Fruit of the Spirit: Gentleness — with James Thackeray

Welcome to the Grace Church Weekly Podcast. We're an international church right

in the heart of Stockholm, Sweden.

Each week, we share a message that's rooted in the faithful teaching of God's

Word and open to the vibrant work of the Holy Spirit among His people.

Here's this week's message.

We've been going through, as I said, a series on the fruits of the Spirit.

And we've got gentleness today. James is going to bring God's word to us.

I'm just going to pray for him and for us. And then I'll hand over to James.

Heavenly Father, help us to thank you that you speak. Thank you for your word

where you speak to us that we don't have to guess what you're like or what it

is to follow you, but we can hear you.

Thank you for speaking to us for your word.

Give us ears to hear, hearts to receive, that we wouldn't be hard-hearted.

We wouldn't be resistant but we would be willing willing

to hear your word willing to apply it and take it into our lives and we pray

for James thank you that he's serving us and is prepared we just pray you'll

help him through your Holy Spirit to bring all the things you've got in his

heart to us today and you'll enable it to come through with your power in Jesus' name we pray Amen.

So my name's James. I'm one of the leaders here. I'm going to start with a small

apology that's beautifully linked with some news, which Phil alluded to.

So one of the last things I do when I'm preparing to preach is I do my slides,

just in case I have a little, you know, last minute change of plan.

So I have myself already, and then in the last hour or two, finish off the slides.

They wouldn't have been as good as Geary slides, which are fantastic,

but they'd have been okay slides.

Then I got a message about 12.30 from my good friend Rowan that said Marinka

is in labor, which was a bit surprising. That's very, very early.

And then I got another message an hour later with a picture of Marinka and Rowan

and Marinka's new son, Hanryu.

So yeah so

really exciting if you want to get the pronunciation just

right talk to one of our Afrikaans and speakers I

don't have dimensions I'm afraid normally there's a

there's a weight and these days are late but mother and son are doing well I

think part of it a little bit shell-shocked but they'll get there so do please

remember Rowan Marinka and Hanroo in your prayers and apologies for the lack of slides as a result.

I feel a bit bad blaming a newborn baby for my lack of preparedness, but there we go.

Anyway, I don't know if anybody remembers a TV program called Gentle Ben.

Massive show of hands. Emma, excellent. It's nice to have another Gen X person in the room.

This is a British, sorry, an American program about a kid in Florida who had a pet bear.

It was this 300-kilogram black bear.

And there'd be all these kind of, he'd get all kinds of scrapes.

Sometimes there'd be bad guys. And the bad guys were trying to get the kid.

And then Ben, the bear would show up and he'd sort of chase them off.

But he never hurt anyone.

This was a massive 300 kilogram, two meter tall black bear. He never hurt anybody.

So he was called Gentle Ben.

Very fitting name. I wonder if people would know you as Gentle Ben.

If your name is Ben or Gentle whatever your name is.

Would people think of me as Gentle James?

If people think of you in that way, would you think it's a compliment?

Or do you think it's a good thing, a thing to aspire to?

Well, today we're looking at the eighth fruit of the Spirit, gentleness.

But before we kind of dive into that, I just want to step back a little bit.

By the way, there would have been a picture of Ben, the bear at that point, if I had done my slides.

That's all I did, I had a slide with a picture of a bear. and nothing else.

So I didn't bother sending that over.

But I want us to step back a little bit into the context of Galatians.

So in Galatians 1, verse 6,

Galatians 1:6

Paul writes this, I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who

called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel. Amen.

Now, the background to this, there was quite a common view in the very early

church that basically said, yeah, this kind of Jesus died for sins is all very well,

but we obviously need to keep the old practices as well. We need to keep some of them, certainly.

We need to keep some of the customs, some of the practices.

We need to keep circumcision. This is a key thing.

It's actually alluded to earlier in chapter 5,

Paul says for in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts

for anything so this letter was written really to,

rebuff the claim that Paul had basically left stuff out of the message people

were saying Paul has only told you half the story he hasn't told you that you

still also need to do these works.

So this whole letter is really to establish two key things.

Firstly, that people are justified by faith in Christ Jesus.

People are made right with God through Christ Jesus and Christ Jesus alone,

not through doing certain practices, not through following certain customs.

And the second thing, which is most relevant to our passage today,

I is that the sanctification, so growth,

growth in Christ comes through faithful obedience to God, through the power

of Jesus and of the Holy Spirit.

