When a sinful woman has an encounter with Jesus and finds forgiveness, it leads us to ask: have we found the same?

Encounters with Jesus

6. The sinner and the self-righteous Dan Bidwell, Senior Pastor

Luke 7:36-50

Sunday 22 May 2022 Although my memory's fading, I remember two things very clearly:

I am a great sinner and Christ is a great Savior.”

— John Newton

One of my favorite children’s books growing up was Come Over To My Place by Theo LeSieg, better known as Dr Seuss. It transports you to homes all over the world, and the different ways that people live.

And for me, that’s one of the most interesting parts about travel – the insights you get into different cultures and their customs, especially when you get to stay with locals.

A few years ago my family and I went on a mission trip to Fiji, an island nation in the Pacific Ocean. It was a graduation trip for the 12th graders in our church, and a chance to experience a part of the world most of us had never seen.

The highlight was a three-day homestay in a village on a tiny, remote island. In Fiji, each village belongs to a different tribe, with a chief. So when you arrive in the village, the chief has to welcome you into the village. And there is an elaborate set of cultural ceremonies that you have to go through in order to make yourself welcome.

You have to dress respectfully. For the men, that means wearing a lava lava, a traditional Fijian style skirt. You can’t carry anything in your hands, because the chief needs to see that your hands are empty – you aren’t carrying a weapon. You have to approach the village in silence, and with a submissive pose. Then you have to wait for the elders to invite you into the village long house. Then there is the Kava ceremony, where one person after the next, everyone shares a drink made from a plant root that makes your tongue go numb. It’s all very formal, very ceremonial, very traditional.

Of course, after the formal welcome, everybody relaxed a lot more, and we were invited to stay in people’s homes, we had a great time, but that’s a story for another day.

Part of our Bible story today revolves around hospitality and ceremony, and what happens when cultural boundaries are broken. But as happens so often when people have an encounter with Jesus, the outcome of the story is not what we might have expected.

So why don’t we pray that God would show us the unexpected, as we open this story that is sometimes entitled ‘a sinful woman anoints Jesus.’

1

Our heavenly Father, will you teach us today about what really matters to you. Will you reach into our hearts and consciences and stir them, by your Holy Spirit, to understand how high and wide and deep is your love for us. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen

So we are in the middle of our sermon series called Encounters with Jesus. It’s all about people who met Jesus, and how their lives were changed because of it. We’re also praying that each of us here will have an encounter with Jesus, through what we read in the Bible. That it won’t just be about somebody else – but that we’ll see ourselves in the stories and that we’ll be changed by the encounter as well.

Well, our encounter with Jesus today takes place in the home of a Pharisee.

The Pharisees were the most religious of all the Jews – they prided themselves on the way they kept the Old Testament laws, they were fastidious with the ritual and ceremonial aspects of the Law. They were the religious elite of the day.

And this Pharisee invites Jesus to have dinner in his home.

[Jesus by this stage was a very well-known teacher, and he had spoken in synagogues and in public settings. Jesus was quite the celebrity, and so you can imagine the kudos you’d get from having a teacher of his status in your home. Or perhaps the Pharisee just admired Jesus – he might have been curious to know more. Whichever way,]

Jesus accepts the invitation and goes with the Pharisee, and that’s when the story gets interesting. (v37)

37 A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there.... (Luke 7:37)

Normally when we invite people over to our homes, it is by invitation only. In their culture at the time, it was a little different. Apparently when there was a meal like this, with a publicly known teacher, it was normal for it to be a kind of open invitation. Only the invited guests would share the meal, but others would be allowed to sit at the edges of the room, or the patio, and listen in.

That’s why it wasn’t unusual for the woman to come to the Pharisee’s house. But what she did next, that was unusual. (v37)

37 A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. 38 As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them. (Luke 7:37-38)

The woman had come with a gift for Jesus, it seems – a jar of expensive perfume, which she would have used to anoint his head and his hands, as a way of honoring him.

But when she sees Jesus, she’s overcome with emotion. She begins to cry (v38) and her tears fall all over Jesus’ feet. (You might be wondering how – at dinners like those, the guests would lie on their sides, with their heads near the table and their feet behind them.)

2

The woman is behind Jesus and she cries so much that his feet are wet with tears. The original language uses the same word for rainshowers. She is a mess. If you know the expression ugly crying, she is ugly crying all over Jesus’ feet.

I imagine every single person in the room would have noticed the scene she was causing...

It gets worse. Next she uses her hair to wipe his feet dry. Traditionally, Jewish women keep their hair covered in public – they only allow their husband to see their hair. And yet here is this woman, this sinner, letting her hair down in a room full of men, and using it like a towel to wipe Jesus’ feet dry. Perhaps it says something about the kind of sin she was known for – traditionally she has been understood to be a prostitute, although Luke doesn’t include that detail. Whatever her sin was, in this moment she is exposed, as it were, before Jesus. She is undignified, her face puffy with tears. She kisses Jesus’ feet again and again, pouring perfume on them.

And so the question is why? Why does she have this reaction to Jesus? Is she like the Beatles fans who cried when they saw John, Paul, George and Ringo?

My mum got caught out in the 1964 Beatles tour to Australia. She is normally very straight-laced, but apparently she ditched school with friends to go and wait outside the Beatles’ hotel. She and her friends ended up on the front page of the newspaper, and she caught some heat for that ;-)

Is that what the woman was doing? Was she just a groupie for Jesus?

The rest of the story tells us that her emotion came from a much deeper place. We’ll get to that in a minute.

~

Well the host of the party is mortified. It’s not just that his party had been interrupted, it was the kind of person who caused the interruption. (v39)

39 When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.” (Luke 7:39)

The Pharisee is horrified. He is revulsed at the idea of this woman touching Jesus, because of her reputation as a sinner. You see, the Pharisees deliberately separated themselves from anything that might cause them to be impure. That’s literally what the name Pharisee means – “one who is separated.” And so he can’t imagine why a religious leader would allow himself to be so close to someone known for their sin. In fact, he wonders if Jesus could really be a prophet because he doesn’t seem to know what kind of a woman she is...

Jesus knows what the Pharisee is thinking. And so he tells him a parable. (v40) 40 Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.”

3

“Tell me, teacher,” he said.

41 “Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42 Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?”

A denarius was the standard pay for a day’s work for a laborer or a soldier. So Jesus asks Simon to imagine this scenario where two people owe a money lender. One owes almost two years wages, the other two months wages. Neither of them are in a position to pay it off.

Back in those days, a person could be jailed until they were able to pay, or sold into slavery, or worse, they might sell their children to pay the debt. Sadly that still happens today...

Jesus wants us to imagine being on the verge of financial ruin, and then suddenly having your debt canceled. Most of us would love to see our debts canceled, even if we can service the debt. But imagine being on the brink of foreclosure, on the brink of losing your home, on the brink of bankruptcy, when suddenly you receive news that the full amount has been paid.

Wouldn’t that be amazing? Like a second chance when all hope was lost.

Now of course, Jesus’ parable is not really about being forgiven from financial debt. It’s an illustration about sin, and what it means to be forgiven from our debt of sin.

After all, sin is the predominant theme in our Bible passage so far:

- The woman who cried on Jesus’ feet is a renowned sinner

- Simon the Pharisee is someone who supposedly never sins

- Yet Simon is quick to judge the woman for her sin

- So we’re left wondering who is the bigger sinner...

Well, to answer that question, we need to understand what sin is. Sin is partly about what we do.

Take the woman in our passage for example. She lived a lifestyle that went against the Biblical standard for morality. The Bible condemns sex outside of the context of marriage, and she was probably a prostitute, or an adulterer. Ergo – she’s a sinner. And the Bible contains lists of activities that are considered ‘sins’ if we do them.

But the heart of sin is something much deeper than just ‘doing things that God says we shouldn’t do.’

Sin is ultimately about the way we treat God.1

And the reason is this – our world has a Creator who cares about us. Most people live lives as if this earth is all there is. And if that’s how you understand the world, then you might think of sin as just the

1 How did Simon treat Jesus? Did not honor him...

4

things we do that hurt other people. But if there is a God, then we also have to think about how our actions affect our relationship with God.

If a parent says to their child, “I don’t want you to do something. It’s for your good,” then they do it anyway, it damages the relationship between the parent and the child. When we do what God says isn’t good for us, it damages our relationship with him.

The reality is that most people never listen to God in the first place. They don’t want him in their life, they don’t want anything to do with him. They don’t try to honor God, or give him any credit for the good things in their life. They just get on with life, without God.

But God is there. And one day we’ll meet him. And on that day we’ll have to face up to the way that we’ve treated him. I’m going to say more about this in a couple of weeks. But according to Jesus’ parable, it will be like facing up to a huge debt. Or being caught in adultery, like the woman. There will be a debt that we owe, and we won’t be able to pay it. On that day we’ll understand the enormity of our sin...

Well, Simon didn’t seem to understand. He doesn’t seem to understand the debt he owes to God, he doesn’t understand the weight of his sin, if he recognizes it at all. I think if you asked Simon, he would say that he didn’t have a sin problem at all.

Before the Apostle Paul met Jesus, he was a Pharisee, just like Simon. And in the book of Philippians, Paul lists all the reasons why he didn’t think he had a sin problem: his heritage, the religious ceremonies he did as a child, his religious life as an adult. Paul went so far as to say that he believed he was ‘faultless’ when it came to ‘righteousness based on the law.’

But when he came face to face with Jesus, Paul has a moment of recognition about the weight of his sin. He calls himself the worst of sinners (1 Timothy 1:15). So if the Apostle Paul, who wrote half of the New Testament, and founded most of the churches in the first 50 years of Christianity calls himself the worst of sinners, what must we be?

Jesus wants us to recognize our sin.

And then he wants us to know how good it is when our sin is forgiven. Jesus asks Simon: “Which of [the debtors] will love him more?”

43 Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.” (Luke 7:43) ~

When we understand our great sin, and we understand Jesus’ forgiveness, then it will cause us to love Jesus more, won’t it?

The sinful woman, she demonstrated her great love with the way she treated Jesus. Her emotions poured out as tears and kisses and acts of gratitude to Jesus.

5

But what about Simon?

44 Then [Jesus] turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45 You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. 46 You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. 47 Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.” (Luke 7:44-47)

Simon doesn’t really show any love towards Jesus. Even from a cultural point of view, Simon didn’t honor Jesus in the way that a host would normally honor a guest, especially someone as distinguished as a rabbi. Normally the host would provide water and a servant to wash the feet of the guest, they would greet them with a kiss, and perhaps pour oil on their head. Simon did none of those things. He doesn’t honor Jesus. He probably wanted the honor for himself, the honor of having the celebrity preacher in his home...

But the woman, she honors Jesus where Simon failed. She honors Jesus with grateful kisses and tears because she knows that she owes him everything. Her actions speak louder than words – did you notice, the woman never even speaks in this passage. But she doesn’t need to. Her grateful response is clear from her actions.

And so when we think about our response to Jesus, the passage leaves us to consider if we are like the woman or the Pharisee? Have you understood the weight of sin, and the relief of forgiveness in a way that it brings you to tears, in a way that draws out deep emotion, in a way that makes you respond with love and gratitude to the one who purchased your forgiveness by his death on the cross?

In v47 Jesus says: I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. Our love for Jesus tells us whether we’ve understood the mercy of God.

If that mercy of God is something you haven’t experienced yet, then you’re in the right place. This is exactly the place to keep learning about God’s loving mercy towards each of us, his forgiveness, and the hope we can have when we know Jesus.

I like to think that Simon went away that day challenged by what he saw. Intrigued. Rattled, perhaps, because this ‘sinful’ woman had experienced something that he hadn’t. I suspect Simon was profoundly changed by his encounter with Jesus. What about you?

6

Watch at: https://youtu.be/TehBT3IT_qg File Downloads: https://dq5pwpg1q8ru0.cloudfront.net/2022/05/29/04/20/31/0f178d0f-fc44-45a4-8fa9-7b289fec8883/05.22.22%20%20Sunday%20Sermon%20Transcript.pdf

When a wedding runs out of wine, Jesus performs a sign that points to more than just a wedding toast.

Encounters with Jesus

5. The Miracle At Cana Dan Bidwell, Senior Pastor John 2:1-11 Sunday 15 May 2022

A few years ago when I was teaching in Africa, in Rwanda, I was invited to a wedding. I didn’t know the bride or the groom – the bride was the sister of the CEO of the aid agency I was working with. He invited me and the other lecturers to the wedding and to the reception.

Now I don’t know how it works here, but every other wedding I’ve been invited to, you get a special invitation in the mail, and it has your name on it, and you have to RSVP by a certain date. Sometimes you just get invited to the wedding, and not the reception. No matter what, it is the bride and groom who send out the invites.

Not so in Rwanda, apparently. The wedding is much more of a public affair. In fact, when we arrived at the church we found that it was actually 3 couples getting married all at the same time, literally on stage, all saying their vows in unison. This was completely normal, we were told.

And then we went to the wedding reception. Now we were a bit worried, because, you know, wedding receptions normally have seating charts, and catering, and we didn’t know anyone except our friend the CEO. Catering is also really expensive, and the kind of meal you normally get at a wedding reception would cost a week’s salary for the average Rwandan.

Turns out we didn’t need to worry. The reception venue was a large open-air hall, with a church band, and some wooden chairs placed around the outside. No tables, no place cards, no wedding favors... And no meal. Each guest had the cultural understanding that they would receive one bottle of soda, and one piece of wedding cake. And that’s how weddings work in Rwanda. That’s still a cost of about $2 per person – a whole day’s wage spent for each of the 200 or so guests who showed up.

Weddings. They’re a big deal, and they have been for a long time – that’s the setting for our Bible passage today. Jesus is invited to a wedding, and what he does becomes one of his most famous miracles, and perhaps the most misunderstood.

So why don’t we pray that God would help us to understand, as we open the Bible now. Will you pray with me?

1

Our heavenly Father, give us ears to hear and minds to understand what we read in the Bible this morning. Help us not just to see the miracle, but to see the reason behind it. Help us to encounter Jesus, in whose name we pray. Amen

Well, we are in the middle of our sermon series called Encounters with God. It’s all about people who met Jesus, and how they were changed by the encounter.

Our encounter today takes place at a wedding. (v1)

1 On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was

there, 2 and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. (John 2:1-2)

Jesus is invited to a wedding. We don’t know whose wedding it was, but Jesus’ mother had been invited, and so had Jesus and his disciples. And that’s because weddings were a much more public affair than they are these days – a bit like the wedding I went to in Rwanda. A wedding wasn’t just a celebration for the bride and groom and their friends, it was a celebration for the whole town.

Pastor Tim Keller shares the reason why:

“The purpose of a marriage was not primarily the happiness of the two individuals but instead to bind the community together and to raise the next generation. In other words, the purpose of marriage was the good of the commonwealth. The bigger, the stronger, and the more numerous the families of a town, the better its economy, the greater the military security, the more everyone flourished. [...] Each wedding was a public feast for the whole town because marriage was about the whole community.” Tim Keller1

Ancient wedding feasts would go on sometimes for a week or more.

But this wedding had a problem – (v3) – the wine ran out, and from the sounds of it, the wine ran out early in the week-long feast.

I think when you host a party, that’s one of the biggest fears, isn’t it? Running out of food, running out of drinks. If you’re anything like my wife and I, you over-cater like mad, and then you stay up late worrying about it, so the day of the party you run to the store and pick up enough extra to feed an army. That said, we have been in situations where we were praying for loaves and fishes, because it didn’t feel like we would have enough...

Come back to the story. That worst fear came true for the groom and his bride. The wine had run out at their wedding feast. Perhaps they didn’t account for as many guests, perhaps their

1 Timothy Keller, Encounters with Jesus, p58-9

2

budget was tight. Whatever the reason, can you imagine the shame for that couple if this was how their wedding feast ended? Can you imagine what the people of their small town would say? In their shame and honor culture, this was a major problem...

Jesus’ mother hears about it, and she approaches Jesus. (v3)

3 When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.” 4 “Woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. (John 2:3-4)

It’s a good question, isn’t it? Why does Jesus’ mother come to tell him about the wine? Why does she involve Jesus?

