Color blindness – the inability to distinguish between some colors
Dry eye syndrome – the inability to produce tears
Hyperopia (farsightedness) – the inability to see near objects clearly
Myopia (nearsightedness) – the inability to to see distant objects clearly
what about spiritual vision issues…
spiritual lazy eye – the ability to see a problem and feel no compelling interest to do something about it
spiritual color blindness – the ability to not pay as much attention to the plight of those who are suffering in different parts of the world
spiritual dry eye – the lack of compassion, inability to cry for people who are hurting
spiritual farsightedness – the ability to respond to missions overseas but an unwillingness to personally get involved here
spiritual nearsightedness – the exact opposite…we are good here, but for the rest of the world in impoverished countries, out of sight, out of mind.
I pretty much squinted all through Junior High because I couldn’t stand the sight of wearing glasses. I can remember putting them on very infrequently and when I did I felt the weight of everyone looking upon me. In today’s video the main character feels the weight of seeing for the first time an inside look into the world of those around him.
Today I want us to discover an inside look through the eyes of Jesus.
Although not our text, let’s first look at Mark 8:22-25
It is an unusual passage as Jesus first spits on the man’s eyes and then touches him. He asks him if he sees and he responds by saying, “I see people, they look like trees walking around’. He could see, but he couldn’t see clearly. He couldn’t distinguish between people and trees except for movement so Jesus touches him once again and his sight was restored completely.
And really, we are like this man. Most of us have met Jesus and he has opened our eyes, but we still don’t see people clearly. We all have lens through which we see others. It is a lens that makes assumptions, responses, judgment and influences the degree of our response.
How did Jesus see people? Matthew 9:36
I Samuel 16:7 The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.
OK, let’s go to today’s text – Luke 4:14.
Now you will notice that this event follows Jesus baptism here, but in reality if you had a chronological Bible or even lined up the gospels together you would see that Jesus already began showing miracles and had been healing people so that is why we see the statement about His fame spreading.
Imagine the scene. The synagogue is filled with people, the place is packed with men, women and children. In the front of the room there is a group of elders. One of them stands up, speaks briefly and then asks Yeshua Ben Yusef, Jesus, son of Joseph, to read the Scriptures.
He gets up in the middle of the room where there is a raised desk and people are excited to hear him. He is the hometown boy. Jesus unrolls the large scroll and reads from Isaiah 61:1,2
He reads it is an affirmation of self proclamation.
When he said that the today the Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing was a slam dunk statement. When he said that, he sent people buzzing. This passage was about the Messiah and this passage was about Jesus’ mission statement!
Jesus’ mission is to preach good news to the poor. The mindset back then was if you were poor that was a sign of God’s judgment and if you were rich, well then, that was God’s favor. Jesus was basically saying absolutely not! He turned the tables and said the poor were favored by God.
His mission is to proclaim freedom for the prisoner whether it was a literal prison or a spiritual prison, Jesus has come to set you free.
Jesus’ mission was to give sight to the blind. The blind were thought to be blind because of their own sin or the sin of their parents. The attitude of the religious leaders was if you are blind, you deserved to be blind. Jesus came to show mercy to those who were physically handicapped and spiritually condemned.
Jesus mission is to release the oppressed. He came to set wrongs right. He came to help the helpless.
Jesus mission is to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. It is a reference to the OT principle of the year of Jubilee which took place every 50 years and debts on the land were forgiven and slaves were freed.
Jesus mission was people focused, it was outward focused and it was driven by mercy and compassion. It was the secret to His vision. Jesus’ mission guided His vision His mission was the way that He saw everybody. People were Jesus’ mission. His lens was and is compassion.
The word for compassion is only applied to two people, the fictional ‘Good Samaritan’ and the real Jesus. We see how in Scripture that Jesus felt compassion when he encountered the sick (Matt. 14:14), the blind (Matt 20:34), the demon possessed (Mk. 9:22) those who lost loved ones (Luke 7:13), the hungry (Matt. 15:32), the lonely (Mk. 1:41)
It guided His actions, His reaction and interaction with everyone He met.
Let’s look at another example in Luke 7:36-48 – the story of the woman who wiped Jesus feet with her very own tears and poured expensive perfume on them.
The religious bystanders just stood in judgment and thought 'if he really was a prophet He would know what time of woman she was…' Jesus knew their thoughts and challenged them on the real expression of love.
We all have lens through which we look at people. How often are we guilty of looking at people through the lens of judgment as the Pharisees did as opposed to the lens of compassion that Jesus showed us?
