Alistair Donald, Author at Kirkcaldy Free Church

The parable of the sower

4 August 20254 August 2025 Alistair Donald Sermons

Sermon: Sunday, 27th July, 2025
Speaker: Alistair Donald
Scripture: Mark 4:1-20

And so we come to one of the best-known parables that Jesus told – usually called the Parable of the Sower, although maybe the Parable of the Seed and the Soils would be a better guide to its meaning – we’ll come back to that later. The fact it’s one of the best-known parables means we may think, ‘Oh I know that already.’ We must guard against being complacent!

Parables; simple stories from everyday farming and fishing life in rural Galilee that have a neat way of making us think. What do they make us think about? Mainly they make us think, in language that everyone can understand – whatever education they may or may not have had, whatever age we happen to be – about what the ‘Kingdom of God’ actually means; how we can be sure we are indeed citizens of that Kingdom; and how we can truly have the close relationship with the living God that he wants for us all.

Sometimes Jesus’ parables make us downright uncomfortable. Usually, they make us take a good, hard look at ourselves. So these parables work as a kind of spiritual searchlight so that we have no hiding place from God’s gaze on our souls. Any shadows we might wish to lurk in are blown away by that searchlight. We see ourselves very much in a new light. We see our total dependence on God, and our need for him, in a new way.

Now, every word in the Bible is there for a reason, and you’ll note that the first word in Mark chapter 4 is the word ‘again’; ‘Again Jesus began to preach by the lake (Sea of Galilee).’ (Mark 4:1) Earlier in Mark’s Gospel, Jesus had called the tax collector Levi (Matthew) to follow him, and a crowd gathered. This time the crowd was so large that Jesus got into a boat and sat in it out on the lake, while all the people were along the shore. How come so many people gathering? Because crowds attract a crowd but also there were great expectations because; ‘The kingdom of God has come near.’ (Mark 1:15)

This is the first of the parables of Jesus recorded in Mark’s Gospel. Maybe that’s why we get some clues later in the passage as to its meaning. In the later parables we’re just left to work it out for ourselves! So we read that Jesus taught them many things by parables. But after he had told the story of the seed and the soils, his disciples came up to him when he was alone, and asked him about the parables, why he spoke in that form. And the reply that Jesus gives is very interesting. He says this: ‘The secret of the Kingdom has been given to you (his disciples).’ (Mark 4:11a)

A ‘secret’ – there’s that expectation of a king with a crown in the here and now, with a visible kingdom in the here and now. Jesus has been sharing with his disciples the ‘secret’ that he’s not that kind of king, and his kingdom is not that kind of kingdom. As Jesus later explains, ‘The kingdom of God is within you.’ (Luke 17:21) Only faith could recognise the Son of God in the lowly figure of Jesus of Nazareth. The secret of the Kingdom of God is the secret of the person of Jesus.

So the secret of the Kingdom is given to his disciples. But then there’s this: ‘But to those on the outside, everything is said in parables.’ (Mark 4:11b) For the reason for this, Jesus quotes a verse from Isaiah so that; ‘…they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!’ (Isaiah 6:9) Now this is surely quite a difficult verse! It sounds like Jesus doesn’t want people to be forgiven! Can that in fact be right? But really, it’s because Jesus has been facing the same problem that Isaiah faced hundreds of years earlier: Many people just don’t want to know because their hearts are hardened.

Jesus describes why this is. ‘Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.’ (Mark 4:9) Indeed, he said on other occasions. It’s the same point Isaiah made about being ‘ever hearing but never understanding’. After all, don’t we sometimes say: ‘It goes in one ear and out the other’? Especially when asking kids to do something they don’t want to do! That’s what we need to guard against when we’re listening to God’s word. It’s very easy for the message just to drift over us when our hearts are hardened.

So the parables work as a king of sieve. In the same way, the parables work to separate out people who really want to be in the Kingdom of God from those who’re just kind of hanging around listening, who harden their hearts against ‘getting’ what Jesus is on about. And that’s exactly the same point that we see when we look at the first type of soil that the seed fell on, in the story Jesus told.

The farmer sows the word. Who’s the farmer? In the first instance, it’s Jesus himself speaking to the crowds. But by extension, the farmer is also any faithful preacher of the Bible today. The farmer spreads the seed in an apparently wasteful manner. Only some of the seed falls on good soil and produces a crop. The same seed gets sown, the same message gets preached but the outcome is not the same in each case.

Think of the original hearers of Jesus as he was preaching from that boat. They all heard the same story. Some people may have said: ‘Well I was quite disappointed really. I went along to see if this was the Messiah who would give us back our independence. But it was just some guy telling some stories.’ Others may have said: ‘I was there beside the lake. And the story this guy Jesus told really hit home. I could see that what he said made every difference in the world, about me, about God. About how I need to turn my life around.’ Same message heard – very different outcomes.

The first fellow thought that Jesus was there to fulfil his expectations. The second one saw that his expectations were all wrong, and that the story searched him to the core of his being. Jesus didn’t come to fulfil all our expectations, or to be a kind of genie to sort out all our problems. But when we do open our lives to him and bow down before him, we find that he turns everything upside down: what we thought was most important becomes not important at all, and what we thought wasn’t worth bothering with becomes the most important thing of all.

So, mixed responses to the message of Jesus even back then and it’s the same today. What, then, is your response going to be? What’s my response to be? Let’s have a closer look at the story Jesus told to find out. The farmer sowed the seed and, as he was scattering the seed, it fell on four different types of soil:

Along the path…

Verse 3 and verse 14: The farmer sows the word and some people are like the seed sown along the path (by the wayside) where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. So these folks hear the word alright but it doesn’t penetrate at all. The evil one might right now be whispering a little voice in your ear: ‘Well, I enjoy the company at church, the people here seem really nice. But I don’t think all this stuff really applies to me. It’s quite interesting, but I don’t really need to accept Jesus as Saviour and Lord. I quite like to hear the stories in the preaching, but the application makes me feel a bit uncomfortable. I’m okay as I am. I believe in God and I try my best.’ The seed that falls on the path and the birds came and ate it up before it could take root.

Rocky places…

Verses 5-6 and verse 16: Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. Well, this sounds more promising! But hang on, since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. This is someone who responds to the Gospel very positively, and very promptly: ‘Yes, I’m in!’ It might have started at big church rally with warm music. There’s a call to go to the front, and down you go. That’s it! Count me in as a Christian!’ But then it doesn’t really work out. It’s flash-in-the-pan faith, flaring up brightly, then fading to nothing. It’s like someone who sees an exercise bike advertised. Great, I’ll have one of those. Their enthusiasm lasts a whole week, or maybe 2 – then it just lies there.

Why does faith sometimes fade in this same way? Jesus tells us: ‘When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.’ &nbsp: (Mark 4:17) Owning up to being a Christian among friends or family or at work just comes at too great a price. They begin to freeze you out, they maybe even begin to give you a hard time. And that’s just too big a price to pay. And so you begin to hold back from going to church. Maybe even a spouse will say: ‘That’s enough of this Jesus stuff: you’re going to have to choose: it’s Jesus or me!’ And you make your choice.

Among thorns…

Verse 7 and verses 28-29: Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. And this is surely the most subtle response of all.

It all starts so well. A life is turned round by the Gospel. Someone finds a new family in the church family. The Bible teaching is lapped up – can’t get enough! Fruitful service is given to the local church. But then something changes, very gradually at first, almost imperceptibly. You think, ‘Well, you don’t absolutely have to go to church every Sunday, do you? Aren’t we saved by our faith in Jesus? So then the odd Sunday is missed, and before you know it, it’s a few more. Next there’s a loss of appetite for the Bible. It becomes a closed book to you. Literally.

What’s gone wrong? Jesus puts his finger right on the problem, (or problems): ‘The worries of this life; the deceitfulness of wealth; and the desires for other things…’ (Mark 4:17b) These come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. The worries of this life; life certainly has its worries. I don’t suppose any of us here today are immune from worries – financial worries, worries about the family, worries about health. But rather than worries being an excuse to drive us away from Jesus, worries should cause us to cling more closely to him!

As Jesus said in Sermon on the Mount: ‘Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. So do not worry about these things. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things (that you worry about) will be given to you as well.’ Do you believe the words of Jesus here? Don’t let ‘the worries of this’ life crowd round you like thorns choking your faith in him!

What other kinds of thorn might there be? There’s the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things. If a little wealth comes our way, there’s no doubt at all that it can dampen our Christian faith. Yes, material things can indeed be a blessing from the Lord: a decent house or car – but beware! – material blessings can so easily become a snare.

The deceitfulness of wealth, and the desires for other things – in following Jesus, we cannot have divided loyalties. No wonder he said, ‘No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.’ (Matthew 6:24)

I wonder what Jesus means by ‘other things’? It may just be the things we mentioned under ‘worry’: what we eat or drink or what we’re going to wear. And Jesus says, seek first God’s Kingdom and his righteousness and these things will take care of themselves. But in our consumer society, it’s usually more than just the basics. We want ‘other things’. We want stuff. The whole economy is based on buying stuff we don’t really need. And if we’re trying to follow Jesus but have our heads turned by wanting a new this, a new that when what we have is perfectly fine, then the thorns choke our faith, dampen our zeal for the Lord, little by little, bit by bit.

Perhaps it’s someone who was a joyful vibrant Christian in her teens, but now she’s nowhere spiritually. What happened? The thorns got in and choked her faith. If it’s a choice between church and sport, which do you choose? Maybe there’s even someone here today who’s thinking back to earlier times, when the flame of faith shone really brightly but it’s not shining brightly now. And you’re thinking, ‘How did it come to this?’

Now here’s the thing: with all 3 types of ground that the seed has fallen on so far – the path, the rocky places and the thorny ground, there is a way to be on the good soil after all.

The good soil…

The good soil with its spiritual crop of thirty, sixty or one hundred-fold isn’t because of something good in us, it’s because of something done for us, namely Jesus dying on our behalf to cleanse us from our sins. But the point of this story that Jesus told is that we listen, not just hear. Those who have ears, let them hear! Let them take it on board! You’ll never get to grips with the message of the Christian faith by sitting on the sidelines, as you might sit in an audience looking at a play or a gig on a stage. You need to be in the play yourself! Up there on the stage yourself!

If you just let the message go in one ear and out the other…
If you listen to that little voice that says, ‘This doesn’t really apply to me…’
If you treat faith as just a harmless hobby for those who like that sort of thing…
If you let the thorns choke out any glimmerings of faith you may have, then I have to tell you: you’re not in a good place!

You see, listening to God’s word week by week, you’ll either be helped or you’ll be hardened. You’ll be helped if you respond to God’s voice speaking to you, calling you deeper into a relationship with him, despite your sinfulness, despite your failings. But if you listen without responding, if your pride makes you think, ‘I’m fine I don’t need a Saviour!’ Then hearing God’s word will just harden your heart, more and more. Until it’s too late.

