Author: John Johnstone

Encouraged to witness…

John Johnstone Studies in Acts

Video
Sermon: Sunday, 17th September, 2023
Speaker: John Johnstone
Scripture: Acts 8:1-8

Is 2023 a good time to be alive in Scotland? Perhaps you wish you’d lived 100 years ago when the churches in the town were much fuller. Perhaps you wish you’d lived in Israel in the days Jesus was on the earth. Scotland seems so secular these days. So many people believe it doesn’t matter what you believe, as long as you are sincere. Many seem to reject Christianity, without even knowing what it is really about. It’s easy to have a negative outlook. But I’d like us to be encouraged by this wonderful passage this morning, by understanding the times we are in today. There’s no point in false hopes or groundless positivity. However, this passage is full of truths which ought to encourage us, if we are able to grasp them and think deeply about their implications.

So, what are some reasons to be encouraged in these days?

1. Jesus is still at work in the world

The book of Acts is written by Dr Luke, the same person who wrote Luke’s Gospel. In a way, the book of Acts is just Luke, volume 2. Acts is the sequel to Luke. Both of these books are dedicated to a man called Theophilus. We know almost nothing about this man, but some think he was a high-ranking government official, who is a believer, but has some doubts about the faith. Luke wants to assure him of the truthfulness of the gospel. Luke wants Theophilus to know that all that is recorded in Luke and Acts really happened. It is trustworthy information, from eyewitnesses who saw these things. ‘In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach 2 until the day he was taken up to heaven…’ Notice the word ‘began’. The implication is this: even though Jesus will no longer be with them physically, because he is going to Heaven, he will continue to be at work in the world by his Holy Spirit, through his apostles and through the church.

Even right now as we worship in Kirkcaldy Free Church, Jesus is with us by his Spirit, and is at work in our lives. He is the King and head of the church. He continues to bring new people into his family, and continues to help Christians on a daily basis. This is enormously encouraging. When we see people becoming Christians, and we have in recent months, we are seeing Jesus at work. When we see Christians, over time, wrestling with their sins and problems, and making progress, this is Jesus at work. We need to grasp this and we need to believe it.

In the book of Revelation chapter 1, we read about seven lampstands which stand for the seven churches: ‘I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and among the lampstands was someone like a son of man, dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest.’ (Revelation 1:12-13) Jesus is with us and amongst us, working in our lives. It is often said, and helpfully so, that the title of this book ‘The Acts of the Apostles’ is not a good one. It is not the God-given title. A better title suggested is ‘The Acts of Jesus Christ, by the power of his Spirit, through the church”. We are part of the church. So, let’s not be pessimistic about the church, or cynical about her, but believe that we are the instrument through which Christ continues to be at work in the world. Be encouraged.

2. The Holy Spirit is at work in the world and within us

We must not miss the drama unfolding in this chapter. For hundreds and hundreds of years, God had been promising that a day would come when his Spirit would permanently indwell his people, giving them enormous power. In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit would come on particular people, at particular times for particular tasks. For example, a prophet or a king might receive the Spirit’s filling for a time, in order to help them with their God-given work. However, in the Old Testament, these people would know the Spirit in a more temporary and external way. However, a day would come, God promised, when the Spirit would be poured out on all Christians, to help us live for Jesus, and be his witnesses on the world.

‘For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants. They will spring up like grass in a meadow, like poplar trees by flowing streams. Some will say, ‘I belong to the Lord’; others will call themselves by the name of Jacob; still others will write on their hand, ‘The Lord’s,’ and will take the name Israel.’ (Isaiah 44:3-5)

‘I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.’ (Ezekiel 36:25-27)

These are wonderful promises. And as Jesus is about to leave the disciples and ascend into Heaven, he says, ‘Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptised with water, but in a few days you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit.’ (Acts 1:4-5)

What a tremendous time for us to be alive! We are in the ‘last days’ when the Holy Spirit has been poured out on all Christians, so that we can be empowered to tell people about him. Why is the Holy Spirit given to us? One reason is clear: so that we, ordinary Christians, will be able to share our faith with other people. Read v 8: ‘But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’

Again, we can be pessimistic about sharing our faith in Fife. We can think all kinds of negative thoughts, like: no one will be interested in what I have to say; or I can’t possibly explain the gospel to other people- that’s a job for ministers and elders; or I won’t be able to answer questions I’m asked. But none of these things are true. What is true is that God has given us an enormous task of spreading the gospel world-wide, but when he calls us to a task he always provides the power to carry out the task. You are a witness of Jesus Christ. All Christians have the power of the Spirit to give us understanding, and give us the words to say, and give us the ability to live consistent holy lives, and give us boldness to speak to people. Is this a good time to be alive in Scotland? It’s the age of gospel proclamation, when the good news is to be taken to the ends of the earth.

3. The disciples’ confusion

The disciples must have been absolutely pumped with excitement at what Jesus was saying. At long last, the days of blessing were coming- just a few days away. Their expectations are sky high. However, they have the wrong expectations. We can see this from their question: ‘Then they gathered round him and asked him, ‘Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?’ (Acts 1:6)

The main point of their confusion flows from assuming that the Kingdom was going to be a political kingdom. They are thinking of a geographical kingdom, like the United Kingdom. But Jesus’ Kingdom is a spiritual one and not limited to one nation, not even Israel. In fact, Jesus Kingdom was now going to be international. The church was not going to be national, but international and universal in scope. And the Kingdom was not, as they thought, going to arrive quickly. They ask if Jesus is going to ‘at this time’ restore the Kingdom. Jesus corrects their thinking on all of these points, telling them not to focus on the timing of the Kingdom, but rather on the task of the Kingdom.

The disciples have a limited vision of where the Kingdom would be. Their minds are on the country of Israel. They want Roman power to be broken there and be an independent nation again. They want the glory days of King David and King Solomon. Jesus broadens their horizons. Christian mission would include Jerusalem and Judea, but would also take in the despised Samaritans and even further afield- the very ends of the earth. Even in our own church, we can see how Jesus’ statement has come true. We have people from Moldova and Romania and Nigeria and Slovakia and Brazil and Bulgaria and hopefully help coming from the US and even some Irish people. I’d love to see more nationalities here. The good news that Jesus is able to forgive sinners who place their trust in him is news that the whole world needs to hear.

4. The task of the church

We’ve already seen this a little but let’s think more about it. The apostles were called to be witnesses to Jesus locally in Jerusalem. But they were also to have a regional concern for those in Judea. And they had to take the message to their historical enemies, the Samaritans, and even beyond that to the ends of the earth.

What about Kirkcaldy Free Church? Of course, we must have a concern for our own town of Kirkcaldy. But the ripples must go beyond our own doorstep, to the region of Fife. But that’s not far enough. We should be concerned with Scotland and Europe and the farthest places on the globe. When you throw a stone into the water, the ripples go from the centre and continue to go out wider and wider. This is a picture of what our missionary interest ought to look like.

We must start locally. This is our Jerusalem. Sometimes it is hardest to witness at home, to our children and our spouse and our siblings. Bringing our children to church and worshipping with them at home is part of being Jesus’ witnesses at home. Are we doing this? Are we reaching those closest to us? That surely includes our immediate neighbours and work colleagues. Pray for opportunities to speak with them about Jesus. We run the church café on order to reach people locally. We must also use our own homes too, spending time with people, getting to know them.

However, we also have a responsibility to reach those further afield. How wonderful that we can be involved in supporting a church plant in Leven. We are not just focused on our own patch that we are blinkered to real gospel need in Fife at large. We must reach beyond our own locality. We think of Scotland, and we pray for a healthy gospel church in every community in Scotland.

Finally, we care deeply about gospel impact all over the world. We get involved in Blythswood and Steadfast Global and Wycliffe and Tearfund and Overseas Mission. This week I was privileged to interview a young man from Brazil who wants to come and minister in Scotland. He is Brazilian but he sees the gospel need in Europe and in Scotland in particular. He understands that his gospel interest should not just be limited to Brazil, but to the ends of the earth. He has a broad missional horizon.

