A, Mid Week Lent 4- Sermon Series "The Litany of Jesus' Treasures - Love"

By the love of Jesus, Lord teach us how to love.

The treasure of love Jesus gives us, is a treasure that lasts for an eternity.  What is this treasure?  It’s Jesus himself, his sacrifice, his life for your life, eternal life swapped at the cross for death and descent into hell.

Jesus’ treasure of love is all about life!  God the Father loves life, he loves to give life.  His love comes to all people regardless of them, knowing about, or, wanting his love.  God’s love flows to humanity through his giving of life in the world.  All that God created is a gift of love to humanity, and in this creation, he continues to love us by providing all we need.

God’s love also comes to us physically and effectively in Jesus Christ.  Jesus is sent and he comes to us because of the Father’s love for us.  Jesus loves us and he loves God the Father and therefore lovingly follows the will of God the Father.

Jesus giving himself to us in love, is about eternal life.  God the Father provides for us in this created world, and he gives us Jesus Christ so we might have new life in his eternal realm.  Jesus is God’s gift of eternal love to us!

We hear from Luke chapter ten, “And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, ‘Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?’  He said to him, ‘What is written in the Law? How do you read it?’  And he answered, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbour as yourself.’  And he said to him, ‘You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.’” (Luke 10:25–28 ESV)

The law man meets Jesus.  He is second to none in his knowledge and practise of the Old Testament Law.  He asks the Gospel Man about life who directs him back to the Law and from it we hear the summary of the Ten Commandments,  ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbour as yourself.’  To which Jesus gives the Lawyer the “Law answer” to life,  “do this, and you will live”.

Notice the Law answer is about us doing the loving.  If humanity could love God the right way, then we could get eternal life.

Now, from Mark chapter ten, hear Jesus’ interaction with someone else who seeks eternal life, “And as Jesus was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, ‘Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’  And Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.  You know the commandments…  And he said to him, ‘Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.’  And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, ‘You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.’  Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.” (Mark 10:17–19a, 20­–22 ESV) 

Jesus loved him!  He told him what to do, to get rid of his treasures to receive treasures in heaven.  To love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbour as yourself, is what one must do to love God, and to receive eternal life.

Two problems loom at this point.  Can we do this love effectively enough to receive God’s love and eternal life?  And secondly, when Jesus looked at the man and loved him, it does not sound like he loved him, in his response, and the man’s reaction.  What is going on?  What is this love?  How do we love as Jesus loved?

Jesus loving look at the man and reply does not invoke feelings of love from the man, but rather sorrow and looking away from Jesus back to his possessions.

Immediately after this, “Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, ‘How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!’  And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, ‘Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God!  It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.’  And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, ‘Then who can be saved?’  Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.’  Peter began to say to him, ‘See, we have left everything and followed you.’”  (Mark 10:23–28 ESV)

Peter and the disciples still did not get what this love was all about.  Yes, he and the disciples had left everything to follow Jesus, but they did not understand the fullness of “everything”, nor to where they were following him! 

To where was Jesus looking when he looked at the man and loved him?  To where was Jesus looking when he said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God.  For all things are possible with God.”

We hear from Luke chapter nine, “When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.”  (Luke 9:51 ESV)

Jesus’ love for the lawyer, and the man he looked at in love, was not that he gave them a method through which to love God and receive eternal life.  But rather Jesus’ love, for them, and us, is at the cross, Jesus loved God the Father with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength and with all his mind, and his neighbour as himself.  Jesus loves us in the fulfilment of the Law at the cross.

Notice the Gospel is about Jesus loving us where we fail to love him through the Law!

So, what do we learn from Jesus’ love for us, so we might learn to love one another?  Hear what Jesus says to Simon Peter after his resurrection…

“‘Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?’ He said to him, ‘Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.’ He said to him, ‘Feed my lambs.’  He said to him a second time, ‘Simon, son of John, do you love me?’ He said to him, ‘Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.’ He said to him, ‘Tend my sheep.’  He said to him the third time, ‘Simon, son of John, do you love me?’ Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, ‘Do you love me?’ and he said to him, ‘Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my sheep’.  And after saying this he said to him, ‘Follow me.’”  (John 21:15–17,19b ESV)

Little do we realise we have the eternal treasure of love now, as we follow Jesus.  He allows the Law to show us our sin, and therefore our death, to face us towards eternal life.  Like the man asking what he should do to earn eternal life, we do well to not walk away disheartened, but to keep following Jesus to the foot of the cross.  It’s here he swapped and continues to swap our sin and sinfulness for his sinlessness and righteousness.

