The sermon for October 18th 2020 is now available on the New life wb-site.
In this sermon, which is based on 2 Corinthians 10:1-8, I talk about Pulling Down Strongholds.
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bible
Ephesians 3:17
Here is my commentary on Ephesians 3:17. I am publishing these once or twice a week, but you can read all of the available articles at our web-site, http://www.new-life.org.au
Ephesians 3:17
“… So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and grounded in faith…”
Paul is continuing his prayer for the Ephesians (and for us).
The previous verse was a prayer that they receive power through the Spirit of God. He finishes that sentence now.
The prayer to receive this power is directed to the result that ”Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.”
Some theologians disapprove of “asking Jesus into your heart.” Jesus is in heaven so it does not make sense, they claim. Buy here Paul is explicitly stating that Christ does live in our hearts.
To state the obvious, this is not a reference to our physical hearts. There is not a Christ – shaped hole in our heart that Jesus slots into when we pray the sinner’s prayer.
The heart is often used as a synonym for the soul, which is the seat of our character, will, and emotions. Paul is praying that Christ will come and fill our souls.
That raises the question of what it means to have Christ in our hearts or souls. To me, it means that we give over that part of our being, our internal life to him. In other words, we are no longer self-directed, but Christ – directed. We are no longer living a marred, sinful life, but one which is clean and sinless. We don’t do what we want to do, but what Christ wants us to do.
The prayer is that Christ dwells in our hearts. He makes the place his habitation, his home, and is not just a visitor .
This means that we allow the Holy Spirit to direct us. We daily invite the Lord to be present in our hearts in everything, and seek to hand over our desires and plans to him.
This is a lifelong process that should not end this side of Heaven.
Some people seem contend to have Christ steer their lives at home and church, but work is a different matter where the customs and rules of the business world dominate.
Other people allow Him in sporadically. They might have a spiritual experience at a camp or conference, and they know that Christ is with them for a few weeks. But then it is back to the old ways until the next “high.”
Christ wants to dwell in our hearts – to stay there every day.
When Christ is dwelling in our hearts, then we can be rooted and grounded in love.
The word for love here is agape, the totally selfless and unfailing love that God has for us. With Christ dwelling in our hearts, the very embodiment of agape love, then we can know that we are loved unconditionally.
God’s agape love, transforms a person’s life. Many of us suffer feelings of shame, rejection, unworthiness, and so on. We have been hurt, bullied, or abandoned. But God’s love heals the traumas of living in a sin-filled world.
We need to be rooted and established in God’s love. Love, to be effective, needs to be constant. God’s love is constant, but our ability to believe and receive it is not.
To be rooted in God’s love means that we grow deep emotional and spiritual roots in him. Paul describes this as “by faith.” In other words, we taste the love of God and by faith we learn to live in it.
Trees that only grow shallow roots are vulnerable to being blown over in storms or dying of dehydration in droughts. Only trees that push their roots deep into the soil will live a full and long life.
We must push our roots deep into the love of God so that, even when God seems to be absent, we trust in his provision, persistence, and protection.
Key points in this verse
- Christ wants to dwell in our hearts, that is to make His home there
- We need to learn to be Christ- directed rather than self-directed
- We need to put deep spiritual and emotional roots into God’s love
- God’s love heals us of the hurts that come from living in a sin-filled world
Reflection on Exodus 3:1-22
Scripture
There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire form the middle of a bush. Though the bush was engulfed by flames, it did not burn up. “This is amazing,” Moses said to himself.
Observation
One day, while tending his father-in-law’s sheep, the Lord appears to Moses in a burning bush. The Lord identifies Himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
The Lord tells Moses that He is about to set His people free and so Moses is to go to Pharaoh and demand that he let them go. When Moses objects, the Lord says that He will be with him.
Moses then asks the Lord what name will he tell the people is the name of the God who has sent him? The Lord says “Tell them ‘I Am has sent you.’”
The Lord warns Moses that, although the elders of Israel will receive him, Pharaoh will resist until, through a series of miracles, the Lord will strike the Egyptians.
Application
This must have been an awesome sight for Moses to see- a bush that burned without being consumed. It was unusual enough for Moses to stop what he was doing and listen to the voice of the Lord.