A challenge for today – it’s true that being witnesses for Jesus will not be easy. Some people might not want to listen. Others might not want to be friends with us any more. Some people will be offended. Does that mean we should retreat, and just keep our faith to ourselves? Are we to be some kind of private Christians? Just because it is a costly and self-sacrificial activity?

Of course not! Now it is our turn to be witnesses for Jesus. That’s one reason why we need to get involved in our communities, and in the lives of friends and neighbours. We have good news to share. That’s why we need to keep on praying as we do this, depending on the power of God. And we need to go out in faith, with the message that Jesus Christ is the only King and the only Saviour. Tell other people about Jesus. We have been given the power to do so.

‘But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’ (Acts 1:8)

Forgive as God forgave you

John Johnstone Sermons

Video
Sermon: Sunday, 10th September, 2023
Speaker: John Johnstone
Scripture: Matthew 18:21-35

Every true Christian church is a family where we should expect to be loved. Remember what Jesus said: ‘By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.’ (John 13:35)

But let me make another statement which is also true: every true Christian church is a place where we can expect to be hurt and offended and let down. That doesn’t sound so good. But it is both true and realistic, and it’s important that we think about that, so that when others do let us down, we’re not surprised.

1. Be realistic

Peter understands this. He comes to Jesus with a question (verse 21): ‘Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, ‘Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?’

Peter’s question is ‘when’ my brother sins against me and not ‘if’. It is inevitable. When they do sin against me what am I going to do? Will I go in a huff? Will I leave the church? Will I stop speaking to them? Will I give them the cold shoulder?

I suspect he might have been asking out of his own personal experience. Perhaps some of the disciples had offended him and treated him badly. ‘But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest.’ (Mark 9:34)

So, how realistic are you in this area? Do you recognise that people in this church will sin against you? And that you will sin against them from time to time. People will hurt our feelings. In the church? Other Christians? Yes.

We live in an age where people are hyper-sensitive as to how they are treated. When wronged by others, many react like hedgehogs and curl up into a ball in a defensive position, refusing to deal properly with the person we feel has wronged us. Others might react like a rhinoceros, charging around, fighting fire with fire, and retaliating against those who have hurt us. Neither reaction is godly. We must understand this basic truth: when we become Christians, yes, God forgives us, but that doesn’t mean that we stop sinning. That only happens when we reach Heaven! We live in a fallen world, and all Christians still struggle with sin. To put it bluntly, if you stay in this church, you will sin against me and I will sin against you. Peter is realistic and we need to be too.

2. The limit of forgiveness

Peter knows he should forgive others. What does he want to know? How many times should he forgive? In other words, is there a limit?

Jewish rabbis said you should not ask for forgiveness more than three times. That was enough. Asking a fourth time is asking for too much. You can’t just keep on doing the same thing can you? Peter is more forgiving than the rabbis. Perhaps Peter expects Jesus to praise him for his generous heart. Jesus answered, ‘I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.’ In other words, an unlimited number of times. Just keep on forgiving your brother or sister, without counting, and without stopping. It’s not a matter of arithmetic (counting up) but attitude (being a forgiving person). We don’t think, ‘That’s the eighth rude thing he’s said to me this week.’

If we’re honest, we find it hard to forgive sometimes. So, what should we think about in order to become more forgiving people? Why should we forgive others?

That brings us to the parable. A man owes billions of pounds to the king but claims he can pay it back. He couldn’t even pay back the interest on his debt! Who is the king, and who is the first servant? God is the king, and the servant with the huge debt stands for all Christians.

3. Our forgiveness

Let’s just pause here. What is God telling us through this picture of a servant with a debt so big that he can never possibly pay it back? We are the servant. We are in a similarly desperate situation, in that we owe God a moral debt that we can never hope to pay back. Did you know that? No one likes to be in financial debt – it’s a horrible thing. But there is something far worse and far more serious, and that’s to be in moral debt to God.

Every single day I fail God and let him down. I do not love my neighbour as myself, and I certainly don’t love God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength. We all offend God with our pride, greed, lust, selfishness and anger. Imagine I sinned just thee times a day. In one year, this would be more than 1000 sins against God. Multiply that by your age and it is an enormous debt.

What does the Bible say about how big our debt to God is?

‘My sins have overtaken me, and I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head’ (Psalm 40:12)

‘I am too ashamed and disgraced, my God, to lift up my face to you, because our sins are higher than our heads and our guilt has reached to the heavens.’ (Ezra 9:6)

The only hope the first servant has is for the king to show him mercy. God reminds us this morning that we can never pay him for the debt of our sins. Our only hope is his mercy, revealed to us in the cross of Jesus Christ. Our only hope is for Jesus to pay that debt for us.

4. Forgiving others

Let’s move to the heart of Jesus’ parable. ‘But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded.’ (Matthew 18:24)

This seems crazy. We get angry as we listen to this part of the story. A servant who’s been forgiven billions, and is owed a few thousand but refuses to cancel the small debt. It seems unbelievable! Surely someone wouldn’t behave like that. Yet, when we refuse to forgive other people that’s exactly what we are behaving like. For we have a huge debt before God, which we can’t pay. If you are a Christian it is because you have been forgiven. So, to refuse to forgive is to contradict the gospel. We are needy sinners and have received forgiveness and that’s why we must forgive. We must forgive a very little as we have been forgiven a great deal.

“When I see myself standing before God and realise what my Lord has done for me, I am ready to forgive anyone anything.” Martin Lloyd Jones

‘Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.’ (Colossians 3:13)

The following questions might be uncomfortable, but it is necessary to reflect on them. Is there someone in your life whom you need to forgive? What is keeping you from forgiving that person? Is there someone in your life that you need to ask for forgiveness? What is keeping you from seeking that person out and confessing to them?

“Unforgiveness is too expensive: The toxins of bitterness, resentment, and unforgiveness are too deadly to store in our heart-pantry. May the wonder of our forgiveness be 10,000 times more real than the pain of our heart-wounds.” (Scotty Smith)

“As we respond to God’s way in a daily lifestyle of confession and forgiveness, we begin to experience things we never thought we would see in our relationships. We begin to see bad patterns break, we begin to see one another change, and we begin to see love that had grown cold becomes new and vibrant again. When we experience hard moments and God gives us the grace not to give way to powerful emotions and desires that would take us in the wrong direction, we experience the practical help and rescue his wisdom gives us again and again. All this means that we no longer panic when a wrong happens between us and those with whom or to whom we minister. We no longer take matters into our own hands in the panic of hurt and retribution.” (Paul Tripp)

Let’s go back to where we began. We will fail one another in this church. We will all need to practice forgiveness.

What are we saying if we refuse to forgive others? It’s a serious and solemn mistake to make: ‘Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.’ (Matthew 18 32-35)

In other words, if we refuse to forgive others, we need to ask ourselves the question: have I really been saved myself? Have I truly been forgiven by God?

More positively, one of the evidences that we are a child of God is that we do forgive others. And if we struggle to forgive others, we need to come back to this parable again and again, and remind ourselves of the enormous debt God has forgiven us. Will you do that?

Life-changing faith

John Johnstone Elijah

Video
Sermon: Sunday, 9th July, 2023
Speaker: John Johnstone
Scripture: 1 Kings 17:7-24

Do you want to know what true and life-changing faith looks like? Has God ever brought circumstances into your life which you find really difficult and perplexing? How did you respond? Would you like to be certain about a place in Heaven after you die? Believe it or not, these wide-ranging important questions are all answered in this ancient piece of history. There’s so much we can learn this morning from the prophet Elijah’s time with the widow of Zarephath.

Let’s briefly remind ourselves of what life is like in Israel in Elijah’s day. Israel’s wicked king Ahab has married Jezebel who is a queen taking wickedness to new levels. She is intent on wiping out the worship of the LORD in Israel, replacing it with false Baal worship. Baal worship involves sexual religious rites with shrine prostitutes and has become a massive snare to the Israelites. And so, God punishes Israel for forsaking the one living and true God and turning aside to idol worship. He brings a time of drought and famine, something which he had said he would do were the Israelites ever to forsake him. Physical rain has stopped in Israel, as has spiritual rain, as the Lord’s prophet Elijah has been taken out of Israel, to a stream in the Kerith Ravine. Here, God miraculously provides for his prophet, sending ravens to feed him twice a day.

