Bring the Book

 

COLERAINE EVANGELICAL CHURCH

SERMON NOTES FROM SUNDAY 31 AUGUST 2025 – PASTOR DENIS LYLE

NEHEMIAH 8 – 3 WORDS FOUND IN VERSE 1 “BRING THE BOOK”

 

French author Victor Hugo said “England has 2 books, the Bible and Shakespeare. England made Shakespeare, but the Bible made England.” Supporting that view historians tell us that Elizabethan England was a nation of one book and that book was the bible.  How far removed are we from those days. If we want to return to the book of God, to return to the blessing of God we need to return to the book of God. The book of Nehemiah falls into 2 sections – chapters 1 to 6 and chapters 7 to 13. Chapters 1 to 6 are all to do with the reconstruction of the walls. Chapters 7 to 13 are to do with the reinstruction of the people and central to that was the word of God.  They were not merely interested in building the walls but what went on inside those walls was more important than the walls themselves. So now attention is turned to the more difficult task of the reviving of God’s people. The test of any movement that claims to be doing the work of God is the place given to the word of God. Is the bible central or is it peripheral? It was central in the days of godly King Josiah in 630 BC when he turned the people from idolatry and apostasy and replaced it by the word of God. It was central to Nehemiah and Ezra as they sought to instruct the people in the things of God. It was central in the days of the early church “they continued steadfast in the apostles doctrine.” 400 years ago God lit a fire in Europe. The bible came into the language and hands of the German people. The word of God was central in the reformation. In Scotland John Knox read God’s words, trusted God’s promises and mobilised Scotland into what became known as the Scottish Revival. Then came the Wesley brothers. In his 50 years of ministry John Wesley delivered 40,000 messages, he spoke to audiences of 20,000 people without amplification. He travelled 225,000 miles on horse back most of the time proclaiming the word of God. One of the pillars of the 1859 revival in Ulster was the infallibility and centrality of the word of God. All the preaching, praying, testifying of the revival was grounded in the word of God. Here we see the word of God was central in a time of revival. The walls were now finished, the gates were hung, the material needs of the people had been met. Now it was time to focus on the spiritual needs of God’s people. Ezra and Nehemiah put the word of God first in the life of the city. Martin Lloyd Jones said “the primary task of the church and of the Christian minister is preaching the gospel to make known the truth of salvation through Jesus Christ.” The decadent eras and periods of the church have also been those times when the preaching of the word of God has declined. The Spirit of God uses the word of God to revive the hearts of the people of God. That is why we need to cry “bring the book”.

The people of the book – various pictures are given to us of this people in the passage. In verse 1 they are united in their desire to hear God’s word, in verse 3 they are attentive to God’s word, in verse 5 they have respect for God’s word because when Ezra opens the book they stand up, in verse 8 they understand God’s word as it is made clear to them, in verse 9 they are repentant as the meaning of God’s word dawns on their hearts, in verse 16 they are obedient as God’s instructions are communicated to them, in verse 17 they are glad as they  promptly obey what was required of them. Here are this congregation gathered before the word of God. Notice their oneness in verse 1. The water gate which symbolized the word of God. They were gathered as one man. Although from different homes within Jerusalem’s walls they were driven by a common desire – to hear the word of God. A united people waiting on God, to hear God speak through his word. Is that how we are to come before the Lord when we meet? Do we expect to hear from God when there is division and discord – “if thou bring thy gift to the altar and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother and then come and offer thy gift.” (Matthew 5 verses 23 and 24) Is that what it says? Together as one man. All together as one man. A beautiful picture of ideal congregation before the word of God. Remember when Peter came to Cornelius he said “now therefore are we all here present before God to hear all things that are commanded thee of God.” (Acts 10 verse 32) Is that not how we ought to hear sermons? Biblically and scripturally? Are you here when the word of God is being expounded, always present when the people of God gather around his word? Are you obedient to God’s obedient express command - “Not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together as the manner of some men is.” True Christian unity is not based on subjective experiences, it is based on the objective truth of God’s word. Verse 1 oneness and then there is eagerness. The Pentateuch, the first 5 books of the bible. Notice the initiative came from the people rather than the leaders. They craved for the bread of life, they hungered for the word of God. The cry of their heart was “bring the book”. The old book, the infallible book, the ancient book, the inspired book, the indestructive book of God. “Bring the book.” It was the appeal by people like John Wycliffe who wanted every plough boy to have the word of God. Sir Walter Scott pleaded when he was dying “bring the book”. “What book” they asked. “There is only one book, the bible.” Is your cry this morning bring the book? Do you have a hunger for the word of God? Psalm 19 speaking of the judgment of God he said “More to be desired are they than gold, yea than much fine gold.” Do you have a desire for God’s word? More than making money? Job said “I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.” (Job 23 verse 12) Do I love this book more than meat or necessary food? Do you read God’s word? Do you read it daily, ritually, systematically, methodically? Do you read through the bible once a year? George Mueller was said to have read the bible 200 times in his lifetime. William Evans in the early part of the last century memorised the entire bible in the King James version. Nelson Bell, a medical missionary doctor, made a point of rising early at 4.30 am every day and read the bible for 2 or 3 hours. No medical journals or commentaries but he read the bible. He was a walking bible encyclopaedia. People wondered at the holiness and the godliness of his life. Spurgeon said “a bible that is falling apart usually belongs to someone that is not.” If you want to know revival in your life you need to know revival in your bible reading. Notice in verse 3 their attentiveness – this was a period of 6 hours here. They are there gathered for 6 solid hours to listen to the reading and teaching of God’s word. In verse 5 they are standing the whole time. In verse 13 they came back the next day for more. Verse 18 covers 7 days. Imagine that – picture that, visualise that. They had an attentiveness to the word of God. Why? Because of their respect to the word of God. When Ezra opened the book they arose to their feet. They were convinced of the authority of this book. We worship the God who addresses us uniquely through his word. John Calvin “we owe the scripture the same reverence as we owe to God since it has its only source in him.” They did not say “when is this preacher going to stop, he is going on a long time.” These people had been in captivity for 70 years. They had been without God’s word for 70 years. Now they couldn’t do it without it. Roland Hill was an 18^th Century preacher used by God. Before he died he visited an old friend who remembered a sermon he had preached 65 years ago. When Hill asked him what it was he said “When listening to the message some don’t like the delivery of the preacher. But suppose you went to a lawyer to hear the will of a relative, you will hardly criticise the manner in which the lawyer who is reading the will. You want to pay attention to all that was left to you and how much it was. That said Hill is how you hear the word of God preached.” Have you learned to cultivate that state of heart and mind? Do we prepare ourselves before we come, do we pray as we come, do we exercise control when we come? Is your heart atuned to the living God? The people of the book.

The preacher of the book.  Notice something interesting here. Nehemiah’s name means Jehovah comforts. He is for the most part in the background. Ezra is the man who steps to the front. Nehemiah in the first section occupies the foreground. Now we meet another outstanding leader – Ezra. His name means Help. God always takes a man with the bible in his hand to be the key to spiritual revival of the church and the winning of the lost for Christ. There are several things about this man. The modesty of this man. Up to now Nehemiah is in the forefront. In 538 BC 50,000 Jews returned to the land of Judah to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem and the temple. Cyrus the pagan king gave a decree. Notice God in in control. He can take up a pagan ruler like Cyrus to accomplish his sovereign purposes. In 515 BC the temple is rebuilt. In 458 BC Ezra returns to Jerusalem with another group. Now 13 years later in 445 Nehemiah returns to Jerusalem and rebuilds the walls. He is a gifted administrator. He mobilises the people. When it came to the word of God he took a backseat to Ezra. He had set his heart to study the word of God. He could only carry out his ministry in a limited way. There in the background all the time. He was not pushing or projecting himself. He was waiting for the right time to exercise his ministry. Now the time had come. Is there not a word of encouragement for those waiting on the Lord in his service. You may not have been able to carry out all you desire to do. There may be weeks, months, years when your gift is not recognised but in God’s time the opportunity will come. The gift will be utilised. God is there thrusting him to the forefront. Not only modesty but the maturity of this man. One test of true leadership in the work of the Lord is the willingness to work with others, Just as gifted, as godly, as talented. There was some things that were others better at than he was. Ezra leads in the worship service. He didn’t know anything about building, he left that to Nehemiah. Similarly, Nehemiah was not good at preaching, he left that to Ezra. These 2 men illustrate beautifully God’s idea of team ministry. Sometimes people who think they are good leaders also think because they are good at doing one thing they are good in everything. They are expert in everything. You do not have all the gifts or talents. Ezra needed Nehemiah and Nehemiah needed Ezra. As each served in the orbit of God’s will there was blessing for God’s people. Is that not how God intends it to be? Paul to the Corinthians church compares the church to a body, all are interdependent,  complementary to each other. There is that in the body of Christ. Unity, diversity. All parts belonging to the same body. Do not have the same function. I need you and you need me. We both need each other. Have you been given place of position, a position of responsibility? Do you recognise others gifts as well as your own? In verse 5 we see the ministry of this man. Ezra opened the book and all the people stood up. What a respect they had for the word of God. They are all on their feet – verse 8. This was the ministry Ezra had been trained. He was the right man to lead them in revival. He had the qualifications. Ezra 7 verse 6 and 10. He loved the word – verse 10 “he prepared his heart.” The most important thing a preacher can do is not to prepare sermons and messages. No, it is to prepare his heart. Heart preparation is the most important thing. He loved the word. He also learned the word – verse 10 “to seek the law of the Lord.” Before Ezra could teach he had to learn God’s word. If God has called you to preach or teach the word there is one book you need to concentrate on – the bible. Verse 10 he lived the word - he studied this word to do it. He lectured the word – to teach in Israel’s statues and judgements . A black preacher was once asked what was the secret of his preaching. He thought to himself “I think myself full. I think myself clear. I reads myself fulI, I praise myself hot then I lets myself go.” One man said “I don’t even take my bible to church anymore, they don’t use it.” How sad. Someone once said “Liberalism takes the word of God from us, humanism takes us from the word of God.” Nehemiah chapter 8 verse 8. Is that not a good statement or definition of expository preaching? Exposition is simply the opening up of the scriptures so people can understand them, to know what the bible says. Ezra is a bible expositor. He is explaining the scriptures. To open up the scriptures is the job of preachers. We don’t need to follow fads and fashions and fables. We need to keep the ship of our ministry anchored to the rock of this book, believing it, defending it, proclaiming it, obeying it. The people didn’t seek Ezra’s opinion nor the ideas of Nehemiah. They honoured the servants of God. Rightly so. But they were to be ministers of the word of God. One of the principles of the reformation was grace alone, faith alone, Christ alone but also scripture alone. Here’s a ministry that was scriptural. It was said of the early church “they spake the word of God boldly and they went everywhere preaching the word of God.” Is my ministry bible centred? It is so easy to become engaged in politics and philosophy instead of the word of God. When CH Spurgeon came to London many years ago he found that the people were so starved that a morsel of the gospel was a treat to them.  A remarkable work for God took place. As he preached week after week souls were being saved. When he died it was said the congregation knew more of their bible that the theologians. Why? Because Spurgeon expounded the word of God. The people of the book. The preacher of the book.

