Josiah: The Power of God’s Word

II Chronicles 34

Introduction

We recently received a prayer letter from missionary friends of ours. They had been missionaries in the Philippines with Wycliffe for many years and are now working for Wycliffe out of their office in Winnipeg. This winter they had a chance to return to the Philippines and visit with many people they had gotten to know previously. They wrote in their letter, “We also met Gina again on this trip, a former house helper of ours. Back in the 1980’s we gave her a New Testament in her language, which by her own admission she did not appreciate then. However, she told us that a number of years later it was because of this New Testament that she and her husband came to know the Lord. Now their children also believe and the whole family is serving the Lord in their local church.”

Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the Word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit…”

The last king of whom it is said he “did what was right in the eyes of the Lord” was Josiah. Reading the Word of God had a powerful impact in his life and on the nation. This morning, we will examine his life and think about, “How does God speak to us? How do we read His Word? What impact does His Word have on us?” The story is found in II Chronicles 34 and this will be our last message in the series on II Chronicles.

How Does God Speak?

Josiah was 8 years old when he began to reign as king and he reigned for 31 years. When he had been king for 8 years, so at the age of 16, we read in 34:3 that he “began to seek the God of his father David.” Four years later, at the age of 20, we read in 34:3-7 that he “began to purge Judah…” Throughout the region over which he had authority, he tore down Baal altars, smashed Asherah poles and so on. Then when he had been king for 18 years, at the age of 26, we read in 34:8-13 that he ordered that the temple of God should be cleaned up and repaired. It had been cleaned up before, but it seems that it quickly fell to disuse and deteriorated. Once again it was being cleaned. While the priests were doing this work, they discovered the Book of the Law. They read it and brought it to the king and read it to him. When it was read to Josiah, we read in 34:19, “When the king heard the words of the Law, he tore his robes.” He was seriously disturbed and in a little while we will look at why he was disturbed and what effect that had on him. After he heard the words read out of God’s Word, he did something that I find quite interesting. He wanted to inquire of the Lord to find out “about what is written in this book that has been found.” God’s Word was clear to him and he accepted it as God’s Word, but he needed a further confirmation about how this word applied to him and his people. They called for Huldah, who was a prophetess. She had insight into the ways of God and was able to answer Josiah’s questions about the meaning of God’s Word.

I find this to be an interesting event. Josiah had God’s Word, but he went to a prophet to find out what that word meant and how it applied. This raises the question, “How does God speak? Does He speak through His Word or through prophets or both?” I have heard about people who are prophets and speak a word from God to a specific situation. I have heard about people, some who have television programs, who claim to have a word from God, but their word from God does not line up with God’s Word. I have heard of others who say that the Bible is all we need. They say that the day of prophecy is past. They quote I Corinthians 13:8 which says “Where there are prophecies, they will cease…” and believe that the day of the fulfillment of that Word has come since we have the Bible completely and don’t need anything added to it. How do we understand all this? How does God speak to us? Is it only through His Word? Does he still speak through prophets? How do we discern what is from God and what is from other sources?

God has spoken through prophets.

That God has spoken through prophets in the past is beyond doubt. When Huldah spoke, she spoke a word from God as a prophet. Isaiah, Jeremiah and even Moses are all identified as prophets in the Bible.

In the New Testament, we also read about the words of prophets. In Acts 11:27,28, Agabus and other prophets predict that there is going to be a famine which is going to impact much of the region. Then later when Paul was returning from one of his missionary journeys and going to Jerusalem, Agabus and Philip’s daughters all prophesied about what was going to happen to Paul when he went to Jerusalem. He still went to Jerusalem, but was prepared for it because of the words of the prophets.

There are numerous other examples of prophecies which are found in both the Old Testament and the New Testament so we know that God does give some the ability to proclaim His truth apart from what is written in His Word. In those cases, what was spoken became God’s Word.

Does God still speak through prophets?

The question is “does God still speak through prophets today?”

John MacArthur is one who believes that prophecy has ceased. He quotes one writer who says, “I do not feel the need for study of the Scriptures, for I know Jesus as He has revealed Himself to me within; and as He dwells in me, there is the Word.” Naturally he criticizes such a stance. We cannot take prophecy over the Word of God. But I wonder if he throws out the baby with the bath?

John Walvoord also does not believe in prophecy for our day. He says, “In the early church prior to the completion of the New Testament, authoritative revelation was needed from God not only concerning the present where the prophet was a forth-teller but also concerning the future where the prophet was a foreteller.”

Walvoord’s comment shows that he believes that prophecy was only needed before the completion of the New Testament.

In this comment, he also invites us to consider what a prophet is. He mentions a “forth-teller” and a “fore-teller.” The word “prophet” is used to speak of those who did both of these things in the Old Testament. Sometimes Jeremiah was a forth-teller. He spoke God’s well known judgement to the people of his day. When a preacher takes the Word of God and applies it, he is a prophet in one sense, proclaiming how God’s Word applies to God’s people. At other times, he was a fore-teller, proclaiming things about what was yet to come in the future. In Huldah, however, we see another type of prophecy. She applied God’s Word to a very specific situation. She applied what Josiah had read to him and his time. What she prophesied went beyond God’s Word, but was in tune with it. We are quite comfortable with the idea of a preacher exposing God’s word and making it applicable to life. If that is what prophecy is, then we have no problem with it. But what about the type of prophecy which Huldah declared? Gordon Fee says, “The prophet spoke to God’s people under the inspiration of the Spirit. In Paul such speech consists of spontaneous, understandable messages, orally delivered in the gathered assembly, intended for the edification or encouragement of the people.” Is there room for going beyond the revealed word of God or making it very specific to a situation?

In numerous passages in the New Testament, we are told that prophecy, in this sense, is a gift for our time. Probably the most powerful passage is Acts 2:17. Here Peter recognizes the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy, that a day is coming when “God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy…” Paul also mentions prophecy in many passages. I Corinthians 11:4,5 speaks about men and women praying and prophesying. I Corinthians 12-14 discusses, among other things, the gift of prophecy. Hearing God speak through His Spirit by the words of those who have been given the gift of prophecy is a normal part of New Testament life. Prophetic utterances which go beyond the Word of God are seen in the New Testament to be part of what it means to live in the church and to function as the people of God.

So what has happened to prophecy in our circles? When was the last time we had room for a prophetic utterance? When was the last time a prophet spoke in our church? I believe that the warning in I Thessalonians 5:19-22 is for us. It says, “Do not put out the Spirit’s fire; ^20 do not treat prophecies with contempt.” When Paul says this, I believe he is talking to me and to our church. We have not been open to listening to prophets. Why not? How can we change this?

