’s your point?”
2. You will have a new love for other Christians. 2:9-11, 3:11-15
9 The one who says he is in the light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now.10 The one who loves his brother abides in the light and there is no cause for stumbling in him. 11 But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes. (1Jo 2:9-11 NAS)
11 For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another; 12 not as Cain, who was of the evil one, and slew his brother. And for what reason did he slay him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother's were righteous. 13 Do not marvel, brethren, if the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death. 15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. (1Jo 3:11-15 NAS)
Cf. people who say to me, I really love God, it’s just his people I can’t tolerate.
3. You will have a new attitude toward sin. 3:4-10, 5:18
4 Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness. 5 And you know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin. 6 No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him. 7 Little children, let no one deceive you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; 8 the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, that He might destroy the works of the devil. 9 No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. 10 By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother. (1Jo 3:4-10 NAS)
18 We know that no one who is born of God sins; but He who was born of God keeps him and the evil one does not touch him. (1Jo 5:18 NAS)
Cf. how I used to love sin, it was enjoyable; but now I’m grieved by it.
4. You will have a new understanding of who Jesus is. 5:1
Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God; and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him. (1Jo 5:1 NAS)
Cf. how differently people think about Jesus. A radical revolutionary, a wise teacher, a moral philosopher, a good luck charm. In reality though, He is the Christ, the anointed one, the promised Messiah and Savior of the Old Testament.
So as we skim through the book of 1 John we see that when a person comes to Christ for salvation, there is visible evidence of the change that comes into his life. He will have a new desire to obey his Lord. He will have a new love for his brothers in Christ. He will have a new attitude toward sin. And he will have a new understanding of who Jesus is.
Something that is interesting to me as I read through 1 John is what is missing. There is nothing here that says:
“And you know you have passed from death unto life because you go to church every Sunday.” Reality: hell is going to be full of people who were in church every Sunday!
“And you know you have passed from death unto life because you love southern gospel music.” Reality: hell is going to be full of people who love southern gospel music!
“And you know you have passed from death unto life because you prayed the “sinners prayer” when you were a child.” Reality: hell is going to be full of people who prayed the sinners prayer at their mother’s knee as a child.
“And you know you have passed from death unto life because you believe in Jesus.” Reality: hell is going to be full of people who believe that Jesus was a literal, historical, man.
The question I want to leave you with this morning is, “are you a new creation in Christ?” Remember Paul’s point: “It is impossible to have a genuine experience with Jesus Christ and remain unchanged.” So just take a moment and think about it. “Are you a new creation in Christ?” If your answer is “yes,” what evidence can you appeal to as proof? What “old” things have passed out of your life, and what “new” things have you replaced it with? How are you doing in these four areas John mentions? John uses very strong, categorical language in these verses that is designed to make us stop and analyze where we are.
So as you examine your life this morning, if you don’t see the change in your life that the Bible talks about, why don’t you deal with that right now?
Monday, January 16, 2012
Christ in Isaiah?
The Birth of Jesus Predicted in Isaiah
Isa. 7:1-16
Several weeks ago we were looking at Old Testament predictions about the birth of Jesus. We started in the book of Genesis (which contains three), and it is there that we see God revealing to mankind that even though there was a great failure on the part of man in the garden, He wasn’t going to abandon His desire to live in fellowship with His creation. So immediately after Adam and Eve sinned, God promised them that eventually He would send them a Savior to make things right between God and man.
That first promise, made 1,500 years before it was fulfilled, was somewhat vague and indistinct, but it revealed God’s heart. He wasn’t content to let His creation languish in a state of alienation, living lives characterized by toil and fear and ultimately death. And so right in the immediate context of a massive failure on the part of man, God was making a way to get things back on track. Then, we saw that after hundreds of years of silence about the coming savior, again, in the context of sin, rebellion, and failure on the part of man, God gave His people another glimpse of their coming savior. We saw this in the book of Numbers when Balaam prophesied in Numbers 24 that a scepter was going to rise from Israel. Their deliverer wasn’t in the immediate future, and He wasn’t from the immediate area, but God’s plan was still on track.
And so what I want to do this morning is take you to the book of Isaiah and show you what is perhaps the most well known - as well as misunderstood - of the Old Testament prophecies about the birth of Jesus. It is found here in chapter 7, and we’ll read it together and then look at some interesting things about it.
When Ahaz son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, was king of Judah, King Rezin of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel marched up to fight against Jerusalem, but they could not overpower it. 2 Now the house of David (the court, or royal family) was told, "Aram has allied itself with Ephraim"; so the hearts of Ahaz and his people were shaken, as the trees of the forest are shaken by the wind.
3 Then the LORD said to Isaiah, "Go out, you and your son Shear-Jashub, to meet Ahaz at the end of the aqueduct of the Upper Pool, on the road to the Launderer's Field. 4 Say to him, 'Be careful, keep calm and don't be afraid. Do not lose heart because of these two smoldering stubs of firewood--because of the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and of the son of Remaliah.
5 Aram, Ephraim and Remaliah's son have plotted your ruin, saying, 6 "Let us invade Judah; let us tear it apart and divide it among ourselves, and make the son of Tabeel king over it."
7 Yet this is what the Sovereign LORD says: "'It will not take place, it will not happen, 8 for the head of Aram is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is only Rezin. Within sixty-five years Ephraim will be too shattered to be a people. 9 The head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is only Remaliah's son. If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all.'"
10 Again the LORD spoke to Ahaz, 11 "Ask the LORD your God for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights." 12 But Ahaz said, "I will not ask; I will not put the LORD to the test." 13 Then Isaiah said, "Hear now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of humans? Will you try the patience of my God also?
