WEBVTT 00:00:05.680 --> 00:00:11.980 Good morning, everyone. Nice to be back. Let's have the first slide up, if we can. 00:00:13.560 --> 00:00:18.440 Good. You'll notice that that's only three verses. 00:00:19.380 --> 00:00:26.260 And actually, I think in all the time I've preached in this church, this is probably the shortest passage I've ever been asked to speak on. 00:00:26.940 --> 00:00:33.430 So, I thought we would do the reading slightly differently and involve all of you. 00:00:33.430 --> 00:00:36.230 but I'm not going to put the words 00:00:36.230 --> 00:00:36.890 on the screen 00:00:36.890 --> 00:00:39.510 so I'm going to read you a verse 00:00:39.510 --> 00:00:41.190 and then I want you to repeat it to me 00:00:41.190 --> 00:00:43.870 so that means you'll need to 00:00:43.870 --> 00:00:45.090 listen 00:00:45.090 --> 00:00:46.870 and hopefully this will work 00:00:46.870 --> 00:00:48.190 we might even do it twice 00:00:48.190 --> 00:00:49.490 because it's quite short 00:00:49.490 --> 00:00:55.570 because of the miraculous signs 00:00:55.570 --> 00:00:57.410 Jesus did in Jerusalem 00:00:57.410 --> 00:00:59.590 at the Passover celebration 00:00:59.590 --> 00:01:02.510 many began to trust in him 00:01:02.510 --> 00:01:10.930 okay 00:01:10.930 --> 00:01:12.890 let's have another go 00:01:12.890 --> 00:01:20.440 let's have another go. Because of the miraculous signs Jesus did in Jerusalem at the Passover 00:01:20.440 --> 00:01:40.070 celebration, many began to trust in him. Ian, you confused the audience there, but we got it, 00:01:40.110 --> 00:01:44.530 we're getting it. Fortunately, that was the longest sentence, so it should get a little 00:01:44.530 --> 00:01:57.580 easier now. But Jesus didn't trust them because he knew all about people. Right, okay, then this, 00:01:57.580 --> 00:02:04.970 the last one is a little bit longer, we'll do it in two parts then. No one needed to tell him about 00:02:04.970 --> 00:02:23.260 human nature, for he knew what was in each person's heart. Okay, good, we've got that. 00:02:24.520 --> 00:02:31.550 So let's have the next slide. So that's the first sentence that we looked at, 00:02:31.550 --> 00:02:34.030 and I guess it kind of sets the scene. 00:02:35.550 --> 00:02:40.430 We can piece together a bit of a timeline of Jesus' ministry, 00:02:40.430 --> 00:02:45.190 starting with his baptism by John the Baptist 00:02:45.190 --> 00:02:49.030 and ending with the resurrection and the ascension. 00:02:49.630 --> 00:02:52.790 And that's a period of about three to three and a half years. 00:02:54.020 --> 00:02:57.320 And during the majority of that time, 00:02:57.480 --> 00:03:01.460 Jesus' base is well to the north of Jerusalem, 00:03:01.680 --> 00:03:07.660 in an area called Galilee, around a kind of body of water that we know as the Sea of Galilee. 00:03:08.480 --> 00:03:13.300 And Galilee would have been about a five to seven day walk to Jerusalem, 00:03:14.590 --> 00:03:22.110 and actually an extremely hilly walk. So if you imagine kind of walking from here to Manchester 00:03:22.110 --> 00:03:28.580 and back, that's a sort of idea about the distance, only it would have been much hillier. 00:03:30.000 --> 00:03:33.580 So Jesus is mainly based around Galilee, 00:03:34.000 --> 00:03:37.140 and he makes occasional visits to Jerusalem, 00:03:37.240 --> 00:03:39.340 and that's obviously quite a trek to get there. 00:03:39.800 --> 00:03:41.960 And he often comes for the big festivals, 00:03:42.340 --> 00:03:44.880 and Passover is an annual festival, 00:03:45.260 --> 00:03:48.440 and it's a very big deal in the Jewish religion. 00:03:48.440 --> 00:03:50.220 So Jesus has come. 00:03:50.320 --> 00:03:52.240 This is his first visit to Jerusalem 00:03:52.240 --> 00:03:55.660 after he was baptized in the Jordan River. 00:03:55.660 --> 00:04:04.500 And we see that because of the miraculous signs Jesus is doing, people are starting to put their faith in Jesus. 00:04:06.090 --> 00:04:17.140 Actually, there is an interesting point in this, that if you read John's gospel up till now, you won't have heard of a miracle in Jerusalem. 00:04:19.030 --> 00:04:24.230 So we've had one significant miracle, which is turning the water into wine. 00:04:24.850 --> 00:04:27.790 That's in a place called Cana, and Cana is in Galilee. 00:04:28.650 --> 00:04:30.970 So John's not referring to that here. 00:04:31.790 --> 00:04:36.190 And the reason is that we can find towards the end of John's gospel. 