Discerning prophetic messages

I think we have avoided prophecy because we are not certain of the authority of the prophets. We wonder, “Are they really speaking for God?” But that is not a reason to dismiss prophecy. Rather, we need to be open to prophecy and, at the same time, test it. As we read “do not treat prophecies with contempt” we must also read the rest of that passage which says, “test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil.” I Corinthians 14:29, also speaking about prophecy, says, “weigh carefully what is said.” I John 4:1 tells us why such testing is necessary. It says, “do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”

James Beverley, writing about the Toronto blessing, gives some principles about how to discern prophecy. He points out that “prophecies after the fact are meaningless.” If I prophecy that there will not be flooding in the spring of 2007, that is not a prophecy, that is a historical report. He also points out that vague prophecies are of minimal value. I always get a kick out of fortune cookies. The sayings are so general that they could be true of anyone at any time. In their generality they become meaningless. Prophecies that are like that may encourage at times, but their value is limited. Another thing to remember is that if a person claims to have the gift of being a prophecy, but most of the prophetic statements they make do not come true, then we ought to be suspect of their prophetic gift. The most important thing is that whatever prophecy is made, it cannot contradict the Word of God.

The primary way God speaks is through His Word.

When Huldah made the prophecy, Josiah accepted her word, but it is significant to note that when he went out to read God’s message to the people, it was not the message of Huldah he read, but the Word of God. I think II Timothy 3:16,17 says it well, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, ^17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” The problem with prophecies is that they can be quite subjective, the Bible is objective and can be checked and studied and followed. With prophecies, we need to test them and check them against the Word of God.

However, we must be careful not to despise prophetic words. We are among those who have not listened to God’s Word about prophecy. We have much to learn. As we learn to be open to God speaking in this way, however, let us always keep the Bible as primary and test whatever is said.

The Power Of God’s Word

Hearing The Word

The prophetic word confirmed God’s message in His Word and Josiah listened to what was spoken. The Word of God had an impact on his life. How did that come about? How did the king hear God’s Word? What effect did that word have?

When we hear that the Book of the Law was found, one of the questions we might ask is, why had it been lost? Deuteronomy 31:26 had said “Take this Book of the Law and place it beside the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God. There it will remain as a witness against you.” And yet they had not used it. I think it might have been like things happen in church. Something is not used for a while and it is put in a storage room and no one ever knows how to deal with storage rooms in churches. Perhaps the book was put in a back room where no one entered during the reigns of the idolatrous kings Manasseh and Amon. The people must have had some knowledge of God’s word, but somehow it wasn’t very clear. Up to this point, Josiah had not read the book nor paid close attention to it, but now as it was read to him the Holy Spirit impressed it upon his heart.

When he read it, he was quite upset. Why? The words he read were probably like those in Deuteronomy 28. There we read the condition in verse 15 – “if you do not obey the Lord…” Then we read in the following verses all of the consequences of this disobedience. Verse 16-19, “You will be cursed…” Verse 25, “The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies…” Verse 36, “The Lord will drive you and the king you set over you to a nation unknown to you or your fathers…” verse 64, “Then the Lord will scatter you among all nations…” Josiah realized that they had not followed the Lord and that they were in great danger of this prophecy coming true. Perhaps it struck him because what was written here had already happened to the northern tribes.

The message of Huldah was that these words were going to be fulfilled, but not in the lifetime of Josiah because of his desire to seek the Lord. As we read on in II Chronicles, we find in chapter 36 that these words were indeed fulfilled. In II Chronicles 36:2 we read that Jehoahaz became king, but only reigned for 3 months when the king of Egypt dethroned him and made his brother, Eliakim, king. He reigned for 11 years, but did evil. After him, Jehoiachin reigned for 3 months at which time he was taken to Babylon. The next king was Zedekiah who reigned for 11 years and when he rebelled against the king of Babylon, this king came and in verses 17-21 we read how Jerusalem was destroyed and the people were exiled to Babylon for what turned out to be 70 years.

Doing The Word

Josiah had a heart turned towards God before he knew the details of God’s judgement from the Word of God. Yet when he read the book of God, he was moved deeply. Even though he discovered that it would not happen in his lifetime, yet he was greatly concerned. As he read God’s word, it made a difference in his life. In verse 19 we see his act of repentance. As Huldah applied the message of God’s Word to Josiah she said to him, “Because you heart was responsive and you humbled yourself before God when you heard what he spoke against this place and its people, and because you humbled yourself before me and tore your robes and wept in my presence, I have heard you, declares the Lord.”

He was so moved by God’s word that he gathered together all the people and he read the book of God in the hearing of all the people. In the presence of all the people, when they had heard the words of the book, he showed them, by example what was to be done. We read in verse 31 that he renewed his covenant with God and he chose to follow and obey the words of the book.

The people followed his example. He invited them to pledge themselves to renew the covenant. He continued to work towards removing all the idols which were still in the land and we discover that as long as Josiah was king, “the people did not fail to follow the Lord.” As they read God’s Word, God worked in the hearts of those who heard His word and changed their hearts.

At the Awana closing program, John Driedger quoted some interesting statistics. He said that, on average, people in North America watch 1000 hours of television every year. If you think that is a lot, just remember that is only about 3 hours a day. The news and a movie would already be more than that amount. If we go to church every Sunday, attend a midweek activity and read our Bible for 15 minutes every day, that would be about 200 hours a year of exposure to God’s Word. In other words, about 20% of the amount of time we spend watching TV. There is no question that TV influences us. If we spend a lot of time watching it, it will impact our lifestyle and values. How do we expect to overcome those influences if we are not listening to God’s Word? Do you know where your Bible is or has it become lost like the Word of God in the temple? When was the last time you spent time reading God’s Word?

I appreciate the work of Sunday School, AWANA, youth and camp. Our young people are being exposed to God’s Word through these programs. Are we as adults as diligent in studying God’s Word?

How has reading God’s Word impacted your life? As I was wrestling with a difficult question a while ago, I was reading one of the Psalms, as is my habit daily. The Psalm was appropriate for that day and was very encouraging. I was thinking, “what would happen if I didn’t read a Psalm every day? Where would my encouragement come from?”

Conclusion

God speaks to us. He speaks through prophecy, but even more importantly he speaks through His Word.

Are we open to God speaking through prophecy or are we guilty of despising it?

Are we listening to His Word? As we read it, we need to be like Josiah and inquire to make sure that we are accurately understanding His Word. As we read it, we must always be asking, “How can I do this?”

God is speaking. Are you listening?

