Jesus takes away our shame
Pendulum Swing or Two Sided Coin?
| Speaker: | Andy Moyle, |
| Series: | God's Multicoloured Wisdom |
| Date: | 11th Oct, 2026 |
| Download: | Pendulum Swing or Two Sided Coin? |
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| Sermon notes: | Pendulum Swing or Two Sided Coin?Pendulum Swing We have been looking at God’s multicoloured wisdom - where God shows off his amazing diverse multicoloured wisdom to the angels and demons through what he is doing through the church. Your life has meaning and purpose – you are part of a cosmic plan that God has! Started with creation – in all its diversity created by God who personifies diversity in unity – Father, Son and Spirit Then we looked at the Fall – where Adam and Eve disobeyed God and experienced shame, guilt and fear. God made a sacrifice to clothe them with the first leather outfits! Then we began to see God’s rescue plan for the whole of humanity start through God call one person – Abraham to be blessed so that through his offspring every family would get the chance to be blessed. God often chooses one to be bless many. He has chosen you too! Now we jump forward hundreds of years – the Old Testament people of God, Israel are being formed. They have escaped slavery in Egypt and they are about to receive the ten commandments – and the rest of the Law. But before that God tells them these amazing words. Exodus 19:5 Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites.” Condition – Obey God fully and keep my covenant.They are about to get the law – not just 10 commandments. Jewish scholars counted 613 separate commands. They are there to show how holy God is and how much we need Jesus to save us. King Solomon tells us in Eccl 7:20 Indeed, there is no one on earth who is righteous, no one who does what is right and never sins. Paul will teach the purpose of the law was to bring us to Christ – Gal 3:24 So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith They had been saved by grace from slavery but still the Old Covenant was conditional on obedience first. Ex 19:5 again IF you obey me… then out all the nations you will be my treasured possession. Treasured PossessionIf your house was to catch fire and everyone was safe and you could grab one thing, what would it be? That’s your treasured possession. The Hebrew word is sagula which means shut up treasure – the kind of treasure that is highly prized and kept safe. That’s who the people of God are to the Lord. Then from that identity as God’s treasured possession, they are called to be a Kingdom of Priests Kingdom of PriestsA priest is someone who mediates people to the Lord. Their job as a blessed people was to show that blessing to all the families of the earth – to carry on Abraham’s call. Mal 2:7 says for the lips of a priest ought to preserve knowledge, because he is the messenger of the Lord almighty and the people seek instruction from his mouth. Holy NationGod is Holy and commands his people to be holy. The command “Be holy, for I am holy” is all over the Bible! Lev 11:45 I am the Lord, who brought you up out of Egypt to be your God; therefore be holy, because I am holy. Two sides of a coin – the edge says treasured possession. That is their identity. One side is be a kingdom of priests. Make a difference in the nations, influence them and bless them so that they follow god. The other side is Holy nation – be holy. Don’t compromise with sin. They were meant to hold it in tension – be in the world but not of it. But OT Israel and actually anyone without Jesus just cannot do it. It ends up being a pendulum swing of making a mess Instead of kingdom of priests – influencing the nations. End up with anything goes, doing the awful things the unbelievers were doing. Then they’d swing the other way again missing the point. Holy nation – despising the other nations and being completely nationalistic. Or separating themselves. Even today – you can see religion in general and “religious” people making a mess of the pendulum swing. In the world and doing what they do – anything goes, chaotic lifestyles, liberalism – making Christianity wishy washy but palatable. Swinging the other way – Christian ghetto, avoiding the world, holy huddle, leagalism. Paul warns against that in 1 Cor 5:10 “I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people.” That’s a great example of two sided coin – be in the world, but don’t be like the world. The call to live out being a treasured possession by being a Kingdom of priests and a holy nation is impossible in our own strength. The law was mean to point us to Jesus. Christianity has a new covenant, a new deal – a better deal. 1 Peter 2 lays out the ideas of what treasure possession, kingdom of priests and a holy nation look like with Jesus But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but not you have received mercy. If you have become a Christian, Peter declares like Jesus you are born again – a new creation and we have been give