Light or darkness? Your choice

Posted on 20/06/2023 by davidfowlerpreacher

This is a sermon I preached at Elm Park Baptist Church on Sunday 5th March 2023.

The Bible passage (John 3:1 – 21) can be read here.

What to choose?

We all have choices in this world.

From the simple, “What shall I have for breakfast?” to the more complicated and far reaching decisions we have to make.

But the most important choice we ever have to make is “Do I believe and trust in Jesus and have eternal life? Or do I chose to be condemned and face the consequences of my choice?”

It’s a question everyone human being will face at some point in their lives. And they have to answer for themselves.

There are no family tickets or “two for the price of one” offers here. Just because your mum or dad or your grandmother was a believer doesn’t get you into the kingdom of heaven. I remember at a previous church a preacher had said a similar thing which really upset a lady in the congregation. She thought that as she was a believer she could “sneak” her father into heaven as well. The thought that this was not possible really upset her as she realised that once her father died she may never see him again. Her reaction was to get angry with the preacher rather than urge her father to do something about his eternal destiny.

So, Jesus has a night time visitor, an influential man called Nicodemus who is not only a Pharisee but also a member of the ruling council. He has a lot of clout and clearly is an intelligent man.

We don’t know why he came at night. Perhaps he didn’t want his fellow Pharisees to see him or maybe he thought he could have an uninterrupted talk with Jesus once the day time crowds had gone. Whatever his reason for coming at night, he is there.

He tells Jesus “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.” Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” “How can someone be born when they are old?“ Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!“

At the time it was taught widely among the Jews that since they descended from Abraham, they were automatically assured of heaven. In fact, some Rabbis taught that Abraham stood watch at the gate of hell, just to make sure that none of his descendants accidentally wandered in there.

Most Jews of that time looked for the Messiah to bring in a new world, in which Israel and the Jewish people would be pre‑eminent. But Jesus came to bring new life, in which He would be preeminent.

It must have been astonishing to Nicodemus that the Jewish people weren’t automatically in God=s kingdom. Admittance to the kingdom was through a spiritual rebirth so anyone, regardless of race or ethnicity or social standing who puts their faith in Jesus could be “born into the kingdom” or “Born Again”.

Some years ago when Barak Obama was running for president of the USA there was some controversy as to where he had actually been born. Because you can only be president if you were actually born in the country. It doesn’t matter if you speak with an American accent, play baseball or American football, love McDonald’s or do a thousand and one other “American” things. If you were not born in the USA you do not qualify.

So to get into the kingdom of heaven you have to be “born again”. No other religion or philosophy will do. No, “I’m a good person” or “I’m kind to animals” or any other excuse will get you into heaven.

It must have done poor Nicodemus’ head in. He asks Jesus “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!“

The great preacher Charles Spurgeon put it this way: “A man may cast away many vices, forsake many lusts in which he indulged, and conquer evil habits, but no man in the world can make himself to be born of God; though he should struggle never so much, he could never accomplish what is beyond his power. And, mark you, if he could make himself to be born again, still he would not enter heaven, because there is another point in the condition which he would have violated – unless a man be born of the Spirit, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Some people get very hung up on the process, the how does God do that? But Jesus gives a simple example “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

Not many of us, I suspect, know about weather systems and how and why the wind blows. We don’t need knowledge of meteorology to feel the wind blowing and see the trees moving in the breeze. And if our fence panels rattle and bushes in the garden are near horizontal we can say it’s a windy day.

Similarly we don’t worry about not knowing how power stations work and how the national grid gets electricity to us before we switch on a light. We accept that provided we’ve paid the bill the light will come on when we flick the switch! I’m sure none of us have just decided to sit in the dark because we don’t know how electricity works. We have the faith that flicking the switch will turn the lights on. As simple as that.

In verse 14 and 15 Jesus says: “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”

Many years ago when Moses led the Jewish people out of Egypt they were moaners and groaners. So they spent 40 years in the wilderness until they learnt their lesson. It took God just one night to get the Jews out of Egypt but 40 years to get Egypt out of the Jews!

They were free. No longer were their male babies being killed. No longer were they slaves enduring all sorts of hardships. They were free! But whilst God ensured they were fed every day with manna they still looked back to the days in Egypt as halcyon days when they ate cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. You can read about it in Numbers 11.

They complained and whinged so much that God sent a plague of snakes to bite them. Moses interceded to God on behalf of the people and God had Moses set up a brass snake on a stick and anyone who looked at the snake would be healed of the snake bites.

They didn’t have to understand how it worked. They just to believe that it would work and they were healed.

As Jesus prophesied, he (the Son of Man) was lifted up on the cross on the first Good Friday to take the punishment that was ours so that we could be forgiven and reconciled to God. We have to acknowledge that Jesus died for our sins and put our trust in him for our salvation.

Jesus goes on to say “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God=s one and only Son.“

God doesn’t want anyone to perish. His desire is that everyone will be with him in heaven. However everyone has the choice to accept that they need Jesus in their lives or just carry on as they are and face the consequences at the end of their days.

Jesus’ invitation is not limited to the nice people, the kind people, the never do anything wrong people. Its open to everyone, good or bad, rich or poor, young or old, everyone. So if you are an “Whoever” its for you. All you have to do is believe and trust in Jesus. Its that easy.

Equally, however, you can chose to refuse the invitation as many sadly do. For them maybe the cost is too high. Maybe its they don’t want to change their lifestyle, or family and friends would disown them. In some countries you can be imprisoned or even killed for being a Christian. A few years ago we had a young Iranian couple at our church. They had fled Iran and were seeking asylum. She had spent a month in jail and he had been banged up for a year; and Iranian jails are not nice places.

Or people just can’t get their head around how people change when the Holy Spirit gets to work in someone’s life. After all “a leopard doesn’t change its spots”.

Jesus goes on to say in v19 “This is the verdict: light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.”

If you live in the light then you can be hated and reviled by those who prefer the dark.

As I write this talk, Kate Forbes who is running to be the next leader of the SNP and hence First Minister of Scotland, is getting a lot of flak for upholding Christian views on marriage, gender, abortion and family life. People hate her.

Similarly those who have no idea of the sanctity of life are having Christians arrested for thinking about praying near abortion centres.

A huge amount of crime goes on in the dark. Criminals don’t want to be seen or discovered. They hate being exposed to the light so that they can be seen for what they are.

But as Christians we live in the light so our actions should be ones of which we are not ashamed. At a previous church there was some electrical work to be done and one of the church council members had a son who was an electrical contractor. We were told that if we paid cash we wouldn’t have to pay the VAT. Surprisingly there were people who thought it was a good deal and we should go ahead with it.

So the most important choice you can ever make is “Do you chose the light or do you wish to stay in the darkness?”

There is a cost which ever way you decide. If you chose the light then your earthly life may be difficult, but that will be more than made up for by having eternity with with God.

However if you chose the dark, you chose judgement and an eternity in hell, where the only one to blame for your fate is yourself.

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The Lost Son

Posted on 20/06/2023 by davidfowlerpreacher

I preached this sermon on 29th January 2023 at Elm Park Baptist Church.

The parable Jesus told is also known as “The Prodigal son” and can be found here.

Family life is never easy.

It can be wonderful, or it can be awful.

Even for Christians, family life has its moments.

Some years ago, I took a funeral for an elderly lady. She and her late husband had been “pillars” of their local church. He had been an elder and I believe she had helped run the Sunday school. As far as the church was concerned, they were a wonderful Christian family. And yet when I met with the son, he told me that he and his sister nick named the family home “The Somme” as they never knew what battle would be going on between the parents. Crockery, cutlery etc would be flying between the protagonists and yelling and shouting would fill the air. Not a good environment for children to grow up in.

Many families have wayward children or difficult parents. One day last year I visited five bereaved families and each one had a “black sheep”. It was quite depressing. But sadly, that’s how life is for some people.

On the other hand, there are families where they all pull together to care for a loved one at home. Often having a rota to ensure at least one person is always there.

So in our Bible reading Jesus is challenged by the pharisees as to why he eats with “sinners” and he tells three parables in reply. All are about “lost and found” and illustrate the lengths someone will go to when they are looking for something or someone who is lost.

Before we look at the longest of these three parables, some 20 years ago when I was still in the C of E, we had some new folk come to the morning service. They had been attending the Alpha Course at the church. One girl in her 20’s had tattoos and scars on her arms. She had been a drug addict and had self-harmed to seek release from the mental and emotional pain she had gone through.  Sadly, she got some looks from certain members of the congregation. You know the sort of look. “We don’t want her sort in our church” “What’s she doing here?” Hopefully she was able to quote John Newton’s hymn “Amazing grace”: “Once I was lost but now I’m found”.

And so, to our parable.

I WANT MY SHARE, NOW!

The younger son has an outrageous request. “Father, give me my share of the estate”. Normally a person’s estate is not divided until they are dead. So, is the young man saying, “I can’t wait for you to be dead so that I can get my hands on your money”?  Sadly, I have seen some family businesses where the next generation aren’t interested in the business and so won’t put in the hours they should, but want the rewards. And you know that when the current owner dies the son or daughter will sell up and take the money.

We don’t know what the father thinks of this, but he divides up the property and gives the younger son his share.

Isn’t the younger son just like Esau in the Old Testament who sold his inheritance, his birth right, for a pot of stew? Sometimes we just don’t realize the true value of what we have.

So, the son leaves home and goes off to live the life of Reilly. He lives the high life. With lots of money he, of course, has lots of friends.

LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL!

George Best, the famous Irish footballer, was quoted as saying that his money went on booze, women and fast cars and the rest he just frittered away!

Nearly 40 years ago in the bank where I worked, we had a customer who had won £280,000 on the football pools. At the time it was a fortune and the man who was probably in his 50’s would have been set for life. However suddenly he had a girlfriend and many other friends who were very keen to help him spend his money. The men he met in the pub and bought him a pint were clearly better investment advisers than the professionals in the bank. After all the bank didn’t recommend the sure-fire earner of buying a clapped-out taxi that he could rent out . Neither did they recommend buying a dodgy second-hand goods shop that was sure to make a fortune. Sadly, within a couple of years it had all gone. He didn’t even have the money to cover the mortgage on his ex-council flat.

So, what about our hero in the Bible passage? The money ran out and surprisingly his friends disappeared too. To quote an Eric Clapton song “nobody wants to know you when you’re down and out“.

ALL GONE!

Once I lived the life of a millionaire,
Spent all my money, I just did not care.
Took all my friends out for a good time,
Bought bootleg liquor, champagne and wine.

Then I began to fall so low,
Lost all my good friends, I did not have nowhere to go.
I get my hands on a dollar again,
I’m gonna hang on to it till that eagle grins.

‘Cause no, no, nobody knows you
When you’re down and out.
In your pocket, not one penny,
And as for friends, you don’t have any.

When you finally get back up on your feet again,
Everybody wants to be your old long-lost friend.
Said it’s mighty strange, without a doubt,
Nobody knows you when you’re down and out.

Our hero was desperate. He was penniless and hungry, destitute and in a foreign land. His lack of money was his fault but the famine was beyond his control.

DESPARATE TIMES

He was willing to do anything to make some money. He even looked after pigs. No Jew in his right mind would have anything to do with pigs. They were “unclean” animals. You had nothing to do with them. But this young man felt he had no choice. There was no other job available to him.