For us humans to enter into a relationship of love, we “follow Jesus”.  Like Peter, God is working in you with his Holy Spirit, teaching you the possibilities of God as he reveals the impossibilities of our perishable possessions, our time bound by death, and sinful selves.   God the Father, and God the Son continue to love us by giving us renewed life in the Holy Spirit. 

Notice the Holy Spirit loves to give new life in Jesus Christ’s work of love!

Like Peter, we are being taught and inspired by the Holy Spirit that giving up “everything” to follow Jesus, first begins with giving up the powers and principles within ourselves, which are really nothingness, so the powers and principles of our Triune God work in us and through us, giving us everything to die to self and love others as God loves us.   

Jesus says, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.  You are my friends if you do what I command you.  No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.  You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.  These things I command you, so that you will love one another.”  (John 15:12–17 ESV)

God continues to love us, now we have the power to love God and others, because the Holy Spirit wells up faith within us.  This is a faith in the faithfulness of Jesus’ love toward us, and in it the Spirit empowers within us an enduring love to be faithful towards one another, to feed and forgive, and humbly seek forgiveness too.

A, Mid Week Lent 3- Sermon Series "The Litany of Jesus' Treasures - Work"

By the toils of Jesus, Lord teach us how to work; allowing the Holy Spirit to inspire work within us.  Amen.

If you’re going to do the job, you may as well do it right the first time.

But how was God to do the work of saving humanity?  He tested humanity and showed that anointing the Israelites as his chosen people was not good enough.  He placed kings over Israel and they too failed.  His most faithful king, King David, also turned away from God, trusting the strength of his own fighting men.  Even David, was not good enough!  God had to find the right way for humanity to fulfill all righteousness; one that was effective, functional, and perfect.

God needed the work to be more than just pragmatic, that is, done because a certain deed works, or  for the love of the deed.  No!  He needed the work done to convey his deep love for humanity.  This love needed not just be practical but personal, relational, and demonstrate to the recipient their worth to God the Father, and his willingness to make the recipient holy.  Only through becoming holy can a person come to God without fear of God’s almighty holiness causing death.

It seems God the Father was in a bit of a quagmire over how to sort out humanity’s sin and at the same time, give us access into his holy presence, for a relationship that brings life rather than death.

In Jesus Christ, our Heavenly Father found the effective, functional, and perfect answer to bring the work of righteousness to completion.

Last Sunday, we heard Jesus at Jacob’s Well with the Samaritan Woman.  Here, Jesus proves to be the perfect mediator between a Holy God and a sinful woman.  Without fear the woman speaks to Jesus, and without condemning the woman, Jesus condemns her sin and gives her his Word of life, God the Father’s Word of life!

To the woman, Jesus teaches and says, “[T]he hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.  God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”  (John 4:23–24 ESV)

Then to his disciples, Jesus teaches and says, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.  …Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest.  I sent you to reap that for which you did not labour. …Others have laboured, and you have entered into their labour.”  (John 4:34,35b,38 ESV)

See how Jesus works!  He mediates the two together.  Sinner and teachers, so the sinner leaves to become the teacher, and the teachers learn that they are sinners. 

But the work Jesus does just does not end there!  We know if the work was finished here, it would be left undone, and the sinners would not have the power to teach, and the teachers would lose the power to learn about their sin.  God needed to do the complete job.  If he was going to do the job he needed to do it right.  If there was to be righteousness on earth, Jesus needed to finish, complete, or fulfil all righteousness.

The mediation work of Jesus was completed on the cross, when Jesus cried out, “it is finished”!  He hung his head, and he died!  The work was done!

God now calls you to hang your heads, and know that, “it is finished!”  His work is done and so too is yours.  However, like the disciples Jesus taught, you are called to enter into the labour of others, to continue the work of others!