 

The power of the book. Martin Luther said “the bible is alive, it speaks to me. It has got feet it runs after me, it has got hands it lays hold of me.” One thing is sure, when Ezra  expounded the word the people were moved – and moved in 3 ways. First - emotionally. They wept. Because what they heard in the word of God condemned their lifestyle. Then they rejoiced.  It was an occasion for rejoicing. It was the Feast of Trumpets. Their hearts were touched. The word of God brought conviction to their hearts and tears of penitence to their eyes. Does the word of God no longer move us? When was the last time as you read God’s word you wept. Has it ever happened? Remember King Josiah when his life was brought under the search light of God’s word “because thine heart was tender, and thou hast humbled thyself before the LORD, when thou heardest what I spake against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and hast rent thy clothes, and wept before me; I also have heard thee, saith the LORD.” (2 Kings 22 verse 19) Is your heart tender when you sit under God’s word? We don’t see a lot of weeping over the word of God today. Who weeps for this old world weighed down by sin? Who weeps for men and women and families on their way to hell? They were moved emotionally. They were moved intellectually. An earnest listening to the word of God wetted the appetite for more. They came back the second day. As they listened they discovered the will of God. This related to the keeping of the Feast of Tabernacles. Leviticus 23. God had revealed the details of this Feast but it had not been observed for a long time. Are you seeking God’s will for your life? Your cry should be bring the book? Are you seeking God’s will? Is the cry of your heart bring the book? There is only one way to guide the flock – bring the book. The Psalmist said “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.” They were moved emotionally, intellectually and they were moved relationally. The word of God not only touched their heart and will. They kept the Feast of Tabernacles. It involved inconvenient living but they kept it  because it was God’s will. The Feast of Tabernacles commemorated when the children of Israel were brought out of Egypt and they camped in a place of Succoth, the place of booths. For 40 days they had no permanent shelter.  A Feast of Remembrance. They looked back to the Exodus and the wandering of their forefathers in the desert. They kept the feast. Ours is also a feast of Tabernacles when we remember the Saviour who died and rose again for our sins and salvation. How long is it since you kept the feast? Since you sat at the Lord’s table in fond remembrance? In verse 16 it was not only national obedience (verse 14) but it was unquestioning obedience. In verse 17 it was glad obedience. People of the book. Preacher of the book. Power of the book. Here we see an expectant people. An expository preacher. You may be looking for someone to fill your pulpit. Don’t be looking for someone who is going to fill your ears with fables. The cry of your heart needs to be “we need a man who is saturated in the word of God.” I took part in a funeral service in Coagh recently. I said he was a man of Psalm 1, he was a separated man. He was separated from the counsel of the ungodly, from sin to salvation, from death to life from hell to heaven. He was a saturated man – his delight was in God’s word and he meditated on it day and night. But also he was a situated man – like a tree he was planted by the rivers of water and his fruit brings forth its fruit in season. We need someone who is going to bring the book and expound the word of God. There is a lovely phrase in the last verse what a bible convention this was. The word of God had a central place of God in their lives day by day is. “O how I love thy law, it is my meditation all the day.” (Psalm 119 verse 97)

 

 

Taking a Stand for God

COLERAINE EVANGELICAL CHURCH

SERMON NOTES SUNDAY 24 AUGUST 2025 – MR TOMMY ANDERSON

DANIEL CHAPTER 3

Things are changing fast in our world. People who once stood strong as believers have weakened on many things. I have come to the conclusion that if you slip on something that is small you will slip on something bigger. The devil will make sure that if you err on one thing he will get you on something more. There was no one more hard line than Jesus and Daniel. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were facing something that they never faced before and we would not probably face in our lifetimes. They had been taken captive into the land of Babylon. They were living in a land of strange gods. The people were idolaters and idol worshippers. They have tremendous potential. Nebuchadnezzar asked for really good men. Men he wanted to train to help him rule his country. They are taught to become politicians. They were not long in this country until it began to change. The Babylonians didn’t like them. They had taken a high position in the government in Babylon, a role they wanted themselves. Nebuchadnezzar moves into the next realm of pressure. He puts up an idol, a statue of 90 feet tall and 9 feet wide. This is a massive idol representing him. He makes a decree. When the music plays everyone will worship the idol. These young men are brought under tremendous pressure. What will they do? Daniel 1 verse 8. They would not defile themselves. These Hebrew boys asked for vegetables rather than meat. The servants said “no, if you get weak I will be in terrible trouble.” They persuaded the servants to allow them to try it for several days. After a period of time they were healthier than any of the rest.  “They purposed in their heart”. The pressure was on when this music plays – what will they do? They were in the government, in a seat of authority, had a good salary, a good position in society. They had climbed the social ladder quickly. Suddenly they were in a good position, had great wealth and power then comes the idol. Everyone has to worship it. Whenever the music plays everyone as instructed bows except these 3 Hebrew men. They were under tremendous pressure. They had already committed the situation to God and said “we will not bow”. They were prepared already. It was a “bow and burn” situation. What are you going to do? Sure we could save the situation. We are only asked to sacrifice our conscience for a moment. We could bow down but in our heart, not really doing anything to keep out of the danger we are in. “Lord you know our situation, I am not turning my back on you God.”  Maybe there are those who say “God I know this is wrong but I am not really bowing down in the eyes of the world.” The pressure was real, the orchestra was loud, thousands were bowing, all the top notch people were there. Everyone was there of importance and 3 boys say “we are not bowing”. Imagine what it must have been like among all those people. You couldn’t have missed them. The pressure was great because there were those who were watching. The Babylonians and Chaldeans were waiting for the moment to pounce. The world is watching you and I. If we make one wrong step they will pounce. Someone might turn and say to us “I never expected you to be here.” As soon as the Chaldeans seen them they went straight to Nebuchadnezzar. They flattered the king – “live for ever, you are one of the best we have ever had.” Verse 9. He loved it all. He loves control and money. It hasn’t changed today. Often we have seen it when one leader steps down and we ask ‘who wants the job’? The job brings power and prestige and finance. Sadly it brings compromise too. What are these boys going to do? The men have turned up at the palace and tell the king “you made a decree, when the music plays everyone is to bow down. We don’t really want to have to come and tell you but we thought it right. There are 3 Hebrew boys defiling the order. That got the king angry. He was furious, boiling in anger. He asked for the Hebrew boys to be bought to the palace and they were brought. He looks at the 3 boys and said “is it true what I hear?” He gives them an alternative, a moment of opportunity. This is when the pressure is at its boiling point. They are at the very seat of power. It is either the furnace or compromise. He had a heart for them. He didn’t want them to go to the burning furnace. He didn’t want them to go there. If you bow down you will go free. He was prepared to do that. What would we do? This is life or death. It is not fiction. This is real. Nebuchadnezzar has made a decree and he is not backing down. These Hebrew men are before him. He is being watched. They are waiting. He realises he is also being judged. The pressure is on. The 3 boys, everyone took it as a privilege to give a testimony of what God meant to them. Verses 16, 17 and 18. They turned the situation around. There is another person who controls the power not you. He will deliver us from the fiery furnace and from you. They go on to say if not “be it known unto thee O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.” They were not messing around. They knew this was life or death. They were prepared to go to the furnace. They did not care about their position or the power given to them by this man. They simply say “we belong to God, we will not serve your god.” “All who will live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution” the New Testament tells us. These men said “we will not bow, our God is able to deliver us, but if it is his will not to live come what may.” That was their privilege. They were taken to the furnace which was heated 7 times hotter. It was so hot that even the soldiers that took the 3 men bound to the furnace were slain. The heat was so intense that men shrivelled up by it. The 3 boys fell into the fire and they find themselves in a new position. Suddenly they are loose and walking about. Even their clothes were not burnt, nor a hair singed. These 3 men had not even a smell of burning. Nothing is destroyed. The position they are. I don’t think Nebuchadnezzar really liked the fact that he was sending these men to the furnace. These were 3 of the best. He didn’t want to do what he did. He was committed to his people. When he looked inside of the furnace he sees 4 men walking about. He calls his counsellors and asks “did we not put in 3 men?” And they said “yes.” The king said there is an extra one in there like the Son of God. God delivered them to the flames. God delivered them in the flames. God delivered them from the flames. What a mighty God we serve. They were walking around free and enjoying fellowship with God. I don’t know what you are going through, whatever the difficulty you are in – God says “I will be with you, I will not forsake you even when ...” This seems difficult and different but this is the moment to shine for him – before your families, your neighbours, your loved ones. To see Jesus in you. These 3 boys came out of the furnace and were given a new position. Nebuchadnezzar said “there is no god like the God of Israel of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. If any of you say anything of them, says anything against the God of these men I will have you thrown into the fire.” He turned the whole thing around. What a mighty God we serve. That is still true today.

