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What is Grief if not Love Persevering? – Lamentations 3

English psychiatrist Colin Murray Parkes wrote “The pain of grief is just as much a part of life as the joy of love; it is, perhaps, the price we pay for love, the cost of commitment.” We can see the truth that is in this statement in the third chapter of Lamentations, the center point of the book, traditionally by Jeremiah, grappling with the fall of Jerusalem.

Grief is part of our experience of life. “Life is pain… and anyone who says differently is selling something.” We learn something when we accept that the life we live in is peppered with grief and will end in grief. This is a truth that we want to ignore but that scripture implores us to address head on.

The book of Lamentations does so forcefully. Jeremiah and those around him have watched the temple – the connection point between the creator of the universe and His chosen people – be destroyed by pagans, who have slaughtered those people and scattered them across their sprawling empire. The sorrow goes even deeper, though, with all this coming as a judgement against the people of Israel for their sin.

In this life, we all bear the consequences of sin – toil, death, suffering, loss. Our hearts break when we lose what is meaningful to us. Grief is an expression of what our heart loves, but also of the eternal perspective God has placed in our hearts.

Some people seem to think that sorrow and grief are an indication of a lack of faith. But we see from Jesus’ tears at the tomb of Lazarus that this is not the case. Our grief and loss and death and evil is an awareness that something in this world is not right. There is something broken, something wrong, and our hearts know this at their very core.

How we handle our grief matters. Jesus calls us to walk well in our grief, and when our grief aligns with the heart of God it is more a sign of weakness or doubt but rather entering into the process of life. Jesus grieved, Paul grieved, David grieved, Jeremiah grieved, Moses grieved and all who came before us grieved.

Grief happens in a larger context. Grief is a result of the Fall, but there is a bigger story than that. Grief is for but a moment because we do not grieve apart from God and His truth. In grief, God has provided us with two tools. One of those is patience – the author of Lamentations did not live the 70 years it took for God’s people to come back to Jerusalem. The other is the promise that God is faithful.

We will one day walk in wholeness because of the blood of Jesus Christ. This is why Paul can tell those in 1 Thessalonians that we do not grieve like those who have no hope. We experience the grief now, but it is a reminder that we have a future of wholeness. Our grief is not hopeless, but rather a lifeline to eternity. God is with us and working His God and perfect will. There is Joy on the other side of our grief.

If we are in Christ we grieve with hope.

– Sermon Notes, Jeff Sickles, Snohomish Evangelical Free Church, Snohomish, WA, November 7, 2021

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The Greatest Challenge – Matthew 18:15-35

This passage discusses one of the most difficult things we are called to do as followers of Christ, namely forgiving those who have hurt us.

There are five main blocks of teaching in Matthew. This one specifically addresses the community of faith that He is founding, the Church. In this passage in particular, he addresses how to handle sin in the church. Not disagreements or even just conflict, but actual sin.

When we are hurt in this fashion, our goal is to “gain a brother.” He instructs us to go to them, in an effort to create an environment of humility where we can share our heart and they can share theirs, with the end that they are won back to righteousness. We are to partner with God in the process of bringing them back into the fold – the context here is those who have gone astray, along the lines of the parable of the 100 sheep just before.

If this initial attempt is not successful, we are to bring in others. Those others can serve as a check on our own impulses, validating if the sin is real or not and discerning the hearts of those involved.

If that still does not resolve the issue, next you bring them to the church more broadly. If that does not accomplish the goal, then we are to treat them like an unbeliever. But that does not mean a breaking of the relationship – rather a change from brothers in Christ to that of evangelism. We are, from beginning to end here, seeking restoration of the other person’s relationship with God.

Peter pokes a big further. How much do we forgive? The rabbis of the day taught that three times was enough. Peter goes further, with the number of completion, and yet Jesus pushes him even further. There is no end to the forgiveness we should offer, because there is no end to the forgiveness we have been given.

(Note again that the context here is a wayward brother, not someone who remains unrepentant. There is more to say about forgiveness, but that’s the context here.)