Therefore, the teacher-sinner paradox continues.  Jesus’ work is finished in you, but now through you he seeks to finish it in others.

It now seems we are in the same quagmire as God.  We have been finished, but death is not finished for all others.  In fact, certain elements of death still remain with us in this life, and will not be finished until the death of eternal death in our earthly death.  How do we demonstrate the death of eternal death to others, while we live on this side of death? Or, how do we teach others about life in the realm of death?

What does God’s Word say?  We go back to the work and Word of Jesus!  See how he functioned while he lived under the sentence of death, and listen to what he taught, knowing his death and resurrection justifies what he said and taught.

True worshippers of God the Father, workers of God, worship in spirit and in truth. 

Jesus said, “‘it is finished’, bowed his head and gave up his spirit.” (John 19:30 ESV)  You and I are called to give up our spirits and know it is finished.  This involves allowing the Holy Spirit to give us life, having died to sin, so he can inspire us to live in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. 

We the sinners, learn from our sinfulness to become the teachers, continually being taught by the Holy Spirit and Jesus’ righteous work, what the toil of God is.  So, what is the toil of God, given to us?  It is the work of holiness.

Paul gives us the reality of Jesus’ finishing work, saying, “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?  If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him.  For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.”  (1 Corinthians 3:16–17 ESV)

The paradox of God’s holy work is strange to the world, and therefore, takes time to sort itself out in us.  This is because we still struggle with the works of darkness and death!  But God the Holy Spirit is constantly bringing us to the completed work of Jesus Christ on the cross.  In fact, this is the work and purpose of the Holy Spirit in us, as individuals, and within the worshipping community of those needing to gather around Jesus Christ.  The Holy Spirit works to call, gather, and enlighten us with faith in Jesus Christ’s work.

Jesus left humanity’s visual presence, but he has not gone!  He is hidden but now we see him with faith, given through the Holy Spirit’s work. 

God the Father perfectly finishes the job by sending Jesus Christ, to work salvation on the cross.  He continues this work, by also sending the Holy Spirit, to finish this salvation in us, by constantly leading us to Jesus Christ, out of our sins.  You are both a student and a teacher of the Holy Spirit!

In this finishing school of the Holy Spirit, Jesus says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.” (John 14:12 ESV)

What is it you learn and teach?  What are these strange works, we both learn from, and teach?  What are the good works, the greater works we do now, since we are under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, who makes us alive in Jesus Christ, so we can reflect this life, to the masses who are dead and dying around us?

These are the works of confession!  Confessing our sin, learning from what God teaches us about his forgiveness of sin, and teaching others about how they can be forgiven, by sharing what God has forgiven, and how God has forgiven in Jesus Christ.

In this finishing school of the Holy Spirit, “we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10 ESV)

Let us allow the Holy Spirit to foster in us, “what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places.”  (Ephesians 1:19–20 ESV)

Amen.

Next week: we hear about the love of Jesus, so we might allow the Holy Spirit to inspire us to love.

A, Mid Week Lent 2- Sermon Series "The Litany of Jesus' Treasures - Gift"

By the gifts of Jesus,     Lord teach us how to give.

The gifts of Jesus, so we might allow the Holy Spirit to inspire us to give.

Lord God Heavenly Father, send your Holy Spirit so we might rightly use your Word, to hear and learn how to give as Jesus gave to us.  Amen.

Come Lord Jesus be our guest and let these gifts to us be blessed.  Amen.

We all know this table grace.  Some of us say, “let this food to us be blessed”. 

Did you know praying before a meal is a continuation of the rabbinic practice of ritual cleansing oneself before a meal! 

A two handled cup is used to wash the hands and is followed by this prayer, “Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the universe, who has sanctified us with Your commandments, and commanded us concerning the washing of the hands.”

This rabbinic practice extended to all Jews, and therefore, we hear Jesus giving thanks many times throughout his ministry.  In fact, Jesus most closely adhered to the traditions of the Pharisees, which is why he came into conflict with them so often.

