St Michaels Church Podcast
With a mighty hand and outstretched arm | Mark Beard | 14.07.24
The readings this morning are taken from Exodus 13, verse 14, and 14, verses 8, 16, and verses 21 to 22. They can be found on page 70 of the church Bibles. In days to come, when your son asks you, "What does this mean?" Say to him, "With a mighty hand, the Lord brought us out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery." The Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, King of Egypt, so that he pursued the Israelites who were marching out boldly. The Egyptians, all Pharaoh's horses and chariots, horsemen and troops, pursued the Israelites and overtook them as they camped by the sea near Pai Ha'Hairath opposite Baal Zephon. As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians marching after them. They were terrified, terrified, and cried out to the Lord. They said to Moses, "Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn't we say to you in Egypt, "Leave us alone, let us serve the Egyptians?" It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert. Moses answered the people, "Do not be afraid. Stand firm, and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians, you see today, you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you. You need only to be still." Then the Lord said to Moses, "Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on." Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground with a wall of water on their right and on their left. Good morning. Those of you who don't know me, I'm Mark. I'm one of the clergy team here. I'd like to bring the word to you this morning. Let me just sort out my bits of paper, many of them. Terrific. Good. I'm going to continue today in our series, Messages from the Heart. Okay, and today I want to explore another, the attributes of the nature and the character of God. You know, in the Ten Commandments, we're told not to make any image of God. But if you've been around church at all, you will have heard this story. It's a story of a girl, a young girl in a classroom scribbling away on a piece of paper. The teacher comes up behind her and says, "Oh, what are you doing there?" She says, "I'm drawing a picture of God." "Oh," says the teacher, "Well, well, nobody knows what God looks like." She says, "The little girl says, 'Well, they will when I'm finished.'" Now thank you for being polite and laughing because I know you've all heard that story many times before. But though we're told not to make an image of God, the Bible does anthropomorphize God. Now I'll just pause for a moment because I know you're all educated enough to know what that word means, okay? The Bible anthropomorphizes God. God is said to have a face. He sets his face against evil, it says in Leviticus. God is also, the Scripture also refers to God's eyes. The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, it says. Sometimes in Scripture it refers to God's ears, incline your ear, oh Lord, and hear. And Exodus even refers to God's nostrils. But today I want to talk about a particular phrase that is often used to anthropomorphize God and to describe the acts of God. And it is this phrase with a mighty hand and an upstretched arm. With a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. It's a phrase that speaks of God's power, his might, his mighty hand, but it also speaks of an outstretched arm like a hand, a friendship, or a helping hand, God's goodness. It's a phrase that occurs 17 times in the Scriptures and it is nearly always used in the context of the rescue of Israel from Egypt. Here's just a few examples. Remember, it says in Deuteronomy 5, you were slaves in Egypt and the Lord your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, Deuteronomy 9. But they are your people, your inheritance, and that you brought out by your great power and your outstretched arm. And so it goes on. You know, Jack spoke earlier in this series about God's power and a few weeks ago I spoke about God's loving kindness, his covenant love to us and his faithfulness. Today we're going to bring those two together. We're going to talk about God's mighty hand and his outstretched arm. If we could have the slide up now. You know, I am what's known as a floating voter. I am a classic floating voter. Every election I have to decide which party I'm going to vote for. This is a picture of my coffee table two weeks ago. Covered in leaflets, here we are, here's some of them, there we are. And each election, I mean, I'm envious of those of you who always vote for the same party, but each election, what I have to do is decide. How do I decide? I look at two things. Do I like what that party is saying? What they are promising to do in their manifesto? And believe you me, the manifestos are long, they're very long. Do I like what they're saying they're going to do? And secondly, do I believe that they are capable or able to do it? Can they deliver those promises? That is, do I think what they're proposing to do for me is good for me and for the country? And are they strong enough to make it happen? Are they both good and capable? You see, you need both. You need a strong hand that can deliver an outstretched arm of hope and promise. And what we're going to see in this story today is something quite surprising, quite surprising about how God works through his servants to bring that about. God's mighty hand, then, no story more powerfully illustrates God's power than the deliverance of his people from Egypt. The calling of Moses, the plagues, the frogs, the locust, the darkness, finally the Passover, the death of the firstborn, and then the dramatic escape. That we just read in our opening verse was a demonstration of God's mighty power. And so we see in this story of deliverance his almighty hand in the plagues and in the deliverance. But what about God's outstretched arm? How do we see God's compassion and helping hand in this story? Well, we do see it at the very beginning of the Exodus story. Let me read from Exodus 3, the calling of Moses. The Lord said, "I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of the slave drivers, and I'm concerned about their suffering, so I have come down to rescue them. I have come down to rescue them," verse 10, "so now go I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt. I'm concerned, I've come down to rescue them, therefore you go." So imagine two weeks ago, if a canvasser for a political party came to my door and spoke about how only they could win the election, only they could deliver