Genesis 1 / David Pawson

David Pawson-Unlocking the Old Testament

 

Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mJqwczWKD0#t=2384 

 

 

◑Introduction

 

Well now the Bible is not one book but many. The word Bible comes from the plural word "Biblio," which means library and the Bible is not one book, it's 66 books. And together these books form a history book, the history of our universe. But the Bible begins earlier and it ends later than any other history books because it begins with the very beginning of our universe. It goes right through to the end of our universe and even beyond, but it's history written from God's point of view. Therefore, He selects what is important for Him. That makes it quite different from the political history or a physical history of our universe or a cultural history of our society. God selects very carefully the things that matter to Him, the events which had affected Him mostly. Therefore, again, it is quite different from every other history. Now, there are two themes in the Bible:

 

 

#1. What has gone wrong with our world

#2. How can it be put right

 

 

I think everybody agrees that our world is not a good place to live. Something has gone terribly wrong with it, and the book of Genesis tells us exactly what. But the rest of the Bible tells us how it is going to be put right, or rather, how God, Himself will put it right. only God could solve a problem the size of our world and He's going to do it by rescuing the human race from itself for that's what we need to be rescued from ourselves. That's what the word redemption actually means, to be rescued, and we need to be rescued from ourselves.

 

 

So all 66 books form part of one great drama, which I'm going to call "The Drama Of Redemption," and the book of Genesis introduces us to the stage, the cast, and the plot of this great drama. And without the first few chapters of Genesis, the rest of the Bible would really not make any sense. The Hebrew title for this book is, simply, "In The Beginning." That's because the Hebrew scriptures were in the form of scrolls or Rodah(?) and they would simply give each scroll the name of the first word or phrase in it, so that just unwrapping the first bit of the scroll they can identify which book of the Scriptures it was. So there's something you call it "In the beginning."

 

 

 

When the Hebrew Old testament was translated into Greek about 250 years before Jesus was born, they changed the name to Genesis which means, "Origin" or "Beginning," and that's a very appropriate title because here we have the origin of our universe, of the sun and the moon and the stars, of planet Earth, which we live. Here we have the origin of plants, birds, fish, animals, humans. Here we have the origin of sex, of marriage, and of family life. We have the origin of civilization, of government, of culture, both arts and sciences. We have here the origin of sin, and death, and murder and war. We even have here in this book the origin of sacrifice, both animal and human.

 

 

So it's a remarkable book; just one small book; 50 chapters, and yet, it covers the origin of all that, and it deals with the ultimate questions like, "Where did our universe come from?" "Why are we here?" And even more personal, "Why does each other have to die?" Something we rebel against, something we don't talk about or think about, something we dress up like our other culture shows and try to disguise the horror of it, but we all have to die. "Why?" Now these are ultimate questions of life and we need answers to them or we just drown these questions in busyness and forget them. But they can't be answered by any human being. The historians can't answer these questions.

 

 

They can't tell us how it all began because no historian was there either to observe or record how it happened. Scientists can't tell us about the beginning of our universe. They can go back to the beginning, but they can't go beyond that. They can't observe anything beyond that. So they can't tell us how it began, and therefore, much more they cannot tell us why it began. Science cannot find a purpose for this universe coming into being. They can tell us some details of how it came about, but certainly not why.

 

 

Philosophers can't answer these ultimate questions. They can only guess. It is speculation when philosophers try and tell us for example, the answer to the question that occupies most of them, the problem of evil. "Where did evil come from?" "Why are there so much evil in the world?" Philosophers have strained their brains trying to give us an answer, but it's all guess work. Nobody really knows. There is only one person who could really answer these questions for us and that is God Himself.

 

So when you open the book of Genesis, you are immediately faced with a question, "Are you reading the results of human imagination or divine inspiration?" Thus, the book of Genesis just gives us another series of guesses from human speculation about these things, or does it actually tell us the answer, give us the answer from the only person who was there when it all began? And indeed the person responsible for it.

 

 

 

◑There are other accounts of creation in the world.

 

 

 

There's one, a widely known one called "The Babylonian Epic." It's far more complicated and far-less credible than what you have in Genesis, but it's only one of other sagas which are suppose to tell us how it all began. You should read some of them just to compare them with the sheer simplicity and convincing nature of Genesis 1. But you must decide when you read Genesis, are you reading the product of human imagination or a divine inspiration? So, you've got to take a step of faith before you open the book, but actually, science is based on steps of faith. I've got a science degree and I know that in science, you produce to hypothesis, a working theory, and then you test it to see if it fits the facts. That's how science progresses. It's built on such leaps of faith. So, you leap in faith into a theory and then you test it with the facts.

 

 

And therefore, I believe that the approach of faith is scientific from that point of view, and I say, "Take a step of faith in Genesis assume it is God's answer to these questions, and then see if it fits the facts." And there are two big facts that stare me in the face which are perfectly explained by the answer in Genesis.

 

 

Fact #1. What a wonderful world we live in.

 

Isn't it incredible? The universe is amazing, but this planet is the most interesting thing in the universe. It's got more variety in it, it's got more-well it's got life in it. We live in a wonderful world and the more you watch, nature programs on television, the more wonderful it appears to be, and the wonders of modern photography are revealing so much to us. You like watching those programs? What a wonderful world we're in.

 

And the other fact is this:

 

#2. It's been ruined by those who live in it.

 

Now, these are two facts we all have to live with and we are becoming more and more conscious of the environment and what we are doing to it. 100 different species are becoming extinct everyday. We're destroying the world we live in. Now, these two facts are extraordinary. What a wonderful world we live in, and why are we destroying it?

 

 

◑It's not just the first book in the Bible, it's the foundational book for the whole Bible

 

Well, I believe that the facts fit Genesis perfectly and I believe it is a scientific approach. Now, let's look at the place of Genesis in the Bible. It's not just the first book in the Bible, it's the foundational book for the whole Bible. Most, if not all, Biblical truths are here in the book of Genesis in essence. That's why it's called the seed plot of the Bible. The seeds of Genesis come to flourish nature in the Bible, but they're all there in embryo. This book is in fact the key that unlocks the rest of the Bible.

 

 

Have you ever wondered what the Bible would be like if it'd started with Exodus instead of Genesis, supposing this book was missing? I think as soon as you begin to read the Bible without it, you'd say, "Well, I'm not interested in a bunch of Jewish slaves in Egypt. Why should I study their history and religion?" only if you had a particular academic interest in it, would you read any further?

 

But because Genesis is there, you're reading about yourself, about your life. You understand what makes you tick, and why you can't be a better person and the person you wish to be in your best moments. have you ever wondered why life is such a moral struggle? Most people want to be better than they are but fail. Why? Well, Exodus wouldn't help you to understand that, but Genesis does, because you're reading about your ancestor, man called Adam and when you read about him, it's like looking in the mirror, seeing yourself.

