Hands That Talk
J-P spoke tonight from 1 Pet 4:7-11, speaking about how we use our hands in everyday living. Our hands can be used to point something out:
Sometimes we use a ‘thumbs up’ sign to indicate everything is good (or a ‘thumbs down’ sign if it’s not!)
In diving, this sign indicates everything’s OK:
We use our hands to say ‘stop!’ as well, and this is effectively what Peter wants us to do: to stop, pause and think.
Peter’s letter was written about 65 AD and was written at a time when Christians were being persecuted, considered outsiders and in a minority. He wrote to encourage them to keep the faith and as such, his letter still has much to say to us today when we too may feel discouraged and want to give up. He writes for us to stop and look at life, not allowing our emotions to control us, but to be of sober mind, not rushing ahead with knee-jerk reactions but letting God’s love direct our actions.
Jesus’s hands bore the scars from the nails, having died on the cross to bring us back to God. Peter tells us to love each other deeply, for love covers a multitude of sins. Love should be supportive, helpful and kind, often expressed through basic hospitality. We love best when we serve others – both in the church family and in the world, acting as salt and light in our communities. Love is best expressed through open arms and can come in many different forms as we encourage each other, celebrate each other’s gifts and play to each other’s strengths..
All of us are called to serve God in whatever capacity we can. Some of us are like undertakers, burying our gifts out of diffidence or fear. Others are like caretakers, being careful but unadventurous in our service for God. God wants us to be risk-takers, using all the talents He has given us so that we glorify God in everything that we do.
God call us to stop and think! – and then to love like Jesus loved us, forgive as freely as He forgave us and serve others gladly. Neil Diamond expresses it thus in his song:
Faith Matters
The story of Cain and Abel is a warning to us all that we have to approach God as He wants and can’t treat Him lightly or without reverence. The questions God asks Cain show us His kindness and mercy, for these are opportunities to repent, understand emotions and find favour with God. It’s interesting that this story focuses so much on Cain and where he went wrong, and we learn very little about Abel in this chapter. The writer to the Hebrews, however, says, ‘By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead.’ (Hebrews 11:4) Ultimately, we see that Abel’s offering was an offering of faith, and faith is always acceptable to God. Ultimately, we see that it’s Abel who is listed in that hall of heroes of faith, not Cain, because Abel brought an offering by faith and by faith he was commended as righteous. Faith is what made the difference between the two brothers. Faith really matters.
Cain teaches us that we need to respond positively to God’s questions, be prepared to dig deep into our own hearts and turn to God in repentance and faith so that we may enter into the life for which Christ died. If we do this, then we can have mastery over sin and can live lives of faith which please God and bring great rewards. Paul describes this in Romans 6 when he talks about being slaves to sin or slaves to righteousness. It matters hugely whose slave we are. It matters that we listen to God and respond to Him in repentance, humility and faith.
Cain & Abel
In our series looking at the questions God asks us, we looked today at 5 questions in Genesis 4, dealing with the story of Cain and Abel. Here, we see how God asks questions of Cain to invite him to delve further into his emotions (anger, resentment, jealousy and hatred) and to lead him into repentance, and what happened when Cain failed to respond positively to these questions.
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Why are you angry? (Gen 4:6)
God’s questions are not because He does not know us or needs the answer the way that we do when we ask questions. His questions invite us to look below the surface and deal honestly with our troublesome emotions. Cain’s anger was because he had not won God’s favour with his offering and his brother had. Asking why we feel these emotions is the first step to overcoming them; God invites us into honest conversation with Him. Unless we do this, emotions have the potential and the force to master us; like the psalmist, we must ask ourselves what is at the root of such emotions. (Ps 42:5,11; Ps 43:5)
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Why is your face downcast? (Gen 4:6)
Our facial expressions and demeanour are often clues to our feelings and moods. Again, God’s question invites us into dialogue with Him, leading us to examine our hearts (Jer 17:9, Ps 139:23-24). Identifying the emotion is one thing; finding out what lies beneath it is the path to overcoming its power.
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If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? (Gen 4:7)
In this third question, God gets to the heart of the matter. If we do what is right, then God will accept us. He is not fickle. He is not capricious. He is not a God who is out to get us. God very gently here is pointing Cain to the sin in his own life; His question to Cain here is essentially asking him to reflect on what he has done and gives him the opportunity to turn away from sin. Cain wants to approach God in his own way, on his own terms, as we all do, but God makes it plain that there is only one way to approach Him: through the shedding of blood (Heb 9:22) and through His Son, Jesus. (John 14:6)
Many want to approach God as Cain did, bringing their own sacrifices, doing good works, doing what they think is the right thing, but the only thing God wants is for us to come to Him on His terms. Anything else opens the door to sin, and as God makes very plain in this conversation, once that door is open, we are at sin’s mercy. We can’t afford to let it have mastery of us; we must rule over it, and we do that as we do things God’s way.
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Where is your brother Abel? (Gen 4:9)
Instead of listening to God and spending time working through these troublesome emotions, Cain responded angrily; his emotions ran away with him, resulting in murder. (Gen 4:8) With Abel out of the way, then he had no competition for God’s favour and God would have to make do with his sacrifice, because there wouldn’t be any other! Unless we learn to deal with our emotions and listen to the voice of conscience God has given us, the easier it is to justify our actions and to see things from an entirely egocentric point of view, where the only person in the world who really matters is me. God gave Cain the opportunity to confess his sin to God and to ask for forgiveness, but Cain’s response shows us just how far from God he has travelled. ‘“I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?”’ (Gen 4:9)
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What have you done? (Gen 4:10)
God’s final question confronts Cain with the reality of the situation. Many of us like to design our own reality and pretend that situations are as we interpret them. God doesn’t give Cain the benefit of this luxury. There will always be consequences to our actions; in this case, Cain can no longer stay where he is, working the soil. He will no longer work and find that work profitable and enjoyable; instead, the ground ‘will no longer yield its crops for you.’ (Gen 4:12) He is condemned to a life of restless wandering; He must leave God’s presence. Even now, God’s mercy is seen, because He promises Cain that he will not be killed as punishment (Gen 4:15), but we see very plainly that there are consequences for our actions. He had been warned that if he did what was right, he would be accepted, but conversely, if he opened that door for sin as he had, then sin would have mastery and his life would never be the same again.
