Jeremiah 1:4-10, Psalm 71:1-6, Isaiah 58:9-14, Psalm 103:1-8, Hebrews 12:18-29, Luke 13:10-17
A). A COMMON CALL.
Jeremiah 1:4-10.
Throughout history both the Church in general, and churches in particular, have published books of Common Order, Common Worship, and Common Prayer; common lectionaries, common liturgies, and joint statements of faith and mission. This is not necessarily a bad thing, provided that we do not confuse uniformity with unity. What binds us together with other Christians is not outward conformity, but a faith held in common, based in a common Call and calling which is both universal and personal.
The LORD God called Noah to build a boat in a land that had known no rain. This was an action which both condemned sin and which, through his preaching, called to righteousness (2 Peter 2:5). Even Jesus was ‘set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel’ (Luke 2:34). This is remarkably similar to the proclamation of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 1:10).
The LORD called Abraham to leave his home and his moon-worshipping people to go to a place which he had never seen. There (against the expectations of nature) he would become the father of a new nation, with a view to recalling all nations back to God (Genesis 12:1-3). Jeremiah was also called to be a prophet to the nations (Jeremiah 1:5; Jeremiah 1:10).
When called to go and confront Pharaoh, Moses argued his unworthiness for such a cause. The LORD countered this with His promised presence for the task, and gave him visible signs of the authenticity of his calling (Exodus 3:12). A similar promise was made to Jeremiah (Jeremiah 1:8).
Moses complained of lack of eloquence, but the LORD overthrew this argument by putting His words into Moses’ mouth (Exodus 4:12). Jeremiah similarly had the words of the LORD put into his mouth (Jeremiah 1:9).
Called to deliver Israel from the Midianites, Gideon complained of his lack of standing in Israel. Again the LORD promised His presence (Judges 6:15-16). It is His work, but it is often only accomplished by human instrumentality. Jeremiah also complained of his youth, but the LORD promised him strength and eloquence enough for the task (Jeremiah 1:6-7).
Isaiah was confronted by the LORD, and was overcome by his sense of personal and corporate sinfulness. A seraph touched his lips with a live coal, and his sin was purged. When the LORD followed this with a general call, ‘Whom shall I send?’ Isaiah did not hesitate to volunteer: ‘Here am I, send me’ (Isaiah 6:8). Jeremiah’s mouth was similarly touched by the LORD, in order to equip him for the task (Jeremiah 1:9).
When the Apostle Paul waxed autobiographical, it usually served an apologetic purpose, verifying an Apostleship which was often questioned by his hearers (Galatians 1:15-16). The prophets’ occasional accounts of their calling also serve to authenticate their ministries. Micah speaks of the Word ‘happening’ to him (Micah 1:1). Jeremiah uses the same word to explain the unplanned spontaneity of his own calling (Jeremiah 1:4).
Without denying their historicity or particular relevance to the prophet’s own time and place, some of the personal words of the LORD to Jeremiah can be applied to our own situations. We were ‘chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world’ (Ephesians 1:4), and thus, with Jeremiah, the LORD knew each of us before we were born, set His seal upon us, and prepared us for His calling (Jeremiah 1:5).
The LORD knew His plans for Jeremiah, and had a particular end in view (Jeremiah 29:11). The same is true for us: both as Christian individuals, and as Church.
The Common Call of the Church is found in a mixed metaphor of gardening and building. It is, with Jeremiah, to declare bad what God has pronounced bad, and to proclaim something good in its place: the glorious gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ (Jeremiah 1:10).
B). A SAFE PLACE.
Psalms 71:1-6.
This short excerpt from Psalms 71 is a strong declaration of confidence in the LORD, based on long experience.
Psalms 71:1a. A declaration of present, personal trust in the Personal God. “In You, O LORD, I put my trust.”
We cannot trust in the impersonal. Neither can we rely on the faith of other people. We must respond to the overtures of the true and living God by putting our personal trust in Jesus. It is a temporally ‘present’ trust, in a spatially ‘present’ God.
Psalms 71:1b. Based in that trust, a prayer that, for the honour of His own Name, the LORD will not put me to shame for having believed in Him!
Psalms 71:2a. A plea that the LORD will “Deliver” - literally, snatch me out of the hands of the enemy, thereby vindicating His own “Righteousness”: being both ‘Just, and the Justifier of those who believe in Jesus’ (Romans 3:26).