00:04:36.190 --> 00:04:43.490 John says Jesus did many more miracles in the sight of the disciples than are written here. 00:04:45.230 --> 00:04:52.970 And so the miraculous signs that Jesus is doing is leading people to put their trust in him. 00:04:54.410 --> 00:04:55.910 Let's have the next slide. 00:04:57.860 --> 00:05:00.560 And I took this picture in Eccles Hall Woods, 00:05:00.700 --> 00:05:02.480 and it's just a picture of a signpost. 00:05:03.060 --> 00:05:06.740 And I guess what a sign does, I guess it does two things. 00:05:06.900 --> 00:05:10.260 It points to something, and it contains information. 00:05:10.560 --> 00:05:13.420 So, you know, typically a sign is kind of showing the way to go, 00:05:13.540 --> 00:05:15.820 and it's also giving you some information. 00:05:16.440 --> 00:05:19.740 And that's kind of what the miracles are doing. 00:05:20.980 --> 00:05:23.460 You know, they're giving us information. 00:05:23.460 --> 00:05:27.540 Often they're giving us information about God's character. 00:05:28.440 --> 00:05:33.500 You know, the majority of the miracles were, in fact, healings. 00:05:34.020 --> 00:05:40.140 And healings tell us something about God's compassion for people who are in difficulty. 00:05:42.050 --> 00:05:44.890 And we might add to that things like the feeding of the 5,000. 00:05:44.970 --> 00:05:46.670 We see something of God's character. 00:05:46.970 --> 00:05:50.470 They're not kind of random supernatural things. 00:05:51.560 --> 00:05:56.560 As far as we know, Jesus never was transported from Galilee to Jerusalem in half a day. 00:05:57.060 --> 00:06:01.280 He had to walk it over five to seven days through the hills. 00:06:01.860 --> 00:06:04.560 So they're not kind of random supernatural things. 00:06:04.560 --> 00:06:13.680 It's not like watching one of these things on TV about some being with special powers that can just do stuff. 00:06:14.180 --> 00:06:16.380 They are telling us about God's character. 00:06:17.260 --> 00:06:20.180 And in particular, they're pointing kind of at Jesus. 00:06:20.180 --> 00:06:24.220 And they're asking us to consider the question, who is Jesus? 00:06:25.630 --> 00:06:28.390 So they're pointing at Jesus and asking to see that. 00:06:28.830 --> 00:06:34.870 And we can see that when it said in the previous slide, you know, they began to trust in him, 00:06:36.090 --> 00:06:43.690 is that that process of coming to faith wasn't simply believing stuff or even believing what we would ordinarily think of as beliefs. 00:06:44.250 --> 00:06:46.470 There's actually a personal dimension to it. 00:06:46.550 --> 00:06:49.170 It's putting your trust in Jesus. 00:06:50.180 --> 00:06:52.260 So it's got that personal dimension. 00:06:52.260 --> 00:06:58.300 In fact, many of the translations would say they trusted in Jesus' name. 00:06:58.940 --> 00:07:00.540 You know, put their trust in the name of Jesus. 00:07:00.680 --> 00:07:02.800 And name meant who Jesus really was. 00:07:02.840 --> 00:07:04.860 So there's that personal dimension. 00:07:06.680 --> 00:07:08.700 But let's go on to the next slide. 00:07:09.240 --> 00:07:12.980 And this will be one that will certainly have hit you as we were reading the passage. 00:07:13.740 --> 00:07:16.420 Because we start with that bit about the signs. 00:07:16.500 --> 00:07:17.860 And many people are trusting in you. 00:07:17.980 --> 00:07:19.040 Isn't that fantastic? 00:07:19.040 --> 00:07:22.060 You know, it's like the Alpha Corps, people are putting their trust in God. 00:07:22.160 --> 00:07:23.120 This is fantastic. 00:07:24.300 --> 00:07:27.780 And then we read, but Jesus didn't trust them. 00:07:29.070 --> 00:07:30.850 And that comes as a bit of a shock. 00:07:31.880 --> 00:07:38.580 In fact, I was sharing last weekend with a good friend, a real kind of man of God, 00:07:38.680 --> 00:07:41.300 and I said, well, this is what I've got to preach on. 00:07:41.600 --> 00:07:45.700 And I showed him the passage, and he said, oh, he said, that sounds a bit negative. 00:07:46.850 --> 00:07:48.050 And it does, really. 00:07:48.050 --> 00:07:57.570 And, you know, if we were to have a conversation after the service and you were to say to me, 00:07:57.870 --> 00:08:02.230 Chris, I'd really like to be your friend, and I said, well, yeah, that's fine, 00:08:02.290 --> 00:08:06.450 but you've got to know I don't trust you, then we wouldn't have got off to a good start 00:08:06.450 --> 00:08:11.550 because trust feels kind of basic to relationship. 