It must have been a truly miserable existence for him.

Then one day he has a “light bulb” moment. A sudden thought comes to him. perhaps he was thinking of home, the good old days on the farm. Even my father’s farm hands are better off than me. They always had more than enough to eat. I should go home and work for my father at least I would have food and shelter.

And so he set off for home. You can imagine him rehearsing what he was going to say to his father, about how sorry he was, and could he have a job on the farm? He probably thought about the possibility that his father would turn him away. If that happened what would he do next?

WELCOME HOME. MY SON!

He is still quite a distance from home when his father sees him coming and runs to him, hugs him and kisses him.

This is not how respectable people behaved in Jesus’ time. The father was clearly a man of some standing and his son should have come to him. Instead the father in his joy at seeing his son alive breaks all the cultural conventions. His son is so much more important to him than what people may say. We can be certain that those listening to the parable would have been shocked at the father’s behaviour.

What happens next is even worse. A fine robe, the family ring and sandals are all provided for the young man. The father is showing that despite his shameful behaviour the young man is part of the family. The father is more concerned with the safe return of his wayward son than with family honour.

Sadly, we hear of some communities, some cultures, where family honour is a matter of life or death. So, girls who refuse an arranged marriage or people who marry inappropriately are murdered to preserve the family honour. Also, for some becoming a Christian dishonours the family and they may well be murdered for their faith in Jesus.

The father in our story is so delighted that his son is safe that he organises a feast. What a thing to celebrate!

Sadly, one person is not happy with the outcome. The older, dutiful son. He has worked hard for his father, never gone off the rails and never got into trouble. He is not pleased. In fact, he is furious. It’s not fair!  Maybe Jesus is equating the Pharisees with their dutiful following of the law to the older brother.

Look what he says to his father “But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!” He doesn’t acknowledge the lad as his brother. He distances himself from the lad.

His father replies “My son you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we have to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again, he was lost and is found“.

So where do we find ourselves in this story? Do we side with the older son, the one who has always played by the rules? It doesn’t seem fair when you look at the younger son’s behaviour.

The Scribes and the Pharisees thought that keeping the rules got you into heaven. The trouble was that they had added manmade rules to the “law” as given to Moses and the Israelites in the desert. They didn’t seem to have a love for God or indeed any compassion for those who got things wrong. They were so weighed down with the rules and regulations they couldn’t look up to see God.

They condemned Jesus for eating with sinners because they lacked compassion for their fellow men and women who struggled with sin.

Jesus met with people because he wanted to give everyone a chance to turn their lives around and be saved. How do people have a chance to change their lives if no one tells them the good news and they just get the message that they are miserable sinners? It’s like going to see you doctor who gives you the diagnosis but doesn’t prescribe the cure.

But to change your life, to be healed of sin you need to take the cure. Sadly, many don’t want to change. They want to stay with the pigs in a foreign land rather then return to the Father. For some they just want to live life their way. For others it’s a matter of pride “I can never own up to being wrong” or indeed it could be “I’ve been so bad God can never forgive me. He could never accept me”. Let alone those who decide the diagnosis is wrong and there is nothing wrong with me.

Perhaps some people have been told that God wouldn’t want them to come back to him, to come home as he doesn’t want them. A few years ago, we knew of a young man who’s marriage fell apart because of his wife’s infidelity, his mother in law said to him “I don’t know where you are going to live. Your parents won’t want you back!” What a lie! His parents were very sad and disappointed that things hadn’t worked, but he was their son so of course he was welcome.

Similarly, God always welcomes people who turn away from their sinful lives and want to come home to him.

I think that most of us have, to varying degrees, been with the younger son, living a life that was not honouring to God, squandering what he gave us. Maybe we didn’t end up with the pigs but somewhere in our journey we started to head towards God, and he met us in his son Jesus, and we were welcomed into the heavenly family.

So our job is to tell others that through Jesus, our Heavenly Father welcomes home all who wish to come. Jesus is the only way to heaven, so they have to come through him. But firstly, they have to leave their old life, their sinful actions and lifestyle behind, turn their back on it and set out in the direction that brings them home.

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Are you ready?

Posted on 20/06/2023 by davidfowlerpreacher

Sadly, I am rather behind in posting my sermons to this website.

This is a sermon I gave at Elm Park Baptist Church on 11th December 2022.

During the Advent season Christians traditionally not only look forward to celebrating Christmas, but they also look forward to the promised day that Jesus will return to the earth.

Our Bible reading is Matthew 24: 36 – 44 which you can find here.

My three year old granddaughter Evie loves to play hide and seek when she visits us. The trouble is she will say, “I’ll go hide in the coats Grandad. Then you come and find me!” So I close my eyes whilst she hides, count to an appropriate number and then proclaim “Ready or not, here I come!” And the hunt is on, aided by the giggling I can hear in the hall. There is only so long I can pretend to hunt for her before I find her. Sometimes I take too long and she shouts “I’m here under the coats”.

Jesus’ return will be somewhat like “Ready or not, here I come!”

This time of year, the church has traditionally looked forward. Firstly to Christmas when we celebrate Jesus’ first coming to the earth – born as a helpless baby in an obscure corner of the Roman Empire. Hardly anyone noticed his arrival, just it would appear a few shepherds and some Persian astrologers.

But we also look forward to the time Jesus returns. When he comes again he will return in great splendour and majesty. No one alive will miss it or be able to avoid it.

Matthew 24: 30 30“At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. 31And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.”

To quote the hymn writer Charles Wesley

“Every eye shall now behold Him

Robed in glorious majesty;

Those who set at naught and sold Him, 

Pierced and nailed Him to the tree,                            

Deeply wailing,

Shall their true Messiah see.”

Not everyone will be glad when Jesus returns but everyone will know he has returned and one way or another everyone will recognise his authority and majesty: Philippians 2 v 10 & 11: “at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

So I thing we have three questions we need to consider this morning:

When is Jesus returning?

What is he going to do?

How does that affect us?

When is Jesus returning?

Many years ago when I was at grammar school there was a completion run by the school to raise money in conjunction with the summer fair. A stopwatch was wound up with a random number of winds and looked away in the school safe. The competition was to guess when the watch would stop. Even if you had an idea of how much it was wound up it was very difficult to know when the watch would stop.

Our Bible passage makes it clear that no one on earth or in heaven knows when Jesus will return. Not even the angels or Jesus himself know, only God knows. Hence Jesus tells us “So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”

Throughout the bible there are various prophecies as to what will be going on at the time that Jesus comes back. Particularly in Isaiah, Daniel and Revelation. Earlier in Matthew 24 we have a few hints:

4Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. 5For many will come in my name, claiming, `I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. 6You will hear of wars and rumours of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 7Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8All these are the beginning of birth pains.”

Also Jesus warns us of false messiahs – people who claim to be Jesus and may do all sorts of “miracles” even healings yet if you examine them in the light of scripture they clearly are not Jesus.

23At that time if anyone says to you, `Look, here is the Christ!’ or, `There he is!’ do not believe it. 24For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect‑‑if that were possible. 25See, I have told you ahead of time. 26“So if anyone tells you, `There he is, out in the desert,’ do not go out; or, `Here he is, in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it.

We have seen in our own times many people claiming to be the Messiah. Many cults such as the Jehovah Witnesses have tried to predict the exact date when Jesus will return. This has been stated to be 1873, 1878, 1914 and 1975. Later they modified their prediction to the thought that the generation alive in 1914 would not pass away before the Second coming!

Back in history people believed that Jesus would return in 1000 AD as Europe was suffering persecution from the Vikings and it really seemed like the end of the world.

Yes we can look at all the wars going on and the catalogue of natural disasters that seem to be occurring with increasing regularity but all we can say with any certainty is that Jesus is a day nearer returning than he was yesterday!

What is Jesus going to do when he returns?

We are told that Jesus is coming to judge the world, as the creed says, the living and the dead. Judgement is one of those difficult subjects that many preachers try to avoid and many people sitting in church squirm about.

However throughout the gospels, Jesus warns people that judgement is coming. He talks more about judgement and hell than he does about heaven. Judgement is going to be black and white with no shades of gray. You are either saved or not. There is no Tony Blair style “third way”.

In our passage Jesus puts it like this: “39 That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 40 Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. 41 Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.”

In Matthew 25 there is a simple but striking illustration about how judgement is going to be.

31“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. 32All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. 34“Then the King will say to those on his right, `Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 41“Then he will say to those on his left, `Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 46“Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

So you are either a sheep or a goat. No camels or llamas or even hybrids. Either you are saved or you are judged, it is as stark as that.

We are judged on our relationship with Jesus. Have we turned our backs on our old life and accepted forgiveness for our sins, our wrong actions and lifestyles? Its not good enough just to come to church, even every Sunday. Being a Christian is not a philosophy or a way of life or a set or rules and regulations. You cannot claim to live as a Christian without a personal relationship with Jesus. It’s like sugar free candyfloss. That just gives you a few drops of colour and a stick.

Some years ago I visited a man who was arranging his aunt’s funeral. The man owned a local cycle shop. He told me that his aunt lived a “Christian lifestyle”. Didn’t attend church, wasn’t known to read her Bible or to pray but lived a “Christian lifestyle”. So I wondered if I could live a cycling lifestyle: wearing cycling clothes and a helmet and talking about the different types of gears used on bikes and what tyres were better. Surely I can only be a cyclist when I get on that bike and ride it. So you are only a Christian when you accept your need for forgiveness of your sins and accept Jesus as your Lord and Saviour.

Just as there is a world of difference between recognising the late queen’s picture on a bank note and actually having known her as a friend there is a difference between hearing about Jesus and having a living relationship with him.

If you haven’t come to that place where you can say that you have accepted Jesus as your Saviour and know he has forgiven you for your bad actions, your sins, then you have to answer for yourself on the day Jesus returns. All the good deeds in the world won’t save you.

No other faith system will save you, despite what people may tell you. Jesus is the only way, and no one comes to heaven any other way. You either love God exclusively or you don’t. Just as you can’t be legally married to two or more people or be married to one and carry on an affair with someone else, so you cannot carry on with false gods, other religions, the occult, black magic etc and claim to be a Christian. God simply won’t put up with spiritual adultery! As Hebrews 4 v13 states: “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” You maybe able to fool yourself or me or other Christians but you cannot pull the wool over God’s eyes.

So if you want to be follower of Jesus you have to give up every other religious activity and belong exclusively to Jesus.

And so to our third question: How does this affect us?

We have to be ready. We know he is coming, but we are not sure of the time. So whilst we carry on with our lives we should be looking forward to when Jesus comes. We have to ensure that we are not so heavenly minded that we are no earthly good.

How would we live today if this was our last day on earth? What is there we need to put right?

Bearing in mind that Jesus likened his return to the flood that suddenly overwhelmed the world in Noah’s day, should we be warning people about what is going to happen? Yes I believe that it is imperative to do so. After all Jesus gave the great commission at the end of Matthew’s gospel that we are to go and make disciples of all the world. And if you or I don’t tell people who will? You know people I don’t know and maybe you are the Christian who can reach certain folk.

In the ministry I undertake I find that I am in 99% of the time too late – the person has died and I am talking with the mourners who cling on to the fact that granny always watched “Songs of Praise” or was kind to animals.