Everyone immediately wants to go to the hard cases here, and while that is understandable, it is critical that we first understand the core principle that is being taught. Before we can address the edge cases, we need to understand the central truth Christ is teaching. Namely, we have been forgiven an immeasurable amount and are called to forgive in that same spirit.

The world around us should see grace and forgiveness when they look at the church. This is in some ways our greatest challenge. Let us seek God’s help in carrying it through.

-Sermon Notes, Jeff Sickles, Snohomish Evangelical Free Church, Snohomish, WA, October 31, 2021

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Where Greatness Lies – Matthew 18:1-14

Social science has begun grappling with the impacts of the push to give children higher self esteem, leading to an increase in narcissism broadly.

Jesus in Matthew 18 addresses the question of greatness. When asked who the greatest in the kingdom is, Jesus gives a clear answer about the foundation of greatness – it begins with lowliness and humility.

Many try to take the child concept and extend it in all kinds of directions, but Jesus is clear about what childlike characteristic is important here.

The importance of humility was clear through the Old Testament, from Micah 6:8 to the book of Proverbs to the example of Moses, “the most humble man in all the world.” And yet Jesus comes into the world to find pride and domination ruling the day.

What exactly does this instruction suggest, then? What are the humble aspects of children we should seek to emulate. One is a simplicity of faith. Children are open to hearing about the works of God without the cynicism we gain. Related, children are teachable and curious, asking why constantly and taking things apart to see how they work. Children are dependent and, notably, are not remotely self-conscious about that fact. As adults, we feel and seek self sufficiency but it is ultimately an illusion. We “live and move and have our being” through the active will of God.

Jesus sets the ultimate example of this, despite being the incarnate creator. He tells us “I am gentle and lowly of heart.”

The essential nature of humility is one of the key threads unifying the teaching of the church throughout time. From the church fathers to the doctors of the church to the reformers to the pastors and thinkers of the list few centuries, all are unified on this point. And yet how much time do we spend concerned with our, praying for it or encouraging each other in it?

Jesus then shifts from speaking about emulating the humble to protecting them, warning against leading the young and young believers astray – within context, the sin of pride being the one to of mind.

He then goes on to use shock value to emphasize the evil of sins like pride. Self mutilation was against the law of Moses and would be immediately repulsive to his audience. And yet Jesus clearly sets it up as the superior alternative to remaining in our sin.

Then he moves on again, because what does God do when we do turn away? To answer, he brings in the story of the shepherd who leaves the 99 good sheep to go after the one who has wandered off. Within the context of pride and humility, we see the temptation to be offended like the older brother in the parable of the prodigal son.

God’s heart is for those who are lost – he takes joy in the saved but truly rejoices in those who return after wandering away. Likewise, we are to seek the good of those who are wandering over our own blessings and comfort.

Jesus calls us to deep and profound humility, because that is where true greatness lies. At the end of the day, greatness is in the eyes of God, and that is what He seeks.

– Sermon Notes, Jeff Sickles, Snohomish Evangelical Free Church, Snohomish, WA, October 24, 2021

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Our Rights Versus Our Mission – Matthew 17:22-27

Mabel Williamson was a missionary to China in the middle of the 20th century. She wrote a book called Have We No Rights, in which she introduced the Chinese idiom of “eating loss.” She wrote of a missionary speaking:

‘You know,’ he began, ‘there’s a great deal of difference between eating bitterness (a Chinese idiom for “suffering hardship”), and eating loss (a Chinese idiom for “suffering the infringement of one’s rights”). Eating bitterness is easy enough. To go out with the preaching band, walk twenty or thirty miles to the place where you are to work, help set up the tent, placard the town with posters, and spend several weeks in a strenuous campaign of meetings and visitation—why, that’s a thrill! Your bed may be made of a couple of planks laid on saw-horses, and you may have to eat boiled rice, greens, and bean-curd three times a day. But that’s just the beauty of it! Why, it’s good for anyone to go back to the simple life! A little healthy “bitterness” is good for anybody!

‘When I came to China,’ he continued, ‘I was all ready to eat bitterness and like it. It takes a little while to get your palate and your digestion used to Chinese food, of course, but that was no harder than I had expected. Another thing, however’—and he paused significantly—‘another thing that I had never thought about came up to make trouble. I had to eat loss! I found that I couldn’t stand up for my rights—that I couldn’t even have any rights. I found that I had to give them up, every one, and that was the hardest thing of all.’

