Open Heart Surgery
Text: Joel 2:12-17
Introduction
1. Illustration: "Tomorrow morning I'll open up your heart" the surgeon said to the 8 year-old-boy. "You'll find Jesus there," the boy said. The surgeon continued, "I'll open your heart and check the damage." "You'll find Jesus there," the boy said. "When I see the damage, I will suture you back up and then think about the next step," said the surgeon.
"You will find Jesus in my heart because my Sunday school teacher told me so. She said it says so in the Bible. Besides that, our Sunday school songs say He lives there," said the boy. The surgery took place the next day. After the surgery the surgeon began to make notes of what he found. In his mind there was no hope and no cure. The little boy would die within a matter of months. The thought began to get to the doctor and all of a sudden the doctor shouted to God, "Why did you do this to the boy? Why can't he live a normal life?" God spoke to the surgeon's heart and said, "The boy is a part of my flock and will always be a part of my flock. When he is with me there will be no more suffering and pain. He will have comfort and peace. One day his parents as well as you will join him and my flock will continue to grow." The next day the surgeon went to the boy's room and sat down with the parents beside the bed. In a moment or two, the boy opened his eyes and asked very quietly, "What did you find in my heart?" With tears flowing down his cheeks, the surgeon said, "I found Jesus there."
2. If they were to open up your heart today what would they find? Would they find Jesus there?
3. To allow Jesus to operate on our hearts requires that we...
A. Let God Have All Of You
B. Let God Have Your Worship
4. Let's stand together as we read Joel 2:12-17.
Proposition: We will never be all that God has for us until we give our entire selves to God.
Transition: First we have to...
I. Let God Have All Of You (12-14).
A. Give Me Your Hearts
1. Previously, Joel had called the people to blow the alarm that judgment was coming. He took their hope and shattered it. Now he turns their despair back into hope if they will repent and turn back to God.
2. He begins in v. 12 with, "That is why the LORD says, “Turn to me now, while there is time. Give me your hearts. Come with fasting, weeping, and mourning."
A. The appropriate response to the devastation brought by God is repentance.
B. Triple transition indicators mark it. "While" and "now" indicate a new, sequential element to what precedes it.
C. It allows a brief window of opportunity to respond in the face of the rapidly approaching Day of Yahweh.
D. The direct discourse indicator ("That is why the LORD SAYS") identifies the exhortation to repent as originating from Yahweh himself.
E. Yahweh does not wait for the people to turn to him; he initiates the discussion.
F. The new word directed to the audience is an imperative, "turn/repent", which forms a repetition of a related word (return) in Joel 2:13b.
G. Joel follows this up with the manner of repentance: It must be total, accompanied not only by the traditional outward signs of grief, but also with a true, inner reflection of sorrow ("with all your heart") (Baker, The NIV Application Commentary – Joel, Obadiah, Malachi: From biblical text...to contemporary life, 65).
H. He tells them to turn to God with all their hearts.
I. "Heart" often refers to one's "inner self." It is here that one's moods and conscience are centered (The Complete Biblical Library Hebrew-English Dictionary – Kaph-Mem, Under: "3949").
3. Then Joel gives specific instructions regarding their hearts. He says, "Don’t tear your clothing in your grief, but tear your hearts instead.” Return to the LORD your God, for he is merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. He is eager to relent and not punish."
A. Verse 13 contrasts what is customary but unwanted, tearing one's clothes, with a desired response, the metaphorical tearing of the heart.
B. The tearing of one's clothes was a common practice in times of grief or contrition. It symbolized a broken and torn spirit. Here Joel is calling for Judah to actually experience what this symbolism portrays: hearts that are torn with grief and confession of sins (New Spirit-Filled Life Study Bible, 1082).
C. The verb "return" is applied also in the case of the second, desired action. The target toward which one is to turn is indicated first as Yahweh as speaker ("to me," 2:12) and then in the third person as "the LORD your God" (2:13).
D. This shows that while the people have committed wrong, Yahweh still allows them to use his covenant, personal name; he still maintains a personal relationship with them.
E. The prophet is taking up the call to repentance initiated by God in verse 12.
F. The reason for the command to repent follows in a list of descriptors of God. Repentance is to be based on who God is, not on anything of the one who repents.
G. These descriptors consist of four adjectives ("merciful, compassionate, slow to get angry, filled with unfailing love") and a participle ("relents"), which serves as an adjective.
H. The whole section expresses characteristics of God, not simply actions that he performs occasionally. The entire unit is repeated verbatim in Jonah 4:2, with an ironic reversal.
I. Jonah 4:2 (NLT)
So he complained to the LORD about it: “Didn’t I say before I left home that you would do this, LORD? That is why I ran away to Tarshish! I knew that you are a merciful and compassionate God, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. You are eager to turn back from destroying people.
J. Here it is given as a reason for hope, but there it is the reason why Jonah does not want to offer repentance to Nineveh (Baker, 65).
4. Then Joel offers the possibility that God could change his mind. He says, "Who knows? Perhaps he will give you a reprieve, sending you a blessing instead of this curse. Perhaps you will be able to offer grain and wine to the LORD your God as before."
A. Joel most likely is borrowing from Jonah, since the next three verbs in verse 14 also occur in the same context in Jonah.
B. From the multiple uses of this saying, it appears to be a common understanding that God is not only a judge but also someone who wishes to temper his judgment, if the correct response is forthcoming.
C. It is theologically vital to note the hesitancy, however, "Who knows?" While God has shown his graciousness in the past and one expects him to be consistent in his actions and show graciousness again, one must not become either complacent or presumptuous.
