Sunday Sermon
sunday morning service 4th May 2008
God saves.
Exodus 14:13 Moses answered the people, "Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again.
Exodus 14:30 That day the LORD saved Israel from the hands of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the shore.
These two verse bracket the great moment of Israel’s escape from Egypt.
You know the story:
Israel had been in Egypt for 430 years and then God came to take them out.
He sends 10 plagues upon the Egyptians and eventually Pharaoh has had enough and sends them on their way.
Why the ten plagues?
God was teaching the Israelites who was sovereign. Was it Yahweh or Pharaoh?
After each plague the Israelites were to believe more assuredly that yes, God was God! And that God Saves.
There is no doubt that after living under the Egyptian culture for so many hundreds of years the Israelites needed to here again that God was the One in charge.
They needed to hear again that God saves.
And so finally in chapter 14 that message is underlined for them.
God has governed the whole situation so that now we are at this one critical point, this last stand off, between Yahweh and Pharaoh. And the Israelites are standing watching to see who wins!
Gods mind:
Note Gods action: ch13v17-ch14v9.
A) ch13v17-22God takes them on the long road to, the wilderness road. This is Gods planning, his direction of the people. He leads them, he guides them, very obviously by the cloud and fire.
B) Then chap14v1-2, the Israelites are to turn back! Why?
1) To fool Pharaoh v3.
2) Ultimately so that the Egyptians know that God is Yahweh! V4.
Egyptians mind:
Note the mind of the Egyptians:
V5-9, the plan works (of course) the Egyptians take the bait and pursue Israel.
v5 - “what have we done” they still felt they were God! They thought they were in control! They were the Power. That they had let the Israelites go!
They did not believe God was Sovereign and the He had taken them out of Egypt.
Israelites mind:
Note the mind of the Israelites: ch14v10-12
V10: Terrified.
V11: despair - “what have you done to us”
V12: desperate regret - we should have just stayed!
They still did not believe God was sovereign! They didn’t believe God Saves.
So that is the situation. Two groups of unbelievers are about to learn, God Saves.
Question:
What about you? What do you believe today about our world.
Who do you think is in control?
When you watch the news at night, do you think that that really is the news?
Or do you know that the real news is what God is doing in the world today?
Who do you think is in control?
Do you believe in practice that God Saves?
So to the text.
Exodus 14:13 Moses answered the people, "Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again.
Moses calls the people to get to grips!
He does not ask them to do anything other than believe.
Believe what?
That God will save them.
He does not call them to arms - and they could have fought, put up some resistance! But the forces of Egypt would have destroyed them!
They were in a hopeless state.
Trapped by the sea on one side and the Egyptian army on the other.
They had no chance of saving themselves.
But they did not have to! God would save them. All they had to do was watch!
And so to v30, what do we find?
Exodus 14:30 That day the LORD saved Israel from the hands of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the shore.
Yahweh saved them! That was it. God saves.
How did he save?
He protected them from attack v19-20.
He guided to safety. 21-22
He defeated the enemy 23-28
Conclusion:
What are we to do?
Exodus 14:31 And when the Israelites saw the great power the LORD displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the LORD and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant.
We are to trust in God. We are to trust God Saves.
We cannot save our self. Nor can we save anyone else.
But we don’t need to. The story of the bible is this: God Saves.
Tonight as we take communion that is what we are to remember : God Saves.
sunday evening 4th May 2008
1 Corinthians 11:23-26 23 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread,
24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me."
25 In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me."
26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.
This text gives us three very clear and simple reasons why we have communion.
A) to remember : Brining to mind!
B) to proclaim : Broadcasting the news!
C) to look forward : Beholding the future!
1
. We take communion first of all to Remember the Lord. “remembrance of Me”
A) We are to remember Jesus!
Why are we to remember ?
Surely we cannot forget! But that is the whole point - we can.
God has done this monumental thing - giving His life for us, but we forget.
We forget whenever we think that what we do saves us.
When we think that we have to gain Gods approval by our actions to be saved.
We forget to when we live without trusting God.
Like the Israelites - they had seen the 10 plagues, but then at the sight of the Egyptian army they get terrified! They forget!
This lack of trust is a very practical matter. It is about how we live.
The Israelites before they saw the Egyptian army would have said they believed!
Not about what we say we believe!
B) We are also to remember why he died for us.
This of course is the most important thing about His death. Why did he die?
1 Thessalonians 5:10 He died for us so that we can live with him forever, whether we are dead or alive at the time of his return.
Yes he died to pay for our sins but the reason for that was that we might have Life!
A Christian is a disciple / apprentice of Jesus and as such lives with him ever day!
That is why he died, that we might live with Him.
That means that the Christian is someone who has decided that following Jesus is thee most important thing in life.
We are to remember this and we are to come back to Apprenticeship if we have slipped!
Luke 14:26 "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters--yes, even his own life--he cannot be my disciple.
If following Jesus is not your priority in life, then you can’t be a disciple!
Not because Jesus does not want you, but because it will not work!
Jesus has died to give you life, but it will only work with this wholehearted commitment in place!
C) We are to remember that this is true. We are to remember to have Faith!
1 Corinthians 11:29 29 For anyone who eats and drinks without recognising the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself.
“recognising” means to believe.
We are to remember God Saves, remember why God Saves, and now we are to believe it.
Taking communion is testifying that as individuals we believe it!
We believe the Greatest News imaginable: that God is, that God Saves, that God saves for a purpose; that we should Live.
We cannot take this communion with any benefit unless we have faith!
Do you believe?
This is not an intellectual question ultimately. But a practical one.
Does your belief in God change the way you live?
We can say we believe a lot of things in our minds but unless it affects our practice it is not real belief!
26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.
2) Secondly we take communion to “Proclaim the Lords death until He comes” v26.
In the act of taking communion we Proclaim the Lord’s death. In proclaiming the Lords death we are making it known. That is what proclaiming is all about. It is making something known.
You are a witness.
What are you doing when you take communion? You are witnessing!
In this we see that communion is not simply for the believer but for the unbeliever.
Communion is evangelism.
Application:
To widen this out communion shows the importance of our meeting together regularly
The importance of church!
How easy it is to feel that we are not getting anything out of church, or to feel that church has passed its usefulness! We slowly drift away, if not in person then in spirit. But that is pure selfishness! Think of the watchers, those who look on. Think of your neighbours who see you leave the house every Sunday!
Think of the lost.
Our very meeting together is witness to them. A proclamation! A making known.
So we gather to Remember all the death of the Lord means and as we remember that we go on to proclaim the Good News.
3) we take communion to look forward.
This is not going to go on forever!
“until he comes”
Our observance of the Lords Supper will one day soon come to an end!
Thus communion is a remembering, a proclaiming and a looking forward.
How important it is to have hope!
Rev 21.4 - things are only going to get better!