14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. 15 He will be eating curds and honey when he knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, 16 for before the boy knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste.
The first thing I want to share with you about this prophecy is that once again it is given in the context of fear, and despair, and certain defeat. Ahaz, the king of Jerusalem, is facing two nations intent on destroying his country. They have been very successful in their march toward Jerusalem, and now they have encircled the city and a state of siege is in place. Food and water is limited, and the psychological dimension of this kind of warfare is setting it. On their way to Jerusalem, Rezin, king of Aram has already destroyed most of Ahaz’s army (120,000) and deported 200,000 people.
So what is Ahaz, as the king of God’s people, supposed to do? He has two choices. He can turn to God and look for deliverance, or he can turn to man and look for deliverance. In a situation like this, turning to man would be the idea of forging some kind of alliance with a stronger nation and ask them to come to your aid. That is exactly
what Ahaz does, even though our text doesn’t say it. But let me read to you 2 Kings 16, which is the historical account of this passage.
In the seventeenth year of Pekah the son of Remaliah, Ahaz the son of Jotham, king of Judah, became king. 2 Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem; and he did not do what was right in the sight of the LORD his God, as his father David had done. 3 But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and even made his son pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the nations whom the LORD had driven out from before the sons of Israel. 4 And he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places and on the hills and under every green tree. 5 Then Rezin king of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah, king of Israel, came up to Jerusalem to wage war; and they besieged Ahaz, but could not overcome him. 7 So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, saying, "I am your servant and your son; come up and deliver me from the hand of the king of Aram, and from the hand of the king of Israel, who are rising up against me." 8 And Ahaz took the silver and gold that was found in the house of the LORD and in the treasuries of the king's house, and sent a present to the king of Assyria.
So in spite of the alliance Ahaz has forged with the king of Assyria, the message Isaiah is to give to King Ahaz is found in verses 3 – 6. In a nutshell, God’s message is, “Don’t panic.” He refers to the two kings of the invading armies as “smoldering stubs of firewood.” This is a reference to a branch that has been thrown part way onto a campfire, and when the fire eventually goes out, you can pick that branch up and what will it be doing? It may have a red coal on the end and be smoking, but it is only a matter of time before it goes out. That smoldering branch isn’t really a serious threat. That is the point God is making to Ahaz. Don’t worry about these two kings, there is some smoke here, and a little heat, but no serious concern.
Now, Ahaz may be a little reluctant to accept God’s assessment of the situation. After all, he has seen the devastation, so in verses 7 and 8, God explains the specifics. In the previous verses He simply says, “Don’t worry about these guys.” Now he shows why, and the essence of God’s message is that these two nations won’t even be in existence in the near future. God graciously gives Ahaz insight into the future and assures him that the plans of Ephraim and Aram won’t stand. (v. 7) – “It will not takeplace, it will not happen.” And because of this, God’s message to Ahaz in v. 9 is, “Stand firm in your faith.”
So it is in the context of Ahaz’s disbelief, and wavering trust, and unwillingness to throw himself on the care of God that God gives Ahaz an amazing offer. Look with me in verse 11 where God says, “Ask the LORD your God for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights.” This is what we call carte blanche, right? Anything you want, Ahaz, make it as big or as small as you want, and I’ll do it to prove to you that I will take care of you. This is an unprecedented offer on the part of God!
And in verse 12, we have Ahaz’s answer. Now on the surface level, it sounds pious, but from what we know about Ahaz he has no godly impulse, no interest in a right relationship with God, he has participated in barbaric idol worship, he has pillaged the temple of God to pay off Assyria, so his words, “I will not ask; I will not put the LORD to the test” is really nothing more than a pious dismissal. We know this as well because of Isaiah’s rebuke in verse 13 – “Hear now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of humans? Will you try the patience of my God also?” He has cast his lot with the king of Assyria, so nothing God can do will change his decision.
What would you do at this point if you were God? Wouldn’t you say to Ahaz, “OK, if that’s the way you want it, that’s the way you’re gonna get it!” That would have been my response, but note what God does in verse 14. God gives him a sign anyway! And the sign is very curious. “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. 15 He (this son)will be eating curds and honey (the equivalent of fast food as opposed to food produced agriculturally, necessitated by the land having been decimated by war) when he knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, 16 for before the boy knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste.” In other words, within a few years of the boy’s birth, the lands of Aram and Israel themselves will be destroyed.
The amazing sign that God was going to give Ahaz involved four things. First of all, God predicts that “the virgin” was going to get pregnant. Secondly, that conception was going to produce a male child; third, that the child was going to be called Immanuel, and fourth, concerning a time frame, that before the little boy was old enough to exercise moral judgment, the lands of these two kings Ahaz was so afraid of were going to be destroyed.
Now, the question we have to ask is this. When was this prophecy fulfilled? Another way we could put it is, “Is this a prophecy about Jesus?” Now remember, the prophecy is serving as a sign to King Ahaz – “the Lord Himself will give you a sign.” In other words, it is going to have to be fulfilled in his lifetime if it is going to accomplish God’s purpose in giving it. So, let’s look at the fulfillment in the next chapter. Look with me at chapter 8 and let’s read the first 10 verses that are describing the coming invasion.
Then the LORD said to me, "Take for yourself a large tablet and write on it in ordinary letters: [Maher-shalal-hash-baz – KJV, NIV] Swift is the booty, speedy is the prey.
2 "And I will take to Myself faithful witnesses for testimony, Uriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah."
Starting in v. 3 is where we start to see the fulfillment of the prophecy of 7:14.
