“You Will Be My Witnesses” (Acts 1.1-11)

The beginning of September is the time of year where it feels like everything resets. School has started again for kids, vacation is finished, life returns to its normal rhythm. And we start asking all of the questions that come with that: What do I have to do? What priorities do I need to change? What do I want to do differently this year?

It’s the same for the church: we start thinking about all the new things that are going to happen this year, the new opportunities and challenges, and we ask ourselves, What does the church need? What’s working well, and what do we need to change? What’s coming on the horizon that we need to prepare for?

Nearly all of the questions we could ask ourselves at the beginning of a school year are good, important questions—but they’re not the most important questions.

The most important question is, What is Jesus doing?

We’re going to begin a five-week mini-series on Acts chapters 1 and 2 to kick off the school year, and this is exactly how the book of Acts begins—by asking, What is Jesus doing?

The book of Acts was written by Luke, who was the apostle Paul’s physician and collaborator, and who spent a long time collecting as many eyewitness testimonies as he could to what Jesus had done. When we begin the book of Acts, we’re starting in the middle—the book of Acts is essentially “The Gospel According to Luke: Part 2”. But Acts is not the story of what happened after Jesus finished his work. It is the story of Jesus continuing his work from heaven through the Holy Spirit.

And that simple fact changes the way we think about what we do as a church. When we plant a church, when we live the life of the church together, we are not trying to create something for Jesus. We have been caught up into something Jesus himself is already doing.

We’ll be looking at the first eleven verses today, and we’re going to see four very basic truths about the church:

1. We have a living Lord to proclaim;

2. We have a power that we cannot produce;

3. We have a mission that is bigger than ourselves;

4. We have a King who reigns and will return.

1. We have a living Lord to proclaim (v. 1-3).

In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, 2 until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. 3 He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.

That little word “began” in v. 1 is enormously important. Luke’s Gospel told the story of Jesus’s life, ministry, death and resurrection. Luke’s gospel, like all the gospels, told about what Jesus began to do and teach. And we’ll see in a moment that about forty days after his resurrection, Jesus ascended into heaven. It feels like a passing of the baton, in a way—Jesus is gone now, and leaving the responsibility of his ministry with his apostles.

But that’s not what’s happening. The gospels tell about what Jesus began to do and teach; the book of Acts tells about what Jesus continues to do and teach.

Jesus has ascended into heaven, but he’s not sitting on a beach under an umbrella doing crossword puzzles; Jesus has not retired. He is still doing what he did all along—he’s just doing it in a different way.

So how is he doing it? He’s doing it, first of all, through the testimony of the apostles. This group of men don’t come with a philosophy, or a moral program, or a political vision, or with heartwarming stories about Jesus. They come with their own eyewitness testimonies of a crucified and risen Lord.

V. 3:

He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.

The mission of the church rests on an objective event: it’s not based on an idea, or an ideology, but on something that happened. Christ lived the sinless life we should have lived; he died for the sins of his people, in our place; he was physically resurrected from the grave. Jesus is alive.

And when he appeared to his followers, for forty days he taught them about the kingdom of God. That’s been Jesus’s message since the beginning, and it’s still his message. The kingdom of God has come. The King that God promised to send his people has come. Through his death and resurrection, Jesus has inaugurated the kingdom of God.

This is really good news for us—it’s really good news for me. I am painfully aware of my limits as a pastor. I’m not particularly innovative, and I have as much difficulty living out the gospel as anyone. But I don’t need to be perfect, and I don’t need to be innovative—we don’t need to come up with a catchy message capable of drawing people in, because we have something infinitely better than a catchphrase.

We have a true story to tell about Christ, who is alive.

The question is never, How can we get people interested in coming to church? The question is always, How can we faithfully proclaim the reality that Christ lived, died and was raised to save us?

We have a living Lord to proclaim.

Secondly:

2. We have a power we cannot produce (v. 4-5)

Luke picks up his narrative during these forty days after Christ’s resurrection, and he tells of the orders Christ gave his followers. It’s a surprising command.

V. 4:

4 And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; 5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

The apostles have just spent three years with Jesus; they’ve heard his teaching, they’ve seen his miracles; they’ve seen him raised from the dead; and they’ve received their marching orders from him. Surely after all that, they’re ready to go out and preach the kingdom of God.

But Jesus says, “Eh—hold on. Wait here for a while.”

Why? Because knowledge of Christ isn’t enough; knowing everything there is to know about Christ doesn’t make them sufficient for Christ's mission.

What will make them sufficient? He says in v. 5: you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.

We need to realize really quickly that the mission of the church—the mission of being disciples of Christ who live faithfully for him and who teach other disciples to do the same—is humanly impossible. We can do a lot of things. We can organize; we can plan (I say “we”, I mean “a lot of you”). We can preach; we can invite; we can lead Bible studies; we can improve our structures.

We can’t give sight to people who are spiritually blind; we can’t raise spiritually dead people to life; we can’t bring people to repentance; we can’t give people faith; we can’t take hearts of stone and make them become hearts of flesh.

Only God can do that. And if you’re a Christian, you know that, because one day it happened to you, and you didn’t do it, and neither did anyone else.

God is the one who saves, and as he decided the salvation of his people, he also decided the means by which we are saved. He saved us through the gospel proclaimed in the power of the Spirit.

Acts is going to show this over and over again, and though I know so much talk of the Spirit may make some Christians uncomfortable, it’s unavoidable: the work of the Holy Spirit is not an add-on to the life of the church. Some Christians talk about the Holy Spirit like the weird uncle who comes around on holidays and won’t stop trying to do close-up magic for people. Like, “Yeah, he’s strange, but what can I say? He’s family.”

We never hesitate to talk about Jesus, to emphasize Jesus, and we should not hesitate to speak in the same way of the work of the Spirit, because the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ: without the Spirit, there is no church, there is no salvation, there is no power in the gospel.

The Word and the Spirit belong together—the apostles proclaim Christ, and the Spirit opens hearts to believe in Christ.

I remember the first time I ever preached, this would have been about eighteen years ago in our little church in Normandy. It was awful—just awful. I listened to the recording afterwards, and it was just atrocious.

But surprisingly, I wasn’t nervous. And it wasn’t because I was used to speaking publicly; I wasn’t, at least not in French. I wasn’t nervous because I knew what Jesus tells his disciples here: that the power of their ministry wouldn’t be coming from them. I knew that it wasn’t up to me to make something happen through my preaching. The Spirit would do his work; all I had to do was be as faithful as I could with the tools God had given me.

We have a living Lord to proclaim; we have a power that we cannot produce. Next:

3. We have a mission that is bigger than ourselves (v. 6-8).

V. 6:

6 So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”

This is what the Jews had been waiting on for centuries. They’re still living under the occupation of the Roman empire, and most of them are still interpreting all of the prophecies of the Messiah as being political in nature: the Messiah will come and throw out the intruding nation and give the kingdom back to Israel.

It seems like the disciples are still imagining that Jesus is about to do something like that: something relatively national and immediate.

But Jesus enlarges the scope of their vision: he wants them to think way bigger than that.

V. 7:

7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

V. 8 is essentially the summary of the entire book of Acts. The apostles receive power from the Holy Spirit in Acts 2, and they are Christ’s witnesses in Jerusalem (Acts 2-7), in Judea and Samaria (Acts 8-12), and to the end of the earth—in other words, the rest of the known world at the time (Acts 13-28).

And again, Jesus chooses his words carefully—he doesn’t say, “You will be my marketing department.” He says, “You will be my witnesses.

A witness tells what he knows to be true.

The apostles have a unique, foundational role as eyewitnesses of the resurrection. The church does not possess their apostolic office; we weren’t there. But their testimony has been preserved for us in Scripture, and the entire church now bears witness to the Christ that the apostles proclaimed.

So the church’s mission necessarily involves speaking. The idea that you can merely “show” Christ is nonsense. The Christian witness is more than talking, but never less. Our lives, our holiness, should make the gospel credible, should help show why the gospel is beautiful. But eventually we will have to say who Jesus is and what he has done.

And we’ll have to go outside to do it. You’ll be my witnesses in Jerusalem (where they are), in Judea (a little further), in Samaria (even further), and to the ends of the earth (as far as you can go).

The natural tendency of every church ever is inward—we tend to focus on our people, our challenges, our meetings, our needs. And while that’s not bad, it is incomplete: Jesus continually pushes his church outward.

This outward trajectory, if we’re faithful, will play itself out in multiple ways. One way is when the church multiplies. If you’ve been with us for a while you know that l’Église Oberkampf is in the process of being planted out of Église Connexion—essentially, a group of people from Connexion will be leaving our church and beginning a new church in the 11th, not far from here. In two weeks, they’ll be celebrating their official launch service, and today is their sending service—we’re going to be hearing from them and praying for them at the end of the service today, because we won’t be seeing them on Sundays after this; they’ll be assembling weekly in the 11th.

Why do we do this? Because the most effective way to reach different parts of the city with the gospel is for churches to be planted in these different areas. People who live in the 11th will walk down rue Amelot and see that there is now a church there; people from the church will invest in their neighborhood and have a place to welcome their neighbors when they have the opportunity to invite them.

The church, as a whole, is an outward-moving body—planting churches is just one way that we do it.

Another way is through the individuals who make up the church. If you’ve been coming to the church for a while, you can look around today and see new faces. (If you’re new, we’re glad you’re here!) So we could be tempted to ask, Who is coming to us? That’s a good question to ask, because we want people who are new to the church to know that they’re welcome.

But that’s not the question we should start with. Rather than asking, “Who is coming to us?” we should begin by asking, “To whom is God sending us? Who has God placed around us?”

I am terrible at this, because I have pretty severe tunnel vision and strangers frighten me. It’s an area in which I constantly need to grow. Who has God placed around me? Neighbors; colleagues; classmates; parents in front of our kids’ school; people in cafés or on the bus; friends; family.

The mission of the church always begins very close to home.