 

 

The Old Testament is built on the book of Genesis. There are many references all the way through the Old Testament to people like Adam, and Noah, and Abraham, and Jacob, who changed his name to Israel. The whole of the Old Testament builds on the book of Genesis, but it's the New Testament that builds on it even more. Surprisingly, Genesis is more quoted in the New than in the Old Testament. Could you believe it? All the first 6 chapters, 1,2,3,4,5,6, are all quoted in detail in the New Testament. All the major writers of the New Testament, 8 of them, all referred to the book of Genesis, and Jesus Himself did of course.

 

 

For Christians, Jesus' attitude to Genesis settles all questions, because if we follow Jesus, then we trust Him, we believe He's spoke the truth, and it's interesting that Jesus regarded all the characters of Genesis as real historical figures, not legends. He regarded Noah and the flood as a historical event, and if Jesus did, then I do. Whatever difficulties there may be, we'll look at them as we go along. Nevertheless, if Noah was real for Jesus, then he's real for me. Not only that, but Jesus claimed to be on personal acquaintance terms with Abraham and He said, "Before Abraham was born, I am, and he was led to meet me." And the Jews listened to Jesus, saying, "You're not 50 years old, you claim to know Abraham." But Jesus saying, "I was there." Do you trust Jesus? Then that's the truth. So Jesus was constantly endorsing the book of Genesis.

 

 

When He was asked about divorce and marriage, what did He do? He took them right back to Genesis chapter 2 and said, "You'll find the answer right there." So you can see that the book of Genesis really underlies the whole Bible, provides the key to the rest. Without it, the rest would not make sense. To give you just one example, you will not understand the cross without the book of Genesis. Would you believe it? Because Paul says, "This is what happened at the cross. Just as one man's disobedience brought death to the human race, one man's obedience brings life." Now, that's the heart of the cross, but it's talking about Genesis chapter 3. So, I think I've established my case.

 

 

Therefore, if you don't believe the book of Genesis, you can't rely on the rest of the Bible. If Genesis is proved mistaken, then the rest of the Bible is shaken. If Genesis is not true, then chance is our creator and the brute beasts are our ancestors if Genesis is not true, and therefore, it is not surprising that this book has been more under attack than any other book in the entire Bible. There are two prongs to the attack. one is scientific, and we are all aware of some of the problems there. I'm not going to have enough time to deal with them all, but we'll refer to them and there are other tapes that had been made and videos that deal with them more fully. But we have to be aware of them, especially young people are aware of what they've been told in school, in biology classes, and they come with that background to read genesis and they have real problems, and we must be honest about them. For example, science has questioned the order of creation, the speed of creation, and the method of creation.

 

 

Science has questioned the age of the Earth, the origin of man, the extent of the flood, the age of people who lived before the flood, and many other things. Yet, behind that attack, I believe there is a satanic attack. The devil hates two books in the Bible, Genesis and Revelation, and he hates the first chapters of Genesis and the last chapters of Revelation. Particularly, because the one describes his entrance into our world and the other one describes his undignified exit from our world, and so, he likes to keep people out of the early chapters of Genesis and the later chapters of Revelation.

 

 

He wants to persuade you that Genesis is myth and Revelation is mystery so that you leave them alone because he knows perfectly well that if you can destroy people's faith in Genesis, then you have in fact destroyed the foundation of the whole Bible. So it is not surprising that there's been such a lot of argument about Genesis. If you distrust this book, you tend to discard the rest.

 

 

◑Now, how did Genesis come to be written?

 

It's one of the 5 books which form a unit, not so much in our Bible, but in the Jewish scriptures most certainly. These 5 books form together the Pentateuch, "Penta" means 5. There's a big 5-sided building in Washington D.C. called "The Pentagon." Well, it's the same word, "Pentateuch," the 5 books. And they're often called by the Jews the "Torah," which means instruction, and they believe that these 5 books together form the maker's instructions and it's very wise since the maker gave us these instructions to get the most out of life, to become familiar with them. So the Jews reads through the first 5 books of the Bible every year, on election, every week they read a little bit more. So they get rounded in a year, like painting the forth bridge. When they get to the other end of it, they start again at the beginning and it is their weekly electionary.

 

 

 

Now, Jews, Christians and even pagan historians believe that Moses wrote these 5 books and that's been a long tradition. I certainly don't see any reason to doubt it. By the time of Moses, the alphabet have replaced the 'picture language' that prevailed in Egypt and still in China and Japan today. But that had been replaced by alphabet and remember that Moses was university educated. If ever you see Cleopatra's needle on Thames Embankment, that's one of two columns, the other's in Rome which stood at the entrance to the Egyptian university, and they well be the two columns in which Moses looked at every morning he went as a student. So, he had the education and the knowledge to combine these 5 books, and I believe that, that tradition is right.

 

 

None of the books has a name in them. There are however, two problems if Moses wrote these 5 books. The first problem is quite minor and that is at the end of Deuteronomy. Moses' death is carefully recorded, and I assume that you would agree with me that, that's a little unlikely that he wrote that. Joshua probably added a note to that defect at the end of the 5 books to round up the story. But the major problem is this, the book of Genesis ends 300 years before Moses was born. Now, he lived during the days covered by Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Those 4 clearly come from his lifetime, there's no problem with Moses writing those, but Genesis ends 3-400 years before Moses was born. So how could he have gotten his material for the book of Genesis?

 

 

one of the things we know about early society is that, people who don't write have phenomenal memories. To these days, tribes that have no writing, can tell you the history of the tribe. They pass it on around the campfire at night from father to son, and this oral tradition is recurrent. It's very strong in primitive communities and would be among the Hebrews, especially when they became slaves of Egypt. They would want their children to know who they were, where they come from. Now, there are two things that are normally passed down in this memory form. one is genealogies, family trees, to give people their identity, and sure enough Genesis is full of genealogies, full of family trees, and there is one phrase that comes ten times in the book of Genesis and it is, "These are the generations of-. " Scattered through the book if you've read it. You must have noticed that phrase, "These are the generations of-."

 

 

That is exactly the kind of thing that will be passed on from memory to memory. The other thing that gets passed on are sagas. I mean, hero stories of great things that your ancestors have done, and so tribal memories composed of these two things, generations or genealogies and sagas-the things our ancestors did that were exciting, and these are told over the campfire.