It is not your fault if you try to tell people about Jesus and they don’t listen. They are answerable for their choices. You have done your job. Just as in Noah’s time people will have had the opportunity to talk to him and find out what was going to happen, they chose not to, so now many folk just don’t want to know about what will happen if they don’t do something now about their lives.

Often I challenge telesales staff when they badger me about why I don’t want what they are trying to flog me. I say I will answer their questions if they answer me one question. My question is normally “Do you know what is going to happen to you when you die?” Only one person so far has every expressed curiosity over their eternal future. I invited him to phone back so we could have a chat about his destiny but sadly he hasn’t as yet!

Many people take no care about their lives either now or in eternity. And yet for many people alive today they may not have a tomorrow on this earth. Their next Tomorrow may find them facing judgement, and so may we.

So not only do we have to be right with God but we also have to be busy spreading the good news of Jesus however we can. In Philippians 2 v 14 we are instructed: “Do everything without complaining or arguing, 15so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe 16as you hold out the word of life”.

I would urge you today just to remember this: “So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”

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God’s Repair Shop

Posted on 09/09/2022 by davidfowlerpreacher

Back in June this year, as our pastor was away on holiday, I preached at my home church of Becontree Avenue Baptist Church.

Mark 2;1 – 12

1 A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. 2 They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. 3 Some men came, bringing to him a paralysed man, carried by four of them. 4 Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. 5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralysed man, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’

6 Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, 7 ‘Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?’

8 Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, ‘Why are you thinking these things? 9 Which is easier: to say to this paralysed man, “Your sins are forgiven,” or to say, “Get up, take your mat and walk”? 10 But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.’ So he said to the man, 11 ‘I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.’ 12 He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, ‘We have never seen anything like this!’

I am not a great watcher of TV.

Some people will watch any and everything going, no matter how suitable or otherwise the content. I’ve known of people who love their sports channel so much they will even watch competitive chainsawing!

Lets be honest many programmes subtly or brazenly push an immoral and definitely anti-Christian agenda, trying to persuade the viewer that what they portray is normal life and perfectly acceptable.

However one of the few programmes I enjoy watching is “The Repair Shop”.

For those who are not familiar with the programme, people bring to the Repair Shop all sorts of battered, worn out, damaged, broken and mistreated items in the hope that the team of experts will somehow work their magic and restore the items to how they should be.

Some of the items are in so terrible a state you wonder if anything can be done at all. They look like a lost case.

In the Repair Shop you have toy repairers, leather workers, metal workers, wood workers, upholsterers, electronic engineers etc all involved in the dis assembling, cleaning, remaking, restoring, repairing and reassembling.

Often the results are astonishing.

A great deal of love and care are lavished on the items under repair, and of course the owners are so delighted with the results.

So, you may be asking what does a TV programme have to do with God?

Well, firstly lets get one thing straight. God loves everyone without exception. Even those who crucified Jesus. Even those who commit the most awful of crimes: murderers, rapists, child abusers, drug dealers, swindlers. He loves them all and longs for everyone to turn back to him through faith in Jesus.

God doesn’t turn a blind eye to their sinful actions. He doesn’t approve of the way people behave and live their lives. Oh no!

For each and everyone one of us there will be a day of reckoning.

Let’s put it this way. There will be a day when you and I reach the checkout in life’s supermarket and everything in our trolleys, our sins or misdeeds will be put through the till and we are presented with the bill. How are we going to pay? There is no celestial Tesco Clubcard to lower the bill. And nothing we have will pay for our sins.

If we have not come to faith in Jesus who has taken care of our bill, we have the certainty of judgement in front of God’s throne. The Bible tells us in Hebrews 4:13 “ Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”

Also in Revelation 20:11 – 15 “11 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. 12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. 13 The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done. 14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. 15 Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.”

Everyone’s deeds have been recorded and they are judged on what they have done. However we also read of the Book of Life where the names of believers in Jesus are written. If your name is in that book then you are saved and will be in heaven where you will be with God and with Jesus forever.

As I said God loves everybody and longs for everyone to repent and accept Jesus as their saviour.

To have that relationship with God restored to what God originally designed it to be, before the fall when sin came into the world, is the greatest healing of all. To know that we shall be with God for ever in Heaven when our days on this earth are over is the most wonderful gift we can ever aspire to.

Yet many of us have problems whilst we are on earth. Life is not as God designed it, because of sin. We all have problems and illnesses. Sin affects us physically, mentally and spiritually.

Many illnesses are as a result of our lifestyle choices, particularly in the “West”. People smoke, eat the wrong foods, drink too much alcohol. They don’t look after themselves or others.

A few years back at the funeral of a woman in her early 70’s, who had died of a smoking related lung disease and diabetes, her partner on leaving the chapel raged at God shaking his fist and threatening God because the woman had died. The fact that he was the one who kept her supplied with cigarettes and fed her McDonalds and KFC had nothing to do with her death in his eyes.

Many people wreck their bodies and their minds with alcohol or drugs. In the USA there are many people hopelessly addicted to pain medication pushed on to them by the pharmaceutical companies.

Dawn was only 59 when she died. Her final 13 years were spent in a nursing home. She had taken to drink. In fact she drank in a day more than twice the weekly recommended quantity of alcohol. She brought upon herself alcohol induced dementia.

Mental illness in another major problem which is not really understood and often there is little sympathy for the sufferer.

During the Covid pandemic many people’s mental health suffered, partly because of the isolation but also because of the fear of catching covid.

Sometimes mental illness is caused by demonic activity. I am careful how I say this as a few years ago a lady with mental health issues went absolutely ballistic when I said this. Perhaps I had hit a nerve.

The Bible warns us to have nothing to do with the occult, things like Ouija boards, tarot cards, fortune telling, witchcraft etc because God doesn’t want us to be hurt.

I do recall taking the funeral of a man in his 30’s who had lived rough for many years and suffered from mental issues as well as alcohol and drug abuse. Speaking to his family who were not Christians, I learnt that he was about 15 when he played with a Ouija board. What happened in that session is not known except the poor lad spent the next few months cowering with fright in his bedroom. And that was the beginning of his problems. His parents didn’t realise the terrible harm that can come from playing with the occult.

A lot of spiritual problems are down to demonic activity. Just look at the parable of the Sower and the seed.  Jesus says that the devil doesn’t want people to hear the word of God and be saved. The evil one is happy if people’s minds are full of religious nonsense that keeps them from receiving the gospel and being saved.

We have to be careful with giving the devil too much credit for the problems we encounter. I once heard of a church minister who tried to exorcise an evil spirit from the church’s projector as it failed to work!

So we come to our Bible reading from Mark’s gospel.

We don’t know what the man had done that he was now bedbound. Whilst it may be interesting to find out, it really is none of our business. After all, we would not like anyone else finding out our deepest and darkest secrets, the things we are most ashamed and guilty about.

Irrespective of what the man has done to get him in this condition, his friends not only stick with him but activity seek his healing. They go to great lengths to deliver their friend to Jesus, so convinced are they that Jesus is the answer to his problems. They are not put off trying by the huge crowd both in and around the building.

I see from Facebook people who post about their problems and illnesses . And some of the “friends” comments “sending healing thoughts” or sending you “positive vibes”. What good does that do apart from assure the person that their friends have thought about them? Why not assure the person that you will pray for them and then get on your knees?

Jesus looks at the man and knows that sin is the issue. He has a need to be forgiven, then what ever has paralysed his body will lose its power over him.

The religious leaders who seem to know more about religion than about God are outraged and accuse Jesus of blasphemy.

Jesus proves that he is the Son of God by telling the forgiven man to get up and walk.

The man is cured. He is restored. And people are astonished to see him get up and walk. This is what we read in v12 “ He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, ‘We have never seen anything like this!‘”

Jesus is still in the business of forgiving people’s sins, reconciling them to God, our Heavenly Father, and healing the physical, mental and spiritual wounds that each and everyone of us carry.

For those of us who know Jesus as our Lord and saviour, we have the job of bringing people to Jesus, just as the owners of the objects in the Repair Shop have brought them to the shop for repair.

Like the friends of the paralysed man we have to be faithful to those who need to come to Jesus and we have to do our utmost to bring that reconciliation about.

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Preach the word

Posted on 14/12/2019 by davidfowlerpreacher

On the 20th October this year I again preached at my home church, Becontree Avenue Baptist Church, on the subject of preaching the word even when people don’t want to hear what you have to say, even if they need to hear it.

2 Timothy 3:14-4:5

14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15 and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
1 In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: 2 Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. 3 For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. 5 But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.

Image result for open bible imagesSeveral years ago we were on holiday in Cornwall and we went to the local church which is very lively and attracts people from near and far to attend and become members. Sadly the preacher was the then local Methodist minister. After we had the Bible reading the minister got up to speak and the first words that came out of his mouth were “Everybody has their own ideas about Jesus and everybody is right” Maybe he didn’t realise the implications of what he had said, but it certainly didn’t line up with the Bible.

So according to this minister if you thought Jesus was just a prophet you were right. If you think Jesus was just a man you were right. If you hold another religion’s view on Jesus, you are right. Whatever you thought about Jesus you were right.

The Bible tells us exactly who Jesus is – the Son of God. To make him anything less than that is so wrong.

Recently I heard a local church minister telling a grieving family at their loved one’s funeral that the deceased is now an angel! Again, the Bible makes it clear that humans are humans and angels are angels. We do not magically become angels when we die. If we did I am 100% sure the Bible would tell us.

This same minster talks about “the circle of life” almost implying re incarnation. Well the Bible says in Hebrews 9:27 “Everyone must die once, and after that be judged by God.”

I am not sure if he thinks he is giving people comfort by telling what they want to hear, or he just doesn’t know the Bible. Or maybe he doesn’t believe that the Bible is God’s word as it has some difficult things to take onboard.

Our Bible reading talks about teachers who will give people what their itching ears want to hear. At a funeral many people want to hear that their loved one is safely in heaven, regardless of the fact the person was not a Christian and had never expressed any interest in God or Jesus.

Indeed, many will ask for a secular or non-religious service for their loved one and then read poems about God calling the person home to heaven.

None of us know what has gone on between someone and God in their last moments. After all we have that wonderful conversation between Jesus and a criminal as they are dying on crosses. Luke 23:42 & 43 “ Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. ” Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
But we really can’t assume that everyone gets to heaven; and it would be wrong of us to give people that false assurance. We can hope that someone has had a last minute conversion, but we can’t be definite about it, as we simply do not know.

Many years ago, when we were in the Church of England, we had Ken, a retired gentleman, come to our Home group. He told us that his father in law had just died and his grandson was asking questions about where great grandad was now. Ken told the young lad that great grandad could be that blackbird sitting in the tree. Ken was surprised when we asked him where he found that in the Bible. Yes, he had a Bible. His mum had given him one as he went off to war in 1939. But he really had never sat down and read it. So, when faced by one of life’s difficult questions he came up with the first answer he could think of.

So what does our Bible reading have to say about all this?

Paul wrote this letter to a young church leader, Timothy who had the advantage of growing up in the faith. We know from earlier in this letter that his mother and grandmother were believers: 2 Timothy 1:5 “I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also.”

Many people come to faith not having the benefit of growing up in a Christian home and not being aware of the Bible from an early age. Some may be the only believer in the family for many years, if not, ever.

