The Humble Christian

Text: “For whoever exalts himself will be humbled and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” (Matt 23:12, NIV)

Humility was not a word used in connection with the Pharisees and certainly not by Jesus.  Here Jesus is condemning them in no uncertain terms, both for making life impossible for the average Jewish citizen whilst not obeying all the rules themselves and for their boasting and taking the places of honour.

The Pharisees were a major faction in Judaism during Jesus life.  We think of them as villains because they were so often opposed to Jesus and yet in the eyes of many 1^st century Jews they were admired and respected for their dedication to keeping the Law of Moses.  They believed that the way to put themselves right with God was to obey fully the Law brought to them by Moses in the wilderness.  The problem was that in their eagerness to keep this law they had created a whole set of complex rules and regulations concerning how to do it; meaning that a first century Jew had 613 things to remember not to do for every day of their life.  This is why Jesus says, “They tie up heavy loads and put them on people’s shoulders” and it is clear that he condemns them for it.  This was made worse by the fact that the Pharisees did not obey all these rules, nor did they try to help others to do so.

This is why Jesus often calls the Pharisees ‘hypocrites’ because they didn’t practice what they preached and gave no guidance to others to help them keep all the rules.

But the Pharisees were worse than hypocrites, they were puffed up, boasters and show offs.  The references in the passage to wide phylacteries and long fringes indicate people who wanted to appear to be particularly pious.  As the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector shows, the Pharisees were sure that because of their piety they would receive the reward of eternal life and spend eternity with God

No wonder Jesus was often in opposition to the Pharisees, no wonder he condemned them.  They were trying to get to God by being good and were encouraging others to do the same.  Not only were they misleading others, they were boastful about how wonderful they were.

Jesus tells us not to be like them.  Jesus tells us to humble ourselves.  But what does he mean when he tells us to be humble?

Philippians 2 gives us a clue because it speaks about how Jesus humbled himself.  We must remember that Jesus wasn’t just the human son of God; Jesus was God himself, the second person of our Trinitarian God.  In Jesus God himself, Creator of the universe, was born as a tiny baby to a peasant mother.  In Jesus God gave up everything that made Him divine and became human. In Jesus God himself had nails driven into his hands and feet and then hung on the cross and died for us.

This is true humility, God our Creator taking on the very nature of a servant so that we might be forgiven for all the selfish, unloving and God defying things that we have done.  This is true humility, giving up honour and power and dignity for the sake of another.  This is the same humility that Jesus demonstrated when he stripped off, bent down and washed the dirty and smelly feet of his disciples.  It is the same humility he asks of each and every one of his followers.

But there is another way we need to think of humility and it also is in direct contrast to the humility of the Pharisees.  They believed that they could enter into a relationship with God because of all the rules they kept; because they obeyed the law.  In fact all that effort was for nothing because none of them could perfectly obey the whole law, no matter how hard they tried and to break one single part of the law is to break the whole law.  Paul, who was a Pharisee before his conversion, wrote of his efforts to enter into relationship with God by keeping the law, “I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is found through faith in Christ.”

As human beings we want to believe that there is something we can do to receive forgiveness from God and mend our broken relationship with him.  We are proud.  We want to do it ourselves and we simply can’t.  There is nothing that we can do to make ourselves right with God.  Nothing!  We are saved through faith in Jesus Christ alone.

Some people believe that they will get to heaven because of all the good things they have done.  I’m sure that most of us have heard people say something like, “Well, I don’t go to church or anything, but I try to live a good life and do the right thing.  I’m sure God will reward all the good things I’ve done when I die.”

There are also people who think the same way in our churches each and every Sunday.  Some Christians think that they can somehow earn favour with God with all the good things they do; by being Church stewards, by serving on the Church Council or Circuit Meeting or by doing a thousand and one other things, by constant busyness in the service of God.

We cannot make ourselves right with God, no matter how hard we try, no matter how hard we work, no matter how much we do for him.  We cannot do it.  That is why God came to us in the person of Jesus Christ.

