Have a less than perfect marriage and family?

“The Perfect Family”

(Matthew 19:1-15, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, January 27, 2008)

Matthew 19:1-15 Now when Jesus had finished these sayings, he went away from Galilee and entered the region of Judea beyond the Jordan. ² And large crowds followed him, and he healed them there. ³ And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, "Is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause?" ⁴ He answered, "Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, ⁵ and said, 'Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh'? ⁶ So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate." ⁷ They said to him, "Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?" ⁸ He said to them, "Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. ⁹ And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery." ¹⁰ The disciples said to him, "If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry." ¹¹ But he said to them, "Not everyone can receive this saying, but only those to whom it is given. ¹² For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let the one who is able to receive this receive it." ¹³ Then children were brought to him that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuked the people, ¹⁴ but Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven." ¹⁵ And he laid his hands on them and went away.

Introduction

It is no surprise to anyone that we live in a time of serious family difficulties. In our right concern about that, I wonder if we need to spend more time thinking about the blessed gift of marriage and children. Is it possible that our fearful hearts get stuck on the problems around us, particularly concerning our own guilt and shame, and we end up undervaluing the gift of family in our homes and especially in the Lord’s house?

Can the Lord heal our lives? (1-2)

It may help us to remember that the Lord Jesus Christ knows how to heal individuals. He also knows how to heal families. In the opening two verses of this chapter we simply marvel at the immediacy of the healing, and long to be more fully in His presence. There were large crowds following Him, full of broken people who needed help. Is that why you and I are here today? Brothers and sisters we have come to the place of healing, and our families need healing. We marvel at the fact that when Jesus was with those large crowds in Judea, “He healed them there.” We need healing, and we also need forgiveness, for we have violated His commandments in this area in our lives.

What God has joined together (3-6)

In Matthew 19 the Pharisees come and speak about divorce. Jesus changes the topic from the sad reality of broken relationships to the blessed gift of marriage. He brings us back to Genesis 2 and God’s provision of Eve that made the difference between “not good” and “very good.” The first “not good” in the Bible comes from the aloneness of the man. It is not good for the man to be alone. God made a powerful help for Him in the gift of His wife, who was like him, but not like him – opposite him, but not opposite him. At the end of the day, God would look at all He had done and would say, it was “very good.” He who made us male and female would say that one man from one family and one woman from a second family would be joined together in the creation of a new family. They were two, but now by God’s gift they are one and should be fruitful and multiply. We have to take in the wonder of that great gift.

There is a mystery here of the two becoming one, and the mystery is connected to physical intimacy that should be the private consummating act after a public commitment of a man and a woman who have now become husband and wife. The passage seems to say that God does something in that physical union that is a creation of one, where formally there were two. What God joins together in this way, man is not supposed to tear apart.

Hardness of heart (7-9)

Sadly man has done this and will do this until the Lord comes again. There are many reasons for this and every situation has its complexities. Most often, it seems that once things get very bad as sin is added to sin, there seems to be no way to make things right without what looks to be even more sin. Does a woman try to stay with a man who is putting her in dangerous situations? Where is the way out which avoids all sin? Does a couple stop a relationship that has gone too far, when it does not appear to be the right thing for them to marry? Does a man who has a pattern of falling into immorality do better to be married than to continue to seek the gift of a single life? These are just a few of the real life situations that people deal with.

To answer these questions we must take seriously not only the directives of Matthew 19, Matthew 5, First Corinthians 7, and many Old Testament passages that speak of marriage, but also general biblical directives to holiness, justice, charity, and wisdom. We also need to give serious consideration to our legal status as married or unmarried, and to our own holy desires as those loved by God and citizens of heaven by grace and not works.

Despite all of these complexities, the way of God presented for us in these verses is both simple and wonderful: one man and one woman together forever as a display of Christ and the church. The problem is not in God’s plan, but in our hard hearts. The only answer for that is continually to appeal to Christ for aid, which most often seems to come in the real life changes that take place in the midst of suffering.