Often when I visit people, I am told that mum or dad had a Bible but it was never opened. It was there almost like a talisman or good luck charm.

Some years ago, one of my brothers, who is a permanent deacon in the Catholic church, told me that an elderly lady in his church asked for help. There was, during Lent, an inter church house group and people were reading from the Bible. She didn’t know how to find her way round the Bible. Yes, she did have one, but years ago the Parish priest had told her she should have a Bible, but there was no need to read it as the priest would tell her what she needed to know!

I hope that you check out what I am telling you, to make sure that I do not go off message. There is a good precedent for this. In Acts 17:10 – 12 “As soon as it was night, the believers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving there, they went to the Jewish synagogue. Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. As a result, many of them believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men.”

Can you imagine going up to the Apostle Paul and telling him he’s got it wrong! The people from Berea were prepared to do that rather than simply believing everything he said. We also should be prepared to do that.

We should remember not to cherry pick from the Bible as Paul tells us: 2 Timothy 3: 16 – 17 “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
I have had people say to me that the Bible doesn’t make sense and is confusing and contradictory. And yes, some parts are difficult to understand, but we should persevere and indeed ask God through the Holy Spirit to help us understand what we are reading.
I think it is useful to clarify that in saying “All scripture is God breathed” Paul is referring to what we know as the Bible not the books of other religions. We also have to be careful as some cults, particularly those that come knocking door to door, have edited and mistranslated the Bible to justify their own beliefs. A bit like taking a knife to the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle to get them to fit how you think they should.

The famous missionary and great man of God, Hudson Taylor once said: There are three great truths,
First: That there is a God;
Second, That He has spoken to us in the Bible;
Third, That He means what He says.

So if we agree with Hudson Taylor we should take the Bible seriously and certainly not misquote it or take verses out of context.

Let’s look at Ephesians 4:28. In it we read: “Anyone who has been stealing must steal” That’s good news if you are a thief, you can continue to do so.
But…..
What it actually says is: “Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need.”
You see the danger of misquoting the Bible.

Paul commands Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:2 “Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.”

We have to bring the Word of God to people whenever its needed rather than whenever we feel like it. And we have to correct those who have got it wrong or have misunderstood, rebuke those that needed to be told off for their sinful behaviour and then encourage people who need to be encouraged and spurred on in their faith.

Paul goes on to say in 2 Timothy 4:3 & 4 “For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.”

You can see this to be true in some churches where no longer to do they promote Godly relationships but take the view that “anything goes”, or indeed you have some Christians saying “as Jesus didn’t say anything about this, it must be ok.” May be Jesus didn’t make a pronouncement about a particular sin because the Jews at the time were fully aware from the Bible that it was a sin, no matter how popular it may have been in other cultures.

Or we have churches which are happy to allow other faiths to worship and pray in their buildings, buildings that are dedicated to the one true God. They allow readings from these faiths’ texts even if the passage read out denies the truth of Jesus and who he is.

What about the cathedral that during the summer installed a helter skelter in the middle of the building? Another church had a crazy golf course.

You may recall from the gospels that Jesus was appalled at what he found going on in the Temple. We read in Matthew 21;13 “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’

Sadly, people inside the church and outside want to have an easy gospel, something that makes them feel good and doesn’t compel them to change. A “no repentance needed” gospel. A “business as usual” gospel. And of course, they will be preachers and teachers who will happily go along with this, never mind that they should be correcting, rebuking and encouraging.

Another quote from Hudson Taylor “Carrying the cross does mean following in Jesus’ footsteps. And in His footsteps are rejection, brokenheartedness, persecution and death. There are not two Christs – an easy going one for easy going Christians, and a suffering one for exceptional believers. There is only one Christ. Are we willing to follow His lead?”

In the final verse in our passage Paul gives a simple instruction: 5 “But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry”.

So, although not all of us are called to be evangelists or preachers we all have our part to play in advancing the Kingdom of God. In our conversations with people we must not give them what their itching ears want to hear but should try to give them what they need to hear which is the Word of God.

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The Price of Love

Posted on 12/03/2024 by davidfowlerpreacher

This is a sermon I gave at Elm Park Baptist Church on 9th April 2023, which was Palm Sunday when we remember Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem.

The Bible reading is Luke 19 v 28 – 40 and can be found here: Luke 19 v 28 – 40

Do you ever get a song or a piece of music going round and round in your head for hours or days at a time?

Well for the past few weeks every time I have been thinking about today’s sermon I have heard in my head the song originally by the Everly Brothers called “the Price of love” which of course deals with romance and the relationships between men and women but seems to be a reminder of the events of Holy Week and especially Good Friday:

“That’s the price of love, the price of love
The debt you pay with tears and pain
The price of love, the price of love
Costs you more when you’re to blame”

Not entirely accurate as we know how much it cost God and he was not to blame.

The Bible is full of people who knew the price of love. Much earlier in Luke’s gospel (Luke 7:36-43) we come across the “woman who had lived a sinful life” who washed Jesus’ feet with her tears and dried them with her hair before pouring very expensive perfume over them. A woman letting her hair down in public was not done and just think of what those feet had trodden on and in on the dusty roads of Judea! That’s the price of love for this woman.

Today, we start on the great roller coaster of Holy Week, with its amazing highs and its despairing lows in the depths of human sin and iniquity. On Good Friday we realise the price of love. Just how much God was willing to pay for us because he loves us so much.

We start on a high as Jesus enters Jerusalem proclaimed as a saviour by the crowds. We will go through the depths of betrayal on Maundy Thursday, the sheer horror and agony of Good Friday the anxious wait of Holy Saturday and the wonderful unbelievable dawn of Easter day and the resurrection of Jesus.
We are today nearly at the end of the series of processions we see Jesus lead through the New Testament.

Firstly we have the quiet sedate journey of Christmas as Mary and Joseph travel to Bethlehem. This is followed by the flight to Egypt, the pilgrimage to the temple when Jesus was a young boy. Then comes the three years travelling around the Holy Land followed by crowds wherever he went. The arrival at Nain causes almost a collision with a funeral procession out of the town. The result is death is defeated and the young man restored to life. Coming into Jericho, Jesus called a man down from a tree and brought him to salvation – Zacchaeus.

Jesus’ final earthly procession will be on Good Friday when he leads the way to Calvary and his crucifixion.

The final procession mentioned in the Bible that Jesus leads is in Revelation 19 but this time Jesus is on a white horse and we read “I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war…. On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.”

That is for the future. Lets see what was happening on that first Palm Sunday.

Lets start with a brief history lesson. Israel was then part of the Roman Empire, it had been for quite a few years. Even though Herod Antipas was king over part of the area, he was only there with the permission of the Roman Emperor. He was a descendent of Herod the Great, the man who had tried unsuccessfully to kill Jesus by massacring the boy children in Bethlehem. By the way, Herod the Great was not a Jew even though the Romans gave him the title “King of the Jews” and he had started the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem. I guess the same is true today that just because people do things for the church it doesn’t mean they are believers.

Like many kings and rulers, Herod was desperate to hold onto power and would imprison and murder anyone who might pose a threat to his rule. He had imprisoned and subsequently beheaded John the Baptist who had dared to criticise his lack of morals. John the Baptist knew the price of love. The price he had to pay being faithful to God.

So Herod was likely to see Jesus as a threat not only because he was popular with the people but, as we shall see Jesus was showing himself to be the rightful king descended from the Jewish royal family.
Most of the Jews hated the Romans. However a few, like the tax gatherers such as Zacchaeus and Matthew, had done very nicely thank you.

People were waiting for a liberator, someone to drive the Romans out of the land and restore Israel to its former glory. The Zealots couldn’t wait and carried on a guerilla campaign against the Roman Army of occupation. Indeed one of the Zealots, Simon, was a disciple of Jesus.

I have to say that many people in the world are waiting or looking for a liberator. Someone who will set them free from the tyranny of sin, the disasters of broken relationships, the awfulness of addiction and everything else that ruins life here on earth. Sadly they look everywhere except to Jesus.

Perhaps people in Jesus’ day felt that God had forgotten them. The last prophet Malachi had died more than 300 years ago and people seem not to have heard from God. There were many who claimed to be the Messiah or the one sent by God to bring liberation and restore the kingdom. Yet they had all proved to be fakes.

But suddenly onto the scene comes this preacher from Nazareth. He talks like no one else. He heals the sick, drives out demons and performs miracles. He is popular with the ordinary people and he deals with the pharisees and religious leaders who have made life so miserable with their dead religion and their endless rules and regulations.

Could he be the Messiah? The Liberator? Is he the one to lead the revolution and get rid of those hated Romans?

Those are questions which the events of Holy Week would answer very clearly. We however have another question to answer:

What’s all this with the donkey?

The military and the rich used horses and chariots. Everyday folk had the humble donkey. But the answer is deeper than that.

Way back in the history of the Jews was a man called Jacob. He was the grandson of Abraham and the father of the founders of the 12 tribes of Israel. When he was an old man, dying in Egypt he called his sons into his tent and gave each one a blessing. This is what he said about his son Judah and his descendants. It is recorded in Genesis 49 v 10 & 11:
“The sceptre will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs and the obedience of the nations is his. He will tether his donkey to a vine, his colt to the choicest branch“

The Jewish people knew their scriptures and understood this to be a prediction about the coming Messiah, the Messiah who would be rule as the rightful king over the nation of Israel. And by taking a colt that’s tethered, Jesus is symbolically applying this ancient prediction to himself.

Now look at the circumstances at how he gets this colt in vv. 30 – 34. It’s possible that Jesus had made preparations ahead of time in this village to have a colt waiting. But it’s also possible that what we have here is an example of what’s called “the royal right to transport” in the ancient world. A king or other high ranking ruler had an inherent right to seize a horse or other animal for official transportation if he needed it. This right is similar to what we see in the movies when a police officer flashes his badge to commandeer someone’s car to chase a bad guy. In the ancient world, as long as the animal was eventually returned to the rightful owner, a member of royalty had the legal right to seize an animal for transportation. That’s likely what’s happening here, which is why Jesus tells his followers to say, “The Lord needs it.” Obviously the Lord here is Jesus. As the royal Lord, the rightful king of Israel, Jesus exercises his royal right to transport by borrowing this colt. Its not certain whether this is a miracle or if Jesus has made prior arrangements. But the point seems to be Jesus as the rightful king exercising his royal right of transport.

So Jesus mounted a donkey and rode into the city, amidst loud acclamations by the crowd. Some of the city’s residents, usually numbering 30,000, but probably swelling to over 200,000 because of Passover pilgrims, strew blankets and cloaks, others palm branches, before the animal Jesus rode on.

You may not realise how much it cost those people to praise Jesus that day. The scriptures talk about the sacrifice of praise. Praise costs!

I don’t know how many coats you have, but most people in Jesus’ time had one coat which had to last for years. The coat was very important as it not only kept you warm and dry during the day, but served as a blanket at night and could also be used as security for a loan. These people wanted to praise Jesus and were willing to pay the cost. After all, could they guarantee finding their coats after the procession had passed and goodness knows what condition they would be in having at the very least been trampled on by many feet…

How many of us would rush off home now and put our bedding and the contents of our wardrobes out on the road for Jesus to ride over?

How much do we sacrifice to praise Jesus? The answer will tell you how much you think Jesus is really worth.

