Me and We
Call to worship:
pastor bobby owens
1 Timothy 3.1-7
song:
Come Behold the Wondrous Mystery
Historical reading:
pastor zachary mcguire
Nicene Creed
song:
Lord I need you
Confession & Pardon:
pastor michael champoux
song:
Doxology
song:
See the destined day arise
Sermon:
dr alex logionw
Me and we
Exodus 18
Anthropologically speaking there are two primary ways of living in the world today. In a majority of the world the cornerstone of their worldview is community. In the east, the Middle East, India, Africa, and Latin America family, tradition, honor, and community are viewed as the ultimate good in life. The individual is not important. It is the family name, the tribe, the honor of the community that are the truest good and so everyone is pressured to live for the good of the community. In these parts of the world one’s individual goals and aspirations are secondary to the honor and needs of the community.
This is not the case in the western part of the world. In the west the cornerstone of our worldview is individualism. The individual pursuit of happiness is viewed as the ultimate good for us. Your individual goals and aspirations trump your family, tradition, honor, and the community. If we don’t want to go into the family business we don’t. If we don’t like the religion of our forefathers we deconstruct. The rights of the individual are the truest good in the west and so you better not impose on anyone else.
The honor cultures of the east and southern hemisphere rightly emphasize community while sometimes wrongly minimizing the individual. The self-centered culture of the west rightly emphasizes the dignity and worth of the individual while wrongly forsaking community. But the gospel offers a better way. That’s what we see here in Exodus 18.
Though this pericope is set in the ancient Near East, it could not be more applicable today. The narrative of Moses and his father-in-law is but a piece of the Old Testament puzzle that when finally completed reveals Jesus Christ. And so as with every Old Testament pericope we see how the story of Israel connects with our story through the story of Jesus. Exodus 18 shows us: The gospel meets us individually in order to bring us into a community.
The Gospel Meets Us Individually (vs. 1-12)
Where we pick up in the narrative it had been a little time since the Exodus, maybe a few months, so word had finally reached Moses’ family about what happened. Jethro brings Zipporah, Moses’ wife, and their two sons to meet him. The text says Moses and Jethro asked each other of their welfare – “Hey, how you doin? Good; how you doin? Good.” And Moses tells them the good news of how God redeemed his people and you know what happens? Jethro believes and confesses.
Verse 9 says that Jethro rejoiced for all the good that yhwh had done. In verses 10-11 Jethro confesses,
“Blessed be yhwh, who has delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of Pharaoh and has delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians. Now I know that yhwh is greater than all gods, because in this affair they dealt arrogantly with the people.”
Upon hearing the good news of how God saved this people, Jethro believes and confesses. Do you know what this is? We are witnessing Jethro’s conversion. It doesn’t matter that it is an Old Testament narrative. It was the same for people then as it is now – it is only through the good news of God’s salvation that individuals are saved.
This was the purpose of the Exodus. Dr. Jim Hamilton says that the Exodus is the archetype of salvation in Scripture. The Exodus is the clearest providential pattern we have of salvation and the Bible refers to it over and over again. Just as Moses led Israel out of slavery in Egypt so Jesus leads his people out of the slavery of sin and death and into the promised land of forgiveness and resurrection. This is the good news we call the gospel.
The gospel tells us that God is our holy creator. God is infinitely perfect and righteous in his person and in his works. God created humanity male and female, in his image to glorify him. But in Adam we all fell in sin and now we are born sinners who sin in thought, word, and deed. Sin is missing the mark of God’s holiness; sin is rebellion against our holy creator. The just condemnation for sin is eternal conscious punishment in a place called hell.
But thanks be to God that while we were still sinners Christ died for us (Rom 5.8). We confessed earlier in the Nicene Creed that “for us and for our salvation” the Father sent his Son to be conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. His name is Jesus of Nazareth and he never sinned. Because he was righteous in thought, word, and deed God accepted his sacrifice to pay the penalty for sin as he died on the cross in the place of sinners. Jesus was buried and then on the third day he resurrected from the dead thus proving that God had accepted his sacrifice.
Now everyone who will repent of their sin and place their faith in Christ alone will receive the forgiveness of sin and the hope of resurrection. To repent means to turn from your sin. It means to agree with God that he is holy and that you are a sinner and that you cannot save yourself. It is through repentance alone that we find God’s forgiveness.
It’s in vogue these days to talk about forgiving yourself. People say, “the most important thing you can do it forgive yourself.” This idea may be popular but it is also nonsense. Forgiveness, by definition, requires two parties – the offender and the offended. You don’t need to forgive yourself; you can’t forgive yourself. You need God’s forgiveness and the only way you can receive God’s forgiveness is to repent of your sin.