Coping With Suffering

I Peter 1:3-9

Introduction

This week has been a week of tragic news. The worst of all was the shooting of 33 people at Virginia Tech. Of course, it is not the only tragedy and this isn’t the only week in which tragedies have occurred. Tuesday of this week it was 36 years since my wife’s father died of a heart attack. She was 15 years old at the time. Since then we have experienced many difficult things – people we knew who died due to drug overdoses, a 12 year old who died in a farm accident, serious illness of family members, moral failures of close family. I suspect that there isn’t a single person here who does not have stories of difficulty and suffering.

What is our first response to these things? One of the most common questions asked is “Why did this happen?” A related question is “Why does God allow these things?” Many books have been written about these questions, including the book of Job and Rabbi Harold Kushner’s well known book “When Bad Things Happen To Good People.”

We have a girl in our church who is confined to a wheel chair. She is unable to move and is limited to a range of hand motion of about 1 foot. Other than that she is entirely dependent on others. Her name is Cristina and she is a student at CMU. This past winter in one of her courses she wrote an article on suffering. Since she has some knowledge of the subject from personal experience, I was quite interested in knowing what she would write. One thing she wrote is, “Many people commit their whole lives to seeking the reasons for suffering, but the answer is as elusive and mysterious as God Himself.” Instead of adding to that volume of writing, she chose to think about the question, “How do you cope with suffering?” I think she asks a very good question and so I would like to think with you about this question this morning. The ideas which will help us answer that question come from the Word of God in I Peter 1:3-9.

Acknowledge Suffering

One of the temptations I sometimes fall into when caring for people who are experiencing tough times is to tell them a story of my suffering which is similar to their story. Sometimes when I listen to people tell their stories of trial, I get the impression from them that they are the only ones who have ever suffered and their suffering is worse than anyone else’s. Peter talks about “suffering grief in all kinds of trials” in verse 6. When he says this, we need to understand several important things. One is that there are “all kinds” of trials. We may not understand why a person who had their wisdom teeth out is telling a person who is undergoing chemotherapy how terrible the experience was, but we do need to understand that there are many different kinds of suffering and each one is unique and each one is suffering to the person who is experiencing it. What Peter’s statement does is to help us value and understand that each person’s own suffering is their own and difficult to them.

I was once visiting a farmer. He was getting his seeder ready for planting. A shaft was sticking out at one end and he was replacing something inside the seeder. He asked me to push the shaft in and so I did, but somehow I got the timing wrong and his finger got jammed inside. At the time, I did not know I had done that. He did not let on that I had caused him injury and it was not until later that I found out from others what had happened. This is what he was like. He liked to do wood projects and sometimes injured his finger with a saw or a router. He would quietly go upstairs get some Kleenex and masking tape and make a band-aid and never tell his wife or others that he had nearly cut off his finger. Now we might see this silence as strength, but I think Peter’s statement leads us to a different conclusion. I Peter 1:6 says, “now…you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.” This verse, and good psychology agree that we need to admit and recognize when we are having a hard time. Suffering is a part of life and denying it does not make it go away and is not a healthy way of coping with it. Cristina wrote, “The existence of suffering is an irrefutable fact given that every human being in this world has felt pain and disparity at one time or another.” She goes on to write, “In dealing with suffering, people must always be true to themselves and to God. God does not want our self-righteous attitude along with our pseudo-cheerful explanations. Our genuine feelings of grief and pain will lead us to a deeper, more fulfilling relationship with God.”

Both Job and Jesus recognize the importance of allowing people and allowing ourselves to wrestle with our grief in the presence of God. Job was not chastised for wrestling with his grief before God. Even Jesus, in the garden of Gethsemane, wrestled with the suffering which was to come upon Him in the presence of God and even asked that it should be removed from Him.

The first step in coping with suffering is to acknowledge it. That means admitting that it is difficult and understanding that although it is different from other people’s suffering, it is still our suffering and hard for us. It is also important in this to leave space to talk to God about it very honestly and wrestle in His presence about what is happening to us.

Rejoice In Hope

So on the one hand we have the reality of suffering, which we must acknowledge. On the other hand we have the glory of the gospel.

The Glory Of The Gospel

I Peter 1:3-5 is one of the Bible’s most wonderful scriptures that talk about the great gift we have received in the gospel. Please take note of what it says about this wonderful gift.

It is a gift which arises out of the mercy of God. John 3:16 reminds us that “God so loved…” Romans 5:8 also roots God’s gift in love when it says, “But God demonstrated His love…” This is the beginning of the gospel. It arises out of the fundamental nature of God, which is love. He has given us a gift of mercy.

That gift of mercy allows us to experience a new birth. That new birth is a birth into a totally new kind of existence in which sin is dealt with and we are made into newly born creatures with a whole new start apart from sin and apart from the ravishes of sins destruction. Being born again means that we are clean and we are set free.

What excitement we had in our church this past week when two babies were born to women who attend our church. The new parents rejoiced! The grandparents rejoiced! And the little baby boy and the little baby girl were gladly welcomed into these families. They were not a novelty to be noticed and forgotten, but a person who will become a part of their family. How wonderful when someone is born again and becomes a member of the family of God. When we are born again, it is not just a novelty to be noticed, but a relationship begun by which we become sons and daughters of God.

Because we have experienced God’s amazing mercy and are received as members of His family, we receive a living hope. This hope is assured because Jesus Christ rose from the dead. He conquered sin and death by His death and resurrection. We participate in that victory when we receive Christ into our lives and it gives us not just a far off distant hope that someday things will get better, but a living hope which allows us to live in the victory of the resurrection today.

About a year and a half ago, my wife’s mother passed away at the age of 93. A few months later we received an inheritance from her estate. It wasn’t a huge amount, but enough that we could think about how we could use that money in a meaningful way to remember her. The things we have done and plan to do with that money are a blessing to us. As children of God, we also receive an inheritance. It is an inheritance which “can never perish, spoil or fade.” It is kept for us by God as we remain in Him through faith.

This is the glory of the gospel – God’s mercy, sins forgiven, a new birth into God’s family, a living hope and an inheritance which is eternal. It is ours by faith. What a glorious gospel!

Living In Hope

But notice the structure of this passage. Peter says, “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief…” In other words, there is a connection between the glory of the gospel and the suffering we experience in this world.

What is that connection? How does the gospel help us to cope with suffering?

First of all, it helps us cope when we know that we are in relationship to a God who has mercy. Many times we have a hard time struggling with God’s goodness in the face of suffering. Yet a focus on the gospel of grace helps us know and understand that even when we suffer, we are always in the arms of a loving God. If we doubt God’s love, the gospel of Christ reminds us that we are loved. When we question, “God, how can this be your love?” The reminder of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross always helps us know that we are loved. That is not to say that we dismiss all struggle and questioning. We don’t always understand and sometimes it is very hard to understand why we are suffering. But always, when we are reminded of the gospel, we must come back to the understanding, “I am loved.”