For example, if you were to bump into Stacey and Clinton off ‘What Not To Wear’ – how would they judge you?
If you were to bump into Prime Minister Stephen Harper how would he judge you. I know because in April as I was pushed aside into a hall to make way for his entourage, he took the time to acknowledge me.
If someone were to bump into the back of your car?
What question would cross your mind when you saw them?
What we believe about our mission in the world affects how we see our world? When you look at your world, do you see a world in need?...a world worth saving? A world worth serving?
When you see people, ask the same questions that Jesus would ask, “How can I help you? How can I show you God’s love? How can I touch you with God’s grace? How can I right a wrong in your life? How can I bring healing to your world?
Ask Jesus to touch your eyes so that you see people the way He did
-with insight, mercy and compassion
Let’s first start with INSIGHT
If the Earth’s population was shrunk to a village of precisely 100 people, with all the
existing human ratios remaining the same:
• six people would possess 59 percent of the entire world’s wealth and all six would be
from America
• 80 people would live in substandard housing
• 70 would be unable to read
• one person would own a computer
• If you have food in the fridge, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to
sleep, you are richer than 75 percent of this world.
• If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in your back pocket, you are among the top eight percent of the world’s wealthy.
Basic education for all would cost $6 billion a year
• $8 billion is spent annually on cosmetics in the US alone
• Installation of water and sanitation for all would cost $9 billion
• $11 billion is spent annually on ice-cream in Europe
• Basic healthcare and nutrition worldwide would cost $13 billion
• $35 billion is spent each year on business entertainment in Japan
• The total cost of eradicating poverty worldwide is estimated at around $80 billion
• The world spends $800 billion a year on military alone. That’s 10 times the needed
Coffee is produced in Latin America, the Caribbean, in Asia and in Africa. The main
producer is Brazil, which supplies about a quarter of the world’s coffee.
Since the early 1950s, these countries have been persuaded by buyers to give up farming
traditional crops in favour of producing more coffee.
This has led to over-production, plummeting market prices, and sweatshop working conditions.
Coffee prices last year were at an all time low.
Buy fair trade!
As a consumer, you have a choice. You can either buy free trade coffee, which contributes,
or you can pay a little more and buy fair trade coffee.
Fair trade coffee allows farmers to receive enough money from their crops to survive and
not fall into poverty.
So next time you decide to grab a quick coffee, think of those poverty-stricken farmers and buy fair trade coffee!
MERCY
The richest 20 percent of the world’s population now consume 86 percent of its resources. For the vast majority of people, however, even the most basic necessities of life – clean water, food, shelter – are scarce. And this uneven spread of wealth is growing. But poverty is not inevitable. It CAN be overcome. The question is, what are YOU prepared to do?
Understand their world this week
COMPASSION
We are just as much ‘church’ when we are sent as when we gather together. Jesus made us more about being than doing church - Luke 10:17…the joy
The Diet challenge - For this upcoming week, I will be asking all of us tolive on a diet consisting of rice, beans, flour tortilla shells. It has often been said that unless you walk a mile in someone else’s shoes that you really don’t understand what they go through.
It is a challenge to live like most of the world that is in poverty and what they have to survive on. It is a challenge for us to abstain from discretionary purchases this upcoming week. The money that you would normally spend on going out what groceries for a normal week would consist of, the money spent on going out to dinner, clothes, buying a coffee, …we are asking you to give sacrificially above and beyond your tithe on November 30th towards a Partners gift of shelter, water and health that I will share more on Sunday about.
We understand that some of you do have health related issues and no, we don’t expect your kids to live on the same diet although they may decide to do one meal like that with you.
I’ll never forget the time I was a program director at a summer camp. We had problems with some of the campers who took it upon themselves to sleep in and drag down the morale of the camp. So, one morning I decided to grab these guys in their sleeping bags and along with their counselors we threw them into the pool in their pajamas to the delight of their cabin mates. The thing I remember most was not the splash, but the words of those sleepy campers….”What about my needs!’
Well this series is about getting thrown into pool of service and we will discover how our greatest needs for fulfillment and meaning get met when we reach out and serve others.
Today we will look at a very familiar passage, the story of the Good Samaritan.
We are talking about detours today and not necessarily the ones that you encounter while driving, but the ones that you discover on the highway of life. There are some detours that come at you and you can’t choose to go your normal way. They are possibly an illness, the loss of a job, a spouse that walks out on you. There are also detours that we can choose to help someone. We will rediscover the story of the Good Samaritan this morning.