Again, not through following practices and customs.

So this was the background to the whole letter. Sometimes it's worth remembering.

People receive this letter and they've read it. They read it from start to finish.

It's good to spend time going through and really digging in.

But it's also good to read the whole thing in one go. We won't do that today.

But that's the background to the letter. I'm going to read now.

Galatians 5, verse 16 to 26. Again, apologies, the words won't appear,

Galatians 5:16–26

but if you've got your Bibles or an app, do follow along with me.

So Paul, having established that in the start of chapter 5 that we have set

free from these practices, he writes this,

but I say, walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

The desires of the flesh are against the Spirit. and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh.

For these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do.

But if you're led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

Now the works of the flesh are evident. Sexual immorality, impurity,

sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger,

rivalries, dissensions, divisions.

Envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.

I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,

goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have

crucified the flesh with its passions and designs.

If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.

That does not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

So today we're going to focus on gentleness, but I wanted to make just four

really quick points about the fruit of the Spirit in general.

These things have maybe been mentioned before, but this is a kind of summer

series, so a lot of people might have missed a few weeks.

So four very quick things.

The good thing, I don't have to stress about trying to get a clicker to work,

because I not the same as the gifts of the Spirit.

Paul writes in Corinthians about things such as wisdom, healing,

prophecy, faith, gifts given by the Holy Spirit to certain people.

Not everybody gets every gift.

And the gifts of the Spirit are used to build up the church.

They're primarily to build up the body of Christ, which is a church.

Fruit of the Spirit is a practical outworking of the spiritual character for

those who know Christ as a Savior.

So it's not a gift. It's something that we strive towards through walking with the Spirit.

Very separate things. There's a list of fruits of the Spirit,

There's going to be fruits of the Spirit, and there's a list of gifts of the Spirit.

Second thing, the fruit of the Spirit is not a menu.

It's not something that we're to sort of choose our favorite one.

It sounds really nitpicky, but it's the fruit of the Spirit,

not the fruits of the Spirit.

In other words, the expectation, as Christians walking in stack with the Spirit,

is it will show all of these things. and be growing in all of these things.

We're not to think, well, you know, I'm a pretty faithful kind of guy. I'm pretty peaceful.

But gentleness is not for me. I'm not really a gentle kind of person.

Or I say, yeah, I'm really gentle, but joy is a tough old world.

I'm not going to bother with joy.

There's considerable overlap, of course, with the fruits of the Spirit.

But they're all ones that we should strive for.

They're all ones we should grow in. So if you're thinking, say,

well, I'm just not really a gentle kind of person, well, you probably need to listen more than most.

Third thing, the fruit of the Spirit is not entirely natural.

This passage outlines we are naturally people with sinful nature.

That list of idolatry, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger,

that is kind of our more natural state. That is a state in which humans tend to be.

That is how humans tend to react.

And if you think about it for yourself, your natural reaction is probably more

like that list than the second list.

It's much easier to live in the first one, in the way of the flesh,

than the way of the spirit.

And that's why we don't just sort of say, yeah, just do these things,

just be more gentle, they'll just be more joyful because it's hard.

The fourth thing before we look at gentleness, the fruit of the Spirit is not

the means of our salvation.

Actually, this is the whole point of the letter to the Galatians.

There's not a bunch of things you can do to be saved.

The only thing you can do to be

saved is put your faith entirely in Jesus Christ and his ability to save.

But the fruit of the Spirit should be the consequence of our salvation.

Paul writes in Ephesians, For it is by grace you have been saved through faith,

not by works, so that no one can boast.

For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works,

which God prepared in advance for us to do.

While very clear it doesn't say live peacefully, live joyfully live kindly live

gently so that you might be saved.

The Bible says, put your faith in Jesus that you might be saved.

And as a result of that saving faith, live lovingly.

Live in a way pleasing to him.

So let's talk a little bit about gentleness specifically.

And given the very poor show of hands on those who've seen gentle Ben,

I guess we need a little bit more that just say, be more like that bear none

of you have ever heard of or seen.

So I started with a dictionary, gentleness, the quality of being kind, calm, and thoughtful.

Of course, when you Google anything now, AI tries to get involved.

That added carefulness, careful your actions and demeanor.

It starts to talk about horses, very confusing. But perhaps the Greek word originally,

the word that was used, that was translated as gentleness, implied a certain

humility and would often be linked to a combination of strength and self-control.

