Ink

Kim Jong Il and God's Signet Ring

2012-01-01T16:02:00.002+13:00

Kings and leaders, good or bad, don’t last long. This past week has seen the fall of one of the grimmest dictators known to the modern world. Kim Jong Il portrayed himself as a little god. A short man with giant ego. He created a myth of himself as talented and powerful. He buttressed this myth with a massive military. He favoured the generals close to him, so that they supported him. He kept the people of North Korea under rigid laws. Anyone who opposed him he killed or put in dreadful prison camps. Included among those who suffered the most, are Christians. But now he has gone. God squeezed his heart and he breathed his last. Now his son will try to repeat his father’s evil.

Here are some verses from Isaiah’s prophecy about another despot, the King of Babylon. These words could apply equally to Kim Jong Il.

Isaiah 14.12-20
12 “How you are fallen from heaven,
O Day Star, son of Dawn!
How you are cut down to the ground,
you who laid the nations low!
13 You said in your heart,
‘I will ascend to heaven;
above the stars of God
I will set my throne on high;
I will sit on the mount of assembly
in the far reaches of the north;
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.’
15 But you are brought down to Sheol,
to the far reaches of the pit.
16 Those who see you will stare at you
and ponder over you:
‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble,
who shook kingdoms,
17 who made the world like a desert
and overthrew its cities,
who did not let his prisoners go home?’
…You have destroyed your land,
you have slain your people.

The terrible legacies of Kim Jong Il and the King of Babylon were to destroy their lands and kill their own people. Kim Jong Il – the ‘dear leader’ – was very dear – costly to the well-being of North Korea. He built weapons of mass destruction, rather than provide food for his people.

You may well be asking what this has to do with Christmas Day! It has everything to do with it. If Christmas Day is about choosing one particular day to remember the birth of Jesus Christ - then the issue of who is fit to lead people is a very relevant issue to talk about. Because the birth of Jesus Christ is about the arrival of the ONE MAN who is fit to lead humanity – to lead YOU!

Let me expose a bit more clearly why Jesus Christ, God’s chosen leader for humanity, is needed by this world. In Ezekiel, we read of God’s judgement on another wretched leader: the King of Tyre. He was a trading king – an entrepreneur who controlled people by financial systems and trade. Tyre was a city of luxury on the edge of the Mediterranean. Ezekiel’s prophecy declares that the city of Tyre will be dismantled and stone by stone thrown into the sea – overwhelmed by a mightier king (Nebuchadnezzar) was the instrument of God’s judgement on Tyre. (These are historic realities and you can go there to see the remains of the once great city submerged in the sea.) Once God had decreed its time of greedy oppression through finance and trading was finished, the city was thrown down by the Babylonians.

Listen to the word of God against the King of Tyre. Ezekiel 28. (Remember, we are finding reasons why humanity needs a better King than the ones it generates for itself.)
1 The word of the LORD came to me: 2 “Son of man, say to the prince of Tyre, Thus says the Lord GOD:
“Because your heart is proud,
and you have said, ‘I am a god,
I sit in the seat of the gods,
in the heart of the seas,’
yet you are but a man, and no god,
though you make your heart like the heart of a god—

You have made wealth for yourself,
and have gathered gold and silver
into your treasuries;
5 by your great wisdom in your trade
you have increased your wealth,
and your heart has become proud in your wealth—
6 therefore thus says the Lord GOD:
Because you make your heart
like the heart of a god,
7 therefore, behold, I will bring foreigners upon you,
the most ruthless of the nations;
and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of your wisdom
and defile your splendour.
8 They shall thrust you down into the pit,
and you shall die the death of the slain
in the heart of the seas.
9 Will you still say, ‘I am a god,’
in the presence of those who kill you,
though you are but a man, and no god,
in the hands of those who slay you?

Thus says the Lord GOD:
“You were the signet of perfection,
full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.
13 You were in Eden, the garden of God;
every precious stone was your covering,
sardius, topaz, and diamond,
beryl, onyx, and jasper,
sapphire, emerald, and carbuncle;
and crafted in gold were your settings
and your engravings.
15 You were blameless in your ways
from the day you were created, till unrighteousness was found in you.

The King of Tyre was another mighty human leader found wanting - and judged. I want you to notice how in this chapter (28.12,13), the King of Tyre is spoken of as if he had been present in the Garden of Eden – as if he was the first man. Of course the King of Tyre wasn’t the first man in the Garden, Adam was. But God makes the connection between the failure of the King of Tyre and the failure of the head of the human race (Adam) who was blessed with great wealth. Adam was also a failed leader.

There is a particular thing that God says about the King of Tyre and ultimately about Adam:
You were the signet of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. (v12)

A signet is a ring. It is a ring with a crest or image on it. The reason the King of Tyre (and before him, Adam) is likened to a signet ring is that a king’s royal ring was used to imprint its image over and over again – sealing laws, promises and decrees. The king’s signet was the mark that was put on everything to show that it came from the king. Everyone’s daily life was ‘stamped’ with the will and the character of the king.

Kim Jong Il did this by having his image everywhere. Every home, street-corner, shop, factory, bus or museum has his picture. He portrayed himself as watching over his people. People dressed like him, spoke like him and believed in him (because if you failed to, you could disappear.) He stamped his will and nature on everything and everyone in North Korea.

So the mention of a signet ring is a way of describing the authority and influence of the wearer.There are some other Bible texts that speak of a signet ring as the mark of a king’s authority:

Jeremiah 22.24.
“As I live, declares the LORD, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were the signet ring on my right hand, yet I would tear you off and give you into the hand of those who seek your life, into the hand of those of whom you are afraid, even into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and into the hand of the Chaldeans".

God likens the King of Judah (Israel) to a signet ring. It was planned that he should put the mark of God’s authority on Israel so that everything he did as king was stamped with God’s likeness. But he proved to be a compromised, corrupted king. So God warns that he is going to strip the ring off his finger and hand it over to his enemies. In other words, the King of Judah was about to lose the authority given to him by God and be dethroned by the King of Babylon.

Next, here is a more positive example of the signet ring representing a man in leadership who would stamp all that he did with the likeness of God:
Haggai 2.23 "On that day, declares the LORD of hosts, I will take you, O Zerubbabel my servant, the son of Shealtiel, declares the LORD, and make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you, declares the LORD of hosts.”

Here, God promises to a faithful Israelite prince, Zerubbabel, that he will make him like his signet ring - because he has chosen to work through him. Zerubbabel was one of those responsible for the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the Temple after the years of exile (in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah).

So, the significance of the signet ring is that it illustrates the stamp of influence a king can have upon his people. However, human kings and leaders have all failed – starting from the head of the human race, the first man, Adam. The greatest sign of their weakness is that they all die – so that even good kings cannot sustain themselves. Adam, God’s first signet ring, corrupted the image of God stamped on his life and went on to imprint his own imperfection and death on all who followed.
Instead of imprinting the perfection originally given to him by God - this premiere man, Adam, was a failure. He disobeyed God and ended up imprinting his fallen nature on everyone that followed. His oldest son, Cain, was a murderer. He passed on the stamp of his sinful nature to all of us who followed.

Human history confirms that no person is able to provide clear, truthful, death-defeating leadership. The king of Babylon, the king of Tyre, Kim Jong Il are all graphic examples of human leadership at their worst. The Christmas events also included evil leaders: Ceasar Augustus, emperor of Rome, counting all his empire – numbering them so he could control their destiny. Ironically, the smallest little tally mark on a scroll in Bethlehem would soon upturn his empire. Then there was King Herod, the evil puppet-king who killed baby boys in the hope of exterminating the possible future challenge of Jesus’ kingship.

I’ve lived through 15 NZ prime ministers in my time. They’ve done their best - some have done good and others have created havoc. However, NZ is not a better society than it was 60 odd years ago. Men and women make their promises, and the country hopes for the best, but inevitably people tire of their leaders and their failings become more and more obvious until people tire of them and vote them out – hoping that someone new might improve things. But they are all stamped with Adam’s likeness - who ruined his chance to be God’s signet.

Now, let’s consider Christmas – or, more properly, the birth of Christ.
The incarnation is God in Christ, reconciling the world to himself. That is, the second person of God, the Son, took to himself a human nature (body and soul) and entered the mainstream of human life at a specific time and place. There are many reasons why it was necessary for him to express himself through a human life, but one of the main ones is: The world needs a ‘signet of perfection’ – a glorious, just, death-defying man – who can lead humanity back to God - and establish a kingdom of people stamped with his likeness, ready and able to live endlessly.
Incarnation means becoming flesh. When God’s Son became flesh, he didn’t stop being God. He took up a human life as well as his life as God. He expressed himself through the particular personhood of Jesus – son of Mary.

Jesus Christ is the new Adam. He is God’s perfect signet ring, imprinting his godly nature on all who come to him in faith through new birth. Without that imprint we remain God’s enemies.The New Testament, explains this:

Romans 5
12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned. Death reigned. 15 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. 19 For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous.

That passage describes two leaders and two peoples: It describes Adam, who introduced death to all who followed him – so everyone who follows is stamped by the bias towards sin. And it describes Jesus who brought righteousness and eternal life for his followers. He does that by repairing what Adam wrecked.

1 Corinthians 15.47-49
47 The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. 48 As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.
As long as we follow men and our own instincts, we will continue to decay back to the dust of the earth. But if we receive the Leader (Christ) whom God has given us, he will stamp us with the image of God.

Romans 8.28,29 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

So, God wants us to be conformed, or shaped into, the image of his Son. Stamped with his family likeness, to become brothers and sisters of Christ and children of God.

Romans 12.2 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.

Followers of Christ will not allow the world to squeeze us into it’s mold. We are being transformed (reshaped) as our minds are stamped with the thinking of Christ. We are able to choose and follow the will of God – what is good, acceptable and perfect. This is the character of our Leader – stamped on us and shaping our influence on the world around us. THIS is the leader God send to us at the birth of Jesus.

Luke 1.67-75 (Zechariah, John the Baptist’s father, prophesied about Jesus when he heard that his son would announce Jesus’ as God’s chosen Leader)
68 “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
for he has visited and redeemed his people
69 and has raised up a horn of salvation for us
in the house of his servant David, (the horn denotes a leader-King)
70 as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,
71 that we should be saved from our enemies
and from the hand of all who hate us;
72 to show the mercy promised to our fathers
and to remember his holy covenant,
73 the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us
74 that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies,
might serve him without fear,
75 in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.

Jesus Christ the first compete human being was born into the world to lead us safely into God’s kingdom and, as God’s signet ring, to stamp us with his own likeness.

This is the Jesus we celebrate:
Hebrews 1.1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. 3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.
5 For to which of the angels did God ever say,
“You are my Son,
today I have begotten you”?
8 Of the Son he says,
“Your throne, O God, is forever and ever,
the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom.
9 You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness;
therefore God, your God, has anointed you
with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.”
10 And,
“Sit at my right hand
until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet”?

Make today, the one where you confess Jesus as Lord. Resist being stamped by the image of the world. Open your mind, heart and life to be indelibly marked – set apart for your Lord and King.

What does it mean to belong to the Church?

2011-11-22T21:49:00.002+13:00

Acts 2:42-47

This passage tells us that being part of the Church means to be devoted to certain things.

To devote yourself to something or someone, is to give your full attention and effort to it. Being devoted is to seriously and earnestly persist in something. It is not possible to be part of the church in a half-hearted or casual way. Christ said to a lukewarm church: You are neither hot nor cold, so I spit you out of my mouth!

Our text gives us a short list of behaviours that answer the question ‘What does it meant to be part of the church?’ None of the things spoken of here was done lightly or for appearances. Those Christians meant business. They were internally driven to do these things. It was not duty, not rules, not the upkeep of a tradition. They FELT something! The Holy Spirit was stirring them.

Before we pay attention to this short list of behaviours – we need to notice what drove them to devote themselves to these things. Where did the motivation come from, that brought out such devoted behaviour?

I’m sure you know the context of this chapter in Acts. Peter, the apostle, has recently preached the first public gospel message, to a large crowd that gathered in the street and courtyard of the big house the disciples were renting in the city of Jerusalem. There were 100 or so Christians at the house and Christ had just sent the Holy Spirit to be poured out in them – just as he had promised. It was the birth of the Spirit-filled Church. The resulting joyful commotion caused people to come running to find out what was going down. Peter, full of the Holy Spirit stood up on the balcony and preached loudly to the crowd packed into the narrow streets. His message had a stunning effect on the people. Listen:

37 When the people heard Peter’s message, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”
38 Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”
40 With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” 41 Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.

A deep cut to the heart that exposed their feelings unworthiness in front of God, brought many people to repentance. They accepted the message and were baptised. This deep cut was caused by the word of God, preached by Peter.
Hebrews 4.12 For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. 13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

This is the starting point of the lively, significant first church that was so full of motivated people, devoted to God’s concerns: Those people had received a deep cut to the heart.

They had seen their critical need to make peace with God.
They had learned that only Jesus Christ could affect that reconciliation with God. They understood that his recent horrific execution at the cross was a sacrifice for their sin.
They repented.
They accepted the promises of the good news, including forgiveness and the refreshing, rebuilding presence of the Holy Spirit in them.
They were baptised.
They were added to the people of God.

The Holy Spirit who was motivated them to the devotion we read in Acts 2. These people didn’t just ooze into the church. They received a blow to their sinful lives - a deep cut to the heart - that transformed their outlook on EVERYTHING! Being part of the church was transformational.

The church has gone off the boil in our day; you can call almost anything a church.
We drive past run-down buildings where hardly anyone bothers to meet, but because it has a sign on it that says ‘such and such church’ or because it has churchy architecture - people call it a church.

You can have a community centre called St Peter’s that runs youth programmes, indoor bowls, Zumba, Yoga and a Bridge Club on Thursday mornings with scones – and people say that it’s a church - but it’s NOT those things that make a church.

You can rent a warehouse and fill it with a heaving mass of people listening to loud music and call it church – but it may not be.

You can have a group of people faithful to a tradition or denomination, going through the motions – carefully maintaining the practices that that denomination has historically held on to – but it is not necessarily a church.

Actually in most cases these examples are not churches. Just because something has feathers doesn’t mean it’s a duck – it could be sleeping bag or a flash hat! Likewise, not every group that meets in a building and does vaguely Christian stuff is a church. There is a much higher standard of proof required. And here it is: The test of the identity of a church is in this list of devoted behaviours in our text.
You can use this list to check to discover whether you are in a church – and if it IS one, whether YOU are part of it! This is for YOU to judge. And the issue at the heart of this is individual, personal DEVOTION.

Devotion means diving in – immersing yourself in the ocean that is Christ and his calling and purpose for you and your church. It is not sipping occasional Bible medicine from a teaspoon.

1. These Christians devoted themselves to the apostles teaching. In those times, at the very early stage of the Church, they had the apostles themselves with them - freshly taught by Jesus and freshly filled with the Holy Spirit. The apostles preached Christ from the Old Testament and they re-taught what Jesus had taught them. Jesus solemnly promised that he would give them the Holy Spirit as their teacher and that he would bring to mind all that he had taught them. John 14:
The Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.

We too have the apostles teaching – we have it in the New Testament in written form. So if we are devoted to the apostles’ teaching like the early church, we will be devoted to learning from the Bible.

OK, so you’re part of the church, right? I’m not going to tell you that you are. You need to know whether you are. And here is the first way you can check for yourself: Are you intensely, frequently, purposely devouring God’s Word? A follower of Jesus Christ, is eagerly - desperately even – searching the Bible and talking about it with others. These early Christians proved they were part of the church by devoting themselves to the Word of God. Do you? When you all meet together, is learning from God’s word a central feature? Are your home groups rich with people sharing the Bible with one another? When the women meet together, are they just arranging flowers – or are they also devoting time to seriously explore and apply God’s Word. When the youth or the children meet, are they just playing games, or are they also being challenged by lively committed Christians, who share God’s Word with them?

Those Christians saw amazing evidence of the power of God’s Word. There were signs and wonders. Massive personal problems were being repaired. People suffering from the love of money were being healed. People with diseases were being made well. Toxic family relationships were being purified. Filthy minds were being purged. Addict were being unchained.

Signs and wonders follow the preaching of the word. Mark 16.20 Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that followed (or accompanied it).

When a church gets on with preaching the Word - God will back it up with the signs and wonders he wisely considers necessary. We are not talking about fake excitement like the shows put on by Benny Hinn – but you can expect to see evidence of the Holy Spirit blowing through your church like the wind blowing through a large tree – setting everything in motion from the trunk to the tiniest leaf.

2. Next evidence that you have a Bible church and are you are part of it: They were devoted to THE fellowship. Notice that it doesn’t say ‘devoted to fellowship’. There is a difference. Devoted to fellowship, means that you LIKE fellowship – it’s pleasant – it means your needs. Well, Christian fellowship CAN meet your needs – it is MEANT to be very satisfying. But it never becomes that way by you going into it to get what you want from it. This misunderstanding is why so many people say things like: “Yeah, I used to go to that church, but it wasn’t giving me what I wanted.” The real question is: “Am I giving to my church what it needs?” As Jesus said: It is more blessed to give than to receive. He speaks the truth you know!

When you are devoted to THE fellowship – that means you are intensely committed to the people that form the fellowship. You are intent on building others up. You are intent on serving them and developing spiritual gifts that will strengthen them in Christ.

So, is this a church and are you a part of the church? Check your attitude to THE fellowship. Are you devoted to it? Or do you come and go as you feel like, with no sense of commitment to the feelings or needs of others? Are you discouraging Christians here by rarely opening your home for a shared meal, a home group, or by hardly ever having anything challenging or encouraging to share with others, or by disappearing for weeks at a time and then drifting back when you feel like it? What message does that send to others? Does it say that you love them, you care about their lives and that you want to grow and serve Christ with them? Devote yourself to the Fellowship.

Verses 44-46 expand on this commitment to fellowship. Those Christians used what they possessed for the good of the church. They saw their homes, and possessions as resources for blessing the church. Rather than possessing their possessions, they used them as messengers of love. If they had surplus stuff beyond their own needs, they gave it away or sold it and invested the money in the needs of others.

There were massive social and material needs in that Jerusalem church as it grew at such a phenomenal rate. How awesome it would be if in our lifetime we were to experience such a massive, accelerated growth of the church that we had to pool our resources to meet the needs of those jostling their way into God’s kingdom. Nevertheless – there WILL be circumstances where generosity is needed – beyond what seems financially prudent! But think like this: Is my house the best possible house to support the growth of the church? Do I know my people well enough, that if someone lacked food or blankets or child-minding, I could jump in provide some of those things? This is not a rule. This is love in action. This is spiritual problem-solving. This is what it means to be part of the church.

Verse 46 emphasises the frequent happy contact those believers enjoyed. They met in public meetings for teaching and worship - and they met in homes for encouragement, prayer and problem-solving. They ate together and enjoyed each other’s’ company.
What does it mean to be part of the Church? It means to be GENUINELY part of other Christian’s lives.

3. Next devotion: They were devoted to the breaking of bread. Devotion includes passion – you can’t be devoted without feeling something. We are not talking about duty here. There are people who maintain the Lord ’s Supper – the ‘breaking of bread’ – as a kind of badge of their orthodoxy – a kind of proof that they are the real oil. Someone might even think of themselves as genuinely ‘Brethren’ because the break bread every Sunday. But that is not devotion – that is religion. Devotion is this. You break bread because you feel the need to keep remembering personally - and reminding your brother and sister Christians – where your LIFE comes from.

Breaking bread, also called the Lord’s Supper, is something done over and over and over again – because we need to be reminded over and over and over again that without Christ we are nothing. Christ is EVERYTHING. We didn’t get his life because of any fine efforts of our own. We got it through his shame. Christ was made SIN for us! He was made a CURSE for us. He BLED for us. He surrendered his body to the cross and wrote a new agreement with God for us in his own blood. Unless we can eat his body and drink his blood we have no life in us.

Too strong? Eating his body? Drinking his blood? What is this? Well, argue with Bible. Hear what Jesus said. John 6.53ff
Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. 57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me.

It is absolutely clear that Jesus teaches here that he is the source of life for his followers. Eating his flesh and drinking his blood means two things:
1. It means that we have identified so very closely and personally with his death and resurrection – that we take them for our own. Our own death to sin. Our own springing up to a new way of living. And we do that because the gospel invites us to. God promises to accept Christ as the sacrifice for our sins.
2. It also means that we have to GO ON eating and drinking Christ. We feed on him for spiritual life all the time, for every circumstance.

Being devoted to the breaking of bread, means confessing to God, to yourself and to each other – over and over again – that we need Jesus Christ like we need food – not just an occasional contact – we need him to sustain our lives spiritually night and day.

