Speaker Tristan Sherwin
'God’s Kingdom is not about materialism and consumerism, but about communal care and provision.'
Tristan has posted his sermon on his own blog. Please follow the link to read...
Our sermons in written format
Sunday, March 21, 2021
Sunday, March 14, 2021
THE UPSIDE DOWN KINGDOM / / WORSHIP
Speaker Helen Jenkinson
INTRO
I wonder if your family has any traditions? Things that you do that are special to you? They might seem very strange to others but to you they give you a sense of identity, a sense of being connected to the people that you love. When we were kids we used to go to Anglesey every year. And if you’ve ever been you know that as it’s an island you have to go over a bridge to get there. Every time we went over the Menai bridge mum and dad would wind the windows down and we would cheer (very loudly!) because of the expectation of 2 lovely weeks there. But on the way home we would boo (very loudly!) because we knew that special time had come to an end. Now we have a tradition that Christmas night is spent at mum and dads playing games- Dad’s legendary tray game being our favourite. Who would think that trying to memorise items on a tray that has been covered over with a tea towel would make us happy. But it does! Every country has traditions that are unique to them too. Think about Bonfire night or Thanksgiving in the States. On those days we meet people we love. We eat special food, we do special things. It gives us a sense of connectedness, a oneness.
I wonder if your family has any traditions? Things that you do that are special to you? They might seem very strange to others but to you they give you a sense of identity, a sense of being connected to the people that you love. When we were kids we used to go to Anglesey every year. And if you’ve ever been you know that as it’s an island you have to go over a bridge to get there. Every time we went over the Menai bridge mum and dad would wind the windows down and we would cheer (very loudly!) because of the expectation of 2 lovely weeks there. But on the way home we would boo (very loudly!) because we knew that special time had come to an end. Now we have a tradition that Christmas night is spent at mum and dads playing games- Dad’s legendary tray game being our favourite. Who would think that trying to memorise items on a tray that has been covered over with a tea towel would make us happy. But it does! Every country has traditions that are unique to them too. Think about Bonfire night or Thanksgiving in the States. On those days we meet people we love. We eat special food, we do special things. It gives us a sense of connectedness, a oneness.
Now I want
you to think about us as the church. What traditions do we have? It might
depend on the church you grew up in. In the church we grew up in we would have
special weekends to commemorate things like church anniversaries. Do we have a
certain way of doing things and when anyone asks us why we do it a certain way
we answer “its always been done like that” Traditions are good. They can remind
us what is important but sometimes they can prevent us from seeing what God’s
priorities are. Because WE think they are important, we assume GOD thinks of
them in the same way. And it is this that we are going to look at today.
Remember that our theme for this teaching series is the UPSIDE DOWN KINGDOM. The way Jesus turned on their head the traditions that the culture of his day thought of as normal or the way God wanted things doing. And today we’re going to look at UPSIDE DOWN WORSHIP. Reading the gospels we see that Jesus would come into conflict a lot with the scribes and pharisees, the teachers of the law, because they viewed things differently to Jesus. They assumed they had an insiders view on what God thought was important. And one of the issues that caused the most conflict was how they viewed the Sabbath. The Sabbath was given as a gift from God as the Israelites entered the promised land after they had been slaves in Egypt with no rest at all. So the sabbath was intended to be a reminder that it is not our work that supplies our needs but that our needs are supplied by God as an act of his grace. Fantastic! But in order to make this a priority, this commandment was hedged around by a whole stack of extra rules just in case a person got near to breaking the actual commandment. Who made up the rules? The teachers of the law. Now we always think of the Pharisees as the bad guys in the gospels and often they were. But what started out as an attempt to honour God became a matter of pride and judgementalism against people who they thought were not keeping the commandment as well as them. They considered the man -made law as important as the actual commandment, completely missing the point of why God had given the commandment in the first place.
READ
MARK 2:23 - 3:6 link
Remember that our theme for this teaching series is the UPSIDE DOWN KINGDOM. The way Jesus turned on their head the traditions that the culture of his day thought of as normal or the way God wanted things doing. And today we’re going to look at UPSIDE DOWN WORSHIP. Reading the gospels we see that Jesus would come into conflict a lot with the scribes and pharisees, the teachers of the law, because they viewed things differently to Jesus. They assumed they had an insiders view on what God thought was important. And one of the issues that caused the most conflict was how they viewed the Sabbath. The Sabbath was given as a gift from God as the Israelites entered the promised land after they had been slaves in Egypt with no rest at all. So the sabbath was intended to be a reminder that it is not our work that supplies our needs but that our needs are supplied by God as an act of his grace. Fantastic! But in order to make this a priority, this commandment was hedged around by a whole stack of extra rules just in case a person got near to breaking the actual commandment. Who made up the rules? The teachers of the law. Now we always think of the Pharisees as the bad guys in the gospels and often they were. But what started out as an attempt to honour God became a matter of pride and judgementalism against people who they thought were not keeping the commandment as well as them. They considered the man -made law as important as the actual commandment, completely missing the point of why God had given the commandment in the first place.
