Second Presbyterian Church Sermons

Because the gospel is the best news, we must embrace and share it.

Knowing: In our text, the Spirit has recorded patterns for sharing and embracing the gospel. We learn them by unpacking the verbs:

Being: We must not wait for unbelievers to come and ask us about our faith, we must go to them. We must go to them as true servants, considering their needs as more important than ours. We must seek out their felt needs and meet them practically.

Doing: Which of these three patterns for sharing the gospel resonated with you most? What is an area of your life where the way you live before others can demonstrate the gospel? Who is someone you can move toward more in order to share the gospel with them? How can you become better at sharing what God has done in your life through the gospel?

Knowing: Our goal in sharing the gospel with someone who does not have a personal relationship with Jesus is for them to embrace it.

Being: We must share the gospel by sharing how God has saved even people like us, and plead with people to believe and be saved as well. It is too good of news not to share this way.

Doing: Think of the people with whom you are trying to share the gospel right now. How can you not only tell them the good news but plead with them to embrace it?

This text shows us three specific ways we can live a life greater than self-promotion. To live a life that gets a name for God, you must…

Knowing: Genesis 3 reminds us that Satan brings the battle to us. Like the Amalekites, Satan and others may fight cheaply, but we must always fight the way God directs.

Being: For one, we must fight in a way that displays that God is the one who gets the victory. Also, James 4:7 gives us the promise that if we do not give up in our fight but “resist the devil…he will flee” from us. 

Doing: Can you think of an example of something in your life that might be your personal battle but not God’s battle? What would be an example of something in your life that is God’s battle?

Knowing: This text tells us that Moses is the one who wrote this down. Therefore, we see that Moses is admitting his own weakness and inability to keep his arms held up.

Being: We too must be quick not to promote ourselves but to point to Christ as the one who fights for us. Moses’ hands lifted up convey prayer, which conveys dependence on God.

Doing: How can you depend on God this week?

Knowing: We have already seen in multiple places in Exodus that Moses is pointing us to Jesus. When we see Moses on top of the mountain with his hands raised, we see Jesus ascending the hill to calvary to fight our battle against sin.

Being: We must admit that any success we have in this life can only be attributed to God’s grace and to Jesus fighting on our behalf. Someone has said, “The victory had nothing to do with the men in the valley and everything to do with the man on the mountain.”

Doing: Are there things in your life for which you are tempted to take the credit? How can you attribute these to Jesus? How can you brag on Jesus to others?

In this passage, the Israelites are asking, “is the Lord among us?” God shows that he is among us in at least three ways.

The first exhibit we can enter into evidence that God is among us is that we accuse him.

Knowing: The very fact we bring accusations against him, proves we believe he is there. What prompted the Israelites’ anger is another occasion of thirst. This is no small problem. Dehydration in the desert is a constant threat. They needed water constantly.

Being: As great a problem as the water shortage was, the greater problem was their inability to remember the Lord’s miraculous provision just days before. Instead of going to God and asking for his provision, they go to God and accuse him.

Doing: Is your reflex in times of need to express frustration to God or to ask for his provision? If you have grown to a place where you quickly ask for provision, how has God strengthened your faith to enable you to do this?

God also makes his presence known among the Israelites, and us, by condemning sin.

Knowing: Moses also grows frustrated with God and complains about the people. On this occasion, God does not rebuke Moses but rather tells him to pick up his staff as his gavel of justice and gather his elders as a jury.

Being: God’s directives to Moses clearly pronounce his condemnation of their sin. He does not apologize for failing to have bottled waters waiting for them at a place whose name (Rephidim) meant “rest.” The Bible says not only does the creation testify everywhere to God’s presence among us condemning sin, but our consciences being imprinted with God’s law secretly affirm we deserve it.

Doing: Think about the last time you found yourself “putting God on trial.” What sin was God revealing in your heart through that experience?

God proves most convincingly that he is among us through Jesus.

