Ruined Towers

Luke 14
Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’

Failed Christians are like abandoned, ruined towers. (These ones are in Armenia)

Jesus encourages a person wanting to follow him to understand and consider what it is going to cost to die to himself and serve Christ.

He uses the illustration of a man building a security tower (e.g. Judges 9.51). He may have big plans for his tower and a good spot to build it; and he may imagine defending himself and his family against any enemies who tried to dislodge him from his land. But, unless he is a complete fool, he will make sure he has the resources to build it before he starts! For if he has an incomplete tower, instead of looking like a strong well-defended man, he will be mocked as a vulnerable and stupid man who couldn’t even see the task of building his tower through to the end.

There are sadly many ‘once were Christians’ who are like ruins of towers dotted around the landscape. People who once spoke and acted as if they were going to commit their entire lives to Christ, but who instead went off and spent their lives on other things and could not meet their commitment to Christ. They used up the energies on sex, money-making schemes, entertainment, immature play and they pandered to their own desires. Their lives leaked away along with their faith and they never became strong men and women in Christ who could defend themselves against evil and become strong towers that provided safety for those who depended on them. They bring shame to themselves and dishonour Christ.

· Don’t be the fool who tries to live ‘Christianity-lite’ – failing to perceive what being a disciple of Jesus involves and failing to count the cost.
· Understand that Christ is our highest treasure; nothing comes near to him in worth – even our loved ones. If we really want to bless our family, we will set Christ as our highest aim and worthy of all our lives poured out at his feet. · Build your life up as a strong tower – build it of permanent materials and press on until you reach the full measure of your maturity in Christ.

EXTRA LARGE PROMISES

This study focuses on the ‘extra large’ promise that is the culmination of all other promises: The promise of heaven.

So, what is heaven?

The Bible identifies heaven as the location from which God orders and controls the world. (Matt 3.17 and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; Matt 6.1 Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven; Rom 1.18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men). God speaks into the world from heaven and authorises what will be given or withheld from the world. (John 3.27 A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven.). God’s Son ‘came’ from heaven to be born into the world as a human being (John 6.38 I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me). Things are decided first in heaven before they occur on earth. James 1.17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. There is no blessing of any kind, except that it is sent from heaven at Father God’s instruction.

Heaven is described as a kingdom or ‘rule’ that is in stark contrast to the kingdom of this present world over which it rules. (Matthew 13.31,32 “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”). The heavenly kingdom will be seen to grow and dominate all the world’s kingdoms. The kingdom of heaven is said to ‘come’ to overrule the ways of this world. Matthew 6.10 May your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Once we are committed to Christ, we have already died to the world and become aliens here and citizens of heaven (Phil 3.20,21 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself).

Where is heaven?

Heaven does not have a geographical location - it is not among the galaxies. All we can say about its location is that it is the place where God reveals himself in the spiritual world. Heaven is a different dimension or reality than the material world. God is not contained in heaven, as you would contain a precious jewel in a box. There is infinitely more to God than heaven which he created. However, God reveals himself gloriously in heaven. Colossians 1.16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.

Revelation 4.2 At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne. 3 And he who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald. 4 Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty-four elders, clothed in white garments, with golden crowns on their heads. 5 From the throne came flashes of lightning, and rumblings and peals of thunder, and before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God, 6 and before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal. And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind: 7 the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight. 8 And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say,

“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty,
who was and is and is to come!”

9 And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying,

11 “Worthy are you, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they existed and were created.”

How do human beings participate in heaven? First, we must establish that heaven is, in fact, promised to us. Heaven is described as the reward for those who have kept faith with God. (Matt 5.12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven). We are taught to make heaven our aim and to live so as to build up the potential of our lives in heaven (to invest for heaven). Matthew 6.20 lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.

A person must enter the kingdom of heaven to participate in it – this is not an automatic transfer (i.e. when we die we don’t automatically ‘go to heaven’). Matthew 18.3 Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 7.13,14 “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”

Without holiness, no-one will see God (Heb 12.14). Without new birth a person cannot even see the kingdom of heaven, let alone enter it (John 3.3). This is why Christ came and offered himself as a sacrifice for sin (Hebrews 10.12). 10.14: For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. Giving over our lives to Christ is claiming his sacrifice for our sins and entering into the process of being cleaned up – made holy. We throw off every sin that we identify and put on the new clean life he purchased for us by his blood.

