It is truly a blessing to have so many mothers in our midst today. And it is a privilege and an honour to pay tribute this weekend to the women in our lives. These mothers and grandmothers, and great-grandmothers in our midst have contributed in so many ways to make each of us who we are, and we are so thankful that God has placed them in our lives, to inspire us, to teach us; at times, to correct us; but most of all, to love us. It is a true saying that a mother’s love for her children knows no danger, counts no cost, thinks not of self. It is a love that’s as fierce as any wild animal, but as gentle as a dove.
What’s more, a mother’s love and devotion often go unrecognised. Ilion Jones once wrote that on the great biographer Ida M. Tarbell’s 80th birthday, someone asked her to name the greatest persons she had ever met. She responded, “The greatest persons I have ever met are those nobody knows anything about.” Ilion Jones also wrote that once the New York Times was asked to help a group of club women decide on the twelve greatest women in the United States. After due consideration, the editors replied, “The twelve greatest women in the United States are women who have never been heard of outside of their own homes.” God has indeed bestowed upon mankind a special gift in giving us the women in our lives. They were meant to be, from the very beginning, a special expression and example of His love for us.
In fact, the Word of God tells us that God Himself has motherly qualities. Turn and look with me at Genesis chapter 1, and verses 26 and 27….
Notice what the Bible says: “In the image of God man was created, both male and female.” The Scripture says that women were created as much in the image of God as men were. And yet in many ways, women and men are entirely different from each other. So what God was doing when He created woman was not just creating a help mate for Adam, no. Through Eve, God was revealing more of His image to us. Now, it is clear from many parts of the Bible that God has male qualities. And yet, in creating females, He reveals to us that He also possesses those qualities which we admire in the women in our lives.
As you turn the pages of God’s Word, you will find several key statements made by God, which reveal the motherly aspects of His character. Consider, if you will, Isaiah 66:13, where we are told, “As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you.” Or again in Isaiah, chapter 49 and verse 15: “Can a woman forget her nursing child, and not have compassion on the son of her womb: They may forget, yet I will not forget you.” And then there was the lamentation of Jesus as He looked over the holy city in Matthew 23:37, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets, and stone them that are sent unto you. How often I longed to gather your children to me, even as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings….” These are just a few of the motherly qualities possessed by God as revealed in Scripture. And in giving us mothers, grandmothers, wives and aunts, it is God’s desire to reveal those qualities of His character to us.
One of the greatest qualities of a woman, however, and indeed the only quality which a man cannot possess, is the ability to give life to another human being. Mothers are just that – mothers – because they alone are able to bear children. It’s something that a man just cannot do. I know science nowadays claims to be able to clone human beings; but one thing that they will never be capable of is making a man give birth to a child. Besides which, I don’t think it’s something any man would want to do. I know Angela once told me when she was pregnant with our second son, that if men had to give birth to every other child, there would be no families with three children, because the men would do it once, and never want to do it again.
The ability to give birth is a special gift that God gave to women alone; and He gave them this gift – this capacity for giving life to another human being – because it demonstrates His desire to give life to us.
To better understand what I’m trying to say, would you turn with me, please, to the Gospel of John, chapter 3. This is the passage of Scripture made famous because of verse 16, but there is something else I want us to consider for a moment. So look with me please at the third chapter of John’s Gospel, starting at verse 1 (read vv. 1-7)….
Notice what Jesus said to Nicodemus: “You must be born again.” Now, Nicodemus thought Jesus was talking about the natural birth from our mothers; but what Jesus was talking about was a supernatural birth – the spiritual birth we receive when we become the followers of God. So you see, God demonstrates the motherly aspects of His character when He gives new birth to those who come to Him. This birth, we are told, is a spiritual birth; that is, we are given new life – we are born again – when the Spirit of God comes into our lives.
