About a month after my resignation from Immanuel Baptist Church, I was invited back to preach. So, in keeping with my usual practice, we just picked up where we left off and moved forward to the next of the Essential 100 series: Joshua 3-4. The text of the sermon is below. I'm not sure about audio. If I run across it, I will link it.
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For better
or worse, I am able to sympathize with those who have severe anxiety issues. A
few times in my life, I have been stricken with overwhelming perplexing anxiety
attacks. Thankfully, it has not been often, but one of them I recall vividly
was on our arrival to Nepal in 2011. Nothing, and I mean nothing, about that
long and arduous journey had worked out the way I had planned. Everything was
more complicated and taxing than I had imagined. If I could just get to the
hotel and sleep, all would be well. But arriving at the hotel, our rooms had
been given away to other guests. With some negotiating, we were able to get
rooms for everyone except me. I was assigned, not a room, but a bed – a bed in
a room, with six other beds. Who was sleeping in these other beds? I am sure
someone in the hotel knew the answer, but I could not find anyone who could understand
the question. I wanted to call home, but my phone did not work. I tried to use
my computer to skype, email, or something, and there was no internet. So, for
the next six hours or so, I had anger, frustration, sadness, excitement, all
bouncing off of each other, and all I could do was lay in the bed and cry. No
one told me it was going to be like this. I was certain God was leading, and so
I was convinced it should have been easier and smoother.
Maybe you
have had experiences like that. Maybe you are in one right now. It may be that
over the next period of weeks and months as the church moves through the
transitional period, things become more difficult and stressful than you
anticipated. God’s timing may not be on pace with your preferences. Some preferences
and priorities which were assumed in the past may be challenged in the future.
So how do you keep moving forward?
The nation
of Israel had come at long last to the boundary of the land promised to them
and their forefathers by God Himself. All that stood between them and
possession of this divinely granted gift was a raging river in full flood stage
and a seven nation army. This was not what some of them had in mind. So how
could they keep moving forward? The only way for them to move forward in the
face of obstacles and opposition was to move forward by faith. And that is the
only way forward for us as well.
So how do we
move forward by faith? To move forward by faith is to follow the leadership of
the Lord with complete and total trust. It is to trust that when you cannot see
what is ahead, you have full confidence in Who is ahead so that you can keep
pressing on. It is to have the confidence of knowing that He is bigger and
better than anything and everything you will encounter along the way. So moving
forward by faith is all about walking in a trusting relationship with Jesus and
taking every step of the journey with Him in front. From our text today, we get
a glimpse of what that looks like.
I. Moving
forward by faith means following carefully (3:1-4)
One of the
most endearing metaphors Scripture uses to describe the relationship of Christ
to His people is that of Shepherd and sheep. Whatever else that imagery entails
and includes, we know that it means that we must keep our eyes on the Shepherd
and move when He moves and move where He moves. We trust Him, and we believe
that He is good. So we follow Him. The nation of Israel, in the best and
brightest parts of their history, walked with that kind of faith in the Lord.
We see it here in our text. As they followed Him carefully by faith, we notice
that they followed obediently.
The presence
of God in the midst of His people was symbolized by the Ark of the Covenant.
Yes, Indiana Jones fans, it is that Ark.
Only, there isn’t much about it from the movie that is accurate. The Ark was
essentially an ornately decorated chest that was built according to God’s own
instructions in Exodus 25:10-22. It was to be the place where blood was
sprinkled for the atonement of sin. In it was kept the tablets containing the
Ten Commandments, the staff of Aaron, and a jar of manna. Thus, the presence of
God was symbolized by the shed blood of atoning sacrifice that united God with
His people, the Word of God to His people, and His works of power and providence
for His people. And when the Lord directed His people to go forward, it was the
Ark that led the way. So, in verse 3, the people were told, “When you see the
ark of the covenant of the Lord your God with the Levitical priests carrying
it, then you shall set out from your place and go after it.” They were not to
move until or unless the Ark moved, and when the Ark moved, they were to obey
and move immediately.
Now, today
we may be tempted to say, “Oh I wish we had a golden box that represented the
presence of God so we would know when and where the Lord was leading so that we
could obey Him more perfectly.” Let me tell you why that is a dreadful thing to
imagine. First of all, the box was a symbol, and realities are always greater
than the symbols that represent them. You don’t need the symbol, because you
have the reality. The presence of God with His people does not need to be
symbolized because it has been incarnated in the person of Jesus Christ. He has
come to dwell among His people. But, you may say, Jesus is not physically
present with us today, so how is that better for us? Well, let’s suppose that
Jesus was physically present with us today, where would He be? It doesn’t
really matter how you answer that, because the point is that He could only be
in one place at any one time, and therefore our relationship with Him and His
influence in the world would be severely limited by space and time. But that is
not to say that Jesus is not present
with us today. He promised to always be present with us, and He is because His
Holy Spirit indwells us all who trust in Him. So where is Jesus? He is wherever
His people are found, “with us always, even to the end of the age” (Mt 28:20).