Repentance is one side of salvation’s coin; the other side is faith. The Reformed tradition has long taught that faith entails three components – knowledge, assent, and trust. Faith means knowing who Jesus is and what Jesus did. Faith means assenting to the validity of these truth claims. Faith means transferring your trust to Christ alone.
Romans 10 says if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved. That’s what Jethro did. Jethro rejoiced and confessed; he confessed with his mouth and he believed in his heart the good news of God’s salvation. You must do so too.
At this point we see Jethro follow a pattern that will continue with God’s people even today. Jethro confessed and believed and then worshipped before God and he dined before God. Look at verse 12:
And Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, brought a burnt offering and sacrifices to God; and Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat bread with Moses’ father-in-law before God.
After Jethro confessed and believed the good news he worshipped the Lord through sacrifice and he ate bread with God’s people.
As new covenant Christians we do the same thing. We do not offer animal sacrifices before God because the sacrificial system was fulfilled in the final sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross but we are still called to sacrifice. Listen to Romans 12.1-2:
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
We do not sacrifice animals but in Christ we are called to be living sacrifices. That means that everything in our lives is offered up in worship to God. It means the reason we exist, according to the Westminster Catechism, is to “glorify God and enjoy him forever.” We understand that our money is not our own, it is God’s and we give to God as we give to the church every week.
We understand that our time is not our own. We give of our time for the glory of God and the good of others. That means you moms with young kids are not wasting your life. That means when you spend time with the sick, the disabled, the elderly, you’re not wasting your time. When you serve the church you’re not wasting your time.
We understand that our gifts and abilities are not our own. What are you naturally good at? What do you enjoy to do? What skills have you worked hard to develop? God gave you these gifts and abilities; use them for his glory and the good of others.
Not only did Jethro offer a sacrifice in worship but he also ate bread before God with God’s people. This is another Eucharistic echo we hear in the Old Testament preparing us for the Lord’s Supper. Just as we offer our lives in worship, so do we eat bread before God with the people of God every week at Holy Communion. The bread reminds us of the body of Christ broken for us; the wine reminds us of the blood of Christ shed for us and as God dined with Israel in Exodus 18 so does Jesus commune with us every week at the Eucharist – sacrifice and sacrament.
Just as the good news of the Exodus met Jethro individually so does the gospel meet us individually. Maybe you experienced a radical change from a hellacious life. Maybe you were raised in a Christian home and church and you can’t remember a time when you didn’t have knowledge and assent of the gospel. Regardless of where you were the Holy Spirit worked regeneration in your heart and you repented and believed when you heard the gospel.
This is important because while the gospel is lived out in community, it is your individual responsibility to repent and believe. When you stand before Jesus on the last day it will not be with your parents or grandparents. Your spouse or kids wont be there. Your best friend, neighbor, or pastor wont be there. You need individual regeneration. You need individual repentance and faith.
The Gospel Brings Us Into A Community (vs. 13-27)
While the gospel meets each one of us individually, the gospel is not individualistic. The gospel brings individuals into a specific community – the church. We see another glimpse of this in verses 13-27 where Jethro gives Moses advice. Since Israel left Egypt Moses had been judging situations between the people because Moses was the prophet of the Lord.
But the situation was not sustainable and Jethro notices. Listen again to Jethro’s advice starting in verse 17:
“What you are doing is not good. 18 You and the people with you will certainly wear yourselves out, for the thing is too heavy for you. You are not able to do it alone. 19 Now obey my voice; I will give you advice, and God be with you! You shall represent the people before God and bring their cases to God, 20 and you shall warn them about the statutes and the laws, and make them know the way in which they must walk and what they must do. 21 Moreover, look for able men from all the people, men who fear God, who are trustworthy and hate a bribe, and place such men over the people as chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. 22 And let them judge the people at all times. Every great matter they shall bring to you, but any small matter they shall decide themselves. So it will be easier for you, and they will bear the burden with you. 23 If you do this, God will direct you, you will be able to endure, and all this people also will go to their place in peace.”
Jethro tells Moses to find men above reproach to help him so that he doesn’t get burned out and the people don’t get burned out. There are a number of points we can draw from this pericope. The first is that you don’t know everything. Here Moses is corrected by a man who just got saved. The great Moses who performed all those miracles in Egypt; the great Moses who wrote the first five books of the Bible. I don’t know about you but I’m not getting in line to correct Moses but you know what Jethro corrected Moses and Moses was wrong.
What is our first reaction when someone corrects us? “Who do you think you are? You don’t know me. You can’t tell me what to do!” We’re westerners. We’re Americans. We don’t like anyone telling us what to do – especially not our in-laws.