Keswick at Portstewart 2025 - Bible Reading with Sam Alberry - Jonah 4

KESWICK AT PORSTEWART 2025 

BIBLE READING - FRIDAY 11 JULY 2025 - MR SAM ALBERRY

JONAH 4

Jonah 4 makes me think of those movies that have a really good twist at the end eg The Prestige, The Shawshank Redemption, The Usual Suspects, The Sixth Sense. The thing with a good movie twist is not just a surprise, it is some new revelation that makes sense of everything that went before. It makes you want to rewatch the movie and now helps you understand something was being hinted at all along. Something unexpected that explains everything. We have lot of surprises in this book. There is Jonah’s call to Nineveh, Jonah’s fleeing from his calling, his deliverance from the storm, the response of godless brutal Nineveh. In chapter 4 we have a twist, a bombshell dropped and it makes sense of all that has gone before. We find out not just why Jonah refused to go to Nineveh but we also find out why God was so persistent that it had to be Jonah who went to Nineveh. Jonah’s response is not elation that it has all gone so well, he is angry. Angry at their repentance and of God relenting in his anger. Like the best movie twists there are signs along the way that something like this was brewing. There are signs throughout the book that all was not ok with Jonah. In chapter 2 when he was describing the predicament he had been in, what God had rescued him from. He talked about the waves overwhelming him, the hand of God being against him but at no point did he confess any sins, he did not admit any wrongdoings. In chapter 3 we see all the Ninevites repent, pretty much all of them from the king on down through all society but at no point does Jonah repent. By chapter 3 we see that he had resolved to do the right thing but we realise his heart had not changed at all. Jonah has gone from being the rebellious younger son to becoming the resentful older son in the prodigal of the lost son.

 

Think of the chapter in 2 parts – Jonah’s anger and then the Lord’s compassion.

 

We must realise that we are like Jonah and we need the one who is the opposite of Jonah, the one who is far greater than Jonah.

 

Jonah’s anger. We might think Jonah would be humbled by this point after all he has gone through. He has obeyed God’s call and see the fruit of preaching God’s word. We would think he would be saying “I now know Lord your ways are greater than mine, I am going to trust you more, thank you for being patient with me and being merciful to this city.” But instead we see Jonah angry. Chapter 4 is an ugly side of Jonah. We are told that the Lord has relented from this disaster and the very first thing we read is “it displeased Jonah exceedingly.” In chapter 1 we read the sailors “feared the Lord exceedingly.” Now we have Jonah being displeased with the Lord exceedingly. One of the ironies of this book is the name Jonah means dove which is a sign of peace in the bible. Mr Peace is furious. But it is interesting we are told Jonah was angry and yet in verse 2 he prayed. I want to commend this one aspect of his behaviour in this chapter. In his anger with God he prays to God. He realises he does not have to be stuck in a fish to learn to pray. Rather than running away from the Lord this time he prays to him. It is not a commendable prayer in any respect. The bible does encourage honesty with God. There are many examples in the bible of people bringing their complaints to God. One thing we can from this chapter is this - if you have a problem with God take it to God. He can cope with that. That is what Jonah does. He is angry with the Lord so he prays. He takes his issue to God himself. We see why he is angry in verse 2 – “is this not what I said, Lord, when I was still at home?” Nineveh was not destroyed, it was preserved, God held back from punishing their sin. Now we see why Jonah needed to be there. Jonah is triggered by the compassion of God to Nineveh. Jonah was expecting Nineveh to repent. He is not angry because he was expecting judgment because he just knew God would be like this, to shew mercy. He had articulated this back in chapter 1 – it is not recorded for us but he knew it would happen. I was going to go there, preach your word and you would shew mercy. We know now why Jonah fled. He was not worried about them opposing him. He was worried about them repenting and God loving them. That was his worst fear and it has come to pass. God has been gracious to Nineveh. The background of Jonah we see in 2 Kings does make some sense of this. It was his preaching that had been so instrumental in Israel’s borders being restored. They had managed to drive some of their enemies back across the old borders  and to keep them out. Now God is asking them to cross that very border and be a means of mercy to one of Israel’s worst enemies. Jonah’s problem is it is so typical of God to be like that. He says ‘I knew that you are gracious God and merciful, I knew this would happen, that you would go soft on those guys.’ He cannot take it, of God being gracious to them. He quotes back from Exodus 34 verse 6 God declares himself with these words “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.” This is what God wants the world to know about him – slow to anger, abounding in love. Jonah both understands that and misunderstands that. When it comes to his people he is grateful that God is slow to anger and abounding in love. When it comes to his sworn enemy Jonah is wishing God was slow to love and abounding in anger. He is happy for God to be all those things to us but not to them. Here’s what Jonah has not understood – as a nation Israel had tasted that time and time again but the Old Testament never said he would be gracious to Israel only. He had shown his intention that eventually all nations would be blessed. That is what Jonah cannot stand. He wants God to be gracious to us but not to these people. We can see how he is gripped by this feeling in verse 3. This has consumed him utterly. He is so full of contempt for what he has done with the Assyrians and Jonah is saying “I cannot live unless things go my way on this. It is either me or them. If you are going to spare them then let me die. If you want to keep me you have got to catch up with them and judge them.” Again as we look at that it is tempting to think Jonah is a headcase. And he is. But we are to see Jonah as a mirror to ourselves. He knew the scriptures. He had been used by the Lord. His ministry had been fruitful. He had strong theological credentials. If he could display this attitude we can also. Let us see if we are guilty of the same attitudes.

 

Jonah says he now wants to die – verse 3. What would God have to do, to change in your life to be able to pray verse 3. For you to say “Lord take my life, I am done. It is better for me to die than live. What would be a non negotiable in our lives that the Lord is not allowed to mess with? What is becoming your bottom line? I can cope with this but if you take that I am done.” It is easy for our faith in God to become conditioned on God pulling through in some very  particular area of life and when he doesn’t we are out. This was the case with Jonah – something else had become to mean more to him than his faith in God. When that something else was threatened he was done.

 

What has triggered Jonah specifically – God has been merciful to Nineveh of all places. A question we might need to ask ourselves - Who is it that we do not want God to show mercy to? Before we are tempted to say ‘no-one’, we need to be careful – the bible tells us the heart is deceitful above all things. And normally when we find ourselves reflective and saying “I would never do those things.” It means we are doing things in a way so subtle we don’t recognise it. fThere may well be someone who has deeply hurt you, someone who has profoundly wronged you, someone you have a history with. If that someone started showing up in your church you might have a problem with it.  What if you got the sense that God wanted you to be the means to bring that person to himself? This works at individual level – there might be individuals we might not want to be spiritually united with. It also works in a broader more communal level. Jonah was a follower of the Lord but he was also a nationalist – back in chapter 1 he was Hebrew first, fearer of God second. Rather than allowing his faith to moderate and temper his nationalism, his nationalism actually moderated and tempered his faith. Jonah could not bear to see Israel’s sworn enemy finding mercy from God. So, is there a group, is there a subculture, a political affiliation, some demographic we would struggle to worship alongside? Is there a border we would be reluctant to cross for the Lord? Is there a class of people we would be far more eager to see receiving God’s judgment than to see receiving his abundant blessing? One of the lessons Jonah needed to learn is that God’s love does not stop at the borders of Israel. There may be people we hold in our heart that actually we would be ok to see spiritually written off.

 

