Father, every single person here probably needs to say sorry to somebody,
and every single person here needs to forgive somebody.
Father, we confess before you that we flatter ourselves too much
to understand the true state of our soul
and the true state of our mind and our heart and our will.
So, Father, we ask that your word has challenged us around forgiveness
and other matters. We ask, Father, that your Holy Spirit would gently
but deeply fall upon us. Fall upon us, Father.
And as your Holy Spirit falls upon us, help us, Father, to realize
the true state of our souls and our affections, who we need to forgive.
And, Father, we ask that your Holy Spirit would help us to forgive.
Father, we thank you that we can come to you in prayer,
that we can call out to you for the freedom of forgiveness.
So, Father, we call out for such freedom that we might forgive.
We call out and ask you to pour out your Holy Spirit upon us as we hear your word.
And all this we ask in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen.
Please be seated.
Thank you.
So, if you're a guest here, you might not know this about me,
but Louise and myself, we've been blessed with nine children.
And our kids are all, we only have three left at home.
And so this, what I'm about to tell you, hasn't happened to us in quite a while.
But it used to be the case.
I think it mainly happened when it was just Louise with the kids in a grocery store or someplace,
that some complete and utter stranger would come up to Louise and give her a lecture on birth control.
I'm not making this up.
It was a regular occurrence.
In fact, actually, there was a fellow in the congregation who,
when it was announced that we were expecting our ninth child,
he was a very gruff and outspoken guy.
He's now with the Lord.
And he told me, he said, George, don't you know about birth control?
Like, what are you doing having nine kids on your salary?
And I didn't say anything.
I just turned the other cheek.
Then our child was born, and it was a boy.
And the man who had said this to me, his name was Tom.
And we named our son Tom.
And now we named our son Tom not because it was Tom who'd said this to me,
but, in fact, Tom, or Thomas, had been, like, on the list for every one of our boys.
And it just, we ended up choosing another name.
But we'd always liked the name, and we finally just went with Thomas, Thomas Elijah.
And, but the man who told me off when he heard that we'd named our son Tom,
he thought it was the funniest thing in the world
that I had showed him what I thought of his rebuke by naming my son after him.
And I never told him that it had nothing to do with his name,
that if, you know, he'd been called, you know, Bilbo,
we wouldn't have called our son Bilbo.
Well, Bilbo's sort of a neat name, but we wouldn't have called Tommy Bilbo.
Anyway, so it happens inside the church, but outside of the church especially.
I mean, I think that was the only time anybody in the church ever gave, you know,
was, like, bold enough to come and straight out say,
have you heard about birth control and you should be practicing it,
you're having too many kids.
But it would happen to my wife quite often.
A short lecture from a complete and utter stranger.
Now, one of the things that people complain about religious people
is that religious people, spiritual people, are intrusive, busybodies
who look for opportunities to intrude in your life and tell you off.
In fact, actually, one of the things that for many people that they would make
as a distinction between being religious, like a Christian or a Muslim,
and being spiritual is that they would say to themselves at least,
that religious people are intrusive, busybodies,
intruding in stuff that is not their business, but spiritual people don't.
Although I'm guessing that many of the people who spoke to us about birth control
were probably spiritual, not religious.
As often would happen in the Glebe, not exactly a home of fervent Christianity.
And, sorry, I'm not putting anybody down from the Glebe.
Louise and I have lived in the Glebe at different times over the years.
So is it, in fact, the case that the Bible encourages us to be busybodies?
Some of you who might remember what I just read a few moments ago
when it talks about rebuking might say,
Aha, that is why Christians are such intrusive, busybodies.
Jesus tells them to be intrusive, busybodies.
Well, is that the case?
Well, let's have a look and see what it is that Jesus actually tells us
and what he tells us to do and what he doesn't tell us to do.
So if you have your Bibles, please turn to Luke chapter 17.
Luke 17.
And we'll begin reading at the first verse.
We're going to look at all 19 verses,
obviously some parts of it a little bit in more depth than others.
And as you're turning to Luke chapter 17,
what we do at this church is we preach through books of the Bible.
So if you're wondering what we're going to talk about next week,
you can just read verses 20 to the end of the chapter
and we just go through the Bible.
And so the Gospel of Luke was written before the year 70,
probably in the mid-60s.
And it was written by a pagan who had become a follower of Jesus.
And this pagan who had become a follower of Jesus
was a very well-educated man.
And he did piles and piles of research with eyewitnesses.
And he compiled this true history, this true biography of Jesus.
And, you know, it doesn't look like we're reading something
that was written, let's say, in the year 67 or 68,
because it's, you know, in my case it all looks fancy.
But that's actually what we're reading when we're reading this.
And so Luke claims that he has done the research
and this is something that Jesus actually said and actually did.
It's how we know about Jesus.
So what is it that Jesus said about being a busybody?
Was he encouraging us to be busybodies?
Luke 17, verse 1.
And he said to his disciples,
so Jesus is speaking to his followers at this particular case,
temptation to sin, temptations to sin are sure to come.