Now Jesus riding into the city of Jerusalem on a colt also had incredible symbolic significance to the people of Israel. One of the ancient prophecies about the coming of the Messiah looked forward to just this. About 500 years before the birth of Jesus, the Hebrew prophet Zechariah had predicted this very thing.

“Rejoice, rejoice, people of Zion! Shout for joy, you people of Jerusalem! Look, your King is coming to you! He comes triumphant and victorious but humble and riding on a donkey – on a colt the foal of a donkey. The Lord says, I will remove the war-chariots from Israel and take horses from Jerusalem; the bows used in battle will be destroyed. Your king will make peace among the nations.. (Zechariah 9:9-10).

Jesus is purposefully acting out this prediction, and by doing so he’s claiming that he’s the true king, he’s the one who’s righteous and who brings deliverance to Israel. He’s the one who will bring God’s peace to all nations and rule as king not just in Israel, but over the nations. Jesus is symbolically acting out this prediction.

But what a lot of people don’t realize is that this prediction of Zechariah also looks back to an earlier event from 200 years prior to the prophet Zechariah. You see Zechariah is actually predicting that what happened at King Solomon’s coronation as king back in 790 BC would one day happen again when the Messiah comes to rule as king. The book of 1 Kings describes Solomon’s coronation this way:
Zadok the priest, [and] Nathan the prophet…put Solomon on King David’s mule and escorted him to Gihon. Zadok the priest took the horn of oil…and anointed Solomon. Then they sounded the trumpet and all the people shouted, “Long live King Solomon.” And all the people went up after him, playing flutes and rejoicing greatly (1 Kings 1:38-40 NIV).

Can you see the similarities between Solomon’s coronation in 790 BC, Zechariah’s prophecy two hundred years later in 520 BC, and Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem in about 33 AD? You might remember who Solomon was: He was the Hebrew King David’s rightful heir to the throne. So Zechariah was looking forward to another rightful heir from David’s dynasty to one day rule in Israel, and Jesus is symbolically applying that claim to himself.

The crowd cries out “Hosanna!” meaning “Lord, save us!” and with the words of Psalm 118:26 “Blessed is who comes in the name of the LORD!” Secondly, our Lord’s entry was a political statement. In the ancient world, when a conquering king entered a city after a battle, he rode on a stallion or something even more impressive. Judas Maccabeus, after having driven the Syrians from Jerusalem in 163 BC entered the city on a majestic stallion. The residents of the city came out and waved palm branches as he entered, and shouted, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

Julius Caesar had returned to Rome in a golden chariot harnessed to 40 elephants in 45 BC.

But whenever a king entered a city in peace, he rode on a donkey.

Perhaps the modern day example would be the pictures we see of TV of military rulers riding triumphantly into captured cities on a tank, or the American president in his armoured limo. Yet Jesus has the equivalent of the delivery moped from Pizza Hut, hardly a threatening way of riding into town.

Jesus entered Jerusalem amidst adulation, clapping, shouting, smiles, and dancing. You may recall in 2003 seeing on the TV news the reception the US Marines got from Iraqis as they entered Baghdad at the fall of Saddam Hussain’s regime.

For Jesus it was a day of cheers, but the cheering wouldn’t last. This same crowd would less than a week later shout, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” before Pilate’s judgment seat.

The crowd was fickle, because our human hearts are fickle and untrustworthy. Napoleon and his army were once marching through Switzerland and were receiving thunderous applause wherever they went. The crowds shouted: “Long live the king! Viva la France! Hail to the emperor Napoleon!” But the general was unimpressed. An aide asked, “Isn’t it wonderful to hear the roar of the crowds and the love of the people?” Napoleon replied, “The same people that are cheering me today would cheer just as loudly at my execution.”

The human heart is sinful and fickle and until we are born again we cannot truly respond to Jesus.

How do we respond when Jesus asks us for something as he asked to use the donkey? Are we prepared to give up our possessions, our time or even our positions and titles for Jesus? Or do we hold on tight to them as they are ours!

Are we willing to make a sacrifice to praise Jesus? It cost those people in Jerusalem a great deal that first Palm Sunday. Are we prepared to pay the cost? After all Jesus sacrificed himself for each one of us.

As we contemplate the events of Palm Sunday and look forward to Good Friday and Easter Day lets reflect on the words Paul wrote in his letter to The Philippians. In chapter 2 we read:
The attitude you should have is the one that Christ Jesus had:
He always had the nature of God, but he did not think that by force he should try to become equal with God. Instead of this, of his own free will he gave up all he had, and took the nature of a servant, He became like a man and appeared in human likeness. He was humble and walked the path of obedience all the way to death – his death on the cross. For this reason God raised him to the highest place above and gave him the name that is greater than any other name. And so in honour of the name of Jesus all beings in heaven, on earth, and in the world below will fall on their knees, and all will openly proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

So today are you prepared to fall on your knees before Jesus and proclaim him Lord of your life?
Are you, like Jesus, prepared to give up all you have and be obedient to God no matter where that path may take you?

Jesus paid the price of love for each and everyone of us. Indeed for everyone in the world. Whenever we gather around the Lord’s table and we are reminded of the price of love, Jesus’ body broken for us and his blood shed for us.

Lord Jesus, Through the power of your Holy Spirit set our hearts on fire with love for you that we may truly praise and worship you, our King. May we be ready to give you what you ask of us when we hear that the Lord has need of it. Amen.

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The Great Banquet

Posted on 10/01/2023 by davidfowlerpreacher

I gave this sermon at Elm Park Baptist Church on Sunday 20 November 2022.

15 When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, ‘Blessed is the one who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.’ 16 Jesus replied: ‘A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. 17 At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, “Come, for everything is now ready.” 18 ‘But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, “I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.” 19 >Another said, AI have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I=m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.” 20 ‘Still another said, “I have just got married, so I can=t come.” 21 ‘The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, “Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.” 22 ‘ “Sir,” the servant said, “what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.” 23 ‘Then the master told his servant, “Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full. 24 I tell you, not one of those who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.” ‘

What I like about the gospels is that they record how Jesus dealt with and talked to ordinary people, how he used the everyday things of first century Palestine to explain the things of God.

It makes it so much easier to understand.

Take today’s Bible reading, about the man who had a great banquet.

How many of you here like parties?

What do you need for a good party?

‚        Food

‚        Drink

‚        Music

‚        People

The Jews and other peoples in the Middle East loved parties, wedding feasts and other celebrations. Indeed it was felt by many Jews that heaven would be like a great feast, where all the righteous people would meet at God=s table. Isaiah 25 v.6 predicts a time when Gods people will be with him “On this mountain the LORD Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine- the best of meats and the finest of wines“.

There again we read of a more intimate meeting in Song of Songs 2 v.4 “He has taken me to the banqueting hall and his banner over me is love.” What a wonderful picture this is, that our God wants to be in a personal intimate relationship with each believer.

The New Testament talks about those who believe in Jesus meeting with him and with God our heavenly father at the Wedding Feast of the Lamb. Jesus is the Lamb of God and the meeting of his people with him in heaven is like a marriage, a joyful union which will never end. In Revelation 19 v.7-9 we read “Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given to her to wear. (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints.) Then the angel said to me Write: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb! And he added, These are the true words of God.“

For many people of Jesus’ time, the greatest event in the social calendar would be a wedding in the village or town in which they lived, or perhaps to be invited to a feast or banquet of a rich and powerful man. In a land where there was just enough to live on, the thought of a vast banquet of wonderful food would have been a great dream.

When Jesus told this story he was having a meal at the house of a prominent Pharisee after the Sabbath day synagogue service. It was rather like inviting someone to Sunday lunch. The Pharisees were the religious lawyers of the day those who interpreted the bible laws and tended to make them as complicated as possible. They were very important in the eyes of most people and so to be invited to have a meal with them was usually considered a great honour and no doubt most of the town’s people would be watching to see who had been invited.

Jesus, earlier in Luke 14, had already made several comments and observations about healing on the Sabbath as well as not exalting yourself by taking the best place at the table, but rather being invited by the host to come up higher.

Years ago, my theology lecturer at Pilgrims Hall told of when he was a young Methodist minister at his first church. He invited some of the congregation back to the manse after the evening service and as they enjoyed tea and biscuits and a chat, his wife who was expecting their first child sat there knitting. Certain worthy members of the congregation were horrified that she would be knitting on the Sabbath!

As usual with the stories that Jesus told, there is more than one meaning. Bible scholars think that Jesus based this parable on a Jewish story about a newly rich man, probably a tax collector, who tried to buy favour with the aristocracy by inviting them to a banquet. The man was probably anxious, like many who make large sums of money, to show off his possessions and his newly acquired status. However those who were invited made up excuses to avoid the man and his company. So no doubt to begin with Jesus= listeners liked the story until they looked at the true meaning of the story which we will come to shortly.

So to the story which Jesus told:

There was a great banquet being prepared and the man sent out the invitations to many people. He clearly wanted many guests to come and appreciate his hospitality. Normally, this was just the sort of occasion that people would be thrilled to attend, and be quite happy to be invited. He followed the custom of the time by sending two invitations.

The first was what we would call “Save the date”. We received one last Christmas stating that our eldest son and his fiancée will be getting married in 2023. So the date is in our diary and we are so looking forward to the wedding.

The second invitation was to remind the guests that the party was now ready and to make sure that they were still coming. I do not know what the correct way of replying was in First century Palestine, but I think today we reply fairly quickly to say whether we can come or not. However, none of the guests appear to have refused the first invitation.

So when all was ready, the jellies made, the balloons blown up or whatever they did in those days, the man sent out the second invitation which more or less said “Its ready, come on round.” This was the custom at the time.

Thinking up an excuse not to go to the banquet

Surprisingly, at this point all the people invited started to make excuses and they were rather lame ones at that. All of the excuses show that the people are either more concerned with other things or quite frankly didn’t want to go but could n’t come straight out with it!

You begin to wonder if they had wanted to come in the first place. To accept the invitation beforehand and then to refuse it when the day came was a grave insult.

“I’ve just bought a field and I must go and see it” Does anyone really buy a plot of land or a field without looking it over? I doubt it. However, there was a story in the news recently of a young couple who accidentally put in a bid on the wrong property at a house auction and ended up with a real wreck of a house.

“I’ve just bought five yoke of oxen, and I am on my way to try them out.” I don’t suppose anyone here has ever bought even one yoke of oxen, it’s a thing we don’t tend to do in this part of the world. But I suspect it is the equivalent to a farmer today buying a tractor out of Exchange and Mart or from a card in the Newsagent’s window without seeing it or giving it a test drive before parting with the readies.

“I have just got married, so I can’t come.” There is no indication in the story that this was an event just for the men, so the man is not prevented from coming.

What is the host to do?

Clearly this banquet has cost a lot of money to get ready and it would be terrible to let it all waste. He had all the right ingredients for a good evening except the most vital, people. So he gave orders to his staff to “Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame“.

Well his servant did all that, yet there was still room. The host replied “Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, so that my house will me full. I tell you not one of those men who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.“

The people who came to the banquet were the sort of people that the rich and influential had no time for and would not be seen dead with them at an important social event. Yet here they are.

I am sure that those who actually came to the banquet will have enjoyed it and appreciated it more than all the fine people who were invited and made excuses to avoid it.

