Second Presbyterian Church Sermons

I. Worship (24:1-2, 9-11, 15-18)
As God’s people, we worship him in response to his grace.

Knowing: Before there is any reference to obedience to commands, God invites the leaders, representing the people, into his presence to worship. And worship is the last act mentioned at the end of the chapter. Worship, implicitly in response to the grace of redemption, frames the whole chapter, just as it frames the whole legal code.

Being: One cannot truly receive and reflect on grace without being driven to worship, driven to corporate worship in particular because the redeemed person cannot be satisfied with his or her lone voice praising his or her Savior.

Doing: Then one cannot view the generosity of God’s mercy, justice and faithfulness without being compelled to extend it to others. Do you tend to view corporate worship as a legalistic duty or a response to grace? What do you think contributes to your viewing it this way?

II. Words (24:3-4, 7-8, 12-14)
As God’s people, we obey his words in gratitude.

Knowing: After worship, Moses repeats all of God’s “words” to the people. All of this legislation is not referred to as “laws” but as “words.” This is clearly an allusion to what is revealed in Exodus 20, which is not referred to in Hebrew as the Ten Commandments, but rather the Ten Words (dabar). This is a gentle reference. Even the Hebrew reference to the commands of Scripture torah is a gentle word. It’s more accurate to translate it as “instruction” than “law.”

Being: One Old Testament scholar once wrote, “these are not ‘laws’ to ‘serve as rules of action, but the rights, by which the national life was formed into a civil commonwealth and the political order secured.’”

Doing: Do you tend to view God’s instruction as something he has given to rob your joy or so that life might go well with you? What would it look like to truly believe God’s law is for your good?

III. Welcome (24:4-6)
As God’s people, we rest on his welcome provided by Jesus.

Knowing: Jesus was the one to whom many thousands of sacrificial animals pointed, but his was the once for all sufficient sacrifice to take away our sins. We are very familiar with that legal provision for us, the need for the imputation of Christ’s righteousness in place of our sins to justify us before the bar of God’s justice.

Being: Unlike the burnt offering, the sacrificial animal was slain not to be cremated but to be eaten as a meal with God. Just as a burnt offering revealed God’s self-sacrifice to satisfy justice, a peace offering represented God’s provision for a reconciled relationship. God himself was the host of the meal.

Doing: Do you tend to view your relationship with God in only legal terms (i.e. guilty, not guilty) or in relational terms wherein he welcomes you as a guest to a feast? What contributes to this view and how does this passage shape your view of relationship with God?

I. Work (21:2)
Our work is always framed by 1) remembering we are God’s treasured possession, 2) worshipping God in grateful obedience, and 3) responding by serving others with our work.

Knowing: The translation “slaves” in this passage may not be the best translation for our modern understanding. This passage is not referring to chattel slavery but is more akin to what we would call employees, or even debtors to another person.

Being: Our primary motive for the way we work and the way we treat others must be the grace of our redemption. Worshipful gratitude must guide everything we do, say and think. Before giving them a single directive for how they are supposed to live, he reminds them he has redeemed them from their harsh treatment in Egypt to be his “treasured possession” (19:4-6).

Doing: As Christians, we are in the business of finding what is broken around us and getting to work repairing it. Is there any form of brokenness in your current vocational field you can seek to bring flourishing to?

II. Freedom (21:2)
As Christians, we are also in the business of bringing the freedom the gospel brings to places where we observe bondage (e.g. addiction, sex slavery, labor).

Knowing: No bondsman could remain indentured permanently. He could only remain in such a relationship for a maximum of six years or until the Year of Jubilee, whichever came first.

Being: This shows God’s heart for the most vulnerable in society. His gracious laws show his determination to protect and provide freedom.

Doing: Do you have co-workers or neighbors who are in bondage to sin in any way? Do you have skills and/or resources that might enable you to help others be free both spiritually and physically/financially? What opportunities do you have to bring gospel freedom to other people’s lives?

III. Dignity (21:3-11, 23:10-11)
God’s directives for life are designed to bring dignity to all people, especially women and children.

Knowing: Foreign prisoners and immigrants were to be afforded the same protections as Jews. If a Jewish master killed a foreign slave, he could lose his life as well. Any slave would also win full emancipation as well for any bodily injury, like losing a tooth or eye, suffered at the hand of his or her master (Ex. 21:20, 26-27).