Psalms 71:2b. An appeal to His all-hearing ear, and a request that He will “Save” me: bring me to the fulness of salvation in Jesus, deliver me from my present distress, save me from enemies, heal me, protect me from wrong thinking, etc.
Psalms 71:3a. “Be my strong habitation, to which I may resort continually.”
A refuge is like a fort, to which we might run in distress: but when we turn that fort into a castle, and take up residence there, it becomes a home. Long years of reliance upon the sturdiness of the structure, and the Rock on which it is built, teaches us to rely continually on its worthiness, rather than just running there in a crisis. This is the voice of experience.
Psalms 71:3b. “You have given commandment to save me.”
Claim the promise. All things DO ‘work together for good’ to those who are your people (Romans 8:28). Even inanimate forces are compelled to obey! NOTHING ‘can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord’ (Romans 8:38-39).
Psalms 71:3c. There are songs here. On Christ the solid Rock I stand; all other ground is sinking sand. Jesus is my Rock, and He rolled my blues away.
And a verse: ‘The name of the LORD is a strong tower: the righteous runs into it and is safe’ (Proverbs 18:10).
Our personal security lies in our Personal LORD: He is “my” Rock and “my” Fortress (Psalms 71:3); “my” God (Psalms 71:4); “my” hope, “my” trust (Psalms 71:5); and the sole recipient of “my” praise (Psalms 71:6).
Psalms 71:4. The cry, “Deliver me” is reiterated. Pluck me, O my God, “out of the hand of the wicked, out of the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man.”
Mr. Spurgeon recognises two hands here, but ‘the finger of God’ (he says) more than matches them!
It is good that God is on the side of His afflicted people! ‘If God be for us, who can be against us?’ (Romans 8:31).
Psalms 71:5. Our present Hope, our present Trust is based in past experience: even “from my youth,” says the Psalmist.
Let us raise up our Ebenezer, our ‘stone of help’: for ‘Hitherto hath the LORD helped us’ (1 Samuel 7:12). He has always proved Himself to be ‘a very present help in time of need’ (Psalms 46:1). He will never let us down.
‘Behold I am with you always, even to the end of the age’ (Matthew 28:20); ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you’ (Hebrews 13:5). No, not, never!
Psalms 71:6a. In fact, not only does the LORD promise to be with us in all our tomorrows: He has already been with us in all our yesterdays - right back to birth, right back to the womb, asserts the Psalmist!
When we lean on Jesus, it is not just for a season, but for life. The LORD has determined our path, our appointment, and our destiny from time immemorial (cf. Jeremiah 1:5).
Psalms 71:6b. No wonder our Praise is constantly, and continually, of Him!
To quote Mr. Spurgeon again: ‘Where goodness has been unceasingly received, praise should be unceasingly offered.’
Amen.
C). PROMISES TO THE SINCERE.
Isaiah 58:9-14.
We who have heard His call and answered, “Here am I LORD, send me” (Isaiah 6:8) will now call on Him, and He will answer “Here am I” (Isaiah 58:9).
When our ‘religion’ consists in more than outward rituals, and our deeds follow our souls in pity to the poor, then the LORD will guide us, provide for us, and make our land as a watered garden (Isaiah 58:10-11). This is a spring from which not only do we draw water for ourselves, but in a surfeit of abundance we shall have more than sufficient for others also. The only wealth which we properly desire is the type of prosperity which spreads itself abroad for the benefit of others.
There is a promise of blessing for those who keep the true fast, repent and walk in God's way. Their children shall rebuild the old waste places, and they shall dwell in the paths of righteousness. The breach in the covenant shall be repaired (Isaiah 58:12).
Furthermore, those who keep the Sabbath and the fast days not out of custom but out of a changed heart and a new life, will find their delight where they have sought it: in the LORD. They will reap the benefits of heavenly citizenship even whilst they are still here upon the earth (Isaiah 58:13-14). Then at last they shall enter into the fullness of their salvation in the glory hereafter.
D). AWAKENING TO WORSHIP.
Psalm 103:1-8.
Psalm 103:1. Sometimes we are sluggish about praising God, so we have to stir ourselves up, searching within ourselves whether there might be anything hindering us from the right worship of the LORD. Having awoken our “soul” to the task, we must delve deeper still - into our innermost being - to rally “all that is within me” to join the project. The LORD is holy, and each of us must exhort our own soul to bless His name.
Psalm 103:2. When we bless the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we add nothing to Him: it is only our response to the blessing in which we have received our all from Him (Ephesians 1:3). By way of incentive the Psalmist reminds himself of God’s bounteous and undeserved benefits (Psalm 103:2). The negative “forget not” is an echo of Deuteronomy 6:12 and Deuteronomy 8:11.
