A simple Google search will yield hundreds of quotes about how we need to look within, seize each opportunity, and make what we want of our lives.  You might get a quote from Invictus, by William Henley, after he had his leg amputated – “I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.”  Or you might get a quote from Will Smith – “You can create whatever you want.  You just have to know what you want and take the opportunities that come your way.  We are who we choose to be!”  Whatever the quote might be, the sentiment is consistent – we need to find ourselves or make ourselves!

However, the Bible teaches us a different lesson.  Consider the story of Jacob, for instance.  One of the patriarchs, recipients of God’s great promise, and father to the nation of Israel.  When you read his story in the book of Genesis, it is striking just how many issues, sins, struggles, doubts, fears, and failures he experienced.  Jacob’s story is like a sheet of Velcro, covered in hooks that connect to the weak parts of our lives today.

Jacob’s whole life seems to involve him trying to find himself or make himself, and he never seems to succeed.  We are first introduced to Jacob in Genesis 25.  The first story is of his mother’s difficult pregnancy with two twin boys warring within.  God declared that the older would serve the younger (see v23).  The promised plan of God would move through the younger son.  And then immediately we read a quick account of Jacob buying his brother Esau’s birthright for a bowl of stew.  Esau the stomach-led man.  Jacob the trickster.

Genesis 26 gives us Isaac’s life summary, essentially underlining how Isaac recapitulated much of his father Abraham’s life story.  Then we come to Genesis 27 – the lengthy and strange account of Jacob going after his father’s blessing.  The lesson in this chapter was an important one for Jacob, and it is an important one for us today: you cannot find yourself or make yourself, you have to let God orchestrate the blessing in your life.  Indeed, we bring the brokenness, but God brings the blessing.

I. What is “The Blessing?”  The story begins with Isaac deciding to give his dying blessing to Esau (Gen. 27:1-4).  What is the blessing?  We have a weak conception of blessing in our language today.  We might say, “Bless you!” when someone sneezes (even though that sneeze is no longer the threat of a terrible plague).  We might use it as a vague prayer, “God, please bless all the missionaries and all the little children.”  Or we might use it as a vague reference to nice feelings, “Your encouragement has blessed my heart.”  But Jacob was going after something more significant than that!

The blessing was the life-shaping power of discerning words spoken by a key person at a critical moment.  We know how a throwaway comment from an important adult can mark a child for life.  Many live with the echo of a nasty comment resonating throughout their life.  Imagine, then, the power of the words of your father as he is preparing to die.  Jacob wanted to hear the blessing of the firstborn from his father’s lips!

II. We cannot bless ourselves.  Jacob craved the blessing, but he could not give it to himself (Gen. 27:5-17).  But instead of trusting God’s plan to be worked out, Rebekah led Jacob in a cunning ruse to confuse Isaac and steal that blessing.  So Jacob dressed up as Esau and went in with the food to deceive his father.

The story feels uncomfortable to read, but, perhaps, that is because we recognize our own human nature in it.  How often do we dress up as someone we are not in order to hear the affirmation that we crave?  It could be in our work that we pretend to be someone else, or else in our hobbies, in our relationships with others, or even in our church involvement.  After all, surely we will get the respect we crave if we “have it all together” and make sure we look spiritual, won’t we?

III. It is possible to steal the blessing.  Jacob deceived Isaac and got the blessing.  In Genesis 27:18-29, we read the halting and sense-filled account of Jacob’s deception.  Without sight, Isaac tries to rely on his senses of smell, taste, and touch.  He seems suspicious, and the attempt feels doomed to fail.  But Jacob succeeded.  He finally saw that look on his father’s face and heard the words from his lips.  However . . .

IV. A stolen blessing feels empty.  In Genesis 27:30-45, we see the fallout from Jacob’s heist. Everyone is hurt.  Isaac knows he tried to go against God and has a broken relationship with both of his sons.  Esau is so angry he is already plotting a murder.  Rebekah is losing her beloved son, never to see him again.  And Jacob is leaving as a fugitive, broke and fearful.   

What are we to make of this story on a human level?  It is clear that human identity is not something we can find for ourselves, manufacture, or effectively steal.  We need the blessing of key people who love us, know us, and can discerningly speak the truth of God’s design into our lives.  On the horizontal level, we have to recognize the power of our words.  The family home is a place where words really count.  If you have others in your family, then you can speak to them of God’s design and plan for them.  If you have daughters, tell them that they are beautiful and strong.  If you have sons, tell them they are powerful and strong.  Your words count.

The Christian community is a place where words really count.  Each week we are surrounded by others who have probably not heard too many meaningful statements of discernment and blessing.  And we are surrounded by others who have probably been marked by thoughtless or even cruel comments along the way.  Get to know some people well and speak to them about who God has made them to be.  It is powerful.

What are we to make of this story on the ultimate level?  But the ultimate blessing that we all need is not found in other people, but in God himself.  What does God say of me?  Praise God that his firstborn son chose to get dressed up in human flesh and take on the curse so that we could be given the blessing of the firstborn.  We don’t deserve it.  We cannot earn it.  We cannot fake it.  But by God’s grace, we are “the church of the firstborn” (Hebrews 12:23). 

