As we look at those things that can choke the spiritual life in you, I also want to bid farewell. This is the last blog and message to you from the Baptist Church of Rosettenville, before I go off to the Baptist Theological College, Randburg as their Principal. I want to ask that you pray for me, the Church here and for the Baptist Theological College. At the Baptist Theological College, we train up future pastors, missionaries, evangelists and spiritual workers across the world. It is a very special time this last message.
As we look at those things that can choke us, I want to read in particular one of my favourite passages, as I end of the series of forgiveness. The passage is Hebrews 12:1-17: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.” Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. 13 “Make level paths for your feet,” so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed. Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. He could bring about no change of mind, though he sought the blessing with tears.”
There is a story told of the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, where a marathon was run. In the late evening, at seven o'clock, the last spectators were leaving the stadium when they heard a siren. Some police vehicles were coming and a man ran in. The winner had already come in, his name was Mamo Wolde. He had won early on in the day. Late in the evening, came a man limping. A lone figure wearing the colours of Tanzania, he limped into the stadium with a bloodied leg and bandaged body. He had been severely injured in a fall and he grimaced with each step as he hobbled around the 400 meters to the finishing line. The few spectators applauded as he crossed the line and walked away. An interviewer asked him why he had not given up and he replied: “My country has sent me 7 000 miles to start the race and my country has also sent me 7 000 miles to finish the race. I have not given up.”
That is the picture we see that Paul speaks about in this chapter of Hebrews. We are to finish the race, persevere and fix our eyes on Jesus. Do not look at people around you, the circumstances, or the storms in your life. Instead, fix your eyes on Jesus, look at Him and Him alone. That would be my prayer for you, that you may fix your eyes on Jesus and that you may persevere. The Christian life is a race and it's pictured in these metaphors here as a race in which we need to persevere. If we want to finish well, we need to keep going to the very end.
Elsewhere, in 2 Timothy 4:7 it says, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” As Paul writes to Timothy, he contemplates his impending death, he evaluates his life. He lived in a culture that exalted the winner and scorned the loser. Paul assesses his life on three things: one, I have fought the good fight; two, I have finished the course; and three, I have kept the faith. How interesting that there is no mention of winning or losing here. He is only fighting to finish and to keep on going.
I can say after 22 years at this church, which is a wonderful congregation, a loving congregation and a church that has been a blessing to me and my family. I am thankful to God for the privilege of serving Him here. I praise God for this privilege even of putting out this blog and bidding farewell to all of you who have read these blogs. Well done!
The danger is, if we think only of ourselves, if we think of ourselves as failures, if we do not see records and monuments to our existence. This would potentially lead to us forgetting that Paul is probably one of the greatest Christians, yet he saw his life as a matter of endurance and perseverance. Paul won by sticking it out and that is why we need to prevent bitterness by not giving up on Jesus and to keep going.
This passage has wonderful metaphors and images here to encourage us to endurance. This figurative language is meant to stimulate our imagination and to connect us with what God is teaching us. Here, the metaphor of the race, the image and example of Esau draw parallels between an earthly event, and a spiritual truth, to enable us to assess our lives in the light of the imagery in this passage. Each of these images is used in this passage, as a witness to the difficulty of the Christian life. These 22 years for me have been hard but wonderful. The races portrayed as challenging here and the discipline of God is unpleasant. There have been hard times.
The dangers of the bitter root and the foolishness of Esau are all things to avoid that we read about. All of this adds up to a realistic picture that following Christ is very costly. The struggle goes with the call to be Christ's men and women in this world. That is why we need to face the constant need to endure and persevere. We need to keep going with wise choices and keep a good perspective on matters. The community of faith here must then be protected by the members, and through the choices of others to simply live peacefully, as far as it is possible and to live in holiness as well. Holiness and perseverance go together. Fix your eyes on Jesus, choose holiness, choose to be set apart for Jesus.
That is what Hebrews 12:14-17 speak about in particular. We are exhorted to in passage, to look at not just fixing our eyes on Jesus, but to see the spiritual struggle. The spiritual struggle is one in the battle for holiness. Believers are to make every effort and we are to make every effort to live at peace. We are to strive for holiness and holiness is expressed in these two vital relationships in life because holiness has a profound impact on our relationship with other people. It is really impossible to live in harmony with others when we choose an unholy path. Our sin brings us into conflict with others around us. If there is holiness, then holiness is indispensable for an authentic Christian life.
The person who chooses to live an unholy life can easily be offended. There can be no assurance of seeing the Lord. Seeing the Lord is what brings the greatest joy to our lives. We have been looking at the series on forgiveness and for us to forgive we need to have the joy of knowing we are a child of God. The humility to know that we are all sinners, and that we need to forgive others as we have been forgiven. In Hebrews 12:15, we see that we are not to miss the grace of God. We are not to reject the Gospel of Jesus Christ and miss the forgiveness that is offered to us. There are some people who have been given billions of Rands of forgiveness and yet haggle over the thousands that are owed to them in unforgiveness.