And it’s also important that we see that what Jesus says here isn’t an order; it’s a promise. “You will be my witnesses,” he says—and the apostles will be. He doesn’t say, “You will be welcomed.” The apostles will be opposed, and persecuted. Christians will be imprisoned, many of them martyred…

But the gospel keeps moving forward. Even in the face of opposition, the gospel keeps moving forward.

This should give us enormous confidence, because the future of the kingdom of God doesn’t depend on the strength of any one church, whether it’s a huge, well-established church or a tiny, local church in the middle of nowhere. The future of the gospel depends on Christ: he has promised to gather his people from every nation, and he will.

We have a living Lord to proclaim; we have a power we cannot produce; we have a mission that is bigger than ourselves; and lastly:

4. We have a King who reigns and will return (v. 9-11).

V. 9:

9 And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.

In case it’s not clear, this isn’t meant as metaphor or symbol; Jesus is actually lifted up, disappears into a cloud, and is gone. But one thing I love about the Bible is seeing how God works throughout history, to make actual events mean something more than the events themselves.

When Jesus is lifted up and disappears into the cloud, that isn’t simply Jesus leaving; it’s his enthronement. The cloud is used many times in Scripture as an image of the presence and the glory of God. When Jesus goes up into the cloud, that’s God saying, “What I promised about the Messiah has taken place.” Jesus, the Son of God, is now seated at the right hand of God, where he has received dominion and a kingdom—Daniel 7, Psalm 110, these Scriptures have been accomplished.

To put it another way, the ascension of Christ into heaven means that Jesus Christ reigns over this world right now.

Acts is not the story of a vulnerable church trying to keep Jesus's memory alive. It is the story of the reigning Christ advancing his gospel.

Which means that we do not enter our neighborhoods wondering whether Christ has any authority there. Every street belongs to Christ. Every nation belongs to Christ. Every person will ultimately bow before Christ. So we can proclaim him without embarrassment.

And we must proclaim him—the ascension doesn’t just give us assurance; it keeps us from becoming spiritual spectators. V. 10:

10 And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, 11 and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

These two men in white robes are angels, in case that wasn’t clear; and I love that the angels ask such a dumb question. If any of us had just seen a person be lifted up and disappear into a cloud before our eyes, we’d be looking for an awfully long time.

But I don’t think the angels ask this question because they don’t know the answer; they ask the question to prod the apostles to action.

Why are you still standing here? Jesus will return. And between his ascension and his return, there is work to do.

The reflex of the Christian, if we understand the gospel, should not be to escape this world and stare toward heaven.

It should be faithfully bear witness of the gospel because our King is returning.

To put it another way, the mission of the church has an expiration date.

One day evangelism will end. Christ will return. Every Christian will have been gathered. Every enemy will be defeated. The kingdom will come in fullness.

Until then, we have work to do.

Conclusion: What kind of church should we be this year?

Acts 1 gives us four convictions:

We have a living Lord to proclaim. So we speak about Jesus.

We have a power we cannot produce. So we pray for the Holy Spirit's work.

We have a mission bigger than ourselves. So we deliberately turn outward.

We have a King who reigns and will return. So we go with courage and urgency.

And notice where all four of these convictions are focused: not on us. On Christ.

The mission does not begin with: “What amazing things can our church accomplish this year?”

It begins with:

“Jesus Christ is alive, Jesus Christ is reigning, Jesus Christ is building his church, and he has chosen to use ordinary Christians like us as his witnesses.”

At the beginning of this year, perhaps every Christian in the church could ask two very simple questions:

1. Who has God already placed in my life who does not know Christ?

2. What would it look like for me deliberately to bear witness to Jesus among them this year?

We don’t need a grand strategy.

Just a name. A relationship. Prayer. Hospitality. A conversation. An invitation. The courage to speak about Christ.

The church in Acts did not change the world because it discovered an extraordinary technique. The risen Christ poured out his Spirit upon ordinary believers—and they became his witnesses.

That’s still how he works today.

Acts 12 - The Unstoppable gospel

Hello! I hope you’ve been enjoying the summer despite the heatwaves. I’ve taken a two-month break. Which means we haven’t seen each other since the World Cup. I’m not going to rub salt into the wound by mentioning England’s 6–4 victory over France in the third-place play-off.

In fact, at every tournament I ask myself the same question… is it worth supporting England this year?

Sixty years without a trophy. That makes you Frenchies laugh. So many disappointments, missed opportunities, heartache. Is it worth backing them if the chances of winning are so slim?

The start of the new term is a time when so many things get back into full swing.

Perhaps you’ve been a Christian for a long time. Perhaps you’ve been part of this church for years. Perhaps you’re here for the first time this morning. Perhaps you’re not even quite sure yet what you think of Jesus.

So I’d like to start with a very simple question: is it worth taking Jesus’ side this year?”

Perhaps you’re not sure what you think about Jesus; you’re here to explore the question. Why would it be worth taking his side?

In other words, to follow and serve him.

For Connexion Church, this is a special start to the new term. In a year’s time, God willing, there will be three churches!
A year ago, we planted a new small church, the Oberkampf Church, which meets just across from Place de la République.

In a few weeks’ time, they will be officially sent out and established as a church meeting every Sunday.

In a year’s time, we aim to have another new church in eastern Paris.

Thank you, Lord, for these plans, but there will be many challenges; the workload will be heavier if people leave, we’ll need more people to serve, and there are still many unforeseen circumstances.

So I’d like us to ask ourselves: why is it worth taking Jesus’ side and serving him this year?

Here is this morning’s message:
King Jesus is in control. He causes his word to triumph. So let us stand on his side.

We’ll be studying the Book of Acts throughout September.

We’ll return to 1 Corinthians in October.

Before returning to the passages in 1 Corinthians that deal with our activities in the church, we wanted to reflect on Jesus and His work in the world.

The Book of Acts tells us some very important things for the start of this year.

It is the second volume of the Gospel of Luke.

Luke says at the beginning of his Gospel that he is writing to give us the assurance … that we are not wasting our time by following and serving Jesus.

The Acts of the Apostles pursues the same aim: to show us that it is truly worthwhile.

The first thing to note this morning is that often …

1. We are weak and the opposition is strong (vv. 1–5)

If we sometimes feel as though we’re completely fragile or even on the losing side as Christians, welcome to the club!

We’re in Acts 12.
A famine has struck Jerusalem. The Christians in the city of Antioch send Paul and Barnabas to Jerusalem to bring aid.

At the end of this chapter, Paul and Barnabas will return to Antioch, from where, in Acts 13, they will be sent on the very first missionary journey to non-Jewish lands. A grand, ambitious and unprecedented undertaking.

Whilst they are in Jerusalem, King Herod launches an attack.

Acts 12:1

‘At that time, King Herod began to persecute members of the Church, and he had James, the brother of John, put to death by the sword. When he saw that this pleased the Jews, he had Peter arrested as well. – This was during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. – After having him arrested and thrown into prison, he placed him under the guard of four squads of four soldiers each; he intended to bring him before the people after the Passover. Peter was therefore being held in prison, and the Church was offering fervent prayers to God on his behalf.”

It’s obvious who seems to be on the winning side and who’s on the losing side!

This Herod is the grandson of the man who had the boys killed at the time of Jesus’ birth, and the nephew of the man who had John the Baptist killed.

He is continuing the family tradition. James dies on his orders.

He realises this is boosting his popularity ratings. He thinks to himself, ‘Great.   Let’s target the boss, Peter. That’ll go down a treat in the polls and it’ll quieten those little Christians down.

He pulls out all the stops: four squads of four soldiers each.

Perhaps he remembered that in Acts 5, Peter had already been freed from prison by an angel.

‘If I opt for a high-security prison, no angel will be able to get through.’

Faced with Herod’s apparent omnipotence, the Christians, feeling helpless, can ‘only’ pray.

In the service of Jesus, we often feel helpless in the face of obstacles.

What might be the equivalents of this opposition for us today?

Perhaps politicians, intellectuals or influencers who seek to discredit the Christian faith.

We may fear that this could undermine our faith.

Imagine that the Oberkampf church was growing and looking for larger premises… but rumours quickly began to circulate in the 11th arrondissement that people should be wary of this intolerant evangelical church with its backward customs that had set up in the neighbourhood.

A campaign begins on social media: ‘Beware of this cult!’
And no one wants to let them hire a hall.

It’s incredibly unsettling. Is it worth persevering with the project?
Even when we’re not being persecuted, we constantly come up against things that remind us of our own insignificance.

Many of us would call ourselves Christians today. Perhaps not all of us.
There’s one thing we all have in common, whether we’re Christian or not: we don’t have much control over life.

• our health

• what others think of us

• how our careers or relationships develop

• what happens to our family

• what happens in politics

• and even how long we’ll live

For my part, I often feel powerless and overwhelmed by life’s circumstances.

I am weak, fallible and a sinner – I often do things that displease God. When I try to live for Jesus, the obstacles often seem insurmountable.

It’s easy to get the impression that the forces which determine the course of our lives are not forces that have our best interests at heart.

***

But Luke wants to encourage us.

We are weak and the opposition is strong, but …

2. The true King opens doors (vv. 6–17)

Often in ways and at times that are completely unexpected… King Jesus opens doors so that his word may spread!

Let’s savour the humour in this story.
I love how the Lord Jesus sets Peter free on the evening before his trial, just to spoil Herod’s party!

Did you spot that in verse 6?

He’ll get up in the morning and knock on the door of his cell: ‘Peter!’
‘Peter…’

“Peter… …”

I love how obstacles are nothing to the Lord!
Peter, bound with two chains, was sleeping between two soldiers; sentries posted at the door were guarding the prison.

The angel arrives. “Come on, Peter, let’s go! Get up. Put on your sandals.”

The gate swings open like the automatic doors at the supermarket.

I love how all the Christians in the passage find what’s happening too good to be true!

Verse 9
Peter went out and followed him, not realising that what the angel was doing was real: he thought he was having a vision. They passed the first guard post, then the second, and came to the iron gate leading into the city. The gate opened of its own accord before them; they went out and walked down a street.