What happens in heaven?

Jesus Christ wants all the people his Father has given to him to be with him in heaven. He longs to share all his good things with us. He prayed about this:

John 17. 24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. Jesus prays that we will be with him where he is. This means he wants fellowship with us; he wants us to join him in the spiritual world (heaven). It is there that the glory of Jesus is fully revealed – within the relationship he has with his Father. He wants us to come right into the midst of that unsurpassed relationship!

Paul confirms this in Romans 9.23 where we are told that God endures the rebellion of humanity in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory. God has prepared sinful people to be forgiven and to experience the riches of his glory!

At its core, then, this is what heaven is: It is being included in the loving, magnificent relationship shared within the Godhead – Father, Son and Spirit.

If you aren’t attracted to Jesus Christ now, you won’t want heaven and in fact you won’t be fit for it. The high value we place on Jesus Christ as our greatest treasure is the foretaste (preview) of the pleasures and joy of heaven. It is more than religion. It begins with us discovering Christ to be our highest treasure and letting go of everything else so that we might possess him and be possessed by him. (“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.” Matthew 13.44)

There will be people with religious credentials to whom Jesus will say on the last day: Depart (go away) from me, I never knew you! Because, they never knew him they are not qualified for heaven. Jesus said: And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. (John 17.3) It is possible for someone to engage with all the structures and programmes of Christianity and yet fail to qualify for heaven, because they do not know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he sent into the world. Heaven is the eternal expansion of our relationship with God the Father, Son and Spirit – having been planted in Christ (rooted and grounded in love) we will forever be enjoying the breadth, length, height and depth of the love of Christ which is limitless. This is heaven!

Ephesians 3.14-21

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

What are the new heavens and earth?

There is a final location in which this loving relationship with God the Father, Son and Spirit (heaven) is experienced: that location is a new heavens and a new earth. The curtain will be dropped and the spiritual and material world will be interleaved. Heaven is not an ethereal spirit-world. It is a substantial world – more substantial that what we know now – because the things we see around us are passing and the things we cannot currently see (the spiritual world) are permanent (eternal). 2 Cor 4.18 we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. Ephesians 1.10 God has a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him (Jesus), things in heaven and things on earth.

Revelation 21 describes the coming together of the material and spiritual worlds like this:

21:1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” 5 And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.”

16 The city lies foursquare, its length the same as its width. And he measured the city with his rod, 12,000 stadia. Its length and width and height are equal. 17 He also measured its wall, 144 cubits by human measurement, which is also an angel's measurement. 18 The wall was built of jasper, while the city was pure gold, clear as glass. 19 The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of jewel. The first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, 20 the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst. 21 And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, transparent as glass.

22 And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. 23 And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. 24 By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, 25 and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. 26 They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. 27 But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life.

There is a new heaven and earth (heaven in this context means sky or universe). There is continuity with the existing earth and sky, so the new creation is a renovation or ‘makeover’ of the sin-damaged one. Sin, evil and death have been destroyed and the new order of things is established. Heaven is said to have it own City (called the New Jerusalem) which materialises in the renovated earth and God is said to live among this people. Just as we get new bodies at the resurrection, so too, our home (heaven and earth) will be made new (resurrected!). Our bodies will be spiritual and material, so too the new heavens and earth will be both spiritual and material. Believers will receive a new body compatible with the new reality when the kingdom of heaven bursts in on the material world at Christ’s return (2 Cor 5.1 For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 1 Thessalonians 4.16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise) .

What does eternity mean?

Heaven is eternal because we will never get the bottom of God’s glory, beauty and thrill. We will never soar to its heights and never expand to one side or the other of God’s love. We will never exhaust the freshness and excitement of engaging with God and our people in his new world. The God who was able to draw out of poor, stunted sin-damaged man technologies, creativity and ideas that no single person could examine or experience in a million life-times, will surely captivate us with his creativity, beauty and glory without a shadow of boredom, dullness or sameness being cast.

Ultimately, the promise of heaven is not the toys that heaven could provide for us to play with, but the inexhaustible glory of God himself expressed to us through his Son. Our new bodies and minds will have hugely improved capacity to perceive, enter into, engage with and enjoy the mind of Christ and his plans and purposes in the new world. Whereas, at the moment there is frequently a mismatch between our own minds and bodies, which is the cause of much of our misery, in the future our bodies will be in perfect tune with our minds and be able to express and enjoy the things that our minds are comprehending; this will enhance our felt well-being and stir adoration, praise and worship to our God.