Well, remember our series is called Encounters with Jesus. Mary had had encounters with Jesus ever since his birth. In fact, even before his birth, Mary had been visited by the angel Gabriel who told her that her son would be the Son of the Most High, that he would be given the throne of David, that he would reign forever (Luke 2:32-33 paraphrase). Mary knew that Jesus was very special, and destined for greatness. She had watched him grow up, for thirty years, wondering when his hour would come... Could this be the moment?

Not yet, says Jesus: (v4)

4 “Woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My hour has not yet come.” (John 2:4)

BTW, some people think Jesus sounds a little harsh here, calling his mother ‘Woman.’ However according to ancient language experts, this doesn’t denote any disrespect. It’s just culturally different. But Jesus’ hour had not yet come. What did that mean? We’re going to come back to it in just a couple of minutes. But back to the story now...

Jesus’ mother wasn’t deterred. She gets hold of some of the wine servers – the servants. (v5) 5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” (John 2:5)

Mary clearly expects Jesus to do something. Perhaps she has seen him do things before. Perhaps she had noticed that things just happened around Jesus as he was growing up. Or maybe they didn’t. Perhaps it was that Mary had been waiting thirty years for all those promises of the Lord to come true. And now she was seeing it – Jesus had been baptized just 3 days earlier by his cousin, Mary’s nephew, John the Baptist. John’s birth had been announced by angels just like Jesus – Mary had visited John’s mother Elizabeth when they were both pregnant and the babies had jumped inside their wombs. Now the cousins were back together again – was God on the move? Was something going to happen?

3

“Do whatever he tells you,” Mary told the servants. Well, Jesus does something. Reading from v6:

6 Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.

7 Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim. 8 Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.”

They did so, 9 and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew.

This is the miracle that is so well known. Jesus turns water into wine. Lots of wine.

I did the math, and using the measurement in v6, conservatively this is the equivalent of 120 to 180 gallons of wine, somewhere between 700 and 1000 bottles or maybe more.

And it is good wine.

Verse 9: the master of the banquet tastes the water that had been turned in to wine. He did not realize where it came from.

This master of the banquet, I guess he’s like the wedding planner. I assume he knew that they were running out of wine. I know we have some wedding planners in the room. It’s not good when something runs out at the wedding reception, is it, especially the wine? I imagine he sent the servants out in to the back room to see if there was more wine, hiding behind the smoked salmon. And they come back with these big jars of wine, and it tastes great.

In fact, it’s such good wine that he calls the bridegroom aside, and he says: (v10)

“Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.” (John 2:10)

Now, remember we are looking at encounters with Jesus. The master of the banquet, he doesn’t really have an encounter with Jesus, does he? In v9 it says that he didn’t realize where the wine had come from. In v10, he assumes that the bridegroom had supplied the wine, and he congratulates him for his generosity in providing good wine when so many others would have brought out the cheap stuff.

So the master of the banquet doesn’t have an encounter with Jesus. Not at that moment, anyway. He just enjoys the unseen blessings that Jesus provides to the world. Jesus brings

4

unseen blessings to the world. And isn’t that true of so many people? Jesus said that God sends the rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. We all enjoy countless blessings that God pours out on us, whether we see them or not. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if people recognized the blessings that God is pouring out on them?

So the banquet master didn’t have an encounter with Jesus, but the servants did. Did you notice that in v9? The servants who had drawn the water knew exactly what had happened. I imagine they went home and told everybody they knew about the man who had turned water into wine.

There is a kind of irony in the servants being the witnesses of Jesus’ first miracle. Servants are unseen, unimportant, uninfluential. And yet Jesus entrusts them with a secret that he is not yet willing to reveal to the world. His hour hadn’t come yet, as he said in v4.

It tells you something about Jesus’ character. Jesus identifies with servants more than he identifies with the powerful and influential. Rather than bringing glory to himself, in this first miracle he lifts up the lowly. He allows a bridegroom to retain his honor. He allows this bridegroom to enjoy his wedding.

And I think that’s the key to understanding this first miracle, or ‘sign’ that Jesus does.

Come back to that theme I spoke about earlier – honor and shame. The culture of the people in our Bible story, it was an honor and shame culture. In an honor and shame culture, honor is key. You do everything you can to bring honor to your family, your tribe, your village, your nation. If you do something that brings shame to yourself, then that shame reflects on your family, and brings shame to them.

The bridegroom in our story, he was at risk of bringing shame to himself, to his new bride, to his family and her family... It could have caused serious consequences for the man and his family, all because there wasn’t enough wine at their wedding.

But Jesus quietly makes the problem go away. He covers up the shame of the bridegroom, so that nobody ever knew that it was him who fixed the problem. Jesus selflessly allows this man to enjoy his wedding.2

At the surface level, this miracle could be seen as Jesus turning water into wine and allowing a party to continue.

2 In fact, instead of shame, the bridegroom receives honor because of the quality of the wine. His shame is turned into joy... Isaiah 61:7 Instead of your shame, you will receive a double portion, and instead of disgrace, you will rejoice in your inheritance [...] and everlasting joy will be yours.

5

A Deeper Truth

But when we look at the clues hidden in the text, the miracle signifies something much deeper. It points to a deeper truth about the covering of shame that is core to Jesus’ mission.

The first clue is in v4, when Jesus says, “My hour has not yet come.”

I love it when you get to the end of a movie, and you realize that the writers have left you a trail of breadcrumbs throughout the film, little clues that suddenly make sense when you get to the ending.

Well in John’s gospel, this concept of ‘the hour’ comes up eight times. And when we get to the end of John, we understand that the hour is the hour of Jesus’ crucifixion. The hour of his death. An hour that many hoped would bring shame to Jesus and his followers. But Jesus says the hour of his crucifixion is also the hour of his glorification – the two concepts are inextricably linked.

So when Jesus says to his mother that his hour has not yet come, he’s saying that it’s not time for him to reveal the end game of his mission just yet...

But it doesn’t stop him from sharing the next clue, which his right there in v6. The jars that Jesus chooses to perform his miracle, they were the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing.

Every Jewish household would have had one of these jars in their home, set aside exclusively for the purpose of ceremonial washing. The idea behind ceremonial washing is that we do certain things in life that render us unclean before God – and ceremonial washing is all about washing away those stains, those sins, washing away the guilt.

But of course ceremonial washing can never truly wash away guilt. Shakespeare makes that point in Macbeth, when Lady Macbeth sends herself mad attempting to wash away the blood of Duncan, the King, who she has had assassinated. “Out, damned spot...” she famously says. The blood is physically washed away, of course, but metaphorically she can’t wash his blood from her hands.

And that’s true of all the things we’ve done that cause us guilt, and shame – both large and small. We can’t undo them on our own, even if we wanted to. Like Adam and Eve, we might try to hide from God or cover our shame with threadbare excuses, but deep down we know there is nothing we can do to atone, nothing can really make up for the wrong that we have done.

That’s why ceremonial washing was only one part of the Old Testament cleansing process. The sacrificial system ultimately culminated in the shedding of blood. God’s people would bring a

6

bull or a lamb or a goat to the temple, and its blood was poured out to represent the penalty of sin. Its blood was poured out instead of the blood of the guilty person.

But just like washing your hands can’t remove blood-guilt, nor can the sacrifice of an animal. As it says in Hebrews 10:4,

It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. (Hebrews 10:4)

The whole sacrificial system was a clue pointing towards the one true sacrifice – Jesus. Jesus whose hour would come, whose blood would be poured out for the forgiveness of sins, God himself covering our sin and shame by his blood.

And that brings us to the third clue. The wine. When we put together the clue about the cross, and the clue about being washed clean, it is easy to link the wine to Jesus’ blood. In just a little while, we’ll share communion together, which is a way of remembering Jesus’ blood poured out for us for the forgiveness of sins.

But that’s only one of the ways wine is symbolized in the Bible. I think Jesus has another image in his mind, which is from the book of Isaiah. It’s an image of heaven, and the eternal destiny for all who put their hope in God.

This is Isaiah 25 starting at v6:

6 On this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples,

a banquet of aged wine—

the best of meats and the finest of wines.

Heaven is pictured as a feast, a banquet, just like the wedding banquet that Jesus was at. In Isaiah, it’s the Lord who prepares the feast. In John 2, it’s Jesus who provides the finest of wine. There is a clear parallel between Jesus and the Lord. Jesus is the true banquet master, and he invites his people to the eternal feast.

And whatever shame we might carry, whatever guilt, whatever disgrace, the Bible is clear that Jesus can deal with that. That’s what the cross, and the blood was all about. Jesus will cover our guilt, and he will cover our shame so that we can join the banquet, and we can sit at the side of Jesus, unashamed, dining and feasting as part of his family, an invited guest, forever and ever.

Let me read you the next part of Isaiah 25, from v7 on:

7 On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples,

7

the sheet that covers all nations;

8

from all faces;

he will remove his people’s disgrace

from all the earth. The Lord has spoken.

God himself will remove our disgrace, when we put our trust in Jesus.

Jesus could have done a very public miracle, but instead he quietly showed his disciples what kind of savior he would be. A savior who washes us clean of our guilt, a savior who covers our shame, a savior who invites us to the banquet that lasts forever.

That’s what you get when you encounter Jesus at the wedding at Cana. Will you pray with me?

he will swallow up death forever.

The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears

8

Watch at: https://youtu.be/nGb98VXgmRs File Downloads: https://dq5pwpg1q8ru0.cloudfront.net/2022/05/23/05/45/57/b439de7f-ff47-4be2-89cf-1ad4a191ea07/05.15.22%20%20Sunday%20Sermon%20Transcript.pdf

Mother's Day 2022 - In this special Mother's Day message, Jesus reminds us not to get distracted from the most important thing - spending time with him.

Encounters with Jesus4. One Thing You Need Dan Bidwell, Senior Pastor Luke 10:38-42 Sunday 8 May 2022

Happy Mothers day! I hope all the moms out there have been spoiled, with kisses and hugs and breakfast in bed, and maybe even a gift or two...

I always have trouble choosing gifts, and so I love to read those lists where they take the 12 million or so products that are for sale on Amazon, and they choose the top 50.

Actually the list I found had 51 51 heartfelt Mothers Day gifts your mom will actually love (CNN Underscored is my go-to!)

Here are some of the best:

- Lots of different jewelery, especially necklaces and pendants. Gentlemen, that could be a good clue for Christmas...

- Apple Air Pods Pro

- Coffee

- Exercise wear

- Kitchen gadgets

And then we get to the other main theme in Mothers Day gifts... See if you can guess what it is from this list:

- Pajamas

- A special pillow

- A lavender plant

- A mulberry silk pillowcase

- A sleep eye mask

- A linen sheet set

- A knitted velvet throw rug (Actually this one got my attention. It had a picture of a lady snoozing

on the couch under the blanket like a big cable-knit. Looked really comfortable!)

These gifts are all about REST! And thats because moms deserve some well-earned rest.

A recent survey found that the average stay-at-home mom with kids in elementary school clocks in 98 hours a week, or 14 hours a day, with just 1.7hrs per day free time.1 Thats the equivalent of 2.5 full time jobs. No wonder young moms need a rest. Moms, you are amazing!

1 https://www.wellandgood.com/how-long-average-mom-works/1

And to the moms who have been through that season of life, and are now on the other side, Im sure you remember just what it is like. Thank you for supporting the younger moms who are here, even if its just a little word or a prayer, Im sure they appreciate it.

Like I said before, one of the things I love about church family is the way that God gives us a new, extended family in Christ. Moms, and sisters, and aunties, and grandmothers, which also means that we become like sons and daughters to those who adopt us into their circle. And thats really special.

(Men, youll have your turn on Fathers Day, but we appreciate you too!)

But since were honoring moms today, I just wanted to say that Ive never tried the stay-at-home parent thing, and I have huge respect for people who manage whole households, (my wife especially). It is a never-ending job, and often a thankless task, one that can be all-consuming.

If thats the season you find yourself in today, then Jesus has a special message for you, one that I hope will bring you some rest in the middle of the busyness.

So why dont we pray, and ask Jesus to speak to us as we open the Bible?

Our heavenly Father, thank you for this time to sit down and hear from you. Give us quiet in our hearts now, and peace, so that we can listen as Jesus speaks to us. My your words bring refreshment to us, in Jesus name we pray, Amen.

Well, you have joined us today in the middle of our sermon series called Encounters with Jesus. It is all about people who met Jesus, and how they were changed by it.

Our story today is about two sisters who had an encounter with Jesus sisters called Martha and Mary. The story takes place in Marthas home, when Jesus stopped there on his way to Jerusalem: (v38)

38 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. (Luke 10:38)

V38 tells us a little bit about culture in 1st century Israel. It was a cultural expectation for people to offer hospitality to travelers, even if they were complete strangers.

One of our favorite TV shows is a series called Long Way Round. Its a documentary about two friends who ride their motorcycles from London to New York city by travelling all the way through Europe, dipping in and out of Mongolia and Russia before they cross to Alaska for the easy ride across the United States. (BTW they also did the Long Way Down where they ride from London to the southernmost tip of Africa, and The Long Way Up from the bottom of South America to LA...) One of the most interesting parts of the show is when Ewan and Charley find themselves invited into tents and homes of some of the poorest people in the world people who have a culture of opening their homes to travelers, even when they are complete strangers.

Martha opens her home to Jesus and his companions. Traditionally that meant a whole set of expectations there were traditional greetings, ceremonial washing of the feet, providing a meal,

2

preparing a place for the guests to sleep. All the same things wed do if we knew someone was coming to stay for the weekend. Only these guests probably arrived unannounced...

Martha had lots to do.But her sister, Mary, was more intent on listening to Jesus. (v39)

39 [Martha] had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lords feet listening to what he said. (Luke 10:39)

This Mary is a bit of an enigma. We know Mary and Martha from Johns gospel. It was their brother, Lazarus, who was a friend of Jesus, and who died and Jesus brought him back to life after four days buried in a tomb. So its likely that Martha and Mary already knew Jesus before this visit.

Its also likely that Mary was one of the women who was traveling with Jesus, one of the women who helped to pay for the journey and the disciples upkeep from her own means.2 Certainly in this chapter Mary is portrayed as a disciple of Jesus disciples sat at the feet of the teacher, listening and learning.

Thats what we know about Mary. I said a moment ago shes a bit of an enigma. This Mary is one of several Marys who were in Jesus entourage at the time. Theres Mary Magdalene, who had seven demons cast out of her by Jesus. Then theres this Mary in our story who anoints Jesus with expensive perfume. Then theres another story of a woman anointing Jesus with expensive perfume, and she is a sinner. That has made many Christians think that perhaps this Mary is that sinful woman who was forgiven, and thats why she becomes a devoted follower of Jesus. People also speculate that this Mary is Mary Magdalene. Theyre all interesting theories, but the jurys still out on this one. If youre interested I can forward you some articles I read.

What we do know is that the Mary we meet here is a devoted follower of Jesus. She sits at Jesus feet ready to learn.

Not so Martha. (v40)

40 But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him [Jesus] and asked, Lord, dont you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me! (Luke 10:40)

I feel like Im treading into dangerous territory here because I know how much work it takes to run a household, and I am not a Martha by nature. Im perhaps more like Mary, if Mary sat at the feet of the television listening to what it says...

Put yourself in Marthas shoes. Martha is getting the house ready, shes cooking a meal for Jesus and however many friends he brought with him. Twelve perhaps? They didnt have running water, or gas

2 Luke 8:2-3

3

stoves back then. No dishwashers, or washing machines. This work all had to be done by hand. Laboriously. Slowly.

Even with modern amenities its still a huge amount of work that Martha had to contend with. And what is Mary doing? Shes in the other room, listening to Jesus.

I suspect there are a lot of you who know what its like to be working away in the kitchen, or cleaning, or looking after the kids while someone else seems to be sitting doing nothing. We get Martha, dont we? She has a right to be frustrated.

Lord, dont you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me! Lets press pause on the story for a moment.