Just sort of pause here for a second.
This should be very, very humbling.
It's very, very definite in the English,
but in the original language it's even more definite.
That if anybody thinks that as a follower of Jesus
a time will come when they neither sin nor are even tempted to sin,
they're not listening to Jesus.
Until we die or until Jesus comes and we see him face to face,
every follower of Jesus, like every other person on the planet,
will regularly have to struggle with temptations.
I tell some guys who are my age, you know,
that there's certain things that they might not be as tempted to
as when they were 22,
and it's not necessarily because of godliness,
it's just because of age.
And that there's other things they're going to be tempted by,
often maybe that they're blind about.
So this is a very, on one level,
it's sort of a sobering passage,
and it's an interesting thing as we're going to start looking
about what Jesus says about being busybodies.
He begins by just telling us,
if you think you will ever have a time in your life
when you aren't tempted and aren't struggling with things,
you don't understand your heart.
You don't understand your heart.
George, he's saying to me,
I don't understand my heart if I ever start to think that.
Let's read verse one again.
And Jesus said to his disciples,
temptations to sin are sure to come,
but woe to the one through whom they come.
It would be better for him or her
if a millstone were hung around their neck
and they were cast into the sea
than that they should cause one of these little ones to sin.
Sort of another sort of a very sobering thing.
It would be better to have a gruesome,
a gruesome, horrific death
than be the one who leads other people into sin.
Now, here comes to the part sort of more
that we're going to spend more time on.
Pay attention, verse three.
Pay attention to yourselves.
If your brother sins, rebuke him.
And if he repents, forgive him.
And if he sins against you seven times in the day,
in other words, if he sins against you time and time and time again
during that same day,
and every time after he's done the same thing
or she's done the same thing,
they turn to you and say,
I repent,
Jesus says,
you must forgive that person.
So,
it's sort of a very, very stark type of text.
And what I'm going to do is,
Andrew, if you could put the first point up
and then we'll sort of look into the text
and see what's going on here.
What I decided to do today
in terms of summaries
is to write four short prayers for you.
I mean, I think,
generally speaking,
one of the things I can help people with most
is just help them to learn how to pray.
And one of the most important things we can do
is to learn from Jesus,
learn from the word,
what it is that we are to pray for.
And so I'm trying to,
each of these parts as we go through Luke 17,
I've written a short prayer
that tries to capture the point
and turns it into something
that we can both understand
and also that we can pray for ourselves.
And so,
here's the first thing,
and I'll unpack it,
why it's a worthwhile thing
for many of us to pray.
Dear God,
please grow in me
a deep and humble trust in you
and free me up
to speak to the wrongdoer
of the wrong they did to me
and to forgive them.
And as you know,
I try as often as possible
to put points
so that it's me praying
so that if you write it down
to meditate upon it
and to maybe try to pray it,
it's,
you're saying me.
And,
and here's,
this is I think what Jesus
is trying to get at in this text.
He's wanting us to turn to God
and say,
please grow in me
a deep and humble trust in you
and free me up
to speak to the wrongdoer
of the wrong they did to me
and to forgive them.
Now,
you see,
the very first thing
about this text is it's,
if you look at the verses three and four,
it's not talking about us
being busy bodies
and it's not talking about us
being easily offended,
you know,
by,
you know,
if we have nine children,
we're not sinning against
that person in Loblaws
or the natural food store
or something like that.
We're not sinning against them,
right?
And,
and look at it in verse three and four.
Look at them together.
Pay attention to yourselves.
If your brother sins,
rebuke him.
Now,
it sounds as if it can just be anything.
And if he repents,
forgive him.
But just the mere fact
that if he repents,
forgive him,
implies that they've sinned against you.
It's not just sin in general.
It's not that you're to go around
to the grocery stores
and the coffee shops
looking for people doing bad things
and then attacking them
and telling them
they're doing something bad
because you don't,
you don't forgive them
if they've done something bad
against another person.
You forgive them
if they've done something wrong
against you.
And Jesus makes it clear
in verse four.
And if he sins against you
seven times in the day
and turns to you seven times
saying,
I repent,
you must forgive him.
So the first thing is
that this text
is very,
very clearly saying,
George,
don't be a busy body.
Don't be intrusive
in people's lives.
Don't go around
like you're the morality police
and the spirituality police
jumping on people
when they fall short
of your standards.
That's not what Jesus
is telling us,
telling me to do at all.
He's telling me two things
and there is a very,
very wise teaching of Jesus.
And for some of us
here in this room,
especially some of us
who've been really
beaten down in life,
we need to hear
that Jesus is encouraging us
to have the strength
and the freedom
to come to him
to be built up
and have the strength
and the freedom
to rebuke somebody
who's wronged us
because some of us
have a deep trouble,
have a deep problem with that.
And for others of us here,
our deep problem
is that we're far too
quick to attack.
And Jesus is challenging
that as well,
as I'll show you.
He's challenging
that as well.
So the first thing is,
look at it again,
verses three and four.
Pay attention to yourselves.