Revelation describes the New Jerusalem of the new world as constructed of precious metals and jewels. Nothing in the present world can adequately describe the substance and glory of the City of God. The most precious earthly materials we currently understand are used to describe it so as to accentuate its outrageous glory. The materials that are precious due to their rarity are described as the mere paving of God’s City. The aim of this description is to excite us that the new world will be a situation of extreme quality and limitless glory – because it will reflect, unhindered, the quality and limitless glory of our God.

THEREFORE!

· Take Jesus Christ as your highest treasure. Value him above everything. Preview heaven now in your relationship, service and worship of him. If you cannot appreciate Jesus Christ, now – you will never take your place in heaven.

· Spend your life now for the Kingdom of Heaven. Use it up! You know your mind and body will wear out and that the corruptible cannot inherit the incorruptible, so use up your life in this world now as an investment for the world that cannot wear out. Set your heart and mind on things above, where Christ is seated. Store up for yourself treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot erode, nor thieves break in and steal.

· Taste heaven now by immersing yourself in the word of God, in personal prayer, in fellowship with Christians, in fighting against evil, in demolishing strongholds and arguments in your own mind and in others, by being filled with the Spirit, by discovering and employing your spiritual gifts - and RUN with perseverance the race marked out for you. Heaven is the goal.

HOW TO GET A REALLY GOOD REST

The Sabbath answers the question: How do I find rest while working?

There are several layers to this question and the teaching about the Sabbath has something to say about each one. Those layers are:

· How much rest and relaxation do I need for my physical and mental health?

· How much of my time should my employment take up?

· How do I find the strength to carry out my life responsibilities?

· How do I avoid stress and anxiety in my daily life?

But the most important question of all is:

· How do I work for God?

The word Sabbath means ‘rest’. Sabbaths were given to Israel as a sign (Ex 31.12). A sign is not the thing itself; a sign points to the real thing. A sign saying Dargaville is not that town; it indicates that the town is found in a certain direction; it points out Dargaville. If the Sabbath is a sign, then the day itself is not the Sabbath (rest) but it points to the real Rest. The New Testament tells us that the real rest is none other than Jesus Christ! Colossians 2

¹⁶Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. ¹⁷These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.

You cannot find accommodation in Dargaville by stopping at the sign. You follow the sign to the place and there you find a motel. You do not find the rest God intends by focussing on the Sabbath day. You find that rest by following the sign to the person; Jesus Christ.

The Sabbath rule given to Israel in Exodus had enormous significance to them. They had just been released from a life of slavery in Egypt where they had no rest. Their lives were owned by the King of Work, Pharaoh. Now God was taking them under his rule. He would give them rest from their work and he would strengthen them for the work that they did for him. Every Sabbath was an opportunity for Israel to reflect on and rejoice in the deliverance God had worked for them to free them from slavery in Egypt. They enjoyed their new freedom under God.

Israel was taught that the Sabbath was a reference back to the time of creation when, after six days of creation, God rested on the seventh to enjoy the completeness and perfection of it all; it was good. Gen 1.31-2.3. Sabbath celebrations in Israel included the confession of and the enjoyment in the completeness and perfection of everything that God does; a kind of reminder that although we share in the good things God is doing, the power and completion of these things all comes from God. In fact, the Sabbath year, when nothing was cultivated in the land, reminded everyone that it was God who kept things growing even when they did nothing to make it happen.

Our first parents experienced briefly the joy of living in the completeness and perfection of the world God created. Their disobedience, through asserting their independence from God, ruined their experience of rest in working with God. From that point on work became hard and wore them to death (Gen 3):

¹⁷ To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,'
"Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat of it
all the days of your life.

¹⁸ It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.

¹⁹ By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return."

God’s plan of redeeming humankind from the ruin caused by sin is to restore our rest. Instead of living like slaves in Egypt, he brings us under his rule where we enjoy rest in our work and enjoy the completeness and perfection of everything that God does.

All of the ideas to do with Sabbath fit together in Jesus Christ. He answers all the promises that the Sabbath makes in the Old Testament. No one will find those promises by focusing on the day itself. We follow the signs now to the reality. Jesus offered himself plainly as the rest for weary humanity (Matthew 11) :

²⁵At that time Jesus said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. ²⁶Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.