We see Jonah’s anger and God responds with that question in verse 4. “Do you do well to be angry?” A great question. God is asking “Jonah are you right, are you nailing it as a human being right now, being angry with me?” The proof that God is really slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love is that there is a verse 4. The question is left hanging presumably because there is not a satisfactory answer to it. Instead Jonah moves on. We move from Jonah’s anger to God’s compassion. Verse 5. We see now what has been driving God this whole time. Jonah finds a spot to watch the city. He has a little hut set up and he sits there to see what will happen. ‘Maybe God will change his mind and bring judgment after all, I want to see it if it comes. These Ninevites are good for this repentance for a day or two but they will go back to their old ways so I am going to sit here and see what will happen.’ He is encouraged by what happens next – verse 6. God appoints a plant and he makes it come up over Jonah that he might be saved from his discomfort. Jonah is delighted – “he is exceedingly glad”. Thank you Lord you are doing something right. He can now enjoy the shade and watch in comfort. His exceedingly gladness is shortlived – verse 7. Now God appoints a worm that attacks the plant so that it withers and dies. Just as Jonah is about to blow his top over that – verse 8. With no protection he quickly feels the heat. The scorching wind and the middle eastern sun is enough to make him very uncomfortable and he is faint. Again he says “it is better for me to die than live.” Again God asks “do you do well to be angry?” Jonah answers and says “yes I do, actually yes, yes.” I am angry enough to die he says. He is convinced he is right. Come on God I have you this time. God responds to Jonah in verses 10 and 11. He has gone to great lengths to get Jonah to this point. He has actually appointed a storm, a fish, a plant, a worm and wind all because Jonah needs to hear verses 10 and 11. It is the point of the whole book. “But the Lord said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?” Jonah your relationship with that plant can be measured in minutes but you are bothered by what has happened to it. In other words “you are more compassionate about a plant you have known for 15 minutes than you are for a city of people. Something’s off.” Jonah is a prophet, he can summarise God’s character, preach God’s word but he is not sharing God’s heart. He does not love what God loves. He does not pity what God pities. We can see ourselves in Jonah’s character. We care about all sorts of things that should care less to us. We are callous about things that should matter so much more to us. God’s concern is different to Jonah’s – verse 11 “And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?” Those are people I created, I made those people. They are lost, they do not know right hand from their left hand. They have no idea how to live or how life is meant to work. 120,000 persons is a lot of God’s image which is why God cares about it. If God’s image in this sense matters to him it should matter to us. If we are indifferent to the spiritual plight of people made in God’s image our hearts are out of sync with God’s heart. The lostness of these people prompts God’s compassion, prompts his pity. As we look around and see the spiritual lostness of people we should feel the same thing, Jesus did. We read in Mark 6 where Jesus has been with his disciples, they have gone out on a mission and they have come back. They have been overwhelmed with people, no time to eat. Jesus tries to take them off to a quiet place, just him and his disciples. They get onto a boat and someone tells others where they are going so that when they get off a boat there are a crowd of people there. Mark 6 verse 34 “when Jesus went ashore he saw a great crowd and he had compassion on them for they were like sheep without a shepherd and he began to teach them many things.” When Jesus sees the lostness of the lost he does not get irritated, he does not scold them, he has compassion and he starts to teach them about himself. Should that not be the case with us? It is easy for us to get angry when maybe we should be responding with pity, with compassion. The Lord pities them. Verse 11 takes the form of a question and it is left hanging in the air – we don’t know what happens next. There is no resolution recorded for us. As the viewer in a movie you don’t know what happens next. The point of chapter 4 is not how Jonah will respond but what is our response. What is our answer to God’s question? Should not God pity Nineveh, any lost person, our sworn enemies? Again the question is there to search our hearts. Who are the people we are tempted to forget are made in the image of God, or think God should not pity? Who are the people whose spiritual fate is of lest concern to us than some of our material comforts like Jonah had with the plant? When we search our hearts we are more like Jonah than we care to admit. The answer is not ‘stop being like Jonah’ but we need to confess how the ways in which we are like Jonah we are. The best response is to lift our gaze and fix our eyes to the one who is the opposite of Jonah, our Lord Jesus Christ. The more we see Jesus’ non Jonah-ness, the more we see the beauty of how Jesus is, the more that will change our own hearts. As we love the non-Jonas-ness of Jesus we will find a growing non-Jonah-ness in our own hearts. Jesus also went to a city to preach a message of repentance. Like Jonah he stood outside that city and thought about it. When Jonah was outside the city he longs for its destruction. When Jesus was outside Jerusalem he longed for its deliverance. Jonah was willing to weep for the plant but Jesus we are told wept for the people. Jonah wanted to die outside the city, Jesus did die outside the city. Hebrews tells us he suffered outside the city gates to make the people holy through his own blood. Jonah was being driven by self pity, Jesus was driven by self sacrifice. Instead of wishing judgment to fall on his enemies Jesus took that very judgment and bore it himself for the sake of his enemies. So that we now who should by all rights be his enemies are his friends. He is not ashamed to call us his brothers. So the best way to avoid the heart of Jonah is to cherish the heart of Jesus himself. May we so gaze on him that we become more and more like him. That our heart becomes more like his, that our loves become like his love. That we celebrate his grace in the lives not just of ourselves but others as well.

Following Jesus in a Strange New World - New Horizon 2025 Saturday 2 August - Mr Gilbert Lennox

NEW HORIZON 2025 EVENING CELEBRATION

SATURDAY 2 AUGUST 2025 - GILBERT LENNOX

The culture outside your home is very different than the culture inside your home. Those of us older can so easily feel a little bit like Alice in Wonderland when things  don't work the way we think they ought to. The developments in science and technology and especially now with Ai are challenging enough but it is at the deeper level of attitudes and beliefs, about the basic aspects of our human lives that I think the bigger challenge lies. In the world that I grew up I could assume that most people hold common views of right and wrong, anchored firmly to Judeo-Christian roots. But no longer. The anchors have largely gone. What once seemed so obvious and settled is now unsettled and hotly contested. For example, the idea that biological sex and gender go together or that marriage should be between one man and one woman, once commonly shared, are, as we know, increasingly regarded as belonging only to a bigoted and dangerous lunatic fringe. Now I am old enough to remember the introduction of decimalisation in 1971 and I particularly remember a news interview with a gentleman who I think ran a petrol station in a rural area. And he was asked about how he was looking forward to and preparing for all the changes that were going to be involved. And he gave a rather dismissive smile and replied something to the effect 'Well I'm not worried about it. I don't think it will catch on round here now.' He had to learn what we have all to learn - that while we may not like the way the world is, it is where we live. What it mean to follow Jesus in this strange new world?

What does it mean to follow Jesus in this strange new world? That's the theme of our week together. All the talks including this evening are based on 4 chapters in Matthew's Gospel, the section that immediately follows what we call the Sermon on the Mount - chapters 8 to 11. Here is how this part of Matthew begins. "And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine. For he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes. When he was come down from the mountain great multitudes followed him." By focusing on the reaction of the crowd, Matthew highlights the 2 major themes that he wants to get across in these chapters - first of all Christ's authority. They were surprised because he taught with authority. And second, the theme of following Jesus. Their response was to follow him. And the 2 things of course go together because once a person truly recognises the authority of Christ, the logical response is to follow him. That's what's involved in being his disciple, in his authority he commands. We respond by following. And Matthew weaves these 2 themes together through these chapters. For example, his authority and the incident that we read involving the centurion's paralysed servant. The centurion tells Jesus "speak the word only and my servant shall be healed. For I am a man under authority." And in chapter 9 Jesus heals a paralysed man to demonstrated the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins. And in case we miss the point, Matthew unlike Mark and Luke who relate the same incident gives us the reaction of the crowd in these terms "they glorified God who had given such authority to men." And then at the start of chapter 10 we read that Jesus called his 12 disciples and gave them authority to do various things. Authority, authority, authority stressed on 5 occasions in these chapters. And then the emphasis on following Jesus. The big crowds followed Jesus down the mountain. Well that's a matter of geography but as the section goes on, it develops and we discover that it's more than geography not less than. We have to follow Jesus somewhere but it's more than geography. We read in chapter 8 for example of people volunteering to follow Jesus such as the theologian. He said "I will follow thee whithersoever thou goes." And in response Jesus had to reset the person's expectation of what following him would actually involve. This is more than ticking the button on Facebook, the person you want to follow or Instagram or TikTok or whatever. It is following Jesus because he's cool and you happen to like him at the minute and then we can unfollow later. Following is more than that. And it is also in this section that Matthew tells us about his own conversion and he tells it in these terms. Jesus said "follow me". He didn't say to Matthew, at least it is not recorded "Believe in me and receive eternal life." That's true of course, but what he said was "follow me." Conversion for Matthew and for us means a belief that follows, that allows Jesus in his authority to set the direction for our life. And then in verse 38 of chapter 10 we have the famous statement "And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me." So with the basic definition to be Christ's disciple is to accept his authority and to follow him. Let's think a little bit more about the incidents that Matthew presents to us immediately after this big block of teaching that Jesus gave on the mountain.