So we certainly mustn't think of gentleness as just sort of being quiet or being

a pushover or being mean.

It's a little bit more than that. It's a kindness, a calmness, a thoughtful demeanor.

Perhaps the easiest way is to look at a few examples of gentleness.

So Moses is maybe our first example.

Moses is actually described in numbers as the most humble man on the face of the earth.

Actually, as you look at Moses' life, there's many great examples of his gentleness.

Moses, of course, our first encounter with him, apart from when he's a little

baby, he's not particularly gentle because he kills someone.

That's the first thing we see of Moses. who kills somebody who's beating some Israelites.

But Moses then later leads the Israelites out of Egypt.

He leads them through the desert for 40 years.

They're all moaning, they're complaining.

They're often in opposition. He literally turns his back and they start worshiping new idols.

And yet Moses we see constantly being obedient to God.

We see Moses constantly refusing to retaliate against opposition.

His brother Aaron and his wife Miriam kind of rebel against him,

start bad-mouthing him.

God tells Moses what's going on and Moses asks for forgiveness for them,

intercedes on their behalf.

He's an amazing example of patience.

If you read through the accounts in Exodus, what is the natural reaction?

When literally after being brought out of slavery, out of bondage, they start moaning.

They don't have enough food. And they're granted food. And the food's not nice

enough. There's not enough variety. They moan about everything.

Yet Moses gently, kindly, patiently leads them.

So Moses is a great example of gentleness.

Perhaps another good example is the author of this letter.

Paul comes across as this real interesting myth. He's got huge authority.

On occasion, he talks about it. He was like the ultimate super Jew.

And he approached people with gentleness.

He writes to the Thessalonians, we were not looking for praise from people,

not from you or anyone else, even though as apostles of Christ,

we could have assisted our authority.

Instead, we were like young children among you.

In Corinthians he writes, By the humility and gentleness of Christ I appeal to you.

There's a few occasions where Paul basically says, people are saying, I'm too timid.

I'm too mean. Would you rather I came with authority than gentleness?

Of course, in this passage, he's urging gentleness.

And when he writes to Timothy, explaining how to lead the church,

he urges Timothy to work with gentleness.

He says, opponents must be gently instructed in the hope that God will grant

them repentance, leading them to a knowledge of the truth.

If you read Paul's letters, you get a sense both of great authority,

but great gentleness, great care, great compassion.

Two more examples of gentleness for us before we conclude.

One of my favorite passages, one of my favorite incidents in the Bible is where

Elijah is really struggling.

He's had his confrontation with the prophets of Baal.

He's seen God completely vindicate

what he's been saying. He's been saying God is the only true God.

And they literally put that to the test.

But then he's got the king hounding him. He feels he's the only one who's following the Lord.

Then we read this in Kings, The Lord said, Go out and stand on the mountain

in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.

Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks

before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind.

After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.

After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire.

And after the fire came a gentle whisper, When Elijah heard it,

he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.

And then the Lord speaks to him. You have God, the creator of the whole universe,

the mighty, all-knowing, all-powerful God could represent himself to Elijah

in any way, but he chooses a gentle whisper.

And of course, this was followed up in Jesus when God came to earth as a man.

Jesus wrote, come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart,

and you'll find rest for your souls.

Jesus describes himself as gentle, and he lived his life with such gentleness.

Think of his compassion towards the sin.

Think of his compassion and love towards the despised, the lame,

those who were rejected by other people.

Think of his gentleness as he rode into Jerusalem. He could have come as a king

at the head of thousands of angels, but he rode in on a donkey.

Think of his gentleness on the cross.

With a word or a click of his fingers, He could have come down from that cross.

He could have defeated all his enemies and saved himself from that punishment.

But instead he said, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

Moses, Paul, the great examples of gentleness. Maybe you think of somebody,

maybe you have a friend who you think of as a great example of gentleness.

But as you Jesus is the ultimate example of gentleness because imagine what

you would do with that power that Jesus had when you were persecuted,

when you were despised, when you were rejected.

Yet he didn't wave it, he didn't falter, he remained gentle to the end.

So what are we to do with this?

As others have said before me, the passage is quite clear that this is about living by the Spirit.

It says, if we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in stand with the Spirit.

So we don't just wake up and go, I want to be more gentle. I'm just going to

try really hard to be gentle.