a precious identity – chosen people, royal priesthood, holy nation, God’s special possession. God has done it- he has made us the people of God and has given us with mercy. Our destiny is not the pendulum swing of messing it up – we can live as the double sided coin – treasured possession round the edge – kingdom of priests and holy nation as the two sides, We can do it. You may be thinking, no I can’t I swing from one extreme to the other! What’s the secret sauce? A few verses before Peter shows us As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— 5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house[a] to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Living StonesPeter is writing to people who were mostly Jewish background before fining Christ, so they would have had Old Testament understanding of what that means. Centuries before Jesus came Ezekiel was prophecying to a wayward pendulum swinging Israel and he says this “I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh.” God showed Ezekiel that without Jesus people are stony – cold and hard and unable to follow and obey Jesus. The promise he prophecied is that God would remove peoples dead stony hearts and give them a new heart. In Ezek 36 he repeats it – “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” Peter picks up the imagery of that and shows that Christians are now living stones – we have the Spirit in us, making us so alive. Spiritual houseThen he talks about us being built together into a “spiritual house” to be a holy priesthood. A spiritual house is literally a house of the spirit. Together we are the house where the Spirit of God dwells. We need each other – you can’t go it alone in Christian faith – the devil will pick you off straight away. The secret sauce that makes the two-sided coin doable – is the power of the Spirit available to all of us and the church being the place where we are built together. New Covenant is incredible. The law of 613 commandments is impossible, nobody apart from Jesus has completely obeyed. So, Jesus came to bring us close to God Eph 2:14-15 “For he himself is our peace who has made the two groups on and has destroyed the barrier the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations” The Law was just a schoolmaster or guardian to shows us we need Christ. Now grace has fully come and we find that we can be more holy than the law demanded by enjoying God’s grace and walking in the power of the Spirit. The law said don’t commit adultery – grace says don’t even think adulterous thoughts. Titus 2:13 tells us “grace teaches us to say no to unrighteousness” It is walking in the Spirit that enables us to be holy and make a difference. Gal 5:16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. It is the Spirit that gives us power to be witnesses Act 1:8 It is the Spirit who grows the fruit of holiness in us Gal 5:22 It is our experience of being living stones – filled with the Spirit and built together as God’s church that means we finally get to enjoy living our new identity But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. If your life feels like a chaotic pendulum swing – God wants to turn you into a two-sided coin! Come to Jesus Be filled with the Spirit Be built together |
Pendulum Swing or Two Sided Coin?
Andy Moyle,11th Oct, 2026 3:04 pm
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David Taylor27th Sep, 2026 9:11 am
The Fall
Omadachi Oganyi,20th Sep, 2026 3:10 pm
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Swapnil Pardeshi13th Sep, 2026 5:59 pm
God's multicoloured wisdom
Andy Moyle6th Sep, 2026 7:36 pm
My sermon notes from yesterday on how Jesus takes away shame
New Year – look back and look forward.
Looked back over last year with a sense of great joy at all the Lord has done.
9 professed faith in Jesus Christ.
Grew from 100 to 122 with 187 at the carol service
Took on Sarah as part time administrator
Got our premises which we are using for office space, international cafe and youth club and soon the job club.
Took on Mike as part time youth and community pastor.
Held a big conference with Terry Virgo and some big socials – the comedy night and barn dance.
Multiplied the kids work into four age groups
Multiplied one of the small groups
Looking forward to pressing into more of what the Lord has for us and seeing that wave of the Spirit that is on its way hitting our shores. Are you ready?
It’s good to look back with a sense of gratitude, thanking God for what He has done in and through you.
But for many look back over last year or years with a sense of shame for what you have done, not done, or had done to you. You know you are forgiven but you carry shame for sin.
Shame and Guilt very different
Both negative emotions
Guilt is about the sin itself that you did. Shame is about the fact that YOU did it.
Shame is generally more painful than guilt
Guilt leads to tension, remorse and regret, where as shame makes you feel small, worthless and powerless.