What amazed the crowd about Jesus' teaching was the self-evident authority with which he taught. They'd never heard anything like it. Their rabbis would normally say things in the name of someone else. So they immediately noticed the different with Jesus and were amazed by it. "You have heard that it was said" Jesus would repeat and then followed it with, "but I tell you" speaking in his name, in his own authority for he is Messiah, Son of God, the authority, the final word on what is right or wrong on what is true spirituality and what is false. Leading up to the very famous final illustration at the very end of the sermon, that the only way to build a life that is able to stand when the storms come is to build it on Christ and his world. And the result was that many followed him. Not everybody but many, because in a confused and confusing world, there are many who seek for a voice that speaks with authority. So let's take encouragement from that, especially those of us involve din teaching and leading, that we continue to hold out the words of Jesus because they are the words that come with authority, the words and the authoritative voice that this world needs. But at the same time, authority is a very tricky concept in our world because there's so much corruption, so much abuse of authority. And that has helped fuel the suspicion about anyone or any institution that claims to have authority. So it raises the question, Ok, he taught with authority but what is the nature of that authority. What does it look like? Can it be trusted? Suppose we were to ask President Putin for example for a demonstration of his authority, what would that look like? Probably it would be some massive display of military might designed to strike fear into you and to impose his will on you through sheer brute force. How does Matthew present Christ's authority? Well he presents us with a leper. I mean out of all the people that he could have presented us with in response to this wonderful sermon, the academics, the theologians, whoever the great and the good, he presents a leper who comes and kneels before Jesus and says, "Lord if you are willing, you can make me clean." The issue for him was not so much as authority and power. It was his character, his willingness. How would this great teacher treat an unclean leper? Would he issue an order - "clean yourself up and then come and talk to me? You are not fit to be in my presence." Well of course not. Jesus reached out and touched the man, saying "I am willing, be clean" and immediately he was healed. There is a world of a difference between commanding clean yourself up and saying "I am willing to make it clean." In that culture whatever the precise skin disease the leper refers to, it was deemed by God's law to make the person unclean, not just physically unclean as a contagious disease and therefore they were separated from people but ceremonially unclean. And so we notice that when the leper was healed, Matthew is careful to tell us what Jesus then instructs him to do, to go and show himself to the priest and to offer the gift Moses commanded as a testimony to them, as a witness to them. Well why to the priest? Why not to the doctor? Well because it was the priest's responsibility to pronounce people either clean or unclean. The condition wasn't simply a physical problem, it was a ceremonial problem. The priest taught the people that God takes uncleanness seriously, uncleanness of all kinds, not just physical but moral and intellectual and spiritual. And so a disease like the skin disease, as well as other conditions such as blindness and so on became metaphors of a desperate level of the human condition. It wasn't an insult to the individual leper or to the individual blind person. It didn't mean that he or she was more sinful than anybody else. But it was a metaphor of what is wrong at that deeper level of humanity. But in what way then was this a testimony to the priests? Well it wasn't a criticism of the priest. It wasn't "go and show yourself to the priests and there you go." No. Jesus wasn't undercutting or criticizing the priest. The simple fact was that the priest couldn't cure anybody. They could only pronounce a person clean or unclean. They couldn't make a person clean. The testimony was here is a someone at last in this world who is able to do what all the priests in the world and all the religion in the world simply cannot do and that is to make a person clean. Just imagine the challenge that would have been to them. I mean, what could they say to such witness, such evidence? Very difficult to say on one hand that you stand for cleanliness and for holiness but at the same time continue to deny the claims of the only one who can make people clean. But tragically that is what many of them did because religion is often the enemy of salvation. But let's make this personal. Because when I listen to Jesus' words, when I read through the Sermon on the Mount, the effect is to expose my uncleanness. His words penetrate deep beneath my often proud veneer, expose what is really going on in my heart in the deepest secret areas of the real me, exposing my mixed motivation, how I really think, exposing my spiritual hypocrisy, exposing my love of self, of going my own way, whatever the cause to others, exposing my jealousy and selfish greed. I feel exposed, unworthy, unclean. So what will he say to me if I come to him, if I come clean about my uncleanness. The leper believed Jesus had the power to do it but was he willing? Well he need not have worried. Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying "I will, be clean." And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. I want you to try to imagine what that felt like. Someone who hadn't felt the compassionate touch on his life, probably for years, in fear and trembling. No need to say that he was unclean, it was obvious. And coming to this Supreme Teacher with all authority, kneeling before him, wondering if when he looked up, the man would still be there and feeling the touch of his hand on his life. That's what conversion looks like isn't it? Discovering that he is willing and he cam make us clean. Some of us are so aware of how unclean we are, how exposed we are. What an encouragement. This is not religion that tells us try harder, do better, clean yourself up. Jesus does for us what we cannot do for ourselves and makes us clean. And that's what attracted and still attracts millions of people across the world to him. They hear the voice, the authority of his teaching but they feel the touch of the heart of God in their life. A God who doesn't expose their sin in order to condemn them, but exposes it in order to touch them and make them hope. 

And then Jesus presents us with another illustration of Christ's authority in this brilliant incident of the Roman centurion and his paralysed servant who came to Jesus asking for his help. And Jesus replied to the man saying "shall I come and heal him?" To which the centurion replies "I am not worthy, I don't deserve you to come under my roof. But speak only the word." Fantastic. He's an army man, trained in understanding the chain of command and now in charge of many soldiers, so used to exercising that authority simply with a word of command because it was linked into a whole system of authority. But now his authority was limited. He could say to the servant, "please get my uniform ready, please tidy the house, please go and look after the horses." The servant couldn't do anything. He's paralysed his authority in one sphere but not in another. But he recognised that Jesus operated at a different level. He recognises authority but vastly superior to his - "speak only the word". He reasoned it out because faith reasons. Jesus doesn't actually need to come down to where my servant is and into my house. I'm not worthy of him doing that. But he doesn't need to do it because he commands all authority. He speaks the word and that's all it takes for my servant to be healed. Because Christ's words are not simply words that bring with them the power to achieve. And Jesus remarked on the centurions faith for this man was a Gentile, not a Jew, not a son of the kingdom to use Jesus' term later on. And yet, says Jesus, look at his faith, so many sons of the kingdom are going to miss out completely. But not this man. Why did they miss out? Why did they not line up like the centurion did and submit to the authority of Christ? Perhaps some of us need to face the same question. Have we lined up to submit ourselves to the authority of Christ? Or do we just admire him from afar? Perhaps you are wondering how could I get that kind of faith? Well, listen to what Paul says about how faith comes. "Faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of God." It's not something we work up. Some psychological trick, I believe, I believe, I believe we repeat into the mirror in the morning. It isn't about psychology. This is about listening to the words of Christ and allowing them to transform our lives. And that is why the central task of the disciple is to learn, because a disciple is a learner. We are commanded at the end of this gospel to go into all the world and make learners, those who will sit at the feet of Jesus, take the yoke of Christ' teaching and learn of him. 

And that leads to the third story, a beautiful short snippet but wonderful what lies behind it. It involves Peter's mother-in-law. I wonder - did Peter warn his wife that he was bringing this preacher home for tea? You know people come in and the person who's supposed to be responsible maybe for making the dinner is sick and can't do anything. And there's chaos. And that's the kind of something imagine the chaos. And we can see from what eventually happened how gladly Peter's mother-in-law would have served Christ. But she was sick. She couldn't serve anyone. She herself needed to be served. And Jesus saw that. He didn't sit on the outside saying "this is ridiculous, where's my dinner? Do you know who I am? I mean this is ridiculous Peter. You invited the preacher for dinner and this is the way you treat me?" He perceived that the woman had a fever and he touched her serving hand. I think the details are exquisite. He touched her hand, that hand she had used all her life to bless her family, to serve her family, her neighbours, to serve her God was now unable to use it the way she wanted to because she had this fever and Jesus touched her hand. The fever left her. She got up and began to serve him. And as I said, it's a lovely story, but why include it? Why include it here? Because it follows logically on from the previous stories when the Lord has cleansed us and when he has released us from the paralysis of sin, of guilt, of fear, of bondage, of ungodly religion. The response is to serve. When we think of the mercies of God, don't we want to present our bodies, our minds and wills to him in service? It's a logical response. And yet sometimes in life and in our service, we catch fever. The temperature rises. We feel totally out of sorts, weak, stressed. It's hard to think straight when you have a fever, hard to do anything. You just want to lie down, feed a cold, starve a fever. the energy goes, we run out of steam and we need the quiet touch of the Lord Jesus on our lives. To rest in his authority, the authority of his word that never changes and allow him in that process to restore us so that we can serve again.

3 brilliant incidents, 3 different conditions - uncleanness, paralysis, fever. What does it the authority of Jesus look like? Who is this God who commands? He touches the leper who can touch your life the same tonight. He ends the uncleanness. He can touch your life if you come and ask him. So many of us are weighed down by the paralysis of guilt and fear, bondage, trying our best, never feeing good enough. Listen to his words. sit at his feet, take time with him and allow him to speak those words personally into your life.  And if have a fever, are tired, exhausted, shattered by service, often unrecognised, unapplauded, find the touch of the Lord. Find rest for yourself. 

Elijah at Mount Carmel

COLERAINE EVANGELICAL CHURCH

SERMON NOTES SUNDAY 10 AUGUST 2025 - MR JASON CRUISE

1 KINGS 18 VERSES 1 AND 2, 17 TO 40

A number of weeks ago we looked at chapter 17. We saw how Israel was at a spiritual low. It was a time of immorality and a time of idolatry. There was one man who sought to please the Lord and obey him. We saw a servant that stepped up, a supply that kept coming and a son that was raised up. We saw how Elijah came to Ahab and said "As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years but according to word." Here was a man who came fearlessly and courageously and boldly for the Lord. Then we saw a supply that kept up - he was provided for the brook Cherith and ravens came with meat every day. Then the Lord led him to go to Zarephath where a widow woman provided for him. She had nothing more than a handful of meal in a barrel and a little oil in a cruse. Philippians 4 verse 19 "but my God shall supply all you need according to the riches in Christ Jesus." A son was raised us. The widow woman's son died and Elijah carried him to the upper chamber and he cried to the Lord. The Lord raised him up. We finished by thinking of another son, God gave his son and delivered him up for our sins at Calvary so that we could also be raised up. "Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification." (Romans 4 verse 25)

Today I want to look at chapter 18. 

"And it came to pass after many days, that the word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year saying, Go, shew thyself unto Ahab and I will send rain upon the earth. And Elijah went to shew himself unto Ahab. And there was a sore famine in Samaria."

Back at the beginning of chapter 17 the Lord had said to Elijah to go and shew himself to Ahab then turn eastward and hide. Now in chapter 18 he was told to go shew himself to Ahab. The time he had spent in the secret place with the Lord was preparing him for what lay ahead. As he spent time at the book Cherith and Zarephath the Lord was preparing him for what lay ahead. He knew God's protection and provision. He completely trusted in the Lord. He surrendered and obeyed him. That is the type of man and woman the Lord is looking for. He is not looking for men and women with earthly qualifications but men and women fully surrendered to the Lord. Obedient and willing to be used by God. In Acts 19 Elijah asked "Lord what wilt thou have me to do?" How long has it been since we said those words. We live in a day and generation where instead of saying "what wilt thou have me to do" we say "what wilt thou do for me today?" Are we willing to step out by faith and be obedient to him, to do a work for him?   Are we willing to step out and be obedient to the Lord today?