Knowing: God puts himself on trial. We know this from two prepositions in this passage: “before” and “on.” First, God says he will stand “before” Moses and the people. This is the position of the guilty offender. God voluntarily makes himself the accused. Secondly, he says he will place himself “on” (‘al) the rock. By doing so, he fully identifies with the rock.

Being: Paul plainly explained “the rock was Christ” (1 Co. 10:4). So while the Israelites’ sin is condemned, God becomes the guilty party in Christ and allows himself to be struck with the rod of his judgment so that justice was upheld but the people were spared.

Doing: Meditate on the implications this has for who you are in Christ. How does this image of the rock being struck in judgment and bringing forth water have significance for your union with Christ?

Because God is our Creator-Redeemer, we must rest in the assurance of his present provision, past faithfulness, and future promise.

By providing a Sabbath, God teaches his people how to rely on him as a benevolent king.

Knowing: By providing his people’s daily needs as he did, God taught them the daily rhythms of work and rest that he instituted at creation.

Being: The verbs Moses uses to describe God’s inauguration of the Sabbath are instructive: God finished his work and rested; he blessed the day and made it holy (2:1-3). These are not dour words or concepts. Finishing, resting, blessing, sacramentalizing are words conveying satisfaction, enjoyment, approbation, and an intentional desire to make a day delightful (Collins, Genesis, 70-71).

Doing: The Sabbath is a day of delight on which we are reminded Jesus came to bring us into his rest. In what way(s) can you intentionally use the Sabbath to trust in God’s daily provision?

By looking back to God’s past faithfulness, we are sanctified to live freely as his children.

Knowing: Despite God’s gracious intentions, the Israelites refused to trust God would supply their bread every day. So, they tried to stockpile some just in case. Here is an example of the insanity accompanying distrust of God. While holding miraculous bread in their hands, they placed more trust in their own hands than in the God who worked the miracle.

Being: Without harshness, he compels (even forces) us to rest. Our text says right after he rebukes them with the same terrifying words he spoke to the Egyptians, he said, “’See! The Lord has given you the Sabbath’. . .so the people rested on the seventh day.”

Doing: This is the point God wishes us to see in the Sabbath. The reason he commands us to rest on the Sabbath Day is to remind us and prove to us that he provides seven days of supplies for six days of labor. How can you use the Sabbath to reflect on God’s past provision, enabling you to enjoy the rest he provides?

God not only provides for us in the present and reminds us of his past faithfulness, he graciously assures us that he will provide in the future.

Knowing: Finally, the Lord gave Israel an objective symbol of his future reliability. Moses was to put an omer of manna in a jar to be kept with the Ark of the Covenant (“the Testimony”) for the next forty years. It would be reasonable for God to say his word should be enough, but he displays his sensitivity to our weakness by providing an objective sign by which to affirm to his people he will always be faithful to his promise.

Being: This manna preserved in a jar has been superseded by Jesus Christ, the bread of life (John 6:35), who assures us of an eternal rest from all further attempts to win favor with God through trusting in him. How might your striving to be accepted by God be preventing you from receiving the rest God provides?

Doing: It is only when we intentionally stop and acknowledge that Christ has done everything necessary for our acceptance with God that we can receive the blessing of rest.

Because the Lord blesses us when we deserve judgment, we must love him.

There are 4 marks of grumbling as a result of “redemptive amnesia” in this text, 3 explicit and 1 implied.

Knowing: The marks of grumbling in the Israelites’ lives—and ours—are dissatisfaction with what the Father has currently provided for us (vv. 1-3); displacement, that is, shifting blame from one party to another (vv. 6-8); hoarding his blessings because we don’t trust him to supply in the future (v. 20); and thanklessness, a failure to acknowledge the way God provides and blesses (Romans 1:21).

Being: To grumble is to say to God, “I wish you were not my God; in fact, I wish you were dead.” It is to say to the Heavenly Father what the prodigal son effectively said to his father: “I wish you were dead so I could get my inheritance, spend it the way I wish, and live by my own rules.” Do any of these marks of grumbling resonate with you more than the others? How so?