But God has other plans for Elijah and does not leave him by the stream. The stream dries up, begging the question, how is the Lord going to provide for Elijah now? What’s going to happen to Elijah? He receives an unusual command from the Lord (verse 9): ‘Go at once to Zarephath in the region of Sidon and stay there. I have instructed a widow there to supply you with food.’

1. God often supplies our needs in unexpected ways

Now, God’s command for Elijah to go to Zarephath might seem like no big deal to us. But it is. Zarephath is in Sidonia, where Jezebel’s father rules as king, making it a dangerous place to go to. It is also the heartland of Baal-worship. And Elijah must have been scratching his head to be told that of all people a pagan widow would look after him. It’s also fascinating to note what the name Zarephath means – it means ‘crucible’. The Lord seems to be taking Elijah into a crucible, a fiery furnace, in order to test him and refine him in his faith.

This in itself is a really important thing for us to understand. God never promises Christians an easy or untroubled life. In fact, God tells us the Christian life is a battle, full of persecution, testing circumstances, and frustrations. That’s what makes the false teaching of ‘prosperity gospel’ so dangerous. What is the ‘prosperity gospel?’ It’s a false teaching that if Christians are faithful to the Lord he will reward us with good health and great wealth. This is nonsense. Jesus plainly tells us what the Christian life will look life: ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.’ (Luke 9:23) God calls us to a life of self-denial, and often uses suffering to make us more like Jesus.

‘In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith – of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire — may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed.’ (1 Peter 1:6-7)

Let’s take a step back and look at chapter 17 as a whole. Who does the Lord use to provide for Elijah? He uses unclean scavenger birds – ravens – and he uses a poor, vulnerable, hopeless pagan widow in a foreign country. God’s ways are not our ways. His channels of grace are unexpected.

Those of us who are already Christians should be able to relate to Elijah here. We can testify that God has brought us into the crucible of life in order to refine us. It’s not an easy place to be, but again and again God supplies our needs, and at times from unexpected people or things. In my own life, I can testify to the fact that the crucible truly is the place where I’ve learned the most, and have been stripped of pride, self-reliance and selfishness. God has used times of adversity to draw me closer to himself, and along the way has used people I would never have otherwise encountered.

Have I always responded in the right way during these times? Absolutely not! Sometimes I have doubted God’s provision and at other times tried to sort my life out in my own strength. But how should we respond in times of testing? Look at Elijah’s example. He is asked to go to this dangerous place. He doesn’t complain. He trusts God has a reason for sending him to Zarephath and he obeys the command of God. He doesn’t become anxious, but is faithful to God, trusting that if the Lord has promised to supply his needs through a widow, then that’s exactly what the Lord will do. Elijah rests in the promise of God, and obeys God. This is how we need to respond when we are tested.

2. A clear picture of faith

Faith is very thing which God wants from each one of us. He wants us to trust him. So, this widow’s faith should be precious to us. Elijah sees the widow at the town gate gathering sticks and asks her for a drink of water, and a little bread. At first, this might seem like a reasonable request. But then we come to understand the poignant truth – this woman has only a tiny amount of food left, enough for just one last meal with her son. After that, she expects to die of starvation. She is a vulnerable, poor, hopeless widow, in a desperate situation. Her own resources had come to an end.

Elijah said to her, ‘Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small loaf of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the land.’ (1 Kings 17:13-14)

The widow now has a decision to make. Will she keep the flour and oil for herself, or will she believe the promise of the Lord and give away the last of her food? We know what happens. She trusts in God’s promise, given through his prophet Elijah. Verse 15: ‘She went away and did as Elijah had told her.’

And what does she find? Verse 16: ‘The jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the Lord spoken by Elijah.’

Friends, this is what faith truly means: we stake everything on God’s promises, even when it seems risky to do so. We realise that we cannot provide for ourselves and trust in God’s Word. For the widow, God’s promise comes through the prophet Elijah. For us in Fife in 2023, God’s promises are contained in the Bible. We need to read them and know them. Then we too, like her, have decisions to make. Will we continue trusting in our own resources, or rest the whole of our lives on his perfect and trustworthy promises?

Listen to God’s promise in Romans chapter 10: ‘If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.’ (Romans 10:9)
And again in Acts chapter 4: ‘Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.’ (Acts 4:12)
Will you trust in Jesus and his death of the cross to save you? Or will you trust in your own efforts, which will lead to spiritual starvation?

For those of us already Christians, will we continue in the life of faith, trusting the promises of Jesus in the Bible for all our needs. When we are struggling on in life’s journey and we hear Jesus’ promise: ‘Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28), will we trust that he can indeed give us rest and come to him in prayer? When he promises to be with us when we go and make disciples of all nations, will we share our faith, resting on his promise to be with us as we do so?

The miracle of the jar and the jug went on day after day. Each day was a fresh reminder of the goodness and trustworthiness of God. We might be tempted to think: ‘God doesn’t provide for me like that’. In a way, I think that we have something better than the widow had – we have in Jesus everything we could possibly need for both this life and the life to come. We have forgiveness for our sins, and a place prepared for us in Heaven, and we have the promise that our Father will give us our daily bread, until it is time for us to leave this world.

3. Responding to the life’s traumatic experiences

I can imagine the widow going into the kitchen each morning with a smile on her face. The Lord is so good to me, she must have thought. But then something shocking happens. Her son becomes seriously unwell and then dies. We cannot imagine what it must have been like going from the high place of daily miraculous provision down to the depths of death and despair. :

“The Lord both provides and perplexes. He seems to be both faithful and fitful. He sustains life and then takes it away. What is one to make of him?” (Dale Ralph Davis)

The widow reminds us of the widow Naomi in the book of Ruth, who also loses more of her loved ones. How does this widow respond? At first, she takes it out on Elijah: ‘What do you have against me, man of God?’ She also has an understanding of her own sin and wonders if that is why her boy has died. In other words, she lashes out against Elijah and against herself. You can understand that. Elijah doesn’t respond with trite words, pretending to understand the deeply mysterious ways of God. He responds with prayer, knowing only the power of God can change this situation.

Perhaps the way Elijah stretches himself over the dead boy is a powerful image of what Jesus does to each one of us. Contact with a dead body would make Elijah unclean, but his Christ-like intervention brings life back to the boy. In the same way, Jesus takes away the uncleanness of our sin, and imparts new spiritual life to us.

As the widow was an example of faith for us earlier, here, Elijah is an example of how to respond to the God who both gives and takes away. Prayer must be our response too. And the Lord listens to and answers Elijah’s prayer in a quite wonderful way, bringing the boy back to life again.

Do you believe this really happened? Remember Paul’s words to Agrippa: Why should any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead? (Acts 26:8) We shouldn’t disbelieve such things. If God is the Creator who made this world out of nothing, then of course, he’s able to bring life to the dead. Only the Christian faith has meaningful hope in the face of death. When we go to funerals, we can remember our loved ones who have left this world, but apart from Jesus, there is no hope at a funeral. However, if the person who died trusted in Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins, then we know that person will live eternally in Heaven, even though they die. Only God has an answer for death. Do you have that hope yourself. Have you entrusted your life and death to Jesus? Baal couldn’t help the widow’s son. Science cannot help us. ‘I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.’ (Revelation 1:18)

4. A preview of God’s widening grace

What do I mean by that? Well, the LORD doesn’t send Elijah to an Israelite widow to be cared for, but a foreign one. This was actually a sign of God’s judgment on Israel for her idolatry. Remember that this is Jesus’ commentary of this event: ‘I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon.’ (Luke 4:25-26)

But as well as being a sign of judgment, it is also a preview of what would happen on the day of Pentecost, when the gospel message would be sent around the world. We have these Old Testament clues in the conversions of ‘outsiders’ such as Ruth, Naaman and the widow here in this story. God grace extends far beyond the boundaries of Israel, at this would become so clear on the Day of Pentecost. The church of Jesus is an international church.