‘If anyone has ears to hear, let them hear.’ (Matthew 4:23)

The groanings and the glory

12 February 202512 February 2025 Alistair Donald Studies in Romans

Sermon: Sunday, 9th February, 2025
Speaker: Alistair Donald
Scripture: Romans 8:18-30

A famous country music song starts with these words…
‘I beg your pardon, I never promised you a rose garden
Along with the sunshine, there’s got to be a little rain sometimes…’

It’s a recognition that it’s unrealistic to expect a rose garden in all relationships, and then complain if there’s a little rain sometimes but sometimes we can have equally unrealistic expectations about the Christian life. We come to the Lord; submit our lives to Christ; get our lives smoothed out as the Lord changes us. We have more sense of purpose in our lives… a sense of joy and love and being accepted. But then when any sort of trouble comes our way, we can be quick to say, ‘Hang on! Surely it wasn’t meant to be this way? Why is God allowing this to happen to me?’

Well, I don’t suppose the Apostle Paul knew any country music songs, but he knew the sentiment of the song very well. He knew that for all the joys of being a believer in this life (and he’s very clear on those), there are also problems; sometimes really painful things to deal with, as many of us know only too well. So after all that Paul has said in the earlier part of this letter to the Romans – that we are all by nature alienated from God but when we put our faith in Christ we now have peace with God (chapter 5) and although we still struggle with sin (chapter 7), believers now have the Spirit inside us to help us overcome, for there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, as John laid out for us in recent weeks in the first part of chapter 8.

Yet Paul is very careful to say that, that while having the Holy Spirit in our lives is a wonderful privilege – by the Spirit we even get to call God Abba or ‘Dad’ – this does not mean that we get to live trouble-free lives ever afterwards. Paul’s ‘Big Point’ in our passage for today is this: when you compare the groanings of the present time, it’s nothing at all compared to the glory that will be revealed.

‘I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.’ (Romans 8:18)

Check out those last 2 words especially: ‘… the glory that will be revealed in us!’ As the apostle John writes: When Jesus appears, we shall be like him! (See 1 John 3:2) I wonder if we are really gripped by what God has in store for us?

C.S. Lewis reckons we don’t rate the glorious future highly enough. He writes this in the book ‘The Weight of Glory’: We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with [earthly pleasures] and ambition when infinite joy is offered us. [We’re] like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea.

We need to lift our eyes to catch the wonderful vision of what God has in store for the Christian. But before moving though the passage from verses 18 to 30, I’d like first for us to look at verse 25, one of the most famous verses in the Bible: ‘And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.’ (Romans 8:28)

For years, as young Christian, I misunderstood this verse. An older translation (AV) renders it as, ‘All things work together for good.’ How does that work?

In my 30s in Wales, a visiting Free Church preacher explained: God is so great that he can turn round even bad things, even horrible things that happen to us for our long-term good. Now, that’s not to say that pain is any less painful at the time, but for the Christian who has God as their Father, it is (or certainly ought to be) different. Because, you see, it’s only for those who love God that this works. It’s only for those who’ve been called according to his purpose that this is in any way meaningful. For everyone else, it’s just stuff that happens. But for the Christian, God has a purpose in everything that happens to us.

‘What do you know about my pain, Mr Preacher?’ says someone. ‘Or what does Paul know about my suffering?’ Well, rather a lot actually. Paul lists some things in 2 Corinthians 6, not to boast, but to say that he gets it! Troubles, hardships, distresses, beatings, imprisonments, hard work, sleepless nights. That’s quite a list! Yes, Paul knows what he’s talking about when he writes this verse. But in that letter he also writes that ‘Our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.’ (See 2 Corinthians 4:17)

So he knows that the groanings of this present age are nothing compared to the glory that will be revealed in us. Let’s look at all this in more detail as we move through the rest of the passage:

1. Groaning and glory in creation (verses 20-22)

First, we have creation as a character. That may seem strange, but the Scriptures do speak of the features of creation as if they were persons who speak. Psalm 114 talks poetically about mountains skipping like rams, hills like lambs, and the Sea which ‘ran away’ – as it did in the retreat of the Red Sea at the Exodus.

We read that, ‘The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed.’ (Romans 8:19) The language used here is like someone craning their neck to get a better view, as if it was a child at a football match craning her neck to get a better view of the pitch! And, incredibly, that’s how the whole natural world is straining to get a view of what Christians will be in their glory in the world to come! Did you know that?

Paul goes on in verse 20: ‘For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it (that, is, God himself).’ To what purpose? ‘… in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.’

You see the cosmic panorama that is in view here? This is Big Picture stuff – to encourage us in our times of suffering! For this world, beautiful as it is, is not as it should be. We can see that with our own eyes. There are earthquakes. There are tsunamis. And much else that spoils life. Paul describes this in verse 22 as being like the pains of childbirth – painful now, but leading to something wonderful beyond description.

When sin entered the world by our first ancestors, not only were Adam and Eve’s own lives diminished, but the whole world of nature was as well. God’s curse on the world was wide-ranging. But that curse will be reversed in the new heavens and the new earth – in the glory that is to come.

There are still commentators who think the world will just get better if only humans follow certain ideologies: More capitalism? More socialism? More nationalism? More Net Zero? Perfect world? No! These things aren’t a magic bullet that will lead to a better world. Only the change in human nature brought about by the Christian Gospel can do that. This world is broken; it’s creaking.

But God has wonderful plans to turn this groaning world into a glorious world. We fist get glimpses of it in the Old Testament: ‘The heavens will wear out like a garment…’ (Psalm 102); Isaiah’s vision: new heavens and a new earth, where lion will lie down with the lamb. That’s what Paul is talking about here – the realisation of that vision. We don’t know much detail, but we know it will be wonderful, as the very creation itself is changed from groaning to glory.

But what about our own sufferings, as fragile humans living in the here and now? As we’ll now see, that, too, is a story of present groaning and future glory.

2. Groaning and glory in God’s children (verses 23-25)

The whole creation may be groaning as in the pains of childbirth. But not only that, we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

Even we, who are reckoned to be no longer ‘in Adam’ but ‘in Christ’; we who have the firstfruits of the Spirit – even we continue to groan inside ourselves as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons and daughters.

But aren’t we already adopted into God’s family? Well yes, as soon as we believe in Christ, our sins are forgiven and we are adopted into God’s family. But there’s a future aspect as well. It’s a bit like how the Christian is described as ‘saved’. One aspect of that is Past Tense – such as here in verse 24: In this hope we were saved. But Paul has earlier said in chapter 5 that there’s a future aspect too: ‘Having been justified by Christ’s blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath at the Day of Judgment.’ (Romans 8:24)

And so it is, with our adoption into God’s family: The Christian has been adopted (when we first believed); we are adopted in the here and now; but we also will be fully adopted in the new creation. But is that really a practical help to you in our sufferings? We do sometimes go through real pain and distress, may physical, maybe emotional (which can wrench us up just as much as physical pain). Is what Paul says really a practical help to us in our sufferings?

Well, it should be, for God has given us that future hope to keep focussed on. We Christians ought to be able to show the world how to suffer and to be sad, by showing that we have a future hope.

Think of Psalm 13. That’s a model for us being sad when we’re in pain or distress:
How long will you forget me, Lord?
Will you forget always?
How long, Lord will you hide your face
And turn from me your gaze?

But the psalm doesn’t end there; the final 2 verses tell us what to do, if ever we feel like that:
But still I trust your constant love;
You save and set me free.
With joy I will extol the Lord
Who has been good to me.

Samuel Rutherford was a wonderful minister here in Scotland, hundreds of years ago. A book of his pastoral letters addressed to hurting people is still in print today. One lady was really struggling with pain and suffering and doubt, and he wrote this to her: ‘Your soul is like a castle that may besieged… but it cannot be taken [by the besieging armies].’ We really don’t face trials all alone. As Isaiah wrote, long before Jesus or Paul: ‘Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. And when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you.’ (Isaiah 43:1)

The Apostle Peter in Acts chapter 3 tells the onlookers, agog at the healing of a lame beggar in the Temple grounds, that the risen Jesus will now remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore all things. That’s the future hope of the Christian. When everything will be made right. In this hope we were saved, writes Paul in verse 24. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

So we’re to wait eagerly for that hope (verse 23) – but also patiently (verse 25). That’s a hard combination for us! We’re not to be so eager that we lose sight of patience. And we’re not to be so patient that we forget to be eager for what it is we’re hoping for! Now, none of this is to say that this present life doesn’t matter. Of course it matters, since God placed us here for a time, and God is good. And much of our life here and now is very good. But whether we’re going through happy times or sad times, it does us good to remember: that this life is not by any means the whole story – and we do sometimes lose sight of that, especially in the hard times we sometimes experience. And whatever we go through, in this life – whatever we lose in this life – trust me, will seem as nothing… compared to the glory that will be revealed.

3. Groaning by the Spirit on our behalf (verses 26-30)

But as we see here it’s not just the creation that groans, waiting for glory. It’s not just we Christians who groan, waiting for glory. In a very mysterious way, the Holy Spirit himself groans. Do you sometimes feel your spiritual weakness? Do you ever feel a bit of a failure, not knowing even quite what to pray? If so, you’re in good company with the Apostle Paul. But help is at hand!

‘In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.’ (Romans 8:26)

Isn’t that wonderful? We read elsewhere that Jesus intercedes with the Father on our behalf. And here’s the Holy Spirit doing the same, with groans that cannot be put into words! Aren’t we blessed? The Spirit intercedes for us saints in accordance with God’s will. So next time you feel your spiritual weakness (and which of us doesn’t sometimes fell that?), remember that you’re not a hopeless case. Next time you don’t really know what to pray for – don’t just give up! Sit quietly, open a psalm or another passage of Scripture and let the Holy Spirit lead your thoughts and prayers.

In closing we go back to verse 28: ‘And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.’

God’s unchanging love for his people means that even the bad stuff that happens to us can be taken up by him and moulded for our good. Joseph found that in Egypt after he’d been kidnapped and sold into slavery by his brothers. That was a wicked act – no question. But after Joseph’s rise to power in Egypt, when he saved many lives by storing up food to withstand the famine, he was able many years later to say to his brothers: ‘Yes, you intended to harm me, but God intended it for good, to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.’ So yes, In all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.’

This isn’t for everyone, but rather it is a special privilege for those who love God, who have been called according to his purpose. When you come to know Christ as Saviour and Lord, then you will realise eventually (it may take time) that God’s knowledge of you and love for you stretches way back before the time you first believed before even you cried your first cry as a baby the day you were born and way back before the universe was even made.

Paul signs off this section of his letter to us by spelling this out very clearly in a beautiful silver chain, laid out in verses 29-30, which we’ll now read in closing: ‘For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.’ (Romans 8:29-30)

My former minister in Wales explained predestination this way. When we first believe in Jesus, we’re conscious of our own decision to follow him. But we don’t at first see the whole picture (he was an artist). When we stand back and view the whole canvas, yes there’s our decision in the foreground, the hour we first believed. But then we see the mighty backdrop – the wonderful, majestic mountains of God’s sovereignty in setting us apart from before the foundation of the world.

‘Those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.’ (Romans 8:30)

And did you notice something? The glory from which we finally escape our groaning does lie on the future but Paul puts it in the past tense, along with the other things listed. How come? Because for those who have been called by God who’ve been put in a right relationship with him (‘justified’ by faith) – the glorious future he has prepared for us is as certain as if it had already taken place.

