Redeeming the Chaotic Waters

Some of you will be rejoicing because you’re done hearing the same old stories and hearing us use the same language, and you’re ready for something else. Some of you feel that there’s a lot being thrown at you because this is the first time you’re hearing Scripture being understood this way, and you’re working to reconcile everything you’ve heard.

Well, we’re glad that you’ve come with us along this journey, and as we draw it to a close, we hope that you’ve gained something valuable from this series.

Recap

In case this is your first time here and you’re thinking “What on earth is going on?”, we’ve studying a biblical pattern where:

there are chaotic forces at work that bring death and destruction, often represented by a vast body of water;

God rescues His creation by ordering the chaos, by putting limits on it so that His creation will not be touched;

God appoints one representative to exercise God’s authority in overcoming the chaos and bring life and blessing instead of death and destruction.

And these elements keep repeating through the stories of Scripture. We see it in the story of Noah and the Flood, the story of Moses leading Israel through the Red Sea, or Joshua leading Israel across an overflowing River Jordan, and then Jonah who thrown into a stormy, chaotic ocean for three days and three nights.

Slide: Jesus

Last week, I showed that this theme or motif is fulfilled in the story of Jesus. He is the Incarnate God, the God who took on flesh, and He is the ultimate representative who confronts the forces of chaos and conquers them.

Slide: cross

But at first, it seems that the chaos conquers Jesus instead. He is crucified. He goes through the suffering of the cross and the humiliation of the grave. Death defeats Him, the grave swallows Him.

Slide: glorified

Yet somehow, that is the way that God chooses to perform His great rescue of creation. By going into chaos, let the waters drown and destroy Him, He can rise again out of it.

Slide: people

And by the way, that’s true of all of us, at least before we became Christians. Before Christ, we were all drowning in chaos and sin. We all deserved eternal punishment and separation from God because of our rebellion, and we could not save ourselves by our own effort.

And that’s why Jesus is good news. Jesus, through His death and resurrection, offers us a way of salvation, a way of rescue.

Slide: baptism

Namely, He invites into His death and resurrection so that we can participate in what He has accomplished. So through the waters of baptism, we die with Christ to our old selves, and we die to the powers of sin. And when we rise from those waters as a new creation, free from our slavery to sin and free from our inner chaos.

So that’s where we are in this series.

Why Chaotic Waters

Something we haven’t quite discussed is how this series fits in with our journey as a church. What’s the point of talking about this theme of chaotic waters in a time like this?

When Irvin and I first dreamed of doing this series, we knew that we wanted it to be something relevant during this time of transition. As we thought about it, it was clear that this season was going to be a time of much change and uncertainty and unanswered questions for our church family. It’s a season where it’s hard to predict what’s going to happen next, and we may feel like we’re tossed about by whatever situation comes our way.

And that’s how the theme of chaotic waters stood out as something worth exploring.

Slide: Not the first

It’s incredibly comforting to look into Scripture and realise that we are not the first people to have gone through times of chaos and uncertainty. God’s people have always been experiencing that, and God has a perfect track record of rescuing them out of the chaos.

Slide: connect

And so as we trace the pattern of chaotic waters through different biblical stories, our hope is that ultimately connect the dots in our own story.

For example, I hope that we see ourselves as Noah and all those on the ark, and that though everything around us is falling apart, God in His mercy has protected us and rescued us, so that when all this is over and we land on dry ground again, we can emerge from this experience to bless the world.

And I hope that we see ourselves as Israel passing through the Red Sea. We may see a giant obstacle in front of us, maybe not water, but the obstacles of fear and uncertainty and the discomfort of leaving what’s familiar and the way we’ve always done things. But what if we trusted God and watched Him turn our obstacles into a road towards freedom?

Do you see how this changes everything? Let’s say we just saw this experience as an interruption to our ordinary way of life. We’re just here to wait until the new building is finished. So we just need to endure and tahan for two years. But then we will fail to appreciate what God may be trying to do to us. We may miss the opportunities He places in front of us. And we risk wasting a transformative experience.

Slide: light and hope

But when we read our experience in the light of the biblical story, suddenly this is no longer just an interruption we have to endure and just tahan. Everything becomes full of hope and purpose.

