Theme: The Lord wants our hearts, not our lip-service
Jeremiah 18:1-11 — The message of the potter’s discarded creation
Luke 14:25-33 — Becoming a Jesus disciple calls for total surrender
Philemon 1:1-21 — Paul makes a heartfelt plea for a brother in Christ
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Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18
1-3 You have searched me, Lord, and You know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; You perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; You are familiar with all my ways.
4-5 Before a word is on my tongue, You, Lord, know it completely. You hem me in behind and before, and You lay Your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.
13-14 For You created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
15-16 My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be.
17-18 How precious to me are Your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand — when I awake, I am still with You.
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Jeremiah 18:1-11 — The message of the potter’s discarded shape
Failing to live for the Lord is like being the flawed clay in the potter’s hand
1-3 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you My message.” So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel.
“So I went down” — the time is about 15 years before the exile, the place the Potsherd Gate on the slopes of Ben Hinnom, Jer. 19:1-2.
“Working at the wheel” — or lit. wheels, upper and lower stone wheels on a shaft, spun by foot and hand.
4 But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.
“Potter” — the Hebrew word means ‘shaper’ and is used in Genesis 2:7 where Adam is shaped or “formed” from the dust, probably the basis for the potter representing God.
“Clay was marred” — clay that fissures has to be re-kneaded and worked up again (a foreshadow of the new covenant of Jeremiah 31).
5-6 Then the word of the Lord came to me. He said, “Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in My hand, Israel.
“The word of the Lord came” — as the potter at work became the Lord’s revelatory picture.
“Do… as this potter does” — deciding to remake what is flawed. Like the potter, the Lord applies His quality control.
7-10 If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned. And if at another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted, and if it does evil in My sight and does not obey Me, then I will reconsider the good I had intended to do for it.
11 “Now therefore say to the people of Judah and those living in Jerusalem, ‘This is what the Lord says: Look! I am preparing a disaster for you and devising a plan against you. So turn from your evil ways, each one of you, and reform your ways and your actions.'”
“So turn” — the Lord will do with Judah and Jerusalem what the potter did with the clay that malformed (v.4), but will relent if there is a change of heart.
Reflection
SUMMARY Jeremiah, watching a potter at work, hears the Lord speak to him. He sees how the potter works up a shape in the wet clay which then fractures, and he discards it for kneading again. This becomes the Lord’s prophetic picture to him about the flawed relationship between the Lord and Judah and Jerusalem.
APPLICATION Our relationship with the Lord is on the basis of covenant commitment. This was true of Israel and it is true for us today, although we enjoy a new, more personal and far better covenant, which Jeremiah later foretold.
QUESTION What ideas does the word covenant conjure up for us?
Luke 14:25-33 — Becoming a Jesus disciple calls for total surrender
We have to give up our plans to be free to follow the One with a master plan
25 Large crowds were travelling with Jesus, and turning to them He said:
“Large crowds” — Jesus’ popularity was about to be tested as He set out the cost of following Him.
26-27 “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters — yes, even their own life — such a person cannot be My disciple. And whoever does not carry their cross and follow Me cannot be My disciple.
“Hate… even their own life” — in Jewish rhetoric “hate” is a dramatic expression for loving less. The devotion Jesus was seeking would make all else like the opposite, Matt. 10:37.
28-30 “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’
“Build a tower” — public works that run out of funds become monuments of shame. Would-be followers of Jesus need the resolve to keep going through challenges.
31 “Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand?
“Consider” — counting the cost and judging when to surrender.
32 “If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace.
33 “In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be My disciples.”
“Give up everything” — entering the kingdom as a disciple of Jesus is the spiritual rebirth that comes by surrendering all we are and have to Him, and inviting Him to be our Lord.
• For further study, see the loss that is gain, Phil. 3:7-11; John 3:5-8 and 16-21.
Reflection
SUMMARY Jesus uses a couple of political illustrations to teach the principle of entering into a committed relationship after counting the cost.
APPLICATION To be a disciple of Jesus starts with a costly decision as we surrender our pride and independence to Him and ask Him to come into our lives as our Saviour and Lord — at which point we experience being spiritually reborn and set free to live a new life with Him.
QUESTION What is the difference between the Bible definition of becoming a Christian and commonly-held church traditions?