We see a bit of that concept here in the story of Jesus and the tax collectors. Jesus asks us how we respond to the world around us, and shows us how we are to follow Him in that response.

The most immediate takeaway is that we are adopted as children of God. He sets this up with the promise of His death and resurrection, but then it is followed up with this confrontation with the temple tax collectors. Most likely spurred by the pharisees, saduccees or other part brokers, they confront Peter about whether Jesus pays the temple tax. Peter immediately answers yes, but then apparently needs to confirm it with Jesus.

Jesus’ response clearly shows his own self awareness – he is greater than the temple. He is free, and those he has adopted are also free, as Paul writes about so eloquently in Romans.

Note that Jesus uses the term “sons” here, not to exclude women but to illustrate that we are together not only in the family but recipients of the inheritance. All the privileges of sonship are ours. We sometimes don’t properly recognize this – we call Christ the king but often do not reflect on what that means to our own identities. We are children of the king! We are not an embattled minority in the verge of being wiped out.

However, we are also not an entitled majority living a life of ease. We are a royal family with a mission to accomplish, and that is what Jesus explains to Peter here.

We have privileges, but those privileges are to be put aside when they conflict with our mission. Jesus does not want to give offense or become a stumbling block, even to the leaders of the temple who seek to kill him.

We, as Americans, as Christians and in many other ways, have myriad privileges. But we have all eternity to enjoy our privileges – we only have the now for our mission. Anything that creates a offense – a stumbling block or a scandal – must go when it comes up against our mission.

We live in a country built on self-determination and autonomy. We have rights, and Jesus does not can us to despise those rights. He calls us to put them aside for the sake of his kingdom. When we value our rights more than righteousness, we are on the wrong road. When we are more concerned with our liberties than with love, we are not following Christ. When we are more concerned with equality than with evangelism, we have lost the plot.

Paul writes to the Corinthians:

“All things are lawful,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful,” but not all things build up. Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor… So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God, just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved.

1 Corinthians 10:23-24, 31-33

We have a commission – a great one. Anything that creates a stumbling block must go. We are too quick to blow off accusations that the church is full of hypocrites – if that is creating a barrier to someone knowing Christ then we must take it very seriously.

Our tone matters, too. Jesus was never defensive, because he was confident in the truth. Sometimes we believe that the strength of our convictions is proven by the intensity of our communication. Instead, we demonstrate it by our ease of response.

Our mission is to reach the world for Jesus, and anything that gets in the way of that needs to go. Even if it is good, even if it is our right. There are things more important in life than our rights and privileges.

– Sermon Notes, Jeff Sickles, Snohomish Evangelical Free Church, Snohomish, WA, October 17, 2021

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Truat the Shepherd’s Goodness – Psalm 23

As noted previously, this is probably the most well-known psalm – we may associate it with death and funerals, where it is used frequently. But psalm 23 is for the living.

The psalm walks us through a whole variety of ways God’s goodness is applied to us – guidance, comfort, protection, presence and more. And these are applied to us corporately, but also to each of us individually.

The shepherd is an excellent metaphor for guidance, protection, and there is no better metaphor for need than a sheep. Sheep are dumb and helpless. But as the psalm state up front, the sheep lacks for nothing when cared for by a good shepherd.

The shepherd knows where the green pastures are in all seasons, where the brooks and ponds are. These still waters are not just a source of refreshment but a place of restoration, where rest can be had, wounds can be cleaned and solved) stillness can be found in the midst of chaos.

In verse three, we can see guidance. God leads us, and never takes a dubious shortcut with our life. He doesn’t take us anywhere on a hunch, and never gets tired, distracted or misled. He will never sacrifice our good for His glory. In fact, the glory of His name’s sake is directly tied to how He leads His sheep. Your welfare is directly connected to the glory of God.

It does not always feel that way. But David acknowledges this – we still see the Shepherd’s goodness in dangerous places. In this next section, starting with verse 4, it changes from third to second person as David speaks directly to the Lord: “you are with me.”