Believers are to see that there is to be no bitter roots that grows up to cause trouble and to defile many. That verse alludes to Deuteronomy 29:18: “Make sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the Lord our God to go and worship the gods of those nations; make sure there is no root among you that produces such bitter poison.” The context of the Deuteronomy verse deals with idolatry and turning away from God. The verb translated to ‘defile’ communicates the idea of contaminating the whole body. Here it is making somebody ceremonially impure, it carries even the connotation of sexual immorality as it does in Jude 8. It introduces an insidious spiritual corrosion into the church.
We are to see that it is that no member of the church falls into the pattern of immoral Esau. Esau was sexually immoral because of his marriage to the Hittites, Judith and Basemat. Esau was also godless because of his misplaced values that led him to make unwise decisions to give up his inheritance for something as frivolous as a simple meal. He was so hungry that he missed out on God's purposes, he simply gained immediate gratification and lost eternal blessing. He foolishly gave up his rights as a firstborn which is the double portion of the father's inheritance. Later in Genesis 27, he was rejected from receiving the blessing of Jacob. Esau weeping and pleading with his father to reverse the situation, but Isaac the patriarch could not. Only tears and rejection await those whose soil their holiness and compromise.
We lose our inheritance as children of God if we do not live holy lives. Which is why I want to say to you again, choose to please God and to be set aside from the world. I was struck by the realization that the early church changed the world by being set apart, they were holy, sexually moral and pure. They cared for the poor and ministered to those that were vulnerable in society. They chose to keep going and make a difference in the world. They were a people that lived for Christ in a Godless world. In a world that was separated by rich and poor, slave and free, they brought unity. There was a multiculturalism about the early church that God calls us to again, to love our brothers and sisters regardless of race. We are to love all people faithfully and to love one another as Christ has loved us, as a witness to the world. We are to choose holiness.
Secondly, we need to grow in that holiness. As you look at Esau's example you see that he fell from a great height and he treats the honours of being the firstborn lightly. In fact, in Hebrew legend Esau chose to just live for the moment, for the pleasures of now. He had forsaken his entire inheritance just for the things of this world. He was a man who would not live with the heavenly goal in sight. He played simply for himself, and like Esau people in the time of the book of Hebrews were rejecting the holiness of God for temporary pleasures. Similarly, we need to turn from that. Esau could have been one of those people who sang that song I Did It My Way. God's calling you not to do it your way but to do it Christ's way and to glorify him by a holy life.
William Barkley says, “There are always some people who think that the Christian standards are unnecessary and unnecessarily strict.” There are always those who do not see why they should accept God's standards and simply go along with the world's standards for life. This was especially true in the early church because the early church, a little island surrounded by paganism. In that church, its members for the most part were just one generation away from hedonism and it was easy. The warning here is against the infection of the world. Sometimes, that infection is deliberate, sometimes unconscious. God has called us to be different, to care for the poor, to be holy, sexually moral, to care for those who are different to us, to be multicultural.
It is not just a grim fact that we can live our lives like we want. There are certain choices that cannot be unmade. There are certain things and consequences that cannot be undone. For instance, a young man who gives up his purity and a young girl who gives up her virginity, there is nothing that can take that back. Indeed, God can forgive all sin but the reality is those things are gone for life. One of the devil's most dangerous weapons is the self-centeredness of our day and age.
Your circumstances and the effect of those decisions on your life are there to produce bitter roots. Roots are introduced by those who were once walking with Jesus and then defile their walk. They became full of hatred towards other races, they compromise sexually and do not care for the poor. Where are all these people who served? Their giving up has infected the church and defiled some. We need to remember not to give up. Many have lost sight because of bitterness and hatred, which ultimately what boils down to unforgiveness.
Unforgiveness starts and it turns to anger, bitterness, resentment, and it ultimately turns to revenge. People take revenge rather than leaving vengeance with God. There is justice and we need to trust that God will bring about justice. If there is repeated sin against us, we are to call the police against criminal acts. That is to love somebody enough to say no to them. However, once we have gone through the process of the logical prosecution of violent crime or sexual crime in our age. We in for our own hearts are to let go of that, leave that with God and leave it with the justice system. God will deal with all things through the systems that he has put in place in this world.
In our individualistic culture, there is a vast implication that if we give up, we affect everybody around us. How do our children respond? How do our grandchildren respond? How do they view Christ because of the choices that we make if we allow bitterness to grow in our hearts? This passage warns us against bitterness.