The living hope of the gospel also gives us strength in facing suffering because we know that it is based on Christ who conquered sin and death and who is the living Christ who intercedes for those who are His own. Therefore we can always live in hope because Christ can heal! He has power over all the demonic forces. He is Lord over all the powers which exist on earth. Therefore, in any suffering we can always commit it to God and ask, “God, I pray for release, for healing, for victory in this situation.” We can ask these things and know that the living Christ hears and understands and will do what is best in His loving plan. Cristina wrote, “The very fact that Jesus conquered death, an unattainably impossible task for any other mere human, proves that Jesus can conquer and overcome anything.”

We also cope with our suffering because we know that we have an inheritance. Therefore, we know, as Peter actually says in verse 6, that this suffering is “for a little while.” Recently our daughter went through a tough time which made her feel depressed. She made some plans to change the situation and although the plans would not take effect immediately, but a few months later, the hope of change in a few months was enough to diminish the pain of the situation. That is the type hope with which we live because we have an inheritance. One day it will all be perfect because of our inheritance

So the gospel is a critical element in coping with suffering.

Live In Faith

In the mining of precious metals like gold or silver, there is a process by which the purity of gold or silver is tested. In the gold rush days, miners would bring their find to the assay office in order to have it tested for purity. Its value was determined in this way and they were paid accordingly. After the precious metals are mined, they are sent to the smelter. Here that same gold is subjected to a purifying process so that all impurities are removed and the result is pure gold.

Suffering functions in both of these ways in our life as the text demonstrates. In verse 7, we read, “so that your faith…may be proved genuine.” This is the process of seeing if we really believe in God. In suffering, faith is tested to see if it is true. There are also hints of the other process of purification when we read about gold being “refined by fire.” So also our faith is not only tested, but also purified in the crucible of suffering.

When Peter says in verse 7, “These have come so that…” we understand that a part of coping with suffering is recognizing that there is value in it for these two purposes. Now we need to be careful how we understand and speak about this. Sometimes we may think, “What is the lesson God wants me to learn in my suffering? I want to learn it quickly so that I don’t have to suffer any more.” Or at other times we may be tempted to feel, “Ok God, I’ve learned my lesson already, stop making me suffer.” The danger of that kind of thinking is that it may entice us to think that God has brought bad things into our life and is therefore the author of evil. James tells us that God is never the author of evil, therefore, I believe that it works in a different way. I believe that we live in a world where there is difficulty and trouble. It comes to us, just as it comes to others. The grace of God is seen in that although He allows it to come to us, He uses it for good in our life. He allows it to test our faith and He purifies our faith through it.

Whenever we suffer, we may question God. We may wonder what He is doing. Christina wrote, “Unfortunately, Christians who enter into a period of suffering also enter into a phase of doubt concerning God’s supreme power and authority over the world.” If our faith us true, then even though we wrestle and doubt and don’t understand, yet at the end of the day, we will make a choice to trust. In suffering, all of us come to the point in which we have to decide, “Will I trust God in this even though it is hard and I don’t understand it?” That is the point at which our faith is tested. When we are able to say, “I trust you God” then we are demonstrating that our faith is true.

It is also encouraging to understand that through this process, God is purifying our faith. I believe that each loss we experience in life is a means by which God invites us to loosen our grip on this world and the things of this world and to hold more tightly on to Him. We don’t always know how God is at work in us, but we do know that God is always drawing us to Himself, making us into the image of Jesus.

So coping with suffering means coming to the place of trust whenever we suffer and allowing the difficulty to draw us ever closer to God.

Conclusion

Cristina wrote, “Anyone who has encountered some level of turmoil must agree that it is easy to turn away from God during the time of suffering.” Part of the reason is because we have not seen Him and we do not see Him now. Where is God? Where is Jesus? We have never actually seen Jesus and we often go through suffering without seeing God or even the hand of God in the midst of our suffering.

So how do we cope with suffering?

I believe that in I Peter 1:8 the voice of faith speaks. There we read, “Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him…” What brings us to that place of love for Jesus? How do we live with such faith?

Cristina gives her answer, “For Christian believers, who affirm that the Messiah has indeed come in Jesus of Nazareth, the call to trust and hope remains at the heart of life.”

In The Martyr’s Mirror Jelis Bernaerts gives his answer. He was in prison in Antwerp and was put to death for the word of God in 1559. In writing to his wife, he quoted from this passage and others like it and then said, “Hence be of good cheer, my most beloved, even though still much more tribulation should come upon you; for we know that we must through much tribulation and suffering enter into the kingdom of God.”

When my wife’s father suddenly died of a heart attack, her mother immediately told my wife, “God makes no mistakes.” She was not just trying to shield her young teenaged daughter. She really believed it and very evidently lived in that hope for another 35 years.

This winter the wife of one of our members passed away. As I sat with him as he watched his wife slowly die, I could see the pain in his eyes, but I also heard him declare his hope in Christ and could see by his calmness and by what I knew of his life that he truly believed.

Do you love Jesus? Do you believe in Him? I believe that if we live in a daily relationship of love and trust with Jesus, then, even though we acknowledge with full understanding the depth of our suffering, we can, nevertheless face it with trust in God and hope in Him. Then we can even experience what Peter wrote about in I Peter 1:8,9, we can be “filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”

Manasseh: Repentance

II Chronicles 33:1-20

Introduction

At the end of the Red Green television program, the Possum Lodge members conclude the show by reciting the man’s prayer. It goes like this, spoken in a very humble manner, "I'm a man, but I can change, if I have to, I guess." This “prayer” sounds like an apology, but what an apology! It is humorous on so many levels. Why would a man have to apologize just for being a man? Even if a man had done something wrong, the apology isn’t at all sincere when he says, “if I have to, I guess.”

Although it says a lot about self image and relationships, it also says something about the nature of admitting when we are wrong. Sometimes we feel pressure to apologize for things we haven’t done wrong. When we have done something wrong, we know that it is right to admit it, but that is so hard for us to do.

The Bible has a lot to say about admitting when we have done wrong. It calls it “repentance.” This morning, we will look at a story about repentance from II Chronicles 33. It is the story about Manasseh. We will look at his story and also at other things the Bible has to say about repentance.