If your brother sins,
rebuke him.
And if he repents,
forgive him.
And if he sins against you
seven times in the day
and turns to you
seven times saying,
I repent,
you must forgive him.
Here's the big thing
which makes it so different
than attacking a person
is that we rebuke
in the hope
of repentance.
We rebuke
in the hope
of repentance.
In fact,
you can really take it
from the text.
If you don't hope
for repentance,
don't rebuke.
If you don't hope
that the person
will repent,
you might worry
that they won't.
You might be pretty
convinced inside of you
that they're not going to.
That's one thing.
But you need to try
to frame the rebuke
and everything
about the encounter
in the hope
and in the prayer
that after the person
has been rebuked,
they will want to repent.
And if you don't have
that hope,
then all you're doing
is attacking.
And the Bible
is not giving us
any encouragement
for a moral
and spiritual
and theological
attack
against another person.
And the other thing
that we see
in this text
is that the Bible
is unbelievably wise
because not only
is it telling me
that I am to rebuke
in the hope
of repentance,
the text is also
telling me
to be culturally
sensitive
and wise.
You say,
George,
how on earth
is this text
telling me
to be culturally
sensitive and wise?
I've only been
to Israel once,
I was able,
I was blessed,
I was able to go
to Jerusalem in 2008
and on the,
and it was in the airport
which is in Tel Aviv
and I'm going to Jerusalem
which is where my hotel is
and there's a group
of us all together
and we arrange
a bus
that's going to take us
from the airport
in Tel Aviv
into Jerusalem
and on the bus
are two men
and let me tell you,
from my
white,
Anglo-Saxon,
Protestant,
Canadian perspective,
they yelled
and screamed
at each other
for the entire ride.
I mean,
their voices
were raised,
they were doing
this at each other,
they were unbelievably
energetic
and if you came
into my house
and my wife
and myself
were talking
to each other
like that,
you would think
we desperately
needed marriage
counseling.
But Israeli Jews
don't talk
to each other
the way
white,
Anglo-Saxon,
Protestant,
Canadians
talk to each other.
So here's the thing
which is so wise
about the Bible.
The Bible says
I am to rebuke
in the hope
of repentance
and then it's silent
because it creates
space
for cultural,
ethnic,
racial differences
in how you do that.
Isn't the Bible
really wise?
Like Paul could have,
Jesus could have said
more things,
Jesus was in a Jewish
culture,
he could have said
a whole pile
of other things
about how to do this
but he doesn't
and the implication
is that we have
to learn,
this is a radical
thing for a lot
of conservative
Christians,
we have to be
culturally sensitive
and wise.
Jesus is telling
us to do that.
I mean,
in a sense
it would mean
that if I was
to go to Israel
as a missionary,
I would have to
learn how to
rebuke
appropriate
in Israel.
If I was
to go to Kenya,
if I was
to go to China,
I would have
to learn
and in a sense
if a missionary
came from
another place
to here,
they would have
to learn that
and we can't
just baptize
our own culture
in terms of
how to do it
because there's
different ways.
I mean,
I'll just give you
two pieces of advice.
I'm very bad
at rebuking,
by the way,
it's one of my
weaknesses,
but I'll give you
just two little
pieces of advice
that I try to practice
and the two pieces
of advice is
always clarify
before you rebuke
because otherwise
a lot of times
you're rebuking
for something
that didn't happen
that somebody else
did that you
misunderstood
and really
in an embarrassing
way,
you tell a person
off for doing
something and then
they remind you
that you told
them six months
earlier to do
that and then
you got mad
at them,
right?
That's really
embarrassing,
so clarify.
And the second
thing,
just from cultural
perspective of Canada
is always go
after the action
or the behavior,
not the person.
Don't go
after intent.
Intent is hard
to understand.
Don't accuse
of intent
as often as
possible,
but go after
the behavior
and not go
after the intent
or the person.
And from a
Canadian cultural
perspective,
that's how
rebukes are more
likely to be
effective if the
goal is
repentance.
If you don't
care about
repentance,
tell them that
they're a mean,
evil,
stupid,
foolish person
and they only
mean,
stupid,
foolish,
ignorant,
evil things.
And that sure
leads lots of
people to repent,
let me tell you.
It really works
every time.
You know,
it just creates
a fight,
right?
Or flight,
avoidance.
And so that's,
you know,
but you know,
you read some
things from the
Middle Ages
and Calvin
and the Roman
Catholics,
they called
each other
all sorts of
names.
It was a
culturally
different time.
See,
that's why
the Bible
is so wise.
One of the
many reasons
why I believe
the Bible
is the word
of God
is because
of what's
not in it.
And here
the Bible
is very wise.
It gives
very,
very wise
advice,
rebuke
in the hope
of repentance
and that
leaves us
to figure out
culturally
how we do
that for
our culture,
our time,
in our
context.
And see,
that's why
I put the
point this
week is,
dear God,
please grow
in me
a deep
and humble
trust in
you and
free me
up.
That's for
those of us
who have a
hard time
doing it.