What does all this mean? What is means, friends, is that God doesn’t just want to be our Father; He wants to be our Mother. He wants to give new life to us; He wants to give us a second birth, not out of the womb of our earthly mothers, but through the power of Holy Spirit. He wants to make us His children, not just by creation, but by redemption. The Bible says that He knit us together in our mother’s womb: that’s the first birth. And once we are born from our mothers, what He wants to do is take us and knit us together with His Spirit, to receive His life in us: that’s what Jesus meant by being born again. Just as through the mother life is given to the child, so God desires that each one of us come to Him to receive a new life, a life that will carry into eternity.
Now, our series of study recently has been in the book of Revelation. And believe it or not, there is a connection between mothers, and giving birth, and the book of Revelation. I would invite you to turn with me, please, to Revelation chapter 12. This is, for Adventists, probably one of the most fundamental passages in the book of Revelation next to the Three Angels Message found in chapter 14. It is a passage which gives Seventh-day Adventists our reason for existence as a people. But as I’ve said before, I believe that sometimes we get so engrossed in the prophetic, that we miss some other important messages God would teach us. So I would ask you to read with me now, please, starting at verse 1 of Revelation chapter 12 (read vv. 1-2)….
Now, just briefly, I want you to suspend your prophetic interpretations as you read this passage, and take a moment to just look at the story itself as it’s being presented. Here in this vision, John sees a – what? – a woman. Not just any woman, but a pregnant woman; and not just a pregnant woman, but a pregnant woman in labour. In this vision, we find ourselves in a divine delivery room, and we see a woman enter who is ready to give birth.
For you mothers out there, I’m sure many of you remember well what this experience was like. First the contractions started; and then they started getting closer, so you jumped into the car and drove to the hospital. And you got settled into your room, and the contractions were getting closer, and a little stronger each time. And before long, the contractions were right on top of each other, and the pain was becoming more intense; and by that point, you were getting kind of anxious to be done with the whole process, weren’t you?
I’m sure that if Angela were here today, she’d tell me that the way I just described it made it sound like a cake walk compared to what it really was; and those of you who have gone through it know what it was really like. But the point is that when a woman is ready to give birth, there’s no turning back. And that’s what we find happening in our scene here in Revelation 12: it’s time for this child to be born, and there’s no stopping now.
Now, if this were a delivery room here on earth, at this point the doctor would be coming in; but notice who enters the scene in this vision. Revelation 12, verses 3 & 4….
This dragon, we are told in Revelation 12 verse 9, is none other than Satan himself. Bursting into the delivery room, he sees the woman, sees that she is ready to give birth to this child. But rather than being there to help her in the delivery process, the Scripture tells us that this dragon has only one purpose for being in this delivery room, and that is to devour this child as soon as it’s born. No sooner is the child out of the mother’s womb, but the dragon is standing there to snatch it away.
I remember when each of our boys was born, how anxious we were to hold them in our arms. We had waited for so long to see them for the first time, we couldn’t wait to hold them close. I remember when Anthony was born, he was taken to the NICU for a few hours so they could monitor his breathing; and I remember how much it pained us to be separated from him. No mother in the world wants to lose a child; much less just after that child is born. But here in the delivery room of Revelation 12, we have a scene of a woman who is giving birth, knowing that in so doing, she risks having her child taken away from right in front of her, and destroyed before she can ever hold him.
I’m going to leave the story there, and again ask you, please, just for a moment, to put away the prophetic interpretations we are so quick to apply to this passage. Not because the prophetic interpretations are wrong – quite to the contrary – but because there is a deeper message to be found in this passage. Allow me to share with you what that deeper message is.
In this scene, the woman represents God. Now, before you string me up for heresy, please follow me through with this. The woman represents God, and the child this woman is giving birth to is you and me. Do you understand what I’m saying? Remember the kind of birth God wants to give us – the Spiritual birth? Here in Revelation 12, we see this born again experience taking place. A child is ready to be born – not of the flesh, but of the Spirit. Someone has come to God and accepted Jesus Christ as their Saviour by faith, and is experiencing the second birth Jesus spoke of in the passage we just looked at in John chapter 3.
Follow me so far? Good. Now, notice what happens at this point. The dragon – Satan – enters the scene. And what is his purpose for being there? To take that child and destroy it before it sees the light of day. Following through on the metaphor of being born again, what we can see is that as soon as someone comes to Jesus and receives new life in Him, Satan is right there to destroy that experience.