Peter goes out thinking: I know this is a dream … [he pinches himself] but when am I going to wake up!

I would have loved so much to have been there when he arrived at the house where people were praying!

Look at verse 13

The servant girl Rhode sees him and leaves him standing at the door. She can’t believe her eyes.

And just imagine that prayer meeting.

Rhode arrives: “… !?#% It’s… him!”

“Rhode, we’re in the middle of praying here. Go and make some herbal tea.”

“No, but … really … I promise you … it’s … him”
“Rhode, Rhode … it must be … his guardian angel.”

Too good to be true … when God opens doors.

Infinitely more than anything we ask for or imagine.

It’s not as though, if Jason or Romuald were to be locked up, we could expect the same miraculous release.

Even though … Jesus promises that all things will work together for their good and that, in the eternal sense, no one can do them the slightest harm.

Yet James did not escape Herod’s sword; tradition tells us that Peter and Paul were eventually executed, and many Christians around the world today spend years behind bars – in Iran or North Korea.

What Luke wants to show is that, however much harm is done to the messengers, the message itself cannot be imprisoned.

Look at verse 24 at the end of the passage. It is the refrain that structures the Book of Acts. It appears in chapter 6, here in chapter 12, and again in chapter 19.

As for the word of God, …
… it continued to spread more and more.

King Jesus opens doors for his word with ease and often against all odds!

In the 1950s, the communists in China expelled all the missionaries in order to wipe out the small Chinese Christian church.

Fast forward to the 21st century, and after decades of persecution, there are perhaps 100 million Chinese Christians

King Jesus had, against all expectations, opened doors for his word.

Jesus is doing the same thing amongst us today.
He is unleashing his power, not to spare us all suffering, but so that his word may advance … first within us … and then through us.

This is Jesus’ great plan today: to open doors so that his word may advance within us and through us.

First within us.

His number one priority is that his word should transform us, and he opens doors so that this can happen.

Perhaps you have already experienced moments of great vulnerability.

A bereavement, an illness, a period of unemployment or stress.

Horrible times! But times which, in Jesus’ hands, become open doors for his word to take root within us.

Jesus teaches us lessons we could never have learnt otherwise.

In my family, we’ve had to face illness. Jesus turned it into an open door to teach us that as long as we have him, we have everything.

Perhaps some of you are going through one of these moments of vulnerability right now.

Without wishing to minimise the suffering, these are doors opened by Jesus so that his word may take root within us.

That is our number one priority.

If you’ve just joined Connexion, this is what drives us! May the word of Jesus take root within us.

A great way to experience this would be to join one of our community groups, where we listen to Jesus in the Bible week after week.

***

But he wants his word not only to take root within us, but also to flow through us to others.

Here too, he opens doors!

My wife Anne-Sophie and I left the 9th arrondissement five years ago, feeling discouraged because we’d been trying to share our faith with neighbours and other parents, but nobody seemed interested.

Today, God is opening doors in our neighbourhood in ways we didn’t expect. We’ll see where this leads.

Perhaps there is a group of people – colleagues, friends – amongst whom you would like to see the word of Jesus make a breakthrough.

Perhaps it seems unlikely. But the measure of our ambition should not be the size of the obstacles, but the power of the King who opens doors for his Word!

A few years ago, Connexion tried to buy premises. So far, God has kept that door closed. But he is opening others in the 11th arrondissement and in eastern Paris.

We’ll see where this leads us, but we can move forward with confidence.

The end of the text shows us why.

Why we are certain we are on the winning team when we commit ourselves to the word of Jesus.

Jesus is the only true King

He always has the final say

We are weak and the opposition is strong, but the true King opens doors and …

3. The true King prevails (vv. 18–25)
   

One can imagine Herod, after this setback, wanting to restore his reputation.

There’s no question of dwelling on a defeat. I’m going to show everyone who’s boss!

Herod rules over the Jews but also over the non-Jewish regions of Tyre and Sidon in Lebanon.

He is in conflict with them, but he knows they depend on him for food.

So he convenes a large gathering so that they might come and publicly beg him to grant them peace. That way, everyone will see that he is the king of the Jews, of the non-Jews – of everyone.

Notice how Luke describes Herod’s efforts to show that he is the king, in verse 21.

He arrives with great pomp, dressed in his royal robes.

The historian Flavius Josephus, who recounts this same event, says that this robe was made entirely of silver and that it was so dazzling that it instilled a sort of dread in those who gazed at it intently.

He sits on his throne, delivers a grand, bombastic speech, and the people shout: ‘The voice of a god, not of a human being!’

It’s just like North Korea!

Who’s in charge?

Herod’s problem wasn’t just that he was a bad leader. His problem was that he wanted the position that belongs to Jesus alone.

The place of supreme leader.
What makes Herod a bit uncomfortable is that sometimes we humans are a bit like him.
Not because we want to kill Christians or pass ourselves off as gods! But because, like him, we quite naturally like to be in control.

If you’re like me, we like to make decisions. We like to know where we’re going. We like to build our lives as we see fit, to see things go according to plan.

That might be one of the reasons why you came to Paris. We’ve got plans: studies, work, friends, perhaps a relationship, a fresh start. And it’s a good thing to have plans.

But there’s a small question underlying all this that leads us to a choice we all have to make: who’s really in charge?

Who has the final say?
Me or Jesus?

This passage makes it crystal clear who is really in charge.

Look at verse 23

An angel of the Lord struck him down immediately because he had not given glory to God. He died, eaten by worms.

Notice how easily Jesus deals with him.

[Snap of the fingers]

Herod dies … eaten by worms.

Enjoy your meal!

The King who opens doors without difficulty is also the King who triumphs without difficulty over all those who oppose him.

It’s not that Jesus immediately wipes out anyone who harms Christians.

There are plenty of examples in the world that prove the opposite.

What this story shows us is that Jesus is the only one … who reigns.

Jesus is the only true king.

All other kings, however powerful they may seem, are mere figureheads.

They have only the power that he allows them to have, for as long as he allows them to have it.

To oppose him, to seek a leader for oneself, is always to put oneself on the losing side in the end.

So we all face a choice. To seek to be like Herod: to build our own kingdom, to control our lives, to gain admiration, to ensure that others recognise our importance.

Or to recognise that we are not kings, that we were never meant to be, and to submit ourselves to Jesus, the true King.

If we choose this second option, we discover that Jesus is not only the only King but the best King!

_____

For many of us, we have already made this choice to have Jesus as our King. But it has very practical and potentially radical implications.

If we acknowledge that Jesus is King, it fills us with courage to attempt things that will resonate for all eternity.

I said that all this takes place whilst Paul and Barnabas are in Jerusalem.

They are mentioned again in verse 25. They witnessed Peter’s deliverance.

Why is this important?

Because they are about to set out on a mission. The first mission outside Israel.

There will be many obstacles. Many doors will seem closed. They will be summoned before the authorities. They will certainly wonder whether it is worth it.

Luke wants to show that yes, it is worth it, because if Jesus reigns, if he opens the doors, if he prevails, then verse 24 will always be true

Let’s read it again – ‘As for the word of God, it continued to spread.’

Opposition is inevitable, but the word of King Jesus is unstoppable. The team of God’s word is the winning team.

At the start of this new year, Jesus wants to show us the same thing.

Yes, it is worth taking his side, following him and serving him, because King Jesus is in control. He ensures that his word triumphs.

It is worth telling those around us about Jesus, seeking to make him known where he is not known, and planting new churches, even if there are obstacles … because King Jesus is in control. He ensures that his word prevails.

The way we live always depends on our convictions about who is in charge of the world.

If I believe the world is governed by the forces of chance, I would live as though everything depended on my ability to anticipate chance.

If I believe it is ruled by a god who is not really on my side, I would live as though everything depended on my ability to win that god’s favour.

Much of our anxiety in life and in Christian service stems from the fact that we do not truly believe that Jesus reigns.

Is it a coincidence that a society like ours, which seeks autonomy at all costs – putting oneself on the throne – is also deeply anxious?

I am naturally anxious.

That is why I have recently changed my daily Bible reading and prayer routine to start each day by reminding myself that Jesus reigns!

Nothing happens that He has not permitted.

Everything that happens, happens because He has allowed it.

In all things, He acts for the glory of His name, the good of His people and the advancement of His word.

When we grasp this, there is peace.

It also brings perspectives, priorities and plans infinitely better than anything the world can offer us.

***

It’s the start of the new term.

Perhaps you’ve just arrived in Paris. Welcome to the most beautiful of cities.

Don’t just ask: ‘What am I going to build in Paris?’

Ask: ‘How am I going to build my life on the word of Jesus here?’”

***

Perhaps you’re a student or just starting out in your career.

Your work or studies are not just a temporary interlude before your real Christian life.

This is precisely where Jesus reigns and where he wants his word to bear fruit in you and around you.

***

Perhaps you have been a Christian for a long time.

Jesus is the great King seated on the throne of heaven, but when he looks down on us from heaven and decides how to exercise his almighty power in our lives, he does not say to himself: ‘How can I give him the easiest and most pleasant circumstances possible?

He says to himself: ‘I will do everything I can to ensure that my word spreads more and more within him and around him.’

***

Or perhaps you wouldn’t call yourself a Christian just yet, but you’re giving it some thought.

You don’t need to pretend to be convinced. But I invite you to give serious thought to this statement from Acts 12: Jesus is the true King. If that’s true, then it’s the most important thing you could discover this year

With the World Cup, nobody could have known who was going to win before the final whistle.

I honestly thought it would be France. (Michael Olisé is clearly English and we need him back!)

Jesus leaves us in no doubt as to the ultimate outcome of his word. It will unfailingly fulfil the purpose intended for it.

The progress of Jesus’ word, led by King Jesus, is a bit like the rising tide.

We went to the beach several times during the holidays.

When the tide comes in, you can’t tell just by watching for two minutes.

The waves ebb and flow…

In some places, it advances more quickly; in others, there are obstacles, such as rocks.