"And it came to pass when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said unto him, Art thou he that troubleth Israel? And he answered I have not troubled Israel; but thou, and thy father's house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord and thou hast followed Baalim." verses 17 and 18

Elijah makes his way and is met by Obadiah. He tells him to go to the king and when Ahab meets Obadiah he asked "are you the man that troubles Israel?" Here is a man who stands for truth and righteousness and Ahab is an idol worshipper. This man Ahab "did evil in the sight of the Lord above all that were before him." (1 Kings 16 verse 30) Our times have not changed. If we take a stand for God, voice our opinion and are against abortion, transgenderism, assisted suicide the world says we are only a trouble maker. We will be hated by the world if we take a stand for the Lord today. We should remind ourselves of what the Lord said in John 15 verse 18 "If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you." Don't be surprised that the world has a hatred for you, for your Christian faith and beliefs. Elijah replied to Ahab "ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord and thou hast followed Baalim." The one in authority has turned his back on God and his word. There is no difference today. There are those in authority and government who have turned their backs on God and his word. They no longer revere God's word. Young people in our schools and universities are told to leave their beliefs at the door. Workers are told to be inclusive and tolerant of all faiths. We need to be much in prayer that God in his mercy and by his grace would speak to men and women once again and for people to come in true repentance and turn to the Lord. To put their faith and trust in the risen Christ, the only one who can save them, the Lord Jesus. 

Elijah has these prophets of Baal - 450 and the prophets of the groves - 400 gathered at Mount Carmel - verse 20. He tells them to cut the bullock into pieces and lay it on the wood. He then tells them to call on their god of Baal - verse 25. These men cry unto their god but he is a god who cannot hear nor see their need or even meet it. They find they are alone so begin to cut themselves. There is no reply from their god. Did they begin to realise that death lay ahead for them? Deuteronomy 13 verse 5 "And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; because he hath spoken to turn you away from the Lord your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to thrust thee out of the way which the Lord thy God commanded thee to walk in. So shalt thou put the evil away from the midst of thee." They had trusted in a god who cannot avail for them. Death for us as Christians is but a doorway into God's presence one day. We have no fear of death today. 

These prophets began to be mocked by Elijah - verse 27. "Cry aloud; for he is a god; either he is talking or he is pursuing or he is in a journey or peradventure he sleepeth and must be awaked." We trust in a God who can hear us, even the faintest whisper today. We have a God who hears and sees what circumstances we are going through. "Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered." (Romans 8 verse 26) When you are going through difficulties and you cannot string the words together the Spirit intercededs on our behalf. We have one in heaven who hears our prayers. When you get up at home from the chair you can look up to heaven knowing there is a God in heaven who has heard our prayer. He has heard your petition.

Elijah continues to mock these men. Maybe he is sleeping. The one we have trusted in needs no sleep - Psalm 121 verse 4 "Behold he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep." What a striking contrast to this god Baal, the one these prophets had trusted in, the one they have turned Israel to turn to worship in. In verse 30 Elijah tells the people to come near. The first thing he has to do is repair the altar that has broken down. They have been worshipping a false god and now the altar has been broken down. He must repair the altar first. The place of sacrifice and worship. Spiritually speaking is your altar broken down? Romans 12 verse 1 "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service." You and I do not come to an altar to present animal sacrifices. We rest on that once and for all sacrifice offered for you and I on Mount Calvary. Hebrews 10 verses 11 and 12 "And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God;" We do not have to come to an altar. We are not relying on sacrifices of animals today. Are we living lives today fully surrendered to God, consecrated to him? 

Verses 36 to 38 "And it came to pass at the tie of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near, and said, Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant and that I have done all these things at thy word. Hear me O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that thou art the Lord God, and that thou hast turned their heart back again. Then the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice and the wood, ad the stones, and the dust and licked up the water that was in the trench." 

We see that Elijah comes and he praised the God of Israel. The result was the fire of the Lord fell. There was revival. The word of God came to the people. Elijah called on God. The result of one man's praying - 1000 were gathered on that day. A man who was courageous and bold, fearlessly stood for all that was righteous and good. His prayer was only 34 words in the original Hebrew. Simple and straight to the point. Not full of rhetoric. A prayer of a man to his God. The same God we pray to today. The same God who answered prayer then and now. God answered the prayer of 2 elderly woman on the Isle of Lewis in 1949 and revival broke out. God answered the prayer of 4 young men in a schoolhouse in Kells. He answered Evan Roberts in Wales in the early 1900's and revival came. The Lord is interested in your prayer today. Are you interested in praying to him? He has these prophets brought to the brook Kishon and slew them. They knew the god they trusted in could not meet their need. Contrast that with Elijah at the brook Cherith. The God of heaven met his need. This God was sovereign and in control. Today he will meet your need. Could I ask you and encourage you to come and cry to the Lord that once again he might move again in your family, your neighbourhood and this land. 

New Horizon 2025 Bible Reading Friday 8 August 2025 John Lennox - The Test of Forgiveness and Reconciliation

 

NEW HORIZON 2025 BIBLE READING WITH JOHN LENNOX

FRIDAY 8 AUGUST 2025 

The Test of Forgiveness and Reconciliation

Genesis 42

Joseph interpreted Pharaoh’s dreams that there would be 7 years of very good harvest and plenty. And the nation ordered by Pharaoh listened to what Joseph the governor of Egypt had to say and they stored up the plenty, even though there was no indication tht there was going to be catastrophic famine to follow it. But true to his, that is God’s word through Pharaoh after 7 years the famine started to bite and its effects went way beyond the border of Egypt. And so we come now, when Joseph is in his early 40’s to chapter 42.

"When Jacob learned that there was grain for sale in Egypt, he said to his sons, “Why do you look at one another?” ² And he said, “Behold, I have heard that there is grain for sale in Egypt. Go down and buy grain for us there, that we may ^mlive and not die.” ³ So ten of Joseph’s brothers went down to buy grain in Egypt. ⁴ But Jacob did not send Benjamin, ⁿJoseph’s brother, with his brothers, for ^ohe feared that harm might happen to him. ⁵ Thus the sons of Israel came to buy among the others who came, for the famine was in the land of Canaan.

⁶ Now Joseph was governor ^pover the land. He was the one who sold to all the people of the land. And Joseph’s brothers came and ^qbowed themselves before him with their faces to the ground. ⁷ Joseph saw his brothers and recognized them, but he treated them like strangers and ^rspoke roughly to them. “Where do you come from?” he said. They said, “From the land of Canaan, to buy food.” ⁸ And Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him. ⁹ And Joseph ^sremembered the dreams that he had dreamed of them. ^tAnd he said to them, “You are spies; you have come to see the nakedness of the land.” ¹⁰ They said to him, “No, my lord, your servants have come to buy food. ¹¹ We are all sons of one man. We are honest men. Your servants have never been spies.”

And so the last great act in this drama begins. It’s hard to imagine what Joseph felt the thrilling sensation as suddenly he recognised the sheaves bowing to him. And yet he was astute enough to see that there was something missing from his dreams fulfilment. There were only 10 bowing he saw in his dream 11. It’s not surprising they didn’t recognise him for he would have looked every inch the clean shaven Egyptian aristocrat surrounded by guards and functionaries, he watched them bow. Where was his brother Benjamin? How was he to deal with these men who had caused him so much pain and suffering? Once they had been in a position of power over him. Now the situation was reversed and they were scared stiff when the Egyptian Prince accused them of spying.

“You are spies. He said to them, “No, it is the nakedness of the land that you have come to see.” ¹³ And they said, “We, your servants, are twelve brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan, and behold, the youngest is this day with our father, and one ^uis no more.” 

They are referring to the man standing in front of them so they obviously don’t recognised him. We are honest men and that’s the key. Because for years they had lived by lies, they deceived their father and now Joseph was going to test that honesty. You can imagine that Joseph’s hope of seeing his dad and his brothers Ben must have been overpowering. It also, of course, meant that they had no idea where Joseph was. But it seems Joseph was instinctively brilliant person that he knew immediately what to do. And what he does is to set in train a sequence of events to find out exactly what the brothers now felt about Benjamin, who was Joseph’s physical brother. In all senses, Joseph is gone, So now we’ll attest their honesty. And so he said that they wouldn’t leave the place until Benjamin came down and said that one of them should go back to Canaan and bring Benjamin down. And he let them stew in prison for 3 days, a lot less time than they had let him stew in prison. And then he alleviated the terms and

“said to them, “Do this and you will live, ^vfor I fear God: ¹⁹ if you are honest men, let one of your brothers remain confined where you are in custody, and let the rest go and carry ^wgrain for the famine of your households, ²⁰ and ^xbring your youngest brother to me. So your words will be verified, and you shall not die.”

What could this Egyptian mean by saying he feared God? Which God could he had some knowledge of the God of Jacob? It was cursedly thinkable, yet he was being more generous than the brothers might have been led to expect and they started to talk among themselves.

“Then they said to one another, ^y“In truth we are guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the distress of his soul, when he begged us and we did not listen. That is why this distress has come upon us.” ²² And Reuben answered them, ^z“Did I not tell you not to sin against the boy? But you did not listen.”