²⁷"All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

²⁸"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

The writer to Hebrews spoke about the sad situation when a whole generation of Israelites failed to go into the Promised Land. They heard God’s promises that it was a place of rest for them as a nation, but they did not mix what they heard with faith. When the challenge seemed too great they shrunk back and did not enter God’s rest. They died in the desert. That writer says that the rest still remains open to us and that we need to enter that rest TODAY; i.e. do not delay entering the rest while it is offered to you. The person who enters God’s rest is resting from their independence. That person is laying down his own efforts and surrendering his life to God (Hebrews 4):

⁹There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; ¹⁰for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. ¹¹Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience.

We enter God’s rest by bringing our weariness and burden to Jesus, for he will give us rest. His rest is a working relationship (²⁹Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.").

God did not call Israel out of Egypt to rest at a Mediterranean seaside resort. He called them to take a land and work it. He called them to build a nation. This foreshadowed what he had in mind for his Church. We are called to do God’s work in Christ’s strength. We rest by depending in faith on what Christ can do in and through us by his Holy Spirit. Real satisfaction and enjoyment is found when we share in the completion and perfection of his work.

"The rest that Christ offers is not a rest from work, but a rest in work--not the rest of inactivity, but of harmonious working of all the faculties and affections--of will, heart, imagination, conscience--because each has found in Christ the ideal (and only) sphere for its satisfaction and development" (J. Patrick in Hastings' Bible Dictionary and Vine's Expository Dictionary of the New Testament).

Therefore, for us the Sabbath is not Saturday, Sunday or any other particular day of the week. The Sabbath is Christ. We no longer need a sign because we have the reality (just as we no longer need the sign of the sacrifices in the Temple, because Jesus has offered himself as a once and for all sacrifice).

Jesus himself went out of his way to demonstrate that the Sabbath was not the ‘keeping’ of a certain day. He deliberately ‘broke’ the religious idea of the Sabbath to teach that it was not a rule designed to discipline God’s people. He said that God made the Sabbath for man, not the other way around. "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath" (Mark 2:27). Jesus claimed to be Lord of the Sabbath. "...the Son of man is lord of the Sabbath" (Mat. 12:8). In answer to his religious critics: "Jesus answered them, 'My Father is working still, and I am working'" (John 5:17). Jesus proved that the Sabbath was all about resting in what God provided, including God’s work. The loss of rest comes about when we try to live independently of God. The Sabbath is about close fellowship (‘come to me’); being yoked together with Christ.

Psalm 127 summarises the experience of rest in God.

A song of ascents. Of Solomon.

¹ Unless the LORD builds the house,
its builders labour in vain.
Unless the LORD watches over the city,
the watchmen stand guard in vain.

² In vain you rise early
and stay up late,
toiling for food to eat—
for he grants sleep to those he loves.

³ Sons are a heritage from the LORD,
children a reward from him.

⁴ Like arrows in the hands of a warrior
are sons born in one's youth.

⁵ Blessed is the man
whose quiver is full of them.
They will not be put to shame
when they contend with their enemies in the gate.

We rest in the building power of Jesus Christ. We rest in his protection. Our efforts are wasted if we stress and struggle on our own. He ‘grants sleep to those he loves’. Our fruitfulness in life (sons, in the context of this psalm) is something that he grants to us as we depend on him.

Conclusion
In answer to the questions posed at the beginning:

· How much rest and relaxation do I need for my physical and mental health?

We need a break from our work to restore our mental and physical strength. God’s example in Gen 1&2 and the Sabbath law indicate that at least a day in seven is needed to rest and refresh us. Six days do your work, but on the seventh day do not work, so that your ox and your donkey may rest and the slave born in your household, and the alien as well, may be refreshed. Ex 23.12

· How much of my time should my employment take up?

The above verse makes it clear that our employers should not demand all our time. Our employment must not be our ‘life’.

· How do I find the strength to carry out my life responsibilities?

Our daily life and work is a part of our total Christian life experience. We need to rely on Christ for the capacity to cope with this just as much as our specifically Christian activities.

· How do I avoid stress and anxiety in my daily life?

Respond to Jesus’ invitation and cast your cares upon him for he cares about you (1 Peter 5.7).

· How do I work for God?