The simple and timeless message of the good news is this.  We have all, at some time in our lives, sinned.  We have all done things that are selfish because we put ourselves first instead of putting God first, others second and ourselves last of all.  There is only one consequence for this sin, this rebellion against God and that is spiritual death which is eternal separation from God.  No amount of good deeds can bring forgiveness for our rebellion.

There is a way we can be forgiven though, and that is through faith in Jesus.  Jesus, the only Son of God, is the only person who has ever lived a life of perfect obedience, the only person who has never put himself first, but always pleased his Heavenly Father.  He is the only person who has ever lived who did not deserve death and yet his did die, he died one of the most horrible deaths ever devised by man.  Jesus died on the cross in our place; he took the punishment for our sins and in doing so brought forgiveness for us.  All we have to do is to confess and repent of all our sins and accept Jesus as our Saviour and Lord and we are forgiven and receive the reward of eternal life and the assurance of our place in Heaven with God.  It’s as simple as that!

Some of us don’t like that; we don’t want it to be that easy.  We want to do something to earn our salvation but we can’t, there is nothing we can do to earn God’s favour.  We have a gracious God who loves us more than we can ever know and it is out of that love that he unconditionally forgives us when we put our trust in Jesus.

It takes humility to accept that free gift of salvation from God and I hope that each of us here has the humility to accept the gift.  Jesus said “For whoever exalts himself will be humbled and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”  If we try to gain salvation through our own efforts we will indeed be humbled, but if we have the humility to accept all that Jesus did for us on the cross we will indeed be exalted as we are adopted as sons and daughters of the living God and co-heirs with our Lord Jesus Christ.
 

If we are humble we will truly be exalted by the saving power of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Some Things You Just Cannot Ignore.....

Driving home from Durham last night my car began making a rather unpleasant noise, a sort of harsh scraping noise that appeared to be coming from the front driver’s side wheel.  I wondered if it was a brake sticking.  When I stopped in Bishop Auckland for petrol I gave the wheel as good hard kick in the hope that it would solve the problem, lacking the hammer that my hero Jeremy Clarkson would inevitably have used.

I set off again and the noise persisted.  I tried shouting at it, but the noise still persisted!  Finally I turned up the car stereo and drowned it out.  That seemed to work.  It was still there, of course, but I couldn’t hear it, which seemed a good temporary solution.  Towards the end of the journey, however, as I left the M6 motorway the noise became louder and louder and was starting to sound expensive.

What I should have done, of course, is pull over and let National Breakdown bring me home.

This morning I took the car to the local garage I use, where the mechanics are good and sensible prices are charged.  The result was that not only had the wheel bearing collapsed but the wheel hub was damaged as well and needed replacing.  Ooops!  Fortunately, because the garage owner is wonderful I got the repair done today; and at a very reasonable price.

This whole escapade has made me think about the things in life we sometimes ignore and the stupidity of doing so.  We ignore, for example, the fire alarm that is sounding because we think it is a drill or that somebody has set it off by mistake.  We ignore safety notices because we tend to think it’s yet another example of our out of control health and safety culture.  We ignore warning signs that something might be wrong with our health.  I could continue….

Perhaps the most serious warnings we ignore are those in the Bible.  Jesus himself gives several warnings.  In Mark 13, for example, Jesus gives warnings about the end times, including “Watch out that no-one deceives you.”  Elsewhere he says that not everybody who says “Lord, Lord” will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but those who do God’s will.  There are many, many more as you will discover if you read any of the four gospels.

Do we take the Biblical warnings seriously or do we ignore them at our peril?

Preaching to Preachers…..Eeeek!

One of the trials you have to go through as a Student Minister is to preach a sermon at college to your fellow Methodist Student Ministers and Anglican Ordinands.  It was my turn earlier this evening and it was a task I approached with some trepidation.

When I started ‘On Note’ as a Methodist Local Preacher I would get really nervous before taking a service.  Not just the slight feeling of awe that you get because you are doing something important for God in seeking to be a channel for his word to his people in a particular location; but real stomach churning, stupid words inducing, odd behaviour causing nerves!  I gradually overcame these and reached the point where there was an awareness of the vast honour and responsibility of serving God as a Christian preachers but certainly not irrational nervous feelings.