In both the New and the Old Testament there is an acknowledgement of marital sin. For instance, in the Old Testament, the Law of Moses in Deuteronomy 24 put some limits on going back and forth between divorcing and remarrying the same woman with different marriages in between. The underlying teaching is no different than what Jesus is saying here and in Matthew 5. God expects us to stay together, and He is so certain of this that He will not let us treat His gift of marriage so casually that we think nothing of divorcing a woman, and then remarrying her later after she has been with another man who also divorced her. God was in no sense commanding or even recommending divorce. He did make some allowance for such behavior, just as the Apostle Paul seems to in 1 Corinthians 7 when he says that people should not divorce or separate from one another, but then he says that if they do, they should stay unmarried or reconcile. One may wonder what he would have said if we asked him, “But what if they get involved in another relationship? Then what?” We just don’t know, and we are unfortunately very creative in the number of ways that we violate God’s laws on these matters. Is this good? No, it is not. Does it surprise God? Not really. He is aware of our hardness of heart. Is there forgiveness for all manner of sin? Yes there is. Does that make it right? No, but there is forgiveness. All inappropriate immorality and divorcing and remarrying is against the seventh commandment. But there is much forgiveness through Christ’s blood.

Eunuchs for the Kingdom (10-12)

The clarity of the Lord’s instruction regarding the permanence of marriage caused some to wonder whether it might just be better not to marry at all. Many today seem to like that plan, but the Lord says that the ability to live without marriage is not something that everyone has. He says that some are unable from birth to consummate a marriage. Others have been hurt by men, and cannot perform the normal function of a husband. He then adds a third category. There are some who have determined not to marry in order to focus in a more devoted way on the work of God’s Kingdom. One should not presume to have such a gift of chaste single life when all the evidence seems to be against it. The point is that this is a special gift. Paul had this gift, and of course Jesus had this gift. The rest of the apostles apparently did not. Few men and women have the gift of happy singleness. Some find themselves in the single life though they do not believe that they are called by God to that life, and that is a difficult struggle. Singleness is not a natural gift for them, but a trial that needs to be received for a time, or perhaps for their lives.

The common pathway for most Christians in most times and places is to choose a husband or wife as wisely as possible, to wait for sexual intimacy until a public exchange of vows, and then to live in the enjoyment of marriage until the Lord takes a spouse away through death. It is also God’s usual plan that within the context of this marriage that the fruitfulness of children will be given. Either through birth or adoption, children are a great gift of the Lord. We need to thank God for them, and say with all of our hearts as we look at our families, “These are the ones that the Lord has graciously given.” (See Genesis 33:5.) The gift of a spouse is a marvelous blessing, and to add children around a family table is so very kind of the Lord.

This gift of family life is fundamental to Christianity, even though some will not experience it in the same way as others. The Lord has built family into the world, and into the church. Why is Jesus so intent on a forever marriage? Every marriage among men will end in some way as death takes its horrible toll. Is there a marriage that can last forever? Amazingly, there is such a marriage – the marriage of the Lord Jesus Christ with His church. Widows and orphans are invited into that most holy and fruitful marriage. Remember that the Lord Jesus did not turn away from His needy bride even when it cost Him His life in order to keep His covenant promise. We are a married people.

Let the little children come to Me (13-15)

Is there some fruitfulness that comes from this best of all marriages? It is wonderfully portrayed in the final verses of our text. They were bringing their children to Jesus for a blessing. The disciples thought that it was inappropriate, but Jesus insisted that they let the little children come to Him, and He blessed them, and said that the Kingdom belonged to such as these. We who have been urged to humbly come to the Lord of the church for blessing and healing are the children of the Kingdom as well as the bride of the Son of God. We have been given the gift of a perfect marriage and the best of all families. We enjoy this in the church now, and look for the sinless perfection of it at the coming again of the Lord.

