I'm most of you aware that I've spent the last three weeks up in Katoomba with about 5,000 teenagers.
Always a joyous experience.
And we've been looking over those three weeks at the book of Revelation.
And what a joy it has been to revisit this book.
It is pretty clear as you look at Revelation that Jesus is the victorious king.
He's the ruler, the Lord of all.
He is the one who has all the power.
He deserves all the praise, all the glory.
He is the one who has victory over Satan.
One of the things we'll remind of particularly that Satan cannot get to Jesus in any sense.
Demons cannot move an inch without his authority and without his word.
He has everything in the palm of his hand and in control.
It's been a great reminder to see that he is indeed the victorious king over all the universe of all that is.
Jesus.
And this is the God that we've come to join together this morning.
To worship.
To honour.
To praise.
In humble submission.
As Revelation 4 says,
Jesus is the king.
The king.
He is the king.
But if he is, why is it that Christians are often sidelined and squeezed out in our world if Jesus is our king?
If he is God and king and ruler and Lord of all that is, then you'd expect Christians to reign triumphantly in society.
But they don't.
You'd expect Christians to be the first ones consulted on their opinions on things.
But they're not.
You'd expect people would look to Christians for guidance on how to live well and how to raise their kids and how to shape society.
But they don't.
Instead, Christians are pushed to the edge in society and mocked.
In some countries, they are killed, certainly financially squeezed.
If you're a Christian and you express a Christian opinion in the Sydney Morning Herald, you'll be mocked more than anyone else.
If you go to university or TAFE and you stand up as a Christian, you'll have caught abuse on campus more than anyone else.
The common voice is that the Christian church is a spent force.
That's the common voice of our society.
I mean, one of the reasons for it is that, frankly, Satan can't get to Jesus.
And so he has a crack at his people instead.
He can't get to Jesus, the victorious king.
He's going to do everything in his power to make us a bunch of apathetic losers.
But I wonder how you feel when people say Christianity is a spent force.
Maybe they're right.
Maybe we are done for.
Maybe being a follower of Jesus actually is old hat.
That what we're doing here this morning is just not worth doing anymore.
But then again, people have said this sort of thing all along.
It's not the first time that God and his people have been written off.
In fact, I guess people have always done it.
And we see it here in the book of Obadiah.
People who have made exactly the same mistake of writing off God and his people just a little bit too soon.
Obadiah is an unusual prophet because he tells us basically nothing about himself.
He just launches straight into it.
And so what we've got to do is we've got to get some of what Vandal was referring to about understanding the bigger picture of the Old Testament.
We've got to pull some of that pictures together to put the jigsaw puzzle pieces in so that we can understand a little bit of Obadiah.
So let's put some of those jigsaw puzzles in, those pieces in, and let's jump right to the beginning of Genesis where it tells us that we are living in a world that was good in the beginning.
But it is now broken.
Broken because we have all decided to go it alone, ignore God the creator.
We have chosen to live, to relate, and to rule his world our way without his word being our authority.
If we pick and choose what is right and wrong, we make the decisions, not God.
And so basically the vast majority of the Old Testament is about the mess that we make when we try to live and rule and relate with our God at the center of our lives.
But in the middle of that mess, God makes some very big promises.
From Abraham, he says, he's going to become a special nation, a special people, and God's going to give these special people a land called the promised land.
And that from these people in this nation, from their blessing will spread to all of the world.
But along with the promises come warnings.
God says, if you're going to be my special people and I'm going to give you special land, then you need to treat me like God.
If you don't treat me like God, I will punish you.
And the major punishment you're going to receive is I'm going to throw you out of the land.
I'm going to throw you away from my presence.
And they didn't listen.
They were eventually thrown out.
A huge army from Babylon marches into Jerusalem in one occasion.
And if you weren't slaughtered in the first attack, you were carted off into slavery into Babylon.
Jerusalem, the capital, was reduced to rubble because the people of God chose to not be the people of God.
God said, I will give you the land, but if you go off chasing idols, if you go off being unfaithful to me, then there will be consequences.
And so the consequences came, and that's the way it was for 70 years.
Maybe you don't need to go and do that college course.
I think I maybe just summed up the whole Old Testament just there.
Let's pray and finish right now.
We need to know this before we make any sense of Obadiah.
Because this prophecy that came from Obadiah was delivered after the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC.
God had warned them that this was going to happen, and it did.
There are two main parts to this prophecy.
Verses 1 to 16 are directed against Edom and the descendants of Esau, who lived next door to the southeast across the other side of the Dead Sea.
And verses 17 to 21 focus on the vindication of Israel and the final establishment of God's kingdom on earth.
The main point, I think, of the prophecy seems to be that God's oppressed people should take courage because he is still king.