The key verse, which we will examine, which will also provide our outline is II Chronicles 33:12,13 which says, “In his distress he sought the favor of the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. ^13 And when he prayed to him, the Lord was moved by his entreaty and listened to his plea; so he brought him back to Jerusalem and to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord is God.”

In His Distress

The first line of this text says, “In his distress he sought the favor of the Lord his God…”

What had he done to be in distress? What had happened to him to bring him to distress?

Last time we looked at II Chronicles, we talked about Hezekiah. You may recall, as II Chronicles 29:2 says, that Hezekiah, “…did what was right in the eyes of the Lord…” Hezekiah’s son, Manasseh, ascended the throne after him. Manasseh was 12 years old when he became king and reigned 55 years in Judah. He is the exception to the observation we made at one point that the kings who followed God reigned longer than the ones who did not. Perhaps it is because of the story of his life we are examining today. The first thing we learn about Manasseh is found in II Chronicles 33:2 where it says that “He did evil in the eyes of the Lord.”

A list of his evil deeds follows in II Chronicles 33:2-9. Some of the things which he did wrong were not new, but had been done in previous generations. He rebuilt the high places. He erected altars to the Baals and he made Asherah poles. In this way he followed the practices of the surrounding nations. Like others before him, Saul for example, he also practiced divination, witchcraft and he consulted mediums. But he also discovered new ways of disobeying God. Possibly from the influence of Assyria and Babylon, he began to bow down to the stars and built altars to the stars in the temple of God, which was of course a very serious sin. II Samuel 7:13 indicates that God had declared that the temple was to be “a house for my Name.” He also sacrificed his sons in the fire, which was another pagan practice. He also put a carved image in the temple of God, which was strictly forbidden. He not only practiced these evil things, but in doing so also led the nation astray. The conclusion of this section, in verse 9, is that “he did more evil than the nations the Lord had destroyed.” This is truly an amazing statement. Many other nations had been destroyed because of these things. Why was Judah spared? Why did God not destroy them? It shows us something of the patience of God and the promise that God was going to bring redemption through these people, even though at this time they were far from God.

Verse 10 tells us that even though God spoke to Manasseh about these evil things through His prophets, he paid no attention and continued to do them. The primary sin of Manasseh was that he rejected God. The Bible tells us that in this way all of us sin.

Eventually God acted. We read that the king of Assyria took Manasseh prisoner and he put a hook in his nose – Manasseh had a nose ring, but it was a symbol of subjection and captivity. He was bound and taken to Babylon. It is a little puzzling that the king of Assyria took him to Babylon and there are some questions about what this means historically, but we will just take note that he was captured, imprisoned and taken far from his home.

When he was in captivity, his eyes were finally opened and he saw his evil and we read that “in his distress he sought the favour of the Lord…” He had done some terribly evil things and God used punishment to bring him to the place where he was able to see just how evil his ways were and to repent of them. God used discipline or punishment to bring Manasseh to the place of repentance.

How does God bring us to repentance? Repentance happens when we recognize that we have done wrong. How does God help us recognize that we have done wrong? Sometimes it is through discipline. We read in Revelation 3:19, “Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent.”

Sometimes the consequences of our sin force us to recognize that we have done wrong. If in the difficulty that comes because of the consequences of our sin we recognize that we have done wrong, we are brought to the place where we repent.

Sometimes God punishes us for the wrong we do. It is not only consequences, but direct punishment. The difference isn’t great. In both cases, it is hardship and trial which come because of sin that lead us to recognize our wrong doing.

A.W. Tozer says, “Deliverance can come to us only by the defeat of our old life. Safety and peace come only after we have been forced to our knees. God rescues us by breaking us, by shattering our strength and wiping out our resistance.”

In a similar way Malcolm Muggeridge says, “Human beings are only bearable when the last defences of their egos are down; when they stand, helpless and humbled, before the awful circumstances of their being. It is only thus that the point of the cross becomes clear, and the point of the cross is the point of life.”

But what happened to Manasseh is not the only way in which God brings us to repentance. Romans 2:4 says, “Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance?” All of the good gifts of God are also intended to bring us to repentance. When God provides rain for our crops, when he gives us the blessing of family and good relationships, when he gives us health, all of these blessings from God are intended to help us see that we are greatly loved. It is like the disobedient child who is given a gift and recognizes that he is loved and that his misbehavior is out of place and he admits it and starts to obey. God’s goodness helps us understand His great love and leads us to acknowledge that we have not lived in a way worthy of this love.

He Humbled Himself Greatly

But when we are brought to the point of knowing our need of repentance, the next step which must be taken is repentance. But what is repentance?

The words used in the Bible for repentance bring out two primary ideas. One is “to change one’s mind.” That is, that we have been living and thinking in one way – that is justifying our self sufficiency and self-centeredness and we change our mind and begin to think in the way God wants us to think. The other idea that comes out of the Biblical words is to turn around. It conveys a similar idea that we have been walking in one direction and we change directions and walk in a different direction.

Dwight L. Moody puts it this way: “Man is born with his face turned away from God. When he truly repents, he is turned right round toward God; he leaves his old life.”

The question about Manasseh is, “did he really repent?” The story about Manasseh is also found in II Kings 21. In that account, there is no mention of repentance. He is described as an evil man. Manasseh’s son, Amon, reigned with the same wickedness as Manasseh had. Did he learn nothing from his father’s repentance? One commentator actually suggests that “It was not a ‘thorough conversion.” He writes further, about II Kings 24:3; 23:26 that, “Manasseh is here named as the person who by his godlessness made the punishment of Judah and Jerusalem unavoidable, because he so corrupted Judah by his sins, that it could not now thoroughly turn to the Lord, but always fell back into the sins of Manasseh.” This makes us wonder if Manasseh truly repented and raises the question. “Is there such a thing as false repentance?”

In the New Testament, there is one verse which teaches us that there is a difference. II Corinthians 7:10 says, “Godly sorrow brings repentance and leads to salvation, but worldly sorrow brings death.”

What is the nature of our sorrow? Is it because we have been caught or been in trouble. That may be earthly sorrow, which may bring a change, but not true repentance and salvation. Is that what happened to Manasseh? Godly sorrow is different. It is a recognition that God’s way has been violated and that therefore we are on the path to death. Philip Hughes says, “Self is its central point; and self is also the central point of sin. Thus the sorrow of the world manifests itself in self-pity rather than in contrition and turning to God for mercy.”

We have Biblical examples of both of these kinds of sorrow for sin. Esau had done wrong and Hebrews 12:17 says, “He could bring about no change of mind, though he sought the blessing with tears.” David also sinned, but we see a very different kind of sorrow for sin in both Psalm 32 and 51. For example, in Psalm 51:4 David says, “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight.”