Ritual purity was central for a faithful Pharisee, so they could be sanctified before God.  However, Jesus’ purity before God was done for no other reason than to give glory to God, whereas the Pharisees practiced the rituals to be glorified in themselves, and by those around them who honoured them for being “so holy”.

We give thanks before a meal, so what we put into our bodies does not defile us and make us unholy. So we receive it as a blessing from God.

In Matthew fifteen, we hear the Pharisees complain to Jesus that the disciples do not wash when they eat.  This is not a complaint about hygiene, but rather about one’s ritual practise and holiness before God.

However, Jesus teaches, “Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled?  But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person.  For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.  These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.” (Matthew 15:17–20 ESV)

Jesus’ thanksgiving is not so much about what goes into the mouth but on what the heart is set, when one eats.  It’s at this point I now understand mum scolding me, concerning gluttony, on eating too many sweets when I was a child.  She would say, “One eats to live, not lives to eat!”

So, to give thanks as Jesus gives thanks, we give thanks to God for giving us earthly gifts to sustain us as we wait to receive the fullness of the heavenly gift of eternal salvation.  We eat to live in preparation for eternity, to feast in Paradise with thee.

Jesus’ thanksgiving opens to us his motives for giving.  It’s from what Jesus gives that is remarkable.  It’s not just a lesson on giving, but it’s also one of trust.  Jesus’ gift to you and me is a giving through faith.

As last week, in understanding Jesus’ prayers, to learn how we pray, and how to pray, we return to Philippians 2, to learn the motives of Jesus’ giving, what Jesus gives to us, the cost to him, and the value of what it is he gives to us.

Saint Paul says, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.  Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.  Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,  but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.  And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”  (Philippians 2:3–8 ESV)

Jesus gives thanks, but not as we give thanks.  The position from which he gives thanks is quite profound in light of the situation from which he gives.  We thank God for our food, with it usually sitting in front of us, but Jesus gives thanks in faith, with as little as five loaves of bread and two small fish to feed five thousand.

On Maundy Thursday, Jesus took the cup and the bread, and when he had given thanks, he gave the broken bread and wine to his disciples.  (Luke 22:17-20)   To give thanks to God the Father, knowing the body and blood to be given and shed, the very next day was to be his own, takes a humility more significant than all others. 

Jesus emptied himself!  What was left to give?  Nothing?  No!  His life! 

From a seemingly impossible position he gives.  In the same way, as something was made out of next to nothing to feed five thousand, Jesus allowed himself to be made nothing, and even then, gave everything for you and me.

Before Jesus gave himself on the cross, he makes an observation while at the temple in Jerusalem…

“Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the offering box,  and he saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins.  And he said, ‘Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them.  For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.’”  (Luke 21:1–4 ESV)

Like the widow, Jesus gave out of his poverty of human spirit, trusting in God by the work of the Holy Spirit.  How does your giving match up next to Jesus’ giving?  Our giving cannot match up to Jesus’ giving, this is the reason Jesus came and gave himself for us.  When you give to God, what do you think Jesus thinks of your giving?”  Do you give out of poverty like the widow or out of our abundance like the rich?

It’s here the Holy Spirit needs to step in before we condemn ourselves before God in our self-justification.  You and I need to be constantly brought back to the cross and receive the forgiveness of our many sins of gluttony, greed, withholding from God, and lack of trust in God’s providence.

We also need the Holy Spirit to inspire us, to give like Jesus gave.  We need the Spirit to motivate us in our giving so we, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than ourselves.  Let each of us look not only to our own interests, but also to the interests of others.  Have this mind in yourself, which is yours in Christ Jesus.”

We need the Spirit to give as Jesus gave, we need the Holy Spirit to trust Jesus’ gifts, so we receive them in faith, without hedging our bets, keeping back what we know God wants us to give to others.

Without the Holy Spirit, we are greatly stricken.  With the Holy Spirit, we know we are greatly stricken.  So, in our affliction the Holy Spirit gives us Jesus and we receive the gifts that came from his suffering and death on the cross.

Therefore, “What shall I render to the LORD for all his benefits to me?”  (Psalm 116:12 ESV) You are God’s saints!  You are precious in God’s sight.  The Holy Spirit comes from the Father and the Son to encourage you to die to self and give to God your trust, by giving to others what he has first given to you – yourself, your time, and your possessions.