Guilt leads to confession, apologising and repairing, whereas Shame usually leads to more hurtful behaviour like hiding, escaping and shrinking back.
Folks that get caught in a pattern of sin that makes them feel ashamed are too ashamed to deal with it, so often stay stuck.
Let’s see how it works in Gen 2:25-3:10
Start in the honour of God’s presence
No shame, no fear, enjoying creation
Satan challenges God’s honour by questioning His integrity and Word
Appeals to their pride – “You will be like God”
Wanted more honour – to be more like God
So they ate of the tree – disobeyed God by dishonouring Him.
Self aware of nakedness led to shame which lead to fear and hiding from God.
So they made garments of fig leaves to cover their shame and nakedness. They hid from God and ran away from intimacy and love toward isolation and death, propelled by shame. They were so scared of being found out they hid from God. Often people filled with shame can’t look you in the eye.
So often that Gen 3 patter n of sin-defilement-shame-hiding pattern continues today in four different ways people play out their lives.
Rom 1:18 tells us we often suppress the truth of what we have done.
First fig leaf is worn by the “good girl”
She is pleasant, successful and dependable – like a lake with no waves. She rarely gets angry, always apologises whether or not it is her fault and seeks to serve others and keep them happy at the cost of her own well-being. But she s essentially dead, devoid of passion, always smiling, being good and trying to convince everyone she is fine when really she is broken and devastated.
Second fig leaf is worn by the tough girl.
She has been hurt and so she projects to the world her confidence, anger and roughness so that no one will have the courage to hurt her again. She’ll be respected by many, but loved and known by few. She craves intimacy and love, but is so afraid of being hurt that she develops a hard shell around her that repels. She’s achieved the goal of not being hurt again, but is left alone and desperately lonely.
Third fig leaf is worn by the party girl.
The party girl is the life of the party, the centre of attention, fun to be with and prone to self medicate with alcohol, food and even drugs. She has learned to mask her pain with laughter and is adept at making fun of even the most horrifying parts of her life. Thus when she reveals to others who she truly is, she does it in a way that makes everyone laugh and not see the pain she suffers. She’ll turn anger into sarcasm and irony – which is violence by comedy. She’s always in a crowd, but syoll lonely – the parties and being surrounded by people are an illusion.
The fourth fig leaf is worn by the church girl
She hides behind religious piety, ministry and systematic theology. She reads books and learns, not for her healing, but to help others. She pours herself out to help others because it enables her to feel sorrow and grief vicariously while avoiding her own pain. She can be harsh, judgemental and moralistic. She’ll turn every conversation into an opportunity to judge, argue fine points of theology unnecessarily or spiritualise everything complete with Bible verses which are used as little more than a diversion from matters of the heart.
Shame is…
More obvious in Eastern honour/shame cultures – where a Muslim may kill a family member in a so called honour killing because they have brought shame on their family through their behaviour.
Shame in Eastern cultures is external, about behaviour and the community
In Western contexts shame is far more internal, hidden and about the individual and their feelings as seen by the fig leaves worn by the good girl, the tough girl, the party girl and the church girl.
We know the gospel deals with our guilt once and for all – We are justified, declared not guilty, righteous! But too many live with a continued sense of shame.
In the garden of Eden, God made the first sacrifice – to make lasting garments of animal skin, to cover the nakedness and take away their shame.
The Bible uses terms like atonement, cleansing and a purifying fountain to show us that God doesn’t just forgive us and deal with our guilt, HE cleanses us of our shame and restores us to a place of honour.
Here’s some of the Old Testament promises.
“For on this day of atonement be made for you to cleanse you. You shall be clean before the Lord from all your sins.” Lev 16:30
“I will cleanse them from all the guilt of their sin against me and I will forgive all the guilt of their sin and rebellion against me.” Jer 33:8
“on that day there shall be a fountain opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to cleanse them from their sin and uncleanness.” Zech 13:1
On the cross, Jesus dealt with our shame and guilt. He not only forgave all of your sin, but he cleansed you from all your shame and defilement.
