Whose needs come first?
Apostles Creed
We believe that God the Father,
Good Creator and giver of life,
Calls us to love all creation
And care for it as respectful stewards,
To do justice, to love mercy,
And to walk humbly with God.
We believe that Jesus Christ,
Sent from God to save and lead us,
Teaches us to love God with heart, soul, mind, and strength
And to love our neighbours as ourselves,
So we see God in the poor, oppressed, condemned, and forgotten,
And embrace all people with God’s true compassion.
We believe that the Holy Spirit,
Who proceeds from the Father and the Son,
Unites us in God’s eternal dance of love,
Empowers us diversely to serve and love,
And fills us to overflow with grace, truth, beauty, and life
As God’s agents in this world.
Isaiah 42:1-4
Matthew 3:3-17
Sermon
When I was a child we used to dream. Imagine you kicked a genie’s lamp and the genie jumped out and offered you one wish. What would be the best thing to wish for?
The whole exercise became futile as soon as someone proposed the best thing to wish for would be that all my wishes come true.
When we’re given a hand we take an arm, we’re given a foot we take a yard.
In the past few days, hundreds of people have died in Kenya, because two factions sacrifice the lives of others for a chance to rub the genie’s lamp.
People want to grab hold of power, but it seems as soon as they do, power takes control of them.
I wish it was different in the history of the people of God.
Do you remember King David? What an awesome man of God. But he was not exempt of the corruption of power. He murdered a faithful soldier so he could take Uriah’s wife.
Jesus said the unbelievers lord power over people, but it should not be so with us.
What would you do if you were king for just one day?
Maybe you would drop tax rates.
Maybe fix bread and milk prices.
Maybe you would increase speed limits.
Maybe there are a few people you would let out of prison,
and a few people you’d send to prison.
Maybe you would cancel the arms deal and use the money to train more teachers and nurses.
Maybe you would limit power outages to the houses of Eskom employees.
There is a song I used to love in the eighties when they made real music which had rhythm and tempo and melody. The song said, “If I were king for just one day, I would give it all away, I would give it all away to be with you”.
That’s an attitude of the Kingdom of God.
The economy of the world says, “Take everything you can so you can be in control of your own destiny.”
The economy of God says, “Humble yourself in the sight of God and HE will lift you up. Empty yourself and He will fill you.”
Matthew tells us Jesus deliberately set out from Galilee to be baptised by John in the River Jordan.
When he got there his cousin John said, “No Jesus, you’ve got it all wrong, I NEED to be baptised by you.”
Of course, John wasn’t wrong. Every one of us needs to be baptised by Jesus.
But Jesus does something unthinkable; He refuses to meet John’s need.
This morning we will pray for servants of God who will serve in various ways within St Martins. Before we do, I want to warn you of two caveats as people who lead people.
You will be surrounded by people who are so grateful that you are willing to serve in the church; they will be so pleased that somebody is finally going to do the job properly, that they will ask you meet all their needs.
Maybe the worst mistake we can make is to think we can, or should, meet every need we encounter.
Let me say it a little stronger.
Sometimes, like Jesus, you will have to choose between meeting needs and fulfilling righteousness.
You will have to choose between satisfying people, or satisfying God.
When Moses went up Mount Sinai to meet with God and receive the Law, the Israelites thought he had died and they NEEDED a spiritual leader. Rather than waiting Aaron and Miriam thought they would meet that need by casting a golden bull. We all know how that turned out.
When Jesus went from town to town, can you remember whether He healed everyone? I seem to recall He didn’t. He didn’t meet everyone’s needs.
Just before He was crucified, while having dinner at the house of Simon the Leper, a lady anointed Jesus’ head with really expensive perfume, and some people complained that the perfume could have been sold and the money used to meet the needs of the poor.
But Jesus said that Mary had done something more important, she had anointed Him for burial, and that her act of sacrifice would be remembered for generations to come.
In Christian service you’ll always find “meeting the needs” people saying, “Why are you wasting so much when there are needs to meet.”
Sometimes Jesus healed, sometimes He didn’t.
Sometimes He raised the dead, sometimes He just let them be buried.
The key is not some secret formula of what to do and what not to do.
Jesus said “I do nothing but what I see my Father in Heaven do”. The secret is having your heart and your ears fixed on the will of God.
When Jesus was baptised He had to choose between meeting the needs of John to be baptised, or fulfilling the requirements of God.
He can meet the needs of one person, or He can do the will of God.
Doing what God wants is in some ways more demanding than meeting needs, because it requires that you spend time on the mountaintops with God to nurture your relationship. Not just keeping some rules.
As for the second caveat of leadership, this passage has sometimes been referred to as the first temptation of Christ.
John, by trying to prevent the baptism, tempts Jesus not to do all that God requires of him.
He tempts Jesus to assume his proper position now: to be the more powerful one; to baptize with the judgmental Holy Spirit and fire.
While the economy of God says that whoever humbles themselves will be elevated by God, the temptation is always there to elevate ourselves.
Remember when Jesus washed the disciples’ feet.
Peter thought it was shameful that Jesus would wash his feet like a common servant. John the Baptist and Peter both said, “No Jesus, don’t humiliate yourself.”
Jesus replied to John, “we must do this to fulfil the will of God”.
To Peter He said, “If you do not allow me to wash your feet you can have no part of me”.
Why are we so afraid to be washed clean by our Lord?
When Jesus came to earth, He emptied Himself of all privilege, all power, to become a servant of humanity. Imagine the humiliation of God, creator of heaven and earth, who spoke and creation took place, imagine that same God taking on the form of a person, born as a baby. God entered His own creation as its servant.
In the army I was in a camp with 220 other guys. After dinner we lined up to wash our plates in wash troughs. There were two drums cut in half and filled with hot soapy water, if you were first in line that is. By the end the water was cold and filled with the grease and left over food of all those who went before you. When you submersed your plate, it took on the sins of the world.
At the Jordan, Jesus associated Himself with us. As others had been baptised in repentance of sin, Jesus was baptised into the sins of all those who went before Him. Just like on the cross when He took on the sins of the world, in the Jordan Jesus identified Himself with us, sinners.
John was saying, “Don’t do it”.
If we serve God like His Son, we will lose our dignity to fulfil His will. And there will be people close to us who will say, “Don’t do it, rather just meet these needs”.
Jesus was obedient to His Father, and as He was leaving the river, God spoke from heaven and said “This is my Son whom I love; with Him I am well pleased”.
This is my Son, because He has just done the will of His Father”.
As you serve as children of self humbling Creator God, may you make Your Father proud? May you fulfil all He has planned and prepared for you this year.
Groups to pray for:
Cell Group Leaders
Specific Concrete Missions Portfolio; Ladies Workparty; Ladies Fellowship; Men’s breakfast
Corporate Dynamic Worship; Worship Group; Sound; Tea and Door Duties; Aletheia
Pastoral and Lay Visitation; Prayer Chain; City Gate Counsellors
Solid Financial Resources
Strong Leadership Resources, Office staff