To further drive home this message, now let’s apply the prophetic meaning. Applying the prophetic interpretation to what just happened, we know that the man child being delivered is – who? – it’s Jesus; it could be no one else. And who does the dragon lying in wait to destroy the child at birth represent? The only answer that correctly fits the interpretation is who? – king Herod. It was Herod, we read in Matthew chapter 2 and verse 16 who ordered that all male children in Bethlehem under the age of 2 should be killed, and in giving the order, hoped to kill Jesus shortly after He was born.
Friends, the parallels are unmistakeable: in the same way that Herod wanted to kill Jesus as soon as he was born, so the devil has made it his primary purpose to be present in the delivery room for every new-birth experience, in the hope of destroying that experience before it ever has the chance to mature.
Jesus understood Satan’s plans very well; and He explained these plans to His followers, in order to protect them against the destruction the devil wanted to bring upon them. This is what He had to say about it. Read with me please, in the Gospel of John, chapter 10 and verse 10….
Now, it’s clear that the thief here is Satan. What did Jesus say about the main purpose of the thief? He came to steal, to kill, and to destroy. In this verse, we are reminded of Satan as that dragon, standing in the delivery room, just waiting to attack that child of God being born of the Spirit. He has made his entire reason for being, Jesus says, to bring about our destruction. And from Revelation 12 we discover that he starts his attack as soon as we commit ourselves to become the followers of Almighty God.
Consider, if you will, the temptation of Jesus. When did that happen? It happened immediately after His baptism. The baptism marked the start of Jesus’ ministry. And no sooner did Jesus commit Himself to that ministry, than who but the great adversary should come along and try to cause Jesus’ downfall.
How many of us went through the same experience? Before we made a commitment to Jesus Christ, we may have had some problems. But no sooner did we step out of the baptistry, and all hell broke loose in our lives – and in many cases, I mean literally. Why is that? Friends, it’s because Satan knows that whatever he was doing to keep you away from God before, he’s got to do ten times harder now to get you away from God again. When you were out in the world doing your own thing, it was easy – you were doing half the work for the devil yourself. But in coming to Jesus, and giving yourself to Him, and having that born again experience, Satan realised that he would have to work double time to take you down.
Friends, let me tell you, if you thought being a follower of Jesus Christ meant that life was going to be smooth sailing, sunshine and blue skies, then you’re in for a surprise. When you become a follower of Jesus Christ, Satan pulls out every weapon he has in his arsenal, and he levels them all squarely at you in an effort to get you to abandon the faith, and give up the life you received when you were born again in Christ Jesus.
“The thief comes for one reason”, we are told in John 10:10, “and that is to steal and to kill and to destroy.” I don’t think it was by accident that Jesus used those three words to describe Satan’s attacks against born-again Christians; nor do I believe it was by accident that Jesus put them in the order that He did. In fact, as we consider what Jesus said, we discover the devil’s three-fold plan of attack against God’s children. And the good news is, once we discover this plan of attack, we can be ready to fight it.
The first thing Jesus said the thief comes to do is steal. What is it he comes to steal? The answer is found in the last part of the verse. The thief comes to steal and kill and destroy, but Jesus said He came – why? – so that we could have life, and have it in abundance. In other words, Jesus came not only to give us eternal life, but to give us a satisfying life here on earth as we await His return. Don’t for a moment think God doesn’t care about your life here on earth. Throughout His ministry, Jesus spent time improving the quality of life for those around Him. In healing the sick, in giving sight to the blind, in restoring hearing to the deaf – in these and so many other instances, Jesus was showing us that God cares about our condition here and now; and when we let Him into our lives, He wants to improve our situation, and fill us satisfaction and contentment with what He has given us.
So if Jesus wants to improve the quality of our lives, then it would make sense that the devil would make it his chief objective to steal away whatever it is that God would give us that brings contentment and joy.
I saw a case of this just recently in my own life. Austin is going through a phase right now where he’s scared of the dark. And so Angela and I wanted to buy him a Glo-Worm (a stuffed animal that lights up when you squeeze it) that he could take to bed with him at night, and have a night light for whenever he gets scared of the dark.