May we not only pray, “Come Lord Jesus be our guest and let these gifts to us be blessed”.  But also pray and live our lives so, “Blessed be God who is our bread, may the world be clothed and fed.” Amen.

Next week - By the toils of Jesus, Lord teach us how to work.

A, Mid Week Lent 1- Sermon Series "The Litany of Jesus' Treasures - Prayer"

Matthew 26:36–45a (ESV) Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.”  And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled.  Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.”  And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”  And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, “So, could you not watch with me one hour?  Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”  Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.”  And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy.  So, leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again.  Then he came to the disciples and said to them, “Sleep and take your rest later on. See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.  Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand.”  

Why did Jesus pray?  Why does the church pray; why do believers pray? Why do you pray?  Or looking at it from the other way.  When you don’t pray to God the Father, what are your lack of words to him saying, and doing?   And if you’re not praying to God, is it possible to be praying to someone or something else?  If so, then what is the function and purpose of prayer?

Prayer is a wishing, willing, or asking someone for something. 

Jesus prayed during his earthly ministry.  He prayed for himself, and he prayed for others.  Tonight, we have heard Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane and his disciple’s weakness of flesh, falling asleep as he prayed.

Do you find Jesus’ prayer a bit peculiar?  He was born with the purpose to die for humanity.  He knew his mission and yet we hear him pray,  “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.”

It raises a few questions about Jesus and prayer. 

If he is the Son of God and knew God’s plan of salvation, why did he pray for the cup of suffering and death to be taken away?  And, being God the Son, why did he need to pray?  After all, he is God!

Jesus continued on in prayer to the Father, “nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”  Jesus asked God the Father for death and suffering to be taken away from him.  But he recognises, it’s not what he wants or asks for, but what God wants, needs, askes, pleasures, or wills for humanity that’s important.

Yet prayer is, at its most basic, an asking, and we hear in the Gospels that Jesus often is found alone praying to God the Father.  In prayer, he pours out his heart to God for himself and for those to whom he is sent. Why?

A misconception in the church is that a person who prays is a powerful person.  For that reason, many people don’t pray because they do not believe they are powerful enough; that they don’t have enough faith.

This is a misconception because they who think this, have little understanding of what Jesus is all about.

Those in Jesus’ day struggled with this mistaken belief too, when Jesus, Peter, James, and John return from the Mountain of Transfiguration and found the other disciples arguing with the scribes.

Jesus enquired as to what was going on,  “And someone from the crowd answered him, ‘Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a spirit that makes him mute.  And whenever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid.  So I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they were not able.’” (Mark 9:17-18 ESV) 

Jesus rebukes them for not having faith, speaks with the father of the boy, then heals him.  Later on in private the disciples asked Jesus, “‘Why could we not cast it out?’  And he said to them, ‘This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.’” (Mark 9:28 ESV)   

For us now, the mistake is made by believing Jesus has more power than the disciples.  But it was not power as we perceive it, rather it is in the power of faith.  Like the father of the boy, we do better than the disciples by crying out to Jesus, ”I believe, help my unbelief.” (Mark 9:24 ESV)   

The power of faith and prayer is misconstrued by those who have great physical strength, exceptional understanding, or earthly experience, yet a small child can exercise a faith far more powerful than the elite, the practised, or the strong.

This is the faith by which Jesus operated.  He asked or prayed to his Father, trusting like a small child, without doubt or false expectation.  Jesus asked and prayed with a pure faith, not in himself, but by the generating of faith by the Holy Spirit within him.  In essence, he prayed with no faith in himself, but with complete faith in his Father. 

However, the disciples who could not drive out the mute spirit from the child, couldn’t do so because they had too much faith in their own ability, and little in God working through their weakness.

On the other hand, Jesus’ prayer, faith, and ability was Holy Spirited and not from his own divine or human power.  Jesus, “though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,  but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.  And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death.”  (Philippians 2:6–8 ESV)

His death began at his baptism in the Jordan, where he put off his divinity and put on the Holy Spirit in his human weakness.  Despite his human spirit and flesh being weak, he faithfully worked in this weakness while on earth, and died in this weakness, though innocent and blameless.