4. Next devotion: prayer. These first Christians were unflinching in prayer. They prayed the kind of prayers that Jesus taught his disciples. Take the prayer we know as the Lord’s prayer.
Our Father in heaven: This prayer is made to the God of the universe who is greater than the universe. He is Father – originator of everything. He occupies heaven. He can and will sustain things, change things, defeat things, build things. He is God over everything!

Hallowed be your name: This is the single big over-arching request that everything in this prayer is directed towards. Hallowed means ‘confessed as holy’. May your name be confessed – acknowledged – and kept holy. This prayer is asking that through all the various life experiences we pray about, that the name of God will be seen to be magnificent as he works them out. That his name will be magnified (which is similar to the word magnificent) that he is regarded by all as the greatest – the ultimate value – the most precious and satisfying personhood above and beyond anything anyone could imagine, ask or think. This prayer (hallowed by your name) is saying: “God assert your marvellous character and power – because that is the highest good.” It is not just stuff we are praying for. It is that we will see and possess God himself as our greatest treasure.

Now this is quite different to the mindset of much that we call prayer. How often it is that the highest aim of our prayers is US! That God will make US the highest good through our prayers. Actually, if we can share in God’s goodness, then we will be properly satisfied.

The early church devoted themselves to prayer – which means they devoted themselves to seeking God’s glory – that he should be displayed in all his magnificence in everything that happened to them. If this is a church and you part of it – one major piece of evidence will be your devotion to prayer. You will see it as a way to maximise the glory that goes to God as he moves you and your church ahead in the path of his will.

I’ve been pointing out from these verses, that the answer to the question you gave me: What does it mean to be part of the Church? is very substantially discovered by you examining your church and your part in it - to see whether you are devoted to learning from the Bible, the fellowship, the breaking of bread and prayer.

The church is supposed to be the place in all the world where the best representation of Christ’s character and purpose for humanity is seen and heard. How are you doing?

Look at Verse 43
Did you notice the reference to fear (or awe) there?
Awe is a very strong emotion - awe is almost fear and may be terrifying in some circumstances. Clearly it is a deeply felt emotion which produces a feeling of insignificance and reverence in the presence of what is fearful or awesome. Fear has to do with punishment or attack – so terrifying FEAR is felt towards an enemy. But when that is felt towards an ally or Rescuer - it is AWE. These Christians felt awe towards God. We ‘fear God’ in the sense of feeling awe of him. We know he is utterly pure and that he will not shake hands with evil but will eventually destroy it wherever it is found. This is why we have come to trust in Christ – to find safety in him. He has absorbed God’s wrath against us.

There must be awe in the church. And if you are part of the church, you must be in awe of God. We need awe in the church. When individuals and the church are filled with awe about God, then being part of the church won’t seem small, petty, ineffective and just humans going through the motions.

The singing will swell, the respect for others will increase, there will be a strong awareness that Christ himself is leading the Church – people will be collaring you and asking you to give the reason for the hope you have. There will be seriousness – not a boring dullness – but a sense that we must not mess up what God is doing. There will be an increasing desire to please God and see his church grow.

In conclusion: It says in V47 that those who were being saved, were added to the church by the Lord. I think this emphasises the dynamic, fluid, growing nature of the church. It wasn’t a case of people being categorised or numbered as belonging to the church. The church was full of people who were experiencing and celebrating continual saving and repeated rescues by the Holy Spirit. Of course they were saved once and for all at new birth, but their salvation was being worked out in actions every day. Philippians 2.12,13 Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfil his good purpose.

Working out your salvation is the same as expressing devotion to each of those things listed in this passage. This is what it means to be part of the church.

WHAT’S PERMISSABLE?

2011-11-19T12:23:00.001+13:00

Food, house, sex, money, things?

1 Corinthians 6.12-20

"All things are lawful for me," but not all things are helpful. "All things are lawful for me," but I will not be enslaved by anything. "Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food"—and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, "The two will become one flesh." But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

In this part of his letter, Paul appears to be repeating quotes provided by Corinthian Christians who are recommending a self-indulgent lifestyle. He takes those quotes and turns them right side up so that they fit correctly with God’s truth.

• “All things are lawful for me” - but not all things are helpful.

The saying appears to mean that I am free to have whatever I want. Paul adds the caution that, yes, you may be free to have whatever you want, but not everything you want is beneficial to you.

Food, house, sex, money, things? Paul’s response is, “Yes, but!”

Each of these things are open to me in the general sense. None of them are forbidden by God (although each certainly has some boundaries in place). But they are only helpful to me in any measure, in so far as they are added to my life with God’s permission and intent. In other words, when God fits them into my life they will do me good.

They are unhelpful to me if they become ends in themselves. If I focus on any of these permissible things and make them idols, I will be enslaved by them. For example, I am free to own a house, but if that house becomes an idol, that consumes my time, and thinking, it is damaging because it is ruling my life.

The Christian’s position is wonderfully liberating, because while I am free to participate in all things, I do not want them. They are not an end in themselves. I want God and what he wants for me. I am happy to accept what he adds to my life and pass on what he doesn’t.

• “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food”.

This saying suggests that we should eat and drink whatever, whenever and how much we feel like, because food and the stomach are designed for each other! (One might use the same argument for sex. “Sex is meant for the genitals and the genitals for sex”.) The saying invites self-indulgence. Paul however, introduces the thought that there is something that over-rides even basic appetites for food or sex. And that is the knowledge that God destroys both food and stomachs! In other words, God has decreed that both food and human bodies don’t last. These are temporary things. What fool gives his life to what is temporary when he could have what is lasting?
Paul teaches that while Christians are free to eat whatever they want, they are not going to allow food to become a ‘god’ or idol. They will use food under God. That is, they will own God as greater than their appetites and use food in the measure that God allows and which serves his purposes.

• The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.

Paul takes the quote about the natural relationship between food and the stomach and asserts that there is an even greater connection between the Lord and our bodies. Our bodies belong to the Lord for his service. Our bodies are not our own. Our bodies must not be idols or ‘little gods’ so that we obey their passions. We use our bodies for the Lord.

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, who you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

The Point and Purpose of the Present Time

2011-11-11T12:27:00.003+13:00

Acts 2.14-21. Peter Explains the Meaning of the Commotion at Pentecost

Jesus had told his disciples in advance, that when Holy Spirit came, he would make Christ known. The gifts of the Spirit are for just that purpose. Peter preaches Christ to the crowd, using Spirit-supplied speaking gifts to make him known. Peter’s message is as much a miraculous phenomenon as the fire, wind and tongues. In fact, the word Peter speaks accomplishes more than those three. The fire, wind and tongues caused the people to say, “What IS that!” But the preached Word cuts them to the heart and results in mass conversion.

The 12 disciples stand together and Peter speaks for them all. Like the Spirit-revived army of Ezekiel’s valley of dry bones (Ez 37) this team stands and steps forward - called and equipped by Jesus; ready to continue his work in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Peter goes to the Scriptures for his explanation of what his audience had witnessed. Peter says that Joel’s prophecy explains these events. This tells us that it is God who acts and then he helps us to talk about it from the Bible. Keeping in step with the Spirit includes speaking up to explain what God is doing. God initiates the actions; they are not stirred up with human energy. He prompts, ignites and sends; then he enables us to give reasons, explanations and exhortations from the Bible to make his purpose clear.

Peter points out that Joel’s prophecy describes the ‘last days’. It puts brackets around the last days: the first bracket that announces the opening of the last days is the pouring out of the Spirit (17,18). The closing bracket, describing the end of the age, is the upheavals in nature (19,20). And what occupies the period between is God’s purpose for that time, which is to gather into his kingdom all who will call on the name of the Lord (21).

Joel announced that God would pour out his Spirit on all kinds of people in the last days and Peter is chiming in to assert that those last days have arrived with that day of Pentecost. From this we can work out that the last days are not just a couple of literal days before the end of history; rather the term refers to a period of time, an epoch. The period between Jesus’ first and second comings is the ‘last days’. It is variously referred to as the Church Period, the Gospel Age, or the Age of Grace. It is the time when the gospel goes out to every corner of the world over a period of centuries. So far that period has extended for 30 or so generations (from around 34AD to 2011AD). Other passages in the New Testament confirm that these are the last days: Hebrews 1.1,2; 1 Peter 1.20; 1 Cor 10.11.

You and I live in the last days. The Spirit has been given and our task is the populating of God’s Kingdom by witnessing to the good news that all who call on the name of the Lord may be saved. The book of Acts shows how this work proceeds from place to place, from community to community and from individual to individual. Planting and growing churches is clearly the strategy.

Joel’s prophecy announced that there is no limit to the kinds of people who may receive the Holy Spirit (V17,18) The Spirit is poured out on all peoples.
- Men and women will prophesy (that is, speak the messages of God)
- Youths will see visions.
- The elderly will dream dreams.
- Even those with menial jobs in the world’s eyes (servants) God owns has his, and they too will prophesy.

This describes a body of people that cuts right across the categories that the world hardens into. The Spirit breaks down those walls. These people are inundated with the works, the mind and the character of Christ.

According to Joel’s prophecy, these centuries of outpouring, generation upon generation, nation upon nation, will culminate in the shaking of nature itself:

- Wonders will be shown in the heavens.
- Signs will be given on earth.
- Those signs will include blood, fire and smoke, the sun darkened, the moon reddened.
- This describes wars (blood), destruction and upheavals in nature.
- All this will be the precursor to a great and magnificent day.

This describes a chain of events with the pouring out of the Holy Spirit as the start of it all. The Pentecost event is the beginning of the ‘Last Days’. Human history is accelerating towards its conclusion, as decreed by God. A calamity is coming for those who remain on the wrong side of God’s judgements.

2 Timothy 3.1-3 But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.

Luke 21.9-11 When you hear of wars and uprisings, do not be frightened. These things must happen first, but the end will not come right away.” Then he said to them: “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven.

But these are great days! These are the days of the good news, the days of building the church, the days when the church expands against the very gates of hell and flattens them to release captives into the kingdom of God. (Matthew 16.18; Mark 3.27). It is a tremendous privilege to live in these times.

The book of Acts introduces us to the danger, challenge, excitement and victory as the church is built. It requires sacrifice and perseverance, and the Holy Spirit is equal to the task!

Matthew 24:9–14 “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake. And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. 11 And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

John the Baptist had announced the arrival of the Kingdom of God and Jesus confirmed that it had arrived with him. It was no longer hidden and it continues to assert itself and expand during the gospel age until it edges out, then throws down and grinds into fine dust the kingdoms of this world inspired by Satan. (Daniel 2.44,45)
The promise of what was to come during the gospel age is disclosed at the day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit is available for people of all classes, races, gender and age. And the primary evidence of the Spirit’s presence will be prophecy – that is, people of all kinds speaking God’s messages.

The strongest evidence of God’s work going ahead is people speaking God’s word. The church that is rich with people at all ages and stages talking about the Bible and applying it to their lives, is the church where God is working. The prophecy of Joel offers other evidences too:

Vision. The Holy Spirit communicates the next opportunities and future developments to the church. Youth catch a vision of how to use up their lives for Christ’s service. Older people begin to see the scope of the kingdom of heaven. Perhaps the difference between visions and dreams in this context is that visions are action plans and dreams are perceptions about the final state (the fulfilment) of things.

Another evidence of the Spirit’s strong work in the church is that human hierarchies and categories that hold people in a fixed spot in society are obliterated. A community of equality develops where all may be involved in the expansion of the kingdom. Believers associate with the lowly. Everyone is reaching out to pull others up to a better place and safer understandings of the promises of God in Christ.

At the very end of the period of the Last Days, the kingdom of God will disturb the solar system itself. More is foretold about these astonishing events is found in Revelation. These events may punctuate the gospel age, but will intensify and usher in the return of Christ with massive upheavals. The great and magnificent day is when Christ returns in glory.

And throughout this period in which we are now living, all who call on the name of the Lord shall be saved! Peter locates us in God’s great plan for humanity. This is the Church Age, the time to unleash the good news; the time for all believers to find their tongues and prophesy. It is the time to declare that the name of the Lord has been revealed. He is the Christ. There is rescue and a place in an eternal kingdom for those who call upon his name.

(Next, having laid out the explanation of the commotion caused by the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, Peter goes on to announce that Jesus of Nazareth is the Lord on whom they must call).

Wind and Fire

2011-11-10T11:48:00.003+13:00

Acts 2.1-13
This passage teaches us about the power that God makes available through his Holy Spirit. Every Christian needs that power.
These events occurred on the day of Pentecost, an Old Testament festival. It was the final great day of a harvest festival that lasted 7 weeks and celebrated God’s generous provision for his people – not least his rescue from slavery and poverty in Egypt. It was also the anniversary of the giving of the Law at Mt Sinai.
With the completion of Jesus’ mission, the Old Testament symbols began falling to reality. You don’t need symbols if you have reality. This is why we don’t need crosses or doves or special outfits or smoke and mirrors in church life and worship. We have Christ. We have the Holy Spirit. We have the Word of God and spiritual gifts. These are real; they are life-filled and are life-sustaining. When Christ stepped out of the tomb he put away the need for symbols.
Colossians 2.16,17 Therefore let no one pass judgement on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance (the reality) belongs to Christ.
One astonishing and powerful evidence of symbols being taken over, was what happened in the Temple on the afternoon that Christ gave up his life at the cross. Jesus cried out: “It is finished!” and gave up his spirit to God. At that moment in the Temple sanctuary – that is, the holiest part of the Jerusalem temple - something powerful happened: a symbol literally fell and gave way to reality. The Temple sanctuary was a place encrusted with symbolic representations of God’s holiness and human need of forgiveness. This included a MASSIVE embroidered curtain that closed off the holiest room of the Temple into which the high priest could only enter once a year to offer a sacrifice for the sins of the people. At Jesus’ death – the sacrifice to end all sacrifices – this massive curtain ripped from top to bottom, exposing the hidden room.
Why? Because a perfect justice-and-holiness-satisfying sacrifice had just been made. Believers now had direct access to and acceptance with God. There was no longer any need for a Temple programme to represent God’s holiness, love and justice. Christ had at that very moment brought it!
And now, at Pentecost, the celebration of God’s generous provision - was being fulfilled with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit who would provide Christ himself in believers’ lives. Your life.
On that Pentecost day, the disciples were all together in the one place. They were in the upper room of a large rented house in Jerusalem – about 120 of them. We know that they were engaged in certain activities:
• they were praying and reading the Old Testament
• they were recalling all that Jesus had taught them
• they were fellowshipping together and encouraging each other - preparing themselves for what would come next.
They were doing what Jesus told them: Waiting for the baptism of the Holy Spirit, who would empower them to be his witnesses – starting from that very room – out in ever-increasing circles across the world.
Then suddenly the Spirit was poured out on them.
The Spirit of God penetrated the world of natural human senses. The disciples heard something, saw something and spoke something that gave evidence that the Holy Spirit had come, as Jesus promised.
• A sound like rushing wind is heard blowing right through the house where they were meeting.
• Then flames of fire appeared and seemed to hover over each person.
• They were filled with the Holy Spirit and worshipped God in languages they didn’t know.
These three, wind, fire and word frequently appear in the Bible to describe the work and presence of the Holy Spirit:
The prophet Ezekiel (37) describes a vision from God in which the Holy Spirit comes like a wind that breathes life into a valley filled with the dry bones of a long-dead, defeated army. He incarnates them, bringing them back to full life and fighting strength. If you want life and energy and release from deadness and boredom – you need God’s breath – the Spirit blowing through you.
The prophet Isaiah (4) describes the promise that when Christ rescues his people he will do so with a spirit of burning (meaning that filth will be consumed and lives will be purified by the fire of the Spirit). He goes on to liken the Spirit to a flaming fire of protection hovering over the city of God’s people. If you want release from habits and sins that pollute your life – you need fire – the fire of the Spirit to refine and purify your life and drive away evil.
The Spirit of God is always present when God is speaking to and through his people.
Peter quotes the prophet Joel who spoke of a time when the Spirit of God would come on men and women and they would speak messages from God. The Holy Spirit enabled the believers to exalt and praise God in languages that spoke to all the different people groups represented among the crowd of onlookers. If you want to find your voice - to know what you believe and speak it with confidence – you need the Spirit to loosen your tongue.
And so, early on the morning of the day of Pentecost, the Spirit of God came upon the body of disciples and gave evidence of his arrival with sound, sight and words.
So what did all this mean? Is it normative? Is this what every Christian should experience?
Notice these things that teach us of our need of the Holy Spirit:
1. First, the timing was no accident. Jesus had explicitly told his disciples to wait for this Spirit-baptism. This was the fulfilment of all that he promised in John 14-16 when he explained to the twelve disciples how he would continue to work with them through the Holy Spirit. He said he wouldn’t leave them as orphans. He said they would receive a Comforter and Teacher who would lead them into all truth.
2. Second, the day was significant because this happened on the anniversary of the giving of the law to Moses on Mt Sinai. That law as given on stone tablets, but the Spirit brings God’s law into people’s lives and writes it on their hearts. Ezekiel & Jeremiah both prophesied about this: Ezek 36.26,27 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. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.
3. Third, this was the baptism of the Holy Spirit that Jesus had promised. This was the empowering needed by disciples so that they were equipped to be Christ’s witnesses.
4. Fourthly, the idea of baptism means immersion – complete saturation – being flooded by the Spirit. This event fulfilled both John the Baptist’s and Jesus’ words that believers would receive a life-saturating immersion in the Holy Spirit. Not just a religious component to their lives, but an entire soaking that left no part of their lives untouched.
5. Fifthly, the sound of the wind fulfils Jesus’ description of the Holy Spirit that he is not controlled by people (Jn 3.7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” The wind blows where it wills. The Holy Spirit is not controlled by men’s programmes or willpower or preferences. He takes the initiative in his own ways and in his own time.
6. Sixth, the flames of fire indicate that he is the source of energy and judgement. He sets people and circumstances alight with conviction and burning desire - and he purges what is unworthy of God. The Holy Spirit keeps on progressing our holiness so we become more and more like Christ.
7. The Spirit-inspired languages tell us that the Spirit is loosening tongues and enabling people to speak the very words of God and that his message is for all peoples and languages. His gospel will flood the world.
Is this then a blueprint or a pattern that all believers should expect to happen to them?
The answer is NO, it is not what happens identically to all Christians - because plainly it didn’t happen to all (even in the book of Acts). So it is not normative in the sense that it is required that every believer has an identical experience to what happened here. For example, the Ethiopian who came to faith in Christ and was baptised by Philip, did not experience wind, fire and the gift of tongues. And Lydia and the women who met for prayer at Philippi didn’t. But in both those cases, the Holy Spirit transformed their lives. The Ethiopian continued his journey - changed from confusion and uncertainty, to joy and assurance in Christ. Lydia had her heart opened and then she opened her home so that it became the meeting place for the dynamic new Church that grew there.
This Acts 2 event was a unique and exceptional circumstance. This was the day the Church age burst into life. It was the day that the Holy Spirit brought and deposited in the lives of believers, what Christ had won for them by his death and resurrection. This was the arrival of the dynamic power that would set the church off on its world-shaking and life-transforming mission.
Even in the world of sport, you don’t have an Opening Ceremony for every game of rugby that is played week in and week out! The opening ceremony is the signal that the World Cup event is underway. That doesn’t mean that regular rugby games aren’t important. There would be no world cup without grassroots rugby.
We need to avoid the danger of playing down the significance of what happened at Pentecost. You can’t ‘dumb down’ Pentecost and explain it away as if it was like church-as-usual!
It is useless trying to ‘manufacture’ evidence of the Holy Spirit. You can’t contrive a Pentecostal experience by using techniques, lights, music and emotional appeals. The Holy Spirit decides how and when to add sensory evidence of his presence! When the Spirit of God is poured out on an individual, a small group or a whole church, it won’t be like any ‘normal’ activity. T
Remember Elijah’s experience. He was looking for evidence that God was with him. He was running from enemies and ended up in a cave where he experienced a tornado, an earthquake and a bush fire rushing past the mouth of the cave, but the Lord wasn’t in any of those. The Holy Spirit presented himself as the quietest and gentlest breeze in which Elijah heard God speak encouragements to him. Strong power isn’t always noisy or explosive. The power of a glacier is immense – yet it is deep, slow and certain.
The coming of the Spirit at Pentecost was extraordinary but it was real, not imaginary. It was indicative of how the Spirit works, but it wasn’t prescriptive so that unless you experience exactly that you haven’t experienced the Holy Spirit. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is for every Christian and he will sovereignly choose when and how this will best bring glory to Christ in your life. The Spirit of God acts like wind in that he blows in the direction and intensity that he wills.
You can read about the experiences of reliable Christians who have experienced a whole mind-body-spirit experience of God’s Spirit. And YOU can expect that experience in your life at some points.
It won’t be your regular experience and if you do have an all-consuming experience of the Holy Spirit, he will show you what it means. Just take care that you don’t make the experience of others your normal. And watch out that you don’t seek the experience. It is Christ that you are seeking and the Holy Spirit brings glory to Christ by taking what is his and making it known to you. Allow the Holy Spirit to deal with you as he sees fit.
For example: Remember Paul and Silas in prison. Aching in body from a severe beating, but joyful in heart because they recognised the impact the gospel was happening on the town of Philipi. Filled with the Spirit, they sung praises. That was a baptism of the Holy Spirit. They weren’t in a joyfilled meeting with fine music! Your Spirit-baptisms may well occur our of pain and suffering.
How then should we apply what we learn from the baptism of the Spirit at Pentecost?
1. Wait for the Holy Spirit like the disciples did. In their waiting they were: Praying, reading God’s word, fellowshipping with each other, and prepared to receive whatever God had planned for them. They were expecting to be Christ’s witnesses.
2. Being baptised in the Holy Spirit means being immersed in him – saturated by his influence. It is the starting point for all effective Christian work. Where the Spirit is there is freedom – not grinding duty or fearful anxiety. Seek the Spirit’s filling. Ask and you will receive.
3. If the Spirit of God came as a fulfilment of the harvest of first fruits and of the giving of the law – then evidence that we have been baptised with the Holy Spirit will be: fruitfulness (the fruits of the Spirit) and lives that love God’s law – his word will be written on our hearts so we have a heart of flesh not stone.
4. The Spirit adds his influence and power to get God’s work done. He can’t be manipulated. So we should get on with stepping into all that we learn from God by faith and keep yearning and pleading God’s promises that we might have power to be his witnesses.
5. God’s righteousness is not served by man’s anger. When there is judgment and consuming of sins in us or in other required – we had best rely on the Spirit to do it!
6. The announcing of the good news in languages that people could understand encourages us to get on with broadcasting the gospel far and wide. It is obviously the Spirit’s intention for the good news to connect and spread widely. Remember that at the tower of Babel men and women tried to assert their united power in front of God. God struck them with confusion of language. They broke apart into a disunity of competing nations. At Pentecost, God came down to people and ‘undid’ the Babel of confusion. He revealed his intention to bring people of all nations together under one Head – to unite everything under Christ. Spirit-led gospel living and speaking works to that end.
We all need the baptism of the Holy Spirit. His influence will vary in intensity and frequency according to the purpose of God in our lives and for the Church. It is rather like the tide. The tide rises and falls washing and refreshing the beach. But from time to time there is a spring tide which overwhelms the beach. Here’s the point: There is NEVER a moment in your Christian life when the Holy Spirit is not present. He doesn’t come and go. However:
You need the gifts and the filling of the Spirit to achieve ANYTHING of spiritual value.
So, keep up the fight against the old habits of the ‘flesh’ – be killing sin or it will be killing you. Keep feeding your spiritual desires – stop starving yourself of God’s Word. You must keep asking/praying for the filling of the Holy Spirit for ALL activities in your life. He will work in greater or lesser conscious intensity in your life – as he wills. The baptism of the Spirit will occur as God wills and you should be sure to have all barriers down so that he can flood our lives and envision and encourage us for greater initiatives. Unlatch the flood gates of your life. Have no sealed chambers where the Spirit of God cannot flood in. Remember this: The mind controlled by the flesh is death. The mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace! Praise God, who gives us everything we need for life and godliness because of the Lord Jesus Christ and that he delivers those needs through his Holy Spirit.