Get in alongside Christ and be joined to him in his work. His ‘yoke is easy (well-fitting) and his burden is light (manageable)’

Note: Nowhere in the New Testament is the idea of the Sabbath or the day itself (Saturday) equated with Sunday. Sunday, the first day of the week (called the Lord’s Day) simply celebrates the day of the week that Jesus rose from the dead. The early Christians adopted that day as the one on which they usually met. There is no transference of the Old Testament Sabbath ‘rules’ to Sunday. Every day is a Sabbath for Christians because we daily rest in Christ for strength.

Funeral Message for Neville Smith

(Nev asked that a gospel message be presented at his funeral. Here is that message.)

If you know anything about Colditz Castle, the German Prisoner of War facility in WW2, you may be familiar with the terminology: ‘The Home Run’. Whenever a prisoner escaped and made it back to England, it was called a home run. Weeks and months would go by without word of an escaped prisoner and then the news would filter back that he had made it home to England – he had scored a home run. A great cheer would go up at the news and the enamel cups would rattle on the bars as the prisoners in Colditz celebrated the ultimate freedom of one of their own. Today we are here to celebrate a ‘home run’ by one of our own: Neville Smith. I’m sorry there are no enamel plates or mugs for you to rattle – but you do have a voice which you have used to sing it out and heart which can resonate with joy that Nev represents another defeat for our Enemy and a clear victory for Jesus Christ! Nev’s passing represents a successful home run!

Nev has brought us all together today - (he went to quite a bit of trouble to do so!). He brought us all here to gather at the border between life and death to peer across that border – to face it - and reflect on our own lives, as well as his.

Here is a Bible reading

2 Corinthians 5.1-5

For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.

Here, two dwellings are described – a temporary and a permanent – a tent and a building.

These dwellings – these homes – represent two modes of living: living now as we are in our familiar bodies - and living after this life in a manner that we can’t yet fully grasp. Nev has already completed the biggest part of this transition – he has left his tent.

The temporary dwelling – the tent – is fit for its purpose – it is an earthly dwelling. But it doesn’t last. It can’t live beyond here. It will be destroyed. The tent will be taken out either by storm or attrition – one way or the other, our tent will give out. We have a family tent which we used every summer for about 20 years. Last year we unfolded it and decided it is just too worn to use anymore. It will no longer keep out the rain and it parts of it are mildewed and scungy. It has worn out. So we rolled it up for the last time. Our earthly home – our tents – our bodies – are temporary dwellings.

A tent has no foundations. You simply pin it to the ground and gather it up when it is time to move on. Abraham knew all about that. He lived lightly on the land in which God sent him to travel by faith. He was ready to pull up his pegs and travel on as God directed him. He knew from the outset that he would not be building a town called Abraham. He had his heart set on a city with foundations, a permanent city, whose architect and builder is God. He lived life to the full in the here and now, knowing that he was working towards God’s kingdom. Nev knew that, too. He lived vigorously, but with his heart set on the permanent city with foundations.

We have the in front of us the tent of Neville Smith - it has been well-used, worn-out and packed away. It was a body we loved to see. Bright eyes that sparkled with humour and interest. Hands that clasped our hands in friendship and gave us a pull up or an encouraging slap on the back when we needed it. A good body. An honourable body. A body that delighted his wife and fathered beautiful children. A body inhabited by God’s Holy Spirit and used in God’s service. But is a tent. It is a temporary dwelling. It wore out. Latterly it caused Nev to groan. His aged body reflected back to Nev all that he understood to be wrong about this world. Sin entered the world through the first man and death came through sin and so death spread to everyone.

But Nev lived confidently in the face of this truth, because he also knew Christ who entered the world bringing life. That life took root in Nev’s own spirit when he received Christ in his youth. He knew who it was that he was trusting and he was convinced that Christ was able to keep that life which he had committed to him against the day of his death. Nev understood that although he held this treasure in a jar of clay it was no reason to be discouraged and give up. He did not lose heart. Though his outward nature was wasting away, he felt his inner nature being renewed day by day. He regarded his afflictions as momentary and even slight! Because he saw them as preparing for him an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. Better than wine, better than property, better than fame, better than retirement, better than life. He was looking not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. He did not try to collapse heaven into the here and now. He accepted that the things that are seen are temporary, but the things that are currently unseen are eternal. These things Nev believed and lived by.