Justified by faith

23 October 202423 October 2024 Alistair Donald Studies in Romans

Sermon: Sunday, 20th October, 2024
Speaker: Alistair Donald
Scripture: Romans 4

Some people are interested in history – they think it’s fascinating to find out what went on in the past. Other people: not so much. They think history is boring! Me – I’m of the first type. I didn’t do much history at school, but I’ve made it up for it since, through reading. History tells us so much not only about the past, but about how we got to where we are today.

But you may be that second kind of person who might answer, when asked if you’re interested in history: ‘To be honest, not so much.’ And you might have looked at the heading of today’s reading in Romans chapter 4: ‘Abraham justified by faith’ – and asked yourself: ‘Well, what’s that got to do with me? He lived nearly 2,000 years before Jesus. He lived in a tent and kept sheep and goats. What does the faith of Abraham back then have to do with faith in Jesus right now?’

Well, if that’s what you’re thinking, then do listen up! Because we’ll find that it has everything to do with proclaiming our faith in Jesus right now!

Abraham, the founder of the people of Israel as father of Isaac, Jacob and the 12 tribes – certainly lived hundreds of years before Jesus, but Jesus knew that Abraham had looked ahead in faith and foreseen his own day. It’s recorded for us in John chapter 8. When Jesus was disputing with the Jewish leaders in the Temple, men who were so very proud that they were Abraham’s physical descendants, Jesus had this to say to them: ‘Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day. He saw it and was glad!’ (John 8:56)

They didn’t like that. They liked it even less when Jesus went on to say, ‘Before Abraham was, I AM!’ (John 8:58) They picked up stones to stone him to death… but Jesus slipped away. How do you think people were put right with God during all those centuries before Jesus died and rose again? Because they, like Abraham, looked forward in faith to when the long-promised Messiah would appear. We have the privilege of looking back to what we know has already happened. They were looking forward in faith and it was that faith that put them into a right relationship with God.

We’ve been looking in recent weeks at the first 3 chapters of Paul’s letter to the Romans. Paul has patiently been setting out for us how to be reconciled with God. But before being reconciled with God – the No 1 most important matter in anyone’s life, by the way, as everyone will need to give an account of their lives to him at the end of their lives – we need to be shown clearly that all of us start off being estranged from God no matter our upbringing, no matter our background, no matter our nationality.

With some people, it’s very obvious: Filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They invent ways of doing wrong, as Paul writes in chapter 1. Isn’t that something like Scotland today? Estranged from God. Even thinking up new ways of doing evil.

But with other people, their estrangement from God is less obvious. The elder brother in the parable of the Prodigal Son was estranged from his father, even though he’d stayed on the farm and hadn’t gone away to live a wild kind of life like his younger brother. He was estranged too, as his curdled resentments on the return of his younger brother made clear. So even those who have not led wild lives are, by nature, just as estranged from our heavenly Father as the elder brother was from his father in the parable!

We’re just better at covering it up than the wild folk. Outwardly, we may be able to say, ‘Well, I’ve never murdered anyone. I’ve never robbed anyone. I’ve never stolen anyone’s wife or husband. I’ve gone to church when I can. I’m not such a bad person, really!’ But that, right there, is the problem. Pride. Thinking we’re better than other people. Yet when we remember that God looks on the heart, on our motivations, it gets worse. He sees our secret jealousies, our resentments, our self-pity and, above all, our defiant independence. By nature, we want to be ‘god’ of our own lives, thank you very much! We don’t want to let God have a say in how we live!
No wonder Paul writes in the first 3 chapters of Romans that there’s no difference in God’s eyes between those who are as wild as they can be, and those who are proud of being respectable and keep their sin and pride secret. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. That’s why we need a Saviour. That’s why Jesus came.

As we learned last week in the passage at the end of chapter 3, first the bad news, then the good: All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

How are we put into a right relationship with God? By believing that. By believing God. And that’s where the link with Abraham comes in. Please look in your Bible at the start of chapter 4 and ask yourself this: Was Abraham put right with God by striving to be a good person, being ‘justified by works’? No!

What does Scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. Abraham knew that he was a bit of a failure. But when God came to him when he was a very old man and said that he would father a son – not on the face of it a very easy thing to believe – and not only that but he would have descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky, what was Abraham’s response? Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.

But this doesn’t just apply to Abraham. ‘The words ‘it was credited to him’ were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness – for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.’ (Romans 4:23-24)

Abraham couldn’t rely on his family upbringing to put him in a right relationship with God. His family had been pagans in far-away Mesopotamia! He couldn’t rely on the Old Testament covenant seal of circumcision either, for the very good reason that the assurance of being ‘credited with righteousness’ was in chapter 15 of Genesis, while the covenant of circumcision was later in chapter 17. Paul writes: ‘Under what circumstances was it credited? Was it after he was circumcised, or before? It was not after, but before!’ (Romans 4:10)

Again, you might say, ‘What’s that got to do with me? I’m not Jewish, so circumcision doesn’t apply to me!’ And that’s very true. But Paul’s wider point is this: Circumcision was a sign of God’s covenant in the Old Testament, just as Baptism is the sign of the covenant for us in the New Testament. And simply relying on the sign (rather than the substance of the faith that the sign points towards), does not get us into a right relationship with God. Only believing God, believing in the Gospel promise of sins forgiven does that.

So, first of all, it wasn’t through the covenant sign of circumcision that Abraham was put into a right relationship with God. But if it wasn’t through the covenant sign that Abraham was put into a right relationship with God, that he was justified in God’s sight, neither was it though keeping God’s Law, the Ten Commandments. That is Paul’s next point.

As he writes in verse 13, it was not through the Law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. What does the Law do? What are the Ten Commandments for? They lead people in one of two directions. The first is one of pride making us think that we’re better than other people if we keep them outwardly and others don’t.

Newsflash: we can’t even keep the first commandment in our own strength – to have no other gods before God. And that’s not to mention how Jesus tells us the SoMt that anger is the root of murder, and lust is the root of adultery. Our fellow-humans may look on the outward actions but God looks on the heart.

The second reaction people can have to the Ten Commandments is one of despair. ‘I’m just not good enough for God, I’ve broken so many of his commands. They are so demanding! I am crushed by them!’ Either way, the Law tells us that God is angry with sinners. ‘Law brings wrath’ as Paul writes in verse 15.

So what’s the Law for, in Christian terms? In the letter to the Galatians, we read that the purpose of the Law is as a teacher, to drive us to Christ. To show us our need of him, that without him we can never please God. We need Christ for the forgiveness of our sins, and we need to have faith in his death on the cross as paying the price of our sin if we’re ever to be justified, to be put in a right relationship with God.

It’s a funny thing, you know. You might think that all this Gospel emphasis on us being sinners has a down side; bad for our self-image, bad for self-esteem. But, in fact, it’s a paradox, it’s the very opposite – it’s very positive for our self-esteem! How come? Because it shows the immense value that God places on our individual worth, by sending Jesus.

Someone actually loved me so much that he gave his life for me on the cross that I need no longer fear meeting a holy God at the end of my days. For someone will be speaking up for me. Jesus will be my Advocate. Will he be speaking up for you? You see, it’s only by acknowledging our sin that we can then experience the blessedness of knowing our sins forgiven!

Paul has quoted the wonderful words from Psalm 32 in verse 7: Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered! Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord will never count against him. (Psalm 32:1-2)

There’s a real joy in knowing that Jesus has taken the rap for your sins! Gone are the guilty memories – paid for! Gone are the regrets that hold you back and can almost disable you – they’re all now in the past, and dealt with! Gone is the bad conscience niggling away at you, God has forgiven you and if you need to make amends to anyone you’ve offended then you can do that.

Now, of course, the Lord already knows everything but he wants to hear it from you! His aim is not to punish you but to pardon you! ‘The words ‘it was credited to him’ were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness – for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.’ (Romans 4:23-25)

And finally, this morning, we can answer the question I posed at the start: who then are the Children of the Promise? For Abraham, the promise was that he would have numerous physical descendants but beyond the Jewish people that in due course ‘All nations would be blessed’ through him, as Abraham looked forward to Jesus the Messiah.

For us, the promise is that, just as Abraham was justified in God’s sight by believing God, rather than by stacking up credits with God by our feeble efforts at obeying God’s Law so we can be justified by believing that we are justified in God’s sight in exactly the same way – by faith in the Gospel!

Let’s make absolutely sure that we have the faith of Abraham, by God’s grace.

Spiritual gifts (5)

20 June 202420 June 2024 Alistair Donald Spiritual gifts

Sermon: Sunday, 16th June, 2024
Speaker: Alistair Donald
Scripture: 2 Corinthians 8:1-15 and 9:6-11

This morning we continue our series on spiritual gifts. In recent weeks, we’ve looked at serving encouraging, hospitality and administration – all of which are listed in the New Testament as gifts that some of us have.

This morning we come to consider the gift of giving. Now, it may seem strange to say that giving is itself a spiritual gift, but it is in fact true: It’s listed by the apostle Paul his letter to the Romans. ‘If your gift is giving, then give generously.’ (Romans 12:8)

Now we know that not all gifts are for all Christians. For example: not everyone has the gift of administration. And if someone has the gift of administration, they might not have the gift of, say, encouraging, both of which we’ve looked at.

So perhaps you’re thinking, ‘Oh well, I don’t have the gift of administration, so maybe I don’t have the gift of giving either!’ Not so fast! This one is different. What Paul is talking about here is the special gift that some well-off people have of being particularly generous. As Jesus said in Luke’s gospel, in the context of being ready for his return at the end of the age: ‘From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.’ (Luke 12:48) So there are those who may have a particular gift of being able to give more than others. And that gift of giving is a spiritual gift.

But as we’ll see, giving is something that all of us are called to do, and here’s why: because it comes from the nature of God himself. God is a generous, giving, God. And as the Holy Spirit transforms the believer into a greater and greater likeness of God himself, it’s obvious that the generous nature of God as a giving God will – or should – be increasingly reflected in the life of his followers.

One further point of introduction: you may well be thinking that what I’ve said up till now concerns the giving of money. Well, we will be looking at the giving of money in due course. But the point is this: giving isn’t only about money; it’s also about how we use our time and other individual skills.

So let’s begin by looking at the grace of giving in general, founded in God’s grace to us. And look at these 3 points: Grace of God, gratitude and giving. The Christian’s motivation for giving is out of gratitude to God for his grace to us in Christ. One measure of how grateful we actually are for all he’s done is how we respond in giving.

William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, asked how the ministry had been so successful. His reply? ‘Jesus Christ has all of me.’ And that’s the key for us!

Psalm 24 opens with these words : ‘The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it…’ (Psalm 24:1) So you and I, and all we have – our time, our motivations, our skills and our money: all belong to God! As Paul says, ‘You are not your own, you were bought at a price.’ (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)

First, let’s look at the gift of time. Time is important to all of us. We use expressions like ‘a waste of time, being ‘short of time, ‘pushed for time’ and so on. And some of us are very poor in the availability of our time. You might be thinking, well I don’t have any more spare time. You don’t know how stressed and busy I am! There are no more hours in the day! I’m stressed just thinking about it! Well, that may be true. Some of us experience extreme time-poverty. But even within that busyness, it will be counter-productive if we shut out our time of refreshment with the Lord in prayer and Bible study.

