August 28, 2011
Scripture:
Scripture:
John 19:28 - 42
Look for a moment at three words in I John 1:5: “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” This morning, we’ve seen that at the beginning, all was darkness. God said, “Let there be light.” He created the Sun and the Moon. The Moon is a good picture of us, the church. The Moon reflects the light of the Sun back to earth. We reflect God’s light to the world around us.
The result of sin is darkness. God saw the darkness of this world, and in love He sent His Son. The Lord died for us, was buried, and rose again on the third day. That Light was risen. And now, this gospel can go forth. Those who believe have the light of God, to enlighten their lives with truth. How often do we meditate on this treasure? We sometimes sing “This little light of mine, I’m going to get it shine.” May it truly do so.
Hymn 341- Jesus bid a shine
Prayer
We left off last time when Joseph’s brothers were in the house of “the man.” They were there because “the man’s” silver cup had been found in Benjamin’s sack. We know that Joseph had told his servant to put it there, because he wanted to test his brothers, to see if they were sorry enough to change.
Genesis 44:18 - 34 & ch. 45:1-4
Judah was the one that promised Jacob that he would guard Benjamin with his life. Now, he was in a predicament: they said that whoever’s sack the cup was found in would be killed and the rest would be servants; then, the cup was found in Benjamin’s sack. What was Judah going to do?
One thing that strikes me as interesting is that the brothers didn’t say, “You guys filled the bags, so Benjamin couldn’t have put the cup in there.” Instead, they said that God had found out their sin. What sin were they talking about? The sin of selling Joseph and tricking their father.
So Judah went to “the man” and asked him to hear their story before pronouncing any judgements. Judah began telling their family history: how there were twelve brother and one was not, and how Benjamin was so close to their father. Judah told how “the man” had asked them to bring the youngest brother down with them and how it was against their father’s will. Finally, he told how he himself had told his father that if that lad didn’t come home alive, he would be to blame. Was Judah sorry enough to change? Yes, he was. A very big change had taken place: he went from wanting to make money on his brother to being willing to lay down his life for his brother. This was the point of Joseph’s test: it was to make the brothers realize their sin and bring them into the place of blessing.
Joseph had seen his brother twice before; he wanted them to come to the place of repentance and they did. Look how it affected him: he sent all the Egyptians out of the room and then he told his brother who he was. Then, he wept so loudly that the Egyptians in the house of Pharaoh could hear him. When Joseph told his brothers who he was, they were scared. They also struggled to understand that he loved them. Can you imagine the heart of love that Joseph had for his brothers? However, he had to put them through all that so that they could come to point that he could draw them around him when he made himself known.
This is a picture of Israel: there will be a time when the Lord Jesus will make Himself known to them. But how he wants each one of us to know Him and come near to Him.
Luke 7: 1-17
In the last chapter, the Lord chose His disciples and gave them the discourse that we looked at. Now we enter a chapter that has several events. In chapter five we saw a lot of grace, and we also saw that it needed new bottles to contain it. We find grace coming out again in this chapter as well.
The first story in this chapter is about a centurion. He was a Gentile soldier that would have had a troop of soldiers under him. This centurion was different from most Gentiles in that he loved the Jews and did them favours. We can see that he wasn’t opposed to their religion, because he had built them a synagogue. And he must have been a kind man, because he wasn’t only nice to the Jews, but also to his servants. We read that a servant “who was dear unto him” was sick and about to die.
The Lord had healed a number of people by this point in His ministry, and this had caused talk that the centurion had probably heard. He believed what he heard, and so he sent the Jewish elders to Jesus when his servant fell sick. One point of interest in this story is the subject of worthiness. The centurion sent the elders to Jesus because He didn’t feel worthy to go himself. Now, the Jews thought that this man was worthy of the Lord’s attention, and told Him so. They didn’t understand, as the centurion seemed to, that none of us deserve the grace that God gives.
Jesus decided to go to see this centurion. The centurion heard that He was coming and sent Him a message. He said, “Lord, I’m not worthy that you should enter under my roof.” He also said that he understood how authority worked. He had soldiers under him, and they did as he commanded. He knew that this humble Nazarene could do something that none one else could: He could heal the sick. So he told the Lord, “Just say the word, and my servant will be healed.”
This centurion could command a whole troop of soldiers, but when one of them fell sick, he couldn’t do anything. But he realised that Jesus had power and authority that was above his own; that Jesus had something that he had never found in the military. He knew that our Lord had power over life and death. Jesus still has power over life and death, and He also has power over the life and death of the soul.
In chapter five we saw the leper who knew that Jesus had the power and authority to heal him, but he didn’t know if our Lord had the willingness. This soldier didn’t doubt that. Jesus had let the news of His healing power go out by the testimony of people who had been healed. This is the way that the Queen of Sheba heard about King Solomon. The centurion believed the reports that he had heard. He knew that his own authority couldn’t do anything to help his servant.
When Jesus got the centurion’s message, he marvelled. He said, “I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.” That was the centurion’s secret: he had great faith. Sometimes we say, “It’s not the amount of faith that you have, but who you have your faith in.” Weak faith and a great Saviour will do great things. There are only two people in the Bible that we are told have great faith: this centurion, and the Syrophenician women; both of which were Gentiles. The Lord told the Syrophenician women (who had come asking Him to heal her daughter) that, “It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it unto the dogs.” And she replied, “Yes, Lord: yet the dogs under the table eat of the children’s crumbs.” (Mark 7:27-28). The Lord loves it when someone is totally dependant on Him. He said the word, and the centurion’s servant was healed.
The elders thought that the centurion was worthy because of his love for the Jews, but that wasn’t the case. He was worthy because of his faith. May we take a lesson from this man, because there are a lot of situation’s in life that will test our faith.
We also must learn to ask the Lord for things. We might believe that our Lord has the authority, power and willingness to provide, but we must ask Him to. Like the centurion asked Jesus to “say the word”, we have to ask and implicitly lean on the Lord.
Hymn 333 - Come to the Saviour, make no delay
Prayer