June 10 Matthew 6 "For Thine is the Kingdom"

This theme fits well into our annual theme of "From the Garden to the City - Trees along the Way." The "city" represents the kingdom of God in its fullness. Close to the beginning of the prayer we pray "Your Kingdom Come," now at the end of the prayer, we are once again reminded that the Kingdom, power and Glory all belong to Him. This is a prayer with a profound kingdom focus at both the beginning and the end. In this sermon, I hope to talk about a healthy desire for the kingdom - as represented in the New Jerusalem. Jerusalem was the desire of Israel in the Old Testament. It was the place where their king had his throne. It was the place where God sat enthroned on the Ark of the Covenant. It was placed on a high hill, and so Israel would sing its songs of ascent and longing on their way up to Jerusalem. When Jerusalem was taken and pillaged by the Assyrians, the people of Israel sat at the river side and wept. To have ones name in the citizenship scrolls of Jerusalem was to have your name remembered eternally as a possessor of the promised land. Thus Israel kept long geneological records that incidentally were destroyed in 70AD. Now the book of Hebrews tells us that our citizenship is in heaven, the new Jerusalem, our names written in the book of life. And this city will never be taken. We are secure in the city where there will be no more crying, tears, or pain. Don't you find yourself hungry for that at times? Maybe more often than not? Yet its seems that we are reluctant to talk about what heaven is like. Maybe that's because, when push comes to shove, we are often reluctant to talk about "the kingdom" because we are not quite sure what it should really look like. To say that the Kingdom is wherever "Jesus is Lord" is theologically true but painting a picture of that is sometimes less than clear. Should the church be giving courses in how to become poor (Matthew 5:3)? Or "The five easy steps to hungering and thirsting for righteousness" (Matthew 5:10)? Or "The two best strategies to fall off the social ladder and become the least" (Matthew 5:19)? Or "The eighteen mysterious secrets of the kingdom" (Matthew 13:11)? Kingdom and the New Jerusalem are concepts that intermingle. Are we people who seek first the kingdom (the New Jerusalem) and its righteousness? How hungry are we?

If you are really brave, you might want to check out my research on the city of Jerusalem... in the third comment below.

What do you think the "markers" of the kingdom are? What would church look like if the kingdom of God came to a more perfect expression among us? Your ideas or input on this sermon or future sermons is deeply appreciated.

"True godliness is always a matter of desire." and "desires are true prayers." Charles Spurgeon (http://sovereign-grace.com/spurgeon-sn/chsn0034.htm)

On Knowledge and Desire according to Augustine see http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3664/is_200110/ai_n8958098/pg_6

"“Desires for other things”—there’s the enemy. And the only
weapon that will triumph is a deeper hunger for God. The weakness
of our hunger for God is not because he is unsavory, but
because we keep ourselves stuffed with “other things.”" - John Piper Hunger for God p. 10

"The fight of faith is a fight to feast on all that
God is for us in Christ. What we hunger for most, we worship." - John Piper Hunger for God p. 10

Whom have I in heaven but thee?
And there is nothing upon earth
that I desire besides thee.
My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart
and my portion for ever.
—PS A L M 7 3 : 2 5 - 2 6 , R S V

"Christian fasting, at its root, is the hunger of a homesickness for
God." - John Piper Hunger for God p. 14

"The greatest enemy of hunger for God is not poison but apple pie.
It is not the banquet of the wicked that dulls our appetite for
heaven, but endless nibbling at the table of the world. It is not
the X-rated video, but the prime-time dribble of triviality we
drink in every night. For all the ill that Satan can do, when God
describes what keeps us from the banquet table of his love, it is
a piece of land, a yoke of oxen, and a wife (Luke 14:18-20). The
greatest adversary of love to God is not his enemies but his gifts.
And the most deadly appetites are not for the poison of evil, but
for the simple pleasures of earth. For when these replace an
appetite for God himself, the idolatry is scarcely recognizable,
and almost incurable." - John Piper Hunger for God p. 14

John Piper is an excellent writer and a great theologian - and guess what - he is offering his books on the internet to readers for FREE! Future Grace is a great book, a good read. Check his books out @ http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/OnlineBooks/ByTitle/

June 3 Matthew 6, "Deliver us from Evil"

In the Lord's prayer, we regularly pray "Deliver us from evil" (or "the Evil one"). How aware are we of the forces of evil in our time? Paul says that "we fight not against flesh and blood but against powers and spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."(Ephesians 6) How aware of these spiritual influences are we?