This afternoon the nerves returned!  I think it was partly because I knew how tired I was after travelling from Durham to Edinburgh and back yesterday.  I think it was partly because I knew I’d be getting feedback on the sermon from the Wesley Study Centre Director and I really respect his opinions on preaching as he is a very good preacher.  It was mostly because I was preaching to my fellow student ministers and ordinands; a very impressive bunch of talented and spiritual people, brothers and sisters in Christ whose opinion matters to me.

I sat in my chair on the front row, feeling quite sick in my stomach, convinced that the sermon I had prepared wasn’t good enough.  I enjoyed the worship, the hymns and prayers led by another student but at the back of my mind was the fact that the moment I’d been looking forward to and dreading for almost a year was upon me!

It seemed a long walk to the lectern.  I reached it, took a drink of water (which, unfortunately had not become wine) and prayed my usual pre-sermon prayer.  I started to preach and my nerves vanished as God’s Spirit filled me and gave me the power to preach.

I have often said that I’m most alive and most myself when I preach and that was certainly the case today.  It is for others to comment on how good or bad the sermon was, and I will be posting it on here sometime next week (it’s on my other PC at College) but I truly felt that God was speaking through me as I preached; as he was with me when I was composing the sermon.

Preaching to other preachers and theologians isn’t easy; but I found that God honoured what I was doing for him and gave me the words to speak and the strength to speak them.

To God, as always, belongs all the glory!

Consider The Lilies – Or How To Stop Worrying About What You Wear and Enjoy Yourself!

This train of thought started when I was trying to decide what to wear for church this morning!  When I am taking a service and leading the choice is fairly easy.  I currently possess two suits that actually fit me and both are navy blue.  The only choice is between single or double breasted.  The choice is fairly simple then regarding the colour of the shirt and tie.  The only difference in the future is that I will hopefully be wearing a clerical collar instead of the shirt and tie.

This morning there were a plethora of decisions to make.  Should I be smart or casual?  Should I wear a sport jacket or leather jacket?  Tie or open neck shirt?  Does it really matter what I wear?  Who am I trying to impress anyway?  God?  I don’t think God really cares what I wear in church, or at any other time for that matter.  God is much more interested in the content of my character (to borrow a phrase from Martin Luther King Jr) than what I’m wearing.

But it’s more than just about what I wear on a Sunday morning.  I’m having an internal debate about how I dress generally.  Last year at college I dressed pretty casually, open shirt with a t-shirt underneath, jeans and trainers.  This year I’ve been dressing more smartly during the day, shirt and tie, formal trousers, sleeveless pullover or cardigan and a jacket or blazer if its cooler.  Why the change?  Partly because some of the time I feel more comfortable dressing up a bit; but mostly because it’s my way of showing a little respect for those who give our lectures.  They have spent time and energy preparing those lectures and a lot of effort has been put into them; the least I can do in return is put a little effort into my appearance.  It’s the same as wearing black at a funeral, it’s a case of showing respect.

And yet even after writing all that, some mornings I just want to wear jeans and not bother with a tie n stuff….

I’m starting to wonder if I have an unhealthy concern with my appearance, if I’m putting the superficial above that which is truly important.

Jesus said, “And why do you worry about clothes?  See how the lilies of the field grow.  The do not labour or spin.  Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendour was dressed like one of these.” (Matthew 6:28, NIV)

In its context this verse is about worry, not so much worrying about the style and colours of clothing, but worrying about whether we will have any clothes to wear at all.  And yet there is an application here too.

We can spend far too much time thinking and even worrying about what we wear.  Some people are incredibly fashion conscious and must wear the ‘in’ gear; others react very strongly against fashion and deliberately dress in an unfashionable way to make a point.  Still others don’t care about fashion one way or the other but dress in a way that expresses their very individual personality, the personality they want to project to the world.  Then there are those who dress for comfort.