Well, we decided to shop on EBay; and we found just what we were looking for – a brand new Glo-Worm, still in the box, batteries included. The bids were closing in a few hours, so we placed our bid and watched to make sure we didn’t lose it. Right up until a few minutes before the bid closed, we were the highest bidder, and nobody else had bid, so we were sure we had won it. Then, just seconds before the bid closed, someone came in and outbid us. By the time we realised what had happened, it was too late. The bid closed, and someone else got the Glo-Worm. At the moment we were sure it was ours, someone came and practically stole it right out of our hands.
Well, let me tell you, we were upset. In fact, Angela was almost in tears, she was so upset. I was ready to rattle off a rather nasty letter to the guy who outbid us, telling him what I thought about what he had done. But after Angela settled down and I ranted for a few minutes, we realised that there was nothing we could do about it. Even now, though, just sharing the experience with you, I can feel my blood begin to boil again.
Now, I know what you’re thinking – it was just a toy. We could just as easily go to the toy store and buy one (which we did). But that’s not the point. The point is, we had found something we wanted to give to our son, and were certain was ours, only to have it taken stolen right out from under us. And more discouraging than losing the toy was the fact that we lost it at the very moment we thought it was ours. It was stolen from us; and for some strange reason, the hurt caused by that loss was very deep and very real.
The thief comes to steal. Maybe it’s not a Glo-Worm for you. Maybe it’s that job you were waiting for – the job you were certain God wanted you to have, but you were just told you wouldn’t be hired for. Or maybe it’s the marriage you thought was so happy and would last forever, only to have your spouse leave you for someone else. Maybe you’ve been wanting children, and have just been told it’s impossible. The statement “so close, yet so far away” comes to mind. And in whatever form the loss comes, I think all of us can agree on one thing: it takes the life out of us.
The thief comes to steal, and the thief does steal. He steals that which is important to us; he steals that which God has given to bring us enjoyment and contentment in this life; he steals whatever he can to make us feel as miserable as we can. And yet a Christians, what do many of us do about it? In many cases, we shrug our shoulders and determine it must be God’s will. But let me ask you this: if the will of God is to bring life and contentment and fulfilment to His children, then how can anything which takes away from that be understood as His will? The answer is, IT CAN’T! It’s not God who steals: it’s the thief; it’s Satan. God has come to give us life; it’s the devil who has come to steal that life away. Now, yes, God has allowed Satan to run his course of evil in this world. But God has also given to His followers the power to overthrow Satan and his course of evil in our lives. So why aren’t we doing it? Why aren’t we fighting for what God has promised us? Why do we roll over and let it happen?
The thief comes in and steals, yet many times we do nothing. If we let him go without any resistance, Jesus says the thief then begins to kill. And what does he kill? He has stolen that which God has given to bring contentment and fulfilment in life, and if he’s allowed, what he’ll do next is kill our passion for life.
Have you ever met those people who just seem depressed about everything? The perpetual wet blanket, as they’re sometimes referred to. These are the people who have had so much taken away from them in life that they can’t seem to find any reason to get up in the morning. They have no energy, no zeal to live. Nothing motivates them anymore; nothing holds meaning for them – they’re afraid to let it. They fear taking any risks because they’ve been hurt so often in the past. They fear letting themselves hope in something, lest it’s stolen away like so many “somethings” before. There’s an emptiness in their eyes, the spark of life all but extinguished. The enemy has stolen everything valuable to them, and in so doing has killed their very passion for life.
Even more than killing our zeal for life, though, the enemy wants to kill our faith in God. How often, when something in life has been stolen from you, do you find yourself asking the question, “If God really cared, then why didn’t He intervene and make it better?” “Why didn’t He save my marriage?” Or, “Why didn’t He heal my child?” “Why didn’t He let us have that Glo-Worm?” The door is open to questioning, and in a matter of minutes, our mind is flooded with doubts about God’s love for us, about His promise that He wants to bring us contentment and joy. We begin to question, and the questions lead to misgivings; the misgivings lead to blaming God; and blame leads to an abandonment of the faith.