So now there comes a reckoning for his blood and Joseph is standing there understanding every single word they are saying. Their long buried guilt is now bursting like an earthquake through the surface. And as Joseph listens he detects the first signs of honesty in these men. He also learned for the first time that Reuben, Jacob’s first born had tried in vain to save him, indicating that the brothers were not all equally guilty. And hearing his brothers confess their gift, guilt was too much. Overcome with emotion he turned away and wept. Now this is the first time we read of Joseph weeping. It will not be the last. And it revealed something of his heart. This is not the reaction of a vindictive person wanting to get his own back, reveling in the pain as his brother’s squirm and seeking to get maximum revenge. This is the attitude of a man who wants to forgive and be reconciled. He wanted desperately to tell him who he was but he couldn’t, not yet. Why? Because Joseph knew what many people today don’t quite know, that genuine forgiveness involves repentance. Now we need to think about that seriously for a moment before we analyse the story. C S Lewis once wrote “Everyone says forgiveness is a lovely idea until they have someone to forgive.” So be patient as I try to explain something that is quite difficult. Consider a newspaper report at the time of the London Tub bombings on 7 July 2005. The Reverend Julie Nicholson found it impossible to forgive the man who murdered her 24 year old daughter Jenny, a gifted musician who died in the terrorist bomb attack on the London Underground railway station. “I do not forgive them for what they did and I do not think they should be forgiven” she said. And so she resigned as a minister and later wrote a very moving book called Song for Jenny. 10 years on she said she still couldn’t forgive the suicide bombers. Should she have taken this path, or should she have responded like Gordon Wilson of Enniskillen whose daughter Marie was killed in the bombing in 1987? He said he prayed for the bombers ever day. “I bear no ill will” he wrote, “I bear no grudge.” And his tribute to his daughter has gone down as one of the most moving in all the years of the conflict in this country, his book which every one of us should read is called Marie, a Story of Enniskillen. How are we to understand all of this? Well, firstly forgiveness lies at the heart o the gospel itself. The basic terms of the gospel. Luke 24 verse 47. Our Lord tells his disciples that repentance and forgiveness shall be preached to all nations beginning in Jerusalem. So it’s therefore clear that the basis of forgiveness is repentance towards God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ at the most fundamental levels. It would appear that there is no forgiveness without repentance. And Jesus said “except you repent, you shall all likewise perish.” Luke 13 verse 3. And in Luke 17 verses 3 to 4 he says “If your brother sins, rebuke him and if he repents forgive him. If he sins against you 7 times a day and 7 times comes back to you and says I repent, forgive him. Now the word translated forgive in the gospels has a range of meanings. Let go, leave, tolerate, permit, send away, release, cancel, pardon, forgive. They are reflected in the Oxford English Dictionary definition of forgiveness. One to give up, to cease, to harbour resentment, disposition or willingness to forgive. Secondly to remit or let go of debt, to pardon an offender. So that forgiveness appears to have 2 aspects – 1 the inner life of the injured party and that is an inner letting go. But then secondly the outward relation of the injured party to the one who’s committed the offence, an outward lettering go where the offender is explicitly pardoned by the person offended. Now we get both of those aspects in scripture. In Mark 11 verse 25 Jesus says “And when you stand praying if you hold anything against anyone forgive him so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.” Well clearly the person who’s offended you is not necessarily there. So it cannot be a quest of publicly letting the matter go. Jesus is addressing the danger that our prayers and our lives will be damaged by harbouring resentment and an unforgiving spirit which means we are unwilling to forgive. That’s the first level of forgiveness, the inner letting go. However, saying to the offered ‘I forgive you’ is a very different matter. If I’ve been wounded, if I’m the one who has to do the forgiving, I may well have to work very hard at getting my heart right before the Lord and letting something go inwardly so that it doesn’t foster and poison me. But that is not the same thing as an active pardon or remission of the guilt of the offender, nor is it the same as my relationship with them being re-established because according to scripture that requires repentance on their part. It is very easy to forget that God himself does ot forgive those who do not repent. Except you repent you shall all likewise perish and the reason is a moral one. If God simply forgave people without repentance, it would be saying that sin doesn’t matter. But God will never say that. Martin Luther once wrote “there are 2 kinds of sin, one is confessed and this no one should leave unforgiven. The other kid is defended and this no one can forgive, for it refuses either to be counted as sin or to accept forgiveness.” Now the objections come thick and fast. But someone will say ‘didn’t the Lord Jesus when he was being crucified pray Father forgive them because they don’t know what they do?’ He did indeed. But please notice that those words were addressed to people who did not know what they were doing. To apply those to people who knew exactly what they were doing makes no moral sense. To the terrorist who shot dead Julie Nicholas they knew exactly what they were doing. And the people that murdered Marie, they knew exactly what they were doing. The Roman soldiers for whom Christ prayed here had no idead of the identity of the man they were crucifying. They thought they were simply executing a condemned terrorist. So in their hearing, the Lord prayed ‘Father forgive them.’ Because once they woke up to the fact and I expect some of them later did, that they crucified the Son of God, it would have overwhelmed them and they would have been filled with remorse and repentance and that prayer would have reminded them that there was grace for them too. We cannot apply that prayer to people who know exactly what they were doing. That is morally absurd. Now letting go of the inner heart is a completely different matter. Of course the struggles of people who struggle with that are represented in their books. The Lord notably did not pray the same prayer for those who with eyes wide open observed his deeds of miraculous mercy done through the power of the Spirit and said they were of the devil. On the contrary he roundly told them that for them there would be no forgiveness either in this age or in the age to come. There is sin so seriously that in the nature of things that cannot be forgiven. For the very simple reason that if men and women reject the power of the Holy Spirit, who is the utmost ultimate witness to the message of the gospel of the grace of God, then by definition there is no other power. No other gospel that can bring them salvation. The tragic fact is this that the Lord Jesus Christ has died for all and forgiveness is offered to all. There are people who will find themselves eternally separated from God because they are not prepared to repent. And that’s a sobering thing, even at the level of our families and our friends. When was the last time I said ‘sorry’ to someone and meant it? We know the Lord’s prayer where we ask for our daily bread. And the next thing is forgive us our trespasses. Well we notice it when we miss our daily bread. I wonder do we notice it when we miss forgiving? Now to sum this up, suppose I’ve been wronged in some way, hurt or offended. I’m faced as a Christian with the question of forgiveness. So I’ve got 2 things to think about. Firstly, inwardly I have to try to get to the stage with God’s help where I can let the thing go so that it doesn’t destroy me and to get to the stage where I’m prepared to let it go outwardly to the offending person, provided they repent. Now this was Joseph’s dilemma. This is a very surface level analysis of the question. For the sake of time Joseph could see that there never could be complete forgiveness and reconciliation unless the brothers acted according to their claim to be honest men and repented. And what we’re now going to say is something quite remarkable. It’s completely unique in all of history and literature. It’s a man with enormous power using that power with extreme sensitivity to bring his brothers to repent. And it took all of that, the famine, all of Joseph’s years of training and suffering and administering Egypt for 14 years, all of that to bring the brothers to repentance. That’s how important repentance is. It is amazing the scale of this. And we’ve just seen Joseph weeping and wondering and deciding what is the next thing to do. There are 8 chapters on the matter of forgiveness. There are 2 chapters on creation. That gives you a sense of priorities and importance. So it’s clear from this point on that thoughts of forgiveness are in Joseph’s heart. So we now realise at this point in the conversation that Reuben tried to protect him. And so although Reuben was the eldest, Joseph chose Simeon, the second oldest brother to be his hostage and bound him before the eyes of the brothers and sent the others home. But before they set out, Joseph told his servants to fill all the remaining brothers sacks with grain, together with the money they had paid for them. So they halt for the night and one of them notices that his money is in the mouth of his sack. And of course that shook them to the core, and they began dimly to perceive that God was speaking to them. It’s interesting how now the circumstances begin to break into their lives. They weren’t there yet. They came to their Father. They tell him what had happened. Jacob says straightly to them in verse 36

“ “You have ^lbereaved me of my children: Joseph is no more, and Simeon is no more, and now you would take Benjamin.”

You notice that he’s implying that Joseph’s disappearance was no accident, that it was his sons that were responsible. “All this has come against me.” And Jacob is totally full of self pity and feels that he’s losing his family one by one. It is the disintegration of a family. Jacob of course still of course is not aware that he is responsible for a lot of this because it was his favouritism for Joseph that caused the hatred in the first place. So now Reuben talks to his father …

“Kill ^mmy two sons if I do not bring him back to you. Put him in my hands, and I will bring him back to you.”

What a crazy suggestion. Kill my 2 sons. Kill a few more. You’ve already lost some, now kill a few more. Absolutely crazy and consistent with the kind of labile behaviour that Reuben has shown.

“But he said, “My son shall not go down with you, for ⁿhis brother is dead, and he is the only one left. ^oIf harm should happen to him on the journey that you are to make, ^pyou would bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to Sheol.”

Joseph’s Brothers Return to Egypt

43 Now the famine was ^qsevere in the land.”

Jacob was faced with coming to his children and saying “go and buy us a little food.” And now Judah steps up, Judah who sold Joseph …

“The man solemnly warned us, saying, ‘You shall not see my face unless your ^rbrother is with you.’ ⁴ If you will send our brother with us, we will go down and buy you food. ⁵ But if you will not send him, we will not go down, for the man said to us, ‘You shall not see my face, unless your brother is with you.  Israel said, “Why did you treat me so badly as to tell the man that you had another brother?” ⁷ They replied, “The man questioned us carefully about ourselves and our kindred, saying, ‘Is your father still alive? Do you have another brother?’ What we told him was in answer to these questions. Could we in any way know that he would say, ‘Bring your brother down’?” ⁸ And Judah said to Israel his father, “Send the boy with me, and we will arise and go, that we may ^slive and not die, both we and you and also our little ones. ⁹ I will be a pledge of his safety. ”

That is a big shift isn’t it? He hadn’t cared about Joseph. But now he says ‘I personally will be a pledge of his safety.

“From my hand you shall require him. ^tIf I do not bring him back to you and set him before you, then let me bear the blame forever.”

That is a huge step in the direction of real repentance. And then? Jacob caved in. He said ‘if it must be so then do this.’ Then you read a little statement that sounds almost comical.

“take some of the choice fruits of the land in your bags, and carry a present down to the man, a little ^ubalm and a little honey, gum, myrrh, pistachio nuts, and almonds.”

In the midst of all of this, Jacob had his head firmly stuck in the ground. But he told them to take double the money and that was hard for a person like Jacob to do.

They arose and went down to Egypt and stood before Joseph.