That’s picture beautifully in the Old Testament Day of Atonement. The holiest day of the year for the OT Jew. On that day the sin problem between people and God was sorted out.
They picked two perfect goats (to represent the coming sinless Jesus the Messiah). The first one was slaughtered as a sin offering. That represented Jesus death on the cross where just wrath of God for sin was satisfied through death as a penalty for sin – theologians call that propitiation.
Then the high priest would take the second goat, lay his hands on it while confessing the sins of the people and send it off into the wilderness, symbolically taking their sins with it. The scapegoat! Theologically that is called expiation where our sin and shame is taken away and we are made clean through Jesus.
Jesus died on the cross for our sin and to take away our shame. Heb 12 says for the joy set before him “He endured the cross, despising its shame and is seated at the right hand of God.”
Jesus who was in the highest place of honour came and shamed himself as a man dying on the cross to take away our shame. When he rose again and ascended to the right hand of the Father – he was restored to the place of highest honour taking us with him. So that we are seated in heavenly places with Him!
Jesus was betrayed by someone He loved, his friends did nothing for Him in his moment of greatest need. They turned their backs on Him. He was humiliated in degrading ways, stripped naked publicly and beaten worse than anyone. He was disgraced, shamed and bled and died on the cross. He can sympathise with all our weakness and because He is God took all of shame and weakness onto himself.
Jesus expiating work on the cross means our sin and shame are taken away forever.
Here is a story that helps us…
A man was married to a woman that he dearly loved for many years. Yet they were never as close and intimate as he desired and he couldn’t figure out why. Truth is she was filled with shame – she had been molested as a young girl and been promiscuous through much of her teenage years. She even cheated on her husband during their engagement and didn’t share her dark shameful secrets with him. After many years she finally told him what she had done and what had been done to her.
The truth devastated her husband who would never have married her if he had known of her infidelity and may have walked away from her as damaged goods if he had known about her lifestyle. At this point she feared he would leave her and want nothing to do with her.
Then he did do the unthinkable: he left their home and she did not know if he would return.
But because he knew the gospel. He went to a shop and bought her a new clean white nightgown. He returned and asked her to undress in from of him and clothe herself in white, which she did. He then said he had chosen to see her not by what had been done to her or done by her, by solely by what Jesus had done to forgive her sin and cleanse her shame. He hugged her and prayed for her and she wept tears that purified her soul as her shame was despised by the love of Jesus and here husband.
This is what God does for us.
There will be three types of people today.
1) Many of you will understand this, know this and live in the goodness of being forgiven and without shame because you have grasped the wonderful grace of God and allowed it to permeate you. Wonderful – keep living in the good of it and help others to grasp the fact that the cross is our propitiation and expiation. And learn how to spell those words too!
2) Some here today haven’t yet experienced the forgiveness that Jesus offers. Perhaps you think that it is your good works that will get you to heaven. They won’t, even your best efforts are like filthy rags to God, because they are tainted by your sin. You can come to Jesus today – he has hands open wide to welcome you into His family.
3) Some here know you are forgiven by Jesus, but you are still carrying the shame of things that you have done and have been done to you. This morning Jesus wants to cleanse you and remove your shame. Some of you in this one have been Christians for years and some a few weeks or months. Yet you still carry shame at times or even daily.
We’d love to pray for you.
In the story of the prodigal son. He’d really blown it, disgracing himself and heaping shame on himself and his family. When he came to his sense and realised he need to come home, he began what he thought would be the walk of shame through the village with every eye on him. Instead he found his father running across the village (itself an act of shame as much as the shame of the cross) to cover the son’s shame with his coat, so he didn’t have to walk past everyone with eyes down.
I’d like to invite you to come forward for prayer for cleansing of shame. As you come it’s not a walk of shame – because the Father is running to you to restore you, cleanse you and cover your shame with honour.
Let’s stand and come forward if you would like prayer for Jesus to cleanse away your shame.
Fig leaf people illustration & nightgown story from “Death by Love” by Mark Driscoll