We also don't necessarily wake up and just go, I just want to be more in step with the Spirit.

Of course, we're to read the Bible. We're to pray to him. Pray for the Spirit's

guiding. Pray for gentleness.

But I think this also goes hand in hand with action. I think walking in step

with the Spirit means where there's a chance to step one way or another,

we step the way the Spirit would have us.

I love a good meme. There's one that's called the Choose Violence Me.

Again, there'd have been pictures of all kinds of things, cats at this point.

But basically, there'll be like a video where cats sort of being all nice and

lovely and then suddenly bites his owner in the face or something like that.

I'll say, he chose violence or a particularly aggressive debate.

Somebody chooses violence.

I think we can choose gentleness.

I think we have occasions every day where we can choose to be gentle or we can

choose not to we can choose to follow our sinful nature.

I had a very strange, strange experience, well, not strange,

but we were in Scotland with a couple of our friends from America,

Mike and Claire, who we've maybe mentioned before. We climbed the mountain.

And of course, when you get to the top of the mountain, there's always a few

people kind of standing around, admiring the view, just happy to be at the top.

Kind of everyone's all chilled out. We're in nature together.

Very strangely there was a gentleman there who when he clocked our friend's

accent decided he needed a good political argument they're from America he obviously

had a lot to go off his chest about America and Snada answered lots of questions,

Mike quickly offered interest went and said some pictures but Claire Blesser

stood and got the full force of this Scottish gentleman's,

anger, dismay, outrage at everything that was going on in America.

You could tell he was itching for a fight, itching for an argument.

Clio was very patient. And at some point, he managed to jump on something she

had said and started lecturing her about how wrong she was and her views and everything was.

What would you do in that situation? you're at the top of a mountain you're

just there to enjoy nature and this random Scotsman starts badgering you about

supposed political views you may or may not have,

I think I'd have chosen violence hopefully not physical violence but I'd have

given him every single talking point I'd have gone into all kind of nitty gritty

I'd have had a good old argument with him why are you trying to talk politics

and all these kind of things.

Claire chose gentleness. Claire chose his sake.

I'm sorry for offending you. That's not what I meant. It was nice as pie to him.

Didn't say a single crossword. Even apologized to the rest of us on the way down.

And blessed us, another Scottish lady when she walked past us.

I'm really sorry about that guy. We're not all like that.

Claire chose gentleness. In that moment, and it's to her credit.

When someone cuts you in, cuts in front of you in a traffic light,

do you choose gentleness?

When your other half has done something very manner that upsets you,

do you choose gentleness?

If somebody has a different viewpoint to you, do you choose gentleness?

I think if you think about everyday life, you have lots of opportunities to

choose gentleness, to act in a way in line with the spirit rather than your sinful nature.

When people talk badly about somebody, the butt of the jinx,

do you choose gentleness?

Because you have to find a balance here without the spirit.

Without walking in step with the Spirit, we'll find it increasingly hard to

choose anything other than what our sinful nature desires.

But I don't think it ends with the Spirit. I think it starts with the Spirit.

It starts with asking for wisdom, asking for guidance, asking for strength to

live as we should, and then choosing to be gentler in your dealings with others.

Maybe you're not sure how much of an issue this is for you. There's a great way you can find out.

Ask someone close to you. Whether it's a spouse, whether it's a good friend.

Ask them, are you gentle in how you deal with people? Other ways you can be more gentle.

Pray to the Lord that he'll help you to live more in step with the Spirit and choose gentleness.

Of course this isn't a self-help guide

this isn't about like how to be a better person how to live a nicer life life

will be better if you live according to the fruits of the spirit but ultimately

i think we're to choose gentleness every day because jesus chose gentleness on the cross.

Jesus submitted to the will of the Father.

Jesus didn't resist.

Jesus let himself be taken.

There's that incident where Peter's ready to choose violence.

He's got his sword. He chops the ear off somebody.

Jesus heals him. Jesus chose gentleness.

I'd urge you to choose gentleness out of obedience to the Father and following Christ's exam.

It's much more than just being a bit quiet.

It's about living the life we're called to live. about surrendering to God,

following Christ's example.

I urge you to take the opportunity whether it's today, tomorrow,

things will arise, I can guarantee in the next 24 hours, where you can choose

gentleness or you can choose some against. Choose gentleness.

We hope that this sermon has encouraged you. If you'd like to learn more about

us, visit us online at gracechurch.se.

Thanks for listening.