God’s gracious provision

John Johnstone Elijah

Video
Sermon: Sunday, 2nd July, 2023
Speaker: John Johnstone
Scripture: 1 Kings 16:29 – 17:6

The prophet Elijah is a huge figure in the Bible. Think about the transfiguration of Jesus in Luke chapter 9. Jesus’ face begins to shine like the sun, his usually-hidden glory comes bursting out. And two men from the Old Testament appear to speak with him about his imminent death – Moses and Elijah. Elijah is one of only two men in the Scriptures not to taste death; he is taken directly to Heaven in a whirlwind. It’s also one of the few times in the Bible when there are clusters of miracles. We have such clusters during the time of Moses, in the time of Christ, of course, but also during the lives of Elijah and Elisha, his successor. When Elijah is first mentioned in 1 Kings chapter 17, he makes a sudden and dramatic appearance, pronouncing a curse on the land before the powerful king of Israel, Ahab. We don’t know anything about Elijah’s background. We just know he’s from Tishbe, an obscure place in Transjordan.

Scotland has been dry this June. It doesn’t take much for the grass to start to turn yellow. Think about how devastating it would be to have no rainfall for over three years. In that kind of agrarian culture, it would mean famine and the risk of people dying. It was a disaster. Picture Elijah appearing before King Ahab with this pronouncement from the Lord.

What’s going on here? Why is the Lord bringing drought upon his own people. It’s because of the great evil of idolatry which has gripped God’s people in Israel. Israel might have been prosperous during Ahab’s reign, with access to sea trading due to the king’s marriage with Jezebel, a Phoenician. This marriage alliance might have seemed wise from an economic point of view, but it was a spiritual disaster. Jezebel didn’t want to just practice her own false religion in Israel; she wanted to wipe out the worship of the Lord and spread Baal-worship throughout the land. Baal-worship involved all kinds of immoral religious rites with cultic prostitutes, which proved to be a snare to the Israelites. It’s hard to overstate the spiritual darkness during this time. Listen to the summary about Ahab’s life: ‘Ahab son of Omri did more evil in the eyes of the Lord than any of those before him.  He not only considered it trivial to commit the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, but he also married Jezebel daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and began to serve Baal and worship him.’ (1 Kings 16:30-31)

Before Ahab became king, he predecessor King Omri is described like this: ‘But Omri did evil in the eyes of the Lord and sinned more than all those before him.’ (1 Kings 16:25) Now King Ahab has the unenviable prize of being Israel’s most evil King.

1. God always keeps his promises

God had made many covenant promises with his people. If his people remained faithful to him, then he would bless them, but if they turned away and followed false gods, he would punish them. In other words, whether we worship the true God or false gods matters a great deal to the Lord. Listen to what God promises in Deuteronomy: ‘So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today – to love the Lord your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul — then I will send rain on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains, so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and olive oil. I will provide grass in the fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied. Be careful, or you will be enticed to turn away and worship other gods and bow down to them. Then the Lord’s anger will burn against you, and he will shut up the heavens so that it will not rain and the ground will yield no produce, and you will soon perish from the good land the Lord is giving you.’ (Deuteronomy 11:13-17)

God could not have been clearer. Trusting him and following him is the path of blessing whilst idolatry will lead to punishment. The King failed to take God’s word seriously and so did the people. Now they face God’s judgement and a time of serious drought. God has been true to his word as he always is. This is both an encouragement and a warning to us today. It’s wonderful that we always know where we stand with God. If we place our trust in Jesus and his death on the cross, we know that we will be blessed both in this life and in the life to come, even though we don’t deserve it. Listen to the promise in John’s gospel: ‘For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.’ (John 6:40) We can be sure than God will keep this promise!

But we must also heed the warning here. God cannot be domesticated; He is in charge of how things work, and not us. He’s the Creator of all and deserves our worship. If we worship the idols of Scotland today, such as money, family, career, travel and entertainment, and these things become more important to us than God, and if we ignore God and reject Jesus as Saviour and King, then we too will face God’s judgment. Psalm 2 reminds us how eternity hinges on our attitude to Jesus, the Son of God: ‘Kiss his son, or he will be angry and your way will lead to your destruction, for his wrath can flare up in a moment. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.’ (Psalm 2:12) What are you going to do with Jesus’ offer of forgiveness to those who submit to his rule in their hearts? Will you shelter in his love, or reject him, and then face the eternal consequences of God’s just judgment?

Will you be like Ahab, and follow your own feelings and desires, even though they are feelings and desires which are evil in the eyes of the LORD, OR will you be like Elijah, and live to please the Lord, living a different life, even when almost everyone else is going in a different direction?

2. God always keeps a people for himself

Imagine you were a God-fearing Israelite back in the days of King Ahab. You see Jezebel building more and more shrines to Baal. You see many of your neighbours joining in the false worship. Hundreds of the Lord’s priests are murdered by Jezebel. It must have been so hard to keep on trusting in God. It would have been all too easy to begin to doubt God or even resent him. Perhaps you’d be tempted to give up going to worship and give up praying. What was the point? Let’s be honest, it seems as if Baal is in control in Israel, not the Lord. But we must stay encouraged, because God is always one step ahead of evil. Also, stopping the rain was huge challenge to the so-called power of Baal “the god of the rain”. It is as if Elijah is saying,’So you’ve decided to trust in Baal for rain? I’m sealing the heavens.’ This will underline the impotence of Baal and show what kind of god he is; he is a ‘No god’.

“We need not despair when we see great movements of evil achieving spectacular success on this earth, for we may be sure that God, in unexpected places, has already secretly prepared his counter-movement. God always has his way of working underground to undermine the stability of evil. God can raise men for his service from nowhere. Therefore, the situation is never hopeless where God is concerned. Whenever evil flourishes it is always a superficial flourish. For at the height of the triumph of evil God will be there, ready with his man and his movement and his plans, to ensure that his own cause will never fail.” (Ronald Wallace)

What a wonderful truth! It is just as true today as it was back then. There are countries where the spirit of Jezebel seems alive and well. Uganda: D.R. Congo/Uganda: ‘At least 41 people have been killed in a 16 June attack on a boarding school campus in Uganda, close to the DRC border. According to news sources, ADF rebels entered the school and set fire to dormitories before attacking students and staff. Of the 41 killed, 38 are reported to be pupils, many of whom died in the fire.’

This seems to be evil out of control. But God has his people in Uganda, and will raise up new believers in his time. And remember too, everyone will be brought to justice at the end of time. We must all stand before God and give an account of our lives. We need not despair.

In Scotland, it would be easy for us to become discouraged. Church attendance has been shrinking year after year for decades. It’s getting harder and harder to share the Christian faith in public spaces such as schools or at work. We live in an age where evil is called good and good evil, with abortion, attack on family life, and great moral confusion. The belief is that if you have desires then it’s fine to follow those desires as long as we don’t harm anyone. But what if those desires are outwith the will of God. Surely, we all have wrong desires we need to fight against. Few seem to be questioning this DIY morality, which ignores the revealed will of God in the Bible. Those who believe that the Lord is God are thought of as narrow-minded bigots.

However, God has his own ‘counter-movement’ in Scotland, even though we don’t know the details of what that might entail. He continues to build his church in Scotland. New churches are being planted. It appears that evil is dominating in Scotland, but God is able to turn this on its head. In the meantime, our job is to be faithful to the Lord, and not to be influenced by the dominant culture. ‘Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will.’ (Romans 12:2)

Do you want to be part of God’s counter-movement against evil? What can you do? Be like Elijah and dare to be different to those around you. And pray! The Bible stresses that Elijah was just an ordinary bloke like us.   (Jeremiah 31:34) In other words, God chooses to forget our sin. He chooses to forget it. Perhaps you are still carrying around sins from your past, even though you have turned from them and asked for forgiveness. You might say to God: ‘But I remember the dreadful way deliberately went my own way Lord’. He might say back to us: ‘What time?’ He chooses to remember our sins no more.