Free me up
to speak to
the wrongdoer
of the wrong
they did
to me
and to
forgive them.
I'm not going
to say much
about forgiveness
right now
other than to
tell you,
I'm going to say
two things.
The first thing
is this week
in my blog,
it's in your
bulletins.
I've written,
I think,
14 theses
around forgiveness.
Hopefully that
will help
some of you
to understand
a little bit
what forgiveness
is and what it
isn't.
I also preached
a couple of
sermons on it.
I think last
spring I preached
one on choose
forgiveness or
the spiritual
discipline of
forgiveness.
So I'm going
to say,
I just encourage
you to look
at that.
But here's
the other
thing,
that for a
follower of
Jesus,
this all has
a specific
type of
cast.
Because the
way the
gospel of
Luke is
written is
that in Luke
chapter 9,
Jesus tells
his disciples,
I'm going to
Jerusalem,
I'm going to
be betrayed,
I'm going to
die,
I'm going to
rise again.
And everything
now from the
book of Luke,
from 9 on to
9,
when he gets
crucified,
it's all about
Jesus going to
Jerusalem to
die.
And you see,
here's the
thing,
I try to
describe that
our mission
is to make
disciples of
Jesus gripped
by the gospel
who live for
his glory.
And what
happens in
the cross?
You see,
for Jesus,
it's not as if
he says this
morality thing
and this
wisdom type of
thing and is
completely and
utterly divorced
from him going
to the cross.
what happens
in the cross?
In the cross,
God reveals
and rebukes
sin.
In fact,
one of the
things that
happens as we
grow in the
Christian life
is that we
don't really
understand the
depth of our
sin until we
follow Jesus
and realize just
how, in a
sense, bad
and deadly
and pervasive
sin is that
Jesus had to
die.
He had to
leave heaven to
die upon the
cross for us.
It's a direct
confrontation,
revealing and
rebuking of
sin and it's
also a profound
act of
forgiveness.
And that's what
happens in the
cross.
Jesus is going
to Jerusalem to
die.
He's going to
Jerusalem to die
not for himself
but for you and
me and for all
the people who
are listening.
And on the
cross, he will
deal with sin.
He reveals that
sin exists.
He deals with
it and it's a
profound act of
forgiveness.
And so it is
that as we're
gripped with what
Jesus did for us
on the cross,
there's the
possibility for us
to start to be
freed up and to
understand that
there is a
time in our
lives where we
have to confront
the wrong that
was done to us.
But mindful of
the cross, we
are to confront
in such a way
that there is a
hope of
forgiveness, that
they will repent
and that we
will forgive
them.
And as I say
in the little
thesis, sometimes
we need to pray
for decades to
forgive a person,
but the journey
and the road to
forgive is always
worth it.
And that's why
the prayer that
Jesus, I think,
is calling us to
pray is, dear
God, please grow
in me a deep and
humble trust in
you and free me
up to speak to
the wrongdoer of
the wrong they did
to me and to
forgive him.
But some of
you might say,
George, well,
that sounds sort
of interesting,
but I think, I
don't know if
you're really quite
understanding the
words of Jesus.
I mean, you know,
one of the things,
George, I think about
religious and
spiritual people is
that it's really
ultimately all about
power.
And, you know,
even if they
forgive a person,
it's really a way
of trying to get
power over them.
Them being busy
bodies is all about
power.
And, George,
wasn't there a thing
that comes immediately
after that that
talks about how
if you have faith,
you can move, you
know, sycamine trees
and mulberry trees.
And isn't that all
about Jesus just
telling us to have
power?
Like, aren't you
sort of misunderstanding
and misreading the
text?
Don't you really think
that Christians are
still just one form of
trying to get a type
of cultural power over
other people and that
Jesus is encouraging
this by talking about
having the faith to
move these objects?
Like, George, don't
you think that's what's
going on?
Well, let's look.
What is it that Jesus
says immediately after
that?
I don't think he
contradicts himself at
all.
In fact, I think what
happens is that the
natural human religion
and natural human
spirituality is about
power.
And because, and even
Christians, affected
just as much as
everybody else by
natural human religion
and natural human
spirituality, that when
we read the text, we
bring the natural, the
fleshly, to interpret
the words of Jesus
rather than letting
the words of Jesus
come to the heart of
who we are.
Look at verses five
and six.
The apostle said to
the Lord, increase our
faith.
Maybe after he told
them they had to
forgive, he said, I'm
going to need a lot
more faith if I can
forgive.
Let me tell you.
Increase our faith.
And the Lord said, if
you had faith like a
grain of mustard seed.
In Jewish times, it
was proverbial for
very, very, very tiny.
If you had faith like a
grain of mustard seed,
you could say to
this mulberry tree, it's
a tree that, in the
original language, it's
a tree that would grow
to about 20 feet and it
was known for having a
very large root system.
So if you had faith like
a grain of mustard seed,
you could say to this
mulberry tree, be uprooted
and planted in the sea and
it would obey you.
So is this text just
talking to us about a
type of spiritual power?
more.