Jesus Continues Now What He Began Then

2011-11-10T11:05:00.001+13:00

Acts 1.1-9
The ‘Acts’ material in the Bible was written by Luke. It is a sequel to his gospel account. Luke was a Greek Christian doctor who joined Paul and his team on their missionary journeys. He was an eyewitness of much of what is recorded in Acts. You can tell where Luke was present; for example: Acts 16.6-10
The book of Acts teaches us how the Holy Spirit works with disciples to build the Church. It tells how the first generation of disciples carried on with Jesus’ mission and thus shows the following generations (including ours) how the work of Christ gets done without his physical presence in the world. The book is not a blueprint or template, rather it is evidence and guidance about how we might expect the Spirit of Christ to involve us in his master plan for humanity.
The first point to notice is: Jesus Continued his Work after leaving the world.
Jesus’ life up to his resurrection (i.e. all that was described in Luke’s first book, the gospel of Luke) is said by Luke to be what he BEGAN to do and teach (verse 1). Acts, records the continuation of Jesus’ work after his ascension.
Jesus did not stop working when he removed himself physically from the world. It is true that he works in a different mode to when he was physically present among his disciples – but this is still HIS work. He does not send us out to work independently of him.
Just as the disciples were totally dependent on Jesus’ power, his teaching and his initiatives as they followed him around Israel – so in Acts we discover he is STILL in charge of his work. He hasn’t handed it over to human control or bright ideas. The vision, the ideas and the power to get it done all still come directly from Christ.
Jesus Christ is busy populating his eternal kingdom by calling people out of each successive generation – all over the world. He calls it ‘making disciples’ which, for us, means getting followers for Jesus.
Our big purpose as disciples of Jesus is to spread the good news about him. We do this by being living evidence –giving witness to - the quality of his new life (love, justice, righteousness and wisdom etc). Jesus described this activity as us being light in the dark night of human ignorance about God, and as salt rubbed into an animal carcass to slow the rotting. Jesus said that the gates of hell won’t be able stand against the Church’s rescue mission.
This powerful mission of Jesus could be a significant reason why a Christian feels restless, dissatisfied, aimless and even bored in his or her life: because if you are out of sync with the work of Jesus Christ, you are unplugged from the main purpose and plan for your existence.
Many people are willing to aim for a B-grade life – maybe the four Bs:
a BMW,
a Boat,
and a Bach at the Beach.
Actually most people never even attain even those. The restlessness and hollowness remains because they are unplugged from the greatest business in the universe: The unfailing progress towards the complete uncovering of God’s kingdom. Life is passing them by. And if you are vague about Christ’s mission – life is passing you by, too.
Missing the main point of the main thing is like a person going to Eden Park for the final of the Rugby World Cup, but staying in the carpark to play with the flags on the cars. You hear the cheering from inside the stadium and you briefly wonder what it might be going on in the inside, but you are quickly distracted by your flags – petty, pointless things. A person can never be satisfied and purposeful in life until he or she gets on the inside where you can participate with Jesus Christ.
Believe me: the reason why a life seems pointless and aimless is that it has come unplugged from Christ and his big purpose for the current times and his big purpose for you.
It is a miserable thing to become an ‘almost disciple’. Remember the rich young administrator who couldn’t part with his lifestyle when called to follow Jesus; he went away disappointed that he couldn’t have a foot in both worlds. When you drift away from Christ, you are like man with one foot on the boat and the other on the dock. The dock is solid, it’s going nowhere - so you need to get both feet on solid ground before you drop down into the churning waters.
But beyond this negative warning, there is the positive message from Luke’s opening statement: Jesus was only BEGINNING his action when here in the flesh – there is more to come. There are massive opportunities here and now for you to engage with him in his exciting kingdom-building work. This is why he gives his Holy Spirit: to equip you to work with him – now.
Second point from these opening verses in Acts: Jesus works through the Holy Spirit as he rolls out his kingdom.
I get this from where Luke says that Jesus gave instructions through the Holy Spirit and that the over-arching theme of his instructions – the organising framework – was the Kingdom of God. See in Verse 3, Jesus spent a further 40 days with his disciples, before removing himself physically, and in that time he made certain that they understood that he was genuinely back alive among them – and he spoke with them about the kingdom of God giving instruction through the Holy Spirit.
What does that mean that he instructed them through the Holy Spirit? It means that the Holy Spirit worked in the minds and understandings of his disciples so that they could ‘get’ Christ’s teaching.
You can’t learn about the Kingdom of God – or, learn any useful spiritual truths, without the intervention of the Holy Spirit. Bible learning is not merely an intellectual exercise. You don’t learn from God’s Word by approaching it like a course of study. The Holy Spirit has to support your understanding and bring light to your mind.
The Holy Spirit doesn’t work symbolically or as an illustration of something real. He IS real – when he works he makes promised things happen. When God says, let light shine in the darkness, the Holy Spirit causes light to shine. When Jesus wanted to teach his disciples so they understood the importance and reality of God’s kingdom, he taught them through the Holy Spirit.
When you are confused or unclear what you are supposed to do or think, ASK for the Holy Spirit. Jesus promised that if we ask for the Holy Spirit, God will give him.
Luke 11.11 “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
God is not reluctant to give us the assistance of the teacher – the Holy Spirit. He gives him to those who ask – so we can learn and know.
So far, then, we have two important understandings from the beginning of Luke’s book of Acts:
1. Jesus continues to be in charge of his work. He has the plans and the resources for us to fulfil our part in it. This is how we get meaning for our lives. His kingdom-building is something that gathers up all our circumstances, our connections, work, family, abilities, opportunities, trouble and people we have in our lives – and infuses them with meaning and value. He joins us in the body of believers (the Church) and supplies teaching and spiritual gifts so that we can have a share in building up the kingdom that will in due course grind down and supplant all the vain and evil efforts of rebels and the Evil One.
2. Secondly, this work is beyond us personally. We need the Holy Spirit. We need him so we can understand and follow Christ’s instructions. We need him so we have power to carry them out.
Lastly, Jesus intends that his followers be flooded with the Holy Spirit.
Teaching about the Kingdom of God was Jesus’ priority in the last days before he left his disciples (verse 3). This was always his priority. Remember his model prayer: “Our Father who lives in heaven, may your name be held holy. May your kingdom come – your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” In other words, the prime objective of every created thing – especially people (whom God created with the capacity to do things WILLINGLY) is that everything should ‘hallow’ God’s name. That means to confess, and lift up and celebrate that God is holy – gloriously perfect – the highest good – far above all else.
And the way that God’s name and person is held holy is by having his kingdom – his rule and his purposes – being done on earth as it is in heaven. It is no wonder, then, that Jesus was so determined that his followers should work for that purpose.
Jesus made a clear connection between his determination to secure a people who would obey God out of every nation and the work of his disciples as witnesses. At this time he said: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28
But before his disciples could engage effectively in this grand purpose, they needed to be equipped with power and spiritual gifts by the Holy Spirit. Jesus told his disciples that they had to wait for the baptism of the Holy Spirit, before they made their next moves (verses 4,5). He says that the baptism in water that John introduced was a picture of the real baptism that the Holy Spirit was about cause in their lives.
John’s baptism symbolised some important things:
- Dying to self-directed and self-centred lives
- Confessing the readiness to welcome God’s appointed leader for humankind
- Choosing a totally new purpose and new way of living.
The key idea in baptism is immersion – being totally enveloped into these new realities. Entering a different world. So when Jesus speaks of a baptism with or in the Holy Spirit he was likening it to being plunged under the waters of the Jordan River – he was speaking of being enveloped – fully immersed in the Spirit of God.
This is no toe-dipping experience – this is total surrender, so that their minds, thinking, emotions, bodies and reason for living were to be immersed in the Holy Spirit. This flooding of their lives by the Holy Spirit would be necessary before they could begin to shake the world with the good news.
And, to make it more explicit what the baptism of the Holy Spirit meant, Jesus went on to say that when the Holy Spirit came upon them, they would:
- Receive power directed towards achieving Christ’s purpose.
- This meant becoming his witnesses in an ever-increasing circle of influence from the city of Jerusalem right out to the ends of the earth (New Zealand is the ends of the earth!)
The baptism of the Holy Spirit is like John’s baptism, because it means dying to our old way of living and coming under the influence and rule of Jesus Christ. It is a baptism, because we go right under – there is no part of our lives that the Holy Spirit doesn’t saturate and influence. We are immersed and enveloped in God’s influence for everything. The flooding of our lives by the Holy Spirit is what provides the power to become living evidences of Jesus Christ and spread his influence in widening circles.
As we go on in Luke’s book of Acts, we will see this kind of living in action. Although it has been called the Acts of the Apostles – it might better be called the Acts of the Holy Spirit.
The aim of studying this is to make us dissatisfied with the status quo – with how things are in our individual lives and in our church. To stir up hunger and thirst for more understanding, more power, more evidences of the Holy Spirit flooding through our lives. More evidence of humble, self-denying, God-glorifying living that brings light into dark circumstances and which causes the enemy’s strongholds to crumble and fall. More people meeting Christ in the gospel and beginning the total reforming of their lives in his image.
We should respond by quietly unfastening the floodgates to every corner of our lives and asking God to immerse us, to baptise us with his Holy Spirit - for everything and in every situation. Ultimately we want him to do that for the glory of Christ and the success of his kingdom.

The Law (2)

2011-10-19T15:17:00.003+13:00

Read: Deuteronomy 6. 1-9

Now read about an encounter between Jesus and a man who studied the Old Testament: Mark 12.28-34

You should have immediately recognised in Jesus’ discussion with this man - who came to interrogate Jesus, but ended up agreeing with him - that Jesus quoted from the Old Testament passage, Deut 6. It is obvious is that Jesus applies it to himself and his followers.

The greatest command of the law, is to love God with your whole being. This command summarises the law. The rest of the law, in all its detail, is a recipe for loving God fully. So keeping the law is not primarily about the negative response of avoiding punishment – it is the positive response of a heart captivated by the grace and kindness of God.

Believers keep the law because it describes the behaviours that God loves and we love God and want to please him. THAT is why the greatest commandment – the one that swallows up all the rest (like a massive blue whale with a mouthful of krill) – is to love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.

And in case we thought that this love is just a feeling or attitude, there is a remora attached to this whale of a command. (A remora is one of those sucker-fish that stick to the sides of whales and are carried along with the larger creature over long distances). The remora on that massive whale-of-a-command, to love God with your whole being, is, to love your neighbour as yourself.

Why is this secondary command put with the greatest command? Because to love God means to act like God towards the people he made. Love for God is not expressed in merely keeping a tidy life, swept clean by a broom of rules. It is expressed as God expresses his love; by doing good to your fellow-humans. Loving God with all your heart means that you want to be like God. So you attend to your behaviour so that it expresses God’s likeness in real, tangible terms; in loving actions to others.

So, when Jesus answers the question of this man, he chooses Deuteronomy chapter 6 – an Old Testament passage to show that being in right standing with God is about a response of fulsome love – not keeping a tick-sheet of performance. The most direct route to clean, wholesome, God-pleasing, good works is to love God and his righteousness with every fibre of your being. THEN, your good behaviour will be driven; driven, not by fear but love. The law is then no longer a bag of lead weights to drag through life.

When I was a boy, the thing I hated MOST about been smacked by my dad for being naughty. It was the look of disapproval on his face – the fact that this man that I most loved and respected of all the men in the world was offended by my behaviour. Love generates good works. Love produces compliance with the Law.

But as soon as you put Law first, you have loaded yourself with a burden which will lead to hurt feelings that you aren’t getting the pay off, the respect, or the attention you deserve. It will lead to SELF-centred living. You will do things for your neighbour as a witness against them – rather than as an overflow of your love for God and therefore them.

This matches what Jesus taught us about getting what we need for life. He said, Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all the other things you need will be added to your life. When you seek God’s rule FIRST (his kingdom and righteousness) – he will add to you all the things you need to successfully complete this life and ensure your place in the next. Likewise, when you love God with all your being, it will generate and drive forward a happy obedience to his commands. You will be gathering up good deeds like a kid finding a field full of lollies. They won’t be burdensome to you. They will be sweet!

Going back to the whale. The person who swims through life trying to gather up individual krill, that is, performing all the little rules and expectations of a godly life, will be constantly disappointed and usually guilt-ridden because the task seems overwhelming. But meet the love of God and you will discover that all the little expectations for successful daily life have been gathered up for you. Find love for God and you have found all the performance that goes with it – including that most difficult practice of all: To love your neighbour as you love yourself.

So, with that in mind, for the rest of this study, we will go back into Deuteronomy chapter 6 to see what we can learn about faith working through love. That is a quote from Galatians 5.6, where the apostle Paul is asserting that instead of being enslaved by God’s law – we have come to Christ. His gift of righteousness is not just a legal concept as if he was doling out credits to pay off our sins. When he fulfilled the law of God for us, he fulfilled the law of love - he gave himself for our sins. 1 John 3.16 By this we know what love is, that he laid down his life for us. So, Christ embodies and fulfils the law perfectly. He brings it to life.

More than that, he bears the punishment of the law deserved by us – so he not only displays the law but he accounts for its demands on me – demands that I cannot pay. He paid them in love. I love God because he has first loved me. God’s love - demonstrated and defined by Christ’s death on the cross - demands not a rule-keeping response, but a love response.

Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That is a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.

In Christ, rule-keeping counts for nothing – what counts is faith working through love.

So, back to Deut 6:

Point #1: God reveals and teaches his will for people so that we can perform it. Learn so you can do.V1.

The law of God was never given so that it would be merely ‘aspirational’ – something you ‘have a crack at’ or ‘do your best’. Without holiness, no-one shall see the Lord.

One of the biggest blockages to you and our church witnessing chain-breaking liberty and fulfilments of God’s promises, is our unwillingness to do what he says. Jesus rebuked a crowd once. He said: "Why do you call me 'Lord, Lord,' and not do what I tell you? We don’t do what we know when we have little faith, and we have little faith because we have little love for God, and we have little love for God, because we love idols (chiefly ourselves!).

Point #2: We show our fear and respect for God by doing what he says V2.

The opposite is true, too. When we avoid doing what God has taught us, we are disrespecting him. Ignoring God’s instructions (law) means that you do not fear him.

Fearing God is not like keeping totally still and quiet in your tent because you can hear a grizzly bear outside and don’t want to attract its attention. Rather, fearing God is not wanting to do anything that will remove his grace from you. (IT is too precious to risk). To love the Lord your God with all your mind, soul and strength is the motivation for keeping your life in sync with his revealed will.

Point #3: If you love your children and your own future, you will love God.

V2,3

The person who neglects what God teaches about himself and his will for people in his Word, is slowly poisoning him or herself and their children. Love for God is to love your children.

Point #4: Loving God with every fibre of your being is the motivation for obedience V4,5

Love for God does not exist as merely an intellectual thing – just something you have theories about.

Love for God does not exist just as an emotional feeling – just dependent on your feelings of optimism or gratitude.

Love for God does not exist as just practical efforts – depending on gritting your teeth and doing your share of the duties.

Love for God cannot be maintained in compartments in your life. It must be the lifeblood of your thinking, your feelings and all your speaking and acting. That love will provide the impetus, the drive, the hunger and thirst to be true to God in everything.

Point #5: You must pay proper attention to God’s instructions – applying them to every situation in life V6-9

1^st they have to be on your own heart.

Then they have to be diligently (that is, consistently and with effort) taught to your children. You have to actually speak up about them. Discuss them in your house and when you drive in the car. At any and every time of the day. Saturate your family and home life with the Word of God.

Wear them like a wristwatch that you constantly refer to.

Have them written at the front of your thinking – like a head band.

Have them like notes pinned to your door so you don’t forget or like graffiti scrawled on your gate or garage door to see them as you head out or come home.

This is love for God … to pay attention to his will for you.

And in all the word, and in all the law – recognise Christ.

It is HE who only can fulfil those requirements in you.

Because his death pays and discharges you from your shortfall and his resurrection got for you the Holy Spirit who can work in your inner being to convert you to live a godly life.

I hope that I have shown from this passage:

That the law reveals God’s character to us – and when Christ came he utterly fulfilled and enacted that law – even down to meeting its curses and demands against sinners like us. In fact, when you look at Christ, you see the law alive and active.

God wants his law to become living and active in us and the only way that can happen is if the entire weight our lives is resting on Jesus Christ. The law condemns us but Christ redeems us from the curse of the law. The law was provided for sinners to bring us to our senses. The law bars the way to life with God, it condemns us for sin – but the law is not the final revelation of God – Christ is. The Law is not the last word for anyone who will put their faith in Christ; love is.

Yes, the law makes our situation worse – because it exposes and even incites us to rebel further and sin. But the law also drives us to Christ – it shuts us up to the gospel as the only path to safety. The law looms over us projecting a standard that we cannot keep. It bends us onto our knees to repent and seek Christ – who became the curse of the law for us!

The law is like Isaiah’s vision of the throne of God slammed down in the Temple, so that it seemed to tower above him and disappear into excruciating, blinding light. What was his response? ⁴And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. ⁵And I said: "Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!"

The law is both a prison guard that holds rebels accountable to God. And it is a tutor to bring us to Christ. Galatians 3.23-24

Here’s the final word on this for now:

When the law looms over you, don’t try to scale its sheer, icy face. You will never impress God or earn his blessings that way. Instead, go and see the cross. See Love absorbing the curse of the law.

