Be Still And Know

Philippians 1:1–2 This letter is from Paul and Timothy, slaves of Christ Jesus. I am writing to all of God’s holy people in Philippi who belong to Christ Jesus, including the church leaders and deacons. The apostle Paul was absolutely clear that it is not what you know but who you know that really matters in life. And so he began this warm and encouraging letter by focusing on Jesus. It was Paul’s relationship with the Lord that compelled him to write this letter and he identified the fact that, as a community, the Philippian church belonged to Jesus. Paul described his own relationship with Jesus as being that of a slave. Philippi was a busy Roman colony and there would have been huge numbers of slaves, probably about 20 per cent of the population. Everyone would have understood what Paul was saying. Slaves were owned by their master, who totally controlled their lives to the extent that they didn’t even possess their own bodies. They had no ancestors, no name and could have no possessions. On

Matthew 7:24–25 “Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock.  Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock.” The Sermon on the Mount closes with this powerful little parable about two houses. One built on rock and the other on sand. The point is that when the weather is fine they look identical. The only time you discover the difference between them is when disaster strikes. At that moment the quality of the foundations is revealed, and the house built on sand collapses. Jesus was saying that the radical teaching of his sermon is the rock on which our lives need to be built. When we do so, we can look to the future with confidence because we know that, whatever might be thrown at us, we will still be standing secure. So the key question is this – what do we need to do to build on the solid rock of Jesus’ teaching? We certainly need to

Matthew 7:15–16 “Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves. You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act.”  False prophets make an appearance in both the Old and New Testaments. Jeremiah had a particular problem with them. He believed that he was called by God to inform the people that, unless they turned back to him, a foreign nation would sweep over them and take them into exile. This was not the message that people wanted to hear. They much preferred the soothing words of the false prophets who prophesied that all would be well because they had the Lord’s Temple. But Jeremiah’s words were true and, in due course, the Babylonians attacked Jerusalem and took the Lord’s people off into exile. False prophets were a continual challenge in the early Church; Jesus sought to prepare his followers to meet them. What they needed to know was how to spot a false prophet. Jesus warned that there would be teachers who would come among t

Matthew 7:13 “You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way.” I am always fascinated to hear people tell me the story of their lives. Although their life journeys are all completely different, they have something in common; the importance of decision -making. It shapes our lives to a huge extent and so it is vital that we make good and wise decisions. Here Jesus encourages his followers to enter into the kingdom of heaven and he emphasises that the gate is narrow. It will only be entered by people who are deliberate in their choice and willing to face its demands. It is the gate that leads to life and fulfilment, but it would be very easy to miss it, because the much wider path is the one which leads to destruction. These are sobering words, and we need to listen carefully to them. In the Old Testament we meet a number of pivotal moments of decision making. At the end of his life, Moses challenged the

Matthew 7:12 “Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets.” This statement is often known as The Golden Rule. The Jews were familiar with something like this but always in the negative form. Only Jesus expressed the rule positively. That is to say, we are not merely to stop thieving, lying and killing but to go out of our way to love, care and encourage. And the reason for living in this way is that surely this is exactly how we would like other people to treat us. Jesus plainly saw this simple and clear rule as a summary of his Sermon on the Mount. This principle should be shaping the way in which we live day by day. So our first task is to decide how we like to be treated. It would be excellent if you could take some time today to make a list of the things that are important for you. To get your thinking going, let me reflect on my own life. I would begin by saying that I want to be loved, and I recognise tha

Matthew 7:11 “If you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him.” Some years ago, I was travelling on a bus in Israel and heard some amazing pan-pipe music. I spoke to the driver and told him how much I enjoyed it. Without a moment’s hesitation he took the cassette tape out of the machine and handed it to me, insisting that I take it as a gift. I was quite embarrassed and insisted that he should keep it. He wouldn’t hear of it. Moments of generosity like that are a great blessing aren’t they? Our reading today tells us that that is the nature of God. He is always generous. He can’t wait for the opportunity to bless our lives. He could impose his gifts on us but his desire is that we should want them so much that we ask him for them. Jesus pointed out that there was nothing particularly surprising about that, because all parents love giving good gifts to their children. No parent, he suggested, would give the

Matthew 7:3   “Why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own?” This comical illustration is taken from the carpenter’s workshop. Jesus used it to press home his teaching about being judgemental. It’s so easy to spot the shortcomings of other people. Jesus wasn’t suggesting that their inadequacies aren’t real, but rather was encouraging us to look at ourselves and recognise that our failings may be much greater than the little failings of others. He wasn’t saying that we should stop identifying the specks in other people’s eyes but that we should start by becoming far more self-aware. How well do you know yourself? It is very easy for all of us to develop annoying habits and attitudes that are so deeply embedded in us that we don’t see them anymore. When someone points out that we are a little short of perfection, we shrug our shoulders and conclude that people just need to take us as they find us. Jesus suggested that this isn’t good enough. We need to let his light

