The Jonathan Factor (Part 1)

Ben mentioned an exhortation in the video that we fly, and I don't know about you as a kid, but I used to dream a bit of flying, and I was still a true believer as I stood on the edge of the garage.

I'm looking down at the edge.

That's why I'm looking down.

But yeah, I was standing on the edge of the garage, Fort Trigalana Place, French's Forest, and I was a believer that if I jumped, you never know, I might fly.

And so I tried, I can't remember how old I was.

I just remember my teeth didn't go through, my knees didn't go through my teeth, but they came close.

It happened very quick when I hit that ground off the garage roof.

It takes first-dimension faith to take a leap of faith.

And many of us are familiar with that, where we trust the Lord and we step out.

But I want to suggest to you today, there is a second-dimension faith required for the landing.

Because God doesn't always come through when we land, but it is required of us if we're going to follow Jesus, the way we're called to do.

We step out in faith and we abandon outcomes to God, amen?

We trust him that he's good.

Our Lord is good no matter what the outcome is.

If we've been told to take that first-dimension step, there's a second-dimension as well that involves faith in the goodness of God.

So we're in the second message, second week of a series called Kings and Characters.

1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 2 Kings.

There's books, devotion books out there for five bucks if you want to follow along for the next five or six weeks.

But we are in a second season.

We looked at a series last year where we looked at six characters, and so we're in what we're calling season 2.

So this week, we're in the story of Jonathan.

We're calling it The Jonathan Factor Part 1.

We're going to actually do two sermons.

Normally, we do the same sermon morning and night, but there's a different one tonight because it's a big portion of scripture.

If you want to come along and hear what happens in the end, please do so or just read the Bible yourself or catch up online.

The Jonathan Factor is about seizing your divine moment, and that's our first observation from our text.

Moments have the power to change destinies.

Moments have the power to change destinies.

Verse 14, verse 1, chapter 14.

One day Jonathan, son of Saul, said to the young man bearing his armour, come, let's go.

Let's go over to the Philistine outpost on the other side, but he did not tell his father.

What's the context?

Well, it's a little more than a thousand years before Christ.

Saul has just been anointed king over Israel.

Saul is Jonathan's father.

They've had at least one military victory, so they are buoyed with God's goodness at this point, and they are in a position that's quite awkward.

There are 600 Israelite soldiers, we're told.

They're up against 3,000 Philistine soldiers and 6,000 charioteers and untold numbers of foot soldiers.

Sorry, 3,000 Philistine chariots, 6,000 charioteers and untold foot soldiers.

It's a horrible situation.

Horrible situation.

Israel don't look like they are going to have much of a chance here.

And 3 words change Jonathan's life, such that we're still talking about him today, maybe 3,000 years later.

3 words, come, let's go.

Come to my armor bearer, let's go.

In that moment, Jonathan, it would seem, seized something that was an opportunity, a moment for his divine destiny.

The word moment comes from the Greek word, atomos, and you might see where this is heading.

Atomos, the word atom, insignificant, isn't it?

A moment, an atom.

And the same word, we get atomic.

Anything but insignificant.

Moments can change everything.

Can I ask for a show of hands?

Who agrees?

Moments can change our lives.

Take, for instance, Rahab.

Rahab is an Old Testament character, a woman we read about in Joshua chapter 2.

The spies have been sent out to check out the land, and they get to Jericho, and they take lodging with a woman by the name of Rahab, and she ends up helping them out.

She hides the Israelites out of fear of God, and says, Would you remember me when you come back, because I've done good to you in hiding you from those who were seeking you out?

Now, if you know anything about Rahab, she wasn't in a great position in life.

She was told that she was a prostitute, and yet, in that one act of obedience for Rahab, in that one moment, it opened up a doorway to a life where she would have a mark on history that goes all the way through to the New Testament.

Do you remember where Rahab fits in the story of the New Testament?

Later, as a direct result of that one moment of decision and obedience to God's Spirit, Rahab marries an Israelite named Salmon, whose son was who?

Do we have it on there?

I can't.

Is the slide there, Karen?

No, it's not.

Okay, so I can do a test.

Salmon, whose son was Boaz, the husband of?

Ruth, whose son was Max.

You know this stuff, don't you?

Obed, whose son, yes, was Jesse, whose son was David, who was a significant character, king of Israel.

And if you follow the bloodline down, we're told in the New Testament, through the generations, the blood of Rahab flowed in the veins of Joseph, the husband of Mary, the mother of Jesus.

Crazy stuff.

Rahab, her life changed by one defining moment.

Moments have the power to change destinies.