But… the trend is unstoppable and irresistible.

When I used to go to the beach as a kid, we’d try to build sand barriers to stop the tide from coming in.

It was madness.

The spread of the word of King Jesus is just like that. You wouldn’t guess, just by looking at a single moment in time, that it’s advancing.

But the trend is unstoppable and irresistible.

We don’t know what this year has in store for us. There’s one thing we can be sure of: King Jesus is in control. He ensures that his word prevails. He invites us to be part of the team that wins in the end.

I’ll leave you with three questions.

“Who is the King of our lives?” Jesus or someone else?

Secondly: “Do we truly believe that Jesus is in control, and that the first thing He wants to do is to advance His word within us?”

Thirdly: “If Jesus is in control and He ensures His Word prevails, what does it mean for us to make His priorities our priorities?”

Psalm 8 - Over All the Earth

Introduction

What is the glory of God? We talk about glory constantly in the Bible. You know, "the glory of God" is one of those automatic answers to most of the questions that come up in a Bible study. Just take any question that begins with "Why did God...", and the answer is very probably "for the glory of God." And it really is such a central subject in the Bible. So what is the glory of God?

Why am I asking this question? Because this psalm revolves around the glory of God. Psalm 8 begins and ends with the same sentence: "LORD, our Lord, how magnificent your name is over all the earth!" The Hebrew word translated "magnificent" (addir) goes further than beauty alone; it also means "majestic," "powerful," "grand." A whole field of vocabulary that is ultimately tied to the glory of God in all its complexity. In fact, glory is the very word the BDS [one Bible translation in French] uses here: "how admirable your glory is over the whole earth." So let me ask my question again: what is the glory of God? Let us take a moment to meditate on that.

Human glory

On 20 December 1998, a certain footballer was born, and not a minor one: I am of course talking about our dear Kylian Mbappé. He went from unknown player to young prodigy very early on, and he made his debut for the French national team at only 17. He was already becoming known before the national team, but the national team in particular propelled him onto the international stage, especially with the 2018 World Cup that France won (a proud moment for France!).

Here is an example of human glory that we know well. His glory started to shine everywhere. Glory here, for Mbappé, is the fact that people all over the world watch him play, that they started taking a closer interest in him, betting on his performances, buying his jerseys with his name on the back of course, playing with him in all sorts of video games, seeing him appear in countless adverts, and even writing songs about him (good ones and bad ones)... In short! Whether you like him or not, Mbappé shone, and he still shines today in the eyes of the whole world.

He is at the center of attention. The spotlights are pointed at him. That is what glory is. Something grand that stands out from the crowd, something you cannot fail to see.

The glory of God in this psalm

As I said a moment ago, this psalm also speaks about glory. But a glory that is not based on the ability to kick a ball around; it is based on other things. It is based on what God has done, and on the characteristics of his person. This sentence, "LORD, our Lord, how magnificent your name is over all the earth!", wraps around the psalm like a sandwich, and as is often the case when we find sandwiches in the Bible, we must never read the bread and the steak separately. The two are closely connected. Here is what the sandwich contains:

• The bread: a truth announced: "LORD, our Lord, how magnificent your name is over all the earth!"

• And the steak: a kind of demonstration, a justification of the truth that has just been announced. The steak describes why the spotlights and the eyes of the world should be fixed on God.

I suggest we divide the contents of this sandwich into three major demonstrations of the glory of God.

1. The praise of infants

(v. 1-3) "To the choirmaster, on the gittith. A psalm of David. LORD, our Lord, how magnificent your name is over all the earth! Your majesty rises above the heavens. Through the mouths of children and infants, you have founded your glory to confound your adversaries, to silence the enemy, the man greedy for revenge."

This verse is not easy to understand. Why does it speak about children and infants? Why do they have enemies? And why does God found his glory through their mouths? "Founded your glory," which the Greek in fact rendered as "established praise." How does that justify our guiding verse (the bread)? How does it justify the claim that the name of the LORD is magnificent over all the earth?

So I started reasoning backwards, a proof by contradiction for the mathematicians among us. I asked myself what it would look like if we replaced children with strong men. Strong men victorious over their enemies, well... that makes sense. They are strong! They know how to defend themselves, they know how to attack, it is even normal. It is so normal, in fact, that there would not be any praise in their mouths at all. Or if there were, it would be praise directed at themselves. The glory here would go to the strong man, because it is his strength that leads to victory. Yet the psalm clearly says that you, LORD, have founded YOUR glory to confound your adversaries, or "you cause praise to spring up" as the BDS translates it. Hence the proof by contradiction: replacing children with strong men would prove nothing about the glory of God, and nothing about his name being magnificent over all the earth. His name would be hidden here behind the name of the strong man.

QED, in a way. The best way for God to make his glory shine, beyond any possible doubt, is for him to choose to give victory to people who are clearly weak. And honestly, what is weaker than an infant? I have a 4-month-old daughter, and after 4 months (and 4 months is not nothing), I find myself delighted that she can at least hold her head up! Suffice it to say that this particular skill is not what will help her triumph over her enemies... What is weaker than a human infant! A baby is enormously dependent on adults for several years, otherwise it dies! A human child cannot be fully autonomous before the age of 12, 13, 14, 15! That does not exist among animals, that many years of dependence before becoming autonomous. And in the few rare species where late dependence can be observed, it never reaches the level of a human child. And yet it is through their mouths that the LORD causes praise to spring up against his enemies. They are the ones he supports and makes victorious.

And when David wrote this psalm, he was very well placed to write these words. He is, after all, the one who, while still very young, walked toward the giant Goliath and said to him: "You come against me with sword, spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD." Infant that I am, I am literally coming at you with stones, but above all I come in the name of the LORD. And in giving David the victory over Goliath, the glory that bursts out is not David's glory but God's.

1 Corinthians 1:28-29 "God chose the low and despised things of the world, the things that are nothing, to reduce to nothing the things that are, so that no one may boast before God."

This is what moves us once again to repeat the refrain: "LORD, our Lord, how magnificent your name is over all the earth!"

Let us continue reading the psalm.

v. 4 "When I contemplate the heavens, the work of your hands, the moon and the stars that you have set in place,"

The sentence is incomplete, but I am stopping here on purpose. Because looking at the sky is in itself enough to prove that the name of the LORD is magnificent over all the earth. Before moving on to verse 5, which puts the greatness of God in perspective with the lowliness of man, let us first take the time to observe the greatness of God.

2. Contemplating the sky

What I love about this verse, "when I contemplate the heavens," is first of all how accessible it is. Contemplating the sky requires no effort at all; you simply step outside and look up. It is easy, and anyone with eyes is meant to be able to see the sky. And when we look at the sky, what do we see? Let us talk a little astronomy (nothing advanced, I promise, just simple observation):

During the day

• The thing that jumps out at you, that you cannot fail to see, is obviously the sun. Quite simply the brightest thing our eye is capable of seeing, and in fact so bright that you must not even look at it directly, at the risk of burning your retinas. I am one of those people who did not have glasses during the eclipse, and please do not try this at home, but I still tried squinting at the sun in short bursts, and nothing worked. Even though the sun is so far away, its power is felt instantly. But in observing the sun we do not only see a ball of power, we also observe the benefits that flow from it: a source of light so that we do not bump into every obstacle, and a source of heat so that we can live.

• Looking at the sky during the day also lets us see something surprising, or rather lets us fail to see something: the end. We see an expanse of sky whose end escapes us. Our poor little brain cannot even conceive that there might be no end, and to this day, with all our advanced astronomical tools, we have not found the end. A small aside: today we are able to see galaxies so distant that the light coming from them had to travel more than 13 billion years (at the speed of light!) before reaching us. And still there is no end in sight. It is dizzying!

At night

• We observe another heavenly body, the moon, which takes over so that we do not sink into total darkness even without the sun.

• We also observe a countless number of shining stars, beyond counting with the naked eye. A painting that is spoiled today by human light pollution in our big cities (ironically), but that reveals itself perfectly once you are far from any other light. An XXL painting of breathtaking beauty!

What this teaches us about God

Just by lifting our eyes to the sky, we see a work of art that speaks about its author. Whether you are a Christian or not, whatever your nationality, here is what contemplating the sky teaches you about God:

• God is powerful, powerful enough to be able to create such things.

• God is not restricted by any limit.

• Whatever his reason may be, he provides for our needs, in light and in heat, by day and by night.

• And finally, we observe that God is quite the artist. He could have made things purely functional, but we do not only have a God who provides; we have a magnificent God, worthy of contemplation.

"LORD, our Lord, how magnificent your name is over all the earth!"

Now that we have admired the glory of God in his greatness, here is yet another aspect of that glory:

(v. 4-9) "When I contemplate the heavens, the work of your hands, the moon and the stars that you have set in place, I say: 'What is man, that you should remember him, and the son of man, that you should care for him?' You have made him a little lower than God and you have crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands, you have put everything under his feet, sheep and oxen alike, and even the wild animals, the birds of the sky and the fish of the sea, everything that travels the paths of the seas."

3. The reign of man

Here David mentions the creation mandate that God gives to Adam: to multiply and to reign over his creation, in Genesis 1. And so David contemplates the sky, as we have just done, and sees how great God is, and how beautiful and complex his creation is. And naturally David ends up comparing man to all of that, and he says to himself, "Really? You are entrusting your creation to us? WOW!" Glory to you, our God, for entrusting us with such a beautiful and great responsibility, and with a dominion over your creation that we are not worthy of. "LORD, our Lord, how magnificent your name is over all the earth!"

The reign of man is not very glorious

But if I want to be honest, there is still a "but" in this story. We could rightly say to ourselves that watching men reign has rarely been a beautiful sight, and has rarely been an occasion for magnifying the name of God. We can see clearly through history what very poor kings men have been, and even today what very poor leaders they are (naming no names). And quite simply, we see how men on a large scale mistreat this creation and push it a little further toward its ruin. How does letting man reign over creation magnify the name of God?

