Ordinary People, Extraordinary Healing
Jesus The Messiah
Roots
In the 1970s there was a TV series called ‘Roots’, which looked at the history of a black American family, set during and after the era of slavery in the USA. The series looks at the journey of one family and their will to survive, and as a historical drama, it does what history so often does: it homes in on the individual in order to give us a better perspective of the wider issues. We find it hard to deal in the abstract; we need a person and a family to care about in order to understand the complex issues of life and find a pathway to hope and life.
The Bible itself often takes this path, teaching us much about history as it does so, but always looking at history as His Story, God’s story, showing us His involvement in human lives. It starts with the story of God’s creation of Adam and Eve and shows us the consequences of their disobedience; the book of Genesis is lined with named individuals who mattered not only to God but to what happened on earth: Cain, Abel, Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Isaac, Joseph, and so on. Some of the books of the Bible focus in very clearly on certain people (the books of Ruth and Esther, in particular), showing us how their response to God has influence way beyond their personal lives (both featuring in the lineage of the Messiah.) In other historical books, people again hold great sway: Moses in the Pentateuch and Joshua, then key prophets such as Elijah, Elisha and Isaiah, not to mention the kings of Israel who form the backdrop to 1 & 2 Samuel, 1 & 2 Kings and 1 & 2 Chronicles. David, whose life we are now studying in our Bible studies, is probably the most illustrious and famous of those kings, but it is important to remember that he did not exist in a vacuum, any more than we do.
David was shaped by his family circumstances, by his religious heritage and by what was going on in the world around him (which we tend to term ‘culture’ these days.) There is a tendency nowadays to want to re-write history with the brush of our contemporary age, but that is to fail to take into account a key part of history: understanding what happened in the past and why. It’s not our job to re-write history, but to learn key principles from it.
David was part of the long history of people of faith, people who believed in the God of Israel. As such, he has much to teach people of faith nowadays, for people, despite different cultures and circumstances, are often at heart much the same. Fear, jealousy, covetousness, materialism, love, loyalty and forgiveness are not new to this present century. Persecution, opposition, waiting, injustice and celebration did not cease with the Old Testament, nor even with the period of American history which is the subject of ‘Roots’! The wider issues of what it means to be a human in touch with the Almighty, living in a world that is largely hostile to God, are as relevant today as they were in David’s day. Scripture, therefore, is the perfect place to find and explore our human roots and to see if we can learn important lessons on what it means to live as people after God’s own heart.
The Life of David
This week we started a new Bible study series looking at the life of David. David is one of the most beloved of Bible characters, probably remembered for two pivotal incidents, one involving a giant named Goliath, the other involving a married woman named Bathsheba, one at the beginning of his life, the other when he was a mature man and king over Israel. He features heavily in the historical books of the Old Testament (first appearing in 1 Samuel 16 and then becomes the main story throughout the rest of 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel, before dying in 1 Kings 2:10-11.) He is frequently referenced in the New Testament and, of course, was part of the human lineage of Jesus Christ (thus fulfilling God’s prophetic word that the Messiah would come from David’s line.) In so many ways, David has much to teach us and the fact he is called a ‘man after God’s own heart’ (Acts 13:22) points to the many spiritual lessons we can learn from his example and life.
It’s worth remembering, however, that David might appear to us on the scenes as a bolt out of the blue, a young shepherd boy who has six older brothers and two sisters, but he does not exist as a fully-formed human being! As we read about his life, we see how he was shaped by his family life and upbringing; we see his growth and development. This is reassuring to us, for we are all ‘works in progress’, as the saying goes. David shows us what it means to be human. We share in his sorrows and joys; we know his fears and hopes. The most characteristic thing about David is his relationship with God. It is this which ultimately defines him, and we do well to understand that it is our relationship with God which ultimately defines us. The question, as Casting Crowns point out in their song ‘Who Am I?’, is not so much ‘who am I?’ but ‘whose am I?’ (‘You told me who I am: I am Yours.’)
David is one individual in the Bible, but we see clearly that he is no island. He is born into a specific time, place and culture, as are we. He is shaped by family, friends and colleagues, as are we. He has the opportunity to respond to specific situations, as do we. Sometimes he triumphs magnificently; sometimes, he falls flat on his face. In this way, he is an archetype of humanity. Like Joseph and Joshua before him, he is a mirror to us, revealing faith, fear, despair, joy, exuberance, confidence, jealousy, generosity, duplicity, cunning, and every other human emotion possible. We do well to learn from the life of David: a real life anchored in historical reality but always reminding us of spiritual truths.
Tissue Paper Layers
The Miracle Of Pentecost
Tonight in our series ‘The Miraculous & The Mundane’ we looked at the transition in the New Testament from Jesus doing miracles in the power of God in the gospels and how the lives of ordinary believers were transformed by the arrival of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. (Acts 2:1-21) We often expect Jesus to do miracles because He is the Son of God, but the truth is that He modelled for us what God intended man to be like and the book of Acts shows us God’s plan for His world: to work through ordinary people in extraordinary ways. Miracles are not simply historical records, but are ongoing today because God does not change.
Acts 2 shows us how ordinary followers of Jesus were transformed by the coming of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. Acts 1:4-5 gave them Jesus’ command to wait for the gift promised by His Father. It was only when the Holy Spirit came on them with tongues of fire and a sound like a rushing wind that they were transformed into fearless witnesses to the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.
Despite the miraculous signs of fire and wind, however, what actually happened was that the believers began to speak in other languages – which seems quite an ‘ordinary’ event in many ways. Edison once said, ‘Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.’ Miracles sometimes don’t look especially spectacular to us, but what happened here was that as people heard these ordinary Galileans telling the wonders of God in their own languages, they were startled and ready to listen to Peter’s preaching. God used this miracle to open people’s hearts and bring them to Himself.
For us to see miracles in our own lives, we need to earnestly desire the Holy Spirit’s presence and power in our lives. We need to ask God for this gift and wait patiently until He comes. Without the Holy Spirit, we cannot ‘fire on all cylinders’, as the saying goes; we need His power and help to live and witness for God.