I know that Nev wanted you to reflect on these things because he told me so. He wanted you to understand that he didn’t invest his hope only in what he might experience and achieve while he lived in his tent. Certainly, he relished his life here. He experienced the promise of Jesus Christ to have life to the full. But Nev understood his life to be something weightier and longer-lasting than what he could stash in his tent over a few brief years.

Nev invested his faith and his hope and his temporary life in Christ who also lived for a while in a tent like ours so that we could have a permanent dwelling. He believed this gospel:

Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, he was buried, he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures and he appeared to people. Nev believed the Scriptures that said: If only for this life we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits (the signal crop) of those who have fallen asleep.

Right now, Nev is with Christ - free of distress – at home in a way he has never felt before. He has joined all those who are cheering on the unfolding of Christ’s plan as it tracks unerringly towards the last day.

Two dwellings – a tent and a building – one temporary – one permanent.

The building is a spiritual dwelling. It is a building from God. It will be provided to every Christian on the last day – we will receive them together on the day that Christ and his kingdom burst in on this world.

The only hints we have as to the form or capabilities of our spiritual bodies are that they will be similar to the body which Jesus possessed following his resurrection from the dead:

- His new body was like him in appearance – it was the same Jesus.

- He was able to interact in a material sense – even consume food.

- But he was also able to slip (as it were) between the atoms of a merely physical world and live in the spiritual world concurrently.

- What was mortal was swallowed up by life.

In the future, when heaven invades the material world, when the curtain has been dropped - we will possess a permanent spiritual body - interoperable between things material and things spiritual.

We shall recognise our loved ones as we all longed to be – no more misunderstandings – no more confusion – no longer sin-damaged. We will be brothers and sisters – equals in Christ. But most stunning of all - We shall see Christ face to face and engage with him as the new world unfolds before us. Death will be swallowed up in victory.
Our mortal will have put on immortality. Our perishable will have put on imperishability. Our tent will have become a permanent dwelling with the capacity to enjoy God forever.

I am here to affirm that Neville Smith believed these things.
I am here to work with him one last time – to tell you this (and I will leave you with words he was more likely to use than I – but which are nevertheless true and which he wanted to leave ringing in our ears)…

Only one life – it will soon be past
Only what’s done for Christ will last.

_____________________________________________________________

SMALL PROMISES - daily help

This study is (eventually!) about how to extract God’s promises from the Bible - how to turn them into prayers and how this will bring glory to Christ, joy to you and inspire your worship. But we have some important ground to cover before we get there. We have to be sure that we qualify to draw on the rich promises of God.

Here are some important Bible passages that are both a foundation for our belief that God in fact HAS amazing, worthwhile and extremely desirable promises for us – and that encourage us to approach Jesus Christ to find them.

Matthew 6. 25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Romans 8.28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

John 6.51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” 52 The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” 53 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 55 For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. 56 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. 57 As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me.

John 7.37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” 39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

It all starts with the promises of God. Everything must begin with what God says that he will do. Creation began that way and God continues to sustain it that way – he is the initiator of everything. We learned last week that all the promises of God are YES in Jesus Christ, so we need to understand from the very outset that these promises are not our promises or commitments to him – they are not even our imaginations of what we would like God to do for us. The promises of God are God’s commitment to lift us up by blessing us (enlivening and enriching us) with every spiritual blessing in Christ (Eph 1.3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us IN CHRIST with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places ). Jesus Christ is the source of God’s blessings to us. Everything of promise, everything of true value, and everything lasting, beautiful, pure, powerful, exciting, satisfying, joyous, restful and glorious is found in Jesus Christ. Only when we find him do we find the life that we hunger for. You will not enjoy God’s promises except by enjoying Jesus Christ. The fullness of God’s promises cannot be had separately from Jesus.

So, how do we draw upon this treasure? How is such Promise (Christ) and all these promises transferred into our life and experience?

It is deeply tragic that in our natural condition, we human beings are always edging towards happiness and joy but never reaching it. There seems to be a promising glow reflecting onto the clouds just beyond our horizon, but we never quite reach it. In our youth we have a good deal of optimism about what we are going to get out of life as it unfolds in front of us – but when things fail to fulfil that promise, we become ‘de-visioned’ and we begin to settle for less and less of the promise we once hoped for. Our vision shrinks back to short-term amusements. Eventually, our vision is shrivelled up to one narrow, miserable objective: keeping our minds off death! Rest homes are full of spent human beings, with that one objective – to keep their minds off death. This is a tragedy. It is a scandal that the promises of God in Jesus Christ are neglected; the treasure remains unclaimed. The need is there – human poverty, misery, disappointment and lostness – but the willingness and ability to seek the treasure in Christ is not.