3 So I approached the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son.
Who is this prophetess? Obviously, she is Isaiah’s wife, and we see the prophecy of the conception producing a male child come true. The problem though is the part about the virgin conceiving. How does that work? There are two theories.
The first theory is that Isaiah’s first wife had died (remember in 7:3 he takes his son with him), and so “the prophetess” is his second wife. Now what about the virgin thing? Do virgins ever conceive? Probably on a regular basis! I’m not sure what the statistics are, but it isn’t out of the ordinary for a virgin to get pregnant on her wedding night. Now for a virgin to conceive without the aid of a male – like Mary – that is spectacular. So the first theory is that Isaiah married this woman and their first union resulted in a conception that eventually produced a son.
The second theory is this is an example of a prophecy that has both an immediate and a future fulfillment. Or sometimes it is called a near and a distant fulfillment – portions of it being fulfilled immediately with other parts coming true at a later date. If that is what is going on, the virgin conceiving part was fulfilled at the time of Christ.
Then the LORD said to me, "Name him Maher-shalal-hash-baz; 4 for [and note the parallels here] before the boy knows how to cry out 'My father ' or 'My mother,' the wealth of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria will be carried away before the king of Assyria."
In other words, these things will come to pass in the child’s infancy. In ch. 7 that concept was conveyed by making reference to things happening before the child had reached the age of discerning between right and wrong; here his infancy is described by saying these things were going to come to pass before he speak coherently.
5 And again the LORD spoke to me further, saying, 6 "Inasmuch as these people have rejected the gently flowing waters of Shiloah [also known as the pool or stream of Siloam in Jerusalem], and rejoice in Rezin and the son of Remaliah; 7 "Now therefore, behold, the Lord is about to bring on them the strong and abundant waters of the Euphrates, Even the king of Assyria and all his glory; And it will rise up over all its channels and go over all its banks. 8 "Then it will sweep on into Judah, it will overflow and pass through, It will reach even to the neck; And the spread of its wings will fill the breadth of your land, O Immanuel.
Who is God talking to in v. 8? Is it Isaiah? Has Isaiah’s name changed? Most probably, He is talking to Isaiah’s son. Back in verse 3, he was named Maher-shalal-hash-baz, a name that was designed to convey a message, so it isn’t out of the ordinary to believe that this son was also called Immanuel, another name designed to convey a message. And before you start to think that I’m really reaching here, and seeing things that aren’t in the text, remember that for the prophecy of 7:14 to be fulfilled as a sign to Ahaz, this is how we need to understand it. Otherwise, there isn’t a sign.
Now, Immanuel means “God with us,” and that is precisely what comes out in verse 9. Starting in v. 9, the speaker changes, it is no longer God speaking to Isaiah, but Isaiah speaking to the nations that are coming against his land to destroy it.
9 "Be broken, O peoples, and be shattered; And give ear, all remote places of the earth. Gird yourselves, yet be shattered; Gird yourselves, yet be shattered. 10 "Devise a plan but it will be thwarted; State a proposal, but it will not stand, For God is with us."
The Hebrew there is what? Right. Immanuel. The idea here is that Isaiah’s son was a living, walking, object lesson to the nation of Judah and the people of Jerusalem that even though their nation was going to be overrun, and even though they were going to suffer through all the privations of war and siege and captivity, God was still with them. The essence of these two verses is that the hostile nations can give it their best shot, but God’s people are always going to come out on top. The temporary destruction is not an accurate reflection of the long term reality.
So what we see here is another example of the pattern that has been established by God as He comes to His people in the context of fear and distress to give his people glimpses of their eventual deliverance. This is why we read in Matthew’s account of the birth of Jesus (1:23), “Now all this took place that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet might be fulfilled, saying, "Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel," which translated means, "God with us." Isaiah 7:14 fits so perfectly the model of the messianic prophecies that God told Joseph the birth of Jesus was in fact, a secondary fulfillment, another fulfillment of the original prophecy.
Let me give you several lessons we can take away from this passage.
First of all, God doesn’t always grant us immediate deliverance from our oppressors. Isaiah’s nation still had to suffer through destruction and eventual deportation. But in spite of that, God’s people ultimately end up on top!
Secondly, note how God always appears in your extremity. In each of the prophecies we have looked at, God stepped into the situation and gave His people hope. That is God’s nature. And so we endure because we know how God works.
Third, we look forward with expectation to the return of our Savior. In the very same way that God fulfilled each of the prophesies of the OT concerning the birth of Jesus, so too will God fulfill all the yet to be accomplished promises of His return. It may not be this week, it may not even be in our lifetime, but we know “He is not slack concerning His promises.”
And finally, where are you looking for your salvation? Ahaz looked around him for earthly deliverance and spurned the offer of God. That was a disastrous decision and the consequences were enormous. How about you? God offers us salvation through the death of His Son, and we have to decide if we are going to accept it or not.
Isa. 7:1-16
Several weeks ago we were looking at Old Testament predictions about the birth of Jesus. We started in the book of Genesis (which contains three), and it is there that we see God revealing to mankind that even though there was a great failure on the part of man in the garden, He wasn’t going to abandon His desire to live in fellowship with His creation. So immediately after Adam and Eve sinned, God promised them that eventually He would send them a Savior to make things right between God and man.
That first promise, made 1,500 years before it was fulfilled, was somewhat vague and indistinct, but it revealed God’s heart. He wasn’t content to let His creation languish in a state of alienation, living lives characterized by toil and fear and ultimately death. And so right in the immediate context of a massive failure on the part of man, God was making a way to get things back on track. Then, we saw that after hundreds of years of silence about the coming savior, again, in the context of sin, rebellion, and failure on the part of man, God gave His people another glimpse of their coming savior. We saw this in the book of Numbers when Balaam prophesied in Numbers 24 that a scepter was going to rise from Israel. Their deliverer wasn’t in the immediate future, and He wasn’t from the immediate area, but God’s plan was still on track.