Remember that our series is called Encounters With Jesus. Its all about what happened when people met Jesus, and how it changed their lives.

I wonder, if you had an encounter with Jesus, if you had the chance to meet Jesus, how would you see it unfolding? Would you want to run into Jesus in an elevator, like the way my wife met Ronald Reagan. Or would you want to meet Jesus at a fundraiser, where you maybe get to shake hands and get a photo opportunity. (Maybe hes signing copies of the New Testament ;-) Or perhaps it might be like when somebody famous is sitting at the next table to you at a restaurant. Is that how youd want to meet Jesus?

I was thinking about how Martha might describe her meeting with Jesus? I imagine her conversation with a friend.

Martha says, Oh yes, we hosted Jesus at our house. I cooked him my famous apple pie. The friend says, What was he like? What did he talk about?

Well, he loved the apple pie. But to be honest, we didnt talk much. There was so much to do, and I was in the kitchen, and I was running around getting everything ready, and then I had to clean up.

The friend looks puzzled. Hold on. Youre telling me you had Jesus in your house, this famous teacher sitting right at your dinner table, and you didnt even stop long enough to listen to him just for a minute? What were you thinking?

PAUSEThe answer is, Martha wasnt thinking, not about Jesus anyway. She was thinking about everything that

had to be done. V40 tells us she was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made.

I think many of us find ourselves in the exact same position as Martha. Distracted by all the things we have to do. Im in the middle of my working career right now, and there is always something else to be done. My daughter is in college, in her first year of Nursing School. She always has work that has to be

4

done, study, exams, work she does for church here. Some of you are working in incredibly demanding jobs right now, and there is always more to be done. And even those of you who have stopped working full-time, I know for some of you, your time is just as full as when you were working. There is always so much to do...

But in the middle of all that busy-ness, in the middle of all the appointments and assignments and arrangements, in the middle of all of lifes complexities, what will you do when Jesus comes knocking on your door?

Perhaps thats what hes doing today, this morning, right at this very moment. Jesus is here, and hes available, and he wants you to have an encounter with him. Not a handshake, not a photo opportunity. He wants a chance to sit down with you, and to hear from you. And he wants to speak words of guidance, and words of comfort, and words of forgiveness, words of transformation. Jesus wants you to have a lifechanging encounter with him today, and every day.

Listen to what Jesus says to Martha: (v41)

41 Martha, Martha, the Lord answered, you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but few things are neededor indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.

Jesus says that we can get so caught up in the details of life that we miss the most important one. There is only one thing that really matters, only one thing we really need in life.

And that is what Mary discovered. Mary sat at Jesus feet, despite everything that needed to be done. She understood that the other stuff can wait. The washing will always be there. The next task for work will always be there. Whatever it is that is taking up your time and attention, whatever it is that is distracting you, it will always be there, waiting.

But Jesus? He is here, right now. And he is speaking the same words to us that he spoke to Martha:

You are so busy. You are juggling so many things. But there is only one thing that really matters, one thing that will truly make sense of life, one thing that will keep you grounded in the middle of the whirlwinds of life. Its me, says Jesus.

Jesus himself knew what it was like to be busy. In the three years that he was on the road, preaching and teaching and healing, every day he had crowds following him, from morning to evening. People were always clamoring for his attention. (Young moms, you know that feeling, dont you!)

But even Jesus knew that he needed that time alone every day, to sit at his fathers feet. And so he would go to a quiet place, usually very early in the morning, and pray. It was how Jesus reconnected with God. Its how he listened to God. Its how Jesus found rest.

And when we make that same kind of time for Jesus, its how we will ultimately find our rest also. Jesus famously said:

5

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28)

When we make time for Jesus, it means we are doing the one thing that will make sense of everything else in life. He is the one who will restore our sense of balance. He is the one who will restore our sense of peace. He is the one who will restore our sense of self. Only Jesus can give you the true rest you have been longing for.

Hes here now, waiting for you to sit at his feet, wanting to speak words of peace and comfort and rest over you. And all you have to do is put down those other tasks, just for a moment, just for a time, just for long enough to hear him speak.

Why dont we pray for the courage to do that now?

6

Watch at: https://youtu.be/e5ST0rCtiO0 File Downloads: https://dq5pwpg1q8ru0.cloudfront.net/2022/05/17/21/20/41/80caf11b-29d4-4f76-891e-a624c56b01a0/05.08.22%20%20Sunday%20Sermon%20Transcript.pdf

When Jesus asks for a drink at a well, a Samaritan woman learns a lesson about the only water that can truly satisfy.

Encounters with Jesus3. What Truly Satisfies Dan Bidwell, Senior Pastor John 4:1-42 Sunday 1 May 2022

When one has a famishing thirst for happiness, one is apt to gulp down diversions wherever they are offered.

-- Alice Hegan RiceA minister decided that a visual demonstration would add emphasis to his Sunday sermon. He

lined up four jars in front of the pulpit, and he placed a worm into each container:

- He put the first worm was into a container of alcohol.

- He put the second worm into a container of cigarette smoke.

- The third worm went into a container of chocolate syrup.

- He gently placed the fourth worm into a container of good, clean soil.

At the conclusion of the sermon, the Minister reported the following results:

- The worm in alcohol - Dead.

- The worm in cigarette smoke - Dead.

- Third worm in chocolate syrup - Dead.

- Fourth worm in good clean soil - Alive.

So the Minister asked the congregation What can we learn from this demonstration?

A woman in the back quickly raised her hand and said, "As long as you drink, smoke or eat chocolate, you won't have worms!"

~

Our Bible passage today is not about worms or soil, but it is about the lessons we can learn from Jesus. Lessons about life and meaning and happiness. And well see that as we explore the story of one womans encounter with Jesus. For her, meeting Jesus changed everything she understood about finding satisfaction and fulfilment.

Why dont we pray that God will teach us the same lessons as we open his word now...

1

Our heavenly Father, thank you for the Bible, and for the record of Jesus words and teachings. Help us now to hear and understand your words to us in this Bible passage. May it not go over our heads, but into our hearts. In Jesus name we pray. Amen

Well, we are in the middle of our sermon series called Encounters with Jesus. It is all about people who met Jesus, and how they were changed by it.

Our encounter today starts with Jesus on a journey. Hes traveling from the south of Israel (Judea) back up north to his hometown of Galilee. Thats a 70 mile journey that Jesus would have undertaken at least once every year as he travelled from Galilee to Jerusalem for the festivals and back. This time he was leaving the south because of tension with the Jewish religious authorities Jesus was baptizing more people even than John the Baptist, and well, safe to say, Jesus decided it would be better to put some distance between himself and his critics.

Now the obvious route from Judea to Galilee is to go directly north. But there was a complication with that. Traveling directly north from Judea to Galilee meant going through Samaria. But Jews and Samaritans didnt get along. We know that from history, and we know it from this Bible passage in v9. In the brackets it says: Jews do not associate with Samaritans.

You see, Samaria had once been part of the promised land, and its people had been part of Gods Old Testament people. But that changed about 700 years before Christs birth, when the northern kingdom was invaded by the Assyrians, and most of its people were taken away into exile.

The way the Assyrians kept control over the lands they invaded was to take most of the native inhabitants away, and then replace them with people they had taken from other lands they had conquered. You can imagine how it worked. Samaria became this mish-mash of the cultures and religions of the people who were resettled there.

And that was the start of some very bad blood between the Jews and the Samaritans.

The animosity was so bad that many Jews would actually avoid Samaria altogether if they were travelling up north, by crossing the Jordan River and travelling through the eastern cities.

So keep that in the back of your mind as the story unfolds.

Jesus, he goes through Samaria. He had to, it says there in v4... (I wonder why? Perhaps well find the answer in the story.)

In v5, he arrives in Sychar, and he stops at Jacobs well. 2

This well had significance for the Jewish people Jacob was one of the patriarchs of the Jewish people. He had given this plot of land to his son Joseph, and Joseph ended up being buried there... So this well was a landmark for Jews a place to stop on the journey, to drink, and to remember the story of Jewish people and how the Lord had provided for them...

The Woman at the Well

Jesus is hot and tired and thirsty because it is the sixth hour midday. Hes probably been travelling since dawn about six hours. So he sits down by the well.

Soon a Samaritan woman comes to draw water. And Jesus says to her: Will you give me a drink.

To you and me, this scene looks likes two people at a well.

To the audience at the time, when they see Jesus with a woman at a well, it would have raised all kinds of questions.

First, theres an OT stereotype about men and women meeting at wells. It often leads to them getting married. Remember this was how Isaac found his wife in the Abraham story we just finished. And its also how Isaacs son Jacob found his wife at this very same well that Jesus is standing at...

So we wonder: is this going to end in marriage?

The second thing the original audience would have noticed is how this goes against social conventions.

In their culture at the time, men and women didnt talk to strangers of the opposite sex. They wouldnt even make eye contact. It wasnt the done thing. It was seen as improper, and inappropriate.

To make things worse, Jesus is all alone he has no chaperone. The disciples had gone to town to buy food (v8).

And the woman is all alone too. Normally the women would come together at dusk to get water. But this woman is here at midday, all alone, no other women are with her... Perhaps shes the sort of woman who meets unaccompanied men at the well. Or maybe theres another reason why shes not with the other women. Lets read on to find out.

Then theres the other problem we raised the ethnic tension between Jews and Samaritans (4:9).

3

The woman (v9) brings it up straight away.

"You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (John 4:9)

If this were a movie scene, wed certainly wonder what was about to happen... Are you ready to find out?PAUSEWell... they have a conversation... about water.

Living Water

She says (v9) How can you ask me for a drink? And Jesus says (v10):

"If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water." (John 4:10)

For a tired, thirsty guy, Jesus was a pretty clear thinker. (Im terrible when Im dehydrated!) Jesus turns the question back on the woman if you knew who I was, youd be asking me for a drink. And I would have given you living water...

Shes confused.

11 "Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? (John 9:11)

Shes thinking physical water. Living water is another way of saying spring water, water which bubbles up from underground, always fresh and cool, as opposed to stagnant water which sits on the surface getting fouled by birds and animals...

Jacobs well was a spring, a deep one. Apparently you can go there today and its still a hundred feet deep. It was a reliable source of water.

So the woman makes fun of Jesus (v12):

12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?"

She doesnt think Jesus can do better than the water from the well. But Jesus wasnt talking about physical water (v13):

4

13 Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life. (John 4:13-14)

Shes still thinking physical water:

"Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water."

A few years ago, Jo and I were in Tanzania, headed to the Serengeti for a safari. One of the stops on the itinerary was this incredible volcanic crater called Ngorogoro Crater. Its almost 12 miles wide, and 2000 feet deep. You drop into the crater and it is this lush paradise full of wildlife lions, zebra, wildebeest, black rhinos, and hippos. Its truly incredible when youre down in the floor of the crater, looking up at the walls.

Whats also amazing about Ngorogoro is that it is surrounded by a landscape that is a wasteland its this bone dry desert that looks like the surface of the moon, due to overgrazing by the cattle of the local tribesmen. Its this stark contrast dry, red dust giving away to the green undergrowth of the volcano...

Ngorogoro is very important to the tribesmen, because it is the water source for their cattle.

And so everyday, the tribesmen are allowed to walk their herds down into the crater to drink... Just for an hour at a time, and then they have to leave again.

Can you imagine for them, the idea of water that you could drink and never be thirsty again? Never again having to walk down the steep track for such a short drink...

Water is so crucial in a dry environment like Tanzania, and it was the same in Israel...

But Jesus wasnt talking about physical water, was he? The metaphor went straight over the Samaritan womans head. Jesus was talking about something spiritual, water to quench your souls thirst. A gift from God that satisfies your soul, because its the gift of eternal life (v14). Spiritual water that makes you alive spiritually.

We can ask God for all sorts of physical needs in our prayers. And thats OK. But Jesus reminds us here that there is more to life than the physical. You may not see God, but he is there. Filling Jacobs well with spring water, just like he has for 4000 years. But more importantly, filling souls with the living water of eternal life, as people hear and respond to Jesus. If you knew who he was, and if you knew the gift that this living water is, you would ask him and he would give you living water...

5

So I have to ask today, do you know Jesus as the giver of eternal life, the giver of living water, Jesus who quenches your souls thirst?

Do you know him?Because people drink at so many other wells and fountains, trying to find satisfaction.

- Fountain of wealth.o Promises so much, but costs you every waking moment to pursue it, and keeps

you awake at night worrying. And when do you get to enjoy it? However much

you have, you always want more. Wealth will never satisfy.

- Fountain of other peoples approval

o where you find your value and worth from people affirming your work or personality or your physique, your social media account... But you cant please everybody all the time. Trying to find your satisfaction from other peoples approval will always disappoint.

- There are other fountains that people are drinking from to try and find satisfaction and meaning

o the fountain of happiness o the fountain of healtho the fountain of youtho the fountain of sex...

- Theyre all fickle, theyre all elusive. They can never satisfy.

(v16) Jesus says to the woman, "Go, call your husband and come back."

Turns out she doesnt have a husband. Actually shes had 5 husbands and shes not married to the man shes with now. This is a woman with a thirst to be loved, but it never seems to work out...

Perhaps shes embarrassed. Perhaps she doesnt want to be caught out in the sin of adultery the Samaritans were religious, they followed part of the Jewish scriptures. She tries to keep it a secret, but Jesus knows all about her. Even though theyve never met.

Press pause on the story for a moment what do we expect to come next?

Judgment? Or moralising, at least? Surely Jesus will say something to her about the 5 husbands, if they were even husbands. Surely hell tell her to stop sinning.

But he doesnt.

6

Read all the way to the end of the chapter, he never judges her. Its perplexing. Its certainly unexpected...

Jesus says nothing, and actually the conversation switches to worship. She says to Jesus (v19),

19 "Sir, [...] I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem."

Maybe its just her way of changing the subject. Or maybe she wants to engage Jesus in a more spiritual conversation. But she says they have some things in common they both worship the same God, although the Samaritans worship in one place, where the Jews say that true worship can only happen in Jerusalem. That was one of the sticking points between Jews and Samaritans.

But Jesus says, actually, the time is coming when neither of those ways of worshiping will be relevant anymore. This mountain, that mountain, they wont matter. The Jerusalem temple, Jesus had already spoken of its destruction in ch2. The new way of worship, Jesus says in v23 and 24, is to worship the Father in spirit and in truth.

What did Jesus mean when he said: worship in the Spirit and in truth?

I did a google image search for this verse, and pretty much every internet picture with this verse on it had worship hands in the air. Clearly the internet thinks true worship is singing with your hands up...

But thats not what Jesus meant... See he says in v24 that God is spirit God doesnt have a physical body, hes a spiritual being rather than material. And so the material place of worship is irrelevant Jerusalem, Mount Gerizim, a cathedral, a chapel it doesnt matter. Worship is a matter of spirit.

Of course as we read on in John, Jesus will make this idea even clearer, when he says that he will give the gift of the Holy Spirit to believers. So that God dwells in us by faith. It means we can worship God wherever we are, from the heart, and not just when were in a certain place, or doing certain things. And so worship is not about music or liturgy or religious ceremonies, its about connecting with our Father through the Son in the power of the Holy Spirit. Spirit and truth.

And this woman by the well, she grasps the truth she tells Jesus that she is waiting for the Messiah or the Christ to explain it to her. And Jesus says I am he.

~

7

Some huge ideas there in the passage! Itd be easy for them to go over our heads. So I want to bring it down to earth to finish with two ideas.

I think there are two times in life when you dont want to meet Jesus.

The first time in life when you dont want to meet Jesus, its when youre caught out in sin like this woman... You might have something going on in your life right now, something hidden. And if it was exposed, it would be devastating. The last thing you want is for Jesus to do is tap you on the shoulder and say, I know everything...

PAUSE

Heres the thing. Jesus didnt respond to the woman with judgment, did he? Instead he responds with love, compassion, understanding, forgiveness.

And Jesus does that because he is his Fathers Son. Jesus is just like his heavenly Father. And God is loving, compassionate, merciful, forgiving.

In John 3:17 we read that God did not send Jesus into the world to condemn, but to save! God wants to save us! He wants to save you.