I admit that I’m not fashion conscious in any way.  If I am occasionally fashionable it is because what I choose to wear and fashions coincide.  It doesn’t bother me either way.  I have found a personal style, or styles that I think look good on me and I stick with those.  The decision I have to make is which of the styles to wear on a particular day.

Maybe I am worrying too much about what to wear (or what not to wear).  I just need to stop worrying about what others think and wear what I feel like wearing that particular day (unless it is for an occasion when a definite dress code applies).  It is what I’m like as a person, as a follower of Jesus Christ that really matters, after all.

It doesn't matter what we wear, it is who we are in Christ that matters!

A BUSY, BUSY CHRISTIAN LIFE!

Sorry I haven’t written anything much this month.  There’s no excuse really, other than that life has been incredibly busy since I got back to Wesley Study Centre at St John’s College in Durham and I haven’t really had the chance.

My days are pretty full at the moment.  As well as all the lectures at college there are other obligations when you are a Methodist Student Minister.  There is Morning Prayer each day in the college chapel, in addition to my own personal quiet time.  There are several Communion Services each week, which I don’t like to miss if I can avoid it as well as other opportunities for prayer and worship.  There are sermons to write and service materials to prepare and of course there is preparatory reading for lectures and the dreaded essay to compose.  Then, finally, the roughly six hours I spend on placement each week.  Days are pretty full on and there is little time for leisure time, reading novels, watching TV, chilling with family and friends; that kind of thing.

I don’t begrudge a single moment of time spent in the busyness of college.  I believe that God has called me to training at the Wesley Study Centre and it is humbling to be called to be here.  All Student Ministers make sacrifices to undertake our training, but they are as nothing to the sacrifice made by our Lord Jesus Christ. As Paul wrote:

“Christ Jesus… did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.  And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:6-8)

Compared to all that Jesus gave up I have given up comparatively little and what I have given up I have given up for him, for my precious Saviour and Lord: and I am gaining so much in terms of spiritual growth, in scriptural and theological knowledge and in formation as a Methodist Presbyter, which I believe more strongly than ever to be God’s calling on my life.

"How Great Thou Art" - A Reflection On A Great Hymn

Introduction

I was in my early twenties, alone in my room, listening to a new Elvis Presley album I’d just bought, a live show that took place in Memphis in the 1970s.  Elvis went through the usual rock n roll and ballads and then began to sing a hymn, ‘How Great Thou Art’.  Never before had the words of a hymn spoken to me in such a powerful way.  I don’t know if it was the actual words of the hymn, or the passionate and expressive way Elvis sung it, but the words spoke to my mind and my heart.  I listened to this hymn several times in a row, so profound was its affect on me.  I then decided to look the words up in Hymns and Psalms and was surprised to find that it wasn’t even in it.  Fortunately it is in other hymn books.

‘How Great Thou Art’ was written by the Swedish pastor, editor, and member of the Swedish parliament, Carl Gustaf Boberg (1859-1940), after a walk through the lovely summer evening near Kronabäck, Sweden, probably in 1885.  A thunderstorm came up suddenly and the wind blew fiercely over the meadows.  After the storm was over he looked out over the Mönsterås Bay which was suddenly as clear as glass.  He heard the call of the thrush as clear as a bell, and then the evening church bell in the still evening.  The hymn was subsequently translated into German and then Russian, before being translated into English by Stuart K Hine.  It became well known when it was sung over 100 times by George Beverly Shea at a Billy Graham crusade in New York.

Reflection

Many years ago I stood on a hill top in the Yorkshire Dales, marvelling at the night sky, at the myriad stars and the glow of the Milky Way.  If you’ve only ever seen a night sky in the town, then you haven’t really seen it.  As I stood there, feeling humbled by the sheer immensity of the number of stars and galaxies out there I felt an overwhelming certainty that this incredible universe could not have come into being by chance, that there is a God who created it and continues to create.  “O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder, consider all the works thy hand hath made, I see the stars, I hear the mighty thunder, thy power throughout the universe displayed.”  I sung those words softly to myself over and over.  Verse one and verse two speak of our Creator God, our God who made everything.  Even if we have never experienced the beauty of a night sky without the light pollution of our towns most of us have experienced the beauty of nature.  We have all seen trees, heard bird song, felt the breeze on our faces.  The sheer variety and complexity of our natural world again leads us to our Creator God.  What other can we do that cry out, My God, how great thou art!”