Yet others of us are really quite time-rich. My wife and I are aware of this since we retired. We are much more time-rich than before. What are we to use that time for? Some of you may also be relatively time-rich. How do you use your time? Might it not be a good idea to use that time to visit those of our number who’re sick in hospital, or stuck in the house, or who are sad and down for some reason? Or give some time to regular volunteering? God is God of all of our time; we are accountable to him for how we use it. Just as we’re accountable to him for the time we fritter away online or in from of the TV.

But for the rest of today’s message I’d like to turn to our use of money. Someone has calculated that there are some 2,300 verses on the subject in the Bible! And no less than 11 of the parables that Jesus told concern money. Money is often dearer to our hearts than it should be.

First of all, where should we be directing our giving of money to the work of the Lord? It should definitely start with our regular giving to the local church. After all, it’s here that we get built up in our faith by having a minister who can devote his time to adequate preparation and Bible study. It’s here that we are in a caring fellowship, who will see to our pastoral oversight according to the New Testament pattern.

So our giving starts with giving to the local church with regular giving – but it needn’t end there – we will wish to follow the New Testament pattern of having a care for those near and far who are in poverty – via such ministries as Blytheswood and so on, as the Lord leads us. We will also wish to be generous, as our circumstances permit, in helping particular needs among our fellow-believers as we become aware of them. That might mean an anonymous envelope with cash popped though a letter box late at night, so that the left hand doesn’t know that the right hand is doing, as Jesus himself put it.

Well, before we look at our passage in 2 Corinthians on giving in some detail, here’s a verse from 1 Corinthians. ‘On the first day of every week, each of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income.’ (1 Corinthians 16:2) That’s pretty clear, don’t you think? Regular setting aside in keeping with your income. So those whose income is less will be able to give less than those whose income is more.

How we give is important because it reflects the state of our hearts. Do I give grudgingly because I have to? Or dutifully because it’s expected of me? Or do I give thankfully because I want to, in response to all that God has done for me in Christ. For as one of the verses in our passage says, God loves a cheerful giver.

Grace, gratitude, giving

‘And now, brothers, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches.’ (2 Corinthians 8:1)

Note that word ‘grace’. Paul is telling the congregation in Corinth, in the South of Greece, about the generosity of a church in the North of Greece, in Macedonia. And he’s saying that their generous giving is a result of God’s Grace.

‘And now, brothers, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the saints. And they did not do as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us in keeping with God’s will.’ (2 Corinthians 8:1-5)

And here’s the key to generous giving: ‘They gave themselves first to the Lord…’ (2 Corinthians 8:5) If Jesus is truly Lord of my life, he is then Lord of my mind, my affections, my goals, my dreams and my finances.

How much we give to the work of the Lord is a useful indicator of how much we value the work that the Lord has done for us. If our Giving is pretty minimal, then that shows than our appreciation for what Jesus did for us on the cross is also pretty minimal. But look at these early verses of Chapter 8 again: The Macedonian churches gave themselves first to the Lord… and their rich generosity flowed out of that. The grace of God that they knew in having their sins forgiven, of having new life in Christ, also resulted in the grace of giving.

You see why these 3 words are linked: grace / gratitude / giving. I expect that we know that some congregations are much better off than others. We might think of a city congregation, where most members are on a good salary. Well of course, they will be good givers! So that must be the kind of Church that Paul is talking about when he talks about these generous Macedonians up north, right? Not at all! ‘Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the saints.’ (2 Corinthians 8:2-3)

So this is quite a poor church, a persecuted church even. And Paul didn’t even have to raise the issue of finances with them! ‘They gave entirely on their own’ with no urging at all! They were tugging at his sleeve wanting to give even beyond their ability. Think of the widow in the children’s talk earlier. She gave everything she had to the work of the Lord. She knew she could then trust the Lord for her daily needs.

Now Paul isn’t having a go at the congregation at Corinth. He knows it has many good points, and he even lists these in v7: in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in love for Paul and his companions and so on. (verse 7) He marks them as 10/10 in all these things! But he says, just as you excel in these things – see that you also excel in the grace of giving.

We have much to be thankful in our own congregation. I hope you find it a welcoming and caring place, where we’re in the journey of faith together and where we share each other’s joys and sorrows… We have lovely meals together. And the baking! If Paul was visiting us, he might even say we excel in these things! So then let’s then excel in the grace of giving.

Now do notice Paul’s tone here: ‘I am not commanding you…’ (2 Corinthians 8:8) He’s not shouting at them. You can see that in some online Christian channels when it comes to giving – lots of shouting! Lots of commands!

‘I am not commanding you, but I want to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it with the earnestness of others. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, how for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich. (Obviously meaning spiritual riches here). And he goes on in verses 10-12 to say, in effect, follow through on what you promised last year. It’s easy to make a pledge, less easy to follow through!

So how much should we be giving? We’ll see that Paul gives us general principles of generosity, rather than laying down absolute rules. Maybe we sometimes prefer rules? That makes it easier. We want easy answers. But New Testament giving flows from our giving ourselves to the Lord, and then each working out our response to his rich generosity: Grace – gratitude – giving

Look at what Paul says, ‘Remember this, whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.’ (2 Corinthians 9:6) That’s like the verse in Proverbs; ‘One man gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty.’ (Proverbs 11:24) These sayings that are generally true – but they’re not a rule that will feed our greed. Why do I need to say that? Have you heard of ‘Prosperity Theology’? You get it with some TV evangelists and others.
They’ll take a verse like this and say, ‘Hey, you need to sow generously! So if you send me £50 right now, then God will bless you with much more! It’s guaranteed! It’s in God’s Word.’ But God’s Word is never meant to appeal to our greed. God is not like a big cosmic cash machine, where if you press the right button then out pops loads of money so we can buy what we want! What nonsense! No-one should be deceived by that kind of thing and how tragic that some Christians are.

But it’s generally true that if we sow generously, then we’ll reap generously, since God is generous – and if that happens, then it is so that we can in turn be generous in giving it on!
Look at vv 10 and 11: ‘Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.’ (2 Corinthians 9:10-11) You will be made rich in every way. Why? So that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.

You see how wrong this idea of so-called Prosperity Theology is? God’s generosity is not some ‘Get Rich Quick Scheme’. If God is generous to us, then that has one purpose only – so that we can be generous in our giving in turn, and that will result in someone thanking God! It starts with God and his grace. That leads to gratitude. And that leads to giving – which in turn means someone will glorify God for what they receive!

I’ve kept until the end the important question of How much? The principles are given in verse 7: ‘Each one should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.’

So there we have it. No compulsion. We each decide in our hearts what to give. We are to set it aside every week. I don’t know about your heart, but my heart can be a bit sneaky sometimes. My sinful heart might lead me to be stingy and mean. I might want to give the minimum I can respectably give. But God isn’t stingy and mean. So then I remember that God is generous, not stingy. I remember that he loves a cheerful giver. So what am I to do? How much should I give to the work of the Lord? ‘On the first day of every week, each of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income.’ (1 Corinthians 16:2)

In keeping with your income. Some people think the answer is easy – we should give 10% of our income: ‘tithing’ as it’s called in the Old Testament. But this isn’t as straightforward as it might seem because there was more than one tithe; there was the tithe for the Levites, the tithe for the poor and so on. Some scholars have calculated that these probably amounted to more like 20% of income, rather than 10%. Another difficulty is that the practice of tithing is not explicitly mentioned in the New Testament, except when Jesus uses it in a negative sense in his parable of the Pharisee and the tax Collector. There, the Pharisee tries unsuccessfully to commend himself to God by saying, among other things, that that he gives a tenth of all he gets.
Yet although tithing isn’t explicitly mentioned, it isn’t explicitly set aside either. So when Paul urges us to set aside a sum of money in keeping with our income, it’s reasonable to assume that he had that figure in mind. But it should be a guide, rather than a hard-and-fast rule.

There may be some of us here today who are living so hand-to-mouth on a low income that giving 10% to the work of the Lord is quite simply not possible if they’re to eat and pay the bills. Yet out of gratitude to God they will want to give what they can – and do so cheerfully!

There may be others among us for whom 10% is all too easy, and not really sacrificial at all – and certainly not near the commitment of the Macedonians who gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. For those in comfortable circumstances, deciding in our hearts what to give may well involve quite a bit more than 10%. For it’s God alone who knows our hearts. God alone knows the level of our gratitude to him, which will be reflected in the level of our giving. And again, we should give not reluctantly, or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

And above all, we should remember our generous God, who has freely given us salvation, new life and the promise of eternal life, not through anything that we deserve, but only through his Grace. How can we not in turn respond with gratitude, a good measure of which is our level of giving to the work of the Lord?

How much we give to the work of the Lord is a useful indicator of how much we value the work that the Lord has done for us. And generous giving will, in turn, result in thanksgiving to God, to whom be all the glory.

The woman, the child and the dragon

8 February 20248 February 2024 Alistair Donald Sermons

Sermon: Sunday, 28 January, 2024
Speaker: Alistair Donald
Scripture: Revelation 12

Have you ever asked yourself why it’s sometimes so hard to live a consistent Christian life? How come I am sometimes so lazy with Bible reading and prayer? Why do I get such a hard time from friends and neighbours – and even from family – when I take even the most tentative steps to sharing my faith in Jesus?

The answer, as Paul laid out clearly to the church in Ephesus, is that we’re engaged in spiritual battle against an enemy that is hard to pin down, because it’s an enemy that’s unseen: ‘For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.’ (Ephesians 6:12) If we don’t grasp the force of this, then we’ll slide into living lives of compromise and spiritual flabbiness. We won’t grow as Christians. If we don’t wear the well-known spiritual armour listed by Paul – the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith and so on – then we simply won’t be in the fight at all. So, Christians are called on to opt out of being spiritual wimps, and get with the fight!

But what do the spiritual forces in the heavenly realms look like, and can we any make meaningful impact on them? That’s where our Bible reading comes in – Revelation chapter 12. Now, in order to orient ourselves, there are a couple of things to say about the Book of Revelation.

Firstly, it’s not an easy book to understand. But that doesn’t mean we should just downplay it. Doing that would mean depriving ourselves of an important part of God’s Word – what’s meant to be a great encouragement to believers, especially at times of opposition to the Christian faith. We read reports from time to time of someone finding a great work of art up in their loft. It’s been ignored for years, with the owner not realising that it’s a painting by one of the great masters. Well, this book is inspired by the greatest Master, and we are the ones who miss out if we put it away to the attic of our minds.

