The pearl of the world vs the pearl of great price.

It's a "really bad bootleg" but check out the video above, check out the lyrics here if you want, do a quick read of Matthew 13:44-46 and 1 Timothy 6: 6-19 and then on with todays theology..

When I first heard this song I thought that it was about The Pearl of Great Price. That’s the parable of Jesus from the reading tonight. When Fleming McWilliam was singing “Oh look I’ve found it, don’t drop it etc” I could see the merchant in the Parable thinking the same sort of things.

But as I kept listening to the song and then looked at the lyrics I realised this Christian band were singing about something quiet different than Jesus’s parable. Why would they want to throw away the Kingdom of Heaven, how could it be doing such bad things, consuming them and making them want to kill?

Confusion reigned until I watched an interview with them and I discovered the song is based on a book by John Steinbeck called “the pearl”. A quick check and I found out the library had a few copies so I read it and it all became clear as to what they were singing about.

Also while reading the book I realised that I was also reading a parable…

Adrian Plass once described a parable as a story that keeps your brain busy at the front door while the truth slips in through a side window and sandbags you from behind…

John Steinbeck’s parable was about a very different Pearl than Jesus’s. So todayt I’m going to write about the two parables, two parables about two very different pearls and the truth that is trying to slip in through our side windows.

Let’s start with John Steinbecks

Once upon a time there was a subsistence Pearl diver called Kino…

Kino lives in a village in Mexico at the beginning of last century. He loves his wife, Juana, very much and they have a small baby boy called Coyotito. Even though he only manages to find enough pearls to keep them fed and housed - together they are very happy.

One day however he manages to find it… a pearl the size of a sea-gulls egg and as perfect as the moon. It was the greatest pearl in the world. As he looked at it he could see his dreams form – he saw an education for his son, he saw better equipment for his pearl diving, he saw stylish clothes for his wife…. He saw his hopes his dreams his life.

He called it the pearl of the world

The pearl brought him instant celebrity status in his village. His friends and relatives crowded him and were awed at his find, they all felt a little jealousy and envy.


Also looking on were the various “independent” pearl merchants… (the middle men who would buy the pearls and sell them on (for a lovely profit) to the jewellers in the city.)

The merchants looked on with greed in their hearts. That evening they talked behind closed doors and therefore Kino did not have a good day when he went to sell his pearl.

You see Kino’s dreams had been growing. With each moment that he held the pearl his dreams, his hopes and his life plans they all grew. He was going to use it to buy equipment like a bigger boat and maybe a stronger knife. With those he’d dive and find more and more pearls. Of course he’d also need a gun…

So with his heart pounding he went to the first merchant. “It’s flawed” the merchant said “too big – it’s worthless – but I like you so I’ll take it off your hands and get rid of it…” Over and over he heard the merchants say this – and his anger grew…

He knew it had to be worth more, it just had to be. He wasn’t going to give up. The next day he and his wife would go to the city and sell it themselves. That will show the greedy parasites.

Back at his grass hut someone had been there and looking for the pearl of the world. That night he did not sleep well. He hid the pearl but he was waiting for the thieves to come. He wouldn’t let them have. If he wasn’t some poor diver they would not do this to him.

Thieves came in the night, they fought... Kino, Coyotito and his beloved wife Juana escaped. Their hut caught fire and so all they escaped with was some clothes and a few provisions they had prepared for the journey. And of course Kino still had the pearl of the world. He wouldn’t let it go

That night they set off before more thieves could try to take his pearl. Part way down the road they were attacked. Kino fought well and in the dark he took the attackers knife and killed him.

He was just a diver, no one would believe him, and he had to run, run and hide.

Into the jungle the family went and headed to a mountain with caves. Behind them Kino heard followers so he sent his baby son Coyotito and Juana ahead while he laid an ambush.

From behind he struck. The knife going into a someone’s back, Kino then turned on the other – he had a gun. A shot rang out. It missed Kino and bark from a tree spat at him, up the mountain Coyotito frightened awake began to cry. The last man turns to the sound and Kino attacks. In the struggle Kino kills again but from the gun a random blast. The babys terrified cry ceases. The mother’s mournful wail begins.

In the morning, carrying the bloody bundle of Coyotito - Kino and Juana walk numbly through the village towards the sea.

At the shore Kino throws the pearl of the world with all his might into the ocean. It sinks and settles under the mud never to be found again.

it could be the pearl
it could be our hope our dream our lives
it could be the pearl
the end of all our pain and strife could be the pearl
or it could be a demon in disguise

So what is the truth in the Parable of the Pearl of the world?

In Kino’s pearl of the world he did not find hopes he did not find his dreams and most certainly he did not find life. Instead he found corruption, deception and evil. Which together destroyed him and his family. The treasure of this world acted as a lure to the sinful nature in himself and the people around him.

Like Kino we have things that we put our hopes, dreams and life into. Like Kino if we focus too much on those things it will bring out the sinful nature within us and the corruption in the people around us. Hopefully we will differ from Kino in that we won’t end up as killers but our “pearls of the world” will not satisfy us.

We invest time, effort and our hearts into things of this world in the end they really have no value and they will destroy us.

For example. Money: It can’t buy happiness – at best you only get to rent it for a short time. In the late 80’s the decade of selfish ambition the catch prase of the Yuppie was “He who dies with the most toys wins” It was a phrase that showed no care about the future or eternity or other people just the purchase of more and more things for yourself. It showed people’s attitudes were that there is nothing after this life so we had better do what we want.

Christian’s at the time countered this phrase with one of their own “He who dies with the most toys – still dies”

What good is the Lamborghini, the plasma TV, and the mansion when you are dead? Nothing at all, they go to someone else and your body rots in the ground.
Life is more than just this body, there is an afterlife and without Jesus all the money and “pearls of this world” are just dust and ashes

Another example of a pearl of the world is Fame
Fame – I’m gonna live forever, light up the sky with my name Fame!

That was some lyrics from the title song to a movie and TV series for all you people looking confused… doing such great things that you are remembered long after you are dead and gone. Having everyone looking up to you while you are here. A real boost to the ego – people literally worshiping the ground you walk on. Not to mention auctioning your used towels on ebay.

Of any pearl of the world that’s has to be the one to go for – but then again how does that explain all the famous people with drug addictions, rock stars killing themselves, not to mention Michael Jackson.
They might be able to do some stuff astoundingly well but their lives it seems are still hollow, they want something in their lives and fame doesn’t do it. They feel all the inadequacies in them and it doesn’t match the public image – adding the guilt of a type of hypocrisy onto it all as well.

These are a couple of obvious examples – there are pearls that are a little more insidious. You base you life on them but in the end they by themselves mean nothing.

How about doing good things? You go through your life, treating others as you would like to be treated, you are generous with your money, you get a good education and a good job and you use it to benefit others, you live humbly and are not arrogant at all.

Great things- wonderful things but in the end they are still pearls of this world – what would make them a treasure in heaven is if you had the Pearl of Great Value that Jesus told a parable about…

the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. 46 When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.

The Kingdom of Heaven – to put it simply is where God is in control. It is in Heaven itself where He is, it is in the lives of all the Christians on Earth here and now, and in the past and in the future. If you are a Christian then you are a member of the eternal Kingdom of Heaven.

The merchant was on the lookout for fine pearls – and he finds one. Not just any pearl but a great pearl – one that he just had to have. Being the canny merchant that he is – he sells everything he has to buy this pearl. It must have been an amazing pearl for him to risk such an investment. If it fell through he had nothing.

Humanity is the merchant. Everyone on the planet seeks something, some sort of answers to where did we come from, what is wrong with this planet and where are we going?

Some choose to ignore the questions, some acknowledge them but say we will never know, some seek answers in science, and science alone, while most of the planet have some sort of religion. A belief in something higher and greater than we are.

Christianity is one of these belief structures and it has many many unique things about it. The most major and important one is Jesus. Jesus himself is God coming to us. Through Jesus, God reaches down to us to bring us to Him. In all other religions you have to try to reach their version of god.

Because of this and what God wants in our lives and how He interacts with us – Christianity is not a “religion”, not just some sort of belief structure it is a relationship. A relationship with Jesus Christ who is God. Christ is the centre of everything we say and do and believe – that is why we are “Christ”-ians

Jesus wants us to “sell everything we have” and by that He means give up all our “Pearls of the world” and give them to him. He becomes our Lord and we his servant. Our hopes are to be what He hopes for us, our dreams are to be His dreams and our lives are his.

There are no good deeds enough for us to buy this Pearl of Great value – in actuality it is a gift to us from God and all we can do is surrender our pearls of the world back to Him.

Romans 10:9 That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. 11 As the Scripture says, "Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame." 12 For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile--the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, 13 for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."

Confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord. To confess is to state a true thing – criminals confessing to crimes – so when we confess that Jesus is Lord that means He “owns” us and the rest of the universe. We do what he wants, when he says jump we jump. We are just stating the facts.
Believing with your heart that Jesus rose from the dead is important. You see Jesus rose from the dead because he was God, Jesus died because he was paying the price for our sins and through that we have forgiveness. Part of the gift of Salvation is forgiveness. Again nothing we can do to purchase that – it is all from God – what we do is respond.

Through the bible, history and experience we have found that Jesus is a loving and kind and forgiving master – he will give us no task that we are unable to accomplish. He is there with us guiding, leading and helping us – another reason Christianity is not a religion but a relationship

Jesus has said not to worry about the Pearls of the World… Just worry about him

Matthew 6:28 "And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labour or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendour was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, `What shall we eat?' or `What shall we drink?' or `What shall we wear?' 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Jesus will provide the things of this world that we need. As He is our Lord then he may judge it right that we become rich or famous or whatever– but we have to use those things in his service.

For example Michael Jones when he was an All Black used his fame to promote Christianity – He still does in fact. The Bible Society of Australia a few years ago produced a special edition New Testament in which Michael, Inga Tuingamala a whole host of others. explain what Jesus means to them and how to become a Christian.

If we are a Christian then many, many things will try to come between us and Jesus. Money may make us feel like we don’t need him. Fame could distract us from his tasks. We may even be so wrapped up in learning and studying the bible that we forget to do what it says..
For you, for me, we all have to take a look at our lives and ask “Are we serving Jesus fully? What is there in our lives that keeps us from Jesus? What can we do for Him?”

Jesus warned “MT 6:24 "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.”


Where we go from here is nicely summed up in tonight’s second reading from 1 timothy chapter 6 beginning at verse 6. I’d like to read it again… Where Timothy talks about money – substitute it with whatever Pearls of the world you may struggle with…

1TI 6:6 But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. 8 But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. 9 People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

1TI 6:11 But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. 12 Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. 13 In the sight of God, who gives life to everything, and of Christ Jesus, who while testifying before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you 14 to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 which God will bring about in his own time--God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honour and might forever. Amen.

1TI 6:17 Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. 18 Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. 19 In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.


Let that be our prayer - amen

How many mountains?

Here's a question. “It is apparent that I wholeheartedly believe in Christianity but what about the people in the eastern countries they wholeheartedly believe in their religions as well. Isn’t it arrogance to say that I am right and they aren’t? Does it really matter what you believe as long as you are sincere about it? “

Will all the religions in their various forms (Jesus, Mohamed, buddha and co.) get you to heaven?

I would say no they won’t. Let us examine this.

Many young Muslim men are very sincere and wholeheartedly believe that strapping explosives to themselves and detonating them in public areas is the will of Allah in their lives.

They are wholehearted about their beliefs… so does it matter? Well most Muslim clerics and most of the rest of the world would say it does matter and that these sincere young men are wrong to be suicide bombers. Let me stress that the majority of Muslim clerics say that suicide bombing is against the teaching of Islam.

Just because you are wholehearted and are convinced what you believe is to be true does not make it so. I could say and believe this chair is a pig but this does not mean I will have roast pork for dinner tonight. Blowing up the infidel will not get you to Paradise.

It is possible to be sincerely and wholeheartedly wrong about something so where does that leave the major religions of the world?

Well one of the teachings of the Hindu's is that all religions have the truth in them and that they are all just different paths up the same mountain. Each separate religion heads towards eternity but takes a different method to get there.

So lets us look at the major religions of the world.

For starters one obviously noticeable thing is that there seem to be three different mountains.

Hinduism and Buddhism has it’s afterlife as a continual cycle of re-incarnation leading to Nirvana with an impersonal God which is the universe. In eternity you will have no self – no individuality you will be one with the universe in the same way that a drop of water falling in the ocean is one with the ocean.

Confusism and Shintoism the afterlife is one of spirits interacting with humans and an impersonal god or gods if a deity exists at all. Your strength in the afterlife is dependant on your descendants.

Finally Judaism, Islam and Christianity each individual has but one life and then resurrection to eternity with it's creator or separation from the God for eternity. Resurrection is where you have a body that is a combination of physical and spiritual. In 1 Corinthians the resurrected body is compared to this body as a plant is compared to it’s seed.

The Deities are also very different amongst them all as well. Hinduism, and Shintoism all have many gods with one or more main gods. Confusism and Buddism all began with the founders saying there are no gods and yet centuries later their followers have deified them.

Hinduism is the only religion to say that all religions lead to heaven all others say that theirs is the only way and that all others are wrong. Especially with Shintoism where you have to be born Japanese.

Another noticeable thing is that in all religions bar one the method to obtain the afterlife goal it is one in which the human must work. The human must climb the mountain, be pure, sacrifice, do good works and not do bad deeds to get to their reward. But Christianity is different. Ephesians 2: 8 and 9 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast”.

Salvation is the Gift of God.

God came down to the cross and there is no mountain to climb. Any good works or non evil-doing is a response of the love and gratitude we have for what God has done.

If a house cat has fleas, the cat can not apply the flea powder to itself. All it can do is allow the owner to apply the treatment and be grateful. (as much as cats can be grateful) It is a gift of love from the owner. This is like Jesus’s gift to us.

In the eastern religions the founders all stated they were not divine however in the following centuries the followers have venerated them to the point of worship and have named them as Avatars of Brahman and so forth.
Jesus however stated his divinity and his immediate followers also proclaimed that as well.

John 14: 1-10 When Jesus said I am the truth the way and the life and no man come to the father except by me was He lying? Was He a lunatic or was He Lord.
John 10 28-33 Jesus Said – “I and the Father are one” and so the Jews went to stone him for blasphemy calling himself God.

The Jews holy name for God translates as “I am who I am” At one point Jesus said Before Abraham was I am. The Jews were so incensed by his words they attempted to throw him from a cliff due to his "blasphemy".

The tombs of all other founders are enshrined and worship occurs there - the tomb of Jesus is empty - the people who could have stolen his body would not have wanted to and the people who would have wanted to could not have done it. There is more logic behind it but the historical fact is that Jesus Christ was resurrected from the dead, He performed the miracles proving he was who He said he was and He said He was God. And if Jesus i.e. God incarnate says that he is the only way then I will believe Him.

Now however this leaves us with the question of how we should treat people of other religions.

Jesus gives us two very good examples. He loves and gave miracles for Romans and Samaritans – people who did not follow Yahweh. Yet he had compassion on them, He taught them the truth. He praised them for when they did have faith in him but did not berate them for when they did not.

Paul when he went to Athens was talking at a meeting of the intellectuals of the day called the Aeropogus. Paul congratulated them on the devotion to their religions and then explained to them the truth of Jesus – but without ridiculing their beliefs.

In the same light we are called to share the truth in a loving and respectful way – choosing the appropriate times and not arrogantly trying to humiliate their “foolishness”

We to can also learn from them. The Muslims have a great devotion to prayer, the Buddhists have self-control and many have morality that we can aspire to.

We do these thing not because they will earn our way to heaven but because are grateful for the gift of eternity given to us.

Who do you say He is? Luke 9:18-27

Have a read of Luke 9: 18-27. In it Jesus asks his disciples Three questions. Who do the crowds say I am, who do you say I am and What good is it to gain the world and yet lose your soul? Those same questions can also be asked of us. “Who do the crowds today say Jesus is.” “Who do WE say Jesus is” and what good is it to us if we gain the world and yet lose our souls? Those questions as they are very important to us – not only as Christians but also as human beings.

Right… leading up to this discussion between Jesus and His disciples… Jesus had been doing some pretty amazing stuff. He had calmed the storm by telling it off, He had cast demons out of a man society had given up on, He had brought a dead girl back to life, and then just before this little chat Jesus in the height of His popularity was followed – chased by crowds of people who wanted to hear Him talk – or more likely to see some miracles. Which they actually did see Jesus do.

The mob however hadn’t brought food and started to go hungry. The disciple Andrew found a wee boy who had five bread loaves and two fish. Jesus said grace and started breaking the food up and everyone got fed. How many got fed? Well being a male-centric society back then they only counted the men and there were 5000 of them. So probably there was another 5000 woman and at a guess maybe 2500 children. All miraculously fed. Critics of the bible say that it was not Jesus the miracle worker that fed the crowd but Jesus the great psychologist. That people had brought lunches but no-one wanted to share with those who hadn’t – so when the little boy offered to share, everyone who had brought something was shamed into sharing themselves. Well if this is the case then those people must have brought a lot extra as all 12500 ate and were satisfied and there were 12 baskets left over!

