Emmanuel Baptist Church of Nipawin Sermons Emmanuel Baptist Church

Passage: Judges 3:7-31 | Message By: Chris Hutchison | Series: Prone to WanderI almost never watch a movie or a show without first reading a review on Plugged In, or a similar site, that tells me what kind of content to expect. I don’t want to be caught surprised by something inappropriate I wasn’t expecting. The problem is that sometimes these parent’s guides reveal key plot points. Most of the time they’ll say something like “spoilers ahead,” but if you read too fast, you can easily miss it and have the story just given away for you.



And if you are a certain kind of movie watcher, having the plot spoiled for you literally wrecks the whole movie.



Last week’s passage was full of spoilers for the book of Judges. It basically told us everything that’s going to happen. The people are going to rebel. They’re going to fall into the hands of their enemies. They’ll cry out to the Lord, He’ll raise up a judge to save them, but when that judge dies they’ll go back and be worse than they were before.



So the question is, now that we know this, does this wreck the rest of the book of Judges? Is this just going to be boring because we know what happens? Did the author of Judges basically wreck all of the excitement and intrigue we could have had?



And the answer is actually “no.” We might know the pattern, but the interesting part now is seeing how that pattern plays out, judge by judge. We know that Israel falls into the hands of their enemies, but which enemies?  We know that the Lord will raise up judges, but how will he do that? What kind of people will he use to save Israel? How will they save Israel? What does it actually look like for Israel to become “more corrupt than their fathers” (2:19)? Those are all key questions that we’re going to seek answers for as we get into each individual account in Judges.



So, there’s no real spoilers. We know the pattern. And looking for the specifics and variations within that pattern is the really interesting part of working Judges together.



1. Othniel (3:7-11)



And that brings us to our first judge, Othniel, who saved Israel. But that means that Israel needed to be saved in the first place. And so before we get to Othniel we need to consider this first example of the sin cycle.



a. The Sin cycle (vv. 7-8)



And that’s in verse 7 which tells us that the people did exactly what we heard last week they would do: they did evil in God’s eyes, and they forgot Him. The word and context behind “forgot” here suggests more than just “oops, I forgot.” It speaks to something more deliberate—they intentionally did not take God into account. So it’s not like they were trying to remember God and He slipped their mind. They chose to forget Him.



And instead, they served the Baals and the Asheroth. “Asheroth” is a plural of “Asherah,” another Canaanite fertility goddess who was the wife of El, the top Canaanite God. She was worshipped extensively throughout Israel’s history—so much so that later Israelites blended Asherah worship with the worship of God by speaking of her as the wife of the God of Israel. That should revolt us, and here is where it started.



So, verse 8, continuing the cycle, God’s passionate anger is kindled and He “sold them into the hand of Cushan-rishathaim king of Mesopotamia.” This is Israel’s first oppressor in the book of Judges, and he’s actually the most significant one.



See, Mesopotamia was the land between the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers, the land of Babylon and Assyria. The land that Abram came out of. And so whoever this king is, he’s not local and he’s not puny. This isn’t just a few of the Canaanites banding together to get at Israel. This is a major emperor who has really far reach, so come all the way from Mesopotamia to put Israel under this thumb.

Passage: Judges 2:6-3:6 | Message By: Chris Hutchison | Series: Prone to WanderI remember when I saw a 3D movie for the first time. I don’t remember what movie it was, but I do remember the moment when I almost ducked because it looked like something was about to fly off the screen and hit me in the face. That’s what my eyes told me, and the surround sound only added to the effect.



3D movies work by feeding slightly different information to each of your eyes. That’s why you have to wear those glasses. Your eyes see two slightly different images, which your brain combines to produce a 3-dimensional image. It’s the same with surround sound, or even stereo sound. Different sounds in different ears give the impression of space, of a 3-dimensional soundscape. And it’s something that’s a lot richer and fuller than you’d get if everything came out of one speaker.



We see a similar effect, believe it or not, in the Bible. The Hebrew authors would very often use a technique where they would say the same thing in two different ways in order to give a much richer and fuller picture than just a single report would provide.



We see this in the Psalms, where often line-by-line the same truth is repeated with different wording. But this also works on a bigger scale. Genesis tells the creation story twice, in chapters 1 and 2, from two different perspectives. God seals his covenant with Abraham twice in Genesis 15 and then 17. Large sections of Isaiah say essentially the same thing from different angles. This is all on purpose, as these parallel accounts work together, like the left and right speakers in a stereo, or the two lenses in 3D glasses, to give us a rich and detailed understanding.