Secondly, it’s a type of writing with which we’re pretty unfamiliar. We know the difference between prose and poetry, both of which are in the Bible. But this is a different category of writing, hence its strangeness. It’s called ‘apocalyptic.’ Those who first read the book in the early church would have been familiar enough with its style: they would have known the Book of Daniel well. You may remember that the first 6 chapters of that book are fairly easy to follow – the various trials of Daniel and his friends. But chapters 7-12 are quite different as they are in this ‘apocalyptic’ style. The archangel Michael, described by Daniel as the protector of the people of God, makes a symbolic appearance there at the end of the book, as he does here in Revelation chapter 12. And that’s our clue for understanding the Book of Revelation.

This book may have become a playground of the Cults, and subject to all kinds of weird timetabling about the end of the world and so on. But its real purpose is simply one of encouragement in times of trial and persecution, using fantastical picture-language instead of straight prose or poetry. It’s there to help us understand what’s really going on ‘behind the scenes’ in the unseen world. Today’s passage is at the centre of the Book and is really quite key to its overall message.
You’ll probably be aware that the start of the book (chapters 2 and 3) consists of 7 letters from the risen Lord Jesus to 7 churches in Asia Minor, modern day Turkey. They’re usually thought of as a kind of Prologue to the rest of the book. But I think the late Professor Jim Packer was right to say, it’s the other way round: Rather than being a Prologue to the rest of the book, the letters are the main thing. They describe the various problems that can arise in any church in any age – lukewarmness, pride, materialism, immorality and so on. The rest of the book can then be seen as a kind of long Appendix to the 7 letters – to explain the spiritual nature of the battle that’s going on behind the scenes when spiritual problems in churches arise.

Who’s in Revelation chapter 12?

We’re introduced to the various players in this heavenly drama. We read that a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of 12 stars on her head. This woman is pregnant and she gives birth to a son, a male child, described as one who will rule all the nations with an iron sceptre – the very words used in Psalm 2, the Messianic Psalm which the New Testament writers ascribe with confidence to Jesus. So if the man-child is Jesus, doesn’t that mean the woman is Mary? No, because that’s not the way Apocalyptic writings work. The woman is not Mary!

The clue as to her identity is that she’s clothed with the sun, moon and stars. Back in Genesis, Joseph shares his dream with his unreceptive brothers. He tells them that the sun, moon and 11 stars were bowing before him in the dream, representing his mother, father and the brothers who in due course became the tribes of Israel. So the woman clothed with the sun, moon and stars stands as a symbol for Old Testament Israel, the covenant people of God. It was this people who ‘gave birth’ to the Messiah. Later on in the chapter, the woman also represents the covenant people of God today, the Church.

And then there’s another player a sinister one: An enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads. We’re told exactly who the dragon represents: the ancient snake called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. And the whole world is being led astray, isn’t it? All the wars… all the destruction… all the violence… all the greed. Anyone can see that this is not the way it’s meant to be! The dragon is powerful – the 7 heads with 7 crowns symbolise his authority as ‘Prince of this world’ (as Paul calls him), and the 10 horns symbolise that he deploys this authority with very great strength – although not universal strength as only one third of the stars are swept out of the sky in this picture-language, not the whole lot.

And we might well wonder: Can we Christians really overcome such a foe? Yes we can! But in the meantime, we’re confronted with the grotesque image where the dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born. This of course reminds us of how the life of the infant Jesus was nearly snuffed out by King Herod, in one of the more stark passages in the early chapters of Matthew’s Gospel. And then in this chapter the fast-forward button is pressed, so that we move straight from Bethlehem to the Ascension : ‘And the child was snatched up to God and to his throne.’ (Revelation 12:5)

Meanwhile, the woman fled into the wilderness to a place prepared by God for her, where she might be taken care of for a specified time – that’s all that 1,260 days means here. (Technical note: time, times and half a time stands of 2½ years, same as 1,260 days! – not a literal time, since all the numbers in Revelation are symbolic not literal. The point is that there will be periods of safety in the history of the church, as well as periods of persecution.)

And God does protect his church! She may be persecuted from time to time, but as Jesus himself said: ‘The gates of hell shall not prevail against it.’ (Matthew 16:18) And so in verses 1-6, we’ve seen the background as to why we Christians often face struggles in our faith, or even outright opposition. We’re in a spiritual battle. From verse 7 onwards, we see how this plays out first in heaven and then here on earth, a battle which is always in play during the entire Christian era, and will be until Jesus comes again at the end of the age.

Spiritual warfare in heaven

It may seem strange that war breaks out in heaven, with the archangel Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. What’s the devil doing in heaven at all? Surely Satan can’t be in heaven? Well, Satan is traditionally thought of as an angel who rebelled and fell from grace, and Jesus did say, ‘I saw Satan fall from heaven.’ (Luke 10:18) But perhaps we should understand the location as ‘the heavenly realms’, meaning the unseen world of spiritual warfare between good and evil. C.S Lewis famously wrote in his book, The Screwtape Letters, that there are two mistakes the human race makes about devils: One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them.

The forces of evil in this world are real enough, and the Bible tells us that behind it all is a malign being who opposes God and all that is precious to him – especially the Church. But that being is not somehow equal in strength to God. No, for in the words of our passage, the dragon was not strong enough and he lost his place in heaven, instead being hurled down to the earth. That in itself is cause to pause and worship, as often happens in the Book of Revelation where John breaks off to say this: I heard a voice in heaven say, ‘Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Messiah.’ (Revelation 12:10)

We may be more familiar with the similar wording in the previous Chapter immortalised the words of Handel’s Messiah: The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever. Now that clearly refers to the second coming of Christ at the end of time, but this reference in Chapter 12 refers to his first coming because it centres on the death of Jesus on the cross. ‘Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Messiah. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night has been hurled down.’ (Revelation 12:10)

You know that little voice inside that tells you that you’re no good as a Christian? The one that niggles away at you, saying what a waste of space you are in the church? That’s the Accuser, the devil or Satan, who also accused Job before you. But the Accuser has been hurled down! Don’t listen to him! Resist the Devil and he will flee, as James wisely said in his letter. How do Christians triumph over the Accuser? It’s written right here in v11: They overcame him by the blood of the lamb… and by the word of their testimony. ‘The blood of the lamb’ simply being the symbolic picture of the sacrificial death of Jesus on the cross, for our sins.

How often do we have to keep coming back to the cross? Every day. As some old Christian writers used to say,’Keep short accounts with God.’ In other words, don’t run up a whole pile of unconfessed sin. Keep going back to the cross. That’s the way we get our sins forgiven and that’s the way we resist the voice of the Accuser. They triumphed over him, by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony. Ah yes. Our testimony. Being witnesses to the Lord Jesus to those who don’t know him. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think this ever gets easier. They triumphed over him, by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony. They did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. Therefore rejoice, you heavens, and you who dwell in them! But then some less welcome news for us: But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short.

Spiritual warfare on earth

That explains a lot about what’s happening to our fellow Christians in many parts of the world. In Nigeria, just in the past few weeks, terrible things have happened that you won’t hear about on the TV news: Since Christmas, hundreds of Christians have been murdered in Nigeria; A Christian pastor murdered, his wife abducted and a ransom demanded; 5 Christian girls prevented by Sharia police from going to church. What’s going on? The dragon is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short. The suffering of believers, though real and painful, and inflicted by powerful opponents, are just symptoms of the Dragon’s desperation.

Now here in Scotland, we don’t face persecution on that scale. But is it impossible for us to imagine that we might every face something similar? The message of Revelation 12 is that we should be ready if it ever comes to that. But the Christian faith certainly faces other aspects of hostility from many quarters in this country at the present time. How come any religion or ideology seems to get a free pass in modern Scotland, with the sole exception of Christianity? Surely this too should not surprise us, if we pay attention to the message of this Chapter of God’s word?

The final few verses just replay in a bit more detail what we’ve already seen. The dragon pursues the woman, which we can think of here as the Church. But she gets taken care of, escaping on a giant eagle. This figure of speech goes right back to Mt Sinai, where God reminds the people, ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles wings and brought you to myself.’ (Exodus 19:4) The woman is flown to a place of safety in the wilderness, out of the reach of her pursuer, for a specified time (2½ years) but again – a remember not a literal time. Just a specified, limited time). You’ll see that the dragon is now referred to the snake.

And he’s not finished with the woman yet. From his mouth the snake spewed water like a river. What comes out of the mouth? Words. In this case, the devil’s lies, trying to sweep the woman away with his torrent of lies. The lie that a Christian lives a stunted and restrictive life – when the truth is that only the Christian knows true freedom from sin and selfishness; the lie that the church will just die out, as its detractors fondly hope – when the truth is that Jesus has promised that the very gates of hell shall not prevail against it. But the torrent of lies doesn’t sweep the woman away, as the earth opens up to contain the flood. And neither should we let the Devil’s lies get to us! The final image is that the serpent-dragon is enraged at the woman – who remember, is the covenant community of faith – and goes off to wage war against the rest of her offspring. Who now might that be? Those who keep God’s commands and hold fast their testimony about Jesus. And that would be you and me.

So what do we learn from the extravagant imagery of this chapter? That spiritual warfare is real. If we deny that, we’re deluding ourselves. There is an unseen realm behind our daily living, which Paul correctly describes as involving spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Sometimes the opposition to the Gospel is violent and murderous. This helps us understand what’s going on in some parts of the world today, where the church appears to be on the back foot, in retreat. The devil is filled with fury, but he knows that his time is short.

Spiritual warfare comes to every Christian. All of us at times are weighed down by thoughts that we’re not much good at Christian living. We need to remember that the Accuser is on our case – but resist the devil and he will flee!

Finally, all spiritual warfare comes down to remembering the central place of the Cross. This is how we overcome the evil one: They triumphed over him by the blood of the lamb, and by the word of their testimony. And may that be true of all of us.

A healthy church

25 October 202325 October 2023 Alistair Donald Studies in Acts

Sermon: Sunday, 22nd October, 2023
Speaker: Alistair Donald
Scripture: Acts 2:42-47

There are all kinds of different churches in the world today. Some gather in great, historic buildings, with wonderful architecture and elaborate music. Other church groups gather in fields, or perhaps under trees if it’s very hot. Others still must meet in secret, in the houses of church members, for fear of very real persecution.

We in Kirkcaldy Free Church are somewhere in the middle. Our church building is not especially big or historic, but we do meet in public, not in secret. We have a sign inviting people to come in. And all this is to remind us what is important in the life of a church. What does a healthy church look like? And do we meet that standard? Like everything else in the Christian faith, we must begin with the Bible. There may be a place for tradition and local customs, but the most important thing is this: Does our church fit the pattern of what the New Testament says is a healthy church? What does a healthy church look like? Well, happily we have our answer in today’s Bible passage. This was of course before there were any church buildings, as these were the earliest days of the church.

As we’ve seen in recent weeks, when the Holy Spirit came on the Day of Pentecost, the number of Christians suddenly went up dramatically in response to Peter’s preaching – just 150 before Pentecost, but another 3,000 added on that memorable day! Today we find what that early church actually did, so that they had a steady increase in their numbers – not as dramatic as that first growth perhaps, but still regular growth. As we read in verse 47 that the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. We see 4 things about this early church, which we would do well to copy: A learning church; a loving church; a worshipping church, and also an evangelizing church as we’ve just seen.