In the media at the moment, God is often painted as judgmental and hateful and immoral and unloving.

But here, God shows his true disposition towards people LOVE.

So you may not want to meet Jesus right now because of sin in your life. But this passage teaches us that this is exactly the time you need to meet Jesus. Because you are weighed down with sin, because you need Jesus for salvation. Because you are thirsty spiritually, needing relief. Only God can soothe your thirst with the cool water of forgiveness that wells up into eternal life.

What about the second time in life you dont want to meet Jesus? I think the second time in life you dont want to meet Jesus is when you dont feel thirsty...

Many of us dont feel thirsty.

We feel satisfied already with life, with family, with friends, with the comfort of church attendance, the rhythm of church life.

So satisfied, that maybe you dont really need God to quench your thirst anymore.

8

I say this very carefully, and with love, and because its a tendency even I could fall into. You see, Jesus says true worshippers will worship in spirit and in truth. And only you know if your worship is true.

But just say Im right, and somehow along the way Jesus has dropped out of the picture. Somehow God has shrunk and shrunk and shrunk out of your daily life so much that hes not really part of it, if youre honest with yourself.

Brother, sister, you might not want Jesus, but you need him. You might not want him standing over your shoulder, but if youre not worshipping Jesus then youre worshiping something else. Family, fitness, status, wealth, happiness, experiences. They cant save you. And they wont satisfy. Only Jesus can quench your souls thirst. Only Jesus can give you life to the full.

If you go to the very last chapter of the Bible, it closes with an image of heaven. And heaven is portrayed as this city, with the throne of God and the throne of Jesus at its center. And flowing out from the throne is the river of life. On either side of the river, the tree of life grows, bearing fruit all year round. Its an image of life, and abundance all because of that living water.

And in the midst of it, Jesus speaks. He says:

Let anyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who desires drink freely from the water of life. (Revelation 22:17 NLT)

Are you thirsty? Then come to Jesus, and encounter the living water for yourself... Lets pray

9

Watch at: https://youtu.be/yoJ_TCebHKk File Downloads: https://dq5pwpg1q8ru0.cloudfront.net/2022/05/15/15/36/25/0c0efeae-3fb9-428d-b239-3f841e995f91/05.01.22%20%20Sunday%20Sermon%20Transcript.pdf

Four different characters, four different personalities, four encounters with Jesus.

Encounters with Jesus2. Come and See Dan Bidwell, Senior Pastor

John 1:35-51

Some people seemed to get all sunshine, and some all shadows.

Does anybody know where that quote is from?

Sunday 24 April 2022

It is from Little Women, Louisa May Alcotts classic coming-of-age novel written in 1868. Little Women is story of four sisters and their passage into adulthood. Theres Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy.

- Meg is the oldest, and the prettiest, but she is also the sister who embodies their societys expectation for women at the time to be married and settle down with family. She is the perfect little woman

- Jo, the second eldest, is the complete opposite. A tomboy, fiercely passionate, she wants to be a writer and have adventures, rather than be conformed to a stereotype for women. Jos character is ahead of her time, as she leads her sisters in female empowerment, which I think is partly why the book still has so much appeal today. Little Women is relatable even 150 years on...

- The youngest sister, Amy, is artistic but spoiled, although she grows out of that in time.

- Lastly, there is Beth, the number three child. The shy sister, the quietly wise sister, the

peacemaker of the family, and the one who will definitely have made you cry, if you know the novel or the film.

Four sisters, four different personalities, all bound together in an incredible piece of storytelling.

Well, our Bible passage today is all about four different personalities, four characters all bound together not by family, but through an encounter with Jesus. I think its some incredible storytelling, and its the beginning of an even more amazing story that well follow in weeks to come.

So why dont we pray and ask God to open that story up for us this morning.

Our dear heavenly Father, as we read your word this morning, will you transport us into the story. Will you help us imagine an encounter with Jesus, and would you make that real for us today. In Jesus name we pray. Amen

Well, we are in week 2 of our new sermon series called Encounters with Jesus. Its all about people who met Jesus, and how they were changed by it. And todays passage takes us right back to the very first moments of Jesus public ministry.

1

A super brief history of Jesus life up to this point: Jesus is 30 years old, give or take, hes spent his life as a carpenter in a small town. This is kind of surprising given the hype around his miraculous birth, to a virgin mother, with the angels and the wise men. We dont know much about his childhood, except for the glimpse that Luke gives us of Jesus as a 12 year old, in the temple, asking questions of the rabbis, and leaving people amazed with his understanding. But apart from that, Jesus grows up largely under the radar.

Until the day before our passage here, when Jesus is baptized by John the Baptist, and the Holy Spirit descends on him like a dove, and Gods voice speaks to him from heaven saying: This is my Son, whom I love. That is Gods public announcement to Jesus that the time had come to reveal him as the Chosen One.

And so our passage opens with the very first encounter that anyone has with Jesus after his baptism. The first recorded encounter. And it happens to two disciples of John the Baptist. In those days, disciples would follow after a teacher, they would learn from him and emulate his lifestyle. Disciples were students, I guess you could say, students dedicated to a masters teaching.

The two characters we meet are disciples of John. They had been listening to Johns teaching about the Chosen One, and they were waiting for the Chosen One to be revealed. Look at what happens when John points to Jesus: (v35)

35 The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. 36 When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, Look, the Lamb of God! (John 1:35-36)

Lamb of God thats like a codeword for the Chosen One. Its a reference to an Old Testament prophecy. The disciples know exactly what it means. So they turn their attention away from John, towards Jesus. (v37)

37 When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus.Remember we are thinking about encounters with Jesus. I want you to look at v37 quickly for

me, because something absolutely remarkable happens in it. Do you see it?

These two disciples of John the Baptist, who had dedicated themselves to following John, all of a sudden turn to follow Jesus instead. Isnt that remarkable? Jesus hasnt said a word, but on the strength of their masters recommendation, they change the course of their life.

Maybe Im overstating it, but they give Jesus a chance, based on the word of someone they trust. I wonder if your friends or family might be willing to give Jesus a chance, purely on the basis of a word from you?

2

Im going to say more about that in a moment. Come back to v38 with me, because Jesus speaks the first words that we have recorded from his public ministry. Jesus turns around, and sees the two disciples following him, and he asks:

What do you want?

When I was a kid, I remember going to a stage play that was an adaptation of a popular childrens book called Hating Alison Ashley. Its about the experience of a junior high girl who is overshadowed by the very beautiful and very clever Alison Ashley. Something embarrassing happens on school camp, and the main character had this line where she said: I wish I could die. Anyway the actor played with the line so that it emphasized different words:I wish I could die. I wish I could die. I wish I could die...

Jesus says this line to the disciples a bit like that: What do you want? Its not dismissive, like: What do you want...

No, its an invitation. Its this open ended question that invites you to consider what you really want.

What do you want? What are you seeking? What is it that you are looking for, in life? What do you truly want?

These are the first words of Jesus. Its no surprise that John remembers them we assume he was one of the two people at the heart of this story. John remembers what it was like when he first met Jesus, when Jesus looked him in the eye and asked what he was looking for.

What are you looking for? What brought you to church this morning? Or what prompted you to log on and watch online?

You see, Jesus is asking us the same question. What are you looking for, deep down? What are you hoping Jesus can bring to your life?

Ive been a Christian for 30 years now, and this question hit me hard this week. What am I looking for in Jesus? If youre somebody who journals, this would be a great question to work through, to pray about, a great question to discuss in your Small Group, or at Alpha.

PAUSE

The disciples dont give us a deep answer. Instead they ask where Jesus is staying. Thats part of following a travelling teacher, I guess.

But Jesus answers them with another invitation, another deliberately provocative message (v39)

3

They said, Rabbi (which means Teacher), where are you staying? 39 Come, he replied, and you will see. (John 1:38-39)

Come, and you will see...

Is anybody else here a visual learner? I want to describe to you a game that Ive started to play here in town. Its called Pickleball. Id never heard of pickleball before I moved to the States, and I have a feeling lots of you have never heard of it before either. Which is why I hope it works as an illustration.

If you dont know what pickleball is, its kind of like playing tennis on a miniature tennis court, only you use a paddle thats like a table tennis paddle but larger, and the ball is a plastic ball with holes in it, like a whiffle ball. Is your imagination running wild? Go home and google it, and youll see exactly what Im talking about. Or come down to the courts on Oak Circle and see it in person. Itll make perfect sense, and you might even be tempted to give it a try!

There is something about seeing it in person that makes all the difference. Jesus invites the new disciples to come and see where he is going, to come and see what he might do. Come and see and give Jesus a chance to show you what happens when you are following the Chosen One.

Come, and you will see, Jesus says to us, just like he said to the men in v39...

Andrew

Well I promised that we would see four encounters with Jesus, four different characters who all meet Jesus in different ways.

And one of them weve already met. Look at v40 with me.

40 Andrew, Simon Peters brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. (John 1:40)

Andrew is one of the two people from the encounter we just read in v37. One of the first two people who became followers of Jesus. It was Andrew and another disciple who were the first to spend a day with Jesus, and who knows what Jesus talked to them about. Its not recorded here (although tradition has it that John, the writer of these words, was the other one present he just doesnt write himself into the story.)

But come back to Andrew. What a story he could have told. I was the first to follow Jesus. You can imagine the prowess in that, the prestige, the elevated status he might have claimed.

But look back at v40. How is Andrew introduced? He is Andrew, Simon Peters brother. 4

Is anybody else here the number two child in your family? I am. I have an older brother and two younger sisters. I feel like I spent my teenage years in my brothers shadow. Yes, he is my brother. Yes, sir, I have a lot to live up to.

Andrew is remembered as Simon Peters brother. The one whose brother became the most important apostle. In fact, Im not sure that I could have told you a few days ago which disciple was Simon Peters brother.

But we see in v41 the important role that Andrew had in the story of early church:41 The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, We have found

the Messiah (that is, the Christ). 42 And he brought him to Jesus. (John 1:41-42)

Andrew is the reason that Peter became a Christian. Andrews excitement to share the news with his brother had a major impact on the story of the church. Does Andrew demand to be in the spotlight? It doesnt seem so. Hes rarely mentioned in the rest of Johns gospel, but when he is mentioned, he is always bringing someone else to Jesus.1

Sometimes in church it can seem like the upfront roles are the most important, the glamourous positions, the ones that get all the glory. But Andrew reminds us that there is something very admirable about quietly and faithfully inviting people to come and see Jesus.

I personally ended up a Christian because of a quiet and faithful friend who invited me to church, week after week for almost a year. He was not an up-front guy. You probably wouldnt have noticed him at a party because he was so unassuming. But because of his faithful inviting, my 12th grade Bible Study group had to split up and form two groups because James had invited so many young men to come and meet Jesus.

Im praying for lots of Andrews at Yountville Community Church. Unassuming characters who are smitten by Jesus, and are excited to share him with everyone they meet...

Peter

The next encounter with Jesus is Andrews brother, Simon Peter.

John assumes that we know who Simon Peter is, like he needs no introduction. And thats because Simon Peter ends up becoming the lead disciple, Jesus closest friend and the one who ends up founding the church after Jesus returned to heaven. Peter is probably the most famous disciple of all, and this passage foreshadows his rise to that prominent position.

Read with me from v41: 1 John 6:8-9, John 12:22

5

41 The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, We have found the Messiah (that is, the Christ). 42 And he brought him to Jesus.Jesus looked at him and said, You are Simon son of John. You will be calledCephas (which, when translated, is Peter).

Jesus looks at Andrews brother, and gives him a new name. A new identity. No longer will he be Simon, son of John, the fisherman. From now on he is to be Peter.

Does anybody know what the name Peter means in Greek? Petros means the Rock.

Jesus says in Matthew 16 that Peter will be the rock on which he builds his church. Peter is given this cornerstone role, this weighty responsibility. The fisherman who would become a fisher of men...

The name that Jesus gives Peter, its all about potential, isnt it? Jesus sees Peter not as what he is, but as what he might become. And thats a powerful lesson about the way Jesus sees us.

The great sculptor Michelangelo famously said:

Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.

Jesus sees the statue inside the block of stone. He sees what we can become, and he will chip away at us until we become the masterpiece that he intended, if well let him.

I wonder if you were to meet Jesus today, like Simon met Jesus, I wonder what name he might give you? I wonder what potential he sees, that perhaps you dont see yourself?

The bravery to be like Andrew, the inviter? Or a foundation stone, like Peter? What if Jesus were to call you and use you in the next stage of your life in a way that you couldnt possibly have imagined? What might that even look like?

- Perhaps Jesus might call you from being a participant in Alpha, to a leader on our Alpha courses.

- Perhaps Jesus might take you from someone who has never prayed, to a person who joins a prayer team and prays for our church regularly.

- Perhaps you might have picked up the Bible for the first time in the last 6 months, but it has changed your life. Maybe Jesus is calling you to be a Bible teacher? Or more radical even a pastor, or a missionary.

Does it sound ridiculous? If youd asked me at 16 what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would have told you a lawyer. But Jesus has a way of chipping away at us to reveal the sculpture inside.

If you meet Jesus today, dont be surprised when he calls you into a very different life than you expected. You see, following Jesus is all about receiving a new identity, a new mission in life, a

6

new calling. Its the greatest adventure ever, and it starts with listening to Jesus call over your life.

Philip and Nathanael

The last two encounters with Jesus I just want to touch on briefly. Its the encounters that Philip and Nathanael have with Jesus.

Philip is one of the disciples that we hear the least about. In fact, this is probably his starring moment in the New Testament. Look at how Philip ends up as a disciple (v43):

43 The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, Follow me. (John 1:43)

Philip doesnt find Jesus. Jesus finds Philip. And Jesus says to him: Follow me.

I wonder if some of you who are listening today are a bit like Philip. Perhaps youre not sure why you came to church today. Perhaps youre not sure about this whole Christianity thing. What do you think Jesus would say to you if he were here right now?

I think he would say what he said to Philip: Follow me. No ifs, no buts, just follow me.

I love Philip, because he is everything I wasnt. He heard Jesus voice, and he followed. That simple.

I pray that some of you are having a Philip moment right now that Jesus is speaking to your heart and youre deciding here and now to follow him. Perhaps thats you right now? Praise God, and hang on to that feeling. Dont let it go. Were going to say a prayer together in a moment.

There is one more character who encounters Jesus. Nathanael. We only read the first part of Nathanaels encounter with Jesus, which is when he scoffed at his friend Philip. (BTW how brave is Philip Jesus calls Philip to follow him, and right away Philip goes and finds Nathanael to tell him about Jesus. Amazing!)

But look at what Nathanael says to Philip (v45)

45 Philip found Nathanael and told him, We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wroteJesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.46 Nazareth! Can anything good come from there? Nathanael asked. (John 1:45-46)

Nathanael dismisses the whole idea of Jesus because he is from Nazareth. A cultural backwater. Can anything good come from there, he scoffs?

7

Its interesting telling people that Im a pastor. I often get the Nathanael treatment. As if I must be completely naïve to believe in Jesus. Or that I cant be terribly intelligent, because everybody knows that Jesus isnt real. Ive received some pretty contemptuous comments.

Thats Nathanaels go-to attitude about Jesus contempt. And well meet plenty of people with that same attitude to Jesus.

But I love Philips response to Nathanael... Its there in v46:

Nazareth! Can anything good come from there? Nathanael asked. Come and see, said Philip. (John 1:46)

Philip doesnt argue, he just invites Nathanael to see for himself. One of the things I love about Alpha is that it starts with the assumption that lots of people have doubts about Jesus. They are skeptical about who he is. And so Alpha encourages participants to share those attitudes. We dont shy away from them, we have the conversation. Because for many, when they come and see Jesus for themselves, those pre-formed attitudes often melt away as they come face to face with Jesus.

Which is what happened for Nathanael. We dont have time to go into the details, but Nathanael meets Jesus and Jesus speaks a word of truth into Nathanaels life that convinces him Jesus is the real deal. Then Jesus tells him you havent seen anything yet...