In Luke 10:25-28, the question is asked of Jesus, “On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus…”What must I do to inherit eternal life?”
Experts in the law were respected as lawyers in His time, they were the ones who were professional interpreters of the law. Their three areas of duty included explaining the law as we see in the Pentateuch, to keep alive the memories of past prophets and train others in the knowledge of the law.
Did you catch the motive in his question – He called him a teacher because he wanted to put him to the test
Jesus responds to a question with a question! What is written in the law? He challenges the man to actually do it…just don’t give me lip service
He then tries to narrow his field of service by asking the question, ‘Who is my neighbour?’ In typical lawyer fashion, this guy wants a definition of neighbour and gets more than he bargained for. To the Jews at that time lowing your neighbour meant loving someone who is near in terms of race and religion. Jesus was going to change all that.
Ultimately this guy wasn’t look for an opportunity to love on someone, he just wanted to justify his current status quo….The word justify here in v29 means to ‘excuse himself’ He wanted an excuse to do the bare minimum and come out looking good.
He could answer the question correctly with his lips, but what about the heart? There are many people who are good at talking the talk. I understand that in the Netherlands you can actually be become a professional student. God isn’t looking for professional students…its an apprenticeship and he wants you to learn on the job!
He meant the same thing that W.C. Fields meant when he was found reading the Bible on his deathbed and was asked why…He responded, “I’m looking for loopholes.”
So in understanding Jesus’ response it is important to note that this message is more than just knowing that we need to help people in need. It stretches us to realize just how far, how wide and how deep that level of compassion should reach. It is a story to teach us about excuses and self justification. You love your neighbor…really? how much?
All too easily we let ourselves ‘off the hook’ so to speak from not helping others. We often tell ourselves, ‘well, I can’t help them, it’s too dangerous, it’s too involved, it’s too time consuming, I don’t have the money…
read Luke 10:30-37
Let’s look at the cast of characters in this story:
A priest – a position of supreme importance, he represented the people before God A Levite – a privileged group of people, responsible for liturgy and protecting the temple.
Now his listeners were expecting Jesus to mention an ordinary Jew next, but Jesus states it is a Samaritan…That is like saying ‘there was papa bear, brother bear and a skunk.
Once again remember who Samaritans are: they are the half Jews, the ½ committed, they were the ones who intermarried with the Assyrians when they were living in exile and the racial and religious contempt between these two groups was intense and very violent. In their worship services, they would publically curse Samaritans! They wouldn’t eat anything if they knew it came from a Samaritan
The Good Samaritan teaches us how to look past our excuses and get involved. He teaches us about divine detours which I really like to look at as divine appointments. So how do we move from our dayplanner to giving it to the one who we want to be our Dayrunner!
Divine detours Take Risks.
10v30 The 28km road between Jerusalem and Jericho had an infamous name. It was known as ‘The Way of Blood’. The road descends 3300 feet through desert and rocky country that could easily hide thieves. The fact that he stopped involved great risk because he made himself vulnerable as well.
How do you feel about picking up hitchhikers? I remember doing it as a youth until my parents made me read one of those stories in Reader’s Digest.
Our problem today isn’t that we take too many risks…the question is when is the last time you took a risk, rolled up your sleeves, got involved, invited a friend to church…
Divine Detours Take Personal Involvement
v33,34
When the Samaritan saw the wounded man, he has sincere compassion and bandages the man’s wounds. Possibly he may have used parts of his own clothing and tore strips. Olive oil was used to keep the cut skin supple and the wine was used to clean the wound.
He didn’t wait for someone else to come along, he didn’t pass off the assignment. He got in the ditch with the man and took it upon himself to make a difference. He probably came out of their looking dirty and bloody too.
It was a much different experience for Clive Collins. Here was a 65 year old man in Boscombe, England who while opening his car trunk in a parking lot fell into a five-foot hole after a manhole cover tipped. He shared with the BBC news that about 15-20 people walked by. The more he called out, the less people acknowledged him. Some didn’t even make eye contact. One woman actually parked right beside him and he asked her to call for an ambulance. She refused to even notice him. He waved to one guy who waved back and kept going on his way. He finally managed to get his cell phone out and dial for help. It turned out he needed 47 stitches and treatment for two broken ribs, a chipped tooth and a strained groin!
We need to step up and take notice.
Divine Detours Take Time!