And we find this here in the book of Judges, which has two introductions. The first introduction, which we looked at last week, took up all of chapter 1 and a bit of chapter 2, and told us the history of what happened after Joshua’s death. Today we look at the second introduction, which takes up most of chapter 2 and a bit of chapter 3. This passage considers the same events as last week, but from more of a theological perspective. In other words, God’s point of view instead of our point of view.



3:6 opens up this second introduction, and it takes us back, to an even earlier point than Judges 1, to that last time that Israel assembled to hear from Joshua. We remember that Joshua gathered Israel together, charged them to follow the Lord, sent them away to their inheritance, and then died (Joshua 24:28-31). That’s where verses 6-9 pick up, so we’re starting off this second introduction at an even earlier point in time than Judges 1.



1. Three eras (2:6-10)



And right away we want to notice that these verses are describing three key periods of time. The first era is described in verse 7—“all the days of Joshua.” This era is what the book of Joshua is about. Those were the years where the people witnessed and saw “the great work that the Lord had done for Israel,” as verse 7 goes on to say. And the people served and worshipped the Lord in those years.



The second era is the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, also in verse 7. They had seen the great work of the Lord, meaning that those days were days of memory, of remembering what what they had seen. And as a result, they served the Lord.



There’s a third era, in verse 10. A new generation arose after that generation of elders died. This generation, in verse 10, “did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel.” Miracles did not happen every day. Normal life in the Old Testament was fairly normal. But the people weren’t supposed to forget the great acts God had done. They were supposed to tell the next generation about the time that grandpa crossed the Jordan on dry ground, or saw Jericho’s walls fall, or saw the sun stop,

Passage: Judges 1:1-2:5 | Message By: Chris Hutchison | Series: Prone to WanderMy wife Aimee and I have the privilege of providing basic necessities for a small group of cute but selfish little things who are noisy—especially if we’re trying to sleep in—constantly squabble with each other, are incapable of learning anything, and have no idea abut the money or the effort that we put in to keeping them alive. They eat our food, leave a mess behind, and rush off without saying thank you. And yet somehow Aimee and I receive pleasure from watching them play and listening to their voices and marvelling at the creativity God displayed in making each one. And even though our work is thankless, we’re glad to get to show care to them.



But enough about the birds in our backyard.



What about you and I? Aren’t we so often like them? Every day we live on the kindness and mercy of our creator, and yet return so little to him in comparison to the immense grace He shows us day in and day out. Often things need to get really bad before we turn to God with any kind of seriousness. And yet, after receiving from Him what we asked for, how long is it until we flit off to whatever we were doing before?



Today we begin a series in the book of Judges, which takes us back to a place in Israel’s history where they experienced God’s undeserving salvation again and again. And each time He rescued them and provided for them they enjoyed his benefits for a while, before rushing off to chase another idol, ignoring God again until things got bad enough to ask Him for His help.



Judges is an ancient book and a book with some of the Bible’s roughest and most violent stories. But it’s a book whose message is very relevant for us today. Because Judges is a window into the human heart—and, more than that, a window into the character of God. Judges, with all of its mess and grit, is about the God who saves. In these passages we will meet our Saviour again and again. And it’s because of Jesus that the gritty pages of Judges makes sense and have something to say to us today.



Introduction: Context



Now, let’s start our journey through Judges with a bit of context. First, we’ll consider the kind of book that Judges is. Judges is a very different kind of book than 1 Peter, which we just finished. 1 Peter was a letter. Judges is a historical narrative. We could say it’s a “story,” as long as we don’t assume that means it was just made up by someone. It’s a true story, and it was deliberately put together in a certain way to draw our attention to certain enduring truths.



And what you’ll notice is that we preach through narrative differently than through a letter. With a New Testament letter, we could spend a sermon or two on one verse, just because of how it’s written. In Judges, we might consider several chapters in one sermon. And that’s not because these words matter any less, it’s just that the authors are using their words differently. They are two very different kinds of books, which means we’ll preach them differently.



Next, let’s think about historical context. As we move from 1 Peter to Judges, we’re moving about 1,000 years back in time. We’re moving back to the time frame that’s indicated by the opening words of this book—“After the death of Joshua.” It’s interesting that new beginnings often start after the death of God’s servants. Think how Exodus begins with the death of Joseph, or how 1 Kings begins with the death of David.