So, the
reality is present with each and every born again follower of Jesus, so we do
not need the symbol (the Ark, or something like it), but how do we follow Jesus
in perfect obedience without some sort of external indicator of what it is that
He wants us to do? Two things: First of all, realize that perfect obedience has
already been obtained for you by Jesus in His sinless life, so you don’t have
to try to earn that status before God. Christ has given you His status before
God. That frees you up from the guess work of trying to figure out with
specificity what, where, who, how, why to do the next thing. You are free to
live in a loving relationship with Jesus that has at its foundation the perfect
obedience He has already earned for you and given to you. Everybody breathe a
collective sigh of relief at this point. But add to that the very real factors
of His guidance that we have in both the written Word of God and the indwelling
of His Spirit in His people. What would God have you to do in obedience to Him?
Read the Bible and find out. Does it say to do something? Then do it. Does it
say not to do something? Then don’t do it. But you say, “Sometimes the Bible is
hard to understand.” That’s true. In fact, I know it’s true because the Bible
says that about itself (2 Pet 3:15-16; et al.). That’s where you trust in His
guidance by the Holy Spirit who lives in you, and who also lives in the
Christians around you in the context of your spiritual family, the church. When
we don’t understand His Word, we ask Him for wisdom, and we humbly seek the
counsel of others we trust to live under the Spirit’s leading. Now, isn’t that
better than a box? God has given us all we need to move forward by faith,
following carefully and obediently.
Following
carefully also means following observantly. In verse 4, the Lord’s instructions
were the people should keep a considerable distance between themselves and the
ark. The distance was to be 2,000 cubits, which amounts to just over a half a
mile. Why was this distance necessary? The reason is specified in verse 4:
“that you may know the way by which you shall go, for you have not passed this
way before.” Simply put, this intervening distance allowed everyone to keep
their eyes on the Ark as the priests lifted it up. Without this distance, only
those in the front would be able to see the Ark. All everyone else could see
would be the backs of each other’s heads. There is a legitimate sense in which
we do follow one another, but ultimately we are to keep our eyes on the Lord
and follow Him alone. That’s the point – not to follow the Lord at a distance,
but to position ourselves in such a way that we are able to keep our focus on
Him at all times as we follow Him.
I ran across
an interesting commentary on this passage as I was reading a sermon preached to
the North Carolina Baptist Convention in 1930. In it, A. W. Fleischmann made an
interesting observation about what he erroneously called “the intervening mile,”
saying, “Further, this great intervening space taught the people that the
waters of the Jordan did not flee before Israel but before the Ark.” In other
words, when they came to the river and considered how they would cross it, no
one alive in that generation would ever dare suggest that it was because of their ingenuity, creativity, strength, or the resources of any or all of them. It was God
and God alone who would get the glory as the waters of the Jordan stood like a
wall for Israel to pass before. Following observantly at a distance with their
eyes fixed on the leading of the Lord, they would behold the waters held back
from a half mile away before they ever came near it. When we follow carefully
and observantly we become sensitive and aware to the ways that God is at work
bringing glory to Himself and doing the things that He alone can do. There will
be times in your life when you wonder how in the world you are going to get by
or make it. There may come times during this season of transition when you feel
tempted to give up and on the future of this church. But if you just keep your
focus on how the Lord is moving and know that
He is moving, He will bring glory to Himself. You can watch it happen if
you follow observantly.
So, keep moving
forward … by faith … and that means, first of all, following carefully … and
that entails following obediently and observantly. Now secondly, …
II. Moving
forward by faith means following expectantly (3:5-17)
William
Carey is regarded as the father of the modern missionary movement. In the late
1700s, support for missions was languishing among churches in the West.
Missionaries were few and were supported by only a small number of individual
churches here and there. Carey was a pastor and became inspired by Jonathan
Edwards’ biography of David Brainerd, the great young missionary to the Native
Americans who had recently died. Carey developed a global vision of God’s
purpose for the church in the world, and he began to challenge churches to band
together to support the missionary effort more effectively. Carey himself spent
the remainder of his life in South Asia. It was the movement catalyzed by William
Carey that eventually gave rise to the North Carolina Baptist State Convention
in 1830, and the Southern Baptist Convention in 1845, and which still moves
forward through our Cooperative Program by which Southern Baptists unite for
the spread of the Gospel around the world. William Carey is most well-known for
a simple but profound statement which became sort of a motto for him and those
who were inspired by his example: Expect great things from God; attempt great
things for God. The order is important. We do not attempt great things as a
means of getting great things. No, we have already been promised great things
from God, and He is trustworthy so we can expect them and depend on them. Thus,
we are only able to attempt great things for God because we expect great things
from God.