So let me just ask you a question of application.

How are you going right now in those opportunities we all get of response?

Is it a season for you of obedience, or are you putting off a prompting to step out courageously?

Come on, let's go.

Get off the roundabout, maybe, for you and I, of procrastination and disobedience.

Come on, let's go to that place of vulnerability.

Let's go to that place of vulnerability, emotionally, financially, relationally.

Let's go.

Let's go and make us stand for what we know is right in your area of influence.

Come on, let's go.

It sounds a lot like our theme for the year, doesn't it?

Go 24.

Come on, let's go.

We have moments quite regularly which challenge our first-dimension faith.

Will we just obey?

Will we do what is right?

Jonathan here feels that the Philistines are directly opposing what God has planned for his people.

And therefore, the right thing to do was to take a stand against them.

So our second observation is this, spiritual authority is to be used, not protected.

Saul was standing, staying on the outskirts of Gibeah under a pomegranate tree in Migron.

With him were around 600 men among whom was Ahijar, who was wearing an ephod.

That means he's ready to do the work of a priest.

He was a son of Ichabod's brother Ahitub, son of Phinehas, the son of Eli, the Lord's priest in Shiloh.

No one was aware that Jonathan had left.

Samuel tells us that Saul was faced with the same challenge as Jonathan.

Saul was resting outside Gibeah under a pomegranate tree.

With him, 600 soldiers, Ahijar, the priest of the Lord.

Therefore, he has all the political, military, and religious authority needed to act.

It's all under Saul's direction.

Yet, he refused to act in this little vignette.

They were extracting truth from.

A little earlier, he had not obeyed God.

He had not waited.

And he got in trouble and he disobeyed God.

And now, he's too scared to do anything.

So, he's been entrusted with divine authority, the resources of Israel, yet he and his men are asleep.

We could call this maybe the pomegranate dilemma.

It's alive and well.

I would put it to you like this.

Often churches and individuals, and you never think if you've seen this to be true, they take in the early days, they take steps of faith, vision-fuelled faith.

And God blesses them.

And often, there's a little bit of hardship in the stepping out, the first-dimension faith, and even the second-dimension faith.

But God blesses them.

And then over time, you get established in the blessing.

And as anyone found, sometimes later on, it's hard to step out and risk what you were blessed and what you received.

Over the years, I've seen this.

I've been a pastor for over 30 years.

And in my early 20s, I was close to three churches in Sydney.

They just had relationships with them.

And they were all about the same size.

They were not large churches.

They were sort of small to moderate size churches, Baptist churches.

And it's been interesting watching those churches over the next 30 years.

Two of them are close to death.

They're trying to have a revitalization, but they're close to almost closing the doors.

And what's interesting, too, I've just found it fascinating, reflecting on it, was very early on I was part of a church out of those three that took a step of faith and we saw amazing blessing.

And so, one of the churches who are now really in decline, they had come to chat with us at our church about vision, about stepping out and taking risk.

And that was fantastic, just to tell them the story of what God had done.

And then, the Lord leads us to come up here and we become part of Hornsby Baptist Church and we see God do some amazing things because this church steps out in faith before our time.

And so, for the second time, with a different group of leaders for that church, five or six years ago, I met with him again.

And we talked in a different location about vision and trusting God.

And that church still hasn't taken the step.

I don't know exactly why, but there's a problem when we get too comfortable and we decide, we make a decision, I'm not stepping out anymore.

You might find it a weird statement that you have spiritual authority, but how do you and I have spiritual authority?

I'm a pastor of a church, so it probably seems a bit like I have some spiritual authority.

But what about you, do you have spiritual authority?

Of course you do.

Jesus says, what you bind will be bound in heaven, what you said free will be free in heaven.

We have the name of Jesus.

Look on your chest if you're a Christian.

Look now, can you see that badge?

It's not the name tag, it's the sheriff's badge.

The name of Jesus.

We are ambassadors for Christ, amen?

We have the authority of the name of Jesus and Jesus happens to be Lord of Lords and King of Kings.

We are called as Christians to minister in His name.

We certainly have spiritual authority.

Do you remember U2, the Irish band, they're still around.

They have a song called Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of.

I wonder if that's something you can relate to.

Can we be encouraged this morning from this story that some of us are quite familiar with?

That spiritual authority is meant to be used, which takes faith to step out and into.

And it also involves second-dimension faith, trusting that whatever happens, God's in control.

And that's our third and last point here.

Moments change destiny.

Spiritual authority needs to be used, not protected.

And the third thought we see is first-dimension faith requires second-dimension faith.