solutions to the problems facing this country, wars, immigration, the NHS, you're so convinced, I'm so convinced by what I'm hearing that I say, "Okay, I promise to give you my vote, and I promise to support you." Imagine if they then turned back to me and say, "Fantastic, please show up on Monday for basic training in the army, please turn up on Tuesday at Chelsea Westminster Hospital to begin your nursing training, and thirdly, here's the keys to the Boeing 747, you've got to take off slot at Gatwick tomorrow morning, 10 a.m., destination, Rwanda." I know it's an old policy, but it's a good one. "I have compassion," God says, "I have power. I'm extending my loving arm towards my suffering people. I am sending you." So that was Joe Moses calling, but we also see that in another way in our passage today. You see, the story is they've left Egypt now, they're in the desert, and they're heading on their way to the promised land. They pause for a while, and they're by the Red Sea. Pharaoh has a change of heart. He says, "I don't want these people to go. These are our servants. We need them back." So Pharaoh sends all of his horses and chariots, plus 600 of the best chariots and horsemen and troops. The people with Moses naturally are afraid. They say, "Why on earth did you bring us out here to die? Weren't there enough graves in Egypt for us?" Moses does what you'd expect a leader to do, especially Moses. He answers them and says, "Don't be afraid, stand firm. You will see the deliverance of the Lord, and He will bring it today. The Lord will fight for you. You need only to be still." The Lord will fight for you, "You need only to be still, wait for His mighty hand." God has a slightly different idea. Verse 15, "The Lord said to Moses, "Why are you crying out to me? Why are you crying out to me?" He says, "Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on. Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the waters so the Israelites can go through on dry ground." Moses, what are you waiting for? This point, Moses might be thinking, "Oh, silly me. Why didn't I think about that? Stretch out my hand, see which part?" Nevertheless, Moses obeys. He stretches his hand out over the sea, and it says, "All that night the Lord drove back the sea with a strong east wind and turned the sea into dry ground." You see, while we are waiting for God's mighty hand, sometimes God is waiting for our outstretched arm. What does that look like? Your compassion for the lost. Your concern for those who are sick. Your assistance, your assistance for those who are needy. I'm going to go out on a limb here today and say, "You know, sometimes we won't see God's mighty hand, his miracle, until we stretch out our arm." You might be thinking, "What can I do?" You might be thinking like Moses, "I've got the red sea at my back, my back's against the wall. What can I do?" You know, when I was a young man, and after school, when I finished school, high school for you Americans, I spent a few years working before I then went on to university. I did various jobs until the work dried up. It was the early '80s, and I was in the northeast of England. There's never been much work up there, but back then, there was nothing. So I spent a year unemployed, and I had to sign on for an employment benefit. A year later, I went on to university, and at university, I was largely responsible for paying my own way. At the end of the first year, the first summer of my university, my savings were really running long, and I really needed work. But as many of you have heard before, I also felt God's call to ministry and to mission. And I really felt I should be going with tear fund, the relief fund, to Africa, to Uganda. And so I followed that leading, and went to Africa that summer. So now, not only did I not have any income, I didn't earn anything, but also I had to pay for the trip. I remember, it was 400 pounds, it doesn't sound a lot now, but it was a lot of money back then. And it was the vast proportion of my savings. Naturally, when I returned from Uganda, the first thing I did was go to the unemployment office. Now, the unemployment office in those days was a place where you could both find work, and you could actually register for unemployment benefit. So I went up to the window without saying anything, just said who I was, and they said, "Oh, Mr. Beard, we've been expecting you." Well, that's an unusual thing to be told, isn't it, after being away for a whole year in six weeks? We've been trying to get hold of you. Is it true, Mr. Beard, you were unemployed for a year before you went to university? And I said, "Yes, that's right." They said, "Good, that's right, that's what our records show." But our records show that you were never paid unemployment benefit. And I reassured them. I said, "No, I was paid every week." I received that money every week, and they said, "No." Our records show that you never received the money. And so we'll be paying you a lump sum, a year's unemployment benefit. When my back was against the wall, when I reached out my hand, God worked His miracle of provision for me. Now not all of us are going to be called to be missionaries, so we're going to get really practical here. You know, we have quite a challenge in this church with pastoral care. We've got something set up for the nine o'clock congregation, sort of anyway, but we've only just begun to think about this eleven o'clock congregation. So if you want to get really practical, James Wan says this, "Religion that our God, our Father accepts as pure and full as is this, to look after orphans and widows in their distress." Okay, where is the widow among us? Well, we do have some widows and widows, but we also have some single mothers. We have some single unmarried people. We have all of those. Who are the orphans that we have? We have single people traveling far away from work, from home brother to work. We've got overseas students who are a long way from home. We've got UK students at university here, far from home. We've got ex-pat workers, trainee lawyers working 14 hours a day at their pupilage in order to get qualified. We've got disabled people stuck at home. We have all of those here. And where is the distress? Look after orphans and widows in their distress. Where is the distress in our day? Well, it's probably not hunger and destitution, but it is more likely to be loneliness, self-image problems, alcohol abuse, eating disorders, internet addiction. Don't console yourself that we don't have these problems in the