00:08:13.190 --> 00:08:16.230 So let's spend some time thinking about this thing 00:08:16.230 --> 00:08:19.470 that kind of jars a bit when we first read it. 00:08:19.570 --> 00:08:21.650 We think, well, what on earth does that mean? 00:08:21.770 --> 00:08:24.090 How do I make sense of that? 00:08:25.580 --> 00:08:27.400 Let's have the next slide. 00:08:30.400 --> 00:08:34.900 One answer that's traditionally been given over many centuries 00:08:34.900 --> 00:08:38.980 has been these people who were putting their trust in Jesus 00:08:38.980 --> 00:08:40.360 weren't the real deal. 00:08:40.580 --> 00:08:43.020 They weren't genuine disciples. 00:08:43.020 --> 00:08:48.120 They're not the real thing, and that's often been suggested as being the reason. 00:08:48.180 --> 00:08:51.520 Jesus doesn't trust them because they're not the real deal. 00:08:53.120 --> 00:08:58.600 And we can't discount that explanation because, after all, Jesus says, 00:08:58.640 --> 00:09:01.540 this is another difficult saying, but Jesus says, 00:09:02.220 --> 00:09:06.400 not everyone who calls out to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. 00:09:06.800 --> 00:09:10.680 Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter. 00:09:10.680 --> 00:09:17.680 On Judgment Day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, but I will reply, I never knew you. 00:09:19.880 --> 00:09:29.540 So at any time, there will be people who are mouthing Christian things, who are saying, Lord, Lord. 00:09:29.920 --> 00:09:41.650 And even actually in context, people who are in significant positions of ministry who are saying, Lord, Lord, but do not really know Jesus and have not been transformed by him. 00:09:41.650 --> 00:09:46.400 So we can't, you know, that is a possible explanation. 00:09:47.920 --> 00:09:58.500 But as we spend a bit more time on this, I think more truths come to light and we see more than this alone. 00:09:59.960 --> 00:10:01.780 Let's go with it. 00:10:01.840 --> 00:10:03.360 Let's have the next slide. 00:10:05.150 --> 00:10:10.870 And in a way, our wrestling with this verse brings into question, 00:10:11.050 --> 00:10:15.350 well, how do I in general deal with difficult things in the Bible? 00:10:15.670 --> 00:10:17.270 And when I say difficult things in the Bible, 00:10:17.410 --> 00:10:20.090 I'm not really things of things that we just read and we think, 00:10:20.150 --> 00:10:23.030 I just don't understand that, what that means. 00:10:23.170 --> 00:10:26.310 I mean, the things that, in a sense, we do sort of understand what they mean, 00:10:26.310 --> 00:10:31.010 but actually they do kind of jar, we think, how does that fit? 00:10:31.130 --> 00:10:33.990 I just don't, I'm struggling with this bit. 00:10:33.990 --> 00:10:36.930 So how do I handle difficult bits in the Bible? 00:10:39.010 --> 00:10:47.140 Well, let me start with something from some things I think we shouldn't do. 00:10:47.600 --> 00:10:52.760 Some people, I think, read the Bible and they're reading the Bible and asking themselves, 00:10:53.020 --> 00:10:57.080 what do I agree with and what do I not agree with? 00:10:58.240 --> 00:11:03.120 So, you know, I agree with this, but I like this bit and this other bit I don't like. 00:11:03.860 --> 00:11:05.960 So what's wrong with that? 00:11:08.460 --> 00:11:12.140 Well, if I put it this way, I think it displays a deep confusion 00:11:12.140 --> 00:11:16.160 about our role in relation to God's Word. 00:11:17.200 --> 00:11:21.560 See, God's Word is there to search and interrogate us. 00:11:22.020 --> 00:11:24.980 It's there to ask questions of you and I. 00:11:27.220 --> 00:11:29.640 We do not sit in judgment on God's Word. 00:11:29.980 --> 00:11:32.000 Rather, God's Word judges us. 00:11:32.000 --> 00:11:35.180 And when we kind of say, oh, I like this bit and I don't like that bit, 00:11:35.200 --> 00:11:42.040 We're like some, you know, demented man in the dock shouting abuse at the judge and the barristers. 00:11:42.900 --> 00:11:44.760 He's not understood who's on trial here. 00:11:46.640 --> 00:11:51.500 So I think that kind of rejecting the bits that we don't like is plainly wrong. 00:11:53.210 --> 00:12:00.930 Something else we can sometimes do, which I think is less than ideal, is we simply close our eyes and we hurry on. 00:12:02.310 --> 00:12:04.370 And why is that wrong? 00:12:04.370 --> 00:12:07.530 I guess because it doesn't feel entirely honest. 