And so what I want to do this morning is take you to the book of Isaiah and show you what is perhaps the most well known - as well as misunderstood - of the Old Testament prophecies about the birth of Jesus. It is found here in chapter 7, and we’ll read it together and then look at some interesting things about it.
When Ahaz son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, was king of Judah, King Rezin of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel marched up to fight against Jerusalem, but they could not overpower it. 2 Now the house of David (the court, or royal family) was told, "Aram has allied itself with Ephraim"; so the hearts of Ahaz and his people were shaken, as the trees of the forest are shaken by the wind.
3 Then the LORD said to Isaiah, "Go out, you and your son Shear-Jashub, to meet Ahaz at the end of the aqueduct of the Upper Pool, on the road to the Launderer's Field. 4 Say to him, 'Be careful, keep calm and don't be afraid. Do not lose heart because of these two smoldering stubs of firewood--because of the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and of the son of Remaliah.
5 Aram, Ephraim and Remaliah's son have plotted your ruin, saying, 6 "Let us invade Judah; let us tear it apart and divide it among ourselves, and make the son of Tabeel king over it."
7 Yet this is what the Sovereign LORD says: "'It will not take place, it will not happen, 8 for the head of Aram is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is only Rezin. Within sixty-five years Ephraim will be too shattered to be a people. 9 The head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is only Remaliah's son. If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all.'"
10 Again the LORD spoke to Ahaz, 11 "Ask the LORD your God for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights." 12 But Ahaz said, "I will not ask; I will not put the LORD to the test." 13 Then Isaiah said, "Hear now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of humans? Will you try the patience of my God also?
14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. 15 He will be eating curds and honey when he knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, 16 for before the boy knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste.
The first thing I want to share with you about this prophecy is that once again it is given in the context of fear, and despair, and certain defeat. Ahaz, the king of Jerusalem, is facing two nations intent on destroying his country. They have been very successful in their march toward Jerusalem, and now they have encircled the city and a state of siege is in place. Food and water is limited, and the psychological dimension of this kind of warfare is setting it. On their way to Jerusalem, Rezin, king of Aram has already destroyed most of Ahaz’s army (120,000) and deported 200,000 people.
So what is Ahaz, as the king of God’s people, supposed to do? He has two choices. He can turn to God and look for deliverance, or he can turn to man and look for deliverance. In a situation like this, turning to man would be the idea of forging some kind of alliance with a stronger nation and ask them to come to your aid. That is exactly
what Ahaz does, even though our text doesn’t say it. But let me read to you 2 Kings 16, which is the historical account of this passage.
In the seventeenth year of Pekah the son of Remaliah, Ahaz the son of Jotham, king of Judah, became king. 2 Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem; and he did not do what was right in the sight of the LORD his God, as his father David had done. 3 But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and even made his son pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the nations whom the LORD had driven out from before the sons of Israel. 4 And he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places and on the hills and under every green tree. 5 Then Rezin king of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah, king of Israel, came up to Jerusalem to wage war; and they besieged Ahaz, but could not overcome him. 7 So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, saying, "I am your servant and your son; come up and deliver me from the hand of the king of Aram, and from the hand of the king of Israel, who are rising up against me." 8 And Ahaz took the silver and gold that was found in the house of the LORD and in the treasuries of the king's house, and sent a present to the king of Assyria.
So in spite of the alliance Ahaz has forged with the king of Assyria, the message Isaiah is to give to King Ahaz is found in verses 3 – 6. In a nutshell, God’s message is, “Don’t panic.” He refers to the two kings of the invading armies as “smoldering stubs of firewood.” This is a reference to a branch that has been thrown part way onto a campfire, and when the fire eventually goes out, you can pick that branch up and what will it be doing? It may have a red coal on the end and be smoking, but it is only a matter of time before it goes out. That smoldering branch isn’t really a serious threat. That is the point God is making to Ahaz. Don’t worry about these two kings, there is some smoke here, and a little heat, but no serious concern.
Now, Ahaz may be a little reluctant to accept God’s assessment of the situation. After all, he has seen the devastation, so in verses 7 and 8, God explains the specifics. In the previous verses He simply says, “Don’t worry about these guys.” Now he shows why, and the essence of God’s message is that these two nations won’t even be in existence in the near future. God graciously gives Ahaz insight into the future and assures him that the plans of Ephraim and Aram won’t stand. (v. 7) – “It will not takeplace, it will not happen.” And because of this, God’s message to Ahaz in v. 9 is, “Stand firm in your faith.”
So it is in the context of Ahaz’s disbelief, and wavering trust, and unwillingness to throw himself on the care of God that God gives Ahaz an amazing offer. Look with me in verse 11 where God says, “Ask the LORD your God for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights.” This is what we call carte blanche, right? Anything you want, Ahaz, make it as big or as small as you want, and I’ll do it to prove to you that I will take care of you. This is an unprecedented offer on the part of God!
And in verse 12, we have Ahaz’s answer. Now on the surface level, it sounds pious, but from what we know about Ahaz he has no godly impulse, no interest in a right relationship with God, he has participated in barbaric idol worship, he has pillaged the temple of God to pay off Assyria, so his words, “I will not ask; I will not put the LORD to the test” is really nothing more than a pious dismissal. We know this as well because of Isaiah’s rebuke in verse 13 – “Hear now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of humans? Will you try the patience of my God also?” He has cast his lot with the king of Assyria, so nothing God can do will change his decision.