D. H. Lawrence, as early as 1923 D. H. Lawrence, described the new spiritual atmosphere that was possessing (what would become Nazi) Germany:
"It is as if life had retreated eastwards. As if the Germanic life were slowly ebbing away from contact with western Europe, ebbing to the deserts of the east...
Returning again to the fascination of the destructive east, that produced Attila... at night you feel strange things stirring in the darkness, strange feelings stirring out of this still unconquered Black Forest. You stiffen your backbone and you listen to the night. There is a sense of danger. It is not the people. They don’t seem dangerous. Out of the very air comes a sense of danger, a queer, bristling feeling of uncanny danger.
Something has happened. Something has happened which has not yet eventuated. The old spell of the old world has broken, and the old, bristling, savage spirit has set in. . . . Something has happened to the human soul, beyond all help. . . . It is a fate; nobody now can alter it. . . . At the same time, we have brought it about ourselves—by a Ruhr occupation, by an English nullity, and by a German false will. We have done it ourselves. But apparently it was not to be helped." (Quoted from Walter Wink, "Engaging the Powers: Discernment and Resistance in a World of Domination." p. 53)

Have you experienced the evil one in your life? How and when? How does the evil get at you? What in your opinion are some of its main strategies? Your input is invited!

May 27 - Pentecost Sunday Morning: From the Garden to the City - Trees along the Way - the first taste

We have been on a journey together that started with the promises of the Garden in the Old Testament. Scripture tells us that the fulfillment of those promises is a city that comes down out of heaven filled with the glory of the Lord called "the New Jerusalem." In our journey, we have come to Pentecost - the first taste of the city.

Acts 2 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. ^2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. ^3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. ^4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues ^a as the Spirit enabled them.

The Fellowship of the Believers

^42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. ^43 Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. ^44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. ^45 Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. ^46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, ^47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

^a Or languages; also in verse 11

The early church in its birth was experiencing a foretaste of the city of God. It strikes me that the city, as represented in Acts 2:42-47 was characterized by the following kingdom principles:

1. Citizens were devoted (they persisted in) to the apostle's teaching, to fellowship (Koinonia), to breaking of the bread (The Eucharist) and to prayer. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, their faith became reliable and consistent. Even their attendance to the building of community became very reliable. It seems to me that the focus of this "taste of the new city" is that God and the truths of his kingdom along with his people came before everything else. "Seek first the kingdom..." This was the culture of the new city.

2. Citizens became remarkably generous, willing to sell their possession in order to share with those in need, regarding themselves as stewards of what God had given them. It seems to me that ideally, in the city, this is possible. Isn't it ironic that we live so close to each other, each with our little plot of grass, yet we all have our own mower and hardly ever share with one another. The disease of the present city is individualism, materialism and loneliness. The taste of the new city culture in Pentecost is a radical contrast from what we experience today.

3. They met with each other daily. Here is a picture of connectedness. Once again, only possible in the city where we can meet our neighbours on our walks, etc. Their connection even went to the point of common meals (BBQs?) and feasted together (or at least a "love feast - which according to Krieder, were feasts where the rich waited for the poor to eat first, where they shared their wealth with the needy and the least became first) in their homes. The dynamic of today's cities however is that we are remarkably disconnected. Many of us do not know the names of our immediate neighbours. Yet we are so physically close together. Yet we are so disconnected from one another. The culture we live in and the culture we look forward to in the new City are dramatically different.

4. They celebrated! They were marked as a people who praised God. Revelation clearly pictures throngs joined in worship and celebration. This is a culture of happiness for tears and sorrows will be wiped away. Joy never ending! Wow! How different from our cities where a lack of generosity and a pervasive individualism results in homelessness, poverty, brokenness, secrecy, pain etc. etc.

5. This culture was magnetic! For those who hunger for the kingdom - it is the ideal. Every day people were being added. (There is however good evidence that many also were not added - and even though they enjoyed good favour at first, by Acts 6, major persecution had started.)

Every city, every church has a culture. How close to the culture of the New city is our church?
In your experience of the cities we live in - is the city as we know it a foretaste of the eternal kingdom of God, or is it a foretaste at all in any way at all?
How do you picture the city, the new Jerusalem, that God is bringing to us? What excites you about it?

Feel free to add any of your own questions or themes that you might like to see addressed in this sermon or future sermons.

Possible theme song of Response: "Take us to the River" by Robin Mark

Pastor Bill