In v34 we see the extent of his care. He took the time to care, to place the man on his donkey and he took it upon himself to find an inn….talk about emergency roadside assistance! Often we use our schedules to justify not helping people out in need. It is probably the most common excuse of them all.
An experiment was done at Princeton Theological Seminary. The students were asked to prepare a talk on a given biblical theme and then present it in a nearby building on campus. Along the way to the presentation, each student ran into a man slumped in an alley, head down, eyes closed, coughing and groaning. The question was, who would stop and help. Before the stage was even set for this experiment, the students were asked in a questionnaire their reason for studying for the ministry. Did they see as a means for spiritual and personal fulfillment or see it as a practical tool for everyday life. Some were asked to give a talk on the relevance of being a pastor and others were given the parable of the Good Samaritan. They also decided to tell some of the students that they were running late for their talk and with others, they told them they had a few minutes to spare.
So what happened?
Only 10% of the students who were in a rush stopped as compared to 63% of those who knew they had some time to spare.
What is the lesson for us?
The words, ‘you’re late’ had the effect of turning an ordinarily compassionate person into someone who was indifferent to suffering
We live, run and are driven by the clock.
The greatest needs are often the ones that no one sees. They take time to see, to peel away the layers of ‘I’m fine’ They are the needs that often stay in the darkness because we fail to draw them out.
I remember learning this early in my ministry. A student came to meet with me and began by asking me questions about how to have a personal quiet time. I thought I did a pretty good job with that conversation only to learn later that the question that was posed was only with the hope to move to a deeper level on a very troubling relationship they were in. I missed it because I didn’t take the time to uncover it.
People out there are asking questions and those questions if answered with sensitivity and care may lead us to more meaningful conversations and greater levels of transparency if we can stop looking at our watches…
Divine Detours Take Money
V35 The next day he took tow silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper….
If you read between the lines, it looks like this Samaritan knew the Innkeeper and had developed a relationship with him. He probably had stayed at this very inn himself from time to time. Then he promises to reimburse him for any additional expenses that he may incur. He didn’t use money as an excuse to not act.
The two silver coins represented about two days wages. He made financial sacrifices to help the man in need. He even said whatever other expenses, I’ll pick up the tab… Think about that, you know how expensive some of those mini bar items might be!
You may not have heard about John Michael Jasset. He was a teenager who a few years ago was hit by a car. He was thrown from his bike and had scrapes on his knee, arm and hands. He staggered into a fast food restaurant and asked for ice to put on his wounds. He was asked to pay for it! The charge was .99 + tax….the cost of a small pop…are you kidding me. It reminds me of the lady who worked at a Tim Hortons in London and was fired for giving a timbit to a mother of a distressed child!
Margaret Thatcher once said, “No one would have remembered the Good Samaritan if he’d only had good intentions. He had money as well.
On Friday night I watched the incredible generosity of many of our people who supported the ministry of The Deck, the YFC drop in youth center. It was awesome to see the response with 240 people present and many of our people leading the way with generosity paying way too much for Leaf tickets and restaurant gift certificates.
As a pastor I was also blessed to see the incredible response to one of the ladies coming out of the shelter as one of you just blessed her with $200- on the spot to help her with a fresh start. Once again the Good For Nothing store is open and buzzing with people. It is such a ministry of blessing to see the winter coats come in for families in need. Keep BEING the Church Southside!!
Now let’s look at the passage as a whole again
Did Jesus answer the question, Who is our neighbour? Yes, he did. Your neighbour is necessarily someone who lives next to you. Your neighbour is anyone in need, anyone you can help. But notice that Jesus did more than answer the question. He asked the expert in the OT, ‘Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers? The expert replied, “the one who had mercy on him” to which Jesus replied, ‘go and do likewise’
In other words, Jesus changed the focus of the question from who is my neighbour to what kind of neighbour are you?
What is the takeaway this morning?
Are you willing and ready to take a divine detour this week?
Who would you want as a neighbour? Who would you want to show up on the scene? The Good Samaritan disadvantaged himself to advantage someone else. Our spiritual journey calls us beyond managing our to-do lists and into a Faith In Action lifestyle that welcomes divine detours to demonstrate God’s love to people in need. He may even interrupt your devotions…watch out. I remember a year ago when God interrupted our home and taught our family to take someone in. I never got past the title of my devotional that morning. It read, ‘Operation Rescue’ and I knew what we needed to do as a family.
No Questions for this series, no questions for discussion.