The third thing I want to say to our church at this stage is choose holiness, grow in holiness and beware of the root of bitterness. Beware of the root of bitterness. Beware of falling away from Jesus because that defiles the community and it affects you for eternity potentially. Turn back to God. We are to remember that falling away from Jesus remains a community problem and a community responsibility. If you do not see somebody, you should pick up the phone and call them; you email them; you reach out.
We are all to do what we can because there have been periods in history when Christians as an entire church, have nearly given up because of the lack of faith of some of their members. By God's grace, we are to avoid this root of bitterness. The emotional dread and grief caused by the fear of falling away in the church throughout the ages was caused by somebody taking their eyes off Jesus. We are to fix our eyes on Jesus and on Jesus alone. Do not look at people around you and that is why there is this temptation to think that we can fall away.
I want to encourage you to go back to church unless you are bedridden, make every effort to go back and to be there. If you are an individual struggling and becoming more like the example of Esau, then turn from that example and follow Jesus Christ. Remember not to treat God's promises of inheritance in Christ, all the riches of Christ, lightly. However, take hold of it as you persevere. If you have turned away from following Jesus, today turn back, go back to worship, go back to fellowship, go back to community together in the body of Christ and do not give up.
One should stop and consider the curse of being the one who introduces a bitter root into the church and causing offense to the living God. In doing so, you affect yourself and others around you. All of us should check our hearts today. In this last message, I want to invite you after 22 years in this church to examine your heart before God. One, are you sure that you are saved by Jesus Christ? Has he saved you? Have you confessed that you are a sinner? Have you come with humility to Jesus? Have you received new birth with great joy, knowing that you changed? Have you extended humility to others, realizing others have sinned against you? Have you realised that you need to forgive each and every person, forgive everybody, everything that they have done against you. Forgive the church where it has failed you and get involved again to make the body of Christ what Jesus intended it to be. You can do so by being there, playing your part within the body of Christ, with great joy, knowing that it is in fellowship that we have our joy restored again.
You need to ask yourself, am I focusing on the blessings of eternity and not only on the things of this world, like Esau did? Like that Olympic runner, in your Christian faith, you need to finish the course, keep running even if you are limping, even if you are bleeding and hurting with every step, keep running, persevere to the end. Cross the finish line till you hear the words from Jesus' lips, “Well done faithful servant.” Do not quit because you are tired or hurt. Do not give up as Hebrews 3:14 says, “We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence, we had at first.”
Florence Chadwick was the first woman to swim the English Channel both ways. Then in 1952, she tried to swim between the California coast and the Catalina Islands. When she was within one kilometre of the coast, in a thick fog, she stopped swimming and she climbed into the boat. When she was asked, she said, “If only I could have seen the coast, I would have persevered that last kilometre.” The same is true for us, look at Jesus, look how much he suffered on the cross for you, look what he went through for you.
He did not give up, he even cried out, “Father take this cup from me but not my will but your will be done.” Look to Jesus, fix your eyes on him and persevere to the end, do not forsake the gathering together of God's people. Keep on going in these difficult days. Our reward is that we will one day see Jesus face to face. He will hug us and really welcome us with great joy. We are to look to Him by faith. Take up our Bible, read what he tells us and do it. We ought to go through all the difficulties of the course, we are to persevere in the pursuit of peace with all and purity before God.
What can be done to prevent bitterness? By not giving up on Jesus. Fix your eyes on Jesus, fix your eyes on him who gave you your faith and will help you to finish to the end. Hold on to Jesus, choose holiness in these days and choose to grow in holiness. Beware of the root of bitterness, beware of unforgiveness. There is justice, God will work that out with the systems he has put into place in this world. From your side, for the health of your heart and your mind, let go of all sin, forgive everybody, everything and trust Jesus in these days. Prevent bitterness by not giving up on Jesus.
May God now bless you as we pray together: Father, we pray for your strengthening. Meet with each one of us and strengthen us we pray. For some of us, we need to be connected to you and ask you to forgive us our sins. We need to humble ourselves before you and acknowledge that we are made of dust. That we cannot save ourselves, but we also need your joy to flood our lives in our hearts. Come into our life, give us new birth by your Holy Spirit and change us we pray. Now help us to forgive others their sins against us. To forgive people in the church that have offended us. May the people forgive me even my sins as a pastor and may we together one day stand before your throne and hear those words, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.” O Lord, save us, help us to walk holy lives before you, to grow in holiness and to keep turning from bitterness and unforgiveness. To you our God and Saviour for this we pray in Jesus Christ's name. Amen
Well, after 22 years of serving in this church and two months now. When I finish may God bless you and I hope to see some of you in January when I preach so as to help the Church. I will probably be very busy in Randburg. Pray for me and God keep you as we go forward and may God be glorified through your life. To him be all praise and all honour now and always, amen.