Redeemed Waters

Today, I want to put all the pieces together that we’ve been building up for the last few weeks and point it towards an end. If our story is an extension or a replaying of the biblical story, how does our story end? What can we look forward to at the end of this God-rescuing-through-chaotic-waters?

For that, we turn to the last chapter of the Bible, Revelation 22.

Slide: Challenge

This is the apostle John giving us a glimpse into the end of history and the final victory of God. And the context is that John is writing to a group of churches who are all being challenged to remain faithful. Some are being actively persecuted, some are becoming legalistic, some are conforming too much to society. These churches need comfort and encouragement to hold fast to their faith in Jesus.

Slide: Glimpse 1

So what John gives them is a glimpse of what is really going on behind the scenes. The churches may appear to be going through challenging times,

Slide: glimpse 2

but in the divine realm, God is already preparing their final victory over all chaos and evil.

Slide: glimpse 3

And this is the scene that we find in the last chapter of the Bible:

Revelation 22:1–5 ESV

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.

Imagine how that would sound to a community of struggling Christians. Imagine the kind of hope that would be kindled in their hearts, to hear that the chaos they are going through is not forever. That their pain, their suffering, even their deaths would one day be transformed into something so grand and beautiful that the chaos of this present age pales into nothingness.

But where did the apostle John get the idea of rivers of life? If you’ve been following along, maybe you know where I’m going with this. Let’s look at Genesis 2.

Genesis 2:10–14 ESV

A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush. And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.

Slide: Comparison

Doesn’t it seem too convenient that the Bible starts and ends by describing rivers of life?

The apostle John didn’t invent the concept of the river of life just so he could describe the new creation as a beautiful place. He is completing a long story that began all the way back in Genesis.

Slide: Separation

In Genesis 1, God ordered the chaotic waters so that life could exist. And in the next chapter, we get a glimpse of a river that waters the garden and spreads blessing to the surrounding regions. The chaotic waters didn’t disappear. They haven’t been erased; they have been redeemed into rivers of life. Instead of waters that destroy life, the waters now sustain life by watering the trees that bear fruit and bear leaves that bring healing and blessing. And that’s the pattern that we are taught to look for: wherever there are waters of chaos, we are looking for God to transform them into rivers of life. Which is exactly the promise of Revelation 22.

Redemption vs Conquest

Why is it significant that the biblical story goes in this direction? Why is it significant that it ends with the redemption of chaotic waters and not just their destruction? Wasn’t it enough that Jesus conquered the chaos through the cross?

Irvin brought up Star Wars a few weeks ago, and I think it’s a very good case study. I want to talk about the earliest films, Episodes 4, 5 and 6—you know, the good ones. And the story goes that from the first film, we’re introduced the good guy, Luke Skywalker. And we’re introduced to the big bad, Darth Vader.

Slide: normal story

In a normal story, the good guy defeats the bad guy. If Star Wars were a normal story, Luke would kill Darth Vader so that he could never work evil and destruction again.

Slide: not normal

But Star Wars doesn’t end with Luke killing Darth Vader.

Slide: Darth Sidious

Instead—spoiler alert—there’s an even bigger bad guy called Darth Sidious who is the master of Darth Vader, and when he’s about to kill Luke, Darth Vader turns on his evil master and sacrifices himself to save Luke. The film ends with Darth Vader being restored to his old good self, as Anakin Skywalker.

That story is a lot more satisfying than if Luke were to simply kill Darth Vader. The big bad doesn’t just get defeated; he returns to the light side. He redeems himself.

This is an example of how the best stories don’t just end with good defeating evil, light defeating darkness. The best stories end with evil returning to good, and darkness turning to light.

When I was a boy, I tried writing my own stories based on shows that I liked to watch. Back then, I didn’t know anything about writing good stories, so my stories always ended up with the bad guy apologising to the good guy and they becoming friends.

Slide: we want

I wonder if that’s a natural part of being human. We don’t just want evil to be defeated and crushed for good; as impractical as it may seem, we want evil to be redeemed, as horrible as was, as much pain and suffering as it caused. We want evil to be swallowed up in good; we want darkness to turn to light; we want death to be swallowed up in life.

Slide: Jesus’ redemption

In the same way, God’s ultimate victory is not when He has completely crushed all His enemies and erased them from existence; it is when His enemies turn, repent, and worship Him. It is when the forces that tried to work against God’s will now work for His purposes.