Verses 1-3 speak broadly of the Shepherd’s care. Verse 4 addresses what it means when he leads us down a path that is treacherous, through the Valley of Death. What David has in mind here is not a broad green basket between two hills or mountains, but rather a wadi, a common feature in the middle east, a deep ravine created by seasonal rains. The sides are steep, the terrain is treacherous and the crags provide lairs for predators. But this is not a story of a sheep wandering off into dangerous places. Rather, it is the Shepherd who leads the sheep there – sometimes, the “right paths” include the valley of the shadow of death.

David does not say “I will fear no evil because I understand where you are going” but rather because “you are with me.”

This section also introduces the tools of the shepherd, the rod and staff used for both protection and guidance. We can trust in the protection of the shepherd.

At this point, the imagery changes from sheep to people – guests at a banquet, with tables loaded with food and cups overflowing with wine. The imagery of dangers also changes, now addressing enemies directly. To David, these would have been both outside enemies and those within his own court. To us, those who oppose the gospel, those who threaten us personally. David leaves this open, but Paul points us to our ultimate enemies, the “powers and principalities” of the spiritual realm. Regardless, we can stand in their presence because we are within the House of God.

In fact, it is not the enemies that pursue us, but rather the mercies of God, which pursues us like an army, bringing us into the sheepfold, the final home, the place we were made for. We will dwell there, with Him forever. Life is short, but our time in His house is not.

Are we trusting this best of shepherds? Are we being led astray by other voices? In the midst of everything we are going through, let us trust the Shepherd.

– Sermon Notes, Sean Harrelson, Seed Church, Lynnwood WA, September 26, 2021

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Do We Know Christ? – 1 John 2:1-6

We’ve been reading John’s epistle where he has shared his eyewitness knowledge of how God wants a relationship with us and made a way to make that happen through Christ.

Now John is writing about how that plays out. Christ is both our advocate, our parakletos – the term means a helper or a legal representative – and our propitiation, our hilasmos, the sacrifice made to make us right with God. It’s like our lawyer or even the police officer giving us a ticket taking on the penalty we owe.

The third word that deserves closer attention is “abide” or “meno” – this is what Christ enables for us, staying, remaining within the grace of God, making our home within His presence.

This all helps us understand one of the key things John is trying to convey, namely how we are to deal with our own sin. He has just told us that all we have to do with our sins is to confess and repent, which naturally leads to the idea that we can avoid changing our behavior and just repent at intervals. But this is like a child who doesn’t worry about dirty diapers, since they are going to get changed anyway. But like that child we are to grow and develop. We are to be focused on living a life that pleases God, like an athlete trains (1 Cor 9). John’s goal and ours is that we do not sin.

But! If we do sin, Christ Himself is advocate and sacrifice for us and for those of the whole world.

That’s the backdrop against which John goes deeper into the discussion of sin. If we say we know Christ in this way, but make no effort to keep His commandments? Then we don’t actually know him and in fact are lying, possibly to ourselves as well. What are these commandments? Christ sums it up as “love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind and love your neighbor as yourself.” If we do not love like this, or put ourselves towards that love, then we likely have not really engaged Him as our advocate and propitiation.

Compare this love to romantic love, that draws you to spend more and more time with the object of your affection, that draws you to bend your own desires even personality more and more towards them. How much more should a love for God Himself bend us towards Him and His commandments.

This is difficult. Serving is difficult. Giving money is difficult. Loving our neighbor is difficult. Loving our enemies is even more difficult, let alone those who persecute us! Not just love, but even forgive. And part of those commands is to pass on the knowledge of Christ and His commands (the Great Commission). John tells us we can know if we are Christian if we follow these commands but he never says it’s going to be easy.

– Sermon Notes, Bart Hodgson, Seed Church, Lynnwood WA, September 19, 2021

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Assurance and Fellowship – 1 John 1:1-4

The apostle John wrote this letter in part to help the people of the church have assurance of their salvation, and to help test the faith of others as well. It is also a letter oriented directly towards God, with 184 references to the Godhead – a higher concentration than any other book in the bible. Likewise, the word “love” as both a noun and a verb is used 46 times. The word “know” is used many times as well – again, focused on enabling believers to know, to have confidence in their salvation. This is closely related to the word “abide” used many times – also used in John’s gospel frequently – as is “fellowship”.