Is this text a rebuke of
our congregation because
we don't have a building
of our own?
And if we had more faith,
we have a building.
Is this text telling us
we're all sinners?
Well, it does tell us we're
sinners, but not in that
particular way.
I'm going to put it up.
If you could put up the
next point here in terms of
how it's going to work as
a prayer.
And by the way, if you're
worrying this is going to be
an 80-minute sermon, the
longest point was the
first one and it'll get
shorter.
But here's, I think, what
Jesus is asking us to do.
Dear God, please grow in
me a humble, trusting
walking.
And I say walking, the
Bible uses the image of
walking as a way to
understand how we live
our 24-7 day.
How do we live our 365 days
a year 24-7?
Well, we walk from spot to
spot to spot to spot.
And I'm trying to capture
that biblical idea in
terms of a prayer, in
terms of just how we live
our lives, how we go to
Starbucks, how we buy our
groceries, how we do at
work, how we are with our
family and our friends, how
we are with our leisure.
It's walking.
We go from one thing to
another.
And I think the text is
encouraging us to pray,
Dear God, please grow in
me a humble, trusting,
walking, knowing of the
greatness and glory and
grace of the person and
work of Jesus Messiah.
I think that's a great
prayer that you could
pray every day.
I could pray every day
for the rest of my life.
Dear God, please grow in
me a humble, trusting,
walking, knowing of the
greatness and glory and
grace of the person and
work of Jesus Messiah.
Some of you might say,
George, how on earth do
you get that from the
text?
Well, the problem is,
remember I said how
natural human religion and
natural human spirituality
does turn it into all being
about power?
Faith always has an object.
Faith isn't an emotion.
Faith isn't a type of
self-talk.
Faith has an object.
We have faith in something
or someone.
So when we turn it into
about power, we turn it
into something that if I
have the right type of
willpower, the right type of
emotion, the right type of
ritual, the right type of
church connection, the right
team of people praying, if I
get these things right, I will
accomplish this.
We rarely are so publicly
bold to say that because we
start to check ourselves and
say, no, no, no, no, no, that's
sin, but in our hearts,
murmuring, the voice murmuring
into our ears is I get my
willpower or my emotion and I
get this and I get my
techniques and I get the right
principles and I get this
straight and I get to do this
powerful thing.
But Jesus, he's standing there.
And it's so cool.
Judas is standing there, the
man who's going to betray
him.
Jesus knows that he's going to
Jerusalem to die, giving you
away the story if you haven't
read the story, but every one of
his disciples is not going to
have faith in him when the time
comes when he's arrested.
They all abandon him and leave
him.
And he knows that Judas is going
to betray him.
And he knows that he's going to
Jerusalem to die on the cross
to reconcile people to God.
And he knows that he's doing
this because God has been
faithful to his word and God
promised a mighty deliverer and
God promised redemption.
And Jesus has done his entire
life on earth as God, the son of
God and also the son of Mary.
And he's done it in obedience to
the father.
And he knows the father is
faithful.
And he's asking the disciples to
have faith in him.
And if we take this prayer and try
to pray about how we can do great
things, very subtly our focus
becomes on willpower or emotion in
ourselves or our techniques or our
membership because evangelicals do
things better or Anglicans do things
better, Roman Catholics do things
better, Pentecostals do things
better or Charismatics do something
better.
And he's asking us to focus on
Jesus.
He's asking them to have faith in
him.
And then if in a sense they have
that faith in him, in the context
of this ever deepening personal
relationship with him, requests
emerge.
And those requests that emerge come
from a very, very tiny little bit of
faith within them.
But Jesus can do, God can do amazing
things.
You know, it's all about Jesus is
calling them to trust in him.
And the increasing of the faith, the
adding to the faith is adding faith to
faith to faith to faith, a deepening in
trust, not adding willpower, emotion,
technique, mind control, church
allegiance, or any other type of thing,
proper ancestors.
Not adding anything like that, but just
a deepening into a walk with him.
And that's why I say that Jesus is
calling us to call out to him and pray,
Dear God, please grow in me a humble,
trusting, walking, knowing of the
greatness and glory and grace of the
person and work of Jesus, Messiah.
But then some of you might say, George,
that's, here's the thing, here's the
problem I have with Jesus is teaching.
Because, you know, I've been looking
around at the Bible while you're talking,
I'm still listening, but I'm also
looking around.
But, George, in a few moments, Jesus is
going to tell us to call my, he's going
to tell me to call myself unworthy.
And, George, let me just tell you, I
have enough people stepping on me and
making me feel unworthy.
You know, I have people who make catty
comments about how I dress or my
weight or, you know, I have, I go on
Facebook and it just seems like everybody
else is way, they have, you know, they
have kids, I'd like to have kids, or I
have kids and my kids are just like so-so.
I mean, I never tell my kids that because
I love them and they're mine.
But everybody else's kids seem to become
rocket scientists, Olympic athletes, you
know, popular, you know, all that type of
stuff.
And I already feel unworthy.