What would you do at this point if you were God? Wouldn’t you say to Ahaz, “OK, if that’s the way you want it, that’s the way you’re gonna get it!” That would have been my response, but note what God does in verse 14. God gives him a sign anyway! And the sign is very curious. “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. 15 He (this son)will be eating curds and honey (the equivalent of fast food as opposed to food produced agriculturally, necessitated by the land having been decimated by war) when he knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, 16 for before the boy knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste.” In other words, within a few years of the boy’s birth, the lands of Aram and Israel themselves will be destroyed.
The amazing sign that God was going to give Ahaz involved four things. First of all, God predicts that “the virgin” was going to get pregnant. Secondly, that conception was going to produce a male child; third, that the child was going to be called Immanuel, and fourth, concerning a time frame, that before the little boy was old enough to exercise moral judgment, the lands of these two kings Ahaz was so afraid of were going to be destroyed.
Now, the question we have to ask is this. When was this prophecy fulfilled? Another way we could put it is, “Is this a prophecy about Jesus?” Now remember, the prophecy is serving as a sign to King Ahaz – “the Lord Himself will give you a sign.” In other words, it is going to have to be fulfilled in his lifetime if it is going to accomplish God’s purpose in giving it. So, let’s look at the fulfillment in the next chapter. Look with me at chapter 8 and let’s read the first 10 verses that are describing the coming invasion.
Then the LORD said to me, "Take for yourself a large tablet and write on it in ordinary letters: [Maher-shalal-hash-baz – KJV, NIV] Swift is the booty, speedy is the prey.
2 "And I will take to Myself faithful witnesses for testimony, Uriah the priest and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah."
Starting in v. 3 is where we start to see the fulfillment of the prophecy of 7:14.
3 So I approached the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son.
Who is this prophetess? Obviously, she is Isaiah’s wife, and we see the prophecy of the conception producing a male child come true. The problem though is the part about the virgin conceiving. How does that work? There are two theories.
The first theory is that Isaiah’s first wife had died (remember in 7:3 he takes his son with him), and so “the prophetess” is his second wife. Now what about the virgin thing? Do virgins ever conceive? Probably on a regular basis! I’m not sure what the statistics are, but it isn’t out of the ordinary for a virgin to get pregnant on her wedding night. Now for a virgin to conceive without the aid of a male – like Mary – that is spectacular. So the first theory is that Isaiah married this woman and their first union resulted in a conception that eventually produced a son.
The second theory is this is an example of a prophecy that has both an immediate and a future fulfillment. Or sometimes it is called a near and a distant fulfillment – portions of it being fulfilled immediately with other parts coming true at a later date. If that is what is going on, the virgin conceiving part was fulfilled at the time of Christ.
Then the LORD said to me, "Name him Maher-shalal-hash-baz; 4 for [and note the parallels here] before the boy knows how to cry out 'My father ' or 'My mother,' the wealth of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria will be carried away before the king of Assyria."
In other words, these things will come to pass in the child’s infancy. In ch. 7 that concept was conveyed by making reference to things happening before the child had reached the age of discerning between right and wrong; here his infancy is described by saying these things were going to come to pass before he speak coherently.
5 And again the LORD spoke to me further, saying, 6 "Inasmuch as these people have rejected the gently flowing waters of Shiloah [also known as the pool or stream of Siloam in Jerusalem], and rejoice in Rezin and the son of Remaliah; 7 "Now therefore, behold, the Lord is about to bring on them the strong and abundant waters of the Euphrates, Even the king of Assyria and all his glory; And it will rise up over all its channels and go over all its banks. 8 "Then it will sweep on into Judah, it will overflow and pass through, It will reach even to the neck; And the spread of its wings will fill the breadth of your land, O Immanuel.
Who is God talking to in v. 8? Is it Isaiah? Has Isaiah’s name changed? Most probably, He is talking to Isaiah’s son. Back in verse 3, he was named Maher-shalal-hash-baz, a name that was designed to convey a message, so it isn’t out of the ordinary to believe that this son was also called Immanuel, another name designed to convey a message. And before you start to think that I’m really reaching here, and seeing things that aren’t in the text, remember that for the prophecy of 7:14 to be fulfilled as a sign to Ahaz, this is how we need to understand it. Otherwise, there isn’t a sign.
Now, Immanuel means “God with us,” and that is precisely what comes out in verse 9. Starting in v. 9, the speaker changes, it is no longer God speaking to Isaiah, but Isaiah speaking to the nations that are coming against his land to destroy it.
9 "Be broken, O peoples, and be shattered; And give ear, all remote places of the earth. Gird yourselves, yet be shattered; Gird yourselves, yet be shattered. 10 "Devise a plan but it will be thwarted; State a proposal, but it will not stand, For God is with us."
The Hebrew there is what? Right. Immanuel. The idea here is that Isaiah’s son was a living, walking, object lesson to the nation of Judah and the people of Jerusalem that even though their nation was going to be overrun, and even though they were going to suffer through all the privations of war and siege and captivity, God was still with them. The essence of these two verses is that the hostile nations can give it their best shot, but God’s people are always going to come out on top. The temporary destruction is not an accurate reflection of the long term reality.
So what we see here is another example of the pattern that has been established by God as He comes to His people in the context of fear and distress to give his people glimpses of their eventual deliverance. This is why we read in Matthew’s account of the birth of Jesus (1:23), “Now all this took place that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet might be fulfilled, saying, "Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel," which translated means, "God with us." Isaiah 7:14 fits so perfectly the model of the messianic prophecies that God told Joseph the birth of Jesus was in fact, a secondary fulfillment, another fulfillment of the original prophecy.