As the Psalmist ‘counts his blessings’ he names:
1. forgiveness and healing (Psalm 103:3) -
These two belong together (Mark 2:9-11). Not that every illness can be simply accounted for by blaming the sufferer’s own sins (John 9:1-3): but there was no sickness in the world prior to Adam’s first sin. The same Jesus who died for our sins, also heals our diseases (Isaiah 53:5).
There is nothing unrighteous about our forgiveness because Jesus our substitute took our sin upon Himself and paid the penalty due to us. Forensically, we are declared righteous, and the LORD does not reward us according to our iniquities (cf. Psalm 103:9-10). The measure of our forgiveness is as infinite as the distance from the east to the west (cf. Psalm 103:12).
2. redemption, steadfast love, and mercy (Psalm 103:4) -
Israel was redeemed out of captivity in Egypt. David (the Psalmist) was redeemed from the pit of destruction (2 Samuel 12:13). Christians are aware that their redemption is provided by our kinsman-redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 3:24).
Psalm 103 celebrates the steadfast love of the LORD, His covenant mercy and faithfulness. God’s mercy is as immense as the height of the heavens above the earth (cf. Psalm 103:11).
3. satisfaction and renewal (Psalm 103:5) -
The LORD satisfies us with all the good things of this life, and the blessing of spiritual food out of the Word of God. He renews our vigour for the service of God (Isaiah 40:30-31). The LORD nurtures us, and cherishes us, and pities us ‘as a loving father’ (cf. Psalm 103:13).
Having established the benefits which helped fuel his own praise of God, the Psalmist looked beyond himself to the wider faith community. Another key word in this Psalm is “righteousness” - and the LORD showed His righteousness by executing justice for the oppressed when He brought the children of Israel out of Egypt under Moses’ leadership (Psalm 103:6-7).
Psalm 103:8 echoes Moses’ encounter with the LORD (Exodus 34:6).
E). A KINGDOM THAT CANNOT BE SHAKEN.
Hebrews 12:18-29.
I. A BOOK OF CONTRASTS.
The letter to the Hebrews is full of contrasts - too many to innumerate in a short space. Here the author shows the difference between the covenant at Sinai (Hebrews 12:18-21), and the covenant of Christianity (Hebrews 12:22-24). This is similar to Paul’s allegory between ‘Jerusalem which now is’ (under the figure of mount Sinai), and ‘Jerusalem which is above’ (Galatians 4:24-26).
The Hebrews were being warned not to neglect the things pertaining to the great salvation procured for them by the Lord Himself (Hebrews 2:2-4). They must not slip back into what had already proved to be inadequate (Hebrews 6:4-6; Hebrews 6:9; Hebrews 10:26-29; Hebrews 10:39).
* It should not be a negative exercise for the Christian to contrast what he once was with what he now is.
II. “BUT YE ARE COME …”
Mount Zion is described as “the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem” (Hebrews 12:22). This has been celebrated in Psalms and songs of long ago (Psalm 48:1-2). Here are gathered not only the “angels” (Hebrews 12:22), but also “the church of the first-born ones, registered in heaven” (Hebrews 12:23).
The “first-born” include not only those who have gone before, but also all who believe (Hebrews 11:40), and all who will ever yet obtain ‘like precious faith’ (2 Peter 1:1). This constitutes ‘a number which no man could number, out of every tribe, tongue, people, and nation’ (Revelation 7:9). Here also “ye are come” (Hebrews 12:22).
Those who come are “just” (Hebrews 12:23). We are made “perfect” (Hebrews 12:23) through the “sprinkling” (Hebrews 12:24) of the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are ‘justified by faith’ (Romans 5:1) - made righteous by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 3:21-22).
Therefore we are bold to approach the throne of God (Hebrews 4:16). We come ‘looking unto Jesus’ (Hebrews 12:2), and bearing in mind what He has done for us (Hebrews 12:3). We come to “the Judge of all” (Hebrews 12:23), knowing that ‘the Judge of all the earth’ shall do right (Genesis 18:25).
We come to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant. We come to His blood sprinkled upon the altar (Hebrews 12:24). Abel’s blood cried out for vengeance (Genesis 4:10) - but Jesus’ blood goes on speaking gracious words of mercy (1 John 1:9; 1 John 2:1-2).
