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| > Sermon Archive > Sermons by Author > Rev. Sjirk Bajema > You’ll Be First Alright! | Previous Next Print |
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AMOS 6:1-7
(Reading: Luke 12:13-21; Romans 12:9-21)
You’ll Be First Alright!
Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ…
There is a story told about some souls who have just arrived in heaven.
It tells about how the apostle Peter then leads them on a tour, showing them how vast and grand the celestial city is.
While upon this awesome tour, they go past a room which is all closed off and separate from everything else.
Before they go past that particular room, however, Peter turns to those new arrivals, and indicates they have to be quiet.
“Shush,” he whispers, “You have to be quiet.” “You see, these people are…” and then you put in the name of a denomination you think is really strict… “and they think they’re the only ones here!”
Ah - it’s a joke!
You have probably heard it.
It couldn’t be a true story anyway.
Anyone with such an attitude just couldn’t belong up there.
In fact, thinking like this only shows how much someone probably doesn’t belong there.
But, you might be wondering, how could anyone ever get to thinking that their own small group or church is the be-all and end-all of God’s work on this earth?
You know there is some truth in it.
It is a joke which has been around the world and used to point out the foibles of quite a few different denominations - not just Reformed or Presbyterian churches!
The church of Amos’ time shows us such an example.
It’s her leaders who are harshly rebuked in verse 1 of this text.
Because don’t think this is about the government.
We can’t use this against the politicians.
“Woe to you who are at ease in Zion,” Amos thunders.
Zion is the name used in the Old Testament when speaking of Israel as God’s people.
Zion is God’s city.
It was where the temple was.
This name, above all names, represents what the LORD God had done for Israel.
So it is used here for that purpose, for, apart from once at the beginning of his prophecy, this name for the capital of Judah is rarely mentioned at all.
And now it’s joined with Samaria, in itself a great city set on a hill.
A city also given to his people by the LORD.
The capital of the northern ten tribes.
These two cities were where the rulers are.
If you needed anything done, you had to go to the capital city.
But it was worth it.
“What we’ve got in our city is just incredible!”
“It may not be the Sydney Opera House but the palace is an awesome spot!”
“And from here we rule over everyone in the Kingdom.”
“We have got the lot!”
As Amos mimics them, “the notable men of the first of the nations, to whom the house of Israel comes!”(v.1)
Those rulers really thought they were the bee’s-knees!
In the words of a first aspect to our text … THEY WERE WORLD FAMOUS IN ISRAEL.
Let me explain the phrase I chose to name this point.
When we moved to New Zealand there was a musical C.D. being sold called “World Famous In New Zealand.”
They were New Zealand singers or groups who were well-known there, but not elsewhere.
I hadn’t heard of them before.
But they were certainly well-known there.
And a local soft drink there also uses this phrase.
When you would ask anyone about any of those musicians, the local kids all knew them.
They are big here!
World Famous in New Zealand!
Just like that soft drink.
So those rulers of Israel were important people - in this one place.
That’s why Amos goes on in verse 2 to mention a few other cities - Calneh, Hamath and Gath.
Why refer to these cities?
Well, they are big cities in small kingdoms.
They’re also big fish in small ponds.
And even bigger fish than you are!
Amos here challenges their pretensions.
‘Who are you?’ he challenges in verse 2.
‘What are you worth?’
I’m reminded here of how one wise elder responded to a particularly difficult member of his church.
This member was always unhappy.
He couldn’t realise the joy of the Gospel.
And what help did his church give him?
His kids had all left that church.
He and his wife didn’t feel at home.
And this church just kept looking over his shoulder!
Couldn’t they just keep to themselves?
The elder, after having heard his complaint for so many times, simply said, “Do you honestly think people would waste their time like that on you - you of all people?”
In other words, who are you to assume that you take up such a role in other people’s lives?
They have enough hassles of their own!
That man was world famous in his own home.
He was so consumed in himself and in his own petty world that he failed to realise everyone else is living in their own world too!
He may well have the answer to his children’s disillusionment right there!
I can’t help but think how much this attitude is a disease in our time too.
“But everyone’s looking at me!”
You wish!
They’re too busy thinking, and even saying, the same thing about themselves!
But what we can get with this attitude is a church so wrapped up in itself and in meeting those “needs”, as they call it, that all they do is hinder the Lord’s work.
Then everyone there has to be first!
And they forget they’re meant to be last.
So - how can we know that’s happening to us?
This brings us to the point of why Amos yet continues his condemnation of Israel, after he’s prophesied about that great and fearful Day of the Lord.
He does some digging underneath.
A little psycho-analysis.
Or should I say pneumo-analysis, because it’s really about seeing what kind of spirit is in them.
For what kind of person would do what verse 3 describes?
