In Matt 16:13-19, we see a pivotal moment of understanding for Peter and the disciples (another PPI, as Mark calls them.) Jesus asks ‘Who do people say the Son of Man is?’ before moving on to ask them directly ‘Who do you say I am?’ Peter’s reply is an acknowledgment of the identity of Christ: ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.‘ (Matt 16:16)

It is in the context of acknowledging the identity of Jesus that He goes on to say to Peter ‘I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.‘ (Matt 16:17-19; note that some translations say of the verb tense ‘will have been bound’/ ‘will have been loosed’ indicating an authority that is already there.)

Receiving the keys to a city or kingdom indicates a spiritual freedom and authority given by a greater power. On the day of Pentecost, Peter opened the door for 3,000 people to enter the kingdom of God (Acts 2:41). He opened the door for the Gentile centurion, Cornelius, and thereby to the whole Gentile world (Acts 10). We too have been given these keys (see also Matt 18:18) and can therefore pray for salvation with confidence and authority.

Nicky Gumbel reminds us ‘You can have the amazing privilege of seeing people set free through the preaching of the good news of the kingdom. You can have the joy of seeing people set free from drug addiction, alcoholism, crime and every other bondage. You can approach challenges with confidence, fearing no evil, knowing that you share in a remarkable spiritual authority.’ (‘Bible In One Year’)

So often, we pray for salvation timidly and half-heartedly, somehow believing that atheism, scepticism, science and apathy are able to withstand the power of God. The truth is that, with the spiritual keys God entrusts to the church, we can ‘storm the gates of hell and set the prisoners free.’ (ibid.) The church in the book of Acts turned the world upside down – in the face of considerable scepticism and opposition – because they recognised the omnipotence and sovereign authority of God. Only when we are equally convinced of these two things and understand the authority He has given us (see Matt 28:18-20) will we take the Great Commission seriously and pray with boldness and authority, preach with boldness and authority and witness with boldness and authority.

When I was younger, I learned the magic of musical notation. The ability to read and write music is like learning another language. Musical notes have their own rhythmical value and, depending where they are positioned on a stave (five black lines which become the musical ‘page’), their own pitch. Creating a system for ordering this enables people across time and geographical boundaries to communicate with each other.

Many people can listen to and sing or play music without any theoretical knowledge of this (just as literacy is no necessity for communication – speaking and listening skills develop long before any understanding of reading and writing.) Literacy skills do, however, open a door to a wider world of communication, and it’s the same with music. The greater fluency we want to have in any language, the more we’ll work at developing our skills in communication in that language.

Just as a child learns to read monosyllables like ‘cat‘ and ‘dog’ before progressing to polysyllabic words like ‘antidisestablishmentarisanism’ and uses phonics (a method of teaching people to read by correlating sounds with symbols in an alphabetic writing system) as the building blocks to understanding the language, so the music student learns names for rhythmic values (minims, crotchets, quavers and so on) and names of notes positioned on staves. Maths comes into music as well, for rhythm uses maths to break down timing values (the linguist in me loves the fact that German obligingly gives mathematical names to these values, calling a demisemiquaver a ‘Zweiunddreißigstel‘, a 32nd note, which one wit says is ‘the longest name for one of the shortest notes’!)

Because rhythm can be extremely varied, this language can at times be as simple as monosyllabic words (counting to 4 is not exactly difficult) or as complex as polysyllabic words (different note lengths, tied notes, dotted notes and so on.) The score (written account) of a simple song is like a child’s ‘ABC’ book; the score of a Beethoven sonata more like a Shakespeare play!

Timing is crucial in music, adding variety and interest to songs and compositions. Yet just as it requires fluency to read more complex stories, it requires understanding to read more complex scores of music. Many of us find timing in our Christian lives hard to read as well. Why does God make us wait so long? (Ps 13:1) ‘Reading’ God requires a lifetime of practice, and even then, as Tim Hughes puts it, God is ‘in every way above and beyond understanding.’ (‘Almighty God,’ Tim Hughes)

Many of our difficulties in life arise because we are not skilled in understanding God’s thoughts and ways, especially relating to timing. We’re still at the 1-2-3-4 stage of counting when He’s dealing with minims, crotchets, quavers, semiquavers, demisemiquavers and beyond, not forgetting the importance of rests (all of which have their own musical notation!) We believe that life is lived at one pace only, not understanding that variety and silence (rests) contribute to the overall texture of life, as well as music. There is tremendous freedom in understanding that God’s timing is different to ours, as Aaron Shust says:

‘When the time is finally right,

Will You open up my eyes, show me all the things You want me to see?’ (‘To God Alone’, Aaron Shust)

God works when the time is fully right (Gal 4:4, Ex 2:24). Our job is to try and ‘understand the times.’ Music is a great way to learn to fathom variety and mystery; whether we learn to ‘read’ it or not ultimately doesn’t stop us enjoying or appreciating it, though. But understanding God’s timing matters a lot; learning to wait for God is an essential part of spiritual growth. Our willingness to be led by the Spirit of God – not running ahead impatiently or lagging behind truculently – matters enormously in practical realms, not just theoretical ones. Reading God’s timing stops us fretting or anxiously manipulating circumstances; we are free to embrace the time as it is and enjoy today (see Eccl 3:1-11).