Go and see the empty tomb. See Christ victorious over your guiltiness. Worship him as your Lord and God.

Open your heart to the Spirit of God – be filled with the Spirit as God’s love is poured into your heart through the Holy Spirit he had given us.

Go and listen and learn from God’s Word – from Genesis to Revelation.

Love what it reveals about Christ to you.

Choose that way in every detail of your life.

Love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.

Let that love move you to love your neighbour as yourself.

It is for freedom Christ has set you free.

The Law (1)

2011-10-19T05:37:00.003+13:00

THE LAW (1)

What does a Christian do with God’s law – especially when it seems to set a standard that is far higher than we are able to keep.

The Bible presents God’s Law as God’s statement of righteous behaviour for humans. The Law represents God’s personal standards translated into a human setting. God’s law defines how a godly person should behave (i.e. like God).

The Old Testament makes God’s law explicit. In Deuteronomy we have recorded Moses reminding Israel about how they received the Law and how they went off and failed to successfully enter the Promised Land. They failed because on across the spectrum. They were at first, too mindful of their own inability to defeat the enemies that held the land, and later too sure that by their own efforts they could make it happen. Both these failures were a failure of faith in God. They broke God’s law by abandoning faith in the God revealed in the law. It wasn’t just rules they broke – they broke faith. Faith is a quality of relationship.

So God rebuffed Israel at the edge of the Promised Land and sent them to wander for a generation (40 years) in the wilderness outside that land. During that period virtually the entire generation died out, so that it was their children and grandchildren who now (at the time of Deuteronomy) stood at the edge of the Promised Land. They were about to go in under the leadership of Joshua because even Moses he had stumbled and sinned when driven to frustration by his people’s complaining.

In Deuteronomy, Moses is summing up their present situation and he puts in front of them once again the Law of God – the keeping of which would determine whether they were blessed and lived and succeeded in the new land, or whether they were cursed and died.

Reading Deuteronomy lays a foundation on which to build our understandings about the Law and how we can use it properly – i.e. in a way that displays the glory of Christ.

Read Deuteronomy chapters 1-6

While this Law was given to Israel and reapplied to them as they stood at the border of the Promised Land, it was intended to be taught to all their generations that followed, until one of their descendants, another Joshua (Jesus) should come. So, while the Law had been given in written form (as statutes and rules) – when Christ came it was demonstrated.

Jesus represented and fulfilled every aspect of the Law perfectly. And whereas, in the past, there was a great burden of animal sacrifice in the Temple, to teach the people that sinning against God costs life – when Christ came, he was the Lamb, given by God. He was without sin, a perfect sacrifice, to pay for the litany of broken laws that we all have piled up against ourselves.

Colissian 2.13 You, who were spiritually dead because of your sins and your uncircumcision (i.e. the fact that you were outside the Law), God has now made to share in the very life of Christ! He has forgiven you all your sins: Christ has utterly wiped out the damning evidence of broken laws and commandments which always hung over our heads, and has completely annulled it by nailing it over his own head on the cross. And then having drawn the sting of all the powers ranged against us, he exposed them, shattered, empty and defeated, in his final glorious triumphant act!

What then does a Christian do with God’s Law as given in the Old Testament? Answer: The same as Moses, Joshua, Caleb and other faithful Israelites: Receive it as a revelation of God’s character and his will for his people and put faith in the God it reveals.

There are two ways of using the Law – one right the other wrong.
1. Use the Law as list of demands and expectations to live up to – so that you can be sure of God’s favours as he rewards you for obedience. (That is the wrong way).
2. Accept the Law as an insight into the character and will of God – so you can have faith in him to make you consistent with what he has revealed about himself. (That’s the right way)

Take a specific example of these two ways a person might use the Law: God’s Law says, “You shall not steal.” This rule reveals specific things about God. For example,

• It shows that God is just and fair and that the doesn’t want people to live in the fear of having what belongs to them ripped away by someone else. He is a defender of the righteous.
• It shows that if we need things we may not take the law into our own hands and rip them away from others, but that we should approach God for our needs. He is the provider for his people.
• It also reveals that God himself is the owner of everything, including people, and he will not stand by and allow people to use, abuse and destroy his things without consequence. He is a Judge who holds everyone accountable for what they do with his property.

So, a believer in the God of the Bible, could take that one law (‘don’t steal’) and use it in two ways:

1. She could use that ‘don’t steal’ law as a rule that she will keep so as to avoid being punished and earn rewards from God for keeping it. OR
2. She could accept what this teaches her about God and God’s will for people, and put her faith in God to help her keep on the right side of this law, because she wants to please him, she wants be like him and she wants her life to display his glory.

The difference is that in the first way of taking the law, ‘don’t steal’, she is looking to God as the author of the law, ‘don’t steal’ but looking to herself to keep it. In the second way of responding to the law she is looking to God for everything – both for the instruction on how to live properly, and for the ability to do so.

There is another major difference between these two ways of taking the law. In the second case, she is expecting an intervention by God in her thinking, attitude and behaviour.
But in the first, she wants God to remain at arms’ length - in the sense that she is going to offer something to him (her honest, non-stealing behaviour). Rather like a pagan leaves an offering at an idol, then moves away again, hoping the idol will stay put and not cause her any trouble.

We can take this right back to the first couple in the garden. God gave them a law, ‘don’t steal fruit from this particular tree’. (In fact if you do, you will die). Eve did not respond in the way we have been talking about. She did not take a stance of faith in God to help keep her on the right side of this law because she wanted to please God and be like God. She chose the ‘arms-length option which led her to sin. She separated the law (‘don’t eat from that tree’) from God himself, so that it became a rule she was making a decision about – rather than a rule that revealed something about God and gave her an opportunity to lean on God to keep it.

As soon as she put herself in what she thought was a neutral position of deciding what to do with the rule – her sinning was guaranteed to happen. She put God at arm’s length. She put a gap between the rule and God and this made room for the Tempter to exploit the gap and for her own wrong desires to come into play. She broke the law and ate.

So what you do with the Law (any and every rule or guideline from God) is no small matter.
If you are an unbeliever, you are always on the wrong side of the Law. Because even when you agree with it (e.g. ‘don’t kill’) you are failing to keep it, because you have snapped it off from God. You are failing to consider what God is saying to YOU about that Law. For example: Jesus said (Matt 5.21-22) that when you use abusive language against someone who has made you angry, you have picked up the same piece of string that has murder at the other end of it. Hateful language is on the continuum to murder. So an unbeliever is always on the wrong side of the law.

But this teaching is for believers. I want to warn you about unplugging God’s law (rules) from God himself. Yes even a Christian might do this. In fact this is one of the major causes of stress in a Christian’s life: Trying to ‘do the law’ in a way that will attract God’s blessing and avoid his disapproval. To treat God’s Law in that way is to fail to realise that the law is an expression of God himself and HE must express the behaviour that matches that law in you. It can’t happen without him. This is why Jesus not only died to take the penalty the Law demands for your transgressions – but he also gives the Holy Spirit so that you can have behaviour that matches the Law.
Consider this:
Galatians 3
1O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. 2Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? 3Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by[a] the flesh? 4 Did you suffer[b] so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? 5Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith— 6just as Abraham "believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness"?

For a Christian, the Law gives us insight into God’s righteous character and translates that into behaviour expectations for our lives. We must not ‘snap off’ those laws and try to work with them (or around them) in our own wisdom or effort. Rather, they are an invitation to faith. We assent to his law and put our faith in God to move us to love it and perform it.

Notes on Genesis 11.10 to 13.4

2010-10-03T21:31:00.001+13:00

God calls Abram to a New Land

Abraham’s Family Tree 11.10-26

Abraham is descended from Noah. Noah had three sons; Shem, Ham and Japheth. The family line of Abraham was Shem – Arpachshad – Shelah – Eber – Peleg (who was born around the time of the division at the tower of Babel [Gen 10.25 & 1 Chron1.19]) – Reu – Serug – Nahor – Terah – Abraham. The time between Shem’s birth and Abraham’s was a period of 300 years.

Eber’s two sons, Peleg and Joktan represent a separation in the descendants of Shem into two distinct lines. One ends up at Babylon and the other at Abraham. One family line represents the city of this world, Babylon, which still spoken about in future in Revelation. The other family line includes Abraham, the man without a city in this world, but with an ambition for the City of God.

During the period from Shem to Abraham there is no record of anyone living by faith in God in either stream of descendants. At Babel, God forcibly dispersed the mass of Noah’s descendants because they were in danger of using their corporate strength to ruin themselves. Babylon is the archetypal city/kingdom that is built in opposition to God. Human history is a chain of such successive ‘kingdoms of this world.’ At Babel, God broke up the corporate strength of peoples into competing families, tribes and nations because humanity was sliding back down into the same spiritual emptiness and viciousness that existed before the flood.

Abraham’s family was no exception to this decline. Joshua tells us (Joshua 24.2,3) And Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Long ago, your fathers lived beyond the Euphrates, Terah, the father of Abraham and of Nahor; and they served other gods. Then I took your father Abraham from beyond the River and led him through all the land of Canaan, and made his offspring many. I gave him Isaac.When we meet Abraham, he is an idol-worshipper in the city of Ur. The city of Ur worshipped Nanna (the moon god). A tower like the one built at Babel was dedicated to Nanna.

God called Abraham when he was not following him and set him on a totally new path, separating him out from the idolatry handed down to him by his forefathers. God was not just blessing Abraham, he was working in and through Abraham in order to form and deliver a people out of the spiritual emptiness and pointlessness of sinful humanity trying to live without God.

God’s Call 11.27-12.3

God appeared to Abraham when he was still in Ur, before Terah took the family to Haran. It was Abraham’s call to go to Canaan, but for some reason Terah took the lead. We are not told how God gave his call to Abraham, except that it was verbal and specific. It may have been in a dream or vision.

Go away from your country, your land.

Leave your people.

Leave your family (father’s house).

Go to the land I will show you.

The reasons given for this uprooting were:

I will make of you a great nation. (Leave your people and I will make you a people)

I will bless you.

I will make your name great, so you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you.

I will curse those who curse you.

In you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

That is a big promise. It is not a promise about stuff, but about having a life with meaning and purpose - God’s purpose. The implication was that God’s purpose is not had by looking back into your culture, your family or your land. It is had by looking to God.

Abraham’s response? He went (12.4). His going was faith in action. He believed God. By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out not knowing where he was going. Heb 11.8. Faith without works that express it is dead. Abraham’s faith was real.

When Abraham left for Canaan, he went into a place he didn’t know, but he believed that God would make his life significant. We can learn from the value Abraham placed on God’s call. This was not a call to health and prosperity – as if those things were ends in themselves. It was a call to significance – a call to a position in God’s scheme. We are added to God’s plans, we don’t add him to ours.

Getting Started in God’s Way 12.4-9

Abraham entered the land occupied by the Canaanites. He had moved from security among his people and with his father, into relying on the bare arm of God. He first travelled through the land of Canaan to Shechem right in the heart of the land.

He took Lot with him. Lot was his nephew. Lot was a passenger on Abraham’s journey. His personal standing with God always looks uncertain and in the end, after many compromises with the world, we will see that Lot ends up producing children who are the enemies of Abraham’s descendants. Lot teaches us about the dangers of half-hearted belief. The world is too strong for it and it proved too strong for Lot.

At the oak of Moreh, near Shechem, Abraham built an altar to the Lord. This was his response to God’s further word to him, “To your offspring I will give this land.” And again a little further south near Bethel, he builds another altar to the Lord and he calls on the name of the Lord. The fact that the Canaanites were in the land (v6) must have increased Abraham’s sense of insecurity. He had no city to retreat to, no walls to hide behind. God helped him by giving him promises. The plain word of God to him reminded Abraham that God was his refuge. God would see him safely through.

The word of God is incredibly important to our stability and security in life. God’s word and his name are an impregnable fortress.

Psalm 138.2,3

I give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness,
for you have exalted above all things
your name and your word.
On the day I called, you answered me;
my strength of soul you increased.

Proverbs 18.10

The name of the Lord is a strong tower;
the righteous man runs into it and is safe.

Our safe place in the exposed and spiritually hazardous world we live in is found in the name and the word of our God. You can’t separate God’s name (identity) and his word. If you ‘get’ his word, you get God too. Abraham found his safety in the words God said to him. Taking refuge in those words was the same as hiding in the name of the Lord.

An altar was a stone plinth or table on which an animal was slaughtered and burned. Abraham got this from his forefathers Abel and Noah, both of whom responded to God correctly by committing themselves to him with an animal sacrifice (Gen 4.4,5; 8.20-22).

So Abraham’s response to God’s word to him was to offer sacrifices which demonstrated that he understood that he was not worthy of God’s help and yet he wanted to please God. Abraham’s altar sacrifice was an act of worship and submission to God and his purposes expressed in promises. What God promises is what he wills for us. Our response, like Abraham, is to own up to our unworthiness and incapacity to ‘do’ what God offers. Instead we ‘call on the name of the Lord’. We are telling God that we are depending totally on him to act in us consistent with his promises.

There is also an element of celebration by Abraham in the making of the sacrifices on the altar. Abraham is full of thankfulness that God has his back. Even in the most exposed and dangerous world of Canaan, he delights in God’s ability to protect him now and given him that very land in the future.

So Abraham traversed the land from top to bottom.

Side Trip to Egypt 12.10-13.4

A famine drove Abraham to Egypt. The Nile delta would provide water and pasture for his large flocks of animals. Should Abraham have gone to Egypt? Why didn’t he just trust God to provide water for him in Canaan? To answer those questions we need to notice how ‘going down to Egypt’ is a repeated theme throughout the Bible:

Abraham goes down to Egypt here.

Joseph goes down to Egypt as a result of his brother’s conspiracy.

Jacob and his family go down to Egypt to escape famine and God has provided Joseph there to preserve them.

Jeremiah is taken against his will to Egypt.

Joseph, Mary and Jesus flee to Egypt to escape Herod.

In every case Egypt is portrayed as a temporary place and a departure from the Promised Land. You don’t want to go to Egypt and you certainly don’t want to stay there. Egypt represents slavery to the Pharaoh who controlled everything.

Abraham was driven into Egypt by the famine, not because he wanted an alternative to God’s promises. God tested Abraham. Something greater than Abraham could cope with seemed to be invading the land of the promise and dislodging him. The text gives us the clue that Abraham still retained his faith in God, even though it seemed that the promised land was ejecting him. The word sojourn (v10) means to stay a while, or as we might say, ‘visit’. He was not committing to remain there. He expected that the circumstances would eventually change and that God would restore him to the promised land and that his descendants would own it.

We learn from this to expect that the promises and the visions that God gives us for our future will at times seem to be getting further out of our grasp, rather than closer. Faith says, ‘I will stay a while in these circumstances, but I will not put down roots in them. I expect God will deliver me from them so I can occupy his promises.’

In Egypt, Abraham took precautions to protect himself from Pharaoh’s domination. Sarah was an intelligent and attractive mature woman. Abraham feared that if she was known to be his wife, that some Egyptian would kill him and take her. Hence Abraham’s plan to represent Sarah as his sister. And just as he had predicted word even reached Pharaoh concerning this rich visitor’s sister and he arranged for Sarah to be taken into his harem in preparation for her to become another of his wives. Pharoah treated Sarah’s ‘brother’ , Abraham, extremely generously. His existing wealth was dramatically increased.

Abraham acted unwisely. His intention was good. He was trying to preserve their lives (for the promise of offspring depended on them being alive to produce a child). But his means were wrong. In the pressure of the danger, he acted rashly in his own wisdom.

God then acted to protect Sarah from Pharaoh, as Abraham’s plan had failed to do so. God sent sicknesses on Pharaoh’s household. Abraham is rebuked for his dishonesty by the godless king. Although Abraham is the man of God’s choice, he is not perfect and like all believers we are not exempt from the need to be rebuked for our errors by unbelievers at times.

Pharaoh clearly senses that he is not just dealing with a man and his wife, here, but that that Abraham’s God is also involved. The sicknesses that strike the royal household underlined this in Pharaoh’s mind. He is very cautious in the way he extracts Abraham and Sarah from his life and sends him back where he came from.

God’s providential care and planning is seen in the way that God provides for Abraham during the famine, even from the heart of the world’s kingdom, Egypt. Abraham was right to assume that God’s promise meant that his stay in Egypt would be temporary.

Abraham, Sarah, his vast possessions (and his passenger, Lot) return to the place where he had last offered sacrifices to God (near Bethel). And he again calls on the name of the Lord. He does this in a public way, so that all of his household should understand that this man honours and seeks God for his protection and purpose.

Big Picture Lessons:

1. In this passage, it is made plain that God chooses, calls and separates out people for himself. Abraham is a clear example of this. He was ‘plucked’ from a declining family line falling away into idolatry. Abraham did not pull himself out of the quarry to become the rock on which God would build his people. God cut him from the quarry. He was a lone man with a sterile wife (Is 51.1-2). God’s call has power in its word to make what isn’t anything exist! Abraham believed in God who “gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.”

2. We learn that God makes promises and we receive those promises by faith. God’s promises are not a schedule of tasks for us to go away and carry out to the best of our ability. We step into God’s promises obediently, but with full confidence in God to make us equal to path he has put us on. Abraham’s response was the right one; he went as the Lord told him (12.4) trusting God to provide security and give him room to move.

3. We learn that only God can fulfil his promises and he intervenes to do so. Even when circumstances seem to make God’s promises seem further away from fulfilment, God uses even his enemies to grease the machinery of his will. We see this in the way God delivered Abraham from the famine, from his own foolish efforts and from the danger posed by Pharaoh.

4. We learn from the deliverance of Abraham from Egypt that God what God did in the past does not remain there. It assures us that he will do the same in the present and in the future, too. Abraham’s deliverance from Egypt became a pattern for the deliverance of Joseph and all Israel, and the child Jesus. God won’t allow the kingdom of this world to swallow up his people, nor will he allow the king of slaves (Pharaoh/Satan) to have his people for his own purposes. This encourages us that though we live away from the Promised Land, in a kind of exile, we are not owned by the world. What God did for Abraham, Joseph, Israel and Jesus, he will do for us; he will give us room to move. Like Abraham, we will continue to take territory by faith and we will secure for ourselves and others a place in the City of God.

Young Men's Bible Study

2010-10-01T17:07:00.008+13:00

In our series on Abraham, we will cover the following passages:

1. Genesis 11.27- 13.4 God Calls Abraham

2. Genesis 13.5 -14.16 Abraham Lives as an Outsider

3. Genesis 14.17-15.21 God makes an Agreement with Abraham.

4. Genesis 16.1-17.27 Abraham’s Efforts are Overturned.

5. Genesis 18.1-19.38 God Comes Near to Bless and Judge

6. Genesis 21.1-22.19 God Test Abraham’s Faith.

________________________________________

INTRO

Genesis is not just a collection of unconnected life stories and genealogies. The author selected and put the material together purposely. Abraham’s life story was included because it supported the author’s intention to teach something about God. The fact that Abraham’s life takes up such a large chunk of Genesis, shows that the things Abraham experienced are rich in the teaching about God that the author intended to share.

Our task in studying Abraham’s life in the book of Genesis is more than just examining the pieces of his life so we can take some life-lessons from it. Our task is to understand how Abraham’s life sheds light on the author’s intention to teach something about God. In other words we need to be answering this question: What is the message of the book of Genesis and how does Abraham’s life make that clear?

When we speak of the author of Genesis, we mean the person who compiled and wrote it (usually accepted as Moses, though the author is not interested in identifying himself in the book). But we also understand that behind that author is the Divine Author, God. (2 Timothy 3.16. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.) The Holy Spirit was guiding the person who compiled Genesis so that it would be profitable for those who read it.

As we study Abraham’s life, we must notice how the elements of his life, like pieces of a puzzle, fit into a bigger picture, so that his whole life teaches us something very significant. (And in fact, we should also notice how Abraham’s life is a big piece in the bigger jigsaw puzzle of Genesis). This means that we won’t be treating Abraham simply as a worthy role-model of a man trying to obey God – though of course that is important. We want to know God. It is not just Abraham’s responses to God that are important for us, but what God was doing through Abraham.

As we go through the chapters in Genesis that relate Abraham’s life, we will be looking for some of the ‘big picture’ truths that are essential to our right understanding of God and our right response to him.

Here are a few of them:

· God chooses, calls and separates his people out from idolatry.

· God makes promises and we receive them by faith.

· God is righteous and won’t make room for sin.

· God is forming his very own people.

· Only God can fulfil his promises and he intervenes to make sure they come about.