 

 

 

Now, most of Genesis is composed of these two things, stories about great heroes indispersed with family trees. So, it is obviously a collection or compilation of memories that Moses picked up from the slaves in Egypt and put together, and I'm sure you can see how clearly that was done. Except, for one passage. There is one part of Genesis he couldn't possibly have picked up that way, the first chapter, or rather, since the chapter divisions as so often the Bible, God's never inspired them, are in quite the wrong place, chapter 1 verse 1 through to chapter 2 verse 3, is a section that Moses couldn't possibly have got from any human being. That section, he must have got from God Himself.

 

 

It is one of those parts in the Bible that must have been directly dictated by God and taken down by men. Most of the Bible did not come that way. We must not think of the writers of the Bible as word processors, typewriters on which God types down His words, because God inspired the writers to use their own temperament and memory and insight and outlook to shape His word, but so over-ruled by the inspiration of His spirit that what resulted was what he wanted written. So that other parts of the Bible have the stamp of the writer on them.

 

 

The rest of Genesis has the same stamp on it as Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. You can detect Moses' style in hand in it, but Genesis 1:1 to 2:3 is totally different and has all the marks of God's speech. We shall see in a moment that it's mathematically perfect. When God speaks, His speech is perfect mathematics. See, the Hebrew language doesn't have figures, they just had letters and each letter stood for a figure. So "Alef" or "A" was 1, "B" was 2, and "C" was 3, and so on. That's common way of counting, and when you turn the letters of Genesis 1 into figures, it is astonishing. I've been in Jerusalem, talking to rabbis, who have actually worked out all the mathematics of every verse, and they spend days discussing it because it's mathematically perfect.

 

 

The very first sentence, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth," is a sentence of 7 words. That's just one of the figures, we'll be looking at this later. But in many ways, Genesis 1 is a unique piece of literature, quite unique and has all the hallmarks of having come directly from God. So, I can imagine Moses collecting all the memories from the people, the genealogies and the sagas, putting them together, and then God saying, "I'm going to write the introductions, so, take these down." Interesting that the other end of the Bible, same thing happens. The book of Revelation was not composed by John. He was simply shown visions and given words and was told, "Write this down, write this down, write this down." And of course at both ends of the Bible, you've got things that man couldn't possibly think of because they're both beyond the reach of his imagination. So God had to dictate as if it were the beginning and the end of His word.

 

 

 

Psalms 103 says, "God made known His ways to Moses." I believe in handling Genesis 1, I always feel like taking my shoes off. You really are on holy ground, you're listening exactly to God's word, making known His ways to Moses. I have one proof that Moses wrote Genesis 1 down, and that it was not known before the time of Moses, and it's this.

 

 

There is no trace of the Sabbath until the time of Moses. There is no trace of Adam or Noah or Abraham or Isaac or Jacob taking a day off every week. Indeed there is no trace of the week. Everything is in months by the moon and years by the sun. Now, because we have Genesis 1 at the beginning of our Bible, we assume quite wrongly that Adam knew it, and then Adam observed the Sabbath and everybody else did after that. No, there's no trace. Adam was given a 7 day week as far as Genesis 2 and 3 go. He looked after the Garden of Eden everyday, had a bit of time with the Lord in the evening, the cool of the evening, but everyday he was working. He had a 7 day week, and Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were herdsmen, and cows don't take a Sabbath. I know that, I used to get up at 4 every morning to milk 90 cows and I wish they did take a Sabbath, but they didn't.

 

 

The Sabbath is unknown in nature. It was through Moses that God revealed that He'd made the world in 6 days and taken a day off on the 7th. It is from then on that the Sabbath becomes a feature of life, and indeed when Moses gave the commandment, "Remember the Sabbath day," he added the explanation, "Because God created the world," as if this is new knowledge to them, as if he just told them. So that is the proof that Genesis 1 was dictated to Moses and was not known before his day.

There are 1-2 other indications of theirs as well.

 

 

◑Genesis is full of beginnings. But God doesn't begin here.

 

So we turn, at last, to the book itself, to this amazing chapter with which it opens. We're going to spend quite a lot of time in the chapter, and I just want to spend the rest of this talk on the first 4 words, "In the beginning, God-." Genesis is full of beginnings. The beginning of everything else except, God. God doesn't begin here. That's a very important point. God is already there when the Bible opens, He was already there when the universe came to be. He has always been there.

 

 

You see, there has to be an eternal something or an eternal someone, who was always there, in order to bring our universe into being because nothing never turns into something but itself. Am I stretching you a bit? It's a bit of philosophy for you, but nothing ever becomes something by itself. There has to be a cause and that cause is an eternal something or an eternal someone and the Bible begins by saying it was an eternal someone. And therefore, the schoolboys question, "Who made God?" is nonsense. It's like asking, "Can you have a square circle?" or "Can you fry ice?" It's nonsense because it's asking an incompatible question.

 

 

 

God never was made, He made everything else. He was always there. Now, you must either say, "He was always there, and eternal someone." Or like Aristotle, you must say, "It was always there, and eternal something." But that's the choice, you've got to choose the one or the other, and the Bible clearly chooses an eternal someone. It's the fundamental assumption of the Bible that God exists eternally. That, He's always been there, that, he'll always be there, and that, He is the God who is. His very name is the participle of the verb, "to be", "being."

 

 

 

Some years ago, I was praying and I said, "Lord, please give me an English word to correspond to the Hebrew word of Yahweh, that would give me the feel of its meaning and excite me." And then, immediately into my mind, came this word, "always." That's very close to God's name, "always." He's always there, He is "always." That's the nearest I can get in English to the Hebrew, Yahweh. In other words, the Bible never tries to prove the existence of God. It's a waste of time as far as the Bible concerns, "He's there, and He's always been there." and you assume that. To try and prove His existence is, I've said, a waste of time. He's just there, He doesn't have to be explained, what has to be explained is the existence of everything else. Now, this it the very opposite of modern thinking. Modern thinking says, "Everything else was always there. Now, you've got to prove to me the existence of God." But know what the Bible says, "God was always there," and we have to explain now, why everything else is there. That's how the book of Genesis approaches this huge question.

 

 

 

By the time of Moses of course, everybody knew that God existed. He has rescued them out of Egypt, He divided the Red Sea, He drowned the Egyptian army. They knew that God was real. When you've been through an experience like that, you don't need proof for the existence of God, but I'm afraid, modern men does because he hasn't experienced these things and he wants proofs.

 

 

 

When you read Hebrews chapter 11, you read two things about creation:

 

#1. (You read this) by faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what it seen was not made out what was physical.

 

And then a little later, the same chapter says this, "Whoever wants to find God, must first believe that He exists and that He rewards those you earnestly seek Him."

 

In other words, the Bible says, "Assume He's there, assume that He wants you to find Him and to know Him and to love Him and to serve Him, and then see what happens. But, start by accepting that, in the beginning, God was already there.