It's a whole lot easier just to step out and then complain about the answer that we get.

I think it takes some maturity to step out in faith and say, I am trusting God no matter what, that He is good.

We decided that He was calling us.

We decided that this was the right thing to do.

And we are stepping out and we are trusting God no matter what.

Verse 4, On each side of the pass that Jonathan intended to cross to reach the Philistine outpost was a cliff.

One was called Beuzez and the other Senna.

One cliff stood to the north toward Micmash, the other to the south toward Giba.

Jonathan said to his young armor-bearer, Come, let's go over to the outpost of those uncircumcised fellows.

Perhaps, the Lord will act in our behalf.

Nothing can hinder the Lord from saving, whether by many or by few.

Imagine being the armor-bearer.

It's just that classic story that many of us know, isn't it?

If I'm the armor-bearer, I'm like, I'm with you heart and soul, you know I am, but is there anything more?

Like, I know you said perhaps, but have you got anything from the Lord?

Like a word, a clearer word.

Perhaps, the Lord will act.

Come on, let's go.

Jonathan has this absolute unwavering confidence in God's capacity, doesn't he?

In God's character, what he's like, in God's consistency, even though he is stepping out in the midst of great uncertainty.

In contrast, the Saul Factor waits for certainty.

The Jonathan Factor trusts God's faithfulness as a certainty.

I didn't mention before, but I want to say, I'm so glad to be part of a church here.

We call ourselves NorthernLife now, but more than 20 years ago, probably 25 years ago, a group of people at this church looked at this dilapidated building and said, we should do something about this.

A day will come when this building will be something that is a chain around our leg.

It's going to hold us back.

And different people, different iterations of leadership leading up to us now, stepped out in faith and we ended up allowing God to bless us with a great building that we celebrated five years in last week.

But I think it was Corrie who prayed at the end.

The building's nice, but the people are what matter, amen?

And that's what we're seeing.

We're seeing slowly the work of God of evangelism and discipleship impacting people and there's growth.

And we had 23 baptisms up until Easter or a bit after that.

God is at work.

He's doing a work in this church.

And I want to honor the fact that it's because people in this church have stepped out in faith, they've trusted the Lord.

The first-dimension faith requires second-dimension faith.

Jonathan knows for certain that God is trustworthy, just like Daniel did.

Remember Daniel with Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon said, no one's to pray to anybody other than to bow down to an image of myself, of the king.

And with first-dimension faith, Daniel said, no, I'm going to step out.

I'm going to keep praying, as I always have.

But it took second-dimension faith to walk in to the lion's den, didn't it?

The second-dimension faith was, what's going to happen after my step?

And like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, his heart was, whether God shuts the lion's mouth or not, he's still God.

Like Job, though he's slain me, yet I will praise him.

This is graduate Christianity.

This is what following Jesus is all about, trusting that he's good and stepping out in obedience no matter what.

What does that mean for you today?

What are you unsure of regarding the outcome?

There is no other way to walk following Jesus with faith than learning to abandon outcomes to God.

Amen?

We step out and obey and we hand over outcomes to God.

And what happens when we hand over outcomes to God with anxiety?

Our anxiety levels change because we're handing them over.

We don't get to control what happens in the future.

That's God's realm.

Moments change lives.

Spiritual power is to be used, not protected.

Second dimension faith is what really matters because it's how we respond to God's sovereign choice in response to our step of faith.

Can I finish with a story that is quite unique and quite interesting?

It's told by a guy called Erwin McManus.

He's an author and a pastor.

He's been around for a long time.

He's an American guy and a Latino American.

And he tells the story of getting a phone call.

It's some years ago, maybe 15 years ago this happened.

He got a phone call from his sister and he said, this is weird because I don't talk to my sister on the phone.

And she was crying, she was upset and she said, Erwin, I've had a dream, it's a really poignant dream and you die in that dream.

Are you doing anything different today?

He said, I'm doing a short talk with the Southern Baptist Convention in Interstate.

I'm catching a flight tonight to go and do that talk.

And his sister's like, oh, please don't do it, Erwin, I feel so bad.

I had sort of this dream that you're going to die.

And he said, oh, so that was a little bit of putting for him.

And then the next thing, his mom calls him on the same day and says, have you spoken to your brother, Erwin?

He says, no.

And she said, I had a dream that one of you died.

And Erwin's like, okay, this is weird.

And so he says to his wife a little bit later on in the afternoon, he says, oh, my sister's had a dream, my mom had a dream about my brother and she goes pale.

Apparently, this is a real story, true story, it's not mine, it's his.

And the wife says, I had a dream about you, that you died.