God’s dealings with Abraham centre on three big promises he makes to him. These promises are what gives Abraham his personal purpose and they reveal something of God’s big plan for humanity. The three promises were:

1. God will give Abraham very many descendants.

2. God will give Abraham’s descendants land.

3. God will bless all peoples through Abraham’s offspring.

These three blessings are not just for Abraham’s satisfaction, but they represent God’s plan to bless the world through the people God will bring from Abraham and his offspring. At every step of the way in this plan, God will maintain his righteousness and people must approach him by faith. They (i.e. we) must believe that God can do what he has promised. As we study Abraham’s life we will keep meeting promises, righteousness and faith.

Study 1: Genesis 11.27-13.4 God calls Abram (Abraham)

Read the passage and perhaps use these questions to probe its meaning:

1. Google ‘Ur Iraq’. Find out something about Abraham’s home city.
2. Get a calculator and work out how many years between Shem (11.10 ) and Abraham (11.26).
3. What did God’s call demand of Abraham?
4. What did God promise him?
5. Why do you think that God’s promises were attractive to Abraham?
6. Have you formed any opinion about Lot’s place in what has happened so far?
7. Who else in the Bible went down into Egypt?
8. What might Abraham have learned through his trip to Egypt?

House on Rock

2009-10-25T13:20:00.003+13:00

Luke 6

We not only come and hear – we must do what Christ says – that is how a foundation is properly laid in our lives.

By far the simplest way of explaining this is to give you an example. Zacchaeus. You all know the story of the short man who had a job that made him hated by the people of his town. He was a tax-collector for the Romans who were the occupying force in Israel. Zacchaeus collected tolls and taxes from the people of his town and paid them over to the Romans. He took a large percentage of what he raised. He was regarded as a rich, money-grubbing traitor. This isolation and guilt stirred him to seek Jesus.

He came to Jesus – he took the trouble to get into a position where he could best see and hear him – he climbed a tree to give himself some altitude seeing he was so short. He came and Jesus noticed (no one genuinely coming to Christ is overlooked). Jesus went home to Zacchaeus’s house and there he spoke man to man to him. Zacchaeus heard Christ’s word – he listened intently and believed.

Not only did he hear – Zacchaeus did what Jesus said. He understood what it meant to live for God’s Kingdom and follow Christ, so he immediately set about putting right the wrong he had been doing. He switched from dishonest and money-grubbing, to honest and generous. Because he was ready to DO what a place in the Kingdom of God taught.

You want a foundation dug deep and strongly anchored to Christ? Then not only must you come to him, not only must you hear his word – but you must do what he says.

Your way of life must change.

Micah 6.8 “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”

You have to DO that. You won’t be doing it on your own. Christ will be in you and his Spirit will strengthen you to do it. But DO IT you must!

He has TOLD you, O man or woman or youth what is good.

He has TOLD you, what the Lord requires of you.

He has TOLD you to do justice.

He has TOLD you to love kindness.

He has TOLD you to walk humbly WITH your God – not contrary to him – not in ways that disgust him – not in ways that undermind his word and his work – but WITH him.

You and him together in partnership. Just like a house anchored to a foundation – your life the house – Christ the foundation.

Nick and I and the Holy Spirit have been telling you what Christ told us:

If you are to have a foundation that ensures your life is forever safe in God – then you must dig deep and lay a foundation on the ROCK – and the Rock is Christ.

Lay that foundation by:

Coming to Christ

Hearing him.

And Doing what he says.

Building on Rock

2009-10-25T13:14:00.000+13:00

Luke 6

To build on the Rock, you must hear his words.

The person building his or her life on Christ must pay attention to what Christ says. Nick so rightly pointed out that when we speak of the word we must think Christ, because “In the beginning was the word and the word with God and the Word was God!” Hearing his words means listening to Christ. Listening to Christ is paying attention to what the Bible reveals about him.

You will have no foundation in your life if you are not paying attention to his word. When Jesus told this parable of the foundations, he was warning people who were not taking in what he was teaching them. They were wowed by miracles and intrigued by his stories, but they were not drinking it down into their lives. They sipping without guzzling. Guzzle. Digging a foundation that lasts means you are guzzling down the word of Christ.

It is not enough for the word to fall on your ears – that is happening this morning and yet there will be someone here who has ears but is not hearing. The seed is falling on a hard path and before I finish this sentence the enemy has already pecked it off their consciousness and it has put down no root.

You must be good soil which has been loosened to receive the seed of God’s Word and let it take deep root in your life.

You need to employ the word YES! When you hear God speak to you, say YES. And by that YES, mean “I accept what you are telling me and I want that to be true in me in every way you intend, Lord”. Remember what the Lord said to people who were part of a very superficial uncommitted Christian tradition (so uncommitted that the Lord likened them to lukewarm tea – neither hot nor cold – something to be spat from his mouth! He said: “Listen, I stand at the door knocking. If any person hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and we will eat together.” That’s what it means to hear his words. Say YES. Hear the knock, throw open the door, receive Christ into your life. Eat and drink and fellowship with him.

So, digging a foundation means:

Coming to Christ.
Hearing his word – paying attention – guzzling down the water of life.

A House with Foundations on Rock

2009-10-25T13:06:00.002+13:00

Luke 6.

Some strong, simple statements come out of this parable:

Your life is a house and its foundation will be tested by storms.
Dig deep!
Anchor your foundation to rock!

How do you build your life onto a foundation of rock? According to Jesus, you must COME, HEAR and DO. ‘Everyone who comes to me and hears my wor

Getting a proper foundation is coming to Christ. It is hearing his words. It is doing what he says.

Storms come to test your life. Storms are the troubles and trials which come to test where your trust lies.

If you are laying a secure and proper foundation in your life, you will be

Coming to Christ. (Verse 47)

Coming to Christ means that you ‘believe he exists and that he rewards those who seriously seek him.’

Hebrews 11.6. And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

To come to God means you believe that he exists and that means…

That you believe that this universe and this world are not random or accidental. You believe that it is a made world and a made universe - that design is evidence of a Designer – God.
It means that you believe that events are not random, and they are NOT altogether under the control of men and women. You believe that events and their consequences have meaning and a reason purposed by God.
You believe that the sense of what is right or wrong has been instilled in people by God who made them.
You accept the written testimony of the apostles who recorded the information about the life and teaching of Jesus Christ.
It means that you believe that although he was crucified by people who were rejecting him, he was also raised to life and was seen by many (including 500 persons on one occasion).
You believe that God has made himself knowable and understood by entering the world in a human life - and that God is in Christ reconciling people to himself.
Coming to Christ means that you believe that God is very pleased with all that his Son has done and that he is also pleased with everyone who is obedient to his Son.
You believe that God plans to bless and reward everyone who comes to Christ.
You are coming to Christ because you believe he is willing and able to forgive and bless YOU.
You believe that blessing begins with a place in God’s family and never ends because that blessing includes an endless life in a new heaven and earth – an existence so magnificent that “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Cor 2.9)

This is what coming to Christ means. You believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. Who are the fools who will turn their backs on a reward like that - just so they can play around with the fading and perishing things available in a life that is itself wearing thin – a life that will one day rip apart to reveal God’s judgment, not reward.

It goes without saying, of course, that coming to Christ involves talking to him! You are not coming to Christ just by attending church or reading the Bible – though those are both essential activities. You must use words. You have to put into words what you know about yourself and what you believe about him. Hosea 14.2

Take words with you and return to the LORD. Say to him: "Forgive all our sins and receive us graciously, that we may offer the fruit of our lips.

This conversation with Christ – this prayer – is not ‘a prayer’ it is ‘prayer’. It is not some set words you use; it is you telling Christ in a heartfelt, open way about your need of him.

Much of that conversation will be confession. You will be telling him how far short of him you fall and how ashamed you are of your self and your life. This conversation will be repentance. You will be telling him that you are ready to give up any life except the one he has prepared for you to live. This conversation will include affirmation – you will affirm and confirm to him that you believe that he exists and that you deeply desire whatever good things he has prepared for you.

So that was the first of the three things that are needed when you dig a deep foundation for your life: You must come to Christ.

Parables - the dishonest manager

2009-10-02T10:13:00.002+13:00

Luke 16

The parable:

A rich man had a manager who he employed to look after his interests.
He receives reports that his manager is wasting his resources – which presumably means spending them on himself with no concern for preserving or growing his employer’s wealth.
He calls the manager to a meeting and tells him to present a final set of accounts because he is shortly to be fired.
The manager had to quickly work out a plan for his future, because he realized he was about to lose everything. He was not cut out for manual labour and ruled out begging.
He worked out a plan that would win him friends who would support him when he lost his job. This plan involved contacting all his master’s debtors and offering a chance for them to settle their debts at a largely reduced rate if they did it instantly. (He had to work quickly before the word got out that he was no longer manager.)
When he presented the final accounts to the rich man it came to light what he had done, which was to use the resources at his disposal (in this case his employer’s) to win friends before his control of those resources was taken away from him.
His employer complimented his dishonest ex-manager for his cleverness.

Jesus adds an observation about the way the world does business. He says (v8b) that the sons of this world are shrewder in dealing with their own people than the sons of light. He emphasizes the difference between the people of this world and people of the kingdom (sons of light). This comment is vital to understanding the parable. This is not a parable about how to be sharp in your business dealings!

People of the kingdom (Christians) are not supposed to be the same as the dishonest manager – we aren’t being encouraged to be deceitful or to buy friendship with money. But the gist of the parable is that if even the ‘sons of this world’ can see that it is wise to use material things to ensure you have friends and a future, then how much more should the ‘sons of light’ be showing the way by using money and material resources to establish a brotherhood which lasts for eternity. In other words the best use of money is to spend it in such a way that trustful, caring, everlasting relationship are built up. This is at the heart of the meaning of the parable.

Jesus clarifies this (v9) by teaching his disciples that the best use of material things (‘unrighteous wealth’) is to spend it on making friends who will welcome you into the eternal homes of the kingdom of God. Jesus gives two negative reasons why this is the best use of money:

Because it is unrighteous wealth – i.e. money is not a measure of righteousness – having more of it is not evidence that you are being rewarded for being a righteous person. We each need the gift of righteousness – and money cannot buy it. Righteousness is a standing with God and ensures a place in his kingdom, grounded entirely on Christ. The Beatles rightly sang ‘Can’t buy me love’ in their very first bit hit. You can’t buy righteousness any more than you can buy love. Money can never make you the person you need to be in order to be welcomed into the ‘eternal dwellings’. It is unrighteous wealth. It is not that money is bad in itself. It is nothing. Money is actually just a promise that you can exchange it for ‘stuff’ of the value stamped on it. Having more of it is not a sign that God regards you as better than someone else. Money can be a curse, it can be an opportunity or it can be a distraction. But it can’t produce or buy what makes you acceptable to God. It is the world’s currency and the way to convert it into kingdom currency is to use it to serve Kingdom priorities.

Because it is not a matter of if money will fail but when it fails. Its temporariness and its unreliable nature urge us to invest it in what can last – i.e. the unending relationships we enjoy as brothers and sisters in God’s family in the eternal kingdom. This parable aims to clarify the priorities of the kingdom in a graphic manner. If we love the Father, we will love his children and we will expend ourselves and use all our resources for the extension of and the good of God’s family. Money and the love of it, must never be allowed to be our motivation and rule our lives.

Jesus then mines some more learning from this parable. He says that the person who faithfully (that is, honestly, wisely and reliably) handles small matters acts the same way in major matters; and the person who is dishonest in small matters acts with the same dishonesty in major matters. This is true of money. If you are unfaithful in the use of money – which is not a measure of righteousness – why would God entrust that which is truly valuable to you? He is hardly likely to give you a personal stake in his kingdom if you have been unfaithful with the opportunities he lent you.

You must treat money as something to be expended in God’s service. Like everything else, money must bend its knee and confess that Christ is Lord! Our lives must not be controlled by and used up in the pursuit of money. Money must never be our master. For example, the person who says, “We can’t afford to get married yet, so we are just living together.” That person is serving money. The desire for money and a flash wedding has put what God expects marriage to be in second place. Money is sitting on God’s throne in that person’s life. Here’s another example:“I know my company represents some really destructive, godless attitudes – but I can’t afford to quit the company because I am on a good salary.” Money is sitting on God’s throne in that person’s life.

Summary of what the parable means:

Its main point is:

Even unbelievers recognise that money is best spent on having friends and a future in life.

How much more should believers invest whatever material possessions they have in making friends (brothers and sisters) with whom they will share the eternal kingdom?

In other words, it is not consistent with God’s kingdom, to waste your life building personal wealth and spending it in a way that suggests you think life in this world is permanent.

Sub-points are:

Kingdom people have different values to the people of the world.
We must use even the small opportunities we have to promote God’s kingdom.
There is a direct link between how we use money, time and personal energy and the opportunities Christ gives us to do something big with our lives that will have eternal fallout.
Money presents itself as a god to be served – we must dethrone its influence in our lives.
In all the gathering, earning, using and spending of material resources we do in our lives, we must try to connect these directly to Kingdom objectives. Jesus has neatly summarized these objectives as making eternal friends. It seems that all our resources should be gospel-directed. In other words we should be able to explain how these things and our use of them promotes the good news by which people may connect with Jesus Christ and become our brothers and sisters forever.
Never forget who your resources really belong to. We are held to account.

Note:

This parable was heard by the Pharisees. They are those who were wasting the Master’s wealth (not just material things but also: Scriptures, Temple, pastoral opportunities to serve the people). This wasting of what was not theirs, was seen in their love of comfort, luxury and respect . Inherent in this parable is an invitation to the Pharisees to come to their senses and invest their master’s wealth in making friends for eternity. They lived as sons of this world and needed to become like the disciples, ‘sons of light’.

The parable was a warning to the disciples not to fall into the Pharisees’ ways. (The church always needs this warning, because churches are tempted to waste their Employer's resources).

Parables - light is for shining

2009-10-02T10:08:00.002+13:00

Mark 4.21-25

Jesus illustrates the meaning of his teaching about hiding the truth inside parables so that those on the outside cannot ‘get’ them. And to do it he uses a ‘mini-parable’.

A person lights a lamp and brings it to an interior room needing light. When he brings it in, he does not put it under a basket or a bed. He puts it on the lampstand, where it can light the entire room. End of story! Jesus tells this little domestic story in the form of a rhetorical question. The unspoken answer to the question is that it would be ridiculous to bring light into a room and then hide it under something, so that it cannot fulfill its purpose. Light is for illuminating, not for hiding.

What does that mean?

Jesus has just prior to this taught three things that relate to this little parable:

That the disciples have had the secret of the kingdom revealed to them.
That those secrets are concealed in the parables and Jesus draws them out and explains them so the disciples can understand them.
The secrets remain hidden in the parables to those ‘outsiders’ who are rejecting God’s Son.

So what further light does the little lamp parable bring to this teaching?

Jesus gives the meaning to the lamp parable in verse 22. (You can tell, because he says “For”, meaning, here is the literal connection with the parable.) He expresses the meaning twice:

None of the hidden things are meant to stay that way.
The things that are secret are that way so that they can be brought to light.

This begs the question: Why, if they are meant to be brought into the open, are the secret things that Jesus was teaching about the kingdom hidden?

Evidently, Jesus was carefully managing the revelation of the secrets of his kingdom, so that they would have their fullest and best effect. His strategy of concealing them from some people for a time was so that at the right time they would be powerfully revealed.

Here’s a simple illustration. One of our staff had a special event in her life and our DP decided it would be nice to present her with some flowers at our staff dinner. The flowers arrived during the school day and just a few of us knew that. They were concealed in the sickbay so that the teacher and most other staff were unaware of them. Then, at the staff dinner, we brought out the flowers and I had to give a little speech and hand them over and make a fuss of the teacher. What was hidden (the bunch of flowers) was only hidden for a time and only hidden so that it could be revealed at the best possible time.

Here is another illustration:

In World War 2 when the Allies were going to invade Europe to take back France from the Germans and end the war, the timing and planning for the invasion was secret information that was only completely known by a few. All sorts of training and planning went on undercover to make sure that the army, navy and airforce were all up to their job when the invasion happened. The reason for keeping it secret was so that it could be revealed at the proper time with a powerful impact. The secrecy was SO THAT it would be revealed – not just secrecy for the sake of not letting on.

Jesus didn’t want his disciples (or us) to think that his teaching was some secret knowledge for just a few people. There were two reasons why he was keeping his truth bound up within his group of disciples (Is 8.16 Bind up the testimony, seal the teaching among my disciples.).

His word needed to first be worked deeply into the minds and lives of his disciples so they would be ready for the explosion of his kingdom.
The enemy was working hard to derail Jesus’ mission by getting people to misunderstand Jesus’ ministry and prematurely make him king on their terms.

Application:

Christ first embeds his word in our lives so that it produces a change of heart and character, before he ‘goes public’ with it. The word must be hidden in our hearts first. It must be understood and work its changes. (Psalm 119.11 I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.). Christ teaches his Church so that we are equipped to DO SOMETHING.

However, it cannot remain hidden for ever. We may not conceal the true source of our wisdom, purpose and love. Jesus told this little parable so that his disciples did not become withdrawn and lacking vision. He wanted them to anticipate the grand reveal of his kingdom. It came at Pentecost.

Again, Jesus told them: If you have ears to hear – then LISTEN. He called listening “paying attention to what you hear”. We have to give our attention to Christ’s word. Take it in – take in a big measure of it – take it in often. Because the measure you use in taking in his Word will determine what you receive. If you have are receiving a lot, you will receive heaps more. But if you are taking in very little – even that little you have will evaporate into nothing so you retain nothing.

Proper listening is to give close attention, have a strong willingness to be taught and to make use of what you receive. If those conditions are present, then what you hear will do you good. The more attention, the deeper the willingness, the greater the determination to do what the word says – the more of Christ’s Word you will receive. And with his word comes his fellowship and help.

Parables - how they work (iii)

2009-10-02T10:06:00.002+13:00

Mark 4.1-20

Jesus then showed this disciples the importance of the parable of the sower

Jesus told the disciples that if they didn’t ‘get’ this parable, they wouldn’t ‘get’ any of them (v13). That is because the parable of the sower explains WHY some people don’t hear Christ’s message in a way that makes them insiders in God’s kingdom. Here are the reasons:

Some people have lives that have been so filled up and preoccupied with self-centred and world-centred ideas that there is no longer any openness towards God. Their hearts are trampled hard. They are no longer touched or stirred by God’s word. Evil influences quickly come and peck it up – they remain unmoved.
Some people have hearts and minds that believe anything and never think deeply about things. They are shallow, not realizing that following Christ will mean a total change of their way of life. They think God is just going to add some happy thoughts to their lives just they way they are. As soon as trouble comes, or there is a price to pay for following Christ, their faith shrivels up and dies.
Some people have lives that want to try to fit faith in Christ alongside a worldly lifestyle. They want a Christian compartment in their lives. But the ways and demands of this world and the results of their worldly living simply choke out their faith and kill it of.
Some people have lives that have been fully prepared by some digging and ploughing which many not have been very pleasant – but who are now eager to be implanted with the word of Christ. They are not just thinking how to have a ‘nice life’ but have had their eyes opened to see have fully satisfying it is to have a productive life – one that reproduces the goodness of Christ over and over again. A life that feeds other lives. A life lived under God’s rule – a life in the kingdom of God.

The parable encourages us to repent of hardness, repent of shallow attention to spiritual things, repent of preoccupation with worldly things and to take in the word of God – so that our lives can start producing the goodness that maximizes Christ’s glory.

In Conclusion

Jesus intends to teach us. If you are a disciple of Jesus you will be teachable and fully committed to learning from his word. This parable of the sower shows that the secret of God’s Kingdom is planted in our lives through the Word of Christ – we must pay close attention to what we have heard in case we fall away!
Parables always have a central truth that they shed light on. In this parable, the central truth is that God intends to grow his goodness in the lives o people by putting out his word into all kinds of people. But only some hearts are willing and ready to receive it. Pay attention to the condition of your heart, repent of what stops the word of God from growing there - be willing to receive it. James 1.21 Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
Parables give understandings about the kingdom of God. Their over-arching theme is always about how God rules and orders events and people in a way that puts Christ as Lord. We know we are understanding God’s Word when it brings us face to face with Jesus Christ, because becoming an ‘insider’ is to become a friend of Jesus. He said to his disciples, John 15.12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. Are you an insider like this – or an outsider who hears the words but has no sense o what they mean?
It is a very serious and troubling thing if we are making no sense out of Jesus’ parables – it probably means we have put ourselves amongst the disobedient rebels for whom the parables deliberately hide what might save us - if only our hearts were softer.
The parable of the sower is the benchmark parable which we have to understand if we are going to understand the rest, because it is the simplest parable and the one that gives us a way to classify and understand our OWN hearts.