He is still master of the universe.
He has not lost control.
How do we know that?
How do we know that he's the master of the universe?
Well, he could not proclaim this judgment upon Edom if he was not their God and king.
So as God punished his people for obedience, what was Edom doing?
It's pretty simple, really.
Edom had written off the people of God and written off their God.
Edom had taken advantage of the situation.
They had seen Israel's calamity, and they thought,
Excellent opportunity to boot some people while they're down and to rub some salt into the wounds.
But they'd made a mistake.
God had not finished yet.
He isn't done for.
His promises still stand.
He is still king.
And he still rules.
So let's pick it up.
Vision of Obadiah.
I want you to have your Bibles open.
Page 895.
If you're using a pew Bible.
If you're not, then it's...
Obadiah is between Amos and Jonah.
So take it easy.
You'll flick straight past it if you don't take it slowly.
Between Amos and Jonah.
So let's launch straight into it.
Verse 1.
The vision of Obadiah.
This is what God says about Edom.
We've heard a message from the Lord.
An envoy was sent to the nations to say,
Rise up and let us go against her for battle.
Edom is about to be in some very serious trouble here.
There is an old saying,
Pride comes before a fall.
And this is what's about to happen to Edom.
See it there in verse 2.
See, I will make you small among the nations.
You will be utterly despised.
In spite of how it looks,
God is going to reverse it all.
Israel looks like nothing at the moment.
And Edom looks like the grand, you know,
poobah of the world.
But God said he's going to all change.
Edom thought they were on top of the pile.
That they were untouchable.
They were in the big league.
No one can bring them down from the big league.
Oh, how many times over world history have we heard that sort of thing before?
And God's response is there in verse 4.
Though you soar like the eagle and make your nest among the stars,
from there I will bring you down.
They are suffering from the self-deception of pride.
When a person is in bondage to pride,
they take whatever opportunity that they can to exalt themselves over others.
Nations, adults, even children all have one thing in common.
Apart from the grace of God,
apart from God working in us
and changing us to be more like Jesus,
we will derive our pleasure from other people's failures.
It's the heart of sin.
It soothes our inadequacies
and it magnifies our successes.
And God says to not just to nations,
but to adults and to children from there,
I will bring you down.
And so from verses 5 to 9,
there is a terrible picture of what the future holds for Edom.
It's going to be so bad that they wish they had just simply been robbed
and everything that they had was just done away with
and they were just destitute.
Verse 5,
If thieves came to you,
if robbers of the night,
oh, what a disaster awaits you.
Would they not steal only as much as they wanted?
If grape pickers came to you,
would they not leave a few grapes?
You see, the point is that the land of Edom
will have nothing left.
It's heading for extinction.
God is saying here
that a thief would be more merciful than I will be for you.
You know, when,
I've never heard a story when someone's been robbed,
their house has been robbed or something like that,
that they've come home
and everything's gone.
My underwear is gone.
My socks are gone.
The curtains are gone.
The knives and the forks are gone.
Everything's gone.
My goodness, they've flogged the dog kennel as well.
Everything's gone.
And the dog that's in it.
It's like, I've never heard that story.
They take the valuables
and they leave the rest.
And God says,
I won't be like that for you, Edom.
I won't be like that.
I will destroy everything.
Down to verse 7.
All your allies will force you to the border.
Your friends will deceive and overpower you.
Those who eat your bread will set a trap for you,
but you will not detect it.
Even their friends are going to turn against them
and stab them in the back
and they won't even see it coming.
And why is this going to happen?
Why is Edom going to disappear from the map?
The reason is there in verse 10 to 14.
And it all came down to what Edom was doing
when Israel was facing God's punishment
for their unfaithfulness.
In these verses,
Israel is called Jacob and God says to Edom,
because of the violence against your brother Jacob,
you will be covered in shame.
You will be destroyed forever.
On that day,
you stood aloof
while strangers carried off his wealth
and foreigners entered his gates
and cast lots for Jerusalem.
You were like one of them.
A terrible picture of how Edom took advantage
of Israel's day of disaster.
They looted with the looters.
They waited at the crossroads
as Israelites attempted to escape
from the Babylonians.
The Edomites were there with their swords
cutting down those who were trying to escape.
And those they didn't cut down,
they captured them,
handed them back to the Babylonians.
Because,
Edom has made a terrible mistake
because it was the people of God.
And even though they are being punished
for their disobedience,
they are still the people of God.
And so,
God says to the Edomites in verse 15,
the day of the Lord is near
for all nations.
All nations.
All nations,
including Edom,
those nations around Edom,
and every nation since,
and every individual since,
as you have done,
so it will be done to you,
your deeds will return
upon your own head.