But this is a healthy reminder for us that we don’t know everything. There is no room for pride, arrogance, or self-righteousness in the Kingdom of Christ. This is why, in part, Christianity is not individualistic. We need the community of faith.
You don’t know everything. Alex Loginow doesn’t know everything. It doesn’t matter if he has a doctorate or not. Kevin McGuire doesn’t know everything. You don’t know everything.
Moses took correction here. Moses learned something new here. If Moses can learn and grow and be corrected so can you. God is the only one who is omniscient. We are limited creatures and we need each other to learn and grow and be corrected.
Another reality we see in this text is that we are not just brought into community but we are brought in to a messy community. Moses needed help judging these disputes because these people were sinners and so are we. Like Israel under the old covenant, Christians in the new covenant are simultaneously saints and sinners. Because we are sinners we need to confront and confess with each other. If your brother or sister in Christ is in sin confront them in truth and love. If you are in sin and a brother or sister confronts you, repent.
The third element of continuity we see between the old covenant people and the church is male leadership. Jethro tells Moses to find men who are above reproach to help him lead the people. Moses specifically called men to lead not because the ancient Near East was patriarchal and so it was arbitrary and so we can disregard it. No Moses found men because God ordained that men lead the home and the covenantal assembly. Male headship is clear both in the creation order and in the commands of Scripture.
But it was not enough that Moses found men, he must also find qualified men. Moses found able men from all the people, men who fear God, who are trustworthy and hate a bribe. Gender alone was not enough to qualify men to lead in the community of faith; they had to be godly men, qualified men, men above reproach. This tradition carried all the way through redemptive history and as the new covenant church took shape in the first century the church inherited this structure and Scripture commands that godly elders rule each church.
Pastor Kevin read from 1st Timothy 3.1-7 in our Call to Worship. There the Apostle Paul requires that Elders who are above reproach rule each local church. The ecclesiology commanded by God is Scripture is three-fold: Elders must be men. Elders must be qualified men. And there must be a plurality of Elders. The Bible doesn’t say anything about Senior Pastors or Lead Pastors or Assistant Pastors or any other silly adjective you want to add to the word pastor. The New Testament requires a plurality of qualified men to rule the church as Elders.
One more thought on this pericope. Throughout our study of Exodus we have noted often how Moses is a type of Christ and that is clear in Scripture. Even in this pericope Moses serves as a type of Christ. He intercedes between God and the people. Moses teaches the people the Word of God. Moses typifies Jesus Christ who is the true and final intercessor between God and His people. Moses typifies Christ who is the Word of God and who teaches his people his word through the preaching of the word.
But we must also remember that Moses was a sinful man who needed a savior and so there are ways in which Moses and every other person in Scripture serve as anti-types of Jesus Christ. Moses was not the promised one of Genesis 3.15. Israel was still waiting on the seed of the woman. Moses could not judge God’s people on his own; he needed help. In this way he shows us our need for the Lord Jesus Christ, who through his death and resurrection, and since his ascension to the right hand of the Father has alone been the intercessor for all of God’s people. Jesus is our great high priest who stands between God and his people. Jesus is the true and final mediator of the new covenant.
Jesus hears every prayer from every Christian in history. Jesus hears the confession and gives the pardon to every confessing sinner in history. Jesus watches over us as we sleep. Jesus gives us every breath we breathe. Moses was worn out but Jesus never wears out.
This is the community we’re brought into when we believe the gospel. We need the church because we don’t know everything. We need the church so we can point others to Jesus and they can point us to Jesus. We need a church led by a plurality of godly qualified men. We need the church because it is the only community that Jesus died for and it is the only community that Jesus intercedes for.
And we identify not just with our local church – Christ Community Church – but also with the church militant and triumphant from all of history. That is why we do an historical reading every week. We are part of something bigger than just us. I heard Dr. Russell Moore tell a story about a friend of his who gave a great answer when asked why he believed in the resurrection. His friend said, “because we saw it.” The antagonist retorted, “What do you mean you saw it? You’re 45 years old.”
His friend replied, “we saw it. I’m a part of a family that goes all the way back to the first century and even the beginning of time. We saw Jesus alive.” In the same way that Pastor Zack can talk about MSU athletics and say, “we won last night or we lost the game.” He’s not on any MSU team anymore but he’s part of the family. MSU is not “they” to him, it’s “we.” In the same way we are a part of the church from all of history. We saw Jesus raised from the dead. This is our family. This is our story. It’s me and we.
Conclusion
Some of you were raised in an honor-based tradition where the community matters more than the individual. Most of us where raised in this culture where the individual matters more than the community. But the gospel offers a better way. The gospel meets us individually in order to bring us into a community.