00:12:07.570 --> 00:12:12.580 and also God might have been wanting to say something 00:12:12.580 --> 00:12:14.740 through this thing that I am struggling to understand 00:12:14.740 --> 00:12:19.140 and I'm not going to get that if I'm blanking it. 00:12:20.820 --> 00:12:23.280 A third thing I still think is less than ideal 00:12:23.280 --> 00:12:25.760 is we grab the first explanation going 00:12:25.760 --> 00:12:28.820 and you can always find an explanation 00:12:28.820 --> 00:12:31.260 because if that's a great explanation then that's fine 00:12:31.260 --> 00:12:33.720 but in the case of grabbing the first thing going 00:12:33.720 --> 00:12:36.060 actually that's a bit like the previous one isn't it? 00:12:36.340 --> 00:12:37.680 Does it feel entirely honest? 00:12:38.140 --> 00:12:40.000 Is there an insecurity there? 00:12:40.000 --> 00:12:46.620 are we missing an opportunity that God might be trying to challenge my thinking through something 00:12:46.620 --> 00:12:54.000 that I am currently struggling with? So what can we do? I probably could add to this list, 00:12:54.100 --> 00:12:58.400 but I'm going to mention a couple of things. I think one thing, be prepared to sit in the 00:12:58.400 --> 00:13:05.820 discomfort. You know, if that thing is an irritant at the moment, it may be because God is trying to 00:13:05.820 --> 00:13:13.420 say something to me. So I might need to sit with that and not rush and say, God, show me things 00:13:13.420 --> 00:13:21.030 through this. But I think next what we can do is we can say, well, how do I make sense of this verse 00:13:21.030 --> 00:13:29.160 in the context of the rest of the Bible? And the best commentary on the Bible is the Bible. 00:13:31.060 --> 00:13:37.960 So as we know the Bible in its entirety, or we know that the other teachings in the Bible, that 00:13:37.960 --> 00:13:44.830 helps us to understand this thing that we are currently struggling with. I think some of you 00:13:44.830 --> 00:13:51.050 were at the Alpha course. It talked about, maybe it's a slightly mechanistic example, but it's a 00:13:51.050 --> 00:13:56.270 bit like a crossword. You know, sometimes you're struggling to find the clue, and you get a couple 00:13:56.270 --> 00:14:01.130 of the other ones right, and then because you got the others right, that helps you get this one 00:14:01.130 --> 00:14:07.450 right. So as we read the Bible generally, that helps us deal with some of the difficult stuff. 00:14:07.450 --> 00:14:12.150 But let's go on to the next slide. 00:14:14.120 --> 00:14:16.820 I don't know how many of you have watched The Traitors. 00:14:17.960 --> 00:14:20.020 I have. I say I find it quite gripping. 00:14:20.160 --> 00:14:21.140 I will confess that. 00:14:21.260 --> 00:14:25.240 But it's currently a BBC reality game show, 00:14:25.840 --> 00:14:29.300 and it's one of the biggest hits on the BBC currently. 00:14:30.060 --> 00:14:33.780 And in that game show, there are about 20 contestants, 00:14:34.040 --> 00:14:36.580 and they're taken to a castle somewhere in Scotland. 00:14:36.580 --> 00:14:41.280 and of the 20, about three or four are picked to be what are called traitors 00:14:41.280 --> 00:14:43.620 and the other are the faithful. 00:14:44.440 --> 00:14:47.740 And the game is that every night or nearly every night, 00:14:47.860 --> 00:14:50.220 the traitors get to murder one of the faithful, 00:14:51.040 --> 00:14:52.840 get them off the game. 00:14:53.780 --> 00:14:55.620 And again, similarly nearly every day, 00:14:55.720 --> 00:14:57.240 they have what's called the round table 00:14:57.240 --> 00:14:59.480 and the whole group tries to vote for somebody 00:14:59.480 --> 00:15:03.400 who they think will be a traitor and get rid of that person. 00:15:03.400 --> 00:15:06.360 And this goes on over a number of rounds. 00:15:08.000 --> 00:15:12.840 And the thing about that game show is it only works 00:15:12.840 --> 00:15:15.740 because human beings turn out to be very poor 00:15:15.740 --> 00:15:18.540 at judging what is in somebody else's heart. 00:15:19.630 --> 00:15:21.630 So, you know, one of the amusing things about the story 00:15:21.630 --> 00:15:24.450 is you get people on a bin and somebody's been a, you know, 00:15:24.490 --> 00:15:27.850 a very experienced barrister who's cross-examined people in court 00:15:27.850 --> 00:15:31.190 and you've got a senior police officer and a psychologist 00:15:31.190 --> 00:15:33.250 and people have done this and people have done that 00:15:33.250 --> 00:15:37.010 and they're consistently failing to identify the traitors. 