 

 

◑Now the subject of Genesis 1 is not creation, but the creator.

 

That's the first mistake we make. It's not about how our world claimed to be, but primarily about who made it come to be, and in fact, in just 31 verses, the word "God" comes out 35 times. Almost as if it is saying, "God, God, God, God." This is about God. It's not so much the story of creation, it's a picture of a creator, and when you ask, "What does Genesis want to tell us about God?" You find yourself with a long list, and I just made here a list for you.

 

 

#1. I found out that God is personal. He has a heart that feels, He has a mind that thinks, and can speak His thoughts. He has a will, and makes decisions and sticks to them. All these are personalities. God is not an it, God is a He. He's a full person with feelings, thoughts and motives like we have.

 

 

#2. God is powerful. When our late daughter was a little girl, I remember reading Genesis 1 to her from the children's Bible, and when I finish it, she just sat there quietly and then she said, "No sooner said than done." And that was her summary. It's a good summary, God's power. What power! Just a saying it just happens, what authority. You got to be pretty high-up to do that sort of thing, and the first Ten Commandments in the Bible are all in Genesis 1. Did you know that there were Ten Commandments there? Count them up. Later He would give Ten Commandments to us, but the first Ten Commandments were given to our universe.

 

 

#3. Next, He is uncreated. He's already there, He always was there. He is "Being", He is "Always."

 

 

#4. But how creative He is, when you learn that there are 6000 varieties of beetle. What an artist, what an imagination. No two blades of grass are the same, no two snowflakes are the same. no two grains of sand are the same. What imagination. How creative. We can produce 7 million Volkswagen Beetles all the same. But He has this creative mind, His imagination gives great variety. There are no two of us the same, look at us, what a variety.

 

 

#5. He is an orderly God, the symmetry and the mathematics of the universe are such that, a Jew can find out that e=mc2, and this applies to the whole universe. Mathematically so ordered, you'll see more of that later.

 

 

#6. He is a singular God because all the verbs are in the singular. "In the beginning God created." The word created, that is singular.

 

 

 

 

#7. But He is also plural because the word God is not in the singular, it's in the plural, and it's not just a simple plural. He would be the three words. El Echad means "One God." Elohaim means two, but Elohim means three or more, and the word used here is three or more. So, in the first sentence we have, in the beginning a God who is three created, but there must be one. Isn't that astonishing? He's a three-in-one in the very first sentence, and it takes the rest of the Bible to explain what that means. But in terms of using a triple word for God, was singular verbs all the way through Genesis 1.

 

 

#8. Above all, Genesis 1 says, "He's a good God." Sometimes, when I have to choose a subject 6 months before a meeting, I can never think that far ahead, so I just say, "good God" and I said,"That covers everything I ever wanted to say," and twice now, posts have appeared with a horrible fake picture of me on it and then "Good God" above and meetings have been packed. But, God is good, and therefore, everything He makes is good because He is good. That's the message of Genesis. Be at no mistake about this, evil is not God's creation.

 

 

#9. He is a loving God, and wants to bless those He makes.

 

 

#10. He is a living God, who's active in this world.

 

 

#11. Speaking in this world, doing things in this world. He is a speaking God who communicates to us and wants to relate.

 

 

#12. He's a God who is like us. If we are made in His image, He must be like us, as well as, we must be like Him.

 

 

#13. And yet, He is a God unlike us because the one thing we can't do, is create. We can make things out of something else, but we can't create things from nothing. We cannot speak and there it is. So, He's unlike us.

 

 

Well, finally, I want to finish this talk by pointing out that God is never identified with His creation. The is a distinction between the creator and creation from the beginning of the Bible, and we must never get them confused. The new age is confusing them now. The creator is separate from His creation, He can take a day off and be quite apart from all that He has made. We must never identify Him with what He has made. To worship His creation is idolatry. To worship the Creator, is the truth. And the next talk we look at some of the other implications of this amazing first chapter of Genesis 1.

 

 

Remember These Three Men / Waters

Audio http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWXtLD2CnQk 

 

I was just in Harbin and also in Nanjing. I enjoyed the trip very much but my heart is very burdened for china and I’m so thrilled to hear today that Steven will be returning there. I will be praying for him and Mrs. Waters as well. Nothing makes me more excited than to see one of my students become a missionary because I’m really still a missionary. My wife and I are still missionaries with BEE World where we go to train leadership in different parts of the world.

 

▶Today I want to speak to you about three men who had influenced my life. These men are normally very unknown people. As you read your names today I really wonder who they are. It’s not unusual for us to forget names from time and to time. I remember the man who won me to Christ in a dirt road in a youth camp. I appreciate him very much but I do not remember his name. Also I remember a very strange time in the history of the life of Mrs. Waters and me. We were listening to a man speak in Colorado. He had been wounded in World War 2 through the throat and he can only speak in a whisper.

 

My wife and I were with the Navigator, a Christian group and we were praying what God ought to do with our lives. We were thinking about being a missionary but we were not yet sure.

 

▶This man is speaking in Isaiah 6 where we had the call of Isaiah and he said, “Here am I send me”. At the end of the sermon the man said, “Is there anyone here who would be willing to do what you were doing in United States but do it in a foreign culture”. I quickly stood to my feet and then I remembered I’m married. So I look to see at Mrs. Waters, we were only married for 6 months, and she was looking at me with big eyes and I looked at her with big eyes and we both shook our head and said, “Yes”.

 

And from that time on we had decided to become missionaries. We spend 27 years in the Philippines and we are still missionaries today. Even though I do not remember that man’s name, I remember the impact he had in my life.

 

◑

 

▶Today I want to share with you

-a forgotten servant who thought me how to do ministry.

-I also want to share with you secondly an obscure spiritual warrior who challenged me.

-And third, I want to share with you a man whose ministry determines where I would go and how I would go, that ministry does not depend upon success and finances.

 

▶1. The first man is found in Colossians 4:12 and 13.

 

“12 Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings. He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured. 13 I vouch for him that he is working hard for you and for those at Laodicea and Hierapolis.”

 

This man was called to face great challenges as the pastor at Colosse. The book of Colossians was written to combat growing heresy. This heresy had a deceptive philosophy; it claims that you could overcome sin by a Sadducee-ism; it taught that you were supposed to worship angels; it claimed that it had secret knowledge beyond the Bible and it attacks the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Epaphras combated this heresy by first exulting God as the very God. He exulted Christ as the creator. He exulted Christ as preexistent, existing before time. He exulted the Christ as holding the whole universe in His hand, he exulted Christ as the head of the church. He exulted Christ as the first to be resurrected. He exulted Christ as the God-man perfect deity and perfect humanity. He exulted Christ as the only reconciler between God and man. He was a pastor who was preaching Christ as the center of everything.