Like, how on earth does Jesus think I'm
going to accomplish anything if I have to
say to him that I'm unworthy?
If I have to try to feel unworthy?
Like, do I just sort of, George, think
that Jesus is greater and greater and
greater and therefore I am, you know,
more worm-like and terrible and bad?
And is that how it works, George?
If that's how it works, like, I don't
want to do that because there's enough
thing.
You know, that's the thing about
religion.
It keeps telling me I have to grovel.
In fact, George, you have a perfect thing
right here.
Religion is all about balancing
groveling and power.
Moving mulberry trees and sane and
unworthy.
Grovel and power.
I don't like the dance.
I'd rather just have a drink and watch
the football game.
And that's how a lot of people
understand and hear the words.
Well, what does Jesus say?
Let's look.
Verse 7.
So remember, he just said, be uprooted
and planted in the sea that will obey
you.
Verse 7.
Well, any one of you who has a
servant, and I'm just going to pause
here.
And the word servant, some of you have
heard this before, that the word in
Greek, and I don't usually like using
Greek words, but the word in Greek
is doulos.
And the problem is that doulos means
something different.
And some of your English versions say
slave, some say servant.
And the problem is that there's no
English word that captures doulos.
When you use the word slave, you think
of what happened to that.
You know, if you haven't seen the movie,
it's a very powerful movie, 12 years
a slave.
Very powerful movie.
And so you see the word slave, our
minds instantly go to something like
12 years a slave.
But you see the word servant, our
minds, at least if you're of my age, you
instantly think of the Fresh Prince of
Bel-Air, where the only competent,
reasonable person in the entire
household was the servant.
Right?
And the Bible, and so in our culture,
we think of, you know, people with,
you know, who are just servants who are
really the only competent, sane person
in the household, actually does
anything.
So we either think of servant or we
think of slave in it.
Doulos means something very, very
different.
Because in the ancient world, I mean,
a doulos could end up, like if you go
in the book of, if you go in the book
of Acts, you'll see that there's a
meeting of a person who's the treasurer
of an entire country, and he would have
been a doulos.
So it means that you belong to somebody,
and you can't control yourself.
You are, in a sense, are under orders,
and you belong to them.
But it doesn't necessarily, it doesn't
mean the degradation of slavery the way
we think of it, and it doesn't mean
the type of snarkiness that we think
of with servant, but it does convey
the idea of belonging to another and
under their authority and command.
Like maybe a better analogy would be
if they're in the soldier, they're
private.
Don't think general, think private.
Okay?
Maybe corporal or something, but even
then that doesn't get quite right,
because in a sense a colonel is under
a general as well.
So it's just, I'm going to use the word
doulos in the point in a moment.
But let's, sorry, verse 7.
Will any of you, any one of you who has
a doulos, plowing or keeping sheep,
say to him when he has come in from
the field, come at once and recline at
table?
Will he not rather say to him, prepare
supper for me and dress properly, and
serve me while I eat and drink, and
afterward you will eat and drink?
Does he thank the servant because he did
what he was commanded?
See, all of these things, it's
rhetorical.
He's expecting you to agree.
No, you wouldn't come in and serve the
servant.
The servant serves you.
That's how the world works.
You know?
Would the servant ask the word thank
because the servant's done their duty?
No, the servant wouldn't particularly
expect thanks.
It's not encouraging us to be rude to
staff at Starbucks or Target while it
still exists in Canada.
It's just talking, trying to understand
this is the way the world works.
And then in verse 10, so you also, when you
have done all that you were commanded, say, we
are unworthy servants.
We have only done, or we are unworthy
doulos.
We have only done what was our duty.
So here's the prayer, and then I'll just
briefly explain it.
Dear God, by grace, I am your doulos.
Please grow in me a deep, obedient, and
humble trust in you as my master who commands
me.
See, here's what the text is talking about.
We sort of come at it from a wrong type of way.
If I was to tell you that, you know, one of the
single women here, that in 10 years' time, you're
going to be, there's going to be a man who
structures your life that helps to determine when
you come home and how much money you spend on
clothes and all of that type of stuff.
If I just said there'll be a man like that, people
might, women might feel very deeply resented about.
Same thing for if I said to a man about a woman
doing that.
But I can tell you right now that for 33 years, I've
not made my own decisions about a whole pile of
things, and I've had someone tell me what I'm
going to have for supper and contribute to where
we're going for holidays and all sorts of things, and
that's been a real blessing for me to be married to
Louise for 33 years.
You see, the problem is that we often mistake the
problem of authority with the problem of authority is
ultimately a problem of intimacy and of love and of
trust.
And so many of us have been in organizations like
churches or corporations where there is no trust, where
they don't care about, they only care about the bottom
line, they don't care about the employees.
And many of us maybe have been in marriages that have
broken down or have been very abusive and haven't broken
down, and so we tend to interpret the entire world through
the lens of rights and stuff like that.
But Jesus here, even though when he's using the slave, you
see, this is why the slave and servant thing doesn't really
work.
There could be real affection between the doulos and the
master.