III. EXHORTATION.
Under the old covenant the emphasis lay upon the transcendence of God, so that the people feared to hear His voice (Hebrews 12:19). Even the mediator, Moses, trembled with fear (Hebrews 12:21). In the new covenant the emphasis is upon the immanence of God, who speaks to us directly from heaven (Hebrews 12:25).
This exhortation (Hebrews 12:25-29) reminds us that we are still worshipping the same God as the saints of the old covenant: we have not replaced Yahweh with Santa Claus! If those who heard Him under the law are left without excuse, how much more accountable are those who hear His voice in the glorious Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ (Hebrews 12:25)? ‘To whom much is given, of them is much required’ (Luke 12:48).
His voice has not done with shaking things up (Hebrews 12:26), turning things upside down (Acts 17:6-7), and inside out. “Yet once more” (Hebrews 12:26-27) echoes the immanence (rather than immediacy) of ‘yet once, it is a little’ (Haggai 2:6). There again we see the eschatological shaking of all things, foreshadowed in the Exodus/Sinai event (also compare Isaiah 34:4; Isaiah 51:6; 2 Peter 3:10-12).
However, this time the shaking has the effect of SIFTING, so that only that which is of value remains. The inference is that true believers, like their Master (Hebrews 1:10-12), “cannot be shaken” (Hebrews 12:27).
In this process we are receiving “a kingdom which cannot be moved” (Hebrews 12:28). On account of this we are called to thanksgiving and worship “with reverence and godly fear.” The thanksgiving has its roots in grace; the worship is based in service (Romans 12:2); the fear has its roots in the awe of God.
* Our God is a consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29): consuming sin, consuming dross - but ultimately REFINING His people.
F). LOOSED! STAND UP AND PRAISE GOD.
Luke 13:10-17.
In this remarkable little incident we find Jesus teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath (Luke 13:10). Perhaps one of the first things we notice is just how obedient the Lord was to the laws and customs of His time. Should not we also be about His Father’s business (cf. Luke 2:49) on the Lord’s day?
It is interesting to observe how God does sometimes allow Satan to inflict physical or mental illness (cf. Job 2:4-6). Everybody in the village would have known about the woman with a spirit of infirmity, and how long she had been bowed in that state, and how poor a prognosis had been given her (Luke 13:11). Whatever its cause, it was spiritual: even Dr Luke was stuck to put a name to the symptoms.
It is perhaps significant, too, that no matter what, this woman had made her way to worship that day, and probably many other days. This puts to shame those who absent themselves from public worship with no other ailment than their lame excuses. It is our duty to be in the place where we are most likely to hear Jesus’ call.
As soon as Jesus saw her, he called her to himself (Luke 13:12). She does not appear to have solicited His attention, but was merely in her place at the right time. How could she have heard him, on this defining day of her life, if she had not been there?
“Woman,” said Jesus. Then in one word, “you-have-been-loosed” from your infirmity. Jesus then laid His hands on her: conveying to her lowered eyes what He was doing; and daring, as usual, to touch society’s untouchables (Luke 13:13). This was not the only time that Jesus vicariously rendered Himself ceremonially unclean for the cleansing of another (cf. Luke 7:14).
The effect was immediate: passively, she was made straight; and actively, she glorified God (Luke 13:13). When Jesus touches our lives, the effect is holistic: affecting body, mind, and spirit. Stand up and praise God!
So far so good: but in this good deed Jesus had upset the sensitivities – or perhaps the insensitiveness – of the synagogue leader (Luke 13:14). In a way, this man was also bent over: with the burden of legalism, and perhaps the sin of wanting to keep face when challenged with a new and better way. Sometimes ‘religion’ is a hindrance to ‘Christianity’!
The ruler of the synagogue was indignant: are there not six days in which to come for healing? The pettiness of the remark is evident to all. After all, do we really go to church on the Lord’s day expecting nothing to happen?
Jesus was also indignant. “Hypocrite!” answered the Lord (Luke 13:15). You “loose” your ox or your donkey from the stall on the Sabbath, and lead him to the water. And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham (in the truest sense, as a true believer) be “loosed” from this bond on the Sabbath day? (Luke 13:16).
Jesus also gave His diagnosis: she had been bound by Satan for eighteen years. Another day’s wait might not have hurt: but then Jesus would have moved on in His relentless journey to Jerusalem. We must seize our chances when grace comes knocking at the door of our lives.
As usual, Jesus brought division by His actions and His remarks. His adversaries were ashamed, but “all the people” rejoiced (Luke 13:17). Stand up and praise God!