In a world of people trying to find themselves, make themselves, and often, fake themselves, we have a God who is not holding back on speaking his blessing over us.  Let’s learn from Jacob’s example and choose instead to trust God.  What does God say about you?  What does it mean that there is now no condemnation? (Romans 8:1)  What does it mean that I am a child of God? (John 1:12)  What does it mean that we are sealed with the promised Spirit? (Ephesians 1:13)  What does it mean to be part of “the church of the firstborn?” (Hebrews 12:23) 

We bring our brokenness, and by God’s grace, God brings the blessing!

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We have to be careful when we make guarantees from the Bible.  Sometimes it is better to speak of general principles because people may experience exceptions to an apparent scriptural guarantee that has been misunderstood.  For example, “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6). That is wise advice, but it is not a guarantee.  However, there is a guarantee at the end of Mark 4.

Jesus was coaching his disciples.  His process of discipleship involved both taught content and practical experience.  When I was a child, my Dad explained how to ride a bicycle without training wheels (keep looking ahead and pedalling, etc.).  But then he also ran behind me, holding me steady as I pedalled.  Then when I spoke to him and got no reply, I realized he had let go, and I started to panic but remembered his words and kept looking forward and pedalling. They did not ride bicycles, but Jesus was a master teacher.

One evening, Jesus invited his disciples to cross the Sea of Galilee in a boat.  They set out.  Others did too.  It must have seemed like a good evening for sailing.  But then, a violent windstorm arose, and the boat began filling with water.  It was a desperate situation.  So the disciples woke Jesus, who was sleeping in the stern.  They rebuked him for not caring about their impending doom.  And then Jesus turned a storm into a famous story.  He rebuked the wind and the waves precisely as he had previously rebuked demons speaking out of turn.  (Some think the storm was a demonic attack on the boat.)  Immediately, calm was restored.  Then Jesus rebuked the disciples for their lack of faith, and they feared even more. (Mark 4:35-41)

We must be careful not to offer guarantees that the text does not yield.  For instance, the common idea is that if Jesus is in the boat of your life, you can smile at the storm.  Why?  Because whatever storm you are facing, Jesus’ presence guarantees a good outcome.  In an ultimate sense, this may be true.  But we must be careful with this line of thought.  Doctors do diagnose fatal diseases that end the lives of Christians.  Wars do take a terrifying toll on entire populations, including faithful followers of Jesus.  Actual storms hit land and devastate the homes of believers and unbelievers.  We must not give believers a false guarantee of safety because life has a habit of showing up our errors.

Recently, I preached this passage in a young church reaching out to marginalized people in an Albanian town.  With poverty, corruption, child kidnappings, and many more troubles swirling around, they would love to know that Jesus’ presence guarantees safe passage through life.  In an ultimate sense, of course, it does.  But they needed to know there are no temporal guarantees of happy outcomes.  However, they also needed to see the guarantee in the passage.

Remember that Jesus gave both taught content and practical experience.  The experience of the stilling of the storm occurred “on that day” (see Mark 4:35).  Which day?  The day when Jesus was teaching Mark 4:1-34.  There was classroom content before the school trip!

What had Jesus been teaching that day?  He had taught about the nature of the kingdom of God.  He used farming illustrations to make the point that the kingdom starts small and grows.  For instance, it is just like a farmer who scatters seed and has confidence that it will grow (Mark 4:26-29). Or like a mustard seed that starts so tiny but grows into a great plant, like the tree representing a great kingdom in Daniel 4 (Mark 4:30-32).  Jesus taught using many of these parables and explained everything to his disciples in private.  It was on that day that they then got into a boat to cross to the other side.

What was it the disciples had been learning?  The kingdom of God will start very small, but its growth is guaranteed.  Where was the kingdom of God at that point in time?  It was asleep in the boat, with the disciples all present.  Then the storm came.  Why should the disciples have had more faith than they showed in their panic?  Not because they were somehow supposed to stop the storm themselves.  Nor because it was no big deal (the experienced fishermen were in a panic too!).  They needed to learn the lesson that Jesus was teaching them. God’s plan for the kingdom in this world is a plan of growth, and it is a plan that the enemy cannot thwart.  Even if the pit of hell throws everything against it, it will keep growing.

The enemy has done everything for two thousand years to stop the spread of the Gospel and the church’s growth.  People have burned Bibles, imprisoned pastors, banned religion, martyred believers, and tried to corrupt the Christian message.  And yet, the Gospel keeps on marching forwards.  Whether we are marginalized young believers in Albania or faithful followers of Jesus elsewhere, we need to know the guarantee of this passage. 

The advance of major religions across the globe at the point of a sword, the secularization of society under the sharp edges of sophisticated educators, the totalitarian persecution of faith under communism – all of these threats never have, and never will, thwart the spread of the Gospel.  Mark 4 guarantees it. 

I may go the way of every other Christian for two thousand years – dying by disease, accident, or foul play.  I must entrust my life and eternity to God’s care and trust him with whatever he allows.  But I can be confident that the enemy will never stop the advance of the kingdom of God in this world.  No matter what happens, Jesus will build his church, and the gates of hell will not be able to stop it.  It was true in that vulnerable little boat and is still true today.