Friends, should this not encourage us to come to our forgiving God crying for mercy? And when the forgiveness comes, does it make us casual about sin, because God just forgives us anyway? Not at all. ‘But with you there is forgiveness, so that we can, with reverence, serve you.’   (Psalm 130:4) The more we appreciate God’s grace, the more we want to live for him.

3. Waiting

I’m not always good at waiting. We have instant communication when we text, instant banking on our smartphones and instant food from the microwave. In such a culture, I’m guessing that we aren’t all good at ‘waiting on the Lord’. What does ‘waiting on the Lord’ mean? Sometimes, when we are in the depths, and we cry out to God for mercy and forgiveness, we don’t instantaneously snap back into a place of restoration. It can take time. We need to wait. We have been forgiven, but it might take time for the light to come. In verses 5-6, the Psalmist speaks of a watchman waiting for the dawn. Imagine being a soldier, guarding the city walls during the night, and it seems like the night will last forever. But the soldier has a hope that will not fail, because the dawn always breaks. The morning always comes. And that means that we ought to wait with a sense of real hope and expectation.

What does this mean for us? It means that when we’ve experienced conviction of our sin, and then confessed it before God, we should be quietly confident that our waiting will not be in vain, and that God will not disappoint us. He is worth waiting for! When we are waiting, we shouldn’t be idle. We must wait with open Bibles: ‘…my hope is in his Word.’ &nbsp: (Psalm 130:5)

Why does God make us wait? He might be testing our faith, or growing our patience or teaching us lessons which can only be learned through adversity. But know this: the light will come. God will restore our strength. Listen to God’s promise to us about waiting: ‘Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.’ &nbsp (Isaiah 40 vs 30-31). We must believe that God’s promises are trustworthy. That is what the Psalmist means when he says in v5: ‘I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope.’ God promises that when we are waiting on his blessing, the darkness will not last forever.

4. Confidence in God’s redemption

The Psalmist has come through these stages: convicted by his own sin, confessing his sin to God, waiting for God’s restoration, and now he is bursting for others to experience what he has experienced. He doesn’t want the Lord’s people staying in the depths. There is no need to! Becasue the Lord is the God of unfailing love and redemption.

What if you are not a Christian yet? You too need to go through these exact stages. You need to pray that God’s Spirit would show you your own heart as it really is, so you will see your sin. Then, you need to confess that sin, crying out to God for mercy, based on Jesus’ death on the cross. We are in the New Testamant age, and this promise of forgiveness has spilled far beyond the borders of Israel. Whatever country you are from, whatever catalogue of sin you have, you can be assured that God forgives us our sins when we turn from them and place our trust in Jesus.

Let’s end with the words of verse 8 in our hearts and minds: ‘He himself will redeem Israel from their sins.’ He himself. When did God himself deal with the problem of human sin. This looks forward to the time, 1000 years from when Psalm 130 was written, when Jesus left Heaven and came to earth, and it was his precious blood which would buy back and set free the guilty. Because that’s what it means to redeem someone – it means to set a slave free by paying a price. And Jesus sets us free, paying the price of our freedom with his own blood. How extraordinary. ‘Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.’   (Titus 2:14)

Are you ashamed of things you have done in your life? Are you ashamed of squeezing God out of your life and living apart from him? There is hope for you. You too can experience what the Psalmist experiences here. The question is, will God’s unfailing love and provision of forgiveness encourage you to come to Jesus in prayer and confess? Or will you stubbornly carry your sin on your own shoulders, eventually paying for it through eternal separation from God? God’s grace is greater than all our sins. Why not come to him in prayer right now, in the quietness of your own hearts, and confess your sin, and wait for the dawn to break, which it surely will.

Making the right evaluation

John Johnstone Sermons

Video
Sermon: Sunday, 28th May, 2023
Speaker: John Johnstone
Scripture: Isaiah 53:1-6

Sometimes we look at something and assess its value and we get it totally wrong. For example, you buy a second hand car and it looks really good on the outside, but actually, the head gasket is badly damaged and the whole engine might need replacing. You thought you made a good evaluation when the nice man sold it to you, but because you didn’t look deeper, under the bonnet, you got it wrong.

Perhaps your kids grow up and you decide to take all their books to the charity shop- they’re worthless anyway. Unbeknown to you, one of the books is a 1st edition Harry Potter hardback worth at least £300 now, and if one of the 200 rarer 1st editions it’d be worth £30,000. However, in your ignorance, you get rid of it.

We can also evaluate people and get things badly wrong. So often we judge people by their appearance or by what job they do or if they have a good sense of humour and are light-hearted and easy-going and make you feel good about yourself. We don’t bother getting to know someone who dresses a bit differently, seems a bit serious, and doesn’t chat about sport. But if only we’d stopped to get to know that person, perhaps we’d find them amazingly kind, generous, wise and full of integrity. We’ve got it wrong about that person.

Here’s a more serious example – based on a true and recent story. A man in Vietnam is arrested and taken to the police station. He’s a poor man without any influence in the community. The police want him to renounce his faith in Jesus but he refuses. The police officers despise his stubbornness. He’s tortured for two days but refuses to renounce his faith in Jesus. The police mock him. Their assessment is that he’s a fool. Eventually they send him home but he is no longer able to eat or drink and dies two days later. Is he a fool?

What’s God’s assessment of him? What’s our assessment of him as fellow Christians? He is a courageous martyr. ‘Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.’   (Psalm 116:15) All over the world, Christians are praying for his family. Imagine, one of those police officers on duty becomes a Christian. Would he change his mind about this man, whose name is brother Khan? Yes, he would. He would begin to see the whole situation in a different light; he’d see he got it wrong about brother Khan.

1. A wrong assessment of Jesus

That’s what’s going on here in Isaiah 53. The people are assessing Jesus and at first, they get it totally wrong. They think he is worthless. For a start, Jesus grows up in an obscure place called Nazareth. That’s why verse 2 says: ‘He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.’   In other words, Jesus just looked so ordinary – nothing special. He was easy to ignore. He wasn’t particularly fashionable or good-looking.

And when Jesus was being crucified, people didn’t just ignore him. In fact, they despised him. ‘He was despised and rejected by men, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.’   (Isaiah 53:3) Jesus was tortured so badly, whipped and beaten, that ‘Just as there were many who were appalled at him his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any human being and his form marred beyond human likeness…’   (Isaiah 52:14)

Remember what happened to Jesus as he was crucified. All kinds of people joined together to mock him. ‘He saved others but he can’t save himself.’ Some said, ‘Why don’t you come down from the cross if you are the Christ.’ The soldiers mocked him. The passers by mocked him. The other men being crucified mocked him. Almost everyone was mocking him.

‘…yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted.’   (Isaiah 53:4) What does this mean? They looked at Jesus and they thought this – his great suffering must mean that he is a great sinner. That was their evaluation of Jesus. They couldn’t have been more wrong. Jesus was the innocent and perfect one. He never harmed anyone. He never acted selfishly. He always did the right thing. But because he was crucified, they assumed he must have deserved it. He got what was coming to him, they thought.

He must have rebelled against the Romans – insulted them. He’s getting what he deserved. This idea was shared by Job’s three friends – Job must have sinned greatly against the Lord. The people are wrong. Jesus is not suffering for his own sin. They assess him and get it so wrong. ‘He’s under the judgment of God for his own sin’ – so they thought.

Have you made a wrong assessment of Jesus? Perhaps you think that’s he just a special human and nothing more. Perhaps you think he makes no difference to your life. Perhaps you’ve ignored him. Or perhaps you judge him and say, ‘If God allows this to happen, then I want nothing to do with him’.

2. A right assessment of Jesus

But, some of the people did not remain in a state of spiritual blindness. God opens their eyes. They now have a right assessment of Jesus and of themselves. Now they understand the truth of Jesus’ suffering: ‘Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering.’   (Isaiah 53:4b) Yes, he was cursed by God, but not because of his own sin: he was a substitute who in love, carried their guilt – and our guilt – the guilt of all of his people.