You might be feeling a bit like Nathanael this morning. If thats you, can I encourage you to take a chance, to come and see, to come and meet Jesus and see if there might be more to him than you thought. Alpha might be the place to start. Wed love to see you there. Or maybe its just committing to come to church over the next 8 weeks, as we look at these Encounters with Jesus.

Because we want everybody here to have their own encounter with Jesus. Is that something youre willing to do?

Lets pray.

8

Watch at: https://youtu.be/Av8ZF7IgfR4 File Downloads: https://dq5pwpg1q8ru0.cloudfront.net/2022/05/01/22/23/48/42bf7bfd-90ac-4e3f-8628-1d105b673678/04.24.22%20%20Sunday%20Sermon%20Transcript.pdf

In this first 'encounter with Jesus', Mary Magdalen encounters the possibility of life beyond death.

Encounters with Jesus1. The Empty Tomb Dan Bidwell, Senior Pastor

John 20:11-18 Easter Sunday 17 April 2022

Did you ever have a chance meeting with someone famous? (It gives you a good story to tell at dinner parties).

When my wife Jo was 8 or 9 years old in Hawaii, she rode in an elevator with Ronald Reagan (and his security detail). All she remembers is lots of large men in dark suits, and guns, and it was very exciting! (Mid 80s he was the President. I cant imagine that happening these days!)

Sometimes we meet a person and it changes the course of your life...

For the next 8 weeks, well be looking at stories of people who got to meet perhaps the most famous person to ever live. Its a series all about people who met Jesus, and how they were changed by it. Were calling it: Encounters with Jesus. And I hope over the next 8 weeks, we all get to encounter Jesus in ways that we havent encountered him before. Im praying that well be changed from our encounters with Jesus as well.

So why dont we pray that we would encounter Jesus as we begin our new Bible series.

Heavenly Father, as we open your Bible today, help us to have a fresh encounter with Jesus. Help us to see him in new ways, to meet him in new ways, and to trust him in a way that changes everything. Father, help us to encounter Jesus, in whose name we pray. Amen

Well it is Easter and Easter holds a special place in my heart. Easter was one of the first significant moments that got me thinking seriously about the place of religion in my life. I didnt grow up in a religious/Christian household. We went to church a few times when I was really young, but that had dropped off completely during elementary school maybe because we had moved from one side of Australia to the other...

But right when I finished elementary school, our family moved back to Sydney. We drove all the way back across Australia (same distance from NY to LA) and on the very last night of our trip we stayed with friends of my parents in a little country town called Gundagai.

I remember it distinctly, because when we arrived at the peoples house, one of the daughters of that family (who was my age) wasnt there to greet us. The reason: she had gone to an Easter service at her church.

I remember asking: Why would she want to go to church? The mom said: Because its important to her.

1

I dont remember anything else about that day, I dont remember anything about the daughter. But that conversation has stuck with me for more than 35 years. I was just intrigued that a person my age would choose to go to church (or any person, for that matter). I didnt understand how Jesus could be that important in their life.

Then 3 or 4 years later, I had my own encounter with Jesus, and all of a sudden it made sense. Just like it did to the character in our Bible passage today.

A Tragic Scene

Our Bible passage opens on a tragic scene. A woman standing outside a tomb, crying.

In verse 11 here, she is just called Mary. But if we go back a few verses, the gospel writer John identifies her as Mary Magdalene (and he will again in v18).

Mary Magdalene had been one of Jesus followers. Luke tells us that she had been demon possessed: seven demons had come out of her (Luke 8:2). Matthew, Mark and John all name Mary Magdalene as one of the women who watched as Jesus was crucified.

Other than that, we dont know much about Mary Magdelene. But this passage opens with Mary in the spotlight. Weeping in front of the tomb of Jesus.

Now its Easter Sunday, and so its no spoiler to tell you about the story leading up to the events of this passage.

Jesus had spent the last three years travelling throughout Israel, teaching about the kingdom of God, healing the sick, casting out demons just like he had with Mary Magdalene. Jesus had gathered huge crowds, eager to hear him speak, eager to see him perform miracles, eager to listen to his new take on their old religion. Jesus had captured the attention of a nation, and the world was abuzz with talk of what he might do if he really was the Messiah, the long-awaited King who would save Gods people...

But not everybody loved Jesus. He taught with an authority that challenged the religious establishment. And so those religious rulers plotted to have Jesus killed.

They arrested Jesus, and hauled him before a religious council on charges of blasphemy. He was beaten, mocked, and then handed over to the Roman authorities. The Roman governor Pontius Pilate could find no charge against Jesus, but the crowds kept crying out: Crucify, crucify him!

So Pilate gave in to the will of the crowd. He ordered the execution of Jesus by crucifixion. And just like that, the life of Jesus was ended. His body was laid in a tomb, and a stone was rolled over the entrance.

2

That had taken place on a Friday, the day before the Sabbath. Our passage opens on Sunday morning, when Mary Magdalene had woken up while it was still dark, to go to the tomb and anoint Jesus body with spices. To prepare him for the grave.

But when she arrived, she saw that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. She ran back to find the other disciples. She found Peter, and John (the one writing our passage), and she tells them:

They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we dont know where they have put him! (John 20:2)

Peter and John run to the tomb, and they look inside and all they see are the strips of linen that would have been wrapped around Jesus body. And then theyre gone, leaving Mary crying outside the tomb.

One of the harder parts of my job as a pastor is taking funerals. Actually, the funeral is not usually the hard part, its sitting with family members in their moment of loss. Helping them process the death of a loved one, and the sadness of losing someone. Ive stood at the graveside and watched men and women cry, just like Mary stood outside the tomb of Jesus, devastated and distraught.

Death is an unwelcome part of life, this side of heaven. Sadly its something we all learn, the longer we walk through life.

PAUSE

A Logical Response

But Easter Sunday is a story that turns our expectations about death upside down...

11 Mary was standing outside the tomb crying, and as she wept, she stooped and looked in. 12 She saw two white-robed angels, one sitting at the head and the other at the foot of the place where the body of Jesus had been lying. 13 Dear woman, why are you crying? the angels asked her.

Because they have taken away my Lord, she replied, and I dont know where they have put him. (John 20:11-13)

I love Marys response at this point. Everywhere else in the Bible when angels appear, people are terrified. But not Mary. When the angels ask her why she is crying, she says just what she told the other disciples. Mary is upset because, as far as she could logically discern, somebody had taken away the body of Jesus.

And that is the logical conclusion, right, if Jesus body was no longer in the tomb. The logical conclusion is that somebody had taken it. But who?

3

If the religious leaders or the Roman authorities wanted to dispel the rumours of Jesus resurrection, then they could have held onto his body, then produced it as evidence if Jesus disciples wanted to claim otherwise. And that was the plan. Pontius Pilate had posted a Roman guard in front of the tomb.1 That soldiers job was to guard the tomb at all costs. In fact, he would have been executed himself if he failed to secure the tomb.

But when Mary arrives, there is no guard at the tomb, just the stone rolled away. And so her logical conclusion is that the authorities had removed his body.

[BTW no body was ever produced, so it doesnt make logical sense to argue that the government had taken Jesus. They could have shut Christianity down in a flash by showing that Jesus was still dead... You might argue that the disciples took the body, but the guard was posted there to stop them, and it is highly unlikely that a group of fishermen could overpower a Roman guard and abscond with a body without anybody finding out. It would take a lot of faith to believe that version of events...]

There is another logical conclusion we have to draw as we look into this scene. Its that Mary wasnt expecting a resurrection. She was expecting to find a dead body.

Even when the two angels ask her why she was crying, shes still looking for the body. Thats when a new character appears. Verse 14:

14 She turned to leave and saw someone standing there. It was Jesus, but she didnt recognize him. 15 Dear woman, why are you crying? Jesus asked her. Who are you looking for? (John 20:14-15)

Its a delicious moment, isnt it? How can she not recognize Jesus? After all, she had followed him for so long, shed been there at his death, and the moment he was laid in the tomb. Surely of all people, Mary would recognize Jesus?

But she doesnt. She mistakes him for the gardener. She says to him:

Sir, if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and get him. (John 20:15)

Mary is still looking for a body. Because who could possibly believe that a dead person might somehow come back to life? It doesnt make logical sense. Thats not how our universe works. Dead people stay dead.

1 Matthew 27:62-66

4

Do you know, Jesus had told his followers that he would be killed, and that on the third day he would rise again. Even the religious rulers, Jesus enemies, had heard him say it. Thats why they had the guard put on the tomb. But they didnt think it would happen. And looking at Mary Magdalene here, it seems like she didnt think it would happen either. Nobody expected Jesus to be raised from the dead...

Which is actually quite illogical, because if anyone could defy death, it was Jesus. Mary and the disciples had seen Jesus perform all manner of healings, and even bringing the dead back to life both Lazarus, and a little girl. Why would they doubt what Jesus had said, when he had proved his ability on multiple occasions?

Well, Mary looks right at Jesus and she doesnt recognize him. The evidence is literally staring her in the face, and she cant see it. It doesnt even occur to her that Jesus could be alive.

This little interaction teaches us a deep truth about humanity. Pastor Tim Keller puts it like this:

in every human being [there is] an inherent spiritual blindness. We cant see the truth. [...] Faith is impossible without supernatural intervention by God himself. Timothy Keller2

I got my first pair of glasses a few years ago. The joys of turning 40. Ive always prided myself on my excellent vision, especially my long-sightedness. I can always read the bottom line of the eye testing chart, and, well thats probably all its useful for. But I remember when I got fitted for the prescription, the doctor asked me to look across to the other side of the mall, and then to try it again with the glasses on. I thought I had excellent long vision, but with those glasses on I was like Superman! I could see everything so clearly!

And thats what this passage teaches us. We might think we see the world clearly, but when Jesus opens our eyes, all of a sudden we see the world with a clarity we could never have imagined. It takes the supernatural intervention of God to open our eyes, and thats exactly what happens in our Bible passage today. Jesus intervenes.

With just one word, Jesus removes Marys spiritual blindness. Verse 16:

16 Mary! Jesus said.She turned to him and cried out, Rabboni! (which is Hebrew for Teacher).

One word. Mary hears Jesus voice and the blinders are removed. Jesus speaks, and Marys reality is changed forever.

I often wonder what it would have been like to be Mary. To see the resurrected Jesus in the flesh, to see him alive after she had seen him die. We have to imagine that possibility, but Mary

2 Timothy Keller, Encounters with Jesus, 85.

5

got to see it with her own eyes. She got to hold onto Jesus, to touch him, to hug him. This isnt a spiritual reunion of disembodied souls. This is genuine life beyond the grave. Physical, flesh and blood, life that exists even after our mortal bodies have been buried in the earth. This is a foretaste of the eternal life that the Bible promises.

One word, and Marys reality is changed forever.

What word would Jesus need to speak to you for the blinders to come off? What would it take to believe in the possibility of the resurrection? What word could change your reality forever?

Im kind of envious of Mary. When I first encountered Jesus, at youth group when I was 16, I didnt have an instantaneous life-changing moment like Mary Magdalene. It was a slower process, where I kept going along, and hearing more, and asking questions, until the day when I was praying and an old friend said: Youre praying! Youve become a Christian! That was my dramatic conversion story. It just sort of happened over a number of months. All of a sudden the world didnt make sense without Jesus. Its like his voice had opened my eyes for the first time.

And when we look at the disciples, even the ones who saw the resurrected Jesus in the flesh, it sometimes took multiple appearances before they believed. Just in John chapter 20, Jesus appears to John, Peter, Mary and Thomas, and they are all different, they all require different amounts of time and evidence before they believe.

That means if youre not quite convinced just yet, keep at it. Keep seeking encounters with Jesus, keep seeking evidence, keep asking Jesus to intervene and open your eyes. Because he will...

Jesus said:

7 Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. (Matthew 7:7)

The resurrection is one of the most exciting ideas in the Bible. But its more than an idea, its a reality. The resurrection of Jesus shows us that there is hope of life beyond the grave, hope of life without end, the hope of life forever. Because one day, well wake up from the grave when Jesus speaks our name. And on that day, it will all become clear...

Will you pray with me?

6

Watch at: https://youtu.be/2ioZnHVmxjs File Downloads: https://dq5pwpg1q8ru0.cloudfront.net/2022/05/02/07/46/50/ed06ced2-df8e-4c65-a668-f05b31077417/04.17.22%20Easter%20Sunday%20Sermon%20Transcript.pdf

When we go to the Garden of Gethsemane, we see the cross through the eyes of Jesus, and we glimpse the plan of God beginning to be revealed. We get an insight into the very character of God, his love and justice working together in a real and powerfully emotional way. And we see ourselves reflected in the weakness of the disciples. In this week before Easter, allow Jesus to show you his love in the Garden and the Cross.

The Garden and the Cross

Mark 14:32-42

A few years ago, my wife Jo decided she was going to get a tattoo. I reckon there are three types of people

Dan Bidwell, Senior Pastor 10 April 2022

People who disapprove of tattoos

People who love tattoos

People like me I love tattoos but not brave enough to choose a tattoo that Id want

forever. I have a friend who has tattoos all over his body, and he says its like he gets to wear his favorite t-shirt every day. Me, Ive had lots of favorite t-shirts over the years... ITs a recipe for disaster.

Come back to Jos tattoo.

She just wanted a simple cross.

Something to remind her of Jesus and to represent the truth thats at the center of her life.

Thats why we have the cross here in church to remind us of Jesus and the truth that is at the center of everything we do here.

So what do you see when you look at the cross?

Because I think it is possible to stand back from the cross, at some distance. We can look up at Jesus hanging there, hands pierced, head tilted in exhaustion, crown of thorns on his head, blood running down his face. We can look up at Jesus hanging there, and yet somehow, it is possible to distance ourselves from his death. It is possible to distance ourselves from the pain, the anguish, the mockery that Jesus endured. We can look up at Jesus hanging there and... feel nothing. It can wash right over us. We can look on unchanged. And we can go about our lives as if this [historical] event had no bearing on our existence whatsoever.

It is possible to be indifferent about the death of Jesus Christ on a Roman cross 2000 years ago, even at Easter time, even as we sit in church, even as we sing and pray and hear about the sacrificial death of Jesus on our behalf. It is possible. I know, because sometimes, that is how I feel when I look at the cross, when I hear about the death of Jesus, and even when I talk about it to others. None of us are immune.

BUT to look up at Jesus hanging on the cross, and to respond with indifference, is to miss the enormity of what God accomplished that day, and how it changed the future for all people forever. To look up at Jesus with indifference is to miss Gods most beautiful expression of his

1

love for all people, and the lengths he would go to call us back to him. To look up at Jesus with indifference is to stare into the very face of God, then turn away with contempt...

This morning I invite you, then, to lift your gaze, to look up at the cross of Jesus.

And to see clearly what God accomplished that day 2000 years ago.

To see Gods love expressed in action.

And to make a response to what you have seen...

Will you pray with me that God will give us clear vision and changed hearts this morning?

Dear Heavenly Father, help us to look upon the crucified Jesus this morning, and see the depth of your love for humanity shown there. Help us to be changed by what we see today, for Jesus sake. Amen

One of the hard things when we look up at the cross, is that we see it through eyes which have seen the image of the crucifix a thousand times before. We see it through eyes which have been conditioned to think about that event in a certain way. We see it through eyes which are skeptical, through eyes which believe only what they see, and even then not always. We see the cross from a distance: through words on a page, through 2000 years of history, through the eyes of the storytellers of the Bible. We do not often come close to the man, Jesus, as he hangs dying: instead we keep a safe distance.

When we go to the Garden of Gethsemane, however, Mark the gospel writer invites us to come close to Jesus, to listen over his shoulder, to share in his grief as he pours out his soul to his Father. When we go to the Garden of Gethsemane, we see the cross through the eyes of Jesus, and we glimpse the plan of God beginning to be revealed. When we go to the Garden of Gethsemane we get an insight into the very character of God, his love and justice working together in a real and powerfully emotional way. And when we go to Gethsemane, we see ourselves reflected in the weakness of the disciples.

So lets go, then, to Gethsemane, to Mark 14.