Let me give you several lessons we can take away from this passage.
First of all, God doesn’t always grant us immediate deliverance from our oppressors. Isaiah’s nation still had to suffer through destruction and eventual deportation. But in spite of that, God’s people ultimately end up on top!
Secondly, note how God always appears in your extremity. In each of the prophecies we have looked at, God stepped into the situation and gave His people hope. That is God’s nature. And so we endure because we know how God works.
Third, we look forward with expectation to the return of our Savior. In the very same way that God fulfilled each of the prophesies of the OT concerning the birth of Jesus, so too will God fulfill all the yet to be accomplished promises of His return. It may not be this week, it may not even be in our lifetime, but we know “He is not slack concerning His promises.”
And finally, where are you looking for your salvation? Ahaz looked around him for earthly deliverance and spurned the offer of God. That was a disastrous decision and the consequences were enormous. How about you? God offers us salvation through the death of His Son, and we have to decide if we are going to accept it or not.
Monday, January 2, 2012
Thoughts For 2012
Working Together for the Common Good
Phil. 2:1-4
Let’s turn in our Bibles this morning to Eccl. chapter four. It isn’t very often that the first day of the year falls on a Sunday, but since that the way it is this year, I thought it would be good to spend our time together focusing on a theme for the year. I want us to consider an issue that I’d like us to keep on the front burner all year long, and it involves the concept of synergy.
For those of you not familiar with synergy, synergy is not an increased capacity to sin. We hear the words “sin” and “energy” in there, and since it is something Murray is talking about in church, if you aren’t familiar with the concept you may be thinking that synergy has something to do with sinning with gusto, but it doesn’t.
The technical definition of synergy is when the result of an action is greater than the sum of the parts. A simpler way to say it is that sometimes one plus one equals three. The best illustration I have heard of synergy involves horses. Apparently, the average horse can pull a load of about 1000 pounds. Based on that you would think that two horses yoked together could pull somewhere around 2000 pounds, right? But guess how much they can pull? It is actually closer to 4000 pounds. Something happens in the realm of physics that multiplies the force they exert. In fact, I was reading about a horse pulling contest where the winning draft horse pulled a load of 5000 pounds, and the second place horse pulled a load of 4000 pounds. After the competition was over, they hitched the two horses together to see how much they could pull, and they pulled a load of 12,000 pounds! That is the concept behind synergy. When the result of an action is greater than the sum of the parts.
Of course there are always exceptions to this. Mark Twain is famous for the statement that if you have one boy working for you, you will get one boy’s worth of work out of him. If you put another boy to work with him, you will get one boy’s worth of work out of them. And if you put three boys together to work on a job, you will get no boy’s worth of work out of them. But generally speaking, a group working together can accomplish exponentially more than a series of individuals working alone. So the concept behind synergy is that it produces exponential growth as opposed to additional growth. 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 = 10. But what is 2 to the 5th power? 32! That is the idea of synergy. Quite a difference between 10 and 32, right?
It is interesting to me that we can find allusions to this concept in several places in the Bible. Going back to the very beginning, in the creation account we hear God say, “it is not good for man to be alone, I will him a helper suitable for him.” There is an even clearer expression of this in Eccl. 4:9-12.
9 Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: 10 If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up. 11 Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? 12 Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.
So, I think it is easy to see that this concept of joint effort is taught in the Bible, and this morning we are going to be spending our time in Phil. 2:1-4 where Paul is appealing to the believers in the church of Philippi to pull together for the common good. Let’s read these verses and see the basis for our theme in 2012.
Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if [you have] any comfort from his love, if [you have] any common sharing in the Spirit, if [you have] any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
Even with this quick reading it is pretty obvious what Paul has in mind. He is encouraging the people to maximize all the things they have in common, lay aside any self interest, and pull together. As I look at theses verses I see three things. First of all, there is a motive. In other words, there is a reason to work together for the common good. Then there is a mandate in verse two. This is where Paul actually issues the command. And finally, there is a method in verses 3 and 4. Paul tells us a specific way we can all pull together and accomplish great things for the cause of Christ.
I. The Motive
In verse one, Paul uses four clauses that highlight what followers of Christ have in common. When you look around this room this morning, you see great diversity.
Personality. We have everybody from the class clown to the wall flower.
Family history. Everywhere between excellent parenting with a warm family tradition to people who had terrible parents and do their best to forget their upbringing.
Education. We span the stretch from people who didn’t finish high school to people with Master’s Degrees.
Income levels. We have people who live very comfortably, all the way to people who barely make it from paycheck to paycheck.
Spiritual history. We run the gamut from people who have been saved for a very short period of time to people who have been saved over 50 years.
Spiritual maturity. We have people who are rock solid in the faith as a result of their serious pursuit of godliness, all the way to people who spiritual infants.
Commitment. We have people who are involved in every dimension of the church all the way across the spectrum to people who just show up on Sunday morning, and that’s it.
And when you think about the tremendous diversity in a single body of believers, what is it that enables us to work together for the common good? It is the four bedrock truths that all followers of Christ share with each other. Let’s read them again in verse one.
“Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any
comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion.”
1. We have a common advocate in Jesus – seen in the word “encouragement.”
2. We have a common benefit from His love – His love for us is what compelled Him
to go to the cross for us.
3. We have a common source of power in the Holy Spirit – the same Holy Spirit that lives in you lives in me.
4. We have a common demonstration of the fruits of the Holy Spirit.
The motive we have for pulling together to get the job done is our common experience in Christ. And when you think about all the differences we demonstrate in a group of this size, the only thing that could possibly keep us from splintering and each going our separate ways is these four common experiences.
So in verse one we have the motive for working together, in verse two, we have the mandate.