The book of Joshua, which we walked through about two years ago, picked up from the death of Moses died and took us all the way to the end of Joshua’s life. And we saw how, at the end of Joshua’s life, Israel has control over the Promised Land even if they haven’t completely finished the conquest. They’ve started, but not finished the work of being God’s instruments of judgement upon the people of the land...

Passage: 1 Peter 2:12-14 | Message By: Chris Hutchison | Series: Thriving in ExileSeptember 10—seven months ago—we opened up the book of 1 Peter together and began to explore these chapters and verses together.



And I think it’s meaningful that we’re ending on grad Sunday, making this Sunday not just a wrap-up but a send-off. And we didn’t plan it that way. At first we thought we’d be done about nine weeks ago. But we all found Peter to be a lot richer and denser than we expected. And I don’t mean “dense” in a bad way. I mean “dense” like a thick piece of cheesecake. It’s so good, but it just takes you a bit longer to enjoy it than you planned on at first.



There’s just three verses left for us to hear from today as Peter concludes his letter, and they come in two halves. First, Peter gives us a summary purpose statement for his whole letter. Then, as letters in the ancient world often did, he ends with a series of greetings.



1. Purpose Statement (v. 12)



Let’s begin with the purpose statement, looking at verse 12: “By Silvanus, a faithful brother as I regard him, I have written briefly to you, exhorting and declaring that this is the true grace of God. Stand firm in it” (1 Peter 5:12).



Silvanus



There’s three points we want to note here. The first has to do with Silvanus, which is a different form of the name “Silas.” It’s very likely that this is the same Silas who travelled with the apostle Paul and who co-authored the Thessalonian letters with him.



Peter’s language here suggests that that Silvanus, or Silas, was his messenger, who brought the letter from Peter to these people. That’s how this phrase is used in the book of Acts, for example. And Peter commends him, describing him as a “faithful brother,” encouraging his readers to receive him and respect him when he comes to them with this letter. 



If this was the same Silas who travelled with Paul, then no doubt this was a faithful brother—a brother who for years had been putting into practice the truths Peter wrote about in his letter. A brother who had been beaten and thrown in jail with Paul and been by his side through many journeys and many sufferings.



He’s not just the mailman for this letter—he was a living example of what it looked like to live it out.



Summary



Peter next gives a summary of his entire letter. In case we were wondering what the goal is, here it is: “I have written briefly to you, exhorting and declaring that this is the true grace of God.”



His comment that he wrote “briefly” is interesting, given that this letter is much longer than the typical letters that were exchanged in the Roman world. For some context, the shortest letters in the New Testament, like 2 and 3 John, were fairly average, if not a tiny bit longer, than typical Roman letters.



So 1 Petter is not brief by that standard. But it is brief in terms of everything Peter could have said. The true grace of God is so rich and deep he could have written something as long as Romans or 1 Corinthians, and even that would have seemed brief.



Note the two words Peter uses here: exhorting and declaring. “Declaring” has to do with speaking the truth, bearing witness to what is real. “Exhorting” means “strongly urging” and is about calling people to respond to that truth. In many ways, that’s what preachers should be doing every week. We declare the truth and then we strongly urge, or exhort, people to respond to that truth. And that’s what Peter has been doing here.



What he has been declaring is the “true grace of God.” Everything he’s written in his letter here is an accurate declaration of the grace of God. The grace that has appeared in Christ, is sustaining us in the present day, and will be manifested when our Lord returns.

Passage: 1 Peter 5:6-11 | Message By: Josh Bondoc | Series: Thriving in Exile









If you’re a Christian today, I’m sure you have been through trying seasons in your faith journey where everything seemed to go wrong in the worst way possible. Maybe some of you today are in that season right now. In these moments, when the worst of the worst is all that you can see around you, it can be tempting to ask:



God, where are you?

Where were you during that time? Where have you been all this time?



In these moments, it can be tempting to lose sight of who God is and what He has done for you in the past. As a result, it can be tempting to question what God is doing for you in the present. And of course, it can be tempting to doubt and forget what God has promised to do for you in the future.





















God Is Doing Something



This is what the apostle Peter addresses in our passage this morning, as well as throughout his letter. God’s activity for the believer is what he encourages his Christian readers with, who were the suffering exiles in his day—which means that it’s also for you who are suffering exiles in this day. God is doing something.



Right in the first chapter, Peter tells us that “God has caused us to be born again... to an inheritance... kept in heaven [past tense] for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith [present tense], for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time [future tense]” (1 Peter 1:3-5).



This is the motivation that Peter gives to his readers—what God has done, what God is doing, and especially what God will do for you—who are exiles in this world and are presently suffering in this life.



