A one off message on hearing the voice of Jesus and living for Him. Life Church 16th Sept, A.M.
Have you ever tried to understand what Jesus is saying to you? Have you ever had those dilemmas when you need to know what He is saying but then don’t quite get it? How are we supposed to do what He says if we cannot understand what He’s saying.
John 10:27: My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.
Hearing Him speak for the Christian should be quite a simple thing.
Instructions are important but I am not oblivious to ignoring instructions myself. I can remember the excitement of when we purchased our first ever computer. I could not wait to get home and start to tear open the boxes that hid that had lovingly protected the contents so that we could connect to the internet via dial-up! Waiting a minute or more for a connection and having download speeds slower than a tortoise did not seem to bother us. We were entering the technological revolution.
In our lounge were scattered the three boxes containing the base station, the monitor and printer. I decided to start with the monitor, a bulky box with a Cathay tube screen, not these nice slim flat screens everyone is so accustomed to today. I must have had the look of a man on a mission for my wife decided to make herself a cup of tea and watch from the comfort of her chair. I gingerly removed the three enormous metal staples that had been used to secure the lid and revealed a solid lump of white Styrofoam protective packaging! I was incensed! Surely the manufacturer would have thought to at least have given a hand hold of some kind to lift the packaging off. Confused by their lack of customer consideration and logic I began to expand the box with my fingertips, forcing them down the sides of the inflexible white material, searching for some kind of grip. As I got more and more frustrated, my wife gave me the pitiful look of female superiority that wordlessly said, “Any time you want help I am here!” I knew this talk all too well and as I fell under its gaze a new determination rose inside of me to vanquish my foe!
I was not going to ask for help. I am a man and will not be defeated by this infernal package. Eventually I forced my fingers far enough into the box to get an fingertip grip on the edge of the Styrofoam, and with bloodied cuticles, pulled it out of the seemly unconquerable object of my rage! What I saw was the bottom of the monitor and then I understood, waving the preformed Styrofoam at my wife like some kind of demented caveman I said, “See, it was not me, it was them! They put the screen in upside down!”
Looking at me pitifully, with a slight smirk, she said, “Perhaps you have the box the wrong way up!” “Impossible, how are you supposed to know which way up is up?”
My wife pointed to some symbols on the side of the box as she was looking at it. One clearly meant fragile and handle with care, which up until this point I had ignored. Another showed the weight of the monitor and packaging combined. But one had the answer for which I had been looking for. It was two arrows point downwards away from a solid line. It meant, “This Way Up,” and the solid line was actually meant to be the floor. If I had actually opened the box correctly I would have found the hand holds I was looking for and could have lifted the monitor out without the drama and entertainment provided to my wife.
Matthew 16: 5-12: When they went across the lake, the disciples forgot to take bread. 6 “Be careful,” Jesus said to them. “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
7 They discussed this among themselves and said, “It is because we didn’t bring any bread.”
8 Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked, “You of little faith, why are you talking among yourselves about having no bread? 9 Do you still not understand? Don’t you remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered? 10 Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered? 11 How is it you don’t understand that I was not talking to you about bread? But be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” 12 Then they understood that he was not telling them to guard against the yeast used in bread, but against the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
1. How do we learn to hear?
Ever mishear God? Well there must have been times when we thought we had heard God but it was not Him. Might have been the wishes of our emotion that we felt that was what God was saying.
We have filters we use when hearing God. Our background, our concerns, our desire. We learn to hear by learning to listen! We need to educate our ears to listen! This works with people as well as God.
Have you ever been in a conversation where the other person keeps on interrupting? They either want to add their opinion or they think they know what’s coming next and then end the sentence for you. How annoying is that!
It’s the same with God. We have to learn to listen to what is actually being said rather than our own ideas of what should be said.
Families have short hand language. Sometimes even I cannot understand what is being said in our family! The other day Barbie says to me whilst in Sainsbury’s, “we need Earl Grey tea because Pancetta is staying with us Friday.” Who on earth she was talking about turned out to be Mandy Campbell.
All of us will have those little sayings that are unique to our family that those listening in would misunderstand. We have some South African phrases that have become part of our family and we know what they mean.
Clear lines of communication are needed if we’re to fully understand what God is saying, even when He seems to use the family shorthand to say it.