II. The Mandate
Make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind.
Do you see the concept of unity? Like-minded. Same love. One in spirit. And I’m using the word “mandate” here in the sense of a command. We see this command in Paul’s use of the imperative. In the Greek language, the imperatives are the marching orders. They aren’t suggestions or recommendations, they are expectations. And Paul expects a sense of unity in thinking, love, and spirit. Let’s look at each of these a little more closely.
First of all, when Paul says we need to be unified in our thinking, he isn’t saying that we all have to see every issue the same way. Believe it or not, there is some room for diversity of opinion in Christendom. I know the road to heaven is straight and narrow, but it isn’t so narrow that I have to line up behind you in order to get there. What Paul is after is that we all think the same way, not that we all think the same thing. Does that make sense to you? How is it possible to do that?
It is possible to think the same way by thinking biblically. The Bible is our standard. If there is something we have to do, or a decision we have to make, or a direction we have to head, we need to all be committed to thinking it through in a biblical way.
Secondly, we are commanded to be unified in our love. What does that mean? It means that we have a common standard of love. We all aspire to loving our neighbor the same way God loves us. Just think about how much God loves you (Jn. 3:16), and what that love looks like (1 Cor. 13). That is what Paul is calling us to in this verse. We are to be unified in our love.
And finally, we are commanded to be unified in spirit and mind. What does that mean? It doesn’t have reference to the Holy Spirit, it has reference to the manner in which we carry out God’s work, the spirit with which we serve. We don’t serve with an eye to a reward. We don’t serve for the sake of recognition. We don’t serve in hopes that we will earn crowns in heaven. We don’t serve when we “feel” like serving. We serve heartily, as unto the Lord (Col. 3:23); we serve to the glory of God (1 Cor. 10:31), we serve in the name of the Lord Jesus (Col. 3:17). So Paul’s mandate in verse two is that we need to be unified in how we think, how we love, and in the spirit with which we carry out God’s plans for our church.
Now, I really like verses 3 and 4, because when you think about it, he really is setting a pretty high standard. Practically speaking, how are we to accomplish
this lofty goal he sets up? The answer in the two final verses where he outlines the method.
III. The Method
3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
The key to unity, and even synergy, is to think about others more than you think about yourself. Isn’t that simple? But if you’ve ever tried it, you know it is much more difficult than you would think, because at heart, we are all selfish creatures. By default, by virtue of our humanity, because of the old nature we inherit from Adam we tend to look out for ourselves, and our own interests more than anything else.
And that is precisely what squelches synergy. When we focus on our personal agenda, and our personal methods, and our personal comfort zones, and our personal time frames, God’s work suffers. As I look back on over 20 years of involvement in church work, selfishness is at the root of almost every conflict, every battle, every offense, every disgruntled member leaving in a huff. Rarely are the conflicts over substantive, important issues.
If we are going to accomplish God’s plans for this church this year, we are going to have to lay “self” aside, focus on what we all have in common, and put our shoulders together and get the job done.
So here we have Paul’s treatment of synergy. To the degree that we are all on our own trajectory doing our own thing, staying secure in our own little comfort zone, insisting that people conform to my way of doing things, we will be inefficient. But to the degree we put self aside and all work together, we will do great things for the Lord. So our theme verse for this year is Phil. 2:3-4: “Do nothing out of
selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.”
Phil. 2:1-4
Let’s turn in our Bibles this morning to Eccl. chapter four. It isn’t very often that the first day of the year falls on a Sunday, but since that the way it is this year, I thought it would be good to spend our time together focusing on a theme for the year. I want us to consider an issue that I’d like us to keep on the front burner all year long, and it involves the concept of synergy.
For those of you not familiar with synergy, synergy is not an increased capacity to sin. We hear the words “sin” and “energy” in there, and since it is something Murray is talking about in church, if you aren’t familiar with the concept you may be thinking that synergy has something to do with sinning with gusto, but it doesn’t.
The technical definition of synergy is when the result of an action is greater than the sum of the parts. A simpler way to say it is that sometimes one plus one equals three. The best illustration I have heard of synergy involves horses. Apparently, the average horse can pull a load of about 1000 pounds. Based on that you would think that two horses yoked together could pull somewhere around 2000 pounds, right? But guess how much they can pull? It is actually closer to 4000 pounds. Something happens in the realm of physics that multiplies the force they exert. In fact, I was reading about a horse pulling contest where the winning draft horse pulled a load of 5000 pounds, and the second place horse pulled a load of 4000 pounds. After the competition was over, they hitched the two horses together to see how much they could pull, and they pulled a load of 12,000 pounds! That is the concept behind synergy. When the result of an action is greater than the sum of the parts.
Of course there are always exceptions to this. Mark Twain is famous for the statement that if you have one boy working for you, you will get one boy’s worth of work out of him. If you put another boy to work with him, you will get one boy’s worth of work out of them. And if you put three boys together to work on a job, you will get no boy’s worth of work out of them. But generally speaking, a group working together can accomplish exponentially more than a series of individuals working alone. So the concept behind synergy is that it produces exponential growth as opposed to additional growth. 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 = 10. But what is 2 to the 5th power? 32! That is the idea of synergy. Quite a difference between 10 and 32, right?
It is interesting to me that we can find allusions to this concept in several places in the Bible. Going back to the very beginning, in the creation account we hear God say, “it is not good for man to be alone, I will him a helper suitable for him.” There is an even clearer expression of this in Eccl. 4:9-12.
9 Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: 10 If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up. 11 Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? 12 Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.