Questions for meditation and discussion:

1. How were the Pharisees expecting to trap Jesus with this question?

2. Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife without any cause?

3. What are some of the ways that men effectively separate what God has joined together?

4. Is there any reasonable use of the final verses here to support infant baptism?

Forgiven and forgiving

“If Your Brother Sins Against You”

(Matthew 18:15-35, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, Jan. 20, 2008)

Matthew 18:15-35 ¹⁵ "If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. ¹⁶ But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. ¹⁷ If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. ¹⁸ Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. ¹⁹ Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. ²⁰ For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them." ²¹ Then Peter came up and said to him, "Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?" ²² Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven. ²³ "Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. ²⁴ When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. ²⁵ And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. ²⁶ So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, 'Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.' ²⁷ And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. ²⁸ But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, 'Pay what you owe.' ²⁹ So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, 'Have patience with me, and I will pay you.' ³⁰ He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. ³¹ When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. ³² Then his master summoned him and said to him, 'You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. ³³ And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?' ³⁴ And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. ³⁵ So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart."

Introduction – Brothers

One of the surprising facts about growing up and moving away from home is that the family contacts that are so much a part of your identity may not be a part of your daily life ever again. I shared a room with my brother Chris for fourteen years of my life until he went away to college. He taught me so many things. We use to sing in a variety of public settings, and spent hours practicing together. I was his best man when He got married, and I was only a sophomore in high school at the time. But already by that point my brother had become a more distant figure in my life. This was shocking to me. As siblings grow up, get married, move away, and pursue their own interests and responsibilities, it is only natural that even close brothers would lose the daily connection that was once a part of their normal lives. The emotional distance that can develop over the years can be a very sad change, even though there may be no matter of conflict driving a wedge between brothers.

Sin and brothers (15-17)

This is a much more serious problem when there is a real breach between brothers caused by sin. The hard feelings caused by some offense can make any kind of communication very difficult. In the church we are part of the Lord’s family. Others who are with us are called brothers and sisters in Christ. Our Lord has given us a way to deal with sin among brothers. This method can be useful in many different settings, but here Christ speaks about relationships in His church. The system is very straight forward. Let me highlight some of the principles.

1. Private conflicts are best resolved privately and directly.

2. Only broaden the discussion of sin in the case when your brother refuses to listen to you.

3. Only bring the matter formally to the church when the conflict cannot be resolved informally.

4. If someone refuses to listen to the correction of the church, that person is no longer a brother in Christ.

Before we would ever use the simple procedures outlined in these verses, we need to take a good look at our own hearts. When we become involved in conflict with someone who was once close to us, it hurts very much. Before we lash out against someone with an accusation, we need to ask ourselves what we are trying to do. Do you want to love your brother or hate your brother? Do you want to gain your brother or do you want to lose your brother? If you simply want someone to be declared wrong so that you can be right, then you don’t want the commands that Jesus is giving in Matthew 18. These procedures are for someone who wants to gain his brother, not for someone who wants to be done with his brother.

I could speak to you in greater detail concerning the method of personal correction and church accountability that Jesus teaches us about here, but I think that the specifics of addressing sin and conflict are best discussed in a different setting, where you can ask questions. This kind of system of loving family accountability requires a level of trust and receptivity to godly correction that few seem genuinely open to in our day. Remember also that Matthew 18 is not the only passage in the Bible concerning conflict and sin within the church. Every problem does not need to be pursued officially or quickly. There is a place for patience, mutual forbearance, a willingness to be wronged rather than to cause a breach, and a love that covers over a multitude of sins. Keep that in mind as you try to live charitably with others in the family of Christ.