Jesus had just finished the last meal he would have with his friends, the disciples, before he would fulfil his destiny, a destiny he knew all too well. Jesus was going to die.

He had tried to tell the disciples what was about to happen he had told them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected, and be killed and on the third day be raised to life. (8:31) But they hadnt understood.

Jesus had already alluded to his death on a cross, calling his followers to lose their life for him, and take up their cross daily. (8:34-5)

Finally at the last supper, Jesus had told the disciples that he would drink no more wine until he would drink it with them in his Fathers kingdom, in heaven.

2

Jesus knew he was going to die.

So how would Jesus act, knowing that all this would happen to him? Would he lift up his chin and turn bravely to face the foe? And being God in human flesh, would he laugh in the face of death?

Look at the passage with me, at v. 33.

[Jesus] began to be deeply distressed and troubled. [He told them,] My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.

Jesus was overcome with grief. Mark uses three different words to describe the emotion that he saw in Jesus. Deeply distressed. Troubled. Overwhelmed with sorrow. He has to use three different words because there is no single word to capture fully the turmoil racking Jesus soul.

I imagine many of us have at least some small insight into the pain Jesus felt that day, overwhelming sorrow to the point of death.

For me, it was the day I was away from school sick, and my mother came home from the doctors crying. She told me, Ive got cancer and Ill be dead by Christmas. Those were her exact words.

I had to wait with my mom for an hour until my dad arrived home. Trying to comfort her and be strong on the outside, while on the inside, I was thinking my mum is going to die, and theres nothing I can do. The feeling of grief was overwhelming...

(That story has a surprise ending that day was 30 years ago, and my mom is still with us. But that feeling of grief, I havent forgotten that.)

My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death, [Jesus] said to them.

And in his grief, Jesus could only fall to the ground and pray to his Father in heaven.Mark 14:35 Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour

might pass from him.

What was the hour that Jesus hoped might pass from him? Was it the last, agonizing moments waiting in the garden as he waited for his betrayers to come and arrest him? Was Jesus fearful of the scourging that would come at his trial in just a few short hours? Was Jesus hoping that he might be spared the torture of crucifixion, where his hands and feet would be nailed to a wooden cross and he would hang until his muscles would no longer support his weight, and he would die of asphyxiation?

Perhaps. But it seems Jesus would suffer an even greater pain than these.At verse 36, Abba, Father, he said, Everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me.

3

What was this cup that Jesus wanted God to take away? Jesus knew that he must drink the cup of death. But far more overwhelming, was the knowledge that Jesus would take in his body the punishment for every sin ever committed, for my sin and yours. Jesus would drink the cup of Gods wrath to the very dregs...

What did God accomplish that day? Satisfaction for sins

When we look up at the cross, if we are to see it properly through Jesus eyes, we must understand what it was that God accomplished that day. At the cross, God dealt with humankinds greatest problem our distance from him.

At the cross, when Jesus died, he took the punishment we rightly deserve for rejecting God: the punishment we deserve for looking at the face of God and then ignoring him, for seeing the cross and feeling nothing.

When Jesus died, God poured out all his righteous judgment which should have been directed at us, into Jesus body as he hung there. And Jesus, who never sinned, who never ignored God, who never distanced himself from God, Jesus drank the cup of Gods wrath so that you and I might not die that same death, under Gods judgment. Jesus drank the cup of Gods wrath so that we might have our sins forgiven, and once more be able to come close to God without sin to separate us.

Jesus was prepared to drink that cup to the very dregs, for you, for me.Jesus was prepared to give up his own life so that you and I might enjoy the eternal life with

God that he created us to enjoy...What does the cross show us about the character of God? Justice and

mercy in love

And yet there is also a tension in what we see on the cross. Jesus was prepared to bear the punishment for all human sinfulness. But you and I know that not all people will look to Jesus for the forgiveness of sins. Many will see his body hanging there, and yet continue to ignore him. Jesus was prepared to go to any lengths to bring people back to God: he would endure beatings and floggings, crucifixion, he would drink the cup of Gods wrath. Yet many will still ignore Jesus and the hope that he offers.

Back in the Garden of Gethsemane, we see this aspect of the cross through Jesus eyes also. Jesus, who is God clothed in human flesh, will love and love and love humanity even to his own death. Gods great love will be displayed like never before in all of history. And still many will look once and turn away.

4

Surely some of the sorrow that Jesus feels in the Garden of Gethsemane must be for those who will continue to reject him, despite what he would do for them. Surely some of the sorrow that Jesus feels must be for sinful humanity. For people who have wandered so far from the God who loves them, and seeks after them, the God who will give his own life for them.

Despite this sorrow, Jesus was prepared to go to the cross, because it was the only way that God could reconcile sinful humanity to himself. The cross was the only way God could satisfy his need for justice, and yet show the depth of his mercy in love to a people far away from him.

Jesus knew that there was no other way. At v. 36 Yet not what I will, but what you will. Jesus would follow the path his heavenly Father set out before him, the suffering, the rejection and death on a cross, because it was the Fathers will for him. Jesus trusted in Gods goodness, his mercy, his love, and his justice.

And Jesus trusted in God because Jesus himself was God, clothed in human flesh. That means God would take the punishment for human sinfulness into himself [somehow] through Jesus, so that humanity might no longer be estranged to God through sin, but instead be reconciled to him in the body and blood of Jesus.

This reconciliation, this coming close to God, is what we Christians celebrate at Easter. And it is why we call the day of Jesus crucifixion Good Friday. Instead of representing a travesty of justice, a horrific crime, the murder of innocence, what we see in the cross is Gods most beautiful expression of his love for all people. Jesus death brings us life.

Yes, the cross is bittersweet Gods love is tempered by the sorrow of the moment when Jesus dies. And yet in the midst of this sorrow, there is great joy as God welcomes his lost children home.

How ought we respond? See the face of God and come close

When we look up at the cross, then, this Easter, how ought we respond?One last time I would like us to look back into the garden of Gethsemane, and this time to look at the disciples who were with Jesus that night. Look back at them, because in their frailty they give us great hope.

While Jesus was pouring out his anguish to God in prayer, the disciples could not keep their eyes open. At v. 37, [Jesus] returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. "Simon," he said to Peter, "are you asleep? Couldnt you keep watch for one hour? 38 Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak."

The disciples might have been willing to watch and pray, but we see that even the disciples fell into temptation. The rocky ground was no match for their tired eyes, and twice more Jesus returned to find them asleep.

5

What gives us hope is that the disciples seem to fail Jesus at so many points along the way, and yet Jesus stays with them: he loves them; he gives them chance after chance. He forgives them. Jesus knows that their spirit is willing to follow him, but their flesh is weak.

Jesus had told his followers to keep watch for the hour of his return (13:32) but they could not keep watch even one hour in the garden. Despite all their promises to follow Jesus, within hours the disciples would all desert Jesus after his arrest. Peter would deny Jesus 3 times before dawn the next day, just as Jesus had predicted.

And it is the same with us. I confessed earlier that sometimes the precious Easter message of Jesus just doesnt hit me like it should. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. Despite our best efforts, all our promises to follow Jesus, at times we all desert him. At times we all downplay our relationship with Jesus when it is inconvenient, when it is awkward, when it is dangerous.

It is not a good thing that we fail Jesus, but Jesus knows about our weakness. If our bodies were able to obey God just as Jesus did, perfectly and without mistake, then Jesus would not have needed to die on our behalf. But none of us by our own efforts can come close to God, because on our own we are simply too far away from him. None of us by our own efforts can follow Jesus without sometimes stumbling, because on our own our flesh is too weak.

But God has not left us alone. He sent Jesus into the world to live the way we could not, to die on the cross in a way we could not, so that we might have a hope for the future that we otherwise could not.

How ought we respond when we see Jesus on the cross? We ought to lift our gaze and look into his beautiful face, and thank God that Jesus hung there in our place. And we ought to come close to Jesus, come close to God, not just now at Easter, not just on Sundays, but everyday of our lives, knowing that only here in the cross do we truly live.

Will you pray with me?

6

Watch at: https://youtu.be/BCADtbIcoLQ File Downloads: https://dq5pwpg1q8ru0.cloudfront.net/2022/04/21/03/01/26/66cfa609-1d37-4be8-9201-9bb74bf73cac/04.10.22%20Palm%20Sunday%20Sermon%20Transcript.pdf

Join us as we share our vision for Yountville Community Church in 2022 and beyond.

Vision Sunday 2022A Fruitful Vineyard Dan Bidwell, Senior Pastor

Psalm 80:7-11; Isaiah 27:2-6; John 15:5 3 April 2022

Last Sunday after church I took my family out for a coffee at Oakville Grocery. Afterwards we decided to take a walk down Oakville Crossroad through the vineyards. We were expecting rain, so the sky was filled with dramatic clouds and the wind was blowing through the olive trees. It was very beautiful! Perhaps most beautiful of all were the new leaves beginning to bud on the grape vines.

This time of year is bud break in the vineyards, a time when the vines begin their transformation from bare, brown branches into leafy, green vines that (by the end of summer) will be bejeweled with clusters of the deep blue fruit. Of course, that precious fruit becomes the Napa wines that make this valley so famous.

Bud break is the beginning of the season of growth.

Bud break is an apt image to keep in your mind as we think about the vision of Yountville Community Church today, because I truly believe we are at the beginning of the season of growth.

So why dont we ask God to speak into our hearts now as we open the Bible, and as we explore Gods vision for our church. Will you pray with me?

Our heavenly Father, we know that you are in control of all things. We ask you to give us wisdom and guidance and insight as we plan for the future of your church here in Yountville. Teach us from your word as we seek you now. In Jesus name we pray, Amen

Im excited to have you all here for Vision Sunday. A number of years ago I heard a quote about vision that has stuck with me ever since. It goes like this:

Vision is a picture of the future that inspires passion.

Vision is all about imagining a future reality. Dreaming dreams about what might be. Painting a picture of the possible.

Vision Sunday is all about imagining the future reality of Yountville Community Church, so that we can dream that dream together, as we work to make it a reality.

Now I have big dreams for this church, and I suspect you do too. But as we dream those dreams, I want us to start by looking at Gods vision for the church, so that our dreams are shaped by what Gods word tells us.

1

The image that kept coming to mind as I thought about the future of our church is the picture of a vine. A grapevine. Its very apt for the Napa Valley, right.

But this image of the grapevine comes straight from Scripture. Look at Psalm 80:8-11 with me.

8 You transplanted a vine from Egypt;you drove out the nations and planted it.

9 You cleared the ground for it,and it took root and filled the land.

10 The mountains were covered with its shade, the mighty cedars with its branches.

11 Its branches reached as far as the Sea,its shoots as far as the River. (Psalm 80:8-11)

Psalm 80 paints a picture of a vine that is planted by God. It takes root and fills the whole land, reaching from the river to the sea. A luxurious vine that brings shade and refreshment wherever it grows.

In its original context, the vine represents Gods Old Testament people, Israel, whom God had brought out of Egypt and into the Promised Land. (The same land that God promised to give to Abrahams offspring.)

The picture here is of Gods people filling the Promised Land and enjoying Gods blessing. Its a picture of happiness, and goodness. Its a picture of flourishing.

And I think this image of the vine teaches us three lessons us about Gods vision for the church.

Planted

The first lesson is right there in verse 8 that it is God who plants the church. In v8, the Psalmist speaks directly to God:

8 You transplanted a vine from Egypt;you drove out the nations and planted it.

9 You cleared the ground for it... (Psalm 80:8-9)

It is God who plants his people where he wants them to be. It is God who plants the church.

That doesnt mean things are always easy. Just in these two verses, were reminded that Gods people lived in slavery in Egypt for 400 years before God brought them into the promised land.

2

And in the land, there were the nations people who were opposed to the establishment of the kingdom of Gods people.

But none of those problems were too hard for God. God is the one who cleared the ground and planted his people where he wanted them to be.

Thats an important lesson for us to remember, because actually we live in one of the most difficult places in America to plant a church. Out of the entire United States, the Bay Area has the highest number of people who dont have any connection to God (we sometimes call them unchurched). The Bay Area also has the highest number of dechurched people who once had a faith connection but dont anymore. Theyve left church (and God) behind, for whatever reason.

And its not just the Bay Area. Research shows patterns of declining attendance in churches all across America.

But none of that is an obstacle to God. He has planted churches all over this country, and all over the world, to be beacons of hope in a dark world. God has planted his people right where he wants us to be. And I think God has given us a special work to do, by planting us so close to the Bay Area, where there are so many people who need the hope of Jesus.

So thats the first big idea today. It is God who plants his church, and so we can trust that he will continue the work that has been going on here for over 140 years.

Rooted

The second big idea that this passage teaches is that the church has to have deep roots. Verse 9 says:

9 You cleared the ground for it,and it took root and filled the land. (Psalm 80:9)

Just a few months after I started working at Yountville Community Church, the world got turned upside down by COVID. And so I joined the trend of building an ISO vegetable patch, right here on the church grounds. My little garden was fantastic! And so I thought I would plant some grapevines along the back fence. When in Napa, right?

Sadly they didnt do well. I probably didnt prepare the soil well enough. The vines probably didnt get enough sun. And 2020 was an extremely dry year, with a very hot summer. My vines grew about 3 leaves, and then they shriveled up and died. When I dug them up to do a postmortem, I could see that the roots never grew.

3

In Psalm 80, however, the vine takes root. It puts down deep roots in the place where it is planted, and the vine flourishes, and fills the land.

I want our church to be a church with deep roots.

Yountville Community Church already has deep roots in the Napa Valley, going back to 1874 when the Yountville congregation first started meeting. That congregation built this chapel in 1876, making Yountville Community Church one of the oldest churches in the Napa Valley.

So we have deep roots historically. But that doesnt mean we can just coast along. If Ive learned one thing living in wine country, its that it takes a lot of work to make vineyards thrive.

Our vision is that Yountville Community Church will be a church where people want to put down deep roots. A church where every person feels like they belong. A church where we feel connected, spiritually nourished, where we grow in faith, where we grow in community. The kind of church where you look forward to going, the kind of church where you want to spend more time. A church you call home.

Im often amazed by what God has already done since we reopened the church building in August last year after renovations. Its only been 8 months if my math is correct. In 8 months, God has brought so many of you to us, both here in the building and those watching online.

One of our main focuses over this last 8 months has been to create a Sunday church experience that helps us connect with God, and connect with one another. Im so grateful to God for our Welcome Team, for the Coffee Team, for our Worship Team. God has answered our prayers in providing amazing musicians to lead us in worship with Laura, and with our other band members who are home on Spring break (theyll be back with us next week).

Im also grateful for our Kids Minister Charlotte, and her team of leaders who make Yountville Kids so much fun every week. Whenever I tell people that we have a church in Yountville, they always say how hard it must be because there are no young families in town. I tell them theyre wrong we have a thriving kids ministry here at Yountville Community Church, and it only seems to be growing.

One of our prayers is that the littlest members of our church will put down deep roots in faith during their time here, which is why Yountville Kids is so much more than child care. In both Nursery and Elementary, our leaders share the hope of Jesus with our kids in ways that are age- appropriate and really help kids experience the joy of knowing Jesus.

Our vision is to see the Kids program expanded, and we are praying for more families to join us, and for more leaders to enable that growth.

Something the Leadership Board is passionate about is creating the opportunity to share Jesus with Middle Schoolers and High Schoolers. Our vision is to see a youth program where

4

teenagers put down deep roots in faith at that pivotal stage of life. That is something we are praying about currently, and also working through from a budget perspective. Wed love your prayers as we seek to bring that vision to reality.

Weve talked about our kids putting down deep roots in faith. But our vision is that every person who attends Yountville Community Church will have the opportunity to nurture their faith in community. We want everyone to put down deep roots in the Christian faith.

That might be in a Small Group where we dig deeper into the Bible. Im so grateful for our Small Group leaders who lead those discussions week to week.

For those just starting on the Christian journey, we have our Alpha course. We are in the middle of an Alpha course right now with a group of young adults and it has been such a great time together, talking about life and faith and meaning. If you havent done Alpha, well be running another course right after Easter. You should sign up!

