Christ Church

Advent and Abundance

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INTRODUCTION

A genuine biblical faith is one that knows how to climb mountains, and how to not get lost in the valleys. In the flesh we know how to get used to what happens to us all the time. But it takes a true spirit of Christian character to deal with the fluctuations.

THE TEXT

“Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Philippians 4:11–13).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

The apostle Paul has come to the point in the letter where he thanks the Philippians for their financial support. He really is grateful, but he wants them to know that he had learned the secret of being contented either way. He did not bring up his thanks because he was falling short in any way (v. 11). He knows how to be abased, and how to abound (v. 12), how to full and how to be hungry, how to overflow and how to fall short. The “all things” of v. 13 refers to contentment in all things.

DRIVE TO CONTENTMENT

The Advent season also happens to be the season of shopping and sales, and so it is the time when a great deal of material stuff is paraded in front of us. This means that it is the season when a lot of people start lamenting how commercial the whole thing has gotten, what a racket it all is, and so forth.

Now when someone is abased, hungry, and suffering need, the carnal response is to drive toward abundance. If only I had more, if only I could get out of this place, if only . . .

But by the same token, when someone is abounding, is full, and has both hands full, there is a strong temptation (and it is a temptation) to drive toward some kind of minimalism. If only we could simplify. If only we could off-load some of these responsibilities . . .

The directive given to us in this passage is that we are not to try to fix our discontents with stuff, whether by accumulating more of it, or unloading all of it. You can’t fix the problem by getting more money, and you can’t fix the problem by getting less of it either. We are charged to drive toward contentment, which is not determined by how much money is in the bank. Rather, it is a matter of how much trust is in the heart.

HOW FAITH HANDLES THIS WORLD

Faith knows how to play it as it lays. There are those who tell us that the true Christians are the ones who scarcely have a dime to their name, while others tell us that the health and wealth message means that God wants you to have loads of stuff. The Scriptures are not so simplistic.

“And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets: Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again [remarkable tone shift here]: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection: And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth” (Heb. 11:32–38).

The Bible teaches us that when the godly win, they win by faith. The Scriptures teach us that when the godly lose, they lose by faith, thereby winning something much greater. The real winners are not those who have millions. Nor are the winners those who have a measly mite. God’s champions are those who have true contentment.

WHAT OUR TEMPTATIONS ARE LIKELY TO BE

C. S. Lewis once said that when confronted with a flood, we break out the fire extinguishers. We tend to resist the temptations we were least likely to succumb to anyhow. For this congregation, what are our temptations likely to be over the coming generation? We do not know this sort of thing for certain, but my strong suspicion is that we are going to face the temptations that come with being a hard-working and wealthy community. And the Scriptures have a great deal to say about that.

And as Christmas is the time of year when a lot of stuff passes through a lot of hands, we should use this annual boot camp time as a live fire exercise. We are handling the goods. We give a lot away, and we receive a lot. Learn how to do it. This is like a catechism class. These are your exercises. Embrace them.

CULTIVATING CONTENTMENT

Remember that we noted earlier that we are to drive toward contentment, and we are to do it with what we currently have. We must not think that my contentment would magically arrive if only. Banish those words if only.

“Moreover all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue thee, and overtake thee, till thou be destroyed; because thou hearkenedst not unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded thee: And they shall be upon thee for a sign and for a wonder, and upon thy seed for ever. Because thou servedst not the LORD thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things; Therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which the LORD shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee” (Deut. 28:45–48).

There are two stages here, two things to do. Hearken to the voice of the Lord your God. Obey His commandments. Put away the porn. Stop complaining. Work hard. Love your family. Husband your resources. That is the first thing. And the second is this. Rejoice. Celebrate. Set the table. Why did severe judgment fall upon Israel? Because they did not worship the LORD their God with joy, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of everything.

Christmas is coming. Throw yourself into it.