Action For Movement
I challenge you to get off your normal beaten path of life.
Volunteer to babysit for a single mom Write a letter to a soldier overseas…find out more by either going to http://www.nhop.ca/ or talking to one of those involved with SOS Provide a meal for a family in need. Sign up for the food drive with Salvation Army Sign up for one of the service projects listed for December 7th.
I want to talk about a special challenge that you will be given next week…
It has often been said that unless you walk a mile in someone else’s shoes that you really don’t understand what they go through. I have read about ministries in the inner city that encourage their people to sleep on the street for one night and ask for money. Now, don’t worry, I’m not going to ask you to go on the street…I am going to ask that you prepare to live on a subsistence diet from Monday November 24th – November 28th. Don’t worry we are not the first church to do this. It has been done by others, most notably Willow Creek in Chicago under Bill Hybels who has inspired in taking up this challenge.
It is a challenge to live like most of the world that is in poverty and what they have to survive on. For them and for us that week, it means rice, water, bean and tortillas. It is a challenge for us to give and not to make any ‘splurg’ purchases that week. The money that you would normally spend on going out what groceries for a normal week would consist of, the money spent on going out to dinner, clothes, buying a coffee, …we are asking you to bring it in to the storehouse and then to give sacrificially above and beyond your tithe on November 30th towards a Partners gift of shelter, water and health.
We understand that some of you do have health related issues and no we don’t expect your kids to live on the same diet although they may decide to do one meal like that with you.
*This message is compiled with credit to Brian Mavis, pastor, Lifebridge Church as part of the Faith In Action series.
Is anything too hard for the Lord? That is the question Jeremiah posed to his people in the midst of incredible destruction and devastation. That question is a good one because the first time it was presented was when God had just told Abraham, 100 years young that his wife, Sarah, a mere 90 years old would give birth to a son. Genesis 18:14
Is there a situation in your life that you feel is too hard for you to bear or impossible to solve? Is there something that has caused a great deal of pain for you that clouds your vision of hope? It is so hard at times not to get fixated on the here and now, but Jeremiah had the presence of mind to look beyond what was visible to what was invisible, the future presence of the righteous Branch!
Jeremiah had been through five different reigns from the time of Josiah to Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin and finally Zedekiah. He is 57 years old and has been a prophet for 35 years. He has worn yokes, broken clay pots, worn a linen belt and let it rot out among the rocks, seen the significance of bad and very good figs. He watched his fellow prophet killed with a sword for preaching the same message of judgment, heard that his messages were torched with fire and he was left for dead in an empty well! Thanks for coming out Jeremiah.
Zedekiah did not listen to Jeremiah and compromised himself by entering negotiations with Pharaoh Hophra in 589 BC. At one point in the battle between the nations, the Egyptians were succeeding against the Babylonians and they withdrew but only temporarily and the siege immediately resumed. We walked with Jeremiah through his lowest point in his ministry as he was left for dead in the disused cistern
He didn’t have anything really to show for all his faithfulness and effort. He was looking to God for a miracle and so too was Zedekiah. We read in 21:2, “Inquire now of the Lord for us because Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon is attacking us. Perhaps the Lord will perform wonders for us as in times past so that he will withdraw from us.”
21v3,4 give the answer that there would be no miracle on this day, there would be no deliverance. The section closes with no mercy, no pity or compassion. If only he could deliver a different message and then - his reward for faithfulness, he gets thrown into the hole and then brought up mercifully to be placed in another prison, the court of the guard.
Jeremiah 30:12-17; 31:3,9 The Lord doesn’t justify the past, He redeems it! He doesn’t justify the tragedies nor does He need to orchestrate them in order to accomplish his purposes.
It was a huge act of faith for Jeremiah and it is at this time around 587BC that he gives his greatest prophecy of a time of restoration.
v12 your wound is incurable, your injury beyond healing
There is no way out of the hole that you have dug for yourself. There is no human way possible to escape the consequences of this disease called sin. We have walked away from the Redeemer and tried to medicate our own souls. We stumble in the darkness of trying to satisfy our own insatiable desires. The wear and tear on our souls has left us spiritually exhausted.
v17 but I will restore you to health and heal your wounds
In spite of ourselves, He is the one who is faithful when we are not. He is the one who awaits us with open arms at the end of a long road called, ‘the way home’. Get a right vision of God.
One writer shares how often we think of Jesus as the forgiving and grace filled One and God as the stern One, the judge and yet Jesus was sent to show us the very heart and touch of God.