Jesus’ passive trust in God the Father allowed him to exist, pray, heal, and live without sin in his human weakness, hence displaying the complete power of God, in his life and in his death. 

The disciples were to learn this first, and God calls us to learn that the true power of prayer is in the power of God working through those who truly believe they have no power in themselves. 

God exercises power through our weakness, as he did through Jesus having put off his divinity and lived in the weakness of human flesh. 

Once Jesus was glorified to the right hand of the Father, and the Holy Spirit was given at Pentecost, the disciples moved by the Holy Spirit, also displayed the power of God, spreading the Gospel, trusting in the power of God in the weakness of their flesh.

So, we as Christ’s church can look at the prayers of Jesus, why and how he prayed, so like him, we might allow the Holy Spirit to inspire us to pray with one hundred percent trust in God, and with trust that we are one hundred percent weak humans.

If you want to see the heart of Jesus’ prayers, read Jesus’ high priestly prayer in John seventeen, the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew six or Luke eleven, and also the Psalms.  These are the prayers Jesus gave to King David, King Solomon, and those others tasked to write Psalms so David and Solomon could lead the temple congregation in asking God for his will in their weakness.  In the same way, in the heavenly temple, Jesus continues to also pray his petitions of prayers for us who trust in him and who know we are weak!

These treasures of Jesus’ prayer life can be your treasure too.  You can pray like Jesus and your prayers will be as powerful as Jesus’ prayers, because they are joined with his work of prayer before the throne of God.  This happens when in your weakness you allow the Holy Spirit to work in you, just as Jesus let the Spirit work in his weak flesh. 

Pray for the Holy Spirit to take control of your human spirit!

As Saint Paul encourages the Philippians in the joy of his weakness, let us also be encouraged…    

So, if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.  Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.  Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.  Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus… (Philippians 2:1–5 ESV)

If you choose not to pray to God, have you the mind and heart of Jesus?  In the absence of prayers to God, one usually “prays”, ponders, meditates, or speaks to oneself. Praying like this might seem powerful but it leads one back into themselves and ends in mental anguish, helplessness, and self-destruction.

If you choose not to take what is yours in Jesus Christ, are you not placing your trust in the power of your human spirit, over the work of the Holy Spirit?  Choosing to do this, ends in sinning against the Holy Spirit, rejecting the gifts of Holy Spirited true faith so you’re not brought to forgiveness through Jesus’ death.

Why did Jesus pray?  Because he gave up the divine power of his being and was baptised into our weakness.  This is why he received the Holy Spirit.  

Why does the church pray; why do believers pray?  Because we know we are weak and need the Holy Spirit, to call us, gather us, and enlighten us, us with the gifts of God.

Why do you pray?  Why wouldn’t you, knowing who you truly are, and what Jesus did in true humility for you!  Amen.

A, Ash Wednesday- Matthew 6:19-21 "The Litany of Jesus' Treasures"

Matthew 6:19–21  Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Who is Jesus?  How do you explain Jesus to someone else?  Who is Jesus to you? What makes Jesus important to you, for you in your day-to-day life?

Jesus tells those who listen to his Sermon on the Mount, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasurers on earth… but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven…  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

In coming weeks, we will be examining a litany of Jesus’ life to see his treasure.  Then we can identify our treasure to gain a deeper understanding as to why and how Jesus gave up his divinity and served humanity through what he treasured.

Last Sunday we came to and from the Mountain of Transfiguration.  Now we travel with Jesus in remembrance to the Mountain of Calvary, to the cross, where the Gospel was nailed out for our deliverance from sin and death. 

We are being led to God’s kingdom, forgiven, and equipped to forgive.  Given what we need to walk the way of this wilderness through heartache and suffering.  But also, given it with hope in the great day of salvation, when Jesus will lead us through the Jordanian waters of death into the eternal land of milk and honey.

However, first we find ourselves on the mountain of teaching with Jesus as he opens up the Law to us in greater depth than the Old Testament, and with greater width than we can possibly fulfil during the length and breadth of our lives on earth.