And by the way, we see this pattern in all the stories we’ve seen so far. Chaotic waters are somehow redeemed and transformed to work for God’s purposes.

Take the story of Israel crossing the Red Sea. You’ll remember the scene: they’re escaping from Pharaoh’s army, most powerful military in the world at the time. And when Israel has finished crossing the sea on dry ground, the waters collapse back and destroy the Egyptians. The chaos waters that brought death to the Egyptians were the reason that the Israelites could live. In a small way, their destruction is redeemed into something good.

In Jonah, you’ll remember that Jonah spent three days and nights in the belly of the great fish. While he was in there, something clicked for him and he decided to obey God. So that stormy sea, though it threatened to kill Jonah, it ended up changing Jonah’s heart, at least for a while, and ultimately Jonah saved the lives of 150,000 Ninevites because he passed through those waters. The chaos waters have somehow (indirectly) brought about life and salvation.

When we come to the story of Jesus, we see this play out in its fullest form. Isaiah 53:5 puts it this way “But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.” The death of Jesus is the reason we live.

Implications

So as we conclude our series on chaotic waters, what does all this mean? While I hope that we’ve become more knowledgeable about Scripture, what does all this learning mean for the way we live our lives? What does it mean for us as a church going through chaos? What does it mean for us as a community of baptised believers?

I’d like to leave you with three “next steps.”

Let us embrace our chaos as a forge of transformation.

It is said that attitude is everything. What’s our attitude when we go through times of chaos and trial and everything is changing? In your personal lives or as a church?

I think our greatest danger is that we get comfortable here. This isn’t all that chaotic. We made a few changes to our weekly routine, we have different places we go for lunch, but we’re okay. We’re okay, and we’ll be fine until we go back to 347 PP Road.

What does it look like to embrace chaos? Our God is in the business of redeeming chaos. Of turning death into life. He makes our mess into a masterpiece.

So how is God using this season to transform you?

Let us live baptismally.

Last week, I talked about how our baptism changes everything. That because we participate in the death and resurrection of Jesus, we see through baptised eyes and worked with baptised hands. We love with baptised hearts and pray with baptised minds. That is what it means to live baptismally.

That means that we don’t treat our baptism as an event that just happened somewhere in our past. The event of our baptism was the starting point of a baptised lifestyle. Last week, we looked at Paul’s letter to the Romans. And he makes the point that one does not get baptised and then go back to a sinful lifestyle. No, one gets baptised and is released into a lifestyle of holiness and freedom!

That baptised lifestyle is not just a lifestyle of not-sinning; it’s a lifestyle of actively pursuing and bringing about God’s kingdom in the world.

It’s not just that we stop using vulgar language; we use our words that bless and edify.

It’s not just that we stop thinking bad thoughts; we set our minds on whatever is excellent and praiseworthy.

It’s not just that we stop…

Let us become living waters to bless others.

Last week, I wrote an article in the Focus summarising the insights that you offered at the annual church Retreat. If there was one theme that ran through what everybody said, it was that we desire to bless others. Many of you see communities that thirst for the living water of God, individuals that hunger for what only God can provide. You brought up ministering to migrant workers who are far from home. You brought up ministering to those in prison and showing them the way of Jesus who sets us free from all our bondage. You brought up how worship and Bible classes should ultimately equip us to bless others, whether by knowing how to have better conversations or how to evangelise a culture that generally doesn’t like evangelists.

I praise God that this church has been hardwired with the desire to bless others. I praise God that He has placed a special desire in each of your hearts to love and serve others, and you carry that holy burden until they know Jesus.

But we must move from desire to action. Desire is only as meaningful as the action that results. As a minister, it would be such a joy to have my WhatsApp or emails flooded with messages like “I have this expertise or this resource or these connections. How can they be of service to the church?” Or “I have this idea, but I need help. Can you make an announcement so we can get a team together?” Or even the simple “I want to serve, but I don’t know where. Can you point me in the right direction?” Please, let the ministers and elders and leaders be overwhelmed in that way!

The Lord has blessed us in order that we may bless others. We have been baptised into Christ and given new life so that we may bring this living water to others.

Come

We’ve said this several times before, and it bears repeating: what we’re going through now is a God-given opportunity for growth and transformation. As a church, we are being immersed into a season of change and growing pains

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