One reason that we don’t hear the voice of the Lord is that we don’t make space for that. We live in a noisy world, surrounded by electronically generated voices clamouring for our attention. We live in an “always on” world,
To hear God, we have to silence the other voices. We need to turn our phones, computers and TVs off then learn to turn our anxious brain off as well. Then, as we focus on God, we can start to hear the still, small voice of the Holy Spirit.
It takes time, effort and conscious decision, but we need to do it to connect to the true God, the source of our life.
Prayer
Come Holy Spirit and speak to me in the stillness. Be the burning bush for me today. Amen.
Reflection on Exodus 2:1-25
Scripture
God heard their groaning, and he remembered his covenant promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He looked down on the people of Israel and knew it was time to act.
Observation
A woman from the tribe of Levi gives birth to a baby boy, and rather than having him thrown into the Nile River as the law required, she keeps him at home for three months. Then she makes a little basket and floats him in the river.
Pharaoh’s daughter comes to the river to bathe and discovers the baby. She decides to adopt him. The baby’s mother nurses him until he is old enough to be weaned. When it is time for him to go to the palace, the boy is named Moses.
Many years later, Moses sees an Egyptian overseer beating a Hebrew slave. Enraged, Moses kills the Egyptian, but he realises that he has been found out, and so he flees to Midian. There he settles down and marries Zipporah.
Finally, God decides it is time to act to rescue His people,
Application
Sometimes we overlook the time frames in the Bible. Moses was about 40 years old when he killed the Egyptian, and he was in Midian for another 40 years before he was called by God to set His people free.
At the end of this chapter, God is thinking it is time to act on His promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but still, from a human perspective, nothing is happening.
We might feel something similar about promises we have received from God. Maybe we have been praying for decades for a promise to come to pass.
God’s timing is not the same as ours. But His timing is always perfect.
We live in an era where faster is always better and fastest is still not fast enough.
God works on the principle that there is a right time, an appropriate time for everything.
The people of Israel had no idea of what do was about to do for them. It must have appeared that God had forgotten about them. In God’s time, the perfect time, a great rescue was about to be launched.
Prayer
Lord, please help me to be patient as I wait for your plans to unfold. Amen.
Reflection on Exodus 1:1-22
Scripture
Because the midwives feared God, they refused to obey the king’s orders. They allowed the boys to live too.
Observation
Generations pass and the descendants of Jacob prosper in Egypt. A king arises who knows noth8ing of what Joseph had done for Egypt. He becomes fearful of the threat that the Hebrews may pose to his reign.
The Egyptians make the Israelites their slaves, hoping to wear them down with crushing labour. The king is ruthless, but still the Hebrews prosper.
The king orders the Hebrew midwives to kill all baby boys that are born. The midwives fear God, so they refuse to obey this order. When questioned later, they say that the Hebrew women give birth too quickly for them to get there in time, and so the baby boys live.
God continues to bless the Hebrew people and the midwives. They continue to grow in number and in strength.
Application
The Hebrew people are in a place of captivity. The Pharaoh tries to reduce their population by ordering the midwives to kill all the baby boys. The midwives fear God and so refuse to obey this order.
The king was an absolute monarch. There were no human rights then. The Hebrews were a feared ethnic minority. The midwives stood in defiance of an absolute ruler who could do what he liked to them.
Because these brave women were faithful to God, God blessed them with children of their own and continued to bless the people of Israel.
The Covid pandemic has forced some churches to ask themselves whether it is right to obey the Government and close their doors for a season, or to obey God’s commandment to meet regardless of what the Government says? The availability of technology and shorter shut downs in some areas made that decision easier for some than for others.
Christians in the medical community sometimes have to make a stance against participating in abortions or euthanasia. Some have lost their jobs or licence to practise over these issues.
Whatever the situation, we must always be prepared to defy human rulers if they require us to go against God’s will.
Prayer
Lord, please hep me to be faithful to you, to follow your ways rather than the ways of people. Amen.
Reflection on Matthew 22:1-14
Scripture
“When the banquet was ready, he sent his servants to notify those who were invited. But they all refused to come!”
Observation
Jesus tells a parable about a king who prepares a great wedding banquet for his son. When the banquet is ready, the invited guests refuse to come.