Notice the progression: the enemy first comes in and steals that which God had given to bring enjoyment in life. Then he works to kill our desire to live and to have faith in God. That’s where his final attack comes in: he seeks to destroy us – to destroy our very lives. And not only this life, no: he seeks to destroy our eternal life. The enemy knows that if by stealing away what God has intended for us, he can lead us to doubt in God and abandon the faith of Jesus, and lose all passion for living, then it’s just a short step away from getting us to give up on everything and end it all. How many times I’ve encountered individuals who, after suffering loss, after being robbed of what they were sure God wanted for their lives, have wrestled with the thought of putting an end to their lives. It seems like an easy way out to them. I’ve known one or two individuals who have taken that way out, and it saddens me to think of what had become of their lives.
Friends, make no mistake about it: there is a dragon in the delivery room of our lives. The thief comes, to steal and to kill and to destroy. And he will steal and kill; and he will destroy us. But only if we let him; for the promise of Jesus is that while the thief makes it his chief aim to steal and kill and destroy, friends, Jesus has come so that we might have life. Jesus wants to give us not only an abundant life here on earth, but life eternal as we put our trust in Him.
We started off this message with a word about the motherly aspects of God. There’s one other aspect of a mother that I want to leave with you today, and it’s this: that a mother’s love for her child will drive her to do whatever she needs to in order to protect that child. And friends, if we are God’s children, born again in Him, we have the assurance that He is doing everything possible to fight off that thief and protect His children. I read you a quote from an article in a magazine called the Youth’s Instructor, dated July 15, 1897: “Could the veil be lifted, we would see that angels of God are around us to preserve us from unseen dangers. Thousands of times has their care been especially manifested for us in our warfare with the agencies of Satan.”
What we need to realise, friends, is that for God, this is war; the dragon is at work; the thief is relentless in his desire to steal and kill and destroy. Like a mother guarding her children, so God is fighting for each one of us. But there is a role we too must play. As children of God, born again in Him, we too are at war; we too must fight to preserve this life which we have been given, and maintain our hope in the life hereafter which is promised to us.
You know, as I was sharing these concepts with a friend of mine lately, she said something I’d never thought of before. She said to me, “you know, I’ve always thought of Satan as kind of a distant enemy, you know, over there causing trouble, but that he’s always been at arm’s length. But now I realise that he’s not over there – he’s right in my face, right in front of me; and now that I know that he’s right there, and he’s doing everything he can to destroy me, it makes me want to fight against him even harder. I don’t want him to steal what God has given me; I’m not going to let him.”
I think the same is true for many of us. We believe in the devil; we believe that he causes the problems of this life; we believe that he seeks to steal and kill and destroy; but many of us put him at a distance. We believe that because we’re children of God, somehow he’s going to leave us alone, and that the bad things that happen to us are just “God’s will.” But friends, make no mistake about it, the devil is indeed right in your face. He was right there when you were born again in Christ Jesus, and he’s been right in front of you the whole time since then. When God gave you a new life in Jesus, the devil took it up as his only goal in your life, to steal and to kill and to destroy.
Now, I don’t know about you; but that makes me want to fight. From the moment we are born from our mothers, we are in a battle to survive; how much more of a battle we find ourselves in when we are born again. We value this life that God has given us on earth; we only get to live it once. How much more, then, we should value the life that we will get to live forever; how much more fiercely we should be fighting against the thief. How much more determined we should be to wage war to defend our new birth experience.
This weekend we have a special opportunity to honour our mothers, to let them know how much we appreciate the life that they gave us. One of the greatest honours we can ever give to our mothers is to live this life they have given us to the fullest. God also has given us life, given us new birth. And the greatest honour we can bring to Him is to live that life as passionately and as fervently for Him as possible, and to firmly and steadfastly fight with all that’s in us against anything that would come between us and the abundant life God has promised us. As we take time to honour our mothers for giving us life, so may we ever be mindful to honour God with the life that He has given us.
(Appeal)