Jesus will build his church, a fact guaranteed in Mark 4:35-41.  In light of that guarantee, perhaps we can all be more “steadfast, immovable, always abounding the work of the Lord, knowing [it is guaranteed!] that in the Lord your labour is not in vain.”

Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount has undoubtedly stood the test of time.  It remains well-known in church circles and well-quoted even outside the church.  However, we might want to question how much it has been taken to heart and implemented.  Jesus knew there was no guarantee that his hearers (and subsequently, Matthew’s readers) would implement it.  That is why his conclusion is so firm.

Let’s consider the four parts of the conclusion:

1. Everyone must choose their path in light of Jesus’ exclusive claims.  (Matthew 7:13-14)  We live in a world that loves the idea of there being many roads and that they all lead up different sides of a mountain to the same lofty peak.  That is a nice sentiment, but it is not reality.  Jesus taught that there are only two.  There are two roads, two gates, two crowds, and two destinations.  To take the wide gate onto the broad road is easy.  No discernment is needed, no stand needs to be taken, the crowd is large, and affirmation flows freely.  That road leads to destruction.

C.S. Lewis reflected on the point in his education where he began to “broaden his mind.”  He wrote, “I was soon altering ‘I believe’ to ‘one does feel.’ And oh, the relief of it! . . . from the tyrannous noon of revelation, I passed into the cool evening of Higher Thought, where there was nothing to be obeyed and nothing to be believed except what was either comforting or exciting.”

It is easy to pass through a wide gate.  All baggage is acceptable, even our sins, self-righteousness, and pride.  But getting through a narrow gate requires us to pass through alone – without being propped up by others or weighed down by baggage.  Jesus is the only way to God.  That may be uncomfortable to hear in our contemporary culture. Still, it is no less valid or demanding than ever.

2. The narrow road requires vigilance. (Matthew 7:15-20)  There will be false prophets who seek to lead Jesus’ followers astray.  Two things are true of these false prophets.  They are both disguised and betrayed.  Disguised means they are not easy to spot – they are not cartoon villains!  But they will ultimately be betrayed by their fruit. 

Both the Old Testament and the New Testament carry warnings of false teachers and false prophets who will do harm to God’s people and lead them astray.  We live in a time when cults continue to prey on easy targets who may be exposed to the church but who do not have their roots in God’s Word and the church community.  We also live in a day of new pseudo-religions with their own holy story, original sin, required penance, and witch hunts.

We must ensure that we, and others in our church, know how to stay safe.  We need to swim in God’s Word so that his values and truth are familiar to us.  We need to study the truth and keep a curious and thinking mind.  We need to shelter in the security of a healthy local church where shepherds will protect the sheep.  We must soak in the church’s teaching (local and global).  And we must be stretched as we grow together in the community of God’s people, being teachable and open to input.

3. Jesus wants real relationships, not just words.  (Matthew 7:21-23)  These are some of the most sobering verses in the entire Bible!  Of course, saying the right words without any inner reality is possible.  Remember how Romans 10:9 combines words with reality: “confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord” and “believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead.” 

The profoundly sober warning here is also a precious gift – Jesus wants his hearers to recognize the danger before it is too late.  The reality he seeks is a real relationship with God the Father so that we want to do his will.  The goal he has made possible is to say on that day, “I know you!”

4. Jesus wants a real response, not just hearing.  (Matthew 7:24-27)  It is possible to hear Jesus’ words but not to apply them.  That is the point of this final parable.  Both builders listened to the words of Jesus, but the difference was whether they put them into practice.  The one who did this was like a builder building on a solid foundation – the one who didn’t put them into practice just built his house on shifting sands.

Again, Jesus offers a profoundly sober warning and a precious gift.  That day is coming, the day when the storm reveals inner reality.  It is better to know now.  Just as it is not enough to say the right words, nor is it enough to hear the right words.

First, let’s take to heart the strength of Jesus’ conclusion to his famous Sermon on the Mount for ourselves.  We need to ensure that these verses can detonate in our hearts and lives.  Second, let’s take his conclusion to heart for others.  The storm is coming, the day of revealing will arrive, and the people we minister to need to be sure that Jesus’ words have ignited profound transformation within.  Stern warnings are sometimes helpful.  Genuine transformation and contagious relationships always are.  Let’s start by joining the crowd that was amazed at Jesus’ teaching.  Then let’s pray for others in our church to be sensitized to these things!

So much is written about spiritual growth. Anyone in a relationship with God wants to grow spiritually, yet often it can seem so complicated! We can feel pulled between intellectual approaches on the one hand and the pursuit of mystical experiences on the other. One expert tells us to look back into the mists of time, while another tells us to look within, or to look at their list of how-to steps. In the midst of the notice, somehow Jesus can get lost. In this Master Class we will consider some simple biblical insights that will help us grow spiritually in a straightforward, practical, and Jesus-focused way.

Saturday 29th January, 15:00-18:00 London Time.

This online event is free, but registration is required. Please click here to find out more and to register.