And it's not, we have to think in terms of intimacy and trust.
You see, once again, remember, Jesus is telling us about
this.
And who is the man who's telling us?
What is the gospel?
The gospel is that Jesus is the second person of the
Trinity.
And the Father says to the second person of the Trinity that
the only way that human beings can be reconciled to me, they
cannot do it themselves.
They are spiritually dead.
And only I can do something.
Only we can do something because they cannot save themselves.
And the nature of sin and the nature of our rebellion is such
that the Father says to his son, you need to become human.
You need to set aside your glory and divine prerogatives and
your power and set all of that stuff aside.
And all you leave is your very nature and you're going to be
born.
I know you created the planets.
I know you hold all things in existence.
And I know that your hands that have formed the planets and the
stars and the galaxies, that I'm asking you to have a little
tiny baby's hand that can't even reach your mother's nose.
But I'm asking you to set aside all your glory and power and
divine prerogatives, your splendor and remaining God to be born and
take into yourself human nature and to be born, to be in a womb and
to be born and to walk amongst the created order.
And then to continue to humble yourself until death upon the cross.
And as you die upon the cross, you die not for your own sins, but you
will actually bear and taste upon your very person the sin and the
rebellion of these human beings who are crucifying you.
And that is the means by which my power to save will enter into the
created order so that all who put their trust in you can be
reconciled to me.
And that's the person who's telling us this.
That's the one who's telling us this.
See, as the gospel grips us, there is this possibility that we will
have new desires and new ways of understanding these challenges.
And so it's not that Jesus is telling us not to have any type of self-esteem,
but he's telling us in a sense not to keep our eyes on ourselves while we're
trying to navigate these things.
You know, many people of us, I find myself sometimes walking around as if the
weight of this church rests on me or the weight of some other organization
rests on me. And it is such a gracious moment in heaven.
Maybe I'll find out that just as that is seeming to bear me down as I'm walking
along like this, and maybe I will find in heaven that the reason that this
thought comes into my head is because one of you or somebody else has been
praying for me that very, very second.
And it's as if sometimes, and may it come more and more and more, it's as if God
speaks to me and says, George, you do not carry the weight of your family.
You do not carry the weight of your marriage.
You do not carry the weight of the church.
You do not carry the weight of evangelism.
You do not carry that weight.
My son, Jesus, he carries that weight and he carries you.
It's my work, not yours.
And it's my work, and as part of my work, you're my servant.
I carry that weight.
Jesus carried the weight of the sins of the world on his shoulders and his person.
He carries you.
You're his doulos.
You see, this text is inviting us to understand that God is big and I am small,
and that's a really good thing.
And you know how it is, like, if you come to our office and you park in the back
and you want to get out, the walls are very close.
And the way you understand how you get through something which is very close,
if you spend all your time looking at yourself or looking at the walls,
you'll hit the walls.
You look between all those things and away from yourself at the end,
and then you go through it.
And that's what Jesus is telling us about here is we keep our eyes on the master.
We keep our eyes on God.
And we listen to his direction.
Just as if you're trying to navigate a parking spot and the walls are really bad,
and you have a person at the end and they're going like this and they're going like that,
and you keep your eyes on them and you get through it.
That's what Jesus is telling us about.
That's why we are to pray, dear God, by grace, I am your doulos.
By grace, I am your doulos.
You are the master.
It is your work to save.
It is your work to carry the church.
It is your work to carry the churches in the city.
It's your work to carry Anik.
It's your work to carry my children and their spouses and their future spouses
and my grandchildren.
It's your work.
I am your doulos.
By grace, thank you, Jesus.
I do not have to carry that.
Neither do you.
By grace, I am your doulos.
Please grow in me a deep, obedient, and humble trust in you as my master who commands me.
Just one final thing.
Some of you might say, George, that's all right for you.
You have these religious affections.
You have these religious emotions.
I'm just an ordinary person.
I find this strange.
You know, sometimes when I'm at work and people at work talk about this and that,
and I wish I could have that type of faith.
I wish I could have those types of things.
But I just don't have those emotions.
Can you tell me how to get those emotions?
I can't tell you how to get emotions.
I'm not talking about willpower.
All I can do is time and time and time and time again tell you about Jesus and the cross.
And that says, you hear about Jesus and the cross.
And it grips you.
You hear about what he does for us.
That maybe we have the courage to pray this prayer.
And for some of us, when we pray any one of these three prayers in the next one that I'm going to give you,
for some of us, it's the invitation at the same time for Jesus to plant faith in us and then to grow it.
But for all of us, even for those who have now put our faith and trust in Jesus,
remember Jesus has told us we should ask him to grow our faith.
That's why all of these prayers are in terms of growing.
So just one final text.
We're going to read the final parable.
But before we do, I'm going to give you the point.
I'm going to read verses 11 to 19 in closing.
But Andrew, if you could put up the final prayer to help us understand this final story.
Dear God, please grow in me a deep, humble, thankful trust in Jesus,
who has healed my deepest wound and saved me by his death upon the cross.