A learning church

‘They devoted themselves to the Apostles’ teaching.’ (Acts 2:42) Notice the word ‘devoted’. This was not just a kind of hobby, something to fill in their spare time. No, this was seriously engaging with the teaching of the Apostles – every day, all through the week, in everything they thought and did. Now, as you might have noticed, these early Christians had Peter and the other Apostles to teach them in person – but we don’t. We don’t have apostles today. And that is perfectly true. In some churches today there are people who are described ‘apostles’. You could describe someone in a pioneer missionary situation as having an ‘apostolic ministry.’

But that’s not the same as these early apostles, the ones appointed by Jesus himself, including the Apostle Paul. They were unique. Their ministry was authenticated by ‘wonders and miracles’, which God enabled them to do as Jesus had done. Now, we should never say never, but today such things are very rare indeed, for the simple reason that we don’t have apostles today. Yes, we do have answers to prayer where God has clearly healed someone in a way that leaves the doctors flummoxed. But wonders and miracles on a New Testament scale? Not so much.

So then, if we don’t have Apostles today then how can we devote ourselves to the Apostles’ teaching? The answer of course is that the Apostles wrote down what we need to know in the New Testament. We have the Gospels, written by the Apostles or under their close influence, with their various accounts of the life and teaching of Jesus. We have this Book of Acts, where fully twenty percent of Luke’s text reports the sermons and speeches of Peter and Paul. And we have letters written to the early churches by various Apostles: by Paul, by Peter, by John and others. We have the Book of Revelation, revealed by Jesus to John. We have the teaching of the Apostles right here!

And we also have individuals in the local church qualified to teach what the Apostles taught – we have elders. Having elders in a church is itself very much part of apostolic teaching, it’s not something that self-appointed elders have dreamt up! They are not to ‘lord it’ over the congregation – not at all! – they are to be ‘servants of the Word.’ You can read what the qualifications of an elder are in Paul’s 1st letter to Timothy, chapter 3, and it includes being ‘apt to teach’ – having an ability to teach what the Apostles taught. So it’s important to pay attention to what we hear week by week from this pulpit. To listen properly and not just let the words wash over us. That’s one way of being ‘devoted to the Apostles’ teaching’, to be a learning church.

But it’s not the only way. To be a learning church, it’s also important to study the Bible for ourselves, so that we can grow as Christians. We’ve been given heads to think with as well as hearts to feel with. Remember: these were Spirit-filled Christians. But they didn’t say, ‘Well, now that we have the Holy Spirit, we don’t really need to listen to mere humans preaching and teaching, and we don’t need to study and reflect on the Apostles’ teaching.’ Not at all! Spirit and Word go hand-in-hand: Spirit and Word, Word and Spirit! Indeed, these newly Spirit-filled had a real appetite for teaching. The believers devoted themselves to learning more about Christian teaching and Christian living, to please their new-found Lord!

Sometimes we humans set ‘head’ and ‘heart’ against one another. By which I mean, those who stress the ‘head’ enjoy working things out by reasoning, while those who stress the ‘heart’ care more about how they feel about something. This is a big issue nowadays, when so many only care about how something makes them feel. And we Christians can also do this: ‘Oh, I’m not so interested in working out my faith and how I relate to God and to others. What’s important to me is how I feel about my faith.’ The truth of course is that both are important. We have ‘heads’ as well as ‘hearts’. And here’s the thing: when we really study and pray over a passage of the Bible to add to our understanding, that will also bless our hearts! When we see the glory of God and the wonder of the Gospel in a fresh light, that will lead us to worship more! So: study God’s Word for yourself. If want some advice on helpful resources or websites, ask one of the leaders. That’s what we’re here for!

A loving church

Now this is so important. A church that is not a Loving church is not a New Testament church. For these early Christians not only devoted themselves to the Apostles’ teaching, but they devoted themselves also to fellowship. Togetherness. Hanging out. Finding out about our fellow believers, taking a real interest in their concerns. The original word comes from the word ‘in common.’ If you take a good look round, you’ll see that we are quite a diverse gathering – diverse in age, in race, in nationality. But what are those differences compared to what we have in common? Our oneness in Christ!

Emmanuel Eladipo Brother. Same Father! Why? Because what Christians have in common is much more than any differences of background we may have. So a loving church is one that’s devoted to the fellowship, and so must we be. How do we do that? Older churchgoers here will remember how things often used to be. Yes, churches were fuller, but at the end of the Sunday service, everyone just hurried away! Coffee was something you only had at home! Staying on for coffee and chat after the service isn’t the sum total of fellowship, but it’s a good start. That’s the way we at least begin to get to know each other. And getting to know each other can only happen if we make space for that to happen. Our mobile phones are a great blessing in keeping in touch with others elsewhere, but should never be a barrier to fellowship with real, flesh-and-blood fellow Christians here in person. We need to make space to get to know each other.

And there are other ways of sharing fellowship not just in the church building or after worship services sharing meals together. Inviting each other into our homes for a meal. Look down at the end of verse 46: ‘They broke bread in their homes, and ate together with glad and sincere hearts.’ So fellowship means enjoying what we have in common in Christ; sharing meals and even sharing other things?

This brings us on to a very interesting verse later in our passage, verses 44-45: ‘They had everything in common.’ Let’s think about that. Does this mean that we should all have access to the Church bank account, transfer in any money we have into that, and all be issued with bank cards so we can dip in and take out from the church bank account what we need at any given time? Not quite! Selling their possessions and goods; this wasn’t a one-off fire-sale of everything they owned, but something that was done from time to time as the need arose. Very occasionally, Christians are called to renounce all possessions – St Francis was one like that. But more usual is the idea of sharing what we have with those in need. We are all stewards of what God has blessed us with. Our money, our homes, our possessions really belong to God, and we hold them on trust.

Back then, if someone had a piece of land they didn’t need, and someone else in the church was in need, the owner would be willing to sell that piece of land for the benefit of a brother or sister who was going through a hard time. This was voluntary, not compulsory. But in a loving church, it happened. How do we know this wasn’t a one-off sale of absolutely everything they owned? Well, as we saw a moment ago in verse 46 they still had homes.

So does this mean that those among us who are better off than others can breathe a sigh of relief and say that this doesn’t really apply nowadays? Not at all! Where a fellow Christian has a genuine financial need, then of course those who are able to should feel free to offer help. Clearly this can only happen if a need is made known to the leaders, and any help will be given privately, without fanfare or fuss. As Jesus said, when you give, ‘Do not let your right hand know what your left hand is doing!’ (Matthew 6:3)

But as Jesus’ brother James said in chapter 2 of his letter: ‘Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?’ That would certainly not be a loving church.

So a healthy church will have warm fellowship, which can only happen if we are all devoted to achieving it, and that it will be a fellowship in which we really look after one another.

A worshipping church

This is perhaps the most obvious indicator of a healthy church, so we’ll not spend so long on this one. We meet together every Sunday to have fellowship, yes, but of course we also meet to worship God – worship God the Father, through his son Jesus, in the power of the Holy Spirit. But it is worth checking what this meant for the earliest Christians. And as well as being a learning church and a loving church, they were also a worshipping church: They devoted themselves to the breaking of bread and to prayer. The breaking of bread undoubtedly meant the Communion meal, which we share together from time to time in our church services. But it also refers simply to them having meals together when they gathered for worship. Again, we do that – not every week, as it takes a lot of planning! – but we do that here.

They also devoted themselves to prayer. A church can have great preaching and teaching, but if there’s no real commitment on the part of its member to prayer, then the church can’t be said to fit the New Testament pattern. And our worship, including our prayer life, needs to be both in the more formal setting of Sunday services and at home. We see that this was the pattern in our passage.
We read in verse 46 that ‘they continued to meet together in the Temple courts.’ The Temple was still standing in Jerusalem at that time. The new believers wouldn’t have had any need to take part in the Temple sacrifices for sin, since they believed – as we do – that Jesus himself paid a once-and-for-all sacrifice for us in his death on the cross. Peter had made that quite clear in the sermon we looked at last week, earlier in this very chapter. But they may well have taken part in the public worship of the Temple, for example by singing Psalms there.

Paul said later on to the Colossians that they should sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs in their worship times. If you ever wondered why we have at least one Psalm every week, well this is the reason. But we also sing hymns and other songs – only the best will do in worshipping our great God!

So the first believers worshipped in public in a formal context. Yet we read that they also broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favour of all the people. What a lovely picture this paints for us! A worshipping community where even outsiders noticed that there was something different about these people! Those who worship with glad and sincere hearts have a great balance between being joyful and being reverent. Those glad hearts were also filled with awe (verse 43). This balance of joy and reverence is a true sign that the Holy Spirit is present.

Joyfulness in worship may not seem immediately obvious in Scottish worship services. I have worshipped in African churches, both in Nigeria and here in Scotland. Our new friends may not find our worship especially joyful, but believe me, compared to some church traditions in Scotland, we are pretty joyful. So let’s sing out with real gusto in the closing hymn!

An evangelising church

‘And the Lord added daily to their number those who were being saved.’ (Acts 2:47) A church that is only concerned with learning, loving and worshipping is all very well, but such a church would be entirely inward-looking. A healthy church is concerned with those who are as yet outside the Body of Christ, but who we hope will join us.

Converting people is not the work of humans, but the work of the Lord. It’s the Lord who added to their number back then, and it’s the Lord who adds to our number today as well. It’s just not something the preacher can do. We can stand here till we’re blue in the face proclaiming Christ, urging all to repent and turn to him – but it’s only the Lord who can convert anyone. I know from personal experience long ago what that feels like. I’ve been where you are. You’re sitting there listening, and it’s like the message is really hitting home to you, personally. It’s when you think, How did the preacher know that about me? This really makes sense to me now, and I’ve got to do something about it!

But the Lord also uses fallible humans to establish contacts with those outside the church. That’s something we all need to get better at, don’t you think? It’s when we’re out in the world during the week that we meet people. And that’s when any of us can share the Gospel, or invite them to church. I’m not saying it’s easy. But if we each take on board what it means to be a learning church, a loving church and a worshipping and praying church, then it will become a little less hard.

And may the Lord himself add regularly to our number those who are being saved.

Powerful Preaching at Pentecost

19 October 202319 October 2023 Alistair Donald Studies in Acts

Sermon: Sunday, 15th October, 2023
Speaker: Alistair Donald
Scripture: Acts 2:14-40

Last week we heard about the stupendously exciting time at the feast of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was poured out on all the believers for the first time. In the Old Testament, the Spirit was sent to equip certain individuals for specific tasks – for example Gideon in the Book of Judges. But here in the New Testament, the Holy Spirit is poured out on all people, that is on all the believers who were gathered – not all people in the world of course, but on all those who become followers of Jesus. This had been foretold by the Old Testament prophet Joel. God says: In the last days… that’s between the first and second coming of Jesus, so we’re in the last days. ‘In the last days I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.’ (Acts 2:17)

That first time was very dramatic – sound like wind, sight like tongues of fire. And it had a great impact; the disciples, at that time just 150 although today we see how that increased to no less than 3,000, who’d been cowering away in fear became bold at speaking! And they even spoke in other languages, praising God in languages they hadn’t had to sit down and learn, so that people gathered in Jerusalem for the Festival from all over the Roman world could hear them praising God in their own languages!