Matthew 6:26–27 “Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?” The most useless thing that you can say to a person who is worrying is: “Don’t worry.” No doubt it is meant kindly, but you are actually increasing the person’s problems, because you have done nothing to stop their worrying and now added a layer of guilt on top! I love Jesus’ approach. He tells his followers that they have no need to worry because God will provide for them. If he is able to look after the birds and the flowers, he can certainly cope with their problems. Trusting God is the answer. Worrying has never, and can never, build anything. I do realise that those wise words don’t in themselves solve the problem. Worries will still come knocking at the door wanting to claim our attention. So what shall we do when the next worry turns up? The best thing that

Matthew 6:20–21 “Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.” What matters most to you in your life? It could be any number of things – your family, possessions, relationships, career, hobby, sport, reputation, political convictions or your faith. Jesus was highlighting that whatever matters most to you will shape the way in which you live. It is vital that you fix your sights on something that will last. Remember, most things about this life are temporary. Our possessions are a blessing to us because they are part of God’s gift to us, but they have a short shelf life. They are either attacked by moths and rust or could be stolen. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus encouraged his followers to keep their eyes fixed on the kingdom of heaven because that will last for ever. I have always been inspired by the story of Jim Elliot. He was determined to share the good ne

Matthew 6:16–17 “And when you fast, don’t make it obvious, as the hypocrites do, for they try to look miserable and dishevelled so people will admire them for their fasting. I tell you the truth, that is the only reward they will ever get. But when you fast, comb your hair and wash your face.”  Fasting formed a significant part of Jewish life. Solemn fasts were held on particular days such as the Day of Atonement, the New Year and the anniversaries of notable calamities in Jewish history. In addition, special fasts were called when there was a particular emergency, such as the autumn rains failing. Stricter Jews would also fast weekly on Mondays and Thursdays. In the early Church many Christians fasted on Wednesdays and Fridays. So fasting was a regular experience for Christians and Jesus did nothing to discourage it. But his concern was the way in which it was done. He taught his disciples to be completely private about it. Because it was to be entirely between them and God, he encouraged them to go

Matthew 6:13 “Don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one.” When we pray for our sins to be forgiven and for us to forgive others we are looking to the past. In this verse, the Lord’s Prayer looks to the future. Once again, the prayer is fiercely realistic. Although we have had the privilege of our sins being forgiven, we haven’t overcome the problem of sin. Every day we will still face temptation to be less than the best. We will be tempted to cut corners, to be selfish and to neglect the needs of others. However, we can look to the future with confidence because God promises to be our rescuer, if only we place our lives in his hands. Temptation is incredibly subtle. The evil one knows our weaknesses and will exploit them in every possible way. As we face up to these temptations, we have the wonderful privilege of knowing that Jesus understands exactly what we are going through. In the letter to the Hebrews the writer says that Jesus: “understands our weaknesses, for he fa

Matthew 6:12 “Forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us.” The Lord’s Prayer talks about our everyday life and here it faces up to the horrible but undeniable fact that sin forms a big part of our lives. But here’s the good news: through our faith in Jesus, sin is no longer an overwhelming problem. Before we met Jesus, sin defeated us but now, through his death on the cross, we can claim God’s forgiveness. We no longer need to trudge through life with the burden of our sins and failures. If we own up to our sins, God is willing to set us free from their consequences, so that we can be fully alive. God’s forgiveness is a wonderful gift but, if we are willing to receive it, it places a huge responsibility on us. We have to share it. Day by day we need to be ready to pass it on when people offend us or deliberately trip us up. This is the tough bit. When we are deliberately wronged, everything in us cries out for justice if not retribution. We want the perpetrator to be punish

Matthew 6:11 “Give us today the food we need.” Have you ever wondered why we ask God for food on a daily basis? Why not ask him to supply us for a week or even a month? God wants us to live in continual partnership with him. Every day we need to turn to him to obtain the nourishment that we need. This applies in both a physical and a spiritual sense. Just as we need to eat each day so too we need to ensure that we are receiving spiritual nourishment. However excellent last Sunday’s church service was, or however blessed we were by yesterday’s time of prayer, we need to open ourselves to the breath of God’s Spirit today. We need him to strengthen us to live for him in the particular challenges and opportunities of this unique day. I am struck by the fact that everything in this prayer is plural. The prayer begins with the words “Our Father in heaven” and here we pray for the food that we need. The moment we start praying we identify the fact that we are part of a family and when we think about get

