Lord, we need something new!
Notes
Transcript
“You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord,
“and my servant whom I have chosen,
that you may know and believe me
and understand that I am he.
Before me no god was formed,
nor shall there be any after me.
I, I am the Lord,
and besides me there is no savior.
I declared and saved and proclaimed,
when there was no strange god among you;
and you are my witnesses,” declares the Lord, “and I am God.
Also henceforth I am he;
there is none who can deliver from my hand;
I work, and who can turn it back?”
Thus says the Lord,
your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
“For your sake I send to Babylon
and bring them all down as fugitives,
even the Chaldeans, in the ships in which they rejoice.
I am the Lord, your Holy One,
the Creator of Israel, your King.”
Thus says the Lord,
who makes a way in the sea,
a path in the mighty waters,
who brings forth chariot and horse,
army and warrior;
they lie down, they cannot rise,
they are extinguished, quenched like a wick:
“Remember not the former things,
nor consider the things of old.
Behold, I am doing a new thing;
now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
and rivers in the desert.
The wild beasts will honor me,
the jackals and the ostriches,
for I give water in the wilderness,
rivers in the desert,
to give drink to my chosen people,
the people whom I formed for myself
that they might declare my praise.
We Need Something New
We Need Something New
Stuck in the past
Stuck in the past
Israel was so amazed at the past things God had done that they couldn’t grasp anything new that Gd was doing.
They remembered the Red Sea but could not perceive that God would be doing something with or through Babylon.
They were stuck on what had happened and couldn’t see a way forward.
A very similar thing happens to early Christians.
Before the year 250, the persecution of Christians is sporadic. It's local. It's improvised. It is at the discretion of a Governor to whom complaints are made and so on. It's not a dragnet and it's not an imperial policy. After 250, when the empire is being battered on every frontier by invading armies, when there's absolute rampant inflation, [there is] incredible governmental instability. There are an average of two or three Emperors in a year. They keep getting assassinated. It's just an incredibly fraught time. That's also the point at which you begin to get the imperial expression of persecution of Christians. Now then again, also, it's interesting. It's not a criminal offense to be a Christian. What you have to do is get a ticket, a lebevos, a chit saying that you have sacrificed for the well-being of the empire.... There [are] various response[s] on the part of different Christian communities. You can have your servant go and do it for you. He might also be a Christian, but, you know, that's his problem. Pay him. He'll get two chits and then you're covered.... Or you can pay for the ticket but not actually do the sacrifice if you can bribe a friend of yours who's a magistrate. Or you can just go ahead and sacrifice, knowing that these gods are nothing, after all. That's right in...Paul's letters, that these gods are nothing. There are all sorts of different ways that people deal with this. But some people absolutely refuse to oblige by this rule at all. And those are the people - again, it's the heroic minority - who end up being martyred by government force.
What's most interesting is when the heroic age stopped and when the Church itself converted into being a form of Roman imperial culture, after the conversion of Constantine in 312. That's where you get the incredible efflorescence of the cult of the martyrs. Martyrs' shrines, bits of martyrs' bodies, liturgies being written to the martyrs. There's an incredible energy involved in worshipping at the tombs of the martyrs after the age of martyrs have ... has stopped. And I think that's, in a way, Christianity's effort to reclaim its own heroic history after it had already become an arm of government, itself, and was, of course, persecuting other Christians. More Christians were persecuted by the Roman Government after the conversion of Constantine, than before. The difference is that's it's a Christian government who's persecuting the other Christians.
Sometimes a time of persecution and trial is needed to advance the plan and purpose of God.
Sometimes a time of persecution and trial is needed to advance the plan and purpose of God.
Just Like Israel, just like the early church, there had been a period of peace and growth, then a persecution.
Now, we had experienced a period of peace and growth, followed by a period of extreme trial and persecution. Although I would say more trial than persecution but you get the point.
we do not want to be found as Israel was
You have not bought me sweet cane with money,
or satisfied me with the fat of your sacrifices.
But you have burdened me with your sins;
you have wearied me with your iniquities.
They had to recognize what God was doing new, and so do we.
They had to recognize what God was doing new, and so do we.
But we cannot do that if we will not let go of the past.
How do we move past the disappointments, the hurts of this past year?
How do we set those aside and refocus on what God is doing?
We change where we are looking
We Need A New Focus
We Need A New Focus
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
We need to remember that God has a plan and purpose for us beyond our circumstances.
We need to remember that God has a plan and purpose for us beyond our circumstances.
We need to focus on the plan and not the circumstances.
We need to focus on the plan and not the circumstances.
Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
We need to believe that God will use us and our circumstances for good.
We need to believe that God will use us and our circumstances for good.
These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.
I desire a better country, how about you?
I desire a better country, how about you?
But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
We Need A New Purpose
We Need A New Purpose
Maybe not as much new as renewed
Maybe not as much new as renewed
“You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord,
“and my servant whom I have chosen,
that you may know and believe me
and understand that I am he.
Before me no god was formed,
nor shall there be any after me.
the people whom I formed for myself
that they might declare my praise.
Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.
Let us renew our praise by focusing on what God will do!
Let us renew our praise by focusing on what God will do!
We need something new
Whether we realize it or not.
I am ready for what God will do, are you?
I am ready for what God will do, are you?