There is a simple reason why this occurs. Satan has blinded the minds of unbelievers. (2 Cor 4.3,4)

And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

A terrible blindness keeps men and women from recognising the glory (the incomparable treasure) of Christ (who is the ‘radiance of God’s glory and the exact imprint of his nature’ Heb 1.3) in the gospel (as it is preached from the Bible, demonstrated in the Church and confirmed by the works of the Holy Spirit). This blindness is induced by the ‘god of this world’, elsewhere called ‘the prince of the power of the air’ and the ‘spirit now at work in the sons of disobedience’, the ‘evil one’, the ‘devil’ and ‘Satan’. When our first parents fell from God’s grace into the ridiculous, sinful idea that they could wisely choose their own path and purpose in life, they brought themselves (and us) under the domination of Satan. Once they lost God’s spiritual life they were open to the malicious influence of another spiritual force which brings darkness and blindness so that men and women cannot respond to God. We cannot even see the kingdom of God until God grants us new birth (John 3.3).

So God’s promises are sealed up to us, because of our blindness due to sin. Before we can live on the riches in Jesus Christ, we have to recognise his glory. We have to have our eyes opened, our ears unstopped and our tongues loosened. We have to be born again! No one responds to Christ unless he or she is born again.

[In a big parenthesis (side track!) let me explain how a person is born again. Here is just one example of how it might happen:

You might be a person who has grown up around Christians, perhaps in a Christian family, or at least a church-going one. You learned the Bible stories as a child, and Christian ideas - like giving thanks for your food or praying for God’s blessing on a trip or having a service for special occasions - were all part of your upbringing. But as you got older, these things seemed disconnected with life. They didn’t seem to have anything worthwhile to say to you about going out with girls, what sort of job you should have and how to spend your leisure time. You drifted away from your religion - although it still had the power to make you feel a bit guilty when you broke the rules that you were brought up to believe. Then you meet up with someone or some people who seem to have a very different take on ‘church’ than you. They seem to speak with genuine emotion and conviction about the things they believe; they seem to actually enjoy sharing the Bible, praying and singing to God. This interests you. You wonder if you could ever be like this and whether there might be more to ‘church’ and ‘God’ than what you had previously thought. As you are drawn in amongst Christians, you start to pay attention to what the Bible actually says and it seems to be describing you to you! It sometimes feels as though a mirror has been held up to you and you see yourself as you really are. The Bible seems to bring a lot of things you wondered about into clear focus. But when you go away from church and Bible, back among your other friends who don’t follow such things, you quickly find that you forget about Bible ideas. But something has changed in you. You now don’t find it so easy to leave ‘church’ out of your life and you keep getting drawn back there. And as you pay closer attention to the Bible sharing and teaching, you begin to read some of it for yourself. It begins to disturb you, in the way that it defines people as sinful and separated from God. (You always thought God was ‘nice’ to everyone). You begin to feel somewhat uncomfortable about your own condition. You find in the Bible that it describes all people as anti-God by nature and cut off from him. You are troubled to find that God’s wrath – his judgement – is upon everyone. You are surprised and worried to understand that God is not pleased with your religious efforts and that he is against you. You become more aware of your sinfulness than ever before and although at first you rebel against the strictness of the Bible’s description of your condition before God, you start to feel that this is true. You find you cannot easily brush off this sense of guilt and you feel exposed and caught directly in God’s gaze.

He seems to have uncovered the truth about you and it is very troubling. About this time, you start to really hear and realise the part that Jesus Christ plays in God’s plan to rescue men and women (you!) from your guilt. You hear how his death and resurrection got forgiveness for you and acceptance with God. For the first time in your life, you realise that Jesus Christ is your Rescuer. You feel empty and thirsty for the goodness you lack and you begin to realise that Jesus can meet that thirst and that everyone who comes to him to drink will be satisfied. The Spirit of God is opening your heart to Jesus Christ. He is using the Word of God to open your eyes and ears so you can see and hear what God has prepared for you in Jesus. This is you being born again! You find that the truth about Jesus Christ is drawing from you a deep YES that you never expressed before. This is the YES of faith. You are agreeing with all that God has said about your need and all that he has revealed in Jesus Christ to meet your need. You humble yourself before Jesus Christ and give in to him. You surrender yourself to him and ask him to remake you to be like him. The Spirit of God is affecting new birth in you! Your repentance and sorrow for your sin and the YES of faith in Jesus Christ are the first evidences that you have been born again. You used to be spiritually dead and unresponsive to the information about God, but now you are alive to it and it is food and drink to you. You may not necessarily experience a huge emotional release, but you have let go of your resistance and you sense acceptance with God because you have given over your self to Jesus Christ. This is how a person might be born again.