The king sends out more messengers to summon the guests. Still they refuse, and some even insult and kill the king’s messengers.
Finally the king sends out servants to bring in people from the streets, both good and bad, to fill the banqueting hall.
The king notices that one of the guests is not properly dressed. He orders this person to be bound and cast out into the darkness.
Application
The people of Israel were all invited to God’s marriage feast, but many refused to come. They had insulted and killed God’s messengers, the prophets. Now Jesus is saying that the king is inviting a different group of people, those who had previously not been invited, that is the Gentiles.
It is a wonderful privilege to be a part of God’s kingdom. Even those who previously rebelled against God can now come in and be a part of His party.
The parable contains one jarring note. One man is seen to be not wearing the appropriate clothes. He is kicked out of the feast.
Repeatedly, in the New Testament we are told to take off the old nature and put on Christ. Many are called or invited to be in the Kingdom of God, but it is only through a change of heart that we become acceptable to God.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, thank you for inviting everybody into your kingdom. I turn away from my sins and choose to follow you today. Amen.
Reflection on 3 John 1-15
Scripture
I would have no greater joy than to hear that my children are following the truth.
Observation
John is writing to a man called Gaius, who he hopes is well in spirit and in body. Some of John’s travelling teachers returned and told John how Gaius is living faithfully to the Lord.
John asks Gaius to continue supporting such itinerant ministers because they are serving the Lord.
Diotrophes opposes these teachers and tells others not to support them. When they do help, he expels them from the church.
Application
Any pastor recognises the reflection of John that we have no greater joy than hearing our spiritual children are “following the truth.”
John uses this phrase to mean that they are walking with the Lord and refusing to be swayed by the false teachers and the heretics. There is clearly a problem with people such as Diotrophes who resists the itinerant teachers who are faithful to the gospel. In 2 John, John calls the false teachers antichrists. It seems that Diotrophes had been influenced by such people.
In the midst of all this, John is blessed to know that some people, such as Gaius and Demetrius, are standing firm and prospering both spiritually and physically.
When I think of people whom I have mentored over many years, it gives me great joy to seeing them moving onward in the Lord. It means that the church of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ are growing in influence across the generations.
Prayer
Lord, I thank you for those people who are faithful to you and who seek to serve you in their work, in the church, and in their families. May they continue to thrive in the grace of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Ephesians 3:16
Here is my commentary on Ephesians 3:16. I am publishing these once or twice a week, but you can read all of the available articles at our web-site, http://www.new-life.org.au
Ephesians 3:16
“I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being.”
God’s glorious riches are unlimited. We think of wealthy people as being beyond the financial limits that constrain most of us. To people in developing countries, those of us who live average lives seem to them to be wealthy beyond imagination.
But God’s glorious riches are in every way unlimited. The God who created the universe with a word is not limited by physical resources. He owns the cattle on a thousand hills, the Psalmist tells us.
The glorious riches of God, though, are not merely physical. He commands a billion human servants and an untold number of angels. He can redirect the courses of nations with just a thought.
A million words cannot come close to describing these glorious riches, out of which He strengthens us.
God is not a hoarder. He does not store up these rich is for his own glory, although He could if He chose to. Instead, He shares them with us, His beloved people.
It is a quality of love that we want to share what we have and who we are with those whom we love. I may not be inclined to give $1,000 to my neighbour down the street, but I will share all I have with my children .
So God shares His riches with us because He loves us and He wants to strengthen our trust in Him.
One way that God strengthens us is through provision of our needs. I have seen on many occasions that the laws of economics fail when God is involved. He equips us to do more with less. He provides things that we could not have dreamed of. All of this is His good pleasure.
Another way that God strengthens us is through the fruit of the Spirit as recorded in Galatians 5:22. We may think that it is impossible for us to fulfil the calling that God has on our lives, but He will give an abundance of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. These qualities will not only enable us to do a task, but to become more like Jesus in the process.
Paul prays that God will strengthen us with power through the Spirit.
The power of God is demonstrated through the gifts of the Holy Spirit described in 1 Corinthians 12, and in the book of Acts. The power of God flows through a heart that is totally surrendered to God’s purposes.
When we speak out what God is saying, we may speak words of knowledge and wisdom or prophecy. When we minister the power of God, we see healings, miracles, and deliverance from evil spirits.
