Well, good evening.
Thank you all for coming out on a cold night,
and on Oscar night, no less.
I just remembered.
I'm sorry you'll be missing the joyful tears of the winners
and the pained smiles of the losers
as they pretend to be happy for the winners
but really aren't inside.
Or the red carpet interviews.
In case you're wondering, I'm wearing Old Navy tonight.
At least I think. I'm not sure.
It's actually really fitting because our text tonight
has all the ingredients for a great Hollywood blockbuster.
Hopeless circumstances,
individual acts of great courage,
the loyalty of a faithful friend,
stirring action,
victory snatched from the jaws of defeat,
this is a thrilling story of combat.
1 Samuel 14.
If you haven't already, turn in your Bibles to 1 Samuel 14.
If you're using one of the pew Bibles that's provided for you,
that's on page 235.
If you're new to the Bible,
the big numbers on the page are the chapter numbers.
The little ones are the verse numbers.
We'll be looking at the first part of the chapter tonight,
1 Samuel 14, 1 through 23.
Listen as I read.
1 Samuel 14, 1 through 23.
One day, Jonathan, the son of Saul,
said to the young man who carried his armor,
Come, let us go over to the Philistine garrison on the other side.
But he did not tell his father.
Saul was staying on the outskirts of Gibeah
in the pomegranate cave at Megron.
The people who were with him were about 600 men,
including Ahijah, the son of Ahatab,
Ichabod's brother, son of Phinehas,
son of Eli, the priest of the Lord in Shiloh,
wearing an ephod.
And the people did not know that Jonathan had gone.
Within the passes by which Jonathan
sought to go over to the Philistine garrison,
there was a rocky crag on the one side
and a rocky crag on the other side.
The name of the one was Bozes,
and the name of the other was Senna.
The one crag grows on the north in front of Michmash,
and the other on the south in front of Gibeah.
Jonathan said to the young man who carried his armor,
Come, let us go over to the garrison
of these uncircumcised.
It may be that the Lord will work for us,
for nothing can hinder the Lord from saving
by many or by few.
And his armor-bearer said to him,
Do all that is in your heart.
Do as you wish.
Behold, I am with you, heart and soul.
Then Jonathan said,
Behold, we will cross over to the men,
and we will show ourselves to them.
If they say to us,
Wait until we come to you,
then we will stand still in our place,
and we will not go up to them.
But if they say,
Come up to us,
then we will go up,
for the Lord has given them into our hand,
and this shall be the sign for us.
So both of them showed themselves
to the garrison of the Philistines,
and the Philistines said,
Look, Hebrews are coming out of the holes
where they have hidden themselves.
And the men of the garrison
hailed Jonathan and his armor-bearer
and said,
Come up to us,
and we will show you a thing.
And Jonathan said to his armor-bearer,
Come up after me,
for the Lord has given them
into the hand of Israel.
Then Jonathan climbed up on his hands and feet
and his armor-bearer after him.
And they fell before Jonathan,
and his armor-bearer killed them after him.
And that first strike,
which Jonathan and his armor-bearer made,
killed about twenty men
within, as it were,
a half furrow's length
in an acre of land.
And there was a panic in the camp,
in the field,
and among all the people.
The garrison and even the raiders trembled.
The earth quaked,
and it became a very great panic.
And the watchmen of Saul and Gibeah of Benjamin
looked, and behold,
the multitude was dispersing here and there.
Then Saul said to the people who were with him,
Count and see who has gone from us.
And when they had counted,
behold,
Jonathan and his armor-bearer were not there.
So Saul said to Ahijah,
Bring the ark of God here,
for the ark of God went at that time
with the people of Israel.
Now while Saul was talking to the priests,
the tumult in the camp of the Philistines
increased more and more.
So Saul said to the priests,
Withdraw your hand.
Then Saul and all the people who were with him
rallied and went into the battle.
And behold,
every Philistine's sword was against his fellow,
and there was very great confusion.