Now, to move
forward by faith, we must follow the Lord expectantly, and one of the ways we
do that is through our consecration. In verse 5-6, Joshua ordered the people to
consecrate themselves “for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.” To be
consecrated is to be devoted singularly to the Lord and His purposes. It is to
recognize that you are living in His presence. And because He is present, we
can expect Him to do wonders in our midst. The NIV translates the word “wonders”
here as “amazing things.” That’s a promise, and when the people of God believe
that they are in His presence, and that His power is at work in their midst, it
is not difficult to convince them to consecrate themselves to His purpose.
So let me
ask you, do you believe that God will do amazing things among you? Or do you
believe that He is no longer in the “Amazing Thing” business? Maybe you think
that sort of thing stopped happening in the first century. Or maybe you think
it stopped happening around 1957. Listen, God is still in the business of doing
amazing things among His people, but I am not so sure His people are still in
the business of expecting it, or living consecrated lives before Him. What kind
of amazing things can we expect the Lord to do if we are consecrated to His
purposes? Can we expect the kinds of miracles and wonders that occurred in
periods of biblical revelation? Listen to what the Lord Jesus said. On the
night before His death, He told His followers, “He who believes in Me, the
works that I do, he will do also; and greater
works that these he will do; because I go to the Father” (Jn 14:12). What
are those greater works? Because Jesus has gone to the Father, He has imparted
His Holy Spirit to indwell us and to work through us as we carry out His
mandate to make disciples of all nations and we have the privilege of seeing
the spiritually dead raised to life, the spiritually blind made to see, the
spiritually crippled made to run – all by faith in Christ. The transformation
of lives that occurs by God’s power and grace through the sharing of the Gospel
is the most amazing work that God has done in the world. He did it in us. He
will do it through us in others. Are you consecrated to this purpose, set apart
for God’s use in these wonderful and amazing things He is doing? You can expect
Him to do it, so consecrate yourselves to that end.
Not only
does following expectantly entail our consecration, but it also secures our
confidence (vv8-17). There are times that the Lord’s will is directing us
toward seeming impossibilities. In verse 8, we see just such an occasion. The
Lord told Joshua, “command the priests who are carrying the ark of the
covenant, saying, ‘When you come to the waters of the Jordan, you shall stand
still in the Jordan.’” But keep in mind, according to verse 15, “the Jordan
overflows its banks all the days of harvest.” This river was raging at flood
stage due to the melting ice and snow atop Mount Hermon. We got to see the
frightening reality of a flood stage river this past Summer at Kings Canyon
National Park. During our hike there, several trails were completely flooded
because of the record snowfall last winter melting and swelling the Kings River
out of its banks. And that water was moving very swiftly. Warning signs had
been placed all around saying essentially that if you fall into the river,
you’re dead. So, I have in my mind the lingering imagery of that raging river,
and I read the Lord’s instructions to the priests, “Stand still in the Jordan.”
It seems to me an impossibility – except that the Lord is the One who commanded
it, and He does not command impossibilities. He intervenes, making possible the
otherwise impossible. And if we expect Him to do that, we can face those
seeming impossibilities with complete confidence. And we shall find what the
Israelites found – that God always delivers. Verses 15-17, “when those who
carried the ark came into the Jordan, and the feet of the priests carrying the
ark were dipped in the edge of the water … the waters which were flowing down
from above stood and rose up in one heap, a great distance away … so the people
crossed … on dry ground ….”
The Lord
Jesus has promised to use you and me in His grand, glorious, and global purpose
of transforming the world by the power of the Gospel. Does that seem
impossible? It would be if it were not the Lord Himself being able to bring it
about. Because He has commanded us to be His missionary agents in the world, we
can go forward with confidence, following Him expectantly by faith, and we will
see and experience the amazing things that He will do.
Moving
forward by faith means following the Lord carefully – that is to say, obediently
and observantly. It means to follow the Lord expectantly – which entails our
consecration and confidence. And we come finally to the third element …
III. Moving
forward by faith means following mindfully (4:1-24).
Every
generation must have its own personal encounter and experience with God. You
have heard me say many times that God adopts every person who comes to faith in
Jesus as His son or daughter, but God has no grandchildren. You cannot have a
relationship with God on the basis of your parents’ faith, or anyone else’s
faith. You must have your own encounter and experience with Him and personally
come to faith in the Lord Jesus. You must personally trust Him to save you from
sin. John Wesley came from England to America on what would become an
unfruitful mission endeavor among the Native Americans. En route back to
England, as his ship encountered a storm and he beheld the confident faith of
other Christians on board, he confessed, “I went to America to convert the
Indians, but O! who shall convert me?” Wesley had learned what we all must
learn: There is no service for Christ apart from a relationship with Christ.