With all of that said, the system taught in Matthew 18 is for the good of the church, and occasionally it must be pursued even to the painful conclusion of the removal of someone from the church who simply refuses to hear the teaching of Jesus Christ on some matter of the Christian life. There is a limit to what the church can do in correcting sin. The removal of a person from the Lord’s Table is that limit. That is a very serious thing, and it is what the Lord is referring to when He mentions that we then need to treat a former brother as a “Gentile” or “tax-collector.” The point is that they were once insiders to the family of God, but now they are declared to be outsiders. Each situation is different, but there are even some cases where the church may come to the conclusion that it is no longer spiritually safe to have contact with a person.

Earthly and heavenly binding loosing (18-20)

When Jesus speaks of telling the “church” or “assembly” about an offense, the word assembly used here refers to the smaller assembly within the larger church that has the special job of making official decisions about who is part of the family and who is not. This is supposed to be done by the elders of the church who have a special role of spiritual oversight for the members of the congregation. In verses 18-20, Jesus emphasizes that the decisions of the judicial assembly of the church are very serious. They cannot be lightly dismissed. The Lord connects these decisions with the authority of heaven.

That is not to say that the church always makes those decisions perfectly, or that God will not correct our errors on judgment day. The Lord knows who are His, and churches throughout history have made many mistakes. The judge of all the earth will certainly do right. Doing this job that God commits to the elders of the church is a very difficult task. He encourages them in their duty by telling them that heaven takes these decisions seriously, and most importantly, that where two or three are gathered in His name, He is there with us. Every elder involved in making difficult decisions affecting the lives of people for whom Christ died needs to meditate carefully upon this last point. Jesus needs to be the One who leads us in our deliberations. Jesus is with us in our struggles – and not just with one church in one town, but in millions of churches all over the earth. We need to ask for the aid of the Holy Spirit and the leadership of the Lord, so that we will remember that our goal in all of this is that the forgiveness of God would be known and experienced in the family of God as we all turn away from sin, and turn toward the joy of our holy Father in heaven.

How often? (21-22)

Speaking of forgiveness, two questions come up in the remainder of our passage. First, how often should I forgive my brother who sins against me? Peter suggests seven times. This is a commendable answer. Peter has at least gotten the point that we are supposed to forgive, and he has come up with an amazingly gracious answer of seven times. When was the last time that someone seriously sinned against you and you had an opportunity to forgive the person seven times for repeating the same offense?

The rule I was taught was “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” The point of that saying was that a smart person will forgive once. After that you are on your own. Peter’s guess is good, but Jesus’ answer is shocking. By seventy-seven times, Jesus is not saying that on the seventy-eighth time you no longer have the Christian duty of extending forgiveness. The point is that you need to forgive over and over and over again. It is a gospel duty.

How much? (23-35)

The second question is, how much of an offense should I forgive? The servant in the parable is forgiven a personal debt that would amount to billions of dollars. He says, “Be patient and I will repay.” Even with such a ridiculous plea, his master actually forgives the debt entirely. Then the forgiven man shows that He does not understand the forgiveness that seemed to be his. He starts choking someone who owes him about $5,000. That is not a small amount, but it is nothing compared to the billions that he owed his master.

The point here is that the person who truly receives mercy will be merciful. How much have you been forgiven? The only way to understand the size of the offense that you have committed against God is by looking at what it cost to pay for your forgiveness. The sinless Son of God gave His precious blood for you. You owed billions upon billions that you never could have paid. Remember that, and then be willing to hear the confession of your brother who has committed much smaller offenses against you. Love your brother, stay close to him, and forgive him.

Questions for meditation and discussion:

1. What is the procedure taught here for dealing with offenses in the church?

2. What does it mean for the church to treat someone as an outsider?

3. What is our duty concerning people who sin against us repeatedly, but who are not seeking forgiveness from us?

4. What are some of the ways for us to consider the seriousness of the debt that Christ has paid for us?

What is greatness?