Who is going to fool themselves that the Lord’s coming is far away and so they’ve got lots of time to do evil and nasty things.
Congregation, could it be that this is the person who doesn’t think he will get caught?
In fact, he’s got away with it for so long it has become second nature!
They have fooled some of the people for some of the time.
And they honestly think they can fool all of the people for all of the time.
That’s what often amazes us about when church leaders get caught in sin.
Did they honestly expect to get away with it?
Why couldn’t they stop - why did they do it so many times?
And what about the effect of all this on everyone else?
When leaders put off the evil day – when they avoid facing up to their sins - they only bring a reign of terror much quicker.
It will all catch up to them.
Corruption that goes undetected for long enough will bring about revolution.
Then the system they hid behind is gone altogether!
Many a ministry has been shattered because of such sin.
And how many church families haven’t been torn apart because the husband or wife or both were only concerned for their own selfish desires?
In another twenty years or so Israel had its time of anarchy.
After Jeroboam II died, the king reigning during this time of Amos, Israel had three kings within a year.
You can read about that in 2nd Kings 15.
The first two of those kings were assassinated by their usurpers.
Another decade later and there were two more bloody coups.
How many recent revolutions also come about because of government corruption and neglect?
There are the American, French and Russian Revolutions - all which could have been avoided, or at least changed drastically, if the leaders had not been so complacent.
In the words of a second aspect to this text, THEY HAVE BECOME LEGENDS IN THEIR OWN MINDS.
They are so full of themselves they’ve got no room for anyone else - and especially not God!
This is the picture Amos paints for us in the verses 3 till 6.
Because what scene do we see?
Well, let’s sum it up - laid back, pampered, the best meat, the music, the wine, the make-up – its party time!
Not only has Israel become complacent - the complacency had led to decadency!
It was party time all the time down Samaria way.
Those at the top lived it up.
There was no thought for the future – ‘eat, drink and be merry!’
And tomorrow we’ll do the same again!
Everything became focused on what had value for nothing!
Instead of following the traditional custom of “sitting” at the table, they lay on couches.
The way Romans are pictured during their orgies has people doing lots of that!
And how many ‘TV meals’ today aren’t following the same line?
And look at what they’re eating - it’s the best meat!
In the past that was only for the feast days.
Only the great King Solomon ate it daily at the court.
But, now, many more had raised their living standards.
Or should I say, their luxury levels?
They try to also raise levels with the next thing Amos mentions.
Verse 5 pictures them strumming away on their harps like King David.
It seems they were into highly refined classical music.
The language suggests that this was an attempt to get back the cultured atmosphere of King David.
They were learning music as a skill.
Isn’t that good?
Well, that depends on the motivation behind it.
It seems the words that they sing are quite frivolous.
It’s much ado about nothing – “idle songs”.
But don’t they know how to do nothing well!
That’s a definition of snobbery for you - doing nothing very well.
Consider what they use to do it.
The stringed instruments David used to honour his God in heaven, these princes and others use for their own pleasures on earth.
And they hoed into the drink.
Forget the glass - they’re sculling it by the bowl-ful!
But again - look what they using to do it.
It’s with silver bowls.
They’re classy boozers!
These are more than expensive bowls, though.
They are sacred bowls.
Those bowls which the tribe-princes in the time of Moses used to show their love for the LORD, by presenting sacrificial bowls of silver (Num.7), the princes of Amos’ time used to show the love for themselves!
What the pagan king Belshazzar did in his crude pride during the time of the exile was already being anticipated by the covenant people before the exile.
And it was all for nothing - just appearances!
They were looking ‘cool’.
The way they look is what we meet even further with “the finest oils.”
They were into the whole beauty range!
High quality make-up was used to keep them looking their best - all imported of course!
But don’t think about the rest!
Congregation, they are LEGENDS IN THEIR OWN MINDS.
In the words of Dwight Moody, “You can always tell when a man is a great way from God; when he is always talking about himself, how good he is.”
It’s no wonder that verse 6 ends the way it does.
They weren’t concerned for anyone else, especially not the Lord of the Church.
They felt safe - they were secure.
Like the rich fool of Luke 12, they had it all laid up for a very comfortable future.
And who worried about anyone else?
How far away this is from the Christian love of Romans 12.
There is no devotion to others; no faithfulness in prayer; no sharing with God’s people in need; no hospitality.
In pre-Revolutionary France desperately hungry peasants came to Paris, and they cried for bread.
They appealed to the royalty - their rulers.
And so out of touch was their Queen that she was reputed to have said, “Why, if they have no bread, let them eat cake.”
Oh they were LEGENDS IN THEIR OWN MINDS alright!
No doubt about it!
They were the classic fools of Proverbs.
Because what was a fool in Proverbs but an unbeliever - the very one couldn’t see God anyway!