But the main reason I see that this was a miracle not a psychological event is that it is written as a miracle. 12500 people were involved and in the years after when this event was talked about and written down and passed around. If it had happened as a psycho not miracle event then they would have talked up. Imagine this… Later this year in the NPC rugby competition, Canterbury plays Southland. In an amazing turn up for the books Southland wins… not only wins… but wins 74 points to nil. Now as much as it grates me to say this… in the normal course of events a win like that is not going to happen. It really would be a miracle…. Now imagine 5 years down the track a one-eyed cantabrian journalist places an article in the Press talking about the nail biting 2008 game where Canterbury just managed to win against southland 25 points to 23. All the people who were at the game, all the spectators families who were told about the game would all know that the journalist was talking through a hole in his head. “I am certain the jouranlist is wrong I was there” would be spoken by a large number southlanders and a quite a few honest cantabrians as well.

So if someone said that Jesus fed by miracles and it was actually psychology then 12500 people would be around to say. “Hey man no way I was there – stop telling lies” The bible tells the truth… a huge crowd was fed by Jesus.

And this leads us to our first question…

Jesus asked “Who do the crowds say I am.”
The disciples answered that some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah and some say a prophet has come back to life.
Why do you think they say that?
Well you see John the Baptist was a powerful preacher who preached just before Jesus started his ministry, he spoke of repentance, that God’s chosen one was coming and he spoke out against the religious hypocrites who were ruling the temple (The pharasees). He had been killed by King Herod after the daughter of his brother’s wife asked him to.
I would imagine that some of the crowds had never seen John and here was Jesus preaching very similar messages –except Jesus said that the chosen one was not on the way – He was here… I’d also think perhaps there was some denial in Johns followers– and with Jesus’s miracles some of those who had their hopes pinned on John transferred that to Jesus that somehow maybe Jesus was John. Of course unlike Clark Kent and Superman Jesus and John were seen in the same room at the same room. John baptised Jesus – so even with some supernatural involvement we can be sure this is not the case

Elijah was another powerful preacher. He had spoken against the corrupt kings, he had stood up and with miracles shown God’s displeasure at the Israelites following “other gods” The prophets of Baal is one of my favourite stories. In challenge that Vin Diesel would shy away from. Elijah the one prophet of God left alive versus the 850 prophets of Baal. Elijah challenged to the prophets – in full view of everyone. To set up an alter with wood, place your sacrifice on it and Elijah would do they same – then they would call out to Baal and the Lord and whoever was the real God would accept the sacrifice by sending fire to burn it all up. So the Baal prophets, danced and pranced, but nothing happened . and then
1KI 18:27 At noon Elijah began to taunt them. "Shout louder!" he said. "Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened." 28 So they shouted louder and slashed themselves with swords and spears, as was their custom, until their blood flowed. 29 Midday passed, and they continued their frantic prophesying until the time for the evening sacrifice. But there was no response, no one answered, no one paid attention.

So then it was Elijahs turn. He got his alter ready with the wood and stones and dug a trench around it too then he got people to pour water over the wood until even the trench was full.


1KI 18:36 At the time of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed: "O LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. 37 Answer me, O LORD, answer me, so these people will know that you, O LORD, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again."

1KI 18:38 Then the fire of the LORD fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench.

So what did Elijah do after that- he had the prophets put to death, he then ended a three year drought and then bested a chariot in a 17 mile race. He was pretty much the Old Testaments Terminator. But he was weak too. Queen Jezebel threatened him and he ran and hid. Despite all the absolute proof and great deeds and God’s vengeance and love he showed – he did not bring about much spiritual change in the country.

Flash forward a few hundred years

The Jews in Jesus day were looking for their terminator. They had hypocritical religious leaders, they had been invaded by Rome and the Romans law and soldiers ruled their country. Unfortunately Asterix and Obelix were fiction so they had only one hope at expelling Rome, fixing their religion and living free again. God would provide. They prayed all day and every day for a saviour. They wanted Elijah or in fact any of the old prophets from long ago, back again to kick some butt.

And Jesus was living up to this. He had spoken out against the Pharasees – called them 7 kinds of Hypocrites. White painted tombs full of dead mens bones was one description he gave of them. He did the miracles – people came back to life.

But Jesus was not Elijah and nor was he some great prophet either – as we will soon see.

So that is what the crowds were saying then about Jesus. Today… what do the crowds today say today about Jesus?

Well there is the standard swear word use of his name – which says something in itself about Him and the crowds – I mean how often to you hear someone dropping a hammer on their foot and screaming “oh Budda!” or “Oh random conglomeration of particles brought together through the laws of phsyics and evolution” It’s always swearing against God and Jesus.

The crowds ignore Jesus – don’t speak about him, just go through life turning their back on anything they hear about Him or see or encounter. I used to be like that. If ever Jesus was mentioned I would not seek to learn more about it just mock what ever was said.…until the day about 16 years ago I was confronted with the Truth about Jesus – and there was nothing I could say or think of to counter it. 1 ½ years later of listening, and looking I gave my life to Him and accepted His love and forgiveness.

Some say Jesus is a myth. They say he did not exist – after all we weren’t there how can we say for sure he existed and even if he did how can we prove that he did any of the things talked about in the Bible. Well the truth of the matter is there non-biblical evidence for the existence of Jesus and that the bible has proven time and time again to be historically accurate. Yes I will be the first to admit the writers were a bit biased when it was written but nothing written has been shown to be false. Now if you would like to know more about this then our church library is sure to have a book or 2 on the subject and if not I’m we will find some for you.

I have heard Jesus called a wise teacher. A teacher of love, a teacher of morals, a teacher of peace and a teacher of personal fulfilment. –just like John Lennon or Ghandi and indeed Jesus was. He did tell us love one another. That self sacrificing love to God and to others was the fulfilment of all the moral laws from the old Testament. But if you say he was just a teacher then you are missing the whole point of his entire life. Which I will talk about later.

Some will paint Jesus as political / religious reformer like Martin Luther or Nelson Mandalla. Calling to those in power to act for the benefit of all the people and not just themselves and the ones they like. To end corruption. Jesus’s teaching did stir up the crowds – but only because they saw the oppression and hypocrisy and He spoke the truth about God and the world and I’m sure they wanted things to be his way. And so those in power feared what sort of rebellion he may cause – inadvertently or on purpose.

moving on.

The next question Jesus asked his followers– LK 9:20 "But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?" Peter answered, "The Christ of God.".

Jesus then got personal with Peter – just as He asks the same question of us here today and in fact everyone who lives today, has lived and ever will live. “But what about you – who do you say I am.”

No chance to escape or deflect the question. No chance to beat around the bush – right to the point. “Who do you say I am?”

Well I ask you the question – “Who do you say Jesus is?” – as we will see later on this is the most important question you will ever be asked in all of eternity.

Peter gave the right answer – though he did not understand the full implications. Peter said, “You are the Christ of God.” To the first century Jews – if Elijah was the terminator then The Christ was Neo from The Matrix movies. He was the hero to end all heroes – no other is needed. While others can use and bend their environment – Neo controls and changes it. The Christ is “The One” that all creation was waiting for. Numerous prophesies had been given about this One – the Christ – the people, not only thought he would fulfill those prophesies but that The Christ was also going to rid them of the Romans, rid them of the religious hypocrisy, he was going to free them from their sins, he was going to make Israel a - if not the - mighty political power. The Christ will set up god’s own kingdom and will bring the Lord God himself into the day to day personal lives of believers.

ISA 9:6 For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

ISA 9:7 Of the increase of his government and peace
there will be no end.
He will reign on David's throne
and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
with justice and righteousness
from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the LORD Almighty
will accomplish this.


And indeed Jesus was the Christ but he was not as they expected. For what they were expecting to be political Jesus Christ set up Spiritual. In fact scholars suspect that Judas’s motivation for betraying Jesus was that Judas wanted to force Jesus’s hand to come out in God’s glory and overthrow the evil, and oppression and other trash. Judas wanted the political Kingdom of God to begin right there and then. And this is why I see Jesus next command to the Disciples was to not tell anyone what they believed.

After all if just one person could betray Jesus what would 12500 people do?

Jesus had a specific mission to do and if thousands of people were pushing their Christ assumptions onto him then no doubt riots and chaos would result.

And what was his specific mission?
22 And he said, "The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life."

Here is Jesus predicting his death and his resurrection. I always wonder – just how dense were the disciples? Here is a total blunt statement – Jesus (as he called himself the Son of man) will suffer, be rejected and die. And it would be the chief priests, teachers of the law and elders who would be at the heart of it. But not only die. Jesus said He would be raised to life after three days. Yet the disciples just didn’t get it or believe or something. Jesus death was the core of his mission on earth. And then His resurrection validates that what Jesus achieved on the cross has been accomplished.