We now get to the question of what is the meaning of the story?

As I said earlier, the Jews liked to think of heaven as a great banquet where all the followers of God would meet with him. However, as we know the Jews rejected Jesus, God’s son, and have hence lost the chance to come to the banquet. After all Jesus said in John 14 v.6 “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.“

So God like the man in the story has decided that as the original guests don’t want to accept the invitation he will extend his invitation to all sorts of people, the sort that the Jews call Gentiles. Just as many people in society today look down on the unemployed, the outcasts and the homeless, so the Jews looked with loathing and disdain on all other peoples. I can imagine that when the full meaning of the story was realised by Jesus’ hearers, the Pharisees, they would not have been pleased to think that God was inviting the gentiles to share in his kingdom.

The invitation is extended to all people in the world, as the original guests don’t want to accept. God sends his servants out to every corner of the world to bring his invitation to everyone no matter who they are, regardless of what society things of them. Indeed, as in the story, the people now invited including those on the edge of society are likely to appreciate God’s forgiveness and grace and mercy more than people who have lived “nice lives” and feel that they have earned their place in heaven.

He has given the invitation to all of you, and many of you have clearly said “Yes, I would like to come to your banquet.” If you haven’t said yes, to be honest with you, you have up to your last breath to answer the reply. But I would urge you to accept it before then, because you never know when it might be too late. Please don=t make lame excuses now because they will affect your eternal future.

For those of us who have accepted the invitation, we, like the man’s servants in the story have to go out into the streets and alleys of the towns and the roads and country lanes to take the invitation to all people, so that God=s house will be full.

Lets end in prayer:

Lord God you are so gracious that you have invited us to join you in heaven at your banquet. Please help us to accept your invitation to eternal life, and then to take your invitation to others so that you house may be full. We ask this in the name of he who is the way, the life and the truth and the only way to you, our saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

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Get off the roof!

Posted on 10/01/2023 by davidfowlerpreacher

This is a talk I gave on 16 October 2022 at Elm Park Baptist Church.

The lady who would be reading our Bible passage asked me if it she had the correct passage as it seemed rather racy!

See for yourself:

2 Samuel 11:1 ‑ 5

1 In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem. 2 One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, 3 and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, “Isn’t this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” 4 Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (She had purified herself from her uncleanness.) Then she went back home. 5 The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, “I am pregnant.”

Have you ever been somewhere you should not have been? And done something you shouldn’t have done?

A case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

You may regret it and say “if only I hadn’t been there, it wouldn’t have happened”.

If only one beautiful June morning in 1981 my nearly new car hadn’t suffered a cracked piston and nearly wrecked the engine, I would not have been driving my mum’s badly in need of a service Hillman Avenger on the A6 that afternoon. And I would not have over taken the annoying weaving car in front of me just as I clipped a double white line, and the keen member of the Leicestershire constabulary would not have pursued me and flagged me down in Market Harborough and have me charged for driving without due care and attention. I would not have ended up with a fine and a record! If only I hadn’t been there!

I am sure that we’ve all done things we shouldn’t have done and paid the consequences for our actions.

Let’s look this morning at a man who like us gave in to temptation. For him and the others involved it had disastrous consequences. It sounds like something out of the “soaps” but it is in the Bible. And in case you didn’t realise it, the Bible features ordinary sinful men and women. In fact, this is one of those stories that would have been featured on “Jeremy Kyle”.

David was king of Israel. Described in the Bible as a man after God’s own heart (1 Samuel13:14). If you remember the story, this is the man who danced in his underwear before the Lord when the ark was brought into Jerusalem much to his wife’s horror. The writer of many of the Psalms. In Psalm 119:9 ‑ 11 he wrote “How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word. I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands. I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.” as well as v105 “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.”

A man mightily blessed by God and used by him. You could assume that such a man would know and obey God’s commands. And yet…

What went wrong?

Well, he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

He should have been with his army. 2 Samuel 11:1 says “In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army.” It was his job to be there even though Joab was a very capable commander. It was David as commander in chief who should have been there.

Incidentally, the last British monarch to lead his troops into battle was George II in 1743.

The army were doing what they were meant to do in the campaign, they were dealing with the Ammonites who had been trouble for many years.

 And what was their King doing? He was at home, in his palace in Jerusalem. We are not told why he was there, but we know that it didn’t seem to be anything strenuous or important that was keeping him there.

There is an old saying “The devil makes work for idle hands” but what about idle brains that are not engage as they should be?

David has clearly had a siesta and is now taking the night air, even perhaps wondering how his army is doing without him. “One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace.”

And now things take a turn for the worse. It’s bad enough that he has thrown a “sicky” or gone absent but worse is to come.

The distracted boyfriend

Some of you may have been taught the Sunday School song “Be careful little eyes what you see, be careful little feet where you tread, be careful little ears what you hear.” Its such a shame that King David didn’t know it because it could have saved a whole heap of trouble.

We read in v2 “From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful,” I am sure that in our lives we see people or things that are very attractive or pleasing to the eye. I believe the modern term is “eye candy”. It’s okay to admire someone or something and leave it at that. It’s when we take a second or third look and the old brain starts thinking and the imagination takes over that we can find ourselves on a very slippery slope.

Many years ago my mum Lily and her sister in law, my Aunty Doris were both widowed and went on holiday together. They passed a young man in shorts who apparently had very nice muscular legs. My Aunt turned to have a better look and promptly tripped and fell over.

It doesn’t have to just be people we look at and lust after. Some years ago one of our neighbours was a “shopaholic” and just couldn’t resist buying clothes, shoes etc. By the time the law caught up with her for obtaining money by deception and various other misdemeanours she was bankrupt owing some £38,000. Her desires had got out of control, and she paid the price for her lusting after material possessions.

So King David has seen this young woman. He could have thought “She’s nice” and left it at that.

But no!

He sends a messenger to find out about her and even the fact that she was married didn’t stop him. David himself had several wives and had inherited King Saul’s concubines and yet he wanted more. He lusted after Bathsheba, someone else’s wife. At this point any thought about God’s commandments goes out the window. After all David would have been familiar with the 10 commandments which include: Deuteronomy 5: 18 “You shall not commit adultery.” and v21“You shall not covet your neighbour’s wife.“

The next step is when David turns thoughts into action 2 Samuel 11:4 “Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her.” Before anyone thinks “Well Bathsheba should have said no to the King”. Its not that easy. Women in that culture were very much second class citizens and the king had great power and authority which the average person would not dispute. So if the king invited you to the palace you went.

It is told that Lavrentiy Beria who was head of Stalin’s secret police in Soviet Russia was at night driven around the street of Moscow looking for young women who would be brought back to his house and raped. Some survived but others were tortured, killed and buried in his wife’s rose garden. You could not and dare not resist him.

So David possibly thinks he has got away with it. But our sins, our misdeeds have a way of catching up with us or being revealed. 2 Samuel 11:5 “The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, “I am pregnant.“”

Years ago I worked with Derek a young Geordie lad and like many Geordies he like a drink. When in his teens he was “home alone”, he decided to work his way through his parents’ drinks cupboard. He found he really liked his mum’s Pernod an aniseed flavoured drink. He panicked when he realised that he had drunk most of the bottle. What to do? His parents were due home shortly. He topped up the bottle with water. What he didn’t know was that Pernod a clear liquid turns cloudy when you add water. The game was up!

And indeed the game was up for David. If we read on in 2 Samuel 11 we find he tries desperate measures to hide what he had done, but Uriah the Hittite was an honourable man and would not give in to the tempting offers made by Kind David. So, in the end the King has Uriah put in the most dangerous place in the battlefield and he is killed in battle by the enemy. All to hush things up, and make them go away.

But brothers and sisters we can never get away from our sins. We can hide things from each other and try to lie and cheat our way out of trouble. We may succeed for a while but Hebrews 4:13 reminds us “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”

The bottom line is whilst we think we have got away with our sins on this earth, on the day of judgement we will have to account for each and every one of them. There will be no excuses. We will know that in each and every situation we had the choice to do something or not.

All through the story of David and Bathsheba, David had choices to make. He could have said “no”. He could have got off the roof before anything happened. But no! He went with his thoughts and his feelings rather than follow God’s teachings and do what he knew was right. You could say he followed the 1960’s philosophy of “If it feels good, do it”. Or he could be following the modern day excuse for doing whatever you want with whoever you want “Love is love”

Eventually God sent the prophet Nathan to deal with David and you can read about that encounter in 2 Samuel 12. It can be difficult if God calls you to be his prophet, his spokesman and take his judgement to people. I don’t think that any of the Old testament prophets had an easy job; and today if God speaks to you to talk to someone about their life style, their sins, it is not easy.

David did repent and as he sorted his life out he wrote Psalm 51. In v2 “Wash away all my iniquity     and cleanse me from my sin.” and then v7 “Cleanse me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.”

And for us when we sin the Bible assures us in 1 John 1 :8 & 9 “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

Jesus understands about temptation but he is the only man in history not to have given in to it. Hebrews 4:14 ‑ 16 tells us “Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are‑‑yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

So we can be forgiven when we sin, but it is better that when we find ourselves in a place of temptation we do what David should have done, we get off the roof.

Today lets ask God for the wisdom and the courage to not only listen to him and the Spirit’s prompting but also to obey him even when our desires and longings would have us stray into trouble. Amen.

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How do you smell?

Posted on 10/01/2023 by davidfowlerpreacher

I preached this sermon on 19 June 2022 at my home church, Becontree Avenue Baptist Church.

The Bible reading was Luke 7: 36 -50

36 When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. 37 A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. 38 As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them. 39 When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is–that she is a sinner.” 40 Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.” “Tell me, teacher,” he said. 41 “Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42 Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?” 43 Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.” “You have judged correctly,” Jesus said. 44 Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45 You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. 46s24  You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. 47 Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven–as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.” 48 Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” 49 The other guests began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?” 50 Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

So how do you smell?

You might be sitting saying to yourself “How dare he? I have a bath twice a year whether I need it or not!”

Or maybe you think this is not a suitable subject for a Sunday morning but the Bible talks about smells both the pleasant and the unpleasant.

Do you have a favourite smell?

For some its food being it freshly baked bread or walking past the take away. Other people love the smell of flowers or the outdoors.

It was popular some years ago for estate agents to suggest to people trying to sell their home, to have freshly baked bread in the kitchen together with a jug of freshly brewed coffee. The theory was that the prospective purchasers would feel at home as they walked around the house.

There again there are unpleasant smells and they seem to be associated with decay and death. Just think of opening the fridge having forgotten to empty it before you went on holiday! Mind you I remember that at my primary school the all-pervading smell from morning break time onwards was a strange mixture of over boiled cabbage and washing powder. Thank goodness I went home for lunch!

In parts of Asia the durian fruit is banded on public transport. Whilst it tastes really good, its smell is described as “…turpentine and onions, garnished with a gym sock. It can be smelled from yards away.”

Many flowers have lovely smells such as lavender, lily of the valley, honey suckle and roses. However you certainly wouldn’t want to sniff the Corpse flower!  The flower spike is about 10 feet tall, but is smells like rotting meat and attracts flies and beetles to pollinate it.

When it comes to people have you noticed that some folk’s lives stink and they are the people who seem dishonest, corrupt, or just plain evil. 