But more urgently, there is no life at all apart from that relationship.
John Wesley did become converted to faith in Christ soon after that, and became
most effective for the Lord Jesus and has left us a tremendous legacy of faith
and faithfulness.
The
generation of Hebrews who had come out of Egypt through the parting of the Red
Sea had all died off by the time of our text. They had spent forty years
wandering around in the wilderness as God prepared them for the land and the
land for them. Their children who were born out of Egypt were now adults with
children of their own. Not a single one of them had a first-hand recollection
of the Red Sea experience. But they were about to have their own personal
experience of deliverance under God’s mighty hand. Just as their ancestors had
passed through the Red Sea and told them stories about it to instill their
history and heritage in their hearts, so this generation would be able to tell
their children and grandchildren about the crossing of the River Jordan. They
could speak first hand of how they had experienced the power of God in their
own lives. Can you do that? Can you share with your children and grandchildren,
or with anyone and everyone else, a testimony of how God has been with you and
worked in your life through your faith in Jesus? Have you done it?
Let’s notice
how the Israelites were mindful about this as they crossed the Jordan River in
Chapter 4. Each tribe was to designate one man to carry up a stone out of the
dry riverbed where they crossed. Now this isn’t a little rock. It’s a big
stone; it had to be carried on the shoulder. Joshua took these 12 stones and
set them up as a memorial. This memorial, like all memorials, had a two-fold
function. First, it was a way of remembering the lessons of the past. Every
time an Israelite saw those stones, it would remind him or her that the God who
parted the Red Sea for their ancestors also parted the Jordan River for them.
If they were ever tempted to forget that God is able to overcome any obstacle
that stands in the way of the fulfillment of His purpose, these stones would
remind them of what He had done for them in the past. In verse 6, Joshua says
that their children will ask them, “What do these stones mean to you?” And in
response, the people would point back to what God had done for them in the
past.
Not only
were these stones a way of remembering the lessons of the past, they also were
a way of establishing a legacy for the future. Notice Joshua’s statement in
verse 21. Not only will the children ask what the stones mean to each one
personally (v3), but there would come a generation who knew nothing about the
crossing of the Jordan. They wouldn’t know what the personal significance of
the stones were, and they wouldn’t even know why these stones were there or
where they came from. So Joshua says, “When your children ask their fathers in
time to come, saying, ‘What are these stones?’, then you shall inform your
children, saying, ‘Israel crossed this Jordan on
dry ground.’ For the Lord your God dried up
the waters of
the Jordan before you until you had crossed, just as
the Lord your God had done to
the Red Sea, which He dried up before us until we
had crossed; that all the peoples of
the earth may know that the hand of
the Lord is mighty, so that you may fear the Lord your
God forever.’” These stones become a catalyst to testify to every generation
and all nations who the Lord is and what He has done, so that all the peoples
of the earth would know and fear Him.
As we move forward by faith, we
follow the Lord mindfully. We must never forget what He has done for us and how
He has worked on behalf of His people in the past. We are reminded that we have
been participants in God’s work. These memorial stones, whatever they may be
for us, mean something to us personally.
But we must tell the story of how God has acted for His people to others – to
our children and grandchildren, and to every nation of the earth. We have to be
mindful not only of how God has dealt with us, but also how He has promised to
deal with all people. Our testimony of God’s goodness, grace, and glory is
proclaimed to those who do not yet know Him so that they too may believe upon
the Lord and be saved, that they may walk with Him by faith and serve Him in
their generation! Your children and grandchildren, your neighbors and
coworkers, indeed the world all around us, is watching the Church of Jesus
Christ and saying, “What does all this mean to you? What is it all about? Why
do you believe what you believe, say what you say, and do what you do?” And as
we give an answer to those questions, we are establishing a legacy for every
generation and all nations to know and fear the Lord. God has blessed us! But
His purpose in blessing us was not for His blessings to terminate in us. He
intends for His blessings to flow through us and impact the lives of others
through our witness to them. And we must be mindful of that as we follow the
Lord and move forward by faith.
So, keep moving forward. How? By
faith! Follow the Lord carefully, obeying His word and observing how He is
working. Follow the Lord expectantly, consecrating yourselves to His service
and confident that He will accomplish His purposes. Follow the Lord mindfully,
remembering the lessons of the past and establishing a legacy for the future by
your testimony for Him to every generation and all nations.