And they're like, maybe we shouldn't be having you get on this plane.

And then the news comes through that there's terrible weather, terrible weather for the flight.

So, he ends up going to the airport, and he says that he's quite a funny guy, I won't do him justice, but he says, I walk into the airport, and I find a vending machine, for the first time I've never seen this before, it's selling life insurance.

And it says, $100,000 for $100.

And everyone's like, I don't have life insurance.

This is clearly the Lord.

The Lord is prompting me, I'm about to die, I'm about to die, and He wants me to look after my family.

And then all of a sudden, He's just again, a funny sort of quirky guy goes, and then I'm struck with conviction.

No, it's a test.

If I take the life insurance, I'm going to get killed.

And then so he's so messed up, but he's getting on the plane, and then he sees this well-known tele-evangelist going down to first class.

And he's like, there's no way God is going to let this plane go down with that powerful preacher on board.

And so he goes down to his seat, and he's sitting there, and all he can say is, four minutes, four minutes, because he's only speaking for four minutes.

He wasn't the keynote speaker, he just was talking for four minutes about mission, and making your life count where you're planted.

And he said, most of the delegates are going to be going to the bathroom.

Four minutes, four minutes.

And so he does what some of us Christians have done in our lives.

He does a little flip in the Bible, and he lands in, this is it.

Again, I don't know if he's making this up, but Amos 412.

And again, Max, you would know Amos 412.

No.

Sorry, I'm picking on you today.

Amos 412, prepare to meet your God.

So that's the one that he's opened up.

And so then he's really freaking out at this point.

And then he opens up his Bible again, and he finds this.

This is what the Lord Almighty says to Israel.

Seek me and live.

Do not seek Bethel.

Do not go to Gilgal.

Do not journey to Beersheba.

Seek the Lord and live.

And he felt like in that, God said to him, Erwin, are you willing to give up everything in order to live four minutes for me?

It's a good question, isn't it?

If you had a clear call of God, is he worth obeying for four minutes of obedience?

And for him, his answer was a resounding yes.

And it didn't take long for him to reflect on his Christian faith, which teaches him that the Apostle Paul said in Philippians, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain.

That he's already given up his life.

He's already said, death to self.

I'm going to live for Christ.

In that moment, he said life became a little clearer.

The tele-evangelist wasn't going to help him.

In fact, he had like a horrible moral fall soon after that.

He felt like God was saying, Erwin, will you live in first-dimension faith?

Will you step out and leave the second-dimension answer to me?

Abandon out comes to God no matter what.

I think this is a fair question that we can extract from this first portion of the scripture.

I often think, what are we meant to do with stories like this in the Old Testament?

How far are we meant to squish them in to our outlines?

And then I think, but so much of the Old Testament is just narrative.

It's a story.

And what do we take from the story?

We take what it tells us.

We try to put it in context.

And I think it's true what we're learning tonight or today.

There are moments in our lives where we are asked again what matters.

Does the Lord have the final say in how we spend the next four minutes?

How we spend the next moments that then affect the rest of our lives?

Like that ten-year-old me standing on the edge of the garage door.

I want to be filled with the faith that steps out.

And as a church, I pray that we would be as well.

So what is the next leap of faith for you?

The first dimension step that involves the second dimension, faith and trust.

Maybe it's a phone call of apology for you.

That's the big deal.

Because that will be a moment in time that will allow God's grace to come into your relationship and actually change it for the rest of your life.

One phone call, a resignation, a stop this so that I can start that.

A new commitment, a conversation about the Gospel, a commitment to start to pray, to start to read the Word of God, to start to do good, at turning to Jesus for salvation.

What is the step that God is asking us to take, asking you to take?

Is today just another, another Sunday?

Maybe it is.

And today is a meal that you will forget by Tuesday.

And that's okay.

But I just wonder if some of us here or online need to hear about Jonathan and his armor bearer and their faith in a good and powerful God.

Lord Holy Spirit, would you prompt us please to reflect on what obedience looks like right now for us, for each one of us.

What a step of faith in obedience means.

Help us to appreciate that the outcome is out of our control, that the obedience is in our control.

You have given us choices to make, and we leave the consequences in your hands.

Thank you, Lord Jesus, that your perfect life is the perfect example of this courageous step of faith that we're talking about, and that Jonathan was a pointer to you.

We thank you and give you all the glory, Lord Jesus, that you went to the cross in our place.

And because of your obedience, you have been given the name above every other name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee would bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth.

And every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Please inspire and embolden us to take the steps that we need to take.

In Jesus' name, Amen.

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