Jesus begins the Sermon on the Mount with the beatitudes, “nine statements of blessedness”, then calls the hearer to be the “salt of the earth” and the “light of the world”. 

He explains that he has not come to abolish the law and the prophets but to fulfil them.  Then what would have surprised everyone he teaches, one’s righteousness needs to exceed that of the pharisees and scribes, to enter the kingdom of heaven.

He expounds the laws of murder and adultery to include, hatred and lust.  He teaches how to pray, giving them his prayer, the Lord’s Prayer, to turn meditation from themselves to God and his gifts.

What becomes apparent to all who listen with the right heart to his Sermon on the Mount, is that no one can fulfil what the law and the prophets have said.  And even more so!  Now, that Jesus has expanded the Commandments to include not glorifying the self, nor being anxious or worrying.  As well as increasing hating and calling one a fool into the same as murder, and likewise desiring with sexual hunger as the same as adultery. 

In the midst of his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus focuses on what are one’s treasures.   A treasure is literally anything that you set aside as security for yourself.  He then focuses us on the greater treasures of heaven.  But the sting he leaves with us is this:  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

What is your treasure, where is your heart?  What is your haven of heavenly treasure?

To work out firstly what your heaven might be, we can place ourselves in the shoes of the young man who came up to Jesus, enquiring…

“Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?”  And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.  The young man said to him, “All these I have kept. What do I still lack?”  Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”  When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.”  (Matthew 19:16-17, 20–22 ESV)

Jesus tells him to sell all his goods.  Or, to rid himself of all the things he deems good for his existence.

Now that you are in the shoes of this young man, how do you receive these words from Jesus?

This should rightfully make you feel uneasy.  With his word, Jesus cuts to the heart of every person’s treasure.  Or what we can rightfully call, goods or riches that have become idols or gods.

Jesus follows on, and says to his disciples, “Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven.  Again, I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”  (Matthew 19:23-24 ESV)

The disciples get the gist of Jesus’ word and on hearing, “they were greatly astonished, saying, “Who then can be saved?”  But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:25-26 ESV)

God gives us what we need to live, but we take these things and they become treasures greater than the treasures of heaven.  But they perish, and once we’ve made them our gods, we too are in danger of perishing with them. 

Yes!  We all die!  However, these earthly treasures tempt us to trust them and lead us away from being saved.  One’s treasures can lead, not just to a physical death, but an eternal death!

The treasures of the kingdom of heaven are only possible through God.

So, what Jesus was teaching at his Sermon on the Mount is that getting the treasures of heaven is only possible through him.

In a moment we are going to receive the imposition of ashes and I will announce to you as I place an ash cross on your forehead, “remember you are dust and to dust you shall return.”

We do this in full realisation that through humanity’s knowledge of good and evil, we lost access to God, and that we live under the curse of death.  But upon the knowledge of the law we live looking forward in faith in the knowledge of Jesus Christ.

During the Lenten season we will examine just what this knowledge of Jesus Christ is.  After the imposition of ashes, we will pray the “Litany on the Life of Jesus” which will be the form of our five meditations. We will also learn of the activity of God the Holy Spirit as Jesus passively lived seeking treasures of his Father in Heaven, his name, his kingdom, and his will, as he walks to the cross for us.

In this Litany of Jesus’ treasures, the Holy Spirit will seek to give you a deeper understanding and teaching of…

1)   The prayers of Jesus, so we might allow the Holy Spirit to inspire us to pray.

2)   The gifts of Jesus, so we might allow the Holy Spirit to inspire us to give.

3)   The toils of Jesus, so we might allow the Holy Spirit to inspire us to work.

4)   By the love of Jesus, so we might allow the Holy Spirit to inspire us to love.

5)   By the cross of Jesus, so we might allow the Holy Spirit to inspire us to live. 

In allowing the Holy Spirit to rule in our hearts, bringing us to Jesus, we will be Holy Spirit prepared to tell others what the Gospel is.  How we are blessed by forgiveness.  Understand for ourselves God’s purpose for us, despite the curse of sin and death in our lives.  And therefore, show the compassionate steadfast love and generosity we receive, to others, who like us, need God’s forgiveness and salvation.  Amen.