 

Colossions 4:12, 13 tells us that first he is a bond servant. This means he was a servant leader. He was also a man of prayer. The Bible says he 'wrestled' in prayer. The Greek word means to 'agonize'. He is battled spiritually in prayer. Also the Bible tells us that he was a slave servant who taught his people to stand firm. He was a guide as a pastor, he upheld them in prayer, he encouraged them to stand fast, to fight against false doctrine and Paul testified that Epaphra was a hard worker. He was very zealous for his work. Epaphras represent as a kind of man and woman who serves night and day, this is much like Pastor Brian and Pastor Steven. Your pastors serve you every day. They are your mentors and your guides and your counsellors. They invest in your lives, they pray for you, and they keep us from false doctrine.

 

This is what a true servant leader is. He taught me the meaning of hard work mixed with blessing to be faithful to the will of God and this is the important thing. Ministry costs a great deal. Ministry is very expensive, it costs your life, it costs your time, it costs your finances, and it costs everything that you are to do ministry in the right way. So our first man is Epaphras, remember him as an example of a true pastor. (I will have something more to say about him in a moment.)

 

▶2. The second man is Archippus, he is found at Colossian 4:17,

 

“Tell Archippus see to it that you complete the work that you have received in the Lord.

 

If Epaphras was with Paul when he was in prison, Archippus was the assistant pastor who is filling in Colosse while Epaphras was gone.

 

Archippus is a fellow soldier. He devoted himself to the service of the gospel but the spiritual battle was hot and maybe he was weary and he was fatigue. And Paul said to him do not quit stay with that which God has called you to do. So do not give up under any circumstances, finish the work that God has given you to do.

 

Many time we as Christians are tempted to stop and to quit when thing gets hard. Archippus is the perfect example of someone who stayed true to the word of God even in the face of hardship. And I would say to you stay true to the word of God in hardship. When you are tempted to give up remember Archippus. When things gets difficult, remember Archippus. When financed become little remember Archippus,.When people turns against you remember Archippus. Remember him when hardship comes and finish your Christian life well. Don’t give up. So remember Epaphras as the perfect pastor, remember Archippus as the example of not giving up. And that lead us to our third man.

 

▶3. The third man id found in Jeremiah 5:5. The bible reads, “Should you dare seek great things for yourself, seek them not for I will bring disaster declared the Lord. But wherever you go I will let you scape with your life”.

 

Let me give you a little background on Baruch. He has a brother by the name Saraias, Saraias lived in the palace with the king of Judah. He was living in luxury, he had plenty to eat, he had a nice home, beautiful cloths, everything that a man could want but Jerusalem was about to be destroyed and Baruch was discouraged. He was Jeremiah’s assistant. Guess what Jeremiah’s life was like? (Let me give you some illustrations of what he faced).

 

Jeremiah was opposed by his hometown, he was opposed by relatives, he was opposed by the priests, he was opposed by the people and the prophets, he was forbidden to marry, he was beaten several times, he tried to resign because he was so discouraged, he was put to jail, he was thrown into a muddy well and left to die, he was called a traitor by his friends, he was taken in chains after the fall of Jerusalem, he spent his last days in Egypt and was probably murdered, this is the man that Baruch served with.

 

Baruch was the secretary to Jeremiah. Baruch wrote down the book of Jeremiah we would not have the book of Jeremiah. If it were not for the secretary of Baruch but he was discouraged and God said to him "do you seek great things? and God said seek them not."

 

I would like to say to you as I say to myself

"Are you seeking great things in your life?

Are you seeking comfort in your life?

Are you seeking the things that the world can give?

Are you seeking what somebody else has, maybe a relative?"

 

I say in the basis on the word of God, seek them not.

Seek to please God alone, seek God‘s will for your life alone.

 

Don’t worry about what is going on with the world today, difficulty will some even more than we will see today. But if you stay true to the will of God your life will be preserved. We learned from Epaphras about being a good pastor, a good minister. We learned from Archippus not to quit and we learned from discrete man of the name Baruch to seek only God’s will. Nothing that his brother did survived. But the book of Jeremiah will last forever and forever. You seek great things for yourself, seek them not.

 

▶Let me share one illustration with you.

 

In 1987 my wife and I lost our mission board. Our mission dissolved and we lost all of our finances so we came back to the United States and we took up secular jobs. I started the small church and was a night watchman. Mrs. Waters started a business in cleaning houses. Our two daughters were suffering with the first stages of tuberculosis and had to be treated by doctors. We started two churches in the Philippines and we needed to send $ 1000 a month back to the Philippines so those churches could survive, $ 500 for one church and $ 500 for another church. So before we could eat we always sent a thousand dollars back to the Philippines. It was a very hard time in our lives.

 

So, I started looking for a better job because I thought God does not want me to be a missionary anymore. I was trained for 3 months to join a corporation and take a job with them. After three months they hired me but before I could work with them I had to meet the president of the company. I went into his big office, I sat down in the chair then he said, “I know that you have a small church that you pastor on Sunday but he said I want you to know one thing this company owns your soul”. I shook my head, NO.

 

I drove home that night and I begin to weep and cry. I came to the garage apartment where we were staying and I walked up the stairs and into the kitchen. Mrs. Waters were cooking dinner. I fell down on my knees and I began to cry, my two daughters came running in and Mrs. Waters knelt with me and we were all crying. Mrs. Waters said, “What’s wrong?” I said this company hired me and they offered me 100,000 dollars a year. Remember we’re very poor $100,000 sounds good. My children were sick and I wanted to care for them but I felt it was not God’s will for me to take the job because God owns my soul. So I said to my two daughters and to my wife, “I think God want me to go back to the Philippines but I will not go unless you approved all three of you”.

 

My oldest daughter said yes, my youngest daughter said yes, and Mrs. Waters said yes. So we packed all things, we sold everything else. What we could put in the car we put it to the car and we started out trying to raise funds. In six months we were able to raise our support again.

 

 

One of the things that happened, very quickly I tell you. Do you remember I said we have to send 1,000 dollars to the Philippines?

 

When we left Denver Colorado which was the place where we were, we have $25 in our packet. My first place to preach was in Nebraska, I preached twice there. The next morning the pastor gave me an enveloped I never opened an enveloped in front of the pastor. So we left to go the next preaching place and Mrs. Waters said let me see the envelope. She opened it we have $1,250. We stopped; we sent 1,000 dollars to the Philippines and with 250 dollars, we went to the next church. and God always provided for us from that time on. Do you seek some great things? Seek it not.