Verse three reminds us that our God is not just a Creator God but a Saviour God too.  A God who sent his only Son to suffer the penalty for our sins and die in our place.  The author of this hymn echoed my own feelings when he said, “I scarce can take it in.”  It’s relatively easy to say that Jesus died for our sins, but far harder to say that Jesus died for my sin.  “He bled and died to take away my sin.”  My sin!  Can there be anything more humbling than that, that God in Jesus died in my place to take away my sin?  What other response can I make than to cry “How great thou art?”

The hymn reminds us of our creator God; it reminds us of our saviour Jesus who died to take away our sin and in verse 4 we are reminded of the glorious future that awaits us, that death is not the end but the beginning of our eternal life.  We join the ascended and triumphant Christ in heaven.  “When Christ shall come, with shout of acclamation and take me home, what joy shall fill my heart.”  We are just temporary residents of planet earth, as Christians our true home is in heaven and what a joy it will be when we arrive there.  When we see and understand God without the limitations of our human existence we will proclaim, with complete understanding, ‘How great thou art!”

I believe in a God who created this immense, complex and wonderful universe.  I believe that same God sent his only Son to die for me and sinners like me to take away our sin.  I believe I will one day be in heaven where I will be able to praise God in a way I cannot do now because my understanding of God will be infinitely greater, I will be able to sing with complete understanding, “My God, how great thou art!”

We Cannot Earn Our Salvation!

Before I started training for the Methodist Ministry I was a Church Steward.  One of the things I had to do was to try to find people willing to do Bible readings in the service.  It was always easy to find somebody to read from the gospels.  I could usually find somebody willing to read from the Old Testament if there were no complicated names; but it was virtually impossible to find anybody willing to read a passage from one of Paul’s letters.  They can be tongue twisters I must admit, but as I could never find anybody else willing to read them I usually ended up reading from Paul’s letters myself and got plenty of practice.

Some Christians also avoid reading Paul’s letters in their private devotions because they find him too complicated.  This is a pity as there is a lot of good Christian teaching in Paul’s letters.  Paul wrote his letters to different Christian churches and much of what he wrote is very practical stuff about how to be a Christian.

Our text this morning is from Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi.  Most of this letter is about the practicalities of Christian living, but our text is different, it is actually concerned with what makes a person right with God.

Paul begins with what almost seems to be a boast.  He tells us about his credentials as a Jew, which are impressive.  He was a Jew from birth rather than a convert to Judaism and from the tribe of Benjamin, a tribe regarded by Jews with particular esteem.  He had been a Pharisee and had been zealous in trying to keep the Jewish law, which he had thought would make him right with God.  Paul had even persecuted the early Christian church because he thought it was against everything he believed.  Paul had believed that everything he was doing, his zealous keeping of the law and persecution of the early church would ensure that he was righteous before God and earn him the reward of eternal life.

Many people in twenty first century Britain have the same opinion.  They don’t persecute the church, but they do think that they will go to heaven if they live a good life.  I’m sure we’ve all talked to people who say something like, “Well, I don’t go to church or anything, but I try to live a good life and do the right thing.  I’m sure God will reward all the good things I’ve done when I die.”

There are also people who think the same way in our churches each and every Sunday.  Some Christians think that they can somehow earn favour with God with all the good things they do; by being Church stewards, by serving on the Church Council or Circuit Meeting or by doing a thousand and one other things, by constant business in the service of God.

Paul realised that all his efforts to please God amounted to nothing.  That is why he wrote, “Whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.  What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.”  He knew that for all his efforts in keeping the law and trying to do only good he could never perfectly keep every bit of the law and to break one single part of the law was to break the whole law.  As the scriptures say, “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”

We cannot make ourselves right with God, no matter how hard we try, no matter how hard we work, no matter how much we do for him.  We cannot do it.  That is why God came to us in the person of Jesus Christ.