Business and politics seem to have many questionable decisions made and actions taken, and we think “that stinks” when we hear about the dodgy deals.

Greg Venables, (a former colleague of mine who was until 2020 the Anglican Archbishop of South America) maintained that he could smell evil. He knew by the smell if someone was into the occult or witchcraft.

Let’s look at good smelling fragrances.

In the Old Testament from the earliest days, people burnt incense to God as an offering.

Indeedthe Lord instructs Moses on the ingredients to be used and how it is to be used: Exodus 30 v34 “Then the LORD said to Moses, “Take fragrant spices–gum resin, onycha and galbanum–and pure frankincense, all in equal amounts, and make a fragrant blend of incense, the work of a perfumer. It is to be salted and pure and sacred. Grind some of it to powder and place it in front of the Testimony in the Tent of Meeting, where I will meet with you. It shall be most holy to you. Do not make any incense with this formula for yourselves; consider it holy to the LORD.”

The smoke from the burning incense was thought to represent the prayers of the people raising up to God. In Psalm 141 David asks God: “O LORD, I call to you; come quickly to me. Hear my voice when I call to you. May my prayer be set before you like incense; may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice.”

In Revelation, incense is related to the prayers of the saints:

Revelation 5 v 8 “And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.”

Revelations 8 v3 “Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all the saints, on the golden altar before the throne. The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of the saints, went up before God from the angel’s hand.”

In Bible times frankincense the main ingredient of incense was very expensive. It comes from the sap of Boswellia tree grown in the south of Saudi Arabia. It was at one time worth more than its weight in gold.

As we know, Frankincense was one of the gifts given to Jesus by the Wisemen, an acknowledgement of Jesus’ divinity.

Some churches still use incense today. The church I grew up in, was a “smells and bells” Anglican church and at least for me as a young choir boy the ritual provided some amusement such as the time the incense burner or “thurible” had been cleaned but not all the inflammable metal polish removed. In the middle of the service, it became more like a flame thrower as three-foot-high flames came out of it and threatened to set light to the robes of the man carrying it!

But we can read in the Bible that offering the incense, making the sacrifices and going through the rituals is not necessarily pleasing to God. The prophets were constantly reminding people that if their attitudes stank no amount of ritual would put them right with God whatever they may think. In Isaiah 1 v 13 – 17” Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me.” Your New Moon festivals and your appointed feasts my soul hates. They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you; even if you offer many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood; wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight! Stop doing wrong, learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.”

Let’s be honest, if we don’t bother to wash or shower and just throw some “smellies” on, people will still notice that we smell! Back in Elizabethan days people didn’t wash or bathe very often or not at all. They thought that dousing themselves in perfume would do the trick.

Maybe you remember the old TV advert for Lifebouy soap with the strap line “What your best friend won’t tell you. B O!”

In the New Testament Paul realised the futility of ritual and religious observance. They could n’t get you clean from your sin. Only coming to Jesus would clean up your life and take away the smell of sin. In Romans 7 v24 we read “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” In one ancient civilisation, a murderer’s punishment was to have the body of his dead victim tied to him so where ever he went he was reminded of his crime by not only the weight of the corpse but also the smell!

Strangely enough our sins do don’t go away simply by the passage of time. They are not biodegradable like supermarket carrier bags. They are with us like Paul’s “body of death” until we either die and face our judgement or we come to Jesus to have them dealt with.

Sadly some people don’t realise that to God they don’t smell nice. They may be at every church meeting there is, do all sorts of good works, often making sure everyone knows it, do all sorts of religious things and yet they haven’t asked Jesus to be their saviour and clean them from their sins.

There is a wonderful passage in 1 Corinthians 6:9 – 11 which not only lists the condition that many of us were in but also, thank God, gives us the cure: “Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God..”

As the woman in our passage from Luke discovered it is only in coming to Jesus in repentance that we can have our sins forgiven and our lives cleaned up so that we no longer stink. And as far as God is concerned our lives have a beautiful fragrance to them just as the woman in the story released the fragrant perfume from the flask.

We do however have to remember that to those who have not come to Jesus we as Christians proclaiming the good news remind them of how they smell. In  Corinthians 2 v15 we read in the Message: “Because of Christ, we give off a sweet scent rising to God, which is recognized by those on the way of salvation – an aroma redolent with life. But those on the way to destruction treat us more like the stench from a rotting corpse.”

So how do you smell today?

Do you live your life for Jesus as a beautiful fragrant sacrifice? or are you like Simon the Pharisee steeped in religious rules and regulations and full of self-righteousness at the sin of others?

Do your prayers rise to God like the smoke of this incense?

Jesus is still in the business of forgiving sins and giving new life to those who are dead in their sins.

Only he can change the stench of death into the aroma of life.

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When the party’s over

Posted on 09/09/2022 by davidfowlerpreacher

This the third in a series of sermons I gave at Elm Park Baptist Church based on the Book of Daniel.

Whilst I chose Daniel 5: 1 – 9  and 25 – 31 you may find it beneficial to read the whole chapter which you can do here: Daniel 5

Many people love a party.

Indeed, some people treat life as one long party.

It’s good to enjoy good things; to eat drink and be merry.

However, you can go too far. For those of us who spent our formative years in the 1960’s there is a saying “If you remember the 60’s you weren’t there!”

As we know a party cannot go on for ever. There comes a time when it has to come to an end.

The party’s over and there will be a reckoning. This can range from the washing up to be done or a vast quantity of empties to be disposed of, to pacifying the parents when they come home or having a chat with the local police, depending what sort of party it was!

 A few months ago, in Rainham someone hired a house on Air B n B and promptly invited over 300 people for a house party. Alas the police had to come and deal with the party as it got out of hand.

When there was a change of government in 2010 the incoming chief secretary to the treasury, David Laws, found a note on his desk from the outgoing minister that said “Dear chief secretary, I’m afraid to tell you there’s no money left.”

Austerity was with us and the country’s economy was in dire straits.

As we may know from personal experience we can’t keep on spending when we have nothing left to spend.

Years ago when I was in banking, we had a customer who explained to us that his only source of income was his overdraft! He was very surprised when we said to him enough is enough. The spending party is over.

Another customer tried to clear his overdraft by writing us a cheque from his overdrawn account!

Some parties get out of hand. People drink too much alcohol or take drugs, Morals get forgotten or loosened. Things happen that shouldn’t happen.

Maybe you’ve been at parties like that? I have; and I thank God that he kept me safe.

Drink and drugs have a price for their use and the pleasure you get from them. Lives are shortened, bodies wrecked, and minds destroyed.

That is the price many people end up paying.

So lets look at the party mentioned in Daniel 5.

Belshazzar was the King of Babylon which had been the superpower in the Middle East for many years. He had inherited the kingdom from his grandfather Nebuchadnezzar who had conquered Judah and destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem. He had also taken many of the Jews into exile in Babylon.

Belshazzar’s father had the unusual name of Evil-Merodach.

As we read about this huge party that Belshazzar was throwing in his palace you should know that the up-and-coming empire of the Medes and the Persians was on the march. Not only that but their army was surrounding Babylon. Babylon was a city under siege, yet the King holds a party!

His attitude seems to be like that of the old Irvine Berlin song “There may be trouble ahead but while there’s music and moonlight (moonlight and music) and love and romance Let’s face the music and dance”

If only Belshazzar had remembered the lessons his grandfather had learnt, Nebuchadnezzar had been humbled by God as we read in the earlier chapters of Daniel. He is recorded as saying, in Daniel 4:37 “Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, because everything he does is right and all his ways are just. And those who walk in pride he is able to humble. “

Belshazzar however did things his way. He seems to either not know about Daniel or forgotten him. No doubt Belshazzar surrounded himself with his own advisors, many of whom didn’t know God or indeed recall just what Nebuchadnezzar had been through and how he changed.

Just look at this lavish party. There were 1000 of his nobles there. No doubt their wives etc were there also. Its quite a bash!

Many people do daft things, actions they later come to regret when they have been drinking. Belshazzar is one of those people. But perhaps he is emboldened by the wine into thinking that as King of Babylon he can do exactly what he wants.

So, he gave orders to bring in the gold and silver goblets that Nebuchadnezzar his grandfather had taken from the Temple in Jerusalem” and that as he and his guests drank from these goblets they “…praised the gods of gold, silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone.”

Here is the King of Babylon drinking from the sacred cups and goblets plundered from the Temple. Not only are they being used to drink from, but Belshazzar is toasting the false gods that he and the other Babylonians worshipped.

Our God is incredibly patient with us sinful people. The Bible constantly tells us that this is true. Psalm 103 for example tells us: “The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.” and “he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him;  as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.”

However, there will come a time when God will say “enough is enough”.

A few years ago, my friend Paul was in hospital having broken his leg. As was his wont, he lay in bed and prayed for the other men in his section of the ward. But as he prayed for one particular young man, Paul distinctly felt God say to him not to pray for that the young man as he was beyond saving.

Belshazzar like many people since, thinks its fun to insult God. But be assured there is a time when we have to answer for what we have done. You can’t get away with it for ever. Hebrews 4:13 we read “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account”.

For Belshazzar the time has come. It’s like the parents coming home to a teenage party in full swing. They’ve opened the door and shouted, and everything comes to a stop!

Daniel 5: 5 & 6 “Suddenly the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall, near the lampstand in the royal palace. The king watched the hand as it wrote. His face turned pale and he was so frightened that his legs became weak and his knees were knocking. “

I suspect that many of us would have reacted like that. The supernatural breaking through into the natural world.

So what does Belshazzar do about this mysterious writing on the wall?

He summons the “wise men” of Babylon, the enchanters, astrologers and diviners to hear what they have to say. He even promises them a great reward to encourage them to find the answer. But they are hopeless and indeed helpless in this situation.

But don’t you find that if face of many of life’s problems and disasters people seek help and advice from the wrong places? I am saddened at the number of bereaved people who consult mediums and spiritists to see if there is a message from their loved ones.

Similarly, I am astonished at the number of Christians who consult their horoscope or fortune tellers.

Daniel 5: 8 & 9 “Then all the king’s wise men came in, but they could not read the writing or tell the king what it meant. So King Belshazzar became even more terrified and his face grew more pale. His nobles were baffled.”

Here the Queen mother, Nebuchadnezzar’s widow speaks up. She seems to be the only one who remembers Daniel and suggests that he is consulted.

Belshazzar offers the same amazing reward to Daniel as he had done to the “Wise men”. But Daniel is not interested in the wealth and the power on offer. He does however tell the king the meaning of the writing on the wall.

But first of all he gives a history lesson of how Nebuchadnezzar was humbled before God and came to acknowledge that God is the one in control. Daniel then takes Belshazzar to task for the way he rules his kingdom.

Daniel 5: 22 & 23 “But you, Belshazzar, his son, have not humbled yourself, though you knew all this. Instead, you have set yourself up against the Lord of heaven. You had the goblets from his temple brought to you, and you and your nobles, your wives and your concubines drank wine from them. You praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or understand. But you did not honour the God who holds in his hand your life and all your ways.”

Daniel then translates the writing on the wall.

 Daniel 5: 26 – 28  “Here is what these words mean: Mene : God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end. Tekel : You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting. Peres: Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”

What was Belshazzar’s reaction? Did he like his father come to his senses and acknowledge that he was a sinful man who needed God’s forgiveness?