It was Christ death that was the final deed that brought about the forgiveness of our sins. The old practice of giving to God a sacrifice of your food, income or livelihood to show how contrite and sorry you were was over. The consequence of our sins is our death and a death separated from God. Jesus did no sins – he did not have to die. But die he did and it was his death that atones – pays for – our sins. His death for our sins…. The death of one man is not enough to pay the price for the world though – and that is Ok because Jesus was not just one man – He was God. At all times fully 100% man and yet fully 100% God - the wonder of the incarnate deity – God with us. Jesus was born of a human woman but his father was God. Therefore Jesus is the only one ever able to mediate between God and us. Dale gave a god example in his sermon this morning. On the off chance you were not here or paying attention let me repeat it. Imagine that two people have had an argument and cannot find any common ground and have come to a stand still at reconciliation – not an unlikely scenario... What these two people need is a mediator and a mediator who can see both points of view – someone who can sympathise who both people but not be biased to one over the other and therefore argument can be settled. Well with Jesus as God in mans form – from birth – through his life and into his death and resurrection the price is paid and bridge between God and humanity with Jesus has the mediator has been formed and forgiveness is given to us. And now we can accept that forgiveness and God’s love and live for eternity. Amen.

Back to the conversation with Jesus and his disciples. Jesus told them if anyone would come after me then they must take up their cross daily and follow him.

So if we are to follow Jesus because we believe Him to be the Christ. If we today are to accept his forgiveness and love and be His then we are to take up our cross daily.

The cross in Jesus time was a horrible instrument of torture, it was an ignominious humiliating way to die and to the Jews if anyone died upon the cross then they were cursed by God. Each follower of Jesus will have his own type cross to bear – and it may be a different style each day. Sometimes it will be to be ridiculed as a Jesus Freak, other times there will be work to do that we will not like to do and for some it may even to die as martyrs. The short answer is that following Jesus costs us – we are His servants he is our Lord and so our lives are His. Fortunately He is not an evil master. As we read in romans “all things work out for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose”
Whoever wants to save his life will loose it but who ever loses his life for me will save it. Jesus is the Saviour of our eternal lives – without Him all is lost.

And here we go with our last question.
“What good is it for a man to gain the world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?”

So what if you end up the richest person on Earth, so what if you are the most famous. When it comes to the end what is it worth? Nothing. It is all just chasing after wind. Without Jesus our eternity is lost with Jesus we are found.

It all comes down to the answer to the second question above and what we do with it.

Who do we say Jesus is? Do we reject or do we accept Jesus? And what is the result and our responsibility if we do.

Verse 26 “26 If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.”


When we have the facts and we say “No Jesus you are not the Christ” then Jesus who is the judge of where our eternities are to be He says no to us. If we say Yes to Christ then He says yes back to us.

Jesus said in John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” He didn’t say Whoever doesn’t do bad stuff, he didn’t say whoever does more good deeds than sins, he didn’t say whoever lives a happy and good life” He said Believes in me. Later Jesus said JN 14:6 "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” he didn’t say except through ignoring me, or finding your own spiritual path that suits you. He said through me.

And later Paul wrote RM10:9 That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” There is no question about it.

When Paul wrote Jesus is Lord it would cause a stir amongst the readers – to us lord is the boss – but because the name of God was considered to holy to say or write they used called him The Lord. So when we call Jesus The Lord we are stating that we believe Jesus to be God, born as a human and the one who brings us back into a relationship with God the Father.

Through history Christians and churches have strayed from this point and today we see those who hardly ever mention Jesus and just try to be as loving as they can be. Which is good – but still missing the point. Some churches keep mentioning Jesus but only as some sort of Divine Santa Claus – who will give them money and whatever blessing they ask for in his name. Loving themselves rather than others.

We are Christians – followers of Jesus Christ. And if we are not doing so – even though we claim his name – what does that make us? Hypocrites – those same white painted tombs full of dead mens bones – like the pharasees that Jesus accused 200 years ago… Looks good on the outside but inside is wretched foulness

So tonight – As a Church and as individuals “Who do you say Jesus is?” – and what are you doing about it?

The answer is critical.

Am I my Brothers keeper?

Todays sermon was on Judging people. It made me feel good to hear it because it agreed with what I preached a few years ago. I also had to pay attention as it was a message I have to listen to and live by.

Am I my brother keeper?

Start with reading 1 Corinthians 5: 1 – 13 Matthew 18: 15-19

OK let’s get things clear first. During the course of this blog post when I say brother I am not referring to my flesh and blood brother Steve. If I’m talking about Steve I’ll mention him by name. By Brother I’m talking about fellow Christians our Brothers in Christ. And I’m not just limiting it to males either I am also going to be using the word to refer to females. I know I should say our brothers and sisters in Christ or siblings in Christ, it just that it’s easier to say and also… Brothers Keeper is more memorable than siblings keeper, I’m going to stick to saying Brother. But you know I mean.

Am I my brothers’ keeper?

Growing up I got the impression that the answer was quite obviously “no” I am not. Steve should just look after himself and I’ll take care of myself thank you very much. Look out for number one, make sure I’m Ok don’t worry about not only my actual brother but sisters, relatives and friends and people you don’t know. They’ll look after themselves just get on with our own life.

Now with me then having very little knowledge of anything biblical I figured that if it was a good enough answer for someone to give to God when asked about a brother then it’s good enough for me.

However lets put the saying in context. Cain had just killed his brother Abel. It was not in the heat of the moment it was planned. ‘hey Abel lets go out to the field!’ Where he then killed him.

Along comes God and asks Cain. ‘Where is your brother Abel/’

To which Cain replies “Am I my Brother’s keeper?”

The original context of those words is an attempt to create some sort of Alibi for a despicable murder.

And I was using that as my role model?

Christianity takes that whole concept of interpersonal relationships that I had and turned it on its head. Where I had said” It’s all about me” I just have to care for me and not worry about them. Jesus says ‘no – you are your brothers’ keeper. You are to, not only, be there for Steve but everyone, your family, your neighbors even your enemies.’

From my reading of the bible there is only one time when it’s all about you and that is the point when you are to answer God’s call and give your life to him. That time when you become a Christian. Repent and believe.

So the only time Christianity is "all about you" is when you get saved after that it all about what you do for God (worship him with thought, words and deeds).

After all you have given your life to Him what gives you the right to say “thanks for saving me but I’ll do things my way thank you very much, I won’t bother you again ‘till I need you and then only as a last resort.

No we are to love Him, to worship him with our hearts, minds, body and strength. We learn from the Bible, about Him. We go out and do actions for those who need help in what ever form, be it food, shelter counselling what ever. We tell others about Jesus so they too can be saved. All this is done as worship to Jesus…. and as a very blessed side effect we then become better people. Become Christ-like

See the difference, we don’t become better people first in order to serve, we serve to better God’s kingdom and as side effect we become better. At the start in small ways and then larger as our skills and responsibility grows.

Let us look after all at what Jesus calls the two greatest commandments. Mark Chapter 12 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. 31The second is this: 'Love your neighbour as yourself.'There is no commandment greater than these.

First off love God, then love others. So it’s dedicate your life to God and then dedicate it to others.

This may leave you feeling a bit left out, thinking if I am caring for everybody then my needs are not going to be met. Well if everybody is looking after everybody then someone is looking after you too.

So the short answer is Yes I am my brothers keeper.

There are many ways to look after your brother. Financially, with prayer, with gifts of goods or help, teaching, listening the list goes on. Tonight I want to focus on one that is not talked about often and isn’t very popular.

And that is Judging your brother.

Now the first things I often hear when this is mentioned is that we should not judge others. ‘Jesus said “Do not judge, and you will not be judged.” I’m told we should not put ourselves in the place of God it is his place not ours to judge.
And that is all good and true except for one thing. If we take these quotations and comments on face value that we are not to judge, then it negates a very large portion of the rest of the bible. Moses, Samuel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Amos, Peter, Paul, James and John all judged people.

I think first off we need to define what judging is and then what are the limits placed on us by God in regards to judging.

OK let’s go to the dictionary.

To judge:
1 : to form an opinion about through careful weighing of evidence and testing of premises
2 : to sit in judgment on : TRY
3 : to determine or pronounce after inquiry and deliberation
4 : GOVERN, RULE -- used of a Hebrew tribal leader
5 : to form an estimate or evaluation of; especially : to form a negative opinion about (shouldn't)
6 : to hold as an opinion : GUESS, THINK

A definition not explicitly stated here but hinted at in item 2 is that of the final judgment of our sins. It is wholly and completely Jesus role to say I judge you for your sins, I judge you for not coming to me for forgiveness. You are now condemned to your eternal punishment. That is God’s role. Never ours. Jesus’s quote to “Judge not’ is relating to this.

Item 6 is just semantics, word play, using the word judge in regards to guessing. That does not relate here.