This cannot happen without your willing assent. You are not born again against your will! In new birth the Spirit of God frees your rebellious will and presents the truth about your lostness to you and introduces you to Jesus Christ your Rescuer. You are free to say the YES of faith in him. You are free to own up to your sin and turn your back on it so you can serve Christ. If anyone is in Christ he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold the new has come. All this is from God who through Christ reconciled us to himself. 2 Cor 5.17,18.

Only one more thing needs to be emphasised: the next step. The next step is baptism. You publicly affirm by being baptised that you have been made alive in Jesus Christ.

In baptism you ‘act out’ his death, burial and resurrection by being immersed in water and welcomed in the family of God by your brothers and sisters in Jesus.]

At last… back to the matter of God’s promises in our daily lives!

Know this that all God’s promises are in Jesus Christ and he delivers them personally into your life. These promises, being fulfilled in your life daily, are what give you a living hope (that is a dynamic life-enriching hope). 1 Peter 1.3

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

The blessings (promises) of God are not disconnected things, events or circumstances; they are the expression of Christ’s life at work in you, through you and around you!

You need to feed on these promises. You need to browse on them as a goat feeds on the berries, grass and fresh shoots in its environment. You feed on God’s promises by buying them up! When you buy something you make it your own. But in this case, God says we can buy the nourishment of his good promises without money and without price!

Isaiah 55 invites us to come and buy our daily food without cost. That food is Jesus Christ himself.

The Lord invites us to feed on his promises – the promises that are YES in Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Promise. He told us to eat and drink his life (remember John 6 & 7). We do this through the Word of God (the Bible). There is a rich banquet of food available for us to access at all times without payment. Isaiah warns us not to waste our time - spending our energy, time and resources on things that cannot nourish us. He tells us (actually it is the Lord himself speaking to us through Isaiah) that we should pay attention to Jesus Christ, God’s chosen leader (v3,4). He tells us to seek him and call on him and receive his thinking in place of our own (v6-11). He tells us that his promises will not be broken but will go out and accomplish everything he intended (v11).

The result of reading the Bible (aka: feeding on God’s Word; eating and drinking Christ) will be joyful and safe progress for our lives – even in the middle of trouble and distress. Our lives will count for something. As we progress in life there will be beauty and fruitfulness instead of bitterness and failure. The Word of God (Christ himself, revealed to us in the Bible) will make a name for the Lord: it shall make a name for the Lord, an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off! (55.13)

Finally (!) here is how to extract God’s promises from the Bible for your good. And we had to take this l-o-n-g way around to make sure we understand that his is not an intellectual study – it is done in dependence on Christ – feeding on him:

As you approach the Bible:

1. Think about your life – current attitudes, anxieties, challenges, opportunities, enemies, relationships etc…
2. Read your Bible.
3. Read it with your heart and mind open to Jesus Christ – talk to him about it as you read – tell him you are open to his teaching and willing to hear what he has to teach you about your life.
4. Think hard about what your read – go to other parts of the Bible that speak of similar things and see what one part says about another. The Holy Spirit will teach you, but you must engage your mind!
5. Notice what your reading says about what the Lord will do.
6. Turn these promises (because if the Lord says he will do it, then it is a sure promise) into prayer – ask God to do what he has promised. If you are not sure how to do this, go to Luke 1 (especially verse 38) and see how young Mary turned a promise into a prayer. Or go to Daniel 9 and read how Daniel turned a promise into a prayer.
7. In this way, your life will become a showcase of God’s promises in action and you will show off the magnificence of Jesus Christ – you will display his glory.
8. In this way, joy will be released in your life – joy that supersedes the negativity of worldly life.
9. You will have your own experience of God’s grace that will inform and inspire your worship.

You have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever. “ And this word is the good news that was preached to you. 1 Peter 1.23-25