In Dependence
We often crave independence, but in actual fact, we are all dependent people to some extent. As babies, we are wholly dependent on our mother for life; once born, we are dependent on adults to provide just about everything necessary for life (food, clothes, cleaning, moving etc.) As we grow, we become gradually less dependent on others and like to ‘do it all by myself’; independence is highly prized. Yet despite this desire for independence, no one can actually survive without others; one of the key things about the pandemic and lockdown has been the realisation of who the key workers really are. We are even dependent on earth and nature for survival and therefore need to take care of the earth, being good stewards.
Spiritually, we are brought to life by God’s Spirit and are therefore wholly dependent on Him for our salvation (see John 3:5, Eph 2:8-10). Paul reminds the Galatians that after beginning by means of the Spirit, it is foolish to now try to finish by means of the flesh. (Gal 3:3) Yet so often, this is what we do. We need to feed our spiritual life through prayer and reading the Word, but must never think that we can reach a point of spiritual independence as we grow up.
In 1 Sam 8:1-7, we see how the elders of Israel’s wanted to appoint a king over them when they realised that Samuel’s sons were not following the Lord’s way. They looked at those around them and assumed that their way was best, whereas God wanted to be their king and helper (see Is 31). So often, Israel turned from dependence on God to seeking help from other countries; as Hosea put it, problems occurred ‘because you have depended on your own strength and on your many warriors.’ (Hosea 10:13)
Self-dependence will ultimately lead to failure. We need to re-evaluate our lives, looking at the direction our lives are taking and how we spend our time (since this will inevitably reflect our values). We live in the same world as everyone else, but are called to live differently (see 1 Pet 4:1-3). God calls us to seek out His truth and live by it, which will not lead to general popularity (John 15:20, 2 Tim 3:12). It is not easy to live against the system of the world, but ‘if we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.’ (Rom 14:8)
To recalibrate our dependence on God, we need to spend time in prayer and in the word, re-aligning ourselves with God’s purposes and plans. Jesus reminds us that He is the vine and we are the branches; apart from Him, we can do nothing. (John 15:5) Ultimately, we need to be prepared to pay the price, living for eternity. God works in us (Phil 2:12-13), energising us and give us the power to live for God. We have to live according to what we know of God, following the last instruction received. We must live for eternity, not living independently but living in dependence on God.
Redefining The Grave
On this first Sunday after Easter, Dave spoke from Matt 28:1-10, explaining how the resurrection of Jesus redefines the grave for us. In this passage describing Easter Sunday, we see how the disciples were bewildered and confused after the crucifixion; they had known great despair and helplessness over the past week, and there must have been a great sense of loss. Yet the momentous fact was when the women arrived at the Tomb, they did not find Jesus’ body there. They had been debating who would move the stone for them only to find an angel had done this – not so much to let Jesus out of the Tomb, but to let people in!
Death has always been an unknown for us, something frightening and mystifying partly because we do not know what lies beyond. The angel invited the women to look inside the tomb, however, reminding them that Jesus is not there. We see that death no longer has the final word; there is no longer any reason to fear, for we have a Saviour who has overcome death.
The women did not just see an empty tomb, however. They were given God’s word from the angel that Jesus was risen; they then had the experience of seeing Jesus for themseslves. The tomb became a trumpet, proclaiming the victory of life over death. The women’s reaction was to run to tell the disciples this news (Matt 28:8); joy became their legacy. We can share in this same legacy, experiencing joy no matter what our situations. We serve a risen Saviour: Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever and is alive forevermore. No wonder we have an endless hope.
Hope
Hope is a key element in faith; it’s often what keeps us going through trials and testing. Paul told the Corinthians that ‘now these three remain: faith, hope and love’ (1 Cor 13:13), and he speaks frequently of the power of hope to sustain and enable us to endure.
It was because of his hope in the resurrection of Jesus Christ that Paul was arrested and put on trial. (Acts 23:6, Acts 24:15, Acts 26:6, Acts 28:20) Yet he affirmed that ‘we boast in the hope of the glory of God’ (Rom 5:2), finding hope in the ultimate fulfilment of prophecy as he waited for God. (Rom 8:23-25) Hope kept him going throughout persecution, opposition, injustice and imprisonment. He kept hoping for deliverance and knew he could trust God in every situation. (2 Cor 1:9-10)
Hope is desperately needed in our world today. Without God, we are without hope. (Eph 2:12). We identify with Job in his suffering: ‘My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and they come to an end without hope. (Job 7:6) One of the problems people have faced over the past year is that they feel they have no hope. Illness, insecurity, the loss of freedom, financial anxiety, loneliness, the loss of familiarity and security have all led to a feeling of hopelessness and helplessness which has been evidenced by mental health suffering, unemployment rising and desperation becoming the norm for so many people. How can we keep going when there is so much uncertainty and despair around us?
God’s word speaks hope into our lives. It reminds us that God has not forgotten us and that we do not have to live merely by sight, but can let faith become our sight. If Paul could endure hardship and persecution with hope and joy, then we too can be sustained by God in exactly the same way. Don’t give up. Don’t lose hope. Trust in God and wait patiently for Him.