In reality, what would magnify the name of God is if we reigned the way he reigns, in his image! And that was in fact the whole purpose of the creation mandate in Genesis 1: "Then God said: 'Let us make man in our image, in our likeness! Let him rule over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky [...]'." That was the goal, that we would reign in his image.

But as you know, the fall of Adam and Eve entered history, and from then on this image of God that we carried within us has never stopped deteriorating, never stopped turning into a caricature. We who are supposed to represent God dishonor him. Watching man reign, you could even say that the name of the LORD is not magnified but, on the contrary, insulted, because we are supposed to be his image.

Of course, God is not indifferent to this. His anger toward us accumulates again and again and again, like a cup of wrath that fills up and that will one day be poured out on everyone.

A model of reigning is given to us

But God, even faced with the bad reign of men, still manages to make his glory burst out over all the earth. This is what the Bible calls the "good news," the gospel. God raised up, from the line of man, a man who carried within himself far more than the image of God. In Jesus, we were able to see what God looks like in all his perfection! No one else has ever radiated the image of God as powerfully as Jesus, for the simple and good reason that Jesus is not merely an image of God, he is God. Consequently, through his ministry on earth, we have been given a faithful example of what the reign of God looks like.

To see Jesus reign is to see the creator Father reign. A king who serves his neighbor and not himself, a king who lifts up rather than puts down, who washes the feet of his disciples rather than the other way around. Jesus says it himself to his disciples in Matthew 20:25-28:

"Jesus called them and said: 'You know that the rulers of the nations lord it over them, and that the great ones hold them under their power. It will not be so among you. Instead, whoever wants to be great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you shall be your slave. This is how the Son of Man came, not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.'"

And indeed, Jesus ended his ministry by drinking that cup of God's wrath entirely and unjustly, in the place of his people. Hanged on the wood as the ultimate act of service toward his own.

Jesus takes the throne

Through this cross we are given the solution to the problem: through this cross it is Jesus who takes the supreme throne, and it is to him that all things are subjected. It is his perfect reign that will be applied, and that, for its part, glorifies God. From his first coming we have been able to watch his kingdom grow and grow, and at his return Jesus will display his reign perfectly, for eternity. Great, problem solved! But it does not stop there, it goes even further. In his grace, Jesus chooses to share his reign with those who overcome, with his people, as Daniel 7, Luke 22 and of course Revelation 2, 3 and 22 tell us, among many others. How can that be? We do not know how to reign in the image of God; the image of God in us is completely twisted. And yet even there, through the reconciliation that Jesus offers us, he also sends us his Spirit, who transforms us and who brings to birth in us a new man, now capable of striving toward his image.

And one day, when we join our creator, we will then be perfectly capable of reigning in the image of God, fully filling the role for which God created man. In this way we will glorify him for eternity through the reign of Jesus Christ, which he, the King of kings, will share with us.

And knowing all of this should produce something in us. Not the pride of such a privilege, of having been chosen for such a destiny, but rather praise in the mouths of the children that we are: "LORD, our Lord, how magnificent your name is over all the earth!"

Conclusion

To finish: as you have understood, this psalm highlights several aspects of the beauty, the power and the glory of God.

• His name is magnificent because it is his strength that makes the weak victorious.

• He is magnificent to the point that the infant praises him for it.

• He is magnificent in his power, in his greatness, and in his beauty visible in the sky.

• He is magnificent because he does not keep the enjoyment of his creation for himself, but creates man in order to share it with him.

• He is magnificent because even when man fails, and insults such a generous creator, he also plans a way to restore him and to enable him to fulfill his role.

So when we meditate on this psalm, I hope that what naturally rises up in us is wonder toward God! Let us do our very best to remember these things, so that we can always say "WOW!" So that we can always rejoice in being his children, and grasp what is at stake in our role. Our role, after all, is to contribute in our own turn to magnifying his name wherever he places us!

But also, when we meditate on this psalm, I hope that what rises up in us is humility as well, a heightened awareness of our dependence on God. Let us lower ourselves like children; that is what God wants! Jesus tells us in Matthew 18:3: "Truly I assure you: if you do not change and become like little children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven."

We must be like children, aware that we are completely powerless and dependent on God for absolutely every aspect of our life. And may that dependence drive us to plead for his help. Let us pray without ceasing that he would help us to fulfill such a great role, and that he would transform us deeply, in small things as in great ones, so that we resemble him more each day.

Psalm 19 - The God Who Shows Himself

Introduction

I don’t know if you’ve been following the news, but you’ve no doubt heard about the solar eclipse that took place this Wednesday; perhaps you were even able to witness the spectacle. It is a celestial phenomenon that occurs when the moon passes in front of the sun. And if you missed the spectacle, unfortunately you’ll have to wait until 3 September 2081 to see the next one in France.

It’s the sort of event that fascinates people. You only have to look at social media to realise the excitement surrounding this phenomenon.

And it’s hardly surprising; the sky has always fascinated humankind. We observe it, we study it, and sometimes we even look to it for answers about our own existence. And for many, this contemplation gives rise to an even more fundamental question: where does it all come from? ‘The universe baffles me, and I cannot conceive that this clock exists without a clockmaker,’ said Voltaire, the famous Enlightenment philosopher.

Why does the universe give rise to such thoughts? Why, when we look up at the sky, does the question of a creator arise so naturally? Does the universe have a message for us?

Fortunately, we didn’t have to wait for Voltaire to find answers to these questions. Over 3,000 years ago, David, the king of Israel, marvelled at the beauty of the heavens, and from this contemplation he composed Psalm 19.

For David, creation is not silent. When we look up at the sky, we do not merely see stars, planets or extraordinary phenomena such as an eclipse; rather, we behold a work that bears the mark of its Creator and proclaims his glory.

But Psalm 19 goes much further. God reveals himself not only through his creation, but also through his word.

And faced with this revelation, David does not simply remain a spectator: something happens within him. God’s revelation ultimately leads him to look into his own heart and respond to God.

It is this journey that I invite you to follow with me in this psalm.

Its general theme can be summarised as follows: God reveals himself through his creation and through his word to lead us to a life of worship.

The psalm divides quite naturally into three parts:

• Lift up your eyes: God reveals himself (1–7)

• Open your ears: God speaks (8–11)

• Come to him: God saves (12–15)

1. Look up: God reveals Himself

Let us read again from verse 2: ‘The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament reveals the work of His hands. One day tells it to another day, and one night makes it known to another night.’ As he looks up at the starry sky, David recognises God’s glory and work. The Bible speaks very often of God’s glory, but what exactly does that mean? And above all, what does it have to do with the heavens? David affirms that: ‘The heavens declare the glory of God.’ In other words, the heavens tell us not only what God does, but also what God is. God’s glory is the visible manifestation of his person and character. David does not see God directly, but as he contemplates his work, he discerns traces of his power, wisdom and beauty.

Well, I don’t know about you, but personally, as a true Parisian, I very rarely visit the capital’s museums; however, a few years ago, I visited the Louvre and was captivated by the beauty of the paintings. The first thought that sprang to mind was, ‘Wow! What talented painters! What masterful work!’ As I gazed at these works, I wasn’t just thinking about the paintings themselves; their beauty naturally led me to think of those who had painted them. That’s rather what happens here with David. Standing before this immense, heavenly painting, he exclaims, as it were: ‘What a glorious Creator!’ The work speaks to us of the artist. Creation speaks to us of God.

But in practical terms, what does creation teach us about the glory of God? There is much that could be said, but I would like to draw our attention to three aspects:

• Firstly, creation reveals God’s power to us: think of the billions of stars, the billions of galaxies that God has created; think of the power that God displayed in creating everything simply by his word. It is quite simply mind-boggling.

• Secondly, creation reveals to us God’s wisdom and order: verse 3 reminds us that God created day and night; this is what we read in the account of creation in Genesis chapter 1, verse 5, where it is written, ‘God called the light “day” and the darkness “night”’. You might ask, ‘What does this have to do with wisdom and order?’ The connection is this: in the beginning, the world was nothing but chaos, but God brought order by separating the light from the darkness. In fact, if we think about it carefully, creation essentially consists of bringing order where chaos reigned. God expresses his wisdom by bringing order to creation. We won’t do this now, but do take the time to reread Genesis chapter 1 and note all the times when God creates order by separating the elements of creation and putting them in their proper places. Creation reflects God’s wisdom and order.

• And thirdly, creation reveals God’s beauty to us. We sometimes find it hard to believe that beauty is something objective; we say to ourselves, ‘Well, beauty is in the eye of the beholder!’ Yet Psalm 19 invites us to see things differently. David does not say, ‘Personally, I find the sky magnificent.’ Instead, he asserts that the heavens objectively proclaim God’s glory. And this idea is already present in the very account of creation. On several occasions, it is written: ‘God saw that it was good.’ Creation is not beautiful because people have declared it to be so; it is beautiful because God, who is perfectly good, willed it and declared it to be good. I know this is not a very popular idea today, but beauty is not merely a matter of taste. It has its origin in God himself. And as we contemplate the beauty of creation, we glimpse a reflection of the beauty and goodness of its Creator.

We can see, then, that God’s glory is revealed through creation. But we may each ask ourselves: am I meant to receive this revelation? To whom is it addressed? Do we need special glasses to see God through creation? So let us continue with me to verses 4 and 5; let us read:

‘It is not a language, nor are they words; their sound is not heard. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world, where he has set up a tent for the sun.’

God reveals himself through creation, and this revelation is universal. It is addressed to all people, in a clear and comprehensible way. Every human being can discover who God is by observing creation. This is what the Apostle Paul states in the Epistle to the Romans: ‘God’s invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world; they are understood from what he has made.’ One does not need to speak a particular language, or belong to a particular people, or even be in a particular place to know that God exists and that He is glorious. Look again at verses 4 and 5: ‘one language’, ‘the whole earth’ – does that remind you of anything? Remember the Tower of Babel. People wanted to speak a single language and remain gathered in one place to make a name for themselves. Psalm 19 offers a striking contrast to the misplaced ambition of the people at Babel. God does not need any human language to make a name for Himself. He does not need a specific place where people would come to meet him. His creation speaks all languages, because it speaks none. Its testimony reaches the whole earth, to the ends of the world. Wherever we live, whatever language we speak, creation proclaims to each and every one of us the glory of its Creator.