Tucked away in Genesis, in the midst of the exciting story of Joseph’s life, is a short narrative about Judah (Gen 38:1-30), a story that seems rather unpleasant and unsavoury, and always leaves me thinking ‘Why is this here at all?’ By this time in Genesis, we are used to family narratives, lists of marriages and children, and have learned that people are far from perfect and the Bible is nothing if not honest. Nonetheless, this story of marriage, death and prostitution seems oddly out of place.

Judah, Jacob’s fourth son, has left the family home by this time, and gone to live elsewhere. He’s met and married a Canaanite woman (Shua), which, given the attention to detail Abraham paid to getting a ‘native’ wife for his son Isaac (Gen 24), sets alarm bells ringing. (Intermarriage rarely results in happiness… nor does marrying unbelievers…) He has three sons by this woman: Er, Onan and Shelah.

Er marries Tamar, an arranged marriage by Judah (some speculate that because her name is Hebraic, she was a Hebrew, rather than a Canaanite), but Er’s unspecified wickedness is so serious that ‘the Lord put him to death.’ (Gen 38:7) Sometimes I wish the Bible was far more explicit than it is!

As was the levirate custom (see Deut 25:5-6), Onan was then obliged to marry Tamar, in order to continue the eldest brother’s lineage. Clearly, Onan did not want to do this and he refused to consummate the relationship properly, a refusal which also displeased God (see Gen 38:9-10). By this time, Tamar has had two husbands and still has no children. Judah promises his third son to her, but does nothing about this, and whilst she is prepared to wait for him to do this, his procrastination reaches the point of insult and the rest of the chapter relates her actions in dealing with the humiliation and rejection she must have felt.

The fact that this involves her deceit and Judah’s casual attitude to his own sexual behaviour whilst condemning her pregnancy raises many questions. Clearly, his hypocrisy and double standards are highlighted in the chapter; when confronted with this, he admits, ‘She is more righteous than I, since I wouldn’t give her to my son Shelah.‘ (Gen 38:26)

Whatever we may think of the customs of the time and the behaviour of the two main protagonists in this story, one thing remains clear. The union between Judah and Tamar produces twin sons: Perez and Zerah. And in Matt 1:3, we see how this story connects with the lineage of Jesus, for there we read ‘Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar, Perez the father of Hezron’, leading right through to King David and thence to Jesus.

We may well wonder why God allowed His Son to come from such a human lineage! We tend to think of the sinless Son of God as coming from the ‘best’ of humankind (which is why I love the genealogies so much, since they debunk this theory!) But God’s purposes would never have been fulfilled if He had waited for a ‘perfect’ human, for no one is capable of living righteously in their own strength (Eccl 7:20, Is 59:16, Rom 3:1-23). This story shows us, rather, that God’s plans will be worked out despite our brokenness. Our mistakes, sins and failings will somehow be redeemed through God’s grace and love. That’s not to encourage us to sin (see Rom 6:1-14), but to reassure us that nothing is able to thwart God’s purposes and plans.

Jacob later prophesied that the Messiah would come through Judah’s line (see Gen 49:8-12). There is little to praise Judah for in this story, but ultimately, he is remembered  perhaps more for being an ancestor of Jesus than he is for his own behaviour. One of the names of Jesus is ‘the Lion of the tribe of Judah.’ (Rev 5:5)  Perhaps that’s the whole point, really. We are covered by Jesus. God looks on us and sees the righteousness of Christ. There’s hope for all of us.

Stephen spoke tonight on the subject of boxes and stones. Boxes can come in all kinds of different shapes and be made from different materials. Some are cardboard, useful for packing things in when moving house or storing items:

Some are wooden:

Some have specific purposes, such as a jewellery box:

All too often, however, we use different boxes for different things, and if we are not careful, we can compartmentalise our lives in the same way, separating our ‘work lives’ from our ‘home lives’ from our ‘church lives’ and so on.

Stones often look similar, but on closer inspection are very different. 1 Pet 2:5 reminds us that we are all ‘living stones‘; we may look alike in some respects, but are all individuals. God wants us to allow Him to shape us and mould us. The word ‘Christian’ can be both a noun or an adjective and so often we accept the noun as a title and don’t allow the adjective to influence every sphere of our lives. Eph 4:14-16 talks of how we are supposed to be growing and maturing. Are we growing and changing as God wants us to, so that we are becoming more like His Son, or are we simply content to put God in one ‘box’ of our lives and not allow Him to influence and shape every aspect of our lives?

We need to allow the adjective Christian to permeate every area of our lives so that there is a day-to-day development in our growth and we become living stones God is shaping.