John writes to “little children” – seeking as a father to assure his children of the promises they have in the true Father. But it is also there to help perceive the truth of the faith of others. Some people get offended at the notion of questioning someone’s faith, but there are times where it is important to know who is influencing you, and where that influence ultimately comes from.

John speaks specifically to the concept of influence from “anti-Christ” sources. In particular, the early strains of gnostic thought were becoming influential and John is writing in part to combat that.

John begins his letter in a way that echoes the beginning of his gospel – in the beginning. In the gospel, “in the beginning was the Word.” Here, he speaks to what he saw, heard, touched – the Word made flesh, the “word of life.” The word “touched” here can mean both to physically touch and also to seek after – it is used by Jesus in Luke after his resurrection to push his disciples to explicitly understand his physical resurrection. This is a clear broadside against the gnostic beliefs about the evil of matter and the notion that Jesus was some kind of spirit or phantom.

In verse 2, John continues with the themes from his gospel – Jesus as the light of life made manifest by God the father. We are all seeking that true life, “life abundantly” as John tells us Jesus calls it in John 10.

In verse three, John walks through what that life looks like and why he is sharing all this – fellowship between believers and between believers and the Father and the Son. This must be greater than what the world offers, because it comes with the power of the God of the universe behind it.

He wraps this section fleshing out that reason for writing – to make his joy complete. To bring other Christians to a fuller knowledge of God’s love is what brings his joy to overflowing. To whom and how are we proclaiming this fuller knowledge?

We can also pray for that fellowship within our church to be unhindered, and to share our testimony as John shares his own here.

– Sermon Notes, Bart Hodgson, Seed Church, Lynnwood WA, September 5, 2021

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Unity – Psalm 133

This is a short but good psalm describing the blessings of unity. It’s ultimately two verses sandwiching two metaphors.

The overall message is that it is good for people to live in unity, and God will bless that unity even into eternity.

The first metaphor is that of Aaron and the Aaronic priests being consecrated with oil, a symbol of the relationship that God has created with His people.

The second metaphor is that of the dew on Mount Hermon, the source of the waters that give life to the whole realm of Israel – the same dew falls on God’s holy mountain in Jerusalem, where the temple is representing the true life given from God, ultimately by Christ.

Christ Himself also calls for unity, praying for it for his disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane, in John 17: “Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one.”

Paul writes to the Ephesians about unity as well, giving instructions on how to promote unity – humility, gentleness, patience, bearing with one another in love.

What is this unity? It’s not the unity of affinity, around hobbies or interests. It’s not even the unity of theology, where some items are interesting but unimportant, some things are important but not essential. There are unifying doctrines that we do all need to agree on, and those are points of unity – the trinity, the sacrifice of Christ and the truth of the Gospel.

When we disagree with each other, we should take the commands Paul gives in Ephesians around gentleness and love. We can also look to what he writes in Romans 14 specifically about opinions. Do not quarrel, and recognize that those who are doing things differently than you would prefer are doing so because they see that as the best way to please God. We aren’t to stand in judgement on them, but rather to trust God to correct.

If we don’t do this, we can easily slide into the mistrust of our brothers’ and sisters’ motives and even relationship with God. Instead, we need to interact with each other in love – as Paul writes in Romans 12, we are to love each other and “outdo over another in showing honor.”

Our policy in matters of opinion in the church must be rooted in love. We need help with this because we are often incapable of seeing our own perspectives in the proper light. There’s a simple test – does it build up the church, or does it tear it down?

-Sermon Notes, Bart Hodgson, Seed Church, Lynnwood WA, August 9, 2021

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The Good Shepherd – Psalm 23

This is probably the most beloved of all Psalms, bringing comfort to so many in times of fear and difficulty. Henry Beecher wrote of it,

The twenty-third Psalm is the nightingale of the Psalms. It has charmed more griefs to rest than all the philosophy of the world. It has remanded to their dungeon more felon thoughts, more black doubts, more thieving sorrows, than there are sands on the sea-shore.