What did it all mean? Had these 150 followers of Jesus had too much wine, as some were saying? Peter was quite clear that was not the case. It was only 9 o’clock in the morning! It’s what the prophet Joel prophesied, hundreds of years before and Peter quotes the passage, ending with this from the prophet: ‘And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ (Acts 2:21) Saved from what? Saved from the disastrous and terrifying fate of meeting a Holy God at the end of our days without having repented or believed in the Saviour.

The plan of God

The recent death of Jesus had really made an impact in Jerusalem, really caused a stir. It had all seemed so promising at first. As Peter says to the crowd: ‘Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs – as you yourselves know.’ (Acts 2:22)

Everybody loved the miracles Jesus did. But how many were keen on him being the kind of Messiah who would be killed on a cross? Not too many. Even Peter doubted that when he first heard it! If you remember back to the Gospel accounts of Easter week, you’ll remember how people thought Jesus the Messiah was going to be a national hero and liberate the country from the hated Romans – they could get their independence again, just like the far-off days of King David and King Solomon, hundreds of years beforehand.

Then it all seemed to go wrong. Jesus had died a humiliating death at the hands of the Roman army, and with the approval and the collusion of the Jewish religious leaders! So Jesus was viewed as a failure. As Cleopas and his friend had said on the road to Emmaus on that first Easter Sunday: ‘We had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel.’ (Luke 24:21) All the disciples had been dejected and fearful after Jesus was executed. But Peter now saw that this was all part of God’s plan all along, as he tells the gathered crowd with great boldness: ‘This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge.’ (Acts 2:23)

The demise of Jesus the Son hadn’t caught God the Father by surprise. He wasn’t having to respond to unforeseen events and adjust his plan accordingly. No, the death of Jesus was always in the plan! It was foretold hundreds of years beforehand by the prophet Isaiah. We can read what looks very much like an eye witness account of the death of Jesus on the cross in Isaiah chapter 53 some 700 years before it happened. The disciples, including Peter, hadn’t seen that at first but now he sees it very clearly.

It always was God’s plan that the Messiah Jesus would die for our sins. Jesus himself knew this, when he said about himself, ‘The Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and teachers of the Old Testament Law. ‘They will condemn him to death and hand him over to the Gentiles, who will mock him, and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise.’ (Matthew 20:18) This teaches an important lesson not just about Jesus, but one for us. It helps us deal with our own lesser troubles and get them into perspective.

On one level, Jesus’ death was the result of the wicked actions of humans. But at a deeper level, God brought something infinitely good out of those evil actions. God is not the author of evil actions; all humans are accountable for what they do. But God is so great that he is able to turn things around.

Think of the case of Joseph sold into slavery in Egypt by his own brothers, hundreds of years before Jesus. After languishing in a dungeon Jospeh rose to the very top, becoming Prime Minister of Egypt. When his brothers came begging for food during a famine, they were horrified when they realised they were asking the brother they’d betrayed. But he put their minds at rest with these timeless words: ‘You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.’ (Genesis 50:20)

And this is so helpful when we’re on the receiving end of rough stuff from other people. God knows what you’re going through. God knows when you’ve been hurt and when others are truly in the wrong. But God is so great that he’s able to turn round even the bad stuff so that good may come from it in due course. As Paul says:‘And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.’ (Romans 8:28)

The Plan of God saw to it that the death of Jesus had a purpose. And God has a plan for your life also, where he can turn even the bad stuff in your past for your benefit if you can truly say that you love God and have been called according to his purpose.

The problem we have

It is of course the problem of sin. But our passage comes at it from a slightly different angle. Peter proclaims that after Jesus was nailed to the cross, ‘God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.’ (Acts 2:24)

Why was it impossible? Because King David had foreseen hundreds of years beforehand that Jesus would not be abandoned to the grave, nor would his body see decay. Peter goes on to draw a contrast between King David and King Jesus. David lived roughly 1,000 years before Jesus, and was the greatest king in Israel’s history. But even he died and Peter could point out David’s tomb to the crowd as he spoke! You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. ‘But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. Seeing what was to come, he spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, that he was not abandoned to the realm of the dead, nor did his body see decay. God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it. Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear…’ (Acts 2:30-3)

And Peter quotes another Psalm, Psalm 110, before reaching the climax of his sermon; ‘God has made this Jesus whom you crucified both Lord and Messiah.’ (Acts 2:36) Peter was speaking to the very crowd who had been baying for the blood of Jesus just a few weeks beforehand: Crucify him! Imagine how gutted they must have felt! No wonder we read that they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, ‘Brothers, what shall we do?’

And you may be thinking: well, that’s all very interesting, but what’s it got to do with me? I wasn’t there that day when the crowd were baying for the blood of Jesus! I didn’t send Jesus to the cross! Well actually, you did and I did. That’s the whole point of the cross, that’s exactly what makes sense of what seems like a tragic event. That’s why we sing ‘It was my sin that held him there – Until it was accomplished / His dying breath has brought me life’ And Jesus could say in triumph in his dying breath: ‘It is finished!’

Our sin estranges us from God and renders us guilty in his sight. We see the fruits of sin all around us; wars, greed, anger, racism. the demeaning of women. But if we’re honest with ourselves, we know it’s not just a problem ‘out there’ where ‘other people’ do ‘really bad’ things. There’s the whole offence of not acknowledging God as being first in our lives – bar none! We therefore all deserve the just judgment of God on our lives at the end of our days. So what shall we do? Peter answers the question for us, with a promise: ‘Repent and be baptised… in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the Holy Spirit.’

The promise of God

If we truly see our situation as God sees it, then the only really important questions in life are this:
Where do I stand in relation to a holy God, the Creator of is all? And how am I going to answer the question – what should I do? How do you answer that question?

God knows that we are all, by nature, estranged from him. But he loves the human race so much that he sent a Saviour. He so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.

Is that true of you? Are you among the ‘whoever’? If you can’t quite say a hearty ‘yes’ to that, today would be a good time to finally answer it. Peter is quite emphatic: Repent and be baptised every one of you for the forgiveness of your sins. And then the promise: And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit to help you become more like Jesus!

But what if you think Jesus won’t accept you, that faith in him is not for the likes of you? Remember those words of Jesus we shared with the kids? ‘All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.’ (John 6:37) And that, too, is a promise!

The final words I’d like to draw your attention to in Peter’s Pentecost speech are easily overlooked, but they are important: ‘The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off – for all whom the Lord will call.’ (Acts 2:39)

What promise is that, and how is it applied to children? It’s the promise we’ve just been discussing. It’s the promise that when we repent and are baptised in the Name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of our sins, we will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. And that promise is for us and our children. This is the reason why we in the Free Church of Scotland baptise adults when they first believe, but why we also baptise the children and infants of believers.

Now Infant Baptism has sometimes had a rather bad name over the years, as if it’s some kind of superstition – a lucky charm that everyone gives their new baby. It is something that’s often abused: just a cultural rite of passage to mark the arrival of a baby, often with very little connection to Christian faith as preached by the apostles. But the abuse of a practice doesn’t mean that a practice is wrong – only that it’s abused.

I know that many people come to faith in Baptist churches, where only believers are baptised. How can a newborn baby believe? Well, it’s great that Gospel churches are found in all Christian traditions, including those of our Baptist friends. But if you have that background yourself then it may seem a bit strange to see a baby being baptised. Why would we do that if we follow the Bible?

The full answer would take a whole sermon in itself but here, very briefly, is the Biblical case, both in the Old and New Testaments. Nearly all New Testament teaching has its roots in the Old Testament.

Peter says in our passage ‘the promise is for you and your children.’ Hundreds of years before that, God had made a promise to Abraham. And ‘Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.’ The promise then was that he and his descendants would be in a right relationship with God through faith, and God gave him a sign to mark this covenant – the sign of circumcision, a sign that Jewish baby boys receive to this day.

In the New Testament, the sign of the covenant is a different one. It’s the sign of Baptism – to symbolise being washed clean on the inside, when we believe in Jesus’ death for the forgiveness of our sins. When Baptism is mentioned later on in the Book of Acts, it’s not just individuals who are baptised, but also whole households, whole families. Acts chapter 16 records that in Philippi, the businesswoman Lydia and the jailer are baptised with their households. When Paul remembers baptising certain individuals in Corinth (1 Corinthians 1), he relates that he himself baptised ‘the household of Stephanas.’

Are we to suppose that no infants were referred to in all these households? Surely not. Baptising babies in our church is not a sign of superstition. It’s not a guarantee that they will grow up to be Christians: as parents we have a responsibility to bring them up in the ways of the Lord. But it is a sign that our growing children are included in the People of God, right from their birth onwards. Think about this: if the blessings of the New Covenant are greater than those of the Old Covenant, and they are, wouldn’t it be very odd if children received the Old covenant sign of circumcision, but that children didn’t receive the New covenant sign of Baptism?

Perhaps not everyone here today will agree, and it’s not a condition of membership in the Free Church. But if you’ve not really thought about it before, I hope you will see that it is something that the Bible teaches. This thing pleases God. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off. Scotland is far off from Jerusalem. But now the Gospel is here. Maybe you too were once far off from God, as we all were but now you’re not. I hope we all are now near.

What’s so amazing about grace?

10 May 202310 May 2023 Alistair Donald Sermons

Sermon: Sunday, 7th May, 2023
Speaker: Alistair Donald
Scripture: Ephesians 2:8-9 and 2 Kings 5:1-14

People just don’t know about what the Bible means by grace. It’s a foreign word to them. It’s hard to define and, once defined, it’s hard to grasp or accept! So wonderful it is! So amazing! Why is that? I hope we’ll see by the end of this sermon!

‘For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no-one can boast.’ (Ephesians 2:8-9)

Paul wrote this to those who were already Christians. But they had to be reminded. How do we get right with God? Is it what we ‘do’ for God, as almost the whole human race believes? Or is it by grace – something wholly undeserved? A good way of illustrating grace is to look at this story from the Old Testament. It’s set around 850 BC in 2 countries (Israel and Aram, or Syria), with the River Jordan as the boundary between them. It contrasts 2 people – Naaman, a general in the army for Aram, and a servant girl there who had been captured from Israel. A very big contrast in every way!

Naaman healed of leprosy

‘Now Naaman was commander of the army of the king of Aram. He was a great man in the sight of his master and highly regarded, because through him the Lord had given victory to Aram. He was a valiant soldier, but he had leprosy. Bands of raiders from Aram had gone out and had taken captive a young girl from Israel, and she served Naaman’s wife. She said to her mistress, ‘If only my master would see the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.’ Naaman went to his master and told him what the girl from Israel had said. ‘By all means, go,’ the king of Aram replied. ‘I will send a letter to the king of Israel.’ So Naaman left, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold and ten sets of clothing. The letter that he took to the king of Israel read: ‘With this letter I am sending my servant Naaman to you so that you may cure him of his leprosy.’