And just like you drank
and parted in your victory
on my holy hill,
so all the nations
will drink continually.
They will drink and drink
and be as if they had never been.
They're going to face the consequences.
Every nation that looks so strong
will be destroyed.
Amen?
Don't give me any nukes you've got.
Don't give me any troops you've got.
Don't give me what your economy's like.
Every nation that looks so strong
will be destroyed.
Obadiah says that God
has far from finished with Israel.
He is still God.
He still rules.
He won't be defeated,
nor his purposes thwarted.
And that is how the shortest book
of the Old Testament finishes up.
Edom has been gloating
because Israel has done it tough.
But the tables are about to be turned.
Edom is going to end up as nothing
and the kingdom of God
will still flourish.
There will be no survivors
from the house of Esau.
But, in verse 21,
it says this,
deliverers will go up on Mount Zion
to govern the mountains of Esau
and their kingdom
will be the Lord's.
Obadiah,
these words from Obadiah
were fulfilled in a surprising way.
He says that Edom will disappear
and it has.
I've got a world map
sitting on my desk.
There's no Edom
on my world map anywhere.
It's gone.
It was overtaken so many times
that not even a trace
of it exists anymore.
Not even a trace
of it exists anymore.
But there is another kingdom
that has grown and flourished
all over the world.
Verse 21 says that it's God's kingdom.
When Jesus came,
his first public words were,
the kingdom of God
is at hand.
The kingdom of God
is at hand.
The deliverer has come
as Jesus walked up
that hilly road
to Jerusalem.
People were there
waving palm branches
and laying them
at his feet
because they recognized
the king
and the deliverer
has arrived
at his city.
But Jesus brought deliverance
in an unexpected way.
You see,
the crown that Jesus wore
was a crown
with thorns in it.
The deliverer
was nailed to a cross
as a criminal
and he dies there
as a substitute.
A perfect sacrifice
for the sins of the people.
Opening the way
for us to be right for God.
Right with God.
Opening the way
for us to be forgiven
for all of our apathy
and unfaithfulness.
And then he rose,
he ascended,
and he rules with God
over a kingdom
that has no borders.
And frankly,
it's a kingdom
that doesn't look
like much.
If you're not convinced
by that,
have a look around you.
Just ordinary people
have taken Jesus' claim
to be king seriously.
It's a kingdom
that people laugh at.
Certainly plenty
who have laughed
at this king.
People take delight
in sidelining
Christians
as irrelevant people
of the past
and some of that
is actually justified.
Obadiah got it right
when he said
to the Edomites,
you can laugh, guys.
You can mock.
But God's kingdom
is going to stand forever.
He's going to still be here
when you're all gone.
When we're all gone.
When all of our vain
attempts to immortalize
our lives
have long been demolished.
God's kingdom
will still stand.
Long after the great powers
of this world
have come
and gone,
his kingdom
will still stand
because he is
the sovereign king
of all that is.
Friends,
can I just
implore with you
a moment
and just bear with me
for this one.
We need to get this.
We need to get this,
right?
We need to get this
day by day.
God is not just
our king
here at St. Paul's
or the king
of the Christian church
in Sydney
or the world.
He's the king
of all
the universe.
He's the God
of all
the universe.
There may only
just be
a handful
of us here
and thousands
out there
at the moment
at Chatswood,
but he is their God.
They may not know it,
but he is their God.
He is their king.
He is their ruler.
So brothers and sisters,
we should not
listen to the world
that says
that we are done for.
We should not believe
the lie of Satan
that it's all
just too hard
and so just
shrink back
in apathy
and hang on tight
and just hope
to the end.
We should never
shrink back
and say
it's just too hard
to hold the gospel
out there.
But have we?
When we see
the task
of bringing
the kingdom
of God
to Chatswood,
does it make you weary?
Does it make you
downcast?
Do you feel defeated?
Do you feel like
one of the Israelites
there
being cut down
on the roadways
and just think,
oh look,
hang on,
look,
I've got heaven
so that's good.
You know,
stuff the rest.
As long as I know
where I'm going,
that's awesome.
Do you feel defeated
before you even begin?
My understanding
is we're three years
into a vision
here at St. Paul's
and are you tired
of it already?
Are you tired
of it?
Are you tired
of it as if
we were fighting
a battle
of flesh and blood?
Let me remind you
that Jesus
is their king too.
He is their God too.
The message of judgment
that over die
proclaimed
was proclaimed
to a king,
to a people,
to a nation
that did not recognize
their God and king
and he called them
to repent.
One of the ways
that I think
Christians reveal
their weariness
in the battle
is what we tend
to do
is we,
you know,
batten up the windows
and down the hatches
and we put on
bulletproof vests
and,
you know,
we become a Christian
subculture
within the culture.