“Child of the Father”

(Matthew 18:1-14, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, January 13, 2008)

Matthew 18:1-14 At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" ² And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them ³ and said, "Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. ⁴ Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. ⁵ "Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, ⁶ but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. ⁷ "Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes! ⁸ And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire. ⁹ And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire. ¹⁰ "See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven. ^{11 12} What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? ¹³ And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. ¹⁴ So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.

Introduction – The gift of a child

There are few experiences in life that can cause a person to be overwhelmed with wonder as much as meeting your child for the first time. A child in the womb can learn the voice of parents, and we pray for those who we wait to adopt with eager anticipation, grateful for any information we receive about the one who will soon come as God’s special gift to us. We seem to know our children before we can see each other, but there is still the remarkable wonder of being able to see your child at long last. You look at him or her, and he or she looks at you. What does a little child want but the love and security of a home with the comforting embrace of parents, and it stays that way for some time. The littlest ones are largely unacquainted with the honors that the world has to offer. Eventually they find out, and when they do, prizes and praises, as good as they are, can seem to be all that there is for the little soul that wants to achieve something. Today, greatness is being known. Most people do not want to be unknown. As we grow into adulthood, our pride can quickly begin to seize upon things like fame, fortune, and ease, and cast aside as nothing precious things like faith and relationship. This pride can be very destructive of the humble life of faith that God has for us. Jesus came as a little one and yet He never developed any of this destructive pride.

The greatest in the kingdom of heaven (1-4)

When Jesus was a grown man, settled upon His great messianic work and well-aware of the coming cost of the cross, His disciples asked Him a question: “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” What do you think of that question? We know that His followers thought about this more than once, and from the other accounts of these episodes we know that they wanted some position of prominence in the earthly kingdom that they thought Jesus would soon establish in Israel. There was a pride agenda that was behind their question, an agenda that they found it hard to rid themselves of. They wanted to be great, and this wanting to be great was not great at all.

The Lord’s answer to their question was patient and pointed, and very unusual. As when He spoke with the Jewish leader Nicodemus, Jesus tells them that they need a whole new turn of life if they are even to see the kingdom of heaven. Far from being at the place of greatest honor in the kingdom, unless they “turn,” they will not even be in the kingdom at all. This turning is a turning away from the pride of the world and a turning to God with the humility of a child. Jesus calls over a child to make His point. This child is an example to us who are often troubled by feelings of inadequacy. We need to humble ourselves regularly. The lure of prestige or praise can haunt us throughout our days as Christians. Thanks be to God for His power to call us to Himself, to recall us when we wander, and to keep us through times of temptation that would certainly be too difficult for us.

Who do you really want to be the greatest? There is a sense in which we can consider our spiritual progress through this one question. Do we want Jesus to be seen as the greatest more than we want anything else? If we are seeking some notoriety in our families, among our friends, or more generally in the world, we need to see our danger and take action. To get away from this trap, cultivate the habit of thinking of others more highly than yourself in obedience to Paul’s instruction in Romans 12:3, 16 and Philippians 2:1-11. This is a very big part of the Christian life. Jesus used one of the little ones in order to make that point to His disciples that day. I am not sure that they were able to fully receive it, at least at that point. Despite the fact that Jesus had reminded His disciples earlier about His coming sufferings, they seem immediately pre-occupied with thoughts of their own advancement.

A little child and the Son of God (5-6)

We are to be like children in our humility, but there is more for us in this passage. We are to care for children in God’s kingdom as if we were receiving the Lord Himself. Jesus is speaking here of an amazing association between the smallest disciple and the Son of God. This union is most fully expressed in Christ’s great works of redemption for us. It was these works that He had just spoken about towards the end of the 17^th chapter. As they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day.” In the cross, in the Lord’s death, in His burial, and in His resurrection, there was a union between Christ and His people. This union is expressed in the way that we serve others, so that whoever receives a child in Jesus name, receives the Lord Himself.