Dave continued his series on the fruit of the Spirit this morning, looking at the subject of patience. Christians may well often regard this gift in the same way that people feel when opening socks on Christmas Day! – we may need patience, but we don’t always want it! The world seems to place little value on patience, preferring a get-up-and-go attitude which sees little virtue in waiting. Nonetheless, we need this fruit and must learn to see it through God’s eyes.

What is patience?

Patience is not indifference or not caring, nor is it co-dependency (where we put up with things because we are overly dependent on someone) or laziness. Patience is restraint, learning to think before we speak and act. It is an ability to persevere, an ability not to give in to despair. It is also an awareness that ‘now’ is not the only time frame available to God!

Why is patience important?

Patience acts as the oil which helps relationships to function smoothly. Prov 14:29 reminds us of the wisdom of patience and 1 John 5:3 reminds us that God’s commands are not burdensome. When we feel that they are, it’s usually because of we are not prepared to wait; we disobey God because we want things NOW. Patience not only helps us to avoid sin, it helps us to overcome trials. Js 1:2-3 shows us that trials and testings achieve a purpose, that of developing perseverance within us. Rom 12:12 urges us to ‘be patient in affliction’, and without patience we easily become complaining whiners who fail to understand that God’s purposes often take time to be fulfilled. Abraham and Sarah had to wait many years for the fulfilment of God’s promises and we easily succumb to the temptation to ‘fix things’ our way, rather than preparing to wait for God. As we wait for God to act, we learn patience and that His timing is far superior to ours!

How does patience develop?

The Bible offers us many commands to simply ‘be patient’ (see Eph 4:2, 1 Thess 5:14, Rom 12:12, Col 3:12), without necessarily giving us clear explanations as how this happens. First of all, though, we must value patience. Instead of seeing it as the ‘Cinderella’ of God’s gifts, we have to understand the purpose of patience, ask for it (since we can bear no fruit unless we abide in Jesus, Jn 15:5) and actively seek it (Col 3:12 talks of clothing ourselves with these virtues.) God is patient with us, and as we focus on that fact, we find He develops patience within us. Patience, ultimately, is about our dependence on God, rather than wanting always to run our own lives. Waiting on God is vital if we are to become the people God wants us to be and possess the promises He has given us.

When I was at school studying chemistry, we learnt about the Periodic Table of elements and noble (or inert) gases. Noble gases are those which don’t really react very much with other elements; gases such as helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon, and radon are stable, largely because their outermost electron shell is complete and therefore there is no ‘need’ for them to form compounds with other elements in order to have a complete outer shell of electrons. To a fourteen year old student, noble gases seemed rather boring; chemistry was far more exciting when we did experiments with other elements which did react, sometimes quite dramatically!

Anthropomorphism (attributing  human characteristics and purposes to inanimate objects, animals, plants, or other natural phenomena) was how my non-scientific mind coped with the concept of elements and compounds. Thus, sodium and chlorine, the elements which combine to form sodium chloride (salt), were described as lovers (see here for a video about the ‘element dating agency’) longing for wholeness and completeness. I also readily related to elements having human emotions: impulsiveness, volatility, longing being concepts I understood far more readily than valency and reactivity… (By now, the scientists among you will be shaking their heads in frustration, but bear with me…!)

Personality varies enormously among people. Some people are hot-headed, volatile, capable of exploding at the least little thing (the hydrogen of the human world.) Some are more even-tempered but still capable of reacting under certain conditions (the iron of the human world.) Some are even more stable, apparently inert, like the Group 18 gases!

The concept of wholeness, however, could be said to have a spiritual application, as well as aiding non-scientists like me to grasp reactivity and why certain elements form compounds. Augustine spoke of the restlessness in the human heart which will only find completeness in God:

As a teenager, I was not interested in the ‘boring’ noble gases. However, these are not as ‘useless’ as I imagined them to be when I was at school; because of their non-reactive properties, they are often useful to prevent undesirable chemical reactions from taking place (for example, food is packed in inert gas to remove oxgyen gas and thus prevent bacteria from growing; historical documents can also be stored under an inert gas to avoid degradation, and these gases are often used in the chemical industry to minimise fire hazards.) Similarly, people who are stable in personality are often accused of being boring, but all of us are called to find our true identity in Christ alone (it’s in Him that we find out who we are and what we are living for, according to Eph 1:11.) God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Christ (Col 1:19) and in Him, all things hold together (Col 1:17). In the words of a hymn, ‘we are complete in Him’ (see Col 2:10). We no longer have to be restless, yearning for fulfilment through activities or human relationships or work. Our fulfilment comes from God; we have found our soul-mate and can therefore act as salt and light in our decaying world (see Matt 5:13-16), preserving and demonstrating a life that is supernatural.

Noble gases were called ‘noble’ because their unreactivity was seen as majestic and something worthy. Far from being seen as boring, uninteresting and useless, they remind us that at times, it’s better not to react when provoked! Stability of character and consistency are not weaknesses, but strengths. Let’s allow the character of God to be formed within us so that we hear the Word, act on it and produce a good crop (Matt 13:1-23.)