Doing: Consider the negative emotions you have experienced most frequently recently. What happened? Why did you feel that way? Use this self-reflection to help answer the question above.

God’s response to the Israelites’—and our—grumbling is breathtaking. There are at least 3 indicators of God’s incredible grace in this passage.

Knowing: God demonstrates his grace despite his people’s grumbling through extravagant blessings of sweet tasting manna and the delicacy of quail (vv. 4-6, 12); personal presence—the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud (vv. 9-11); and daily bread—God provided everything they needed each and every day (vv. 13-19).

Being: Such grace is unfathomable! Can it possibly be true that God meets our sin with overwhelming grace in Jesus Christ? That’s what Paul taught. Contrasting the representative roles of Adam and Jesus, Paul said, “But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. . .[W]here sin increased, grace abounded all the more” (Romans 5:15, 20).

Doing: Meditating on ways God has poured out his grace to you despite the fact we don’t deserve it causes us to love him more. Can you think of instances in your life where you received better than you deserved? What are some current examples in your life of ways God has blessed you that perhaps you have not thanked him for?

The Israelites were suffering from a kind of “redemptive amnesia.” They forgot the way God provided for them in the past. Their circumstances merited a response from them just as they do for us today.

In times of physical deprivation, we must humble ourselves.

Knowing: The most obvious form of healing we need from God right now is physical. The psalmist says God “remembers we are but dust,” meaning he has compassion on us because he made us like the rest of creation to be entirely dependent on him (Ps. 104).

Being: Often it is only when one of those lifelines is threatened or cut off and we have no ability to repair it ourselves that we turn to the Lord. And our attitude tends to be like Israel’s, “Why are you doing this to me?” “If you are good, why are you allowing this to happen?” Have you found yourself asking questions similar to these recently?

Doing: This crisis must humble us so we will look up to the Lord for healing for our physical needs. Let us humble ourselves before the Lord by first looking back at the history of our lives and conclude God has always provided for us.

In times of spiritual ingratitude, we must pray.

Knowing: Whenever the Israelites encountered hardship, their default was not to reflect on everything their heavenly Father had generously provided in the past. Their default was almost always to assume the worst about their leaders and ultimately doubt the goodness of God.

Being: In our pride, sometimes we can assume the highest good in life is our comfort and satisfaction. And the moment anything disappoints us, we ask, “How could God allow this to happen to me!” The question we should ask is, “Given my neglect of Jesus, why has God allowed my life to go so well for so long? Given my sin nature and the universal rebellion of humankind, why does God allow any pleasure in the world?”

Doing: In times of hardship, the Israelites didn’t look back to God’s past provision, they only looked at their present circumstances. What are some specific examples of God’s provision for you in the past? Pray and thank him and ask him to bring these to mind in the future.

In times of volitional rebellion, we must turn from our wicked ways.

Knowing: The final verses clarify that healing their wills was God’s purpose for “showing” or teaching the people to follow him as Moses did. If they lived in conscious dependence on the Lord’s word, they would be like Moses who was like a tree planted by streams of water that gave forth its healing fruit at the right time (Ps. 1).

Being: The Israelites needed what we need, not only physical healing and spiritual healing, but volitional healing. We need our wills, our hearts, changed so we will obey God instinctively, not just when he threatens us. Their next destination certainly proves the kind of redeeming God we have. The Lord led them to Elim with twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees. We shouldn’t allegorize these numbers. The emphasis is on its extravagant abundance. This is Yahweh-Rophe being Rophe, the Healer.

Doing: Jesus personified this prodigal grace when he stood up in Jerusalem among those rebellious Jewish religious leaders who were trying to arrest him and cried, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water’” (Jn. 7:37-38). How can you practically go to Christ for fulfillment this week, allowing his abundant provision for you to compel you to turn from ingratitude?