31v3 the Lord appeared to us in the past, saying: I have loved your with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with lovingkindness. I will build you up again.
Jeremiah found God’s irresistible grace. I have loved you with an everlasting love
v9 They will come with weeping; they will pray as I bring them back. I will lead them beside streams of water on a level path where they will not stumble.
The promises of redemption. Jeremiah 32:1,2,6
Now, we find Jeremiah doing something unthinkable during the last stages of the siege on Jerusalem. He buys land belonging to his cousin Anathoth. It would be likened to some one today buying stocks in a company going bankrupt. What was the method in his madness. Well he envisioned a time when the fields would be purchased again. God is far from done here. The promise of redemption was not just wishful thinking, it was a reality for Jeremiah. When others when selling out on hope, Jeremiah was full of hope! Just when we think it can’t get any worse for Jeremiah and we expect the worst of his feelings and bitterness to flow, He delivers His greatest inspiration!
In spite of the invasion that was in full flight, Jeremiah could imagine a day when the temple would be destroyed. He could anticipate a time when the ark of the covenant would be dispensed with and God would write those laws on our heart instead of tablets of stone. The prophecies of Jeremiah closed with hope! It is hope in the Lord that doesn’t disappoint.
Jeremiah could foresee a new covenant:
What will make it stand apart? 31v33,34
It will be on His people’s minds and written on their hearts
It will be personal
It will be memorable
It will be complete and total forgiveness
Qualities of the new covenant continued in 32:39-41
It will be focused and clear v39
It will be an everlasting covenant
It will inspire godly fear v40a
It will bring wholehearted devotion v40b
It will bring rejoicing and firmly plant His people in the land
v44 This is why Jeremiah purchased land. It was his last object lesson and act of faith. He knew the day was coming when the land and more importantly the people would be redeemed.
Jeremiah didn’t have the NT but he had all the elements of it. He knew it would be no more about ‘Thou shalt’ and ‘Thou shalt not’. He knew it was impossible for people to live up to that. It would be based on God’s ‘I will’s’ It was going to be written on their hearts, not their hands or merely just rote memorized in their heads. He finally realized it was always something that would come about internally and not conformed to by mere externals. It was always at the heart of God…sacrifices and offerings you did not desire, but a broken and contrite heart… Some commentators have called this passage the Gospel before the Gospel!! The revelation came to Jeremiah in the midst of the incredible destruction he witnessed firsthand. He saw everything he ever treasured apart from His relationship with God completely wiped out.
As far as redemption goes…
Jesus doesn’t ask you to live up to it, He expects you to live in it
Jeremiah 33:3,6-8,15-17; 23:5,6
The beginning of a new covenant which would ultimately be fulfilled in Christ Jesus our Lord! Turn all those statements around and place Jesus there.
We will be motivated by love not by expectations. The new covenant is something that is placed within us. We respond out of what He has already done for us! No longer is it, “I am trying to do something for God” but look what God is creating in me, what He is doing through me…its ridiculously great!
Many of the prophets understood and knew the holiness of God. Isaiah knew it. Many of the prophets knew of the power of God, Daniel knew it. Many of them knew the justice of God, Amos knew it. But also revealed to Jeremiah was the love of God.
In His holiness, God hates sin and in His justice, He must punish it. However it that is all we knew of God, where would be the hope, the grace, the mercy? God cannot violate His character. So with the strength of justice and His power, He must be true His character. He is a God of holiness and justice, but you now bring His love. His love is made manifest in His Son Jesus who takes upon Himself our sin, He who knew no sin. He becomes our righteousness and brings life and light to our utter hopeless situation.
As His children, we not only receive God’s righteousness applied to our lives, but we have a new heart and God’s promises engraved on them. The Holy Spirit takes residence and makes it a living reality in us.
Jeremiah is still in prison, but gone is the prison of the soul. No situation could hold him back now. He held on to the hope of His Redeemer, a new day is dawning, a New Covenant will come!
The takeaway is for the believer is this -
Circumstances are often hard to justify, but God always redeems the situation. It doesn’t stop there. He has called us to a ministry of restoration.
This is where we must rest our confidence and hope. He is the God who heals, brings restoration and delivers hope.
Questions For Discussion and Small Groups
Is there a situation in your life that you have to remind yourself of the truth, “is anything too hard for the Lord’?
Have you experienced His ‘irresistible grace’? If so, how?
What truth about the new covenant gives you the greatest amount of hope in your life?