As someone once said, “Selfishness is the only real atheism.”
So, since THEY ARE WORLD FAMOUS IN ISRAEL, and certainly THEY HAVE BECOME LEGENDS IN THEIR OWN MINDS … THERE’S ONLY ONE PLACE THEY CAN GO!
This is the third aspect to this passage.
THERE’S ONLY ONE PLACE THEY CAN GO!
You see, this is the place they’ll be with their very best friend - themselves.
Because they definitely won’t be with anyone else there.
Congregation, they will be first again.
All along, they knew Israel had to be first - and they were the first of the first.
And it’s going to happen again.
Except this time it’s the LORD who’s going to make them first - the first into exile!
Verse 7 says, “Therefore they shall now be the first of those who go into exile…”
What an irony.
The ‘first’ would truly be first!
What had been their attitude all along seals their fate.
An attitude which been wrapped around themselves.
The attitude which our church leaders and all believers must be warned against today.
You see, we live in a world where many things come easily.
We have so much at the touch of a switch.
The danger of Agur, in Proverbs 30, that he may become poor, isn’t so much a danger to us.
What is the danger, though, is that other one he said, the danger where we are too rich, and so we disown God.
Then our attitude, and so our whole lifestyle, says, “Who is the LORD?”
That’s precisely what those Israelites said to their covenant God.
They were so self-satisfied, they didn’t need him.
The only thing is, though, when we say that to God, he could very well say the same thing back to us.
“Yes - who are YOU?”
Being world famous in the world, or a legend in everyone’s mind, isn’t worth anything then.
You’re the smallest fish in the biggest pond!
And you’re about to be swallowed right up!
There’s only one place you can go!
That’s what happens when you are rich in your own eyes.
Because you are then so full of yourself you can’t see the One you need to truly fill your heart and life with.
You’re heading down the same track as the rich fool.
But if you become empty then you will see!
Isn’t that the experience of many of us here?
We were humbled - we’ve been brought low.
And he, the Saviour Jesus Christ, lifted us up.
He has given us the treasure which really matter - the gift of grace by faith alone.
THERE’S ONLY ONE PLACE WE CAN GO!
By Christ’s sacrifice on the cross we have been truly set free - especially free from ourselves!
Self-satisfaction may be what we do first naturally, but self-sacrifice is the first thing we do lovingly.
That’s how this world will know we are Christians - by our love.
And through that love they’ll see him who is love.
There was a preacher once called Brownlow North.
Before his conversion, he lived just like those Israelites - only for himself.
After his conversion he began to preach the gospel with tremendous fervour.
That really got to some of his old friends.
They thought he was a real hypocrite, because he had been a real rat-bag before.
One day when he was about to address a large congregation, a stranger passed him a letter, saying, “Read that before you preach.”
The letter was full of wrong things that he had done.
And the letter ended with the words, “How dare you, knowing how true all these things are, now pray and speak to these people, when you are such a vile sinner?”
The preacher put the letter into his pocket, entered the pulpit, and after prayer and praise, he started his address to a very crowded church.
But before he spoke on the text, he pulled out the letter.
He told the people about its contents, and then he added, “All of what is said here is true.
“It is a correct picture of the degraded sinner I once was.
“But how wonderful must be the grace that could stir me and raise me up from such a death in trespasses and sins, and make me what I am before you tonight, a vessel of mercy, one who knows that all his past sins have been cleansed away through the atoning blood of the Lamb of God!
“It’s his redeeming love that I have now to tell you.
“And I plead with anyone here who isn’t reconciled to God, to come now in faith to Jesus.
“Then he may take their sins away and heal them.”
His old friends couldn’t stop him now.
He was self-sacrificing, not self-satisfying anymore.
And that meant God’s Word was spoken with power.
The Lord saved Brownlow North in time.
But that doesn’t mean, if you’re not saved, that you can wait.
Then it will be too late!
Amen.
PRAYER:
Let’s pray…
O Lord God, this is a message for each one of us.
We have all committed sins of self-satisfaction, thinking only of ourselves when others should have come first.
Perhaps that was with our spouses, when we didn’t listen; or our parents, when we didn’t obey; or our brothers and sisters, when we didn’t help; or our friends, when we turned away.
Then, Lord, we thought of our own comfort; we didn’t want to go that extra step; we went our own way.
The sin of the Old Testament church is also in us today.
And what can we say?
Please forgive us Father.
Move us by Your Spirit that we will be open and not closed to serving you through those around us.
Though Jesus Christ, who walked perfectly that way, we pray, Amen.
* As a matter of courtesy please advise Rev. Sjirk Bajema, if you plan to use this sermon in a worship service. Thank-you.
The source for this sermon was: www.rcnz.org.nz
(c) Copyright, Rev. Sjirk Bajema
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