Item 5 is one that I think riles many people and rightly so. It is when you evaluate someone on limited information, often the estimation can be tainted by prejudice and stereotypes and there fore is wrong. This certainly is one where we must not judge as we can be judged with the same use of bias.

Item 4 is from where we get the name of the book of Judges from in the Old Testament. That form of Judge obviously does not relate to us today.

Items 1, 2 and 3 is where we come in.

In tonight’s reading from 2 Cor 5 Paul has discovered that in the church at Corinth there is a man who is having sexual relations with his step-mother! But Paul in verse 3 says that even though he is not there ‘I have already passed judgement on the one who did this” And later in verse 13 ‘expel the wicked man from among you”

If we are not to judge, if it is not our place to tell another what to do then how can Paul be saying this! And it’s not just Paul. Nathan judged David for his sin with Bathsheba is just one other example. You may say that these people where specially sent by god to that situation well Paul also tells the Corinthians in verse 12 that it is their place to judge those who are church members.

As brothers and sisters in Christ it is our responsibility to call each other on our sins. I will go into that in detail soon, but one thing it is not our duty to do is judge those outside the church, we are not to judge for their sins those who are not Christians.

If someone calls themselves a Christians and is sinning yes you are to call them on it, but if they have no relationship with Jesus then how can we hold them to the standard He has set for our lives when they don’t even acknowledge Him?

Paul said it to the Corinthians again in verse 12’ What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? God will judge those outside.”

We are not to call them on their sin – our responsibility is to bring them to Jesus. Once they follow him they will understand the standard they have and then we are to begin the judging.

So now we understand that as our brothers’ keeper we are to hold them accountable to Jesus’ standard of morality how then are we to do so…


Firstly I think we should decide if the matter is really something we should worry about. In Pauls day a problem a lot of people were having in both the Roman and Corinthian churches is that people were eating meat that had been offered to an idol or false god.

Some in the churches considered this to be tantamount to being worship of the idol itself and considered it a most dreadful sin.

Paul however did not consider it a sin, because after all ‘God is bigger than the boogy man”. Paul in Romans 14 considered the eating of meat to be a “disputable matter”. One mans faith allows that while anothers will not and goes in to give instructions to the one whose faith allows it to be mindful of the weaker brother when eating such meat and not to do so. Not as their act is a sin but as it will hurt his brothers faith – brothers keeper time again.

Today we will have disputable matters, such as, for example, reading Harry Potter or other fictional occult based books. Some people will find them to be in no way affecting their walk with God – others will – it is a disputable matter in that regard.

Some matters are indisputable –sexual immorality, blasphemy, theft. The bible has lists of such things.

So if we see our brother doing something indisputably sinful then we need confront them on it but importantly we must examine ourselves before we do so.

Jesus said. If you are going to get a speak of sawdust out of your brothers eye then you had better make sure you have gotten the plank of wood out of your own eye. I am pretty sure he was using exaggeration to get the point across here after all it would be very difficult to get a log into your eye in the first place, let alone not know it was there.

This exaggerated example can be taken two ways.

1. Often when someone has a problem in themselves they will see that or different problems in others in a highlighted degree. And by denouncing the others smaller problem they draw their attention away from looking at their own problems.

Now this does not mean if I see someone shoplifting and tell them to stop that I am a closet thief, it just means that the sin is obvious and I’m calling them on it.

What it means is if you have, for example, a problem with alcohol, perhaps even being an alcoholic that you will resoundly and loudly denounce anyone who drinks more than a few sips of communion wine on Sundays yet be in complete denial or ignorance of your own drunkenness. Jesus speaks against that hypocrisy.

2. It can also be taken that we need to acknowledge that before God we are all sinners, without His forgiveness we are all condemned and if we approach someone who is caught in some sin no matter how minor without our acknowledging, at least to ourselves, that we are sinners too in need of Christ then we have a plank of wood in our eye.

Both explanations have merit and in situations both are valid. When you are judging your brother we must first identify “Do we have planks in our eyes?” Are we attempting to transfer our blame and guilt to another? Are we acknowledging that “There but the grace of God go I?” Are we being humble and introspective before we approach our brother?

If we still feel able then we need to follow the method as laid out by Jesus in Mathew chapter 18 tonights other reading.

15"If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. 16But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that 'every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.' 17If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.

Go to your brother – one on one, and have a talk. When you approach in an attitude of humility and love – with that plank out of your eye at least two things will hopefully happen. They will listen to you and you will listen to them.

Can you imagine someone from the congregation bowling up to you after a service with an attitude that oozes how self-righteous they are feeling and loudly saying “Hey – Stop sinning, I know what you are doing Stop it!”

What is your first instinct? Mine is that I’d want to do something to that person I’d need to repent of later. After that and if I hadn’t ran away, I wouldn’t be listening to them, I would be defensive and argumentative and stubborn and come away feeling angry and wanting to hit things (or people). I would not be going “oh yeah you are right, sorry, I must stop that and go to God in repentative prayer” – unless it was incredible sarcastically.

But if someone comes to you quietly and says something like’ you know we all have problems, I can have trouble shutting up sometimes but I noticed that blah blah – do you want to talk about it?’ how more receptive would you be then to that person’s correction of you?

With the plank out of your eye and with humility the brother may listen and be ‘won over‘

The other thing that may happen is that you may find out you got the wrong end of the stick and the person was not sinning and you were wrong.

We may not have all the facts of the situation and what it looks like a person is doing may not actually be something they are doing.

Or it may be a disputable matter, that you have the weaker faith in this matter, and this will be a time of teaching and strengthening for you.

A minor example of this is that there was this time I was judged in a way. I’m from Southland you see. I grew up there, and started work there. Apart from a certain vocal inflection (rrrolling of the r) there is something else southlanders are known for. We eat swede’s, raw or cooked they are yummy and it never gave me a second thought how it was not a delicious food.

However I moved to Rangiora and a new member of the youth group was from England and her part of England swedes are not used as food. They are considered to be not fit for human consumption. Swedes are only to be fed to animals. Pigs especially.

So I’m there busy chomping down on a nice raw bit of southland swede while some more is cooking in the pot for tea and she is there nearly throwing up. Sort of like how I would if she cracked open a tin of whiskers cat food, took a big spoonful, swallowed in sheer delight then offered me some.

So she judged me as being foul and disgusting almost sinful in my actions – but it wasn’t In this case it was just a clash of cultures, she could not comprehend someone eating what she thought of as pig food. But to me it was second nature.
When we see an action of another, is it a clash of culture? Is it a disputable matter? Go to the Bible what does it say? Pray, read and study it together. In humility both need to go to God

Now however what if you were right, it is indisputably sin and they won’t listen to you?

Jesus says to go back and to take some witnesses. Not people who will just stand around like bouncers while you repeat your previous accusations. But people who have seen for themselves what the person has been doing.

Again this will need to be done with humility and introspection. It is not ganging up on a dirty rotten sinner, but in Christ’s love helping someone to improve themselves and situation.

Again if the person refuses then it needs to be brought to the church. In our case the vicar, the wardens or vestry members would be the people to approach and not roll up here during the notices and say we saw Andrew eating weird stuff.

And then finally if they still will not change their actions of sin then as Paul said “expel the wicked man”

Note that at no point are we to judge that they are not Christians or going to hell or that they do not believe in Christ. All that is being done is that the person actions are being judged as sinful actions that are not to be done by a church member.

This is done for the person and for the church. Paul warns in 1 Corthinans using the example of yeast in bread dough, that a little bit of allowed sin will corrupt the whole church.

So the method to judge another is:

Examine yourself
Go to the person privately to talk and listen
Take witnesses with evidence
Take the matter publicly to the church
Expel the person from the congregation.

I have never been part of a congregation who has had to expel someone. Whether that has been because the situation has never gotten that far or that there has never been a situation like that I don’t know.

But the thing to remember here is that the end result is not the punishment and expulsion of a person but rather what God wants is repentance, reconciliation, love and forgiveness.

Have a look at 2 Corinthians 2 5:-8

5If anyone has caused grief, he has not so much grieved me as he has grieved all of you, to some extent—not to put it too severely. 6The punishment inflicted on him by the majority is sufficient for him. 7Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. 8I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him.

Scholars are divided as to if the person mentioned here is also the person expelled in the first letter. Some say yes some say no. I do not see any direct biblical evidence that they are they same person but I’d like to think it was.

Either way a person has hurt the congregation and Paul says once the appropriate punishment has been meted and the person is sorrowful then to welcome him back with love.

The whole process is not about the punishment it’s not about the sin it’s about the rehabilitation and reconciliation.

We have all heard the tales about bitter ex-Christians who have been called on their sins and perhaps punished who turn their backs on Christ. Paul here warns not to over punish – only to do that which is sufficient, then to forgive and comfort.

