BBC Sermon Cast

The Lord Jesus Christ practised to perfection spiritual discipline—including the spiritual discipline of rest. This was essential to fulfilling God’s will for him. Rest is likewise essential if we will do God’s will. Drawing on the example of Jesus, we want to focus our time in this study on the spiritual discipline of rest.

Like infected Temnothorax ants, consumeristic church members rob the community of spiritual vitality and force others to pull more than their allotted weight, to the detriment of the body at large. Will you be rid of the proverbial tapeworms and labour fruitfully for the benefit of the body?

Numbers 16 records Korah’s infamous rebellion. As ugly as the scene is, we do well to recognise that we struggle with similar temptations, including the temptation to self-righteousness. Self-righteousness in a congregation is destructive. It can lead to doctrinal heresy and interpersonal divisions. It can make church life difficult. It can discourage us in our assignment to make disciples. But Numbers 16 points us both to the problem and to the assurance that “God’s firm foundation stands, bearing this seal, ‘The Lord knows those who are his’” (2 Timothy 19).

Stewardship is not often thought of as a discipline, but we need to train ourselves to think like stewards by constant practice. Luke 19 gives us a good template for lessons on what a life of Christian stewardship looks like.

Anton talks briefly about the false sacred/secular dichotomy that Christians so often fall into.

Anton briefly talks about how Christians can maintain a Christlike testimony in an upside-down world.

We saw last week that, in Numbers 15, God provided his people with a gracious revelation assuring them of a future loaded with favour. The next generation would inherit the land forfeited by the faithless behaviour of their parents. In the text before us today, there is an added dimension of expectation: The relief communicated in vv. 1–21 is followed by the community’s responsibility. Having graced his people, God now reveals expectations of that grace.

Being a believer is not a private matter. It is a personal matter, but not private. Living out our faith is part of community living. It involves others. Mutual confession leads to mutual prayer.

Though there is a lot of legislation in Numbers 15, this chapter is an account of grace more than of law. It is a story of mercy rather than a story of the merely mundane. Though there are a lot of precepts in these verses, undergirding all of it are the promises of God. It is a chapter of hope following a chapter of despair. Though there had been failure, faithlessness, and fear, God still spoke to his people. God was not silent.

In 1 John 5:1–5, John was writing to help his children to understand that faith in Christ causes believers to overcome the world. This overcoming the world happens in their relationships, in their own hearts, and out in the culture. In vv. 6–12, we examine the evidence he puts forward to help his children to understand how they can be confident in the eternal life they have through Jesus, who really was the Son of God.