John Piper says, “Worldly regret is when you feel sorry for something you did because it starts to backfire on you and leads to humiliation or punishment. It's the reflex of a proud or fearful ego.” “…godly regret is the reflex of a conscience that has wounded God's ego, not its own. Godly regret grieves that God's name has come into disrepute. The focus of godly regret is God.”

What happens in our hearts when we truly repent? It is clear from the story in II Chronicles that some significant change did take place and we should probably take that at face value. From what it says about Manasseh in II Chronicles 33:12 we get some idea. It says, “…he sought the favor of the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers.”

The Bible has much to say about what happens when we truly repent.

Repentance begins when we have a revulsion about the evil things that we have done. II Corinthians 7:11 says, “See what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done.”

W. M. Taylor writes, “True repentance hates the sin, and not merely the penalty; and it hates the sin most of all because it has discovered and felt God's love.”

With that revulsion there is shame. Much later in the history of Israel when they had been in Babylon for almost 70 years and were about to return, Daniel prayed a prayer of repentance. He began by saying in Daniel 9:7, “Lord, you are righteous, but this day we are covered with shame.”

Then repentance involves turning. It isn’t just an acknowledgement of the trouble we are in, but a turning from the sins which have been a part of our life. In Ezekiel 18:30-32 we read a description of repentance. It says, “Repent! Turn away from all your offences; then sin will not be your downfall. Rid yourselves of all the offences you have committed, and get a new heart and a new spirit.”

In Acts 14:15 we have another similar description which says, “turn from these worthless things to the living God.”

Such a hatred of sin and turning from it involves humbling ourselves, as Manasseh did. II Chronicles 7:14 describes this as well when it says, “if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways…”

C.S. Lewis said, “Fallen man is not simply an imperfect creature who needs improvement; he is a rebel who must lay down his arms ... This process of surrender-this movement full speed astern-is what Christians call repentance. Now repentance is no fun at all. It is something much harder than merely eating humble pie. It means unlearning all the self-conceit and self-will that we have been training ourselves into for thousands of years. It means killing part of yourself, undergoing a kind of death.”

The Lord Was Moved

Repentance seems like such a negative thing. It is hard to do, it is so humbling and very uncomfortable. Why is it so necessary?

It is necessary because God has chosen to let us go our own way. As long as we want to go our own way, God lets us. But, when we go our own way, we always go on a path that leads to death. Repentance is the only way to turn around to God’s way and to leave the path of death and find the path of life. So although it is hard for us, it is in fact the only possible way for us to find life.

This is what happened to Manasseh. We read in II Chronicles 33:13, “…when he prayed to him, the Lord was moved by his entreaty and listened to his plea; so he brought him back to Jerusalem and to his kingdom.”

Throughout the Bible there is a call to repentance. Proverbs 28:13 says, “He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy. In Acts 2:38 on the day of Pentecost when the people wondered how they should respond to the message about Jesus, Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

Repentance is a necessary step towards the life God gives and just as it resulted in a time of release for Manasseh, God’s refreshing and renewal comes when we are willing to be done with sin and turn to Him. After Peter and John had asked God to heal the blind beggar, Peter preached to the crowd in Acts 3:19 saying, “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.”

So since repentance is so important for salvation, the invitation goes to each one of us to repent. If we have any sin in our life that is ongoing, if we are living in a self centred way, if we are justifying sin in our life, then the invitation is for us to repent. God repeats this invitation over and over in His Word. In fact many times we are warned as in Hebrews 4:7, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.”

He Knew That The Lord Is God

But there is one other aspect of repentance that is important. Once we have repented, truly repented, there will be a change in our lives. This happened in Manasseh’s life. The beginning of it is described in II Chronicles 33:13b, “Then Manasseh knew that the Lord is God.” Previously he had worshipped all kinds of other gods and had all kinds of other religious practices, but now he served the Lord. The evidence of that service to the Lord was evident in the rest of his life. Second Chronicles 33:14-17 tells us the story of his changed life. He rebuilt the outer wall, got rid of the foreign gods, removed the image from the temple, restored the altar of the Lord and sacrificed offerings according to God’s requirements.

If there is true repentance, there will be a change. When John the Baptist called on people to repent of their sins, he also said, in Matthew 3:8, “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.”

Chuck Colson met a man by the name of Jack Eckerd. He was a businessman from Florida, the founder of the Eckerd Drug chain, the second largest drugstore chain in America. In his first conversation, Jack expressed an interest in Christianity, but did not believe. For the next year, Chuck met with Jack and gave him books to read and talked to him about Jesus. One day Jack phoned Chuck and said that he had finally come to understand the gospel and had believed.

Chuck goes on to say that “The first thing he did was to walk into one of his drugstores and walked down through the book shelves and he saw Playboy and Penthouse. And he'd seen it there many times before, but it never bothered him before. Now he saw them with new eyes. He'd become a Christian.

“He went back to his office. He called in his president. He said, ‘Take Playboy and Penthouse out of my stores.’ The president said, ‘You can't mean that, Mr. Eckerd. We make three million dollars a year on those books.’ He said, ‘Take 'em out of my stores.’ And in 1,700 stores across America, by one man's decision, those magazines were removed from the shelves because a man had given his life to Christ.”

That is the fruit of repentance! As God changes our hearts, we become willing to make the changes in our lives that fit with repentance. What needs to change in your life? What will be the fruit of repentance in your life?

Conclusion

Repentance is unusual, it is refused by many people. However, God wants us to repent and if we want life, then we must repent. In Acts 17:30 God says, “He commands all people everywhere to repent.” We must recognize the evil of sin in our lives and we must turn from it and we must live in repentance.

This morning, I would like to call us to true repentance. Perhaps there are some of you here this morning who know that you are walking in sin. You recognize that it is nothing but trouble. I invite you to see your sin through God’s eyes, to acknowledge its horror, turn from it and look to God for renewal.

There are some of you here this morning who have repented, but the sin you have repented of continues in your life. I challenge you to seek God for the renewal which comes from Him through repentance and bring forth fruits of repentance.

Let us seek the refreshing and renewal which come when we turn to God from our sin.

Encounters with the Risen Christ

John 20,21

Introduction

A report in the December 14, 2005 Daily Telegraph said that “A woman who had been given up for dead, after the earthquake which occurred in Pakistan on October 8, was reported to have been discovered alive in the rubble of her home, no fewer than 63 days after the disaster struck. Relatives said that they weren’t even looking for her, but had found Naqsha Bibi, 40, in the ruins of what had been her kitchen as they sifted through the debris to salvage roofing materials. She had apparently survived on rainwater and rotting food. The doctors said that after being put on a liquid diet she had begun to show signs of recovery and had smiled for the first time since her rescue.” Now that is amazing!

