Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost: Exodus 1:8-2:10; Psalm 124 or Isaiah 51:1-6; Psalm 138; Romans 12:1-8; Matthew 16:13-20
Redeemed by the Lord, we are to be consecrated to Him.
Things were difficult for Israel yet ‘the more they were oppressed the more they multiplied’ (Exodus 1:12). Difficult times can be the making of God’s people! Pharaoh (and Satan!) is murderously anxious about the growth of God’s people (Exodus 1:15-16; John 10:10). God is about to move in saving power – His ‘midwives’ are preparing for the ‘birth’ of His redeemed people (Exodus 1:17, 20). Moses was preserved in ‘a basket made of bulrushes’ (Exodus 2:3). Born again, we are preserved through God’s Word and Spirit – ‘the living and abiding Word of God’ (1 Peter 1:23). Moses was drawn out of the water (Exodus 2:10). Israel was drawn out of the bondage in Egypt (Exodus 6:6-8). Like Israel, we have been redeemed by blood (Exodus 12:13; 1 Peter 1:18-19). Redeemed by the Lord, we are to be consecrated to Him. In Exodus 20:1-2, ‘the Ten Commandments’ are introduced by a declaration of God’s salvation. Our obedience to God is to be grounded in this: He has redeemed us!
Redeemed by the Lord and consecrated to Him, we offer our worship to Him.
‘I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go into the House of the Lord”’ (Psalm 122:2). Why do we go to the House of the Lord? We go ‘to give thanks to the Name of the Lord’ (Psalm 122:4). We seek His mercy for our past sins: ‘Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us!’ (Psalm 123:3). We seek His help for our future temptations: ‘Our help is in the Name of the Lord…’ (Psalm 124:8). As we receive mercy and help from the Lord, we worship Him: ‘Blessed be the Lord’ (Psalm 124:6). In our worship, we ‘look to the Lord our God’, drawing encouragement from His Word: ‘The Lord is on our side’- In Him we have the victory (Psalms 123:2; 124:1-5). Rejoicing in God’s blessing, we pray for others: ‘May they prosper who love You’ (Psalm 122:6).
In our worship, we wait on God and learn to witness and win others for Him.
‘The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him that is weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being taught’ (Isaiah 50:4). We are to listen to God. We are to speak for God. We cannot speak for God unless we are listening to Him. Before we can speak for God, we must speak to Him. We must pray, ‘Speak, Lord, for Your servant is listening’ (1 Samuel 3:9-10). Listening to God comes before speaking for God. First, we wait on the Lord – ‘I waited patiently for the Lord’. Then, we witness for the Lord – ‘He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God’. Waiting on the Lord and witnessing for Him, we will win others for Him – ‘Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord’ (Psalm 40:1-3).
As we worship, we receive strength to keep on worshipping the Lord.
‘How can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a foreign land?’ (Psalm 137:4). It is not easy to keep on worshipping the Lord when so many show no interest in worshipping Him. What are we to do when our faith seems so weak and we are on the verge of giving up? ‘Ask the Saviour to help you, comfort, strengthen and keep you’. What will we find when we come to the Lord, looking to Him for strength? ‘He is willing to aid you. He will carry you through’. God gives us strength – ‘You answered me when I called to You. With Your strength, You strengthened me’ (Psalm 138:3). ‘To him that o’ercometh, God giveth a crown. Through faith we shall conquer, though often cast down. He who is our Saviour, our strength will renew. Look ever to Jesus. He will carry you through’ (Church Hymnary, 482).
As we worship, we are changed by God’s love.
Here, we have practical Christian living, living the life of love. What can our ‘sacrifice’ be in the light of Christ’s greater Sacrifice of Himself for us? It can only be ‘our reasonable service’, our ‘spiritual worship’. His love calls for our response, the response of love: ‘Love so amazing, so divine, demands (and shall have) my soul, my life, my all’ (Romans 12:1; Church Hymnary, 254). Our love for Him can never begin to compare with His love for us. ‘Love is a many splendoured thing’ (Romans 12:9-21). Let love direct our thinking, speaking and living – His love, love for God, love for people (Romans 13:8-10). Let your prayer be, ‘More love, more power, more of You in my life. And I will worship You with all my heart,… mind,… strength’ (Songs of Fellowship, 392). Worship the Lord – and be changed by His love!
As we worship, we learn to glory in our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.
What a contrast there is between Jesus Christ and the religious leaders of His day. Three times, we are told to ‘guard against… the Pharisees and Sadducees’ (Matthew 16:6, 11-12). These men had religion without salvation. They claimed to have faith in God, yet they despised Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Saviour of sinners. We are to guard against the ‘Pharisees and Sadducees’. We are to glory in Christ, God’s Son, our Saviour. In Christ, ‘the Son of the living God’ (Matthew 16:16), we have a Saviour against whom ‘the gates of hell shall not prevail’ (Matthew 16:18). Our faith is like Peter’s – sometimes strong (Matthew 16:16-17), often weak (Matthew 16:22-23). Our Saviour is always strong. We ‘are weak, but He is strong’- may we never ‘outgrow’ this simple testimony, as we confess our sin and glory in our Saviour who forgives sin.
—–
The Bible Readings are taken from the Revised Common Lectionary – Year A.
——————–