Being: Marriage between slaves was recognized as sacred (Lv. 19:20-22). If because of poverty a family was forced to “sell” their children for food, it was for the child’s protection not to become a cheap laborer. Girls were especially to be afforded protective care and treated with the same dignity as a married woman. If the master of the house mistreated the girl in any way, he would breach the “contract” and she would be afforded freedom (Dt. 21:14).

Doing: How does God’s love and care for all people shape your own view of others? How does this shape your view of his law?

Regardless of what we cease doing or start doing, we will not depart from these essentials—discipleship, outreach, and worship. On the threshold of this long list of laws for the newly formed nation of Israel, God mandates these three essential duties for the people of God. Discipleship, outreach and worship apply the essence of the law to love God and neighbor. 

I. Discipleship (v. 22)
Knowing: The way God revealed his word to Moses on Mt. Sinai set the standard for how every other book of Scripture would be included. By visible, felt and audible signs God confirmed to thousands of witnesses the word he was giving to Moses to write down was his own.

Being: As if the revelation through Moses as God’s intermediary were not enough, we have the even greater confirmation of Jesus Christ. God not only spoke from the heavens, he came down from heaven, took on a body, spoke his word for life and salvation in person, died to atone for our sins, and was raised to life to make it ours.

Doing: Jesus’ great commission to us was not to make converts, but disciples. “All authority on heaven and earth” was given to him by his Father in order to commission us to “go and make disciples, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” To be the Church of Jesus Christ requires us not only to explain what the Scriptures say but hold one another accountable to do what it says. How can you be involved in the work of discipleship in your life?

II. Outreach (v. 24)
Knowing: Let’s start with the clearest part of the verse, “I will bless you.” As disciples live Christ-like lives, God blesses them. This does not mean that God rewards us for being obedient, as if we can earn his blessing. The Scriptures are clear this would not be grace, but an obligation by God to pay us for serving him (Gal. 2:21).

Being: So our text says, God must “come” to us in order to bless us. Jesus had to come to us in order to save us and make us pleasing to the Lord. The new life of obedience we live is only explained by our union with Christ and his Spirit living out his life in us (Ga. 2:20).

Doing: We are to imitate this love by loving others sacrificially. Jesus said, “They will know you are Christians by the way you love one another.” What will it look like for you to love your neighbors sacrificially?

III. Worship (vv. 23, 26)
Knowing: There is nothing more important than worship. It is the reason the world exists, to “declare the glory of God.”

Being: Worship is the “primary purpose” of every human being, “to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.”

Doing: This passage shows us 6 things about the importance of worship.

How can you be committed to worship?

For further study:
For the article mentioned at the beginning of the sermon, see Andy Crouch, “Leading Beyond the Blizzard: Why Every Organization is Now a Startup,” 

Motivation and enablement for obedience to the Lord in the Old Testament are no different from that in the New Testament, and it is proven in the preface to the Ten Commandments.

The most obvious reason to obey God’s commandments is that it is God who gave them.

Knowing: “I am the Lord,” he says, using that sacred, stunning name YHWH by which he first revealed himself to Moses at the burning bush. “I am that I am” is derived from that name. In saying this, he was declaring his absolute uniqueness, absolute sovereignty, and aseity—his total self-sufficiency.

Being: As our Creator each of us is born with a covenant obligation to obey the Lord. We owe him obedience as an act of gratitude for bringing us into existence.

Doing: John Calvin called the guiding work of the law its “third use.” While he compared its “second use” to a whip that drives us to Christ for conversion, he compared the law’s third use to a lamp, which guides our feet along the safest path. Which of these metaphors for the law generally describes how you think about the law?

When the Holy Spirit weds us to Jesus we are restored to the loving covenantal relationship God always intended for his image bearers.

Knowing: God described his intention for the law from the very beginning in positive terms. He called them “words of life” (Dt. 32:47). When Moses brought the laws to God’s people, he urged them to obey them "so that you may live and prosper and prolong your days in the land that you will possess" (Dt. 5:32-33; Dt. 30:19).

Being: Instead of the laws being our enemy any longer, they become our Father’s household rules for healthy, happy, and fulfilling living.

Doing: God’s law not only mitigates the harm we can bring on ourselves, it prescribes a way of life that tends toward flourishing. Which of these purposes of the law define the way you generally view it?

The third and most obvious reason to obey the Ten Commandments is Christ is our Redeemer.