church. We do in this church. Why are you crying out to me? Stretch out your compassionate arm. And I'm praying that God will speak to some of you right now, put a particular compassion on your heart. And if this resonates with you, do come and see me afterwards. We are forming a team to think about practical care for this congregation. He expects you to stretch out your arm in faith, and then he will show you his powerful hand. Tim Keller died recently. He was a famous preacher, probably one of the best preachers in the world. And I was listening to one of his sermons earlier in the week, where he talked about a visit back to his old church in rural Virginia, his very first church. He ministered mainly in New York, but when he first came out of seminary as a hot shot graduate, he really thought he was something, he said. He was already a very accomplished preacher back in those days. And so when he and his wife Kathy went back many years later to his first church to sort of have a commemoration of their time there when people would say nice and kind words about them. He naturally expected them to say something about his ministry, his time there. But he said nobody said anything about his preaching. This is possibly one of the best preachers in the world. Nobody said anything about his preaching. One after another people spoke, he said, and he said things like, you know, when my father died, I remember you coming to see me. When I was sick, I remember you coming and praying for me. When Johnny got into trouble at school, I remember you and Kathy coming over to consolors and helpers. They had completely forgotten all of his sermons and I hope you'll forget mine as well. Prayer. There is another place in Exodus where Moses stretches out his hands. In Exodus 17 it describes the Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites and Moses said to Joshua, Joshua is the leader of the army, choose some men and go out and fight them. Tomorrow, I'm going to stand on the top of this hill with the staff of God in my hands. So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses in order and Moses and Aaron and her, his wingmen, went to the top of the hill. As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning. But whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. When Moses' hands grew tired, they took a stone, put it under him and he sat on it and Aaron and her held up his hands, one on one side and one on the other. So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword. Once again, I'm going to get really practical. We have another challenge in this church and it's one that I think is really quite exciting. We're committed to prayer, particularly at this time during the Interregnum. So we've set up in-person prayer between the services. We've set up gathered prayer once a month. The next one will be pizza and prayer on the 23rd and we've set up online prayer. Every week there are three different options. Now last week I went to the between the services prayer and it was just me there, only me, then one of the person joined. And the last online session I joined, apart from the organizers, there was myself and another couple that turned up. Now we appreciate we need to get better organizing and signposting these meetings, but I do just want to encourage you to be there, to be in this fight. It is a fight and actually it's great to be there to be extending our hands in prayer so that we see and participate in what God will do. I will stand on the top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands. Okay, I'm sorry if this sounds like a rebuke, it's not meant to be, I think all of these things are really exciting and encouraging for us to do. Who wouldn't want to see God work miraculously? So how can we do this, how can we enter in to the stretching out of our hands? Okay, three points, first point, remember the resurrection. Moses was a type of Christ. The Exodus, the rescue of the Israelites from Egypt is a picture of our own redemption, our from slavery to sin. You see, we can only find the energy, the time, the right motivation if we remember that before we ever extend our arms to each other, the Jesus extended his arms on the cross. The Exodus was not the greatest demonstration of God's power. The greatest demonstration of God's power was Christ's resurrection. But that power was only demonstrated after his compassion and love was first demonstrated by stretching out his own hands on the cross. Remember the resurrection. Secondly, stay close to God, how did Moses know to stretch out his hand across the water? Simple, God told him to, but how did he hear God and how did he know it was God because he kept God near? Jesus said, "I am the vine, you are the branches. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you will bear much fruit." Let me translate that. You will see many miracles. Remember the resurrection. Stay close to God. Thirdly, remember God has nostrils. Verse 21, "When Moses stretched out his hand across the sea, the wind began to blow and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and it turned into dry land. The waters were divided. Stretches out his hand. How long does it take for the waters to be divided? It takes all night. And you know what? I would have been wondering. Wouldn't you have been wondering? This is going to work. But this is how it's described in Exodus 15 verse 8, the next verse, the next chapter. By the blast of his nostrils, the waters piled up. You see, nothing much happened at first, but God's breath, the breath of his nostrils, the wind of the spirit began to blow. And I believe that as soon as we stretch out our hands, in compassion, as soon as we look to help somebody, as soon as we have a heart for that lost person, we begin to feel the wind of the spirit blowing. With God's mighty hand and our outstretched arm, let's pray. So we thank you that so many of the descriptions of you are about your kindness, your face turned towards us, your ear hearing us, your eye looking upon us in favor. We thank you, Lord, that also there is your mighty hand. We pray that you might speak to each of us what it is that you are calling us to. What is that word that you will whispering to our ear? Even if we feel like we are overstretched, we are out of energy. We don't have money, we've got so many responsibilities. Lord, what might it be? Who might it be that you are asking us to extend your loving hand to? That we might feel the breath of your spirit, that we might see your mighty hand. Amen. [BLANK_AUDIO]