Remember that to forgive and comfort.

We approach the judgment with humility, we act it out in sadness and then forgive with love and grace.

When you think about it a bit this is also God’s way of treating us as well.

Except for the case that He does not have to worry about his own sin first – as he has none. God is patient with us, slow to anger and abounding in love. I love the words some of the older translations use for patience “long suffering” God suffers a long time for us to repent so there can be a reconciliation. The punishment has been meted out – to Jesus.

Then He calls us to Him with forgiveness and comfort.

Surely we can also do that for our brothers? After all we are their keepers

We are the lords Onesimi

The Book of Philemon.
Readings Luke 17: 1-11 The epistle of Philemon.

The letter to Philemon was written around AD 61 to 63 - approximately 30 years after Jesus's death and Resurrection.

Paul was in prison in Rome and at this time he would have also written Colossians, Ephesians and Phillippians. Philemon was a citizen of Colossae which is in modern day Turkey. He was a rich member of the church and owned slaves.

One of these slaves Onesimus, (whose name means useful) became useless, in that he ran away, likely to Rome in an attempt to hide in the anonymity of a big city. There however he encountered Paul who led him to Christ.

Paul then tells Onesimus that it is his duty to go back to Philemon and be his slave again. Paul gives him a letter so that Philemon will hopefully accept Onesimus back without punishment.

Did Philemon accept him back? Well 50 odd years later Ignatious, the bishop of Antioch, was being taken to Rome to be martyred wrote complements about the bishop of Ephesus called Onesimus – calling himself useful – the same pun that Paul used in his letter.

Philemon also went on to be a Bishop, the Bishop of Colossae. And finally tradition has Philemon, his wife Appia and their son Archippus along with Onesimus being martyred in the first general persecution that the Emperor Nero had ordered.

So it does look like that Pauls letter worked and Onesimus was taken back by Philemon and also that he was freed.


However on the surface this seems to support slavery, Paul the apostle who was given revelation by God in doctrine and morality told a runaway slave to go back to his slave master. In the 1800's in the USA there was the "Underground Railway" where Christains who fought to end slavery would smuggle slaves out of the South to the north where they were free. But here is Paul sending a slave back?!

Lets have a look at the situation of slaves in Roman times.

Slavery was universal in all the ancient nations. The philosopher Aristotle said slavery was part of the Natural order of things.

The civilization was economic based on slavery. Slaves were not just manual laborers doing the ditch digging and sewer cleaning, they were household servants - like butlers or maids. Slaves could be doctors or artists, teachers or musicians, all in all slaves made up of around one third to one half of the population.

And every single one of them had no rights what so ever, in fact it was only in AD20 that the Roman senate granted them a right to a trial…, before that if accused of a crime there was no need for proof they could be just executed.

In fact this happened in the household of a roman called Pedanius. He was murdered and it was suspected that it *could* have one of the slaves so they executed the household slaves - all 400 of them. History does not tell us if they got the murderer though.

The owner of the slave had all the legal rights and the slaves none. An owner could treat his slaves well or he could treat them badly and cruelly and the law would not stop it - in fact the law supported the slave owners right to do what he wanted to a slave. One tale of a bad owner was Vedius Pollio who entertained the emperor. Vedius had a tank in his mansion in which he kept hunger conger-eels. If a slave annoyed him in anyway then the slave was thrown into the tank to be eaten alive.


In trying to think of a metaphor to compare roman slavery to today I thought perhaps of dogs. The dog belongs to it's owner, and they may use the dog for hunting, show trials etc. and some owners treat the dogs with love and care, almost like their own child.

Some will beat and kick and not feed and otherwise mistreat their pets. Where the analogy breaks down is that today we have laws to protect dogs from bad owners.

The Romans had no such laws - the owner had the right to beat, mistreat and kill his slave. Indeed a runaway slave once returned to the owner was often branded on the forehead with the letter F meaning Fugitivus - runaway.

A better comparison would be to say the slaves were like tools. The slave was just a tool like a hammer, a spade, a lawn mower or remote control - something you use to get the job done.

Some people take care of their equipment and some leave the shovels out in the rain to rust.

There is no law to stop me getting the remote control to my VCR and jumping up and down on it. The flatmates might be a bit annoyed if we want to change channels - but it's my property and my right to do what I want - if it really bugs me that I can't play videos - I'll just go buy another.

And so it was with the slaves - they were just the tools and equipment of the owners - do be used and treated as the owner so desired.

The Greek attitude of slaves was very similar to the roman attitude and both of these attitudes are in complete contrast to the attitude we read about slavery in the Old and New testaments. God has something else to say.


In Ephesians 6:5-8 it is written

5Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. 6Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. 7Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men, 8because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free.

That seems a heavy load to put on a slave to treat their master as if his will is the will of Christ but note the next verse 9.

9And masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.

The master is to treat the slave as if the slave is Christ himself! And that in Gods eyes the owner and slaves are equal and He has no favoritism.

What a surprise it would be today if we were told to treat our lawn mowers as if they were Christ. This is the kind of attitude barrier Paul was trying to breach.

The New Testament says that the Slave is our Brother, in fact Paul calls Onesimus a Dear brother, and that slaves are to be treated with respect love and indeed just the way we would treat Christ.

The Old Testament teaches the same thing about equality.

In the Passover which is one of the most holy ceremonies that a Jewish family could do without a priest, they are told in Exodus 12:44 that Slaves may take part in it - yet a hired worker cannot! The slaves were to be accepted in the ceremony as one of the family.

And then in the law of Moses it goes one further. After seven years the Hebrew slaves are to be freed. Let go, they are their own property again. They may come back if they want to but the law is that they can go free.

These attitudes are in total opposition to the Greek and Roman times and slavery as it has been known in our last few centuries of modern times. The Bible teaches that all people are to be treated with love and respect.

That answers one question, the letter of Philemon and the rest of the Bible does not support slavery. What then are the spiritual truths of this letter?

Martin Luther in speaking about this book said...

We are the Lords Onesimi, we are the Lords profitable servants.

Martin Luther compares us all (including himself) with Onesimus.

We are runaways from God. In our sin we have abused God damaged his property and flee from Him as much as we can.

Before the Lord God almighty we have no rights, if so demanded we cannot do anything that is not His will. If we were to return to God on our own, He could reject us, brand us, or put us to death.

In this parallel, the Father is therefore Philemon. He is the one whose property has runaway. The Father is the one who has all the rights, legally and morally to do with us as he wills.

Paul is the Christ-type. Paul mediates with Philemon on behalf of Onesimus. Paul has authority as an apostle to order Philemon but instead he says, please do it for me, as a favour, on the basis of Love.

Jesus as part of the trinity is our mediator and says to the Father - forgive these people, not for any works but on my behalf. And just as Paul was willing to pay for any damages or theft Onesimus may owe, Jesus not only offered but paid for the price of our sins - with His death on the cross.


Onesimus whose name means Useful or Profitable was made useless by his running away. By returning he became useful and profitable again. We who are Christians were useless before the Lord but now thanks to Christ we are useful and profitable to him. We are the Lords Onesimi, we are the Lords profitable servants.

We are servants who have chosen to do so out of love for our master. Yes he has the right, Yes He deserves to own us but we come to Him through Love. The Love of Jesus for us first, the Love of Jesus displayed on the cross, the Love of Jesus certified through the Resurrection.

Like Onesimus, who Philemon took back and did not punish but loved like a brother, and it appears freed him to no longer be a slave so the Father has done for us. Yes we are His servants but in Christ we are much more than that.

Luke 17 tells us that we are not to expect great praise or glory when we do God’s work but as his profitable servants – we are to do our duty – in whatever form it is that God has for us to do.

We are the lords Onesimi, we are the Lords profitable servants.

My first sermon - Jude

This was my first sermon - dated... a long time ago - around 2003ish. 'tis from the book of Jude

Jude had a problem. And it wasn't that The Beatles were writing catchy songs about him either....

A church that he cared about had been infiltrated. "Certain men" had snuck into the congregation had had started to pervert God's work that was going on there. They had been leading the Christians there away from the Lord and his desire for us to be Holy and leading them to immorality, licentiousness and sinful desires and worse they had been denying that Jesus Christ is our only Sovereign and Lord.

And there is the crux of Judes problem. People he loved, people he may have brought to the Lord himself were being told - and some were believing - that Jesus Christ was not God. Perhaps they were saying he was a just a good teacher, - someone whose teaching we can aspire to follow, perhaps they said Jesus is not the only way to God, perhaps they were saying he was not the sacrifice for our sins once and for all and perhaps they were saying he did not rise from the dead.

Look around the Church today - in all it's denominations - and you will see that Judes problem is our problem as well. There are priests, pastors, bishops and people who just leap on the band wagon to sell a book or two who say "Jesus was not resurrected!"