As the year goes on, well be announcing more opportunities for nurturing our faith in community: a conference for women; a book club; a film study and more.

But I hope you can see our focus creating opportunities for every person who attends Yountville Community Church to put down deep roots in the Christian faith.

Reaching

So the first aspect of our vision is a church that is rooted; the second aspect of our vision is a church that is reaching.

Look at Psalm 80:10-11 with me:

10 The mountains were covered with its shade, the mighty cedars with its branches.

11 Its branches reached as far as the Sea, its shoots as far as the River.

The picture here is of the vine filling the land, from east to west from the Euphrates River to the Mediterranean Sea. Remember this is a picture of Gods chosen people filling the promised land, and enjoying the inheritance God had promised to Abraham.

But theres another detail in the poetry, another symbol in v10. The image of the vine is super- sized. The branches reach from east to west, and its leaves provide shade over the mountains, they even cover the mighty cedars.

Cedars often symbolize strength in the Old Testament. And so I think you see here that Gods people grow to a position where they are stronger than the worlds powers. The image of shade

5

usually symbolizes protection and comfort. So in this image, the Psalmist paints a picture of Gods people filling the land, bringing peace and protection and comfort to all who live in the land.

And if we think back to Gods promises to Abraham, that was the third promise, wasnt it? That God would bring blessing to the whole world through Abrahams offspring.

This picture shows us that God intends the church to be an agent of blessing to all the world. The church isnt focused in on itself: it reaches out with the hope of Jesus.

Over the last year or so, part of our reaching out has been using a marketing company to make sure people can find us on the internet. They do a great job, by the way! One of the ad campaigns they run for us each month is called Real Life. When people are searching for answers on the internet about stress, or anxiety, or financial worries, or marriage issues, or parenting questions, they often click on one of our ads. And it sends them to some excellent, Biblical, helpful articles linked to our website. We are seeing thousands of people click on those advertisements each month. It shows you that people are searching for answers, and they are open to hearing the Christian point of view.

This is one of the ways that Yountville Community Church is reaching out with the hope of Jesus into our online community. But Id love to see us create the same opportunities here in the Napa Valley. Psychologists predict an epidemic of mental health issues on the back of COVID, and we would love to be able to connect people from our local community with good online resources, as well as links to local counselors and psychologists. When people come to us for help, we want to be able to connect them to the help they need.

The same for the economically vulnerable in our community. We would like to be a church that contributes to local charities who are set up to provide appropriate care and resources.

I am really excited that we are taking little steps in Yountville Kids to create connections with the Veterans Home. This Easter, thanks to the passion of some of our moms, Yountville Kids will be delivering 20 Hope Packages to the Vets Home. In fact, the kids are writing cards today as part of their lesson, and theyll add them to boxes with crossword puzzles, tissues, coloring in booklets. Something to brighten the day of the residents. That little gesture has the potential to become a regular pastoral opportunity in the Vets Home...

So you can see we have a vision to be a blessing to our local community in practical ways.

But we also know that the greatest blessing is to find life in Jesus Christ. And so we will always be looking for ways to reach out with the hope of Jesus. Thats why were running an ad campaign on Facebook and Instagram this Easter, because we want to meet local families so that we can share Jesus with them. I make no excuses for that. Its why were advertising our Easter services in the local newspapers, and dropping off invitations at all the hotels. It's why weve printed extra invitations for you to share with your friends.

6

Because the heart of this churchs mission to share the hope of Jesus in the Napa Valley and beyond. We are a church with a missionary heart, a missionary mindset, a missionary church, reaching out into the Napa Valley with the message of hope, and life, and blessing through Jesus Christ.

I love the image from Psalm 80, the image of the vineyard stretching out through all the land. Im reminded of it every time I drive anywhere in the Napa Valley. We have vineyards as far as the eye can see. Its an image of what this church could be a church that influences the landscape, a church that influences the culture, a church that brings blessing, a church that bears fruit for all eternity.

Dont you want to be part of that church?

As I said at the beginning, I think were only just at the beginning of this journey. The buds are only just beginning to break, but that means the growing season is beginning. But one day, Gods kingdom will bud and blossom and fill all the world with fruit. And on that day, well know what a special thing weve been a part of here.

Will you pray with me?

Jesus said: I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15:5)

7

Watch at: https://youtu.be/eWOq7vfRWag File Downloads: https://dq5pwpg1q8ru0.cloudfront.net/2022/04/20/14/39/56/d2389b3e-2a0f-43c7-8166-49405c2c1515/04.03.22%20Vision%20Sunday%20Sermon%20Transcript.pdf

Genesis 12-25

7. How God Provides Dan Bidwell, Senior Pastor

Genesis 24:1-25:11 27 March 2022

Once upon a time there was a frog who was very lonely, so he went to see a fortune-teller. The frog asks her: “Will I ever meet that someone special?”

The fortune teller tells him not to worry. She says, “You’re going to meet a beautiful young girl, and she will want to know everything about you.”

“That’s great!” the excited frog says. “When will I meet her?” And the psychic says, “Next semester... in biology class.”

Our Bible passage today is the story of how one man meets a beautiful young girl. There’s no frog and no fortune telling, but it’s an amazing story that speaks of God’s kindness. So why don’t we pray that God would teach us from the story of Isaac and Rebekah?

Our heavenly Father, as we open your word today, would you teach us about the way that you provide for us, and the way that you direct the circumstances of our lives. Help us to trust you with every aspect of our lives, we pray. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Well this is our final week in our sermon series from Genesis 12-25. For the last 6 weeks we’ve been following the story of Abraham and the promises that God made to him. It all began when God spoke to Abraham at the age of 75, and called him to leave the land of his ancestors, and to go to the land that God would show him.

And God made three promises to Abraham – Land, Nation, and Blessing. God promised to give the land we now know as Israel to Abraham’s descendants. He promised to make Abraham into a great nation – he would have as many offspring as the stars in the sky, or the sand on the seashore. And lastly God promised to bless Abraham, and to use Abraham’s offspring to bring blessing to all the peoples of the world.

These are three foundational promises that shape much of the rest of the Bible.

And over the last 6 weeks we’ve seen God keep those promises, but perhaps not in the way we expected. Abraham and Sarah ended up waiting 25 years for their first child to be born. It takes more than 60 years for Abraham to own a part of the promised land, and then it’s just a field and a cave where he lays to rest his wife. The story of Abraham and the promises of God is not like the story of Aladdin and the lamp. God is not a genie who grants every wish right when we want it. But that doesn’t mean that God is powerless to intervene in our lives. And that’s what we’ll see today in the story of Isaac and Rebekah.

1

Now this is the longest chapter in the book of Genesis, so I’ve only given you part of it on the handouts. But it’s an amazing story, so let’s get into it.

Our story starts (v1) with Abraham now a very old man.

Abraham was now very old, and the Lord had blessed him in every way. (Genesis 24:1)

Abraham is old enough to look back on his life and see all the ways that God had blessed him. What a great attitude. Wouldn’t it be good to be like Abraham when we grow older?

God has blessed him in every way. But there was still one thing missing. A wife for his son, Isaac, who was now almost 40 years old.

So Abraham calls the senior servant in his household (v2), the one in charge of all that he had. And he asks the servant to make a solemn promise to find a wife for Isaac: (v3)

3 “I want you to swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you will not get a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I am living, 4 but will go to my country and my own relatives and get a wife for my son Isaac.”

Abraham wants to make sure that the servant finds Isaac a wife from amongst Abraham’s own relatives. And not the people of Canaan.

There are two issues with Isaac marrying a Canaanite. First, Canaan was the promised land, that God had promised to Abraham and his offspring. If Isaac intermarries with the Canaanites, then the land would still partially belong to the Canaanites. Second, the Canaanites represent a people with their backs turned away from God. Noah had cursed the Canaanites, and in Genesis 15 God himself promised to one day judge the Canaanites for their religious practices, which included child sacrifice. Abraham didn’t want his son or his descendants to be mixed up with false gods.

Not that Abraham’s family of origin was much better. As we’ve learned, Abraham came from a middle eastern culture that engaged in moon worship, and included human sacrifice. But Abraham had made a decisive break with his old ways when he made the decision to follow the call of YHWH, the God of the Bible. Because you can’t follow two opposing gods – that’s syncretism.

The servant is worried that it might not work out. What if the woman is unwilling to come back with me to this land, he asks in v5? Then should I take your son there, he asks?

V6 Abraham is adamant that his son must not leave the promised land. In fact he says it twice in this paragraph. Abraham knows that this land has been promised to his offspring, and he doesn’t want Isaac to leave it ever. (Perhaps it’s a reflection on Abraham’s wandering, both

2

literally and metaphorically, from God’s promises? We do that as parents – we try to protect our kids from making the same mistakes that we made. It’s a good thing...)

Back to the story. Abraham is so certain that this will work out, that he says God will send an angel before his servant so that he can get a wife for his son.

I just want to reflect on this idea briefly, the idea of the angel going before the servant. It doesn’t say it in the text, but possibly God had spoken to Abraham and explained how his son would find a wife with the help of an angel. Maybe. We don’t know. It’s not surprising to hear Abraham talk about angels, since angels have featured already in four different stories between Genesis 16 and 22.

As we read on in the chapter, however, no angel appears. No angel speaks. If there is any angelic agency at work in this story, they are not the hero of the story. If there are angels, it is only because God has sent them. You can see it there in v4 – ‘He will send his angel’... We need to remember that angels aren’t to be worshiped. They are just God’s messengers, God’s heavenly butlers, his staff. When things happen, it’s because God makes them happen, no matter how he makes it happen behind the scenes.

The servant goes (v10). He takes ten camels, loaded with all kinds of good things from his master. He sets out for Aram Naharaim, the land between the two rivers (or modern day Iraq) 1000 miles to the east of Canaan. He arrives at a little town called Nahor at dusk, he brings his camels to the well outside the town. The narrator tells us in v11 that this was ‘the time the women go out to draw water.’

And so the servant prays. V12:

“Lord, God of my master Abraham, make me successful today, and show kindness to my master Abraham. 13 See, I am standing beside this spring, and the daughters of the townspeople are coming out to draw water. 14 May it be that when I say to a young woman, ‘Please let down your jar that I may have a drink,’ and she says, ‘Drink, and I’ll water your camels too’—let her be the one you have chosen for your servant Isaac. By this I will know that you have shown kindness to my master.” (Genesis 24:12-14)

The servant prays for a sign, of sorts. Not a supernatural sign, actually a very understated sign. He prays that he will meet a woman kind enough to give water to a stranger, and to his camels.

The servant’s prayer was answered before he had even finished praying (v15):

15 Before he had finished praying, Rebekah came out with her jar on her shoulder. She was the daughter of Bethuel son of Milkah, who was the wife of Abraham’s brother Nahor. 16 The woman was very beautiful, a virgin; no man had ever slept with her. She went down to the spring, filled her jar and came up again.

3

This is a cinematic moment in the Bible if ever there was one. The servant opens his eyes, and there she is. The woman of his prayers. She’s movie-star beautiful. The servant asks her for some water.

“Drink, my Lord,” she says, and then she adds: “I’ll draw water for your camels too, until they have had enough to drink.”

You have to understand, this is like the Bible version of the balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet. This scene is enshrined in Jewish folklore. We are meeting a major character in the storyline, in a highly memorable way.

The Bible goes on to repeat the motif of the well as the place for meeting the partner of your dreams. Isaac and Rebekah’s son Jacob meets his wife, Rachel, at the very same well. And later Moses will meet Zipporah at a well also.

You may not know this, but we have a well right here on the church property, just on the other side of the coffee area. So just in case anybody here is searching for a husband or a wife, we’ve set up some tables for two there today with champagne and tickets for a hot air balloon ride...

But coming back to the story...

Rebekah carries water for the servant’s camels. This is no small task, and the servant watches her silently while she goes down into the spring time after time, carrying jug after jug of water for his thirsty camels.

As the camels finish drinking, the servant is convinced that Rebekah is the one he is meant to find for his master. So he takes out gifts – a nose ring and two bracelets made of gold – an expensive gift.

He asks whose daughter she is, and if there is room in her father’s house for him to stay.

That’s when Rebekah reveals that she is the daughter of Bethuel, the son that Milkah bore to Nahor. In other words, Rebekah is a relative of Abraham, just like Abraham had requested back in v4. She is Abraham’s brother’s granddaughter. Does that make her a grand-niece? So far she fits all the criteria that Abraham had wanted for the wife of his son. And we wait with anticipation for what will happen next, although we kind of know because we’ve all seen romance movies before...

Rebekah’s hospitality at the well extends to offering the servant a place for the night, and fodder for his camels. Rebekah runs ahead to tell her family about the meeting at the well, while the servant takes a moment to stop and worship the Lord.

26 Then the man bowed down and worshiped the Lord, 27 saying, “Praise be to

the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who has not abandoned his kindness and

4

faithfulness to my master. As for me, the Lord has led me on the journey to the house of my master’s relatives.” (Genesis 24:26-27)

I love that the servant is able to pause in the middle of this exciting story to worship God. His earlier prayers have been answered, and he is reminded of God’s kindness. If you look back at v12 and v14, the servant had appealed twice to God’s kindness in his first prayer: ‘show kindness to my master.’ This kindness (hesed) is actually one of God’s core characteristics.

Commentator Andrew Reid describes hesed-kindness as: “overflowing, surprising and non- obligated generosity or love.”

And isn’t it true? How often do surprisingly good things happen in our lives? Moments of unexpected goodness, or an act of genuine generosity. When those moments happen, they are not just the universe sending you good vibes. They’re not just serendipity. It is God showing you his kindness. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to stop and worship God when you recognize that He is behind all of those little things that come together to make your life unexpectedly wonderful at times.

The servant recognized God’s kindness. And he thanked God for it, even though the kindness wasn’t really for himself at all. It was God’s kindness to his master. We learn a lot about the servant’s character in this scene. He is humbly able to enjoy his master’s success. This is possibly Eleazar of Damascus, who Abraham had considered naming his heir when he was unable to have a child with Sarah some 50 years earlier. If it’s the same man, then he has missed out on inheriting the entire land of Canaan, and he has instead spent his entire life as a servant and not a son. And yet, there is no sense of envy here. Just genuine happiness for his master’s sake.

The servant recognizes God’s kindness, and he overflows with the same kindness and non- obligated generosity. The servant has been transformed by grace, it would seem.

There is something else remarkable about the servant’s prayer. He worships God because he recognizes that God has led him on the journey to just the right place. No angels, no shining star to follow to Bethlehem, just God working through the everyday events of life – the delays, the customs, the stresses, the chance meetings.

Theologian J.I. Packer says: “[believers] are never in the grip of blind forces (fortune, chance, luck, fate); all that happens to them is divinely planned, and each event comes as a new summons to trust, obey, and rejoice.”1

This story is a reminder that God is at work in your life, just as he is at work in my life. God may not speak to you like he spoke to Abraham, but when we seek after his will for our lives, he will

1 Quoted in R. Kent Hughes, Genesis Beginning and Blessing, p316. 5

lead us on the journey to just the right place. It takes genuine trust to believe that we are right where God wants us. But I think that’s what the scriptures say.

Proverbs 3:5-6 says:

5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart

and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways submit to him,

and he will make your paths straight. (Proverbs 3:5-6)

When we submit our lives to the Lord and trust him with all our heart, he will lead us to right where he wants us. It might not be where you wanted to go, but Romans 8:28 teaches us that:

in all things God works for the good of those who love him... (Romans 8:28)

You might be in a hard season right now. You might be in the valley of the shadow of death. Trust that God is leading you into green pastures.

You might be facing a big decision. Bring it to the Lord. Pray about it. Submit yourself and your future to him, and then follow the pathway that opens up before you. Is it the right one? If it’s not, you can trust that God will bring you back to the right path eventually, even if there are lessons for you to learn along the way.

What I’m trying to say is that God works in the everyday circumstances of life to lead us. You can trust him, whatever decision you take, when you put God first.

And that’s what Rebekah did.

Let me quickly tell you how the story ends.