Teresa May de Vera writes, “I was 19 when I suffered a severe asthma attack, and entered the hospital "clinically dead". I was without oxygen for 7 minutes and lapsed into a coma for 3 months. Doctors were urging my parents to pull the plug and find some redemption by harvesting my organs. I woke up and the doctors can only call my awakening a 'miracle.' They also said if I ever woke up, I'd be in a persistent vegetative state forever. I returned to the university and graduated in 2004 with a degree in Political Science. That is also amazing.

A man was severely beaten and soon after the beating died. He was pronounced dead by the medical examiner and was buried. Three days later the place in which he had been buried was found empty and a whole bunch of people saw him alive.

These stories are amazing, but it is the last one that is the most amazing. Of course the last one is about Jesus. It is amazing because Jesus was fully dead and came to life again. It is not only amazing, but also significant because it was God himself who died on the cross and did so in order to pay for our sins. And it was not merely being found alive or being dead for a short time, but a resurrection to life in which he not only came through death to life, but conquered death once and for all. The implications of the story of Jesus’ resurrection are life changing!

This morning, I would like to invite you to examine John 20,21 with me as we look at five sayings and actions of Jesus following his resurrection which help us to understand the tremendous implications of the resurrection.

Mary – A New Relationship With God

I Am Returning

The first person to see Jesus alive was Mary Magdalene. In John 20:17, after Mary had realized that it was Jesus who was now alive and speaking with her, Jesus said to her, “I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”

What is the difference between leaving and returning? Earlier in John, Jesus had talked about leaving and his disciples were very sad. Leaving means that you have been in the place you want to be and you are going away from that place. At this point, Jesus told Mary that he was returning. Returning means that you are also leaving, but you are leaving to go back to the place where you used to be.

What are the implications of that? Jesus was returning to heaven to be with His Father. Returning reminds us that he had come to this earth on a mission. He had been sent to earth. Having taught for three years and having gone through the agony of the cross, he had accomplished the mission he had come for. He had purchased the pardon for all those who put faith in Him. His work on the cross was “finished.” Because it was completed, it was now appropriate for him to return to the Father. In returning, and doing so victoriously, he was going to sit on a throne and reign as king over all. He was going to intercede for God’s people. He was going to prepare a place for them.

So for Jesus to tell Mary that He was returning to His Father was significant and encompasses the importance of all that He had accomplished in coming to this earth.

Leaving is sad, returning can also be sad, but not in this case because of the upshot of the resurrection!

My…Your

He had come from God, He was returning to God. But notice the wonderful way in which he makes this statement to Mary. He says, “I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” In this statement, we see one of the wonderful implications of the resurrection. When he says, “my Father, your Father, my God, your God,” he is saying that because he has died and risen again, our relationship with God has been restored once again.

In the garden of Eden, after Adam and Eve had sinned, the first consequence of that sin was that they were separated from God. The barrier of un-holiness had caused a huge chasm between people and God. But now, because of the resurrection, that chasm is overcome, the barrier has been removed and it is possible to once again have a clear and open relationship with God. That is what it means when he says, “my Father and your Father.”

The other thing that happened when Adam and Eve had sinned in the garden was that they were removed from the garden and from access to the tree of life so that they would not live forever in their sin. Now that Jesus had died to cover sins and conquered death by His resurrection, we have, in essence been placed back in the garden and once again we have access to the tree of life so that we will be able to have eternal life. That is also what it means when Jesus said to her, “my God and your God.”

So the upshot of the resurrection is a restored, eternal relationship with God.

Disciples – A New Empowered Mandate

The first time the disciples met Jesus was that same evening when they were in a room together. When Jesus came through the locked doors and showed himself to the disciples alive, he said to them in John 20:21-23 - “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” ^22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. ^23 If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

Sent

The second implication of the resurrection is that there is a continuity between Jesus mission and our reason for living. As this verse indicates, the mission of the disciples and of us proceeds from the mission of Jesus.

Our niece phoned me this week. She is going to China for the month of May to be involved in a mission in which they will learn the culture of China and seek to be a witness to those they meet. This is a missions project of IVCF. A number of you have gone on missions projects. That is wonderful and I certainly want to encourage many of you to be involved in this way. However, there is one problem with that way of talking. When we talk about going on missions, we sometimes make it appear that then we are doing God’s work, but the rest of the time we are on our own. What Jesus said to the disciples here is that we are always on mission. We are sent people and whether we are welding, teaching, baking bread or out on a missions trip, we are sent ones, we are on mission.

For Jesus to go on His mission meant that he was willing to leave his comfort zone – heaven – in order to accomplish it. To be sent as Jesus was sent means that some of us will leave home and go far away to make Jesus known. For most of us we will stay home, but that does not mean we should avoid leaving our comfort zone. Leaving our comfort zone may mean stepping out and speaking up, or deliberately doing something in Winnipeg or Morris that will contribute to the mission.

It will mean being willing to make friends with people who are not believers because Jesus mission involved incarnation, that is, becoming one of us in order to accomplish His mission as a human being. Being on mission means that we must love Jesus and live in the presence of those who don’t so that we can show them the love of Christ.

The mission Jesus came to accomplish also involved a message from God. Being sent as Jesus was sent means that our mission involves proclaiming the message of life which Jesus came to bring. The implication of the resurrection is that as Jesus was sent, so we also have been sent.

Spirit Empowered

But the implication of the resurrection also means that we do not go in our own power. The upshot of the victory of the resurrection which Jesus accomplished means that we are on mission in the power of the resurrection, that is in the power of the Holy Spirit.

As Jesus commissioned his disciples, he said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” The Holy Spirit is God with us because Jesus left to go to heaven. I am reading the book “Magnify your vision for The Small Church” by John Rowell. It is a story about a church from Atlanta which is involved in planting a church in Bosnia. They were doing ministry in a refugee camp during the war that was there in the early 90’s. Part of their ministry was to visit the, mainly Muslim, residents of the camp. They were looking for a particular address and couldn’t find it so they stopped at a house in the neighborhood. The woman who came to the door said in her Bosnian dialect, “God, I don’t know.” The translator understood in his Slovenian dialect, “I don’t know God.” So based on this misunderstanding they took the opportunity to visit this woman and over time and further visits, this Muslim woman accepted Jesus. That is the work of the Holy Spirit and it is in that power, which is resurrection power, that we witness for Jesus as we accept that we have been sent to be on mission.

Thomas – Seeing And Believing

The third time that Jesus appeared to someone occurred about a week later.