Now the Hebrews,
who had been with the Philistines before that time,
and who had gone up with them into the camp,
even they also turned to be with the Israelites
who were with Saul and Jonathan.
Likewise,
when all the men of Israel
who had hidden themselves in the hill country of Ephraim
heard that the Philistines were fleeing,
they too followed hard after them in the battle.
So the Lord saved Israel that day,
and the battle passed beyond Beth-Avon.
Well, it's an exciting story.
If you've been following along in 1 Samuel,
back in 1 Samuel 13,
we've learned that the nation of Israel
is once again in very bad shape.
They have a new king, Saul,
but he's picked a fight with Philistine soldiers,
and Israel has been invaded.
And the Philistines have the Israelites outnumbered.
Look back at 13.5.
The Philistines invade with soldiers
as numerous as the sand on the seashore.
Saul begins with just a few thousand soldiers,
but by the time we get to 1 Samuel 14,
he only has 600 still with him.
People are fleeing.
They're abandoning him.
To make matters worse,
the Israelites are also outmatched technologically.
The Philistine army had chariots.
These are the tanks of the ancient world.
The Israelites don't even have swords and spears
because the Philistines
have not allowed them to have blacksmiths.
So the Israelites are going to war
against the sophisticated Philistines
with nothing but bows and arrows
and farm tools for weapons.
And so it's not surprising
that they're demoralized.
They're running away,
or they're hiding in the hills,
outnumbered, fighting with inferior weapons,
low morale.
This is the recipe for a military disaster.
And so this is what we come to
at the beginning of 1 Samuel 14,
a hopeless situation.
And then Jonathan, the king's son,
comes up with what seems like a crazy plan.
He and his armor bearer,
the young man who helps him carry his things,
decide that they're going to attack
the Philistines by themselves.
And only one of them has a sword.
Jonathan has a sword,
but his armor bearer doesn't.
Now Jonathan isn't entirely crazy.
He has the sense not to tell his father
about this plan.
He's operating under the opinion
that it's better to ask forgiveness
than permission.
No father would have allowed
any plan like this to go ahead,
but Jonathan does it.
Now we're going to delve a little bit deeper
into the story
and try to see what it tells us today,
but I want to first pause
and ask all of us a question.
If you think about it,
thousands of battles and wars
have been fought over the centuries.
Now many of them had much more significant
political consequences than this one.
They involved a lot more combatants.
This is just dozens or hundreds.
But the story of this battle
was written down in the Bible.
It's passed along to us
and we find ourselves
on a Sunday evening
in New Haven, Connecticut
talking about it.
Why?
Why this story?
Is this just an accident?
Some historical coincidence?
Well, I'll tell you why I think it is.
Because unlike many other battles and wars,
bigger ones that have been fought,
even around the same time,
the chief actors in this drama
are not people.
It's God who's really on display
in 1 Samuel 14.
He's the chief actor,
even though he never speaks a word
or draws a sword.
That's what this story is about.
Tonight we're going to be looking at
Jonathan's faith
and then in his action,
but we're not really interested
in Jonathan.
We want to know about God.
And once we learn
who God is from this text,
then we can learn
what we're supposed to do
in response to it.
So we'll start with Jonathan's faith,
we'll look at his action,
and then we'll try to see
what we're to do
in response to the God we encounter
in the pages of 1 Samuel.
Well, what is Jonathan's faith?
What does he believe?
We'll look back at what he says
in verse 6.
Jonathan said to his young armor bearer,
Come, let's go over to the outpost
of these uncircumcised fellows.
Perhaps the Lord will act in our behalf.
Nothing can hinder the Lord
from saving by many or by few.
Now these Philistines were uncircumcised,
meaning they're not among God's people.
They're not partakers in God's covenant.
In fact, they're defying God
and they're oppressing His people.
This cannot be tolerated.
And Jonathan knew that nothing could stop the Lord
from saving His people.
Nothing could prevent him
from rescuing the ones he loved.
He knew that the power of God
was greater than any military force
that could be arrayed then or now.