 

Let me challenge you in closing. You have two Epaphras here in your church. Pray for your pastors. Pray for your pastors to stay true to God's word.

 

Do you know someone who is an Archippus, who is discouraged maybe thinking of quitting? Pray for them by name for one month and then let them know you’ve been praying for them for one month and see what they’ll say. Do you know a Baruch? If you do pray for him. If you’re seeking for great things, pray for him to only seek God’s will. Do you know someone who is thinking of quitting the ministry because the finances are few? Pray for them for one month and then tell them you’re praying for them and see what happens.

 

Let’s pray…

 

 

For the City: Living in the City of Exile / Tarn

       Jeremiah 29:1-7           Scrapped, Source
Preached by Minister Jason Tarn to HCC on February 2, 2014


Introduction

❖ How many of you have had the experience of being a foreigner in another country? Perhaps
you were studying or working abroad. Perhaps you were on an overseas missions trip, or
you’re just well-travelled. Or maybe you’re actually a fairly new immigrant to this country.

‣ If you know what it’s like, you know how difficult it can be. Different languages,
different customs, different values, different beliefs and practices. Some of it intrigues
you. Some of it confuses you. Some of it annoys you. There’s this constant tension of
feeling more and more at home in your adopted city, but every so often being
reminded that this is not your home, that you’re still a foreigner.

❖ I felt this tension when we lived in Vancouver. Now Canada is the least foreign country I
could’ve moved to. We share the same language, and there’s a lot of cross over in popular
culture. But still I felt the pinch of living in another country with its own unique culture.

‣ I love Vancouver, but do you know how hard it is to find a station that’s broadcasting
a football game or just reporting on anything but hockey? And one time I was craving
Mexican food, so my wife and I went to the most popular Mexican restaurant in town.
We sit down and we’re handed a basket of chips and salsa. So good so far. But when I
ask for a refill, the waitress says there’s a charge! I told Theresa, “That’s it, we’re
moving back.” This is not home. No one charges for chips back home.

• The longer I lived there the more I came to love the city of Vancouver but the
more I realized how much of a Texan I am. Without a steady diet of football
and Tex-Mex, I was languishing in a foreign land.

❖ Now I bring up this tension of living as foreigners in a big city because that’s the context of
this morning’s passage. At this point in Israel’s history, their kingdom had been divided and
conquered. Judah, the southern kingdom, had been invaded by the Babylonians, and
Jerusalem was sacked. The invaders not only plundered the city, they took into captivity a
large company of exiles.

‣ These displaced Jews ended up in Babylon. This big city. This pagan city. This hostile
city. This religiously, culturally, morally diverse city. What were these Jewish exiles to
do? How were these foreigners to relate to this new city of residence? How do they
stay faithful to their true identity while living in a city of exile?

❖ That’s really our question. Those are the questions we need to be asking. In our day, the city
is filled with people who feel like exiles. They feel like they don’t belong. And I’m not just
talking about actual immigrants. It's everyone. In the city, conservatives feel like society has
become so liberal. They feel like they no longer belong. But at the same time, in the city,
liberals feel like society is still too conservative. They still feel like they’re the exiles.

‣ In the city, minorities feel like outsiders, but in the city, even those in the majority
ethnicity feel out of place. Cities like Houston have become so diverse that even the
majority feels like they’ve stepped into a brand new world.


❖ And as for Christians, cities can be places of refuge but also places of exile. Places of
hostility. Places so out of sync with our values and beliefs. So how do we live faithfully as
followers of Jesus, as citizens of a heavenly kingdom, while in a city of exile?

❖ Last week we began a series called For the City, where we’re asking ourselves: What does it
matter for our church to be located in an urban setting? How does our location, our place,
give shape to our mission as a church?

‣ We talked of how our church was established over 38 years ago as a church in the city
– merely in the city. As a commuter church reaching the immigrant Chinese who were
arriving in center city Houston for schooling and training but eventually settling down
in outlying suburbs like Clear Lake and Sugarland.

• But now after 38 years, we've been faithful to plant community churches in
the suburbs where the majority of immigrant Chinese have moved. We’re at a
point where we don't need to be a commuter church. Then what would it look
like for us to be more of a community church? A church that engages its
geographic community, which in our case is distinctly urban.

• So the question is: What will it mean for us to be a city church? And
not just a church in the city but a church for the city. A church that
serves its city and seeks its good. !

❖ This is why we chose Jeremiah’s letter to the Babylonian Exiles. If Christians today look in
the Old Testament for a model of cultural engagement – for how the people of God
should relate to the culture-at-large – then the best model for us would be the Exiled
Generation. You wouldn’t turn to the Wilderness Generation or the Age of Judges or the Age
of Kings. Their context wouldn’t fit ours.

‣ But consider Israel in exile. They no longer existed as a nation-state. They were now
a countercultural community existing within another nation-state, in a culture hostile
to their beliefs. They settled in the land. They participated in the life of the city. Yet
they never considered Babylon home. They anticipated the day God would bring
them home to their city, a new Jerusalem raised from the ashes.
• Just imagine the children and young people born in Babylonian captivity.
They had never seen Jerusalem. They only heard stories. They had to take it
by faith that there was a Jerusalem yet to come. That the only city they knew
and loved was still not home. They had to trust when their parents said they
were citizens of another kingdom and that their king had not forgotten them.
That he’s coming back for them. They had to live by faith and not by sight.


❖ Do you see what this means? We’re in a similar situation. The New Testament Church is, in
a sense, in exile (cf. 1 Pet. 1:1; Jas. 1:1). Like the tribes of Israel, the Church is scattered
throughout the world among various nation-states. Like the exiles, we realize we're not in our
homeland. We look forward to a city whose designer and builder is God (Heb. 11:14), to the
new Jerusalem – not built up from ashes but brought down from heaven (Rev. 21:2).



❖ But as we await the city that is to come (Heb. 13:14), how are we to relate to the city that
is? What should be our attitude and approach? Especially since it’s not Jerusalem we’re
living in but Babylon.


‣ Our passage mentions three approaches to the city that have been promoted and
practiced by God’s people throughout church history. You find examples of churches,
denominations, and individual believers living out these three models of cultural
engagement. Let’s take each into consideration. !



❖1. The first approach can be summed up in one word: assimilation. This approach encourages
Christians to fully assimilate into the city as a native of its culture. This was the approach
the Babylonians encouraged among the peoples and nations they conquered.


‣ They were smart, really shrewd. Think about it: If you simply tried to expel a
conquered people from of their homeland, they’re just going to come back one day
madder and stronger than ever. That strategy is going to come back and bite you.