And not just any kind of suffering, as we saw in chapter 2 and at the end of chapter 4, since Peter talks about suffering for doing good as a Christian (1 Peter 2:19-21; 4:12-19)—which is God’s will for them! This is what God is doing right now, testing and purifying them through their sufferings, so that they receive glory in the end.





















So, in chapter 5, when Peter exhorts the elders/shepherds as the frontline Christian sufferers (in light of Ezekiel 9), as well as everyone else in the flock/congregation to be humble, Peter gives them the same motivation—God is doing something.



And that’s the connective tissue in today’s passage, which is basically a bookend in its structure. We’ll break this down to three main sections (future, present, future), and the first sub-section under 1) Hope of Future Glory can be summed up like this: Humble yourselves under God’s mighty hand and later on be exalted. Let’s look at that first part, Humble Yourselves.



1. Hope of Future Glory (5:6)













a.









Humble Yourselves



“Humble yourselves, therefore.”



Well, who is “yourselves” referring to? If you go back to verse 5, Peter uses the same word: “Clothe yourselves—all of you —with humility toward one another.” So the exhortation to “humble yourselves” is directed to the elders (5:1-4), young men (5:5a), and everyone else in the assembly or congregation (5:5b).





















But why humble yourselves? Well, Peter says “therefore.” In other words, we could also say “because of this or that.” What is therefore there for? Usually, we just have to look back at the previous idea, which in this case is the last part of verse 5: “For God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”



So, Peter says: “Humble yourselves, therefore—because God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble.

Passage: 1 Peter 5:1-5 | Message By: Chris Hutchison | Series: Thriving in ExileI wonder if you’ve ever read someone else’s mail. Maybe you got an email sent to the wrong address, or ripped open a package before realizing it had the wrong name on the label. Maybe you’ve read one of those “open letters” written to a specific person but actually meant to be read by the public.



You might get the feeling of reading someone else’s mail as we get in to our passage today. We’ve been enjoying celebrating the resurrection this morning, but for a few reasons the elders decided we’d keep going with our 1st Peter series this morning. And in our passage, most of these words are not addressed to the whole church but to the smaller group of leaders known as elders. And you might wonder whether it’s worthwhile to spend time thinking about these words that aren’t really for you.



I hope you hang in there today, because, as we’re going to see, these words are for you. Peter’s “open letter” to the elders is full of things that you need to know, and which really matter to you in ways you might find surprising.



So let’s dig in and see where this goes.



1. To the Elders



Let’s remember, first, that we’ve just come out of a bigger section in 1 Peter, beginning back in chapter 3, focused on the reality of suffering in the lives of God’s people. Peter’s been encouraging us to to suffer well and showing us how to suffer well. And last week Jordan walked us through verses 12-19 of chapter 4, which he said was the conclusion to this whole section.



Except that wasn’t quite right. Because look at how our passage opens: “So.” This word also could mean “then” or “therefore.” And it’s sad that this little word doesn’t show up in some English translations because it really matters. What Peter says in this passage is very connected to what he’s just said in chapter 4. As Peter thinks about Christians suffering, he especially thinks about elders who will suffer. Elders, as leaders, will often face the brunt of opposition to the truth.



But there’s an even more specific connection. If you look at verses 17 and 18 of chapter 4, we read that judgement is going to begin at the household of God. As Jordan pointed out last week, these words are drawn from Ezekiel 9, which records a vision of judgement on God’s people which begins at his house. And what does Ezekiel 9:6 say about this judgement? “So they begin with the elders who were before the house.”



The people of Israel were led by a group of elders. And these leaders, these elders, were the first to be judged. New Testament churches were also led by groups of leaders known as elders. And as these churches experienced the purifying, testing judgement of God in the form of persecution, Peter has Ezekiel 9 in his mind and knows that the elders are going to be first in line.



Which means that the instruction to elders in verses 1-4 is not just some blessed afterthought to this letter. “I guess I should say some things to the leaders before I sign off.” No, these are battle plans. Marching orders. This is what elders need to know in order to lead the people of God well while taking fire.



Peter’s Identity (v. 1)



But before Peter gives them any instruction, he starts with his own identity. Verse 1: “So I exhort the elder among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed.”



Peter probably knows that the elders will better receive and appreciate his instruction if they know who it’s coming from. And there’s three elements to his mini-biography here. First, he identifies himself as a “fellow elder.” And I think this is just wonderfully humble. Even though he was an apostle, even though he had been given special authority by Jesus,