We may be strengthened in power through prayers that are answered. There is nothing that encourages faith so much as prayers being answered both through natural and miraculous methods. Many have poured out their hearts to the Lord seeking a blessing that seems impossible and have been awestruck when God came through.
In all of these ways, and many more, God strengthens us. These are manifestations of the power of God.
All of this is brought about by God’s spirit, the Holy Spirit, in our inner being. This Is a miracle.
C.S. Lewis talks about christians being a new species. We are outwardly the same as every other person, but there is something fundamentally different. We know that changes in a molecule called DNA can change an organism, including humans. Inserting a fragment of DNA can bring big changes. In the same way, God insert His Spirit into our spirit being.
All of the signs of God’s power flow from the Holy Spirit through us to the world. In the past, God’s Spirit might have been ”with” a person, but now He is “in” a person.
We no longer should think of God as somewhere else, because he is in us wherever we go. We have no need of temples or special places to meet with God. We are the temple.
The Holy Spirit is alive in each of us. Therefore He can strengthen us with His power that is already in us.
We are often held back by the lies we believe. We might feel that we are not good enough, or holy enough, to be used by God. We might think that we could never be as Godly as that other person.
The truth is that we all have access to the Father through the power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us.
Key points in this verse:
- God has unlimited glorious riches that are physical and spiritual
- God shares his riches with us because he loves us
- The power of the Holy Spirit is in us and can strengthen us.
- God is not limited by our weakness
Reflection on 2 John 1-13
Scripture
I say this because many deceivers have gone out int the world. They deny that Jesus Christ came in a real body. Such a person is a deceiver and an antichrist.
Observation
John writes this letter to “the chosen lady”, probably referring to a local church. He declares that he was happy to have met some of the “children” of the lady, finding them living according to the truth.
We must live in love for one another according to the commandment of God. Many deceivers have gone out into the world. These people deny that Jesus came in a physical body.
If anyone comes into a meeting teaching lies about Christ, we should not give them any kind of encouragement.
Application
There were many sects and heresies that sprang up in the early decades of the church.
One of the more persistent heresies was called Gnosticism. According to the Gnostics, we can only achieve salvation by learning knowledge that was hidden from most people, but was revealed to a select few. They drew in teachings from many religions, including Christianity. The core belief of these groups was that the physical world, including our bodies, is evil, but the spirit world is good.
We know that Jesus came into the world, in the normal way, as a complete human being, including a body. For many people it was impossible to believe that a perfect God could dwell in a physical body. So they denied that Jesus had a body, and that He died in that body.
John says that to follow such teachings is to be against Christ, that is antichrist.
Our beliefs are important because they determine how we believe. For John, the important doctrine that Jesus came into the world in the form of a man, with a body, was the basis for us to love other people with the love of God. To abandon this belief would eventually mean abandoning love for one another.
Not all of us are called to be theologians, but we all must check that the things we think and say correspond to the Bible.
Prayer
Holy Spirit, please convict me about the things that I think and the things that I do, in whatever way I go against your will. Amen.
Reflection on 1 John 5:11-21
Scripture
We know that we are children of God and that the world is controlled by the evil one.
Observation
God has given us eternal life through His Son. Anyone who has the Son has life, and anyone who does not have the Son does not have life.
When we see a brother or sister sinning, we should pray for that person to repent. There is a sin which leads to death; not every sin leads to death.
We know that we are children of God and that the world is under the control of the evil one. We live in fellowship with the Son of God, and therefore we live in fellowship with the true God.
Application
There is a huge gulf between the children of God and the people of the world. The world and its people are controlled by the evil one. The children of God are led by God.
This is not to say that we should avoid unsaved people or look down on them. We should love them with the love of Jesus who loved the world enough to die for it. We should love them and seek to win them to Him.
At the same time, we should understand that the gospel will never be popular in the world. Most people do not want to know that they are sinners, although there are many people who long for their Redeemer.
We should also work at redeeming institutions that the world controls- education, entertainment, politics, and culture. Jesus is greater than satan, and He alone can rescue the world, its people and its structures.
Prayer
Thank you Lord for saving me. Thank you that I am led and directed by you and not by the evil one. Amen.
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