We have recently introduced Phil Wickham’s song ‘Great Things’ into our services at church. This song has been a favourite of ours since its release in 2018 and my older granddaughter particularly loves it. From the first time she heard it, she has sung along happily to the song, and we discovered that perhaps one reason she liked it so much was that she took it very personally. One of the lines in the song says, ‘You’ll be faithful forevermore,’ but Esther at two used to sing ‘You’ll be faithful for Ezzie more‘ (her nickname being Ezzie.) I rather liked this personalisation – and it’s true; God is faithful to us all individually!

Today, as we go to Phoenix Park in Thurnscoe for the first of our Jubilee celebrations and hopefully have a great day of fun activities celebrating not only the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee but the fact that our God is King of Kings and Lord of Lords and will reign forevermore, the lyrics of the song remain on our lips:

The final question in Luke 6 leads to Jesus telling the parable of the Wise and Foolish builders. (Luke 6:46-49) This question possibly sums up all the questions God ever asks us. “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?’ (Luke 6:46) At the heart of this question is the connection between what we say and what we do. It’s easy enough for us to pledge allegiance to Jesus with our words, to call Him ‘Lord’ with our mouths. But what really counts is doing what He says. Jesus once told a parable about two sons. The first son was asked to go and work in his father’s vineyard, and initially he refused. Later, he changed his mind and went. The second son was also asked to go and work and promised he would. But he too changed his mind and did not go. (Matt 21:28-32) Jesus asked the question, ‘Which of the two did what his father wanted?’ (Matt 21:31) The answer is obvious: the first son. In the same way, Jesus said, those who seem to be religious might not be the ones actually doing what God wants, whereas all those sinners and tax collectors were entering the kingdom of God, for they repented and actually listened to what God was saying.

We can only really truly say we are Jesus’s disciples if we are not only listening to Him but doing what He says. It’s not enough to be a theoretical disciple. It’s not enough to talk the talk if we are not walking the walk. We must practise what we preach. We must live out our faith in our everyday lives. As James put it, faith without works is dead (see James 1:22, James 2:26).

The next series of questions in Luke 6 focuses on our response to other people. “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full.’ (Luke 6:32-34) It’s very easy to view relationships in the same way we view credit, helping only those who can help us, but God’s ways point towards mercy, grace and forgiveness, none of which can be earned or deserved. Jesus’s questions take us from the world’s way of doing things to God’s way. They remind us of core gospel values and show us that there are more important things in this world than money, than in the financial ledger so many of us rely on, and that we are called to be imitators of God, to become like God in how we live and respond to other people. (Eph 5:1)

Our attitudes to others are also challenged in Jesus’s questions later in the chapter, when He asks, ‘Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? ⁴² How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye?’ (Luke 6:41-42) It’s so much easier to see the faults in other people than it is to see our own faults. It’s so much easier to judge other people harshly and be lenient with our own faults. We understand our troubled hearts and mixed motives, whereas we can’t see what lies behind other people’s actions or words. Jesus’s imagery is comical, but the questions are pointed, all the same, challenging us to look for our own faults before we even see other people’s.

It’s always fascinating to learn the collective nouns for groups of animals. Most people are familiar with ‘a pride of lions’, but did you know about ‘a bike of bees’ or ‘a congregation of alligators’? Luke 6 is so full of questions that we might call it ‘a chapter of questions’!

Some of these deal with Jesus’s response to the Pharisees, whose attitude towards the Sabbath (defining almost everything as ‘unlawful’, even healing and doing good) was definitely more concerned with their idea of right than God’s. Jesus’s questions to them reminded them of God’s ultimate purpose (referring them back to 1 Samuel 21 when David ate the consecrated bread, even though he was not a priest) and He told them bluntly, ‘The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.’ (Mark 2:27) Later, when challenged about healing a man on the Sabbath, he asked, ‘which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?’ (Luke 6:9) It’s a sad indictment of the Pharisees that such a question needed to be asked.

These two episodes remind us that it’s very easy to become self-righteous and to place a higher value on our own rules and regulations than on God’s. We need to be sure that our compliance with man’s rules does not actually break God’s rules. Sometimes, we may need to break man’s rules in order to be true to God’s rules: as the apostles said, ‘We must obey God rather than human beings!’ (Acts 5:29)

Garry spoke this morning from Gen 41:53-57, looking at how Joseph met the needs of people through the seven years of famine. This was possible because of the dream which God gave to Pharaoh and which Joseph interpreted, which meant that during the seven years of plenty preceding the famine, provision was made for the lean years to come. Clearly, other nations had not saved and prepared as Egypt had; God had seen what was coming and prepared accordingly. He has done this also regarding our salvation, seeing ahead and choosing the way of the cross even before the foundation of the world (see Eph 1:4-6).

God’s offer of salvation is freely given to all, but we have to choose to accept God’s offer. We can become adopted into God’s family; but this is not ‘automatic’; it requires our response, just as the nations had to choose to humble themselves and come to Egypt for help. So too we can help other people on their journey towards God, asking questions, sowing seeds into people’s lives. If people do not realise their need of salvation, they will have no interest in a Saviour; we have to be the ones to give the ‘wake-up call’ to people or to explain not only the presence of sin but the provision of a Saviour.

The answer to the nations was found in coming to Joseph for the provision of food. The answer to the problem of sin is to come to Jesus, the good shepherd (John 10:9-11). We are urged to come to Him when we are weary and heavy-laden and find rest for our souls. (Matt 11:28-30) People are in need of a Saviour; our job is to make that Saviour known to others. That can be through organised events or through personal contact, but the need is great. Will we respond to the call?

As we continued our Bible studies on ‘the end of the world as we know it’, we looked at the start of Revelation 1, the introduction to possibly the most misunderstood book in the Bible. A ‘revelation’ (or ‘apocalypse’) simply means an unveiling, and in this book, a vision given by God to the apostle John as a letter to seven churches in Asia, we see an unveiling of the person of Jesus Christ, described in this first chapter as the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the one who was, and is, and is to come. (Rev 1:8) There is much we do not understand in this book, but the centrality and importance of Jesus – who He is and what He has done for us – remain at its heart, and at the heart of world history.

The vision is given to John while he was in exile for his faith, a reminder to us that circumstances do not have to define or control us. Though he was physically in exile and a companion to Christians in suffering for the gospel, he was also ‘in the Spirit’ and able to receive this wonderful message from God. In these opening verses, we are reminded of the grace and peace of God, won for us by Jesus through His sacrifice on the cross, and that we are loved, freed from our sins and set on a new path of service for God. Who we are always needs to be interpreted by whose we are and by what God says of us.

Even before John sees Jesus in this great vision, He hears a voice speaking to him, a voice like a trumpet. God’s voice is powerful (see Psalm 29); it is often described as louder than rushing waters (Ps 93).Jesus is described as the Word of God, the Father’s way of speaking to the world (see John 1, Hebrews 1); He is the Good Shepherd whose sheep know His voice (John 10). A voice is intensely personal and recognisable; we need to learn to listen for God’s voice (even when it comes as a gentle whisper, as it did to Elijah in 1 Kings 19). God’s voice and His words are what make the difference in life.