Dear God, please grow in me a deep, humble, thankful trust in Jesus,
who has healed my deepest wound and saved me by his death upon the cross.
Every miracle of healing in the gospel points to the fact that on the cross,
Jesus deals with our deepest wound, a wound which is fatal, which has made us dead.
And that God heals the wound, brings life, that we can be his child.
And that's why the healing miracles in the gospel are so important,
because it points to this profound, deep wound, the deepest wound we have,
which is our separation from the living creator of all things,
the true creator and sustainer and end of the whole created order.
And we are alienated from him.
And on the cross, Jesus brings life and heals the wound at the same time.
And that's what salvation is.
And we see it here in this story.
Verse 11, on the way to Jerusalem, Jesus was passing along between Samaria and Galilee.
And some scholars have problems with that because Jesus is not a type A driven individual
who wants to get from where he is to Jerusalem in the shortest possible time.
People be set aside.
I almost said a bad word.
And Jesus doesn't take the direct fast route that ignores people.
He takes the compassionate route, which means he takes all these detours to deal with people.
It's not a problem in the text, just not understanding Jesus.
Verse 11, on the way to Jerusalem, he was passing between Samaria and Galilee.
And as he entered a village, he was met by 10 lepers who stood at a distance.
And in all cultures, I mean, lepers, they would be missing limbs.
They would be quite disfigured.
They would be social outcasts, unclean.
And so they're keeping their distance.
They call out to Jesus.
We have no idea.
They've probably heard he does miracles.
They don't know.
It's not really clear what on earth they think he's going to do.
But what do they do when they see him?
They say, Jesus, master, have mercy on us.
And Jesus, when he sees them, says, go and show yourselves to the priests.
And, you know, the Bible doesn't tell us what goes through their mind.
But maybe they're mindful of the story of Naaman the Syrian, from Syria in the Old Testament,
where part of Naaman's healing was to go to do something.
And so they just say, OK, well, we'll go.
All their faith was was just to go, to follow this word of what Jesus told them to do and to go.
And as they went, they were cleansed.
Now, what this means here is it means they were healed.
And I don't know what that means entirely.
You know, one of the things about it is that health is natural.
And because health is natural, we don't usually feel health.
We feel pain.
And I don't know if it means that as they were walking around along and they're walking there
and they're walking like this and all of a sudden, without them realizing it,
their fingers have grown back out.
But they don't realize it because it's natural to have fingers.
And they're walking along and maybe their toes, which have been missed, all of a sudden are back.
And then maybe as they're walking like this, one of them happens to look and says,
Joseph has toes.
And then they looked and they realized they pointed with a finger.
And they didn't used to have a finger.
And they realized they've been healed in a most dramatic way.
And the text goes on.
And then one of them, verse 15, when he saw that he was healed,
turned back, goes back to Jesus, praising God with a loud voice.
This isn't a time to go to a priest.
It's time to go to God.
Not time to go to church.
Time to go to God.
And he fell on his face at Jesus.
He prostrated at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks.
And he was a Samaritan, which means he didn't believe the right things.
He was all confused about the Bible, all confused about God.
And he wasn't part of the people of promise by the flesh.
Then Jesus said, we're not 10 clans.
We're the nine.
Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?
You know what's so wonderful about that word foreigner?
It says stranger.
I mean, a few folks, some of you are here and you think you're foreign,
and it's foreign and strange to talk about having this faith and trust in Jesus.
All I can do is tell you that when Jesus looks at you, he looks and he speaks to this man with the eyes of love,
and he calls him foreigner.
And it's so neat.
The man's at Jesus' feet.
He's praising God.
Jesus has obviously accepted him.
In a moment, he's going to tell him that not only was he physically healed, but he was spiritually saved.
And the word foreigner is the word that in the temple would be a big word.
If you are a foreigner, you cannot go any closer into the temple.
We are keeping you away from God.
And Jesus used that word to say that the man was saved.
No one is too foreign or too strange or too broken or too absent of religious affections or religious willpowers
that Jesus cannot save you and welcome you as his own.
And he said to him, rise, go your way.
Your faith has saved you.
And so we are invited to pray, dear God, please grow in me a deep, humble, thankful trust in Jesus,
who has healed my deepest wound and saved me by his death upon the cross.
Please stand.
Just bow our heads in prayer.
Father, for some of us, as we pray these prayers, we don't know if we have had faith in you,
but we want you to give us that faith.
We want you to give us that faith and we want you to grow it in us, Father.
Grow it in us.
For all of us here, Father, it's the cry of our heart, even for those of us who have had faith in Jesus for many years,
that you would grow that faith in us, that you might grow a humble, yearning, longing, walking, knowing, trust in us.
Grow a trust in us and a longing and a yearning and a resting and an availability and a thankfulness in you,
for Jesus, the Messiah, for what you've done upon the cross for us and who you are, for your love for us.
Father, grow that within us.
And this we ask, grow that within us.
Make us disciples gripped by the gospel who live for your glory.
And all this we ask in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior.
Amen.