And they come to understand their own condition rightly: that we are sinners who deserve the punishment of God. ‘But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities.’   (Isaiah 53:5) Jesus was pierced – given a deadly wound – and crushed – ground to dust. Why? For our transgressions that is our rebellion against God the King. Doing what we know to be wrong.

The truth about each of us in this room is this: sometimes we deliberately and wilfully do things we know God is displeased with. We know, but we do it anyway. We know we should use the resources we have to help others who are hungry and without the basics – but we keep hoarding up for ourselves. We know we should forgive the person who’s apologised to us, but we don’t, harbouring resentment instead. We know we’re married and shouldn’t flirt with someone else – but we do it anyway.

He was crushed for our iniquities that is our twisted. crooked and warped hearts. There’s something radically wrong with us as humans. Sin permeates every area of our lives. There’s a rottenness about us. This is God’s assessment of us! Do you accept this? Or are you too busy assessing God? Imagine our inner thoughts were displayed on the screen – the worst things you’d ever thought and done – you’d be deeply, deeply ashamed.

All of these sins we commit have a massive impact on our relationship with God. Our long list of sins is a barrier between us and God, and actually means that God is our enemy and not our friend, until something can be done about our record, which is full of black marks. Until that record is dealt with, we have no peace with God. What we need is a peacemaker. And that’s what the Servant is. ‘The punishment that brought us peace was on him.’  (Isaiah 53:5) Only through Jesus can we have peace. And without Jesus, there is no peace with God. Why is that? Because God cannot ignore our sin; it must be paid for, either by us in Hell, or by Jesus on the cross.

And so, God explains the need for the cross by explaining our sin. If it wasn’t for your sin and my sin, the cross would not have been necessary. It’s because of my selfishness. My pride. My lust. My greed. ‘We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way.’   (Isaiah 53:6) Do you believe this about yourself? It says: ‘we all’. That means you! If you’re not yet a Christian, you’re like a sheep who’s wandered off and in great danger. And you cannot save yourself. Sometimes I think I know better than God, and head off in my own direction, ignoring God’s commands. I love asserting my independence. I can do what I want! It’s my life! I think I’m being clever. However, the truth is, I’m being stupid, like a wandering sheep. I’m heading into great danger.

‘… and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.’   (Isaiah 53:6) Why was Jesus crucified? ‘But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities.’ Christ died in our place, in the place of sinners. He had no sin of his own. He wasn’t getting what he deserved, but rather what you deserve and what I deserve. This is the language of sacrifice. Jesus is our substitute, who dies instead of us. This is the love of God!

It’s the great swap. He suffers what we should suffer. What did it cost Jesus to save us? The fury and righteous anger of God is placed upon him. It’s not just the physical suffering he endures but also the spiritual suffering. Christ is forsaken by his Father. He takes our sin upon himself and we receive his perfect obedience and goodness.

And it was no accident. ‘The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all…’   In the Old Testament, on the Day of Atonement, the High Priest would get two goats. One would be sacrificed as a sin offering for the people. The other was called a scapegoat.

When Aaron has finished making atonement for the Most Holy Place, the tent of meeting and the altar, he shall bring forward the live goat. He is to lay both hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites — all their sins — and put them on the goat’s head. He shall send the goat away into the wilderness in the care of someone appointed for the task. The goat will carry on itself all their sins to a remote place; and the man shall release it in the wilderness.   (Leviticus 16:20-22)

The High Priest places his hands on the head of the scapegoat and confesses the sin of all Israel. And it was the goat and not Israel who died. All of these things might seem just weird to us. But they are pictures of what was going to happen to Jesus on the cross. At the cross, it is as if God the Father is placing his hands on the head of his eternal Son and it is Jesus who dies and not us.

“In the most dramatic way this pictures the work of atonement which Jesus was to do. The two goats represent his experience. One shows him carrying our sin and its terrible consequences: loneliness, lostness, and desolation. Sin causes us to be cast out from God’s presence, so the one goat is sent away, showing how Jesus was cast out for us. The other goat experiences death, picturing Jesus’ death in our place.” (Jerram Barrs)

God sees perfectly, and has given his assessment of you. We’re rebels. We’re like wandering sheep. We need a peacemaker. Do you have a right assessment of Jesus? Is he your Saviour? Have you trusted in him? Have you closed your eyes, prayed to Jesus, and asked him to forgive you? If you have, you can say in a very personal way: ‘But he was pierced for my transgressions, he was crushed for my iniquities; the punishment that brought me peace was on him, and by his wounds I am healed.’

You can get it wrong about a second-hand car, and that’s not the end of the world. But if we get it wrong about Jesus, we’ll ignore the only one who can forgive our sins. We’ll ignore the one who, in love, offers himself to us.

The grace and mercy of God

John Johnstone Sermons

Video
Sermon: Sunday, 14th May, 2023
Speaker: John Johnstone
Scripture: Isaiah 6:1-8

If we want to change our physical health for the better, we all know that there are certain things we need to do. We need to take regular exercise and get our hearts going. We need to eat a nutritious and balanced diet. In short, we need badminton and broccoli, or walking and watermelon. It takes time and effort. But if we exercise and eat well, over time, our bodies will change for the better. However, we’re not in church to think about fitness today, and I’m no physical trainer. I want us to think instead about what brings about spiritual change. Because the transformation which Isaiah goes through in this passage is one which we can experience too. What is it that transforms him? What is it that he needs? Isaiah is changed by seeing who God really is, and by seeing God’s glory and majesty and holiness, he comes to see his own sinfulness, inadequacy, and then experiences God’s mercy. Here’s the thing- in order to know ourselves properly as people, we need first to know God- who he is and what he has done. God must be the starting point of our thinking, and if he is not, we will have a distorted view of reality.

1. Measure yourself properly

“Nearly all the wisdom we possess consists of two parts, the knowledge of God and the knowledge of ourselves.” (John Calvin)

In order to know ourselves properly, we need to see God. Only when we see God do we really see ourselves. When we see how utterly different he is: purer, higher, more loving, we might then see how in comparison, we are sinful and limited creatures, undeserving of his good gifts. Let me illustrate this. When we play the guitar, we might at first think that we are pretty good players. But then we hear someone else with a surpassing ability. They are a virtuoso. And when we hear them playing, we realise that actually, we can’t play very well at all. It is a reality check.

When you compare yourself to other people in your family or those who live on your street, you might think that you are a pretty good person. But that’s not who we are supposed to measure ourselves against. If we measure ourselves against God’s standards, we have to agree with Paul, who says, ‘for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…’   (Romans 3:23)

This happens to Peter in Luke chapter 5 after the miraculous catch of fish. Peter is so impacted by Jesus’ power and greatness that he begins to see his own spiritual condition. ‘When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, ‘Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!’   (Luke 5:8) And when Isaiah receives this wonderful vision containing true knowledge about the extraordinary holiness of God, it gives him insight to see himself as he really is, a man of unclean lips: ‘Woe to me!’ I cried. ‘I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips….’   (Isaiah 6:5)

2. The greatness of God

Isaiah is so privileged to see this vision of God.

“In vision, Isaiah is elevated to the throne-room of Heaven.” (J L Mackay)

It’s a magnificent vision for us to reflect on and chew over this morning. So often our minds are caught up with trivial things like hobbies or sports or celebrity gossip or just the mundane things of life. This morning, we get to think about what God is really like. And we don’t have to guess. Knowing God isn’t about each of us making up our own ideas about what God is like and believing those. To know God properly, God must tell us what he is like. We need revelation from God. And that’s exactly what we have here.