And God doesn't need chariots or large armies.
He doesn't need many.
He can do it by few or none.
He doesn't even need swords.
When God decides to save, He saves.
And that's the confidence, the faith,
that propels Jonathan forward.
That's the conviction that gives him
this outstanding, extraordinary,
almost foolhardy courage.
Well, how did Jonathan know this?
It certainly wasn't obvious from the circumstances.
You couldn't read the signs of the times
and think that there was a great victory in the offing.
No, the opposite.
I think he knew his history.
He knew the history recorded in our Bible,
which is the record of God's saving work.
And it drives home this same message
again and again and again.
God is powerful to save.
I think Jonathan knew what God had done
in bringing the people of Israel out of Egypt.
A slave people,
enslaved in the nation,
in the superpower of its age.
Far more powerful than even the Philistines.
But God had saved them.
And even if they had managed to escape Egypt,
the road to the promised land
was long and dangerous,
but God preserved them.
Then they didn't have a plan
for fighting the Canaanites once they got there,
but God gave them victory.
These were not obstacles to God.
Jonathan realized that God can save by many or by few.
God didn't need thousands
or hundreds of thousands of soldiers.
He didn't really need much at all.
During the first part of the Civil War,
the commander of the Union Army
was a general named George McClellan.
Now, George McClellan was really popular
with his soldiers,
but he was tentative
and he was always afraid
to engage with the Confederate troops.
He never thought he had quite enough men.
And that's how he felt.
And so he was always sending messages
back to Washington, asking for more.
Finally, President Lincoln said,
if General McClellan does not want to use the army,
I would like to borrow it for a time.
And so he relieved General McClellan of his command
and found someone who would do the work
that he wanted done.
But I think McClellan's not special here.
I think every general probably has wanted more men,
more weapons.
In any battle, it's always better to be the many
rather than the few.
But the military history in the Bible,
and there's a lot of it,
doesn't really fit this mold, does it?
God never complains about the lack of soldiers.
On the contrary,
sometimes he seems to intentionally limit
the human resources at his disposal.
That's what we see here in 1 Samuel 14.
We see it maybe even more clearly
in Judges chapter 7.
Then there, in Judges 7,
it's not the Philistines who are oppressing Israel.
It's another neighboring nation, the Midianites.
And so God raises up Gideon,
an unimportant man
from an unimportant family in Israel,
not someone who's an obvious choice to lead at all,
but God chooses him.
And then Gideon calls the warriors of Israel together.
And listen to what God tells Gideon in Judges 7.
It's on page 206 if you want to turn there,
but I'll just read it.
Verses 2 through 7.
The Lord said to Gideon,
You have too many men for me to deliver Midian
into their hands,
in order that Israel may not boast against me
that her own strength has saved her.
Announce now to the people,
anyone who trembles with fear
may turn back and leave Mount Gilead.
So 22,000 men left,
while 10,000 men remained.
But the Lord said to Gideon,
There are still too many men.
Take them down to the water,
and I will sift them for you there.
If I say,
This one shall go with you,
he shall go.
But if I say,
This one shall not go with you,
he shall not go.
So Gideon took the men down to the water.
Then the Lord told him,
Separate those who lap the water
with their tongues like a dog
from those who kneel down to drink.
300 men lapped with their hands to their mouths.
All the rest got down on their knees to drink.
The Lord said to Gideon,
With the 300 men that lapped,
I will save you
and give the Midianites into your hands.
Let all the other men go,
each to his own place.
So God is progressively whittling down
the number of soldiers available to Gideon.
Now why did the Lord give these specific instructions?
Was there something particularly spiritual
about the men who lapped at the water
rather than the ones
who knelt down on their knees to drink?
Some people have tried to explain
how that might be true.
Maybe something that would make them better soldiers
or better at following instructions.
But if there's something about lapping at water
that makes you a better soldier,
I don't know what it is.
In fact, I think the whole point
of what God's doing here is saying,
Look, I'm doing this in order
that Israel may not boast
that it's their own strength that saved them.