00:15:37.310 --> 00:15:41.170 and misidentifying faithful as if traitors and getting rid of it. 00:15:41.310 --> 00:15:44.830 And in the last series, at the end of it, there's only two people left standing, 00:15:45.230 --> 00:15:48.170 Rachel and Stephen, it turns out they were the traitors, you know. 00:15:48.690 --> 00:15:54.190 So that's how, so human beings generally don't know what's in somebody's heart. 00:15:55.760 --> 00:16:00.680 So when John tells us that Jesus knew what was in each person's heart, 00:16:01.780 --> 00:16:04.140 that is a pointer to who Jesus really is. 00:16:04.460 --> 00:16:07.660 Because that is not a power that human beings have. 00:16:09.510 --> 00:16:12.730 So God knows what's in our heart, and we don't. 00:16:13.090 --> 00:16:16.570 And we can see that in a number of other places in Scripture. 00:16:17.330 --> 00:16:19.510 Let's have the next slide. 00:16:21.470 --> 00:16:25.110 So the backstory to this one, this is Samuel, 00:16:25.270 --> 00:16:27.990 who was a very significant prophet in Israel at the time. 00:16:27.990 --> 00:16:34.350 And the Lord has told Samuel to anoint a new king to replace Saul. 00:16:34.350 --> 00:16:39.430 and Samuel is sent to Bethlehem 00:16:39.430 --> 00:16:41.870 and he's sent to a man called Jesse 00:16:41.870 --> 00:16:43.270 who has a number of sons 00:16:43.270 --> 00:16:46.530 and as he's introduced to the sons 00:16:46.530 --> 00:16:49.870 Samuel spots one who looks pretty impressive 00:16:49.870 --> 00:16:52.210 and he thinks this must be the one 00:16:52.210 --> 00:16:54.980 and then we get to this verse 00:16:54.980 --> 00:16:57.260 but the Lord said to Samuel 00:16:57.260 --> 00:17:00.480 don't judge by his appearance or height 00:17:00.480 --> 00:17:02.240 for I have rejected him 00:17:02.240 --> 00:17:05.380 the Lord doesn't see things the way you see them 00:17:05.380 --> 00:17:14.300 people judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. So that ability to see into 00:17:14.300 --> 00:17:23.110 hearts is reserved for God himself. So when we learn in John's gospel that Jesus has this ability, 00:17:23.110 --> 00:17:33.930 it is a pointer to who Jesus really is. And we can see that in other parts of the Bible as well. 00:17:33.930 --> 00:17:35.910 Let's have the next slide. 00:17:37.860 --> 00:17:40.120 The human heart, this is the prophet Jeremiah, 00:17:40.600 --> 00:17:44.640 the human heart is the most deceitful of all things 00:17:44.640 --> 00:17:46.560 and desperately wicked. 00:17:47.200 --> 00:17:49.500 Who really knows how bad it is? 00:17:50.040 --> 00:17:52.760 But I, the Lord, search all hearts 00:17:52.760 --> 00:17:55.180 and examine secret motives. 00:17:56.050 --> 00:17:57.130 So again, Jeremiah, 00:17:57.370 --> 00:18:01.030 that God has that ability to see hearts. 00:18:01.030 --> 00:18:03.420 I sometimes think 00:18:03.420 --> 00:18:05.520 when we read the previous example 00:18:05.520 --> 00:18:07.120 you know the one about Samuel and David 00:18:07.120 --> 00:18:08.880 isn't that lovely that God 00:18:08.880 --> 00:18:11.300 can see hearts and he's interested 00:18:11.300 --> 00:18:13.300 in what's in somebody's heart and not in their 00:18:13.300 --> 00:18:14.860 appearance, isn't that lovely 00:18:14.860 --> 00:18:17.740 that kind of rather depends on 00:18:17.740 --> 00:18:19.280 my heart being 00:18:19.280 --> 00:18:21.000 lovelier than my appearance 00:18:21.000 --> 00:18:24.000 and my 00:18:24.000 --> 00:18:25.780 appearance has never amounted to much but 00:18:25.780 --> 00:18:27.280 it looks better than my heart 00:18:27.280 --> 00:18:29.260 so God 00:18:29.260 --> 00:18:31.420 sees and searches 00:18:31.420 --> 00:18:34.950 and knows all things, and so does Jesus. 00:18:37.320 --> 00:18:37.880 Next slide. 00:18:41.700 --> 00:18:45.590 But I did say my friend's first reaction was, 00:18:45.770 --> 00:18:47.590 isn't that negative? 00:18:47.730 --> 00:18:48.750 That sounds negative. 00:18:49.810 --> 00:18:52.190 I think there's another way of looking at it, 00:18:52.190 --> 00:18:54.830 which I can take us to, when I think, actually, 00:18:54.890 --> 00:18:58.030 we start to see this not as a negative thing, 00:18:58.030 --> 00:19:01.670 but as an incredibly positive and important thing. 00:19:02.600 --> 00:19:04.440 So this is the story of Hagar. 