No he didn’t! Its as if by rewarding Daniel and dressing him in purple and putting the gold chain around his neck, Belshazzar is saying “Oh that’s all it is. It’s only God’s judgement on me. Let’s carry on as if nothing has happened.”

But as the Bible tells us, and historic records confirm, the Persian army captured the city that very evening and Belshazzar died. In fact the Persians had diverted the Euphrates river away from the city and marched into the city on the river bed that went under the city walls.

The fall of Babylon was foretold 200 years before in Isaiah 44:28 – 45:7 and Jeremiah 51:57-58.

Belshazzar’s death confirmed what we read in Proverbs 6 “A troublemaker and a villain … who plots evil with deceit in his heart … disaster will overtake him in an instant; he will suddenly be destroyed — without remedy.“

I do wonder what would have happened if Belshazzar had acted differently. Had he come to his senses and realised that he needed God’s forgiveness and mercy. Who knows?

It does us good to remember one of the fundamental laws of the universe as stated by Isaac Newton: “Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.”

Put it another way everything we do has a result. Every wrong action or sin has to be accounted for.

God knows our every action, whether we want to acknowledge it or not. The Bible tells us that he records our actions in his book and that is what we are judged on, unless of course we have come to faith in Jesus and our sins have been paid for by the blood of Jesus. In which case our names are in the Book of life. This is what we read in Revelation 20: 11 & 12 ” Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.”

I am often amazed by people who think that what they have done in the past is of no consequence. After all its history, it’s in the past. But I have to tell you sin doesn’t dissolve away like a recyclable Tesco’s carrier bag with the mere passage of time. If we haven’t dealt with it, its there for all eternity. We either deal with it now or we answer for it in the court of eternity when the books are opened.

So the message for us here and indeed for everyone is that God’s mercy and forgiveness are available for everyone who acknowledges that they need it. However, for those who reject God there will surely come a time when they like Belshazzar will be weighed on the scales and found wanting. At that point there is no hope for their eternal destiny.

If you haven’t come to God through faith in Jesus, don’t leave it, because none of us know the day when the writing on the wall could be for us.

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I had a dream

Posted on 09/09/2022 by davidfowlerpreacher

This is the second of three sermons based on the Book of Daniel which i preached recently at Elm Park Baptist Church.

The Bible passage we are looking at today is Daniel 4:1 – 19.

Last time I was here we looked at Daniel 3 and how Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego took a stand for God and refused to bow down to the golden statue of Nebuchadnezzar.

Today we are looking at a dream that Nebuchadnezzar had and how it came true and taught the King he needed to learn to be humble.

Nebuchadnezzar was king of Babylon. As far as the Middle East of the time was concerned, he was Number One. Babylon was the Superpower of the Age. They may not have had Weapons of Mass Destruction, but the army was virtually unstoppable. You either played the game their way or else……

Babylon had featured in history for a long time. Originally, we find it mentioned in the Bible as Babel a city founded by Nimrod who it appears was the first tyrannical ruler of the area. Due to the oppressive nature of Babylon under kings such as Nebuchadnezzar, it has come to be synonymous with despotic evil and godlessness.

Indeed, today many militant Muslims regard the USA as a modern day Babylon.

Nebuchadnezzar’s father was a man called Nabopolassar who lead a rebellion against the Assyrian empire and destroyed its capital Nineveh. The destruction of Nineveh was foretold by the prophet Nahum and just listen to the words he says about it “Everyone who hears the news about you claps their hands at your fall, for who has not felt your endless cruelty?”

Assyria had destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel and deported its 10 tribes. They had gone into history and disappeared. Sadly, if the Jews thought they were free of oppression with the end of Assyria they had not counted on the new empire of Babylon.

Nebuchadnezzar continued where his father left off and conquered the former Assyrian empire. His influence extended down into Egypt. It is said amongst other things that the city of Tyre was besieged for 13 years by Nebuchadnezzar before it fell to him.

Jewish historians said of Nebuchadnezzar “He was so greatly feared that as long as he was alive no one dared laugh; and when he went down to hell the inmates trembled, asking themselves whether he would rule them also.”

The psalms record the sorrow and anguish of the exiles. Many of you will know Psalm 137 “By the rivers of Babylon we sat down; there we wept when we remembered Zion.”

Nebuchadnezzar was also interested in building up the infrastructure of his empire. Excavations in the ruins of Babylon and various other cities have found that at least 90% of the bricks and tiles recovered have the stamp of Nebuchadnezzar on them. The Greek historian Herodotus wrote in about 450BC “In addition to its size Babylon surpasses in splendour any city in the known world”. Herodotus claimed the outer walls were 56 miles in length, 80 feet thick and 320 feet high. Wide enough, he said, to allow a four-horse chariot to turn. The inner walls were “not so thick as the first, but hardly less strong.” Inside the walls were fortresses and temples containing immense statues of solid gold. Rising above the city was the famous Tower of Babel, a temple to the god Marduk, that seemed to reach to the heavens.”

Also in Babylon was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world – The Hanging Gardens.

According to accounts, the gardens were built to cheer up Nebuchadnezzar’s homesick wife, Amyitis. Amyitis, daughter of the king of the Medes, was married to Nebuchadnezzar to create an alliance between the nations. The l and she came from, though, was green, rugged and mountainous, and she found the flat, sun-baked terrain of Mesopotamia depressing.  The king decided to recreate her homeland by building an artificial mountain with rooftop gardens.

It must have been a wonderful site – all these lush trees and plants in a land where it rarely rained.

You could say that Nebuchadnezzar was a self-made man who had built up the inherited family business, and like most self-made people deep down he worshipped himself. He has his own trinity: “I, myself and me”. Perhaps you know people like that. Their attitude seems to be that of the famous Frank Sinatra song “I did it my way”.

Nebuchadnezzar has had a dream and it worried him. Yet again he sends for his magicians, astrologers etc to tell him what’s what. It’s strange that throughout history rulers have consulted such people in the vain hope of keeping one step ahead of the game. In Exodus we read of Moses and Aaron confronting the court magicians and priests of Egypt. Coming into the promised land the people of Israel were warned to have nothing to do with fortune telling astrology etc; yet of course in due course they turned to all this stuff. In recent times it was known that Hitler consulted mediums, spiritists and occultic practitioners. Such people infested the White House when Ronald Regan was president, as his wife had daily horoscope readings. I understand that even Princess Diana regularly consulted such people.

Yet, Nebuchadnezzar’s advisors were useless. So, he had to send for Daniel to unravel the mystery of the dream.

What was the dream?

Nebuchadnezzar saw a huge tree which was so big it could be seen by everyone in the world. It provides shelter for birds and animals as well as food for them.

An angel proclaimed that the tree was to be cut down but the stump was to left in the field with a band of iron and bronze round it.

The angel then talks about a man who is to be left in the wild without his right mind for seven years.

Daniel has the unenviable job of explaining the dream to the king. Its not always pleasant being God’s messenger as sometimes the message is not what people want to hear even though its what they need to hear.

What does the dream mean?

The tree represents Nebuchadnezzar v22 “Your majesty, you are the tree, tall and strong. You have grown so great that you reach the sky and your power extends over the whole world.” No doubt at this point the king was feeling pretty pleased with himself, but here comes the sting:

v24 “This, then is what it means, Your Majesty, and this is what the supreme God has declared will happen to you. You will be driven away from human society and will live with wild animals. For seven years you will eat grass like an ox, and sleep in the open air, where the dew will fall on you. Then you will admit that the Supreme God controls all human kingdoms, and that he can give them to anyone he chooses. The angel ordered the stump to be left in the ground. This means that you will become king again when you acknowledge that God rules all the world. So then, Your Majesty, follow my advice. Stop sinning do what is right and be merciful to the poor. Then you will continue to be prosperous.“

There was no doubt about it. Nebuchadnezzar thought he was the big cheese. But God said as far as he is concerned Nebuchadnezzar was just like the crumbs on the deli counter and could be swept away. Just like that.

Put it another way we may be big in our own eyes or even those of other people, but God can cut us down to our true size any time he wants.

It would seem that what two words come out of this story:

Pride and Rebellion.

Nebuchadnezzar thought he had done it all by himself. God had no part in it. It was his and no one else’s. When God through Daniel tells him to repent, he continues in his rebellion by completely ignoring God.

Did you know if you are not obeying God, you are in rebellion?

Do you know how seriously God takes rebellion? In 1 Samuel 15 v23 we read what the prophet Samuel had to tell another proud King, Saul: “Rebellion against him is as bad as witchcraft and arrogance is as sinful as idolatry. Because you rejected the Lord’s command, he has rejected you as King.”

Does Nebuchadnezzar take the warning and change his ways?

No; and we read from Daniel 4 v29 “Only twelve months later, while he was walking about on the roof of his royal palace in Babylon, he said ‘Look how great Babylon is! I built it as my capital city to display my power and might, my glory and majesty.’ Before the words were out of his mouth, a voice spoke from Heaven, ‘King Nebuchadnezzar, listen to what I say! Your royal power is now taken away from you. You will be driven away from human society, live with wild animals and eat grass like an ox for seven years. Then you will acknowledge that the Supreme God has power over human kingdoms and that he can give them to anyone he chooses.’ The words came true immediately. Nebuchadnezzar was driven out of human society and ate grass like an ox. The dew fell on his body, and his hair grew as long as eagles’ feathers and his nails as long as birds’ claws.”

It seems amazing that a transformation like this can happen to a person yet there is independent evidence from court records of the time preserved in the British Museum that Nebuchadnezzar did have a period of mental illness.

There is a happy ending to this story as Nebuchadnezzar comes to his senses and repents of his pride and his arrogance and is fully restored. “34 At the end of that time, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes towards heaven, and my sanity was restored. Then I praised the Most High; I honoured and glorified him who lives for ever. His dominion is an eternal dominion; his kingdom endures from generation to generation. 35 All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven    and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him: ‘What have you done?’ 36 At the same time that my sanity was restored, my honour and splendour were returned to me for the glory of my kingdom. My advisors and nobles sought me out, and I was restored to my throne and became even greater than before.”

In v37 he is recorded as saying “And now, I Nebuchadnezzar, praise, honour and glorify the King of Heaven. Everything he does is right and just, and he can humble anyone who acts proudly.”

What is the message for us today?

How many of us have had warnings from God and ignored them?  We think we can go on in our own sweet way, paying lip service to God, doing church on a Sunday, when all the while we are building our own little empires, our own power bases. Then suddenly we’re struck down by accident or illness. I’ve known this happen to people and they’ve got better, sometimes amazingly, and just carried on with their schemes and plots. They don’t heed the warning and eventually they will pay the price for their pride and rebellion.

Many of you will be familiar with the words of the Magnificat or the Song of Mary in Luke 1 “He has stretched out his mighty arm and scattered the proud with all their plans. He has brought down mighty kings from their thrones and lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away with empty hands.“

For the rest of us this passage is a warning to remember who should be on the throne of our lives. If we do not let Jesus rule in our lives, we are in rebellion against the Lord and must expect the consequences. If we repent and give up control of our lives to Jesus, we can have peace with God and the promise of eternal life.

The choice is yours:

You can do a Frank Sinatra and “do it my way” or you can repent and seek to obey God and do it his way.

Who is on your throne?

You

or

God

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