I'm choosing an arbitrary criteria
to separate these soldiers
just so you remember
that I won this victory
and it wasn't won by soldiers
or strength of arms.
That's how God does things.
And isn't that exactly what God is doing
in 1 Samuel 14 here
in the passage we're looking at this evening?
There's a great Philistine army
that stands arrayed against Israel
and God's going to win the victory
with two men and one sword.
God wants to be glorified and worshipped
as the true deliverer of his people.
In fact, every detail of Jonathan's assault
on the Philistine outpost
emphasizes this fact
that the victory belongs to God.
So Jonathan's attack begins
over the most impossible,
unpromising terrain imaginable.
Remember, we saw how it was described.
There's a deep ravine
with cliffs on either side
and in order to get to the Philistines,
Jonathan and his armor bearer
are going to have to climb down one
and then climb up the other
while the Philistines laugh at them
and probably throw rocks.
Well, maybe the Philistines
won't expect them.
Maybe they'll have the advantage of surprise
coming from that direction,
but we see that that doesn't happen either.
In fact, Jonathan said to his armor bearer,
climb up after me.
The Lord has given them
into the hand of Israel.
Actually, I'm sorry, before that,
in verse 8, Jonathan said,
come then, we will cross over
toward the men and let them see us.
So Jonathan reveals himself.
Here I am.
Let's the enemy know he's coming.
And then Jonathan responds
with great confidence.
The Lord has given them
into the hand of Israel.
So it's two against dozens
with inferior weaponry,
climbing up a cliff
with soldiers standing above you.
It's perfect.
It's the perfect setup for an attack.
Not from a worldly perspective,
but from God's.
This might seem like insane arrogance
or delusion until you remember
that it's God's presence in the battle
that makes the majority.
Well, the remainder of the passage
just gives us details of the victory.
They climb the cliff.
They kill a bunch of soldiers.
The rest run off in terror.
The news of the defeat spreads,
and pretty soon the Philistine army
is in a panic.
It's a panic sent by God.
By the time the Israelites
even arrive on the scene
to finish the job,
the Philistines are fighting one another.
They're doing the Israelites' jobs for them.
The victory is complete.
It's a catastrophic setback
for the Philistines.
God's great power to save
is demonstrated again
to a doubtful world.
So where are you right now?
Not in ancient Israel,
being oppressed by Philistines, I think.
Some of you, I think,
probably feel harassed and helpless,
anxious about the future.
Maybe your family life
isn't working out the way
that you'd always hoped it would,
or maybe you have medical
or financial setbacks facing you.
Maybe you have deep concern
or anxiety about your spiritual state,
where you stand before God.
How does God really feel about you?
Well, I don't have medical
or financial advice to give you.
If I did, you wouldn't want to take it.
What I have is what 1 Samuel 14 says.
Nothing can hinder the Lord from saving.
I don't know your circumstances.
I don't know why God has brought
the trials to you that He has brought.
I don't even know what God's deliverance
would look like when it came to you,
specifically.
But it may just be that He has put you
where you are so that when He saves you,
you won't boast in your own strength,
but you'll say,
the God of Jonathan,
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
He did this,
and no other.
Your situation is not
outside of God's control.
Just before the start of the service,
I was talking to Nick,
and he asked if I wanted to do
any question and answers
after the services we sometimes do.
And I said,
I don't think we'll need to.
I think it's a pretty straightforward passage
with this really powerful
but clear message.
The one question that someone might ask
if they were to would be,
can something hinder the Lord?
Well, no.
It says in the text,
nothing can hinder the Lord.
And then Nick followed up.
He said,
well, what about me?
Can I hinder the Lord?
And he was joking.
But it's a good question.
Not Nick specifically.
I mean us.
When we think about
what we want God to do for us,
we think about what we want
our lives to look like.
The chief obstacle is
generally not outside of us.
It's within us.
Can I hinder the Lord?