This is particularly well illustrated by the image of the sun that David uses. Let us read verses 6 and 7 together: ‘And the sun, like a bridegroom coming forth from his chamber, runs its course with the joy of a hero; it rises at one end of the heavens and ends its course at the other end: nothing escapes its heat. ’ Just as no one can escape the light and heat of the sun, no one can escape the testimony of creation: revelation extends to all people.

But perhaps this image of the sun makes you feel a little uncomfortable; one might get the impression that David is speaking of the sun as if it were some sort of deity. And this is no trivial matter; there are a great many pagan peoples who have fallen into idolatry by worshipping the sun as if it were God. But David takes the opposite view to this idea; he clearly affirms that God is the Creator and the sun is merely a creature. In verse 5 he says: ‘God has set a tent for the sun.’ God did not literally create a tent for the sun, as if the sun were to go in to sleep at night. But this image simply reminds us that the sun is in the place God has assigned to it, faithfully carrying out the mission entrusted to it by its Creator. This is what we read in Genesis: ‘God made the sun to rule over the day’. The sun is, in a sense, a testimony to God’s glory and to his desire to make himself known throughout the earth.

So far, we have seen that creation reveals who God is. But what difference does that make to us today? How can we live in the light of this revelation? Three practical applications for us this afternoon:

• Firstly, we are called to look at creation through the eyes of faith. When we contemplate a sunset, a starry sky or the power of the sea, let us not stop at the spectacle itself. Let creation lead us to its Creator; nature exists to show us that God is glorious, all-powerful and infinitely good. And if you do not believe there could be a Creator, do as Voltaire did: doubt, question, ask yourself: is this universe really here by chance? Or is there an all-powerful Creator who wants to make himself known to me through his creation?

• Secondly, we are called to worship God alone, not creation. The sun is not God, nature is not God, and the stars do not govern our destiny. Giving creation the place that belongs to the Creator has a name in the Bible: it is called idolatry. It is easy to look down on the pagans of antiquity and say to ourselves: ‘How could they have worshipped the sun or the stars? They must have been truly stupid!’ Yet idolatry is much closer to us than we realise. When we consult our horoscope, when we believe that the stars influence our mood for the day, or when we speak of ‘Mother Nature’ as if creation possessed a will of its own. Psalm 19 reminds us that creation does not exist to draw our worship to itself. Rather, it is like a signpost: it points to its Creator. Let us admire creation, yes, but let us worship only the One who made it.

• And thirdly, let us not be content with creation alone. Yes, the universe is a vast open book that reveals to us who God is. But it does not tell us everything we need to know. Some people think they can be close to God simply by admiring creation and living in harmony with it, and whilst that is a good thing, it is not enough to live in communion with God. Creation does not tell us that we are sinners; it does not explain why we need a Saviour. We need a revelation that goes further. That is why David will now lead us to an even more precious revelation: that of the Word of God – this is the second point.

2. Listen carefully: God is speaking

Imagine an architect building a magnificent house for you. Every detail has been carefully thought out: the proportions are harmonious, the materials are of high quality, and the light illuminates every room perfectly. By visiting this house, you could learn a great deal about its architect. You would realise that he is skilled, creative and highly knowledgeable. But imagine that, once the house is finished, the architect disappears without ever speaking to you. Despite everything you know about him, there would still be many unanswered questions. What is his name? Why did he build this house? How does he view you? Does he love you? What is he asking of you? To find answers to these questions, it would no longer be enough simply to look at the house; the architect himself would have to decide to speak.

This is precisely what God does. He reveals himself through his Word. And it is this revelation that David celebrates in the second part of the Psalm.

So let us read from verse 8: ‘The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is true, making the simple wise. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandments of the Lord are pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is pure; it endures for ever; the Lord’s judgements are true; they are all just. They are more precious than gold, than much fine gold; they are sweeter than honey, even honey that drips from the comb.’

Even before we fully grasp what David is saying here, there is one word that should leap out at us—I don’t know if you’ve noticed it—it is repeated six times: the Lord, the Lord. We might ask ourselves: why does David switch from ‘God’ to ‘the Lord’? Why this shift between the two parts of the psalm?

This is no mere coincidence. In the first part, David speaks of ‘God’ as he contemplates his power manifested in creation. But from verse 8 onwards, he consistently uses his personal name: ‘the Lord’, Yahweh in Hebrew.

When you meet someone for the first time, you don’t say, ‘Hello, I’m a student’ or ‘Hello, I live in such-and-such a place’; no, you start by saying your name. It is the name that enables us to enter into a personal relationship. That is exactly what is happening here: the name ‘the Lord’ reminds us that the God of whom David speaks is not only the Creator whom we can observe through his works, but also the God who has made himself known personally to his people.

And this name has not been chosen at random. Throughout the Bible, it is the name most closely associated with the covenant that God establishes with his people. The most striking example is found in Exodus chapter 3, when God reveals himself to Moses at the burning bush. Remember: Moses asks God what his name is, and God replies, ‘I am who I am’. Then, a few verses later, he says, ‘This is my name for ever, and this is the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation.’

We can sometimes take God’s name lightly; I am not referring specifically to swearing or the disrespectful use of his name, but rather to the way in which we read God’s Word. Certain words can become so familiar that we end up forgetting their power. We read ‘God does this’ and ‘The Lord says that’ in an almost detached manner. But David reminds us that God is not an impersonal force nor a distant Creator; rather, he is the God who reveals his name, the God of the covenant who calls his people to know him and to establish a personal relationship with him. When we read his Word, we are not simply accumulating knowledge about him, but we are listening to the God who has chosen to speak to us and to make himself known.

That is the whole difference between knowing facts about someone and truly knowing that person by listening to what they have to say to us.

And this is what happens in verses 8 to 11. David does not merely know God because he is familiar with His work; rather, he knows Him personally because God has spoken.

In the first part of the psalm, God reveals Himself through what He does, and we are invited to look.

But in this second part, something changes: we are no longer merely invited to look at what God does; we are invited to listen to what God says. Having appealed to our eyes, David now appeals to our ears.

And indeed, the tone of the psalm changes completely: we move away from the contemplative song of the opening verses into a text of wisdom. It almost feels as though we are reading a passage from Proverbs.

But what, then, does David tell us about the word of God?

David uses six different expressions to speak of the Word of God: the law, the testimony, the decrees, the commandments, the fear of the Lord and the judgements. All these expressions refer in one way or another to the revelation that God gives of himself and his will, but each one highlights a particular aspect of that revelation.

And in each phrase, there is a recurring pattern: it is as though David were highlighting, each time, a moral quality and an effect that the word has on those who receive it.

Look at the first phrase: ‘The law of the Lord is perfect; it revives the soul’:

• Here David is speaking of the law, the instructions and teachings that God gives to guide his people.

• What is the moral quality that characterises this law? David asserts that the law is perfect. The Hebrew word translated as ‘perfect’ (tamim) literally means complete, flawless, and upright. The Law of the Lord lacks nothing; it contains no errors or inconsistencies because it reflects God’s moral purity.

• And the second question: what effect does this Law have on those who obey it? David tells us that it ‘gives comfort’. Other translations say that it ‘restores the soul’. It is the idea of something that brings back, that restores, that breathes new life into. The Word of God does not merely convey information about God to us; it also has an effect on those who listen to it. It restores what is broken, it brings back those who have gone astray, and it restores strength to those who are downcast.

Now, we could spend a great deal of time reflecting in detail on the other five expressions, but I don’t think that is David’s intention. Let us remember that we are dealing with a psalm, that is to say, a poetic text. The power of this text lies not only in the expressions taken individually, but in the cumulative effect of all these expressions. David deliberately repeats the same structure several times to show us that God’s word is perfect in every respect.

And this perfection is manifested in two ways:

• Firstly, by what it is: the word perfectly reveals to us who God is and what His will is. It reflects the character of the One who speaks: it is perfect, true, upright, pure and just.

• Secondly, through what it produces: it works deeply within the heart. It is one of the means God uses to shape our hearts according to his will.

It can be easy to view the Word of God as a collection of instructions, a list of things to know and do in order to be on good terms with God. But that is not at all what David is saying.

David is not describing a dead word, but speaking to us of a living, active word.

Look at the verbs he uses: it restores, it makes wise, it brings joy, it enlightens. God’s Word does not merely point the way from a distance, telling us, ‘This is what you ought to do.’

The Word of God does not merely tell us that we must be wise: it makes the inexperienced wise. It does not merely tell us to rejoice: it gladdens the heart. It does not merely tell us where the light is: it enlightens our eyes. It does not call us to a morbid fear of God, but leads us to a reverent fear characterised by willing obedience to his commandments.

That is why the Word of God is so precious. That is why David can say in verse 11 that the Word of God is more precious than gold, sweeter than honey. Can we say the same?

As king, David was immensely wealthy; when he speaks of riches, he knows what he is talking about; when he says that the Word is more precious than gold, he does not say it lightly! For him, all his riches were nothing compared to the Word, which was able to reveal the almighty God to him and transform his own heart.

But David does not merely see the Word as something useful; he also sees it as something desirable—even more desirable than honey. He does not merely acknowledge the usefulness of God’s Word; he loves it with all his heart and allows himself to be enlightened by it, as he says in verse 12.

What difference does this make to us today? How should we live, knowing that God’s Word perfectly reveals who God is and is capable of transforming our hearts? Two practical applications for us this afternoon:

Firstly, we have seen that the Word of God is entirely sufficient to reveal His character and His will to us. That is why we are called to make the Word of God our supreme moral authority. This does not mean that we should not respect other forms of authority; the Bible is clear on this point: we are all called to submit to human authorities – the Highway Code, the Civil Code, and the laws of our country. But our moral benchmark should be the Word of God; no other authority should take the place of the Bible in defining our conduct.

