Today there is no text message accompanying the audio. The audio is a mix of Scripture, song and prayer. Be blessed as we wish you a Very Merry Christmas. |
Pastor Bob relates how King David and King Jesus had many parallels in their lives from 1 Samuel 17 and various portions in the New Testament.
Dr. Ralph delivered a message about a man chosen by God to be Israel's first king. But his performance in the end had a great deal to be desired. Northgate Baptist Church
Sermon Dec 4 Ralph J. Korner Title: “Being a Prophetic Person Means You Won’t S(a)ully God’s Name.” INTRODUCTION Last week Pastor Bob talked about two amazing women: Naomi and Ruth. Previously we talked about another amazing woman: Rahab. Ironically, each woman was a foreigner, not part of God’s covenantal people called Israel. Each of these three women had no status in the socio-economic structures of Israelite society. Only by God’s grace did they survive and thrive. Only by God’s grace were they incorporated into the blood line of King David from whom ultimately would be born the Messiah of Israel, the one whom we call Jesus the Christ. God’s ways are not our ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts. He does not fit our neat and tidy little boxes of how we think he should act and to whom we think He should show mercy. He shows up in some of the most amazing places, and in the lives of some of the most surprising people. PRAYER Today we begin our Lower Story with another amazing woman: Hannah. She, however, is not a foreigner in the land of Israel, she is an Israelite. Hannah is barren. God answers her prayer with a son. She names him Samuel which means `heard by God`. She then dedicates Samuel to the Lord for a lifetime of service. Hannah’s son Samuel is not part of the bloodline from which eventually will be born the Messiah of Israel. But Samuel does become a prophetic model of the future Messiah of Israel. He speaks what God speaks and he does what God tells him to do. In the opening chapters of 1 Samuel, Samuel acts as a prophetic voice for God to the nation of Israel as God transitions them from a governance model of regionalized judges to a centralized monarchy. It turns out that in chapter four the nation of Israel have asked for a king made in their own image, or should we say, made in the image of the nations around them. God is not pleased. Samuel is not pleased. But God relents, chooses a King named Saul for Israel and leaves the Israelites to reap the consequences of their choice. Saul will not be part of the Messiah’s bloodline; King David, his successor will. Saul, a keeper of the donkeys, will be replaced by David, a shepherd of sheep. David becomes the Kingly model for Jesus, the heavenly King whose birth we celebrate at Christmas. But Jesus is not just a KING, He is also our PRIEST who offered himself as the sacrificial Lamb so that he could provide forgiveness of our sins and deliverance from our sin nature. Every month in Communion we celebrate Jesus, our priestly Good Shepherd. Every year at Easter we celebrate Jesus our King, who through His resurrection gives us life and power so that we can represent God’s Upper Story in the daily lives of our Lower Story. We are called prophetically to live this Upper Story in our Lower Story lives. Being a prophetic person means that we daily take up our own cross and die to our own selfish desires, plans, hopes and dreams and we daily God’s resurrection life into the broken lives of those around us with their shattered desires, plans, hopes, and dreams. Being a prophetic person means we will not end up sullying God’s name. We are going to look this morning at a counter-example of Jesus, the ancient Israelite King named Saul. Let me begin, though, by telling you the story of another King who has something to do with Christmas. OLD KING COLE (pp. 80-81, Paul Harvey, More of the Rest of the Story) Of England’s earliest kings he was perhaps the best loved. Yet history has all but forgotten him. We know that he ruled during the fourth century. We know that his pleasant nature helped to soothe the savage times in which he lived. We know little else. But there is one thing about him that does survive which is well known to us in the 21 st century. Allow me to elaborate. In AD 43 the Romans invaded England and encountered the Celts. By the fourth century the Romans had to face other tribes that were encroaching upon their hard-won territory: the Anglos, the Saxons and the Jutes. One of the Roman “kings” to defend England was remarkable for his era in that rulers of those days had reputations for negligence, unscrupulousness, thievery and murder. Not this king. Two ancient writers characterize this king as brave yet even tempered, as capable yet good-humoured. This king I am speaking about is not the fabled King Arthur, King of Camelot, another one of the early Roman kings, but in the fourth century. This king I am speaking about is remembered to posterity mainly because of a few short rhyming lines first found in written form in the 1700’s. These lines became a well known nursery rhyme and were even set to music. The king in this nursery rhyme is not infrequently depicted as being seated on a throne dressed in a red suit with white fur lining and smoking a pipe…sounds a little like the merry old Santa Clauses that thousands of children line up to visit for pictures in malls all over the world. The real, the original, 4th century Roman King was named Cole…Old King Cole “Old King Cole Was a merry old soul, And a merry old soul