Knowing: Before God gives his people these commandments, he reminds them how much he loves them. In effect he says, “If you doubt I want what is best for you, remember I brought you out of Egypt. And remember I did so with the blood of an innocent victim foreshadowing the blood of my Son, my precious lamb, I would someday sacrifice finally for all my people.”

Being: Each commandment finds an even fuller expression of God’s love personified in Jesus.

Doing: How do you see God’s love personified in Jesus in each of the Ten Commandments? What scriptures show you this?

We must trust the Bible as God’s Word because…

The Bible is verbally narrated by the Holy Spirit.

Knowing: The first reason we can trust the Bible is God spoke it. It can be too easy to glide over the words, “The Lord said. . .” But to do so impoverishes us. This is remarkable!

Being: That the Lord of heaven and earth would go to such lengths to speak to us with language we can understand should melt our hearts with love.

Doing: To be intellectually honest in approaching Scripture requires one of only three possible choices, 1) admit the Bible is God’s word and submit to its authority; 2) admit the Bible is God’s word and rebel against its authority; 3) deny the Bible’s claims to be God’s word and reject it altogether.

The Bible is objectively confirmed.

Knowing: God loves us so much he not only made sure his word was written down for us in language we can understand throughout the ages, he confirmed it was from him by objective signs appealing to our senses.

Being: But God was doing more than just confirming Moses’ authority to inscripturate God’s word to the Israelites at that time. He explained to Moses he was providing these phenomenal signs so “the people may hear when I speak with you and may also believe you forever” (v.9). Through this event with Moses, God defined for the coming ages how a prophet’s words would be accepted into Scripture, or canonized. For a prophet’s words to be accepted as divinely authoritative for all times, required “eyewitness testimony of God’s approval of a writer of Scripture by a credible number in the community” (Robert Vasholz).

Doing: Is this not a beautiful display of the Father’s love! He so cares for your comfort and instruction, he stooped and accommodated himself to our frail faith by providing objective, eyewitness testimony to the veracity of what he wrote down for us. And often the biblical writer confirmed the ultimate truth of what he wrote by his martyrdom. In view of this, we must ask ourselves if we take the Bible as seriously as God is about confirming it to us?

The Bible is personally fulfilled in Jesus.

Knowing: Moses and Aaron consecrated themselves in order to be the emissaries of God’s word to his people and the people had to be consecrated to receive it. While it is not specified in our text the coming ceremonial laws will clarify that consecration, setting apart as holy, will only occur by shedding the blood of an innocent victim. Remember just a few chapters before we studied was necessary to consecrate a firstborn son—slaughtering a lamb.

Being: Clearly, God was telegraphing to his people that ultimate confirmation of his word would require the shedding of blood. However, more would be needed than confirmation to make it possible for God truly to call us his fought for, treasured possession, crowned and holy. He would have to provide the perfect sacrifice to consecrate them. His Word would have to become flesh to provide atonement for our sins in order not merely to confirm his word but conform us to his Word. It would cost the Father his Son and the Spirit would have to apply the accomplishments of the Son’s blood to us and the Son would have to unite us to himself that we might be regarded as God’s very sons and daughters.

Doing: This is the song we will sing into all of eternity, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain” (Rev. 5:9). We will only be able to sing it there in heaven because Jesus sealed our salvation with his blood. In view of how intentionally and sacrificially God has confirmed his Word to you, how can you give it even higher authority and value in your life?

To become a citizen of the people of God means drawing near to Jesus, and when you draw close to Jesus, you must grow closer to others and around a mission that brings shalom.

After his many powerful works of redemption in the face of ungrateful and faltering faith, God tells his people how he expects them to live.

Knowing: The Lord reminds his people of four things he has done for them that should endear them to him forever: he fought for them; he carried them; he crowned them; and he treasured them.

Being: These are four things he does for us too. They should make it unthinkable for us to disobey him.

Doing: Which of these four things that God does for his people most resonated with you and motivated you to obey?

Another motivation to obey a gracious God is the revelation he provides.

Knowing: God humbles himself to speak directly to us. And even more humbly, he provides objective confirmation that this is indeed his word. It is personal, confirmed, and holy.

Being: God personally accommodates himself to reveal his will for us in a way we can understand. God’s revelation proves his love for us by the way he confirms its reliability in ways meaningful to us as creatures. Finally, to keep God’s revelation out of love requires regarding him as holy.

Doing: What is the most meaningful way God reveals himself to you that motivates you to obey him?