Naturally then, if care for someone weak is this important, the Lord who loves His children will consider abuse of them to be a very serious offense. If anyone leads a simple believer toward sin, Jesus says that such a one would be better to have a millstone fastened around his neck and be thrown into the depths of the seas. The millstone spoken of was large stone that had to be pulled by a donkey. If you are able to imagine the danger of being chained to several cinder blocks and then dropped out of a boat in the middle of dangerous waters, I think you have an accurate idea of what the Lord is saying here. He takes this matter very seriously.

Temptations and tempters (7-9)

While recognizing that a world full of temptation, danger, and evil is somehow in the sovereign decree of God, yet to be the one who tempts a child in the direction of evil or away from the arms of the Lord is to ask for the most severe trouble from Almighty God. There will always be temptations, but don’t you be the one to do the tempting. Here the Lord calls on us to consider the reality of eternal punishment, and not to suppose that we are simply stuck in our own sin. We must take the most radical steps to turn away from evil rather than to set a bad example for those who would follow us. Of course the Lord knows that your eye does not really cause you to sin, and that the removal of the eye will not solve our sinful desires. It is in our heart, our mind, our will that sin springs forth. But the heart, mind, and will are impacted by the senses (like hearing and seeing), so we need to be serious about restricting what our senses take in. Also the heart, mind, and will, once captured by sin, express sinful desires through the use of our speech, and our hands and feet. The Lord mentions both the sensory organs and the active members of our body to make the point that we need to take the most radical actions to seek a pure heart and life.

The consideration of hell should help us to recognize our need for a Savior who can take away our sin. We have led others astray by our own poor example. We cannot stand on our own merits. As with any serious biblical consideration of sin, we are drawn again to the cross. Our union with the Lord there is our only hope.

We are not “despised” (10-14)

We are to be like children, to care for children, and to set a godly example for children. But there is one further instruction here for the disciples of the Lord. We are told that we must not despise these little ones. What does it mean to despise a child? The word used here can simply mean “to think little of,” that is to consider the young and the weak of little consequence.

Do you consider yourself to be inconsequential? Perhaps you could have been the one that Jesus picked out of the crowd that day and brought near to himself to show his disciples that they needed to think about people in a different way. He tells the disciples that angels are watching over His loved ones who we might ignore. This passage is not teaching that we each have a guardian angel, but at a minimum, it does reinforce what the Bible says more clearly in other places, that angels are heavenly servants to God’s people. The ones we think of as being of no consequence have powerful and wise beings who serve God by serving them. We are told in another place that angels are capable of rejoicing, and that they do rejoice in our rescue from the worst spiritual danger.

I am always amazed at the depictions of British life in the 19^th century with servants taking care of all kinds of needs, yet our situation is more privileged. We truly have angels watching over us! These angels have a direct audience with God. Again we are reminded of the seriousness of harming the weak. Would we stand against angels? Still more amazing is that God himself, who angels serve, is concerned about you like a shepherd knows and cares for his sheep. The little one who goes astray is very important to God, and it is not the will of God that one of these should perish. There is a care here for every member of the Lord’s family.

God loves the coming generation in this covenant community. It does not mean that they will not suffer. Remember that Jesus Himself was a baby loved supremely by His heavenly Father. Yet He suffered. His suffering was for a purpose. It was an expression of the saving love of the Father and the Son for you. Do not throw that love away. Bring all the little lambs to Jesus. If they wander, lead them back home to Him again. Our Savior rejoices over every little wandering one who is found, even you. What a privilege to be a child of our heavenly Father!

Questions for meditation and discussion:

1. In what sense are we not to be like children? How are we to be like children?

2. What does it mean to receive a child in the name of Jesus?

3. What does it mean that it is “necessary” that temptations come?

4. What are we to believe about God from this passage?

I pray...

“Unity in Prayer”

(John 17:25-26, January 6, 2008)

²⁵ O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. ²⁶ I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them."

Introduction – How do leaders lead?