Why were the
Pharisees getting into such a tizz? Because even though the commandment said to
keep the Sabbath holy by doing no work, Moses had not given any specifics. It
was Jewish tradition that stated there
were 39 forbidden activities on the sabbath and the third one was reaping. The
Pharisees interpreted the picking of grain to eat as reaping which they viewed
as illegal activity. How does Jesus respond? With a question. He refers back to
a story in 1 Samuel 21 where David takes the presence bread that was laid out
on a table before God in the tabernacle every Sabbath, eats it and gives it to
his companions to eat because they were hungry. Now Jesus (the Son of David)
had taken food, eaten it and given it to his disciples on the Sabbath. Here,
Jesus is saying that human need is more important than ritual. He’s challenging
the Pharisees to choose between human need and religious reputation. Jesus
doesn’t defend the breaking of the Sabbath. He just points out that human need
is a bigger principle here. As if to reiterate this, we see in the next
incident the same principle. Jesus sees a man in the synagogue with a deformed
hand. Jesus’ heart goes out to the man
and he heals him. But look at what the Pharisees were doing. Verse 2 says they
watched him closely. Jesus was under surveillance! Why? Because the teaching of
the Pharisees only allowed healing on the Sabbath if life was in danger. If you
weren’t about to die you’d have to wait for a weekday in order for God to show
his power by healing you! Had God ever said this? Not at all! Look at Jesus’
question in verse 4:
Does
the law permit good deeds on the sabbath or is a day for doing evil? Is this a
day to save life or destroy it?
Jesus
exposes the narrowness of their man made rule by asking them if the Sabbath is
there for doing good or doing evil? If for good, how can healing not come into
that category? He was turning their tradition on its head.
But there is
something much bigger here than whether Jesus is breaking Sabbath rules. It’s a
heart issue. On another occasion Jesus is at loggerheads with the Pharisees
again over ceremonial handwashing. And this time Jesus doesn’t pull any punches.
This is how he responds.
Mark
7:6-7 You
hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you for he wrote “These
people honour me with their lips but their hearts are far from me. Their
worship is a farce, for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God”
Can you
imagine being told that as a Pharisee? You who are an expert in the law, you
who are seen as the religious elite, you who think you have an inside track as
to what God thinks as important are hypocrites. Actors. Pretending to honour
God but the reality of it is that your heart is far from him. Your worship is a
farce because you have put man made ideas on a par with what God wants and in
many cases have completely ignored what God views as important in order to make
you look good or feel superior. No wonder they wanted to get rid of Jesus.
Do you
remember the inverted ladders of the upside down kingdom that I talked about in
our introduction to this series a fortnight ago? They are in operation here
between man’s tradition and God’s truth. Outward forms of rule keeping keep us
in bondage. They tie us up in knots trying to keep them. Inward faith brings
liberty through God’s grace. The world’s kingdom makes much of rules, God’s
kingdom focusses on guiding principles. The world’s kingdom celebrates outward
piety. God’s kingdom is all about inward holiness. The world’s kingdom says
“lets make our own rules” God’s kingdom says lets exalt the word of God. See what
his word says on an issue.
So when we
read these accounts of Jesus’ interactions with the Pharisees we’re usually
thinking “YEH!! YOU TELL ‘EM JESUS!!! But remember if we point a finger at
someone there’s always 3 fingers pointing back at us! We can criticise the
Pharisees for their attitudes but do we do the same? Do we consider our
traditions or our take on situations as God’s view without actually finding out
what God thinks about it through scripture? Or do we bend scripture to make it
fit our view? Are we more concerned about the upholding of our favourite rule
than seeking to extend the kingdom of God? To show God’s love to people who
might be different to us? What about our worship? Do we think because we prefer
one style of worship then God must prefer that one too?
One summer I went to
Peru as part of an Open Doors team to encourage believers who had experienced
great persecution a decade earlier. Being in a Peruvian worship service was
something else! On the way home my friend and I spent a week in Georgia staying
with friends of my friend. On the Sunday we went to their church which was very
formal and very different to Peru. My friend and I were talking about
afterwards and comparing the two and she said something that really challenged
me. She said it might be different but if it glorifies God, he likes it all. Just
because it was not our preference doesn’t mean that it’s not God’s preference. Or
if we like to have a quiet time in the morning do we assume that is the most
spiritual thing to do? Or because we like to pray in a certain way we assume
God will listen to our prayers in preference to someone else who prays
differently to us? Or because we consider our area of ministry to be the most
important, do we assume God agrees?