So, I think it is easy to see that this concept of joint effort is taught in the Bible, and this morning we are going to be spending our time in Phil. 2:1-4 where Paul is appealing to the believers in the church of Philippi to pull together for the common good. Let’s read these verses and see the basis for our theme in 2012.
Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if [you have] any comfort from his love, if [you have] any common sharing in the Spirit, if [you have] any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
Even with this quick reading it is pretty obvious what Paul has in mind. He is encouraging the people to maximize all the things they have in common, lay aside any self interest, and pull together. As I look at theses verses I see three things. First of all, there is a motive. In other words, there is a reason to work together for the common good. Then there is a mandate in verse two. This is where Paul actually issues the command. And finally, there is a method in verses 3 and 4. Paul tells us a specific way we can all pull together and accomplish great things for the cause of Christ.
I. The Motive
In verse one, Paul uses four clauses that highlight what followers of Christ have in common. When you look around this room this morning, you see great diversity.
Personality. We have everybody from the class clown to the wall flower.
Family history. Everywhere between excellent parenting with a warm family tradition to people who had terrible parents and do their best to forget their upbringing.
Education. We span the stretch from people who didn’t finish high school to people with Master’s Degrees.
Income levels. We have people who live very comfortably, all the way to people who barely make it from paycheck to paycheck.
Spiritual history. We run the gamut from people who have been saved for a very short period of time to people who have been saved over 50 years.
Spiritual maturity. We have people who are rock solid in the faith as a result of their serious pursuit of godliness, all the way to people who spiritual infants.
Commitment. We have people who are involved in every dimension of the church all the way across the spectrum to people who just show up on Sunday morning, and that’s it.
And when you think about the tremendous diversity in a single body of believers, what is it that enables us to work together for the common good? It is the four bedrock truths that all followers of Christ share with each other. Let’s read them again in verse one.
“Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any
comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion.”
1. We have a common advocate in Jesus – seen in the word “encouragement.”
2. We have a common benefit from His love – His love for us is what compelled Him
to go to the cross for us.
3. We have a common source of power in the Holy Spirit – the same Holy Spirit that lives in you lives in me.
4. We have a common demonstration of the fruits of the Holy Spirit.
The motive we have for pulling together to get the job done is our common experience in Christ. And when you think about all the differences we demonstrate in a group of this size, the only thing that could possibly keep us from splintering and each going our separate ways is these four common experiences.
So in verse one we have the motive for working together, in verse two, we have the mandate.
II. The Mandate
Make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind.
Do you see the concept of unity? Like-minded. Same love. One in spirit. And I’m using the word “mandate” here in the sense of a command. We see this command in Paul’s use of the imperative. In the Greek language, the imperatives are the marching orders. They aren’t suggestions or recommendations, they are expectations. And Paul expects a sense of unity in thinking, love, and spirit. Let’s look at each of these a little more closely.
First of all, when Paul says we need to be unified in our thinking, he isn’t saying that we all have to see every issue the same way. Believe it or not, there is some room for diversity of opinion in Christendom. I know the road to heaven is straight and narrow, but it isn’t so narrow that I have to line up behind you in order to get there. What Paul is after is that we all think the same way, not that we all think the same thing. Does that make sense to you? How is it possible to do that?
It is possible to think the same way by thinking biblically. The Bible is our standard. If there is something we have to do, or a decision we have to make, or a direction we have to head, we need to all be committed to thinking it through in a biblical way.
Secondly, we are commanded to be unified in our love. What does that mean? It means that we have a common standard of love. We all aspire to loving our neighbor the same way God loves us. Just think about how much God loves you (Jn. 3:16), and what that love looks like (1 Cor. 13). That is what Paul is calling us to in this verse. We are to be unified in our love.
And finally, we are commanded to be unified in spirit and mind. What does that mean? It doesn’t have reference to the Holy Spirit, it has reference to the manner in which we carry out God’s work, the spirit with which we serve. We don’t serve with an eye to a reward. We don’t serve for the sake of recognition. We don’t serve in hopes that we will earn crowns in heaven. We don’t serve when we “feel” like serving. We serve heartily, as unto the Lord (Col. 3:23); we serve to the glory of God (1 Cor. 10:31), we serve in the name of the Lord Jesus (Col. 3:17). So Paul’s mandate in verse two is that we need to be unified in how we think, how we love, and in the spirit with which we carry out God’s plans for our church.
Now, I really like verses 3 and 4, because when you think about it, he really is setting a pretty high standard. Practically speaking, how are we to accomplish
this lofty goal he sets up? The answer in the two final verses where he outlines the method.
III. The Method
3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
The key to unity, and even synergy, is to think about others more than you think about yourself. Isn’t that simple? But if you’ve ever tried it, you know it is much more difficult than you would think, because at heart, we are all selfish creatures. By default, by virtue of our humanity, because of the old nature we inherit from Adam we tend to look out for ourselves, and our own interests more than anything else.
And that is precisely what squelches synergy. When we focus on our personal agenda, and our personal methods, and our personal comfort zones, and our personal time frames, God’s work suffers. As I look back on over 20 years of involvement in church work, selfishness is at the root of almost every conflict, every battle, every offense, every disgruntled member leaving in a huff. Rarely are the conflicts over substantive, important issues.
If we are going to accomplish God’s plans for this church this year, we are going to have to lay “self” aside, focus on what we all have in common, and put our shoulders together and get the job done.
So here we have Paul’s treatment of synergy. To the degree that we are all on our own trajectory doing our own thing, staying secure in our own little comfort zone, insisting that people conform to my way of doing things, we will be inefficient. But to the degree we put self aside and all work together, we will do great things for the Lord. So our theme verse for this year is Phil. 2:3-4: “Do nothing out of
selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.”
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