As soon as the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his robes and said, ‘Am I God? Can I kill and bring back to life? Why does this fellow send someone to me to be cured of his leprosy? See how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me!’ When Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his robes, he sent him this message: ‘Why have you torn your robes? Make the man come to me and he will know that there is a prophet in Israel.’ So Naaman went with his horses and chariots and stopped at the door of Elisha’s house. Elisha sent a messenger to say to him, ‘Go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed.’

But Naaman went away angry and said, ‘I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy. Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them and be cleansed?’ So he turned and went off in a rage.

Naaman’s servants went to him and said, ‘My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, ‘Wash and be cleansed!’ So he went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy.’ (2 Kings 5:1-14)

Naaman, we read, is a great man; he’s highly regarded. He walks and talks the language of greatness. He’s a ‘somebody’. He has status. He has a wife with servants. He is no doubt very rich. If he was with us today, he would no doubt live in a gated community. He would own a top-of-the-range car, with a chauffeur to drive him about. Maybe a private jet. Naaman is a ‘somebody’. But he has one big problem that he has no idea how to cure; he has an infectious skin disease: leprosy.

The servant girl is different in every way possible: she’s a ‘nobody’ – we don’t even know her name. And as we’ll see that’s the point! This person who seems so insignificant plays an important part in God’s plans! Don’t you find that reassuring? I know that I do! It’s not fame, fortune and power that are important to God but, rather, faithfulness to him and willingness to speak and act for him. Those are the character traits that are important to God! So we have this little servant girl. She’s far from home. She’d been taken captive in a raid across the River Jordan, and she was now far from her native land of Israel. I’m sure she is lonely – different language, different customs. We’re not told that she’s being ill-treated, but life is not great for her.

But this little servant girl has one thing that Naaman doesn’t have; she has faith in the Living God, the God of Israel. She’s serving in the household of pagan worshippers. But like Daniel, many years later in exile in Babylon. she has kept the faith. She hasn’t let it all drift when she moves away from her home and family. That can happen, can’t it, when people leave home and move away? But this girl still worships the Living God. And she has faith that God will be able to cure her master Naaman, through the ministry of Elisha the prophet back home in Israel.

So she says to her mistress, ‘If only my master would see the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.’ (2 Kings 5:3) And Naaman is willing to give it a go. People generally are, aren’t they, when they get an apparently incurable disease? So he’s willing. But remember who he is: he’s a great man. He’s important! He knows how the world works! He’s not going to go directly to some nobody prophet or priest in a despised neighbouring country, some flunkey that no-one has ever heard of. Important people deal directly with each other – have you noticed that? So he gets his own king to write a letter – not to the Prophet Elisha, but to the King of Israel. King-on-King correspondence! He also packs a load of money. Surely money is the answer to everything? Money makes the world go round!

So off he goes, clutching the letter from his king, addressed to the king of Israel. ‘With this letter I am sending my servant Naaman to you so that you may cure him of his leprosy.’ (Not quite what the servant girl had said). Not surprisingly, the King of Israel thinks it’s all a provocation – his neighbouring king is surely trying to pick a fight, by asking him to do something that he knows that he doesn’t have the power to do. And he tore his robes – an ancient middle eastern way of signalling his utter despair and fear.

But the story doesn’t end there. We now hear from the Prophet Elisha (successor to the more famous Elijah). This is, of course, the prophet that the servant girl meant when she suggested that Naaman travel over to Israel in the first place! When Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his robes, he sent him this message: ‘Why have you torn your robes? Make the man come to me, and he will know that there is a prophet in Israel.’ So Naaman arrives with his huge entourage of horses and chariots at Elisha’s little house – probably just a hut, a rather humble dwelling, and certainly not the kind of place that an important man like Naaman was expecting to enter. And Elisha didn’t go out, but sent one of his own servants out to Naaman with a message that was quite unexpected: ‘Go, wash yourself seven times in the River Jordan, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed.’

And Naaman’s response is like: ‘Whaaaat??? Is that it? You mean to tell me that I’ve come all this way to be told to go and bathe in that piddling little stream that you call a river? And he roared off in a fury, saying: ‘I thought he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, wave his hand over the spot, and cure me of my leprosy! ‘And don’t even get me going about rivers’, he appears to say: Are not the rivers of Damascus in my homeland better than any of the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them and be cleansed?’ So he stormed off in an absolute rage!

And friends: this is a perfect illustration of why the Grace of God is so hard for many people to accept today, as well as back then, as we’ll be seeing shortly. There must be more to it than just believing in Jesus, believing in his Cross, no? Hold that thought! So what exactly was Naaman’s problem? He was too proud to accept the solution to his problem. ‘Wash seven times in a little river? Is that it? Does he really expect me – great man that I am – to do something so demeaning as to humble myself in that way?’ It’s just as well that his servants chased after him and reasoned with him: ‘If a prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you to wash and be cleansed?’ So this great man, this general, went down and dipped in the Jordan seven times and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy.

Eventually he swallowed his pride, and obeyed the simple thing that had been asked of him. He recognised his predicament, humbled himself, and obeyed. Why, then, is this ancient account from the Old Testament such a good illustration of what’s so amazing about God’s Grace? Here’s why: Our predicament is not that we have leprosy. Our predicament is different. More universal. The Bible calls it the problem of sin. Sin is not just doing bad things. It’s more deep-seated than that. Sin is a barrier between us and God. Instead of putting God first, others second and ourselves last of all, we humans by nature turn that on its head: Me first, others next and God often as an afterthought, if there at all. Time and again, we find ourselves not doing what we should do or not saying what we should say, or even not thinking what we should think. That is sin. And because we are all made in the image of God, and are intended to worship God and give glory to him – that’s the way we’re designed! – when men and women don’t do that, they direct their worship elsewhere.

We’re hard-wired to worship, so when we don’t worship God, where is worship then directed? To idols. To false gods. In the Bible, and in many cultural and religious traditions, that means worshipping something made of stone or wood. That’s what Naaman previously did, in a temple dedicated to false gods. But even when people don’t to that, they dream up imaginary idols. As John Calvin said, the human heart is an idol-factory! For some it’s money. For others it’s their job. For yet others it’s acceptance: what other people think about their social media posts. And that takes you down a route to nowhere, where you end up worshipping yourself. Look what happens if you dare to question, for example, someone else’s so-called gender identity. It’s treated as nothing short of blasphemy! Why is that? Because when we humans don’t worship the Living God as we were designed to do, we don’t stop worshipping – we can’t stop worshipping since that’s the way God made us! But we find other outlets for our worship.

Unlike Naaman in this Bible passage, our predicament is not that we have leprosy. Our predicament is different. More universal. The problem of sin. And sin estranges us from God and renders us guilty in his sight. We see the fruits of sin all around us; war, greed, anger, racism, the demeaning of women. But if we’re honest with ourselves, we know it’s not just a problem out there where other people do really bad things. There’s running down someone’s reputation behind their back. There’s borrowing from a colleague and ‘forgetting’ to repay the debt. Perhaps you are an exception?

Now if this all a bit depressing, too much like bad news rather than good news – then hang on! When it’s a dark and cloudy day, like it’s been in recent days, and then the sun bursts through and warms us, we appreciate it more than if there were no clouds at all! All this talk of sin only clears the way for the good news – that God sent Jesus into the world not only to show us how to live, but to die a sacrificial death, and to free us from the guilt of sin, and the power of sin. So those who trust in Jesus don’t face the judgment of God on our lives at the end of our days because Jesus has already done that on our behalf. As the most famous verse in the Bible puts it; ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.’ (John 3:16)

Naaman just had to do one simple thing to be cleansed of his leprosy and we only have to do one simple thing to be cleansed of our sin: believe that Jesus died for you and for me. Like Naaman, that simple message is sometimes resisted. Is that really it? Something so straightforward? A clever person might be looking for something more grand to guide their life, a great philosophical system, that he or she can grasp with an advanced intellect. But here’s me saying, ‘Believe in Jesus’ death on your behalf?’ Is that it? Yes, that’s it.

Or someone may feel that they’ve just messed up their life too much. There’s such a mountain of bad decisions, of ignoring God, of hurting others (or of being hurt by others). It’s impossible for that burden to be lifted. It’s surely impossible to get a fresh start. But here’s me saying, ‘Believe in Jesus’ death on your behalf, and you’ll be reconciled to God?’ Is that it? Yes, that’s it. Another problem Naaman had (later in the passage in 2 Kings 5) is this: he wanted to pay. Remember how he’d brought all these horses laden with shekels of gold and fancy clothing? After he was cured, he went back up the hill to Elisha’s house and wanted to pay for his cure. But the prophet said no. Why? Because the gift of cleansing was free, without charge.

And that’s another reason why the Grace of God is so Amazing. Not only does it mean that God doesn’t condemn us, not only does it give us a fresh start – but it’s free! In our pride, we have this unfortunate tendency that we want to recommend ourselves to God in some way: ‘Hey, God, have you noticed that I’m not really such a bad person? I come to church most Sundays! I even give to good causes! Look at all that I’ve done – surely you must accept me!’ And this brings us straight back to those verses in Ephesians 2, where the Apostle Paul had to deal with the exact same issue: ‘For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.’

Jesus once told a story that shines a light on this very same issue. It’s in the Gospel of Luke. ‘Two men went up to Temple to pray: Pharisee (a religious man) and a tax collector (thought to be the lowest of the low). The Pharisee prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men – robbers, evil-doers adulterers – or even like that tax collector. I fast twice week and give a tenth of all I get.’ The Tax Collector: stood at a distance, looking down: ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ And Jesus said : ‘I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.’ (Luke 18:10-14)

Now please don’t misunderstand: there is a place for good works, but it’s as a loving response to what Jesus has already done for us. Good works are the proof that we have believed in Jesus. ‘For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.’ (Ephesians 2:10)

It’s important that we get this the right way round. It’s not that our good works are some kind of display to show God how worthy we are of his love (that’s what the Pharisee tried! Didn’t work!) People like this are saying in effect: ‘I may not be perfect, but I’m not like other people who are worse than me! I’ve often gone to church. I’m a good person really!’ Is that what you think? If so, then you’re relying on your good deeds, rather than on the cross of Christ! So we don’t do good works or good deeds to recommend ourselves to God, as Naaman tried to do, as the Pharisee in the parable Jesus told did. Rather, we do good works as a loving response to the Grace of God in Christ once we have humbled all our pride, and come to Jesus, believing that his death on the cross puts us right with God, in a way that we could never earn for ourselves. And we find a new peace in our lives. A new balance. A new purpose. A new love for others. And best of all – it’s all free!

Isn’t that amazing? Yes it is! That’s what’s so amazing about grace! Now, in closing – this may be very familiar to you. If so, then I’ll just say this: don’t let familiarity breed contempt. Let that familiarity lead you to do what the servant girl did; recommend the solution to others. You think you’re not equipped for that. Well, the servant girl had no special training. But she knew to point people to the source of amazing grace. But if this is a bit new to you, if you’ve seen how amazing God’s grace is, then I’ll just say this; don’t let the moment pass. God’s amazing grace is for you. Believe in your heart, and you too can be freed from the terrible disease of sin. And Jesus will come into your life to help you to change and to become more like him.