was he. He called for his pipe, And he called for his bowl, And he called for his fiddlers three” http://images.mentalfloss.com/sites/default/files/styles/article_640x430/public/old_king_cole.png Old King Cole had a reputation as a merry old soul. We turn now to the story of a not so merry old Saul. Saul’s story begins with Samuel’s prophetic call. I. SAMUEL THE PROPHET WHO CHOSE THE KING [1 Samuel 1-8] Samuel the Prophet In 1 Samuel 4, Samuel’s prophetic ministry comes on stream during a time of political, social, economic, and spiritual disarray for the nations of Israel. Samuel’s call comes during the time in Israel’s life when the visible presence of God (the ark of the covenant) had been captured by the Philistines in the second battle they won against Israel. The Ark of the Covenant, which is the symbol of God’s presence is now not only found on the margins of Israel’s political, social and religious life, it is actually located outside of the national boundaries of Israel: it is held captive in an alien land, the land of the Philistines. You might say that God is living as a stranger in a strange land. Our prophetic ministry as God’s people called the church is during a time of vast and quickly changing political, social, economic, and religious landscapes. The church of Jesus Christ, as the visible presence of God, more and more is finding itself on the margins of Canadian and American political, social, and religious life. You might say that God’s people are now living as strangers in a strange post-Christendom land. What do we need to do to become the presence of God in the heart of Canadian society? àAllow me to encapsulate my answer in three words: BECOME THE GOSPEL. Become the Gospel, don’t just speak about the Gospel during your week. Become the Gospel, don’t just celebrate the Gospel on Sundays. We must BECOME the Gospel: incarnate the life of God into our individual lives, Into our church life, into our social engagements in Canadian society. We must live prophetic lives of justice and mercy that help bring wholeness, healing and salvation to people individually and to society systemically in all the dimensions of what it means to be human: our spiritual, emotional, psychological, social, intellectual, and physical dimensions. WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR US TO LIVE PROPHETICALLY TWO TYPES of PROPHECY Prophetic messages in the Old Testament were of two varieties. Foretelling: Telling others about events before they come to fruition. These types of predictive messages account for less than 10% of the prophetic messages found in the OT. Forthtelling: Telling forth the actions of justice and mercy that God mandates for his people in the present. The lion’s share of the prophetic passages in the OT are concerned with the warp and woof of peoples’ daily lives. God makes his divine rubber hit our human roads by calling his leaders to do the right thing for every human being. Samuel was a forthteller of God’s desires for Israel. The people did not want to listen. Rather they chose to tell forth to Samuel their own desires. They wanted a human King. They were dissatisfied with having God as their King. God was too nebulous, too unpredictable, too mysterious, too reliant on prophets for His directives. A human King was so much more predictable and respectable. Saul fit that bill very nicely indeed. II. SAUL THE KING WHO SOUGHT TO BECOME PRIEST Saul was a “presidential/regal looking” king-type person, on the outside. 1 Samuel 9 states that Saul is “as handsome a young man as could be found anywhere in Israel, and he was a head taller than anyone else” à God gave Israel exactly the King they wanted: now they could become just like the other nations. What were the kings of the surrounding nations like? Kingship in the ANE “Kings of the ancient world enjoyed nearly limitless power and authority, and regularly claimed divine support for their rule. Kingship was believed to have been lowered from heaven and to have its roots in the original creation and organization of the world. The king functioned as vice-regent for the divine ruler, and it was his duty to preserve order and justice in society. They often had priestly duties and were depicted as shepherds.” (IVP Bible Background Commentary: OT; p.291) Saul outward kingly demeanour hid the fact that he was a shrunken soul on the inside. This fact seems to be implicitly reinforced by the narrator when in 1 Sam 9 he makes it seem like Saul was not aware of Samuel and his ministry. One commentator summarizes the narrative as follows: “It is intriguing that Saul, who only lives a stone’s throw away from Samuel’s hometown and within the circuit of Samuel’s territory, appears ignorant of this nationally renowned figure. Rather than suggesting that Samuel’s renown was less than reputed, it likely indicates the spiritual and political naivete of Saul.” (IVP Bible Background Commentary: OT; p.293). Saul’s spiritual naivete may account for two grave errors he committed while king. First, Saul acted as a priest when he faced the Philistines in 1 Sam 13. Second, Saul did not obey the prophetic word of God through Samuel when he faced the Amalekites in 1 Sam 15. 