00:19:04.440 --> 00:19:12.400 and Hagar is a young single parent on the run from abuse, on her own with her child, and she 00:19:12.400 --> 00:19:20.490 has a powerful encounter with God. And after that encounter with God, this is what Hagar says. 00:19:20.490 --> 00:19:30.100 She refers to God as, you are the God who sees me. And I think that's incredibly important to 00:19:30.100 --> 00:19:40.200 understand and find comfort in the fact that God sees you. The truth is that God knows me 00:19:40.200 --> 00:19:51.350 better than anybody else. God knows me completely. I have no secrets from God. And surely there's a 00:19:51.350 --> 00:20:00.720 huge comfort in that. I can be, in a sense, naked before God. He knows me completely. The details of 00:20:00.720 --> 00:20:07.740 my life are known to him. The psalmist at one point says that all our tears are kept in a bottle 00:20:07.740 --> 00:20:16.880 by God. And that's that thought that nothing in our life passes him by, that he knows me 00:20:16.880 --> 00:20:25.700 completely. I can be myself with God. In truth, I can be myself with God in a way that's deeper 00:20:25.700 --> 00:20:33.320 and richer than I can be with any other person, because God alone knows me completely. So Hagar, 00:20:33.480 --> 00:20:40.200 far from being kind of repelled by this idea, is actually seeing the positive. You are the God 00:20:40.200 --> 00:20:48.240 who sees me. I am there before you. All the hurts and pains in my life, all my shortcomings and 00:20:48.240 --> 00:20:59.220 failings are known to God. Next slide. This is a very familiar story, but I'm going to read part 00:20:59.220 --> 00:21:04.960 bit, but I'll also tell you the introduction. So this comes at the end of Jesus' life and 00:21:04.960 --> 00:21:11.080 they're actually on the way from the Last Supper to the Garden of Gethsemane and Jesus 00:21:11.080 --> 00:21:22.270 will very shortly be arrested. And Jesus has just said, I'm going to be arrested and 00:21:22.270 --> 00:21:28.490 you will all desert me. So Jesus has just given them that piece of information. And 00:21:28.490 --> 00:21:32.030 And, of course, Peter's reaction is no, no, no. 00:21:32.410 --> 00:21:36.850 Peter said to him, even if everyone else deserts you, I never will. 00:21:37.980 --> 00:21:40.360 Jesus replied, I tell you the truth, Peter. 00:21:40.660 --> 00:21:44.000 This very night, before the cock crows twice, 00:21:44.520 --> 00:21:47.140 you will deny three times that you even know me. 00:21:48.190 --> 00:21:49.870 No, Peter declared emphatically. 00:21:50.170 --> 00:21:53.190 Even if I have to die with you, I will never deny you. 00:21:53.490 --> 00:21:55.910 And all the others vowed the same. 00:21:55.910 --> 00:22:07.580 I'm thinking about, you know, Jesus' response to Peter's first line, 00:22:07.960 --> 00:22:11.720 even if everyone else deserts you, I never will. 00:22:15.030 --> 00:22:20.170 I guess Jesus could have just put his arms around Peter at that point and said, 00:22:20.230 --> 00:22:23.890 listen, Peter, I really appreciate what you just said. 00:22:23.990 --> 00:22:26.690 I trust you, and that's fantastic. 00:22:28.880 --> 00:22:31.420 So why does Jesus not do that? 00:22:31.420 --> 00:22:39.740 well first of all because he knows Peter he knows Peter better than Peter knows Peter 00:22:39.740 --> 00:22:47.000 he knows the truth and he will not sacrifice the truth to make Peter feel better in that instance 00:22:47.000 --> 00:22:52.530 I'm sure if Jesus had done that if he had put his arm around and said Peter I trust you this is 00:22:52.530 --> 00:22:57.390 fantastic what you've just said it's lovely then then Peter would have been cheered up by that 00:22:57.390 --> 00:23:05.620 until the betrayal. You see, you know, if you want a God who will only say nice things to you, 00:23:05.900 --> 00:23:11.970 who will flatter you and tell you the things you want to hear and not worry too much about whether 00:23:11.970 --> 00:23:21.010 they're true, then you're not ready for Jesus, because Jesus will only deal with the truth. 00:23:22.500 --> 00:23:32.440 But what we can also see is that after the betrayal, after Peter does indeed reject Jesus 00:23:32.440 --> 00:23:34.340 and denies that he's ever known him. 00:23:36.510 --> 00:23:38.850 But Jesus' words actually become a huge comfort. 00:23:42.500 --> 00:23:44.060 So actually, in telling the truth, 00:23:44.760 --> 00:23:47.460 he is also speaking words that will build up 00:23:47.460 --> 00:23:50.480 and strengthen Peter in the days to come. 00:23:54.600 --> 00:23:57.960 Let's kind of draw some conclusions. 