The servant arrives at Rebekah’s home. Her brother Laban comes out to greet the servant, and puts on a show of hospitality. Laban will play a major role in the next season of Genesis (but like Netflix you’re going to have to wait until next year to find out what happens.) But just a little preview: we get a hint about the dark side of Laban’s character here. He can’t take his eyes off the gold jewelery, and we are led to doubt that his motives are pure.

However, when he hears the story of how Abraham had sent his servant all the way from Canaan, and how the servant had met Rebekah at the well just the way he had prayed about, even Laban recognizes that it is from God (v50):

50 Laban and Bethuel answered, “This is from the Lord; we can say nothing to you one way or the other. 51 Here is Rebekah; take her and go, and let her become the wife of your master’s son, as the Lord has directed.” (Genesis 24:50)

When they ask Rebekah what she wants to do, she says simply: “I will go.” 6

In the space of less than 24 hours, Rebekah makes the choice to leave behind her family, and to follow the call of God. Just like Abraham had done, all those years earlier.

Rebekah returns to Canaan with the servant, she meets Isaac and they marry the same day. Abraham dies at the age of 175, with his family gathered around him. One chapter is closed, and the next chapter with Isaac and Rebekah is ready to begin. But like I said, you’ll have to wait until next year when we pick up the story again.

PAUSE

As we finish this series about Abraham and the promises of God, I want to challenge you to consider: are you following the call of God on your life. I’m always struck by the obedience of the first disciples – Jesus said to them, “Follow me.” And they did. Often without all the information, and all the right answers. They heard the call of Jesus and they followed him.

Jesus is still saying the same thing today. Follow me. Entrust your life to me, let me lead you and I will bring you into the fullness of all of God’s promises:

- the promised land - the new heavens and the new earth;

- the great nation – he will make you a child of God;

- and blessing – in Jesus, we see the fulfilment of the promises that through Abraham’s

offspring all the world will be blessed. When you make the choice to follow Jesus, you will know blessing beyond what you could ever imagine, in this lifetime and the next.

So if you hear God calling your name today, how will you respond? Will you pray with me?

7

Watch at: https://youtu.be/5oP5theOlaQ File Downloads: https://dq5pwpg1q8ru0.cloudfront.net/2022/04/09/05/34/23/aff66c02-35b1-4f59-9598-7ee014ee0996/03.27.22%20Sermon%20Transcript.pdf

Genesis 12-256. Now and Not Yet Dan Bidwell, Senior Pastor

Genesis 23:1-20 20 March 2022

I want to start today by telling you about one of the longest marriages in American history...

Until just a few weeks ago the record belonged to Ralph and Dorothy Kohler (Indio, CA), married in 1935. Married 86 years! In an interview last year, Ralph, who was 104 years old, said the secret to a long marriage is simple: Togetherness.

US Census Bureau data states that only six percent of Americans couples reach their 50th, or golden, anniversary - putting the Kohlers in a rare category.

Ralph credited their longevity in life and marriage to healthy habits. Neither of them had ever drunk alcohol or smoked. They were ballroom dancing champions and enjoyed duck hunting, which they made into a career.

Sadly Ralph passed away in January 2022, (aged 104) just over a month after Dorothy died last December (she was 102). Sad, but kind of wonderful...

If youre anything like me, we love a good love story! There is just something wholesome about a love story that lasts a lifetime.

Our Bible passage today is all about a love story that lasted a lifetime. The love story between Abraham and Sarah.

So I want to reflect on that today, and the lessons we can learn from them. But first, why dont we pray and ask God to teach us as we read from the Bible?

Our heavenly Father, we thank you for the Bible, and for your words to us. Will you teach us about life and love and faith as we hear from you today? In Jesus name we pray, Amen.

Well, we have been following the story of Abraham and the promises of God in our sermon series over the last 5 weeks or so. And even though its a very old part of the Bible, weve seen that it still has much to teach us, even thousands of years later. Its the story that teaches us how Gods Old Testament people came into being, how they came to live in the land that we now call Israel. And its the story of how God makes promises to us, promises that he always keeps, even when it seems hard to see at the time.

And thats where todays story starts in Genesis 23.

1

We have been journeying with Abraham for over 60 years now. He was 75 years old when God called him out of the land of his father, and made three promises to him: (what are they?)

Land; Nation; Blessing.

God promised Abraham that he would bring him into a land, a countryside that would belong to his offspring. That tied into the second promise God promised to make Abraham into a great nation, that his descendants would be as numerous as the sand on the seashore, or stars in the sky. And lastly God promised to bless Abraham, and to use his family to bring blessing to the entire world.

Those were the promises God had made to Abraham when he was 75 years old, and his wife was 65. One of the things weve learned through this series is that Gods promises dont always materialize overnight. Abraham and Sarah waited 25 years before their first son was born Isaac until Abraham was 100 and Sarah was 90. Neither of them ever expected to have the joy of children at such an advanced age. In fact they both laughed at the idea, so much that they called their son Laughter thats what Isaac means.

Not that their marriage had always been filled with laughter. Many years had been filled with the grief of childlessness. Their attempts to build a family through one of Sarahs slaves had brought unhappiness to the household. The marriage had been in jeopardy not once, but twice, as Abraham allowed Sarah to be taken as a wife by foreign kings. And as the ladies in my wifes Small Group observed this week, there definitely would have been words spoken when Sarah found out that Abraham almost sacrificed their only son...

But every relationship has its ups and downs, especially when it lasts more than 60 years. In fact, its likely that Abraham and Sarah had been married closer to 100 years, if they married when she was quite young. Yet despite those difficulties, Sarah had been Abrahams soul-mate through all the years of following Gods promises. She had chosen to go with Abraham as he left his family in Ur no doubt she left behind all her family also. She had made the journey with Abraham to Canaan, and then to Egypt in the famine. She had stayed with him in all the pinnacle moments of Abrahams life. Sarah was Abrahams princess, as her name meant in their language.

The Death of A Loved One

After so many years together, Genesis 23 opens with the tragic news of Sarahs death.

Sarah lived to be a hundred and twenty-seven years old. 2 She died at Kiriath Arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan, and Abraham went to mourn for Sarah and to weep over her. (Genesis 23:1-2)

Abraham mourns, and weeps for Sarah.2

I know that some of you know what it feels like, to lose your soul mate. I dont pretend to imagine what it must be like. But in these two verses we get just a glimpse into Abrahams pain. Abraham goes to mourn for Sarah, and he weeps over her.

Commentator Kent Hughes says that this is a very brief description of grief for a very long marriage.

So how do you make sense of a loss like this? How do you process the death of a loved one?

I want to take you to some ancient wisdom from the book of Ecclesiastes that helps us think about death, perhaps in a way that we dont normally think of it. (BTW Im hoping this is a little preview of a series Id like to do from Ecclesiastes later in the year...) Ecclesiastes is a book of wisdom, written by perhaps the wisest man ever: Solomon, son of the great King David. Ecclesiastes means Teacher.

In Ecclesiastes 7 the Teacher teaches us this about death:

2 It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting,

for death is the destiny of everyone;the living should take this to heart. (Ecclesiastes 7:2)

The Teacher turns upside down what most of us would think about death. If we had to choose between a party and a funeral, of course we would prefer to go to a party. A feast with our family. A memorable vacation. A weekend away with your best friends. A meal at a fantastic restaurant. Those are the life events that most of us look back on, those are the events that punctuate a happy life.

But the Teacher teaches us that we learn more from a funeral than we do from a party. When we go to the house of mourning, it reminds us that the eternal matters. There is more to life than these 80 or 90 years. It says it right there in v2: Death is the destiny of everyone; the living should take this to heart...

The death of a loved one reminds us that this life is not all there is. Eternity awaits. The blessing that God promised to Abraham, it awaits us, in the land that God promised. Not a land that can be invaded or ruined by pollution, but an everlasting city where God himself dwells amongst us. A place of happiness, and never again the interruption of death, or the loss of a loved one.

Thats what the death of a loved one should remind us of, the Teacher teaches.

And all the wonderful experiences that we cherish in this lifetime, theyre only a shadow of whats to come. Its almost like our real life hasnt even begun yet.

When the famous evangelist Billy Graham spoke about his death, he said this: 3

Someday you will read or hear that Billy Graham is dead. Dont you believe a word of it. I shall be more alive than I am now. I will just have changed my address. I will have gone into the presence of God. (Billy Graham)

I shall be more alive than I am now. Isnt that a great way to think about eternity? Jesus promise is that he came to give us life, and life to the full (John 10:10). And our mortal death is the beginning of that life that never ends...

But there is a catch. That eternal life is only for those who align themselves with Jesus in this lifetime. Because the other reality of death is that one day we will stand before the throne of God and give an account for our life, and what we did with it.

That might sound intimidating, but I dont think it should be. What I love about the death of Sarah is the way she is remembered in the New Testament. Because shes not remembered for her mistakes. Shes remembered for her faith.

In 1 Peter 3:6, Sarah is commended for trusting God as she followed Abraham through all of the ups and downs of their lifelong journey together. In Hebrews 11 Sarah is commended for trusting that God would give her a child, just as he promised he would. Sarah is remembered for her faith.

The death of Sarah reminds us that we are more than the sum total of our mistakes. By faith in Christ, God looks back on our lives and credits our faith as righteousness, just as he did with Abraham. Our mistakes are forgiven, and put behind us, when we give them to Jesus on the cross.

And if you look through Hebrews 11, this long list of the heroes of the Bible who were commended for their faith, you realize that none of them were perfect. None of them lived a mistake-free life, none of them lived a sin-free life. They were all like you and me. But God remembers their faith, not their mistakes.

Death is a terrible part of life this side of heaven. And the grief is real. But Jesus takes the sting out of death, by showing us that there is life beyond the grave. And Jesus takes the sting out of death by showing us that we are more than the sum total of our mistakes. God will remember our faith, on the day that we stand before him.

All of that means that we can appreciate death for what it teaches us. Commentator David Gibson writes:

Death dons a preachers robe to teach us that life is finite and we must use it well. (David Gibson, Living Life Backward)

You and I are finite. One day this life will be over. So how are you using your life? 4

Investing Your Life

The second part of the passage for today is the account of Abraham buying a burial plot for his wife.

It feels kind of strange that the negotiations for a piece of land take up most of the chapter, when so little is said about the death of Sarah. What is so important about this field that it warrants this level of intention? Our first clue is there in v4:

3 Then Abraham rose from beside his dead wife and spoke to the Hittites. He said, 4 I am a foreigner and stranger among you. Sell me some property for a burial site here so I can bury my dead. (Genesis 23:3-4)

Do you see the problem? Abraham is a foreigner and a stranger, even though he has been living in the land for something like 60 years. And BTW what land is it? Its the promised land, the land that God had sworn to give to him and to his offspring. But for now, Abraham is still a foreigner. He has probably spent those 60 years grazing his flocks, moving between watering holes, living in tents as his ancestors did in the Middle East. And perhaps this is the first time a family member had died, which is amazing in itself. Over the course of some 60 years, this problem had never arisen.

But now, Abrahams first wife lies dead. And he wants to give her a permanent place.

As a foreigner, however, he has no land. And so Abraham has to negotiate the purchase of a property.

What we see in those middle verses of the chapter is a very formal process, where the buyer and sellers go back and forth in polite tones. Underneath the formality, they are negotiating a property, and nobody gives away prime real estate for nothing.

Follow along with. Me from v4 (Im going to paraphrase a bit). Abraham says:

I am a foreigner and stranger among you. Sell me some property for a burial site here so I can bury my dead.

The Hittites reply (v6)

6 Sir, listen to us. You are a mighty prince among us. Bury your dead in the choicest of our tombs. None of us will refuse you his tomb for burying your dead.

Abraham bows down before them. BTW this is the only time Abraham bows before anyone, but its clearly part of the formalities, just as it was part of the formality for the Hittites to offer

5

Abraham his choice of tombs. Its kind of disingenuous, but thats how it often works in honor/shame cultures. The outward demeanor doesnt always reflect the inner attitude.

Abraham continues negotiating. He wants an introduction to Ephron, who has a cave (v9) at the end of one of his fields. Abraham offers to buy the cave for full price.

Ephron likes this game (v11):

11 No, my lord, he said. Listen to me; I give you the field, and I give you the cave that is in it. I give it to you in the presence of my people. Bury your dead. (Genesis 23:11)

Three times Ephron says he will give the property to Abraham. Not just the cave, but also the field. And he says it in front of everybody. If you want to make yourself sound generous, thats the way to do it. Make yourself sound magnanimous in the presence of your friends.

Abraham bows again, and offers to pay for not just the cave, but the field also. Ephron answers (v15):

15 Listen to me, my lord; the land is worth four hundred shekels of silver, but what is that between you and me? Bury your dead. (Genesis 23:15)

Turns out, 400 shekels was a lot for the field and cave. But Abraham is in no position to haggle, not without losing face. He weighs out the 5 pounds of silver in front of everyone according to the weight current among the merchants, it says in v16, and everything is done by the book. The land now belongs to Abraham, and because he did the deal in front of the elders of the Hittites, nobody can dispute the transaction. Twice we are told that the land was deeded to Abraham.

Why such a big deal over a field?

After 60 years wandering through the land that God had promised Abraham, until this moment, none of it had belonged to him.

Now I dont know how it felt to Abraham, paying for land that God had said would be his. (After all, God said he would give it to Abraham, not that he would have to pay for it...) But I dont think thats the point of this passage. Its not like when Abraham tried to hurry up Gods promise of a child by sleeping with his wifes servant.

Rather I think this is a moment of great faith by Abraham. A moment where he puts his trust in Gods promises that one day his offspring would own every part of the land that he had been living in for so long as a stranger. A stranger who had to pay double for a plot of land to bury his wife. A stranger who they called a prince while taking his money as a sucker. A stranger who

6

probably had to pay to water his flocks and herds, a stranger and a foreigner and never someone who belonged.

Until this moment. When he buried his wife in that cave, trusting that one day he too would be buried there him and his offspring...

And that faith was rewarded. As we read the rest of the Old Testament, the cave of Macpelah became the burial plot for all of Abrahams family. Abraham himself was buried there, and later his son Isaac, his grandson Jacob. The cave was so important that even Joseph, who died and was buried in Egypt, was carried up 430 years later by Moses, who gave his bones to Joshua, who eventually repatriated him in the cave of Macpelah in the Promised Land.

You see, Abraham wasnt a sucker. He was a believer. He believed that God would do what he said he would do. He believed that God would give this land to his sons and their sons, and so 400 shekels was really a small price to pay in the grand scheme of things. Abrahams modest investment earned him an incalculable return, as the word of God became reality.

One of the questions this passage asks us, then, is where are we investing in this lifetime?

If God has promised us this heavenly future where we are brought into his family, where we are given a home, where we experience the blessing of his presence, shouldnt that be the thing that we are investing in? Shouldnt we be investing in Gods kingdom? Shouldnt it drive our priorities and our investment goals? Shouldnt the reality of the future of heaven help us shape our investments today?

I love that youre here this morning. Coming to church is one way of investing in Gods kingdom. Youre here, worshiping God and thanking Jesus for the gift that you trust will come in the future. Every time we stop to read our Bible, or pray, we are investing in Gods Kingdom.

And many of you are investing in Gods kingdom financially. Enabling pastors and missionaries like me to share the hope of Jesus, so that more and more people can share in that eternal life that we are looking forward to. That takes money. It takes money to build churches, to pay the utilities, to staff a kids program, to put on concerts, to advertise in the newspapers. But its all an investment in the kingdom of God.

Because we trust that Gods kingdom is real. And we trust that one day this earthly kingdom will be no more, and that Gods kingdom will be all there is. And on that day, our faith will be made sight. Well finally see what our investment was going towards. And you wont regret it.

What are you investing in?

7

Watch at: https://youtu.be/8NCum-gBz4o File Downloads: https://dq5pwpg1q8ru0.cloudfront.net/2022/04/04/14/43/19/2cc7c79c-9c19-4fae-b133-4b932baf8b02/03.20.22%20Sermon%20Transcript.pdf