It's a question we all ask ourselves
at some point,
or at least we should,
if we're serious about our life.
Well, the answer is no.
The testimony of Scripture
is not just that opposing armies
cannot overcome the Lord.
It's that even our own sin and rebellion
can't overcome the Lord.
So what should we do
while we wait on the Lord
to bring us deliverance?
Well, we trust him.
And do what Jonathan did.
Remember the ways
that God has saved in the past.
So remember Jonathan
and take heart.
Think about Gideon
and see God's power.
Most of all,
remember Jesus Christ.
It's not just that God
might deliver you
or even that he's promised
to deliver you
at some future date.
If you've trusted in Christ,
he already has delivered you.
And the momentary sufferings
of this life
are simply preparing us
for future glory.
Those of us
who have trusted in Christ
have already experienced
a future salvation
far more dramatic
and complete
than any victory
over Philistines.
Now if you're here
and you haven't trusted in Christ,
if you've never known
that kind of deliverance
or rescue,
you might be wondering
what Jesus has to do
with Jonathan.
Well, Christians believe
that all of the examples
of God's deliverance
and salvation
in the Old Testament
point forward
to the greatest salvation
available to us
in Christ
in the New Testament.
The salvation that is
now at work
in our lives.
These are like appetizers
that prepare us
to look forward
to the great feast to come.
And the salvation
that we have in Christ
is even more improbable
and mind-bending
than Jonathan's.
Jesus was confronted
by a world of people
in active rebellion
against his Father.
The challenge
wasn't a hostile military force,
but the fact that humanity
stood under God's
just judgment for sin.
The Apostle Paul wrote
in 1 Corinthians,
the sting of death is sin
and the power of sin
is the law.
God requires all of us
to obey him.
But at the same time,
we rebel.
And the law puts us
under a sentence of death.
Paul is saying
that death is like
a venomous spider
which uses our own sin
to bring us
to eternal death.
And so Jesus
dies on the cross
taking the punishment
for our sins
that God's law required.
And so Paul can say
the sting of death is sin
and the power of sin
is the law,
but thanks be to God.
He gives us the victory
through our Lord Jesus Christ.
And what a victory it is.
Jonathan's victory
was accomplished
with one sword,
but Jesus' victory
was won without any.
Jonathan killed God's enemies.
Jesus died for them.
Jonathan's victory
won temporary deliverance
for the nation of Israel.
Jesus brought
eternal salvation
for anyone
who would believe.
Even you.
Even me.
Forgiveness of sin
and an eternal life
of fellowship with God,
they are ours
if we'll only turn away
from our sin
and trust in Christ.
God can save us.
Nothing can hinder
the Lord from saving.
Not even our own
sinful hearts.
So we see Jonathan's conviction.
Nothing can stop God
from saving.
We ourselves know
an even greater salvation,
the true salvation
that comes to us
through Christ.
Nothing can hinder
the Lord from saving.
Well, we've talked about
Jonathan's actions
as well as his faith.
But notice that
Jonathan must have realized
something else key.
That God uses people
to bring about salvation.
It isn't just that God
has to work through people,
it's just that he chooses to.
And we can march
through the Bible
and find all the examples
of times and places
where God uses
often ordinary people
to bring salvation
or deliverance
to his people.
Noah, Moses, Gideon,
Samson, Jonathan, David,
Paul, Peter.
When God brings salvation,
he normally does it
through human agents,
through people
like you and me.
This is why Paul
in the book of Corinthians
says,
We are God's ambassadors
as though God
were making his appeal
through us.
We implore you
on Christ's behalf
be reconciled to God.
We are Christ's ambassadors.
God is making his appeal
through us.
This is true today.
God chooses to bring
salvation to the world
by empowering
ordinary human beings
like you and me,
people who are ourselves
sinners,
and he brings
the gospel,
the good news
of Jesus Christ
through us.
How can they call
on the one
they have not believed in
and how can they believe
in the one
of whom they have not heard
and how can they hear
without someone
preaching to them,
Paul asks.