So we can get tied up in our
traditions, our ideas and our preferences and project them onto God and what we
are really doing is worshipping our own ideas. I asked if we could sing Heart
of Worship this morning because I love the background to the song. The song was
written by Matt Redman in the late 1990s when his church in Watford was going
through a tough time. In the world’s kingdom they were really successful. Big
church, writing songs that were being sung all around the world. But they
realised that something was missing. So the pastor, a great guy called Mike Pilivachi asked his congregation what they were bringing
to God in worship- were they just consumers or were they really worshipping? So
for some weeks the music faded. They sang unaccompanied. They had times of silence.
They prayed together. And they rediscovered what worship was really about. It’s
all about Jesus! It’s not our traditions, or our good ideas, or our man-made
rules that matters. It’s all about him. Please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not suggesting we stop worshipping God
through song. What I am saying is that we reassess what our traditions, our
ideas, our priorities and bring them in line with God’s ideas and His
priorities.
The answer is in Romans 12: 1-2 (NIV)
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in
view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and
pleasing to God – this is your true and proper worship. Do not
conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of
your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is –
his good, pleasing and perfect will.
In Romans 1-11 Paul has been
explaining that we are justified by grace alone, through faith alone, through
Christ alone. And now he urges the Christians in Rome to offer their bodies as
living sacrifices. What does this mean? In the ESV the word offer is translated
as present. It commands a definite commitment. If you are married it is just
like what happened when you made your vows in your wedding service. As part of
your vow you said that everything you are and everything you have is now your
husband or wife’s. So in the context of Romans 12:1 Paul is encouraging the
Christians in Rome to give everything you are and everything you have to God. To
be completely at God’s disposal. To be willing to obey Him in every area of our
life. Giving him the best of us- not our leftovers. Not out of fear, but out of
love. To be a living sacrifice means to daily give our lives as an offering to
Him. As the verse says- this is our true and proper worship. True worship stems
from acknowledging how great God’s mercies are towards us. How much we are
forgiven. How much we are loved, despite our desire to run our own show, to
project our own ideas onto God and claim them as his. How do we offer our
bodies as living sacrifices? Paul tells us in verse 2
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be
transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and
approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.
This is what the Pharisees weren’t
getting in their desire to keep their man made Sabbath rules. They were keeping
the Sabbath rules on the outside, while their hearts were disobedient to what
God would really want. And they were imposing their superficial holy veneer on
others. Paul is saying here that the worldly kingdoms will tell you what to
think and how to behave- to CONFORM, instead let God TRANSFORM your mind. The
word he uses for transform is similar to our word metamorphosis. Just like a
caterpillar is metamorphosed into a butterfly from the inside out, we are
transformed into becoming more like Christ.
True upside down kingdom worship means letting God transform the way we
think which affects what we do, what we feel, what we say.
So at this point of any sermon I’m
always thinking “That’s great, but HOW????” Here’s a suggestion. When we wake
up tomorrow morning, before we get out of bed offer to the Lord each part of our
body. Our mind- so he can transform the way we think, so God’s wisdom may be
imparted to us for that day. Our eyes so we may see people and situations as
Jesus sees them. I know I definitely need that when dealing with year 11
tomorrow! Our hands so that what we do is pleasing to the Lord and what Jesus
would do if he was living our life. Our mouth so our words are honouring to
Him- by what we say and the way we say it and what we don’t say. Our feet- so
God will lead us to people who need to experience God’s grace in their lives.
Our heart so that we can feel God’s love not just for ourselves but for people
we rub shoulders with.
When Simon and I made vows to each other on 27th
December 2008 it was till death do us part. The vow didn’t stop at midnight on
28th December. If we are married, the vows we made on our wedding
day have to be continually lived out. To be continually worked on through the
stresses and strains of life. And it’s the same with offering our bodies as
living sacrifices. It has to be done on a day to day basis. So what happens
Monday morning before we get out of bed, or whenever we speak to God has to
happen on Tuesday and Wednesday and every day after that. Christ at the centre
of our lives, displaying the values of his upside down kingdom. If everyone is
doing that- guess what? Christ’s kingdom will be displayed in our church. And
then guess what? If we are seeing people as God sees them and loving them in
the way God loves them then God’s kingdom will spread into our communities and
into our world. Don’t know about you but I’m excited about the possibilities
that might bring. The people who could be reached, lives that could be
transformed and the glory of God’s kingdom that could be displayed all because
a small group of people in Bury decided to offer their bodies to God as their
true and proper worship.
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in
view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and
pleasing to God – this is your true and proper worship. Do not
conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of
your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is –
his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:1-2
Sunday, March 7, 2021
UPSIDE-DOWN KINGDOM // CRUSTS, CIRCUSES, AND COERCION - 7th March 2021
Speaker Tristan Sherwin
'Instead of grasping for power and imposing himself over others, Jesus is going to exhibit the power of self-giving, self-emptying love.'
Tristan has posted his sermon on his own blog. Please follow the link to read...
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