Laity Sunday sermon : On TRAC Together - Word (13/10/19)

Laity Sunday 2019: Word

²⁷ As Jesus was saying these things, a woman in the crowd called out, “Blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you.”

²⁸ He replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.” (Lk 11:27-29)

¹⁹ Now Jesus’ mother and brothers came to see him, but they were not able to get near him because of the crowd. ²⁰ Someone told him, “Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to see you.”

²¹ He replied, “My mother and brothers are those who hear God’s word and put it into practice.” (Lk 8:19-21)

                We conclude from these parallel passages that:

1.       It is more blessed to hear and obey God’s word than to be Jesus’ mother.

2.       Jesus regards those who hear and obey God’s word as His true family.

3.       So we should hear and obey God’s word.

So:

4.       The Word of God is to be heard

5.       The Word of God is to be obeyed

6.       The hearing and doing of Word of God brings blessing and relationship with Him.+

Hearing

In Biblical times, and in fact, until fairly recently in human history, most people were illiterate. Ancient Talmudic literature says; “A town in which there is only one who reads; he stands up, reads (the Torah), and sits down, he stands up, reads and sits down, even seven times. (Soferim 11;2). In other words, there might only be one or two people in the entire village who could read. Even allowing for a higher literacy rate in cities, the literacy rate in Jesus’ time is estimated to be only about 3%. Few could read. And so Scripture speaks of the need for us to ‘hear’ God’s word, and never asks believers at large to ‘read’ it.

The truth is that we are doubly blessed: firstly we are blessed  to be literate. If not, we would never be able to read the Bible for ourselves. Christian missionaries set up schools and encouraged literacy, not only to improve standard of living, but so that people would be able to read the Word of God in their own language. Secondly, we are blessed to have the Bible in a language we can understand. We often forget that the original Biblical languages were not English, but dedicated translators made it possible for the gospel to reach us.

So in our day, the call to “hear” is also the call to read God’s Word and other books based on God’s word from print and electronic sources. More importantly, to ‘hear’ also carries the connotation of ‘to pay attention to’ rather than just to be present Scripture is read. So the Psalmist can say, “O God, hear my prayer; give ear to the words of my mouth” (Ps 54:2) and we are told about Jesus that, “With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it” (Mk 4:33). This means “able to understand and receive” it.

Why hear?  We must hear (and read) the Bible because God wants us to know Him. His Word is how He, the transcendent and infinite One, most clearly and fully shows us what He is like. We know from texts like Ps 19 or Romans 1 that God shows Himself in 2 ways: General revelation is when He reveals Himself through created things – nature and people, to everyone at all times. Special revelation is not available to everyone at all times, but occurs when God reveals himself in special ways. He most clearly reveals Himself in the person of Jesus Christ, and it is in Scripture that we learn the most clearly about God’s nature, character and ways.

Hearing and reading the Bible is not so that we know the Bible better. Hearing and reading the Bible is so that we know God better. We are not to seek learning for learning’s sake. All Bible knowledge must help us to know, follow and worship God better. “Knowledge puffs up” (1 Cor 8:1). When we are born again, we have new desires that come with our new spiritual life. “Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation” (1 Pet 2.2) So we can test ourselves: a mark of true salvation is a desire to know God and His Word.

How does the Word of God help us?  2 Ti 3:16 says that “¹⁶ All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, ¹⁷ that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” It is useful for teaching - it teaches us eternal truths about the universe. We know with certainty about God, our origin, our identity, our morality, our purpose, and our destiny. Christians have a monopoly on truth. Christians walk in the light while the world walks in darkness. Scripture corrects and reproves us. It challenges our self-satisfaction and complacency to show us how far short we fall of God’s perfect standards. This makes us humble and causes us to cling to God in dependence. Scripture trains us in righteousness - the Bible is our infallible guide to living a righteous life. It’s tells us how to live a life that is pleasing to Him.