One mistake we make is to think that, after the resurrection, Jesus appeared to them and they immediately believed and got it. Coming to belief in Jesus was a process. When Mary first realized that the tomb was empty, she didn’t get it at all. She said to Simon and John in 20:2, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him.” When Peter and John went and examined this, both of them saw the facts, but John is the only one about whom it says in 20:8, “He saw and believed.” But the others did not yet believe and they did not yet understand. In 20:9 it says, “They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.”

The first time Jesus appeared to the disciples, Thomas had not been with them. When they had told him what had happened, he had said in 20:25, “Unless I see…I will not believe it.” So when Jesus appeared to the disciples again, he spoke directly to Thomas and invited him to take note that it was really him. It was at this point that he said to Thomas, in John 20:29, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

The consequence of the resurrection is that it is a call to faith, but it is not a call to blind faith. Just as it took the disciples a while to get it, God gives us time and space to explore this truth. The conversation which Jesus had with Thomas was not in a condemning tone. There is a place for asking questions, facing doubts, but there is also an invitation to faith. There is a place for examining the evidence, but finally we are invited to face the facts of the empty tomb and the appearances and believe. The evidence calls us to faith. The witness of those who saw Him calls us to faith. In fact the conversation of Thomas with Jesus is an encouragement to faith. The fact that a doubter is convinced affirms the resurrection and encourages us to believe. We will not be able to see because Jesus has ascended to the Father, but we have the witness of those who did see and are invited to believe without seeing on the basis of the available evidence. Leon Morris, in his commentary says, “There is a special blessing for those possessed of a faith which can trust absolutely, and which does not need to ‘see’ at every turn.”

Indeed, all that John has written is written for this purpose as we see in verses 30,31 which says, “But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”

Disciples – A New Power

The fourth recorded appearance of Jesus and the third to the disciples happened some time later in Galilee. Some of the disciples had gone to Galilee and had returned to fishing. All night they had spread their nets, but caught nothing. In the morning, they saw someone on shore, not realizing that it was Jesus. He told them to put their nets on the other side and immediately, as they did so, they caught a large number of fish. Now those of you who go fishing know that sometimes it is just like that. I remember one time when the guy who was on the bow of the boat caught one fish after another and the people on the sides and the back caught nothing. But this was different. The number of fish caught and the immediate catch all suggest that this was more than just fishing luck, it was a miracle of God.

There are more unusual comments in this story. As the fishermen brought the net to shore, they found on shore a fire going with bread and fish already on it. They had caught the fish, but Jesus already had fish and bread. As they hauled the net out of the water and began to count and clean the fish, the text says that the net did not break in spite of the large number of fish. We read in John 21:11, Simon Peter climbed aboard and dragged the net ashore. It was full of large fish, 153, but even with so many the net was not torn.”

Besides being another encounter with Jesus, there is more going on here that tells us about the repercussions of the resurrection. In this story, Jesus does not speak much, but his actions communicate very loudly. He already had bread and fish on the fire and did not need their fish, and yet he invited them to bring the fish they had caught and add them to what he already had cooking. Because of the resurrection, we bring what we have to offer and Jesus multiplies its effects because of His power.

The comment that the net did not break is also interesting. It says something about His resurrection power and how God will work in and through us. If we would apply this to the mission He has given us, it means that the capacity to grow His kingdom is not limited by our feeble resources. The net will not break as we grow His church. Strachan writes, “the church’s resources, with Christ in its midst, are never overstrained.” Resurrection power adds the miracles and power of Jesus to all that we do in His name. It encourages us to offer what we have to Him and understand that much more will happen than we are able to do because of Jesus and His resurrection power.

The book I mentioned earlier, “Magnify your vision for The Small Church,” is a story about a church in Atlanta which was prompted by God to plant a church in Bosnia. The pastor of the church and another church member went to Bosnia to examine the possibilities. On their way back they had to take different flights and this pastor, tired from the experience, was looking forward to a time of rest and being alone. But in the overcrowded bus on the way to the airport he met some people who knew him and had attended his church in Atlanta. They began to talk and he told them the story of how they were beginning work on planting a church in Bosnia. Their church was small and their resources for this project were clearly inadequate. A man on the bus overheard the story and when they arrived in the airport he asked a few quick questions and gave this pastor his business card and told him he would like to contribute towards the project. A few months later when they were looking for funds to buy a vehicle, the pastor remembered this encounter and went to see the man. The pastor went armed to convince, but the man had no time to hear the whole story, but quite quickly wrote out a cheque to cover the cost of the used vehicle they wanted to purchase. If we offer what we have to God, we never know how God’s resources will add all that is needed. That is what happens in the power of the resurrection.

Peter – A Love Empowered Ministry

After the meal Jesus had with his disciples, he called Peter aside and began to speak to him. As you remember, Peter had denied Jesus three times and was probably still suffering from guilt because of that. We read the following exchange between them in John 21:15-17, “When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you truly love me more than these?” “Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.” ^16 Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you truly love me?” He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.” ^17 The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my sheep.”

This is a wonderful passage and we won’t explore all that is in it, but there are two things which arise out of the resurrection and have implications for our life and ministry.

Peter had blown it badly. He had denied Jesus three times. As Jesus asked him three times, “do you love me,” we can’t help but see that there is a connection between these two events and we must also recognize that in this encounter Peter was restored and commissioned to ministry. Because of the resurrection, that is what Jesus does. He can take our messes and clean them up.

The other significant implication is the relationship between the question and the assignment. Jesus asked Peter, “do you love me.” Then, following a positive response, he commissioned him to do God’s work. Last week in our C&C SS, we were talking about what it means to be a witness and we talked about how important it is that our ministry arises out of being in love with Jesus. This passage affirms that. What will happen in our witness, in our influence, in our life if we truly love Jesus? The power of the resurrection becomes active out of a love relationship with Jesus.

Conclusion

There is no story on earth as amazing as the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection. That God should have come to earth, lived among us, died for us and rose again from the dead is the most amazing thing that has ever happened. It is not just a story, but an event that has powerful implications for our life. Because Christ rose, we have the possibility of a relationship with God, as Mary found out. Because Christ rose, we are on a Spirit empowered mission, as Jesus told the disciples. Because Christ rose, we are invited to believe, on the basis of the evidence and of the witness of those who saw Him. Because Christ rose, His power is available to multiply all we do for Him. And because Christ rose, we can serve Him out of a deep and meaningful love.

Are you living in resurrection power? In a moment, I invite you to affirm with me in conclusion by responding to the statement Christ is Risen and thus in affirming declare yourself to be a person living in the resurrection.

Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!