❖ The Babylonians were shrewd. Instead of expelling the Israelites from their homeland,
they had a process of cultural assimilation. They exported Israel’s cultural elite and settled
them in the heart of Babylonian culture, the capital city. We’re talking about the political
class, the religious class, the artists, the craftsmen – the culture makers.



‣ Look at vv1-2. This a letter from Jeremiah writing from Jerusalem to “the surviving
elders of the exiles, and to the priests, the prophets, and all the people, whom
Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. . . . the officials of
Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen, and the metal workers.”


❖ The purpose was to Babylon-ize them. To assimilate them into Babylonian culture. If a
Jew wanted to survive in big city Babylon, if he wanted to continue in his profession – to still
be an artist or a businessman or a politician – then he had to pick up the language, learn the
culture, adopt the customs, etc. In so doing, the Babylonians hoped their captives would
eventually lose their unique identity as Jews and be throughly Babylonian.


‣ Now while this was all taking place, back in Israel the poorest of the poor remained.
And in place of the cultural elites, the Babylonians imported subjects from other
conquered nations in order to create a huge melting pot of cultures. They hoped
people would mix languages, mix religions, mix marriages, and eventually they
would eradicate the cultural and spiritual identity of these conquered people. !


❖ We see an example of this in the book of Daniel chapter one. Daniel and his friends were
part of the Judah’s culture elite, and it says they were transported to Babylon to live in the
king’s palace where they received a throughly Babylonian education. They learned the
literature and language (1:4). They were even given a daily portion of the same food and
drink that the king received (1:5). That’s so smart. If you can get a foreigner to fall in love
with the best foods of your culture, they’re hooked. Assimilation will be a piece of cake.


❖ So that’s how you conquer a people. You don’t expel them. You don’t try to kill them off.
That never works. They just come back madder and stronger. Instead you slowly but surely
assimilate them into the dominate culture until they lose their very identity as a people.


‣ That’s one approach to the city and its culture. To fully and uncritically embrace it as
yours. To take on the posture of a native. To be both in the world and of the world, in
the city and of the city.

❖ You know where the Babylonians got that strategy, right? The god of Babylon is the god of
this world. And he’s shrewd like a serpent. If he’s going to conquer 21st-century, urban,
American Christians, he knows that outright persecuting us and trying to kill us off is not
going to work. It didn’t work when he tried that on the early church or on other persecutedchurches throughout history like the house church in China.


‣ So what’s his preferred strategy? Tempting Christians to assimilate into the dominateculture by dangling self-serving incentives in your face. If you want the best jobs, the
most money, the greatest influence, the most fulfilling career, then you’ll have to set
aside any moral values the city finds offensive, you’ll have to give up any convictions
the city ridicules as ignorant or culturally regressive. You’ll have to assimilate.


• The Jews were told, “If you want to make it in Babylon, you’ll have to
become throughly Babylonian.” Likewise, Christians are told today, “If you
want to make it in the city, you’ll have to be throughly acculturated to the city
on all levels – intellectually, socially, culturally, and spiritually”


❖ Assimilation is not how you become for the city. Yes, I realize on one hand it feels like
you’re for the city since you’re all for its culture – in the sense of being a strong advocate for.
But in reality, assimilation is actually a very self-serving approach towards the city.


‣ Assimilation means I live in the city and engage it for my own sake. I want the
money, the influence, the status, the experience, and so I do what’s necessary to fit in.
I assimilate so that I can make a name for myself, to build a life for myself. That’s
self-serving. That’s not really being for the city. !
Withdrawing from the City as a Separatist



❖2. Now there’s a second approach that’s also found here in Jeremiah. It could be summed up with the word withdrawal or separation.

This approach says that Christians, who want to be faithful, must withdraw from the city and take on a separatist attitude towards its dominant culture. This was the approach advanced by certain prophets during Israel’s exile.
They were feel-good prophets who only had positive messages for the people.



❖ In chapter 28 we're told there was one such prophet named Hananiah who went around
telling the exiles not to worry. He said their captivity would only last two years, and thenGod would bring them back to their homeland (28:1-4).


‣ There was no reason to engage the city, its people, or its culture. God's people had to
stick together. Let's have nothing to do with the city. It's dirty. It's crowded. It's full of
people who believe things we disagree with and do things we disapprove of.



❖ If assimilation was on one end of the spectrum, these guys swung to the opposite extreme.
They advocated cultural separation and promoted an attitude of isolationism,
discouraging any real engagement with Babylon. But Jeremiah confronted them and
exposed them to be false prophets with false prophecies (29:8-9).


‣ Later on in chapter 29 starting in v24, we're introduced to another false prophet
named Shemaiah who accused Jeremiah of being a traitor, of being pro-Babylon.
Jeremiah's letter was offensive to a cultural separatist like Shemaiah because his
instructions for the exiles sounded so much for the city, for Babylon. He was
convinced that Jeremiah was betraying his allegiance to God, to his people. No
faithful Jew could be so for the city.


❖ Sadly, there are Christians arguing the same today. No faithful Christian can be for the city.
Cities are cesspools of temptation and corruption. They're going to argue that allegiance to
Christ calls for separation, for a posture of defensiveness.


‣ If Christians have to engage the city – either because of work or schooling – then let's
deal with the city so long as we have to. Let's get the money we need, the training we
need, the education we need. Let's use the city to get what we need, and then bring
it back to benefit our people – to make my family or tight-knit faith community
stronger or more stable.


• So ironically the native and the separatist have a lot more in common than
they think. They're both exploiting the city for their own gain.
Withdrawing from the city is just as self-serving as assimilating into it. It's just
as far from being for the city.



❖3. Thankfully there's a third approach, and it can be summed up with the word service.

This approach says that Christians in the city are called by God to be for the city by serving
the city from the posture of an exile-in-residence.


‣ This is the approach we find in Jeremiah's letter. Let's read it again starting in v4,
"Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent
into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon." Let's stop right there because I bet as this letter
was being read to the exiles, some of them couldn't get past the first sentence.


❖ They were thinking, "Wait, what? Who did the letter say sent us here? Because I distinctly
remember the Babylonians dragging me and my family out of Jerusalem. Did you read that
right? Did you say God sent us here?" You bet. That's what Jeremiah is saying, yet at the
same time, in v1, he's comfortable saying that king Nebuchadnezzar was the one who took
them into exile. There's no contradiction. What the king intended for evil; God intended for
good (cf. Gen. 50:20).


‣ Do you see the implication here? Yes, because of Israel's persistent idolatry, the
exile was a consequence of sin, but simultaneously exile was a mission of God. He
has a purpose. He has a mission for his people.