1. SAUL`S FIRST GRAVE ERROR Perhaps Saul`s desire to be just like the other kings around him who also fulfilled priestly duties, helped him to rationalize his decision to act as a priest for the Israelite army. In 1 Samuel 13 we read that the Israelites had gathered to make war against the Philistines. But the Philistines vastly outnumbered the Israelites and their military hardware was vastly superior. The Israelites were shaking in their boots, errrr….sandals…while they waited for the prophetic word of God to come from Samuel. But Samuel still had not shown up seven days later. So Saul decided to do something. His army was starting to melt away and his kingly reputation was starting to wane. Better to act than to wait and be seen as weak and indecisive. So Saul stood up to the altar and made the offering in Samuel`s stead. Bad move. Samuel arrived just as Saul finished making the offering. Seeing Saul act as priest so as to shore up his Kingly reign reminds us that it is easy for us to give in to the tyranny of the urgent. We face situations where we feel urgency, where we feel that we cannot let this moment of opportunity pass us by, where we feel that because of social pressure we must act now. It is easy for us to try to help out God, especially when it looks like he is late. One motto I have lived my life by is that God is never a moment too late, but He is never a moment too early either—God’s “ontime-li-ness” is what tries our patience the most. It is easy for us to be our own god especially if we are seated as King on the throne of our own life. Only God should be seated on the throne of your life. Communion is your chance to confess that sin and to submit to Jesus` Lordship as your King. 2. SAUL`S SECOND GRAVE ERROR Saul`s second grave error was when he disobeyed strict orders from God via Samuel`s prophetic word. Saul was told to fulfill the prophecy God had made in Exodus 17:16: `Because Amalekite hands were lifted up against the Throne of the Lord, the Lord will be at war against the Amalekites from generation to generation. When Saul allowed his soldiers to keep some plunder from the defeated Amalekites, Samuel uttered these famous words in 1 Sam 15:22: “Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams...because you have rejected the word of the Lord, the Lord has rejected you as king.“ It is easy for us to second guess God. Do I really have to go the whole nine yards in obeying you. That is a pretty hard command to keep Lord. Can`t I have a little leeway like everyone else. Communion is your chance to confess that sin of not trusting God and to submit to Jesus` Lordship as your King As we prepare for Communion, let me ask us here all a question. Are you living in communion with the visible presence of God, the Body of Christ, and not just with the invisible presence of God, Jesus our Head? In 1 Cor 11 the apostle Paul says that some got sick, and some even fell asleep (died) because they failed to discern the body of Christ in their love feast”. The Corinthians failed to discern that the body of Christ that we remember at Communion mandates that we also remember the Body of Christ who surrounds us when we celebrate Communion. We cannot claim fellowship with God through Jesus Christ if we refuse to be in fellowship with the Body of Jesus, our fellow believers. The Cross visually reminds us that in Jesus we have the privilege of a vertical relationship with God the Father. But the horizontal beam of the Cross visually reminds us that we also have the privilege, and responsibility, of lateral relationships with God’s people, the Church. Our actions to the Body must be congruent with our actions to the Head. In other words, how you treat each other is exactly how you are treating Jesus, your King. IV. CONCLUSION In conclusion, may I remind us that To Obey is Better than Sacrifice. Will you obey God and live a prophetic life of mercy and justice, not only to the Body of Christ, but also to all those whom God has created, irrespective of what they think of the Jesus or His Body. Samuel reminds Saul that when God in his grace tells you to obey, in faith you must respond. We are saved by grace through faith initially. We must continue on living out that salvation by responding to God’s daily graces in faith. For Most people in our worlds, the only Bible they will ever read is the life we live. As Paul says, we are living letters of Christ. We are the living Bible. We worry about how rightly to interpret the written Word of God, and rightly so. But we must never forget that it is just as important to rightly live out the written Word of God. Our behaviour needs to match our beliefs. Then we are prophetic examples to our world. We speak what God has spoken. We act how God has acted towards us in Christ. When we do not live what we believe we are hypocrites. Hypocrites lose their prophetic voice in society. Just look at Saul, he ended up losing his entire kingdom and even his very life. Rather look up to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Jesus was known as a friend of sinners. What do sinners call you? Do they call you a great big show of regal holiness on the outside but a shrunken soul on the inside that is critical, judges, condemns and cuts down others? We must unreservedly accept people. Everyone human being carries the image of God, albeit a broken and scarred image, but the image of God nonetheless. Search for and touch the vestiges of godliness still left in people. We must be accepting of all people. That does NOT mean that we have to affirm all human lifestyles. We are called prophetically to speak the truth in love. We are also called prophetically to love in spite of what people think of our truth. Being this kind of prophetic people means that we will not end up s(A)ullying God’s name. |
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