And this is particularly important in our time, when moral values are changing very rapidly; what was considered wrong yesterday may be considered right today, and vice versa. Worse still, we may be tempted to define our own morality based on how we feel at any given moment.

But if God’s Word is perfect, if it speaks the truth, if its decrees are upright and its judgements are just, then when we are faced with a moral question, we should not ask ourselves, ‘What does society think about this?’ or ‘How do I feel about this?’, but rather ask, ‘What does God have to say about this moral issue?’

This does not mean that we systematically reject everything that human laws say, but it does mean that we should evaluate them in the light of the supreme law, the Word of God.

Secondly, and most importantly, most of us are probably less wealthy than David was, and yet, can we say that we cherish God’s word more than our bank balance?

So we might ask ourselves, ‘But why draw a parallel between God’s Word and money? They’re not comparable!’ But if we’re asking ourselves this question, it’s perhaps because we haven’t fully grasped the value of God’s Word.

A Bible like this costs €2.50 – that’s the price of a coffee at the bakery on the corner! And yet what it contains can offer us something that a billion euros could never buy.

With a billion euros, we can afford everything that brings us pleasure, but we cannot buy the joy of the heart that David speaks of. We can pay for the best advisers, but we cannot buy the wisdom that God gives. We can surround ourselves with every possible safeguard, but we cannot buy a restored soul. And above all, with all the gold in the world, we cannot buy the opportunity to know personally the God who created the universe.

Let’s ask ourselves: do we regard the Bible as merely important, or do we truly desire it? Do we read it simply because that’s what Christians do, or do we long to hear God speak to us and transform our lives through his Word?

These questions lead us to another question: what happens when we truly allow God’s word to enlighten us? That is our final point.

3. Come to him: God saves

Let us continue from verse 12 to the end: ‘Your servant, too, is enlightened by them; for those who heed them, the reward is great. Who can discern their own errors? Forgive me for those I am unaware of. Preserve your servant, too, from pride: let it not take hold of me! Then I shall be blameless; I shall not commit grave sins. Be gracious to the words of my mouth and the thoughts of my heart, O Lord, my Rock, you who redeem me!’

David is not indifferent; he allows himself to be enlightened by God’s word because it reflects the beauty and goodness of God, which he can admire through creation. David’s heart is filled with worship for God and a longing for his word. David is drawn to God: the more he discovers his Lord, the more he longs to draw near to him and live under his benevolent authority. We see this in his attitude towards God; he calls himself God’s servant.

If there’s one film that illustrates David’s attraction to God particularly well, it’s The Lord of the Rings. Perhaps some of you are familiar with this film; I won’t summarise it because that would take three hours. But there’s a character called Boromir, a valiant knight who, at the start of the film, refuses to submit to the authority of the future king, Aragorn, for various reasons. But as their journey progresses, Boromir gradually discovers who Aragorn really is. He sees his courage, his humility, his loyalty and his leadership. So much so that, as he lay dying, Boromir finally acknowledged his authority, pledged his allegiance to him and, with his last breath, said to him: ‘I would have followed you, my brother, my captain, my king.’

There is something similar in David: the more he contemplates God, the more he desires to belong to him and to live under his authority. His obedience is not a burden, but the response of a man filled with wonder at the perfection of his Creator.

But precisely because he contemplates this perfection, David finds himself faced with a problem: how can a sinful man live in accordance with the will of a perfectly holy God?

David knows that obedience to God is good and that it is a source of blessing; this is what we see in verse 12. But when he looks at himself in the light of this perfect Word, that is when the trouble begins.

David was a glorious king, a man after God’s own heart. Yet, as we know, David was also a sinful man – an adulterer, a murderer, a man incapable of perfectly obeying the Lord’s law. And he knows this; he is aware that the gap between his imperfection and the perfection God demands is too great for him to live in fellowship with Him.

So we might say to David: ‘Pull yourself together! You know God’s law; you just have to obey it!’ But let’s be honest: how many times have we disobeyed a simple rule even though we knew it? How many times do we let ourselves go a little over the speed limit because ‘it’s fine, it’s no big deal’? How many times have we lied because ‘it’s fine, it’s just a little white lie that doesn’t matter at all’?

The problem isn’t just that we don’t know God’s law; it goes much deeper than that. The problem is that we don’t always want to obey God’s law! Sometimes we want to follow our own rules because we think we can do better than God; it’s in our nature—that’s what verse 14 calls pride.

And I have some more bad news! Our problem runs so deep that we are sometimes unable to recognise our sins; we sin without realising it. This is what David says in verse 13: he acknowledges that he commits sins without even realising it; he understands that he cannot even trust his own judgement.

And this is precisely where the Word of God comes in. You’ll recall that in verse 8 we read that the law of the Lord restores the soul. But it does so in a way we often don’t even suspect. How? By bringing to light what is wrong with us, by exposing our sin. God’s law provides an honest diagnosis of the state of our hearts, and that is a good thing! To prescribe the right remedy, a doctor must make the right diagnosis. A good doctor cannot prescribe the right medicine unless he has first identified the cause of the illness.

But then what is the remedy? What does David do? Look at verse 13: ‘Forgive me for the sins I am unaware of. Also, keep your servant from the spirit of pride.’ David knows himself; he knows full well that he is incapable of obeying God perfectly in his own strength. So he appeals to God’s grace; he asks God to forgive his sins and to keep him from pride. God’s grace is the remedy for the problem of sin. God’s commandments are not there so that we can perform and achieve a sufficient level of obedience to stand before God; no, they are there to bring us to our knees before God’s grace.

Our God is truly astonishing. He is all-powerful, He is holy, He is perfect. Faced with all these superlatives, David ought to do just one thing: flee! And we should all do the same; we are unworthy of God’s perfection, incapable of obeying Him.

And therein lies the great paradox of this psalm: David does not flee from God; he runs towards Him!

Look at the end of verse 15: ‘O Lord, my rock, my Redeemer!’ To put it simply, God’s grace is manifested through redemption. When we wrong someone, we often ask them, ‘How can I make amends?’ But when we wrong God, God does not wait for us to make amends; He redeems us Himself. Such is God’s mercy, which does not give us the punishment we deserve, and such is God’s grace, which offers us the forgiveness we do not deserve!

How does God do this? How does He redeem us? David did not know all the details of this plan of salvation, but look at what the apostle Peter says about the prophets, of whom David was one. I read from 1 Peter 1:10–11: ‘The prophets who spoke of the grace that was to be yours searched and investigated this salvation. They were trying to discover the time and circumstances indicated by the Spirit of Christ within them, as He testified in advance to the sufferings of the Messiah and the glory that would follow them.”

David did not know Jesus Christ with the clarity we have today, but the Spirit of Christ was already at work within him; David knew of God’s promise of salvation and could glimpse the coming Messiah.

The difference is that David looked in faith towards a promise that was yet to be fulfilled – that of the coming of the Messiah. We, on the other hand, look in faith towards a promise that has already been fulfilled. But at the heart of it all is the same Saviour: Jesus Christ.

Jesus lived a life of perfect obedience, something of which neither David nor we ourselves are capable. On the cross, Jesus bore the condemnation that our disobedience deserved. This is how a perfectly holy God can welcome sinful people whilst remaining perfectly just: our sin is not ignored; it is paid for.

David does not run to God because his sin is less serious than he thought. He runs to God because God’s grace is greater than his sin.

And David’s response to God’s grace is magnificent: ‘Be pleased with the words of my mouth and the thoughts of my heart.’ David knows that he has been redeemed by God and forgiven his sins, so he desires to offer a life that is pleasing to God—a life that is a praise to God’s glory.

Are we ready to offer every aspect of our lives to God in gratitude for His grace towards us?

To conclude, the heavens proclaim God’s glory, His Word proclaims His holiness, and our redeemed lives proclaim His grace.

So let us marvel at our God’s creation, devour His Word with an insatiable hunger, and live a life wholly devoted to His glory.

Psalm 16 - The Path of Life

Introduction

"Higher, further, stronger!" ("Toujours plus haut, toujours plus loin, toujours plus fort !"): this was the battle cry that the contestants on the show Fort Boyard would shout together to motivate themselves or celebrate reaching the end of their run. Now, I know that our church includes young people and international members, so I owe you a bit of context: Fort Boyard is a French television show set in a former prison built in the middle of the sea.

The premise is simple: a team must complete several stages to raise money for a charity. But in practice, it is far from simple. To succeed, the contestants must face several particularly intense challenges.

To unlock the gate to the Treasure Room and guess the secret code word, the contestants must accumulate keys and clues by taking on extreme trials, such as bungee jumps from the top of the ramparts, balancing acts suspended over open air, exhausting agility courses, or stomach-churning encounters with snakes, spiders, and repulsive dishes. Once in the heart of the Fort, if the team holds all 7 keys and manages to spell out the correct code word, a fountain of gold coins pours out. They then have just a few dozen seconds to scoop up as many as possible by hand before the gate closes permanently! Ultimately, the entire sum is donated to a charitable organization.

At the end of the show, they shout: "Higher, further, stronger!"

It is an encouraging and motivating cry. It helps keep their minds focused on the treasure during difficult trials. And today, when we talk about the path of life, it isn't all that different from this show: full of trials, full of difficulties, full of unpleasant situations. Personally, it reminds me of that diagram showing a person on a bicycle trying to reach the top of a mountain, hoping the ride will be a straight line, but reality is far from it. They face ups and downs and obstacles along the way that make the journey very hard, requiring perseverance to hold on, keep going, and reach the summit.

Our psalm today is a cry that seeks to encourage and strengthen us in the face of daily challenges, but it also offers true hope against the greatest misfortune of our existence: death. Death, the consequence of sin. For this reason, I invite you to dive into the study of Psalm 16 and see together how it urges us to look always higher, to look always further, and to hold a perspective that makes us always stronger.