00:23:58.140 --> 00:23:59.840 I'm not quite finished, but we'll draw some conclusions. 00:24:00.240 --> 00:24:00.780 Next slide. 00:24:03.480 --> 00:24:05.940 When Peter denied ever knowing Jesus, 00:24:08.050 --> 00:24:09.630 Peter was surprised and devastated. 00:24:10.690 --> 00:24:11.270 Yes or no? 00:24:12.040 --> 00:24:12.600 Yes. 00:24:13.260 --> 00:24:17.260 In fact, actually we read at the end of Mark 14, I think it's the final verse, 00:24:17.260 --> 00:24:24.740 it says, and Peter wept, broke down and wept bitterly when he heard the cock crow. 00:24:25.220 --> 00:24:28.680 So Peter finds he's not the big disciple he thought he was. 00:24:29.650 --> 00:24:31.530 He's not the person he wanted to be. 00:24:31.870 --> 00:24:33.070 He let himself down. 00:24:34.250 --> 00:24:36.250 So Peter was surprised and devastated. 00:24:38.070 --> 00:24:41.560 But Jesus, was Jesus surprised and devastated? 00:24:42.570 --> 00:24:44.990 Well, the answer is no, because Jesus had predicted it. 00:24:44.990 --> 00:24:46.570 Jesus knew what was coming. 00:24:46.950 --> 00:24:47.990 He understood it. 00:24:48.890 --> 00:24:50.090 But Jesus still loved him. 00:24:51.170 --> 00:24:52.290 Jesus still loved him. 00:24:54.390 --> 00:24:54.930 Next slide. 00:24:58.690 --> 00:25:00.550 So let's draw some conclusions. 00:25:00.690 --> 00:25:04.090 First of all, that God sees the real you. 00:25:05.190 --> 00:25:11.430 It can be a place of huge comfort, but he sees the real you as you really are, warts and all. 00:25:13.530 --> 00:25:20.490 Two, you won't properly understand God's love for you until you face up to your own untrustworthiness. 00:25:20.490 --> 00:25:25.800 You know, I'm sure Peter knew that Jesus loved him before all that happened. 00:25:27.070 --> 00:25:32.960 But I suspect afterwards, after he'd come face to face with his own broken nature, 00:25:33.560 --> 00:25:37.760 Peter had a richer sense of Jesus' love and compassion. 00:25:38.600 --> 00:25:45.320 You know, if I think I'm basically a decent sort, not perfect, but you know, not a bad person really, 00:25:45.820 --> 00:25:48.700 I'll never fully grasp God's love. 00:25:49.660 --> 00:25:52.100 It's only as I see myself as I really am 00:25:52.100 --> 00:25:54.400 and understand my sinfulness, 00:25:54.520 --> 00:25:59.400 I understand the immensity of God's love and care for me. 00:26:03.120 --> 00:26:06.890 Three, God's love for you and his plans for you 00:26:06.890 --> 00:26:11.170 cannot be derailed by the discovery of some hidden sin 00:26:11.170 --> 00:26:12.910 or the breaking of trust. 00:26:15.100 --> 00:26:18.340 Over the past year, I've walked with two couples 00:26:18.340 --> 00:26:22.460 where the marriage has been put in jeopardy 00:26:22.460 --> 00:26:25.520 because there was a major breach of trust. 00:26:25.520 --> 00:26:30.260 So there was hidden sin, and in both cases, 00:26:30.360 --> 00:26:33.020 the wife was being lied to, and the thing came out, 00:26:33.200 --> 00:26:36.020 and the marriage is in great difficulty. 00:26:37.220 --> 00:26:39.840 And that's a thing that definitely can happen. 00:26:40.850 --> 00:26:44.630 It cannot happen in your relationship with God 00:26:44.630 --> 00:26:50.320 because there is no such thing as hidden sin from God. 00:26:51.480 --> 00:26:53.200 It's not a category that exists. 00:26:53.200 --> 00:26:59.370 and no dirt in me, past, present or future, 00:27:00.130 --> 00:27:03.910 will derail God's love and purpose for me 00:27:03.910 --> 00:27:06.510 because he knows it all. 00:27:07.450 --> 00:27:09.110 He knows it as it really is. 00:27:09.670 --> 00:27:12.030 There are no shock surprises in heaven. 00:27:15.860 --> 00:27:18.280 But I do want to just add something here. 00:27:19.560 --> 00:27:23.840 You know, the truth that God knows me as I am, 00:27:24.080 --> 00:27:25.080 warts and all, 00:27:25.080 --> 00:27:30.720 and that he can wash the slate clean is central to Christianity. 00:27:31.540 --> 00:27:32.860 It's a vital truth. 00:27:35.720 --> 00:27:37.440 But that's not all Jesus does. 00:27:38.430 --> 00:27:39.250 That's not all. 00:27:39.990 --> 00:27:40.730 There is more. 00:27:41.850 --> 00:27:42.790 Let's have the next slide. 00:27:45.140 --> 00:27:48.140 For we are God's masterpiece. 00:27:48.980 --> 00:27:51.880 He has created us anew in Christ Jesus 00:27:51.880 --> 00:27:56.300 so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. 00:27:57.640 --> 00:28:00.100 You see, Jesus isn't simply in the business of forgiveness. 