The Jesus who commands us to follow Him is going to the cross, so He prays. His prayer in John 17 is a roadmap for the life of the New Testament Church. It is very clear from this prayer that God has no intention of sending us off into seclusion as contemplative monks, nor is He calling us to an engagement in cultural warfare using the world’s weapons. He does care about what we will do as we serve Him. And He does have a plan. The Jesus who commands us to follow Him is going to the cross, so He prays.

He is going to the cross, and we are to follow Him. How do people lead their comrades into suffering? Some do it with force. I was recently watching a war film involving three deserters. You may have some understanding of what happens to deserters in an army if they are captured. In this case the three men that ran away from battle were shot. That kind of sanction must be important when you are ordering men to go forward in a charge where so many will lose their lives. They need to know that desertion is not an easy way out, but has serious and very likely consequences. Yet even in an army, the threat of punishment cannot accomplish everything. There are many other good and significant factors for success: an appreciation for your fellow soldiers, the good habits of disciplined training, and especially a fierce admiration for your commanding officer. The memory of an inspiring leader can do much to encourage bravery in battle even after the man in charge may have given his life for the cause.

We could certainly learn something from the great leaders of history about how to lead people in difficult missions, but is there something more for us here than what we can learn from observing people? We understand the power of the fear of punishment. We understand the strength of love for comrades. We understand the benefit of training for a life of discipline. But is there something more here, something that really only works in the world of faith? How does Jesus lead His New Testament church? We are united to Him in a cause that demands sacrifice. How does our Captain lead the way for us in John 17? Jesus is on the way to the cross and He is leading His disciples in prayer.HH

A righteous Father and a righteous Son

Every Kingdom-of-Heaven victory must come from our Father in heaven. Of course this means that we should be praying to God. Our Lord addressed God here as His “righteous Father.” Jesus is the perfectly righteous Son of a perfectly righteous Father. You and I are not perfectly righteous. That much is perfectly obvious. We have violated God’s Law in so many ways, including His command that we pray. How can we even speak to God? We’re guilty.

Unrighteousness in prayer can show up in a variety of ways. We allow our priorities to squeeze out the obvious commandment to pray. When we do pray, it is often superficial and perfunctory, so that we can move on to important things. We think that we should wait for delight in God to spring up in us before we give ourselves over to the duty of prayer. We organize our lives around other priorities, rather than asking God to lead us in glorifying and enjoying Him as our chief end. Even if we recognize these failings and sinful patterns, and even if we confess these to the Lord, we do not undertake any system of discipline that would lead to the habit of the best soul-engaged prayer, and we do not seek accountability for growth in prayer. Again, our failure is obvious. How can we even speak to God? We’re so guilty… But then we remember that there is an answer for guilt, a good substitute for us.

Our comfort is that Jesus prayed, and that even now, He is addressing His righteous Father for us. He does everything well. With that confidence, we have been freed up for prayer. And so we must pray, and we will pray.

What the world knows about God

There is work to be done in the Lord’s Kingdom, and God has ordered this work so that it will not be accomplished without a dedicated and unified life of prayer within the church. We are here to know God’s glory, and to make God known and more visible to others. Habakkuk 2:14 tells us that one day “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.” It will happen. Ultimately God will accomplish this perfectly, but we have a task to perform in God’s plan right now. “The world does not know” God as Savior.

The world does know God in a way – enough to be without excuse. Everyone should seek Him and find Him, but it is only through the preaching of the cross that people can know Him in a saving way. This preaching has been entrusted to the church. Romans 1:21 tells us that the world already knows God. Through the things that He has made, God has revealed His eternal power and divine nature. Also God has made man in His own image, and has written His moral law upon his heart, giving each man the gift of a conscience. We know that we have sinned against God. There is only one way out. We who have embraced the Christ of the Bible know this One Way.

What the followers of Jesus know about God

There is a knowledge that the world does not have; a knowledge that Jesus has; a knowledge that He has determined to grant to His followers. What is this knowledge that we have as followers of the Son of God?