And the questions
are rhetorical
because the answer
is they can't.
Well, almost never.
There are some
very rare exceptions.
Almost 300 years ago,
the great preacher
George Whitefield
toured the United States
preaching to huge crowds,
tens of thousands
at times.
In fact, he visited
Connecticut
and preached in Hartford
and Weatherfield
and places not very far
from here.
But a lot of people
in both England
and in America
disliked Whitefield.
There was one man
named Mr. Thorpe
who was part of a group
called the Hellfire Club.
And the Hellfire Club
existed solely to mock
George Whitefield
and to disrupt
his sermons
whenever they could.
One day,
Mr. Thorpe
and his friends
were in a pub
and Mr. Thorpe
decided he would do
some impressions
of George Whitefield
and his friends
found them hilarious.
He did an excellent
imitation,
including facial expressions
and mannerisms
and even the very
scripture quotes
and words
that George Whitefield
had used.
But in the middle
of his mockery,
he listened to what
he was saying
and was converted
on the spot.
And he lived
a totally different
life after that.
I think he's the only
person I've ever heard of
who was converted
through his own preaching.
And he didn't even mean it.
That's not typical.
And even in that example,
it's because he'd heard
George Whitefield
that he even knew
what to say.
The fact is,
when God wants
to bring salvation,
whether it's from
a Philistine army
or forgiveness of sins,
he does it
through human beings.
Of course,
the great example
of this is
Jesus Christ himself.
Eternal sin of God,
yes,
but also a man.
Whenever we read
of God bringing
deliverance through a man,
we're meant to think
of Jesus.
So we read of Moses
who leads the people
out of Egypt
and we're reminded
in Deuteronomy 18
that there's another
prophet coming,
like Moses.
Or we think about Joshua
who leads the people
into the promised land
after Moses leads
them out of Egypt
and then we remember
that Joshua,
Yeshua,
Jesus,
that these are
the same name.
Or David,
Jesus is the son of David,
is he another warrior king?
Another Moses,
another Joshua,
another David?
Yes,
but greater than all of these,
he's the man
through whom we have salvation.
The one man
through whom we have,
the one man
who can mediate
between God and man.
One God,
one mediator
between God and man,
the man Jesus Christ
who gave himself
as a ransom
for all men.
says 1 Timothy.
God brought ultimate salvation
through Jesus Christ.
So we now know
that God saves
and we know
that he saves
through people.
Well,
what should we do?
Well,
we can't just take this
as an example
to follow.
We don't want a kind
of bad Sunday school
theology that says
Jonathan was brave
so you should be brave.
Jesus obeyed God
so you should obey God too.
Well,
you should.
The problem is
that we're not like Jesus.
The greatest salvation
is one that we cannot
work for ourselves
no matter how courageous
we are.
We have to keep
reminding ourselves
of the central truth
of this text
and of the whole Bible
that it's God
who saves.
At the same time,
this story reminds us
of both God's power
and his kindness
to his people.
And it's that power
and mercy
that allows us
to live boldly
and courageously
for him.
The God who saved
in the past
is the same
as the God
who saves today.
He does not change
even if human circumstances do.
He is powerful to save
and powerful to save
even miserable sinners.
And he's chosen
to use the weakest
of human instruments
to do it.
People like you and me.
So if you've trusted
in Christ,
you have the privilege
of participating
in this work.
So why not?
Why not prayerfully
trust the Lord
for your own salvation
and also for the salvation
of the people around you?
Nothing can hinder
the Lord from saving.
Let's pray.
O God,
when you decide to save,
nothing can stop you.
There is no one like you.
Lord,
we confess to our own weakness
in faith
and we ask that you
would strengthen us.
We pray that you would
give us a renewed joy
in our own salvation
if we've trusted in Christ.
Remind us
about what you have done
for us already.
And we pray that you would
bring salvation
to the lost world
through us.
And we pray these things
in the name
of our mediator,
the man Jesus Christ.
Amen.