Matthew 6:10 “May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.” The Lord’s Prayer, in common with the whole of Jesus’ ministry, is focused on the kingdom of heaven. So we need to have a very clear idea what this kingdom is. In essence, the kingdom of God comes wherever God is recognised as king. When his rule is accepted, the results will be immediately recognisable because they will be marked by peace, love, joy, truth and justice. When we pray the Lord’s Prayer we are saying that we have signed up to work for this amazing kingdom and we want to bring it about here and now. We want the kingdom to be established in our family, our community, our workplace and our church. In this life, the kingdom will always be under attack just as it was throughout Jesus’ ministry, but we need to keep our focus on the king as we seek to encourage every evidence of his kingdom. Some years ago, I was sent a wonderful press cutting that gave me an insight into what the kingdom c

Matthew 6:9 “Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy.” The Lord’s Prayer is a wonderful model prayer and has been central to Christian worship from the earliest days. In the previous verse Jesus told his disciples that they didn’t need to inform God of anything in their prayers, because he already knows everything. Here he spells out what they should pray about. In the first century there was a guide for Christian living called the Didache, which recommended that the prayer should be said three times a day. Christians will vary in their use of the prayer but, whenever we use it, it is exciting to reflect that it takes us back to the words of Jesus himself and to the heart of the kingdom. It is often helpful to pray the prayer very slowly and to use each sentence to trigger our own personal prayers. The Lord’s Prayer is all about relationship. It begins by looking to God because everything in this prayer flows out of our intimate relationship with our heavenly Father. As a

Matthew 6:7–8 “When you pray, don’t babble on and on as the Gentiles do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again. Don’t be like them, for your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him!” Prayer is often described as being like talking to a friend. There is much that is right about that description, apart from the fact that God is totally unlike any friend that you or I have ever had. For a start, he knows everything. One of the key features of a conversation with our friends is that, wonderful as they might be, they don’t know everything. In a conversation we spend plenty of time sharing information with them. So the big question is this: if God knows everything, what is the point of praying? The answer is that prayer is all about relationship. As we pray, we affirm the fact that we are his children and that we are totally dependent on him. That’s why it is so important to spend time alone with God. It gives us the opportunity to be compl

Matthew 6:6 “But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.” Jesus was reacting against the people who made a great show of their praying. They prayed in the synagogues and at street corners because they were looking for an audience. Jesus obviously wasn’t saying that it was wrong to pray in synagogues and at street corners but that it was wrong to turn prayer into a religious act totally focused on people, and not on God. Jesus drew attention to the importance of private prayer because this reveals where the heart is. Without that personal relationship with God, prayer has no meaning. It’s just an act. Jesus’ continual concern was with what we would call religion. He could see that many of the most religious people in his society lived their lives furthest away from God. The word religion means to ‘bind back’. It ties people down to a particular set of beliefs and practices, but it is e

Matthew 6:3–4 “When you give to someone in need, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Give your gifts in private, and your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.” Is there anything worse than hypocrisy? Jesus certainly hated it and had the harshest things to say about the hypocrites of his day. He wanted everyone to have the joy of a real relationship with their heavenly Father, and he knew that putting on an act to impress other people totally missed the point. In this part of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus contrasted the hypocrite’s play acting with true devotion to God (v2). The giving of donations to the poor and needy is a responsibility that everyone has, but the way in which it is done is what matters most. Jesus pointed to the hypocrites who announced their giving with trumpets. This may simply have been dramatic language to describe the sheer vanity of some people’s giving, but we do know that trumpets were sometimes used in connection with giving in the temple

Matthew 5:14–16 “You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden.  No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.” On the face of it, it seems really surprising that Jesus should be describing his followers as the light of the world. Surely that was his role (John 8:12). But Jesus was recognising that the only way in which people would see his light would be if his followers reflected his light into their communities. It is, therefore, our responsibility to find the most prominent place to put our light so that as many people as possible can see Jesus. It is good that Christians spend time together. We need the strength and encouragement of worshipping and sharing fellowship. But, at the same time, it is vital for us to be part of our communities in order to have o

Matthew 5:13 “You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavour? Can you make it salty again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless.” I have often heard people say that they are happy for individuals to have a Christian faith so long as it’s kept as a private matter. Jesus’ words here prove that there is no way in which a Christian can keep their faith private. Those who live close to God will be shaped by their faith from the moment they wake up in the morning. Everything about their life will flow out of their Christian commitment. Like salt, their influence will have an inevitable impact on all those who come into contact with them. One of the distinguishing features of salt is that it is very different from the foods that it accompanies. It is useful and tasty precisely because it is different. So, too, as Christians we are encouraged to be different from the society in which we live. Our morality and standards are not shaped by our society bu