We hang on
for dear life
and,
you know,
we've got heaven
and that's going
to be fantastic
and we're just
going to hang on.
We're just going
to hang on
and so we fight
about the things
that are in here
as we batten
down our hatches,
we start fighting
about the things
within the building
and other things
like that.
We do Christian stuff
but in the end
the world can go
to hell in a handbasket.
We become proudly
self-righteous
and confident.
We are the people
of God.
We've been forgiven.
They haven't.
And we enjoy
totally relevancy
and we get judged
for the things
that Israel
was judged for.
Friends,
that's why Israel
was judged.
That's why the Israels
were judged.
They were told
to be a blessing
to all the earth.
No, no,
we've got sacrifices
to make.
We've got songs
to sing.
We've got temples
to build.
We haven't got time
to be a blessing
to the world.
I wonder what
your response
has been to the vision
set by St. Paul's
leaders a few years ago
to see a thousand
people giving glory
to God in this place.
Do you think
it's ambitious?
Do you think
it's ambitious?
Do you think
it's not possible?
Do you think,
I mean,
seriously,
come on.
Do you think
it's not possible?
Maybe you've heard
the mocking,
the laugh,
the ridicule,
you've read
the Sydney Morning Herald
and you've written
this world
that is written
of God
and his people.
Maybe you've
forgotten the word
of God
that clearly
proclaims
that he rules
the world.
He didn't just,
he's not just
the ruler of Eden
back in history
but he rules
the world now.
He's the king now.
He's the one
who holds the stars
in the sky now.
He's the ruler
of every life
out there in Chatswood
right now.
They can't even
draw a breath.
They can't even
raise a mocking hand
or humble,
sorry,
or mumble
a blasphemous curse
under their breath
without the God,
the king,
allowing them
to give them
that breath itself.
He is their king.
He is their God.
They might not know it
but one day
they will.
one day calamity
is coming
and friends
we're going to do
everything we can
to make sure
that does not happen.
He is the God
who turns the course
of nations
and history
and lives
as he pleases.
No Christian
should ever have
the jitters
that this world
is careering
out of control
towards a meaningless end
or that the task
that God has given us
to reach disciples
of all nations
is impossible.
We must never forget
that we're involved
in a war
and that means
wartime lifestyle.
It's pretty obvious
if the Christians
around you
are getting killed
as they are
in many parts
of this world
it's pretty obvious
them were involved
in a fight.
I'm not so sure
in Australia
that we realise
they're in a fight
with all our creature
comforts,
our achievements,
our laziness
and our busyness
that we realise
that we're actually
a war.
A war
that we are told
to take the fight to.
A fight to them.
Not,
you know,
let's all go
and get gun licences
and,
you know,
and buy some rifles.
I mean,
I'm a strong believer
in that personally
but,
not that we're encouraged
to do that.
But we fight
with different weapons.
We fight
with different weapons,
not the weapons
that they use.
We fight
with different weapons.
We are called,
friends,
to pray.
We are called
to proclaim Jesus
and persevere
in godliness.
That is the fight.
We fight
with prayer,
with proclaiming Jesus
and persevering
in godliness.
We must realise
that the fight
is on
but Jesus
is the victor.
Satan prowls
around like a lion
wanting to devour us,
wanting to distract us,
to move us
into apathy,
to move us
into ungodliness.
Do we believe
for a moment
that God,
that Jesus
is victor
and that for any moment,
at any point in history,
that if he so chooses
he could but stamp his foot
and the nations
will bow to him
in worship?
Do we actually
believe it?
Well therefore,
do we pray for it?
Not qualified prayers
but do we pray for it?
Do we pray
and preach
and persevere
in godliness
and give
and administer
and plan
and order
our church life
as if
we believe it?
I'm expecting therefore
that we'll have more people
at four o'clock
this afternoon
prayer meeting
than maybe we've had
in the past.
He is God.
He is King.
He is Lord.
He has the victory
through the Lord Jesus Christ.
He commands the winds
and they obey.
He places the stars
in the sky
and continues
to hold them
in the sky.
He knows the depths
of the universe.
He speaks but a word
and the world
is formed
and he is our God.
He is our King.
God is not finished
with St. Paul's
but he's also
not finished
with those 30,000 people
out there
in our neighbourhood.
So let's take up
the weapons
that he's given us.
2 Corinthians 10.
We don't fight
with the weapons
of this world.
We don't fight
with the weapons
of this world.
Let's take up
the weapons
that he's given us
of proclamation,
of prayer,
of perseverance
and godliness
and get into
the battle.
Jesus is the King
of all of Chatswood.
Amen.