Henry Beecher

The first line opens the metaphor of God as shepherd and the writer, David, as a sheep. As king, David could have seen himself as a lion or an eagle, but instead he lands on the simplicity and vulnerability of a sheep, and compares the King of Creation to a blue-collar shepherd.

This metaphor sees its fulfillment in Christ, who calls himself the Good Shepherd. The catacombs where the early church met in secret are littered with images of Jesus as the good shepherd.

The picture painted here is of God as provider, echoing the promises of God to Israel as they wandered in the desert, keeping them safe often without them knowing. How often do we receive these material blessings without even realizing it? The illnesses we do not get, the car accidents we do not have.

But more than that, even in the midst of illness, injury and difficulties, God Himself is our portion, he is our sufficiency.

Aristotle provides the broad ancient view of sheep: “The sheep is said to be naturally dull and stupid. Of all quadrupeds it is the most foolish: it will saunter away to lonely places with no object in view; oftentimes in stormy weather it will stray from shelter; if it be overtaken by a snowstorm, it will stand still unless the shepherd sets it in motion; it will stay behind and perish unless the shepherd brings up the rams; it will then follow home.”

All that to say, the sheep need the shepherd. Isaiah 53:6 says “We all like sheep have gone astray.” We need to be brought to the still waters and the pasture. We see a picture of this in how David treats Mephibosheth, a son of Jonathan who had beg crippled. David, if he had been like other kings, would have had him killed. But instead, he brings him out of the town of Lo-Debar, which means “no pasture,” to eat at the table of the king.

Then verse 3 echoes what we saw in psalm 85:13 – “Righteousness will go before him and make his footsteps a way.” It’s not the God carries us, per the Footprints poem, but he makes our way forward in righteousness plain.”

Then in verse 4 the psalm shifts – from speaking about God to speaking to Him directly. It does so at the same time as another shift, from green pastures and blue waters to darkness and danger – where else do we turn when in fear?

It refers to the staff and rod used by shepherds. The staff, broadly, is a support, something to lean on. The rod can mean the same thing, but it can also mean branch or tribe. There may be a connection here between the branch and tribe six Israel with whom God made His covenant.

Then the metaphor shifts from us being sheep to us being people at his table – as Jesus says, “I have called you friends.” Our ultimate destiny is not as sheep, but as guests of the king of the universe, and we will dwell in His house forever. Spurgeon writes, “While I am here, I will be a child at home with my God. The whole world shall be his house to me; and, when I ascend into the upper chamber, I shall not change my company, nor even change the house. I shall only be in the upper story forever.”

Is Christ your shepherd? Do you hear His voice? He loves you and is calling you to join his flock and to be His friend in His house forever.

-Sermon Notes, Bart Hodgson, Seed Church, Lynnwood WA, August 1, 2021

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A Prayer for Revival – Psalm 85

This Psalm is a heart cry for revival, possibly written as the remnant of Israel return from captivity. It may come earlier, but either way it is a call for revival among God’s people.

Revival has come to mean for many a planned and scheduled event focused on conversion or rededication. But in reality, it is a movement of God in the hearts of His people.

In the psalm, the word “restore” or, maybe more accurately, “turn” in verse 4, point us to the notion of revival, as does “revive” in verse 6.

It opens with a prayer for the conviction of sin, a development of awareness of our thoughts and words and actions that are in opposition to the desires of God.

Next, the Psalmist pleads for God’s salvation, ultimately for God Himself to turn us from that sin. And he does so with a fear of the Lord, a turning from all the other things that spark fear in our hearts and rather letting all that anxiety be swallowed up by the awe of God and his power, an awe that is also deeply embedded in His steadfast love.

That intersection of God’s attributes is seen clearly in verse 10, where love and faithfulness, peace and holiness meet. This intersection is exactly what drove Christ to the cross, the ultimate fulfillment of the truth the psalmist saw centuries before.

And the result of that intersection is revival, as faithfulness springs up and righteousness looks down. It is God’s goodness that brings this about, with all the blessings that our entails.

– Sermon Notes, Bart Hodgson, Seed Church, Lynnwood WA, July 25, 2021