Experiment: Cups with string. We used to do this as kids. Two plastic cups with string through the bottom. Stretch out across the church and read the fowling message: “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” Have the receiver shout out. If it’s right everyone is happy. Now have them do it again but with the following: “If I were a fuzzy wuzzy bear.” But have someone had the string in the middle. The message is blocked.
Understanding the message is so important. Sometimes our concern override what is being said to us by God. The disciples forgot to bring bread. It's a simple mistake. Someone must have been responsible but we’re not told who – just that the disciples forgot to take bread (5). So they’re thinking about it. But then Jesus mentions the Yeast of the Pharisees, and they leap to their earthly concerns.
It gives us hope. Hope that the disciples often misheard or misunderstood the message of Jesus to them and sometimes we will too. Self-centred people will think that that everything Jesus says is about their earthly concerns. There’s a bigger picture people!
2. Not Adding to the Message
Yeast is a change agent. It expands the mixture. It increases its volume. The gospel message is simple. Love God, love people. The Pharisees had added and added to the message by explanation and, they believed, defending the integrity of religious duty. This si the yeast of the Pharisees (6).
There are many rulings in the Jewish traditions that go beyond what the Law of Moses called for. If you do follow them, you will indeed be within the actual commandments. But doing so is an unnecessary burden. And the Pharisees of Jesus’ day were apparently unable/unwilling to bear the full weight of the burden themselves. This is the “legalism” that Jesus was criticizing, not following the Law of Moses.
This began as a ‘what if’ scenario thinking and therefore became so restrictive that people could not live normally. For instance, one should never throw a stone lest it hit an angel.
We don’t need to add to Scripture. In fact we’re warned about his (Revelation 22:18).
We need to KISS: Keep It Simple Stupid.
3. Living the Message
Because the message has been added to by legalists we tend to reject any talk of holiness as anti-grace.
Holiness not piety or being religious.
1 Peter 1:16: Be holy for I am holy.
What is holiness? Being good?
Holiness is a drawing of a boundary, around that which is uniquely associated with God.
- Holiness means uniqueness[1]
In the OT holiness meant that Israel was associated with God. This set them apart from the other nations, for His "presence resides with and is invested in Israel."
Today, this is matched with the residence of the Holy Spirit in the person of the believer, and is seen in Paul's description of the believer's body as a temple of the Holy Spirit:1 Corinthians 6: 18-20: 18 Run from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body. 19 Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, 20 for God bought you with a high price. So you must honour God with your body. (NLT).
Isn’t it interesting we’re told to run from sexual sin! Most run into it!
Things that are designated as Holy have a unique purpose. Our bodies should be treated like temples with a unique purpose. Likewise, the Ark was needed and not just any old cardboard box.
- Holiness means belonging to God.
Holiness is a two-way street. We are, as Israel was, dependent on God, and in NT times this was expressed to mean that God was our patron in a client-patron relationship. In other words, “dependent upon God.”
In OT times it meant that God signed a contract (Deuteronomy) with the people agreeing to protect them. Today the principle of a dependent relationship remains the same. - Holiness means living with God.
Down the other side of the two-way street, holiness means living for God and living in obedience to him.
In the NT period we would say that God has made this obedience easier by the indwelling of the Spirit, and that such obedience also naturally follows from our belief that God has acted through Christ. - Holiness means being a light.
Finally, because Israel was invested with God's presence, "then it may represent it and mediate it to others."
Hence, Israel as a "light to the nations" and hence the NT call to missions.
The holy person in the Bible is one who has had a line of definition drawn around them consecrating themselves, and all they are and do, to the purposes of God.
We live for Him, don’t be fooled, God will not be mocked. We have to understand that He still wants holiness.
Character is who you are when no one else is watching.
Sam and I were in the gym a few weeks ago and we found a £2 coin. Now we could have just taken it, after all it’s just £2. But we didn’t. We put it on public view.
Holiness is to take on the character of the One we love the most.
Wrapping It Up:
When we hear Jesus speak don’t confuse what He is saying through the filter of your own circumstances or sin. He calls us to live higher than that.Don’t confuse the call to holiness as anti-grace. Grace is shown to us in salvation, but the Spirit of God will change us.
Allow yourself to be the unique, holy, person that God has called you to be. Run from anything that makes you like anyone else!
[1] Acknowledgment: Jo wells Bailey, God's Holy People: A Theme in Biblical Theology, (Sheffield Academic Press, 2000).
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