Isaiah begins by telling us (verse 1) that King Uzziah has just died. That might not seem significant to us, but it is. Because Uzziah had reigned as King for 52 years, and most his reign had been great. There had been victories in battle, huge and successful building projects, and progress in agriculture. However, his long reign ends on a sad note. ‘His fame spread far and wide, for he was greatly helped until he became powerful. But after Uzziah became powerful, his pride led to his downfall. He was unfaithful to the Lord his God, and entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense.’   (2 Chronicles 25:15-16)

With all his power and wealth, Uzziah grew proud and ended up doing something which greatly angered the Lord. He did what only the priests were allowed to do, and entered the temple to burn incense. He ignored God’s clear commands about how he was to be worshipped, thinking he could do as he pleased. The Lord punished Uzziah for his pride. ‘King Uzziah had leprosy until the day he died. He lived in a separate house—leprous, and banned from the temple of the Lord.’   (2 Chronicles 26:21)

So, when Isaiah comes to the temple, Judah’s king is now dead. What’s going to happen in the nation? It must have been an unsettling time, especially with the king ending his reign separated from the people, and under the punishment of God. It is a time of national mourning. Perhaps Isaiah himself was disillusioned. I’m sure the nation felt uneasy. It must have felt like the end of a successful era. What now? It is as if the Lord directs Isaiah’s eyes away from the empty human throne, and lifts them to the real place of power, the throne of Heaven. Human rulers come and go. In the end, they all succumb to death. But the true King of Kings is eternal. He does not die. It reminds me of the words of the Psalmist: ‘Do not put your trust in princes, in human beings, who cannot save. When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing. Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God.’   (Psalm 146:3-5)

Sometimes we get disillusioned with the politics in our own nation, especially when decisions are made which flout the clear commands of God. We too need to remember and be encouraged by the great fact that Christ remains upon the throne. He is the one with ultimate power.

Where is the Lord’s throne? It is ‘high and exalted’, far above all human power. God’s sovereign rule is totally supreme and unmatched. He is in complete control. He is so vast that even the train of his robe fills the temple. In other words, God cannot be contained. He has no limitations. Remember Solomon’s prayer as he dedicated the temple: ‘But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you.’   (1 Kings 8:27)

Next, we’re introduced to angelic creatures called seraphim, or ‘burning ones’. They are flying – ready for action, ready to obey the command of their master. Now, these seraphim are perfect creatures; they are not sinful as human beings are. Nevertheless, they must cover their faces with their wings in the presence of God. What does this tell us? It tells us of the great divide there is between the eternal Creator and the creatures he has made. He is worthy of our worship and respect as the only eternal one. He alone is God. God is so glorious, that even these perfect heavenly creatures need to protect their eyes from the blazing light of God. Is this the God you worship? I still remember going out and buying six pairs of special glasses for the solar eclipse. We cannot look directly at the sun. It damages our eyes. It is just too bright. God is far more glorious than the sun.

The seraphim are calling to one another, perhaps in antiphonal singing – back and forth. Imagine hearing this heavenly choir! ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.’   When we think of holiness, we often think of moral purity – there is no sin in God. And that is undoubtedly true. But it also speaks of God as the ‘separate one’, set apart from all the creatures he has made. He is the unmade one. He is infinite, eternal and utterly unique. He is ‘other’.

Friends, God’s holiness is a central part of his character. That’s why the angels repeat the word, not just twice but three times. There’s no other quality of God repeated three times in all of the Bible. Just his holiness. Repeating something was the main way Hebrew writers would emphasise something. Remember Jesus would say, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you…’   to underline just how important something was. Well, God is holy, holy, holy. And we see the glory of this great God in the wonder of his creation. We see it in the stars and the rivers and the mountains. And we see the glory of this great God in the way he comes in Jesus Christ to save lost humanity from their sins by dying on the cross.

The temple is filled with smoke.

” [This smoke] fills the divine presence with the aura of mystery and wonder. Much had been revealed to the prophet’s eye. But more remained elusive, hidden from view.” (J L Mackay)

I think this is an important point. God is revealing to us what he is really like. But we can never have full understanding of God. There are still areas of mystery and that’s ok. At our Christianity Explored course, we were thinking about how the teaching of the trinity falls into that category. We worship a God we cannot fully understand. If we could fully understand God then we would be God.

3. The grace and mercy of God

As we have already seen, Isaiah responds by confessing his sin. ‘Woe to me!’ I cried. ‘I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips…’   (Isaiah 6:5) Isaiah is a well-respected statesman with access to the royal court. To most, he would have been the paragon of virtue. But when he measures himself against the holiness of God, he is totally shattered. He comes apart at the seams. He pronounces a curse against himself: ‘Woe is me… I am ruined.’

‘If you, Lord, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand?’   (Psalm 130:3)
Job goes through the same experience: ‘You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak; I will question you, and you shall answer me.’ My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.’   (Job 42:4-6)

When Peter, Job, the Psalmist, and Isaiah consider God, and measure themselves against his standards, all they can do is admit their wrongdoing. They don’t make excuses. They don’t blame their circumstances or other people. They begin to understand the fact of the human condition – without God we are lost in sin!

“For the first time in his life Isaiah really understood who God was. At the same instant for the first time Isaiah really understood who Isaiah was.” (R C Sproul)

Here’s the good news: the holy God is also a God of grace. What is God’s answer to sin? God’s answer to our sin is sacrifice.

“God takes immediate steps to cleanse Isaiah and restore his soul.” (R C Sproul)

Isaiah cannot possibly clean himself up. That’s impossible. But one of the seraphs comes with a hot stone from the altar in his hand. A stone from the altar – the place of sacrifice. And he touches Isaiah’s lips and says, ‘Your guilt is taken away and your sin is atoned for.’

Your sin is atoned for; a sacrifice has been offered for your sin. Blood has been shed for your sin. The lamb has died for your sin and God’s anger has been turned away. Something has been done by God (you have had no part in this) which has dealt with your sin. You are now clean and your sin has been covered over. God had done it all.

How can a hot stone take away Isaiah’s guilt? Of course, a stone cannot really take away Isaiah’s sin. Nor can the death of an animal. These things are just symbols and signposts, pointing us forward to the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. He is the true sacrifice for our sins. His blood is what really covers our sin, when we come to receive Jesus as King and Saviour. ‘Therefore, my friends, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Through him everyone who believes is set free from every sin, a justification you were not able to obtain under the law of Moses.’   (Acts 13:38-39)

God saves sinners! He does take away your guilt and sin. If we trust in Jesus – what a truth – all our sins are taken away. No matter how many things we have done wrong and how great our guilt may be- in Christ our sins are forgiven. ‘For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.’   (1 Peter 3:18)

Think for a moment about the message the seraphim has for Isaiah: ‘Your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.’   Wouldn’t you like to hear those words from God today? You can! It is possible right now to experience what Isaiah does – if we admit our guilt and cry out to God to clean us.

Notice Isaiah’s willingness to serve his King. He moves from brokenness to mission. The Lord commissions Isaiah to be his prophet. In one sense, he is a pattern for us all. Like Isaiah, we are those broken by sin, but renewed by the atoning work of God, and commissioned with the Great Commission, to tell every man, woman, boy and girl that we have good news for them.

The eternal King

John Johnstone Studies in Luke

Video
Sermon: Sunday, 30th April, 2023
Speaker: John Johnstone
Scripture: Luke 24:44-53

Something special is happening this coming Saturday. It is, of course, the coronation of their majesties King Charles III and Queen Camilla. Even if you are not a royalist, at least you ought to be thankful for an extra public holiday on Monday 8th May. We’ve got our café on that morning, and so the pressure is on to have special coronation cakes. I don’t have an invitation myself, but hope to watch it on the telly. What happens during the service at Westminster Abbey? The congregation will shout, ‘God Save the King!’ and trumpets will sound. There is an oath for Charles, as he swears to uphold the law and the Church of England. The King will be anointed on his hands, head and chest. He is presented with the Royal Orb, representing religious and moral authority. Finally, the Archbishop places St Edward’s Crown on the King’s head. After that, the King leaves the Coronation Chair and moves to the throne. In past coronations, peers kneel before the monarch to pay homage, but today we discover that this will be replaced with the homage of the people, where we will have the opportunity to say: ‘I swear that I will pay true allegiance to Your Majesty, and to your heirs and successors according to law. So help me God.’