Parables - how they work (ii)

2009-10-02T10:02:00.002+13:00

Mark 4.1-20

Where Jesus Taught

Where Jesus taught has a strong connection to how he taught. Jesus often taught in synagogues (a kind of local church building) – but he mainly taught out in the mainstream of life where people were living. In this case, he taught on the shoreline of the lake where people came to work as fishermen and where people came to buy fish and other produce. Jesus mixed in with the mainstream of life. On this day, there was such a big crowd he sat in a boat and had it pushed slightly off shore so his voice would carry to the crowd. Jesus was sending a message that his gospel was about the whole of life – not just a religious component. And because parables are true to life illustrations and stories, it made them all the richer when he used them ‘out in the field’ so to speak.

Christians are called to live and explain their new lives out in the mainstream of life. People should be able to encounter a Christ-driven life as they go about their daily lives and they should receive a clear answer when they ask Christians for the reason for the hope they possess.

Jesus taught many things in parables.

He didn’t just use parables, but he certainly taught a lot of material through them. It follows then that we must learn to understand his parables because they contain a rich mine of good teaching for us. We need to give time and thinking and prayer to understanding what Christ taught.

Mark gives an example of Jesus teaching by using a parable: the story of the sower and the different grounds his seed landed on. Jesus regarded this as a critical parable to understand. In fact, he said that if you don’t understand this parable, you won’t understand any of them (v13). This parable -because it teaches about how people respond to Christ’s teaching - is a kind of benchmark for understanding all parables.

Jesus told the parable and the elements of the story are these:

- a farmer sowing grain seeds on his land

- four different sorts of ground on which the seed falls

- birds, rocks and weeds which interfere with the seeds

- the sun

This was a very familiar scene for the people. All these elements were part of their everyday lives. Actually, even city-dwellers like us have no trouble grasping the context for this illustration. Parables don’t require specialist knowledge or learning to understand the bits that make up the story. They are deceptively simple.

The story simply describes what happens when the farmer scatters the seed freely and widely over some ground when he wants to grow a crop of wheat or barley. There is plenty of seed, so it isn’t planted one seed at a time – it is cast widely and freely. Of course he intends it to land where it will grow well, but some of the seed reaches other places. Some drops onto the path at the edge of the field and because the ground is packed down hard from the trampling of feet, it sits up for the birds who are following the farmer to peck up immediately. Other seed falls on very shallow soil that is just covering a layer of rock or limestone. The seed there grows pretty quickly and most of it comes up as leaf because there is no depth for roots to go downwards. The sun soon dries out the soil, parches the plant and it shrivels and dies. Some seed lands on uncleared soil where there are thorns. The thorns compete with the grain and choke the young plants so they produce no grain. And of course much seed landed on good soil and it produced 30, 60 or 100 times over.

Jesus then added a troubling statement.

Jesus put out the story and left it ‘hanging in the air’ for people to process in their thinking. He then added: “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” That sounds like: “If you are not deaf – then pay attention.” Presumably he did not think that there were a lot of physically deaf people in the crowd, so what could he mean? He could be referring to those willing to listen or those able to hear what he was teaching. And from the discussion he had with his disciples shortly afterwards, it seems that he meant both. Not everyone is willing and able to process parables.

Not everyone who hears the parable are willing to hear what it means and furthermore, some who hear it and might think they have ‘got it’ are not even able to understand it. This is troubling because it suggests that people are not as free as they might think to take or leave what Jesus taught. It should trouble us, too. What if you are not able to ‘get’ what Jesus is teaching?

The inner circle had lots of questions to ask

Later on, when Jesus was back at the house with his disciples they were full of questions about the parables. Notice the difference: those who were receiving the parables urgently wanted to get the meaning clear! These disciples urged Jesus to show them what the parables meant in case any of his advice dropped to the ground. Other people just wandered away bemused, or took a moral lesson out of a parable, or, if they were Pharisees, ridiculed, criticized and complained about the parables. The sure sign someone is ‘getting’ Christ’s parable is that they want to know more - the story has created an itch that they can’t stop scratching. This parable about the sower and other parables that he told that day had stirred the disciples’ thinking and inflamed their interest. They were burning with questions about the meaning of the parables and the issues raised by them. That is a sure sign that Jesus is disclosing his message to you: You are hungry to find out more – you are full of questions – you can’t keep away from the Bible and from books and on-line stuff that explains it.

Jesus told the disciples that they were privileged. Something had been given to them that was not available to those who Jesus calls ‘outsiders’. To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those on the outside everything is in parables.

Jesus is saying that his sayings remain just ‘stories’ to those on the outside – the meaning remains frozen inside the parable - but to his disciples the ‘secret of the kingdom of God’ has been drawn out and presented to their understanding. This is the work of the Holy Spirit. He is the teacher who extracts the meaning from all Scripture, including parables, and makes Christ known to you. The secret of the kingdom of God is given not taken.

Jesus says that his parables contain the ‘secret of the kingdom of God’ but not everyone gets it. Most everyone can understand what the story is saying and even extract a moral or an ethical lesson from the parable. However, Jesus is saying that there is much more in his parables – something he calls the ‘secret of the kingdom of God’ – and that this insight is given, not extracted.

This helps to explain Jesus’ comment at the end of his parable of the sower (“He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”). Obviously, he means that some people have not got ears that can hear the proper inner meaning of the parables. These people Jesus calls ‘outsiders.’

This is troubling. It ought to at the very least cause us to stop and ask the question, “Do I have ears to hear? Am I hearing and perceiving what Christ intends me to from his parables? Am I missing something here? Is this why some people seem genuinely switched on by the Bible and to me it just seems dry and meaningless?”

While the parables are revealing helpful things to insiders, they are deliberately hiding them from outsiders. The latter group may see what the parables are talking about and hear what they are saying but they neither perceive nor understand the true meaning of the parable. The parables are part of Christ’s sifting and separating process and have the unavoidable effect of placing hearers in two great categories – those on the inside and those on the outside of all the benefits that being a willing member of God’s Kingdom provides.

Jesus quotes from Isaiah to show what effect his parables are having on those who have rebelled against God:

for those outside everything is in parables so that

they may indeed see and not perceive,

and may indeed hear and not understand,

lest they should turn and be forgiven.

God gave this message to Isaiah for Israel because they had repeatedly refused to pay attention to his word and his warnings and his calls to repent. From that point on they would hear God’s message but instead of enlightening them, it would make them deafer and blinder to the truth that could save them. Is there a more troubling judgment than this - that we should be people who have heard God’s message so much and failed to act on it so often, that now God is using his message to put us to sleep so that we will never repent and find forgiveness? Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion. Heb 3,4.

Parables - how they work (i)

2009-10-02T09:57:00.003+13:00

Mark 4.1-20

Intro

Jesus was always teaching. This is how he taught:

He modeled the truth by the way he lived and how he responded to all kinds of situations. He answered questions. He explained Old Testament passages. He explained circumstances and events that happened around him. He deliberately did something (such as a healing) and then explained what it meant. He gave extended sermons. And he told stories with a very precise meaning: Parables.

It is this last teaching method that we are going to concern ourselves with over the next couple of months.

What is a parable? First and foremost, it is a verbal illustration or story. The word parable comes from a word meaning to ‘place alongside’.(Notice para from which we get parallel). A parable is an illustration that is set alongside a message to shed more light on it – to make it vivid and memorable by comparing it to everyday things. However, as we will see shortly, Jesus used parables to make things very clear to some and less clear to others.

A parable is an extended illustration, so that it is a story or almost a story. Jesus used similes and metaphors that were not exactly parables. When Jesus said, “I am the vine” he was using a metaphor, not a parable. When Jesus said, “This generation is like children playing at the market” he was using a simile not a parable. Parables go beyond this to become at the very least an extended simile or metaphor – more of a story – but a particular type of story. They are not fantasy stories or fairy tales – they are true to life or describe things seen in nature – usually something the original hearers could observe from daily life. Parables are straight-forward stories that shed light on a particular truth. However, the spiritual application of that truth is not always perceived by the hearers which we will look at later on.

One effect of a parable is to cause the message to ‘hang in the air’ for a time, forcing the hearer to think it through and make connections.

For example, if Jesus had simply said, some people hear my message and ignore it – that would have had much less impact than the parable of the sower throwing out seeds and some lands on a path, but it can’t take root because the path is too hard and the birds come and eat it up. The parable adds richness, challenge and fullness of meaning that you don’t get by simply stating a truth.

BENT

2009-08-16T16:47:00.002+12:00

Luke 13.10-17

When Jesus moved around the towns of Israel, he taught in synagogues. He taught that God’s kingdom had come and they needed to personally receive it. Synagogues were buildings or chapels. They were meeting places where the local priests read and taught the Scriptures to the people of that town. On this occasion here - recorded by Luke - Jesus was the speaker of the day. He took the Scripture. He read it aloud and he explained how it tells about God's rule - God's kingdom. He explained how men and women must come under God's rule, willingly and happily. Because everything is actually under God's rule - but not everyone is under God's rule for their good - they are his enemies and he uses the force of circumstances to restrain them and direct them. Did you realise that if you are not a willing follower of Jesus Christ, God treats you like a stubborn horse - he uses the bit and bridle of circumstances and events in your life to both restrain you and give you the chance to wake up to your disobedience and respond willingly to him?

So, when Jesus taught in the synagogues, he used the Old Testament scriptures to explain how to repent and how to come to him in faith. He said things like, "You who are struggling, weary and overburdened in life, come to me! Come under my care and supervision because the life's work that I put on you will fit you perfectly and will not wear you down. I am meek and gentle and you can learn from me because I am ready to help you."

Every time, I or any one of us opens up the Bible, reads it and points out how to come willingly under God's rule, Jesus is calling you to bring your life and all its burdens to him so he can come to live in you - supervising, supporting and guiding your life.

On one occasion, as Jesus was bringing this good news to the people in a synagogue, there was a particular woman among the people. She was disabled. Disabled means to have some of your abilities broken or damaged in some way. In this woman's case, she was bent over. She could not straighten up her spine. Her back was bent - fused so she could not flex and reach and turn. She was bowed over so she was always looking towards the ground and could not look people - even her family - full in the face. No doubt there was pain that went with this stiffness and transferred pain into her neck and head and hips and limbs. Her internal organs, her digestive system were constricted. She could not get her lungs fully opened up to breathe, so tiredness and breathlessness must have been her daily discomfort. Her body was deeply stressed and disordered by this disability.

[Sickness and disabilities are part of the human experience because sin and death entered the world when the first humans were on probation in the garden. They had the chance to confirm their willing dependence on God, but they chose to try and assert their independence. Their disobedience lost for them and us the life of God - so we became a race of people with the imprint of God’s likeness on us, yet spiritually dead and unable to live up to it. Everyone is affected by this loss to some extent. Kids get sick. Swine flu attacks. Heart disease strikes. People get old. Everyone dies. All these are directly attributable to the disobedience of our first parents and the repeated and continuing disobedience that is passed on from one generation to another. We are sinful by nature. Yet God graciously allows us to live on in spite of our disobedient rebellion to allow us time and opportunity to come to repentance. However, even though we live on for a time, he does not cover up the seriousness of our spiritual deadness. Sickness and death remind us to seek God while he may be found – to call upon him while he is near – to give up our sinful way of life and our wrong thinking – to return to the Lord so that he can have compassion on us – because we have the promises here that he will fully and richly forgive us.

Sickness, accident and death are never good in themselves - diabetes is not good, an amputation is not good, headaches are not good - but God can even make the bad circumstances caused by human sin serve his good purposes. For example, an accident or sickness may finally get a person to pay attention to the word of life so that he meets Christ and secures eternal life in him.

However, while God uses the sickness and distress and death in the world to prompt, awaken and point us to repentance, forgiveness and life - Satan works hard to use sickness, accident and death to steal, kill and destroy people. He entices people to abuse their bodies so they will get diseases and die before their time. He tempts young people to behave recklessly so they are a danger to themselves and others. He soaks middle-aged people in anxieties and depression so that they give in to defeated lives. He also sends dark spirits (demons) into the lives of some, to bring specific sicknesses and disabilities. And because their spirits are dead and hollow, demons find those person's lives well-prepared for them to make their homes and cause all kinds of mayhem.

We don’t know what the direct cause of many people’s illnesses and disabilities are. There is often nothing to suggest that it was related to some particular sin that they are holding onto – it may well have been that many are just further examples of the collateral damage that sin has brought into the world – just like miscarriages, drownings, mental disability, blindness and the host of other disappointments that afflict humanity. Nevertheless, SIN lies behind them all, even when it is not that person’s specific sin.

ON this occasion, Jesus immediately perceived that this was not just a disability or sickness caused by the general sinful condition of humanity. This disability had a specific cause. An evil spirit was at work in this woman's life, so that she no longer had control of her back muscles, spine and nervous system. Though she worked her brain to send a signal to her back to straighten up, her back could not obey. Satan had her in the grip of a disabling spirit that held her bent over. Jesus resolved to do something about this.

He was announcing and explaining God’s kingdom and he wanted to confirm that this kingdom had arrived among them, by breaking the dominion of Satan over this woman. By straightening her up, he gave a powerful physical example of his spiritual power to release people from the oppression of evil - undo the damage done by sin - and put joy where there had been defeat.

So Jesus over-ruled and countermanded the damage that Satan had sent that the spirit to vent upon that woman. He simply told the woman that she was freed from her disability. He put his hands on her and immediately she unfolded and stood up straight. He did not shout, or rant, or make a show of this healing. He simply said what was going to happen and it happened. [Just remember this – God speaks in a still, small voice – directly to you. Get quiet. Listen. Be still and learn that HE is God.]

The woman must have suddenly seemed very tall to all who knew her. People that she had always looked up to sideways - now turned out to be shorter than her. Many of them she now looked down towards. Just get a picture in your mind of how dramatic the change was; her distorted body now standing confidently tall and straight! The body that children had mocked and adults had stared at, was now supple, graceful and free. Evidence of Christ’s good life acting upon her’s.

That evil spirit was quietly, almost matter-of-factly disposed of by Jesus [rather like disposing of a dead rat by its tail] - the loudest thing that occurred was the voice of the woman glorifying God …(and no doubt the gasps of the people in the synagogue). She knew exactly what had happened. The depression caused by that oppressive spirit which had cruelly bent her over, was gone and she was suddenly free of pain, free of disappointment, free of shame - she had a clear mind. Immediately, on the spot, with this new clear thinking - she chose faith in Christ. No hesitation, no second thoughts: She gave credit where she knew it lay - with God. She glorified God. To glorify God is to speak up that this is God's work - and it is good – very good.

Isn't it time you glorified God? Hasn't God done some remarkable things for you? I'd say that for almost all of you, no disabling spirit or any other kind of spirit has made its home in you - to bend you over or damage you. Are you waiting until such evil to come against you, before you will glorify God? Shouldn't you glorify God that you have never been troubled by such a spirit? Shouldn't you glorify God that your life and your mind are intact and you have the opportunity to come under Christ's good care and supervision? Shouldn’t you glorify God when your children are safe and healthy? Why would you test God?

Or worse, Why would you go on using up his good gifts without surrendering up your life to his Son? Why would you go on grabbing credit for yourself and soaking up others' flattery and praise when it is God who has given you the time and space to live relatively free of distress to this point?

Take a lead from the disabled woman. The moment she had a lucid, clear thought, free of oppression and distress, she immediately turned herself over to God. You have had many such times, why the delay?

Now, what happened next, is most interesting and instructive. Religion poked its ugly face in where it wasn't needed! You don’t need religion where Jesus is present. Satan is tricky. When he saw that a direct physical attack on this individual woman was not enough to rob God of his glory, he quickly shifted his strategy to stir up the religious feelings of men in the synagogue. The synagogue leader then got up and rebuked Jesus. He was gutless - not bold enough to confront Jesus directly, so he made a "general announcement"! He spoke to the people – but really he was contradicting Jesus.

In case anyone else like this woman thought that they should bring their troubles directly to Jesus without following the synagogue rules, and in case Jesus thought he could bring his unacceptable methods into his synagogue, the leader said:

"If you think you need to be healed – then come to the synagogue during the week - but this is a holy day of worship, the Sabbath, so don't disturb our worship on this day." In other words, he was putting his synagogue programme ahead of Jesus' work. He was preserving the religious routines ahead of having compassion on people who needed help.

Whenever people are not confident that God is present in the church, they will bring out their own programmes to fill the void. The leader should have said: “What you have seen here today is evidence that God is among us. He has sent his Messiah to teach us and deliver us from the evil that infiltrates our lives, like our sister, here. I urge you all to pay attention to him, to receive his word and to receive him as your true leader and saviour.” That’s what he should have said! Instead, he was thinking of his status as synagogue ruler and he didn’t want anything or anyone (even the Son of God!) to rob him of that. Be very wary of slick, big production value, Christian events. The more religious programming there is, the more likely it is that Christ himself is not there.

Jesus had a powerful answer to the synagogue leader, in case any of the needy were deceived into thinking that they had to keep religious rules and duties before God would help them. He called the synagogue leaders HYPOCRITES - that is people who make a fuss about the need to keep a certain rule, while all the time they were happy to break it when it suited their own desires. He gave them an example of their hypocrisy and just how far away they were from the love and the will of God. He said to them, "You are quite willing, on the Sabbath, to make sure your donkey or ox doesn't die of thirst and you untie them and lead them off to the water trough. So why are you unwilling to lead this poor woman - one of your own people, a descendant of Abraham - to be untied from her bondage to Satan on the Sabbath?"

They had nothing to say - they were shamed out, totally. But all the people felt a great load lifted off them. The load of religious duty that they thought they must keep if God was going to accept them, was untied and lifted from their shoulders. There was joy in the synagogue. People were delighted in Jesus and all the glorious things that he was doing for them.

So what are we to take from this as individuals and as a church?

First, you personally. Know this,

- Satan works through people and circumstances that attack you. As with this woman, he wants to bend you down. He does not want you at your full height and stature in Jesus Christ. Satan aims to keep you discouraged and defeated by your fears and anxieties - by your sins and by your doubts. That is his strategy concerning you. You will see him working on this in YOUR life every day.

- He wants you to be so bent down by your circumstances and weaknesses that this becomes your habitual and permanent condition - he wants you disabled and locked in the bent, defeated position. He wants your life to de-glorify Christ. He hopes to get you into a position where you are definitely known as a Christian (whether that be true or not) and then he wants you to portray as miserable, defeated, ungodly, weak ‘christian’ life as he possibly can. In this way, he wins two ways: he succeeds in ruining YOUR life and he succeeds in giving Christ a bad name. GOD FORBID! God forbid that your life, or mine, should serve Satan's strategy. You must fight the good fight. You must resist the devil. Resist him firm in your faith and he will flee from you. Fight for faith. Put on the whole armour of God and when you have fought to a standstill - stand right where you are - stand still and see the salvation of God. Get your helmet of salvation - know how God forgives you and get your thinking straight. Get your breastplate of righteousness - keep trusting in Christ to be your right standing with God. Get the belt of truth - strengthen your backbone by living a godly upright life. Put on the shoes that will get you attacking and running with the good news everywhere and in all circumstances. Take up the shield of faith - deflect all the flaming arrows Satan sends by holding up the promises of God. Grip and swing the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God - know it, think it, speak it.

And what shall we take from the account of the bent woman as a church family?

Care for each other. These religious men had no interest in their people. Jesus walked in and he immediately noticed the woman in distress.

We should expect, welcome and notice the presence of Jesus amongst us. You will see him in your brother and sister Christian’s lives. You will recognize him in the word that is spoken. You should be able to sense his encouragement and love in the praise.

The synagogue incident shows the importance of joyful worship and turning our personal experiences of Christ’s help into praise. Each of us have a part to play in this.

Finally, we need to have determination to get our individual lives so transparent and clean of sins that Jesus can freely and powerfully work amongst us as a people.

Spending Your Life

2009-08-16T16:43:00.002+12:00

2 Timothy 4. 5-8

Wandering from or turning away from something, implies that you have seen, or heard, or known the thing you are leaving behind. You were once HERE and now you have moved to THERE! Am I speaking to anyone this morning who was once HERE – tasting the good things of God but who is now out THERE – having wandered off. Turning away from listening to the truth suggests that a person once had opportunity to learn Bible truth, but has stopped listening. That person has got off the plain safe path and wandered after wrong ideas – myths. The thing about myths is that you can make them mean whatever you want. Myths appeal to your feelings and want . They are theories, clichés and stories that provide excuses for the way people are – they don’t demand change or challenge you. And because they don’t have the sharp edge of reality, they don’t threaten – you can take it or leave it. Myths are comfortable – they say what you want to hear.