So we should take every effort to hear and read the Word of God – in sermons, in seminars and FTP, in personal devotion and in books. In personal devotions we should be using a decent Bible reading plan. Reading a devotional booklet like ‘Our Daily Bread’ is good, but it is not enough to get a grasp of the whole Bible. I also should say that reading is an under-utilized way of learning about God’s word applied. Reading good Christian books is like listening to a mature Christian sit down and share insights with us. Also, In this Internet age, the sermons and teaching of the world’s greatest preachers are available to us in podcasts and Youtube. In one sense there really should be no reason to feel starved of good teaching, because any one of us has access to these resources.

Obeying

Obedience to the Word is a key part of Christian life. Hearing, even attentive hearing and perfect knowledge of truth, is not sufficient. After all, demons have a perfect theological understanding and probably know the Bible better than most Christians! Again and again, we are told that we must respond to hearing by obedience.

Mt 7:24-27: ²⁴ “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. ²⁵ And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. ²⁶ And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. ²⁷ And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”

Mt 28:19-20 ⁹ Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Jas 1:22-26 ²² But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. ²³ For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. ²⁴ For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. ²⁵ But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

The implication is that people who hear the Word and do not do it are worse off than those who never hear it at all (c.f. Jn 9:41 “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.”

Truth may free us (Jn 8:32), but only if it is applied. Otherwise, it condemns. Here is a solemn warning – every time we hear a sermon or lectionary reading; every time we read the Bible, we have the opportunity for blessing, or condemnation. The end-result depends on our willingness to put what we hear into practice.

What does it mean to obey the Word of God?

In the parable of the sower (Lk 8:15), “the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.”  The 3 elements of obedience here are: right attitude – with willingness and joy, making the mental effort to grasp the truth (understanding) and there is perseverance through difficulty. The last part of obedience warns us that obeying God is not always easy.

We are often like a child who, when told to so something by mum or dad, delays the response, does it half-heartedly, or just does part of it. This is because the child does not fully desire to please the one in authority over him or her, or does not see that what is being asked is really for his or her good. And so our responses are slow, partial, and reluctant. If we really, really believe that God has our best interests at heart and that His commands are a delight rather than a drag, we will not hesitate to do what He says.

It is through obedience that we show love for God. “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (Jn 14:15)

Blessing

Now we return to Jesus’ responses as recorded by Luke. Nice people and religious Jews would have been shocked. They were supposed to “honour (their) father and mother” (Ex 20:12). She is saying that Jesus’ greatness of teaching is such that even the one that bore him and nursed him (his mother) should get some credit. The Lord could have said something more neutral, but instead, He uses this opportunity to publicly proclaim the truth that that his mother has no special blessing as compared to those who will hear and obey the word. Earlier in Luke 8, he had also publicly turned down his family. He refused to give his mother and brothers special access to him. He clearly said that His physical family had no special advantage in this regard.

Behind the 2 accounts is a great truth: Jesus is the Blessed One. If the one who bore Him is blessed, how much more blessed is Jesus! He is the one worth being in the same family with. He is the  one worth having access to.

What does it means to be ‘blessed’? Blessing this more than having comfort and prosperity and good things happening to our lives.
It means that

1.       We have a place of privileged access to Jesus. How nice it is, when a good friend has become an important politician (like a minister), or CEO of a large company, or a famous artiste. Because of our relationship to this person we have the chance to interact with him or her informally and intimately. If you are a family member who grew up in the same home as the person, or raised that person from birth, the relationship we would have is potentially much deeper and stronger. Jesus, the Lord of the universe, the mighty God, offers us this access if we will hear Him and will obey Him. We become His brothers, sisters, fathers and mothers.

2.       When we become part of the family of God, not just in name, but in truth – we will have access to three things: the Father’s name, the Father’s resources and the Father's love. We get the second and the third because of the first. The Father’s Name speaks of a new identity that the world cannot take away, just as the world cannot take away the fact that you were born into a particular family and you bear the name of your parents. God will never fail you. He will supply every need of yours according to his riches in Christ Jesus. He will give you a new identity And just as earthly parents love their children, the heavenly Father will love you perfectly and always seek your good.

Conclusion

So today, set your heart to know God better. Make concrete plans to read more, study the Bible more, and attend programmes together with fellow believers that will help you in this never-ending journey of discovering God.

If God is calling you to obey him in some area of your life today, then will be him quickly, fully, and joyfully. His blessing awaits you!

Audio is here