00:28:00.580 --> 00:28:02.040 Yes, he's in the business of forgiveness, 00:28:02.220 --> 00:28:05.860 but he's also, we could say, he's in the construction business. 00:28:06.580 --> 00:28:09.040 He is building a new you. 00:28:10.480 --> 00:28:13.880 Actually, some of the other translations were, 00:28:14.540 --> 00:28:16.120 this is from the New Living Translation, 00:28:17.340 --> 00:28:20.780 I think some of them refer to, for you are God's workmanship. 00:28:21.830 --> 00:28:24.050 I think that was used in English Standard Version, 00:28:24.050 --> 00:28:25.170 in King James Version. 00:28:25.490 --> 00:28:27.370 Handy work, I think, if you've got the NIV. 00:28:27.390 --> 00:28:30.590 And you think, well, does masterpiece overstate it? 00:28:30.710 --> 00:28:31.430 I'm thinking, no. 00:28:31.710 --> 00:28:34.910 How could God's handiwork be anything else other than a masterpiece? 00:28:35.850 --> 00:28:38.370 You're a masterpiece because of who's working on you. 00:28:39.250 --> 00:28:40.230 It's God himself. 00:28:40.350 --> 00:28:41.810 He has created us anew. 00:28:42.590 --> 00:28:46.410 So, yes, that having the slate white thing is vital to our understanding of Christianity. 00:28:47.240 --> 00:28:48.620 But there's more here. 00:28:48.820 --> 00:28:49.500 There's more. 00:28:51.160 --> 00:28:54.500 I've just got time for a bit of C.S. Lewis before we stop. 00:28:55.480 --> 00:28:57.800 So let's have the next slide. 00:28:58.540 --> 00:29:04.440 This is a famous sermon that C.S. Lewis preached in Oxford in the middle of the war. 00:29:05.160 --> 00:29:09.180 I read the other day that the fundamental thing is how we think of God. 00:29:09.900 --> 00:29:12.100 By God himself it is not. 00:29:12.560 --> 00:29:17.280 How God thinks of us is not only more important, but infinitely more important. 00:29:18.490 --> 00:29:23.950 It is written that we shall stand before him, shall appear, and shall be inspected. 00:29:24.790 --> 00:29:27.070 That thought of God seeing us as we really are. 00:29:27.070 --> 00:29:31.210 The promise of glory is the promise almost incredible 00:29:31.210 --> 00:29:34.150 and only possible by the work of Christ 00:29:34.150 --> 00:29:37.310 that some of us, that any of us who really chooses, 00:29:37.930 --> 00:29:40.270 shall actually survive that examination, 00:29:40.990 --> 00:29:43.470 shall find approval, shall please God. 00:29:44.750 --> 00:29:46.590 And just do remember that it references 00:29:46.590 --> 00:29:49.310 that any of us who really chooses, 00:29:50.500 --> 00:29:54.040 you know, we're not talking about a category of super-Christian, 00:29:54.720 --> 00:29:56.560 that any of us who really chooses 00:29:57.670 --> 00:30:00.810 Because of the work of Christ, his death and resurrection 00:30:00.810 --> 00:30:04.950 shall survive that examination, shall find approval, 00:30:05.530 --> 00:30:06.410 shall please God. 00:30:07.840 --> 00:30:15.190 And the next one, to be loved by God, not merely pitied, 00:30:15.570 --> 00:30:19.070 but delighted in as an artist delights in his work, 00:30:19.470 --> 00:30:20.710 for we are God's masterpiece, 00:30:21.530 --> 00:30:24.530 but delighted in as an artist delights in his work, 00:30:24.590 --> 00:30:25.990 or a father in a son. 00:30:25.990 --> 00:30:33.170 It seems impossible, a weight or burden of glory, which our thoughts can hardly sustain. 00:30:33.810 --> 00:30:35.090 But so it is. 00:30:35.970 --> 00:30:36.250 Amen. 00:30:36.550 --> 00:30:36.970 Let's pray. 00:30:42.220 --> 00:30:46.440 Lord Jesus, you are bigger than our hearts and minds can contain. 00:30:47.480 --> 00:30:49.560 You are the God who loved us. 00:30:50.040 --> 00:30:59.040 And you love us, Lord, knowing all about our hearts, knowing all about our weaknesses, our sins, past, present, and future, Lord. 00:30:59.040 --> 00:31:04.380 and still you love us, and still you said Jesus to the cross to die, 00:31:04.480 --> 00:31:08.940 not to die for lovely people, but to die for broken, sinful people 00:31:08.940 --> 00:31:11.120 who run away from God. 00:31:13.020 --> 00:31:16.000 Lord Jesus, we stretch out our hands to you. 00:31:16.500 --> 00:31:19.060 We are thirsty, Lord, for the living water. 00:31:20.550 --> 00:31:21.690 Thank you, Lord Jesus. 00:31:22.520 --> 00:31:23.700 Thank you, Lord Jesus. 00:31:24.340 --> 00:31:26.160 Fill us in the power of your Spirit. 00:31:26.780 --> 00:31:29.070 In Jesus' name, amen.