Recently an Israeli tourist was lost in the bush near the Routeburn Track. She was missing for a long time and eventually her body was found well off the track. She had inexplicably wandered from the well-marked path. From her camera, the Police were able to work out what had happened. On it were a series of images. Pictures of the views she enjoyed as she wandered further and further into the deep bush and away from the safety of the marked track. From her picture-taking, it was obvious that she didn’t realize how lost she was or the danger she was in. They could see from the last image before her death, that she would have seen the safe road far in the distance. She tried to take her own route towards it but slipped on a wet boulder on the edge of a river and broke her neck. Sadly, she lay their unable to move until the cold came and robbed her of life. She died there - alone –frightened - far from help.

Wandering from the truth is like that. Myths lead to that kind of loss - Leaving the well-marked path to chase after ‘views’ and experiences that interest you - Trying to cut your own way through life - Wandering further and further away from the way of Christ.

This is different to the solid truth that the apostle Paul recommends. Bible truth is not vague, subjective philosophy – it is the truth written in real lives and none more real or more truthful than Jesus Christ. Unlike myths, God’s Word is a mirror in which you can see who and what you really are. It is a hammer that shatters make-believe. It is a fire that challenges, motivates and stirs up change. It is food and drink. And above all, it is the revelation of God in Jesus Christ.

All this is why Paul urges Timothy to be sober-minded and clear thinking so that he can fulfil his life’s work.

And having stirred Timothy up to spend his life wisely, Paul talks about his own life.

Paul and Timothy were at two different stages of life. Timothy was just hitting his straps while Paul was getting close to finish life’s race. Paul encourages Timothy and us to so live our lives that we finish as winners. No one remembers a person who started a race well but didn’t finish. Our school cross country was last Friday. Some boys run the first lap at a great sprint – especially when they go past the spectators. But later once the runners have been out around the streets and up the hills, the real winners come back into the school to the cheers of the kids. No one remembers those who began with a burst and faded. Paul urges Timothy and you and me to consider how we are running the race of life, so that we finish with honour and collect the medal.

Paul describes his life as a drink offering to be poured out – wine poured over the sacrificial lamb. For I am already being poured out as a drink offering v6.

In the Old Testament, the Temple sacrifices had very specific meaning. They were not just a bunch of religious routines to be kept. They were very, very serious activities that had to be strictly kept, because they illustrated in a vivid way certain vital truths that people needed to understand about God and about themselves.

In a brief summary: the killing of certain animals and the burning of their bodies taught Israel about the offensiveness of human sin and God’s intention to judge it and destroy those who harbour it and practise it. Sin costs lives. The sacrifices taught that God was postponing his direct judgment of his people to give them time and opportunity to repent and receive forgiveness. More than that, the sacrifices that went on generation after generation pointed to the time when God would put forward a perfect, once-and-for-all sacrifice not just for Israelites, but for people of any nation or time. That is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world: Jesus Christ.

Now, those of us who live after the sacrifice of Jesus at the cross, when we read all about the sacrifices and the Temple in the Old Testament, we find out a lot of rich detail of what Jesus’ coming and his sacrifice means. Whereas, the Israelites who lived before Jesus was born at Bethlehem - about 28 generations back – they had to actually DO the sacrifices and keep all the ceremonies and rituals accurately, so that each generation would understand how God was holding back his judgment until he sent a Leader (Christ) who could put things right.

For now, that’s enough background to help us understand what Paul meant when he described using up his life in God’s work as the pouring out of a drink offering. One action in the sacrifices of animals in the Temple included the priest pouring out a couple of litres of wine onto the sacrifice so as it evaporated in the heat, a sweet-smelling vapour would be given off. In the Old Testament references, it says that this was a ‘pleasing’ aroma to God.

Wine represents blood – because it is liquid and red. It also stands for joy and fellowship – because wine is drunk with a meal and it has a warm, relaxing sociable aspect to it.

Paul’s life included suffering imprisonment and beatings and enduring the loss of all things so he could devote himself to serving out the good things of God to the church. So why did Paul liken this drink offering to the using up of his life in God’s service? Because of those two images: blood and joy.

Paul was very glad and grateful that he had something to offer up to God - his entire self. He considered all his energies, his intellect, his gifts and skills (both the things he was born with and the things he had learned in life – e.g. his leatherworking skills and his academic knowledge) – his relationships, his time, his health – everything that made Paul to be Paul – he considered all that his life consisted of to have its highest value when poured out in the service of Christ. Isaac Watts expressed the same idea that Paul has:

Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.

So, Paul is ready to pour out his life’s blood as his worship to God. Actually, he was not speaking symbolically. He had already bled for Christ. Five times he received 39 lashes. Three times he was beaten with rods. Once he was stoned and left for dead. Three times he was shipwrecked. Paul had bled for Christ on numerous occasions and now he was in prison in Rome soon to be executed.

(And you thought the Christian life was boring!) When Paul thinks of his life as the wine was poured out as an offering to God – this is no theoretical outpouring. This is real. This is his lifeblood being spilled.

But, remember that the wine also represents joy. Paul was not a miserable man. He did not consider the pouring out of his life a miserable thing. Remember the jail cell at Philippi! There you had blood and joy together. Paul and Silas had been beaten with rods. They were covered in their own and each other’s blood spattering their bodies and soaking their clothes. They were fastened in chains so they could not move and get comfortable. And what do you hear from their cell – moaning? – yelled abuse? – mumbled prayers of “why me, God?” No. Singing. You hear two men making music, singing praises to God. This is not bravado but joy. Blood and joy together.

Paul wasn’t a young man. Such beatings no doubt took their toll on him and shortened his life expectancy. Some of his human life ebbed away at each of these difficulties he endured. But he did not see it as a waste. He did not see his life something to be pampered and preserved. He saw his life as something to be spent – with joy. It was pure joy for him to see the Holy Spirit using him in Christ’s service. Paul wasn’t alone in this. James said: Consider it pure joy when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. James 1.

And of Paul’s hero, Jesus Christ, it was said:

Looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Heb 12.2.

Paul gladly accepted the option of suffering for the sake of God’s people, because he wanted to be like Christ. Phil 3.

7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

12 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Paul saw his life as something he wanted to offer up in harmony with Jesus, the Lamb of God. He knew HE couldn’t die to save people, but he wanted his life to be evidence that Christ’s sacrifice has saving power. He saw his life’s work for the church as harmonious with Christ who laid down his life for the people of God. If Christ, the Good Shepherd, laid down his life for the sake of the flock of God, then Paul wanted to do the same thing.

The apostle John had the same idea – Jesus laid down his life for us and we should lay down our lives for our brothers.

The using up of our lives for God’s people is an act of worship – like the pouring out of the wine on the lamb about to be offered at the altar. Paul wanted to declare ‘me too’ when he thought about Christ’s willingness to lay down his life so that God’s people could be made safe within God’s family.

Where does that leave you and I? How we are going to use our lives? Are we going to keep our life-wine in the cellar so that it ages nicely and can be brought out in our retirement and sipped while we sit on a deck watching the sunset? Or are we going to pour out our lives, living them with the fixed and steady purpose of treasuring and glorifying Jesus Christ? And the best and happiest way of doing that is to commit to his business which is to do the work of an evangelist – to promote the good news and build up the household of God – his Church.

For most of us that will mean settling in the place God has put us to build families and work in communities so through the usual human activities we make plain who Jesus is and call men, women and children to follow him. For some it will involve his calling for you to go to other places – perhaps hard places. But whether we stay or go, there will be times of tragedy and disaster and times of peace and prosperity – and through all those circumstances we must demonstrate the joy, wisdom, love and power there is in Jesus Christ for his people. We must be living evidence that we are not locked into this sin and death-scarred world, but that we are the signs that God has a kingdom and it is coming!

One of the myths that lead people astray is that retirement is the golden years – the time for sitting back and enjoying what you have worked for all your life. Lies! Haven’t you seen those miserable old men trundling along behind their wives carrying their supermarket bags! Haven’t you seen those sad old women with their New Idea and Women’s Weekly magazines, sitting in the hair salon waiting for their thin grey hair to be turned into something more stylish!

Now come with me and see Paul in the last months of his life, in prison, requesting his notebooks (v13) so he can record more good teaching for God’s people – including you and me! You know what… I know which old age I would prefer.

Come with me and see Priscilla and Aquila (v19) – that husband and wife (actually Priscilla had the major ministry in that marriage) – good friends and fellow-workers with Paul since the beginning of his church planting in Ephesus. Their lives turned out different to Paul – less dramatic – no ship wrecks, maybe no beatings – but they spent their lives nevertheless. They made their home the centre of God’s work wherever they lived. Lives well spent. Lives poured out.

How sad when you read of Demas (v10) – shame on you Demas – your claim to fame is to warn Christians of every generation that falling in love with the world is a dead end.

Paul says he used up his life fighting! (v7) Some of you may have got into the wrong fights, because Paul calls his fight “the good fight”. You might be fighting against family members who have done you wrong. You might be fighting over land, over an inheritance or over children. You might be fighting to make a name for yourself or fighting to prove something. All these fights will leave you discouraged and exhausted. You need to engage in the good fight. Like Paul we are called to fight against sin in ourselves – to fight against the lies that attack our people – we are called to use the sword of the Spirit – the Word of God and other weapons of righteousness, such as prayer and good works.

Paul said he had run his race and finished it. He had kept the faith – that is, he had kept to it. He ran according to the rules – cut no corners – kept to the safe track – not wandered away after myths.

Paul finished well and expected to collect his garland or crown of righteousness. In the Olympic games of those times, the winner of a marathon would be crowned with a winners wreath on his head – we might call it the gold medal. He calls his reward the “crown of righteousness”. The proof he is a righteous man is that he has completed his race without wandering away or turning aside. The confirmation that fighting through persecution, cold, loss, and distress is worth it is the crown of righteousness – endless life – that waits for you at the finishing line.

The final proof that you are on side with Christ is that you will run your race so that you finish – and finish strongly. The crown is available to all who have loved his appearing – all who have set their hearts on holding out for him and keeping faith with him. All who have treasured the thought of seeing him, being with him and being approved by him will be crowned. Will you?

How to Live in the Last Times

2009-08-16T16:35:00.002+12:00

2 Tim 3.1-9

Paul describes a time he calls the 'last days' – what does that mean?

There it is in verse 1: Understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty! Or 'But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days.'

In a symphony or other musical composition, the finale is the section that brings the music to a climax or resolution. Sometimes the music builds and builds in intensity and volume until you get to that final resounding note. A finale is not just that last note – it is the whole build up to it, the gathering together of all the threads and emotion of the musical composition until it is resolved and completed on that final note.

Similarly, the last days are not just a few days at the end of human history. It is a longish period (long to man but not to God) during which God is gathering together all the threads and themes of his purpose for humanity and bringing it to a magnificent final note – the revelation of Jesus Christ as the King .

The last days are the finale of human history – the period between the ascension of Jesus – his return into heaven – and his final physical reappearance in the future to close off the long period of human rebellion and estabish his rule permanently.

These events are presented in the Bible as unique one-off actions by Christ, the Creator of everything.

So the Bible presents us with a period of time called the last times which is bracketed by Jesus' physical departure from the world and his physical return into it in the future. History and time are not just unravelling endlessly and randomly. They are being rolled out at Christ's initiative and there is a time appointed for him to bring the finale to it's last note.

In the 'the last times', God has a particular purpose he is working out in the world. God has a plan. He is not just reacting to what happens – he over-rules everything that happens. In this time, he is gathering people. Rescuing people from being locked into a world sentenced to death because of their sins. His plan is to rescue people from all people groups and nations into the safety of the Church.

We are in the middle of those last times in which the Church is being built as people get born again and added to the family of God. The information about Jesus Christ (the good news / gospel) is being spread across the peoples, nations and cultures of the world. That has been happening for 2000 years so far. Over the time since the day of Pentecost (which you can read about in Acts 2) when the Holy Spirit came and the gospel was first preached publicly by Peter - the Church has been planted in place after place – town after town (you can read how that got started in Acts, also).

And as the Church is built in a town and then a whole society it 'white-ants' those nations – that is, it eats away at the deceptive beliefs and self-confidence of godless living. Belief in idols and in peoples' ancestral heroes is undermined and Christ is lifted up as the one and only Man for us to worship and follow. It has happened in the Roman Empire, Europe, North Africa, the Americas, the Pacific, now Central and Southern Africa, and is just starting in Asia. These are the 'last times' and Jesus Christ is on a mission - to fill up his kingdom with people from every tribe, nation and language group. (Incidentally, that's why having multiculural churches like ours is an important witness to the success of Jesus' mission.)

The last days are a finite time – but we have not been given the end point. We don't know it. We only know that we have work to do - to add people to the Church so that people have the chance to see Christ transform their culture through a period when the Church is strong. For New Zealand, it seems that period was the from 1840s to 1970s – a time when the good effects of the gospel rubbed off on NZ society, resulting in peace and prosperity. New Zealand is rapidly now falling away from that blessing. In our time, we must fight against this decline. Not by protesting or complaining about society – rather by bringing the gospel alive within it. Perhaps God will graciously extend the period of his patience with New Zealand and we will be part of revival of interest in the gospel. One thing I notice, is that God has brought the people of his next big Church-building initiative to us! The peoples of Asia are coming to New Zealand. And what will they learn about Christ from us?

If we are to take up our calling and work with Jesus Christ, it first means getting ourselves right with God – that is, making sure the gospel has worked for us to make us acceptable servants of God.

It involves an ongoing, daily process of sanctification (that is making good). When we 'make good' something, we are repairing or refurbishing it. We set to work on our own lives, cooperating with the Holy Spirit to become closer and closer representations of Jesus Christ’s life. This involves fighting against sin and receiving God’s grace to add new behaviour.

But beyond that important personal rebuilding, we must also become Church-builders. We do this by finding people and adding them to the Church.

What makes these last times difficult (terrible)?

The last times involve struggle and suffering because there is a fight. The difficulties we struggle against are caused by sins.

Society's difficult times – your family's difficult times – YOUR difficult times are caused by loving the wrong things.

For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, lovers of pleasure – rather than lovers of God.

These sins describe a society in trouble – not just individual’s faults. It is pretty clear that New Zealand society is a match for this troubling description. These things are what we are working against. And the first place we have to defeat them is in our own lives!

We have to defeat SELF. It wants to dominate our lives and make itself bigger than God. It wants to be worshiped and served over God. Self makes its demands and we cave into them all the time. Self creates an image for itself so instead of us being remade in the likeness of Christ, which pleases God – we gather up friends and experiences and material things that will puff up SELF. We are lovers of money and stuff and pleasure, because SELF demands those things.

And when you put together cities and nations of people who are lovers of self, lovers of money and lovers of pleasure, you have all those destructive behaviours listed here:

boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4treacherous, rash, conceited.

Now, we don’t defeat these flaws in society by protests, by judging or public shaming of people. We defeat them first, by having the Holy Spirit work in our personal lives and then together building a community within the community where these sins don't rule – the Church.

So, we have seen what causes the difficulties in society. And we have learned that the good news of Jesus Christ is what transforms individuals and forms churches which work against these evils that tear societies to bits.

3. What kind of lives Christians must live in times like ours.

First up, notice verse 5 where it says that even in the midst of these destructive behaviours, there will be people who maintain an outward appearance of religion or godliness .

Having the appearance of godliness by denying its power.

If we are to live successfully in times of difficulty (including persecution) we must kill off double-standards – saying one thing and living another – hypocrisy.

There are people who talk “God-talk” and say “Lord this” or “Lord that” and yet they deny the power of Christ to get in and change their actual behaviour. One of the most destructive things at work in Christ's Church is people who use the name of Christ and talk like Christians but deny the power of Jesus to give them a godly life to live. Paul warns Timothy to keep well clear of such people. Don't have them as your friends. Save them, help them if you can – but put on your rubber gloves so you aren't contaminated by their way of living.

So in these godless times, we must not deny the power of a godly life. Our number one personal priority must be to increase the godliness of our lives and to commit to prayers of faith and the Word of God, so that God can own his work among us by providing life-changing power.

And Paul, here, helpfully lists the type of life a godly Christian must live in these ungodly times. He reminds Timothy that he has committed to following the same kind of life that Paul has modelled to him.

Verses 10,11: You, however, have followed my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, persecutions, sufferings.

You should be able to locate these things in your life:

teaching – that means learning from the Bible. That is an absolute cornerstone – utterly essential – and if you are struggling to live a godly life in Christ Jesus is probably a major reason why you can't. You NEED to be taught. You NEED to be immersing your thinking in the Word of God to shape you, encourage you, correct and discipline you and empower you.

Way of life and purpose – You have a clear idea of what is out of the question for you as a follower of Jesus and you are getting a sharper and sharper focus on the sort of man or woman you must be for him. You know what is expected of a Christian in terms of the sort of employment suitable for a Christian – you know what is expected for marriage – for raising children – and expecially you have an aim for how you will use your life to build the church.

Faith – you take action in your life – you aren't just floating but swimming in a definite direction, because you have found God's promises and you are depending entirely on him to hold you up and get you through. Your understandings about Christ are getting more comprehensive and so you are trusting him more and more.

Patience – your frustration and anxiety are falling away and you are willing to trust God for his good timing in everything.

Love

You love God and you love his people and you love to be useful to him. You have passion – you are not dull and selfish and full of self-pity. You spend your life for others.

Endurance

You don't give up all the time. You see things through. You pray about things until they are clear. You keep at your tasks even when things are against you.

Persections and Sufferings

You live a life that is going against the current of this world and you aren't afraid to suffer for it. You value Christ's approval above comfort.

Soldier, Athlete, Farmer

2009-08-16T16:19:00.002+12:00

2 Timothy 2.3ff

Living as a Christian is not the easy option – but it is worth it!

Paul uses three illustrations to describe a committed Christian. Soldier, athlete and farmer. Christian! You are a soldier. You are an athlete. You are a farm labourer. These occupations suggest bravery, danger, strategy, effort, training, commitment, getting your hands dirty and perseverance. It doesn't sound like Big Wednesday to me – you don't get the 2 million dollars, you don't get the Audi, the Porche Cayenne, the overseas trip or the bach! Instead, you get challenge, fufiflment, satisfaction, joy and victory.

Don't buy into the lie that is being sold to you that you will have a nice life if you get stuff – that you will be happiest if you find fun and entertainment – that it will be best for you if you never face trouble and never have to suffer for anything! It is a lie.

Now some of you will immediately be turned off by the idea of a life that is challenging and at times tough. You may be saying, “I thought God was going to bless me if I go to church”. You won't be alone if you reject the life that Christ actually offers. There was a rich young community leader who came to Jesus and he couldn't face the cost of losing comfort and prestige. It pained him that he would no longer have money with which to make his life comfortable, solve his problems or gain others' respect. When Jesus said that for him to secure eternal life his decision to follow Jesus would be made around the matter of his money. He would need to throw away that crutch and lean on Jesus. But he could bring himself to do it. He went away sad. If you are still deceived into thinking that following Jesus means an easy life of getting more of what you want – then you will join the rich young man and sooner, rather than later turn sadly away from Christ – disillusioned.

Interestingly, Jesus was always making it HARD for people to decide to follow him! He doesn't want anyone to follow him under any misapprehension about what it involves. He said things like this:

Luke 14.25 Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, 26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. 28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. 33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

Paul repeats this very challenging idea of 'counting the cost' to Timothy and to us. But it is not as if he is calling us to a miserable, downtrodden life! He is calling us to a life that counts – a life with meaning – a life that accomplishes something.

Many people would rather rust out than burn out. They waste their lives finding the easiest way through. When work is too hard, they just give it up. They are always looking for a comfortable, trouble-free existence. Their lives just peter out. It's very sad. They have a life but they never USE if for something of value. They eat the wrong food and make themselves weak and sick, because it doesn't matter to them that their body is not in the best shape possible so that it can be used in God's service. “Pop open another kingsize bag of Twisties – I'll just be curled up in front of a DVD tonight!” Wasted lives, counting for nothing, going nowhere, using up God's gracious gifts for no good purpose. This is not the life Christ calls us to take up when he calls us to follow him. He calls us to be soldiers, athletes and farmers.

According to Paul, a successful Christian life involves some suffering – it involves single-minded devotion to Christ – it involves determination to keep to the race and win it - and it involves taking a long-term view of life (not a short-term one that seeks instant gratification). IA successful life following Christ means living like a soldier, like an athlete and like a farmer. It means living with purpose and having a vision for God's big objective.

A soldier has an objective: it is to win fights and take ground for his commander.

An athlete has an objective: to defeat the opposition and win the race.

The farmer has an objective: and it isn't just to scratch the soil and throw seeds around – it is to raise a full harvest that will feed many.

You are called to THOSE kinds of lives and Christ is the only one who can make you equal to the task.

Soldiers suffer for their cause. They choose to put aside an easy life and many of the pleasures of life so they can commit to their cause. They will be eating basic food and sleeping rough. They will be under fire and have to remain alert at all times. They certainly won’t be mixed up in civilian life when there is a battle to fight. They have turned themselves over to the Commander-in-Chief and they aim to please him.