Jude stood up to these people and condemned them for their heresy... are we doing that today? Or do we just say - to each his own - what's true for me may not be true to you - we weren't there how can we be sure what did happen? Why are the people who do stand up to the heritcs scorned and laughed at and called narrow minded?

When you see a person drowning, or even being held under the water by another - do you ask that person do you want to be saved? Do you think that the aggressor is just expressing himself and it's not our place to judge his murderous lifestyle - just because it is different to our choices. Well just as the victims physical life is being destroyed so is the spiritual life of those who fall to the lie that Jesus Christ is not our only Sovereign and Lord.

Jude had a problem... Jude had an answer...

Firstly he stood up and condemned the godless men and then he told those who are still faithful to be strong, to rescue those who stray and to focus on Jesus - our God our Saviour.

I will now like to home in on Judes advice to the Christians who were in this situation.

Jude told them that they are to build themselves up in their holy faith and to pray in the Holy Spirit. They were to keep themselves in God's Love and wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring us to eternal life.

They had to strengthen themselves in their holy faith. They had to know what they believed. When we know what we believe and a heretic comes to us and says something different then we know not only that they are wrong but why. We can confidently say,if we wanted to, "The Lord rebuke you" and leave it at that. It is not enough however just to know a lot of theology. After all a lot of the heretics today are very well versed in doctrine and the bible yet they choose to divert from it.

We need to have the Holy Spirit in out lives. The Holy Spirit - that mysterious third part of the trinity - enters believers on conversation and connects their spirit with God's. The Holy Spirit guides and leads us, he is our counselor - not just as the emotional healer but as legal - telling us where we have gone wrong and need work on. The Holy Spirit also leads us in our prayer. Prayer... that personal and at times intimate conversation with God. In that conversation we are communing with the one who is the centre of our faith and He will not let us fall He will strengthen us in Him to be the people He wants us to be. Within that loving (yet broken) relationship we can wait for the time when due to God's mercy on our sins we are with Him face to Face.

Those who have the strong faith - Jude tells us- are to go and rescue those who have not. So do we go up to those who waver and scream in their face like some sort of Boot Camp drill sargent. Ahhh. no... Jude tells us to be merciful. We all have doubt we all are human. But when we are together - and housegroups are wonderful for this - we can strengthen the weaker brother (or sister as the case may be). We are a family after all and that's what families do (well working ones anyway).

I became a Christian in 1989 after being brought up as an atheist. In the late mid to late 90's I was so unsure and so full of doubts that I was ready to pack it all in and become a real apostate. No Christian came to snatch me from the flames - mind you I had had such a bad experience with the Pentecostal church I had been attending I don't think I would have listened anyway. My life and marriage broke down and at the hearth of the fire I called out to God and he rescued me. Remind ourselves - there but the grace of God go I. Be on the lookout for those who are beyond just doubting. I have no cover all guidelines for those people as each person is an individual and we have to love them as such.

And to the heretics? Jude tells us we should still be merciful to them - but fear them. If there is a chance of bringing them back to the kingdom -do so but don't trust their teaching and - just us you wouldn't allow your children to meet alone with a convicted pedophile don't let the weaker Christians access to heretics.

Jude concludes his letter with a burst of praise. But it is praise with a meaning.

To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy-- to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.

Amen all right. It is Jesus who we focus our faith on, it is Jesus who strengthens us through His spirit, It is Jesus who was the sacrifice for our sins, it is Jesus who rose from the dead as proof He is God and our sins are cleansed. It is Jesus who will bring us before the Throne to the our heavenly Father, our creator our God. It is Jesus these people deny.

Jude shows that by focusing on Jesus and giving Him the praise He is due, by keeping our weaker brothers and sisters focussed on Jesus those who seek to be like sheepherders feeding on their own flocks will just be autumn tress uprooted and falled - twice dead. Those who have the relationship with Jesus however - though they die once yet shall they live.

Jude had a problem - Jesus is the answer.

The Body of Christ

The church Paul explains in Corinthians is like a body. And we as Christians are part of that body. Jesus is the head, the head that controls and instructs the body to do that which is needed.

And if in our bodies we loose connection with our heads... needless to say our life expectancy is not very long.

But if we do have a tenuous connection to our head, we may be alive but useless, paralyzed. While our legs once could run and jump and walk, now they sit atrophied and just using up the strength of the rest of the body

With Jesus our whole body is supported and held together, controlled and guided.

So Jesus is God, Jesus is the foundation (the roots) of our faith, Jesus is our centre, Jesus is our head and guide. Jesus is all that is needed for our salvation.

Why then do we try to change things?

It is because we are still affected by our own sin. We are affected by the sin of the world around us and we are affected by the sin of the Devil and his tempting attempts to lead us into further sin.

Paul in the book of First Timothy warns of people whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. When your flesh is seared then that area tends to lose the ability to feel and the nerve endings die off.

When our consciences, our ability to make moral choices becomes seared, by our sins, then we too will loose the ability to think things are sins or not. It is easier to continue into deeper and deeper sin.

Once you’ve done it once it’s easier to do it again and worse the next time.

The answer is that as the disciple John said in His gospel. If the Son sets you free you are free indeed.

Prayer to Jesus our saviour, our Lord, He will set us free.

The only way to come to Jesus is prayer. If you don’t know what to say then ask him to teach you.
The disciples who walked with him for three years had to ask him why should you be any different?

Open up and speak with Him. Break the ice and let him in.


Then read your Bibles.

While God could speak to us audibly, or arrange signs to show us his will, or make the clouds into words and pictures, there is always the strong likelihood that our desires our clouding our judgement.

The Bible is the authoritative way in which he speaks to us today. And if you don’t go to it then how else can you hear back from him after prayer?

Remember, with such importance, the enemy struggles to keep us from the Bible. You are never too busy, too tired, or too stupid to be able to read God’s word.

The world also tries to tell us not to read it – that it is unreliable or tainted or old and outdated. The fact is they are wrong…

What ever excuse is keeping you from the bible – ignore it, pick a Bible up and read the gospel of Mathew.

Go on I dare you. You have a month.

Mawwage - is a bwessed awaingment... Colossians 3:18-19

Who am I to preach/teach/blog on marriage? After all I am divorced… and while it had many good things my marriage was a bit of a disaster.

The answer to that one I suppose is that it is similar to how all good preachers preach on morality and holy living while also admitting that we are sinners in need of a saviour. It’s the whole learning from your mistakes kind of thing. I’m not being a hypocrite; I admit my mistakes in my marriage and from it have learnt, one day God willing I’ll be able to use that knowledge in a practical way but tonight I’ll try to impart a little on what I think this passage of God-breathed scripture is saying.

So let us begin…

Wives submit to your husbands as is fitting in the Lord. If this was the only verse in the Bible that talked about a wives place in a marriage or in society then I for one would agree with those who hate this verse with a passion. That word submit has caused a lot of problems and a lot of abuse. Abuse that is despicable and sinful and is not what God intends.

A wife submitting is not slavery, it is not to treat the husband like he is their lord and master. It is also not agreeing with them when they actually are in the wrong.

How is the wife supposed to submit? Not being a wife myself I can’t honestly say… but I do not think it would be any different from the way in Ephesians 5:21 where we all as a church are instructed that we need to submit to one another out of reverence to Christ.

The word submit that used for how wives are to interact with their husbands is the same word used to instruct me how to interact with you, and how you are to interact with the person sitting next to you, behind you or in fact any Christian you meet.

The Greek word submit has a few meanings but the key one I think applies is this ”To yield to someone’s admonition or advice” Admonition meaning, warning or correction.

I am told to listen to and follow you when you have correction or advice for me. As so it is for wives. If a husband has correction or advice for them then they are to listen and to yield, to give way to their advice.

Husbands of course had better make sure they are correct and not abusing their “authority” Paul recognizes this as the very next verse.

Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them.

Paul expands on a Husbands responsibility in Ephesians that us men have to love our wife just as Christ loved the Church. Now as Christ died for the church!... that is a lot of love men have to give.

Woman are expected to follow their husbands correction and advice, husbands are expected to be willing to die for their wives. This is not much of an exaggeration and it is one that would not come into play often.

With Christ as our Lord and Master He has every right to force us to His will and do that which we hate – He does not do so. Our lives are guided by Him, His advice is the best we can ever get and He does not abuse us. Husbands be the same. The call for a wives submission is not a call for you to be He-Man master of the Universe, but to be Christ’s love to her, to give your life and actions to her well being.

This way a husband should act is not really anything new to us today but let’s look at how a wife was considered to the people Paul was writing to.