D. God is by no means obligated to show compassion and forgiveness. Each time it must be seen from the perspective of human sinners as an unexpected grace, one that is by no means deserved.
E. God's pity is here expounded by describing an actual blessing, a gift of grace, that God "may turn and have pity."
F. This translation hides the fact that the first verb is in fact "return" (sûb), the verb already encountered twice in the two preceding verses.
G. Joel 2:14 (ESV)
Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the LORD your God?
H. If Judah returns to God, he returns to them.
I. "Leave behind" is probably a reference to what the locusts left behind: devastation and destruction.
J. They had deprived people and priest of the means to bring grain and drink offerings, but these God restores. These in turn are to be directed back to him in worship (Baker, 66).
B. With All Your Heart
1. Illustrations: "God will accept a broken heart, but He must have all the pieces."
2. God doesn't want a piece of our heart, he wants all of it!
A. Matthew 22:37-38 (NLT)
Jesus replied, “‘You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment.
B. 25% of your heart isn't enough.
C. 50% of your heart isn't enough.
D. 75% of your heart isn't enough.
E. God requires that you give him ALL of your heart!
F. Telling God "I'll give you this part, and this part, but I'm going to keep this part for myself," won't cut it!
G. God knows your heart more than you know it, and he requires all of it.
Transition: In addition to letting God have all your heart you need also to...
II. Let God Have Your Worship (15-17).
A. Let The Priests Who Minister
1. One of the chief ways that we return to God is through worship. That's why Joel calls people to the temple.
2. In v. 15 he repeats the command to, "Blow the ram’s horn in Jerusalem! Announce a time of fasting; call the people together for a solemn meeting."
A. The people are called by a trumpet blast, though for a different reason.
B. Earlier it was a call of alarm, signaling fear and dread. Here it is a call to assemble for more hopeful reasons.
C. The "assembly" indicates a gathering of people for "sacred" purposes.
D. The people gathered here include even the very young, who are the polar opposite of the "elders," the only ones called in the first several summons in the book (Baker, 67).
3. In v. 16 we see the seriousness of this call to worship. Joel says, "Gather all the people— the elders, the children, and even the babies. Call the bridegroom from his quarters and the bride from her private room."
A. Also included are the bridegroom and bride, thematically related to the couple mentioned in Joel 1:8, though the vocabulary is different.
B. They are newly wed, since they are called out of the privacy of their nuptial chambers.
C. Ministering priests, who wept in frustrated ineffectiveness, now weep in fervent prayer in the area where they perform their sacred service, between the altar and the "temple porch" (the vestibule of temple or palace (Baker, 67).
4. Then he calls the spiritual leaders of the nation to worship when he says, "Let the priests, who minister in the LORD’s presence, stand and weep between the entry room to the Temple and the altar. Let them pray, “Spare your people, LORD! Don’t let your special possession become an object of mockery. Don’t let them become a joke for unbelieving foreigners who say, ‘Has the God of Israel left them?’”
A. The priestly prayer in verse 17 is the second in the book.
B. It also includes an imperative and a jussive verb directed toward Yahweh. He is requested to "spare, show pity" on his unfortunate people, also called his "inheritance" or "property".
C. Both people and property are God's by virtue of the covenant. The priests request that God's own be spared from "scorn" and ridicule, from becoming an international "byword" or word of contempt.
D. In the case of Israel, their claim to be God's people and inheritance would become a lie if they were destroyed.
E. People would ridicule not only their claims but also the very existence or power of their God.
F. "Where is he, if he can't even help you?"
G. This theme of concern for the reputation of God and his people seems to have been common (Baker, 67).
B. Spirit And Truth
1. We need to let go of our intellectual idea of worship and realize there is more to worship than a sermon; we have to let go of our evangelistic notion of worship and reckon with the fact that worship is not primarily directed toward the sinners who need to be converted; we must let go of our entertainment expectations and remind ourselves that we are not in church to watch a Christian variety show. We have gathered together in worship to be met by God the Almighty. God, the Creator of the Universe, the One who sustains our lives, our Redeemer and King, is present through proclamation and remembrance. He wants to communicate to us, to penetrate our inner self, to take up residence within us. And, as we go through the experience of meeting with him in this mystical moment of public worship, we are to respond. But response is not just singing a hymn, not just saying a creed, not just saying a prayer. Response, from the very beginning of worship to the end, must be a powerful inner experience of actually being in the presence of God. When we sing a hymn or say a confession or prayer, we are not singing or saying words, but expressing a feeling, bringing our souls, truly responding and communicating to the living and active presence of a loving and merciful God (Robert Webber. Worship Is a Verb : Eight Principles for Transforming Worship. Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., 1998. pg 114).
2. God is not calling us to worship for a few minuets on Sunday morning, he is calling us to worship him with our lives.
A. John 4:23-24 (NLT)
But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. 24 For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”
B. Worship is not something we go to on Sunday morning, it's an attitude that we carry with us always.
C. Worship is more than just singing a song, rather it requires that we surrender to God with all our hearts.
D. Worship is giving God our voices everyday.
E. Worship is feeding our spirits by reading His Word everyday.
F. Worship is spending time in prayer everyday.
G. Worship is obeying God with our finances everyday.
H. Worship isn't something you do once a week, it's something that you live out on a daily basis.
Conclusion
1. If they were to open up your heart today what would they find? Would they find Jesus there?
2. To allow Jesus to operate on our hearts requires that we...
A. Let God Have All Of You
B. Let God Have Your Worship
3. When people look at your life do they find Jesus there?