The followers of Jesus know that the Father sent Jesus. This is a foundation for all of our saving knowledge of the Father, since we know the Father through the Son. If Jesus was not sent by the Father, then He was an imposter, and we have no way of knowing any blessed communion with the Father. But Jesus was no false messiah. What He won for us came at the cost of His life. He was sent to do something and He did it. Anyone else who would claim to be the source of peace for us is a cruel and wicked imposter, deceived and deceiving, leading us away from the only source of hope that God has given to us. Jesus was sent by the Father. We have come to believe this based on His words and His works, and especially based on His death and His resurrection. With the full assurance that Jesus was sent by the Father, we have come to know two wonderful things. In the words of our text…

1. Through Jesus, His followers have come to know the “name” of the Father. To truly know the name of the Father is to know God. We cannot examine God in the way that we dissect a creature. Nor can we know God through cross-examination, as if He were on trial. The Father is. We have come to know Him through Jesus, His Son. Jesus showed us what the Father is like by being with us. Through the life of Jesus recorded for our careful consideration in the Bible, and made alive to us by the Spirit of God, we can know the being and character of the Father. This is how we have come to know the name of the Father. Infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth; this is the Father, and we know His name through knowing Jesus.

2. Through Jesus, His followers have also come to know the love of the Father. God’s love to us is gigantic. In a way, it extends to the entire world through the preaching of the word of hope. It also overflows to all of creation in countless great works of beauty, order, and goodness. Though the love of God extends to the world through preaching and through all that we see, the greatest display of God’s love is for His bride, the church, those who receive the Lord Jesus Christ, those who believe in His name, and who are called sons of God in Him. We have come to know the love of the Father in a very personal way, because the love with which the Father has loved the only-begotten Son is in us, and especially Jesus Himself is in us. That is what Jesus is praying for in the last words of John 17, and that is what we have now as our possession as the sons of God.

If you want to really know Jesus, His church should be able to help you. God wants His church to be willing to suffer to bring these great truths to the world near and far, so that many others would know that the Father sent the Son, and in knowing Jesus, that they would know the name of the Father and the love of the Father. This will not happen without suffering, and we will not be willing to suffer without serious, united, heartfelt, Christian prayer.

Why is Jesus praying?

The Jesus who commands us to follow Him is going to the cross, so He prays. Jesus prays in the hearing of His disciples as He is about to be betrayed and arrested. The cross is not far away, and our Jesus is praying. This is our leader. We must not miss the obvious here; that those who would lead us as Christ leads will have to lead in prayer. There are many lessons that we can learn about sacrificial leadership from great men who have led others in battle and who have inspired the loyalty of thousands in great enterprises that required unusual suffering, but it is only among the sons of God who are believers in Jesus Christ that we will learn first the duty of prayer, and then the discipline of prayer, and finally the delight of prayer. Anything less than prayer is to rely on our own strength.

It is imperative that every church have leaders who do what Jesus did in praying with people. My single goal as a leader in the church this year is to foster unity in Christ through prayer. For this to take place, the church must see that this is something that Christ wants, not just for leaders, but for us all. We need to see this as our duty, and be willing to take disciplined steps of life that will result in the goal of a more unified life together as a church that prays. We don’t do this right. Christ has done it perfectly for us. May God continually set before us our crucified and risen Savior as the model of warfare through prayer. By the strength that He supplies, let us grow together in the delight of our Father, so that His people would not only ask, but that according to His will, we would also believe, and if it His good pleasure, that we would even receive.

Questions for meditation and discussion:

1. How does Jesus characterize His Father in verse 25? Consider the difficulty this presents for us.

2. How does Jesus characterize Himself in these two verses, and how is this our hope?

3. How does Christ give us knowledge of God and make known to us the love of God?

4. What is the ultimate hope of this prayer?