This is a metaphor for the self-discipline of men and women of faith. We are to live on a war-footing – we are not indulging ourselves. We are ready to go wherever we are sent by our Commander. It is all too easy to grab as much of the fun, comfort, ease and material things that are on offer. For some of us, our lives are just a kind of shopping expedition from one trinket to the next - or from one laugh to the next. We are being pulled along by the nose by Satan himself. He give us the sniff of another bit of fun or entertainment and we run along after it. Like dogs that smell a bitch on heat, we trot along with the pack for the next bit of fun. That is not living. Christ calls us to a noble and purposeful life. We pass up many pleasures, not because we think that that will make us more acceptable to God – somehow impressing God that we are serious people by being miserable. We do it because we have found something far better, more satisfying more important and imperishable to possess.

The reason for the weakness of the Church in New Zealand is because Christians have given up on being like soldiers. No one wants to endure any discomfort. We have been sucked into the lie that God wants us to be rich and comfortable – when his strategy requires that we are prepared to suffer the loss of all things. Paul put it into perspective writing to the Christians at Philippi:

3.7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

This is not a miserable life of loss – it is the setting aside of things that perish so you can gain what is imperishable.

Paul likens men of faith to athletes. An athlete who leaves the track is disqualified. If he moves out of his lane, he is disqualified. If he takes drugs he is disqualified. The athlete commits to his event, knowing that he cannot take liberties with it! He runs in a straight line to get the prize.This is a metaphor for the seriousness men of faith have in keeping to the Word of God. We want to win the prize. And to do so not only requires self-control but you have to compete according to the rules. This doesn't mean that living as a Christian is a burdensome keeping of laws and rules and duties. God's Spirit will lift you up on eagles wings so that you can run and not be weary, walk and not faint. Keeping to the rules of the race means that you have to understand which race you are in. God's word will help you to understand exactly what it is Christ has in mind for you. He has a path of good works marked out for you – like milestones or checkpoints on the way. You are running from one good work to the next until you finish you race. This requires what Paul describes like this:

Philippians 3.12 Not that I am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Here's the kind of challenge you will face. On Saturday night, instead of getting worn out by a late night enjoying some laughs with your friends – get to bed early enough so you are in good shape for church.

Listen to how Paul describes this athlete's approach to your Christian life:

1 Cor 9.24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. 25 Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 26 So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. 27 But I discipline my body and keep it under control, [2] lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

Paul likens men of faith to hard-working farmers. The farmer who puts in the long-term work of sowing, nurturing and pruning ought to get the first share of the harvest. Farming is not like working on a maching in a factory and instantly stamping out some product from a mould. It requires long-term planning, hard work and patience. This metaphor encourages people of faith that their hard work and self-discipline will not be pointless – there will be a harvest and they will be the first to share in the satisfaction of it. But it doesn't disguise the fact that there WILL BE hard work and that droughts may come or downpours might wash away the topsoil.

When you commit to working for Christ, you are committing to a long-term work. There will not be instant results in your home group. Raising your children to follow Christ will take years of consistent Christian living and encouragement and prayer and counsel and sacrifice. Building the Church is like farming – it is cyclical. Once you have planted and watered and nurtured and harvested a couple of Christians, you have to begin all over again. Paul wrote the Galatian Christians about not getting weary, lazy or discouraged by this important work:

Galatians 6.7Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. 8The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. 9Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. 10Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.

Three illustrations – dedicated soldier - disciplined athlete – diligent farmer – to describe your Christian life. Each of them occupations that imply a willingness to suffer in order to accomplish something of high value – defeat of enemies and the rescue of people – victory in a hard run race – a harvest of good things that will nourish a community. Are you up for it? Are you difting, or is your sail set firmly in the direction of God's will.

Paul having given these three powerful metaphors to describe the Christian life, then urges Timothy (and us) to pay careful attention – think deeply about these things. Don't let them briefly appear on the screen of your mind and then flick aside to make room for the next image you want to think about. Think over what I say...for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.V7.

One of the biggest reasons why you don't grow as a Christian is that you don't devote enough time to thinking over what God's Word says. This is why you keep falling to the same habits, the same disappointed frame of mind, the same disputes with the same people, the same frustrations and the same excuses. When we really hear what God's Word is saying and take it away to think if over before God, he will give you amazing insights and understanding about everything – starting with your own life – but exanding quickly to learn about him and what he is doing in the world of people around you. You can start to live and think realistically, instead of sloshing around in the shallow dregs of your own ideas of what your life is supposed to mean and be used for. If you will only spend time in the Bible – the Book for Man – you will start to see how everything starts and ends with Jesus Christ for you. You will see how out of Christ's fullness God will give you grace upon grace. He will lavish upon you wisdom upon wisdom – opportunity upon opportunity – strength upon strength – hope upon hope – forgiveness upon forgiveness – eternity upon eternity. How come? Because God's grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. Giving Christ to the world is the means by which God's mercy, love and help comes to people like us, who actually deserve his judgement. But in order for you to get the sweet juice of these truths into your own spirit, you have to suck on his Word.

Look and see how Paul makes it really explicit what thinking over his message, his gospel, means: Verse 8: Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David!

That's where your thinking must be anchored – on that Rock. Get Jesus himself at the centre of your thinking and your life. Don't worry about how you will do this – it is the Holy Spirit's work. He make Jesus known toyou as you read the Bible. He will bring to your mind the things he said and did for you – even when you are in the midst of crisis. He will give you the words to say when you are challenged about your faith. That is his work; the Holy Spirit teaches you about Jesus through him you are joined to Jesus. That is what new birth is – the Holy Spirit joining your spirit to Jesus Christ, so that from Christ's fullness grace upon grace will come to you in every circumstance you face.

Remember Jesus Christ – risen from the dead. As you face criticism and attacks, remember that he has already defeated all your enemies – he is outside the grave on the other side of it – he has already endured the worst things your enemies might do and he promises to be with you – to never leave your nor forsake you. You were crucified with Christ because you are a guilty sinner, but his death and burial satisfied God's hatred of your sin and, through new birth, you were raised with Christ to walk in a new life. Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, because he is your guarantee that death will not touch your spirit – you will not taste death.

And in case you think that what happened to the Son of God, can't happen to you – that you won't be able to defeat the temptations and weaknesses and death that claims human beings – remember Jesus Christ is the offspring of David. Christ took to himself flesh and blood and a human soul and mind like yours. He is genuinely human person as well as Son of God. He wept, he sweated, he got exhausted, he was strongly tempted, he felt pain, he experiened loneliness and he breathed his last. And STILL he triumphed over the grave and was seen by many (even 500 people at once) to be alive. Remember Jesus Christ – he has experienced more thatn the troubles you will ever know and death could not hold him down. So join his army as a good soldier. Get running in the race set before you, keeping your eye on Jesus who has already completed the section of the race still in front of you. Work as the diligent and patient farmer in his fields, knowing that there will be rich harvest and you will share in the unspeakable joy on the day it is brought it.

Paul bears witness to us what it is like to live like this. It certainly doesn't sound boring, depressing or useless. You can catch a sense of his pride and confidence in his Lord:

8Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David. This is my gospel, 9for which I am suffering even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But God's word is not chained. 10Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory.

11Here is a trustworthy saying:
If we died with him,
we will also live with him;
12if we endure,
we will also reign with him.
If we disown him,
he will also disown us;
13if we are faithless,
he will remain faithful,
for he cannot disown himself.

Notice the tremendous promises in this short poem or hymn that Paul quotes. Promises that state that when we commit fully to Christ, he is fully committed to us. That having died to ourselves so we can live for his cause, we will share in his eternal reign of victory – but that if we disown him and choose to chase after short-term pleasures he will not include us has his own. However, even if some are faithless and fall away from such weighty promises, nothing will stop him from succeeding in his work. Even if some turn out to be faithless he will remain faithful to himself and his plan – he will not and cannot make room for evil.

So, there it is – you and I are called to a total giving up of ourselves to Jesus Christ. So total that it is called 'dying to ourselves'. But what a magnificent exchange: the loss of what is dragging us down into death and judgement – for the gain of a life forever joined to Jesus Christ, from which grace upon grace is forever poured into us. No short-term suffering is worth escaping if it means missing out on THAT.

No Fear

2009-07-08T19:28:00.002+12:00

2 Tim 1.7 Paul confronts Timothy's fearfulness

Paul was stirring Timothy up because he was naturally a timid person. He was easily shaken by setbacks. Paul gives Timothy the reason why he must not let this spirit of fear shut him down: because the spirit of fear does not come from the Holy Spirit. Timothy must learn to identify that his anxieties and worries were the remains of his old self trying to exert themselves where they no longer belong.

This is one of the key understandings that will help us grow into very strong Christians: correctly identifying what is from the Spirit of God and what comes from our old sinful self. Dealing with fear provides us with an excellent example. When we are too timid to do a good work, we might think we are being humble, or we might be telling ourselves that we don't want to make a mistake and muck up God's work. Whatever excuse we use, we can expose fear by noticing how it works against what the Spirit of God wants to produce in us.

The Spirit of God is the Spirit of power. Fear is the total opposite of that. Fear is powerlessness. Fear is an admission that we have no power and cannot do what lies in front of us. Fear is unbelief. It is refusing to believe that the Spirit of God will strengthen us to do what is too hard for us but what God intends us to do..

The Spirit of God is the Spirit of love. Fear paralyses us so that we cannot do acts of love. The act seems too costly to us;too uncomfortable – so we turn away from it. The spirit of fear robs others of God's love they should have experienced through us. The Spirit of God is the Spirit of love who not only assures us that we are loved by God but enables us to complete the acts of love that others need. For example, when you are too ashamed to speak up and share from the Bible the promise that encouraged you, your fear is failure to love. The person who needed that encouragement goes without because of your fear. The Spirit of love drives out fear – he expells it – because when the love of God for us occupies our thoughts, we no longer live under the fear of punishment. We know that God is for us. We need to fan into a flame the gift of God, so that fear does not stop us from loving as we should.

The Spirit of God is the Spirit of self-control. Fear is the opposite of self-control, because instead of us being in control of our thoughts, feelings and actions, we are ruled by fear. It controls us and won't allow us to do what we know we ought to do. However, the Spirit of God puts us firmly in union with Christ. We don't see ourselves any longer as fragments being blown around by the winds of chance. We know ourselves to be firmly grafted into Christ and he in us. So our true self – our true identity – is clear to us. I am no longer a rebel or an enemy of God. I am no longer a cast-off. I am at home in Christ.

It is no longer “I” who live, but Christ who lives in me. The life that I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2.20). I have self-control because the Spirit of God encourages me to act confidently as I truly am, a son of God. I choose not to be blown around by the chill wind of fear.

So, Paul's argument to cut down Timothy's fearfulness is that he has a new Spirit at work in his life now and he must not allow the old fearful attitude control him. He must stand up confidently in the Spirit of God, by faith. He must put to death his fear and step out in faith in the Christ who provides the Spirit of power of love and of self-control.

Feed that Fire

2009-07-08T19:22:00.002+12:00

At some point, possibly at Timothy's baptism, Paul was praying for Timothy and committing him to God's work. As Paul stood there with his hands on Timothy, it became clear to both of them (and likely the Christians gathered around at the time) that God was calling Timothy to the work of preaching the gospel. (A little further on in this letter, Paul reminds Timothy to do the work of an evangelist).

The point is this: Paul urges Timothy to fan into a flame the gift of God. That gift is the faith that makes a decisive commitment of itself to the calling of God. In other words God had work for Timothy to do. To do that work required faith, because without faith it is impossible to please God and everything that is not of faith is sin. Timothy's faith was not to remain a heritage or a credential to hang onto. Paul said, Timothy's faith in Christ was to be the method by which he got stuck into the life's work that God was giving him. You must feed the spark of your faith so that you have the fire and energy at work in you – the filling of the Holy Spirit – that will drive you and sustain you in your service of God. What is that service? What is that work you are supposed to be doing for God?

There are two parts to it. There is the common part and the specific part. The common part of the work you are supposed to be doing for God is common because it is the same for every Christian. It is not hard to find out. It is written. It is here in the Bible. It is things such as:

being an obedient, respectful child to your parents
working diligently at school, showing respect to teachers and resisting peer pressure to be rebellious
looking out for the downcast and troubled and helping them as you are able
acting in a pure manner in the matter of sex – keeping it within the safe and delightful boundaries of marriage
living as the light in your workplace, being honest, helpful, kind and hard-working
regularly reading, thinking about and living out the Bible
meeting often with Christians to learn together, serve together and especially to worship and prayer
always being ready to explain to people the reason for the hope you have
killing sin in your life (because if you are not killing sin it will be killing you)
building the Church

You don't need to wait for a calling to do those things. They are mandatory. They are the normal Christian life. They are what you do because they are the way Christ expresses his life in and through you. This basic Christian work for all disciples of Jesus is to keep in step with the Spirit and grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ – as Peter put it.

But there is also a You-specific part of your service for God. This is the particular Christian work he prepares you to do and the particular people he calls you to do that work for and with. This is usually something that becomes clearer and clearer as you get serious about the common part of your Christian calling. You have to fan it into a flame. Sadly, many Christians never occupy that specific calling God has for them. Their work lies like an abandoned patch of ground, covered in weeds. Jesus taught us the parable of the talents so we would be stirred up to avoid this dangerous failure. Some managers are given some money to invest while the business owner is away. Two of the three set the money to work and show a good return for the owner when he comes back. The third put the money aside (actually he buried it). He got into very serious trouble when the business owner came back to discover that the man hadn't even put the money in the bank to earn interest. It was taken from him and given to the man who had earned a large return. And he was sacked.

Fan into a flame the gift of God. Use what God has already given you. Share with others what you are learning from the Bible (start with your children, your brother or sister, your best friend, or your homegroup). Feed your faith. Get the spark into a flame. If there is an opening to do some kind thing for someone, do it and build on it so that it leads to more good works. If you have some success in praying for something, build on that and bring more things to God in prayer. If you find that someone you asked to come to a home group or church meeting comes, then ask some more people. If one of your children comes and asks an important question about life and about God, then turn off the TV and look for some more opportunities to talk about serious things. If someone is willing to come and study the Bible with you, then grab the opportunity and be sure that you pass on what you learned from it to others. Fan into a flame the gift of God. Add fuel to the fire. Go from small things to bigger things.

Now, when you are building a fire, you start with those fine fibres and you move on to slightly thicker sticks until you are putting on large logs because you have a bonfire going! This is exactly how it works spiritually. You have to keep upping the ante! You have to keep building the capacity of the fire to burn. You need to increase your hunger for righteousness by feeding it with bigger challenges and greater issues. The bigger the challenges that your faith in Christ overcomes – the more ready you are for even bigger ones.

Get Your Fire Roaring

2009-07-08T19:13:00.003+12:00

2 Timothy 1.6,7

We must get our inner fire roaring so that we are stirred up to fight for the Church

Timothy had been entrusted with something of great value and he must not be the one to let it fall into disuse. Shame on any of us who live in the benefits passed onto us by those who have walked in the faith of Christ, if we ourselves become careless and uncommitted. It is like the young man who inherits the wealth and resources earned by his father who worked hard and built up a profitable business. But then the son indulges himself in the inheritance and fails to pay attention to the business. Before he realises what has happened, the business fails to grow, the resources are used up and he ends up bankrupt. We have to use the good resources of faith and knowledge passed on to us by faithful people. The faith of Timothy's immediate maternal family as well as the investment that Paul had put into his life, were all good reasons why he should fan into a flame the spiritual gift God had entrusted to him. For this reason (that is, the fact that you have been blessed by faith and knowledge taught to you by the word and example of others) I remind you to fan into a flame the gift of God.

Paul describes the gift of God as a spark in Timothy that needs fuel and oxygen to make it into a roaring fire. When you are lighting a fire in difficult circumstances – perhaps with a flint or by rubbing sticks together – you have to keep your focus on the spark. It is only tiny, but it is the start of your roaring fire. You have to prepare very fine fibres to receive the spark so that it catches. You have to gently blow on it when it smoulders so that a combination of the fuel (the fibres, and the kindling) and the oxygen will cause the spark to enlarge into a hungry flame that demands more and more and more wood.

Jesus said: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be satisfied. This is a very telling statement, because it also gives the reason why there is such a lack of satisfaction in our lives. We are restless, anxious, lacking in peace when we are starved of righteousness. Righteousness is the quality of God's character revealed to us in Jesus Christ. Those who do not hunger and thirst to eat and drink Christ's life are left with a hollow hunger that they try to feed with spiritual potato chips. And they always remain unsatisfied. How do you eat and drink Christ? How do you go for righteousness like a hungry and thirsty person? By feeding on his Word. By praying about everything. By looking at, thinking about, and deciding on everything according to what God has revealed in the Bible.

You hunger and thirst for righteousness by using faith – that is, stepping into every situation deliberately depending on what God has promised to do for you in Jesus Christ. In all these ways, we are fanning the spark of spiritual life God gave us, into a flame. We are hunting and hungering and thirsting after righteousness – God's good life – in Christ – for us.

Timothy had a gift of God. It was the faith that was passed on to him effectively by his mum and nana. But Paul was also talking about the work that that faith would accomplish. Faith is never an abstract thing, like a 'vibe' or an 'attitude'.

Faith is a decisive investment of ourselves in concrete, real actions proposed by God. God has works for us to do. Without faith it is impossible to please God, so these works prepared by God (your life's work) can't be done without faith. In fact, everything that is not of faith is sin (Romans 14.23). That means that all thoughts, feelings and actions that do not spring up from the soil of confidence in God are sins.

Working Now and Preparing for Then

2009-07-02T19:14:00.002+12:00

1.3-5 Paul felt a very strongly that God had put he and Timothy together in the work of growing the Church.

He thanked God that he had brought them together. He prayed for Timothy and thought about him and his work all the time. He remembered Timothy's tears at their last parting and longed to see him again. It was not just Timothy's pleasant personality or company that Paul longed for. Timothy's faith and the work it had produced stirred Paul's gratitude to God. Paul had introduced Timothy to Christ's work so that the faith that had been successfully passed on to Timothy by his mother and grandmother had matured into brave and effective service.

This excited Paul, because he was seeing the Church grow across generations. This wasn't a brave effort by Paul to get a few churches going in his lifetime. He was seeing those he had first known as children now being raised up by Christian family members and growing into the workers who would build the Church when he was gone. He saw Timothy as one of those to whom he was passing on the baton.

Paul honours the work of the women in Timothy's home who had made sure that the faith of Christ had been securely passed on to him.

The relationships we form with fellow Christian workers as we study the Bible, pray and serve him together, are very deep. For example, a Christian marriage has the spoken and unspoken agreement that we are in this life together so we can serve Christ better – so it will have a depth to it that romance on its own cannot reach. Young people, take great care that you invest your love in a partner with whom you can work freely with Christ. You need to be able to put Christ and his work first without your partner feeling jealous or aggrieved (because, she or he also has Christ as her highest treasure). Much potential Christian service has been lost – and some Christian lives shipwrecked – because a person gave away his or her romantic love to someone who did not love Christ with his or her whole mind, heart and strength.
Paul's concern for Timothy shows that one of the best things we can do for those we love is to pray for them – especially that their work for God will be successful. Because if they are successful in that – they will have the best life possible now and an eternal one to follow. Do you love your children? Then pray and work for them so that they are totally committed in every way to follow Christ. That is the way to give your loved ones the best possible future.
Paul was excited by Timothy's potential. Our aim must be to pass the baton on to the next runners. We must live lives that contain as much of God's wisdom and grace as possible, so we have plenty to pass on to those who must continue to serve Christ after we have finished our race. Get more hungry for righteousness yourself – then you will have something to pass on to others.
Much of this work must first happen in our homes. See how this worked for Timothy. Lois and Eunice came to faith in Christ – perhaps it was the daughter who led her mother to Christ. We know from elsewhere that Timothy's father was Greek and his mother Jewish. His father was probably not a believer. Yet when the gospel came to Lystra, his mother and grandmother came to faith and raised Timothy to trust in Christ. By the time Paul visited his town some years later when he was probably about 18, the Christians there spoke well of him and Paul asked him to join his team as he moved on to plant Churches. Timothy's outstanding career as a Christian worker could not have happened if his mother and grandmother had not done the work of living and sharing the gospel inside their home.

We also, learn from Paul's training of Timothy, about the need for a vision for the church well beyond our own time - because we are preparing young people for it. We who are mature have a responsibility to articulate and foreshadow what is to come, because those who are younger tend not to look far enough ahead. We must not be satisfied with 'hanging on' tenaciously to our beliefs in our life time. We must advance God's Kingdom by preparing people for the next stage of its expansion.