The simple and timeless message of the good news is this.  We have all, at some time in our lives, sinned.  We have all done things that are selfish because we put ourselves first instead of putting God first, others second and ourselves last of all.  There is only one consequence for this sin, this rebellion against God and that is spiritual death which is eternal separation from God.  No amount of good deeds can bring forgiveness for our rebellion.

There is a way we can be forgiven though, and that is through faith in Jesus.  Jesus, the only Son of God, is the only person who has ever lived a life of perfect obedience, the only person who has never put himself first, but always pleased his Heavenly Father.  He is the only person who has ever lived who did not deserve death and yet his did die, he died one of the most horrible deaths ever devised by man.  Jesus died on the cross in our place; he took the punishment for our sins and in doing so brought forgiveness for us.  All we have to do is to confess and repent of all our sins and accept Jesus as our Saviour and Lord and we are forgiven and receive the reward of eternal life and the assurance of our place in Heaven with God.  It’s as simple as that!

Some of us don’t like that; we don’t want it to be that easy.  We want to do something to earn our salvation but we can’t, there is nothing we can do to earn God’s favour.  We have a gracious God who loves us more than we can ever know and it is out of that love that he unconditionally forgives us when we put our trust in Jesus.

That is not to say we should not try to live good lives and that we should not work hard for God.  After all James, the brother of Jesus, wrote, “faith without deeds is dead.”  It is the reason for doing good that matters.  If we continue to do good because we are trying to impress God then that is the wrong motivation.  If we do good because we think it contributes towards our salvation then that is also the wrong motivation.  The only Christian motivation for trying to live a sin free life, for working hard serving God and our fellow men and women; is grateful thanks for all that Jesus has done for us.  Like Paul we need to be found “not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Jesus Christ – the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.”

This passage reminds us that our salvation comes not from any effort on our part but from the amazing grace of a God who loves us more than we can ever know.  This is good news indeed.  Yet this passage does not only contain good news, it also reminds us that there is a cost to following Jesus.  Paul writes of sharing in Jesus’ sufferings and becoming like him in his death.

We are relatively lucky as Christians in this country, we don’t face serious persecution.  In some countries you can be imprisoned, tortured or even killed for being a Christian.  More people were killed for being Christians in the twentieth century than in the previous nineteen centuries put together.  To be a Christian in many parts of the world can be fatal, yet millions in those countries still follow Jesus Christ faithfully because they know that he is “the way, the truth and the life”.

Paul certainly paid the price for following Christ.  He was imprisoned on several occasions, whipped more than once, beaten again and again and finally beheaded on the orders of the Emperor Nero.  Tradition has it that all the Apostles died because of their faith in Christ.  James, the brother of John was beheaded in Jerusalem and Peter was crucified upside down in Rome.

We may not face that level of persecution in this country, but it is becoming harder to be a Christian.in Britain than it used to be.  The press frequently carries stories of Christians at risk of losing their jobs because of their active faith.  We hear of nurses and doctors disciplined because they have offered to pray for patients, of people suspended from work and threatened with dismissal because they insist on wearing a cross or crucifix, of Christians prosecuted for taking a stand against political correctness that just isn’t scriptural; of a Christian registrar who was dismissed because she refused to conduct gay marriages and Christian pharmacists who are forced to issue the morning after pill.  We may start to face increasing persecution for our faith as our society moves further and further away from its Christian roots.

Some American evangelists promise that as Christians our lives will be full of blessings and this is true; we have an extravagantly generous loving God who loves to bless his children, but that doesn’t mean that we won’t have suffering in our lives as well, and persecution from those who are opposed to Christian beliefs and values.  Our Lord Jesus suffered torture and death; many Christians throughout the centuries have suffered persecution for their faith: why should we be any different?

Yet anything we may suffer pales into comparison with knowing Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour.  To know Jesus and acknowledge him as our Lord and Saviour is the best thing possible because through Jesus we receive the promise of eternal life and an eternity of inexpressible joy in the Kingdom of Heaven.  No wonder Paul wrote, “I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.”