William Barclay wrote

Under Jewish law a woman was a thing, the possession of her husband, just as much as his house or his flocks or his material goods. She had no legal rights whatever. For instance, under Jewish law, a husband could divorce his wife for any cause, while a wife had no rights whatever in the initiation of divorce; and the only grounds on which a divorce might be awarded her were if her husband developed leprosy, became an apostate or ravished a virgin. In Greek society a respectable woman lived a life of entire seclusion. She never appeared on the streets alone, not even to go marketing. She lived in the women's apartments and did not join her menfolk even for meals. From her there was demanded complete servitude and chastity; but her husband could go out as much as he chose and could enter into as many relationships outside marriage as he liked without incurring any stigma. Under both Jewish and Greek laws and custom all the privileges belong to the husband and all the duties to the wife

Let me repeat “Under both Jewish and Greek laws and custom all the privileges belong to the husband and all the duties to the wife.”

Paul here is saying the Husband now has a duty to His wife. To love her and not be harsh.

We read elsewhere in Pauls writing, also in Acts and with Jesus, equality is being shown between Men and Women. Jesus met with a Samaritan woman and gave her the news of Salvation.

Women not men were first to see the resurrected Jesus. Paul preached to Lydia and the church ofPhilippi was started.

Paul thanks the women who have churches meet in their homes. Things that would have been abhorrent to the men reading them back then, but today we don’t even notice their significance.

Women were being treated by God and by the apostles as the equals of men. I’m not saying the apostles got it right all the time, they had after all a lot of culture to fight against, but the beginnings were there.

I have noticed something about human nature. I call it the pendulum effect.

If a person is trapped in a lifestyle or line of thought, when they are freed they will often go to the opposite extreme. They may swing back and forth between the two extremes until they reach equilibrium. I have an idea that in Pauls days with the woman who were like slave were now being treated equally and with love by their husbands then some of them may have swung to the other end of the scale and tried to be the boss and make the husband submit, and not just submitting to advice but in the abusive type of submission we all fear. In this case it is wise for Paul to tell wives to listen to the husbands. To bring a balance.

With two short sentences Paul writes a doctrine to free women from the slavery of their husbands and to curb the sinful nature of the men and so to truly love and cherish the one that God has joined them to.

Mind blowing stuff – I just wish more marriages could live up to Pauls and Gods expectations.

Have a read of Colossians Chapter 1: 15 to 23

In tonight’s reading from Colossians Paul lays it all simply and , clear to the church at Colosse Jesus is the image of the invisible God, Jesus is the creator of all things, Jesus is the one who holds all things together, Jesus is the one in whom was God’s fullness dwelt and Jesus is the one in whom we were reconciled to God by.

Paul here lays out very clear and very blatant truths about Jesus. When you read it you get the impression that it came out of him as worship, natural and heartfelt and to the one who was worthy to receive such worship. Very different from the person who once tried to kill any who worshiped Jesus. Paul now knows the truth about Jesus, it brings joy to him and consumes him to tell all others about it. Also very different from the person on the road to Damascus who looked up at the resurrected Jesus and said ‘who are you?’ Let us know have a look at some of these truths.

• Jesus is the image of the invisible God.

The word image here is the Greek word eikon (i-kone) and means an image, figure or likeness. That same word is used in Matthew 22:20 when Jesus is given a roman coin and says. “Whose portrait is this?” It was Ceasers, it was not Ceaser him self but his image if you had seen that coin then you would know what Ceaser looked like, if you had seen Jesus then you would know what God looked like. Jesus was the portrait of the invisible God.

In Hebrews we learn that Jesus is the radiance of god’s glory and the exact representation of His being.

In 2^nd Corinthians we again have Jesus being described as the image of God

From these passages we learn that Jesus accurately and fully expresses the being and perfection of God. Today by looking at Jesus as he is reveled in the Bible we can know the invisible god. We don’t have to go searching for God he has made himself clearly visible.

In the Bible we read of other peoples encounters with God. Ezekiel saw a man who looked like he was glowing metal, surrounded by creatures with many wings and eyes and devices that were wheels within wheels. John in revelation saw a man with hair like wool, eyes on fire, feet of bronze and a voice like rushing water. Moses was not allowed to see God fully but only saw his back – yet Moses face glowed and he had to wear a veil as the glowing upset the Israelites.

Here though we have Jesus who shows what God is like without the need to metaphors or similes. Jesus is the image of the invisible God.

Next we read on that Jesus is…

• Jesus is the firstborn of all creation.

From this word firstborn some have incorrectly theorized that Jesus is a created being. But this is opposed to all the rest of what Scripture has to say about Jesus, in fact it is opposed to the very next sentence Paul writes about Jesus. The Jehovahs Witnesses leap upon this verse and in their travesty of a translation they add words into that sentence to make it fit. Paul wrote that All things were created on Heaven and on earth and that Jesus is before all things and he holds all things together. If Jesus was created then ALL things could not have been created by him as He is a thing. The witnesses add the word other after the word all to tie up with their heresy.

Firstborn is used elsewhere in Scripture as a metaphor to describe the rank and privilege as being the one who is first born without actually being the firstborn. Unlike today when our kids ask us who you love the most and we answer we love you both just the same. In the Bible times while the love may have been the same the firstborn certainly had more rights and power than the younger siblings.

So as a metaphor the National of Israel was called the Lords firstborn in Exodus 4:22 although they were not the first nation to exist, in Psalm 89 King David who was the youngest of 8 was called the firstborn, and he was not the first King either.

Here by Paul calling Jesus the firstborn over all creation, he is not saying He was created first but that Jesus is above all creation and has the rights “as if he was the firstborn”

We continue with what Paul wrote and as mentioned before we see that

• Jesus is the Creator of all things.

And when I say all things I mean ALL things, nothing exists that He did not create – and that includes you and me. I love astronomy and am constantly amazed by he beauty that Jesus has put into the heavens and in the world around us

• All things were created for Jesus

This is interesting because according to this not only did Jesus create all things – but all things were created for Him – we are not the reason for creation – Jesus is! Bit of a blow to the ego but it is a truth we must all remember Jesus is the centre of all.

• In him all things hold together.

He keeps the universe together and with out him all things would fall into chaos or worse fall back into nothingness and void. The laws of physics gravity, the dance of the planets, molecules and atoms He is the one who keeps it all going. Without him we would truly have and indeed be nothing.

• He is the head of the church.

Not just our resp, not just the Anglican denomination but the whole church, every Christian everywhere, the universal church. Every believer that is and was and ever will be he is the head, the one who has the rank and authority over us all. As you would expect from the one we call our Lord.

• The beginning and the firstborn from the dead.

Again that word firstborn. Jesus was not the first to rise from the dead Lazarus was brought back to life for starters – but Jesus was the first – the beginning of the Resurrection. Resurrection is not just a resuscitation back to life – Lazarus did indeed die again – it is the changing of our physical bodies which perish into our spiritual bodies which are eternal. Jesus in 1 Corinthians is called the first fruits – the cream of the crop – of the resurrection – he is the beginning and has the authority and rights to it as the firstborn.

And now we come to verse 19 – one of the most awesome statements about Jesus ever – the one that puts away all confusion about him and just lays it out flat.

For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him,

This goes beyond Jesus being an image or portrait of god – this lays it out clear. God’s fullness dwelt in Jesus. God did not partly inhabit Jesus, Jesus was 100% God incarnate – God in human form. Born, lived, died God at all times in a physical body. Yet still something was being dwelt in –Jesus was still a human. He was 100% human and 100% God. I know that adds up to 200% but that is the miracle of the incarnation.

And what did this God do? What purpose did God make himself in human form?

He came according to verse 20, he came so that through him all things may be reconciled to himself by making peace through his blood shed on the cross.

Jesus who is the very portrait of God, Jesus who is the creator of all, Jesus who is above all things and holds all things together by his power, Jesus who has the rank and authority and rights to the church, the world, the universe to the spiritual realms, Jesus became incarnated as a human being in order to die, to pay the price of all of our sins with his blood on the cross.

Paul continues to the church at Colosse but he might as well have been speaking directly to us – We all were once enemies of god, shut out of intimacy from him like a prisoner transported from England to Australia was shut out from their home. In our minds and in our behavior we showed how much we were against God – and as God can see all things he knows how much we were against him yet he came into a physical body just so it could die in order to re-unite us with him.

During communion, with the bread we remember the physical body of Jesus that died for us, with the wine and juice we remember the blood that was shed on the cross. Remember… remember what Christ is – the firstborn, the creator, God himself, Remember what he did for you – the whipping, the beating the dieing. Remember what it is that you have done that has caused this to be needed and be thankful – be so thankful that he loved us all enough that while we were enemies, while we were alienated while we were still sinners he died for us.

His death paid the price for our sin. Nothing but the blood of Jesus could do it.

Eat, drink and be thankful, for our tomorrows he died.