❖ And it’ll take some time. This exile wont be over in two years but in seventy, says God in
v10. Then I'll bring you back home. But until they’re to build a house, plant a garden, settle
down. Get married. Marry off your kids. "Multiply there and do not decrease." (v6)


‣ In other words, God wants the Israelites to grow and remain as a distinct people.
He doesn't expect the Jewish people to decrease while in exile – to assimilate into the
larger culture to the point that they're no longer distinguishable as Jews. No, he wants
them to maintain their distinct identity. And notice how this is accomplished primarily
through the family. Through parents bearing children and then rearing them and
teaching them from a particular worldview and spiritual identity.


❖ But this is not a cultural withdrawal. This is not a holy huddle. Look in v7, God also calls
them to, “seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on
its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.”


‣ So when in Babylon, they're not to simply do as the Babylonians do. Yet at the same
time, they're not to shelter away in their own spiritual and cultural ghetto. No, they
are to use their gifts, their talent, and their resources to seek the welfare (the common
good) of the city, while never forgetting that this is not home.


• Settle down in the city but don't settle for the city. You reside in one
country, but your primary allegiance is to another. You're an exile-inresidence,
a resident alien. So love your city of residence, pray for it, seek itswelfare. But don't forget your real home is a city that is to come.


❖ St. Augustine wrote a famous book called The City of God where he says that when you're
born again – when you become a Christian – you have a dual citizenship. You're a citizen of
some country, of some earthly city, but now you become a citizen of the city of God. Now
how do you identify them? How do you know who's a citizen of the city of God?


‣ They tend to be the best citizens in the city of man. Why? Because they don't
assimilate into the city just to make a name for themselves. And they don't exploit the
city just to serve their own family or faith community. No, the citizens of the "city
that is to come" will engage the "city that is" for the city's sake. Not their own sake or
their family's sake or their church's sake but the city's sake.


❖ Jeremiah says to seek the city's welfare. Some translations say it's peace and prosperity.
It's the Hebrew word shalom. It means peace but not just in terms of the absence of
hostility or violence. It means the presence of wholeness – of physical wholeness, social
wholeness, economic wholeness, spiritual wholeness 1. That's shalom.



‣ To seek this means, on one level, working for the physical shalom of your city. When
Christians use their training and professions to mend broken bodies, to alleviate pain
and suffering, to treat mental illness or substance addictions, they're seeking the city's
shalom. You don't have to be in the medical profession to do this. Feeding the hungry,
visiting the lonely and shut it, that's contributing to physical shalom.



❖ Christians are also called to seek and to pray for the social shalom of their cities. That means
exposing and addressing societal evils and injustices in the city like racism, bigotry, sex
trafficking, abortion, etc. Working toward reconciliations and healing. That's how you
contribute to a city's social shalom.


‣ There's also the economic shalom of a city. The prosperity of all its inhabitants.
Seeking this means you build a career in the city not to build up your resume or your
nest egg – but to build up the city, to contribute to its prosperity. And this will
necessarily involve acts of mercy and generosity to serve the needs of city's poor and
destitute. All of this contributes to economic shalom. !


❖ And most important of all, to seek the city's shalom is to seek spiritual shalom for all its
inhabitants. Christians recognize that sin is the underlying cause behind the absence of
physical, social, and economic shalom in our city, but we know that sin has incurred an even
greater problem, a greater pain, a greater suffering and that's the alienation it's caused
between mankind and its Creator. Human sin incurs divine wrath. This is why spiritual
shalom, peace with God, is the greatest need in our cities.


‣ Well this is a shalom that the church is uniquely positioned and commissioned to
bring. Because only the church has the gospel – a message of peace. This good news
of God's grace towards sinners demonstrated through the sacrifice of his own Son.
On the cross, God restored shalom with us by breaking shalom with his Son.
Jesus willingly bore our sins and chose alienation in death so that we might have
reconciliation in life. This is an act of love and mercy and the crowning moment of
God's grand plan to rescue and redeem a people for himself.


❖ The point is the city's shalom is all-encompassing. It covers all dimensions. It's about seeking
maximal human flourishing in our cities – physically, socially, economically, and spiritually.


‣ Now look back at the end of v7 and notice God's rationale for seeking the city's
shalom. He says, "for in its welfare [shalom] you will find your welfare [shalom]."
Remember, God's end goal was still to save and preserve a people for his own glory
(even though he sent them into exile), and it appears that seeking and contributing to
the welfare of a godless, pagan city was part of that plan.


❖ What this means for the church today is that the call for Christians to engage our city, to seek
and to pray for its shalom, is totally compatible with our mission to make God-loving,
compassionate disciples of Christ.



‣ This morning we're the church gathered, but on the other six days of the week we
scatter throughout this city contributing to its prosperity, giving shape to its culture,
ministering to its needy, advocating for its voiceless, fighting for its oppressed, etc.


• These kinds of ministries are not a distraction from a church's evangelism
and discipleship. Rather, they're a boon, a benefit, to our mission to
evangelize and disciple by strengthening the influence we have in the city and
adorning the gospel when we proclaim it. Do you see the connection? For in
the city's welfare we'll find our welfare.

Find a Ministry (in the City)



❖ Let me conclude with an application. This year I want to challenge each of you to find a
ministry – a ministry where you can use your spiritual gifts and talents and influence and
resources to begin serving.


‣ But here's the catch. It needs to be a ministry outside the church and in the city. I
don’t mean to belittle or ignore the needs within the formal, established ministries of
our church. I pray God leads many of you to fill them. But today I challenge you to
find a ministry in the city.


❖ This will require you to first identify the needs of the city. Study your city, your
neighborhood, your campus, your workplace, and ask God to show you where shalom is
missing, whether it be physical, social, economic or spiritual. Ask yourself, “Where do I see
God’s shalom absent and wanting?” In the next few weeks we’ll commence our annual
Compassion Project, and perhaps God will direct you to one of the highlighted causes.


‣ once you identify, then pray. Jeremiah says to pray to the Lord on behalf of the city.
Before you start, you might need weeks or months of prayer. You should probably
invite your family or your small group to join you in prayer.


❖ Then when the Lord opens the door, go and seek the city’s shalom. Don’t wait for the
pastors or church leaders to initiate a new ministry of the church. You are the church.
We’ll initiate and oversee ministry that happens when the church gathers. That’s our job.


‣ But throughout the week, ministry should be happening all over the city wherever the
church is scattered. But that’s the kind of ministry you’ll have to initiate and oversee.
Your pastors want to hear about it. We want to celebrate it, pray for it, and support it.
We want to equip you through the ministry of the Word, but then immediately send
you back out to serve the city and seek its shalom.


• So go to God this week with this prayer: Lord, where is your shalom missing
in this city, in the context where you’ve placed me? And how are you
preparing me and calling me to serve this city for its good and your glory?