Philemon 1:1-21 — Paul makes a heartfelt plea for a brother in Christ
Obedience in Christ is being free to choose to respond to a brother’s appeal
1-3 Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, to Philemon our dear friend and fellow worker — also to Apphia our sister and Archippus our fellow soldier — and to the church that meets in your home: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
“Paul, a prisoner” — considering himself as Christ’s captive before becoming a captive of Rome.
“Philemon… Apphia… Archippus” — Philemon was a homeowner in Colossae who hosted and probably led a gathering there, with Apphia his wife and son Archippus. Churches meeting in homes were led by regular people of recognised gifting and maturity — Roman temple-style buildings and ‘priests’ came centuries later.
4-5 I always thank my God as I remember you in my prayers, because I hear about your love for all His holy people and your faith in the Lord Jesus.
“Thank my God” — in most letters Paul thanks God for his readers’ faith and love (the Galatians, who had swerved back to Jewish legalism, were an exception).
6 I pray that your partnership with us in the faith may be effective in deepening your understanding of every good thing we share for the sake of Christ.
“Your partnership with us” — koinonia, fellowship, a word with a wide range of ‘together’ meanings and a key attribute of the common life that believers have in Christ.
“Every good thing we share” — Paul begins his appeal to Philemon, having experienced God’s goodness, to be gracious towards his errant slave.
7 Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the Lord’s people.
“Your love” — Philemon was known for his love in encouraging the other believers..
8-10 Therefore, although in Christ I could be bold and order you to do what you ought to do, yet I prefer to appeal to you on the basis of love. It is as none other than Paul — an old man and now also a prisoner of Christ Jesus — that I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, who became my son while I was in chains.
“I could be bold… yet I appeal to you” — a recaptured slave could expect brutal treatment, but Onesimus was now not a possession but a Christian brother.
11 Formerly he was useless to you, but now he has become useful both to you and to me.
“Useless… useful” — the name Onesimus means ‘useful’ in Greek and the bondservant had been radically transformed by God’s grace.
12-14 I am sending him — who is my very heart — back to you. I would have liked to keep him with me so that he could take your place in helping me while I am in chains for the gospel. But I did not want to do anything without your consent, so that any favour you do would not seem forced but would be voluntary.
“Him who is my very heart” — Paul has real affection for Onesimus.
15-16 Perhaps the reason he was separated from you for a little while was that you might have him back forever — no longer as a slave, but better than a slave, as a dear brother. He is very dear to me but even dearer to you, both as a fellow man and as a brother in the Lord.
“Better than a slave” — Paul did not condone or condemn slavery but when a master and a slave share a bond in which they belong to each other, slavery is transformed
17-18 So if you consider me a partner, welcome him as you would welcome me. If he has done you any wrong or owes you anything, charge it to me.
“Owes you… charge it to me” — the baseline of the gospel is that we have all done wrong, but the debt we owe has been picked up by another i.e. Christ. Paul reflects this same gracious generosity.
19-21 I, Paul, am writing this with my own hand. I will pay it back — not to mention that you owe me your very self. I do wish, brother, that I may have some benefit from you in the Lord; refresh my heart in Christ. Confident of your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even more than I ask.
“Writing this with my own hand” — now a signed promissory note legally covering the debt.
“You owe me your very self” — Paul had probably led Philemon to faith in Christ.
Reflection
SUMMARY Paul appeals to fellow Christian Philemon about his former slave, Onesimus, who has also undergone a life and character transformation by coming to Christ.
APPLICATION Relationship is everything in Christian life, firstly the shared relationship we have in knowing God through belonging to Jesus, and secondly the way we share lives with each other as members of God’s family and participants in His mission.
QUESTION If Jesus has our hearts, giving us a special relationship with other believers, how does that impact our being able to relate to and love outsiders?
PRAYER Father God, as I come to you in Jesus, independence still tugs, but I know that my only response to Your love and forgiveness is to live for You and mindful of You.
Fill me with Your Spirit and empower me, to so live in the Way of Jesus that I may become known, like Philemon, for Your love and grace in me towards others.
May my heart be truly Yours and my lips give praise to You out of our close and unshakable relationship. To the glory of Jesus I pray, Amen.
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