Always Higher (v. 1–4)

"Keep me safe, my God"

The psalmist begins by addressing God: he asks Him to guard him and tells Him that he seeks refuge in Him (verse 1). Unlike the psalms of previous weeks, this one does not directly outline his problems: he doesn't mention liars or attacks from enemies. It might be more subtle; we don't necessarily know what he needs protection from. But as usual, the best answer is found in the text itself, right from the opening verses:

"I said to the Lord, 'You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing.' As for the holy people who are in the land, they are the noble ones in whom is all my delight. Those who run after other gods will suffer more and more. I will not pour out libations of blood to such gods or take up their names on my lips."

He explains that there are holy people and idolaters, and that he has chosen his side. He notices that idolaters are multiplying; it feels like the majority of people around him are following other gods. Yet he resists and chooses his stand. He declares that he will not do as they do, that he wants to be different and refuses to pour out blood offerings to foreign gods.

He resists, and this resistance is not easy: he is surrounded, overwhelmed; everything he sees around him is idolatry. On the other hand, he rejoices when he sees that there are holy and godly people in the land. Naturally, he feels affection, delight, and genuine brotherly love for them in the midst of this idolatrous environment.

I don't know about you, but this reminds me of the story of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. A few years later, after the reign of David, the people of Israel were deported to Babylon. Among them were Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, four young men chosen to enter the royal circle. It was a program designed to teach Babylonian culture to young deportees, which involved worshiping foreign gods and offering sacrifices to them. But these young men refused to commit idolatry; their worship belonged exclusively to the Lord. They shared a friendship and brotherly love rooted in their common worship of the Lord within an idolatrous environment. Obviously, this did not please the authorities of the time, and they faced life-threatening, deadly trials.

So, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, just like David in this psalm, turn to God, call upon Him, and acknowledge their total dependence on Him in their hardships, as well as their own inability to resist through their own strength. They recognize that He alone is their refuge and He alone can preserve them.

In the face of trials, the saints turn to God: they look always higher.

Always Further (v. 5–6)

"A delightful inheritance"

Psalm 16 is one of the psalms that best describes the relationship between David and God. He tells Him: "Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup; you make my lot secure." In our modern language, it's like saying to someone: "You are the one in whom I take delight, the one who gives me rest; you are my assurance, you are my peace."

These aren't words you say to just anyone! They are strong, deeply valuable words, intentionally spoken to someone precious to us. We see an intimate relationship here, a true covenant between God and David.

The psalmist's assurance rests on who God is to him and what He does for him daily: He gives him peace. But this assurance isn't limited to the present moment; it is also grounded in what God has promised him and what He will grant him in the future. He writes: "The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance." He has the certainty that God will not abandon him, neither now nor in what lies ahead. He holds the absolute conviction that God is faithful to His promises.

In this text, we don't have a clear, explicit answer regarding the exact nature of this inheritance and delightful possession that David expects. But we can connect it to the promise God makes to him in 2 Samuel 7, when He announces that his kingdom will endure forever. He tells him in verse 12:

"When your days are over and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son."

David draws all his assurance from what God has promised him. He is in a difficult situation, yet he hopes in God's promises. He knows what God did for his ancestors, and he trusts Him. He knows that God cares for him today, but he also knows that for the future, God will keep him and secure his portion because He is faithful to His promises. God promised him a descendant whose kingdom will last forever. His lot is secure.

Similarly, if we continue drawing a parallel with the story of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, their sole assurance was God. Their hope was His deliverance in the face of death threats, the furnace of blazing fire, and the lions' den. They knew what God had done for their ancestors, and they trusted Him. They knew God was taking care of them today, but they also knew that for the future, God would preserve them and secure their lot because He is faithful to His promises. God had promised them a descendant who would reign forever. Their lot was secure.

In the face of trials, the saints turn to God, and their hope is anchored in God's promises: They look always higher and always further.

Always Stronger (v. 7–8)

"I will not be shaken"

Recently, we celebrated our church's 11th anniversary, and during our church retreat weekend in June, for our last evening, we played a game formatted like Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? It was based on our church's history and lots of other fun anecdotes. The winner was the one who accumulated the most correct answers, and Alex and Mariana Gerguina won. They happened to be sitting not too far from Christophe, who organized the game. I’m not saying there was any cheating, it might just be a coincidence! But in the original version of the show, you have the option to call a friend for advice on an answer, which can make you win the game. If the rules had allowed us to call the game's organizer directly, and we were sitting right next to him, that would have been an absolute guarantee of getting the right answer and winning!

Returning to our psalm, David says: "I will praise the Lord, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me." David receives counsel from God! Even during difficult times, he does not lack guidance. He says he keeps the Lord continuously before his eyes, and that is why he will not be shaken.

Who can counsel God, the Creator of the world? Can you imagine the advantage David has, having God by his side, counseling and instructing him? Of course, David wouldn't be shaken; he has God right in front of him. This confirms a very special, exclusive relationship between David and God. And frankly, it makes you want it too! It is a relationship that renders him unshakable in the face of hardship.

Likewise, let's briefly look back at Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. In the fiery furnace and in the lions' den, they were not alone. God was with them and rescued them. Even more provocative to those who condemned them: they were walking around inside the furnace, and Daniel was sleeping next to the lions. I don't know if you fully realize that!

Their strength was neither physical nor mental; rather, their strength was their relationship with God, a God who loves them and protects them. Unshakable.

In the face of trials, the saints turn back to God; their hope is built on God's promises, and that makes them unshakable. They look always higher and always further, and that makes them always stronger.

The Treasure (v. 9–11)

"Eternal joy"

In the show Fort Boyard, the winner takes home a treasure. But they only have a few dozen seconds to grab as many gold coins as possible before the door to the Treasure Room closes! If time runs out and a contestant gets trapped inside, the team risks losing their entire haul. And even though the tigers are secured in their cages, the pressure remains massive, and harvesting the treasure is extremely stressful. Because yes, I forgot to mention the tigers in the treasure room! All that stress and pressure, just to give everything away to charity! I completely respect the good cause and it's wonderful, but the adventurer in me says, "I'll pass!" Frankly, it just doesn't seem worth it!

The treasure in this psalm is beyond comparison. It is neither a quantifiable treasure nor a temporary one. The psalmist says he is filled with joy and gladness. And this joy doesn't just touch his heart, it encompasses his entire being his spirit, his soul, and his body. He writes: "Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure." Furthermore, the psalmist does not fear death, neither physical death nor spiritual death: "Because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, nor will you let your faithful one see decay." We see here the timeless nature of this treasure.

What is this incomparable, infinite treasure?

We quickly think of eternal life, since he states his body will not see decay. The text adds that it offers an abundance of eternal joy.

But eternal life is knowing God, You, the only true God.

This is a verse we will return to shortly.

This treasure is a flourishing relationship with God. It is eternal happiness, an eternal happiness that begins the moment we meet God and grows throughout our lives, through hard times and lighthearted moments alike. In God's presence, there is abundant joy, even when everything seems to go wrong. It isn't just about the destination; it is about the journey, a flourishing relationship with God throughout life, in every circumstance.

Outro

"I am the way, the truth, and the life"

But how can we obtain this treasure? How can we have a flourishing relationship with God?

What assures us that if we cry out to God, He will hear us? What assures us that God is with us and has promised us a beautiful inheritance? What assures us that we will stand unshakable?

Psalm 16 is not merely a cry of encouragement, a simple push to help us persevere daily or boost our morale when things go wrong. This psalm is not merely a psalm of David, and we cannot appropriate it for ourselves without recognizing its prophetic dimension.

In the first section, we saw that the psalmist sought holiness, yet we also know he fell by committing adultery. In the second section, we saw the promise of a beautiful inheritance, yet he had a son who hunted him down and sought his death. And we know that King David died, and his body rests today in a tomb, having certainly experienced decay.

"Fellow Israelites, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day."

I am quoting here the words of the Apostle Peter in Acts 2, verses 29 to 31:

"Fellow Israelites, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day. But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. Seeing what was to come, he spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, that he was not abandoned to the realm of the dead, nor did his body see decay."

This Psalm was prophesying and speaking about someone else: someone who remained perfectly holy, without a single stain of sin before God. It speaks of someone who kept God faithfully, constantly before His face. It speaks of someone who literally conquered death, whose body saw no decay, and who is seated today at the right hand of God.

This psalm prophesies the coming of Jesus. This psalm is about Jesus.

If we can take this psalm as our own today, it is thanks to one person alone: Jesus.

• If we can speak to God and call out for His help, it is because Jesus restored the path.

• If we can love God and take delight in Him, it is because Jesus lives in us.

• And if we are going to live for eternity, it is because Jesus rose again and, in Him, we have eternal life.

Having this infinite treasure, which is a flourishing relationship with God, is only possible through Jesus.

And Jesus Himself, in His prayer before the cross, said: "Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God..." (John 17:3).

So, what is this counsel that God offers? What is this path of life that God makes known to us?

Jesus is the path of life!

"Jesus answered, 'I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well.'«, John 14:6–7

The path of life is a relationship of exclusive worship toward God that leads us to depend on His love and provision in every moment of life. It is a hope built on who He is, what He has done, what He is doing, and what He will do. God is our treasure, and all of this is only possible through Jesus.

Conclusion

As we reach the end of this message, I want to speak to those who have not yet put their faith in Jesus: Why was this psalm written, and why are we reading it today? It is to tell us about Jesus, about who Jesus is and what He did for us.

Jesus, God's beloved, His only Son, loved you unto death to give you life. Come to Him; do not wait any longer! He is gentle and beautiful. Jesus conquered death and He lives; He is seated at the right hand of the Father. Come to Him, in Him is eternal life.

And for those who have placed their faith in Christ but are not experiencing fulfillment: look higher, look further. Look to Jesus. In Jesus, you have eternal life and eternal joy. I am not minimizing suffering; I acknowledge how hard it is to turn to God during trials. But our God is near to us; He hears and saves us through Jesus. Let us call upon Him, take delight in Him, and hope in His promises.

Higher, further, stronger, all thanks to Jesus.

Let’s pray.