¹⁶ When Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the ^zsteward of his house, “Bring the men into the house, and slaughter an animal and make ready, for the men are to dine with me at noon.” ¹⁷ The man did as Joseph told him and brought the men to Joseph’s house. ¹⁸ And the men were afraid because they were brought to Joseph’s house, and they said, “It is because of the money, which was replaced in our sacks the first time, that we are brought in, so that he may assault us and fall upon us to make us servants and seize our donkeys.” ¹⁹ So they went up to the steward of Joseph’s house and spoke with him at the door of the house, ²⁰ and said, ^a“Oh, my lord, ^bwe came down the first time to buy food. ²¹ And ^cwhen we came to the lodging place we opened our sacks, and there was each man’s money in the mouth of his sack, our money in full weight. So we have brought it again with us, ²² and we have brought other money down with us to buy food. We do not know who put our money in our sacks.” ²³ He replied, “Peace to you, do not be afraid. Your God and the God of your father has put treasure in your sacks for you. I received your money.” Then he brought Simeon out to them. ²⁴ And when the man had brought the men into Joseph’s house and ^dgiven them water, and they had washed their feet, and when he had given their donkeys fodder, ²⁵ they prepared ^ethe present for Joseph’s coming at noon, for they heard that they should eat bread there.”

Now all 11 were bowing. And he lifted up his eyes and saw his brother Benjamin. Can you image that after all the years that had passed? Now his own brother is bowing to the ground. And it was too much. Even thinking about it is too much for some of us. And he now for the second time sought a place to weep. He’s desperate to reveal himself but he can’t do it yet because he doesn’t know whether they are honest men.

“Then he washed his face and came out. And ^lcontrolling himself he said, “Serve the food.” ³² They served him by himself, and them by themselves, and the Egyptians who ate with him by themselves, because the Egyptians could not eat with the Hebrews, for that is ^man abomination to the Egyptians. ³³ And they sat before him, the firstborn according to his birthright and the youngest according to his youth. And the men looked at one another in amazement. ^34 nPortions were taken to them fromm Joseph’s table, but Benjamin’s portion was ^ofive times as much as any of theirs. And they drank and were merry² with him.”

Why were they amazed? Because they were sitting in order of age and of course they would have all looked essentially the same. They were men and you mathematicians can work out the chance of getting that right by accident. It was brilliant biblical example of intelligent design. Those of you who know will know what that phrase might just mean. Another way of speaking into their their consciences and getting them to face how wa sit that this household, this Egyptian household, apparently knew the order of their ages?

“Then he commanded ^pthe steward of his house, ^q“Fill the men’s sacks with food, as much as they can carry, and put each man’s money in the mouth of his sack, ² and put my cup, the silver cup, in the mouth of the sack of the youngest, with his money for the grain.” And he did as Joseph told him.”

Off they went home but very soon the servant caught up with them and said

‘Why have you repaid evil for good?^1 5 Is it not from this that my lord drinks, and ^sby this that he practices divination? 

You have done evil in doing this.’”

“When he overtook them, he spoke to them these words. ⁷ They said to him, “Why does my lord speak such words as these? Far be it from your servants to do such a thing! ⁸ Behold, ^tthe money that we found in the mouths of our sacks we brought back to you from the land of Canaan. How then could we steal silver or gold from your lord’s house? ^9 uWhichever of your servants is found with it shall die, and we also will be ^vmy lord’s servants. He said, “Let it be as you say: he who is found with it shall be my servant, and the rest of you shall be innocent.””

Now what are they going to do? Years before they had stood with Benjamin’s brother Joseph and they had decided to let him go to Egypt and go home to their father without him. Now the situation is repeating itself exactly with Benjamin, because the servants said they could all go home but he is going to stay. Now what are they going to do? Are they going to do exactly the same thing as they did years before? You see, what is being tested so clearly is their attitude to Benjamin and history is repeating itself. It’s absolutely brilliant this because they had the opportunity not only to be rid of Joseph but also Benjamin. And one of the Jewish writes on this, Robert Sachs gets it exactly right when he says “Joseph has decided to put his brothers to the final test. He will place them in a position where they are strongly tempted to treat Benjamin as they treated Joseph.” And the point of Joseph’s trial of them is that repentance is only complete when one knows that if he were placed in the same position, he would not act in the way he had acted before. The brothers come to their great decision – come what may they are not going to abandon Benjamin and they tear their clothes as a sign of despair and return with the steward to the city. Now for the final time in the story they are brought before Joseph and they throw themselves on the ground. Joseph faces them with their apparent crime. He scars them stiff. Into the awful silence Judah steps up and makes one of the most moving speeches in all of literature.

“Oh, my lord, please let your servant speak a word in my lord’s ears, and ^clet not your anger burn against your servant, for ^dyou are like Pharaoh himself. My lord asked his servants, saying, ‘Have you a father, or a brother?’ ²⁰ And we said to my lord, ‘We have a father, an old man, ^eand a young brother, ^fthe child of his old age. His brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother’s children, and his father loves him.’ ²¹ Then you said to your servants, ^g‘Bring him down to me, that I may set my eyes on him.’ ²² We said to my lord, ‘The boy cannot leave his father, for if he should leave his father, ^hhis father would die.’ ²³ Then you said to your servants, ⁱ‘Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you shall not see my face again.’”

And so Judah recites the story very slowly. And very carefully and brings Jacob into the picture. A little bit further down in chapter 45 he’s saying what Jacob had said to him …

 ^“One left me, and I said, ^l“Surely he has been torn to pieces,” and I have never seen him since. ²⁹ If you ^mtake this one also from me, ⁿand harm happens to him, you will bring down my gray hairs in evil to Sheol.’

³⁰ “Now therefore, as soon as I come to your servant my father, and the boy is not with us, then, as his life is bound up in the boy’s life, ³¹ as soon as he sees that the boy is not with us, he will die, and your servants will bring down the gray hairs of your servant our father with sorrow to Sheol. ³² For your servant became a pledge of safety for the boy to my father, saying, ^o‘If I do not bring him back to you, then I shall bear the blame before my father all my life.’ ³³ Now therefore, please let your servant remain instead of the boy as a servant to my lord, and let the boy go back with his brothers. ³⁴ For how can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? I fear to see the evil that would find my father.”

He hadn’t cared before about what his father thought about Joseph, that he had sold him down the river and now he is pleading to be a substitute for Benjamin. He understands what the son means to the father and there are vast dimensions behind this.

“Then Joseph could not ^pcontrol himself before all those who stood by him. He cried, “Make everyone go out from me.” So no one stayed with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers. ² And he wept aloud, so that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard it. ³ And Joseph said to his brothers, ^q“I am Joseph! Is my father still alive?” But his brothers could not answer him, for they were dismayed at his presence.the Son means to the Father?”

It was an astonishing revelation and they of course found it very very difficult to believe. He could see repentance. It was very clear. Real repentance has been reached and therefore genuine forgiveness can be offered.

“So Joseph said to his brothers, “Come near to me, please.” And they came near. And he said, “I am your brother, Joseph, ^rwhom you sold into Egypt. ⁵ And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, ^sfor God sent me before you to preserve life. ⁶ For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are ^tyet five years in which there will be neither ^uplowing nor harvest. ⁷ And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. ⁸ So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ^vruler over all the land of Egypt. ⁹ Hurry and go up to my father and say to him, ‘Thus says your son Joseph, God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me; do not tarry. ^10 wYou shall dwell in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near me, you and your children and your children’s children, and your flocks, your herds, and all that you have. ^11 xThere I will provide for you, for there are yet five years of famine to come, so that you and your household, and all that you have, do not come to poverty.’ ¹² And now your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see, that it is ^ymy mouth that speaks to you. ¹³ You must tell my father of all my honor in Egypt, and of all that you have seen. Hurry and ^zbring my father down here.” ¹⁴ Then he fell upon his brother Benjamin’s neck and wept, and Benjamin wept upon his neck. ¹⁵ And he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them. After that his brothers talked with him.”

It's dramatic, isn’t it?  But repentance is a very dramatic thing when all those years of deception and lies and trickery and dishonesty and untruth broke through to the surface. That can be a very dramatic thing for any of you this morning. And to realise that there’s a greater than Joseph against whom you have lied and deceived all of us and sinned and he’s prepared. He stands there prepared to forgive you if you repent and turn to him in faith and in trust. What a marvellous forgiveness it is to reinterpret all that they’d done and point out that God was ultimately behind it in order to preserve life. And you know these men were so shaken up that eventually Jacob died and now they got scared again that Joseph hadn’t really forgiven them. It may be they said that Joseph will hate us and pay us back. Then Joseph wept again. He said ‘Do not fear for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me but God meant it for good that many people be kept alive as they are today, so do not fear. I will provide for you and your little ones. Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them. Where do you stand? Have you been running for years? Living a life of deception? Trickery? In order to create your own little paradise on earth? And has the Lord been speaking to you through the circumstance of life, that here today you’re sitting in this large crowd here in this tent? You hear way beyond my words, the words of the Lord Jesus encouraging you to be open with him and repent. That is, to admit who you are and what you have done and turn away from it. And turn and ask him for forgiveness based on the greatest sacrifice of all. He isn’t Judah, he’s the lion of the tribe of Judah who gave his life that you could stand at this moment and give your life to him and experience new life, a new beginning right today. It’s possible. If God will do what Genesis tells us he did to get these brothers to repent what do you think he’s done to get you to repent? He came to earth himself. He came to his own like Joseph and they rejected him and he went his lonely way to the cross to bear your sin and my sin. Once you understand that in the power of a new life which he will give you, you can go out to serve him with a new joy and a certainty in your heart that one day he will return and receive you to himself.