In our passage today there is the record of a much more important coronation – that of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. This coronation might not be obvious from our passage, but that’s at the heart of the ascension of Jesus. He ascends in order to be crowned with glory. We read in verse 51: ‘While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven.’ This is clearly something extraordinary and supernatural, but that doesn’t mean it’s not true. This really happened in history. Jesus truly rose from the dead. After his resurrection, he appeared to the disciples on around 12 different occasions for a period of 40 days. But now it’s time for Jesus to leave the earth and go back to Heaven where he had come from, though now with a human body. Why does Jesus decide to leave like this? Why doesn’t he just disappear? I think Jesus does this in front of his eleven disciples in order to make it clear that he would not be appearing to them any longer. This was a new stage for them. A new era. Jesus will no longer be with them physically. He doesn’t want the disciples to become confused, and to look for him, or expect him to reappear once more in the way he had been during those 40 days.

What happened to Jesus when he went up into Heaven? His coronation. He is crowned with glory and honour, in a way which far surpasses any earthly coronation, even that of Charles and Camilla. There are more royal guests and this heavenly coronation.

Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. In a loud voice they were saying: ‘Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and praise… The four living creatures said, ‘Amen’ and the elders fell down and worshiped. (Revelation 5:11-12 and 14)

We have been asked to pay homage to King Charles III on Saturday, but no one will worship him, of course. But worship is the right response to King Jesus, because he is our Creator, he is our Saviour and he is our King. We tend to overlook Jesus’ ascension most of the time, concentrating more on his crucifixion and resurrection. But it’s good for us to consider this wonderful past event, and think about what it means for us today.

‘I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.’ (John 17:4-5)

Jesus speaks of the glory he had before he became a human being, reminding us that he is eternal and he is God. However, the end of his life on earth had been anything but glorious. He was totally humiliated, tortured on a Roman cross, rejected by his own. He was spat upon, whipped, mocked, given a ‘show trial’ and found guilty. He became sin for us. He was punished for our sins, though he himself had done nothing wrong. He couldn’t have gone any lower. However, after he reached rock bottom, Christ is raised from the dead. And after his 40 days on earth his ascends into Heaven, and is seated at the right hand of God the Father. He is ruling and reigning in Heaven and has total power and dominion over the forces of evil. He is loved and worshipped and honoured there.

‘After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs.’ (Hebrews 1:3-4)

‘And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death – even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.’ ( Philippians 2:8-11)

I love reading the response of the eleven at Jesus’ ascension. They watch Jesus going up and up. Eventually a cloud hides him from their sight. They respond by worshipping Jesus, and then with rejoicing! ‘Then they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy.’ (Luke 24:52)

We should ask the question, why do the disciples rejoice, when Jesus is no longer going to be with them? Why should we rejoice this morning that Jesus has been crowned with honour in Heaven? Let’s spend the rest of our time thinking through something of what the ascension means for us.

1. We can rejoice that Jesus is sitting in Heaven.

‘Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool.’ (Hebrews 10:11)

Jewish High Priests could never sit down- they were always standing. Why? Because their animal sacrifices could never really deal with the sins of the people. The blood of animals cannot cover our sin. They were signs and symbols. But when Jesus lays down his own life on the cross, this sacrifice is so enormous that it can and does deal with the sin of his people. Nothing needs to be added to what Jesus did on the cross. You can’t add anything to it – not even your best efforts. The only reason our sins can be erased is because of Jesus’ sacrifice. So, when he dies and rises again, his work of saving his people is over. When he ascends into Heaven, he can sit down, because his saving work is done.

I love that feeling when you’ve been out in the garden all day, and you are exhausted, and your work has been completed, and you can come in, and sit down and rest. It is satisfying. The work has been done. Think of how Jesus must feel sitting at the right hand of his Father. Think of how satisfying it must be knowing that his wonderful work of rescuing undeserving people has been completed. We rejoice in that too- because it means we have nothing to add to our salvation.

2. We can rejoice because Jesus’ departure is better for us.

That might sound strange at first. Why is it better that Jesus has left the earth? ‘But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment…’ (John 16:7-8)

The Advocate is the Holy Spirit. In other words, Jesus will no longer be physically present with his disciples on earth, but every single one of his disciples will experience the blessing of Jesus’ spiritual presence with them, through the Holy Spirit. We see this promise coming to pass on the day of Pentecost. And today, every true Christian enjoys the presence of Jesus within, through the Holy Spirit.

Last week, Geoff touched on the great task we all have as Christians – to be witnesses in this world by telling others about Jesus and what he has done for us. Sometimes this can seem like a daunting task! Who will ever listen to what we have to say about Jesus? What if I’m asked a question and am unable to answer it? Will God really change anyone in secular Scotland in 2023? The thing is, when Jesus gives us a message to proclaim, he also gives us the power to proclaim it. Yes, he gives us a task, but he equips us so we are able to carry it out. ‘You are witnesses of these things. I am going to send you what my Father has promised…’ (Luke 24:48-9) In this sense, Jesus went up to glory so that we might go out into the world as his witnesses, not in our own strength, but in his.

Let’s pray that Kirkcaldy Free Church will more and more be a witnessing church, as all true churches are. We’re good at recommending a new restaurant to others: ‘You must try it’ we say. We recommend bargains we find in the shops. We recommend a good TV programme we’ve enjoyed. God wants you to recommend Jesus to people. Yes, the message includes that they will need to change their minds about themselves and about Jesus, and leave their idols behind. But doing so, and trusting in Jesus, they will be forgiven and receive eternal life. Our message is good news.

The work of God the Holy Spirit is crucial in our witness. Only the Holy Spirit can embolden us to recommend Jesus to others. And only He can bring about lasting change in people, regenerating them, and bringing them to faith. We need to keep going back to Acts 16 and what we read about Paul’s message to Lydia: ‘The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message.’ (Acts 14:14)

Unless the Lord opens a heart, a person will not become a Christian. Someone said to me recently: ‘I don’t need any God to forgive me.’ He was totally wrong. But the only way he’ll come to see that is if the Spirit works in him, opens his heart, and brings him to repentance and faith. Please pray that the Lord would empower the preaching from this pulpit. Please pray that the Spirit would be at work as we witness in those ordinary places in which he has placed us. We need to be empowered.

3. We can rejoice in what Jesus is doing in Heaven right now.

‘Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.’ (Hebrews 7:25) Right now, Jesus is praying for his people. If you are one of his followers, he is praying for you.

I remember meeting an elderly man whom I didn’t know very well. He said to me: ‘I want you to know that I pray for you every day’. That meant so much to me. I knew he really meant it. It was so humbling to hear. But how much greater is the fact that the risen Lord Jesus Christ prays for us. That is even more wonderful. He is pleading our cause before our Father in Heaven. We’re about to sing ‘Before the throne of God above’. It begins: ‘Before the throne of God above, I have a strong and perfect plea, A great High Priest whose name is love, Who ever lives and pleads for me.’

We also rejoice that Jesus is preparing a place for us. ‘And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.’ (John 14:3) In this way, Jesus ascends to Heaven as our forerunner. He goes first to prepare a place for us. Because he ascends there first, and because we are united to him by faith, one day we will ascend to Heaven too.

4. We can rejoice that Jesus has all authority and power as he rules the universe.

Jesus is ruling and reigning as King. And that should put a spring in our step, as we try to reach others with the gospel. As we go out in mission, King Jesus is pleased with us. Should we be as timid as we are? Not if we truly understand the power of Jesus: ‘Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations…’ (Matthew 28:18-19) Why not be bold? Why not step out in faith, and speak to someone about Jesus? Why not plant a church? Why not invite people to Christianity Explored? After all, if God is for us, who can stand against us?

Sometimes we watch the news and it is so depressing. Or we get discouraged praying for situations and not really seeing much change. Sometimes I feel like that. I need to remind myself – Jesus is still on the throne. He is working all things for our good. He reigns with unlimited authority and unlimited power. Let’s entrust ourselves to King Jesus.