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The Pool of Bethesda

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THE TEXT

After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

2 Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic[a] called Bethesda,[b] which has five roofed colonnades. 3 In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed.[c] 5 One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” 7 The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” 8 Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.”9 And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.

Now that day was the Sabbath. 10 So the Jews[d] said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.” 11 But he answered them, “The man who healed me, that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.’” 12 They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?” 13 Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place. 14 Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.” 15 The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. 16 And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath (John 5:1-16).

 

 

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The Finger of God

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THE TEXT

John 4:27-54

THE WILL OF HIM

Why are you here? What are you here for? There are fundamental questions that, unanswered, can leave us with deep uncertainties. And there are people making millions of dollars giving you cheap, trivial platitudes that pretend to be answers. One of the things that is most striking about Jesus is his certainty of who he is and what he is here for (John 4:34, cf. 5:30, 6:38). He is immune to the trivial insecurities that plague us because he has a deep understanding of who he is and what he is here for.

THE SIGNS

We have in this passage two different responses to Christ. The woman at the well who abandons her waterpot to run and tell the village (v. 28) and the man from Capernaum whose son was dying (v. 47). The need for signs (v. 45 and 48) is a weakness that Jesus bears with. But it reveals a problem that we have with understanding what Christ is for. The woman at the well, on the other hand, abandons her waterpots and runs to point others to Jesus.

THE FINGER OF GOD

Jesus comes to point us towards eternal life. We, in our sin and in our finitude, can’t understand what life really means, especially the life that God is pointing us towards. Instead, we are like a dog who can’t trace the line from the master’s finger to what the master is pointing at. Instead, we keep looking blankly at the fingertip. But Jesus’ signs are pointing to so much more.

THE WHITE HARVEST

Because we don’t see what God is pointing at, we miss the significance of right now. Now is the harvest (v. 35). And the virtue of right now is that it is always right now. Life and all that God is offering to you in that life are all right before you now. Go to the ant you sluggard! The present matters. Eternal significance is in the moment before you.

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Living Water

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THE TEXT

Therefore, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John 2 (though Jesus Himself did not baptize, but His disciples), 3 He left Judea and departed again to Galilee. 4 But He needed to go through Samaria.5 So He came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. 6 Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour.7 A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” 8 For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.9 Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.10 Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water” . . . (John 4:1-25)

A WOMAN AND A WELL

There are numerous accounts in the Gospels of Jesus encountering various women. But the disciples never “marveled” (v. 27) at any of these. Why was this so different? This whole encounter looks like the setup for a man finding a wife. Moses (Ex. 2:15-21), Isaac (Gen. 24:14-16), and Jacob (Gen. 29:1-9) all meet their brides at a well in a foreign land.

HER FIVE BAALS

We can infer that this woman has had a rough life with five different husbands (v. 16-18), probably the result of a string of divorces. It is interesting that the Hebrew word for husband is baal, the same word that is used to describe the pagan gods (Hos. 2:16-18). Samaria is the land of false gods and religious syncretism (2 Kings 17:29-40) and a woman with five baals is a picture of this land. Jesus corrects her theological misunderstanding (v. 20-22), while pointing her to a much more significant truth.

LIVING WATER

Living water is a Hebrew expression to describe running water of a spring or a river, as opposed to standing, stagnant water. In Jewish legend, when Jacob rolled back the stone from the mouth of the well for Rachel, he also turned the water of the well into living water that overflowed the well. Living water was required in the ceremonial washing to be clean from an impurity (Num. 19:17-20). One of the occasions that required this kind of washing with living water was the bride before her wedding, to purify her for the ceremony.

THE TEMPLE AND THE RIVER

The Old Testament prophesied that the time would come when a river of water would flow out of the Temple (Ez. 47) or out of Jerusalem (Zech. 14:8), as Israel looks on the One whom they have pierced (Zech. 12:10). Jesus was announcing to the Samaritan woman, what would be revealed on the cross (John 19:34).

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